Country AircheckThe country music family will observe a moment of silence at 1:05 p.m. ET on Monday, October 1, the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. Country radio -- as well as all radio stations in the state of Nevada -- will take part in the remembrance, along with the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, CMT, and numerous record labels and organizations located along Music Row in Nashville. Fifty-eight people lost their lives after a gunman opened fire during Jason Aldeans closing set at the festival last year. The Las Vegas tragedy was the largest mass shooting in modern American history. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. Papillon Resources Limited (Papillon) is engaged in the exploration and development of resource projects located in Mali. The Company has joint venture interests in a portfolio of gold tenements (granted licences and applications) in western and southern Mali. The Company's primary focus continued to be the advancement of the Fekola Project (Fekola or Project) located in south western Mali adjacent to the border with Senegal. Papillon completed its pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the project. The Company's subsidiaries include Mali Goldfields SARL, Songhoi Resources SARL, Bamagold SARL, Waraba Resources SARL, PIR Mali SARL, Papillon Exploration (AUS), Papillon Mining (AUS), Papillon Exploration (UK) and Papillon Mining (UK). Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Crown: Adularia Inversiones 2010 S.L., Angleboard Sweden AB, Bates Cargo-Pak ApS, Butimove, CMB Machinery and Technology (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CROWN AP (Thailand) Company Limited, CROWN Aerosols & Promotional Nederland, CROWN Aerosols Italia Srl, CROWN Aerosols Nederland BV, CROWN Aerosols UK Limited, CROWN Americas LLC, CROWN Arabia Can Company Ltd, CROWN Asia Pacific Holdings Pte. Ltd., CROWN Asia Pacific Investments (T) Limited, CROWN Bevcan Espana S.L., CROWN Bevcan France SAS, CROWN Bevcan Slovakia s.r.o., CROWN Bevcan Turkiye Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, CROWN Bevcan and Closures (Thailand) Company Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans (Cambodia) Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans (Dong Nai) Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Beijing Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Changchun Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Danang Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Hangzhou Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Hanoi Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Heshan Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Hong Kong Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Huizhou Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Malaysia Sdn Bhd, CROWN Beverage Cans Nanning Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Putian Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Saigon Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Shanghai Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Sihanoukville Limited, CROWN Beverage Cans Singapore Pte. Ltd., CROWN Beverage Cans Ziyang Limited, CROWN Beverage Packaging LLC, CROWN Beverage Packaging Puerto Rico Inc., CROWN Cans Ghana Limited, CROWN China Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited, CROWN Commercial Belgium BVBA, CROWN Commercial France SAS, CROWN Commercial Germany GmbH & Co. KG, CROWN Commercial Hungary Kft, CROWN Commercial Netherlands B.V., CROWN Commercial Vermogensverwaltung GmbH, CROWN Cork & Seal USA Inc., CROWN Embalagens Metalicas da Amazonia S.A., CROWN Emballage France SAS, CROWN Emirates Company Limited, CROWN Envases Mexico S.A. de C.V., CROWN Famosa S.A. de C.V., CROWN Food Packaging (Thailand) Public Company Limited, CROWN Foodcan (Hat Yai) Company Limited, CROWN Foodcan (Nakhon Pathom) Company Limited, CROWN Foodcan Germany GmbH, CROWN Foodcan GmbH, CROWN Imballaggi Italia Srl, CROWN Imgallaggi Italia Srl, CROWN Italy Finance srl, CROWN Khmer Beverage Cans Limited, CROWN Maghreb Can, CROWN Magyarorszag Csomagoloipari KFT, CROWN Metal Packaging Canada Inc., CROWN Metal Packaging Canada LP, CROWN Middle East Can Co. Ltd., CROWN Packaging (Barbados) Limited, CROWN Packaging Holdings LLC, CROWN Packaging Investment (H.K.) Limited, CROWN Packaging Ireland Ltd, CROWN Packaging Jamaica Limited, CROWN Packaging Polska Sp.z.o.o., CROWN Packaging Technology Inc., CROWN Packaging Trinidad Limited, CROWN Packaging UK Limited, CROWN Promotional Packaging UK Ltd, CROWN SIEM, CROWN Senegal, CROWN Societe Malgache d'Emballages Metalliques, CROWN Speciality Packaging BV, CROWN Speciality Packaging Investment Pte. Ltd., CROWN Specialty Packaging UK Ltd, CROWN TCP Beverage Cans Company Limited, CROWN Verpakking Belgie NV, CROWN Verpakking Nederland B.V., Caretex Asia Ltd., CarnaudMetalbox Engineering Ltd, CarnaudMetalbox Food South Africa (Pty) Limited, CarnaudMetalbox Group UK Limited, CarnaudMetalbox Overeseas Limited, CarnaudMetalbox Overseas Limited, Cierres Hermeticos S.A. DE C.V., Constar International, Crown Americas Capital Corp., Crown Americas Capital Corp. II, Crown Americas Capital Corp. III, Crown Americas Capital Corp. IV, Crown Americas Capital Corp. V, Crown Americas Capital Corp. VI, Crown Brasil Holdings Ltda., Crown Canadian Holdings ULC, Crown Closures Spain S.L., Crown Colombiana S.A., Crown Comercial de Envases S.L., Crown Commercial Italy Srl, Crown Commercial Polska Sp. z.o.o., Crown Consultants Inc., Crown Cork & Seal Company (DE) LLC, Crown Cork & Seal Company Inc., Crown Cork & Seal Deutschland Holdings GmbH, Crown Cork & Seal Receivables (DE) Corporation, Crown Cork & Seal de Portugal Embalagens S.A., Crown Cork Kuban, Crown Cork and Seal Receivables II LLC, Crown Developpement SAS, Crown European Holdings, Crown Food Espana S.A.U., Crown Foodcan Turkey Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Crown Hellas Can Packaging SA, Crown Heshan Trading Company Limited, Crown Holdings Italia Srl, Crown Holdings Spain S.L., Crown International Holdings B.V., Crown International Holdings Inc., Crown Luxembourg Holdings, Crown Mexican Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., Crown Overseas Investments B.V., Crown Packaging Commercial UK Limited, Crown Packaging Distribution UK Limited, Crown Packaging European Division GmbH, Crown Packaging European Division Services SAS, Crown Packaging European Holdings GmbH, Crown Packaging Lux I S.a.r.l., Crown Packaging Lux II S.a.r.l., Crown Packaging Lux III S.a.r.l., Crown Packaging Manufacturing UK Limited, Crown Packaging Maroc, Crown Receivables III, Crown Services Iberia, Crown UK Holdings Limited, Crownway Insurance Company, Dacro B.V., EMPAQUE, Fabricas Monterrey S.A. de C.V., Form Koruyucu Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Foshan Continental Can Co. Limited, Foshan Crown Easy-Opening End Co. Limited, Glass & Silice S.A. DE C.V., Globoplastt s.r.o., Gunther S.A.S., Haloila Bulgaria EOOD, Interstrap B.V., Josef Kihlberg AB, Kiwiplan GmbH, Kiwiplan Inc, Lachenmeier ApS, Liljendals Bruk AB, Litec France S.A.S., Mezger Heftsysteme GmbH, Mima Films S.a.r.l., Mima Films Sprl, Mima Packaging Systems S.A.S., Mivisa, Nordic S.A.S., Norsk Signode AS, Oy M. Haloila AB, PT CROWN Beverage Cans Indonesia, Package Design and Manufacturing, Prolatamex S.A. DE C.V., Quandel Verpackungs- und Foerdertechnik GmbH, SMB Schwede Maschinenbau GmbH, SMP Schwede Maschinenbau Weischlitz GmbH, SPG Denmark, SPG France Holdings SAS, SPG Germany Service Management GmbH, SPG Industrial Packaging S.a.r.l, SPG Netherlands B.V., SPG Packaging Ireland Limited, SPG Packaging Systems GmbH, SPG Packaging UK Ltd, Scybele S.A.S., Shippers Europe S.p.r.l., Signode BVBA, Signode Brasileira Ltda, Signode Hong Kong Limited, Signode Industrial Group, Signode Industrial Group AB, Signode Industrial Group Colombia S.A.S., Signode Industrial Group GmbH, Signode Industrial Group Holdings Lux S.a.r.l., Signode Industrial Group Holdings US Inc, Signode Industrial Group Lux S.A., Signode Industrial Group Mexico, Signode Industrial Group Sweden AB, Signode International Holdings LLC, Signode International IP Holdings LLC, Signode International Investment LLC, Signode Kabushiki Kaisha, Signode Korea Inc, Signode NZ Limited, Signode Netherlands B.V., Signode Packaging (Qingdao) Co., Signode Packaging (Shanghai) Co., Signode Packaging Espana S.L., Signode Packaging Group (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Signode Packaging Group Australia Pty Ltd, Signode Packaging Group Canada ULC, Signode Packaging Group NZ, Signode Packaging Systems Limited, Signode Pickling Holding LLC, Signode Polska sp. Z.o.o., Signode Singapore Pte. Ltd., Signode Sweden Holdings AB, Signode System GmbH, Signode System Packaging GmbH & Co. KG, Signode Systems (Thailand) Ltd., Signode US IP Holdings LLC, Silice De Veracruz S.A. DE C. V., Silice Del Istmo S.A. DE C.V., Silices De Veracruz, Societe Civile Immobiliere Rousseau-Ivry, Societe Civile Immobiliere des Baquets, Societe de Participations CarnaudMetalbox, Stopak India Pvt. Ltd, Strapex Austria GmbH, Strapex Embalagem L.d.a., Strapex Holdings Limited, Strapex S.A.S., Strapex Srl, Superior Investments Holdings Pte. Ltd., Superior Multi-Packaging Limited, TopFrame LLC, V.A.C. B.V., Vichisa S.A. de C.V., and Warehouse Automation Iberia S.L.. The following companies are subsidiares of Accenture: 2nd Road, 2nd Road Pty Ltd., ?What If!, ?What If! China Holdings Ltd, ?What If! Holdings Limited, ?What If! Innovation Singapore Holdings Pte, ?What If! Limited, ?What If! Shanghai Co. Ltd, ?What If! USA LLC, ACN Consulting Co Ltd, AD Dialeto Agencia de Publicidade SA, AD.Dialeto (Digital Agency acquired by Accenture), AGS Business and Technology Services Limited, ASM Research Inc., ASM Research LLC, ATAN, Accenture (Beijing) Mobile Technology Co Ltd, Accenture (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (China) Co Ltd, Accenture (Shenzhen) Technology Co. Ltd., Accenture (South Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (South Africa) Pty Limited, Accenture (UK) Ltd, Accenture 2 Business Process Services S.A., Accenture 2 LLC, Accenture A/S, Accenture AB, Accenture AG, Accenture AS, Accenture Africa Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Holding B.V., Accenture Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Azerbaijan Ltd, Accenture BPM Operations Support Services S.A., Accenture BPM S.C.R.L., Accenture BV, Accenture Branch Holdings B.V., Accenture Bulgaria EOOD, Accenture Business Services for Utilities Inc, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership, Accenture Business and Technology Services LLC, Accenture C.A, Accenture CAS GmbH, Accenture Canada Holdings Inc., Accenture Capital DAC, Accenture Capital Inc, Accenture Central Europe B.V., Accenture Chile Asesorias y Servicios Ltda, Accenture Cloud Services GmbH, Accenture Cloud Software Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions LLC, Accenture Cloud Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd., Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SAS, Accenture Customer Services Limited, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Delivery Poland sp. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital France Holdings SA, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance (Gibraltar) III Ltd, Accenture Finance GmbH, Accenture Finance GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II GmbH, Accenture Finance II GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II Ltd, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services Srl, Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Ghana Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Ltd., Accenture Global Services Ltd, Accenture Global Solutions Ltd, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services Ltd, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc., Accenture Holding GmbH, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Accenture Holding GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Holdings (Iberia) S.L., Accenture Holdings B.V., Accenture Holdings France SAS, Accenture Holdings plc, Accenture Hungary Holdings Kft, Accenture Inc, Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazylym Cozumleri Limited irketi), Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company (Accenture Endustriyel Yazlm Cozumleri Limited Sirketi), Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Kft, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions SA, Accenture Insurance Services LLC, Accenture Insurance Services SAS, Accenture Insurance Services SpA, Accenture International BV, Accenture International Capital SCA, Accenture International LLC, Accenture International Limited, Accenture International Sarl, Accenture Japan Ltd, Accenture Korea BV, Accenture LLC, Accenture LLP, Accenture Lanka (Private) Ltd, Accenture Limited, Accenture Ltd, Accenture Ltda, Accenture Maghreb S.a.r.l., Accenture Managed Services SRL, Accenture Managed Services SpA, Accenture Management GmbH, Accenture Middle East B.V, Accenture Middle East BV, Accenture Minority I BV, Accenture Minority III Ltd, Accenture Mozambique Limitada, Accenture Mzansi (Pty) Ltd, Accenture NV/SA, Accenture NZ Limited, Accenture Newco LLC, Accenture Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Co., Accenture OOO, Accenture Operations Sp. z o.o., Accenture Outsourcing SRL, Accenture Outsourcing Services, Accenture Outsourcing Services S.A., Accenture Oy, Accenture Panama Inc, Accenture Participations BV, Accenture Participations II Limited, Accenture Peru S.R.L, Accenture Peru S.R.L., Accenture Post Trade Processing SAS, Accenture Post-Trade Processing Limited, Accenture Process Ltd, Accenture Product Lifecycle Services, Accenture Properties, Accenture Pte Ltd, Accenture Puerto Rico LLC, Accenture S.A., Accenture S.C., Accenture S.L., Accenture S.R.L., Accenture SAS, Accenture SG Services Pte Ltd, Accenture SRL, Accenture Saudi Arabia Limited, Accenture Sendirian Berhad, Accenture Service Center SRL, Accenture Services (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Services AB, Accenture Services AG, Accenture Services AS, Accenture Services GmbH, Accenture Services Ltd, Accenture Services Morocco SA, Accenture Services Oy, Accenture Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Services S.r.l., Accenture Services SRL, Accenture Services Sp. z o.o., Accenture Services Sp. z.o.o., Accenture Services and Technology Srl, Accenture Services fur Kreditinstitute GmbH, Accenture Services s.r.o., Accenture Servicos Administrativos Ltda, Accenture Servicos de Suporte de Negocios Ltda, Accenture Solutions Co Ltd, Accenture Solutions Private Limited, Accenture Solutions Pte Ltd, Accenture Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture Sp. z o.o., Accenture Sp. z.o.o., Accenture SpA, Accenture State Healthcare Services LLC, Accenture Sub II Inc., Accenture Sub Inc, Accenture Sub LLC, Accenture Systems Integration Limited, Accenture Sarl, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag KFT, Accenture Technologia, Accenture Technologia Consultoria e Outsourcing S.A., Accenture Technology Infrastructure Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (Dalian) Co Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions (HK) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas S.A., Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH, Accenture Technology Solutions Oy, Accenture Technology Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions S.A. de C.V., Accenture Technology Solutions SAS, Accenture Technology Solutions SRL, Accenture Technology Solutions Sdn. Bhd., Accenture Technology Solutions Slovakia s.r.o., Accenture Technology Ventures BV, Accenture Technology Ventures S.P.R.L., Accenture Uruguay SRL, Accenture Vietnam Co., Accenture Vietnam Co. LTD, Accenture Zambia Limited, Accenture do Brasil Limitada, Accenture plc, Accenture s.r.o., Acceria, Acquity Customer Insight Limited, Acquity Group, Adaptly LLC, Adaptly UK Limited, AddVal Technology, Adqptly, Advantium Inc., Agave Consultants Limited, Agilex Technologies Inc., Allen International, Allen International Consulting Group Ltd, Alnova Technologies Corporation S.L., AlphaBeta Advisors, Altima, Altima Asia Ltd., Altima SAS, Altitude, Altitude LLC, Analytics 8 LP, Analytics 8 Pty Ltd, Analytics8, Aorui Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Apis, Appaloosa Technology SAS, Arca, Ariba - BPO, Arismore, Aspiro Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Avanade, Avanade (Guangzhou) Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd., Avanade (Thailand) Co Ltd, Avanade Asia Pte Ltd, Avanade Australia Pty Ltd, Avanade Belgium SPRL, Avanade Canada Inc., Avanade Denmark A/S, Avanade Denmark ApS, Avanade Deutschland GmbH, Avanade Europe Holdings Ltd, Avanade Europe Services Ltd, Avanade Federal Services LLC, Avanade Finland Oy, Avanade France SAS, Avanade GZ Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd. (SH), Avanade Guangzhou, Avanade Holdings LLC, Avanade Hong Kong Ltd, Avanade International Corporation, Avanade Ireland Limited, Avanade Italy SRL, Avanade KK, Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avanade Netherlands BV, Avanade Norway AS, Avanade Poland Sp. z o.o., Avanade Poland Sp. z.o.o., Avanade Schweiz GmbH, Avanade South Africa, Avanade South Africa Pty Ltd, Avanade Spain SL, Avanade Sweden AB, Avanade UK Ltd, Avanade do Brasil Limitada, Avanade Osterreich GmbH, AvantBiz Consulting Limited, Avenai, Axia Ltd., BABCN LLC, BCT Solutions, BCT Solutions Pty Ltd, BPO Servicos Administrativos Ltda, BRIDGE Energy Group, Beacon Consulting Group Inc., Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co. Ltd., Benext, Bionic, Blue Horseshoe, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Boomerang Pharmaceuticals Communications Ireland Limited, Bow & Arrow, Brand Learning, Brand Learning Group Limited, Brand Learning LLC, Brand Learning Ltd, Brand Learning Partners Limited, Brand Learning Pte Limited, Bridge Energy Group LLC, Brightstep AB, Byte Prophecy, CAS, CRMWaypoint, CadenceQuest Inc., Capable Marketer Limited, Capgemini - North American health practice, Capital Consultancy Services Inc., Certus Solutions Consulting Services Ltd, Certus Solutions Ltd, ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd., Chaotic Moon Studios, Chengdu Mensa Advertising Co. Ltd., Cimation, Cimation UK Limited, Cirruseo, Cirruseo SAS, Clarity Insights, Clearhead, Clearhead Group, Clearhead Group LLC, ClientHouse GmbH, Cloud Sherpas, Cloud Sherpas (GA) LLC, Cloud Sherpas (SN) (PTE.) Limited, Cloud Sherpas New Zealand Ltd., Cloud Talent Limited, Cloudsherpas, Cloudsherpas Inc., Cloudworks, Codagenic Pty. Ltd., Computer Research and Telecommunications LLC, Concrete Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda., Concrete Solutions, Concrete Solutions Ltda., Context Information Security, Coritel S.A., Corliant Inc., CreativeDrive, CustomerWorks Europe SL, Cutting Edge Solutions Ltd, D5 Global Holdings LLC, DAZ Systems Inc, DAZ Systems LLC, DAZSI Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd., DMA Solutions Limited, Davies Consulting, DayNine Consulting, DayNine Consulting (Australia) PTY LTD, DayNine Consulting (Deutschland) GmbH, DayNine Consulting (New Zealand) Limited, DayNine Consulting France SAS, DayNine Consulting Japan K.K., DayNine Consulting LLC, Declarative Holdings, Declarative Holdings LLC, Defense Point Security, Deja vu Security, Design Strategy and Research de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Designaffairs LLC, Digiplug S.A.S., Digiplug SAS, Digital Consulting & Software Services LLC, Droga5, Droga5 LLC, Droga5 Studios LLC, Droga5 UK Ltd., Duck Creek Technologies, Duck Creek Technologies LLC, Deja Vu Security LLC, ESR Labs, Elcurator SAS, Enaxis Consulting, Enaxis Consulting L.P., End-to-End Analytics, Energuia Web, Energuia Web S.A., Energy Management Brokers Ltd., Energy Quote Private Ltd., EnergyQuote JHA, EnergyQuote JHA Ltd., EnergyQuote Trading Ltd., Enimbos, Enkitec, Enterprise System Partners, Enterprise System Partners B.V. , Enterprise System Partners Bilisim Danismanlik Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Enterprise System Partners Global Corporation, Enterprise System Partners Limited, Enterprise System Partners PR LLC, Enterprise System Partners S.A.S., Entropia, Epylon, Ethica Consulting Group, Evopro Group, Exactside Limited, Exton Consulting, Fairway Technologies Inc, Fairway Technologies LLC, Filmproduction ApS, First Annapolis Consulting, First Annapolis Consulting Inc., First Annapolis Consulting LLC, First Annapolis International, Fjord, Focus Group Europe, Focus Group Europe Limited, Formicary, Formicary Holdings Limited, Formicary Limited, FusionX, FutureMove Automotive, Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Genfour, Genfour Limited, George Group Consulting L.P., Gestalt LLC, Gestion Altima Canada Inc., Gevity, Global Public Firm S.L., GlobalView SAS, GoodFilm GmbH Filmproduktion Stuttgart, H.B. Maynard and Co. Inc., HRC Retail Advisory, Hagberg Consulting Group, Hangzhou Aiyunzhe Technology Co. Ltd., Happen, Hjaltelin Stahl, Hjaltelin Stahl K/S, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Hytracc Consulting UK Limited, Hytracc Holding AS, I-Faber S.p.A., IBB Consulting, IMJ Corp, IMJ Corporation, INCAD, INSITUM, IT One Company Limited, ITBS Servicios Bancarios de Tecnologia de la Informacion SL, Icon Integration, Imagine Broadband (USA) Ltd, Imagine Broadband USA LLC, Imaginea Inc, Industrie&Co, Infoman AG, Infoman Schweiz AG, Informatica de Euskadi S.L., Infusion Development Inc., Infusion Development UK Limited, InfusionDev LLC, Innoveer Solutions India Pvt Ltd, Insitum Consultoria Argentina SRL, Insitum Consultoria Brasil LTDA, Insitum Consultoria Colombia SAS, Insitum Consultoria Europa SL, Insitum Consultoria Peru SAC, Insitum Consultoria S.A. de C.V., Intrepid, Intrigo Systems Inc, Intrigo Systems India Pvt. Limited, Intrigo Systems LLC, Inventor Advertisement (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inventor Technology Limited, InvestTech, Investtech Systems Consulting LLC, Javelin Group, Javelin Group (Bulgaria) EOOD, Javelin Group Limited (UK), Javelin Group SASU, K Comms Group Limited, KCS.net AG, KCS.net AG West, KCS.net Deutschland GmbH, KCS.net Holding AG, KCS.net Osterreich GmbH, Kaper Communications Limited, Karma Communications Debtco Limited, Karma Communications Group Limited, Karma Communications Holdings Limited, Karmarama, Karmarama Comms Limited, Karmarama Limited, Knowledge Rules Inc., Knowledgent, Knowledgent Group LLC, Kogentix, Kogentix LLC, Kogentix Ltd, Kogentix Singapore Pte. Ltd, Kogentix Technologies Private Limited, Kolle Rebbe, Kolle Rebbe GmbH, Kream Comms Limited, Kunstmaan, Kunstmaan NV, Kurt Salmon, Kurt Salmon Canada LTD, Kurt Salmon UKI, Kurt Salmon UKI Ltd., Kurt Salmon US LLC, LEXTA, LINKBYNET, LabAnswer, LabAnswer Government, LemonXL Limited, Logistics Market Place Limited (UK), Loud & Clear Creative Pty Ltd, MAXIM Systems Inc., MCG US Holdings LLC, Mackevision CG Technology and Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mackevision Corporation, Mackevision Japan Co. Ltd., Mackevision Korea Ltd, Mackevision Medien Design, Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Mackevision Singapore Pte. Ltd., Mackevision UK Ltd, Maglan, Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research Ltd., Maihiro, Matter, Matter Llc, Maud Corp Pty Limited, Maxamine International, Media Audits Ltd., Media Hive, Mediasenz Pty Ltd., Meredith Specialty LLC, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing Corporation, Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd., Mindtribe, Mindtribe Product Engineering LLC, MobGen, MobGen Technology S.L, Moonrise NV, Mortgage Cadence, Mortgage Cadence an Accenture Company, Most Champion Ltd, Mudano, N3 LLC, NBS Marketing Inc., NYTEC, Nanjing Demeng Advertising Co. Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., NellArmonia, Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile, Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Chile SpA, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda., New Energy Aborda, New Energy Associates Ltd, New Energy Group, New Energy S.r.l., NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage China Ltd., NewsPage Pte Ltd, Nice Agency Limited, Northstream, Northstream AB, Northstream Holding AB, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology LTDA, Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Octo Technology SPRL, Octoman SAS, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Openmind, Openminded, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium Consulting Ltd, Orbium GmbH, Orbium Holding AG, Orbium Inc., Orbium International AG, Orbium International sp. z o.o., Orbium Licences AG, Orbium Limited, Orbium Pte. Ltd., Orbium Pty Ltd, Orbium Services sp. z o.o., Orbium Sarl, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PCO Innovation Canada Inc., PCO Innovation EURL, PIXO PUNCH Limited, PLM Systems S.r.l, POC Holdings, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, Pach Invest SARL, Pach Invest SAS, PacificLink Group, PacificLink iMedia Ltd., Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald Inc., Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Partners Technology Mexico Holdings BV, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production K/S, Perseroan Terbatas. Accenture, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Ltd, Pragsis Technologies S.L, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Ltd, Procurian Germany GmbH, Procurian Inc., Procurian International I LLC, Procurian International II LLC, Procurian LLC, Procurian Singapore Pte. Ltd., Procurian Switzerland GmbH, Procurian USA LLC, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co Ltd, Radiant Services, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Limited, Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (Asia) Pte Ltd, Redcore (India) Private Limited (India), Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Renacentis IT Services, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Rothco, Rothco Holdings Designated Activity Company, Rothco Unlimited Company, S.C. EnergyQuote S.r.l., S3 TV Technology Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SEC Servizi, SEC Servizi S.p.A., SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Sagacious Consultants LLC, Salt Solutions, Sanchez Capital Services Pvt Ltd, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Airline Planning Group, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace Asia (Hong Kong) Limited, Seabury Aviation Consulting LLC, Seabury Cargo Advisory B.V., Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Human Capital LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Seabury Structured Finance LLC, Search Technologies BPO, Search Technologies BPO Inc., Search Technologies GmbH, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LATAM, Search Technologies LATAM S.A., Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Sente Partners LLC, Sentelis, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Shackleton, Shackleton Barcelona S.L., Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton Madrid S.L., Shackleton S.A., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., Silveo, Simian Pty Limited, SinnerSchrader, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Commerce GmbH, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., SinnerSchrader Swipe GmbH, Sistemes Consulting S.L., Solutions IQ, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Storm Digital, Storm Digital B.V., Structure Consulting Group, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Systor AG, TQuila Limited (UK), Tadata Creative Unlimited Company, Tara Insurance DAC, Tara Risk DAC, TargetST8, TargetST8 Consulting LLC, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica Ltd., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Limited, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Total Logistics Supply Chain Consultants Limited, Tquila, Trivadis AG, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Verax Solutions, Verax Solutions Corporation, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong, Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd., Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, Weblinc Pty Ltd, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wire Stone Sarl, Wolox, Workforce Insight, Yesler, Zag, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines, Zenta Global Philippines Inc., Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc., Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, and solid-serVision.com GmbH. Yext, Inc. is an emerging growth company engages in software development. It offers a cloud-based digital knowledge platform, which allows businesses manage their digital knowledge in the cloud such as financial information, resources and performance of these resources on a consolidated basis and sync it to other application such as Apple Maps, Bing, Cortana, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Siri and Yelp. It offers the Yext Knowledge Engine package on subscription basis, which has an access to Listings, Pages, Reviews and other features. The Listing feature provides customers with control over their digital presence, including their location and other related attributes published on the used third-party applications. The Pages feature allows customers to establish landing pages on their own websites and to manage digital content on those sites, including calls to action. The Reviews presence enables customers to encourage and facilitate reviews from end consumers. The company was founded by Howard Lerman, Brent Metz, and Brian Distelburger in 2006 and is headquartered in New York, NY. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Centaur Media. 5.0 Community Rank Outperform Votes Centaur Media has received 441 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Centaur Media has received 135 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Centaur Media has received 76.56% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Centaur Media and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe CAU will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe CAU will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. is an early-stage contract research company, which provides essential products and services to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, government agencies and academic institutions. It operates through the following segments: Research Models & Services, Discovery & Safety Assessment and Manufacturing Support. The Research Models & Services segment comprises of the production and sale of research models, and also offers services designed to support its client's use of research models in screening non-clinical drug candidates. The Discovery & Safety Assessment segment offers discovery and safety assessment services, both regulated and non-regulated, in which it include both in vivo and in vitro studies, supporting laboratory services, and strategic preclinical consulting and program management to support product development. The Manufacturing Support segment provides endotoxin and microbial detection, avian vaccine and biologics testing solutions. The company was founded by Henry L. Foster in 1947 and is headquartered in Wilmington, MA. Read More Ei Group plc operates leased and tenanted pubs in the United Kingdom. It operates through three segments: Publican Partnerships, Commercial Properties, and Managed. The company engages in the rental of commercial properties, as well as financing and public houses management businesses. It is also involved in the sale of foods and drinks, as well as accommodation and gaming machines. The company operates approximately 4,400 pubs. The company was formerly known as Enterprise Inns plc and changed its name to Ei Group plc in February 2017. Ei Group plc was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Solihull, the United Kingdom. Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at contac[email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. HelloFresh SE delivers meal kit solutions to prepare home-cooked meals using its recipes. The company offers premium meals, double portions, and others, as well as add-ons, such as soups, snacks, fruit boxes, desserts, ready-made meals, and seasonal boxes. It also sells meal-kits through vending machines. The company has operations in the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. It operates under the HelloFresh brand. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Read More 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 New Jersey Resources Corp. is a holding company. The firm provides safe and reliable natural gas and clean energy services, including transportation, distribution, asset management and home services. It operates through the following segments: New Jersey Natural Gas, NJR Clean Energy Ventures, NJR Energy Services, NJR Midstream, and NJR Home Services. The New Jersey Natural Gas segment provides regulated retail natural gas service to residential and commercial customers in central and northern New Jersey. The NJR Clean Energy Ventures segment invests in, owns and operates solar projects. The NJR Energy Services segment manages a diversified portfolio of natural gas transportation and storage assets and provides physical natural gas services in the U.S. and Canada. The NJR Midstream segment serves customers from local distributors and producers to electric generators and wholesale marketers. The NJR Home Services segment provides heating, ventilation and cooling service, sales and installation of appliances services to its customers, as well as solar installation projects, and is the primary contributor to home services. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Wall, Read More 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 Quintana Energy Services Inc. provides oilfield services to onshore oil and natural gas exploration and production companies operating in conventional and unconventional plays in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Directional Drilling, Pressure Pumping, Pressure Control, and Wireline. The Directional Drilling segment provides directional, horizontal, under balanced, and measurement-while-drilling services, as well as rental tools and support services. The Pressure Pumping segment provides hydraulic fracturing stimulation services, cementing, and acidizing services for the completion, production, and maintenance of oil and gas wells. As of December 31, 2018, this segment had a pressure pumping fleet of 267,500 hydraulic horsepower. The Pressure Control segment offers coiled tubing, rig-assisted snubbing, fluid pumping, nitrogen, well control, and other pressure control related services to support completion and workover operations. This segment had a fleet of 24 coiled tubing, 36 rig-assisted snubbing, and 24 nitrogen pumping units. The Wireline segment offers pump-down services for setting plugs between hydraulic fracturing stages, as well as the deployment of perforation equipment in connection with plug-and-perf operations. This segment also provides cased-hole production logging, injection profiling, stimulation performance evaluation, and water break-through identification services; and industrial logging services for cavern, storage, and injection wells. It owned 41 wireline units. Quintana Energy Services Inc. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. 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. Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, engages in the clinical development of drug therapies based on natural immune system enhancing technologies for the treatment of viral and immune based chronic disorders in the United States. The company's products include Alferon N Injection, an injectable formulation of natural alpha interferon to treat a category of genital warts, a sexually transmitted disease; and Ampligen for the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). It is also developing Ampligen for the treatment of CFS, Hepatitis B, HIV, and cancer patients with renal cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida. Read More NovaGold Resources Inc. explores for and develops gold mineral properties in the United States. It primarily owns 50% interest in the Donlin Gold project consisting of 493 mining claims covering an area of 71,420 acres located in the Kuskokwim region of southwestern Alaska. The company was formerly known as NovaCan Mining Resources (1985) Limited and changed its name to NovaGold Resources Inc. in March 1987. NovaGold Resources Inc. was founded in 1984 and is based in Vancouver, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. 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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 Crusades class a hot ticket at W&M Crowded Crusades: History Professor Philip Daileader provides overrides for his very popular Crusades class until he's out of classroom chairs, usually keeping a group of 43 or 44 that's still small enough for discussion every third class. Photo by Stephen Salpukas Photo - of - Hide Caption Philip Daileader may not think hes a rock star, but admission to his Crusades class has been one of the hottest tickets on the William & Mary campus for years. Its a combination of curiosity about the topic, current events reintroducing the Crusades in a modern context and the professor, depending upon whom you ask. Students are very globally-minded these days and are keenly interested in the near East and West, and the relations between the two, according to Daileader, a professor of history. They want to understand where the Crusades fit in. They want to know the deep background to the modern world, Daileader said. And thats what medieval historians want to teach. We want to teach the deep background. We want people to go back 400, 500, 600, 700 years so that they can understand how then became now. The other thing that drives the interest I think is that Crusades figure prominently in political discourse these days. Those unlucky enough to lose the concert ticket fast-click fest known as registration have to ask for an override to get into the class, and Daileaders given plenty of them. Since the Banner computer system was implemented in 2004, the average number of overrides for the Crusades is 5.5 with a high of 10 last fall and eight for the current semester. We also know that hundreds of students have wanted to take the class over the years, but they were not able to get in because it was already full when they attempted to enroll, said Sallie Marchello, associate provost and university registrar. Daileader often requires that a student sit through his first lecture before he will grant an override. The overrides are added to a full class of 35, with him never going over 43 or 44 students so that he can still have discussion days every third class. Its always gratifying if students are interested in taking what youre teaching, so its a nice problem to have, Daileader said. And I try to add in students up to the maximum number that the room will hold. People sometimes ask well, why do you go to 43 or 44? Ive got 43 or 44 chairs. Though they are perhaps initially charmed by the subject matter, Daileaders engaging teaching style is what former students said made the class so appealing to them. Word spreads from former to current students. Dave Goulden Naitove 20 said the class is popular for two reasons because the Crusades appeal to people who have romantic or idealized notions of the medieval period, as well as those who have a more informed but no less intense interest, and because of Daileaders skill, charisma and dynamism. He is incredibly engaging and funny, an excellent lecturer, and very good at explaining historical facts, trends and phenomenon in a way that is interesting and easy to absorb, Naitove said. His reputation as an excellent professor is well known throughout the ranks of history majors at this university, who are quick to recommend his classes to friends and acquaintances. Jess Wakelin 20 also took the Crusades last fall as Naitove did, citing Daileaders proficiency in getting through so much material in a most interesting way. She too was encouraged by upperclassmen to get into one of Daileaders classes, and cited his sense of humor in creating an atmosphere that felt like watching the taping of a live TV talk show. The Crusades can be quite a heavy topic, and there is also a lot to cover in the class because of the sheer amount of Crusades and people who were involved in them and have subsequently commented on them, Wakelin said. Despite all this, Professor Daileader manages to make it not seem so overwhelming. His ability to read the room and create an atmosphere that allows for humor, jokes and conversation while at the same time ensuring that we all understand the subject matter is what really stands out. He puts so much energy into each class, including speaking in different voices and changing his pitch, to always make it interesting. About that large amount of material Daileader said its no joke. Unfortunately for students, there are a lot of Crusades many, many more than they realized before they came into the class, he said. And I think if they knew how many Crusades there were, the enrollments would probably be quite a bit lower. In addition to names, dates and events, there are the cultures and contact and perceptions about each side. Daileader gets through all of it efficiently, he said, by being very well-organized and ruthlessly pruning down to the essentials. You want students to learn without realizing theyre learning, he said. You want them to walk out having absorbed a lot of this material and having thought about issues they havent thought about before. But if they come out of the class without feeling overstuffed, I think is the goal that we have to be working towards here. Daileader hopes to dispel preconceived emotional leanings about the Crusades, which he said students often bring to the class either seeing the Crusades as completely bad or maybe not so bad. Our job as professors is to get students to recognize these inclinations that they have and then to get students to work against them, he said. Our job is to get students to look at the other point of view. And the Crusades class is ideally suited for that because students come in predisposed to taking a position regarding the Crusades. And my job is to get them to understand that thats not the only defensible position here. And hopefully they become more complex thinkers as a result of that. W&M is studying the future, now A man and his rock Geology Professor Chuck Bailey '82 displays a rock he found on a recent trip with students to West Virginia to point out that significant learning experiences can be found anywhere. Photo by Stephen Salpukas Keeping the conversation moving Moderating this first conversation was Vivian Hamilton, professor of law, and Dan Cristol, chancellor professor of biology and director of undergraduate research. Photo by Stephen Salpukas Photo - of - Hide Caption William & Marys position in higher education is crystal clear in university President Katherine Rowes mind. We shape the nation, we shape the world, Rowe said Tuesday at the Integrated Science Center, opening the first of several planned conversations on the topic of The Future of Knowledge. The event was part of an ongoing effort by the new president to gather feedback from the William & Mary community around three themes: the future of knowledge, the future of work and the future of service. The Thinking Forward listening initiative includes both in-person and online events, including a series of questions posed via an Instagram story on Wednesday that has already garnered nearly 80 responses. On Oct. 8, starting at 6 p.m., the conversation will continue with a @williamandmary Twitter chat. Additional events may be found online, and future campus conversations will focus on the other two themes. Speaking to more than 100 faculty, staff, students and alumni who gathered at the ISC Tuesday, Rowe said the university is now enrolling a generation of undergraduate and graduate students who are strongly oriented outward. It is W&Ms task to prepare them to do something with that commitment, she said. But how? What has to happen the next 10 to 20 years for that to be achieved? The audience was asked first to reflect on a meaningful teaching or learning experience they have had at W&M. Moderated by Vivian Hamilton, professor of law, and Dan Cristol, chancellor professor of biology and director of undergraduate research, the overriding sentiment during the forum was that while the university wants to embrace todays amazing technological advances, immediacy and intimacy are at the heart of the W&M education. Chuck Bailey '89 of Geology pulled a rock out of his knapsack, a souvenir from a voluntary weekend trip to West Virginia with students and faculty. There, a discussion ensued about of the rocks potential importance, what it could teach them about the past. It became the touchstone literally and figuratively for what could become a senior research project, he said. Thats the kind of thing thats happened over and over in my time here. A lot of that is the doing, and doing it with students outside of the classroom. For Liz Losh, it was watching Ph.D. students in her American studies class create old-fashioned board games paper and cardboard and thinking through ways to evaluate the work they had done, evaluating their audience and what it means to create an artifact meant to be used by someone else. We must facilitate collaboration, experiential learning, applying theory to practice, she said, a sentiment drawing universal agreement, bridging the two cultures. For Professor of English and American studies Bob Skolnik, the best knowledge comes from engaging serious problems that are applied and practical and being able to develop solutions, especially through teams. He urged collaboration, taking advantage of facilities such as NASA Langley and the Jefferson Lab and executing a transformation to embrace the practical, and really make a difference that way. A couple of speakers apart, a mini-debate ensued over online classes. Bruce Beringer 70 recalled Emeritus W alter G. Mason Professor of Religious Studies David Holmes teaching Platos Republic to a small group of students. He knew who I was, Beringer said. There was an intimacy of interaction. If we all have online classes and huge classes taught by graduate students, we dont have that immediacy, that personal relationship with a professor that is so much more impactful on the student. True, said Kurt Carlson who came to W&M a year ago to be associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business. As an undergraduate senior, he tutored a failing fellow student in econometrics, gradually helping him lift his grade from an F to an A-minus. It was a victory for me because the whole way I could see the influence I was having, he said. The shame is we cant do that with every single student. I was skeptical about online teaching when I came here, but there are some real advantages to it. You can reach a broad range of people, can track whether or not theyre engaged. There are platforms that allow that. Its a little impersonal, but maybe Ill have more effect if I reach 200 people. Its a tough question. The second part of the conversation centered on what steps the university takes in the next two decades and what is changing in the audiences respective fields of academic interest. The simple answer, expressed by Arthur Knight, associate chair and professor of English and American studies, was everything. For John Rio Frio, director of Latin American studies and associate profess or of Hispanic studies, its the lessons he learns from his students, which he said he relished but made him feel deeply vulnerable. He cited two examples but said there were many more. There is a shift in that faculty members, professors, are not seen nor do I think we want to be seen as the sort of experts on the mountain, proclaiming our total understanding of everything, he said. I think were much more open to the classroom as a communal space, and that space brings with it certain risks and deep vulnerabilities. Physics Professor Bill Cooke '72 said when he was in college, students not only had to learn material, they had to remember it. Now, students need only use their devices to look up something. Teaching in such a way that they remember the information without relying on technology is the challenge. Roxie Patton, associate director of the Center for Student Diversity, sees a rapid change in the demographic of W&M students, the number coming with mental health issues, the number coming from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and gender identities. Theyre seeking ways to express themselves, she said, and the university must be open to that vulnerability. We have to get used to the change, she said. Were looking at the opportunity for a cultural revolution here that we havent seen since the 1960s. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. A law professor has admitted that he wrote a report on Turkey after being approached by an affiliate of the Fetullah Terror Organization (FETO) on Thursday on the third day of an extradition case of three individuals who are believed to be linked to the group, which Turkey says is behind the July 2016 coup attempt. Turkey rapporteur for the Council of Europes Venice Commission Jeffrey Jowells remarks came during a cross-examination at the Westminster Magistrates Court, which will decide whether former Koza Holding director Hamdi Akin Ipek and two other defendants are to be extradited to Turkey. Jowell, who was called to the court by the defense team, admitted that he never met four individuals mentioned in a report into the "rule of law" in Turkey but that it was desk-based. Also admitting that he did not visit Turkey to write the report, Jowell said, upon a question, that he was approached by solicitors representing Gazeteciler ve Yazarlar Vakfi (Journalists and Writers Foundation) as clients. The court will continue Friday morning with a statement from a witness whose identity would not be disclosed due to an anonymity order by the judge the previous day. Ipek was detained in May due to Turkey's request for his extradition over charges related to the defeated coup. A court confiscated his passport and banned him from leaving London but released him on a 50,000 ($66,000) bail, a common procedure in extradition cases in the U.K. Ankara will discuss a UN reform initiative with several countries, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "At first, it would be useful to discuss this issue with Germany, China, Russia, France and Spain which are well-esteemed countries in a narrow scope. It would be more appropriate to feel the air first and then move on. Our share is to take step on this issue," Erdogan told media representatives on Wednesday in the U.S. ahead of his departure for Germany. It is also important to promote the issue on written and social media, the president underlined. In his address to the 73rd session of UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Erdogan called for a "comprehensive reform" in the structure and functioning of the UN, particularly the Security Council. He said the UN has carried out work and achieved considerable success over its 73-year history, adding: "However, it is also a fact that the UN moved away from meeting the expectations of humanity for peace and welfare over time." Asked whether Turkish president had a meeting the U.S. counterpart Donal Trump, Erdogan said: "He told me 'See you' but I didnt attend the dinner. As you know, there is a family photo in these meetings. "During lunch, our tables were side by side. It was out of the question for me to go to that table since Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi was sitting at his [Trump's] table," Erdogan said. The president added he got a chance to discuss Syrian crisis with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. On the question of whether the U.S. will make any contribution to the recent Turkey-Russia deal on Syrias northwestern Idlib province, Erdogan said they didnt think about "what America will say" upon the deal. On Sept. 17, Ankara and Moscow agreed to turn Idlib into a demilitarized zone between the opposition and the regime-controlled areas. Erdogan said Turkey has 12, Russia 10 and Iran has six observation points in Idlib. Source: AA Guncelleme Tarihi: 28 Eylul 2018, 18:15 404 This page could not be found . David North, chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, was warmly welcomed by the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Sri Lanka, on his arrival at Colombo airport on Thursday morning. North is visiting Sri Lanka to address public meetings organised by the SEP to mark the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International and the 50th anniversary of the SEP. North was publicly welcomed at Katunayake International Airport in Colombo by a strong delegation of SEP members led by General Secretary Wije Dias. They displayed a banner reading Welcome David North, chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site. Dias put a garland of flowers on North. Wije Dias welcoming David North to Sri Lanka Video reporters from the government-owned TV channel Rupavahini and the privately-owned Derana covered Norths arrival. A Rupavahini journalist interviewed North and Dias on the purpose and significance of the SEPs forthcoming public meetings. North said: I have come to lecture on the history of the Fourth International. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Fourth International by Leon Trotsky. This is an anniversary of great historical significance internationally and also in Sri Lanka. Im sure many people know that Trotskyism has played an immense role in the political development of the working class in Sri Lanka. The workers of Sri Lanka have a proud history of struggle for socialism, so Im very pleased to speak here and to address workers, students and socially-committed intellectuals. And I hope that my lectures will be well received. David North speaking to Sri Lankan reporters Dias explained that David North was invited by the Socialist Equality Party to give two public lecturesone in Peradeniya University, at the Arts Theatre at 4.30 p.m. on October 3, and the other in the Colombo New Town Hall at 3 p.m. on October 7. It is very significant that we are discussing the historical issues involved in the class struggle not only in Sri Lanka but in the region and throughout the world, Dias said. We are living amid very heightened class tensions. The working class and youth throughout the world need a revolutionary perspective. This is why the SEP in Sri Lanka has organised these public lectures and provided the opportunity for an international comrade, who has represented the world Trotskyist movement for more than four decades and who is an authority on the fight for a world revolutionary perspective based on the theory of Permanent Revolution, to speak here. Dias told the media that North is a renowned writer on the history of the world Trotskyist movement and known especially for his involvement in explaining this history to a new generation of the international working class and the youth. Rupavahini broadcast a video clip of Norths arrival in its news bulletin on Thursday afternoon. Meeting venues, dates and times: October 3, 4.30 p.m. Arts Theatre, University of Peradeniya, October 7, 3.00 p.m. New Town Hall, Green Path, Colombo Every three years, the US Census Bureau conducts a New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, which analyzes key statistics and conditions of New York Citys housing stock. The latest report was released last month. One of the more significant findings of the report is that while overall housing conditions have improved in the city, physical conditions in public housing for roughly 500,000 residents have continuously remained poor and, by some measurements, have gotten worse. Most notable among the physical deficiencies tracked is the rise in the number of heating system breakdowns which were experienced by 28 percent of residents who live in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) properties, compared to 24 percent in the previous survey. During the height of one winter storm early this year, the central heating systems failed at several large complexes leaving thousands to cope the best they could in single-digit temperatures. The number of water leaks reported also increased since the previous report. A public advocacy group, the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC), which attempts to influence the allocation of city resources, published a summary of the Census Bureaus survey which shows that the NYCHA has been unable to affect the repairs needed to adequately meet the needs of residents. The growing gap in building quality between NYCHA and other rental housing units should deepen the urgency of efforts to improve conditions, wrote the commissions Senior Research Associate, Sean Campion. He concluded that if unchecked, worsening conditions will reach the point where it is no longer cost-effective to make repairs. Since 2001, the federal government has slashed $2.7 billion from NYCHA funding. The citys response to this has been to has been to delay or cancel maintenance and capital improvement projects, causing the repair load to rapidly build. In June there was a settlement between NYCHA and the US Attorney Generals office in which NYCHA accepted responsibility for filing false test results on lead paint in the dwellings as well as failing to provide adequate heat and abate mold infestations. The City has proposed to pay $2.2 billion for capital improvements and appoint a monitor to oversee NYCHA. Earlier this year New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in the housing projects without providing the needed funding to carry out the repairs. The CBC report quotes a figure of $32 billion dollars from NYCHA officials on the cost to bring the housing projects up to good standards. This figure reflects years of neglect and underfunding as government has cut spending on public housing. How, or even if, these repairs will be funded is unclear against the backdrop of the usual claims by politicians that there is no money. To put this figure in perspective, the US Navy recently spent $13 billion on an aircraft carrier with two more such ships planned in its Ford class program. Funding for these military projects was never in question. The CBC report also tracked conditions in the citys private housing sector. One of the significant findings is that the physical conditions in public housing are the worst of the citys housing stock. A speculative building boom in the city continues to produce numerous new and generally unaffordable luxury rentals and condos. As more and more new high-end apartments become available to the limited number of high-income people who can afford them, developers have been adding amenities to the apartments and buildings to attract renters and buyers. For example, new residential towers offer tenants an array of amenities. One complex advertises a fitness center, a yoga and spin studio, a catering kitchen, library, co-work spaces, residents lounge, 24-hour concierge, valet parking, and a year-round greenhouse, bocce courts and the list goes on. Refrigerated lockers are provided in the lobby area so doormen can accept deliveries of groceries from Amazon Fresh. The amenities in the new developments are closed to the public and only benefit those who can afford to live there. WSWS reporters spoke to residents at the Nathan Strauss Housing project on East 28th street in Manhattan about the housing crisis. Ali, a nine-year resident of the projects told us: The apartments are all messed up. The paint is coming down. There are mice and roaches in the apartment. We complain often, but they send people who do nothing. Referring to new luxury apartments in the area that are, for the most part, out of reach of the working class, Ali said, You dont have to look far to see the contrasts in this city. The building across the street is very expensive and the rents are very high. Contrasting this to the projects where he lives, Ali said, Management is very nasty to the tenants. They dont listen to what we have to say. We write letters and it does no good. The managers dont want to talk to you. When you go to their office, you can only speak to a clerk. NYCHA management is like the mafia. They harass you and verbally threaten you. The housing management harassment that Ali referred to is a common one. Repairs can take weeks and even months to be made. Simply getting the bureaucracy in NYCHA to acknowledge a problem can itself be a major task. Referring again to expensive units in the area immediately around the Strauss houses, another resident, J. Rodriguez, told the WSWS, This is the Million Dollar Mile around here where NYU owns the hospitals, and the hospitals own the buildings across the street and up and down First Avenue. I worked at NYU, but it doesnt pay enough to live on, even though your children can go to NYU for free if you do work there. New York University is among the top ten real estate concerns in the lucrative New York City real estate market. It has been a driving force in the gentrification of large swaths of Manhattan where working class families have been driven out. At time when more and more housing units are being built in the city, a major contradiction is unfoldingthe homeless population of the city is growing alongside the speculative boom. Most of the new units are being bought up by wealthy and institutional investors. Enormous profits are being made. At the same time housing conditions for hundreds of thousands of the citys poorest residents continue to decline. A report issued by the Citys Comptrollers office this month noted: Between 2005 and 2017, rising rents led to the disappearance of 1.069 million apartments renting for $900 or less (in 2017 dollars) from the Citys housing inventory. The largest share of these units 40 percent, or 428,000 apartments saw their rents increase to between $1,051 and $1,500. Apartments renting for over $2,700 per month increased by approximately 238,000 units. Yet the Democrats who, for the most part, control the city and state, including the supposedly progressive major, Bill De Blasio, repeat the refrain that the resources to eliminate homelessness and house working people affordably are not available. Under a capitalist system in an advanced state of decay, they are correct. The solution to the housing crisis that no section of the Democratic Party can propose lies in the reorganization of society by the working class along socialist lines, confiscating the huge fortunes made on Wall Street, and allocating them to meet the basic requirements of the mass of the population. Housing is a basic human need and must be treated as such; it is not something which can be left up to the profit system to provide. Less than 24 hours before a Michigan contractors association was set to begin hiring scab replacements for 2,000 roadway construction workers it had locked out, Operating Engineers Local 324 ordered its members to return to work without a contract or any resolution to the dispute that has closed 164 road building projects for more than three weeks. The locked-out workers, who run bulldozers, backhoes on tracks, front-end loaders and the huge machines that place and level concrete for road construction, began returning to work Thursday afternoon, a statement from the Operating Engineers said. The degrading and entirely predictable capitulation by the union also followed threats by Republican Governor Rick Snyder to deploy National Guard soldiers trained to operate heavy equipment to restart the projects. In announcing the end to the standoff, the governor made clear the one-sided nature of the deal, which will send workers back to their job sites without any agreement that contractors would reimburse them for lost benefits or begin making payments into their health insurance and retirement plans. This is great news, gloated Snyder. The vital work of getting Michigans roads repaired should not have stalled, but the important thing now is that projects will be getting back on track. A long-term solution to the contract negotiations still needs to be worked out, but that can and should be done after this construction season is completed. The governor who personally oversaw the lead poisoning of Flint and looting of pensions and public assets during the bankruptcy of Detroit cynically added, I appreciate that both sides were able to see how important the work they do is to the safety and quality of life of all Michiganders. Snyder neglected to mention that the contractors, members of the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA), bear the entire responsibility for the work stoppage. When the operating engineers contract expired on June 1, MITA executives demanded control of the manning of all jobs and withheld payments to the health and pension accounts. The association then locked out the 2,000 workers, bringing construction to a halt. The union also agreed to the governors demand to submit to mediation. Snyder previously announced that the process would be overseen by a mediator in the 2013-2014 Detroit bankruptcy proceedings who helped author the Grand Bargain. The deal rewarded the unions for their collaboration in gutting public employees health care and retirement benefits. We still have issues to work out and will represent the best interests of our members throughout those negotiations, as we always have, Local 324 President Ken Dombrow said in a statement. We appreciate Gov. Snyders willingness to not take sides and to remain focused on finding a way to get the work done. The operating engineers of Michigan have an important job to do and were happy that now they can start doing it again. This is a fraud. From the beginning Snyder took the side of the contractors and wanted to make an example of the roadway workers in order to encourage other employers to press ahead with their attacks on workers. In the face of the strikebreaking threat, which was reminiscent of President Reagans firing of 13,000 PATCO air traffic controllers in 1981, neither the Operating Engineers nor the United Auto Workers, Detroit Metropolitan nor the Michigan AFL-CIO bothered to call a demonstration, let alone mass picketing at the highway sites. In fact, the UAW and Detroit and Michigan labor federations were completely silent on the strikebreaking threat. The leading Democratic candidates were also silent. Gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmerwho has made Fix the Damn Roads! one of her chief sloganssaid nothing about the conspiracy to replace locked out workers with strikebreakers and national guardsmen. Backing Whitmer earlier this month, local union president Ken Dombrow said, Operating Engineers 324 is proud to endorse Gretchen as our next governor because we know she will put working men and women first. Incumbent Democratic congresswoman in the 12th District, Debbie Dingell, who has received tens of thousands in contributions from the operating engineers and other unions, was also silent. The only candidate to denounce the strikebreaking operation was her opponent in the 12th Congressional District, Socialist Equality Party candidate Niles Niemuth, who called on workers to mobilize their independent strength to oppose the strikebreaking by the Snyder administration and the employers. This included, he said, making preparations for a general strike against the use of National Guard troops. The last thing the unions wanted, however, was the mobilization of the working class, which would quickly develop into a direct clash not only with the Republican Snyder administration, but with the Democrats as well. The unions chief concern was not defending the rights of rank-and-file road workers but collaborating with state politicians to preserve the income and institutional interests of the labor apparatus. This includes the union bureaucracys control over the training and hiring process and the multi-million health care and retirement funds. Throughout the dispute, union local 324 repeatedly groveled before the contractors and Snyder. When the contract expired at the beginning of June the union ordered its members to continue working. Having taken the measure of the union, MITA was emboldened to lock the workers out on September 4 and conspire with the governor to ram through its dictates. Despite the clear threat to rank-and-file operators from the unions capitulation, a local 324 spokesman continued to sow as much complacency as possible. For us, its pretty much a return from where we stood before Labor Day with the added exception of sitting down with contractors for state mediation, which we welcomed and continue to welcome, union spokesman Dan McKernan stated. We couldnt be happier that our members are going to go back to work, McKernan concluded. In contrast to the groveling by the Operating Engineers union, rank-and-file workers took to social media to oppose this attack. I hope they dont come back until they get a new contract, said one worker in a Facebook posting. The workers have the advantage and should use it. When times are lean the government will tell workers take it or leave it because they have the leverage. If the roads are so important, then give them what they want. Cut some of the ridiculous spending in Lansing to make it up. Another worker, a member of the carpenters and millwrights union, said, Stand Strong my Brothers. The betrayal of this struggle by the operating engineers and other unions only underscores the necessity of workers electing rank-and-file factory and workplace committees to take the conduct of their struggles into their own hands. These committees, which must operate independently of the pro-company unions, must take up the fight for good-paying and secure jobs, fully funded, employer-paid health care and pension benefits and safe working conditions. The development of new organizations of struggle to unify every section of workers must be linked up with a new political strategy to mobilize the working class against both corporate-controlled parties and the profit system they defend. The German Federal Security Council (BSR) recently agreed to allow extensive arms shipments to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. This is confirmed in a letter from Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) to the parliamentary Economic Affairs Committee. The BSR is a subcommittee of the federal cabinet, which includes Chancellor Angela Merkel and eight other ministers. Its meetings are secret so that usually nothing penetrates into the public domain. The decision taken at its recent session means that Germany is directly fuelling the brutal war in Yemen, led by a coalition under Saudi Arabia. According to media reports, the BSR agreed to deliver to Saudi Arabia four reconnaissance radar systems for artillery pieces. These tracking systems are vehicle-mounted and designed to determine the exact source of enemy fire. As a result, they enable precise counter strikes, as Deutsche Welle explained in a report. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the key states in the war against Yemen, will also be able to receive German weapons in future. Specifically, the BSR has given the green light to deliver 48 warheads and 91 guided missiles for ship-based anti-aircraft systems. Other recipients of German-made weapons include similar reactionary regimes such as Jordan and Qatar. Qatar is looking forward to the provision of 170 German warheads and engines for Meteor air-to-air missiles. With the governments permission, the Rhineland Dynamite Nobel company will now deliver 385 portable anti-tank weapons to Jordan. The BSR also approved a shipment to the military regime of General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in Egypt. Seven air defence systems from Diehl Defence can now be delivered. They are reportedly equipped with the IRIS-T SLM missile, one of the most modern short-range missiles worldwide, equipped with an infrared sensing system. Fighter jets with these missiles can independently shoot down flying objects to the side (instead of just from behind), which significantly reduces the blind spot for the pilot. The extensive permits for the delivery of advanced weaponry to the reactionary regimes in the Middle East means the German government is continuing its policy of exporting arms to the Saudi-led coalition, thereby making itself an accomplice in one of the biggest war crimes of recent years. World Food Program (WFP) Director David Beasley recently said that Yemen faces a full-scale famine if the war on the Arabian Peninsula is not halted immediately. Even now, of the 18 million inhabitants of Yemen, two-thirds do not know where their next meal is coming from. This famine is caused by the blockade and battles for the port city of Hodeida, which is the countrys only landing point for relief supplies. At least 10,000 people have already died in the civil war, which has been ongoing since 2014, according to UN figures. The German defence industry has benefited from this war policy for years. The decision of the BSR makes clear that the Social Democratic Partys (SPD) insistence that the agreement forming its Grand Coalition with the CDU/CSU precludes sending weapons to states participating in the Yemen war is not worth the paper it was written on. It has merely served to lend a thin humanitarian cover to the massive militarization of German foreign policy. Already in the last legislature, the Grand Coalition allowed the export of weapons and war equipment worth about 1.3 billion to Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Yemen war. For the Grand Coalition, providing weapons to fuel the war in Yemen is more than a matter of securing and expanding the profits of German defence companies. More than 70 years after the end of the Second World War, the continuing arms shipments to the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula are part of the strategic plans of the German ruling class, which wants to pursue its geopolitical goals by military means. Weapons shipments are the first step in initiating and justifying future involvement in military combat operations, including major wars. Nothing could better illustrate this connection than Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyens visit to Iraq last weekend. Von der Leyen met there with members of the German military contingent Counter Daesh/Capacity Building Iraq. Since March, the hitherto separate German contingents in Iraq and Jordan have worked together under this name. In Erbil in northern Iraq, von der Leyen then visited a site of the Kurdish Peshmerga and the multinational Camp Stephan. In the north of the country, 100 German soldiers are currently stationed as part of a training mission for the Peshmerga. In Iraq, too, Germanys military involvement initially began with arms deliveries, before the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 served as a pretext for intervention by the Luftwaffe (Air Force). As the WSWS wrote on the occasion of the new military mandate in March, the merger of the missions in Iraq and Jordan serves to train the Iraqi army as a proxy army and lackey for imperialist interests. With the deployment of German soldiers, Berlin is pursuing yet another goal: The mission also contributes to creating the basis for the return of internally displaced persons and refugees, write the CDU/CSU and SPD in the draft mandate. While the Grand Coalition is massively expanding its area of interest in the Middle East, it is simultaneously preparing to expel thousands of refugees into exactly those countries to which it is still providing more munitions. Nearly 6,000 nurses at Michigan Medicine, formerly University of Michigan Health System, in Ann Arbor, have been working without a contract since June 30. Bargaining between Michigan Medicine and the University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council (UMPNC) unionan affiliate of the Michigan Nurses Councilhas reportedly stalled over the universitys refusal to commit to guaranteed nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, increased health care costs, and potential cuts to retirement benefits, among other things. During the second week of September the nurses overwhelmingly authorized by 94 percent a three-day strike, now being referred to as a work stoppage by the UMPNC to comply with hospital intimidation over the illegality of strikes for public employees in Michigan. The strike authorization vote coincided with a federal lawsuit filed by the UMPNC against the hospital for allegedly prohibiting nurses and staff from wearing red shirts supporting their union while at work in the hospital. However also at the center of the nurses opposition is growing anger over the implementation of a new concierge health care model known as Victors Care. Being called the latest advancement in patient satisfaction by Michigan Medicine, it is a system of primary care aimed entirely at servicing the rich and upper middle class. The foundation of Victors Care is that it grants easier and faster access to physicians, as well as comprehensive preventive care, for those who can afford to pay an additional $3,600 per year out of pocket. On its web site, the program lists benefits such as 24-hour telephone access to a primary care physician, ability to meet with a physician away from the hospital to avoid long waiting room experiences and parking costs, exercise and nutrition counseling, no time limits for doctor visits, and a personalized treatment plan with an array of yearly preventive care appraisal tests. The announcement of the Victors Care program came in December 2017, revealed at a dinner event by hospital Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Medical School Dean Marschall Runge. Runge brought the concierge care model from the University of North Carolina health system where he was Executive Dean. Runges announcement was met immediately with widespread opposition from those expected to carry it out. On January 29, more than 200 Michigan Medicine nurses, staff and faculty issued a protest letter against the plans to implement the model. The letter strongly opposed the implications of Victors Care. The signers correctly understood that this system of health care would provide preferential treatment for the wealthy and pull primary care physicians away from the general care population. They also warned it would likely increase the workloads for non-Victors Care physicians and nurses, and create a program that allows wealthy patrons to jump the line to see specialists, forcing those already in line to wait longer. They concluded by warning that the Victors Care model betrays the foundational principles of public health by effectively discriminating against low-income patients. Despite the protest, Michigan Medicine swiftly proceeded to implement the program in March. Early reports, including statements from the nurses in recent weeks, indicate that most of these feared implications have become reality. I hear from nurses in our primary care clinics that it takes two weeks to make an appointment with a primary care doctor, Ambulatory Care nurse Desiree Conyers told the Michigan Daily in July. And good luck making an appointment with a specialist. That can take even longer. Some patients who cannot afford Victors Care have even been forced to switch doctors because their former physician now only serves those who can pay for exclusive care. The architects of Victors Care have a stated goal of involving 100 doctors at the hospital, and servicing 1,500 patients. No statistics yet exist on what percentage of the nurse and administrative staff are or will be forced to facilitate the program. The January 29 letter noted that the program will affect overall workload and patient access: Taking a physician from regular practice and reducing their patient load to 400 patients will mean that those other 1000-2000 patients will now be moved to the rest of us to assume their care, reducing access to care for all. Victors Care is unmistakably an effort to create a class-based system of care within public health care. It is part of a larger attack on the living conditions and social rights of the working class as a whole, which has been under way for decades and is now reaching socially explosive levels. The $3,600-a-year out-of-pocket fee is an impossible cost for the vast majority of men, women and children in the United States, a country where 70 percent of the population has less than $1,000 in savings. The University of Michigan program was preceded by concierge services that were already up-and-running at several university hospital systems around the country, including Stanford, Duke, Harvard, Tufts, and the University of North Carolina. Other notable hospital systems to introduce the system include the Mayo Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospitalthe latter a hospital originally founded specifically to service the poor, and now charges $6,000 a year out of pocket for on-call physician and nurse services for the wealthy. The idea of a concierge-based medical service initially emerged toward the end of the Clinton administration and first appeared as a program in 2000 at Virginia Mason Health System in Seattle, Washington. Under the Obama administrations Affordable Care Actwhich serves to shift the costs of health care off employers and insurance companies and onto the backs of the working classthe concierge class-based system of care has flourished. In 2004, a Government Accountability Office study counted 146 medical practices employing some form of fee for extra care program. By 2016, an estimated 6,000 doctors across the country were involved in this model of care. The nurses and medical staff at Michigan Medicine have had to carry out this class-based model of health care for nearly six months now. They are correct to oppose it, as it will have untold consequences on the health and access to health care for tens of thousands of working class men, women, and children. Victors Care is part of the decades-long attack on the rights of the working class, including reforms in health care such as Medicare and Medicaid. These social rights, won by workers in bitter class struggles during the first six decades of the twentieth century, are under attack by the rich and their political cronies in the Democratic Party and trade union bureaucracy. A genuine defense of quality health care for all is bound up with a fight for genuine socialism. In the Ann Arbor area, this political fight is represented very concretely in the midterm election campaign of Niles Niemuth, the Socialist Equality Partys candidate for the 12th congressional district. Nurses and medical staff who are outraged by their having to carry out this class-based system of care are encouraged to contact the campaign and help extend the defense of the nurses into other areas of the working class and youth. Niles will be speaking about the socialist program for universal health care and the rights of the working class at a public campaign meeting at the University of Michigan on Wednesday, October 3, at 7 p.m. Click here for more details. Two reports issued in recent days have provided a searing indictment of the US war in Afghanistan and the US-backed and Saudi-led assault on Yemen. In both countries, civilian casualties are soaring, the vast majority of them caused by US bombs and missiles dropped upon defenseless populations. Both reports were issued in the midst of the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly, where Trump and his aides set out to bully the entire population of the planet. In his speech to the UN, Trump indicted Iran for sowing chaos, death, and destruction in the Middle East, while portraying Washington as a force for peace and stability in the region. The facts, however, show that the greatest force for death, terror and destruction remains US imperialism, whose multiple wars have claimed well over a million lives over the past 17 years. Trump also absurdly credited the UAE and Saudi Arabia with pursuing multiple avenues to ending Yemens horrible, horrific civil war, even as they continued to bombard the country, murdering hundreds of civilians. A report issued by the Armed Location and Event Data Project (ALEDP) this week has revealed that the number of civilians slaughtered in Yemen has soared by 164 percent since June, when the Saudi-led coalition launched its brutal siege against the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah. August was the bloodiest month, so far, with the International Rescue Committee reporting that nearly 500 people were killed over the course of just nine days. The International Rescue Committee issued a report based on the ALEDPs findings pointing out that since 2015, the [US-backed] coalition has undertaken 18,000 airstrikesone every 99 minutesone third of which have hit non-military targets. These strikes are responsible for the great majority of the deaths of more than 16,000 civilians since the war began. Tens of thousands more have died from disease and hunger, and an estimated 8.4 million Yemenis are confronting famine. Washington gave the greenlight for the siege of Hodeidah, which is aimed at cutting off the lifeline for food, medicine and other basic supplies to the majority of the population who live in areas of the country controlled by the Houthi rebel movement that overthrew the US and Saudi-backed puppet regime of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in 2014. The United Nations has warned that the siege could claims as many as a quarter of a million lives outright and push millions more over the brink of starvation. The report also comes just weeks after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo formally certified to Congress that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are taking steps to alleviate Yemens humanitarian crisis and protect civilian lives. The certification, required under a toothless amendment attached to the US military spending bill, was a condition for continuing the midair refueling that US Air Force tanker planes provide for Saudi warplanes so that they can conduct their round-the-clock bombing of Yemens population. The refueling operation is only one of the means by which Washington makes possible the Saudi-led siege of Yemen. The Pentagon provides critical intelligence and targeting assistance from a joint command center in Riyadh and has deployed US warships that back up the Saudi-UAE blockade of the starving country. It also, of course, provides tens of billions of dollars worth of weaponry being used to attack Yemen. Pompeos cynical certification came in the wake of a pair of bloody massacres in August in which Saudi jets struck a school bus in a crowded market area, killing 51 people including 40 children, as well a truck packed with refugees fleeing the siege of Hodeidah, killing four women and 22 children. The Wall Street Journal last week published a report based upon a leaked classified State Department memo, revealing that Pompeo brushed aside concerns expressed by department officials over the bloodbath unfolding in Yemen. He did so based on a warning from his legislative affairs aides that failure to provide the human rights certification will negatively impact pending arms transfers and may also negatively impact future foreign military sales and direct commercial sales to the region. Of particular concern was a deal struck by Raytheon Co. to sell more than $2 billion worth of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It was a Raytheon missile that annihilated the bus full of school children last month Nearly half of arms sales by the USthe greatest weapons exporter in the worldnow go to the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia its largest customer, accounting for 18 percent of sales. Total weapons exports set a new record in fiscal 2017, rising to $75.9 billion. While the profit interests of US arms manufacturers are no doubt a critical concern, Washington, under both the Obama and the Trump administrations, has supported the war on Yemen based upon the pursuit of definite geostrategic interests in curbing Iranian influence in the region and pursuing regime change in Tehran. This policy of reckless aggression has intensified under the Trump administration, which abrogated the international nuclear agreement with Tehran and has imposed punishing economic sanctions that are tantamount to an act of war. Both Washington and Riyadh see the survival of any regime in Yemen that is not under their thumb as an unacceptable challenge to their dominance of the region and the curtailment of Iran. Both US and Saudi authorities have sought to cast the Houthi rebels who overthrew the US-Saudi puppet regime of President Hadi as Iranian proxies, while claiming, without any evidence, that Tehran is supplying them with arms. Meanwhile, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has reported a 52 percent increase in civilian casualties resulting from airstrikes by US warplanes and the US-controlled Afghan air force in the first six months of this year. The number of bombs dropped by the US Air Force has nearly doubled over this period, to nearly 3,000. The escalation of the 17-year-old US war in Afghanistan claimed the lives of 1,600 civilians between January and Juneaccording to the UNs undoubtedly low countand forced another 160,000 to flee their homes. The UNAMA report found tragic fresh confirmation after it was issued with a pair of US bombings that claimed the lives of at least 25 Afghan civilians. The agency reported on Wednesday that 12 people, 10 children and two women, were killed in a bombing in the central province of Maidan Wardak late on Monday. This followed an airstrike on Saturday that demolished the house of a teacher in the eastern province of Tagab, killing 13 civilians, most of them women and children. On Wednesday, angry residents of the Chardara district of Kunduz Province carried the bodies of the victims of yet another airstrike that killed a 45-year-old woman and two teenage girls into the provincial capital, chanting slogans against the government and the US occupation forces. They martyred three women. My son, who is a university student in economics faculty, and my daughter, Atifa, are woundedthey are in a serious condition in hospital currently, Mohammed, a teacher in the village school, told the New York Times. They destroyed my life. In Afghanistan, as in Yemen, US imperialism is pursuing definite geostrategic interests. The war begun 17 years ago as a supposed response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington has from its outset been directed at establishing a US beachhead in Central Asia, near the strategic oil fields of the Caspian Basin and on the border of China. Recent attempts by Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan to jointly broker a peace process in Afghanistan have only fueled Washingtons military violence in the country. The horrific war crimes in both Yemen and Afghanistan and the prospect of millions of Yemenis dying of starvation as a result of US-backed military operations have received virtually no coverage in the US media. Neither are they an issue in the upcoming midterm elections, in which the Democrats are running as no less a war party than the Republicans, advancing a field of ex-CIA and military candidates and demanding a harder line against Russia. To press its campaign against Iran, Russia and China, US imperialism is willing to sacrifice the lives of millions and is preparing for far bloodier wars. This eruption of US and world imperialism, threatening the destruction of humanity, can be prevented only by the revolutionary mobilization of the international working class to put an end to capitalism. 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe By Richard Lough, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Reuters | Sep. 28, 2018 France has no plans for now to sell its 14 percent stake in Air France-KLM, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday, pressing the group's new chief executive to focus on increasing competitiveness. Le Maire was reacting to a warning from the group's new Canadian boss, Benjamin Smith, to Air France's labour unions that the government was prepared to offload its shares and they should not rely on the state to bail them out. Smith, who took over the group last week, faces the unenviable task of having to overcome union resistance to reduce the French unit's swollen cost base while keeping increasingly frustrated Dutch staff on side. A wave of strikes at Air France this spring cost the group some EUR350 million (US$410 million) and led to the ouster of Smith's predecessor. "Today the priority is to turn around Air France," Le Maire told franceinfo. "Selling off the state's stake in Air France is not part of Benjamin Smith's action plan. It is not an option on the table today." Shares in Air France KLM rose 1.6 percent, although the stock remains down by nearly 40 percent so far in 2018. In an interview published on Thursday, Smith told the Financial Times that the French government should not and would not bail out Air France to shield it from competition, even if there were some in the company that believed the state's holding offered them protection. Le Maire himself warned Air France staff in May that the government would not come to the airline's rescue. The French state is the largest shareholder in Air France-KLM. What President Emmanuel Macron does with the stake will be a test of the former investment banker's resolve to lighten the state's touch on the economy. Le Maire said it made no sense for the state to sell down its stake in Air France while the airline is attempting to make tough reforms and at a time its share price is suffering. "The state would be a poor manager (of its holdings) if it started selling its shares in a company that is not in good shape," he said. Air France-KLM's shares have been hit this year, mainly due to the strikes waged by French unions seeking improved pay and working conditions. Delta Airlines and China Eastern Airlines each hold an 8.8 percent stake in the group. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 CHEYENNE State school districts are learning more about their students this week, thanks to results from new statewide standardized tests. The Wyoming Department of Education on Wednesday released the first set of results from the new Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress (WY-TOPP). On average, about half of the students who took the assessment tested as proficient or advanced in math, s... Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption Getting New Game+ and Giant Chicken Boss in February The days-long search for a missing 6-year-old boy in North Carolina ended in tragedy on Thursday when officials found what they believed to be the childs body in a creek just one mile from the park where he disappeared. Gastonia police confirmed the news to PEOPLE in a statement, revealing that a body believed to be that of the 6-year-old was found around 1 p.m. near a highway in Gastonia. The body will be identified by the medical examiners office. Maddoxs parents, Ian and Carrie Ritch, have been notified of the discovery. The chief and I saw Maddox and it is absolutely amazing that he was found, FBI agent Jason Kaplan said during a Thursday press conference of how camouflaged the body was. It was extremely difficult to see him even when we were standing right next to him. He was in the creek, in water. Partially underwater. Kaplan said it is too early to say whether foul play is suspected. Although a medical examiner will confirm the identity of the remains, Kaplan said it is reasonable to say that its [Maddox]. Maddox, who has autism and limited verbal skills, was walking with his father and another adult at the park around 1:30 p.m. local time on Saturday when he took off running. More than a dozen agencies participated in the search, even enlisting the help of divers to search the lake. The remains were found in about two or three feet of water in Long Creek, just one mile east of Gastonias Rankin Lake Park. Gastonia fire chief Phillip Welch said Maddox could not have been swept into the creek from the lake due to a screen in the discharge area. RELATED: Massive Search Underway for 6-Year-Old Boy with Autism Who Vanished from North Carolina Park Welch added that it is possible Maddox walked under fencing around the park to get to the creek. It is unclear how he got into the creek. You would not believe the number of times wed been over and over the same areas, Welch said, noting that the area Maddox was found had been searched numerous timed. We were searching on the presumption that he could have moved around. We had new eyes every day in the same areas. Story continues Ian (left) and Maddox Ritch Maddox s father Ian Ritch previously told PEOPLE that he and his friend were walking with Maddox near the lake that afternoon when the playful boy took off running behind a jogger. It was common for Maddox to run around, so Ian allowed the boy to jog ahead for fun, he said. But when Maddox began running faster, Ian said he took off after him and wasnt able to catch up with his son before losing sight of the boy. RELATED: Father Heartbroken as Search Continues for Son, 6, with Autism Who Vanished from Park He told PEOPLE that he began to lose hope that search teams would find the boy okay. I was thinking he was lost in the woods, now Im not so sure, Ian told PEOPLE on Tuesday. Theyve been looking for days and havent found anything. Im starting to worry. Its been too long. They had so many search and rescue [teams] that they should have found him by now. Kaplan said the investigation is not over and authorities are looking to speak with everyone who was at the park that day. They are working to determine how Maddox got into the lake and how he died. Authorities offered a $10,000 reward for Maddoxs recovery. City officials confirmed to PEOPLE that both Carrie and Ian were cooperating with police in the investigation. As the search continued, some questioned Ians account of the fateful day. But the grieving father said he did all he could to find his son. I was terrified. I didnt know which direction he went, so I looked as hard as I could, I went different ways and everything, Ian said in the days before the tragic discovery. I tried to find him. People are making it out like I did something to him. I would never hurt my little boy. I love him to death and I just want him back. On Tuesday, Maddoxs mother, Carrie Ritch, spoke through tears at a press conference as she pleaded for help to find her son. I just want my baby home, please. Whatever you can do, she said. Maddox is my whole world, and my reason for living. Hes mommas boy. I want my baby back in my arms. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Thursday that Christine Blasey Fords delivery of her prepared statement was a disaster for the Republicans, calling the psychology professors testimony in front of Senate Judiciary Committee was extremely emotional, extremely raw and extremely credible. Choking back tears, Ford described in detail the night in the 1980s in which she said a teenage Brett Kavanaugh attempted to sexually assault her and the long-lasting effects the alleged incident had on her life since. This was extremely emotional, extremely raw, and extremely credible, Wallace said of Fords testimony. Nobody could listen to her deliver those words and talk about the assault and the impact that it had on her life and not have your heart go out to her. He also criticized the format of the hearing and the GOP senators decision to hire Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to question Ford in their place. Also Read: NY Times Apologizes for 'Insensitive' Twitter Poll About Christine Blasey Ford's Testimony On Fox News, Bret Baier says hearing from Blasey Ford "is a totally different thing" than reading her allegations. Chris Wallace: "This was extremely emotional, extremely raw, and extremely credible This is a disaster for the Republicans." pic.twitter.com/aSbznSJdHC David Mack (@davidmackau) September 27, 2018 Earlier in the day, Wallace tweeted that his daughters had shared with him their own high school experiences that touched on the #MeToo issues that have come to light with the accusations against Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh. My family, a lot of it on email, has been discussing this and disagreeing and arguing about it, he said. Two of my daughters have told me stories that I had never heard before about things that happened to them in high school and hadnt told their parents. There are teenage girls who dont tell stories to a lot of people and then it comes up, he continued. I dont think we can disregard Ford and the seriousness of this. Kavanaugh has categorically denied the accusation as well as others leveled against him in subsequent days. The judge is also expected to testify on Thursday to publicly refute Ford under oath. Read original story Fox News Chris Wallace Calls Christine Blasey Fords Testimony a Disaster for the Republicans At TheWrap Watch the Full Episode Above In its Season 22 premiere, South Park ditched ironic detachment for a bitter look at the depressing regularity of school shootings and the countrys refusal to do anything about them. And yes, despite the usual constant gags and the B-storys Marvel riff (in which Cartman becomes what amounts to a racist Jessica Jones), the episode was a genuinely sober condemnation of apathy over public violence. The episode, called Dead Kids, sees Colorado plagued by near-constant school killing sprees that the people of South Park treat like expected inconveniences rather than a terrifying emergency. All except for Stans mom Sharon, who becomes increasingly despondent, but is assumed by everyone else to just be hormonal. Also Read:'South Park' Season Premiere to Feature a School Shooting (Video) The episode begins as the South Park fourth graders get their grades from a recent math test. Immediately, a shooting begins offscreen, but class and teacher continue to argue over the test as the gunfire, screams, and response from police get louder. The teacher even shouts explanations as police storm into the room. Afterward, the kids continue talking about the test while ignoring dead bodies, police and the TV news reporters crowding the school. Stans mom Sharon shows up, sobbing with joy that Stan is still alive, and takes him home. Cartman immediately asks Jeez, whats up Stans moms ass? At home, Sharon asks Stan to tell his dad, Randy, about his day. Stan sheepishly admits he flunked the math test. No, the other thing, Sharon says. Oh, the school shooting, Stan replies. Randy only cares that Stan wasnt the one who shot the school up and didnt get shot. Sharon flips out about the fact that no one seems to care about school shootings, and storms out of the room. Whats up moms ass? Stan asks. Story continues Also Read:'South Park' Creators Say They'll 'Back Off' on Donald Trump Jokes (Video) Later on, after a second shooting, Sharon invites all the kids parents over to talk about the school shooting, only to face the same bewilderment. She flips out again, after which Randy has a cry session with his friends, tearfully explaining that he loves her, but is so hurt by her behavior. Hes convinced that Sharon is just freaking out because shes on her period, and is selfishly taking it out on everyone else. I turn on the TV and dread theyre going to announce another school shooting, he says, and its gonna set my wife off. One of his friends suggests that maybe Randy consider this problem is bigger than your wifes period. But only because it might be menopause instead. To find out more about that, Randy goes to talk to a medical professional: an EMT working at the scene of another horrific school shooting in a neighboring town, who explains everything while casually telling his colleagues where theyre supposed to stack dead bodies. Also Read:Watch Sacha Baron Cohen Clown Pro-Gun Republicans on 'Who Is America?': 'Happy Shooting, Kids' (Video) After Sharon has another freakout because people dont seem to care about school shootings, Randy, desperate to fix the problem, decides to make a romantic gesture with the help of all their friends. So it is that two of the other kids moms tell Sharon theres been another school shooting. But its just a ruse to trick her into racing to the elementary school, where she finds Randy wearing a white suit, and singing a romantic song to her. Meanwhile, yet another shooting breaks out. Randy keeps singing and the adults keep standing around even as bullets are flying into the room, hitting several of them including Randy. Afterward, Randy staggers outside, bloody, and is told by his supportive friends that at least you tried. Sharon demands to know whats going on. Randy, in a super compassionate voice, brings up her menopause. Sharon angrily tells him she isnt going through menopause, and she knows because she just started her period. Randy then asks her to at least consider then that her behavior might just have been hormonal. She storms off, again, leaving Randy hurt and alone. But at the end of the episode, Sharon explains to Randy that upon reflection, maybe she might have been hormonal after all. She apologizes to Randy, who weeps with joy and thanks her. As this is happening, Sharon gets a phone call telling her that theres been yet another shooting. Stans been shot, Sharon says. Should we get down there? asks Randy. Sharon pauses, trying to keep calm, and says No. Its not the end of the world. Read original story South Park Season Premiere Dead Kids Is a Big Middle Finger at Apathy Over School Shootings At TheWrap Student Leena Ali arrived at a strangers wake with a fruit bowl in hand after a woman texted a wrong number. (Photo: Leena Ali via Twitter) Texts delivered to a wrong number are usually handled with a brief apology before quickly moving on, but for Dawn Burke, it resulted in a complete stranger showing up at her aunts wake with a fruit bowl, no less. A Canadian college student, Leena Ali, received a text from Burke that said, Hey is this Quentin? Burke wanted to inform her nephew Quentin about the celebration of life being held for Burkes late aunt Debbie Celar. Perhaps hoping to get a few laughs, Ali said that she was Quentin. However, after Burke told her about the wake and shared the address, Ali fessed up to her ruse, but she asked if she could still come and celebrate auntie Debbies life. Burke replied, Hahaaa, Ok. Ali texted back, Okay! See you there, auntie Dawn and Ill bring a fruit bowl. Culturally, thats what we do, Ali, who is of Sudanese descent, told the Toronto Star. If someone invites you somewhere or brings you somewhere, you should bring something. After attending her class in communication in popular culture and film, Ali and her friend Yasmin drove to Celars wake, where she was greeted by about 400 confused people. I pulled thru for auntie Debbie pic.twitter.com/gPoUmvbJnU *+Zoom+* (@leenaa_alii) September 24, 2018 She drove about 30mins to come meet us. It made my whole familys day and we talked about that all weekend long! Burke tweeted. It warmed our hearts and she came with a fruit bowl, to boot! There [are] still some good people in the world, she wrote. And she showed up that day! She drove about 30mins to come meet us. It made my whole family's day and we talked about that all weekend long! It warmed our hearts and she came with a fruit bowl, to boot! Hahaaa Love you Leena! Dawn (@Dawn88860531) September 26, 2018 When I found out that it wasnt Quentin, I just thought, Ive gotta go with this, because my aunt Debbie would. Aunt Deb would invite these people, whoever they are, into her home. Thats just who she was, Burke told the Toronto Star. Story continues Ali spent the day talking to Celars family and husband. Celar was well known in her community, and her family, which includes 13 grandchildren and 50 immediate members, told Ali that she reminded them of their aunt. Things happen for a reason, and at such a sad time in our life [Alis visit] made it the brightest, Burke said. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Three Republican governors called for a delay on voting to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh so that a more thorough investigation could be completed on allegations of sexual assault. As California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford testified on Capitol Hill that Kavanaugh held her down, put his hands over her mouth and tried to take off her clothes, Govs. John Kasich of Ohio, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Larry Hogan of Maryland all said that the Senate should not rush to vote. The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote on Kavanaugh Friday morning in order to set up a vote by the full Senate within days. On Tuesday, Hogan, who is running for re-election in a blue state, said Fords allegations need to be investigated thoroughly. There are credible charges and big concerns. They need to be heard, Hogan said. They ought to take whatever time it takes to make sure these accusers are heard and he has a chance to respond to them. On Wednesday night, Kasich, who is nearing the end of his second term and ineligible to run for a third, and by some accounts, is mulling a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2020, issued a statement calling for the vote to be postponed. Given the questions and allegations surrounding Judge Kavanaughs nomination and the higher standards demanded for a lifetime appointment the United States Senate should not rush to confirm him, he said. In the absence of a complete and thorough investigation, and hearing from all parties involved, moving this nomination forward would be a mistake. On Thursday morning, shortly before Ford began testifying, Baker argued that there should be no vote in the Senate. Baker is currently running for re-election. The accusations brought against Judge Kavanaugh are sickening and deserve an independent investigation, he said in a tweet on Thursday. The accusations brought against Judge Kavanaugh are sickening and deserve an independent investigation. There should be no vote in the Senate. Charlie Baker (@MassGovernor) September 27, 2018 Meantime, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, also approaching the end of his second and final term, said the threats Ford faced could deter other women who have similar stories from contacting authorities, saying it was not appropriate at a summit on sexual assault at Western Michigan University. In late July, 31 GOP governors signed a letter asking that senators move expeditiously to confirm Kavanaugh. Only four sitting Republican governors did not sign the original letter: Baker, Hogan and Govs. Phil Scott of Vermont and Bruce Rauner of Illinois. Later, Rauner asked that his name be added to the list urging senators to confirm Kavanaugh. As Christine Blasey Ford testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, detailing her allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, her story struck a chord with many women around the country. People posted reactions on social media and some called into C-SPAN during a break in the testimony Thursday morning, with some sharing their own memories of sexual assault. One woman, identified as Brenda, from Missouri, told C-SPAN that she had been molested when she was a child and that the testimony was the first time she had thought about her own experience in years. Im a 76-year-old woman who was sexually molested in second grade. This brings back so much pain, she said on the call. Thought I was over it but its not. You will never forget it. You get confused and you dont understand it but you never forget what happened to you. Brenda from Missouri calls C-SPAN "I'm a 76-year-old woman who was sexually molested in 2nd grade. This brings back so much pain. Thought I was over it but it's not. You will never forget it. You get confused & you don't understand it but you never forget what happened to you." pic.twitter.com/uCgroeQ4B5 CSPAN (@cspan) September 27, 2018 She added that her family had helped her through her experience, but that hearing Ford tell her story brought back memories. I was in the second grade. And it was a seventh grader at my school. And you know on rainy days they have you march around back then the school because they couldnt let you out. And I would see him and I would get so upset, she recalled. The woman said the incident has impacted her ever since. Ive had a weight problem my whole life because I was so afraid someone was going to hurt me, she told C-SPAN. Im married, I have a wonderful family, I have a wonderful husband, I have a child and great-grandchildren and grandchildren, she added. I thought I was over this. And I have not brought this up for years until I heard this testimony and it is just breaking my heart. The womans call also seemed to resonate with many, as it quickly spread across social media as an example of how many related to the experiences Ford was sharing on Thursday. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz on Thursday urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay its vote on Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation until the FBI investigates the sexual misconduct claims against him. Dershowitz echoed the widespread call for an investigation after the emotional testimony of Kavanaugh and one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, earlier in the day. The accusers and other witnesses should be questioned by the FBI and then be summoned to testify before the Judiciary Committee, Dershowitz wrote in an op-ed for Fox News. All sides have an interest in a full and thorough examination of these serious charges. Maybe we can get closer to the truth, although that is not certain, he continued. But right now there are too many unanswered questions to bring the confirmation of Kavanaugh currently a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to a vote of the Judiciary Committee as scheduled on Friday, much less to a vote of the full Senate. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh's testimony was not enough, legal expert Alan Dershowitz said. (Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images) Dershowitz, a self-described liberal Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton, contributes frequently to Fox News. He has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of special counsel Robert Muellers probe into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia. But on Thursday, he was firmly on the side of Democratic lawmakers who want the FBI to probe the allegations against Kavanaugh. Republican senators have refused to call for an investigation. To reinforce his point after both Blasey and Kavanaugh said with 100-percent certainty they were telling the truth, Dershowitz told a story about a rabbi: Acting as a marriage counselor, the rabbi hears the complaints of the wife and tells her shes right. He then affirms that the gripes of the husband are also justified. Finally, the rabbis assistant turns to his mentor and says: But rabbi, I dont understand. They cant possibly both be right! To which the rabbi answers: My student, youre right too. Story continues Is it possible that both Ford and Kavanaugh are truthfully stating what they honestly believe, but that one of them is honestly mistaken? Dershowitz wrote. It is also possible that one of them is deliberately lying, he noted. Right now, there is no way of knowing for certain, which is why the FBI needs to talk to the judges accusers and others. Dershowitz emphasized that the burden of proof was on the accusers, not the accused. Visit Fox News for the entire essay. Also on HuffPost Ashley Kavanaugh holds hands with her husband, Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, as they arrive for his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill. Brett Kavanaugh arrives to testify. Kavanaugh is sworn in before testifying. (Third, fourth and fifth from left) Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) with staffers at the hearing. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) listen to Kavanaugh. Judiciary Committee member Graham shouts during the hearing. Actress Alyssa Milano (second from right), a prominent figure in the Me Too movement, listens to Kavanaugh. Edward Kavanaugh and Martha Kavanaugh, Brett Kavanaughs parents, listen to testimony. Brett Kavanaugh testifies as Ashley Kavanaugh looks on. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexico's Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta is having a problem with naked men. Two times this week, alleged thieves have been abducted and tied naked to lampposts with their buttocks beaten raw. The local prosecutors' office confirmed that the incidents occurred and opened an investigation, but would not say how many people were involved. Local media reported Friday that a total of 10 men were tied naked to posts and had the letter "R'' marked on their heads. That apparently refers to the Spanish word for "rat," which is slang for thief. Puerto Vallarta is located in the state of Jalisco, which is the home of the Jalisco drug cartel. Cartels sometimes round up common criminals to brandish their own image as protectors of the community. Andorra la Vella (Andorra) (AFP) - Andorra is best known as a ski destination and tax haven -- but it's the tiny principality's status as one of Europe's last countries with an abortion ban that activists want to highlight on International Safe Abortion Day. Even in cases of rape or when their lives are in danger, women in the country of 85,500 people nestled in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, have no right to an abortion. Only Malta, the Vatican and San Marino, another micro-state surrounded by Italy, have the same rules, putting them in a group of outliers which lost a key member this year when Ireland voted to overturn its near-total abortion ban. In Andorra, having an abortion is punishable by up to six months in prison. "I had a baby that was at risk of dying in my stomach, but I didn't have the right to have it removed," said Sonia, who learned in the fifth month that her foetus had an incurable disease and would likely not survive the pregnancy. Sonia -- her name has been changed -- had already announced the pregnancy to her friends and family, but ultimately decided to make the "difficult" decision to abort. "I would have had to wait for him to die, keep him inside me for several days before realising, and then give birth to a dead baby," said Sonia, who is in her thirties. Like some 120 other women who head across the border each year to Spain to terminate pregnancies, she travelled to Catalonia -- Catalan is the official language of Andorra -- to have the procedure. "You come to our country to buy cigarettes -- we come to your country to buy our rights," reads a slogan on a pro-legalisation poster shared on social media. "It's a form of torture," said Vanessa Mendoza Cortes from the Stop Violencies (Stop Violence) group which is campaigning for the legalisation of terminations. On Saturday, the group is organising Andorra's first ever street protest in favour of decriminalising abortion. Story continues "We should have the right to have an abortion in our hospitals, and not have to go to Barcelona with guilt and shame," said Mendoza Cortes, who wants to make it an issue in next year's legislative elections. She decried the local system as "hypocritical", with the authorities turning a blind eye to women heading abroad for the procedure. It's an option that's only open to women who can pay between 600 and 1000 euros ($700-$1,160), usually handed to the Spanish doctor in an envelope. Maria, who had an abortion at 18, said she was "lucky" her family were able to scrape the cash together, but she is well aware that for many women "this is far from the case". Today, aged 27, she recalls her shock at her Andorran gynaecologist forcing her to listen to her foetus' heartbeat, trying to dissuade her from ending the pregnancy. The journey back from the abortion clinic in Spain took three hours by road, during which she was doubled over with abdominal pain. She returned deeply distressed, but "there was no psychological or medical support afterwards", she added. - Doctors risk jail - Andorran doctors risk up to three years in prison and a five-year ban from practising if they are caught performing abortions. Even giving patients information or the address of a clinic abroad is against the law, doctor Eric Sylvestre Dolsa told AFP. "In cases where the mother's life is in danger, it would clearly pose a huge ethical problem for me as a doctor if you were to apply the law strictly," said the general practitioner. He is one of few Andorran doctors openly backing legalisation, "no matter the motivation" for ending the pregnancy. Many doctors are reluctant to debate abortion frankly due to fear of the instability that could arise from the issue blowing up in a principality with a unique political set-up, he said. Although it is a parliamentary democracy, Andorra has two "co-princes" as head of state: French President Emmanuel Macron, and Joan-Enric Vives, a Catholic bishop staunchly opposed to abortion. Vives has threatened to abdicate if abortion is legalised, noted Elisa Muxella, head of Andorra's Human Rights Institute. "The government is hiding behind this excuse and saying that if we had abortion it would put our institutions in peril," said Muxella. Sonia said she'd like to see Macron take a public stance on the issue. "Do something for Andorran women," she implored him. "I don't want to see my daughters go through the same thing as me." By Lawrence Hurley, Andrew Chung and Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fighting to salvage his U.S. Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh angrily denied on Thursday a university professor's accusation that he sexually assaulted her 36 years ago in a day of dramatic testimony that gripped the country. Christine Blasey Ford, her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, appeared in public for the first time to detail her allegation against Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge chosen by President Donald Trump for a lifetime job on the top U.S. court. Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee she feared Kavanaugh would rape and accidentally kill her during the alleged assault in 1982, when both were high school students in Maryland. She said she was "100 percent certain" it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her. Kavanaugh testified after Ford finished her appearance, claiming he was the victim of "grotesque and obvious character assassination" orchestrated by Senate Democrats. He said he "unequivocally and categorically" denied Ford's allegation and vowed he would not back down. "I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process," Kavanaugh added. Although they were at no point in the hearing room together, the clash pitted his word against hers. The almost nine hours of intensely emotional testimony came against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault and had millions of Americans riveted to their TV screens and smart phones. Ford has emerged in the eyes of many American women as a compelling figure in the #MeToo movement that is usually associated less with the names of victims and more with a list of high-profile men accused of misconduct. It was not clear, however, if the drama changed the views of any senators. The Senate, controlled 51-49 by Trump's fellow Republicans, must now decide whether to vote to confirm Kavanaugh after the extraordinary nearly nine-hour hearing. Four senators -- Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Jeff Flake along with Democrat Joe Manchin -- are seen as possible swing voters whose decisions will determine whether Kavanaugh is approved or rejected. Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump and his confirmation would cement conservative control of the Supreme Court with disputes over abortion rights, immigration, gay rights, voting rights and transgender troops possibly heading toward the justices soon. The Judiciary Committee, on which Republicans hold an 11-10 majority, was to meet on Friday morning and several senators said they expected it to vote then. The full Senate could vote within days. Writing on Twitter after the hearing, Trump said of Kavanaugh: "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" TEARS Kavanaugh at times choked back tears, especially when he mentioned that his daughter suggested they pray for Ford, when he spoke of his father and when he mentioned women friends who had rallied to support him. Kavanaugh sharply attacked Democratic senators, calling himself the victim of "a calculated and orchestrated political hit" fueled by anger on the left at Trump's 2016 election win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, his conservative judicial record, and revenge on behalf of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. "I swear today, under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge," Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee. Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, said over four hours of testimony that a drunken Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a gathering of teenagers when he was 17 years old and she was 15. "With what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you?" Democratic Senator Dick Durbin asked Ford. "One hundred percent," she replied, remaining firm and unruffled even under questioning by a sex crimes prosecutor hired by the committee's Republicans. When Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her if it could be a case of mistaken identity, as Kavanaugh and some Republican senators have suggested, Ford replied: "Absolutely not" . Murkowski, one of the three moderate Republican senators who have not announced whether or not they will support Kavanaugh, told Reuters: "I find Dr. Ford's testimony to be credible." For his part, Kavanaugh testified he was "100 percent certain" none of the alleged incidents of sexual misconduct occurred. 'HEROIC' Democrats lauded Ford's testimony as credible, brave and, in the words of Senator Cory Booker, "nothing short of heroic." "I want to thank you for your courage. And I want to tell you I believe you. ... And I believe many Americans across the country believe you," Democratic Senator Kamala Harris said. While some Republicans and Trump have called the allegations by Ford and the two other women part of a smear campaign, Ford told the committee she had no political motivation, adding: "I am an independent person and I am no one's pawn." Ford was seated at a table in the packed hearing room flanked by her lawyers, facing a bank of senators. She told the senators she was "terrified" to testify but felt it was her civic duty to come forward. "Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was very inebriated and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothing. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help," Ford said, adding that Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were "drunkenly laughing during the attack." Democratic senators sought to score political points during their five minutes apiece of questioning Ford. The panel's Republican senators, all men, did not question her, assigning that task to Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor. While Mitchell probed Ford's account looking for gaps, her questioning seemed disjointed. She took turns with the Democratic senators to ask questions in five-minute segments, disrupting her flow. During Kavanaugh's testimony, Republican senators sidelined Mitchell and asked their own questions. The bitter fight over Kavanaugh's nomination is unfolding just weeks before the Nov. 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to seize majority control of Congress from the Republicans. It has also deepened the country's political polarization. 'VICIOUS AND FALSE' Kavanaugh, sitting alone at the witness table, said he wanted to testify as soon as Ford's allegation emerged last week and was not surprised other allegations followed. "In those 10 long days, as was predictable and as I predicted, my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations," he said, as his wife sat behind him. Kavanaugh repeatedly tangled with Democratic senators, interrupting several of them, including Feinstein and Amy Klobuchar, during testy exchanges. When Klobuchar asked him about his teenage drinking, he threw the question back at her, asking her whether she had ever been blackout drunk. He later apologized for the question. Kavanaugh was careful not to denounce Ford, noting he wished her "no ill will." He said he was not questioning that Ford may have been sexually assaulted by someone in some place at some time, but that he had never assaulted her or anyone else. Some Democrats have called on Kavanaugh to withdraw in light of the allegations. At the hearing, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham castigated Democratic senators, seeking to rally Republicans not to abandon the nominee. "This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics," Graham said. 'UPROARIOUS LAUGHTER' Ford said Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming during the assault. She added: "This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me." Her strongest memory of the incident, Ford said, was the "uproarious laughter between the two (Kavanaugh and Judge) and their having fun at my expense." She said the laughter had haunted her ever since. Two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in the 1980s. Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself during a drunken dormitory party during the 1983-84 academic year when both attended Yale University. Swetnick said she witnessed efforts by Kavanaugh and others to get girls drunk at parties so they could be raped. She said Kavanaugh was present at a 1982 party where she was raped. Trump, who has himself faced accusations of sexual misconduct, chose Kavanaugh to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired effective in July. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Andrew Chung and Amanda Becker; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Makini Brice, Steve Holland, David Morgan and Susan Heavey; Editing by Will Dunham, Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney) WASHINGTON Frequently angry and sometimes on the edge of tears, Brett Kavanaugh sought to rescue his nomination to the Supreme Court in a dramatic turn before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Rebutting Christine Blasey Fords allegations of sexual assault, Kavanaugh cast himself as the victim, bitterly attacking the 10 Democrats seated before him. He called the initial hearings into his nomination an embarrassment, suggesting that he was the subject of left-wing opposition groups. Sputtering with rage, Kavanaugh went so far as to claim that his opponents were seeking revenge on behalf of the Clintons, though he offered no evidence for that assertion. This is a circus, Kavanaugh said with spite that resounded across the packed Senate hearing room, where the audience included actress-turned-liberal-activist Alyssa Milano and Facebooks top Washington executive, Joel Kaplan, a friend of Kavanaugh from their time in the George W. Bush administration. The circus reference was an unmistakable allusion to the 1991 testimony of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, who called Anita Hills allegations during his confirmation process a circus, a national disgrace and, most famously, a high-tech lynching. Thomas won a narrow confirmation from the Senate, despite the seeming credibility of Hills accusations. Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Photo: Jim Bourg/Reuters) But Kavanaughs acrimony addressed to the Senate Judiciary Committee surpassed even Thomass 27 years ago. Never before had a Supreme Court nominee expressed himself in such nakedly partisan terms. To Kavanaughs supporters, he is an upstanding public servant defending himself against partisan smears of an unspeakable nature. Detractors saw an entitled political operative enraged that the prize hed coveted for years would be potentially withheld because of a decades-old allegation. Two other women have gone public with their accusations of sexual assault by Kavanaugh. He has denied them all. Republicans were obviously heartened by Kavanaughs aggressive opening. They quickly dispensed with Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona prosecutor whod been hired to question Ford earlier in the day. Instead of allowing her to fully question Kavanaugh as well, the Republicans eventually seized control of the hearing from her. For the most part, they used their time to angrily denounce Democrats while lavishing Kavanaugh with sympathy and praise. But whether that show of solidarity with a controversial nominee convinces or backfires remains to be seen. Story continues Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. (Photo: Saul Loeb/pool photo via AP) Sen. Lindsey Graham a zealous if somewhat late convert to Trumps cause described the proceedings as the most unethical sham since Ive been in politics. He called the inquest into Kavanaughs alleged sexual misconduct hell and seemed to threaten fellow Republicans who had not yet said they would vote for Kavanaughs confirmation: If you vote no, you are legitimizing the most despicable thing Ive ever seen in my time in politics, he said. This seemed to be directed at Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jeff Flake of Arizona. All three have a tendency to bristle at threats of the kind Graham appeared to be making. They later held a meeting that also included Sen. Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, who sometimes votes with Republicans. Afterwards, Manchin said the crucial foursome remains undecided. Were they all to vote against Kavanaugh, his nomination to the Supreme Court would fail. Other Republicans made similar shows of support for Kavanaugh. I cant think of a more embarrassing scandal for the United States Senate since the McCarthy hearings, said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, alluding to Sen. Joseph McCarthys anticommunist witch hunts of the 1950s. To some observers, this indignation rang hollow because some of the same Republicans now rooting for Kavanaugh allowed the nomination of Merrick Garland an Obama nominee to the Supreme Court, and currently a colleague of Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit Court to languish for 293 days after he was nominated in 2016. Not a single Republican senator met with Garland, though none offered substantive objections to his record or questions about his character. The nomination was ultimately withdrawn. The dark, angry tone of Kavanaugh and his supporters was a marked contrast from Fords testimony earlier in the day. While her testimony was captivating, she showed no ill-will towards the 11 Republican men arrayed before her, or the woman theyd hired Mitchell to question her. She even exchanged jokes with Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committees chairman. Photo: Andrew Harnik/pool via Reuters There were no light-hearted moments during Kavanaughs testimony. He angrily interrupted Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees ranking Democratic member, as well as Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the only Democrat who was on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Anita Hill hearings. Asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar if hed ever blacked out when drinking, Kavanaugh shot back testily, Have you? (He later apologized for the comment, which hed made shortly after Klobuchar revealed that her own father struggled with alcohol abuse.) Kavanaughs anger eventually gave way to a more measured mood, which allowed Democrats to call into question aspects of his defense. He downplayed prurient, seemingly sexual entries in his high school yearbook, while portraying his long-standing love of beer as inconsequential and harmless. At the same time, he refused to call for an FBI investigation into Fords allegations. And he was repeatedly resistant to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing from Mark Judge, who Ford alleges took part in the assault. Kavanaughs performance seemed less calculated to convince the unconvinced than to please the man whod nominated him. That, at the very least, he appeared to accomplish. Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him, Trump tweeted after the hearing, as Republicans prepared for an evening conference to discuss the nominations prospects. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Kavanaughs nomination on Friday. The full Senate will likely vote early next week. Senate Judiciary Committee members, from left, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images) _____ More Yahoo News stories on the Supreme Court: Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Judge Clarence Thomas. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Andrew Harnik/AP, Pool, J. David Ake/AFP/Getty Images) At first what was clear were the similarities two nominees to the highest court in the United States, both nominated by Republican presidents, both poised to move the court decidedly to the right. And both seemingly assured of confirmation, then hitting a speed bump when accused of past sexual misconduct by women who said they would prefer to have remained anonymous. But what became clear along the way were the differences, ones that began with but went far beyond the bright turquoise jacket and steely confidence of Professor Anita Hill set against the muted navy and tremulous demeanor of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the booming righteous anger of Clarence Thomas and the tearful outrage of Brett Kavanaugh. They are differences that reflect the ways in which the country has and has not changed in the 27 years since who put pubic hair on my Coke? became a sour national joke. What has changed most are women. Back in October 1991, as they clustered around television sets in public and private spaces, listening to Hill describe lewd talk from Thomas when he was her boss, there was a feeling of recognition and realization, giving to a common experience a name many had never heard: sexual harassment. It happened to you too? they asked each other, then told their own stories. And, a year after Thomas was confirmed in spite of Hills allegations, a record number of women rode the wave of anger to victory in 1992, doubling the number in the House and Senate in what became known as the Year of the Woman. One of those, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, is the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, before which both Ford and Kavanaugh appeared Thursday. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., listen as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Pool) This time, though, there was no slow build. The anger was exposed and waiting, uncorked by the defeat of the first woman with a realistic chance of becoming president by a man with a documented history of sexual misconduct, built to a furor by the Womens March and the #MeToo movement. Powerful men were toppled by the anger, including two senators Roy Moore and Al Franken whose places on the Judiciary Committee were taken by Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. Women didnt have to get mad, they were already good and mad. Story continues Every woman I know has been storing anger for years in her body and its starting to feel like bees are going to pour out of all of our mouths at the same time, tweeted Erin Keane, executive editor of the Salon Media Group. So much about todays hearing was a response to that decades-old anger. The very fact that it was held at all was in part because one legacy of the Hill/Thomas hearings was to make it politically untenable to refuse to hear testimony from a woman bearing such an accusation. And the particulars of schedule, of time limits, of who asked the questions were designed to inoculate the current committee against the same missteps of a generation ago. Like generals fighting the last battle, the all-white, all-male Republican majority on the Judiciary Committee in 2018 understand that the impression left by 11 white men grilling one African-American woman in 1991 were unfortunate at best. Rachel Mitchell, counsel for Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans, questions Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Pool) A little bit nutty and a little bit slutty, Hill was called in one notable sound bite of the day, and the nascent right-wing media machine suggested that she suffered from erotomania, a sexual obsession with Thomas. Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, left at least one other woman with a similar story waiting offstage, refusing to allow her to testify. There is no way to redo 1991, but there are ways to do better, Hill herself advised in an op-ed in the New York Times 10 days ago, though the ones the committee came up with are not necessarily the ones that she had in mind. Most notably, the Republican majority hired Rachel Mitchell, an experienced prosecutor of sexual assault cases in Phoenix. She was the only questioner for the first half of the hearing, and while she elicited no new information from Ford, it appeared that she was not hired to. She was there primarily so that a woman could ask another woman about sexual matters, so the men did not have to. At half-time (the lunch break certainly felt like half-time) TV news anchors, including those on Fox, generally agreed that her testimony was moving and compelling. This is disaster for the Republicans, Chris Wallace said on Fox. But like Thomas, Kavanaugh took the hot seat and came out swinging. Where Thomas called his nomination process a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks, Kavanaugh called his a calculated and orchestrated political hit. In the committee brawl that followed, Mitchell quietly left the stage (she was in the room, it seems, but not on camera and not heard from.) And that is where the lessons of the Hill-Thomas hearings became most stark. Having learned not to attack the victim, the Republicans of the Judiciary Committee bent over backwards to describe Ford as a victim too. Dr. Ford and her family have been treated incredibly poorly, Sen. Ted Cruz said. And Sen. Ben Sasse said I think Dr. Ford is a victim. The nominee had learned the lesson as well. Even while accusing the Democrats on the committee of conspiring to hold off releasing the allegations until the last minute as part of a conspiracy, he stopped short of accusing Ford of being part of it. I intend no ill will to Dr. Ford and her family, he said in his statement, his voice breaking as he described his youngest daughter saying a bedtime prayer for the woman. Supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Photo: Saul Loeb/pool photo via AP) And yet, as Sen. Chuck Grassley gaveled the hearing to a close nearly 10 hours after it began, it was unclear whether the differences from the hearing back in 1991 would lead to a different result. Pundits who were predicting a defeat of Kavanaughs nomination in the morning were backing off by evening. But a change in the makeup of the court was not the only aftereffect of the Thomas hearings. There was also all that anger. It has multiplied and magnified in the years since, and if the outcome of the Kavanaugh hearings are the same as those of the Thomas hearings, the force of that rage is potentially unprecedented, although its direction is predictable. If Kavanaugh is confirmed it will be lighter fluid on the midterms for liberal women, tweeted Danielle Kurtzleben, who covers gender and politics for NPR. Take the anger that resulted in the Year of the Woman. Add the still simmering fury over Trumps election a month after the infamous Access Hollywood tape. Multiply by how much #MeToo comes up in my interviews about stuff that is not #MeToo, Kurtzleben continued, and the likely result is that this will turn an already energized demographic absolutely furious. Will they turn out? she asks. You can bet they will. Christine Blasey Ford reacts as she speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Photo: Michael Reynolds/pool via Reuters) _____ More Yahoo News stories on the Supreme Court: Washington (AFP) - Christine Blasey Ford told senators Thursday that she remains "100 percent" certain that Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's nominee for the US Supreme Court, was the person who sexually assaulted her at a party decades ago. In extraordinary and at times emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Blasey Ford, a psychology professor in California, said it was "absolutely not" possible that she had mistakenly identified Kavanaugh as her attacker. Some conservative scholars have suggested Blasey Ford's accusation was a case of mistaken identity, but Blasey Ford, 51, insisted she has a "100 percent" level of certainty that it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her. The testimony -- made under oath at a high-stakes hearing -- is damning for Kavanaugh, whose nomination is facing intense scrutiny, as two other women also have come out identifying themselves as victims of sexual misconduct by the federal judge. Blasey Ford claims Kavanaugh tried to rape her at a party in 1982 when he was a 17-year-old high school student and she was 15. Asked how she could be so sure it was Kavanaugh who attacked her, Blasey Ford responded with confidence: "The same way that I'm sure that I'm talking to you right now. Just basic memory functions." The "trauma-related experience" was seared into her brain, she said. Kavanaugh, 53, has strenuously denied assaulting anyone and insists he is the victim of a "smear campaign." Senior Senate Democrat Patrick Leahy was among those who questioned her bluntly about the attack, asking about her strongest memory of the incident. "Indelible in the hippocampus (the part of the brain that is the center of emotion and memory) is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two, and they are having fun at my expense." Blasey Ford testified that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, both "visibly drunk," pushed her into an upstairs room at the party and locked the door. Kavanaugh, she added, proceeded to jump on top of her, and when she yelled for help, "Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming." "I was underneath one of them while the two laughed," she said. Activists and supporters of Christine Blasey Ford gathered from early morning at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington on September 27, ahead of her scheduled testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Blasey Ford is among three women who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. The other women, Julie Swetnick and Debbie Ramirez, were not scheduled to testify. Kavanaugh has consistently denied the allegations of sexual misconduct. This footage shows supporters holding a silent protest in support of Blasey Ford in the Hart Senate Office Building ahead of the testimony. Credit: @VoteChoice via Storyful La Paz (AFP) - Two former Bolivian presidents rejected an amnesty offered on Thursday by incumbent Evo Morales as part of a bid to garner their support in his territorial dispute with Chile over access to the Pacific Ocean. The International Court of Justice in The Hague is due to rule on Monday on the case Bolivia brought in 2013 seeking to regain access to the sea that it lost following an 1879-84 war it fought against Chile and alongside Peru. Earlier on Thursday, Morales pardoned Carlos Mesa and Jorge Quiroga but both were quick to turn it down, protesting their innocence. Mesa faces a trial over decrees during his 2003-05 presidency that affected Chilean mining company Quiborax, leading the World Bank's investment dispute arbitration institution to order Bolivia to pay $42.6 million in compensation. Writing on Twitter, Mesa said: "I appreciate the president's gesture. But I don't accept the presumption of guilt." Quiroga is in the dock for allegedly signing agreements with oil companies without parliament's consent during his one-year tenure from 2001-02. "I've nothing to be pardoned for," he said in a press conference. "If there was justice in Bolivia, 'Tuto' Quiroga would be decorated." Earlier on Thursday, Morales said in a statement that he had "taken the decision that no ex-president, except those accused of crimes against humanity or genocide, should have legal cases" while the country is fighting for "the defense of our maritime rights." Such an amnesty would need to be approved by Congress, although that is controlled by the left-wing president. Bolivia and Chile are involved in a pair of disputes that have been taken to the ICJ. The first is over Bolivian claims to a sovereign passage to the Pacific Ocean. Defeat in the 19th century war left Bolivia landlocked and today it is one of the poorest countries in South America, despite vast gas reserves. Story continues In 1978, Bolivia tried to negotiate a deal but rejected Chilean counterdemands for a territory swap. The neighbors have not had diplomatic relations since then. More recently, they have been at loggerheads over the nature of the Silala river that runs along their border. Two years ago, Chile asked the ICJ to recognize the Silala as an international river, giving the two countries equal rights to share its water. But Bolivia submitted a counterclaim arguing that the river was made artificially 100 years ago by Chilean canalization and that the water source originates in wetlands in its territory. Attack Boris Johnson has launched an attack on Theresa Mays Brexit strategy just days before the Tory Party conference (Picture: Reuters) Boris Johnsons alternative vision for Britains departure from the EU have been dismissed by business magnate Sir Richard Branson, who warned Brexit would be a disaster for the UK and Europe. Former Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson launched a scathing attack on Theresa May just days before the Conservative Party Conference, branding her Chequers plan a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country that will cheat the electorate. In a 4,500-word column in the Telegraph titled A better plan for Brexit, Mr Johnson who quit Mrs Mays Cabinet in July set out his own alternative vision for Britains departure from the EU. He urged the Government to ditch the Chequers plan and negotiate a Canada-style free deal which he said would fulfil the instruction of the people. But Mr Johnsons plans have been dismissed by Virgin founder Richard Branson. Disaster Virgin Group founder Richard Branson has dismissed Boris Johnsons alternative vision for Brexit (Picture: AP) The billionaire entrepreneur told Sky News: I listened to Boris Johnson and I also listened to the words he said about entrepreneurs and business people. I do personally think that entrepreneurs and business people know what this country needs more than Boris Johnson knows. MORE: Worlds first flying car to go on sale next month MORE: Could next summer be even hotter? Expert warns El Nino could boost temperatures in 2019 Mr Branson voiced his support for a second referendum, saying he thinks it is quite likely that sense will finally prevail, adding: I think its becoming clearer and clearer just what a disaster it is and I just hope that ultimately it doesnt go through. I hope ultimately sense prevails and theres a big re-think and the British people have a chance to vote on whatever is negotiated in the end. In his piece in the Telegraph Mr Johnson described the Chequers proposals, which were publicly rejected by EU leaders in Salzburg last week, as the worst of both worlds. He wrote: Overall, the Chequers proposals represent the intellectual error of believing that we can be half-in, half-out: that it is somehow safer and easier for large parts of our national life to remain governed by the EU even though we are no longer in the EU. Story continues They are in that sense a democratic disaster. There is nothing safe or pragmatic in being bound by rules over which we have no say, interpreted by a federalist court. The Chequers proposals are the worst of both worlds. They are a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country. It is almost incredible that after two years this should be the opening bid of the British government. Conference Mr Johnsons attack comes just days before the Conservative Party conference (Picture: Reuters) Mr Johnson argued for a new withdrawal agreement stating that the Irish border question will be settled as part of the deal on the future economic arrangements as well as saying that the implementation period should be used to negotiate and bring into force a SuperCanada type free trade agreement. He added: This is an opportunity for the UK to become more dynamic and more successful, and we should not be shy of saying that and we should recognise that it is exactly this potential our EU partners seek to constrain. Over 1,400 people have died after a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday and triggered a devastating tsunami. At least 800 others were injured by the combination of the earthquake and tsunami. Nearly all of the deaths have been in the city of Palu, according to the Associated Press (AP). The city is home to more than 380,000 people. A mass burial began on Sunday and continued into Wednesday due to health and religious reasons. Rescuers saved a 38-year-old man from beneath a destroyed building on Monday, three days after the earthquake caused it to collapse. Earthquake, tsunami devastate Indonesia AP Photo/Garret Fischer First, at vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui voluptatum. 1/12 (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File) In this Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, file photo, rescuers carry a survivor rescued from a restaurant building damaged by a massive earthquake and a tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File) In this Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, file photo, people survey the damage of a shopping mall following earthquakes and a tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File) In this Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, file photo, people survey the mosque damaged in a massive earthquake and a tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File) In this Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, file photo, a damaged shopping mall sits in flood water following earthquakes and a tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) People survey the damage following a massive earthquake and tsunami at Talise beach in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. A mass burial of earthquake and tsunami victims was being prepared in a hard-hit city Monday as the need for heavy equipment to dig for survivors of the disaster that struck a central Indonesian island three days ago grows desperate. Story continues (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) People move through rubble and debris following a massive earthquake and tsunami at Talise beach in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) People queue for gasoline following a massive earthquake and tsunami at a gas station in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) People survey the damaged house and car following a massive earthquake and tsunami at Talise beach in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) A man inspects his damaged home following a massive earthquake and tsunami at Talise beach in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) An excavator is used to continue the search for victims in the rubble of the Roa-Roa Hotel following a massive earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Rifki) A man carry items he saved from the rubble following a major earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) People survey outside the shopping mall which was damaged following earthquakes and a tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018. Rescuers try to reach trapped victims in collapsed buildings after hundreds of people are confirmed dead in a tsunami that hit two central Indonesian cities, sweeping away buildings with massive waves. Officials fear that the death toll will continue to climb as crews sift through the rubble. After hovering just below 900 for days, the official death toll jumped to 1,347 on Tuesday, and had reached 1,407 by Wednesday. More than 70,000 other people have been left homeless following the disaster. Aid slowly arrived from multiple countries on Wednesday. More than 25 countries have offered assistance, including 50 medical professionals from Australia. A passing shower or thunderstorm can briefly interfere with rescue and recovery efforts daily into Friday. Most of the time however, will be dry with times of clouds and sunshine and high temperatures near 32 C (90 F). dmco earthquake 9/28 The earthquake was initially measured at a magnitude of 7.5 by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). About 10 minutes later, another quake struck the area, this one registering as a magnitude of 5.8. A spokesperson for Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) confirmed that a tsunami occurred along a shoreline of Palu after the earthquake. Indonesia AP 10/1 A man takes a photo of a car lifted into the air with his mobile phone following a massive earthquake and tsunami at Talise beach in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) Houses were reportedly swept away and entire families were reported missing following the tsunami, according to the Associated Press. The 6-meter (20-foot) -tall tsunami impacted at least two cities, disrupting communication and power to the area. A beach festival was ongoing in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, when the tsunami hit, the AP reported. An official with Akris, the local disaster agency, said that many houses collapsed due to the powerful evening earthquake in areas that were not struck by the tsunami. Indonesia earthquake AP A department store building is seen heavily damaged by earthquake in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018. The powerful earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday, triggering a 3-meter-tall (10-foot-tall) tsunami that an official said swept away houses in at least two cities. (AP Photo/Rifki) "It happened while we still have difficulties in collecting data from nine villages affected by the first quake," he told the AP. "People ran out in panic." According to disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the Donggala area in central Sulawesi Province has sustained significant damage. The earthquake and tsunami also allowed at least 1,200 inmates to escape from local prisons, according to Deutsche Welle. Earlier on Friday, a nearby quake with a magnitude 5.0 struck the same area. This event reportedly damaged homes. Several aftershocks have rattled the region, heightening fears of additional damage to already weakened buildings. On Wednesday, a volcano on the island erupted, but no new damage or evacuation orders were immediately reported. The nation has suffered from other several powerful earthquakes in recent months, which have killed more than 500 people and caused widespread damage. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in Thursdays hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee turned a question about blacking out from drinking back on Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), minutes after she mentioned that her father had experienced alcohol addiction. The Minnesota Democrat asked Kavanaugh whether he had ever drunk so much that he couldnt remember what happened or part of what happened the night before. No, I remember what happened, Kavanaugh responded. And I think youve probably had beers, senator. Klobuchar pressed him further. So youre saying theres never been a case where you drank so much that you didnt remember what happened the night before or part of what happened? Youre talking about blackout. I dont know. Have you? he shot back. The issue of Kavanaughs drinking has arisen in the wake of allegations from several women that he sexually assaulted them decades ago. In at least two of the alleged incidents, the women said they remembered Kavanaugh being severely drunk. On Thursday, the Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor who has alleged Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. Blasey said in her testimony she recalled Kavanaugh being very inebriated at the time of the alleged assault. Kavanaugh has since admitted that he may have had too many drinks on occasion but denied he ever drank to the point of blacking out a claim several former classmates have disputed. Drinking is one thing, but the concern is about truthfulness, Klobuchar said. The senator continued to try to get a direct answer from Kavanaugh regarding whether he had ever blacked out from drinking. The judge once again turned the question around on Klobuchar, prompting her to reply: I have no drinking problem. Sen. Amy Klobuchar asks Brett Kavanaugh if he has ever blacked out from drinking, and he turns the question back on her. Kavanaugh: "You are asking about a blackout. I don't know. Have you?" Klobuchar: "Could you answer the question, judge?"https://t.co/9FalHY71EC pic.twitter.com/ptnGHHYuss CBS News (@CBSNews) September 27, 2018 Klobuchar began her questioning of Kavanaugh by saying that her father has experienced alcoholism in his life and is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous to this day. Story continues After a short recess following the interaction with Klobuchar, Kavanaugh apologized to the senator. Im sorry I did that, he said. This is a tough process. Klobuchar responded: When you have a parent whos an alcoholic, youre pretty careful about drinking. Related Coverage Here's What Yale Was Like For Women When Brett Kavanaugh Was There Republicans Not Moved By Christine Blasey Ford's Testimony (At Least Not Yet) Here Are Brett Kavanaugh's Wildest Senate Testimony Moments Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. A GoFundMe campaign created for Dr Christine Blasey Ford has rapidly picked up support on the day of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her allegations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh. A campaign created on 18, September with a goal to raise $150,000 (115,000) has since markedly exceeded its goal. At one point on Thursday, the trending campaign reached $375,000 (280,000) with donations speedily pouring in throughout the day. Neighbours and colleagues of Dr Blasey Ford sponsored the campaign with the mission to assist the California professor and her family since her identify became known. The funds raised will cover expenses, including security and travel costs. During the testimony, prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questioned Dr Blasey Ford about the polygraph test she took in August in connection to her allegations against Mr Kavanaugh. The examinations result revealed that Dr Blasey Fords answers were not indicative of deception. When Ms Mitchell asked Dr Blasey Ford whether she paid for the polygraph, her attorneys confirmed that they did as is routine they added. The California professor also acknowledged that several GoFundMe pages had been created to support her. I'm aware that there's been several GoFundMe sites that I haven't had a chance to figure out how to manage those because I've never had one... she said. Dr Blasey Ford has received death threats among a wave of vile public attacks for not coming forward earlier and has been forced to relocate out of her home since her allegations came to light. Mr Kavanaugh, who has also been accused of sexual misconduct by two other women, has denied all of the allegations against him. Not only has the right wing smear machine started, but she is receiving serious threats against her and has had to engage a security force to protect her family, a post on the GoFundMe campaign page read in part. This is all really expensive and she needs our help. We need to protect the voices of brave people who speak out - especially when they are part of our community. Another GoFundMe page that has gained in popularity was created for Dr Blasey Ford by a professor of law at Georgetown University, according to the campaigns post. That campaign, which has since closed, set a goal to raise $175,000 (130,000) and exceeded it by raising nearly $210,000 (160,000). Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, Sept. 27. He wrote in 2016 that polygraphs are a valuable tool to determine credibility. (Photo: POOL New / Reuters) Christine Blasey Ford, as part of her extensive effort to convince lawmakers she is telling the truth about her allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when she was 15, voluntarily submitted to a polygraph exam in August. The results, released publicly on Wednesday, showed her answers were not indicative of deception. Polygraphs are extremely unreliable indicators of truthfulness but they also happen to be a tool that Kavanaugh vouched for in one of his opinions on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In 2016, Kavanaugh wrote the opinion for a case involving a Ph.D. student who had filed several Freedom of Information Act requests for her dissertation on polygraph bias. The court case centered on whether the student qualified for reduced FOIA fees the panel decided that she did but the panel also weighed in on the Defense Departments decision to withhold certain reports about polygraph exams. In his opinion, Kavanaugh concluded that polygraphs are a valuable tool for the government to determine credibility and decide who should be allowed to handle classified information. As the Government notes, law enforcement agencies use polygraphs to test the credibility of witnesses and criminal defendants. Those agencies also use polygraphs to screen applicants for security clearances so that they may be deemed suitable for work in critical law enforcement, defense, and intelligence collection roles. The Government has satisfactorily explained how polygraph examinations serve law enforcement purposes. The government was right to block public disclosure of details about the effectiveness of polygraphs, Kavanaugh wrote at the time: Second, the reports contain information about techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations. As the Government points out, the reports detail whether a particular agencys polygraph procedures and techniques are effective. The reports identify strengths and weaknesses of particular polygraph programs. In describing the effectiveness of polygraph techniques and procedures, the reports necessarily would disclose information about the underlying techniques and procedures themselves, including when the agencies are likely to employ them. Story continues Polygraphs, often erroneously called lie detector tests, measure changes in the subjects physiology, including pulse, blood pressure, breathing rate and perspiration. Nervous test takers can produce a polygraph that suggests they are lying when they are telling the truth, and confident test takers can find ways to beat a polygraph and lie without detection. Because of this, polygraphs are not allowed to be used as evidence in court in many jurisdictions. But law enforcement and government agencies continue to use the controversial tests, and the government closely guards internal reporting about polygraphs reliability. Blaseys polygraph results do not prove that she is telling the truth about Kavanaugh. But her decision to subject herself to the invasive, anxiety-inducing procedure does show her effort to exhaust all available means of proving that shes telling the truth. Asked by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Thursday if he had taken a polygraph test, Kavanaugh said he had not. No, Ill do whatever the committee wants. Of course, those are not admissible in federal court, he said, knowing that the Republican-controlled committee was unlikely to instruct him to take a polygraph. Theyre not admissible in federal court because they are not reliable, as you know. H/t to Joe Patrice, who first flagged Kavanaughs 2016 opinion and his views on polygraphs. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testified Thursday about allegations dating back to his days as a high schooler. And he really got into the role in the hearing room he was that arrogant white prep school boy, grounded before Beach Week and fuming. It wasnt hard to imagine a younger Brett, all prickly entitlement, barking to his parents about the injustice of being told he cant go boofing on the shore with Squi. During his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the allegations of sexual assault made against him by Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh harangued the committee in a plaintive squawk. He seemed perpetually on the verge of tears especially, for some inscrutable reason, when he lovingly recalled how well-organized his fathers daily calendar was yet also incandescent with partisan fury and petulance about the injustice being done to him. And Republican men, from pundits to the president, apparently reveled in it. Those in the room, such as Sens. Lindsey Graham, Orrin Hatch and Ben Sasse, used their questioning time to apologize fulsomely to the judge and to shout imprecations against government overreach, Democratic perfidy and the great cruelty being done to Kavanaugh by investigating credible assault allegations against him prior to confirming him to a lifetime seat on the highest court in the nation. Kavanaughs testimony stemmed from accusations of a male bonding session gone too far. On Thursday, the nation saw another one, of another kind, in progress. The torrent of allegations and recollections about Kavanaughs high school and college days has been a grim reminder of how cruelly girls and women suffer at the hands of boys and men who bond by laughing at their expense. During Kavanaughs testimony, we saw an equally ugly mirror image: men bonding through performative anger and hostility again, at the expense of women. Where Blasey, soft-spoken and gracious, assiduously courted the goodwill of both Republican and Democratic senators laughing at their jokes, patiently allowing them to complete questions and graciously asking for clarification when she didnt understand them, apologizing to them for any inconveniences or misunderstandings Kavanaugh burst into his testimony with a pout screwed to his flushed face, the look of a man who has just discovered his S-Class has been keyed. He was ready to brawl elementary-schoolyard style, with gratuitous sniffling and eye-rolling. He accused Democrats in his opening statement of executing a calculated and orchestrated political hit, perhaps as revenge on behalf of the Clintons. Story continues When Democratic senators four of them women questioned Kavanaugh, his physical reactions were bizarrely juvenile; he squirmed and grimaced and made wounded eyes much like an aggrieved 8-year-old denied a long-awaited trip to Dairy Queen because he shoved his sister. He interrupted their questions to complain, in tones rising nearly to a shout, that these allegations were sprung on him at the last minute, or to ask them forlornly if they also liked beer. In one particularly insolent exchange, he responded to Sen. Amy Klobuchars question as to whether hed ever drunk so much that he couldnt remember the next day what had happened by turning the question back on her twice. Needless to say, whether the Minnesota Democrat has ever been blackout drunk bears no relevance to Kavanaughs Supreme Court appointment, nor was it Kavanaughs place to ask her questions during the hearing. (After a brief break, having perhaps been informed that the optics on this were spectacularly poor, he reopened the hearing by apologizing to her.) But Kavanaugh, like Blasey, was courting the goodwill of his audience at least of the audience that mattered to him. Where her anger would have irritated and alienated them, his braced them. Robin Lakoff, professor emerita of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, characterized his behavior as hostile, angry, bullying, uncooperative, and noted in an email to HuffPost that when a man, especially a powerful and entitled one, acts that way, it strengthens him in the eyes of many: hes manly, strong, and credible. President Donald Trump, a summa cum laude graduate of this particular school of masculinity, reportedly disliked Kavanaughs restrained, anodyne interview Monday on Fox News. The judges little-boy-in-a-big-suit tantrum was transparently pitched toward the president, and reports indicate that it worked. Meanwhile, from the hearing room, the men were whipped into a himpathetic fury. What you want to do is destroy this guys life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020, Graham hissed at his Democratic colleagues, his lip curling in a sneer. This is the most unethical sham since Ive been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldnt have done what youve done to this guy. This is worse than Clarence Thomas. I didnt think it could get any worse than that, Hatch said to Kavanaugh. This is a national disgrace, the way youre being treated. It seemed that witnessing visible anger on his behalf from Republican senators was the only thing that could bring Kavanaugh any measure of equanimity. Afterward, he was able to briefly smile or even joke during questioning. Their anger validated his own quivering rage; it clarified his apparent conviction that he is a victim. Youre right to be angry, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told Kavanaugh repeatedly during his questioning. The hearing was a celebration of male anger the power of anger to bring men together, to reinforce their certainty about what is owed to them as men and, of course, to sweep womens anger and pain to the side. Kavanaugh and the Republican senators rarely addressed Blasey or her credibility directly; rather confusingly, the party line was that she, too, was a victim, and that they bore no ill will toward her. During Blaseys own testimony, she described in agonizing detail how she recalled Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge laughing as the future judge lay on top of her, covering her mouth with his hand and attempting to wrench off her clothes. Youve never forgotten them laughing at you, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said as he questioned her. They were laughing with each other, she replied, making a precise distinction. I was underneath one of them while the two laughed. Two friends having a really good time with one another. The assault and their laughter were indeed at her expense, but for those two boys, it wasnt about her. On Thursday, Kavanaugh and the Senate Republicans tried to get righteously angry without attacking a very sympathetic and credible accuser. Instead, they revealed that their anger, like that laughter 36 years ago, isnt even about her. Like everything else, its all about them. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Christine Blasey Ford, Brett Kavanaugh. (Photos: Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images; J. Scott Applewhite/AP) While millions of TV viewers were doubtless moved by Christine Blasey Fords Senate testimony on Thursday, it was Judge Brett Kavanaughs angry, loud, aggressive defense of himself that will probably prove more effective in this Supreme Court he said-she said. All the broadcast networks and the cable news networks televised the hearings of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the judges nomination. Professor Ford went first and impressed anyone watching with the precision and vulnerability of her testimony. Under questioning by lawyer Rachel Mitchell, Ford said, I believed he was going to rape me, in reference to Kavanaugh, President Trumps Supreme Court nominee. Kavanaugh got to say his piece second, and boy, did he seize the opportunity to defend himself. Alternately yelling in rage and sobbing in barely-held-back tears, Kavanaugh launched a 45 minutes-plus opening statement that seemed to be a direct response to all the rumors that President Trump didnt like Kavanaughs nice-guy interview with Martha MacCallum on Fox News earlier in the week. Kavanaugh went full-Trump, stonewalling, denying, appealing for pity, implicitly asserting that he was the victim here, not Ford. On Fox News, the analysis of who was winning this bout went from Chris Wallace saying This is a disaster for the Republicans (after Fords testimony) to Brit Hume saying The scales have been rebalanced (after Kavanaughs opening statement). Add Republican Sen. Lindsay Grahams spittle-inflected meltdown over the injustices he said were inflicted upon Kavanaugh by Fords and the Democrats accusations, and you could see whats probably going to happen here. On Thursday, Kavanaugh entered the right-wing pantheon of a rootin-tootin, straight-shootin fighter/martyr/hero. He will be lauded day after day, night after night, by Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and all the rest on Fox News, and that coverage will have its usual effect on the president and Senate Republicans, wholl be emboldened to dismiss Fords testimony and install Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court. Story continues As I watched one meek Democrat after another mewl out questions to Kavanaugh and whine about the lack of an FBI investigation into the allegations made against the judge, I was reminded how valuable Al Franken had been in hearings like these. Franken, who left politics due to admissions of sexual impropriety, was excellent at the sort of plainspoken combativeness that Kavanaugh displayed on this day. In this atmosphere, aggressiveness needed to be met with aggressiveness, but instead, the Democrats more or less folded. All thats left is a vote to be taken and Kavanaugh to be sworn in. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing Thursday in answer to an allegation of sexual assault when he was a teenager. (Photo: Win McNamee via Getty Images) A national Catholic magazine had endorsed Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh in July because of his views on abortion. But after Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testified Thursday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about her allegation of sexual abuse, America Magazine revoked its endorsement. Now the editors are denouncing Republicans for not investigating the research psychologists claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers and are calling for his nomination to be withdrawn. If Dr. Blaseys allegation is true, the assault and Judge Kavanaughs denial of it mean that he should not be seated on the U.S. Supreme Court, the magazines editors wrote on Thursday. But even if the credibility of the allegation has not been established beyond a reasonable doubt and even if further investigation is warranted to determine its validity or clear Judge Kavanaughs name, we recognize that this nomination is no longer in the best interests of the country, they added. Blasey is the first of three women to accuse the Supreme Court nominee of sexual misconduct. America Magazine is a weekly magazine published by Jesuits, a Catholic religious order for men also known as the Society of Jesus. While we previously endorsed the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh on the basis of his legal credentials and his reputation as a committed textualist, it is now clear that the nomination should be withdrawn.https://t.co/CXqVGkaTdY America Magazine (@americamag) September 28, 2018 At the time of its endorsement, America Magazines editors hailed Kavanaugh as the champion who could be the Supreme Courts fifth vote to overturn the ruling of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in all 50 states. They described him as a constitutional textualist who is suspicious of the kind of judicial innovation that led to the ruling. The editors mused that his nomination would allow Catholics to transform the publics views on abortion, making it an even less appealing choice. Kavanaugh, a Catholic, was attending a Jesuit-run private school at the time of the alleged assault. Story continues But Blaseys testimony on Thursday apparently outweighed the magazines fight against abortion. Blaseys testimony clearly demonstrated both the seriousness of her allegation of assault by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and the stakes of this question for the whole country, the editors wrote. The magazine said that Kavanaughs hearing was now more than a battle of policy issues: The hearings and the committees deliberations are now also a bellwether of the way the country treats women when their reports of harassment, assault and abuse threaten to derail the careers of powerful men. The magazine also warned Republicans on the committee against voting for Kavanaugh without investigating all of the womens claims. If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a womans report of an assault, they wrote. Even if one thinks that Dr. Blaseys allegations are not credible, demonstrating them not to be would require further investigations and testimony, the editors added. This would including calling additional witnesses and assessing further allegations against Judge Kavanaugh from other women, to which Republicans on the committee have been unwilling to commit and which would be divisive in any case. Read America Magazines full editorial here. Related Coverage Live Updates: Brett Kavanaugh Testifies At Senate Hearing Republicans Not Moved By Christine Blasey Ford's Testimony (At Least Not Yet) Brett Kavanaugh Opens Testimony With Tantrum Brett Kavanaugh Let His Mask Slip Christine Blasey Ford Breaks Down As Richard Blumenthal Commends Her Testimony Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. China and Russia denounced the use of "blackmail" Friday in thinly-veiled rebukes of President Donald Trump, highlighting the chasm between the US and its rivals on issues ranging from trade to the war in Syria. Days after Trump slapped $200 billion in tariffs and vowed to press on until China buckles, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the UN General Assembly that Beijing would not be bowed. "China will not be blackmailed or yield to pressure," Wang told the chamber amid an escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing. Russia's foreign minister took to the same stage, condemning countries that resort to "political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force" in a bid to prevent the emergence of rival global powers. Trump forged initial bonhomie with Chinese President Xi Jinping after his unexpected election victory, but has often had to fight off accusations that he is too soft towards his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Nevertheless, relations between Washington and both Beijing and Moscow have plummeted in recent months and the General Assembly, the world's biggest annual diplomatic gathering, has if anything witnessed a deepening of divisions since it opened on Tuesday. Wang did try to play down the spurt in tensions as natural between two major countries and also insisted that China had no ambitions to replace the US as the world's pre-eminent power. "Various frictions may ensue and this is not surprising, and it is also no cause for panic," Wang said in a separate speech to a New York think tank. But his speech to the General Assembly contained multiple repudiations of Trump's "America First" foreign policy, which the US president again championed in his own combative speech at the UN this week. - Championing multilateralism - "China will keep to its commitments and remain a champion of multilateralism," he said. "We must pursue win-win cooperation.... We need to replace confrontation with cooperation and coercion with consultation. We must stick together as a big family as opposed to forming closed circles." Story continues With characteristic bluntness, Trump this week said his friendship with Xi may be over and accused China of interfering in midterm US elections to punish him for his tough trade stance. US tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese imports took effect earlier this week, bringing the total amount of goods hit by duties to more than $250 billion, roughly half of China's exports to the United States. Wang flatly denied a key charge behind Trump's hard line on trade -- that China is stealing US technology to boost its own companies. "This is simply not true. We hope that such untrue allegations will stop," he told the Council on Foreign Relations. US officials say China seizes the technology indirectly by requiring foreign companies to ally with local firms to enter the world's most populous market, with the partners then seizing the know-how for themselves. Like Wang, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not mention Trump by name, but there was little doubt about whom he meant when he denounced leaders who make "loud statements" that pursue "self-serving unilateral approaches." - 'Brute force' - "These powers do not hesitate to use any methods including political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force," Lavrov told the assembly. Lavrov lamented that "attacks" were being launched against the Middle East peace process, the Iran nuclear deal, trade agreements under the World Trade Organization and the Paris climate accord. "We are observing an onslaught of belligerent revisionism against the modern system of international law," he said. Relations between Western powers and Russia have been tense over the war in Syria, where Moscow is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Lavrov said the international community and UN agencies must make the return of refugees to Syria "a priority" as Russia pushes for reconstruction aid for its ally. Russia and the United States are at odds over the Iran nuclear deal, although key US allies France and Britain have also vowed to defend the agreement that Trump ditched in May. Relations with Germany -- another key ally which is a signatory to the Iran accord -- have also been strained in recent months. In his speech to the chamber, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also took an apparent swipe at Trump's "America First" foreign policy. The United Nations "thrives on our common pledge of 'together first'," said Maas, whose center-left Social Democratic Party is a junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition. (Photo: POOL New / Reuters) Senator Dianne Feinstein used her opening remarks at Thursdays hearing into sexual assault accusations against Brett Kavanaugh to remind the committee of the accusers pedigree. The senator explained how Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused the Supreme Court nominee of sexual assault in high school, has four degrees including a doctorate from the University of Southern California and has published more than 65 peer-reviewed articles. Feinstein concluded by saying Blasey is also a wife and a mother of two sons. The subtext of the senators flattering remarks was clear: Blaseys degrees and, by extension, her socioeconomic background, should make her a credible accuser. But in reality, many sexual assault survivors are nothing like Blasey. And because many of them are minorities from low-income backgrounds, their accusations are not taken seriously. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) delivers her remarks before Christine Blasey Ford's testimony Thursday. (Photo: POOL New / Reuters) Regardless of her privileged background, theres no doubt that Blasey has gone through one of the hardest days of her life. She was interrogated on national television about her most painful memories, without being given the due process of a full investigation. But the fact that she appeared at a hearing in the first place, that her allegations were taken seriously enough to potentially derail Kavanaughs nomination, has a lot to do with her being the right kind of accuser. Blasey is an upper-middle class woman with a prestigious job and a sparkling education. She is an extremely articulate psychologist who, throughout the hearing, proved she understands the science of trauma better than most people in the room. She also looks and acts the part of someone whom Republican members of the committee 11 male senators would deem credible. She has been married to her husband for 16 years and grew up in an affluent Washington, D.C., suburb. She is a white, blonde woman dressed in a blue blazer. In her testimony, she was apologetic, deferential and polite, even telling the committee she is used to being collegial. Story continues But many sexual assault survivors are not from a privileged sphere. Though experts note that sexual violence data is incomplete because so many victims dont report, a recent study found that 44 percent of sexual assault reports are made by people with incomes of less than $25,000 a year even though this demographic makes up only 22 percent of all households. Offenders are known to prey on marginalized victims because they have fewer resources and are more likely to be dismissed by lawyers and police. One-third of Native American women have been sexually assaulted, compared to the national statistic of 1 in 6 women, and a recent poll by National Public Radio found that Native American victims are afraid to report the incidents because they fear discrimination. Sex workers experience one of the highest levels of sexual assault between 45 to 75 percent are victims of physical or sexual violence, according to one study but the crimes are often dismissed by authorities as a job hazard. The rate is even higher for transgender sex workers. The most vulnerable victims, those who are most in need of protection, are the least likely to be believed. Lisalyn Jacobs, a steering committee member for the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, says low-income victims might not report their assaults because they dont trust the legal system to take them seriously. [They think], I present as this poor person. Who is going to find me credible and worthwhile? Jacobs says. I think that is definitely a reality that low-income women struggle with. Linda Williams, co-director of the Justice and Gender Based Violence Research Initiative at the Wellesley Centers for Women, says that lawyers can be more hesitant to take on the cases of marginalized victims. She says prosecutors might think, I can only take cases forward that I think are going to be winnable. And the jury is going to be less likely to believe a woman who is poor and homeless and not well-spoken, or who maybe wont show up for the trial. While powerful accusers such as Ashley Judd and Gretchen Carlson have helped take down their high-profile abusers, the multiple black women and girls who have accused R. Kelly of statutory rape and abuse over the past few decades have not managed to derail his career to the same extent. Critics of Me Too have pointed out how the movement has amplified the experiences of rich white women, while forgetting about the domestic workers, restaurant workers and farmworkers who are often low-income people of color. And Anita Hill, the black woman who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, was vilified and isolated to a greater degree than Blasey was because of her race. Anita Hill was deemed less credible as a woman of color, says Jacobs. She was a lawyer and is now an academic. There is no doubt that today is historic. Its momentous and heartbreaking to watch any woman talk about her trauma in front of a national audience. But its worth remembering that Blasey is not the average sexual assault accuser and that if it werent for her privileged background, she might not have been given a seat in todays hearing. If someone came forward who was a housekeeper in a hotel where an individual had stayed and they were a person of color or an immigrant, would it have even gotten this far? said Williams. I think likely not. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Oxygen When Doug Benefield met a beautiful ballerina 30 years his junior he thought he had found his ideal match, but the whirlwind romance would end in deadly pas de deux for the pair. He was her mark, Dougs cousin, Tommie Benefield, told People. She took his money, his peace, and eventually she took his life. And he loved her until the end. Doug was shot to death Sept. 27, 2020 after he had gone to the Florida home of his estranged wife, Ashley Benefield, during a custody battle for the couple For some conservatives, Christine Blasey Fords admission that she frequently travels by airplane despite a professed fear of flying raised questions about her trustworthiness. But one expert on fear of flying said that is not an uncommon practice. The topic came up as Ford was being questioned by Rachel Mitchell, a prosecutor hired by Senate Republicans to question Ford. Ford, who alleges that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were both in high school, had earlier sought to delay her testimony ostensibly due to her fear of flying. But she said Thursday that she ended up flying to Washington, D.C., to testify. She said she had initially hoped the hearings could take place in California, but realized that it was an unrealistic request. I eventually was able to get up the gumption with the help of some friends and get on the plane, said Ford. Kavanaugh denies Fords allegation against him, as well as those of several other women. Mitchell then asked about Fords other travel history, including trips to far-flung destinations like Hawaii and Costa Rica. Ford said she did travel to such locations by plane, adding that its easier for me to travel going that direction when its a vacation. It wasnt long until those who continue to support Kavanaugh jumped on Fords testimony about her trips in an attempt to discredit her. Donald Trump Jr., the Presidents son, said that it does seem weird to me that someone could have a selective fear of flying. Im no psychology professor but it does seem weird to me that someone could have a selective fear of flying. Cant do it to testify but for vacation, well its not a problem at all. Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 27, 2018 But flying on an airplane despite having flight anxiety is a common practice, according to Tom Bunn, a former airline captain whos now a licensed therapist. Bunn, who works with those afraid to fly through a program called SOAR, said that one in three people have a fear of flying. Of that third, half are willing to fly, while half are not. Of the people who come to him for help, very few outright refuse to fly when doing so is clearly necessary, he says. Story continues Most of the people who contact me to get help with fear of flying still occasionally fly or have to fly for business, Bunn tells TIME. Its only a minority of people who contact me who have quit flying completely. Fear of flying, Bunn says, often stems from a perceived lack of control. I would imagine she had a tough time on the flight, he says. The issue people have with flying is they cant get out of the plane. They cant escape. Bunn said traumatic episodes often serve as the root of a given persons fear of flying, and can prevent them from getting on a plane. But when life events arise that necessitate flying business trips, family reunions, vacations some people are able to temporarily overcome their phobia through a variety of methods. For others, the panic induced by flying is too much to handle, and they avoid air travel at all costs. There are lots of techniques people use, Bunn says. Some people take Xanax, Ativan or something like that to fly. Some people feel theyre going to have a panic attack and if they bring someone with them that gives confidence to them that can help also. Copenhagen (AFP) - Hundreds of Danish police officers and soldiers launched a massive manhunt on Friday, suspending ferries and shutting down the Oresund Bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden, authorities said. Road and rail traffic on the bridge, the setting of the popular Nordic noir series "The Bridge", was cut off around 1200 GMT in both directions between Copenhagen and Sweden's third-largest city Malmo. The Copenhagen police said in a statement that they were looking for a Sweden-registered Volvo carrying three people "connected to serious crimes". Ferry traffic to Sweden and Germany was interrupted and the Great Baelt Bridge between the large Danish islands of Sjaelland and Fyn was also closed. Both bridges were reopened around 1400 GMT as thousands of travellers were stranded in train stations, tunnels and on roads around Copenhagen. Maritime traffic was slowly recovering and some trains linking western Denmark to Copenhagen skipped some stops to catch up, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. "I spent 41 years in the Danish police, I have never seen such a big action taken before," Hans Jorgen Bonnichsen, the former head of operations at the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), told local media. Dublin city centre, Ireland. Photo: Getty This time 10 years ago during the onset of the credit crisis, it was already far too late. Though the Irish government was about two days out from committing what one expert would later call the most destructive own goal in history, everything had already been set in motion. That own goal was the Irish bank guarantee, a blanket commitment that covered six institutions, including the states three biggest banks. It was a blanket guarantee because it underwrote almost everythingoutstanding liabilities, such as deposits, loans, and all types of bonds, would be paid in full by the Irish government, no matter what occurred as the banking crisis continued to unfurl. Lehman Brothers had collapsed just two weeks prior. At the time, it was thought that the government of a small peripheral country on the edge of Europe with a population of less than 5 million people could technically be left footing the bill for up to 440bn (390bn) in liabilities. Though it was intended to prevent a collapse of the Irish banking system, a decade later, pretty much everyone agreed that it was a very bad movea singularly fateful decision that, to a large extent, preordained the 2010 bailout of the country. It should have been introduced with much more forethought, but it was made necessary by the fact that the Irish government at the time had utterly and completely mismanaged the early stages of the financial crisis, said Constantin Gurdgiev, an adjunct professor of finance at Trinity College Dublin, to Yahoo Finance UK. READ MORE: The five best performing asset classes since the collapse of Lehman Brothers The 280-word guarantee had few stipulations. It was not contingent on reform in the Irish banks, for instance. But the biggest criticism of the move centres around the decision to guarantee Anglo Irish Bank, a non-systemic institution that dealt almost entirely with business and commercial borrowings. It was non-systemic because its collapse would not have had the same effect as a breakdown of the two main retail banks, Bank of Ireland and AIB. Story continues They should have closed Anglo there and then by moving deposits out and shutting everything else down. That didnt happen, said Gurdgiev. Anglo would later be nationalised by the Irish government, and, in 2011, was forced to wind down anyway. It would take a few daysand in some cases, weeks, months, and yearsfor the most censorious criticism of the decision to emerge. But it was almost immediately denounced by Irelands European neighbours. Britain felt that the unilateral move undercut its own banks, since Ireland was now one of the safest places in the world to house your money. It was also a massive dumping of risk onto everyone else, Gurdgiev notes. For all their failings, leaders in other European countries would have been well aware of the almost unlimited downsides of something like a blanket guarantee. For one thing, it put them under pressure to offer similar levels of security to borrowers in their own countries. But it was also a kind of canary in a coal mine, because it exposed the structural weaknesses in the European banking system. Nobody likes that, Gurdgiev said. But the fact is that the European banking system had no other defensive measures to offer Ireland. The lessons from the bank guarantee are now detached from Ireland, Gurdgiev suggests. They have more to do with the structure of the European monetary union, the lack of enforcement of regulations of the banking sector, and the lack of will and capacity to address the kinds of issues that were exposed by the crisis. Have those lessons been learned? Not according to Gurdgiev. There hasnt been enough change in policy or a change in rank that would give us any confidence that were not going to end up one night, in some not-too-distant future, with another disaster like the bank guarantee, he surmises. The divide between Democrats and Republicans on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh deepened Wednesday as senators faced a third allegation involving sexual misconduct. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and all 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee called for Kavanaugh to withdraw his nomination on the same day that Julie Swetnick said in a sworn statement that he was present at a party in which she was gang raped. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the claim, calling it ridiculous, but Democrats expressed doubts. The standard of character and fitness for a position on the nations highest court must be higher than this, the committees Democrats wrote in a letter to President Donald Trump. Judge Kavanaugh has staunchly declared his respect for women and issued blanket denials of any possible misconduct, but those declarations are in serious doubt. The claim came days after California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that as a teen-ager Kavanaugh held her down, put his hand over her mouth and tried to remove her clothing at a house party and Yale student Debbie Ramirez alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party in college. But while Democrats said the allegations raised serious questions about Kavanaugh, Republicans were raising doubts about the lawyer who brought Swetnicks claim forward. Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan was dubious about the claim because she is represented by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, who Trump paid hush money to during the 2016 election, who has stated that he may run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Im a huge believer that everyone have the right to be heard on every accusation like that, [but] Im certainly not very trustworthy of that lawyer, he said. Senator Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, was more explicit. From my view, just when you thought it couldnt get any worse, it just did. The lawyer to porn stars has just taken this debacle to an even lower level. I hope people will be highly suspicious of this allegation presented by Michael Avenatti, he said in a series of tweets that was promoted by the White House. I have a difficult time believing any person would continue to go to according to the affidavit ten parties over a two-year period where women were routinely gang raped and not report it. Story continues I very much believe in allowing people to be heard, Graham concluded. But I am not going to be played, and Im not going to have my intelligence insulted by the Michael Avenattis of the world. Democrats also took issue with the fact that Grassley had already scheduled a tentative committee vote for Kavanaugh on Friday, despite the fact that there are no plans at the moment for the committee to hear testimony from Swetnick or Ramirez, both of whom have said they would be willing to testify. Theres no way that we can vote on this nomination Friday in good conscience, said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who called Swetnicks allegations gut-wrenching. What [these allegations] portray is a pattern of vile, predatory sexual attacks. Theres no way that the United States Senate should vote on this nomination without a full fledged investigation. Blumenthal argued that there should be another hearing after an FBI investigation. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the committee, said that Thursdays hearing was still scheduled to take place, arguing that cancelling it would be unfair to Ford. But he did not rule out the possibility of additional hearings. Ill let you know Thursday night, he told reporters. Even if there are no additional hearings and Republicans hold a vote on Friday, its unclear if they will have the numbers to confirm Kavanaugh. With a razor-thin Senate majority the current composition of the chamber is 51-49 Republicans can only afford one defection assuming the Democratic caucus holds together. (In that case, Vice President Pence would break the tie.) The Senators deemed most likely to break with their party are Alaskas Lisa Murkowski, Maines Susan Collins, Arizonas Jeff Flake and possibly Tennesees Bob Corker. Murkowski did not weigh in with a public statement Thursday; Collins told CNN that the allegations should be investigated by the committee and that she takes them very seriously; Corker told reporters Wednesday morning he did not know enough about the latest allegations to comment. Flake made the most public pronouncement of the possible swing votes. In a closely watched speech on the Senate floor, he said he would decide how to vote after Thursdays testimony, but lamented that the biggest revelation from the entire process was the brokenness of the political system. However this vote goes I am confident in saying it will forever be steeped in doubt, said Flake. This doubt is the only thing about which I am confident about the process. Actors who nearly played the Doctor: Hugh Grant I was offered the role of the Doctor a few years back and was highly flattered, said Grant in 2007, referring to the approach he received to get him to play the Ninth Doctor, the role eventually taken by Christopher Eccleston. The danger with those things is that its only when you see it on screen that you think, Damn, that was good, why did I say no? But then, knowing me, Id probably make a mess of it. (Reuters) The lead role in Doctor Who is arguably the biggest part in British television and whoever is chosen to play the character always causes a storm of debate over their suitability. The shows producers gave the show its key to eternal life in 1966 when they replaced William Hartnell with Patrick Troughton, through a Time Lord practice called regeneration. Jodie Whittaker is the 13th (official) incarnation of the beloved Time Lord, but many actors have narrowly missed landing the role in the past. Here are eleven performers who came close to holding the sonic screwdriver without actually getting to walk into the TARDIS as an official Doctor. How good do you think theyd have been? Read more Bradley Walsh joins Doctor Who as companion Peter Capaldi on his emotional final episode The best Doctor Who episodes of the modern era Everything we still dont know about Brexit (Picture: Getty) The majority of the UK public voted to leave the EU on 23 June 2016, triggering the start of the Brexit process. Almost a year later on 29 March 2017, Theresa May formally triggered Article 50, beginning the two-year countdown to the UK leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019. The UK government and European Union need to have a withdrawal agreement in place before this date, or there will be a no-deal Brexit. Despite the rapidly dwindling timeframe, there are a number of unanswered questions concerning Brexit. How long will Brexit take? Article 50, the technical process by which an EU Member State can leave the EU, stipulates that EU treaties no longer apply to a member once it enters into a withdrawal agreement or after two years whichever occurs first. That means that the UK has to leave the EU by 11pm on March 29th, 2019 two years after the Prime Minister delivered the notice of withdrawal. That date is included in the draft Withdrawal Agreement between Britain and the EU. However, its not that simple. Negotiations could be extended beyond March 29th 2019 if there is a unanimous decision by Britain and all the members of the EU27. Negotiators could also agree to set a different start date for the Withdrawal Agreement, but it would have to be endorsed by the European Parliament (EP) and a qualified majority of the other 27 EU Member States (20 of the EU27). However, that all depends on whether the UK asks for more time and whether the EU would grant an extension. Regardless of the date, most commentators think that the entire Brexit and post-Brexit process could take years even decades. Nobody knows quite how long the Brexit process will take (Picture: Getty) Can Article 50 be reversed? Article 50 is the official five-point plan for when a country wants to leave the EU. Triggering Article 50 meant the UK could no longer take part in the discussions of the European Council or in decisions concerning it, though it can carry on taking part in other EU business. If the UK were to change its mind, Article 50 would somehow have to be revoked. Story continues The Government has repeatedly said that it will not revoke Article 50, even if no withdrawal agreement is reached. Ultimately, it would be for the Court of Justice of the EU to decide whether it could happen. Article 68 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) provides for the overturning of a notice of withdrawal in certain circumstances. However it is not clear whether if there is a basis for its application in the case of Brexit. It is not known for sure whether the Government has taken legal advice on the question of revocability, but there have been reports that it did receive legal advice stating that Article 50 can be withdrawn. Meaningful vote David Davis pledged to hold the meaningful vote when he was Brexit Secretary (Picture: PA) Will there be another vote? We do know that there will be a Meaningful Vote in the House of Commons on Brexit. That is a vote by MPs on the final Withdrawal Agreement something David Davis promised would happen in a written statement while he was Brexit secretary. If Theresa May secures a deal, a resolution will be put before Parliament outlining the terms, and MPs and Lords will both vote on it. The resolution will outline the withdrawal agreement and and a declaration about with the UKs future relationship with the EU will be. The vote will be held as soon as possible after negotiations are concluded. We do not yet know what the wording of the resolution will be, or whether MPs will be able to amend it before they vote. It is also not clear what Parliaments role would be if a deal is rejected. Outside of the Houses of Parliament, increasingly vehement campaigns are calling for another referendum, often referred to as a Peoples Vote. It is not clear what the options on the ballot paper would be, but it has been suggested that the options could be Theresa Mays deal, no deal, and remaining in the EU. The Conservatives have ruled out holding another Brexit vote, but Labour has officially said that they consider the option to still be on the table. What will be the economic impact of Brexit? Nobody really knows what the economic impact of Brexit will be, mainly because we still dont know what the trade arrangements between the UK and the EU will be in the future. If theres a transition or implementation period, trade relationships will remain more or less the same during the time. The UK and the EU will keep access to one anothers markets in the same way they do now, with time to work out future trade deals during the temporary transition. However, they still need to find a compromise on the basic principles, otherwise the UK could end up leaving in a no-deal Brexit. The International Monetary Fund has warned that a no-deal Brexit on World Trade Organization terms would entail substantial costs for the UK economy, though it said it expected Britains economy to grow by 1.5% in both 2018 and 2019 if a broad Brexit agreement is struck. Many Remainers argue leaving the EU would leave the UK economically worse off, while the Leave side insists leaving will reduce contributions to the EU and allow for more cash to be spent within the UK. But despite the speculation, nobody really knows the economic effect that Brexit will have on the UK especially without its final form agreed. Unknown Theresa May and the EU cant agree on the backstop question surrounding Northern Ireland (Picture: Reuters) What about Northern Ireland? Northern Ireland is one of the biggest Brexit unknowns. Theresa May has committed to avoiding a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and has said that no new physical infrastructure must be added along the border. However she has also committed to leaving the Customs Union, which allows goods to pass over the border without the need for checks. The PM has also repeated that she will not tolerate a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Reconciling these elements is proving one of the most complex elements of the negotiations. The UK Government says that its proposal a common rulebook for goods and Facilitated Customs Arrangement (FCA) removes the need for checks along the border, but the EU has rejected the idea outright, without suggesting an alternative. Until an arrangement can be agreed with regard to trading goods, it is not clear what the Northern Irish border will look like. WASHINGTON Everything was going according to plan, at least for Republicans. It was Friday, the lunch hour, and almost time to vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. Given the political division on the committee, there was little doubt that Republicans would advance his nomination to the full Senate. Since they control that chamber, albeit narrowly, they would likely confirm him early next week. All morning, the senators spoke: Republicans denouncing the smear campaign against Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault by several women, and Democrats arguing that Kavanaugh was unfit to serve on the high court. But the speeches were largely for show, and while some made for good tweets, they probably persuaded no one in the room, where opinions were as fixed as the dome of the U.S. Capitol. The last Democrat to speak was Sen. Cory Booker. Known for his fondness for orotund liberal rhetoric, he launched into a speech that praised committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, while decrying the process that had brought Kavanaugh to the very steps of the Supreme Court. As Booker kept talking, the seats around him emptied until he was the only Democrat left seated. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., speaks during the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Friday, Sept. 28, 2018, suggesting a brief delay in the Senate vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP) It is not abnormal for senators to get up in the middle of testimony, but within minutes, it became clear that something extraordinary was afoot. The Democrats were huddled in an anteroom, behind a wall of mirrored glass, where they were joined by some Republicans. Booker finished, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., gave an extended speech of his own. But it was obvious that he was filibustering and that the real action was taking place out of sight. Senators returned from the anteroom, whispered with aides, checked phones. Democrats smiled. A few Republicans frowned. Reporters whispered. Rumors flew. Tweets offered tantalizing hints of intrigue. And cameras furiously clicked away, trying to capture the scene behind closed doors, in an anteroom where a historic, dramatic negotiation was taking place. Story continues When that negotiation was over, the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh found itself imperiled by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who said he would not vote to confirm Kavanaugh in the full Senate unless the FBI investigated the sexual assault allegations against the 53-year-old D.C. circuit court judge. On Friday afternoon, GOP leaders agreed to delay the vote by one week and ask for a supplemental FBI investigation. According to a statement by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the FBIs supplemental investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today. President Trump agreed to the delay. Ive ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaughs file, the president said in a statement Friday afternoon. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week. Flakes change of heart came after having declared earlier Friday that he would support Kavanaugh. Fridays vote followed dramatic testimony on Thursday by Christine Blasey Ford, a Northern California psychology professor who said Kavanaugh attempted to rape her at a house party in suburban Washington 36 years ago. She told the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath that she was certain her assailant was Kavanaugh. Supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27, 2018. (Photo: Tom Williams/Pool/Reuters) Kavanaugh followed Ford, lashing out at Democratic members of the committee, offering forceful denials of sexual misconduct and casting the accusations against him as nothing more than political retribution. While some were alarmed by Kavanaughs emotional performance, it seemed to win over all of the committees Republicans. President Trump, too, was said to be pleased with the testimony. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate, as was expected. Flake was among the 11 Republicans who voted for the judge. That also was expected. The surprise was the last-minute condition Flake attached to his yes vote. After returning from the anteroom where hed been huddling for the better part of an hour, Flake who is retiring from the Senate later this year addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee. His voice shook as he said the nation was being ripped apart by the political and cultural issues that have been brought to the fore by the Kavanaugh nomination, which is Trumps second pick for the Supreme Court. I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to, but not more than, one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation limited in time and scope, he said. Flake said he would only support such an investigation if it were conducted within a week. Lisa Murkowski, another moderate Republican, reportedly spoke with Flake about the proposal and supported it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could have brought Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate without the support of Flake and Murkowski, but he would not have had the votes to confirm Kavanaugh, since no Democrats have said they will vote for the nominee. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has not said how she will vote. She has been under intense pressure from liberal activists to vote against Kavanaugh. Republicans had strongly resisted an FBI investigation into the allegations against the nominee. Kavanaugh also refused to endorse it, most notably when Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois asked the nominee whether he thought personally that an FBI investigation was the best thing for us to do. Republicans have charged that an FBI investigation would unearth nothing new about decades-old allegations and that calls for such an inquest are merely a delay tactic by Democrats. Now, however, they will have no choice. Nor will President Trump, who had been hoping to get the Kavanaugh nomination out of the way as the midterm congressional election nears. Speaking in the Oval Office earlier on Friday, he seemed resigned to an FBI investigation. I just want it to work out well for the country, the president said of his controversial nominee. If that happens, Im happy. Some observers speculated that Flake had been rattled by an encounter with a sexual assault survivor earlier Friday morning as he boarded an elevator in a Senate building. The woman, later identified as Ana Maria Archila, tearfully told Flake, What youre doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them. It is not clear whether the encounter with Archila made Flake rethink his position. But something shook his confidence, and now Brett Kavanaughs seemingly certain ascent to the Supreme Court is uncertain once again. _____ More Yahoo News stories on the Supreme Court: Cairo (AFP) - Five Egyptian fishermen detained in breakaway northern Cyprus have been freed, Egypt's foreign ministry said Friday, after diplomatic protests against their arrest by Turkish forces. A court in the northern city of Kyrenia fined the five fishermen 500 euros each and allowed them to leave with their boat, Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement. The Greek-Cypriot company that owns the boat paid the fines, the ministry added. The boat is scheduled to arrive at the southern port of Limassol in the Republic of Cyprus on Saturday, the statement said. Personnel on board a Turkish military vessel arrested the five fishermen on September 21 and towed their boat to Kyrenia, the Cyprus News Agency said, citing the boat owner. Turkish Cypriot media said the fishermen were arrested for straying into Turkish-controlled waters, 14 kilometres off the island's north coast. The Cypriot government said it had protested to the United Nations over the detention of the Cypriot flagged vessel and its crew. Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-sponsored military coup seeking to unite the Mediterranean island with Greece. Turkey is the only country to recognise the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, while the rest of the island is a European Union member state. Turkey has long maintained as many as 35,000 troops in the breakaway north although the military does not give official figures. Bogota (AFP) - Venezuela's migrant crisis is costing neighboring Colombia about 0.5 percent of GDP -- or around $1.3 billion -- its President Ivan Duque said Friday after talks with a top World Bank official. Duque said Colombia would continue its "open arms" policy towards migrants from its crisis-worn neighbor but the economic and social costs on his country had to be evaluated. "The economic impact that the migration crisis may have can be of the order of 0.5 percent of GDP and obviously we want ot look at how that is reflected in health, in education, in infrastructure, in many public assets," the president said. Duque was speaking after talks in Bogota with the World Bank's vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jorge Familiar. Familiar said the bank would deliver a detailed report on the social impact of the crisis on Colombia in a few weeks. Duque said it would "serve to guide" his government in dealing with the crisis. The UN says 2.3 million Venezuelans are living outside the country, with 1.6 million having fled since 2015. An estimated 90 percent have fled to other Latin American countries. Colombia has taken in more than a million Venezuelans. Familiar praised Colombia's leadership in the migration crisis, but said "this is a regional issue that will require a regional response." Duque's administration, like that of his predecessor Juan Manuel Santos, has branded Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a dictator. Oil income-dependent Venezuela's economic woes began in 2014 with the crash in the price of crude. Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Seven Palestinians, including two boys aged 12 and 14, were killed in clashes with Israeli forces along the Gaza border Friday, the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled strip said. Nasser Mosabih, 12, was shot in the head in clashes along the frontier east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP, on what was one of the bloodiest days since protests began on March 30. Fourteen-year-old Mohammed al-Houm, was shot dead "by live ammunition from the (Israeli) occupation forces" east of Al-Bureij in central Gaza, Qudra said. Five adult men were also killed in widespread clashes along the border, with a further 210 people hospitalised, the spokesman added. The Israeli army said some 20,000 "rioters" had gathered at multiple sites along the border. It said the protestors hurled "grenades and explosive devices in several different locations". It said troops were firing "in accordance with standard operating procedures." The army declined to comment on the reported deaths. Palestinians have been protesting at least weekly along the Gaza border since March. At least 194 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in that time, the majority during border protests. Smaller numbers have been hit by airstrikes or tank fire. One Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper. The protests are demanding the right of Palestinian refugees to be allowed to homes their families fled from in the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel and which are now in Israel. Israel says any such mass return would mean the end of it as a Jewish state and accuses Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas of orchestrating the protests. Friday's protests were bigger than those in recent weeks. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Germany announced Friday it would provide the UN's cash-strapped refugee agency with an extra $135 million in funds to help cope with the massive outpouring of Syrians into neighboring Arab countries. In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said it was "shameful" that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was running short of cash to aid the millions of Syrians who have fled war in their homeland and called on other wealthy countries to step up to the plate. "As the second-largest humanitarian donor, Germany is willing to provide UNHCR with a further 116 million euros ($135 million) -- that is half of the amount currently needed -- to help Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon," Maas said. "But others also need to step up. After all, the Charter talks about 'we the peoples'," he said in reference to the UN's founding treaty. Syrians accounted for a significant proportion of the hundreds of thousands of migrants that Germany has accepted across its border since 2015 -- an influx which has weakened Chancellor Angela Merkel politically and split the European Union. With immigration becoming an increasingly toxic issue in Germany, Merkel's government has since repeatedly tightened immigration and asylum laws. According to the UN, around 5.6 million Syrians are living outside the country as refugees as a result of a devastating seven-year war. The foreign minister's speech to the body also included several thinly-veiled rebukes to US President Donald Trump's "America First" foreign policy. The United Nations "thrives on our common pledge of 'together first'," said Maas whose center-left Social Democratic Party is a junior partner in Merkel's coalition. Speaking of climate change, Maas also criticized governments who put "my country first" as he restated Germany's commitment to the internationally-backed Paris agreement to combat global warming that Trump has decided to quit. Wales manager Ryan Giggs during the UEFA Nations League B group four match between Denmark and Wales at on September 9, 2018 in Aarhus, Denmark. (Photo by Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs has left Manchester United out of his prediction of Premier League contenders. Liverpool are top of the league with 18 points from six games, while United are in seventh with just 10 points from the same number of games. Speaking to Sky Sports, Giggs believed that Liverpool and Manchester City were the pre-eminent challengers. READ MORE: Robertson lifts lid on assist battle with Alexander-Arnold READ MORE: Grealish reveals disappointment over failed Spurs move READ MORE: Shaqiri surprised by substitution but Klopp denies row It looks like a case of Manchester City v Liverpool for the title, although you cant dismiss Chelsea because theyre playing well, Giggs said. Remember just two years ago they were the champions and theyve got players in that dressing room who know what it takes Liverpool havent got that, but youve got to start somewhere and Liverpool have been impressive. As for Man City, I watched them against Lyon and you think something might be wrong and then they go and put on a show against Cardiff. So Id say it was between those two but you cant discount Chelsea. Id still just give Manchester City the edge purely because Pep Guardiola usually wins second season after winning the league and theyve got players whove been there and done it. There is a chance for Manchester City go top if they win their game against Brighton on Saturday afternoon, assuming Liverpool fail to win their match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge that evening. Heres a look at some of the companies the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you today. Googles CEO is set to defend himself and the search giant on Capitol Hill. Sundar Pichai is sitting down with Congressional Republicans today behind closed doors. They have questions about search results theyve called biased and how the company handles data collected from customers. Two weeks ago Pichai was notably absent when Facebooks Sheryl Sandberg and Twitters Jack Dorsey gave public testimony before lawmakers. Eli Lilly has been given the green light for a new migraine drug and its going to be free at least for the first year. The FDA signed off on the medication, part of a new class of drugs amid steep competition. Lilly plans to price the drug at about $7K a year once the free trial runs out. Another big military deal for Boeing. The aerospace giant has won a $9.2B dollar contract to build the next generation of Air Force training jets. Once again, it beat out competitor Lockheed Martin. The contract calls for some 350 jets and 46 simulators. The first one wont be delivered until 2023. A change in the C-suite at JCPenney. The department store chains finance chief is leaving effective Monday. Jeffrey Davis is the third top executive to leave JCPenney this year. CEO Marvin Ellison quit back in May to take the top job at Lowes. The company didnt say where Davis is going, only that hes pursuing another job. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are heading to trial over claims they stifled competition. A judge rejected arguments from the investment banks, along with Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and UBS, who tried to throw the suit out. The plaintiffs say the banks tried to keep the stock lending market in the stone age by rejecting newer ways to execute loans. (Photo: MELINA MARA via Getty Images) In response to student protests over the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee and Harvard Law School visiting lecturer Brett Kavanaugh, John F. Manning, dean of the law school, sent an email to students with an assurance: Should any concerns arise about individuals in our teaching program, the school will take them seriously. Whether Kavanaugh will continue teaching, Manning wouldnt say. While the dean of Yale Law School Kavanaughs alma mater has already joined the American Bar Association in calling for an FBI investigation into the allegations, Harvard has yet to make any such statements. The schools students, however, have been notably more outspoken, with The Harvard Crimson reporting that hundreds of law school students walked out of class during Thursdays Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in a show of support for Kavanaughs accusers. According to several Law School enrollees, wrote the schools paper, students sitting in Harvard Law classrooms Thursday applauded and burst out in cheers when Kavanaugh said he might never return to a teaching role. At 2:41 p.m. local time Friday, Manning sent the email below to Harvard Law students: (Photo: Email from Dean John Manning to Harvard Law students) The letter reads: Dear HLS Students, These have been painful, difficult times for our nation and our community. The Supreme Court confirmation fight has brought into sharp focus questions about sexual assault, fair process, fitness and character for high office, the integrity of the political process, and more. I appreciate the many students who have spoken out and expressed views on these critical issues. There is an immediate reason I write you today. A number of you have written to me to express concerns about Judge Kavanaughs teaching in the Winter Term 2019. Though the course is not scheduled to meet for several months, I understand and respect the urgency you have for an answer now. I have written to dozens of you individually. I know that many of you are unsatisfied with the answer that we cannot comment on personnel matters in particular cases. But, as I have said, this policy serves important purposes even in stressful times. Still, I can provide you this assurance: When concerns and allegations arise about individuals in our teaching program, we take those concerns and allegations seriously, conduct necessary inquiries, complete our process, and then act. All best, John M. Story continues In response to a question about what, exactly, necessary inquiries means, Harvard Law spokesperson Robb London told HuffPost, The Dean sent the message to students this afternoon. We arent commenting about process or any other aspect of whats included in the message, because of our policy to not comment on personnel matters. Were you ever in one of Brett Kavanaughs classes? Email ashley.feinberg@huffpost.com. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee will vote on Friday on whether to release dozens of transcripts of interviews from its investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, including conversations with senior associates of President Donald Trump. The House Intelligence Committee is expected to agree to send transcripts of the 53 interviews to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for review before they are made public, congressional aides said on Thursday. That would pave the way for the public to see thousands of pages of conversations with people including the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Interviews with officials from former President Barack Obama's administration, including former National Security Adviser Susan Rice and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power are also among the transcripts. The transcripts are likely to provide the first public look at how some key witnesses described events such as a June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower in New York at which a group of Russians offered to provide damaging information about Trump's Democratic rival at the election, Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. and Kushner were among attendees at the meeting with Nataliya Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with Kremlin ties. Trump's fellow Republicans, who hold majorities in Congress and control the committee, announced in March that the panel's investigation was over and they had found no evidence of collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow's efforts to influence U.S. politics. Trump has repeatedly denied collusion with Russia. Moscow denies meddling in the 2016 U.S. campaign, but U.S. intelligence agencies found that it did so in order to boost Trump. Committee Democrats disagreed with the Republicans' conclusion and vowed to continue the probe. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alistair Bell) Tehran (AFP) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday dismissed Israeli claims that Tehran was harbouring a secret atomic warehouse. "No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons programme," Zarif said in a tweet. He called on Israel saying it was "time to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons" programme to international inspectors. "How can Israel, as the only holder of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, so shamelessly accuse a country whose programmes have repeatedly been declared as peaceful by the IAEA," the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying. He said Israel and the United States stood "alone" on the world stage, as "policies forced by Netanyahu on America" had driven them both to isolation. Zarif was responding to allegations made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in a speech to the UN General Assembly, embellished by ample use of the colourful props that have become his trademark. Netanyahu held up a map and a photograph of an outwardly "innocent looking compound" which he said was a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran and urged the IAEA to inspect. "Today, I'm disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran's secret nuclear weapons programme," he said. Israel, along with Saudi Arabia and its allies, are the main supporters of US President Donald Trump's abandonment of a landmark 2015 nuclear accord between the major powers and Iran. The move, announced in May and accompanied by the subsequent reimposition of crippling US sanctions, has put Washington at odds with other major powers, including longstanding allies. Arbil (Iraq) (AFP) - A year ago, the roads of Iraqi Kurdistan were decked out with green, red and white Kurdish flags as the region voted overwhelmingly for independence from Baghdad. Today, the election posters lining the streets of regional capital Arbil ahead of Sunday's parliamentary vote are simply an annoyance to many Kurdish voters, angry at their leadership and the economic crisis deepened by the September 2017 poll. "They are spending crazy money on printing campaign posters," said Abdullah Mohammed, a 69-year-old retiree. "But when people in need ask for help, they say there's a crisis and there's no money." Twelve months since a controversial referendum that sparked a punishing backlash from Baghdad, Iraq's divided Kurds will elect a regional parliament Sunday, their dreams of statehood shattered. "These elections don't interest me at all," Mohammed said, a black and white kuffiyeh scarf on his head. Last year's poll, held in defiance of the international community, sparked anger and a firm rejection from the Iraqi capital. It also deepened the divide between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of longtime regional leader Massud Barzani, who championed the referendum, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Less than three weeks after the vote, federal forces moved in to oust PUK forces that were controlling the disputed province of Kirkuk. The provincial governor, who had supported the KDP-backed referendum, took to the airwaves to call people to arms -- even as PUK forces withdrew without a fight. Iraqi President Fuad Masum, a PUK member, blamed the referendum for triggering the assault on Kirkuk, whose rich oil resources would have been essential to the survival of a Kurdish state. Barzani, who stepped down shortly after the poll, indirectly accused the PUK of "high treason" for withdrawing. The episode exposed the deep split between the two parties that dominate Kurdish politics. Story continues - KDP upbeat - Despite the backlash sparked by the referendum, the fact that three million Kurds voted for independence will have major implications for the election, according to Adel Bakawan, director general of the Kurdistan centre of sociology at Soran University near Arbil. "By portraying themselves as victims of an international and regional system that prevents the Kurds entering history by founding their state, the separatists are hoping to win back those votes," he said. The KDP has already reaped the rewards of its separatist stance, winning 25 seats in May elections to the Iraqi national parliament, making it the top party from the Kurdistan region, he said. Party officials are upbeat. "All the signs indicate that the KDP will dominate and win by a landslide" on Sunday, said Sobhi al-Mandalawi, a high-ranking party member in Arbil. The stranglehold the two heavyweights have over Kurdish politics means smaller parties are excluded from decision-making, Bakawan said. That has created distrust that could prompt record levels of abstention, he said. That will likely prolong the PDK's grip on power, according to Abdulrazaq Sharif of the Goran (Change) movement, set up in 2009 to challenge the monopoly of the two main parties, which it accuses of corruption. "Goran wants to see Kurds play a real role in the central government," he said. Wahid Kurdi, a 57-year-old former Peshmerga fighter from Arbil, said the regional government's key priority should be the wellbeing of "Kurds who are suffering in Kirkuk" and other disputed areas. "Once they're in parliament, MPs must not forget the disputed zones," he said. "They should work to bring them back inside the borders of Kurdistan." In the autonomous region's second city Sulaimaniyah, Ahmed Bashdari, 65, said he plans to vote -- "for those who don't put Kurdistan in danger" -- and urged leaders to rebuild the bridges damaged by the referendum. Leaders in Kurdistan and Baghdad "must make concessions so their conflicts stop damaging people's lives," he said. In 1999, Juanita Broaddrick said then-President Bill Clinton had raped her 20 years earlier. She received skeptical media attention at that time, and several polls found that the American public didnt believe her. Now, with the Me Too movement bringing greater scrutiny to bad men in politics, media and business and even ending their careers journalists have revisited Broaddricks story and found it more credible. Even Democratic voters now say they believe the sexual assault or harassment allegations against Clinton. For that, Broaddrick is glad. Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh quickly apologized to Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar after flipping a question of whether or not he had blacked out after drinking during his testimony on alleged sexual misconduct Thursday. After revealing that her 90-year-old father is a recovering alcoholic who still attends AA meetings, Klobuchar asked Kavanaugh if he had ever lost his memory from drinking, which Kavanaugh denied. Kavanaugh asks Sen Klobuchar multiple times if she's had alcoholic blackouts. pic.twitter.com/3huBRb2JEo Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 27, 2018 Youre saying theres never been a case where you drank so much that you didnt remember what happened the night before or part of what happened? Klobuchar asked. Kavanaugh would not answer the question and instead asked the senator if she had blacked out after drinking, If youre asking about blackout. I dont know, have you? he asked. Could you answer the question, judge? Klobuchar replied. So, thats not what happened, is that your answer? Yeah, and Im curious if you have. Kavanaugh asked the senator. Klobuchar told him: I have no drinking problem, judge. Kavanaugh replied, Nor do I. Following the tense exchange a short recess was taken and upon returning Kavanaugh took a moment to apologize to the senator. I was going to say, I started my last colloquy by saying to Senator Klobuchar how much I respect her and respected what she did at the last hearing, and she asked me a question at the end that I responded to by asking her a question, he said. Im sorry I did that. This is a tough process. Im sorry about that. Klobuchar told him she accepted his apology. I would like to add when you have a parent thats an alcoholic, youre pretty careful about drinking. Kavanaugh is in the midst of his hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee following Professor Christine Blasey Fords earlier testimony that claimed that, in the 1980s, Kavanaugh assaulted her during a house party, grinding on her as he attempted to remove her swimsuit and covering her mouth to conceal her screams. Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell. (Photo: Erin Schaff/pool via Reuters) For 11 rounds of questioning Thursday morning, Rachel Mitchell sat in front of the Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee and confronted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford for them. Soon after questioning resumed in the afternoon, with testimony from Judge Brett Kavanaugh, she was out of a job. Because Mitchell took on questioning Ford, not a single Republican senator asked Kavanaughs accuser a question, other than Chairman Chuck Grassley, who inquired about the witnesss comfort and scheduling matters. It was Mitchell, the Arizona prosecutor specializing in sex crimes, and not any Republican senator, who switched off with Democrats in five-minute segments that probed Fords story of sexual assault and scrutinized her efforts to navigate the political, legal and media currents of Washington into which she was cast, through no desire of her own. It was Mitchell who stoically withstood Fords searing testimony, which compounded emotional depth, authenticity, credibility and her extraordinary command of the science of memory as a professor of psychology. Mitchell also became a lightning rod for criticism by observers who believed Fords account. Later, when Fords testimony was concluded, Mitchell sat closest to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as he fumed and wept and floated politically-tinged conspiracy theories in his angry and emotional 45-minute opening statement. Mitchell took on the first two five-minute rounds of questions for Kavanaugh from the Republican side. Her line of inquiry appeared to fluster Kavanaugh more than it had done Ford, as she asked him to review a definition of sexual behavior, collected his denials of Fords story and pressed him on his drinking at specific events. But Kavanaugh did not have to endure Mitchells questioning for long. After two rounds, Republican senators, led by Lindsey Graham, reclaimed their time and rode to his rescue. What you want to do is destroy this guys life, hold this seat open, and win in 2020. This is the most unethical sham since Ive been in politics, Graham thundered at the Democrats on the committee, marking a stark contrast with Mitchells focused interrogation of Kavanaugh. Graham, and each Republican senator who followed him, apologized to Kavanaugh and his family, and used their time to direct partisan ire toward Democrats, who they accused of springing an unfair political trap on them and victimizing both Kavanaugh and Ford in the process. Story continues Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) The sudden shift in strategy appears to have been effective at reviving flagging Republican morale, although it poorly fit Grassleys call for civility at the beginning of the hearings. As Republicans transformed the hearing back into a more traditionally partisan affair, they exposed weaknesses in Democrats questioning. While Democrats did effectively draw out Kavanaughs refusal to call for an FBI investigation, something each of his named accusers have done, they did not take up Mitchells project of methodically quizzing Kavanaugh about his activities during the summer of 1982, when the alleged attack occurred. Committing Kavanaugh to a detailed account of that year could have allowed for a comparison of his answers with the substance of Fords testimony. Investigators use such comparisons to advance the inquiry by narrowing down times and locations when and where the alleged assault may have taken place. Democrats also allowed Republicans to draw them into partisan disputes over, for instance, the handling of Fords allegations, rather than focusing on contradictions in Kavanaughs testimony and his remarkable display of temper. A remarkable amount of time was devoted to parsing obscure teenage slang references in Kavanaughs high school yearbook. While Republican senators gave succor to their nominee with a renewed partisan approach, Mitchell sat silently in front of them for the remainder of the hearing, a mute reminder of a strategy that produced a near-death experience for Kavanaughs nomination. Mitchells presence at the hearing was widely understood as an effort to shield the all-male panel of Republicans senators on the Judiciary Committee from charges of sexism and insensitivity that had dogged the senators who conducted the hearing on Anita Hills accusations against Clarence Thomas 27 years ago. Of course, Republicans did not immediately describe Mitchells hiring this way. The majority members have followed the bipartisan recommendation to hire as staff counsel for the committee an experienced career sex-crimes prosecutor to question the witnesses at Thursdays hearing, Chairman Grassley said in a statement when news of Mitchells hiring became public this week. The goal, he continued, is to de-politicize the process and get to the truth, instead of grandstanding and giving senators an opportunity to launch their presidential campaigns. Im very appreciative that Rachel Mitchell has stepped forward to serve in this important and serious role. Photo: Saul Loeb/Pool via Reuters However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hinted at the unspoken purpose of Mitchells commission. We have hired a female assistant to go on staff and to ask these questions in a respectful and professional way, McConnell said Wednesday, pointedly calling attention to Mitchells gender. As the hearings got started, flaws in this approach became apparent. First, the senators had insulated themselves to some extent from appearing sexist or insensitive by outsourcing the questioning of Ford; however, by refusing to face Ford or speak to her, they looked aloof or timid in the face of a credible witness. Second, Mitchell was not prepared to modify her questioning to fit into the five-minute increments that Grassley had decreed for this hearing. Consequently, Mitchell was often forced to leave a line of inquiry hanging while Democratic senators took their turns questioning the witness, making her argument harder to follow. Third, Mitchells credentials as a local prosecutor of sex crimes suggested that she had been flown in to perform a searching investigation of the long-ago assault. However, her questions ranged far from her expertise, and she did not give the impression of genuinely investigating Fords recall of the incident and whether it can be corroborated. Instead, Mitchell seemed to be trying to catch Ford in contradictions and garnering an admission that her accusation was part of a partisan plot. This left a sex-crimes expert flown in from Arizona posing politically-tinged questions about, for instance, whether Ford had misled the committee about a fear of flying and who had paid for her polygraph examination. It was also an unavailing strategy with a witness whose authenticity was widely acknowledged. Finally, the Republicans decision to ditch Mitchell in the second half of the hearing left Republicans open to charges of unequal treatment. If the alleged victim of a sexual assault had to endure lengthy questioning by an experienced local prosecutor, why didnt the alleged perpetrator? Republican senators and their staff did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Mitchells performance and whether she had lived up to their expectations. The Republican strategy was clear, an aide to a Democratic senator on the Judiciary Committee wrote. Employ a career prosecutor to cross examine Dr. Blasey Ford and then lob softballs at Judge Kavanaugh. Once Rachel Mitchell began to question Judge Kavanaugh, it became clear she was going to ask substantive questions. For example, she asked about his drinking and the July 1 party where Mark Judge and P.J. Smyth were in attendance. Republican senators then came to the rescue and benched her. _____ More Yahoo News stories on the Supreme Court: WASHINGTON It was a seesaw day of directly conflicting testimony and partisan sniping, but by the evening, the fate of Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court lay as it has all along with three Republican senators. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, will determine whether Kavanaughs nomination moves forward toward confirmation this weekend, is delayed or goes down altogether. Initially, after the compelling and credible testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee of Christine Blasey Ford on Thursday morning, influential conservatives said in text messages that Kavanaughs nomination was in trouble and fail, even as others close to the White House insisted the GOP should still press forward with the nomination. This is a disaster for Republicans, Chris Wallace said on Fox News. Two Republican governors in states dominated by Democratic voters Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, and Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland called early Thursday for the nomination to be suspended pending further investigation. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, a state with a more mixed electorate, on Wednesday called on Republicans to slow down the process to gather more information. Republican senators, Susan Collins, Jeff Flake and Lisa Murkowski. (Photos: Drew Angerer/Getty Images) But the fiery denial of Fords accusation by Kavanaugh in the afternoon rallied the right, and seemed to stop the bleeding. It reduced the chances that the White House would feel the need to withdraw his nomination, a point President Trump made sure to impress upon members of the Judiciary Committee. Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him, Trump said in a tweet posted at the conclusion of the judges interrogation. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote! The focus Thursday night turned back to the three Republican senators whose support for Kavanaugh has been in question: Flake, Murkowski and Collins. Republicans have a 51-seat majority, and, with the potential vote of Vice President Mike Pence in the event of a 50-50 tie, can only afford to lose the support of one of their ranks. Story continues Only Flake sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he did not tip his hand when he spoke at the end of the day-long hearing to briefly praise both Ford and Kavanaugh for their testimony. The senator, who is not seeking reelection and has long been an antagonist of President Trump, also said expressed regret that Kavanaugh and Ford and their families had had to endure the acrimony of the process. This is not a good process, but its all weve got, Flake said before making an appeal to his fellow senators to moderate their partisanship and anger by keeping in mind the lack of certainty about what really happened 35 years ago, when Ford alleges that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. There is doubt. Well never move beyond that, and just have a little humility on that front, Flake said. He did not ask Kavanaugh any questions during Thursdays remarkable session. Kavanaugh testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sept. 27, 2018. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) The Senate Republicans were scheduled to hold a meeting Thursday evening to discuss next steps. Before that meeting, Flake, Collins and Murkowski were reported to be meeting with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a conservative Democrat who sometimes votes with Republicans. Spokespersons for Flake, Collins and Murkowski did not respond to questions about how they intended to vote on Kavanaughs nomination to the high court. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Kavanaughs nomination Friday morning. If the committee, which has an 11-10 Republican majority, approves his nomination, it would go to the full Senate, where a final vote could happen on Saturday. If, on the other hand, any of the three Republican senators in question asked that Fords allegations be investigated further, that could present another obstacle to the nomination. But a statement at the end of the day by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, demonstrated the degree to which Kavanaughs afternoon testimony had shifted the momentum. Considered one of the more independent Republicans in the Senate, Portman gave his full-throated support for Kavanaugh at the conclusion of Thursdays hearings. I believe allegations of sexual assault should be taken very seriously, and Dr. Ford deserved the opportunity to tell her story and be heard. I believe my job is to assess the facts that we have before us, and thats very difficult when no corroboration exists regarding this allegation. Judge Kavanaugh has adamantly denied the allegation, Portman said in his statement. I have known Judge Kavanaugh for more than 15 years, I know his wife, Ashley, and I know his family. The Brett Kavanaugh I know is a man of integrity and humility. He also has the right qualifications and experience to serve on the Supreme Court. In fact, the American Bar Association has given him their highest rating, unanimously. I support his confirmation. _____ More Yahoo News stories on the Supreme Court: NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) The Latest on the sentencing of Bill Cosby (all times local): 2:35 p.m. Bill Cosby has several avenues of appeal if he hopes to get out of prison. The 81-year-old comedian spent the first night of his three-to-10-year prison sentence for sexual assault alone in a single cell near the infirmary at SCI Phoenix, a new state lock up outside Philadelphia. Cosby's lawyers, meanwhile, are working to get him out of there. They've vowed to appeal his conviction and have already outlined some potential issues, including Judge Steven O'Neill's decision to let five additional accusers testify and new allegations that prosecutors used a doctored tape as evidence. Cosby, once revered as "America's Dad," arrived at SCI Phoenix on Tuesday to a new label: Inmate No. NN7687. The facility is a mere 20 miles from the gated mansion where, a jury found, he drugged and molested Andrea Constand in 2004. Barring a successful appeal, it could be his home for a while. ___ 10:05 a.m. Pennsylvania corrections officials say Bill Cosby will serve his sentence at a new state prison in the Philadelphia suburbs. The Department of Corrections provided details of Cosby's incarceration Wednesday, one day after the 81-year-old comedian was sentenced to three to 10 years for sexual assault. Cosby will serve his time at SCI Phoenix, about 20 miles from his gated estate. The $400 million prison opened two months ago. He's being housed in a single cell near the infirmary. Corrections Secretary John Wetzel says the prison's long-term goal is to place Cosby in the general population. Under prison policy, he'll be allowed phone calls and visits and will get a chance to exercise. Wetzel says the prison is "taking all of the necessary precautions" to ensure the celebrity's safety. The prison system assigned Cosby inmate number NN7687. ___ 7:50 a.m. A prosecutor who tried Bill Cosby in his sexual assault case says the comedian's chief accuser, Andrea Constand, told her she was happy with his three-to-10-year prison sentence. Story continues Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" that accuser Andrea Constand gave her strength as she went through the difficult process of prosecuting Cosby. Feden says "her courage and strength was enough for me to say, 'Let's keep going." Feden also says that as she watched Cosby during the proceedings, "I don't even know that it was clear to him that this was judgment day." Cosby's wife, Camille, has claimed that a phone recording played at trial was doctored. On ABC's "Good Morning America," Feden's fellow prosecutor Stewart Ryan called it a "last-ditch effort to cook up an appeal issue." ___ 2:40 a.m. A publicist for once-beloved actor Bill Cosby complained that the star's conviction and three- to 10-year prison term for sexual assault stem from a racist and sexist justice system. Cosby is vowing to appeal his conviction as the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. He is serving time at a state prison in Montgomery County after his sentencing there Tuesday. Judge Steven O'Neill has presided over the case for nearly three years. He says Cosby remains a potential danger to society even though he is 81 and infirm. The judge says Cosby could still drug people to override their lack of consent to sexual activity. Defense lawyers had argued that Cosby be sentenced to home confinement over the 2004 assault. Senator Lindsey Graham told a rape survivor to go to the cops and walked away from her as she confronted him outside Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination hearing. Robyn Swirling approached the Republican during a break in evidence at the Senate Judiciary Committee and asked if he believed she had been sexually assaulted. Mr Graham had earlier told Mr Kavanaugh he had nothing to apologise for, indicating he doubted Christine Blasey Fords account of being groped by the judge they were teenagers. In footage of Ms Swirlings exchange with the senator, she is heard saying: Senator Graham, I was raped 13 years ago. Mr Graham tells her: Im so sorry. He then walks away as Ms Swirling asks: I dont remember the exact date, but do you believe me? The senator, without turning to look at her, replies: You needed to go to the cops. Go to the cops. Ms Swirling described Mr Grahams response as horrifically insensitive and dismissive. If [he] had paused to talk with me, instead of rushing into the elevator, Id have told him the cops cant do anything about it now, but that doesnt make it any less true and doesnt make me any less credible, she tweeted. Video: #MeToo Movement Takes Center Stage Amid Hearings For more news videos visit Yahoo View. Ms Swirling is the founder of Work in Progress, an organisation which campaigns against sexual harassment in the workplace. She said she went to the committee hearing on her lunch break to ask senators to care about the experiences of sexual assault survivors and to believe us. During four hours of often emotional testimony, Ms Ford told the committees 21 senators only four of them women - she was 100 per cent certain Mr Kavanaugh had assaulted her at a high school party in Maryland in the early 1980s. Story continues The California psychology professor said she was terrified to be testifying but felt it was her civic duty. Following the hearing, Mr Graham implied he did not believe Ms Fords account because she could not remember certain details of the alleged assault 36 years ago. She cant tell us how she got home that night, how she got there, the senator said. Thats the facts Im left with: a nice lady who has come forward to tell a hard story thats uncorroborated. Earlier, he raged at Democrats who he accused of using the allegations against Mr Kavanaugh to delay his appointment, describing Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee as a victim. What you want to do is destroy this guys life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020, he said. This is the most unethical sham since Ive been in politics. He later appeared to imply that future Democrat nominees would face false accusations in retaliation if Mr Kavanaugh's appointment was scuppered. Let me tell you my Democratic friends... if this is the new norm, you better watch out for your nominees," Mr Graham said. The Senate Judiciary Committee is due to meet on Friday morning to consider Mr Kavanaugh's nomination. Two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, have accused the judge of sexual misconduct in the 1980s. He denies the allegations. In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday lifted the ban on the entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The verdict was announced by a five-man constitution bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra. Women are no way inferior to men. On the one hand, women are worshipped as goddesses, but there are restrictions on the other hand. Relationship with God cant be defined by biological or physiological factors, the CJI observed while reading out the judgement. Religion is basically way of life however certain practices create incongruities. The exclusionary practice given the backing of a legislation is not an integral part of religion, the CJI added. Four judges, the CJI as well as Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, had the same opinion, while one, Justice Indu Malhotra, was the lone voice of dissent. Differing with the majoritarian view, Justice Malhotra, meanwhile, observed that religious practices cant solely be tested on the basis of the right to equality. Its up to the worshippers, not the court to decide whats religions essential practice. Reacting to the the verdict, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president, A Padmakumar, said they would go for a review petition after getting the support of other religious heads. Follow live updates below: Skopje (AFP) - Voters across the Balkan state of Macedonia will decide Sunday whether to re-name their country North Macedonia, an emotional vote that could end a bitter row with Greece and unlock a path to NATO and the EU. It is a loaded question for many in the nation of around 2.1 million, which has tussled with Greece for 27 years over its name and history. Athens objects to its northern neighbour's name because it has its own province called Macedonia. It accuses Skopje of encroaching on its territory and cultural heritage. In protest Greece has used its veto to thwart Macedonia's progress in NATO and EU accession talks. But in June the two neighbours reached a compromise: the Republic of North Macedonia. Now Macedonians are being called on to approve the name, despite a widespread feeling that they have been pushed around by Greece. - 'Only chance' - Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is selling the name-change as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the poor country to move past the row and integrate with the West. He has the backing of a host of European and US leaders who have trotted through Skopje this month to shore up support. "You know well that a better deal cannot be made," Zaev told a crowd this week in one of his final campaign events. Some Macedonians say they are willing to vote "yes" in the hope that NATO and EU membership will inject life into a flat economy ravaged by emigration. "We won't ever have a chance for a better future for Macedonia," said Bogdana Zabrcanec, a resident of the central city of Prilep who came to listen to Zaev speak this week. But even if voters approve the name change, the deal will still need to be ratified in parliament, where a right-wing opposition threatens to block it. Zaev is hoping a strong majority for "yes" will make it difficult for the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party to resist the public's will. But turnout figures could prove contentious. Story continues If less than half of the 1.8 million registered voters cast ballots, detractors may attack the referendum's credibility. That turnout figure could be hard to reach in a country where a quarter of the population is estimated to have emigrated abroad. So far, the boycott movement has been mostly limited to online activities. A planned rally on Thursday night was cancelled, with only several dozen people showing up. The opposition's leader, Hristijan Mickoski, said this week that Macedonians should "listen to their heart" when they wake up on Sunday morning. Meanwhile president Gjorge Ivanov, who is allied with the nationalist opposition, told the UN assembly this week that he personally would not vote, describing the deal as "historical suicide". - 'Long process' - A failure to pass the referendum could crush a rare diplomatic breakthrough in the Western Balkans, a region riven by complex disagreements between neighbours. The name deal "was a really positive story... It's been held as a sign that look, longstanding disputes can be solved," James Ker-Lindsay, a Balkans specialist at the London School of Economics. But "this is just the next phase in what is proving to be quite a long protracted process," he added, explaining that the parliament vote will be the next hurdle. While NATO's invite is waiting on the table, the road to EU membership is less sure. By EU standards, Macedonia still has a lot of work to do to tackle graft and the rule of law. And the appetite for EU enlargement is shrinking among some members of the bloc, who voted to postpone Macedonia's accession talks to next year despite the deal. Polling stations will be open from 0500 to 1700 GMT with 500 foreign observers monitoring, according to Telma TV channel. A Malaysian woman was sentenced Thursday to be caned and jailed for six months for prostitution in violation of Islamic laws, weeks after the flogging of two lesbians sparked outrage. The 30-year-old single mother of one admitted to offering sexual services in a hotel in the conservative northern state of Terengganu this month after being caught by religious enforcement officers. Multi-ethnic Malaysia has a dual-track legal system, with Muslims subject to Islamic laws in certain areas. Critics say a traditionally tolerant brand of Islam in the Muslim-majority country is being eroded as more conservative attitudes gain ground. Sentencing the divorcee to six strokes of the cane and jail time, judge Rosdi Harun told an Islamic court that he was "very disappointed" the woman had not shown any remorse. "Your punishment will give you time to reflect on your mistakes and repent," he said. The woman, who was not identified, has 14 days to appeal against the sentence. If the caning goes ahead it will take place in the prison where she is serving her sentence. Rozana Isa, executive director of women's rights group Sisters in Islam, criticised the sentence: "There really is no compassion in these kinds of punishment. "Is this really where we want the country to go?" Two women were caned in Terengganu on September 3 after admitting breaking Islamic laws that prohibit lesbian sex, sparking a storm of criticism from politicians and rights groups. Campaigners said it was the first time women had been caned for same-sex relations in Malaysia, and that the case highlights the worsening climate for the country's gay community. Caning under Islamic laws is carried out with a thin rattan cane on a person who is fully clothed. It is also a punishment for many crimes under civil law in Malaysia. About 60 percent of Malaysia's 32 million people are Muslim, and the country is also home to substantial ethnic Indian and Chinese communities. Mark Judge has been hiding in Delaware to avoid the recent media frenzy. (Photo: Gabriel Pogrund/The Washington Post via Getty Images) WASHINGTON Mark Judge, the man who was said to be present when Brett Kavanaugh allegedly sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford, was in Washington, D.C., meeting with his lawyer Friday afternoon. HuffPost confirmed that Judge arrived at the firm Cozen OConnor around 1:30 p.m., just as the Senate Judiciary Committee was preparing to vote to advance Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation. His lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, also issued a statement Friday afternoon saying he was willing to cooperate with any law enforcement investigation, so long as it took place confidentially. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday afternoon voted along party lines to send Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate, but Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) strongly implied that he would not support Kavanaugh unless the FBI first conducts an investigation in the next week. On Friday afternoon, the committee said it would ask the White House to request a supplemental background check into Kavanaugh. Blasey has alleged that Kavanaugh and Judge locked her in a room when they were all in high school. She said Kavanaugh pinned her to the bed and sexually assaulted her while Judge was present. Democrats wanted Judge to testify before the committee, but Republicans refused to call him to do so. He has been hiding out in Bethany Beach, Delaware, away from the media scrutiny. Judge has denied Blaseys allegations. He has written extensively about his drunken high school escapades at Georgetown Preparatory School, where he was good friends with Kavanaugh. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. MEXICO CITY (AP) Authorities said Friday that a mob of about 100 people in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo doused a detective with gasoline and burned him to death. The Hidalgo state prosecutors' office said the crowd attacked local police in the town of Metepec on Thursday and took the detective and three other men captive. They severely beat the men and burned the detective after dousing him with fuel. It was unclear if he was on duty or if they knew he was a detective. Video posted on social media sites showed a mob kicking one of the men in the town square and beating him with cudgels and fists. Police eventually arrived to rescue him and two others. The mob was reportedly roused by rumors that the men were planning to abduct children. The prosecutors' office said it was investigating and would bring the killers and other members of the mob to justice. "Let it be clear, inciting or promoting these kind of acts is also a crime," the office said. In similar cases, prosecutors have been able to identify and arrest suspects because townspeople often record attacks on their cellphones and post videos online. There have been five killings in the span of about a month in Mexico based on false rumors about child snatchers. In four of those cases, the victims were also burned. Authorities say the rumors circulate on social media and have asked the public not to believe them. But the country's human rights commission faulted authorities. A lack of effective law enforcement and rising crime has led some communities to form vigilante squads, and passengers on buses in the greater Mexico City area regularly kill thieves who get on board to rob them. "As long as the government does not provide minimal conditions of safety for the population, the lack of confidence in the government and people's desperation for justice will open the door for more cases of people taking the law into their own hands," the agency said in a statement earlier this month. Story continues It is not the first time that investigative agents have been killed in Mexico by townspeople. In 2004, a mob on the southern outskirts of Mexico City beat two federal agents and burned them to death for allegedly taking pictures of school children. Some claimed they believed the agents were kidnappers, but it turned out that they were investigating a case on assignment. The hysteria has also swept up people who were simply asking questions. In late August, two men were set afire by an angry mob in Puebla after they apparently stopped to have beer near a school. In 2015, residents of Ajalpan, Puebla also beat to death two young men who were making inquiries in the town. Rumors spread that they were trying to kidnap children, but they were actually conducting a commercial survey about tortilla consumption. Groan, if you must, at the pink Original Nasty Woman sweatshirt Murphy Brown is wearing in her first prime-time appearance since the Clinton administration, but you cant deny that she deserves the title. Candice Bergens righteous, irascible TV journalist was making powerful mennamely, Vice President Dan Quaylenervous even before Bill and Hillary moved into the White House. It already felt safe to assume that Murphy would have backed Mrs. Clinton in 2016, and that she would scream with all the anguish of a Munch painting when her candidate lost to Donald Trump. That CBSs revived Murphy Brown, which premieres on Sept. 27, opens with this election-night wail, preceded by a montage of Clinton and Trump clips from the campaign trail, speaks volumes about its intended audience. It seems impossible that anyone watching this particular show could possibly need a reminder of what it was like to live through those months. But before she flashes forward to the 2018 Womens March (in lieu of a pussy hat, Murphy wears a Roman centurions helmet topped with hot-pink feathers), creator Diane English, who wrote the episode, seems determined to activate liberal viewers anger. Asked about how she expects Trump voters to receive the show, English has said, Theyre not going to watch us and I dont think were looking to bring them into the tent. In 2018, Murphy Brown is primal scream therapy for the Resistance. Admittedly, Englishs heroinea feminist icon with a sixth sense for spotting corruption, lying and egotismmakes a pretty ideal mouthpiece for Trump-era outrage. Murphy Browns return to TV and Murphy Browns return to the anchors desk seem equally inevitable, and the setup for both comebacks is no more elaborate than it needs to be: Bored after her retirement from the broadcast newsmagazine FYI and itching to blurt truth to power, Murphy conceives a cable morning show over beers at Phils (now run by Phils sister Phyllis, played by the great Tyne Daly) with her old colleagues. While slick investigative reporter Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto) is languishing in academia, perky Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford) has just been replaced on a Today-like program by a younger, sexier weather girl. (FYIs resident old-school newsman, Charles Kimbroughs Jim Dial, has taken refuge from the 24/7 news cycle on the high seas but comes ashore for brief arc beginning in Episode 3.) Even their fragile, anxiety-ridden former producer, Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud), reluctantly signs on. Story continues The new show, Murphy in the Morning, comes complete with a walking millennial stereotype: Pat Patel (Atypicals Nik Dodani, making the best of a broad character), a sweet yet officious social media whiz. Its hard to tell whether Pat was added in hopes of attracting an audience too young to have watched Murphy the first time around or as comedy relief for a core viewership that might enjoy a laugh at the expense of kids today, but he isnt the only 20-something upstart here. Murphys son Avery (Jake McDorman of Greek and Limitless) has grown up to be a TV journalist, and hes developing a rival morning show as the token liberal on the conservative Wolf Network. This is a coincidence that only a network sitcom with a laugh track would float, and even if you can suspend your disbelief, Avery is so underwritten that his Pod Save America T-shirt says more about him than his storylines. Like the late Robert Pastorellis hip house painter Eldin Bernecky, from the original series, he exists mostly to give Murphy someone to talk to at home. But Eldin was a fully formed character whose slacker machismo made him a perfect foil for her. Couldnt Avery at least have been a Bernie Bro? Murphy is stronger when it sticks to the workplace, both because the veteran cast members are still so sharp and because Murphy in the Morning forces the show to trade generic political outrage for more specific stories about the many challenges facing a news media that the president has tarred as the enemy of the American people. (The show itself openly baits the White House, too, with faux Trump tweets about Murphy and broadsides against Sarah Huckabee Sanders that make Michelle Wolfs burns sound like compliments.) While jokes about Trump being Facebook friends with Putin feel borrowed from two-year-old protest signs, an episode centered around a rather thinly veiled Steve Bannon character is an especially potent mix of topical humor and object lesson in media literacy. Characters argue over whether Murphy should annihilate the provocateur in an on-air interview or simply refuse to normalize his nativist beliefs by giving him a platform on national TV. But Murphy Browns greatest asset has always been Murphy Brown, a unique creation for whom English and Bergen both deserve credit. Watching the show as a kid in the 90s, when female sitcom characters generally came in two varietieshot chick and long-suffering momMurphy was, to me, something entirely new, a woman defined not by her appearance or her family, but by her smart, principled fury. Bergen recaptures that force-of-nature energy in every frame of the revival; even in a TV landscape rich with complex women, theres no one else quite like Murphy. As well suited as she is to her new role as Resistance warrior, its her ferocious vitality that gives Murphy Brown its eternal appeal. A woman in New Jersey is fighting to pass a Right to Die law in her state after watching her husbands painful death from pancreatic cancer. (Photo: FS Productions) A New Jersey operating room nurse is fighting for a medical-aid-in-dying bill in her state after watching her husband die of pancreatic cancer. Debra Dunn tells Yahoo Lifestyle that her husband, Herb, was diagnosed with the disease in March 2013 after he inexplicably began losing weight. He had a liver biopsy, which showed that the cancer had metastasized already, she said. Herb went to an oncologist, who recommended chemotherapy, even though he wasnt sure it would be helpful, Dunn says. Herb underwent chemotherapy for two months, which didnt shrink his tumor. The symptoms he was having were getting worse and worse, Dunn says, noting that Herb was losing about 4 pounds a week. Herbs tumor was pressing on his small intestine, preventing food from getting to his stomach, and he ended up spending a month in the hospital. He wasnt able to eat food, because nothing was getting by, Dunn says. Doctors tried to put in a stent to open up his intestine, but it didnt work. They put a feeding tube into his stomach not to feed him but to relieve the buildup of bile, fluid, and gastric juices, Dunn says. Whatever he drank, he would swallow it, and you would watch it come right out and go into a bag. He had no bowel movement for four months. Things werent able to even get in. Herb was eventually sent home and put on total parenteral nutrition, which is a food substance in fluid form thats given to patients intravenously. Throughout the night, he got fed, Dunn says. He also used a fentanyl patch for pain, but it didnt seem to help much. He had a lot of pain, Dunn says. Pain medications take the edge off the pain and make you go to sleep, but they really dont take away the pain. Eventually, Herbs oncologist said treatment was no longer working. We had to stop chemo, which was a death sentence, Dunn says. Herb went into hospice in our house. A hospital bed was brought into the house, and I slept on the couch downstairs with him. Story continues Herb began hallucinating, and he wasnt safe by himself, Dunn says. He couldnt get to the bathroom and eventually began peeing in a urinal at the bedside. He was put on morphine, but that also didnt seem to help. It wasnt staying in his system, Dunn says. Toward the end, he was very spastic he would have a glass of water in his hand, and it would go flying. His body was shutting down; He was actively dying. Since none of the nutrition was reaching his system, Dunn says her husband was also very emaciated and weak. Watching his body become a stick was mentally debilitating for him, she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Dunn says that Herb was very upset about the downward spiral. It was really hard for him to watch his body close down. The day he died, Dunn says she checked his pulse at 1 a.m. and noted that it was faint. By 3 a.m., he was gone. Dunn says she began seeing a therapist and contemplating a way to heal. It was horrible how my husband died I needed to do something, she says. She eventually discovered Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit organization that advocates for access to medical aid in dying, and was connected with someone in her state. Since then, shes been lobbying for the passage of the Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act, which would allow mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to have the option to obtain and take prescription medication that would allow them to die in their sleep if their suffering became unbearable. The act was introduced in 2012 but has not been brought to the New Jersey Assembly and Senate floors for a vote, even though the most recent Rutgers-Eagleton state poll shows that 63 percent of state voters support medical aid in dying. Dunn urges her state legislators to pull up their bootstraps and stand up for something thats right. She also encourages people to think about how they would feel if their loved one was in the same situation Herb was in. Wouldnt you want to help them in that effort? she says. She recently wrote an op-ed in the Star-Ledger pleading her case as well. I need this bill to pass, Dunn says. I promised my husband he would not suffer, and I failed because he did. Theres nothing I can do about it. Im doing work on my husbands behalf for what I couldnt do when he was dying. This work means a lot to me. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. ABUJA (Reuters) - A Nigerian military pilot died on Friday after being involved in an accident while rehearsing for an air display, an air force spokesman said. He earlier said two military planes had been involved in an accident. Witnesses reported seeing the wings of the planes collide in the air over the capital, Abuja, with at least one of the aircraft crashing into a hill in the Mpape district of the city. "It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully announce that one of the pilots who successfully ejected from one of the F-7Ni aircraft that crashed earlier today has passed on," said airforce spokesman Ibikunle Daramola. Nigeria is due to celebrate the anniversary of independence from British colonial rule on Oct. 1. (Reporting by Felix Onuah, Camillus Eboh and Afolabi Sotunde in Abuja, additional reporting by Paul Carsten in London; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky/Richard Balmforth) Mexico City (AFP) - There is no cutoff date for Canada to join the US-Mexican deal meant to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico's president-elect said Friday as the text was submitted to legislators. "There is no fatal date, there is still time to reach a deal... to keep (NAFTA) trilateral," said President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on December 1. Lopez Obrador spoke as the US and Mexican Congresses were due to receive the final text of the two-way deal, moving it a big step closer to becoming reality. At the same time, the United States and Canada continued to spar over the terms of Canada's possible inclusion in what was originally a three-country deal. Lopez Obrador said he had spoken by phone Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who told him his government's talks with Washington were "difficult." "He said the negotiation was very difficult, that it might not be possible (to reach a three-way deal), but that they (Canada) had made a proposal," he told a press conference. He said he had been informed Friday that there was a counter-proposal from the United States. "That means the negotiations aren't over yet," he said. The leftist president-elect reiterated his insistence that Mexico prefers to keep NAFTA 2.0 a three-country deal. But he said he considered the substance of the US-Mexican deal to be final, and that Mexico did not want to renegotiate points that had already been agreed with Washington. Lopez Obrador, widely known as "AMLO," has been actively involved in the negotiations to update the trade agreement. US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a complete overhaul of NAFTA, which entered into force 25 years ago between the United States, Canada and Mexico. In August, after breaking away for two-way talks on their outstanding issues, the United States and Mexico announced they had reached a two-way deal. Story continues But talks to incorporate Canada have stumbled over issues including the protected Canadian dairy industry and a provision for settling trade disputes. "We're not getting along with their negotiators," Trump said Wednesday of Canada. "Canadians are tough negotiators, as we should be," Trudeau fired back. Kolding (Denmark) (AFP) - Former US president Barack Obama warned Friday against rising nationalism as he painted a grim picture of American and global politics on a visit to Denmark. "I'm concerned enough about the international and American trends that I thought it was important to offer my views," he told entrepreneurs and students in the Danish central city of Kolding. "When you start seeing our politics driven completely free of facts, when you start seeing a debate that is driven solely on racial or nationalistic impulses, when you start seeing a rejection of science and expertise and logic in politics... we are beyond the sort of politics that will continue our best traditions," he added. Relatively discreet since leaving the White House on January 20, 2017, the 44th President of the United States carefully avoided any direct reference to his successor Donald Trump. "Maybe we got more jolt and more change than we expected in the US," Obama said, drawing laughter from the crowd. He expressed concern over a lack of citizen engagement in public life and underlined the importance in the United States, Europe, and in other countries "to affirm the ideals of our constitution." Referring to the right-wing populist Law and Justice Party (PiS)'s arrival in power in Poland and the fiercely anti-immigration government in Hungary, Obama said: "there is a shift that has implications for all of Europe." "When a population is passive and ill-informed and not paying attention, that's when there is the greatest danger." United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA on Thursday received pledges of $118 million from donor countries to help it overcome a crisis triggered by US funding cuts. Kuwait and the European Union were among the biggest contributors along with Germany, Ireland and Norway, UNRWA chief Pierre Kraehenbuehl told a news conference. France said it would contribute next year. The United States, which was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), announced in August that it would no longer fund the agency. Kraehenbuehl said the new funds were "a significant step in the direction of overcoming UNRWA's greatest and gravest financial crisis ever", adding that the shortfall in the annual budget now stood at $68 million. The administration of President Donald Trump has backed Israel in accusing UNRWA of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that millions of Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel. Created in 1949, the agency supplies aid to more than three million of the five million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories. Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who co-hosted the meeting on UNRWA's funding crisis on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, said discussions were under way on ensuring long-term financing for the agency. Safadi said the international community had a "firm, unwavering" commitment to keep UNRWA alive and ensure it continues to provide health and education services to Palestinian refugees. Aside from cutting funds to UNRWA, the Trump administration has also cut $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinians for projects in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said the United States would only give foreign aid "to those who respect us and frankly are our friends." GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers shot dead seven Palestinians, including two boys, who were among thousands of people who thronged to the fortified Gaza Strip border on Friday as part of weekly protests launched half a year ago, Gaza health officials said. Israel's military said its troops resorted to live fire, and an air strike, after explosive devices and rocks were thrown at them and to prevent breaches of the border fence from the Islamist Hamas-controlled enclave. Gaza health officials said 505 people had been wounded, 89 of them by gunshots. They identified the dead as males, two of them aged 12 and 14. The boys' families could not immediately be reached for comment. At least 191 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza protests began on March 30 to demand the right of return to lands that Palestinian families fled or were driven from on Israel's founding in 1948, and the easing of an Israeli-Egyptian economic blockade. Hamas said Friday's protest also marked the 18th anniversary of the launch of the last Palestinian revolt against Israel. A Gaza sniper has killed one Israeli soldier and incendiary devices flown over by Palestinians using kites and helium balloons have set off fires that destroyed tracts of forest and farmland in Israel. Israel accuses Hamas, against which it has fought three wars in the last decade, of having deliberately provoked violence in the protests, a charge Hamas denies. More than two million people are packed into Gaza, whose economic plight is a focus of so-far fruitless U.S.-led efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, stalled since 2014. (Reporting by Saleh Salem; Editing by Kevin Liffey, William Maclean) Panama City (AFP) - A ruling this week by Panama's Supreme Court has left a $6.3 billion copper and gold exploration project by Canada's First Quantum Minerals in limbo after it was deemed unconstitutional. First Quantum is hoping to mine the metals in Colon province on the Caribbean coast. "This ruling is hugely important for Panama," Sonia Montenegro, executive director at non-governmental environmental defense organization CIAM, told AFP. In 2009, CIAM contested a contract signed between the government and Canadian company Minera Petaquilla. CIAM claimed the deal was damaging to the state and its natural resources, saying it would result in the erosion of soil and vegetation, as well as the contamination of water and air. The Supreme Court has declared that a law originally granting a mining concession to Minera Petaquilla in 1997 was unconstitutional. Following a series of sales, the project was acquired by Minera Panama, a subsidiary of First Quantum. Since Monday, when the court ruling was issued, First Quantum's stock has dropped about 13 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange. "No doubt they will look for mechanisms to continue (mining) and not suspend their activities or their investment," said Montenegro. First Quantum insisted the court's ruling applied to that specific "Law 9" rather than the contract that saw Minera Panama acquire the project. The ruling "does not affect the mining concession contract itself, which remains in effect, and therefore allows continuity of development," said the Canadian company. "Minera Panama is in the process of formally obtaining and examining the ruling and its applicability and is working with the appropriate parties to identify suitable legal remedies." Operations at the mine had been expected to begin in the coming months, with eventual exports of 320,000 tons of copper a year. Panamanian authorities have said it is the most important project in the country, involving 12,000 workers, including 1,500 people from nearby villages, First Quantum added. Story continues The project includes the building of a 300-megawatt power generation plant, an electric transmission line, an international port and a mineral processing plant. - 'Not worried' - Labor and Development Minister Luis Ernesto Carles said exploration would continue. "We're not worried -- we're very clear that the contract is valid," Carles told Telemetro television channel. But Carles admitted that the ruling needed "clarification," which would be provided by "other procedural steps." Minera Panama insists their investment is "the biggest in the history" of the country and would help add four percent to Panama's gross domestic product as soon as next year. Panama's Chamber of Mining, which represents the sector's businesses, expressed its "deep concern" about the court's ruling, insisting its underlying argument "has no validity." The Chamber said arguments regarding "future environmental, social and public interest damages" -- submitted 10 years ago -- were out of sync with "the current reality." It said such cases were "attacks against free trade and irreversibly" hurt the country's ability to attract investment. But Montenegro said the country must decide whether to protect its finances or its natural resources. "Open-air metal mining generates a lot of negative impacts. Responsible mining doesn't exist," she said. Passengers and crew on a Boeing 737 have had a lucky escape after the plane crash-landed in a Pacific Lagoon. All passengers and crew survived after the Air Niugini plane hit the water short of the runway while trying to land at Chuuk Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. Dramatic footage from the scene shows people being rescued in boats from the half-submerged plane. One passenger, journalist Bill Jaynes, reportedly said the experience was surreal, adding: I thought we [just] landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in, and thought, This is not the way its supposed to happen. Dramatic pictures and footage show passengers being rescued from the water by boats (Picture: PA) In a brief statement, Air Niugini said that everybody aboard the Boeing 737 plane was able to safely evacuate. It said the airline was making all efforts to ensure the ongoing safety of the passengers. MORE: Man caught having sex with blow-up doll at the side of the M1 on lorry dashcam MORE: Injured turtle is nursed back to health using wheelchair made of Lego The airline did not immediately say how many people were aboard the plane, where it was travelling from, or what caused the crash. Some reports suggest that there were between 40 and 50 people aboard, with others suggesting there were a total of 76. Escape all passengers and crew survived the crash landing (Picture: PA) Scenes captured on camera are reminiscent of the 2009 crash-landing in New York City known as the Miracle on the Hudson. Air Niugini is the national airline of Papua New Guinea and has been in operation since 1973. Its fleet includes Boeing 767 and 737 jets for international routes, according to the airline, as well as Fokker F-100 aircraft, Q400 and Dash 8 aircraft for challenging local terrain. Micronesia, located north of Australia and east of the Philippines, is home to just over 100,000 people. It has close ties with the US under an agreement known as a compact of free association. New York (AFP) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Qatar together Friday for the first time since their diplomatic feud erupted but there was no sign of a let-up in tensions between the Gulf powerhouses. At the start of a meeting with counterparts from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) along with allies Egypt and Jordan, Pompeo said that those present had "a shared interest in a wide range of security issues." But speaking to reporters later, Qatar's foreign minister said there had been "no progress" in resolving the more than year-long dispute with Saudi Arabia. He insisted that the gas-rich state remained "open to dialogue" with the Saudis and its allies. "We are grateful for the efforts President Donald Trump makes to try solving this crisis but the responses from the blockade countries are not positive," said Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. The United States said that all the countries found common cause against Iran, Saudi Arabia's archrival which the Trump administration has been seeking to isolate. "All participants agreed on the need to confront threats from Iran directed at the region and the United States," the State Department said in a statement. In apparent reference to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the statement called for forging greater cooperation in the Middle East "anchored by a united GCC" which could "advance prosperity, security and stability in the region." Saudi Arabia -- along with its Gulf allies, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain -- cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism and being too close to Iran. Qatar denies the charges, accusing its neighbors of seeking regime change. The rift has proved a strategic headache for Washington as Qatar provides the main headquarters in the region for the US Central Command, while Bahrain is home to the US Fifth Fleet and Saudi Arabia has long been one of its key allies in the region. Kuwait has led mediation efforts in the crisis, which so far have made little tangible progress. By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has defrocked a 88-year-old Chilean priest who sexually abused teenage boys over a period of many years and is at the center of a wider abuse scandal that is still under investigation, the Vatican said on Friday. Father Fernando Karadima was defrocked, or "reduced to the lay state" by the pope on Thursday, a move the Vatican called "exceptional" and done "for the good of the Church". Karadima, who lives in a home for the elderly in the Chilean capital Santiago, was notified on Friday. He was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 and ordered to live a life of "prayer and penitence", but was not defrocked at the time, the final years of the reign of former Pope Benedict. That meant he was still a priest, although he could not minister in public. Karadima, who has always denied wrongdoing, escaped civilian justice because of the statute of limitations in the country. Seven Chilean bishops have resigned since June after an investigation into an alleged cover-up of Karadima's crimes, some of them former proteges of Karadima, who prepared them for the priesthood as young men in Santiago's up-scale, conservative El Bosque neighborhood. Three Chilean men who said they were abused by Karadima accused one, Juan Barros, the former bishop of Osorno, of having witnessed Karadima abuse them. During a trip to Chile in January, the pope said he had no proof against Barros, believed he was innocent, and that accusations against him were "slander" until proven otherwise. But days after returning to Rome, the pope, citing new information, sent sexual abuse investigator Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta to Chile to speak to victims, witnesses and other Church members. Scicluna produced a 2,300-page report accusing Chile's bishops of "grave negligence" in investigating the allegations and said evidence of sex crimes had been destroyed. In April, Francis, who is also grappling with sexual abuse crises in the United States, Germany and Australia, held four days of meetings in Rome with the three victims - Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo. "I have a knot in my stomach. I never thought I would see this day," Cruz said in a tweet thanking the pope. "He (Karadima) is criminal who has ruined so many peoples lives with his abuse. I hope thousands of survivors feel a bit of the relief I feel today." Following the meeting with the victims, Francis summoned all of Chile's 34 bishops to Rome in May and they offered their resignations en masse. Francis has so far accepted seven, and appointed "apostolic administrators" to run their dioceses. (Additional reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Santiago; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) Natasha died on July 17 2016 (PA) The father of a teenager who died after an allergic reaction to a Pret A Manger sandwich hopes the inquest into her death will serve as a watershed moment and help save lives. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, had been heading for a four-day break in Nice with her father and best friend in July 2016 when she suffered a fatal reaction to an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette purchased from London Heathrows Terminal 5. Her father, Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, said today that poor food labelling laws had played Russian Roulette with his daughters life. The teenager suffered from numerous allergies, and had been reassured by a lack of allergen information on the sandwichs packaging, an inquest into her death has heard. Tanya and Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, with their son Alex, outside West London Coroners Court (PA) Offering his condolences to the family, coroner Dr Sean Cummings said to Natashas father, Nadim: I cant imagine what it was like for you on that plane. Mr Ednan-Laperouse, 53, wept as he said: Terrible. Reading a statement to reporters outside court, along with his wife Tanya, 51, and son Alex, 15, he said they believed the inquest showed Natasha had died because of inadequate food labelling laws. It feels to us that if Pret A Manger were following the law, then the law was playing Russian Roulette with our daughters life, he said. Its clear that the food labelling laws as they stand today are not fit for purpose and it is now time to change the law. Natashas inquest should serve as a watershed moment to make meaningful change and to save lives. Natasha had a severe sesame allergy (PA) The Pret sandwichs packaging failed to mention that sesame seeds were hidden in the dough, and the coroner now intends to contact the government to potentially change the law on food labels. Dr Sean Cummings said: Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died of anaphylaxis in Nice on July 17 2016 after eating a baguette, purchased from Pret A Manger at London Heathrows Terminal 5. The baguette was manufactured to Pret specifications and contained sesame to which she was allergic. Story continues There was no specific allergen information on the baguette packaging or on the (food display cabinet) and Natasha was reassured by that. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse (Facebook) The coroner said he would make a report to Environment Secretary Michael Gove over whether large businesses should be able to benefit from regulation 5 of the Food Information Regulations. It allows for incomplete labelling of food products not requiring identification of allergens in bold labelling on the packet. At the time, Pret relied on stickers on food display units highlighting that allergy information was available by asking staff or visiting the Pret website. The coroner said that although regulators had assessed them as being within the law I am of the view that they were inadequate in terms of visibility. The teenager suffered a fatal reaction to the artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette (PA) MORE: Brexit can be stopped for sure, claims Frances Macron (who doesnt want to interfere in UK politics) MORE: Jailed: Former finance minister who defrauded 62,000 from Grenfell victim fund He added: Overall I am left with the impression that Pret had not addressed the fact that monitoring food allergy in a business selling more than 200 million items a year was something to be taken very seriously indeed. During the inquest, it emerged that a specific warning about the dangers of not signposting the allergen had been given to the food chain the previous year. Natasha was reassured by the lack of specific allergen information on the baguettes packaging (PA) Pret baguettes described as posh or artisan were said to contain sesame seeds, including the one that Natasha ate. A complaint log for the company from between July 17 2015 and June 29 2016 showed nine cases of sesame-related allergy incidents. Four of these led to customers seeking hospital treatment, while another went to a medical centre. A complaint log for Pret A Mager from July 17 2015 to June 29 2016 showed nine cases of sesame-related allergy incidents (PA) More than a year after the complaint, Pret changed the design of a label within its fridges that tells customers to ask staff for allergy information. The coroner said measures so far taken by Pret in relation to collecting information on allergic reactions and responding to serious concerns are insufficient. Natasha suffered from numerous allergies and reacted badly to the sesame seeds in the Pret sandwich, which caused her throat to tighten and vicious red hives to flare up across her midriff, eventually triggering cardiac arrest. Two EpiPens were jabbed into her legs, but the symptoms did not abate and she was declared dead the same day at a hospital in Nice. Natasha died of anaphylaxis in Nice on July 17 2016 (PA) British Airways cabin crew were questioned over their response after the inquest heard that the on-board defibrillator was not used in-flight. Mario Ballestri, who helped junior doctor Thomas Pearson-Jones as he performed CPR on Natasha, said it would have been too dangerous to get the device from the other end of the aircraft when she went into cardiac arrest minutes before landing. The coroner said that although he felt this had been an omission by BA staff, it would not have changed the outcome, and he praised cabin crew and Mr Pearson-Jones for their response. The inquest heard that a defibrillator was used on Natasha after landing when Nice paramedics arrived. By Tabita Diela and Gayatri Suroyo JAKARTA (Reuters) - A tsunami caused deaths when it hit a small city on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday after a major quake, collapsing buildings and cutting off power, officials said, although the exact number of casualties was not clear. The tsunami up to 2 metres (six feet) high struck beaches as dusk fell in Palu, a sleepy but growing tourist resort, and the nearby fishing town of Donggala, closest to the epicenter of the quake 27 km away, officials said. "The earthquake and tsunami caused several casualties ... while initial reports show that victims died in the rubble of a collapsing building," National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told reporters. "The number of casualties and the full impact is still being calculated." Sutopo said the disaster caused a power outage that cut communications in Donggala and surrounding areas. The Communications Ministry is working to repair 276 electricity base stations. Officials said aftershocks, the communications breakdown and the power outage made it hard to coordinate rescue efforts. More than 600,000 people live in Palu and Donggala. "The 1.5- to two-meter tsunami has receded," Dwikorita Karnawati, who heads Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency, BMKG, told Reuters. "The situation is chaotic. People are running on the streets and buildings have collapsed. There is a ship washed ashore." BMKG had earlier issued a tsunami warning but lifted it within the hour. Amateur footage shown by local TV stations, which could not immediately be authenticated by Reuters, showed waters crashing into houses along Palu's shoreline, scattering shipping containers and flooding into a mosque in the city. The national search and rescue agency will deploy a large ship and helicopters to aid the operation, said agency chief Muhammad Syaugi, adding he had not been able to contact his team in Palu. The armed forces and police will also provide troops and equipment to support the emergency response, officials aid. Oil company Pertamina said its fuel depot in Donggala had been damaged in the incident though there was no oil spill. Fuel tanks had shifted in the quake and ship loading facilities were disabled among other damage. There were no reports of damage to producing oil and gas fields in the area, according to the energy ministry. Palu, hit by a 6.2 magnitude quake in 2005 which killed one person, is a tourist resort at the end of a narrow bay famous for its beaches and water sports. In 2004, an earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia. Some people took to Twitter saying they could not contact loved ones. "My family in Palu is unreachable," Twitter user @noyvionella said. Palu airport was closed. The area was hit by a lighter quake earlier in the day, which destroyed some houses, killing one person and injuring at least 10 in Donggala, authorities said. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the second quake at a strong 7.5, after first saying it was 7.7. "Aftershocks are still continuing," Nugroho said. "Communication has been crippled at this time, causing difficulties in coordination and reporting with the region." Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. A series of earthquakes in July and August killed nearly 500 people on the holiday island of Lombok, hundreds of kilometres southwest of Sulawesi. (Additional reporting by Fransiska Nangoy, Fanny Potkin, Wilda Asmarini, Fergus Jensen, and Jessica Damiana; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford held back tears as she described a 1980s party in suburban Maryland during which she alleges that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh got on top of her, put his hands over her mouth and tried to take off her clothes. In prepared remarks, Ford recounted the alleged incident, her response to it and the ways in which it affected her life. I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me, she said. He began running his hands over my body and grinding his hips into me. I yelled, hoping someone downstairs might hear me, and tried to get away from him, but his weight was heavy. Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. Below are the remarks, as prepared for delivery. Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Feinstein, Members of the Committee. My name is Christine Blasey Ford. I am a Professor of Psychology at Palo Alto University and a Research Psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. I was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina and earned my degree in Experimental Psychology in 1988. I received a Masters degree in 1991 in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University. In 1996, I received a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California. I earned a Masters degree in Epidemiology from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2009. I have been married to Russell Ford since 2002 and we have two children. I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school. I have described the events publicly before. I summarized them in my letter to Ranking Member Feinstein, and again in my letter to Chairman Grassley. I understand and appreciate the importance of your hearing from me directly about what happened to me and the impact it has had on my life and on my family. I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. I attended the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1980 to 1984. Holton-Arms is an all-girls school that opened in 1901. During my time at the school, girls at Holton-Arms frequently met and became friendly with boys from all-boys schools in the area, including Landon School, Georgetown Prep, Gonzaga High School, country clubs, and other places where kids and their families socialized. This is how I met Brett Kavanaugh, the boy who sexually assaulted me. Story continues In my freshman and sophomore school years, when I was 14 and 15 years old, my group of friends intersected with Brett and his friends for a short period of time. I had been friendly with a classmate of Bretts for a short time during my freshman year, and it was through that connection that I attended a number of parties that Brett also attended. We did not know each other well, but I knew him and he knew me. In the summer of 1982, like most summers, I spent almost every day at the Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland swimming and practicing diving. One evening that summer, after a day of swimming at the club, I attended a small gathering at a house in the Chevy Chase/Bethesda area. There were four boys I remember being there: Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, P.J. Smyth, and one other boy whose name I cannot recall. I remember my friend Leland Ingham attending. I do not remember all of the details of how that gathering came together, but like many that summer, it was almost surely a spur of the moment gathering. I truly wish I could provide detailed answers to all of the questions that have been and will be asked about how I got to the party, where it took place, and so forth. I dont have all the answers, and I dont remember as much as I would like to. But the details about that night that bring me here today are ones I will never forget. They have been seared into my memory and have haunted me episodically as an adult. When I got to the small gathering, people were drinking beer in a small living room on the first floor of the house. I drank one beer that evening. Brett and Mark were visibly drunk. Early in the evening, I went up a narrow set of stairs leading from the living room to a second floor to use the bathroom. When I got to the top of the stairs, I was pushed from behind into a bedroom. I couldnt see who pushed me. Brett and Mark came into the bedroom and locked the door behind them. There was music already playing in the bedroom. It was turned up louder by either Brett or Mark once we were in the room. I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me. He began running his hands over my body and grinding his hips into me. I yelled, hoping someone downstairs might hear me, and tried to get away from him, but his weight was heavy. Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was so drunk, and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothes. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me. Both Brett and Mark were drunkenly laughing during the attack. They both seemed to be having a good time. Mark was urging Brett on, although at times he told Brett to stop. A couple of times I made eye contact with Mark and thought he might try to help me, but he did not. During this assault, Mark came over and jumped on the bed twice while Brett was on top of me. The last time he did this, we toppled over and Brett was no longer on top of me. I was able to get up and run out of the room. Directly across from the bedroom was a small bathroom. I ran inside the bathroom and locked the door. I heard Brett and Mark leave the bedroom laughing and loudly walk down the narrow stairs, pin-balling off the walls on the way down. I waited and when I did not hear them come back up the stairs, I left the bathroom, ran down the stairs, through the living room, and left the house. I remember being on the street and feeling an enormous sense of relief that I had escaped from the house and that Brett and Mark were not coming after me. Bretts assault on me drastically altered my life. For a very long time, I was too afraid and ashamed to tell anyone the details. I did not want to tell my parents that I, at age 15, was in a house without any parents present, drinking beer with boys. I tried to convince myself that because Brett did not rape me, I should be able to move on and just pretend that it had never happened. Over the years, I told very few friends that I had this traumatic experience. I told my husband before we were married that I had experienced a sexual assault. I had never told the details to anyone until May 2012, during a couples counseling session. The reason this came up in counseling is that my husband and I had completed an extensive remodel of our home, and I insisted on a second front door, an idea that he and others disagreed with and could not understand. In explaining why I wanted to have a second front door, I described the assault in detail. I recall saying that the boy who assaulted me could someday be on the U.S. Supreme Court and spoke a bit about his background. My husband recalls that I named my attacker as Brett Kavanaugh. After that May 2012 therapy session, I did my best to suppress memories of the assault because recounting the details caused me to relive the experience, and caused panic attacks and anxiety. Occasionally I would discuss the assault in individual therapy, but talking about it caused me to relive the trauma, so I tried not to think about it or discuss it. But over the years, I went through periods where I thought about Bretts attack. I confided in some close friends that I had an experience with sexual assault. Occasionally I stated that my assailant was a prominent lawyer or judge but I did not use his name. I do not recall each person I spoke to about Bretts assault, and some friends have reminded me of these conversations since the publication of The Washington Post story on September 16, 2018. But until July 2018, I had never named Mr. Kavanaugh as my attacker outside of therapy. This all changed in early July 2018. I saw press reports stating that Brett Kavanaugh was on the short list of potential Supreme Court nominees. I thought it was my civic duty to relay the information I had about Mr. Kavanaughs conduct so that those considering his potential nomination would know about the assault. On July 6, 2018, I had a sense of urgency to relay the information to the Senate and the President as soon as possible before a nominee was selected. I called my congressional representative and let her receptionist know that someone on the Presidents shortlist had attacked me. I also sent a message to The Washington Posts confidential tip line. I did not use my name, but I provided the names of Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. I stated that Mr. Kavanaugh had assaulted me in the 1980s in Maryland. This was an extremely hard thing for me to do, but I felt I couldnt NOT do it. Over the next two days, I told a couple of close friends on the beach in California that Mr.Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted me. I was conflicted about whether to speak out. On July 9, 2018, I received a call from the office of Congresswoman Anna Eshoo after Mr. Kavanaugh had become the nominee. I met with her staff on July 11 and with her on July 13, describing the assault and discussing my fear about coming forward. Later, we discussed the possibility of sending a letter to Ranking Member Feinstein, who is one of my states Senators, describing what occurred. My understanding is that Representative Eshoos office delivered a copy of my letter to Senator Feinsteins office on July 30, 2018. The letter included my name, but requested that the letter be kept confidential. My hope was that providing the information confidentially would be sufficient to allow the Senate to consider Mr. Kavanaughs serious misconduct without having to make myself, my family, or anyones family vulnerable to the personal attacks and invasions of privacy we have faced since my name became public. In a letter on August 31, 2018, Senator Feinstein wrote that she would not share the letter without my consent. I greatly appreciated this commitment. All sexual assault victims should be able to decide for themselves whether their private experience is made public. As the hearing date got closer, I struggled with a terrible choice: Do I share the facts with the Senate and put myself and my family in the public spotlight? Or do I preserve our privacy and allow the Senate to make its decision on Mr. Kavanaughs nomination without knowing the full truth about his past behavior? I agonized daily with this decision throughout August and early September 2018. The sense of duty that motivated me to reach out confidentially to The Washington Post, Representative Eshoos office, and Senator Feinsteins office was always there, but my fears of the consequences of speaking out started to increase. During August 2018, the press reported that Mr. Kavanaughs confirmation was virtually certain. His allies painted him as a champion of womens rights and empowerment. I believed that if I came forward, my voice would be drowned out by a chorus of powerful supporters. By the time of the confirmation hearings, I had resigned myself to remaining quiet and letting the Committee and the Senate make their decision without knowing what Mr. Kavanaugh had done to me. Once the press started reporting on the existence of the letter I had sent to Senator Feinstein, I faced mounting pressure. Reporters appeared at my home and at my job demanding information about this letter, including in the presence of my graduate students. They called my boss and co- workers and left me many messages, making it clear that my name would inevitably be released to the media. I decided to speak out publicly to a journalist who had responded to the tip I had sent to The Washington Post and who had gained my trust. It was important to me to describe the details of the assault in my own words. Since September 16, the date of The Washington Post story, I have experienced an outpouring of support from people in every state of this country. Thousands of people who have had their lives dramatically altered by sexual violence have reached out to share their own experiences with me and have thanked me for coming forward. We have received tremendous support from friends and our community. At the same time, my greatest fears have been realized and the reality has been far worse than what I expected. My family and I have been the target of constant harassment and death threats. I have been called the most vile and hateful names imaginable. These messages, while far fewer than the expressions of support, have been terrifying to receive and have rocked me to my core. People have posted my personal information on the internet. This has resulted in additional emails, calls, and threats. My family and I were forced to move out of our home. Since September 16, my family and I have been living in various secure locales, with guards. This past Tuesday evening, my work email account was hacked and messages were sent out supposedly recanting my description of the sexual assault. Apart from the assault itself, these last couple of weeks have been the hardest of my life. I have had to relive my trauma in front of the entire world, and have seen my life picked apart by people on television, in the media, and in this body who have never met me or spoken with me. I have been accused of acting out of partisan political motives. Those who say that do not know me. I am a fiercely independent person and I am no ones pawn. My motivation in coming forward was to provide the facts about how Mr. Kavanaughs actions have damaged my life, so that you can take that into serious consideration as you make your decision about how to proceed. It is not my responsibility to determine whether Mr. Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court. My responsibility is to tell the truth. I understand that the Majority has hired a professional prosecutor to ask me some questions, and I am committed to doing my very best to answer them. At the same time, because the Committee Members will be judging my credibility, I hope to be able to engage directly with each of you. At this point, I will do my best to answer your questions. Amman (AFP) - Set atop a mosque in the south of Jordan's capital, dozens of shimmering solar panels reflect a growing trend in the resource-poor desert kingdom as it tries combat its heavy reliance on imported energy. Standing in front of the Hamdan al-Qara mosque, Sheikh Adnan Yahya says that before installing the panels he used to pay up to 13,000 dinars ($18,350, 15,500 euros) a year for electricity. "The bill has now dropped to almost zero," says the imam. With panels popping up on the rooftops of homes, schools, hotels and factories across Jordan, the growing popularity of solar power is easy to spot. The dishes and other desert-based solar fields are part of the kingdom's drive to steer the country away from foreign energy and towards renewable options available domestically. Jordan imports nearly 98 percent of its energy needs, and has long relied on gas, heavy fuel oil and diesel to run its power plants. Each year, it pays more than $4.5 billion on oil imports alone, according to official data. Public debt exceeds more than $40 billion in Jordan, rocked this summer by rare anti-austerity protests. But a government plan to make clean energy 20 percent of the country's overall power consumption by 2020 has seen alternative energy projects skyrocket in recent years. At the beginning of this year, a set of 140 panels were affixed to the top of Sheikh Yahya's mosque at a cost of $45,000 -- generating nearly 44 kilowatts of energy. The installation powers the 1,500-person capacity place of prayer, its 50 air conditioners, 35 fans, 120 lamps, 32 cameras and sound system. "In the past, worshippers would complain about the heat in the summer and ask us to turn up the air conditioners. But now they tell us: 'Turn it down, we're freezing!'" the white-bearded sheikh says with a broad smile. The Hamdan al-Qara is one of 380 mosques and churches across Jordan that have been supplied with solar-power systems in the past five years, according to the energy ministry. Story continues - 'Qualitative leap' - Last year, solar plants were opened at the Syrian refugee camps of Zaatari and Azraq, providing tens of thousands of people with free and clean electricity. In Maan province, the kingdom's largest which stretches from the south of the capital west to the border with Saudi Arabia, 11 renewable energy projects have been launched since 2012. They include the Shams Maan solar plant. Managed by a consortium of companies including Jordan's Kawar investment group, Qatar's Nebras Power and Japan's Mitsubishi, the $170 million project generates 52.5 megawatts of electricity -- one percent of the country's electricity production. "Solar energy will help Jordan save on the price of fuel purchased from abroad in hard currency and help it to be self-reliant in power generation," says Hanna Zaghloul, Kawar's chief executive. "Jordan is eligible for such vital projects and the results are very encouraging. Solar energy is available 320 days a year and provides hundreds of jobs," he says. With 640,000 panels set up across a two-square-kilometre area, Shams Maan is the largest project of its kind in Jordan, adds Zaghloul. "God gave us the sun and the wind, which is a local energy, the more we use it, the more we become dependent on ourselves," says Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Hala Zawati. According to her, Jordan is "witnessing a rapid qualitative leap in the field of renewable energy". Before 2012 there were no renewable energy options, laws or regulations in the kingdom. But today, wind and solar power contribute "seven percent of the electricity consumed in Jordan," she says. And as it becomes more prevalent, the cost of renewable energy production has dropped too. "Today, a kilowatt of solar energy costs about four cents, which is less than half the cost of oil derivatives, and this is steadily decreasing," says Zawati. The former minister of state for economic affairs, Yusuf Mansur, says Jordan "must take advantage of this clean, cheap and widely available energy". Current projects "contribute to efforts to balance the budget and will lead the state towards more energy independence," he says. A burning pyre set the stage for Rick Owens PFW show. [Photo: Rex] Fashion is an art form we often associate with glamour, beautiful aesthetics and saccharine femininity, but in some instances, fashion is used to provide commentary about the world we live in. One designer who isnt afraid to get political is Rick Owens, who showed his spring/summer 2019 show during Paris Fashion Week yesterday and the outcome was typically stirring. Held in Palais de Tokyo, Owens centre piece was a burning pyre, setting the ritualistic theme for the show. In his show notes, the designer referenced the Tower of Babel, an origin myth meant to explain why the worlds peoples speak different languages, and Tatlins Tower, a design by the early-20th-century Russian architect Vladimir Tatlin for a structure that was never built. Make of those reference what you will. The show felt like a strange toss-up between the old and new: on one part, it evoked images of witches being burnt at the stake, and on the other hand, we saw models storm out looking like warriors in an apocalyptic future. [Photo: Rex] For fashion blogger Susie Bubble, who attended the show, Owens was making a statement about anger. Designers dont often channel anger as an emotion into collections everything is lovely, chic, beautiful, exotic and flowering But Rick Owens raged and why shouldnt he [sic], the British blogger commented on Instagram. Models stormed the runway in sculpted black leather, dresses with undone draping, and skirts with seemingly off-cuts hanging loose. Story continues Scaffolding-like headpieces, futuristic sunglasses and flaming torches paraded down the runway, while some models wore sickly white faces and greased down hair. [Photo: Rex] As the heat of his giant pyre at Palais de Tokyo grew, so did the ire in my mind over, well everything!, Bubble commented. Every news piece becoming more stomach-churningly sordid by the day. The shadows of the flames cast on the building also recalled horrors of Grenfell, and yes for some inexplicable reason, I had tears as well as smoke in my eyes. Who said fashion is frivolous, eh? Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK. Read more from Yahoo Style UK: Yet another wacky Paris Fashion Week show from Rick Owens The chicest street style looks to copy from Paris Fashion Week Bandages or cycling shorts? Internet is totally confused by flesh coloured trousers Roxanne Pallett (Credit: Channel 5) Ryan Thomas has finally received a written apology from his fellow Celebrity Big Brother housemate Roxanne Pallett, after she accused him of assaulting her on the show. Former Emmerdale actress Pallett hit headlines last month, after she made the complaint to show producers, which resulted in Thomas receiving an official warning. She later quit the contest early, and apologised to Thomas and his family for falsely accusing him, admitting that she had misinterpreted what was clearly a play fight. Ryan has finally received his letter from Roxanne, a source told The Sun. Ryan Thomas (Credit: PA) It was very heartfelt and unreservedly apologetic. He wants to put it to bed now and move on. In interviews after the show, Pallett described herself as the most hated girl in Britain. She told show host Emma Willis: I needed to come and tell everyone that I got it wrong. Im human. I made a massive, massive, horrible mistake. Pallett later stepped down from her radio show on Yorks Minister FM, and also pulled out of a planned panto performance. Thomas went on to win the series. Read more Noel Fielding: baby daughter blows my mind All male final for Celebrity MasterChef Susannah Constantine ready to slap Revel Horwood Riyadh (AFP) - The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemeni rebels alongside government forces on Friday strongly criticised a UN human rights mission as its mandate comes up for renewal. The coalition said any extension should be a matter for the Yemeni government, which already announced on Thursday that it was ending cooperation with the UN investigation into suspected war crimes during more than three years of conflict. But it again took strong issue with an August 28 report by the panel, which accused both government forces and Huthi rebels of violations but said that coalition air strikes had caused "most of the documented civilian casualties" and voiced "serious concerns about the targeting process". In comments released to AFP through the Saudi information ministry, coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki criticised the "inaccuracy of the information in the report, which was derived from non-governmental organisations and the testimonies of some persons whose circumstances are unknown". He said the report "failed to mention Irans role in Yemen, and the countless violations perpetrated by the Huthis, both against the Yemeni people and against the kingdom" of Saudi Arabia. "These violations include targeting the kingdom using Iranian ballistic missiles - aimed at civilian and religious sites," he added. The coalition says the rebels have fired more than 200 missiles at Saudi Arabia since it intervened in Yemen in March 2015 when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled into exile as they closed in on his last stronghold. It accuses Saudi arch-foe Iran of smuggling in the missiles through the rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeida, the entry point for UN aid for millions of desperately needy civilians that is currently under attack by government and United Arab Emirates troops. The UN Human Rights Council, which appointed the panel of experts a year ago, is expected to decide imminently on a request by the body to continue its investigation into the "extremely alarming" situation. Story continues Human Rights Watch last week accused Saudi Arabia of mounting a "campaign to discredit and undermine a UN investigation into abuses by all Yemen's warring parties", calling it "yet another blatant attempt to avoid scrutiny of the coalition's own actions in Yemen". The United Nations says there have been nearly 10,000 confirmed deaths in the conflict since the coalition intervened in 2015, although the real number is far higher. The conflict has triggered what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with three-quarters of the population -- or 22 million people -- in need of humanitarian aid. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch referred to Christine Blasey Ford as an attractive witness Thursday during a break in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both teenagers, recounted the alleged encounter in prepared remarks to the committee before answering questions about her claim. After the Judiciary Committee hearing broke for lunch, Hatch was asked whether he thought Ford had been credible thus far in her statements. The Republican senator said it was too early to tell. I dont think shes uncredible, he said, according to CNN. I think shes an attractive, good witness. Asked what he meant by the word attractive, Hatch said: In other words, shes pleasing. Sen. Orrin Hatch says its too early to say if Ford is credible. I dont think shes uncredible. I think she an attractive, good witness, he said. Asked by @ElizLanders what he meant by attractive, he said, In other words, shes pleasing. Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) September 27, 2018 As criticism grew on Twitter over Hatchs choice of words during a hearing on sexual assault allegations against a Supreme Court nominee, the senators spokesperson weighed in, saying he used attractive to describe Fords personality. Hatch uses attractive to describe personalities, not appearances, Matt Whitlock, deputy chief of staff and communications director to Hatch, said in response to reporters tweeting about Hatchs comments. If you search his past quotes youll see hes used it consistently for years for men and women he believed has compelling personalities. In her testimony, Ford said said Kavanaugh got on top of her, tried to remove her clothes and put his hands over her mouth to prevent her from screaming at a house party in the 1980s in suburban Maryland. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me, Ford said. Kavanaugh has denied Fords allegation, as well as the claims of several other women who have alleged misconduct by Kavanaugh. On Friday morning, Senator Jeff Flake finally announced that he'd vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The Republican from Arizona was previously undecided and was seen as one of the key deciding votes. His last minute decision was particularly heartbreaking for a group of sexual assault survivors gathered near his office, who proceeded to confront him in the Senate elevator and reveal their own stories of abuse. Women confront Sen. Jeff Flake after he says he'll vote yes to Kavanuagh: Thats what youre telling all women in America, that they dont matter. They should just keep it to themselves because if they have told the truth youre just going to help that man to power anyway. pic.twitter.com/T7fSpyT69E CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2018 The highly emotional confrontation lasted approximately five minutes, during which Flake said almost nothing. At times, Flake's aide directed the survivors to the press office. Throughout the confrontation, the two survivors asked Flake to look at him. The Senator largely kept his head to the ground. SEE ALSO: Christine Blasey Ford testifies before 17 male senators and almost no women "I was sexually assaulted. Nobody believed me," one survivor and protestor, Maria Gallagher, revealed. "You're telling all women in America that they don't matter. They should just keep it to themselves." Gallagher, 23, had come to DC to protest Kavanaugh's nomination with the group Center for Popular Democracy. Dont look away from me, Gallagher said. Look at me and tell me that it doesnt matter what happened to me, that you will let people like that go into the highest court of the land and tell everyone what they can do to their bodies. Story continues Along with Gallagher, Ana Maria Archila, also spoke. Archila had come to Senator Flake's office earlier in the week and revealed her own abuse. I told it because I recognized in Dr. Fords story that she is telling the truth, Ms. Archila said in the elevator. What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them. A vote to confirm Kavanaugh is scheduled for early next week. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior U.S. Senate Republicans will discuss later on Friday whether to delay a full Senate vote over President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, the No. 2 Republican in Senate, John Cornyn, told Reuters. "We're going to talk to the majority leader. He's the one who makes that decision. We're going to be having that conversation this afternoon," Cornyn said, adding, "I don't think there's really anything more to be learned" from a new FBI investigation. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) Seven men have been arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of plotting a large-scale extremist attack that Dutch prosecutors think was foiled following a months-long investigation. The national prosecutors office said in a statement that heavily armed police arrested the men in the towns of Arnhem, about 100km (62 miles) south of Amsterdam, and Weert in the southern Netherlands close to the borders of Germany and Belgium. The investigation was launched by intelligence suggesting the alleged ring leader, a 34-year-old man of Iraqi heritage, wanted to carry out an attack at the site of a large event and cause multiple casualties, according to the statement. The suspects allegedly wanted to use bomb vests and assault rifles to do harm at the event, and planned to detonate a car bomb at another location, prosecutors said. An investigation of potential targets was continuing. Prosecutors said the suspects ranged in age from 21 to 34. Three of them, including the 34-year-old Iraqi, were previously convicted of attempting to travel overseas to join extremist networks. The men were attempting to obtain AK47 assault rifles, handguns, bomb vests, grenades and raw materials for bombs and were looking for opportunities to train with such weapons, according to the statement. Prosecutors said the investigation sped up this month because of the suspects advanced preparations". The minister for justice and security, Ferd Grapperhaus, told Dutch national broadcaster NOS that police acted in time to prevent an attack. In a sense it is serious, but luckily its also good news a terrorist cell that was plotting an attack has been taken down, Mr Grapperhaus said. They werent so far that it was a danger to society, in the sense that it was nearly too late. But they were quite far in their preparations. The men were to be brought before an investigating judge on Friday at a behind-closed-doors hearing. The arrests came weeks after a 19-year-old Afghan citizen living in Germany allegedly stabbed two American tourists at Amsterdams main railway station in what prosecutors described as an attack with an extremist motive. Story continues The Dutch anti-terror coordinators office said in a tweet on Thursday that the allegedly foiled plot fit the current threat profile for the Netherlands, which is at four on a scale that tops out at five. The office did not raise the level following the arrests. Jihad networks are also active in the Netherlands with the intention to plot attacks in Europe, the office said. Todays arrests must be seen in that light. Associated Press Two sexual assault survivors confronted Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on live TV Friday, shortly after the senator announced he would vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Youre telling all women that they dont matter, said one woman between tears as Flake tried to leave in an elevator with his head down. Look at me when Im talking to you! she shouted. Youre telling me that my assault doesnt matter. Look at me and tell me that it doesnt matter what happened to me! the woman added. That youll let people like that go into the highest court in the land and tell everyone what they can do with their bodies. Watch a clip of the exchange on CNN below: Look at me when I'm talking to you. Youre telling me that my assault doesnt matter!": Protesters confront Sen. Jeff Flake moments after he announces he will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh. https://t.co/Cc5y9kura1 pic.twitter.com/qqvz3jx8JF CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2018 Another woman, Ana Maria Archila, said she believed Christine Blasey Ford, the psychology professor who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school, because Blaseys story was similar to her own experience. What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court! she shouted at Flake. What are you doing, sir? This is the future of our country! Archila is an executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive nonprofit group. She said in a statement after the confrontation that Flake claims to support civility but has proven he would rather ignore womens stories and support a disrespectful sexual abuser than stick to his values. The Senate Judiciary Committee convened Friday morning for a vote on Kavanaugh. Flake entered the hearing room frowning. The senator was previously one of a few whose voting plans were unclear following Thursdays testimonies from Kavanaugh and Blasey. He stood up for Blasey on the Senate floor and criticized a comment from President Donald Trump that cast doubt on her claim because the alleged incident occurred more than three decades ago. Story continues I do not believe the claim of sexual assault is invalid because a 15-year-old girl didnt report the assault to authorities, as the president of the United States said just two days ago, Flake said Thursday. How uninformed and uncaring do we have to be to say things like that, much less believe them? Yet the senator said Friday in a statement that he ultimately decided to vote to confirm Kavanaugh because he had left the hearing the day before with as much doubt as certainty. The vote is largely expected to fall along party lines. A handful of Democrats Sens. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.) walked out of the committee after members moved to vote on Kavanaughs nomination Friday afternoon. Related Coverage Donald Trump Reacts To Blasey Ford-Kavanaugh Hearing Republicans Not Moved By Christine Blasey Ford's Testimony (At Least Not Yet) Lindsey Graham Melts Down At Kavanaugh Hearing Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Two students barred from graduation for bare ankles. (Photo: Getty Images) By Kerry Justich A couple of alumni from Oxford University are speaking out against the school for nearly barring them from graduation when they showed up to the ceremony with bare ankles. According to a Facebook post by Eleanor Broome, she was refused entry into her graduation ceremony in late July because she was showing too much flesh. The photo accompanying her status is one of her provocative ankles, which were cited as the issue with her particular outfit. The dress code for the event was sub fusc, meaning that graduates were required to wear formal dark clothing, such as a dark suit with black socks or a dark skirt with black stockings. However, Broome tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she assumed the rule regarding socks only applied to ensembles with lace-up shoes or fully exposed legs. I read through the regulations before my ceremony, and I thought that black trousers and black shoes would be fine given that these were stated as appropriate sub fusc, she explains. Black socks were also mentioned but I just assumed that this would be for lace-up shoes. I didnt expect that they wanted us to wear black socks with our sandals or heels. For the hot summer day, only heels or sandals seemed appropriate to the graduate. And while nobody took issue with her exposed ankles on her way toward the Sheldonian Theatre where the ceremony was taking place, an administrator at the door told her that she wouldnt be allowed in. I honestly thought he was joking. I even think I laughed and said, Im sorry, what?' Broome recalls. And then he said, Your ankles are not covered, you are showing too much flesh. I cannot allow you in until you get the correct sub fusc.' The only way for Broome to get a pair of socks was to leave the graduation altogether and buy some herself, ultimately making her late to the ceremony. Luckily for Rebecca Morton, who faced the same dress code issue, a friend had a pair of socks for her to change into. However, she maintains that it shouldnt have been a violation because it hadnt been through the rest of her years at Oxford. Story continues I wore the same outfit as I wore to graduation to all eleven of my exams and no university officials raised any issues with it, even though part of the invigilators job at examinations is to police subfusc, Morton explains. As a result I assumed the outfit was fine and wore it to graduation hence my anger and confusion when I wasnt allowed into the ceremony. Yet, more anger was directed at the fact that violations were only called against women. There werent any men refused entry that I saw, it was all of us women in trousers, Broome says. I later found out that there were about ten women refused entry at this particular ceremony. Morton additionally argues that there were misogynistic undertones in the way that the violation was brought to her attention. I was particularly upset by the use of the phrase showing flesh by two individual university officials as an explanation for why I was not allowed in, she says. Fortunately that phrase doesnt appear in the dress code, but it and similar phrases have on several occasions that I know of, been offered as the reason for barring entry to female students. It wouldnt be the first time students have expressed concern over dress codes being gender-bias. In fact, the ACLU has been involved in a number of dress code cases within the United States, helping schools to ensure that regulations are enforced equally amongst men and women. Oxford University tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the sub fusc tradition will continue, as outlined on their website, and in additional notices that were provided to students prior to the summer graduation. The note went out to College Deans of Degrees at the start of summer as a reminder of the dress code for degree ceremonies, a university spokesperson says. The note was intended to avoid delays to ceremonies, as a courtesy to everyone attending. We are not aware of any significant delays as a result this year. Both Broome and Morton were ultimately able to sit for their graduation ceremonies, once they acquired the proper socks and stockings for under their trousers. However, the women say that their graduation has tainted their overall experience at the university. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK. Read more from Yahoo Style UK: Malala Yousafzai shamed for wearing skinny jeans and heels to class Teacher says blame the girls for dress-code violations: They pretty much ruin everything Im sorry, but EXCUSE ME?: Mum furious after daughter suspended for wearing ripped jeans Police guarding Sergei Skripals Salisbury home in March (PA) A third suspect alleged to have helped plot the Salisbury nerve agent attack has been identified by police, it has been reported. The man, from Russias military intelligence service the GRU, is understood to have visited Salisbury ahead of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. According to The Telegraph, the suspect was likely to have fed back details including the layout of the cul-de-sac where Mr Skripal lived and which door he used to enter and leave. Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov (PA) A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: We will not be discussing any further details in what remains a live investigation. UK authorities believe two Russians, using the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, smeared the highly toxic Novichok chemical on a door handle at the Wiltshire home of former GRU officer Mr Skripal on March 4. The attack left Mr Skripal and his daughter critically ill, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, who was later exposed to the same nerve agent, died in July. On Wednesday, the investigative group Bellingcat identified one of the suspects as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga a highly decorated GRU officer. Bellingcat said it had identified Chepiga, who travelled to the UK with a passport issued in the assumed name of Ruslan Boshirov, by trawling through online records from Russian military academies. The Government has declined to comment officially on the report, although it has previously said the two suspects wanted for the attack on the Skripals were GRU officers. Bellingcat is reportedly close to identifying the second suspect. MORE: Passengers and crew survive after plane crash-lands in Pacific lagoon after overshooting runway MORE: Secondary school bans children from talking in corridors as part of rules that have transformed it A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed Bellingcats claims, and said they were part of an information campaign to distract from the investigation into what really happened in Salisbury. Meanwhile, the Government dismissed allegations that Russian security services infiltrated the British Embassy in Moscow to obtain visas for the suspected poisoners. A Home Office spokeswoman said: We reject these claims entirely. Applications of this type would be decided by a visa officer in the UK and not in the British Embassy in Moscow. Lome (AFP) - "Physically I'm very weak but spiritually and mentally I am strong," says Nicodeme Ayao Habia, president of an opposition party in Togo on Friday -- day 10 of his hunger strike. Habia lies on a mat in front of the Ghanaian embassy in Lome, where he is demanding the release of protesters who have been detained for months after demonstrating against the ruling regime. "Doctors come every day, I get seen by them. The rest is up to me. If I can make this sacrifice for change in my country, I should do it. "I don't fear for my life, what's important for me is the release of the prisoners," he says. "I'm here to show the world what's happening in Togo." The West African bloc ECOWAS stepped in early this year to negotiate between Togo's government and the opposition after months of protests with people calling for the resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe. The opposition parties had obtained the release of about 40 people arrested in connection with protests and 10 others were released in early September. But according to the leaders of the coalition of 14 opposition parties, there are still 44 people languishing in Togolese prisons who are yet to have their case heard in court. The minister of justice maintains that their situation will be examined on a case-by-case basis. "There are no members of my party who are still in jail but those who remain inside are still Togolese, innocent people suffering in our prisons," said Habia. "If they are released today, I will leave this place." Habia knows what it's like to be a political prisoner. He was arrested several times -- in 1992 and 1994 -- when Gnassingbe's father was president and was "tortured for months by soldiers before being transferred to a prison in Lome". Faure Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 after succeeding his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who led the small West African country with an iron fist for 38 years. Story continues He has opposed changes to the constitution that would put a limit on presidential terms, sparking the nationwide uprising. Along with the release of the protesters, Habia has demanded that the government comply with an ECOWAS-approved roadmap and "implement the reforms the Togolese have been demanding for years", including capping the number of presidential terms. - Lost 15 kg - By his side, Habia has a poster of the national flag, photos of four detainees and newspaper affiliated with the opposition, underneath a book with the fitting title "No easy day." Not far from him are stacks of candles. "People come to put out candles every day," said Achille Mensah, Habia's spokesman. "They say they want to call on the spirit of the Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo," one of the two ECOWAS facilitators who helped mediate the crisis in Togo. On Friday morning a crowd of about 50 people, many of them young, gathered in front of the embassy to support Habia. "Some young people spend the night with him and early in the morning go home," Mensah said, adding that Habia has already lost 15 kilograms (33 pounds), according to doctors. A banner flies in the crowd showing the names of detained protesters: "Free Messenth, Joseph, Assibia... human rights and democracy activists arbitrarily arrested in Togo." So far, Habia has refused to break his fast, only drinking water to stay alive. On Monday, he was visited by police. "When they arrived, they told me to get out quickly and knowing my rights, I resisted and turned back," he said. "I'm not here to hurt anyone. I'm here to call attention to the national and international community for the release of my compatriots. PALU, Indonesia (AP) The powerful earthquake and tsunami that hit Indonesia's central Sulawesi has claimed many victims, a disaster official said Saturday, as rescuers raced to reach the region and an AP reporter saw numerous bodies in a hard-hit city. Disaster officials haven't released an official death toll but reports from three hospitals seen Saturday by The Associated Press listed 18 dead. Dawn revealed a devastated coastline in central Sulawesi where the 3-meter high (10 foot) tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake Friday smashed into two cities and several settlements. Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a television interview there are "many victims." In Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, the city of more than 380,000 people was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. Indonesia's president says he instructed the security minister to coordinate the government's response to a quake and tsunami that hit central Sulawesi. President Joko Widodo also told reporters in his hometown of Solo late Friday that he had called on the country's military chief to work on search and rescue efforts and evacuations as needed. The tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake smashed into two cities and several settlements on Sulawesi island. The national disaster agency said Saturday there were "many victims." Images from the area showed victims' bodies, debris from flattened buildings and puddles of seawater remained. PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) In an instructional television program about table tennis on the state-run sports channel, every ball, paddle and shirt bear the logo of "Naegohyang," one of North Korea's most recognizable brands. A documentary about the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital ends with new mothers being handed smartly packaged disposable diapers with the local brand featured prominently. Has North Korea discovered the art of product placement? Subtle shifts like the quiet insertion of what looks a lot like advertising onto the North Korean airwaves exemplify how in the era of leader Kim Jong Un the North is learning to embrace its inner consumer. Story continues UNITED NATIONS (AP) China warned Friday that its critical relationship with the United States could break "like a glass," and used the most global of stages to warn the Trump administration it wouldn't be pushed around on trade. Foreign Minister Wang Yi insisted that his country "will not be blackmailed" or bow to pressure. "Protectionism will only hurt oneself, and unilateral moves will bring damage to all," he told the U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders. President Donald Trump this week cranked up punitive tariffs on China, and Beijing responded in kind, escalating a trade war between the world's two largest economies. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Human Rights attorney Amal Clooney, who is representing two journalists from Reuters news agency sentenced to hard labor after they uncovered a military massacre, urged Myanmar leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday to immediately pardon the reporters and reverse a miscarriage of justice. Clooney, speaking at a press freedom event at the United Nations, sought to link the former iconic status of Suu Kyi as a human rights champion to the request for the release of Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, and Wa Lone, 32. Clooney said the reporters were arrested in an attempt by Myanmar to keep Reuters from publishing a story on the extrajudicial killings of 10 Rohingya men and boys. NEW YORK (AP) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo renewed U.S. calls on Friday for Myanmar to bring to justice those responsible for human rights abuses against the minority Rohingya Muslim population. In a meeting in New York with a top aide to Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Pompeo also urged the government to immediately release two Reuters journalists who were jailed for reporting on violence in the country's northern Rakhine State, according to the State Department. The meeting between Pompeo and Kyaw Tint Swe on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly came a day after the U.N.'s top human rights body agreed to set up a team to collect evidence of crimes against the Rohingya and others since 2011 that could be used to prosecute perpetrators. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) A passenger on a plane that crashed into a Pacific lagoon on Friday said the flight attendants were panicking and he saw water pouring through a hole in the side of the plane before he was able to escape. Local boats helped rescue all 47 passengers and crew after the plane hit the water while trying to land at the Chuuk Island airport in the Micronesia archipelago. Seven people were taken to a hospital, according to officials, including one described as being in critical but stable condition. Passenger Bill Jaynes said the Air Niugini plane came in very low. The plane that crash-landed Friday in a remote Pacific lagoon was operated by Air Niugini, an airline that's hardly a household name but provides crucial links between isolated Melanesian outposts in the Pacific and the rest of the world. So far it appears none of the 47 people on board was killed, although one person was described by officials as in critical condition. ___ WHERE WAS THE CRASH? The Air Niugini plane ended in the water while trying to land at Chuuk Island, a popular diving spot because of its World War II wrecks, in the Federated States of Micronesia. The Boeing 737 had flown from Pohnpei, another of Micronesia's islands, and according to the airline landed in "very poor" weather with heavy rain and reduced visibility. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Days after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced globalism before world leaders at the United Nations, China and Russia positioned themselves Friday as defenders of internationalism that are keeping promises when Washington is backing away from them. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denied his country was trying to eclipse the U.S. as a world leader, but his speech at the U.N. General Assembly was a stark contrast to Trump's "America First" message. It came amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China, which Trump accused this week of interfering in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections. China denies the claim. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Two veteran Southeast Asian leaders who appeared at the United Nations on Friday present a microcosm of a dynamic region enjoying rapid economic growth but struggling to fan away egregious human rights problems that follow it like a bad smell. On the one hand is Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad, who at the grand old age of 93 has shed his authoritarian past, ousted a rival accused of massive corruption through democratic change, and re-entered the international stage with vigor. On the other is Cambodia's Hun Sen, who has ruled his nation with a combination of political guile and brute force for three decades, and comes to New York having won all the seats in an election after outlawing his main political opposition. Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, made it crystal clear where he stood on President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after the Senate Judiciary Committees hearing Thursday. Emotionally, it was taxing, Noah said of the hearing. It was like a sad Super Bowl. Noah had kind words for Christine Blasey Ford, the California research psychologist who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they both were in high school. Even as Dr. Ford sat through hours of grueling questioning, being asked to remember the tiniest details of something that happened over three decades ago, she still managed to remain surprisingly gracious and agreeable, Noah said. He also noted that Kavanaugh appeared to be extremely angry. Good Lord! This guy was such an asshole it looked like he was auditioning for a Snickers commercial, Noah said. He added, You could feel real Brett coming through. Check out the video above to see what Noah said about Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Lesley Wroughton and David Brunnstrom UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned members of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that they must "set the example" by enforcing sanctions on North Korea as China and Russia suggested the council consider easing the tough measures. China and Russia said the council should reward Pyongyang for the "positive developments" this year with U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un having met in June and Kim pledging to work toward denuclearization. Pompeo chaired a meeting of the 15-member council on the sidelines of the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders after meeting with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho on Wednesday. Pompeo plans to travel to Pyongyang next month. But until Pyongyang gives up its nuclear weapons program, Pompeo said: "Enforcement of Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize the fully, final, verified denuclearization." "The members of the council must set the example on that effort," Pompeo said. Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Russia of cheating on U.N. sanctions on North Korea. The Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Chinese government's top diplomat Wang Yi noted that there are provisions in Security Council resolutions for the body to modify sanctions if North Korea complies. He said that "given the positive developments" China believed the council "needs to consider invoking in due course this provision to encourage the DPRK and other relevant parties to move denuclearization further ahead," using North Korea's official name of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). However, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said later on Thursday that the council resolutions on North Korea do not provide for any exceptions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov backed his Chinese colleague. Lavrov said that "any negotiation is a two-way street. Steps by the DPRK towards gradual disarmament should be followed by the easing of sanctions." He was also critical of several U.S. attempts to tighten U.N. sanctions on North Korea in recent months. In July, Russia and China delayed a U.S. push for the council's sanctions committee to order a halt to refined petroleum exports to North Korea, asking for more detail on a U.S. accusation that Pyongyang breached sanctions, diplomats said. Then last month, Russia and China objected to a U.S. proposal to add a Russian bank, a Moscow-based North Korean banker and two other entities to a U.N. Security Council blacklist, diplomats said. "Further increase of sanctions goes beyond cutting off financing of banned missile and nuclear programs, and is in fact a threat to North Korean citizens and would bring extreme socio-economic and humanitarian suffering," Lavrov said. Lavrov said the Security Council should send a clear signal in support of the positive momentum on the Korean Peninsula. "This could be done, for example, by adopting a relevant resolution and we want to prepare a draft of such a resolution and propose it to the Security Council," he said. Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, speaking at the same meeting, agreed that the council should recognize that "recent progress has shown that is possible to diffuse tensions through dialogue and cooperation." Diplomats have said the United States did not want the Security Council to issue a statement on the developments. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and David Brunnstrom; Writing by Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool) The UN Human Rights Council voted Thursday to set up a panel to prepare criminal indictments over atrocities committed in Myanmar, amid allegations of genocide against the Rohingya minority. The top UN rights body voted to "establish an ongoing independent mechanism to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011". The text, a collaboration between the European Union and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), says the panel will be responsible for preparing files "in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings... in national, regional or international courts or tribunals". Thirty-five of the council's 47 members voted in favour of the resolution and only three -- China, the Philippines and Burundi -- voted against. The remainder either abstained or refrained from casting a vote. The council's decision, which was immediately hailed by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups, will go to the UN General Assembly in New York for final approval. The text was presented after a damning report was released to the council earlier this month, outlining in meticulous and searing detail atrocities against the Rohingya, who fled a violent military campaign that started in August last year. - 'Categorically' rejected - The UN report also spoke of "crimes against humanity and war crimes" against other minorities in the northern Kachin and Shan States. But Myanmar's representative Kyaw Moe Tun told the council the report lacked "balance, impartiality and fairness", and said his government "categorically rejects" the resolution. The 444-page report by a UN fact-finding mission concluded there was enough evidence to merit investigation and prosecution of Myanmar's army chief and five other top military commanders for crimes against humanity and genocide against the Rohingya. Story continues Myanmar's powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing this week insisted the United Nations had no right to interfere in his country's sovereignty. Troops, sometimes aided by ethnic Rakhine mobs, committed murder, rape, arson and torture, using unfathomable levels of violence and with a total disregard for human life, investigators concluded. More than 700,000 of the stateless Muslim minority took refuge in Bangladesh, where they remain -- fearful of returning to mainly Buddhist Myanmar despite a repatriation deal. The military has denied nearly all wrongdoing, justifying its crackdown as a legitimate means of rooting out Rohingya militants. The UN and rights groups say the operations were vastly disproportionate and a troop build-up in the area occurred before insurgents attacked police posts in August 2017. The campaign against the Rohingya has especially tarnished the international reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi, the long-detained democracy advocate and Nobel laureate who has been reticent in addressing the violence. Her democratically-elected government remains in a delicate power balance with the generals, whose presence in parliament gives them an effective veto on constitutional changes. - 'Atrocities may continue' - Presenting Thursday's resolution to the council on behalf of the OIC, Pakistan's ambassador Farukh Amil said the situation in Myanmar was a "grave tragedy that merited an exceptional and robust response from the international community". Austria's ambassador Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, speaking on behalf of the EU, said "unless impunity is urgently addressed, similar outbreaks of violence and atrocities may continue with further devastating domestic and regional impact". The International Criminal Court in The Hague independently ruled that it had jurisdiction to open a preliminary investigation, even though the country has not signed the treaty underpinning the tribunal. Thursday's text took note of the ICC ruling, and requested "the mechanism to cooperate closely with any of its future investigations pertaining to human rights in Myanmar". It also said the UN fact-finding mission's mandate should be extended until the new mechanism is operational. Thursday's decision marks the first time the Rights Council has itself opted to create such a mechanism. A similar panel was created in 2016 to build cases for the prosecution of war crimes in Syria, but it was set up following a General Assembly vote. Geneva (AFP) - The United Nations Human Rights Council voted to extend an international probe of alleged war crimes committed in Yemen despite strong opposition from Saudi Arabia and several of its allies. Nations voted 21 to 8, with 18 abstentions, in favour of a resolution that renewed the UN-backed investigation for a year. Last month, investigators detailed evidence of possible war crimes committed in Yemen by both the Saudi-led coalition and the Huthi rebels supported by Iran. The coalition and the Yemeni government, which together are battling the Huthis, strongly criticised the probe's initial report, arguing that it underplayed rebel violations and Iran's role. The Arab group in the rights council had backed a rival text that called on Yemen's national human rights commission to take charge of future investigations of the conflict. That proposal was a non-starter for many states, given a widespread lack of confidence in the Yemeni commission. The approved resolution led by a group of European states and Canada calls on investigators to deliver another report next September. In what may have been a consolation to the Arab group, the council passed a second Yemen resolution calling for support to the national commission, but its impact is largely meaningless with the international probe continuing its work. - 'Shameful' - Probe members said they needed more time to fully document the range of violations in Yemen's conflict, which has killed nearly 10,000 people since March 2015 and triggered what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Twenty-two million people in the country need aid, many of whom are at risk of famine. Riyadh's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Abdulaziz Alwasil, said he voted no because the resolution did not address his "legitimate concerns", notably about the "lack of balance" in the probe's first report. The fact that it went to a vote underscored divisions on the issue within the 47-member rights council, which typically strives for consensus. Story continues Britain's UN ambassador Julian Braithwaite had said his government was particularly "disappointed" that consensus could not be reached with the Arab group, as happened when the probe was set up a year ago. "It is clear that many instances, alleged violations committed by all parties have not yet been fully documented, particularly those committed by the Huthis," Braithwaite told the council. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the vote "sent a clear message that it stands with Yemeni civilians". "States at the UN Human Rights Council stood firm today, in the face of shameful efforts by the Saudi-led coalition to quash a UN expert inquiry," HRW's Geneva director, John Fisher, said in a statement. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in March 2015 when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled into exile as rebels closed in on his last stronghold. United Airlines has offered the woman an apology. (Photo: AAP file) A mother claims a United flight attendant yelled at her for traveling in business class with a crying baby. Krupa Patel Bala was traveling on a United Airlines flight from Sydney to San Francisco on Tuesday with her husband and 8-month-old boy earlier this week when her son began to cry. In a now-deleted post on Facebook, she wrote that after about five minutes of the baby crying in the bassinet, a flight attendant named Linda came over and yelled at her husband that it was absolutely unacceptable, according to local San Francisco news station KTVU. We picked him up, per her request, and tried to get him to calm down, Bala wrote in the post. When Linda returned, I kindly tried to explain to her that her request really stressed me out as hes an-eight-month-old and we have 13 hours ahead of us on this flight. Hes going to cry again, and I dont have any control over that. Both Bala and the flight attendant walked into economy class to discuss the little boys crying, KTVU reported. The mother claims Linda told her she should have given back the boy his bottle and shouldnt have tried to put him to sleep without the lights off. She also claims Linda told her the babys crying was stressful to the crew, because babies arent allowed to cry for more than five minutes and most airlines dont allow babies in business class. I was told its part of the rule book that the babies are not allowed to cry for more than five minutes, Bala wrote. When I asked to see the rule book, I was laughed at and told I could see it when we landed because theres no internet. Bala explained to Linda she understood people on board would be frustrated with a crying baby, but there is a more constructive way for her to ask us to manage the situation. She could have asked us to walk the baby around, tactfully shared that it was starting to disturb passengers, or really anything with a smile that acknowledged that we werent out to make everyone, including us, suffer, she wrote. Story continues Her response to that was to tell me that it didnt matter because it was just unacceptable for the baby to cry, and as the parent I need to control him. She later added the captain approached her with Linda to offer an apology, but she still believes the flight attendant was lying about complaints. United Airlines released a statement to KTVU about the incident, stating: Weve been in touch with our customer via social media and United representatives met the family upon arrival to apologize, offer a refund and make clear that the experience she relayed doesnt reflect our commitment to serving our customers, including our youngest customers. Young families are welcome on our flights, including in business class. We are continuing to review the incident internally, and the flight attendant is being held out of service pending the investigation. According to KTVU, Bala updated her Facebook post before it was removed, saying, Over the last day, we have spoken with numerous representatives from United. Like the captain and rest of the cabin crew, they are all lovely, kind, wonderful humans. [The flight attendant] is the exception and not the norm and for what its worth, she remains unapologetic. From what I understand, United is handling the situation and ensuring that no one else ever has an experience like ours where a flight attendant makes up her own rules. I wish you all a great day and future flights with babies that cry for no more than five minutes. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. The U.S. may send its most expensive weapon system into combat in the coming weeks, according to Pentagon officials who spoke to CNN. The Marine Corps version of the stealth Lightning II the F-35B, which has short takeoff/vertical landing capabilities is aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Essex and will soon be in position to conduct missions in Afghanistan, including airstrikes. The Essex has been in the Middle East for several weeks, CNN said, and the Marines have used the jet in intelligence and reconnaissance operations over Somalia but not in combat. If the F-35s do see action over Afghanistan, it will be a first for the U.S. but not for the program overall. Israel claims the honor of flying the jet in combat first, using its version of the F-35A to conduct airstrikes back in May. Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United States will stay in Syria as long as rival Iran maintains its presence, but the US role will not necessarily involve troops, a senior official said Thursday. James Jeffrey, the US special representative on Syria, was clarifying recent comments by senior officials who appeared to suggest that troops would stay indefinitely to counter Iran. Such an objective would drastically alter the mission in Syria first authorized by president Barack Obama who set a goal of defeating the Islamic State extremist group, which also considers Iran a foe. Asked if President Donald Trump was making US withdrawal contingent on the removal of Iranian forces, Jeffrey told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations: "The president wants us in Syria until that and the other conditions are met. But he added: "'Us' is not necessarily American boots on the ground." "There are many ways that we can be on the ground. We're certainly on the ground diplomatically," he said, while adding that no options were definite. "Boots on the ground have the current mission of the enduring defeat of ISIS," he said. The United States has some 2,000 troops in Syria, mainly training and advising both Kurdish forces and Syrian Arabs opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. Trump's national security adviser John Bolton, long hawkish on Iran, said Monday on Syria: "We're not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders." Iran, which is ruled by Shiite clerics, has been giving both direct support to Assad, a secular leader hailing from the Alawite minority sect, and backing him through the Shiite Lebanese movement Hezbollah. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said Tehran was out to defeat the Islamic State group and would stay as long as requested by the Syrian government. He rejected the Trump administration's warnings, questioning why the United States was involved militarily so far from home in the first place. The Trump administration, which is close to Iran's rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel, has withdrawn from a deal on ending Iran's nuclear program and vowed to challenge Tehran's influence in Syria as well as Yemen and Iraq. New York (AFP) - The United States on Friday shut its consulate in the protest-hit southern Iraqi city of Basra, blaming "indirect fire" by Iran-backed forces and warning its rival of retaliation for any damage. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered that all but emergency staff leave Basra, with consular duties to be taken over by the embassy in Baghdad. Basra has been rocked by weeks of demonstrations by Iraqis protesting unemployment and government inefficiency in the oil-rich south. Pompeo, who has made rolling back Iranian influence in the region a top priority, blamed militias linked to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards for "indirect fire" -- which usually means rockets or artillery -- against the US consulate. "I have advised the government of Iran that the United States will hold Iran directly responsible for any harm to Americans or to our diplomatic facilities in Iraq or elsewhere and whether perpetrated by Iranian forces directly or by associated proxy militias," he said in a statement while in New York to attend the UN General Assembly. "I have made clear that Iran should understand that the United States will respond promptly and appropriately to any such attacks," he added. Ruled by Shiite clerics, Iran has a strong influence in Iraq, especially in the country's Shiite-majority south. Iran's consulate itself was earlier burned down during the protests, although no one was injured and Tehran quickly opened a new mission. Iran's foreign ministry earlier called US allegations of fomenting violence in Basra "astonishing, provocative and irresponsible." Speaking at the General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also dismissed the US criticism of involvement in its neighbor, questioning why Washington itself was involved in a country so far away. Earlier this month three mortar rounds also hit the fortified Green Zone area in Baghdad, home to the US embassy, without causing injuries and with the perpetrators unclear. Diplomatic security is a key priority for the United States and Pompeo, who as a congressman went on the offensive against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton over a deadly attack on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. A large, very strong typhoon churned towards Japan Friday, with the weather agency warning the storm would rip through the nation over the weekend, bringing violent winds and torrential rain. Typhoon Trami, packing gusts of a maximum 162 kilometres (100 miles) per hour near its centre, was in the Pacific spiralling slowly towards Japan's southern islands. "As it is forecast to go across Japan at a high speed, we are urging people to be vigilant" in the days ahead, Sakiko Nishioka from the meteorological agency told AFP. The typhoon was now moving northwest slowly but was expected to turn eastward, coming very close to the islands of Okinawa and Amami on Saturday, the agency said in a statement. "Please be on high alert against violent winds, high waves and heavy rainfall," it said. After dumping torrential rain on the outlying islands, the typhoon is forecast to pick up speed and approach western Japan on Sunday, remaining very strong as it barrels over the mainland. Images from the International Space Station posted on Twitter by astronaut Alexander Gerst on Tuesday showed Trami's enormous eye which he said was "as if somebody pulled the planet's gigantic plug". Japan's main two airlines JAL and ANA have already started to cancel some domestic flights, scrapping more than 100 between them to the islands. If the forecast holds, it will be the latest in a series of extreme natural events to strike Japan. Western parts of Japan are still recovering from the most powerful typhoon to strike the country in a quarter of a century, that claimed 11 lives and shut down the main regional airport in early September. Deadly record rains also hit western Japan earlier this year and the country sweltered through one of the hottest summers on record. Also in September, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake rocked the northern island of Hokkaido, sparking landslides and leaving more than 40 people dead. Mark Judge is the one named eyewitness to Brett Kavanaughs alleged assault on Christine Blasey Ford. (Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images) The most remarkable thing about Thursdays long-anticipated Senate interrogation of Christine Blasey Ford aside from her raw, emotional account of the alleged sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh at a party in high school is the glaring absence of Mark Judge. Blasey said Judge was the other man in the room in 1982 when Kavanaugh covered her mouth and tried to rip her clothes off. His name came up over and over again during her testimony: She said it was Judge who turned up the music to drown out her protests. She said she made eye contact with Judge during the attack, expecting him to help her, and he did nothing. She said the two drunk teens laughed uproariously at her struggles before Judge jumped on the bed and knocked her and Kavanaugh over, inadvertently helping her to escape. Six to eight weeks later, she recalled, she ran into Judge at the Potomac Village Safeway, where he worked as a bag boy. She testified that she greeted him, and though hed been friendly to her for the two years before the attack, she said that his face was white and [he was] very uncomfortable saying hello back. She said that he looked a little bit ill. Since Blasey came forward with these allegations, Republicans have zeroed in on some holes in her memory, such as the fact that she cant remember the specific date or location of the alleged incident. Mark Judges testimony could help her do that, she said. I certainly feel like I could be more helpful to everyone if I knew the date he worked at the Safeway, she told senators. As it happens, Judges 1997 memoir, Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk, backs up Blaseys timeline. In it, he recalls having worked as a bag boy at the local supermarket in the summer of 1982. But Judge is currently hiding out at a beach house in Bethany Beach, Delaware, recovering from alcoholism, according to his lawyer. Republicans could have subpoenaed him after all, he is the only eyewitness to the alleged attack but instead theyre taking his word for it that he remembers nothing of the incident and are declining to ask him further questions. (By contrast, when Anita Hill testified about Clarence Thomas before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, more than 20 witnesses spoke at the hearing.) Story continues Judge and Kavanaugh were close friends in high school. If he had anything helpful to say that could back up Kavanaughs own account of being a sober, hard-studying, churchgoing good boy in high school, Republicans would almost certainly have trotted him out as a character witness. But Judge most likely wouldnt be helpful to the GOP cause. In Wasted, Judge described a puking, passed-out Bart OKavanaugh. And Judges former college girlfriend Elizabeth Rasor has publicly challenged his claim that no horseplay took place at Georgetown Prep. In a New Yorker interview, Rasor said that Judge once described for her a high school incident in which he and other boys took turns having sex with a drunk woman. Rasors story backs up the explosive claims of Julie Swetnick, who in a sworn declaration spoke of efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be gang raped in a side room or bedroom by a train of numerous boys. Swetnick alleged that she was the victim of a gang rape at one of these parties where Kavanaugh was present, though she did not implicate him in the attack on her. Judges name has come up so often in the various allegations against Kavanaugh and in Thursdays hearing that it beggars belief he still hasnt been called to testify. Multiple Democratic senators demanded his presence. Mark Judge should be subpoenaed from his Bethany Beach hideaway and required to testify under oath, but he has not, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) admonished at the hearing. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the GOP senators failure to question Judge and the presidents failure to call for an FBI investigation is tantamount to a cover-up. Republicans have been insisting on the importance of due process and innocent until proven guilty, and Kavanaugh said 17 times during his Fox News interview this week that he wants a fair process. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rejected Democrats calls for a more thorough fact-finding inquiry, including a firsthand witness and a federal criminal investigation. He chose instead to pit Blaseys testimony against Kavanaughs. A former prosecutor of sex crimes told HuffPost that she would have given anything for a witness in the room to an intimate violence offense. You bet I would have subpoenaed him, said Linda A. Seabrook, general counsel at Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit working to end violence against women. Its irresponsible not to. Melissa Jeltsen contributed reporting. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form SEATTLE (AP) A woman has accused a Washington state lawmaker of raping her 11 years ago, saying she was inspired to speak out as she watched the televised allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The lawmaker denied the claim. In a tweet Thursday afternoon, Candace Faber said Republican state Sen. Joe Fain sexually assaulted her in 2007 the night she graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He was not in office at the time at the time of the alleged assault. "I'm done being silent," she wrote. Fain said he "absolutely" denies the allegation and called for an investigation. In a text message to The Associated Press, he said: "Any allegation of this serious nature deserves to be heard and investigated for all parties involved. I invite and will cooperate with any inquiry." Fain, 37, was first elected to the Washington state Senate in 2010, three years after the alleged incident. He is a moderate Republican from the Seattle suburb of Auburn and currently the state Senate minority floor leader. Faber explained later in a statement that she was inspired by Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were teenagers. Kavanaugh fiercely denied Ford's claims. "Like Dr. Ford, I can no longer remain silent knowing that the man who raped me is in a position to influence the laws that govern my state and impact every woman who lives here," Faber wrote. A spokeswoman for Gov. Jay Inslee said he "believes this is a very serious allegation that unquestionably deserves a full investigation by law enforcement officials." State Sen. Ann Rivers, a Republican, also supported an investigation, saying how it proceeds will be up to authorities. "But my fellow Republican senators and I agree that any allegation of this nature must be looked into as thoroughly as possible, no matter who is involved and no matter how many years have passed," Rivers said in a statement. Story continues Faber, 35, in June published an online essay accusing an unnamed Washington state lawmaker of assaulting her in 2007. She wrote how they met "at the Capitol" after she graduated from Georgetown in Washington, D.C., spent the night dancing and kissing, and that both "drank too much." She wrote in the essay she walked the man back to his hotel, went to his room and that he pinned her to a bed and pulled down her dress. She wrote that she told him to stop and put her foot on his head to push him away. After the man raped her, she wrote, she asked him for a kiss goodbye before leaving the room. In her essay, she rejected that the kiss request was "not how girls act when they've been raped." She wrote that she later called a friend, wondering if she should go to a hospital. Faber said in her statement Thursday said she did not make the man's name public earlier because she thought she "could change the culture of sexual assault without needing to say his name" but no longer believes that to be the case. The AP does not typically name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Faber chose to identify herself. She declined a request to be interviewed and did not respond when asked by email whether she had filed a police report. The statute of limitations for most serious sex crimes in Washington, D.C., is 15 years. In interviews with KUOW-AM in Seattle, Faber's mother and a former colleague at the University of Washington said Faber previously told them that Fain raped her. The co-worker, Frank Martinez, told the public radio station that he knew Faber was struggling with her mental health at the time but he believed her allegation to be credible. In his text message, Fain asked people to "show respect to Ms. Faber and to the process." He did not respond to a message Friday seeking additional comment. The lawmaker served as majority floor leader 2013 through 2017 when the Republicans controlled the chamber. He is up for re-election next month. Faber's website says she worked from 2015 to 2017 with the city of Seattle's information technology department. ____ Associated Press Writer Rachel La Corte in Baltimore, Maryland, contributed to this report. The Hague (AFP) - The UN's top court will rule on Monday whether Chile must negotiate access to the Pacific Ocean with landlocked Bolivia, in a case that has fouled relations between the two neighbours for decades. A 15-judge bench at the International Court of Justice will hand down judgement in the bitter legal battle which revolves around Bolivia's struggle to restore badly-needed access to the sea -- lost in 1884 after defeat in a war with Chile. La Paz in 2013 dragged Santiago to the Hague-based ICJ, set up after World War II to rule in disputes between countries. The court's findings are binding and cannot be appealed. Bolivian President Evo Morales is due to attend the announcement at 1300 GMT, as the leftist leader has before with previous hearings in the case. Chile and Bolivia have had no diplomatic relations since 1978 when Bolivia's last attempt to negotiate a passage to the Pacific broke down in acrimony. Morales' presence at the hearings "arguably signals a commitment to pursue legal arguments for historical change," said Geoff Gordon, an analyst at the Hague-based Asser Institute. It also "underscores the high stakes for Bolivia and Chile, which has much to lose in respect to area of coastline," he added. "Each side seems likely to respond with disappointment and anger to an adverse ruling," Gordon added. Bolivia says regaining its territory which comprises of several hundred kilometres (miles) of coastline along the northern tip of Chile will stimulate growth and development in South America's poorest country. Its lawyers have argued that it has tried several times over the last century to discuss possible access to the Pacific, but to no avail. Bolivian activists said the loss of the Chuquicamata mine, the world's largest open-pit copper mine which is situated in the disputed area, has also badly hit the country's indigenous peoples. These attempts were continuously slapped down by the Chileans, La Paz's lawyers said, leading to the breakdown in diplomatic relations. Story continues - 'Sovereign territory' - Santiago in turn said the border is based on a 1904 peace treaty signed with Bolivia in the wake of the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific and therefore must be respected. Both capitals were bound to attach political significance whatever the outcome, experts said. Morales's presence at the hearings may also play a role in his aspirations to run a fourth time in Bolivia's presidential polls next year, experts said. "What is at stake is not so much sovereignty of access to the sea, but the political strategy of (Bolivian President) Evo Morales," said Lucia Dammert, a Peruvian analyst based in Santiago. "Whatever happens," Morales will see as a victory, Dammert told AFP. Chile will not negotiate with Bolivia over the issue as "our sovereign territory is protected and will not be a part in anyone's negotiations," its Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero said last week. But President Sebastian Pinera has not ruled out an "intermediate solution" in which the ICJ "invites parties to negotiate in good faith which may be with or without a predetermined result." "The question remains whether the result of negotiations are pre-set, in other words give some form of access to the sea," said Eric De Brabandere, professor of international dispute settlement at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Or "whether there is merely an obligation to sit down and negotiate in good faith without any commitment as to the outcome of the negotiations," he told AFP. Meanwhile, Chile has opened its own case against Bolivia over the Silala waterway, which flows into the parched Atacama desert and which La Paz has threatened to divert. Hong Kong (AFP) - A Hong Kong man has developed the world's first ever human case of the rat version of the hepatitis E virus, according to new research from one of the city's leading universities. There had previously been no evidence the disease could jump from rats to humans, the University of Hong Kong said Friday, warning the discovery had "major public health significance". "This study conclusively proves for the first time in the world that rat HEV can infect humans to cause clinical infection," the university added. Rat hepatitis E virus is very distantly related to human hepatitis E virus variants, HKU said. The disease was found in a 56-year-old man who persistently produced abnormal liver function tests following a liver transplant. He could have contracted the illness through food infected by rat droppings, researchers said, according to details of the findings reported in the South China Morning Post. The man lived in a housing estate where there were signs of rat infestation outside his home. He is now recovering after being treated for the virus, the SCMP added. The human version of hepatitis E is a liver disease that affects 20 million people globally each year, according to the World Health Organisation. It is usually spread through contaminated drinking water. Symptoms include fever, vomiting and jaundice, and in rare cases liver failure. Rodent problems in Hong Kong have escalated in recent months because of a sustained spell of hot and humid weather. Hong Kong has been hit hard by disease outbreaks in the past. In 2003, almost 300 people died from SARS -- severe acute respiratory syndrome. The bubonic plague, carried by rats, swept through mainland China and Hong Kong in the late 19th century killing thousands. Daleh (Yemen) (AFP) - At Nasr Hospital's emergency room in the Yemeni city of Daleh, a little boy struggles to breathe. He is too tired, or too hungry, to cry. Born with a degenerative neurological disease, his muscles have atrophied to nothing, his tiny joints visible through his pale skin, his stomach distended. The child's body cannot retain even water, so nurses have resorted to putting him in diapers. And doctors say there is nothing they can do. The boy is one of an estimated five million Yemeni children who may not see their next birthday in a war the UN children's fund has described as a "living hell" for minors. The UN has warned that international aid agencies are losing the fight against famine in Yemen, where 3.5 million people may soon be added to the eight million Yemenis already facing starvation -- more than half of them children. Mahmud Ali Hassan, director of Nasr Hospital, does not mince words. Life for his patients, he says, is "pure misery". "We need help. We need real help." South of rebel-held Sanaa and north of the government bastion of Aden, Daleh is, in the words of its residents, a forgotten city. - 'Desperate need' - The war between Yemen's government, backed by a Saudi-led regional military coalition, and Huthi rebels linked to Iran has left an estimated 10,000 dead since 2015 and triggered what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Another 2,200 have died of cholera, according to the World Health Organization, nearly one-third of them under the age of five. In government-held Daleh, medics at Nasr Hospital are desperately looking for ways to treat patients -- most of whom have not yet learned to read, tie their shoelaces or even walk -- as supplies dwindle and hunger spreads. A sign outside Nasr Hospital reads "funded by the World Health Organization". The hospital is a lifeline for three provinces with a combined population of more than 1.5 million. Story continues "We take cases from Daleh as well as Ibb and Lahaj," said Hassan. "Most cases we receive are malnourished children. We get three to four cases a day. The ward is always full. It's full right now." In a lime green onesie, another malnourished baby wails as doctors hook him up to a nasal cannula -- the tube used to deliver oxygen to patients in respiratory distress. His diaper is multiple sizes too big. "We are in desperate need of medical supplies," Hassan told AFP. "We need orthopaedic equipment, and everyone says they're trying -- the government coalition and other sides -- and yet we haven't gotten supplies yet." - 'Nowhere to be seen' - Dr. Ayman Shayef, head of the emergency room at Nasr, says three to four children die under his watch every week of preventable causes, mainly linked to neo-natal care. "We have serious issues with the total absence of pre-natal care and the inability to open an obstetrics department," Shayef said. "We've also seen a rapid rise in malnutrition cases. "Daleh is an orphaned province. We need help. We need support for pre-natal care, malnutrition " In addition to the war, the rising cost of living in Yemen -- long the most impoverished country in the Arab world -- the depreciation of the local currency and blockades have left millions unable to feed themselves and their children. Katba Ahmed made the trip to Nasr to help a close friend care for her sick child. "A bag of flour is 18,000 riyals ($72). And with four people at home, how long do you think that's going to last, with breakfast, lunch and dinner?" Katba said. And the food baskets sent in by international organisations, Katba says, are nowhere to be seen in her neighbourhood in Hajja province. "Where do they go? Why don't we get any baskets?" she says. "Why should we be deprived? Why should we be humiliated?" Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. 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. WASHINGTON The most consequential Supreme Court opening in a generation gave rise to the most bitter Senate hearing in memory Thursday, as California professor Christine Blasey Ford accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when both were teenagers and Kavanaugh angrily assailed Democrats for pushing what he said were false charges to blow me up and take me down. The day began with an emotional punch as a self-described terrified Ford, her voice shaking at times, described in stark detail being pinned on a bed by a drunken Kavanaugh at a high school gathering. Hours later, the drama escalated as a seething Kavanaugh faced the Senate Judiciary Committee from the same chair and adamantly denied her charges. You may defeat me in the final vote, but youll never get me to quit. Never, the red-faced and defiant nominee told Democrats. The 53-year-old federal judge was often tearful and paused for gulps of water as he spoke about the toll that the allegations by Ford and two other women have taken on his wife, his children, his parents and his friends. This has destroyed my family and my good name, he said, adding: This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election. Kavanaugh was openly contemptuous of Democratic senators, often demanding that they answer the questions they asked of him. And Republicans, who had silently listened to Fords testimony, rose to his defense with angry charges against the other party. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called his Democratic colleagues power-hungry and warned fellow GOP senators: If you vote no, youre legitimizing the most despicable thing Ive seen in my time in politics. The heated recriminations and countercharges that dominated Kavanaughs appearance were a stark contrast to the morning, where committee members were rapt as Ford quietly unspooled her memories of being assaulted by Kavanaugh at a summer gathering in 1982. Asked whether she was positive the person who assaulted her was Kavanaugh, she responded: One hundred percent. Later, Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., asked Kavanaugh whether he had any doubts that the accusations were untrue. Zero, he answered. Hundred percent certain, Senator. The warring accounts from Kavanaugh and his accuser the only witnesses permitted to testify before the committee gripped the country and intensified what will be one of the most fraught confirmation votes in history. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Kavanaughs nomination as planned on Friday, with procedural votes on Saturday and Monday and a final confirmation vote on Tuesday. Im optimistic well get to confirmation, Cornyn said. As he left the Capitol on Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, The committees going to vote in the morning, and were going to move forward. However, three potential swing GOP senators Arizonas Jeff Flake, Alaskas Lisa Murkowski and Maines Susan Collins remained silent about their plans. When asked by reporters after the hearing whether he believes Ford, Flake responded: Im not answering those kinds of questions. Murkowski said Thursday night that Im going to go home, have some dinner, and have a chance to think about all thats gone on today. Trump, who was downcast after Fords gripping testimony, was buoyed by Kavanaughs combative response, aides said. Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him, the president tweeted moments after the hearing concluded. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote! The only comparison that came close to capturing the dynamic in the committee room was the 1991 confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas, whose nomination was almost derailed when Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment. Kavanaugh seemed to borrow heavily from Thomas angry rebuke, in which he called the charges against him a circus, a national disgrace and a high-tech lynching. Kavanaugh also called the proceedings a circus and added: This confirmation process has become a national disgrace. The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process, but you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who has served in the Senate since 1977, said that this is worse than Robert Bork, and I didnt think it could get any worse than that, referring to the Senates bipartisan defeat of the judge nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. This is worse than Clarence Thomas, and I didnt think it could get any worse than that, he added. Kavanaugh would replace pivotal Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the key vote on abortion, affirmative action and the death penalty. Kavanaugh said the stakes of his nomination caused Democrats to try to stop him by any means. Democrats rejected that, saying the GOP was trying to shift the focus from a woman with a credible allegation. What I find most inexcusable is this rush to judgment, the unwillingness to take these kinds of allegations at face value and look at them for what they are: a real question of character for someone who is asking for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Calif., the ranking Democrat on the committee. The details of Fords account are by now familiar, but her nationally televised testimony four hours that included a vehement denial that she could be confused about Kavanaughs identity rocked the hearing that will determine Kavanaughs fate. I am here today not because I want to be, Ford, a psychology professor who grew up in the same Maryland suburbs as Kavanaugh, said at the beginning of her testimony. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school. Her voice shook at times as she spoke, and her face was drawn. Occasionally, she took deep breaths, swallowed and blinked back tears, but she remained composed throughout the morning. She was accommodating of the committees questioning Does that work for you? she asked committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, at one point but resolute in describing the events she said happened that summer in a house in the Bethesda area. Ford said her best estimate was that before the gathering, she had been at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md., where she frequently swam. She said she had not been drinking or taken medication. Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, she said, were extremely inebriated. They had clearly been drinking prior (to the gathering), and the other people at the party had not. She described climbing a flight of stairs to use the bathroom when a drunken Kavanaugh and Judge pushed her into a bedroom and locked the door. She said Judge watched while Kavanaugh got on top of her and tried to remove her clothes. I believed he was going to rape me, she said. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling. This is what terrified me the most. At that point, she said, she thought Kavanaugh was so out of control, I thought that Brett was going to accidentally kill me. Ford said she eventually escaped the bedroom and left the house. Barbara Van Gelder, an attorney for Judge, said in a statement Thursday that he does not recall the events described by Dr. Ford in her testimony. Democrats have repeatedly pressed for Judge to be called to testify, but Republicans have declined to call him as a witness. On Thursday, Van Gelder said Judge does not want to comment publicly but is willing to answer written questions and participate in a confidential, fact-finding investigation. In her testimony, Ford was calm and at times clinical in describing how memory works, drawing on her training as a psychologist. But her recollections were raw. When asked what she remembered the most about her encounter with Kavanaugh, Ford replied: Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two. And theyre having fun at my expense. Ford said her initial motivation for telling her member of Congress about her encounter with Kavanaugh was to try to prevent him from getting the nomination. She knew there was a list of qualified candidates being considered, she said, and she hoped that if Trump and members of Congress knew her story, another candidate would be selected. She also called a tip line at The Washington Post. She said she went public in an article in The Post only because word of her allegations had gotten out and other reporters had shown up at her home and in her classroom. During her testimony, the 21 members of the Judiciary Committee appeared riveted. Senators leaned forward in their seats, elbows on the table, intently focused. Flake looked especially gripped by her story, his hands folded in front of his face. Senate Democrats argued that Fords testimony was compelling and convincing, and pressed a hostile Kavanaugh for answers about his actions. This is a job interview for one of the most important positions of trust in this country, said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, adding: Theres certainly no entitlement for you to be confirmed to the Supreme Court. In an unusual move, the Republican senators on the committee, all male, turned over their time for questions for Ford to Rachel Mitchell, a veteran sex-crimes prosecutor from Arizona. The format five minutes of questioning for the prosecutor, five minutes for a Democratic senator often frustrated Mitchells efforts to highlight Fords inability to remember key details of the day, including where exactly the event took place and how she got home. Later, when Kavanaugh testified, the GOP senators seized back the floor, using their time to accuse Democrats of leaking Fords allegations late in the process to torpedo Kavanaugh, a charge they denied. Kavanaugh, who did not watch Fords testimony, said her assertion that he assaulted her was untrue. Im not questioning that Dr. Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time, Kavanaugh said. But I have never done this. To her or to anyone. Thats not who I am. It is not who I was. I am innocent. Kavanaugh became emotional as he recalled his life in public service, including 12 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Throughout that entire time, throughout my 53 years and seven months on this Earth, until last week, no one ever accused me of any kind of sexual misconduct, he said. No one, ever. ... A lifetime of high-profile public service at the highest levels of American government and never a hint of anything of this kind, and thats because nothing of this kind ever happened. Three floors above the hearing, 130 members of the public watched Fords testimony inside a packed overflow room. Outside, a line of people stretched down and around the hallway. Women, many of them high school and college students, bent over their cellphones to watch livestreams of the event. Some cried during Fords opening remarks, saying her words resonated with their own experiences of sexual abuse. Anita Abraham, 62, a mental-health advocate and Democratic activist from Milwaukee, said: Id give the world to thank her. ... She is so brave, so strong. Im so proud of her. She said Ford had inspired her to tell her husband about being molested as a 12-year-old. We cried together, and he told me how much he loved me. He told me he loved me even more, she said, crying. Id never told anyone before. Right decisions aren't always easy decisions. As a certified teacher with 6.5 years of experience and a deep love for Israel, accepting an opportunity to move to Israel for a year with the purpose of bringing my professional skills to the Negev was personally and professionally the right decision for me. The tough part? Choosing to leave behind my family and community that I've been part of my whole life. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter I've attended the same synagogue in Tucson, Arizona since I was in kindergarten. When I was younger, I fought with my parents about not wanting to go to synagogue, but as I grew older I started to love the High Holidays. Today, I sit here wishing I could attend services at home, but I'm also excited that I got to experience Yom Kippur in Israel and got to hear the shofar sounded one last time surrounded by my new community of TALMA teachers. In America, I have to take personal time off in order to attend High Holiday services and explain to my students why I'll be absent from schoolbut here, it's a given. Instead of having to explain these holidays to my students, we share with each other how we celebrate and observe. Jerusalem's Old City (Photo: AFP) Rosh Hashanah is about a new year, new beginnings, and celebrating changea huge reason why I'm here. I'm here to change the lives of my students in Dimona, make an impact in Mitzpe Ramon where I'm living for the year, develop as a professional through new teaching experiences, and to grow as a person. A big part of why I came here is to change the experience of learning English for students in Israelthe opportunity to learn and speak English with a native English speaker brings learning to life, and I'm excited to bring my experience to the Israeli classroom. I'm also excited for Israel to be my classroom. With only two days of school underway, students have been hesitant to speak English, but they see that I cant speak much Hebrew and are eager to teach me. There is a desire from students to communicate with me and it offers a different motivation for them to learn English. Each day I attempt to speak a few more words in Hebrew and my students see me persevering through mistakes and are more willing to be vulnerable in trying to communicate with me in English in return. There's a journey of growth and change ahead for all of usand while change isn't easy, it's worth it. The past two summers I taught English in Kiryat Malachi with TALMA and saw my students make huge strides in just three weeks. With the year 5779 underway, and as I was looking ahead to Yom Kippur offering a clean slate and a fresh start, I was thinking heres to a new year diving into English with every effort and no regrets. Mitzpe Ramon (Photo: EPA) I cant wait to see the growth these students, and I, make! Masa Israel Journey is a joint project of the Government of Israel and the Jewish Agency, which has brought over 12,000 young Jewish men and women from 62 countries around the world to participate in volunteer, intern and study programs in Israel. Masa Israel offers dozens of unique programs in a variety of fields: education, high-tech, medicine, intern in non-profits, working in government offices and more. Thousands of Masa Israel alumni return to their countries of origin after undergoing extraordinary experiences which brought them to a have a deep relationship and connection with Israel, the Israeli People and young Jews from all over the world. This bond significantly contributes towards strengthening the Jewish People as well as individuals personal and professional development. Hamas labeled on Thursday the UN General Assembly speech of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as a declaration of failure," and blamed the woes of Palestinians on the 82-year-old's political mistakes. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Abbas vowed to relinquish all responsibility for the strip "if Hamas does not accept the implementation of the reconciliation agreement with Fatah." The terror group, in an official statement, emphasized the speech is an admission of defeat regarding the intra-Palestinian reconciliation efforts, which have crumbled since being singed in December last year. "The speech is a declaration of the failure of his policies and recognition of the end of reconciliation talks, stressed the statement. The situation the Palestinian people currently find themselves in is a result of mistakes that Abbas has made despite the warnings of the Palestinian factions," the statement concluded. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman also criticized the Palestinian leaders speech via his official Twitter account. Mahmoud Abbass speech was an inventory of all the insults and disappointments from the day he was born until now," the defense minister wrote on social media. (Photo: Effi Sharir) "Instead of taking the outstretched hand of the agreement proposed by Israel and the United States, all that Abbas is interested in is settling scores and bringing the region into a further conflict," he added. "We will stand determined against any attempt to harm the lives of our citizens and we will exact the price from those responsible for it," Lieberman exclaimed. During his UN speech, Abbas also rebuffed claims by Israeli leaders that he has repeatedly refused to renew peace negotiations, saying that he is sticking to peace and the two-state solution." We are not against negotiations. Not once did I refuse offer to return to the negotiating table. I have agreed to every request to sit with Prime Minister Netanyahu for talks," he said. According to Abbas, it was Netanyahu who declined an invitation by Russia to enter into negotiations. The Palestinian president also called upon the world to recognize a state of Palestine. "I call upon the countries of the world that have not yet recognized the state of Palestine to do so immediately. There is no escape from the eventual recognition. It will not prevent us from returning to the negotiating table, it will only encourage us to do so," he said. The Jerusalem District Court convicted far-right activist Dor Oved of incitement to violence ahead of last years evacuation of the Amona outpost in the West Bank. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter In the past, Oved was acquitted by the Jerusalem court, but an appeal against the decision was filed by the Jerusalem District Attorneys Office which led to the subsequent conviction. Security forces during Amona evacuation (Photo: AP) In February 2017, the IDF evacuated settlers who had barricaded themselves in the outpost. The evacuation became violent after dozens of youths, who were not residents of the outpost, barricaded themselves in a local synagogue. During the evacuation 17 police officers and several youths were injured. Slogans such as "Zionists, beware!" "Zionazism," "Refuse orders and save yourselves from Hell," "Death to the Zionists," and "Ishmael Police," were spray painted on the synagogues walls. Amona synagogue (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky) According to the indictment, Oved wrote messages in various Whatsapp groups, threatening and encouraging acts of violence during the outposts evacuation. At Amona, this time around, there must be injuries but only on the side of the accursed Zionazis, and We must not allow the accursed Zionists to believe that they can do whatever they want without consequences, were some of his posts. He also included an image of the Israeli flag with an Uzi rifle superimposed alongside the phrase: We will avenge without mercy. Hateful graffiti (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky) Ahead of the evacuation, the committee heading the campaign against the Amona evacuation exclusively called for non-violent opposition to the evacuation, asking that even if hit activists should not hit back. They viewed a violent campaign as not standing a chance of success and also being too overly traumatic. After being convicted of incitement to violence, Oved was acquitted in June 2017, but the prosecution appealed the decision. The appeal was accepted and the acquittal overturned. In her decision, Judge Hagit Kalmanaovitch wrote that the rhetoric used by the accused clearly calls for violence, seeking injuries upon his opponents and must not be ignored. Violence at Amona (Photo: Reuters) The judge also wrote that there is an inherent danger in the viral spread of inciting social media messages, easily spread by the press of a button: The fact is that it is already ingrained and very widespread. In 2014, Oved was sentenced to one year for a price tag attack including hateful graffiti sprayed on the building of Peace Now activist Hagit Ofran. At the time it was reported that he was also facing possible charges for threats made against the prime minster. He sent offensive and threatening letters against the release of Palestinian terrorists, from his prison cell: If terrorists are freed someone will get hurt. I promise, you will be the first. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with Rwanda's president Paul Kagame on sidelines of UN General Assembly to discuss the opening of an Israeli Embassy in the African country. "Had a good meeting with Prime Minister Netanyhu, discussed strengthening mutually beneficial partnership with Africa and reaffirmed commitment to bilateral relations including opening an embassy in Rwanda soon," Kagame tweeted. A United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees received contributions of $118 million on Thursday, narrowing a budget gap for this year to $68 million as it aims to fill a shortfall left by a cut in US funding. Pierre Krahenbuhl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the pledges were made at a meeting on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in New York. A United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees received contributions of $118 million on Thursday, narrowing a budget gap for this year to $68 million as it aims to fill a shortfall left by a cut in US funding. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Pierre Krahenbuhl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the pledges were made at a meeting on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in New York. He said the largest funding pledges on Thursday were made by Germany, the European Union, Kuwait, Ireland and Norway. "Five million Palestinian refugees were following these events very, very closely indeed. It was year of tremendous existential concerns, of great anxiety ... I think it is a very big step that has been achieved today," Krahenbuhl said. The United States last month announced a halt in its aid to UNRWA , calling it an "irredeemably flawed operation," a decision that further heightened tensions between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration. The growing refugee count was cited by Washington, UNRWA's biggest donor, in its decision to withhold funding. "We're sending a message that the world does still care about the plight of Palestinian refugees," Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters. "The challenge is to sustain this effort and part of what we discussed today is a way in which we could have a long term financial planning so not every year in August, Palestinian kids will be wondering if they have a school to go to," he said. UNRWA has become the subject of significant scrutiny since Trump entered the White House. After appointing his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a Mideast advisor charged with formulating a long-awaited peace initiative to put an end to the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the UN refugee organization appeared to occupy a significant spot on his radar. In an internal email published by Foreign Policy magazine, Kushner called for a "sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA." "This (agency) perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn't help peace," he reportedly wrote in an email dated January 11. The agency was founded in 1949 after the first Arab-Israel warthe War of Independencein the wake of the exodus of around 700,000 refugees who fled or were driven out of Israel on its founding as a state. Jared Kushner (Photo: EPA) The nascent state of Israel absorbed Jewish refugees who were expelled or who fled from neighboring Arab countries, while other Arab states refused to grant the Palestinians citizenship. As a result, UNRWA now looks after more than 5 million descendants of those original refugees, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel argues that UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem by grossly inflating the number of bona fide refugees. Since the agency includes descendants of Palestinian refugees from the War of Independence, it grants refugee status to Palestinians according to criteria that is not adhered to in any other refugee question. A normally sealed-off road along the Israel-Egypt border was opened for Sukkot, giving travelers on the Israeli side a glimpse into the Sinai desert backdrop to the biblical journey commemorated by the festival. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The holiday celebrates the biblical story of God's protection of the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt and 40-year sojourn in the wilderness, which religious scholars say included the Sinai. Road along Israel-Egypt border (Photo: Reuters) Israel's narrow Route 10 runs along the Egyptian border from the Gaza frontier in the north before connecting to a highway into Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat. Curving along the Israeli security fence, it is usually closed to civilian traffic and patrolled regularly by the IDF. Egyptian watchtowers dot the other side. Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979, but fighting has raged in areas of the Sinai in recent years between Islamic State terrorists and the Egyptian military. Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said the United States has failed to comply with the timescale agreed for the withdrawal of Kurdish YPG militia from northern Syrian city of Manbij, the Hurriyet newspaper reported on Friday. As agreed by the two NATO allies in June, Turkish and US forces are now carrying out patrols in Manbij to clear the area of YPG, a group that Turkey views as a terrorist organisation linked to Kurdish militants on its own soil. A US intelligence official has said that the speech delivered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday at the UN General Assembly about the existence of a second secret atomic facility in Iran was somewhat misleading. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Netanyahu made the announcement some four months after he presented what he said was conclusive proof of a secret project underway in Iran for the development of nuclear weapons. What Im about to say has not been shown publicly before ... Today Im revealing the site of a second facility, Irans secret atomic warehouse, he said after a brief introduction praising his country under his leadership for opposing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. According to the US intelligence official, knowledge of the facility is nothing new to the Americans. First, we have known about this facility for some time, and its full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminum tubes for centrifuges, and second, so far as anyone knows, there is nothing in it that would allow Iran to break out of the JCPOA any faster than it otherwise could, the official said. Another US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is aware of the facility Netanyahu announced and described it as a warehouse used to store records and archives from Irans nuclear program. The claims gainsay the remarks made by Netanyahu, who said that the site, which sits a short distance from Shourabad, contained some 15 kg (33 pounds) of radioactive material that has since been moved. Netanyahu called on the UN atomic agency to inspect the location immediately with Geiger counters, an instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation. In May, the prime minister announced that the Mossad had pinched a trove of documents and evidence showing that Iran had archived its nuclear materials despite the nuclear deal, something which Netanyahu said proved that Iran had lied big time. During his speech in the UN, Netanyahu also lambasted Irans ballistic missile activity, identifying three locations near Beirut airport where he said Lebanons Hezbollah terror group was converting missiles. In Lebanon, Iran is directing Hezbollah to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles, missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of 10 meters (yards), he said. Netanyahu also said that he had a message for the tyrants of Tehran. PM Netanyahu at UNGA (: UN Web TV) X Israel knows what you're doing and Israel knows where you are doing it, he declared. "What Iran hides, Israel will find. In a similar vein, Netanyahu issued a warning to Hezbollah. "I have a message for Hezbollah today: Israel also knows what youre doing. Israel knows where you are doing it and Israel will not let you get away with it." Germany's police detained a 21-year-old Syrian on suspicion of planning to carry out a chemical terror attack in Israel, the country's media outlet reported. According to the German newspaper Bild, the suspect recruited additional people to carry out the attack. German special police forces arrested a Syrian man last week in a central street in Berlin on suspicion of planning to carry out a chemical attack on Israel, according to local media. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Details surrounding the arrest of the 21-year-old man were only published on Friday. According to a report in the German tabloid, Bild, the Syrian citizen planned to launch a terror attack with chemical weapons and recruited people to join ISIS to carry it out. Arrest of the Syrian suspect in Berlin X The police confirmed in the German press that he was arrested last week for his involvement in a fight. According to the report, the suspect arrived in Germany via Libya using a fake passport. A video published on Youtube last week shows the arrest which took place next to a coffee shop in the German capital. The video shows a team of special police officers armed with machine guns and wearing commando masks subduing the suspect, who is lying on the ground. Police blocked the roads during the arrest. Screenshot of arrest According to German media, the Federal Intelligence Service, BND, which is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, was tipped off by a foreign intelligence service. The police hacked the suspects according to the reports. A search of his home did not lead authorities to any specific information about the attack. Iran has dismissed as laughable the claims made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday at the UN General Assembly that the Islamic republic is harbouring nuclear materials and information at a second atomic facility. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The world will only laugh loudly at this type of false, meaningless and unnecessary speech and false shows, said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to Fars News. Netanyahu made the announcement some four months after he presented what he said was conclusive proof of a secret project underway in Iran for the development of nuclear weapons. Iranian President Rhouani (R) and Foreign Minister Zarif (Photo: AFP) What Im about to say has not been shown publicly before ... Today Im revealing the site of a second facility, Irans secret atomic warehouse, he said in his speech, during which he presented satellite and up-close images of what he said was an atomic site situated a short distance from Shourabad. According to Netanyahu, the site contained some 15kg (33 pounds) of radioactive material that has now been moved as part of Iranian attempts to hide evidence of its nuclear weapons program. Qassemi said Netanyahu's accusation was "not worth talking about." "These farcical claims and the show by the prime minister of the occupying regime (Israel) were not unexpected," he added. Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that there should be more scrutiny on Israels nuclear program and derided the visuals presented by the prime ministera now common feature of his addresses to the UN. No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a secret and undeclared nuclear weapons programincluding an actual atomic arsenal, Zarif wrote on Twitter. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors, he added. Zarif also accused Israel of pushing the United States toward isolation, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). In recent days weve seen how much the policies that Netanyahu has imposed on America has isolated them in the General Assembly and Security Council, Zarif said, according to IRNA. Now see when they can pull America to this level of isolation how isolated they are themselves, he continued. According to IRNA, Zarif called Netanyahu a "liar who would not stop lying" and dismissed his atomic warehouse claim as an "obscene charge." Netanyahu did not identify the material nor specifically suggest that Iran had actively violated the nuclear deal which was signed in 2015 under the Obama administration. PM Netanyahu (Photo: AFP) US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in May, making way for the reimposition of crippling sanctions that have devastated Irans currency and which threaten to ravage its economy. Shortly after Netanyahu made his speech, a US intelligence official said that the facts were somewhat misleading. According to the US intelligence official, knowledge of the facility is nothing new to the Americans. First, we have known about this facility for some time, and its full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminum tubes for centrifuges, and second, so far as anyone knows, there is nothing in it that would allow Iran to break out of the JCPOA any faster than it otherwise could, the official said. Another US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is aware of the facility Netanyahu announced and described it as a warehouse used to store records and archives from Irans nuclear program. A senior Iranian cleric said on Friday that US regional bases would not remain secure if Washington sought confrontation with Tehran. "If America does anything wrong, their bases around Iran would not remain secure," Tehran Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammadali Movahedi Kermani was quoted as saying by Mizan news agency. He did not elaborate, but Tehran has warned Washington in the past against any military confrontation. ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's president in remarks published Friday accused the United States of failing to abide by a deal for a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia to withdraw from a town it had liberated from Islamic State militants in northern Syria. Washington and Ankara struck the deal in June to defuse tensions. It calls for the militia to leave the strategic town of Manbij and for joint Turkish-US patrols there. Ankara considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG militia a terror group that's part of a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the US hasn't honored the agreed-on "roadmap" for Manbij. His comments were published in Hurriyet newspaper. "America has not kept up with the roadmap and schedule for Manbij," Erdogan said. "The (YPG) has not left the region." In the nearby province of Idlib, thousands of pro-Turkey protesters marched in the streets of towns and villages calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad's government. A spokesman for a Russian company producing electronic warfare systems says that their deployment to Syria will help protect the country's air defense assets and fend off enemy air raids. Vladimir Mikheyev of Radioelectronics Technologies said Friday in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency that Krasukha and Zhitel electronic countermeasure units will place Syria's air defenses under an "electronic umbrella," making it hard to spot and attack them. Russia announced this week it will provide Syria's government with long-range S-300 missiles within two weeks. The announcement came after the downing of a Russian plane by Syrian forces responding to an Israeli air strike, a friendly fire incident that stoked regional tensions. Moscow also said it will start using electronic countermeasures to jam any aircraft that would try to launch attacks off Syria's coast. China's foreign minister says "now is a crucial time" for the implementation of a deal with Iran to prevent that country from developing nuclear weapons in return for the lifting of sanctions. Wang Yi told the UN General Assembly on Friday that the 2015 deal was endorsed at the time by the global body's powerful Security Council. The administration of US President Donald Trump has since yanked its support for the deal and is re-imposing sanctions on Tehran. The agreement is still supported by China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, and Wang says it "serves the common interests of all parties concerned and the international community at large." He warns that if the deal isn't implemented, "the international nuclear non-proliferation regime will be undermined" and the authority of the Security Council will be challenged. Wang is calling for talks to resolve the issue "through dialogue and consultation." The Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad announced at a news conference in Gaza on Friday that 65-year-old Ziad al-Nakhalah was chosen as its new leader. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Al-Nakhalah will head the group's secretly elected politburo, replacing longtime leader Ramadan Shalah who recently suffered a stroke. Ziad al-Nakhalah The new leader, married and a father of six, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel in 1971. Fourteen years later he was released as part of the Jibril deal and was added to the new organization by Fathi Shaqaqi, its founder. Al-Nakhala took part in the activity of the military wing of the organization. After the assassination of Shaqaqi in Malta in 1995 (according to foreign reports, by Israel), he was elected deputy leader of the organization. Mohammed al-Hindi on right After his family's home was bombed during Operation Protective Edge, he was a major interlocutor in negotiations with Israel. Al-Nakhalahs new deputy will be Mohammed al-Hindi from Gaza who is considered the most senior figure in the organization in recent years. In 2014, the US State Department designated al-Nakhalah, then the movement's deputy chief, as a "Global Terrorist" for encouraging attacks against Israel. Islamic Jihad has largely relied on Iran for funding and military expertise. It has staged numerous suicide attacks against Israeli targets. The group maintains high-level coordination with Hamas, the larger Islamic militant group that controls Gaza. GENEVA - Seventeen UN human rights experts criticised Egypt on Friday for its use of anti-terrorism laws to detain activists fighting for women's rights and against graft, torture and extra-judicial killings. The experts' joint statement, unusual for attracting such a large number of signatories, named activists who had been detained for months, highlighting the case of women's rights campaigner Amal Fathy. Her verdict will be announced on Saturday, on charges of "incitement to overthrow the regime, terrorism, and publishing fake news in relation to her efforts to promote women's rights", the UN statement said. "We are gravely concerned at the human rights defender's prolonged periods of detention, reportedly arising from their peaceful and legitimate defence of human rights," they said. The 17 independent experts all investigate rights for the UN Human Rights Council, which wrapped up a three-week session on Friday without any scrutiny of Egypt. The Ministry of Defense's National Counterterrorism Bureau announced on Thursday that it had uncovered a terrorist financing infrastructure for Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank . The scheme was exposed in a joint operation of the IDF, the Tax Authority and the Shin Bet. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter It is suspected that Hamas used textile merchants who import large containers into the Gaza Strip. Senior Hamas figure Hamed Khudari, through his financial exchange business, declared by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman as a terrorist organization, contacted Gaza businessmen and persuaded them to work with him in exchange for financial benefits. Impounded merchandise (Photo: Tax Authority Spokesperson) (Photo: Tax Authority Spokesperson) Thousands of textile products were supposed to be sold to Gaza residents, ostensibly earmarked for Hamas activity in Gaza and the West Bank, among other things, for paying salaries to Hamas operatives and their families, arms purchases and funding of hostile terrorist activity. (Photo: Tax Authority Spokesperson) With the help of intelligence and operational activities in the field, security forces, together with customs officials of the Israel Tax Authority, managed to confiscate several containers under an administrative seizure order signed by Defense Minister Lieberman. In recent days an order was signed by Minister Lieberman to seize four containers in the port of Ashdod with tens of thousands of dollars of textile products destined for the Gaza Strip has. These containers are I addition to two previous containers seized by Ashdod customs officials about two weeks ago. News Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, congratulations to the people and government of Turkmenistan as you commemorate your countrys Independence Day. "The United States and Turkmenistan work together in pursuit of our shared interests in a region of prosperous, independent, and sovereign states. We look toward further cooperation between our countries across a wide variety of areas, including trade and commerce, the advancement of regional stability, and the deepening of educational and people-to-people ties. "With our best wishes to the people of Turkmenistan, we express our hopes for a closer partnership over the coming year." Latest News Washington, DC - Christine S. Wilson was sworn in today as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. President Donald J. Trump named Wilson to a term that expires on September 25, 2025. Wilson previously served at the FTC as Chairman Tim Muris Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush Administration, and as a law clerk in the Bureau of Competition while attending Georgetown University Law Center. In between her periods of service at the FTC, Wilson has practiced competition and consumer protection law both at law firms and as in-house counsel. When nominated, Wilson was serving as Senior Vice President - Legal, Regulatory & International for Delta Air Lines. Prior to joining Delta, Wilson was a member of the Washington DC antitrust practice groups of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and OMelveny & Myers LLP. Early in her career, Wilson worked with former Assistant Attorney General James F. Rill at Collier Shannon Rill & Scott on a variety of competition law and policy initiatives, including the final report of the International Competition Policy Advisory Committee commissioned by Attorney General Janet Reno. Wilson graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Florida. Wilson lives in Virginia with her husband Ramsey, with whom she has two daughters. Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - Yumans might be seen doing the Hustle, Le Freak, the Electric Slide and more as the biggest night of the year for the local arts community honors its finest this year with a Studio 54 theme. Those ready to dress up dont forget those Boogie Shoes are invited to attend the ceremony and reception for the 18th annual Tribute of the Muses, Oct. 12. Tribute of the Muses honors an outstanding member of Yumas arts community who has shown exemplary devotion and excellence in the arts. Winners range among artists, performers, educators, advocates and patrons. Eight nominations are up for the award this year. Eight additional nominees will vie for the 8th annual Helios Award, earned by the top newcomer in the arts community. Everyone is invited to attend the award ceremony, starting at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Historic Yuma Theatre, adjacent to the art center at 254 S. Main St. Formal attire is encouraged, with black tie optional. Admission to the ceremony is free. The awards show features live performances by Dancers Workshop, Dawns Dance Studio, Infinite Imagination Youth Theater performers from Xanadu Jr., Jason Irr, and Mallory Lemmon. Mayor Douglas Nicholls, City Administrator Greg Wilkinson and Director of Parks and Recreation Debbie Wendt will make presentations at the ceremony. Tribute of the Muses is our local Oscars meets Met Gala as it is a celebration of every discipline of the arts and recognizes community members who are making a positive and impact on our arts scene, noted Arts and Culture Program Manager Lindsay Benacka. It is also the one night of the year where we pull out all the stops and decorate the Yuma Art Center from floor to ceiling and we actually roll out the red carpet. The Studio 54 theme this year is going to make this already extravagant soiree even more glamourous and fun. The recipient of the Tribute of the Muses Award will be honored with a custom art award designed and created by a local artist. Joanna Cardenas contributed this years award, entitled, Kairos Kiss. Following the awards ceremony, the reception -- a ticketed donation going toward local arts programming will take place at the Yuma Art Center galleries. Tickets to the after party are $25 per person and available at www.YumaShowTickets.com or any City of Yuma ticketing outlet. Tribute of the Muses and Helios honorees are nominated by the public and are selected by the City of Yumas Parks, Recreation Commission and Ad Hoc Public Art Committee Tribute of the Muses Award nominees Colby Girard Holly Hendrick Angel Luna Lutes Family Michael and Maria McKivergan Amy Seeley Denise Vaughn Judy Wright Helios Award nominees Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - The Foothills Library Book Club will meet Saturday, October 13th, to discuss Pattern in the Carpet by Margaret Drabble at 10:00 a.m. All are welcome to attend. Future book club titles include: Saturday, November 10th @ 10:00 a.m. Hidden Figures by Margot Shetterley Saturday, December 8th @ 10:00 a.m. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford The Foothills Library is located at 13226 E. South Frontage Road. For more information, call (928) 342-1640. Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - On Saturday, October 13th, the Foothills Library is hosting a Community Meeting with District 3 Yuma County Supervisor Darren Simmons at 10:30 a.m. Ask questions, voice concerns, or just say hello. There is no charge to attend. The Foothills Library is located at 13226 E. South Frontage Road. For more information, call (928) 342-1640. 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. 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. Ormat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Botswana Diamonds. 4.1 Community Rank Outperform Votes Botswana Diamonds has received 231 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Botswana Diamonds has received 140 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Botswana Diamonds has received 62.26% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Botswana Diamonds and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe BOD will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe BOD will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF's stock was trading at $35.66 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EWL shares have increased by 43.3% and is now trading at $51.11. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF's stock was trading at $35.66 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EWL shares have increased by 43.2% and is now trading at $51.07. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Forgiveness, as defined by the word web dictionary is Compassionate feelings that support a willingness to forgive. and The act of excusing a mistake or offence. Ghana is a predominantly Christian nation. That means that most people depend on the Bible for direction and spirituality. One of the main things the Bible speaks of is forgiveness. Where can one find forgiveness in the Bible? This article will answer the question what does the Bible say about forgiveness? It will also shed light on Bible verses about forgiveness, what the Bible says about forgiveness, Bible verses on forgiving others and also list some forgiveness quotes. Scriptures on Forgiveness Gary Chapman in his book, The Five Love Languages, said that Forgiveness is the way of love. Forgiving another person is an act and show of love. Many scriptures in the Bible attest to the fact that forgiveness is an act of love. READ ALSO: GTBank Ghana internet banking - new account registration and services Here are some scriptures on forgiveness that are self-explanatory; Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. " Why must we hold grudges and be unforgiving, when God himself has forgiven us? Forgiveness is a choice. Luke 6:37 "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven." This scripture is straightforward. You want to be forgiven by God, then forgive your neighbour. Don't think about it, just do it and you will be way better off. Matthew 5:23-24 "So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." One must be of a pure heart before they can offer a sacrifice or gift at the altar to God. When youre about to give your offering or even your tithe and you remember that you have not forgiven someone who has wronged you, youre to leave your tithe or offering and go settle matters with that person before returning to present them. That way, it will be acceptable before God. God acknowledges forgiveness. 2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Sin hinders prosperity. When one asks for forgiveness and repents, God himself says that He will prosper them. 2 Chronicles 30:9b "For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him." God abhors sin. He turns his face away from sin and sinners but when they ask for forgiveness, he will turn back to them and be gracious to them. Acts 3:19 "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" God forgives you and gives you a new life in Christ. Don't harbour unforgiveness in your heart. Forgive easily and be set free from the hold of sin. Isaiah 55:7 "But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God." God is always ready and willing to forgive. All we have to do is ask. Numbers 14:19-21 "In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now. The Lord replied, I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth." God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is always ready to forgive you no matter what you do. James 5:14-15 "Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven." Forgiveness has the ability to heal. We should always forgive and not hold grudges. Psalm 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." When God forgives you, he removes all your transgressions from you. He expunges your sinful record. Matthew 26:28 "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Christ shed his blood for one purpose only; that we might find forgiveness. The above Bible verses about forgiveness all have one thing in common. For us to be forgiven, we need to return to God, confess our sins and call on His name. This will lead to absolute forgiveness. READ ALSO: Electoral Commission Ghana contact offices Bible Verses on Forgiving Others Matthew 6:14-15 "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Matthew 18: 21-22 "Then Peter came up and said to him, 'Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times'". Matthew 6:12 "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." This is a give and take instance. Forgive your neighbour and I will forgive you Colossians 3:13 "Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Acts 2:38 Peter replied, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. On the flip side of things, in order to be forgiven, the petitioner must, first of all, meet the requirement of forgiving his neighbour for wrongs done against him. Forgiveness is such a powerful thing because it shows great love; it has inspired very awesome quotes. In the next few paragraphs will be some forgiveness quotes. Forgiveness Quotes The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Mahatma Gandhi Forgiving what we cannot forgive creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future. Lewis Smedes When a deep injury is done to us, we never heal until we forgive. Nelson Mandela To err is human; to forgive, divine. Alexander Pope Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense. Robert Frost It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. Maya Angelou Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. Mark Twain The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. Honore de Balzac Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals. Thomas S. Manson Forgiveness is a choice, but it is not an option. Joel Osteen Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet. Maya Angelou It can be hard to forgive and let go but its important to remember that harbouring the resentment and holding a grudge can hurt you even more. The word forgive really means to give something up for yourself not for them. Jack Canfield Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude. Martin Luther King, Jr. Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive. C.S. Lewis Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a commitment. It is a choice to show mercy, not to hold the offence up against the offender. Forgiveness is an expression of love. Gary Chapman If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive. Mother Theresa To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. C.S. Lewis As Christians, the Bible teaches us that forgiveness is key and that is why Jesus himself came to die for us; so that we would receive forgiveness. These few mentions of forgiveness in the Bible and forgiveness quotes should inspire us to live a life full of forgiveness and love. Source: Yen The high demand for vehicles in Ghana has attracted many distributors in the country. CFAO Ghana Limited is one of the motor distributors in the country. CFAO Motors distributes 3 internationally-renowned brands which are Citroen, Mitsubishi Motors and Suzuki vehicles (2 wheels and marine engines). CFAO Equipment distributes 8 internationally-renowned brands which are JCB, Bridgestone, DAF, FUSO, Schrader, Camso, Toyota industrial equipment, and Techking. The company covers the whole of Ghana through its branches in Takoradi, Accra, Tema, and Kumasi, thus, providing its clients with readily-available service and reliability. The vehicles and tires distributed by the company are suitable for the African terrain. The company has over 250 employees who work as a team in meeting and exceeding the needs of clients including after-sale services. CFAO Ghana is for sure the largest automobile network in Ghana and Africa. The company sells quality vehicles and provides quality after-sales service to its customers to satisfy their needs and meet their expectations. The company uses cutting-edge facilities and technology to ensure that their customers are provided with a complete range of before-and-after-sales services, thus, meeting customers needs completely. If you are looking for a good vehicle, CFAO Ghana is the best distributor who will help you get your dream car. READ ALSO: Ghana Insurance College courses and contacts About CFAO Ghana CFAO Ghana Limited was established in 1909 as an exclusive Ghanaian distributor for 8 internationally- renowned car brands: Citroen, Mitsubishi Motors, Fuso, DAF Trucks, Bridgestone, SYM and Suzuki. The company sells various new Mitsubishi and Citroen commercial and passenger vehicles including a range of Bridgestone tires that are suitable for the African terrain. CFAO Motors Ghana has tapped into the logistical organization of CFAO Group, specifically, its European storage facilities, in order to ensure that spare parts and vehicles are readily available. The employees of the company are currently 250 in number, trained to work as a team to deliver quality services to the customers, to make sure their needs are satisfied. CFAO Motors Ghana provides a comprehensive range of after-sales services through the use of leading-edge facilities and skilled personnel, trained from automakers on a regular basis. READ ALSO: Samsung Ghana contact number and service centers CFAO Ghana head office The CFAO Ghana head office is located at CFAO Building, House No. 6, Otublohum Road, industrial area Accra. CFAO Ghana contact number is 233 21 21 34 34. The Fax number is 233 21 21 34 55. You can also check them out on their CFAO Ghana website. CFAO Ghana showrooms CFAO Ghana has four showrooms in different parts of the country, which enables the company to provide its services to people in different parts of the country. Below is some information about CFAO Ghana branches, contacts, and showroom locations. 1. CFAO Motors Takoradi Location: Cape Coast road Takoradi Contact numbers: +233 (0)312 022 571 Fax +233 (0)322 023 571 2. CFAO Motors Kumasi Location: Harper road, Adum Contact numbers: +233 (0)322 022 201 3. CFAO Motors Accra Location: Airport by-pass road Contact numbers:+233 (0)302 742 090 4. CFAO Equipment Ghana Location: Hospital Rd Link, Tema Contact numbers:+233 (0)030 221 1805 Websites of CFAO's partners Mitsubishi Motors Ghana website Suzuki Ghana website Citroen Ghana website CFAO Ghana is the largest automobile network in Ghana that offers a large range of affordable yet robust vehicles, motorcycles, and outboard engines. With CFAO, you will get your dream car without much of a hustle. The company also sells car spare parts that are suitable for your vehicle at affordable prices. You can visit any of the showrooms to speak to the experts on a one-on-one level. READ ALSO: Nissan to establish assembling plant in Ghana Source: Yen - A 25-year-old Russian lady was recently buried in the most odd way - Late Rita Shameeva, during her lifetime was a known phone addict - After dying by an unknown cause, she was buried under a tombstone shaped like her favourite iPhone Often times, we are bombarded with dead people being buried in uncharacteristic fashion. While some of these unusual burial styles are interesting, some seem completely odd. One of such odd ones is that of a 25-year-old lady identified as Rita Shameeva. During her lifetime, the Russian lady was known to be a phone addict. Unfortunately, her life was cut short by an unknown cause, sending her to an early grave. However, her grieving dad, Rais Shameev, decided to do something special for her. He erected a five-foot-high iPhone which was her favourite as her gravestone. Her burial plot which is located in the oil-rich city known as Ufa in Russia stands out tall and bizarre. The cause of 25-year-old Rita Shameeva's death is still unknown Source: The Sun Source: UGC The five-foot-high monument is made of black basalt and bears the Apple symbol on the reverse, and a picture of Shameeva on the front. READ ALSO: Sad photos from funeral of 7 persons killed in accident involving Collins Daudas car The grave sits in the oil-rich city of Ufa in Russia Source: The Sun Source: UGC Very little is known about the deceased except that she loved her phone, travelled a lot and had friends in Germany. The grave sits in the oil-rich city of Ufa in Russia Source: The Sun Source: UGC The tombstone towers above other gravestones in the Yuzhnoye cemetery, and also has a QR code on the base and was added by her dad, two years after her passing in 2016. The gravestone towers above the other tombstones in the cemetery Source: The Sun Source: UGC Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported the death of a young Ghanaian man in London. READ ALSO: Young Ghanaian midwife delivers pregnant woman of her baby on a moving bus (Photos) The deceased, Elyon Poku, a DJ known professionally as Nana Banger, was reportedly stabbed to death over the weekend. Nana, 20 years of age, was at a house in Stamford Hill, North London, when an argument erupted at a party he was attending. Ghana News Today: Drivers angry over hike in Fuel price | Yen.com.gh: Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook/Instagram pages with your stories, photos Source: Yen - Menzgold Ghana Limited has sued Bank of Ghana and Securities and Exchange Commission - The gold outfit is asking the court to get both parties grant them a retraction and apology - Menzgold and SEC have been involved in a banter over the former's operations Embattled gold dealership company, Menzgold Ghana Limited, has sued the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the central bank. According to a report sighted by YEN.com.gh on Citinewsroom.com, the company in its suit is seeking from the court an order directing the two institutions to stop interfering in its business. Menzgold also asked the court to stop the Bank of Ghana and the SEC from publishing what it described as derogatory notices against its business. Menzgold building. Credit: Graphic.com.gh Source: UGC READ ALSO: Student stabbed to death in Efiduase Senior High School An order of perpetual injunction to restrain the Bank of Ghana and Securities and Exchange Commission, its officers, servants and agents from interfering with Menzgolds business activities or further acts of disobedience and non-compliance with law by publishing any derogatory notices. Menzgold also wants the two institutions to publish an unqualified retraction and apology for the notices they published against the gold dealership company. It also wants the court to tell both the central bank and SEC that its gold dealership business does not fall under any of their laws. A declaration that the plaintiffs business does not fall within the present legislated scope of the Banks and Specialised Deposit Taking institutions Act 2016 (Act 930). A declaration that the plaintiffs business does not fall within the present legislated scope of the Security Industry Act, 2016 (Act 929), the company stated in its writ filed by lawyer Kwame Boafo Akuffo from the Kwame Akuffo & Co. Unlimited law firm. READ ALSO: Seven persons killed in accident involving Collins Daudas car buried Menzgold says it has decided to litigate the matter at the court because the regulatory bodies have threatened to continue with their action against it unless restrained by an order of this court. Menzgold Ghana Limited was asked to suspend its gold trading operations with the public by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The gold outfit suspended its dividend payment and gold vault operations with hopes of returning to business on September 19. However, inconclusive meetings between the two entities led to the suspension of Menzgold's activities being extended to September 28. READ ALSO: Menzgold customer threatens to sue company Watch: Ghana News Today: Drivers angry over hike in Fuel price | Yen.com.gh Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: Yen.com.gh Menzgold Ghana Limited has set out a payment schedule starting Friday, September 28, 2018, to pay customers their dividends. The company has so far taken legal action against the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following weeks of inconclusive discussions. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the gold dealership firm said customers that were trading with them until September 12 will be paid. READ ALSO: Photos of hot female soldier who turns model when she is off duty go viral Explaining this, Corporate Affairs Manager of Menzgold, Nana Yaw Ofei said persons who invested with them after September 12 will not be paid any returns because the companys Gold Vault services were suspended during that period. He stated that customers can start visiting their respective branches starting Friday to demand their matured investment. Weve set out a payment schedule starting tomorrow [Friday] to be circulated to all our customers. Customers are encouraged to only visit their branch on the date for their collection as the schedule will be strictly adhered to, to avoid crowding at the branches, Mr. Yaw Ofei told the media. It is pertinent to note however that the period starting Wednesday 12th September to date while the Gold Vault Market has remained forcefully shut by the SEC regrettably shall not attract any forms of returns whatsoever, as the business of the gold trade has been and still is dormant. READ ALSO: John Mahama announces flagbearership campaign team This development is set to restore calm among customers who had started to agitate for fear of losing their investments. Also, Menzgolds suit against the BoG and SEC is geared towards obtaining a court order to restrain the two bodies from interfering in its business. Ghana News Today: Drivers angry over hike in Fuel price | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: GIBA meeting suspended over Kennedy Agyapong, Sam George brawl Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YEN's official Facebook page. Source: Yen - A pastor of the Christ Embassy church, Ernest Omoleme, has been remanded in police custody - He has been charged with trespassing and threat of death - Pastor Omoleme was involved in a dispute over a piece of land with another church, the Believers Salvation Ministry The head pastor of Christ Embassy at Nungua in the Greater Accra Region, Ernest Omoleme, has been remanded in police custody since Tuesday, September 25, 2018. According to sources, Omoleme is facing trial , after being charged with trespassing and threat of death. He however pleaded not guilty on both counts before the Ashaiman Circuit Court, presided over by Gabriel Mante-Teye. Ernest Omoleme Source: peacefmonline.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Menzgold to pay monies to customers on September 28, 2018 He was then remanded in police custody, after he failed to produce an assailant who assaulted a complainant in the matter. Omoleme, who doubles as a zonal pastor, allegedly threatened to kill the caretaker of the Believers Salvation Ministry, located at Ashaiman, in Accra. This was with regard to a dispute over a piece of land at Community 22 Annex in Tema. He is reported to have further ordered a member of his church to assault Charles Anarfi Oppong, secretary of the Believers Salvation Ministry. The prosecutor, Inspector Nunoo Mensah, requested the accused be remanded in order to present the assailant he allegedly brought to the crime scene. Both churches have property located at Community 22 Annex with a common boundary but misunderstanding ensued between them and the Ashaiman Police invited the two churches for a meeting to settle the boundary dispute but the elders of Christ Embassy failed to honour the invitation. On August 28, 2018, some members of Christ Embassy, led by the head pastor, fixed a metal gate at the entrance of Believers Salvation Ministry to prevent the congregants from entering the premises. READ ALSO: Stay away from us - Menzgold sues BoG and SEC The caretaker at the Believers Ministry approached them and asked them why they were blocking the entrance to the church land. Pastor Omoleme became furious and threatened to kill the caretaker if he dared question their action. For fear of losing his life, the caretaker immediately informed the secretary of Believers Salvation, who subsequently demanded answers from them after he had rushed to the scene. In the course of the commotion, a member of Christ Embassy assaulted the secretary and tore his attire. A report was lodged with the Community 22 Police; they issued a medical form to the victim to attend hospital. The police later went to Pastor Omolemes office to invite him to the station to assist in investigations but he stated categorically that he would not travel to the police station until a court summons was served on the pastor to appear before court. Meanwhile, the case has been adjourned to September 27, 2018, for hearing READ ALSO: 5 reasons why Florence fell for 'Angel' Obinim Ghana Funny Tricky Questions: 6X9? | #Yencomgh Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: Yen.com.gh - Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson has been appointed by KNUST as its first female Pro-Vice Chancellor - Until her appointment, she was the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. - She has served on several boards and committees and has over 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications to her credit The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has appointed Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson, as its first female Pro-Vice Chancellor. Until her appointment, she was the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She also acted as the Provost of the College of Health Sciences in the absence of the Provost. Pro-Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson Source: Ghanaweb.com Source: UGC READ ALSO: Head pastor of Christ Embassy remanded in police custody Her latest appointment was confirmed by the Council of the university at its 250th meeting held on Thursday, September 27, 2018. Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy in 1994. She pursued graduate studies leading to the award of MPharm in Pharmacognosy in 1999 and was appointed a lecturer the following year in the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, KNUST. In 2003 she was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to pursue a PhD at Kings College London, University of London, UK. She returned to teaching at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2007 and was promoted to a Senior Lecturer in 2009 and further to an Associate Professor in 2014. Prof. Dickson is a Phytochemist whose work spans the areas of bioactive natural products in the management of communicable and non-communicable diseases and she has been devoting time to natural products research with anti-infective, wound-healing, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic and antidiabetic properties among others; based on their ethnopharmacological usage. READ ALSO: Ambassador Agyekum heads Mahama's campaign team Her research has led to the isolation and structure elucidation of several bioactive natural products including cassane furanoditerpenoids, coumarins, alkaloids, glucosides and flavonoids with potentials as leads in drug discovery. She has attended and presented research papers at several local and international conferences; and has over 50 publications in peer reviewed international journals to her credit. She serves as a reviewer for several journals in pharmacognosy, natural products and phytochemistry as well as a reviewer for South Africas National Research Foundation and the KNUST Research Fund (KReF). Professor Dickson has been actively involved in the evaluation of papers of academic staff for promotion in both local and international universities and has been an assessor and external examiner for PhD theses locally and internationally. Professor Rita Akosua Dickson is a Board member of the Ghana Pharmacy Council and Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana. READ ALSO: Video of Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah dancing to a song goes viral Before her appointment, she was the Chairperson of the Education sub-committee of the Pharmacy Council and serves as an examiner in the Ghana Pharmacy Council Professional Qualifying Examination for pharmacy graduates. She also served on the Continuous Professional Development Technical Committee of the Pharmacy Council. As a fellow of the Ghana College of Pharmacists, she has served on several committees locally and internationally in the area of Pharmacy Education and Training. She is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the Ghana National Medicines Policy Programme. She is a member of several local and international organizations including the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA), Society of Medicinal Plant Research (GA), International Society of Ethnopharmacology (ISEP), Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) and American Society of Pharmacognosists. READ ALSO: Latest video shows Israel Laryea lied about Menzgold's operations in London Ghana News Today: Lack of Evidence Against Former GFA President | Yen.com.gh Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: Yen - The text message that Menzgold sent to its clients has landed online - It sought to inform customers of plans being made to pay dividends - Menzgold Ghana Limited has resumed business after it went on suspension sanctioned by the SEC YEN.com.gh has sighted a photo believed to be a screenshot of the text message sent to Menzgold clients across the country after the gold hub resumed its activities today [September 28] following a suspension. According to the message, customers of the gold trading company were to visit their various branches to check the day to re-visit in order to collect their extra values. The text message read, "Dear Valued customer, please be advised that those who did not receive their extravalues between the 28th Aug - 11th Sept, 2018, due to the delays in the process for the bank transfers should kindly visit their branches tomorrow at 1pm to check their payment schedules and adhere to it for prompt payment. Thank you." Menzgold building. Credit: YEN.com.gh Source: Original READ ALSO: Meet Abigail Aborgah UCC's College of Education Studies' best student Menzgold Ghana Limited set out a payment schedule starting Friday, September 28, 2018, to pay customers their dividends after a press conference was held. The company has however, taken legal action against the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following weeks of inconclusive discussions. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday September 27, the gold dealership firm said customers that were trading with them until September 12 were going to be paid. Text message. Credit: Asembi.com Source: UGC Explaining this, Corporate Affairs Manager of Menzgold, Nana Yaw Ofei said persons who invested with them after September 12 were not going to be paid any returns because the companys Gold Vault services were suspended during that period. He stated that customers could visit their respective branches starting Friday to demand their matured investment. Weve set out a payment schedule starting tomorrow [Friday] to be circulated to all our customers. Customers are encouraged to only visit their branch on the date for their collection as the schedule will be strictly adhered to, to avoid crowding at the branches, Mr. Yaw Ofei told the media. READ ALSO: 5 things from Menzgold press conference you should know It is pertinent to note however that the period starting Wednesday 12th September to date while the Gold Vault Market has remained forcefully shut by the SEC regrettably shall not attract any forms of returns whatsoever, as the business of the gold trade has been and still is dormant. Meanwhile. some angry customers of the gold hub have threatened to beat up journalists who visited any premises of Menzgold Ghana Limited to report on the dividend payments. Menzgolds suit against the BoG and SEC is geared towards obtaining a court order to restrain the two bodies from interfering in its business. Before Menzgold set its second date to resume operations on September 28, Ghanaian young millionaire, Ibrah One, indicated the he was going to take his life should the gold dealership firm bounce back. Ibrah One earlier claimed that NAM1 had used Menzgold investors money on actors and musicians. Nana Appiah Mensah however came back hard at Ibrah One and revealed why he was trying to discredit him. READ ALSO: Did Israel Laryea lie about Menzgold's operations in London? - New video suggests Watch: Ghana News Today: Drivers angry over hike in Fuel price | Yen.com.gh Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: Yen.com.gh - The new Chinese ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting, has called for a collaborative effort between China and Ghana's security agencies - According to him, there is a rising case of forged documents being used to secure visas to China - He added that China is always ready to welcome other nationals, but the right thing needs to be done The new Chinese ambassador to Ghana, Shi Ting, has pleaded with Ghanas security agencies to help halt the rising cases of forged documents for Chinese visas by Ghanaians. According to a report by GHissues.com, ambassador Ting revealed that there has been recent challenges with acquisition of visas to China. He explained that this is due to the number of Ghanaians seeking to move to his country, as well as the predominant use of forged documents for visas. The Chinese ambassador, Shin Ting, exchanging pleasantries with Prof. Mike Ocquaye, the Speaker of Parliament Source: UGC READ ALSO: 5 things from the Menzgold press conference you should know about The ambassador made these remarks when he paid a courtesy call on the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Michael Oquaye. His comments come at a time when Ghana-China relations have been under scrutiny for a number of reasons. He described the situation as worrying. Our law enforcement organisations could work together to reduce the forged documents issue. I think that is one of the major challenges we face. But we encourage and welcome young people to go to China. This is our policy and this is very clear, he said. The Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Oquaye also called for deeper collaboration between the two countries to enhance the development of both countries. Prof. Oquaye told the Chinese Ambassador that Ghana has a very dynamic governance system and we are also going to do all that we can to deepen that cherished relationship between your country and our country. Figures show that there are over 5,000 Ghanaian students studying in China. Ghanas relationship with China dates back to Dr. Kwame Nkrumahs era. The country continues to support Ghana in diverse ways. It has supported Ghana in terms of infrastructure and financial support. The government of Ghana recently signed an agreement with China for a $2 billion facility which will be paid using Ghanas refined bauxite, whiles Ghana gets infrastructure in return. READ ALSO: Head pastor of Christ Embassy remanded in police custody Ghana Funny Tricky Questions: 6X9? | #Yencomgh YEN is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident? Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via Instagram or on YENs official Facebook page. Source: Yen - According to Ms Gloria Akuffo, the Special Prosecutor is not being honest with the Ghanaian public about what the Attorney General is doing for him - Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has said the government has not furnished him with the necessary equipment The Attorney General (AG) Ms Gloria Akuffo has slammed the Special Prosecutor for what she believes are his misleading statements on how his office is being equipped to work. According to the AG, Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu is a loudmouth. In a Starr News interview initially reported by MyNewsGh.com, the Attorney General said she was surprised by Amidus public outburst. In recent weeks, Mr Martin Amidu has complained about neglect and how he has had to use his own common sense in the absence of a subsidiary legislation and resources, both cash and human to help him. READ ALSO: Asiedu Nketiah intimates that the IGP is fighting with Collins Dauda over a woman Mr Martin Amidu is the special prosecutor appointed by the President to investigate what the executive deems as special matters. Source: UGC Amidu intimated that President Akufo-Addo was not whipping his appointees in line with his anti-corruption vision because his work as Special Prosecutor is being frustrated. He even went on and gave himself up until June 2019 to see things sort themselves before he was out the job. But in the interview with Starr, Attorney General Akuffo said: I have held meetings with him [Amidu] that requires sharing ideas about the goings on in the banking industry. We have shared ideas about how we should go about investigating and prosecuting it, theres no time that he had sought to speak with me that I havent spoken to him. READ ALSO: Text message that was reportedly sent to Menzgold customers pop up She continued: "So if you begin to speak like that, it is as though the impression has been created that I have been virulent in my duty to set up that office." Ghana News Today: Duncan Williams - The Shocking Truth About His Divorce | Yen.com.gh Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YEN's official Facebook page Source: Yen.com.gh - The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC), Prof. Seth Opuni Asiamah, has called on Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, to return all salaries paid to him - He explained that Amidu does not deserve all the salaries paid to him for no work done - His call comes after Amidu disclosed that his office is not adequately resourced to work The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC), Prof. Seth Opuni Asiamah, has claimed that it is wrong for Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu to complain of lack of resources to work with. In an interview with Ultimate FM, he said Amidu must return all salaries paid to him by the government since he assumed office. This, he explained, is because Amidu has done no work, and therefore does not deserve the salaries paid to him. Prof. Opuni-Asiamah Source: www.graphic.com.gh Source: UGC READ ALSO: Head pastor of Christ Embassy in police custody Prof. Asiamahs comments follow remarks by Amidu, with regard to resources needed to execute his mandate. Amidu, speaking at a National Audit Forum organised by the Ghana Audit Service, reportedly expressed frustration over the lack of legislation, logistics and other resources eight months after he was sworn into office. He also accused ministers of refusing to offer him the kind of support he requires to be able to deliver on his mandate. Prof. Asiamah however disagreed, saying that it is wrong for Amidu to presume someone needs to resource his office for him to effectively work. He explained that Amidu is fully aware of how the system works, and for that reason, he should not expect assistance from anyone before he does his work. READ ALSO: Video of Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah dancing to King Promise's 'Selfish' goes viral Yenkasa: What Would You Do Upon Realizing Your Child isn't Your Biological Offspring? | Yen.com.gh Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: Yen News Facebook has said almost 50 million of its users were left exposed by a security flaw. The company said attackers were able to exploit a vulnerability in a feature known as View As to gain control of people's accounts. According to a report sighted by YEN.com.gh on BBC.com, the breach was discovered on Tuesday, Facebook said, and it has informed police. Facebook signing in. Credit: Supplied Source: UGC READ ALSO: NAM1 and friends jam to "Betweener" in his private jet Users that had potentially been affected were prompted to re-log-in on Friday, September 28. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg took to his wall to address the issues and update users on the security issue. Excerpts of his post read, "On Tuesday, we discovered that an attacker exploited a technical vulnerability to steal access tokens that would allow them to log into about 50 million people's accounts on Facebook. We do not yet know whether these accounts were misused but we are continuing to look into this and will update when we learn more." He went on to elaborate a number of steps the social media company had taken to address the issue. READ ALSO: 5 things from Menzgold press conference you should know The flaw has been fixed, wrote the firms head of security, Guy Rosen. "Since weve only just started our investigation, we have yet to determine whether these accounts were misused or any information accessed. We also dont know whos behind these attacks or where theyre based. He added: "Peoples privacy and security is incredibly important, and were sorry this happened." Facebook is one of the world's largest social media platform which has connected many people across the world. Source: Yen 0.3.0 Release Notes Download & Documentation Zig is an open-source programming language designed for robustness, optimality, and clarity. Zig is aggressively pursuing its goal of overthrowing C as the de facto language for system programming. Zig intends to be so practical that people find themselves using it even if they dislike it. This is a massive release, featuring 6 months of work and changes from 36 different contributors. I tried to give credit where credit is due, but it's inevitable I missed some contributions as I had to go through 1,345 commits to type up these release notes. I apologize in advance for any mistakes. Special thanks to my sponsors who provide financial support. You're making Zig sustainable. Stack Traces on All Targets Zig uses LLVM's debug info API to emit native debugging information on all targets. This means that you can use native debugging tools on Zig code, for example: MSVC on Windows lldb on MacOS gdb and valgrind on Linux In addition, Zig's standard library can read its own native debug information. This means that crashes produce stack traces, and errors produce Error Return Traces. MacOS This implementation is able to look at the executable's own memory to find out where the .o files are, which have the DWARF info. Windows Thanks to Sahnvour for implementing the PE parsing and starting the effort to PDB parsing. I picked up where he left off and finished Windows stack traces. Thanks to Zachary Turner from the LLVM project for helping me understand the PDB format. I still owe LLVM some PDB documentation patches in return. Similar to MacOS, a Windows executable in memory has location information pointing to a .pdb file which contains debug information. Linux Linux stack traces worked in 0.2.0. However now std.debug.dumpStackTrace & friends use ArenaAllocator backed by DirectAllocator . This has the downside of failing to print a stack trace when the system is out of memory, but for the more common use case when the system is not out of memory, but the debug info cannot fit in std.debug.global_allocator , now stack traces will work. This is the case for the self hosted compiler. There is a proposal to mmap() debug info rather than using read() . See also Compatibility with Valgrind. zig fmt Thanks to Jimmi Holst Christensen's diligent work, the Zig standard library now supports parsing Zig code. This API is used to implement zig fmt , a tool that reformats code to fit the canonical style. As an example, zig fmt will change this code: test "fmt" { const a = [] u8 { 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 }; switch ( 0 ) { 0 => {}, 1 => unreachable , 2 , 3 => {}, 4 ... 7 => {}, 1 + 4 * 3 + 22 => {}, else => { const a = 1 ; const b = a; }, } foo(a, b, c, d, e, f, g,); } ...into this code: test "fmt" { const a = [] u8 { 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , }; switch ( 0 ) { 0 => {}, 1 => unreachable , 2 , 3 => {}, 4 ... 7 => {}, 1 + 4 * 3 + 22 => {}, else => { const a = 1 ; const b = a; }, } foo( a, b, c, d, e, f, g, ); } It does not make any decisions about line widths. That is left up to the user. However, it follows certain cues about when to line break. For example, it will put the same number of array items in a line as there are in the first one. And it will put a function call all on one line if there is no trailing comma, but break every parameter into its own line if there is a trailing comma. Thanks to Marc Tiehuis, there are currently two editor plugins that integrate with zig fmt : zig fmt is only implemented in the self-hosted compiler, which is not finished yet. To use it, one must follow the README instructions to build the self-hosted compiler from source. The implementation of the self-hosted parser is an interesting case study of avoiding recursion by using an explicit stack. It is essentially a hand-written recursive descent parser, but with heap allocations instead of recursion. When Jimmi originally implemented the code, we thought that we could not solve the unbounded stack growth problem of recursion. However, since then, I prototyped several solutions that provide the ability to have recursive function calls without giving up statically known upper bound stack growth. See Recursion Status for more details. Automatic formatting can be disabled in source files with a comment like this: test "this is left alone" { } zig fmt is written using the standard library's event-based I/O abstractions and async / await syntax, which means that it is multi-threaded with non-blocking I/O. A debug build of zig fmt on my laptop formats the entire Zig standard library in 2.1 seconds, which is 75,516 lines per second. See Concurrency Status for more details. zig run zig run file.zig can now be used to execute a file directly. Thanks to Marc Tiehuis for the initial implementation of this feature. Marc writes: On a POSIX system, a shebang can be used to run a zig file directly. An example shebang would be #!/usr/bin/zig run . You may not be able pass extra compile arguments currently as part of the shebang. Linux for example treats all arguments after the first as a single argument which will result in an 'invalid command'. Note: there is a proposal to change this to zig file.zig to match the interface of other languages, as well as enable the common pattern #!/usr/bin/env zig . Zig caches the binary generated by zig run so that subsequent invocations have low startup cost. See Build Artifact Caching for more details. Automated Static Linux x86_64 Builds of Master Branch Zig now supports building statically against musl libc. On every master branch push, the continuous integration server creates a static Linux build of zig and updates the URL https://ziglang.org/builds/zig-linux-x86_64-master.tar.xz to redirect to it. In addition, Zig now looks for libc and the Zig standard library at runtime. This makes static builds the easiest and most reliable way to start using the latest version of Zig immediately. Windows has automated static builds of master branch via AppVeyor. MacOS static CI builds are in progress and should be available soon. Pointer Reform During this release cycle, two design flaws were fixed, which led to a chain reaction of changes that I called Pointer Reform, resulting in a more consistent syntax with simpler semantics. The first design flaw was that the syntax for pointers was ambiguous if the pointed to type was a type . Consider this 0.2.0 code: const assert = @import ( "std" ).debug.assert; comptime { var a: i32 = 1 ; const b = &a; @compileLog ( @typeOf (b)); *b = 2 ; assert(a == 2 ); } This works fine. The value printed from the @compileLog statement is &i32 . This makes sense because b is a pointer to a . Now let's do it with a type : const assert = @import ( "std" ).debug.assert; comptime { var a: type = i32 ; const b = &a; @compileLog (b); *b = f32 ; assert(a == f32 ); } $ zig build-obj test.zig | &i32 test.zig:6:5: error: found compile log statement @compileLog(b); ^ test.zig:7:5: error: attempt to dereference non-pointer type 'type' *b = f32; ^ It doesn't work in 0.2.0, because the & operator worked differently for type than other types. Here, b is the type &i32 instead of a pointer to a type which is how we wanted to use it. This prevented other things from working too; for example if you had a []type{i32, u8, f64} and you tried to use a for loop, it crashed the compiler because internally a for loop uses the & operator on the array element. The only reasonable solution to this is to have different syntax for the address-of operator and the pointer operator, rather than them both being & . So pointer syntax becomes *T , matching syntax from most other languages such as C. Address-of syntax remains &foo , again matching common address-of syntax such as in C. This leaves one problem though. With this modification, the syntax *foo becomes ambiguous with the syntax for dereferencing. And so dereferencing syntax is changed to a postfix operator: foo.* . This matches post-fix indexing syntax: foo[0] , and in practice ends up harmonizing nicely with other postfix operators. The other design flaw is a problem that has plagued C since its creation: the pointer type doesn't tell you how many items there are at the address. This is now fixed by having two kinds of pointers in Zig: *T - pointer to exactly one item. Supports deref syntax: ptr.* - pointer to exactly one item. [*]T - pointer to unknown number of items. Supports index syntax: ptr[i] Supports slice syntax: ptr[start..end] T must have a known size, which means that it cannot be c_void or any other @OpaqueType () . - pointer to unknown number of items. Note that this causes pointers to arrays to fall into place, as a single-item pointer to an array acts as a pointer to a compile-time known number of items: *[N]T - pointer to N items, same as single-item pointer to array. Supports index syntax: array_ptr[i] Supports slice syntax: array_ptr[start..end] Supports len property: array_ptr.len - pointer to N items, same as single-item pointer to array. Consider how slices fit into this picture: []T - pointer to runtime-known number of items. Supports index syntax: slice[i] Supports slice syntax: slice[start..end] Supports len property: slice.len - pointer to runtime-known number of items. This makes Zig pointers significantly less error prone. For example, it fixed issue #386, which demonstrates how a pointer to an array in Zig 0.2.0 is a footgun when passed as a parameter. Meanwhile in 0.3.0, equivalent code is nearly impossible to get wrong. For consistency with the postfix pointer dereference operator, optional unwrapping syntax is now postfix as well: 0.2.0: ??x 0.3.0: x.? And finally, to remove the last inconsistency of optional syntax, the ?? operator is now the keyword orelse . This means that Zig now has the property that all control flow occurs exclusively via keywords. There is a plan for one more pointer type, which is a pointer that has a null-terminated number of items. This would be the type of the parameter to strlen for example. Although this will make the language bigger by adding a new type, it allows Zig to delete a feature in exchange, since it will make C string literals unnecessary. String literals will both have a compile-time known length and be null-terminated; therefore they will implicitly cast to slices as well as null-terminated pointers. There is one new issue caused by Pointer Reform. Because C does not have the concept of single-item pointers or unknown-length pointers (or non-null pointers), Zig must translate all C pointers as ?[*]T . That is, a pointer to an unknown number of items that might be null. This can cause some friction when using C APIs, which is unfortunate because Zig's types are perfectly compatible with C's types, but .h files are unable to adequately describe pointers. Although it would be much safer to translate .h files offline and fix their prototypes, there is a proposal to add a C pointer type. This new pointer type should never be used on purpose, but would be used when auto-translating C code. It would simply have C pointer semantics, which means it would be just as much of a footgun as C pointers are. The upside is that it would make interaction with C APIs go back to being perfectly seamless. Default Float Mode is now Strict In response to an overwhelming consensus, floating point operations use Strict mode by default. Code can use @setFloatMode to override the mode on a per-scope basis. Thanks to Marc Tiehuis for implementing the change. Remove this this was always a weird language feature. An identifier which referred to the thing in the most immediate scope, which could be a module, a type, a function, or even a block of code. The main use case for it was for anonymous structs to refer to themselves. This use case is solved with a new builtin function, @This(), which always returns the innermost struct or union that the builtin call is inside. The "block of code" type is removed from Zig, and the first argument of @setFloatMode is removed. @setFloatMode now always refers to the current scope. Remove Explicit Casting Syntax Previously, these two lines would have different meanings: export fn foo (x: u32 ) void { const a: u8 = x; const b = u8 (x); } The assignment to a would give error: expected type 'u8', found 'u32' , because not all values of u32 can fit in a u8 . But the assignment to b was "cast harder" syntax, and Zig would truncate bits, with a safety check to ensure that the mathematical meaning of the integer was preserved. Now, both lines are identical in semantics. There is no more "cast harder" syntax. Both cause the compile error because implicit casts are only allowed when it is completely unambiguous how to get from one type to another, and the transformation is guaranteed to be safe. For other casts, Zig has builtin functions: @bitCast - change type but maintain bit representation @alignCast - make a pointer have more alignment @boolToInt - convert true to 1 and false to 0 @bytesToSlice - convert a slice of bytes to a slice of another type @enumToInt - obtain the integer tag value of an enum or tagged union @errSetCast - convert to a smaller error set @errorToInt - obtain the integer value of an error code @floatCast - convert a larger float to a smaller float @floatToInt - obtain the integer part of a float value @intCast - convert between integer types @intToEnum - obtain an enum value based on its integer tag value @intToError - obtain an error code based on its integer value @intToFloat - convert an integer to a float value @intToPtr - convert an address to a pointer @ptrCast - convert between pointer types @ptrToInt - obtain the address of a pointer @sliceToBytes - convert a slice of anything to a slice of bytes @truncate - convert between integer types, chopping off bits Some are safe; some are not. Some perform language-level assertions; some do not. Some are no-ops at runtime; some are not. Each casting function is documented independently. Having explicit and fine-grained casting like this is a form of intentional redundancy. Casts are often the source of bugs, and therefore it is worth double-checking a cast to verify that it is still correct when the type of the operand changes. For example, imagine that we have the following code: fn foo (x: i32 ) void { var i = @intCast ( usize , x); } Now consider what happens when the type of x changes to a pointer: test.zig:2:29: error: expected integer type, found '*i32' var i = @intCast(usize, x); ^ @intCast @ptrToInt Direct Parameter Passing Although we technically know how to convert a pointer to an integer, because we used, we are forced to inspect the cast and change it appropriately. Perhaps that means changing it to, or perhaps the entire function needs to be reworked in response to the type change. Previously, it was illegal to pass structs and unions by value in non- extern functions. Instead, one would have to have the function accept a const pointer parameter. This was to avoid the ambiguity that C programs face - having to make the decision about whether by-value or by-reference was better. However, there were some problems with this. For example, when the parameter type is inferred, Zig would automatically convert to a const pointer. This caused problems in generic code, which could not distinguish between a type which is a pointer, and a type which has been automatically converted to a pointer. Now, parameters can be passed directly: const assert = @import ( "std" ).debug.assert; const Foo = struct { x: i32 , y: i32 , }; fn callee (foo: Foo) void { assert(foo.y == 2 ); } test "pass directly" { callee(Foo{ .x = 1 , .y = 2 }); } I have avoided using the term "by-value" because the semantics of this kind of parameter passing are different: Zig is free to pass the parameter by value - perhaps if it is smaller than some number of bytes - or pass it by reference. To the callee, the value appears to be a value and is immutable. The caller guarantees that the bytes of the parameter will not change for the duration of the call. This means that it is unsound to pass a global variable in this way if that global variable is mutated by the callee. There is an open issue which explores adding runtime safety checks for this. Because of these semantics, there's a clear flow chart for whether to accept a parameter as T or *const T : Use T , unless one of the following is true: The function depends on the address of the parameter. The parameter may alias another parameter or global variable. , unless one of the following is true: Now that we have this kind of parameter passing, Zig's implicit cast from T to *const T is less important. One might even make the case that such a cast is dangerous. Therefore we have a proposal to remove it. There is one more area that needs consideration with regards to direct parameter passing, and that is with coroutines. The problem is that if a reference to a stack variable is passed to a coroutine, it may become invalid after the coroutine suspends. This is a design flaw in Zig that will be addressed in a future version. See Concurrency Status for more details. Note that extern functions are bound by the C ABI, and therefore none of this applies to them. Rewrite Rand Functions Marc Tiehuis writes: We now use a generic Rand structure which abstracts the core functions from the backing engine. The old Mersenne Twister engine is removed and replaced instead with three alternatives: Pcg32 Xoroshiro128+ Isaac64 These should provide sufficient coverage for most purposes, including a CSPRNG using Isaac64. Consumers of the library that do not care about the actual engine implementation should use DefaultPrng and DefaultCsprng . Error Return Traces across async/await One of the problems with non-blocking programming is that stack traces and exceptions are less useful, because the actual stack trace points back to the event loop code. In Zig 0.3.0, Error Return Traces work across suspend points. This means you can use try as the main error handling strategy, and when an error bubbles up all the way, you'll still be able to find out where it came from: const std = @import ( "std" ); const event = std.event; const fs = event.fs; test "unwrap error in async fn" { var da = std.heap.DirectAllocator.init(); defer da.deinit(); const allocator = &da.allocator; var loop: event.Loop = undefined ; try loop.initMultiThreaded(allocator); defer loop.deinit(); const handle = try async openTheFile(&loop); defer cancel handle; loop.run(); } async fn openTheFile (loop: *event.Loop) void { const future = ( async fs.openRead(loop, "does_not_exist.txt" ) catch unreachable ); const fd = ( await future) catch unreachable ; } $ zig test test.zig Test 1/1 unwrap error in async fn...attempt to unwrap error: FileNotFound std/event/fs.zig:367:5 : 0x22cb15 in ??? (test) return req_node.data.msg.Open.result; ^ std/event/fs.zig:374:13 : 0x22e5fc in ??? (test) return await (async openPosix(loop, path, flags, os.File.default_mode) catch unreachable); ^ test.zig:22:31 : 0x22f34b in ??? (test) const fd = (await future) catch unreachable; ^ std/event/loop.zig:664:25 : 0x20c147 in ??? (test) resume handle; ^ std/event/loop.zig:543:23 : 0x206dee in ??? (test) self.workerRun(); ^ test.zig:17:13 : 0x206178 in ??? (test) loop.run(); ^ Tests failed. Use the following command to reproduce the failure: zig-cache/test Note that this output contains 3 components: An error message: attempt to unwrap error: FileNotFound An error return trace. The error was first returned at fs.zig:367:5 and then returned at fs.zig:374:13 . You could go look at those source locations for more information. and then returned at . You could go look at those source locations for more information. A stack trace. Once the error came back from openRead , the code tried to catch unreachable which caused the panic. You can see that the stack trace does, in fact, go into the event loop as described above. It is important to note in this example, that the error return trace survived despite the fact that the event loop is multi-threaded, and any one of those threads could be the worker thread that resumes an async function at the await point. This feature is enabled by default for Debug and ReleaseSafe builds, and disabled for ReleaseFast and ReleaseSmall builds. This is just the beginning of an exploration of what debugging non-blocking behavior could look like in the future of Zig. See Concurrency Status for more details. New Async Call Syntax Instead of async(allocator) call() , now it is async call() . This fixes syntax ambiguity when leaving off the allocator, and fixes parse failure when call is a field access. This sets a precedent for using < > to pass arguments to a keyword. This will affect enum , union , fn , and align (see #661). ReleaseSmall Mode Alexandros Naskos contributed a new build mode. $ zig build-exe example.zig --release-small Medium runtime performance Safety checks disabled Slow compilation speed Small binary size New builtins: @typeInfo and @field Alexandros Naskos bravely dove head-first into the deepest, darkest parts of the Zig compiler and implemented an incredibly useful builtin function: @typeInfo. This function accepts a type as a parameter, and returns a compile-time known value of this type: pub const TypeInfo = union (TypeId) { Type: void , Void: void , Bool: void , NoReturn: void , Int: Int, Float: Float, Pointer: Pointer, Array: Array, Struct: Struct, ComptimeFloat: void , ComptimeInt: void , Undefined: void , Null: void , Optional: Optional, ErrorUnion: ErrorUnion, ErrorSet: ErrorSet, Enum: Enum, Union: Union, Fn: Fn, Namespace: void , BoundFn: Fn, ArgTuple: void , Opaque: void , Promise: Promise, pub const Int = struct { is_signed: bool , bits: u8 , }; pub const Float = struct { bits: u8 , }; pub const Pointer = struct { size: Size, is_const: bool , is_volatile: bool , alignment: u32 , child: type , pub const Size = enum { One, Many, Slice, }; }; pub const Array = struct { len: usize , child: type , }; pub const ContainerLayout = enum { Auto, Extern, Packed, }; pub const StructField = struct { name: [] const u8 , offset: ? usize , field_type: type , }; pub const Struct = struct { layout: ContainerLayout, fields: []StructField, defs: []Definition, }; pub const Optional = struct { child: type , }; pub const ErrorUnion = struct { error_set: type , payload: type , }; pub const Error = struct { name: [] const u8 , value: usize , }; pub const ErrorSet = struct { errors: []Error, }; pub const EnumField = struct { name: [] const u8 , value: usize , }; pub const Enum = struct { layout: ContainerLayout, tag_type: type , fields: []EnumField, defs: []Definition, }; pub const UnionField = struct { name: [] const u8 , enum_field: ?EnumField, field_type: type , }; pub const Union = struct { layout: ContainerLayout, tag_type: ? type , fields: []UnionField, defs: []Definition, }; pub const CallingConvention = enum { Unspecified, C, Cold, Naked, Stdcall, Async, }; pub const FnArg = struct { is_generic: bool , is_noalias: bool , arg_type: ? type , }; pub const Fn = struct { calling_convention: CallingConvention, is_generic: bool , is_var_args: bool , return_type: ? type , async_allocator_type: ? type , args: []FnArg, }; pub const Promise = struct { child: ? type , }; pub const Definition = struct { name: [] const u8 , is_pub: bool , data: Data, pub const Data = union ( enum ) { Type: type , Var: type , Fn: FnDef, pub const FnDef = struct { fn_type: type , inline_type: Inline, calling_convention: CallingConvention, is_var_args: bool , is_extern: bool , is_export: bool , lib_name: ?[] const u8 , return_type: type , arg_names: [][] const u8 , pub const Inline = enum { Auto, Always, Never, }; }; }; }; }; This kicks open the door for compile-time reflection, especially when combined with the fact that Jimmi Holst Christensen implemented @field, which performs field access with a compile-time known name: const std = @import ( "std" ); const assert = std.debug.assert; test "@field" { const Foo = struct { one: i32 , two: bool , }; var f = Foo{ .one = 42 , .two = true , }; const names = [][] const u8 { "two" , "one" }; assert( @field (f, names[ 0 ]) == true ); assert( @field (f, names[ 1 ]) == 42 ); @field (f, "one" ) += 1 ; assert( @field (f, "on" ++ "e" ) == 43 ); } This has the potential to be abused, and so the feature should be used carefully. After Jimmi implemented @field , he improved the implementation of @typeInfo and fixed several bugs. And now, the combination of these builtins is used to implement struct printing in userland: const std = @import ( "std" ); const Foo = struct { one: i32 , two: * u64 , three: bool , }; pub fn main () void { var x: u64 = 1234 ; var f = Foo{ .one = 42 , .two = &x, .three = false , }; std.debug.warn( "here it is: {} " , f); } Output: here it is: Foo{ .one = 42, .two = u64@7ffdda208cf0, .three = false } See std/fmt/index.zig:15 for the implementation. Now that we have @typeInfo , there is one more question to answer: should there be a function which accepts a TypeInfo value, and makes a type out of it? This hypothetical feature is called @reify , and it's a hot topic. Although undeniably powerful and useful, there is concern that it would be too powerful, leading to complex meta-programming that goes against the spirit of simplicity that Zig stands for. Improve cmpxchg @cmpxchg is removed. @cmpxchgStrong and @cmpxchgWeak are added. The functions have operand type as the first parameter. The return type is ?T where T is the operand type. New Type: f16 Ben Noordhuis implemented f16 . This is guaranteed to be IEEE-754-2008 binary16 format, even on systems that have no hardware support, thanks to the additions to compiler_rt that Ben contributed. He also added support for f16 to std.math functions such as isnormal and fabs . All Integer Sizes are Primitives Zig 0.2.0 had primitive types for integer bit widths of 2-8, 16, 29, 32, 64, 128. Any number other than that, and you had to use @IntType to create the type. But you would get a compile error if you shadowed one of the above bit widths that already existed, for example with const u29 = @IntType ( false , 29 ); Needless to say, this situation was unnecessarily troublesome (#745). And so now arbitrary bit-width integers can be referenced by using an identifier of i or u followed by digits. For example, the identifier i7 refers to a signed 7-bit integer. u0 is a 0-bit type, which means: @sizeOf ( u0 ) == 0 No actual code is generated for loads and stores of this type of value. The value of a u0 as always the compile-time known value of 0 . i0 doesn't make sense and will probably crash the compiler. Although Zig defines arbitrary integer sizes to support all primitive operations, if you try to use, for example, multiplication on 256-bit integers: test "large multiplication" { var x: u256 = 0xabcd ; var y: u256 = 0xefef ; var z = x * y; } Then you'll get an error like this: LLVM ERROR: Unsupported library call operation! Zig isn't supposed to be letting LLVM leak through here, but that's a separate issue. What's happening is that normally if a primitive operation such as multiplication of integers cannot be lowered to a machine instruction, LLVM will emit a library call to compiler_rt to perform the operation. This works for up to 128-bit multiplication, for example. However compiler_rt does not define an arbitrary precision multiplication library function, and so LLVM is not able to generate code. It is planned to submit a patch to LLVM which adds the ability to emit a lib call for situations like this, and then Zig will include the arbitrary precision multiplication function in Zig's compiler_rt. In addition to this, Zig 0.3.0 fixes a bug where @IntType was silently wrapping the bit count parameter if it was greater than pow(2, 32). Improved f128 Support Marc Tiehuis & Ben Noordhuis solved the various issues that prevented f128 from being generally useful. Fix hex-float parsing. -Marc Tiehuis (#495) Add compiler-rt functions to support f128 . -Marc Tiehuis __floatunditf __floatunsitf __floatunsitf __floatuntitf __floatuntisf __trunctfdf2 __trunctfsf2 __floattitf __floattidf __floattisf . -Marc Tiehuis Alignment fix and allow rudimentary f128 float printing. -Marc Tiehuis Fix f128 remainder division bug. The modulo operation computed rem(b+rem(a,b), b) which produces -1 for a=1 and b=2. Switch to a - b * trunc(a/b) which produces the expected result, 1. -Ben Noordhuis (#1137) Build Artifact Caching Zig now supports global build artifact caching. This feature is one of those things that you can generally ignore, because it "just works" without any babysitting. By default, compilations are not cached. You can enable the global cache for a compilation by using --cache on : andy@xps:~/tmp$ time zig build-exe hello.zig real 0m0.414s user 0m0.369s sys 0m0.049s andy@xps:~/tmp$ time zig build-exe hello.zig --cache on /home/andy/.local/share/zig/stage1/artifact/hkGO0PyaOKDrdg2wyhV1vRy0ATyTaT0s0ECa2BiHFJfsb9RDVKK_r3qwHI5gaEfv/hello real 0m0.412s user 0m0.377s sys 0m0.038s andy@xps:~/tmp$ time zig build-exe hello.zig --cache on /home/andy/.local/share/zig/stage1/artifact/hkGO0PyaOKDrdg2wyhV1vRy0ATyTaT0s0ECa2BiHFJfsb9RDVKK_r3qwHI5gaEfv/hello real 0m0.012s user 0m0.009s sys 0m0.003s When the cache is on, the output is not written to the current directory. Instead, the output is kept in the cache directory, and the path to it is printed to stdout. This is off by default, because this is an uncommon use case. The real benefit of build artifact caching comes in 3 places: zig run, where it is enabled by default: andy@xps:~/tmp$ time zig run hello.zig Hello, world! real 0m0.553s user 0m0.500s sys 0m0.055s andy@xps:~/tmp$ time zig run hello.zig Hello, world! real 0m0.013s user 0m0.007s sys 0m0.006s zig build, so that your build script only has to build once. When building an executable or shared library, Zig must build compiler_rt.o and builtin.o from source, for the given target. This usually only has to be done once ever, which is why other compilers such as gcc ship with these components already built. The problem with that strategy is that you have to build a special version of the compiler for cross-compiling. With Zig, you can always build for any target, on any target. So caching these artifacts provides a happy solution. The cache is perfect; there are no false positives. You could even fix a bug in memcpy in the system's libc, and Zig will detect that its own code has (indirectly) been updated, and invalidate the cache entry. If you use zig build-exe , Zig will still create a zig-cache directory in the current working directory in order to store an intermediate .o file. This is because on MacOS, the intermediate .o file stores the debug information, and therefore it needs to stick around somewhere sensible for Stack Traces to work. Likewise, if you use zig test , Zig will put the test binary in the zig-cache directory in the current working directory. It's useful to leave the test binary here so that the programmer can use a debugger on it or otherwise inspect it. The zig-cache directory is cleaner than before, however. For example, the builtin.zig file is no longer created there. It participates in the global caching system, just like compiler_rt.o . You can use zig builtin to see the contents of @import("builtin") . Compatibility with Valgrind I noticed that valgrind does not see Zig's debug symbols (#896): pub fn main () void { foo().* += 1 ; } fn foo () * i32 { return @intToPtr (* i32 , 10000000 ); } ==24133== Invalid read of size 4 ==24133== at 0x2226D5: ??? (in /home/andy/downloads/zig/build/test) ==24133== by 0x2226A8: ??? (in /home/andy/downloads/zig/build/test) ==24133== by 0x222654: ??? (in /home/andy/downloads/zig/build/test) ==24133== by 0x2224B7: ??? (in /home/andy/downloads/zig/build/test) ==24133== by 0x22236F: ??? (in /home/andy/downloads/zig/build/test) After digging around, I was able to reproduce the problem using only Clang and LLD: static int *foo(void) { return (int *)10000000; } int main(void) { int *x = foo(); *x += 1; } If this C code is built with Clang and linked with LLD, Valgrind has the same issue as with the Zig code. I sent a message to the Valgrind mailing list, and they suggested submitting a bug fix to Valgrind. That's a good idea. I'm a little busy with Zig development though - anybody else want to take a crack at it? In the meantime, Zig now has a --no-rosegment flag, which works around the bug. It should only be used for this purpose; the flag will likely be removed once Valgrind fixes the issue upstream and enough time passes that the new version becomes generally available. $ zig build-exe test.zig --no-rosegment $ valgrind ./test ==24241== Invalid read of size 4 ==24241== at 0x221FE5: main (test.zig:2) Zig is now on Godbolt Compiler Explorer Marc Tiehuis added Zig support, and then worked with the Compiler Explorer team to get it merged upstream and deployed. The command line API that Compiler Explorer uses is covered by Zig's main test suite to ensure that it continues working as the language evolves. zig init-lib and init-exe zig init-lib can be used to initialize a zig build project in the current directory which will create a simple library: $ zig init-lib Created build.zig Created src/main.zig Next, try `zig build --help` or `zig build test` $ zig build test Test 1/1 basic add functionality...OK All tests passed. Likewise, zig init-exe initializes a simple application: $ zig init-exe Created build.zig Created src/main.zig Next, try `zig build --help` or `zig build run` $ zig build run All your base are belong to us. The main Zig test suite tests this functionality so that it will not regress as Zig continues to evolve. Concurrency Status Concurrency is now solved. That is, there is a concrete plan for how concurrency will work in Zig, and now it's a matter of implementing all the pieces. First and foremost, Zig supports low-level control over hardware. That means that it has atomic primitives: ...and it means that you can directly spawn kernel threads using standard library functions: const std = @import ( "std" ); const assert = std.debug.assert; const builtin = @import ( "builtin" ); const AtomicRmwOp = builtin.AtomicRmwOp; const AtomicOrder = builtin.AtomicOrder; test "spawn threads" { var shared_ctx: i32 = 1 ; const thread1 = try std.os.spawnThread({}, start1); const thread2 = try std.os.spawnThread(&shared_ctx, start2); const thread3 = try std.os.spawnThread(&shared_ctx, start2); const thread4 = try std.os.spawnThread(&shared_ctx, start2); thread1.wait(); thread2.wait(); thread3.wait(); thread4.wait(); assert(shared_ctx == 4 ); } fn start1 (ctx: void ) u8 { return 0 ; } fn start2 (ctx: * i32 ) u8 { _ = @atomicRmw ( i32 , ctx, AtomicRmwOp.Add, 1 , AtomicOrder.SeqCst); return 0 ; } On POSIX targets, when you link against libc, the standard library uses pthreads; otherwise it uses its own lightweight kernel thread implementation. You can use mutexes, signals, condition variables, and all those things. Anything you can accomplish in C, you can accomplish in Zig. However, the standard library provides a higher level concurrency abstraction, designed for optimal performance, debuggability, and structuring code to closely model the problems that concurrency presents. The abstraction is built on two language features: stackless coroutines and async / await syntax. Everything else is implemented in userland. std.event.Loop creates a kernel thread pool matching the number of logical CPUs. It can then be used for non-blocking I/O that will be dispatched across the thread pool, using the platform-native API: This is a competitor to libuv, except multi-threaded. Once you have an event loop, all of the std.event API becomes available to use: std.event.Channel - Many producer, many consumer, thread-safe, runtime configurable buffer size. When buffer is empty, consumers suspend and are resumed by producers. When buffer is full, producers suspend and are resumed by consumers. - Many producer, many consumer, thread-safe, runtime configurable buffer size. When buffer is empty, consumers suspend and are resumed by producers. When buffer is full, producers suspend and are resumed by consumers. std.event.Future - A value that many consumers can await . - A value that many consumers can . std.event.Group - A way to await multiple async operations. - A way to multiple operations. std.event.Lock - Ensures only one thread gets access to a resource, without blocking a kernel thread. - Ensures only one thread gets access to a resource, without blocking a kernel thread. std.event.RwLock - Same as Lock except allows multiple readers to access data simultaneously. - Same as Lock except allows multiple readers to access data simultaneously. std.event.fs - File system operations based on async / await syntax. - File system operations based on / syntax. std.event.tcp - Network operations based on async / await syntax. All of these abstractions provide convenient APIs based on async / await syntax, making it practical for API users to model their code with maximally efficient concurrency. None of these abstractions block or use mutexes; when an API user must suspend, control flow goes to the next coroutine waiting to run, if any. If no coroutines are waiting to run, the application will sit idly, waiting for an event from the respective platform-native API (e.g. epoll on Linux). As an example, here is a snippet from a test in the standard library: async fn testFsWatch (loop: *Loop) ! void { const file_path = try os.path.join(loop.allocator, test_tmp_dir, "file.txt" ); defer loop.allocator.free(file_path); const contents = \\line 1 \\line 2 ; const line2_offset = 7 ; try await try async fs.writeFile(loop, file_path, contents); const read_contents = try await try async fs.readFile(loop, file_path, 1024 * 1024 ); assert(mem.eql( u8 , read_contents, contents)); var watch = try fs.Watch( void ).create(loop, 0 ); defer watch.destroy(); assert(( try await try async watch.addFile(file_path, {})) == null ); const ev = try async watch.channel.get(); var ev_consumed = false ; defer if (!ev_consumed) cancel ev; const fd = try await try async fs.openReadWrite(loop, file_path, os.File.default_mode); { defer os.close(fd); try await try async fs.pwritev(loop, fd, [][] const u8 { "lorem ipsum" }, line2_offset); } ev_consumed = true ; switch (( try await ev).id) { WatchEventId.CloseWrite => {}, WatchEventId.Delete => @panic ( "wrong event" ), } const contents_updated = try await try async fs.readFile(loop, file_path, 1024 * 1024 ); assert(mem.eql( u8 , contents_updated, \\line 1 \\lorem ipsum )); } You can see that even though Zig is a language with manual memory management that insists on handling every possible error, it manages to be quite high level using these event-based APIs. Now, there are some problems to solve: The way that canceling a coroutine works is currently unsound. - I know how to fix this, but it'll have to be in 0.4.0. Unfortunately it's causing occasional test failures. Lack of a guarantee about whether an async function call allocates memory or not. - In theory, there are many cases where Zig should be able to guarantee that an async function call will not allocate memory for the coroutine frame. However in practice, using LLVM's coroutines API, it will always result in an allocation. LLVM's coroutines implementation is buggy - Right now Zig sadly is forced to disable optimizations for async functions because LLVM has a bug where Mem2Reg turns correct coroutine frame spills back into incorrect parameter references. functions because LLVM has a bug where Mem2Reg turns correct coroutine frame spills back into incorrect parameter references. LLVM's coroutines implementation is slow - When I analyzed the compilation speed of Zig, even with optimizations off, LLVM takes up over 80% of the time. And for the zig behavioral tests, even though coroutines are a tiny percent of the code, LLVM's coroutine splitting pass takes up 30% of that time. And so, the plan is to rework coroutines, without using any of LLVM's coroutines API. Zig will implement coroutines in the frontend, and LLVM will see only functions and structs. This is how Rust does it, and I think it was a strong choice. The coroutine frame will be in a struct, and so Zig will know the size of it at compile-time, and it will solve the problem of guaranteeing allocation elision - the async callsite will simply have to provide the coroutine frame pointer in order to create the promise. This will also be relevant for recursion; stackless function calls do not count against the static stack size upper bound calculation. See Recursion Status for more details. Self-Hosted Compiler Status The self-hosted compiler is well underway. Here's a 1 minute demo of the self-hosted compiler watching source files and rebuilding. The self-hosted compiler cannot do much more than Hello World at the moment, but it's being constructed from the ground up to fully take advantage of multiple cores and in-memory caching. In addition, Zig's error system and other safety features are making it easy to write reliable, robust code. Between stack traces, error return traces, and runtime safety checks, I barely even need a debugger. Marc Tiehuis contributed a Big Integer library, which the self-hosted compiler is using for integer literals and compile-time math operations. Writing the self-hosted compiler code revealed to me how coroutines should work in Zig. All the little details and ergonomics are clear to me now. And so before I continue any further on the self-hosted compiler, I will use this knowledge to rework coroutines and solve the problems with them. See Concurrency Status for more details. As a reminder, even when the self-hosted compiler is complete, Zig will forever be stuck with the stage1 C++ compiler code. See The Grand Bootstrapping Plan for more details. The self-hosted compiler is successfully sharing some C++ code with the stage1 compiler. For example the libLLVM C++ API wrapper is built into a static library, which then exports a C API wrapper. The self-hosted compiler links against this static library in order to make libLLVM C++ API calls via the C API wrapper. In addition, the Microsoft Visual Studio detection code requires the Windows COM API, which is also C++, and so a similar strategy is used. I think it's pretty neat that the build system builds a static library once and then ends up linking against it twice - one for each of the two compiler stages! Recursion Status I've said before that recursion is one of the enemies of perfect software, because it represents a way that a program can fail with no foolproof way of preventing it. With recursion, pick any stack size and I'll give you an input that will crash your program. Embedded developers are all too familiar with this problem. It's always possible to rewrite code using an explicit stack using heap allocations, and that's exactly what Jimmi did in the self-hosted parser. On the other hand, when recursion fits the problem, it's significantly more clear and maintainable. It would be a real shame to have to give it up. I researched different ways that Zig could keep recursion, even when we introduce statically known stack upper bound size. I came up with a proof of concept for @newStackCall, a builtin function that calls a function using an explicitly provided new stack. You can find a usage example in the documentation by following that link. This works, and it does break call graph cycles, but it would be a little bit awkward to use. Because if you allocate an entire new stack, it has to be big enough for the rest of the stack upper bound size, but in a recursive call, which should be only one stack frame, it would overallocate every time. So that's why I think that the actual solution to this problem is Zig's stackless coroutines. Because Zig's coroutines are stackless, they are the perfect solution for recursion (direct or indirect). With the reworking of coroutines, it will be possible to put the coroutine frame of an async function anywhere - in a struct, in the stack, in a global variable - as long as it outlives the duration of the coroutine. See Concurrency for more details. Although recursion is not yet solved, we know enough to know that recursion is OK to use in Zig. It does suffer from the stack overflow issue today, but in the future we will have a compile error to prevent call graph cycles. And then this hypothetical compile error will be solved by using @newStackCall or stackless functions (but probably stackless functions). Once recursion is solved, if stackless functions turn out to be the better solution, Zig will remove @newStackCall from the language, unless someone demonstrates a compelling use case for it. For now, use recursion whenever you want; you'll know when it's time to update your code. WebAssembly Status The pieces for web assembly are starting to come together. Ben Noordhuis fixed support for --target-arch wasm32 (#1094). LLVM merged my patch to make WebAssembly a normal (non-experimental) target. But they didn't do it before the LLVM 7 release. So Zig 0.3.0 will not have WebAssembly support by default, but 0.4.0 will. That being said, the static builds of Zig provided by ziglang.org have the WebAssembly target enabled. Apart from this, there appears to be an issue with Zig's WebAssembly linker. Once this is solved, all that is left is to use WebAssembly in real life use cases, to work out the ergonomics, and solve the inevitable issues that arise. Documentation The language reference documentation now contains no JavaScript. The code blocks are pre-formatted with std.zig.Tokenizer . The same is true for these release notes. The builtin.zig example code in the documentation is now automatically updated from the output of Zig, so the docs can't get out of date for this. In addition to the above, the following improvements were made to the documentation: Standard Library API Changes std.mem.SplitIterator is now public is now public std.math.atan2 is now public is now public std.os.linux now makes public all the syscall numbers and syscall functions now makes public all the syscall numbers and syscall functions std.math.cast handles signed integers handles signed integers added std.zig.parse added std.zig.parseStringLiteral added std.zig.render added std.zig.ast added std.zig.Token added std.zig.Tokenizer added std.io.readLine replace File.exists with File.access . -Marc Tiehuis with . -Marc Tiehuis rename std.rand.Rand to std.rand.Random to added common hash/checksum functions. -Marc Tiehuis SipHash64, SipHash128 Crc32 (fast + small variants) Adler32 Fnv1a (32, 64 and 128 bit variants) Add Hmac function -Marc Tiehuis Added timestamp, high-perf. timer functions -tgschultz std.os.time.sleep std.os.time.posixSleep std.os.time.timestamp std.os.time.miliTimestamp std.os.time.Timer Added complex number support. -Marc Tiehuis std.math.complex.Complex std.math.complex.abs std.math.complex.acos std.math.complex.acosh std.math.complex.arg std.math.complex.asin std.math.complex.asinh std.math.complex.atan std.math.complex.atanh std.math.complex.conj std.math.complex.cos std.math.complex.cosh std.math.complex.exp std.math.complex.log std.math.complex.pow std.math.complex.proj std.math.complex.sinh std.math.complex.sin std.math.complex.sqrt std.math.complex.tanh std.math.complex.tan std.math.complex.ldexp_cexp Added more slice manipulation functions. Thanks Braedon Wooding for the original PR. (#944) std.mem.trimLeft std.mem.trimRight std.mem.trimRight std.mem.lastIndexOfScalar std.mem.lastIndexOfAny std.mem.lastIndexOf std.mem.endsWith Added std.atomic.Stack Added std.atomic.Queue Added std.os.spawnThread . It works on all targets. On Linux, when linking libc, it uses pthreads, and when not linking libc, it makes syscalls directly. . It works on all targets. On Linux, when linking libc, it uses pthreads, and when not linking libc, it makes syscalls directly. Add JSON decoder. -Marc Tiehuis std.json.Token std.json.StreamingParser std.json.TokenStream std.json.validate std.json.ValueTree std.json.ObjectMap std.json.Value std.json.Parser - A non-stream JSON parser which constructs a tree of Value's. Added std.SegmentedList Removed functions from std.Buffer . Instead users should use std.io.BufferOutStream . Removed std.Buffer.appendFormat Removed std.Buffer.appendByte Removed std.Buffer.appendByteNTimes . Instead users should use . Add arbitrary-precision integer to std. -Marc Tiehuis std.math.big.Int std.math.big.Limb std.math.big.DoubleLimb std.math.big.Log2Limb std.os.Dir gains Windows support. gains Windows support. std.os.File.access no longer depends on shlwapi.dll on Windows. no longer depends on shlwapi.dll on Windows. std.os.path.dirname returns null instead of empty slice when there is no directory component. This makes it harder to write bugs. (#1017) returns null instead of empty slice when there is no directory component. This makes it harder to write bugs. (#1017) Reading from a file can return error.IsDir . . Added std.math.floatMantissaBits and std.math.floatExponentBits -Marc Tiehuis and -Marc Tiehuis std.mem.Allocator allows allocation of any 0 sized type, not just void . -Jimmi Holst Christensen. allows allocation of any 0 sized type, not just . -Jimmi Holst Christensen. Added std.os.cpuCount Added std.sort.asc and std.sort.desc -Marc Tiehuis and -Marc Tiehuis std.fmt.format add * for formatting things as pointers. (#1285) add for formatting things as pointers. (#1285) std.fmt.format add integer binary output format. -Marc Tiehuis (#1313) add integer binary output format. -Marc Tiehuis (#1313) Added std.mem.secureZero . -Marc Tiehuis This is identical to mem.set(u8, slice, 0) except that it will never be optimized out by the compiler. Intended usage is for clearing secret data. The resulting assembly has been manually verified in --release-* modes. It would be valuable to test the 'never be optimized out' claim in tests but this is harder than initially expected due to how much Zig appears to know locally. May be doable with @intToPtr , @ptrToInt to get around known data dependencies but I could not work it out right now. . -Marc Tiehuis This is identical to except that it will never be optimized out by the compiler. Intended usage is for clearing secret data. The resulting assembly has been manually verified in --release-* modes. It would be valuable to test the 'never be optimized out' claim in tests but this is harder than initially expected due to how much Zig appears to know locally. May be doable with , to get around known data dependencies but I could not work it out right now. std.fmt.format handles non-pointer struct/union/enums. Adds support for printing structs via reflection. (#1380) handles non-pointer struct/union/enums. Adds support for printing structs via reflection. (#1380) Many std.os file functions no longer require an allocator. They rely on PATH_MAX , because even Windows, Linux, and MacOS syscalls will fail for paths longer than PATH_MAX . file functions no longer require an allocator. They rely on , because even Windows, Linux, and MacOS syscalls will fail for paths longer than . Add std.crypto.chaCha20IETF and std.crypto.chaCha20With64BitNonce . -Shawn Landden & Marc Tiehuis and . -Shawn Landden & Marc Tiehuis Add poly1305 and x25519 crypto primitives. -Marc Tiehuis These are translated from monocypher which has fairly competitive performance while remaining quite simple. Initial performance comparision: Zig: Poly1305: 1423 MiB/s X25519: 8671 exchanges per second Monocypher: Poly1305: 1567 MiB/s X25519: 10539 exchanges per second There is room for improvement and no real effort has been made at all in optimization beyond a direct translation. These are translated from monocypher which has fairly competitive performance while remaining quite simple. Initial performance comparision: There is room for improvement and no real effort has been made at all in optimization beyond a direct translation. Removed deprecated, unused Windows functions std.os.windows.CryptAcquireContextA std.os.windows.CryptReleaseContext std.os.windows.CryptGenRandom Thank you contributors! Tesla Ice Zhang fixed typos in the Zig grammar documentation and created The IntelliJ IDEA plugin for the Zig programming language fixed typos in the Zig grammar documentation and created The IntelliJ IDEA plugin for the Zig programming language Jay Weisskopf cleaned up the Zig documentation cleaned up the Zig documentation hellerve finished the Mac OS dir entry iterator code finished the Mac OS dir entry iterator code Raul Leal fixed an undeclared identifier error in readUntilDelimiterBuffer and incorrect number of parameters in readUntilDelimiterAlloc (#877) fixed an undeclared identifier error in readUntilDelimiterBuffer and incorrect number of parameters in readUntilDelimiterAlloc (#877) Wander Lairson Costa fixed the build process to find libxml2 and zlib correctly. (#847) fixed the build process to find libxml2 and zlib correctly. (#847) tgschultz added more linux syscalls and constants to the std lib. added more linux syscalls and constants to the std lib. tgschultz fixed compiler errors around Darwin code. fixed compiler errors around Darwin code. Harry Eakins added readability improvements and a bug-fix to the standard library crypto throughput test. added readability improvements and a bug-fix to the standard library crypto throughput test. tgschultz Added DirectAllocator support for alignments bigger than os.page_size on posix systems. (#939) Added DirectAllocator support for alignments bigger than os.page_size on posix systems. (#939) Braedon Wooding & Josh Wolfe Added UTF-8 encoding and decoding support. (#954) & Added UTF-8 encoding and decoding support. (#954) Alexandros Naskos Fixed a bug where comptime was being incorrectly applied across function definition boundaries. (#972) Fixed a bug where comptime was being incorrectly applied across function definition boundaries. (#972) Braedon Wooding worked towards unifying the std.ArrayList and std.HashMap APIs regarding iteration. (#981) worked towards unifying the and APIs regarding iteration. (#981) Braedon Wooding added documentation for arg types and error inference. added documentation for arg types and error inference. tgschultz added custom formatter support to std.fmt.format . added custom formatter support to . isaachier Fixed const-ness of buffer in std.Buffer.replaceContents method (#1065) Fixed const-ness of buffer in method (#1065) isaachier Fixed error handling in std.Buffer.fromOwnedSlice . (#1082) Fixed error handling in . (#1082) Arthur Elliott Added std.ArrayList.setOrError so you can set a value without growing the underlying buffer, with range safety checks. Added so you can set a value without growing the underlying buffer, with range safety checks. marleck55 std/fmt: Use lowercase k for kilo in base 1000 (#1090) std/fmt: Use lowercase k for kilo in base 1000 (#1090) tgschultz added C string to fmt by using {s} . (#1092) added C string to fmt by using . (#1092) Alexandros Naskos Fixed optional types of zero bit types. (#1110) Fixed optional types of zero bit types. (#1110) Jay Weisskopf Made zig version compliant with SemVer with regards to the git revision metadata. Made compliant with SemVer with regards to the git revision metadata. Sahnvour fixed a compilation error on windows introduced by pointer reform. fixed a compilation error on windows introduced by pointer reform. Bodie Solomon Fixed zig not finding std lib files on Darwin when the executable is a symlink. (#1117) Fixed zig not finding std lib files on Darwin when the executable is a symlink. (#1117) Isaac Hier Fixed the increment operation for the comptime value -1 . Fixed the increment operation for the comptime value . Isaac Hier Fixed the compiler's internal path joining function when the dirname is empty. Fixed the compiler's internal path joining function when the dirname is empty. tgschultz Fixed standard library regressions from updated syntax. (#1162) Fixed standard library regressions from updated syntax. (#1162) Isaac Hier Improved the compile error for when the RHS of a shift is too large for the LHS. (#1168) Improved the compile error for when the RHS of a shift is too large for the LHS. (#1168) Jay Weisskopf Fixed version detection for out-of-source builds. Fixed version detection for out-of-source builds. Isaac Hier Fixed an assertion crash on enum switch values Fixed an assertion crash on enum switch values wilsonk Fixed a build error in the crypto throughput test (#1211) Fixed a build error in the crypto throughput test (#1211) Bas van den Berg Fixed std.ArrayList.insert and added tests. (#1232) Fixed and added tests. (#1232) tgschultz Added std.ArrayList.swapRemove . (#1230) Added . (#1230) Eduardo Sanchez Munoz fixed bad code generated when an extern function returns a small struct. (#1234) fixed bad code generated when an extern function returns a small struct. (#1234) Bas van den Berg fixed aligned reallocation. (#1237) fixed aligned reallocation. (#1237) Bas van den Berg improved realloc on fixed buffer allocator. (#1238) improved realloc on fixed buffer allocator. (#1238) Wink Saville gave ArrayList tests consistent names. (#1253) gave ArrayList tests consistent names. (#1253) Wink Saville added std.ArrayList.swapRemoveOrError . (#1254) added . (#1254) Jay Weisskopf Fixed minor documentation errors (#1256) Fixed minor documentation errors (#1256) kristopher tate Added more std.os.posix constants. Added more constants. kristopher tate Made tests skippable by returning error.SkipZigTest Made tests skippable by returning Nathan Sharp Added std.io.PeekStream and std.io.Slicestream . SliceStream is a read-only stream wrapper around a slice of bytes. It allows adapting algorithms which work on InStreams to in-memory data. PeekStream is a stream wrapper which allows "putting back" bytes into the stream so that they can be read again. This will help make look-ahead parsers easier to write. Added and . SliceStream is a read-only stream wrapper around a slice of bytes. It allows adapting algorithms which work on InStreams to in-memory data. PeekStream is a stream wrapper which allows "putting back" bytes into the stream so that they can be read again. This will help make look-ahead parsers easier to write. dbandstra added int writing functions to OutStream, and skipBytes function to InStream (#1300) added int writing functions to OutStream, and skipBytes function to InStream (#1300) dbandstra add SliceOutStream, rename SliceStream to SliceInStream (#1301) add SliceOutStream, rename SliceStream to SliceInStream (#1301) Matthew D. Steele added "Comments" section to language reference (#1309) added "Comments" section to language reference (#1309) kristopher tate Windows: Call RtlGenRandom() instead of CryptGetRandom() (#1319) Windows: Call RtlGenRandom() instead of CryptGetRandom() (#1319) kristopher tate Add builtin function @handle() (#1297) Add builtin function @handle() (#1297) kristopher tate better support for `_` identifier (#1204, #1320) better support for `_` identifier (#1204, #1320) Matthew D. Steele Fix the start-less-than-end assertion in std.rand.Random.range (#1325) Fix the start-less-than-end assertion in std.rand.Random.range (#1325) Matthew D. Steele Fix a type error in std.os.linux.getpid() (#1326) Fix a type error in std.os.linux.getpid() (#1326) Matthew D. Steele Add thread ID support to std.os.Thread (#1316) Add thread ID support to std.os.Thread (#1316) Shawn Landden doc: @addWithOverflow also returns if overflow occured doc: @addWithOverflow also returns if overflow occured Shawn Landden added a red-black tree implementation to std added a red-black tree implementation to std Wink Saville fixed @atomicRmw not type checking correctly. fixed @atomicRmw not type checking correctly. prazzb Fixed LLVM detection at build time for some linux distros. (#1378) Fixed LLVM detection at build time for some linux distros. (#1378) tgschultz fixed handling of [*]u8 when no format specifier is set. (#1379) fixed handling of [*]u8 when no format specifier is set. (#1379) Shawn Landden do not use an allocator when we don't need to because of the existance of PATH_MAX do not use an allocator when we don't need to because of the existance of PATH_MAX Raul Leal Allow implicit cast from *[N]T to ?[*]T (#1398) Allow implicit cast from to (#1398) kristopher tate Added a test for writing u64 integers (#1401) Added a test for writing u64 integers (#1401) tgschultz Fixed compile error when passing enum to fmt Fixed compile error when passing enum to fmt tgschultz Implemented tagged union support in std.fmt.format (#1432) Implemented tagged union support in (#1432) Raul Leal Allow implicit cast from *T and [*]T to ?*c_void Allow implicit cast from and to kristopher tate correct version comparison for detecting msvc (fixes #1438) correct version comparison for detecting msvc (fixes #1438) kristopher tate allow bytes to be printed-out as hex (#1358) allow bytes to be printed-out as hex (#1358) Shawn Landden updated incorrect documentation comments (#1456) updated incorrect documentation comments (#1456) hfcc Added compilation error when a non-float is given to @floatToInt Added compilation error when a non-float is given to kristopher tate X25519: Fix createPublicKey signature and add test (#1480) X25519: Fix createPublicKey signature and add test (#1480) Sahnvour Fixes a path corruption when compiling on windows. (#1488) Fixes a path corruption when compiling on windows. (#1488) Bas van den Berg Add capacity and appendAssumeCapacity to ArrayList Add capacity and appendAssumeCapacity to ArrayList emekoi fixed WriteFile segfault fixed WriteFile segfault kristopher tate fixed handling of file paths with spaces in the cache fixed handling of file paths with spaces in the cache Wink Saville fixed build failures of FileOutStream/FileInStream from syntax changes fixed build failures of FileOutStream/FileInStream from syntax changes emekoi fixed compiling on mingw (#1542) fixed compiling on mingw (#1542) Raul Leal added builtin functions: @byteOffsetOf and @bitOffsetOf . added builtin functions: and . Christian Wesselhoeft fixed BufferOutStream import - it is defined in io.zig. fixed BufferOutStream import - it is defined in io.zig. Wink Saville fixed a typo in a doc comment fixed a typo in a doc comment Wink Saville fixed a build issue with GCC 8 fixed a build issue with GCC 8 Wink Saville refactored some parsing code in the self-hosted compiler refactored some parsing code in the self-hosted compiler Jay Weisskopf improved the help output of the command line interface Miscellaneous Improvements LLVM, Clang, and LLD dependencies are updated to 7.0.0. Greatly increased test coverage. std.os - getting dir entries works on Mac OS. allow integer and float literals to be passed to var params. See #623 add @sqrt built-in function. #767 The compiler exits with error code instead of abort() for file not found. Add @atomicLoad builtin. stage1 compiler defaults to installing in the build directory ability to use async function pointers Revise self-hosted command line interface Add exp/norm distributed random float generation. -Marc Tiehuis On linux, clock_gettime uses the VDSO optimization, even for static builds. uses the VDSO optimization, even for static builds. Better error reporting for missing libc on Windows. (#931) Improved fmt float-printing. -Marc Tiehuis Fix errors printing very small numbers Add explicit scientific output mode Add rounding based on a specific precision for both decimal/exp modes. Test and confirm exp/decimal against libc for all f32 values. Various changes to better match libc. The crypto throughput test now uses the new std.os.time module. -Marc Tiehuis module. -Marc Tiehuis Added better support for unpure enums in tranlate C. -Jimmi Holst Christensen (#975) Made container methods that can be const , const . -Jimmi Holst Christensen , . -Jimmi Holst Christensen Tagged union field access prioritizes members over enum tags. (#959) std.fmt.format supports {B} for human readable bytes using SI prefixes. supports for human readable bytes using SI prefixes. Zig now knows the C integer sizes for OpenBSD. Thanks to Jan Schreib for this information. (#1016) Renamed integer literal type and float literal type to comptime_int and comptime_float . -Jimmi Holst Christensen and . -Jimmi Holst Christensen @canImplicitCast is removed. Nobody will miss it. Allow access of array.len through a pointer. -Jimmi Holst Christensen through a pointer. -Jimmi Holst Christensen Optional pointers follow const-casting rules. Any *T -> ?*T cast is allowed implicitly, even when it occurs deep inside the type, and the cast is a no-op at runtime. cast is allowed implicitly, even when it occurs deep inside the type, and the cast is a no-op at runtime. Add i128 compiler-rt div/mul support. -Marc Tiehuis Add target C int type information for msp430 target. #1125 Add __extenddftf2 and __extendsftf2 to zig's compiler-rt. and to zig's compiler-rt. Add support for zig to compare comptime array values. -Jimmi Holst Christensen (#1167) Support --emit in test command. -Ben Noordhuis (#1175) in command. -Ben Noordhuis (#1175) Operators now throw a compiler error when operating on undefined values. -Jimmi Holst Christensen (#1185) Always link against compiler_rt even when linking libc. Sometimes libgcc is missing things we need, so we always link compiler_rt and rely on weak linkage to allow libgcc to override. Add compile error notes for where struct definitions are. (#1202) Add @popCount. Cleaner output from zig build when there are compile errors. new builder.addBuildOption API. -Josh Wolfe API. -Josh Wolfe Add compile error for disallowed types in extern structs. (#1218) build system: add -Dskip-release option to test faster. -Andrew Kelley & Jimmi Holst Christensen option to test faster. -Andrew Kelley & Jimmi Holst Christensen allow == for comparing optional pointers. #658 for comparing optional pointers. #658 allow implicit cast of undefined to optional switch most windows calls to use W versions instead of A. (#534) Better anonymous struct naming. This makes anonymous structs inherit the name of the function they are in only when they are the return expression. Also document the behavior and provide examples. (#1243) compile error for @noInlineCall on an inline fn (#1133) stage1: use os_path_resolve instead of os_path_real to canonicalize imports. This means that softlinks can represent different files, but referencing the same absolute path different ways still references the same import. rename --enable-timing-info to -ftime-report to match clang, and have it print llvm's internal timing info. to to match clang, and have it print llvm's internal timing info. Binary releases now include the LICENSE file. Overhaul standard library api for getting random integers. -Josh Wolfe (#1578) Bug Fixes fix incorrect compile error on inferred error set from async function #856 fix promise->T syntax not parsed #857 syntax not parsed #857 fix crash when compile error in analyzing @panic call fix compile time array concatenation for slices #866 fix off-by-one error in all standard library crypto functions. -Marc Tiehuis fix use-after-free in BufMap.set() - Ben Noordhuis #879 fix llvm assert on version string with git sha -Ben Noordhuis #898 codegen: fix not putting llvm allocas together fix calling convention at callsite of zig-generated fns inline functions now must be stored in const or comptime var. #913 fix linux implementation of self exe path #894 Fixed looking for windows sdk when targeting linux. -Jimmi Holst Christensen Fixed incorrect exit code when build.zig cannot be created. -Ben Noordhuis Fix os.File.mode function. -Marc Tiehuis Fix OpqaueType usage in exported c functions. -Marc Tiehuis Added memmove to builtin.o. LLVM occasionally generates a dependency on this function. to builtin.o. LLVM occasionally generates a dependency on this function. Fix std.BufMap logic. -Ben Noordhuis logic. -Ben Noordhuis Fix undefined behavior triggered by fn inline test Build system supports LLVM_LIBDIRS and CLANG_LIBDIRS. -Ben Noordhuis The Zig compiler does exit(1) instead of abort() for file not found. Add compile error for invalid deref on switch target. (#945) Fix printing floats in release mode. -Marc Tiehuis (#564, #669, #928) Fix @shlWithOverflow producing incorrect results when used at comptime (#948) Fix labeled break causing defer in same block to fail compiling (#830) Fix compiler crash with functions with empty error sets. -Jimmi Holst Christensen (#762, #818) Fix returning literals from functions with inferred error sets. -Jimmi Holst Christensen (#852) Fix compiler crash for .ReturnType and @ArgType on unresolved types. -Jimmi Holst Christensen (#846) and @ArgType on unresolved types. -Jimmi Holst Christensen (#846) Fix compiler-rt ABI for x86_64 windows Fix extern enums having the wrong size. -Jimmi Holst Christensen (#970) Fix bigint multi-limb shift and masks. -Marc Tiehuis Fix bigint shift-right partial shift. -Marc Tiehuis translate-c: fix typedef duplicate definition of variable. (#998) fix comptime code modification of global const. (#1008) build: add flag to LLD to fix gcc 8 build. (#1013) fix AtomicFile for relative paths. (#1017) fix compiler assert when trying to unwrap return type type . -Jimmi Holst Christensen . -Jimmi Holst Christensen fix crash when evaluating return type has compile error. (#1058) Fix Log2Int type construction. -Marc Tiehuis fix std.os.windows.PathFileExists specified in the wrong DLL (#1066) Fix structs that contain types which require comptime. (#586) Now, if a struct has any fields which require comptime, such as type , then the struct is marked as requiring comptime as well. Same goes for unions. This means that a function will implicitly be called at comptime if the return type is a struct which contains a field of type type . Now, if a struct has any fields which require comptime, such as , then the struct is marked as requiring comptime as well. Same goes for unions. This means that a function will implicitly be called at comptime if the return type is a struct which contains a field of type . fix assertion failure when debug printing comptime values fix @tagName handling specified enum values incorrectly. (#976, #1080) fix ability to call mutating methods on zero size structs. (#838) disallow implicit casts that break rules for optionals. (#1102) Fix windows x86_64 i128 ABI issue. -Marc Tiehuis Disallow opaque as a return type of function type syntax. (#1115) Fix compiler crash for invalid enums. (#1079, #1147) Fix crash for optional pointer to empty struct. (#1153) Fix comptime @tagName crashing sometimes. (#1118) crashing sometimes. (#1118) Fix coroutine accessing freed memory. (#1164) Fix runtime libc detection on linux depending on locale. (#1165) Fix await on early return when return type is struct. Fix iterating over a void slice. (#1203) Fix crash on @ptrToInt of a *void (#1192) of a (#1192) fix crash when calling comptime-known undefined function ptr. #880, #1212 fix @setEvalBranchQuota not respected in generic fn calls. #1257 not respected in generic fn calls. #1257 Allow pointers to anything in extern/exported declarations (#1258) -Jimmi Holst Christensen Prevent non-export symbols from clobbering builtins. (#1263) fix generation of error defers for fns inside fns. (#878) Fixed windows getPos. -Jimmi Holst Christensen fix logic for determining whether param requires comptime (#778, #1213) Fixed bug in LLD crashing when linking twice in the same process. (#1289) fix assertion failure when some compile errors happen add compile error for non-inline for loop on comptime type add compile error for missing parameter name of generic function add compile error for ignoring return value of while loop bodies (#1049) fix tagged union initialization with a runtime void (#1328) translate-c: fix for loops and do while loops with empty body fix incorrectly generating an unused const fn global (#1277) Fix builtin alignment type. -Marc Tiehuis (#1235) fix handling multiple extern vars with the same name fix llvm assertion failure when building std lib tests for macos (#1417) fix false negative determining if function is generic fix @typeInfo unable to distinguish compile error vs no-payload (#1421, #1426) unable to distinguish compile error vs no-payload (#1421, #1426) fix crash when var in inline loop has different types (#917, #845, #741, #740) add compile error for function prototype with no body (#1231) fix invalid switch expression parameter. (#604) Translate-c: Check for error before working on while loop body. -Jimmi Holst Christensen (#1445) use the sret attribute at the callsite when appropriate. Thanks to Shawn Landden for the original pull request. (#1450) ability to @ptrCast to *void . (#960) to . (#960) compile error instead of segfault for unimplemented feature. (#1103) fix incorrect value for inline loop. (#1436) compile errors instead of crashing for unimplemented minValue/maxValue builtins add compile error for comptime control flow inside runtime block (#834) update throughput test to new File API (#1468) fix compile error on gcc 7.3.0. Only set -Werror for debug builds, and only for zig itself, not for embedded LLD. (#1474) stage1: fix emit asm with explicit output file (#1473) stage1: fix crash when invalid type used in array type (#1186) stage1 compile error instead of crashing for unsupported comptime ptr cast (#955) stage1: fix tagged union with no payloads (#1478) Add compile error for using outer scoped runtime variables from a fn defined inside it. (#876) stage1: improve handling of generic fn proto type expr. (#902) stage1: compile error instead of incorrect code for unimplemented C ABI. (#1411, #1481) add support for partial C ABI compatibility on x86_64. (#1411, #1264) fix crash when var init has compile error and then the var is referenced (#1483) fix incorrect union const value generation (#1381) fix incorrect error union const value generation (#1442) fix tagged union with only 1 field tripping assertion (#1495) add compile error for merging non- error sets (#1509) fix assertion failure on compile-time @intToPtr of function of function fix tagged union with all void payloads but meaningful tag (#1322) fix alignment of structs. (#1248, #1052, #1154) fix crash when pointer casting a runtime extern function allow extern structs to have stdcallcc function pointers (#1536) add compile error for non-optional types compared against null (#1539) add compile error for @ptrCast 0 bit type to non-0 bit type 0 bit type to non-0 bit type fix codegen for @intCast to u0 to fix @bytesToSlice on a packed struct (#1551) fix implicit cast of packed struct field to const ptr (#966) implementation for bitcasting extern enum type to c_int (#1036) add compile error for slice.*.len (#1372) fix optional pointer to empty struct incorrectly being non-null (#1178) better string literal caching implementation We were caching the ConstExprValue of string literals, which works if you can never modify ConstExprValues. This premise is broken with `comptime var ...`. So I implemented an optimization in ConstExprValue arrays, where it stores a Buf * directly rather than an array of ConstExprValues for the elements, and then similar to array of undefined, it is expanded into the canonical form when necessary. However many operations can happen directly on the Buf * , which is faster. Furthermore, before a ConstExprValue array is expanded into canonical form, it removes itself from the string literal cache. This fixes the issue, because before an array element is modified it would have to be expanded. See #1076 We were caching the ConstExprValue of string literals, which works if you can never modify ConstExprValues. This premise is broken with `comptime var ...`. So I implemented an optimization in ConstExprValue arrays, where it stores a directly rather than an array of ConstExprValues for the elements, and then similar to array of undefined, it is expanded into the canonical form when necessary. However many operations can happen directly on the , which is faster. Furthermore, before a ConstExprValue array is expanded into canonical form, it removes itself from the string literal cache. This fixes the issue, because before an array element is modified it would have to be expanded. See #1076 add compile error for casting const array to mutable slice (#1565) fix std.fmt.formatInt to handle upcasting to base int size to handle upcasting to base int size fix comptime slice of pointer to array (#1565) fix comptime string concatenation ignoring slice bounds (#1362) stage1: unify 2 implementations of pointer deref. I found out there were accidentally two code paths in zig ir for pointer dereference. So this should fix a few bugs. (#1486) add compile error for slice of undefined slice (#1293) fix @compileLog having unintended side effects. (#1459) fix translate-c incorrectly translating negative enum init values (#1360) fix comptime bitwise operations with negative values (#1387, #1529) fix self reference through fn ptr field crash (#1208) fix crash on runtime index into slice of comptime type (#1435) fix implicit casting to * c_void (#1588) (#1588) fix variables which are pointers to packed struct fields (#1121) fix crash when compile error evaluating return type of inferred error set. (#1591) fix zig-generated DLLs not properly exporting functions. (#1443) This Release Contains Bugs Zig has known bugs. The first release that will ship with no known bugs will be 1.0.0. Roadmap Redo coroutines without using LLVM Coroutines and rework the semantics. See #1363 and #1194. Tuples instead of var args. #208 Well-defined copy-eliding semantics. #287 Self-hosted compiler. #89 Get to 100% documentation coverage of the language Auto generated documentation. #21 Package manager. #943 Active External Projects Using Zig pokemon-randomizer - Pokemon Rom randomizer tool oxid - arcade-style game where you fight waves of monsters in a fixed-screen maze zig-rosetta - Rosettacode examples in zig zig-vulkan-triangle - simple triangle displayed using vulkan, glfw, and zig Thank you financial supporters! Special thanks to those who donate monthly. We're now at $1,349 of the $3,000 goal. I hope this release helps to show how much time I've been able to dedicate to the project thanks to your support. Lauren Chavis Raph Levien connectFree Corporation Stevie Hryciw Andrea Orru Harry Eakins Filippo Valsorda jeff kelley Martin Schwaighofer Brendon Scheinman Ali Anwar Adrian Sinclair David Joseph Ryan Worl Tanner Schultz Don Poor Jimmy Zelinskie Thomas Ballinger David Hayden Audun Wilhelmsen Tyler Bender Matthew Mirek Rusin Peter Ronnquist Josh Gentry Trenton Cronholm Champ Yen Robert Paul Herman Caius Kelly Wilson Steve Perkins Clement Rey Eduard Nicodei Christopher A. Butler Colleen Silva-Hayden Wesley Kelley Jordan Torbiak Mitch Small Josh McDonald Jeff Paul Merrill Rudi Angela Justin B Alexander Ville Tuulos shen xizhi Ross Cousens Lorenz Vandevelde Ivan Jay Weisskopf William L Sommers Gerdus van Zyl Anthony J. Benik Brian Glusman Furkan Mustafa Le Bach Jordan Guggenheim Tyler Philbrick Marko Mikulicic Brian Lewis Matt Whiteside Elizabeth Ryan Thomas Lopatic Patricio Villalobos joe ardent John Goen Luis Alfonso Higuera Gamboa Jason Merrill Andriy Tyurnikov Sanghyeon Seo Neil Henning aaronstgeorge@gmail.com Raymond Imber Artyom Kazak Brian Orr Frans van den Heuvel Jantzen Owens David Bremner Veit Heller Benoit Jauvin-Girard Chris Rabuse Jeremy Larkin Rasmus Rnn Nielsen Aharon sharim Stephen Oates Quetzal Bradley Wink Saville S.D. George K Jonathan Raphaelson Chad Russell Alexandra Gillis Pradeep Gowda david karapetyan Lewis stdev Wojciech Mikowski Jonathan Wright Ernst Rohlicek Alexander Ellis bb010g Pau Fernandez Krishna Aradhi occivink Adrian Hatch Deniz Kusefoglu Dan Boykis Hans Wennborg Matus Hamorsky Ben Morris Tim Hutt Gudmund Vatn Tobias Haegermarck Martin Angers Christoph Muller Johann Muszynski Fabio Utzig Eigil Skjveland Harry moomeme xash bowman han Romain Beaumont Nate Dobbins Paul Anderson Jon Renner Karl Syvert Lland Stanley Zheng myfreeweb Dennis Furey Dana Davis Ansis Malins Drew Carmichael Doug Thayer Henryk Gerlach Dylan La Com David Pippenger Matthew Steele tumdum Alex Alex Andrew London Jirka Grunt Dillon A Yannik VilliHaukka Chris Castle Antonio D'souza Silicon Damien Dube Dbzruler72 McSpiros Francisco Vallarino Shawn Park Simon Kreienbaum Gregoire Picquot Silicas James Haggerty Falk Huffner allan Ahmad Tolba jose maria gonzalez ondina Adrian Boyko Benedikt Mandelkow Will Cassella Michael Weber Thank you Andrea Orru for sending me a giant box of Turkish Delight Termen Extins: Terre des hommes Moldova este in cautarea unui /unei consultant/e sau a unei echipe de consultanti, care va elabora un program de instruire pentru adolescenti (14 - 18 ani) in domeniul dezvoltarii competentei digitale CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. The Division of Homeland Security and Emergency partnered last week with the New York National Guard and the Shenendehowa School District to give the greater southern Saratoga County community a crash course in disaster preparedness. September is National Preparedness Month and all one had to do was take a peek at the Weather Channel recently as it followed Hurricane Florence onto land to see why. Having a plan in case of an emergency, whether its a natural one like a hurricane, earthquake or flood, or man-made like a terrorist attack or structural collapse helps people function thoughtfully once the adrenalin kicks in. The 90-minute presentation in Shens High School West auditorium on Sept. 18 gave the nearly 300 residents in attendance a vivid education on why it pays to be prepared for an emergency. Using slides and a well-honed verbal presentation, 1st Lt. Kevin Valenti of the New York National Guard explained why and how to properly prepare, respond and recover to a variety of emergencies. Preparation was the focus of much of the nights presentation. The more you do now, the more youll be prepared, Valenti said to begin his talk. Start your plan from what kind of risk is most likely to hit your area. One of the most surprising slides shown was a bar chart showing the amount of risk factored for several of the nations cities and states. New Yorks risk factor was rated higher than that of Washington, D.C. One reason is that the state has more nuclear plants. As he taught his audience how to prepare, Valenti interspersed the presentation with several stories. In some case they were historical, in others they were personal. Citing the Johnstown, Pa. flood of 1889 he noted that everyone in the area new the local dam was structurally unsound but each time the citizens were told to evacuate nothing happened. Soon, they begin to ignore the warnings. Eventually the dam collapsed killing 2,209 people. Its the greatest flood disaster in terms of the number of deaths in American history, Valenti said. The three basics of emergency preparation are centered on developing a family emergency plan, stocking up on emergency supplies, and being aware of whats happening before, during and after the emergency. Valenti noted the importance of having an out-of-town family member or relative act as a contact person for the entire family. If people get separated they will have someone far from the disaster area to act as the familys control center. Discuss what to do if youre told to evacuate before it happens, he said. Be familiar with an escape route and have more than one. And plan on how to take care of your pets. When running though a list of emergency supplies he pointed out the basics like whistles, goggles, flash light, first aid kits, water, canned food, emergency blanket, and gloves as well as items seldom considered in a rush, like a tooth brush. Think about your hygiene, he said. Poor hygiene has a psychological effect on you. Baby wipes come in very useful when there is no clean water. Dont forget batteries, a cell phone charger and cash. When the power goes down those cash machines arent going to be working. Spread out on a table at the font of the auditorium was the contents of a Go Kit, a back pack with items to take in an emergency. Each family attending the event received one free. In discussing how to respond to an emergency Valenti said people have two choices, evacuate or shelter in place. He gave helpful advice on how to do both safely. In his brief remarks on the process of recovery he discussed homeowners insurance, repair scams and the emotional toll a disaster takes on people. Dont forget you emotional needs, he said. In the aftermath of a disaster everyone involved or exposed will have a reaction, Valenti said. The questions after the presentation were short and mainly directed at how best to stay informed of official emergency warnings. The Connell family, Amanda and Patrick and their sons Liam and Ethan grabbed front row seats for the presentation. The family has done some pre-emergency preparation already by selecting a meeting spot outside the home in case of an emergency, like a fire. They were asked if they learned anything new from the training. We learned about having a contact person whos not in the area, Amanda Connell said. That was new and its a good idea. Asked what they would do if informed of an impending emergency, evacuate or shelter-in-place Patrick answered for the family. Were evacuating, he said firmly and without hesitation. Sheltering in place is just too dangerous, Amanda added. State websites with more information on emergency preparedness are: https://nyalert.gov and https://prepare.ny.gov. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Pine Furnitures Market 2018 Global Industry research report provides a detailed Global Pine Furnitures Industry overview along with the analysis of the industrys gross margin, cost structure, consumption value, and sale price. The leading companies of the Global Pine Furnitures Market, manufacturers, and distributors are profiled in the report along with the latest Industry development current and future trends. Get Sample Copy of this Report https://www.orianresearch.com/request-sample/644024 The Global Pine Furnitures market 2018 research provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Global Pine Furnitures market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins. Global Pine Furnitures Industry 2018 Market Research Report is spread across 114 pages and provides exclusive vital statistics, data, information, trends and competitive landscape details in this niche sector. Inquire more or share questions if any before the purchase on this report @ https://www.orianresearch.com/enquiry-before-buying/644024 Global Pine Furnitures Market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the TOP PLAYERS including: Mistrys Pine Crafter Lotters Pine Devonshire LPC Furniture Foshan Sen Yuan Furniture Pine Furniture Cornwall Kerri'S Farmhouse Pine Aberdeens Heartland Interiors Ltd The report also focuses on global major leading industry players of Global Pine Furnitures Market providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Global Pine Furnitures Market development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered. With tables and figures helping analyze worldwide Global Pine Furnitures Market, this research 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. Order a copy of Global Pine Furnitures Market Report 2018 @ https://www.orianresearch.com/checkout/644024 On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, and market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Pine Beds Pine Wardrobes Pine Bookcases Pine TV Stands Pine Desks and Seats Other 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 Bedroom Living Room Kitchen Other Major Points from Table of Contents: Global Pine Furnitures Market Professional Survey Report 2018 1 Study Coverage 2 Executive Summary 3 Breakdown Data by Manufacturers 4 Breakdown Data by Type and Application 5 Breakdown Data by Application 8 Asia Pacific 9 Central & South America 10 Middle East and Africa 11 Company Profiles 12 Future Forecast 13 Market Opportunities, Challenges, Risks and Influences Factors Analysis 14 Value Chain and Sales Channels Analysis 15 Research Findings and Conclusion 16 Appendix Methodology Analyst Introduction Data Source About Us: Orian Research is one of the most comprehensive collections of market intelligence reports on the World Wide Web. Our reports repository boasts of over 500000+ industry and country research reports from over 100 top publishers. We continuously update our repository so as to provide our clients easy access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, and products. We also specialize in custom research in situations where our syndicated research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our esteemed clients. Contact Us: Ruwin Mendez Vice President Global Sales & Partner Relations Orian Research Consultants US +1 (415) 830-3727 UK +44 020 8144-71-27 Email: info@orianresearch.com Website: www.orianresearch.com/ Follow Us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13281002/ Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. According to the report, Dental Treatment Consumables Market: By type (dental implants, crowns & bridges, biomaterials, orthodontics, endodontics, periodontics, retail dental care, mouth trays, evacuators, others); By end users (hospitals, clinics, dentists); By Geography - Forecast (20182023), published by IndustryARC, the market will be driven by the growing demand for advanced professional dental care from the 55-and-older age group. Dental caries or tooth decay remains a major public health problem globally. In 2017, professional dental products accounted for 64% of the global demand for dental instruments. Progress in the economy and in spending will aid demand for higher value items for implants, veneers, and crowns & bridges, orthodontics as well as aesthetic orthodontia.. Europe Dominates the Dental Treatment Consumables Market Europe held the largest market share in 2017, spurred by the large ageing population. Europe is expected to continue its dominance owing to the growing demand for oral healthcare facilities across different nations such as Greece, the U.K., Spain, and Italy. The European market for dental consumables is projected to account for up to 41% of the global Dental Treatment Consumables Market share. Asia-Pacific is foreseen to witness the highest CAGR over the forecast period. Regions like Japan and China is expected to aid in terms of reduction in cost and creating new dental implant measures. In the analysis and treatment procedures ensures that every single patient should get quality dental care services positively impacted this market segment to flourish now and then. The initiative taken towards providing advanceddental equipment and technology services will likely lead the market to grow more than an average in the year of 2023.. Dental Treatment Consumables Market Analysis Done in the Report Going forward, repair and restorative products will continue its dominance in the professional dental tool consumable market. within this segment, implants is foreseen to have fastest gain of share in the market. The on-going development in durable, long term functioning of traditional crowns, bridges, and dentures are likely to increase sooner. Among all the crowns are the most established and less costly product, will lead the category segment demand in 2019. Cosmetic dental product is a smaller category which accounted least category of product sales, is expected to change its flow towards the fastest growth in high ceramic and veneers. Overall the technological innovations that makes professional treatment work longer will drive the growth of the market. Excerpts on Dental Treatment Consumables Market Growth Factors In the growing market of innovation 3D Dental Aligners is the new technology which is quite equal to 3D printing. The device has already foot hold its place in the market by extensively used for certain professions. The technology align your teeth for less than the cost of brace or invisalign. The 3D dental printing technology creates a real mold that will fit to your mouth and straighten rogue teeth. Time saving technology is the major reason behind the adoption and leading the markets of USA. On-going process on laser treatment in dental can be an easy way for the treatmen. Group of oral biology scientists are exploring on an even radical way to regrow teeth. The low power laser light technology willstimulate tooth regeneration is under the testing process. The launch of laser dental treatment technology might increase the rate of adoption over time due to its easy functioning. To access the full report, click the link below: https://industryarc.com/Report/7358/Dental-Treatment-Consumables-Market-Research-Report.html Key players of the Dental Treatment Consumables Market Dentsply International Inc., Nobel Biocare, Henry Schein Inc., Zimmer Dental Inc., Ivoclar Vivadent AG are the key players in the market. These companies offering various dental treatment services has attracted several customers over the most recent few years. Dentsply International, Inc., is known for its services like Preventive, Restoration, Orthodontics, Endodontics, Implants, Prosthetics, CAD/CAM, Imaging Systems, and Treatment Centress products are segmented into dental consumables, dental laboratory products, and dental specialty products. Ivoclar Vivadents products include direct restoratives, fixed prosthetics, and removable prosthetics. The Dental Treatment Consumables Market Report is Segmented as Below: A. Dental Treatment Consumables Market By Type 1. Dental Implants I. Subperiosteal Implants II. Transosteal Implants 2. Crowns & Bridges I. Metal based II. Ceramic based III. Porcelain-fused-to-metal 3. Biomaterials I. Bone Graft II. Membranes 4. Orthodontics I. Anchorage Appliances II. Buccal tubes III. Miniscrews IV. Bands 5. Ligature I. Elastomeric II. Wire 6. Bracket I. Aesthetic II. Metal 7. Archwire I. Nickel Titanium II. Stainless Steel III. Beta Titanium IV. Burr kits V. Cassettes VI. Cutters VII. Pliers 8. Endodontics I. Endodontic files II. Obturation III. Single use IV. Delivery Systems V. Permanent Endodontic Sealers VI. Endodontic burrs VII. Drills & Reamers VIII. Explorers 9. Periodontics I. Power driven Scaling devices II. Piezoelectric Ultrasonic Scalers III. Sonic Tips IV. Piezoelectric Ultrasonic Tips V. Sonic Scalers VI. Magneto restrictive Ultrasonic Scalers VII. Magneto restrictive Ultrasonic Inserts VIII. Dental Hemostats 10. Retail Dental Care I. Dental Brushes II. Whitening Agents III. Specialized Dental Paste IV. Dental Wash Solutions 11. Cotton and Cellulose I. Swabs II. Cotton Pellets III. Cotton Rolls 12. Syringes / Hypodermic Needles I. Single Use Cannulae II. Disposable Syringes III. Irrigation Cannulas IV. Sharp Bins V. Mixing Tips 13. Mouth Rinse Cups I. Cup Dispensers 14. Treatment Covers I. Headrest Covers II. Tray Paper 15. Suction I. Saliva Ejector II. Vacuum Cannulae III. Others B. Dental treatment consumables Market By End Use Product 1. Hospitals 2. Dentists 3. Clinics C. Dental Treatment Consumables Market By Geography (covers 10+ countries) D. Dental Treatment Consumables Entropy Market E. ManufacturerS Cited/Interviewed 1. Midmark Corpoartion 2. Ultradent Products Inc. 3. Young Innovations Inc. 4. GC Corporation 5. Osstem ImPLANT Co., Ltd. What can you expect from the report? The Dental Treatment Consumables Market Report is Prepared with the Main Agenda to Cover the following 20 points: 1. Market Size by Product Categories 2. Market trends 3. Manufacturer Landscape 4. Distributor Landscape 5. Pricing Analysis 6. Top 10 End user Analysis 7. Product Benchmarking 8. Product Developments 9. Mergers & Acquisition Analysis 10. Patent Analysis 11. Demand Analysis (By Revenue & Volume ) 12. Country level Analysis (15+) 13. Competitor Analysis 14. Market Shares Analysis 15. Value Chain Analysis 16. Supply Chain Analysis 17. Strategic Analysis 18. Current & Future Market Landscape Analysis 19. Opportunity Analysis 20. Revenue and Volume Analysis Media Contact: Mr. Venkat Reddy Sales Manager Email 1: sales@industryarc.com Or Email 2: venkat@industryarc.com Contact Sales: +1-614-588-8538 (Ext-101) About IndustryARC:IndustryARC is a Research and Consulting Firm that publishes more than 500 reports annually, in various industries such as Agriculture, Automotive, Automation & Instrumentation, Chemicals and Materials, Energy and Power, Electronics, Food & Beverages, Information Technology, and Life sciences & Healthcare. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Highlight: Bone metastasis is characterized by the spreading of cancerous cells from their original site to a bone. All types of cancer can show bone-metastasis. However, it is estimated that breast cancer and prostate cancer are commonly associated with the disease. The medical condition is frequent for spine, pelvis, and thighs. Urinary incontinence, bowel incontinence, and hypercalcemia are some of the common symptoms of the disease. The increasing prevalence of bone metastasis is expected to be a major driver for the market growth during the forecast period. According to a study published in the Oncology Reviews Journal in 2017, the relative occurrence of bone metastasis was estimated to be around 65 to 75% for both breast and prostate cancers suffering patients, respectively. Moreover, the growing geriatric population, increasing healthcare expenditures, and increasing R&D in the market are estimated to drive the market growth during the forecast period. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2016, approximately 60% of the total cancer patients aged 65 years or more. However, factors such as lack of healthcare services in low-income countries, the high cost of treatment, and related side effects are estimated to restrain the market growth during the forecast period. According to a study published in the Journal of Spine Surgery in 2017, the mean total cost of therapeutic modalities such as vertebroplasty was estimated to be about USD 14,114 in 2014. The global bone metastasis market is expected to grow at an approximate CAGR of 8.4% during the forecast period Top Players in Bone Metastasis Market: Bayer AG (Germany) Merck & Co., Inc. (U.S.) Pfizer Inc. (U.S.) Novartis AG (Switzerland) Pharmalucence Inc. (England) Koninklijke Philips N.V. (the Netherlands) GENERAL ELECTRIC (U.S.) Siemens AG (Germany) TOSHIBA CORPORATION (Japan) and others. Get Exclusive Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5776 Bone Metastasis Market: Segmentation The global bone metastasis market is segmented on the basis of type, diagnosis, treatment, and end-user. On the basis of type, the market is segmented into osteolytic bone metastasis, osteoblastic bone metastasis, mixed bone metastasis, and others. On the basis of diagnosis, the market is categorized into biopsy, blood test, imaging, and others. The imaging segment is sub-segmented into X-ray, bone scintigraphy, computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and others. On the basis of the treatment, the market is segmented into medical therapies, surgery, medication, and others. The medical therapies segment is sub-segmented into chemotherapy, targeted therapy, hormone therapy, ablation therapy, and others. The ablation therapy segment is further segmented into radiofrequency ablation, cryoablation, and others. The surgery segment is sub-segmented into vertebroplasty, kyphoplasty, and others. The medication segment is sub-segmented into pain medications, bone building medications, and others. The pain medication segment is sub-segmented into ibuprofen, morphine, and others. The bone-building medications segment is sub-segmented into corticosteroids, bisphosphonates, and others. The bisphosphonates segment is further segmented into teriparatide, pamidronate, medronate, and others. On the basis of end-user, the market is segmented into hospitals and clinics, diagnostic centers, pharmacies, and ambulatory surgical centers. Bone Metastasis Market: Regional Analysis America dominates the global bone metastasis market. This can be attributed to the presence of a well-developed healthcare sector, the increasing prevalence of breast cancer, and increasing healthcare sector within the region. Moreover, the presence of key players such as Merck & Co., Inc. and Pfizer Inc. within the Americas boosts the regional market growth. Europe is the second in the global bone metastasis market owing to the availability of funds for research and a huge patient population. According to the Cancer Research U.K., approximately 55,122 new cases of invasive breast cancer were reported in 2015. On a regional basis, Europe is segmented into Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Western Europe leads the regional market due to the presence of developed economies within the region. Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing region in the global bone metastasis market. The presence of developing economies such as India and China, a developing healthcare sector, and the growing prevalence of cancer within the region drive the market growth in the region. Moreover, favorable government policies and increasing penetration of key market players within the region fuel the market growth. The Middle East and Africa holds the least share in the global bone metastasis market, owing to the presence of poor economies, stringent government policies, and lack of healthcare services, especially within the African region. A majority of the market of bone metastasis in the Middle East and Africa is held by the Middle East due to the presence of a well-developed healthcare sector and huge healthcare expenditure by developed economies such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Dubai, and others within the region. Get Prime Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/5776 Major Table of Content for Bone Metastasis Market: Chapter 1. Report Prologue Chapter 2. Market Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope Of The Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations Chapter 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation Chapter 4. Market Dynamics 4.1 Drivers 4.2 Restrains 4.3 Opportunities 4.4 Challenges 4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators 4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment TOC Continued.! Need More Information Ask to Our Experts @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/5776 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 Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India Phone: +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com 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. iStock/Thinkstock(BEAUFORT, S.C.) -- A Marine F-35B joint strike fighter has crashed close to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, South Carolina -- marking the first-ever crash of the costly stealth aircraft, which will become the main fighter aircraft for the Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy, a military official confirms. Officials say the pilot safely ejected. He's being evaluated for injuries, the local sheriff's office said. Capt. Bob Bromidge, with the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office, also confirmed to ABC News that a Marine Corps aircraft had crashed in a rural part of Beaufort County. "The Marine Corps confirmed that it was one of theirs, Bromidge told ABC News. The Marine Corps version of the F-35 is able to take off and land vertically. On Thursday, a Marine F-35B fighter carried out the first combat airstrike by the American version of the costly fighter. The airstrike occurred in Afghanistan and involved a Marine F-35B "Lightning II" that had taken off from the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Essex, which was operating in the East Arabian Sea. Few details were released about the airstrike other than it was "in support of ground clearance operations." The airstrike a major milestone for the advanced stealth fighter, which is the costliest U.S. military fighter ever manufactured. Estimates have been that the overall cost of the program will be about $350 billion. On Friday, the Pentagon announced that the latest contract with the aircraft's maker Lockheed Martin had resulted in the lowest prices yet for the aircraft. The price for the Air Force version of the F-35 will go down to $89.2 million from $94.3 million. Marine F35-B will cost $115.5 million and the Navy F-35C will cost $107.7 million. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Sarah Kabir at the launch of her book Voices of Peace Nearly a decade after the end of a thirty-year civil war that once racked the island, there are voices still unheard and stories yet untold. With the intent of bringing the conversation of post-conflict reconciliation to the fore, Sri Lankan researcher and author Sarah Kabir released her book Voices of Peace on 26 September. The launch event was held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute in Colombo, and was attended by a diverse audience of academics, activists, members of the press, and invitees. While there have been many discourses and publications on the topic prior, Voices of Peace with its unique format of storytelling, attempts to blur the lines of division by offering accounts from both sides of the conflict humanising the very real struggles of both. Having spoken extensively with -and not just interviewed- over sixty active agents of the war, Sarah has chosen the stories of twenty; ten former LTTE cadres, and ten ex-Sri Lankan military personnel. Their accounts are accompanied by compelling images captured by photographer Munira Mutaher. In a presentation introducing the publication, Sarah emphasised, Voices of Peace encourages every reader to not just talk about these stories, but to listen. Asserting that this was more a tool to influence policy on peace-building than mere reading material, she stressed further, l urge you all to empathise with the storytellers, to internalise their message, and to act on it. The main aim with which she embarked on this undertaking however, she says, was primarily to shift ownership of the peace building process to those on the frontline. On a more personal note, relieving these veterans of the burden of bearing their untold stories was added incentive. The balanced narrative through which these stories are told has readers empathising with each individual, irrespective of political inclination. Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) speaks at the Voices of Peace launch while author Sarah Kabir and fellow guest speakers Aaranya Rajasingam, Womens Rights and Peace Activist,Dr.Jehan Perera, Executive Director, National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, Saliya Pieris PC, Chairman, Office on Missing Persons (OMP) of Sri Lanka look on. Gathered to celebrate the release of the book was an esteemed panel of speakers moderated by Executive Director at the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, Dr.Jehan Perera. Dr.Vinya Ariyaratne, Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Aaranya Rajasingam and Saliya Pieris (PC), each offered their erudite views on the themes of peace and national reconciliation in a post-conflict Sri Lanka. At the event, Dr.Jehan Perera acquainted attendees with Voices of Peace, lauding Sarahs initiative at the same time: In a divided society there is a need for an appeal to the heart. Sarah Kabir does that through capturing detailed stories of those whose lives have been torn due to the war. It is harder to negate an individual's story that has been brought alive.Her book points to the need for a Truth Commission in Sri Lanka like there was in South Africa. Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Founder Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), opined: Looking through the mine of information that is compiled in the book, the one cry that comes forth is the equality and oneness of all people in their struggles and experiences. In this light, we need to look for ways in which we can move forward towards the future as a people, united. Dr.Vinya Ariyaratne, General Secretary of Sarvodaya, too, was all praise for the project. In a time where our country really needs reconciliation, Voices of Peace is a tremendous contribution to not just this discourse, but also to further research, and to mobilise even ordinary citizens to get more involved in the process. Sarah Kabir is a researcher and humanitarian worker. She has a BSc. in Social Policy from the University of Bristol, and an MSc. in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies from the London School of Economics. After her Masters, her focus has been primarily on peacebuilding and development work. Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) Sarah has actively participated in research projects concerned with Philanthropy and Development, Diaspora and Remittances, and Pesticides and Global Health alongside researchers from the Universities of Sussex and Durham. In addition, she has worked with various international and local organisations within the civil society sector, her work appearing in various academic publications and research reports. Over two years in the making, involving extensive research, compilation, and production, Voices of Peace is the first book Sarah has authored. Currently, only the English language edition will be made available. She hopes to reach a wider readership however, by having it translated to Sinhala and Tamil. To place orders for delivery and for preferred pricing on bulk orders contact 0773515262. Voices of Peace will also be available at leading bookstores. Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the launch of Voices of Peace Hon. (Prof.) G.L.Peiris - United People's Freedom Alliance(UPFA), Hon. Vasudeva Nanayakkara - United People's Freedom Alliance(UPFA), Hon. Eran Wickramaratne - State Minister of Finance and Ven. Dambara Amila Thero - University of Sri Jayewardenepura H.E. Hanspeter Mock - Ambassador of Switzerland, Deviyani Iddawela De Silva, Hon. Dr. Harsha De Silva - State Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa - Former Secretary to Ministry of Defence, Saliya Pieris PC, Chairman - Office on Missing Persons (OMP) and Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA). Aaranya Rajasingam - Womens Rights and Peace Activist, Dr. Jehan Perera - Executive Director, National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, Hon. Namal Rajapaksa - United People's Freedom Alliance(UPFA) and Hon. Thalatha Athukorala - Minister of Justice & Prison Reforms. Guests at the 'Voices of Peace' book launch While most mechanical timepieces come with guarantees of durability, the intricate machinery with which they operate can still be subject to some degree of wear and tear. With regular and expert care however, your luxury wristwatch will keep ticking for years. Multi-brand luxury watch boutique Chatham Luxury Watches is long reputed as the most established purveyor of original, luxury Swiss timepieces in the country. For an agent of such esteem, it is only warranted that expert guidance in watch care is offered to each client deciding to invest in a luxury timepiece, for the entire duration of the ownership journey. Providing an all-encompassing suite of watch services and repairs to ensure that all watch needs have been completely catered to, the Chatham Service Centre and its technical team of trained experts is ideally positioned to service or repair that timepiece; whether it requires a simple battery replacement, or a complete restoration. The boutiques in-house service centre tends to the needs of watches designed by any brand housed in-store. The Chatham Service Centre,not only meets the stringent standards of service for brands such as Rolex, but is also the only authorised service centre in Sri Lanka for a number of luxury Swiss watch houses such as Omega, Cartier, IWC, Chopard, and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Servicing a watch is crucial for two reasons; to ensure both longevity, and accurate performance. If a watch is notably fast or slow, that could be an indicator that it needs to be serviced in order to keep the movement running smoothly. Servicing a luxury watch is a painstakingly precise and meticulous task that should only be left to the professionals in authorised service centres, says Sheruni Jayawardhana, Customer Service Manager of Chatham Luxury Watches. All of our clients are confident that our in-house team of skilled technicians can be entrusted with the custody of their most prized timepieces, and that they will be returned to them in peak condition. Choosing an authorised service centre for the aftercare of your time piece is key. Having your watch opened in a non-hygienic environment can expose it to dust, dirt and other particles that can enter and affect the intricate mechanism. It is also extremely crucial that only original components are used in any repairs. Chathams state-of-the-art watch workshop -located at its flagship boutique in Galle Face- is equipped with strictly only manufacturer-approved tools and machinery. The companys brand-certified watchmakers are, not only highly skilled in Swiss techniques of watch repair and conditioning, but are also passionate about their craft. The technical team at Chatham Luxury Watches has received intensive training individually from each of the brands gracing its shelves. As is the case with quintessential watchmaker Rolex, for instance, only after a rigorous process of assessment at the manufacturers of these respective brands for specific watch models, are they certified to handle each respective model. Following an initial inspection of the timepiece presented, a consultation to map out the best route of repair for your investment -as determined by the brand- is then offered. On the eventual completion of repair work, an exhaustive series of tests is conducted -in accordance with the high standards and strict guidelines of the brands represented-, certifying that the watch can finally be returned to its wearer in prime condition. The most accredited workshop in Sri Lanka has been inspected and approved by the worlds most respected brands, and it is this commitment to premium service and expertise that guarantees for every customer a truly first-class experience. Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen, the 25-year-old Sri Lankan University student accused of plotting to assassinate Australian politicians has been released on bail, after an expert found the sole piece of evidence couldn't be connected to him, the ABC News reported today. Mr Nizamdeen was arrested in August after a colleague found a notebook allegedly containing details of plans to kill Malcolm Turnbull and his former deputy Julie Bishop. He has spent four weeks in jail facing a terror charge - his family and supporters have maintained he is innocent. "The prosecution has become aware that an expert handwriting examiner found an inconclusive result on the relevant entries contained in the notebook," prosecutor Christina Choi has told the Central Local Court in Sydney. Without a conclusive expert opinion suggesting the defendant was the relevant author, evidence for the charge has been significantly weakened. Mr Nizamdeen was charged with collecting or making documents likely to facilitate terrorist acts on August 31. Last week, hundreds of people gathered in his hometown in Sri Lanka to protest his treatment in prison. The alleged list of targets also included the former speaker Bronwyn Bishop, the Sydney Opera House, major train stations and police stations across the Harbour City. Mr Nizamdeen's lawyer said police had conducted eight hours of interviews with the student which also did not uncover anything against the suspect. "Let's be clear, Mr Nizamdeen today was granted bail because the case against him is extremely weak, almost non-existent," his lawyer Moustafa Kheir said. Mr Kheir said his client wanted to "pass on some appreciation" for the support he's been receiving. "He especially wanted to pass on a thank you to his colleagues at the University of New South Wales." Detectives allege the Sri Lankan national was acting on his own, and despite police telling a media conference he appeared to be an Islamic State affiliate, they had not charged him with being a member of a terrorist organisation. The court heard other material belonging to Mr Nizamdeen - like his computer, mobile, and other documents - did not show he had any extremist ideology. "No extremist ideology material has been located on devices found in possession of Mr Nizamdeen," Ms Choi said. The prosecutor said the New South Wales Police Commissioner had also submitted a confidential affidavit to verify these circumstances. Mr Nizamdeen's been living in Australia on a student visa which was cancelled after his arrest. The court heard arrangements are being made to get him a bridging visa so he won't be sent to immigration detention. In the meantime, the court ruled Mr Nizamdeen can't leave the country or get a passport and he'll have to live with his uncle in northern Sydney. He's due to face court again in October. By Anna Fifield (c) 2018, The Washington Post, Sep 27, 2018 - BEIJING - China is flatly denying President Donald Trumps accusation that it is interfering in Novembers midterm elections, implying that it is the United States that has a track record of meddling in other countries business. With an acrimonious trade dispute rumbling on and amid an increasingly fractious security environment, the latest tit-for-tat could worsen the relationship between the worlds two largest economies. I believe the international community knows very well who is most used to meddling in the internal affairs of others, Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters Thursday. He did not name the United States directly but was responding to a question about Trumps assertion Wednesday at the United Nations that Beijing was attempting to influence the midterms. The Colombo YMBA has awarded scholarships to a large number of bright and deserving students over the years The Colombo YMBA awards scholarships to a large number of bright and deserving students under two categories on a monthly basis. The beneficiaries are undergraduates attached to various faculties in state Universities of Sabaragamuwa, Peradeniya, Ruhuna, Rajarata, Wayamba, Uva-Wellassa, Eastern University, Moratuwa, Jaffna, Ampara, Colombo, Kelaniya and Sri Jayawardenapura. The other category involves students sitting for the GCE Advanced Level Examination and attached to the neighbouring schools of the Colombo YMBA Borella namely: Gothami Balika Vidyalaya, Yashodara Balika Vidyalaya, Susamayawardhana Vidyalaya, D.S. Senanayake College, Ratnavali Balika Vidyalaya, Devi Balika Vidyalaya, Ananda Balika Vidyalaya, Ananda College, Nalanda College as well as students of Kataragama Vidyalaya and Sella Kataragama Vidyalaya. The Colombo YMBA welcomes donors who are keen on undertaking sponsorships for these bright and deserving university or GCE A/L students. A Trust Fund for a minimum Rs 500,000.00 and above, would enable awarding Scholarships through the Colombo YMBA on a monthly basis Applications from undergraduates, following courses in Medicine, Engineering, Management, Dentistry, Architecture, Arts, Sciences, Economics, Agriculture etc etc. seeking scholarships are forwarded through the Deans of the Faculties of respective universities and responses received from these undergraduates of low income Samurdhi recipient families. These applicants are individually interviewed by representatives of Colombo YMBA Trust Fund and Skills Development Committee. This is for the selecting of the most deserving students. The successful recipients continue to obtain scholarship funding until their entire duration of studying at the university. The most deserving students studying for the GCE Advanced Level Examination are recommended by the principals of respective schools based on a criteria provided by the Colombo YMBA. At the 2018 Scholarship Awards Ceremony held in December 2017, 422 undergraduates and 75 GCE Advanced Level students were awarded with scholarships. The total monitory value of the scholarship awards amounted to Rs 8.50 million and was not restricted to Buddhist children only. Major funding for scholarship awards is received from Trust Funds established by the Colombo YMBA based on substantial donations received from distinguished personalities over several decades. Trust funds such established include Dr D.J. Attygalle Property Trust Fund, Ajita de Zoysa Trust Fund, Matilda Hewavisenthi Trust Fund, Sir Baron Jayatilleke Trust Fund, Sir Cyril de Zoysa Trust Fund, L.R. Goonetilleke Trust Fund, Welcome Break UK Tsunami Trust Fund, Erick Amarasinghe Trust Fund, Dr D.P. Athukorale Trust Fund, D.S.P.S de Silva Trust Fund, D.D.M. Simon Silva Trust Fund, Shrima Jayasekara Tsunami Trust Fund, Solomon Abeyaekara Trust Fund, Sidath Sri Nanadalochana Trust Fund, A.L.D.A. Jayawardena Trust Fund and Seetha Athukorale Trust Fund. The most recent Trust Funds established were based on individual sponsorships received from Mr Irwin Weerackody and Dr Prith Peiris to the values of Rs 5 million and Rs 10 million respectively. The most deserving students studying for the GCE Advanced Level Examination are recommended by the principals of respective schools based on a criteria provided by the Colombo YMBA The Colombo YMBA Trust Fund Committee is presently progressing with interviews of undergraduates for the 2019 Awards. The scholarship funds programme is led by the President of the Colombo YMBA Deshamanya Tilak de Zoysa, Members of the Trust Funds & Skills & Development Committee Anura Serasingha Vice President / Branch Secretary, M. Ariyaratne Vice President, Major W.M. Weerasuriya Vice President, Mahendra Jayasekara Hon. General Secretary, Daya Weerasekara, Ranjaka Ariyaratne and Maj. Gen. A.M.U. Senaviratne. The Colombo YMBA welcomes donors who are keen on undertaking sponsorships for these bright and deserving university or GCE A/L students. A Trust Fund established in the name of a new donor for a minimum Rs 500,000.00 and above, would enable awarding Scholarships through the Colombo YMBA on a monthly basis. The utilised the interest earned against the Trust Fund fixed deposit such established is purely used for the purpose of Awarding Scholarships for the long term benefit of students. A sponsorship worth Rs 18,000.00 and/or Rs 12,000.00 would make it possible to support an undergraduate or a GCE A/L student respectively covering sponsorship for the year 2019. The donors will be given the opportunity to make a request to the Trust Fund and Skills Development Committee to select student/s from a specific University Faculty and / Or a School if the Donor desires to do so. The souvenir to be published for the Awards Ceremony would carry the name of the recipient Student, the name of his or her institution in correspondence with the name of each individual Donor. Further he or she will be invited to be present at the 2019 Scholarship Awards Ceremony scheduled to be held at the Colombo YMBA main Hall in December 2018. Those who are keen on sponsoring students to support their education under the Colombo YMBA Scholarships Awards scheme 2019 can contact Maj. Gen. Harsha Weeratunga, General Manager, Colombo YMBA, No 70, D.S. Senanayake Mawatha, Colombo 08. They can receive further details on the project by dropping a mail to colomboymba@sltnet.lk or by calling or faxing on 0112682397. DIG Nalaka Silva gave a voice sample to the Government Analysts Department this morning in relation to the investigation into the alleged attempt to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena and Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Colombo Fort Magistrate Lanka Jayarathne yesterday ordered the DIG to give a sample to the Government Analyst. The Magistrate ordered the Analyst to check whether the DIGs voice matches with that in the recorded telephone conversation between him and Anti Corruption Force Organisation Working Director Namal Kumara. Pix by Nimalsiri Edirisinghe CB officials currently evaluating business proposal to revive ETI Finance by new investor ETI Finances shares in subsidiary and sub-subsidiary companies and investment properties successfully divested By Nishel Fernando The Central Bank is in negotiation with a new foreign investor to restructure the troubled ETI Finance Limited (ETIFL) who may invest up to US $75 million in the troubled finance company, Mirror Business learns. According to highly placed sources, the foreign investor has already submitted a business plan to revive the ETIFL, and the Central Bank officials are currently evaluating it. Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy earlier told the media that at least US$ 100 million is required to turn around the ETIFL. However, the ETIFL board of directors appointed by the Central Bank believes that US$ 75 million would be sufficient to bring ETIFL back to business. ETIFL has about 24,000 depositors with Rs.33 billion in deposits; however, theres a hole in assets and liabilities of about US$100 million. The Central Bank remains optimistic that the deal would go through with the new investor. Central Bank officials with whom Mirror Business talked to said there are a few other investors who also have expressed their interest in investing in ETIFL. They said ETIFL has a unique value proposition for investors, as Central Bank has halted issuing new license for finance companies. In addition, ETIFLs trained staff, the long-standing operation and the large lending portfolio has been identified as the main assets of the company. Meanwhile, the Central Bank expects to complete the settlling down of 35 percent of the deposit liabilities (including interest payments) to ETIFLs existing deposit holders shortly. As of now, the Central Bank has paid 20 percent of deposit liabilities through funds received disposing ETIFLs shares in its subsidiary and sub-subsidiary companies and investment properties for US$ 75 million to a joint venture company between Singapore-based Blue Summit Group and its local partner Ben Holdings linked to investment banker Alex Lovell. The Central Bank officials confirmed that all the assets were transferred to the joint venture company successfully including EAP Broadcasting Company Ltd. Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday dismissed the criticism, over his recent response to a statement made by Colombos Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, saying he stood by what he said. What I said was correct and I stand by it, he said in response to a journalist at an event held at Royal College, Colombo. When asked about the joint oppositions pledge to continue criticising the ministers response, he said, The JO can come to Colombo again, stage a protest and show its incompetency, The mobs operating in the North can be contained if the Army is given the necessary powers even for a limited period of time, Army Commander Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake said today. He said this to journalists after visiting the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy to seek blessings for the Sri Lanka Army on its 69th Anniversary. The Commander said the Army would fulfil its duties should the government decide to give more powers to the army. National security is something all citizens are entitled to. The Army is strong and national security is one of its main duties. We know better about national security than others. Nothing has changed. It is the army which secured victory for Sri Lanka in its fight against the LTTE. Similarly, the army will be always ready with its services to safeguard the country, he said. The Commander said any decision with regard to army camps were being taken after discussions with the army. Therefore, camps are not being removed in an arbitrary manner. However, the army is ready to re-organise and re-situate the camps to ensure national security, he said.(Nadeeka Daya Bandara) Jupiters transit switch to Scorpio on October 11 Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar system which is also looked on as the most beneficial planet in Astrology, which has been passing through the zodiacal sign Libra since September 12, 2017 will enter the zodiacal sign Scorpio at 19.21 hours on October 11, marking, perhaps, the astrologically most significant celestial event for the current year. Bestowing prosperity and protecting the Earth Indian sage Mantreshwara has said in his celebrated work, Phaladeepika that Jupiter is the most powerful of all the planets in countering malefic influences and bestowing prosperity. According to astronomers, Jupiter protects the Earth and the life on it due to its location in the Solar system. They say that there is an asteroid belt in between Mars and Jupiter and it is positioned in such a way that its gravitational pull prevents asteroids from hurtling towards the Earth. Forward and backward movements of Jupiter Jupiter usually takes about 13 months to traverse one sign in the Zodiac and its transit in Scorpio will continue, disrupted by one retrograde movement, until its final ingress into the next sign, Sagittarius on November 05, 2019. Jupiter while on its direct movement will enter the Sagittarius sign on March 29, 2019 and will turn back on its journey towards Scorpio on April 10, 2019 to re-enter it by April 23, 2019. It will resume its direct movement by August 11, 2019 to complete its passage in Scorpio by November 05, 2019. Vedha places The effects of a transiting Jupiter produces good or bad, and are negated if any other planet is transiting in a House named as a Vedha place at the same time in relation to the transiting Jupiter. The Houses where the transiting Jupiter produces favourable effects and the Houses where Vedha operates in respect of each of such Houses as well as the Houses where the transiting Jupiter produces unfavorable effects and the Vedha Houses from where other planets negate the bad effects are shown below. Prediction of results based on Chandra Lagna Predictions on effects produced by planets in transit, as a principle, are based on the Chandra Lagna or the Natal Moon sign, not on the birth Lagna or the Ascendant. Let us now consider the long term and short-term effects that Jupiter in Scorpio is going to produce on individuals depending on their Moon sign or the Chandra Lagna. Aries (Mesha): For Aries Chandra Lagna natives, Jupiter will be in their 8th House. This is not a favourable position for them. Natives are advised to be their alert to meet obstacles and unfavourable developments which could cause worries and anxieties. You have to be on your guard against possible thefts of your valuables. Circumstances that could make you unhappy at your workplace or fall foul of the law of the state are possible. Unnecessary travelling, change of residence and high expenses may trouble you. The period up to April 2019 is not favourable for making investments either. Natives may also develop health problems relating to stomach and liver. Taurus (Vrushabha): For you, Jupiter will move into your 7th House, an important quadrant or a Kendra. Natives will benefit from Jupiters direct aspect over the Lagna. Time ahead is very auspicious for young men and women looking forward to matrimony. Love affairs of natives may culminate in marriage. Natives also can look forward to marital happiness, a happy family time and a child birth. Financial position will turn for the better. Your business may turn more profitable. Opportunities may come your way to expand your business. For those employed, a rise in the career is possible. You are likely to develop a religious and an altruistic bent. A long journey to a sacred place is on the cards. Time ahead is also favourable for students pursuing higher education. Gemini (Mithuna): For Gemini natives, Jupiter will be in their 6th House. This is not a favourable position. You will have to take extra pains to avoid misunderstandings, disputes and differences with family members and friends to safeguard your cordial relations with them. Machinations by rivals and enemies, attempts at discrediting you, thefts of valuable possessions are strong possibilities. Distance yourself from undesirable elements for they could bring disgrace to you. Students may find impediments to their educational pursuits. Cancer (Kataka): Jupiter will begin transit in the 5th House of Cancer natives. Meanwhile, the special aspect of Jupiter too will fall on the 5th House making this transit doubly favourable. The birth of a son, happiness from children, cordial relations with peers, seniors and colleagues and a rise in the career are strongly indicated in times ahead. Natives can also look forward to recognition and rewards for their skills and hard work. Matrimonial prospects are very bright for bachelors and maidens. Leo (Sinha): Jupiter is due to move into your 4th House where he does not produce favourable results when in transit. You have to be in readiness to face possibly unconnected circumstances that could cause a variety of problems such as threats to family harmony, disputes with relatives, deprival of homely comforts and separation from the family. Students may find themselves faced with impediments to their studies. You are advised to keep away from animals which may cause you injuries. Avoid gaming activity and speculation-related trading for you may suffer heavy losses. Desist from any action likely to antagonize or cause displeasure to your employer or superiors for there is a threat to your employment. Virgo (Kanya): Jupiter is to transit in the 3rd House from your Chandra Lagna where it does not hold out remarkably favourable results. However, the fact that Jupiter is to favourably influence your 7th, 9th and 11th Houses signifying considerable gains is a plus factor. These three Houses gaining strength from Jupiter would mean that you are to have a happy family life, some measure of fortune and a sound financial position respectively. However, you cannot look forward to these gains as a matter of course; you have to put in some extra-effort to reach out to them. Libra (Thula): Jupiter is due to leave your Lagna for the 2nd House of Scorpio for its 13-month transit. In fact, Jupiter is more favourable for material success in the 2nd House than in the Lagna. Therefore, natives can look forward to a period of prosperity ahead. Jupiter is also to favourably influence your 6th House assuring success and achievements, the 8th House holding out sudden gains and the 10th House indicating a possible rise in the career. So, you can look forward to a generally happy and prosperous time ahead. Scorpio (Vrushika): Jupiters switching of signs will have the greatest impact on you for it will be in your Lagna or the 1st House for about 13 months beginning October 11. Jupiters transit in your Lagna will bring about a change in your outlook on life. You will develop an altruistic bent. You will become more interested in cultivating human and spiritual values than in accumulating wealth or in increasing your wealth. Incidentally, Jupiters special aspect from Scorpio will fall on your 5th and 9th houses and the direct aspect over the 7th House. So, the natives can look forward to the benefits that these Houses represent: advancement of knowledge, cordial relationship with the spouse and the business partners and luck and prosperity among a host of other gains. Sagittarius (Dhanu): Jupiter will be transiting in your 12th House beginning October 11 where it will not be strong enough to produce favourable effects. Unforeseen untoward circumstances can cause you problems in the time ahead. Your health may deteriorate and your relations with relatives may get strained. Worries will plague your mind and you will find yourself unhappy very often. However, there are redeeming aspects as well. Jupiter will from your Lagna cast its beneficial aspect over the 4th House, 6th House and the 8th House favourably influencing them to enable them to produce beneficial results. Capricorn (Makara): Jupiter will begin transiting in your 11th House from October 11 where he will be so comfortably placed as to bestow on you increased wealth, business success and a good social time. You will find yourself in the company of learned friends who will be of immense help to you. Meanwhile, Jupiter will favourably influence your 3rd, 5th and the 7th Houses assuring you of cordial relations with siblings and help and co-operation from them, recognition for efforts and skills in arts, science and literature and marital happiness among other benefits. Aquarius (Kumbha): The benevolent Jupiter will be in your 10th House beginning October 11 where the planet will not be able to produce any remarkable favourable effect on your life. You must be on your guard against possible attempts at bringing you into disrepute and you may not get benefits commensurate with your efforts. However, you will reap some gains due to Jupiters beneficial aspect over your 2nd, 4th and the 6th Houses. The 2nd House thus strengthened will bring you an increased income and a happily family time, the 4th House comforts and assets like land and vehicles and the 6th House the success in contests and competitions. Pisces (Meena): In your case, Jupiter will begin its transit in Scorpio from your 9th House which will place you in a very fortunate position. Jupiter, your own Lagnadhipati will cast his beneficial aspect over your Lagna, the 3rd and the 5th Houses. You can look forward a period of peace, happiness, fame and prosperity. There will be an increase in your wealth, a rise in your status, happiness in the family and a rise in your career. You will embark on your activity with much confidence, a positive outlook and a burst of new energy. Supporters of Maldivian joint-opposition presidential candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih celebrate his victory on Monday after the election results were out. Reuters he Maldivian people have spoken loud and clear. There is no place in democracy for an autocrat. The humiliating defeat was overwhelming, for he lost in the first round of the presidential poll. The problem with democracy is that if often produces autocrats and even dictators like Adolf Hitler. It enables eccentrics like Donald Trump and war mongers like George W. Bush to become Presidents of the United States, the worlds most vibrant democracy. But in the United States, the system is provided with checks and balances for politicians to play the power games within the confines of the Constitution and the democratic framework. The Robert Mueller investigations into alleged Russian moves to prop up Trump and Moscows alleged links with the Trump team during the 2016 election campaign and the numerous oversight committees in the Congress underline the safeguards embedded to the system. In the US, there is little room for politicians to abuse political power. If they do, the system follows them, exposes them and penalizes them. Strengthening the rule-based political order in the US is a media culture that has produced courageous journalists. Through their investigative journalism, they have brought the downfall of many politicians, including Presidents. True, only those who live in a fools paradise will expect a young democracy such as the Maldives to manifest the features of a powerful democracy like the United States. But one cannot dismiss the Maldivian constitution as inadequate or weak. The 2008 constitution the countrys sixth -- was adopted after a long process of deliberation and input from constitutional experts, including foreign experts. During the constitution-making process, there were cries and protests from pro-democracy activists and opponents of the then President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom over clauses which they thought could be misused by a Government in power to distort the peoples verdict or to act against the spirit of democracy. The Maldivian democracy may not be as vibrant as that of the US, but its constitution is as good as that of the US. The problem is not with the constitution but with the guardians of the Constitution. Even a bad constitution can be good, if implemented in the true spirit of democracy. Similarly, a good constitution can turn bad in the hands of power-hungry people. Perhaps it was the weakness of the system not the constitution that made an autocrat out of Yameen. If democracy in the Maldives is to be strengthened, institutions such as the judiciary, the public service and the police should be insulated from political interference and their independence should be fiercely protected. The tiny archipelago of some 350,000 people has seen in its post-independence history many political upheavals. More so, after it became a multi-party democracy in 2008. In the 2011-12, political crisis, President Mohamed Nasheed, who won the countrys first multi-party elections after the 2008 reforms, was forced to sign his resignation letter at gun point and he had to find refuge in the Indian High Commission. The coup detat saw Nasheeds deputy Waheed Hassen taking over as president. A wild card entry into the Maldivian presidential election race in 2013 after Gayooms retirement, Yameen who is Gayooms half-brother -- contested on the Progressive Party of the Maldives ticket but won only 25 percent of the votes, far behind top runner and former President Mohamed Nasheed who won 45 percent of the votes during the first round. However, Yameen narrowly managed to beat Nasheed in the runoff. During Yameens rule, the judiciary had been under constant attack. Even the Chief Justice was arrested after he ordered the government to release political prisoners in a February 2018 ruling and also declared the arrest of former President Mohamed Nasheed unconstitutional. A new chief justice appointed by the president later reversed the order, making the judiciary a mockery under Yameen. Yameen also declared a state of emergency and ordered the armed forces to resist any attempt to impeach or remove him. He even ordered the arrest of former President Gayoom, his political mentor. Usually, an autocracy is also a kleptocracy. Like Sri Lanka, the Maldives is no exception. In weak democracies such as ours, corruption is deep-seated and the law is applied only selectively. In covering up the theft, the rulers think the people can be mesmerised with showpiece development. In the Maldives case, Yameen, with Chinese aid, built the countrys first causeway linking the capital with the airport, new ports and several resorts. But behind these white elephants was corruption. Al Jazeera, in a series of investigative documentaries, exposed the Maldives mega corruption under Yameens rule. One documentary exposed how US$ 79 million was siphoned off from the countrys tourism revenue by people connected to the ruling party. It showed secret camera recordings of those involved in the scandal boasting about how they carried bundles of dollars in black bags all the way to the Presidents house. Yameen denied the allegations. Yameens autocracy grew under the charade of showpiece development against the backdrop of an emerging cold war in the Indian Ocean region. Nasheed was seen as pro-India. His government let an Indian company manage the Maldives main international airport. Yameen was seen to be pro-China and, lately, pro-Saudi, too. Probably because of the China connection, the Yameen regime had the courage to tell India to mind its own business when New Delhi expressed concern over the arrest of Nasheed in 2015, and was not ruffled a bit when the Commonwealth suspended the Maldives membership due to the erosion of good governance. In another boorish move, he severed diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 after Saudi Arabia and its some of its Arab allies did so. He became arrogant and his hubris was his downfall. He could not coax or cajole the election commission, which stood as the last hope of a democracy-loving people. In the rise and fall of Yameen, there is a lesson for Sundays winner president-elect Ibrahim Solih -- contesting from Nasheeds Maldivian Democratic Party. A long time MP, he was seen to be a moderator in the crisis-ridden Maldivian politics and loved for his calm demeanor. The Maldivian people have shown their political maturity by overthrowing an autocrat and placing their faith in democracy. The challenge before the president-elect, fondly called Ibu, is not only to restore democracy and constitutional rule, but also to chart a middle path in the Maldives foreign policy to stay clear of the emerging cold war politics in the region. (Kochi) ECONOMIC TIMES: Pepper exporters have expressed concern at the rising import of Vietnamese pepper routed through Sri Lanka into the country despite the imposition of minimum import price of Rs.500 per kg by India. The MIP was fixed last year to protect the interest of the local pepper growers after over 40 percent decline in prices though productions were normal. Pepper imports from Sri Lanka carries 8 percent duty under South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) while there is no duty for a quantity of 2500 tonnes. A change in the policy has enabled pepper traders in Sri Lanka to re-export Vietnam pepper available at US$ 2500 to 2800 per tonne, which is about Rs. 200 per kg. Vietnam pepper entering Sri Lanka is re-routed to India without any value addition with Sri Lankan authorities issuing a certificate of origin, which they are not supposed to issue for pepper from any other country, said Kishor Shamji, an exporter. The Sri Lankan exporter is invoicing the Vietnam pepper at US$ 7200 per tonne, which equals the Rs.500 per kg MIP, while shipping to India. He has to pay just 8 percent duty, which is Rs.40 per kg plus other expenses coming to Rs.25 for sending to India, he said. According to him, the 8 percent duty was fixed when the Sri Lankan production was hardly 10,000 tonnes. Now it has gone up to around 28,000 tonnes. We should have a re-look at the duty and bring it on par to 52 percent applicable for other ASEAN countries, he said. The Indian pepper prices are hovering around Rs.360 per kg now and the Vietnam pepper is reaching India via Sri Lanka at a rate below Rs.300 per kg. This is an amazing country where people play politics with the safety and security of political and military leaders, despite some of them being possible targets of remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- the outfit that suffered a humiliating defeat nine years ago in the three-decade-long war with the armed forces. This divisive, malicious and irresponsible attitude on the part of ruling parties as well as the opposition has been witnessed for the past three decades, despite two key former military leaders having been killed by LTTE suicide bombers purely due to this detestable attitude of the leaders of successive governments. The situation is so amazing that even the allegation of a plot to assassinate the President and a former high-profile military official seems to have been taken lightly by those concerned. At a time when the former head of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID), DIG Nalaka de Silva is accused of having conspired to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, IGP Pujith Jayasundara has reportedly gone to the Kelaniya Rajamaha Viharaya with the same TID chief. And it is further astonishing to hear Minister Rajitha Senaratne justifying it. The allegation has been levelled by Namal Kumara, a police informant and the Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Movement which we never heard of before. And now, an Indian who was arrested when he visited Namal Kumara has told the police that there had been a plot to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena and the entire Rajapaksa family. If the allegations merit investigation, as the authorities have already initiated one, and if government leaders are serious about the probe, due precautionary measures have to be taken with regard to the security of the people targeted by purported conspirators. However, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said he had not been provided with any additional security. "SFs contribution to war victory belittled and security detail reduced from 600 to 6 soldiers overnight when he challenged MR at 2010 Presidential polls" Meanwhile, responding to a demand made by the joint opposition that security provided for Gotabaya Rajapaksa must be beefed up in the wake of such an alleged conspiracy, Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka --who as the former Army Commander worked hand in hand with Mr. Rajapaksa towards the decimation of the LTTE leadership -- says Mr. Rajapaksa had been given 25 STF personnel and that he did not deserve any more security. This is nothing but pure malice and hatred on the part of the former Army Commander, in spite of him having been treated with the same hatred and malice by the Rajapaksas during the last regime. On the other hand, members of the joint opposition argue that Gotas security must be further tightened considering the role he played in defeating the LTTE. Security is not a matter of gratitude. Even if the life of an ordinary person who had not contributed to the war victory is threatened, measures should be taken by the government to protect him or her. Needless to say that the government must provide the former Defence Secretary with adequate protection if his life seems to have been threatened. Mr. Fonseka is apparently in a course of tit-for-tat for what the Rajapaksas did to him when he fell out with them after the end of the war. Once in 2009, Gota described Fonseka as the best Army Commander in the world and claimed that the Army Commander used tactics and strategies against the LTTE to which Prabhakaran could not figure out how to react. But Fonsekas contribution to war victory was belittled and his security detail reduced from 600 to 6 soldiers overnight when he politically-challenged Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2010 Presidential election. He was incarcerated; he was deprived of even his medals and pension. Yet, that cannot be a reason for Gota being deprived of due protection as a citizen of the country, leave alone being the war-time Defence Secretary. However, in Sri Lanka, it was always party politics and not real security threat assessments that had been the criterion for the strength of security provided for various persons, especially politicians. Three classic cases in point were the withdrawal of security provided for three war veterans including Fonseka, who were in the forefront of fighting the northern war and the southern insurgency. Despite repeated requests for adequate security, the Peoples Alliance (PA) Government of Chandrika Kumaratunga weakened the security provided to retired Major General Lucky Algama in the late 1990s when he teamed up with the UNP to contest the 2000 Parliamentary election. He along with 10 people was killed by an LTTE suicide bomber at an election rally in Ja-Ela on December 18, 1999, one day prior to Kumaratunga herself being targeted by another suicide bomber at the Colombo Town Hall ground. Major General Janaka Perera, another high-ranking army official who earned the wrath of both southern and northern rebels, had to go to the Supreme Court requesting adequate security as his security was reduced by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government after he joined the UNP upon retirement. He too was killed along with another 26 persons including his wife by an LTTE suicide bomber on October 6, 2008, at a party office in Anuradhapura. "JO argues Gotas security should be beefed up considering the role he played in defeating the LTTE" The Rajapaksas might have weakened the security of their political foes and opened the door for the LTTE to kill them. Moreover, the Rajapaksas are accused of killing Welikada Prison inmates in 2012 and demonstrators at Rathupaswala, Chilaw and Katunayake, white van abductions, attacks on journalists and media institutions. But that does not justify, in any way, a repetition by this government which pledged to be different from the Rajapaksa regime. As an organisation, the LTTE is no more, but its trained cadres are still at large and the influence of its ideology is so increasingly-evident among the Tamil community that the leaders of Tamil political parties use it as a vote-pulling leverage. During the Northern Provincial Council election in 2013, C.V. Wigneswaran as TNAs Chief Ministerial candidate glorified LTTE leader Prabhakaran as a freedom fighter. And three attempts to revive the LTTE have been revealed so far since the organisation was militarily defeated in May 2009 and in one such incident, three former LTTE operatives were shot dead by the military in April 2014. The thunderous ovation former State Minister Vijayakala Maheswaran received when she said at a meeting in July that our dream is to revive the LTTE indicates the degree of the LTTE ideology that persists among the Tamils or a section of them. It is with great reverence that people commemorated Thileepan, the onetime Jaffna commander of the LTTE who died after a 12-day fast over five demands in 1987. "Rajapaksas accused of killing Welikada Prison inmates in 2012 and demonstrators at Rathupaswala, Chilaw and Katunayake, white van abductions, attacks on journalists and media institutions" One should not forget that Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa are two men most hated by LTTE remnants. One cannot expect that hate to vanish into thin air just because the LTTE leadership was decimated. We should recall how a convict of the Manamperi rape and murder case in 1971 was stabbed to death during the JVPs second insurrection, seventeen years after the incident, even after he had completed his jail term for the crime. Hence, the security of Gotabaya Rajapaksa or any other individual -- especially those purportedly targeted by the alleged coup -- should not be a political issue for the ruling party or the opposition. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe is seen talking to two kids during his visit to the Colombo International Book Fair at the BMICH today. He aslo bought some books at the fair. Pix by Pradeep Pathirana Referring to the remark made by President Maithripala Sirisena at the UN General Assembly that Sri Lanka should be allowed to handle its own internal affairs, former MP Sarath Weerasekara said the Presidents comment would only be valid if the government withdraws the co-sponsorship of 30/1. Rear Admiral Weerasekara, who is in Geneva to counter the pro-LTTE propaganda, said Sri Lanka is legally bound to implement the recommendations in the resolutions unless it is withdrawn as per the Presidents remarks. He said, The technical assistance provided by the UN had already culminated in a resolution charging Sri Lanka of war crimes. This resolution 30/1 was adopted by this council without a debate or a vote because it was co-sponsored by a delegate and he did that without the approval of the President or the cabinet. Hence it has no legal base. The USA has withdrawn from this council accusing it as politically biased and hypocritical. Since the US was the main sponsor of 30/1 the co-sponsorship too should be nullified automatically. Germany was occupied by UK and USA for years after world war 11. More Germans were killed as prisoners of war after the war than during the war. Germany still pays reparations to Israel. We saved 300,000 during the war and rehabilitated 12,000 after the war. Its a pity that Germany and UK of all the countries are now pushing us to implement 30/1. The US has threatened sanctions against ICC if it persecutes American soldiers. PM Theresa May said she will change the Human Rights laws to protect her soldiers. Our President too thanked our soldiers who defeated terrorism. It implies he rejects the war crimes. Then why 30/1? Many things can be negotiated Mr. President, but sovereignty, never! Sri Lanka Cashew Corporation (SLCC) will supply cashew nuts to SriLankan airlines from next month, SLCC Chairman Damsiri Bandara Karunaratne said today. Quality of the cashew nuts served on SriLankan flights came up for scrutinity after President Maithripala Sirisena remarked on the quality of the cashew nuts served to him on a Colombo-bound flight. Mr. Karunaratne said SriLankan purchased cashew nuts from SLCC until 2016 but the airlines had later decided to purchase it from a Dubai-based supplier at a lower price. He said following a discussion with the Public Enterprise & Kandy City Development Minister Lakshman Kiriella it had been decided to resume the supply of cashew nuts to the airline. Local cashew has a large market especially in Europe. SriLankan cashew is known as the queen of nuts and is considered to be a high quality product. The Cashew Corporation is always keen to supply high quality cashew nuts to the local and international market. Because of the quality our prices may be high compared to other imported nuts, Mr. Karunaratne said. However, the purchasing price of the cashew nuts to SriLankan is yet to be negotiated. (Thilanka Kanakarathna) Two-meter-high tsunami waves have crashed through an Indonesian coastal city after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck on Friday. A 6.1 magnitude quake struck Indonesias densely populated Sulawesi region on Friday morning, quickly followed by even fiercer 7.5 magnitude tremors which caused the tidal wave. Footage filmed in Palu, Indonesia and posted on Twitter, showed gigantic waves crashing ashore and flooding streets as people scrambled to get away. Houses have been swept away and people reported missing as the waves struck Palu and another city, Donggala - Indonesian disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho confirmed. Sutopo said communications with the area in central Sulawesi are down and the search and rescue effort is being hampered by darkness. The Indonesian government caused widespread confusion after issuing a tsunami alert on Friday afternoon, then quickly repealing at 5pm despite the tremors. Three hours later at 8pm local time a spokesman for Indonesias geophysics agency confirmed that a tsunami had in fact occurred. People in Central Sulawesi and West Sulawesi provinces were only then told to evacuate to higher ground. Sulawesi is the fourth largest Indonesian island and is home to around 18 million people - all of whom have been put on alert following the quake on Friday. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the second quake at a strong 7.5, after first saying it was 7.7. An earlier 6.1 magnitude quake destroyed some houses, killing one person and injuring at least 10, authorities said. -Jakarta, (Daily Mail), Sep 28, 2018 UNP yesterday welcomed the statement made by President Maithirpala Sirisena in United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). UNP MPs Hector Appuhamy and Dr. Kavinda Jayawardene welcomed the President statement at the UNGA media briefing last afternoon. What president told at the General Assembly is that Sri Lanka should be allowed to work independently without any interference. This is something that has to be done, and therefore, what President said was correct, MP Appuharmy said. Dr. Jayawardene who responded to a question raised by the journalists whether the government is prepared to enhance the security of Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as there has been a plot to kill him, said security of Mr. Rajapaksa should be enhanced if it is necessary. At the same time he said adequate security has been given to the former President. (Yohan Perera) Taiwan Signs Deals for Mirage 2000 Parts, Training The page you requested is only available to subscribers. 1. If you are a Premium Service subscriber, please log in here to access this story: Log-in : Password : 2. If you are not a subcriber, you can: -- buy access to this page: unlimited access for seven days costs 3.00 EUR + VAT (at 20%) if applicable. Clicking on the "Ok" button below will place the item in your shopping cart and return you to our home page, where you will be able to select additional stories. -- select additional stories and services from our home page and pay for them at the same time. -- see your shopping cart. You can also see the contents of your shopping cart at any time by clicking on the "Order" tab on the navigation bar at the top of any page, or by clicking on the "Your order" light blue link in the top right-hand corner of our home page, immediately under the log-on box. By Eric Leister 27 September 2018 (AccuWeather) Trami will threaten lives and property as it slams the Ryukyu Islands and barrels into mainland Japan with destructive winds, flooding rain and an inundating storm surge Friday night into Monday. The powerful typhoon is currently equal to a Category 3 major hurricane in the Atlantic or East Pacific oceans and expected to hold that intensity through this weekend. Residents should be making the necessary precautions to protect themselves and property against the dangerous typhoon. Those living in coastal communities and in flood-prone areas should pay attention to local authorities and heed evacuation orders. At this time, all locations in Japan are at risk for impacts from Trami in the coming days. Trami remains on track to blast the Ryukyu Islands Friday night into Sunday morning, with mainland Japan bracing for the blow Sunday into Monday, said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski.The Ryukyu Islands from Okinawa northward and areas from southern Kyushu to Shikoku and south-central Honshu are expected to endure the most severe impacts. Residents in these communities could be left without power or water for days or weeks in the wake of Trami. Travel via air, rail and roads can be shut down for a time.Well-built homes can endure major roof or siding damage. Additional property damage can occur as many trees may be downed. Roads littered with tree damage can delay power restoration.Time is running out for preparations in the Ryukyu Islands, Pydynowski said. []These islands are expected to be slammed with destructive wind gusts of 160-225 km/h (100-140 mph) and flooding rain, said Pydynowski. Dangerous seas building to heights in excess of 10 meters (34 feet) can severely flood coastal communities. []Storm surge flooding along the entire southern coast of Japan will further threaten lives and property Sunday into Sunday night, she added. []With a projected landfall, Trami would be the eighth named storm to strike Japan this year, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls. There are signs that a ninth may follow next week.Out of the seven storms before Trami, six were typhoons, Nicholls added. The record for landfalling typhoons in Japan is 10 from 2004. [more] 25 September 2018 (Nature) Politics, according to the nineteenth-century German statesman Otto von Bismarck, is the art of the next best. The global approach of politicians to tackling climate change is a sorry example of this. The problem: destructive storms that hit the United States and southeast Asia this month are the latest reminder of how vulnerable societies across the world are to climate extremes. The best political solution might seem to be to subordinate all policies domestic and international to the goal of stabilizing Earths climate. This is difficult. So, instead, the world must rely on the effectiveness of voluntary actions that nations have agreed on under a non-binding international compromise treaty forged in Paris in 2015.For all its symbolic power, that Paris treaty is a truly second-best solution. Even if it had worked as advertised, the promised cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions are weak. And now the withdrawal of the United States and, de facto, of Australia has substantially weakened the global consensus before the treaty has even come into effect.iscussions on how and when it will start will resume at a two-week United Nations meeting in December in Katowice, Poland. Those attending would do well to read a study published this week in Nature Climate Change that highlights just how irrational it is for the politicians who represent many large economies to settle for next best (K. Ricke et al. Nature Clim. Change http://doi.org/ct7x; 2018).The analysis revisits the concept of the social cost of carbon: the cumulative economic impact of global warming caused by (or attributed to) each tonne of the pollutant sent into the atmosphere. This study goes a step further than previous ones and estimates the likely cost to different countries. In doing so, it reveals the countries projected to take the hardest hits.China and the United States, the worlds two largest emitters of carbon dioxide, will incur some of the highest social costs of carbon of all countries, the scientists report, with respective estimated impacts of US$24 per tonne and $48 per tonne. India, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil also feature towards the top. In these countries unlike in Canada, northern Europe, and Russia temperatures are already above the economic optimum. And climate-induced damage increases with wealth and economic growth, meaning that more-valuable property might sit in harms way.Combined country-level costs (and benefits) add up to a global median of more than $400 in social costs per tonne of CO2 more than twice previous estimates. On the basis of CO2 emissions in 2017, thats a global impact of more than $16 trillion. The new analysis is based on a set of climate simulations, rather than a single climate model, and the authors calculated future harm using empirical damage functions that were independently developed for that purpose. [more] 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. Subscriber content preview By TOM KRISHER and JOSH BOAK AP Business Writers DETROIT From Ford to Walmart to Procter & Gamble, a growing number of iconic American companies are warning that President Donald Trump's tariffs on U.S. imports are raising their costs and prices. Jim Hackett, CEO of Ford, the second-largest U.S.-based automaker, said Wednesday that Trump's taxes on imported steel and aluminum will cost Ford $1 billion through 2019. . . . Subscriber content preview KENNEWICK (AP) A disbarred Washington lawyer accused of pocketing his clients' money has pleaded guilty to theft charges. The Tri-City Herald reported Tuesday that 45-year-old Christopher Lee Neal lost his law license in February following a lengthy investigation by the Washington State Bar Association. . . . Grand Award Low-rise structures (nonresidential) Photo provided by WACA Polished concrete covers 80 percent of the floor area inside Tacomas Science and Math Institute. SAMI at the Environmental Learning Center Location: Tacoma Owner/developer: Tacoma Public Schools Team: Forma Construction, general and concrete contractor; McGranahan Architects, architect; PCS Structural Solutions, structural engineer; Miles Sand & Gravel, ready-mix supplier The Environmental Learning Center is a unique partnership between Tacoma Public Schools and Metro Parks Tacoma where students can learn about sustainability, ecology and nature conservancy. Built on the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium campus, this multi-use facility houses formal learning spaces for Tacomas Science and Math Institute (SAMI), as well as community spaces, collaborative and interpretive learning areas, and coordination and work spaces for zoo staff and volunteers. Producing a 30,000-square-foot school on a very constrained site and in the middle of an occupied zoo campus required creative approaches to designing and building concrete forms, footings and shoring. Sited on a steeply sloping hill just 10 feet from the zoos busy Animal Loop Drive, the west and north foundation walls at 15 feet tall were designed to serve a dual purpose as both foundation and retaining walls. Collaborating with a local structural engineer on shoring plans, the general contractor installed a soil nail wall to support the road until these foundation/retaining walls were complete and the second floor was placed. At its south entrance, the center features enormous concrete walls soaring 20 feet from their footings. Exposed on the exterior and interior of the building, these walls included numerous reveals and openings designed by the architect. Bringing on a subcontractor to create shop drawings for these exposed walls helped streamline communication between the general contractor and architects, assuring that none of the details were lost in the process. The restrictive site size and its proximity to the road through Point Defiance Park required that all concrete wall forms be hand-built with MDO using a typical strong back system no tilt-up or precast concrete elements could be incorporated. To take advantage of every inch of the construction site, the general contractor stored a majority of the construction materials 1,000 feet down the road, carefully coordinating the delivery of materials to the site within the project schedule. Allowing all trades on site at the same time meant subcontractor crews were overlapping in schedules, requiring site electrical and excavation of power and utilities to run concurrent to excavation and backfilling of foundations. During concrete pours, the contractor worked with Metro Parks Tacoma to close Animal Loop Road requiring additional coordination with the zoo to ensure these closures were not limiting access for the zoo and the parks other ongoing improvement projects. Inside, the gleaming, polished concrete floors on the first and second levels make up 80 percent of the schools floor area. The second-floor slab, installed over metal decking, required customized, detailed layout and saw-cutting of joints. Several mock-ups of the floor polishing were created and tested on to help develop the best procedure for cutting the joints on the finished floors. These floors were then water cured and protected with filter fabric after placement, which was removed prior to crews using the Retro-Plate 99 system to polish the concrete floors. Though not extremely large, the center and its site included extensive concrete work. Besides its traditional concrete stem walls and footings, concrete soil nail walls, and concrete basement and retaining walls, the project also included concrete amphitheater steps, new outdoor stairs and concrete walkways, exterior hardscape, exposed and polished concrete floors, and interior concrete shear walls. The general contractors self-performance of the concrete on the center brought to fruition the architects design goals through efficient, cost-effective and long-lasting materiality. Just like the environmental conditions that SAMI students study, the finished Environmental Learning Center looks like it was always meant to be there. Other Stories: Subscriber content preview By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Jeffrey Wright and Riley Keogh star in "Hold the Dark." The Alaska tourism board can't be all that thrilled with Jeremy Saulnier's Hold the Dark, a grueling but beautifully shot mystery about a small town where it seems the very best quality of life one can hope for is crippling depression. That would be at least manageable compared to what the characters are forced to endure in this film, which presents a series of escalating tragedies and atrocities with a dead-eyed nihilism that should only be reserved for first-year philosophy students. . . . 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Los Angeles, Sep 28 (EFE).- The day-to-day lives of Mexico's high-society youth form the basis for a new reality-TV series titled "Made in Mexico," which will premiere on Netflix on Friday. The series shows that "fresas" (a slang term in Mexico for superficial and snobbish upper-class young people) also cry, laugh, get angry, dance, party and feel frustrated. Posh restaurants and country homes serve as the backdrop for this reality show, which shows the affluent lives of Mexico City's elite yet also aims to break down stereotypes about their supposed carefree existence in a country sadly known for its gaping economic inequality. "Everything that happened is real. Everything we say we feel. If someone's crying, it's because they feel that way; if someone gets angry, it's because they're feeling that. And that's what makes 'Made in Mexico' different," Columba "Colu" Diaz, one of the nine cast members of the new series, said in an interview with EFE in Los Angeles. "The human element was really tough ... None of the topics were taboo or untouchable, we had no limits. On the contrary. I think we opened up about things we were avoiding in our personal lives," said Kitzia Mitre, another star of the show. Both Mitre and fellow cast member Roby Checa told EFE that although "Made in Mexico" shows wealthy Mexicans' lack of economic concerns, it also puts a spotlight on other issues they face. "I don't think the show focuses on the elite but rather on emotions, moments, feelings and human vulnerability," Diaz said. Mitre, for her part, acknowledged that she and the other cast members are privileged but denied that they "mooch off their parents," saying that all of them work for a living. Considering the show examines the stereotypes and public image of the country's high society, an obvious question arises: Do the stars of "Made in Mexico" consider themselves "fresas"? "I do, a little," Mitre admitted, while Checa rejected a term that usually has negative connotations. "I consider you extremely 'fresa.' You're the most 'papi rey' (Mexican slang for high-class young men) there is," Diaz told him laughing. She also talked about being followed by a TV crew at all times during the filming of "Made in Mexico." "You quickly forget the cameras are there ... you get carried away by the emotions you're feeling and, seriously, you stop thinking that there are cameras," she said. "The hard part isn't when you're filming but when you stop filming, because you say to yourself, 'I just said this, I just screwed up ...' There's a bit of an emotional thing of 'I opened up too much,'" Checa said. Likewise, Mitre said it was a "cathartic" and "exhausting" experience. "We all have things in our lives that you put away and keep locked in, and here it was like, "get it out there," she said. The all-white cast members also discussed their privileged position vis-a-vis millions of fellow Mexicans living in poverty. "It's a reality we experience in our country and we're very aware of it," Diaz said, while Mitre noted that all three participate in "a lot of community service projects" through different foundations. "I feel like we're people who aren't detached (from reality)," Mitre said, adding that they are individuals who do their part to make the socio-economic divide smaller. German police threw out protester from Erdogan-Merkel meeting An interesting moment happened during the press conference of President Erdogan and Angela Merkel. A so-called journalist attempted to protest. President Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced a protest attempt during the press conference. This movement, which was carried out for the purpose of provocation, did not allow the German police. GERMAN POLICES FORCED The press conference was briefly disrupted by a protester wearing a t-shirt that read "freedom for journalists" in Turkish. As he was removed by security, the two leaders looked at each other and noticeably tensed up. He was later named as Adil Yigit, a Turkish journalist who runs the Avrupa Postasi online news portal from Hamburg. AN INTERESTING MOMENT Angela Merkel, who was surprised by the protest, began to laugh with the Chancellor, who was looking at Prime Minister Erdogan. Germany visit to build positive impact on Turkish economy President Erdogan's visit to Germany will be "a milestone to open a new page" in bilateral relations, the Turkish foreign minister said. The three-day state visit to Germany by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a seven-year hiatus began on Sept. 27 with a heavy-loaded agenda on mainly bilateral political and economic issues that aim at normalizing once seriously damaged ties. Relations between Ankara and Berlin suffered several setbacks in past years, but both sides have taken steps in recent months towards improving ties. During his visit, Erdogan held talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and met his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "THE MEETING WILL PROVIDE A PLATFORM TO REINFORCE" In a bid to stress the importance of Turkish-German ties, Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) Turkey-Germany Business Council Chairman Steven Young, who is also the president of Bosch Turkey and the Middle East, said both countries are valuable strategic partners. "DEIK and the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) in Turkey are working to lead efforts to improve bilateral economic relations. I believe that the meeting in Berlin will provide a platform to reinforce cooperation," Young said, emphasizing the significance of the Berlin visit for economic ties. President Erdogan: Can Dundar is a spy Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says it is right to seek extradition of Can Dundar in line with extradition agreement with Germany. Today Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin. After meeting leaders held a press conference. TWO LEADERS TALKED ABOUT IDLIB Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel answered journalists questions. Merkel said she talked about the situation in Syria's Idlib with Erdogan during their meeting. "We favor there being a four-way meeting, because the situation is still fragile, between the Turkish president, the Russian president, the French president and me. We aim to do this in October," she said. On the topic of the fight against terror, Erdogan said Turkey expects closer cooperation from Germany against all terror groups, including the PKK and suspected members of the Gulenist Terror Group (FETO) the group behind the failed 2016 coup in Turkey. "THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR PEACE" Speaking during the conference, Erdogan said thousands of PKK terrorists and hundreds of people with links to U.S.-based leader of FETO, Fetullah Gulen, are living in Germany. "With mutual trust, we must catch (suspects) and hand them over," he said. "This is important from a security point of view for the peace and welfare of our countries." "HE IS A SPY" President Erdogan also answered the question about Can Dundar. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says prominent Turkish journalist Can Dundar, who is in exile in Germany, is a convicted spy and should be extradited to Turkey. Erdogan told reporters Friday: "At this moment this person is, according to Turkish law, a convict, a spy (who has) revealed state secrets." He was speaking at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Turkish president welcomed with military honors in Berlin Erdogan meets German counterpart Steinmeier to discuss ways to improve bilateral relations. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday to discuss ways to improve political and economic relations between the two countries. PRESIDENT ERDOGAN WELCOMED WITH MILITARY HONORS Erdogan was received with military honors by Steinmeier at the presidential palace Schloss Bellevue. The president and First Lady Emine Erdogan arrived in Berlin on Thursday for a three- day state visit. Erdogan is scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later on Friday. Ahead of his visit, Erdogan called for opening a fresh page in Turkish- German relations, in an article published in German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "TURKEY AND GERMANY WILL OPEN A NEW PAGE" The dramatic developments in the world make it indispensable for both Germany and Turkey to open a new page in bilateral relations, to leave aside their differences and focus on their common interests, he stressed. Relations between Ankara and Berlin suffered several setbacks in past years, but both sides have taken steps in recent months towards improving ties. SECURITY TIGHTENED IN BERLIN German authorities have raised security measures to the highest level, 1+, in Berlins city center ahead of Erdogans visit. Berlin police announced that around 4,200 police officers would be deployed in Berlin to ensure the security during the visit. Main streets in the government district were closed as part of the security arrangements. Following his official meetings in Berlin, Erdogan will travel on Saturday to the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which has a large Turkish immigrant population. In Cologne, Erdogan will attend the inauguration ceremony of Cologne Central Mosque, run by Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs. TOKYO, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- First oral presentation of Quality of Life data from the phase III trial (MAVORIC), the largest randomised trial in MF and SS - the two most common types of Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma[1] Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., (Kyowa Kirin) announces that Quality of Life (QoL) data from the pivotal MAVORIC trial will be the subject of an oral presentation,[2] at the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Cutaneous Lymphoma Task Force (CLTF) meeting, September 27-29, St. Gallen, Switzerland. A case report of a long-term responder in the MAVORIC[3] trial will also be reported as a poster.[4] Presentation titles at the 2018 EORTC CLTF Mtg: - Quality of Life in Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma Patients Treated with the Anti-CCR4 Monoclonal Antibody Mogamulizumab Versus Vorinostat: Results from MAVORIC [Abstract 105; Fri 28th Sept, 11am-12.30pm] - Long-term complete remission induced by mogamulizumab in a severe Sezary patient, together with five different possible autoimmune manifestations [Abstract #059; Case study poster (external)] QoL was a secondary end-point of the phase 3 MAVORIC (mogamulizumab versus vorinostat in previously treated cutaneous T-cell lymphoma) trial and significant improvements were seen with mogamulizumab versus vorinostat as early as cycle three and continued throughout. Using QoL measurements including Skindex-29, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) and EuroQol-5D-3L (EQ-5D-3L), clinically meaningful improvements in patient-reported skin-related symptoms and preservation of physical well-being were observed. greater than or equal to 61% of mogamulizumab patients reported clinically-meaningful improvements in skin-related symptoms from Cycles 3 through to 11 and significantly more vorinostat patients reported clinically-meaningful declines in physical well-being in Cycles 1 through to 11. There was also delay in patient reported deterioration in the Skindex-29 Summary and Emotions subscores in patients given mogamulizumab. Dr Pierluigi Porcu, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health, Thomas Jefferson University, USA elaborates further on the data: "Cutaneous T cell lymphomas are highly visible cancers, that can significantly impact patients' QoL. The effects of the disease can be extremely debilitating, which in turn can affect the patient both mentally and emotionally. We are extremely excited about these findings as it demonstrates the potential benefits of mogamulizumab beyond efficacy and, in particular, for outcomes that are especially important to people affected by CTCL. It is reassuring to see quick improvements and benefits across Symptom, Emotional, and Functional domains. Importantly, patients with the highest symptom burden and functional impairment derived the most QoL benefit from mogamulizumab." Mogamulizumab met its primary endpoint in the MAVORIC trial, which is the first pivotal trial in CTCL to use progression-free survival (PFS) as a primary endpoint. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in PFS and overall response rate (ORR) for mogamulizumab compared to vorinostat in patients with previously treated MF and SS.[3] Results of the study were published in Lancet Oncology in August 2018. On Friday 21st September 2018, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) scientific committee, adopted a Positive Opinion recommending approval of the marketing authorisation of mogamulizumab for the treatment of adult patients with MF or SS who have received at least one prior systemic therapy. KKI Chief Executive, Tom Stratford, said "There has been limited innovation in the last fifteen years for patients with MF and SS and quality of life is a big factor in these diseases. The Kyowa Hakko Kirin Group companies strive to contribute to the health and wellbeing of people around the world through advances in life sciences and technologies and mogamulizumab addresses a universal unmet need in this patient population. The recent positive CHMP opinion brings us one step closer to bringing this much needed treatment to patients with MF and SS." If mogamulizumab is approved, Kyowa Kirin International PLC, a Kyowa Hakko Kirin Group company, will be responsible for commercialising mogamulizumab in Europe. About Mogamulizumab Mogamulizumab is a humanised monoclonal antibody (mAb) directed against CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4), which is frequently expressed on leukemic cells of certain haematologic malignancies including CTCL (cutaneous T-cell lymphoma). Mogamulizumab was produced using Kyowa Hakko Kirin's proprietary POTELLIGENT(R) platform, which is associated with enhanced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). About Mycosis Fungoides (MF) and Sezary Syndrome (SS) MF and SS are the two most common subtypes of CTCL[1], a rare type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is characterised by localisation of malignant T lymphocytes to the skin, and depending on the stage, the disease may involve skin, blood, lymph nodes, and viscera. About MAVORIC MAVORIC is a Phase 3 open-label, multi-center, randomised study of mogamulizumab versus vorinostat in patients with MF and SS who have failed at least one prior systemic treatment. The study was conducted in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Australia, and randomized 372 patients to receive either mogamulizumab or vorinostat. Additional Data from Analyses Mogamulizumab resulted in symptomatic and functional improvement with differences in Skindex-29 Symptoms (Cycle 3 (C3), C5, and C7; p<0.05) and Functional (C3 and C5; p<0.05) scales. The proportion of patients who improved by at least the meaningful change threshold (MCT) from baseline was significantly greater for mogamulizumab vs vorinostat on Skindex-29 Symptoms at C3 (61.1% vs 45.3%), C5 (64.5% vs 42.4%), C7 (67.1% vs 47.5%), and C11 (84.1% vs 50.0%) and Skindex-29 Functioning domain at C5 (54.3% vs 28.8%). Significant difference in the FACT-G Physical Well-Being scale (C1, C3, and C5; p<0.05) were observed in favour of mogamulizumab and a greater proportion of patients declined by at least the MCT in favour of mogamulizumab vs vorinostat at C1 (19.3% vs 34.7%), C3 (17.4% vs 42.9%), C5 (13.1% vs 43.3%), and C7 (15.9% vs 37.5%). The median time to worsening of symptoms on Skindex-29 was 27.4 m for mogamulizumab vs 6.6 m for vorinostat. Mogamulizumab Regulatory Status The Positive Opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) scientific committee, recommending approval of the marketing authorisation of mogamulizumab for the treatment of adult patients with MF or SS who have received at least one prior systemic therapy has been referred to the European Commission (EC), which is expected to render its final decision by the end of 2018. The EC typically adheres to the recommendation of the CHMP but is not obligated to do so. On the 8th August 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for mogamulizumab for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory MF or SS after at least one prior systemic therapy. Mogamulizumab was granted Priority Review and Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA in late 2017. (CONTINUA) A group of top UK event planners will be spending this weekend in Cork and Kerry on an educational trip, organised by Failte Ireland, in conjunction with Tourism Ireland. The trip provides the opportunity to showcase the region and to expand their knowledge of what Ireland has to offer UK planners for exclusive incentive programmes and corporate meetings, so that they can encourage their corporate clients in the UK to host their next event in Ireland. Each of the event planners represent clients based in a number of different industries in the UK market including automotive, insurance, finance, pharmaceutical and IT. They will spend the next few days discovering the many attractions in the region that cater for corporate clients. Included in their trip was a visit to the Cork City Gaol, the Franciscan Well and English Market and Kinsale for a sailing experience in Cork and while in Kerry the group will spend time in Killarney Park, Muckross House and a site visit to the Great Southern Hotel. Ciara Gallagher, Failte Ireland, explained With the uncertainty caused by Brexit, it is more important than ever that we put our front foot forward in attracting our nearest overseas market to Ireland. By highlighting Ireland and indeed Cork and Kerry to these UK event planners, it will provide them with numerous reasons to sell Ireland as a prime incentive destination to their clients. This type of showcase provides us with a really good opportunity to highlight what it is that sets Ireland apart - world-class venues and incentive experiences, ease of access, amazing landscapes, top hospitality and incredibly strong industries. Business tourism is one of the most lucrative tourism sectors, with visitors travelling to Ireland for business purposes spending almost three times more than the average leisure visitor. Already this year, Failte Ireland has secured 134m worth of meetings, conferences, incentives and corporate events for Ireland under their Meet in Ireland and Dublin Convention Bureau brands and supports the Regional Convention Bureaux in Cork and Kerry. Evelyn OSullivan, Cork Convention Bureau commented: We are so delighted to welcome our UK guests to Cork. Often referred to as Europes best-kept secret, Cork is a City and County that's rising at the moment with over 1,300 new hotel beds planned over the next 2 years. Cork is known as the food capital of Ireland and the English market that this group will be visiting is proof of this accolade. Cork - it really is fit for a queen! Becky Hargrove, Kerry Convention Bureau, also commented: We are delighted to be welcoming this group of influential UK event planners to Kerry and to having the opportunity to showcase our business tourism offering to them. Kerry is a spectacular place to inspire, engage and motivate business tourism delegates said KCB Sales Manager Becky Hargrove. Whether its an association or corporate meeting or a high-end incentive, we offer unrivalled facilities in idyllic locations throughout our region. She added From a destination perspective, you wont find another conference or incentive destination that marries professionalism and cutting-edge technology with such rich cultural history, spectacular natural scenery and abundance of activities. Jump to top Weather to finally dry out for harvest With the weather drying out from now until Monday, we should be seeing average rainfall and a return to the dry summer we are used to for the rest of the year. Brazils state-owned energy giant entered into the biggest FCPA settlement in history Thursday after the DOJ and SEC assessed penalties and disgorgement totalling $1.78 billion. Petrobrass non-prosecution agreement with the DOJ included a criminal penalty of $853.2 million. An SEC administrative order required disgorgement of $933.5 million. All of the disgorgement was offset by payments Petrobras had already made to the settlement fund for a U.S. class action by shareholders. And 80 percent of the criminal penalty will be paid to the Ministerio Publico Federal in Brazil. That means Petrobras will pay the DOJ and SEC a combined total of $170.6 million for the resolution. But based on the $1.78 billion in total penalties and disgorgement assessed against Petrobras in the DOJs non-prosecution agreement and the SECs administrative order, the resolution is the biggest-ever FCPA case. ___ We get it the Petrobras resolution could be valued in other ways. For example, why not count only the criminal penalties assessed by the DOJ $853.2 million? That would fully discount the SEC disgorgement order because Petrobras isnt paying any new money under it. Most of the worlds press is valuing the resolution that way. Or the settlement could be valued at $170.6 million, the amount Petrobras is expected to actually pay the DOJ and SEC. But were valuing the Petrobras resolution based on the entire amount of criminal penalties and disgorgement assessed by the DOJ and SEC in the FCPA enforcement documents notwithstanding that the DOJ is allowing Petrobras to pay 80 percent of the criminal penalty in Brazil, and that the SEC discounted its entire disgorgement order against money Petrobras had already paid into the U.S. class action settlement fund. Why are we valuing the resolution at $1.78 billion? If the DOJs non-prosecution agreement and SECs administrative order assess a total of $1.78 billion in criminal penalties and disgorgement, which they do, we think those amounts should be included in the value of the FCPA resolution. The DOJ and SEC, after all, are specifying the amounts of penalties and disgorgement and assessing them against Petrobras, and ordering how and when and to whom those penalties and disgorgement must be paid, as part of the FCPA resolution. Without the DOJs action Thursday in the FCPA enforcement action, would Petrobras ever pay $682.5 million to the Ministerio Publico Federal in Brazil? Who knows? What we do know is that because of the DOJs action Thursday through the non-prosecution agreement in this FCPA enforcement action, Petrobras is now legally bound under U.S. law to make that payment in Brazil. Turning to the disgorgement, the SEC administrative order says: Respondent [Petrobras] shall, within one year of the date of this Order, pay to the Commission disgorgement of $711,000,000 plus prejudgment interest of $222,473,797, for a total payment of $933,473,797. The order then says: The amount of this obligation shall be reduced and deemed satisfied by the amount of any payment by Respondent to the class action Settlement Fund in the matter of In re Petrobras Securities Litigation, No. 14-cv-9662 (S.D.N.Y.), up to and including the entire amount of this obligation. And then this crucial sentence: If the resulting payments made by Petrobras to the class action Settlement Fund total less than $933,473,797 as a result of an appeal or other modification to the class action, Petrobras shall, within one hundred eighty (180) days of the expiration of the required payment period referenced in IV.B. above, pay to the Commission the difference remaining from the outstanding amount ordered herein. Whats that mean? That the SEC has imposed a legal duty on Petrobras to disgorge nearly $933.5 million. And if for some reason Petrobras hasnt disgorged that amount within a year through payments to the U.S. class action fund or otherwise, then Petrobras must pay the money directly to the SEC. Thats why the full amount of disgorgement ordered by the SEC should be included in the overall value of Thursdays FCPA resolution. Its part of the FCPA enforcement action. We dont expect everyone to agree with the way were valuing the Petrobras resolution. In fact we know many people will disagree, including Petrobrass lawyers, who worked hard for their client and produced a fine result. Thats ok. Debate is healthy. Disagreement is normal. And looking closely at FCPA enforcement policy and practices should happen all the time. We hope the FCPA Blog contributes in some small way to making that happen. ___ Ok, back to business. The U.S. resolution with Petrobras is structured similar to the FCPA settlement in June with Societe Generale S.A. In that case, the DOJ assessed a $585 million penalty against SocGen but said half of it could be paid to the French enforcement agency, Parquet National Financier. Other FCPA cases following this new U.S. enforcement model where the full penalties and disgorgement are included in U.S. enforcement documents, but some portion is allowed to be paid elsewhere include Keppel Offshores resolution and the settlement with Telia Company, both in 2017. Features of the new FCPA settlement structure appeared in VimpelComs 2016 resolution. Also in 2016, Odebrecht / Braskems FCPA enforcement action allowed for offsets against payments to authorities in Brazil and Switzerland. * * * Here are the current top ten FCPA enforcement actions of all time based on penalties and disgorgement assessed in the U.S. enforcement documents: 1. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. Petrobras (Brazil): $1.78 billion in 2018. 2. Telia Company AB (Sweden): $965 million in 2017. 3. Siemens (Germany): $800 million in 2008. 4. VimpelCom (Holland) $795 million in 2016. 5. Alstom (France): $772 million in 2014. 6. Societe Generale S.A. (France): $585 million in 2018. 7. KBR / Halliburton (United States): $579 million in 2009. 8. Teva Pharmaceutical (Israel): $519 million in 2016. 9. Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd.(Singapore): $422 million in 2017. 10. Och-Ziff (United States): $412 million in 2016. Falling off the top ten list is BAE (UK) with its $400 million resolution in 2010. Just two U.S.-based companies are on the top ten list KBR/Halliburton and Och-Ziff. ___ Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. Medical device maker Stryker Corp. agreed Friday to pay the SEC a $7.8 million penalty to resolve FCPA books and records and internal accounting controls offenses in India, China, and Kuwait. Its the second time the SEC has brought an FCPA action against the Michigan-based company. The SEC settled the new case with an internal administrative order (pdf) and didnt go to court. Stryker agreed to the settlement without admitting or denying the SECs findings. The SEC said Strykers internal accounting controls werent sufficient to detect the risk of improper payments in sales of Stryker products in the three countries. In India, for example, some of Strykers dealers regularly issued inflated invoices upon the request of certain private hospitals, the SEC said. The private hospitals passed the inflated invoices on to their patients or their patients insurers, even as the hospitals paid the lower prices previously negotiated with Stryker India to Stryker Indias dealers. In China, Strykers wholly-owned subsidiary had at least 21 sub-distributors of Strykers Sonopet product that werent vetted, approved, or trained, as required by Strykers policies, the SEC said. In Kuwait, Stryker had one primary distributor that sold Stryker orthopedic products to the Kuwait Ministry of Health. From 2015 through 2017, the Kuwait Distributor made over $32,000 in improper per diem payments to Kuwaiti [health-care professionals] to attend Stryker events, when Stryker had directly paid the costs for lodging, meals, and local transportation for these individuals. In an SEC enforcement action in October 2013, Stryker paid $13.2 million to resolve FCPA violations in Argentina, Greece, Mexico, Poland, and Romania, where it bribed doctors and administrators at government-controlled hospitals. The SEC also settled that case through an administrative order and didnt file a civil complaint in court. Stryker wasnt required to make any admission of guilt regarding the SECs findings. In Fridays action, the SEC ordered Stryker to retain an independent compliance consultant. The consultants role is to review and evaluate Strykers internal controls, record-keeping, and anti-corruption policies and procedures relating to its use of dealers, agents, distributors, sub-distributors, and other intermediaries that sell on its behalf. Marc Berger, director of the SECs New York regional office, said in a release Friday that the penalty and monitor are appropriate and necessary. Strykers failures to implement sufficient internal accounting controls and keep accurate books and records are unacceptable, especially as this is not the first time the company has been charged for these types of violations, Berger said. ____ Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. Flexera, an Itasca, IL-based company that makes the business of buying and selling software more transparent, secure and effective, acquired RightScale, a provider of multi-cloud management and cost optimization solutions. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Founded in 2007 by Michael Crandell, CEO, RightScale provides multi-cloud, vendor agnostic solutions that support public and private clouds including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, OpenStack and VMware vSphere. RightScale Optima is a collaborative cloud cost management and optimization solution that enables organizations to take automated action to reduce cloud spend across the enterprise. The RightScale Cloud Management Platform is a solution that enables IT organizations to deliver instant access to a portfolio of public, private, and hybrid cloud services across business units and development teams while maintaining enterprise control. With the acquisition, Flexera adds top technology asset management offering across software, hardware, SaaS and cloud services. Now, it gives companies the capabilities they need to stay in control of all their technology, and maximize cost savings while minimizing risks and vulnerabilities. For Flexera, this is the third acquisition this year (after acquiring Meta SaaS and Brainware Group in May). FinSMEs 28/09/2018 OpenSignal, a London, UK-based mobile analytics company, raised an undisclosed funding round from Frog Capital. The company intends to use the funds to continue to scale globally and to consolidate its market leadership. Founded in 2010 and Led by Brendan Gill, CEO, OpenSignal provides a platform measuring real-world mobile network experience delivered to consumers by the wireless industry. The companys analytics products give telecom operators a granular view of the changing network dynamics affecting their own and competitors networks, giving them actionable insights to prioritize network investments and improve competitive advantage. Using billions of measurements collected from millions of smartphones worldwide, OpenSignal analyzes data directly from real users to deliver comprehensive end user insights to the telecoms industry. The company works with Tier 1 operators in over 20 countries across six continents. With its investment, Frog is joining existing investors, including Octopus Ventures, Passion Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and OReilly AlphaTech Ventures. FinSMEs 28/09/2018 Stratio, a Madrid, Spain-based third generation big data platform provider, raised 13M in Series B funding. The round was led by Adara Ventures with participation from GP Bullhound. The company intends to use the funds for the continued evolution of its Big Data product suite while accelerating the growth of their software subscription business internationally. Led by CEO Oscar Mendez, Stratio is a Big Data and Artificial Intelligence software company, which supports customers in their Digital Transformation plans by placing their data in the centre of their operations, from data intelligence to corporate culture. The company has offices in Silicon Valley, Madrid, Sao Paolo, Bogota, and Vancouver. FinSMEs 27/09/2018 . 2. . 6.00 . : . ... This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices. Hillary Clinton made a cameo appearance on Thursday's premiere episode of the rebooted "Murphy Brown," taking aim at President Trump -- and making fun of herself. The former secretary of state didnt appear as herself, but instead played Hilary, a woman who spells her name with one L and who is sometimes mistaken for the former presidential candidate, Variety reported. In the episode, Clintons character was wearing her trademark pantsuit as she arrives to interview for a secretarial position with title character Murphy Browns cable news show Murphy in the Morning. Clinton even poked fun at herself with several references to her political career when Brown, played by Candice Bergen, asked if she had any secretarial experience. For four years I was the secretary of a very large organization, Clinton replied. I do have some experience with emails." And on the topic of how many people it takes to run a production, Everyone works together, it takes a village. While Brown thought the applicant was very impressive, she was maybe a little overqualified and needed some time to think about the hire. Clinton left her a business card with the email address Hillary at you could have had me dot.com. The original "Murphy Brown" ran for 10 seasons from 1988 to 1998 and featured cameos from a number of celebrities and public figures, including Aretha Franklin and news reporter Connie Chung. The most infamous was former Vice President Dan Quayle, who criticized the show for promoting single motherhood when Bergens character became pregnant and decided to raise the child alone. Quayle also appeared in a 1992 episode titled You Say Potatoe, I Say Potato: Part 2, a play on his misspelling of the vegetable during a visit to an elementary school. Murphy Brown creator and showrunner Diane English first teased Clintons cameo when she said an enormously famous person would be in the first episode during the Television Critics Association press tour panel. Weve always tried to blur the lines between fiction and reality, and we were so successful in doing that in the first iteration of this show that the vice president thought Murphy was a real person, English said. And so we plan to do the same thing again. Deadline Hollywood reported that Clintons appearance was one of two TV cameos planned this television season. She will be joined by former Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright for her second in the Oct. 7 Season 5 premiere of Madam Secretary. A homicide detective for the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said the mysterious circumstances surrounding Natalie Woods 1981 drowning can only be solved if her widower, fellow Hollywood star Robert Wagner, comes forward. Detective Ralph Hernandez told the producers of the podcast Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood" that investigators are still eager to speak with the 88-year-old actor. We would love to have an interview with Robert Wagner, and for him to tell us the truth in that interview, he said in Fridays episode. Thats all we want in any of this, and in any case that we work in. "Ultimately, we work for the victims family. Whether she was the victim of an accidental drowning or the victim of a homicide, the bottom line is, we want to get to the truth and be able to prove that truth. Thats what we would love to happen, have happen in this case. Hernandez confirmed that since the case was reopened in 2011, new witnesses have come forward with details that could shed light on what caused Wood, who was reportedly terrified of water, to drown. However, Wagners side of the story would be crucial in finally solving the decades-long mystery. The fact is we have a lot of information as to the events of what occurred that evening, he explained. We have a lot of evidence that tends to point to a very suspicious death and would certainly indicate the possibility of foul play. The problem is, while we can prove the events that led up to the argument at the back of the boat, ultimately we cant prove how she ended up in the water. Without his interview, without his cooperation, we may never get to that truth. If there was a witness, that witness either isnt coming forward or has since passed away. It makes it rather difficult to envision us making an arrest anytime soon. Woods younger sister, actress Lana Wood, and boat captain Dennis Davern have also participated in the 12-part podcast, which launched on July 20, the day that the doomed screen siren would have turned 80 years old. Both claimed in Fridays episode Wagner was involved in the death of his movie star wife. I think that RJ [Wagner] murdered her, claimed Lana, 72. I believe it was a marital argument that got out of hand and that this is one of those classic cases of a tragedy caused by a jealous husband. I think that Natalie didnt have a chance that night no matter who was on board. "A lot of people say, Oh, if someone else had made the trip with them. I dont think that would have made a difference. He had a mission and he carried through wit it. I firmly believe that Natalies death is a case of murder. Davern agreed with Lanas shocking accusation. I really do think RJ killed Natalie, he said. In the beginning, I wanted to believe in Robert Wagner so badly, but as time went on, I mean to me, its obvious that he was the last one with her. Podcast producers revealed theyve attempted to contact Woods two daughters, but neither has come forward to address the allegations. Im sure that this has been tough on Natalies kids, said Lana. I dont know how you could ever accept that your dad has done something like this, and they probably wont. They wont speak to me either. Im the bad guy to them because they think Ive done something against their dad, and I havent. But I understand. "Theyre coping the only way they know how, obviously, but Whenever theyre ready. Im sorry that this is hurting so many people, but it does, it continues to. And the only victim in all of this is Natalie. And thats what everybody has to remember. Lana said she hoped to finally get answers about what happened to her sibling. [My sister] was very loving, she explained. She was very loving, very giving not simply to me, but anybody She left so much for the world in general, she left a lot. Last week, a rep for Wagner slammed Lana and Davern for accusing the actor of being involved in the death of his movie star wife. They are despicable human beings, capitalizing on the accidental death of a beloved member of the Wagner family, the rep told Fox News. They should be ashamed of themselves. Woods body was found floating in the water off Santa Catalina Island on Nov. 29, 1981. She was 43. The West Side Story star was traveling on the familys yacht Splendour with Wagner, Davern and actor Christopher Walken. Its been reported Davern sold his story to tabloids for money and collaborated on a tell-all book over the years. However, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Lt. John Corina said in February of this year his versions of events fit. That same month, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Office announced Wagner had been named a person of interest in the suspicious death. The office also confirmed Woods drowning was being investigated and that new witnesses had come forward. Wagner has reportedly refused to talk to officials about Woods death since the case was reopened in 2011. Wanda Syke's jokes fell flat with some of her fans. Over a dozen angry audience members walked out or were kicked out of Sykes' show in New Jersey on Thursday for heckling her when she opened with a series of jokes about President Donald Trump. The liberal comedian began her set at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank by making fun of how the public appears to be aging more quickly from stress during Trump's administration. The Asbury Park Press reported that some attendees began heckling Sykes, complaining that she was being political. "Do some comedy!" one attendee shouted at Skyes, according to the outlet. Another reportedly yelled, "Too political!" About a dozen attendees walked out and began to argue with one another and staff in the lobby. Attendees who stayed at the show say that it was enjoyable and that attendees should have expected jokes at the president's expense. "I paid for a comedy show, not for a political venue," Christine Delancey of Old Bridge told the Asbury Park Press. "First of all, you don't bash our president. I am not a Trump supporter, but he is my president, and I would never bash my president." However, other audience members felt attendees should have known they were in for a politically charged performance as Sykes is vocal about her opinions. "You knew what you were gonna get. You should have known that it wasn't going to be pro-Trump," Gabby Young of Brick told the outlet. Theater staff declined to comment. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The shooting of rapper XXXTentacion was captured on surveillance video, which was aired to the public for the first time Thursday during a court hearing in Broward County, Florida. The footage, obtained by WPLG Local 10, shows two men following the late 20-year-old rapper, whose real name is Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, walking into RIVA Motorsport in Deerfield. Later, XXXTentacions BMW is stopped by two assailants, suspected to be Michael Boatwright and Trayvon Newsome, who wield guns as they try to rob him of a Louis Vuitton bag. The rapper struggled with Boatwright and Newsome before they allegedly shot him point-blank. One of the suspects entered the passenger side of XXXTentacions car before fleeing the scene. They left with the bag and $50,000 cash. Prosecutors played the video during a discovery and bail hearing for Robert Allen, who is one of four suspects charged with the June murder of the rapper. The four men are Boatwright, Newsome, Dedrick Williams and Allen. Allen will remain behind bars after the judge that he should be held without bond, WPLG reported. The Florida State Attorneys Office told Page Six on Friday they would not be releasing the footage wide until discovery finished. This story originally appeared in the New York Post. Tensions are bubbling between an Atlanta brewery and the U.K.s largest craft brewer, as both have denied authoring a controversial press release that promised free beer to Trump supporters that has since sparked backlash. ATLs Scofflaw Brewing Co. and Scotland-based BrewDog brewery and pub chain were working together on a set of events to launch their new partnership, Eater Atlanta reported, and according to the now discredited press release, one of those events in the U.K. involved giving free beer to self-proclaimed Trump supporters Both breweries took to social media Thursday to deny any involvement authorizing the release, which was reportedly distributed by the British public relations agency Frank. According to Eater London, the press release was recently circulated among various U.K. publications in promotion of upcoming BrewDog events. To get the UK beered up redneck style, completely free of charge! But there is a hook you have to be a Trump supporter, the release reportedly read. RESTAURANT'S MIMOSA DEAL DURING KAVANAUGH HEARING SLAMMED AS 'NOT A GREAT LOOK' As noted by Eater Atlanta, Scofflaw and BrewDogs partnership first began in 2017. The latest plan was to ship and distribute Scofflaws Basement IPA and POG (passionfruit, orange and guava) to all of BrewDogs 36 U.K. locations. We are in no way aligned with their position and we will of course be cancelling all the events and sending all of the beer back, BrewDog wrote on Twitter. Instead, BrewDog instituted a new free-beer promotion, offering up a pint to anyone who comes in and pledges to support "love not hate." "Following Scofflaw's Fake News earlier, we're going to run a very real promotion today one free beer for anyone who supports LOVE not hate," the brewery and pub chain wrote. "Simply tell our staff, and enjoy a pint of Punk IPA, or any Headliner on us." FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Neither Scofflaw nor BrewDog immediately returned Fox News request for additional comment. Virgin Atlantic's flights just got a little more enticing thanks to Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds, alongside Virgin founder Richard Branson, announced his Aviation American Gin will soon be available on all Virgin Atlantic flights. This duo couldnt just announce the partnership in a simple press release, so instead they released a video about the new onboard drink option. "At Aviation we're totally focused on making the best damn gin on the planet, Reynolds deadpans. "In order to maximize shareholder value, we are pleased to announce Virgin Atlantic and Aviation are merging." Branson quickly interjects, "Actually, Ryan, this is more of a partnership announcement. Virgin Atlantic will now be serving Aviation gin. Yes, Reynolds said. At first. The actor then announces his new name for the company: AvaVirgination. And then Branson walks off set. For those actually intrigued to taste the gin on their next flight, it comes with flavor notes including juniper, lavender, anise, sarsaparilla, orange peel and cardamom, according to Masters of Malt. Such a delicious onboard drink choice should come as no surprise when you consider that Virgin Atlantic is often considered one of the best in the business for its food choices. Working with Ryan and his team on this partnership has been so exciting. Aviation Gin is a true icon born out of a spirit of innovation, so serving it on board Virgin Atlantic flights seemed like a natural combination, Branson added in a more serious note on Virgin Atlantics blog. Ive been a huge fan of Sir Richard Branson and Virgin for years, Reynolds added. For Aviation to be chosen as the gin of choice for such an iconic and quintessentially British brand is a complete honor. We look forward to serving Virgin Atlantic guests for years to come and, on a personal note, Sir Richard has promised to teach me the difference between revenue and profit, so I am beyond excited. This article originally appeared on Travel + Leisure. It can happen to women in their 40's or 50's, and no one likes to talk about it... Menopause. The biological process is defined as the time that marks the end of your menstrual cycles, or after youve gone 12 months without a menstrual period, according to the Mayo Clinic. Additional symptoms often include hot flashes, night sweats, sleep problems, mood changes, weight gain, and thinning hair and dry skin. Perhaps one of the most uncomfortable menopause symptoms to ask your doctor about is painful sex caused by the condition vulvar and vaginal atrophy, also known as genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). Low estrogen levels after menopause can lead to GSM, which comes with its own slew of bothersome symptoms, like vaginal dryness, itching, dyspareunia, urinary urgency and increased frequency, and urinary tract infections. To help women start talking more openly and honestly about painful sex due to menopause, actress and "Curb your Enthusiasm" star Cheryl Hines, teamed up with menopause expert, Dr. Marla Shapiro and AMAG pharmaceuticals to launch the campaign Painfully Awkward Conversations. I think a lot of women think that theyre going through something that other people arent going through, so theyre embarrassed to bring it up to their friends or to their health care provider, Hines told Fox News. This campaign is just about saying, its natural and normal, and its OK to talk about it. GSM affects nearly 50 percent of postmenopausal women. The chronic condition is progressive and symptoms are unlikely to resolve without treatment, according to the Mayo Clinic. Often women dont understand that whats happening in their vagina is related to the loss of estrogen, the loss of sex hormones, Dr. Marla Shapiro, a professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, told Fox News. Whats happening in both the vagina and the area around the vagina without estrogen is it loses its elasticity and all the fluid and mucus and the vagina becomes very thin and it becomes atrophic. In terms of treatment, Shapiro said over-the-counter lubricants dont change whats happening to the lining of the vulva and vagina, that they are more of a Band-Aid approach. There are many different options that are available now, local therapies both estrogen and non-estrogen therapies, Shapiro said. Women need to talk to their health care provider in terms of what its providing and what it can do for them. Hines, who said shes getting ready to start taping the new season of Curb your Enthusiasm next month and may even direct an episode herself, isnt afraid to talk to her doctor and friends about any menopause symptoms she may be experiencing and hopes this campaign can help other women feel the same way too. Im not afraid to ask questions. Im not afraid to say Is there anything that can be done for this or not? I think its a very natural part of life, Hines said. A dads heartfelt message to parents of children battling illnesses has gone viral after the hospital where his son has been treated shared it. Dan Langlois, who according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shares four adopted special needs children with his wife, Sara, felt moved to speak out as he and his son Gabriel left through the doors of Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin to head home. I have loved these doors and hated these doors, he wrote last week to the hospital, in a private message. I loved these doors when my wife and I walked through them for the first time to meet our son. I hated these doors when I walked through them for his 20 surgeries. I loved them when walking back out after the surgeries. I hated them for the 180-plus-mile trip for a single 10-minute checkup. I loved these doors when walking out after learning that surgery or admittance is not required. MASSACHUSETTS FIRE DEPARMENT WELCOMES 9 BABIES IN 1 YEAR Langlois, whose message was shared by the hospital and has received more than 15,000 reactions and over 4,000 shares, said he felt a sense of guilt as he was leaving with his son. The other day, walking through them again with my son (I have lost count how many times over the past eight years weve made this trip), I was struck with a different feeling: guilt, he wrote. "Im not sure where it came from, but I realized I need to apologize. To every child that has walked in through these doors but never walked back out again, I am sorry. To every parent that has walked in through these doors with their child, but left through these doors empty handed, I am sorry. For every child and parent that has walked out through these doors with a final diagnosis, knowing that walking back in through these doors would be futile, I am sorry, his post read. To every doctor, nurse, PA, NP, surgical tech and other members of the medical staff that have had to walk through these doors after giving everything they had to saving the life of a child and have that child pass anyway, I am sorry. To every custodian, caregiver and advocate that has had to ready a room for the next patient after the previous occupant passed on, I am sorry, he wrote. To every member of the security or social services teams that has had to escort grieving parents out through these doors, I am sorry. I cannot begin to imagine what all these people go through, and I hope that I never will. Until I do, I will love these doors. POLICE OFFICER DIAGNOSED WITH BRAIN CANCER RETURNS TO FORCE His message has received praise from many other parents, with many sharing their own feelings about the hospital doors and what role they played in their own childs life. The hospital said it was overwhelmed by the outpouring of responses, and thanked the parents in a follow comment. From the deepest depths of our heart, thank you all so much for sharing your stories, the hospitals comment said. You are all the reason we do what we do. To see this community of families, of strangers, come together and lift each other up is truly inspiring. Thank you. These adorable pictures show a baby boom at a U.S. firehouse after nine firefighters welcomed babies in the space of a year. Rescuers at Revere Fire Department in Massachusetts posed with their bundles of joy for a heartwarming snap organized by the firemens wives. The women, who call themselves the fire wives, took the pictures when they read about a fire department in Oklahoma that had welcomed seven babies in 15 months. They realized that their firefighters had produced nine babies in one year three boys and six girls easily beating the Glenpool Fire Department. BOY SCOUTS NECKERCHIEF SLIDERS RECALLED DUE TO HIGH LEVELS OF LEAD Lieutenant Kevin Doherty, 35, who posed with his four-month old son Declan Stephen, said he and his team were rounded up by their wives last Sunday. We give our wives all the credit for the photo shoot," Doherty said. "They did all the logistics and the planning and we men just had to show up. They had an email chain and they snapped the pictures. The photographs were adorable. Doherty said that his wife, Halley, 31, was one of the key organizers and that she and the other wives squeezed the babies into onesies and put red bows in the girls hair. The men wore their firefighter pants and thick boots and held their babies in front of a fire truck. PUPPIES LINKED TO 'MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT' INFECTION, CDC SAYS In another sweet snap, they turned their backs to the camera and lifted the babies over their heads. Doherty said that the kids will grow up together in the firehouse like many of their fathers did. Most of us grew up together and were all starting families at the same time," he said. We dont just work together, we live together. All our wives are friends thats why they hopped on the email chain to organize the pictures." Im a second-generation firefighter," Doherty said. "My father, my uncle, my brother and my cousin are all firefighters. I grew up in a firehouse and Im looking forward to my son growing up in a firehouse too. A miracle baby born severely prematurely and weighing less than a bag of sugar has defied the odds, and six months later is now a thriving little girl. Little Elsie weighed just 1 lbs. 10-oz., and was smaller than her mothers palm when she was born four months prematurely in April. The tiny tot was not expected to make it with doctors saying her chances of survival were slim. MASSACHUSETTS FIRE DEPARTMENT WELCOMES 9 BABIES IN 1 YEAR But now, six months later, the little girl is enjoying life like any other normal baby. Terrified mom Kenya Jade Latimer was rushed to hospital by her partner Ashley, 29 when she began experiencing labor pains on April 3, at just 24 weeks. She was so tiny," the 21-year-old new mom said. "It was surreal and I was in shock. Everything happened so fast." One minute she was delivered, the next she was taken away from us to the neo-natal intensive care unit and placed on a ventilator," she said. We were not even allowed to hold her because she was so fragile. Her skin was so delicate. It was heartbreaking for us to see our daughter so poorly connected to several tubes to help her survive." You dont know what to do or think when something like this happens you just have to deal with it," Latimer said. Two weeks before baby Elsie was born, Latimer began experiencing problems. I had a normal pregnancy until I began bleeding at 22 weeks," she said. I was taken to hospital where the doctors told me I was 4 cm dilated and also warned that the odds of the baby surviving were slim. We were so shocked and upset." They discussed my options, one of which was a surgical procedure called a cervical stitch to prevent pre-term birth. It was a risky procedure and we were very lucky it worked," she said. However, two weeks later, I began experiencing contractions again and this time I knew the baby was coming. During her stay Burnley General hospital, baby Elsie was monitored 24 hours a day, given special care and underwent laser eye surgery to treat retinopathy of prematurity. PUPPIES LINKED TO MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT INFECTION, CDC SAYS "She weighed literally nothing when she was born," Latimer, of Clitheroe, Lancs., said. "Ashley and I sat beside her every day from lunchtime until 9 p.m., willing her to pull through." It was physically and emotionally draining and we never imagined the first few months of our newborns life would begin like this," she said. Following weeks of specialist care at the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit, the battling tot was discharged home on August 5, - four months after she was born. Despite the setbacks, Kenya admitted it was the best feeling ever when she was allowed to take Elsie home. Now, almost six months old, Elsie is enjoying life like any other baby girl. Elsie is a beautiful little baby our little bundle of joy," Latimer said. "She has settled at home really well. She is gaining weight and is teething." I would like to thank my family and friends for their support during this difficult time in our lives and the medical staff the care we received was absolutely outstanding and we will forever be grateful," she said. Elsie is our little miracle and we love her to bits. One of the hardest things about having a premature baby is seeing her so fragile and not being able to help, sometimes not allowed to touch my baby because she was so poorly." Shes now thriving, smiling and she is our universe," she said. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Friday said hed gotten back his original wedding ring, decades after it first went missing, after someone found it in an old couch. A man identified as Jeff Maher notified Bryants office after making the unlikely discovery, the governors spokesman Clay Chandler told The Associated Press. DC LAWYER SUES EX-FIANCEE FOR RETURN OF $100G ENGAGEMENT RING, CALLS IN CONDITIONAL GIFT The couch in question which had once belonged to Bryant came to be in Mahers possession after he picked it from the side of the road outside the home of a relative of Bryants wife, Chandler said. The couple had given the piece of furniture to the cousin of first lady Deborah Bryant in 1989 the same year the governor believes it went missing, Chandler said. Inscribed on the gold wedding band were the Bryants' initials, as well as their Dec. 31, 1976, wedding date. BRIDE SURPRISES GROOM WITH FIRST LOOK AT HIS MOTHERS GRAVE The governor met with Maher in Copiah County to retrieve the ring and posted a photo of the moment on Twitter. My friend Jeff Maher found my original wedding ring from 1976 in an old couch, he tweeted. It had been lost since 1989. Thanks, Jeff! The Associated Press contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The Senate Judiciary Committee needs to slow down and postpone its vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court until the FBI can investigate accusations of sexual misconduct leveled against him by three women. The accusers and other witnesses should be questioned by the FBI and then be summoned to testify before the Judiciary Committee. All sides have an interest in a full and thorough examination of these serious charges. Maybe we can get closer to the truth, although that is not certain. But right now there are too many unanswered question to bring the confirmation of Kavanaugh currently a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to a vote of the Judiciary Committee as scheduled on Friday, much less to a vote of the full Senate. In watching the riveting testimony of Professor Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh Thursday before the Judiciary Committee in which they both stated with 100 percent certainty that they were telling the truth I was reminded of the story of the old rabbi who gave advice to quarreling married couples. The wife began by complaining that her husband paid no attention to her, abused her, insulted her and demeaned her. After listening to her complaints the rabbi said: My daughter, you are right. Then the husband complained about his wife being a bad cook, insulting and overly critical. The rabbi said: My son, youre right. The rabbis student assistant turned to him and said: But rabbi, I dont understand. They cant possibly both be right! To which the rabbi responded: My student, youre right too. Is it possible that both Ford and Kavanaugh are truthfully stating what they honestly believe, but that one of them is honestly mistaken? Ford could be mistaken about the identification of a teenage boy she barely knew about 36 years ago, despite her statement that she is certain it was a drunken Kavanaugh who shoved her onto a bed, tried unsuccessfully to take her clothes off, and put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming. If Kavanaugh actually did the things Ford alleges something he vehemently denied again Thursday he might honestly not remember the events that Ford described, especially if he was as drunk as she says he was. It is also possible that one of them is deliberately lying. Right now, there is no way of knowing for certain, which is why the FBI needs to talk to the judges accusers and others. Realistically, it is unlikely that the Senate will proceed in the manner of a court of law, because political truth has replaced scientific truth in our highly partisan age. Its obvious what Kavanaughs motive would be in lying, but motive doesnt necessarily establish actions. It is less obvious what Fords motives might be in lying, though it is certainly possible that there are ideological or other factors that might drive her to try to keep Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court. Because Ford has presented no corroborating evidence to back up her allegations, we can only speculate as to what if anything happened between her and Kavanaugh all those years ago, when both were high school students in Maryland. So it is unlikely that objective people will be able to decide as a matter of scientific fact what the truth is based on whats known at this point. In addition to the story of the old rabbi, the great 1950 Japanese film Rashomon comes to mind, with its story of four people who give contradictory and self-serving accounts of a mans murder and the rape of his wife. The film examines the meaning of truth and justice. In theory, the Judiciary Committee and the full Senate should try as best as possible to arrive at the truth, by placing the burden of proof on the accusers not the accused even though it is Kavanaugh who has been nominated to the Supreme Court. Accusations as serious as those made by Ford and others against Kavanaugh which allege he was guilty of criminal conduct should not stand without clear and convincing evidence of their truth in a nation where the courts presume an accused person is innocent until proven guilty. An FBI investigation might provide more evidence either favorable or unfavorable to Kavanaugh. Right now, the testimony of the two witnesses has created a credibility tie. Such ties are best resolved by looking at corroborating evidence. At the moment, Kavanaugh has the better of the corroborating evidence, especially the statements by the other people who were allegedly at the party where Ford claims Kavanaugh attacked her. But that could change after a full and thorough FBI investigation and further testimony. Realistically, it is unlikely that the Senate will proceed in the manner of a court of law, because political truth has replaced scientific truth in our highly partisan age. Kavanaugh couldnt be stronger in his denials of every allegation of sexual misconduct made against him, saying again Thursday: Ive never sexually assaulted anyone. Unfortunately, the decision of the Senate closely divided between 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats will be based largely on the political dispositions of senators rather than on any desire to arrive at objective truth. Political considerations may not be the deciding factor for a handful of senators. But they will be for the vast majority, who either plan to seek re-election or are considering running for president. The stakes could not be higher both for senators and for our nation. If Kavanaugh fails to win a Senate confirmation vote or if his nomination is withdrawn his legacy, his career and his very life will be wounded beyond repair. No matter what else the judge does in life, he will always be remembered for the accusations made against him by Ford and three other women (one anonymous) publicized around the world in the media. The anonymous fourth accusation by a mother about her daughter seems too vague to pursue. The same is not quite true for Ford. Even if Kavanaugh is confirmed and seated on the Supreme Court, Fords life will go on and she will be a hero to many. That is what happened to Anita Hill, who made accusations of workplace sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas 27 years ago before he was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Hill went on to a professorship and a distinguished career as a sought-after speaker, especially in feminist circles. The nation will survive regardless of whether Judge Kavanaugh becomes Justice Kavanaugh. However, it is likely that President Trump will nominate an even more conservative replacement for recently retired Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court if Kavanaugh is not confirmed. The real danger of the whole Kavanaugh episode even if he is narrowly confirmed after enduring harsh attacks on his integrity and honesty will be in the willingness of others to subject themselves to this kind of a painful confirmation process for the Supreme Court and other high-level federal government positons. The benefit may be to warn young men, especially in this age of the Internet, that what happens in high school and college doesnt stay in high school and college. In the end, a tough choice will have to be made by the Senate and it is likely it will be made based largely on partisan considerations. This is not Americas finest moment. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! If Judge Brett Kavanaugh was not telling the truth Thursday at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination to the Supreme Court, he is one of Americas greatest actors. The emotion Kavanaugh evinced during the hearing cannot be feigned. When it finally spilled out, it was real and raw. His justifiable anger at being falsely accused of sexually assaulting Professor Christine Blasey Ford when both were teenagers some 36 years ago was palpable. I swear today, under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family, and God, I am innocent of this charge, Kavanaugh said. Most people who are grievously wronged react with outrage. In his statement and testimony, Kavanaugh expressed such righteous indignation. His defense of himself was forceful and convincing. Kavanaughs core message was both conciliatory and compelling. I dont question that Dr. Ford was sexually assaulted at some time and at some place, but it was not me, Kavanaugh said. Kavanaugh emphasized that none of the people identified by Ford as attending a party where Ford claims a drunken Kavanaugh got on top of her on a bed, tried unsuccessfully to take off her clothes and covered her mouth to stifle her screams corroborate the accusations leveled against him. Kavanaugh also firmly denied claims by three other women not at the hearing that he was guilty of sexual misconduct. Like Ford, those women have presented not a shred of corroborating evidence or any other witnesses to back up their claims against the judge. One accusation came from an anonymous person who claimed to be the mother of another woman and is so weak that it cant even be seriously considered. In support of his denial of Fords allegations, Kavanaugh offered a meticulous calendar he kept in 1982. It served as a remarkably convincing piece of evidence showing he could not have been the teenage boy who attacked Ford. Significantly, the calendar shows that the then-17-year-old Kavanaugh was out of town nearly every weekend of the summer when Ford claims he attacked her at a house party in Maryland, just outside Washington. For the two weekends Kavanaugh spent at home, his whereabouts were accounted for. His weekdays were equally accounted for. Kavanaugh laid bare the partisan motivations of Democrats for ruining his reputation and destroying his family. He condemned their actions for transforming the Senate confirmation process into a national disgrace and replacing advise and consent with search and destroy. These records clearly reflect that there were no house parties involving the people Ford said were at the party where she was allegedly attacked. While not dispositive evidence, the calendar is highly persuasive. Why would young Kavanaugh have noted all his other activities on the calendar but for some reason left off the party? Ford also told a credible story. During her testimony, she seemed authentic and sincere. However, when two people tell different and conflicting stories, the benefit of the doubt must always go to the accused. This is consistent with an important principle by which our democracy abides both inside and outside the courtroom: the presumption of innocence. Fundamental fairness and due process demand every accused person receive a presumption of innocence. If it did not exist, America would be a police state, where the government could accuse any of us of any crime and convict us without evidence. The liberty and freedom of each and every one of us would be endangered. Try a thought experiment and think back to your own high school years. Imagine if someone came forward tomorrow and accused you of criminal activity long ago. How could you possibly prove you did not engage in such conduct? Sadly, decency has eluded these proceedings against an superbly qualified judge who has been repeatedly investigated by the FBI for high-level positions in the White House and elsewhere, including for the past 12 years as a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Choking back tears, Kavanaugh a deeply religious man recounted how his youngest daughter, Liza, wanted to pray for Ford. Thats a lot of wisdom for a 10-year-old, the judge observed. Senators could learn a thing or two from a 10-year-old. Kavanaugh justifiably heaped scorn on Senate Democrats for what was he described as a smear and character assassination, pointing out correctly that they revealed the allegations against him by Ford only when his confirmation seemed assured. Kavanaugh laid bare the partisan motivations of Democrats for ruining his reputation and destroying his family. He condemned their actions for transforming the Senate confirmation process into a national disgrace and replacing advise and consent with search and destroy. At times, questioning resembled a theater of the absurd as some clueless Democratic senators like Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut implied that cryptic references to drinking in Kavanaughs high school yearbook were somehow incriminating evidence of attempted rape. Thats so ridiculous as to be laughable. More than anyone, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is responsible for this abomination. Feinstein knew of Fords allegations for the better part of two months. Yet she concealed the professors claims about Kavanaugh until after Kavanaughs confirmation hearing had ended. The hearing was reopened to give Ford a chance to testify, out of respect for her and a sincere effort get to the truth. Feinstein could have and should have brought Fords accusations against Kavanaugh to the attention of the Judiciary Committee without revealing the accusers identity. Committee staffers could have questioned Ford in a private and confidential manner, allowing a more orderly investigation to take place. Feinsteins explanations for her actions in refusing to disclose Fords claims are nothing more than vacuous excuses. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was right to strongly chastise Feinstein at Thursdays hearing for hiding Fords accusations. I hope the American people can see through this sham that you knew about it and you held it, Graham told Feinstein. You had no intention of protecting Dr. Ford, none! Shes as much of a victim as you are, Graham said as he pointed to Judge Kavanaugh. But Graham wasnt done. If you wanted an FBI investigation you could have come to us, Graham told Feinstein. What you want to do is destroy this guys life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020, referring to Democratic hopes to capture the White House in two years. Graham then criticized all the Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee. I would never do to them what youve done to this guy, Graham said. This is the most unethical sham since Ive been in politics. If you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldnt have done what you did to this guy. The plain truth is that it didnt matter who President Trump nominated to fill the existing vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. The president could have nominated a saint and Democrats would have done everything humanly possible to stop the nominee from being confirmed. No shameful tactic would have been spared. Both Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford are the victims of the outrageous conduct by Senate Democrats. And so are the American people. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! With the action by the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday afternoon sending the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the full Senate for a vote in coming days, we can no longer focus simply on the details of the moment. Instead, we need to evaluate the true implications of the events that have transpired over the last two days, culminating in the Judiciary Committees 11-10 vote in favor of confirming Kavanaugh. Every Republican on the committee voted in favor of confirmation, while every Democrat voted against the judge. In the days of President Bill Clintons impeachment hearings, I would frequently go toe-to-toe with Democrats on TV news shows, arguing for the presidents removal while they rehashed well-worn talking points that toed their party line in support of him. Yet once we returned to the green room, my counterparts on the left would sometimes tell a different tale. Their words were not seriously meant, they said; their retorts and barbs were simply attempts to deflect blame and quell public outrage through to the next election cycle. In effect, they told me I was right and that President Clinton should go. At the time, I was appalled. It reminded me, literally, of the biblical story of Esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage: a grave miscalculation of petty ends justifying even shallower means. Americas birthright principles fairness, equality, the presumption of innocence, truth are at stake. Over the past two days, however, I have been struck with an even greater sense of outrage as I have witnessed Democrats response to the impassioned remarks of Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ben Sasse of Nebraska and even the remarks of Judge Kavanaugh himself. I had expected I might see in todays Democrats the same chastened response that I once observed from my TV sparring partners years ago. But I saw no such indication of shame or remorse from senators on the left. On the contrary, I saw the shared principles that had once provided an undercurrent of inter-party unity overtaken by Democrats entirely cynical, shortsighted willingness if not enthusiasm to abide by whatever practices necessary in order to ensure an ideological victory. They have called out the dogs, and the dogs are doing their nasty work. Democrats will stop at nothing to humiliate President Trump and to keep a pro-life justice off the Supreme Court. Whatever disingenuous remarks the Democrats may make about victims rights, or however many traditional catchphrases they employ to rally their base, those words are just window dressing. When that artifice is stripped bare, the American people can see the lefts morally bankrupt tactics for what they are. We see that Democrats are clearly not interested in pursuing truth or justice, and are not interested in due process. Instead, Democratic senators seem far more interested in accomplishing three things: ruining Kavanaughs reputation; destroying the hopes Professor Christine Blasey Ford the woman who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault of ever again regaining her privacy; and placing the lives of the Kavanaugh and Ford families in jeopardy. Kavanaugh has firmly denied all allegations of sexual misconduct made against him. What ends could the vindictive, cowardly means employed by Democrats possibly justify? Democrats are trading their own birthright as one of the formative parties of our nations history for the pottage of becoming the resistance party of the moment. I regret to say that the party of Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt has now devolved into the party of publicity-seeking anti-Trump attorney Michael Avenatti, who says he is considering running for president as a Democrat in 2020. Ours is an important cultural moment. As historian Allen Guelzo wrote recently, this is the greatest period of bitter division America has seen since the Civil War. Surveying the wreckage of the past two days events, it saddens me to realize that Guelzo may well be right. Fridays opening statements from Judiciary Committee Democrats before they cast their vote in opposition to Kavanaugh each one laced with hypocrisy throw Guelzos analysis into particularly stark relief. The small hope of redemption Guelzo offers his reminder that America did, after all, rebuild itself after the Civil War is muted somewhat when we reflect on the several chilling differences between then and now. Today its almost as though were operating with entirely different sets of people, bound not by any overarching sense of principle or narrative but tied only to garnering as many votes as possible. No moral guardrails govern the left. Americas birthright principles fairness, equality, the presumption of innocence, truth are at stake, and it behooves us all to ask the Democrats directly what was asked of Esau: what are you prepared to sell your birthright for? NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! During the past week or so we have learned absolutely nothing we didnt already know about Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh except that he has a passion to defend his honor, which was on full display Thursday at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. As the committee prepared to vote Friday on Kavanaughs confirmation to the high court, we have, however, learned a great deal about Senate Democrats and their media enablers much of which we wish we could unlearn. Weve learned that the Democrats have officially adopted a new posture one that President George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and even Franklin Roosevelt could have never seen coming. The Democrats will do anything and will say anything and I mean anything to "win." There are no boundaries. No treachery is "off-limits" any longer. Anything goes. Presumption of innocence? Gone. Due process? Gone. Burden of proof? Shifted. Rules of evidence? Non-existent. Any pretense of integrity, honesty, or compassion? Zeroed out. Do any of us real, working Americans, who pay our taxes and play by the rules want to see this become the new normal in American politics? Because if we dont, this is the time to fight back. This is zero hour. Not in 2020. As horrid as the Democratic elites have been, I dont believe this new posture reflects a majority of Democratic working families across the country. I believe the leadership and extremists of the party have completely flown off the rails and left normal, left-of-center Democrats behind. Democratic leaders have the nerve to call us "deplorable" and "dregs of society? In reality, they have forever redefined those very terms downward and applied them indelibly to themselves. I do not believe this repugnant, revolting display of ignorance and maliciousness attracts, reflects or represents a majority in this nation. The November midterm elections really will tell. If the majority of voters buys what the Democratic-media elite is selling, our nation will have suffered yet another day that will live in infamy. We will have abandoned any commonality in our institutions, our traditions, our mores and our ability to hold together as a nation. There will no longer be any "we" in "We the people. Heaven help us if this works. If politicians learn from this that the formula for scuttling nominations with which they disagree is an avalanche of evidence-free allegations solicited and prodded by partisan operatives and choreographed to blow up the confirmation process that process is forever lost. With such a tactic, truth is the first casualty. Partisans win simply by delaying or pressuring a nominee to withdraw. By the time the truth comes out, they will have their win. For decades, extremists and radicals of the left have been accused of "hating America." I always thought that was extreme, that America is a big tent and has room for many opinions and viewpoints. I defended their right to protest. I never wanted to characterize those who were discontented with policy or politics as "hating" this nation. But when the leadership of a major political party joins in concert to destroy the very institutions that have allowed this republic to stand; to gladly light the torches to burn the institutions to the ground; and to obliterate every trace of decency, tradition and cohesion that has sustained us since the founding I am left with no other conclusion available to me. This is what has shocked me: the Democrats and their media allies willingness to destroy the nation in order to, in their fevered minds, save it. This I was not prepared to see. It is heartbreaking. Hate never saved anything. The new Democratic standard of "presumed guilty" is no American standard; it is the standard of Stalin, of Castro, of the Khmer Rouge, of Mao. Is it coincidence that the new "it" meme for Democrats is socialism? Think about that, America, before you turn the majority in Congress to those who now embrace that and other such standards. Do any of us real, working Americans, who pay our taxes and play by the rules want to see this become the new normal in American politics? Because if we dont, this is the time to fight back. This is zero hour. Not in 2020. Not when the shoe is on the other foot. But this election. Now. In these midterms. Americans of all stripes must put the we back in the We the people by loudly and definitively rejecting the politics of personal destruction and the people who practice it. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Twenty-seven years ago, when Anita Hill faced the country to testify that she was subjected to terrible workplace sexual harassment by Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, it was shocking. Watching the video now of Thomas confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee it is still shocking. While millions of Americans recoiled in disgust, they admired Hills courage, composure and credibility. Yet despite her riveting testimony, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate confirmed Thomas and he has been serving on our nations highest court for the 27 years since. Watching Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, preside Thursday over the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh who stands accused of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct it seems that sadly, little has changed. Kavanaugh, like Thomas before him, denies all wrongdoing, despite the strong testimony of a woman who says she was victimized by him. Ive never sexually assaulted anyone, Kavanaugh testified Thursday. The Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 Friday afternoon to send Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate for a vote in coming days. Every Republican on the committee voted in favor of Kavanaugh, while every Democrat voted against him. Grassley was on the Judiciary Committee back in 1991 and asked some of the most invasive questions of Anita Hill. He continued that behavior Thursday by opening the hearing with a lecture that can only be seen as an attempt to intimidate Professor Christine Blasey Ford, who testified that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her some 36 years ago when both were in high school. Millions of people who watched Ford testify Thursday believe her. And just like Hill who ushered in a generation of women in politics, government, and business the same will be true of Ford. In emotional and clearly sincere testimony, Ford said a drunken Kavanaugh forced her onto a bed, got on top of her, tried unsuccessfully to take her clothes off and covered her mouth with his hand to stifle her screams. Ford said she was terrified that he would rape her and might even accidentally kill her. Grassley failed to intimidate Ford, just as he failed to intimidate Hill in 1991. Grassley and his GOP colleagues also abdicated their responsibility to question Ford because they knew it would look bad for 11 male Republican senators to ask tough questions of a woman who said she is a survivor of sexual assault. Instead, the Republicans brought in a woman veteran sex-crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to question Ford, thinking that would look better. It didnt work. No one was fooled. Grassley and his Republican colleagues clearly still believe that women are second-class citizens who dont have a right to use their voices. The GOP senators showed that while much has changed in the world in the past 27 years, the contempt and insensitivity of some men toward women has not. We have a right to expect more of our elected officials. In fact, when Ford was testifying, Grassley shut down Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota when they asked for documents that Ford, Mitchell and the Republicans on the committee had not shared with the Democrats. Sharing such documents normally happens routinely in congressional hearings. And Grassley who went into the hearing with a closed mind, determined to confirm Kavanaugh no matter what Ford would say repeatedly expressed his opinions to Ford and his Democratic colleagues, and then used his position as chairman to prevent them from responding. While Grassley and the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee seem not to have progressed in their views of women in the past 27 years, the rest of the country most certainly has moved forward. You cant make progress, or history, when you are a bystander. But thats what Grassley and his Republican colleagues showed themselves to be. The Senate Republicans are stuck in the past but the rest of the country is building the future and the future is female. Already, a record number of women are running for office across the country in the November midterm elections. And a record number of women most of them Democrats are virtually certain to be elected to the House of Representatives and the Senate on Nov. 6, along with many other offices. The same thing happened following the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing after Anita Hill testified. Long before Ford came forward to say she was assaulted by Kavanaugh, women have been working to change our country for the better much as they did after the Thomas confirmation hearing. Millions of people who watched Ford testify Thursday believe her. Women will remember her and her courage. And just like Hill who ushered in a generation of women in politics, government, and business the same will be true of Ford. After 27 years, history will repeat itself for the better. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! America has witnessed an unbelievably savage and despicable effort by Democrats and their media allies to destroy Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh through false and dishonest personal attacks. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday voted to send Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate, and now the burden of proof should be on Democrats to show why he should not be confirmed. Kavanaugh has clearly, unequivocally and convincingly denied all charges of sexual misconduct against him. The New Yorker magazines smear against Kavanaugh was an absurdity. A woman could only remember a self-described drunken event, which supposedly took place over 30 years ago, after she spent six days in discussions with her attorney. Everyone connected with the alleged event repudiates her attack on Kavanaugh. The claim by a client of anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti that Kavanaugh was present at the scene of her alleged gang rape was beyond unbelievable. Classmates and high school friends of Kavanaugh simply repudiated her accusation as having zero credibility, and she provided zero evidence. Another absurd attack on the judge came from a mother whose daughter promptly said nothing happened, and that her mother is simply wrong. The daughter goes on to affirm Kavanaughs decency as someone she briefly dated in the 1990s and remembers fondly. Staff members working for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have received messages containing vicious threats including that they deserve to be raped. Those messages, by the way, should be tracked down by the FBI and prosecuted. If Kavanaugh can be defeated by this kind of manufactured and manipulated evidence-free process, then what reasonable conservative would ever put his or her name up for Senate confirmation? The Kavanaugh family has also received death threats which again, should be tracked down and prosecuted. Kavanaughs wife and two young daughters have had to endure vicious, humiliating, personal attacks on their husband and father. Professor Christine Blasey Ford and her family have received death threats after being pulled into the Democrats scheme. These threats should, of course, be tracked down and prosecuted as well. Ford has been manipulated by the Democrats, who hid her letter making uncorroborated accusations against Kavanaugh for over a month, dragged her into the national limelight, and urged her to avoid meeting with the Senate Republican staff members. At one point Ford said she couldnt meet because she was afraid to fly, although it was revealed at Thursdays Judiciary Committee hearing that she has flown numerous times for vacations. Ford was put through all of this even though she could not remember in what house the alleged gathering and assault on her took place, or when it occurred. At the same time, no one she said was present has corroborated her story. Fords testimony was emotionally compelling. It is clear that something happened to her but she knows as a professional psychologist that 36 years after an event, people can vividly remember things that didnt actually happen. If Kavanaugh can be defeated by this kind of manufactured and manipulated evidence-free process, then what reasonable conservative would ever put his or her name up for Senate confirmation? Some people have said Kavanaugh should have been better vetted. How could he have been? He has undergone six separate, thorough FBI background checks for top positions throughout government. And all those investigations have turned up absolutely nothing that would disqualify him for high federal positions. Further, Kavanaugh has stated under oath under penalty of perjury that he never did any of the things for which he is being attacked. He could not have known in advance how to defend himself against allegations dealing with things he never did. Its impossible to plan for or anticipate last-minute character assassinations that are based on falsehoods and impossible-to-verify charges. So the key to the next stage is not the Republicans. The real question is: Are there any Democrats who are disgusted by this process of dishonest character assassination and manipulation? Are any upset that this is becoming their partys operating pattern? Are there any Democrats whose sense of decency forces them to vote yes for a decent man and brilliant jurist, whose entire public career has exemplified honesty, sincerity and patriotism? Are there any Democrats who understand that a 36-year-old, unsupported allegation cant possibly be the standard for blocking a U.S. Supreme Court nominee? If no Democrat has the courage to vote for decency, honesty and a sense of fairness, then we are truly in deep trouble as a country. The focus for the next few days ought to be on the Democrats. Let us see what kind of a party they have become. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Following an explosive and, at times, highly emotional day of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, all eyes turned to several key swing-vote senators who remained outwardly undecided on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's fate late Thursday. After the hearing, moderate Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowksi, R-Alaska, as well as Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., huddled to discuss the nomination, Fox News confirmed. They talked for approximately 30 minutes before a GOP conference meeting Thursday evening ahead of Friday's planned Judiciary Committee vote on whether to recommend Kavanaugh's confirmation to the full Senate. Meanwhile, in a major boost to Kavanaugh's bid, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who has frequently sparred with President Trump, announced he would support the nominee Thursday night. While both individuals provided compelling testimony, nothing that has been presented corroborates the allegation," Corker wrote in a statement, referring to Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor accusing him of sexually assaulting her more than three decades ago. (Ford initially told The Washington Post she was attacked in the "mid-1980s," and claimed in July the date was in the "early 1980s," but she testified Thursday the episode occured sometime in 1982). FORD'S POLYGRAPH REPORT APPEARS TO CONTRADICT HER PAST CLAIMS -- HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE AT THE PARTY? Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a member of the Judiciary Committee, told Fox News after the conference meeting that followed the hearing Thursday, "I think were going to go ahead. I worry about every one of these votes." And Flake, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, told Fox News: "Its a tough one. She offered good testimony, and so did he." "If youre making an allegation, you want there to be some corroboration," he added. "Where is the burden? Its like impeachment. You dont know." Republicans, including President Trump, have stressed that none of the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh made in the last several days has any first-hand corroboration. Asked whether more time or investigating would help, as Democrats suggested repeatedly on Thursday, Flake seemed to reject the idea. "Where does this start, and where does it end?" he asked. "More time, more ludicrous allegations. What does that do to the accused?" "Its a tough one. She offered good testimony, and so did he." Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake Kavanaugh, occasionally in tears, emphasized on Thursday that the barrage of threats and uncorroborated accusations against him had taken a permanent toll on his family and reputation. Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., announced they would vote to confirm Kavanaugh after the hearing. There were indications late Thursday that other crucial senators remained undecided. It is not necessary for Kavanaugh to secure the majority approval of the Judiciary Committee in order to advance to the full Senate and be confirmed; in 1991, Clarence Thomas was not recommended by the committee before ultimately becoming a justice. "There have been no decisions," Manchin reportedly said outside the hearing room. "There are some concerns that people have, and were going to try to close the loop." WATCH: IN DRAMATIC MOMENT, LINDSEY GRAHAM UNLOADS ON 'SHAM' HEARING, REMINDS DEMS HE VOTED FOR KAGAN, SOTOMAYOR Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate, and can only afford one defection in their bid to confirm Kavanaugh, assuming they secure no Democratic votes. After hours of testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford, Manchin said simply, "both witnesses were credible," according to CNN. Fox News has learned that Republicans' tentative plan is to hold a final confirmation vote on Kavanaugh before the full Senate sometime next week. On Thursday morning, Collins voiced reservations about moving forward on Kavanaugh's confirmation without issuing a subpoena to his friend Mark Judge, who Ford claimed was in the room when he allegedly assaulted her in the 1980s. Murkowksi was photographed huddling with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Capitol Hill earlier in the day, sparking a flurry of speculation on social media. Collins and Murkowski are not on the Judiciary Committee, so they will not participate in the planned vote Friday morning. Flake didn't ask Kavanaugh any questions during the hearing. Instead, he opted to give a general statement without committing firmly one way or the other on his nomination. Flake previously had insisted that Ford be allowed to testify before an up-or-down vote on Kavanaugh. WATCH: KAVANAUGH, DURBIN SPAR IN DRAMATIC MOMENT OVER FBI PROBE In an apparent effort to appeal to senators on the fence, as well as to clear his name and unload on what he described as a deeply unfair and partisan process, Kavanaugh abandoned much of his prepared remarks to blast the proceedings as a "disgrace" and a "circus." He later sparred with Democratic senators as they questioned him, saying his family and reputation had been "destroyed" by the uncorroborated claims suddenly brought against him. The hearing ended Thursday evening after eight hours worth of testimony from Ford and Kavanaugh. "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace," he told the committee. "The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process. But you have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy." "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace." Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also let loose on his Democratic colleagues during the proceedings, which he called a "sham" hearing to probe sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, in a display that earned him praise from the White House and scorn from the left. Graham alleged the Democrats' handling was all about politics. "This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics," a visibly angry Graham said from the dais while pointing at Democratic senators. "And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy." WATCH: TOP DEMOCRAT SAYS KAVANAUGH DOESN'T DESERVE DUE PROCESS BECAUSE HE'S A CONSERVATIVE Ford first brought her allegations to Feinstein's attention in July, but the California Democrat didn't disclose the allegations to her Senate colleagues or federal authorities until days before a crucial Judiciary Committee vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation earlier this month. Republicans have accused Feinstein's office of compromising Ford's anonymity by sitting on the allegations until she could deploy them in a leak for maximum political gain. In a dramatic moment Thursday, Feinstein claimed under questioning from Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, R-Tex., that the full text of Ford's letter had never leaked, even though The Washington Post reported earlier this month that it had obtained the full text of the letter. Feinstein suggested Ford's friends, not her staffers, had leaked information about the letter. WATCH CRUZ, CORNYN GRILL FEINSTEIN OVER LEAK None of the witnesses Ford has identified as being present at the party where she was allegedly assaulted -- including Leland Ingham Keyser, her best friend at the time -- have said they remember anything about the episode. Asked about Keyser's statement, Ford suggested on Thursday her friend was having medical issues. In her testimony earlier in the day, Ford -- who had told Feinstein in her July letter that the party included "included me and 4 others" -- changed the tally, and told senators that there were four boys there, in addition to her female friend. Additionally, Ford's therapist wrote in 2012 that Ford had said there were four boys in the room during her alleged assault, according to The Washington Post. Ford has since claimed, without evidence, that her therapist inaccurately recorded her statement that only two boys were in the room with her, and she has refused to provide her therapist notes to Senate investigators, citing privilege. During her testimony Thursday, Ford claimed she did not remember whether she had turned over her therapist notes to The Washington Post this summer, as opposed to simply recounting them to one of the paper's reporters. In an August note Ford wrote in advance of a polygraph exam she took at the direction of her lawyers, she maintained that "there were 4 boys and a couple of girls" at the party, again contradicting her letter to Feinstein in July. Ford also claimed she had been unaware of committee Republicans' offers, which were communicated publicly and to her attorneys, to fly out to California to meet with her so that they could expedite the hearings. This story has been updated to reflect that Ford has claimed that her therapist inaccurately recorded her 2012 statement about the number of boys in the room during the alleged assault. Fox News' Chad Pergram, Alex Pappas and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Thursdays Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh captured the attention of Washington and the nation with hours of fiery, emotional testimony from the judge and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of sexual assault when they were high schoolers. Kavanaugh denied the accusation. Below are the full opening remarks from Christine Blasey Ford: Thank you, Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein, members of the committee. My name is Christine Blasey Ford. I am a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. I won't detail my educational background since it has already been summarized. I have been married to Russell Ford since 2002 and we have two children. I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school. I have described the events publicly before. I summarized them in my letter to Ranking Member Feinstein and again in a letter to Chairman Grassley. I understand and appreciate the importance of your hearing from me directly about what happened to me and the impact that it has had on my life and on my family. I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. I attended the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1978 to 1984. Holton-Arms is an all-girls school that opened in 1901. During my time at this school, girls at Holton-Arms frequently met and became friendly with boys from all-boys schools in the area, including the Landon School, Georgetown Prep, Gonzaga High School, as well as our country clubs and other places where kids and families socialized. This is how I met Brett Kavanaugh, the boy who sexually assaulted me. During my freshman and sophomore school years, when I was 14 and 15 years old, my group of friends intersected with Brett and his friends for a short period of time. I had been friendly with a classmate of Brett's for a short time during my freshman and sophomore year, and it was through that connection that I attended a number of parties that Brett also attended. We did not know each other well, but I knew him and he knew me. In the summer of 1982, like most summers, I spent most every day at the Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland, swimming and practicing diving. One evening that summer, after a day of diving at the club, I attended a small gathering at a house in the Bethesda area. There were four boys I remember specifically being at the house: Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, a boy named P.J., and one other boy whose name I cannot recall. I also remember my friend Leland attending. I do not remember all of the details of how that gathering came together, but like many that summer, it was almost surely a spur-of-the-moment gathering. I truly wish I could be more helpful with more detailed answers to all of the questions that have and will be asked about how I got to the party and where it took place and so forth. I don't have all the answers, and I don't remember as much as I would like to. But the details that -- about that night that bring me here today are the ones I will never forget. They have been seared into my memory, and have haunted me episodically as an adult. When I got to the small gathering, people were drinking beer in a small living room/family room-type area on the first floor of the house. I drank one beer. Brett and Mark were visibly drunk. Early in the evening, I went up a very narrow set of stairs leading from the living room to a second floor to use the restroom. When I got to the top of the stairs, I was pushed from behind into a bedroom across from the bathroom. I couldn't see who pushed me. Brett and Mark came into the bedroom and locked the door behind them. There was music playing in the bedroom. It was turned up louder by either Brett or Mark once we were in the room. I was pushed onto the bed, and Brett got on top of me. He began running his hands over my body and grinding into me. I yelled, hoping that someone downstairs might hear me, and I tried to get away from him, but his weight was heavy. Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time, because he was very inebriated, and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit underneath my clothing. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling. This is what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me. Both Brett and Mark were drunkenly laughing during the attack. They seemed to be having a very good time. Mark seemed ambivalent, at times urging Brett on and at times telling him to stop. A couple of times, I made eye contact with Mark and thought he might try to help me, but he did not. During this assault, Mark came over and jumped on the bed twice while Brett was on top of me. And the last time that he did this, we toppled over and Brett was no longer on top of me. I was able to get up and run out of the room. Directly across from the bedroom was a small bathroom. I ran inside the bathroom and locked the door. I waited until I heard Brett and Mark leave the bedroom, laughing and loudly walk down the narrow stairway, pinballing off the walls on the way down. I waited, and when I did not hear them come back up the stairs, I left the bathroom, went down the same stairwell through the living room, and left the house. I remember being on the street and feeling this enormous sense of relief that I had escaped that house and that Brett and Mark were not coming outside after me. Brett's assault on me drastically altered my life. For a very long time, I was too afraid and ashamed to tell anyone these details. I did not want to tell my parents that I, at age 15, was in a house without any parents present, drinking beer with boys. I convinced myself that because Brett did not rape me, I should just move on and just pretend that it didn't happen. Over the years, I told very, very few friends that I had this traumatic experience. I told my husband before we were married that I had experienced a sexual assault. I had never told the details to anyone -- the specific details -- until May 2012, during a couples counseling session. The reason this came up in counseling is that my husband and I had completed a very extensive, very long remodel of our home and I insisted on a second front door, an idea that he and others disagreed with and could not understand. In explaining why I wanted a second front door, I began to describe the assault in detail. I recall saying that the boy who assaulted me could someday be on the U.S. Supreme Court, and spoke a bit about his background at an elitist all-boys school in Bethesda, Maryland. My husband recalls that I named my attacker as Brett Kavanaugh. After that May 2012 therapy session, I did my best to ignore the memories of the assault, because recounting them caused me to relive the experience, and caused panic and anxiety. Occasionally, I would discuss the assault in an individual therapy session, but talking about it caused more reliving of the trauma, so I tried not to think about it or discuss it. But over the years, I went through periods where I thought about the attack. I had confided in some close friends that I had had an experience with sexual assault. Occasionally, I stated that my assailant was a prominent lawyer or judge, but I did not use his name. I do not recall each person I spoke to about Brett's assault. And some friends have reminded me of these conversations since the publication of the Washington Post story on September 16th, 2018. But until July 2018, I had never named Mr. Kavanaugh as my attacker outside of therapy. This changed in early July 2018. I saw press reports stating that Brett Kavanaugh was on the shortlist of a list of very well-qualified Supreme Court nominees. I thought it was my civic duty to relay the information I had about Mr. Kavanaugh's conduct so that those considering his nomination would know about this assault. On July 6th, I had a sense of urgency to relay the information to the Senate and the president as soon as possible, before a nominee was selected. I did not know how, specifically, to do this. I called my congressional representative and let her receptionist know that someone on the president's shortlist had attacked me. I also sent a message to the encrypted Washington Post confidential tip line. I did not use my name, but I provided the names of Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. I stated that Mr. Kavanaugh had assaulted me in the 1980s in Maryland. This was an extremely hard thing for me to do, but I felt that I couldn't not do it. Over the next two days, I told a couple of close friends on the beach in Aptos, California, that Mr. Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted me. I was very conflicted as to whether to speak out. On July 9th, I received a return phone call from the office of Congresswoman Anna Eshoo after Mr. Kavanaugh had become the nominee. I met with her staff on July 18th and with her on July 20th, describing the assault and discussing my fears about coming forward. Later, we discussed the possibility of sending a letter to Ranking Member Feinstein, who is one of my state senators, describing what occurred. My understanding is that Representative Eshoo's office delivered a copy of my letter to Senator Feinstein's office on July 30th. The letter included my name, but also a request that it be kept confidential. My hope was that providing the information confidentially would be sufficient to allow the Senate to consider Mr. Kavanaugh's serious misconduct without having to make myself, my family or anyone's family vulnerable to the personal attacks and invasions of privacy that we have faced since my name became public. In a letter dated August 31st, Senator Feinstein wrote that she would not share the letter without my explicit consent, and I appreciated this commitment. Sexual assault victims should be able to decide for themselves when and whether their private experience is made public. As the hearing date got closer, I struggled with a terrible choice: Do I share the facts with the Senate and put myself and my family in the public spotlight, or do I preserve our privacy and allow the Senate to make its decision without knowing the full truth of his past behaviors? I agonized daily with this decision throughout August and September 2018. The sense of duty that originally motivated me to reach out confidentially to The Washington Post and to Anna Eshoo's office when there was still a list of extremely qualified candidates -- and to Senator Feinstein -- was always there, but my fears of the consequences of speaking out started to exponentially increase. During August 2018, the press reported that Mr. Kavanaugh's confirmation was virtually certain. Persons painted him as a champion of women's rights and empowerment. And I believed that if I came forward, my single voice would be drowned out by a chorus of powerful supporters. By the time of the confirmation hearings, I had resigned myself to remaining quiet and letting the committee and the Senate make their decision without knowing what Mr. Kavanaugh had done to me. Once the press started reporting on the existence of the letter I had sent to Senator Feinstein, I faced mounting pressure. Reporters appeared at my home and at my workplace, demanding information about the letter in the presence of my graduate students. They called my bosses and co-workers, and left me many messages, making it clear that my name would inevitably be released to the media. I decided to speak out publicly to a journalist who had originally responded to the tip I had sent to the Washington Post and who had gained my trust. It was important for me to describe the details of the assault in my own words. Since September 16th, the date of the Washington Post's story, I have experienced an outpouring of support from people in every state of this country. Thousands and thousands of people who have had their lives dramatically altered by sexual violence have reached out to share their experience and have thanked me for coming forward. We have received tremendous support from our friends and our community. At the same time, my greatest fears have been realized and the reality has been far worse than what I expected. My family and I have been the target of constant harassment and death threats, and I have been called the most vile and hateful names imaginable. These messages, while far fewer than the expressions of support, have been terrifying and have rocked me to my core. People have posted my personal information and that of my parents online on the Internet. This has resulted in additional e-mails, calls and threats. My family and I were forced to move out of our home. Since September 16th, my family and I have been visiting in various secure locales, at times separated and at times together, with the help of security guards. This past Tuesday evening, my work e-mail was hacked and messages were sent out trying to recant my description of the sexual assault. Apart from the assault itself, these past couple of weeks have been the hardest of my life. I've had to relive this trauma in front of the world. And I've seen my life picked apart by people on television, on Twitter, other social media, other media and in this body, who have never met me or spoken with me. I have been accused of acting out of partisan political motives. Those who say that do not know me. I'm an independent person and I am no one's pawn. My motivation in coming forward was to be helpful and to provide facts about how Mr. Kavanaugh's actions have damaged my life, so that you could take into a serious consideration as you make your decision about how to proceed. It is not my responsibility to determine whether Mr. Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court. My responsibility is to tell you the truth. I understand that a professional prosecutor has been hired to ask me questions, and I'm committed to doing my very best to answer them. I have never been questioned by a prosecutor, and I will do my best. At the same time, because the committee members will be judging my credibility, I do hope to be able to engage directly with each of you. And at this point, I will do my best to answer your questions, and would request some caffeine. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., denied Thursday that her office leaked Christine Blasey Ford's letter accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault to the media earlier this month. "I don't believe my staff would leak it," Feinstein said in response to a question from Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas. "I have not asked that question directly." After a pause, apparently to consult with her staff, Feinstein told Cornyn: "The answer is no." "Well, somebody leaked it if it wasn't you," Cornyn answered. "Well, I'm telling you I did not," said Feinstein, who added: "It's my understanding that [Ford's] story was leaked before the letter became public and she testified that she had spoken to her friends about it, and it's most likely that that's how this story leaked ... But it did not leak from us, I assure you that." The exchange between Feinstein and Cornyn followed a statement by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who accused Feinstein and the committee's Democrats of putting Kavanaugh through a "profoundly unfair process." "This committee could have investigated those claims in a confidential way that respected Dr. Fords privacy," Cruz said. "The only people that could have released that letter were either the ranking member and her staff or [Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who forwarded Ford's letter to Feinstein.]" KAVANAUGH DECRIES 'CIRCUS,' FORD TESTIFIES HE 'SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ME' The existence of Ford's letter to Feinstein alleging that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her was first reported by the website The Intercept on Sept. 12. At the time, Feinstein stated that Ford had "strongly requested confidentiality ... and I have honored that decision." Intercept reporter Ryan Grim, who broke the story of Ford's letter, tweeted: "Feinstein's staff did not leak the letter to The Intercept. KAVANAUGH CLASHES WITH DEMOCRATIC SENATOR OVER YEARBOOK ENTRIES "Nor did she or her staff leak the existence of the letter to The Intercept," Grim added. "After our story, she turned it over to the FBI, which placed it in his background file, which meant that it became widely available and soon after it was leaked to CNN." Ford went public with her allegation in a Washington Post article published Sept. 16. The Post reported that the letter had been read to its reporter, though it was unclear by whom. Following the hearing, Feinstein issued a statement defending her actions. "Dr. Blasey Ford asked that her information be kept confidential, and it was," she said. "I only referred her letter to the FBI after it was leaked and reporters were knocking on her door. I dont know who leaked the information, but it wasnt my office." NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed two bills Thursday that would have allowed noncitizens, including undocumented immigrants, to serve on state boards and commissions, and would have prevented immigration authorities from making arrests inside courthouses. Browns actions come as California has sparred with the Trump administration over its perceived accommodation of illegal immigrants. An estimated 2 million people reside in the state illegally, the Orange County Register reported. Governance belongs to a nations citizens, said Mike Spence, a councilman in the Southern California city of West Covina. Even Jerry Brown understands citizenship has to mean something. Governance belongs to a nations citizens. Even Jerry Brown understands citizenship has to mean something. Mike Spence, councilman, West Covina, Calif. Trump has voiced his frustration with Californias immigration policies, calling them unconstitutional and illegal. Several California cities have voted to opt out of the states sanctuary law. Had Brown, a Democrat, signed SB-174, California would have been the first state in the country to allow legal residents and undocumented immigrants to serve on local and state boards that advise on policy areas such as employment and labor, the Register reported. I believe existing law, which requires citizenship for these forms of public service, is the better path, Brown said in explaining his veto. The proposed law would have eliminated transient aliens from the government code in an effort to make clear that anyone can hold an appointed civil office regardless of citizenship or immigration status. The phrase is included in an 1872 provision intended to exclude Chinese immigrants and other foreign-born residents from holding appointed civil positions, the Los Angeles Times reported. The bills authors, state Sen. Ricardo Lara and Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, both Democrats, said the language conflicts with the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to those born or naturalized in the United States. There was a time when Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, African Americans, and Catholics were prevented from serving, and California cleared away those barriers, Lara said. I predict that this barrier will eventually fall. Lara also authored the other bill that Brown vetoed Thursday, the one that sought to prevent immigration authorities from making arrests inside courthouses. In his veto message, Brown expressed concerns that the proposed law could have unintended consequences. He pointed to the states sanctuary law, which limits cooperation between local and state law enforcement agencies and immigration authorities, according to the L.A. Times. I believe the prudent path is to allow for that guidance to be released before enacting new laws in this area, Brown said. The bill would have allowed judges to stop the arrests or other activities that interrupt their proceedings. Brown has vetoed other bills passed by the Californias Democratic-controlled Legislature. In 2013, he vetoed one that would have allowed non-citizens to serve on juries. Jury service, like voting, is quintessentially a prerogative and responsibility of citizenship, he said at the time. California has passed several laws in recent years designed to protect the rights of immigrants. Last week, Brown signed a bill authored by Lara into law that decriminalizes sidewalk vending, a business popular with many immigrants. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! A former Massachusetts state senator awaiting trial on federal corruption charges was found dead in his home Thursday, authorities said. The body of former state Sen. Brian A. Joyce, 56, was found by his wife, the Bristol County District Attorney's office said in a statement. The DAs office said foul play was ruled out for the time being. Joyce was reportedly involved in a car crash Wednesday, but it was unclear if that incident was connected to his death. Massachusetts chief medical examiner is slated to conduct an autopsy. An investigation is active and ongoing, the spokesman said. The Democrat, who served as assistant majority leader, was first elected in 1998. Joyce left the Senate after not seeking re-election in 2016 amid the federal probe. He moved to Westport, Mass., from Milton after his political career ended. In December 2017, Joyce was named in a 113-count indictment charging him with racketeering, extortion, wire fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors said he allegedly accepted up to $1 million in bribes and kickbacks that he laundered through his company. The indictment also accused Joyce of using his political influence to help a Dunkin Donuts store owner in exchange for hundreds of pounds of fresh coffee, the Boston Globe reported. "He had a duty to serve them honestly. And he violated that duty by accepting bribes and kickbacks in exchange for his official action." U.S. Attorney William Weinreb Brian Joyce represented over 100,000 Massachusetts citizens in the state Legislature, said then-acting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb during a news conference after the indictment was first announced. He had a duty to serve them honestly. And he violated that duty by accepting bribes and kickbacks in exchange for his official action. Joyce pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and was free on $250,000 bond. No trial date had been set. Joyce's attorney, Howard Cooper, had maintained that his client was innocent of all the charges against him. No further details were made available. The Associated Press contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Sen. Jeff Flakes, R-Ariz., announcement Friday that he would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court triggered an angry backlash from Democrats and activists, as it appeared to bring the judge one step closer to sitting on the nation's highest court. Flake had been undecided, and has publicly agonized over the toxicity of this confirmation process and modern-day politics in Washington. With Flakes yes, 48 Republicans have pledged to vote for Kavanaugh; he needs a simple majority to be confirmed. Democrats had hoped that testimony Thursday from Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school, would sway Republican undecideds. But Kavanaugh fiercely denied the allegations against him, and Flake said, "I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty." Flake, a member of the judiciary committee that is voting Friday on the nomination, was met with immediate protests after his press release was sent out. Flake was cornered in an elevator by protesters, including a woman identifying herself as a sexual assault victim. Look at me when Im talking to you, youre telling me that my sexual assault doesnt matter, she yelled at Flake, in a confrontation caught on video. There were other rowdy protests outside the Dirksen building where the meeting was taking place. Protesters were blowing whistles and shouting Shame! and November is coming! in reference to the upcoming midterm elections. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., was shown an email revealing Flake's decision and grew emotional and near tears before declining to comment. SEN. JEFF FLAKE SAYS HE WILL VOTE TO CONFIRM KAVANAUGH Democrats on the judiciary committee also lodged their protests as an afternoon vote was planned. The answer is no no no, yelled Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, when asked for her vote on whether to proceed. Hirono, along with Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., walked out of the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in protest of Kavanaugh. Klobuchar later returned. At the back of the meeting room, a group of Democratic congresswomen protested silently during the vote before filing out. Beyond D.C., celebrities such as George Takei and Debra Messing added to the angst. THIS IS DEVASTING [sic]. GUT WRENCHING.@JeffFlake you truly dont believe #DrChristineBlaseyFord ? tweeted Messing, along with the video of him being confronted in the elevator. Senator Flake, you should be named Senator Fake, Takei, a former Star Trek actor, tweeted. As in, spare us your fake handwringing and fake soul-searching. Youve always been a partisan hack with no spine or true convictions. We knew you would vote for that vile toad, Kavanaugh. FAKE. Democrats have indicated they intend to continue investigating the allegations against Kavanaugh even if he is confirmed. Fox News' Peter Doocy contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) this week called on Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum to fire a staffer who wore a shirt with an insult directed at Americans who voted for President Trump in the 2016 election. Manny Orozco-Ballestas, the campaign's director of youth outreach, posted a photo to his Instagram last summer, showing him wearing a shirt depicting the 2016 electoral map, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The paper published the photo, which says in writing that the blue states form The United States of America, while the red states are labeled Dumbf---istan. "It is unbelievable to me that Andrew Gillum would not only employ, but promote on social media, a person who calls voters 'dumb f----' for electing Republicans," RPOF Chairman Blaise Ingoglia said in a news release. "It is unbelievable to me that Andrew Gillum would not only employ, but promote on social media, a person who calls voters 'dumb f----' for electing Republicans." Blaise Ingoglia, RPOF Chairman Ingoglia demanded that Gillum apologize and fire Orozco-Ballestas, calling it hypocritical for the nominee to endorse the kind of hateful and intolerant speech he likes to denounce." Gillum had denounced a remark his Republican opponent Ron DeSantis made last month after they each secured their partys nominations in Novembers election for warning voters not to monkey this up by voting for the Democrat, who is black. A spokeswoman for Gillum told the Times they had addressed the explicit shirt with Orozco-Ballestas, adding that they wont "be lectured about words by the Party of Trump." "The anti-Trump shirt he wore before he was hired wasn't funny or in any way related to our campaign and we've addressed that with him," spokeswoman Carlie Waibel told the paper. The photo has reportedly been removed from Orozco-Ballestas' Instagram account. A Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday showed Gillum advancing to a 9-point lead over DeSantis, 54 percent to 45 percent. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The House Intelligence Committee on Friday voted to release more than 50 transcripts from interviews from its now-concluded investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 election, including with President Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner and other Trump advisers. Before they are released, the transcripts will be reviewed by Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, the committee has said. Others who testified include Trumps former longtime spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, and former bodyguard Keith Schiller. The panel also interviewed dozens of others, including former Obama administration officials. The intelligence committees investigation was separate from the probe being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In April, the Republicans on the committee said it found no evidence of collusion between the Russian government and Trump campaign. Earlier this month, intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said the transcripts should be made public ahead of Novembers midterm elections. I expect to make those available from our committee to the American public in the next few weeks," Nunes said during an interview on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures. But some GOP lawmakers signaled that making the transcripts public might affect their ability to compel witnesses to testify in future investigations. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, said the vote to release the transcripts was unanimous but only after Democrats pushed unsuccessfully for Republicans to release additional transcripts that are being withheld. Meanwhile, a source close to the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees told Fox News they plan to soon subpoena Fusion GPSs Glenn Simpson a key figure in the Russia investigation and the genesis of the infamous dossier for testimony on Capitol Hill. Fusion GPS hired British MI6 agent Christopher Steele to investigate and write the dossier of unverified claims about Trump's relationship with Russia. The findings eventually made their way to the FBI at the beginning of its investigation into any ties between Trump associates and Russia -- and the bureau's dealings with Steele are a key focus for congressional investigators. In a new letter, Simpsons lawyer said he will not appear voluntarily before the two committees for testimony, noting he has already appeared before other congressional committees while accusing lawmakers of leaking confidential information. The source said the committees want to talk with Simpson because his congressional testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee conflicts with hand written notes and emails from DOJ official Bruce Ohr. Simpson said he did not engage with Ohr until after Thanksgiving 2016, but emails show it was August or earlier. Documents show Simpson and Steele used Ohr as a back channel to get the dossier to the FBI in 2016 before and after the election. Fox News Catherine Herridge and Dom Calicchio and The Associated Press contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Democrats renewed threats to impeach Judge Brett Kavanaugh should he be confirmed to the high court, as Republicans moved forward with a series of votes heading into the weekend. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, set a committee vote on Kavanaugh for Friday afternoon, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., planned a full floor vote for early next week. Kavanaugh is poised to at least make it out of committee, with the late-breaking support of GOP Sen. Jeff Flake -- after the panel heard dramatic testimony from the nominee and Christine Blasey Ford, who accuses him of sexually assaulting her in 1982. While Kavanaugh denies the charge, some Democrats already are raising the prospect of impeachment if he's confirmed. The latest threat came from former national press secretary for Hillary Clintons presidential campaign Brian Fallon. He tweeted Thursday night that Kavanaugh will not serve for life. If Senate GOP ignores Dr. Blasey Ford and tries to muscle an attempted rapist onto the Supreme Court: 1. They will pay dearly this November. 2. Senators up in 2020 (Collins, Gardner et al) will feel intense heat for the next two years. 3. Kavanaugh will not serve for life, Fallon tweeted. Axios reports that Democratic strategists are talking about impeachment as a 2020 campaign issue. Last week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., warned that as soon as Democrats get gavelspresuming Democrats win control of the Senate in Novemberthe party would investigate Kavanaugh allegations further. And Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California said that House Democrats could also push for the impeachment of Kavanaugh. If the Republicans rush through a nominee where you have unanswered sexual assault allegations, I can promise you that Democratic senators will be interested in going and looking at those allegations, and if Judge Kavanaugh lied under oath, you could see a judicial impeachment, and thats not good for anybody, so we should try and avoid that, Swalwell said on Fox News' Americas Newsroom last week. But, in an article for The New York Times titled The Case for Impeaching Kavanaugh, Alabama Law School Professor Ronald Krotoszynski Jr. noted that such a move would need a two-thirds vote in the Senate -- something unlikely unless a number of Republicans joined Democrats. However, Krotoszynski Jr. argued that Democrats should proceed with an investigation if the Senate wont conduct a credible investigation now. Democrats have demanded that a vote to confirm Kavanaugh be delayed pending a full FBI investigation into the accusation leveled against him by Ford. Ford testified before the committee on Thursday, alleging that Kavanaugh pinned her down and tried to remove her clothing at a high school party more than 36 years ago. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegation yet again Thursday, and said he was open to any kind of investigation. I know any kind of investigationSenate, FBI, Montgomery County Policewill clear me, Kavanaugh said Thursday. I will do whatever the committee wants to do because I am telling the truthI am innocent of the charge. Many Republicans have sympathized with Ford, noting she was a credible witness, but have taken issue with the fact that no witnesses have corroborated her claim. Fox News Adam Shaw contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines on Friday to advance Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination to the Senate floor. The vote follows Thursday's multi-hour testimony from Kavanaugh and California professor Christine Blasey Ford, who accused the nominee of sexual assault during a high school house party. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., called for a delay up to a week for an investigation. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the timing of the vote was up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Follow Fox News' live blog below. Mobile users click here. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Mark Judge, the high school friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, wrote in a letter Thursday that he does not recall the events described by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during her testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes, he wrote. Judge directed the letter, under penalty of felony, to Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Diane Feinstein, through his attorney Barbara Van Gelder. I did not ask to be involved in this matter nor did anyone ask me to be involved, the letter said, and referred to his previous letter sent on Sept. 18. The letter was released hours before members of the Judiciary Committee were set to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination. The actual vote is expected at about 10:30 a.m. ET. A successful committee vote is not essential to send a nomination to the floor. Judge's letter told the committee that he does not want to comment about the events publicly. As a recovering alcoholic and a cancer survivor, I have struggled with depression and anxiety, his letter said. As a result, I avoid public speaking. Van Gelder told The Washington Post on Wednesday that Judge needs to avoid the spotlight for his health. I told him to leave town. He is being hounded. He is a recovering alcoholic and is under unbelievable stress, Judge's attorney told the paper. He needed for his own health to get out of this toxic environment and take care of himself." Judge also said in the letter that he and Kavanaugh were friends in high school but have not spoken directly in several years. Ford claimed Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed during a party in Maryland, attempted to remove her clothes and put his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. She said he and Judge had also turned the music up to a loud volume. Ford claimed she was able to escape to a bathroom and then outside of the house when Judge jumped into the fray and sent everyone in the room "tumbling." Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked Kavanaugh during the hearing if he was one of the characters, Bart OKavanaugh, in Judges book called Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk, which was written in 1997. Kavanaugh said the book is a work of fiction and Leahy would have to ask him [Judge]. Judge has become an author, filmmaker and journalist who has written for conservative outlets including The Daily Caller and The Weekly Standard, according to reports. Following the explosive and, at times, highly emotional day of testimony, all eyes turned to several key swing-vote senators who remained outwardly undecided on Kavanaugh's fate late Thursday. After the hearing, moderate Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowksi, R-Alaska, as well as Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., huddled to discuss the nomination, Fox News confirmed. They talked for approximately 30 minutes before a GOP conference meeting Thursday evening ahead of Friday's planned Judiciary Committee vote on whether to recommend Kavanaugh's confirmation to the full Senate. Fox News' Gregg Re, Edmund DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and accuser Christine Blasey Ford both delivered powerful, heartfelt testimony on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee but The New York Times selected side-by-side images for Fridays front page that paint a liberal narrative, according to critics. Ford, who accused the nominee of sexual assault during a high school house party, is shown looking poised and confident with her hand raised as she was being sworn in. Kavanaugh was also sworn in with is hand raised, but the paper decided to use instead an image of him looking angry while seated. Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor told Fox News that the Times front page is a microcosm of bias in the mainstream media. This is what I love about The New York Times. Every time some idiot claims there is no media bias, just point to that day's paper to prove them wrong, Gainor said. These photos are the perfect liberal narrative. You see the calm, law-abiding, liberal accuser and the angry conservative defendant. What that context hides is the left accused him of being a gang rapist. Any sane person would be furious about that. And should be. "Every time some idiot claims there is no media bias, just point to that day's paper to prove them wrong." Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor By comparison, the New York Post used a similar image of Ford with her hand raised but the image Post editors selected of Kavanaugh also showed him with his hand raised. NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News that its a slight tweak and one you don't normally notice on the surface but the photos selected help tell a story. The reality is they wanted to portray Kavanaugh as unhinged and they did that based on the still shot they used while Ford looked confident as she took her oath, Houck said. The Times Editorial Board made its opinion clear with Fridays story headlined, Why Brett Kavanaugh wasnt believable, but the front page images accompanied a straight-news story. This photo display is basically an editorial that was placed on the front page. The photos are accurate, of course, but the contexts were chosen specifically to make a rhetorical judgement, DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall told Fox News. It is true that Kavanaugh was animated at times, but there were many other moments where a photo could have been captured that would have shown him in a different light. McCall added: These kinds of photographic display judgments don't happen by accident They have every right to do that, but this kind of push would be better suited for the commentary section. Mediaite columnist Joseph Wulfsohn told Fox News that the biggest takeaway from Kavanaughs testimony was how distraught he appeared to be over the allegations against him. That being said, the images the Times chose of him and Dr. Ford were meant to paint a specific narrative that she was brave and truthful while he was angry and bitter, he said. Conservative strategist Chris Barron typically doesnt pull punches when it comes to the Times, but he didn't have a problem with Fridays front page. I can see where some would [have an issue], but I think it reflects Judge Kavanaughs righteous indignation at this entire process, Barron told Fox News. He was angry - and rightfully so - at the political smear campaign that has been orchestrated against him and his family. Several followers noticed the images when the Gray Lady tweeted an image of Fridays front page. Disgusting bias is clear NYT! Why not use a picture like this of Kavanaugh, one follower responded, attaching an image of Kavanaugh with his hand raised. Another user responded, Was Brett not sworn in too, or are publishing fiction again? I guess you couldnt find that photo with Mr. Kavanaughs hand up professing to tell the truth.. no wonder your numbers are down. Biased, one user responded. In what could be considered a sign of the polarizing state of American politics, readers on both sides of the aisle found issues with the Times front page. While many conservatives and media watchdogs felt the images were selected to support Ford, some readers who oppose Kavanaugh took issue with the papers headline, She said. He said. Now what will Senators say? She said. He lied, a follower responded while another wrote, NYT, do not sacrifice the gravity of this day for a clever headline. The Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The sex-crimes prosecutor Republicans hired to question Brett Kavanaugh and accuser Christine Blasey Ford at Thursday's hearing told senators the case would not hold up in a courtroom, sources told Fox Newsguidance that could prove critical as wavering lawmakers prepare to vote. The prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, spoke at an overnight meeting where all 51 Republican senators were present, two people briefed on the session said. Mitchell spelled it out and was clear with senators that she could not take this anywhere near a courtroom, one source told Fox News. She told them she would not charge the Supreme Court nominee and reportedly said she wouldn't even seek a search warrant. Mitchells opinion could sway fence-sitting senators ahead of a critical Senate Judiciary Committee vote set for Friday afternoon. It is not necessary for Kavanaugh to secure majority approval of the committee in order to advance to the full Senate, but a favorable recommendation could bode well for his imperiled nomination -- and vice-versa. In a critical development, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake announced Friday morning he will support Kavanaugh, saying, "I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty." With that, 48 Republican senators have now pledged to vote for Kavanaugh at the scheduled full Senate vote on Tuesday. The outstanding Republicans are Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mike Enzi of Wyoming. Enzi is expected to vote in support of Kavanaugh, but has said he wont announce his position until he votes. But Collins, Murkowski, Flake and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin could vote in a bloc. The source told Fox News that Collins, Murkowski and Flake huddled with Manchin on the sidelines Thursday evening to discuss the nomination, right before the GOP lawmakers were briefed by Mitchell. They spoke for approximately 30 minutes. Its a tough one. She offered good testimony, and so did he, Flake, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said Thursday night, before announcing his support. If youre making an allegation, you want there to be some corroboration. Where is the burden? Its like impeachment. You dont know. Republicans, including President Trump, have stressed that none of the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh made in the last several days have first-hand corroboration. But Ford insisted during Thursday's testimony that Kavanaugh and a friend trapped her in a room during a high school gathering in 1982, and the now-court nominee tried to force himself on her before she escaped. She said she's "100 percent" sure it was him, though Kavanaugh adamantly denied it. Asked whether more time or investigating would help, as Democrats suggested repeatedly on Thursday, Flake rejected the idea. Where does this start, where does it end? he asked. More time, more ludicrous allegations. What does that do to the accused? Manchin, from deep-red West Virginia, is seen as a possible "yea" vote for Kavanaugh. There have been no decisions, Manchin reportedly said outside the hearing room. There are some concerns that people have, and were going to try to close that loop. Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana also have not revealed which way they might vote. Early Friday, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said that he would vote no. Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate, and can only afford one defection in their bid to confirm Kavanaugh, assuming they secure no Democratic votes. Other Republican senators whose votes were expected to be up in the air, like Sens. Bob Corker, came out in support of Kavanaugh late Thursday. While both individuals provided a compelling testimony, nothing that has been presented corroborates the allegation, Corker said in a statement, referring to Kavanaugh and Ford. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegations leveled against him by Ford, calling the process a national disgrace and a circus. The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process, Kavanaugh said in his opening statement. But you have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced late Thursday a full Senate vote for Tuesday. I think were going to go ahead, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said. I worry about every one of these votes. Fox News' Chad Pergram and Gregg Re contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Personal information of Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch were posted by an unknown person located in the House of Representatives on Thursday during the hearing of Supreme Court Nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The information, which supposedly included home addresses and phone numbers, was posted - or doxxed - on the senators respective Wikipedia pages, where users are allowed to update the information at any time. The information has since been removed. All three targeted senators were members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who questioned both Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh regarding Fords allegations that he sexually assaulted her over 36 years ago. The leaking of information occurred sometime after the three lawmakers questioned Kavanaugh. KAVANAUGH VOTE LIVE BLOG - SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WEIGHS IN ON RECOMMENDING NOMINEE But while the home addresses of the senators appear to be correct, the phone numbers werent entirely accurate, with most either disconnected or going to voicemail. A home phone number listed for Graham appears to direct the callers to Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group. A receptionist told Fox News that they didnt receive many calls, despite their number being listed as the senators home number. LINDSEY GRAHAM'S KAVANAUGH MOMENT EARNS CONSERVATIVE PRAISE Its shocking that someone would post Senator Hatch and other Judiciary Committee Republicans home addresses online, putting their families at risk, Hatchs spokesman, Matt Whitlock told the Washington Post. That it happened as they were asking questions in a Supreme Court confirmation hearing is just another indication of how broken this process has become". White House spokesman Raj Shah wrote on Twitter that the leake information was "outrageous". The intentional publication of the information was first caught by a Twitter bot that automatically tracks any changes made to Wikipedia entries from anyone located in the U.S. Congress and publicizes them on the social media site. SEN. JEFF FLAKE SAYS HE WILL VOTE TO CONFIRM KAVANAUGH The tracking account has since deleted the tweets because they revealed the personal information. Fox News confirmed the changes were made to the senators pages. The Wikipedia appears to have removed the changes. Due to the anonymity of the edits, it remains improbable that a person or persons responsible for the stunt could be caught. It remains unclear whether the publication of such information was done to intimidate the senators following the dramatic hearings on Thursday. Graham stood out during the hearings, giving perhaps one of the most impassioned speeches in defense of Kavanaugh, accusing the Democrats of trying to destroy the Supreme Court nominee with the the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. What you want to do is destroy this guys life, hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020, Graham told Senate Judiciary Democrats. Boy, yall want power and I hope you dont get it. Other senators also defended Kavanaugh, including Hatch, who said: What we have are uncorroborated, unsubstantiated claims from his teenage years and that Kavanaugh has been treated unfairly. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed Judge Brett Kavanaugh in a party-line vote on Friday afternoon. That sent his Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate a day after an emotional hearing in which a California professor leveled sexual assault allegations - allegations that Kavanaugh emphatically denied. The committee voted 11-10 to recommend Kavanaugh, with previously undecided GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona supporting him. However, that support came with a last-minute caveat that holds major implications for a final vote. After meeting with Democrats behind closed doors, Flake, who earlier in the day announced he would endorse the nominee, emerged to call for a delay in a full floor vote to allow for an FBI investigation limited in time and scope. While backing Kavanaugh at the committee level, Flake said he'd only be "comfortable" moving ahead on the floor if the FBI investigates further. He said the pause should last for no more than one week. FBI officials told Fox News Friday afternoon that they had not been contacted by the White House to investigate Ford's allegations. The call throws into doubt whether Kavanaugh can win enough support. The FBI and Trump administration have balked at another investigation. But Republicans have a slim 51-49 majority and can afford few defections. The development caught the White House by surprise, just as the momentum started to shift in Kavanaugh's direction. Somebodys got to explain this to Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, told reporters. I guess that will be my job. Minutes later, when asked by reporters whether he's willing to re-open a background investigation, President Trump said: "I'm going to rely on all of the people, including [Sen. Chuck] Grassley, who is doing a very good job. That will be a decision that they are going to make and I suspect they will be making some decision soon." KAVANAUGH THREATENED ANEW WITH IMPEACHMENT AS SUPREME COURT VOTE NEARS The decision on timing for a vote will be up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, though the administration has authority over any investigation. The Senate had been expected to launch into full debate over the weekend, with a final vote tentatively set for Tuesday. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., later said that Republicans have "reached an accord" on how to proceed, but did not give any details. Flake earlier gave a major boost to Kavanaugh with a Friday-morning announcement that he would support him, saying, "I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty." But he immediately came under heavy pressure, with protesters accosting him and Democrats lobbying him on the sidelines to reconsider. If Flake remains a "yes," there would be 48 pledged Republicans, with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the two remaining wild cards. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., has not announced his stance, but is expected to support the nominee. Republicans need 51 votes to confirm. The vote Friday followed another heated committee meeting. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, walked out of the meeting in protest. Klobuchar later returned. Once the speeches started, Democrats issued furious broadsides against Republicans, calling for them to delay the vote pending a full FBI investigation -- something Republicans have deemed unnecessary. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said that "this is not a partisan moment, it is a moral moment in our nation." "The pernicious patriarchy in this country must stop," he said before calling for a delay. When he finished his remarks, he snatched up his papers and rushed out of the meeting. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said that the court was "flying all the flags of a captured agency dancing to special interests' tune and ramming through precedent and principle to get there." "This will be a disaster for the court, and I believe Kavanaugh will contribute to that disaster," he said. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., meanwhile, attacked Kavanaugh for his remarks at the committee hearing Thursday. In those remarks, the nominee blasted Democrats and those seeking "revenge on behalf of the Clintons." Republicans did not back down on their rhetoric, with Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana decrying an "intergalactic freakshow." "Congress has hit rock bottom and started to dig," he said. Outside the committee room, Hirono told reporters that "the American people need to stand up and see this railroad job for what it is." Before Flake's announcement, swing-vote Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana announced he would oppose Kavanaugh, citing in part the refusal to launch a new FBI probe into the allegations. "I have deep reservations about Judge Kavanaughs nomination to this lifetime position and, as I stated, we have been unable to get all the information necessary regarding this nomination," he said in a statement. Another swing vote Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., later issued a statement backing Flake's calls for a short delay for an FBI probe. "This has been a partisan and divisive process," he said in a statement. "The American people have been pulled apart by this entire spectacle and we need to take time to address these claims independently, so that our country can have confidence in the outcome of this vote." The committee vote came a day after an angry and emotional hearing on allegations of sexual assault made against Kavanaugh. Both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her at a high school party in the 1980s, testified before the committee on Thursday in an eight-hour session. Ford said she's "100 percent" sure Kavanaugh assaulted her. Kavanaugh emotionally denied Fords accusation, along with a number of others made against him in recent days. Kavanaugh trained his sights on committee Democrats. "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace," Kavanaugh said. "The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process. But you have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy." LINDSEY GRAHAM'S KAVANAUGH MOMENT EARNS CONSERVATIVE PRAISE Democrats pushed back, asking Kavanaugh why he would not himself urge an FBI investigation into the charges against him. Kavanaugh responded that he would assent to whatever the committee decided, but noted that an FBI probe wouldnt draw conclusions, only gather information. Kavanaughs nomination is likely to see unanimous or near-unanimous opposition from Democrats, with only a few red-state Democrats even considering a vote for him. On Friday, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., blasted Kavanaugh's testimony and said it showed him to be "aggressive and belligerent" and took issue with his attacks on Democrats. "I have never seen anyone who wants to sit on the highest court in the land behave in that manner," she said. Republicans thin majority in the Senate at large gives the GOP very little room for defections. Sources told Fox News that former President George W. Bush has been making calls to Republican senators in an effort to help secure the confirmation. Fox News Chad Pergram, Jake Gibson, Peter Doocy and Shannon Bream contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! President Trump on Friday ordered the FBI to conduct a limited "supplemental" background investigation into the allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans are "moving" forward with plans to vote. Ive ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaughs file," Trump said in a statement. "As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week. Trump's order came after several undecided senators whose votes are needed to confirm Kavanaugh called for a weeklong FBI probe before a floor vote. The Senate had been expected to begin debate on Kavanaugh's nomination this weekend, but after Trump's order, McConnell adjourned the body until Monday. A potential confirmation vote may not come until late next week, next weekend or perhaps the week of Oct. 7. "This is a nomination that deserves to move forward -- and that is precisely what is happening," McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Friday. Added McConnell, "Now we will keep the process moving." Earlier Friday, under pressure from Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked for a FBI investigation limited to current credible allegations against the nominee," saying it "must be completed no later than one week from today. Kavanaugh, who has denied all the allegations, said in a statement he will "cooperate." Throughout this process, Ive been interviewed by the FBI, Ive done a number of 'background' calls directly with the Senate, and yesterday, I answered questions under oath about every topic the senators and their counsel asked me, Kavanaugh said in a statement. Ive done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate. Later on Friday, Trump tweeted that tonight the 7th FBI investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh had begun. He will someday be recognized as a truly great Justice of The United States Supreme Court! Trump continued. For days, Republicans have resisted calls from Democrats for the FBI to investigate the claims of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh dating back to high school and college, saying they were capable of investigating the allegations themselves. But that changed Friday after Flake, who earlier in the day announced he would endorse Kavanaugh, called for a delay in a full floor vote to allow for an FBI inquiry limited in time and scope. While backing Kavanaugh at the committee level, Flake said he'd only be comfortable moving ahead on the floor if the FBI investigates further. Several other senators -- both Republican and Democrat -- on the fence joined Flake in supporting the move. I support this sensible agreement, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said. In order to fully and fairly complete our due diligence, allowing the FBI up to one week to supplement its background investigation is appropriate, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. I support Sen. Flakes call for a non-partisan FBI investigation into the allegations about Judge Kavanaugh which Ive been pressing for, said Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D. "I applaud Senator Jeff Flakes decision to rise above the partisan circus on display during this entire process, said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. Other notable politicians -- not serving in the Senate -- also reacted to the decision. Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who is currently running as a Republican in Utah for the Senate, tweeted that he was in "support" of "the decision to re-open the FBI background investigation into the allegations made by Dr. Ford." And former Vice President Joe Biden in a statement said Ford "deserves an FBI investigation" and he is "glad that members of the Senate have exercised their power to advise and consent to delay further action on this nomination for a short while longer so that the FBI can do its due diligence in this nomination." However, he condemned Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that Thursday he "witnessed" among them "a degree of invective, blind rage, and brute partisanship that threatens not only the Senate and the Supreme Court it threatens the basic faith in fairness and justice that binds this country together." An attorney for Kavanaugh accuser Christine Ford, Debra S. Katz, said in a statement Friday that Ford welcomes this step in the process. But Katz took issue with the one-week limit, saying no artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed on this investigation." When asked if they could get the investigation done in a week, a senior FBI official told Fox News, "That depends on the schedules of everyone we'd have to interview, including the accuser, accused and witnesses. Ford has named three other people she said attended the 1982 party where she claims she was assaulted. All three named people have said they have no memory of the event, though two said Friday theyre willing to cooperate with the FBI. I will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that is assigned to confidentially investigate these allegations, Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge said. My client, Patrick J. Smyth, is happy to cooperate fully with this FBI investigation, said attorney Eric B. Bruce. Earlier Friday, Kavanaughs nomination took a step forward, as the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed Kavanaugh in a 11-10 party-line vote. Republicans still expressed optimism Friday that Kavanaugh will be confirmed after the investigation is completed. It can be done quickly and then we will be able to move forward to an up-or-down vote in the Senate next week, South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said. Ive never felt better about the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh than I do right now. Flake earlier gave a major boost to Kavanaugh with a Friday-morning announcement that he would support him, saying, "I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty." But he immediately came under heavy pressure, with protesters accosting him and Democrats lobbying him on the sidelines to reconsider. If Flake remains a "yes," there will be 48 pledged Republicans, with Colins and Murkowski the two remaining wild cards. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., has not announced his stance, but is expected to support the nominee. Republicans need 51 votes to confirm. The committee vote came a day after an angry and emotional hearing on allegations of sexual assault made against Kavanaugh. Both Kavanaugh and Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her at a high school party in the 1980s, testified before the committee on Thursday in an eight-hour session. Ford said she's "100 percent" sure Kavanaugh assaulted her. Kavanaugh emotionally denied Fords accusation, along with a number of others made against him in recent days. Kavanaugh trained his sights on committee Democrats. "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace," Kavanaugh said. "The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process. But you have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy." Democrats pushed back, asking Kavanaugh why he would not himself urge an FBI investigation into the charges against him. Kavanaugh responded that he would assent to whatever the committee decided, but noted that an FBI probe wouldnt draw conclusions, only gather information. Kavanaughs nomination is likely to see unanimous or near-unanimous opposition from Democrats, with only a few red-state Democrats, like Heitkamp and Manchin, even considering a vote for him. On Friday, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., blasted Kavanaugh's testimony and said it showed him to be "aggressive and belligerent" and took issue with his attacks on Democrats. "I have never seen anyone who wants to sit on the highest court in the land behave in that manner," she said. The U.S. Capitol Police said they arrested 88 people on Friday for unlawfully demonstrating in Senate office buildings as they were protesting Kavanaugh's nomination. Police said 81 people were arrested Friday morning outside a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in the Dirksen office building. Seven more were arrested Friday afternoon in a separate protest at the Hart building. All were charged with unlawfully crowding or obstructing, then processed and released. Fox News Adam Shaw, Chad Pergram, Mike Emanuel, Jason Donner, Jake Gibson, Elizabeth Zwirz and The Associated Press contributed to this report. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The enthusiasm surrounding the Senate race in Texas could trickle down to congressional races, which may boost voter turnout in the Lone Star state and fuel momentum for both parties, political experts say. The Senate race in Texas has been grabbing headlines for weeks as Democratic Congressman Beto ORourke mounted a surprisingly strong campaign in a state that hasnt elected a Democrat to a statewide office since 1994. The El Paso congressman has out-raised the Republican incumbent, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican darling who ran for president in 2016, in the second quarter of 2018, raising $10.4 million to Cruzs $4.6 million. Political experts say that energy will fuel congressional races. Its almost certainly going to help candidates in the congressional level, at the state legislative level, if theres a boost in Democratic turnout, which we think there might be, said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. Democrats need to flip at least 24 seats to regain control the House. Theyre eyeing key races in the Lone Star State, including those in the 7th, 23rd, 31st, and 32nd congressional districts where Rep. John Culberson, Rep. Will Hurd, Rep. John Carter, and Rep. Pete Sessions, respectively, are trying to keep their seats. "All four...are Republican incumbents that, with the exception of Hurd who's in a competitive district people would've thought [were] relatively safe a few years ago, Henson said. But, given the environment, all four are seeing much more of a challenge." For the first time in over two decades, Democrats are running in all of Texas 36 congressional districts. Democrats say that anger against President Trumps policies could help the party. Because of this unprecedented amount of energy, the energy of Beto leading our ticket, the energy of folks wanting to fight back against Donald Trumpwe have really impressive candidates up and down the ballot, said Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. But Republicans also say that enthusiasm for the Senate race is trickling down to their party. Hopefully, what we will see is a lot of excitement on our side, with people realizing that if they stay home and dont show up and dont turn out to vote that they do risk losing, said James Dickey, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. Dickey said theyre directing many of their resources to help candidates in competitive races, including Culberson, Hurd, and Sessions. Still, he pointed to the numbers in the March primary as proof of the partys strength. About 1.5 million Republicans voted while only 1 million Democrats did. As long as our voters, turn out, well have a resounding victory, Dickey said, We need to keep that excitement and energy going. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! People across the nation watched on edge Thursday as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her in high school, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In the early 1980s, when Ford was 15 and Kavanaugh was 17, Ford alleged that Kavanaugh, while intoxicated, pinned her to a bed during a house party in Maryland and attempted to remove her clothes. She also claims he put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. Ford asserted these accusations during the hearing, saying at one point she is one hundred percent certain Kavanaugh assaulted her. Later, Kavanaugh would deliver a fiery and, at times, tearful testimony, where he vehemently denied the claims against him. This confirmation process has become a national disgrace, he said, adding the accusations against him destroyed my family and my good name. Ford's supporters commended her for bravery, while Kavanaughs backers -- namely Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. -- tore into Democrats. But in Thursdays aftermath, at least two Republican senators and two of their Democratic colleagues appeared to remain undecided on whether or not they would vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Republican votes Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one key lawmaker who was still undecided after the hearing, announced Friday he intended to vote to confirm Kavanaugh. But that support came with a caveat, as Flake said he'd only be "comfortable" moving on the floor if the FBI investigates further. If Flake remains a yes, however, there would be 48 pledged Republicans, with Sens. Susan Collins, of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, the two remaining wild cards. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., hasnt announced his stance but wasnt expected to stray from party lines. Collins and Murkowski, along with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, could vote in a bloc. A source told Fox News that Collins, Murkowski and Flake huddled with Manchin on the sidelines of Thursdays hearing to discuss the nomination. They spoke for 30 minutes. Collins has previously expressed concern a more conservative judge on the Supreme Court could threaten Roe v. Wade. Recently, however, she announced she does not believe Kavanaugh, if approved and appointed to the nations highest court, would threaten the ruling. Following Thursdays hearing, however, its still not clear if Collins found Fords testimony credible. Murkowski still remained undecided after the hearing and had previously noted the importance of listening to accusers in sexual assault cases. We are now in a place where its not about whether or not Judge Kavanaugh is qualified, she told The New York Times. It is about whether or not a woman who has been a victim at some point in her life is to be believed. Democratic votes All eyes on the Democratic side of the aisle turned to Sens. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Heidi Heitkamp, of North Dakota. Heitkamp was still undecided. She voted for Trumps other Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch, but also expressed the importance of listening to Ford during her testimony. It takes courage for any woman to speak up about sexual assault, and we need to respect Prof. Ford by listening to her and hearing her story, she said in a tweet last Monday. Meanwhile, Manchin met with Collins, Flake and Murkowski on the sidelines of Thursday's hearing. He was still undecided after the hearings. Everyones trying to get some answers to a few things and well go from there, Manchin told The Hill. Weve talked and were still talking. Theres no decisions made on anything, I can assure you of that. As far as meeting with his Republican counterparts, Manchin insisted they were friends and that no decision had been made despite rumors they could vote in a bloc. Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly, of Indiana, and Jon Tester, of Montana, who were considered as possible swing vote candidates, decided they were going to vote against Kavanaugh. Donnelly announced early Friday he was going to oppose Kavanaugh during confirmation voting. He said in a statement he has deep reservations about Judge Kavanaughs nomination to this lifetime position, noting only 113 people have ever served on the Supreme Court, and I believe that we must do our level best to protect its sanctity. Tester followed suit hours later, announcing he was not going to vote for Kavanaugh either. He cited what he heard in the hearings in his statement. "I have deep concerns about the allegations of sexual assault against Judge Kavanaugh ... the only information I have is from what he said in his hearings. I'll be voting against him," Tester said. Senate Judiciary Committee The Judiciary Committee voted Friday to send Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate, even as Republican Sen. Flake backed a floor vote delay so a FBI probe could be conducted. Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate, and can only afford one defection in their bid to confirm Kavanaugh, assuming they secure no Democratic votes. Fox News Brooke Singman, Adam Shaw, Kaitlyn Schallhorn and the Associated Press contributed to this report. After a remarkable month-long cooperative effort to save a young, ailing orca (Orcinus orca) named Scarlet, or J50, authorities now presume the animal is dead because she hasn't been spotted in more than two weeks, King 5 News reported. Scarlet's death means the subpopulation of endangered southern resident killer whales now includes only 74 individuals, down from 98 individuals in 1995, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Scarlet was a 3-year-old female who was part of the J pod, one of three small groups of orcas (also called killer whales) within the southern resident killer whale subpopulation. [In Photos: Response Teams Try to Save Starving Killer Whale] The J pod also includes J35, or Tahlequah, a female whose calf died a half-hour after it was born on July 24. Biologists watched the grieving mother carry her dead calf around for hundreds of miles and an unprecedented 17 days. Since early August, teams of biologists and veterinarians in Washington and Canada have worked together to closely monitor Scarlet's health. When weather conditions allowed, the teams collected breath and fecal samples from Scarlet and administered antibiotics through a dart. As part of the rescue effort, fishermen with the Lummi Nation, a Native American tribe in western Washington, attempted to feed Scarlet fresh salmon by delivering the live fish through a tube placed in the water and pointed in her general direction. They're not sure if Scarlet chowed down on the easy prey, but even if she did, her health continued to decline. On Sept. 12, NOAA announced that it was formulating a plan to capture Scarlet and bring her into captivity for rehabilitation. But Scarlet disappeared before the capture could be executed. NOAA initiated an intense search using resources from air, land and sea with help from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Center for Whale Research and the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network, among others. But now, after more than two weeks of thorough searching, Scarlet hasn't been found, NOAA reported. Experts now have little choice but to assume the young orca is dead. And because she had become so thin and had very little blubber, her body likely sank to the seafloor, Lynne Barre, a biologist with NOAA, told Kiro 7. Scarlet's death has inspired renewed efforts to conserve this dwindling population of orcas. Dr. Joe Gaydos, a veterinarian with the University of California, Davis, Wildlife Health Center, who was part of Scarlet's rescue team, is now compiling an electronic medical health database for members of Scarlet's family, with hopes that it could help diagnose future ailments, reported King 5 News. The orca deaths have also reinvigorated petitions to remove dams in an effort to revive salmon populations and replenish the orcas' main food source, The Seattle Times reported. And at the end of last week, American and Canadian negotiators agreed to renew the Pacific Salmon Treaty, which governs salmon harvest and research throughout the Pacific Northwest region, National Fisherman reported. Several nonprofit wildlife and environmental groups in the northwest Washington area organized a memorial service that was held last Friday (Sept. 21) in honor of both Scarlet and Tahlequah's calf. The invitation led with the message, "First, we mourn, then, we organize." Original article on Live Science. Did Galileo Galilei really say all those terrible things that the Vatican said he did in his famous 1613 letter about a sun-centered solar system and in saying so, violate church doctrine? Or did the Catholic Church alter his words to make him look bad, so they could more easily declare him a heretic? A long-lost letter that recently emerged from a library archive in the United Kingdom may finally put this question to rest. The discovery sheds light on claims that Galileo made when he came under fire for suggesting that the church stick to religion and stay out of science, the journal Nature recently reported. According to Galileo, when Inquisition officials presented a copy of his letter as evidence of heresy, the words had been changed to make them seem more inflammatory. Galileo even produced another copy of the letter with much less incendiary language, to prove that he was being railroaded. [Science and the Catholic Church: A Turbulent History] But the newly discovered document tells a different story. Discovered in the Royal Society library by a visiting historian from Italy in August, the newfound letter had languished for centuries after being filed under the wrong date, according to Nature. It appears to be an original draft of the letter, which Galileo originally sent to his friend Benedetto Castelli in 1613, and it's signed with "G.G." Galileo's initials. In the letter, Galileo condemned the Catholic Church's interpretations of astronomy; those arguments were used against him when the Inquisition brought him to trial and convicted him in 1633. The new document contains numerous corrections in an attempt to take the edge off language that might be considered heretical, Nature reported. Words that Galileo first put to paper that were harshly critical of the church were later crossed out and corrected, suggesting that he self-edited to make his pronouncements less offensive to the church's eyes, according to Nature. For example, one passage referred to certain biblical claims as "false"; the description was later crossed out and amended to read "look different from the truth." If the document is what it appears to be, Galileo's original word choices were far more objectionable than the version that was sent to the Vatican. Nevertheless, Galileo asserted that the letter used by the Inquisition only sounded as critical as it did because church officials changed his words; he claimed that their document was a "fraud" circulated "under the cloak of zeal and charity," in a 1615 letter to a friend and cleric named Piero Dini. A description and interpretation of the letter will be published in the Royal Society journal Notes and Records, Nature reported. Original article on Live Science. What might stars be like in other universes? In realms where the force behind radioactive decay is stronger or weaker than in our cosmos, scientists now find that such star systems might often be habitable places for life as we know it. The laws of physics in our universe include a number of fundamental constants, such as the speed of light. However, many scientific models allow for the existence of a vast ensemble of universes called the multiverse, which might include places where the laws of physics differ. Many researchers have previously suggested that sufficiently large variations in the laws of physics would result in lifeless universes, so that only small differences in the fundamental constants would be permitted. To examine this idea further, astrophysicists examined universes where nuclear forces might differ and speculated on the potential habitability of these alternate places. [5 Reasons We May Live in a Multiverse] "We don't know if other universes exist, and if they do, we almost certainly can't observe them," study lead author Alex Howe, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, told Space.com. Still, "by doing this thought experiment, we are helping to answer a fundamental question did our universe have to be the way it is, or why did it have to be? In doing so, we learn more about our own universe," Howe said. More From Space.com 5 Reasons We May Live in a Multiverse The scientists focused on the weak interaction, also known both as the weak force and the weak nuclear force. This force is responsible for radioactive decay for example, it causes neutrons to decay into protons, electrons and electrically neutral particles known as electron antineutrinos. One key way the scientists measured habitability was to estimate whether the worlds in these universes could host liquid water on their surfaces. There is life virtually wherever there is liquid water on Earth, so the search for life outside Earth often focuses on water. Previous research found that a universe where the weak force is entirely absent could still be habitable. In the new study, the researchers examined scenarios where the weak force was still present but weaker than in our universe, as well as cases where it was stronger. In universes with a stronger weak force, neutrons would decay more rapidly, so the early universe in that scenario would be nearly devoid of helium, the researchers said. This is fine when it comes to levels of water in the universe, because water consists of hydrogen and oxygen. In universes with a weaker weak force, neutrons would decay more slowly, leading to more helium. For any hydrogen to survive without getting incorporated into larger atomic nuclei, the scientists found a different fundamental constant would have to be smaller. In other words, the ratio of baryons, which include protons and neutrons, to photons, which light is made of, would have to shrink. The weak force also plays a role in how stars fuse hydrogen into helium atoms, which can influence how bright, hot, large and long-lived stars are. Moreover, the weak force controls how often neutrinos interact with regular matter, which in turn has an effect on how energy drains from the interiors of stars. Universes with a weaker weak force would have stars with more deuterium, which is a hydrogen atom with an extra neutron within its nucleus. Deuterium-rich stars would be larger, brighter, and redder than equivalent stars in our universe, resembling thered giant stars of our cosmos. Universes with a stronger weak force would have stars with more helium-3, which is a helium atom missing a neutron from its nucleus. These stars would be slightly brighter and larger in diameter than equivalent stars in our universe and would have modestly shorter lifetimes, although they would have similar temperatures. Although stars in these universes are somewhat different from ours, their comparable surface temperatures, luminosities, diameters and lifetimes mean these universes would remain potentially habitable over a wide range of strengths for the weak force, according to the researchers. "The most surprising thing for me was that in most possible universes, stars still work one way or another," Howe said. "In many possible universes, stars would even have more complex life cycles than in ours or could be more favorable to life." All in all, "in my opinion, the most important implication is that there are many different ways a universe could work and still support life, not just the physics of our own," Howe said. Future research can examine universes with different strengths of the strong nuclear force, the strongest known force between particles, which binds protons together in atomic nuclei, despite their mutual repulsion, Howe said. The scientists detailed their findings online Sept. 13 in a study accepted by the journal Physical Review D. Original article on Space.com. Google CEO Sundar Pichai will finally meet with Republican lawmakers on Friday to discuss allegations of bias against conservatives, privacy and controversial business practices as it potentially seeks to reenter China. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.-CA.) is expected to be among the prominent Republicans to grill Pichai after Google skipped previous government meetings that occurred on Sept. 5, when Twitter and Facebook testified on Capitol Hill about meddling in the 2016 U.S presidential election. Google has a lot of questions to answer about reports of bias in its search results, violations of user privacy, anticompetitive behavior, and business dealings with repressive regimes like China, McCarthy said in a statement obtained by the New York Times. GOOGLE FACES PRIVACY BACKLASH OVER CHROME'S 'FORCED LOGIN' POLICY Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor oversees MRC TechWatch a new project dedicated to exposing incidents of bias and censorship online by major tech companies. Google is fending off a host of serious problems, Gainor told Fox News. First, there are concerns about promoting censorship and state control in China with Project Dragonfly. Closer to home, Google has to address consistent charges of bias against conservatives here in the U.S. GOP officials and political watchdogs have expressed concern that tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter have too much influence over the information made available to voters. President Trump even accused the tech giant of snubbing his State of the Union address, an accusation that the tech giant refuted. In addition to accusations of political bias, Google recently saw employees quit in protest to the companys potential plan to launch a censored version of its product in China. Google has been pressured by a consortium of human rights groups to abandon the project codenamed Project Dragonfly, which would be app-based and censored at the behest of the Chinese government. Gainor said Pichai must convince conservatives that he will treat them fairly with concrete plans to eliminate bias if he wants the tech giant to be considered fair. This is absolutely necessary after revelations of Googles alleged attempt to influence the 2016 election, as well as Googles staff meltdown after Trump won, Gainor said. Earlier this month, Google upset lawmakers by skipping a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. While Google was absent (the company offered its top lawyer, Kent Walker, to the committee, which was declined), Facebook sent its Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter sent its CEO, Jack Dorsey. A chair was left vacant representing where a Google representative was supposed to be seated. Traditionally, businesses have looked to Hill Republicans to protect them from regulation. But if they, too, fear the social media/search media firms are a threat, then Google is left with few allies. That makes regulation more likely, even though conservatives have no reason to expect regulation will solve the problems, Gainor said. He continued: The Conservatives Against Online Censorship coalition has made clear its members will work with tech companies that want to treat conservatives equally. But liberal staffs, byzantine hate speech rules and inconsistent enforcement of those rules mean it will take a major commitment by these companies to fix the problems. Like many Silicon Valley titans, Google has drawn the ire of conservatives who feel right-leaning views are condemned from within. Last week, internal emails between Google employees were unearthed and revealed a desire to manipulate search results on the heels of President Trumps controversial travel ban in order to mute conservative viewpoints and push ways to combat the ban. GOOGLE STAFFERS WANTED TO MANIPULATE SEARCH RESULTS TO COMBAT TRUMP'S TRAVEL BAN, EMAILS SHOW The emails show Google staffers chatting about methods to alter the companys algorithm to point users to pro-immigration organizations, lawmakers and agencies that fit the staffers political beliefs. Google is the most powerful company in the history of the world. Virtually all human information flows through its software and for that reason Google shapes how much of the world understands reality. At the heart of Googles business is its search engine, which has a virtual monopoly on search in this country, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said last week. But what if Google was lying to you? The company did not deny the existence of such emails to Fox News, but offered a statement, saying the "emails were just a brainstorm of ideas, none of which were ever implemented." A spokesperson added that "Google has never manipulated its search results or modified any of its products to promote a particular political ideology -- not in the current campaign season, not during the 2016 election, and not in the aftermath of President Trumps executive order on immigration." The Media Research Center has called for congressional hearings of Google after a series of events have made it appear that the company favors liberals, including a leaked video showing company executives displeasure that Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election. GOOGLE: APPS CAN SCAN AND SHARE YOUR GMAIL DATA, WITH CONSENT I look forward to meeting with members on both sides of the aisle, answering a wide range of questions, and explaining our approach. These meetings will continue Googles long history of engaging with Congress, including testifying seven times to Congress this year, Pichai recently told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported that Pichai would meet with lawmakers. Fox News Chris Ciaccia and Christopher Carbone contributed to this report. Google CEO Sundar Pichai met privately with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill Friday amid allegations of anti-conservative bias at the tech giant and concerns about the privacy issues and the firms re-entry into China. A source familiar with Googles closed-door portion of the meeting told Fox News that the meeting was positive and the "tone was tough but fair and respectful." Members werent shy about sharing their major concerns with Pichai, according to the source, and are looking to interview him in the future. While not every question lawmakers had was answered in the meeting, Google appears ready to sustain an engaged presence on the hill, the source said. GOOGLE CEO TO MEET GOP LAWMAKERS REGARDING ALLEGED BIAS AGAINST CONSERVATIVES Pichai's meeting with about two dozen Republican lawmakers was scheduled to be held in the Capitol office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who represents a district in Google's home state of California. Google has a lot of questions to answer about bias in its search results, violations of user privacy, anticompetitive behavior and business dealings w/ repressive regimes like China, McCarthy tweeted Thursday. The closed-door gathering was expected to include discussions about President Donald Trump's recent allegations that Google has been rigging the results of its influential search engine to suppress conservative viewpoints. Google has denied any political bias. GOOGLE GETS EMPTY CHAIR TREATMENT AT SENATE INTEL HEARING Recent reports that Google is poised to re-enter China with a search engine generating censored search results to comply with the demands of that country's Communist government were expected to be on the agenda. Also potential new regulations that would define how much personal information that internet companies can collect about people using their services. Google was given "the empty chair treatment" at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing earlier this month. Neither Pichai nor Larry Page, chairman of parent company Alphabet, chose to attend the event on election interference, much to the annoyance of lawmakers. The search giants offer to send its top lawyer, Kent Walker, to the committee, was declined. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg both attended the hearing. "The last two days' discussions with a wide range of congressional leaders were constructive and informative, said Pichai, in a statement emailed to Fox News. As we've done for over a decade, including testifying to Congress 22 times since 2008, we remain committed to continuing an active dialogue with Members from both sides of the aisle, working proactively with Congress on a variety of issues, explaining how our products help millions of American consumers and businesses, and answering questions as they arise. I am personally committed to testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in due course." Fox News Hillary Vaughn, Brian Flood, Chris Ciaccia and the Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers Hackers have targeted the Port of San Diego in a ransomware attack that disrupted the agencys IT systems. Officials are working with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate what is described as a serious cybersecurity incident. It is important to note that this is mainly an administrative issue and normal Port operations are continuing as usual, said Port of San Diego CEO Randa Coniglio, in a statement released Thursday. ALASKAN BOROUGH DUSTS OFF TYPEWRITERS AFTER RANSOMWARE ATTACK The Port remains open, public safety operations are ongoing, and ships and boats continue to access San Diego Bay without any impact from the incident, she explained. The attack was first reported Tuesday. While some of the Port's information technology systems were compromised by the attack, Port staff also proactively shut down other systems out of an abundance of caution, Coniglio said. The Port has mobilized a team of industry experts and local, regional, state and federal partners to minimize impacts and restore system functionality. The temporary impacts on service to the public are in the areas of park permits, public records requests, and business services. In ransomware attacks, hackers often attempt to encrypt a computer networks data to hold it hostage, providing a digital decryption key to unlock it for a price. CITY OF ATLANTA HIT BY RANSOMWARE ATTACK On Thursday the Port confirmed it received a ransom note requesting payment in Bitcoin, but is not disclosing the amount requested. The incident is the latest in a series of ransomware attacks against U.S. targets. An Alaskan borough, for example, had to dust off its typewriters following a major ransomware attack. SCARY RANSOMWARE ATTACKS FAMOUS NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY Earlier this year, the City of Atlanta was targeted in a ransomware attack that impacted a number of its systems. A virulent form of ransomware known as SamSam was used against the City. Last year, a major ransomware attack forced the shutdown of a host of IT systems at Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Also in 2017, a hacker targeted Sacramento Regional Transit, deleting 30 million files in a ransomware attack. Officials worked to restore the data from backup files. SHIPPING GIANT HIT BY CYBERATTACK, REFUSES TO PAY HACKERS' RANSOM In 2016, a Los Angeles hospital paid a ransom of nearly $17,000 in bitcoins to hackers who infiltrated and disabled its computer network. Set against this backdrop, organizations need visibility into the ransomware threat, according to Barry Shteiman, VP of research and innovation at cybersecurity specialist Exabeam. To detect ransomware early enough to stop it, cybersecurity teams must understand the business models used by ransomware network operators, as well as have visibility into the kill chain of a ransomware attack, and how to detect and disrupt ransomware in corporate environments, he said in a statement emailed to Fox News Thursday. Armed with this information, analysts should be able to react faster in the unfortunate event their organization is hit with a ransomware infection." The Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers At least two people died after a jet crashed Thursday afternoon in South Carolina when it failed to come to a stop on the runway and went down an embankment. It was not immediately clear why the jet failed to stop after landing at Greenville Downtown Airport, Airport Director Joe Frasher told FOX Carolina. The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting an investigation. The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene and the co-pilot died at a nearby hospital, the coroner told the station. A married couple onboard the plane are in critical condition. The co-pilot was identified as Stephen George Fox, 66, from Florida. The pilot, who has not been identified pending next-of-kin notification, is a man in his late 40s, the coroner told the station. Frasher told the station one of the pilots was found unconscious leaning against the throttle, and the engine was still running, throwing dirt and dust into the air when rescue personnel arrived. Hazmat crews were sent to the scene to clean up oil that was leaking from the Dassault-Breguet Falcon 50. It was not immediately clear where the flight originated, the station reported. The residents of a Cape Cod town have urged local officials to secure the safety of their beaches after a deadly shark attack claimed the life of a Massachusetts man earlier this month. Hundreds of concerned locals turned out for a community forum at an elementary school in Wellfleet on Thursday to discuss the uptick in shark sightings along the coastline, and to learn from experts and officials what can reasonably be done to prevent another attack. BEACH MANAGER SAYS PEOPLE WILL NEED TO USE 'COMMON SENSE' FOLLOWING FATAL CAPE COD ATTACK Suzanne Grout-Thomas, the Wellfleet Director of Community Services, began by outlining the steps officials have taken to increase awareness in previous years, including more training and updated first-aid procedures, CapeCod.com News reports. Thomas, however, said there was no way to ensure shark-free waters. We cannot put anything out there that will guarantee that youre never going to run into a shark, that no one will ever be attacked by a shark or tasted by a shark, she said, per CapeCod.com. Residents later pushed for officials to decrease the seal population in order to deter sharks seeking them out as a food source, either via a birth control system or by reducing seals protections, The Boston Globe reports. Others cited the less-than-ideal cell phone service on the beaches, which could slow efforts to reach emergency resonders. Residents, like Gail Sluis of Brewster, also took the floor to plead for drastic action. Theyre eating our fish, now theyre eating our children, said Sluis, according to the Globe. No sharks or seals are worth a young mans life theyre just not. Thursdays meeting comes following the death of 26-year-old Arthur Medici, of Revere, who succumbed to his injuries after being attacked by a shark off Newcomb Hollow Beach on Sept. 15. His death is believed to be Cape Cods first fatality attributed to a shark in 80 years. In a news release issued shortly afterward, Cape Cod National Seashore confirmed that Wellfleets beaches including the Newcomb Hollow Beach, where Medici was attacked were closed to swimming, though surfers and paddleboarders were spotted in the water the same day. SCARY VID SHOWS TOURISTS RUNNING FROM COLLAPSING CLIFF AT GREEK BEACH Warning signs had also been placed at beaches across Cape Cod in the weeks prior, around the time a 61-year-old man was attacked at a beach in the Cape Cod town of Truro. Thomas had also said in a statement to Fox News that the town would have to rely on peoples common sense and will to survive in order to prevent similar attacks. Thursdays forum ended with officials vowing to fund safety improvements and technologies that may help detect sharks, and even said they would look into the possibility of using drones to monitor waters, as per a suggestion from a local, CapeCod.com reported. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Officials were also open to the possibility of another forum, the Globe reported. A St. Louis man on Tuesday fatally shot a man for supposedly stealing his tools, authorities said. David Allen Sproling, 51, confronted a man named William Kirkwood, 60, at gunpoint, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. According to police, Sproling and Kirkwood had been in an argument leading up to the shooting. Police believed Sproling had accused Kirkwood of stealing tools from his property. Charging documents indicated Sproling had attempted to detain Kirkwood physically, and fired multiple shots after Kirkwood pried loose. Kirkwood was not armed, police said. Police responded to the scene around 12:30 p.m. Kirkwood was transported a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead. According to court documents cited by the Post-Dispatch, Sproling admitted to shooting Kirkwood and gave up his pistol. Sproling was charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action, the Post-Dispatch reported. Authorities havent indicated whether Sproling deliberately fired shots at Kirkwood or by accident. Click here for more from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A Los Angeles judge on Thursday reversed an order barring journalists from publishing courtroom photographs of a Texas man charged with beating to death three men in Southern California. The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times successfully challenged Superior Court Judge Gustavo Sztraicher's order as an unconstitutional intrusion on free speech. Sztraicher on Wednesday ordered reporters to stop filming and photographing when an attorney for Ramon Escobar objected. Dan Laidman, who represented the Times and AP, argued that higher courts have struck down prior restraint orders limiting coverage of criminal proceedings. Besides, Laidman said, media outlets had already published photographs of Escobar, who is charged in three killings and five other assaults of men sleeping outside in Los Angeles County this month. Laidman added that the journalists took photos a day earlier after getting the judge's blessing. Deputy Public Defender Jennifer Friedman argued Thursday that photos and video taken of Escobar a day earlier were unlawful because the judge hadn't signed a written copy of a media request to record the proceeding. Friedman also said she worried that the photos could taint testimony of potential witnesses. During Wednesday's hearing, Sztraicher initially told journalists he had approved a request to photograph. But as journalists began shooting, Escobar's attorney objected, telling the judge it could cause an "identification issue." Sztraicher then ordered the journalists to stop photographing the proceeding and also told a sketch artist to stop drawing. David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, hailed the judge's decision to vacate his order. "The order should never have been issued in the first place," he said. "I'm glad the court saw the light of day." Defense attorneys frequently argue that publishing their client's image before trial could improperly sway witnesses, Snyder said, and state court judges in California have broad discretion over whether photography is allowed in their courtrooms. Once photographs have been taken legally, however, "the toothpaste is out of the tube and the court cannot prevent them from being disseminated," he added. Investigators believe that Escobar, 47, bludgeoned his victims as they slept on the beach or on the streets in order to rob them. He was ordered held without bail pending a Nov. 8 arraignment. Police in Houston want to interview Escobar in the disappearance last month of his aunt and uncle. The El Salvador-native has a long criminal history, including six felony convictions for burglary and illegal re-entry, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released him from custody after Escobar won an appeal in immigration court in 2016. ___ Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego and David Warren in Dallas contributed. Follow Weber at https://twitter.com/WeberCM . A Texas inmate was executed Thursday evening for fatally running over his girlfriend in a jealous rage more than 18 years ago. It was the state's second execution in as many days. Daniel Acker was condemned for the March 2000 slaying of Marquetta George of Sulphur Springs. Prosecutors said he ran over George with his truck in rural northeast Texas because he believed she had been unfaithful to him. Asked by the warden if he had any final statement, Acker replied: "No, sir." He closed his eyes, took a breath, then slightly exhaled as the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect. There was no additional movement. He was pronounced dead 14 minutes later at 6:25 p.m. Acker did not acknowledge the presence of George's brother, Christopher Follis, who watched through a window a few feet away from him. Follis declined to speak with reporters after witnessing the punishment. Acker had no friends or relatives present. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Acker's attorneys on Thursday afternoon. They had argued the Acker was innocent of capital murder because his 32-year-old girlfriend's fatal injuries were due to her decision to jump from his truck after he abducted her. A similar appeal was rejected earlier this month by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The 46-year-old Acker became the 18th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the 10th given a lethal injection in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. Acker also was the second Texas inmate put to death in two days. Troy Clark received lethal injection Wednesday for torturing and drowning an East Texas woman in his bathtub and then stuffing her body into a barrel. The executions of Acker and Clark were the first time in nearly six years that Texas put to death inmates on consecutive days. At least eight other Texas inmates have planned execution dates in the coming months. At Acker's trial, several witnesses testified he got into a heated argument with George at a Sulphur Springs nightclub the night before her death over his suspicions she was sleeping with another man. Authorities said that the next day, Acker forced George kicking and screaming into his pickup truck. A witness later saw Acker pull George's body from his truck and lay her on the ground. In a petition to the Supreme Court, Acker's attorney, Richard Ellis, had argued the conviction was based on what he describes as a "now discredited" theory that Acker strangled George while he was driving. Ellis said prosecutors changed their theory of George's death after a prosecution expert testified at a post-conviction hearing in 2011 that she died from injuries after being run over. At Acker's trial, a medical examiner testified George had extensive injuries all over her body and her neck injuries were consistent with strangulation. But the medical examiner could not determine if strangulation or blunt force caused George's death. The autopsy report did conclude that several of George's injuries could have resulted from "an impact with or being ejected from a motor vehicle." "From the moment Daniel turned himself in to the authorities, he said that the victim Markie George jumped from the truck," Ellis said. "He has taken full responsibility for abducting her and has shown great remorse for that." In its response to Acker's Supreme Court petition, the Texas Attorney General's Office argued the theory that Acker ran over his girlfriend was presented at the trial to jurors. "Acker produces no new evidence showing he did not commit the crime but continues to assert that George's death resulted from her leap from the vehicle a theory rejected by the jury at the time of trial," the attorney general's office said. Multiple witnesses testified at Acker's trial that he made several death threats against George in the hours before her death. In a 2017 ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the prosecution's theory of George's death was "largely based on strangulation." But in denying Acker's appeal, the 5th Circuit ruled that all of the evidence, including the updated cause of death, still supports the prosecution's case as it was presented in the indictment and at trial. Some skeptics of #MeToo activism hope Brett Kavanaugh's angry denial of sexual assault allegations might help fuel a backlash against the year-old movement. But advocates for victimized women say it's now too powerful to be derailed. The mixed reactions followed Thursday's vehement assertion by Kavanaugh and his Republican allies that he was the victim of a "political hit job" by Democrats. They suggested that Kavanaugh's accuser was being exploited for partisan purposes. In a Philadelphia Inquirer column titled "Kavanaugh creates #MeToo moment for accused men," conservative writer Christine Flowers expressed empathy for the embattled federal judge, who is President Donald Trump's nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. #MeToo activists acknowledge their movement faces resistance, but they also note that more women are speaking out about being sexually abused. Eight suspects have been arrested and authorities have issued warrants for nine more in connection with a wave of robberies at Apple Stores throughout California, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Thursday. The value of stolen items, including iPhones, iPads, and other electronic devices, has exceeded $1 million, the Sacramento Bee reported. "We will continue our work with local law enforcement authorities to extinguish this mob mentality and prosecute these criminals to hold them accountable." Xavier Becerra, California attorney general In cases spanning 19 counties, from southernmost San Diego to Butte, teams of hooded thieves have been entering stores, grabbing display items and fleeing -- all in a matter of seconds, according to police reports. Video footage shows groups of men casually walking in Apple Stores before running off with merchandise, while customers stand idly by. APPLE STORE ROBBERIES CONTINUE IN BAY AREA, WITH 9 STORES HIT THIS MONTH The 17 suspects in Fresno, Santa Clara and Alameda counties have been charged with conspiracy to commit grand theft. Organized retail thefts cost California business owners millions and expose them to copycat criminals, Becerra said in a statement. Ultimately, consumers pay the cost of this merchandize hijacking. We will continue our work with local law enforcement authorities to extinguish this mob mentality and prosecute these criminals to hold them accountable. Officials Thursday were mum on exact numbers. But a KGO-TV report earlier this month indicated at least 21 separate incidents since May in California. A news released cited by the Bee said seven suspects were arrested in Oakland and booked into the Alameda County Jail. The eighth suspect was being held in Sonoma County. The remaining nine are wanted on arrest warrants. A joint investigation is being led by the San Luis Obispo and Oakland police departments, according to a news release. Assistance is being provided from law enforcement in each of the 19 counties involved. This successful collaborative efforts of law enforcement has resulted in dismantling a large criminal ring, Oakland police Chief Anne E. Kirkpatrick said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A body reported near an Ohio forest preserve Thursday afternoon turned out to be a sex doll, police said. County engineers in Colerain said they saw what they thought was a body wrapped in a garbage bag on a hillside near Richard Forest Preserve, Clevelands FOX 8 reported. Colerain is about a 25-minute drive north of Cincinnati. Responding officers initially had trouble getting to the site, WCOP-TV reported. Police called a coroner to the scene. When coroners removed the body they found a life-size female sex doll. From a distance, authorities said the doll looked lifelike. Authorities in Chicago this week said a South Side mother falsely wrote on social media that her 3-year-old son had died, then tried to drown him in a bathtub days later. Celeste T. Christian, 21, was charged with attempted murder as her son remained hospitalized in critical condition, the Chicago Tribune reported. The child was being treated at University of Chicago Medical Center for asphyxiation and water in his lungs. Police said someone had held the toddler underwater. Christian told police the child had wet himself after the father dropped him off, and gave him a bath. She claimed she left her son by himself for five to 10 minutes to check on her 2-year-old daughter. She heard splashing and ran back to the bathroom to find the boy limp in the water, with foam coming out his nose and mouth, and called 911. An hour before the child arrived at the hospital, a doctor received a call from an organ and tissue donor asking if the boy was there yet, police said. The donor did not reveal who told them the toddler would be there. When police interviewed the childs father, he told them Christian had earlier announced on social media that their son had died and wanted to make funeral plans, the paper reported. Christian was arrested and held without bail at Cook County Jail. Click here for more from the Chicago Tribune. An experiment that was supposed to help Denvers homeless population came to an abrupt end this week. City officials were forced to remove large outdoor storage containers that were meant to give homeless people a safe place to store clothing and other possessions after discovering that people were living inside them. Chris Conner, director of the citys Denver Road Home homelessness agency, told The Denver Post that they started seeing people remaining inside the 4-by-6-foot cabinets. He said there were also unconfirmed reports of people selling narcotics and allegations of prostitution inside the storage lockers There was a feeling that they had crossed a threshold and were making the area less stable and safe for people, he said. The city paid $30,000 to install 10 storage containers last year near Park Avenue and Lawrence Street, a busy intersection where large crowds of people congregate while waiting for access to services at the Denver Rescue Mission and other nonprofits, The Denver Post reported. Initially the program was supposed to run for at least 90 days and ended up lasting closer to a year. Homeless advocate Ray Lyall told the newspaper that while he was frustrated with the removal of the outdoor lockers, hes not surprised that people were staying in them. If its cold, its wet, Id have slept in those things, too, he said. I cant blame them for that. The city is talking to a nonprofit group about moving the containers to another location that would likely be gated and only available to homeless people who are seeking jobs, Conner said. Nonprofit groups and at least one business offer lockers for homeless people to use, some of them funded by the city. But they tend to be smaller and usually require people to check in with staffers before accessing them. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Prosecutors charged a former nurse Thursday with abusing multiple infants in a Wisconsin hospital's intensive care unit, accusing him of bruising them and breaking their bones. Christopher Kaphaem, 43, faces 19 felony child abuse counts involving nine infants. All but one of the counts carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison. The 19th count, intentional child abuse causing great bodily harm, carries a maximum 25 years behind bars. Hospital staff had documented an array of injuries to nine infants, including bruising, broken ribs, broken legs and a fractured skull. Police began investigating reports of injuries to infants in UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital's infant intensive care unit in February, according to the criminal complaint. The hospital is in Madison, the state capital. Kaphaem inflicted the injuries between March 2017 and February of this year, according to the complaint. Investigators interviewed another nurse who took care of one of the infants Kaphaem allegedly injured, Madison's WMTV-TV reported. "(N)ever in my 32 years of working in the NICU have I ever see anything like that, the nurse said, according to the station. "(N)ever in my 32 years of working in the NICU have I ever see anything like that." Former colleague of the ex-nurse facing charges Kaphaem's attorney didn't immediately return a message Thursday. Investigators keyed on Kaphaem, who worked the night shift in the unit, after other nurses told them that he had cared for the babies. They said Kaphaem often closed the door to the infants' rooms when he checked on them, ignored alarms, never asked for help and once said he was happy to work with infants because he didn't have to deal with patients talking back to him. The complaint doesn't indicate whether investigators ever spoke with Kaphaem or discuss a possible motive. Meriter suspended Kaphaem on Feb. 8, and state regulators suspended his license March 19. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspected the hospital in February, days after it suspended Kaphaem and issued a scathing report saying the facility didn't do enough to prevent the injuries. The failure was so serious it constituted an immediate threat to patient health safety and the hospital's Medicare contract could be terminated if the problem isn't fixed, the report said. The hospital released a statement saying the facility remains "devastated by what happened." "While we are deeply saddened by these recent events, we are determined to learn from them, regain your confidence and serve our patients for generations to come," the statement said. The statement also offered a bulleted list of improvements, including immediately removing Kaphaem from his job, cooperating with authorities, installing around-the-clock surveillance cameras in infant intensive care unit rooms and setting up a hotline for anyone with concerns about care in the unit. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A Florida woman on Tuesday was arrested for allegedly attacking her husband with a vacuum cleaner part while he attempted to avoid her early morning cleaning, The Tampa Bay Times reported, citing an affidavit. Holly Jane Akers, 31, of Holiday, Fla., started cleaing the house at 3 a.m., the report said. Pasco County deputies reportedly said she went "too far in pursuit of a well-kept home." Her husband moved from room to room in an attempt to sleep, but "she followed him" with the vacuum cleaner, the report said. Akers then allegedly struck him on the bridge of his nose with the vacuum cleaner attachment, the report said. The hit caused a minor abrasion that didn't require medical treatment, the report said. Akers denied hitting her husband with the part, the report said. Deputies arrested Akers shortly after 6 a.m. She is being held Wednesday at the Pasco County jail without bond, the report said. Akers is charged with one count of felony battery on a person 65 or older. The gripping testimonies of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of a sex assault in their youth, captivated America on Thursday, with Fox News dominating cable news viewership, early Nielsen ratings data showed. Fox News averaged a whopping 5.7 million viewers from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET during the hourslong hearing on Thursday, topping MSNBC (2.9 million) and CNN (2.5 million) combined. Fox News also dominated in the key demographic of adults ages 25-54, averaging 1.1 million viewers versus 736,000 for CNN and 464,000 for MSNBC. FNCs coverage, anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum with Chris Wallace, was up 253 percent in total viewers and 275 percent in the demo compared with the networks third-quarter average for the time slot. Fox News special coverage at 5 and 6 p.m. ET even attracted a larger audience than heavily promoted season premieres later in the evening -- for instance, ABCs Greys Anatomy and CBS Murphy Brown return to the airwaves. Fox News also beat the broadcast networks among total viewers and the demo, as ABC affiliates averaged 3.5 million while CBS and NBC affiliates averaged 3.2 million apiece. None of the broadcast networks topped the one-million plateau among viewers ages 25-54. Ford, a California professor, has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault during a high school house party in the 1980s. The judge has flatly denied the allegation, and did so again, vehemently, during the hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearing had no shortage of memorable, news-making moments such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., expressing his frustration with the process. (That process gained a dramatic new dimension on Friday as President Trump, at the urging of some senators, ordered the FBI to conduct a further, limited investigation before a floor vote on the Supreme Court nomination.) Fox News averaged 5.5 million prime-time viewers while MSNBC averaged 3.2 million viewers from 8-11 p.m. ET. Fox News topped CNN by 190 percent, as Jeff Zuckers network finished a distant third in prime time -- averaging 1.9 million viewers. FNC also led the way during prime time among the key demo, averaging 1.3 million viewers age 25-54 with MSNBC and CNN failing to crack the 1-million-viewer plateau. Hannity was the most-watched cable news program across the board, averaging 5.9 million total viewers and 1.4 million in the key demo. The Story with Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Ingraham Angle and Fox @ Night with Shannon Bream all joined Sean Hannity by winning their respective timeslots in both categories, too. Ford and Kavanaugh also boosted Fox News Digital to its highest number of politics page views, video initiates and time spent on the platform in 2018. The livestream of the hearing drove 3 million video starts on Thursday helping make it the highest day of video initiates this year. The hearing and other video content resulted in eight million livestream video initiates across Fox News Digital on Thursday. All ratings data is courtesy of early Nielsen ratings. Montana wildlife officials said a hunter shot and killed a female grizzly bear Wednesday and wounded her cub that was later euthanized in self-defense. A spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks told the Associated Press that the bow hunter was in thick brush on Montana's Rocky Mountain Front when he came across the bears at the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area. The hunter shot both with a pistol. The adult female bear was killed and the 2-year-old cub was wounded and had to be put down. It was unclear what led up to the shooting. Grizzles are protected under the Endangered Species Act in the Lower 48 states. Investigators determined the hunter was acting in self-defense and will not face charges. The incident follows another that occurred earlier this week when a bow hunter killed a grizzly that attacked him in Montanas Blackfeet Indian Reservation. On Monday, a bow hunter a killed moose on the reservation and was preparing to move toward the animal when a grizzly attacked him. The hunter was taken to a hospital and treated for his injuries and released. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the incident. The Associated Press contributed to this report Interest in a Louisiana library's planned "Drag Queen Story Time" is so high that the event is moving to a community college auditorium. A notice on the Lafayette Public Library's webpage states that it's moving the Oct. 6 event from the library to South Louisiana Community College's Health and Sciences auditorium because of safety concerns resulting from an expected overflow crowd. Libraries and book stores around the country have held programs in which men in drag read stories to children. Some drew protests. The Lafayette event is being hosted by the library and the university's Umbrella Club, with readings by members of a University of Louisiana-Lafayette chapter of Delta Lambda Phi, a fraternity of "gay, bisexual and progressive men." Public comments at a city-parish council meeting last month were overwhelmingly supportive. At a library board meeting last week, opponents appeared to outnumber supporters. The books to be read are "Strictly No Elephants," ''From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea" and "The Rainbow Fish." "Strictly no Elephants" is about a boy whose tiny elephant is barred from a pets club. He starts a new club with a girl whose non-smelly skunk was also barred. "From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea" is about a child who can change into any shape, but can't decide what to be. The child's choices include boy or girl, bird or fish, cat or rabbit, and tree or star. Schoolmates reject the child at first. "The Rainbow Fish" is shunned by other fish after he refuses to give one of his gorgeous scales to another fish. He then makes friends by giving away all of his scales but one. A military jet a short distance from its base crashed in South Carolina on Friday with the pilot ejecting safely and no one on the ground injured, authorities said. The 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing F-35B crashed about 11:45 a.m. into an uninhabited marsh island near the Grays Hill community, authorities said. The jet was based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort about 4 miles (6 kilometers) west of the crash site at Little Barnwell Island, the station said in a news release. The Marine pilot ejected before the crash and was being checked for injuries, authorities said. Video from the scene showed black smoke still rising from the island more than an hour after the crash. Military officials and local police secured the island and asked people to stay away from the area. The Marine F-35B fighter jet was on a routine training mission. The Marine version of the jet is capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings. One flew its first combat mission Thursday in Afghanistan. The jet costs about $100 million. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps all have their own versions of the F-35. The program has been criticized by some in Congress for testing problems, delays and cost overruns. Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort is home to a squadron of F-35Bs and is the only place where pilots train to fly the jet, including some from the United Kingdom. The crash site, Little Barnwell Island, is a historic site on the National Register. The island has two mounds that archeologists think were used as a temple or in other ceremonies and were built around 1500. ___ Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report. A set of small binoculars believed to have been used by President Abraham Lincoln on the night he was assassinated in a Washington theater are now the latest prized possession of a New Orleans antique gallery. The black enameled opera glasses were recently acquired by M.S. Rau Antiques, a shop on the French Quarter's Royal Street. Third-generation owner Bill Rau says the price is set at $795,000. The opera glasses are said to have fallen from the mortally wounded Lincoln's body as he was carried from Ford's Theatre in 1865. A captain with the Washington City Guard picked them up from the street. They were handed down in his family for generations before being matched in 1968 to a case found in the balcony after Lincoln was shot. A man suspected in nearly a dozen armed robberies is now facing murder charges in connection to four deaths in Oklahoma, including two people who investigators initially thought died in a traffic accident, Oklahoma City police said Friday. Mario Normore, 27, has been jailed for almost a year on 10 counts of robbery with a firearm involving several businesses and two banks, according to court records. On Friday, police announced that prosecutors have agreed with a police recommendation that Normore also be charged with four counts of murder. Formal murder charges had yet to be filed as of Friday afternoon, a delay that isn't unusual in Oklahoma. Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater did not immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press seeking comment. Normore's attorney said Friday afternoon that he didn't yet know whether Normore would face more charges. Normore has pleaded not guilty to the robbery counts and is being held in the Oklahoma County Jail without bond. Normore has been in custody since October on the robbery charges. He was later linked to four deaths dating back to last year, according to Oklahoma City Police Officer Megan Morgan. "He's the only suspect right now," said Morgan, a spokeswoman for the police department. Morgan said the cases include the July 2017 deaths of Bashar Burks, 27, and his girlfriend, Ashley Easton, 30. Police said Normore worked with Burks, whose body was found inside a burning vehicle that had been involved in a crash. At the time, police said his body showed signs of trauma that occurred prior to the crash. Easton's body also showed signs of trauma when it was discovered later in a nearby ditch. Police haven't released details about the injuries or the case, including what allegedly linked Normore to the deaths. Morgan said Normore is also suspected in the deaths of 21-year-old Searra Howe, who had been missing since August 2017 before her body was discovered in a field in October, and 58-year-old James Steven Knowles, who has been missing since October and is presumed dead. Normore was reportedly a friend of Howe's prior to her death, while Knowles was the maintenance man in the apartment complex where Normore lived, according to police. Details about those cases, including what evidence allegedly links Normore to the victims' disappearances, also haven't been released. ___ This story has been corrected to show Normore is being held on 10 robbery counts, not nine. After allegedly burglarizing a fraternity house, a 25-year-old woman reportedly was caught with her pants down by a house member. The woman, identified as Melissa Lenz by KFOR-News, allegedly entered the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity at Oklahoma City University on Sunday through the front door, which was unlocked. She then went into a room, where she stole hundreds of dollars in cash and a set of car keys, according to the report. TENNESSEE BUSINESS LEADER FATALLY SHOT WHILE HOSTING RUN, POLICE SAY During that time, Lenz also reportedly defecated in the middle of the same room, KFOR-News reported, citing court documents. Jennifer Rodgers, the Oklahoma City University police chief, told the news station a fraternity member, who has not yet been identified, walked in on her while she was in the process of defecating. At that time, Lenz "screamed and pulled up her pants before slamming the door, KFOR-News reported. Shortly after, when police arrived, they allegedly found "a plastic bag that smelled of fecal matter, according to the news station, citing a probable cause affidavit. CHURCH YOUTH GROUP LEADER CHARGED WITH CHILD SEX ABUSE Though Lenz allegedly escaped the house through an open window before police arrived, she was later located and arrested. The stolen items were returned to the fraternity member, KFOR-News reported. A San Francisco man allegedly decapitated his grandmother inside her residence at a senior living facility, officials said. Authorities found Chii-Chyu Horng, 82, dead around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday during a welfare check, SFGate reported. Horngs grandson, Andrew Luke, 30, was arrested at the scene and taken to a hospital for a medical evaluation. He is charged with murder and elder abuse, the paper said. A police spokesman did not confirm details of the killing and would not reveal a suspect, only saying he "is a family member of the victim." Lukes ex-stepmother, Eva Fok, told the paper on Thursday that Horng raised him after his mother died of lupus when he was a child. She said he had been living with Horng when he allegedly killed her. A 90-year-old California man was arrested Tuesday in connection with the death of his stepdaughter, authorities said. Police conducted a welfare check Sept. 13 after Karen Navarra, 67, failed to show up to work, the Mercury News of San Jose reported. Navarras body was discovered in her San Jose residence with visible injuries, according to the paper. An autopsy found that Navarra died of blunt force trauma, police said. An investigation led to the arrest of her stepfather, Anthony Aiello, on suspicion of murder. He was being held without bail at the Santa Clara County Jail, according to the paper. A motive was not immediately clear, the paper reported. Authorities are asking anyone with additional information to contact the San Jose Police Departments Homicide Unit at 408-277-5283. Click here for more from the Mercury News. Georgia cops didn't waffle when it came time to arrest a man accused of stealing five boxes of Golden Malted batter from a former employer's storage shed. Brandon Lee Nelson, 33, was charged with burglary in connection with the theft of 150 pounds of waffle mix, Peachtree City police spokeswoman Lt. Odilia Bergh told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Nelson allegedly then sold the waffle mix to several people, authorities said Thursday. Nelson had a stream of buyers that would contact him for the waffle mix and he would provide it when contacted, Bergh told the paper. He is the seller of waffle mix. Nelson drove to his former employer's storage facility in August and stole five boxes of Golden Malted waffle batter, police said. The suspect allegedly pried open the shed after arriving at the facility around 1 p.m. Aug. 31, the newspaper reported. Bergh said Nelson then covertly sold it to buyers who contacted him about the stolen mix. The missing waffle mix was reported Sept. 10, the report said. Nelson later was identified on surveillance video and arrested at his home later that day, Bergh said. He has since posted bail and been released. It was unclear if he has a lawyer. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A Mississippi man facing retrial in the murder trial of Jessica Chambers deleted text messages to the 19-year-old shortly after her killing, an FBI agent testified Thursday. Quinton Tellis, 29, is facing capital murder charges in connection with Chambers death. Tellis doused Chambers with gasoline then lit her on fire in Dec. 6, 2014, in the town of Courtland, prosecutors said. Courtland is a rural town in Northwestern Mississippi. Tellis initial trial ended in 2017 with a hung jury. Thursday marked the third of retrial. Dustin Blount, the FBI agent, told jurors in Panola County Circuit Court that Tellis had previously admitted to riding around with Chambers and a friend while the two women smoked marijuana. Blount said Tellis denied seeing Chambers again, and that his only contact was when Chambers had asked for money. Tellis allegedly told the agent he deleted his text messages with Chambers after hearing about her death. Reports said emergency responders found Chambers emerging from the woods near her burning car. Chambers reportedly had severe burns covering 93 percent of her body and was wearing only her underwear. She died a few hours later at a Memphis hospital. On Tuesday, Tellis lawyers claimed that multiple emergency responders had heard the victim mention Derek or Eric before she died. But prosecutors cast doubt on those claims, arguing that the victims condition rendered her unable to articulate words. One medic who treated Chambers at a hospital told jurors, (Chambers) could have made sounds, but not sounds that we would be able to say is speech. Jurors on Thursday were brought to the scene of the 2014 murder and a half-dozen other locations related to the case, The Commercial Appeal reported. Circuit Court Judge Gerald Chatham suggested that prosecutors could recreate the crime scene Thursday night, in part to give jurors an idea of how noisy and dark it was, but defense attorneys objected to that idea. On Wednesday, a woman who didnt testify in Tellis initial trial said she had picked up a hitchhiker the night Chambers was killed. She told jurors that she initially thought Tellis was her cousin, but gave him a ride anyway. When asked why she didnt come forward in the first trial she said, I couldnt remember and I thought it was irrelevant. Tellis is facing another murder indictment in the 2015 fatal stabbing of a Taiwanese graduate student in Monroe, Louisiana. He's already pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of her debit card. The 29-year-old is currently serving a prison sentence in Mississippi on an unrelated burglary charge. The Associated Press contributed to this report A former airline executive and Tennessee business leader was fatally shot Thursday night as he hosted a 4-mile run, and police launched a search for his killer. Philip Trenary, the president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce and former Pinnacle Airlines CEO, was shot and killed in downtown Memphis. He was hosting the annual Move it Memphis race, in which participants run alongside the Mississippi River. Trenary was pronounced dead at Regional One Health hospital, according to the Commercial Appeal. The suspect was described as a male with dreadlocks, wearing a blue shirt and driving a white Ford F150. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland twitteed the shooting senseless. Like many of you, I'm shocked at the senseless loss tonight of Phil Trenary, a leader in our community. More than anything in these hours, my thoughts are with his family and Chamber colleagues, he said. Gov. Bill Haslam tweeted that our hearts are broken with the news. Trenary founded Lone Star Airlines in Oklahoma in 1984 and came to Memphis to run a regional airline that became Pinnacle, a $1 billion company with more than 7,000 employees. He left Pinnacle in 2011. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The former governor of Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz pleaded guilty to charges of organized crime and money laundering, and received a nine-year sentence, prosecutors said Thursday. The plea deal reached with Javier Duarte was an anti-climactic end to Mexico's highest-profile corruption case in recent years and sparked anger among critics since he can apply for parole in as little as three years. Duarte accused of embezzling millions in state money took a leave from the governorship of Veracruz and fled to Guatemala before being extradited back to Mexico in July 2017 to face justice. Along with the prison sentence, Duarte had 41 properties seized as part of the deal. But he will not have to pay reparations. "In cases like these, we are never satisfied," said federal prosecutor Felipe de Jesus Munoz. "We have to follow what the law says." Munoz said that after serving 4 years half the sentence Duarte could apply for parole, and that he will be credited for the 1 years he has already spent in prison. "It's all a circus," said President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who made fighting corruption a focus of his campaign. He said the sentence is a demonstration of the lack of political will to fight corruption by outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto since not all the evidence against the ex-governor was presented. But current Veracruz Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes said that despite the federal plea deal, Duarte still faces an array of state charges. "It will be many years before Duarte gets out of prison," said Yunes. Prosecutors said Duarte used much of the embezzled money to buy properties. Yunes said that state authorities estimated that a total of about $120 million in properties, money and possessions had been seized from Duarte. And Yunes revealed that state prosecutors have issued a warrant for Duarte in the case of the forced disappearance of over a dozen people in Veracruz during Duarte's 2010-2016 administration. However, Yunes said Guatemala which initially agreed to extradite Duarte only to face the corruption charges must still agree to allow him to be tried on the abduction charges. Charges have already been brought against about 20 former Veracruz law enforcement officials who allegedly kidnapped and killed 15 innocent civilians. Duarte was one of a string of other governors from the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party who were charged in corruption cases. They include fugitive former Chihuahua Gov. Cesar Duarte and ex-Gov. Tomas Yarrington of Tamaulipas, who was arrested in Italy. Public disgust with the ex-governors is believed to have played a role in their party's crushing defeat in the July 1 presidential and state elections. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 Facing a financial crisis after the United States cut funding, the head of the U.N. agency that helps 5.3 million Palestinian refugees says the problem of their well-being will continue to exist whether there's money or not and especially if it was forced to shut down. While the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, got some good news Wednesday with new pledges of $118 million, it remains $68 million in the hole this year. And in January it will face the problem of trying to find funding for next year's budget of about $1.2 billion. "Of course, we worry about it," UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said. "The key question for next year will be whether these countries that have shown themselves so generous in supporting us this year ... are they prepared to sustain those contributions?" As Krahenbuhl sat down for an interview with The Associated Press about the agency's future on Thursday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly that UNRWA is critical to millions of his people but U.S. officials "just want to obliterate it altogether." UNRWA was established after the war surrounding Israel's establishment in 1948 to aid the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes. Today, it provides education, health care and social services to 5.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Krahenbuhl said the sudden U.S. funding cut of $300 early this year and the Aug. 31 announcement by the Trump administration that it was ending decades of funding for UNRWA were "a matter of deep regret and sincere disappointment" since the U.S. was historically the agency's largest donor, paying nearly 30 percent of its budget. "But it's a disappointment also because the decision was taken for political reasons," he said. "It's not in relation to our performance, and that makes it very difficult for a humanitarian organization because for political reasons we're related and adjusted to the tensions between the U.S. and the Palestinian leadership." "It's very important to protect humanitarian funding from these forms of politicization," Krahenbuhl stressed. In announcing the end to funding, the U.S. called UNRWA an "irredeemably flawed operation." The Trump administration's top Mideast adviser, Jared Kushner, went further in an internal email published by Foreign Policy magazine. He was quoted as calling for a "sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA" and saying the agency "perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn't help peace." Israel, which praised the end of U.S. funding, accuses UNRWA of perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some Israelis accuse the agency of teaching hatred of Israel in its classrooms and tolerating or assisting Hamas, the militant Islamic group that rules Gaza. Krahenbuhl rejected all the allegations and touted the quality of UNRWA schools, saying it was a touch-and-go decision to open them for the new school term that started in August. "The fact that donors came forward Gulf countries, Asia, Europe, Canada and others, helped us and allowed us to open the school year," he said. The Palestinians fear the U.S. is putting pressure on host countries to absorb their refugee populations and eliminate the issue from future peace negotiations. Kushner and Jason Greenblatt are preparing a peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians whose release is highly anticipated. President Donald Trump said Wednesday for the first time that the United States supports a two-state solution. Krahenbuhl reiterated that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly supports a two-state solution and has said there is "no Plan B." He stressed that a peace deal "has to be inclusive of the concerns and aspirations of Palestinian refugees." The Palestinians also say the attempt to define who is a Palestinian refugee by Israel and the United States is an attempt to get the issue on the negotiating table, just as the Trump administration did with Jerusalem by recognizing it as Israel's capital. Krahenbuhl said the U.N. General Assembly, where UNRWA's mandate originated, states clearly that refugees and the children, grandchildren and descendants are recognized as refugees. He noted that the U.N. refugee agency has the same definition. "It is not for an individual member state to modify that or to suddenly suggest unilaterally that there is a change in numbers," he said. As for those who would like to see UNRWA disappear, Krahenbuhl said: "At the end of the day, whether UNRWA exists or not is not the core question." That question is: "Is the international community prepared to bring about a political solution that is at the heart of the continued existence of this refugee community 70 years after" the 1948 war?, he asked. "I'm certain the Palestinian refugees would like nothing more than a horizon that opens and tells them something different can be achieved with an independent state of their own," he said. Everyone flying aboard an Air Niugini plane that crash-landed in the water early Friday in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) has survived, officials said. The incident occurred in Chuuk, an official with the countrys Division of Civil Aviation told RNZ Pacific. TWO DEAD AFTER JET RUNS OFF SOUTH CAROLINA RUNWAY The Boeing 737-800 plane crashed in the lagoon short of the runway as it was landing. It was supposed to land but instead of landing it was 150 yards short and she went down, Jimmy Emilio, general manager of Chuuk Airport at Weno in Micronesia, told Reuters. An official with the airport told RNZ Pacific 36 passengers and 11 flight crew members were onboard the aircraft. Everyone onboard was able to safely evacuate the aircraft. Passengers and crew members were taken to a hospital, but no one suffered serious injury, according to Emilio. Only the top half of the plane was visible in a photo obtained by RNZ Pacific, and small boats boarded with people were scattered around it. BEES SWARM AIRPLANE ENGINE AT SOUTH AFRICAN AIRPORT, DELAY MULTIPLE FLIGHTS The aircraft was enroute to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, the outlet reported. Investigators were expected to fly to the scene to look in to the accident, a spokesman for Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Commission told RNZ. Fox News' Stephen Sorace and the Associated Press contributed to this report. A new survey commissioned by Twaweza Uganda shows that majority of the Ugandan citizens interviewed believe strongly in their right to access government information, with the 77 per cent of the interviewees saying that information held by public authorities is a public resource that should be availed to them without any hindrance whenever they want it. The research findings also show that 78 per cent of the respondents think citizens should be able to access information from government on; expenditure on public services (47 per cent), jobs available in government (14 per cent, money disbursed to district government (7 per cent), development/procurement plans (4 per cent). The findings are found in the research brief shared by Twaweza Uganda on Friday to mark the International Right to Know Day. The brief is titled Access to Information: unlocking the flow, fulfilling the potential. Stories Continues after ad The research recognises Article 41 of the Ugandan Constitution which stipulates that: Every citizen has a right of access to information in the possession of the state or nay other organ or agency of the state. However, the information may not be released to those who require it where it likely to prejudice the security or sovereignty of the state or interfere with the right of privacy of any person. Despite strong support and desire to access information, citizens think it is hard to get. For instance, 90 per cent of citizens say it would be difficult or impossible to get information from government on the development budget. 85 per cent and 85 per cent say it would be difficult or impossible to get information on agriculture and school exam performance rankings, respectively. However, majority say information on construction plans would be easier to come by, much as 47 per cent think that it would be difficult or impossible to do so. Not knowing where to look for this information (45 per cent) and long travel distance (32 per cent) are the main reasons given for the challenges. The data also shows that citizens experiences resonate with institutions or professionals who seek information. The AskYourGov.ug website (76 per cent) and the Hub for Investigative Media (62 per cent) both show that the majority of requests in in between 2013 and 2015 are marked as pending (not yet responded to. One out of five requests or 21 per cent on AskYourGov.ug was successful. There is concern that government institutions seemed to use different tactics to avoid fulfillment of access to information requests. For instance, providing incomplete outdated data, treating requesters with suspicion or hostility, and delaying or dismissing requests for no reason. While seeking for information, data shows that 100 per cent prefer physical visits while 71 per cent prefer the use of phones. Other means of communication like the internet are used by less than 1 out of 10 Ugandans interviewed. When it comes to their main source of information from government, 75 per cent of citizens unequivocally chose radio, followed by community meetings at 32 per cent. To remove the blockages to information, citizens think government should use channels that they use, make information proactively available and accessible, promote its availability rather than waiting for citizens to request it and training all government personnel on the Access to Information Law. Other obstacles as identified by Twawezas review of available literature are: That citizens have strong tendencies towards relying on the word of mouth as a resource rather than directly seeking the relevant information. There is also a fear of and deference to authority. The findings reveal that citizens may also not be motivated to seek government information in the face of more pressing concerns around life necessities. But the Shs20, 000 cost of filling a request and low access to internet may also place practical constraints in their way. On the government side, there are a number of laws that run counter to the spirit of the access to information law including the Evidence Act, the Official Secrets Act and some parts of the Penal Code. In addition, there seems to be a general attitude of secrecy and the fear of releasing the wrong thing. General restrictions on some political rights and concentrated ownership of the media outlets all play a role in restricting citizens access to information. Ms Viola Alinda, Advocacy Manager at Twaweza: Uganda is a regional champion in terms of financial transparency and our access to information law has been around for much longer than those of our peers. Yet in reality citizens are not easily able to actualize their right to information. Although some of the obstacles are entrenched and may take time to change, there are some more straight forward practical steps the government can take to address the gap between policy and practice. If citizens are to access information as they should, the report argues that there should be a concerted effort to allow proactive information sharing from local authorities, especially via radio and community meetings. This makes some information available as a default and sends a signal that government business is open for scrutiny,Ms Alinda says. More so, it is recommended that officials in local authorities need to be trained and sensitised on the law and their responsibility in sharing information. This again send an important signal to public servants and citizens as well as well as overcoming officials knowledge gaps about this law. And that instead of the Shs200, 000 request fee, seekers of information should only pay for reproduction costs like photocopying fees. When the above recommendations are done, researchers say, they will go a long way to ensuing Ugandans can enjoy their constitutional legal right to information. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 On the map, their homes are tiny specks in a vast sea of blue, rarely in the headlines and far removed from the centers of power. But for a few days each year, the leaders of small island nations share a podium with presidents and prime ministers from the world's most powerful nations, and their message is clear: Global warming is already changing our lives, and it will change yours too. Speaking shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump whose fiery speech made no mention of climate change Danny Faure told the U.N. General Assembly this week that for his country, the Seychelles, it's already a daily reality. "We see its effects in our eroding coastlines and unpredictable weather patterns," he said. "We see its effects on our coral reefs and rising sea levels." The Indian Ocean nation off the east coast of Africa is one of dozens of Small Island Developing States or SIDS for short that have been trying to draw attention to what they see as the overarching threat of our time. "Decades ago, small island developing states warned the world of the risks of climate change, and those were once theoretical threats," said Hilda Heine, president of the Marshall Islands a sprawling series of atolls in the Pacific Ocean thousands of miles north of Australia. The message may finally be getting through, in part due to the devastating wildfires, storms and floods that have affected millions of people in the developed world over the past months. "The extreme weather events lately have underscored to leaders elsewhere that this will affect their populations, too, in the here and now," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who has followed international climate negotiations for many years. The realization may help push leaders to commit to greater action to rein in climate change ahead of a year-end deadline that countries have set themselves to flesh out the 2015 Paris climate accord, Meyer said. But he warned that there remains a big gap between the rhetoric on climate change, and the willingness of leaders of major economies like Germany or Japan to take decisive actions, such as stop burning fossil fuels. Despite its minuscule carbon emissions, Heine said her nation wants to show it, too, is prepared to do its part. The country is aiming to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, a goal most climate experts consider an absolute deadline if the world is to avert runaway warming of more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. Marshall Islanders know the future of their country, much of which is little over a meter (3.3 feet) above sea level, hangs in the balance. A recent report predicted that the world's oceans will rise by an average of at least 2 feet (61 centimeters) by the end of the century compared to now. Experts say the actions of the United States, which Trump announced will pull out of the Paris agreement, could play a decisive role in the future of small islands. Some officials warn that islanders may have to abandon their homes long before they sink beneath the waves, as the cost of rebuilding after every storm surge becomes too great. "Last year, the passage of the storms Olga and Maria meant for our country the destruction of infrastructure built for a billion dollars," said Danilo Medina, president of the Dominican Republic. "Imagine what that means for a country in which the annual budget of the state is already limited." Medina said his Caribbean country backs calls for an international fund to compensate poor nations for the loss and damage caused by climate change. "This fund will help protect the valuable lives of millions of human beings, bring peace of mind to their homes, allow them to have a future without the permanent uncertainty of feeling threatened every time they see the rain coming." His words were echoed Thursday by Haiti's President Jovenel Moise, who urged rich countries to stick to their pledges under the Paris accord, which includes include financial aid for vulnerable nations to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change. New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, told a meeting of government and business leaders in New York this week of a recent visit to her country's Pacific neighbors of Samoa, Tonga, Niue and the Cook Islands. "Cyclones are not new to the region, but the scale and devastation of them in recent times is new," she said. Ardern said she saw village children in Tonga having to cross roads now regularly flooded on their way to school, and saltwater seeping into underground aquifers, destroying the islands' few freshwater supplies. "There is a grinding reality in hearing someone from a Pacific island talk about where the sea was when they were a child, and potential loss of their entire village as an adult," Ardern told the General Assembly on Thursday. Faure, the president of Seychelles, insisted that he's not asking to shut down the global economy, with its global travel and trade. "But we need to remain aware of its consequences on our planet and our future. Through our neglect, we risk our children inheriting a planet beyond their capacity to repair," said Faure. ___ Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter Rights activists said Friday that the Philippine president acknowledged in a speech that he permitted extrajudicial killings in his brutal drug war, but his aides argued it was a misunderstanding and stressed his repeated past denials. Human Rights Watch said President Rodrigo Duterte's "admission should erase any doubt about the culpability of the president" and prod the International Criminal Court to hasten a review of a complaint against him for mass murder. "Truly, a fish is caught by its mouth and a foul man by his deeds," opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros said. She added that the alleged admission "will serve to contribute in moving forward national and international efforts to exact accountability from the president and his cohorts." In a speech to government executives on Thursday, Duterte said he had told the military they could remove him if they were unsatisfied with his rule, and asked what "sins" he had committed. "Did I steal even a peso?" he said. "My only sin is the extrajudicial killings." Presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said Duterte meant drug killings are the only accusation of wrongdoing brought against him. Panelo suggested that the president may not have expressed himself clearly in Tagalog, the national language, and noted that he had repeatedly denied condoning unlawful killings by law enforcers in the past. Duterte has said he sometimes finds it difficult to speak in Tagalog because he's more proficient in Bisaya, the widely spoken dialect in the south, where he served as a longtime mayor before becoming president in 2016. Duterte has denied allowing extrajudicial killings, although he has repeatedly and publicly threatened drug suspects with death. In the same speech on Thursday, Duterte, a former government prosecutor, repeated his defense against allegations that he was involved in the killings of drug suspects in reported clashes with police. "Four thousand deaths. When? Where? How? What did I use? Nothing," he said, adding that most drug suspects died because they fought back and endangered the lives of police officers. Duterte acknowledged that some policemen are involved in the drug trade. "And they are the ones killing, when you could not remit (the money) to them," he said. Police say at least 4,854 suspects have been killed in the anti-drug campaign since Duterte took office, with more than 155,000 others arrested in the unprecedented crackdown that has alarmed Western governments and U.N. groups. Human rights organizations have cited much higher death tolls. The retired Vatican ambassador accusing the pope and his advisers of covering up a former American cardinals alleged sexual misconduct is now demanding the Catholic Church speak out about the case saying Francis behavior is hardly consistent with his calls for transparency. The latest criticism from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano was uploaded to a document-sharing website late Thursday comes weeks after the Vatican said it was preparing "necessary clarifications" about his accusations. "How can one avoid concluding that the reason they do not provide the documentation is that they know it confirms my testimony?" Vigano wrote in the document. "The pope's unwillingness to respond to my charges and his deafness to the appeals by the faithful for accountability are hardly consistent with his calls for transparency and bridge building, he added. Vigano threw Francis' papacy into a crisis last month when he accused him of rehabilitating ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI. Vigano went on to accuse more than two dozen current and former Vatican officials, as well as a host of U.S. bishops and papal advisers, of being part of the cover-up and called for Francis to resign over the scandal. Francis removed McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a U.S. church investigation determined an allegation he fondled a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible. After news broke of the investigation, several former seminarians and priests came forward to report that they, too, had been abused or harassed by McCarrick as adults. In his first denunciation, published Aug. 26, Vigano initially claimed Benedict had imposed sanctions against McCarrick prohibiting him from exercising public ministry, travelling or lecturing on behalf of the church. He has changed his account, however, since the historic record contains evidence McCarrick lived his ministry free from any real constraints, and it is unclear what type of sanctions were ever imposed, the Associated Press reported. The claim at the center of case though is that Vigano says he told Francis of the sanctions against McCarrick on June 23, 2013, but the pope effectively rehabilitated McCarrick and made him a trusted adviser. Francis has refused to directly respond to Vigano's claims, though the Vatican weeks ago said they would and have yet to give an answer. Vigano in the document also accuses Francis putting in place a subtle slander against him. The Associated Press reports that in some of Francis recent morning homilies, he has referred to the case indirectly, speaking of the silence of Jesus before the "Great Accuser" seemingly comparing his own silence to that of Christ and Vigano's accusations to the work of Satan. "Now, the popes reply to my testimony was: I will not say a word! Vigano wrote. "But then, contradicting himself, he has compared his silence to that of Jesus in Nazareth and before Pilate, and compared me to the great accuser, Satan, who sows scandal and division in the Church though without ever uttering my name." Vigano's new document was dated Friday, Sept. 29, the feast of St. Michael, Archangel. St. Michael is considered the protector of the church, the leader of all angels who battled evil and drove it from the church and Vigano has cast himself as the church's protector who at great personal risk dared to break two decades of "omerta" or silence. He acknowledged that by doing so he violated the pontifical secret the rule of confidentiality that governs much of the inner workings of the Catholic Church. "Certainly, some of the facts that I was to reveal were covered by the pontifical secret that I had promised to observe and that I had faithfully observed from the beginning of my service to the Holy See," Vigano wrote. "But the purpose of any secret, including the pontifical secret, is to protect the church from her enemies, not to cover up and become complicit in crimes committed by some of her members." Francis refused to take questions about the Vigano accusations during his in-flight news conference returning from the Baltics on Tuesday. He did acknowledge Tuesday, however, that the sex abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church have outraged the faithful and are driving them away. Francis told a gathering of young people in Estonia, considered one of the least religious countries in the world, that he knew many young people felt the church had nothing to offer them and simply doesn't understand their problems today. "They are outraged by sexual and economic scandals that do not meet with clear condemnation, by our unpreparedness to really appreciate the lives and sensibilities of the young, and simply by the passive role we assign them," Francis said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A French police chief was fatally stabbed Thursday, allegedly by a man who previously threatened cops after being banned from owning an unregistered Pitbull, reports said. Pascale Filoe, the head of security in Rodez -- a small city about 93 miles northeast of Toulouse -- was stabbed three times early Thursday and died in a hospital shortly after from his injuries. He was a father of three. The unnamed suspect was arrested and placed in police custody. He had his hands full of blood, its awful that it could happen on the street! a witness told La Depeche du Midi. He looked so calm and serene when he was arrested. Mayor Christian Teyssedre told reporters the suspect was known to police for having defaced the city hall door in April, Sky News reported. Local reports say the suspect has previously threated Teyssedre and Filoe after his dog, a category one [attack] dog was recently taken from him. Frances Interior Minister, Gerard Collomb, said in a tweet that he shared the pain of the people of Rodez after the vile attack that targeted the head of their municipal police. My first thoughts go to his family & his relatives, he continued. Support to his shocked colleagues and national police officers who immediately arrested the individual. A female German tourist visiting Zimbabwe was trampled to death by an elephant Wednesday while she was trying to take photos of the animal, park officials said. The tourist, only identified as a 49-year-old woman, died of her injuries after the trampling occurred in Mana Pools, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo said. The woman was with a group of tourists when a herd of elephants met them upon entering the park, he said. We are always asking people to stay away from wild animals; they should keep a safe distance, Farawo said. Elephant attacks are common in Zimbabwe, but the animal usually has trouble with farmers, according to BBC. The African nation has the second largest elephant population in the world with more than 80,000 roaming the land, according to the 2016 Great Elephant Census. The Associated Press contributed to this report. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 India's top court on Friday rejected pleas by five rights activists that they be freed a month after being arrested for alleged links to Maoist rebels. The Supreme Court said in a 2-1 verdict that the activists were not arrested because of their political views, but because there was prima facie evidence of connections between them and the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). The court, however, directed that the activists be held under house arrest for four more weeks to help them seek bail from lower courts while police in Maharashtra state complete their investigation. The court also rejected the activists' plea for a court-monitored investigation into the allegations against them. Leading Indian authors, lawyers and civil society leaders have called the Aug. 28 arrests illegal and an attack on the right to dissent. The government says Maoist rebels are active in several states and pose India's biggest internal security threat. The rebels, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting the government for more than four decades, demanding land and jobs for the poor and indigenous communities. Those arrested were Telugu-language poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, and Gautam Navalakha and Sudha Bhardwaj in New Delhi and a neighboring town. Police in Pune said they have evidence suggesting there was a plan by Maoists to target the country's "highest political functionaries." Police also accused the five of delivering speeches that triggered protests and violence between low-caste Dalits and right-wing groups near Pune in December. In June, police arrested five other activists on suspicion of also inciting the Dalits, who have been marginalized for centuries and forced to perform jobs considered unacceptable by other castes. Caste prejudice is endemic in Hindu-majority India, even though the constitution outlaws the practice and has made it a crime punishable by up to a year in prison. The Latest on developments related to Syria (all times local): 7:05 p.m. A spokesman for a Russian company producing electronic warfare systems says that their deployment to Syria will help protect the country's air defense assets and fend off enemy air raids. Vladimir Mikheyev of Radioelectronics Technologies said Friday in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency that Krasukha and Zhitel electronic countermeasure units will place Syria's air defenses under an "electronic umbrella," making it hard to spot and attack them. Russia announced this week it will provide Syria's government with long-range S-300 missiles within two weeks. The announcement came after the downing of a Russian plane by Syrian forces responding to an Israeli air strike, a friendly fire incident that stoked regional tensions. Moscow also said it will start using electronic countermeasures to jam any aircraft that would try to launch attacks off Syria's coast. ___ 5:15 p.m. Syrian opposition activists say al-Qaida-linked fighters have prevented demonstrators from entering a key northwestern town controlled by extremists. Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said members of al-Qaida-linked Horas al-Din, Arabic for Guardians of Religion, and other militants prevented the protesters from entering Jisr al-Shughour that has been held by jihadis since 2015. A Syria-based activist said armed insurgents waving black banners marched toward the protesters and forced them to leave. The activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, says the militants consider the pro-democracy protesters heretics. Thousands of people have marched every Friday in recent weeks against a government offensive on Idlib province. The attack was averted last week in a deal reached between Russia and Turkey to set up a demilitarized zone. __ By Bassem Mroue ___ 10:45 a.m. Turkey's president is accusing the United States of failing to abide by a deal for a U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia to withdraw from a town it had liberated from Islamic State militants in northern Syria. Washington and Ankara struck the deal in June to defuse tensions. It calls for the militia to leave the strategic town of Manbij and for joint Turkish-U.S. patrols there. Ankara considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG militia a terror group that's part of a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the U.S. hasn't honored the agreed-on "roadmap" for Manbij. Erdogan says "America has not kept up with the roadmap and schedule for Manbij. The (YPG) has not left the region." His comments were published in Hurriyet newspaper on Friday. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 The Latest on the United Nations General Assembly (all times local): 9:30 a.m. Civil war-torn South Sudan is calling on the international community, "including those who are skeptical, to give peace a chance" as the latest agreement to end the conflict moves forward. First Vice President Taban Deng Gai told the U.N. gathering of world leaders Friday that the East African country is on schedule to hold "free and fair" general elections after a 36-month transition period under the new agreement. The United States and others are wary of this latest deal, which returns rebel leader Riek Machar as President Salva Kiir's deputy. Fighting between their supporters sparked the civil war in late 2013. A new report this week gave a striking new estimate of the conflict's toll: 382,900 deaths, with roughly half blamed on violence and many others on disease. "As brothers and sisters we have hurt each other," the first vice president told the U.N. ___ 9:00 a.m. Moscow is expected to use its address to world leaders to enshrine Russia as a counterweight to U.S. influence in areas from the Mideast to Venezuela and the Korean peninsula. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has held a flurry of bilateral meetings at the United Nations this week and has loudly defended Russia's strategies in meetings at the Security Council. Syria has been Russia's running theme, as Moscow seeks to manage the end of the civil war and ensure a long-term foothold in the region. Russia is Syrian President Bashar Assad's longtime patron and wants Western financing for Syria's reconstruction while maintaining the upper hand in discussions on Syria's political future. ___ 7:00 a.m. The two countries that the United States has accused of interfering with its elections are taking take their turns at the podium at the United Nations' annual gathering of world leaders. Major powers China and Russia neither of which sent their most senior leader to the U.N. General Assembly will put forth their foreign ministers to tell their stories. The accusations against China came this week from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he has evidence but so far has not released any. In contrast, Russia has been the focus of a special counsel investigation, which Trump has lambasted as a political "witch hunt." Nikki Haley greeted Venezuelan protesters outside the United Nations demonstrating against the countrys authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, telling them that the Trump administration has their backs. In a somewhat unlikely scene, Ambassador Haley walked from her car to a special area designated for protesters set up by the NYPD during United Nations High Level week. Haley encouraged the hundreds of protesters, who seemed to be caught by surprise by her visit that the U.S. was listening. We need your voices to be loud, and I will tell you going to tell you the United States voice is going to be very loud, Haley declared. VENEZUELA LAUNCHES AIRLIFT FOR MIGRANTS TO RETURN HOME She told the cheering protesters about her recent trip to the Colombia-Venezuela border and said that while Maduro is flying around in private jets and eating at nice restaurants ordinary Venezuelans were lucky to get one meal a day as they tried to escape from the country to Colombia. Speaking through a megaphone, Haley told the protesters: "I can tell you that I talked with President Trump and he is fired up about this. He is angry at Maduro. His comments were we are not just going to let the Maduro regime backed by Cuba hurt the Venezuelan people any more." She continued: "So I will tell you Im going to be loud, President Trump is going to be loud the United States is going to be loud and Maduro will hear us because we won't stop talking until we see Maduro go keep your voices loud." VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS ACCEPT GOVERNMENT OFFER FOR FLIGHT HOME One of the protesters, Roma Flores, told Fox News that she is in contact with friends in Venezuela and what she hears from them makes her cry. She said Haleys appearance was very helpful to the people back in Venezuela. "It was very important because it gives us the strength to keep going," she said. Isaias Medina, a former Venezuelan diplomat at the U.N. mission who resigned in protest against the Maduro government the first Venezuelan diplomat to do so, said this was an important message to his countrymen and women. VENEZUELA'S MADURO SAYS HE IS 'READY' TO MEET TRUMP IN SURPRISE UN SPEECH "Ambassador Haleys steady support to desperate, helpless crying pleads of the Venezuelan people, gives us strong hope for the restoration of democracy, peace and freedom in a country hijacked by a criminal organization with drub trafficking and terrorist ties," Medina said. "Soon with the help from our friends, we shall break the chains of Maduros tyranny." This month, Haley held meetings with Venezuelan opposition activists. In 2017 Haley tried to force a Security Council meeting on Venezuela but due to a procedural move by the Russians and its allies on the council, the U.S. was forced to make it into an unofficial meeting on the humanitarian situation in the country. On Tuesday the U.S. slapped more sanctions on Venezuela as it looks to tighten the noose around the government. Those sanctions included the wife of President, Cillia Adela Flores de Maduro, as well as three other current or former officials of his inner circle. Maduro spoke at the UN General Assembly for over forty minutes Wednesday night, where he likened himself to Nelson Mandela and condemned the U.S. for his countrys many ills. Maduro also criticized media coverage of his country. Following his speech he cancelled an already planned press conference without explanation. Pope Francis has defrocked the Chilean priest at the center of the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, invoking his "supreme" authority to stiffen a sentence originally handed down by a Vatican court in 2011. In a statement Friday, the Vatican said Francis had laicized the 88-year-old Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was originally sanctioned to live a lifetime of "penance and prayer" for having sexually abused minors in the upscale Santiago parish he ran. The "penance and prayer" sanction has been the Vatican's punishment of choice for elderly priests convicted of raping and molesting children. It has long been criticized by victims as too soft and essentially an all-expenses-paid retirement. The Vatican didn't say what new evidence, if any, prompted Francis to re-evaluate Karadima's sanction and impose what clergy consider to be the equivalent of a death sentence. It said Francis made the "exceptional decision" for the good of the church, and cited the church canon that lays out the pope's "supreme, full, immediate and universal power" to serve the church. The statement said the decree, signed Thursday, takes effect immediately and that Karadima was informed of it Friday. The decision appeared aimed at showing a get-tough approach to sex abuse after a series of missteps by Francis and accusations by a former Vatican ambassador that Francis had rehabilitated a now-disgraced former American cardinal early on in his papacy. While the move will be welcomed by Chilean victims as overdue, the decision could spark a religious debate for those who see it as a second punishment for the same crime. Francis' conservative critics might also bristle at another display of raw papal power from the Argentine Jesuit. Francis sparked a crisis in his papacy earlier this year when he strongly defended one of Karadima's proteges, Bishop Juan Barros, against accusations that he had witnessed Karadima's abuse and ignored it. Francis had claimed that the accusations against Barros were "calumny" and politically motivated, and he defended his 2015 decision to appoint Barros bishop of a small Chilean diocese over the objections of the faithful and many in the Chilean hierarchy. After realizing that something was amiss, Francis ordered a Vatican investigation that uncovered decades of abuse and cover-ups by the Chilean church leadership. Francis apologized to the victims and set about making amends, including getting every active bishop in Chile to offer to resign. To date, he has accepted seven of the more than 30 resignations offered, including that of Barros. It was the second time in a month that Francis has laicized a Chilean priest, after five years in which the Vatican appeared to favor less drastic sentences. On Sept. 15, the archdiocese of Santiago announced that Francis had defrocked the Rev. Christian Precht, citing the Latin terminology "ex officio et pro bono Ecclesiae" on his own authority and for the good of the church. The decision by Francis to revisit Karadima's sentence and impose the stiffest penalty available to him, with the exception of excommunication, is significant as he battles to gain credibility on the abuse issue. Francis has said he has "zero tolerance" for abuse, but his record has been shoddy and the Barros fiasco made clear that, at least until he changed course this spring, he was more willing to believe his clerical friends and advisers than victims. Pollsters have cited the Karadima scandal, which first erupted in 2009, as the tipping point in the Chilean church's progressive loss of credibility among ordinary Chileans. Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of Karadima's abuse who has been a key driver in pushing for justice for victims and an overhaul of the Chilean hierarchy, thanked Francis for taking action against Karadima. "I never thought I'd see this day," Cruz tweeted. "I hope many survivors feel a bit of relief today." next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 Russia is framing itself as a counterweight to U.S. power around the world as the Russian foreign minister takes his turn Friday at the annual U.N. General Assembly. Russia has been maneuvering in talks at the U.N. this week to shape the future of Syria, influence nonproliferation negotiations with North Korea and bolster Venezuela's embattled president. Syria is Russia's No. 1 priority for now. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks to the General Assembly on Friday right after meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Moallem at the U.N. Russia is rebuilding up trade and military ties with Syria as it looks to a post-war future. While tensions linger over the last rebel stronghold of Idlib, Russia is determined to keep Syria solidly anchored in its sphere of influence over the long term, as a foothold in the Middle East and as a warning to the U.S. and its allies against future interference. Russia's relations with the U.S. are at a post-Cold War low, and many Russian policies are directly aimed at countering American influence. Lavrov's speech Friday is expected to lobby for strengthening the United Nations instead of the go-it-alone doctrine that U.S. President Donald Trump laid out in his General Assembly speech earlier this week, slamming the U.N.'s central tenet of multilateralism from inside its halls. Lavrov hasn't said anything publicly this week about Trump, or addressed the extensive, ongoing accusations of Russian meddling in U.S. elections. However, Lavrov lashed out at Norway for arresting a Russian suspected of espionage, and derided Britain's prime minister for new accusations against Russia over a nerve agent attack in Britain earlier this year. While Russian President Vladimir Putin skipped this year's U.N. gathering, Lavrov has made sure Russia's voice was heard, holding more than 20 meetings with world leaders and top diplomats already this week. Among them: the presidents of Venezuela, Iran and Turkey, the chiefs of NATO, the UN and EU, and North Korea's foreign minister. ___ Follow Angela Charlton on Twitter at @acharlton. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 The Russian Orthodox Church warned Friday that it would sever ties with the leader of the worldwide Orthodox community if he grants autonomy to Ukraine's Orthodox Church. The stern warning follows Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I's promise to allow the Orthodox Church in Ukraine to be autocephalous, or ecclesiastically independent. The Russian church, the world's largest Orthodox communion, fiercely opposes the decision by Bartholomew, who is considered the "first among equals" of Orthodox leaders. Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Vladimir Legoyda warned Friday it will "break the Eucharistic communion" with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate if it makes the Ukrainian church autocephalous. The church in Ukraine has been tied to the Moscow Patriarchate for hundreds of years, although many parishes have split off over the past two decades to form a schismatic church. Calls for independence have increased since Moscow's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Legoyda said the plans for autocephaly "threaten a fragile religious peace in Ukraine," and charged that they have been driven by "political ambitions of the Ukrainian leaders." Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is running for re-election next March, has pushed Bartholomew to grant independence to the Ukrainian church. His efforts received a fillip earlier this month when the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced that it was sending two bishops to Ukraine as a step toward declaring ecclesiastical independence for the church there. The Russian Church responded by declaring that it would not participate in events headed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and would not even remember Bartholomew in its prayers. Father Nikolai Balashov, a deputy head of the Russian church's foreign relations department, pointed at Friday's seizure of a church in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of western Ukraine by supporters of the Ukrainian church's autonomy as a sign of what might happen if Bartholomew grants it ecclesiastical independence. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church that is part of the Moscow Patriarchate said right-wing radicals broke into the Trinity Church in the Ukrainian village of Bogorodchany, beat up a priest and several others and then drove believers away and locked up the building. Regional police confirmed that two people were injured in a scuffle but denied any religious undertones, saying the clash was triggered by local authorities' decision to hand over a church building to a music school. The Moscow Patriarchate said about 50 churches in western Ukraine have been seized by the schismatic church in similar attacks in recent years. "It's a sad harbinger of possible tragic developments in Ukraine if government organs continue meddling in the church affairs in Ukraine," Balashov said. "If politics continue to intervene in the religious life it could lead to tragic consequences across Ukraine." The U.N.'s top human rights body voted Friday to renew work by experts investigating alleged rights violations and crimes in war-torn Yemen, brushing aside the objections of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen's internationally recognized government itself. The vote capped a week-long diplomatic showdown led by the three Arab countries who had previously supported the experts but changed course after being stung by their August report that said the countries could be responsible for war crimes during 3 years of war against rebels in Yemen. The Human Rights Council, in a measure brought by Western countries, voted 21-8 with 18 abstentions. Burundi, China, Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan and Venezuela joined Saudi Arabia and the UAE in opposing the measure at the 47-member Geneva body. The measure, among other things, extends the experts' mandate by one year. The move came despite days of arduous negotiations to try to find a consensus between the Western group, led by Canada and the Netherlands, and diplomats from the three Arab states. Many countries expressed disappointment that a unified message could not be reached. Shortly before the vote, Ambassador Obaid Salem al-Zaabi of the UAE said passage of the resolution would "do more harm than good for Yemen," claiming that it would "deepen divisions" among Yemenis and increase instability in the region. Proponents, however, insisted the resolution was nearly identical to one adopted by consensus at the council last year, which created the group of three experts plus staffers. The supporters also said the experts' team has had little time to do its work, and said Yemen's crisis needs continued scrutiny. "The United Kingdom believes that it is important to give the group of eminent experts more time," said Ambassador Julian Braithwaite of Britain, whose government has face criticism from some human rights groups for its material support for the Saudi-led coalition battling Iran-aligned rebels. A rival resolution brought by an "Arab Group" led by Tunisia called for "capacity building and technical assistance" for Yemen's Saudi-backed government, but without an extended mandate for the experts. That resolution was passed by consensus Friday. A Saudi-led coalition has waged a devastating air campaign in Yemen since 2015 to support the government in its war against Shiite Houthi rebels, who control the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen. More than 10,000 people have died in the fighting. The United Nations says Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, faces the world's greatest humanitarian disaster, with 75 percent of its 29 million people in need of assistance and millions on the brink of famine. John Fisher, who heads the Geneva office of Human Rights Watch, said council members "stood firm today, in the face of shameful efforts by the Saudi-led coalition to quash a U.N. expert inquiry on Yemen." "By continuing the inquiry, the U.N.'s top rights body sent a clear message that it stands with Yemeni civilians against the warring parties' ongoing abuses," he said. The experts' report last month said the Saudi, Emirati and Yemeni governments could be responsible for war crimes including rape, torture, disappearances and "deprivation of the right to life" since a Saudi-led coalition armed with punishing air power joined Yemen's war in March 2015. The U.N. panel also pointed to possible war crimes by the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. The resolution on Yemen was perhaps the most hotly contested country-specific issue at the council's three-week session, which also included resolutions to continue or improve scrutiny of alleged human rights abuses in places like Myanmar, Burundi and Syria. This session was also marked by passage Thursday of the first council resolution to express concerns about alleged rights abuses in Venezuela under the government of President Nicolas Maduro. That measure was brought by a number of Latin American countries. The Long Beach Health Department, meanwhile, updated its health order this week to clarify rules around school quarantine, mega-events and workplace mask requirements. Meanwhile, new cases reached 706 this week, the most in several months. Anxiety at the university park : Bonn Hofgarten is difficult to monitor at night BONN There have been more incidents involving drugs and violence recently in the Hofgarten. The German Police Union calls it a dangerous place. Better lighting and sharper controls could improve the situation. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken During the day, the Bonn Hofgarten is a popular park for kids to play in and for tourists. But after dark, the picture changes. Seedy characters sit on benches between the trees. In the last weeks, there have been some violent confrontations there. Most recently, two groups went at each other in the night with broken glass bottles. Info Incidents that have occurred recently April 11: Police take three young men into custody for drug dealing. Two of them are already known to police. April 22: A 15-year-old who had a record of violence and theft, fired off shots around him with a blank gun. May 16: Six men between the ages of 18 and 35 are taken into custody following a raid. They had drugs with them. July 11: A visiting Israeli professor is hit on the head, wearing a kippah and a confrontation follows. Police are called to the scene and take down the professor, mistakenly believing him to be the attacker. August 22: A knife is used in a mass brawl between persons from the drug scene. Several people suffered cut wounds. September 23: Two groups attacked each other in the night. One person suffered life-threatening injuries from the use of glass shards in the attack. While the Bonn police describe the Hofgarten as basically safe, Andreas Gut of the German Police Union finds some sharp words to describe it: It is a dangerous place. And it cant be allowed to get out of control at nighttime. While large-scale police monitoring already occurs in Bonn, local police are currently struggling. A large number of units are currently needed in the Hambach Forest where protestors have been camped out to protest coal mine expansion. How will the Hofgarten become safer again? "The Hofgarten is a large area, especially difficult to see from the outside," says Gut. The nearby subway station, which makes for easy come and easy go, makes it an ideal place for criminal activities. "When a police patrol approaches, you can tell immediately," says Gut. Those who do not flee and who are stopped by police, are usually known to the police already. But there are certainly ways to make the Hofgarten safer at night. Key issues discussed time and again by the city administration, the police and the university are a stronger police presence, video surveillance and better lighting. But progress seems thwarted by lack of clarity as to who is responsible. The Hofgarten formally belongs to the University of Bonn but it is a public place. The subway station Uni/Markt and the lighting belong to the Bonn public utilities. 24-hour monitoring not possible One cannot accuse any of the involved parties of inaction. The police have designated the Hofgarten as one of their focal points and regularly travel there with the Ordnungsamt (officers who support police in keeping public order). But police spokesman Robert Scholten says that around-the-clock monitoring would require too many units, especially at night. Their load is already very high right now. Scholten explains that Bonn has had to contribute units in cooperation with police from other municipalities to cover the occupation in Hambach forest. Meanwhile, there are no plans for video surveillance. For one, it is unclear what will happen with the new police law for NRW - it would make monitoring easier. Second, it is up to the police chief to determine if the Hofgarten is a No-Go area. If that would be the case, there would be more powers given to police, and this could include the use of cameras. A question of who is responsible For the university, the image problem is not only linked to the visiting Israeli professor who was attacked there. "We take the problem very seriously and continue to consult within the university about how we can improve the situation," says spokesman Andreas Archut. Campus security patrols are inside the buildings, but only monitor the outdoor areas to a limited extent. Surveillance cameras exist only in poorly visible, internal areas such as stairwells. On the street Regina Pacis Weg, old lighting has been replaced with new improved lighting but there are still some dark places. For measures beyond that, we depend on the responsible authorities. This means the city, public utilities and historical preservation authorities. If brighter lighting would be installed everywhere, it would be up to the public utilities. "The whole thing would have to be financed through improved planning by the city," according to the city administration. Governments around the nation are working to design the best vaccine policies that keep both their employees and their residents safe. Although the latest data shows a variety of polarizing perspectives, there are clear emerging best practices that leading governments are following to put trust first: creating policies that are flexible and provide a range of options, and being in tune with the needs and sentiments of their employees so that they are able to be dynamic and accommodate the rapidly changing situation. Few governors in modern times have reshaped their states as profoundly as Scott Walker. Over the course of two terms in Wisconsin, he has taken what had been a model progressive state and turned it into one of the most successful test kitchens for conservative Republican ideas. Shortly after taking office in 2011, he pushed through legislation that stripped collective bargaining rights from most public employee unions, sending their memberships into freefall. He turned Wisconsin into a right-to-work state for private-sector workers. Hes tightened restrictions on abortion, imposed strict voter ID requirements, strengthened gun rights, and abolished civil service protections, a slew of environmental regulations and tenure for university professors.As he seeks a third term this fall, Walker isnt talking about any of that.Touring meeting halls and dairy farms across the state, he touts his record cutting income and property taxes to the tune of roughly $8 billion. He insists hell keep felons sitting in jail longer than would his Democratic opponent, Tony Evers, the state superintendent of public instruction. Other than that, however, Walker often seems like hes taking notes from the Democratic playbook, keeping his focus on education and health care. Sometimes, Ill hear from our capital press corps, those are Democrat issues, Walker tells me between campaign stops. Thats baloney. Theyre issues that people care about.Despite his protests, its clear that Walker is trying to appeal to voters in the center. Its a striking strategy for someone who has spent much of the past decade as a polarizing conservative ideologue. It also runs counter to this years trend of candidates from both parties doing all they can to rally their bases, counting on allegiance to President Trump, or revulsion to him, to be more of a motivating factor than any state-level issues. He really is running as Mr. Moderate, says Mordecai Lee, a former state legislator and a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Its not go big and go bold. Its been go small and go moderate.Walker describes his most recent education budget as the largest investment in schools in Wisconsin history (although it came after deep cuts during his first term). The budget included the states first sales tax holiday for back-to-school shopping, as well as a tax credit for any parent with a child under 18. In August, he unveiled a plan to give college students who remain in the state after graduation a $1,000 tax credit per year, for up to five years. Democrats dismiss those items as candy meant to make it easier to swallow budget cuts elsewhere, but the not-so-accidental political timing means that parents across the state will be receiving $100 checks just as the election is approaching.Walker unfailingly notes that while unemployment in the state topped 9 percent back when he first ran in 2010, its been under 3 percent for much of this year. College tuition doubled in the decade before he took office, but its been frozen now for six years straight. He inherited a budget shortfall of $3.6 billion, but the state is now running surpluses, despite all the tax cuts. Walker certainly benefits from the political equivalent of buying low, taking office in the teeth of the worst recession in generations, but theres no question that, economically at least, the state is in better shape now than when he was first elected. We have a habit of picking people who have a track record people can judge them on, says Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. If thats the case, I dont see how Gov. Walker doesnt win reelection in a landslide, frankly.But Vos knows that, while Walker has a solid floor of support, he also bumps up against a constricting ceiling. Polls over the past couple of years have shown, on average, that roughly 48 percent of the voters in Wisconsin approve of the governors performance, while about 48 percent disapprove, most of them strongly. There arent many people who are neutral. The day before the August primary, Walker himself said Democrats could put Daffy Duck on the ballot and get 48 percent of the vote for governor. Walker has won three times -- two of them in the Republican wave years of 2010 and 2014, and the other in the recall election of 2012, launched in response to his union busting measure, known as Act 10. But each time, hes taken only 52 or 53 percent of the vote. He still has close to half the population who hates him with a passion, says Mike McCabe, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.Walker has not faced an electorate as hostile to his party as the one this year, and he knows it. In January, when Democrats flipped a state Senate district that had voted strongly for Trump, Walker took to Twitter to warn conservatives that the result should serve as a wake-up call. Democrats flipped another district in June, after winning an expensive and contentious state Supreme Court race in April. In 2010 and 2014, nationally the wind was at our back, Walker says. In this election, the national wave is coming at us.A tougher political environment could be enough to bring his share of the vote down below 50 percent. Certainly both parties see this as a marquee election, with the Republican and Democratic governors associations collectively devoting upwards of $10 million to the race. Walker, as is his custom, is raising tons of money and has stuffed the state to the gills with campaign field offices. Hes one of the most disciplined politicians in recent memory, sticking resolutely to his message that Wisconsin is in better shape thanks to his policies, no matter whats happening in Washington.If he wins, Walker will be the last Republican governor from the so-called Tea Party Class of 2010 to remain in office. (New York Democrat Andrew Cuomo is the only other governor seeking a third term this year.) But he doesnt concern himself with tending the flame for that particular strain of conservatism. Instead, hes doing his best to put attention on state issues, seeking to remind people that theyre better off than they were eight years ago, while warning of the potential dangers of changing course. Its like amnesia, he tells a group of supporters crammed into a small GOP party hall in Reedsburg. People forget, before I was elected governor, Wisconsin was moving in a very different direction.Good economic news notwithstanding, Walker has to thread a needle. The states primary population centers, Milwaukee and Madison, will vote overwhelmingly for Evers (whose name rhymes with weavers). Walker needs to excite the conservative rural voters who came out and tipped the state narrowly for Trump and get them to turn out for this midterm, while not upsetting suburban Republican women who may have soured on Trump. When reporters ask Walker anything about Trump, the governor generally tries to insist that the issue at hand falls outside his jurisdiction.Waukesha County, in suburban Milwaukee, is such an important source of Republican votes thatran a cartoon in 2016 showing Russian generals looking at a map of a divided red and blue America and being told, in a caption in Russian, Its all going to come down to Waukesha County. Theres no way that Walker will lose Waukesha, but if voters there dont turn out for him in the numbers he needs, in a year when Democrats in Madison and Milwaukee are highly motivated, Walker could well lose the state as a whole. Democrats are going to get destroyed in Waukesha like they always do, says Marquette University political scientist Paul Nolette. But if the Republican numbers go just a bit down, Walkers margin of error is so low that he needs those votes, and its plausible that those votes arent there.It will be a considerable irony if Walker loses because a small percentage of his regular voters are put off by Trump. Theres still a plausible case to be made that, were it not for the rise of Trump, Walker would have been the Republican presidential nominee in 2016. He was almost uniquely acceptable back then to all major factions of the party. Walker, who will turn 51 four days before the election, combines the populist instincts of talk radio with the policy agenda of a free-market think tank. He initially polled well as a presidential candidate, particularly in Iowa, but ultimately his appeal as a Washington outsider was no match for Trumps. Walker shut down his campaign in the fall of 2015, two months after its official launch.He wasnt a Trump guy. When he pulled the plug, Walker said he wanted to help clear the field so that a smaller number of candidates could offer a positive conservative alternative to the current frontrunner. Still, like nearly every Republican, Walker has been supportive of Trump as president, appearing regularly in Washington for working meetings and events. When Foxconn Technology Group announced its decision last year to build a $10 billion display panel plant in Wisconsin, the event was held at the White House. Trump later came to Wisconsin for the groundbreaking. His connection to Trump represents his true colors as a right-wing politician, and that is not Wisconsin, says Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the AFL-CIO in the state.Walker himself concedes that the left is motivated this year by anger -- more so at the president and others in Washington than me, he says -- and notes that anger is a powerful motivator when it comes to increasing turnout. He wants his side to match that motivation, warning his followers at campaign stops that progressive forces from outside the state, such as a redistricting committee headed by Barack Obama and Eric Holder, as well as the leftist billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer, would love nothing more than to defeat him. The other side is angry, says Brad Courtney, the state GOP chair, who believes this will be Walkers toughest race.For their part, Democrats have long complained that Walker is in the pocket of the Koch brothers and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, pushing an agenda forged by big donors and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. They contend that Walker has decimated the states institutions. Spending on K-12 education is less than it was when the governor took office, despite his more generous recent budget. The university system has taken major financial hits, with several campuses cutting dozens of majors. The quality of Wisconsins roads ranks near the bottom nationally. Its hard to find a state or county road thats free of patches or potholes, which Democrats seek to rebrand as Scott-holes. That hasnt caught on, but many voters, including lots of Republicans, complain that the highways are in bad shape. Walker adamantly refuses to raise the gas tax to pay for more maintenance or construction. With the incentive package that was offered to lure Foxconn topping $4 billion, plenty of people around the state say theyd rather use that money to pay for better roads.The bulk of the new jobs and spending by Foxconn will happen in and around Mount Pleasant, which is located along Lake Michigan between Kenosha and Milwaukee. The company has made an effort to spread contracts around the state, and Foxconn has announced a $100 million gift to the University of Wisconsins main campus in Madison to start an engineering research project. Still, the farther you go from Mount Pleasant and southeast Wisconsin, the less popular the Foxconn deal seems to be. Clearly, the economy should be an advantage for Walker, but complicating that for him is Foxconn, says Nolette. The deal he made remains quite unpopular.Despite the states low unemployment rate, its a Democratic talking point that too many people are having to work two or three minimum-wage or mediocre jobs to make ends meet. Job growth has plummeted, with the state ranking at the bottom for business startups for most of Walkers current term. Democrats commonly use phrases such as fed up and waking up to describe voter reaction to Walker after so many years in office. No fewer than three former Walker cabinet secretaries have offered torrid criticism of the governor in recent weeks, accusing him of mismanagement and putting donors interests ahead of voters. All this leaves Democrats hopeful they can end what for them has been the nightmare of Walkers regime. Its a different world this year, says Ingrid Wadsworth, who chairs the Sauk County Democratic Party. Whats happening at the national level has engaged so many people.But even some Democrats wonder if they have the right champion to unseat Walker. Evers has won the statewide post of superintendent of schools three times, taking 70 percent of the vote last year. He easily won the partys gubernatorial nomination, aided by pre-primary polls that showed he could defeat Walker. Evers prevailed over a large field, but the candidates werent particularly well-known, even among Democratic voters. Evers wasnt very well-known himself. A good number of primary voters declined to support him simply because they didnt believe he would be a dynamic or charismatic enough alternative to Walker. I just dont think he has what it takes to beat Walker, says Steve Sullivan, a small business owner in Janesville.That sentiment is not uncommon. Evers, who will turn 67 the day before the election, is quiet, pale and mild. Even some of his supporters describe him as bland or boring. Walking along parade routes or past town festival tents, Evers is not the type of candidate who commands attention or grasps after every hand. He pushes back against descriptions of himself as placid, insisting that hell fight like hell for priorities such as increased education spending and expansion of Medicaid.But if Evers is no glad-hander, he seems to get approached constantly for selfies by schoolteachers who say Walker has wrecked funding in their districts. Evers maintains that Walkers effort to adopt the mantle of education governor is a ridiculous assertion. He has done more to destroy public education in this state than any other governor, Evers says.Evers notes that education is an issue that concerns everyone, whether they tend to vote Democratic or Republican. While attacking Walker, he has tried to suggest that, even in a polarized era, its possible to find common ground on issues. He ran on a more moderate platform than his Democratic rivals, who veered left to endorse single-payer health care and free college tuition. Evers was the only candidate who didnt pledge to cancel the deal with Foxconn (which, as a contract, would have to be renegotiated, Evers notes). Such stances might make Evers more acceptable to independents. Hell certainly have no trouble attracting Democratic votes, simply by virtue of the fact that hes not Scott Walker. Fed up doesnt even come close, says Kiett Takkunen, an education consultant in Lake Nebagamon, describing her feelings about the governor. Its just deplorable that he is part of the whole Trump regime.Walker is seeking to turn the education issue against Evers. He says the Democrats complaints amount to posturing, since Evers himself described the governors last education package as pro-kid. As soon as Evers was nominated, Walker began attacking him over a case involving a science teacher who viewed pornographic material at school. The teacher was fired, but later reinstated. Evers says that state law made it impossible to revoke his license, and that he worked to persuade legislators to tighten sanctions. Walker counters that Evers should have gone after the teacher anyway and let the courts decide the matter.To be hated by just under half the voters in the state is actually a positive accomplishment for Walker. After his failed presidential campaign, the governors approval ratings in Wisconsin sank into the mid-30s. Before running for president, Walker had governed as a conservative, but carefully stayed away from issuing pronouncements on divisive social issues. That changed as he sought to position himself for the Republican presidential nomination, decrying abortion and Planned Parenthood and publicly admitting he was flipping his position to take a harder line on immigration. Those moves cost him support within his own state.After dropping out of the presidential race, Walker held listening sessions that eventually took him to every Wisconsin county. Education, health care and access to broadband came up repeatedly, helping to shape his agenda and campaign message this year and bring his poll numbers back up. If we win again, it will really be a reminder that if you listen to what you hear from your constituents and you dont nationalize everything, then thats the winning recipe, he says.A centerpiece of Walkers stump speech is talking about college students, how they had to leave the state to find jobs before his time in office, his own children included. Now his sons are back in the state and Walker says that the growth of employers such as Foxconn will keep more people around. Not just having a job but knowing your kids can get a job nearby -- and that you wont have to get on a plane to visit grandchildren -- is our ultimate American dream, he says. He doesnt tell voters much about specific policies hed implement in a third term.Walker may just be playing it safe. Or its possible that there simply arent too many mountains left to climb. As much as any state, Wisconsin under Walker has ticked off just about everything on the contemporary conservative checklist. Certainly, he will hunt for more regulations to eliminate, and he says there are plenty more taxes he can cut. But after eight years pursuing an aggressive agenda, there arent obvious big and splashy items such as right-to-work or voter ID laws left for him to tackle. There are opportunities still, says Paul Farrow, the county executive in Waukesha County and a former Republican legislator, but, granted, we finished a lot of what are considered conservative goals.If austeritys the policy, once its been achieved, theres not a lot left to do. There certainly isnt money for grand new initiatives, or even much for road repaving, which Walkers fellow Republicans will press him to approve. But that may be the point. Wisconsins politics have long been a battle between progressives and a GOP faction once known as stalwarts, wealthy individuals and business interests who favored conservative policies. Progressives in Wisconsin had an impressive run, making the state a fountainhead for ideas such as workers compensation, unemployment insurance and Earth Day. Back in 1959, Wisconsin was the first state to pass a law allowing public workers to enter into collective bargaining. Walker has undone much of that.In his new book,, Dan Kaufman complains that Walker and his allies have decimated a state built on a Scandinavian sense of shared fortunes, turning it into a laboratory for corporate interests and conservative activists. What Kaufman views as a tragedy and a warning for the rest of the country, however, conservatives see as a triumph. And Kaufman concedes that rebuilding progressive institutions will be a lot harder than tearing them down. For all Evers promises to restore funding for schools and universities, the reality is that even if hes elected, he will find it difficult to undo much of what Walker has done. The state Senate is in play this year, but the Assembly will remain in Republican hands. This should be an incredibly easy win for the governor, Farrow says, but Wisconsin is a 48-48 state.If Walker does win, Farrow says he hopes that the governors third term will represent continuance and steady governance. Thats not an inspiring campaign slogan, but it may represent success. Walker has already refashioned the state in a much more conservative image. That will remain true even if he loses or, like many other third-term executives, has a hard time coming up with a grand new set of fresh and innovative ideas. Former first lady Hillary Clinton will join Andrew Gillum in South Florida Oct. 23, the gubernatorial candidate's campaign announced Thursday."I'm honored to have Secretary Clinton join me in Florida next month," Gillum said in a statement. "Hillary knows just what's at stake in this election -- affordable healthcare, a brighter future for our children -- and that the choice in this election could not be clearer."For now, Gillum's campaign is declining to say when or where Clinton will appear with the candidate, who remains ahead of GOP nominee Ron DeSantis in the polls. Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, was reportedly on Clinton's short list for running mates during her failed 2016 bid for president against Donald Trump, although his August appearance with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has drawn far more national attention.Thursday's announcement drew mixed reactions. Some of Gillum's supporters panned the news on social media, with Miami filmmaker Billy Corben quipping on Twitter that "even Hillary voters don't want to see or hear from her again."Meanwhile, DeSantis' campaign responded with a statement that mentioned the FBI's investigation into Clinton's use of a personal email account while she was secretary of state as a way to remind voters that there's an ongoing FBI investigation into the city of Tallahassee's Community Redevelopment Agency."I'm sure they'll have lots to talk about when it comes to criminal investigations and dealings with the FBI," said DeSantis spokesman Stephen Lawson.But Ben Pollara, a Democratic consultant based in Miami, noted that Clinton performed extremely well in Miami-Dade County in 2016. And Broward remains the biggest Democratic stronghold in the state of Florida."Definitely a good thing," he said. Former Massachusetts state Sen. Brian Joyce was found dead at his Westport home, the Bristol County District Attorney's office said Thursday.He was found by his wife, a spokesman for the DA's office said.No foul play is suspected, according to Gregg Miliote, the spokesman.The state medical examiner took custody of the body and the district attorney's office is conducting an investigation.MassLive also confirmed Joyce was in a car crash Wednesday in Westport, but it does not appear to be a factor in his death.Joyce, a 56-year-old Democrat who represented Milton while in the state Senate, was awaiting a federal trial on corruption charges.Joyce's attorney Howard Cooper, reached by email, said he has no comment. "The family asks that their privacy be respected at this difficult time," Cooper said.U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling offered his sympathies but declined to comment further. "We extend our condolences to Mr. Joyce's family and friends as they grieve his passing."Joyce was arrested at his Westport home in December 2017 and hit with more than 100 criminal charges. He later pleaded not guilty to the charges in court.Prosecutors allege the former assistant majority leader used his state Senate office for personal gain, taking bribes and kickbacks from companies in exchange for taking action as a legislator.Joyce announced that he was not running for re-election in 2016, after FBI and IRS agents raided his law office in Canton. He had served in the Senate since 1998, after a brief stint in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, said in a statement Thursday evening that she had just learned of Joyce's sudden death. "As authorities handle the appropriate investigations, my thoughts are with his family," Spilka said.Senate President emeritus Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester, said, "I give my sincere condolences to Senator Joyce's wife and his family."Sarah Finlaw, a spokeswoman for Gov. Charlie Baker said, "Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito extend their deepest condolences to the Joyce family during this difficult time."Veronica Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Democratic Party, said, "During this difficult time, our thoughts are with Senator Joyce's family and friends."Sen. Don Humason, R-Westfield, said he did not know of the circumstances of Joyce's death, but he noted that Joyce died relatively young."I know he had issues with the performance of his job, but it's still sad to see a young person go," Humason said. The Texas voter rolls have grown to 15.6 million people, a new record, Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos confirmed.That is nearly a 400,000-person increase since March and a jump of 1.6 million since the last time Texas held a midterm election in 2014, according to election records.And there is still time for more voters to join the rolls before Oct. 9, the final day to register in time to vote in the midterm elections.To register to vote, Texas residents can fill out an application online or contact their county election administrator's office.The surge of registered voters come as Texas has one of the nation's hottest U.S. Senate races between U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke, as well as a half dozen close congressional races that could determine control of the U.S. House of Representatives.Registering to vote and casting a ballot are two different things in Texas. Despite having 14 million registered voters in 2014, just 4.7 million people voted -- about 34 percent of voters. In presidential cycles, voter turnout is much higher, hitting almost 60 percent in 2016 and 2012. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I) has signed an order declaring an emergency for native languages in the state, saying that the government must support the "revitalization" of 20 native languages.The order calls for indigenous place names to be shown on public signs and directs the state's Department of Education to work with several groups to promote the indigenous languages in public schools and universities.Walker said in a statement announcing the order earlier this week that Alaska is looking to "support its first people and their languages."This order focuses on concrete ways Alaska can show leadership to support its first people and their languages one of our richest and most at-risk resources," he said. Its our responsibility to acknowledge governments historical role in the suppression of indigenous languages, and our honor to move into a new era by supporting their revitalization. Description GIS 28 September, 2018: The ASTIRIA Project for the conservation of endangered flora in the Mauritian archipelago was presented yesterday at the seat of the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security in Port Louis in the presence of Minister Mahen Seeruttun, the Scientific Director of International Actions of the National Botanical Conservatory (NBCB) of Brest, Mr Stephane Buord, and officers of the National Parks and Conservation Service. The ASTIRIA Project for the conservation of endangered flora in the Mauritian archipelago was presented yesterday at the seat of the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security in Port Louis in the presence of Minister Mahen Seeruttun, the Scientific Director of International Actions of the National Botanical Conservatory (NBCB) of Brest, Mr Stephane Buord, and officers of the National Parks and Conservation Service. The ASTIRIA project, spanning over three years (2016-2019) is supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, a joint initiative of Agence Francaise de Developpement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank. Its objective is to propose a framework, an expertise and methodological tools for the coordination of the implementation of integrated in situ and ex situ conservation actions of the threatened Mauritian flora, from knowledge to operational actions. These actions specifically target the improvement of the knowledge and management of endangered flora, the repatriation and reintroduction of endangered species from the Brest collections and the sharing of experiences around the model of botanical conservatories. In a statement, the Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Mahen Seeruttun, recalled that the Ministry and the NBCB had signed in 2012 a Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to the transfer of about 30 threatened endemic species from the Brest collections to the Mauritius archipelago, their acclimatisation in nurseries and their return in nature. This collaboration has grown considerably in six years and new projects are currently underway, such as the ASTIRIA project, he added. Mr Seeruttun rejoiced at the recovery and restoration of critically endangered endemic plants carried out by the NBCB. He added that the Republic of Mauritius has a rich biodiversity and that it is imperative to preserve the endemic fauna and flora for the generations to come. For his part, Mr Stephane Buord highlighted that the Mauritian flora is unique and exceptional but is fragile and threatened. Speaking about the commitment of NBCB to preserve the flora of the Mascarene Islands since the 1970s, he pointed out that it has been able to establish numerous contacts with its partners in Mauritius, Rodrigues and La Reunion and contribute to the safeguarding of several plant species which were on the verge of extinction. The collection of Mascarene plants threatened or extinct in their country of origin, gathered at the Conservatoire, is today one of the largest in the world, he added. However, he stated, this collection of safeguarding a unique heritage makes sense only if it allows the return of these species in their country of origin when the conditions of maintenance in their natural environment are guaranteed. Mr Buord underlined that the development of public policies on environment in Mauritius has created a favorable context for the repatriation of Mauritian and Rodriguan plants from this collection and a first partnership was established with National Parks and Conservation Service in 2012 to allow the transfer of threatened endemic species from the Brest collections to the Mauritius archipelago. The project presentation coincided with the delivery of various plants from the Brest collections containing a dozen Mauritian species on the verge of extinction including Cylindrocline lorencei, a species extinct in kind but miraculously saved in Brest by the use of in vitro biotechnology. These plants will be delivered to the National Parks and Conservation Service Robinson Nursery for quarantine placement and to ensure plant acclimatisation. After that, the plants will join the nurseries of the other partners of the project for a return in nature. This delivery will also be marked by training sessions in the acclimatisation of these plants and transfer of experiences. The ASTIRIA project The NBCB and its Mauritian and Rodrigues partners namely the National Parks and Conservation Service, the Mauritius Forestry Service, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, the NGO Francois Leguat, Mauritius Herbarium, Vegenov and private actors are at the origin of the ASTIRIA Project. The ASTIRIA database aims to improve knowledge and diagnosis of the state of the flora, to better define conservation priorities, to contribute to the development of an atlas of endemic flora, and optimise the restoration of sites, reintroduction of species and their monitoring. Harmons review found: Significant changes were made that placed the burden on taxpayers during a lengthy and unorthodox procurement process between late 2014 and late 2015. The state Department of Education cautioned that one key source of revenue for the project payments for Internet service from state elementary and high schools would not be available, but state officials still kept the revenue as part of the package. The state is increasingly relying on speculative wholesale revenues from the network to fund the project. Revenue models call for steadily increasing rates to be charged for use of the network. Increased monitoring and analysis are needed to reduce costs if the project continues and to avoid repeating the same mistakes on future projects. (TNS) A complex, ambitious project that was initially supposed to deliver high-speed Internet access to all 120 Kentucky counties by this year was badly structured and has been plagued by delays and construction cost overruns nearing $100 million, according to a special examination released Sept.27 by state Auditor Mike Harmon.The KentuckyWired system now isnt projected to be done until 2020 and will cost taxpayers almost $1.5 billion over its 30-year life, according to the critical 125-page audit.The state would have paid much of that amount for Internet service to government buildings even without the project, but faces significant additional costs because of its problems.If all goes as planned from now on, KentuckyWired is expected to come in $96.7 million over the original estimated construction price, a cost overrun of at least 35 percent, the audit said.The audit said Kentucky taxpayers and state legislators were told when the project started that they would be responsible only for $30 million approved by state lawmakers in 2014, and that most of the money would come from private investment.However, the funding for the $324 million project primarily came through state-backed bonds.What we now find is that, between what has paid out thus far, what has been bonded and what we have been obligated to by former leaders, taxpayers are responsible for 93 percent of the total cost for KentuckyWired, said Harmon, a Republican.The initial proposal from private vendors on the project was more favorable to Kentucky, but officials in the administration of former Gov. Steve Beshear approved changes that shifted significant amounts of risk to the state, the audit said.KentuckyWired was announced in 2013 by Beshear, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, as a public-private partnership in an effort to improve Internet service, which lags in many rural areas of the state.The project is designed to provide an access point in each county for high-speed Internet. It would not deliver service to individual homes and businesses, which would be the job of other providers who could hook into the network.Supporters say the network would make it easier for providers to spend money installing last mile service to homes and businesses.Better Internet service could boost economic development, education and health care, supporters of KentuckyWired have said.Its an investment in job creation, said Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley. Its going to have a significant economic impact.Mosley, a Democrat, noted that hundreds of people in Eastern Kentucky have gotten jobs through a work-from home program that requires good Internet service, but that others cant qualify because of poor service.Most of the initial cost for the network was fronted by private investors, led by Australian firm Macquarie Capital, to design, build, operate and maintain the network, though the debt is backed by the state.Kentucky would sell excess capacity on the network. The state projects the network will generate $1.9 billion over its 30-year life, with $1.3 billion of that going to Kentucky, the audit said.However, auditors found scant support for those projections, and the state will have to pay a good chunk of whatever it makes to the Center for Rural Development in Somerset, the report said.In another sore spot, the state has already started making availability payments to contractors for the network, even though its not yet up and running and so cant produce any revenue for the state to offset the payments.The Kentucky Communications Network Authority, which oversees the project, said in a statement that it started working to fix several of the issues identified in the report, including by hiring more employees to boost oversight and monitoring.KCNA appreciates the Auditors work, and we will continue our efforts to correct the problems and delays that were present from the KentuckyWired projects inception in 2015, the agency said.The authority is working to resolve bills the state owes contractors because of delays in the project. Legislators this year authorized a settlement of $88 million to cover those claims, plus the power to borrow another $22 million to cover future claims.The audit questioned that settlement, though KCNA head Phillip K. Brown said in a response that contractors first demanded $159 million.The settlement, which has not been finalized, not only would reduce that amount and keep the project on track, but also reduce the states financial risk, Brown said in the response.Beshear said in response to the audit that the broadband project started with bipartisan support and still has that.Kentucky Wired is a transformational project that will allow someone in far Eastern or Western Kentucky to work in a good job for a company anywhere in the world, he said.Republican Gov. Matt Bevin did not respond to a request for comment, but has said he supports the project.Harmon said at a news conference Thursday in his Frankfort office that about 700 miles of the planned 3,400 miles of fiber optic cable in the project have been installed but none is functioning.The network is to be finished in rings, with Northern Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky ready in July 2020 and the others all done by October 2020.Harmon said state officials were warned several times about potential problems with the project when they were setting it up in 2014 and 2015, but disregarded the concerns.He said no one has been able to explain why the decision was made to proceed.The initial proposal made to the state included private funding and greater responsibility on the private sector.However, in late 2015, Beshear Administration officials signed agreements that upped the risk to the state and committed taxpayers to essentially all project costs, the audit said.There may have been some anticipated savings in switching to tax-exempt financing, but it also removed incentive for contractors to get the job done on time, the audit said.In one example of how the risks shifted, the states initial request for proposals on the network required private contractors to work out agreements to attach KentuckyWireds fiber-optic line to utility poles owned by other companies, such as AT&T and Windstream.The final deal saddled the state with that job, however, the audit said.It turned out to be much harder to work out those agreements than officials first anticipated, creating delays that drove up the states costs.AT&T, which has a contract through 2023 to provide K-12 Internet service, protested and the state has had to make up for the difference with other money.Harmon said his office will continue to examine the time frame between when the proposal request for the project was issued in 2014 and when the project agreements were signed in September 2015.Harmon said his office will use all available means, including issuing subpoenas if necessary, to try to figure out why state officials signed off on the deal despite warnings of potential problems.There are questions that remain as to why the terms were changed from the original proposal that placed little burden on taxpayers to what was signed the following year that put the responsibility of almost $1.5 billion on the commonwealth, said Harmon.The office also will refer the audit to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, which can discipline state employees. The commission can hold former state government workers accountable.Given that we have switched from a $30 million state obligation to a $1.5 billion state obligation with no General Assembly approval, with merely the simpleness of a signing of a contract, we believe thats important to be looked into, Harmon said.He said he did not know why the switch was made. On the surface, it looks as if this was rushed.The examination found no evidence of any criminal misconduct, he said.Some Republican legislators have said the project should be discontinued, but the audit said it would cost the state an estimated $261 million to back out of the project under one scenario.That doesnt count $230 million the state has already spent, nor does it include other potential costs from litigation or potential damage to the states credit rating that could push up borrowing costs.Project supporters have said it would make no sense to stop the project, leaving the state with no broadband network despite hundreds of millions in spending.The legislatures Program Review and Investigations Committee is reviewing the projects contract. Today, the @FCC voted to undermine the ability of local communities to negotiate fair, market-based broadband deployment agreements that benefit all our residents. My full statement pic.twitter.com/yLyYcuyEKZ Sam Liccardo (@sliccardo) September 26, 2018 Results for America Releases New Case Studies About Local Government Successes Cook County, Ill., Approves Contract for New Election Equipment Federal Lawmakers Advance Act to Modernize Grant Reporting with Open Data New York State Wins National Procurement Award The Federal Communications Commission has limited local government ability to regulate the deployment of 5G cell installation, sparking a wave of opposition from municipal government stakeholders across the country.In a vote down party lines, the Republican-controlled FCC elected to institute new rules that it says are aimed at allowing the telecommunications companies to set up small cell wireless networks faster. The ruling has two parts: the first limits the fees that state and local governments can charge providers in relation to this, and the second requires those governments to approve or deny deployment of small cell wireless within 90 days. That window shrinks to 60 days if it involves being added to an existing facility.Local government stakeholders blasted the decision, with those doing so ranging from the mayors of individual cities and mayoral advocacy groups to tech and innovation executives in major local governments. New York City CIO Samir Saini lambasted the FCCs order in a medium post before it was made official.Saini described the decision as a move to dismantle this balanced system, handing taxpayer-owned assets over to multibillion-dollar telecommunications companies, and encouraging them to run wild on our public rights-of-way. He questioned whether it would really improve the efficiency of deployment, while also noting that it would lead to big wireless companies focusing their tech deployment efforts where the money is, including rich commercial districts and dense residential areas only in urban cores.They will not be racing to serve traditionally underserved areas at affordable rates be they rural or urban where the prospect of profit doesnt look as good, Saini wrote.Saini was far from alone in his criticisms. In a statement on Twitter, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo echoed some of Sainis sentiments.The new FCC rules undermine the ability of local communities to negotiate fair, market-based broadband deployment agreements that benefit all residents, Liccardo wrote.The National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors have all criticized the process as potentially damaging to cities and to their residents abilities to get equitable access to new technology.Results for America, a nonprofit group promoting the use of evidence and data in solving major challenges, has released a pair of new case studies detailing local government success stories.The two local governments in question are Louisville, Ky. , and Montgomery County, Md. The case studies, which are now available on Results for Americas website, show local governments that have done very different things through a similar, data- and evidence-based management strategy.Health and human services officials in Montgomery County teamed up with fire and rescue leaders to share data across agencies, also partnering with local hospitals as they provided home visits to the areas most frequent callers. This effort resulted in a more than 50 percent reduction in total 911 calls from the residents they engaged.Louisville, meanwhile, saw city officials working to make it easier for residents there to apply for its Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. They did this by adding a 24-hour phone or online scheduling option, and by providing laptops and scanners to public servants so that they could process applications in less time. In the end, more than 75 percent of applicants reported having a better application experience, and the city ultimately distributed 100 percent of funds allocated for the program.Other recent case studies from the group detail work done in Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans and Philadelphia.Cook County, Ill., which is home to the city of Chicago, has approved a contract for new election equipment and support.Cook County Clerk David Orr recently released a statement about the approval, which was granted by the Cook County Board of Commissioners. This contract taps Dominion Voting Systems as a vendor. In his statement about the decision, Orr notes that his office has worked for more than two years to specifically ensure that the voters who live in suburban Cook County have a secure election system.Cybersecurity threats to U.S. elections have been a cause of concern for local and county governments across the country since the 2016 presidential election, after which interference on the part of Russian hackers became a heated topic of discussion.Suburban Cook County cities are home to more than 1.5 million registered voters.The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have both advanced the Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency (GREAT) Act, which advocates say will modernize the way that nearly $700 billion in federal grant funds are tracked and reported using open data.The House of Representatives passed the GREAT Act, while the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously reported the legislative proposal with a voice vote. Advocacy groups, including the Data Coalition, praised the advance of the legislation. The next step is for the Senate to vote on whether it too will pass the legislation.The New York State Office of General Services has received a 2018 Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award from the National Procurement Institute, the organization announced in a press release.This national award is given to tech organizations that display innovation, professionalism, e-procurement, productivity and leadership in procurement, according to the release. It is given specifically to public and nonprofit organizations.Procurement in the public sector is notoriously sticky business, with budgetary concerns, regulations and wide-scale commitments to legacy systems often complicating efforts, especially as it pertains to procuring new technologies.This award, the press release also notes, is given out based on standardized criteria that takes into account professional development, customer service, vendor training, and other policies aimed at driving value for taxpayer money. This is the second consecutive year that the New York State Office of General Services has received this recognition. As the connectivity versus local control debate rages on, the prospect of 5G infrastructure blanketing the country remains a far-off concept in many areas. A growing number of cities are announcing partnerships with telecom providers, but many rural areas continue to struggle to connect their citizens at all.Earlier this year at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Midyear Conference in Baltimore, Kentucky CIO Charles Grindle discussed the possibility of bypassing fiber and broadband in order to connect the remaining 20 percent of his state that lacks Internet access. 5G , he said, should be considered, especially if the infrastructure can be installed at a lower cost than other options.Nebraska has a similar challenge, as CIO Ed Toner explains above. "4G would be great when youre in far western Nebraska," Toner said, referring to some of the more remote areas of the state.But there may be reason for hope. The upcoming FirstNet network promises network infrastructure that will complement the state's existing efforts."FirstNet, we're hoping, is going to be a big boon to our rural communities because AT&T has given us a great map of where they're going to be in five years," he said. (TNS) Colorado Springs police are working with federal agencies to see if a military-grade technology can help combat gun violence.The FireFLY gunshot detection system, similar to a program used in other U.S. cities, is a network of acoustic sensors that detects when a shot is fired, pinpoints the location of the gunfire and immediately notifies police, said police spokesman Lt. Howard Black.Alabama-based Invariant worked with several government defense research organizations to develop the technology to detect hostile fire during military operations, according to the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center.Now, Colorado Springs police are working with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Department of Defense to adapt the system for civilian law enforcement.As part of a pilot program, officials have installed the network of sensors near the Valley Hi neighborhood and East Fountain Boulevard and South Chelton Road the intersection that has the highest reports of gunfire in the city, according to police.The system, which officials tested using live fire on Tuesday, has been designed so that it can be moved to other areas of the city, Black said.Police hope that, because dispatchers will be immediately notified of gunfire instead of relying on residents reports, police will be able to respond to more shootings, get to the scene faster and make more gun-related arrests, Black said.Were also hopeful that ... people will really think twice before they make an inappropriate choice of pulling that trigger that they might have a criminal consequence because of that technology, he said.The system may also help authorities retrieve more ammo casings for a national network of ballistic evidence thats used to solve crimes, said ATF spokeswoman Mary Markos.The system is similar to another gunshot detection program called ShotSpotter that cities can pay to subscribe to; however, the FireFLY wont cost the city, Black said.ShotSpotter is in use in more than 90 cities across the country, including New York City, Chicago and Denver.The California-based companys website boasts of dramatic decreases in gunfire and increases in gun-related arrests in areas that use the system.Denver Channel 7 reported in April that since Denver police began using ShotSpotter in early 2015 it has lead to 102 arrests and the recovery of more than 80 guns.ShotSpotters two-year contract with the city is worth nearly $2 million, according to Channel 7.But critics have questioned whether the ShotSpotter system can actually help police catch or deter more criminals.Some communities have discontinued the program amid concerns related to its cost and effectiveness, according to multiple media reports.A 2016 Forbes Magazine analysis of data from seven participating cities found that police were unable to find evidence of gunshots 30 to 70 percent of the time after ShotSpotter alerts. (TNS) A Kissimme, Fla., sensor-research facility wants to establish a new cybersecurity center for microelectronics using $30 million from the defense-spending bill approved by Congress this week.President Donald Trump is expected to sign the $684 billion bill.But despite the award announcement on Thursday, BRIDG CEO Chester Kennedy is proceeding cautiously.We think it positions us well to build those federal national priorities, but its not money in the bank until its money in the bank, he said.In a release, the $30 million was described as intended for the BRIDG facility in Osceola County.Central Florida politicians, including U.S. Reps. Darren Soto and Stephanie Murphy and U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, made the case for the region to lead the way in the industry.The $30 million would be used to enhance cyberprotections for microelectronic devices used in military systems, with work being based out of the BRIDG site, on U.S. Highway 192 just west of Floridas Turnpike.BRIDG has been pushing to establish itself as the leading research facility for sensor-based technologies in the U.S.The appropriation earmarks the money to potentially go to BRIDG for cybersecurity work the Department of Defense would need in its microelectronics programs.That area of technology includes GPS, radar and other communications-based programs.The next step is working with the DOD to help them understand how our capabilities can help them fill gaps in those programs, Kennedy said.A joint statement from Soto and Murphy said the work is important to the nations security.Making sure that the process for manufacturing microelectronics is secure from interference by foreign adversaries has been a challenge, and BRIDG is well positioned to produce trusted microelectronics that support our men and women in uniform and help keep our nation safe.The BRIDG facility was recently awarded security clearance, opening the door to work with defense contracts.BRIDG debuted its sprawling 109,000-square-foot facility in early 2017 and has since established partnerships with industry leaders such as Siemens and the St. Petersburg-based Aurora Semiconductors, which has been developing technology to shrink microchips, potentially to a size that would allow 100 small components to be packaged in a thumbnail-sized device.In May, the facility marked a big milestone as its first silicon-based wafer the building block of integrated circuits rolled out of its manufacturing site.This strong show of support from Congress is a huge win for the Orlando region, said Tim Giuliani, President and CEO of Orlando Economic Partnership, before calling BRIDG a critical asset in the regions economy. Fernando Alonso has ruled out switching to Formula E. The Spaniard announced at Sochi that, despite earlier not ruling out a return to F1 in the future, his time in the category "is over". Alonso's next step is unknown. It is believed he will definitely contest the Indy 500 in order to complete the 'triple crown', but also being considered is the full Indycar season. "We'll see," the 37-year-old said in Russia. "I've said many times that I want to be the best driver in the world." Recently, Formula E boss Alejandro Agag said he was targeting Alonso, but the McLaren driver says he is not interested for now. "It's a relatively new series where a tradition iN prestigious races has not yet developed," Alonso said. "But who knows about the future? "I'm not racing just for fun, so I will make decisions based on what kinds of races I am interested in to become a better driver and person and try to leave a mark on the history of motor racing," he added. (GMM) Stoffel Vandoorne looks set to keep his motor racing career alive in Formula E. The Belgian has lost his McLaren seat for 2019. He told the Belgian broadcaster RTBF at Sochi: "At this moment there is nothing decided but in my head I know exactly what I would like to do. "I think we are getting closer to a decision. Formula E is a possibility, but we have received a lot of other offers from other categories as well." It is believed Vandoorne is referring chiefly to Indycar, but the strong rumour is that he has agreed to move to Formula E to race for Mercedes' works team. "Mercedes? It's you who said it rather than me," he smiled. "But it is obviously a very, very good manufacturer that I don't need to tell you about," he said. "I was in contact with Toro Rosso but it's no longer an option. I am pretty sure I will not be in formula one next year. Actually the chances are almost zero," added Vandoorne. (GMM) This blog is dedicated to the understanding of the current Greek (but also European) economic, political and institutional crisis. It was created by Prof. Aristides Hatzis of the University of Athens , after many requests by his students who seek a source of reliable analysis on the Greek current affairs. Its aim is to post commentary and reports published mainly in the major U.S. and European media and to encourage a rigorous discussion. Roadstar.ai has selected AWare, Renovos production-grade OS for automated mobility, as its development and commercialization platform. Roadstar.ais first AWare-powered vehicle model is the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan. Roadstar.ai thereby gains access to the ecosystem of AWare-compatible vehicles, sensors, and other third-party technologies and services that interact with its automated driving system (ADS). By providing automotive safety infrastructure and a full microservice abstraction of the vehicle, compute and sensors, AWare allows Roadstar.ai to focus on its core HeteroSync & DeepFusion ADS technologies, while safely, reliably, and cost-effectively interfacing with third-party technologies and services across a wide range of vehicles. Roadstar.ais mission is to enable fully autonomous robo-taxi services for an intelligent, efficient and safe mobility experience. We selected Renovos AWare OS for development and as a commercialization platform because of its technical capabilities, the companys focus on deployment at scale, access to the AWare ecosystem and as a go-to-market path for our ADS with North American and European fleet operators. Dr. Xianqiao Tong, founder and CEO of Roadstar.ai Roadstar.ai is an artificial intelligence startup that specializes in level 4 autonomous driving technologies. It was founded by three engineers who had previously led autonomous driving technologies at Google, Tesla, Apple, Nvidia, and Baidu USA. The Renovo AWare OS provides a vehicle-independent abstraction API and range of microservices that allows developers of a range of technologies necessary for commercial automated mobility services, to write applications that can be deployed at scale. AWare has the necessary performance to run todays most demanding Automated Driving Systems (ADS) as well as the safety and security features required for automotive validation. AWare is a trusted layer in functionally safe architectures and features multiple computational domains including low-level safety controllers. Renovo partners with a wide range of hardware and component suppliers to build systems that can be deployed at scale on road today. Roadstar.ai joins the AWare ecosystem along with a growing list of leading companies in the automated mobility sector including Affectiva, Argus Cyber Security, BestMile CARMERA, Civil Maps, EdgeConneX, INRIX, Metamoto, NIRA Dynamics, Parsons, Perceptive Automata, Phantom.auto, Samsung, Silexica, Speak With Me, Stanford University, understand.ai, Velodyne LiDAR and Verizon. The citys very best pretzel isnt actually made in the city at all. Photo: Paul Wagtouicz/ Paul Wagtouicz Its time to declare the best pretzel in New York. Luckily, one of the citys most iconic foods has gotten some serious upgrades lately. These half-dozen are truly excellent. The Absolute Best 1. Werkstatt 509 Coney Island Ave., at Turner Pl., Prospect Park South; 718-284-5800 The citys greatest pretzel is enormous and soulful. Its exterior is buttery and blistered. Following ancient pretzel axioms, its fattest loop is scored so it busts open at the seam, and it has the sting of crunchy salt that pretzels are supposed to have but rarely do, which is why it may seem a cruel irony that these pretzels actually come from a nameless factory based in the suburban outskirts of Munich, shipped from Bavaria to Las Vegas, then trucked into Brooklyn by a distributor. Werkstatt owner Thomas Ferlesch admits he first dismissed the concept of imported pretzels as nonsense. Until, that is, he held a tasting with a spread of different options, and none of them came even close. After tasting them, its hard to disagree. 2. Lafayette 380 Lafayette St., at Great Jones St.; 212-533-3000 James Belisle, the house boulanger at Andrew Carmellinis French cafe, prepares his pretzels in a kind of cross-cultural Alsatian mode. His folded dough gets a dip in a water bath with food-grade lye, the traditional, fussy prebake ritual that ensures a deep brown color will develop in the hot oven. The pretzels emerge with a spindly interior and puffed-up outer ring, meaning bites alternate between crisp and fluffy. A sprinkle of flaky salt lends a satisfying crackle. 3. Bronx Baking Co. Available at multiple locations The first Ghostbusters was playing in theaters the last time anyone bought a decent pretzel from a street cart. Alexis Farachi, a Bronx-based upstart and baking savant, wanted to change that, so she delved into research to come up with an amazing pretzel that could be sold around town. Her finished product is chewy, with a hint of sweetness, that would be welcome on many street corners. For now, though, youll find them in dozens of locavore-leaning shops and establishments, such as 61 Local and the Greene Grape. 4. Sigmunds Pretzel Shop 29 Ave. B, nr. 3rd St.; 646-410-0333 Sigmunds pretzels happen to be the softest of all soft pretzels, and the more experimental flavors are surprisingly effective: Feta and olive proffers a volcanic bloom of cheese spouting from a pastry mantle; caraway makes a welcome appearance elsewhere. The Gruyere-paprika pretzel is made with a heap of cheese blast-melted on top that gives it a sharp, elegant funk. Sigmunds churro pretzel may sound like a marketing exercise in hybrid food 101, but the pillowy, cinnamon-sugar-sprinkled demeanor would devastate Auntie Anne if she ever caught word of it. 5. Prime Meats 465 Court St., at Luquer St.; 718-254-0327 Thin, loopy, and crisp on top, thick and soft on the bottom, with a generous reservoir of coarse-grain salt, this southwestern German version is served with a big pat of butter and mustard, which means it is essentially calling out for a big side of weisswurst. Thankfully, Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli make that in house as well. Lovers of grab-and-go pretzels are in luck, too, since the Franks also sell these at their nearby coffee shop, Cafe Pedlar. 6. Crimson & Rye 198 E. 54th St., at Third Ave.; 212-687-6692 Kudos to chef Charlie Palmer for keeping a lowly pretzel on his bar menu while the rest of the world continues to obsess over sliders and tartare. Palmers version of the classic New York snack has a dark exterior that packs a distinct alkaline tang. Its outsize and inflated, and the accompanying beer cheese is actually a melty dip that approaches fonduta, which is an appropriate touch considering this pretzels swanky surroundings. News VIDEO: Saudi father pardons son's killer, waives blood money Al-Shoujbi said, in an interview with MBC, that he secretly went to visit the mother of his sons murderer so that no one of his relatives would know, and then told them that he had decided to pardon their son for the sake of Almighty Allah. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh addresses a program to call for support to Vietnams candidacy as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (Photo: VNA) Addressing the programme which drew more than 100 leaders, ministers and representatives of embassies and UN member countries, Minh said that Vietnams run for the position proves the countrys external policy of peace, independence, self-reliance as well as its wish to make more contributions to joint efforts of the international community for peace, security and sustainable development. He affirmed that if elected, Vietnam will exert every effort to promote dialogue and cooperation to prevent conflicts and peacefully settle international disputes, protect civilians amidst conflicts and deal with war aftermaths, thus building sustainable peace. Vietnam will work to strengthen cooperation between the UN Security Council and regional organisations, he stated, expressing his belief that with the support of UN member countries, Vietnam will complete the tasks of a UN Security Council council, contributing to peace and security in the region and the world. All participants showed their belief that Vietnam will successfully perform the role of a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and make positive contributions to activities of the UN as well as international community. The same day, he had bilateral meetings with Foreign Ministers of Australia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ecuador, Uganda Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and US Deputy Secretary of State, during which he thanked the countries for extending condolences to Vietnam over the passing away of President Tran Dai Quang. He said that with economic achievements in external relations and results of international commitment implementation, Vietnam is willing to take the role and successfully complete the tasks of a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenure. He proposed that EU partners support Vietnam and push up the signing of a free trade agreement between Vietnam and the bloc. Foreign officials hailed the role and position as well as important contributions of Vietnam to common work in the region and the world, while promising to consider Vietnams proposal and continuing to coordinate closely with the Southeast Asian country to maintain international peace and security, contributing to stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world. Minh and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne agreed to continue the exchange of delegations, especially at the high level, as well as the sharing of measures to boost economic and trade partnership between the two countries, including the import and export of agricultural products, while promoting trade facilitation and regional economic connectivity. Australia will assist Vietnam to engage deeper to peacekeeping operations, build e-government, while working closely with Vietnam at the ASEAN, APEC and UN, said Payne. At the meeting between Minh and Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak, the two sides agreed on the need to continue taking measures to maintain and bolster the sound traditional ties between the two countries. Minh suggested that Slovakia create favourable conditions for Vietnamese investors in Slovakia as well as the Vietnamese community in the country. Meeting with Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec, Minh proposed that the two sides start negotiations and signing of a number of framework agreements, including the double-tax avoidance deal and another to recognise each others qualifications, while strengthening affiliation in areas related to maritime transport, tourism, pharmaceuticals and house appliances. In his meeting with Ugandas Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Henry Oryem Okello, Minh asked the Government of Uganda to support Vietnamese firms to sell strong Vietnamese products in Uganda and seek investment opportunities in the country, including activities of the telecommunication firm Viettel. The two sides concurred to soon negotiate and sign a visa exemption deal for diplomatic and official passport holders. Meeting US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, Minh stated that Vietnam values relationship with the US and hopes to continue promoting bilateral ties in key pillars of economy, trade, education-training, and science and technology. To mark 25 years of diplomatic ties in 2020, the two sides agreed to increase delegation exchange at all levels and foster cooperation between the two ministries. On the occasion, Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Minh proposed that the US continue supporting Vietnam in dealing with war aftermaths, including the implementation of a dioxin detoxification project at Bien Hoa airport at an early date./. Haiti - Politic : The Minister of the Interior condemns the violence against his Ministry Jean-Marie Reynaldo Brunet Minister of the Interior and Territorial Communities (MICT) (renewed to his position in the new Ceant Government) is surprised by the spontaneous unrest, initiated around his premises, on 25 and 26 September. Stressing that "these protest movements, characterized in particular by burning barricades of tires and the sporadic occupation of the entrance to the Ministry's main car park by groups of individuals, are likely to create anxiety and confusion." Minister Brunet "vehemently condemns all these actions independently of their motives" and takes the opportunity to stand out "from certain statements, at the origin of these disorders, which are based on misinformation" Despite these deplorable events, the Minister emphasizes that the administration of his Ministry continues to function as usual. HL/ S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Tourism : La PoliTour celebrates its 5 years The Tourist Police (PoliTour), a specialized unit of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) celebrated this week its 5 years of existence and services within the Haitian tourism sector. Recall that the PoliTour, created under the Minister of Tourism Stephanie Balmir Villedrouin in 2013 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8356-haiti-security-acceleration-of-the-creation-of-the-tourist-police.html has for mission to monitor the tourist sites and monuments of the country, guide tourists and take action against any individual adversely affecting the tourism sector. Since then, this force has not stopped growing. Of the 50 police officers who have undergone a rigorous and adapted training to integrate this new structure, the force of the Politour now stands at 138 members, which it is preparing to double soon. "The Politour is one of our priorities and for this new exercise 2018-2019, the Minister of Tourism Marie-Christine Stephenson and I, we will strive to improve their living conditions and service," said Andy Durosier Director General Ministry. Recalling that the Politour works with the Ministry of Tourism in establishing a vital security climate for all operators in the tourist chain as well as potential tourists wishing to visit Haiti. "The Politour is one of our priorities and for this new exercise 2018-2019, the Minister of Tourism Marie-Christine Stephenson and I, we will strive to improve their living conditions and service," said Andy Durosier Director General of the Ministry. Recalling that the Politour works with the Ministry of Tourism in establishing a vital security climate for all operators in the tourist chain as well as potential tourists wishing to visit Haiti. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24558-haiti-security-the-agents-of-politour-learn-to-swim.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-25240-icihaiti-morne-casse-inauguration-of-a-solar-installation-for-the-border-police-base.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-25128-icihaiti-port-au-prince-the-works-of-the-place-carl-brouard-progressing-well.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-9540-haiti-security-graduation-of-the-first-promotion-of-the-tourist-police.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-8356-haiti-security-acceleration-of-the-creation-of-the-tourist-police.html HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... PetroCaribe : First complaint heard As part of the investigation started on September 27 on the PetroCaribe case, investigating judge Romoncite Accime heard the plaintiffs Johnson Colin and Garry Alliance Thursday morning, hearing which ended around 12:30. Two other plaintiffs, Fausta Maisonneuvre and Maurice Noel, will appear on Tuesday, October 2, 2018. For what was used the 120 Million of FNE ? Senators demand explanations on the use of the $120 million fund raised under the National Education Fund (FNE) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25587-haiti-diaspora-7-years-later-the-brh-finally-reveals-the-details-of-taxes-collected-on-transfers.html . Recall that in 7 years the authorities have not published any detailed report explaining the use that has been made of this fund allocated to education. Recognized innocent after 17 months in prison The judicial authorities proceeded to the release of Jean Jackson Michel, former candidate for the post of Deputy of Arcahaie (West), under the banner of "Ayiti an aksyon" (AAA), who had been wrongly accused of having attacked the presidential motorcade on April 7, 2017, in Arcahaie https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20605-haiti-flash-presidential-motorcade-attacked-moise-safe-and-sound.html . Recall that he was arrested on April 13, 2017, at the international airport Toussaint Louverture. After 17 months in prison, he was found innocent and released. Senator Youri Latortue denounces the negligence of the judicial authorities in this case and claims justice for Jean Jackson Michel. See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-20688-icihaiti-arcahaie-the-government-commissioner-wants-to-question-many-people.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20637-haiti-justice-attack-of-the-presidential-convoy-the-investigation-progresses.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-20605-haiti-flash-presidential-motorcade-attacked-moise-safe-and-sound.html UN : Chancellor Edmond signs an agreement This Thursday, September 27, 2018, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the new Chancellor Bocchit Edmond signed the "Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice on issues Latin America and the Caribbean. " Weather : Kirk safe but... Tropical storm KIRK will have no impact on Haiti, while a Thalweg (low pressure zone between two high pressure zones) could generate rainfall and winds in several parts of Haiti. Improved ambulance service "To better serve the Haitian population, the Direction of the National Ambulance Center (CAN) has established several fixed points throughout the capital, allowing our ambulance teams to arrive on the scene as quickly as possible and to save more lives. CAN/MSPP 116 Tout ijans tout kote tout tan" announces the CAN. HL/ HaitiLibre Honour guards take the coffin of President Tran Dai Quang to his resting place (Photo: VNA) In their condolence message, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) wrote that: We share the grief and mourning of President Quangs family as well as the Government and people of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and offer our deepest and most heartfelt condolences. As a highly respected leader who had dedicated his life and career to his people, President Quang left Vietnam and our region a better place. We appreciate President Quangs contributions to our ASEAN family. Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and Chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko of Russia sent condolences to the Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly, saying that President Quang is a talented and steadfast leader deserving the great respect and high trust that people and international friends have given to him. They highly valued his enormous contributions to the two countries comprehensive strategic partnership, adding that the bright memories of the leader will live forever in the hearts of millions of Russians. President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte conveyed condolences to Acting President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh while Philippine Foreign Minister Alan Peter Cayetano also sent a similar message to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh. In the letters, they said President Tran Dai Quang is a true friend of the Philippine people and will always be remembered for tireless efforts during his whole life to strengthen relations with the Philippines and other countries in the region. In his messages respectively sent to Acting President Thinh and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Australian Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke highly of the huge contributions Tran Dai Quang made in many positions he held, stressing his important role in reinforcing the bilateral relations with Australia and elevating the countries ties to a strategic partnership earlier this year. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump issued a statement on the passing of President Quang, noting that: On behalf of the American people, I express my condolences to his family and the people of Vietnam. President Quang was a great friend of the United States. We will not forget his contributions to peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region or his voice for Vietnam to become a proud and independent nation on the world stage, the statement added. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay sent a condolence letter to Acting President Thinh, mourning the death of the exemplary leader, who had many important contributions to the promotion of sustainable development values in Vietnam. She also repeated UNESCOs commitments to continuing to work closely with the Vietnamese people and Government to bolster the cooperation between the organisation and Vietnam. Myanmar President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi also sent condolences to PM Phuc, while Spanish King Felipe VI extended profound condolences to Acting President Thinh and the bereaved. Leaders of other countries also sent letters and messages of condolences to the leaders of the Vietnamese Party, State and people, and the family of President Tran Dai Quang. They included Sultan of Oman Qaboos Bin Said Al Said, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, Governor-General Patsy Reddy and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, Speaker of the Parliament of Iran Ali Ardeshir Larijani, Slovak President Andrej Kiska, President of Ireland Michael Daniel Higgins, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Condolences also came from the leaders of the Communist Party of Peru - Red Fatherland, the Communist Party of Uruguay, the Movement of Popular Participation of Uruguay, the Dominican Revolutionary Party, and the India-Vietnam Solidarity Committee./. Alma Media on Thursday reported that popular support for the opposition party fell by 0.8 percentage points to 12.3 per cent between August and September. The Green League, however, continues to poll well above its 8.5 per cent vote share in the previous parliamentary elections in 2015. The Green League has yet to halt its downward spiral in polls. Maria Ohisalo, the interim chairperson of the Green League, says she is nonetheless confident that as the elections draw closer voters will wake up to the importance of two of the partys key objectives: combating poverty and climate change. I think last summer was a clear turning point, she gauges. Finns genuinely became more concerned about climate change; Forests were burning. Meanwhile, the Baltic Sea has become more polluted and the government has taken a lot away from education and lowest-income earners over the past three-and-a-half years. I believe people will appreciate the importance of these issues before the elections. Touko Aalto, the chairperson of the Green League, is currently on an indefinite sick leave due to exhaustion. The Social Democratic Party, meanwhile, has continued to consolidate its position as the most popular party in Finland, according to the poll by Alma Media. The opposition party is currently projected to receive 22.2 per cent of the vote, signalling an increase of 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. The National Coalition recorded an up-tick of 0.1 percentage points in popular support to 19.9 per cent, whereas the Centre saw its popularity decrease by 0.4 percentage points to 15.1 per cent. A total of 1,420 people were interviewed for the survey between 14 and 27 September by Tietokykkonen. Roughly three-quarters (74.1%) of the respondents were able and willing to state which party would receive their vote if the elections were held today. Aleksi Teivainen HT Source: Uusi Suomi THE Henley Santa fun run will be held this year. It will take place on Sunday, December 9, beginning in Mill Meadows. The event, which began seven years ago, was cancelled last year by the town council who said it cost too much to organise. Then Mayor Kellie Hinton persuaded Henley parkrun organiser James Barr to allow the fun run to piggyback his event, which takes place at 40 Acre Field every Saturday. The fun runs revival was announced by town councillor Sarah Miller, who said that former mayor Pam Phillips, who launched the event in her mayoral year in 2011, would be helping with the organisation. Cllr Miller said: We are both really excited and hope many families join in. The event will raise money for Mayor Glen Lamberts charities, Gillotts School in Henley, Henley Music School and the campaign to launch a respite service for dementia sufferers and their carers. He said: I am very grateful to Sarah for relaunching the Santa fun run. She and I joined the park run dressed as Santas last year after the Santa fun run was cancelled. That proceeds will go to the Mayors charities is something I really appreciate because as my year progresses Im able to focus more time on my charities and fund-raising is a key part of that. The full route of the run is still to be confirmed. The previous fun run involved a two-mile jog, starting and finishing in Mill Meadows. As many as 150 participants took part and small prizes were awarded to the fastest runners as well as for the best fancy dress outfits. In her mayoral year, Cllr Hinton had planned to change the route so that it finished in the town centre but this was scrapped. She said there had been negative feedback about the previous route with people complaining that it used back streets and did not take advantage of the towns beauty spots. This years Henley Christmas Festival will be held on Friday, November 30. General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong shakes hands with Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC)s Commission for Discipline Inspection Zhao Leji (Photo: VNA) At the reception, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Trong thanked Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping and other leaders of China for sending messages of condolences to the Vietnamese Party, State and people over the passing of President Tran Dai Quang. He also thanked Zhao for leading a delegation from the Communist Party of China to pay tribute to the Vietnamese leader. The Party leader spoke highly of the delegations visit to Vietnam, saying it will help strengthen mutual understanding, consolidate political trust, and further boost the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Vietnam and China. He suggested the two sides continue directing the realisation of common perceptions and reached agreements, work harder to foster practical cooperation, respect each others legal and legitimate interests, satisfactorily handle sea-related differences, strengthen the friendship between their people, and promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral ties. General Secretary Trong also urged relevant agencies of the two Parties and States, including inspection and supervision agencies, to increase the sharing of experience in inspection and supervision work and corruption prevention, thus practically contributing to the socialism building cause in each country. For his part, Zhao affirmed that the Party, Government and people of China attach special importance to their relations with Vietnam, expressing his wish that the two Parties and States to continue instructing agencies at all levels and localities, including inspection and discipline agencies, to enhance exchanges and cooperation to reinforce political trust and develop the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in a positive, healthy, stable and long-term manner. Earlier, Tran Cam Tu, Secretary of the CPV Central Committee and head of the committees Inspection Commission, held talks with the Chinese official. The two sides exchanged experience in inspection, discipline and corruption prevention as well as discussed collaboration orientations in the time to come. After the talks, Tu and Zhao witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam and the National Supervisory Commission of China. Also on September 27th, the Chinese delegation laid a wreath in tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum in Hanoi./. In 1915 Gurkhas found themselves on the leading edge of the largest attack in the second year of World War I On the morning of Sept. 25, 1915, just west of the village of Loos-en-Gohelle in far northern France, Captain Gerald C.B. Buckland of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Gurkha Rifles, realized something had gone decidedly wrong. After crossing no-mans-land with the first wave of attackers, his company was supposed to tie in with another friendly unit to its rightbut no one was there. Exposed at the vanguard of the failed assault, Bucklands men were running low on ammunition. It was only a matter of time before the Germans realized the Gurkhas right flank was wholly exposed. If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha. So said Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, a former Indian army chief of staff whose four decades of military service began in the British Indian army in 1934. Renowned for their courage and tenacity under fire, the Gurkhas traced their ethnic lineage to tribes from the mountainous areas of northern India and Nepal and had originally been united in their fight against the British during that countrys conquest of India. They later joined forces with the British in their colonial wars and saw service in Burma, Afghanistan, the 187778 Russo-Turkish War and other conflicts across the British empire. That tradition of service continued through World War I, during which more than 200,000 Gurkhas served in homogeneous units led by British officers. Gurkhas saw action in the Middle East and Western Europe, playing a particularly important supporting role in the Sept. 25 Oct. 8, 1915, Battle of Loos, the largest British attack of the year. By then the war had bogged down into a stalemate, leaving the opposing armies entrenched along a front stretching more than 400 miles from the North Sea to the Swiss border. Allied commanders hoped to break the impasse with two big pushesthe French concentrating on the Champagne-Ardenne region, the British on Loos. Field Marshal Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, and Lt. Gen. Sir Douglas Haig, his First Army commander, faced less than ideal tactical conditions. The prospective battlefieldjust north of Lens, a coal mining town in an industrialized area near the Belgian border in far northern Francewas uniformly flat, dotted with mining villages, collieries and industrial buildings. Ubiquitous slag heaps comprised the only high ground, most of which the Germans had fortified. Adding to the British commanders concerns were intelligence reports indicating the Germans were constructing robust second- and third-line defenses behind the front, which itself had been reinforced with machine-gun positions and wide belts of barbed wire. The Germans second line, on a reverse slope fronted by a 15-yard-deep wall of wire, lay just out of British artillery range, thus the guns would have to be redeployed forward to support any significant push. Further complicating matters was a shortage of artillery support, as the British had only 533 field guns to cover an 11,200-yard stretch of enemy positions. French and Haig expressed their concerns to superiors and proposed an offensive farther north, which they argued would put them in better position to break the German lines, given their available men and supplies. But British Secretary of State for War Field Marshal Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener and the French high command overruled them. To compensate for the unfavorable terrain and the lack of munitions, commanders decided the British would, for the first time, use chlorine gas against enemy trenches prior to their attack. Despite efforts to catch the enemy unawares, the British press carelessly broadcast the movements of infantry units, alerting the Germans to the likelihood of a forthcoming offensive in their sectors. British forces marshaled for the operation included the 2nd Battalion, 8th Gurkha Rifles, one of five battalions in the Garhwal Brigade of the 7th (Meerut) Division of the Indian Corps. Having held the line in France in 1914, Indian unitsincluding Gurkha battalionswould again have their skill and tenacity put to the test in the fall of 1915. Loos would also be the first engagement for the British New Army. A new initiative for British armed forces, the all-volunteer force was Lord Kitcheners brainchild, hence its nickname, Kitcheners Army. Unfortunately, its men were poorly trained and ill-prepared for the rigors of war, particularly in comparison to regular British units already engaged along the Western Front. Facing the British across no-mans-land at Loos were elements of the German Sixth Army under Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Having withdrawn many units to the Eastern Front, the German high command relied on its Third and Sixth Armieswith seven divisions and three brigades in reserveto cover the entire Western Front. In fact, German forces at Loos were spread thin and often outnumbered by their opponentsalthough the British did not realize it at the time. In early September Lt. Gen. Sir Charles A. Anderson, commander of the 7th (Meerut) Division, was promoted to lead the Indian Corps, which then held almost 9,500 yards of the British line. To support the French attack in Champagne-Ardenne, the corps was tasked with attacking the high ground at Haut Pommereau before advancing toward German defenses to the south at La Bassee Canal. On September 21 British artillery opened up on German positions, intending to continue the barrage unabated until the morning of the assault. Two days later, however, the weather soured, torrential rains hampering movement and visibility, flooding trenches and leaving some areas in a foot of standing water. British units nevertheless moved under the cover of darkness to their jumping-off areas and were in position by early morning September 25. The lead units were unaware the four-day preliminary bombardment had done little to damage German defenses. Just before dawn on September 25, after checking weather reports, the British confirmed their intent to use chlorine gas, which they released minutes before 6 a.m., relying on the wind to carry the poisonous fumes across no-mans-land into the enemy trenches. British units watched the gas bank up to 50 feet in the air, but the noxious cloud moved at a snails pace. In the interim many British soldiers took off their gas masks, which restricted their vision and did not seal properly. In some sectors the fickle wind blew the chlorine gas back into the British trenches, causing more casualties among the Allies than among the Germans. Promptly at 6 a.m. the British hurled out smoke grenades and launched their attack. Forming on the left flank of the Garhwal Brigade, the first wave of men from 2/8th Gurkha Rifles clambered from their trenches and advanced into no-mans-land. Undeterred by the preliminary artillery barrage, German forces lashed the advancing troops with effective machine-gun and artillery fire. Despite the stiff resistance, the first wave of 2/8th Gurkha Rifles managed to push as far as the German third line, their initial objective. Over the next two hours the battalion sent subsequent waves of troops to firm up Companies B and C, at the leading edge of the advancebut at a terrible cost. And as the Gurkhas pressed forward, they realized that the 2nd Leicestershire Regiment, which was to have protected their right flank, had been unable to get through the wire. By 8:30 a.m. Captain Buckland of Company C found himself with only 150 men and two Lewis guns holding a position beyond the German third trench line. Enemy troops were probing the Gurkhas position to assess their strength. When brigade headquarters ordered the 2/8th Gurkha Rifles senior officer to return to the British trenches and give a progress report, Buckland discovered he was the battalions only surviving officer. As he made his way to the rear, the Gurkhas continued to hold, despite having been further reduced to only 100 able troops. Buckland reported the precarious situation and requested reinforcements. Brigade ordered a reserve battalion to push forward to 2/8th Gurkha Rifles position, but the orders were slow to reach the appropriate officers. Meanwhile, German units discovered the gap in the Gurkha right and moved up machine guns. German gunners poured enfilading fire into the Gurkhas flank as enemy assault parties tossed hand grenades into the British positions. In response Gurkha field officer Subedar Sarabjit Gurung led a detachment to engage the flanking enemy and disrupt the counterattacks. Though it fought fiercely, the outnumbered party was eventually overrun and killed. That afternoon, as 2/8th Gurkha Rifles struggled to hold its exposed position in the face of mounting casualties, British commanders finally recognized the futility of continuing the advance. At 3:30 p.m. they ordered the remnants of the battalion to fall back and assume reserve positions. By nightfall 2/8th Gurkha Rifleswhich had arrived in Loos with some 800 officers and menwas down to one officer and 49 other ranks, all of whom were wounded. That British forces were ultimately able to break through German defenses and take Loos-en-Gohelle was the result not of superior firepower but due to the sheer number of troops thrown at the enemy lines. In the end, however, broken communication lines, a dearth of supplies and the late arrival of reserves made it all but impossible for the British to exploit their breakthrough. According to Maj. Gen. Richard Hilton, who was a forward observation officer at Loos, all the British needed to achieve a definitive victory was more artillery ammunition to blast those clearly located machine guns, and some fresh infantry.But, alas, neither ammunition nor reinforcements were immediately available, and the great opportunity passed. Indeed, during the battle enemy commanders all but expected the British would achieve a decisive breakthrough. The German Sixth Army had few reserves available to plug holes the British punched into its lines, and enemy commanders feared a collapse of their defenses. But a lull in the fighting had allowed the German 117th Infantry Division to withdraw behind its second line and regroup, and on the night of September 25, as the surviving 2/8th Gurkha Rifles withdrew to the rear, the Germans fortified their defensive positions. The British continued their efforts to advance over the next two days, but the Germans stymied each attempt. By September 28 the British First Army was simply unable to launch more attacks, and commanders ordered the attacking units to fall back to their original lines. Fighting continued until October 8, with artillery duels and sporadic attacks and counterattacks, but the battle was effectively over. More than 10,000 British troops took part in the initial attack on Loos on September 25. By the end of the 13-day battle British forces had suffered more than 61,000 casualties. Of those, some 15,800 were killed, and more than 2,000 officers were killed or wounded. The Germans, whose defensive fire was so effective in cutting down the attackers, later called the area Der Leichenfeld von Loos (The Field of Corpses of Loos). In the end the engagement was a German victory. Their defenses held, and they forced the British to leave the field of battle. The British loss reflected a failure of leadership, as well as poor planning and execution. Commanders had not given proper regard to intelligence reports regarding German strengthand in some cases theyd even discarded the reports. The offensive was not carried out with the element of surprise, and both supply and communications problems plagued the assaulting units. Artillery strength was inadequate, and soldiers were sent into battle with inferior equipment. In the unkindest cut, the decision to pull back mess facilities to division headquarters meant that many men had gone into battle hungry. Despite the courage and sacrifice of the British fighting men at Loos, including 2/8th Gurkha Rifles, the battle as planned and carried out was doomed from the start. Many men died due to the ineptitude of British leadership, and the war would drag on for another three long years. U.S. Army veteran Dana Benner holds a degree in history and a masters in heritage studies. He teaches history, political science and sociology at the university level. For further reading he recommends Gurkhas, by David Bolt; The Gurkhas, by Byron Farwell; and The First World War: A Complete History, by Martin Gilbert. Mr. Daniel Kritenbrink, US Ambassador to Vietnam speaking at the event. (Photo: CPV) The hand-over ceremony was held on September 24th at the headquarters of the Noi Bai International Airports Customs Department. Mr. Daniel Kritenbrink, US Ambassador to Vietnam, said the scanner will allow cargo to be scanned directly from aircraft without dismantling, thereby speeding up the scanning and custom clearance of packages. The scanner helps custom clearance be easier and more convenient. (Photo: CPV) Earlier, on September 10th-14th, a training course was held for officials of the Noi Bai International Airports Customs Department to provide basic knowledge in image analysis for the scanner. In his speech at the event, Mr. Hoang Viet Cuong, Deputy Head of the General Department of Customs, expressed sincere thanks to the US Embassy for actively supporting Vietnam Customs, while looking forward to continuing receiving cooperation and assistance from the US in improving and modernizing Customs. According to the US Embassy, the scanner delivery is part of the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) Program, which is designed to help countries develop and improve their strategic trade and related border control systems./. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund praise California Gov. Jerry Brown for signing groundbreaking legislation that prohibits the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals. The law is the first of its kind in North America. SB 1249, championed by Senator Cathleen Galgiani and Assembly member Ash Kalra, will ensure that cosmetic products in California stores are free from new animal testing once the bill goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020. The Humane Society of the United States and HSLF joined a coalition of organizations, including sponsors Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Social Compassion in Legislation, as well as cosmetics company LUSH, in support of SB 1249. The law will end the sale of cosmetics like lipstick, deodorant and shampoo that contain ingredients that are newly tested on animals with a few exceptions for ingredients tested on animals for non-cosmetic purposes as required by certain regulatory agencies and for companies to comply with foreign testing requirements. We are grateful to Governor Brown for signing this bill, said Crystal Moreland, California state director for the Humane Society of the United States. I am proud that California is the first state in the nation to take a stand against cruel cosmetic animal testing. Every year rabbits, rats, mice and guinea pigs suffer and are killed in tests to assess the safety of cosmetics, a practice that is cruel and unnecessary. There are thousands of ingredients that have a history of safe use and non-animal tested methods that provide safety information more relevant to humans. We now call on Congress to quickly pass the Humane Cosmetics Act, legislation to end the production and sale of animal-tested cosmetics in the United States. Ending cosmetic animal testing has broad support from the American public and the Humane Cosmetics Act has been endorsed by 250 companies in the cosmetics industry. More than 30 other countries, including the members of the European Union, have passed similar laws. Background Can Airbnb Concerts And Sofar Sounds Revolutionize The Live Concert Industry? After establishing itself as a huge success in the travel industry, Airbnb is now looking at expanding its services into the live music space by partnering with Sofar Sounds to offer guests "Music Experiences". _____________________ Guest post by Chi Zhan from the Berklee College of Music: Music Business Journal Airbnb Concerts Founded in 2008 in San Francisco, Airbnb has gone from three air mattresses and broke roommates to a company valued at more than $30 billion. Having changed the way people travel, which led to a massive revolution in the hospitality industry, Airbnb is now trying to make its move to enter the live music space. In November 2016, Airbnb launched a new offering called Trips as an offshoot alongside its home rental service. Trips allows consumers to not only rent a place to stay, but also sign up for local activities including city tours, surfing lessons, and music events. Later in March 2017, it seemed that Airbnb had bigger plans for the live music industry when it unveiled what it calls Music Experiences under its global Trips platform. Music Experiences was launched with the intention to grant access to exclusive and immersive music events, including intimate live performances, special pop-up gigs, underground music sessions, and meeting local artists and performers. After the launch of Music Experiences, music quickly became one of Airbnbs most popular booking categories with around 100 concerts held worldwide every ,month. Many of these are even held in unconventional venues such as cathedrals and wine cellars, all with deliberately small audiences of around 50-100 people per show. Following the success of Music Experiences, Airbnb continued to show interest in the live music industry this February with the launch of Airbnb Concerts, a platform that specifically focuses on staging concerts around the world. James Beshara, Airbnbs Head of Music, expects the number of venues to skyrocket from the current 100 concerts per month to 20,000 per month at the end of 2018. Airbnb Concerts is now available in 25 major cities across the globe, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Tokyo, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Sydney, among other locations. Moreover, according to Airbnbs Vice President of Trips Joe Zadeh, this year Airbnb is going to expand [Trips] to 1,000 cities were going to put our foot on the gas, said the executive at an event in San Francisco. The success of this model has sparked interest in new ways concerts can be experienced and how technology can create new opportunities for artists, organizers, and concertgoers. Startups exploring this concept are emerging all over the world, one of the most interesting being London based startup, Sofar Sounds. Sofar Sounds Sofar Sounds is a startup company that focuses on music events and has an offering similar to Airbnb Concerts: intimate concerts at untraditional venues. Initially, in March 2017, Airbnb had even launched Music Experiences in collaboration with Sofar Sounds. Started in 2009, Sofar Sounds calls itself a global community where guests and artists come together to experience music in an intimate and respectful setting at a secret concert. Currently operating in eight cities around the world, the site allows their concert artists to receive a compensation of $100, plus 100% of merch sales and a high-quality video of the performance. Guests can purchase a ticket to the concert at the price of $15 to $20. Sofar concerts happen in a wide range of venues, from homes and apartments to rooftops, breweries and galleries, all provided by Sofar hosts. In addition to its eight full-time cities, there are more than 300 Sofar cities around the world that are run by volunteers. In early 2017, Sofar Sounds claimed that they are putting on approximately 500 gigs per month. Although the two share the basic idea of building a global community where people can enjoy more intimate and interpersonal live music experiences, the cooperation between Airbnbs Music Experience and Sofar Sounds was not long-lived, and Sofar hosts have not been seen on Airbnbs website since. It is apparent that Airbnb has greater ambition in the intimate concert business, considering its goals of expanding Airbnb Concerts between 50 and 100 cities, launching its Trips project in over 1,000 cities, and holding over 20,000 concerts per month by the end of this year, How Profitable Are These Intimate Concerts? While such small and intimate concerts can be used as effective marketing tactics, they do not however appear to be very profitable for artists. After all, Airbnb just stepped into the live music business and started building the project less than two years ago, and despite Sofar Sounds having a history of nearly ten years, it seems that the company has been facing challenges in its development, most likely due to a lack of capital and little growth incentive. In the case of Airbnb Concerts, tickets for gigs cost around $20 to $35. The company explained that artists could earn between $150 and $1,000 per show, and Airbnb only charges a 20% fee for each booking. There is certainly potential for flourishing profits here, but for the revenue to grow and become sustainable, the intimate concerts that Airbnb holds have to grow both in quantity and in quality. Speaking with Billboard, James Beshara stated, five years from now, I think more people will experience music in intimate settings like this than they are experiencing in arenas, stadiums, and festivals. Thats how big of an opportunity I think this is and hopefully, were a substantial part of that. In the case of Sofar Sounds, the ticket price for Sofar concerts is around $15 to $20, which is a relatively low price compared to Airbnbs. The venues that Sofar concerts take place in are voluntarily offered by Sofar hosts, who can submit their host applications through the Sofar Sounds website. Despite the fact that there is no cost for venues and the fee for artists is very low, Sofar Sounds reveals on its website that currently, Sofar does not make a profit, and we are backed by a group of wonderful and supportive investors who believe in our goal of connecting people through intimate, live events. Will These Intimate Concerts Benefit Artists? The intimate concert idea, although innovative for the live music sector, may not be game changing in terms of revenue for artists. For artists looking to play gigs, Airbnb Concerts would be better utilized as a marketing tool to access a certain pool of listeners, or to improve listener experience through reviews. However, booking with Airbnb Concerts may not significantly increase the amount of money an artist gets, for the ticket price remains unchanged and Airbnb charges a 20% booking fee. The other service provider, Sofar concerts, certainly will not generate growing revenue for artists either, as Sofar gives artists a fixed compensation of merely $100 per concert. Nevertheless, Airbnb Concerts and Sofar Sounds might be a good tool for artists to market their music. Because artists are putting themselves on an interactive platform actively looking for guests to attend their gigs, and consumers, at the same time, are actively looking for a live music experience. Guests can also leave comments under the gigs they attended, giving future guests an overall idea of what to expect, and motivating the artists through constructive criticism. Through the platform, were able to support up-and-coming and local artists by connecting people to their events and bringing their music to even more fans around the world, said Chesky. In conclusion, the intimate concert idea brings a whole different live music experience to concert guests, especially music lovers. Instead of standing 5,000 feet back, staring at a big screen, music lovers are now more easily connected to intimate settings and can interact with artists via digital platforms like never before. This is also a great opportunity for local and startup musicians to connect with their fans and build up a fan base, which contains both locals and travelers from other cities and even other countries. By utilizing Airbnb Concerts and Sofar Sounds as marketing tools, independent artists will greatly benefit from these platforms as the live music industry continues to drive the music business forward. Works Cited Kerr, Dara. 2018. Airbnb Will Expand Experiences to 1,000 Cities This Year. Cnet. February 23. Accessed March 2, 2018. https://www.cnet.com/news/airbnb-rolls-out-experiences-to-1000-new-cities/. Roettgers, Janko. 2017. AirBnB Plans to Grow Live Music Biz, Take Living Room Concerts Global. Variety. November 2. Accessed March 2, 2018. http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/airbnb-music-events-living-room-concerts-1202605344/. Sanchez, Daniel. 2018. Airbnb Experiments With Smaller Concerts In Non-Traditional Venues And Its Taking Off. Digital Music News. February 26. Accessed March 2, 2018. https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/02/26/airbnb-smaller-concerts-success/. Smirke, Richard. 2018. Airbnb Expands Music Offering With Launch Of Dedicated Concerts Platform. Billboard. February 23. Accessed March 2, 2018. https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8216223/airbnb-expands-music-offering-concerts-platform. Smirke, Richard. 2017. Airbnb Turns To Live Music With New Music Experiences Initiative. Billboard. March 8. Accessed March 2, 2018. Woo, Jen. 2017. Airbnb Teams up With Sofar Sounds to Offer Secret Live Music Shows in SF. 77. March 28. Accessed March 2, 2018. http://www.77.com/airbnb-teams-up-with-sofar-sounds-to-offer-secret-shows-in-sf-2318384636.html. Share on: BEIJING, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping has called on the China Media Group (CMG) and people working in the television circle nationwide to strive for building world-class new mainstream media with strong guidance, coverage and influence. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, asked the CMG to be bold in its reform and innovation, and strengthen mainstream public opinion, in a congratulatory letter on the 60th anniversary of China Central Television (CCTV). The CMG is a new broadcasting platform made up of CCTV, China National Radio and China Radio International. This year is also the 60th anniversary of television broadcasting following the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. On behalf of the CPC Central Committee, Xi in the letter extended his sincere greetings to officials and staff of the CMG and people working in the television sector. Identifying television as an important part of the Party's media work, Xi highlighted television workers' contributions to the cause of the Party and the people. Under the leadership of the Party, those workers over the past 60 years have been maintaining the correct political orientation and the right tone, while focusing on the major task, serving the overall interests of the country, advocating the Party's ideas, conveying the people's aspirations and spreading mainstream values and positive energy, said Xi. Xi also noted the achievements of CMG since its establishment in March, especially in regard to promoting in-depth integration and innovation in international communication to present a true, multi-dimensional and panoramic view of China. Xi said he hopes that CMG and television workers across the country can uphold Party leadership, take a people-centered approach and faithfully fulfill their responsibilities and missions. Xi also called on those workers to integrate radio and television, domestic publicity and international communication, and traditional and new media, as well as improve their international communication capabilities. Xi's letter was read out at a commemorative meeting held in Beijing on Wednesday. When addressing the meeting, Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, asked television workers to attentively study and implement Xi's instructions and consciously shoulder new responsibilities and missions, so as to contribute more to the cause of the Party and the state. Established on May 1, 1958, CCTV now has 41 channels with an annual broadcasting time of 329,000 hours. It is also the only television station in the world that incessantly engages in international communication with the six working languages of the United Nations. 2 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] Heather Boulger updated the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission on the plan Thursday evening. Regional Workforce Development Plan Rolling Out PITTSFIELD, Mass. Workforce development professionals are taking a deeper dive into building the region's health care, hospitality, and manufacturing industries. It isn't that other sectors aren't important but that the Baker administration has tasked local officials to develop a blueprint for workforce development with specific industries to focus a greater amount of attention. Headed by the Berkshire County Regional Employment Board which will soon have a much easier name to remember county officials completed a plan are now looking to implement it. "We needed to prioritize two to three industries and two to three occupations to focus on as a region," BCREB Executive Director Heather Boulger said. In developing the Regional Workforce Skills Initiative, a group consisting of representatives from education, economic development, and workforce development has spent the last 18 or so months taking a deep dive into the employment data in the Berkshires. The effort was pushed by the Baker administration to bring the three sectors together on a focused plan. There are seven of such groups throughout the state. "We fought really hard to make sure we were on our own," Boulger said, becauswe early on there was concern that the Berkshires would be wrapped into a Western Massachusetts group. The county's employment rate is at a low 4.1 percent but there are still challenges, Boulger said. She said the cost of business and limited broadband services are a hindrance to the county's employers and that businesses struggle to find and keep workers. "They are having a hard time finding and retaining a skilled workforce. I hear that every day," Bougler said. The Berkshires also has a lower educational attainment rate than elsewhere. "We have a lot of people graduating high school and are continuing their education but not completing their education," Boulger said. And she said there is a "perception" that there aren't any jobs. She disagrees with that notion saying there are some 2,000 jobs, but sometimes the right one can be tricky to find. What the Berkshires does have going for it is a variety of sectors for people to find opportunities. She said there are strong partnerships with educational institutions in providing the needed training programs. And the Berkshires does have a good quality of life. Looking at the emerging trends in employment in emerging sectors, opportunities for growth, and wages, the group decided to particularly focus on education, engineering and health care. All three have been noted as strongholds in the local economy and the plan looks to build on those strengths. In engineering, there are more than 125 job opportunities and the ability to attract millennials. In education, there are some 55 job opportunities and 45 percent of the current workforce is approaching retirement. In health care, some percent of the workforce is nearing retirement. Boulger added that cybersecurity and technology jobs are increasing. "All of the regions mentioned health care and social services," Bougler said, hoping that there are opportunities for statewide programs to be rolled out. The action plan approved by the state outlines 14 goals and 27 different strategies. But first, the group is developing criteria to measure its success. "This is our first opportunity to gather this information to set a baseline," Boulger said. Some of the goals include increasing engagement between employers and elementary and high schools by 5 percent each year through college and career readiness programs, piloting new internship programs, and creating college-training programs further. It looks to attract and retain more people in the 22- to 40-year-old age bracket and increase labor participation among that demographic. And BCREB wants to expand its reach beyond what it has traditionally been. Bougler said the group typically has worked with individuals who are filing for unemployment, have low incomes, or have employment barriers. It looks to dive deeper into the world of those currently working and who are looking for better jobs or career changes. The group is looking to push for improved transportation through such things as high-speed rail, having better relationships with neighboring states, and working on public transportation needs. The goals also call for the creation of career pathways for each sector, providing workers with a clear and concise way to get into their chosen job or industry. There is a goal to increase the number of trained and certified workers for those types of jobs by 10 percent by 2022 and the group wants to reduce the supply gap ratio among those sectors by 10 percent. "We also want to decrease the average age of those working in the manufacturing sector," Bougler said, adding that the stigma about the manufacturing sector of old is still prevalent when today's manufacturing is much more sophisticated and clean. There is also strong innovation economies in neighboring areas of New York and Vermont that the group looks to work more closely with through the creation of a cross-border task force. Boulger added that currently it is taking companies 62 days to fill a position and the group will also be focusing on bringing that overall number down. It also hopes to grow the total number of jobs. By June of next year, the group will have to report its progress. The state is providing $30,000 for implementation, which Boulger said is being spent on having 1Berkshire staff the effort. While many of the issues aren't new, what is new is the approach. Typically those in economic development, education, and workforce development all played a part in addressing these issues but hadn't been specifically bound together. The Regional Workforce Skills Initiative statewide involves the secretaries of housing and economic development, education, and labor and workforce development and the local group reflect just that -- breaking down what some have called silos separating the work. BCREB may be heading the work for now, but the alphabet soup of a name will soon be changed. In part of a statewide branding effort, BCREB is being changed to Masshire Berkshire Workforce Board. Masshire is the term for workforce agencies across the state and the hope is when people see that name anywhere, they'll know to go there for employment needs. "The whole point of rebranding is to streamline services," Bougler said. Five New Trustees Elected to Berkshire Museum Board at Annual Meeting PITTSFIELD, Mass. Five new trustees are joining the Berkshire Museum's board of trustees, bringing to the board significant expertise in community development, diversity and inclusion, STEM education, entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing and communications, and art. New members elected by the board to two-year terms and welcomed at its annual meeting on Monday, Sept. 24, include: Catharine B. Deely, a resident of Pittsfield, is a marketing and communications professional and a proponent of the creative economy and economic development. Rachel Melendez Mabee, a resident of Pittsfield, is a communications professional with over 13 years of experience developing and executing end-to-end marketing plans for local to national organizations. Josh Simpson, a resident of nearby Shelburne Falls, is a world-renown glassmaker and artist whose work is on view at the Museum. He served as Honorary Chair of the Museums 2018 GALAxy fundraiser along with former astronaut Cady Coleman. Jeffrey Thomas, a resident of Williamstown and a scientist, educator, and entrepreneur, is the founder and Executive Director of Lever, the North Adams-based startup incubator. Michael Wynn, a resident and chief of police of Pittsfield, attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated from Williams College, and directed the Westside Neighborhood Resource Center (Pittsfield) before beginning his career in law enforcement. "These new board members bring diverse and valuable skills to the museum at a time of renewed energy, enthusiasm, and optimism about whats possible here," said Elizabeth McGraw, president of the board of trustees. "We are fortunate to have their knowledge and passion as we implement our interdisciplinary plans to interpret the three pillars of our mission; art, history, and science, and we guide the Berkshire Museum into a sustainable and relevant future for everyone in our community to enjoy." Email IC Arizona at azpoliticalintel-at-yahoo.comIC Arizona is a subsidiary of IntellectualConservative.com iciHaiti - Social : The law on accessibility standards, published in the official journal The Office of the Secretary of State for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities (BSEIPH) informs us that the law on the accessibility standards of the built environment has been published in the official journal "Le Moniteur" special number 16. The purpose of this new law is to establish standards for the accessibility of the built environment, including collective and individual residential buildings for rental, public buildings and public spaces. In accordance with the provisions of the Act of 13 March 2012, the document defines the accessibility-related technical features to ensure the design, layout and management of a built environment that takes into account the needs and abilities of all users. The BSEIPH salutes the dedication of President Jovenel Moise and thanks parliamentarians who by their vote https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24992-haiti-politic-weekly-balance-of-parliamentary-activities.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23998-haiti-news-zapping.html , contributing to the construction of an environment where every citizen will finally be able to move independently and safely, whether disabled or not. At the same time, the Office of the Secretary of State invites all components of national life to work for the respect of these new norms for an inclusive and just society. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24992-haiti-politic-weekly-balance-of-parliamentary-activities.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23998-haiti-news-zapping.html IH/ iciHaiti BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday urged the United States to stop uttering words and deeds that are harmful to Sino-U.S. relations and the fundamental interests of the two countries' people. The request was made by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang at a daily news briefing, when responding to a question regarding allegations that China is "attempting to interfere in" the 2018 mid-term U.S. elections. "Non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries is a tradition of China's foreign policy, which has won widespread praise from the international community," said Geng. "The international community is clear about which country interferes the most in other countries' internal affairs." He urged the U.S. to put an end to unwarranted accusations and defamation regarding this concern. In response to the claim that China intends on influencing American farmers by getting China Daily to place propaganda ads in papers such as the Des Moines Register to "make it look like news," Geng said it is utterly "groundless and farfetched" to interpret normal business cooperation as "attempts to meddle in U.S. elections." According to U.S. laws and regulations, foreign media outlets are allowed to have various forms of partnerships with their American counterparts. "As far as I can see, buying space in the Des Moines Register falls into this category," Geng said, adding that the practice is common for many foreign news organizations. [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] The inaugural Australian Geoscience Council Convention, AGCC 2018, will be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre in Adelaide, Australia, Sunday 14 to Thursday 18 October, 2018. AGCC 2018 will focus on the Asia Pacific region and is supported by all eight Member Organisations of the Australian Geoscience Council. AGCC 2018 is proudly supported by Geoscience Australia. Big Issues and Ideas in Geoscience is designed to highlight the fundamental role that Geoscience has as a major field of science throughout the Asia-Pacific region one that has a part to play in the life of everyone. The convention will cover all aspects of Geoscience, with technical themes covering theoretical and applied Geoscience, mineral and energy resources, environmental and societal science, Geoscience education and communication, and emerging technologies. September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - DAMASCUS, SYRIA Though undeniably a game-changer in the Syrian conflict, the imminent delivery of S-300 air defense systems to the Syrian government could risk dangerously escalating the conflict. Indeed, recent statements from top Israeli and Syrian government officials have made it clear that open war between the two countries could potentially ignite in the coming weeks and months not despite, but because of, the presence of Syrias improved and upgraded air defense systems. The highly anticipated delivery of the S-300 systems to Syria is expected to occur in a matter of days, a consequence of the downing of a Russian electronic-warfare plane in Syria earlier this month. Russia has blamed Israel for the planes destruction and the death of its crew, asserting that the Israeli Air Force used the plane as cover to bomb Syria. Israel has denied responsibility for the incident. On Tuesday, Vladimir Ermakov, an official at Russias Foreign Ministry, assured observers of the Syrian conflict that the delivery of the S-300 would help Syria to exercise sovereignty over its airspace by closing its airspace where necessary, and that the defensive weapons would lead to the stabilization of the region. Ermakovs comments came after U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton warned against Russias delivery of the system to Syria, saying it would be a significant escalation by Moscow. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Ermakovs statements that the S-300 would have a stabilizing influence on the conflict were followed by comments from Syrias Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, who urged Israel to think twice before launching further attacks on targets within Syrian territory once the S-300 systems are in place. Speaking to Chinas Xinhua news agency, Mekdad stated: Israel, which got used to carrying out many attacks under different pretexts, would have to recalculate and reconsider before attacking again. Let the Israelis try [to attack] and we will defend ourselves as we have done before. As Mekdad noted, Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes against Syrian targets over the course of the war and has publicly claimed that it is attacking Iranian military installations within Syria, despite the fact that Irans military involvement in the Syrian conflict includes only a handful of military advisors rather than ground troops. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Iran is seeking to establish a military foothold in Syria with the aim of placing pressure on Israels northern border, though Iran and Syrian government officials have repeatedly denied this claim. However, Israels long-standing goal of overthrowing the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad and Tel Avivs covert funding and arming of Syrian rebels suggest that Israels motivation for launching the strikes goes far beyond alleged concerns over Irans military presence. Israel takes improved Syrian air defense as a challenge Instead of taking Mekdads statements as a plea to reconsider its policy of launching continued, unilateral airstrikes against Syrian targets, the Israeli government has taken them as a challenge and has responded defiantly. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that we will continue to act to prevent the Iranian military buildup in Syria, meaning that Israels bombing of Syria will continue unchanged regardless of the imminent upgrade to Syrian air defenses. Netanyahu further added that we will do what is necessary to defend Israels security. Prior to Netanyahus statements, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had stated on Sunday that the deployment of the S-300s will in no way affect Israels policy of unilaterally bombing Syria. Earlier this year in April, Lieberman had issued not-so-veiled threats in which he said Israel would destroy any and all Syrian missile defense systems if those systems targeted Israeli jets in Syrian airspace. Following Liebermans comments, Russia warned Israel against attacking S-300 installations if they were deployed, stating that such attacks would likely lead to a dramatic escalation in the conflict. Following these comments from Lieberman and now Netanyahu, Israel seems intent on continuing on a collision course with the Syrian government. This is only made more clear by Mekdads assertion that Syria will use the more advanced S-300 to defend ourselves as we have done before, suggesting that the S-300s imminent deployment is set to lead to increased conflict between Syria and Israel, instead of acting as a stabilizing influence as the Russian government has publicly claimed. However, given that Russia is aware of the recent and past statements of Israeli government officials, their public assertions as to the S-300s stabilizing influence may have their own ulterior motive. Instead, the S-300s superior capabilities may give Israel a pretext for increasing its involvement in the Syrias war as well as increasing the involvement of Israels main ally, the United States, which has also recently sought to ratchet up tensions in Syria. As MintPress noted in a previous report, Israel is unlikely to sit back and watch Syria become untouchable thanks to the S-300, given the breadth of its involvement in the conflict and its role in conceiving it. With the U.S. unwavering support assured, Israel may feel comfortable taking a risk of sparking a larger war in Syria, knowing that the Americans will likely back them regardless of the consequences. Indeed, U.S. military commanders have already stated that U.S. troops are prepared to die to defend Israel, regardless of whether or not Israel is the military aggressor in an upcoming conflict. Whitney Webb is a staff writer for MintPress News and a contributor to Ben Swanns Truth in Media. Her work has appeared on Global Research, the Ron Paul Institute and 21st Century Wire, among others. She has also made radio and TV appearances on RT and Sputnik. She currently lives with her family in southern Chile. This article was originally published by " Mint Press " - Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Will Israel be capable of destroying S-300 missiles in Syria? 5 options to neutralize the S-300 missiles Israeli PM hopes to derail Russia-Syria S-300 deal; During trip to US, Netanyahu hopes to discourage Moscow from giving advanced air-defense system to Syria Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Being laughed at by world leaders of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was the least of Donald Trump's problems this week. In the Middle East he just lost two key battles with Iran. It's been Donald Trump's toughest week in office. It wasn't that the UN assembly which gathered world leaders, collectively laughed when he hailed himself as a great leader, which must have been humiliating as it was a first ever of its kind in the chamber. The real humiliation was not in New York, but in the Middle East. Barely a matter of days apart, Iran scored a double whammy against Trump although you could be forgiven for not noticing, given that these body blows were not well reported in the Western press. The week kicks off with Russia announcing a whole new ball game in Syria, with Assad now being supplied with the sophisticated anti-aircraft missile system (s-300) along with an arsenal of new equipment which will make it much harder for Israeli and western jets to fly sorties across Syria and bomb Hezbollah, Iranian or Assad regime targets. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Israel, America's strongest and most devoted ally to the US, made a huge blunder when its jets allowed for a Russian surveillance plane to be used as cover, leading to the tragic loss of 15 Russian servicemen's lives. The Israelis will no doubt be angry with themselves for allowing the dream deal that Russia gave them in Syria to be allowed to freely target what they consider to be a threat to Israel without any real resistance to be shot down in flames. Now, all bets are off and Israel's pilots will have a lot more to deal with when carrying out missions. But Israel's real bitter pill to swallow is not that it has upset its friend, Russia, but that the Russian jet incident has probably given a huge boost to Iran in Syria, both within Syria and in the region. In July, Netanyahu visited Putin in Moscow and was assured that Iranian military positions, which were very close to the Israeli border, would be pulled back. Reports varied in the actual distance. Some reported 25 kilometers, others said it was much more. But Israel must be concerned now that Putin, disappointed and angry with Israel, may well not enforce this rule so fortuitously with his Iranian allies. Putin may well even allow Iran's military or even Hezbollah's weapons factories to take full advantage of the cover of new no-fly zones, or at the very least position them close to the S-300s. There can be no question that Iran, battered by US sanctions initiated by Trump, finally scored a goal against the US leader and will no doubt exert itself in the theater of war in Syria. Hezbollah too, equally hated by Trump's administration, will take full advantage of the new arrangement in Syria of Putin's. But there was more humiliation for Trump just a couple of days after Putin's announcement which has already drawn veiled threats from the US leader, as the S-300 issue is a game changer for the West in Syria. Battered and bruised by the Putin ruse, Trump barely had time to lick his wounds before the European Union plunged its sword into him with its announcement of a plan to allow European companies and governments to trade with Iran including buy its oil with no fear whatsoever of sanctions from US banks. The key to Trump enforcing secondary sanctions' against Iran is that any firm dealing in US dollars in Iran will ultimately have to go through the US banking system. The EU has come up with a clearing house' for all EU firms who want to buy oil from Iran, which, in euros, will effectively be invisible to the US administration and US banks. It's an idea which has been bandied about for months and which initially was not considered a serious option when announced initially by the EU's impotent foreign policy chief, which many EU governments consider more of a spokeswoman of the European Union's ambitions to be a geopolitical player, rather than actually enforce the real policy. But the new plan changes all of that and makes Brussels a superpower of sorts if it can actually get the Iran deal up and running. The blow to Trump's secondary sanctions cannot be underestimated. Russia and China were never going to go ahead with the oil sanctions against Iran, but India which many hoped would reject the secondary sanctions and continue buying Iranian oil recently buckled. The impact on Iran's local currency has been devastating but a new mechanism by the EU would at the very least preserve 40 percent of all of Iran's oil export to the EU market and perhaps also be used by countries like India who have to trade with Iran due to their export markets in foods - and would welcome a grey market' solution. Trump may well have erroneously believed that after his Europe trip where EU leaders and NATO humored him into believing that he had achieved much in Brussels that the EU would go along with his secondary sanctions. But he has underestimated how important the Iran deal is to the EU, which many top officials in Brussels believe is the first ever heavyweight foreign policy' peace deal ever drafted. European Union chiefs, ahead of 2019 elections are too afraid that the credibility of the EU project would be threatened if they didn't preserve the sanctity of the so-called Iran Deal. Iran, ironically, has proved to be a rod for the EU to wield against Trump as Brussels builds on stronger relations with partners which it previously was cautious to court like Russia to preserve its sanctity and global image. Martin Jay is an award-winning journalist based in Beirut, his career as a foreign correspondent includes working for several major international media. This article was originally published by " CGTN " - Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== WATCH Nikki Haley to Fox News: World Leaders Laughed at Trump at the UN Out of 'Respect' Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy By Philip Weiss September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - As you surely know, Donald Trump channeled Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly. He mentioned Iran 14 times (compared to 0 for Russia and 4 for Israel) and all but called for regime change. Irans brutal regime was financing the destruction of Syria, its leaders sow chaos, death and destruction, its corrupt dictatorship should be isolated by the world. This sly appeal was right out of the Netanyahu script: [W]e ask all nations to support Irans people as they struggle to reclaim their religious and righteous destiny. The media made a lot of Trumps sovereignty doctrine nationalism and patriotism over globalism and multilateralism but even those remarks had a pro-Israel cast. Trump was talking about the US rejection of two Israel-bugaboos, the UN Human Rights Council and International Criminal Court. As far as America is concerned, the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority. We will never surrender Americas sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy.America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism There is an obvious reason Trump is parroting Netanyahu. Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam are the largest funders of Republicans, ponying up $55 million for the midterm elections. Trump needs Sheldon Adelson now more than ever, and Adelson has a simple agenda, Israel. Adelson backs Netanyahu, pushed the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, opposes negotiations with Palestinians, and called on President Obama to nuke Iran. Adelson wanted Trump to tear up the Iran deal, and he did. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The New York Times ran a good piece on Adelsons influence last week, saying Sheldon and wife Miriam have emerged as the biggest and potentially most influential contributors to Republicans in the midterm season, and that the Adelsons have gotten their most cherished priorities from the unflinchingly pro-Israel Trump administration. The Times even ran a letter saying the Adelsons bought the presidency. But it is disappointing that no one in the mainstream press is connecting the Trump administrations theatrical anti-Iran push in New York yesterday with the rightwing Israel lobby, which seeks a war with Iran. The agenda is clear. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, addressed an Adelson shop, the organization United Against Nuclear Iran, in NY yesterday, and it was a war party at the Westin Grand Central Hotel. Bolton issued a bellicose warning to Iran to great applause: If you cross us, our allies, or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay. As Eli Clifton and Derek Davison reported ahead of time: According to the organizations guest list, in attendance will be virtually every prominent official both in the United States and overseas who has pushed for a military confrontation with Irana veritable whos who of warmongers Those guests included leading officials from countries that want a war with Iran: Yossi Cohen, director of the Israeli Mossad; ambassadors from Bahrain and the UAE; and the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia. Not to mention American hawks Dennis Ross and Joe Lieberman (the UANI chair), and a French one, Bernard Henri-Levy. Like Trump and the Republicans, UANI has been funded by Adelson. Sheldon and Miriam Adelson contributed $500,000 in 2013, Clifton reports the same year Adelson called on Obama to nuke Iran. UANIs biggest funder is Thomas Kaplan, a billionaire investor who supports liberal and Jewish causes, such as wildlife conservation and the 92d Street Y. Five years ago, Kaplan introduced Benjamin Netanyahu at the 92d Street Y in fulsome terms hailing the prime minister as the leader of our people. It is with great humility that we welcome the prime minister of Israel. On his shoulders rests the heavy decisions of not only making a just peace, but confronting a fanatical regime that threatens his people, our people. We are inspired by your leadership, sustained by your faith, and truly honored by your presence. UANI is closely aligned with Israel. Its board includes Tamir Pardo, a former Mossad director, and Irwin Cotler, the Canadian parliamentarian who is obsessed with BDS. Its contracts include $700,000 to Israeli consulting groups. And you wonder why the media cant touch the Israel lobby story; theyd have to talk about national interest, dual loyalty, whatever you want to call it. Sheldon Adelson once said he wished hed served in the Israeli army, not the American one. Or as Obama said when he was trying to get the Iran deal through, only one country in the world was against it, Israel, and hed be abrogating his constitutional duty if he didnt work for the deal. I recognize that Prime Minister Netanyahu disagrees disagrees strongly I believe he is wrong. I believe the facts support this deal. I believe they are in Americas interest and Israels interest. And as President of the United States, it would be an abrogation of my constitutional duty to act against my best judgment simply because it causes temporary friction with a dear friend and ally. I do not believe that would be the right thing to do for the United States. I do not believe it would be the right thing to do for Israel. Obama said the only alternative to the deal was war. And Trump owes war-mongering Adelson everything; and he tore up the Iran deal. And the media has largely supported Trumps fictitious view of the deal. Thats the real issue here. Trump has surrounded himself with warmongers. Though yesterday he tweeted that he is sure that Iranian president Hasan Rouhani is an absolutely lovely man, his militant speech at the U.N. was scripted; and the script is what we all have to worry about. Once again neoconservatives are scheming for the invasion of a sovereign country in the Middle East, and it would be helpful if the press described the agenda. Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net. This article was originally published by " Mondoweiss " - Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The Saudi bombing of a school bus in Yemen on August 9, 2018 killed 44 children and wounded many more. The attack struck a nerve in the U.S., confronting the American public with the wanton brutality of the Saudi-led war on Yemen. When CNN revealed that the bomb used in the airstrike was made by U.S. weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the horror of the atrocity hit even closer to home for many Americans. But the killing and maiming of civilians with U.S.-made weapons in war zones around the world is an all too regular occurrence. U.S. forces are directly responsible for largely uncounted civilian casualties in all Americas wars, and the United States is also the worlds leading arms exporter. Pope Francis has publicly blamed the industry of death for fueling a piecemeal World War III. The U.S. military-industrial complex wields precisely the unwarranted influence over U.S. foreign policy that President Eisenhower warned Americans against in his farewell address in 1961. The U.S. wars on Afghanistan and Iraq and the global war on terror served as cover for a huge increase in U.S. military spending. Between 1998 and 2010, the U.S. spent $1.3 trillion on its wars, but even more, $1.8 trillion, to buy new warplanes, warships, and weapons, most of which were unrelated to the wars it was fighting. Five U.S. companies Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and General Dynamics dominate the global arms business, raking in $140 billion in weapons sales in 2017, and export sales make up a growing share of their business, about $35 billion in 2017. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter In a new report for Code Pink and the Divest from the War Machine campaign, we have documented how Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt have systematically used weapons produced by these five U.S. companies to massacre civilians, destroy civilian infrastructure, and commit other war crimes. The bombing of the school bus was only the latest in a consistent pattern of Saudi massacres and air strikes on civilian targets, from hospitals to marketplaces, and U.S. arms sales to Israel and Egypt follow a similar pattern. U.S. laws require the suspension of arms sales to countries that use them in such illegal ways, but the U.S. State Department has an appalling record on enforcing these laws. Under the influence of Acting Assistant Secretary of State Charles Faulkner, a former lobbyist for Raytheon, Secretary Pompeo falsely certified to Congress that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are complying with U.S. law in their use of American weapons. The U.S. sells weapons to Saudi Arabia and other allies to project U.S. military power by proxy without the U.S. military casualties, domestic political backlash, and international resistance that result from direct uses of U.S. military force, while U.S. military-industrial interests are well-served by ever-growing arms sales to allied governments. These policies are driven by the very combination of military-industrial interests that Eisenhower warned Americans against, now represented by Secretary Pompeo, Acting Assistant Secretary Faulkner, and a cabal of hawkish Democrats who consistently vote with Republicans on war and peace issues. They ensure that the war party always wins its battles in Congress no matter how catastrophically its policies fail in the real world. Republicans derided President Obamas doctrine of covert and proxy war as leading from behind. But the Trump administration has doubled down on Obamas failed strategy, surrendering even more power over U.S. policy to foreign clients like Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt, and to the unwarranted influence of the U.S. military-industrial complex. Lockheed Martin is earning $29.1 billion in sales from the $110 billion Saudi arms package announced in May 2017, a deal struck as the war on Yemen was already killing thousands of civilians. Yet no conflict of interest is too glaring for Lockheed executives like Ronald Perrilloux Jr., who has taken part in public events to promote the war and defend Saudi Arabia and its allies, arguing that the U.S. should help them finish the job in Yemen. Not to be outdone, Boeing, the second largest arms producer in the U.S. and the world after Lockheed Martin, has also been linked to the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Yemen. Fragments of Boeing JDAM bombs were found in the debris of a 2016 attack on a marketplace near the Yemeni capital of Sanaa that killed 107 civilians, including 25 children. Human Rights Watch found that the airstrike caused predictably indiscriminate and disproportionate civilian deaths, in violation of the laws of war, and called for a suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia. To profit from wars on some of the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world, from Yemen to Gaza to Afghanistan, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and General Dynamics have developed a business model that feeds on war, terrorism, chaos, political instability, human rights violations, disregard for international law, and the triumph of militarism over diplomacy. Real diplomacy to bring peace and disarmament to our war-torn world poses the most serious threat to their profits. But the American people have never voted to funnel the largest share of our taxes into endless war and ever-growing profits for the industry of death. It is time for the sleeping giant, what President Eisenhower called an alert and knowledgeable citizenry, to wake from its slumber, take responsibility for our countrys foreign policies and act decisively for peace. Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy By Shireen T. Hunter September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Less than a month after Irans consulate in Basra was attacked, a group of terrorists claiming to be members of the Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz attacked a military parade in the capital of Irans Khuzestan province, killing 25 people and wounding many more. When the Basra consulate incident took place , some commentators in Iran speculated that the attackers also wanted to target Khorramshahr and Abadan. Now it seems that they were not too wrong. The Ahwaz attacks also occurred shortly after operations by Kurdish insurgents belonging to the Iranian Kurdish Democratic Party in Irans mostly Kurdish inhabited regions in the countrys northwest. These attacks prompted the revolutionary guards to target the bases inside Iraqi Kurdistan from which they were operating. These back-to-back attacks raise the question of whether the United States and its regional Arab allies have adopted a strategy of besieging Iran in many of its vulnerable provinces, possibly as a prelude to more direct and large-scale military operations against Tehran. Irrespective of whether this is the case, some of the problems that Iran faces in several of its western and southern provinces are caused not by a widespread desire for independence but by decades of neglect and mounting economic problems and thus growing popular frustration. For example, the central government has long neglected the Kurdistan province. Its economic conditions as well as its communications, roads, railroads, and other infrastructure lag behind the rest of the country. Various governments in the last 30 years have promised a fairer treatment of the so-called deprived regions, which includes Kurdistan, but have failed to deliver. Part of this inability has been because of the misuse of available funds for foreign adventures in Syria and Lebanon, corruption, and the impact of sanctions, itself an outcome of Irans Middle East policies. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The case of Khuzestan is even more serious. The region, which includes areas inhabited by ethnic Arabs, valiantly resisted Saddam Husseins armies and remained loyal to the country. The province also suffered the most devastation as a result of the Iran-Iraq war. However, after the war ended, the reconstruction in Khuzestan proceeded very slowly. Later, problems such as air pollution from sandstorms added to the residents other difficulties. However, the central government was slow in tackling these difficulties. Many projects, including badly needed water projects, which should have been long finished are still incomplete. The once mighty Karun river is almost dry. Under these circumstances, the risk that people could be tempted by the siren call of external agitators has inevitably increased. However, these problems do not per se explain the latest developments. Irans problems in Khuzestan have always have had an external dimension. Arabs believe that the southern part of the province belongs to Arabs, and they refer to it as Arabistan. The history, however, is more complicated. Khuzestan means the land of the Khuzi or the original inhabitants of the region of Susiana. The Arab population was introduced to the region following the Arab/Islamic invasion of the seventh century CE. During the Safavids , the region was divided in two parts and the southern part was referred to as Arabistan. In the nineteenth century, the growth of British influence in the Persian Gulf undermined Irans position in its southern provinces. In 1856, the British bombed the city of Khorramshahr (then known as Muhamarrah) partly to force Iran to leave Herat. In the last years of the Qajar dynasty, Sheikh Khazal ruled the southern part of the province as a vassal of Tehran. During World War I, when Iran seemed on the brink of dissolution, Sheikh Khazal rebelled against the central government, hoping that Britain would support his claims. However, partly because of the Bolshevik revolution, Britain had changed its approach to Iran. Instead of favoring its disintegration, Britain saw Iran as a useful buffer against Bolshevik Russia and thus refused to back Sheikh Khazal. As part of his policy of subduing local khans and potentates and establishing a functioning central government and bureaucracy, Reza Shah Pahlavi put down Khazals rebellion. In the following decades, the region was favored in terms of development, partly because of its oil reserves. The Islamic revolution and the Iraqi invasion changed the situation. Meanwhile, Arab governments, as well as Arab nationalist and pan-Arabists, continued to see southern Khuzestan as Arab land. From the 1950s through the 1970s, radical Arab states from Nassers Egypt and Saddam Husseins Iraq, used the Arabistan issue as a cudgel to beat Iran. They promoted separatism in the region and set up fronts for the liberation of Ahwaz and Arabistan. Some Arab states openly championed Irans disintegration. Tariq Aziz , Saddam Husseins foreign minister said that five small Irans is better than one big Iran. In more recent decades , Saudi Arabia and Egypt have championed separatist movements in the region. However, thus far, their activities had been limited to holding conferences, like one held in 2005 in Cairo. No direct action of any magnitude was taken inside Iran, although the Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz had been involved in the sabotage of oil pipelines and possibly oil installations and other infrastructure. These most recent attacks pose the question of whether Saudi Arabia, as promised by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman a short while ago, is taking the war inside Iran? And does he have the American blessing to do so? If the former advisor of the leader of Abu Dhabi is to be believed, the answer is yes, at least as far the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and possibly Egypt are concerned. Abdul Khalegh Abdullah tweeted that we had warned Iran. He also said that the attack was not terrorism, because it was against military targets. Other Arab states, including Kuwait and Oman, condemned the incident. However, the ultimate message of recent events is that the noose around Irans neck is being tightened . Iran is experiencing one of the most perilous periods of its long and turbulent history. To navigate these difficult times, Irans leaders need to display wisdom, realism, and flexibility, not bravura and emotionalism. Most of all, they must put Irans survival within its current borders above any other goal, revolutionary or otherwise. Shireen T. Hunter is a Research Professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Her latest publication is God On Our Side: Religion, Foreign Policy and International Affairs (Rowman & Littlefield, December 2016). This article was originally published by " Lobe Log " - Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy Washington's mistake of arming the Mujahedeen against the Russians 40 years ago gave us the Taliban. We're doing it again. By Scott Ritter September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - On September 13, 2018, two days after the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard addressed her colleagues from the floor of the House of Representatives. Two days ago, President Trump and Vice President Pence delivered solemn speeches about the attacks on 9/11, talking about how much they care about the victims of Al-Qaedas attack on our country, she observed. But they are now standing up to protect the 20,000 to 40,000 al-Qaeda and other jihadist forces in Syria, and threatening Russia, Syria, and Iran with military force if they dare attack these terrorists. Fox News host Tucker Carlson backed Gabbards statement by noting, More than 10,000 rebels in [Idlib] province are believed to be aligned with Al-Qaeda. So that would mean that 17 years after 9/11, America could soon find itself bombing a country to protect al-Qaeda sympathizers. Why would we do that? The short answer is: Russia. In July 2017, President Donald Trump closed Operation Timber Sycamore, a CIA program to train and equip opposition forces fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In announcing his decision, Trump observed that many of the weapons provided by the United States ended up in the hands of al-Qaeda affiliates inside Syria. Moreover, the CIA program was putting the U.S. on a collision course with Russia, whose 2015 intervention in the Syrian Civil War had decisively tipped the balance in favor of Assad. Since that decision was made, the national security team advising Trump has undergone significant changes, with Mike Pompeo taking over at the State Department from Rex Tillerson, and John Bolton doing the same as national security advisor, replacing General H. R. McMaster. Overnight, the U.S. assessment of Russias involvement in Syria went from one where Russia held the initiative in the fight against Islamic fundamentalists to one where Russia was suddenly stuck in a quagmire of its own making. Donald Trumps new embrace of the Syrian opposition is reflective of this new thinking, even in the face of the feckless hypocrisy that was called out by both Gabbard and Carlson. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The new policy, pushed by Pompeo and Bolton, mirrors that of a bygone era. Operation Cyclone, the CIA-led program to equip and train anti-Soviet Islamist forces operating inside Afghanistan, had its roots in the Nationalities Working Group (NWG), created by President Jimmy Carters national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezenski in 1977. That program was dedicated to weakening the Soviet Union by inflaming ethnic tensions among its Islamic populations. By July 1979, Brzezenski and the NWG were able to get Carter to sign a secret directive to arm anti-Soviet Islamists in Afghanistan, with the aim of luring the Soviets into invading and creating the conditions for a Vietnam-like disaster. The Soviets did just that, and the rest is history. Professor Richard Pipes took over the work of the NWG in 1981, after the election of President Ronald Reagan. A noted Russologist, Pipes had turned his Harvard Ph.D. thesis into a book, The Formation of the Soviet Union, which detailed the tenuous ties between Slavonic Russia and the Muslim peoples of Central Asia who made up a significant part of the Soviet Union. Pipes recognized early on the vulnerability of the Soviet Union to Muslim nationalism and non-state Islamist movements, having chronicled the Basmachi resistance to Soviet rule from 1919 to 1931 in what is today the independent republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. His insights were prescient, and helped shape the Reagan-era strategy of assisting the anti-Soviet Mujahedeen in 1980s Afghanistan. Pipes crowning achievement was the codification of Islamist power in Afghanistan through the issuance of National Security Decision Directive Number 75. The purpose of NSDD 75 was to exploit the uncertainty that had gripped the Soviet Union in the aftermath of Leonid Brezhnevs death by implementing a broad-based policy designed to contain and reverse Soviet expansionism in geographical regions of propriety concern to the United States. A major part of this centered on keeping maximum pressure on Moscow to withdraw from Afghanistan by ensuring that the cost of continued occupation remained high. This translated into nearly unfettered support to Islamist resistance groups operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The story of Americas empowerment of Islamic fundamentalism via the war in Afghanistan has been recounted elsewhere in great detail, perhaps most notably in Steven Colls excellent books, Ghost Wars and Directorate S. The consequences of these actions, namely the 9/11 terror attacks, have also been recorded, first and foremost in Lawrence Wrights The Looming Tower. Among specialists and regionalists, the cause-effect relationship between Americas effort to roll back Soviet influence in Afghanistan and the rise of al-Qaeda as a global threat appears obvious, especially with the 20/20 vision that hindsight affords. In 1998, however, even while the CIAs ALEC Station was running down the al-Qaeda threat, Brzezenski gave short shrift to the notion that policy shortcomings in Afghanistan were anything to be concerned about. What is most important to the history of the world? the former national security advisor asked. The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war? Brzezenski saw no connection between what the U.S. did in Afghanistan and a global Islamic threat. It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam, he noted. That is stupid. There isnt a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries. Brzezenski, who knew little about the Islamic world, was wrong. The global Islamist movement known as Al-Qaeda had grown out of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and expanded into the Levant in the aftermath of the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. Al-Qaeda in Iraq later morphed into the Islamic State, which, at the height of its power and influence, controlled an area with a combined population of nearly eight million people, with an annual operating budget of over $1 billion, and more than 30,000 fighters under arms. Fast forward and the defeat of the jihadist group in its Iraqi and Syrian heartland is raising new problems. Hundreds of militants are returning to their homes. These fighters possess a wealth of practical experience in waging guerrilla conflict and represent a genuine threat to their homelands. Russia and China are both at risk from Islamic State veterans hailing from the northern Caucasus and western China respectively. Indeed, analysts in both countries accuse the U.S. of facilitating the return of these fighters for the express purpose of generating this kind of destabilization. Russia fought two bloody wars against Islamist separatists in Chechnya, and one of its stated goals in entering the Syria conflict was to prevent Islamist extremism from springing up closer to home. The Islamic State has already taken root in the northern Caucasus, with more than a dozen deadly attacks against Russian military and police units having taken place under its banner. Any infusion of battle-hardened fighters from Syria onto Russian soil would be seen by Moscow as a serious threat. Meanwhile, the Ferghana valley, where the three former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan come together, has sent an estimated 4,000 fighters to Syria since 2012. Like Moscow, Beijing hopes to head off the possible return of radicalized nationals from Syrianamely, fighters from its Uighur population. Chinas concerns also extend to its neighbor Afghanistan, where the U.S. military has targeted Taliban fighters and Uighur members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. Some 3,000 fighters have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State therechallenging the Taliban as the symbol of anti-American resistance in the region. The primary danger to Moscow and Beijing is that any widespread Islamic State rebirth in Central Asia would provide a new training ground for the next wave of Islamist militants, allowing for the continued radicalization of Russian and Chinese Muslims. These risks perpetuate the kind of social and economic disruption that has paralyzed Afghanistan and threatens the wider region. The tens of thousands of Al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters located in Syrias Idlib province represent an obvious threat, and Russias efforts to destroy them are worthy of support. But Trumps inner circle seems to be channeling their inner Brzezenski, ignorant of the threat posed by the non-state Islamic fundamentalism and singularly focused on reversing Russian influence in Syria. Its as if the Cold War never ended. At a time when the world has its boot on the neck of the Al-Qaeda/Islamic State menace, Donald Trump seems intent on letting this odious ideology survive. One can only hope that history will not repeat itself. Scott Ritter is a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. This article was originally published by " The American Conservative Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy SYDNEY, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Australia's most popular chocolate brand, Cadbury, told 40 of it's workers on Thursday evening that they would no longer have a job at the company's factory in Claremont, in the State of Tasmania. Cadbury's U.S. parent company said they plan to purchase 14.5 million U.S. dollars worth of machinery to wrap Flake and Twirl bars, meaning the workers who had previously done the job manually would no longer be needed. The latest announcement is the third round of such cuts since 2015, with 170 jobs lost from the factory in that time, which company leadership have attributed to a more internationally competitive market. The factory's remoteness, being on Australia's southern island state, has also contributed to the cuts, with the rising costs of freight along with low domestic growth creating pressure for the operation. First opened in 1922, the Cadbury factory has been a crucial part of the Claremont community, providing jobs and opportunities for hundreds of locals throughout its history. Local independent Member of Parliament Andrew Wilkie, told the national broadcaster that the cuts would have a real human toll. "It's especially disappointing when Cadbury have promised so much," Wilkie said. "Yes, the factory survives while other factories in other countries have d, and yes they are investing in more plant and we can get a little bit of comfort out of that, but really it's promised so much more." [ Editor: Xueying ] 'Jerusalem Is Not For Sale' : President Mahmoud Abbas Speech at UN (9-27-18) Watch September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the United Nations General Assembly in a week where the United States sent mixed signals about their plan for peace between Israel and Palestine. "Jerusalem is not for sale," he told the UN in the opening seconds of his speech, prompting applause from the audience. The Palestinian President then launched into a strong criticism of Israel's nation-state law, the US's support of Israel and the UN's lack of enforcement of the resolutions it passes. Mr Abbas said Palestinians "see the US with new eyes" following President Donald Trump's recent support of Israel. Mr Abbas called on the international community to condemn the US's actions, including shutting of PLO offices, defunding UNRWA and moving its embassy to Jerusalem. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The right to self-determination, not humanitarian aid, is Palestine's priority, Mr Abbas said, emphasising the state is always open to negotiate. Calling for the countries who do not recognise both Palestine and Israel as a state, Mr Abbas said: "I thus call upon all the countries of the world that have not yet recognised the State of Palestine to accelerate this long-overdue recognition. "I can no longer see a convincing reason for the continued delay of recognition of the State of Palestine by some countries." Mr Abbas said recognition will help give Palestine authority in negotiations, and that it no longer sees the US as neutral in negotiations. Yesterday, Donald Trump endorsed a two-state solution and then hours later said he had no preference on the nature of a peace deal. I like (a) two-state solution," Mr Trump said at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "That's what I think works best. That's my feeling. Now you may have a different feeling. I don't think so. But I think two-state solution works best. Later, at a solo press conference, Mr Trump said, "I think probably two-state is more likely, but you know what, if they do a single, if they do a double, I'll be happy. Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. Watch the UN General Assembly live here: ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy By Craig Murray September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Kommersant publishes interviews with people from Chepigas home village. The article makes clear he has not been seen there for many years. It states that opinions differ on whether Chepiga is Boshirov. One woman says she recognised Boshirov as Chepiga when he appeared on TV, especially the dark eyes, though she had not seen him since school. Another woman states it is not Chepiga as when she last saw him ten years ago he was already pretty bald, and he has a more open face, although the eyes are similarly brown. Naturally mainstream media journalists are tweeting and publishing the mans evidence and leaving out the womans evidence. But the Kommersant article gives them a bigger challenge. Kommersant is owned by close Putin political ally, Putins former student flatmate, Chariman of Gazprominvestholdings and the UKs richest resident, Alisher Usmanov. That Russias most authoritative paper, with ownership very close to Putin, is printing such open and honest reporting rather belies the Russia is a dictatorship narrative. And unlike the Guardian and BBC websites, on Kommersant website ordinary Russians can post freely their views on the case, and are. One thing this does stand up is that Chepiga definitely exists. The evidence mounts that Russia is not telling the truth about Boshirov and Petrov. If those were real identities, they would have been substantiated in depth by now. As we know of Yulia Skripals boyfriend, cat, cousin and grandmother, real depth on the lives and milieu of Boshirov and Petrov would be got out. It is plainly in the interests of Russias state and its oligarchy to establish that they truly exist, and concern for the privacy of individuals would be outweighed by that. The rights of the individual are not prioritised over the state interest in Russia. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter But equally the identification of Boshirov with Colonel Chepiga is a nonsense. The problem is with Bellingcats methodology. They did not start with any prior intelligence that Chepiga is Boshirov. They rather allegedly searched databases of GRU operatives of about the right age, then trawled photos in yearbooks of them until they found one that looked a bit like Boshirov. And guess what? It looks a bit like Boshirov. If you ignore the substantially different skull shape and nose. Only the picture on the left is Chepiga. The two on the right are from Boshirovs Russian passport application file, and the photo of Boshirov issued by Scotland Yard. Like almost the entire internet, I assumed both black and white photos were from Chepigas files, and was willing to admit the identification of Chepiga with Boshirov as valid. But once you understand is that as Bellingcat confirm if you read it closely only the photo on the left is Chepiga, you start to ask questions. The two guys on the right and the centre are undoubtedly the same person. But is the guy on the left the same, but younger? Betaface.com, which runs industry standard software, gives the faces an 83% similarity, putting the probability of them being the same person at 2.8%. By comparison it gives me a 72% identity with Chepiga and a 2.1% chance of being him. There is a superficial resemblance. But if you take the standard ratios used for facial recognition, you get a very different story. If you draw a line between the centre of the pupils of the two guys centre and right, and then take a perpendicular from that line to the tip of the nose, you get a key ratio. The two on the right both have a ratio of 100:75, which is unsurprising since they are the same person. The one on the left has a ratio of 100:68, which is very different. To put that more simply, his nose is much shorter, and less certainly his eyes are further apart. It is possible this could happen in photos but it still be the same person. The head would have to be tilted backward or forward at quite a sharp angle to alter these ratios, which does not seem to be the case. The camera could be positioned substantially above or below the subject, again not apparently the case. And the photo could be resized with height and width ratios changed. That would hard to detect. But the three white dots across the bottom of the nose are particularly compelling (the middle one largely obscured by a red dot in the Chepiga photo). They illustrate that Chepiga has a snub nose and Boshirov something of a hook. Again, the software is reinforcing what they eye can plainly see. However, there are also other ratios that are different. Chepiga has a narrower mouth compared to the distance between the pupils than the two photos of Boshirov, and that is measured on the same plane. The difference is 100-80 compared to 100-88. It is a ratio that can be changed by facial expression, but this does not seem to be the case here. Professor Dame Sue Black of the University of Dundee is the worlds leading expert in facial forensic reconstruction. I once spent a fascinating lunch sitting next to her, while I was Rector. I shall contact her for her view on whether the guy on the left is the same person, and if she is kind enough to give me an opinion, I shall pass it on to you unadulterated. This website is less definitive, but gives a nice clear result, and you can repeat it yourself without having to subscribe (unlike Betaface.com). Again for comparison, I tried two photos of myself 12 years apart and got from nearly the same person. It is worth repeating that the only evidence that Chepiga is Boshirov offered by Bellingcat is this photo. The rest of their article simply attempts to establish Chepigas career. This is gross hypocrisy by Bellingcat, who have argued that scores of photos of White Helmets being Jihadi fighters are not valid evidence because you cannot safely recognise faces from photographs. Yet Higgins now claims his facial identification of Chepiga as Boshirov as definitive and conclusive, despite the absence of moles, scars and blemishes. Higgins stands exposed as a quite disgusting hypocrite. Let me go further. I do not believe that Higgins did not take the elementary step of running facial recognition technology over the photos, and I believe he is hiding the results from you. Is it not also astonishing that the mainstream media have not done this simple test? The bulk of the Bellingcat article is just trying to prove the reality of the existence of Chepiga. This is hard to evaluate, but as the evidence to link him to Boshirov is non-existent, is a different argument. Having set out to find a GRU officer of the same age who looks a bit like Boshirov, they trumpet repeatedly the fact that Chepiga is about the same age as evidence, in a crass display of circular argument. This unofficial website does indeed name Chepiga as a Hero of the Russian Federation and recipient of 20 awards, as Bellingcat claims. But it is impossible to know if it is authentic, and by contrast there is no Chepiga on the official list of Heroes of the Russian Federation, for the stated 2014 or for any other year, which Bellingcat fail to mention. Their other documents and anonymous sources are unverifiable. The photo of the military school honours arch, with Chepiga added right at the end and not quite in line, looks to me very suspect. My surmise so far would be that most likely Bellingcats source of supply is Ukrainian, and trying to tie the Skripal affair into the Ukrainian civil war via Chepiga. My view of the most likely explanation on presently available evidence is this: Boshirov is not Boshirov, and the Russian Government are lying. Boshirov is not Chepiga, and Bellingcat are lying. The whole Skripal novichok story still does not hang together, and the British government are lying. I will continue to form my opinions as further evidence becomes available. UPDATE Incredibly, at 13.15 on 27 September the BBC TV News ran the story showing only the two photos of Boshirov, which of course are the same person, and not showing the photo of Chepiga at all! Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Putin has information that Skripal poisoning suspects Petrov and Boshirov are civilians - Kremlin Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy Will God Save Kavanaugh? That attitudes may not have changed from an older generation to Kavanaughs and may have gotten still worse, and not only at elitist Georgetown Prep, but in society at large is sad beyond telling, says Ray McGovern. By Ray McGovern September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Are boys really better than girls? I know you are one, but please try to be fair, asked eight year-old Helen in a letter to God. From my own experience while a callow youth at a Jesuit boys-only high school, I believe it highly unlikely that Georgetown Jesuit Prepster Brent Kavanaugh ever thought of asking God the question Helen posed. For Kavanaugh, as for the rest of us, the answer was self-evident much clearer than 13th century Thomas Aquinass proofs for the existence of God. At my Jesuit high school, as at Kavanaughs, the concept of God-like male supremacy was deeply entrenched from the priests and other all-male faculty to the bonhomie of the young good-natured men in the smoke-infested Senior Room. The Jesuits encouraged us to think of ourselves each one of us as exceptional, down to the last man, so to speak. It was Lake Wobegone on steroids. We had been pre-selected to become the future leaders of the sole exceptional country in the world an ethos that prevails, in spades, at Georgetown Prep. Happily, we were spared Aquinass insights on women, whom he described as defective, misbegotten males. It was not until college that I learned Thomas deemed women the result of some debility or of some change effected by external influences, like the south wind, for example, which is damp, as we are told by Aristotle. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Is God One of the Boys Even without Aquinas, though, the culture of the Prep spoke loudly, if less directly, of the subordinate status of women. It should come as no surprise, then, that this prep-school milieu left us precocious adolescents quite comfortable with an all-powerful God who was one of the boys. For me, though, high school was a half-century ago. The reality that attitudes have not changed between my generation and Kavanaughs and may have gotten still worse, not only at Jesuit-run elitist Georgetown Prep, but in society at large is sad beyond telling. Can we forget that the 2016 election went to a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women? When youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. and that this same man is now defending Kavanaugh all the way. To Be Fair Taking a cue from eight year-old Helen, lets try to be fair. Who among us is without blame? Most of us still refer to God as he. And how many of us still visualize the Last Supper, through the oils of Leonardo da Vinci, as a stag party rather than the traditional Passover meal it was with women and children galore. (Psst! DaVinci wasnt even there.) Perhaps worst of all, how many of Catholics join Kavanaugh in bowing submissively to the arbitrary ban on women priests, a prohibition based not on Scripture or the practice of the first-century Church, but rather on out-and-out misogyny. In his kid-gloves interview on Fox Tuesday evening, Kavanaugh again denied having sexually assaulted anyone, pointedly adding, I have faith in God. But the tide has turned. This has become clearer with every new accusation against him, plus the unseemly rush by Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R, Iowa) and his ten white male Republican apostles to ram through the confirmation. Like the protagonists of the Greek tragedies Kavanaugh will need a Deus ex Machina to pluck him out of his distress. Supportive comments on Wednesday from the aforementioned star, who now happens to be president, are not going to help. Those who know Washington are aware that the closest thing to an all-powerful God is a congressional committee chairman. But it does not help Kavanaughs candidacy when Sen. Grassley seems to know nothing other than the power-over type of God the same model that dominated what Kavanaugh calls his formative years at Georgetown Prep. Throw in Grassleys obtuseness and insensitivity, and add a pinch of omniscience from the likes of Sen. Orin Hatch (R, Utah) and you have a recipe that could spell defeat. Asked why he branded phony the very recent allegation by Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh, Hatch snapped, Because I know it is, thats why. If Kavanaughs nomination does reach the Senate floor, what will be most interesting of all will be to observe the degree to which Senators Susan Collins (R, Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R, Alaska) have themselves internalized male supremacy whether of God or of demigod Republican committee chairmen. Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He holds a Certificate in Theological Studies from Georgetown University. This article was originally published by " Consortium News " - Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Christine Blasey Ford delivers opening statement at Kavanaugh hearing U.S. Senate Hearing With Judge Brett Kavanaugh After Sexual Assault Allegations Visibly angry Kavanaugh denies assault allegations, says process has become a national disgrace WATCH: Lindsey Graham's Epic Defense Of Kavanaugh And The Rule Of Law: "If the accusation is enough, God help us all around here." Christine Blasey Ford Didnt Know Who Paid For The Polygraph, But It Wasnt Her Christine Ford Giggles and Asks For Coffee After Claiming Kavanaughs Assault Drastically Altered Her Life (VIDEO) Trump business and Saudi prince in court over unpaid rent Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy By Cesar Chelala September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - If one follows the behavior of Republican law-makers over the last several years, a pattern soon emerges: most of their policies tend to limit womens rights, in an overt or clear way. And one cannot but wonder about what prompts this negative behavior. Are they, perhaps, unaware of it or, more pointedly, it reflects their deep-rooted prejudices against women? The recent Republicans misdeeds in the path leading to the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court are telling. Led by Chuck Grassley, the Senate Judiciary chair (a man from whom I certainly wouldnt buy a used car) the Republican legislators used every possible subterfuge to try to assure the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh. And they did that despite important evidence that, in his youth, Brett Kavanaugh committed abusive sexual acts against defenseless women. However, this behavior is not new. For decades the Republicans actions have gone against womens rights and wishes. The term war on women, was originally used by feminist author Andrea Dworkin in 1989. In a 1996 memoir entitled The Republican War Against Women: An Insiders Report from Behind the Lines, Tanya Melich, a former Republican political consultant, wrote about the incorporation of the pro-life movement and the opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment by Republicans as diverging from feminist causes and concerns. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter In February 2011, New York Representative Jerrold (Jerry) Nadler, stated that the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would have allowed only victims of forcible rape or child sex abuse to qualify for Medicaid funding for abortion, was an entirely new front in the war on women and their families. The words war on women gained increasing acceptance and were afterward more widely used since they accurately reflect mostly Republican legislators actions regarding women rights. Also in February 2011, several Democrats used those words to describe the Republican Party, after House Republicans passed legislation to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, the womens rights organization. A 2011 Kansas statute cut funding to this organization, and Indiana Republican Representative referred to the Girl Scouts of the USA as a tactical arm of the Planned Parenthood organization. In 2012, the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides funds for community prevention programs and battered womens shelters, was strongly opposed by conservative Republicans. Former Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, who had previously voted against renewal of the act, said that the bill was a distraction from a small business bill. Republican legislators have repeatedly denied that there is a war on women, and insist that this is a gimmick to influence women voters. Nikki Haley, South Carolinas Governor, said in 2012, There is no war on women. Women are doing well. With predictable insouciance Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives made fun of the war on women saying, Now its a war on women; tomorrow its going to be a war on left-handed Irishmen or something like that. How else, however, to qualify mostly Republican opposition to all kinds of women rights, even when their health and well being is at stake? Even Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski asked her fellow party members go home and talk to your wife and daughters if you think that there is no war on women. What is evident is that Republicans legislators, for the most part, are against legislation that protects women and respect their rights. What their policies show is a deep disregard for women over several years. Why do Republicans hate women? The obvious explanation is that they try to adhere to their long-held conservative convictions. The most plausible reason, however, is that Republican legislators have no wives, nor daughters. Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award and two national journalism awards from Argentina. Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy The Fakest Fake News: The U.S. Governments 9/11 Conspiracy Theory By Edward Curtin A Review of 9/11Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth September 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - If you want to fathom todays world, absolutely nothing is more important than to understand the truth about the attacks of September 11, 2001. This is the definitive book on the subject. For seventeen years we have been subjected to an onslaught of U.S. government and corporate media propaganda about 9/11 that has been used to support the war on terror that has resulted in millions of deaths around the world. It has been used as a pretext to attack nations throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. It has led to a great increase in Islamophobia since Muslims were accused of being responsible for the attacks. It has led to a crackdown on civil liberties in the United States, the exponential growth of a vast and costly national security apparatus, the spreading of fear and anxiety on a great scale, and a state of permanent war that is pushing the world toward a nuclear confrontation. And much, much more. The authors of this essential book, David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth, and all their colleagues who have contributed to this volume, have long been at the front lines trying to wake people up to the real news about 9/11. They have battled against three U.S. presidents, a vast propaganda machine strangely allied with well-known leftists, and a corporate mass media intent on serving deep-state interests, all of whom have used illogic, lies, and pseudo-science to conceal the terrible truth. Yet despite the establishments disinformation and deceptions, very many people have come to suspect that the official story of the September 11, 2001 attacks is not true. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter With the publication of 9/11Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation, they now have a brilliant source book to use to turn their suspicions into certitudes. And for those who have never doubted the official account (or accounts would be more accurate), reading this book should shock them into reality, because it is not based on speculation, but on carefully documented and corroborated facts, exacting logic, and the scientific method. The book is based on the establishment in 2011 of a scientific review project comprising 23 experts with a broad spectrum of expertise, including people from the fields of chemistry, structural engineering, physics, aeronautical engineering, airline crash investigation, piloting, etc. Their job was to apply systematic and disciplined analyses to the verifiable evidence about the 9/11 attacks. They used a model called the Delphi Method as a way to achieve best-evidence consensus. This best-evidence consensus model is used in science and medicine, and the 9/11 Consensus Panel used it to examine the key claims of the official account(s). Each Official Account was reviewed and compared to The Best Evidence to reach conclusions. The authors explain it thus: The examination of each claim received three rounds of review and feedback. According to the panels investigative model, members submitted their votes to the two of us moderators while remaining blind to one another. Proposed points had to receive a vote of at least 85 percent to be acceptedThis model carries so much authority in medicine that medical consensus statements derived from it are often reported in the news. They represent the highest standard of medical research and practice and may result in malpractice lawsuits if not followed. This research process went on for many years, with the findings reported in this book. The Consensus 9/11 Panel provides evidence against the official claims in nine categories: The Destruction of the Twin Towers The Destruction of WTC 7 The Attack on the Pentagon The 9/11 Flights US Military Exercises on and before 9/11 Claims about Military and Political Leaders Osama bin Laden and the Hijackers Phone Calls from the 9/11 Flights Insider Trading Each category is introduced and then broken down into sub-sections called points, which are examined in turn. For example, the destruction of the Twin Towers has points that include, The Claim That No One Reported Explosions in the Twin Towers, The Claim That the Twin Towers Were Destroyed by Airplane Impacts, Jet Fuel, and Fire, The Claim That There Were Widespread Infernos in the South Tower, etc. Each point is introduced with background, the official account is presented, then the best evidence, followed by a conclusion. Within the nine categories there are 51 points examined, each meticulously documented through quotations, references, etc., all connected to 875 endnotes that the reader can follow. It is scrupulously laid out and logical, and the reader can follow it sequentially or pick out an aspect that particularly interests them. The 9/11 Consensus Panel members describe their goal and purpose as follows: The purpose of the 9/11 Consensus Panel is to provide the world with a clear statement, based on expert independent opinion, of some of the best evidence opposing the official narrative about 9/11. The goal of the Consensus Panel is to provide a ready source of evidence-based research to any investigation that may be undertaken by the public, the media, academia, or any other investigative body or institution. As a sociologist who teaches research methods and does much research, I find the Consensus Panels method exemplary and their findings accurate. They have unmasked a monstrous lie. It is so ironic that such serious scholars, who question and research 9/11, have been portrayed as irrational and ignorant conspiracy theorists by people whose thinking is magical, illogical, and pseudo-scientific in the extreme. A review is no place to go into all the details of this book, but I will give a few examples of the acumen of the Panels findings. As a grandson of a Deputy Chief of the New York Fire Department (343 firefighters died on 9/11), I find it particularly despicable that the government agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), that was charged with investigating the collapse of the Towers and Building 7, would claim that no one gave evidence of explosions in the Twin Towers, when it is documented by the fastidious researcher Graeme MacQueen, a member of The 9/11 Consensus Panel, that over 100 firefighters who were at the scene reported hearing explosions in the towers. One may follow endnote 22 to MacQueens research and his sources that are indisputable. There are recordings. On a connected note, the official account claims that there were widespread infernos in the South Tower that prevented firefighters from ascending to the 78th floor. Such a claim would support the notion that the building could have collapsed as a result of fires caused by the plane crashing into the building. But as 9/11 Unmasked makes clear, radio tapes of firefighters ascending to the 78th floor and saying this was not so, prove that there is incontrovertible evidence that the firefighter teams were communicating clearly with one another as they ascended WTC and that there were no infernos to stop them, as they are recorded saying. They professionally went about their jobs trying to save people. Then the South Tower collapsed and so many died. But it couldnt have collapsed from infernos that didnt exist. Only explosives could have brought it down. A reader can thus pick up this book, check out that section, and use common sense and elementary logic to reach the same conclusion. And by reaching that conclusion and going no further in the book, the entire official story of 9/11 falls apart. Or one can delve further, lets say by dipping into the official claim that a domestic airline attack on the Pentagon was not expected. Opening to page 78, the reader can learn that NBCs Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski was warned of the Pentagon attack by an intelligence officer, who specified the illogical spot where the attack would happen shortly before it did. In Miklaszewskis words, And then he got very close to me, and, almost silent for a few seconds, he leaned in and said, This attack was so well coordinated that if I were you, I would stay off the E Ring where our NBC office was the outer ring of the Pentagon for the rest of the day, because were next. The authors say correctly, The intelligence officers apparent foreknowledge was unaccountably specific. For if a terrorist were going to fly a plane into Pentagon, the most likely spot would be to dive into the roof where many people might be killed, including top brass and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. To make an impossibly acrobatic maneuver to fly low into an outside wall would make no sense. And for the government to claim that this impossible maneuver was executed by the alleged hijacker Hani Hanjour, a man who according to documentation couldnt even pilot a small plane, is absurd. But the intelligence officer knew what would happen, and the reader can learn this, and marvel. Or the reader can start from the beginning and read straight through the book. They will learn in detail that the official version of the attacks of 9/11 is fake news at its worst. It is a story told for dunces. Griffin and Woodworth and their colleagues simply and clearly in the most logical manner show that the emperor has no clothes, not even a mask. Since knowing the truth about the attacks of September 11, 2001 is indispensable for understanding what is happening in todays world, everyone should purchase and read Unmasking 9/11: An International Review Panel Investigation. Keep it next to your dictionary, and when you read or hear the latest propaganda about the 9/11 attacks, take it out and consult the work of the real experts. Their words will clarify your mind. It is the definitive book on the defining event of the 21st century. Edward Curtin, educated in the classics, philosophy, literature, theology, and sociology, Teaches sociology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. http://edwardcurtin.com/ the false arrest of Maria Butina Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here. ==See Also== Note To ICH Community We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites. Thank you for your support. Peace and joy Vanguard Professor Alphonsus Bosah Chukwurah Nwosu was a minister of Health in the Administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In this exclusive interview with Vanguard in Abuja, the elder statesman x-rayed contemporary issues in the polity and submitted among others that the ruling party, All progressives Congress, APC, should stop disgracing itself over the quest for the removal of Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.Continue reading Igbo advocating Igbo presidency through Buhari should re-ex The Nation Kunle Oyatomi, the All Progressives Congress (APC) spokesman in Osun, on Friday, said governor-elect, Gboyega Oyetola, would build on the legacies of Gov. Rauf Aregbesola.Oyatomi said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after the announcement of Oyetola as the winner of the gubernatorial election by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) in Osogbo.He commended Aregbesola for delivering good democratic dividends which had transformed the state. ThisDay Mixed reactions yesterday trailed the nationwide industrial action embarked upon by members of the organised labour. Guardian The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected yesterdays Osun State governorship supplementary election, calling for its cancellation and the declaration of its candidate Ademola Adeleke as winner. The Sun Officials of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), on Saturday morning, physically stopped airlines operating from the Daily Times The opposition party, PDP has demanded the cancellation of the re-run gubernatorial election in Osun State. According Daily Trust A PDP presidential aspirant, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said he will be the next President of Nigeria. Leadership The ongoing strike by organised labour to press home their demand for the implementation of a new minimum wage may take a worse toll as hospitals are expected to shut down following a directive by the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) to their members to join the strike Tribune Ahead of tomorrow governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress to pick its candidates, two ministers of the President Muhammadu Buhari cabinet, Adebayo Shittu and Aisha Al Hassan, seeking the party ticket have been axed. Out-going governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose has said Nigerias democracy is dead following the outcome of Osun state rerun election. The Ekiti governor in a tweet on Friday, said the governorship election and the rerun were a show of shame. The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) declared the All Progressives Congress(APC) candidate, Gboyega Oyetola winner of the contest yesterday . The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) almost clinched victory having led in the September 22nd governorship election until it was declared inconclusive by INEC over some irregularities . Fayose in several tweets said it was safe to deduce from the just concluded Osun polls, that democracy is now dead in Nigeria. He noted that its not different from what happened in his state, adding that the justice now rests with the judiciary and God. He further stated that the Osun state election like Ekiti state election was a contest between PDP and security agencies in collaboration with a compromised INEC. He wrote: With the show of shame that happened in last Saturday's Osun state governorship election in general and the Thursday rerun in particular, there is no other conclusion to draw than that democracy is now dead in our beloved country. Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) September 28, 2018 The Osun supplementary election was just a repeat of what happened in Ekiti state on July 14 and it is unfortunate that, again, the will of the people has been perverted. Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) September 28, 2018 Therefore, we want to believe that conscionable Nigerians and the survival of this country as a whole are at the mercy of God and of the judiciary. And if the judiciary fails to rise up to the occasion, Nigerians will be among men the most miserable. Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) September 28, 2018 Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has also joined other Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) members to reject Osun state rerun election. According to Fani-Kayode, the fact that the international communities has raised an eyebrow about the conduct of the rerun speaks volumes. Speaking via twitter on Friday, the former Minister of Aviation made it clear that the result from the rerun will not be accepted, adding that nobody cheats the Yoruba without consequence. He wrote: Senate president Bukola Saraki has expressed his displeasure about the recently held Osun rerun election. In a statement by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) presidential hopeful on Friday, he described the process as another display of the subversion of the will of the Osun people. According to Saraki, the re-run gubernatorial election in the State, was characterised by widespread voter intimidation, violence and harassment. He stated that accredited observers were denied access to polling units and duly registered voters were prevented from participating in the electoral process by thugs and compromised security agents. Saraki said the rerun was needless and was only designed as an avenue for the ruling party to perpetrate electoral fraud. The nature of these elections is an embarrassment to our democracy and casts an alarming pall on the institutions responsible for protecting the will of the Nigerian people as stated through their votes. See part of the statement below It is surprising that the election where the two leading candidates were running neck-to-neck on Saturday with the PDP candidate having an edge four days later, as a result of manipulation and impossible conditions, the APC candidate has now been credited with most of the votes, while a paltry number of votes has been recorded for the PDP candidate. It is important for Nigerians and the international community to insist that the hands of the clock should not be turned back in terms of the achievements we recorded in the last general elections. We should not make a mockery of our democracy by conducting elections in the manner that the Osun Polls were conducted. The Osun election is a clear indication of how the 2019 election will be conducted. It demonstrates that if we cannot conduct free, peaceful and fair elections in seven polling units spread across four local government areas of a state, then the conduct of the general elections in 774 local government areas across 36 states of the country is already endangered. Saraki noted that his party will contest the outcome of the election in court, adding that victory will surely be theirs. 27 awesome award categories have been unveiled for nominations in the 2018 edition of The Entrepreneur Africa Awards. Some of the categories come with cash prizes and material gifts. Check the flyer or visit www.theentrepreneurafrica.com to see which of the 27 categories of The Entrepreneur Africa Awards you or your business fits into. Then NOMINATE! You can nominate yourself/your business or someone else/their business. Nomination closes on October 12, 2018. The Award Dinner/Nominees Reception Cocktail will hold on December 8, 2018. This is a reward for enterprise and Innovation. HOUSTON, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States should build a relationship featuring non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, Chinese Consul General in Houston Li Qiangmin said Wednesday. Delivering a speech at the reception celebrating the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Li said that the two sides have conducted bilateral cooperation in many areas and maintained communication and coordination in tackling regional and international issues. "A sound and steady development of China-U.S. relations serves the fundamental interests of our two peoples and the expectation of the international community," Li said. "Thanks to trade with China, American families have enjoyed higher quality but lower-cost products," he said. Regarding China's development, Li said that under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China, Chinese people are now at a decisive stage of building a prosperous society in all aspects. While talking about the Chinese communities in the southern United States, Li said that they had contributed to the development of the China-U.S. relationship, as well as the motherland's development and peaceful reunification. "I hope all the local Chinese communities could continue to promote exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States," Li said. Nearly 500 people, including U.S. and Chinese officials, scholars and business people, attended the reception. [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] The Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) in partnership with FootPrint to Africa is set to hold the first edition of The Independence Investment Forum (TIIF). TIIF is an annual event supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of the United States, Nigeria. It would be held on the 1st of October, 2019; Nigerias Independence Day. Commemorating the independence of Nigeria, the event seeks to advance economic cooperation between Nigeria and the United States through promotion of business and services that improve trade relations and prosperity of both nations. For 58 years on, the NACC has grown into a dynamic organization as it stands as a pillar of the relationship between the United States of America and Nigeria, serving as an important catalyst in bringing together people and ideals to bolster bilateral commercial relations between Nigeria and the United States. We have facilitated business-to-business relationships and advanced economic cooperation between Nigeria and the United States through promotion of business and services that improve trade relations and prosperity of both nations; providing programs and services that improve economic prosperity and sustainability of businesses. As an investment bridge and financial news company, FootPrint to Africa has consistently promoted and facilitated intra-African trade and foreign investment between Global Investors, African businesses and African states. The Independence Investment Forum is aimed at attracting long term investments into Agriculture, Power/Energy, Mining and Commodities with focus on American investors and interested parties with presence across the globe. TIIF 2019 will bring together policy makers, domestic and foreign direct investors, business leaders, expert speakers and other key stakeholders to a single location in Lagos, Nigeria and will offer a platform for discussing investment needs and goals without the need for investors to travel to various locations in Nigeria to see projects or for Nigerian companies seeking investments to travel to multiple countries to pitch to investors. We are very excited about the level of enthusiasm we have received from proposed speakers, stakeholders, partners and investors in Africa and across the globe. The focus of TIIF upon registration is pivotal as we have created a structure to drive maximum impact in the business space. Interested companies, stakeholders and individuals will be able to register to attend the Conference and Gala night which will feature dedicated networking sessions, Market knowledge Sharing, Investment pitches, access to expert insight on local and foreign markets among others. Interested businesses, companies and organizations doing business in Agriculture, Power/Energy, Real Estate, Mining and Commodities and are thinking about either expanding their operations or establishing a presence there can register as TIIF is aimed at attracting long term investments into those sectors and matchmaking businesses with investors and business leaders with presence in American and across the globe. Lastly, Nigeria is a country buzzing with creative energy and blessed with vast resources and opportunities. You cant claim to do business in Africa if you are not in Nigeria. TIIF offers the opportunity for investors to invest in Agriculture, Power/Energy, Real Estate, Mining and Commodities. Investors can register their investment interest for matchmaking with viable businesses. Today, we announce that registration for the independence Investment Forum (TIIF) 2019 is opened from October 1st, 2018. Registration will be concluded on the events website. tiif.nigerianamericanchamber.org Jeremy D. Morley concentrates on International Family Law. The firm works with clients around the world from its New York office, with a global network of local counsel. Mr Morley is the author of "International Family Law Practice", the leading treatise on international family law in the U.S., and "The Hague Abduction Convention", published by the American Bar Association. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers and a former law professor. A major theft ring connected to Apples physical retail stores has taken a hit, as more than a dozen people have been arrested. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has announced on Thursday that law enforcement has arrested 17 people in connection to the theft ring. According to the announcement, the thieves stole from physical retail stores in 19 different counties. The network of thieves apparently grabbed upwards of $1 million worth of goods from those retail stores. They were able to do this by wearing hooded sweatshirts and running into the Apple Stores in a mob of individuals. In the flurry of shock and awe they would grab the devices that were on display and then escape with them. Attorney General Becerra said, these large-scale networks of thieves cost California business owners millions, and that consumers end up paying for it. As it stands right now, the law enforcement agencies connected to the investigation have arrested seven people tied to the ring of thieves. One additional person is in custody in Sonoma County as well. Arrest warrants have been issued for nine other individuals in connection with the network. [via CA.gov Apple has been subjected to a lawsuit over iMessage and FaceTime for infringing on eight patents of Finnish company MPH Technology. The always-on VPN feature of iOS, a feature primarily used for mobile device management (MDM) by enterprises and corporations, is also a part of the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that MPH tried to license the technology used in iMessage and FaceTime to Apple in 2016 and 2017 to no avail. The Finnish company informed Apple about the patent breach in 2016 first. MPH and Apple representatives discussed the matter further, going so far as to hold multiple teleconference sessions in May 2017 regarding a potential licensing agreement. During one of those calls, Apple counsel intimated the company was preparing an analysis of MPHs patents demonstrating the IP was invalid based on prior art. That analysis was never delivered. Direct communications between the two companies seemingly ended in July 2017, with MPH sending notification of two patent grants and Apple acknowledging the message with a brief reply indicating a future response was soon to follow. After multiple back-and-forths, Apples patent counsel team said it did not believe a license is required, as the asserted patents are not infringed and/or invalid as MPH appears to be interpreting the claims. MPH is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages from Apple for patent infringement and wants a permanent injunction on the further use of its eight patented technology. Apple was previously subjected to a patent lawsuit by VirnetX a patent troll for FaceTime which it eventually lost. [Via AppleInsider It has been over a year since Qualcomm initially sought an import ban on some iPhone models, but it turns out that wont be coming to pass. As Reuters reports on Friday, a United States trade Judge has declined to block iPhone imports into the United States. Specifically, the judge declined to block the importation of iPhones with Intel chips inside: A U.S. trade judge on Friday declined to block the importation of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) iPhones with chips from Intel Corp (INTC.O), handing a major defeat to Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) in its high-stakes legal dispute with the iPhone maker. Back then, Qualcomm requested the U.S. International Trade Commission to block the import of specific iPhone models, including the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the iPhone X for AT&Ts and T-Mobiles networks. Qualcomms argument was a patent infringement case, where Qualcomm said Apple infringed on multiple patents. For what its worth, the judge did determine that Apple did infringe on a patent related to power management technology, a ban on importation of those aforementioned models would not happen citing public interest factors. Things had gone pretty quiet between Apple and Qualcomm until very recently. Qualcomm has accused Apple of providing source code to Intel, which is one of Qualcomms primary competitors. However, even with that out there, Qualcomms CEO has high expectations that the market will prevail, and Apple will begin working with the company again soon. [via Reuters ANTWERP, Belgium, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Several organizations and institutions on Thursday signed an ambitious agreement to jointly work to introduce train services between this Belgian port and the Chinese port of Shanghai. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Antwerp among the World Free &Special Economic Zones Federation, Brussels-based magazine Diplomatic World and the Antwerp-based non-profit European Federation of Traditional Chinese Culture (EFTCC). The program, called Diamond Silk Road, aims to connect Antwerp and Shanghai by a passenger train that will run through 10 other cities including Brussels, Moscow, Ulan Bator and Beijing, thus forming the world's largest space for free trade and manufacturing. Currently, there is only freight rail service network linking China and Europe. Since the first China-Europe freight train from Chongqing to Duisburg of Germany was launched in 2011, there have been more than 10,000 trips and the trains continue to serve as a crucial network of the Silk Road Economic Belt. As of June 30 this year, the freight rail services link 48 Chinese cities with 42 European cities. The year 2018 marks the fifth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, a transnational network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond. Li Jianmin, Minister-Counselor of the Chinese mission to the European Union who attended the signing ceremony, said: "Silk Road is not only a road for the development of economies, trade and industry, but it is also a road for education and culture." "I hope the future train service between Antwerp and Shanghai will play a role for bridging Belgium and China, and all the countries along the way," he said. Ludo Van Campenhout, Antwerp vice mayor who attended the signing ceremony, said: "The old Silk Road transported goods from East to West. Now we want to do the same with the exchange of goods, culture and persons through the development of a new railway. The aim is intercultural exchange from East to West." "Each nation, big or small, benefits from competition. Free trade is the basis for creating wealth but also basis for well-being and peace," he added. [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] A large-scale thematic exhibition " brave and standing ahead of the tide -- Shanghai celebrates the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up" opened at the Shanghai exhibition center on sept 26, 2018.Photo by Wang Gang/Guangming Picture 3 1 [ Editor: WPY ] Rimma Moskvitina, acting head of the Export Promotion Centre of Russias Altai region, said that many Russian enterprises are using the slashed import tarriffs under the Vietnam- Eurasian Economic Union (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan) Free Trade Agreement to boost their exports to Vietnam. The FTA took effect in October 2016. The FTA can help Russian businesses minimise risks of trade barriers and benefit from very low import tarriffs in Vietnam, she said. Two weeks ago, a delegation of Russian exporters visited Vietnam in search of local partners to distribute their products here, such as farm produce, foodstuffs, industrial equipment, fuel additives, petrochemical products, and energy equipment. For example, in 2015, Gammer Alexandr, sales director of Barnaul Boiler Plant, LLC, came to Vietnam to look for Vietnamese partners. And now he has returned to the country for the same purpose, following the reductions in import tariffs for his companys products induced by the FTA. The products include energy fittings for steam and water, such as stop valves, protection fittings, and control valves. Now we are here in Vietnam to seek manufacturing companies ultilising direct (sharp) steam, such as energy-generating companies (power plants), especially the Pha Lai power plant, installation companies in the power industry, for example Lilama Corporation, Alexandr said. Other partners can be iron and steel plants, oil refineries, and sugar factories. In another case, Mahnakov Oleg Nikolaevich, representative of Rikon Ltd., Co., also sees the FTA as one of the major drivers for Rikon to come to Vietnam to look for import partners of its agricultural products, including wheat, feed, barley, oat, pea, sunflower, and processed cereals and oil crops. Under the FTA, Vietnam has promised to eradicate import tariffs on many agricultural products from the union after the agreement takes effect, such as wheat, beef, and milk products. In 2019, Vietnam will also do the same for canned meat and canned fish imported from the union. By 2021, the country will do the same for the unions assorted chicken and pork products. In addition to expanding their business presence in Vietnam, at present, Russian firms are also pushing its plans to invest in Vietnam to cash in on the FTAs benefits. For example, Russias automaker GAZ Group said its commercial vehicle lines have been enjoying a tax reduction since October of 2016. GAZ used to be famous in Vietnam via its brand names such as Volga, and GAZ 53 and 69. With the tax exemption, GAZ is expecting that it can rebuild its customer base in Vietnam. Under the FTA, lorry import tariffs will be reduced from an average of 17 per cent now to 0 per cent by 2025. Since October 2016, this company has been exporting its completely-built units and spare parts to Vietnam thanks to the FTA. GAZ president Vadim Sorokin also said, We are interested in transferring high technology to Vietnamese partners, so that we can design vehicles on the spot. Also we will develop our customer networks, technician training programmes and auto maintenance systems in Vietnam. Other auto firms such as Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod and KAMAZ have also been preparing to export their vehicles to Vietnam soon. It is expected that until 2019, the tax reduction will enable each of the Russian auto exporters to save more than US$50 million per year. Russian Ambassador to Vietnam K.V.Vnukov said that the FTA is the first to be signed by EAEC with a foreign nation. It reflects the blocs special trust and real partnership with Vietnam. The VEFTA has brought about positive results. Trade turnover between the Eurasian Economic Community and Vietnam rose by more than 30%, from US$4.3 billion in 2016 to US$5.9 billion last year. This positive trend has continued in the first months of this year. Encouragingly, the two-way trade structure has changed gradually, with greater balance and diversity in goods. Currently, within the VEFTA, we are compiling a system on e-recognition and the verification of goods origins, which will be applied later this year. The system will help significantly simplify customs clearance procedures and verify goods origins, accordingly business costs will be reduced, the ambassador said. In general, Russia is expanding its investment presence in Vietnam. Thus we have begun implementing a bilateral deal on constructing automobile manufacturing and assembling plants in Vietnam, with Russias famous brands like KAMAZ and GAZ. Hopefully in the near future, these automobiles will reach the majority of Vietnamese consumers. PKF Magnus Ltd., Co., the Russian producer of agricultural machinery, is also awaiting the removal of import tariffs for its products under the FTA next year. We want to co-operate with Vietnams agricultural producers in distributing our attachments for MTZ and DT-75 tractors: front-end loaders, haylage forks, grain buckets, bulldozer blades, brushes, rotary diggers, and tedder rakes, said Magnus commercial director Bobin Denis Evgenievich. Nguyen Van Hai, head of the Vietnam Chamber of Industry and Commerces Board for International Relations, told Nhan Dan Online that after the FTA came into effect in October 2016, Vietnam-Russia bilateral trade turnover has annually soared by an average of 30%, hitting US$5.2 billion last year. According to the Russian Export Centre in Vietnam, thanks to the FTA, more and more Russian agricultural products have been finding their way into the Vietnamese market, such as sunflower oil, pine nuts, walnuts, and cereals. Many well-known Russian brands such as Magnit, Bimuka, Paritet, Kuban Wine, Fanagoria Wine, Igristye Wine, Makfa and Aston have also appeared in Vietnam. As of August 20, 2018, Russia had 117 investment projects in Vietnam, registered with US$931.6 million. Meanwhile, Vietnam has 13 projects worth about US$3 billion in Russia, Vietnams Ministry of Planning and Investment reported. LUCY BURDETTE : My first trip to Paris and Provence was during my junior year in college. I have always regretted that I felt too homesick and shy to really take advantage of the experience. So I embrace any chance for a do-over. And last week, I was very fortunate to travel to France for a trip focusing on food in Paris and Bordeaux. The week was curated and led by David Lebovitz, who writes a blog about food in Paris and also tries to translate the unusual customs of France for Americans. For many years David was the pastry chef at Chez Panisse, the restaurant founded by Alice Waters in Berkeley, CA. So he knows food. My friend Carol and I decided we better get to Paris a couple days early so wed be acclimated to the time change and not miss a trick. We spent those two days walking the city and also visited two museums that I had not been to before the Picasso museum and the Musee dOrsay. It was utterly astonishing to stand in front of works of art in person that I had only seen in books. Picasso's goat Vincent van Gogh's Bedroom For the next five days, we made the rounds of chocolatiers, bakers, grocers, sommeliers, and cheese mongers in Paris and later in the week, Bordeaux. I wont describe everything I saw and learned youd be here until next Friday with eyes glazed over. But Ill show you some of the highlights, and yes I brought enough chocolate home for all of you! This is one of the more famous bakeries in Paris, called Poilaine. We were invited downstairs to see the bread baking in a massive wood-fired oven thats been in service since 1932. Next, on to visit artisanal chocolatier, Jean Charles Rochoux, famous for his chocolate figurines. Fabulous lunch at Cafe Nemrod, for me a croque madame complet... That night, more food and wine: Here was the opening salvo of a six-course tasting dinner at Verjus. I couldve made a meal out of the appetizers, including this exquisite chickpea pancake stuffed with fresh herbs. You can see it was a good thing we walked a lot, because the next morning brought more chocolate demonstrations at Fouquet. Lucy with David and chocolatier Frederic Lunch involved a wine tasting and tapas at O Chateau. We learned that wine and food are deeply affected by terroir, meaning the exact climate and soil where the beans or wheat or grapes are grown. I also made a lovely new friend who welcomed me to her houseboat on the Seine...maybe Hayley Snow will visit? The next morning, we took the high-speed train to Bordeaux... where we joined Jean-Pierre Moulle, executive chef at Chez Panisse for thirty years. First we enjoyed the chocolates made at Saunion. This woman adored her job! The chocolates were followed by a visit to the cheese cave of Jean d'Alos... Then we were invited to dinner at a country farmhouse, hosted by Jean-Pierre and his lovely wife, Denise I wondered what made the potatoes so exquisite. The answer, they are simmered in duck fat. During our last day, we went to the farmer's market, where we watched Jean-Pierre choose ingredients for our lunch. The lunch took place at Chateau La Louviere, belonging to Denise's family , still actively producing wine. Jean-Pierre working on a pear clafoutis with tips from David an amazing salade Nicoise with fresh tuna and anchovies France under any circumstance feels wondrous to me, but meeting these artisans, including David, and hearing about their love for food and their work was very, very special. I could wax on and on, but I'm off to ditch some chocolate calories with a high-speed walk. And maybe puzzle out how I might use some of this in another book... I'll leave you with another famous chocolate shop scene... MEDFORD, Ore. A Wallowa County man who previously had worked to support firefighters in Southern Oregon now stands accused of trying to get explicit pictures from a Central point teenager, according to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO). Detectives say the arrest caps an 11-month investigation. In October of 2017, the parents of a 14-year-old boy with an autism spectrum disorder contacted JCSO to report "suspicious online activity." Detectives later learned that the teen victim had been chatting online with an man who had sent the victim images depicting child sexual abuse encouraging the victim to send sexual images of himself. The victim told detectives that the man claimed to be a firefighter, and attempted to meet the victim in person while he was working in Southern Oregon. Detectives were later able to identify the suspect as 50-year-old John Delbert Stonebrink of Wallowa, Ore. Detectives confirmed that Stonebrink was employed as a sanitation truck driver working at the Miller Complex Fires (in Jackson and Josephine counties) periodically between August and November of 2017. On January 9, 2018, with assistance from the Enterprise Police Department and the Wallowa County Sheriffs Office, JCSO detectives served a search warrant at Stonebrinks home in the 81000-block of Leap Lane in Wallowa. They recovered several items of evidence. Electronic items were later analyzed by forensic examiners with the Oregon Department of Justice. On September 19, 2018, a Jackson County grand jury indicted Stonebrink on charges of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first and second degree, luring a minor, and using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct. A judge issued an arrest warrant following the indictment. Stonebrink was arrested on the warrant in Wallowa County on September 25, 2018. He was lodged in the Umatilla County jail and transported to Jackson County on September 27. Detectives say Stonebrink used his real name as well as nicknames like JDStone, JDStone67, and codywest on social media and email. Additional charges may be forthcoming as the electronic evidence is examined further. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Detective Steve Bohn at (541) 774-6168. Refer to case #17-22149. WHITE CITY, Ore. UPDATE: The passenger in a car chase and crash along Highway 62 on Thursday night has died, according to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO). JCSO says that deputies responded to White City around 8:30 p.m. after a reported restraining order violation. When deputies arrived at the indicated area, a citizen flagged them down and reported that a suspicious vehicle (a white Toyota Tundra) had been following them. When Deputies found the 2013 Toyota Tundra, they attempted to pull the vehicle over. Instead, the driver fled. Later identified as 49-year-old Christopher Giron of Ashland, the driver sped down Hwy 62 with deputies in pursuit. When Giron tried to turn eastbound onto Highway 140, he botched the turn and veered off the roadway striking a signal box that controlled the lights for the intersection. Giron and his passenger, 50-year-old Teddy Geaney of Klamath Falls, came to rest in the truck at the bottom of an embankment. Both Giron and Geaney were brought to the hospital. Geaney apparently sustained fatal injuries in the crash, and was pronounced dead at the hospital. JCSO says that Geaney, the passenger, was the suspect in the restraining order violation that had brought deputies to White City. Oregon State Police (OSP) are investigating the crash, assisted by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Jackson County District Attorney's Office. According to ODOT, they have managed a "band-aid" fix for the signals at the intersection of Hwy 140 and 62 however, the fix will cause delays at the intersection until major repairs can be completed on the box. They expect delays to continue for about three weeks. INITIAL REPORT: Oregon State Police are investigating a crash at the intersection of Highway 140 and 62. NewsWatch 12 has confirmed that the crash started off as a car chase. The crash happened around 10:30 p.m. Thursday night. Officials say the car crashed into a control box. causing traffic signals at the intersection to go out. Crews with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) worked into the early morning hours trying to fix the signals. Around 4:00 Friday morning, ODOT said the signals are operating once again. ASHLAND, Ore. -- Police say they are getting more sexual assault reports than ever, thanks to a program called "You Have Options." Police Chief Tighe O'Meara said the department started the program in 2013 when it was founded by former Detective Carrie Hull. It was created as a way to make men and women more comfortable in reporting the crime. "The purpose of the program is to remove obstacles in reporting sexual assaults as much as possible," O'Meara said. He said only about 10 percent of sexual assaults in Oregon are reported to police. "The end goal is to hold serial offenders responsible because what we know is that if somebody is a sexual assault suspect, they're not stopping, they are doing it again and again," O'Meara said. The victim-centered approach gives an array of options to men and women who have experienced sexual assault. Survivors can do an information-only report. They are able to ask that their situation just be documented for the time being, and if that person decides to go forward with an investigation in the future, they can. "We let the victim have as much control as is legally and reasonably possible," O'Meara said. Since implementing the program five years ago, Ashland police have seen an increase in the number of reports. Before the program, police would get about 24 reports a year. Here is a break-down of how that number has increased since. 2014 - 55 sexual assault reports 2015 - 53 sexual assault reports 2016 - 52 sexual assault reports 2017 - 58 sexual assault reports O'Meara said the increase may seem like a bad thing, but it is exactly what police had hoped for. "The sex assaults are happening, it's just a question of whether or not people are reporting them to us so it's best to drive those numbers up. That means more people are reporting because they feel more comfortable coming and talking to police about it," O'Meara said. Susan Moen, Executive Director of Jackson County Sexual Abuse Response Team, said it's very difficult to report sexual assault, and it is even harder if a victim does not know what the process will look like. "They can come in and say I want to give you this information about what happened, I'm not ready yet to go through a full legal process but I'd like to hear about what would happen if I chose that," Moen said. Moen also said the program is a great way to catch serial offenders. "I have many survivors who come to me and say 'I don't want to report this for me, but if you hear they've done this to someone else then I will come forward," Moen. O'Meara said the department has been able to catch several serial offenders since implementing the program. Earlier, on June 7, the KADI determined that steel sheet imports from Vietnam dumped into Indonesia at between 12.01% and 28.49% of the Indonesian market and caused significant injury to the domestic steel industry. Based on this conclusion, the Indonesian Trade Security Committee (KPPI) proposed the application of anti-dumping measures on Vietnamese colour-coated steel products for a five-year period. KADI initiated the dumping investigation on December 23, 2016. The colour-coated steel imports that were investigated had the HS codes of 7210.70.10.00, 7212.40.10.00 and 7212.40.20.00. KADI said that from July 2015 to June 2016, Indonesia imported 224,120 tonnes of colour-coated steel, of which 196,191 tonnes came from Vietnam and China, accounting for 87.5% of the countrys total steel imports. On January 9, 2018, KADI announced a statement of essential facts on the anti-dumping investigation and asked relevant sides to give comments on the statement. Indonesia held a public hearing on the anti-dumping investigations on January 26, 2018. After considering impacts of anti-dumping measures to the socio-economy, KADI decided to end investigation and not to apply anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese colour-coated steel, a representative from the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam said. EUGENE, Ore. -- As Eugenes population has grown over the last five years, public safety needs have also grown, and city leaders are looking to make a change. Eugene police said that calls for service have increased by 21 percent. Response time for calls has increased by almost 20 minutes, and officers are unable to respond to one out of three calls because of a lack of resources. On Wednesday the Eugene City Council took the first step in adding almost $9 million to fight crime starting in January -- a one-time boost in funding. The money will be used to add more patrol officers, service officers and 911 dispatchers in the community. City Councilor Emily Semple said she hopes the community will get excited that changes are going to be made. This is the happiest day I have had as a counselor because it gives me hope. It is giving me hope for a change and a hope to help all of us, especially our most vulnerable, Semple said. Eugene resident Josh Stone said this funding is badly needed for the safety of his neighborhood and family. Stone said his community has had an enormous amount of robberies in the past few months and things aren't getting better. He said a burglar tried to break into his house Wednesday, and his fiance who was home at the time called 911. Police never came to the house, even with the surveillance video he provided of the man attempting to break in. I dont feel safe leaving her and the kids in the house alone without a loaded firearm on the ground just because of the simple fact of what happened yesterday -- that they didnt come out and check. They just said they were going to make that police report and surveil the area," Stone said. Councilors said they will continue to look for more long-term solutions, possibly including higher taxes. CRESWELL, Ore.-- Four small fires broke out along Interstate 5 between Creswell and Cottage Grove Thursday afternoon. Crews were called around 2:30 p.m. At one point, both lanes of travel were backed up a couple of miles. Crews said sparks coming from a U-Haul started the fires. At this time, its not clear how much was burned, but all the fires are out now. As firefighters were working the flames, others rushed to a nearby wreck that sent two people to the hospital. The two-vehicle crash happened in the northbound lane at about 3:15 p.m., causing traffic to back up even further. EUGENE, Ore. -- A former priest who was convicted of paying for sex last year is teaching at Lane Community College this term. Daniel Mackay has taught at LCC since 2008 and returned to the classroom as a part-time instructor this week. Mackay is teaching Writing 122 and said he doesn't want his past to be a distraction to his students. While he was convicted of three counts of prostitution in 2017, he told KEZI 9 News he maintains his innocence. Even though the victim was underage, the prosecuting attorney said they couldn't prove Mackay knew she was only 17. Instead, he was convicted on three counts of misdemeanor prostitution. Under Oregon law, he's not required to register as a sex offender. At the time of his arrest in October 2016, he was a priest at St. John the Wonderworker Orthodox Church and an instructor at Northwest Christian University and Lane Community College. He's no longer a priest nor an NCU instructor. "I was helping a young woman, who I did not know was 17, with money, food, and shelter, and I did so in an exceedingly foolish way that did not manage to protect me from these charges," Mackay said. "Along with me, my community of family, friends and professional colleagues rue that to this day. I am exceedingly sorry for that." KEZI 9 News reached out to LCC. "Lane Community College does not comment on the personal lives of our employees nor on personnel matters except to confirm employment," a spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. With the theme "Bright Yen Bai forever following Uncle Hos footprints", the event will be held at 8pm on September 30 at the provinces stadium, where the talk by Uncle Ho with Yen Bai compatriots took place six decades ago. The programme will be broadcast live on Vietnam Television channel 2 (VTV2), under the direction of young female director of the 8x generation - Le Hai Yen. On September 25, 1960, thousands of officials and people of different ethnic groups in Yen Bai rushed to the stadium to meet Uncle Ho. The beloved leader came to the stadium and walked to the stage amid bustling cheers. Although only having about an hour to meet and listen to Uncle Hos talk, his sentiment and encouragement left an unforgettable impression in each person at that time. Uncle Ho (C) visited and spoke with the Yen Bai people in Yen Bai provincial Stadium 60 years ago. Director Le Hai Yen said that the topic related to President Ho Chi Minh is a difficult subject because there are so many successful art programmes honouring him but it is also an easy one, as songs and other material about him are abundant. However, in order to make a difference while still respecting history is what makes creative teams anxious for many months, she admitted. In the heart of a young generation's representative, with a deep respect for Uncle Ho, the 8x female expressed her wish to make her programme touch the hearts of the generations who lived in the Ho Chi Minh Era, and also help younger generations to nurture a deep respect for him, to be proud of the nations heroic tradition, from which to inscribe and perform his teachings. Young female director Le Hai Yen. The programme will not only depict the story of Uncle Ho's visit to Yen Bai, but also celebrate a rich historical tradition and the strong development of the locality in modern times. The entire programme will provide the audience with a complete view of Yen Bai, from its people, nature and culture, to the story of cultural preservation and development. Yen said that she will also re-enact a Red Dao wedding ceremony on stage with hundreds of actors to highlight the beautiful and attractive culture of Yen Bai. In addition, the images of the Paragliding Festival "Bay tren mua vang" (Flying over the golden season), a special tourism product of Yen Bai during the ripe rice season each year, will also be enacted through a paragliding exhibit on stage. WASINGTON, D.C. UPDATE --President Donald Trump has directed the FBI to conduct a supplemental background check of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee but the floor vote is delayed a week as the FBI investigates "current credible" sexual assault claims. Just before 11:00 AM PST, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11 to 10, in support of confirming Brett Kavanaugh to become the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Friday morning, Senate Judiciary Committee members gathered to cast their vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The vote is scheduled to happen at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time. This follows a day of intensely emotional testimony Thursday from Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accuses Kavanaugh of sexual assault when the two were in high school. Thursday night, after the testimony finished, President Donald Trump tweeted his support of his Supreme Court nominee. "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" said President Trump on Twitter. As of the beginning of the Senate Judiciary Committee's meeting Friday morning, the president hadn't sent another tweet. During the Senate Committee's hearing Friday, several Senate Democrats walked out of the meeting. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley said this week that he was suing President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in an effort to stop the confirmation process. It's unclear whether the lawsuit will affect that process moving forward. In reaction to Thursday's testimony, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden released the following statement: Dr. Fords brave testimony today gave hope to survivors everywhere. I cannot imagine a more compelling witness, Wyden said. I believe Dr. Ford. On the other hand, Brett Kavanaughs testimony demonstrated he lacks both the judgment and the temperament Americans expect from a Supreme Court Justice. The best that can be said of his testimony is that it was strikingly evasive." This is a developing story. KEZI 9 News will provide updates as they happen. SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- The Republican candidate seeking to become governor of Oregon has challenged Democratic Gov. Kate Brown to fire the state's education director as he laid out his plan to improve education, which lags behind some other states in several respects. Knute Buehler called Friday on state and local educators to achieve a handful of critical, evidence-based proficiency standards, for more resources and professional development opportunities for teachers. RELATED: Colt Gill, former Bethel superintendent: 'Graduation rates are increasing' Buehler said state schools chief Colt Gill should be fired after recent testing showed Oregon scores remained mediocre. SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Springfield Animal Control is working with an area woman to surrender almost all of her 80 Bengal cats to local and regional animal shelters. Brian Austin with Springfield Animal Control said they discovered the cats earlier this week after getting two anonymous tips from neighbors. Austin said the owner wanted to make some money by breeding and selling the cats but got too attached to the animals to let them go. "I don't believe she has any malicious intent with this," Austin said. "She is a very nice lady. I can tell she cares about the animals but unfortunately just simply due to the numbers and her attachment to them she has become extremely overwhelmed." Austin said the owner has been taking great care of the cats by feeding them not just dry and canned food but also specialty products. But Austin is worried about the health of the animals and the homeowner because of poor air quality inside the home caused by the amount of cat urine and feces. KEZI 9 News spoke with the homeowner, but she declined to do an interview. "She can spend just about every waking hour of the day cleaning and feeding and doing everything, and I don't know with this sheer number she would be able to keep up with it at this point," Austin said. Austin hopes to accomplish the majority of the downsizing in two to three weeks and leave the homeowner with four to five cats. He has reached out to shelters locally and in Portland for help. Megan Brezovar with Greenhill Humane Society said this case shows why people need to spay and neuter their pets. Brezovar said if they receive some of the cats, it will take a few weeks before they hit the adoption floor, giving them time to spay and neuter and screen the cats. "Right now we currently have a lot of cats under our care, but we are willing to help however we can to make sure these animals all get the care and love and attention they deserve," Brezovar said. Austin said they hope the homeowner continues to work with them voluntarily but said if she doesn't, they could charge her with animal neglect in the second degree. The city of Springfield has offered to help find the cats new homes. People interested in adopting one of the cats can email csolares@springfield-or.gov. ROCHESTER, Minn. Aaron Brown, who is accused of selling drugs and bringing them across state borders, entered a not guilty plea on Friday. Officers arrested Brown and Kendrick Collins outside of Rochester on the way back from Chicago in July. Authorities say they found nine ounces of cocaine in the vehicle Brown and Collins were in, and later, search warrants were executed at 2 homes. Cocaine and heroin were found at 1915 Marion Rd, while $23,000 in cash was found at 1902 8 St. SE, according to law enforcement. MASON CITY, Iowa - A major project is underway in Cerro Gordo County to upgrade overhead and underground electric lines. Since January, Alliant Energy has been upgrading powerlines in the county, about $25.5 million worth, due to age and condition, as well as the need to modernize for future needs, and has so far upgraded 90 miles of lines. Most of this year's work is associated with the Highway 122 reconstruction project and upgrades at a substation. It's part of the company's larger 2018 Power Iowa Plan to improve the energy grid, reduce outages, and provide more reliable power to customers. Duane Tesch of Mason City says the project will largely benefit the community. "There's just more demand for electricity, so it's a win win situation with the wind farms and everything. And it's a goal for everybody. Everybody's gonna capitalize from this and it's something that's good for the whole community." And for those who may experience some inconvenience during the project, Tesch says to be patient. "Just like the road construction, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It will come to its culmination and we'll all benefit from it. Have patience, bare with it, and it's great for everybody." Alliant Energy expects the project to be completed by next Fall. KIMT NEWS 3- The current farm bill is set to expire this Sunday meaning a number of small grant programs and would also impact soon-to-be farmers, but a local farmer says it isnt time to panic just yet. Worth County Farmer, Andy Hill says funding for the current farm bill will last until the end of the year. He says they would like to see the bill done before the election and before current representatives are voted out leaving lame ducks, but if nothing else, it need to be done before the end of the year. If they arent able to come to a compromise and get something passed out of both chambers and have the President sign by the end of the year than all of the farm bill conversation will have to start over with whoever might be elected in this midterm, he said. The expiration will not have an impact on permanent programs such as crop insurance. WINNEBAGO CO., - A Forest City man is pleading guilty to domestic abuse assault. Andrew Sterrenberg was arrested after an investigation by the Lake Mills Police Department in November 2017. He is being sentenced to 180 days in the Winnebago County jail, with all but 7 days suspended. He is also being ordered to pay a $315.00 fine and complete the Iowa Domestic Abuse Program. WASHINGTON, District of Columbia Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman accusing him of sexual assault both had their chance to tell their sides of the sorry today. Im not questioning that Dr. Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time, but I have never done this to her or anyone, said Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh forcefully denied sexually assaulting Dr. Christine Blasey Ford when they were both in high school. But under oath, Ford had a different account saying she tried to yell for help and Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth to stop her. Dr. Ford is actually one of three women accusing the Supreme Court nominee of sexual assault. While the case continues to be a bit messy, Nicole Hamilton-Brahm tells KIMT that the case shines light on the issue of sexual violence. I think it can be really hard on survivors that may have not reported or reported late and are seeing things unfolding. I also think it brings a lot of awareness which is good and it also shows people how sexual violence crosses all boundaries of people, said Hamilton-Brahm, Vilent Crime Program Supervisor at the Crisis Intervention Service. Todays hearing lasted for about eight hours. A vote on Kavanaughs nomination could come as early as the weekend. ROCHESTER, Minn. - The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission made a stop in Rochester to deliberate several items, including the application process of NextEra Energy Resources' proposed Dodge County Wind wind farm project The commission ruled that their application was complete and ready for reviewal stages. Douglas Eayrs, a member of Dodge County Concerned Citizens, attended the meeting because he has some concerns about the project. "We don't have wind turbines like this in our county. We have some wind farms, but nothing like this. This is a very large project and it's going to change the county for many decades," he says. Nate O'Reilly, president of Southeastern Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council attended the meeting. His organization represents local trade unions. He came to the meeting because he's interested in partnering with NextEra to utilize the local workforce. "A lot of times, developers come in to develop wind projects and we don't get to see the full economic impact to the community or the state of minnesota," he explains. "Because, at times, they don't partner with us and they will use a largely out of state work force." At the meeting, the commission asked if Dodge County Wind would like an advisory commission of local representatives for the project. They chose to decline. Mike Weich, project manager of renewable development at NextEra Energy Resources, gave KIMT the following statement about the project: "We are excited to continue working with the Dodge and Steele County communities to bring home-grown, renewable energy to the area. Over the next few weeks, we will continue working with those in the community to ensure everyone is informed of the project and plans. The Dodge County Wind project can bring millions of dollars, as well as stable jobs to these counties, and we hope to see that happen." The meeting was not open for public comment, but residents will have the chance to make their voices heard at an upcoming public hearing. It is tentatively scheduled for October 25 at the Holiday Inn in Owatonna. A public notice will be released next week once those details are finalized. At a meeting with Nhan Dans Editor-in-chief Thuan Huu, the Cuban journalist offered his deep condolences to Vietnam over the passing of President Tran Dai Quang. He expressed his delight at Vietnams rapid and comprehensive economic development in recent years while highly appreciating the close cooperation between the two newspapers. Granma is the central organ of the Communist Party of Cuba. For his part, Nhan Dans Editor-in-chief Thuan Huu expressed his admiration for the Cuban state and peoples successes and their efforts to protect the fruits of the revolution, emphasising that Vietnam and Cuba will remain in an intimate and faithful relationship. At the meeting, the Nhan Dan leader informed the Cuban delegation that the newspaper currently consists of print editions, online versions in Vietnamese, English, Chinese, French and Russian and a television channel with a radio channel expected to be trialled in 2019. He also stated that a Spanish-language online edition will soon be launched and hopes for the cooperation of Granma in developing this version. Earlier, the Granma delegation learned about the history of Nhan Dan in the newspapers traditional room. (Reuters) - Bank of America (BAC.N) recently told its clients it was restricting the sale of stocks of tiny and unknown companies that trade over-the-counter for less than $5 each, CNBC reported on Friday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter. The bank started clamping down on its clients dealings in penny stocks in late July by banning purchase. Six weeks later, it told its clients it was restricting the sales of risky securities, later amending the policy to give its clients time to exit their positions, CNBC reported the people as saying. Bank of America did not immediately respond to Reuters request for a comment. LONDON/TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadas Bank of Montreal (BMO) (BMO.TO) has poached a team of six precious metals traders and salesmen in New York from Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) (BNS.TO), which is pulling back from the market, five sources familiar with the matter said. The hire boosts BMOs New York metals team to around eight people, making BMOs team one of the biggest in the city, the sources said. Canadas Scotiabank, whose ScotiaMocatta metals arm has long been the worlds biggest lender to the physical precious metals industry, has been moving ahead with plans to halve the size of its metals business after a failed sale. Banks including BMOs Canadian rivals Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) (RY.TO) and CIBC (CM.TO), traditionally strong in metals thanks to Canadas large mining industry, have been lining up to poach ScotiaMocattas key staff or clients. BMO has a good mining franchise and has always coveted Mocatta, one of the sources said. As Scotiabank began to retreat, BMO made building its presence in precious metals one of the three top objectives of its mining division, another source said. BMO has hired Bimal Das, ScotiaMocattas head of sales in the Americas, along with Tomas Gargantini, John Fox, Anuj Kakar, Harry Lampart and Russell Brown, the sources said. Reuters was unable to reach the six sales and trading staff for comment. The five that had LinkedIn accounts did not respond to messages sent via the social media platform. The men left ScotiaMocatta in recent weeks and have not yet started work at BMO, they said, adding that BMO was likely to use the new team to expand into precious metals leasing and shipments. BMO is Canadas fourth-biggest lender. Scotiabank is the third-biggest. Both banks declined to comment. Before its restructuring, sources had estimated the value of ScotiaMocattas leases, credit lines and consignment lending of precious metal was estimated at $8 billion, dwarfing others in the market. It had more than 60 trading and sales staff around the world, sources said. The defection leaves Scotiabank with fewer than five people in metals in New York. Its managing director for North America, Tim Dinneny, left in mid-May. ScotiaMocattas client book has attracted interest from competitors including banks JPMorgan (JPM.N) and ICBC Standard SBKJLS.UL (601398.SS), brokers INTL FCStone (INTL.O) and trading house Sumitomo, sources have said. But Canadian rivals to Scotiabank have been among the most active. RBC hired two former ScotiaMocatta staff this year in London and CIBC added a new head of precious metals trading in New York. TD has expanded its metals unit in recent years with several hires. The Canadians are moving the most aggressively, said one of the sources. Others are taking advantage, but they already have established (precious metals) franchises. The Canadian banks want to grow their businesses. JPMorgan and Sumitomo declined to comment. CIBC and RBC confirmed their recent hires and did not comment further. TD and ICBC Standard did not respond to requests for comment. Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Cloudy early, becoming mostly clear after midnight. Low near 25F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Cloudy early, becoming mostly clear after midnight. Low near 25F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. By Dong Sun-hwa Jackie Chan's illegitimate daughter, Etta Ng Chok Lam, may have already tied the knot with her Canadian girlfriend 12 years her senior, according to reports. Etta, 19, disclosed on her social network on April 29 that she was engaged to Andy Autumn. The couple may have married, because homosexual marriage is permitted in Canada. Ng quit school and headed to Canada with Autumn in November 2017, after conflicts with her mother Elaine Ng. Ng is an actress in Hong Kong, who was involved in an extramarital relationship with Chan. However, Ng was found collecting junk at a dumping ground in Toronto, and some even saw her and Autumn begging at a supermarket. Ng revealed on YouTube in April that the pair has been homeless because they were ostracized by family and the others. Watch: But it was reported that Ng contacted her father and was given financial aid recently, she and Autumn established a media company named "UCHU hause," of which they are joint CEOs. Chan, one of Hong Kong's best-known actors and martial artists, admitted in his autobiography in 2015 that he had an illegitimate daughter. NH NongHyup Chairman Kim Byung-won, right, holds his account book of NH NongHyup Bank's new time deposit product "NH Add and Share" at the bank's branch in Seoul, Friday. The bank said the deposits to the product accounts help raise a public fund for the nation's farmers. The minimum balance for the product is 3 million won ($2,701), and its required term of policy is minimum three months and maximum one year. / Courtesy of NH NongHyup Bank By Kang Hyun-kyung Ven. Wonhaeng was elected as new leader of the nation's largest Buddhist sect Jogye Order, Friday, to fill the leadership void following Seoljeong's resignation. Wonhaeng won 235 out of 315 votes cast by Buddhist delegations, becoming its 36th president. In a speech released after the election, he promised to work hard to improve welfare for Buddhist monks, reconcile divided Buddhists and fulfill social responsibilities. "I feel a grave responsibility rather than the joy of being elected," he said. Jogye Order's new president Ven. Wonhaeng / Yonhap Pompeo's NK visit next month seen crucial By Kim Bo-eun Washington and Pyongyang are moving quickly to find common ground in their denuclearization negotiations after South Korean President Moon Jae-in's landmark visit to Pyongyang last week. Top officials of the two countries met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Wednesday (local time), to discuss a roadmap for the North's nuclear disarmament. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted on Twitter about his meeting with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho in New York. He stated he had a "very positive meeting with Ri to discuss the upcoming summit and next steps toward denuclearization of North Korea." "Much work remains, but we will continue to move forward," he said. In a statement, the U.S. State Department said Pompeo accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's invitation to visit Pyongyang next month. It said his visit would take place to make further progress on the implementation of the commitments from the Singapore summit between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea, and prepare for a second summit. Deputy PM Minh held the meetings on September 27 (New York time) with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland, the foreign ministers of Malta, Morocco, Albania and El Salvador, and the Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie of Canada. The Deputy PM used the occasions to discuss measures to further expand economic-trade ties and increase mutual visits with the countries, and garner support for the early signing and approval of the Vietnam-EU free trade agreement (EVFTA). He also sought the countries backing of Vietnams candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council in 2020-2021 tenure. The foreign officials affirmed the importance that their countries attach to bilateral ties with Vietnam, as well as the support for Vietnams candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council. They offered deep condolences over the passing of President Tran Dai Quang. Irelands Deputy PM and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Conveney proposed that the Prime Ministers of Ireland and Vietnam meet on the sidelines of the upcoming Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). He also affirmed that Ireland will continue to provide development aid to Vietnam, which is the only country outside Africa that receives long-term aid of Ireland. Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh (right) and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Morocco, Nasser Bourita. (Photo: VGP) Ireland is willing to work with Vietnam in hi-tech agriculture, mine removal and preparations for peacekeeping activities, he said, adding that the country will sign and approve the EVFTA early. Ireland is considering Vietnams proposal on exempting visa for foreign passport holders, he said. Maltas Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela pledged to push for the early signing and ratification of the EVFTA, and urged the two countries to soon sign an MoU on adoption. He said Malta is ready to consider Vietnams specific proposals on investment promotion and protection and cooperation on education-training. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Morocco, Nasser Bourita, affirmed Moroccos support of Vietnam as a candidate for the UN Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenure. He suggested the two countries enhance coordination at multilateral diplomatic hubs in New York, Geneva and Vienna to promote issues of common concern and multilateralism. El Salvador Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez handed over to Deputy PM Minh a diplomatic note affirming support of Vietnams candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenure, and expressed the wish to expand cooperation between the two countries. Meanwhile, the Canadian minister, Melanie Jolly, said Canada wants to cooperation closely with Vietnam in the framework of the International Organisation of La Francophonie and in promoting the French language, particularly at the Francophonie Summit slated for October this year in Armenia. A South Korean watches a television screen displaying a press conference between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, at a train station in Seoul, South Korea, 19 September 2018. EPA-Yonhap By Oh Young-jin Often, we inadvertently mix our wishful thinking with reality. If a forecast is made on that mixture, it would likely be mistaken and proven wrong. Now, seeing the ongoing rapid-paced series of developments over North Korea's denuclearization, one can't but feel tempted to let the heart lead the head. President Moon Jae-in's recent visit to Pyongyang for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offers a sense of de ja vu over the first-ever summit between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il, the current leader's father, in 2000, and the second between Roh Moo-hyun and the late Kim in 2007, both held in Pyongyang. The two previous summits also had South Koreans like me hoping for spring to come to the two Koreas' mostly wintry relationship since they fought the 1950-1953 war. The exchange of fire was stopped by a truce so the two Koreas are still technically at war. The sight of the two smiling Kims grasping hands with each other, broadcast live from Pyongyang's international airport, moved people so much so that they felt unification was close by. I, being among those who had high hopes, had dreamt of taking my father to his hometown near the Chinese border in a unified Korea. As it was made apparent in the following months, hope was replaced with disappointment. Even the succeeding Roh government, also as liberal as Kim, allowed a special prosecutor's investigation into the dealings leading to the 2000 summit, which led to the conclusion it was "a cash-for-summit deal." Roh's summit came too late in his term, only a couple months before the presidential election. Promises of mutual cooperation were soon buried and forgotten about during the following nine years under two conservative presidents. The two Koreas had no decisive say. The U.S. did. U.S. President George W. Bush, a conservative, stood for ABC or anything but Clinton, his predecessor, throwing a monkey spanner into the works of Kim Dae-jung. The Bush shadow stunted Roh's reconciliatory move toward the North. Then, the goofy eight years under President Obama only worsened the situation. After these two dud summits, I have been made more cautious the same as others making it a rule never to let my expectations go higher than reality warranted. Now, Moon and Kim have had three summits in five months, while U.S. President Donald Trump met the North's Kim in Singapore in June, the first ever summit between the two warring adversaries. Both are unprecedented and were almost unthinkable a year ago when war on the peninsula was a distinct possibility. Now, Trump and Kim are soon likely to meet for a second time. Kim has expressed his willingness to get rid of his nuclear weapons, while Trump is showering him with praise and is willing to reward him with security guarantees and a way out of isolation in return. Some of the acts and words being made and said about denuclearization ending the state of war on the Korean Peninsula and a peace regime are far ahead of what was said and done during the previous summits. President Moon says that the North has crossed the bridge of no return; Kim complains about the lack of trust from the international community over his promise to denuclearize; and Trump, being different from all his predecessors, is willing to go all the way on the Korean issue. Should I throw caution to the wind at the risk of being duped into believing what is seen, reassuring myself that this time it will be different? My heart says I should but my head says "wait a bit longer." Still, I am afraid I will succumb to my heart calling. Maybe, if we wish hard enough, we may get it. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses a meeting of the United Nations Security Council during the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Thursday (local time). AP Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) listens at the United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korea at the United Nations in New York. Thursday (local time). US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Thursday that sanctions against North Korea must be "vigorously" enforced, during a Security Council meeting attended by the foreign ministers of Russia and China. AFP U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned members of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that they must "set the example" by enforcing sanctions on North Korea as China and Russia suggested the council consider easing the tough measures. China and Russia said the council should reward Pyongyang for the "positive developments" this year with U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un having met in June and Kim pledging to work toward denuclearisation. Pompeo chaired a meeting of the 15-member council on the sidelines of the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders after meeting with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho on Wednesday. Pompeo plans to travel to Pyongyang next month. But until Pyongyang gives up its nuclear weapons programme, Pompeo said: "Enforcement of Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize the fully, final, verified denuclearisation." "The members of the council must set the example on that effort," Pompeo said. Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Russia of cheating on U.N. sanctions on North Korea. The Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Chinese government's top diplomat Wang Yi noted that there are provisions in Security Council resolutions for the body to modify sanctions if North Korea complies. He said that "given the positive developments" China believed the council "needs to consider invoking in due course this provision to encourage the DPRK and other relevant parties to move denuclearisation further ahead," using North Korea's official name of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). However, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said later on Thursday that the council resolutions on North Korea do not provide for any exceptions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov backed his Chinese colleague. Lavrov said that "any negotiation is a two-way street. Steps by the DPRK towards gradual disarmament should be followed by the easing of sanctions." He was also critical of several U.S. attempts to tighten U.N. sanctions on North Korea in recent months. In July, Russia and China delayed a U.S. push for the council's sanctions committee to order a halt to refined petroleum exports to North Korea, asking for more detail on a U.S. accusation that Pyongyang breached sanctions, diplomats said. Then last month, Russia and China objected to a U.S. proposal to add a Russian bank, a Moscow-based North Korean banker and two other entities to a U.N. Security Council blacklist, diplomats said. "Further increase of sanctions goes beyond cutting off financing of banned missile and nuclear programs, and is in fact a threat to North Korean citizens and would bring extreme socio-economic and humanitarian suffering," Lavrov said. Lavrov said the Security Council should send a clear signal in support of the positive momentum on the Korean Peninsula. "This could be done, for example, by adopting a relevant resolution and we want to prepare a draft of such a resolution and propose it to the Security Council," he said. Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, speaking at the same meeting, agreed that the council should recognize that "recent progress has shown that is possible to diffuse tensions through dialogue and cooperation." Diplomats have said the United States did not want the Security Council to issue a statement on the developments. (Reuters) By Lee Min-hyung The two Koreas will embark on joint inspections next month to connect the two countries by rail, in a move to fulfill the Pyongyang Declaration signed by leaders from both sides, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday. "To hold a groundbreaking ceremony for inter-Korean railways and highways this year, we need to kick off the field inspections at least within next month," Kim Eui-kyeom, spokesman for the presidential house, said in a media briefing. This is part of measures to fulfill the recent agreement reached during the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, where President Moon Jae-in agreed on the plan with his northern counterpart Kim Jong-un. "We are going to negotiate with the United Nations Command (UNC) over the plan by the two Koreas," the presidential spokesman said. But he did not unveil a specific timeline over when to begin the work, as Seoul and Pyongyang are still in talks with the UNC over the move. Late last month, the UNC disapproved of Seoul's plan to conduct inspections of railway conditions in the North. But the spokesman raised hopes that it will not be repeated this time. "We are going to continue communicating with the UNC," he said. The working-level talks to push ahead with the plan are expected to make smooth progress in consideration of President Moon's latest keynote speech to the United Nations General Assembly, according to the spokesman. A roadmap over the North Korean policy has been drawn during Moon's U.S. visit when he delivered the speech and held a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, he said. By Kim Hyun-bin With one month passing since the OB-GYN doctors' abortion boycott, more women have been found taking illegal abortion drugs as their next best alternative. On Aug. 17, the Ministry of Health and Welfare included abortion as an "immoral medical practice" and came up with a plan to impose a one-month license suspension on doctors who conduct the procedure. In response, on Aug. 28, 2,500 OB-GYN doctors in the country started a boycott on all abortions. Transactions are usually made online for the drugs, which are banned from being prescribed or sold in the country. When searching for an abortion pill on an online portal, roughly 10 links are shown that lead to the drug vendors and the cost can go up to 600,000 won ($540) a pill. The most typical abortive drug in the country is Mifegyne. The drug was developed by a French pharmaceutical company in 1988 and is sold in 61 countries around the globe including Germany, the U.S., England and Sweden. One of the sites used to sell around 40 Mifegyne pills before the doctors' boycott, but since then that number has nearly doubled to over 70. Experts point out taking illegal abortion pills is a critical health risk. "If the woman was going through ectopic pregnancy and consumes Mifegyne it could lead to a critical accident. Even if the pill is legitimate, there could be side effects so it should be prescribed after consulting a doctor," said Kim Dong-seok, president of the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "Selling abortion drugs is illegal in the country but I don't know why the government is leaving the matter unattended. They should crack down on online sites and block them." The most critical problem is fake pills that have been circulating and consumed by women, which could cause excessive bleeding and heart problems. "Countries that legalize abortion pills go through a certified distribution channel securing its safety," said Kim Young-hee, chairman of public relations at the Korean Pharmaceutical Association. "There is a big chance the abortive pills in the country are fake, so people should not buy or consume the pills." Although the health ministry announced it would postpone the crackdown, the OB-GYN doctors continue to boycott the procedures. Under articles 269 and 270 of Korea's Criminal Act, any woman who undergoes abortion could be imprisoned up to a year and fined 2 million won ($1,800). Doctors who perform the procedure could face up to two years behind bars. The law was implemented in 1953, but has rarely resulted in prosecution. By Kim Jae-heun A Korean embassy staff member in Malaysia has been jailed for issuing unauthorized visas to Pakistanis over the past three years. Seoul Central District Court said Friday it sentenced the staffer to 18 months in jail for fabricating the official documents and violating the Immigration Control Law. The staff member allegedly forged more than 20 visas to help Pakistanis travel to Korea illegally from April 2015 to January this year. Only a consul can issue a visa. The staff member reportedly used the consul's ID and password to fabricate the visas for Pakistani friends. The requirement for Pakistanis to obtain visas is strictly enforced because there are many Pakistani illegal immigrants here. "As a staff member assisting the consul at an embassy, he was virtually given a duty to issue a visa, but he forged the document for unqualified foreigners," the judge said. "He breached his trust and caused havoc in immigration administration. Therefore he cannot avoid punishment. "However, he did not pursue any personal interest through this crime and he acknowledged his wrongdoing and he regrets. We've considered these circumstances." The court also sentenced to 10 months' jail and two years' probation two Pakistanis who acted as brokers in obtaining illegal visas for other Pakistanis through the Korean staffer. "They have caused havoc in immigration administration by helping a number of foreigners to enter Korea illegally," the judge said. Korea wants Japan not to hoist the Rising Sun flag not to be hoisted during an international fleet review. By Oh Young-jin Japan has rejected Korea's request that its ships not fly the controversial Rising Sun flag during an international fleet review that Korea hosts. According to Yonhap News, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported that the South Korean Navy asked the 15 participating nations to fly their national flags and Korea's Taegukgi as the rules require. By Lee Min-hyung T-50A By Jung Min-ho Police in the Philippines have confirmed the location of a key suspect in Hwaseong's "factory water tank" murder case. According to the Hwasung Seobu Police Station in Korea, Filipino police recently questioned the Filipino man, who allegedly killed his fellow countryman two years ago and dumped his bones in a factory's water purifying tank in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. It is unclear whether Filipino police have detained the suspect. Korean police said they are working with Filipino authorities to extradite the suspect to Korea. The investigation started in April 2016 after cleaners found the bones wrapped in a jacket. Police said the skeleton's left side was crushed, a sign that the man had been hit by something blunt. Police believe it happened when he was alive. By Kim Bo-eun South and North Korea discussed holding an event to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the Oct. 4 Declaration reached at the second inter-Korean summit in 2007. The event will be held in Pyongyang from Oct. 4 to 6, the two sides agreed in a meeting that took place Friday at the inter-Korean liaison office that opened earlier this month in the North's city of Gaeseong. The meeting took place between liaison office co-heads Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung and his North Korean counterpart Jon Jong-su. They agreed for the South to send a 150-member delegation to the event. South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon is set to head the delegation. The South and North agreed to address logistics, as well as discuss carrying out agreements reached at the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last week, through the joint contact office. The office opened to facilitate inter-Korean communication and is the first organization in which South and North Koreans work together in the same building. It was established according to the Panmunjeom Declaration reached between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in their first summit in April. The co-heads Chun and Jon held their first meeting on Sept. 14 when the office opened. They held their second meeting Friday. The office chiefs of the South and North agreed to hold a meeting once a week, but skipped their meeting last week due to the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang. Holding an event commemorating the Oct. 4 Declaration is among the agreements reached between leaders at their third summit last week. The Oct. 4 Declaration was reached between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il the current leader's father. The leaders agreed to improve inter-Korean relations, ease military tension and work toward North Korea's denuclearization. They also agreed to make efforts to boost inter-Korean economic projects and push for humanitarian projects including reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha speaks during a U.N. Security Council ministerial meeting in New York, Thursday (local time). / AFP-Yonhap By Kim Bo-eun Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha pledged South Korea will cooperate with the international community on implementing U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions on North Korea as a means to achieve denuclearization, at a UNSC ministerial meeting in New York, Thursday (local time). "We are committed to continuing to work with the international community to ensure that the council's sanctions are faithfully implemented, even as we continue to engage North Korea to facilitate substantial progress towards complete denuclearization," Kang said. South Korea and Japan took part as states with high stakes in the issue. The minister's remarks come as concerns have been growing over South Korea preparing for economic projects with the North. Kang shared with UNSC member states developments surrounding denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, following the third inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last week, and sought the international community's support for further progress. As positive developments thus far, she cited North Korea's statement that it would halt nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches, the Koreas' adoption of the Panmunjeom Declaration where they agreed to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, the North's shutdown of its Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and the adoption of a joint statement by North Korea and the U.S. in which the countries agreed to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The minister also referred to the North Korean leader's statement of willingness to denuclearize at the inter-Korean summit last week, as well as the adoption of the Pyongyang joint declaration that included North Korea's pledge to shut down its Tongchang-ri missile engine testing site permanently and its plan to do the same for its Yongbyon nuclear testing site when the U.S. takes corresponding measures. "As long as we stay this course, I am confident that the weeks and months ahead will take us even closer to our shared goal of realizing a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula that is permanently at peace," Kang said. Kang also said that Seoul, with the goal of removing threats of war on the peninsula, would adhere to a comprehensive military agreement signed at the Pyongyang summit last week and continue dialogue with Pyongyang to improve inter-Korean relations. In the military accord, the Koreas agreed to set up maritime, air and ground buffer zones in border areas, as a means to ease military tension. They also agreed to halt military drills near the military demarcation line (MDL), withdraw some border guard posts and disarm the Joint security area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Addressing the plenary session of the 10th ASEP Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on September 27, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien said the country has proposed establishing a network which connects policy makers, parliamentarians, experts and businesses to fight climate change, and intensifying the supervision of the implementation of international commitments on climate change. Hien stressed that Vietnam supports the proposal of the European Parliament (EP) at the recent 39th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) General Assembly in Singapore on holding an annual inter-regional dialogue to expand dialogues between the EP and the AIPA on issues of shared concern, towards founding an EP-AIPA inter-parliamentary forum. He said Vietnam one of the countries hardest hit by climate change - has built an action plan on the implementation of the Paris agreement on climate change. The country has joined the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. Hien said although climate change has affected global politics and caused many conflicts, it has also been seen as a factor promoting international cooperation. Given the challenges of increasing nationalism and protectionism, non-traditional issues, including climate change, help multilateralism affirm its role in handling major problems of the era, he said. The official lauded the contributions of the ASEM and ASEP to addressing environmental issues over the past more than two decades, especially their cooperation efforts in sustainable management of resources, including water resources. He called on all sides to step up collaboration in the context that climate change has threatened social life in all aspects and affected the materialisation of sustainable development goals of the UN, as well as the security of each country, region and the globe. Within the framework of ASEP 10, NA Vice Chairman Hien had a working session with EP Vice President Dimitrios Papadimoulis. Hien praised Papadimouliss contributions to relations between Vietnam and the EP, and the cooperation between Vietnam and the EU. He noted progress made in the Vietnam-EU collaboration in a wide range of areas, from politics and diplomacy to economy, investment, climate change, green energy, health care and urban management and development. The official said legislative ties have been an important pillar of cooperation between the Vietnam and the EU, adding that through meetings, dialogues and delegation exchanges, the two sides have won each others trust. For his part, Papadimoulis expressed his hope that Vietnam and the EU will reinforce their ties. Speaking of Vietnams shift of its agriculture towards green and organic production, Papadimoulis said this is also the EUs goal and voiced his hope that the two sides will produce better products and expand the export market. They shared the wish that the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement will soon be reached and ratified officially, and agreed to continue their support for multilateralism and free trade. Vice Chairman of the Vietnam National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien is attending the ASEP 10 in Brussels from September 27-28 at the invitation of EP President Antonio Tajani. The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) members including its floor leader Rep. Kim Sung-tae hold placards protesting the prosecutor's search on LKP lawmaker Shim Jae-cheol at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Friday. / Yonhap By Park Ji-won An opposition party lawmaker's alleged access to confidential government budget data without authorization is intensifying confrontations between the government and the party entering into a legal battle. The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) said Friday it plans to file a complaint against the vice finance minister and justice minister, calling for their removal over a prosecutors' search and seizure of the Assembly office of its party lawmaker Shim Jae-cheol last week, while the finance ministry lodged a complaint against Shim on Thursday. The LKP insists the investigation of Shim is political suppression of an opposition party. The controversy will likely become a major hurdle to holding regular parliamentary sessions when the presidential office and ruling party are pushing for ratifying the inter-Korean agreements following the inter-Korean summits held since April. Shim, whose aides are accused of accessing data on the fiscal budget and other confidential state statistics without government authorization, raised an allegation Thursday that Cheong Wa Dae spent 240 million won ($216,469) in operational expenses improperly between May 2017 and February 2018. Shim claimed Cheong Wa Dae employees, public servants, participated in the inside meetings and received participation pay between 100,000 won and several million won for one time which goes against the finance ministry's rules. Cheong Wa Dae, meanwhile, refuted Shim's claim immediately saying "it is not worth considering." Lee Jeong-do, Cheong Wa Dae's secretary who is in charge of managing paychecks for the presidential office, said Shim's accusation is false. "There was no transition committee for the newly elected President. In the early stages, there were only a few full-time public officers at the presidential office and we had to hire temporary civilians, who are experts in their fields, to form the policy consultation committee according to the budget guidelines. We paid them by the rules up to 150,000 won per day," Lee said in a briefing Friday. "We paid the fees to the committee members after review and authorization under the notion the contribution should be compensated adequately based on the system." LKP lawmakers including its floor leader Kim Sung-tae went all out to stand against the government, holding a street protest in front of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office early Friday morning. "The LKP will not be defeated against arrogant power and disclose facts no matter what happens," LKP floor leader Kim Sung-tae said before the prosecutors' office. "It is absurd that the chief of government organization under supervision of the Assembly filed a complaint with prosecutors against a lawmaker over what occurred in the process of securing data for a parliamentary audit." Kim said earlier Friday. Meanwhile, 13 ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) members asked the Assembly's ethics committee to deliberate whether to punish Shim for defaming the Assembly over his false accusation. The punishment proposal says Shim is causing trouble for national security and the country's operation by disclosing false information to third parties. Businesses should guarantee labor rights Some of the country's conglomerates have a bad track record of suppressing labor unions. One of them is Samsung Group, Korea's largest family-run chaebol, which is infamous for preventing its workers from setting up unions since its founding in 1938. Samsung's latest anti-labor move dates back to 2013 when Rep. Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party disclosed the group's 2012 document detailing its strategy against unions. Then the umbrella labor union of metal workers lodged a complaint against 36 executives and managers, including Chairman Lee Kun-hee, for alleged unfair labor practices. In 2015 under the rule of conservative President Park Geun-hye, the prosecution decided not to bring any charges against them, saying it found no evidence proving the allegation. But, the prosecution started reinvestigating the case in February this year after securing additional documents aimed at disrupting the Samsung labor union. On Thursday, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office indicted 16 former and incumbent executives from Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics Services on charges of suppressing the labor union and its members. The office also brought charges against seven chiefs of the services' subcontractors and three officials from the Korea Employers Federation (KEF) for collaborating with Samsung in the alleged illegal scheme against the union. The world's top electronics maker and the services company were also inducted. According to investigators, Samsung Group had made systematic attempts to disintegrate the union, which workers at Samsung Electronics Services formed in 2013. The group even mobilized KEF officials, senior police officers and former labor ministry officials to solicit advice on how best to neutralize the union. More serious was that the accused group officials pressured employees to quit the union. They even threatened to cut the wages of union members. In addition, the officials did not hesitate to force subcontractors to go under if they were found to be friendly toward unions or unionists. Samsung's alleged anti-union scheme, if found true, is illegal. It is also against the Constitution, which guarantees the three labor rights -- the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining and the right to collective action. Samsung's "no labor unions" policy is anachronistic. How can it continue such a policy, which was only possible under military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s? Mobilizing every possible means to prevent union activities is not only harmful to employees, but also to companies. It would be better for companies to work out a win-win strategy for management and labor. It is time for Samsung and other big corporations to change their hostile attitudes toward unions and their members. The conglomerates should no longer regard workers as components to produce goods and services. They must treat employees as valuable human resources as well as partners. Only then can businesses, especially big ones, prevent a recurrence of Samsung's shameful case. By Jason Lim A Mother Jones article titled, "Inside the Radical, Uncomfortable Movement to Reform White Supremacists," Wes Enzinna writes, "de-radicalization activists argue that much of what the left thinks it knows about shutting down racist extremists is misplaced. When it comes to changing individuals, denunciation may counteract rather than hasten de-radicalization. If that seems like surrender, consider that some researchers who study hate groups think we should view violent extremism not only as a problem of ideology, but also as a problem of addiction: a craving for group identity..." This insight really struck me: white supremacy as a craving for social identity. This reminded me of what Daniel Pink wrote in his book, "Drive: The Surprising Truth of What Motivates Us." Pink writes, "When it comes to motivation, there's a gap between what science knows and what business does. And the science shows the way. This new approach has three essential elements: 1. Autonomy the desire to direct our own lives. 2. Mastery the urge to get better and better at something that matters. 3. Purpose the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves." Just to add my own spin to Pink's insights, I believe that purpose or meaning is the context in which we seek autonomy and mastery. In other words, autonomy and mastery are relative concepts that cannot be absolutely measured. No one is truly autonomous we all need a community in which to depend on, whether we know it or not, in order to function and survive. Mastery is similar. It's a relative concept. Can Lebron James really be the greatest of all time if there was no NBA? Could Albert Einstein really have been the incredible genius if there weren't people like me who struggle with algebra? To dig a bit deeper into this rabbit hole, it then goes to show that purpose/meaning is actually derived from the community that we join in order to obtain our social identity. This is right in line with the Social Identity Theory that proposes, "Social identity relates to the perception of oneself and others based on the social groups that they belong to It relates to how one's viewpoint is influenced by the collective values of the group." To bring all this back to white supremacy, those who join these hate-groups are basically looking for meaning by searching out a social identity that can articulate a community-based purpose to their lives. By joining such hate groups then, they become radicalized to the group's hate ideology because that's the price of admission the cognitive norm that you have to pay in order to be a part of the in-group. Perhaps this viewpoint was best articulated in the 1998 film called, "American History X," starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong as disillusioned neo-Nazis. It showed the complex communal bond that underpinned the two brothers' involvement in the white supremacist movement from a personal narrative perspective rather than an academic study, showing the human underneath the ideology. Then how is North Korea like white supremacy? To understand this, you have to appreciate North Korea's birth as a reaction against two traumas in the early 20th century. The first one was the brutal occupation by Imperial Japan that sought to eradicate the Korean culture outright this conversely ignited an ethnocentric form of nationalism that continue to drive the North Korean's self-identity to a large extent. The second trauma was a deep sense of betrayal by the people against the ruling elites who, either through sheer incompetence, or outright treason, condemned the people to suffer. Kim Il-sung skillfully transformed this national narrative into the Juche principle in which the Korean people will no longer be dependent on outside forces and be fully autonomous in all things, especially national security and the people's welfare. Nor will they allow some elite ruling class to betray them again. In essence, he had created both a social identity based on the Korean ethnicity and the associated purpose of independence and autonomy, rising out of self-mastery of their own wellbeing. Pink, anyone? Juche is an addiction, not an ideology. The Kim regime then reinforced this meaning at every opportunity with every resource that the state could muster, with the U.S. replacing Japan as the big, bad existential threat that sought to make the Korean people slaves once again. In that sense, the North Korean people are suffering from a collective addiction to a specific meaning that imbues their group identity with a deliberate purpose. Enzinna writes, "contact hypothesis" the idea that when people are put in intimate settings with those about whom they hold biased views, their stereotypes dissolve. While some have criticized this as an inverted manifestation of white privilege _ expecting the oppressed to soothe their oppressors' guilty conscience it remains an effective tool..." To North Korea, this means that incentivizing them to engage with the outside world would be the surest and quickest way to wean them from their Juche addiction. Especially in matters of human rights abuses and religious freedom, exposure to the international norm, not denunciation, would probably be the quickest way to address these issues. Jason Lim (jasonlim@msn.com) is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture. Samsung Electronics employees deliver groceries to a senior citizen in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 18. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics By Baek Byung-yeul Samsung Electronics employees carried out volunteer activities to provide assistance to residents who need warm helping hands on the occasion of Chuseok, one of Korea's largest holidays. The employees of the tech giant participated in social contribution activities along with the Korean Red Cross as they delivered groceries to senior citizens and residents in need for three weeks starting Sept. 3. The volunteer activities include not only Samsung Electronics employees but also employees from 22 Samsung Group affiliates including Samsung SDI, Samsung Construction & Trade (C&T) and Samsung Life. The Samsung employees visited the country's 780 social welfare facilities including a children's center, senior's welfare center and support center for migrant workers, and delivered groceries comprised of 12 products such as flour, cooking oil, soybean paste and sesame oil. A 20-member volunteer group from Samsung Electronics delivered groceries to a senior citizens' welfare center in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, on Sept. 18, the week before the Chuseok holiday. The volunteer group also made holiday food and delivered it to senior citizens who live alone. The volunteer group said their volunteering is not just a one-off as the members participate in charity activities once a month. Members of a volunteer group from Samsung Electronics make traditional Chinese food chunbing with foreign workers at a support center for migrant workers in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 15. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics Hyundai Merchant Marine CEO Yoo Chang-keun, left, shakes hands with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering CEO Jung Sung-leep after signing a contract on building seven 23,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container carriers at the latter's headquarters in Seoul, Friday. The shipper also signed deals on the same day on building five 23,000 TEU ships with Samsung Heavy Industries and eight 15,000 TEU carriers with Hyundai Heavy Industries, respectively. / Courtesy of Hyundai Merchant Marine A Singapore immigration official was Thursday charged for allegedly receiving sexual favours from Chinese women in exchange for helping them extend their visas, a rare case of corruption in a city-state known for its clean image. Chin Peng Sum was also accused of tipping off the two women about impending raids and obstruction of justice for deleting incriminating text messages that he had exchanged with them. The 51-year-old, a staff sergeant with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, allegedly accepted sex as bribes from the foreign women in exchange for ensuring that their visitor passes were extended, the country's anti-corruption body said. He was also accused of violating the Official Secrets Act by informing the women in advance about impending raids so that they could evade arrest for "vice-related and/or immigration" offences, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau added. "It is a serious offence for public officers to act in their own interests and use their position to solicit corrupt benefits," it said. Singapore, a thriving business hub and financial centre, takes a tough stand against graft, and has consistently ranked in surveys as among the least corrupt countries in the world. Its civil servants' salaries are among the highest in the world, in what authorities say is a bid to deter corruption. Cases do still occur sometimes. In 2013, Peter Lim former head of the civil defence force, which oversees emergency services was found guilty of corruption in a sex-for-contracts case and jailed for six months. (AFP) Sweden's public broadcaster said Tuesday it regretted that a satirical show it aired about China offended some _ but stressed that it would not apologize to Beijing for the sketch. Sveriges Television or SVT issued a statement about last week's news sketch after Beijing complained that the show, which featured a ''do's and don'ts'' guide for Chinese tourists in Sweden, ''affronted China.'' The show referred to a recent complaint from Beijing about the way police removed a Chinese family from a Stockholm hotel and allegedly mistreated them. SVT said the satire also featured a map ''where Taiwan did not appear to belong to China.'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Monday the program ''affronted China'' and ''amounts to a gross insult to and vicious attack on China and the Chinese people.'' Geng said China reserved the right to take further actions but did not specify. The Swedish broadcaster said its sketch aimed to comment satirically and humorously, and to highlight ''Sinophobia'' in Sweden. It said it made a mistake when it subsequently stream segments of the sketch to Chinese online video site YouKu. ''The whole of our message was lost, and we can understand that it saddened individuals and that, we regret,'' it said in a statement. It added however that SVT will not apologize for the sketch itself. ''I assume that Chinese authorities are able to distinguish between satire expressions and news,'' program director Jan Helin said. China has reacted angrily to the Sept. 2 hostel eviction incident, condemning Swedish police for what it called the ''brutal abuse'' of the tourists. Swedish police have denied any wrongdoing. Tensions between Stockholm and Beijing have increased over China's detention of a Chinese-born Swedish national on suspicion of leaking state secrets. China has rebuked Sweden for demanding the release of Hong Kong-based bookseller Gui Minhai, 53, who was taken off a train by police in eastern China on Jan. 20 while in the company of two Swedish diplomats with whom he was traveling to Beijing. In July, a Swedish court of law found a man guilty of spying for China by gathering information on Tibetans who had fled to Sweden and sentenced him to 22 months in jail. (AP) Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Cloudy in the morning, then off and on rain showers during the afternoon hours. Snow may mix in. High 39F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to occasional snow showers later during the night. Low 31F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Snow accumulations less than one inch. In their condolence message, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) wrote that: We share the grief and mourning of President Quangs family as well as the Government and people of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and offer our deepest and most heartfelt condolences. As a highly respected leader who had dedicated his life and career to his people, President Quang left Vietnam and our region a better place. We appreciate President Quangs contributions to our ASEAN family. * Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and Chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko of Russia sent condolences to the Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly, saying that President Quang is a talented and steadfast leader deserving the great respect and high trust that people and international friends have given to him. They highly valued the late Presidents enormous contributions to the two countries comprehensive strategic partnership, adding that the bright memories of the leader will live forever in the hearts of millions of Russians. * President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte conveyed condolences to Acting President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh while Philippine Foreign Minister Alan Peter Cayetano also sent a similar message to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh. In the letters, they said President Tran Dai Quang is a true friend of the Philippine people and will always be remembered for tireless efforts during his whole life to strengthen relations with the Philippines and other countries in the region. * In their messages respectively sent to Acting President Thinh and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Australian Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke highly of the huge contributions Tran Dai Quang made in many positions he held, stressing his important role in reinforcing the bilateral relations with Australia and elevating the countries ties to a strategic partnership earlier this year. * Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump issued a statement on the passing of President Quang, noting that: On behalf of the American people, I express my condolences to his family and the people of Vietnam. President Quang was a great friend of the United States. We will not forget his contributions to peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region or his voice for Vietnam to become a proud and independent nation on the world stage, the statement added. * UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay sent a condolence letter to Acting President Thinh, mourning the death of the exemplary leader, who had many important contributions to the promotion of sustainable development values in Vietnam. She also repeated UNESCOs commitments to continuing to work closely with the Vietnamese people and Government to bolster the cooperation between the organisation and Vietnam. * Myanmar President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi also sent condolences to PM Phuc, while Spanish King Felipe VI extended profound condolences to Acting President Thinh and the bereaved. Leaders of other countries also sent letters and messages of condolences to the leaders of the Vietnamese Party, State and people, and the family of President Tran Dai Quang. They included Sultan of Oman Qaboos Bin Said Al Said, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, Governor-General Patsy Reddy and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, Speaker of the Parliament of Iran Ali Ardeshir Larijani, Slovak President Andrej Kiska, President of Ireland Michael Daniel Higgins, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. * Condolences also came from the leaders of the Communist Party of Peru Red Fatherland, the Communist Party of Uruguay, the Movement of Popular Participation of Uruguay, the Dominican Revolutionary Party, and the India-Vietnam Solidarity Committee. * Turkeys FM Mevlut Cavusoglu sent a letter and message of condolences to Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh. * The Vietnamese embassy in China held a tribute-paying service for President Tran Dai Quang and opened funeral books on September 26-27. Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress Li Zhanshu led a delegation from the Chinese parliament to lay a wreath and offer incense in tribute to President Tran Dai Quang. State Councilor and Defence Minister Wei Fenghe and Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Peoples Court of China Zhou Qiang, one of the foreign guests hosted by the President during his final working days, were also present. In the funeral book, Chinese Party and State leaders spoke highly of the Presidents contributions to national development and bilateral traditional friendship. On September 26-27, over 70 delegations from the Chinese Party, National Assembly, and Government, as well as diplomatic corps and international organisations in China came to the Vietnamese embassy to write in the funeral book and extend sympathies to the Vietnamese Party, Government, and people. * At the Vietnamese Embassy in Cuba, Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, First Vice President of the State Council and the Council of Ministers Salvador Valdes Mesa, Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Leopoldo Cintra Frias, and First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelino Medina paid their tribute to President Tran Dai Quang. Writing in the funeral book, Salvador Valdes Mesa stressed that President Quang is a close friend of Cuba and he will be forever remembered as a person who greatly contributed to the friendship and cooperation between the two nations. * At the Vietnamese embassy in Myanmar, First Vice President of Myanmar U Myint Swe wrote that President Quang will be always remembered for his dedication to the development of Vietnam and the ASEAN Community. * Meanwhile, a number of Polish officials paid respect to President Tran Dai Quang at the Vietnamese Embassy in Poland over the last two days. They included Minister of the Polish Presidents Office Adam Kwiatkowski, Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki, Director of Foreign Affairs at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister Marek Korowajczyk, and Director of Asia Pacific Department at the Foreign Ministry Pawe Milewski. Parliamentarian Grzegorz Napieralski, who chairs the Poland-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Group, other members of the group and foreign diplomats in the country also came to the Vietnamese Embassy to bid the last farewell to the leader. * Similar ceremonies were also held at the Vietnamese embassies in the Republic of Korea, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Algeria, South Africa, Mozambique, Argentina, Canada and the UK. 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 Since last year, L.A. County's Probation Department has taken an innovative approach to juvenile justice at Camp Kilpatrick, a detention facility nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains between Westlake Village and Malibu. Instead of a prison-like atmosphere, it's focusing on rehabilitation to get the young people back into society and less likely to reoffend. Known as the L.A. model, the initiative is being watched closely. If it's successful, other local juvenile detention camps may adopt it. But there could be signs of trouble. Jacqueline Caster, one of the Probation Commissioners who oversees the system, paid a visit to the camp over the summer and found the model wasn't going as well as she'd hoped. On Thursday, she presented her report to the commission, which tasked the Probation Department with correcting the perceived shortfalls. WHAT'S SO DIFFERENT ABOUT THE L.A. MODEL? Well, let's back up. About 10 years ago, an advisory committee from different organizations got on a plane and traveled to Kansas City, where they were using what they call the Missouri Approach. Since it started in the '70s, it's been focused on small, family-like facilities and rehabilitation rather than punishment. And it's worked. About 1 in 15 kids there are brought back into state custody. In California, it's 1 in 3. THE VISION BECOMES REALITY... So local officials decided to try out the Missouri Model in Los Angeles -- hence the name, the L.A. Model. The first camp to be transformed was Camp Kilpatrick in Malibu. Big dorms have been replaced by small cottages, jail-reminiscent uniforms have been traded in for the kids' own clothes. The facility even offers programs in the arts. The kids are housed in groups of eight to 12, and rehabilitation is built around group therapy. They focus on communicating, managing anger and addressing issues that led to their arrest. The department even changed the facility's name to "Campus Kilpatrick," although if Thursday's meeting is any indication, the name didn't take hold. The campus of Camp Kilpatrick is seen in a screenshot from a promotional video posted to a county social media account. (Photo courtesy of L.A. County) ...SORT OF. Commissioner Jacqueline Caster says that's not the only change that hasn't stuck. "Groups aren't meeting consistently, they don't have consistent group leaders, and it's not effective," she said. Caster's report claims that when kids aren't in school, they're often sitting around with nothing to do. She said the small groups are bigger than promised, and the 56-hour shifts for group leaders keep kids from having a reliable, consistent relationship with the people in charge of their improvement. She also said kids with mental health issues will disrupt the progress of group sessions. But kids aren't likely to report that kind of thing, because the lack of privacy in calling in or filling out grievances keeps them from communicating the problems they see. And her biggest concern? There's no data saying how it's going so far. "One big problem is that they had promised there would be data collection from the very beginning," she said. "And that has not happened." HOW THE DEPARTMENT IS RESPONDING At the meeting, the department outlined what it was doing to make improvements. It's opening a third cottage to probationers, signing a contract with a data collection company, and moving kids who need special attention to camps better designed to meet their needs. Changing the 56-hour shift is a challenge since it's bound by labor contracts, and for staff, driving out to Malibu more frequently would be difficult. But it's under discussion. SO WHAT'S NEXT? The commission didn't make any binding decisions or require specific action. The meeting was all about saying why they're not happy and what they think they should change. So what happens? Caster said we'll see. "The proof is in the pudding, so we'll just have to see what happens," she said. "The next checkpoint is to see how many of the matters brought up today are addressed in the next month or so." Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Jacqueline Caster's last name as Carter. LAist regrets the error. In addition, a previous version of this story incorrectly said the camp was building a third cottage. The structure already exists but it had not yet been occupied. READ THE FULL REPORT Hey, thanks. You read the entire story. And we love you for that. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you, not advertisers. We don't have paywalls, but we do have payments (aka bills). So if you love independent, local journalism, join us. Let's make the world a better place, together. Donate now. 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 Most high school assignments get turned in and promptly forgotten. But for students in Jose Sanchez's civics class at Alhambra High School, their homework ended up on the floor of the United States Congress. The journey was something like an updated version of that classic Schoolhouse Rock song -- emphasis on the schoolhouse. It all started in the wake of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Fla., which left 17 students and faculty dead. Sanchez, who had usually taught history but was taking on a government class for the first time, found himself inundated with questions from students trying to process the horrific attack. He jumped at the chance to turn a tragedy into a teachable moment. "It just literally became a two-month-long assignment about the Second Amendment, about mass shootings and about shootings in schools," Sanchez told KPCC's Take Two. "It really gave us things to think about; about what we can do about this." Alhambra High School students brainstormed many ideas while drafting what would go on to become House Resolution 1076. (Photo courtesy Jose Sanchez) What began as school work to help students learn about our government process and understand the news culminated in a visit from their local congresswoman, Judy Chu, which would eventually lead her to present their classroom-created legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives as House Resolution 1076. Homework to House floor The class reached out to local government bodies and agencies such as the Alhambra Unified School District board and the local democratic club for advice. From there, the idea to draft a resolution began to form. Because the school district had already drafted a resolution, the class decided to model theirs after it. For weeks, students worked together, taking the existing seven or so pages of the district's resolution, and molding it into their own. "It was literally the democratic process at hand, students going back and forth debating, arguing why they should leave this and why they should take it out to the point where they got it down to a little over a page," said Sanchez. The final product was legislation that raises the minimum age for buying guns from 18 to 21, calls for mandatory background and mental health checks, and local or state government training that is paid for by the potential gun buyer. From left to right: Alhambra High School students Eduardo Flores, Sujit Gurung and Briana Garay prepare a presentation on their gun resolution and poster to present at Roosevelt High School. (Photo courtesy Jose Sanchez) It was at this point that Rep. Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, paid the class a visit and they presented their work to her. "(One student) said 'Wow. This is getting pretty legit, huh?'" Sanchez said. "I told them, absolutely, it's getting legit." So, when Sanchez and his students found out that Chu was presenting their work on the House floor on Tuesday, they were "ecstatic." "I think that this points to the power that kids or anyone can have when they're given information and it just points out that they can do almost anything," he said. When Chu visited the class in late May, she was impressed by the amount of work the "remarkable class" had poured into the resolution. "They were thoughtful and impassioned as they presented their views to one another and to the public," Chu said in a statement. "And it worked." "And now, I'm hoping to help them do the same at the federal level." "While gun violence becomes more and more of a norm in our country, students too are recognizing that this is not an unsolvable issue," said current Alhambra High School senior Anthony Hu, who also worked on the resolution. "H.Res. 1076 is significant to us because it is the first step toward safer schools and safer communities." Alhambra High School students, left to right, Eduardo Flores, Ashley Bermudez, Sujit Gurung, Aaron Medina and Briana Garay get ready to present their gun resolution at a conference hosted by UCLA's History Project at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles. (Photo courtesy Jose Sanchez) What comes next? Chu referred HR 1076 to three House committees: Judiciary, Education and the Workforce and Energy and Commerce. It's not clear when they will be discussed or voted on, but you can track the progress here. "I'm hoping that the committee(s) will look at this very seriously and look at the work that my students have written and that they use this as a model for national legislation," Sanchez said. For him, it doesn't matter if the resolution ends up picked apart if it's adopted. What's important to him is the possibility that a part of his student's work will have an "impact that reduces the amount of deaths in this country by firearms both in the public but more importantly in public schools." Hey, thanks. You read the entire story. And we love you for that. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you, not advertisers. We don't have paywalls, but we do have payments (aka bills). So if you love independent, local journalism, join us. Let's make the world a better place, together. Donate now. 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 If you were hoping Hurricane Rosa would drench Southern California, we're sorry to disappoint you: the L.A. area is only going to get a sprinkle of rain. *sigh* WHAT HURRICANE? Hurricane Rosa as pictured off the coast of central Mexico on Sept. 27, 2018. (Image courtesy National Weather Service) Hurricane Rosa is currently off the coast of central Mexico and is spinning its way Northeast. It's likely to make landfall sometime Monday night northern Baja California. Far eastern California and Arizona are likely to see the heaviest rain, with flooding possible in the Phoenix area late Monday night. There is growing confidence Hurricane Rosa will affect the region early next week. Heavy rainfall & flooding will be the main impacts. Stay tuned for updates as there is still some uncertainty in the exact timing & track of the heaviest rainfall. #azwx #cawx pic.twitter.com/p8dYFeBMdT NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) September 27, 2018 WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN? In SoCal, the biggest effects might be at the beaches, where six to 10 foot waves are expected. But as for rainfall, Rosa doesn't pack much punch: the National Weather Service is expecting less than half an inch of moisture in Southern California sometime between Monday and Wednesday, according to meteorologist Casey Oswant. Southerly swell from Hurricane Rosa is expected to impact south-facing beaches this weekend into early next week. There is the potential for surf of 6-10 feet by early Sunday then linger into Monday. Dangerous rip currents will be possible. #cawx #LAWeather #SoCal pic.twitter.com/sH5hrCDZuM NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) September 27, 2018 HURRICAN'T (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?) Hurricanes are rare in Southern California. Only two have made landfall in the last 150 years, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. That's because a) the air in Southern California is very stable, so it makes it hard for storms to form, and b) the water is too cold. Hurricanes need warm water above 80 degrees to form, and typically, the coast of Southern California is in the low 70s, even in the summer. But that could change as ocean temperatures rise. This summer, the water hit a record 78.6 degrees off the coast of La Jolla, the highest recorded in over a century. That could mean more storms forming in the South Pacific. The likelihood of hurricanes actually making landfall in Southern California, however, is so low, that "even if the risk increases somewhat, the risk is still going to be low," Swain said. More likely is that we could get rain from future storms that, like Rosa, make landfall to the south and east. "We do tend to see precipitation that result from storms that miss us by a few 100 miles to the south," Swain said, "and it does seem like that tends to happen more often in years when Eastern Pacific Ocean is warmer than average." This story is part of Elemental: Covering Sustainability, a multimedia collaboration between Cronkite News, Arizona PBS, KJZZ, KPCC, Rocky Mountain PBS and PBS SoCal. Hey, thanks. You read the entire story. And we love you for that. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you, not advertisers. We don't have paywalls, but we do have payments (aka bills). So if you love independent, local journalism, join us. Let's make the world a better place, together. Donate now. During a reception for Armando Emilio Guebuza in Hanoi on September 28, Acting President Thinh thanked the guest for coming to the State funeral of President Tran Dai Quang, and also conveyed sincere thanks to the State and people of Mozambique for assigning the former President to Vietnam to pay tribute to Quang, who passed away on September 21. She affirmed that this is vivid evidence for the close and strong relations between Vietnam and Mozambique for over the last 40 years. She congratulated the Mozambican people on new achievements in the national construction and economic development in recent years, affirming that Vietnam appreciated the role and position of Mozambique in Southern Africa in particular and in Africa in general. Acting President Thinh wishes Mozambique successful local elections in October, which will be the premise for the successful organisation of the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019, saying that the success of elections will be important for the Mozambique people to achieve greater achievements in the future. She also thanked Mozambique for supporting Vietnams candidacy as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenures, and suggested the two countries continue to closely cooperate and support each other in multilateral forums. She called on the Mozambican Government to continue creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community to live and do business in the country, towards tightening the friendship between the two nations people. The Acting President also suggested the two sides maintain the exchange of delegations, especially those at high levels, in the time to come, saying that Vietnam looks forward to welcoming Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi to visit the Southeast Asian country. For his part, Armando Emilio Guebuza extended deep condolences from President Filipe Nyusi and Mozambican people to the State and people of Vietnams, and praised the contributions made by the Vietnamese President to the Mozambique-Vietnam relationship. He said he believes that the State and people of Vietnam will soon overcome this difficult time and continue achieving greater achievements in the national construction and development. CBS Corp. disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday that it was subpoenaed as part of a New York district attorneys office probe into allegations of sexual misconduct by former Chief Executive Leslie Moonves. In the filing, CBS said it had received subpoenas from the New York County district attorneys office and the New York City Commission on Human Rights regarding allegations surrounding Moonves and related matters. The New York-based company noted that it could receive additional related regulatory and investigative inquiries from these and other entities. CBS said it separately had received a request for information from the New York attorney generals office about these matters. A company spokesman declined to comment. A representative of the New York district attorneys office also declined to comment. Advertisement Moonves resigned Sept. 9 after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct in articles published by the New Yorker magazine. Most of the alleged incidents occurred decades ago, before Moonves was a ranking executive at the legendary broadcasting company. CBS has been embroiled in the sexual harassment controversy for the last two months. On Aug. 1, the CBS board of directors hired two high-profile lawyers in New York Mary Jo White from the Debevoise & Plimpton law firm and Nancy Kestenbaum of Covington & Burling to investigate claims against Moonves. The two firms were also tasked with looking into allegations of sexual harassment at CBS News and the overall workplace culture at CBS. That review is ongoing. Earlier this month, CBS News fired the executive producer of CBS iconic 60 Minutes, Jeff Fager, after he sent a threatening text message to a CBS News reporter who was reporting on the subject. The company is cooperating with the ongoing investigation and related inquiries, CBS said in the filing. Moonves became the highest-profile media executive to see his career collapse from the weight of sexual harassment allegations that surfaced in the #MeToo era. Hollywood, and other industries, have been forced to account for years of turning a blind eye to sexual harassment and discrimination after allegations that movie producer Harvey Weinstein had sexually abused dozens of women. In the case of Moonves, there were fewer allegations of misconduct, but the stakes were higher because he managed a publicly traded company, which must protect the interests of shareholders. Moonves, who served as CEO for 12 years, departed the company without a severance package. The CBS board deposited $120 million in a trust fund that could be paid to Moonves. However, if White and Kestenbaum uncover evidence that Moonves should be fired for cause, he will not be entitled to any severance. Moonves has denied mistreating women or harming their careers. This is not the first time prosecutors in New York have investigated the actions of prominent network executives. Last year, federal prosecutors based in New York examined allegations of secret payoffs to cover up sexual harassment claims at Fox News Channel during the tenure of the late Roger Ailes, once the powerful Fox News chairman. The case was dropped after Ailes died in May 2017. meg.james@latimes.com Twitter: @MegJamesLAT UPDATES: 4:05 p.m.: This article was updated with additional background on the claims against Moonves. This article was originally published at 2:50 p.m. Hyatt Hotels Corp., one of the nations largest hotel companies, announced it will no longer host hate groups at its nearly 800 properties, a move that was praised by a Muslim advocacy group. Mark Hoplamazian, chief executive of the hotel company, released a memo to employees Thursday, explaining the new anti-hate policy for Hyatt Hotels Corp. The hotel company declined to release the memo Friday but instead issued a statement saying: Hyatt will no longer allow hate groups, those who primarily seek to disparage or demean a specific group of people, to host meetings or events at our hotels. Muslim Advocates, an Oakland-based civil rights advocacy group that has been pressing hotel companies to take similar steps against hate groups, called the decision a victory. Advertisement Hyatts announcement is a welcome one for consumers who want their hotels to be safe spaces to relax and be themselves free from hostility and discrimination, said Scott Simpson, public advocacy director for Muslim Advocates. Simpson said Hyatt is the first hotel firm to make such a commitment to his group. He said Airbnb, the online home-sharing site, has also committed that it will not do business with hate groups. The Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Virginia hosted a group in September called ACT for America, which describes itself as an organization dedicated to educating and training Americans to help prevent criminal activity and terrorism. But Muslim Advocates accuses ACT for America of being a white supremacist-aligned anti-Muslim hate group. Muslim Advocates has pressed Hyatt and other hotel companies to refuse to rent to ACT for America. ACT for America could not be reached for comment but in a news release issued Friday in response to similar accusations by the Southern Poverty Law Center, ACT for America said the group has never, and will never, tolerate any bias, discrimination, or violence against anyone, based on their religion, gender, race or political persuasion. It was not clear from Hyatts statement how the hotel company planned to determine which groups promote hate, but it added: This is a complex and emotional issue, but what weve concluded is that we need to commit to a higher level of vetting such that groups using hate speech, primarily seeking to disparage or demean a particular group, are not welcome in our hotels. hugo.martin@latimes.com To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter. SpaceX has a growing list of future destinations for its BFR rocket and spaceship system most recently, a trip around the moon with a paying passenger on board. But funding for its development is far from secured. Satellite launches and NASA missions to the International Space Station are stable revenue streams for the Hawthorne company, possibly approaching $2 billion annually. But they arent necessarily going to put a major dent in the estimated $5-billion BFR development cost. And there are questions about whether SpaceXs proposed satellite broadband business will be operating and turning a profit by 2023, when BFR is scheduled to take Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the moon. That leaves space tourism as the wild card and potentially most lucrative funding stream outlined this month by SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk. Its almost like a crowdfunding model, a very small, elite crowd, said Bill Ostrove, aerospace and defense analyst at market research firm Forecast International. Theyre paying for a little bit of development in return for those early flights. Advertisement Analysts say the fledgling space tourism industry does show signs of demand. And it has the advantage of upfront payments. A 2012 report from a market research firm then known as Tauri Group found that about 8,000 high-net-worth individuals from around the world were sufficiently interested and have spending patterns likely to result in the purchase of a suborbital flight, similar to the minutes-long moments of weightlessness currently sold by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. Blue Origin, which has conducted several tests of its New Shepard crew capsule and rocket system, has not yet publicly released its ticket prices. Founder Jeff Bezos recently said the company would take people to space this coming year. Virgin Galactic charges $250,000 for a seat on its SpaceShipTwo vehicle, which is undergoing flight tests. Both companies plan to take tourists to suborbital space. A four- to five-day trip around the moon, like the one Maezawa committed to, would probably cost a lot more. In 2012, an executive from space tourism firm Space Adventures advertised a $150-million price tag for a seat on a lunar flyby mission with a Russian launch vehicle that was intended to launch last year but never did. Maezawa declined to say how much he paid for the SpaceX lunar flyby, noting only that he had submitted a down payment. Musk described Maezawas deposit as significant and said the overall payment will actually have a material effect on paying for the cost of development of BFR. Its a nontrivial amount, he said during the Sept. 17 event that revealed Maezawa as SpaceXs first private passenger for the BFR lunar flyby. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa wouldnt say how much hes paying SpaceX to take him on a four- to five-day trip around the moon. (David McNew / AFP/Getty Images) Wealthy individuals may be willing to pay a premium for such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But its unclear how many deep-pocketed passengers are out there and whether they would all agree to pay for part of the rockets development costs, said Ostrove of Forecast International. These incremental cash payments are a contrast to the large expected upfront investment for SpaceXs proposed Starlink constellation, which is intended to provide global broadband service via thousands of tiny satellites. In March, the Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceXs application to provide broadband internet access through Starlink. SpaceX has said the constellation would provide households and small businesses with internet service at fiber-like speeds, and launched the first two demonstration satellites in February. If tests of the satellites and ground equipment are successful, SpaceX could start launching operational satellites as early as next year and reach full capacity by 2024. That could put Starlink in competition with BFR for company resources, analysts said. The constellation wouldnt be able to generate positive cash flows until sometime after it becomes operational, said Tim Farrar, president of consulting firm TMF Associates in Menlo Park, Calif., who has counted satellite operator Intelsat and manufacturer SSL as clients. Starlink could be viewed as something of a distraction from pursuing the BFR plan, he said. Musk seems bullish on Starlink. On Sept. 18 he tweeted that Maezawas moon flyby would be livestreamed in high-definition virtual reality via the satellite system, which he said should be active by then. But in March, after the company received FCC approval of its broadband application, company President Gwynne Shotwell noted in a statement that SpaceX still had much to do with this complex undertaking. Other companies satellite broadband plans have run into hurdles. In 2015, Arlington, Va.-based OneWeb said its goal was to build 900 small satellites at a per-unit cost of $500,000 and estimated that development, launch and operations of its constellation would cost about $3 billion, according to reports at the time. But recently, there has been speculation that both costs ballooned past initial estimates. Earlier this month, a OneWeb executive declined to disclose whether the per-unit and total production costs had changed, according to trade publication SpaceNews. OneWeb said earlier it was months away from its first launch of 10 satellites. The company did not have an immediate response to a request for comment. There has been substantial investment in telecommunications satellite systems based in low-Earth orbit, said Carissa Christensen, founder and chief executive of market research firm Bryce Space and Technology. Last year, revenue from all satellite services totaled $128.7 billion, according to a report prepared by Christensens firm for the Satellite Industry Assn. trade group, including $2.1 billion from broadband. Its a compelling vision, but for any of those systems, theres no public business plan, business model or detailed business structure that tells you exactly how thats going to happen, she said. Until there is an articulated business model, I would be skeptical of any revenue projections. Analysts say the most reliable sources of funding for SpaceXs BFR are the companys satellite launches for commercial and military customers, as well as NASA contracts to deliver cargo and crew to the space station. SpaceX was awarded a contract of up to $2.6 billion to carry NASA astronauts to the space station for six missions. The first flight without crew of the companys Crew Dragon capsule is set for later this year, with a crewed flight scheduled for April. The company has already flown 15 cargo missions for NASA. The inside of SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft, whose first flight is scheduled for later this year. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) In total, the company has netted $7.7 billion in NASA awards for both cargo and crew activities, according to a NASA Office of Inspector General audit released in April. The companys relationship with NASA has been frequently touted by both Shotwell and Musk, who tweeted his thanks to NASA the day the lunar passenger was revealed, saying he cant emphasize enough how SpaceX would not be where it is today without NASA. SpaceX has also rapidly increased its total launch rate. Last year, SpaceX launched 18 missions, and has launched 16 so far this year. On Wednesday, the company netted a contract with Japanese lunar exploration firm Ispace to launch a lunar orbiter on a Falcon 9 rocket in mid-2020, followed by lunar rovers in mid-2021. The value of the contract was not disclosed. SpaceX advertises launches on its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket at a starting price of $62 million, though flights on a reused first stage can be cheaper. SpaceX is now regularly landing its first-stage boosters back on Earth, and has turned them around for re-flight in as little as just over two months time. But theres a ceiling to this market. Last year, revenues for the entire commercial satellite launch industry were about $4.6 billion, said Mike French, senior vice president for commercial space at Bryce Space and Technology and former NASA chief of staff. The investment to date has been in market segments where you had an existing market to capture and drive profits, he said of SpaceXs business model. This would be more of an investment directly to the exploration drive. samantha.masunaga@latimes.com Twitter: @smasunaga The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is expected to complete a 30-day test next month of the use of facial recognition technology to screen international travelers at Los Angeles International Airport. But an audit by the Department of Homeland Securitys Office of Inspector General found that pilot programs to test the technology at nine airports last year had a combined match rate of only 85% below the agencys goal of a 97% to 100% match rate. The Department of Homeland Security hopes to use facial recognition to better track and record the approximately 1 million foreign travelers who each year enter and exit the country, with about 300,000 traveling by air. During the pilot programs at airports in Boston, Houston, New York and Atlanta, travelers were photographed as they prepared to board planes. The cameras used facial recognition technology to match up the faces of departing travelers with data collected by the federal government on each foreign national who enters the country. Advertisement When photos were taken of travelers whose images were already in the government system, the system matched the images 98% of the time, according to the audit. But airport screeners couldnt always take photos of the passengers because of poor network availability, a lack of dedicated staff and compressed boarding times due to flight delays, according to the audit. As a result the overall biometric confirmation rate was 85%, the audit said. The audit also blamed poor quality of digital images for difficulty matching travelers under the age of 29 and over the age of 70. In addition, the system had more difficulty matching certain nationalities specifically U.S. citizens, Mexicans and Canadians because the governments digital gallery had fewer photos of those nationalities than of other foreign travelers, the audit said. Congress has set aside up to $1 billion from fees charged to foreign visitors to fund the creation of a biometric screening system. The audit said the Department of Homeland Security and the Customs and Border Protection agency both concur with the recommendations of the Office of Inspector General. hugo.martin@latimes.com To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter. Jon Fawcett wanted to build a cellphone cable that wouldnt fray. So he developed a charging cord wrapped in stainless steel sturdy enough to withstand an electric chainsaw. It was a niche product that turned Fuse Chicken, Fawcetts company of half-a-dozen employees, into a quick success. Customers raved about Fawcetts durable designs until he started selling them on Amazon. Fawcetts customer reviews plummeted without warning. In came a deluge of one-star pans. Really bad quality, read a description of an iPhone car charger in a review titled, Broke in a week. Advertisement Fawcett was dumbfounded. Then he found a clue in one of the reviews: a picture of a charger emblazoned with a Fuse Chicken logo that wasnt quite right. Over the following months, Fawcett placed numerous Amazon orders for his own merchandise. What he found would become the basis of a lawsuit he filed last year against Amazon. Mixed in with Amazons inventory of authentic merchandise were crude copycats. Some looked like the real thing but didnt include Fuse Chickens name. Others bore the name but werent made by his company, Fawcett said in an interview with The Times in his Ohio office. His experiment suggests there is no way for even the savviest Amazon shopper to avoid the threat of counterfeits. The goods may look real online, but there is no guarantee of authenticity whether sold by a brand, a third-party seller or Amazons direct-sales arm. Thats when I recognized how big the problem was, said Fawcett, 43. Products were being thrown into a single bin in Amazons warehouse, real and fake. Amazon, in court filings, denied mixing knockoff Fuse Chicken products with genuine ones. The company says it has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to counterfeits and aggressively pursues legal action against bad actors. (Swetha Kannan / Los Angeles Times) Rather than come to Fawcetts defense, Amazon plunged the small-business owner into a Kafkaesque back-and-forth that has become something of a rite of passage for those who fall victim to intellectual property infringement on the worlds biggest e-commerce site. Pleas to audit Amazons inventory and remove unfair reviews were dismissed. Attempts to garner help from Amazon to learn more about the origins of the knockoff goods went nowhere. Fawcett flooded Amazon with more goods in a desperate bid to dilute the pool of counterfeits. When an Amazon staffer eventually contacted him, it was to urge him to lower his prices to match the alternatives products he irately pointed out were cheaper because they were fake. Its gotten to that level of insanity dealing with Amazon, said Fawcett, who estimates he lost sales in the tens of thousands of dollars but mostly fears the lasting harm of the bad reviews. Fawcetts Cuyahoga Falls brand, which launched after a $9,800 Kickstarter campaign, now faces a formidable opponent in court. Amazons outside counsel is the same high-powered Washington firm thats represented Philip Morris, Halliburton and Huawei. We felt there was no choice, Fawcett said. We dont have anything to hide. When you have the truth on your side it makes the bully less intimidating. Fuse Chicken, a small business based in Ohio, found quick success with a niche product: charging cables wrapped in stainless steel. The company owner says cheap knockoffs on Amazon.com have hurt its ratings on the e-commerce giant. (Ken Blaze / For The Times) The Amazon effect No company has done more to legitimize online shopping than Amazon. By offering low prices, a vast inventory and the convenience of home delivery, the technology giant helped lead a generation away from brick-and-mortar stores and normalize shopping with a click of a button. It has made e-commerce accessible to more than a million small- and medium-sized businesses in the U.S., creating 900,000 jobs, according to Amazon. More than 20,000 small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide reached sales in excess of $1 million last year on its platform, the company said. So ingrained is Amazon in our purchasing habits that more than half of all product searches begin on the site rather than alternatives such as Google. The worlds second-most valuable company by market capitalization behind Apple Inc. is on pace to capture half of all online sales in the U.S this year, according to research firm eMarketer. Amazons market dominance gives it the power to influence the future of retail. How it handles counterfeiters could shape the behavior of the entire industry, experts say. The sale of fake goods is at least a $461-billion global industry and expanding, in no small part because of the rise of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Chinas Alibaba. Customs agents had a fighting chance when pirated goods predominantly arrived in cargo containers. But with the rise of e-commerce, counterfeiters and their middlemen can ship goods in parcels too innumerable to catch. Theyre like ants, said Piotr Stryszowski, an economist for the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Theyre too small for customs officers to focus on one. Yet they accumulate into a huge number. Theres little authorities can do apart from name and shame offenders. Alibabas primary platform Taobao has repeatedly been included in the United States Trade Representatives list of Notorious Markets for selling counterfeits. Then theres Amazon. Not only has the platform avoided any serious backlash for allowing the sale of fake goods, its actually thrived from it, say more than two dozen brand owners, e-commerce consultants, attorneys, investigators and public policy experts. Sellers of fake goods pay transaction and shipping fees just like legitimate businesses. But counterfeits also help Amazons bottom line in other ways. The company aspires to be the store of first resort for everything, which means it needs as many brands and sellers as it can get, all offering goods at low prices. Counterfeiters help pressure brands to sell their wares on the site. Companies that avoid Amazon risk letting counterfeiters determine how their goods appear to customers on the most influential e-commerce site ceding control, for instance, of which pictures are used to promote a product and which colors and sizes are offered. The spread of cheaper knockoffs can also put pressure on authentic sellers and brands to lower their prices, helping Amazon win more customers. The company has resisted calls to do more to police its site and address claims by businesses that they are losing millions in lost sales and reputational harm, according to experts. Brands have typically shied away from suing Amazon. Courts have ruled the company isnt liable when counterfeits are sold on its platform and that plaintiffs must instead go after the sellers of fakes. Many accept piracy as a cost of doing business. If youre a small company, you have to be on Amazon, said Jeffrey Brown, who cut the price of his $25 chilled water bowls for pets, FrostyBowlz, in half to compete with the deluge of copycats. Its both a huge outlet for our product and a nightmare. Cutting ties means losing access to hundreds of millions of Amazon customers and it doesnt solve the problem. Birkenstock left Amazon two years ago after it grew exasperated with counterfeits, but the move did little to stem the flow of both real and fake versions of the companys footwear on the platform. Counterfeits on Amazon enhance its market power over suppliers, said Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which has studied the impact of intellectual property infringement on small companies. Counterfeits help Amazon, and thats why theyre reluctant to act on them. Amazon disputes it benefits from counterfeits and says it has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to fakes. Its investing in machine-learning tools to weed out counterfeits. It offers a program called Brand Registry, which is supposed to give sellers and intellectual property owners more control of their listings. It says more than 99.9% of Amazon page views go to sellers that have never been accused of infringement. And shoppers can request refunds if they receive a knockoff. We strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit products and invest heavily both funds and company energy to ensure our policy against the sale of such products is followed, the company said in an e-mailed statement. Customers trust that they will receive authentic goods when they shop on Amazon and anything that diminishes that trust is unacceptable. Workers prepare products at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore last year. (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press) Rise of the Marketplace Amazons ascendance as the worlds dominant online retailer may have been sealed when it recognized it was far more profitable to let other people sell goods than selling merchandise itself. Amazon Marketplace, launched in 2000, allowed anyone to sign up and sell on its site. It marked a major change in strategy for the company, which was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as an online bookseller. By welcoming third-party sellers, Amazon vastly increased its inventory without a commensurate increase in its overhead needed to procure, store and ship goods. Amazon could reap profits by charging independent sellers access to its fulfillment centers now the backbone of its Prime subscription service, which famously offers free two-day shipping. Combined with transaction fees, fulfillment services and advertising, Amazon can take up to half a sellers revenue. By comparison, Amazon earns less than 5% profit margins on goods it sells directly, said Juozas Kaziukenas, founder and chief executive of Marketplace Pulse, an e-commerce analytics firm. Amazon declined to verify its profit margin. Third-party sellers now account for more than half the goods sold on Amazon. The companys revenue swelled to $178 billion last year, with $118.5 billion coming from product sales rather than services such as cloud computing. Amazon has recorded a profit every quarter since early 2015. Meanwhile, Bezos was recently named the richest man in modern history. But for all the success the Marketplace has wrought, it remains one of Amazons biggest sources of controversy and risk. The service is often described as a messy free-for-all a flea market run amok where up to 5 million vendors from across the world ferociously compete to sell the cheapest toothbrush or beach towel. Here, any edge counts. Fake customer reviews are bought to boost a sellers search results or cripple a competitor. False infringement claims are filed to temporarily shutdown a rival. And bots are programmed to undercut a sellers price just enough to steal a position in the all-important buy box that goads shoppers to add items to purchase. Amazon says its working hard to crack down on abuse and has gone so far as to sue people responsible for fake reviews. People dont see the chaos behind the listings, said Kaziukenas, whose firm tracks tens of millions of sellers and brands online. Amazons business model, he said, forced brands to compete on a global scale rather than only with rivals next to them on store shelves. You have millions of businesses all over the world going after you all the time, Kaziukenas said. That includes hundreds of thousands of sellers in China, the worlds largest producer of consumer goods, real and fake. The risk and reward of China For decades, even as the Made in China label proliferated, Chinese manufacturers earned just a small portion of sales while the lions share went to retailers and brands. E-commerce changed that by giving Chinese factories and merchants direct access to the U.S., the biggest consumer economy in the world. Amazon, which had failed to penetrate Chinas tightly guarded domestic e-commerce market, instead focused on wooing Chinese exporters to fuel its Marketplace, market research firms and e-commerce consultants say. Amazon obtained permission in 2015 to ship goods out of China, which allowed Chinese sellers to tap into Amazons logistical services. Of the 1 million new sellers that joined the Marketplace between 2015 and 2017, about 300,000 were from China, Kaziukenas estimates. Enlisting legions of Chinese sellers provided the scale Amazon sought, but its drawbacks were predictable. China and Hong Kong are the origin of more than 80% of the worlds supply of fake goods, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. Its often difficult for U.S. brands to sue Chinese counterfeiters, who regularly falsify the contact information they provide Amazon. To open a store, all thats required is a business name, an address, a phone number, a government-issued ID and an international credit card. The simplicity is by design, said Damon McCoy, a professor of computer science at New York University who has researched the role of bots in the counterfeit trade and has held meetings with Amazon on behalf of brand clients. Any friction in signing up would stunt the Marketplaces growth. Its why McCoy says Amazon does little to vet sellers and their goods beforehand. Their stance on counterfeits is often reactive rather than proactive, he said. Amazon disagrees and said its software can block counterfeiters before they join the Marketplace. When a business registers to sell products through Amazons Marketplace, Amazons systems scan information for signals that the business might be a bad actor, and Amazon blocks identified bad actors before they can offer any products for sale, the company said in a statement. McCoy said if Amazon shutters one store for selling knockoffs, the owner often shifts operations to another. Amazon on their backend can see hundreds of other shops being paid by the same bank account, yet they dont close them down, McCoy said. Instead, they just go after the one shop that was reported. Experts say a counterfeiter can have access to dozens, if not hundreds, of stores often with incomprehensible names. I see an alphabet soup of names that looks like someone just pounded on a keyboard, said Craig Crosby, a former LAPD investigator who founded a consumer advocacy website called the Counterfeit Report. Theyre constantly being taken down only to come back again. Amazon says its software can block infringers with multiple stores. The company declined to further comment on its practices, including whether it checks bank account information. But brands say the same fraudsters keep showing up under different names a burden for smaller companies that have to invest in hiring employees just to scan Amazon and other e-commerce sites daily for IP violators. Experts say its impossible to know how many counterfeit goods are on Amazon without examining every product for sale. Crosby, who is hired by brands to police Amazon, says his company alone has had nearly 36,000 listings removed the last two years encompassing all manner of goods, including flashlights, memory cards, iPhone cases, razor blades, cologne and even a gunsight. Its a game of Whac-A-Mole, said Corey Nielsen, maker of the Shoulder Dolly, straps used for safely lifting heavy furniture and appliances. Nielsen, whose Colorado brand has long been targeted by fakes, says hes not afraid of the global competition. What he cant stand is how the Marketplace provides counterfeiters with the means to flourish. Amazon is not acting honorably, Nielsen said. I can accept a level playing field. But this is guerrilla warfare. We cannot compete Nielsens chief rival is Mark Lopreiato, owner of the Baldwin Park-based Forearm Forklift. Over the last two decades, the entrepreneurs have popularized the furniture lifting strap, which is sold by the likes of Home Depot, Walmart and U-Haul. The two competitors have formed a friendly relationship over their frustrations with Amazon. It didnt start out that way for Lopreiato. Amazon gave him a bigger audience than he ever could have dreamed of when he was still hustling his way through trade shows putting on demonstrations where hed lift a refrigerator. Lopreiato was pulling in more than $2.4 million in revenue in 2008. But only a few years later, the Marketplace was overrun by fakes priced at a fraction of the cost of Lopreiatos $20 straps. So brazen were Lopreiatos counterfeiters that they copied Forearm Forklifts marketing material, including photographs of his employees and wife lifting bulky furniture and appliances. Many fake versions were listed alongside Forearm Forklifts promoted listings as cheaper alternatives. Brick-and-mortar stores would complain to Lopreiato that they saw his goods cheaper online, not realizing they had seen fakes. Even teachers and parents at the school Lopreiatos children attended said they had bought shoddy straps thinking they were genuine. They werent vetting suppliers, said Lopreiato, 50. By 2015, Forearm Forklifts annual revenue had dwindled to $1.4 million. Lopreiato laid off half his employees, consolidated his seven warehouses into one and sold his bike and watch to make ends meet. Lopreiato became one of Amazons most outspoken critics, detailing his plight with counterfeiters on cable TV the following year. Shortly after, Amazon sued sellers of Forearm Forklift knockoffs. Amazon won $60,000 in damages and gave it all to Lopreiato in June. He welcomed the gesture, but said its a fraction of what hes owed given the multitude of fakes that have undermined his business. Forearm Forklift now has a staff of 18, down from 52 at the companys peak. Business has bounced back somewhat thanks to online sales, including on Amazon, but the company has lost a slew of distributors. Lopreiato blames it on counterfeiters, who he says have sullied his brands reputation and driven down prices. We cannot compete with people stealing our IP, he said. One Forearm Forklift employees sole job is to compile a daily list of infringers, and then instigate the often weeks-long process of having Amazon take them down. She submits an average of 100 requests a month. Lopreiatos office is littered with Amazon packages stuffed with copycats hes ordered himself. Some are hard to detect, requiring knowledge of the weave and UV coating Loprieato uses. Others are more obvious, neglecting to include the black felt padding that puts less stress on the shoulders. There are hundreds of boxes, Lopreiato said. I keep thinking Ill need them when I have my day in court. He knows that wont come anytime soon. Not only is he turned off by the specter of a legal fight against the deep-pocketed giant, but he also knows Amazon has the law on its side. The Amazon Urban Campus in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. (Paul Christian Gordon / TNS) How the law supports Amazon When a YouTube or Facebook user uploads a pirated film, the companies are not at fault. They can thank the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which grants platforms safe harbor if their users infringe on copyrights. The law hinges on the premise that it would be too hard to vet everything that crosses their networks. All the platforms need to do is prove they had no prior knowledge of the objectionable content and worked quickly to remove it after being notified. That has allowed platforms to grow exponentially, helping to give us the internet as we know it today. It has also shielded Amazon when counterfeit products are sold on its site. In 2004, a federal court ruled that Amazon wasnt liable for users uploading unlicensed pictures. That precedent was upheld last year when a federal appeals court affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought against Amazon by a childrens pillow brand called Milo & Gabby. The husband-and-wife owners argued Amazon facilitated the sale of Chinese counterfeits; Amazon disagreed on the grounds it just provided a venue and that it was the counterfeiter who broke the law. The judge agreed with Amazon, but not without reservations. The Court is troubled by its conclusion and the impact it may have on the many small retail sellers in similar circumstances to the Plaintiffs, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez wrote in his opinion. There is no doubt that we now live in a time where the law lags behind technology. The law incentivizes willful blindness, said Kaziukenas and other experts. Its less costly and time-consuming, they argue, for Amazon to address counterfeiters once theyve been discovered than it is to implement a strict vetting process. Amazons stance isnt just frustrating tiny companies its also irking huge tech giants. Apple, for instance, included a number of embarrassing details about Amazon in its 2016 lawsuit against Mobile Star, a New Jersey wholesaler accused of supplying fake and dangerous counterfeits to Groupon and Amazon. Apple said it identifies and reports thousands of infringing products on Amazon each month. During a nine-month period, the company said it purchased well over 100 iPhone devices, Apple power products, and Lightning cables sold as genuine by sellers on Amazon.com and delivered through Amazons Fulfillment by Amazon program. More than 90% turned out to be counterfeit. E-mails submitted as exhibits in the case also revealed mounting frustration with Amazons lackluster response. It has now been 5 weeks since we first notified Amazon of its direct sales of counterfeit Apple products, Apple attorney Marianne David wrote. Amazon still has not provided any information about how it came to be selling these counterfeit Apple products directly or any of the information we requested about source, sales or remaining inventory. We are concerned that Amazon is not taking this issue seriously. Amazon said it has since resolved the dispute. In this case, we worked collaboratively to hold the vendor that provided the inauthentic goods accountable, Amazon said in a statement. Apples frustration is echoed by many brands and rights holders, who say Amazon has a penchant for dragging its feet in court and responding slowly to take down requests. Amazon denies that and says it has staff around the world working 24 hours a day, ready to take action on reports of infringement. Publishers such as McGraw Hill and Pearson say Amazon has been too slow to provide information about more than two dozen sellers of counterfeit textbooks included in a lawsuit filed last year against the merchants, court filings show. Given Amazons well-known ability to ship goods to anywhere in the country within a single day, Amazon has no excuse for not producing the requested documents and inventory by now, an attorney for the publishers wrote to the court in May. Both sides declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. Dan Simpson packs an item for shipping at Fuse Chicken in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in June. (Ken Blaze / For The Times) A potential liability When a product is labeled Shipped from and sold by Amazon its supposed to lend an air of authenticity. Thats why Fawcett, of Fuse Chicken, was stunned when he discovered his counterfeits in late 2016. How could there be fakes if he was Amazons only known supplier for direct sales, he wondered. Fuse Chickens lawsuit, now making its way through federal court in northern Ohio, represents one of the few attempts to strike Amazon where it might be legally vulnerable. Unlike with fake goods sold through the Marketplace, Amazon may not be shielded when it sells counterfeits directly. Its no longer safe harbor, Fawcett said. Daimler AG filed a similar lawsuit last year, alleging Amazon directly sold counterfeit Mercedes hubcaps and that its largely automated reporting system was woefully inadequate for addressing the scale of Amazons problem with fake goods. Amazon refuses to take reasonable steps to police intellectual property infringement or to source their shipped from and sold by Amazon.com products only from authorized manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, the German automaker said in its complaint. Amazon, in court filings, denied the allegation. The lawsuit is ongoing. At the root of the problem, experts say, is the pressure to fulfill Prime subscribers two-day delivery. To do that, Amazon must have enough inventory nearby at all times. One solution has been Amazons practice of lumping different sellers goods together in their fulfillment centers so that theres always plenty on hand. Customers may order headphones from one seller, but actually receive headphones originating from another. The strategy works if the headphones are identical. Co-mingling, as its called, is common in the Marketplace and Amazon acknowledges the practice in its answer to Fuse Chickens complaint. But Fuse Chickens suit alleges its also happening with inventory for Amazons direct sales. In e-mail correspondence with Fawcett, an Amazon official revealed there was another supplier of Fuse Chicken products for direct sales. It appears there was a major distributor that Amazon was buying from since their price to us was much lower than what you were offering, Jeremiah Price, a business development manager for Amazon, wrote in November 2016. Im not sure how a distributor was getting such good margins on those three products, but the system will always order from the vendor giving us the best price for the same product, Price wrote. Fawcett demanded Amazon stop offering Fuse Chicken products supplied by outside vendors until everything in its warehouses could be authenticated. Amazon refused. The moment you start getting counterfeits as significant as we did, especially when they were Shipped from and sold by Amazon, you have to make drastic changes in how you address it, Fawcett said. You no longer can accept it as business as usual. Fawcett now laser etches each of his products with a serial number. Customers must register the serial number to be eligible for an extended warranty. Even today, fakes keep showing up. One recent clue, Fawcett said, was when a customer input as a serial number: Unknown. david.pierson@latimes.com | Follow me @dhpierson UPDATES: 3:25 p.m.: This article was updated to include data from Amazon on its impact on small- and medium-sized businesses. 12:10 p.m.: This article was updated to include comment from Amazon about its use of software to block counterfeiters before they join the Marketplace. This article was originally published at 3 a.m. On the windowsill of his painting studio in the Hollywood Hills, David Lynch has enlisted a colony of ants to help create some art. Hes molded a tiny human head out of morticians wax and filled it with cheese, chicken and sugar. Two nights earlier, Lynch filmed the ants in a feral march of disintegration. Theyre hollowing that head out. Its incredible, the acclaimed director said with a smile. They work 24/7. The dish behind it is filled with Coca-Cola, and theyre nuts about Coca-Cola, and theyre nuts about whats inside that head. Lynch may have picked up a camera to capture the ants in another of his explorations into the surreal and grotesque, but these days, hes just as likely to grab a paint brush. Since completing last years long-deferred third season of his television series Twin Peaks, Lynch has largely devoted himself to his original medium: painting. Advertisement Many of his newest paintings, collected in the exhibition I Was a Teenage Insect, are now at Kayne Griffin Corcoran through Nov. 3. (A series of his lithographs, David Lynch: Dreams A Tribute to Fellini, are at the Fellini Foundation at the Maison du Diable in Sion, Switzerland, through Dec. 16.) The Teenage Insect pieces are large mixed-media works of what he calls childlike distortion, filled with mystery, terror and bliss, and occasional words scrawled across the canvas. Francis Bacon says there is zero story in his work. He hates stories. Me, I love stories. The words help the story, and I like the shape of words. David Lynch In the late-1960s, before he moved to Los Angeles and made Eraserhead, his first full feature, Lynch studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. All these years later, hes at it still in his mostly open-air studio, leaving a trail of spent cigarettes and splashes of coffee on the concrete floor. In addition to his painting, Lynch released a memoir of sorts this summer, Room to Dream, written with Kristine McKenna, and a book of photography called Nudes. Hes also preparing for his annual Festival of Disruption with music, film and art at the Theatre at Ace Hotel on Oct. 13 and 14. The event, which this year includes guests Francis Ford Coppola, Grace Jones and Carrie Brownstein, raises funds for the David Lynch Foundation, established to promote the benefits of Transcendental Meditation. Sharing the technique that has been essential to his life and work is now a central mission for the artist: Every human being has got a treasury inside. David Lynch at the Kayne Griffin Corcoran Gallery in Los Angeles. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) The audience for an exhibition can be much smaller than for a film. Do you feel the same about both? Its the same showing a film or a lithograph or a painting. You build a thing to be seen and experienced mainly for yourself. Whats thrilling in cinema is to go into a great theater with a giant screen, beautiful sound and experiencing what you built. You can see it and feel so good about it. You hope that others will feel good about it too. Thats not always the case. There is an expression: Man has control over action alone, never the fruit of the action. And that is really true in art, painting and cinema. You do the best you can, and then you release it. It depends on the way the world is, who is in the audience. Everybody is different on the surface. When you were an art student in the 60s, it was the time of pop art. Did you feel connected to what was going on? No. Pop art, Im not wild about. The same way with film Im not in the film world so much. So you just concentrate on the ideas youve fallen in love with. Does Francis Bacon tower above the rest in terms of who initially influenced you? Yeah. In 1966, I went to New York and saw a Francis Bacon show at the Marlborough Gallery, and it was a huge influence and inspiration. Ed Kienholz and Francis Bacon are two of my favorites. There are a lot of words incorporated into your new paintings. Do the words come first, or are they in reaction to the image? Sometimes they come first, and sometimes they come last. Theyre essential to me. Francis Bacon says there is zero story in his work. He hates stories. Me, I love stories. The words help the story, and I like the shape of words. Are the stories based on experiences? No, theyre based on ideas that come. I always equate it to fishing. Youre out fishing and you dont know what youre going to catch. And you dont know how long its going to take to catch it. And you dont know that youre going to love the fish that you catch. Youre just fishing for ideas. Some ideas seem to come from another place. Its daydreaming and thinking, and once in a while, youll catch an idea that you love. But youve got to have patience to go out and lower the hook. A visitor at the Maison du Diable in Sion, Switzerland, looks at artwork by David Lynch in the exhibition David Lynch: Dreams A Tribute to Fellini, on view through Dec. 16. (Jean-Christophe Bott / EPA-EFE / REX) Youve always painted, but when your film career took off, you didnt really pursue exhibitions. I had a couple of shows when I was a student at the academy. Then there were no shows for a long, long time. And I didnt really have any money for a setup for painting until after Blue Velvet. I had one show during Dune at this gallery in Puerto Vallarta, where [director] John Huston came to see the show. He bought a watercolor from me. It was pretty great. Youve always been interested in things that are decayed or wounded in some way The textures in those things are really incredible when things pop open and fester in a dance of organic phenomenon, the textures and the mood, the way they are shaped. Its just unbelievable whats going on in nature. Do your ideas surprise you? If I get into a thing, and a new idea pops up, its a thrill beyond the beyond. It happens through action and reaction. Sometimes you get to a place where the thing isnt working and you cant see your way out, so you bite the bullet and destroy. And in destruction, sometimes comes something completely thrilling. You cant be afraid to destroy. As with your films, you dont like explaining your paintings. It doesnt do any good. A lot of painters, they talk like crazy. I just dont get it. Its there on the wall. Theres a thing that happens: a person stands in front of a painting, and they are going to react based on whats inside the person. Everybodys experience is a little different or a lot different. Some people hate the thing. Some people love the thing. Some people are lukewarm. The work stays the same. Youve often spent time as a still photographer. A few years ago, you put out a book of photos you took of factories. And you recently released a book of nude still photography. Im not alone; I love the female form, and I like finding these shapes and the way light plays on it. Its so great for photography black-and-white and color. But black-and-white can be so beautiful with abstractions. I photograph factories in 35 mm. I really want to photograph some old places in downtown L.A. before it changes too much. With Inland Empire in 2006, you were among the first to shoot a feature film with a digital camera. As the technology has evolved, are you comfortable with the near-perfection of modern digital? It depends on the idea. A lot of times, if you see too much, theres no mystery. Its how you light a thing. Early 35 mm wasnt so sharp. It just had a feel that really served some things so well. The beautiful thing about digital is you can manipulate it like crazy when youre finished. You go in with hi-res and perfect focus, perfect exposure, but then you can tear it apart, you can degrade it, you can do anything. Its so beautiful. You started your Festival of Disruption in Los Angeles, and its grown into an annual event. Weve got a great team running it. They run everything by me, but theyre really taking care of it. It gives you a really great feeling when the festival is done. Its always about disrupting the bad and bringing in the new good. A lot of people dont believe for a second that peace is possible, but it is and is going to be. What drives you to try all these different creative mediums? I find that every medium talks to us, if you just start doing it. Watercolor paper is a certain way, and watercolor paint is a certain way. You say, Oh, this is different from oil painting on a canvas. Different things happen. You start to get a dialogue and a feel for what it does. Its the same with every single medium. Theyre infinitely deep. You cant exhaust it. Any mediums left to try? Sewing. I got an industrial sewing machine. I would like to be able to sew things and make stuff. I would like to know how to weld as well. I like to watch these car shows where they customize cars. Working with metal is just so beautiful. But TIG welding, you need these tanks of gas, and it sort of scares me; I would want to put them in cement bunkers in case they blow up. But welding is an art. David Lynch: I Was a Teenage Insect Where: Kayne Griffin Corcoran, 1201 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles When: Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m., through Nov. 3 Info: (310) 586-6886, kaynegriffincorcoran.com David Lynchs Festival of Disruption Where: The Theatre at Ace Hotel, When: Oct. 13-14; day sessions begin at 10:30 a.m., night programs at 8 p.m. Tickets: $55 (for single day-session pass) - $999 (for donor-level two-day pass) Info: festivalofdisruption.com or acehotel.com See all of our latest arts news and reviews at latimes.com/arts. The AFI Fest has an opener and a closer. Might a new movie from Clint Eastwood join the schedule? Also: Monsters and Men marks the arrival of a strong new filmmaker. And sometimes a movie and its reception makes you want to question Life Itself. Welcome to the Gold Standard, the newsletter from the Los Angeles Times that helps guide you through the ins and outs of the awards season leading up to the Oscars. Im Glenn Whipp, The Times awards columnist and your newsletter host. Advertisement Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mary Queen of Scots biopics highlight AFI Fest; plus, here comes Eastwood On the Basis of Sex, a drama looking at the early life of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will have its world premiere on the opening night of the American Film Institutes 32nd AFI Fest. The gala screening will take place Nov. 8 at the TCL Chinese Theater. Felicity Jones (Oscar-nominated for The Theory of Everything) plays Ginsburg, with Armie Hammer portraying her husband, Martin. Mimi Leder directs. Another biopic, the world premiere of Mary, Queen of Scots will close the festival Nov. 15. British theater director Josie Rourke helmed the historical drama, chronicling the rivalry between Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan) and Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie) and their fight for the throne of England. AFI Fest openers have had mixed success in recent years, with titles such as Hitchcock, By the Sea, A Most Violent Year and Rules Dont Apply stalling in their awards season runs. Last years opener, Mudbound, which premiered earlier at Sundance, did go on to earn four Oscar nominations. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. just announced that Clint Eastwoods latest movie, a crime drama titled The Mule, will open in theaters Dec. 14. Eastwood stars in and directs the true story of Leo Sharp, a World War II vet who became a drug dealer and courier for the Sinaloa cartel while in his 80s. Eastwood began shooting The Mule in June and turned it around in typical lightning-fast fashion. Like American Sniper, the film could possibly land at AFI Fest, which has screened commercial plays along with awards season contenders throughout its history. (Warner Bros. sources insist The Mule is more of a crowd-pleaser that has more in common with Eastwoods 2008 movie Gran Torino than late-arriving Oscar powerhouses such as Million Dollar Baby and Sniper.) The film also stars Bradley Cooper, Dianne Wiest and Michael Pena. Also, if youre in New York or heading that way the New York Film Festival begins today and will continue through mid-October. Times film critic Justin Chang previews its many treasures and pleasures. Anthony Ramos, left, and John David Washington in Monsters and Men. (Neon) Festival favorite Monsters and Men arrives in theaters Drake was supposed to introduce Monsters and Men earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival, but tour obligations reduced the appearance to a pre-taped intro. As I noted, the crowd groaned and booed, though, this being Canada, the disappointment was registered in the most polite way possible. But the movie, an intimate triptych about the corrosive effects of police brutality on a community, doesnt need Drake, who came on board as an executive producer after it premiered at Sundance. It stands on its own merits. As Times film critic Justin Chang notes in his review, Monsters and Men, directed by newcomer Reinaldo Marcus Green, recognizes that silence, though often used to shield acts of cowardice and complicity, can also be a powerful and eloquent language of protest. The final shot is thrilling in the way it embraces optimism while rejecting sentimentality, and it fittingly ends with the camera still in motion, as though inviting the audience to complete the gesture. Also of note: Since its Sundance premiere, John David Washington, who plays a principled police officer, has become a star for his lead turn in Spike Lees BlacKkKlansman. Washington is one of many reasons to see this excellent film. Dan Fogelman, the creator of NBCs hit show This Is Us, returned to filmmaking with the new drama Life Itself. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) No lust for Life Itself My favorite read of the week goes to Times staff writer Amy Kaufmans profile of Dan Fogelman, the creator of NBCs popular drama This Is Us who returned to film with Life Itself. Amazon Studios had high hopes for the movie, which everyone loved except for critics and audiences. (The movie had the worst opening of any film this year on 2,500-plus screens.) Fogelman was candid in sharing his frustration, feelings that were intertwined with the films origins as a project helping him deal with his mothers unexpected death. Obviously, its always disappointing, especially when it happens to something so personal to you, Fogelman told Kaufman. But its the life Ive chosen: Critics have generally been kind to me over the years, and part of the gig is that you dont get to pick and choose when you get to listen. Feedback? Id love to hear from you. Email me at glenn.whipp@latimes.com. Cant get enough about awards season? Follow me at @glennwhipp on Twitter. glenn.whipp@latimes.com Twitter: @glennwhipp Shedding light on an oft-overlooked subject, Maggie Black examines the intersection of pregnancy and mental illness. Actress and screenwriter Jessalyn Maguire brings her own challenges with anxiety and depression to both the lead role and the script, but the good intentions dont create a good film with this psychology-driven drama. Maggie (Maguire) is years past her debut bestseller, and pressure from her publisher begins to mount when she isnt producing any new work. Meanwhile, her happiness at her new pregnancy with her husband, Tom (Chris Beetem), is dampened by worries. She takes medication for her struggles with mental illness, but out of concern for her baby, she quits cold turkey. The borders between reality and illusion soon become unclear for the writer and the audience as she begins to unravel. As an actress, Maguire capably communicates Maggies struggles, but her screenplay and Stanley Brodes direction fail the character and the viewer when it comes to her dreams and hallucinations. Maggie is an intentionally difficult character, but the film never really shows empathy for her, even though it works to create an intellectual understanding of what shes going through. Despite its good intentions, Maggie Black may do more harm than good, offering a portrait of female mental illness that leans toward hysteria, lacking real details of and understanding about the experiences of Maggie and women like her. -------------- Advertisement Maggie Black Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes Playing: Starts Sept. 28; Arena Cinelounge Sunset, Hollywood Despite its title, theres little nostalgia in the early-aughts-set Summer 03, other than a few choice songs and the inclusion of the omnipresent Nokia cellphone (complete with the classic game Snake, of course). Written and directed by Becca Gleason in her feature debut, this is a standard teen comedy, bolstered by a strong lead performance by Joey King but hampered by an adolescent-like attention span. Before she passes away, Dotty (June Squibb) gives her 16-year-old granddaughter Jamie (King) some unexpectedly frank words about getting more sexual experience. Jamie might be a little rebellious, but she chooses to follow her grandmas advice, heading straight from the hospital to the remnants of a high-school party. From there, she begins spending more time partying and hooking up with Luke (Jack Kilmer), in his final weeks before becoming a priest. Summer 03 bounces between plot lines and themes, shuffling through elements of better films with a lack of focus and little insight into Jamie. It never transcends its teen movie origins to become something more. It lacks the sympathetic heart of Lady Bird, the self-reflecting wisdom of The Edge of Seventeen and the hilarious raunch of The To-Do List, emerging as the Natty Light equivalent of those full-strength brews. It may please teens, but those who have outgrown their high-school clothes will likely find theyve left behind movies like Summer 03 as well. ------------- Advertisement Summer 03 Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes Playing: Starts Sept. 29, Laemmle Glendale >>> PM calls for joint efforts for world of sustainable development Earlier, the PM had bilateral meetings with top leaders of Cuba, Bulgaria, Croatia, Fiji and Saint Lucia, during which he briefed them on Vietnams development achievements and its foreign policy. He asked these countries to support Vietnams candidacy for non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure, and affirmed the countrys strong commitment to contributing more to maintaining international peace and security. The leaders appreciated Vietnams increasingly important role in the region and the world. They expressed their belief that Vietnam would perform well the role as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, while pledging to maintain close coordination with the country within the framework of the UN and other international organisations. Meeting President of Cubas Council of State and Council of Ministers Miguel Diaz-Canel, PM Phuc suggested both sides continue consolidating existing cooperation mechanisms, speeding up the establishment of new ones, exchanging experience and increasing the efficiency of existing cooperation projects. Diaz-Canel agreed to boost economic cooperation to match the two sides potential, and lauded projects Vietnam is implementing in Cubas special economic zones. While meeting Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the Vietnamese leader asked Bulgaria to continue encouraging its enterprises to explore investment and business opportunities in Vietnam in oil and gas, bio-technology, information technology, environmental protection and food processing. He expressed his hope that Bulgaria will help speed up the European Unions signing of its free trade agreement with Vietnam this year. The Bulgarian PM agreed to further develop bilateral ties, hoping to welcome PM Phuc and other Vietnamese leaders to his country. PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) at his meeting with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. (Photo: VGP) At his meeting with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, PM Phuc affirmed Vietnams willingness to create favourable conditions for Croatian enterprises, while suggesting both sides intensify delegation exchanges and trade and investment promotion to raise bilateral trade to US$200 million in the next five years. Agreeing with the Vietnamese leaders proposal, Kolinda welcomed the two countries signing of an Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement in July. Meeting Fijian President Jioji Konrote, the Vietnamese PM confirmed his country is willing to share its experience with Fiji in agricultural development, food security, fishing and seafood processing. Both sides agreed to cooperate closely in climate change and sea-level rising response and maritime protection. Exchanging views with Saint Lucias Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, PM Phuc welcomed the two countries establishment of diplomatic ties on June 26, 2018. He proposed both sides step up delegation exchanges, consider the establishment of several bilateral cooperation mechanisms and create favourable conditions for each others businesses to seek business opportunities, particularly in agriculture and tourism. On the same day, the Vietnamese Government leader met representatives from the Vietnam Permanent Delegation to the UN, the Vietnamese Embassy in the US and the Vietnamese community in the country. He also met several individuals who are friends of Vietnam in the US. He thanked them for their support for the normalisation process of the Vietnam-US relations as well as for Vietnams renewal and international integration cause. Taking aim at American societys seriously broken criminal justice system, Iroc Daniels well-intentioned multi-character drama The System compensates in compassion for what it lacks in a more accomplished delivery. Its quite evident from the films outset that the fateful trajectories carrying committed African American family man Nate (Reginald Kennedy) and Sam (Owen Conway), an adulterous white cop with a serious case of PTSD, will reach a violent impasse. Tragedy ultimately hits close to home when Sams itchy trigger finger is implicated in the shooting death of Nates 13-year-old deaf son (Prince DeBoskie). When justice subsequently doesnt prevail, leaving Sam unaccountable for his actions, the grieving Nate opts to take the law into his own hands. Rather than delivering a standard-issue vengeance piece, Phoenix-based hip-hop producer-turned-filmmaker Daniels instead has a more ambitious approach in mind, taking his cue from 2004s Crash, with its intersecting character story lines and themes of race and redemption. Advertisement But just like that Oscar-winning morality tale, the life lessons offered in The System suffer from a lack of directorial dexterity that would have given both the story and the cast some much-needed breathing room. While the sleek-looking production has been injected with live music and spoken-word performances designed to underscore its cant-we-all-just-get-along plea for tolerance and equality, those caught up in The System feel more like part of a schematic than authentic, relatable human beings. -------------- The System Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Playing: Laemmle Glendale David Cronenberg has a cold. Over the phone recently from his hometown of Toronto, the filmmaker was apologetic for his cough as he talked about the 13-film tribute series Cronenberg With Cronenberg: A Retrospective of the New Flesh that starts Saturday as part of Beyond Fest. The program also will include a rare series of Los Angeles appearances by Cronenberg, who recently received a special lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival. To hear the filmmaker known for his idiosyncratic body horror movies with their often disturbing mix of the organic and the technological grappling with his own virus was somewhat startling. It was also a vivid reminder that at its core, Cronenbergs work on movies such as Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Crash and A History of Violence has always been very human, tenderly emotional as well as rigorously intellectual. But dont relegate Cronenberg to the tribute circuit just yet. He published his first novel, Consumed, in 2014 and has publicly and pointedly expressed an interest in long-form television work while also refusing to turn his back on feature films although he hasnt made one since 2014s Maps to the Stars. Asked what hes doing next, Cronenberg gave an all-too-human answer: Well, Ive made a lot of notes, and Im not sure. ... You never know. Depends how lazy I am. Advertisement Jeremy Irons gives a tour de force performance as particularly kinky twin gynecologists in David Cronenbergs eerie 1988 thriller Dead Ringers. (Attila Dory) You recently said that you dont actually go to the cinema much anymore, that you mostly watch things at home. But the Beyond Fest series sold out very quickly and there will be many people coming together to watch your movies. For you, is there some distinction between those experiences between watching something at home on a big, modern television and going to have that communal experience in a theater? Well, Beyond Fest will be different because its fans of my work coming together, which is not the same as a normal commercial screening. So that has a special buzz, no question about it. But I really have not found the theater experience to be all that great, frankly. I saw Guillermo [del Toro]'s film Shape of Water on a Blu-ray at home and then a friend wanted to go see it, so I went with her to the theater and the picture was very dark for some reason. There were commercials, there were people looking at their phones, but the actual physical presence of the film on-screen, it was very dull. So I have to say, as a filmmaker, I would rather have had people see it in my house where the color was right than in that theater in Toronto. You actually can control it better at home. David Cronenberg poses outside the festivals palace after he received a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement award at the 75th Venice Film Festival. (Alberto Pizzoli / AFP/Getty Images) And, yes, of course theres the social aspect of going to the cinema. I was on a panel with Spike Lee and some other filmmakers in Venice discussing the future of cinema and there was a lot of discussion about the sacred, cathedral-like communal religious experience of cinema and in theaters. Id been seeing movies probably longer than any of the other people on the panel, and I didnt have that wonderful flush of religious feeling when were thinking about cinematic experience. Spike Lee was talking about moments in The Exorcist and things where the audience would scream. And there are those moments. But I really had to say to them, I would be happy watching Lawrence of Arabia on my Apple Watch. It would be an experience. But you do still believe in moving-image storytelling? Whether its as long-form television or as cinema, a movie, are you still excited about the possibilities of visual storytelling? Yes, definitely. Thats the thing that kind of gets lost when people are trying to compare the various ways you might be able to watch a movie or a TV series. And thats why I talked about Netflix a lot, beginning with that panel with Spike, because if youre going to talk about the future of cinema you have to talk about Netflix and the phenomenon of streaming services in general because that is an incredibly new and disruptive paradigm. And I really think that that is the future of cinema. Beyond Fest is a genre-oriented festival, and your earlier work is more obviously related to genre and in your more recent films that connection has become more submerged. Do you feel like your relationship to genre has changed over the years? Yes. I did think, OK, if I do Beyond Fest, Im really embracing my roots as a horror filmmaker, as a genre filmmaker. And I have no problem with that at all. Its not like Ive been trying to get detached from that. Genre really did get me an entree into filmmaking. In Canada it was very difficult to have an entree into filmmaking because there wasnt any going on, except maybe at the CBC and the National Film Board. I owe genre filmmaking a lot, particularly the horror genre, and this will be fun to dive back into that murky pool and splosh around in it with the fans. I must say that the Beyond Fest people, they have gone beyond. I think theyre showing 13 of my films, which means that theyre not just showing the early genre pictures. So theyve really made an effort to really cover the territory. Im very impressed by that. I did think, Okay, if I do Beyond Fest, Im really embracing my roots as a horror filmmaker, as a genre filmmaker. And I have no problem with that at all. David Cronenberg Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall and Maria Bello as Edie Stall in the movie A History of Violence from director David Cronenberg. (Takashi Seida / New Line Productions) In some of your more recent films, especially in A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, there is an awareness of genre, but I dont know how you would classify A Dangerous Method or Cosmopolis or Maps to the Stars. What is your relationship to genre in your recent work? I dont pay attention to it, actually, because you get movies like the ones you mentioned or Dead Ringers theyre not classifiable, unless you worked very hard, as genre films. In my early days, genre protected me. When I was making horror films it was understood that you could do things within the genre that maybe would not have been acceptable in more polite dramas. After my first five or six films, I wasnt really thinking about it. And even when I did movies like Eastern Promises and History of Violence, which you could classify as thrillers or mob movies or crime stories of course Im aware of all of those genres, just having seen a lot of movies in my life but you really focus on making the actual project work well on its own. Ultimately when youre making the movie, all those sort of theoretical things melt away and youre left there with your actors and your crew trying to make the movie work. At that point genres not relevant. Scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) examines himself undergoing a terrifying transformation in The Fly. (Attila Dori / 20th Century Fox) I know that the term body horror is not one that you assigned to your own work, but it is the way that so many people talk about your films. I cant help but wonder if your ideas about our relationship to our bodies have changed as you yourself have gotten older? Its just gotten more horrible. Honestly, life has only confirmed what I kind of intuited as a young person, lets put it that way. I know a lot of people who have died. I think I know more dead people than living people. So of course it becomes a philosophical and for me an existential question what is life, what is the human condition, whats it all about? And for me it is the body, it is physical. Thats what we are, and that carries with it the acceptance of our own mortality and so on and so on. I dont think that aspect of whats in my head thinking about human existence and the human body that hasnt really changed at all. Hardly a day goes by without the exploding head in Scanners popping up in my social media feeds and I see that image. How do you feel about something like that being taken out of context of the movie its now just the ultimate exploding head? Well, Id like it to be the ultimate exploding head why not? And it has great metaphorical value even when you take it out of context. A lot of people, especially these days, have felt like their heads are exploding. If it gives you a little relief to see somebody elses head exploding, then thats probably a good thing. -------------- Cronenberg With Cronenberg: A Retrospective of the New Flesh Where: Egyptian Theater, Hollywood; Aero Theater, Santa Monica When: Sept. 29-Oct. 1 Info: beyondfest.com Mark.Olsen@latimes.com Follow on Twitter: @IndieFocus Late last year, as winter fell over London, a group of storied British actors gathered in a rehearsal room for two weeks at Pinewood Studios watching 80-year-old Anthony Hopkins unfurl the fury of King Lear. The ensemble cast, which includes Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, Jim Broadbent, Jim Carter, Florence Pugh and Christopher Eccleston, was assembled by theater and film director Richard Eyre, who previously directed Hopkins in a film rendition of The Dresser. The plot of The Dresser involves an aging actor who is playing King Lear, and he goes onstage and plays Lear throughout the original story, Eyre recounts. Theres a lot of talk about King Lear, so between takes Tony and I used to talk about the play. We talked a lot about it and eventually the producer, Colin Callender, said Why dont you make a movie? Ian McKellen, left, and Anthony Hopkins in a scene from The Dresser. (Joss Barratt / Starz) Advertisement The result is a new version of King Lear that premieres Sept. 28 on Amazon. The adaptation, a co-production between Amazon Studios and BBC shot last winter following a two-week rehearsal process, is unlike any of its predecessors. Originally set in the pre-Christian era of Britain and normally performed onstage at over three hours, the play takes on new life on the small screen. Richard said to me, Maybe you ought to have another go at that, says Hopkins, who first played the role in 1987 at age 50 in a theater production by David Hare. I thought, Yeah. Id wanted to do it for years because now I was at the right age. And I felt it in my bones, really. I just knew inside how to play the man. I took the following year after The Dresser to work on it and to learn the whole part. I went through it bit by bit, line by line to see what interpretations I could bring to it instead of the same thing. Eyre pared Shakespeares words to a neat two hours and set the story in a contemporary world, with Lear as a tyrannical military dictator who takes up residence in the Tower of London. I thought, I really dont want to have to create some kind of mythical Game of Thrones world, Eyre says. What if it were to be in contemporary costume but filmed in an historical building? I thought the paradox would work and, for me, it does. Adds Eccleston, who fought for the small role of Oswald simply because he wanted to be in the room with Hopkins, I think a lot of people come to Shakespeare with associations, like Elizabethan costumes, etc. This Lear is very current. What I think Eyre is trying to do is foreground the issues and the narrative, the issue of power and the impact of power on family. What were dealing with really is the essence of the play. Id wanted to do it for years because now I was at the right age. And I felt it in my bones. Actor Anthony Hopkins Ultimately a tale of parents and children, Lear centers on a malicious, brutal father who asks his three daughters which one loves him best so he can divide the kingdom among them. When they fail to comply with his wishes, chaos ensues and Lear falls into a state of madness, resulting in a deeply tragic end. Eyre offered Thompson the role of Goneril, Lears eldest, and cast Watson and Pugh in the respective roles of Regan and Cordelia. Goneril and Regan are often portrayed as bitterly evil, pitted against their father without remorse. Here, though, the actors wanted to ensure that the characters had a real psychological grounding. Thompson and Watson, in their first time working together, spent hours discussing the sisters past. I loved re-interpreting the cruelty of Goneril and Regan as coming from very messed women whove been abused all through their childhoods, emotionally and probably physically, says Thompson, who studied King Lear extensively in school and once played the Fool in a theater production. It all made so much sense. Its funny because I dont think Ive ever seen it portrayed in quite that way before. We had such a good time working out the relationship of the sisters with Florence Pugh. The sisters tell us a lot about what life must have been like. Watson notes, The two daughters are very damaged by their father, and it seems to me by their attitude to him and the way they deal with him is only one or two degrees off from reasonable because his behavior was so chaotic and demanding and abusive. We experience on human terms someone who is a very powerful male figure controlling everything with horrible favoritism. She adds, It happened around the same time as the Weinstein story and the #MeToo movement was going on and it just felt so part of that. It felt strongly like, How did these abused women grow up? Whats motivated them? Whats pushed them to who they are? It was every womans story, really. Doing it on film allows you a calibration of what that is in a way that allows you to get more inside it. The film gives you more access to the subtlety of it. Anthony Hopkins and Florence Pugh in King Lear on Amazon Prime. (Ed Miller / Amazon Prime) Hopkins made the play his own psychological study, focusing on his personal experiences with his father and grandfather as he imagined the character. The actor, who claims hes not a well-informed Shakespeare student, was particularly interested in what results when a man shows no outward kindness. In the film, Eyre underscores this point with militaristic imagery. Lear and his soldiers hop in and out of massive black SUVs and invade the stately homes where Goneril and Regan take up residence, tramping mud all over the white carpets in an act of sheer emotional apathy. He doesnt understand gentleness or love, Hopkins says of Lear. Hes with his guys at the pubs out drinking and disregards his daughters. In fact, hes turned them into neurotic people themselves. My grandfather and my father didnt have time for hugs and kisses and all that. They never hugged. They never spoke of love. Thats the way I was brought up and thats how I understood life to be, and Im still like that. [This performance] came out of my muscular self. Hopkins, who delights in keeping fit and being able to do take after take even when shooting a night scene in a rainstorm, brings an indescribable intensity to the role. His performance comes from a place of immense passion and, the rest of the cast members say he is the best Lear of all time. Even Eyre, who directed Ian Holm onstage in the play, cant deny it: I think hes the best King Lear ever, he says. He is determined, if you watch him, to capture naturalism in this very ornate language, Eccleston notes. Hes a very visceral gut and heart actor. I agree with him that I dont think acting is an intellectual pursuit. Its emotional and instinctive, and hes setting the tone for this. Whats been really exciting has been for me to see how my heroes, all these extraordinary actors, how much they care about it, adds John Macmillan, a relative newcomer who joined the cast to play Edmund. They take it so seriously. They think about every line. No stone is left unturned. That was really thrilling for me to go, OK, you can have two Oscars in your pocket and still treat it like your first year out of drama school. Hopkins, who turns 81 at the end of the year, could potentially be convinced to revisit the character. I loved playing it, he says. Its life-affirming to do stuff like that. Id love to do it again. [But] if I did a stage performance, Id do it for one night only. If not, Thompson and Watson have an idea for a follow-up, which fits perfectly into the current cultural concerns of Hollywood. Emily and I thought it would be very good to write a new play called Regan and Goneral Are Dead and write about those women, Thompson says. Theyre terribly interesting. Shakespeare is very stimulating to play with. You discover so much. Re-interpreting is a great privilege, really. King Lear Where: Amazon Prime When: Any time, Friday Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14) The hearing on Christine Blasey Fords sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, which raged on Thursday morning, struck a nerve with Melissa McBride of AMCs The Walking Dead. McBride and fellow cast members, as well as the zombie dramas new showrunner, Angela Kang, were participating in an event promoting the series upcoming ninth season at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills during the morning session. McBride, who plays Carol Peletier, part of a group of embattled survivors of a zombie apocalypse, told The Times she was particularly impacted by recent reckonings with abuse in both Hollywood and the political sphere. Over the course of the shows nine seasons, Carol has transformed from a meek victim of domestic abuse to an empowered leader and skilled fighter. McBride became emotional as she spoke about her characters arc. Carol gets a lot of fans that have survived abuse, McBride said as she wiped away tears. They like to write and tell me about it and how much Carol has inspired them, found strength in her story. Its always hard for me to talk about this, which is one of the reasons why I dont. I just want everybody to be okay. Advertisement I feel honored to play a character like that, she continued. To end up in a place of courage and taking initiative helping other people, finding her path or truth. I want that for everyone. makeda.easter@latimes.com @makedaeaster I wasnt in that Maryland bedroom in 1982. You werent there. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he wasnt there. But after listening to every word uttered by his tearful, yet calm and respectful accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, and Kavanaughs combative, weepy refutation, I have no choice but to conclude she is credible and he is not. He is not suited to a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Because of his self-pity and rage. Advertisement Because of the way he shredded the idea that he can be an impartial arbiter on the high court when he accused Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee of seeking revenge on the behalf of the Clintons and left-wing opposition groups. Because of the insulting way he spoke to Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar when she asked whether he ever drank so much he could not remember what happened. (Youre talking about a blackout, he said in a nasty tone. I dont know. Have you?) Because he refused to give a straight answer about whether he would support an FBI investigation into Fords charges. Because he interrupted Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal who was in the middle of asking a question, then had the cluelessness to say, Let me finish. Kavanaughs anger may be understandable in a man who claims hyperbolically that his life and family have been destroyed by what he says are false allegations of sexual assault. But they are hardly what we deserve or expect in a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, which has so much control over Americans lives, especially womens. After Ford testifies she was sexually assaulted, Kavanaugh responds with anger and tears :: Ford, 51, a psychologist who studies trauma, was a mesmerizing witness. She seemed honest, and pained, and, as she put it, 100% certain that the 17-year-old boy who threw her on a bed, ground his hips against her and covered her mouth so she could not scream was Kavanaugh. She practically pleaded for an FBI investigation that would include the only witness to the alleged attack, Kavanaughs high school friend Mark Judge. Judge, who once wrote a memoir about his blackout drinking in high school, said in a statement to the Senate committee via his attorney that he has no memory of the event and never saw his friend behave in such a manner. She spoke knowledgeably about the biological processes of how memory works. When asked to describe her most vivid memory of the assault, she replied, Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two and their having fun at my expense. Christine Blasey Ford on why the other witnesses dont remember the party where the alleged assault took place: Nothing remarkable happened to them that night. When she described the room where the alleged assault took place, and the loud music and the laughter of the two teen boys who were in cahoots, I believe that every viewer who has ever been assaulted probably had an unpleasant flashback. I know I did. Like Anita Hill before her, Ford had wanted to remain anonymous. But when she was outed, she said she felt she had no choice but to tell her story, knowing full well, as she testified, that the experience would be like stepping in front of a moving train, and that she would probably be annihilated. As she said this, however, she displayed not a whit of self-pity. :: It was clear that Kavanaughs Judiciary Committee supporters dont particularly care whether or not he assaulted Ford all those years ago at a high school party. And they knew all 11 men that they could not trust themselves to come off as caring, so they hired Rachel Mitchell, an Arizona sex-crimes prosecutor, whose plodding questions seemed to infuriate them. They wanted fireworks. She was a wet blanket. Their pent-up rage exploded after Ford finished her testimony. They sidelined Mitchell, and turned their wrath on Democrats, who were accused of withholding information in order to delay the confirmation until after the midterm elections, when Democrats have a fighting chance of gaining the majority in the Senate and could scuttle Kavanaughs nomination. In tones verging on hysteria, they railed about the timing of the allegations (as if there is a good time to step forward alleging youve been attacked by a Supreme Court nominee). Ive never seen a theatrical outburst like Republican Sen. Lindsey Grahams display of self-righteous anger, sparked by Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbins simple assertion that if Kavanaugh truly cared about clearing his good name, he should want to have the FBI investigate Fords claims. God help anyone else that gets nominated, Graham said, forgetting that Neil M. Gorsuch was confirmed last year with barely a ripple. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said to Democrats on the panel: What you want to do is destroy this guys life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020. Youve said that, not me. Sen. Orrin G. Hatchs outraged voice broke as he scornfully dismissed the idea that anyone would care what had happened in high school. And yet, Ford had very specifically discussed the anxiety, phobia and PTSD-like symptoms that she had felt, intensely, in the first four years after the assault, and intermittently thereafter. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, forgetting his recitation of Green Eggs and Ham during a Senate filibuster, called it one of the most shameful events in the history of the United States Senate. Again and again, Kavanaugh, 53, was described by his supporters as a victim not of Ford, because of course, its no longer acceptable to publicly attack a victim of sexual assault but of Democrats. Ford, they said, was a victim, too. Of Democrats. Just as I believed Anita Hill in 1991, I believe Christine Blasey Ford. I wouldnt put Kavanaugh in jail for what he did when he was 17, but I sure as hell wouldnt put him on the Supreme Court. robin.abcarian@latimes.com Twitter: @AbcarianLAT The Los Angeles school district began mediation with its teachers union Thursday and also celebrated a contract agreement but it wasnt with the teachers. The mediation is confidential, though first-day signs were not so promising. When it was over, United Teachers Los Angeles released a harsh letter to Supt. Austin Beutner, which read in part, Mr. Beutner, you have proven that you are unqualified, untrustworthy and unavailable. Both sides have made their cases in public as well as in private. The union wants the nations second-largest school system to dig deeper into a financial reserve that appears to have reached a record size. L.A. Unified points to forecasts that predict the current pace of spending along with future liabilities could cause the district to go broke in three or four years. The union that reached a deal with the district was the Teamsters, which represents about 3,000 employees, including campus facilities managers, cafeteria managers and school administrative assistants. The school district has now reached contract agreements with the vast majority of its non-teaching employees. Advertisement The Teamsters settled for a salary increase that mirrors what the district is offering teachers: 3% retroactive to July 1, 2017, plus an additional 3% retroactive to this past July. The teachers have asked for a 6.5% raise that goes back an additional year. Beutner has said the district needs more state funding and that everyone should pitch in to try to get it. We appreciate the Teamsters commitment to working with L.A. Unified on a joint effort in Sacramento to increase funding for public education, he said in a statement Thursday. The path forward begins in Sacramento. The message about state funding seemed to be directed at the teachers who he thinks should sign a contract and join in the lobbying effort for more state support. The teachers union is willing to collaborate in working for more state funding, but also insists the district can do more with its current resources. The next mediation session is scheduled for Wednesday. howard.blume@latimes.com Twitter: @howardblume When the first woman came forward to allege that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her decades earlier, Kathy Gosnell decided it was time to share a painful secret of her own. The retired Los Angeles Times copy editor, now living in DeKalb, Ill., made her story public on a private Facebook page popular with current and former employees of the newspaper. Its time for me to speak up, Gosnell, 73, wrote. In the early 1980s, I was drugged, beaten and raped by one of our colleagues at the L.A. Times. She said she had told no one for three decades, but felt inspired last week to come forward to show support for Kavanaughs accuser and other women who said they too had stayed silent for years about abuse. Advertisement Gosnells post about an unnamed male colleague she said has since died inspired several colleagues to share their experiences of being harassed by men at The Times, in some instances having their complaints brushed off by supervisors. They recounted stories of drunken calls in the middle of the night, repeated unwelcome touching and watching men accused of sexual misconduct not only keeping their jobs, but being promoted. The discussion on The Times alumni Facebook page reflects a larger dialogue occurring across America in the wake of the Kavanaugh allegations and his supporters assailing his accusers credibility. Times Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine said he was deeply troubled by Gosnells experience. It was unclear whether any of the accusations made on the Facebook forum involved people currently working at the paper. As the 1991 testimony of Anita Hill against now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sparked conversations about sexual harassment, Dr. Christine Blasey Fords allegations against Kavanaugh are prompting women to speak up about having been victims of sexual violence and about the social environment that kept them silent. Gosnell said she was only a few years into her tenure at the L.A. Times, in her late 30s, when an older colleague she knew casually invited her over for dinner. He was respected and liked in the newsroom, and she thought of it as a nice gesture, she said. When she arrived at his house, she sat down at his kitchen table and he poured her a drink. That was the last thing she remembered, she said, before she woke up in his bed in the middle of the night, her clothes strewn around the room and her neck, shoulders and upper arms covered in bruises. She got up, got dressed and left. She took shower after shower after shower and never told a soul. She did not think she would be believed at The Times he was an established figure in the newsroom and she a fairly new hire. By speaking up, she thought she would jeopardize her career. It never occurred to me that I would have had a prayer if I reported it, she said in an interview. I didnt feel like I would be supported, he was very well liked by management I just figured it was his word against mine, and the upper echelons were all male. Gosnells story prompted a wave of support from former colleagues, with some veteran female journalists saying it was an extreme example of the crude culture they all endured back then. Patt Morrison, a longtime columnist and reporter for The Times, said in an interview that she sympathized with why Gosnell and Ford may have felt as though they wouldnt be believed or that their complaints wouldnt result in anything. You have the sense that you could say something, but whats going to happen? To him, probably nothing. To me, a lot, said Morrison, who started in the newsroom in the 1970s as one of only a handful of women. Morrison said she was shocked by the violent attack described by Gosnell, but at the same time remembered the male-dominated atmosphere of the newsroom that may have enabled men like Gosnells alleged assailant. Lewd jokes yelled at her across the newsroom, unwanted touches in the elevator, and colleagues leaning a little too close for comfort over her desk were just a part of the regular workday, Morrison said. You feel a nudge, you feel a hand, she recalled. Narda Zacchino, who was one of the first women to rise through the ranks at The Times, said female reporters and editors at the time had to fight to be treated as professionals rather than as women. When she first applied for an internship, a male editor told her he couldnt hire her because interns had to cover the police who swear and tell dirty jokes and wouldnt be comfortable having a woman around. She was hired anyway. Shortly into her career, a colleague who was envious that shed been selected to move to the downtown headquarters from a suburban bureau loudly remarked in front of colleagues that Zacchino has sat on more laps than a napkin. Other male reporters were outraged and defended her, she said. Years later, she recalled having a male editor dismiss a major scoop, involving a state senator who had had sexual relations with a 16-year-old constituent, because the editor didnt think it was problematic. Well, guys do that, Narda. ... Men do this sort of thing, and its not a big deal, she recalled the colleague saying. She fought for the story to be published, and the senator ultimately was criminally charged. One of the several former Times employees who shared stories of harassment at the paper in response to Gosnells Facebook post declined to be interviewed, saying she wanted the details of her story to remain private. Others who shared their stories with the private group could not be reached, or did not respond to requests for comment. Gosnell said that after the attack, she moved on with her life, avoiding her alleged assailant as much as she could even though they continued to work in the same office for years. Last year, she told her now-grown daughter about it for the first time. And with the news of Fords accusation against Kavanaugh, she felt the need to tell her community of former colleagues. It was just the idea that yet another woman was not going to be believed, she said. And I know so many have not been. victoria.kim@latimes.com For more California news, follow me on Twitter @vicjkim The city of Los Angeles has approved a $475,000 settlement for the family of a man shot by an LAPD officer in Boyle Heights last year. Council members voted unanimously this week to approve the settlement for relatives of Fred Barragan, whose killing sparked outrage after a series of fatal shootings in the neighborhood by Hollenbeck Community Police Station officers. Barragans family claimed in a lawsuit filed last year that he was unarmed, had committed no crime and didnt try to evade police when officers shot him in an alley on March 24, 2017, near a Metro Gold Line station. After the shooting, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that Officer Hector Almeda fired at Barragan, 35, because he had pulled a gun from his waistband as he ran away from officers. Advertisement The death spurred a vigil and march from Mariachi Plaza to the Hollenbeck station the following day, where protesters demanded justice for Barragan and others shot by police. It was another example of tensions between the Boyle Heights community and Hollenbeck police officers, who in 2016 shot six people. The neighborhood had more fatal on-duty police shootings that year than any other neighborhood in Los Angeles, according to data compiled by the Los Angeles Times. The youngest killed were both teenagers: 14-year-old Jesse Romero and 16-year-old Jose Mendez, both of whom were fatally shot in 2016. Lawsuits in both shootings are pending. Police said Barragan was shot after officers responded to gunshots that were heard from the nearby Hollenbeck station. Patrol officers searching for the source of the gunfire saw Barragan just before midnight, and when they tried to detain him, he ran, the department said in a statement. A loaded handgun was found in a fenced area a short distance away, police said. Barragan was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:28 a.m., according to Los Angeles County coroners records. The lawsuit, however, described a different sequence of events, saying Almeda jumped hastily out of a police car and drew his gun while running toward Barragan, which prompted him to run from the officer. Within seconds of Barragans running start, Almeda shoots his firearm at Barragans back, who succumbs in a forward motion, the complaint said. The suit also said officers failed to call paramedics quickly because they were trying to buy time to fabricate a false basis so as to justify the shooting and killing. Citing video footage, the complaint said that Barragan was shot in the back, but that officers suggested to the coroners office to post false information about the shooting that Barragan was shot in his chest, in an effort to imply he was facing officers and posed a threat. Dale Galipo, the attorney representing Barragans mother, Guadalupe Barragan, said he recommended the settlement because he believed it was in the best interest of the family. He said he accepted the relatively low amount because of the question of whether Barragan possessed a gun at the time of his death. I dont believe the family is completely happy with the settlement and does not completely feel justice was done, he said. I hope this provides some closure and that police agencies will continue to work on limiting these shootings. An LAPD spokesman said the agency was not commenting on the matter and referred a reporter to their 2017 statement about the shooting. alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com Twitter: @r_valejandra UPDATES: 3:50 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from the familys attorney. This article was originally published at 1 p.m. In Los Angeles, members of the City Council have had the power to block funding for homeless and affordable housing projects by refusing to hand over a required letter. Critics have sued the city over it, denouncing the rule as an unfair and arbitrary pocket veto. Now the city must get rid of that requirement or end up losing out on state funding for housing projects. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law Thursday that would prevent state money or tax credits from being awarded to any housing development that requires a letter of acknowledgment from a local official. The bill was authored by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), who said that our homelessness crisis is too severe to say no to proven solutions. Advertisement Local elected officials will continue to have significant input in the planning process, but they will not have a pocket veto to deny badly needed supportive housing projects, Chiu said in a statement. Chiu proposed his bill after The Times reported on L.A.s requirement earlier this year. Under Los Angeles city regulations, housing developers seeking funding for affordable or homeless housing projects must get a letter of acknowledgment from the council member who represents the area where they want to build. That rule has been in effect for Proposition HHH, the $1.2-billion homeless housing bond passed by voters, and follows similar requirements for other affordable housing funds. Council members have argued that requiring the letter ensures that housing developers reach out to them early in the development process, giving them an opportunity to raise any neighborhood concerns and build community support for projects. City Councilman Gil Cedillo, who heads a council committee focused on housing, called the new law a solution in search of a problem. Council offices are not standing in the way of building permanent supportive housing, Cedillo said in a statement Thursday. What you have to figure out is how to convince the NIMBY folks that dont want that type of housing in their community. The Times combed emails and other public records to find that council members had withheld the letter of acknowledgment in at least three recent cases, thwarting potential projects in South L.A., Sun Valley and Westlake. In some cases, council members have used the letter as leverage to get developers to tweak their plans. Cedillo stressed that far more projects had been approved than turned down. Nonprofits that assist poor and homeless people have complained that the rule allows politicians to block projects without any commonly agreed standards or public scrutiny. The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment sued the city over the requirement, calling it an illegal, unnecessary, arbitrary, and discriminatory barrier to the construction of affordable and supportive housing. Attorneys with Public Counsel, which helped represent the community group that sued L.A. over the rule, said they welcomed the new law. But staff attorney Faizah Malik stressed that the state law would not automatically eliminate the disputed requirement, and the city would have to take steps to remove it if it wanted to qualify for state money. So far, it hasnt removed it, it hasnt removed any other processes that permit backroom vetoes, and it hasnt taken steps to remediate for the harm that this illegal policy has caused, Malik wrote. We will continue to litigate to address these issues. It was not immediately clear Thursday how L.A. officials would respond to the new law, which goes into effect in January. Los Angeles housing department head Rushmore Cervantes said this week that if Brown signed the law, his staff would work with Mayor Eric Garcetti and the council to craft policies in line with the state regulations. Garcetti spokeswoman Anna Bahr said that the mayor will not support any policy that would result in state resources being denied to much-needed affordable housing projects, but it would be up to council members to decide whether to eliminate the letter requirement. Cedillo said Thursday that he did not want to remove it, but would take that step if needed to retain state funding for housing. emily.alpert@latimes.com Twitter: @AlpertReyes In the two days of opening the funeral books from September 26-27, the embassy received many messages of condolences from organisations and individuals as well as diplomatic representatives of different countries in Spain over the passing away of the leader. Spanish King Felipe VI also extended his condolences to Vietnam over the loss. Writing on the funeral book, Ambassador to Spain Ngo Tien Dung highlighted contributions of President Tran Dai Quang in different positions. The image of a President who devoted his whole life for the national reform, poverty reduction, sustainable development and international integration will be remembered by Vietnamese people, he stated. The Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela also held a solemn ceremony and opened a funeral book commemorating President Tran Dai Quang. In his speech at the ceremony, Ambassador Dao Thanh Chung said that President Tran Dai Quang was an excellent leader who made great sacrifices for the nation as well as important contributions to the national construction and development, a leader trusted by international friends and devoted to the growth of ties between Vietnam and other countries in the world. The passing away of the President is a great loss of Vietnam and the international community, he added. All the participants at the ceremony spent a minute of silent in memory of President Tran Dai Quang. Venezuelan and international fiends in the country, as well as many delegations of local officials, political and social organisations, including a high-ranking delegation of Venezuela led by Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopes came to the embassy to pay tribute to the leader and wrote on the funeral book. After learning about the leaders death, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, through Ambassador Chung, conveyed their deep condolences to the Party, Government and people of Vietnam over the loss. A former Ramona Convent Secondary School student filed a lawsuit this week against the Alhambra school, saying chaperones failed to adequately supervise a class trip, which led to her being sexually assaulted by another teen. The former student, who was a senior at the all-girls Catholic school at the time, said she was half-asleep in the middle of the night during a retreat in October 2017 when she felt a female classmate massage one of her thighs and touch her breasts and genitals, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Sister Kathleen Callaway, the schools president, said Friday she had not seen the lawsuit and was unable to comment. School employees who chaperoned the trip to Lake Hughes, northwest of Palmdale, did not stay in the cabins with students during the weeklong trip, but instead slept in a separate house on the grounds. During the first night of the retreat, a chaperone made sure all the girls were in the cabin about 9 p.m. and then left for the night, the suit says. Advertisement There was no lock on the cabin door, and the teens were afraid of being alone in what seemed like the middle of nowhere without any type of protection, so they decided to pair off sharing a bunk bed while sleeping in their own sleeping bags, according to the lawsuit. Thats when the former student says she was groped by another girl who was sleeping in her bunk. The teen said she threw her assailants arm away from her twice and then went to an empty bunk, where she stayed until morning. The teen told two chaperones about the incident, who then took her to the main chaperone to report it, the suit states. The teacher told her to stay in the main chaperone house and said someone would bring her meals throughout the day. The teen left briefly to have breakfast and attend Mass but was escorted back to the house, where she waited for the rest of the day. The lawsuit says a Ramona counselor told the girl that after interviewing both students, she found the encounter was consensual. The girl denied that claim and was told to calm down. The teens father was called to pick her up about 12 hours after she initially reported the incident. The girls mother called the school, and a nun told her she was so sorry about her daughter being sexually assaulted, the lawsuit states. When the mother asked why she hadnt been called earlier, the nun replied that the school did not want to ruin the retreat for the other girls and they had to do their investigation. The suit alleges the other student was immediately allowed to return to school. The former student is seeking unspecified damages for emotional distress and suffering. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @Hannahnfry A dollar goes a long way on skid row, Los Angeles Police Capt. Marc Reina said. So investigators were not completely surprised to find homeless people there taking $1, food or cigarettes to forge signatures of registered voters on petitions to qualify initiatives for the ballot, police said. Now, an LAPD crackdown this year on suspected election fraud on skid row has yielded eight felony arrests, including three last week, booking records show. Arrests in May were bumped down to misdemeanor violations. The district attorney is still deciding how to charge the recent cases. Advertisement They paid individuals to sign the names, said Officer Deon Joseph, the senior lead officer on skid row. Thats an assault on our democracy. State officials said petition signature scams are not widespread in California, but Joseph said they pop up periodically on skid row. People hired to get initiatives on the ballot are often paid by signature, typically $1 to $2, although a recent glut of proposed ballot initiatives has pushed the rate as high as $6 a signature, officials said. But they cant pay people for signatures, and having them forge signatures off registered voters lists is an obvious violation. Gov. Jerry Brown this month vetoed a bill banning per-signature payment for petition circulators, saying the law could enhance ballot control by the wealthiest interests. Officer Deon Joseph said petition signature scams pop up periodically on skid row, where he is the LAPDs senior lead officer. (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times) Dean Logan, head of Los Angeles County elections, said he doubted forgeries would get by his office, which manually checks petition signatures against those on registration forms. But Logan said he was concerned about the effect of the arrests on public confidence in the electoral system. Its not really voter fraud, in terms of illegal voting and manipulation, Logan said. But I am certainly concerned about any activity that causes voters to lose faith in the process. Reina, the LAPD captain, said petition signature scammers have been tough to catch and bring down. They come on different days, at different times, or set up late at night, Reina said. In May, Christine Hooks, a signature gatherer, set up a card table at 6th and San Julian streets, Joseph said, and opened for business at 5:50 a.m., when homeless people were breaking down their tents and likely to be the only ones around. Hooks, 30, who police said was homeless, allegedly told them she had downloaded voter registration lists off the internet, Joseph said. The lists were of people from from Orange and San Diego counties and Monrovia, Joseph said. Hooks was later sentenced to 12 days in county jail on a misdemeanor election code violation, said Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for the city attorney. Richard Howard, 62, of Harbor City was sentenced to 60 days in jail on a similar charge. Charges were dismissed against Harold Bennett, 53, of Harvard Heights; Louis Wise, 36, of Compton; and Bernard Graham, 50, of Pima, Ariz., according to Wilcox. The message got sent this is not big deal, Joseph said. Theyll go right back out and do the same thing. Using undercover officers and security camera footage, police arrested Kirkland Kauzava Washington, Kevin Clark Torrance and Ashley Owen on Sept. 21 on suspicion of felony election fraud. Washington, 38, of South Los Angeles allegedly set up a card table that evening outside the Midnight Mission, where homeless people line up for meals or beds, Reina said. Torrance, 43, who gave his address at a single-room occupancy apartment on skid row, and Owen, 29, who police said was homeless, allegedly were paid to forge voters signatures on Washingtons ballot petition, police said. Prosecutors have asked for further investigation before deciding on charges against the three suspects, a district attorneys office spokesman said. The petition in the September case was to qualify a measure to overturn a recent decision eliminating cash bail from the criminal justice system, Joseph said. The petitions related to the May arrests concerned clean air and water, Long Beach hotel workers and a Sheriffs Department oversight commission, police said. Investigators said they have found no connection to the lobbyists that hired the signature collectors or to the political campaigns behind the initiatives. The signature gatherers do not appear to be politically motivated, Joseph said. The lure is the money, Joseph said. Joseph said he has seen homeless people working as petition circulators and fraudulent signers. Even a homeless person out for a buck or a meal should be prosecuted, if only to deter future crime, he said. Whether people are homeless or rich, no one is above the law, Joseph said. If they do it here, they will do it to any other disenfranchised group. gholland@latimes.com Twitter: @geholland Despite an Orange County judges ruling this week that Californias so-called sanctuary protections for immigrants who are in the country illegally are unconstitutional as they apply to charter cities, state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said Friday that the state would continue to uphold its laws. Preserving the safety and constitutional rights of all our people is a statewide imperative which cannot be undermined by contrary local rules, Becerra said in a statement. We will continue working to ensure that our values and laws like the California Values Act are upheld throughout our state. Jennifer Molina, press secretary for the attorney generals office, declined to comment on the likelihood of an appeal. Huntington Beach on Thursday became the first city to successfully challenge the California Values Act, also known as Senate Bill 54, after Orange County Superior Court Judge James Crandall affirmed that the law violates its local control as a charter city one governed by a charter adopted by local voters. Advertisement Huntington Beach City Atty. Michael Gates said the ruling makes Californias 121 charter cities which include Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose and San Francisco exempt from SB 54, authored by then-Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). The law in many cases prohibits state and local police agencies from notifying federal officials about the impending release of immigrants in custody who may be deported. This is a significant victory for the rule of law, the [California] Constitution, the citys charter authority and other charter cities, Gates said in a statement Friday. We will continue to hold Sacramento accountable for unconstitutional state law overreaches. The city of Huntington Beach will not allow Sacramento to violate its constitutionally protected rights. Huntington Beach joined a wave of Orange County opposition to SB 54 that started in March when the City Council in Los Alamitos another charter city passed an ordinance to opt out of the law. Since then, the Orange County Board of Supervisors has voted to join a federal lawsuit against the measure, the Costa Mesa City Council has adopted a resolution opposing the law and the city of Fountain Valley has signed on to a law groups brief supporting the federal case. The Newport Beach City Council also passed a resolution opposing SB 54 and authorized filing a legal brief supporting the federal lawsuit. Newport Beach, which also is a charter city, hasnt filed such a brief, but City Atty. Aaron Harp said Friday that it still intends to. Orange Countys other charter cities are Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Irvine, Santa Ana and Seal Beach, according to the League of California Cities. Crandall said Thursday that the operation of a police department and its jail is a city affair. For the state to say one size fits all for policing isnt going to fit everybody. California Deputy Atty. Gen. Jonathan Eisenberg contended that municipalities can exercise other forms of autonomy, saying there is an important need for a uniform public safety law. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa), whose 48th Congressional District includes Huntington Beach and parts of Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, issued a statement Friday commending Huntington Beach for its victory. This court case was a huge setback for supporters of sanctuary policies, said Rohrabacher, who urged various city governments to challenge the mandate. This law was forced down the throats of Californians and dramatically undermined their safety and security. If cities and counties want to cooperate with ICE or other federal law enforcement, they have a right to do so, and I support the judges decision. priscella.vega@latimes.com Vega writes for Times Community News. Times staff writer Hillary Davis contributed to this report. UPDATES: 2:45 p.m.: This article has been updated with comments from California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and other details. This article originally published at 11:50 a.m. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law Friday that would allow the state to take over a Compton water district that for years delivered brown, smelly water to its customers. The governors action marks the first time that the State Water Resources Control Board would take over a water district. Local officials and community activists have long vowed to get rid of the Sativa Los Angeles County Water Districts five-member elected board of directors. Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Carson), who introduced the legislation, said he can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the customers of Sativa are on their way to receiving quality drinking water. Assembly Bill 1577 will effectively dissolve the board and oust the general manager at Sativa, which provides water to about 1,600 homes in Compton and Willowbrook. The state water board will then start the process of appointing an administrator to manage Sativas daily operations. That process could take two to three months, officials said. Advertisement Two years ago, the state water board was granted the authority to install an administrator at a failing water system. However, the role has to be paid for by the state, and the law did not provide funding. The governor signed legislation Sept. 17 that appropriates $200,000 for a state-appointed administrator to helm Sativa. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors and the Local Agency Formation Commission have asked the state to appoint the countys Department of Public Works as the interim administrator. For years, Sativa mismanaged the delivery of a basic necessity to our communities, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said in a statement. With the signing of AB 1577, Los Angeles County is ready, willing and able to step in as interim administrator of Sativa, and ensure that residents of Compton and Willowbrook receive the clean and safe water they deserve. AB 1577 will do swiftly what others have been trying to do for years: dissolve Sativa. Compton resident Genoveva Camargo, right, holds water from her tap with activist Maria Estrada. They both supported Assembly BIll 1577, which dismantles the Sativa Los Angeles County Water Districts board of directors. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Authorities have long questioned whether Sativa should exist at all. Over several decades, district officials have been accused of giving themselves illegal Christmas bonuses, hiring family members and lacking the funding to replace its aging pipes, which deposit a high concentration of manganese into the water. Outrage over the handling of the district reached a boiling point when discolored water began flowing from the tap with greater frequency earlier this year. Customers began posting videos online of tea-colored water coming from their faucets. Then the former general manager, Maria Rachelle Garza, was accused of hiring people to pose as Sativa supporters and getting them to attend a local congresswomans town hall regarding complaints of dirty water. Garza was suspended and later resigned. Residents then launched a recall effort to remove the board. In July, LAFCO which oversees public water agencies such as Sativa voted to dissolve the district. Its a rare, slow process that Sativas board could further delay by suing LAFCO or galvanizing customers to force an election in which the voters would decide the districts fate. A provision in AB 1577 eliminates voters right to contest the dissolution, speeding up the process by months, said LAFCOs executive officer, Paul Novak. Current law requires that LAFCO transfer the services of any public agency it dissolves to another public agency. The bill allows the state-appointed administrator to select a permanent replacement, which could also be an investor-owned utility. The bill shields the replacement provider from liability and makes it a criminal offense for the board to divert any assets or sell off the system. It also calls for a forensic audit of Sativas finances. In recent weeks, Sativa has launched a last-ditch effort for its survival. The board petitioned the governor to veto the bill and paid $20,000 to hire a lobbying firm to gain access to the governor when he did not respond to their written requests. Sativa sent the governors office a petition with about 300 signatures of customers who wanted to keep the current leadership this week. On Friday, Thomas Martin, Sativas interim general manager, said he was disappointed that the governor did not hear the people. I was hoping it would be a different outcome, he said. We disagree with the legislators decision. We wish the best of luck to the customers. (Los Angeles Times) For more California breaking news, follow @AngelJennings. She can also be reached at angel.jennings@latimes.com. UPDATES: 5:05 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Carson). This article was originally posted at 3:20 p.m. President Trumps second appearance at the U.N. General Assembly did not get the response he probably sought from the 193 countries gathered in New York this week. Some leaders and diplomats openly laughed at his boasts. He failed to win support for his hard-line policies on Iran, Venezuela, an international war crimes court, climate change and migration. French President Emmanuel Macron scolded him, accusing him of abandoning the foundation of todays world order and global cooperation enshrined by the U.N. itself. In the end, Trumps America first agenda meant America was mostly alone during his four days at the U.N. this week. Advertisement Leaders who once courted Trump, attempted to gain his ear, or tried to persuade him to support global institutions that long were U.S. foreign policy priorities, made clear they would forge on without him on multiple issues of concern. When Trump and his aides sought to unify the world against Iran, for example, European allies made clear they disagreed with his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. They even joined Russia and China to announce a payments system intended to circumvent U.S. sanctions. And when Trump chaired a Security Council meeting that he initially had wanted to focus on threats from Iran, he sat in silence as leader after leader praised the landmark disarmament deal he had quit, and the need for global cooperation. In his General Assembly address, Trump similarly criticized a new U.N. pact aimed at easing the global refugee and migration crisis, saying migration should not be governed by an international body but by individual countries. That drew almost no support. Officials later noted that virtually every nation had signed the accord except the United States and Hungary. Some pushed back against Trumps exhortation of patriotism and national sovereignty over globalism and multilateral efforts to combat the worlds ills. This path of unilateralism leads us directly to withdrawal and conflict, to widespread confrontation between everyone, to the detriment of all even, eventually, of those who believe they are the strongest, Macron told the General Assembly. Trump largely ignored the criticism. Asked later about the laughter that his campaign-style boasts to the General Assembly had provoked, Trump said other leaders were laughing with him, not at him. The White House said Friday that Trump had successfully advanced U.S. interests at the U.N., including signing a trade agreement with South Korea, the first such pact since he entered office. He pressed world leaders on counter-proliferation in places like Iran, North Korea and Syria; rallied them to do more to counter the opioid crisis; and made his case for peace through strength in his address to the General Assembly, said Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council. Trump ruffled more than a few diplomatic feathers while in New York. He publicly slammed Canadas foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, as someone we dont like very much, presumably because of his trade war with Canada. That forced the U.S. ambassador to Canada to apologize to the consummate professional and good friend. Trump repeatedly accused China not Russia of interfering in Americas upcoming midterm elections. As evidence he cited a supplement in an Iowa newspaper that was clearly identified as sponsored by China Daily, a state-run media organ. Chinese officials were quick to note that many countries buy ads in U.S. newspapers to promote goods or policies, and they denied any improper activities aimed at the Nov. 6 election. Trump won praise from numerous leaders for his willingness to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a bold, if yet unsuccessful, effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and production facilities. The president said he expected to hold his second summit with Kim quite soon, and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo is expected to return to North Korea in coming weeks to make arrangements. Trump had nothing but warm words for Kim, a sharp contrast to last year, when the president derided the youthful dictator as Rocket Man and threatened to totally destroy North Korea. What some leaders see as a double standard in Trumps treatment of Iran and North Korea complicates their ability to trust Washington as a consistent partner. Since pulling out of Iran deal in May, Trump has revived harsh economic sanctions on Tehran and plans to impose more in November that will make it difficult for other countries to buy its oil or engage in business there. Trumps impetuous decision to violate the [Iran deal] an agreement that has effectively worked to verifiably constrain Irans nuclear weapons potential has isolated Washington [and] angered our European allies, said Daryl Kimball, a weapons expert who heads the Arms Control Assn., a Washington policy group. Nonproliferation is a global challenge that requires global cooperation, dialogue and constructive U.S. leadership, he added. Unfortunately, Trumps nonproliferation and nuclear risk reduction policies are, so far, a dangerous mess. Times staff writer Eli Stokols contributed to this report. tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Friday, Sept. 28, and heres whats happening across California: TOP STORIES President Trump and other Republicans sought to portray Christine Blasey Ford as part of a politically inspired con job aimed at derailing Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination. Instead, through hours of testimony, they got an American Everywoman who described a searing memory of a sexual assault. Robin Abcarian breaks down who was more believable: a Supreme Court nominee or his accuser. Los Angeles Times After Ford testified she was sexually assaulted, Kavanaugh responded with anger and tears. Los Angeles Times Advertisement Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the panels top Democrat, also came in for some grilling. Los Angeles Times If Fords testimony stirred up painful memories, heres where you can get help. Los Angeles Times See you in court, Elon The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Elon Musk on Thursday, alleging that the Tesla chief executives tweets about taking the electric-car company private at $420 a share were false and misleading and asking the court to, in effect, force him out of Teslas leadership. In its complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, the SEC asks the court to prohibit Musk from acting as an officer or director of a publicly traded company. It also asks the court to force Musk to pay back any ill-gotten gains received as the result of his slew of Aug. 7 tweets. Los Angeles Times Get the Essential California newsletter An L.A. County judge Thursday reversed his order that journalists not publish courtroom photographs of Ramon Escobar, who is charged with murder in a string of attacks on homeless people. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) L.A. STORIES Reversal: A Los Angeles judge on Thursday reversed his order barring journalists from publishing courtroom photos of a Houston man charged with killing multiple homeless people in recent weeks. Los Angeles Times Cool exhibition: First Glimpse peers into UC Irvines treasure trove of California art, the largest collection of art that no one has ever seen. Los Angeles Times Saving a hospital: The city of Lynwood is moving to buy St. Francis hospital, which comes after the hospitals parent company filed for bankruptcy protection last month and sparked alarm in the city. Its a bold plan to protect what officials say is a vital institution. Los Angeles Times NBA season on the horizon: Lonzo Ball participated in a full-contact practice Thursday for the first time in training camp after having arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in July. ESPN IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER In Mexican politics: Javier Duarte, a onetime rising star of Mexicos ruling party and the former governor of Veracruz state, pleaded guilty to two charges Wednesday money laundering and criminal association in exchange for a lighter sentence. Los Angeles Times Suing ICE: A Sacramento man on Wednesday filed a claim seeking $750,000 against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging that agents beat and threatened him with deportation last year when he refused to turn in other people who were in the country illegally. Los Angeles Times POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT On the bus: Republican John Cox launched a bus tour in California governors race, telling voters help is on the way. Los Angeles Times Poll: Republican Rep. Duncan Hunters legal woes dont seem to be having the devastating effect on his reelection chances that Democrats had hoped. Los Angeles Times Plus: A GOP congressional candidate walks into a mosque: How Andrew Grants constituents reacted to his outreach. Los Angeles Times Pension watch: CalPERS chief faces short-term and long-term liabilities. Wall Street Journal Streetcar! Orange County Transportation Authority board members recently awarded a $220.5-million contract to a construction firm to build the first modern streetcar in Orange County. Los Angeles Times CRIME AND COURTS Gruesome: Police in San Francisco have confirmed that a headless body found in a fish tank was that of the homeowner, who vanished several months ago. Los Angeles Times Flash mob thefts: Californias attorney general says 17 people have been charged in connection with a string of brazen robberies of more than $1 million in electronics from Apple stores throughout the state. Los Angeles Times Stating his case: A California man who unwittingly sold bank accounts to Russians meddling in U.S. elections is living in a constant state of fear after becoming a government cooperator, his attorney said in a court filing Wednesday. Associated Press THE ENVIRONMENT Dark side of wine labeling: A California winemakers Oregon controversy. San Francisco Chronicle CALIFORNIA CULTURE Tasty! Top Chef alum Shirley Chung wants to change the way people think about Chinese food in L.A. Los Angeles Times A major issue here: Strict rent control has been banned in California for 20 years. Now voters could resurrect it. Sacramento Bee Plus: Is rent control an answer to the states housing crisis? NPR Pricey: Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and actress Portia de Rossi have bought a Beverly Hills home steeped in Old Hollywood glamour for $15 million, The Times has confirmed. Los Angeles Times At the theaters: In A Star Is Born, his directorial debut, Bradley Cooper wrangles with the celebrity industrial complex. So you can imagine how this interview went. New York Times CALIFORNIA ALMANAC Los Angeles area: partly cloudy, 75, Friday; partly cloudy, 72, Saturday. San Diego: foggy, 75, Friday; partly cloudy, 75, Saturday. San Francisco area: partly cloudy, 62, Friday; partly cloudy, 67, Saturday. San Jose: partly cloudy, 74, Friday and Saturday. Sacramento: partly cloudy, 83, Friday; partly cloudy, 76, Saturday. More weather is here. AND FINALLY Todays California memory comes from Anita Soluna: In the 1950s, our family spent one week per summer in Yosemite. We stayed in a housekeeping tent. It was one large, elevated room with a wooden floor. Outside was a pole with a box in which to put food so as not to attract bears into the tent. We put all our food, including a carton of milk and a loaf of raisin bread, into the box. The next morning, we discovered the box open, the milk carton empty, a print of the bears bottom in the dirt, and a semicircle of bread with all the raisins missing. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.) Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad. If supporters of Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court hoped that Christine Blasey Ford would falter in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, they must be bitterly disappointed. In insisting that she was 100% certain Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, the psychology professor from Palo Alto was a plausible and poignant witness. Direct, straightforward, consistent and sympathetic, Ford easily withstood attempts by a career prosecutor retained by Republicans on the committee to undermine her account. But then Ford was followed by Kavanaugh, who was just as adamant in denying the allegations against him. In an angry, emotional and at times astonishingly unjudicial opening statement, the appeals court judge lashed out against Democrats on the committee, accused them of unleashing Fords accusation when it seemed that their ideological objections to his candidacy wouldnt succeed in keeping him off the court. Calling his confirmation process a national disgrace and a circus, he said: You have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy. But if Kavanaughs anger and his tears were jarring, they too seemed achingly genuine. So Thursdays hearing produced what we expected: irreconcilable first-person accounts from a long-serving, highly regarded federal judge and from an accomplished educator whose story is specific, vivid and credible, and who seems to have no motivation to lie. It was the he said/she said, only heightened by the conviction of two self-assured witnesses. So where do we go from here? Advertisement If theyre unwilling to take the extra time to do the job right, we would urge the Senate to reject this nomination. The best and most obvious way forward would have been to conduct the fuller, impartial investigation that Ford had called for and that Republicans, including President Trump, staunchly resisted. Thursdays hearing was all well and good riveting drama that offered Americans an opportunity to see the principals for themselves. But other than the passionate presentations of Ford and Kavanaugh, it was in many ways a charade. Democrats went on and on about Fords bravery and bashed Republicans at every opportunity; Republicans ceded their morning time to a prosecutor whose clear assignment was to find discrepancies in Fords story rather than elucidate the truth. The second part of the hearing involved a lot of political posturing, with a substantial amount of time spent on boofing, ralphing and grandstanding. An FBI investigation might have provided corroborating evidence or exculpatory evidence that could have shed further light on what happened, if anything, between Kavanaugh and Ford at a party in suburban Maryland in the early 1980s. A reopened FBI background check should obviously have been undertaken before the hearing, but it still could have been initiated afterward. It was especially important that agents interview Mark Judge, who Ford has said was in the room at the time she was allegedly attacked by Kavanaugh. But instead, Republicans cravenly announced Thursday evening that they intend to move ahead with the Judiciary Committee vote scheduled for Friday morning, which almost certainly means forgoing a more thorough investigation. Among other things, a reopened FBI investigation would have allowed for examination of the other accusations that have emerged since Ford came forward. Deborah Ramirez has claimed that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they were students at Yale University, and Julie Swetnick claims the teenage Kavanaugh was present at a party where she was gang-raped. Kavanaugh has strenuously denied all the allegations categorically and unequivocally. Apparently, we wont learn more about those incidents either. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Its true that Democrats who were urging further investigation had an ulterior motive: They wanted to delay action on Kavanaughs nomination until after the midterm election. But Republicans owed it to the court and the country and to Kavanaugh to ensure that the serious allegations against him were credibly investigated. As things stand now, Kavanaughs nomination seems certain to move quickly through the committee to the floor of the Senate, even though critically important, deeply disturbing questions have not been answered. Given that Republicans have proved unwilling to take the extra time to do the job right, we urge the Senate to reject his nomination. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook What constitutes the proper and ethical treatment of animals has evolved substantially over the last few decades and, inevitably, will continue to change as people better understand the animals that share our homes as pets, roam outdoors as wild creatures, or end up as food on our plates. A decade ago, California residents voted overwhelmingly to free the states millions of egg-laying hens from cages so tiny and cramped that the birds could not stand up, spread their wings or turn around. The measure they approved, Proposition 2, banned California farmers from housing their hens in so-called battery cages, starting in 2015. It also banned cramped crates for gestating pigs and veal calves (although there is little veal or pork production here). The California Legislature later passed a law mandating that out-of-state egg farmers comply with the same requirements on any of their hens laying eggs for sale in this state. But the ballot measure specified only that hens be given enough space to move around. As a result, most farmers simply refitted their barns with larger colony cages. That was better than the miserable battery cages, but it was not what the measures advocates expected nor what hens need for the most humane treatment on a working farm. Proposition 12, on the ballot this November, requires that eggs being sold in California come from cage-free hens by the beginning of 2022. Advertisement Proposition 12, on the ballot this November, requires that eggs being sold in California come from cage-free hens by the beginning of 2022, and it details what that means. It also requires that all veal and pork products sold here come from calves or breeding pigs (or their offspring) that were not confined. This is a humane measure that will move farmers toward better treatment of their animals, and voters should support it. Dubbed the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, Proposition 12 is sponsored and financed by the Humane Society of the United States, which also backed Proposition 2. In contrast to the earlier initiative, this measure specifies how much barn floor space a hen should get and the types of cage-free layouts that are acceptable. The measure also requires that hens have nest boxes and perches for flying to and from. These are not luxury amenities for hens. Instead, the rationale is that the extra space and other features are important to hens health. For example, the United Egg Producers guidelines note that perches allow hens living in large flocks a refuge from other birds and help calm them. The propositions provisions for hens are based on the requirements that the United Egg Producers, a trade association for egg farmers, sets for farmers who want the associations certification as cage-free operations. Theyre also close to the ones for hens set by the nonprofit Humane Farm Animal Care, which seeks to improve the treatment of farm animals. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Though numerous animal welfare groups support the measure, some oppose it on the grounds that it does not go far enough. And some agriculture industry groups argue that it goes too far too fast. The Assn. of California Egg Farmers argues that farmers have already spent $250 million complying with Proposition 2, and the new measure would force those who have not already gone cage-free 62% of the states egg farmers to spend even more. If Proposition 2 is any guide, egg prices wont go up sharply. According to a Purdue University study of egg prices in California from December 2014 to September 2016, the average price of a dozen eggs rose 22%. But by the fall of 2016, prices were only 9% higher than they were right before the law took effect in 2015. (On a $3 carton of a dozen eggs, that would have been an increase of little more than a quarter.) The National Pork Producers Council opposes the measure, saying that the mandatory changes in housing conditions would come at significant cost and increase food prices. However, as with hens, there is a growing movement to treat pigs and calves more humanely. There are already nine states (including California) that bar in-state pork producers from using gestation crates for pregnant sows. Its heartening that both farmers and buyers acknowledge the importance of improving animal welfare standards. But its also important that animal welfare standards be more than suggestions or good-hearted gestures to be undertaken when its convenient and withdrawn when its not. Thats why its important to have a law like Proposition 12 in place. If Proposition 2 moved animal welfare standards one step forward, Proposition 12 moves them an important step further. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook Father Junipero Serra may have been canonized by the pope in 2015, but soon thereafter his public reputation began to falter. Statues of Serra, who founded the first California missions, have been vandalized in recent years, and there have been calls for his name to be removed from public places. This month, Stanford University announced that it will remove Serras name from not only the schools main entrance and mailing address, but also two of its buildings. The decision is a good one in many ways. It spares Native Americans and others on campus any distress they might experience from having to work, study or live in or near a space named after a man who brought great harm to California Indians. It is important that Stanford foster a campus environment that welcomes and nurtures diversity and multiculturalism. But as a Stanford alum, an expert on Father Serra and California history, and a scholar who consulted with the original faculty committee that took up the question of removing Serras name from the campus, I cannot help but wonder about the scope of this decision, the contradictions inherent in the remedies it proposes, and what it says about our understanding of Serra and the missions. Advertisement I fear that Stanfords decision is based on, and will perpetuate, a highly selective reading of recent scholarship on the California missions, and that it heralds the return of a discredited historical orthodoxy in which Serra is one-dimensional and California Indians are passive victims. Stanford should redouble its efforts to examine its original sins. The university stated in its announcement that the missions treatment of Indians has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, and that a reevaluation of Serras legacy has focused on the harmful and violent impacts of the mission system on Native Americans. These criticisms are well founded. But while they may be new to Stanfords administrators, they are as old as the missions themselves. A preponderance of recent scholarship has told a more nuanced and balanced story. It has focused not only on the destructive power of the missions but also on the fortitude and resilience shown by Indians who lived in them. Faced with a colonial invasion in which foreign plants and animals and settlers overran their lands and imperiled their subsistence, many Indians looked to the missions as places where they and their families might survive. Recent scholarship has also revealed that men like Serra could not have built and run missions without the help of Native Americans. No doubt Indians labor was coerced, sometimes by soldiers, sometimes by padres, and sometimes by Indians in their employ. And yes, the threat of Spanish violence was everywhere. But to see men like Serra as all powerful is to deny the degree to which Indians not only resisted the missions but also, in one way or another, under horrific conditions, played a vital role in the religious and economic worlds that emerged there as they navigated the challenges of colonialism and sought to make the missions their own. Serras chapter of California history continued a colonization process that began centuries earlier. Countless other leading missionaries from Spain as well as royal officials, governors and military officials either preceded Serra or came with him and made colonization possible. Many of these men have a street or way named after them on the Stanford campus, yet not one of those places has been singled out for renaming. Clearly aware of this glaring inconsistency, the committee stated that absent the discovery of major new evidence about a particular individuals misconduct, these other named features should not be subject to renaming. Surely a quick trip to Stanfords extensive library collections would yield a mountain of evidence that these other men are guilty of deeds similar to, if not worse than, Serras. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion The schools decision to rename Serra Way after Jane Stanford, the co-founder of the university, is at first glance appealing. But on closer inspection it may prove counterproductive and insensitive. Jane Stanfords unilateral decision to cap the universitys female enrollment at 500 students was a blot on the institution and a real setback for women, the institution and coeducation. Moreover, few persons of means were more attached to the promotion of a highly sympathetic understanding of Serra than Jane Stanford. She frequented Mission Carmel where Serra is buried, helped restore it and funded a granite monument honoring Serras arrival in Monterey. It was the first such monument dedicated to Serra, and it contributed greatly to his rising fame and notoriety. Stanford seems committed to scaling back Serras presence on its campus. But the universitys administrators should do more. They should remove the names of the other Spanish colonists from the campus, as well as Serras, from all its streets. Stanford should also redouble its efforts to examine its original sins, namely the degree to which the Stanford fortune was gained through the exploitation of Chinese laborers and the ways in which, as Californias governor and a U.S. senator, Leland Stanford tolerated or was complicit in policies that directly harmed Native Americans in California and elsewhere. The issue of street and building names will ultimately fade and be replaced by timelier causes. The true measure of Stanfords inclusivity will be found in the diversity of its faculty, students and course offerings. In this sense, too, more needs to be done. Steven W. Hackel is a professor of history at UC Riverside and the author of three books, including Junipero Serra: Californias Founding Father. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook While in Japan, Trac met with Vice President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Masahiko Komura; Head of the Secretariat of the Japanese Communist Party Akira Koike; Minister of Justice Yoko Kamikawa; and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Kazuyuki Nakane. The Japanese officials expressed their condolences over the passing of Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang. Highlighting the delegations visit in conjunction with the 45th anniversary of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic ties, they affirmed the bilateral relations are growing fruitfully. They expressed their wish to boost collaboration with Vietnam and the CPV, saying that exchanges through the party channel created a foundation for political trust, hence fostering the development of economic cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, and linkages in other sectors. For his part, Trac praised the strong, comprehensive, and practical growth of the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership. He presented his opinions on measures to reinforce bilateral relations and called for Japan to expand investments in Vietnam. The delegation also had working sessions with the Supreme Court, the Public Prosecutors Office, the National Personnel Authority, and the National Police Agency to study their experiences in anti-corruption and judicial reform. The Japanese sides shared information on the performance of work ethics, corruption prevention, and completion of the legal system, and pledged to support Vietnam in these fields. The Vietnamese delegation also visited Shizuoka prefecture and laid a wreath at a memorial stele for doctor Asaba Sakitaro, which was built 100 years ago by Phan Boi Chau, a Vietnamese nationalist figure. The doctor had given Chau great assistance when he was in Japan as part of the Dong Du movement in early 20th century that encouraged young Vietnamese to go East to study and seek ways to save the nation. The stele has become a symbol of Vietnam-Japan friendship. Doubling down again on its hostility toward immigrants, the Trump administration has proposed denying permanent residency to anyone who receives more than a modest amount of assistance from public benefit programs. If immigrants use a Section 8 housing voucher or buy groceries with SNAP, this revised regulation could label that person a public charge a dependent on the government and the Department of Homeland Security could deny her or him a green card. Further, if an immigrant left the United States for an extended period (perhaps to care for an ailing parent), the public charge label could also result in being permanently denied reentry. This proposal is, in equal parts, completely pointless, flagrantly illegal and startlingly cruel. Like our budding trade war with Canada, this is the administration responding to a problem that does not exist. The White House apparently wants to conjure the image of hordes of listless immigrants flocking to our shores to cash in on our public benefits. No such hordes exist. Immigrants consistently work more on average than native-born Americans, albeit often at very low wages. Large numbers of legal immigrants, as well as all immigrants in the United States illegally, are statutorily ineligible for most major public benefit programs. That includes cash assistance (welfare), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), and non-emergency Medicaid. The few exemptions are generally given to immigrants with clear reasons for being unable to support themselves, such as injured torture survivors, or those with demonstrated commitments to working, such as U.S. veterans or those who can claim 40 quarters of work. Anyone who wants to migrate to take advantage of a nations public benefits scratched the United States off their list long ago. This proposal is, in equal parts, completely pointless, flagrantly illegal and startlingly cruel. Advertisement Further, this new rule doesnt even focus on immigrants who are, in fact, failing to support themselves. Instead it would slap the public charge label on an immigrant who receives public benefits valued at more than 15% of the federal poverty line (for one person, that annual limit in 2018 would be $1,821). Nobody can get by on $152 per month. The immigrants the administration is targeting are, like tens of millions of U.S. citizens, working hard to support themselves, but unable to afford basic necessities on low wages. The proposed rule so brazenly disregards federal law that it is difficult to imagine how the agency could defend it. Among other things, it counts SNAPs food benefits toward this new cap on financial benefits. Yet the Food and Nutrition Act, which authorizes SNAP, provides in section 8(b) that the value of benefits that may be provided under this act shall not be considered income or resources for any purpose under any federal, state or local laws, including, but not limited to, laws relating to taxation, welfare and public assistance programs. This regulation is doing precisely what the statute prohibits. The text of the proposed regulation seems to revel in the hardship it would impose on immigrants and their families. It anticipates legal immigrants will use $2.27 billion less in assistance each year. These are not generous benefits to begin with; this countrys safety net programs are parsimonious relative even to those in substantially poorer nations. If immigrants in the United States qualify for these benefits, it is because they will suffer great hardship without the help. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Because Congress has refused to maintain a reasonable federal minimum wage it has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009 a full-time, year-round minimum wage worker trying to support a family is well below the poverty line. Defenders of the current minimum wage insist that such a worker can escape poverty by supplementing those earnings with subsistence benefits such as SNAP. Yet it is precisely those benefits that the administration is trying to force immigrants to give up. Moreover, the $2.27 billion annual savings estimate is almost certainly low. Already the mere threat of a reduced chance at a future green card is having a broad chilling effect. Agencies that provide food and prenatal healthcare services that arent even in the scope of the new rule report that pregnant women are declining to enroll or dropping out for fear of being deemed a public charge. This inevitably threatens the well-being of the children they are carrying, who will be native-born American citizens. Last spring, the Trump administration ripped children away from their immigrant parents at the southern border to dissuade others from coming here. Now it is using the green card process to drive immigrants away from benefits they need and are entitled to. The details are different, but the underlying thinking is the same: Make immigrants suffer. David A. Super is a professor of law at Georgetown University, where he studies poverty and inequality. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook. To the editor: Setting aside, for the moment, the she said, he said testimonies to the Senate Judiciary Committee of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his sexual assault accuser Christine Blasey Ford, the equally important question is the judges capacity to be fair in his potential adjudications. Kavanaughs attack on Democrats in general and the Clintons in particular display an alarming partisanship that would follow him onto the Supreme Court if he is confirmed. Could we ever expect a fair ruling from a justice whose bitter partisanship was so clearly on display? As for the allegations of sexual misconduct, I can believe that Kavanaugh believes what he said. After all, theres no reason for him to remember anything that allegedly happened. Unlike Ford, he was not traumatized, so that the memory of the trauma is seared into her brain for a lifetime while it might have had no impact on him. We who have experienced those indecencies get it. The men on the Judiciary Committee apparently do not. Proceeding with this confirmation will taint the Supreme Court for a generation. Advertisement Barbara H. Bergen, Los Angeles .. To the editor: Judges must listen carefully to people who come before them without being unduly influenced by prejudice. In the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Kavanaugh did not demonstrate this kind of clear thinking. Instead of answering the senators questions directly, Kavanaugh gave dissembling responses, often repeating that he had wanted a hearing immediately after new allegations surfaced. But he never did say he was open to a full FBI investigation. His argument that the FBI doesnt draw conclusions is irrelevant, because the FBI simply gathers information from interviews, follows leads and allows senators to draw their own conclusions. So the real question is, could Kavanaugh listen carefully, think clearly and judge fairly in controversial cases? The American people have a right to expect fairness from a lifetime appointee. Helen H. Gordon, Santa Barbara .. To the editor: The Republicans cant have it both ways. They cant sit there and say they believe Ford and feel badly for her and then vote to confirm Kavanaugh. She identified him as her attacker 100%. But still they are playing political games and pushing this confirmation through while the world watches with mouths agape. Women are watching, and we are furious. June Moriarty, West Hills .. To the editor: Imagine if Ford had behaved in the manner Kavanaugh did. He sniffled and cried; he interrupted the questioners; he was argumentative and raised his voice. Had she done the same things, she would have been severely criticized or belittled, if not during the hearing, then surely afterward. Who would want to be a witness or a defendant in Kavanaughs court? He demonstrated that he does not have an open mind, that he does not listen carefully, that he cannot set aside prejudices. Kathleen McFarlane, Orange .. To the editor: When I tuned into the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Sept. 27, I thought I was going to be seeing lawmakers asking reasonable questions of Kavanaugh. Within a few minutes I realized that I was wrong and I was watching a modern version of the Spanish Inquisition. What a disgraceful character assassination. Donald Thomas, Santa Rosa Valley, Calif. .. To the editor: Republican senators demonstrated in the Sept. 27 hearing the very same bullying and entitled mentality that maintains unsafe environments for women in their own homes, in the workplace and throughout the public arena. There can be no safety, justice or fair treatment for women and other vulnerable groups if such bullying behavior is permitted to remain unchecked. Margaret Martin, Los Angeles Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Nothing mobilizes people more effectively than a shared grievance. The battle cry Remember the Alamo said to have been shouted by Texan soldiers in the 1830s as they violently revolted against the ruling Mexican forces that had won a bloody battle in San Antonio comes to mind. Now the political left, out of power in every branch of the federal government, has its battle cry: Remember Merrick Garland. Since Justice Anthony Kennedy retired from the Supreme Court earlier this year and President Trump picked Judge Brett Kavanaugh to take his place, letter writers to the Los Angeles Times have been bringing up Senate Republicans unprecedented obstruction of Garland, the appellate judge President Obama nominated after Antonin Scalias death in 2016. With Republicans in Congress furious over what they believe to be the Democrats unfair treatment of Kavanaugh, letter writers mentions of Garland have picked up. Here is what some of those readers have said. Advertisement Tony Castanares of Hollywood responds to Sen. Lindsey Graham: Sen. Graham (R-S.C.) describes the Kavanaugh controversy as the most unethical sham since he has been involved in politics. Funny, I thought he was in the Senate for the Merrick Garland disgrace. Fountain Valley resident Mary J. Shepphird also mentions Anita Hill and faults wimpy Democrats: So the good old boys had the last word again about how wonderful one of their own was and what the Democrats had put him and his family through, and what a disgrace that was. The wimpy Democrats let them rant and rave on national TV and said nothing about Anita Hill or Merrick Garland. Our country deserves what it gets. Anita Rivero of Downey faults Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for todays broken Supreme Court confirmation process: If, as Kavanaugh says, the confirmation process for the Supreme Court has become a national disgrace, it is because of actions taken by Mitch McConnell and his colleagues to politicize the nomination. First, they refused even to consider Merrick Garland, an eminently qualified, moderate judge nominated by President Obama. Second, they changed the rules to remove the filibuster, thus allowing a simple majority of senators to put someone on the highest court in the land for a lifetime appointment. Third, they allow the conservative Federalist Society to provide the only candidates from which to choose. And now, theyve resisted asking the FBI to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct. This is the real disgrace, the corrupted and politicized process of picking a justice. Theodore C. Friedman of Los Angeles wants Trump to acknowledge Garland: President Trump tweeted about Brett Kavanaugh, Theres a chance that this could be one of the single most unfair, unjust things to happen to a candidate for anything. Does Trump remember Merrick Garland? He didnt even get a Senate hearing and did absolutely nothing wrong. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: Californias gas tax increase, which The Times Editorial Board encourages voters to retain by rejecting Proposition 6, hits hardest the drivers who can least afford it. When Gov. Jerry Brown was elected, he promised the people of California that he would enact no new taxes without voter approval. Your editorial tries to make this a national issue, but California has the second-highest gasoline prices in the U.S., behind only Hawaii. Your editorial mentions House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, whose state has an average gas price of $2.63, and Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, whose state has an average gas price of $2.32 per gallon. California has the highest poverty rate in the United States, and this unfair tax must be eliminated so our working people, students and senior citizens can survive and prosper. Steve Keller, Mission Viejo Advertisement .. To the editor: The editorial board is right in opposing the repeal of the gas tax. There are more than 25 million personal autos registered in California; if you include motorcycles, commercial vehicles and other classes of transport, that number jumps to higher than 35 million. The next state, Texas, has about 22 million vehicles. The wear and tear on our roads is incredible, and if you have a tire puncture on one of our craggy freeways, it can cost about $400 for a new tire. By comparison, 12 cents more per gallon of gas is a pittance. The money raised by this tax is justifiable to repair our roads and keep us safe. Efren Manjarrez, Glendale .. To the editor: I disagree with you on Proposition 6. The 12-cent increase is too much, too soon. It would have been better to have spread it out over some years. The gas tax is regressive. It does not hurt me, but it certainly punishes the working poor, those with the least disposable income likely to drive older, less efficient vehicles. It would have been more equitable to pass a graduated sales tax on cars. The tax also punishes people who live in small towns or in rural areas without public transportation options. The tax increase was rammed down our throats without public input. Voters might well have supported a graduated tax increase, but we were not given an opportunity to express our opinions. Dan Ford, Encino Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Newsoms budget proposes $3 million for Alzheimers research, brain task force By Melody Gutierrez Amyloid plaques, shown here in human brains, are a hallmark of Alzheimers disease. (UCLA School of Medicine) Gov. Gavin Newsom will call for the creation of a brain health task force and dedicate $3 million annually from the states general fund to Alzheimers disease research in the budget proposal he will release Thursday, a source close to the administration said. The money for Alzheimers research would target the new grants at understanding why the disease is more prevalent in women and people of color. Former California first lady and Alzheimers activist Maria Shriver pushed for the funding to be included in the state budget. Shriver said in a statement Wednesday that the funding would make California the first state to make understanding our brains a priority. The states former first lady, whose late father Sargent Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimers, founded the Womens Alzheimers Movement, an advocacy group raising awareness about womens increased risk for developing the disease. In 2011, she wrote a comprehensive assessment on the disease, to which Newsom then mayor of San Francisco contributed a portion called What one city is doing. This is personal to me, just like it is to millions of California families, Shriver said. Alzheimers is one of the largest medical, social and economic crises in our state, and of our time. I am so proud that, once again, California is leading the way. Wiping out Alzheimers is going to require bold thinking, and there is no doubt in my mind that California is home to bold thinkers who can make this happen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Gavin Newsom orders reinvention of troubled California DMV By Patrick McGreevy A line of people stretches around the South L.A. location of a California Department of Motor Vehicles Office on Aug. 7. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has been plagued by hours-long wait times at field offices, computer crashes and voter registration errors involving tens of thousands of customers. Just a few days after taking office, Newsom appointed a top advisor to a new DMV Reinvention Strike Team to revamp the beleaguered agency over the next six months. By any metric, California DMV has been chronically mismanaged and failed in its fundamental mission to the state customers it serves and the state workers it employs, Newsom said in a statement, adding Its time for a reinvention. The governor appointed state Government Operations Agency Secretary Marybel Batjer to lead the strike team with a goal of modernizing the agency and enacting changes that improve customer satisfaction, employee performance and transparency. Newsom also ordered an accelerated review of initial findings of an ongoing audit ordered last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. The action was welcomed by lawmakers who have been critical of the DMV, including Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield). The egregious management failures of the DMV have been self-evident, which is why I have been calling for new leadership and a comprehensive independent audit of this troubled state agency over and over again as the problems grew significantly worse, Fong said. Last summer, Californians seeking new driver licenses complained of wait times of four to six hours at DMV offices, which the agency blamed partly on snafus caused by a rush of people trying to get Real IDs, a new identification card design required for airline passengers starting in late 2020. Delays were also blamed on computer crashes at DMV offices as the agency struggled to update its aging automation systems. The DMV also admitted that there were an estimated 23,000 errors as people either were unknowingly registered to vote or mistakes were made in their registration status as part of the states new motor voter program. The agency registered to vote as many as 1,500 people with legal U.S. residency but no citizenship. Last month, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto retired from the agency. Legislators were angered earlier this week when the DMV said it needed an additional $40 million to prevent the return of long lines at its field offices. In addition, the agency has been under fire for issuing driver licenses in the last year that do not comply with the federal Real ID standards requiring two forms of identification by applicants. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police unions are preparing to battle new transparency law in the courtroom By Maya Lau Just as a landmark police transparency law is going into effect, some California police agencies are shredding internal affairs documents and law enforcement unions are rushing to block the information from being released. The new law, which begins to unwind Californias strictest-in-the-nation protections over the secrecy of law enforcement records, opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. But the lawsuits and records destruction, which began even before the law took effect Jan. 1, could tie up the release of information for months or years, and in some instances, prevent it from ever being disclosed. The fact that police unions are challenging this law is on some level not surprising, said Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one of the principal supporters of the new law. They have a long history of fighting tooth and nail against transparency. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Secretary of State Alex Padilla begins second term with challenge to ensure every Californian is counted By Jazmine Ulloa Secretary of State Alex Padilla takes the oath of office as his family stands by his side on Monday in Sacramento. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Secretary of State Alex Padilla was sworn in for a second term on Monday, saying he would continue the battle to protect the right to vote at a time when voter suppression efforts, online disinformation campaigns and interference from foreign adversaries have polarized the public and threatened to undermine trust in U.S. elections. I am doubling down on our fight here in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., to defend our democracy, he said. Working on the front lines with so many of you, I know that our collective resolve has never been stronger. But the loudest applause came when Padilla promised to fight back against the Trump administrations changes to the U.S. census, saying he will ensure every Californian gets counted. Padilla, a former state senator and Los Angeles City Council member from the San Fernando Valley, led the cause for a new motor voter registration law in 2015, and a new system for online business registrations. But the programs have had experienced problems: More than 23,000 Californians were registered to vote incorrectly by the state DMV, the agency reported last year. On Monday, Padilla said he would continue to push back against false claims of voter fraud in California and pointed to the states voter turnout as proof that his office was involving more people in the democratic process, a promise he made when he was first sworn in four years ago. More than 12.7 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 6 midterm election, representing roughly 65% of the states registered voters, the highest number of any midterm election since 1982, according to state certified results. I made that promise based on a shared belief that we are a stronger democracy and a better California when we hear all voices from all corners of California, and when those voices are not just heard but counted, Padilla said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Ricardo Lara, Californias first statewide officeholder to come out as gay, sworn in as insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara on the floor of the state Senate in 2016. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Ricardo Lara took the oath of office as California insurance commissioner on Monday, pledging action to boost healthcare coverage and combat climate change. Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, is the first elected statewide officeholder in California who has come out as gay. He began his speech in downtown Sacramento by thanking LGBTQ leaders who came before him and celebrated the occasion. Today, because of you, weve shattered the pink ceiling, Lara said. In his inaugural speech, Lara announced the creation of an executive position in his office to address climate change. There is no other industry that has the necessary expertise to ensure that California is prepared to mitigate and reduce risk to our communities and our environment, Lara said. Our planet cant wait. Im ready, and I hope you are too. Lara served as a state legislator and in 2017 introduced a bill to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. He promised to work with new Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand coverage across California. Lara was sworn in by retired U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared unconstitutional Californias Proposition 8 gay marriage ban. State Sen. President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) was on hand for the ceremony along with multiple other state lawmakers. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis says she will help expand access to universities in the state New Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, center, is shown in June talking with attendees at the Power to the Polls rally in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) More Californians should be given access to public universities, Eleni Kounalakis said as she took the oath of office Monday to become the states first woman elected lieutenant governor. Kounalakis was given the oath of office by Gov. Gavin Newsom, her predecessor in the job, who pledged they would work together. As lieutenant governor, Kounalakis serves on the University of California Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees, she noted in a speech at her swearing-in ceremony at the main Sacramento Library. In that role, she said, she will be committed to expanding access to affordable public higher education here in our state. Its wise, its smart and it is the best way to address our rapidly changing digital economy. Kounalakis is former president of a development company founded by her father, Angelo Tsakopoulos, and served during the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. In November, she won her first run for statewide office. Also attending the ceremony were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California meets Dutch Newsom, who steals the show at his fathers inauguration By Taryn Luna Gov. Gavin Newsom gives his inaugural address while holding his youngest son, Dutch. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) In the California political world, all eyes were on Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday until his 2-year-old son stole the show. Dutch, the youngest of four children in the Newsom brood, climbed onstage in the middle of his fathers inaugural address in a tent outside the Capitol on Monday. The unplanned moment saw the 51-year-old governors big day interrupted by the toddler, bringing levity to the ceremony. Newsom was recounting Gov. Jerry Browns last inaugural speech and reference to the Sermon on the Mount, a biblical story about two men who built separate homes on sand and rock, when Dutch approached his father, a pacifier in his mouth and blanket in hand. Now more than ever we Californians know how much a house matters and children matter, Newsom said, improvising as he scooped the boy into his arms. The governor kissed Dutch on the cheek and held him for several minutes as he continued with the speech. This is exactly how it was scripted, Newsom joked. Newsom eventually put his child down and Dutch walked to the edge of the stage before retreating behind the podium to hide from his mother, First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The crowd roared. Siebel Newsom was able to briefly divert her son only for him to return to the stage minutes later. She grabbed him again and this time, the crying toddler did not reemerge. When fires strikes, when kids cry and the earth shakes, well be there for each other, Newsom said. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the moment humanized Newsom, threw cold water on any theories that Dutchs cameo was planned. No, I know it was not, Garcetti said with a laugh after Newsoms speech concluded. I could see that look of absolute abject terror [on Newsoms face]. Weve all been there. Kids always think its about themselves and theyve proved it. California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) agreed. I worked in early childhood education for 20 years and theres no way you can ever get a child to do anything when you want them to do it, Rendon said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Fiona Ma takes oath as Californias new treasurer By Liam Dillon State Treasurer Fiona Ma. Fiona Ma took the oath of office in Sacramento on Monday as the states 34th treasurer, promising to boost Californias economy. Ma previously served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in the state Assembly and on the California Board of Equalization. I want to thank everyone for entrusting me with this important job. I understand my role here as your state treasurer is to build that financial wall around California so that we will remain the fifth-largest economy, Ma said in brief remarks. That is my promise to you. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye administered the oath to Ma. Following the ceremony, Ma held an ice cream social for guests. On Wednesday, she will host a public event in San Francisco to celebrate her swearing-in. State Treasurer Fiona Ma takes the oath of office. (Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times) Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Expectations are high for newly sworn-in state schools chief Tony Thurmond Tony Thurmond shakes hands with retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco after taking the oath of office. (Melody Gutierrez / Los Angeles Times) Tony Thurmond took the oath of office as Californias state superintendent of public schools on Monday, promising a labor-friendly agenda before the teachers, students and Democratic officials who filled an auditorium at McClatchy High School in Sacramento to watch him being sworn in. We cant close the achievement gap without a great teacher at the head of every class, Thurmond said Monday to applause. We have to make sure we provide quality compensation and support to our teachers and our classified staff and all the educators who support our kids. Thurmond, a Bay Area Democrat who served in the state Assembly, won a hotly contested and expensive race with the help of labor leaders against charter school executive Marshall Tuck. The race took several days to sort out after Tuck held an initial lead in early returns on election night before falling behind thereafter. Thurmond was sworn in Monday by retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco. He was joined on stage by labor rights leader Dolores Huerta and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). Thurmonds former colleagues in the state Assembly took turns praising him and promising to be an ally in improving schools. Many said they expected Thurmond would be a strong leader focused on improving student outcomes. We know we are going to work hard to give you the money you need and the budget you need to fully fund education and our schools so we can put our money where our mouth is and make sure our children have everything they need, Assemblywoman Connie Leyva (D-Chino Hills) said. As state superintendent, Thurmond will oversee the education of 6.2 million students at 10,000 schools. Thurmond was a member of the West Contra Costa County School Board and a Richmond city councilman before he was elected to the state Assembly. Tony is the right man at the right time to fight the federal, Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos anti-child, anti-education, anti-civil and -human rights agenda, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said. Tony is going to do that for us. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print State Controller Betty Yee takes oath of office with call for more affordable housing and healthcare State Controller Betty Yee California Controller Betty Yee took the oath of office Monday for a second term, saying she still has work to do addressing problems that include a lack of affordability in housing, healthcare and higher education. A San Francisco native, Yee is the chief financial officer of California the fifth-largest economy in the world having first won election to the post in 2014 before winning reelection in November. No region is spared from the widening inequality and increased poverty that plague our state, fueled by the lack of affordable, stable housing, the cost of healthcare and transportation, limited educational opportunities, student loan debt, displacement caused by disasters and more, she said. Yee was administered the oath of office by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento before an overflow crowd that included state Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. As a public official it is about governance that delivers results and stays accountable while upholding the underlying value of dignity for all, Yee said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra begins new term promising to fight Trump policies California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Monday took the oath of office for a new term, saying he would continue his role as a leading challenger to Trump administration actions that he believes are counter to the states interests. Becerra, a former 12-term congressman, has become a national opposition figure to Trump, having sued the federal government 45 times since he was appointed as the states first Latino attorney general in 2017. Weve been a little busy stopping the dysfunction and insanity in Washington, D.C., from infecting California, Becerra told an audience during a swearing-in ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento. Whether its the criminals on our streets or the conman in the boardrooms or highest office of the land, Becerra said, the California Department of Justice, well, weve got your back. Becerra won his first statewide election as the states top cop in November, two years after he filled the post vacated when predecessor Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. He has peppered the Trump administration with lawsuits challenging federal policies on healthcare, the U.S. census, the environment and immigration. Our state builds dreams, not walls, he said in a direct criticism of Trumps proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Just last week, Becerra led a coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general in announcing an appeal of a federal judge in Texas that ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ACA has been the law for nearly a decade and is the backbone of our healthcare system, Becerra said last week. This case impacts nearly every American workers covered by employers, families, women, children, young adults and seniors so we will lead the ACAs defense as long and far as it takes. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California Democratic Party Vice Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall announces bid to lead group By Christine Mai-Duc Daraka Larimore-Hall. (Dominic Parisi / Courtesy of Daraka Larimore-Hall) Daraka Larimore-Hall, a top official at the California Democratic Party, said Monday hes running to replace former chairman Eric Bauman, who resigned abruptly in November after being confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct. Larimore-Hall, a longtime state party activist and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County, was one of the party leaders who urged Bauman to resign following the allegations. In an email to supporters announcing his bid, he urged both structural and cultural change at every level of our Party. He also repeated his call for a top-to-bottom investigation of the allegations, the party and its culture. In a Times investigation, 10 party activists and staff members said Bauman made crude sexual comments and engaged in unwanted touching and physical intimidation in professional settings. In order to be where we need to be for 2020, we have to confront the culture of abuse and fear that allowed someone to behave in such a vile way for so long, Larimore-Hall said in an interview. We cant brush it aside or think that our activists or our candidates or our donors are going to forget about this overnight. Larimore-Hall said his first priority would be to fully investigate the allegations and restore rank-and-file confidence in the partys leadership. The second would be to refocus the party on political priorities as the 2020 presidential election nears. The Bauman episode, Larimore-Hall said, threatens to derail the Democrats plans to help defeat President Trump and keep the seven congressional seats gained in the midterm elections. Its definitely a crisis, Larimore-Hall said. But the component parts the energy, the enthusiasm, the volunteers, the infrastructure its still there. We just need to direct it toward something. Larimore-Hall was elected vice chairman of the state party in February following Baumans razor-thin victory over Bay Area activist Kimberly Ellis. Ellis has announced another bid for the chairmanship and former state Senate leader Kevin de Leon is also mulling a run. The vote will take place at the partys May convention in San Francisco. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom will vow to seize this moment, and swipe at Trump in Monday inaugural address By Melanie Mason Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family attend an Inauguration Family Event at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Building on the theme of California exceptionalism that defined his campaign, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will depict the state as a guardian of progressive values and a counterweight to President Trump in his inaugural address Monday, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks. What we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country, read the excerpts obtained by The Times. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment. The speech casts Californias political stakes in a decidedly national scope, promising an agenda that will unify and be an example to the rest of the country. It contrasts the governing goals of Newsom, a Democrat, with that of Trump, the incoming governors perennial foil. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House, the excerpts say. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people. Newsom campaigned on an ambitious and wide-ranging platform, promising sweeping solutions on housing, healthcare, education and other issues that rank among Californians top concerns. In the weeks after his election, he struck a more muted tone, taking pains to emphasize his fiscal caution and need for patience in achieving those goals. The inaugural excerpts indicate a return to lofty pledges. While Newsom will vow to prepare for uncertain times ahead by building budgetary reserves and paying down debt, the prepared remarks quickly turn to a vow to be bold. Newsom has already floated several proposals for his first budget that carry significant price tags, including a nearly $2-billion plan to boost early childhood development for low-income families and a dramatic expansion of paid family leave from six weeks to six months. When asked for a preview of his inauguration speech during a news conference Sunday evening, Newsom predicted pundits would criticize his address as short on specifics. Well, of course, Im at an inaugural, Newsom said. But Ill be very detailed in the budget, a few days later. And then we will architect, in much more nuance and detail, in state of the state. I really see this as three opportunities to communicate over the next few weeks our agenda, our vision for the state. Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom-hosted benefit concert raises nearly $5 million for wildfire victims By Taryn Luna Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom speaks at a concert to benefit wildfire victims at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) On the eve of the gubernatorial inauguration, Californias political class rubbed elbows in Sacramento for a benefit concert hosted by Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and headlined by the rapper Pitbull. Newsom told the crowd gathered at the Golden 1 Center on Sunday evening that the fundraiser brought in nearly $5 million for the California Wildfire Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that supports the families of fallen firefighters and communities affected by wildfires. You know, a lot of folks feel anxious about not just politics, but government, Newsom said on stage before introducing the rapper and activist Common. But those firefighters, they are the antidote to the fear and cynicism; they are the manifestation of why government matters and why you should care. Top sponsors, including Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente and other interest groups, paid up to $1 million each to support the cause and curry favor with the new administration. Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said organizers sold more than 7,000 tickets. Several state lawmakers attended the concert alongside Capitol staff, lobbyists and business types, who mingled on the floor of the arena and offstage in private VIP areas. The rock band X Ambassadors and a duo called the Cold Weather Sons from the town of Paradise, which was destroyed by fire in November, were among several performers who entertained the crowd during the four-hour event. The California Rises concert is the final in a series of festivities held Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Californias 40th governor. Earlier in the day, Newsom attended a private brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum and his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront. Newsoms inauguration is set to begin at 11 a.m. Monday on the steps of the Capitol. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inauguration fever hits Sacramento as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom prepares to take office By Phil Willon Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom holds his son, Dutch, as he and his family attend an inaugural event at the at the state Railroad Museum Sunday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom doesnt officially take the oath of office until Monday, but the parties celebrating his inauguration were in full swing all day Sunday. Newsom and his family were mobbed by well-wishers at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront in the afternoon, where his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families. He just has charisma. Hes able to really connect with people, said Rosielyn Pulmano, an attorney from Elk Grove who came to see Newsom with her husband, two sons and her niece. I think he cares about working Californians and a lot of their issues. Newsom arrived with his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their four young children, and the governor-elect spent a good deal of his time wading through crowds, taking selfies with supporters and signing autographs as music boomed in the background. As the family toured the inside of the museums locomotives and the bevy of exhibits, Newsoms two-year-old son, Dutch, was wide-eyed, impressed by all the train cars and seemingly a little overwhelmed by the crowd. Newsom said that for his son, all that was missing from the museum was Thomas the Train, popular fictional locomotive in childrens books and cartoons . If theres one thing I can contribute to Sacramento maybe its getting a Thomas the Train exhibit for the two years olds, Newsom joked when talking with reporters afterward. Newsom said he wanted to include such an event in his inaugural festivities to highlight families and children, whose wellbeing will be among the top priorities of his administration. Youll see that not only as a preamble to the inaugural and the budget that well be submitting next week, but I think itll be a big part of the administration, Newsom said. The museum event followed a private, high-dollar brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum. A steady rain failed to dissuade as many as 200 guests who sipped wine and dined on chicken and salmon while waiting for a photo with Californias new first couple. Seen at the event were representatives of some of the states most powerful political interests, among them organized labor, healthcare companies and tribal gaming interests. A few other high-profile guests attended, too, including Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants, and Erika Jayne, a singer and cast member of the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Im excited to see someone like Gavin young, vibrant taking over the state and leading us into the future, Jayne said after attending the brunch with her husband, attorney Tom Girardi. Hes got a lot of great plans. Attendees said the event, which was closed to reporters and held under a tent in the museums outdoor atrium, did not include prepared remarks by Newsom. Among those seen leaving the event were representatives of AT&T, the California Medical Assn., Uber, Kaiser Permanente and the State Building and Construction Trades Council. A fundraising invitation obtained by The Times offered bundled tickets to all of the inauguration events, including those on Sunday and the Monday ceremony, ranging in price from $25,000 to $200,000. The money will be collected by a committee specifically organized to pay for Newsoms inaugural weekend. Sundays festivities are scheduled to end with a benefit concert headlined by Pitbull at the Golden 1 Center, home of the NBAs Sacramento Kings, to raise money for the victims of Californias recent deadly wildfires. Among the attendees at @GavinNewsoms pre-inaugural leadership brunch: Real Housewife of Bev Hills @erikajayne. Im excited to see someone like Gavinyoung, vibranttaking over the state and leading us into the future. Hes got a lot of great plans. pic.twitter.com/561NHiy2XQ Melanie Mason (@melmason) January 6, 2019 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement As Newsom inaugural events begin, he unveils more state budget promises on education and paid family leave Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, seen here last April, will propose new state budget efforts on paid family leave and education subsidies. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Californias incoming governor, who must send his first state budget plan to the Legislature this week, has already signaled a significant new focus on programs to help families and children from infancy to college. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom campaigned on a platform that included a number of child-focused efforts specifically aimed at helping lower-income families. The price tag for the initial efforts is expected to approach $2 billion a cost paid out of an unrestricted tax revenue windfall that could be one of the largest in state history. Newsom may also seek help for families through new subsidies paid by California employers. The governor-elect is expected to propose a dramatic expansion of paid parental leave from six weeks to six months according to an internal document provided by a source close to the Newsom transition team, first reported on Sunday by the New York Times. The document doesnt offer a full explanation for how the program will be funded, saying instead that the budget will set a goal of ensuring that all newborns and newly adopted babies can be cared for by a parent or a close family member for the first six months. Employers across the state are currently assessed a payroll tax that helps offer a subsidy to parents who temporarily leave their job to care for a newborn. Newsoms plan, according to the document, would pay for some of the new costs by shrinking the mandated cash reserve of the state fund that administers the program, allowing more of the money to be paid in benefits. The increase in paid leave would not all happen at once but instead be phased in over a multi-year period. A task force to help implement the expanded care plan is also envisioned, according to the document. It would determine whether two parents could split the six months of paid leave and whether an extended family member could be enlisted to help care for the child of a single parent over the six-month period. The incoming administrations focus on young children will also include $1.8 billion in new spending on early childhood education programs, with a particular focus on training childcare workers and pushing for more California schools to offer full-day kindergarten. Those costs, according to an overview memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times, are considered to be a one-time expense while leaving the long-term costs of the effort to be determined later. More community college students would get free tuition under a third initiative expected in the new governors budget plan. Newsom will propose spending $40 million to offer a second year of tuition-free college to California students, according to an outline provided by a transition official, first reported by Politico. Students are already eligible for a single year of paid tuition under a plan agreed to by Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers in 2017. The incoming governor embraced the idea of free community college during the 2018 campaign as part of a broader focus on additional investments in higher education. Education is an economic development strategy, Newsom said at a higher education forum last spring. We need to significantly increase the investment from the general fund of this state on higher education. Theres no greater higher return on investment. Whether the proposal would be targeted to students based on a familys financial need is unclear. Many low-income students are already eligible for fee waivers at community colleges. The new governor must submit his full state budget plan to lawmakers no later than Thursday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gavin Newsom and his family decide Sacramento is the place to be The Old Governors Mansion State Historic Park in Sacramento. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will move his family into the mansion. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family will give up the Marin County life and move to the Victorian-style governors mansion in Sacramento after he takes the oath of office Monday. Newsom and his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, had debated whether or when to relocate to the state capital since his election in November. The couple have four young children and expressed reservations about moving in the middle of a school year. To best serve the people of California while also maximizing family time together, the Newsoms have therefore decided to move to Sacramento, said Newsoms spokesman, Nathan Click. On Monday, they will move into the Governors Mansion along with their four children, their two family dogs, and their family bunny rabbit and reside there for the immediate future. The Newsoms currently live in Marin County. Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Ann Gust Brown, moved into the grand house in 2015 after it underwent $4.1 million in renovations to update electrical and plumbing systems, as well as to remove lead-based paint and install a fire sprinkler system and other security features. The mansion was built in 1877 and has been home to 14 governors, but before Brown it had not housed a California governor for nearly half a century. The state bought the mansion from a wealthy Sacramento hardware merchant, Albert Gallatin, in 1903 for $32,500. It was one of the few California homes at that time to have indoor plumbing. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom announces top labor, business liaisons as he prepares to take office Julie Su will be secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency for Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday named two advisors on issues related to the California economy, each recognized for their expertise on business and labor. The incoming governor will appoint Julie Su as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and Lenny Mendonca as chief economic and business advisor and director of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development. Su, 49, has served as state labor commissioner under Gov. Jerry Brown since 2011 and has led an office tasked with the enforcement of Californias labor laws. She won a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 2001 and previously worked as a civil rights attorney representing low-wage workers. In her new position, Su will be tasked with coordinating the work of several workforce departments in state government, including those that administer unemployment benefits and oversee the relationship between agriculture workers and employers. Mendonca, 57, has been a longtime advocate for rethinking government operations as co-chairman of the nonprofit organization California Forward. Previously, he was partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm. While he will be a key advisor to Newsom on the states economy, Mendonca will also lead the office often referred to as Go-Biz, designated as a high-level way to encourage job growth and economic development. In his new role, Mendonca will help ensure that California is rolling out the welcome mat to current and future California businesses and growing a sustainable economy for every Californian, said a statement from the Newsom transition team. Newsom will take the oath of office as governor Monday. He has previously selected key advisors on the state budget, legislative affairs and the executive branchs wide array of agencies and departments. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Joshua Groban, aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, sworn in to California Supreme Court By Taryn Luna California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban gives remarks after he is sworn into the court by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday. (Taryn Luna) California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban, a lawyer and longtime aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, was sworn into the states highest court Thursday in Sacramento. The ceremony marked Browns fourth appointment to the state Supreme Court and gave the seven-member bench a Democratic majority. We live in a highly chaotic, ever-changing and ever-confusing world, Groban said in prepared remarks at the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building. But Im happy to report that Im joining an institution whose fundamental purpose, at core, is to provide stability and consistency amidst this chaotic place we live. I look forward to doing that with a sense of reflection, respect, fidelity to the law and compassion. None of Browns appointees, Groban included, have judicial experience. Groban served as legal counsel to Browns 2010 gubernatorial campaign and joined the administration as a senior advisor to the governor, overseeing the appointments of some 600 judges over the last eight years. Prior to working with Brown, Groban, 45, practiced law for more than a decade. In perhaps his final public appearance before his successor, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, takes office next week, Brown pushed back on notions that he stacked the court. I dont want this to be known as a Brown court, the governor said before administering the judicial oath of office. First of all, the so-called Brown appointments do not agree with themselves and nor should they. They are individuals. They will differ. Its not anybodys court. The governor called the court a high calling and said Groban possesses the values for the job. Probably, next to my wife, Ive talked to no person as much as Ive talked to Josh Groban, Brown said. I think youve talked to him more, Californias First Lady Anne Gust Brown interjected. I cant tell you what the hell hes going to do, Brown later quipped. I warned him, dont screw up, at least not at first. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California campaign watchdog agency seeks law barring use of campaign funds to fight harassment claims Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). ( (Steve Yeater / Associated Press)) Elected officials accused of harassment or discrimination would be barred from using political contributions to cover their legal defense costs under legislation proposed by Californias campaign watchdog agency. The state Fair Political Practices Commission has agreed to pursue a law change to clear up confusion after an attorney for one former state lawmaker argued political funds could be used in such legal defenses. Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said putting a prohibition into the law would provide some much needed clarity. As chair, I would like to show the public their lawmakers are held to a standard that is above reproach, Germond said in a statement. People dont give money to campaigns for lawmakers to use it to defend their own bad behavior, so lawmakers shouldnt be able to use it in that manner. The issue came up a year ago when an attorney for former Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) sought a formal opinion from the FPPC after the Senate launched an investigation that later concluded Mendoza likely engaged in a pattern of harassment against female aides. Mendoza resigned in February under threat of expulsion by the Senate. In a Jan. 10, 2018, letter, Cassandra Ferrannini, an attorney for Mendoza, wrote to the FPPC that she believed Mendoza should be allowed to establish a legal defense fund able to defray his legal expenses in defending himself against the allegations. The use of campaign funds for attorneys fees under these circumstances would fall squarely within the scope of legislative matters, since it involves the alleged conduct of a legislator with regard to legislative staff that he supervised, Ferrannini wrote. The commission staff originally issued an advice letter that said Mendoza may use campaign and legal defense funds to defend himself from claims of sexual harassment that arose directly out of his activities or status as a candidate or elected officer. But the panel later rescinded the letter after some members questioned using campaign funds to fight sexual harassment claims. That left uncertainty about what was allowed, which Germond said could be cleared up by a new law. The FPPC is still looking for a legislator to carry the bill, a spokesman said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias landmark police transparency law takes effect after court denies police union effort to block it California Supreme Court building (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) A new state law allowing the public disclosure of internal police shooting investigations has gone into effect after the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a bid by a police union to block it. The law opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. challenged the law last month, asking state Supreme Court justices to decide that the law only apply to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. The court rejected that request Wednesday, allowing members of the public to seek all applicable records held by police departments. Union president Grant Ward said in a statement that his organization was disappointed with the decision and is now seeking other legal options. We feel this is a statewide issue and should be considered accordingly, Ward said. Last month, the city of Inglewood authorized the destruction of more than 100 police shooting investigations and other records in advance of Jan. 1, when the disclosure law was scheduled to take effect. California law requires police departments to keep such records for five years, and Inglewood City Council voted to destroy records older than that. Mayor James T. Butts has said the decision had nothing to do with the new law. In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore has said that complying with the new disclosure rules could take hundreds of thousands of hours of work. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of the transparency law, has said she has no immediate plans to propose changes to it. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Few complaints of racial profiling are sustained by police agencies in California, state panel finds CHP Officer J. Nelson stands outside the office of Gov. Jerry Brown as activists in 2015 support requiring the tracking of police stops. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Law enforcement agencies in California sustain few citizen complaints of racial or identity profiling, according to a report Wednesday by a state panel set up to help reduce bias in policing. The states Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board recommended in its annual report that law enforcement agencies improve training and adopt clear guidelines for tracking and reporting data on who is stopped by officers. The panel said that 453 law enforcement agencies in the state received 9,459 civilian complaints in 2017, including 865 complaints alleging racial or identity profiling. Of the racial and identity complaints that reached a disposition that year, 1.5% were sustained, 14.6% resulted in officers being exonerated and 83.9% of complaints were not sustained or were determined to be unfounded, the report said. A clearer picture of the issue is expected from a 2015 law that requires police agencies to report demographic data on all detentions and searches. The first reports by the eight largest agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, are due to be submitted in April. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, whose office oversees the board, said tracking of all detentions and searches will be helpful to understand the scope of the issue. The Boards recommendations will help make our law enforcement agencies more transparent and promote critical steps to enhance, and in some cases, repair the public trust, Becerra said in a statement Wednesday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California housing crisis podcast: What Minneapolis decision to end single-family zoning might mean for California A view of downtown Minneapolis in 2014 (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images) Theres a national movement brewing to roll back zoning rules in cities that only allow one house on a plot of land. The epicenter of that movement is Minneapolis, which passed a plan last month to eliminate single-family zoning citywide and let landowners build duplexes and triplexes on residential property. On this episode of Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, we talk about the reasons why Minneapolis leaders took this action, including their desire to combat a history of racial exclusion and spur more housing density to fight climate change. We also debate how Minneapolis decision might affect housing politics in California. Our guest is Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender, who helped shepherd the new zoning rules to passage and a former San Francisco city planner. The episode also crowns 2018s Avocado of the Year the most ridiculous story exemplifying Californias housing woes and includes our predictions for the most under-the-radar important themes in housing politics in 2019. Gimme Shelter, a biweekly podcast that looks at why its so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times Sacramento bureau, and Matt Levin, data and housing reporter for CALmatters. You can subscribe to Gimme Shelter on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement How young immigrant Dreamers made flipping control of the House a personal quest By Jazmine Ulloa Gabriela Cruz, who was brought to the U.S. illegally when she was 1, couldnt vote, but in the final hours before the Nov. 6 election, she was making one last run to get people to the polls. The sun was setting in Modesto when she found Ronald Silva, 41, smoking a cigarette on a tattered old couch behind a group home. He politely tried to wave her off until she reminded him he had a right that she as an immigrant without citizenship didnt have. It could really make a change for us, said Cruz, 29. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose almost $2 billion for early childhood programs (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Seeking to frame his new administration as one with a firm focus on closing the gap between children from affluent and poor families, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose spending some $1.8 billion on an array of programs designed to boost Californias enrollment in early education and child-care programs. Newsoms plan, which he hinted at in a Fresno event last month, will be a key element in the state budget proposal he will submit to the Legislature shortly after taking office Monday, a source close to the governor-elects transition team said. The spending would boost programs designed to ensure children enter kindergarten prepared to learn, closing what some researchers have called the readiness gap that exists based on a familys income. It would also phase in an expansion of prekindergarten and offer money to help school districts that dont have facilities for full-day kindergarten. The fact that hes making significant investments with his opening budget is really exciting, Ted Lempert, president of the Bay Area-based nonprofit Children Now, said Tuesday. Whats exciting is the comprehensiveness of it, because its saying were going to focus on prenatal through age 5. A broad overview document reviewed by The Times on Tuesday shows that most of the outlay under the plan $1.5 billion would be a one-time expense in the budget year that begins July 1. Those dollars would be a single infusion of cash, an approach favored by Gov. Jerry Brown in recent years. Most of the money would be spent on efforts to expand child-care services and kindergarten classes. By law, a governor must submit a full budget to the Legislature no later than Jan. 10. Lawmakers will spend the winter and spring reviewing the proposal and must send a final budget plan to Newsom by June 15. Though legislative Democrats have pushed for additional early childhood funding in recent years a key demand of the Legislative Womens Caucus those actions have typically come late in the budget-writing season in Sacramento. Quite frankly, to start out with a January proposal that includes that investment in Californias children reflects a new day, state Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) said. The governor-elect will propose a $750-million boost to kindergarten funding, aimed at expanding facilities to allow full-day programs. A number of school districts offer only partial-day programs, leaving many low-income families to skip enrolling their children because kindergarten classes end in the middle of the workday. Because the money would not count toward meeting Californias three-decades-old education spending guarantee under Proposition 98, which sets a minimum annual funding level for K-12 schools and community colleges, it will not reduce planned spending on other education services. Close behind in total cost is a budget proposal by Newsom to help train child-care workers and expand local facilities already subsidized by the state, as well as those serving parents who attend state colleges and universities. Together, those efforts could cost $747 million, according to the budget overview document. An expansion of prekindergarten programs would be phased in over three years at a cost of $125 million in the first year. The multiyear rollout would, according to the budget overview, ensure the system can plan for the increase in capacity. Lempert said the Newsom proposal is notable for trying to avoid the kinds of battles that in recent years pitted prekindergarten and expanded child care against each other for additional taxpayer dollars. The reality is we need to expand both simultaneously, he said. Another $200 million of the proposal would be earmarked for programs that provide home visits to expectant parents from limited-income families and programs that provide healthcare screenings for young children. Some of the money would come from the states Medi-Cal program, and other money from federal matching dollars. Funding for the home visits program was provided in the budget Brown signed last summer; the Newsom effort would build on that. Emphasizing a policy area with broad appeal in his first state budget could reflect Newsoms political sensibility about the challenges ahead. Democratic lawmakers and interest groups will be especially eager to see how Newsom addresses the demand for an overhaul of healthcare coverage in California especially after a 2017 effort to create a single-payer, universal system fizzled. The path forward on healthcare is complex and costly, making early childhood education a more achievable goal in the governor-elects early tenure. Newsom is likely to face considerable demands for other additional spending. In November, the Legislatures independent analysts projected that continued strength in tax revenues could produce a cash reserve of some $29 billion over the next 18 months. Almost $15 billion of that could be in unrestricted reserves, the kind that can be spent on any number of government programs. Kim Belshe, executive director of the child advocacy organization First 5 LA and a former state health and human services secretary, said the initial Newsom budget proposal suggests the next governor will focus on a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes for children from low-income families. School-ready kids deserve quality early learning, strong and well-supported families, and access to early screening services, Belshe said. Newsom understands the whole child, multifaceted needs of our kids and is clearly ready to lead. Mitchell, the chair of the Senate budget committee, said shes eager to see the details of the governor-elects proposal to determine whether it might signal the beginning of an even broader expansion of early education efforts. Similar efforts have been hindered by a lack of money and ongoing debate over which services to help children 5 and younger need state funding the most. Universal preschool, in particular, has been debated for more than a decade. California voters rejected a ballot measure to fund a full prekindergarten system in 2006. Its clear theres a new movement afoot trying to engage on investment for universal preschool, Mitchell said. How we invest, and how we prioritize that investment, is going to be a great conversation for the coming months. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Politics Podcast: A final conversation with Gov. Jerry Brown No Californian has served longer as governor, signed more laws, granted clemency to more felons or waged more high-profile campaigns than Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown will leave behind a unique legacy when he packs his last belongings for the trip from the governors mansion in Sacramento to his Northern California ranch. His final two terms in office could be his most consequential. The governor reviewed some of the more notable moments from the past eight years in a far-reaching interview with The Times on Dec. 22. This weeks podcast episode includes extended portions of that conversation. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement A sagging economy could doom a 2020 ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes, Gov. Jerry Brown says Gov. Jerry Brown, at his Colusa County home on Saturday, said a ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes could struggle in 2020. (Randall Benton/For The Times) An effort to remove commercial property in California from the tax limits imposed by the landmark Proposition 13 could be felled by an economic slowdown, Gov. Jerry Brown said. In a Saturday interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch, Brown said liberal activist groups that have successfully placed the proposal on the November 2020 statewide ballot shouldnt read too much into early poll numbers showing support for the plan. That isnt as easy as you think, Brown said. Because youre going to be in a downturn of the business cycle. And youre talking many kinds of business. And the cost of doing business in California is already high. The ballot measure would allow counties to more frequently assess the market value of commercial property in California than allowed under Proposition 13, a 1978 ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to place strict limits on assessing property values and taxation for both homeowners and businesses. An analysis of the new measure, which qualified in October for the 2020 ballot, estimates it could bring in some $10.5 billion a year in new tax revenue. The business community will fight it, Brown said. And the minimum wage, the family leave, the environmental rules business[es] have left California, thats going to be the big argument. And I think thats something you really have to think a lot about. The governor, who leaves office early next month due to term limits, declined to either endorse or oppose the ballot measure. He said Californias economic health in two years time could be a key factor in how voters weigh the proposal. Well be in a recession by then, Brown said. So its anybodys guess. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inglewood to destroy more than 100 police shooting records that could otherwise become public under new California law By Jack Dolan Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times) The city of Inglewood has authorized the shredding of more than 100 police shooting and other internal investigation records weeks before a new state law could allow the public to access them for the first time. The decision, made at a City Council meeting earlier this month, has troubled civil liberties advocates who were behind the state legislation, Senate Bill 1421, which takes effect Jan. 1. The law opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The legislature passed SB 1421 because communities demanded an end to the secrecy cloaking police misconduct and use of force, Marcus Benigno, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a statement. Inglewood PDs decision to purge records undermines police accountability and transparency against the will of Californians. California law says police departments must retain records of officer shootings and internal misconduct investigations for five years. The city of Inglewood, however, had kept records longer than that, including case files of police shootings dating to 1991. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of SB 1421, intended for her bill to allow public access to all qualifying records held by a department, no matter the date of the incident. Inglewood City Council approved the destruction of records that have been in the police departments possession more than 100 cases longer than required by law. The city staff report and council resolution describing the action makes no mention of the new police transparency law. Instead it says the affected records are obsolete, occupy valuable space, and are of no further use to the police department. It added the traditional method of destroying such records is to shred them. It is unclear whether the records have since been destroyed. A spokesman for the Inglewood Police Department along with Inglewoods city manager, attorney, clerk, four council members and Mayor James T. Butts, a former Santa Monica police chief, did not respond to requests for comment. Inglewoods City Hall is closed the last two weeks of December. The Inglewood Police Department has a reputation for secrecy and using excessive force. In 2008, the departments officers fatally shot four men in as many months, three of whom turned out to be unarmed. The U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe and found significant flaws in the way the department oversaw use-of-force cases and investigated complaints against officers. Civil rights advocates still question why Inglewood police opened fire on a couple found sleeping in a car in 2016, killing them both. California police have a long history of shredding records to avoid scrutiny of their actions. In the 1970s, the LAPD famously destroyed more than four tons of personnel records after defense attorneys began requesting them as part of criminal cases against their clients. The move resulted in the dismissal of more than a hundred criminal complaints. In response, the Legislature demanded that records be preserved but then took other measures, supported by police unions, to ensure the public had very little access to them, making California the most secretive state in the nation when it comes to police misconduct. Skinners legislation begins to unwind those laws, which have been on the books since 1978. No video or audio of the Dec. 11 council action is available on the citys website and neither are meeting minutes or any record of the decision. A city spokeswoman, Courtney Torres, confirmed that the council had voted in favor of the police records purge, and said all the relevant reasons for the decision were included in the city staff report. The Jan. 1 implementation for SB 1421 has prompted other police officials to act. A police union in San Bernardino is asking the state Supreme Court to determine that Skinners bill only applies to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner earlier this month warning that complying with the law in regard to older records in the departments possession could take hundreds of thousands of work hours. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Federal officials question California DMVs process for issuing Real IDs (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has notified the California Department of Motor Vehicles that its process for providing residents with federally recognized identification cards is not adequate. DMV spokesman Armando Botello said Friday that 2.3 million residents who received Real IDs under the current process will have to submit additional documentation when their cards are renewed in five years but will be able to use them in the meantime. The DMV is developing a way for residents to submit more documentation online or via email to comply with the stricter federal requirement, he said. But some state legislators are upset about delays in notifying them of the problem and say Homeland Security could eventually require additional documentation provided by current holders. The DMV has known for a month that millions of Real IDs theyve been dolling out are potentially invalid, Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) said. The DMVs only hope is that the Department of Homeland Security takes pity on California and gives the DMV more time to fix this mess. Real IDs are a new kind of driver license and identification card that federal law will require legal residents to present when boarding domestic flights or visiting military bases and other federal facilities starting Oct. 1, 2020. The DMV has only been requiring one form of documentation, including a current lease or utility bill, to verify the residence of a card applicant. But the federal government said in a Nov. 21 letter to the agency that two such documents are needed. On Friday, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto released a letter defending the current process but said her agency will start requiring a second document to prove residency in April. In order to minimize confusion among our customers, the CADMV will work to inform individuals who have been issued a Real ID under the current process that their card will be accepted for official federal purposes, even if their renewal occurs after the October 1, 2020, final enforcement date for Real ID, Shiomoto wrote to the federal agency. Legislative officials worry there is still a possibility that those issued Real IDs in the past might be required to present a second document to have their cards designated as compliant. The more complex process for obtaining Real IDs has led to hours-long waits for customers at DMV field offices this year, although wait times have been reduced recently by an increase in staffing. Shiomoto last month announced that she is retiring amid problems with the motor voter registration system and after the governor ordered an audit of her agency in response to the long wait times. On Friday, Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido blasted the DMV for waiting a month to tell legislators of the problem. This is unacceptable and flies in the face of security for our citizens, which is what Real ID was created for in the first place, she said in a statement. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom taps Keely Bosler to be his finance director Keely Bosler, the director of the California Department of Finance, will continue in that role under Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (California Department of Finance) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday appointed Keely Martin Bosler as director of the California Department of Finance, continuing the role she has served under Gov. Jerry Brown since August. Bosler will become Newsoms chief fiscal advisor, and will play a pivotal role in shaping Newsoms spending plan for the state that will lay the foundation for his top policy priorities. Newsom must roll out his first budget plan within days of taking office on Jan. 7. Californias brighter future depends on a strong, stable fiscal foundation, Newsom said in a statement released Friday afternoon. Keely is an accomplished public servant of sound fiscal judgment. She understands that state budgets are more than numbers on a page they are value statements affecting the fate and future of millions of families reaching for the California Dream. We are fortunate to have her on our team. Prior to being appointed finance director, Bosler served as Browns cabinet secretary for two years and, before that, as the chief deputy director for budget in the Finance Department for three years. Earlier this year, Brown picked Bosler to lead an audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which had come under fire for long wait times at DMV field offices and numerous computer problems, including errors in the new motor voter program that registered Californians to vote. As we have discussed, long wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles do not reflect the high standards of service that Californians expect from their state government, Bosler wrote in a letter in September to DMV Director Jean Shiomoto. The audit is still ongoing, but Shiomoto has since announced she will retire at the end of the year. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias legislative analyst, after decades of nonpartisan research for lawmakers, calls it a career Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, who has led the state research unit since 2008, will retire on Dec. 31. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Only five people have led the independent research office of the California Legislature since its creation in 1941. And each of them has had a pretty simple mantra to live by in reviewing public policy proposals and government programs: Call it like you see it. The job of any analyst, to me, is you maintain that nonpartisanship, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said. Taylor, 65, will retire from the post at the end of December after a four-decade career with the research team that began, as he likes to tell it, just after the passage of the landmark property tax rollback, Proposition 13, in 1978. He became the leader of the office, with the title of legislative analyst, in October 2008. Two months later, state government found itself in arguably the worst fiscal crisis in its history a projected shortfall that ultimately grew to $42 billion by the following winter. There were forces beyond our control, Taylor said of that time. But dont underestimate the policy changes that were made afterward. Those changes, most notably a boost in taxes paid by high-income earners and a robust state budget cash reserve fund, have helped lead to successive years of fully funded government services. The state is projected to have some $24 billion in reserves by the end of the current fiscal year. Taylor announced his intention earlier to step down this year. Leaders from both houses of the Legislature select the analyst, who leads a staff of almost five dozen researchers. The office provides in-depth reports on pending legislation, as well as on broader policy topics like education and healthcare, and produces an independent analysis for every proposed ballot measure. A succession of lawmakers and governors alike have praised or panned the work of the Legislative Analysts Office based on their own political worldview. Taylor said his staff is mindful that they work for legislators, but try to ignore the rhetoric that follows the release of a major report. People are going to do what theyre going to do with our information, he said. They dont always like it, but they appreciate that we give them our best advice. Taylor oversaw a transformation in the way the Legislative Analysts Office distributes its information, embracing the release of research reports through social media instead of relying on traditional printed copies and journalist roundtable events. But he said the work of the researchers has remained largely unchanged through the decades. Having an independent take on things, I think, is good for the Legislature, he said. No replacement for Taylor has been announced, which means a short transition for his eventual successor before Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom sends his first budget proposal to lawmakers in early January. Taylor, who lives in the Sacramento suburbs, said he will honor the tradition of his predecessors in stepping away from public policy debates in order to give the new analyst space to lead the team as he or she sees fit. He said he hopes to travel in the coming years and spend time with his children who have moved to the East Coast. Forty years in state government, Taylor said in why he was stepping aside now. Isnt that enough? Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Jerry Brown sues to save California sentencing laws By Don Thompson, Associated Press (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown sued Thursday to protect one of his signature actions in office, a voter-approved measure that allows most prison inmates to seek earlier release and participate in rehabilitation programs. His administration filed a lawsuit challenging a pending 2020 initiative that seeks to toughen criminal penalties as part of an effort to roll back reforms adopted by voters within the last decade. Browns lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court contends the measure lacked enough valid signatures to overturn a previously approved constitutional amendment. County officials and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified the signatures in July but said they were submitted too late to qualify for last months election. The lawsuit names Padilla and the ballot measures official proponent, Nina Salarno Besselman, president of the advocacy group Crime Victims United. Padilla said the measure exceeded the required roughly 366,000 valid signatures, equal to 5% of votes cast for governor in 2014. Browns lawsuit says he used the wrong threshold. It says changing the state Constitution requires 8%, or more than 585,400 signatures. That makes the pending initiative more than 150,000 signatures short, the lawsuit says. Hes wrong, said Jeff Flint, a spokesman for the campaign backing the measure. He predicted a judge will be reluctant to reject a measure that already has qualified for the ballot. The secretary of state told us how many signatures are required, and thats how many we collected, Flint said. Padillas office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The measure would reverse reforms adopted by voters through Proposition 47 in 2014 and Proposition 57 in 2016. Proposition 57 allows most inmates to seek earlier paroles, and Proposition 47 reduced some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The combination has helped keep Californias inmate population below a population cap set by federal judges. Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said the measure gives corrections and parole officials broad discretion to protect our communities and fashion a rational system of rehabilitation and punishment. This new initiative unlawfully seeks to supplant the departments constitutional authority to implement these critical reforms to our criminal justice system. The pending initiative would shorten the list of crimes that qualify for earlier parole and change some theft crimes from misdemeanors back to felonies. It would also increase the number of crimes for which DNA is collected, a list that was limited when some crimes went from felonies to misdemeanors. Those supporting the tougher penalties say easing criminal penalties has increased the number of dangerous criminals on the streets, but those backing the changes say they have helped reduce mass incarceration and rehabilitate convicted criminals. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Supreme Court orders records unsealed in pardon of ex-state Sen. Roderick Wright Former state Sen. Roderick Wright (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) The California Supreme Court has granted a request to unseal court records involving Gov. Jerry Browns decision last month to pardon former state Sen. Roderick Wright for felony convictions involving lying about living in his legislative district, officials said Thursday. The court order was in response to a request by the nonpartisan First Amendment Coalition, which argued that the public has a right to know what information went into the governors decision to grant clemency to Wright. This is an important victory for public access to court files involving the exercise of executive clemency, said coalition spokesman Glen A. Smith. We are gratified the court has recognized that these decisions should be subject to the same public access rules that apply to other judicial records under California law. The court gave Browns office until Jan. 2 to redact confidential material before giving the court documents that can be released to the public. The court files submitted by the governors office include letters of support for a pardon and an internal review of Wrights case. The court denied a motion to unseal the records of all clemency cases but left open consideration of requests on other individual cases. Browns office is currently evaluating the courts decision, said spokesman Brian Ferguson. The governor argued against unsealing records in a recent court filing that said confidentiality is consistent with historical practice and is supported by state law. In pardoning Wright on Nov. 22, the governor wrote: He has shown that since his release from custody, he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law abiding citizen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California political watchdog agency fines BART, urges prosecution over using public funds for campaign A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station in Oakland in this 2013 file photo. (Ben Margot / AP) Californias state political watchdog agency on Thursday imposed a $7,500 fine against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and called for a possible criminal or civil prosecution over allegations the district used public resources to campaign for a 2016 bond measure. The state Fair Political Practices Commission levied an administrative fine against BART for its failure to disclose spending on YouTube videos, social media posts and text messages to promote Measure RR, which authorized $3.5 billion in general obligation bonds. Though the panel lacks authority to seek criminal charges over the misuse of public funds, it also urged county district attorneys in the BART service area and the state attorney general to pursue possible criminal or civil charges over the spending of taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes, Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said. It is the concept of misusing public funds that I think we all here are very disturbed about, and we want to send a warning and not create a precedent that is a minor, little slap on the wrist, Germond said, adding that the referral to criminal prosecutors would further send a message that this is wrong. Commissioner Brian Hatch also called for the state Legislature to consider granting the FPPC power to go after public agencies that spend taxpayer money on campaigns. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) called on the agency to increase the fine to the maximum level of $33,375. The proposed $7,500 fine represents a slap on the wrist for a very serious violation of the law and the publics trust, Glazer said in a letter to the panel. In supporting the fine recommended by the staff, Germond said BART has agreed to pay the penalty. Somebody did something wrong and they have admitted it, she said. A staff report said there were factors in favor of a fine below the maximum. Although the Commission considers BARTs violations to be serious, the absence of any evidence of an intention to conceal, deceive, or mislead; the voluntary filing of the delinquent campaign statement; and the absence of a prior record are mitigating, the report said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police union seeks state Supreme Court review of new law disclosing internal investigation records Los Angeles Police Department officers. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A police union is asking the California Supreme Court to block the release of internal officer investigations before a new state law takes effect next year. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. filed a petition Tuesday asking justices to rule that only investigations of incidents that occur after Jan. 1 would be available under the law and not those the department has on file from years prior. The litigation comes after this years passage of Senate Bill 1421, which opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department has told the union it intends to make available in response to public records requests all the information it has. The union is very concerned about any plans to retroactively apply Senate Bill 1421, Grant Ward, the unions president, said in a statement. We believe retroactive application violates our members rights and we hope the California Supreme Court will consider the serious issues raised by our legal challenge. The bills author, Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), does not agree with the unions interpretation. She has said her legislation should apply to all the records in a police departments possession because the law simply declared that affected records were no longer confidential. If the record exists, its disclosable, Skinner said. A decision on what records will be available under the law is key to how far-reaching it will be. If the court restricts access to incidents that occurred prior to 2019, those cases will not be subject to public scrutiny. The police union in San Bernardino County is not the only one raising concerns about the law. Earlier this month, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner expressing concern that his agency would be overwhelmed if the law required the department to disclose older incidents. Even if the law only applied to the previous five years, Moore wrote, it could take nearly 300,000 hours of work to comply with its provisions. The LAPD operates with a guiding principle of Reverence for the Law; as such, we will diligently comply with SB 1421, Moore wrote. We maintain, however, that a retroactive implementation of SB 1421 will be exceptionally burdensome and would require significant reallocation of front-line investigative personnel. Skinner said if complying with the law becomes untenable for law enforcement agencies that maintain records for a long time, she would consider modifications. But she said agencies did not raise this concern during discussion over the bill. SB 1421 went through multiple committee hearings, multiple floor debates, extensive opportunity for all parties to weigh in on concerns with its structure, she said. That was not an issue that was raised by law enforcement at the time. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Brown warns of backlash for Republicans in 2020 if Obamacare repeal is upheld Gov. Jerry Brown at the National Press Club in April. (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown warned Republicans on Tuesday that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would devastate the partys political chances in the 2020 election. Brown, speaking at a Sacramento Press Club event moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton and Brown family historian Miriam Pawel, said a federal judges ruling last week to strike down the 2010 law if upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court will build such a backlash that the Democrats will not only take over the Senate, theyll win the presidency and will win with the kind of momentum, particularly on the issue of healthcare, that [the law] will be replaced probably with something even better. The governor, who leaves office in less than three weeks, said he did not believe the ruling by a Texas judge would ultimately prevail. I think the decision will probably be overturned, Brown said. Few states have embraced the law championed by former President Obama more than California, both through its healthcare exchange, Covered California, and by expanding access to government-funded services under Medi-Cal. Some 12 million Californians now receive healthcare through Medi-Cal, and Brown said a final ruling affecting the federal dollars that subsidize that care would be a serious blow. California would not be able to afford it without the subsidy, the governor said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks (acuna-hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses, and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors, and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bars in Los Angeles and San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks. (Acuna-Hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias DMV director announces retirement amid problems with motor voter program (Kent Nishamura/Los Angeles Times) The director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles will retire at years end with a number of questions unanswered about the implementation of a major voter registration system and long wait times experienced by customers for much of the past summer. Jean Shiomoto will not continue in her current role as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom takes office, and announced to staff several weeks ago her intent to retire at the end of the year after 38 years in state service, spokesman Armando Botello said in an email to The Times on Friday. Newsoms transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who might lead the department in 2019. Shiomoto was appointed DMV director by Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall of 2013, having served in prior leadership roles with the department. DMV officials have been sharply criticized by lawmakers in recent months for delays in serving customers at its field offices across the state. Last week, DMV officials revealed errors in registering California voters for the November election mistakes that followed a series of problems in the rollout of the states new motor voter registration system. Secretary of State Alex Padilla last week said he had lost confidence in Shiomotos leadership as a result of the voting registration problems. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement New law could break the stalemate over housing on the site of a near-vacant Cupertino mall By Liam Dillon For more than a decade, developers have tried to build new housing on the site of an all-but-empty mall in Cupertino, a city in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to Apple headquarters. A well-organized group of neighbors, upset about traffic, building heights and the potential loss of the communitys suburban lifestyle, turned away every plan. Now, for the first time, the stalemate might be broken thanks to a decision made in the state Capitol. In an effort to address Californias housing affordability problem, legislators passed a law last year that requires cities and counties to approve housing projects if they comply with local zoning rules and other standards, forcing some resistant communities to agree to new homebuilding. In September, the city of Cupertino, citing the state law, approved developer Sand Hill Property Co.s proposal to build an office park and more than 2,400 homes where the Vallco Shopping Mall sits. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Local government was a last bastion for struggling California Republicans. Not anymore By Mark Z. Barabak Theres no shortage of watery metaphors to describe the disaster that befell California Republicans this midterm election. A blue wave. A Democratic tsunami. But the most apt may be a flood, with the casualties steadily rising as the vote count climbed in the days and weeks following Nov. 6. Eventually half the GOP congressional delegation was washed away, along with the entire slate of statewide Republican candidates. In Sacramento, Democrats claimed 29 of 40 state Senate seats and seized three-quarters of the 80-member Assembly the largest number since 1883, when Chester A. Arthur was serving in the White House. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print For the Republicans left in Californias Legislature, fewer lawmakers will have to do more work By John Myers From January to late summer every year, the California Legislature is a perpetual motion machine. And in the new year, the people most likely to struggle in keeping up will be Republicans, vastly outnumbered but still responsible for representing millions of the states residents. There are 22 standing committees in the state Senate, plus at least a dozen more subcommittees or special committees. And after Novembers election, only 11 Republican senators will be left to divvy up the work. To the victors go the spoils. To the vanquished go the extra assignments. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Californias DMV failed to finish registering 329 new voters before November election (Los Angeles Times) Officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Friday that the agency failed to send information for 329 new voters to state elections officers in time for the November election, the latest revelation in a string of mishaps regarding voter registration. Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded with a blistering letter, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown or Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to replace Jean Shiomoto, the DMV director. The Director of DMV has lost my confidence and trust, Padilla wrote. In all, the agency revealed that 589 mailed voter registration records that should have been processed under election deadlines werent sent to Californias secretary of state until late November, including forms from 260 drivers who had intended to update their address on existing voter registration records. The DMV had been instructed to not send registration forms that came in after Oct. 22, but the voters in question had forms that were postmarked before the deadline. In some cases, when the postmark wasnt legible, the agency said, documents inside indicated the voter had intended to finish their registration in time for the Nov. 6 election. The DMV recognizes the pause in transmittals was an error and affected the timing of the registration of the 589 individuals referenced above relative to the November election, Shiomoto wrote in a letter to Padilla on Friday. The pause was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the department, for which we take responsibility. Those who were trying to update their address for voter registration would not have been blocked from casting ballots. But officials said its unclear whether any of the 329 new voters were able to participate in the election. Shiomoto said in her letter that DMV will work with elections officials. The errors were not related to previous DMV mistakes about registering voters, problems associated with the rollout of the states new motor voter law. In those cases, multiple registration forms were sent to local elections offices for some voters, some people were assigned the wrong political party preference and others who are noncitizens were incorrectly placed on the list of registered voters. DMV officials have yet to respond to questions posed by The Times over the last several weeks about who knew of those mistakes and when. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom appoints a labor advocate and a former staffer as his chief deputy Cabinet secretaries By Taryn Luna A labor advocate and a San Francisco political operative have accepted positions in Gov.-elect Gavin Newsoms new administration. Angie Wei, a Capitol insider with deep ties to organized labor in California, will serve as a chief deputy Cabinet secretary with a focus on policy development. As a legislative director and chief of staff at the California Labor Federation, Wei has represented more than 1,200 unions and 2.1 million workers in Capitol fights over a host of policy issues, including drug-pricing transparency and paid family leave. The governor-elect also tapped Jason Elliott, a policy advisor to Newsom during his time as mayor of San Francisco and a chief of staff to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, as another chief deputy Cabinet secretary overseeing executive branch operations. Elliott and Wei will serve under Ana Matosantos, Newsoms previously Republican plans to vote next week on embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh derailed Friday after key undecided GOP senators joined Democrats in calling for a one-week delay to allow for an FBI probe into the sexual assault allegations against him. The surprise move by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), quickly joined by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), meant the divisive battle over President Trumps pick for the high court will linger for at least a few more days. I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to, but no more than, one week, Flake said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing after huddling with Democrats. Flake noted the deep divisions that had been exposed by Thursdays powerful testimony from Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford, who said she was 100% certain that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh emotionally and strongly denied the allegation. Advertisement This country is being ripped apart here, and weve got to make sure that we do due diligence, said Flake, who is retiring from the Senate in January and has frequently butted heads with Trump. Despite Flakes new position, the Judiciary Committee approved Kavanaughs nomination Friday on a party-line vote, 11 to 10, with strong objections from Democrats. Flake cast one of the votes in support of the nomination with the understanding that the final vote on the Senate floor would be delayed. The GOP-led committee later endorsed Flakes call for an FBI background check, reversing its earlier position that one was not needed and would not reveal anything new. The Senate Judiciary Committee will request that the administration instruct the FBI to conduct a supplemental FBI background investigation with respect to the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court, read a statement from the committee. The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today. Trump, who just days ago dismissed the allegations as a Democratic con, said in a statement that he had ordered the FBI to look into the matter. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week, he said. The FBI moved immediately given the short time frame. By Friday night, agents had sought to schedule an interview with one of two other women who, after Blasey Ford went public, made accusations of their own about alleged assaults dating to Kavanaughs days in high school and at Yale University, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation who asked to remain unidentified given the sensitivity of the matter. FBI investigators contacted the attorneys for the woman and asked to interview her as early as tonight, according to one of the sources. Her attorneys countered with a later time, but the interview could occur this weekend, the sources said. The about-face by Senate Republicans and Trump was a validation of Democrats strategy at Thursdays hearing, when they made the lack of an FBI probe one of their key complaints. Democratic senators repeatedly pushed Kavanaugh to join their effort to demand a probe, but the nominee refused, saying that decision was up to the committee. Ford requested the FBI investigation. The Senate late Friday agreed to start debate on Kavanaugh, a procedural hurdle that didnt require a roll-call vote under an agreement between Republicans and Democrats. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will not get the final Senate vote he was hoping to have by Tuesday. Conservatives blasted the delay. Shame on the United States Senate if it puts political interest before its constitutional responsibility, said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). It is time to put the Democrats partisan delays behind us. It is time to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. With their slim 51-49 Senate majority, Republicans cannot afford to lose more than one of their members, assuming all Democrats and independents vote against Kavanaugh. Asked about the days developments, Trump said Friday, Im going to let the Senate handle that. Theyll make their decisions. Im sure it will all be very good. The president also praised Kavanaugh and, for the first time, Ford. I thought her testimony was very compelling, and she looks like a very fine woman, Trump said. Both Kavanaugh and Ford said they would cooperate with the investigation. Ive done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate, Kavanaugh said in a statement. Debra S. Katz, an attorney for Ford, said she welcomed the move, but added, No artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed on this investigation. Thursdays hearing laid bare the deeply divisive politics at stake in Kavanaughs confirmation. Democrats accused the GOP of rushing through a nominee under a dark cloud of suspicion [that] will forever change both the Senate and our nations highest court, according to committee member Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Republicans blasted Democrats for a smear campaign against the nominee, and committee member Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), too, warned it would permanently change the way the Senate treats judicial nominees. Earlier in the day before he called for the FBI probe Flake had said he would vote to approve Kavanaugh. He said he left Thursdays hearing with as much doubt as certainty. But, I believe that the Constitutions provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well. I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. But after coming under intense criticism in the Capitol from protesters, including some who confronted him outside an elevator saying they were victims of sexual assault, Flake appeared to have second thoughts. During the committee hearing, Flake abruptly left with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) to huddle outside the room. After a flurry of negotiations with Democrats, Flake said he would vote to advance Kavanaughs nomination at the committee level, but not on the full Senate floor until after an FBI probe. It has been remarkable over the past week, the number of people who saw Dr. Ford yesterday and were emboldened to come out and say it happened to them, he told reporters later. Ive heard from friends, close friends, who I had no idea. I think thats important, and people out there need to know weve taken every measure within reason to make sure this process is worthy of this institution. Flake also said hes open to voting no on the nomination. You bet thats why were doing the extended investigation. Other key undecided senators endorsed the short delay, including Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). Meanwhile, a key undecided Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana said he would oppose Kavanaughs confirmation. The move by Donnelly, who supported Trumps first Supreme Court nominee, Neil M. Gorsuch, further increased the partisan tone of Kavanaughs confirmation process. It also increases the pressure on key Republican holdouts to support the nomination if it is to be successful on the Senate floor. I have deep reservations about Judge Kavanaughs nomination to this lifetime position, Donnelly said, echoing calls from other Democrats for the FBI to investigate Fords allegation. Only 113 people have ever served on the Supreme Court, and I believe that we must do our level best to protect its sanctity. Staff writer Eli Stokols contributed to this report. The latest from Washington jennifer.haberkorn@latimes.com Twitter: @jenhab Staff writer Eli Stokols contributed to this report. UPDATES: 7:25 p.m.: This article was updated with news that FBI agents had sought to interview a second accuser. 2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from President Trump. 1:05 p.m.: This article was updated with a committee statement. 12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with Sen. John Cornyns comments. 11:45 a.m.: This article was updated with Sen Lisa Murkowski joining Flake in calling for a delay on the final vote. 11:10 a.m.: This article was updated with Sen. Jeff Flakes comments and the committee vote. 8:50 a.m.: This article was updated with Sen. Joe Donnellys comment. 7:40 a.m.: This article was updated with Sen. Patrick Leahys comment. 7:10 a.m.: This article was updated with details about the committee vote. This article was originally published at 6:30 a.m. Three times over the past three decades, a Supreme Court nomination has touched off a battle so brutal as to become a national byword: Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, now Brett Kavanaugh. The past two times, the high court has survived as a trusted institution. Public confidence in almost all American institutions has declined in recent decades, but confidence in the high court has not suffered the plummeting fortunes of Congress or the deep polarization which has affected Presidents George W. Bush, Obama and Trump. The current struggle, which could end with a Senate vote on confirmation early next week after the Judiciary Committee votes Friday to advance the nomination, threatens lasting harm. The Bork and Thomas fights created bitter memories among Washington operatives, but successive presidents and Senate leaders tamped the partisan fires. This time around, each side seems determined to further fan the flames. Sign up for the Essential Politics newsletter Advertisement ARCHETYPES FOR POLARIZED TIMES Christine Blasey Ford, a middle class, female university professor from California, could almost personify the Democratic Party and its resistance to Trump. She showed in her testimony Thursday that shes no political conspirator; indeed, her evident innocence of the wiles of politics gave her words much of their credibility. But the simple facts of who she is made her a potent symbol. The same holds true for Kavanaugh, although with a twist. As the Yale-educated son of an influential Washington lobbyist, hes certainly far removed in social class and upbringing from the rural, evangelical Protestant, non-college-educated voters who make up so much of Trumps political base. But as a longtime Republican operative, he instinctively knew how to tap the same well of grievance against liberal elites that has cemented those voters to Trump. The allegations against Kavanaugh mounted during the week. That may not have helped his opponents. The third allegation, in particular, brought by a computer security contractor named Julie Swetnick, gave Republicans an opportunity to take shots at her attorney, Michael Avenatti, and portray all the accusations as political. Still, as David Savage wrote, some of the biggest problems Kavanaugh faced stemmed from his own words and the conflicting accounts he has given of his teenage drinking. Among the other figures who have been bruised by the Kavanaugh fight Sen. Dianne Feinstein. As Sarah Wire wrote, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee has gotten intense criticism from Republicans over how she handled the accusations against the nominee. We still dont know if the wrenching and emotional testimony on Thursday actually changed a single Senate vote. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who had insisted he wanted a hearing where Ford could speak, announced Friday that he would give Kavanaugh the benefit of the doubt. As Jennifer Haberkorn, Wire and Savage wrote, when the final roll call comes early next week, the deciding votes, and as has often been the case, appear to be in the hands of Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. But any forecast of the vote has to begin with the reality that the 51 Republican senators who make up the majority represent a constituency thats much whiter, more conservative and more rural than the nation as a whole. Because each state has an equal vote in the Senate, the chamber has always had a counter-majoritarian aspect. Thats more true now than it was a generation ago when Thomas won confirmation, and likely will be even truer after this years midterm elections. Against that background, Fords accusation of sexual assault and Kavanaughs angry denial and counter-accusation of a left-wing plot to destroy his good name could not have been better designed to widen the gulf separating the two sides of a polarized nation. TRUMP SETS A TONE The anger in Kavanaughs voice as he denounced the allegations against him pleased the man who nominated him, aides said. Trump had thought Kavanaugh didnt show enough fight earlier in the week when he sat for an interview with Fox. And he publicly blamed Senate Republicans for not ramming the nomination through to a vote more quickly, before the accusations against Kavanaugh could take root. On Tuesday, he denounced the allegations as part of a con game, as Wire and Eli Stokols wrote. Then on the eve of the hearing, he amplified his complaints, saying for the first time publicly that his view of the allegations against Kavanaugh was colored by his own experience of having been accused of sexual misconduct. If Kavanaugh wins confirmation, Trump will surely claim credit for having rescued the situation. If he loses, the president will blame Senate leaders and implore voters in red states to send him more loyal backers. That prospect continues to worry some Democratic strategists, who have tried to protect incumbents running for reelection in places like West Virginia, Indiana and North Dakota the three states whose Democratic senators have yet to announce how they will vote. DECISION CALIFORNIA THE MIDTERMS The fight over Kavanaugh might help Republicans in those Senate races. But it also has a strong chance of hurting Republicans in House races, especially the many suburban districts up for grabs this year. Republicans already face a severe deficit with suburban women, and Kavanaugh could make it worse, Michael Finnegan wrote, examining the impact in one such district Californias 25th, in northern Los Angeles County. The Democratic candidate, Katie Hill, who is trying to unseat Republican Rep. Steve Knight of Palmdale, says in a new video she released that she knows how hard it is for women to report an attack. If Americans look the other way, she says, we are showing to boys and men across the country that its OK. Hill seems well positioned in her race, judging by early polls. But farther south, Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter leads in his reelection fight despite a federal indictment, according to a new Monmouth University poll. The poll found Hunter ahead of Ammar Campa-Najjar, his 29 year-old Democratic opponent, 49%-41%, Christine Mai-Duc reported. In a heavily Republican part of San Diego County, one in 10 voters in this district think Hunter is probably guilty of campaign fraud, but they are going to vote for him anyway, said Patrick Murray, director of the nonpartisan Monmouth survey. Hunters campaign this week denied he implied his opponent is a radical Muslim. Campa-Najjar, whose ancestry is Mexican and Palestinian, is Christian. Anti-Muslim bias runs deep in some quarters. So does prejudice against Republicans. Mark Barabak examined both when he looked at what happened when a GOP congressional candidate walked into a mosque. DEMOCRATS WELL POISED FOR GAINS, POLL FINDS Growing support from women has driven up the numbers for Democrats in advance of the midterm elections, the latest nationwide USC-Dornsife/L.A. Times Poll found. Republicans have suffered defections from suburban women and married white women, both longtime mainstays of their party. The survey also found Republicans lagging behind their usual numbers among voters 65 and older. The combination has put Republican candidates in a bind, especially in suburban districts. WHAT A DEMOCRATIC HOUSE WOULD LOOK LIKE Maxine Waters is one of Trumps fiercest critics. The Los Angeles Democrat will get a powerful new platform if Democrats take the House, Jim Puzzanghera wrote. Waters is in line to chair the House Financial Services committee, which oversees federal regulation of banking. Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank would likely chair the Intelligence Committee if Democrats regain the majority Other Californians are in position to chair influential committees and subcommittees throughout the House. TUNING OUT THE NOISE Proteges of Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated President Clinton, can be found in senior positions across Washington. In an interview, Starr told Del Wilber that he picked young lawyers who could tune out the noise and focus on the task at hand. This week, two of the most prominent alumni of Starrs investigation, Kavanaugh and Rod Rosenstein, had that ability tested, Wilber wrote as he examined the Starr connection. Trump flirted this week with the possibility of firing Rosenstein, but, by weeks end, it appeared that the Justice Department official overseeing the Russia investigation, will stay for now, Wilber and Chris Megerian wrote. TRUMP AT THE U.N. As the Kavanaugh drama unfolded in Washington, Trump was in New York for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. Last year, he used that forum to denounce Kim Jong Un of North Korea as Rocket Man in a speech that many diplomats felt threatened war. This time, by contrast, Trump praised North Koreas dictator and suggested another summit meeting could be coming soon. He saved his belligerent rhetoric for Iran, Tracy Wilkinson, David Cloud and Stokols wrote. Rather than epithets, Trumps speech this year may be remembered for the reaction from the assembled diplomats and chiefs of state: They laughed when Trump boasted of his achievements. Trump later claimed the laughter was with him, not at him, but he clearly seemed surprised when it happened. Trump also accused China of trying to interfere in the November election as trade tensions with Beijing continue to grow. In the past, he has called Chinese President Xi Jinping a friend. This time, he said he wasnt sure of that. One topic Trump avoided: Climate change has swelled the ranks of refugees worldwide. That topic was a focus for U.N. discussion. But the administration dismisses climate change as an issue and has cut back heavily on admitting refugees to the U.S., both moves that have taken the U.S. largely out of the refugee discussion. Climate change is the force multiplier for chronic social and environmental problems, Tim Ash Vie of the Climate Group, an advocacy organization working to counter global warming, told Wilkinson. LOGISTICS That wraps up this week. Until next time, keep track of all the developments in national politics and the Trump administration with our Essential Washington blog, at our Decision California page and on Twitter @latimespolitics. Send your comments, suggestions and news tips to politics@latimes.com. If you like this newsletter, tell your friends to sign up. David.lauter@latimes.com @davidlauter Allies balk at Trump administration bid to block Chinese firm from cutting-edge telecom markets By David S. Cloud Britain and Germany are balking at the Trump administrations call for a ban on equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, threatening a global U.S. campaign to thwart Chinas involvement in future mobile networks. Both countries are expected to limit Huawei and other Chinese companies from providing core components including routers. But other types of Chinese equipment for next-generation, high-speed communications could still be installed on British and German networks, officials and analysts say. The U.S. push to ban Huawei has provoked a global dispute in recent weeks, with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, publicly urging NATO allies in Europe to exclude the company and warning that the United States might limit its military presence in countries that did not do so. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Confucius Institutes: Do they improve U.S.-China ties or harbor spies? By Don Lee Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Marylands Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from Chinas central government. But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they werent looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004. American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch Live: White House holds surprise news briefing amid government shutdown Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement U.S. policy toward China shifts from engagement to confrontation By David S. Cloud For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein. As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tungs old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China. Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Mnuchins attempt to calm markets backfires as Trump takes another shot at the Federal Reserve By Jim Puzzanghera An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy. Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economys only problem and that it didnt have a feel for the market. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who cant score because he has no touch -- he cant putt! Trump said on Twitter. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print He speaks to Democratic hearts. But is Beto ORourke a serious White House contender? By Mark Z. Barabak Hes a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does. Beto ORourke suggests the will-he-or-wont-he speculation is something he himself cant quite fathom. I think thats a great question, he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. I ask that question myself. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Associated Press) Months after President Trump took office, Russias disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there. The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with radical Islamic groups. Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday. Read more Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement President Trump announces Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff By Associated Press President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year. I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print It aint over when its over: In Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere, losers seek to undermine election results By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort. In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do. In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger says she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position. To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agencys creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Kraningers declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trumps pick for chief of staff, Nick Ayers, out of running By Associated Press Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press) President Trumps top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role. Thats according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Ayers is Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff. The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment. The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration. Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year. Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause. #Georgia Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) December 9, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement U.S. hiring slows to 155,000 jobs, unemployment rate holds at 3.7% By Jim Puzzanghera Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates. U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from Octobers strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday. Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last years average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump is expected to pick State Department spokeswoman for U.N. ambassador By Associated Press Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Two administration officials confirmed Trumps plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trumps announcement. Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year. Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past. Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Senate confirms new consumer financial protection chief: Kathy Kraninger, protege of industry-friendly Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year. Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it. Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Shutdown postponed by two weeks under plan approved by Congress By Erik Wasson Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trumps border wall is a waste of money. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border. The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated hell sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush. The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall. Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesnt get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for border security, because the wall is a waste of money. The presidents demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence. Most of the U.S. governments $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security. Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is basically done. Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trumps $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that. Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday. The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bipartisan Senate group wants to formally blame Saudi crown prince for journalists killing By Karoun Demirjian Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Associated Press) A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same. This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe. The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agencys assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIAs findings. You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi, Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being good soldiers and at worst were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia for presenting the evidence of Mohammeds involvement as inconclusive. The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggis murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinsteins resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggis killing. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggis death. So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggis killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly. Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners. But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will. Demirjian reports for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Los Angeles County offices and U.S. Postal Service closed Wednesday in honor of George H.W. Bush By Brian Park The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images) The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush. All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited. In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriffs Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments. All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open. Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday. To honor the life and legacy of President Bush, the Postal Service will observe the National Day of Mourning. Learn how Postal operations will be affected. https://t.co/Mffch7bPCh pic.twitter.com/vG46BsIOpm U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) December 4, 2018 L.A. County offices and libraries will be closed tomorrow (Dec 5) in observance of the #NationalDayOfMourning for President George H. W. Bush. The Countys Disaster Recovery Centers in Malibu & Agoura Hills will remain open from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Sv1J7GoJ7T Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) December 4, 2018 @LAPublicHealth offices will be closed tomorrow December 5 in observance of the national Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Essential Services including clinics and other services will remain open: https://t.co/tZGoGGHRlg pic.twitter.com/ypXsV6vlYY LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 4, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to skip 2020 White House race, sources say By Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014. (Elise Amendola / Associated Press) Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he wont launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run. A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patricks plans was first reported by Politico. Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governors office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election. Earlier this year, some of Patricks supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020. Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states. While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run. Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasnt sure he could stand out in such a large field. Its hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and Im none of those things and Im never going to be any of those things, Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Former Trump adviser Roger Stone invokes 5th Amendment right and wont testify before Senate Judiciary Committee By Associated Press Roger Stone in 2017. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he wont provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview. Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks plans. In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committees requests were far too overbroad, far too overreaching and far too wide-ranging. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure has bipartisan support. But who gets to pay for it? By Jim Puzzanghera The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a childs report card. Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-. The nations overall grade: D+, which translates to being in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards with significant deterioration and a strong risk of failure, according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump calls former lawyer Michael Cohen a weak person who is lying By Associated Press President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is lying to get a reduced sentence. The president is reacting to Cohens guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia. During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trumps political message. Cohens lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Mark Z. Barabak When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Sarah D. Wire When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Michael Cohen, President Trumps ex-lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia By Associated Press Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trumps behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress. Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement James Comey says acting Atty. Gen. Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer By John Wagner Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isnt too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trumps acting attorney general. Matthew Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump as recently as Tuesday continues to call it a witch hunt. I think its a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry, Comey said. The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact. He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and Im sure he doesnt want that, added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Trump has called Whitaker a very smart man. Earlier this year, Trump called Comey an untruthful slime ball. Wagner writes for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Interior Department watchdog clears Zinke in investigation of Utah national monument By Juliet Eilperin Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The Interior Departments Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinkes deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office found no evidence that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinkes recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noels property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noels land holdings, but later reversed the plan. We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOIs proposed revisions to the [monuments] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noels financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries, Kendall wrote. Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector generals office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress no sooner than 31 days from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinkes office. The Associated Press first reported the inspector generals conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself. Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noels land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea. Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The inspector generals office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it. Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdogs conclusions. The report shows exactly what the secretarys office has known all along that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws, she said in an email. This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IGs office. But Kendalls spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time. The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently, DiPaolo added. Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year. I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest, he said. Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits. Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump advisor Larry Kudlow says China must do more to end trade war By Jim Puzzanghera Larry Kudlow, President Trumps top economic advisor, said Tuesday that Chinas response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers trade relationship has been extremely disappointing but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough. They have to do more. They must do more, Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina. I think the president is exactly right to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls, Kudlow said. Theyre so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Democrat TJ Cox grabs lead over Republican David Valadao in nations last remaining undecided House race By Maya Sweedler Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the countrys sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide. Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the states recent voting history. On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former CIA director Michael Hayden hospitalized after suffering a stroke By Deanna Paul Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008. (Saul Loeb / Getty Images) Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday. He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful, according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters. Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009. Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trumps campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review. Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump tells troops hes thankful for what hes done for the U.S. and rails against courts and migrants By Associated Press President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trumps call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays. Its a disgrace, Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas. Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost control on its side. The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops You really are our heroes, he said as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him. It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics. You probably see over the news whats happening on our southern border, Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: I dont have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who were letting in. Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was a very big subject for him personally. Weve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals, Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, Mr. President, from our perspective on the water we dont see any issues in terms of trade right now. And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch. I hope that youll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well, he said. The nations doing well economically, better than anybody in the world. He later told reporters, Nobodys done more for the military than me. Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his great family as well as himself. I made a tremendous difference in this country, he said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump contradicts CIA assessment that Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi killing By Josh Dawsey | Washington Post (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIAs assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had feelings but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. He denies it vehemently, Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that maybe he did, maybe he didnt. I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do, Trump said. Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame. Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place, the president said. He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, we wouldnt be able to have anyone for an ally. Trumps remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former FBI Director James Comey gets subpoena from House Republicans By Bloomberg Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday. Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat. Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. Im still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a closed door thing because Ive seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Lets have a hearing and invite everyone to see. James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018 Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Republican David Valadaos lead slips to 447 votes over Democrat TJ Cox in still-undecided Central Valley House race By Mark Z. Barabak Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), right, finds himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox. (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term. But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted. Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since. The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted. Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016. Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes he last won reelection by a 14-point margin suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats. If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump says no new punishments against Saudi Arabia in Jamal Khashoggi murder By Eli Stokols In this Oct. 25 photo, candles are lit in front of a photo of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Lefteris Pitarakis) President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October. In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIAs reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggis murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to carry it out. Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Sixteen House Democrats vow to oppose Nancy Pelosi as next speaker By Mike DeBonis | Washington Post House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Sixteen House Democrats said Monday that they will vote to deny Rep. Nancy Pelosi another stint as House speaker, a show of defiance that puts her opponents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as their party prepares to take the majority. Their pledge to oppose Pelosi (D-San Francisco), both in an internal caucus election and a Jan. 3 floor vote, delivered in a letter sent to Democratic colleagues, comes as Pelosi has marshaled a legion of supporters on and off Capitol Hill to make her case. But her opponents said Monday they are convinced it is time to select a new leader. We are thankful to Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and to our Caucus, they wrote. However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran on and won on a message of change. Pelosi has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speakers gavel in January eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House. Come on in, the waters fine, she said Friday about a potential leadership challenge. The signers might not be able to force Pelosi out themselves. The size of the Democratic majority remains in flux, but Democrats have already won 232 seats, according to the Associated Press, with five races still undecided. All those races have Republican incumbents, but the Democratic challenger is ahead in only one of them. If the leads hold in the uncalled races, Democrats would have won 233 seats, a 16-seat majority. That means Pelosi could lose as many as 15 Democratic votes when she stands for election as speaker on Jan. 3. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Democratic senators sue over Whitakers appointment as acting attorney general By Associated Press Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images) Three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to remove him. The suit, filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, argues that Whitakers appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. Whitaker was chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and was elevated to the top job after Sessions was ousted by President Trump on Nov. 7. The Constitutions Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm all principal officials before they can serve in their office. The Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that said Whitakers appointment would not violate the clause because he is serving in an acting capacity. The opinion concluded that Whitaker, even without Senate confirmation, may serve in an acting capacity because he has been at the department for more than a year at a sufficiently senior pay level. President Trump is denying senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nations top law enforcement official, Blumenthal said in a statement. The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called constitutional nobody and thwarting every senators constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts. The lawsuit comes days after a Washington lawyer challenged Whitakers appointment in a pending Supreme Court case dealing with gun rights. The attorney, Thomas Goldstein, asked the high court to find that Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and replace him with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, the second-ranking Justice Department official, has been confirmed by the Senate and had been overseeing special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker is now overseeing the investigation. The Justice Department issued a statement Monday defending Whitakers appointment as lawful and said it comports with the Appointments Clause, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and legal precedent. There are over 160 instances in American history in which non-Senate confirmed persons performed, on a temporary basis, the duties of a Senate-confirmed position, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. To suggest otherwise is to ignore centuries of practice and precedent. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Gov. Rick Scott says Sen. Bill Nelson concedes Florida Senate race By Associated Press Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott speaks with his wife, Ann, by his side at an election watch party in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 7. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called him to concede defeat in their extremely tight race. Scott issued a statement Sunday saying Nelson graciously conceded their Senate race shortly after the states recount ended. The final results show Scott defeated Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of 8 million cast. Nelson is scheduled to release a videotaped statement later Sunday. The defeat ends Nelsons lengthy political career. The three-term incumbent was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Before that he served six terms in the U.S. House and as state treasurer and insurance commissioner for six years. Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money on ads that portrayed Nelson as out-of-touch and ineffective. Nelson responded by questioning Scotts ethics and saying he would be under the sway of President Trump. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Orange County goes blue, as Democrats complete historic sweep of its seven congressional seats By Michael Finnegan Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange Countys undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the states six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism. With Cisneros victory, Democrats will constitute the entirety of Orange Countys seven-member congressional delegation, the first time since the 1930s that the birthplace of Richard Nixon, home of John Wayne and spiritual center of the Republican Party will have no GOP representative in the House. Sitting back in the 1960s, I would never have believed this would happen, said Stuart K. Spencer, a party strategist who spent more than half a century ushering Republicans, including President Reagan, into office. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Going, going ... with midterm wipeout, California Republican Party drifts closer to irrelevance By Michael Finnegan For a party in freefall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that its possible to plunge even further. The GOP not only lost every statewide office in the midterm election again, in blowout fashion but Democrats reestablished their supermajority in Sacramento, allowing them to legislate however they see fit After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller footprint on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) When the vote-counting is finished, the GOP may not even have enough lawmakers in Californias 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person softball team. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter says she will support Rep. Nancy Pelosi for speaker By Maya Sweedler Democratic Rep.-elect Katie Porter is congratulated by volunteers at her campaign headquarters in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter said she plans to support Rep. Nancy Pelosis bid for speaker of the House and will make campaign finance reform her top priority when she enters the chamber in January. Im going to continue to have conversations, but so far I feel like Leader Pelosi is definitely making the things that were a priority to the families that elected me her priorities, including announcing her support for campaign finance reform and anti-corruption as HR1, Porter said in her first public appearance since being declared the winner in Californias 45th Congressional District on Thursday evening. It means a lot to me that she is a Californian. She understands our state, Porter added. When we talk about environmental protections, this is a person who understands as a Californian how fragile our environment is and whats at risk in things like drilling off our coasts. Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, defeated two-term Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The 45th District, covering inland Orange County, has never been represented by a Democrat. Porter became the third Democrat to claim a Republican-held seat in Orange County, following the victories of Harley Rouda in the 48th District and Mike Levin in the 49th. A fourth, Gil Cisneros, is running slightly ahead of his Republican opponent in the race for the open seat in the 39th District, which extends into Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Porter attributed the massive political shift in the county, for decades a conservative stronghold, to increased levels of political engagement. Folks here care about education, they care about the environment, they believe climate change is real, they want healthcare that protects preexisting conditions, they want a tax system that doesnt punish California, they want our schools and places of worship to be safe from gun violence, she said. Those are the issues we campaigned on, and to the extent that Donald Trump and Mimi Walters were on the wrong side of those issues, the voters have made clear what direction they want us to go. Porter was flying back from the East Coast when her race was called, she said. She turned on her phone to find 167 text messages from friends and supporters. Among them was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was one of Porters teachers in law school and with whom she has remained close. The pair spoke via FaceTime this morning, she said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Bitter battle for Senate seat in Florida goes to hand recount By Associated Press Employees look through damaged ballots during a recount Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes. But the highly watched contest for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appeared to be over, with a machine recount showing DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race. Gillum, who conceded the contest on election night only to retract his concession later, said in a statement that it is not over until every legally casted vote is counted. The recount so far has been fraught with problems. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. A federal judge rejected a request to extend the recount deadline. We gave a heroic effort, said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher. If the county had three or four more hours, it would have made the deadline to recount ballots in the Senate race, she said. Meanwhile, election officials in another urban county in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. Media in South Florida reported that Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes. Counties were ordered last weekend to do a machine recount of three statewide races because the margins were so tight. The next stage is a manual review of ballots that were not counted by machines to see whether there is a way to figure out voter intent. Scott called on Nelson to end the recount battle. Its time for Nelson to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served, the governor said in a statement. The recount has triggered multiple lawsuits, many of them filed by Nelson and Democrats. The legal battles drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who slammed the state for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems. He also said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this, Walker said during a morning hearing. Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work. This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile, Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark. The overarching problem was created by the Florida Legislature, which Walker said passed a recount law that appears to run afoul of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore decision by locking in procedures that do not allow for potential problems. A total of six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court in Tallahassee as well at least one lawsuit filed in state court. Walker also ordered that voters be given until 5 p.m. Saturday to show a valid identification and fix their ballots if they have not been counted due to mismatched signatures. Republicans appealed the ruling, but an appeals court turned down the request. State officials testified that nearly 4,000 mailed-in ballots were set aside because local officials decided the signatures on the envelopes did not match the signatures on file. If those voters can prove their identity, their votes will be counted and included in final official returns due from each county by noon Sunday. Walker was asked by Democrats to require local officials to provide a list of people whose ballots were rejected. But the judge appointed by President Obama refused the request, calling it inappropriate. Under state law, a hand review is required with races that have a margin of 0.25 percentage points or less. A state website put the unofficial results showing Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.15 percentage points. The margin between DeSantis and Gillum was at 0.41 points. The margin between Scott and Nelson had not changed much in the last few days, conceded Marc Elias, an attorney working for Nelsons campaign. But he said that he expected the vote tally to shrink due to the hand recount and the ruling on signatures. The developments fueled frustrations among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats want state officials to do whatever it takes to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Trump, have argued without evidence that voter fraud threatens to steal races from the GOP. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Democrat Gil Cisneros pulls ahead of Republican Young Kim as more votes are tallied in Orange and San Bernardino counties By Michael Finnegan Congressional candidate Gil Cisneros (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Democrat Gil Cisneros pulled ahead of Republican Young Kim in one of Californias undecided congressional races Thursday, an ominous sign for a GOP already reeling from its loss of four House seats in the state. In updated vote counts released by the registrars for Orange and San Bernardino counties, Kim fell 941 votes behind Cisneros in the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Ed Royce in Californias 39th Congressional District. The 39th straddles Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties. In another unresolved House race, Democrat Katie Porter pulled further ahead of Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in the 45th District, which includes Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills. Porter, a consumer attorney and UC Irvine law professor, is now 6,203 votes ahead. The Nov. 6 midterm election has been devastating to Republicans in California. If Cisneros and Porter win, the party will have lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, essentially a wipeout in every contest that both parties spent heavily to win. The three Republicans already bounced from Congress are Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista in the fourth district flipped so far. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Florida Senate race likely headed to second recount By Associated Press A Palm Beach County Sheriffs deputy walks past boxes of ballots before a recount on Nov. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee) Unofficial Florida election results show that the governors race seems to be settled after a machine recount but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount. Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governors race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount Thursday that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount. Unofficial results posted on a state website show the margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with a margin of 0.25 percentage point or less. Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered. The election will be certified Tuesday. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Pelosi says she has the votes to become the next House speaker By John Wagner Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference in Washington on Nov. 14. (Susan Walsh) House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that she has the votes to become the chambers speaker despite solid opposition from more than a dozen Democrats who want fresh leadership when the party takes control next year. I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House, the San Francisco lawmaker told reporters. I happen to think at this point, Im the best person for that. A vote within the Democratic caucus is scheduled for Nov. 28. The full House votes on Jan. 3 to elect a new speaker. During her remarks, Pelosi touted the size of the Democratic victory in the midterms, which she called almost a tsunami. With a few races still to be decided, Democrats are poised to pick up close to 40 seats in the chamber. Pelosi called that the biggest victory for the Democrats since 1974, when the Watergate babies came in. Pelosis comments come as she faces solid opposition from at least 17 Democrats, setting the stage for a battle over who will ascend to one of the most powerful positions in Washington. After a campaign in which some Democrats prevailed in competitive districts by promising to oppose her, a coalition of incumbents and newly elected members has denied her a smooth path to the speakership. The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes for speaker Jan. 3. However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that shes being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesnt have the votes. In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been overwhelmed by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race for House speaker. Over the last 12 hours, Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of support Ive received, Fudge said, adding that there are probably closer to 30" Democrats who have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi. Things could change rapidly, Fudge said. Fudge, 66, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she is building a diverse coalition as she mulls a speaker run, talking with allies in the caucus, moderate Democrats and newly elected members. To this point, Pelosi has enjoyed the strong backing of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), one of its members, wrote a letter to colleagues praising her insight, fortitude and strategic thinking and urging support for her speakership bid. Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., an African American who is contemplating a 2020 presidential bid, also voiced support for Pelosi, praising her in a tweet as an architect of the recent midterm success. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a leader of the resistance to Pelosi, said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that Fudge is the kind of new leader that we need in this party. Shes in touch with middle America. She understands what the American people want. Shes a next-generation leader that people will look to and say, Thats the future of our party, thats the future of our country, and thats exactly the kind of leader that I want to see as our next speaker. Wagner reports for the Washington Post. The Posts Robert Costa, Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement GOP Rep. Jeff Denham concedes to Democrat Josh Harder in Central Valley race By Maya Sweedler Rep. Jeff Denham (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Republican Rep. Jeff Denham has conceded to Democrat Josh Harder in the race to represent Californias 10th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. It has been an absolute honor to serve our community and represent the Central Valley in Congress over the past eight years, the 51-year-old congressman said. The enormity of the responsibility was never lost on me. My wife Sonia and I look forward to starting the next chapter of our lives. Harder said he had spoken with Denham and the two were committed to a productive transition. Denham, an Air Force veteran, previously represented the region in the state Senate for eight years and founded a company specializing in plastic packaging used in agriculture. While a member of Congress, he sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture committees. First-time candidate Harder was born and raised in the district. After graduating from Stanford University, he served as vice president of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Since moving back, he has been teaching at Modesto Junior College. Denhams House seat is one of four in California that Republicans lost in the Nov. 6 election, with two contests in Orange County still undecided as of Thursday morning. Jeff Denham called me this morning and we had a very productive conversation. I'm honored that I've been chosen to serve our community in Congress, and we're both looking forward to a productive transition that best serves the people of District 10. Josh Harder (@JoshHarder) November 14, 2018 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Democrat Katie Porter now nearly 3,800 votes ahead of GOP Rep. Mimi Walters By Maya Sweedler Rep. Mimi Walters thanks all of her supporters as she watches election results in Irvine on Nov. 7, 2018. (Alex Gallardo / Associated Press) Democrat Katie Porter opened a 3,797-vote lead Wednesday over Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange Countys 45th Congressional District. In the neighboring 39th, Democrat Gil Cisneros has nearly tied the race against Republican Young Kim. Cisneros now trails Kim by a razor-thin margin of 122 votes. The 39th District straddles Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties; Wednesdays updated ballot counts came from the latter two. There are more than 202,000 ballots left to count in Orange County, which includes parts of seven congressional districts. The 45th is entirely in inland Orange County. In California, the ballots counted first tend to lean Republican and those tallied later skew Democratic. In the Central Valleys 21st Congressional District, Democratic challenger TJ Cox has pulled within 2 percentage points of Rep. David Valadao, who is serving his third term. The Associated Press had projected a win for Valadao on election night, but his 4,839-vote advantage has shrunk to 2,090. Back in CA-21, Valadao (R) wins a batch of ballots from his stronghold in Kings Co., but by a considerably smaller margin (14 points) than his previous ~30-point margin in the county. We're moving to Lean R from Likely R; today a bit scary for Valadao.https://t.co/WqJVUVkqGW Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2018 A spokesman for Valadao told the Fresno Bee that the changes were expected and that [s]tatistically, David Valadao has won this race. Democrats in California have already flipped four House seats, defeating three Republican incumbents and claiming an open seat previously held by the GOP. Reps. Steve Knight of Palmdale, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Jeff Denham of Turlock have already lost their races, and retiring Rep. Darrell Issas San Diego County seat was claimed by Democrat Mike Levin. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump aide departs West Wing after rebuke from Melania Trump By Associated Press First Lady Melania Trump. (Alain Jocard / AFP-Getty Images) Deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel is leaving the White House, one day after First Lady Melania Trumps office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal. No replacement was named. Aides said Ricardel clashed with the first ladys staff over her visit to Africa last month. Yet it is highly unusual for a first lady or her office to weigh in on personnel matters, especially the presidents national security staff. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Ricardel would have a new role in the administration. On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, the first ladys spokeswoman, released a statement saying, It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House. President Trumps White House has set records for administration turnover. Ricardel was the third person to hold the post under Trump. An ally of national security advisor John Bolton, Ricardel began her service in the Trump administration as associate director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, then moved to the Commerce Department last year. Bolton brought her into the West Wing shortly after taking the job in April. He is traveling in Asia this week alongside Vice President Mike Pence. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Race for House Minority Leader is Kevin McCarthys to lose By Associated Press (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next years shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress. The race for minority leader is McCarthys to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the House Freedom Caucus. The two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year. Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate. Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosis bid to return as the Democrats nominee for speaker, is later this month. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Melania Trump calls for the firing of deputy national security advisor By Justin Sink First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on Nov. 11. (Alain Jocard / AFP/Getty Images ) First Lady Melania Trumps office said she wants Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, ousted from the White House. It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House, Trumps spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardels removal. Ricardel is the top deputy to national security advisor John Bolton. She drew the first ladys wrath after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trumps trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said. Grishams statement comes as several media outlets have reported that President Trump is considering a broader shakeup of his administration, including ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Sink and Jacobs report for Bloomberg. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print CNN sues Trump over the suspension of Jim Acostas White House press credentials By Jim Puzzanghera CNN said Tuesday that it is suing President Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference last week. The suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating fake news for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acostas 1st Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their 5th Amendment rights to due process, CNN said in a written statement. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Maxine Waters to take aim at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank as new head of House Financial Services Committee By Jim Puzzanghera Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committees top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last weeks elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump. With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for Americas consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight, Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Heres how a controversial voting system will decide a congressional race in Maine By Kurtis Lee For the first time in U.S. history, a controversial voting system known as ranked choice is being used to decide a federal election. Its happening in Maine, which adopted the system in 2016. Rather than marking a single candidate, each voter ranks them all, assigning a first-place vote, a second-place vote and so on down the ballot. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print ACLU files suit to stop Trumps new asylum limits By Associated Press A group of Central American migrants march to the office of the U.N.'s humans rights body in Mexico City on Nov. 8. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to President Trumps order denying asylum to migrants if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco and argues the new rules are against the law. Attorney Lee Gelernt said the regulations will put families in danger. The suit seeks to declare the regulations invalid and wants a judge to stop the rules from going into effect while the litigation is pending. The new rules were spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot, but officials say they will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally. Officials say about 70,000 people who enter the country illegally claim asylum. The order invoked the same national security powers Trump used to push through his travel ban. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump on new acting AG: I dont know Matt Whitaker By Associated Press President Trump talks with reporters before departing for France on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 9. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump is moving to distance himself from Matthew Whitaker as he faces criticism over his choice for acting attorney general. Trump told reporters Friday that I dont know Matt Whitaker and said he didnt speak with Whitaker about special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker has made public comments critical of Muellers investigation, and critics have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the inquiry. Under former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the investigation was overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Of the scrutiny Whitaker is facing, Trump said: Its a shame that no matter who I put in they go after. He also called Whitaker a very highly respected man. Whitaker was Sessions chief of staff before Trump made him Sessions interim replacement. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg out of hospital after fall By Associated Press The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is home after being released from the hospital. She had been admitted for treatment and observation after fracturing three ribs in a fall. The court said Ginsburg was released Friday. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg says she is doing well and working from home. The court had previously said the justice fell in her office at the court on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gun-control activist Lucy McBath defeats GOP Rep. Karen Handel in Georgia By Associated Press Lucy McBath speaks during a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Nov. 2 at Morehouse College in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Democratic gun-control activist Lucy McBath has defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel of Georgia in a suburban congressional district long considered safe for the GOP. Handel had to seek reelection after winning her seat last year in a close special election race against Democrat Jon Ossoff. McBath became an advocate for stricter gun laws after her son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a man angry over loud music the teenager and his friends were playing in a car. McBaths margin of victory was narrow enough for Handel to have requested a recount. The Associated Press declared McBath the winner Thursday after Handel conceded. Handel conceded in a statement Thursday morning, stating that after reviewing all of the election data, its clear she came up a bit short in Tuesdays vote. Handel congratulated McBath, offering good thoughts and much prayer for the journey that lies ahead for her. McBath, who is African American, declared victory Wednesday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall By Associated Press Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital. The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening. Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print White House suspends press pass of CNNs Jim Acosta after heated exchange with Trump By Associated Press The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference. They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, Thats enough! and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern, calling it absolutely unacceptable. The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. Pardon me, maam, he told her. Acosta tweeted that Sanders statement that he put his hands on the aide was a lie. CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acostas press pass in retaliation for his challenging questions Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acostas actions. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporters colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history. Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Contrary to CNNs assertions there is no greater demonstration of the Presidents support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters... Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 As a result of todays incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice. Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Sanders provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better, CNN said. Jim Acosta has our full support. Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump spars with reporters at post-election news briefing, ordering several to sit down By Associated Press President Trump assails CNNs Jim Acosta at a White House news conference. President Trump sparred with reporters at his post-election news conference, ordering several to sit down and telling another hes a rude, terrible person. He told another reporter hes not a fan of yours, either. The presidents mood turned sour Wednesday after reporters pressed him on why he referred to a migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. on foot through Mexico as an invasion. Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan in the final days of the midterm elections. Trump was also pressed on why his campaign aired an ad featuring a Mexican immigrant convicted of killing American police officers and linking the mans actions to the caravan. Several television networks pulled the ad after airing it or declined to air it at all. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Im living one hour at a time at this point By Christine Mai-Duc Republican congressional candidate Young Kim and gubernatorial candidate John Cox campaign in Rowland Heights. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Republican congressional candidate Young Kim greeted gubernatorial candidate John Coxs giant campaign bus, the words HELP IS ON THE WAY emblazoned across it, as it rolled into the parking lot outside her Rowland Heights field office. Standing beside Cox on Saturday, Kim predicted that a string of GOP victories Tuesday would start with voters repealing the gas tax hike. Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor? Can you imagine Gil Cisneros being your representative? Kim asked the crowd, to loud boos and cries of Nooo! The former state assemblywoman who worked for retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is vying for his seat with Democrat Gil Cisneros. She led the crowd in chants of Enough is enough! and, though short-lived, Drain the swamp! Ive served you in Sacramento and Ive seen dysfunction personally, Kim continued. We cannot continue that route. She urged her supporters to stay and help make phone calls or walk neighborhoods. Lets get out there the 72 hours is really critical. Its all going to come down to a few votes, it could be your vote, she said pointing to her left, then pivoting right, it could be your vote. So dont sit back and do nothing. Every night I go to sleep thinking, OK, how many more votes can I get or how many more people can I call tomorrow? Kim said. It can be physically exhausting but Im mentally, emotionally very energized. She listed off her events so far that day and the next one she was heading to. Thats just what I can remember, she said. Im living one hour at a time at this point. Kims campaign invited press to two of her events on Saturday. After she was whisked away to her next event a high tea fundraiser in Walnut, a couple dozen volunteers remained. John Freeman, a statewide field manager for the state Republican Party, tried to pump them up. This is the Super Bowl. Were not in an NFL stadium, were not getting paid millions of dollars, but you know what? Freeman said. Were walking on the field right now. This is that high-stakes-level game. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Its going to be tough out there Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background. (Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times ) Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porters campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember 70s rock n roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na. Jon Bauman, as Bowzer is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked, he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. There has never been a more important election. Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside. We love Trump, the voice cried out. We love him too, he makes great fodder, the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter. Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district. I know its going to be tough out there, she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat. This election is going to be close, she said. If we dont fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 oclock on Tuesday, this could slip away. Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song Good Night Sweetheart: Good night, Mimi Walters, he crooned. A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt. She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds. We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids its supposed to be run, said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: Theyve had control over all these years and Californias gone to crap. Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children the older ones are 5 and 2 about the presidency and the government since Trumps election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town. This is the first time its felt like a big deal and there isnt a president up for election, she said. Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican she the race felt m Senate Republicans blame Feinstein for not bringing Dr. Christine Blasey Fords letter to light earlier Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif). (Michael Reynolds / Pool Photo) Senate Republicans repeatedly blamed ranking Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein for not revealing earlier Dr. Christine Blasey Fords letter detailing her allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school. Finally at the end of the day, Feinstein interrupted Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) to push back. I did not hide Dr. Fords allegations. I did not leak her story, Feinstein said. l was given some information by a woman who was very much afraid, who asked that it be held confidential, and I held it confidential until she decided that she would come forward. Republicans said they could have investigated her claim while protecting her identity, without delaying the confirmation process. Ford named herself in the Washington Post after news and vague details about the letter leaked to the news media, and thanked Feinstein in her opening statement. Nearly every Republican on the committee, and Kavanaugh, have directly referenced Feinstein today. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) accused her and Democrats of lying in wait to release the letter. Kavanaugh echoed that in his opening statement. Some of you were lying in wait and had it ready. This first allegation was held in secret for weeks by a Democratic member of this committee, and by staff. It would be needed only if you couldnt take me out on the merits. Tillis told Democrats that if they were worried about having a full investigation, I would tell you to pound the table with your ranking member and leadership on your side [asking] why didnt we we do our part in the investigation. Feinstein had forcefully defended herself in her opening statement. Yes, I did receive a letter from Dr. Ford, Feinstein said. I held it confidential, up to a point where the witness was willing to come forward. Otherwise, Feinstein kept quiet as they criticized her. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said Republicans were accusing Feinstein and Democrats of political posturing because they were trying to change the conversation from Fords testimony. They want to distract us from what happened here this morning, Hirono said. If each side had set out to design witnesses who more perfectly embodied the nations bitter partisan divide or could more effectively widen it they scarcely could have done better than the two who faced off Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Frequently fighting back tears, Christine Blasey Ford described the sexual assault she says she suffered during the summer of 1982, when she was 15, at the hands of a man now nominated to the nations highest court. Her anguished testimony made her an Everywoman stand-in for victims of sexual violence. And as a white, female university professor from California, she virtually personified the Democrats resistance to President Trump. In the afternoon, the man she has accused, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, channeled the president who nominated him, delivering a blistering, angry denial in which he repeatedly declared his innocence and portrayed himself as a victim of a frenzy on the left born of pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election and revenge on behalf of the Clintons. At the risk of torching any image of judicial temperament, Kavanaugh interrupted Democratic senators and glared at them, once sitting mutely rather than answer a question. He cast the fight mostly not as one of credibility his word against Fords but as raw partisan battle. He portrayed himself as the victim of a calculated and orchestrated political hit and grotesque and coordinated character assassination. Advertisement His tight-lipped fury marked a dramatic shift from a genteel performance at his earlier confirmation hearing. But it drew deeply from the well of grievance toward Washington and liberal politicians that has cemented conservative loyalty behind Trump through repeated crises in the three years since he opened his presidential campaign. Underscoring the implicit demand for tribal unity and its intended audience Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Kavanaughs strongest supporters on the committee, nearly shouted at the Senates remaining undecided Republicans when his turn came to speak. To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, youre legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics, Graham declared. Whether the hearing changed any senators vote is yet unknown. The committees 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats are expected to vote Friday, and the full Senate could begin preliminary votes Saturday. Only a handful of votes remain uncertain perhaps three Republicans and a couple of Democrats. But much like the confrontation between professor Anita Hill and Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas before the same committee 27 years ago, the days drama seemed all but certain to become a national touchstone. This kind of mass national exposure is really unusual, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Think of the very few moments in which a large part of the nation pauses to consume something in common, she said. People assume if you were alive and above 15 when the Anita Hill hearing happened, you will remember it, and there is no need to explain what it is. This will also be one of those moments. Fords testimony revealed her as a naif in the world of politics. From her opening declaration about how terrified she felt at the witness table to her description of trying to interview prospective lawyers from her car parked outside a Walgreens drugstore, she appeared as an innocent suddenly parachuted, against her better judgment, into a Washington maelstrom. She came across as exactly the kind of witness one would hope she would be, said Deborah Tuerkheimer, a professor at the Northwestern University School of Law and a former sex-crimes prosecutor. Helpful, interested in providing the truth, willing to qualify the testimony where she needed to and very much a person doing her duty rather than grinding any ax. For survivors of any kind of assault or misconduct there was catharsis in this, she added. As difficult and excruciating as it was to see her relive the trauma, she held up incredibly well. Indeed, Fords soft-stated testimony elicited praise even from many Republican senators. I found no reason to find her not credible, said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the Senates second-ranking Republican. Kavanaugh, by contrast, made no effort to portray himself as outside the political realm, and he drew a polarized response. Democrats, as well as some nonpartisan observers, took note of the partisan framing of his anger and predicted his comments could leave permanent doubt about his impartiality if he does win confirmation. I think he has really raised serious questions about his temperament, said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He has raised threats of conspiracy and shown himself to be hot-headed in a way which really makes it questionable that he can be a fair judge. But Kavanaughs testimony drew support where it counted most from the inveterate television watcher in the Oval Office, who cleared much of his calendar to watch the nearly nine-hour proceedings, a day after he seemed to hint that he might be wavering on the nomination. Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting, Trump declared in a tweet shortly after Kavanaugh finished. Conservative defenders of Kavanaughs were equally cheered by his partisan fire. Kavanaugh is not being withdrawn after this. The Republicans are going to have to confirm him or watch Trump and the GOP voters burn down the remains of the party, deservedly so, declared Erick Erickson, the conservative commentator. Before Thursday, many had predicted the hearing would replay the bitter 1991 clash between Hill and Thomas after she had accused him of sexual harassment. And, indeed, Kavanaughs strategy of righteous indignation hewed to Thomas declaration that his opponents had engaged in a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks, the counter-attack that helped save his nomination. Then as now, the Republican side of the dais consisted entirely of middle-aged white men a reality that Republicans sought to touch up by hiring a female prosecutor from Arizona, Rachel Mitchell, to question Ford for them. That effort did little to assuage Democratic anger at the unrepresentative nature of the committee majority. The politics on sexual assault has shifted so radically. Yet these Republicans look like Rip Van Winkle, who woke up from a 20-year nap, said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, vice president of Third Way, a centrist Democratic policy advocacy group. It is rage-inducing. But the differences between 1991 and 2018 ran deeper than the similarities. In the 1991 hearing, Republican senators subjected Hill to sharp and relentlessly hostile questions. One, the late Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, accused Hill of having committed perjury. Another, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, who sat on the judiciary panel Thursday along with two other veterans of the earlier battle, suggested Hill had concocted her story from a popular novel. Democrats, cowed by Thomas racially charged defense, mostly played the role of neutral bystanders, unwilling to take sides. By contrast, in this years hearing, Democrats took turns lauding Ford while the Republicans mostly sat silent, at least during Fords half of the hearing, turning the duty of asking questions over to Mitchell. Their disinclination to challenge Fords account reflected the huge social change that culminated in the #MeToo movement of the last year, Northwestern professor Tuerkheimer said. There is more willingness to believe, she said. There is greater peril associated with a reflexive dismissal of a credible womans account of sexual violence. But while societys response to sexual assaults has changed over the last generation, the countrys partisan divides have only deepened. Thursdays hearing, and the contrasting reactions to it, seemed likely to widen the divide further, leaving the process with few defenders. Its depressing watching this because both of these people have been seriously and permanently damaged, said Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who has worked with one of the main conservative groups backing Kavanaughs confirmation. It reminds me of a Shakespearean tragedy, where everybody dies in the end. As the Judiciary Committees one member yet to declare how hell vote, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), put it: This is not a good process, but its all weve got. In the end, we are 21 very imperfect senators, he said. In the end, there is likely to be as much doubt as certainty going out of this room today. There is doubt. Well never move beyond that. Get the latest news from the nations capital on Essential Washington david.lauter@latimes.com Twitter: @DavidLauter evan.halper@latimes.com Twitter: @evanhalper david.savage@latimes.com Twitter: @DavidGSavage UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said that Iran has hidden "massive amounts of equipment and materiel," indicating that the country is eyeing nuclear weapon program. Speaking at the General Debate of the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu said that nearly 15 kilograms of radioactive material had been stored in the warehouse in the Turquzabad district of Tehran. "Today I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran's secret nuclear program," Netanyahu said. This site contained as much as 300 tonnes of nuclear-related equipment and materiel, he said, noting Iran hasn't abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons. While not detailing what the material was, Netanyahu urged the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN atomic watchdog, to inspect the location immediately. Netanyahu also criticized Europe for setting up a legal entity to bypass U.S. re-imposed sanctions, saying such action amounts to an appeasement with Iran. On Monday, European Union foreign and security policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the EU will set up a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran in light of the U.S. withdrawal from the international agreement on Tehran's nuclear program and the re-imposition of sanctions. On Wednesday, leaders of France and Britain, while speaking at the UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on non-proliferation, vowed to defend the Iran nuke deal. All these showed that Washington, by exiting the deal and sanctioning Iran, has put itself in isolation, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said. Netanyahu on April 30 revealed what he called a "great intelligence achievement" about Iran's nuclear program, saying that he had proof that Iran had been seeking nuclear power even after it signed an agreement curbing its nuclear program in 2015. However, Iranian Foreign Ministry later denounced his nuclear allegations against Iran as a "worthless show" and "ridiculous propagandist presentations" that were "merely aimed at spreading lies and deception." Tensions between Iran and Israel, as well as the United States, have been running high this year. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States will impose "tougher than ever" sanctions on Iran after the punitive actions against the country slated in November this year. In May, Trump announced Washington's withdrawal from the landmark Iranian nuclear deal. Since then, the Trump administration has slapped a number of sanctions on Iran while vowing to apply more in November. Republican leaders plan to vote next week on President Trumps Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh fell apart Friday. Heres what happened. Thursday After Thursdays extraordinary hearing into Christine Blasey Fords allegations of sexual assault, the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee planned a morning vote to advance Kavanaughs nomination to the Senate floor. Friday morning Sen. Jeff Flake, the only undecided senator on the panel, released a statement early Friday saying he would support Kavanaugh. Advertisement As Flake headed to the committee hearing room, he was approached by two upset women who said they were victims of sexual assault and were deeply upset by his vote. Flake appeared visibly shaken by the encounter. Moments after Sen. Jeff Flake announced he would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, two women confronted him in an elevator. When the hearing began at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, Republicans moved to cut off debate and set a 1:30 p.m. vote by the committee. Some angry Democrats stormed off in protest, saying they wanted more time to debate. As senators made their statements in the committee before the 1:30 vote, Flake at one point rose and left the hearing room with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). Soon attention shifted away from the speaking senators as Democratic members of the committee began huddling, whispering and meeting. Republicans looked uncomfortable. Friday afternoon Well past 1:30 p.m., Democrats and Flake returned. Flake called for a one-week delay in the vote by the full Senate, which was set to begin Saturday. But he did not object to voting in the committee in favor of Kavanaugh. The committee, by a party-line vote of 11 to 10, quickly decided in favor of advancing Kavanaughs nomination to the Senate floor. Flake voted for Kavanaugh. After the meeting ended, another key undecided Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), joined in calling for a one-week delay to allow for an FBI investigation. Read more: Flake and Murkowski join Democrats in calling for FBI inquiry of sex assault allegations against Kavanaugh With two Republicans calling for a delay, GOP leaders would not have enough votes to confirm Kavanaughs nomination if they brought it to the floor. GOP leaders huddled to plan their next move. It remained unclear whether they would proceed with a preliminary vote Saturday and a final vote Tuesday. But they did not appear to have the votes. Coming next week Reversing its previous position, the Senate Judiciary Committee formally called for the White House to order the FBI to look into current credible sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh and complete the work within one week. Trump later ordered the FBI to conduct the investigation. Read more: Former FBI agents say there are clues to follow from dramatic Kavanaugh hearing What Christine Blasey Ford remembers best about that night 30-plus years ago is the laughter. It came, she said, from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge two high school boys who drunkenly locked her into the bedroom of a friends house where she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh. In testimony Thursday to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ford described it as uproarious laughter shared by friends who were having fun at my expense. The memory of it is indelible in the hippocampus, she said, channeling her training as a research psychologist. Advertisement Other aspects of that night are seared in her memory as well: the bed on the right side of the room where the alleged attack occurred; the sound of the boys pinballing their way down the stairway after Ford had locked herself in the bathroom; the sparsely furnished living room she passed as she exited the house. Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before she begins her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Jim Bourg/AFP/Getty Images) Yet there are also significant gaps in her memory, including how she made her way home in her traumatized state. To some members of the committee, those missing memories cast doubt on all of Fords allegations. But should they? In an effort to assess her credibility and by implication, that of Kavanaugh The Times asked experts in sexual trauma whether Fords testimony was consistent with the research findings and clinical observations they have made or encountered in their own work. Heres what they told us. Patricia Resick, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Duke University Who she is: Resick is a leader in the field of sexual trauma. Her research focuses on the lasting effects of traumatic events, particularly on women. She has worked with rape victims for more than 40 years, and since the 1980s, she has been developing and testing cognitive process therapy as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Whats your overall reaction to Christine Blasey Fords testimony? I am not her therapist and have not met with Ford personally. I am reacting based on my experience with sexual assault survivors. She said she doesnt remember where it took place. That rings true because until you know you are in danger, there is no reason to remember everyday details. Another thing that rings true is that Ford was clearly emotional when talking about the details of the assault. She says it drastically changed her life, and that she was too embarrassed to tell her parents that she was at a house drinking with boys. Do you find it strange that she didnt report the assault at the time? She says that she tried to ignore the assault because it made her anxious. Avoidance is a typical response and part of PTSD. She tried to push the event away and not think about it. Were there details that stuck out to you? The discussion about Ford and her husband going to therapy because she wanted two front doors was a unique moment. It actually is corroborating evidence about the impact of the assault on her life. I mean, who else needs two front doors? There were several emotional moments during her testimony. What did those say to you? When Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) congratulated her on her bravery, she looked like she was going to cry. The same thing happened when Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) praised her. When Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called her testimony powerful, again, she looked teary. After lunch Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) talked about her sacrifice and bravery. She cried again. In all of these cases, she was overwhelmed by the praise she was receiving. Given how hard this has been for her to do, I think she was surprised by the praise. I expect her self-esteem has been so damaged that she has trouble taking in all the positive statements praising her. Although there were gaps in her memory, there were things she recalled with extreme clarity. Does that signal anything? Her strongest memory of the event was the boys laughter. She remembers two friends having a really good time with each other. This speaks to the humiliation and shame that sexual assault victims feel. The shame and humiliation are often more important than the fear and speak more to why she stayed silent for so long. Tracey J. Shors, distinguished professor of behavioral & systems neuroscience at Rutgers University Who she is: Shors is a neuroscientist who studies memory and its role in overcoming trauma, including sexual violence. She has devised neuroscience-based treatments for PTSD. Her work also examines how stressful events in the past affect behavior and mental health in the future, especially in women. Were there aspects of her testimony that are typical of sexual assault survivors? In our studies, we show that women with sexual violence experience often have many symptoms of anxiety and depression and trauma. Clearly, Ford is a poised and intelligent person with sophisticated knowledge and insight into her own mind. But you can also tell that this is not easy for her. Did anything strike you about the things Ford remembers from the night of the alleged assault? It is interesting to me that Ford says she remembers the context and the layout of the bedroom, the bathroom where she hid and the stairwell to the room. We just published a study showing that women with sexual violence history experience vivid memories of the spatial and temporal context of their most stressful life event. What else does her account tell you about memory? The brain is always encoding memories, most of which we could not necessarily be able to recall years or decades later. Otherwise, we would remember every time and every place we ever parked our car. But we do tend to remember stressful events. We do this because we need to use those memories to help us survive now and in the future. Memories are not there just for reminiscing they are vital for our survival. It is also important to realize that the people at the party who were not assaulted or stressed by the event are not as likely to remember it. For her, it was a memorable event; for them, it may have just been another time hanging out with few friends hanging at a house. This applies to the people downstairs but perhaps even for the two boys, especially if they were intoxicated. Sherry Hamby director of the Life Paths Appalachian Research Center Who she is: Hamby is a licensed clinical psychologist who has studied violence for more than 20 years. She helps conduct the National Survey of Childrens Exposure to Violence for the U.S. Justice Department. She is also a research professor of psychology at the University of the South. In watching this testimony, what resonated for you and why? There were many powerful moments in her testimony, but one that will stay with me is the way, with quavering voice, she described them laughing at her while they were violating her consent. It fits a textbook definition of callousness and objectification. What do you make of the gaps in Fords memory? Humans dont record events the way that cameras do. Most days we might commit few events to long-term memory. Traumatic memories are different. Our brains are being flooded with chemicals such as cortisol and norepinephrine that can sear events in the way that Ford described. We remember dangerous and traumatic events better than other events because it has survival value to remember them. However, she didnt know beforehand that an assault was going to happen, and so theres no reason to think that the earlier events of the day or even what happened once she had gotten away would be seared in her memory the way the assault itself was. Christine Blasey Ford holds a page of notes during the hearing. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) I have seen a few commentators express surprise that she could remember details such as having his hand held over her mouth but not remember the date or the time. That is truly ridiculous. Victims are in survival mode during these events. Dates and times are irrelevant constructs when you are fighting for your life. These factors are also the reason why no one else at the party would remember it in any detail. It was just normal time to them no norepinephrine, no cortisol, no danger. This whole event may have been pretty routine for Kavanaugh in a lot of ways, and it may not have been seared in his memory in the way it was in hers. What about the fact that she remembers the laughter so clearly? The way she said that the laughter stuck in her mind makes sense. Shaming and humiliation can be just as damaging as physical assault, and linger long past when bruises and broken bones are healed. Did you find her account believable? She gave one of the most credible accounts I have ever heard from a victim. The victim label is very stigmatizing and associated with stereotypes of passivity and weakness. Ford departed from those stereotypes in important ways. She is an accomplished psychologist, professor and researcher, and I was glad to see those accomplishments presented at the beginning of the hearing. Not only that, but you could also see her expertise throughout her comments. She was very brave and a role model for all survivors. Despite her strength, you can see the lingering effects of her victimization how it has affected her for years, and how, even more than 30 years later, it is difficult to talk about. Any other reactions? I would also say one more thing regarding this memory issue. If the reports about Kavanaughs extensive binge-drinking are true, then that would raise questions about his ability to assert what he did and did not do while he was drinking. That could also explain why he might not have specific memories of these events. Kevin Swartout, associate professor of psychology at Georgia State University Who he is: Swartout is an expert on the social attitudes and behaviors that contribute to sexual violence, especially against women. Among other things, he studies how alcohol, drugs, peers and social attitudes can fuel aggressive behavior. One of his specialties is understanding how young men those a year or two older than Kavanaugh was at the time of the alleged assault negotiate the transition to college. How do you assess the credibility of the claims made by these two witnesses? First of all, let me caution that it is impossible for me to determine how credible the accusations are against Kavanaugh. All I can do is speak to the match between the details that were presented during the hearing and what we know about sexual violence perpetrators from the research literature. Having stated that, there were several moments from Kavanaughs testimony that especially caught my attention. He demonstrated a great deal of hostility during the hearing, especially toward some of the female senators on the committee. He had a contentious exchange with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) at the outset, where he cut her off mid-sentence numerous times. There was also the exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), which he later apologized for, where he seemingly tried to flip the power differential by turning the question back on her. Judge Brett Kavanaugh responds to Christine Blasey Fords sexual assault allegations while testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Win McNamee/AFP/Getty Images) The results of hundreds of studies to this point suggest that levels of hostility toward women, which includes a drive to exert power over women, are positively related with levels of sexual violence. Do attitudes like that, and their ability to predict behavior, remain pretty stable over a persons lifetime? Across several studies, I have found consistent evidence for a group of young men who perpetrate the type of sexual violence described in these allegations, but only at a relatively young age about 14 to 20 years old. These men then stop perpetrating altogether either before or shortly after they begin college. This is part of a more general trend researchers have identified regarding adolescent antisocial behavior that disappears once an individual reaches adulthood. Based on my research, 70% to 75% of young men who perpetrated sexual violence only do so during a relatively limited time frame. Very few of the men who commit sexual violence are serial offenders, so I was not surprised by the idea that these behaviors were limited to adolescence. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. The Laguna Dance Festival is returning Oct. 4 to 7 with a David Bowie tribute, a free dance experience that will take audiences behind the curtain on a live rehearsal, and a weekend program featuring some of the hottest young dancers in the field today. Plus, a bonus show on Oct. 25 will bring an Afro-Colombian troupe to a Laguna Beach church for a live show of percussion, dance and singing. Celebrating its 14th season, the Laguna Dance Festival has established itself as an important annual cultural event in Orange County and a key showcase for new and established dance companies and artists. The festival already entertained local audiences during the summer with two free performances by Los Angeles-based companies. Entity Contemporary Dance Company performed July 29 at the Festival of Arts grounds, and Contra Tiempo Urban Latin Dance Theater presented two free shows there on Aug. 26. On Oct. 4 at 7 p.m., the co-directors and dancers from Complexions Contemporary Ballet will offer a free, one-hour demonstration of a performance at Laguna Playhouse. Attendees will get to observe the rehearsal process, speak directly with performers and gain a deeper understanding of the dances being performed during the festival. I often hear from audience members how do I learn how to watch dance? How can I learn to appreciate it more? said Jodi Gates, founder and artistic director of Laguna Dance Festival. These questions are valid. I truly believe that the more we can offer opportunities of casual conversation and giving knowledge of what might appear abstract, the more helpful it will be toward understanding dance more. On Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m., Complexions will present StarDust, a tribute to rock icon Bowie, who died in January 2016. The production will feature the rhythms, personas and musical drama of nine Bowie songs, including Changes, Modern Love, Young Americans, Heroes and Space Oddity. StarDust will take the genre-crossing, gender-bending, boundary-busting music of Bowie and translate it into powerful, poignant movement to create a tribute to his restless artistic invention, according to a statement. StarDust made its West Coast premiere April 20 at the Music Centers Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Terk Waters of Complexions Contemporary Ballet will appear in the single performance of StarDust, a tribute to David Bowie on Oct. 5, part of the Laguna Dance Festival. (Photo by Rachel Neville) The audience just had a visceral, palpable experience with the work, said Desmond Richardson, co-founder and co-artistic director of Complexions. There are so many people who love David Bowie, including a [new] generation that discovered and was interested in investigating not only himself but his music . The phrasing and the musicality within the score is just really fantastic for dance. Complexions was founded in New York City in 1994 by choreographers Richardson and Dwight Rhoden, who mix methods, styles and cultures to create uncommon movement. Theyve been collaborating with Laguna Dance Festival since its inception, Richardson said. The StarDust performance will be preceded by a talk at 6:30 p.m. General admission is $75, but students with ID can get in for $35. On Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 7 at 2 p.m., a Stars of Dance performance at Laguna Playhouse will feature duets and solos by principal dancers from Ballet West, the National Ballet of Canada and the San Francisco Ballet. Complexions and Diavolo/Architecture in Motion will present repertory excerpts; and dancers from USCs Glorya Kaufman School of Dance will perform various pieces. The Sunday performance will be preceded by a talk at 1 p.m. One principal dancer, Skylar Campbell of the National Ballet of Canada, is a Laguna Beach native and will be making his festival debut. Another dancer, Beckanne Sisk, starred in the reality TV series Breaking Pointe on The CW, and now serves as a principal ballerina for Ballet West, based in Salt Lake City. General admission is $65; students with ID can get in for $35. On Oct. 25, the acclaimed Colombian dance company Sankofa Danzafro will perform director Rafael Palacios La Ciudad de los Otros. The troupe will showcase powerful Afro-Colombian contemporary dance with live drumming and singing. The performance will be in Bridge Hall at Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St. Anns Drive in Laguna Beach. Admission is $50, which includes a reception. Gates said her organization, founded in 2005, is dedicated to education and keeping close ties with the local community. A huge part of the mission thats rooted in the community is to inform and contextualize the critical practice of dance, she said. Typically we are very successful at turning audience members into dance lovers, because were accessible. We bring works that will not just challenge ones own experience, but also entertain. If You Go What: Laguna Dance Festival When: Oct. 4-7 and 25 Where: Most performances at Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach Cost: $50 to $75 per performance for general admission; students with ID, $35; some events are free Information: (949) 715-5578 or visit lagunadancefestival.org Newport Beachs boards, commissions and committees are important and should have more influence, several City Council candidates said Wednesday night at a forum presented by the Corona del Mar Residents Assn. Seven of the eight candidates were present at the Oasis Senior Center in Corona del Mar the exception being Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield, who is running for reelection in council District 3. District 4 incumbent Kevin Muldoon praised the citys commissions and said he defers to them for their deep, specialized knowledge. He used the Harbor Commission as an example. District 6 incumbent Scott Peotter, a former planning commissioner, agreed, saying the Planning Commission draws architects, developers, real estate professionals and structural engineers. I know as a councilman I listen directly to those people, Peotter said. Unless it conflicts with my philosophy of government, those are the subject matter experts. I rely on them. However, his District 6 challenger, Joy Brenner, said the makeup of the boards, commissions and committees whose members are appointed by the City Council can be a problem. If were planting that commission and filling it with developers and architects and people who are pro-development, then theyre going to make the recommendations to the council that the council can then say, Oh well, the people voted for this, this is what the people want, said Brenner, a former parks, beaches and recreation commissioner. Its the job of the commissions and the boards to figure out what the rest of the community wants, not just what they want. District 3 candidate Tim Stoaks speaks while District 1 hopeful Mike Glenn listens during a Newport Beach City Council candidates forum Wednesday night in Corona del Mar. (Photo by Hillary Davis) District 3 challenger Tim Stoaks said community groups and commissions should hone issues enough that the eventual presentation to the council should be a non-event. I think our commissions are being shorted. They simply dont get listened to, he said. We need to count on the talent in our community. District 4 challenger Roy Englebrecht, a current parks commissioner, said he would strengthen the groups. We have a great brain trust in this town that were underutilizing, he said. Brenner said her greatest concern is transparency. The publics business is supposed to be conducted in the public, and thats going to be one of my first actions to make sure that we bring everything to the light so we know what were dealing with, she said. Peotter said its important to listen but added that representatives cant poll residents on everything. When you sit there and say, Gee, Im going to listen, I take that as, I put my finger in the wind and find out which way the wind blows and Im going to jump in front and lead, he said. I call that leading from behind. The candidates also answered questions on other topics, such as public safety, homelessness and development, written by the forums moderators, students in Corona del Mar High Schools Academy of Global Studies. Several candidates agreed that water quality is a key environmental issue. Stoaks focused on trash and toxins that flow downstream from inland cities into Newports Back Bay. Muldoon agreed about runoff and said a water-wheel trash collector planned for the top of Upper Newport Bay, by the Jamboree Road bridge, would help. When candidates were asked how they could improve turnout among young voters, District 1 challenger Mike Glenn said constituents need to hear the issues in plain English. I think somebody coming out and being active and translating that to the laypeople is whats needed, and I hope Ive done a decent job of filling that role, he said. District 1 incumbent Diane Dixon encouraged the students to participate in local government. Local government is where it is happening, she said. You cant go to Washington, Sacramento easily, but you can come to City Council, come to our boards and commissions and get involved with the city and you will have ownership in the issues that come before you. hillary.davis@latimes.com Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD Despite an Orange County judges ruling siding with Huntington Beachs claim that a California sanctuary state law expanding protections for undocumented immigrants is unconstitutional as it applies to charter cities, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Friday that the state will continue to uphold its laws. Preserving the safety and constitutional rights of all our people is a statewide imperative which cannot be undermined by contrary local rules, Becerra said in a statement. We will continue working to ensure that our values and laws like the California Values Act are upheld throughout our state. Jennifer Molina, press secretary for the attorney generals office, declined to comment on the likelihood of an appeal. Huntington Beach on Thursday became the first city to successfully challenge the California Values Act, also known as Senate Bill 54, after Orange County Superior Court Judge James Crandall affirmed Huntingtons argument that the law violates its local control as a charter city one run by a charter adopted by local voters. Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said the ruling makes Huntington and the rest of Californias 121 charter cities exempt from SB 54, authored by state Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). The law in many cases prohibits state and local police agencies from notifying federal officials about the impending release of immigrants in custody who may be deported. This [ruling] is a significant victory for the rule of law, the [California] Constitution, the citys charter authority and other charter cities, Gates said in a statement Friday. We will continue to hold Sacramento accountable for unconstitutional state law overreaches. The city of Huntington Beach will not allow Sacramento to violate its constitutionally protected rights. The Huntington Beach Police Department issued a news release Friday afternoon stating that the department has, and will continue, to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on matters concerning public safety within the parameters of the law. There are times when it is appropriate for us as a law enforcement agency to communicate with ICE, a fellow law enforcement agency, to enhance public safety. It is our goal to maintain discretion and have the option to communicate with other law enforcement agencies, and SB 54 limited that discretion. But, the statement added, our focus will continue to be overall public safety. The release echoed Police Chief Robert Handys comment Thursday that community members should rely on trust already built between officers and residents. Huntington Beach joined a wave of Orange County opposition to SB 54 that started in March when the City Council in Los Alamitos another charter city passed an ordinance to opt out of the law. Since then, the Orange County Board of Supervisors has voted to join a federal lawsuit against the measure, the Costa Mesa City Council adopted a resolution opposing the law and the city of Fountain Valley signed on to a law groups brief supporting the federal case. The Newport Beach City Council also passed a resolution opposing SB 54 and authorized filing a legal brief supporting the federal lawsuit. Newport, which also is a charter city, hasnt yet filed such a brief, though City Attorney Aaron Harp said Friday that it still intends to. Orange Countys other charter cities are Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Irvine, Santa Ana and Seal Beach, according to the League of California Cities. Crandall said Thursday that the operation of a police department and its jail is a city affair. For the state to say one size fits all for policing isnt going to fit everybody. California Deputy Attorney General Jonathan Eisenberg contended that municipalities can exercise other forms of autonomy and criticized Huntington Beachs alleged sweeping effects of this law. Eisenberg also argued there is an important need for a uniform public safety law. In July, Eisenberg filed a motion seeking to delay action on the Huntington Beach lawsuit, but Crandall denied it. U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa), whose 48th Congressional District includes Huntington Beach and parts of Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, issued a statement Friday commending Huntington Beach for its victory. This court case was a huge setback for supporters of sanctuary policies, said Rohrabacher, who urged various city governments to challenge the mandate. This law was forced down the throats of Californians and dramatically undermined their safety and security. If cities and counties want to cooperate with ICE or other federal law enforcement, they have a right to do so, and I support the judges decision. Staff writer Hillary Davis contributed to this report. Priscella.Vega@latimes.com Twitter: @vegapriscella UPDATES: 5:10 p.m.: This article was updated with the statement from the Huntington Beach Police Department. This article was originally published at 2:10 p.m. The Huntington Beach City School District is the first in the nation to implement a federal school safety assessment developed in the wake of the deadly shooting this year at a high school in Parkland, Fla. During a news conference Wednesday at Ethel Dwyer Middle School, the district announced its efforts to enhance safety at its nine campuses, highlighting the use of the U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys 2018 school security guide for kindergarten through 12th grade. Unfortunately, it is no longer enough to provide an excellent education. We must now also provide an excellent educational environment, which includes keeping our students safe, district Supt. Gregg Haulk said. The Department of Homeland Security guide, released in July, is meant to provide best practices for measures to address gun violence and other threats in schools. After the Parkland shooting ... our threats and issues that came up at schools skyrocketed, Huntington Beach Police Chief Robert Handy said. Thankfully, none of those [issues] turned into anything with any significance in Huntington Beach but we also believe there were things that were prevented. Brian Keith, a protective security advisor for DHS, said it has been working with the U.S. Department of Education to advise school resource officers, administrators and staff in addressing not only emergency management but also physical security at schools. We were able to develop a tool similar to what wed use at local shopping mall, but this would be very specific to K-12 schools, Keith said. Were doing an assessment today on [Dwyer Middle School]. Anything that we come up with today as an option for consideration will be used to enhance the security of the campus. Those options could include things such as the placement of cameras on campus, additional fencing or new technologies in alarm systems. The Huntington Beach City School District Safety Committee, composed of volunteers, will continue to participate in assessments, along with partners including the Huntington Beach police and fire departments. The school district also has partnered with Frank Quiambao, director of the National Education Safety and Security Institute at UCLA. The goal is for us to use that tool [from DHS] and then to train people in the schools that could learn how to do their own professional assessments, Quiambao said. The noncredit courses through the institute include topics such as threat assessments, emergency planning, bullying mitigation and evaluating student mental health. charity.lindsey@latimes.com Twitter @CharityNLindsey Newport Beach is looking forward to nearly $1.7 million in state grant money it needs to fund a water-wheel trash-collecting vessel at Upper Newport Bay. The council voted 5-0 on Tuesday, with Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield and Councilman Brad Avery absent, to budget $1.68 million that the California Ocean Protection Council has tentatively approved for Newports water-wheel project and to accept a study that says the trash collector wouldnt have significant, if any, negative effects on the environment. The Ocean Protection Council is expected to adopt the grant award at its Oct. 25 board meeting. The water wheel is to be placed at the top of Upper Newport Bay by the Jamboree Road bridge. It is intended to capture garbage flowing down San Diego Creek from inland Orange County before it can hit Newport Harbor and the Pacific Ocean. From its stationary position, the wheel would funnel debris into an onboard holding bin that would be emptied periodically. The vessel would look like a snail with a paddlewheel, or a conch shell crossed with a steamboat. It could be powered by a mix of solar and hydraulic energy. Councilman Scott Peotter said the device is an innovative way to pull floating rubbish out of the water. Its not going to be a solution for everything, but its going to prevent a lot of this loose trash, especially in the low flows, from getting into the sensitive environmental areas, he said. Its really kind of fun technology. Its driven by the water and photovoltaic and basically we just go out there and change the dumpsters out when they get full. New crossing guards The council voted 5-0 to fund three new school crossing guards in the Newport Heights neighborhood. Two of the guards, which started on the first day of school this month, are near Newport Heights Elementary at 15th Street and Santa Ana Avenue. Another guard is at Coral Place and Irvine Avenue near Ensign Intermediate School. The new guards will add about $30,000 a year to the citys multi-year contract with its crossing guard provider, Santa Fe Springs-based All-City Management Services, bringing the tab to about $200,000 this year and about $216,000 next year. The added guards were one outcome of a city traffic study that looked at childrens safety in the neighborhoods congested areas around Newport Heights Elementary, Ensign and Newport Harbor High School, all of which are within a 1-mile radius and have about 4,300 students among them. Review of house tabled The council put off reviewing Planning Commission approval of a new home in Corona del Mar. The council was set to look at the commissions approval of variances for setback requirements and floor-area maximums for a planned house at 3200 Ocean Blvd. The home would be 5,216 square feet, excluding the 2,748-square-foot basement. Zoning code says the maximum floor area for the 5,445-square-foot lot would be 4,234 square feet without a variance. The California Coastal Commission will be reviewing the citys request to include its variance procedures in the citys Local Coastal Plan, which guides development closest to shore. City staff expects the item to go before the commission in December. hillary.davis@latimes.com Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD An Orange County Superior Court judge determined Thursday that Californias sanctuary state protections for undocumented immigrants infringe on Huntington Beachs local control as a charter city, making Huntington the first city to successfully challenge the controversial law. Senate Bill 54, authored by state Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), in many cases prohibits state and local police agencies from notifying federal officials about the impending release of immigrants in custody who may be deported. But after an hours-long courtroom debate Thursday, Judge James Crandall sided with Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates argument that the law is unconstitutional as it applies to charter cities, which are run by a charter adopted by local voters. The ruling makes Huntington Beach and all of Californias 121 charter cities exempt from complying with SB54. Gates said afterward that he was ecstatic about the ruling. The operation of a police department and its jail is a city affair, Crandall said. For the state to say one size fits all for policing isnt going to fit everybody. Several other Orange County governments also have taken steps to oppose the states sanctuary policies. Crandall said SB54 infringes on local governments authority to practice policies they know are appropriate for themselves. Cities have a better view and better ability to oversee their needs in certain areas, he added. Though the state may have had good intentions, Crandall said, there are constitutional protections for cities from the ever-extending tentacles of state rule. California Deputy Attorney General Jonathan Eisenberg contended that municipalities can exercise other forms of autonomy and criticized Huntington Beachs alleged sweeping effects of this law. Eisenberg also argued there is an important need for a uniform public safety law. He referred to comments included in his briefing in which a law professor suggested that if police officials lose the trust of immigrant communities, people in those areas would avoid police and stop reporting crime, possibly resulting in an increase in crime. But Crandall contended that violent crime is already up in the state and said he would rather rely on the opinions of local police than a law professor who may not be familiar with a city like Huntington Beach. Crandall commended both sides for submitting strong briefs and said that regardless of his decision, he expected it to be appealed and eventually taken up by the California Supreme Court. After the hearing, Eisenberg referred questions to Jennifer Molina, press secretary for the state attorney generals office. Molina could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday evening. Last year, dozens of residents of Huntington Beachs Oak View community, which has a high concentration of Latinos, voiced concerns at a town hall meeting following President Trumps executive order calling for a more aggressive approach to finding and arresting people who are in the country illegally. Fear has lingered in Oak View since April, when Gates sued over SB54 following a 6-1 vote of approval from the City Council. Asked what he would say to those residents, Huntington Beach Police Chief Robert Handy, who was present during the hearing, said in an interview that he would ask them to rely on the trust already built among police officers and the community and ignore rhetoric in politics and the media. Priscella.Vega@latimes.com Twitter: @vegapriscella UPDATES: 7:35 p.m.: This article was updated to say the ruling applies to all California charter cities. This article was originally published at 6:35 p.m. Sometimes, when Im really anxious before a date which is every time I rap along to the Notorious B.I.G. in my car. It helps me forget how nervous I am around women. And although I had managed to start dating a girl I really liked, we were having difficulties. So I was listening to a lot of Biggie. I was telling all this to my therapist in North Hollywood. I told her that I was trying to get better at dating, that I was trying to become more confident with women. My therapist listened patiently. Then she pointed out a pen and told me to try to pick it up. So I reached out and picked up the pen. She raised her eyebrows meaningfully. Advertisement Are you a veteran of L.A.'s current dating scene? We want to publish your story Did you see that? she asked. You didnt try to pick up the pen. You just ... picked it up. She nodded slowly with a profound silence. Obviously, it was time for me to switch therapists. The girl I needed help with, lets call her E., had bangs, wore cardigans, and listened to Belle & Sebastian. After meeting at a mutual friends birthday party at 1739 Public House in Los Feliz, we started dating. We ate burgers in Hollywood and talked about the Beatles and the sky scientists at Griffith Observatory. We played guitar together, loved the same books and got each others jokes. So why was it that as I was falling for her, she seemed to be growing more and more distant? We had been dating casually for about a month, and I wanted her to be my girlfriend. But instead of getting closer, the opposite seemed to be happening. Her kisses were more like pecks, her text messages were getting shorter, and when I put my arm around her, I could feel her body stiffen. More L.A. Affairs columns Maybe I needed to be more romantic. I devised a plan. I would cook an extraordinary meal, chill the perfect bottle of wine, and as we watched the reflection of flickering candles in each others eyes, it would be impossible not to proclaim our love. But I felt nervous driving down Hyperion to pick up groceries at Trader Joes. Why was E. acting so distant? Was I just being neurotic? I wished I hadnt fired my therapist. Well, if she couldnt help me, maybe Biggie could. I put on a favorite song and started rapping. It was all a dream, I used to read Word Up! magazine. It worked. I was feeling more confident, so I turned it up louder. I rapped harder. I laid my seat back, bobbed my head to the beat and started saying things like, Relax man, you a boss! The bass dropped on the next song and I really got into it. I put my whole body into the music, rapping louder than ever, and in my excitement I swerved into the car next to mine. We pulled over to the side of the road, and although it was a minor scrape we were going slow and nobody was hurt the guy in the other car was pissed. In a booming voice, he demanded to know what had happened. It was my fault, but I was pumped up from Biggie, so I said, Why dont you tell me. He responded that it looked like I was dancing in my car and swerved into his lane. I looked him in the eyes and with all the courage I could muster ... I called him sir and told him that that was exactly what had happened, and that I was so sorry. We exchanged insurance and I went to the grocery store. Back at home, I was putting the finishing touches on a rosemary chicken when E. showed up. She looked down at her shoes and said that she knew I wanted to cook, but that there was a pho place down the street shed been dying to try. Did I mind if we went there instead? I didnt like it, but just as Im nervous about going on dates with women, Im also nervous to ask if theyre breaking up with me. We went to Pho Cafe on Sunset. It doesnt have a sign out front, so everybody thinks theyre in on a secret. E. fidgeted awkwardly throughout dinner and, finally, I asked her if something was wrong. She mumbled that yes, something was indeed wrong: She liked someone else. Oh, I muttered. Well, that sucks. The check came and she insisted on paying, but when she offered her credit card to the waiter, he told her that it was cash only. E. winced when she told me that she only had a card. So I laid down the cash to pay for my own breakup dinner. Back in her car, we sat idling in front of my place. You know that I really like you, I said. Well, we can still be friends, she offered. But I didnt want to be her friend. I wanted to be her boyfriend, her lover, her man. I was about to tell her that sure, we can still be friends, but something stopped me. A thought crept into my mind. What would Biggie do? No, I said, finally. We cant be friends. I got out of her car, and walked past my newly-dented car. I went inside, and put on my favorite Biggie song. The author lives in Los Angeles. Hes on Twitter @theogreenly and his website is theogreenly.com L.A. Affairs chronicles the search for love in and around Los Angeles. If you have comments or a true story to tell, email us at LAAffairs@latimes.com. MORE L.A. LOVE STORIES Im black. Hes white. Heres what happened I went on a bunch of blind dates with total losers I was sleeping alone in a strangers bed and falling for him home@latimes.com If youve always wanted to walk in the footsteps of legendary Arctic explorers, Lindblad Expeditions has a voyage in mind for you. On Thursday, the adventure cruise line detailed plans for its new ship, the National Geographic Endurance, at a live video conference. The ship, an advanced-design icebreaker, is scheduled to launch in early 2020 and is being designed to weather polar conditions, making it possible for passengers to discover difficult-to-reach parts of the world. Rendering of the National Geographic Endurance, an icebreaker that can go farther into the Arctic ice for longer periods. (Lindblad Expeditions) Advertisement We will go to places unfathomable to reach before, said Sven Lindblad, CEO and president of the company. We will literally go where no one has gone before. Lindblad Corp. calls the ship the worlds most advanced polar expedition ship, and says that its unique design allows a smooth ride and cushy interior coupled with fuel efficiency and low emissions. Capt. Leif Skog, a company vice president says, It can literally go two-thirds of the way around the world without refueling. It can travel deeper into the ice for longer times. In 2020, the Endurance will set sail on a series of eight inaugural Arctic itineraries. Rates start at $7,950 per person, double occupancy, for a nine-day May cruise of the Norwegian fjords and Scottish Isles. Other voyages will include a Northeast Passage trip from Norway to Alaska (20 days, $23,870 per person) and a trip to Northeast Greenland National Park, known for polar bears, seals, walrus, glaciers and coastal villages (26 days, $34,750 per person). Info: (800) 397-3348, www.expeditions.com Travel@latimes.com Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (bottom) addresses the General Debate of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Qin Lang) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that the hostile policy actions of the Trump administration against the Palestinians have undermined the two-state solution, urging Washington to reverse these decisions. Speaking at the General Debate of the UN General Assembly, Abbas cited U.S. decisions to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, move U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv, cut off funding for the Palestinians and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington. "With all of these decisions, this administration has reneged on all previous U.S. commitments, and has undermined the two-state solution, and has revealed its false claims of concern about the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people," Abbas said. "It's really ironic that the American administration still talks about what they call the 'deal of the century.'" "But what is left for this administration to give to the Palestinian people? Only humanitarian solutions?" He asked. "What is left as a political solution?" The Palestinian leader lashed out at the U.S. actions behind the peace plan. "We awaited his peace initiative with utmost patience, but were shocked by decisions and actions he undertook that completely contradict the role and commitment of the United States towards the peace process," he said. "The U.S. acts as a mediator, however, now we view the U.S. with new eyes. The U.S. cannot be a mediator single-handedly," he added. "We will also not accept sole American mediation in the peace process because the U.S. administration has lost its eligibility due to its recent decisions." "From this august platform, I renew my call to President Trump to rescind his decisions and decrees ... in order to salvage the prospects for peace and to achieve stability and security for future generations in our region," Abbas said. "I must reiterate that we are not against negotiations and have never rejected negotiations," the Palestinian leader added. "We will continue to extend our hands for peace." Abbas noted that there could be no peace without an independent Palestinian State, with east Jerusalem as its capital, and not some place in East Jerusalem as its capital, and with all of its holy sites. "There is no peace otherwise. There is no peace with a state of temporary borders," he said. "Jerusalem is not for sale," Abbas said. "The Palestinian people's rights are not up for bargaining." U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would present the principles of plan in the next "two to three to four months" to promote peace between Israel and Palestine, adding he wanted a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "I really believe something will happen. It is a dream of mine to be able to get that done prior to the end of my first term," Trump said, referring to the peace agreement on the conflict. "I like a two-state solution. That's what I think works best." The Trump administration has always argued that it would support a two-state solution if both sides agreed to it. But this is the first time Trump has explicitly backed it. However, Husam Zomlot, head of the PLO's office in Washington, told AFP that the White House's "words go against their actions and their action is absolutely clear (and) is destroying the possibility of the two-state solution," He added that Trump's comments alone were not enough to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. The Trump administration earlier this month announced its decision to the PLO's office in Washington, a new move to step up pressure on the Palestinians. Earlier this year, the Trump administration launched a string of U.S. funding cuts against the Palestinians to push them back to the negotiating table. In December last year, the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, an unconventional step announced by Trump himself that sparked global outcry and an absence of the furious Palestinians in talks mediated by Washington. LAX wants you to know this about the marijuana you may be taking with you on your trip: Whats legal on the street is also legal in the terminals. Up to a point. Travelers can carry the legal amount of marijuana in California up to 28.5 grams through the airport areas that are under city supervision, that is up to pre-security checkpoints. But once you get to a Transportation Security Administration area, which is run by the U.S. government, federal regulations take effect. Advertisement Marijuana is illegal under federal law. Federal law? State law? Which takes precedence when you want to travel with cannabis? When you reach your destination, you had better be prepared to face whatever marijuana laws are in effect there. The issue bubbled up late this week when some sharp-eyed travelers finally spotted the airports marijuana policy on its website and the internet and local media outlets picked up on it. Airport officials say nothing has changed since early this year, when the website first posted the policy. Whats changed, apparently, is that someone finally noticed it. While federal law prohibits the possession of marijuana (inclusive of federal airspace) Californias passage of Proposition 64, effective January 1, 2018, allows for individuals 21 years of age or older to possess up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana for personal consumption, the website said. In accordance with Proposition 64, the Los Angeles Airport Police Department will allow passengers to travel through LAX with up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana. However, passengers should be aware that marijuana laws vary state by state and they are encouraged to check the laws of the states in which they plan to travel. Explaining the discrepancy between state and federal enforcement, Alicia Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Airport Police told The Times late Thursday, We are California peace officers and we enforce California law, so if we come across individuals carrying substances that are legal under state law, there is nothing we will do. The TSA said Thursday that its emphasis is on terrorism and threats to the public safety. That said, the agency noted that if a TSA officer discovers an item that may violate federal law during screenings, the officer will refer it to local police. Its then up to local law enforcement officials to decide what to do. In addition, the TSA notes: Marijuana remains an illegal substance under federal law. Haunted houses and theme parks are plenty spooky, but theres something even more sinister about an old building with a ghostly air. If you have a yen for the historical and the supernatural, check out these haunted homes, hotels and institutions across the country and dont go alone. California You dont need to believe in the supernatural to get a kick out of the Whaley House Museum in Old Town San Diego, called the most haunted house in the U.S. by the Travel Channels Americas Most Haunted. The home is said to be frequented by spirits of the Whaley family, who purchased the Greek Revival home in 1855. Tour the residence, courtroom and Whaley family general store, and you just might feel a ghostly presence. Cost, info: $10-$13; Whaley House Museum, whaleyhouse.org, 2476 San Diego Ave., San Diego; (619) 297-7511 Advertisement Colorado Whether or not you book a stay in one of the Stanley Hotels spirited rooms, you can take a spooky nighttime tour of the Estes Park institution, which once hosted Stephen King and inspired his Overlook Hotel in The Shining. A guide will walk you through spots in the building where people have claimed to see spirits and educate you on how to interact with a spirit if you encounter one yourself. Cost, info: $25-$28; Stanley Hotel, E. 333 Wonderview Ave., Estes Park; (970) 577-4111, stanleyhotel.com/tours.html Missouri The Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City was the oldest prison west of the Mississippi River before it emptied its cells in 2004. It held the first train robber, 1930s gangsters and other infamous inmates many of whom escaped or had a hand in a riot in 1954. The penitentiary offers a variety of tours; the Ghost Tour guides guests through strange occurrences in the housing units, dungeon cells and gas chamber. Cost, info: $14-$25 for two-hour tours; Missouri State Penitentiary, 115 Lafayette St., Jefferson City; (866) 998-6998, missouripentours.com Nevada The Washoe Club opened in 1875 as a members-only social group in Virginia City. The glamorous club was home to a murder and its halls are still haunted, said Travel Channels Ghost Adventures. Anyone is welcome in the saloon or haunted museum, though card-carrying members get a discount. You can calm your nerves with a Ghost Iced Tea or Bloody Brain cocktail before taking a 40-minute ghost tour. Cost, info: $8, $5 for 16 and younger; Washoe Club, 112 S. C Street, Virginia City; thewashoeclubmuseum.com, (775) 847-4467 New York Inmates were required to work the land at Rolling Hills Asylum in East Bethany, first established in 1827 as the Genesee County Poor Farm. It closed in 1974 but continues to scare visitors, who claim to hear disembodied voices and slamming doors. Special events range include flashlight tours and overnight ghost hunts. Cost, info: $20-$40; Rolling Hills Asylum, 11001 Bethany Center Road, East Bethany; (585) 502-4066, rollinghillsasylum.com In early 1950, illegal border crossings from Mexico into California surged. In April 1949, the Border Patrol detained about 5,000 people. The following April, the number had skyrocketed to 21,000. Reporter Bill Dredge reported in the May 2, 1950, Los Angeles Times: Mexican nationals 21,000 of them flooded across the Mexican border into the United States during April and were returned by harassed Immigration Service officials. How many eluded the overworked border patrolmen and made their way successfully into the farming areas of California, nobody knows. The endless wave has been unprecedented in the nations history. Border patrolmen have loaded immigrants into trucks and buses, rushed them back to Mexicali and dumped them on their native soil. To do otherwise would require an army of clerks and officials. On every hand, officials concerned with the problem are at a loss for an immediate solution. Aprils total of returned immigrants saw 16,000 counted at the El Centro area office and 5,000 more at the Chula Vista office in San Diego County. In March, 16,000 people flowed across the international boundary. In the May 3, 1950, Los Angeles Times, Dredge reported that the Biggest single reason [for the surge] is found in the 40% curtailment of legal Mexican national contract laborers, allowed into California. These 1950 photos by Art Rogers appeared in the May 2 and 3 editions of the Los Angeles Times. Some 310 Mexican nationals worked just two hours before immigration patrolmen raided the carrot field where they labored. They were returned to Mexico. This photo was published in the May 2, 1950, Los Angeles Times. Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA A Border Patrol aircraft piloted by Ed Parker flies over four immigrants as they walk toward agents. The group was returned to Mexico via the Calexico-Mexicali border crossing. This photo appeared in the May 3, 1950, Los Angeles Times. Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA Pedro Gomez Mendoza, 25, looks north after being stopped by the Border Patrol. He had survived an 80-mile hike across the desert before being apprehended. This photo appeared in the May 3, 1950, Los Angeles Times. Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA The border crossing at Mexicali-Calexico, between California and Mexico, appears quiet at dusk. This panorama, made from two photographs, appeared in the May 2, 1950, Los Angeles Times. Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA From left, Richard Wells, chief patrol inspector; Dallas Hunter, Immigration Service budget inspector; and Herman London of Los Angeles, district director of immigration, meet in the El Centro office to discuss the surge of illegal immigration. Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here Capping a month of historic judgments that have expanded civil liberties for hundreds of millions of citizens, the Indian Supreme Court on Friday overturned a Hindu temples ban on females of menstruating age, declaring that the centuries-old rule violated womens rights. The renowned Sabarimala temple in the southern state of Kerala is open to all faiths but bars women and girls ages 10 to 50 on the grounds that the deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered celibate. The ban had been upheld in a lower court before reaching Indias highest court, where a majority of a five-judge panel found it was discriminatory. Patriarchy in religion cannot be permitted to trump over faith and the freedom to practice and profess ones religion, said Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Advertisement Rules based on biological characteristics can never pass the muster of constitutionality. Already this month, the court had scrapped a 157-year-old ban on gay sex, overturned an anti-adultery law that treated wives as the property of their husbands, and imposed limits on a vast biometric database that some citizens feared could create a surveillance state. Read more: Indias gay sex ban was a relic of the British Empire, but its still in place in dozens of ex-colonies The decisions reflect Misras desire to leave his stamp on the court before he retires next month. They also show how Indias judiciary has tackled contentious religious and civil rights issues that lawmakers have been reluctant to address for fear of upsetting conservative segments of society. Unlike in the United States, where the Supreme Court hears only a relatively small number of cases every year, any Indian can approach the top court by filing public interest litigation. This accessibility has also led to an overworked judiciary, with more than 33 million cases pending before the Supreme Court alone. Fridays decision came two years after a lower court in Mumbai lifted bans on women from entering the inner sanctum of a Hindu temple in Maharashtra state and the Haji Ali Muslim shrine on the Arabian Sea. Menstruation is seen by many Indian religious conservatives not just majority Hindus, but also Muslims and Christians as impure, with many religious rituals excluding women who are on their periods. Concurring with Misras opinion, Justice Rohinton Nariman said that upholding fundamental civil rights was essential for transforming Indian society. The dissenting opinion came from Justice Indu Malhotra, the only woman on the bench, who argued that rationality has no place in matters of religion. What constitutes essential religious practice is for the religious community to decide, not for the court, she said. The 12th century Sabarimala temple, located inside a hilly tiger reserve in the Western Ghats mountain range, draws tens of millions of devotees annually despite being open only several weeks each year. Rahul Easwar, a social activist representing the devotees, said they would ask the Supreme Court to review its decision.Such review petitions are successful only when the court finds new evidence or believes it has made an error in judgment. Special correspondent Masih reported from New Delhi and Times staff writer Bengali from Kochi, India. shashank.bengali@latimes.com Shashank Bengali is South Asia correspondent for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @SBengali Its a long way from Silicon Valley to Minsk. Communist-era statues and murals dot the capital of tiny Belarus, which has clung to Soviet traditions for more than two decades since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. President Alexander Lukashenko rules this forested nation of 10 million with an iron fist and a determined political mantra: There will be no reforms. Belarus still relies on state-run manufacturers and Soviet-era collective farms. The European Union prefers not to buy food from those farms because one-fifth of Belarus was contaminated by fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine. Video games, however, are another matter, as are mobile phone apps and software products. All these are being produced in a drab industrial park on the northeastern outskirts of Minsk, an unlikely but booming high-tech hub. Advertisement Hi-Tech Park is a pillar of the Belarusian information technology sector, which has shown formidable growth in recent years, with some 250 start-ups and outsourcing companies that employ tens of thousands. Lukashenkos government promotes it further with tax breaks, visa-free entry for Westerners and claims that products developed here are used by a billion people in almost 200 nations. From the archives: Belarus President Lukashenko easily wins fifth term Tech entrepreneurs such as Igor Shoifot, the San Francisco-based founding partner of TMT Investments, a venture capital company, have no qualms about investing here. Does NASA directly support [Russian President Vladimir] Putin by buying RD-180 engines? he asked, referring to Russian-made engines used in Atlas V rockets. Do tens of millions of users of Viber or World of Tanks support Lukashenkos government? Probably not knowingly. But the development of Viber, an immensely popular messenger app, mostly took place in Minsk. World of Tanks, one of the worlds top-grossing online games with 160 million users, including Lukashenkos 14-year-old son, Nikolay, was also developed in Belarus, a major site of World War II tank battles. Back in 2014, Shoifots company invested $400,000 in PandaDoc, a start-up that develops built-in electronic signatures and document management software and facilitates digital transactions. U.S. investors were rare in Belarus at the time. When they arrived, it was an anomaly, said Mikita Mikado, PandaDocs chief executive, who started it with three partners in a tiny office in Minsk. A year later, Altos Ventures, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based investment company, followed suit. So far, the company is doing well and we are happy with the results, Ho Nam, the companys managing director, said in an email. Since then, PandaDoc raised about $20 million from investors such as Microsoft Ventures and the European Bank for research and development. The company moved its headquarters to San Francisco, but 100 of its 170 staffers are still based in Minsk. We cant complain about how things turned out for PandaDoc, Mikado said in a phone interview from his office in Union Square. That wouldnt happen if it wasnt for the team in Belarus. Other success stories from Belarus include Flo Period Tracker, an artificial-intelligence-powered womens health platform, and Masquerade, a filter app for selfie videos. Facebook bought Masquerade in 2016 after television host Jimmy Kimmel used it on his show to put on celebrity faces. The Belarusian IT industry had humble beginnings as an outsourcing hub that offered jobs to disoriented and jobless Belarusians after the 1991 Soviet collapse. Their labor was cheap and its results were oriented toward the West. Arkadiy Dobkin started his company, Effective Programming for America, in 1993 in the basement of an apartment building. We had nothing but talent, the son of a World War II veteran and a Holocaust survivor told a business conference in Minsk in 2017. These days, EPAM, as the company is known, is headquartered in Newtown, Pa., and has offices in a dozen countries, includingIndia. It has become one of Europes largest outsourcers with 22,000 employees, a revenue of $1.45 billion in 2017 and a roster of clients that includes Google, Coca-Cola, Citibank, MTV and Adidas. After EPAM went public in 2012, Forbes magazine placed it among the 25 fastest-growing public tech companies worldwide for five years in a row. To many in todays Belarus, an IT job is the only alternative to emigration or poverty, and the money they earn trickles down to a general population that lives on an average salary of less than $500 a month. Its all the rage these days. Everybody wants to work there, said Lyudmila Petrenko, a retired schoolteacher who rents her two-bedroom apartment in central Minsk to a software engineers family. Billboards advertising coding schools or jobs in Hi-Tech Park are a familiar sight throughout Minsk. An entire neighborhood near the park where dozens of new pubs and restaurants cater to the IT crowd is now known as Drunk Street. Several universities and tech schools churn out thousands of software engineers a year, and companies such as Cisco have opened labs to train promising students. While much of the money fueling the Belarusian tech industry comes from California, a significant amount flows west from Russia. Viktor Prokopenya, one of the most successful Belarusian IT entrepreneurs and head of the VP Capital investment company, is allied with a major Russian investor, Mikhail Gutseriev. Gutseriev, Russias 20th richest man and a friend of Lukashenko, has pledged a $100-million investment in Belarusian start-ups. One of them is Banuba, a developer of AI-powered software that can identify a potential customers age, sex, skin color and hair color to create instant personalized ads. With other Banuba apps, users can goof around with video selfie masks that make them look like Charlie Chaplin or as if spiders are crawling out of their mouths. Vadim Knyazev, a researcher for the Banuba start-up, demonstrates a photo filter app. (Mansur Mirovalev / For The Times) Were all about the face, said Vadim Nekhai, Banubas founder and chief executive. We let the cellphone see the user. However, Lukashenkos behavior instills fear that the hothouse conditions may end as abruptly as they began. In December 2017, Lukashenko signed a decree legalizing transactions using cryptocurrency, and government experts are still working out details to make sure the potential bonanza does not begin with chaos. Corruption monitors already warn about risks. There are concerns that the virtual currency which, by design, is virtually impossible to trace will be a boon for Russians seeking to launder money and avoid Western sanctions. Lukashenko is turning Belarus into a quiet laundromat for Russian money, said one Belarusian businessman who lives in the European Union, speaking on condition of anonymity because he fears for his investments back home. And there are signs that Belarus remains committed to Soviet-style authoritarianism. In early August, 18 journalists working for independent media outlets and a Western broadcaster were detained and questioned for allegedly illegally accessing dispatches from a state-run news agency. There was a thaw, liberalization, some sane laws were being adopted, and people began to think maybe we will be like Singapore, a dictatorship that lets businesses live, an IT expert said on condition of anonymity because he fears for his safety. Now, you cant be sure of the future, if some cop or KGB agent does not like you. Mirovalev is a special correspondent. Israeli troops killed six Palestinians, two of them children, and wounded dozens more in the deadliest day in recent weeks as Gazas Hamas rulers stepped up protests along the border fence on Friday. Thousands of Palestinians gathered at five locations along the Gaza Strips frontier with Israel in response to calls by Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza since seizing it from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Two of the dead were children, ages 12 and 14, the Gaza Health Ministry said, adding that all six sustained gunshot wounds to their upper torso. At least 90 other protesters were wounded by live fire. Hamas has led weekly protests since March, but accelerated them in recent weeks to near daily events, pressing in large part for an end to a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas violent takeover of Gaza in 2007. Hamas ousted forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an armed coup. Advertisement At the fence, protesters burned dozens of tires, using the thick black smoke as a screen to throw rocks and explosives toward Israeli troops stationed on the opposite side of the fence. The soldiers responded with tear gas and gunfire. The Israeli military said in a statement that in response to grenades and explosive devices hurled at troops during the protests, Israeli aircraft carried out two airstrikes on Hamas militant positions in the Gaza Strip. There were no Israeli casualties reported in Fridays clashes. Hamas has led and organized the protests, but turnout has also been driven by growing despair over blockade-linked hardship, including lengthy power cuts and soaring unemployment. Israeli troops have killed at least 143 Palestinians since protests began in late March, and a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier in August. Israel argues it is defending its border and accuses Hamas of using the protests as a screen for attempts to breach the border fence to attack civilians and soldiers. Human rights groups have accused Israeli troops of excessive and unlawful use of force against unarmed protesters. Hamas and Israel came to the brink of serious conflict this summer as violence escalated along the border. The two sides attempted to reach an agreement through indirect talks mediated by the United Nations and Egypt to ease tensions in exchange for lifting some restrictions on the economically crippled enclave. But those negotiations have stalled in recent weeks. Earlier this week, a Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the movement would escalate its border protests after the talks failed. He accused Abbas, who governs parts of the West Bank, of disrupting the negotiations. Hamas vowed to continue the marches until the blockade is lifted. It also promised to accelerate protests after Abbas, speaking at the United Nations on Thursday, threatened more measures to force Hamas into surrendering power. Abbas slashed funding to Gaza and cut salaries of Palestinian Authority employees there to pressure Hamas, making it increasingly difficult for it to govern. Hamas fears Abbas may further reduce funding to healthcare and other services for Gazans provided by the Palestinian Authority. Hundreds of Hamas supporters marched in anti-Abbas protests late Thursday, burning his posters after his speech at the United Nations. The U.S. side is fully responsible for the problems in China-U.S. military ties and should act rationally and maturely, China's Ministry of National Defense said Thursday. Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense [Photo: mod.gov.cn] At a regular press conference, Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for the ministry, made the remarks in response to questions on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, sanctions on a Chinese military unit and the presence of U.S. bombers in the South China Sea. Ren reiterated China's resolute opposition to those moves and urged the U.S. side to act rationally and maturely to improve military ties with sincerity, asking for joint efforts to make military ties a stabilizer for bilateral relations. On the arms sales issue, Ren said the problem was not about the quantity but its nature. The arms sales will severely damage the China-U.S. military ties, as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, Ren said. On provocative actions over the South China Sea, Ren said China would continue to take necessary measures to handle the situation. Business New Yorker Electronics and Panduit Partner to Supply Network Infrastructure Solutions New Yorker Electronics is a franchise distributor of Panduit and supplies its full line of cable and wire bundling solutions, copper systems, grounding, wire routing, wire termination, manual and pneumatic hand tools and software solutions such as DCIM. 28.09.2018 00:45:18 - New Partnership Means Complete End-to-End Computer and Electronic Networking Designs (live-PR.com) - NORTHVALE, NEW JERSEY, USA New Yorker Electronics has announced its recent joint enterprise with Panduit, a leading global provider of electrical and network infrastructure solutions, to provide advanced end-to-end network systems and components to end users. Panduit is a world-class developer and provider of leading-edge solutions that connect, manage and automate the physical infrastructure of business systems. Nearly every portion - NORTHVALE, NEW JERSEY, USA New Yorker Electronics has announced its recent joint enterprise with Panduit, a leading global provider of electrical and network infrastructure solutions, to provide advanced end-to-end network systems and components to end users.Panduit is a world-class developer and provider of leading-edge solutions that connect, manage and automate the physical infrastructure of business systems. Nearly every portion of a companys electrical and computer linkage is available through Panduit including hardware and software, cable bundling, racks and cabinets, copper systems, thermal management, wire routing, fiber systems and more. Panduit offers everything to bundle, protect, connect, route and identify new or existing installations of integrated circuitry. This ideal pairing between Panduit and New Yorker Electronics, a global electronic components distributor for over 70 years, means even more complete solutions for data centers, enterprise, industrial automation, OEMs, MROs and industrial construction companies. The partnership will enable a more complete availability of supplies for connectivity and bandwidth, allowing businesses access to a single source for end-to-end networking infrastructure. New Yorker Electronics is a reliable source of passive components known for its full product lines, large inventories and competitive pricing. There is a real, tangible advantage to end-users. Like Panduit, our passive electrical components are similarly found throughout networks and digital infrastructure, said Barry Slivka, President of New Yorker Electronics. "Now, we are able to offer customers complete solutions through a single distributor. This means Panduit products are now available with the personalized service and turnaround that the giant distributors cannot offer, said Barry Slivka, President of New Yorker Electronics. Panduit brings data centers, industrial automation facilities and similar companies a more flexible way to enable software and systems to communicate, both within the company and throughout the world. Similarly, New Yorker Electronics provides passive components for microprocessors and data systems to ensure reliable networking. Together, Panduit and New Yorker Electronics can deliver comprehensive solutions that unify the physical infrastructure to help customers achieve operational consistency. This relationship provides Panduit with an established international distribution channel and robust eCommerce operation. For New Yorker Electronics, it means a very valuable extension to its current offerings of passive components. Customers will benefit from extraordinary ease of access to Panduits vast product lines with the experience and responsiveness customers have come to expect from New Yorker Electronics through three generations. New Yorker Electronics is a franchise distributor of Panduit and supplies its full line of cable and wire bundling solutions, copper systems, grounding, wire routing, wire termination, manual and pneumatic hand tools and software solutions such as DCIM. Panduit products are available through the New Yorker Electronics Web site for sale and RFQ. New Yorker Electronics is a franchise distributor of Panduit and supplies its full line of cable and wire bundling solutions, copper systems, grounding, wire routing, wire termination, manual and pneumatic hand tools and software solutions such as DCIM. Panduit products are already available through the New Yorker Electronics Web site. New Yorker Electronics is a certified franchised distributor of electronic components, well known for its full product lines, large inventories and competitive pricing since 1948. New Yorker Electronics is an AS9120B and ISO 9001:2015 certified source of capacitors, resistors, semi-conductors, connectors, filters, inductors and more, and operates entirely at heightened military and aerospace performance levels. It also functions in strict accordance with AS5553 and AS6496 standards verifying that it has implemented industry standards into everyday practices to thwart the proliferation of counterfeit parts. It is a member of ECIA (Electronics Component Industry Association) and of ERAI (Electronic Resellers Association International). of a companys electrical and computer linkage is available through Panduit including hardware and software, cable bundling, racks and cabinets, copper systems, thermal management, wire routing, fiber systems and more. Panduit offers everything to bundle, protect, connect, route and identify new or existing installations of integrated circuitry.This ideal pairing between Panduit and New Yorker Electronics, a global electronic components distributor for over 70 years, means even more complete solutions for data centers, enterprise, industrial automation, OEMs, MROs and industrial construction companies. The partnership will enable a more complete availability of supplies for connectivity and bandwidth, allowing businesses access to a single source for end-to-end networking infrastructure.New Yorker Electronics is a reliable source of passive components known for its full product lines, large inventories and competitive pricing. There is a real, tangible advantage to end-users. Like Panduit, our passive electrical components are similarly found throughout networks and digital infrastructure, said Barry Slivka, President of New Yorker Electronics. "Now, we are able to offer customers complete solutions through a single distributor. This means Panduit products are now available with the personalized service and turnaround that the giant distributors cannot offer, said Barry Slivka, President of New Yorker Electronics.Panduit brings data centers, industrial automation facilities and similar companies a more flexible way to enable software and systems to communicate, both within the company and throughout the world. Similarly, New Yorker Electronics provides passive components for microprocessors and data systems to ensure reliable networking. Together, Panduit and New Yorker Electronics can deliver comprehensive solutions that unify the physical infrastructure to help customers achieve operational consistency.This relationship provides Panduit with an established international distribution channel and robust eCommerce operation. For New Yorker Electronics, it means a very valuable extension to its current offerings of passive components. Customers will benefit from extraordinary ease of access to Panduits vast product lines with the experience and responsiveness customers have come to expect from New Yorker Electronics through three generations.New Yorker Electronics is a franchise distributor of Panduit and supplies its full line of cable and wire bundling solutions, copper systems, grounding, wire routing, wire termination, manual and pneumatic hand tools and software solutions such as DCIM. Panduit products are available through the New Yorker Electronics Web site for sale and RFQ.New Yorker Electronics is a franchise distributor of Panduit and supplies its full line of cable and wire bundling solutions, copper systems, grounding, wire routing, wire termination, manual and pneumatic hand tools and software solutions such as DCIM. Panduit products are already available through the New Yorker Electronics Web site.New Yorker Electronics is a certified franchised distributor of electronic components, well known for its full product lines, large inventories and competitive pricing since 1948. New Yorker Electronics is an AS9120B and ISO 9001:2015 certified source of capacitors, resistors, semi-conductors, connectors, filters, inductors and more, and operates entirely at heightened military and aerospace performance levels. It also functions in strict accordance with AS5553 and AS6496 standards verifying that it has implemented industry standards into everyday practices to thwart the proliferation of counterfeit parts. It is a member of ECIA (Electronics Component Industry Association) and of ERAI (Electronic Resellers Association International). Press Information: New Yorker Electronics 209 Industrial Parkway, Northvale, New Jersey 07647 United States of America Contact Person: Mark Pappas Marketing Phone: 2017501171 eMail: eMail Web: http://www.newyorkerelectronics.com 28.09.2018 00:45:18 - Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party. Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan (R) meets with Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan on Thursday met with Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik in Beijing, pledging to further enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries. Wang said China and Denmark maintained a long-term friendship with frequent exchanges in various fields, and the meeting between the two heads of state in 2014 injected new impetus to the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership. He said China's choice of development path and the great changes since the founding of the People's Republic of China were steeped in history and culture, and strengthening cultural self-confidence and achieving cultural renaissance were important components of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. China stands ready to further enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges with Denmark to consolidate the basis for bilateral cooperation of mutual benefits and the friendship between the two peoples, Wang said. For his part, Frederik said Denmark would take the opportunity of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Denmark-China comprehensive strategic partnership to enhance bilateral cooperation in various fields. DOLE revokes deployment ban in Micronesia posted September 27, 2018 at 11:20 pm by Vito Barcelo September 27, 2018 at 11:20 pm The Department of Labor and Employment on Thursday lifted the ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers to the Federated States of Micronesia, but deployment ban to Libya remains. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that the governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration is set to approve a resolution imposing a total deployment ban to Libya. Bello said POEA Governing Board Resolution No. 5-A, series of 2018 lifted the deployment ban in Micronesia upon the recommendation of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Vito BarceloOn the basis and recommendation of the DFA, the governing board of the POEA issued a resolution lifting the deployment ban in the Federated States of Micronesia, the labor chief said. The POEA banned the deployment of Filipino workers to Micronesia following reports of alleged abuse and maltreatment on Filipino migrant workers in the Chuuk State Hospital. 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. The Duterte administration is ready to face the threats of kidnapping for ransom by the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Palace said Thursday, following reports members have been regrouping to conduct cross-border kidnappings in Mindanao. After nearly two years of being on the run, the ASG steps again its business of kidnapping for ransom as some of the groups sub-commanders have regrouped. The Star, a Malaysian newspaper, reported the group posed fresh threats in the east coast of Sabah. Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the government was prepared to meet the possible trouble brought by the known kidnap-for-ransom group. Well, I can only say that we are ready to face the threat of the Abu Sayyaf. They need to regroup because we already have pulverized them, Roque told a Palace press briefing Thursday.And you can expect that even if they do all sorts of recruitment, our government can easily crush them, he said. The report said the sub-commanders Indang Susukan and Hatib Sawadjan, still alive, were plotting to conduct a cross-border kidnapping, claiming they have received finances from political figures in Mindanao who oppose the Bangsamoro Organic Law. Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense [Photo: mod.gov.cn] Experts said the US administration is using China to rally voter support for the upcoming US midterm elections in November, and US pressure against China will likely continue for the foreseeable future. On Sept 20, the US State Department imposed sanctions on China's Equipment Development Department and its director for purchasing Russian Su-35 combat aircraft and the S-400 missile system. In response, China immediately recalled Navy commander Vice-Admiral Shen Jinlong, who was in the US attending a symposium and planned to have exchanges with high-ranking US Navy officials, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. China also postponed the second meeting planned as part of a communication mechanism for the joint staff departments of the two countries, set for this week in Beijing, the ministry added. "China highly values Sino-US military exchanges across various levels, but we will not give in to threats," Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, a ministry spokesman, said in a regular media briefing on Thursday. Ren added that cooperation with Russia on military hardware has not changed despite US sanctions. "The US side is solely to blame for the recent damage in Sino-US military relations," he said. "We urge the US to show sincere efforts to improve Sino-US military relations, and allow it to become a stabilizing factor in bilateral ties." When asked whether the heightened tension could affect Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe's planned visit to the US later this year, Ren said the US should show "rational and mature attitudes in generating positive conditions for exchanges and cooperation". Ren's remarks came amid heightened tensions between China and the US over trade and security issues. On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry strongly opposed US sales of $330 million in military components to Taiwan, saying it interfered with China's domestic affairs and undermined Chinese sovereignty and Sino-US relations. The US Air Force also conducted two B-52 bomber flights this week, one over the South China Sea and the other over the East China Sea, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. On Sept 20, the US leader unveiled his National Cyber Strategy, which labeled China a cybersecurity threat. US Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats warned on Tuesday during a cybersecurity conference that China is seeking to influence US policies and carry out propaganda efforts in the cyber domain. Ren said the accusations against China are baseless and full of Cold War mentality. China resolutely opposes them. "China has always advocated the peaceful use of cyber technologies and opposed cyber warfare and a cyber arms race," Ren said. "However, the US is groundlessly accusing other nations while boosting its own cyber force. This is a double standard." Teng Jianqun, director of the China Institute of International Studies' Department for US Studies, said: "Sino-US military relations may not be deteriorating despite recent US actions, but it is certainly entering an age of growing competition. "In the short run, the US administration is pressuring China to rally voter support for the upcoming midterm elections," he said. "However, in the long run, these measures are to ensure the US gets an edge over China as the two large nations compete." Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, shakes hands with workers during his visit to China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Liaoyang Petrochemical Company in Liaoyang, northeast China's Liaoning province, Sept 27, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua] Any thoughts and statements that cast doubt on the future of State-owned enterprises are wrong, President Xi Jinping said during an inspection tour in Liaoning province on Thursday. Xi stressed that China's State-owned enterprises should continue to keep growth and development. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks to workers during his visit to China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Liaoyang Petrochemical Company in Liaoyang, northeast China's Liaoning province, Sept 27, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua] "Such statements as 'there should be no State-owned enterprises' and 'we should have smaller-scale State-owned enterprises' are wrong and slanted," Xi said while inspecting the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Liaoyang Petrochemical Company. The principle of having Communist Party of China's guidance of State-owned enterprises must be consistently followed, he added. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a workshop of Liaoning-based China Zhongwang Holding in northeast China's Liaoning province, Sept 27, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua] While visiting China Zhongwang Holding, Xi stressed that, since the reform and opening-up began, the CPC Central Committee has always been supportive and protective of private enterprises. China's basic economic system must "unwaveringly" consolidate and develop the public sector, and "unwaveringly" encourage, support, guide and protect the development of the non-public sector, he noted. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a workshop of Liaoning-based China Zhongwang Holding in northeast China's Liaoning province, Sept 27, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua] Xi also reiterated that there was an "unchanged" attitude toward the non-public sector in China's economic and social development and that policies support creating a favorable environment and more opportunities for the development of the non-public economy. With hardhats on and shovels in hand, Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney and Commerce Director Pam Haxby-Cote Friday joined local partners to celebrate the groundbreaking of Rockcress Commons, a new 124-unit affordable housing property in Great Falls. "We know that our communities thrive when their workers can afford to live and raise their families close to good-paying jobs," said Lt. Gov. Cooney. "That is why it is so important we recognize and celebrate Rockcress Commons, a place that will provide a safe and affordable home for local hard-working Montanans for many years to come." http://commerce.mt.gov/News/PressReleases/lt-gov-cooney-and-director-haxby-cote-celebrate-groundbreaking-of-124-affordable-homes-in-great-falls The budgets, presented Thursday morning by Provost Jon Harbor, show how much each department needs to cut or grow its spending to make a total $5 million cut to faculty by 2021. While most departments saw a cut in funding, with some seeing complete elimination, others saw increases. "This is the responsible thing to do for the long-term health of our university," Harbor said at a press conference Thursday morning. Shaylee Ragar http://www.montanakaimin.com/news/um-releases-budgets-showing-cuts-some-growth-to-departments/article_8e2f4048-c28a-11e8-a21d-7732f5f3d5a1.html Les membres du Cabinet ont pris note de lecriture du Animal Health and Livestock Production Bill, du financment du projet de concombre de mer a hateur de 12.1 millions de roupies, de la fermeture de la B104 Baie du Cap Chamarel Case Noyale La Gaulette Road du 27 septembre pour une duree de quatre mois, de la nomination dAlain Jeannot comme part-time Chairperson de la National Road Safety Council. 1. Cabinet has agreed to the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security issuing drafting instructions to the Attorney Generals Office for an Animal Health and Livestock Production Bill. The proposed Animal Health and Livestock Production Bill would provide, among others, for the following: (a) setting up of a National Livestock Information System under the Animal Production Division; (b) regulate the movement of livestock and mandatory identification of all livestock; (c) ensure traceability of products of animal origin; (d) an obligation for all individuals and organisations having livestock under their control or ownership to be officially registered with the Division of Veterinary Services and to have an approved Animal Health Management Programme in place; (e) control over the authorisation, import, distribution and use of feed additives, premixtures and medicated feeds to address issues of residues in food of animal origin and anti-microbial resistance; and (f) all establishments processing food of animal origin for human consumption to have a food safety management system based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles. 2. Cabinet has taken note that the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare would organise two National Consultative Workshops with representatives of the public sector, private sector, civil society organisations and other relevant stakeholders on the draft Gender Equality Bill. The overall objective of the National Consultative Workshops is to have the views and comments of all stakeholders on the proposed provisions of the draft Bill to ensure its effective implementation, once enacted. 3. Cabinet has agreed to the signing of an Exchange of Letters with the Government of Australia, which would enable funds to the tune of Rs12.1 million from The Australian Food Aid Counterpart Fund Account to be disbursed for financing the Sea Cucumber Project. The Project is being implemented by the Ministry of Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping, through the Albion Fisheries Research Centre, in collaboration with the University of Sunshine Coast of Australia. The University is assisting the Centre in developing a research programme for sea cucumber production, which includes devising new techniques for culture and farming, and carrying out specialised training for staff of the Centre. The project would be of three years duration and would enable Mauritius to improve its capacity for sea cucumber production. 4. Cabinet has taken note that Road B104 from Case Noyale to Chamarel would be temporarily closed in the context of the implementation of the Landslide/Slope Stability Treatment along Baie du Cap Chamarel Case Noyale La Gaulette Road Project, as from 27 September 2021 for a period of about four months. Alternative arrangements are being made for the provision of social and other facilities so as not to cause any inconvenience to the inhabitants of these localities. 5. Cabinet has agreed to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Mahatma Gandhi Institute (MGI) and the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, India. The INFLIBNET Centre is an Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission that operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Education of India. It is involved in modernising university libraries in India by enabling them to use state-of-art technologies for the optimum storage and utilisation of information. The Memorandum of Understanding provides that the MGI would partner with the INFLIBNET Centre mainly with a view to computerising its library using the Software for University Libraries. 6. Cabinet has taken note of the ranking of the Republic of Mauritius at the 52nd position in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2021 Report, which has been released on 20 September 2021. The GII Report is co-published annually by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, Cornell University of New York and Institut Europeen dAdministration des Affaires. It provides detailed metrics about innovation performance of 132 countries and economies around the world, including Mauritius. Mauritius maintains its first position not only in the Sub-Saharan region but in Africa. 7. Cabinet has taken note of the launching of an Inclusive Digital Literacy Programme by the National Computer Board. The programme would address the digital divide and encourage citizens to adopt the latest ICT technologies and fully utilise all online government services. The objective of the programme is to promote safe use of digital technologies to access information, communication, e-Governance service, job skills, learning and financial services. The target audience for the programme would be senior citizens, housewives, children, unemployed citizens and people with disabilities. The programme would be launched in October 2021 and was expected to be completed by March 2022. 8. Cabinet has agreed to the Government of Mauritius making a donation of USD25,000 as an act of solidarity towards the people of the Republic of Haiti, following the declaration of a state of emergency by the Haitian Government, and international calls for support to humanitarian assistance and relief operations in the aftermath of the two natural disasters which hit the country in August 2021. 9. Cabinet has agreed to the National Land Transport Authority: (a) waiving the Public Service Vehicle (Contract) Licence fees in respect of all individual contract bus operators involved in the conveyance of tourists for one year on the same line as for Destination Management Companies and other companies operating in the tourism sector, owning Public Service Vehicle Licences for their buses for a period of one year or for the ensuing year for those who have already renewed their licence; (b) extending the delay for implementation of contract car licences up to 30 June 2022; and (c) extending the delay for the replacement of contract cars up to 30 June 2022. It is also proposed that the timeframe to implement a contract car licence be exceptionally extended up to 30 June 2022, in order to provide licencees with an additional delay for the implementation of their contract car licences. Contract car operators would also be granted a delay of up to 30 June 2022 to replace their vehicles. This extension of the delay would thus provide contract car operators with a reasonable timeframe to replace their fleet. 10. Cabinet has taken note of progress made in respect of projects and reforms being implemented by the National Housing Development Co. (NHDC) Ltd. The NHDC Ltd has, since June 2021, delivered 99 housing units, thus bringing the total number of housing units delivered to 1,050 for the period November 2019 to August 2021. Out of these 1,050 housing units, 92 have been earmarked for the National Empowerment Foundation to be allocated to its eligible beneficiaries. The NHDC Ltd has, for the period December 2019 to August 2021, disbursed some Rs172 million to 2,239 beneficiaries under the Casting of Roof Slab Grant Scheme. 11. Cabinet has taken note of the activities that the Ministry of Health and Wellness would organise in the context of World Heart Day 2021 observed, on 29 September. World Heart Day aims at raising awareness of individuals, families, communities and Governments about cardiovascular diseases. The theme chosen for this year is Use Heart to Connect. The activities would include: (a) an official ceremony for the launching of activities on 29 September 2021 at Dr A.G Jeetoo Hospital, Port-Louis which would include the official launching of the 24/7 Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention; (b) MBC TV and Radio programmes during the month of September and October 2021; (c) screening and counselling for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) at worksites and in the community for persons aged 18 years and above; (d) empowerment sessions for NCD patients on cardiovascular diseases and health related issues at regional level; and (e) cooking demonstration (food plate models) on healthy eating. 12. Cabinet has taken note of the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic prevailing across the world. Some 231.3 million cases have been reported globally, of which 208 million persons have been successfully treated. With regard to Mauritius, as at 23 September 2021, there were 1,904 active cases of COVID-19, out of which 45 were admitted at New ENT Hospital including four on ventilators. Over the period 18 to 23 September 2021, 19 deaths were attributed to COVID-19. Cabinet has also taken note of progress in the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. As at 23 September 2021, 849,326 persons had received a first dose of vaccine (representing 67.1 percent of the population). 793,269 persons had been fully vaccinated (representing 62.7 percent of the population). A donation of some 50,400 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine from the Government of the Republic of South Africa reached Mauritius on 17 September 2021. Some 30,000 doses (Component II) of Sputnik V vaccines reached Mauritius on 21 September 2021 and 76,050 doses of Pfizer vaccine donated by the US Government were received on 23 September 2021. The administration of the third dose of Sinopharm vaccine has started on 23 September 2021. Pfizer vaccines would be administered to adolescents aged between 15 and 17 years in educational institutions, as from 28 September 2021. 13. Cabinet has taken note of the outcome of the participation of the Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade in the 21st annual Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting held virtually. The agenda of the meeting focused on the Commonwealths roles and contributions towards its Member States recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and building back better, including on health and vaccine equity, trade issues, and climate change, in particular the upcoming COP26 meeting in Glasgow. Ministers were provided with policy and operational updates. The Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade expressed support to the call made by the Secretary-General on G20 members to urgently work with the Commonwealth and other partners for the adoption of a robust plan to vaccinate the worlds 42 smallest states and shield them from COVID-19. He also renewed the commitment of Mauritius to the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub, hosted by Mauritius, which testified to the Commonwealths engagements to improve access by small and vulnerable countries to climate finance. He also expressed the support of Mauritius for the joint UN-Commonwealth Small States Advocacy Strategy, designed to mobilise global efforts for addressing the core vulnerabilities of small states. 14. Cabinet has taken note of the outcome of the participation of the Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade in the G-33 Informal Ministerial Meeting that was held virtually on 16 September 2021. The G-33 is a group of Member States of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) with common positions on a number of issues relating to the Agriculture negotiations. The objective of the Meeting was to discuss the agricultural priority issues of G-33 and the way forward for the Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference (MC-12) scheduled from 30 November to 03 December 2021. In his opening statement, the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia emphasised the key priority issues, namely a permanent solution for Public Stockholding for food security purposes, a meaningful outcome on Special Safeguard Mechanism, and a balanced outcome in agricultural domestic support. The meeting concluded with the adoption of the G-33 Joint Ministerial Statement reaffirming commitment for expeditious resolution of the WTOs mandated issues in agriculture. The meeting also called for satisfactorily addressing the development issues of developing countries and Least Developed Countries, with Special and Differential Treatment remaining an integral part of WTO system. 15. Cabinet has taken note of the appointment of Mr Rooben Maran as General Manager of the Central Water Authority. 16. Cabinet has taken note of the reconstitution of the Board of Trustees of the Edgar Laurent Tuberculosis Foundation for a period of three years as from September 2021, with Dr Beerdarshansingh Caussy, Director, Health Services, as part-time Chairperson. 17. Cabinet has taken note of the reconstitution of the National Road Safety Council with Mr Alain Jeannot as part-time Chairperson. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Jakarta (Peoples Daily) The Chinese Embassy in Jakarta together with the Chinese Mission to ASEAN recently celebrated the 69th birthday of the Peoples Republic of China at the Shangri-La Hotel in Indonesias capital city. Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian said, Thanks to our dedication over the past 69 years, especially since the reform and opening-up 40 years ago, China has achieved a tremendous transformation: it has stood up, grown rich, and is becoming strong. We are crossing the threshold into a new era. Many high-profile people attended the celebration such as Minister of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration, Eko Putro Sandjojo, Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) leader and presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto, and Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. AKP Mochtan. Ambassador Xiao point out that in this new era as China moves towards prosperity, China-Indo and China-ASEAN relations are rapidly progressing. This year, we celebrate the 5th anniversary of China-Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Over the past five years, President Xi Jinping and President Joko Widodo have exchanged visits and held bilateral meetings on various occasions. The two presidents strategic leadership has ensured healthy and steady growth of bilateral ties. We are entering a new era featuring high-performing relations with bright prospects, said Xiao. This year also marks the 15th anniversary of China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership. For the past 15 years Chinas ASEAN relations have grown exponentially by tackling common challenges and upholding peace and prosperity. The China-ASEAN cooperation is among the most successful and dynamic in the Asia-Pacific region. Ambassador Xiao emphasized how bilateral trade between China and ASEAN has jumped from $55.2 billion to $514.8 billion while two-way visits soared from $3.87 million to $49 million. For the past 9 years, China has been ASEANs largest trading partner, while the latter has been Chinas third largest trading partner for seven years. Cumulatively, direct investment between the two had exceeded $200 billion. Its unfair to say US at a disadvantage in trade with China: Chinese official Washingtons accusation that it suffered losses from its trade with China cannot hold water at all, Chinese official pointed out at a Tuesday press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council, explaining the newly released white paper to Chinese and foreign media. The white paper titled The Facts and Chinas Position on China-US Trade Friction was published by China on Monday to clarify the facts about China-US economic and trade relations, demonstrate its stance on trade friction with the US, and pursue reasonable solutions. Senior officials from six departments of Chinese government including the Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Finance, and National Intellectual Property Administration answered questions at the press briefing. Some people in the US accused China of unfair competition leading to a huge US trade deficit in goods with China and losses on the US side. Itis not consistent with the facts. Fu Ziying, China International Trade Representative and Vice Minister of Commerce, told the press conference. The accusation from US cannot hold water at all, only to mislead the public , he stressed, adding that China-US economic and trade cooperation, which was the natural result of the complementarity of Chinese and American industries and the inevitable choice of the international division of labor, was in the common interests of the two peoples. In fact, the China-US trade gap did not indicate one sides gain or loss, but showed the balance in trade volume, Fu said, adding that no one knew better than the related enterprises and consumers themselves on whether or not the US had suffered losses in the bilateral trade. The trade imbalance between the two countries, according to Fu, can also be attributed to American export controls on China. Relevant American institutions analyzed that the US trade deficit with China would be reduced by as much as 35 percent if America relaxed its restriction on exportation of high-tech products for civilian use to China. Another important reason for the current unfavorable trade balance was that the US didnt export what China wanted to import, he pointed out. America's punitive tariffs on $200 billion of its imports from China will have both direct and indirect impacts on the Chinese economy, with more influence on some industries and regions, said Lian Weiliang, deputy director of Chinas National Development and Reform Commission. But he stressed at the same time that the risks were generally controllable, and the Chinese economy had the ability to hedge through boosting domestic demand. Lian further explained that various parts of Chinese economy, which had a complete range of industries and multi-element components, could complement and replace each other, helping the market to cope with external shocks with great flexibility and resilience. China enjoyed huge potential for increasing investment thanks to the robust domestic market and imbalanced regional development, Lian pointed out, adding that it created favorable conditions for China to cope with the fluctuation of external demand. In addition, China was seeing continuously enhanced competitiveness of its market entities, Lian added. As one of the World Trade Organization (WTO) members, China formulated the policies of subsidies in conformity with the stipulations of the WTO, said Zou Jiayi, Vice Minister of Finance, who added that under market economy rules, subsidy was a policy instrument widely used by governments of many countries around the world including China and the US to address market failures and imbalance. Luo Wen, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out that the additional US tariffs on Chinese goods would cause great harm to and exert negative influences on global industrial chain. The tariffs would put the global industrial chain at fragmenting risk by breaking the connection between the industries of different countries, leave it in a state of disorder by betraying international economic and trade rules, and expose the global industrial chain to greater risks of low efficiency by reducing the efficiency of global economic operations, he explained. The trade war had an impact on the whole industrial chain. It would not only hurt Chinese enterprises, but also companies in the US and even in the world at large, said Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy China International Trade Representative. Accusations of Chinas alleged ineffective protection of intellectual property rights were entirely groundless and untenable, said Deputy Director He Hua of Chinas National Intellectual Property Administration. He added that people who made such accusations disregarded the great progress yielded from Chinas long-term endeavors to construct its intellectual property protection system, its rapid improvement in innovation, and the fact that China was actually also an owner of many intellectual properties. The Information Office of the State Council held a press conference on Tuesday to elaborate on a white paper titled The Facts and Chinas Position on China-US Trade Friction, which clarifies the Chinese government's position regarding its trade frictions with the US. What led to the China-US trade friction? The US exaggerated that it was its disadvantaged position in the trade relationship with China, claiming that US jobs were stolen and the US economy was hurt in foreign economic and trade relations. Under this excuse, it took protectionist trade policies willfully. The white paper refuted the US rhetoric with statistics. In 2015, imports from China drove up the US gross domestic product by 0.8 percentage points. In the same year, exports to China and two-way investment pushed US economic growth rate up by 1.2 percentage points and supported 2.6 million jobs in America. Trade with China saved every American family $850 of expenditure each year, equivalent to 1.5% of the average household income in the US. The economic and trade cooperation between the worlds largest developing country and largest developed country is win-win and mutually beneficial in essence. Both China and the US have reaped enormous economic benefits from such cooperation, which cannot be denied by any one-sided rhetoric. The US is under no circumstance at a disadvantage in trading with China. If it were, the trade pattern would be adjusted by the market. After all, the US is the worlds largest economy, and the American enterprises, which are experienced in dealing with the Chinese market, will not sit to see the US lose in such trade relations. After taking trade in goods, trade in services, and global operation of multinational corporations into consideration, some insightful analysts hold the view that though a trade surplus is in China, a benefit surplus is actually with the US. Unilateralism, protectionism, and economic hegemony are all against the tide of economic globalization. The American people are in the best position to feel the impacts. Most US industry representatives has strongly opposed the planned additional tariffs on Chinese goods during hearing sessions held by the Office of the US Trade Representative. Such voices should not be ignored by Washington. The current reality in China-US economic and trade ties is a result of decades-long cooperation and adaptation of international production in the course of economic globalization. It is unalterable. By releasing the white paper, China is reminding the US that the gap in trade in goods alone is not a good indicator of China-US trade and economic cooperation, and the discussion of fair trade should not be detached from the principle of mutual benefit of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In addition, China should not be accused of forced technology transfer as it is against the spirit of contract. The US side should be aware that Chinas huge efforts and achievements with regard to intellectual property rights protection should not be ignored, and the Chinese governments encouragement to Chinese business to go global should not be distorted as attempting to acquire advanced technologies through commercial merger and acquisition. Chinas subsidy policy complies with WTO rules and should not be attacked. It is hoped that the US will not ignore the facts. Because of the US repeated provocation, the China-US trade frictions were aggravated to become a worldwide concern. The Financial Times said in a commentary that the US would destroy value-creating international supply chains and weaken the US and the global economy. The US should consider to act as a major country to play its due role in the world. A major country should deal with the world in a comprehensive, objective and rational perspective. To be responsible, the US should perceive China-US economic and trade relations in a comprehensive manner, bear in mind the large picture of the two countries strategic interests and international order, seek common ground while shelving divergence, and dissolve conflicts in a pragmatic approach. (Zhong Sheng, a homonym in Chinese for voice of China, is a pen name often used by Peoples Daily to express its views on foreign policy.) The US government has received wide domestic criticism as it escalated trade friction with China, including the businessmen and experts from the Midwest who warned that Washingtons trade policy has hindered the regular cooperation between China and the US states. The American business representatives expressed such concerns when attending the 2018 annual gala hosted by the China General Chamber of Commerce -Chicago recently. Business development manager Allen Williams of Iowa Economic Development Authority said that the sharp fall of soybean prices due to the trade war has caused loss for Iowan farmers, and many of them were diverting to other crops. The trade friction brought uncertainties for enterprises, said Colin Renk, executive director of America China Society of Indiana. Many enterprises established factories or supply chains in China as early as in the 1980s, he noted, adding that these enterprises would like to see an end of the trade war and hope the two governments to solve problems through conversation. Many representatives agreed that the trade friction will bring negative effects to China-US cooperation, and a considerable number of enterprises would miss development opportunities. The uncertainty was a major issue brought by China-US trade friction, said Jim Brady, chief operating officer of Grant Thornton, the world's sixth largest professional services network of independent accounting. He explained that the uncertainty would impact enterprises investment decisions, which has already been indicated by the data of China-US two-way direct investment. Stressing the vital importance of trade and investment to China-US ties, former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson believed that both China and the US have benefited from them. He held that as consumption is rising to an increasingly powerful driver for Chinas economic growth, it will make huge opportunities for American exporters in the long run. In the eyes of the former Treasury Secretary, China is growing into a major investor, and is expected to create jobs for US communities. Todd Buchholz, renowned economist and former White House Senior Economic Advisor illustrated the benefits brought to the US citizens by trade with China with his own experience. The economist growing up in New Jersey recalled that there was no large-scale trade between China and the US in his childhood, and low- and middle-income families were always worried when they planned to buy winter coats for their children. Thanks to the development of Chinese clothing industry and the trade channel established between stores like Walmart and China, the winter coat issue is never a problem again, according to him. The negative impacts of the trade war would gradually show as time passes, Buchholz told Peoples Daily, adding that it was hard to precisely estimate the damage and tell who would become the winner in the trade war. Most of the states in the Midwest have established close trade and economic relations with China. Representatives from these states stressed that they will maintain their passion for cooperation with China no matter how the federal government alters its policies. NEW YORK - Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Cooperation spoke today at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York with the participation of the President of Egypt as the chair of the group , UN Secretary General, the President of the General Assembly as well as foreign ministers from member countries. Deputy Foreign Minister Raz highlighted the interconnected challenges of terrorism, extremism, organized crime and narcotics as well as socio-economic challenges including poverty and unemployment facing many developing countries across the world. She stressed the importance of pursuing an integrated approach to address these challenges while acknowledging the link between security and development. She further spoke about the importance of sustainable development, trade and investment, regional economic cooperation as well as youth employment and womens economic empowerment. Palestine was elected as the chair of the group of G77 and China for 2019. The US tariff policies are completely wrong, Curt Christian, founder and CEO of Home Furnishings Resource Group, inc. said during an interview with Peoples Daily, as Washington once again ramped up tariffs against imported Chinese products. All of the furniture imported by Christians company is on the tariff list. It was a very sad day for me, and I was astonished, he told Peoples Daily. Christian, coming from Nashville, Tennessee, started up a furniture company in Los Angeles in 1992. But due to high production cost, the company was closed in 2005 because its US-based production line lost the competition against imported furniture from Southeast Asia. After 5 years of exploration, Christian restarted his business and established a furniture design and assembling enterprise in Nashville, whose major business is to supply furniture for American schools and universities. He placed the designing department in the US and production base in China. Now his company ranks the second in the US in terms of school furniture. But the current escalation of the US tariff plan might bring bankruptcy to the businessman for a second time. He told Peoples Daily that it would totally destroy his business if the tariff went up to 25 percent from the next year. The man explained that it was impossible to reestablish a production line in other countries or to replace the cost-effective Chinese products with alternative ones in such a short time. Chinese products feature low price, high quality, high production efficiency and high transportation speed, he noted, explaining that it was a result of Chinese factories advanced production equipment and Chinas first-class infrastructure. Thats why I choose China as my major source of supply, he said. If the company gets shut down again, all Christians efforts for his new undertaking would be in vain. Nearly 400 US employees would lose their jobs, and the government would see decreased fiscal revenue. In addition, the price rise of school furniture would also bring damage to the higher education system, as the students will finally pay the costs. Feeling confused by the tariff decision of the US government, he told Peoples Daily that his business had no relation with the issue of intellectual property rights, and the furniture they imported from China was not patented. We design our products in the US, and our Chinese partners never have requested us to transfer the intellectual property rights, he said. The tariff rise would put many US companies to death, and cause mass unemployment and bankruptcy of US households, he added. We work hard every day to offer the best furniture for schools, Christian said, adding that it would be a heavy blow for himself, and an irony for all the hardworking Americans if they get bankrupt and laid off due to the tariff. "This was not a referendum on my eight years as Mayor of North Wales Borough. If it was, the margin of defeat would have been much more than six votes. Rather, I believe this loss was the result of the... September 28, 2018 Trump Administration Acknowledges Climate Change - Predicts Large Rise In Global Temperatures The Trump administration admits that climate change will increase the global temperature more than anticipated: Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous 7 degrees [Fahrenheit] by the end of this century. A rise of 7 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 4 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. That increase though, says the Trump administration, is no reason to stop emitting gases that, for a large part, cause such warming: But the administration did not offer this dire forecast, premised on the idea that the world will fail to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planets fate is already sealed. "The child already fell into the well, there is no longer any need to cover it." The administration uses such faulty reasoning to eliminate regulations that are supposed to limit 'greenhouse' gas emissions. It is set to allow higher emissions from cars and trucks. For millions of years plants on earth used the energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into hydrocarbons. Where those plants were later covert with volcanic ash or sunk into the sea, geologic pressure and time converted them into coal, oil and gas. Since the start of industrialization humans have used an enormous amount of these dead plants to generate energy. Coal, oil and natural gas - the hydrocarbons - oxidize in exothermic reaction. They burn and give off heat which humans transform into various kinds of usable energy. The emissions from such fires are basically the stuff from which the plants were created - carbon dioxide and water. A large part of the energy from the sun that hits the earth is reflected back into space. Carbon dioxide and other gases (Methane) in the atmosphere lower the reflection rate of the earth, they trap the energy (heat) the sun shines onto earth within the atmosphere just like the glass of a greenhouse traps the heat inside. Spectroscopic measurements from space over several decades show a decrease of reflections from earth at the spectral range of carbon dioxide. Long term measurements on earth of carbon dioxide concentrations correlate strongly with the general temperature increase. All this is well known and not controversial. But, as John Maynard Keynes said, in the long term we are all dead. Humans are not willing to give up on their personal comfort and profits for the benefits of far away future generations. The 2015 Paris agreement to limit carbon dioxide emissions was largely a scam. Hardly any country stuck to the endorsed targets. After the Fukushima disaster the Merkel government in Germany decided to shut down nuclear power plants but increased the use of brown coal for electricity production. It was a 'populist' decision, sold as a "green" policy even as it was the opposite, and contradicted the commitment to decrease emissions. The Obama administration allowed a huge increase in fracking which, next to the hydrocarbons, releases a large amount of other greenhouse gases. The decision by the Trump administration is wrong. Yes, we will likely not be able to stop a global temperature increase in next few decades. But future generations also deserve our compassion. We must still do our best to limit the long term increase by ending the use of hydrocarbons wherever possible. It will not be easy to replace hydrocarbons as a source of energy. Large amounts of electric energy are difficult and expensive to store. We need a certain locally distributed base capacity in our electricity networks to provide energy when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow. For now nuclear energy is still the most climate friendly way to generate this base capacity. It also creates highly toxic waste that is extremely difficult to get rid of. The effects of climate change, higher temperatures, rising sea levels and generally more extreme weather, will hit the poorest people the most. This within the U.S. as well as in a global frame. The consequences will be mass migration on a never before seen scale, widespread lack of consumable water and large violent conflicts arising from both. Two countries may hope to profit from the rise in global temperature as it will increase their access to natural resources that are currently covert by ice. The U.S. (with Canada) and Russia may be the winners of the trend. Most other countries will be losers. While short term human greed will likely prevent a reduction in hydrocarbon use, and a slowing down of climate change, there may be other effects that could suddenly turn the trend. A large volcanic eruption or a big asteroid impact could cloud the earth and bring back (much) colder times. Some yet unknown effect in the atmosphere that is not anticipated in current climate models could stop or reverse the current trend. The human race is able to adopt to extreme climates. Humans can live in deserts as well as in the arctic. But such extreme climate zones do not allow for high density populations. The current number of people on this planet may prove to be too high to sustain. Climate change itself, through large scale conflicts and famines, may well provide for its own natural regulation. Reduced to some 100 million individuals humanity may well survive. Nature will not be compassionate in effecting such. Posted by b on September 28, 2018 at 18:15 UTC | Permalink Comments 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. Kashmiri people carry the body of a militant during his funeral at a village in Anantnag district, about 65km south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, Sept. 27, 2018. Three militants and a trooper were killed Thursday in two separate gunfights in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said. (Xinhua/Javed Dar) SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Three militants and a trooper were killed Thursday in two separate gunfights in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said. The gunfights between militants and government forces broke out in southern Anantnag and Budgam districts, while a civilian was shot dead in Srinagar city, the summer capital of Anantnag district. "An army trooper and a militant were killed today in a pre-dawn gunfight in Dooru village of Anantnag," Indian army spokesperson, Col Rajesh Kalia told Xinhua. "Later on two militants were killed in Budgam." According to police officials, both the areas were cordoned off on specific intelligence information, suggesting presence of militants. A civilian was killed in Srinagar's Noorbagh locality during an early morning raid, locals said. The killing triggered massive protests and demonstrations in the capital city. Police have yet to make a statement about the killing. Reports said clashes broke out in several parts of the city against the killing despite heavy police and paramilitary deployments. Residents took to roads in Srinagar and threw stones at government forces, who responded by firing tear smoke shells and warning shots. Meanwhile, reports said a non-local working with India's Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was killed during an army ambush in Chowkibal area of frontier Kupwara district, northwest of Srinagar early Thursday. The region's separatist groups have called for a shutdown on Friday against the killings in the region at the hands of Indian forces. Militant groups opposing New Delhi's rule are engaged in a guerilla war with Indian troops in the region since 1989. Gunfight between the two sides takes place intermittently. Washington (Peoples Daily) - The Trump administration has drawn the ire from states as it escalates trade frictions with China. Businesspeople from the Midwest, also known as the American heartland, and economists warned that Washingtons trade policy has hindered the regular cooperation between China and US states. The American business representatives expressed their concerns when attending the 2018 annual gala hosted by the China General Chamber of Commerce in Chicago recently. Business development manager Allen Williams of the Iowa Economic Development Authority said that the sharp fall of soybean prices due to the trade war has caused loss for Iowan farmers, and many of them were forced to divert to other crops. The trade frictions brought uncertainties to enterprises, said Colin Renk, executive director of America China Society of Indiana. Many enterprises established factories or supply chains in China as early as the 1980s, he noted, adding that these enterprises would like to see an end of the trade war and hope the two governments solve their problems through conversations. Many representatives agreed that the trade frictions will bring negative effects to the China-US cooperation, and a considerable number of enterprises would miss development opportunities. The uncertainty was a major issue brought by China-US trade frictions, said Jim Brady, chief operating officer of Grant Thornton, the world's sixth largest professional services network of independent accounting. He explained that the uncertainty would impact enterprises investment decisions, which has already been indicated by the data from the China-US two-way direct investment. Stressing the vital importance of trade and investment for China-US ties, former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson believed that both China and the US have benefited from them. He held that as consumption is rising to an increasingly powerful driver for Chinas economic growth, it will create huge opportunities for American exporters in the long run. In the eyes of the former Treasury Secretary, China is growing into a major investor, and is expected to create jobs for US communities. Todd Buchholz, renowned economist and former White House senior economic advisor illustrated the benefits brought to US citizens through trade with China with his own experience. The economist who was growing up in New Jersey recalled that there was no large-scale trade between China and the US in his childhood, and low-and middle-income families were always worried when they planned to buy winter coats for their children. Thanks to the development of the Chinese garment industry and the trade channel established between stores like Walmart and China, the winter coat issue wasnt a problem again, according to him. The negative impacts of the trade war would gradually show as time passes, Buchholz told Peoples Daily, adding that it was hard to precisely estimate the damage and tell who would become the winner. Most of the states in the Midwest have established close trade and economic relations with China. Representatives from these states stressed that they will maintain their passion for cooperation with China no matter how the federal government alters its policies. First wild panda cub spotted at Dafengding Nature Reserve in SW China Sighting of a panda cub in Dafengding Nature Reserve located in Meigu County, southwest China's Sichuan Province has raised hopes for the species revival in the wild. At present only 1,864 pandas exist in the wild in China. Two rangers during a regular patrol found the wild panda cub sleeping under a tree. "While walking half-way up the hill we spotted a sleeping panda cub," said Shamar Nyipu, a ranger at the Dafengding Nature Reserve. According to authorities, a wild panda cub has been sighted first time in 40 years since the establishment of the Reserve. Rangers estimate that the spotted panda cub is around two-month-old and reportedly resides in a small cave. At present, wildlife authorities claimed, around 22 wild pandas live in Dafengding Nature Reserve. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List after a census in 2016 changed the status of wild pandas from endangered to vulnerable. The change in status means the number of pandas is slowly increasing. The decision was taken after conservation efforts raised the number of giant pandas by nearly 17 percent. In late 1970s wild panda's number dwindled to 1,000 forcing governments and wildlife groups to launch conservation efforts to save the species from getting extinct. Some of the significant decisions taken to boost their population include restoration of natural habitat, captive breeding, and a ban on hunting. Limited mostly to six mountains in Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, pandas are facing adverse conditions for survival. According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) habitat loss due to change in land use pattern, construction of roads, landslides triggered by earthquakes, and climate change are responsible for shrinking panda population. Research expenditures at Michigan Technological University reached an all-time high according to preliminary figures presented to the Universitys Board of Trustees at its regular meeting Friday, Sept. 28. In a report highlighted in President Koubeks opening remarks, the Board learned that preliminary figures for fiscal year (FY) 2018, which ended June 30, 2018, show the Universitys total research expenditures to be $78,678,397, an increase over FY 2017 of $7,049,219 or 9.8 percent. Of the University colleges, schools and divisions accounting for research expenditures, the College of Engineering reported the highest figure at $30,848,486. This is more than $5.5 million higher than the $25,217,506 reported in 2017, an increase of 22.3 percent and also the largest increase in terms of dollar amount at the University. The Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) reported the largest increase percentage wise, with research expenditures of $471,791, more than doubling the FY 2017 total of $232,583 for a 102.8 percent rise. The GLRC expenditures reflect non-academic research expenditures only. All other GLRC research expenditures are reflected in the amounts submitted by individual researchers respective colleges. David Reed, Michigan Techs vice president for research and interim chief financial officer, said the figures are a positive reflection on the University. It is a great achievement for our faculty and staff to reach record research expenditures in this tight federal funding environment, Reed says. Most of these funds are competitive, and increasing expenditures demonstrates the quality and success of our faculty and staff. Significant increases were also reported by Pavlis Honors College (28.9 percent) and the Keweenaw Research Center (15.6 percent). The College of Sciences and Arts reported the second-highest research expenditures for FY 2018 of $17,149,933. Most diverse incoming class in University history Preliminary enrollment figures for the fall semester indicate the incoming class of first-year students is history making. In his remarks to the Board, John Lehman, Michigan Techs vice president for university relations and enrollment, said the University enrolled 2,030 women this fall, marking the first time in Michigan Tech history that female enrollment surpassed the 2,000 mark. That number represents 28.2 percent of the student body, which is also an all-time high. Lehman said enrollment of underrepresented domestic minority students represents more than 9 percent of the student body at 563 students. He said both the absolute number of underrepresented domestic minority students, which is 60 more than last year, and the proportion of the student body are all-time highs. Lehman also reported that the average high school grade point average (GPA) of this falls first-year students is 3.75, which is the highest GPA of incoming students in at least 25 years. As a result, this years incoming class is the most diverse and academically proficient class that Michigan Tech has ever enrolled. Lehman noted that overall enrollment dropped by 1.6 percent while full-time registered students dropped by 24 students. In other business, the Board: Voted to grant degrees to the list of students certified by the registrar as completing degree requirements during summer terms; Granted David Poplawski the status of professor emeritus in computer science. Poplawski, who retired in 2016, was a founding member of the Department of Computer Science and served the University for 33 years; Approved the five-year state capital outlay plan and FY 2020 capital project request. The plan includes Phases I and II of the H-STEM Engineering and Health Technologies Complex and Integrated Student Maker Spaces; and Approved a resolution to amend Board Policy 4.8, Office of the Ombuds. Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, the University offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure. Michigan Technological University's newly formed Academy of Engineering Education Leadership welcomed its first two members. Induction ceremonies for the inaugural class of Michigan Tech Universitys Academy for Engineering Education Leadership took place Thursday, Sept. 28. Hosted by the College of Engineering, the induction and accompanying reception were held in the Opie and Van Pelt Library. Sarah Rajala and Karl Smith were the first two inductees of the newly formed academy. Janet Callahan, dean of the College of Engineering, presided over the induction ceremonies. In her opening comments, Callahan explained the motivation behind the creation of the new Academy stating, Excellence in teaching can be learned. Excellence in learning can be taught. We owe it to our students to teach with excellence and to foster the wonder of discovery and problem solving from the moment each student sets foot on campus. Our new Academy for Engineering Education Leadership, serves two purposes. We are here today to learn from and celebrate the legacy of our two inaugural inductees. An International Leader Rajala, an internationally known leader in the field of engineering education, is currently the James L. and Katherine S. Melsa Dean of Engineering at Iowa State University. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). A past chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council, Rajala earned her bachelors in electrical engineering from Michigan Tech in 1974. She went on to earn a MS and PhD from Rice University. She received the national Harriett B. Rigas Award honoring outstanding female faculty from the Educational Education Society of the IEEE in 2015. A year later, Rajala was named National Engineer of the Year by the American Association of Engineering Societies. A ground breaker for women in engineering, she serves as a role model for young women and is passionate about diversity of thought and culture, especially in a college environment. Prior to her move into administration, Rajala had a distinguished career as a professor and center director. Her research was focused on the analysis and processing of images and image sequences and on engineering educational assessment. She is a 1997 inductee into Michigan Techs Electrical Engineering Academy and a member of the Presidential Council of Alumnae. In 1988, she became the first women to receive Techs Outstanding Young Alumni Award, and was the recipient of the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award. A Leader in Teamwork and Project Management Smith is Cooperative Learning Professor in the School of Engineering Education within the College of Engineering at Purdue University. In addition, he is the Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor and Executive Co-Director of the STEM Education Center, Technological Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota. Smith 69, earned his bachelors and masters degrees from Michigan Tech and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. With more than 30 years experience working with faculty to redesign their courses and programs to enhance student learning, Smith adapted the cooperative learning model to engineering education. In the past 15 years he has focused on high-performance teamwork through his workshops and 2014 book, Teamwork and Project Management. Through those workshops, Smith has helped thousands of faculty build knowledge, skills and confidence for involving their student in more active, interactive and cooperative learning both during class time and outside of class. Smith's research and development interests include building research and innovation capabilities in engineering education; faculty and graduate student professional development; the role of cooperation in learning and design; problem formulation, modeling, and knowledge engineering and project and knowledge management. He has written eight books and published many articles on teamwork, cooperative learning and structured controversy, engineering education and knowledge representation and expert systems. Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, the University offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure. China leading the way in facial recognition sector Endless queues and long waits at the ticket inspection desks at China's major train stations were signature of the Spring Festival travel rush before this year. Every year, as the country's biggest national holiday unfolded, a huge flow of travelers would leave staff at the check-in desks feeling swamped. But with the installment of artificial intelligence (AI) in dozens of train stations this year, including a facial recognition system which is able to process passenger identification within five seconds and therefore speed up the waiting process, busy scenes started to become something of the past. When a passenger approaches the camera inside the facial recognition system at the station, it scans their face and then quickly compares it to the photograph shown on their identification card in real time. If the information matches, the barrier gates will open and allow the passenger to go through. Such use of facial recognition technology is in line with discussions heard at the recent two sessions meeting, a key annual political event, which focused on the widespread application of a security network named Tianwang ("Sky Net" in English) currently being used by China's public security department. The network, according to reports by the People's Daily, has the potential to recognize the facial features of anyone in the world and match them on the spot with photographs on a database of criminal suspects. In fact, it can analyze photographic identity so quickly that it can scan every single Chinese face on the planet in just one second, and it would only take two seconds to scan every face in the world, with an accuracy rate of up to 99.8 percent. Those are just two examples that highlight the development of Chinese visual AI technology, which industry insiders predict could contribute to robust growth in the global technology sector this year. Growing trend "The year 2018 will mark a fast-track year in facial recognition technology, whose speed of growth is likely to override other AI sectors including robotics, voice recognition and natural language processing," Yang Yuxin, the vice president of Beijing-based operating system provider Thundersoft Software Technology Co, told the Global Times on Wednesday. An industry report published on news website sohu.com in March echoed Yang's prediction by summarizing the financing of China's AI start-ups and concluding that the computer vision and image analysis sector has been the "hottest" destination for domestic investors lately. The sector has even topped the country's investment list with a financing amount of 14.3 billion yuan ($2.27 billion), representing 23 percent of the total funds flowing into the global AI industry. One of the reasons behind the popularity of AI-powered visual technology is the wide range of scenarios in which it can be applied, making it easier for investors to "envision a bright business prospect and quickly capitalize on their investment," Yang explained. Security is just one of many areas where visual technology is being applied. In addition to targeting consumers, AI start-ups have already started to tailor their visual technology services to domestic companies focused on such technology as unmanned vehicle-makers and manufacturing. For example, Thundersoft has partnered with local factories to facilitate the application of AI visual technology in production lines so as to maintain quality control and supervise the production environment, Yang said. The move has helped manufacturers reduce labor costs and improve efficiency. Lu Feng, an industry analyst at Beijing-based consultancy firm CCID Consulting, also underscored the trend of combing AI visual technology with 2018's emerging industries, for example, the new retail sector. In unmanned supermarkets, which are part of the new retail concept, visual technology can help capture and analyze consumer behavior, through which, companies can improve their store's setting and displays to attract more buyers. Adopting a facial recognition system could also prevent shoplifting and help analyze consumer data. With market players deeming those technologies as promising, they have in turn pumped up the number of start-ups in the sector. Currently, there are 146 visual AI technology companies in China, the biggest number of any type of AI firm across the country, the news report by sohu.com showed. But analysts do not expect all those start-ups to thrive. "I think an industry reshuffle will take place next year the clock is ticking and visual AI start-ups that focus on researching basic algorithms should scramble to find applications, otherwise their capital pool will dry out in 2019," Yang noted. M&A in Europe Taking into account the abovementioned scenarios and China's large amount of data, the nation has an edge over US rivals in terms of AI visual technology application. However, in terms of the industry's foundation, such as basic theory and algorithms, domestic companies are still catching up with the standards set by foreign competitors, Lu noted. But recent mergers and acquisitions (M&A) inked between Thundersoft and European peers may offer some insight into Chinese companies that are aiming to introduce cutting-edged AI technologies. Thundersoft, for example, announced on Thursday that it has acquired Bulgarian software provider MM Solutions AD (MMS) in a deal worth 31 million euros ($38.16 million). "Acquiring MMS will largely reduce the time we take to achieve new technological breakthroughs, which in turn will elevate our technological competitiveness It's like strengthening our innovation ability through external dynamics," Zhao Hongfei, CEO of Thundersoft, said. In a similar move, Thundersoft also acquired Finnish auto software maker Rightward for $68 million in December 2016. Asked why Thundersoft has been eyeing European firms recently, Yang explained that compared with the US, European AI start-ups can be seen as "unexploited gold mines" with long-term business prospects and market competitive M&A prices. "Most European firms have rich experiences in developing technology, they also have a very strict system when training talents," Yang said. By this, Yang was referring to the fact that it can take about 18 months for MMS to fully train a visual technology engineer. In contrast, the training period is generally six months in China. Yang also noted that after the MMS deal was completed, he would send some employees from Thundersoft to MMS for further training. Furthermore, the European capital market has not been developing as fast as either market in China or the US, meaning it is usually a great bargain when Chinese investors acquire European tech peers. "We bought the two European tech firms at a price that was less than ten times their price-earnings (PE) ratio. The price has to be at least twenty times the PE ratio here in China," he added. We are still far from where ... Luxury goods enterprises require further online development in order to cater to young Chinese consumers consumption habits, said a report jointly released by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Tencent recently, Cyol.com reported. The report said that Chinese millennials, born in the 1980s and 90s, have become the dominant force in the consumption of luxury goods. Chinese luxury consumers are an average age of 28, while 71 percent of them are women. Most of the consumers have a Bachelors degree or above, and over 50 percent of them live outside of Chinas 15 biggest cities, according to the report. The report states that over half of the Chinese consumers usually buy luxury products on e-commerce platforms including Tmall, Alibabas Luxury Pavilion and JD.com. Chinese consumers are more inclined to buy luxury goods on such platforms compared with consumers in the UK, the US and Germany, where only 23 percent of consumers purchase luxury goods on e-commerce platforms. Chinese millennials usually obtain shopping information from various social media and online platforms, indicating that enterprises who specialize in luxury goods need to make every effort to draw the consumers attention online, rather than relying on selling products in their physical stores, said Wang Jiaqian, a manager of BCG. Fan Yijin, a manager of Tencent, noted that 32 percent of the expenditure on global luxury goods now comes from Chinese consumers, and the figure is expected to rise to 40 percent in the next five years. By Jackson Brainerd As mentioned in a recent blog post, state corporate income taxes are falling as a percentage of total state tax collections. Because of the many planning opportunities that come with the corporate income tax, states are constantly looking to shore up revenues and capture corporate profits that have escaped taxation. Among those strategies: Expanded Nexus Threshold: Obviously, states cant tax any business they want. Nexus determines the point at which a businesss activities or income in a state are substantial enough to allow a state to impose a tax on it. A state cannot tax an entity that does not have a minimum connection in the state and the amount of income subject to tax must also have a rational relationship with opportunities or value provided by the state. (e.g., its markets, infrastructure, workforce, etc.) While state corporate income taxes have had physical presence requirement historically, theres never been a judicially established rule like the recently eliminated physical presence standard that applied to sales taxes and most states have adopted more aggressive nexus standards. The economic presence standard is most common, where nexus is created if a corporation is more loosely doing business in the state. Throwback Rules: When businesses sell into a state where they do not have nexus, they can end up with nowhere incomeor profits that are not subject to tax in any state. Twenty-seven states have implemented throwback rules, which require a business that sells into a state in which it is not taxed to attribute its gross receipts to the state where the sale originated for apportionment purposes. (See the discussion of apportionment formulas in part I.) For example, if a corporation in Colorado sells into corporate income tax-free Wyoming, those sales will be counted as sales made into Colorado when calculating the sales fraction and the amount of income apportioned to the state. Incentive Evaluation: Even as recently as the start of this decade, only a handful of states had processes in place to regularly evaluate whether their business tax credits are producing the desired effects and benefiting the economy and ensuring that such programs are not experiencing unexpected, ballooning costs. At least 28 states now have processes in place to do so. Recent incentive improvement and evaluation laws have included requirements for regular reviews of credit programs or sunset dates, placed caps on program costs, implemented clawback provisions that require businesses to reimburse the state if they do not meet specified investment or job creation targets and created business reporting requirements that lend themselves to better analysis. Combined Reporting: Combined reporting requires certain related companies to file one return as if they were a single entity, so the income of the entire group, known as a unitary group, is apportioned to the states in which it has nexus. A state is allowed to tax an apportioned share of income from a unitary business when a portion of that unitary business is being conducted in the state. This is in contrast to separate reporting, which only requires business entities with nexus in the state to apportion their income to the state, while ignoring income earned by other members of the affiliated group that dont have nexus. Combined reporting eliminates intercompany transactions, which makes tax planning strategies like the Delaware loophole (discussed in part I) irrelevant, but some research suggests the revenue benefits of combined reporting are fairly modest. One of the issues associated with combined reporting is that it can be tricky to define the unitary group, which generally requires unity of ownership, operation or use. States currently use several definitions which can result in a group of corporations being classified as unitary in one state but not another. Another issue is the treatment of international affiliates. Most states require waters edge reporting, in which the unitary group only includes U.S. affiliates. In a few states (Idaho, Montana, North Dakota) worldwide combined reporting is the default method for apportioning income, requires the inclusion of all foreign affiliates. These states also allow corporations to make a waters-edge election, but in Montana, the tax rate for corporations that do so increases 0.25 percent. North Dakota levies a 3.5 percent surcharge against those who do so. Tax Haven Legislation: While corporate taxpayers are typically only required to report income earned domestically, some mandatory combined reporting states have required unitary corporate groups that make waters edge elections to include income earned in foreign tax haven in their state combined tax returns. It is estimated that corporate shell games cost the federal government billions. Beyond low or non-existent tax rates, tax havens also tend to lack transparency, allow foreign-owned entities to establish themselves locally without substantial business activity and preclude resident taxpayers from taking advantage of benefits provided to foreign-owned businesses. Fiscal notes for proposed tax haven legislation typically estimate that these provisions will bring in tens of millions in additional revenue. Of course, determining what is and is not a tax haven can be tricky business and some countries that have been designated as tax havens, like Luxembourg and the Caribbean U.K. Islands, are some of the top providers of foreign direct investment in the United States, so there are concerns about the effect of retaliatory measures. Six states (Alaska, Connecticut, Kentucky, Montana, Rhode Island, West Virginia) and Washington, D.C., currently have tax haven laws. Jackson Brainerd is a policy specialist with NCSLs Fiscal Affairs Program. Email Jackson By Express News Service MUMBAI: Yes Bank on Thursday denied allegations of window-dressing bad loans and manipulating its share price, besides dismissing alleged dealings between the bank and its managing director and chief executive Rana Kapoors family office that manages personal investments of his three daughters. In a 4-page response to clarifications sought by NSE, the bank said neither it concealed any bad loans nor entered any transactions with an intent to window dress corporate accounts to hide non-performing assets (NPAs). It further clarified that the bank was subjected to RBIs comprehensive, annual risk-based supervision and regularly submitted disclosures regarding divergences in asset quality classification, and duly validated by its statutory auditors. Yet, the banks divergences the difference between NPAs disclosed by it and those assessed by RBI stood in excess of Rs 10,500 crore in FY16 and FY17. The bank also denied having any dealings with the Three Sisters family office, and if any parallel lending and investing businesses being run by Kapoors family office was compromising the banks interests and by doing so, if it was used as a conduit to undue benefits for credit exposures, including real estate exposures. Meanwhile, dismissing allegations of manipulating the banks stock price ahead of critical capital raising activities like QIPs, the bank said it indeed followed all extant guidelines regarding disclosures of fund raising activities. Citing an example, it recalled that in September, 2016, when the bank decided to defer its QIP, it had voluntarily written to bourses seeking an investigation into the volatility in its share price and any manipulation by vested interests. Continuing their downward slide, shares of Yes Bank fell 9 per cent Thursday to close at Rs 203.20 on BSE. With todays close, the private lenders scrip lost nearly 50 per cent in the past five trading sessions. By Express News Service CHENNAI : Health minister C Vijaya Baskar held a review meeting on Dengue prevention with all senior health department officials and Deans of Government Medical Colleges in Chennai at DMS campus on Thursday. A press release said the Health and Family Welfare Department also launched the Integrated Fever Surveillance, Prevention and Management project in Thanjavur district to be implemented at a cost of `4.35 crore. The department allocated `12.93 crore for mosquito eradication work. It also allotted `2 crore for distribution of Nilavembu Kudineer) and awareness activities. Integrated Fever Prevention project The Health and Family Welfare Department launched the Integrated Fever Surveillance, Prevention project in Thanjavur to be launched at a cost of `4.35 crore. S Viswanath By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Even as the state government is firm that the Centre should establish major port in Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district as assured in the AP State Reorganisation Act, Union Water Resource Minister Nitin Gadkari had recently shot off a letter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu informing that the Centre will consider development of Major Port in Vodarevu in Prakasam district jointly with the State Government by creating a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). According to sources, in the letter, Gadkari mentioning that Ministry of Shipping giving priority for development of world class port infrastructure in the county with the support of state government, appealed to the CM to consider the proposal for joint development of a major port assuring that all the clearances would be expedited for the proposed location (Vodarevu) once the AP state government responds positively. However, the state government is of the view that the Centre might washout its hands with the commercially viable Vodarevu port ignoring the establishment of Dugarajapatnam port.Vodarevu and Dugarajapatnam ports are two different issues and we can not accept the proposal in case of the Centre doing away with the Dugarajapatnam port, an official told TNIE. Stating that they have debated the issue even before getting the letter from Gadkari, an official said that the CM is of the view that the Centre cannot go away with setting up a port at Vodarevu. The Centre should not mention Vodarevu as alternative to Dugarajapatnam port and in such scenario, there will be the possibilities of the state government responding positively for the proposal, another official said. Admitting that Vodarevu port is commercially viable, another official said the chances of the state government responding positively to the request are bleak as it is of the opinion that any private firm can take up the project. It is learnt that the state government is of the opinion that increasing burden on Visakhapatnam port is necessitating the Centre to set up another port in the state and it is proposing to set up at Vodarevu as it is commercially viable. By ANI NEW DELHI: Actors Farhan Akhtar and Richa Chadha have voiced their support for Tanushree Dutta, who has accused Nana Patekar of misbehaving with her. Tanushree has alleged that the Bollywood veteran misbehaved with her on the sets of the film 'Horn Ok Pleassss' in the year 2008. Lending his support to the actor, Farhan said that her intention should not be questioned. "Even when #TanushreeDutta had career concerns to keep quiet 10 years ago she did not andher story hasn't changed now. Her courage should be admired, not her intention questioned," he tweeted. This thread is very telling. @janiceseq85 was there at the time of the incident being debated today. Even when #TanushreeDutta had career concerns to keep quiet 10 years ago she did not & her story hasnt changed now. Her courage should be admired, not her intention questioned. https://t.co/Ola3MNdmtS Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) September 27, 2018 Echoing similar sentiments, Richa said that what happened to Tanushree "on set was intimidation." She tweeted, "It hurts to be #TanushreeDutta rn. To be alone, questioned. No woman wants publicity that opens the floodgates of trolling and insensitivity. What happened to her on set was intimidation. Her only fault was she didn't back down-takes a special courage to be #TanushreeDutta." It hurts to be #TanushreeDutta rn. To be alone, questioned. No woman wants publicity that opens the floodgates of trolling and insensitivity.What happened to her on set was intimidation.Her only fault was she didnt back down-takes a special courage to be #TanushreeDutta. TheRichaChadha (@RichaChadha) September 27, 2018 In an interview with ANI, the 'Aashiq Banaya Aapne' actor, on Wednesday, claimed, "He was being aggressive and was pushing me around. I complained about him, but it was not heard. They (film crew) were forcing me to do an intimate step. My contract stated that it was a solo dance sequence, and it was not supposed to be a duet. It was a way to manipulate me. This was the whole harassment situation going on." He was very aggressive, and was pushing me around and misbehaving with me on the set. My complaint was not heard.He also demanded to do an intimate step with me even though it was my solo dance. It was total harassment: Actor Tanushree Dutta on Nana Patekar pic.twitter.com/V0ti7kZIhN ANI (@ANI) September 26, 2018 Tanushree further alleged that she and her family were attacked after she refused to perform the intimate step. She also asserted that before she and her family could reach out to the police to file a case, the film crew had filed a counter FIR. By Express News Service It looks like Kamal Haasan is coming up with yet another sequel for a popular film of his. Following his spin-off of the Balram Naidu character in the long pending film Sabash Naidu and the sequel to his 1996 film Indian, it looks like there is a sequel planned for Thevar Magan. Directed by Malayalam director Bharathan, the 1992 film was about the son of a village chieftain returning to the village and taking up the mantle from his father. The film, India's official entry to the 65th Academy Awards, won five National Awards including Best Supporting Actor (Female) for Revathi and a special jury award for thespian Sivaji Ganesan. With Kamal Haasan starting to shoot for Indian 2 from October 2, after the end of Bigg Boss Tamil Season 2, it is expected that Thevar Magan 2, if it happens, will go on floors in January. (For more entertainment news visit Cinema Express) By IANS In September 1970, airplane tickets were outrageously expensive, which meant only the rich could travel. OK, that wasn't entirely true for an enormous number of young people whom these outdated media outlets could see only their outward appearance: they wore their hair long, dressed in bright-colored clothing never took a bath... They were a danger to an entire generation of diligent young boys and girls trying to succeed in life, with their horrible example of lewdness and "free love" as their detractors liked to say with disdain. Well, this ever growing number of kids had a system for spreading news that no one, absolutely no one, ever managed to detect... The "Invisible Post" existed because people were always going to these concerts, swapping ideas about where they ought to meet next, how they could explore the world without jumping aboard one of those tourist buses where a guide described the sights while the younger people grew bored and the old people dozed. And so, that's to word of mouth, everyone knew where the next concert was to take place or where to find the nest great trail to be explored. No one had any financial restrictions because, in this community, everyone's favorite author wasn't Plato or Aristotle or comics from some artist who'd attained celebrity status, the big book, which almost no one who traveled to the Old Continent did so without, went by the name Europe on 5 Dollars a Day. With this book, everyone could find out where to stay, what to see, where to eat, where to meet and where to catch live music while hardly spending a thing. Frommer's only error at the time was having limited his guide to Europe. Were there not perhaps other interesting places to see? Weren't there those who would rather go to India than to Paris? Frommer would address this failing a few years later, but until such time the "Invisible Post" took it upon itself to promote a South American itinerary ending at the once-"lost" city of Machu Picchu, with the warning not to mention anything to those who were outside of the hippie culture, lest the place be invaded by wild animals with cameras and extensive explanations (quickly forgotten) about how a band of Indians had created a city so wee concealed it could be discovered only from above - something they considered impossible, since men did not fly... Returning to the trails: after Machu Pichu, the next hot spot was Tiahuanaco, in Bolivia. Then Lhasa, in Tibet, where it was difficult to enter because, according to the "Invisible Post" there was a war between monks and Chinese soldiers. Of course it was difficult to imagine such a war, but everyone took it seriously and wasn't about to risk an endless trip to later end up a prisoner to the monks or the soldiers . Last the era's great philosophers, who had just split up in April of that year, had a short time before proclaimed that the greatest wisdom on the planet was to be found in India. That was enough to send all the world's young people to the country in search of wisdom, knowledge, gurus, vows of poverty, enlightenment, and communion with My Sweet Lord. "The Invisible Post", however, warned that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, famed guru to the Beatles, had tried to engage relations with Mia Farrow. The actress had always been unhappy in love through the years. She had traveled to India at the invitation of the Beatles, possibly in the hope of finding a cure for other traumas related to her sexuality, which seemed to hound her like bad karma. But everything suggests that Farrow's bad karma had accompanied her, John Paul, George, and Ringo on their trip. According to Farrow, she was meditating in the great seer's cave when he grabbed her and tried to force her into sexual relations. By this point in the trip, Ringo had already returned to England because his wife hated Indian food and Paul had also decided to abandon the retreat, convinced that it wasn't doing anything for him. Only George and John remained in the Maharishi's temple when Mia came looking for them, in tears, and told them what had happened. The two immediately packed their bags, and when the Enlightened One came to ask what was going on, Lennon gave him a bruising response: "You're the f***ing Enlightened One, are you not? You ought to be able to figure it out." Now, in September 1970, women ruled the world -- or, more precisely, young hippie women ruled the world. Wherever they went, the men did so knowing these wren't about to be seduced by the latest trends -- the women knew much more about the subject than the men did. And so the men decided to accept once and for all that they needed these women; they constantly wore an expression of yearning, as though begging, "Please protect me, I'm all alone and I can't find anyone, I think the world's forgotten me and love has forsaken me forever." The women had their pick of men and never gave a thought to marriage, only to having a good time enjoying wild, intense sex. When it came to the important things, and even the most superficial and irrelevant, they had the last word. However, when the "Invisible Post" brought news of Mia Farrow's sexual assault and Lennon's reaction, these women immediately decided to change their itineraries. A new hippie trail was created, from Amsterdam (Holland) to Kathmandu (Nepal), on a bus that charged a fare of approximately a hundred dollars and traveled through countries that must have been pretty interesting: Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and part of India (a great distance from the Maharishi's temple, it's worth noting). The trip lasted three weeks and an insane number of miles. (Paulo Coelho is the bestselling author of several books, best known for "The Alchemist". Published with permission from Penguin Random House India) By Online Desk The apex court is pronouncing the judgement on a writ petition filed in SC by historian Romila Thapar and four others contending the arrest of the activists was an instance of punishing dissent and difference of opinion. The bench had asked for the entire case diary to see how an investigation of a riots case resulted in the arrest of the five rights activists. The court has said that it would examine if the police raids and arrests were based on material evidence, as said by the cops. The top court warned that the entire case against the activists might even be quashed if the court found that the evidence provided by the Maharashtra government was 'cooked-up.' By PTI NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce on Friday its verdict on a plea by historian Romila Thapar and others seeking the immediate release of five rights activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and an SIT probe into their arrest. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had reserved the judgment on September 20 after counsel for both parties, including senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Harish Salve and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, concluded their submissions. The bench, that also comprised Justices A M Khaniwlkar and D Y Chandrachud, had asked the Maharashtra police to file their case diary pertaining to the ongoing investigation in the case. The five activists --Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha-- are under arrest at their respective homes since August 29. The plea by Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala, has sought an independent probe into the arrests and the immediate release of the activists. The Maharashtra police had arrested them on August 28 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 in the state. The apex court had on September 19 said it would look into the case with a "hawk's eye" as "liberty cannot be sacrificed at the altar of conjectures". It had told the Maharashtra government that there should be a clear-cut distinction between opposition and dissent on one hand and attempts to create disturbance, law and order problems or overthrow the government on the other. Senior advocate Anand Grover, Ashwini Kumar and advocate Prashant Bhushan had also alleged that the entire case was cooked up and adequate safeguards should be provided to protect the liberty of the five activists. The apex court had also said that it may order an SIT probe if it found that the evidence has been "cooked up". Anand ST Das By Express News Service PATNA: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) general secretary and Lok Sabha member Tariq Anwar on Friday resigned from the party and the Lok Sabha in protest against NCP chief Sharad Pawars apparent defence of PM Narendra Modi in the Rafale fighter jet deal. After his (Pawar) clean chit to the prime minister in the Rafale deal, there is no need for me to remain in the party and the Lok Sabha. So I am quitting from the Lok Sabha and also resigning from the partys primary membership, said Anwar, who represented Bihars Katihar constituency in the parliaments lower House. Prime Minister Modi is fully involved in the Rafale deal, which has been substantiated by the former president of France. The PM has not cared to prove himself clean in the Rafale deal. Despite this, Pawars statement in favour of Modi giving him a clean chit over his intention is unfortunate, added Anwar, a founding member of NCP, who had been considered a close aide of Pawar. Anwars resignation is being seen as a major setback to NCP and a blow to the efforts for an Opposition unity to corner the BJP-led NDA government over the Rafale fighter jet deal. Congress and RJD leaders in Bihar expressed shock about Anwars decision but refrained from speaking on the matter for the time being. Pawar, a former defence minister, had said in an interview to a Marathi news channel on Wednesday that the general public do not doubt Modis intentions in the Rafale deal. Pawar had also rejected the Oppositions demand that technical specifications and details of the deal be made public. I have great respect for Sharad Pawar, but I cannot betray the common perception over irregularities in the Rafale deal, said Anwar, a former Union minister, who had recently supported the Congress demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into the Rafale deal. He said that BJP, which was in the opposition in the 1980s, had demanded a JPC probe into the Bofors deal and then PM Rajiv Gandhi had agreed to a JPC, which had eventually given him a clean chit. Why is it a problem for BJP when Congress president Rahul Gandhi demands the same for Rafale? Anwar had asked. NCP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Majeed Memon and party leader Nawab Malik confirmed Anwars resignation. Anwar said in Katihar after resigning that he was yet to think of his future political plans. I will decide on the future course after consulting with my supporters, he said. By PTI NAINITAL: The Uttarakhand High Court asked the Centre to strictly implement the ban on pornographic websites, taking cognisance of reports that a girl was gang-raped in a Dehradun school by her fellow students after they watched porn clips. ALSO READ | Uttarakhand shocker: Class 10 student allegedly gang-raped in Dehradun school Issuing a slew of directives to implement the ban Thursday, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Manoj Tiwari said, "Unlimited access to these pornographic sites is required to be blocked/curbed to avoid an adverse influence on the impressionable minds of children." According to news reports, the four students had told the police during investigation that they had watched porn on the Internet before allegedly raping the girl who is a student of Class 10. The court directed Internet service providers to strictly obey a notification issued by the Centre three years ago for a ban on porn sites. It also asked them to block publication or transmission of obscene material in any electronic form, transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act or conduct and also publishing or transmitting material depicting children in a sexually explicit act or conduct forthwith. Internet service license holders violating this direction will lose their licence as per Section 25 of the Information Technology Act 2000, the high court said. "The Ministry of Communication and IT, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India has issued a Notification on 31.07.2015 which was circulated to all the Internet Service License Holders, as per the list contained therein. "The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DELTy) has requested Department of Telecommunications to notify intermediary for disablement of the URLs under the provision of Information Technology Act, 2000, as the contents posted on these websites infringe morality, decency," the high court said in its order. Keeping in mind the gravity of the offence and to curb such incidents, the court directed all the Internet Service Licence Holders to strictly obey the notification. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, in its verdict on Aadhaar on Wednesday, ruled that the unique identification number would not be required anymore for opening a bank account, nor would it be mandatory to link it with ones mobile phone number, but the message is yet to hit home. In a reality check done by TNIE, it was found that bank employees were still insisting on the Aadhaar number while opening a new account. We have not got any written orders from our head office regarding Aadhaar. Although the news about Aadhaar and the Supreme Court verdict is in our knowledge, until anything in writing is given, we will continue with the old procedure, said an employee at the Punjab National Bank branch in Sector 4, RK Puram. Similar was the response at Lakshmi Vilas Bank in Connaught Place, and at a State Bank of India branch. Mobile telephony operators have, however, given their customers relief on the Aadhaar requirement for a new number and linking existing numbers. After hearing about the judgement we are not emphasising on it, said Rohit, an employee at an Airtel store in Connaught Place. The Vodafone centre in Indirapuram was accepting requests for fresh numbers without asking for the Aadhaar number. By Express News Service BHOPAL: A senior professor begged for apology by touching the feet of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) workers at a college in Madhya Pradesh, after the saffron student outfit activists alleged that he had stopped them from raising nationalist slogans. Dr Dinesh Chandra Gupta, who has authored over 10 books, was taking class at the Rajiv Gandhi PG College in Mandsaur on Wednesday when an ABVP team reached there to submit a memorandum over delay in B.Sc results. As the ABVP associated students raised slogans, Gupta requested them to stay quiet as it was disturbing the class. Instead of paying heed, the students accosted him there. Suddenly, an agitated ABVP youth accused Gupta of stopping them from raising Bharat Mata ki Jai slogans. The ABVP youths demanded that Gupta apologise for it. #WATCH: A professor of Rajiv Gandhi PG College in Mandsaur tried to touch the feet of students belonging to ABVP, allegedly after they called him anti-national & asked him to apologise for asking them to stop raising slogans outside the classroom. #MadhyaPradesh (26.09.2018) pic.twitter.com/RivV1lzzrY ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 Shocked over the unfounded allegations, the professor asked the ABVP youths to stand in line and started touching their feet. Caught surprised by this unexpected response, the ABVP youths tried to stop Gupta from reaching to their feet and soon dispersed from the spot. A visibly hurt Gupta followed the ABVP youths and continued to beg for apology, even as his colleagues and other students tried their best to stop him. The matter came to light when the video of the entire episode went viral over social media on Thursday. In 2006, a political science professor HS Sabarwal had died after he was allegedly attacked by ABVP men in an Ujjain college. However, the accused youths were acquitted in the murder case by a Nagpur court in 2009. Confirming Wednesdays episode, college principal Dr Ravindra Kumar Sohoni said the ABVP leadership needs to seriously contemplate about the acts of its local leadership. Dr Gupta is a senior professor, who has written 10-15 books. He is a heart and blood pressure patient, and such an incident shouldnt have happened. Gupta is now on three-day leave from Thursday morning and is not reachable on his phone. ABVPs Mandsaur district convener Pawan Sharma claimed he was not present at the college when the episode began. When I reached there I saw discussions between the students and our teacher, after which I intervened. I apologized to the teacher and ensured that the issue was resolved. None of us mounted any pressure on our teacher. Weve deep respect for our teachers, said Sharma. Aishik Chanda By Express News Service KOLKATA: Four persons were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment till death on Friday for the hooch tragedy in Sangrampur in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal that claimed 172 lives in 2011. Apart from sending prime accused Noor Islam Fakir alias Khora Badshah and his associates Dukhi Laskar, Khairul Laskar and Nazmul alias Kola Laskar to the prison, sixth additional district and sessions judge Parthasarathy Chakraborty of Alipore court on Friday also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them. The court had found the four persons guilty of the crime and convicted them on Thursday under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 273 (sale of noxious food or drink) of Indian Penal Code and under West Bengal Excise Act. Speaking after the judgment, prime accused Khora Badshah claimed he was innocent. "I was convicted in a wrong way and the people who were guilty are scot-free. I did not make liquor there," he said. Badshah has been convicted under Sections 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison with intent to commit an offence) of IPC. Badshah's wife Shakila Bibi and other accused Ayub Ali Laskar, Giasuddin Laskar, Khairunnesa Bewa, Moinuddin Gazi and Rabiul Laskar were acquitted by the court on Thursday due to lack of evidence against them. Two accused Atiul Laskar and Yasin Jamadar are still at large. Some 172 people were killed due to consumption of spurious liquor sold by Badshah at Mograhat, Usthi and Mandirbazar areas of South 24 Parganas district on December 11, 2011. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for each of the victims. Cases were booked in three separate police stations of the district. Investigation was handed over to the state Crime Investigation Department (CID). By IANS SHIMLA: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday resumed its rescue operation on the fourth day and airlifted 26 people from Himachal Pradesh's snow-marooned Lahaul Valley. They were stranded for nearly a week in Chotta Dara near the Kunzum Pass area. The total number of people rescued since September 24 rose to over 1,350, including over 30 foreigners. Most of them were stranded at various locations in the Himalayas for the past six days with heavy snowfall in the region triggering massive landslides that snapped road links in the Lahaul-Spiti district since September 22. Snow clearing operation have been in full swing by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to restore the road link between the Baralacha Pass and district headquarters Keylong. It was estimated that a large number of tourists and truckers were stranded near the Baralacha Pass. Another large group was reported to be stuck in Suraj Tal Lake and Zingzing Bar areas along Keylong-Leh road. Two light utility helicopters Cheetah were additionally deployed on Thursday along with the three IAF choppers, including MI-17, to speed up the rescue in Lahaul. State Tribal Development Minister Ram Lal Markanda said the task of rescuing 200-300 people stranded in the Saruchu and Darcha by air was being carried out on a war footing. In order to know the whereabouts of those trapped near the Chandratal Lake, a team of rescuers led by Additional District Magistrate Vikram Singh Negi reached the lake area after 16 hours of trek on Thursday, Markanda said. At least 45 tourists and others stranded in the Chandratal Lake were transported to safer places, besides 13 tourists were airlifted. Early snowfall in the higher reaches, cloudburst and heavy rains devastated large parts of the state from September 22 to 24. Heavy snowfall on the Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft) has cut off the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys affecting a large number of tourists and hampering water and electricity supply. Weather conditions improved on Thursday. By PTI MUMBAI: A court here Friday acquitted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and seven others in a case of holding a political rally without requisite police permission in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener, Kejriwal, and the others, including activist Medha Patkar and Meera Sanyal, were booked under various provisions of the Maharashtra Police Act pertaining to holding public rallies without prior permission from the police. Metropolitan Magistrate P K Deshpande, while acquitting Kejriwal and the others, Friday observed that the police had failed to give the accused persons a written statement refusing them permission for the rally. The rally in Mankhurd, in north east Mumbai, was held as part of the poll campaign of AAP candidates Meera Sanyal and Medha Patkar. The Mumbai Police had claimed it was "unscheduled" and held without prior requisite permissions from the traffic police. In March 2014, a complaint was lodged against Kejriwal and the others at suburban Mankhurd police station. While Kejriwal, Sanyal and the other accused were present in the court Friday, Patkar was absent. By ANI NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday expressed his grief over the demise of former Gujarat Minister Manoharsinh Jadeja. "Saddened by the demise of former Gujarat Minister Shri Manoharsinh Jadeja Ji. Respected across party lines, he made a mark as a dedicated legislator and good administrator. My thoughts are with his family and well-wishers in this sad hour," Prime Minister Modi tweeted. Jadeja, who served as the finance minister in the erstwhile Congress government in Gujarat died on Thursday at the age of 83. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani also condoled Jadeja's death and tweeted: "Saddened by the demise of Shri Manoharsinh Jadeja Ji - former Minister, Government of Gujarat and outstanding legislator. I pray for the departed souls. My condolences to family members. Om Shanti." (ANI) Harpreet Bajwa By Express News Service CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Police today booked its Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Randhir Singh Uppal, on charges of rape and sexual harassment, for allegedly harassing a law student. Confirming that a case in this regard has been registered against Uppal, Additional Deputy Coner of Police of Amritsar Lakhbir Singh said, "A case has been registered at Cantonment police station in this connection and further investigations are underway.'' The case has been registered after an inquiry was conducted by IGP (Crime) Vibhu Raj as a student of a law college in Amritsar in her complaint had alleged that the AIG (Crime), Randhir Singh Uppal posted in Chandigarh had been harassing her and making sexual advances for the past four months. Amritsar police commissioner SS Srivastava had earlier requested the Punjab DGP Suresh Arora to shift the probe to a senior woman police officer as the victim hailed from Hoshiarpur and the accused was posted in Chandigarh. The inquiry was then marked to IGP (Crime) Vibhu Raj. It is learnt that during a high-level meeting of senior police officials from all over Punjab in Chandigarh on Thursday, the DGP had asked the police commissioner to register a case in this regard. Sources said that Uppal had been sending the victim WhatsApp messages and also sending her the location where she was on her phone. He was also calling her on WhatsApp video calls and harassing her. She with a help of friend recorded one of that video calls besides saving other messages and handed over the whole evidence to the police. The complainant who is law student and mother of six-year-old had alleged that her repeated pleas had fallen on deaf ears as he was not ready to relent and Uppal threatened her. Meanwhile Uppal refuted the allegations as he said that he knew the girl's family and mother, and that her family urged him to keep a watch on her as she had fallen in a bad company. Admitting that he called her up he said that he used to call her up and ask her to mend her ways. Anuraag Singh By Express News Service BHOPAL: After his avatar of a Shiv Bhakt, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi became a Ram Bhakt Pandit to launch his partys poll campaign in Madhya Pradeshs Vindhya region on Thursday. Rahul began his tour on a symbolic gesture by offering prayers at the Ram Darbar of the famous Kamta Nath temple at Chitrakoot town in Satna district. Flying from Allahabad to Chitrakoot, the Congress chief flagged off the poll campaign in Vindhya region. And, dotting the Chitrakoot and Satna towns were posters welcoming him as Ram Bhakt Pandit Rahul Gandhi, speaking volumes about the Congress new soft Hindutva poll strategy. The Vindhya region, which houses 30 Assembly segments, is a Congress stronghold. Out of power in the state since 2003-end, the Congress had won 12 out of the 30 seats here as against the BJPs 16 seats and the BSPs two seats in 2013. Starting the two-day tour to Satna and Rewa districts of Vindhya region from Chitrakoot assumes special significance as the Congress planned Ram Van Gaman Path Yatra starts from the same town. Also, the opposition partys promise of building the Ram Van Gaman Path to trace the roots of the route of Ram-Sita-Laxmans exile journey (unfulfilled promise of the BJP) is focused on the same region. Rahul continued his attack against PM Narendra Modi, particularly on the Rafale deal. While he once again dubbed CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan as a Ghoshna Machine (machine of announcements), he dubbed Modi as Jhooth ki Machine (Lie Machine) for his false promises to the masses. All I can tell you is that we wont promise you 15 lakh jobs, but whatever our party leaders, particularly Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia, promises to do for you will be fulfilled religiously. The Congress president also promised to replace the NDAs Gabbar Singh Tax with the real GST. We will implement one tax at lowest rates, he said. On way to the venue of public rally in Satna town, Rahul faced a group of anti-SC/ST Act protestors who waved black flags at his cavalcade. By Express News Service SRIKAKULAM: Almost four months have elapsed since the schools reopened this academic year. Teachers are set to complete the syllabus for Class X students by the end of this year and only three months are left for that. The syllabi of all classes from Class 1 to IX is scheduled to be completed by March-end. However, the students of several schools are still waiting for textbooks. Education officials of the district have managed to get the books by negotiating with adjacent districts. Not even a single school in the district distributed textbooks of subjects to all students. Some sets of old books were managed from senior students who were promoted to higher classes. Keeping all the issues aside, the government had conducted FA1 and FA2 examinations in all schools and is planning to conduct summative 1 examination in November. Taking it seriously, the teachers of various schools, led by their associations, are planning to stage a protest.It was learnt that some schools in the district received the books this week.The district stood fourth in the State with 96.58 per cent passes in SSC results last year. Taking inspiration from last years results, district education officials are planning to keep the district on top in the State this year. On the whole, 2,53,833 students are studying in Classes I to X at various government schools in the district. As many as 3,277 schools are being operated by municipal corporation, Zilla Parishad, government, tribal welfare and other departments in the district. We received about 70 per cent of books for Classes VI and VII while 80 per cent of books were received for higher Classes VIII, IX and X, said Ichchapuram government school headmistress Sujatha.When compared to Telugu and English media, We received a few Odiya medium books. However, we have managed books from the old students. We have not received Telugu language books for Classes I, II and III so far, while we received some in other subjects like Science, English and Mathematics, said T Sreenivasa Rao, Kanugulavalasa UP schoolteacher. He also said that the grant for annual maintenance was yet to be released. With no alternatives, we had to procure stationery by spending our own money, he added. We have supplied about 14,97,260 books, including Telugu, English and Odiya media for primary, upper primary and high schools in the district, said M Sairam, DEO. The DEO said under the impact of enrolment drives, conducted in summer this year, about 10,000 students shifted to government schools from private and other corporate schools. Since the indent was placed based on the last years enrolment, shortage of books surfaced this year. However, we are managing the books from old students and the adjacent districts, he said.He also said the shortage would be overcome as the books are likely to be supplied in the next few days. Shreepada Ayachit By Express News Service KOPPAL: As many as 15 villages from four gram panchayats in Gangavati taluk of Koppal district have decided to seek exclusion from Hampi World Heritage Area and Management Authority. This is because the authoritys permission is mandatory to get basic amenities such as construction of individual toilets, Ashraya houses, roads and bridges. Basic facilities are being delayed inordinately because of this, villagers said. As the authority had called for suggestions/objections for revision of its rules and regulations, the villagers have come together to seek exclusion, official sources told TNIE. The authority, set up in 2002, includes 14 villages around Hampi and 15 from Gangavati taluk. Villages under Anegondi, Mallapura, Sangapura and Sanapura Gram Panchayats (GPs) of Gangavati taluk also come under the authority. The villagers have decided to join hands with non-governmental and charitable organisations to get basic infrastructure in the 15 villages, said Malleshappa, an elderly man from Anegondi. Villagers also claimed that no monuments or structures in Gangavati taluk have been recognised by the Archaeology Survey of India. Gangavati BJP MLA Paranna Munavalli charged the authority with being reluctant in giving permission for basic infrastructure in the 15 villages. Despite several attempts, the authority did not to respond to calls. Prakash Samaga By Express News Service UDUPI: the ambience and mood at the frothing Malpe beach was bright and lively on Thursday evening with glasses raised and their contents quaffed with much gusto. The occasion was the Wine Festival a four-day event organised by the Karnataka Wine Board to popularise wine culture in the state in general and in this coastal town in particular on the occasion of World Tourism Day. Wine experts, wine producers, farmers from Karnataka and Maharashtra are participating in the wine festival. The tasting session, for which there are no entry tickets, was clearly a hit with visitors relishing the flavours of branded wines at the first-ever such festival in the region. Prashanth Nayak, a marine engineer from Karkala, told TNIE that he was impressed with the wide range of wines available at the festival. Quoting a Russian proverb, wine connoisseur Amith Kumar, another visitor from Manipal, told TNIE: If you have wine after soup you will be stealing a rouble from your doctor. The fest brings hope to grape cultivators and wineries, said Sarvesh Kumar, general manager, Karnataka Wine Board. Speaking to TNIE, he said they are expecting a good turnout from Friday. As word will spread about this wine festival by tomorrow, we are expecting more people. We are expecting wine sales worth Rs 20 lakh in Malpe during the festival, he added. Last year in Mangaluru the revenue collected was Rs 35 lakh, he informed. There are various types of wine on sale such as premium, elite, economy, imported brands. The price per bottle of wine of 750 ml ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 1,500. By Online Desk A constitution bench of Supreme Court today will pronounce its verdict on a batch of pleas seeking permission for women aged between 10 and 50 to enter the 800-year old Sabarimala temple in Kerala. A five-judge bench consisting of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice RF Nariman, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra had reserved the judgment on August 1. The Indian Young Lawyers Association was the first to file a plea in 2006 in the Supreme Court seeking scrapping of the temple law that restricted women's entry. After about a decade, the apex court took up the case for hearing in January 2016. The SC will consider whether the exclusion of women (between the 10-50 age group) amounts to discrimination and is therefore against the Constitution. The top court will also examine if excluding these women is an essential religious practice under Article 25 (which guarantees right to freedom of religion) of the statute and if a religious body can assert a claim in this regard under the pretext of its right to manage its own affairs. The claim of temple authority that the shrine has a denominational character will also come under the scanner of the top court, which will consider if religious denomination managed by a statutory board can be allowed to be financed under Article 290-A of the Constitution of India by the Kerala exchequer. The LDF government of Kerala, which has been changing its stance, made its stand clear at the Supreme Court in July this year. It said that all women irrespective of their age must be allowed to enter Sabarimala temple and the gender discrimination at the temple must end. Earlier in 2016, UDF regime had told the court that it was duty bound to protect the tradition banning entry of women into the shrine. It is unclear since when or why women aged between 10 and 50 are not being allowed to enter the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. According to Thantri Mandalam president V R Nampoothiri, the temple was not a public place, instead, the home of the deity. The final word on the customs and practices, which are 800 years old, must be vested with the Hindu books of Thantrasaram, Saradathilakom and Thantrasamuchayam and not the legislation, he says. By Express News Service ONGOLE:A realtor, who was also an ex-Army man, was hacked to death in front of his wife by three assailants at his house in Bestavaripeta of Prakasam district in the wee hours of Thursday. The men, with their faces covered, broke into the house of M Ramana Reddy around 2 am and attacked him, police said. His wife, Lakshmi Kumari, tried to rescue Ramana Reddy from the attackers, but was injured in the process. When the victim tried to fight back, he was dragged into the road from where the assailants made a quick escape in a car. Seeing him bleeding profusely, the locals rushed him and his wife to a hospital. However, Ramana Reddy died on the way. A case has been registered. The police are suspecting Ramanreddys business disputes to be the motive behind his murder. By Express News Service KOCHI: Opposing the bail plea of Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal, arrested on charges of raping a nun, the state government on Thursday submitted before the High Court the statements of five nuns and two others have to be recorded under section 164 of the CrPC. If bail is granted at this juncture, it will adversely affect the investigation, it said. ALSO READ | Bishop Franco Mulakkal lodged in Pala sub-jail According to the prosecution, the investigation has to be carried out in Jalandhar to verify the statements of the accused and collect some evidence. The bishop had raped the victim, who hails from a poor family, repeatedly on different dates. The accused was a terrifying authority for all the clergy under him and they were dancing to his tune. Hence, all of them stood against the survivor, it stated. Four other cases have been registered at different police stations for trying to influence witnesses in the case at the instance of the accused. Around 10 acres of land and `5 crore were offered to witnesses who were in favour of the prosecution. The petitioner submitted the allegation the bishop committed rape was false. He was arrested while his anticipatory bail plea was pending before the High Court. Therefore, his arrest was improper. The accused was in police custody for three days and he had cooperated with the investigation. He was interrogated for eight-nine hours each on three continuous days. Hence, further detention of the petitioner is not required for the completion of the investigation, the counsel stated. According to the prosecution, for the sole reason that the accused had appeared in pursuance of the notice issued under section 41 (a) of the CrPC, it cannot be said no arrest of the accused can be made. The court will pronounce the verdict in the bail plea on Wednesday. Tiki Rajwi By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The railways are on high alert following a central government warning that a ''huge number'' of Rohingya refugees are making a beeline for Kerala. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has issued a warning to its units in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in this regard, along with a list of 14 trains on which the refugees from Myanmar are likely to be moving to the state with their families. On Thursday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, speaking in Kochi, also had warned the state regarding the Rohingya plan. ''Input indicates that huge number of Rohingyas (an ethnic group of Myanmar's Rakhine province), are travelling from every corner of north-east states and ultimately heading towards Kerala,'' the alert issued on Wednesday by the Principal Chief Security Commissioner, RPF, said. It goes on to add that, ''All Rohingyas are travelling in groups along with their families.'' RPF officers and staff have been asked to detain them and hand them over to the police for further action. The RPF alert lists 14 south-bound trains originating from various railway stations in the eastern states of West Bengal and Assam. They include two Silchar-Thiruvananthapuram expresses, the Shalimar-Chennai Express, the Shalimar-Thiruvananthapuram Express, the Howrah-Chennai trains, the Howrah-Cape Express, Howrah-Thiruchirapally Express and the Guwahati-Tambaram and the Dibrugarh-Tambaram Express. An ethnic minority in Myanmar, the Rohingyas began fleeing the country in 2015 after the Myanmar armed forces launched operations against what they termed Rohingya militants. It is estimated that thousands of Rohingyas have made their way to different parts of India through the porous eastern borders that the country shares with Bangladesh and Myanmar. Reportedly, the refugees are entering Kerala in the guise of migrant labourers. And in the absence of accurate data on migrant labour in the state, it would be hard to identify them once they vanish into the midst of the state's population. A senior RPF official in Thiruvananthapuram said so far no Rohingya has been detained so far in the state. But the RPF was tracking their movement with the help of the local police under instructions from the RPF HQ. By Express News Service Justice Indu Malhotra, the only woman in the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court that ruled that women of all ages must be allowed in Kerala's Sabarimala temple, gave a dissenting judgment. "It is not for court to interfere in religious practices even if it appears discriminatory. Notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion," Justice Malhotra said. 'Interfere only in cases like Sati' It is not for the courts to determine which of these practices of a faith are to be struck down, except if they are pernicious, oppressive, or a social evil, like Sati, said Justice Indu Malhotra. An equality doctrine cannot override the fundamental right to worship under Article 25. Notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion, she said. She added that the issue, in this case, is not limited to Sabarimala; it will have far-reaching implications for other places of worships. READ | Indian temples where men can't enter on certain days Justice Malhotra said the equality doctrine enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution does not override the fundamental right guaranteed by Article 25 to every individual to freely profess, practise and propagate their faith, in accordance with the tenets of their religion. The manifestation of the deity at the Sabarimala temple, Ayyappa, is in the form of a naishtika brahmachari, who practises strict penance and the severest form of celibacy.The bench was dealing with a PIL filed in 2006 by Indian Young Lawyers Association seeking to ensure entry of women devotees between the age group of 10 to 50 at the temple. By Express News Service CHENNAI : The Madras High Court has directed the Secretary of State Energy department and Chairman of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) to appear before it on Friday (September 28) to explain the alleged backing down of power generation through windmills. Electricity has become very essential and without the same human life cannot be led. No one can think of life without electricity even for 10 minutes. When such is the position, the government should have been careful enough to see that all precautionary steps are taken to see that the power supply is not interrupted and sufficient supply is made to the citizens, Justice N Kirubakaran said. The two should explain as to whether there is any shortage of electricity in the State, shortage of coal in thermal power stations and the steps taken to improve the storage. They should also state the reasons for not putting in use wind energy and whether it is true that many wind energy generators had shifted their units to other States. If so, how many of them had moved out of the State, the judge asked. The judge was passing interim orders on a writ petition from Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association at Dindigul alleging that TANGEDCO was backing down from using wind energy, deliberately. Denying the allegations, the State submitted there is no backing down. If at all there was any backing down, it was only due to unavoidable circumstances such as ensuring grid safety. By Express News Service CHENNAI : The HC has indicted the GM of SR for not providing minimum cleanliness to passengers. When the GM and other higher officials are leading a luxurious life at the cost of passengers and receiving higher salaries with perquisites and other facilities, they should ensure at least the minimum level of cleanliness to passengers, who are the masters, Justice S M Subramaniyam said. The judge was disposing of a writ petition from city-based Premier Garments Processing to quash an order dated April 9 last of the Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer, Southern Railway, Salem, which cancelled the letter of acceptance issued in favour of the firm with regard to cleaning and washing bedsheets and supply of bed rolls. If the chambers of the GM or higher officials are maintained in a luxurious manner, at least the minimum level of cleanliness must be provided to passengers, who all are paying to the Railways and travelling. From and out of the revenue earned, the Railways are functioning and the officials are receiving salary. Thus, they are accountable and answerable to the passengers and the authorities cannot simply shirk their responsibility, the judge observed. Protection to life includes provision of decent health-related facilities and good environment to live peacefully and healthily. It is the fundamental right ensured under Article 21 of the Constitution. Every passenger has a right to claim cleanliness at reasonable level, at least as per the norms prescribed by Railways in their rules and regulations. If that is not provided, the competent authorities must be held accountable and there is certainly a personal liability cast on them, the judge said. The judge referred to unions, which fight for rights of workmen. When these unions are agitating for the rights of the employees, equally, they have got a duty to ensure that the members of the unions are performing their duties, the judge said. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said that while Prime Minister Narendra Modis popularity was waning, AICC president Rahul Gandhis popularity could not be considered as an encouraging sign either. Congress claimed it will win in Assembly elections in UP and Karnataka and Rahul Gandhi campaigned with all his might. They lost. Now the party is claiming they will win in Telangana as well. So the conclusion is that once Rahul Gandhi campaigns anywhere, the party loses there, Rao said. Rao made these comments at an event in Telangana Bhavan on Friday, held to induct Karimnagar based BJP leader Edavally Vijayendra Reddy along with his followers. Addressing the new members, Rao said, Modis graph is coming down. His government has not even fulfilled assurances made in the AP Reorganisation Act 2014. Congress might have dubbed Rahul Gandhi as a ray of hope for the country, but Gandhi does not know the basics of politics. A few days ago, he said BHEL would manufacture mobile phones. He should know that the firm manufactures heavy electrical equipment. Is this man even capable of leading India? asked Rao. Taking potshots at Telangana Congress assurances made ahead of the elections, Rao said, Recently, I met with a few economists to discuss these assurances. They informed me that they were practically impossible to implement. He added, with a touch of sarcasm, that now Congress would probably promise brides and bridegrooms to people looking to get married. They will even get them (couples) married. After that, they will go into their new houses and cook food for them, he said. Rao recalled how Congress leaders had fought with each other in the past for the Chief Ministers post. The musical chairs will continue, he said He questioned the rationale behind the Grand Alliance. It is a Droha Kutami (alliance of traitors), he said. By AFP WASHINGTON: University professor Christine Blasey Ford emotionally recounted on Thursday a sexual assault allegedly committed 36 years ago by Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, saying she believed she was going to be raped and even "accidentally" killed. Blasey Ford, 51, told a tense Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that could make or break Kavanaugh's nomination she was "100 percent" certain he was the assailant and it was "absolutely not" a case of mistaken identify. "I am here today not because I want to be," Blasey Ford said in her opening statement during which her voice quavered at times and she appeared occasionally to be on the verge of tears. "I am terrified," she said as she described the sexual assault which she alleges occurred at a high school party at a suburban Maryland home in 1982. ALSO READ | Brett Kavanaugh Hearing LIVE Updates: Ford says she wrote Feinstein letter on her own against Kavanugh Democrats on the 21-member committee praised Blasey Ford's courage in coming forward while a sex crimes prosecutor hired by the Republican side sought to gently poke holes in her story with questions about dates. "I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school," Blasey Ford said. Kavanaugh, a conservative 53-year-old appeals court judge, was not present as the high-stakes session got underway in a packed committee hearing room. He is expected to testify later in the day and has steadfastly denied the allegations of sexual misconduct made by Blasey Ford and two other women. (Photo | AFP) The accusations have thrust the Trump administration into the #MeToo movement's harsh glare, and threaten to derail a conservative effort to tilt the nation's highest court to the right for years to come. The Kavanaugh nomination has turned into a political firestorm ahead of congressional elections and is threatening to derail Trump's push to get a conservative-minded majority on the court ahead of the November vote. Blasey Ford, wearing glasses and a sober dark blue suit, appeared nervous but poised as she sat at the witness table, consulting occasionally with her lawyer and swigging from a bottle of Coca-Cola. A psychology professor who is married and has two children, she said Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were drunk at the party and that she was pushed into a bedroom as she headed to the bathroom. "Brett and Mark came into the bedroom and locked the door behind them," she said. "I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me. I believed he was going to rape me "He began running his hands over my body and grinding into me," she said. "I yelled, hoping that someone downstairs might hear me. "Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes," she said. "He had a hard time because he was very inebriated. "I believed he was going to rape me," Blasey Ford said. "I tried to yell for help. "When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling," she said. "This is what terrified me the most and has had the most lasting impact on my life. "It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me," she said. "Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two, and them having fun at my expense," she said when asked about her most powerful memory of the incident. ALSO READ | High drama as US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Ford hearing underway Blasey Ford said she managed to escape when Judge jumped on the bed, sending them all toppling. Outside the US Capitol, pro- and anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators gathered as senators pondered the fate of a nominee who could impact the balance of the top US court for decades. Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had been a swing vote on a court currently divided between four conservative and four liberal justices. The Republican president has fiercely defended his pick as a "great intellect" -- but said Wednesday he would watch the highly charged hearing and was open to changing his mind. "I can always be convinced," Trump said. At the same time, Trump said he was skeptical because he personally had been the target of "false charges" by various women. The White House confirmed that Trump watched the testimony aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from New York. No one's pawn Democratic senators lauded Blasey Ford for testifying. "I have found your testimony powerful and credible and I believe you," said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut. Blumenthal also hit out at Trump for failing to authorize an FBI investigation of Blasey Ford's allegations. "It's up to the president of the United States and his failure to ask for an FBI investigation amounts to a cover-up," Blumenthal said. Blasey Ford ejected any suggestions she had political motivations. "Those who say that do not know me," she said. "I am a fiercely independent person and I am no one's pawn." Kavanaugh has also been accused of exposing himself to a classmate, Deborah Ramirez, during an alcohol-fueled Yale University party a few years later. On Wednesday, a third woman, Julie Swetnick, came forward with explosive allegations, saying she witnessed sexually abusive behavior by Kavanaugh when he was a teenager and claimed she had been drugged and gang-raped at a party he attended in the early 1980s. The hearing has brought back memories of the Senate confirmation process nearly three decades ago for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, who was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill. "Republicans belittled Professor Hill's experience," California Senator Dianne Feinstein said. "She was treated badly." "The entire country is watching how we handle these allegations. "This is not a trial of Dr Ford," Feinstein added. "It's a job interview for Judge Kavanaugh." By PTI MALE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to the swearing-in ceremony of the Maldives' President-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, according to a Maldives media report Thursday. Solih, 56, the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party's candidate, emerged victorious over incumbent President Abdulla Yameen in the election held in September 23. He will be sworn in on November 17. The President-elect had extended the invitation during a phone call by Modi, after Solih's victory in the September 23 presidential elections, spokesperson for Solih, Mariya Ahmed Didi was quoted as saying in 'The Edition'. Modi had also invited Solih to visit India, Mariya said, adding that the president-elect had accepted the invitation. The two leaders agreed to work closely together to further strengthen the close, friendly and good neighbourly relations between the two countries. Maldives is the only SAARC country that Modi has not visited. His visit to the archipelago was cancelled in March 2015 due to the volatile political situation. India's ties with the Maldives came under strain after President Yameen declared Emergency in the country on February 5, following an order by the country's Supreme Court to release a group of Opposition leaders, who had been convicted in widely criticised trials. India had criticised the Yameen government for the imposition of the Emergency and urged it to restore the credibility of the electoral and political process by releasing political prisoners. The Emergency was lifted 45 days later. In July, India expressed concern over announcement of the presidential election without allowing democratic institutions, including Parliament and the judiciary, to work in a free and transparent manner. By AFP LONDON: Britain's Boris Johnson on Friday unveiled his vision for Brexit as he urged Prime Minister Theresa May to pursue a "Super Canada" trade deal, sparking renewed infighting among ruling Conservatives ahead of their annual party conference. The former foreign secretary, who resigned from the government in July over the issue, described May's current proposals for the future relationship with the EU as a "moral and intellectual humiliation". Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Johnson outlined a six-point alternative plan, that would scrap a backstop agreement struck with the European Union last December on the contentious Irish border. He argued that adopting technology and making customs checks away from the frontier would prevent a return to a hard border -- a sticking point in negotiations and a key factor in May's proposal. The ardent Brexiteer called for Britain and the EU instead to negotiate a free trade agreement -- dubbed "Super Canada" -- mirroring the deal the bloc signed with Ottawa in 2016. It removed the vast majority of customs duties on exports crossing the Atlantic. He conceded that negotiating such an agreement, which would aim for mutual recognition of standards to keep goods moving and also include services, may require extending any Brexit transition period beyond 2020. "This is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and (to) do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit," Johnson wrote in the 4,500-word article. "We have the chance to get it right, and I am afraid that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail." His intervention ahead of the Conservative Party conference -- where he will address a fringe event on Tuesday -- prompted immediate Tory division. "Shame he didn't research the link between agreeing a solution that keeps the Irish border frictionless and the chances of agreeing withdrawal terms," former cabinet minister Nicky Morgan wrote on Twitter. "Or does he just not care?" In contrast, eurosceptic MP Bernard Jenkin called the plan "powerful" while Brexiteer colleague Nadine Dorries called Johnson "a man with a plan". The blueprint will increase pressure on embattled leader May as her divided party's gathering starts Sunday under the shadow of Brexit. She has proposed Britain follow EU rules in trade in goods after Brexit, to protect manufacturing supply lines and avoid the hard border between Northern Ireland, a British province, and EU member Ireland. The plan, forged in July at May's country retreat Chequers, has faced strong opposition in her Conservative party and criticism in Brussels, but she has repeatedly vowed to stick with it. Johnson reiterated Friday the proposal was a "democratic disaster" that would "cheat the electorate" and leave Britain "half in, half out" of Europe. Britain is set to leave the EU next March, with both sides agreeing that a provisional divorce deal, comprising assurances on the Irish border among other things, must be reached by mid-November. By PTI THE HAGUE: Dutch investigators said Friday they found a large quantity of bomb-making materials including fertiliser likely to be used in a car bomb following the arrest of seven terror suspects. The seven were seized Thursday in the cities of Arnhem and Weert by elite Dutch anti-terror units and are suspected of wanting to carry out a "major" attack in the country. The suspects briefly appeared for the first time in the Rotterdam District court on Friday on terror-related charges, where their case was remanded until next week. The men, who range from 21 to 34 years, were not named and will remain under maximum security conditions -- which means they are only allowed to talk to their lawyers. During Thursday's search "police confiscated a substantial amount of raw materials to make bombs at the suspects' homes," the Dutch public prosecution service said Friday. ALSO READ | Uproar over Dutch plan to ask race, religion of gun owners Officers also found "100 kilogrammes of fertiliser, possibly for use in a car bomb," the prosecutors added in a statement. Officers had previously placed a group of people under surveillance, including a 34-year-old Dutch man of Iraqi origin who was convicted in 2017 of attempting to reach territory controlled by the jihadist Islamic State group. The suspects came from Arnhem, the port city of Rotterdam and villages close to those two cities. Two others in the group also had convictions related to attempts to travel to Iraq or Syria. The men are suspected of wanting to attack civilians at a major event in the Netherlands, the Dutch secret service (AIVD) said, but a possible target was not named. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte during his weekly press conference told journalists "a drama has been prevented in our country". "These arrests show how important it is to remain vigilant," Rutte said, adding it meant the chances of a terror attack in the Netherlands "remained a reality". The Netherlands has been largely spared the kind of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years, but there has been a series of recent scares. Thursday's arrests came three months after two men were arrested in Rotterdam on suspicion of preparing attacks in France and the Netherlands. The arrests also come a month after a 19-year-old Afghan with a German residence permit stabbed and injured two American tourists at Amsterdam's busy Central Station before being shot and wounded. The likelihood of a terror attack in the Netherlands "remained substantial", the Dutch anti-terror agency NCTV said last week, with terror threat levels remaining at level four out of five. By AFP HARARE: A Zimbabwean teacher who came out as gay quit his job after receiving death threats, sparking an online petition supporting him which had received 1,500 signatures by Friday. Neal Hovelmeier, who taught for 15 years at St John's College, a posh Harare school, came out to students last week, hoping it would help curb homophobia at the school. Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe. Hovelmeier's decision came after the school authorities encouraged him to do so following news that a local newspaper was planning to out him. In a letter sent to parents on Thursday, Hovelmeier said he understood that the announcement "has caused grievous and deep concern to a section of our community." ALSO READ | Section 377 verdict: Supreme Court legalises homosexuality in India He said he had "no idea of the force of anger and resentment such a declaration would make" but added he respected people with strong views based on custom, tradition and religion. "I have been in receipt of death threats as well as threats of physical danger to myself and my pets," he revealed in the two-page letter. He said he had been told that a legal challenge was being launched to remove him from the school. "For my own sense of integrity, I will not submit myself to a sham trial or investigation ...It is for this reason, and with a very heavy heart, that I have come to realise that my current position as deputy headmaster is now untenable and I hereby tender my resignation with immediate effect". The school, which last week came out in support of the teacher, refused comment. Former Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe was known for his crusades against homosexuality and in 2010 he called gays "worse than pigs and dogs" and "wayward". An online petition in support of Hovelmeier was launched on Thursday and by Friday afternoon it had attracted over 1,500 signatures. "Lets get Mr Hov back where he belongs and as a Zimbabwean community make the change that desperately needs to happen. #weacceptyou," it said. Discrimination against homosexuality is widespread across the African continent. By AFP BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she and the leaders of Turkey, Russia and France planned to hold a summit next month on the situation in war-ravaged Syria. "We are in favour of a four-way meeting with the presidents of Turkey, Russia and France and myself because the situation (in Syria) is still fragile," Merkel told reporters after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We aim to do this in the month of October." Merkel said the talks were particularly urgent in light of the fraught situation in Syria's rebel-held province of Idlib. Turkey has backed rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but since late 2016 has been working increasingly closely with Iran and Russia to bring an end to the Syrian conflict. Russia and Turkey agreed during a summit meeting in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on September 17 to set up a buffer zone in Idlib aimed at preventing a military assault. Syria, which has received vital military support from Russia and Iran, had said that it planned to seize Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the seven-year war. The Russia-Turkey deal was agreed following warnings that an all-out military offensive would trigger a bloodbath in the province of three million people. Erdogan had previously indicated that he planned to host a summit to discuss Syria on September 7 in Istanbul with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and Merkel but the meeting never came together. Merkel praised Turkey's "outstanding" work in hosting more than three million Syrian refugees. Germany has taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrian asylum seekers -- a policy that has proved deeply divisive within Merkel's own government. Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisenas remarks that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam planned to attack Colombo with a plane flying out of Chennai, India in 2009, should be seen in the context of UN investigation of human rights abuse by the army during the war against the LTTE, which ended in May that year with the killing of its leader V. Prabhakaran. In his address to the UN General Assembly Thursday, Siresena, who was acting defence minister during the last phase of the war, said that most leaders had fled the country in view of reports of a possible air raid by the cornered LTTE. No one knew it better than me. The Tamil Tigers were going to operate an aircraft from Chennai or some other jungle area to bomb and destroy targets in Colombo, Sirisena said. I was the acting defence minister. All the others had fled because they feared air attacks. Even I did not stay in Colombo. I was at several locations outside Colombo in case the Tigers attacked the capital city. In Feb 2009, the LTTE did attempt a suicide air raid on Colombo with two aircraft which took off from a road in rebel-held territory of Mullaithivu District. While one was shot as it was circling over Colombo harbour, and crashed into high rise killing two and injuring 50, the other was shot down while trying to escape the anti-aircraft barrage near Bandaranaike International Airport. After the LTTE was crushed in a massive military operation later that year, international organizations including the UN, raised concerns over atrocities committed by the Army. In a press conference at UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva earlier this week, senior members of the World Sri Lankan Association said, The three-decade-long battle between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE, one of the most brutal terrorist organisations that the world has ever seen, came to an end on 19 May 2009. Immediately thereafter, a number of Western countries, sympathetic to the LTTEs cause for reasons known only to them, began a campaign against Sri Lanka. After several attempts to take action against Sri Lanka, UNHRC requested the High Commissioner to undertake a comprehensive investigation into serious violations of human rights and related crimes allegedly committed between February 2002 and November 2011, in Sri Lanka, a member said. Siresenas reference to the attack by the LTTE in his UNGA speech is obviously aimed at reminding the world that it was a terrorist outfit, said an Indian official. Domestically, there is growing perception that the UN had equated the atrocities of the LTTE, a terrorist outfit, with the Sri Lankan Army, he said. In his speech Thursday, Siresena stressed that his country was an independent sovereign state. To continue the process of reconciliation, we dont want any foreign power to influence us. As Sri Lankans, we will find solutions to our problems, we simply need room to resolve them and the UN support, he said. By Associated Press SKOPJE: Macedonians have had a country to call their own for less than three decades. Now, the citizens of one of Europe's youngest countries are being asked to weigh matters of national identity and national interest as they decide a fundamental question: what their homeland will be called. A referendum set for Sunday in Macedonia seeks voter support for changing the Balkan nation's name to North Macedonia. Greece has agreed to drop longstanding objections to neighbouring Macedonia joining NATO and eventually becoming a member of the European Union if the new name is approved. The proposed "North" prefix might seem minor, but it touches a nerve in the former Yugoslav republic that declared independence in 1991, and in Greece, which has a province named Macedonia that was the birthplace of the ancient warrior-king Alexander the Great. European Union's enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn, left, shakes hands with Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, during their meeting in Skopje, Macedonia, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (Photo | AP) After decades of tortuous and fruitless negotiations between Athens and Skopje, Macedonia's prime minister agreed to the change to North Macedonia. In return, the prime minister of Greece said his country would stop blocking Macedonia from pursuing NATO membership. The referendum asks Macedonian voters: "Are you in favour of membership in the European Union and NATO by accepting the deal between (the) Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Greece?" The agreement has met fierce opposition in both countries, with critics accusing their respective governments of conceding too much. Some Greeks remain suspicious that Macedonia harbours territorial and historical claims to Macedonia province. Macedonian opponents see changing their country's name as a national humiliation. Opinion polls nonetheless have indicated a likely win for the "yes" vote, although it is unclear if voter turnout will reach the 50-per cent threshold required for the result to be valid. But even if turnout is below the required 50 per cent, if most of the people vote "yes" it will give parliament and the government a mandate to proceed. Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, center , takes a part in a march holding a banner that reads "Come out for European Macedonia", in downtown Skopje, Macedonia, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018. Thousands of people marched in downtown of capital Skopje Sunday to support a forthcoming key referendum on changing Macedonias name that could clear the way for the country to join NATO. (Photo | AP) If voters back the deal on Sunday, Macedonia will then have to amend its constitution. The final step for NATO admission is ratification of the June deal by Greece's parliament, which is expected to vote only after Macedonia completes all necessary procedures. The West has taken a keen interest in the referendum. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were among the Western officials who visited Macedonia in recent weeks to urge voters to mark "yes" on their ballots. Russia is against NATO picking up another member in a part of Europe that was within its sphere of influence for decades. Mattis has said there was "no doubt" Moscow funded groups inside Macedonia to campaign against the name change. Supporters of the deal, led by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, say it will create prosperity by bringing the small, landlocked Balkan country into the fold of international institutions. The decision is between "integration and isolation," Zaev said during a recent campaign rally. "There is no other alternative for the Republic of Macedonia than integration into NATO and the EU." But President Gjorge Ivanov has said he won't vote in the referendum and encouraged other voters to do the same a move seen as a call for a boycott. Ivanov, a conservative, said at the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Thursday that the proposed name change Zaev negotiated would be a "flagrant violation of sovereignty." More than 70 small political parties and civic associations campaigned against the deal under the umbrella of a coalition called Macedonia is Boycotting. The country's conservative opposition stopped short of asking voters to stay home. "On Sunday, this generation is confronted with the choice of succumbing to the historical challenge, falling on its knees, folding its spine and giving up its own identity," Igor Janusev, a leading member of Macedonia's main opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, said in a statement. "Or to continue to fight and proudly transmit to future generations an example of how to keep what is yours." For retired economist Ljiljana Dimitrieva, the referendum presents a tough choice. "Even with bitterness in my heart there is no reason to ask someone to change their name I'll vote 'yes' because of the future for all our children, for their opportunities," the 79-year-old Skopje resident said. "We have no other alternative." Others see it differently. Homemaker Marina Stevcevksa, 55, said she doesn't intend to cast her ballot despite wanting Macedonia to join NATO and the EU. "I've decided to boycott," Stevcevksa said. "I want Macedonia to be in NATO and EU, but I don't want everything which has an adjective 'Macedonian' to disappear." Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up about a quarter of the country's population of roughly 2 million, is expected to play a crucial role in the referendum's outcome. Members of the minority fought an armed insurgency against the government for greater rights in 2001. With a much looser emotional connection to the name Macedonia, ethnic Albanian voters are expected to back the name deal. "They will vote for NATO, they will vote for European Union. They will vote for the future. They will vote for peace, stability and security," said Ali Ahmeti, head of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian DUI party. "I think there is no Plan B, and I don't want to think about Plan B because I don't want to return to the past. The past is painful and it should not be repeated." By AFP WASHINGTON: The US Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday gave its backing to Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's embattled pick for the Supreme Court, one day after he fought off allegations of sexual assault at a dramatic day-long hearing that riveted the nation. The panel split along strict party lines with the 11 Republican members backing Kavanaugh and all 10 Democrats voting against the president's controversial nominee -- whose lifelong appointment would tilt the top court decisively to the right. In an 11th-hour move, however, Arizona Republican Jeff Flake asked for a delay of up to a week before Kavanaugh's nomination is put to a vote in the full Senate to allow for an FBI probe into the allegations against him. Christine Blasey Ford is embraced by her attorney Debra Katz, left, as the hearing ends before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 in Washington. (Photo | AP) "This country's being ripped apart," said Flake, a vocal critic of the president who is not seeking re-election. "And we have to ensure that we do due diligence here." The committee vote took place under extraordinarily tense circumstances, with America's political polarization on full display on Capitol Hill as Kavanaugh's supporters and opponents squared off in hearing rooms and protest-filled hallways. It came a day after Kavanaugh furiously refuted the testimony of 51-year-old university professor Christine Blasey Ford, who told a packed hearing room he sexually assaulted her 36 years ago, in marathon hearing stretching over nine hours. ALSO READ | Christine Blasey Ford describes memory of Kavanaugh laughing while she was underneath him The emotional, duelling accounts sent Republican and Democratic senators into a full uproar of insults and festering recriminations. President Trump whole-heartedly reaffirmed support for Kavanaugh to join the nation's top bench after the hearing, and in moving ahead on Kavanaugh's nomination, Republicans rejected calls to further investigate the assault claims. Asked on Friday whether he had considered looking for a new Supreme Court candidate, Trump told reporters: "Not even a little bit." "I just want it to work out well for the country," he added, when asked about the acrimonious fallout from the previous day's hearing. Sen. Jeff Flake, R- Ariz., right, walks out at the end of the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Friday, Aug. 28, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo | AP) All eyes will now be on Flake, as well as two key Republican women, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, to see if they break ranks in the full Senate vote, with Republicans holding a slim 51-49 majority. Protestors swarmed the halls of the Capitol and chanted outside the Supreme Court ahead of the panel vote, saying support for Kavanaugh sent a message to women to not go public with their allegations of rape and sexual abuse. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., circles the names of friends of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on a depiction of his high school calendar as he speaks at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo | AP) After Thursday's hearing, the nation's leading legal organization, the American Bar Association -- which initially endorsed Kavanaugh -- called for the vote to be postponed until an FBI investigation could be carried out. But the Senate committee of 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats plowed ahead, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted the full Senate would hold a confirmation vote "in the coming days." "There is simply no reason to deny Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court on the basis of evidence presented to us," Grassley said. Surreal Democrats expressed outrage and some walked out of the committee meeting earlier Friday after Republicans unanimously backed taking a vote. "It's almost surreal," veteran Democrat Patrick Leahy told colleagues, saying the Senate was "no longer an independent branch of government." ALSO READ | Brett Kavanaugh denies sex assault after Blasey Ford testifies Female Democratic members of the House of Representatives stood in the back of the room in protest, while demonstrators in the hallways chanted "November is coming!" -- a reference to the upcoming midterm congressional elections. Several were arrested. Flake was earlier confronted by irate women who said they were victims of sexual assault. "Don't look away from me! Look at me and tell me that it doesn't matter what happened to me, that you'll let people like that go to the highest court on the land," one weeping woman told an uncomfortable Flake. BREAKING: Trump says he found Kavanaugh accuser's testimony `very compelling,' but says no consideration of replacing nominee. The Associated Press (@AP) September 28, 2018 Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy, who had been a swing vote on a court now divided between four conservative and four liberal justices. Two Republicans would need to defect, with all Democrats voting in opposition, in order to sink Kavanaugh in the full Senate vote. Unequivocal denial A defiant Kavanaugh came out with guns blazing on Thursday, insisting the assault never happened, accusing Democrats of destroying his reputation and condemning his confirmation battle as a "national disgrace." "I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation by Dr Ford," Kavanaugh said, his voice shaking with anger as he fought back tears. "I've never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever." In addition to Blasey Ford, two other women have come forward with allegations of assault against Kavanaugh, against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement. As Thursday's marathon hearing wrapped up, Trump weighed in to stand by his man. Demonstrators shout anti-Kavanaugh slogans in Los Angeles on September 28, 2018. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday approved Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's pick for the US Supreme Court, one day after he fought off allegations of sexual assault at an emotional day-long public hearing. But in a dramatic last-minute move, Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona asked for a delay of up to a week before the full vote takes place to allow for an FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh. (Photo | AFP) "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him," he tweeted, minutes after the hearing adjourned. During four hours of emotionally intense testimony, Blasey Ford said she was "100 percent" certain that Kavanaugh was the person who assaulted her at a high school party in suburban Maryland in 1982. She said a drunken Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, pushed her into a bedroom, that Kavanaugh pinned her down and muffled her cries as he tried to pull off her clothes. Democrats have pleaded with Grassley to subpoena Judge to appear before the committee to answer their questions, but the chairman has refused. By Associated Press GAZA CITY: Israeli troops killed six Palestinians, two of them children, and wounded dozens more in the deadliest day in recent weeks as Gaza's Hamas rulers stepped up protests along the border fence on Friday. Thousands of Palestinians gathered at five locations along Gaza Strip's frontier with Israel in response to calls by Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza since seizing it from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Two of the dead were children, aged 12 and 14, the Gaza Health Ministry said, adding that all six sustained gunshot wounds to their upper torso. At least 90 other protesters were wounded by live fire. Hamas has led weekly protests since March, but accelerated them in recent weeks to near daily events, pressing in large part for an end to a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza in 2007. Hamas ousted forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an armed coup. At the fence, protesters burned dozens of tires, using the thick black smoke as a screen to throw rocks and explosives toward Israeli troops stationed on the opposite side of the fence. The soldiers responded with tear gas and gunfire. The Israeli military said in a statement that in response to "grenades and explosive devices" hurled at troops during the protests, Israeli aircraft carried out two airstrikes on Hamas militant positions in the Gaza Strip. There were no Israeli casualties reported in Friday's clashes. Palestinian protesters run for cover from teargas fired by Israeli troops during a protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Friday, Sept.28, 2018. (Photo | AP) Palestinian protesters protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Friday, Sept.28, 2018. (Photo | AP) Hamas and Israel came to the brink of serious conflict this summer as violence escalated along the border. The two sides attempted to reach an agreement through indirect talks mediated by the United Nations and Egypt to ease tensions in exchange for lifting some restrictions on the economically crippled enclave. But those negotiations have stalled in recent weeks. Earlier this week, a Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the movement would escalate its border protests after the talks failed. He accused Abbas, who governs parts of the West Bank, of disrupting the negotiations. Hamas vowed to continue the marches until the blockade is lifted. It also promised to accelerate protests after Abbas, speaking at the U.N. on Thursday, threatened more measures to force Hamas into surrendering power. Abbas slashed funding to Gaza and cut salaries of Palestinian Authority employees there to pressure Hamas, making it increasingly difficult for it to govern. Hamas fears Abbas may further reduce funding to health care and other services for Gazans provided by the Palestinian Authority. Hundreds of Hamas supporters marched in anti-Abbas protests late Thursday, burning his posters after his speech at the U.N. By Associated Press WASHINGTON: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gained the support of a key Republican senator Friday, virtually ensuring his nomination will advance to the full Senate a day after he adamantly denied sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford, who insisted she's "100 percent" certain he did. Moments before the panel convened, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a member of the committee, announced he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh, who he said was entitled to the "presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence." What Happened: Top takeaways from Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Blasey Ford hearing "While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senate's advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the Constitution's provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well," Flake said. "I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh." Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo | AP) The committee scheduled an afternoon vote on whether to recommend Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate. After the vote was scheduled, several Democratic members of the panel walked out. Meanwhile, there were signs the remarkable testimony before the panel in which Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ford calmly recounted the moment in which she says he attacked her had registered negatively with two organizations whose support Kavanaugh had earlier received. The American Bar Association, which previously gave Kavanaugh its highest rating of "well qualified," asked senators to delay all votes on him until the FBI can do a full background check on the assault claims something President Donald Trump has refused to order. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said to reporters Friday that Kavanaugh has already "been through six separate background investigations by the FBI." Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and "should be withdrawn." Also Read: Brett Kavanaugh was once key questioner in Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky case "If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a woman's report of an assault," the America magazine editors wrote. "Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country." Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Roman Catholic faith and his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgetown Prep school in Maryland. Meanwhile, former President George W. Bush has been advocating for Kavanaugh with wavering senators in recent days, according to a person familiar with Bush's outreach who wasn't authorized to speak publicly. The White House said it was also engaging with wavering GOP senators but provided few details. Trump is publicly standing by his nominee. "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," he tweeted late Thursday. "The Senate must vote!" Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2018 Thursday's testimony appeared to have only sharpened the partisan divide over Trump's nominee. Republicans praised Ford's bravery in coming forward, but many of them said her account won't affect their support for Kavanaugh. At the daylong session Thursday, Ford and Kavanaugh both said the event and the public controversy that has erupted 36 years later had altered their lives forever and for the worse perhaps the only thing they agreed on during a long day of testimony that was a study in contrasts of tone as well as substance. Christine Blasey Ford speaks during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo | AP) Telling her story in person for the first time, Ford, a California psychology professor, quietly told the nation and the Senate Judiciary Committee her long-held secret of the alleged assault in locked room at a gathering of friends when she was just 15. The memory and Kavanaugh's laughter during the act was "locked" in her brain, she said: "100 percent." Hours later, Kavanaugh angrily denied it, alternating a loud, defiant tone with near tears as he addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee. "You have replaced 'advice and consent' with 'search and destroy," he said, referring to the Constitution's charge to senators' duties in confirming high officials. Trump's tweet later used the same "search and destroy" language. Repeatedly Democrats asked Kavanaugh to call for an FBI investigation into the claims. He did not. "I welcome whatever the committee wants to do," he said. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has repeatedly declined as well. Republicans are reluctant for several reasons, including the likelihood that further investigations could push a vote past the November elections that may switch Senate control back to the Democrats and make consideration of any Trump nominee more difficult. ALSO READ | Brett Kavanaugh was once key questioner in Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky case Across more than 10 hours, the senators heard from only the two witnesses. Ford delivered her testimony with steady, deliberate certitude. She admitted gaps in her memory as she choked back tears and said she "believed he was going to rape me." Kavanaugh entered the hearing room fuming and ready to fight, as he angrily denied the charges from Ford and other women accusing him of misconduct, barked back at senators and dismissed some questions with a flippant "whatever." "You may defeat me in the final vote, but you'll never get me to quit, never," he said. Trump nominated the conservative jurist in what was supposed to be an election year capstone to the GOP agenda, locking in the court's majority for years to come. Instead the nomination that Republicans were rushing for a vote now hangs precariously after one of the most emotionally charged hearings Capitol Hill has ever seen. Coming amid a national reckoning over sexual misconduct at the top of powerful institutions, it exposed continued divisions over justice, fairness and who should be believed. And coming weeks before elections, it ensured that debate would play into the fight for control of Congress. Wearing a blue suit as Anita Hill did more two decades ago when she testified about sexual misconduct by Clarence Thomas, Ford described what she says was a harrowing assault in the summer of 1982: How an inebriated Kavanaugh and another teen, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her. She said he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. "I believed he was going to rape me," she testified, referring to Kavanaugh. Judge has said he does not recall the incident and he reiterated that point in a letter to the committee released late Thursday. The panel's Republicans on Friday blocked Democratic efforts to subpoena Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh's who has been described as a witness to the alleged assault on Ford. Grassley read Judge's statement that said: "I do not recall the events described by Dr. Ford in her testimony" and "I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes." An angry Kavanaugh, who testified after Ford on Thursday, declared: "My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed." Kavanaugh, who has two daughters, said one of his girls said they should "pray for the woman" making the allegations against him, referring to Ford. "That's a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old," he said chocking up. "We mean no ill will." The judge repeatedly refused to answer senators' questions about the hard-party atmosphere that has been described from his peer group at Georgetown Prep and Yale, treating them dismissively. "Sometimes I had too many beers," he acknowledged. "I liked beer. I still like beer. But I never drank beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone. " By PTI UNITED NATIONS: Tangled in an escalating trade dispute with the United States, China's top diplomat insisted Friday that his country "will not be blackmailed" or bow to pressure. "Protectionism will only hurt oneself, and unilateral moves will bring damage to all," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders. He spoke in a week when Washington and Beijing both raised tariffs on each other's products, and US President Donald Trump alleged that China is meddling in the upcoming US midterm elections because it opposes his trade policies. China denies the claim, and Wang did not address the issue in his speech. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrives to speak during the General Debate of the 73rd session of the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York on September 28, 2018. (Photo | AFP) "China will not be blackmailed or yield to pressure," Wang said, describing his country's moves as defending not just its own interests but the system of global trade. Noting that China spent more than a decade negotiating its membership in that system, he said his country has fulfilled its promises and is committed to resolving disputes within the framework of the World Trade Organization. "State-to-state relations must be based on credibility, not on willful revocation of commitments," he said. Despite often touting his good personal relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump has criticised China for not opening its markets and says such an approach is unacceptable. Russia, which also has vigorously denied accusations of meddling in US elections, was due to speak later Friday. ALSO READ | China, Russia take their turn at the UN General Assembly China has been asserting itself on the world stage under Xi, though it continually stands by a foreign policy of noninterference in the affairs of other countries. It has long used that policy to rebuke other countries that criticise its record on human rights. The country has come under increased criticism as its global profile has risen and its economic interests and accompanying political clout, have spread from Asia to Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Besides China's clash with the Trump administration, some Africans have protested what they say is an attempted Chinese takeover of their countries. Trump increased tariffs Monday on USD 200 billion of Chinese goods. Beijing responded by imposing penalties on USD 60 billion of American products. That was on top of an earlier duty increase by both sides on USD 50 billion of each other's goods. ALSO READ | US-China ties sour as Xi Jinping, Donald Trump friendship fades The US says China steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology, and that Beijing's plans for state-led development of global competitors in robotics and other technologies violate its market-opening obligations and might erode U.S. industrial leadership. China has accused the Trump administration of bullying. A Chinese official said Tuesday that China cannot hold talks on ending the trade dispute while the US "holds a knife" to Beijing's throat by hiking tariffs. The next day, Trump stunned other members of the Security Council by saying that China was meddling in the midterm elections because it opposes his tough trade policies. When questioned by reporters, Trump said there was "plenty" of evidence but didn't immediately provide details. Instead, he zeroed in on China's efforts to flood the US with ads and statements against Trump's billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods. Beijing was quick to respond, urging Washington to stop slandering China and claiming that the Chinese government does not interfere in other countries' internal affairs. Russia, meanwhile, has been the focus of a special counsel investigation into interference in the 2016 election, a probe that Trump has lambasted as a political "witch hunt. "Russia is expected to use its turn at the podium to promote itself as a counterweight to US influence in areas from the Middle East to Venezuela and the Korean peninsula. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has held a flurry of individual meetings with other countries at the UN this week and vociferously defended Russia's strategies in meetings at the Security Council. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addresses a meeting of the United Nations Security Council during the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (Photo | AP) Syria has been a running theme as Moscow seeks to manage the end of the civil war and ensure a long-term foothold in the region. As a longtime ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russia wants Western aid for financing postwar reconstruction while also maintaining its upper hand in discussions about the country's political future. Lavrov promised wide-ranging Russian aid in a meeting with embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who faces international condemnation, increasing US sanctions and fears of a possible US intervention. ALSO READ | Guatemala opens Israel embassy in Jerusalem after US move Seeking to maintain leverage in discussions on North Korea's denuclearization efforts, Lavrov met with North Korea's foreign minister the same day that Ri Yong Ho met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Lavrov also offered support to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas right after Abbas slammed the U.S.decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Other scheduled General Assembly speakers Friday include the leaders or Malaysia, Germany, Iraq and South Sudan. By AFP SLOVAKIA: Police in Slovakia Friday charged three people with the "premeditated" killing of journalist Jan Kuciak, who had been investigating allegations of high-level corruption involving politicians, the public prosecutor's office said. "In the case of the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, three people have been charged today with premeditated murder and other crimes," spokeswoman Andrea Predajnova told AFP. Kuciak had been investigating alleged links between Italian organised crime and Slovak politicians when he and Kusnirova were murdered at their home last February. The killing raised concerns about media freedom and corruption in the EU member state of 5.4 million people and sparked protests which culminated in the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico in March. Eight suspects were provisionally detained on Thursday. ALSO READ | Journalist murdered in Mexico, ninth of 2018 "After questioning, five people were released and three others were accused of the particularly serious crime of murder, and other crimes," Predajnova said. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. (Photo | AFP) The next step, she said, will be for investigators to seek arrest warrants from the prosecutor. Fico's successor and close ally Peter Pellegrini wrote on Facebook Thursday he was pleased to hear of progress in "the murder of two innocent young people." Prague-based Respekt weekly, quoting a security source, had reported that photos from a US satellite flying over the crime scene at the time of the murder had helped Slovak police piece together the movement of cars and people. Reporter Noelle McGee is a Danville-based reporter at The News-Gazette. Her email is nmcgee@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@n_mcgee). Reporter Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk). Reporter Lyndsay Jones is a reporter covering education at The News-Gazette. Her email is ljones@news-gazette, and you can follow her on Twitter (@__lyndsayjones). One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021 His address at the UN General Assembly has also sent positive signals to the investing community that met with him either at his hotel room in Manhattan or on the sidelines of the general assembly at the UN Headquarters. zbc In the rescission application, Mr Mushangwe argued that his client was not aware of the default judgment until he was served with an election petition in which Mr Mangondo was basing his electoral challenge on alleged intimidation and threats. The victims, among them a one-year-and-three-months-old baby, were killed when the driver of an Inter Cape bus they were travelling in lost control of the vehicle which veered off the road around the Westenburg area along the N1 Road, a few kilometres outside the City of Polokwane. Install the Newser News app in two easy steps: 1. Tap in your navigation bar. 2. Tap to Add to Home Screen. (Newser) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Thursday of keeping a "secret atomic warehouse" just outside its capital, despite the 2015 deal with world powers that was meant to keep it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Hours later, Iran dismissed the allegation. Holding up a poster-board map of an area near Tehran as he spoke at the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu told world leaders that Iranian officials have been keeping up to 300 tons of nuclear equipment and material in a walled, unremarkable-looking property near a rug-cleaning operation, the AP reports. story continues below "You have to ask yourself a question: Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse?" Netanyahu asked. "What Iran hides, Israel will find." Netanyahu didn't specify what the material and equipment was, and it was not immediately clear whether it was a violation of the nuclear deal. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been monitoring Iran's compliance with the agreement, had no immediate comment. In a tweet, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif derided the Israeli presentation as an "arts and craft show" by a country that he said needed to come clean about its own nuclear program. He said there was nothing to the Israeli allegation. (Read more Iranian nuclear program stories.) (Newser) For the first time ever, a strain of hepatitis E that heretofore only affected rats and ferrets has infected a human. The case occurred in Hong Kong, where a 56-year-old man living in public housing contracted the disease, the South China Morning Post reports. It's a "wake-up call," said Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University, during a press conference. "We don't know if in the future there will be a serious outbreak of the rat hepatitis E virus in Hong Kong. We need to closely monitor this issue." Now health officials are calling for stepped-up rodent control, and that means cleaning up the streets and alleys which, per Yuen, "are very dirty with lots of rubbish. You can see rats that are bigger than cats." He said that public cleanliness improved after the Sars outbreak in 2003, but has since gone downhill again. story continues below Doctors say the patient who contracted the so-called rat hepatitis is now cured, CNN reports. He had the disease after having a liver transplant last year. Still showing signs of abnormal liver functiondoctors had ruled out infection from blood or liver donorsthe man was tested for the human form of hepatitis E. Those tests were negative, prompting doctors to perform genetic sequencing of the virus, leading to the determination that it was the form of hepatitis that is present in rats. Researchers think the man may have been infected after eating food contaminated with rat droppings or by possibly being bitten by a rat. The rat hepatitis E virus, discovered in Germany in 2010, has been found in rodents throughout the world, including the US, per the New York Times. (Read more Hong Kong stories.) (Newser) Republicans say they're going ahead with a Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Brett Kavanaugh on Fridaybut the American Bar Association thinks they should wait. In a letter released late Thursday, the ABA, which previously declared the nominee "well-qualified" for the court, said the process should be halted until the FBI investigates Christine Blasey Ford's allegations of sexual assault, CNN reports. "Deciding to proceed without conducting additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senate's reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court," organization president Robert Carlson wrote. In other coverage: Thursday's emotional hearing appears to have only deepened the partisan divide over Kavanaugh, the AP reports. Sen. Jeff Flake is the only GOP vote in doubt on the Judiciary Committee, which is split 11-10 between Republicans and Democrats, but Republicans could still bring the nomination to a full Senate vote by Tuesday if the panel deadlocks. story continues below Vox looks at the eight senatorsthree Republicans and five red-state Democratswhose votes will make or break Kavanaugh's confirmation vote. Three of the Democrats voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch last year. Politico looks at Thursday's hearing and decides the GOP's hiring of Rachel Mitchell to question Ford was a "blunder." She was "pushed to the sidelines" as soon as Kavanaugh began testifying, and wasn't heard from again after Sen. Lindsey Graham's rant against Democratic tactics. In its list of takeaways from the hearing, the New York Times describes Ford's testimony as "raw and gripping" and Kavanaugh's as "aggressive, tearful, and partisan." The San Francisco Chronicle looks at a photo of women crying and scowling behind Kavanaugh during the hearing that has gone viralbut isn't what some of Kavanaugh's critics think it is. There's still plenty of time for Ford's allegations to be investigated, because deadlines have been "artificially imposed by the Republican majority for purely partisan reasons," the Washington Post editorial board writes. "It would be irresponsible for Republicans to insist on an immediate vote. If they do, the responsible vote must be no." The Wall Street Journal editorial board says it's time to confirm Kavanaugh, calling Thursday's hearing an "embarrassment that should never have happened." Rejecting Kavanaugh, they write, "will turn Supreme Court nominations over to the justice of the social-media mob and the politics of accusation." (Read more Brett Kavanaugh stories.) (Newser) After Thursday's high drama, the Senate Judiciary Committee looks poised to advance Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate. The vote is scheduled for 1:30pm Eastern, reports NPR. Going into the day, the main suspense had been whether Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona would side with Democrats in voting against Kavanaugh, but he announced his support for President Trump's pick before the panel convened, reports the Washington Post. I wish that I could express the confidence that some of my colleagues have conveyed about what either did or did not happen in the early 1980s," said Flake in a statement. What I do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence." story continues below Several Democrats walked out of the panel's meeting Friday morning, reports the AP, though top Democrat Dianne Feinstein was among those who stayed. Assuming the committee OKs Kavanaugh's nomination later in the afternoon, it would move on to the full Senate, with a final vote possible as early as Tuesday, reports the AP. Kavanaugh's prospects there remain uncertain, with key moderate Republicans such as Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski undecided, notes Politico. Another senator to watch is Democrat Joe Manchin, up for re-election in red-state West Virginia. (Read more Brett Kavanaugh stories.) (Newser) The SEC's decision to sue Elon Musk and seek his ouster as chairman of Tesla came after Musk pulled out of settlement talks at the last minute, reports CNBC. Under the deal, Musk would have paid a fine but admitted no wrongdoing in regard to his infamous tweet in August about having secured funding to take Tesla private. However, Musk would have been barred from acting as chairman for two years, and CNBC's David Faber reports that Musk couldn't live with that "blemish" on his record. Instead, he will fight what he sees as an "unjustified" action. Related developments: Investors rattled: Tesla shares were down 13% Friday morning, reports Business Insider. It notes that Musk's August tweet suggested going private at $420 a share, but it's possible the stock could close around $250 on Friday. Tesla shares were down 13% Friday morning, reports Business Insider. It notes that Musk's August tweet suggested going private at $420 a share, but it's possible the stock could close around $250 on Friday. Real danger: A Wall Street Journal story suggests the news poses a threat to the very survival of the company. For one thing, Tesla has no succession plan in place. If investors lose confidence amid the chaos, the company might not be able to raise money it needs to operate. And if customers lose confidence, Tesla could face a rash of devastating cancellations. More so than a lot of companies, "Tesla requires positive news flow around the future of the company," as one financial analyst puts it. A Wall Street Journal story suggests the news poses a threat to the very survival of the company. For one thing, Tesla has no succession plan in place. If investors lose confidence amid the chaos, the company might not be able to raise money it needs to operate. And if customers lose confidence, Tesla could face a rash of devastating cancellations. More so than a lot of companies, "Tesla requires positive news flow around the future of the company," as one financial analyst puts it. Criminal case? The SEC complaint is a "road map to criminal charges," says New York Times reporter Jim Stewart in a CNBC interview. The complaint, he says, "talks about the [short sellers] and the implied motive that he wanted to punish the shorts, which would be a manipulation." Also, the feds could ban Musk from acting as CEO not just of Tesla but of any public company, notes the Times, calling it "one of the most serious remedies the SEC can impose against a corporate executive." story continues below No upside: Citigroup downgraded Tesla stock from neutral to sell, with a note worrying about a no-win situation. "There's little question that Mr. Musk's departure would likely cause harm to Tesla's brand, stakeholder confidence, and fundraising," it reads, per CNBC. But "if Mr. Musk ends up staying on, the reputational harm from this might still prevent the stock from immediately returning to 'normal.'" Citigroup downgraded Tesla stock from neutral to sell, with a note worrying about a no-win situation. "There's little question that Mr. Musk's departure would likely cause harm to Tesla's brand, stakeholder confidence, and fundraising," it reads, per CNBC. But "if Mr. Musk ends up staying on, the reputational harm from this might still prevent the stock from immediately returning to 'normal.'" A voice, regardless: If Musk's worst-case scenario arrives and he's ousted as chairman or barred from an officer position, the Journal notes that he still owns 20% of Tesla and will continue to have a big say in the company's vision. If Musk's worst-case scenario arrives and he's ousted as chairman or barred from an officer position, the Journal notes that he still owns 20% of Tesla and will continue to have a big say in the company's vision. The charges: The SEC accuses Musk of lying to investors when he boasted about having funding lined up to go private. "This statement was false and misleading. Over the next three hours, Musk made a series of additional materially false and misleading statements via Twitter." Read the lawsuit in full here. For the record, Musk is charged under Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act, used to go after "inside traders and market manipulators," per CNN. The SEC accuses Musk of lying to investors when he boasted about having funding lined up to go private. "This statement was false and misleading. Over the next three hours, Musk made a series of additional materially false and misleading statements via Twitter." Read the lawsuit in full here. For the record, Musk is charged under Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act, used to go after "inside traders and market manipulators," per CNN. Now what? Cases like these are typically resolved via settlement, though Musk's rejection of the initial offer makes things murky. It could take weeks, even months, to play out if no deal is reached. Cases like these are typically resolved via settlement, though Musk's rejection of the initial offer makes things murky. It could take weeks, even months, to play out if no deal is reached. Harsh view: "The bottom line is that Musk, one of America's most visionary corporate leaders, didn't just make an unforced error," writes Dan Primack at Axios. "He compounded it both at the time, by not simply retracting his initial tweet, and then yesterday by throwing his racket at the umpires." (Read more Tesla stories.) (Newser) Jeff Flake made big headlines Friday morning when he announced he would vote in favor of Brett Kavanaugh, making it all but certain the judge will be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. But the Republican senator from Arizona quickly learned that his decision had angered those who oppose Kavanaugh. A CNN camera captured the scene as two women confronted Kavanaugh in an elevator as he tried to make his way to a meeting of the committee. What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court, one woman told him. This is horrible. You have children in your family. Think about them. See the video here. story continues below The other woman, who said she was a survivor of sexual abuse, then interjected: Youre telling all women that they dont matterthat they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them, youre going to ignore them, she said, reports the Washington Post. Flake didn't engage, saying, "Thank you," and explaining he needed to get to his meeting. Look at me when Im talking to you!" said the woman, identified at USA Today as Ana Maria Archila, co-executive of the liberal advocacy group the Center for Popular Democracy. "Youre telling me that my assault doesnt matter, that what happened to me doesnt matter and that youre going to let people who do these things into power! Thats what youre telling me when you vote for him!" (Read more Jeff Flake stories.) (Newser) A mob of some 100 people in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo on Thursday burned a detective alive and severely beat three other men over rumors that they were kidnappers planning to abduct children, the AP reports. Authorities say they will bring members of the mob to justice, likely with the help of recordings of the attack, which happened in the town of Metepec. "Let it be clear, inciting or promoting these kinds of acts is a crime," the prosecutors' office said. Such vigilante attacks are hardly rare in Mexico. For instance, at least four people were killed by mobs in a single week in late August, Fox reports, including two men who were burned to death and a man and a woman who were beaten and burned. story continues below The violence is often spurred by false rumors on social media and WhatsApp that child snatchers, or robachicos, are in an area, the Los Angeles Times reports. In one instance, a man and his nephew were in a village to buy fencing material when a mob attacked, abducted, and ultimately burned them to death. "It was like a great spell had overtaken the people," one witness tells the Times. In another episode, per the AP, a mob near Mexico City beat and burned two federal agents who were investigating a case. In yet another, two young men were beaten to death while conducting a commercial survey on tortilla consumption. Police have reportedly cautioned people not to believe the rumors they read on social media. (Read more Mexico stories.) New York : Bahrain is working constantly in accordance with a comprehensive system to upgrade the quality of its health and medical sector through various initiatives, affirmed HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister, yesterday. Several steps have been taken in this direction, HRH the Prime told the United Nations General Assembly on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD), which includes the approval of the National Health Plan for the years 2016-2025 to promote healthy lifestyles in the society. These remarks were made at the UN Council by Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al Mutawa, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, who addressed the third high-level meeting of the UN Assembly on behalf of the Prime Minister in New York. He said that Bahrain has succeeded in achieving all the health-related Millennium Development Goals after agreeing to the new global plan entitled Transforming Our World: the 2030 Sustainable Development Plan which consists of 17 targets and 169 targets. The National Health Plan, HRH PM said, aims to achieve quality health services and ensures their financing and sustainability. His Royal Highness further affirmed that the Kingdom is keen to combine all efforts and integrate them into a unified plan. The plan promotes preventive and curative aspects of healthcare, strengthen research as well as community participation to prevent and reduce the infection rate. We in the Kingdom of Bahrain support all global efforts in the fight against various diseases. We reaffirm our commitment to the implementation of the World Declaration on the Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, said HRH the Prime Minister. The Premier also called on the international community to join hands to eliminate various diseases and develop strategies and operational plans to work towards the implementation of the sustainable development goals in this regard. Manama : The High Criminal Court yesterday convicted three for establishing and funding the activities of a terrorist group in the Kingdom, Terror Crime Prosecution Chief, Mishal Al Mannae said. The trio was sentenced for joining terrorist organisation February 14 Coalition between 2015 and 2018. The court also ordered the revocation of their citizenship. The first defendant was given a life term and a BD100,000 fine, while the second and third defendants were awarded fifteen years each and a BD100,000 fine. According to court files, the first defendant was the local leader of the February 14 Coalition designated as a terrorist organisation by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt. He reportedly spearheaded illegal demonstrations and riots in the Sar village, while carrying the terrorist organisations flag. In 2015, he, however, managed to flee to Iran by the sea and oversaw activities from there in coordination with other leaders living outside the Kingdom. Investigators found that he was also instrumental in recruiting local members as well as financing their activities. He also succeeded in recruiting the second and third defendants. He communicated with me through WhatsApp and Snapchat. One day he asked me to go to the Al Montazer yard to receive money. I went there and collected the amount. After a few days, he asked me to transfer that money to the Imam Ali Mosque in Sar. After five days, he again requested me to collect an envelope containing BD4000 from the same place, the third defendant told prosecutors. On the next day, the second defendant came to me and took the money. I realised that he was a member of the coalition too, he added. Meanwhile, third defendant continued receiving money and was distributing them to others. In September 2017, I was asked to receive BD7500 from the same mosque. I was asked to put it into envelopes and hand them over to other members. Communication was through Telegram app. I was also asked to snap pictures of locations and send them to him, he told prosecutors. Manama : The Kingdom of Bahrain has won an outstanding United Nations award yesterday in recognition of its outstanding contribution to achieving sustainable development goals related to non-communicable diseases. Selecting the Ministry of Health to receive the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force Award, the UN also praised the great efforts and successive achievements of the Kingdom to attain the best health standards in disease prevention and the health of citizens and residents. The award was received yesterday at the United Nations in New York by Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr Walid Al-Manea making the Kingdom the first Gulf country to win a United Nations teamwork award. Marking the occasion, Minister of Cabinet Affairs Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al Mutawa expressed his thanks and appreciation to the United Nations Organization saying, This award is an embodiment of the achievements of the Kingdom in the health field. Minister of Health, Faeqa bin Saeed Al Saleh said this award comes as a result of the sincere efforts of the non-communicable disease control team in the Ministry of Health and the relevant authorities in the Kingdom of Bahrain. She said the team played a major role in this achievement through continued support and encouragement from HRH the Prime Minister. Bahrain had updated the Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases (2015-2019) on the basis of the WHO Global Plan of Action to Combat Non communicable Diseases (2013-2020) and the United Nations Declaration, enabling it to achieve many accomplishment for control of non-communicable diseases, which played a major role in obtaining the award, the minister said. Manama : Bahrain has been termed as a highly strategic location for trade by a high-profile Hong Kong trade delegation yesterday, citing Kingdoms business-friendly policies. The delegation from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said it sees the Kingdom as a base to act as a gateway to the GCC region. The main aim of our visit is to explore the hub to hub synergy with Bahrain being one of our important strategic partners for the MENA market, Perry Fung, Regional Director of Hong Kong Trade Development Council for the Middle East and Africa, told Tribune. The delegation said it also aims to explore how Bahrain and the regional countries can use Hong Kong as a hub towards Mainland China and its neighbouring countries We encourage our Bahraini counterparts to explore the Belt and Road Initiatives which has tremendous potential for attracting inward and outward investment to and from Bahrain, said Fung on the sideline of a seminar Hong Kong Investment Opportunities under the Belt and Road Initiatives held yesterday at The Diplomat Radisson Blu. The event was held under the auspices of the Chairman of Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Sameer Nass and in collaboration with Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) and Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC). The delegation held talks with the BCCI, the EDB and various governmental and non-governmental entities on ways of improving the trade relationship between Bahrain and Hong Kong. We have been discussing with the Chambers and other parties in Bahrain on how we can enhance our relationship with Bahrain. Hong Kong is a very important global investment hub we encourage Bahrain to explore opportunities here, said Perry Fung. The conference, which brought together business owners and investors from Bahrain and Hong Kong, centred on the incentives of the Belt and Road Initiative - a development strategy adopted by the Chinese government to improve the connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries. Earlier, inaugurating the event, BCCIs Second Vice-Chairman Mohammed Al Kooheji reinstated the keenness of the Bahrain Chamber on t fostering business and trade between Bahrain and Hong Kong and encouraging joint projects. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Bahrain to China Dr Anwar Yusuf Abdulla Alabdulla; BCCI Board Member Ahmed Al Saloom; BCCI Chief Executive Officer Shaker Al Shater; Managing Director of Bahrain Economic Development Board Dr Simon Galpin, and other top officials and business owners from Bahrain and Hong Kong were present. Manama : Mohammed G. Darwish popularly known as M.G Darwish, an Award-nominated author who writes dark, twisted and action-packed fiction, is launching his second novel Titanlord of Death & Sacrifice. Best known for his Secret of the Moonlight, which was featured on Wattpad, Darwish is known for his passion for stories and creating characters that go beyond human imagination. Tribune caught up with Darwish to know more about his works and his journey as a writer. Excerpts: How did your writing journey began? My fascination with writing began at an early age. When I was about 9 years old, I started thinking about different ways my favourite movies or books could have ended. Asking lots of what if this happened instead? which ultimately becomes a critical characteristic of every writer. Eventually, I started writing a story about a guy who gets sent to Mars and discovers that it is crawling with life. That was generally, how I began my writing journey. About your debut work? Later, life took its course and I focused on running a blog more than writing books and stories as I continued my studies at Bahrain Polytechnic. However, it wasnt until 2011 the concept of Dragon Tooth, my debut novel materialized in my head, and it wasnt until 2016 that it was officially published on Amazon and all major online retailers including local coffee shops and Jashanmall. From there on, I went on to publish about 6 short stories, the majority of which were nominated for multiple awards like Writers of the Future 2015, Writers of the Future 2016, most notably Secret of the Moonlight that was featured on Wattpad and nominated for about 5 different awards including a Best Story Award from NY Literary Magazine. Having just recently published my second novel Titanlord: of Death & Sacrifice on Amazon, which is coming soon to Jashanmall and has been widely successful, is debuting at #153 on Amazons best selling categories. Ive already begun working on the sequel which is expected to come out late next year. Tell us more about the Titanlord. Titanlord is a dark fantasy, combining Greek mythology with a hint of Japanese culture. It takes place after the Magmars rose in rebellion against the Titans who ruled over the world of men. Hundreds of years later, the Titans were forgotten. Vendel is a spunky, impulsive dreamer, whose fierce curiosity always seems to get the best of her as she dreams of meeting the Red Hand, a legendary warrior from her village, but considered a traitor to the crown after she led an open rebellion. She gets expelled from her village for bad mouthing a famous Knight when he visits trying to duel their best and sets off to the Citadel along with the First Sword of her village; a title bestowed upon the most skilful, and her good friend Griffyn. Titanlord will no doubt take the reader for one hell of a read, as they go on visiting towns, forts and camps while uncovering a threat not only to their village but the entire human race. In their quest to save humanity, they uncover secrets that trace back to none other than the Titans themselves. What makes the book special to you? This book is very special to me. The idea came to fruition after almost losing an online game. The idea then just stuck and it was begging to be written, and all a writer can do is oblige. The challenges you faced as a writer? One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when it comes to young writers is simply a lack of information and support. There are so many options to publish either traditionally which is through an agent or self-publishing the book yourself through KDP (Kindle Direct Programme). The latter allows the writer to publish the book without spending a dime, but that process still requires a bit of research. Its important for them to know that they arent alone and that we are slowly building a society that embraces them and guides them through the entire process. They need to just believe in themselves and hammer the words in; hard work, persistence, and perseverance are better friends than inspiration and motivation. Future works? Im also in the final editing phases of Fortier: The Long Night another novel coming out in early 2019. Ive made a personal goal to try and publish at least one novel per year as well as a few short stories while continuously working to provide online resources and information to help aspiring authors everywhere realize their dream of one day seeing their books on bookshelves around the world. Its important for them to know that they are not alone. We are here to help. I am here to help. Manama : The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) said it is holding a trip in collaboration with Raiffeisen Tours - Kooperation (RTK) Top Agents. A total of 66 visitors were welcomed to the Kingdom; including 40 representatives from the leading German travel agencies. RTK is one of the largest European organizations in the travel industry and currently consists of 4,000 travel agencies. The BTEA expressed its gratitude for the selection of the Kingdom of Bahrain as a destination for RTKs Top Agents annual trip. The trip comes as a result of meetings held with RTK during ITB Berlin 2018 which was held back in March where the BTEA was provided with the opportunity to showcase the diversified tourism facilities of the Kingdom; as well as highlight Bahrains potential for tourism due to its rich culture and diverse range of offerings, said the CEO of BTEA, Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa. The tour programme which began on Friday will conclude on 30 September 2018. Japan's Kounotori 7 unmanned cargo spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on Friday. After the docking at 3:08 a.m. (6:08 p.m. Thursday GMT), an astronaut from the ISS entered the spacecraft around 4:40 a.m. Kounotori 7 is scheduled to separate from the ISS in early November after delivering items such drinking water, food and Japanese-made large lithium-ion batteries to be installed at the ISS. These items weigh about 6.2 tons in total, the heaviest-ever load transported by a Kounotori vehicle. A compact capsule attached to Kounotori 7 to collect experimental samples will be detached just before the spacecraft re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. The wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has been conferred with Distinguished Global Award for Excellence in Women Empowerment and Gender Development by Global Empowerment Movement Corporation, U.S.Buhari was also conferred with the Honorary Citizen of Georgia Award from the State of Georgia.She received the awards at the Nigeria House in New York for her efforts at fighting gender-based victimisation, human trafficking and for uplifting the women in Nigeria.Founder and President of the organisation, Dr Blessing Itua, said the organisation particularly commended Mrs Buhari for advancing the causes of women and children in Nigeria through her pet project: Future Assured.Mrs Aisha Buhari, through her various programmes on women, young girls and children support, has assisted, integrated and provided hope to numerous victims of some of the societal ills in Nigeria, including human trafficking.Mrs Buhari, through her pet project, Future Assured, campaigns for women and girl-child education, empowerment and commitment to improving the lives of the people she serves.She has also been a strong advocate against victimisation, inhumanity, including the rape of minors.Within this context, she has complimented governments various initiatives by teaming up with relevant stakeholders in Nigeria and beyond to address some feminine challenges in the country, Itua said.Receiving the awards, the wife of the president thanked the organisation for considering her worthy of recognition for the award on fighting gender-based victimisation and uplifting womenfolk in Nigeria through the Future Assured programme.My driving force has been that of commitment and passion in this regard. Women have been at the receiving end of conflict, instances of abuse and victimisation all over the globe.I make it my responsibility to do the very best I can to give hope to those affected and to discourage other cases from happening in Nigeria.As you are all aware, my Future Assured initiative executes a number of programmes to uplift the status of women through health advocacy and support economic and educational empowerment, protection against abuse and encouraging political involvement among the women.Our hope is that women will become more aware of the opportunities open to them to live better lives while being confident of the societys protection, Buhari said.She dedicated the award to all struggling women and hope that the award will ginger more action in the area of protection against gender bias and victimisation and uplifting the lives of women all over the world.Buhari said that the First Lady of The Gambia had adopted the Future Assured to be replicated in her country.The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, testified about the work the Future Assured had been doing, especially in the north east, and congratulated the wife of the president for the recognition.Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, Prof. Tijjani Bande, while commenting on the menace of human trafficking, said Nigerians are people who admit to our problems and we are starting to address them.Nigeria has what it takes to do what is right and to take its rightful place among the comity of nations.In the U.S., great things are happening though Nigerians; Nigerians are doing great works here. There are things they are not happy about just like those at home in Nigeria.But we are doing everything possible to address them. This will involve international cooperation, the envoy said.He commended the wife of the president for coming to the Nigeria House, adding this is Nigeria House and we are very happy to do what is right here.The occasion was attended by the First Ladies of The Gambia, Niger, wives of governors, heads of agencies and associates of the wife of the president, among others. President Muhammadu Buhari has welcomed the pledge by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to help Nigeria tackle the Boko Haram insurgency through sound education among others.The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, in a statement on Friday said Buhari spoke during a bilateral meeting he had with OICs Secretary-General, Dr. Youssef Al-Othaimeen, on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.The President also underscored the importance of education in purging the mind of wrong indoctrination, particularly on religion.Buhari noted that the problem in Nigeria was aggravated by climate change and population explosion.He reiterated his position on the need for the recharge of Lake Chad through inter-basin water transfer, to take care of about 45 million people who depend on the lake for agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, and many others.The OIC scribe had told the Nigerian President that his organisation had passed a resolution committing member states to support Nigeria in combating extremism.He said that the body was ready to use its facilities and institutions to correct the wrong narrative that the Boko Haram insurgency was about Islam.Al-Othaimeen, who noted that development was essential to addressing extremism, also pledged assistance for Nigeria in that respect. President Muhammadu Buhari has chided Nigerian elite for remaining silent in the face of alleged misrule of the country by the Peoples Democratic Party between 1999 and 2015.He said while they allowed Nigeria to be mismanaged in 16 years without raising a voice in consternation, they have been accusing him of being too slow.He wondered where those that were considered to be fast got to.According to a statement on Friday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President spoke at a meeting he had with the Nigerian community in the United States of America on Thursday in New York.The meeting was held on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly holding in New York.Buhari said he had taken ordinary Nigerians as his constituency because of the way they had been standing by him.He said this was the reason he has been conscious of them.The President said, They (Nigerian elite) didnt say a word. Under the PTF (Petroleum Trust Fund, of which he was Chairman), we did roads from Lagos to Abuja, to Onitsha, to Port Harcourt.Since then, the roads were not done, between 1999 and 2015, yet the elite did not say a word.I was called Baba Go Slow. Those who were going fast, where did they get to?In 1983, military officers gathered and made me Head of State. I packed the politicians into jail, told them they were guilty until they could prove their innocence. We seized what they had looted, but after I myself was put in detention, the politicians were given back what they had looted. How many elites complained about that?Three times I contested elections; three times I went to court after the elections were rigged against me. No justice, but I said God dey.It was mainly the ordinary people that stood by me. That is why I am always conscious of them. They are my constituency. Even pregnant women on the queue would fall into labour, go to have their babies, and still come back to vote for me. I will keep doing my best for the country.Buhari told the Nigerians living in America that if he won the 2019 election, and he spent another four years in office, I will leave some difference in that office.The diaspora Nigerians, in their scores, are top-flight professionals, drawn from fields like medicine, engineering, sports, the arts, investment, academia, politics, agriculture, transport, education, publishing, and many others.Most of them expressed the wish to come back home and contribute to the change making a headway in Nigeria, to which the President replied, You are contributing to this great country (America).If you want to help back home, invest in education in your constituencies. If you educate people, they wont then accept nonsense from anybody. President Muhammadu Buhari has met Mr Toni Iwobi, of Nigerian origin and who is the first Blackman ever to be elected senator in Italy.On the sidelines of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York, Thursday, Iwobi met with Buhari, along with a high-powered team from the Italian Senate.My congratulations to you, and to Italy more, President Buhari told Iwobi, who was elected in March this year, on platform of the far-right League Party. It shows the advanced respect of Italians for human beings, in spite of colour. Its very impressive.The team from Italy discussed issues like illegal migration and how it can be curbed through investments in Africa, recharge of the Lake Chad via inter-basin water transfer, among others.Africa doesnt need charity, but collaboration to develop, Senator Iwobi declared.President Buhari noted that what causes irregular migration from developing to developed countries include lack of security, education, health care, among others, stressing:Climate change has had negative impact on a big country like Nigeria. That is why our youths often defy the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, to try and get to Europe. It is a problem that needs to be solved.The Italian Senate delegation plans to visit Nigeria soon.Iwobi has lived in Italy for 41 years. Sen. David Mark, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, on Friday promised to tackle the security challenges facing the country, if he emerge as the PDP candidate and wins the 2019 presidential election.Mark said this in Minna while on consultation visit to solicit support from the PDP delegates in Niger. I understood the challenges of our country and in better position to address them once and for all if given the mandate. Senseless killings among Nigerians must be stopped once I became President of the federal republic, he said.He promised to introduce security measures that will deal decisively with any person or group of people found formenting trouble. We must be seen to coexist irrespective of tribe, religious and political differences.When I assume office as democratically elected president in 2019, crisis will end, peace will return to all parts of the country because I will introduce stringent security measures that will provide enable environment for all Nigerians. We will provide modern working facilities for the security agencies and accord priority attention to their welfare for effective service delivery.We are all one people under God and should put aside all divisive tendencies and work towards peaceful coexistence for the benefit of all and generations unborn. My administration would ensure that workers, the engine room of government, were given the required attention they deserve for implementation of government programme of action.He said his experience over the years in public service had prepared and positioned him to take the country to greater heights in terms of development. I have gathered enough experience, I understand the challenges of the country and I believe I have the political will to tackle those challenges if given the mandate in 2019 ,he said.Mark expressed confidence of winning the PDP presidential primary, because of his commitment to democratic principles and a loyal party member since the inception of the PDP. Gov. Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has described last Saturdays Osun State governorship election and the Thursday re-run as show of shame.Fayose who said the only conclusion one could draw from the Osuns scenario is that democracy is now dead in our beloved country.In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, the governor decried the conduct as well as outcome of the said election.With what happened in Osun state, democracy is actually dead in Nigeria and we are in critical times.The Osun supplementary elections was just a repeat of what happened in Ekiti state on July 14th. And it is unfortunate that, again, the will of the people has been perverted.It was obvious even to the blind that the Osun election, as was the case with Ekiti, was a contest between the PDP and the security agencies supervised by a compromised INECFayose added that the University professors also used as returning officers by INEC have, ab initio, been compromised and only serve the interest of those he described as their pay masters.Therefore, we want to believe that conscionable Nigerians and the survival of this country as a whole are at the mercy of God and of the judiciary. And if the judiciary fails to rise up to the occasion, Nigerians will be among men the most miserableReviewing previous elections, Fayose said the ruling APC has perfected various forms of what he called rigging plans, beginning with Edo, going forward to Ondo and Ekiti and now Osun state.The Ekiti governor commended Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke for having fought a good fight.You did not lose but your mandate has only been stolenFayose condemned the violence that attended the election, sympathised with the families of those killed and enjoined PDP members to refrain from taking the law into their own hands. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Gboyega Oyetola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in t... The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Gboyega Oyetola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Osun state governorship election, as governor-elect of the state. Oyetola defeated Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a keenly contested exercise. A former chief of staff to Rauf Aregbesola, the incumbent governor, Oyetolas victory at the poll did not happen suddenly. The journey had been rough and full of battles. From the controversy that trailed the direct primaries, defections of staunch party members and the burden of poor workers welfare accusations, he saw them all. Some would ask; who is Oyetola, the man in whom APC is well pleased to succeed Aregbesola? Some see him as a thoroughly bred technocrat; others say he is a politician with a graceful flair for workers. But theres more to the politician. But just two days to his 64th birthday anniversary, the former chief of staff is set to mount the stage to direct the affairs of the state.Some would ask; who is Oyetola, the man in whom APC is well pleased to succeedAregbesola? Some see him as a thoroughly bred technocrat; others say he is a politician with a graceful flair for workers. But theres more to the politician. FOUNDING MEMBER OF ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY Born on September 29, 1954, in Iragbiji, Boripe local government area, Oyetola attended Ifeoluwa Grammar School in Osogbo before proceeding to the University of Lagos (UNILAG). He is contesting a political office for the first time. Oyetola is said to be among the prominent Nigerians who founded the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1998, and was a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before it metamorphosed to APC. PILLAR BEHIND AREGBESOLA Seen as one of the pillars behind Aregbesolas administration, Oyetola has on several occasions denied being endorsed by the governor. Yet, most political actors in the state taunt him as the governors favourite. At the flag off of his campaign, he said, If Aregbesola endorsed me, I will not need to struggle or campaign as Im doing now. I have toured every nooks and crannies of this state consulting the stakeholders. I dont discuss campaign issue with the governor. So, he (Aregbesola) has been fair to all APC aspirants. He is also said to be close to Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the APC. UNILAG-TRAINED INSURANCE BROKER Oyetola obtained a bachelors of science degree in insurance in 1978 from UNILAG and a masters of business administration (MBA) in 1990 from the same institution. He is an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, London and Nigeria and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management. After he completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Potiskum, Yobe state, in 1980, Oyetola started his career as an insurance broker with Leadway Assurance Company as an assistant manager. In 1991, he founded his own company where he was the managing director until his appointment as chief of staff in 2011. A PHILANTHROPIST Rotimi Makinde, former member of house of representatives, said Oyetola, aside being a complete gentleman and a vast technocrat, is a silent philanthropist. He said, What if I tell you that as a revered community leader in Iragbiji, he has sponsored well above 200 indigent students to tertiary institution who today are all doing wonderfully well in their chosen career, that shows he has always been part of the educational and human capacity development in the state. President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the family of the Air Force officer that died at the final rehearsal for the 58th Independence Anniversary.The President who said that he was saddened by the tragedy also wished the two officers that survived in the crash quick recovery.Already the remains of the dead officer will be buried today (Friday) about 5:30 pm as the family members including the father and wife have visited his corpse.Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari alongside the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Malam Garba Shehu visited the two survived officers whose health conditions are stable at the Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA hospital, Abuja.The Chief of Air Staff, Sadiq Abubakar received the Chief of Staff and SSA to the President at the hospital and briefed them on the mishap. The former Kano governor and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), presidential aspirant, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Thursday said that if he secures the partys ticket that he would win President Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming 2019 election.Speaking in Jos during a consultation visit to the north-central state, Kwankwaso, averred, I come from a state which has the highest number of voters that can sway an election in my favour.If I pick the PDP ticket, I will be the next president of this nation.I have the hunger to save Nigeria from its current troubles. I have my plan to make Nigeria a better country for all.I have massive support from the North West and will get even more supporters if given the ticket.Osun: Police restore calm at Osogbo polling unitA key solution to Nigerias problems is a participatory government that will ward off mutual suspicion and distrust.It will address the gap in communication which is largely responsible for farmer/herder clashes, religious violence and ethnic crisis in the country. When it Comes to China, the U.S. Needs to Reassert Itself 28/09/2018 - On 2-3 October 2018, the OECD will host the second edition of the Conference of Paris, organised by the International Economic Forum of the Americas, on the theme of Reshaping globalization, Mastering change - https://forum-americas.org/paris/home. Several hundred major international stakeholders, including many global companies and civil society representatives, will gather in Paris to reassess globalisation and its repercussions. By welcoming the Conference of Paris, the OECD is pressing ahead with its efforts to strengthen dialogue and reshape international co-operation for greater effectiveness and for policies that can improve citizens well-being. It is only through international co-operation that global challenges can be addressed. By facilitating international dialogue, the Conference of Paris will help the OECDs efforts to make international co-operation more responsible, effective and inclusive, and therefore capable of producing results which can benefit everyone. - Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD. The theme of the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting, held earlier this year in May and chaired by France, was Reshaping the foundations of multilateralism for more responsible, effective and inclusive outcomes. To realise the full potential of international co-operation, the OECD Forum 2018 had facilitated closer dialogue between over 4,000 participants on the theme of What brings us together. The OECD speakers at the Conference of Paris, which will be opened on Tuesday 2 October at 9:30 by Angel Gurria, the OECD Secretary-General, include: Gabriela Ramos, Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20 (Towards a new capitalism fostering inclusiveness) Laurence Boone, Chief Economist (A global economy in transition) Andrew Wyckoff, Director, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation (Bringing the digital transformation to education) Pascal Saint-Amans, Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (10 years after the crisis: where do we stand with international tax reforms?) Ken Ash, Director, Trade and Agriculture (Beyond trade wars: from free trade to fair trade) Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (How to build better cities?) Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Kingwood teacher arrested for child pornography Constable Mark Herman's Criminal Investigations Division conducted an investigation into the online trafficking of child pornography. During the course of the investigation it was determined that a residence in the 2000 block of Lake Creek Drive in Kingwood was the source of these child pornographic files being downloaded. Precinct 4 Investigators obtained a search warrant for the residence and executed it in the early morning hours of September 27, 2018. During the execution of the search warrant, the defendant, identified as Kenneth Morphis, confessed to investigators that he had been seeking and obtaining child pornography online. A review of the contents of Morphis' laptop computer found a cache of child pornography. Kenneth Morphis, who is a career educator currently serving as a substitute teacher in the New Caney Independent School District, was arrested and charged with three counts of Possession of Child Pornography. As a result of the child pornography recovered from his computer, Kenneth Morphis was arrested and booked into the Harris County Jail, charged with three counts of Possession of Child Pornography. His bond has been set at $10,000.00 on each count. -Constable Mark Herman Type of Offense: Possession of Child Pornography (3 Counts) Penalty Class: 2nd Degree Felony Case #: 18-127484 Date: 09/27/2018 Location: 2000 block of Lake Creek Drive, Kingwood, Harris County Texas Complainant: State of Texas Name: Kenneth Randall Morphis Date of birth: 07/14/1956 Charge: Possession of Child Pornography Bond: $10,000.00 each count Court: 232nd District Court Status: Arrested/Jailed 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. Our favorite radical feminist watchdogs are here to help museums and galleries get up to speed with #MeToo politics. The latest work by the anonymous collectivewith over three decades of fighting for equality in the at world under their beltis a proposal for how to label art in museums by men accused of sexual violence. In their signature informational, street-art style, they offer a few different options for wall labels, based on museums' real priorities. Via Instagram @guerrillagirls The labels were inspired by a 2006 portrait of Bill Clinton by Chuck Close. Close, the painter famous for his huge-scale portraits, was accused last year of sexually assaulting his models. He's since apologized, but has had several exhibitions of his work cancelled. Close is just one of the recent prominent members of the art world who have recently been accused of sexual misconduct, including collector Francois Odermatt, gallerist Anthony d'Offay, dealer Aaron Bondaroff and publisher of Artforum Knight Landesman. The Guerrilla Girls believe that artists guilty of sexual misconduct should be held accountable, no matter how "genius" they are, and that viewers should have context for the art they see. For museums "afraid of alienating billionaire trustees and collectors who donated the artist's work": Via Instagram @guerrillagirls For those "conflicted about disclosing an artist's abuse next to his art": Via Instagram @guerrillagirls And for those "who need help from the Guerrilla Girls": Via Instagram @guerrillagirls One member of the group most famous for a satirical list of "The Advantages of Being A Woman Artist," told artnet the Guerrilla Girls were inspired after seeing Close's portrait of Clinton in the National Portrait Gallery last winter: "One accused sexual predator painting another!" Kiah Morris was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 2014 and has the last four years advocating for racial justice, health-care access for Vermont residents, and women's, workers and low-income rightsand four years enduring racist abuse, harassment and threats on and offline. The Democrat, called "one of the strongest voices for women and minorities in Vermont politics," had already been convinced not to seek reelection this year, but this week decided that the risks to her and her family simply weren't worth it any longer. She resigned, effective immediately, on Thursday reports The Washington Post. Morris was the only Black woman in Vermont's House, and one of only five (now four) people of color serving in the state's 180-member legislature. She announced her resignation on Facebook explaining that she needed to step away from her policy work to focus on her and her family's health and safety: Vermont state senator Dick Sears told the Bennington Banne r : "I wish her and her family nothing but the best" and that it would be "hard to match her enthusiasm and commitment." "Kiah has been an excellent representative for the people of Bennington on so many issues, and has been a strong voice for equity and social justice in the Statehouse," Bernie Sanders told the Burlington Free Press. Watch her 2016 floor speech calling for the adoption of the Black Lives Matter Resolution: The Post reports that harassment escalated during the 2016 Presidential election, consistent with the nationwide increase of white supremacist organization and activity. Neo-nazi flyers and posters were posted to the Bennington Democratic Party office, and recruitment flyers were left all over town. After she won the Democratic primary the following August, a racist cartoon of Morris was posted to Twitter, showing a photo of Morris captioned with: "S---, I be representin dem white m---f--- of Bennington, gnome sayin?" The creator of the racist post, whom Morris would later be granted a restraining order against, told a local Bennington paper that it was meant to demonstrate "the absurdity of a black woman being a Vermont state representative." Harassment became a regular part of Morris and her family's lives, heightened by her 2017 reelection campaign. Her home was invaded and swastikas were carved into the trees on her property. Her 7-year-old son saw a death threat sent to her house. The most recent wave of harassment coincided with her husband's open heart surgery. The Vermont Attorney General is currently the process of investigating the threats. They took over the case after Morris and her lawyers accused the Bennington Police Department of failing to adequately investigate the threats. "It is not that I see myself as somehow better than any other individual on planet Earth, for real," she told the New York Times. "But to know that as an elected official and as a person of prominence that I couldn't even find the protection and the justice that my family deserves so that we can have a sense of peacethat we weren't able to access that, that the system was not there in the ways that we neededthat is stunning." Morris's experiences are all too typical of the harassment and abuse people of color, and Black women in particular, who reach public-facing positions of power face. These patterns of violence disincentivize marginalized people from pursuing such positions, adding another layer on top of the many discriminatory institutional barriers already that make career-climbing journeys more difficult than those of their white counterparts. The former representative has received a flood of messages of support, pride and solidarity on social media. In response to those who accuse Morris as "giving up," she explained to the Times that it shouldn't fall on her or any one individual to singlehandedly take on violent racism at the expense of her safety and happiness. "It's on each and every one of us," she said. Morris has hope, however, and says that many Vermont residents are expressing that they see the situation as a call to action to make the predominantly white state a safer place for people of color. Morris's community of supporters have started a GoFundMe to help "legal fees and living expenses as Kiah fights this hate and cares for her husband during his 3-month recovery period." You can donate here. Not long into her newfound sobriety, Lillie West was hit with a series of intense experiences a home invasion and the loss of loved ones, the kind of events that can change your whole way of living, thinking, and seeing the world. Dread grew as she feared for her safety, and for the safety of everyone she cares about: "If these unexpected scenarios are happening everywhere, why wouldn't they continue? I just felt like nowhere is safe, for a while," she says. But a deadline to record her sophomore record as Lala Lala, marking her first for Sub Pop offshoot label Hardly Art, loomed. And while limits like that can sometimes clog creativity, in examining her paranoia, isolation, and sadness, each song fed the next, West says: "They just fell out." Today, The Lamb, the result of West's introspection, is officially released: 12 tracks rooted in post-punk and wrapped in a pop gauze, like a coping mechanism to bring some positivity into all the turmoil they actually carry. Good can come of introspection, after all. We can make real progress by confronting difficult memories and in doing that for herself, the Chicago-based songwriter offers listeners a tool for their own emotional reckoning. PAPER premieres the video for "Scary Movie," through which West reflects on her own memories through those of her parents, who in the clip are shown kite-flying beachside before she was born. We spoke with West to find out more about the footage and the choice to pair it with the track, and we learned more about the process of writing The Lamb, too. I realize you probably haven't memorized your label bio, but Hardly Art included this one line that really stuck with me: that with The Lamb, you were "hoping to capture honest snapshots" of your "past selves." Can you elaborate on that a bit? I mean, I have and I always have had a lot of guilt and shame, especially comparing times when I was not sober, and now I have been sober for two years. This album is the first thing I have written as a sober person and it's very much about how do I not let these terrible things that have happened to me or that I have done myself, like, overcome me? How do I recognize them and grow from them instead of collapsing, I guess. There's always the temptation to intentionally forget certain memories, to try eliminating them. Totally. I wish I could do that a little more; I could probably use that. Have you felt supported in the Chicago scene as a sober person? Totally. I did have to change my lifestyle quite a bit. I do go out a lot less, but the Chicago music scene is so supportive. I'm just excited for people to make stuff, and there's a fair amount of sober people already, or there were already. You're originally from London, then you lived in L.A. Was school what brought you to Chicago? I moved when I was 19, almost 20. I was [in school] for a year and two months, and I guess I just didn't feel committed to it. I really liked the school and I like school in general, but I felt like I was wasting everyone's time because I wasn't fully present. And then Emily [Kempf] asked me to go on tour with her band at the time, Supermagical... and then I just never went back to school. I left with them, and decided that I would rather be doing music. What were you studying? When I left I was into offset printmaking and sculpture installation. Do you continue any of those endeavors now? No. I do like small-scale stuff. I always try and draw and do crafts and stuff, but I don't really do sculpture. I don't have the tools or space to facilitate it. Just curious. But I really like all that stuff, and I try to do art stuff a lot, because it makes me feel better. Let's get into "Scary Movie." It's such a juxtaposition, the connotations of the title against the peaceful, calm 16MM footage of your parents you used for the video. Can you tell us about more about the song, and what made you decide to pair the two? Like, every scary movie that I've ever seen, I remember. And every time I'm alone or in some dark corridor or something, I get flooded with imagery of all the scary movies I've seen. I feel like my brain cannot disconnect that it's fake. People I've watched scary movies with are like, "Why are you afraid? This isn't real." My brain won't recognize that it feels like my brain can't separate [the two]. If I see it, it can't separate fake from real, and I feel like that a lot with that footage. My dad is a filmmaker, and he has filmed pretty much every moment of my life from when I was born. As the footage shows, it's my parents before I was born so I have all of these memories that, sometimes, I'm not sure if I actually remember or if I've just watched them. And that song is a lot about the blurred line between real memory and fake memories, and it just felt appropriate to pair them. And it's sort of a tribute to my parents, because I love them so much. Are they still living in L.A.? No, they moved back to England right after I graduated high school. Now it makes sense why you've paired them together. I recognize that feeling in pictures from my own childhood; I don't know if I remember them being taken or if I've just seen the photo so many times that I've created my own memory. Yeah, totally. Or maybe it was someone else, and your brain makes it into you. That's possible, too. Memory is unreliable. Totally, it's completely unreliable. [Laughs] So how are things with you now? Do you feel like you've moved forward from what you were feeling while writing The Lamb? I am a lot better. I'm still very cautious, and I go into more paranoid periods of time based on what else is happening in my life. But yeah, things are better. I do think time helps everything. I don't know, hopefully it's all part of some kind of education as more things happen to me, then all my decisions are in some way more informed. I don't know. I'm hopeful. When you're playing this album live and being interviewed about it, do you feel like you're rehashing everything? Does it help or hurt your progress? Sometimes it feels like talking about it for the first time, but other times, it feels like singing a cover, and it's more about the performance and the emotion of the song. "We're such a glam society now," says Lilly Ghalichi-Mir. And she should know. The 35-year-old former Shahs of Sunset star and beauty entrepreneur has been among the earliest adopters of "more is more" trends in hair, makeup and lashes. And since 2013, the year she launched her own line of false lashes, Lilly Lashes, Ghalichi-Mir has cemented her status as an Instagram-era lash guru who counts celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga and Cardi B as adherents. Ghalichi-Mir grew up in a Persian family based in Houston, TX and originally studied business at the University of Texas before getting a law degree and becoming a licensed Attorney in the State of California. But working as a lawyer in LA, she felt unhappy. "I hated my life," she says. "[Law] is a very male-dominated profession and it's not a profession that encourages creativity or glam. I was constantly asked to tone it down don't wear makeup, put my hair in a low pony, wear more loose-fitting clothes. [The firm] basically wanted me to show up looking like a hanger and go into court. And for someone like me who really expresses their personality through hair, makeup and fashion, it was very unfulfilling." After two months, she says she looked herself in the mirror one day and said, "I'm young, I'm single, I don't have children, I don't have a husband. I have nothing to lose." She left the firm and started her own "lingerie-inspired" swimwear line, which she called Swimgerie, and created her own fashion and beauty blog. "I gave myself three years and if I couldn't support myself in three years, I could always go back to practicing law," Ghalichi-Mir says. It wasn't long before Bravo producers reached out to her after discovering the blog and signed Ghalichi-Mir on for two seasons of Shahs of Sunset in 2012, where the seeds for Lilly Lashes were planted. Ghalichi-Mir recalls how she and her makeup artist, Ariel Tejada, would struggle to get the lashes she wanted just right. They would "stack three or four pairs of human hair lashes and spend 45 minutes in glam just on lashes! We'd be cutting them, gluing one strip, letting it dry, gluing another. And I just thought there had to be a better way." She says she started doing some research and found a few companies overseas that could help produce lashes. She and Tejada spent two weeks cutting and gluing lashes to create different styles before sending them to one of the factories to get produced. But at first, she recalls being nervous that the lashes would be too dramatic for most people. She remembers thinking, "Are people going to like these? Are there people out there as outrageous as me?" But clearly Ghalichi-Mir hit a spot in the market that had yet to be tapped. "I realized that there was such a need in the market for girls to want super glamorous lashes that still looked natural and that didn't look Halloween," she says. After posting about the launch on her Instagram and blog, the first batch sold out within the first 20 minutes. Since then, Ghalichi-Mir has gone beyond lashes, creating a hair extension partnership with Bellami Hair that she says had a similar origin story. "We were buying 3 or 4 packs of hair to get the length that I wanted, the volume that I wanted the big hair that I wanted. So, I partnered with Bellami hair, which was one of the brands that I was buying to develop at that time the thickest set of hair extensions that ever existed at 270 grams." She attributes her success partly to changing times and people like Kim Kardashian normalizing glam. People are no longer afraid of expressing themselves through hair, makeup and fashion, she says. "I think [Kim] doesn't get enough credit in the glam community... She glamorized having a makeup artist, having a hair stylist, being fabulous. And I just happened to be one of the early people on Instagram that sort of followed in that lead." Ghalichi-Mir describes her early supporters being primarily made up of the LGBTQ community and describes the deep connection she feels with them along with segments of the community's longstanding embrace of glam. "I just loved that! That is sort of what I emulated as a straight woman in a time when it wasn't really done," she says. Most recently, Ghalichi-Mir has launched a new collection inspired by her pregnancy and upcoming delivery. The new "Living my Best Life" collection includes the MILF lash that Ghalichi-Mir plans to wear during her delivery. "I want to be glam when I deliver! We're going to have photos and videos, but you know I don't want to be too over the top in my mommy moment!" The "Living My Best Life" collection launches Monday, October 1st, but head over to the Lilly Lashes Instagram to get early VIP access. Mystical Mayhem Rick Owens had a pyramid-shaped structure erected and set ablaze for his spring 2019 show at the Palais de Tokyo. The pyre alluded to the Tower of Babel the ziggurat from the Biblical myth that seeks to explain the origins of different languages and late Russian architect Vladimir Tatlin's model of a Constructivist tower that was never realized. It's a fitting anchor for Owens's show, as his collections are always brimming with primordial energy. Wearing cage-like arm braces and headpieces with lit torches in hand, models were transformed into high priestesses amid a pagan ritual. Chaos & Order Grid-like forms and stark lines bring order to deconstructed, chaotically draped silhouettes. Lacquered denim cutouts in hues from pearl to blood red, combine to create cropped parkas, while recycled rubber fringe is wrapped around tunics and cargo belts. Mountain Witches The brand's longstanding partnership with German footwear brand Birkenstock manifested as logo emblazoned hiking boots this season. The utilitarian style was puffed up and fitted with oversized straps for the women Owens describes as, "mountain witches." Bold Beats Owens used an unauthorized sample from Moscow-based electronic group IC3PEAK in the soundtrack of his fall 2018 show. Founders Nick Kostylev and Nastya Kreslina, who were understandably upset at the time decided to collaborate with the designer, creating an exclusive extended remix of their 2014 song "Take My Hand" for this season's show. Were just back from a movie theater screening of a performance of Shakespeares King Lear from National Theatre Live. The play was filmed on the stage of the Duke of Yorks Theatre, in the West End on St Martins Lane, in the City of Westminster, London. Sir Ian McKellen was superb in the title role. The other performance that really struck me was Kirsty Bushells increasingly mad and sociopathic Regan. Unfortunately, there was a syncing problem, with the sound following a split second behind the actions on the screen. It was slightly irritating, at least at the first. Moreover, the sound was sometimes just a tad muddy. And, at one point, one of the mikes had real problems. But attending the play tonight was considerably cheaper than flying to London would have been. *** My wife has lately been reading a great deal by and about Elie Wiesel for a presentation that shes shortly to give. Tonight, she called the following passage to my attention from Wiesels All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs (Knopf/Doubleday, 2010), and I thought that others might find it of interest. It refers to a visit that Wiesel made to Morocco quite a few years back, after the Second World War: A dayan (rabbinical judge) showed me some unknown mystical writings attributed to the sages of Fez. A rabbi told me little-known anecdotes about Maimonidess years in Morocco. Here, as in Spain, the Jewish past was pervasive. The Jews in Morocco seemed attached to their soil and to their sovereign. I was surprised at their praise for the sultan, Mohammed V, but I should have known better. The sultan had protected his Jewish subjects during the war, standing up to Vichy and the Germans alike. Not a single Moroccan Jew was deported. Rich Jews maintained friendly relations with rich Muslims. And yet. Many Moroccan Jews planned to make aliyah, to ascend to the Holy Land, because the future was uncertain. Signs of dislocation were appearing in this energetic, exuberant community. My companion, the emissary of the Jewish Agency, predicted that few of its 250,000 souls would remain. But if things were so good in this beautiful land, why would the Jews want to confront the unknown? Ifergans answer: For a Jew Israel is never the unknown. I recalled the Jews of my city. How was it that the Moroccan Jews were more perspicacious and audacious than those of Sighet in 194044? And thanks to the World Jewish Congress, and the Jewish Agency, nearly the entire Moroccan Jewish community emigrated to Israel between 1952 and 1956. *** In this context, some might remember (or might be interested in) a colum that Bill Hamblin and I published in the Deseret News back on 13 April 2018: Where Jews, Muslims have lived in relative harmony *** And while were thinking about Morocco during World War Two: I met someone a while ago who had actually never seen the great movie classic Casablanca. Hard to believe. I think that he must be violating some kind of law. If you havent seen Casablanca, you need to repent immediately and take steps to remedy the deficiency. Fourth Women's Rights Activist Arrested in Iran in Less Than a Month 09/28/18 Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran Women's rights advocate Maryam Azad was arrested by security agents at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport on September 25, 2018, after boarding a plane scheduled to fly to Istanbul, a source close to the family informed the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). Iranian women's rights advocate Maryam Azad Prior to being arrested, Azad had been under medical care for an unknown ailment, according to the Amsterdam-based Radio Zamaneh. A 31-year-old researcher from the city of Shiraz, Azad is the fourth women's rights advocate to be detained in Iran in less than a month. The authority that arrested her and any charges against her are unclear. Women's rights activists Hoda Amid and Najmeh Vahedi were arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran on September 1, three days before they were scheduled to host a workshop on Iran's marriage laws. Rezvaneh Mohammadi was arrested by security agents at her home in Tehran on September 3. All three women were involved in training workshops on equal marriage rights and other peaceful activities related to women's rights. They were all arrested at their homes without a warrant. No information regarding the charges or where they are being held have been disclosed, and the families have been denied visitations or phone calls. "Iran's authorities think they can stop people from advocating for women's rights by locking them up, but unlawful arrests will not silence the growing number of people who are standing up for women's rights in Iran," said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). "It has been 25 days since the temporary detention of my sister Nahmeh Vahedi and we are still seeking our rights as citizens," Reza Vahedi tweeted on September 25. On September 18, Reza Vahedi had tweeted that his mother "calmed down a bit" after visiting Najmeh in Evin Prison in Tehran on that day. Despite the depreciation of the cedi, foreign currency deposits with banks grew by 18.3 percent in August 2018 compared with 6.4 percent and 6.2 percent growth respectively in June and May 2018. According to the latest Bank of Ghanas Summary of Macroeconomic and Financial Data, foreign currency deposits also grew by 15.4 percent in July 2018. The recent growth might be due to consumers changing their cedis into dollars to prevent any loss of investments. According to the data, currency outside the banking system was still high at 10.9 percent in August 2018. This is against 11.7 and 10.3 percent respectively in June and July 2018. At the same time, demand deposits, largely current account remained high, growing by 36.0 percent in August 2018. The only time demand deposits have gone very high is May 2018 where it grew by 34.0 percent. This must be good news for the banks since customers are putting their monies in less expensive deposits. Growth of Savings and Time deposits also grew very high at 20.4 percent in August 2018. It has reduced consistently from 26.3 percent in January 2018 to 10.5 percent in May 2018. Average yield for demand deposits however stood at a paltry 5.83 percent, higher than February's 3.33 percent while that of savings deposits was 7.55 percent since January 2018. The report stated that average lending rate dropped by 50 basis points to 27.0 percent in August 2018. It stood at 27.5 percent in June and July 2018 respectively whilst Ghana Reference Rate is 16.1 percent. The report further stated that total deposits shot up consistently from GH59.1 billion in January 2018 o tGH61.8 billion in June 2018 and GH64.8 and GH67.7 billion respectively. Total assets of the banking industry hit GH104.6 billion in August 2018. It hit a record GH100 billion in June 2018 and move to GH100.3 billion in January 2018. Core liquid assets to short term liabilities, a critical component in measuring the stability of a firm stood at 32.9 percent in August 2018. It was 30.5 and 35.3 percent respectively in June and July 2018,. This indicates that the banking industry response to paying cash on time dwindled slightly between July and August 2018. Growth of loans and advances also went up from GH39.7 billion at the end of July 2018 to GH40.0 billion in August 2018 The banking sectors capital adequacy ratio increased from 18.9 percent in July 2018 to 19.1 percent August 2018. Non-performing loans stood at 21.3 percent in August 2018 from 22.6 percent in June 2018. The banks in Ghana made a provision of about 11.7 percent as bad debts in their books at the end of August 2018, the report reiterated. Year-on-year growth of bad loans of banks slowdown in the first half of 2018 growing by 9.0 percent compared with 13.9 percent a year ago. According to Highlights of Universal Banks Income Statement, banks wrote off about GH672 million in the first half of this year. In June 2017, the banks wrote off GH616.2 million as bad debt and GH541.4 million bad debt in June 2016. The total provision made in the income statement included loan losses, depreciation and others. According to the July 2018 Banking Sector Report, the ratio of banks total loans classified as impaired remained high in the first half of this year. However, the NPL ratio fell to 22.6 percent in June 2018 from the last reported position of 23.5 percent in April 2018. Source: The Finder 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 Domestic Services Workers Union (DSWU) of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Ghana has called on Government to as a matter of urgency, pass the Domestic Workers Labour Regulation 2016, to ensure equal rights and justice. The Union said the passage of the regulation would compel employers of their services and society as a whole to adhere to the principle of equality and justice. Addressing a media conference at the Unions third anniversary, Madam Esther Kosi, the General Secretary of DSWU called on Government to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 189 (C189) on Decent Work for Domestic Worker. She said: Passage of the regulation and the ratification of the C189 will promote social protection for domestic workers, including enrolment onto social security systems and health accessibility. Madam Kosi said it was clear that Gender-Based Violence (GBV) succeeded more in jurisdictions without strong labour policies on domestic work, which increases the vulnerability of workers in the sector. She said the Union was in full support of the proposed ILO Convention to end GBV in the world of work because it would safeguard the rights, respect and justice of domestic workers across the world and in the country. She said: We look forward to the adoption of this ILO instrument next year titled: Ending Violence and Harassment against Men and Women in the World of Work. The General Secretary said the DSWU was committed to establishing a strong union through capacity building, leadership development and organisation and recruitment of new members with a strategy to actively engage in alliance building with trade unions, others and civil society organisations. She said the Union aimed at improving domestic workers rights and protections by organising campaigns around the C198, for the adoption of a minimum wage for the sector, and for the protection of migrant domestic workers. Madam Kosi said labour was central to the realisation of life projects that guarantees human development, however any form of violence was a blatant violation of human rights and was not in line with decent work. She said GBV remained one of the most tolerated violations of workers human rights, which the country must take immediate action to remedy the situation. The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the General Assembly on December 20, 1993 defined Violence against women as Any act of gender-based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts of coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. The DSWU joined the ranks of workers movements in the country with its Founding Conference in September, 2015. Apart from the TUC Ghana, the Union is affiliated to the International Domestic Workers Federation and by extension, to the International Union of Food and Allied Workers. 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 The increase in the usage of mobile financial services across the country is fast erasing the percentage of cash transactions and creating a paradigm shift like never before. This is according to the Director of Vodafones Enterprise Business Unit, Angela Mensah-Poku The mobile money concept has gradually become a major medium for financial transactions in Ghanas retail sector; a factor that is also responsible for bridging the gap between the banked and unbanked population in the country. Not too long ago, the percentage of the unbanked population in the country was close to 70% as against 30% that were bankable. With the emergence of mobile money, the numbers are beginning to reflect a higher degree of financial inclusion. Speaking in an interview with Christopher Garnett at the just-ended EuroMoney Conference held in Accra, Angela Mensah-Poku said: It is changing lives in a democratic way and creating entrepreneurs out of most Ghanaians. All over the country, people from all walks of life are simply handling transactions from their bedrooms and that is revolutionary. I have also noticed that mobile money is enforcing trust and peace in the financial services sector. The proof here is that within the first few weeks of on-boarding Vodafone Cash subscribers, the check-balance feature becomes the most frequently used; this regularity drops as the subscribers realise that their monies are safely secured. The EuroMoney Conference, held on September 25th, examined how financial technology and innovation are driving a fundamental reshaping of the financial services industry in Ghana. The Conference, which was sponsored by Vodafone Ghana, brought people together to discuss ways of "Building a digital business and financial ecosystem". Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A high-powered delegation from the Moroccan Poultry Federation on Monday met members of the Ghana National Poultry Farmers Association and the Minister of Food and Agriculture to discuss how the country can partner Ghana to improve poultry production to create jobs. The Moroccans were invited by the government to partner Ghanaian poultry farmers or even directly invest in the poultry industry to help reduce the huge dependence on imported poultry. Currently, local production of poultry is just 5% of the growing demand for poultry while the remaining 95% is imported from Brazil, USA and Europe. Speaking to journalists after the meeting, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Owusu Afriyie Akoto, said that the government is determined to revive the dying poultry industry in Ghana and therefore sees this partnership as a huge step in bringing life back to the industry. He said the government is prepared to give assistance to the Moroccans to help revive the industry and produce largely for local consumption. The National Chairman of the Ghana National Poultry Farmers Association, Victor Oppong Adjei, said the move is laudable since the poultry industry is facing a lot challenges in the area of finance, modern machinery and feed for the birds. According to him, the nation imported $1.3 billion worth of poultry last year and that the target is to produce enough for the Ghanaian market, adding that the local breed of poultry are more nutritious than the foreign ones. He said the Moroccans would bring their technical know-how and financing to help produce fresh, tasty, and healthy chicken to meet the expectations of Ghanaians. The leader of the Moroccan delegation and president of the Moroccan Poultry Federation, Youssef Alaoui, was happy about the prospects and expressed readiness to partner their Ghanaian counterparts to improve poultry production in the country. 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 Many health workers helping with an Ebola outbreak in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are in lockdown in the city of Beni. Despite calls for them to resume work, the United Nations says it is not safe for them to move around. This means they are unable to vaccinate people, monitor possible cases and educate the community about the disease. There was a violent protest in Beni on Wednesday, calling for an end to insecurity. Earlier this week, health workers suspended activities following a deadly rebel attack on Beni. More than 100 people have died in the current Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, including 35 in Beni. Source: BBC 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 First Lady Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo has joined her counterparts from across Africa to further discuss the contribution of the organisation towards the health and well-being of children, the youth and women on the continent. The meeting, which was held on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) currently underway at the UN Headquarters in New York, also discussed the 2019 to 2023 strategic plan for the Organisation of African First Ladies Against AIDS. OAFLA members who participated in the meeting discussed issues such as fighting HIV, cancer and child marriage and proposed that each first lady should be committed to other strategic plan. Other focus areas discussed included HIV&AIDS, Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs), Reproductive, Maternal, New-born and Child Health (RMNCH), Gender equality, Women and Youth Empowerment, Universal Health Coverage (UHC), Social Security and Protection and Institutional Capacity Strengthening. The First Ladies were of the view that, for easy evaluation of each members contributions, the areas captured in the document should be narrowed to at most four areas. According to Madam Sika Bella Kabore, First Lady of Burkina Faso, and Acting President of OAFLA, the discussion would enable the organization to come out with a workable document which all the first ladies could own and work with. With a vision of a developed Africa with healthy and empowered children, youth and women, the document has the goal of making a significant contribution to the health and well-being of children, youth and women in Africa, She said. Aside Ghanas First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Mrs. Kabore of Burkina Faso, the meeting also featured First ladies from Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Lesotho, Uganda, Madagascar, Congo, Burundi and Ethiopia all attending. The Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS seeks to contribute to the national effort in preventing, managing and eliminating HIV and AIDS. In line with the work of the Rebecca Foundation, it also contributes to the national effort towards reducing maternal and infant mortality. 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 Organisers of the 2018 edition of Miss Ghana pageant has announced that songstress, Wendy Shay, among other artistes, will perform at the pageant. The grand finale for this years pageant is scheduled to take place at the Marriott Hotel in Accra on Saturday, September 29, 2018 from 7pm. Earlier, organisers announced that Gyedu Blay Ambolley, ace saxophonist Steve Bedi and a surprise act, will give patrons pulsating performances. But on Wednesday, Inna Patty, who is the CEO of Exclusive Events Ghana, organisers of the pageant announced on social media that Wendy will also be performing. Look who I bumped into rehearsing her moves to wow Ghana and the world this Saturday 29th September 2018 @marriottaccrahotel @wendyshayofficial #missghana2018 Do you have your tickets? If not, then hurry just a few seats left at Batsonaa Frankies, Buka Restaurant, Jamrock, Capito, she said after she shared a photo with Wendy on Instagram. Wendy Shay who many have described as the replacement of the late Ebony is currently doing very well with her Uber Driver song. Her new single titled Astalavista is equally doing well. This will be her first time to perform on Miss Ghana platform. This years Miss Ghana is under the theme; Evolution of Beauty and it will be parading 10 contestants who are representing each region of Ghana. Judges during the night will be looking out for beauties with brains, character and commitment to serve the homeland Ghana. The pageant is being sponsored by National Lottery Authority, Superlock Technologies Limited Ghana, Tang Palace Hotel, IPMC Ghana, Accra Marriott Hotel, Heritage Insurance, Electroland, Modaskky, Pippas Gym, Magnum Force Securities, Allure Centric, BelAqua, Aqua Safari Resort Ada, Capitol Cafe & Restaurant, Buka Restaurant, Central Hotel, Bosphorus, Jamrock Restaurant, Bush Kanteen, Cookers Delight, Lister Hospital and Le Chateau Boutique. Its media partners include Citi FM, Daily Guide, Nkonkonsa.com, Spectator, Daily Graphic and GTV which will be televising the grand finale live. 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 KAMPALA Former FDC party president on Thursday held a press conference in Kampala, explaining why he had quit the largest opposition party in the country. The press conference was a follow-up of the Tuesday statement he issued on the matter. Below are key excerpts from the speech. On quitting FDC Mugisha Muntu: If we were to remain in FDC and keep fighting, in 2021, irrespective of who would hold the flag, that flag wouldnt take us anywhere. On being hungry for power Mugisha Muntu: On the issue of being hungry for power: I have lost three times to Dr. Besigye and I went behind him, I went around the country campaigning for Dr. Besigye. Dialogue with FDC Mugisha Muntu: We all need to work for a country that when our police fight, they fight for us all. The political space in the country is shrinking day by day and so is the patience of Ugandans. We shall keep our dialogue open and we shall ensure an open door policy between us and the FDC. Defections Gen. Muntu: At this point, I dont know how many have departed with me from FDC. Whatever number they are, we shall know internally but shall not make it a public thing to make it seem like we fighting with FDC. I did not leave FDC because I lost. I left because of internal fights. I have never feared what people think because its time that makes judgment. On Dr Besigye Gen. Muntu: Even if FDC was to enter a power sharing deal, I wouldnt be part of government. I have no issue with Kizza Besigye and we shall meet because we are all actors in the political environment. I dont mix things. We dont become enemies after we compete. It is not about running for presidency now. It is about the level of infrastructure and capacities we put behind the person running to take power. Let us not start with the leaders, let us start with building the necessary capacities. On Bobi Wine Gen. Muntu: Hon. Kyagulanyi is intelligent and is working with intelligent professionals. They have the capability to judge who they want to work with. I have moved out of FDC so even if I didnt achieve a single thing, nobody should bother about that. I told Patrick Amuriat that our meeting with them was out of respect and recognizing that FDC has achieved something strong as a political party in Uganda. I have participated fully in building internal democracy in FDC and if FDC can sustain that internally, its something that differentiates FDC as a party. On other parties Gen. Muntu: They would be shocked if we moved away last year. We wanted the process of separation to be as smooth as possible. We are in touch with Hon. Kyagulanyi, Norbert Mao, Hon. Baswalira. And we recognize the demand out there that opposition should work together. We are willing and ready to attend meetings and if we are invited even if its an FDC meeting. This is not about us. We need to reach out to each other and form a strong credible alternative as the opposition. On being a mole Gen. Muntu: 2004 was the last time I met President Museveni personally and that was in Nakasero at the state lodge. I dont care about what people say about me. Time is the friend of everyone here and those outside. If it is the will of God, theres going to be a time when people will be shocked when they know who the moles are. It is possible to manage this position, its incumbent about those that have remained and those who left to manage this. I was also called a mole when I was in the bush. We do things differently, thats why people misunderstand us. On ideology Gen. Muntu: When a party doesnt have internal stability, it cant go anywhere. Its not the flag that will take us forward, its the organizational capabilities you put behind the flag. If I was a mole in FDC, I would stay behind to destabilize it. Party direction Gen. Muntu: DP slogan is Truth and Justice, FDC slogan is One Uganda One People meaning DP and FDC should work together. FDC has an opportunity to re-brand and Patrick Oboi Amuriat wasnt going to succeed in re-branding FDC with us there. Our instability as FDC would be instability of the whole opposition. FDC now has an opportunity to do everything they wanted to do. Alice Alaso: The new formation values are, we believe in democracy, good governance, gender equity, transparency, ethics, discipline and we aspire for national cohesion and national unity. Gen. Muntu: We believe that no single party can rescue our party on the dangerous part we are trading on. The political space in the country is shrinking day by day and so is the patience of Ugandans. Gen. Muntu: Our commitment to a united opposition is more real, we shall keep our dialogue real and we shall ensure an open door policy between us and the FDC. This decision was reached after an interactive process from citizens across the country. Our departure is in good faith and we believe that this action is mutually beneficial to FDC and those of us leaving at the end of the day we work towards the same goal. Related Embed from Getty Images The estimated number of violent crimes in the United States decreased 0.2% in 2017 compared to 2016, according to FBI data released on Monday. Property crimes reportedly dropped 3.0%, according to the FBI. "The 2017 statistics show the estimated rate of violent crime was 382.9 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, and the estimated rate of property crime was 2,362.2 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants," the FBI said in a statement. The FBI said that the estimated number of robbery offenses decreased 4.0%, and the estimated number of murder and non-negligent manslaughter offenses decreased 0.7% when compared with estimates from 2016. Burglaries dropped 7.6%, larceny-thefts decreased 2.2%. So why does it feel to many cops on the street that the exact opposite is true? Can two opposing ideas be simultaneously true? Yes, and here's why. The Ups and Downs in Crime In some places, cops have been allowed to do their jobs, keeping crime to a minimum by proactively patrolling their sectors. Crime is down in those places because police are policing. Also, the underlying causes of crime are being addressed at a fundamental level. Housing issues are being addressed. The economy in many of these places is improving, so people are finding jobs. People are getting help. They are getting out from the burden of addiction. Progress is being made. Undeniably, progress is being made. Thanks Be to God and His Servantsprogress is being made. In some cities, however, crime in the past year has not just grown, it has mushroomed out of control where police have been prevented from policing. In 2017, Baltimore set a new per-capita homicide record with 343 murders, roughly 56 killings per 100,000 residents, according to CBS News. Countless other individuals were shotbut not fatallyin Charm City last year. Baltimore isn't even the most dangerous city in Americaper capitaaccording to the FBI. That unenviable distinction goes to St. Louis. With a population of just over 310,000 souls, the Gateway to the West had 205 murder victims, 289 victims of reported rape, and 1,944 victims of robbery in 2017, according to the FBI report. That same year, 46 law enforcement officers died from injuries incurred in the line of duty during felonious incidents, according to the FBI's 2017 LEOKA report. At least eight of those deaths were the result of premeditated ambush attacks on police officers. Then, there are the "non-violent" crimesproperty crimeswhich can sometimes be disturbingly violent. San Francisco recorded nearly 30,000 car break-ins in 2017, shattering previous crime records in what local law enforcement officials have called an "epidemic," according to NBC News. Enforcement of those car burglary calls in the City by the Bay is close to non-existent. There are just too many other calls of higher priority, and that's just how the cookie crumbles for those victims. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Mark Twain is credited with popularizing the saying, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics," but like all good poets, he didn't borrowhe stole that line from British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (a.k.a. the 1st Earl of Beaconsfield). This brings me to the central problem with any manner of statistical examination of crime in the United States. Simplyand importantlynumbers lie. We don't know what we don't know. Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data is voluntarily submitted by local police agencies, and not every city provides information to the FBI. Further, how many crimes are committed that are not even reported to local authorities? How many DUIs defy all laws of chemistry, physics, and logiclet alone state or local lawsand find their way home without incident? How many DVs go unreported to police? Those acts of violence and terror are crimesno doubt about itbut countless victims remain silent. How many bar fights occur in America every night? Most of those incidents end with the barman or the bouncer ejecting the combatants with the statement, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!" I know. I was a barman and a bouncer not too many years ago. How many sexual assaults? How many of these crimes happen without anyone other than the victim and the violator knowing about the incident? I'm sick to my stomach just thinking about it. One is too many, but there are undoubtedly thousandsevery year. How many times have American police officerstotally disincentivized to conduct proactive police worksimply rolled past a drug deal going down on a well-known hot corner? So I don't believe the numbersnot even a little bit. Crime is down where cops are encouraged by their citizens to enforce the law. Crime is up in places where the opposite is true. That's how that works. Two Mountains, One Sun Perspective is probably the greatest factor informing a person's perception of a truth. Indulge me... Two mountaineers stand atop two peaks on the east and west sidesrespectivelyof a broad basin. Each climber surveys the vast valley, seeing the gorge full with copses of trees dotting a winding river. The sun is at a high-noondue-south in the skyand long autumn shadows are cast from the high treetops. The hiker on the eastern peak shouts, "Look at how the shadows are cast so beautifully from left to right with the sunlight!" The hiker on the western peak replies, "No! Those shadowsagreeably, so beautifulfall from right to left!" Both individuals are correct, given their relative position to the valley, the sun, and the shadows. The fact of the matter is that the shadows are cast from south to north. How you see things greatly depends on your relative position to what you're seeing. Same with the UCR Report. Nationally, crime is down, according to the FBI. I believe that to be truenationally, the numbers are good. Locally, things get a little differentdepending on where your "local" might be. The Winds and the Weather Above, I mentioned car break-ins in San Francisco. Fog City, my adopted home town, is a fitting metaphor for how reports like the FBI UCR have become an outmoded measure of crime in America. A person residing in the Sunset District may look at the weather report (63 degrees and no chance of precipitation) and know that the truthfor themis that it will be foggy and cold all day. A person residing just five miles east in the Mission Districtreading exactly the same datamay be more worried about getting shot in the crossfire of a gunfight between two rival gangs. Same location. Same information. Different conclusion. Just like the FBI UCR Report. All policinglike all politicsis LOCAL. A former Harris County, TX, deputy constable accused of police brutality was found not guilty Wednesday by a Harris County jury, reports the Houston Chronicle. Jimmy Drummond, 50, was captured on police dash-cam video allegedly kicking the prone and handcuffed David Scherz Jr., then dropping his knee onto the man's back and neck. During the week-and-a-half-long trial, defense attorneys challenged the circumstances surrounding the incident that was on video, saying the veteran officer was a supervisor who arrived at a "chaotic scene" in which several officers were fighting with several family members of a man with mental health issues. Jurors in state District Judge Denise Collins court took just an hour Wednesday to find Drummond not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of official oppression. Defense attorney Sam Cammack said the case never should have gone to trial. If convicted, Drummond would have faced up to a year in prison and the loss of his peace officer's license. Motorized rental scooters have become a common sight in Southern California since their introduction last year, with their share of critics. On Wednesday, Los Angeles officials reported the city's first conviction for scooting under the influence. City Atty. Mike Feuer said his office had secured a misdemeanor conviction against Nicholas Kauffroath, 28, who was riding a Bird scooter on a sidewalk in West L.A. when he knocked a pedestrian to the ground and scooted away to a nearby apartment building without stopping to render aid, reports the Los Angeles Times. When police officers found Kauffroath, Feuer said, his blood-alcohol level was measured at .279, more than three times the legal limit. Kauffroath pleaded no contest to one count of operating a motorized scooter while under the influence, and one count of hit-and-run, officials said. Kauffroath was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $550 fine, Feuer said. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the victim, complete a three-month DUI program, and stay off scooters while drinking. "Drinking while operating a vehicle, a bike or a scooter is not only illegal, but can lead to serious injury or worse," Feuer said in a statement. "This conviction demonstrates our office's continued effort to enforce our drunk driving laws and make our streets and sidewalks safer." The police chief in Rodeza small city about 93 miles northeast of Toulouse, Francewas fatally stabbed by a man who was banned from owning an unregistered pit bull, according to Fox News. Chief Pascale Filoe was transported to a nearby hospital but later died from his injuries. He was a father of three. The unnamed suspect reportedly had threatened police over the dog ban. "The attacker was known to police. He had defaced the city hall door on 11 April," said the mayor of Rodez, Christian Teyssedre. Deputy Mark Stasyuk was shot and killed. Photo: Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. A 38-year-old man on probation for a gun crime has been accused of killing a sheriff's deputy and wounding another in a shootout that started with an argument at an auto parts store in the Sacramento area of California, authorities said Tuesday. Deputies responded to a report of a dispute between a customer and an employee at a Pep Boys in Rancho Cordova in a "routine call" that gave no indication the customer had a gun, Sheriff Scott Jones said. "As soon as they arrived and engaged the subject, he turned as if to run or flee and then immediately turned around and started firing without warning," the sheriff said. Deputy Mark Stasyuk, 27, was shot in the upper body and killed. Deputy Julie Robertson, 28, was hit in the arm but shot back as the attacker fled, reports the Associated Press. Robertson and a bystander who was hit in the crossfire were released from the hospital Tuesday, sheriff's Sgt. Shaun Hampton said. Anton Lemon Moore, who is also known as Anton Lemon Paris, was taken into custody by other officers after a second shootout, Jones said. A Dallas County judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of a former police officer who shot a man he mistook for a burglar, according to the Dallas Morning News. Jurors deliberated for 10 hours before reporting to the judge that they were deadlocked8-4in their deliberations. Derick Wileythen an officer with the Mesquite (TX) Police departmenthad responded to a call from a business owner who reported a suspicious person sitting in a parking lot. Wiley approached the man31-year-old Lyndo Jonesand ordered him from his vehicle. Wiley then reportedly shot Jones, who suffered four broken ribs and a lacerated lung. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office has not said if they will retry the case. Two deputies with the Darke County (OH) Sheriffs Office were injured when a pickup truck collided head on with their patrol vehicle on Thursday afternoon. According to WDTN-TV, the deputies were responding to a call of a possibly impaired driver in a white pickup truck that had swiped several vehicles before swerving off the road and into a ditch. The driver reportedly re-entered the roadway and struck the squad car head-on. The deputies were able to get out of their vehicle and pursue the pickup truck on foot. They secured the driver until more help arrived. The Sheriff's Office says two people who placed the 911 calls stopped to assist the deputies. The Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education is unique in that the board serves both one of the largest K-12 school districts in Michigan, but also Henry Ford College. Because of that, the board has to deal with situations that many other school boards dont typically have to handle. Two seats on the board are open this year. Jim Thorpe is running for re-election, while Roxanne McDonald is looking to return to the board after a short absence. Afaf Ahmad, Billy Amen, Khalil El-Saghir, Aman Fidama, Adel Mozip, and Cyndi Parrelly are each running for their first elected office. The Press & Guide asked each of the candidates the same questions. Below are their responses. P&G: What skills/strengths will you bring as a board trustee that will benefit students attending Dearborn Public Schools and Henry Ford College? Ahmad: I am a strong advocate for quality education for mainstream students, special needs and gifted students alike. I have received several leadership and outstanding activist awards for working with community members on issues such as womens empowerment and childrens rights. I am the recipient of the first place award for an investigative report in the UAE about the importance of the relationship between parents, educators and students in 1998. I am running for school board in Dearborn because I want to work to improve the quality of education for students and parents. Amen: Being a multi-generational product of Dearborn Public Schools, I am eager to give back to the community that made me who I am today. I have been an active member in the community for many years, both as a previous employee of the school district and currently as HYPEs COO, working with the communitys youth for over two decades. Thousands of families have trusted me with their kids as they entered our centers at HYPE to ensure they are developing the necessary skill set to become leaders, provided a safe environment to foster growth and to reach the highest level of success that they can. El-Saghir: My wife and I have two daughters who attend Dearborn Public Schools. I am a decorated U.S. Army veteran, a highly qualified educator (a Ph.D. candidate), and I work as an education consultant at Wayne RESA. I have served on numerous educational organizations and committees, including some at the MDE. I am well versed in educational research and data analysis. As a trustee, my professional skills and strengths would be highly beneficial to the deliberation and decision-making process of the board, which eventually will benefit our K-12 and HFC students population. Please check my website: www.K4Dearborn.com for full biographical information. Fidama: I have a unique life experience which I believe is different from all other candidates and sitting trustees. I was born and raised in Dearborn. I was fortunate to attend Dearborn Public Schools despite social and cultural difficulties. I worked very hard to afford my eight daughters the best education that Dearborn Public Schools and Henry Ford College affords. I lived, dealt with and understand the many challenges that students and their families face as they try to assimilate in our new culture and attain a good education to compete, excel and succeed. McDonald: I am a proven leader, certified by the Michigan Association of School Boards, with the experience and knowledge needed to successfully serve in this vital role. Through school board and community college associations on the county, state and national levels, Ive had countless hours of professional development in education-related subjects, such as legislation, law, strategic planning, assessment, communications, safety and many others. Having been a member of the board, I am well aware of the diverse needs of the population we serve, from challenged to gifted, impoverished to affluent. I was raised with integrity and a strong work ethic. Mozip: I have a deep understanding of the education process and policies we need in place to ensure equal education for all students in our schools and Henry Ford College. I believe our students would benefit from my life experiences as a software entrepreneur, educator and community project organizer. I have a decade of activism in the areas of promoting higher education and environmental justice. I am a Dearborn business owner and a Dearborn schools parent who has and continues to advocate for our students, teachers and staff. Parrelly: I am a lifelong resident of Dearborn and a graduate of Dearborn Schools and Henry Ford College. I recently retired after 30+years at Dearborn Schools and Henry Ford College. I was also the Board of Educations stenographer for 13 years. I spent 10 years working as an executive assistant to two college presidents. I have extensive knowledge with board policy, issues, etc. Thorpe: I have been actively working with the school district since 2003 including serving on the Board of Trustees. I have become a certified board member by the Michigan Association of School Boards. I am an alumni of Leadership Detroit. I have always been willing to volunteer and donate to charitable causes like the Dearborn Education Foundation, Goodfellows and animal shelter. I have built a reputation as being honest, trustworthy and dependable. P&G: What specific improvements need to be made to ensure students at all levels succeed? Ahmad: We must set the bar higher for all students to ensure success. There is no reason for our students to take remedial classes after high school to reach college-level courses. I would like to see students challenged in the classroom to succeed. We can only accomplish this at all levels if we begin in early elementary. Not all students learn the same way or at the same level. We must provide teachers with the necessary resources and help to challenge every student Amen: Dearborn, one of the largest districts within the state, continues to struggle to bring together a strong curriculum to our classrooms, and a strong curriculum is a foundation to a successful school. Our teachers, while some of the best in the country, meet many challenges regarding curriculum and I will work to replicate the successes we have district-wide to ensure were aligned. Also, college-readiness is an issue that we will continue to see moving forward unless we implement broad changes and dedicated programming to this. Currently, 94 percent of our students are graduating, but less than a quarter are deemed ready for college. El-Saghir: At the elementary level, we need to close the significantly wide gap in ELA proficiency among our students, especially the third graders. Having smaller classroom size and ELA interventionists are among the measures that need to be considered. We also need to pay more attention to the academic achievement of our middle schools students. We should look closely at the student-to-counselor/social worker ratio. The greatest challenge, however, is the low level of our high school students college and career readiness. I recommend hiring .5 FTE counselor per high school to improve readiness and adequately deal with behavioral issues. Fidama: I truly believe that our students need to be educated in a healthy and safe environment. Academic excellence cant be achieved in the absence of a healthy and safe setting. Some of our schools are a century old. Some of them are crumbling and badly need updating. We need to address the infrastructure needs and the safety of our students in all schools. While we do that, we have to be always fiscally responsible and not overburden Dearborn taxpayers. We should re-evaluate the food that we are providing in school cafeterias and make sure its nutritionally healthy. McDonald: Budget cuts have led to increased class sizes and decreases in vital social service. Dearborn has done better than most districts in combating these trends. Teachers, can identify student needs/challenges and better manage smaller classrooms. Detecting social, emotional and mental health issues early can impact all students and provide a safer learning environment. I believe investing in health and social services increases student success and will always consider how decisions impact classrooms. Given the cost of higher education, I wish to expand our tuition-free programs and provide more opportunities, like skilled trades, for students seeking alternatives to traditional college. Mozip: Extensive re-evaluation of our programs and follow-up with professional development sessions provided to teachers will ensure that each student is given an opportunity to make individual growth and succeed at their level. Student success comes through excellent teachers, respectful educational environments and supportive parents. If the district excels in recruiting and retaining effective educators, improves parent engagement and offers creative programs, we will pave the way to effective student success. My top priority for Henry Ford College is retaining students and full-time professors. Many of our students are leaving Henry Ford College to go to other community colleges and the number of full-time professors is below what is expected for quality instruction. Parrelly: Specifically, test results need to improve and students need to be prepared better for college success. Also, state funding needs to better allocate funds. Thorpe: As a board member, I have focused on limiting the amount of testing for K-12 students, believing that it takes away from teachers being able to teach. I have also pushed for the district to add air conditioning to sections of buildings to provide relief. At HFC, I am watching the finances closely to see how we can keep tuition rates low for our students as well as looking at ways to update buildings on campus. P&G: Why are you seeking election and what is the one reason people should vote for you? Ahmad: I am seeking election because I want a quality education that is equal for all students at Dearborn Public Schools. Not all students learn at the same pace, but all students require more funding to learn adequately. I would like to be a strong voice for students, teachers and parents on the school board. Elected officials sometimes forget who they are working for once they are elected. I want to ensure that our school board is held accountable for all decisions made on behalf of students and taxpayers alike. Amen: My entire adult life has been rooted in enhancing the lives of the thousands of kids who come through our doors at HYPE on a daily basis. Im honored for each week Im able to protect, program for, budget and mentor almost 2,000 of our youth throughout the county. The school board platform allows me to effectuate change and uphold standards in a place (the classroom) and a time (their youth) where children from their most habitual thoughts and behaviors. While I am not a parent, I have been a guardian and resource that many children (and their families) in this district have called on for help, assistance and to find a better way to succeed academically. El-Saghir: I am seeking election to a seat on the school board because I want to serve our community in the best way I can, and know how that is as an experienced and qualified educator. My professional background, be it in education or the military, will allow me to bring to the table fresh ideas and to support those ideas with credible and relevant data and robust research-based evidence. As the only certified teacher and qualified educator on the ballot, I am humbly and hopefully seeking peoples endorsement and vote to win one of the two seats on the board. Fidama: I am running for the Dearborn Board of Education because I believe the greatest opportunity we have to shape our future is by investing in our youth. This is my first time running for public office and Im excited to take on this challenge. As the mother of 8 daughters who benefited from the quality education we have in our city, I feel it is time for me to give back. Throughout the years, I have donated my time and skills to teach ESL classes, tutor students and provide translation services. I have reached a point in my life where I have more time to give and Ive chosen this position because I believe my experiences can help improve the district and benefit our students. McDonald: I have a heart for service and a passion for education. I am engaged and involved in this community and devote my time and talents to making a positive impact on the city I love. I wish to return to the board to continue preparing students for a rewarding and successful future. It was a great honor to personally congratulate thousands of new graduates as they moved on to their next adventure. Aside from my experience, I have been a community leader for decades and Im very proud of the stellar reputation I have built. Character does matter. Mozip: Education is the key to opportunity in society and I plan to utilize and build relationships with families, stakeholders and local leaders in our community to maximize the potential that our education system can provide. Being a representative on this board will help build strength and confidence in every student we service that will lead them to success. I hope to earn the trust of the voters to make a positive impact in our schools and Henry Ford College. Parrelly: I am seeking election because I have made it my life and career to help students be successful. I recently retired and would like to continue to be a part of the decision making and problem-solving. Thorpe: I am seeking re-election because as a parent, Dearborn business owner and taxpayer, I have a vested interest in the success of the schools and college. I will continue to do what is best for all students and residents, not just certain groups. P&G: What one thing do you want your constituents to know about you? Ahmad: I want constituents to know that I will not be quick to make decisions without proper research. I will work for my constituents and I will be transparent in all of my decisions on the board. I will be accessible and accountable while serving on the school board. I have no hidden agendas. I do not work for political action committees and I am not using the school board as a stepping stone to better my political career. I am running to serve my constituents and will do so equally. Amen: Protecting and ensuring a culture for the future of our children in which there are no barriers to their education is everything I ever wanted to commit to. I am a proud product of the Dearborn school system. My mother is a Dearborn Schools employee at the Admin Building, my sisters live in the district, my father is a retired Ford Employee and UAW man of over 35 years. This school district has offered us every opportunity we have been given. I am here today answering my call to duty to serve this district and the thousands of kids within it to ensure a safe, productive, engaging and adaptive learning culture for our families. El-Saghir: One thing I want my constituents to know about me, and to remember when they cast their vote, is that the only reason Im running for this position is because I want to serve our children, our families, our teachers and our community. Just as I proudly and honorably served our nation during peace and war as a soldier, I promise to serve our community, honestly and transparently, as a trustee. Fidama: Quality education and fiscal responsibility will always be my focus. We need to constantly look at ways to improve the delivery of education while not over burdening the taxpayers and residents. I will be diligent and reviewing all programs for effectiveness and making sure resources are allocated appropriately. McDonald: I pride myself in being open-minded, respectful and having a knack for understanding all sides of an issue. I believe in compromise and working together to find the best solution to a problem. My tenure on the board was defined by good governance, fiscal responsibility and academic excellence. This spring, I was honored to receive the Gene Brazell Community Role Model Award at the Henry Ford College Womens Recognition Luncheon. Mozip: One thing that I want my constituents to know about me is that I am a great listener and doer. If I earn the voters trust to be on the Dearborn school board, I will listen to your ideas and concerns, value your opinion and take them into high consideration when making decisions on their behalf. I will use a voice of reason and good judgment to make tough decisions keeping only in mind the best interests of our students, teachers, staff and community. Parrelly: Specifically, test results need to improve and students need to be prepared better for college success. Also, state funding needs to better allocate funds. Thorpe: When I set a goal, I do everything in my power to achieve it. I dont easily accept no as an answer, I believe anything reasonable is possible. P&G: Describe your decision-making process when considering difficult issues. Ahmad: My first step in considering a difficult issue is to study the issue carefully. I will never vote on a decision that I have not educated myself on thoroughly. I will look into the needs of my constituents and listen to their reasoning for the decision, and I will look into the the history if any exists on this issue. If it is a budget issue, I will do all of the necessary homework and study the numbers prior to making a decision. I will always be an independent thinker when voting on decisions. Amen: Great leaders understand the impact of their decisions on others. This is a school of thought I religiously prescribe to. I am a firm believer that tough decisions only become tougher when you do not utilize the resources available to you. This includes the necessity to include all impacted at the table when discussing how to address or handle all issues not just difficult issues. Dealing with difficult issues is a direct product of the environment youve created in the first place. El-Saghir: When considering difficult issues that may impact the community, it is extremely important to have input from all stakeholders. No group of citizens should be left out of the decision-making process, including those who may not agree with the output. This is especially so for school-related decisions because the long-term commitments and the consequences would eventually affect the future of the entire community. Furthermore, we cannot expect students to learn about and adopt our democratic values if, in practice, we dont adhere to those values and foster open and transparent deliberation and fair decision-making process. Fidama: When asked to make a difficult decision on any subject that deals with our schools and the future of our students, I will first gather all the facts and listen carefully to the opinion of the experts. Once all the necessary information and data is collected, then I will be able to make an informed decision based on the best interest of our schools, the students, the city and nothing else. McDonald: When making difficult decisions, I will always consider how that decision will impact our students and individual classrooms. I continually read and try to stay informed. Its also important to be engaged and have a feel for the views of the constituents you serve. Often, as a board member, youll be presented with several alternatives and related information, weigh the alternatives and determine which one makes the most sense. Its rare, but because this board serves both the district and the college, its also important to consider if a decision being made will negatively impact the other institution. Mozip: The decisions we make today will help build the foundation and shape the future of our world. Difficult issues come before the Board of Education and as a software engineer, my decision-making process begins with listening to the people on the issues, defining and outlining the problem, identifying and seeking possible solutions, discussing the possible solutions with all stakeholders and subject matter experts. The last step is selecting the optimal solution as well as implementation and follow up to see if the solution selected successfully resolves the issue. Voters can visit my website www.adelmozip.com to learn more about my candidacy. Parrelly: I would not make any rash decisions first and foremost. I will study the facts, look at both sides of an issue, ask the necessary questions, weigh the fiscal responsibility, and ultimately do the right thing. Thorpe: As a certified financial planner, I have worked in a fiduciary capacity for years, doing what is in the clients best interest. I will continue to work to determine what is in the best interest of our students, employees and taxpayers. I listen to everyone and gather facts to help me come to the best decision and then explain my thinking so people can understand my reasoning. MUMBAI, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Centaur Pharmaceuticals, the leaders in the anti-cold segment, recently conducted the 'Common Cold Awareness Week', a nation-wide campaign from September 10th to 15th, 2018 to mark 'Anti-cold Day' on September 15th. The campaign aimed to raise awareness about common cold with the intent to avoid self-medication and urged people to consult a doctor. Common cold is an acute condition with symptoms like congestion or runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, sore throat, loss of appetite, low fever, headaches, earache, nausea sensation, etc. Many people tend to ignore it or take medicines on their own. Such acute conditions cause substantial productivity loss and missed school days because of high prevalence in related age groups. Over a decade, Centaur has been undertaking the 'Common Cold Awareness Week' campaign to prevent people from self medication and encourage them to consult a doctor. Speaking on this occasion Mr. S. D. Sawant, Chairman and Managing Director, Centaur Pharmaceuticals, said, "Centaur has been a leader in the cold category with its brand 'Sinarest' and its extensions. Over the years, we have observed that self-medication has been on the rise. As a category leader, we thought it is our responsibility to educate the consumers and that is the reason we have been organising the Anti-cold awareness week. We have been extremely pleased that with the changing times, we have used digital media to propagate the campaign this year." Centaur launched an online Facebook community page - Nosipedia, to help spread the word with a viral video that has already crossed over 1 lakh views. As a part of the drive, the entire field force reached out to approximately 1 lakh doctors and 25 lakh patients through their clinics, spreading awareness about common cold and the right way to deal with it. The team also conducted school and college contact programmes, in-clinic promotions and also worked closely with leading doctors to help spread the word. Mr. Sawant further added, "Currently, on Google there are over 2 lakh searches every month about the category 'common cold', which clearly indicates that people wanted authentic information. So we co-created this digital campaign 'Nosipedia' along with doctors and launched the first of its kind digital initiative to create awareness." Centaur Pharma plans to continue with this effort round the year and continue to create awareness about the category. About Centaur Pharmaceuticals Centaur Pharmaceuticals was founded in 1978 and today is one of the Top 50 pharmaceutical companies in India. It ranks among India's few, fully integrated pharmaceutical firms with proficiencies across API, R&D, CRAM, Clinical Research and formulations, and exports to 96 countries. Centaur has four manufacturing facilities two of which are USFDA approved. Centaur markets Sinarest, India's No.1 anti-cold brand since 1996. Centaur has won the AWACS- Brand of the Year Award consecutively for the last four years. Refe rences: Media Contact: Rohan Talukdar, [email protected], +91-8689826350, +91(0)22-26120796 Account Executive, MediaMedic Communications Pvt. Ltd. SOURCE Centaur Pharmaceuticals The task force was established in May through a strategic alliance with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to apply Locus Chain at the national level in relation to national resource development projects, distribution systems and financial systems. The plan is an advanced, concrete stage. The task force, which consists local experts and senior executives and key developers from Locus Chain Foundation, is responsible for minimizing errors and ultimately developing e-government systems based on blockchains. The partnership agreement was signed at the government offices of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by representatives of Theore Mugalu, the Chief Secretary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Congo Central Bank and the Treasury Secretary, as well as representatives from the mining industry. They discussed collaboration opportunities to support the task force organization as well as the establishment of the local Locus Chain Foundation Research Institute. The project begins with the complete blockchaining of four government systems' databases. The Locus Chain blockchain platform will be applied to the national resource development, production and distribution process systems -- which are the main industries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- as well as the central bank management system. The project will also build systems necessary for national management, including the security of social welfare such as agriculture, manufacturing, services, medical care, crime prevention and community. These systems will also be based on blockchain technology. SangYoon Lee, Chairman of Locus Chain Foundation, said, "In consultation with government officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we came to the conclusion that the task force organization -- comprised of Congolese experts and and the local subsidiary of Locus Chain -- will deliver important quality control by establishing and promoting the project. We thank the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for promising its full support for the establishment of a local corporation, including tax benefits." Mr. Lee added "If the e-government system construction project based on Locus Chain's blockchain technology is successfully completed, it will play a critical role in accelerating rapid development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the world's most resource rich countries, as well as contributing to the national interest." About Locus Chain Foundation Locus Chain Foundation Pte, Ltd. was set up in Singapore in 2018, to develop a Blockchain-based platform and related business. Built by a team of Korean developers, international partners and advisors, the Locus Chain Foundation will offer affordable access to a reliable, secure platform that ensures accountability and transparency. With offices in Singapore, Seoul and Dubai, the company has a global footprint and partnerships to realize its plan to become the blockchain solution for international businesses and global citizens. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180928/2251681-1 SOURCE Locus Chain Foundation Pte, Ltd. MUMBAI, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SPJIMR has launched its first executive management programme from the Delhi campus, bringing the institute's innovative teaching-learning pedagogy and its reputed faculty to participants based in and around the national capital. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/688342/SPJIMR_Logo.jpg ) The new offering is the Post Graduate Programme in General Management (PGP-GM), a two-year alternate weekend programme that stands as the flagship of SPJIMR's Delhi Centre. The first batch of the programme was inaugurated on Sept. 22 with participants from companies such as HCL Technologies, One97 Communications Ltd. (Paytm), HSBC, IL&FS, Philips, along with participants from SPJIMR's long-standing corporate partners, Mahindra & Mahindra and Cummins. Dr. Ranjan Banerjee, Dean, SPJIMR said, "SPJIMR is known for its teaching quality, high level of industry relevance and a strong component of learning by doing. This is reflected in the success of our executive management programme in Mumbai, which has over 1500 successful alumni. The same high quality content, delivered by the same faculty is brought to you in a weekend format through the PGP-GM. This is the first in a series of programmes catering to lifelong learning that we will bring through our Delhi centre." Dr. Preeta George, Chairperson of the PGP-GM said that the new programme is an offshoot of SPJIMR's highly successful executive management programme, the PGEMP, which is now in its 17th year. The idea of launching a weekend programme in Delhi came from discussions with various stakeholders and the expansion plans for the executive programme to serve new markets, said Dr. George. The SPJIMR Delhi Centre Head, Dr Ruppal Walia Sharma, said, "The first batch of PGP-GM is an important milestone in the journey of the SPJIMR Delhi Centre and also in the journey of each of the participants. We hope to build on our existing relationships and create a knowledge hub for academia industry integration in the heart of Delhi." Present at the inauguration were SPJIMR faculty members from Mumbai along with the Chief Guest Ms Carmishtha Mitra, Vice President - Human Resources, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mr. Ashok Pradhan, Director - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Delhi Kendra and Mr. Krishnakumar, CEO - Everest Industries Ltd., who is also an alumnus of PGEMP Batch 1. SPJIMR's Delhi Centre is located within the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan campus at Kasturba Gandhi Marg. It has 13,000 sq. feet of classrooms, meeting rooms and lounge areas. The PGP-GM will run on alternate Saturdays and Sundays with teaching by faculty based in Delhi and faculty members who will fly in from Mumbai for the programme. The SPJIMR Delhi Centre became operational in January 2018 and has since been the venue for several Management Development Programmes (MDPs) and Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs). In recent years, SPJIMR has sharpened its focus on executive education as the school reaches out to more businesses in accordance with its mission of 'Influencing Practice' and 'Promoting Value-based Growth'. About SPJIMR S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) (http://www.spjimr.org ) is a constituent of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and is ranked among the top ten business schools in India. As a premier school of management, SPJIMR is noted for pedagogic innovations and pioneering programmes, which have helped the Institute, stand out for its unique and distinctive path in management education. SPJIMR's mission is to 'influence practice' and 'promote value-based growth'. The Institute currently operates from its 45-acre campus in Andheri, Mumbai, and a campus in New Delhi. To avoid confusing us with any other institution, look for the five strokes logo and the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan association. Media Contact: Prof. Abbasali Gabula [email protected] +91-9821362495 Associate Director, External Relations S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research SOURCE S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research NEW DELHI, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Managing Partner at TRA Law, Anirudh Rastogi, has launched Ikigai Law to sharpen the practice focus on technology and innovation-led businesses. Ikigai, a Japanese philosophy, is the intersection of what one is good at (skills), what one loves doing (passion) and what the world needs - the 'reason for being'. Rastogi says, "We believe that our work stands at this intersection, in representing impactful businesses and technologies that bring value to the world around us." Rastogi's role in the finalisation of recently issued guidelines for the 'operation of drones', called 'pioneering' by the Economic Times, which is clearly an example of this. Change agents helping Companies do cutting-edge work Rastogi and his team of 14 lawyers at Ikigai were instrumental in setting up Koinex, India's first multi-crypto exchange and advising on Team Indus' spacecraft launch contract with ISRO. Amongst other technology companies, his team has worked with Unicorn startups such as food-delivery platform Swiggy and online -education platform Udacity, and cutting-edge technology ventures such as the Hyperloop India-student team. They have a heavy client base in the e-commerce, fin-tech and health-tech sectors, with practices ranging from investments, corporate law, litigation, IP and public policy. The firm currently represents four crypto-exchanges in the Supreme Court in a petition challenging the RBI's ban on banking for the crypto industry. Harvard Alumni - Bridging the gap between Law and Policy Rastogi will lead the investments and general corporate team at the firm and recently advised on Flyrobe's Series B fundraise from Sequoia and IDG Ventures. Nehaa Chaudhari who led Public Policy at TRA Law will continue to lead the same team at Ikigai Law. The team has been heavily involved in the regulatory developments around data privacy, blockchain, and drones in India. Harvard alums Rastogi and Chaudhari's public policy practice has been playing an important role in consolidating industry opinion on the recently issued draft data protection bill for submission to the government. Rastogi believes that public policy is 'one part law and two part communication' and effective representation requires expertise in both. Ishita Shome, an attorney with multi-jurisdictional experience of working in Dubai and the US, has recently joined the Ikigai team to focus on clients based in the UAE and broader MENA region. Rastogi was named Achiever of the Year 2017 by Business World and is the author of a book on cyber laws. About Ikigai Law Ikigai Law is a law firm that specializes in representing technology businesses and investors, and startups to more mature companies focussed on new business models. Ikigai works with its clients on Private Equity and Venture Capital investment transactions, Mergers and Acquisitions and other commercial transactions, intellectual property, regulatory and policy issues, and disputes. The firm's work is at the intersection of law, policy, regulation, technology and business, engaging with crucial issues such as data protection, privacy, net neutrality, a regulatory framework for crypto-currencies and unmanned aviation (drones), among others. The team at Ikigai was named 'knowledgeable', 'influential' and 'effective' by The Legal 500, a directory of leading law firms globally and has been awarded for its social impact, innovation and work for start-ups year after year by Idex Legal. For more information please visit: http://www.ikigailaw.com . Media Contact: Anirudh Rastogi Founder +91-9899144333 [email protected] Surbhi Goel Head of Operations +91-8527388884 Ikigai Law [email protected] SOURCE Ikigai Law Senior Stamps.com manager to lead strategic direction following acquisition LONDON, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MetaPack, the global leader in e-commerce delivery technology, has today announced that John Clem, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Stamps.com will also act as General Manager of MetaPack with immediate effect. He will be responsible for steering the business following the company's acquisition by Stamps.com, the leading provider of postage online and shipping software solutions, in July. John Clem has been on the senior management team at Stamps.com for fifteen years and prior to his most recent role, which he took up in 2012, he was Vice President, Product and Service Operations for six years. He has also served as Director of Corporate Strategy and as a Director of Marketing where he led the launch of Stamps.com's Package Insurance and PhotoStamps products. Before joining Stamps.com, John Clem was a management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton and also worked as an engineer and manager in the petrochemical and utilities industries. John Clem, who is moving from the company's California headquarters to be based at MetaPack's offices in London, is taking on the responsibilities of Steve Rowley, formerly Executive Chairman at MetaPack, who is now leaving the company. The extensive knowledge that John Clem brings to the role, not just in terms of his experiences with Stamps.com, but also in his ability to devise and implement business strategy, will deliver invaluable and insightful leadership for MetaPack as it expands as part of Stamps.com. Ken McBride, Chairman and CEO, Stamps.com, said: "John has been a very important element in the growth of Stamps.com, not least because of his deep understanding of eCommerce delivery. He has designed many of our new shipping features over the last five years, and they have been instrumental in Stamps.com's success in the U.S. market. We now fully expect John to bring that expertise to his management of MetaPack, working together with Founder Patrick Wall and with the executive team to fulfil our ambitious plans for the future." About MetaPack Founded in 1999, MetaPack helps e-commerce and delivery professionals to meet with the consumer's growing expectations of delivery, whilst maintaining and optimising operational efficiency. MetaPack's SaaS solution offers a wide range of personalised delivery services, from global order tracking to simplified return procedures, through a catalogue of 450 carriers and 5,000 services available that span every country in the world. Thanks to MetaPack, more than 550 million packages are sent annually by many of the world's leading e-commerce retailers. MetaPack is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stamps.com (Nasdaq: STMP). SOURCE MetaPack TBILISI, Georgia, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 27, UnionPay International signed collaboration agreements with four major institutions from Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia respectively. The Chinese Ambassador to Georgia, Mr. Ji Yanchi and Vice President of the Central Bank of Georgia, Mr. Archil Mestvirishvili, were present to extend their congratulation. Mr. Cai Jianbo, CEO of UnionPay International, and heads of the institutions attended the signing ceremony. According to the agreements, Basisbank will issue UnionPay Diamond cards in Georgia and will introduce UnionPay QR code payment service for the first time in the country. ATF Bank will issue 200,000 UnionPay cards in the next 3 years in Kazakhstan, launch UnionPay QR code payment for the first time locally, and develop a local e-wallet product based on the UnionPay technical standards. Bank Ipak Yuli will issue 500,000 UnionPay-UZ co-brand cards in three years, expanding the use of UZ cards from Uzbekistan to UnionPay's global network. Rosselkhozbank will carry out joint marketing promotion with UnionPay International to attract more Russian customers to sign up for UnionPay cards. Cai Jianbo said, with UnionPay's acceptance in Eurasia constantly expanding, UnionPay's ability to serve the payment demands brought by personnel exchanges between China and the region continues to enhance. Based on its acceptance network, UnionPay is speeding up the local issuance of UnionPay cards and the rollout of UnionPay innovative products, enhancing the payment experience of local customers and supporting the upgrading of the payment industry in the region. UnionPay is willing to further leverage its advantages in payment technology, products, standards and network to provide better services to local partners as well as customers. To be more specific, UnionPay will: first, promote collaboration in network building and standards cooperation to enhance comprehensive payment service ability; second, promote cross-border cooperation in acceptance, issuance and mobile payment to facilitate the payment interconnection; third, promote cooperation in services of clearing, data analysis and risk management. So far, UnionPay's acceptance coverage in Central Asia has reached 70%, and it is expected to reach 90% within three years. UnionPay will also reach 100% acceptance in Russia this year. Based on UnionPay's increasing improving acceptance environment, 6 countries in Central Asia have issued UnionPay cards and over 10 banks in Russia have issued more than 1.5 million UnionPay cards. In some countries, over 90% of the transactions made with locally-issued UnionPay cards happen locally, proving that UnionPay card is becoming a new payment option of the local customers. Moreover, Russia has become a "demonstration market" for UnionPay's contactless payment, with over 1 million POS terminals accepting UnionPay mobile QuickPass. Local customers will also be able to enjoy UnionPay mobile QuickPass service soon. In Georgia, the acceptance coverage of UnionPay has exceeded 80%, and the scale of card issuance is expanding continuously. Ji Yanchi said that the economic and trade exchanges between China and Georgia are becoming increasingly close. UnionPay International's in-depth cooperation with local financial institutions is encouraged for it will help realize payment interconnection between the two countries. Archil Mestvirishvili said, Georgian enterprises, merchants, and residents need convenient payment services. UnionPay is welcome to bring more mobile payment products to Georgia and to boost more financial innovation in the country. In the five years since the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative, UnionPay International is carrying out deeper and wider collaboration with relative countries and regions. As of August this year, UnionPay is available in more than 60 Belt and Road countries and regions, covering more than 5.7 million merchants and more than 680,000 ATMs. More than 35 million UnionPay cards are issued in the region, 20 times more than the number before the proposal of the initiative. UnionPay International is also assisting 12 countries and regions along the Belt and Road to build local switch networks. SOURCE UnionPay International If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Crimson Cup Won Six Medals As a roaster that distributes coffee nationally and internationally, Crimson Cups reputation depends on the quality of our coffee. Were proud that our coffee continues to be judged among the best in North America by our roasting peers. Columbus coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea won six medals at the fourth annual Golden Bean North America roasting competition. Competing in a field of over 900 entries from 500 roasters, Crimson Cup won silver medals for its Wayfarer Blend, Ethiopian Kossa Kebena, Tired Goat Blend, 1959 Colombia Mokka and Oxapampa Peru Gesha coffees. Wayfarer Blend also won a bronze medal. The contest took place Sept. 19 through Sept. 22 at the Double Tree by Hilton hotel in Portland, Oregon. Crimson Cups entries were selected for Golden Bean judging by Coffee Sourcing and Education Director Brandon Bir, who also served as one of five category judges for the competition. As a roaster that distributes coffee nationally and internationally, Crimson Cups reputation depends on the quality of our coffee, Bir said. Were proud that our coffee continues to be judged among the best in North America by our roasting peers. Crimson Cup was named 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year by Roast magazine. Its Ethiopian Kossa Kebena coffee won a 2017 Good Food Award, and its Wayfarer Blend has brought home trophies from the Americas Best Espresso competitions at Coffee Fest New York and Coffee Fest Chicago as well as the 2016 and 2017 Golden Bean North America competitions. At the Golden Bean contest, coffees in 10 different categories and brew methods were judged through blind tasting by roasters attending the event. Crimson Cup won medals in all five categories that it entered. Wayfarer Blend won a silver medal in the Franchise/Chain Milk-Based Espresso category and a bronze medal in the Franchise/Chain Espresso category. Wayfarer, which means traveler, is blended from a rotating selection of current-crop coffees. The blend currently has Heirloom and Bourbon varietals cultivated at elevations of 1,700 to 2,000 meters. Lightly roasted, Wayfarer Blend melds the syrupy, rich and smooth notes of tree nuts and chocolate with bright accents of exotic fruits. Ethiopia Kossa Kebena won a silver medal in the Single Origin Espresso category. Directly traded through Crimson Cups Friend2Farmer program, Ethiopian Kossa Kebena grows in Western Ethiopias Limmu Kossa District, in the highlands of the Kebena forest. Heirloom varietals grown at an altitude of 1,900 to 2,100 meters are naturally processed on raised beds to produce this outstanding coffee. Tired Goat blend won a silver medal in the category of Decaffeinated/Milk Blend. Comprised of Fair Trade Organic Swiss water processed decaffeinated coffees from Central America, South America and Indonesia, this blend offers a clean and balanced cup that is perfect for a use in a drip brewer or pour-over. Two new Crimson Cup coffees Cafe 1959 Colombian Mokka and Oxapampa Peru Gesha both won silver medals in the Franchise/Chain Filter category. Crimson Cup sourced the coffees through its Friend2Farmer direct trade program. Cafe 1959 Colombia Mokka comes from La Sedelia Estate & Cafe 1959 in Colombia, where it grows at elevations of 2,150 meters. This cherry-dried coffee displays tasting notes of strawberry, cherry and caramel. Bir discovered Oxapampa Gesha coffee through NARSA (NEGOCIACIONES AGROINDUSTRIAL AREVALO S. A.), a private co-op founded by Don Julio Abel Arevalo Tello that assists Peruvian small-plot coffee farmers in marketing their coffee. Farmer Hector Portocarrero grows the coffee at elevations of 1,750 meters. This cherry-dried coffee has tasting notes of tropical fruit, watermelon, and pomegranate. The award-winning Wayfarer Blend, Ethiopian Kossa Kebena and Tired Goat Blend coffees are currently available at Crimson Cup Coffee Houses in Columbus and Tallmadge, Ohio. Both Cafe 1959 Colombian Mokka and Oxapampa Peru Gesha coffees will be featured on the coffeehouse brew bars in the coming weeks. About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea Columbus, Ohio coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea is Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year. Since 1991, Crimson Cup has roasted sustainably sourced specialty and craft coffee in small batches, which it sells directly to consumers and as wholesale coffee beans. The company also teaches entrepreneurs to run successful coffee houses through its coffee franchise alternative program, which includes a coffee shop business plan. Crimson Cup coffee is available through a community of more than 350 independent coffee houses, grocers, college and universities, restaurants and food service operations across 37 states, Guam and Bangladesh, as well as the companys own Crimson Cup Coffee Houses. To learn more, visit crimsoncup.com. Last week, Russia just wrapped up the Vostok-2018 strategic military exercise. On September 24, Russia launched another large-scale military drill involving over 1,000 soldiers, nearly 10 warships and more than 50 aircraft in the Black Sea. The frequent military exercises held by Russia have attracted the attention from the international community. In fact, military exercises around the world have grown significantly in number and frequency in recent years. Russias Vostok-2018 is just one of the prominent ones. From a global perspective, military exercises are held regularly and they have become a phenomenon which attracted wide attention. There is almost a straight line in the increase of the number of military exercises, a natural reaction to the threat of war. The US has maintained a certain frequency and intensity of outbound military use in recent years. More and more countries feel that the constant threat of war from the US will inevitably lead to an increase in geopolitical tension and bring some countries potential direct conflicts or risk of war. During the Cold War, the world was divided into two major groups, and the security of each group was guaranteed by the countries that played a leading role. However, the group confrontation has disappeared after the Cold War. As a result, many countries have to rely almost entirely on themselves to stay safe. Even some US allies are under pressure to continuously improve their armaments and overall defense capabilities. Thus, it is not surprising to see that more and more countries are willing to conduct military exercises and continue to strengthen their defense capability through military exercises in response to potential direct conflicts or strategic geopolitical threat. In addition, through globalization, national interests of individual countries continue to expand overseas. More and more countries are trying to promote and demonstrate their defense capability in order to protect their overseas interests through national or international military exercises. In the process of strengthening their own defense capabilities, countries attach special importance to the improvement of the combat effectiveness of the armed forces. An important method to improve combat effectiveness in normal times is to continuously introduce new weapons and equipment for the military. Nowadays, the speed of upgrading weapons and equipment is constantly accelerating. Therefore, military exercise is a necessary method to test the performance of weapons and equipment and transform them into combat power. Enhancing the combat effectiveness of the armed forces and demonstrating and testing the performance of weapons have become an important bargaining chip among countries who pursue their own interests or face direct conflict and war. Although globalization has promoted the interrelationships and even dependence among countries, competition for national interests has never disappeared and indeed it has become more complex and subtle. Some countries still rely on military power in such competition. Because in a peaceful time, bargaining based on military power to achieve better outcome and compromises often happen. This is also one of the reasons why the number of military exercises has been significantly increased after the Cold War, especially in recent years. Actually, the US strong military power has been supporting its achievement of political and economic goals. In this context, the future of military exercises may deeply influence the establishment of relations among countries and the formation of balance of power. In the context of global integration, how to build relations among countries while expanding domestic interests and strengthening integration with others? That requires an in-depth understanding of each other. In addition to ordinary various bilateral exchanges and interactions, military exercises have become an important means of understanding the dynamics of other countries, especially military developments. Military exercises can convey the strategic intentions to other countries and can also understand the strategic intentions of the counter party. Military exercises can demonstrate the strength of the host country, especially the military strength, but can also help understand the strength of the other side. Therefore, military exercises have become normal military activities. Disclaimer: The author is Han Xudong, professor with the Strategic Department of the PLA National Defense University. The article is published on the Global Times and translated from Chinese into English by the China Military online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Chinamil.com.cn does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Lawsuit against Vneshprombanks former head to reach Moscow court once more RIA Novosti, Kirill Kallinikov 10:59 28/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 28 (RAPSI) The Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow will once more decide whether to review a lawsuit against former president of Vneshprombank Larisa Markus sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for embezzling 113.5 billion rubles (about $2 billion), as prescribed by the appellate ruling of the Moscow City Court. The Moscow City Court granted an appeal filed by the Industrial Agricultural Bank and overturned the lower courts ruling to dismiss the lawsuit against Markus as well as Vneshprombanks former vice-president Yekaterina Glushakova. The bank sought to lift seizure from real estate, but the lower court noted that the seizure was imposed as part of the case and as such should be reviewed as part of criminal proceedings. In May 2017, Markus was sentenced to 9 years in prison for embezzling 113.5 billion rubles and later was declared bankrupt on the request of VTB24 bank. In August, her sentence was reduced by 6 months. Investigators believe that Markus along with her brother Georgy Bedzhamov, who once co-owned Vneshprombank, created an organized crime group to siphon money from the bank. The group including former vice-president of the bank Yekaterina Glushakova allegedly granted loans to sub-companies and did not refund money to Vneshprombank. Allegedly, from May 2009 to December 2015, conspirators managed to embezzle about 114 billion rubles. Glushakova has been sentenced to 4 years in prison. Bedzhamov has been put on the international wanted list. An arrest warrant has been issued for him in absentia. The Moscow court also ruled that the lawsuit filed by Vneshprombank against the defendants is to be reviewed as part of civil proceedings. Brother of ex-Dagestan head detained for two months TASS, Musa Salgereyev 14:45 28/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 28 (RAPSI) A court in Makhachkala on Friday placed Radzhab Abdulatipov, the brother of ex-head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov and lawmaker of the republics People's Assembly, in detention for two months, the press service of Russias Investigative Committee reported. According to the Investigative Committee, Abdulatipov is suspected of participation in a criminal gang. The gang members allegedly took bribes for illegal disability confirmation for citizens. Moreover, they were involved in forgery, investigators stated. If convicted, Abdulatipov could face up to 10 years in prison. Earlier, the chief of the republican medical and social assessment service Magomed Makhachev was arrested as part of the case. VTB bank seeks to recover $6.5 mln from subsidiary of troubled Summa Group RIA Novosti, Sergey Pyatakov 15:59 28/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 28 (RAPSI) One of the largest Russian banks, VTB, has filed an application with the Moscow Commercial Court seeking to include a 429.9-million-ruble ($6.5 million) debt of GlobalElectroService company, a subsidiary of the troubled Summa Group, in the creditors demands list, the court documents read. The case will be heard on January 29, 2019. In August, the court initiated a monitoring procedure against the company on the request of NT-Com Engineering. On March 31, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow detained businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov charged with organizing a criminal group and large-scale fraud. During the court hearing, an investigator noted that there are four more defendants in the case with two of them hiding in the United Arab Emirates. Magomedov himself vehemently denied wrongdoing and said that all of his actions served development of his business. The defendants lawyer Maria Belyavskaya said that there is no indication that Magomedov committed a crime as an individual and as a businessman he may be only suspected of economic crimes. Investigators believe that Magomedov organized a gang and embezzled 2.5 billion rubles ($43.5 million) from the state budget moving some of these assets outside the country. Other defendants in the case are his brother Megomed Magomedov and ex-CEO of construction company Intex Arthur Maksidov. On September 21, the United States imposed sanctions on Chinas Equipment Development Department (EDD) of Chinas Central Military Commission (CMC) and its responsible personnel in accordance with its domestic law. The move is unprecedented, once again exposing the hegemonic nature of the United States to the world, and further fueling the already complex and sensitive China-US relations. According to the US, in July last year, the US Congress passed the Countering the Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which added the Russian defense and intelligence departments and their related personnel to a Blocked Persons List with the aim of cutting off their sources of funding. Since CAATSA was signed into law, the EDD still engaged in military trade transactions with the Russian companies who were on the Blocked Persons List and purchased Russias Su-35 combat aircraft and the S-400 surface-to-air missile system. As a result, China was sanctioned according to CAATSA. In other words, the real intention of the US is aimed at Russia, but China was punished because of Russia. The measures of US sanctions mainly include: denying export licenses, excluding from foreign exchange trade under the US jurisdiction, prohibiting from the US financial system, freezing all assets and interests held in the US, and implementing sanctions against the heads of the CMC Equipment Development Department, including visa bans. The US approach amounts to serious violations of international law and the basic norms that govern international relations. All sovereign states are equal regardless of their differences in sizes, strength or weakness. A country must not interfere in others internal and their respective foreign affairs. The United States has imposed unilateral sanctions on other countries, and even extended a notorious extension of sanctions secondary sanctions, in an attempt to put the US above other countries and upgrade its domestic law into international law. This hegemonic act has long been hated by the international community. The European Union (EU) has introduced a Blocking Statue that specifically resists the US unilateral sanctions in fields of economy and finance. Russia has also issued a tit-for-tat anti-sanctions law against the US. Chinas military trade with Russia is a normal act of cooperation between the sovereignty of China and Russia, neither harming international security nor targeting any specific countries. Other countries have no rights or reason to intervene. The US move is obviously intended to kill two birds with one stone. For some time, under the strong anti-Russian sentiment in the United States, the US government has increased its containment and suppression against Russia. The US sanctions this time blacklisted 33 Russian people and entities. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov have once said the Russian side got used to it since the United States has imposed 60 sanctions on Russia since 2011. This time the US aims to push Russia out of the international military market through these sanctions. Since taking office, the Trump administration has adopted the Cold War mentality, labelled China as a strategic competitor, and increased its prevention and containment against China. In addition to the additional tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States, the US blocked the Made in China 2025 Initiative, a campaign to reshape Chinas manufacturing edges within 10 years via advanced technologies, sanctioned Chinese telecoms company ZTE, added 44 Chinese entities to its export control list and introduced the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), and even worse its targeting Chinas defense industry sector this time, all of which can be perceived as interlocking and sharing the same root. Its fundamental purpose is to suppress the development of Chinas high-tech and slow down Chinas national defense modernization. Whats more, the United States tries to sow discord between China and Russia. It is clear that the Russian side has carried out extensive military cooperation with many countries, not just China, among which there are many American allies and partners. The US sanctions against the Chinese military mean to drive a wedge into the China-Russia relationship, creating obstacles to China-Russia military trade, and hampering the in-depth development of China-Russia comprehensive strategic coordination. In response to the incorrect move of the United States, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the PRC and the personnel in charge of the military summoned the US ambassador to China and the acting defense attache respectively, and lodged solemn representations and protests to the US, demanding that the US immediately correct its mistakes and revoke the so-called sanctions. Otherwise, the US should be fully responsible for the consequences. The spokespersons of the MFA and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) showed Chinas solemn stance on this. The Chinese military also announced that it would immediately recall its Navy Commander Vice-Admiral Shen Jinlong, who is in the US attending the 23rd International Seapower Symposium and had planned to visit the United States, and postponed the second meeting of a communication mechanism for the joint staff departments of China and the US, scheduled for Sept 25-27 in Beijing while reserved the rights to take further countermeasures. The US sanctions against the Chinese military equipment department in full fury is a long-established plan. China and the Chinese armed forces have always been convinced the truth will eventually prevail, so they will have faith in common reason but not American hegemony. China will never accept any external interference and will never accept any external coercion. China has rock-solid determination to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests. China will not afraid of the US sanctions; on the contrary, they will only inspire us to work harder and build a more powerful military for our nation. The China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is the positive energy to promote world peace and stability and safeguarding international justice. Facing the complex and uncertain international situation and the rise of hegemonism and power politics, China and Russia will continue to deepen the back-to-back cooperation and continuously enhance their strategic cooperation. The US sanctions point toward the Chinese military and senior generals, and damage the relationship between the two militaries and the two countries, the mutual strategic trust and the cooperation between the two countries in international and regional affairs. In the long run, the US shoots themselves in the foot and ends up harming their own interests. The US will be completely wrong if they believe that China will bow down to them in submission when they wave their big sticks. If the US thinks that China will simply swallow the insult, and things will get back to normal, we can only say that the United States does not know China well. The development history of China-US relations proves that China and the United States both benefit from peaceful coexistence, but will lose from conflicts. American governors must realize that Chinas development is unstoppable. Everything in the world has always been conforming to an old Chinese saying that a just cause enjoys abundant support while an unjust cause finds little support. The Chinese side sincerely advises the US side to step back from the brink before it is too late, and to return to the reasonable and correct track as soon as possible. Disclaimer: The article was published on the Peoples Daily on September 24, 2018. It is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military online. The measures to reduce the current account deficit should have focused far more on narrowing the trade imbalance, principally through export facilitation and linked FDI, says Nitin Desai. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com The deteriorating trend of the current account deficit has been known for some time. But the government reacted only when the fall in the rupee value hit the headlines, possibly because it was concerned about the political fallout in an election year and had to be seen to be doing something. Recently, it announced some measures. These measures will be touted as a success if the rupee exchange rate fall is arrested. The view of many economists is that the rupee should be allowed to find its own level so that the impact of the rupee depreciation in stimulating exports and discouraging imports helps reduce the current account deficit. But these days exchange rates are determined as much by capital flows as by trade imbalances and market expectations. A falling exchange rate would be a disincentive for new and existing foreign investors, given the expected domestic rate of the return. Policymakers target exchange rates as they may not be willing to risk such capital outflows given the delicate state of the external balance. However, the exchange rate is only an instrument. The real goal must be to reduce the current account deficit which looks like going from 1.9 per cent of GDP last year to about 2.8 per cent this year. This deficit mirrors an imbalance between the expenditure of domestic households, enterprises and governments and the income generated by production within the country. This implies that any measure directed at reducing the current account deficit must be shown to be effective in reducing the imbalance between domestic expenditure and income. The best way to reduce current account deficit is to stimulate exports which will reduce the income-expenditure gap and help to revive growth. Indias exports grew rapidly during the boom years when the world economy was expanding at four per cent plus and continued to grow even after the 2008 crisis. They rose from around one per cent of the global exports in 2006 to 1.7 per cent in 2013. Since then, Indias share in global exports has remained static. Export dynamism is possible. The revival of growth in the United States and the severe measures they are taking against Chinese exports will create opportunities for our exporters. There are short-term measures that the government can take to improve logistics and export finance, including a smoother process of GST refunds. But the package of measures announced has very little to say on these issues. The package is more vocal on reducing imports, presumably with higher tariffs. The intention is to target products whose reduced availability will not affect domestic production. Around 60-65 per cent of India's imports are non-competing raw materials and intermediates. They involve raw materials that we just do not have, such as crude oil, and intermediates such as components for cellphones for which adequate production capacities do not exist in the country. Around 20 per cent consists capital goods which the government will not want to touch for fear of discouraging investment, whose revival is a key policy goal right now. That leaves about 10 per cent of imports that consist consumer goods which the government could try and contain with higher tariffs. However, the government should first look at outflows (under the liberalised remittance scheme), which were over $11 billion last year, the bulk of it for travel, gifts, education and remittances to relatives. It should be possible to reduce these through taxes or lowered limits without any adverse effect on productivity. Panicky tariff increases on manufactures, on the other hand, run the risk of reversing the tariff reductions that have stimulated efficiency, cost reduction and global competitiveness in Indian industry. The real problem is with the third set of measures designed to encourage Indian corporations to borrow abroad and foreign portfolio investors to invest in the Indian debt market. This will not reduce the current account deficit. It can only improve access to global capital markets to finance this deficit. With the deficit going up by about one per cent of GDP, the extra inflow of international finance that we need is about $20 billion, if the trade imbalance is not addressed more vigorously than in the proposal. Because of the sanctions on Iran, crude oil prices are under pressure. If oil prices rise by another $10 per barrel, with net oil imports running currently at about four million barrels per day, the financing requirement will go up by another $15 billion. These estimates are additional to the current level of flows, which are assumed to continue - a brave assumption given the current conditions in global capital markets. The borrowing relaxations are the core of the package at present. The most problematic one is that borrowers in foreign currency will not have to hedge their future liabilities which saves the current foreign exchange premium cost of four-five per cent. But this does not reduce risk. Corporations concerned about their debt position, of which there are many, would not do this. The ones who will take advantage of this concession are the short-sighted ones who prefer to reduce current costs and take on significant medium-term risks. On masala bonds, Indian banks will come in as guarantors and foreign portfolio investment in corporate debt will have wider scope. Consider the scale of additional borrowing required against recent levels of inflow. According to the balance of payments data, over the past five years ending FY 2018, the average net inflow from commercial borrowings was $507 million and from portfolio investment was $14.5 billion. Rupee-denominated masala bonds raised about Rs 50 crore over the past two years. How can these flows go up by $20 billion this year? Even if this is plausible, is it reasonable to burden our over-leveraged corporations and the banking system reeling under the weight of non-performing assets (NPAs) with this order of debt? Frankly, we seem to be working our way towards a new NPA crisis. The measures to reduce the current account deficit should have focused far more on narrowing the trade imbalance, principally through export facilitation and linked FDI. That would have impressed global capital markets more than the borrowing relaxations that have been announced. The oil cartel's decision to maintain the production ceiling at its 2016 level, despite the recovery of the world economy, will ensure shortfalls in supply and high oil prices in the foreseeable future, warns Ambassador D P Srivastava. IMAGE: Iran's Opec Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili at the Opec ministerial monitoring committee in Algiers, Algeria, September 23, 2018. Photograph: Ramzi Boudina/Reuters The 174th meeting of Opec oil ministers on June 22 took place against the background of US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. US sanctions, once they kick in after a six-month grace period in November, are expected to reduce Iran's exports. This coupled with reduction of Venezuelan oil supplies, and continued disruption in Libyan supplies, had sent oil prices shooting up. This does not suit the US in an election year. The house and senate elections will take place in November. If the Republicans lose their house majority, it would increase the risk sof impeachment of President Donald J Trump who is facing a widened probe by Robert Mueller. Mr Trump had put out a tweet on high oil prices before the Opec meeting. Saudi Arabia was expected to push for a lifting of the production freeze to bring down the price. Despite the convergence of geo-political interests, oil prices have gone up in the immediate aftermath of the Opec meeting. The price of Brent, an international benchmark, rose by $2.5 to $75.55 per barrel. WTI, the US marker, saw a sharper increase to $68.58 per barrel. Why did the lifting of the production freeze see an increase in price? The Opec press release of June 22 recalled its decision of November 30, 2016, for a 'production adjustment of 1.2 million barrels per day'. There was an additional commitment of reduction by non-Opec oil producers by 0.6 million barrels per day. The Opec statement noted that the actual reduction exceeded its commitment by 152 per cent in May 2018. The decision of the Opec meeting was to bring the reduction to 100 per cent of its commitment two years ago. This in effect means that though the production rises slightly, the organisation maintains the ceiling at 2016 levels. This does not take into account the recovery of the world economy -- and oil demand -- in the past two years. The result is continued shortfall in supply, driving prices higher. Opec's decision had to be endorsed the next day by a meeting of Opec and non-Opec oil ministers. While the OPEC delegation was led by its president, the UAE oil minister, the non-Opec oil producing countries' delegation was headed by the Russian oil minister. The meeting agreed to meet the production 'adjustment' at 100 per cent of the level agreed in November 2016. The fact that Opec has to depend upon Russia to take a decision shows that it can no longer give the market signal. The cartel accounts for around 40 per cent of oil exports. Before the Opec meeting, there was an informal meeting of the Saudi and Iranian oil ministers. Iran was opposed to relaxing the production freeze and lowering prices. Higher oil prices are its only cushion against progressive reduction in its oil exports once the US sanctions start taking effect. In the event, Iran was probably not disappointed. Though it could not prevent re-opening of the production level, it could minimise its effect. Saudi caution contrasts with its decision in November 2014 when it blocked any agreement on a production ceiling at the Opec meeting. At the time, the kingdom was trying to queer the pitch against Iran coming out of a long period of sanctions by forcing down prices. Its moderation now is not a sign of rapprochement with its eastern neighbour. The kingdom is preparing for Aramco's initial public offer and hopes high oil prices will yield a better valuation. While making a reference to its commitment to 'market stability', the Opec statement emphasised the return of 'confidence and investment to the oil industry'. It is obviously a price cartel, not a consumer forum. The Opec statement did not mention any figures regarding the production level, and how the cut is to be distributed among its various members. The ambiguity is calculated to allow various stakeholders to claim victory in their respective constituencies. Opec obviously will bear the brunt, and affect most of the 'cuts', as the joint statement with non-Opec producers does not mention any reduction on their part. Or is it an increase, as the production would recover from 152 per cent below the November 2016 level, to 100 per cent? Perhaps the latter is closer to the truth. There were curious reports that the agreement on a production 'freeze' was reached on the understanding that no country can eat into other member State's market share. This would be an understandable caution, which Iran would expect. Why would Saudi Arabia, or UAE, agree to this? Perhaps the answer again is to avoid a break-down of the understanding completely, which happened after the November 2014 meeting, and resulted in a downward price spiral. What made it easier for Opec to calibrate its decision, which actually led to higher prices, is that shale oil is removed from the calculus. In the past, Opec always feared that higher oil prices will help shale producers, who have to contend with higher production costs. Thus, an Opec decision to cut production actually meant loss of market to shale producers. This fear is temporarily removed due to saturation in the US pipeline network, which makes it difficult to bring additional oil to the market. It is partly a result of the success of shale producers who have reduced production costs and shown their resilience even at prices below $50 per barrel. The Opec decision means no relief to consuming countries. The June decision will come up for review only in November 2018. By that time, new Iran sanctions imposed by the Trump administration would start to bite. All indications are that oil prices will remain high in the foreseeable future. High oil prices will no doubt increase India's current account deficit, and also the subsidy burden for LPG. Going by President Trump's tweets before the Opec meet, perhaps he also does not have ground to rejoice. The US consumer will have to pay higher prices. Indeed, there will be few winners in this game, as high oil prices make alternative sources of energy increasingly more attractive, an outcome Opec surely does not want. D P Srivastava was the Indian Ambassador in Libya and Iran, and has also served in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He is currently Distinguished Fellow at the Vivekanand International Foundation. Employees joining companies after August and availing of the government benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) will also have to link their PF accounts with Aadhaar numbers. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com All formal sector workers earning monthly salary below Rs 15,000 will now have to link their provident fund (PF) accounts, managed by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), with their Aadhaar numbers. The EPFO operates three schemes - Employees Provident Fund Scheme 1952, Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) 1995, and Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976 - towards which both employees and employers contribute. While upholding the constitutional validity of Aadhaar on Wednesday, the court restricted its use to government welfare schemes funded by the Consolidated Fund of India. A government official said subscribers availing benefits of EPS will have to link their PF accounts with Aadhaar numbers. The government provides a subsidy, equivalent to 1.16 per cent of an employees salary up to Rs 15,000 towards EPS. Over 4 crore people avail of EPS benefits at present. The EPFO has more than 6 crore active members. All companies with at least 20 workers are covered by the EPFO. However, it may not be compulsory for the employees who are current subscribers of EPFO and not covered under EPS (with monthly income above Rs 15,000) to link Aadhaar. Employees joining companies after August and availing of the government benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) will also have to link their PF accounts with Aadhaar numbers. Under the PMRPY, the government pays 8.33 per cent of an employers share of the contribution towards schemes run by the EPFO. The scheme will continue for such employees for the first three years of their employment after getting a new job since August 9 when the PMPRY was notified. The Centre had started the process of seeding EPF accounts with Aadhaar in 2017, after issuing a notification making Aadhaar mandatory for EPS beneficiaries. At present, the minimum pension under EPS is Rs 1,000 per month and an employee can receive pension only after a minimum 10 years of service. 'Allocate 30% to 35% of your equity portfolio to mid-cap funds and 10% to 15% to small-cap funds.' Sanjay Kumar Singh and Joydeep Ghosh report. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com Investors in mid- and small-cap stocks and funds have had a torrid time. And it's primarily because of the high valuations that these stocks reached in 2017, and the subsequent fall. Year-to-date, the S&P BSE Midcap Index is down 10.19 per cent while the BSE Small-Cap Index is down 14.26 per cent. Some stocks within these segments have seen higher correction than the benchmark indices. However, to use the cliched phrase, there seems to be 'cautious optimism' from some fund managers. And it is largely because of the outperformance of the large-cap stocks. Says Jyotivardhan Jaipuria, founder and managing director, Valentis Advisors: "Following the sharp outperformance of large caps, relative valuations of mid-caps versus large-caps are now in line with historical averages." "With absolute valuations still slightly expensive," Jaipuria added, "we would advise investors to gradually use market corrections to build their portfolio in small- and mid-cap stocks with a two-three-year holding horizon." According to him, we are on the cusp of a recovery in the earnings cycle, a phase where mid-caps see strong absolute as well as relative performance. Historically, two consecutive years of negative mid-cap returns are a low probability event, which bodes well for the performance of mid-caps next year. The initial signs of good news for mid-caps and small-caps came when prominent fund houses such as DSP Investment Managers, which had suspended fresh investments in its Micro-cap Fund (now DSP Small-cap fund), started allowing investments again. However, it is only through systematic investment plans (SIPs) and systematic transfer plans (STPs) currently. In December 2017, even L&T Mutual Fund had restricted inflows in excess of Rs 200,000 per transaction per day per investor in its L&T Emerging Business Fund. Now, this cap has been removed. "Although the Sensex and Nifty have scaled new highs recently, mid-caps and small-caps continue to remain sluggish. This divergence is throwing up interesting opportunities for bottom-up stock pickers like us." The key reason fund houses had imposed restrictions on inflows was high valuations. "The number of stocks that one could buy at reasonable valuations was shrinking. There were many companies that we liked in terms of their business prospects, but could not invest in owing to their high valuations," says Vinit Sambre, head-equities, DSP Investment Managers. The fund house, he says, felt that it needed to give investors some indication of the valuation risk in the small-cap segment, and hence decided to restrict flows. Now with valuations tempering, fund houses have begun to remove restrictions on inflows. "After a significant correction in the small- and mid-cap space in the past few months, valuations of companies have become more attractive," says Soumendra Nath Lahiri, chief investment officer, L&T Investment Management. Good time to enter? Fund managers believe that this is a reasonably good time to enter the mid-and small-cap space. The current year has been volatile. This turbulence is expected to continue, owing to the currency crisis in emerging markets, and the spate of elections in India (state elections followed by the general elections next year). While the volatility may seem ominous to investors, it spells opportunity for fund managers. Says Lahiri: "Although popular indices such as the Sensex and the Nifty have scaled new highs recently, mid-caps and small-caps continue to remain sluggish. This divergence is throwing up interesting opportunities for bottom-up stock pickers like us." Fund managers plan to use the ongoing volatility to increase their stakes in quality companies, with a long-term perspective. Moreover, all investors need to have a long-term allocation to mid-cap and small-cap funds. "The long-term rationale for investing in these funds arises from the promising growth prospects of companies in these segments," says Sambre. "Many good companies in this space believe they can double their revenues in three-four years, which means they will grow their top line and earnings at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 to 20 per cent," Sambre adds. Over the long term, he says, investors' returns tend to track earnings growth. With the large-cap space being tracked heavily, alpha generation by active fund managers has been shrinking there for a few years now. On the other hand, fund managers and their research teams still have opportunities in the mid-cap and small-cap space to discover new stocks, or those where there is a mismatch between price and valuation. "The dispersion between the performance of the best and the worst companies is high in this space. If stock selection is good, there is better opportunity to create alpha here," says Sambre. Avoid lump sum investments Despite the recent correction, valuations within the mid-cap and small-cap segments remain expensive. "Avoid making large lump sum investments in mid-cap and small-cap funds right now. Look at your category allocation. If you are under-allocated to these categories, and if your risk profile permits, invest in these segments via the SIP route," says Kaustubh Belapurkar, director-manager research, Morningstar Investment Adviser India. The ongoing market turbulence could cause stocks in these segments to correct further. The SIP route will allow investors to buy fund units at lower costs. Belapurkar suggests investing in these funds with at least a seven-year horizon. Investors should also avoid loading their portfolios too much with mid-cap and small-cap funds. "Allocate 30 to 35 per cent of your equity portfolio to mid-cap funds and 10 to 15 per cent to small-cap funds," says Mumbai-based financial planner Arnav Pandya. Investors should not panic and exit if these segments correct further, he says. Pandya suggests examining a fund's portfolio before investing in it. "It should be well diversified and should not have excessive concentration in a particular sector or theme," he says. Belapurkar advises selecting funds that have given sound risk-adjusted returns over the long term. "Go with a fund manager who has delivered consistent rather than lumpy performance," he adds. The advent of internet of things, blockchain, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and self-driving cars has also created huge business opportunities for online training platforms such as Udacity and Coursera. Photograph: Kind courtesy Pixabay.com Indian IT services companies are relying on MOOCS (massive online open courses) to retrain their workforce as the demand for new-age technologies picks up. The advent of internet of things (IoT), blockchain, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and self-driving cars has also created huge business opportunities for online training platforms such as Udacity and Coursera. Udacity has trained around 100 Infosys employees in autonomous car technologies, and will soon teach two more batches of workforce from India and abroad. It is also working with firms such as Wipro, Mindtree, and Tech Mahindra to provide courses on emerging technologies. "Our India business grew by 200 per cent last year with a sound demand coming from both enterprise and individual segments. We have readily deployable enterprise-learning solutions that are our key differentiating factor," said Ishan Gupta, managing director at Udacity India. Coursera, online course provider having around 3.4 million learners in India, has partnered with domestic IT services players such as Infosys and Mindtree. The company is adding around 60,000 learners onto its platform every month. Photograph: Courtesy Raghav Gupta/LinkedIn "We offer courses in new-age technologies to IT services. For example, Google Cloud is exclusively available on Coursera. A lot of our offerings are highly customised to suit the requirements of enterprises," said Raghav Gupta, director, India and APAC, Coursera. India has grown to become the second-largest market for the firm in terms of user base and revenue just in three years since the US-based company started its operations. Re-skilling of employees in the IT sector has become an imperative due to a change in the business model. "In the past year, almost 100 per cent of our employees have gone through various training programmes (digital as well focused and scheduled class room sessions) to constantly improve their current skills and the latest additions in the technology space," said Thirumala Arohi Mamunooru, vice-president and head of education (training and assessment), Infosys. The company has designed an internal learning platform 'Lex', which can be accessed anytime and anywhere by the employees. TCS has trained over half of its 400,000 workforce in digital skills by the end of last fiscal year. It also uses its 'Ion' platform as the backbone for its re-skilling services. Mindtree said the firm was offering over 2,000 courses in digital, testing, infra, behavioural, and engineering through its digital learning platform 'YORBIT'. "Over the past one year, almost 80 per cent of our employees have been re-skilled in these technologies," Krishnan KS, associate vice-president (culture and competence) at Mindtree. Digital accounts for around 25-30 per cent of the sector's gross earnings. In the June quarter, digital constituted 25 per cent of the revenues at Tata Consultancy Services, with an annual growth of 40 per cent. Similarly, Infosys posted a 26 per cent growth in its digital revenue contributing 28.4 per cent of its gross revenue. For Wipro, digital revenue pie stood at 28 per cent of its IT services revenues in the Q1FY19. The issue dates back many years when the actor and others proposed bringing Sony TV channel to India. A tribunal recently ruled in favour of actor Jackie Shroff in an income tax (I-T) case relating to compensation received by him for withdrawing a complaint. The issue was whether the money received is capital receipt or revenue receipt. If the former and not defined in the I-T Act, it will be exempt from income tax, explained Rahul Singh, an expert at Taxmann. For assessment year 2011-12, Shroff got $1.5 million (Rs 6.98 crore at the time) from one Sudesh Iyer. He did not offer it for taxation. The issue dates back many years when the actor and others proposed bringing Sony TV channel to India. A company - Atlas Equfin - was incorporated to hold shares in Multi Screen Media India (MSM), owners of the Sony TV channel. The aggregate share holding of Atlas and another Mauritius-based company, Grandway Global Holdings, in MSM was 23 per cent. In 1995, Atlas and Grandway were trying to exit MSM and Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore (SCB) was given the mandate. The actor refused to sign it but found his signature on the mandate. In 2010, Shroff filed a complaint with the Mumbai police's economic offences wing (EOW) for an investigation into the matter. He had, he said, never signed that mandate. After the complaint was made, he was approached to settle the matter amicably. In January 2011, a deed of settlement was signed between the actor and Sudesh Iyer for settling the dispute. According to the terms, Iyer agreed to pay a sum of $3,500,000 on the condition that Shroff withdraw the criminal complaint. The amount was to be paid in two installments. Shroff withdrew his EOW complaint and got the first installment of Rs 6.98 crore. Since the amount was compensation, the actor argued, he treated it as capital receipt and non-taxable. However, the I-T assessing officer disagreed and held the amount be treated as Shroff's income and hence taxable. Shroff petitioned the department's commissioner (appeals), who agreed with his contention that the amount should not be taxed. The revenue department then appealed against this order to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal at Mumbai which also agreed with the commissioner (appeals) and Shroff. "The compensation received by the assessee (Shroff) was not for his professional activities but for settlement of a dispute between him and some other party resulting in filing of a criminal complaint," the order said. Rahul Singh explains that taxpayers and the department are often at loggerheads as to whether a payment received is capital receipt or revenue receipt. The I-T Act is silent on the factors to be considered in this regard. "This recent judgment is another addition in the list of rulings which categorise a receipt into (either). "This controversy wont be resolved unless the I-T department provides a clear mechanism for determination of the nature of a receipt," he said. Photograph: Pradeep Bandekar Hospitals empanelled for Modicare may give preference to poor patients over the middle class for fear of strict government action, says Harsh Roongta. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced the much-awaited Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana, or PMJAY health insurance policy under the umbrella of Ayushman Bharat for the poor and marginalised sections. It is slated to cover the hospitalisation costs of around 50 lakh citizens up to Rs 500,000 per family per annum. If this policy is even partially successful, for the first time the poor and marginalised sections will perhaps be better off than the middle-class population as far as healthcare is concerned. Modicare provides for cashless hospitalisation facility. Assuming many hospitals empanel for the scheme, any shortcomings will be cleared soon. Hospitals are unlikely to release the patients till the billing is approved, and any delays in releasing approved payments will result in stoppage of treatment. The resulting headlines are not what any government would like to see in an election year. The marginalised middle class for once will be much worse off as far as health insurance goes. They have very little faith in the existing private insurers, which is aptly pointed out in a paper put out by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (see http://bit.ly/bsinsurances). In terms of claims payable, the private health insurance industry for individual policies is undeniably profitable at around 77 per cent of the premiums collected. Elsewhere in the world, regulations prevent the industry from having such low claim ratios with automatic kick in of rebates for the insured persons, in case claims are below a certain specified percentage. The industrys profitability is also seen from the excellent valuation enjoyed by a few of the insurers that have seen changes in shareholding recently. Even the commission percentage is high at around 12 per cent, and has an upward trajectory. Despite the low level of coverage, the number of complaints per million persons covered is at a high of 500, which is higher than anywhere else in the world. And this is despite India not being a litigation-prone society. This is where Modicare will make it worse for the middle-class. Hospitals empanelled for the scheme will have a rush of new customers for whom insurers dare not deny claims for the fear of the government. The new customers may crowd out the middle-class patients from hospitals. The study also points to possible remedies. The existing regulations need to be enforced, the deficiencies in regulations need to be corrected, and the grievance redressal machinery needs to be made independent of the industry. Prodded by several court decisions and such policy papers, the insurance regulator has also set up a panel to examine the standard exclusions in a policy and whether it makes sense to eliminate them substantially. The PMs policy does hold out a ray of hope. In his August 15 speech, he mentioned that eventually Modicare will be available to all Indians (perhaps by paying the negotiating premium). Lets all look forward to that. Photograph: PTI Photo The Ministry of Labour and Employment on Wednesday announced a scheme to financially support those who lost their jobs and were covered under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948. Somesh Jha explains the key features. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com What are the key features of the Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana (ABVKY)? The ABVKY is a scheme approved by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) that aims to benefit its subscribers, who are mainly formal sector workers who have become unemployed for whatever reason, by providing cash through bank account transfer. At present, the government of India does not provide any unemployment allowance. The ongoing Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana (RGSKY) benefits formal sector workers registered with the ESIC. Why was there a need for a new unemployment allowance? The labour and employment ministry said in its official statement on Wednesday that the move was necessitated considering the change in employment pattern and the current scenario of employment in India which has transformed from a long-term employment to fixed short-term engagement. The government is signalling that permanent employees in the economy are on a decline and the industry is more inclined towards hiring workers on a contract now. This has been facilitated by the governments policy validating fixed-term employment for all businesses earlier this year. The government allowed industries to hire workers on a fixed-term contract on condition that they receive similar allowances given to a permanent worker in the same organisation. That said, due to the unavailability of official data on employment, there is no evidence to suggest that permanent jobs are on a decline and contract workers are being hired more. How is the new scheme an improvement over the previous one offered by the ESIC? The RGSKY was introduced in 2005 for employees who were left unemployed for three reasons - the closure of factory or establishment, retrenchment or permanent invalidity. However, if an employee became unemployed for some other reason, no unemployment benefit was offered to him/her under the RGSKY scheme. The ABVKY will provide cash allowance to ESIC subscribers who are unemployed for at least three months in a row after leaving their previous jobs, for reasons apart from retrenchment and factory closure. The new scheme will be availed of by those who are insured by ESIC for a period of at least two years. Is there any data to measure the performance of the earlier scheme? According to official data, in 2016-17, 508 people availed of the unemployment allowance under the RGSKY scheme, down from 1,146 in 2015-16 and 1,030 in 2014-15. According to the ESIC, the number of beneficiaries declined largely because the allowance was solely dependent on closure of a factory or retrenchment. In 2016-17, Rs 3.72 crore was paid to unemployed people compared to Rs 5.48 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 4.47 crore in 2014-15, under the RGSKY scheme. In 2016, the ESIC made the RGSKY more attractive by allowing those who had subscribed to the ESIC for at least two years to avail of the benefits, as against three years previously. Also, the benefit period was enhanced from one year to two years. Despite these measures, the scheme remained unattractive due to its limited scope, according to the ESIC. Who will fund the new scheme? The scheme will be funded by the employees themselves. Nearly 4.75 per cent of a workers monthly salary goes towards ESI as the employers contribution, 1.75 per cent of the income is the employees share. Those who had subscribed to the ESIC for two years continuously will be allowed to avail of the unemployment benefit to the tune of 47 per cent of their total contribution. The ESIC conducted a sample survey in Noida and Varanasi to find out the financial implications on the basis of the average number of persons leaving the job in the two areas. The expected expenditure for all-India coverage of the scheme is estimated to be Rs 1,600 crore a year, according to the ESIC. The move is expected to benefit over 10 lakh workers. The Ministry of National Defense said the United States is solely to blame for the recent deterioration in China-American military relations, and demands "rational" and "sincere" actions from the US and to correct its mistakes, a ministry spokesman said on Thursday. On Sept 20, the US State Department imposed sanctions on China's Equipment Development Department, the branch of the military responsible for weapons procurement, for purchasing Russian Su-35 combat aircraft and the S-400 missile system. The Chinese military is resolutely opposed the sanctions, the ministry said in a statement on Sept 22. In response, China immediately recalled Chinese navy commander Vice-Admiral Shen Jinlong, who was in the US attending a symposium and planned to have exchanges with high-ranking US Navy officials, it said. In addition, China has postponed the second meeting of a communication mechanism for the joint staff departments of China and the US, scheduled for Sept 25-27 in Beijing, the ministry added. "China highly values Sino-US military exchanges across various levels," Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, a spokesman for the ministry, said in a regular press meeting on Thursday. "However, the US side is solely to blame for the recent damage to Sino-US military relations," he said. "We urge the US side to show sincere efforts to improve Sino-US military relations, and allow it to become a stabilizing factor for bilateral ties." When asked whether the recent heightened tension could affect State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe's planned visit to the US later this year, Ren said the US should take "rational and mature attitudes in generating positive conditions for exchanges and cooperation." 'What the Sabarimala majority verdict has done is to elevate the principle of equality over all others, including the right to worship, and declared that this will be the litmus test of all practices, and re-emphasise that practices that are ultra vires will be junked,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy. IMAGE: 'When a man can enter, a woman can also go. What applies to a man, applies to a woman also,' the Supreme Court said in July 2018. Photograph: E V Deepak/Reuters The Sabarimala verdict brings a new dawn As a child growing up in a conservative society in Chennai, there were many practices, most of them orthodox, even unconstitutional by today's liberal standards, that intrigued me. But nothing stood out more than the practice that drove my father into the kitchen three days every month. Appa was an awful cook, as much as my Amma was a terrific one, so the sudden crash in culinary standards was unbearable. Tadka that was burnt, sambar that ran like rasam, overcooked rice... The deprivation of tasty food was the initial reason the question popped up in my young mind: 'But why can't Amma cook?' 'Because she can't enter the kitchen for three days a month.' 'But why can't she enter the kitchen?' 'Because of theettu.' Is there such a word in any other language that is so damning, so denigrating and which has been used for generations to perpetuate horrendous practices -- from keeping women out of the kitchen and shrine, to keeping the Harijan out of our homes and lives -- all the while pretending that it was upholding a higher, sacred, god-given principle? Simply put, theettu means defiled, impure. Theettu is why a menstruating woman cannot approach god. Theettu is why the workers at home cannot touch you, eat/drink from the same vessel. Theettu is what keeps the upper castes cocooned in an imaginary world of racial superiority. But to a young mind it was incomprehensible that this wonderful woman who was the bedrock of the family, who waged a war to bring up five children out of poverty and destitution, could simply be described as theettu and kept outside the kitchen. So more than the loss of tasty food, it was the sight of my mother sitting on a stool just outside the kitchen door and instructing my father on how to cut the vegetables, how much water to put in the separator, and of my poor father meekly complying with the instructions, that shocked me and brought tears to my eyes. So why are we doing this? Shhh, this is religious practice, cannot be questioned. But no amount of shushing could silence the questions in my mind. Did Parvati, Lakshmi and Saraswati also not enter the kitchen three days a month, were they also theettu then? If theettu women cannot go to a temple for three days a month, did it mean that the goddesses also left the temples on those days they were theettu? What about angry Kaali, did she also temper her rage and meekly yield to her husband for three days a month? Were theettu women part of this great notion of Vasudeva Kutumbakam, or will they have to sit outside on a stool for three days a month? The trouble was, there was no one around who could answer my questions. All everyone did was to shut me up from asking, as religious practices cannot be questioned. The moment of epiphany came in higher school, when I read about the abolition of Sati. Here was a cruel practice that had the sanction of religion that was successfully outlawed. Sir, but can religious practice be changed, I asked my history teacher. Of course yes, social reform is always brought in by law, only after that will society change, he replied. So sir, what about theettu, can it also be changed by law? I didn't get a reply then, but what he said remained with me all these years. And found an echo in today's Supreme Court verdict allowing women of reproductive age entry into Sabarimala. In its last few judgments -- from decriminalising homosexuality and adultery to outlawing instant talaq to today's order -- the Supreme Court has underscored that gender equality is a cornerstone of the Constitution of India and hence an underlying principle of the Republic of India. No practice in the garb of religion, tradition and culture can pass muster if they fail the litmus test of equality. To paraphrase my school teacher, the courts have to be the harbingers of social reform and social justice. This task is too important to be left to the legislature to act on, or to leave it to society to transform itself. Naturally there will be voices of protest, even condemnation. It is illuminating that today's court ruling saw four male judges rule in favour of women's entry into Sabarimala; the lone dissenting judge was female. To quote judge Indu Malhotra, 'Equality doctrine cannot override fundamental right to worship under Article 25; notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion; issues which have deep religious connotation should not be tinkered with to maintain secular atmosphere in the country.' If you read the words long and hard, you will see that these very words can also be used to justify so many social ills masquerading as religious practice. For now let me pick out Hindu practices to highlight the fallibility of the judges words, though they apply to all religions and their obnoxious customs. Sati, certainly, could never have been outlawed if you go by the honourable judge's words, we will still be burning our widows. Untouchability? Oh, it is so enshrined in Hindu faith, how can you even *think* of banning it -- if we were to accept Justice Malhotra's carefully thought out argument? Widow remarriage? Instead of toilets, the government will have to build housing complexes to accommodate the widows of India, if notions of rationality were not applied to the issue. Inheritance in favour of the son depriving the daughters? Bingo! And the right to cremate will only vest with the son, with parents of girl children confined to eternal damnation. What the Sabarimala majority verdict has done is to elevate the principle of equality over all others, including the right to worship, and declared that this will be the litmus test of all practices, and re-emphasise that practices that are ultra vires will be junked. It is a new dawn that the judges have ushered in. There are two options before us. We can either wake up, make a nice, warm cup of coffee and enjoy the view. Or pull the blanket over us, shut our eyes tightly, and remain in darkness. Chinese observers believe the Sino-US relationship will be impacted by issues in North Korea, Japan, India, Ukraine and Iran and that conflicts with these 'third parties' will without exception ultimately become conflicts between China and the US, points out former RA&W officer Jayadeva Ranade. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/Reuters The Sino-US relationship, one of the world's most important in the past nearly four decades, is undergoing fundamental change with US President Donald J Trump translating into action the apprehensions of the US establishment about China's rise and potential challenge to US primacy. He is the first US president since Nixon to begin altering the nature of US relations with China. By initiating the so-called 'Trade War' with China this April he has effectively put China on notice. Chinese analysts and strategic experts have been quick to assess -- quite correctly -- that the trade war is actually a bid to 'contain' China's rise. Many Chinese analysts have harboured suspicions about Trump's true attitude towards China ever since his precedent-breaking telephone conversation with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in December 2017. Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, at that time promptly asserted 'the US President-elect hates China and will encourage Tsai to resist pressure from the mainland.' Chinese intellectuals and academics, including from the Chinese Communist party's prestigious Central Party School in Beijing, have since last year been warning that China should tone down its aggressive rhetoric and not have an exaggerated sense of its economic or military strength. In September 2017, Luo Jianbo, head of the China Foreign Policy Centre at the Central Party School, cautioned against over-estimating China's strength and said people need to guard against 'arrogance' and 'conceit'. Luo especially pointed to the hype surrounding the Belt and Road Initiative and the BRI Forum in April 2017. With consensus in China virtually coalescing around the view that the real US agenda is to severely retard China's rise, there are indications that China's leadership is preparing to contend with a more competitive, if not confrontational, US. The latest issue of Qiushi the CCP central committee's authoritative theoretical journal, published a lengthy commentary defending China's economic system and asserting that America's real goal in launching the trade war is to thwart China's rise. Long Guoqiang, vice-president of the Chinese government's in-house think-tank the Development Research Centre, wrote in the official People's Daily on August 26, that he expects 'deep structural change' in the US-China relationship with the US treating China as a key rival. 'The trade war is ... an important strategy to contain China,' Long declared. He advised that China not engage in angry rhetoric, but match the US action for action while being ready to resume negotiations any time. Long recommended that the Chinese government offer assistance to companies hit by tariffs, help find new markets for exporters and search for alternate sources for imports. China, he insisted, must not abandon its domestic agenda. IMAGE: US President Donald J Trump and China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, November 9, 2017. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters Important is the article written in April 2018 by Yuan Peng, vice-president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a think-tank of China's ministry of state security. Stating that a fundamental structural change in the Sino-US relationship is underway, Yuan described the ongoing trade war as the first serious clash between China and the US. Underscoring its seriousness, he observed that unlike on previous occasions this time the entire American society is involved, with the US government taking the lead and no voices supporting China. This, Yuan said, is because the US today views China as a competitor not only in the Asia-Pacific, but also globally. He pinpointed the launch of the 'One Belt and One Road' and the Djibouti Safeguard Base project as triggers that convinced the US that China is a global opponent. Yuan additionally cautioned that the Sino-US bilateral relationship will be impacted by issues in North Korea, Japan, India, Ukraine and Iran and that conflicts with these 'third parties' will without exception ultimately become conflicts between China and the US. Crucial to the trade war is the 'Made in China 2025' programme representing the Communist party leadership's declared effort to make China a hi-technology power on par with the world's most advanced nations by 2025. Technology is critical to China's emergence as a major world power and the sector is at the centre of the tariffs imposed by the US. The ban on China's telecom company ZTE on doing business -- subsequently lifted with provisos -- and purchasing micro-chips and semi-conductors in the US crippled the company, which has substantive investments from China's defence State-owned enterprises and is closely tied to its security apparatus. It demonstrated to Chinese leaders their vulnerabilities and clearly indicated that China's technology sector is a target. This was soon followed by punitive tariffs on 44 Chinese military companies and placing them on the 'Entities List'. On September 20, the US sanctioned Russia's Rosoboronexport and the Chinese military's equipment development department. China's response was swift. It recalled its navy chief who was visiting the US, deferred a meeting on joint staff communications scheduled for September and summoned the US ambassador. IMAGE: President Trump was given a lavish welcome with a guard of honour and a 21-gun salute when he arrived at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, November 9, 2017. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Adding to this pressure on Xi Jinping is the perceptible slowing down of China's economy and growing definitive push back on his signature Belt and Road Initiative. Germany, France, Britain, the European Union, Australia, Japan and Canada have begun stopping Chinese companies from purchasing their technology and hi-tech companies. On August 1, the US Congress passed a bill making national-security reviews of Chinese deals in the US more stringent and revamped export controls governing which US technologies can be sent abroad. With US officials expressing confidence that they have the stronger hand and China is more dependent on trade than the US, the trade war between the US and China is unlikely to ease anytime soon unless Beijing capitulates. Jayadeva Ranade -- former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India -- is presently President, Centre for China Analysis and Strategy. Rahul is going about the restructuring of the Congress leadership in a gradual, deliberate fashion: No sudden jerks, no abrupt moves. So while seniors like Janardan Dwivedi were edged out, Ahmed Patel has been retained. Aditi Phadnis explains why. IMAGE: Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi at the Save Democracy rally at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, May 6, 2016. Ahmed Patel can be seen, centre, standing. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo Ahmed Patel has been appointed treasurer of the Indian National Congress. This is his second term (he last held the job from 1996 to 2000). Patel was just 30 when he became an MP in 1977. The Congress had been wiped out but Gujarat had saved the day, sending a handful of MPs to the Lok Sabha. He was elected from his native Bharuch district, a region that still swears by him though it may not elect him anymore (the Bharatiya Janata Party has retained four out of the five assembly seats in the parliamentary constituency for the last two decades). When Indira Gandhi was assassinated and Rajiv Gandhi came to power in 1984 with a 400-plus majority in the Lok Sabha, Patel, who had built a connect with Rajiv, was promoted rapidly as party apparatchik. By 1986, Gandhi had formalised his plan to replace the older Congress leaders with his own boys. Patel was sent back to Gujarat as the president of the party unit in the state. Then Rajiv was assassinated and most of his supporters shifted allegiance to P V Narasimha Rao. Patel, however, had lost the Lok Sabha election as well as the party position in Gujarat. He had no house in Delhi, no patron, nothing. His friend Najma Heptullah arranged guest accommodation for him in Meena Bagh. But he was served a notice to vacate in three days, at a time when both his son and daughter were taking board exams. And this by a government that was headed by a Congress prime minister! From then on, Patel resolved he would neither seek nor accept anything from the Rao government. What he did accept, however, was the secretaryship of the Jawahar Bhavan Trust, a project began by Rajiv, visualised as a think-tank for the Congress, but pushed in real earnest by Sonia in the years after his assassination. The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, housed in the Jawahar Bhavan premises was offered -- in the first Budget presented by then finance minister Manmohan Singh -- an outlay of Rs 200 million which Sonia Gandhi turned down. It was Patel who worked tirelessly to raise money and drove contractors and others to finish the project. The appointment, as can be imagined, gave him a unique opportunity denied to other Congressmen -- access to Sonia Gandhi. Despite this position, Patel was lonely in the years that followed -- mitigated only by the vast network he had created as a result of holding so many party posts. This was demonstrated most clearly during the party conference in Tirupati in 1993 where after years, elections were held to the CWC. He got the third highest number of votes, presumably a result of past favours. The period from 1996 to 2000 was a period of great instability in the Congress. In 1999, Jitendra Prasada, for a while political advisor to Narasimha Rao, decided to take on Sonia Gandhi for the party presidentship. The outcome was a no-brainer. Once she became president of the party, Sonia Gandhi appointed Ahmed Patel her political advisor. Patel's closeness to the Gandhi family is undeniable. But unlike others, he resisted the temptation to use it to leverage personal business. Those who have seen him in action say he can raise Rs 300 million in Gujarat in 30 minutes by making a few phone calls. Reporters have been witness to sackfulls of currency notes going through his office to 'facilitate' this or that election. There are only two occasions when corruption charges were voiced against him: and he announced that if they were proved he would quit politics. One was by former Mizoram governor Swaraj Kaushal some decades ago; and the other, more recently was his role in funding an operation to secure the support of some BJP MPs to get them to quit their party and vote in favour of the United Progressive Alliance, after the Left parties pulled out. Patel was exonerated by a parliamentary committee that looked into the incident. He is personally a man of austere habits, not one to wine and dine or have kabab and biryani parties to win friends and influence people. It is not that Patel is a particularly prosperous man. His money belongs to his wife whose family were local zamindars in Bharuch. It was he who encouraged the chemical industry development at Ankleshwar and especially the Jamnagar refinery, something that brought him extremely close to the Ambani family, both father Dhirubhai and son Mukesh. When Rahul took over, it was generally assumed that the organisation would be overhauled. The younger Gandhi is going about the restructuring in a gradual, deliberate fashion: No sudden jerks, no abrupt moves. So while seniors like Janardan Dwivedi were edged out, Patel has been retained. He is the organic link between the Sonia Congress and the Rahul Congress. 'Every person has two identities in India, that of his caste and nation.' 'It is understandable in a multi-caste, multi-religious society and I don't mind this.' 'What I mind is the State has failed in doing enough to melt these two identities in such a way that everybody has access to citizenship which is more important than your caste.' 'That is why people remain in the narrow identities of his caste or religion.' IMAGE: A scene from a Patidar protest in Gujarat. A key bill to provide Constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes has secured Parliament's approval. The Bharatiya Janata Party calls it a historic bill while other parties describe it as a political move, passed with the coming assembly election in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. "Without vote bank, there is no incentive to be in politics. It is a necessary evil," Dr Satendra Kumar, professor at the Gobind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad University, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier in the final segment of the two-part interview. Do you feel they ignored a very important aspect while creating the National Commission for Backward Castes? They must have ignored it intentionally as it can create a controversy. I would say they played a very safe game giving Constitutional status to OBCs which is not going to harm anyone. It empowers some groups, but does not help much. In Parliament, some MPs felt the creamy layer is the biggest hurdle to the OBC community's upliftment. Do you feel it is time the creamy layer has to be looked into? Yes, the creamy layer has to be looked into carefully at the political level. We have to look at the idea behind creating an umbrella for the entire community. In America, they call it affirmative action while we call it 'reverse discrimination'. Through reverse discrimination, we are helping the communities which are lagging behind. We are trying to introduce the moral framework like all citizens are equal under the Constitution and it is the moral responsibility of the communities who are forward to help those who lag behind to the forefront. I feel we should also look at the moral framework of the other communities within the OBC. You mean the creamy layer? Exactly. They should look at the creamy layer within the community, also the communities left behind within the OBC. Similarly, if we believe in the nation-State, the State also has a responsibility to look after and provide reverse discrimination to the communities who were left behind. But in India, everything culminates in politics. Is that not a tragedy? In a democracy, you cannot disassociate anything from politics. Every democracy unfolds in a very different way; it all depends on the culture and space. Caste has become a beacon of democracy in India. On one side, we are talking about abolishing caste, and on the other, our political process also is strongly linked to caste. Is this the right way forward? I don't know what is the right way. In fact, all social scientists, liberal politicians and academicians are struggling with this question. Every person has two identities in India, that of his caste and nation. It is understandable in a multi-caste, multi-religious society and I don't mind this. What I mind is the State has failed in doing enough to melt these two identities in such a way that everybody has access to citizenship which is more important than your caste. That is why people remain in the narrow identities of his caste or religion. It is partly because of the failure of State policies, infrastructure and institutions. It has failed to provide space for all its citizens and pride in being an Indian citizen. Do you feel 70 years is too short a period to make people proud of their identity as an Indian citizen? You can say it is a short period; you can also say it is not a short period. For a country like China with dictatorship and strong Communist rule, it was easy for them to implement such ideas. But in a democracy, this kind of ideas take its own course. India is a country with a huge population which is diverse. There is also a problem of lack of resources. We don't have a straight forward path too because our forefathers and nation-builders have taken the path of democracy. And it has unfolded in a peculiar way with all its strengths and weaknesses. Yes, the pace of development will be slow in a democracy because of the diverse views on every issue. You can't do it at the pace with which China or Japan have done. Whether it is Patidars or the Marathas or the Jats, all of them now want to be included in the list of backward communities. Even advanced communities wants the privileges given to the backward communities like reservation. Political parties associated with each caste want to do it because of vote bank politics. Where will this lead to? In this issue, we can see two separate things coming together. We haven't given enough attention or importance to the communities associated with agriculture. While only 14% of the GDP comes from agriculture, the population depending on agriculture is 60%. It means substantial income is not coming from agriculture and there is a distress in the sector. And the communities fighting for reservation are farm communities who have benefitted from the Green Revolution. The second crucial aspect is liberalisation. In the '90s, when liberal policies came into the picture, the State withdrew from agriculture -- stopping subsidies etc. Naturally, their (communities which work in the agriculture sector) income got reduced and there are less and less jobs in agriculture. They are powerful and influential communities and it is but natural for them to demand (reservations) now. Do you feel what is needed is the intervention of the State in this sector? The State should not withdraw from the social sector. Intervention is more needed in education and health. Simultaneously, the State should promote the private sector too. What we need is a multi-level policy where the State actively intervenes and strengthens the primary and technical education. There is a 27% reservation for OBCs, but the government says it can't fill even 11%. Where lies the problem, in the implementation of ideas? That's why I said the government has to be there actively in education. If you don't have universal education, reservation is not going to happen. Primary education has totally collapsed in the northern states while it has succeeded in states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. I have seen that only the OBCs from the southern states get recruited whenever the government calls for applications. That's because they are the only ones who are educated. What we need is universal education, not education just for the OBCs, but for everyone. Is it the failure of the political system? It is the failure of the political system in the sense that they did not give enough attention to nation-building and institution-building. They brought everything into popular politics. Vote bank politics? Without vote bank, there is no incentive to be in politics. It is a necessary evil. But along with that, you need vision for the country. Once you get votes and are in power, you have to have a vision, a vision not for only one particular community, but for all communities. That is because not one community but all communities participate in democracy. So, we lack politicians with vision? Yes, lack of vision is the main problem. They are all narrow-minded. Globalisation also has contributed to the idea of nation-building. In the 1990s, the idea of global citizens came into the picture and the interest in your own nation-building waned. Now, after 25 years, you realise that almost all the institutions -- health, education, judiciary -- are collapsing. 'There was a period when they questioned the flag and there were questions also against the Constitution.' 'That's long past.' IMAGE: Former President Pranab Mukherjee with RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat at an event at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. Photograph: Reuters In his speeches at the three-day event, 'Future fof Bharat: An RSS Perspective', Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat said the Sangh respects the Constitution and the Tricolour. 'We respect all symbols of freedom, and the Constitution is also one such symbol,' Bhagwat said. This is in contrast with the stand the RSS took in the early years of the Republic. Walter K Andersen, whose book The RSS: A View to the Inside highlights the change in RSS thinking over the years, says he hasn't met a single swayamsevak so far who questions the Constitution or doesn't respect the flag. "The RSS as an organisation almost certainly, I think, supports honouring the symbols of the Indian nation," Dr Andersen told Rediff.com's Utkarsh Mishra in the final segment of the interview. With the rise of radical Hindu organisations like the Sanatan Sanstha, if the RSS continues to take such seemingly moderate views, does it risk forfeiting its more radical support base to such groups? Oh, of course. Of course it does. And in fact organisations have crept up which have a kind of radical agenda like anti-beef. Such organisations have propped up in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. They are not RSS affiliates, but they claim to be Hindu. And they have a kind of radical agenda when it comes to things like beef. That obviously can be a problem for the government. This is one of most controversial issues that the RSS and the Government of India have to face. The RSS has typically taken a law and order response to that. But that may not be enough. They have to go beyond law and order and build a mechanism to tackle the issue of the violence that comes up. And I think of the case of the state of Goa, which has a BJP government. Goa has created a group which has intelligence functions to find out where potential tension could be arising on one hand, and on the other, it is given some security resources as well. I think that is necessary. In fact, that also stems from the Supreme Court guidelines to states (on the issue). So I think on that one has to go beyond law and order and do the sorts of things the state of Goa has done. On the issue of violence by cow vigilantes against the minorities and Dalits, the RSS does precious little apart from meek condemnation. Shouldn't it do more? With such a large following as it has, surely it can launch a campaign against vigilantism. They should do more, I agree with you on that. There are some (within the RSS family) who do. I can take the name of Tarun Vijay, former editor of (the RSS weekly) Panchajanya, who has actually had a kind of campaign for Dalits to get entry into temples. And you know that he was attacked several months ago for doing so. But he continues to be a leading advocate of that, he's very faithful to the cause. When he was attacked, what should have happened is everybody should have got up and said 'I am Tarun Vijay', 'I am Tarun Vijay', but unfortunately not that many Indians did and not that many people in the RSS did. I think there was a certain fear that there will be a public backlash if they would do that. In my personal view, I think they need to do more on that (issue). More people should stand up. More people need to be like Tarun Vijay. The RSS did not hoist the national flag at its headquarters for 52 years after Independence. It always portrayed itself as a patriotic organisation but also maintained that the government cannot decide its patriotism. In contrast, the government today, which has so many former pracharaks, is imposing patriotism on other people, like asking madrassas to provide video evidence of Independence Day celebrations. That's interesting, you are right. There was a period when they questioned the flag and there were questions also against the Constitution. That's long past. As far as I know, no one questions that in the RSS anymore. I met thousands of swayamsevaks during my research and I don't recall a single person questioning the validity of the flag. In fact, quite the contrary, it is seen as a national symbol of importance. It's interesting to talk of the issue, but it is not a live issue anymore. Is it the case with the Constitution too? Yes. I haven't heard anyone say in the last few years that the Constitution or the flag are irrelevant. In fact the reverse, there is a growing sentiment in favour of both. Should the RSS ask the government not to force patriotism on other people? I'm trying to think if there are any resolutions (regarding this). I know of the problems at JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University), there was some talk about how to demonstrate your loyalty to the Indian nation, whether saying 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' was important etc. There's a difference of opinion, however, within the RSS on imposing (those things). For many, as in the United States too, the idea of patriotism involves honouring the flag and singing the anthem. The RSS as an organisation almost certainly, I think, supports honouring the symbols of the Indian nation. But this is not the core of what they are trying to do. I mentioned before that Hinduism seems to have many meanings and it does, what seems to run through all of them, though, is a kind of notion of patriotism. So many RSS affiliates are involved in welfare programmes for tribals and the depressed classes. What challenge does it pose to other, mostly Left-leaning, organisations indulged in similar work The most obvious case is that of schools. There are Christian schools, there are madrassas, the RSS itself has its own schools. You have Ekal Vidyalayas, which are kind of one-classroom schools that focus on tribal areas. I am not aware that they (the RSS schools) get special benefits. They might, I can't say. They may not get special treatment but others may face discrimination. Recently, several Left-leaning activists were arrested. Is this a form of official discrimination against such groups? There's no (such) official policy of the RSS that I am aware of, except on the issue of conversion. Hinduism as a religion is not a converting religion, even though there are groups that engage in ghar wapsi. I am not sure if (there is discrimination) on an ideological basis, except in the case of Maosists who indulge in violence. But then it becomes a law and order issue. When it comes to education and welfare work in tribal areas, I haven't seen the RSS come out against it whether (during the rule of) this government, or previous governments. If you run a Christian school in India, you get government support though you have to abide by certain regulations. And I am not aware of any actions taken against that (by this government). Now in some states of India there are anti-conversion rules, but they go back, by and large, to the time of the Congress. So in certain areas there's a kind of consensus that conversion is not a good thing, and that fits into the larger scheme of what Hinduism is about. But they haven't pushed that issue in the north east, which has a large Christian minority. And they now control six of the seven states. Can you imagine 10 years ago anyone saying that the BJP would control most of the states in north eastern India? I would have said (to such a person) that you are smoking something that is affecting your brain. But it now does. And in fact it is the fastest growing area for the RSS. Now why has it been able to do that in an area that is so heavily Christian and tribal? Christians and tribals eat beef. They have not put the beef issue in the north east. They do it in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, but not in the north east and in some parts of the south. Because they realise that this is not a part of the cultural milieu in those areas. Now that doesn't mean there aren't some people who are ready to take the law into their hands on the beef issue. The problem is how to tackle them. And there again I say that they have to go beyond law and order. How do you react to Congress President Rahul Gandhi comparing the RSS to the Muslim Brotherhood? I was a little surprised at that tactic. It is a strategy that obviously was suggested to him by his campaign managers. All the polling that I've seen indicates that economic issues are the most important. And, therefore, I would think that the focus would be on economic issues. The polling also shows that these other kinds of issues are not uppermost in the voters' minds. Probably, my guess is they hope to sort of solidify support among Christians and Muslims by doing that. I'm not sure if that necessarily will. I'm surprised, to be quite frank. Because this strategy is not the most effective. 'We will talk to Muslim, Christian organisations and form a broad alliance so that every temple, church and mosque will have freedom to manage their affairs and not to be intervened upon.' Minutes after the Supreme Court ruled 4:1 in favour of allowing women's entry into the Sabarimala temple, social activist Rahul Easwar, president of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena and one of the activists who backed the ban on the entry of women between the ages of 10 to 50 inside the shrine, said he would file a review petition against the verdict next week. "When the senior judge herself says it is not female discrimination, don't you think we have grounds for a review?" Easwar asks Rediff's Syed Firdaus Ashraf. How do you react to the verdict? We will file a review petition and approach the Supreme Court in the first week of October. Hopefully, the new Chief Justice of India will be more culturally sensitive. Let us see where it goes as the Dharma Sena and other Hindu organisations are going to file a review petition. Justice Indu Malhotra, the lone woman judge on the bench, passed a dissenting judgment and said 'Issues which have deep religious connotation should not be tinkered with to maintain a secular atmosphere in the country.' That in itself is a great victory. Even the woman judge felt it is not discrimination. So how can a male feel this is discrimination? When the senior judge herself says it is not female discrimination, don't you think we have grounds for a review? Justice Malhotra said worshippers should decide a religion's essential practice. If we accept that, would outlawed practices like sati, dowry, child marriage, the ill-treatment of widows not continue? Let us not compare apples and pineapples. These are two different issues altogether. Those were bad practices, wrong practices. This is not a wrong or bad practice. We are, therefore, going back to the Supreme Court for a review. We will approach them on two grounds -- one will be Article 25, and the deity's rights should be protected. Article 26 of the Constitution gives every religious group the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes, manage its affairs, properties as per the law. What does this judgment mean to Article 26? Exactly. Article 26 and Article 27 stand diluted. These are Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution so we will have to fight. That is the reason we are saying we will file a review petition. Chief Justice Dipak Misra in his judgment said devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not constitute a separate religious denomination. We are not a denomination. We are only vouching for the deity's rights. Justice Malhotra said this verdict will have far-reaching implications on other places of worship. Absolutely yes. This why this verdict needs to be analysed; a much more balanced verdict should have come. We are vouching for it and fighting for it. We will also talk to different Muslim, Christian organisations and form a broad alliance so that every temple, church and mosque will have freedom to manage their affairs and not to be intervened upon. The court permitted women's entry into the Shani Shingnapur temple and the Haji Ali dargah. They are not comparable. Every temple is unique. We cannot compare Sabarimala to Haji Ali and Shani Shingnapur. The Centre on Friday questioned the Supreme Court for its reported remark terming as "murderers" some Manipur Police personnel, chargesheeted in alleged fake encounter cases, saying it has "completely shaken" the morale of armed forces and securitymen operating in insurgency-hit areas. The government told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that they supported the applications filed by some Manipur Police personnel seeking recusal of the bench from hearing the Manipur fake encounters cases in which the CBI's special investigation team is carrying out a probe. The petitioners, however, challenged the government's contention, saying this was an attempt to "overawe" the court, which should not recuse from hearing the matter. The court, which is hearing a PIL seeking a probe into as many as 1,528 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur, had on July 14 last year constituted an special investigation team of the Central Bureau of Investigation BI and ordered lodging of FIRs and investigating them. Besides the policemen, over 300 army personnel have also approached the top court challenging registration of FIRs against them for operations in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is in force. "I have instructions from the Union of India that we are supporting these petitions (seeking recusal of bench). So far as armed forces in Manipur are concerned, they are having difficult time fighting insurgency," Attorney General K K Venugopal told the bench. The AG also questioned the prosecution of personnel from the armed forces and the police for conducting operations in the areas where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is in force, saying "they cannot understand why they are asked to face the prosecution". He said the reported remarks by the bench that "murderers" were walking freely has "shaken" the morale of armed forces and police personnel as they were sacrificing their lives but facing the prospect of being awarded death penalty for the alleged offence of murder. The bench, however, said the oral remarks by the bench during the hearing on July 30 was not "designed or directed" against any individual as it happened during the discussion in the court with the CBI Director. Justice Lalit said that on July 30, they were asking the CBI Director, who was then present in the court, about the status of the case. The court was informed that till then, 14 persons were chargesheeted for the alleged offences of murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence by the SIT. "We will make it clear and we will pass an order today that whatever had happened was in the course of discussion (with the CBI Director). It was not intended against any individual," the bench said. Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for petitioners, told the court that persons who were chargesheeted had a "genuine apprehension" that they would not get a fair trial and impartial justice due to the remarks by the bench. "This affects morale of army and police personnel," he said, adding "this is our submission that this bench should not hear this case". Rohatgi, while making it clear that nobody was saying that court was "biased", said these persons, having been chargesheeted for the offence of murder, were facing the charge of life or death. The bench after hearing the submissions reserved its order on the application seeking its recusal from hearing the matter. During the arguments, Venugopal said personnel from armed forces and police were "sacrificing their lives" in the insurgency hit areas and after the reported remarks by the bench, "they do not know what will happen to them". He said after this remark by the highest court of the land, it would be very difficult for the trial judge to go against the observations of the apex court. "Even if you clarify this, will they ever be able to get rid of this thought from their mind. They are not saying that this matter should not be heard. But some other bench should hear this," Venugopal said. To this, the bench observed, "The CBI is investigating. No court is going to interfere with the investigation. We are just monitoring it. Is it your submission that some other bench should monitor the investigation?" The bench also said it has not been stated that the CBI was not investigating these cases properly. "Morale of entire armed forces in insurgency hit area under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is shaken," the Attorney General said, adding that even before the trial in the alleged encounter cases have started, the police personnel were termed as "murderers". "It is justified that you leave it to other bench to monitor this. Life of people is involved," he said. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, who is representing the petitioners in the main case related to alleged fake encounters in Manipur by Army, Assam Rifles and state police, said the bench should not recuse from hearing the matter as it had not said that these accused were murderers. "It (seeking recusal) is an attempt to overawe the court," he said, adding that these applications should be dismissed with cost. An advocate, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the main matter, also opposed the plea seeking recusal of the bench. Rohatgi, however, said, "Anybody can make a mistake. The court can also make a mistake. In section 377 (apex court's verdict on gay sex) and adultery case, the mistakes made earlier by this court has been corrected by this court". The apex court also rejected the plea to appoint a Special Investigation Team for probe. IMAGE: The five activists -- Varavara Rao (pictured), Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- are under house since August 29. Photograph: PTI Photo Rejecting a plea for release of five activists held in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case for alleged Naxal links, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to order a special probe into their arrest, saying it was not a case of "more dissenting views or difference in political ideology". The 2:1 majority verdict of an apex court bench was hailed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as a "victory" for the state police, which had arrested the five activists after a nationwide raid a month ago. The Bharatiya Janata Party used the opportunity to slam the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi, alleging they stand exposed for supporting "urban naxals plotting to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi". The Congress hoped the police will conduct investigations as per the law and not according to the "whims and fancies" of the BJP. The petitioners, who had sought the Supreme Court's intervention in seeking immediate release of the five activists, said their stand found "vindication" in the dissenting opinion expressed by Justice D Y Chandrachud, who said dissent is symbol of a vibrant democracy. "Individuals who assert causes which may be unpopular to the echelons of power are yet entitled to the freedoms which are guaranteed by the Constitution. Dissent is a symbol of a vibrant democracy. Voices in opposition cannot be muzzled by persecuting those who take up unpopular causes," the judge said in his separate dissenting judgement. Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar, however, said in their majority verdict, "We are of considered opinion that it is not a case of arrest because of mere dissenting views expressed or difference in the political ideology of the named accused, but concerning their link with the members of the banned organisation and its activities." The court ruled the accused will remain in house arrest for four more weeks during which they are at liberty to avail legal remedies in appropriate court which can consider the case on merits. A large number of activists had come out in support of the accused and had levelled various allegations against the investigators. Refusing to appoint an Special Investigation Team to probe the arrests, the top court held that the "accused cannot ask for changing the investigating agency or to do investigation in a particular manner including for court-monitored investigation." The Maharashtra Police has maintained that its action was based on cogent evidence. Refusing to interfere with the arrests, the court said further proceedings against the accused would be decided on the merits of the case without being influenced by the observations of the apex court. It also said that this is not the stage where the "efficacy of the material or its sufficiency" can be evaluated nor it is possible to enquire whether it is genuine or fabricated as it would cause prejudice to the parties, adding they can opt for discharge at an appropriate stage if there is no evidence against them. The Maharashtra police had arrested the activists on August 28 in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave -- 'Elgaar Parishad' -- held on December 31, 2017 that allegedly triggered violence later at Koregaon-Bhima village. The five activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- were put under house arrest on August 29 following an apex court order on the plea by historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala against the police action. Pune Police chief K Venkatesham said they will continue to "professionally" investigate the case. Fadnavis said the court decision proved there was "no crushing of dissent" or any "conspiracy" behind the action by the state police. "This is a victory for the Pune police which collected forensic and collaborative evidence. We will move appropriate courts and take custody of the arrested persons," Fadnavis said. He said the arrested people had "links" with banned naxal groups and that the police had not acted with any ulterior motive. Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on August 28 from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi. Justice Khanwilkar, writing the majority judgement for himself and the CJI, said any observation made by this court may cause "serious prejudice" to them who are not before this court resulting in "serious miscarriage" of justice. "We may hasten to mention that we have perused the registers containing relevant documents and the case diary produced by the State of Maharashtra. But we have avoided to dilate on the factual position emerging therefrom, lest any prejudice is caused to any accused or the prosecution, in any manner," he said. The judge said except pointing out some circumstances to question the manner of arrest, no specific material facts and particulars are found in the petition about the alleged mala fide exercise of power by the investigating officer. He said a vague and unsubstantiated assertion was not enough and the plea of the petitioners of lack of evidence against the accused has been seriously disputed by the investigating agency. The court agreed with the state's argument that the plea to change the investigating agency cannot be dealt with lightly and it must exercise that power with circumspection. The apex court said banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. Photograph: sabarimala.kerala.gov.in In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday lifted a ban that prevented women and girls between the age of 10 and 50 from entering the famous Sabarimala temple in Kerala, holding this centuries-old Hindu religious practice illegal and unconstitutional. Women activists hailed the judgement that paved the way for entry of female devotees of all ages as a victory for gender equality while Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi said it would make Hinduism even more inclusive. The temple barred women of a "menstruating age"-- defined as between the ages of 10 and 50 -- from entering. The Chief Justice Dipak Misra-headed Constitution bench in a 4-1 verdict held that the existing ban is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. "Restrictions put by Sabarimala temple can't be held as essential religious practice," said Justice Misra, adding religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. While Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud concurred with the CJI and Justice A M Khanwilkar, Justice Indu Malhotra gave a dissenting verdict. Justice Malhotra was of the view that it is not for courts to determine which religious practices are to be struck down except in issues of social evil like Sati. Sabarimala is a prominent Hindu temple which attracts tens of millions of pilgrims every year. The hill top shrine remains open only for a little over four months in a year and the approach is through a forested area that involves an arduous 5-km trek from the Pampa river base camp.. Describing the verdict as "unfortunate", Rahul Easwar, the president of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena, said the organisation would file a review petition against the judgement. Easwar, grandson of a former Sabarimala priest the late Kandararu Maheswararu, said, "We will defintely go ahead with the fight. Until October 16, the Sabarimala temple is closed. So, we have time." Kerala Religious Trusts Minister Kadakampally Surendran described the verdict as "historic", while the shrine's head priest Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru said though the verdict was "disappointing", the management accepted it. Kerala's Left Front government had favoured the entry of women of all age groups into the temple. The Travancore Devaswom Board, which administers the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa, said it was bound to implement the judgment. Mariam Dhawale, General Secretary of the The All India Democratic Women's Association, called the verdict another step that would help in bringing equality. The court passed four sets of separate judgements on a clutch of pleas challenging ban on the entry of women of menstrual age in Sabrimala saying law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. The CJI said devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination and patriarchal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. He said devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not constitute a separate denomination. The CJI said practice of exclusion of women of 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as essential religious practice and the temple rule denies rights to women on grounds of physiological reasons. Justice Nariman said the Sabarimala temple custom barring women of 10-50 age is not backed by Article 25 and 26 of the Constitution. He said the custom of barring women is violative of Article 25 (Clause 1) and Rule 3(b) of Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (authorisation of entry) Rules, 1965 is liable to be struck down. Justice Chandrachud said religion cannot be used as cover to deny rights of worship to women and it is also against human dignity. He said prohibition on women is due to non-religious reasons and it is a grim shadow of discrimination going on for centuries. Devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not form separate religious denominations, Justice Chandrachud said and added that any custom or religious practice if violates dignity of women by denying them entry due to her physiology is unconstitutional. He said the popular notion about morality can be offensive to dignity of others and exclusion of women because she menstruates is utterly unconstitutional. Justice Chandrachud held that exclusion of women is violative of right to liberty, dignity and equality and said banning women of a particular age group is not essential practice of religion. In her dissenting verdict, Justice Malhotra said issues which have deep religious connotation should not be tinkered with to maintain secular atmosphere in the country. She said right to equality conflicts with right to worship of devotees of Lord Ayyappa. She said the issue in this case not limited to Sabarimala only. It will have far reaching implications for other places of worships. Justice Malhotra said notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion and India has diverse religious practices and constitutional morality would allow anyone to profess a religion they believe. She said equality doctrine cannot override fundamental right to worship under Article 25. The Supreme Court's refusal to interfere in the arrest of five rights activists is "unfortunate and unexpected", a family member of P Varavara Rao, who is under house arrest in Hyderabad for his alleged links with Maoists, said on Friday. Varavara Rao, a Left leaning writer, was arrested from the city last month, while activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Farreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested in New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere in the arrest of five rights activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint a SIT for probe into their arrest. The court also refused the plea seeking immediate release of the activists. "This is unfortunate and unexpected because the way the whole proceedings went on and the way the judges reacted, we were hoping that the case will be quashed. Because the falseness of the concocted evidence has come out openly in the court. "But, despite our hopes and expectations, today's judgment refused to intervene (in our favour)," N Venugopal Rao, nephew of Varavara Rao told PTI. Though the court refused to intervene, it was a relief that it extended the house arrest by four weeks, he said. Speaking to reporters, Varavara Rao's wife Hemalatha said, "We did not expect this judgment. We, me and Varavara Rao sincerely thank the lawyers for taking up our case. Following the arguments in the court, we assumed that the case will be quashed." Varavara Rao was arrested on August 28 by the Pune Police. He is under house arrest since August 30 as per the Supreme Court's order. Venugopal Rao said they will move either the Bombay high court or the Hyderabad high court seeking quashing the case against Rao and others. PTI Liberty of activists for time being not 'jeopardised', SC protected: Petitioners The liberty and dignity of the five human rights activists arrested by the Maharashtra Police have "for the time being not been jeopardised" and the Supreme Court has protected them, the petitioners said after the apex court's verdict in the case. They also said that their stand found "vindication" in the dissenting opinion expressed by Justice D Y Chandrachud. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of the five rights activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint a special investigation team to probe their arrest. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea filed by noted historian Romila Thapar and others, seeking the immediate release of the activists. The petitioners "are pleased to note that at least the liberty and dignity of the human rights activists has for the time being not been jeopardized and the Supreme Court has protected the same", Thapar read out from the joint statement. In the statement, the five petitioners -- Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala -- said Friday's judgement provided protection to the activists for a further period of four weeks and has given them the liberty to seek remedy from the appropriate courts. "Our stand in this case finds vindication in the dissenting opinion of Justice Chandrachud who has categorically held that liberty cannot be sacrificed at the altar of conjecture and that the police had been taking liberties with the truth and besmirching the reputation of the activists by doing a media trial. "Under such circumstances, the police's ability to conduct a free, fair and impartial investigation is in serious doubt, as has been held by Justice D Y Chandrachud," the petitioners said. Lawyer Vrinda Grover said Justice Chandrachud's dissenting judgement clearly shows that a "fractured verdict" has been delivered. "What we asked for was a better investigation and nothing else. After reading the judgement it is clear that it is a fractured verdict. The dissenting judgement says that we made a strong case for SIT probe. Majority judgement also says that liberty has to be restored," Grover told reporters. The bench also extended by four weeks the house arrest of the activists. The five activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- have been under arrest at their homes since August 29. Grover added that it is too early to discuss further action and will deliberate with our clients. Thapar said the plea was filed in the Supreme Court because "we felt the freedom we have in democracy are being slowly taken away from us". "Any democratic institution cannot take law into its hands. It has to go through a certain way," she said. Prabhat Pattnaik said the apex court taking cognisance of the case is of great significance to them. "I consider that historic. If the SC thought they (activist) were Maoists, why were they given four weeks. Within the SC, there were also reservations," Pattnaik said. Pilots from an elite fighter jet squadron of the People's Liberation Army Air Force assemble on the tarmac after a training drill. [YANG PAN/FOR CHINA DAILY] Revised training guidelines have resulted in one of the top units in the PLA Air Force becoming better prepared to counter threats. Li Hongyang reports. Editor's note: China Daily is not authorized to disclose the name of the squadron in this story. In April, during an aerial combat exercise in the skies above Liaoning province, Ding Tang, a fighter jet pilot with one of the most illustrious squadrons in the People's Liberation Army Air Force, locked onto a target on the ground and began to dive. When he pressed the firing button, several target vehicles were destroyed immediately. "It is the kind of exercise that develops real combat skills. Before revised training guidelines were issued at the end of last year, we were required to perform several preparatory maneuvers, including locking onto targets and then rehearsing attacks. Now, everything fits real combat standards; the preparatory work has been abandoned and we are required to complete the task in one go," the 31-year-old lieutenant colonel said. In recent years, the PLA Air Force has intensified training programs and heightened efficiency as the Central Military Commission devises new methods to hone combat ability. Three pilots assess conditions for an upcoming combat training session. [YANG PAN/FOR CHINA DAILY] In March 2013, at the First Session of the 12th National People's Congress, President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed that the ability to fight and win battles must be the military's fundamental objective. At a mobilization meeting on Jan 3, he issued an order requiring the PLA at all levels to improve training related to combat readiness and make training the central theme of its work to ensure effective results. A J-11B jet stands ready to undertake an exercise. [WAN QUAN/FOR CHINA DAILY] Improved efficiency The revised training guideline specifies factors such as flying hours, speed, height and weapon loads, and caters more for real combat situations. Ding's squadron was one of the first to adopt the new code. As one of the first fighter groups established by New China, the squadron is revered throughout the PLA. It participated in five battles during the Korean War (1950-53) and set several combat records in fields such as fighting at close quarters and nighttime sorties. Details of the records have not been made public. Even though the Korean War ended 65 years ago, "warning boards" from the time still hang every 4 or 5 meters in the corridors of the squadron's building. The words are still legible: "Where are those we fight?"; "What are their weapons and equipment?"; "What kinds of exercises and research are they performing?"; and "What should we do?" Nowadays, the questions on the boards have been replaced by routine drills based on genuine combat situations, and the revised guidelines require the pilots to explore their jets' potential to the maximum, according to Ding. "In a real battle, enemies never fight in a routine way, so we need to take every condition into consideration. Therefore, real combat training does not just mean using real weapons or live fireit refers to a mindset of being on constant call for battle and being prepared at all times. It doesn't matter how long a pilot trains for, reaching strategic goals matters," he said. "To improve combat effectiveness, more drastic training battles have been organized, backed up by more varied flight maneuvers. Bulletin boards have been set up to warn all the airmen about the dangers of failing to meet real combat standards." Even when returning to baseusually regarded as the end of a drill and therefore a less-pressured situationthe requirements are still high. Pilots must fly in tactical formation because in a real battle they could never return to base without being harassed by the enemy. "For a long time, pilot training remained under a command and control center, which was unable to replicate conditions in a real combat situation. Now, pilots are given the freedom to decide their own moves, which means they can decide for themselves how to deal with challenges in the air. The training helps cultivate pilots with all-around abilities," said Wang Mingliang, a professor of military studies at the Air Force Command College of the People's Liberaton Army in Beijing. Rockets are fired from a jet fighter during an air-to-ground attack. [YANG PAN/FOR CHINA DAILY] Greater intensity In accordance with the revised guideline, the squadron's pilots now fly at lower altitudes to improve identification of enemy forces and to allow their planes to cover a greater area. To complete tougher maneuvers and cope with the tremendous G-forces, many pilots wear compression belts under their antigravity suits to provide additional support. "The rules became stricter after the training guidelines were changed. Pilots are required to perform more-difficult maneuvers at higher speeds while carrying larger loads. As a result, most have problems with their lumbar and cervical vertebrae," Wang said. While the physical forces on the pilots have intensified, their planes also need to be capable of performing while carrying heavier burdens. Xu Feng, political instructor at a maintenance team, has seen many changes in the once-routine work of keeping the fighter jets in perfect condition. He said weapons-related maintenance has become more increasingly important and more complicated because combat training sessions now include the more frequent use of live ammunition. "Before, basic maintenance squads such as aeroengine mechanics were the busiest members of our team, but now avionics systems technicians and ordnance experts bear greater responsibilities and have maximized their abilities," he said. "In addition, more flying hours have squeezed the weekly maintenance time, while the increased intensity of the practice drillsresulting in higher speeds and complicated routesmeans the planes have to be refueled more frequently." A pilot in an electromagnetic shielding suit lands after an assignment. [YANG PAN/FOR CHINA DAILY] 'Fresh blood' Hao Bo, a senior colonel in the squadron, regards the overall military situation as fluid and challenging. In response, the unit is always fully prepared to engage an enemy. "Since the 1950s, our squadron has been revered, and it still is today because of our strong fighting capacity. A pioneer force like ours always bears its mission in mind, and constantly inspires and trains new pilots," he said. The 47-year-old, who will retire next year, has spent the past 20 years training generations of new pilots for the squadron. He believes that a good talent structure has ensured that the squadron has constantly remained at full strength, both physically and mentally. "I have the responsibility of helping to select the best-performing pilots during training. Psychological competence is more important than flying technique, and only by watching the young pilots perform a number of tasks, can we assess whether they are good enough," he said. Yu Changyi, a 31-year-old pilot with the squadron, said efficient coordination between the pilots is one of the most important factors in winning battles. However, the partnerships are not fixed because pilots constantly move between units. "Every year, new people are enrolled. The senior pilots need to help them grow into skilled pilots as quickly as possible to ensure the training period is as short as possible and help accustom them to combat situations," he said. Wang, from the Air Force Command College, said effective team building is the key to success. A successful team should include experienced members and vigorous freshmen, and new talent must be introduced regularly. "Some flying skills cannot be learned from books; they are kind of a feeling that needs to be taught one-on-one. When there are several old hands in a team, the younger members feel more secure. By the same token, the older pilots can be motivated by the younger ones," he said. "With the rapid development of modern weapons systems, battle skills and team construction must catch up to help our airmen adapt to new equipment and perform to our maximum potential," he added. "It is our long-standing maxim, and also a basic law, that the military trains for real combat. We must avoid any slackness or complacency if we are not engaged for long periods of time, because external threats will always exist." Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday welcomed the Supreme Courts refusal to interfere with the probe by the state police against five Left-wing activists in connection with violence in Koregaon-Bhima in December last year. Fadnavis said the decision of the top court proved that there was no conspiracy behind action by the state police against Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha. The five are under arrest at their respective homes since August 29. Fadnavis was reacting soon after the Supreme Court declined to appoint a Special Investigation Team to probe the arrest of the five activists by the Pune police. The court said the arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned Communist Party of India-Maoist organisation. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. The Supreme Court has vindicated the state of the government and the Pune police. The court has no doubt over the material evidence submitted, the chief minister told reporters. A conspiracy against the nation has been unearthed by the police, he said on the arrest of the five activists. According to the Supreme Court order, the government will go to the appropriate forum in the case, he said. Fadnavis also defended the state police for addressing a press conference after the arrest, which had been come in for criticism. A lot of things were said against the police after the arrest and an atmosphere was created by pseudo, so-called neo-liberals in the media that the arrests have been made without evidence. The police had to say that the arrests were not motivated but backed by real and powerful evidence, he said. We will look into the fine print of the order regarding the police press conference. The press conference is not important but the real issue of conspiracy against the nation is. If holding the press conference was wrong, we will improve it, he said. Fadnavis said political parties should not support the arrested persons for political reasons after the SC verdict, otherwise the political parties will stand exposed. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference that it was a "historic" day with India and its interests and security emerging victorious in the order. Citing comments of Gandhi and other Congress leaders against the BJP and the Narendra Modi government following arrests of the activists for their alleged links with Maoists, he said Gandhi stood with them "shamelessly" to promote his political interests. "This is defeat of the Congress. Rahul Gandhi should hang his head in shame," Patra said. "Our country and national security mean nothing for Rahul Gandhi, and the only thing important for him is his political agenda... Why don't you stand with India and why do you stand with anti-India forces?" he asked Rahul. Patra said some of these activists were arrested earlier as well for their alleged links with banned outfits. The Congress wants to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and it does not matter to it that whether Pakistan does it or Maoists, he alleged and sought Gandhi's apology. As even allies of the Congress are not backing Gandhi's leadership, he is stooping to make himself acceptable, Patra claimed. Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on August 28 from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi. The majority verdict by the Supreme Court said the protection of house arrest of the activists will remain in force for four more weeks to enable the accused to seek appropriate legal remedy at appropriate legal forum. Rahul Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was insulting Sardar Patel by building his statue in Gujarat which is Made in China, evoking a sharp reaction from Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah who termed his comments shameful and accused his family of trying to erase Patels legacy. The Congress president was speaking at a public rally in Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh where he also hit out at the Modi government over the unemployment issue. Narendra Modi ji is making the statue of Sardar Patel in Gujarat. It is the worlds tallest statue, it is a good work, but it is Made in China. This is an insult to Sardar Patel... but Sardar Patels statue cannot be made in China. Wherever you go and see, it is Made in China and the youth in China are getting jobs for it, Gandhi told the rally in the poll-bound state. Assembly elections are due in the state later this year. The 182-metre Statue of Unity, being built at Sadhu Bet in Narmada district, is slated to be inaugurated by Modi on Patels birth anniversary on October 31. Hitting back, Shah attacked Gandhi for his offensive against the prime minister, saying it was a shame that at a time when India is united in paying tributes to the countrys first home minister by building a grand statue of unity, he is spreading canards to discredit the project. It is a very disgraceful statement and the BJP strongly condemns it, he said. The BJP chief also tweeted ,Dear Rahul Gandhi, your family humiliated Sardar Patel, unsuccessfully tried to erase his legacy from the peoples hearts and minds. Your lies on the statue of unity is another display of your visceral hatred towards Sardar Patel. During his rally, Gandhi had also claimed while the Modi government is providing employment to 450 people in 24 hours, the Chinese government is providing 50,000 jobs to their youth. We are pitted against China and the Indian youth are not seeing a way forward. When Indian youth look at Narendra Modis stage, they say they cannot have faith on him and this man is lying, the Congress chief said adding He has spoke a lie to farmers, youth, women. In his counter-attack, Shah said the country is away of his hate against India and love for China. But he will become so blind in his love for China that he will make such disparaging comments against Sardar Patel, is something that is very shameful. The country is hurt with Rahuls shameful remarks, he said. History is full of examples of the Congress insulting Patel, he said. Its governments did not give him Bharat Ratna, Indias highest civilian honour, and did not allow an oil painting of him to be installed in Parliament, he said. Shah alleged that the Congress disrupted even a condolence meeting held to pay homage to him. Reacting to Gandhis remarks, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani accused him of lying shamelessly while asserting that the statue was made in India. Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel went further by saying that Gandhi himself was Made-in-Italy. Rahul Gandhi has Italian blood. He is made in Italy. He is a foreigner. But we do not rake up this issue. But, when he is trying to devalue the tallest statue being built here, he should see that he also has Italian blood, Patel said in Ahmedabad. He said the entire country was feeling proud that the worlds tallest statue is being built here and asked why is Rahul Gandhi not feeling proud about it? The Gujarat government went on to clarify that after international tenders were floated for erecting the statue, Indian company Larson and Tubro bagged the contract. It said that 95 per cent making and raw materials of the statue are Indian, while other five per cent parts which were not available in the country were imported from China. Patel said that, L&T being lowest bidder had bagged the contract for building of the statue. Only some bronze material, for which expertise was not available in India has been imported by the company from China, he added. Senior BJP leader and union minister Uma Bharti also hit out at Gandhi, saying, The iron for making Sardar Patels statue was collected from different villages of the country. Why Rahul is remembering China and Pakistan so much? Senior diplomat Vikram Misri has been appointed as India's next ambassador to China, the ministry of external affairs announced on Friday. He will replace Gautam Bambawale. Misri, a 1989-batch India Foreign Service officer, is presently serving as Indian envoy in Myanmar. "He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the ministry said. His appointment comes at a time when India and China are trying to deepen their cooperation in various areas, leaving behind last year's Doklam standoff which was the most serious military face-off in decades. Misri has served in various capacities at the headquarters of the MEA in New Delhi as well as in the Prime Minister's Office. He has also served in various Indian missions in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. Misri had taken charge as India's Ambassador to Myanmar on August 31, 2016. He was born on November 7, 1964 in Srinagar. He did his schooling from the Scindia School in Gwalior and earned a Bachelor's degree in History from the Hindu College, University of Delhi. Misri is also an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. The Border Security Force on Friday vowed strong retaliatory action against Pakistan, saying it was witnessing a "more aggressive stance" of the opponent along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir after Imran Khan became prime minister. Outgoing BSF director general K K Sharma told reporters that his troops were waiting for the right time to strike back against the enemy in retaliation to the recent killing of their jawan along the IB in the state. Sharma, who demits office on September 30, also admitted that Head Constable Narender Singh was killed in an "action of the Border Action Team" of Pakistan. The jawan was shot three times on his chest, dragged to the other side of the fence, his feet were tied and throat slit, the DG said. "There was no mutilation of the body," he said. The Border Security Force chief said the gun and ammunition of the jawan, who went ahead of the fence in Jammu's Ramgarh sector along with seven other personnel, was taken away. "This incident is a first of its kind because generally on the IB you don't have a BAT action. This was a BAT action...It is an unfortunate incident," the DG told reporters in New Delhi. He added that some counter-action has already been taken along the Line of Control and more is in store. "We have taken sufficient action across the LoC to avenge the death of our soldier. We also reserve our right to retaliate at an appropriate time and place of our choosing," Sharma said. "The moment this incident took place we noticed that the other side simply vanished. They were no where in sight. "They also got their villages vacated thinking we will hit them. So, even if we had retaliated, it would not have been of any use at that time," he said, adding "we have reserved the right". Sharma said the BSF has given a befitting reply and caused more damage on the Pakistan side than ever before. "The BSF has given a very tough and befitting reply and caused much more damage on the other side in the past. We will do the same again. "In this case, it was very important for us to retrieve the body first and then think of something else. We will see in the near future, we will do something," he said. Sharma said it is expected that the BAT's actions can now also happen along the IB and hence, BSF personnel in forward locations have been asked to remain alert from this point of view. The DG was subsequently asked if there has been any change in the security situation along the border after Imran Khan took over as the prime minister of Pakistan. "There has been no change on the border and this incident has taken place after Imran Khan took over as the PM. Such action never took place on the IB. "We are seeing a more aggressive stance of the opponent on the border than in the past. This incident is an act of aggression," the DG said at the BSF headquarters. He reiterated that "many training camps" and launching pads of terrorists were active along the IB where hundreds of militants are present and are wanting to infiltrate into India. "It is Pakistan's state policy to help and push terrorists into India. This is part of the Zia-ul-Haq (former Pakistan president) doctrine to make India bleed by thousand cuts," he said. The DG said there has been no successful infiltration bid from along the IB this year and whatever has happened has taken place from the LoC which is under the army's operational control. He added that the Pakistani side, in anticipation of a 'surgical strike' like retaliation from India is still alert and they have got cleared about 5 km of area from the IB on their side. When asked if the force has seen Chinese troops along with Pak Rangers on this border, the DG replied in the negative, saying he has knowledge of Chinese PLA troops manning the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor assets. China firmly opposes US provocation in the South China Sea, two Chinese ministries said Thursday after the US sent B-52 strategic bombers into the region. "China's principle and standpoint on the South China Sea are always clear," defense ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said at a regular press conference on Thursday. "China firmly opposes US military aircraft's provocation in the South China Sea, and will take all necessary measures." Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at Thursday's routine press conference that China firmly opposes countries using freedom of navigation and overflight as excuses to harm other countries' sovereignty and security, disturbing regional peace and stability. The remarks came after the US sent B-52 strategic bombers over the South China Sea this week, according to a Thursday Reuters report, quoting Dave Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman. The move was part of regularly scheduled operations designed to enhance US interoperability with its partners and allies in the region, Reuters quoted Eastburn as saying. But Chinese analysts said the US was pressuring China with military action in the hope of gaining an edge in the expanding trade friction between the two countries. Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday the US was playing the military card in the South China Sea as a means to pressure China. US President Donald Trump is preparing for the upcoming midterm elections and he wants to showcase success against China to US voters, Li said. Chen Xiangmiao, a research fellow at the Hainan-based National Institute for the South China Sea, said the US was reassuring regional partners like the Philippines and Vietnam that "it is capable of protecting them." The B-52 was an aggressive weapon that shows off US military power in the Asia-Pacific region, Chen told the Global Times on Thursday. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said on Wednesday that the flights were nothing out of the ordinary and then accused China of militarizing the South China Sea, Reuters reported. Chen said that there was no militarization of the South China Sea, only US excuses for their actions. "China only deploys necessary defensive facilities to protect itself," Chen said. This is not the first time this year the US sent B-52s into the South China Sea. In June, two B-52 bombers flew a training mission over the area and entered the vicinity of the Nansha Islands. Quoting Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn, the US media reported that US B-52 bombers have conducted transit operations in the South China Sea and East China Sea earlier this week. The heavy bombers also took part in a combined operation in the East China Sea. It is widely believed the move would enrage Beijing and exacerbate tensions between the two countries. The Western media reports did not mention whether the bombers flew near Chinese islands. There are Chinese islands and reefs, Chinese territorial waters, jurisdictional waters and overlapping waters claimed by relevant countries in the vast South China Sea. There is no problem with US ships and aircraft passing through international waters. But if they sail into or fly over China's territorial waters, they will receive warnings from, and be expelled by, the Chinese side. The South China Sea is a major gateway for the world's merchant shipping and witnesses frequent transits of foreign vessels and warships. China has repeatedly said it has no objections to legally conducted freedom of navigation operations in the region. This time the Pentagon deliberately made public the flights of the B-52 bombers in the South China Sea. Its purpose was to incur speculation that the US was challenging China's South China Sea policy. Although it is unknown whether the US bombers flew into the 12 nautical miles of China's islands and reefs, international public opinion has deemed the US as provoking China. So it was. Because if that was a normal flight, why the need for a public announcement? China's island-building in the South China Sea aroused strong US dissatisfaction. Therefore Washington has ratcheted up military activities in the waters with the purpose of pressuring Beijing to draw back. However, no matter how it provokes China, the US has little influence. China has maintained its overall strategic initiative in the South China Sea. China has more cards to play than the US in the waters. If the US military activities continue to increase in the region and threaten the security of China's islands and reefs, China could deploy military combat equipment to the islands and reefs. From a broader picture, more US military provocations against China will stimulate China to input more resources into building strategic military capacity, including advanced nuclear capacity, which is sure to upset the US. Against the backdrop of a tense US-China military relationship in recent years and the ongoing trade frictions, any US provocation against China is easily over-interpreted. The US had better exercise restraint in case it cannot handle the intensified tension. Israeli soldiers stand guard during a visit by the Israeli Defense Minister to the Israel-Syria border Quneitra crossing in the Golan Heights, September 27, 2018. /VCG Photo Israel is ready to reopen a crossing point into the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights now that Syrian government forces have regained control from rebels, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday. But Lieberman, on a visit to the Israeli-held side of the Quneitra crossing, said any resumption of operations at the facility depended on Syria. "The fact that we have come here, to Alpha Gate, and as far as we are concerned (United Nations Disengagement Observer Force) UNDOF forces have begun to operate and patrol with the Israeli military's assistance, says that we are ready for the crossing to reopen," he told reporters, in comments distributed by his ministry. UNDOF's monitoring operations in a demilitarized zone established in 1974 between the Israeli-occupied Golan and the Syrian sector were disrupted by Syria's civil war. "At the moment, the ball is in the Syrian court," Lieberman said. Military police from Russia, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have been patrolling on the Syrian side of Quneitra, where Lieberman said Syrian police and customs officials were also present. In the past, Lieberman said, traffic through Quneitra mainly comprised shipments into Syria of apples grown by Druze farmers on the Israeli-controlled Golan and the entry of brides for partners on both sides of the armistice line. Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and fought Syria again on the strategic plateau in a 1973 conflict. German stocks fell notably on Friday after Italy's populist government set its budget deficit target at 2.4 percent of GDP for the next three years, a move that could put it on collision course with the European Union. The benchmark DAX was down 82 points or 0.66 percent at 12,353 in opening deals after gaining 0.4 percent in the previous session. Commerzbank slumped more than 4 percent and rival Deutsche Bank dropped 2 percent as Italian government bonds took a fresh heavy blow on anxiety over political stability in the country. Chemical producer BASF tumbled 2.3 percent after it signed an agreement with LetterOne to merge their respective oil and gas businesses in a joint venture. Automaker Volkswagen fell over 1 percent after reports that it is about to expel Rupert Stadler, Audi CEO. On the economic front, the number of unemployed in Germany declined 23,000 from the previous month to 2.3 million in September, figures from the Federal Agency revealed. Economists had forecast a moderate fall of 9,000. The jobless rate dropped to 5.1 percent in the month, while it was expected to remain unchanged at 5.2 percent. This was the lowest rate since German reunification in 1990. According to Destatis, Germany's jobless rate remained unchanged in August, at adjusted 3.4 percent. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis The University of Minnesota has posthumously awarded Prince with an honorary degree. Prince was honored in "recognition of his remarkable talent, enduring influence in music and his role in shaping the city of Minneapolis," the University's website says. University President Eric Kaler and Regent Darrin Rosha presented the Doctorate of Humane Letters to the late rock star's sister, Tyka Nelson. At a ceremony held at the Tedd Mann Concert Hall in the university's School of Music on Wednesday, St. Paul Peterson and Cameron Kinghorn paid tribute to the late musician by performing music linked to his career. Students of the School of Music also performed on the occasion. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Entertainment News Lavrov said the Security Council should send a "positive signal" to the North and asked why some council members "stubbornly" refused to do so. He said Russia is ready to draft a council resolution supporting the positive momentum around the Korean Peninsula. Russia's foreign minister seconded the Chinese proposal. "Steps by the DPRK toward gradual disarmament should be followed by easing of sanctions," Sergey Lavrov told council members. He said Western calls for maintaining pressure on North Korea seemed "inappropriate and untimely" given that Pyongyang had taken "important steps toward denuclearization." Wang urged the 15-member council to consider using a provision in its resolutions that allows for modifying sanctions. "Given the positive developments in inter-Korean and the DPRK-U.S. relations and the DPRK's important pledges and actions on denuclearization, China believes that the Security Council needs to consider invoking, in due course, this provision to encourage the DPRK and other relevant parties to move denuclearization further ahead," Wang said. DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea's formal name. "China firmly believes that pressure is not the end," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council on North Korea. "Both implementing sanctions and promoting political settlement are equally important under Security Council resolutions." Russia and China called Thursday for international sanctions to be eased on North Korea as an incentive for it to denuclearize. The call is seen by the West as jeopardizing the international consensus on pressuring Pyongyang. U.S. Response Their position is opposite of the United States and most Western countries, which seek to maintain a policy of maximum pressure on Pyongyang until it fully denuclearizes. "We must not forget what brought us this far: the historic international pressure campaign that this council has made possible through the sanctions that it imposed," said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who chaired the council meeting. The United States holds the council's rotating presidency this month. "Until the final denuclearization of the DPRK is achieved and fully verified, it is our solemn collective responsibility to fully implement all UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to North Korea," Pompeo said. Since North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, the UN Security Council has imposed several rounds of increasingly tough targeted sanctions to choke off funding to Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Until now, the council has been united in its approach, but the call to ease sanctions by Beijing and Moscow could signal an end to the council's unity and ability to pressure North Korea going forward. Pompeo said he met Wednesday with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho to discuss how to move forward on commitments made at the June Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un. He said they also discussed a second summit between the two leaders. Pompeo said he plans to go to Pyongyang next month for more discussions. Illegal Transfers The United States has accused Russia of "consistent and wide-ranging" violations of the sanctions imposed on North Korea. Specifically, Washington says it has evidence of illicit ship-to-ship transfers of banned items, mainly oil, but increasingly coal and other goods. Washington said last week it has tracked at least 148 instances this year of oil tankers conducting such illegal transfers of refined petroleum products, netting North Korea more than 800,000 barrels of refined petroleum products. Pyongyang is allowed 500,000 barrels a year under the sanctions. Also present at the session were the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan, who both urged international pressure to continue. North Korea did not speak at the meeting, but had diplomats in the room. Thursday's meeting was held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of world leaders, who are gathered this week at the General Assembly. A Democratic Senator up for re-election in a state President Donald Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016 announced his opposition to Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court on Friday. Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., was one of just a few Democratic Senators that were seen as potential supporters of Kavanaugh's confirmation. Citing an inability to obtain all the necessary information about sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, Donnelly said he has "deep reservations" about the federal appeals court judge's nomination to a lifetime position on the Supreme Court. "Only 113 people have ever served on the Supreme Court, and I believe that we must do out level best to protect its sanctity," Donnelly said in a statement. He added, "While I would gladly welcome the opportunity to work with President Trump on a new nominee for this critically important position, if Judge Kavanaugh's nomination comes before the full Senate for a vote under these circumstances, I will oppose it." Montana Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., another red state Democrat up for re-election, also revealed Friday that he will vote against Kavanaugh's confirmation. Tester cited the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh as well as concerns about the judge's defense of the Patriot Act and his support for "more dark money in ." "Unfortunately, Judge Kavanaugh couldn't find time to discuss these concerns with me in person, so the only information I have is from what he said in his hearings," Tester said in a statement. "I'll be voting against him." Democratic Senators Doug Jones, D-Ala., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who both represent states Trump won in 2016, have also recently announced their opposition to Kavanaugh. Donnelly was one of just three Democratic Senators to vote to confirm Trump's previous Supreme Court nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch. Senators Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., also voted in favor of Gorsuch's confirmation but have not yet revealed whether they will support Kavanaugh. The final decisions by Manchin and Heitkamp may partly hinge on whether Republican Senators Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, decide to support Kavanaugh's confirmation. Republicans need just 50 votes to confirm Kavanaugh, as Vice President Mike Pence would be called to vote to break a potential 50-50 tie. The announcement by Donnelly comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination this afternoon despite fierce opposition from Democrats. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Political News Food baskets distributed on scholars, preachers in Hodeida [28/September/2018] HODEIDA Sept. 28 (Saba) Deputy of governor of Hodeida for financial and administrative affairs and financial resources Abdul Jabbar Mohammed along with the supervisor of the province, Ahmad al-Bishri distributed food basket provided by the Office of Awqaf and guidance for scholars and preachers of mosques in the province. During the distribution Director of the Office of Endowments and Guidance Sulaiman al-Faqih said the distribution of the food baskets based on the attention of the Office to alleviate the suffering of scholars and preachers from the war of the US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition and theirs all-out siege imposed on Yemen, which caused a humanitarian disaster to maintain. He added that 150 food baskets will be distributed to a number of scholars and preachers of the province, especially in light of the suspension of salaries and high prices. He said that in the coming days and in coordination with the leadership of the province will schedule the disbursement of food baskets to include all scholars and preachers and workers in the mosques of the province. Ahmed Al-Mutawakel Saba The United States and Japan have agreed to begin negotiations on a bilateral free-trade agreement, reducing the prospect that Washington might impose tariffs against another trading partner. "We've agreed today to start trade negotiations between the United States and Japan," U.S. President Donald Trump said at a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. "This was something that for various reasons over the years Japan was unwilling to do and now they are willing to do. So we're very happy about that, and I'm sure that we will come to a satisfactory conclusion, and if we don't, ohhhhhh," Trump added. Fast-track Authority The White House released a statement after the meeting, stating the two countries would enter into talks after completing necessary domestic procedures for a bilateral trade agreement on goods and other key areas, including services. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer called it a "very important step" in expanding U.S.-Japan relations. He told reporters that the U.S. and Japan were aiming to approve a full free-trade agreement soon. Lighthizer said he would talk to Congress on Thursday about seeking authority for the president to negotiate the agreement, under the "fast-track" trade authority law. Lighthizer said he expected the negotiations to include the goal of reaching an "early harvest" on reducing tariffs and other trade barriers. Passion brought a couple from Melbourne, Australia, to Samoa. For Judy Turno and Neil Adam, their first trip to Samoa was for a very special reason. Neil grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. Thats where he developed a passion for Robert Louis Stevensons work. It is one of the main reasons he wanted to come so he could visit the Robert Louis Museum at Vailima and up the mountain where he is buried. For Judy, she spent part of her childhood in Papua New Guinea, so she has always had love for island living. People are friendly, laid-back, its much more casual and you have that feeling of being in a much more relaxed society, said Judy. And it is with island living. When I asked what the speed limit is here, one guy laughed and said there is none. So of course that makes people from Australia think you can put down a 100 km but actually what it means is that you have to pass through slowly. I really like that, Neil said he didnt really know what to expect. Its his first time in the Pacific region. All he heard were stories from Judy who spent time in the Pacific in 1960s. Obviously there has been change since that time. Life in the islands is so attractive. It is definitely a more relaxed approach to life and that is lovely to see. Neil added that he enjoys the fact Samoa is not overly commercialised. He appreciated the authenticity of the behaviour from locals and their cultural values. It is very unique, he said. We are only here for a week you can go and be a tourist and see a lot of incredible things but I wouldnt say that we got beneath the skin. Yesterday, they visited the Cultural Show at the S.T.A Cultural Village. He said the event was fantastic since it gives visitors an understanding of Samoa. Neil also loves the family oriented nature of Samoans. Everyone lives together in communities where in Europe the families are splitting up at a point in life and going their own ways, he said. Generations are dividing, people grow up and go away, people are brought up to go away and its been like that for generations. It is an expectation in Europe to get your qualifications and go overseas. Whereas in Samoa, they are based with their families in their place. I didnt even know my grandparents and I think this is a shame. I think a lot of Samoans left Samoa for work but then they come back. It is probably the restriction of opportunities to get a career here. I know a lot of Samoans in Australia and New Zealand. So thats probably a minus for life here but when you think about the pluses living with your family its a balance. Neil and Judy say they have had a fabulous time and this visit will not be the last. HELSINKI (AP) Former U.S. President Barack Obama urged private businesses Thursday to come out of "isolation" and to engage more with governments when developing new products and services to avoid problems like those challenging Facebook. Obama told business leaders attending the Nordic Business Forum in Finland's capital that "you cannot separate the business environment from the political and social environment." "A good example is Facebook," Obama said, referring to the public relations pummeling the social media company has received following U.S. intelligence service reports that Facebook was a conduit for Russian election meddling in 2016. Obama quickly noted that he personally knew Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, and said he genuinely believed the power of social media to connect people "is something that is potentially extraordinarily valuable and can be positive." "But what is also true is that those systems were built in isolation (by private companies) detached from potential social consequences," he added. Obama made the remarks while being interviewed by Niklas Zennstrom, the Swedish billionaire entrepreneur who founded technology investment firm Atomico and co-founded Skype. Obama said he hoped to see business leaders engaging "more directly" with governments to keep politicians posted on new products and applications, but also as an acknowledgement that "there's going to be issues involved" with technological innovations. "Too often, at least in the United States, there's a tendency for business leaders to say, 'Let's just avoid the government as much as we can.'" "That strategy can work for a time, but eventually as I think Facebook has now discovered you're going to have to engage," the former president said. Facebook's Zuckerberg appeared before the U.S. Congress this year to discuss user privacy and other issues. In recent years, Facebook has faced intense public pressure over the amount of fake news, hate speech and depictions of violence being delivered through its services. Obama's Helsinki visit was part of a speaking tour that took him to Norway on Wednesday and will conclude in Denmark on Friday. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Jacinda Ardern knows all about juggling her role as a mother with the requirements of her job. The prime minister of New Zealand has brought her infant daughter to the United Nations' annual gathering of world leaders. Mother and daughter have been spotted together inside the assembly hall. She says she's a breastfeeding mother and needs to keep her daughter alive. "I'm combining my role as a mum and also as a leader and it is entirely possible to do both," Arden said Wednesday. "She comes to functions with me. So, politicians love holding babies." Baby Neve was born in June. Ardern giving birth while in office was a point of contention before the election. Television hosts asked her about her plans for children and she said she was happy to talk about it, but that it was broadly an unacceptable question for women in the workplace. Her answers resonated with many people around the world. Ardern is just the second elected world leader in modern times to give birth while in office. The last female politician to give birth while heading a government was the late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who gave birth to her daughter Bakhtawar in 1990. Incheon International Airport will open the country's first duty-free shops in an arrivals section next year as part of a bid to support smaller companies as well as boost domestic spending. The shops will not sell cigarettes, fruit or processed meat products, and each arrival will be allowed to buy only up to US$600 worth of products. Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon announced the plan on Thursday. It will require revising regulations by early 2019 and selecting operators, with the aim of opening the shops in late May or early June. UNITED NATIONS (AP) On the map, their homes are tiny specks in a vast sea of blue, rarely in the headlines and far removed from the centers of power. But for a few days each year, the leaders of small island nations share a podium with presidents and prime ministers from the world's most powerful nations, and their message is clear: Global warming is already changing our lives, and it will change yours too. Speaking shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump whose fiery speech made no mention of climate change Danny Faure told the U.N. General Assembly this week that for his country, the Seychelles, it's already a daily reality. "We see its effects in our eroding coastlines and unpredictable weather patterns," he said. "We see its effects on our coral reefs and rising sea levels." The Indian Ocean nation off the east coast of Africa is one of dozens of Small Island Developing States or SIDS for short that have been trying to draw attention to what they see as the overarching threat of our time. "Decades ago, small island developing states warned the world of the risks of climate change, and those were once theoretical threats," said Hilda Heine, president of the Marshall Islands, a sprawling series of atolls in the Pacific Ocean thousands of miles north of Australia. The message may finally be getting through, in part due to the devastating wildfires, storms and floods that have affected millions of people in the developed world over the past months. "The extreme weather events lately have underscored to leaders elsewhere that this will affect their populations, too, in the here and now," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who has followed international climate negotiations for many years. The realization may help push leaders to commit to greater action to rein in climate change ahead of a year-end deadline that countries have set themselves to flesh out the 2015 Paris climate accord, Meyer said. But he warned that there remains a big gap between the rhetoric on climate change, and the willingness of leaders of major economies like Germany or Japan to take decisive actions, such as stop burning fossil fuels. Despite its minuscule carbon emissions, Heine said her nation wants to show it, too, is prepared to do its part. The country is aiming to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, a goal most climate experts consider an absolute deadline if the world is to avert runaway warming of more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. Marshall Islanders know the future of their country, much of which is little over a meter (3.3 feet) above sea level, hangs in the balance. A recent report predicted that the world's oceans will rise by an average of at least 2 feet (61 centimeters) by the end of the century compared to now. Experts say the actions of the United States, which Trump announced will pull out of the Paris agreement, could play a decisive role in the future of small islands. Some officials warn that islanders may have to abandon their homes long before they sink beneath the waves, as the cost of rebuilding after every storm surge becomes too great. "Last year, the passage of the storms Olga and Maria meant for our country the destruction of infrastructure built for a billion dollars," said Danilo Medina, president of the Dominican Republic. "Imagine what that means for a country in which the annual budget of the state is already limited." Medina said his Caribbean country backs calls for an international fund to compensate poor nations for the loss and damage caused by climate change. "This fund will help protect the valuable lives of millions of human beings, bring peace of mind to their homes, allow them to have a future without the permanent uncertainty of feeling threatened every time they see the rain coming." His words were echoed Thursday by Haiti's President Jovenel Moise, who urged rich countries to stick to their pledges under the Paris accord, which includes include financial aid for vulnerable nations to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change. New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, told a meeting of government and business leaders in New York this week of a recent visit to her country's Pacific neighbors of Samoa, Tonga, Niue and the Cook Islands. "Cyclones are not new to the region, but the scale and devastation of them in recent times is new," she said. Ardern said she saw village children in Tonga having to cross roads now regularly flooded on their way to school, and saltwater seeping into underground aquifers, destroying the islands' few freshwater supplies. "There is a grinding reality in hearing someone from a Pacific island talk about where the sea was when they were a child, and potential loss of their entire village as an adult," Ardern told the General Assembly on Thursday. Faure, the president of Seychelles, insisted that he's not asking to shut down the global economy, with its global travel and trade. "But we need to remain aware of its consequences on our planet and our future. Through our neglect, we risk our children inheriting a planet beyond their capacity to repair," said Faure. The relevant authorities have gone quiet on an attempt to extradite a businessman, Tui Vaai Jr., to face charges in Samoa. Repeated attempts by the Weekend Observer to get an update about where they are at in terms of the investigation have been unsuccessful. The Weekend Observer understand that the Office of the Attorney General and the Police have been trying to bring Mr. Vaai back to appear in Court. Mr. Vaai was schedule to be sentenced in the District Court two months ago. However, he failed to appear which led to the issuance of an arrest warrant. The warrant of arrest states the accused sold Lot 35 in Plan 11388 to Laufau Saleimoa Amosa, which was already sold to a Victori Lui, thereby obtained $10,000 and causing losses to Saleimoa, a female of Vaitele and Auala Savaii. The warrant goes on to say that upon his arrest, he will be kept in custody until his Court appearance. But that appears a long way away. Follow up emails from the Weekend Observer to the Attorney General and the Chief Immigration Officer about the matter have not been responded to. Last month, the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet said they were investigating how Mr. Vaai Jr was issued a new passport to leave the country despite a Court order banning him from travel. This was confirmed in a statement issued to the media by Ministry of Prime Minister and Cabinet C.E.O., Agafili Tomaimano Shem Leo, who is also the Chief of Immigration. Both a police criminal investigation and an internal ministry investigation have commenced into the case of Mr. Tui Vaai Junior on how he left the country whilst previously on D.P.O. and his known valid passports were confiscated by the court. Initial inquiries confirmed that a new passport was issued and the same was used by Tui Vaai Junior to leave the country. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Days after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced globalism before world leaders at the United Nations, China and Russia positioned themselves Friday as defenders of internationalism that are keeping promises when Washington is backing away from them. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denied his country was trying to eclipse the U.S. as a world leader, but his speech at the U.N. General Assembly was a stark contrast to Trump's "America First" message. It came amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China, which Trump accused this week of interfering in the upcoming U.S. midterm election. China denies the claim. Russia is also facing U.S. accusations of election meddling, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced the claims as "baseless." He lashed out at U.S. policies in Iran, Syria and Venezuela, while vigorously defending multilateral organizations such as the U.N. and warning against unilateral moves by the U.S. or other countries. "We see the desire of several Western states to retain their self-proclaimed status as world leaders and to slow down the irreversible, objective process of establishing multipolarity," or multiple centers of power, Lavrov said. "These powers do not hesitate to use any methods, including political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force." China often portrays itself as an advocate for "win-win" international cooperation, and Wang was hardly the only leader to defend the concept of multilateralism at this week's U.N. gathering of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other leaders. But coming in the wake of Trump's proclamation that Americans "reject the ideology of globalism," Wang's speech sounded a note of rebuttal from a competing power. "Should we seek to uphold the architecture of the world order or allow it to be eroded upon and collapse?" Wang asked. "China's answer is clear-cut. ... China will keep to its commitment and remain a champion of multilateralism." In a week when Washington raised tariffs on Chinese products and Beijing responded in kind, Wang insisted that "China will not be blackmailed or yield to pressure" and warned that "protectionism will only hurt oneself, and unilateral moves will bring damage to all." "State-to-state relations must be based on credibility, not on willful revocation of commitments," he said. Wang highlighted China's massive economy as a major contributor to global growth. He described his country's trade policies as defending not just its own interests but the system of global economic exchange. Most other nations challenge China's assertions that it's a defender of free trade. And gesturing at China's influence in one of the international community's most pressing issues, he encouraged North Korea which counts China as its traditional ally and main trading partner to keep going in "the right direction toward denuclearization." At the same time, he said the U.S. should "make timely and positive responses so as to truly meet the DPRK halfway" in their ongoing efforts to reach a deal that would bring an end to the nuclear ambitions of the nation formally called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. China says it has been instrumental in reducing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Still, "China will not challenge the United States still less will China take the place of the United States," Wang said earlier in the day at the Council on Foreign Relations. China has been asserting itself on the world stage under President Xi Jinping, though it continually stands by a foreign policy of noninterference in the affairs of other countries. It has long used that policy to rebuke other countries that criticize its record on human rights. The country has come under increased criticism as its global profile has risen and its economic interests and accompanying political clout have spread from Asia to Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Besides China's clash with the Trump administration, some Africans have protested what they say is an attempted Chinese takeover of their countries. The U.S. and China are locked in a dispute over Beijing's high-tech industrial policies. The Trump administration alleges that China steals U.S. trade secrets and forces American companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market. China has accused the Trump administration of bullying. The U.S. has imposed tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese products. China has counterpunched with taxes on $110 billion in U.S. imports. The latest round of hikes came Monday. Two days later, Trump stunned other members of the Security Council by saying that China was meddling in the midterm elections because it opposes his tough trade policies. When questioned by reporters, Trump said there was "plenty" of evidence but didn't immediately provide details. Instead, he zeroed in on China's efforts to flood the U.S. with ads and statements against Trump's billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods. Beijing was quick to respond, urging Washington to stop slandering China and claiming that the Chinese government does not interfere in other countries' internal affairs. Wang didn't address the election-meddling claim Friday. Lavrov, meanwhile, held a flurry of individual meetings with other countries at the U.N. this week and vociferously defended Russia's strategies in meetings at the Security Council. Syria has been a running theme as Moscow seeks to manage the end of the civil war and ensure a long-term foothold in the region. As a longtime ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russia wants Western aid for financing postwar reconstruction while also maintaining its upper hand in discussions about the country's political future. Lavrov promised wide-ranging Russian aid in a meeting with embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who faces international condemnation, increasing U.S. sanctions and fears of a possible U.S. intervention. Seeking to maintain leverage in discussions on North Korea's denuclearization efforts, Lavrov met with North Korea's foreign minister the same day that Ri Yong Ho met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Lavrov also offered support to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas right after Abbas slammed the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Friday's speakers at the General Assembly included Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who returned to politics this year after having retired in 2003. The 93-year-old Mahathir noted that in his last speech at the forum shortly before his retirement, "I lamented how the world had lost its way." And it hasn't been found, he said. "If at all, the world is far worse than 15 years ago." Coronary stents, those tiny mesh tubes that prop open blocked blood vessels, have helped millions of people avoid invasive and complicated bypass surgery. But stents cease to be needed after the blood vessels have healed. And that poses a problem. Metal stents are impractical to remove, so they remain in the heart, possibly risking long-term complications. And temporary, resorbable stents have had a mixed record. This year, Reva received positive data about the performance of its Fantom line of bioresorbable scaffolds, as it calls its stents. It continues to collect data, hoping to demonstrate Fantoms long-term superiority. Made of a special polymer called Tyrocore, Fantom stents gradually dissolve in the body. Reva sells them in Europe. Eventually, it plans to enter the U.S. market. An estimated 1.8 million stents are implanted per year in the U.S., according to iData Research. Advertisement The actual number of patients with stents is smaller than the number implanted, because some receive multiple stents. The most stents implanted in any one person is 34, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Fantom stents have been shown to be as effective as metal stents in the short run, said Reggie Groves, Revas CEO. And long-term, the company is looking to provide evidence Fantom is superior to metal stents. If you put permanent metal in, its a foreign body in a vessel thats trying to move, which it cant because you have metal caging it, she said. The consequence is a risk of an adverse event, such as a heart attack. The stent also interferes with cardiac imaging, and is in the way if another procedure is needed. While the risk is low, it can be totally avoided if the stent dissolves, Groves said. With our material, Tyrocore, the first thing that happens is it loses molecular weight, Groves said. So in about a year the molecular weight is mostly gone, and you end up with whats like a powder, in the shape of a scaffold, but the strength is mostly gone. The vessel can expand and contract. Eventually, all the material is dissolved and removed, leaving behind a healed artery. While it exists, the Fantom is visible by X-ray, useful in confirming the stent was correctly placed. Fantom, Revas first product, received European marketing approval early last year. In the second quarter ended June 30, Reva reported $91,000 in net revenue, compared to no revenue for the same quarter a year ago. The company earned $1.9 million in the quarter, compared to a loss of $503,000 in the year-ago quarter. However, that technical profit includes an unusual and difficult to understand element - the mark to market value of Revas convertible debt, Groves said. Shares of Reva trades on the stock exchange of Australia. The company would like to eventually trade in the U.S., Groves said. Reggie Groves, CEO of Reva Medical, makers of bioresorbable cardiac stents. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) A study of 240 patients given the Fantom stent showed good results after two years, she said. The stent failed to work 4.6 percent of the time, technically called a target lesion failure. For competing resorbable stents, the failure rate ranged from 5.9 to 11 percent. The patients were treated in Europe, Australia and Brazil. Competitors include Abbott Vascular. Abbott is researching new resorbable stents after discontinuing sales of one model last year, the Absorb. Abbott said sales were too low. In early 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had warned that the Abbott Absorb stent had a higher rate of problems than Abbotts permanent Xience stent. However, some stents had been implanted in arteries too small for the device to work properly. Revas temporary stents differ from others in part because of the polymer, licensed from Rutgers University, Groves said. In addition, theyve been carefully engineered to reduce thickness, and used in specific patient populations most likely to benefit. The best candidates for Fantom stents tend to be younger, with at least more than five years life expectancy, Groves said, not specifying any precise cutoff age. Also, heavily calcified vessels are not suitable for the Fantom stents, nor are the smallest and largest vessels. Blood flow to the smallest vessels are impeded by the thickness of the stent, and Fantom is not strong enough for now to treat the largest vessels. Reva continues to research ways to improve stent performance. Fantom Encore, the latest in the Fantom line, received European approval this June. It has thinner struts. Reva plans to start selling Fantom Encore later this year. Stent manufacturing takes place alongside research in Revas San Diego headquarters. Thats because tight integration of chemistry and manufacturing helps produce stents with the necessary specifications, she said. The core backbone for us is our chemical expertise in making this polymer, and we have all the expertise right here, Groves said. Stents became popular a few decades ago in conjunction with a procedure called balloon angioplasty, in which a small balloon is inserted into an artery in the groin or wrist, guided into the blocked artery, and expanded to open it. After the blockage is cleared, the stent is placed to keep the vessel open while it heals. The procedure allows patients to leave the hospital sooner than the alternative of open heart surgery, and causes less discomfort. But in some cases blood vessels eventually re-occlude. Called restenosis, this event requires further treatment. To stop this, metal stents are coated with a drug that inhibits restenosis. These drug-eluting stents have become the standard. Revas stents are also drug-eluting. The company continues to monitor patients receiving its stents, hoping to provide more evidence of benefit over the long term. Reva employs a total of 57 people, 50 in San Diego and seven in Europe. The company eventually intends to sell its stents in the U.S., Groves said, but it will take several years. The trial that would get approval would likely take us about three years once we start, and we have not started, she said. Meanwhile, Reva is selling and developing stents for other applications outside the heart. The company has European approval to sell a stent for use below the knee in peripheral artery disease. And its working on a cancer treatment using its polymer for what are called embolic beads. These are placed inside blood vessels feeding the tumor to starve it of nutrients. Related reading The Incremental Risk of Coronary Stents on Postoperative Adverse Events: A Matched Cohort Study Why the wrist is better than the groin when it comes to stenting FDA approves potentially revolutionary heart stent Science Playlist On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1020 Nearly 50 million users have been affected by a security breach that enabled hackers to take over their Facebook accounts and to gain access to those users accounts on third-party sites and apps, the social media giant announced Friday. The new breach comes as Facebook strives to convince its more than 2 billion users that it can be trusted. It is grappling with the fallout from the revelations that British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica harvested the personal data of up to 87 million users, as well as that it unwittingly played host to a massive Russian misinformation campaign during the 2016 U.S. elections. And on Thursday, Facebook confirmed that it had been using phone numbers provided by users for two-factor authentication as fodder for ad targeting. The new vulnerability was discovered Tuesday afternoon and has been patched, Facebook said. But there may be unresolved effects. A multitude of third parties including major retailers, ride-hailing services, airline-ticket sellers and dating sites allow people to sign in by using their Facebook logins. A hacker who took over a persons Facebook account via the breach could also gain access to that persons other accounts. Advertisement No password or credit card data were stolen directly from Facebook, Guy Rosen, Facebook vice president of product management, told reporters on a phone call Friday. But Rosen could not rule out the possibility that hackers had made purchases using saved payment methods. He also said it was unclear whether the attackers had accessed private messages or posts and to what degree they had used hacked Facebook accounts. And he could not say what hackers had seen or done with users third-party accounts. This is a really serious security issue, and were taking it really seriously, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told reporters. We need to be more proactive about defending our community. The company said in an online post that hackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebooks code that impacted View As, a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which gave attackers full access to user profiles, as if the hackers were those users. Access tokens are like digital keys that keep people logged in to the social network as they move between apps and websites, so they dont have to enter their login info every time they open Facebook or use third-party services that rely on their Facebook logins. Facebook said it has reset the tokens of all affected users and, as a precaution, the tokens of 40 million additional users who had interacted with the View As feature in the year since the vulnerability was introduced. They will have to log back in next time they use the service. The company said it is in the early stages of its investigation into the issue, and has reported the breach to the FBI and to Irish law enforcement officials. Rosen said the company has not determined when the vulnerability was first exploited or who orchestrated the attack, where it came from or whether it had targeted a particular subsection of Facebooks users. Based on the rapid speed and scale of the attack, Rosen said it likely involved some degree of automation. Facebook discovered the attack after detecting an unusual leap in user activity Sept. 16, and its investigation revealed the nature of the attack this Tuesday, Rosen said. He said that on Wednesday, Facebook notified law enforcement agencies and began patching the vulnerabilities, finishing Friday morning. The Irish Data Protection Commission confirmed that Facebook had notified it of the breach, adding in an email that the notification lacks detail and the [commission] is concerned at the fact that this breach was discovered on Tuesday and affects many millions of user accounts but Facebook is unable to clarify the nature of the breach and the risk for users. Rosen said the attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebooks code that took advantage of three separate bugs that were introduced over a year ago, when engineers updated the video upload feature in July 2017, and hinged on reminders to wish friends a happy birthday. The first bug caused the video uploader to create an access token strange, but by itself not a major risk, since users already had to be logged in to use the video uploader, which meant that they already had a token on their device. The second bug is where birthdays enter the picture. The View As function let users see their profile pages as if they were someone else, in order to determine whether their privacy settings were to their liking. Typically, the video uploader wouldnt appear in View As mode, but because of the second bug, the video uploader did appear when the page being viewed contained notifications from Facebook urging the user to send birthday messages to friends. The third bug turned those minor errors into a major security issue. If a user viewed their own profile page as if they were a particular Facebook friend say, an old roommate and the video uploader appeared on the page, the uploader would spit out an access token not for the users own account, but for the ex-roommates. That token provided full access to the ex-roommates Facebook account. Once the hackers gained access to one account, they could then repeat the process with that accounts friends, over and over. Facebook stock fell 2.6% on Friday to $164.46 a share. sam.dean@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter: @samaugustdean UPDATES: 3:30 p.m.: This article was updated with information about third-party sites and apps, with comment from the Irish Data Protection Commission and with Facebooks closing stock price Friday. 12:55 p.m.: This article was updated with a description of the three bugs. 12:05 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details. This article was originally published at 10:20 a.m. Urban Plates, a local restaurant chain that touts high quality foods in a fast-casual setting, is tripling its footprint with 25 new locations, the company said Thursday. The Cardiff-based chain said it has received $38 million in new funding to fuel the expansion, with plans to open restaurants throughout the West, Northeast, and possibly the Midwest. Since its first restaurant opened in 2011, the company has already expanded to include 13 locations in California and two in the Washington D.C., area. The Urban Plates brand has been excessively popular in coastal cities and is known for its long lines during peak business hours. The company has made a point to advertise high standards for ingredients, stocking items like grass-fed beef, line-caught seafood and cage-free chicken. The restaurant locations are designed to play up its healthy food, stocking brightly colored fruits and veggies from floor to ceiling. Its a brand that resonates with health-conscious consumers, especially those on the West Coast, said marketing expert Morgan Poor, an assistant professor at San Diego State University. Urban Plates is a Chipotle-style buffet in which customers can build custom plates by selecting ingredients from behind the glass. Advertisement (Urban Plates) is not only showing their customers their high quality ingredients with pictures and imagery, but also showing the actual ingredients from behind the glass, Poor said. Thats powerful in the marketing world, she said. Co-founder Saad Nadhir said this style of service is in demand, especially for health or allergy conscious consumers. Our service system puts the guest in control, Nadhir said. If you have a nut allergy, for example, it allows you to be more confident that your salad is prepared the way you need it because youre watching it be prepared. Nadhir said the quality component is only one contributor to his brands popularity. Hospitality, he said, is another major force. The company hired Nicholas George, the former maitre d of New York Citys famous fine dining establishment Per Se, a Chef Thomas Keller restaurant. At Urban Plates, George is directing all hospitality training, bringing in fine dining rituals to a fast-casual chain. For example, Nadhir said Urban Plates employs greeters to teach customers how to order, offering a handheld experience for newcomers from start to finish. Although the Urban Plates concept was born on the West Coast, Nadhir thinks theres an unmet need for this kind of restaurant in the Midwest and other parts of the country. Nadhir is originally from Chicago, and said he thinks that market, for example, is ready for more health-conscious brands. All the forces that support our business are present in a big way in every major market in the country, Nadhir said. Lifestyle requirements really arent that different in Chicago, for example, than Los Angeles and San Diego. And quite frankly, theres less competition outside California. The company plans to add those 25 new locations over the next three years, Nadhir said, expanding existing markets as well as new ones. Business brittany.meiling@sduniontribune.com 619-293-1286 Twitter: @BrittanyMeiling The city of Lemon Grove is looking at using digital message boards as one way to raise revenue to cover an estimated deficit of more than $300,000 for the coming year. The Lemon Grove City Council last week unanimously voted to solicit requests for proposals for one or two digital message boards that could be placed on any one of 25 city-owned properties, most of which are situated along Lester Avenue and Main Street. The city is leaning toward putting them near state Routes 94 and 125. Councilwoman Jennifer Mendoza said she welcomed the signs, but said she hoped she wouldnt see any advertisements beckoning people to visit Chula Vista. THIS is Chula promotional signs have been peppered throughout the county as part of that citys ad campaign. Advertisement We want you to stay in Lemon Grove! Mendoza said. In 2014, Lemon Grove explored electronic billboards as a way to raise revenue, but it never went past the discussion stage. Assistant City Manager Mike James said previous proposals showed that Lemon Grove could receive nearly $250,000 annually in revenue from these types of billboards. Lemon Grove currently has several static billboards that dot state Route 94, and about 30 static billboards citywide, James said. Other cities in San Diego County have considered the electronic boards, James said, but the idea was dropped when met with community opposition. The signs would allow for promotion of local businesses and city events. Lemon Grove also would like to have the signs include safety messages, Amber alerts and traffic alerts for the vicinity. I dont see how it can hurt as long as it doesnt flash and just changes copy, City Councilman Jerry Jones said. I dont want a Las Vegas sign and stars flashing. All costs for the sign would be borne by the selected developer and operator, including the cost for a business plan, rendering and all components. The city is looking at several ways to make money as part of a broad effort to deal with mounting fiscal concerns in Lemon Grove. The City Council in July nixed putting a voter-approved, half-cent specialty tax on the November ballot that city officials estimated could raise $1.2 million annually. The City Council also said no to a proposed business license tax and a user utility tax and are now considering proposals that do not need voter approval. The city considered some of the risks of a billboard, including the need for tree removal, possible distraction to drivers, the additional artificial lighting at night and concern about any potential liability for the content of the advertisements. City Councilman Matt Mendoza said he wondered if Lemon Grove staff could have a say, within reason, about what it does and doesnt want to see on the billboard. City Manager Lydia Romero said the city would have to be careful on First Amendment issues if it was concerned about certain messages appearing on the billboard. The City Council also discussed some of the benefits a sign would have besides financial gain, including modernizing the citys image and possibly reducing the number of static billboards in the city. We could do one and knock down 10, suggested City Councilman David Arambula. City staff plans to return to the City Council in the next few weeks to get approval of a recommended firm to design, construct and manage the digital message board sign or signs. karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com The Highway 52 Coalition, a task force created by the city of Santee to deal with growing traffic congestion along the east-west freeway, launched its campaign last week. Its aim is to bring together local and regional leaders to share in finding solutions to ease the gridlock, which local officials say threatens the economic health of the region. The coalition is very much in its infancy; its only members at present are Santee Mayor John Minto and City Manager Marlene Best. At the groups first meeting last week, they told a packed crowd of Santee residents and outside parties that they are serious about improving commutes. East County, they said, has been an afterthought to those who make the decisions about where San Diego County dollars are spent. Other parts of the county have taken priority over Santee and other East County areas for too long, and the traffic issue is a regional challenge. Advertisement We want to be on the list when the city and the county start advocating for things... we want bullet points to be Highway 52, Best said. It wont happen unless we come together. It takes a region, a group of people who are committed, seriously committed. We want people who want to help. Santee City Attorney Shawn Hagerty, Development Services Director Melanie Kush and Principal Traffic Engineer Minjie Mei were also in attendance at the meeting. In a presentation, Kush showed how people from across the county are using state Route 52, which stretches 17 miles from La Jolla to Santee, and why Santee commuters are the most impacted. City Councilman Brian Jones said it has taken him 30 minutes to drive along surface streets the 5 miles from Magnolia Avenue to Mast Boulevard to enter state Route 52. Kush shared information provided by the San Diego Association of Governments, the regions planning agency, and the California Department of Transportation that offered further insight into the congestion puzzle affecting Santee. Of 196,000 East County residents who are employed, 144,000 commute outside the area while 52,000 stay in East County. And of 115,000 jobs in East County, a little more than half (62,000) commute into the area from outside, including 14,000 people living outside of San Diego County. In Santee, 94 percent of 27,000 residents work outside the city. And of nearly 14,000 people with jobs in Santee, 88 percent live outside the city. Those at the meeting included three other Santee City Council members, Stephen Houlahan, Rob McNelis and Ronn Hall. A public notice was posted, as is required by law when a quorum of the City Council is expected to be present, but it was not an official meeting. Also in attendance were David Turch and Jamie Jones from Washington-based Turch and Associates, the federal lobbyists hired last month by the city at a cost of $5,000 a month to lobby on behalf of the city for more transportation dollars. Jones said the group would work aggressively with agencies, including the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, military groups, the Pentagon and any other agency we identify that can be of help funding this project. At the meeting, representatives from SANDAG and Caltrans showed several planned changes along state Route 52 as part of each groups plans for the region in the next 15 to 30 years. SANDAGs 2035 vision includes widening state Route 52 from two lanes each way to three lanes in each direction from state Route 125 to Interstate 805. The plan is said to include installing two reversible managed lanes for high occupancy use and single-occupancy use with a fee (similar to the ones on Interstate 15) from state Route 125 to Interstate 805. But Santee officials are getting impatient and dont want to wait for changes to come in 2035 or 2050. Hall said he thinks the highway improvements are not going to be done by the projected dates. Thats why we cant wait and need to take it into our own hands, he said. The coalition said its ideas for improving commutes reflect some of what SANDAG and Caltrans envision, such as constructing a westbound travel land from Mast Boulevard to Interstate 15; relocating the bike lane from the north side to the south side of state Route 52, adding an eastbound auxiliary lane from Interstate 15 to Santo Road; and creating an additional eastbound travel lane by re-striping to provide three travel lanes from Mast Boulevard to state Route 125. Santee Finance Director Tim McDermott began accepting money after the meeting from interested residents to be put into an account set up by the city for the coalition. McDermott said he nearly doubled the amount donated several weeks ago by Minto who gave $2,000 of his own money to fund the coalitions efforts. The year the freeway opened in 2011, there were an average of 70,000 daily trips taken as recorded at Mast Boulevard, according to statistics from Caltrans. That number jumped to 83,000 in 2016, Caltrans said. Santee has grown from 40,000 residents when it incorporated in 1980 to 53,000 as of the 2010 census and is growing exponentially. There are nearly 50 developments that are pending or under construction in the city now. That added housing and additional traffic is one of the factors driving the effort to improve Route 52. karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com Russian authorities have shut down an illegal casino at the North Korean Embassy in Moscow, TASS reported Wednesday. It cited a source in Moscow as saying that one of 15 illegal gambling premises recently busted in the city was operating in the grounds of the North Korean Embassy. All 15 casinos have been shut down and over 100 people arrested. The Investigative Committee of Russia last week said they were mostly run by criminal organizations. Local media speculated that gangsters may have rented the premises from the North Koreans since they considered it safe from the police. The committee has not officially commented on the charges against the embassy. An embassy spokesman denied the reports and claimed the embassy knows nothing about the matter. The Russian government banned gambling joints in most parts of the country in 2009, except for some areas including Vladivostok and Crimea. Nearly six years after losing her son Dylan in the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, Nicole Hockley is imploring students to get to know classmates and to show compassion, which she said could defuse violent events before they happen. Hockley spoke Thursday to students at Del Norte High School in the Poway Unified School District as part of a campaign by Sandy Hook Promise, a school safety nonprofit that she founded with other parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. Its been five and a half years since my son was murdered, she said. My journey and my way of honoring him is to prevent that from happening to others. The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. became the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history after 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 six- to seven-year-old students, along with six adult staff members, on Dec. 14, 2012. Lanza also shot and killed his mother earlier that day and committed suicide on the elementary school campus. Advertisement In the weeks afterward, a group of parents who lost children in the tragedy formed Sandy Hook Promise in an effort to change school culture to deter future attacks. Its programs seek to educate schools about the red flags for violence, and to train students to reach out to classmates who may struggle with mental illness, bullying or other issues. It has presented programs to 3.5 million students, teachers and others at schools throughout the country, Hockley said. The San Diego County Office of Education has recommended the program for San Diego area schools. The presentation at Del Norte High School kicked off the organizations fourth annual Start With Hello Call-to-Action Week, which calls on students to start conversations and cultivate friendships with others who may be socially isolated. Saying hello to other students can improve campus climate, and also prevent the chronic social isolation that can lead to acts of violence and self-harm, Hockley said. In an exercise during the assembly Thursday, a group of students role-played an introduction with a shy, reserved classmate. What do you like to do? one of the students playing the initiators asked. Write, the classmate answered. What do you like to write? the first student continued. Words, he responded flatly. Students laughed at the exchange, but organizers said the exercise, which ended in the group of students inviting their new acquaintance to join them for lunch, illustrated the need for persistence in befriending students who may be facing family problems, social isolation or depression. Several of the schools student ambassadors said that message reinforces their role in forging connections on campus. They participated in national events last year in response to shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which a former student killed 17 students and staff members and injured 17 others. Because of the Parkland shooting, we tried to make the school a more supportive and inclusive community, said one of the Del Norte students ambassadors, senior Michael Bae, 17. We feel this is a continuation of that. Those efforts take patience and consistency, he and his friends said. We try to meet students who are super shy, said senior Daniel Bae, 17. If you just wait for them to come to you, they wont. When you talk to someone who isnt comfortable talking to others and are really shy, you need to find those commonalities first, and then build upon that, senior Sarah Mills, 17, agreed. The Sandy Hook Promise presentations also teach students to recognize red flags of potential violence or suicide. Those include hinting at their intentions to hurt themselves or others and posting threats on social media, Hockley said. Its what the FBI calls leakage, she said. When you go to talk to kids, they say, If theyre putting (threats) on social media, theyre not serious. But actually thats a lead indicator. Other risk factors are frequent bullying, aggressive or extreme reactions, a fascination with violence, or change in personal or social behavior, she said. Although many schools have installed security fences or cameras, those measures cant avert a threat before it escalates, Hockley said. Theres a need to get upstream of the violence, she said. The parents who founded the organization deliberately seek solutions that cross partisan lines and forge a culture of kindness, Hockley said. Its not about politics, she said. Its about protecting kids. The politics wont change until the pulse of the nation changes. deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan Solana Beach hit the brakes this week on plans to build as many as four roundabouts on Lomas Santa Fe Drive, the main east-west thoroughfare in the small, coastal community. Urged by hundreds of residents to go a different direction, the City Council voted unanimously to drop the idea, even though experts say roundabouts are better at controlling traffic than lights or stop signs. In general, the data shows that roundabouts are safer and more efficient than other forms of intersection control, Solana Beach Mayor David Zito said at the councils meeting Wednesday. That is the fact. Studies show huge reductions in traffic accidents and measurable reductions in pedestrian accidents at intersections using roundabouts, Zito said. Advertisement Traffic planners say roundabouts save fuel and reduce air pollution and noise by allowing drivers to continue through an intersection without stopping. And when there are collisions, they occur at slower speeds that are less likely to cause serious or fatal injuries. Sill, Zito said, more work is needed to determine if roundabouts would work in Solana Beach. For instance, there may be insufficient city right-of-way at the intersections to build the devices. Residents have strong feelings on both sides of the issue. A majority oppose the idea because it would slow traffic on the busy street. The city received more than 400 letters from people commenting on the proposal in recent weeks and 71 percent of the letters opposed roundabouts, said City Manager Greg Wade. People living closest to the intersections where the devices would be installed were more likely to oppose them, or about 90 percent of those writers. One of the reasons people oppose roundabouts is that the two traffic lanes in each direction on Lomas Santa Fe would be reduced to one lane at the entrance to each roundabout. This is a huge artery with many people using it to access the freeway to go to work, said Ted Axe, general manager of the Lomas Santa Fe Country Club. The club employs more than 120 people, and its entrance is on Lomas Santa Fe Drive. A roundabout would have a huge impact, Axe said. We definitely oppose them. Not everyone was ready to abandon the idea. People are driving way too fast, said resident Laurel Graziano. A little traffic calming would help. It wont hurt anyone to slow down a little bit. I encourage you to listen to the experts. Staffers had said that, because of the public outcry, instead of the four roundabouts first suggested, the city might consider installing just one, which would be at Lomas Santa Fe and Highland Drive. That intersection is now controlled by a four-way stop. However, Councilwoman Lesa Heebner suggested Wednesday that, based on the public response, the city should remove all four roundabouts from the plan. The other council members agreed. Clearly there is concern, said Councilman Peter Zahn, who was out of town and participated in the meeting on a teleconference line. I am convinced that we should drop all the roundabouts. Other positive elements in the proposed Lomas Santa Fe improvement project can be pursued instead, he said. I can absolutely live without roundabouts, said Councilwoman Judy Hegenauer, adding that the decision has been difficult for the community. Divisive issues can be very painful, she said. It puts neighbors against neighbors, and friends against friends. Its too hurtful to the community at large. Like other San Diego County coastal communities, Solana Beach is working on a complete streets program to make its busiest roads safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transportation users as well as automobiles. The projects include installing more pedestrian crossings, more clearly marked bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks and medians, and other changes. Oceanside is considering a plan that includes roundabouts for several intersections along Coast Highway. Carlsbad installed one in 2014 on Carlsbad Boulevard, also known has Highway 101, near the citys border with Oceanside, and is considering two more on the coastal highway. Encinitas is considering as many as six as part of a makeover proposed for North Coast Highway through Leucadia. Solana Beach completed a series of Highway 101 improvements without roundabouts several years ago. The latest proposal focuses on Lomas Santa Fe Drive, which is bisected by Interstate 5. The western end of the road, which stops at Fletcher Cove, is dominated by tourism and commercial concerns, and it transitions to a mostly residential area on the eastern side of the community. philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @phildiehl In June, Chula Vistas finance director gave the City Council a gloomy picture of their financial future staff projected a $10 million deficit in fiscal year 2020 and a $44 million shortfall by fiscal year 2028. So when Finance Director David Bilby prepared a follow-up presentation Tuesday evening, Councilwoman Pat Aguilar braced for the worst. As you were walking up to the dais, I said to my seatmate, Ok, here comes Mr. Bad News, Aguilar told Bilby after his presentation. The news was actually less bad than it was in June. Advertisement Staff projections still anticipate year-over-year deficit growth in Chula Vista. But the deficits from Septembers projections are lower than they were in June. The projected $10 million deficit for fiscal year 2020 is now $7.1 million and fiscal year 2028s projected $44 million deficit is now $28.9 million, according to a report released Tuesday. Part of the reason behind the change was better one-year performance by CalPERS on its investments, Bilby said. Weve seen some traction going from $10 million to $7 million since June so thats the right direction and we are hoping we can continue to move the needle, Bilby told the City Council. But rising pension costs continue to hang over Chula Vista like a dark cloud. If the city does not find a way to pay for those costs, Chula Vista will struggle to maintain its current levels of services, according to the report. General fund pension contributions are expected to grow from $27.6 million this fiscal year to $50.2 million by fiscal year 2029. City staff havent been able to identify a single source or potential action to manage that expense growth. Additionally, Chula Vista will lose about $18 million in tax revenues when the Measure P sales tax expires in fiscal year 2028, according to the report. Voters passed the sale tax increase in November 2016 to fund infrastructure and maintenance upgrades. Once it expires, the city will have to find a new funding source to pay for future maintenance costs. While Measure P does address a significant amount of deferred maintenance items, the infrastructure needs of the city identified in the asset management exceed the funding anticipated to be generated from Measure P, reads the report. The City will need to continue to pursue additional funding sources to address the Citys capital needs. So, even though Chula Vista has made some strides to reduce projected deficits, the city still has a long way to go. Despite the estimated reduction to the deficit, staff does continue to anticipate significant challenges to balance the budget in future fiscal years, said Edward Prendell, the citys budget manager. Councilman John McCann said Tuesdays presentation was an improvement but still concerning. It is moving forward and becoming better but the numbers are still sobering, he said. We need to make sure we sharpen our pencils and look at how we can increase revenue. The citys long-term financial report offered possible actions the council can adopt to continue to decrease the projected deficits. Those actions include more public/private partnerships, rely more on volunteers and interns in City Hall, increasing fees for renting parks or inspecting buildings, and balancing service levels with financial resources by identifying potential reductions that could take place with the least impact to residents. If Chula Vista wants to maintain the valuable resources and quality of life the citizens have enjoyed for years, the City will need to make a concerted effort to adopt several of the solutions mentioned above, according to the report. Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter The San Diego Italian Film Festival will begin its 12th annual FeStivale Wednesday. The title of the 12-day festival is a play on words, said artistic director Antonio Iannotta. Stivale means boot in his native tongue, he explained, and refers to the well-known shape of Italy. From an unusual documentary about the legendary painter Caravaggio to the musical comedy that opens the festival, the 13 feature films offer different perspectives of and from Italy. Except for Sergio Leones 1968 classic spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West, the movies are contemporary. The 2017 festival attracted more than 1,400 people. Its not to be confused with the festivals year-round monthly screenings in both San Diego and North County, which have totaled 3,400 attendees so far in 2018. Advertisement We are bringing the best of Italian cinema to San Diego, said Iannotta, who was born and bred in southern Italy. We show whats going on in Italy now. We want to create a dialogue with the community here in San Diego not just the Italian community. We want to appeal to everybody. Wednesdays screening of Ammore e Malavita (Love and Bullets) will launch the festival at Balboa Parks Museum of Photographic Arts, where most of the films will be shown. Iannotta said the musical comedy spoofs the stereotypes displayed in American movies about the mafia. In contrast, the 2018 documentary Caravaggio Lanima e il Sangue (The Soul and the Blood) is a serious but inventive exploration of the artist. Its screening at the San Diego Natural History Museum, also in Balboa Park, will be followed by a panel of art experts. Im really excited about this very original documentary, Iannotta said. It mixes accurate information with beautiful images of his works and also uses actors and a voice-over in first person as Caravaggio himself. Its not fiction, but its not a National Geographic documentary either. It comes from an art perspective and is extremely engaging. Human rights issues are examined in Lordine delle cose (The Order of Things). The fictional film, set in Libya, is about a policeman with a European task force whose life changes when he encounters a woman who fled her war-town country of Somalia. After the film, director Andrea Segre will hold a question-and-answer session. The festivals gala on Oct. 7 will have a much lighter tone. The True Legend of Tony Vilar is the 2006 mockumentary that Variety called a warmhearted, tongue-in-cheek look at the Italian diaspora. Shown at the 2009 festival, Vilar is back by popular demand. With a special nod to the region of Calabria, this special-ticket event will offer dinner, desserts, gelato and coffee, and feature a live performance by the movies star, Peppe Voltarelli. Iannotta, a graduate of the University of Salerno, teaches Italian at the University of San Diego. He moved here from Italy six years ago. It was a huge decision to leave Italy, he said. But I love teaching and doing the festival. I love being here, but I belong to Italy. As long as I can do this and be a part of an organization that is doing good things for my culture, Im happy to be here. The festival is one of the main reasons Im here. For all of us, it takes a lot of energy, but is very satisfying. San Diego Italian Film Festival: feStivale 2018 When: Various times, Wednesday through Oct. 14 Where: Museum of Photographic Arts, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park (main venue); San Diego Natural History Museum, 1788 El Prado, Balboa Park; La Paloma Theater, 471 S. Coast Highway 101, Encinitas Tickets: $8 to $12 individual films; festival passes available. Online: sandiegoitalianfilmfestival.com Wood is a freelance writer. Whether Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh would lose his temper became a running issue at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday afternoon. ABCs Cokie Roberts was struck by Kavanaughs rudeness to Sen. Amy Klobuchar over a question about heavy drinking. After a break, Kavanaugh apologized to Klobuchar. Kavanaugh started his portion of the hearing with a fiery denunciation of the process and tearful remarks about how his family life had been destroyed. Eugene Robinson of MSNBC said Kavanaughs emotion was striking but came off as weird. Robinson wondered if Kavanaugh was falling apart. Advertisement What if a woman had a tantrum the way Kavanaugh had, asked Cynthia Alksne, also on MSNBC. Because hes a guy, its acceptable behavior, she said. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault in high school, was calm and measured during her portion of the hearing. She said he was 100 percent certain that Kavanaugh was her assailant. I wrote about her earlier in the day. Savannah Guthrie of NBC said Kavanaughs restraints were off and he was far different from his Fox News interview with Martha MacCallum. Hes all in like hes got nothing to lose, Guthrie said. Brian Williams of MSNBC was struck by how Kavanaugh snapped at U.S. senators. He had sharp exchanges with Klobuchar and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, but Republican senators came to Kavanaughs defense. Rachel Mitchell, who had questioned Ford, was pushed aside so the GOP senators could take over. Republicans turned Sen. Dianne Feinstein into the villain, CNNs Jeffrey Toobin said. The women always lose, Toobin said, with gallows humor. Feinstein defended herself at 6:30 p.m., saying she held Fords allegation confidential. Ford had asked her to do so, Feinstein added. How did the story leak? Fords friends had talked to the press, Feinstein said. Chuck Todd of NBC felt like a political nuclear war had been declared between the parties. This is scar tissue, he said. This one is going to calcify. NBC anchor Lester Holt said the day had been ugly and brutal, and he had talked to people who said they couldnt watch anymore. But the networks stayed with the hearing. Dana Bash of CNN said it was must-see TV to the nth degree. Email Hal at hboedeker@orlandosentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter: @hboedeker. Follow him on Instagram: @hboedeker. Lane splitting by motorcycles has been allowed by California law for nearly two years. Now the California Highway Patrol has issued safety guidelines on the topic guidelines that apply not only to motorcyclists but also to drivers of cars and trucks. The law enforcement agency also said Thursday for the first time that interfering with lane splitting is illegal. State legislation explicitly allowing lane splitting in which motorcycles drive in the space between traffic lanes on public roads and freeways took effect in January 2017 and stipulated that the CHP could issue safety tips on the topic. The resulting tip sheet, published Thursday, notes that lane splitting can be dangerous and urges extreme caution. Advertisement Every rider has the ultimate responsibility for their own decision making and safety, CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said in a statement. Drivers of cars and trucks have responsibilities too. Its illegal to intentionally block or impede a motorcyclist, including by opening a vehicle door, the CHP tip sheet says. It also says vehicles in the far left lane should move to the left part of the lane so motorcycles have room to pass on their right. To reduce risks, the CHP tip sheet advises motorcyclists to remember the following: -- Consider the total environment when you are lane splitting (this includes the width of lanes, the size of surrounding vehicles, as well as current roadway, weather, and lighting conditions). -- Danger increases at higher speed differentials. A speed differential is the difference between the speed of the motorcyclist and that of nearby vehicles. -- Danger increases as overall speed increases. -- It is typically safer to split between the far left lanes than between the other lanes of traffic. -- Avoid lane splitting next to large vehicles (big rigs, buses, motor homes, etc.). -- Riding on the shoulder is illegal; it is not considered lane splitting. -- Be visible avoid remaining in the blind spots of other vehicles or lingering between vehicles. -- Help drivers see you by wearing brightly colored/reflective protective gear and using high beams during daylight. In years past, the CHP in partnership with the Department of Motor Vehicles published similar guidelines for lane splitting. Those were more specific, indicating that the practice was least dangerous at certain speeds. The guidelines issued Thursday which the CHP developed in partnership with the DMV, the California Department of Transportation, the Office of Traffic Safety and multiple motorcycle safety organizations do not give advice on how slow traffic should be. Motorcycle safety studies have said that lane splitting, though unnerving to some drivers and apprentice motorcyclists, is safer than not splitting when done intelligently principally because it reduces the risk of a rider being hit from behind while stopped in freeway traffic. California is the only U.S. state that allows lane splitting, though the practice is legal and common in most European and Asian countries.. Legislators in other states, notably Nevada, Texas and Washington, have proposed laws similar to Californias. None have passed. The University of Californias massive health network brings in nearly half of UCs revenue, but regents were told Thursday that its existence could be in peril if it isnt able to be nimble and change. The highly ranked health system of five medical centers and 18 health professional schools is one of the largest in the nation. But it needs to be more flexible and more independent of the UC Office of the President to adjust to a rapidly shifting healthcare landscape and stay competitive, university health care officials told regents at their meeting at UCLA. Standing still, doing nothing, is an existential threat to the UC Health and its components, said John Stobo, executive vice president of the UC Health Division. State officials have stepped up oversight of UC President Janet Napolitanos office following a critical audit last year that questioned its budget practices and levels of executive pay. Since then, Napolitano and the regents have sought to reduce the offices budget and add other spending controls. Advertisement The offices new constraints have hampered UC Healths ability to move quickly, officials said. They have made it difficult for health officials to recruit talented employees and enter into contracts in a timely manner, according to a report Stobo and other members of a university health advisory committee presented to regents Thursday. The committee members rejected an outside analysts proposal earlier this year to make UC Health completely independent as part of a sweeping overhaul to reduce the size and cost of Napolitanos office. Instead, the committee recommended that the Health Division stay in Napolitanos office but be split into two subdivisions. The UC Healthcare Collaborative would oversee functions and activities funded solely by revenue from the health systems themselves such as payments for patient care. Such activities would include shared data services and collaborative purchasing for the universitys health systems at UCLA, UC San Francisco, UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UC Riverside. The collaborative would have the independence to set budgets and hire people outside spending caps on the presidents office. The other subdivision would cover functions and activities such as oversight of student counseling services funded by state general funds and fees charged to self-funded health plans. Its budget would remain subject to limits on growth imposed by Napolitano and the regents. Both subdivisions would still report to the presidents office. Steven Lipstein, who headed the advisory committee, said that the proposed plan would give UC Health needed flexibility and agility. The aging population and expansion of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act have brought more Medicare and Medicaid patients to UC medical centers. But public and private reimbursements for their care are declining, said Lipstein, the former president and CEO of BJC HealthCare. At the same time, he said, UC is facing more competition from health providers who are consolidating into large regional and national networks. Uncertainty over the future of healthcare policies, along with the federal budget deficit, add to the volatile landscape. UC Health must get bigger to survive, the report said. Newly appointed Regent Michael Cohen, who previously served as Gov. Jerry Browns finance director, questioned the idea of setting up the collaborative with greater budget freedom. Napolitano told him that, without such independence, adding staff to health divisions that need to expand quickly would require cuts in other programs in her office. I do not think that is the best way to manage the shop, she said. Switching from a controlled environment to one thats free makes me a little bit nervous, Cohen replied. Regent Sherry Lansing, an expert on healthcare, assured Cohen that all hiring would be subject to the universitys checks and balances. Board Chairman George Kieffer said he felt UC Health was well-positioned to meet any potential threats to its future because of its deep bench of talent. He said regents were likely to vote on the recommendations for the health system in November or January. teresa.watanabe@latimes.com Twitter: @TeresaWatanabe The annual Miramar Air Show returns to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar on Friday with a bevy of military and civilian aircraft performances scheduled through Sunday. This years theme is 100 Years of Women in the Marine Corps. Each day opens with civilian aerobatics team performances. Parachute teams, such as the Navy Leap Frogs and U.S. Army Golden Knights, will kick off the military demonstrations. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels the shows headliners are also the closing performers each day. Other demonstrations include some of the Marines newest aircraft the V-22 Osprey and F-35B Lightning II and the Marine Air-Ground Task Force. The MAGTF demonstration includes AV-8B Harriers, F/A-18 Hornets as well as armor, artillery and infantry assets. US Marine F/A-18s practice for the Miramar Air Show on September 27, 2018. The air show runs through Sunday. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) Advertisement One notable absence and, according to the Marines, a last-minute cancelation is the U.S. Air Force F-22A Raptor demonstration team, which was scheduled to perform in conjunction with an Air Force heritage flight with WWII, Korea and Vietnam-era planes. The F-22 demo team will not be able to participate in the Miramar Air Show because operational priorities have pulled refueling support, said Erica Vega, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Air Combat Command. Other Air Force assets, however, will be at the Miramar Air Show to showcase American airpower to the local community. According to the Marines, last year more than half a million people attended the air show over its three days, with Saturday being the busiest and Friday the least. Marine Colonel Charles Dockery, the commanding officer of MCAS Miramar, said the air show was a huge undertaking, and that as soon as this years was over, planning would begin for the next one. Its a lot of work from a planning perspective, he said. We start flight operations again at noon on Monday, and we start prepping for next years air show. It is a continuous process. Dockery also talked about safety and security, calling the event a team effort. The FBI is here, (the) Department of Homeland Security is here, (San Diego County) Sheriffs, San Diego P.D... he said. We have a great partnership. Part of the security includes a list of prohibited items, available on the shows website. Backpacks and purses are not allowed unless they are clear. A small clutch purse will be allowed for personal items, however. Alcohol, coolers and ice chests are also not allowed. On Thursday, the air station allowed local news media to watch the final practice sessions before the show. One team, Sean D. Tucker Aerobatics, brought Granite Hills High School junior Hannah Hollinger, 16, up in the air for some aerobatic maneuvers. I got to do hammerheads, inversion and loops, she said. Ive never done acrobatic flight before. Stunt pilot Sean Tucker talks with Hannah Hollinger, 16, of El Cajon after a flight in his stunt plane at the MCAS Miramar Air Show. The flight was part of the EAA Young Eagle flight program which introduces kids to flight. Tucker is the chairman of the EAA Young Eagles. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) Hollinger described the sensation of flying upside-down as totally crazy. When youre flying upside down, it just feels really weird and off. Its a totally different experience it was really cool. Dockery said he was looking forward to seeing the Blue Angels most of all. You just cant beat it, he said. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Tyler Davies, the lead soloist and pilot of Blue Angels plane No. 5, said he was excited to fly this weekend. Its amazing to be here, he said. We hope everybody comes out. The MCAS Miramar Air Show runs Friday-Sunday. General admission is free while grandstand and box seats are available for purchase on the air shows website. Gates open daily at 8:00 a.m. Contact Andrew Dyer via email or Twitter. September 28, 1892 The San Diego Union The San Diego Union-Tribune will mark its 150th anniversary in 2018 by presenting a significant front page from the archives each day throughout the year. Wednesday, September 28, 1892 On Sept. 28, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay leading the first European expedition to navigate the coast of California. In 1892, despite bleak financial times, San Diego civic boosters raised $5,000 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of Cabrillos landing. Here are the first few paragraphs of the story: 1542-1892 CABRILLO'S VOYAGE. The Basis of San Diego's Great Celebration. Discovery of San Diego Bay 350 Years Ago. Suggestions Leading to the Observance of the Present Anniversary. Some of the More Notable Decorative Achievemesnt Which Mark the Streets of San Diego. Arrival of Distinguished Guests to Participate in the Great Fiesta at the "Silver Gate." In 1542 the summer quiet here was broken in September by one event that was uncommon and by another that was unprecedented. The thing which was new came first: it was the arrival on the southern coast of the Californian mainland of two European ships. As to the other matter it was a tempest which burst along the shore after the vessels had come to anchor in the port they had discovered. The great wind did not harm the wayfarers, for fate had led them to the bay of sleep, which, in after years good St. Diego, who must have been the patron saint of calms, took under his benign protection. We know little of the visit of Cabrillo -- for it was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese sailor in the service of Spain -- whose coming is narrated. Some fragments of his biography are left to us. It is known where he was born and that he chose to enter the daring service of Cortez. His death and burial were recorded by his pilot, whose diary tells the story of his last voyage. A picture of the discoverer, believed by some to be authentic, shows a typical Iberian captain of the sixteenth century: tall and grave, with pointed beard and aquiline face; his figure locked in steel, his head crowned with helmet and plumes. It is not claimed for Cabrillo that he discovered the region now known as California. The first visits here were made by a monk called Father Marcos, who saw the desert side of the future great state in 1539, and by a navigator named D'Alarcon, who sailed up the Colorado river to its junction with the Gila in 1540. Cabrillo was the first to visit the Californian coast above the peninsula, though another voyager, Ulloa, had but for adverse winds might have preceded him by three years. Some leagues north of the Cedros islands Ulloa was beaten back. More favored of the fates, Cabrillo kept his course and gave his name to the discovery of the western coast of the United States. The narrative of the successful voyage begins on the 27th of June, 1542, when Cabrillos vessels, San Salvador and La Victoria, sailed from Natividad, a port of what is now the state of Jalisco. Just why the long journey was begun, apart from the general purpose to chart the coast of the new world and gain territory for Spain, we may surmise from the stories of the age. One moving cause was greed of gold, and another was curiosity. View anniversary front pages online at sandiegouniontribune.com/150-years. For more from the Union-Tribune digital archives, go to newslibrary.com/sites/sdub. Searching is free, with registration. A fee is required to view full stories. When passenger jets were coming of age, a single model fabricated in San Diego captured the attention of Howard Hughes, Elvis Presley, interior design guru Dorothy Draper and in 1990 appeared in a Hollywood film,The Rookie, starring Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen. Fabricated in San Diego by the now-defunct Convair division of General Dynamics from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, the four-engine Convair 880 revolutionized jet passenger travel in its day, bringing greater speed 615 mph or 880 feet per second (which gave it its name). Luxury touches included passenger seats that reclined 38 degrees and sky blue overhead hat racks transformed into a galaxy with Drapers planets and stars. Hughes, who controlled Northeast Airlines and was a principal TWA shareholder, was so taken with the CV 880, which he helped design, that he wanted to call it the Golden Arrow and paint the jets gold, an idea overruled as too expensive. Despite the hype, the 880 was a flash in the pan only 65 were ever built. Because it was designed for speed, its engines burned through fuel earning it the nickname Smokey Joe and contributed to its demise when the fuel crisis hit in the mid-70s. Advertisement Its a time capsule the dawn of the jet age in the 1960s, concludes Christian Gurling, 42, curator of the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook, Ore. It was a plane that was ahead of its time almost too much ahead. Its all but been forgotten now. Thats why two years ago, with the support of museum director Phyllis Rice, he started hunting for a CV 880 to add to the museums collectible aircraft dating from World War II to the present. Housed in a wooden World War II blimp hangar, the collection also features pieces of the ill-fated Hindenburg blimp. Aviation researchers say only three complete 880s remain. One is in Africa, where it reportedly was being used as a house. Another belongs to a private collector. And perhaps the most famous Elvis Presleys 1958 plane, the Lisa Marie is on display at his Graceland compound in Memphis, Tenn. Presley added gold-plated seatbelt buckles and reconfigured the interior to create a living room, conference room and bedroom. A portion of a CV 880 fuselage is exhibited in the Aviation Hall of Fame Museum in New Jersey and another is in the Delta Flight Museum in Atlanta. None is on public display on the West Coast, Gurling says. Until now. Two years ago, he stumbled on jet collector Doug Scroggins website: convairjet.com. Scroggins was looking for a home for a CV 880 cockpit and forward fuselage 43 feet long. Without Doug, this wouldnt have survived. It would have met the wrecking ball and been sold for scrap, says Gurling, whose father, two uncles and grandfather worked at Convair, the latter for 45 years. Gurling struck a deal for a five-year renewable jet loan. The Convair 880s 43-foot wingless fuselage and cockpit are transferred to a truck trailer for the long haul to Oregon where it is now on public display. (Doug Scroggins) So on Aug. 29, in a Mojave Desert graveyard of orphaned and retired aircraft, Scroggins jet fuselage was hoisted by crane to a flatbed trailer to begin its road trip to Oregon. It turned a lot of heads, Gurling says. About 44 hours and 1,000 miles later, the oversize, 15,000-pound jet segment reached its destination. The CV 880, ship No. 23, is now on display in the seven-acre Tillamook museum, although its rehab work has just begun. Gurling is assembling volunteers to refurbish the interior so museum visitors will be able to walk inside for hands-on interaction. This is an amazing piece of San Diego history and aviation history, Gurling says. This particular plane, which began life as a Northeast Airlines jet, holds two speed records: San Diego to Boston in four hours, 17 minutes and New York to Miami in one hour, 43 minutes. It later flew for TWA before being retired in 1974 and mothballed in the Mojave desert in 1980. A decade later, No. 23 came out of retirement for its 15 minutes of fame in the Warner Bros. film The Rookie, where it collided with a corporate jet on a runway. This is the interior of the intact Convair 880 owned by Scroggins Aviation, which has three seats on one side of the aisle and two seats on the other. One disadvantage of the design is that the passenger seats are bolted in place, making reconfiguration all but impossible. (Doug Scroggins) Donald Germeraad was the chief test pilot for Convair and flew the 880. In fact, he even took Howard Hughes on a trial ride from Lindbergh Field on Jan. 27, 1959. My husband called it the Cadillac of the airlines, recalls his widow, Esther. It was beautifully engineered. Scroggins nurses a lifelong passion for planes and confesses he fell in love with this 880 when he came across it languishing in the Mojave Air and Space Port. His company, Scroggins Aviation, which maintains an inventory of aviation aircraft for use in movies, TV and advertising, purchased it in 1998. A few years ago, he said he tried to interest the San Diego Air & Space Museum in acquiring ship No. 23. After all, the 880 and its sister plane, the 990, designed to update and fix any 880 shortcomings, were the last planes Convair made for commercial airlines. In 1996, the firm that employed as many as 40,000 workers during World War II, closed forever. The board said, No, says Scroggins. It was mind-boggling to me. They built the 880 in San Diego. It belongs there. For whatever reason, no one cares about commercial aircraft. Collector and movie aviation mockup and prop specialist Doug Scroggins stands by his intact Convair 880, ship 35, for which he would like to find a new home where it can be on public display. (Courtesy of Doug Scroggins) There still is time. Scroggins owns the third existing complete 880, No. 35, and this one still has its passenger cabin interior. He would love to see it on public display and is negotiating with a Nevada museum. We would have some interest, says Jim Kidrick, head of the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Its got heritage and was made in the San Diego region. The move would be expensive, however, and the jet would have to be displayed in the museums larger Gillespie Field facility. Our biggest single challenge at the Air & Space Museum is space, Kidrick says. diane.bell@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1518 Twitter: @dianebellSD Facebook: dianebell.news U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday alarmed observers of his attempts to persuade North Korea to denuclearize by saying, "If it takes two years, three years or five months -- doesn't matter. I think we're really going to do something that's going to be very important, but we're not playing the time game." The U.S. held its first-ever summit with North Korea in June without preparing properly and ended up failing to get the North to commit to a denuclearization deadline. Trump may be hoping that by not setting a deadline again, he at least avoids repeating that mistake. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said the Trump administration will not rush into anything to make sure the U.S. gets "the conditions right" for a second summit with North Korea. "We're not going to buy a pig in a poke. We're going to get this right. We're going to deliver on this commitment that [Kim] has made to the world," he added. Perhaps Trump has given up altogether. Before the summit in Singapore, Trump boasted that North Korea's denuclearization would be achieved very soon, but pushed that back later to within his term in office, which ends in January 2021. Now, he says there may be no deadline at all. That would only give North Korea the green light to become a nuclear power. The world was stunned to see Pakistan conduct six nuclear tests over a two-day period in May 1998. Strong sanctions ensued, but Pakistan merely bided its time and emerged as a bona fide nuclear power. North Korea announced the completion of its nuclear weapons program last year by conducting its sixth nuclear test in November and test-launching a ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. North Korea seems determined to copy the Pakistani model, and giving up on a denuclearization deadline would only give it more time to achieve its goal. Of course, fixating on a deadline could give the North an advantage in terms of winning concessions, but it cannot simply be given all the time in the world. The road to denuclearization is complicated and requires close cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea. What is important now is to work toward deals with a clear deadline for denuclearization, and with sufficient leverage to make sure that the North abides by it. The Republican Party had already been losing support of women going into the midterm elections. That may have gotten worse Thursday. Christine Blasey Fords riveting testimony and Brett Kavanaughs angry and emotional denials didnt result in a factual conclusion as to whether or not the Supreme Court nominee sexually assaulted the university professor 36 years ago in high school. But it certainly will increase the focus on the womens vote. Its impossible to say whether the remarkable Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will lead to Democrats gaining even more support from women, though thats a credible assumption. At the very least, it didnt seem to do anything to reverse the trend. Recent polls show the GOP has trouble among likely women voters, particularly those who live in suburbs, which increasingly tend to be political battlegrounds. One of them is the hotly contested 49th Congressional District straddling coastal San Diego and Orange counties, where Democrat Mike Levin and Republican Diane Harkey are running to replace Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista. Advertisement Democrats held an advantage of 61 percent to 35 percent among suburban women across the country, according to a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll published this week. Thats a nine-point increase since a midsummer poll. The recent survey was conducted Aug. 22 to Sept. 24 in other words, mostly before accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced against Kavanaugh. The poll further says Democrats have narrowed the GOP lead among married white women, with Republicans now leading 51 percent to 46 percent. The survey showed Democrats also cut their large deficit among white women without a college degree by a third and lead among men and women voters 65 and older long key to the Republican base 51 percent to 45 percent. Republican strategist Mike Murphy, co-director of USCs Center for the Political Future, said the results were grim for the GOP. If Republicans are not doing well with seniors and not doing well with college-educated voters in the suburbs, theres just no good news for the party, he told the Times. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed similar results. Overall, that poll has Democrats with an eight-point lead among likely voters, while the USC/Times survey has Democrats ahead by 14 points. Dislike of President Donald Trump, his demeanor and his policies has driven much of this, according to both surveys. Nationwide polls only go so far as predictors of congressional races, particularly several weeks out from Election Day. Still, the polls bolster Democratic hopes of a net gain of 23 seats needed to retake the House. Each district has its own dynamic, but many of the contested seats are in suburban areas. The Republicans losing the Senate is an increasing possibility, albeit a much more distant one. With that political backdrop, Ford and Kavanaugh told their diametrically opposite stories at a Judiciary Committee hearing that had a world-stopping feel to it, replete with tension, drama and theatrics. Given the testimony was limited to just those two, the session was guaranteed not to reach a conclusion on what really happened in suburban Washington decades ago. The immediate question is whether it was enough to get fence-sitting senators to vote against Kavanaugh in the coming days, or otherwise seek to reopen the FBI investigation into his background given the recent accusations by Ford and other women. Such action likely would delay Kavanaughs confirmation, or the confirmation of a replacement if his nomination is withdrawn, until after the election. Thats clearly a Democratic goal. Fords testimony called brave by Democrats and credible, if mistaken, by some Republicans certainly gave Democrats a better chance at achieving it. Republicans did not publicly doubt whether she had been assaulted, but their questioning prosecutor methodically tried to chip away at her recollections. Republican senators suggested she was actually a victim an unwitting one of a Democratic ploy to delay publicity of her accusations until the 11th hour. While Ford acknowledged from the outset that she did not remember certain details surrounding the incident, she said her encounter with Kavanaugh was seared in her mind from her contention that he put his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming while he pinned her down, to the sight and sound of him laughing with his friend Mark Judge about it. Kavanaugh came out fiery and, perhaps a bit too often, weepy about the victimization of himself and his family over accusations that he flatly said were untrue. Getting rougher treatment from Democratic senators than Ford got from the Republicans prosecutor, Kavanaugh at times became confrontational with his inquisitors notably Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Dianne Feinstein of California. Some analysts suggested Kavanaugh took a page from the playbook of Clarence Thomas, who lashed out at the Judiciary Committee in 1991 after being grilled about sexual harassment accusations by Anita Hill, who had been a Thomas subordinate in the federal government. Thomas, an African American, famously accused committee Democrats of conducting a high-tech lynching in a speech credited with turning around his confirmation prospects and landing him on the Supreme Court. The fallout of the committees treatment of Hill was in part responsible for several Democratic women running for and winning seats in the Senate in 1992. Feinstein, who has drawn criticism for her role in surfacing Fords accusation, was among those elected in that Year of the Woman. A 26-year-old woman who robbed a pregnant woman in her Pacific Beach home then stole a police car and dumped it in Mission Bay was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison. Stephanie Majsterski read a statement in San Diego Superior Court, apologizing to the victim and to the officers for her actions while she was under the influence of drugs. Her attorney told Judge Polly Shamoon that Majsterski had been a San Diego State University student, just one semester short of earning her degree in kinesiology (the study of body movement), before committing the robbery. The prosecutor read a statement from the robbery victim, who described being traumatized by the Dec. 14, 2017 holdup. Advertisement She was seven months pregnant at the time and since then has felt unsafe in her home, suffered anxiety and sought therapy, Deputy District Attorney Lucy Yturralde said. The judge briefly lectured Majsterski, asking if she appreciated being alive after what she did. Shamoon noted the robbery victims husband was away at the time, but had he been home, the outcome could have been quite different. Majsterski teared up as she nodded in understanding the judges point. Yturralde said the victim was completely defenseless when Majsterski and boyfriend James Graham decided to rob her. Inside the victims home, Graham simulated having a knife while Majsterski stood at the front door to block the victim from escaping. They took some valuables and left, walking hand in hand, Yturralde said. When police showed up, the couple ran in different directions. Graham was quickly caught and allegedly put up a struggle. Majsterski jumped into a patrol car, sped down a freeway at 90 mph, and ended up on Fiesta Island, where she plunged the car into Mission Bay, Yturralde said. She said the woman then persuaded some strangers to give her a ride off the island. Police stopped the car, though, and got into a struggle with Majsterski as they tried to pull her out. One officer suffered a sprained finger. After a preliminary hearing, Majsterski pleaded guilty in August to robbery, burglary, false imprisonment, theft of a patrol car and two counts of resisting arrest. She was on probation at the time for two separate 2017 cases, of driving while under the influence of methamphetamine and resisting arrest at the Pala Casino. Graham faces trial Dec. 4 on charges of robbery, burglary, false imprisonment and resisting arrest. pauline.repard@sduniontribune Twitter: @pdrepard A Pennsylvania law firm has another name for recently convicted sex offender Bill Cosby deadbeat. The iconic entertainer and star of The Cosby Show, Fat Albert and I Spy had been found guilty of the 2004 drugging and assault of Andrea Constand. A hung jury was the result of Cosbys first trial, but he was convicted of aggravated indecent assault in April. The second jury returned a unanimous verdict after a 12-day trial. On Sept. 25, he was sentenced to a prison term between three and 10 years. Advertisement Schnader Harrison Segal &Lewis filed a complaint last week, demanding payment of over $282,000 in unpaid legal fees Cosby had accrued since June 2017 16 months after it took the funnyman on as a client, reported CBS News. Cosbys spokesman and other employees made several promises to Schnader Harrison since (2017) that the payments were forthcoming, read the complaint, according to Legal Intelligencer. On Aug. 30, the complaint said, Silver told Cosbys new lawyers by email that the firm would file a lawsuit on Sept. 4 if it was not paid by then. Constand considered Cosby a mentor the night he offered her three blue pills during a meeting. In testimony, she recounted thinking the pills were for stress. Thats when she began to lose balance and slur her words. Constand then told jurors she was helpless as he groped her and forced her to pleasure him. I wanted it to stop, she said in an April court hearing. I was weak. I was limp, and I could not fight him off. An inmate who served time with Brooke Crews, the North Dakota woman convicted of murdering her pregnant neighbor and cutting the womans unborn child out of her womb, testified that Crews ex-boyfriend, William Hoehn, was not involved in the murder. Jennifer Robinson told jurors on the eighth day of his murder trial that Hoehn played no part in killing Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, 22, in August 2017. She testified that Crews confided in her while the pair was in prison together, confessing that she alone choked Savanna with a rope, drug her into the bathroom, performed a cesarean section on the woman and later cleaned up the mess, Inforum reported. Robinson said Crews told her that she moved Greywinds body into a closet that detectives walked past in the north Fargo apartment she shared with Hoehn. Advertisement Crews has pleaded guilty in the case and is serving a life sentence. Prosecutor Ryan Younggren on Thursday asked Robinson why she didnt reveal Crews disclosure earlier, rattling her during her testimony. She accused Younggren of throwing sh at her, according to the report. Robinson recalled shivering in her skin as she listened to Crews account of what happened. Crews earlier testified that she carried out the murder under pressure from her then-boyfriend to produce a baby. An Iraqi model with more than 2.7 million followers on Instagram was fatally shot in Baghdad Thursday. Tara Fares who held the title of Miss Baghdad in 2015, was shot by two motorcyclists in Iraqs capital while driving her car, according to Kurdstan 24. The 22-year-olds body was found with three bullet wounds and taken to Baghdads Sheikh Zaid hospital where she was pronounced dead not long after arrival. Hours after her death, a black and white photo was shared to her Instagram with part of the Arabic-written caption saying, We belong to God and to him we return in an accident of treachery and cowardice. Advertisement It is unknown who carried out the attack. I have always been proud of where Ive come for me and others around me i feel thankful for everything is happened to me Im never feel shame cuz i live in a city inhabited by war and destruction so far I live every moment in my life as I love it , No one can know the truth pic.twitter.com/tRwJBNpJpA Tara Fares (@tarafaresss) May 29, 2018 Her Instagram promoted her love for beauty, travel and style. It also linked to her YouTube channel, where she shared video blogs of her experiences, food, and makeup tutorials. Fares death comes just days after womens rights activist Suad al-Ali was shot dead in the Iraqi city of Basra. Basra has seen violent protests over unsafe water and corruption since the summer. video showing the moment famous Iraqi model Tara Faris was gunned down by two males on a motorcycle in Baghdad yesterday, Tara had 2.6 million followers and she was the latest young female figure to either get shot or die out of nowhere due to illness or overdose pic.twitter.com/7ok6cQMZL6 Steven nabil (@thestevennabil) September 28, 2018 In August, two women in the beauty industry died mysteriously in their homes the owner of Barbie beauty center Rafeef al-Yaser and Viola beauty center manager, Rasha al-Hassan Earlier this year, Fares tweeted about how she never felt ashamed of living in a city inhabited by war and destruction. Many fans took to Twitter to express their sadness in Fares death. Tara Fares was shot today because she dressed differently. She didnt live according to rules set by society. She valued life. She valued freedom. She valued happiness, one Twitter user wrote. Others, however, were critical. One person responded to TV correspondent Steve Nabils tweet saying, Women are not safe in Iraq, actually no one is safe in Iraq. She shouldnt have left Kurdistan, where she previously lived a normal life. Nabil shared a video that supposedly shows the moments after Fares was shot. The Iraqi Ministry of the Interior has opened an investigation into her death after an order from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. A $115.5 million military plane crashed near a South Carolina Marine Corps Air Station just before noon on Friday, authorities said. The pilot managed to eject himself from the F-35B fighter jet and is still being evaluated for injuries, according to a press release from the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office. No one else was hurt in the incident. The crash, reported around 11:45 a.m. near Clarendon Road and Joe Allen Drive in the Grays Hill area, marks the first of its kind for the pricey aircraft, Marine Corps spokesperson Capt. Christopher Harrison told the Island Packet. And it comes a day after the F-35B conducted an airstrike in Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedoms Sentinel. The aircrafts multi million-dollar price tag also includes air frame, engine and contractor fees, Harrison explained. Advertisement The scene of the crash was secured around 2 p.m. Friday, though smoke still continued to hang in the air near the Grays Hill Boat Landing later in the afternoon. Authorities are encouraging citizens to avoid the area as they continue to investigate what caused the planes plummet. It was crazy. I literally looked out and there were boats and helicopters everywhere, witness Kensley Crosby told the Island Packet. This is such a small community, most people dont even know were out here, so that was a lot to have happening. On Thursday the nations intense political divisions collided with the #MeToo movement, creating a defining moment of this era that unfolded on Capitol Hill and on televisions and devices across America. The U.S. Supreme Court confirmation process for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, dogged by a spate of fresh sexual misconduct allegations, culminated in a spectacle of a hearing, where a new generation experienced its own version of an Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas faceoff and an older generation wondered if history would repeat itself. The overriding reason for tuning in to the daylong confirmation hearing: to assess the credibility of Christine Blasey Ford, the Stanford research psychologist who has accused Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed in an attempted sexual assault when they were both teenagers. After an event that was part political theater and part unofficial trial, many San Diegans concluded that Ford was someone to believe. Advertisement The way she spoke, the way she was responsive to questions, the fact that she was comfortable telling everybody she didnt remember everything, said Carolina Bravo-Karimi, an employment attorney who routinely investigates sexual harassment claims. In a way she was unapologetic about it. There are other things, too: Fords identification of an eyewitness in the room during the alleged assault, her detailed descriptions of the actual incident and the anxiety and PTSD symptoms she said that followed. Her demeanor and affect during the hearing seemed very sincere, the attorney added. That demeanor and affect wasnt lost on many who watched the proceedings. Even Kavanaugh himself, who kicked off his testimony with a fiery, indignant profession of innocence and leveled accusations of political mudslinging against Democrats, said he believed her to a point. I have not questioned that she might have been sexually assaulted at some point in her life by someone, someplace, Kavanaugh testified. But as to me, Ive never done this; never done this to her or to anyone else. By the end of the hearing, both she and Kavanaugh had declared under oath with 100 percent certainty that each was telling the truth. That conflicted some San Diego conservatives who were watching Thursday. When you listen to Ms. Ford you have to believe that something potentially did happen to her, but when you listen to Judge Kavanaugh you have to be open to the idea that it wasnt him, said Steve Hasty, director of the Tri-City Tea Party, which includes more than 1,100 members in Oceanside, Carlsbad and Vista. I give credence to Judge Kavanaugh because of his professional career since 1982, he added. Lee Sandvick, 65, of La Mesa, was less compelled by Fords testimony, noting her hesitancy to report the allegation until now. She sounded emotional, and I thought as a reasonable person if I feared for my life the first thing I would do is high tailed to the cops. I dont know what shes thinking, Sandvick said. Shes not a good civic person like the Democrats said. You can put me in as undecided, but Im definitely leaning toward him, Sandvick said. Theres too many holes in her story. For other viewers, Kavanaughs testimony was too evasive, his retorts to committee members at times unprofessional and his opening remarks too strident. If you are looking at a person to be in the highest court in the land, I dont want him losing it in other circumstances, said Sage Breslin, a trauma psychologist in San Diego. I dont think he really had a right to lose it. I dont think the anger and belligerence served him. I think he could have done that with passion without being angry. She, like many viewers, saw the need for further, non-partisan investigation by the FBI into the allegations a probe that would ideally question other people identified as alleged witnesses or participants. Orly Lobel, a professor at the University of San Diego who taught at Yale Law School, dismissed Kavanaughs complaints that these kind of allegations were a new normal in this highly charged political atmosphere. This claim that this a new standard for any nominee to face these kinds of allegations is simply untrue, she said, pointing to recent confirmations of Republican Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch. None were accused of something like that. Jack Pitney, professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College, compared Kavanaughs hearing to another landmark one nearly 30 years prior. He said similar to 1991, Justice Clarence Thomas hearing quickly devolved into senators going to partisan corners, and much like Thomas, Kavanaugh tried to defend himself by attacking the committees Democrats. But there were marked differences, too. Aside from subtle attempts to poke holes, there were no overt accusations that Ford was lying, unlike the grilling of Hill. Also, optically, the committee dais looked a lot different than in 1991. When Anita Hill looked up, it was all white men, said Bravo-Karimi, partner at Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP, San Diegos largest women-owned firm. Pitney said that although he found Fords testimony to be very credible, he doubts anything could be proven in court, and he expects Kavanaugh will still be confirmed. Although, he noted it may prove a costly win for Republicans. I think the most significant impact is the possibility of backlash among voters, particularly women voters, said Pitney, adding hed be surprised if women at-large did not overwhelmingly believe Ford, especially given that many have experienced something similar. Those 51 votes, if confirmed, will be very expensive for him and the Republican Party. Breslin agreed that personal experience could be a significant factor in how opinions are formed. If you look at our culture these days and find that one in every two women will be abused in some way in their lifetime and one in every four men, thats double the number of women who can relate to victimization versus men who are less capable relating personally. But she pointed to a large number of men who have signed letters and voiced support for Ford, likely because they can relate due to their own experiences or to the experiences of women around them, she said. When it has a personal tone, thats a more salient feature as to how people make their decisions, she said. Teri Peters, a small business owner and San Diego resident, said she felt much of what she saw was senators vying for sound bites, and she was particularly frustrated with the Democratic senators, several of whom she thought dropped the ball by asking irrelevant questions. Peters said when it came to the actual testimony of Kavanaugh and Ford though, she found both to be believable although she still had some lingering questions. I find her believable, I find him credible its just one of those things, said Peters. I dont think we are ever going to know for sure. Staff writers Charles T. Clark and Joshua Emerson Smith contributed to this report. kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @kristinadavis A search of an Encinitas house earlier this week turned up methamphetamine, heroin, magic mushrooms, and hundreds of Xanax pills that might be counterfeit, a sheriffs official said Friday. The 30-year-old resident of the home and two others a 20-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man landed in custody, arrested at the home on suspicion of drug sales, Sheriffs Sgt. Nathan Rowley said in a news release. Rowley said Blossom Field Way home on a cul-de-sac was searched Wednesday by deputies from the North Coastal stations street drugs and gang detail. He said the search turned up: Advertisement one pound of methamphetamine; a half-pound of heroin; psilocybin mushrooms (sometimes called magic mushrooms or shrooms); and 850 potentially counterfeit Xanax pills. Searchers also found evidence of drug sales, he said. The investigation is ongoing. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT Marijuana had been growing inside a garage that caught fire at an Oceanside rental home late Thursday night, officials said. No one was home when firefighters got to the house on Carolyn Circle about 11:40 p.m. They found flames and heavy smoke coming from the garage, Oceanside fire Battalion Chief Greg DeAvila said in a news release. Firefighters made sure the house was empty and found that thick smoke from the garage had spread into the kitchen. Additional crews were called in. They got the fire under control in about 20 minutes, keeping the flames from spreading further into the house, DeAvila said. No damage estimate was given. Advertisement He said firefighters found a suspicious growing operation at the home. A police official said marijuana had been growing inside the garage, but was burned in the fire so it wasnt immediately clear how many plants were there. DeAvila said the person who was renting the home was not immediately found. Police said no one was in custody as of Friday morning. pauline.repard@sduniontribune Twitter: @pdrepard Ten Mexican citizens were taken into custody when their alleged smuggling boat was intercepted about 27 miles off the La Jolla shore, federal officials said Friday. The eight men, including the suspected smuggler, and two women were taken off a pleasure craft first seen 14 miles west of the Coronado Islands, authorities said in a statement. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations air unit spotted the boat operating without running lights about 1 a.m. Tuesday. The air crew reported the sighting and the U.S. Coast Guard headed that way, as did an Air and Marine Operations boat crew. Federal agents reached the alleged smuggling boat about 3 a.m. when it was about 27 miles, or 24 nautical miles, off La Jolla, the statement said. Advertisement Agents interviewed the 10 people on board who said they were Mexican citizens trying to enter the United States illegally, authorities said. One man was identified as the suspected smuggler and he faces criminal charges, the statement said. pauline.repard@sduniontribune Twitter: @pdrepard Poem-dance drama staged in Chicago to mark China's traditional festival From:Xinhua | 2018-09-27 23:29 Actors of Sichuan Song and Dance Theatre Co., Ltd. perform in the poem-dance drama in Chicago, the United States, on Sept. 25, 2016. A poem-dance drama titled the Greatest Spirit was staged in a theater in the suburbs of Chicago Tuesday night to mark China's traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. (Xinhua/Wang Ping) CHICAGO, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- A poem-dance drama titled the Greatest Spirit was staged in a theater in the suburbs of Chicago Tuesday night to mark China's traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. The drama, performed by Sichuan Song and Dance Theatre Co., Ltd. from Southwest China's Sichuan Province, included 10 chapters. With Chinese culture of alcoholic beverages as the cue, the 10 chapters gave the audience 10 different scenes: "Ancient drinking rituals of a banquet", "the Spirit of Han Dynasty", "Enchanted Ancient Beauty", "the sounds of the Teahouse", "Bamboo Rhyme", "Memorial day at the river bank market", "the Phoenix hair clip", "Robe of a cloud and face of a flower", "Delighted Panda" and "the countless flowers vying for beauty", with an ancient poem preceding each scene. Chapter "the Spirit of Han Dynasty" depicted how Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, drank together with his soldiers after a long hard battle. Chapter "the sounds of the Teahouse" presented the daily life of the Sichuan residents by combining the arts of the tea ceremony, Sichuan opera, Sichuan cuisine and the magic of mask changing. Chapter "the Phoenix hair clip" described the tragic love story of famous poets Lu You and Tang Wan in Song Dynasty. "I love the Enchanted Ancient Beauty best," Alan Wagner told Xinhua. "I love the long braid the performers wear, it is really beautiful." Wagner's wife, Nancy Wagner, was deeply impressed with the "Delighted Panda", where a costume-donned girl panda kept flipping over. The clumsy and slow movement of the panda constantly drew laughters and applauses from the audience. Talking of the poems preceding the chapters, Nancy admitted frankly, "my Chinese friend is translating for me." Ren Pingping, a Sichuan native before coming to the United States, was excited about the show. "I am proud being a Sichuan native. I saw in the performance the familiar scenes where I grew up." "I am happy to see the culture of Sichuan Province is going out to the world. With alcoholic beverages as the carrier, the world will have a better knowledge of Sichuan," Ren said. Chicago is the second leg of the Sichuan art troupe, which staged the epic drama first in Minneapolis in the state of Minnesota, and will conclude its U.S. tour with one more performance in Los Angles. 1 2 3 4 5 Next 1 2 3 4 5 Next A San Diego SWAT team surrounded a Sunset Cliffs home early Friday morning where two men were holed up and at least one reportedly fired several shots toward police, a sergeant said. No one was injured. Both men were in custody as of 2 a.m. The situation began when a neighbor called police about 12:20 a.m. from Devonshire Drive between Guizot and Hill streets, San Diego police Sgt. Michael Tansey said. Police said the caller reported hearing glass breaking and a man and woman screaming in a neighbors house. Advertisement Officers were outside the house when they heard a single gunshot, then a volley of rounds, including bullets that reportedly went over an officers head, according to police radio traffic. A woman whod been inside the home told officers there were two men inside, possibly drunk, with access to rifles, handguns and shotguns police said. A SWAT team was called in and surrounded the house. One of the men surrendered and was taken into custody around 1:30 a.m., according to police radio traffic. The other man surrendered a few minutes before 2 a.m. Officers later arrested one of the men, age 39, on weapons and assault charges. The other man was released. Police seized three guns from the house. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com For most of the two hours that Earl McNeil spent in police custody last May 26, he was bundled in black-and-yellow colored blanket with seat belt like straps a restraint system that is supposed to protect officers and the person they are arresting. The device called The WRAP was developed by former police officers in Walnut Creek and marketed as a safer way to restrain people than an alternate technique hog tying, where the persons ankles are tied to their handcuff as they lie face down. That kind of restraint has been blamed over the years for numerous in-custody deaths, and even banned by some agencies. McNeil died June 11, two weeks after his arrest by National City police. The county Medical Examiner concluded he died from from brain damage caused when he stopped breathing, the result of combination of methamphetamine use, a heart attack and respiratory compromise from the position his body was in. His death is not the first time that someone in police custody died when the device was used. In California alone there have been five reported deaths since 2001, most concentrated in the Bay Area. Deaths of people in custody where the WRAP was used occurred more than a decade ago in Maryland and Mississippi, according to new reports. Advertisement While at least three resulted in lawsuits, the legal action blamed officers for using excessive force and did not target the device itself. The company said it has never been directly sued or found liable for the cause of any death in the two decades that its product has been used. District Attorney Summer Stephan concluded that none of the police officers or San Diego County Sheriffs deputies involved in McNeils death would face charges, but the family of the 40-year-old man may be weighing a civil suit. Douglas Applegate, the lawyer for the family, said he is still trying to gather information about the events of May 26, beyond the more than two hours of body camera and security camera videos that captured much of the ordeal that has been released by prosecutors. One area of inquiry is the use of The WRAP, and if police did it correctly, he said. Earl McNeil (courtesy of Tasha Williamson) National City police put McNeil in The WRAP less than 20 minutes after first contacting him outside the police station. McNeil had shown up there, alternately saying he wanted to turn himself in a warrant had been issued for him for not showing up in court but also making threats and stating he was high. After handcuffing him and forcing him to the ground, they put The WRAP on him. The system wraps the persons legs in a type of blanket, immobilizing the persons lower half. By fashioning a strap on the chest to the ankle the person can sit upright and breathe. Applegate said reviewing the video shows officers struggling to get McNeil in the device. These officers did not look as if they had training and knew a protocol for how to use it, he said. Training on how to use The WRAP is provided by the company that invented it, Safe Restraints. Patrick Pethel, a master instructor for the company, said that the training is a three-hour session provided for free. Retraining is rarely needed, if ever, because the device is so simple to use, he said. Improper use of the device was a factor in the 2015 death of Eugene Jimerson Jr. at the hands of police officers in Hayward, Calif. Like McNeil, Jimerson suffered from schizophrenia and was suspected of being under the influence of drugs when police encountered him. The suit alleged excessive force against the department officers. He was only in the restraint for a short period of time, but he stopped breathing and died while being taken from one jail to another, said Daniel Siegel, the lawyer who filed suit on behalf of Jimersons family. He said the suit did not say there was anything inherently wrong with the device, but the officers bungled its use. It seemed to us and our expert that the WRAP was put on improperly, he said. The lawsuit settled before trial for an undisclosed amount of money. Outside of the company training and guidelines there are no set standards in California for how The WRAP should be used. A spokesman for the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training, which sets training standards and certification for law enforcement agencies, said that agency does not set standards, nor does it provide instruction in the use of these types of devices in its Basic Academy Training Course. National City police did not respond to questions submitted Tuesday about how the department trains officers on use of the restraint. McNeil was in the device for about two hours. The videos show that he complained frequently about not being able to breathe a complaint that police and later the medical examiner said was without merit, largely because McNeil was able to talk at the same time he could not breathe. The bulk of that time was spent in the back of a National City patrol vehicle as it sat in the departments sally port. Stephan said in a letter detailing the events of May 26 that McNeil was being monitored by officers during that time. A video shows the vehicle, but there is no audio. Stephans letter does not relate what McNeil was doing during that time, but her Communications Director Steve Walker said in an email that five officers who monitored him were interviewed. They all stated that Mr. McNeil behaved similar to how he sounded and behaved on body-worn camera before being placed in the vehicle and during the subsequent transport (vocal, agitated, displayed objective symptomology of being under the influence of a stimulant, uncooperative and combative), Walker said in an email. Pethel, the company trainer, said there were no guidelines on how long someone should remain in the device. The device is meant to be used when someone is a danger to themselves, officers or others, he said. The answer is, as long as there is a continued danger that exists, The WRAP is appropriate, he said. Pethel said the device is now used by about 900 agencies around the country. The Safe Restraints user manual says that police should seek immediate medical attention if someone in the device complains about a medical problem. These include respiratory distress such as coughing, gasping or gagging, chest pains, vomiting, and suspected drug behavior and profuse sweating. Police had detained McNeil for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs. And when they transported him to jail, a nurse there noted he had an elevated body temperature and pulse rate, and was sweating profusely. But the nurse said she also believed McNeil was not in danger because he was alert and oriented, Stephan wrote. The nurse said McNeil should be taken to to a hospital for medical and psychiatric evaluation, and an ambulance was called. When it arrived minutes later McNeil became lethargic, then quiet and at some point stopped breathing. He was able to be resuscitated, but had suffered severe brain damage and died two weeks later. Twitter: @gregmoran greg.moran@sduniontribune.com The first commercial offshore fish farm in the U.S. may open less than four miles off the coast of San Diego. Three miles, the legal definition of offshore, is where federal waters start and regulation by state and local municipalities ends. The Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute (HSRI), a research non-profit partially funded by SeaWorld, is partnering with unidentified investors in the Pacific Ocean Aquafarms (POA) Project, a complex of open fish pens that could bring more than 10 million pounds of seafood to market every year. HSRI claims no specific offshore location has been chosen yet. However, during an Aug. 20 briefing delivered by HSRI president/CEO Don Kent to the San Diego Fishermens Working Group, a grassroots lobbying organization, a location was clearly identified in a slide as a half-mile north-to-south, and 1.5 miles east-to-west in an area 3.73 miles off Mission Beach. This slide, presented at a recent Hubbs-SeaWorld briefing for the San Diego Fishermen's Working Group, clearly shows the fish farm located 3.73 miles off the coast of Mission Beach. COURTESY VICTORIA MINNICH Open-ocean aquafarms are industrial farms that engage in the mass rearing and harvesting of fish. The fish remain in nets, pods or cages submerged in the ocean and dangling from floating rings or platforms and anchored to the ocean floor for up to two years, from the time they are hatched until they attain their desired size and weight. Aquafarms are typically promoted as environmental solutions by their operators, and POA is no exception. Whether were producing white seabass and halibut for release into the wild, striped bass and yellowtail for the seafood market or butterflyfish and angelfish for aquariums, we are preserving and renewing wild stocks by providing supplemental sources of fish that are produced sustainably, reads the HSRI website. Help us feed the world, replenish fish populations and provide economic value to American coastal communities. A statement emailed to the Light by Kent read: The U.S. is far behind other nations in the development of marine aquaculture and we rely on imports for over 90% of our seafood supply, over half of which is farmed. No matter how sustainably we fish our oceans, we cannot catch the needed protein, but we can farm it Our goal for the offshore farm project is to ensure that as aquaculture continues to develop, it does so in a sustainable manner that respects the environment, provides fishermen with opportunities for job creation and ensures that we do not lose what is left of our vanishing working waterfronts. The Port of San Diego (PSD) appears to be all-in on this new proposal. Spokesperson Brianne Page emailed the Light that it is a long-time champion and catalyst of the regions blue economy with its shipbuilding, commercial fishing, marine research, cruise, and cargo business lines, and that, in 2016, the Port established its Blue Economy Incubator to assist in the creation, development and scaling of new water-dependent business ventures on San Diego Bay focusing on sustainable aquaculture and blue technologies. Hubbs-SeaWorld president/CEO Don Kent addresses the concerns of fishermen at an Aug. 20 meeting at Hubbs-SeaWorld. COURTESY VICTORIA MINNICH Fish story? According to many environmental organizations, however, open-ocean aquafarms breed trouble as well as fish. The website for Food and Water Watch, a Washington-based non-profit, states that uneaten fish feed, fish waste, and any antibiotics or chemicals used in fish farm operations flow through the cages directly into the ocean. It calls open-ocean aquafarms generally big, dirty and dangerous, just like factory farming on land. Escaped fish also concern the organization, because they could interbreed with or spread disease to wild fish. And factory fish farms also tend to grow top-of-the-food-chain fish, resulting in several pounds of wild fish required as food for every pound of farmed fish. This undermines the wild marine food chain, Food and Water Watchs website reads. There are also concerns that marine life will be lured to thousands of caged fish and entangle themselves in nets and ropes. In March 2017, a highly endangered Hawaiian monk seal was found dead, tangled in the nets of a Hawaii fish farm. A year earlier, nets entangled three humpback whales at industrial fish farms in Canada, killing two. Friends of the Earth a network of environmental organizations from 74 countries made its position clear in a 2018 report on the industry: Industrial ocean fish farms are inherently unsustainable and cause extreme harm in countless ways. But fisherman John Law, part of the San Diego Fishermens Working Group, objects mainly to the fish farms supposed location: smack in the middle of where the Lemon Grove resident has earned his living fishing for rock fish and lobster since 1975. In fact, Laws navigational software is most heavily dotted with promising fishing sites in that location. The green circles show the best for fisherman John Law. Most are in the location the fish farm was shown in the HRSI diagram. COREY LEVITAN Im not against Don Kent and his farm, Law said. My customers demand fish that is wild-caught, not farmed. I just want him to take it further out seven miles or more. Law is actually entering his 10th year of fighting fish-farm proposals by Kent. In 2009, it was a cage system Kent proposed off La Jolla; in 2012, the Rose Canyon Fisheries Sustainable Aquaculture Project, a partnership between HSRI and private equity firm Cuna Del Mar also located off Mission Beach. Neither project got off the ground. Theyre not great ideas for anyone except Kent and his investors, Law said. And Law says he wants La Jolla residents to know that they have skin in this game, too. He took the Light out on his skiff, the Wild West, to make his point. Even through a moderate marine layer, individual houses in Bird Rock and La Jolla were clearly visible from 3.73 miles off Mission Beach. Thats means the fish farm will be clearly visible to the people in those houses, Law said. They will probably be able to smell it, too. John Law poses next to the skiff, Wild West, which he's owned since 2000. COREY LEVITAN A done deal? Nothing is decided regarding location, Kent wrote in his email. We are looking along the entire Southern California coastline. When we find a site that meets our oceanographic criteria and minimizes impacts with other user groups, we will formally propose that site and begin a rather long and arduous NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) review process in support of acquiring the needed permits. According to Diane Windham, coordinator of West Coast aquaculture for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this project will require permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the California Coastal Commission and NOAA none of which have been applied for yet. PSDs Page confirmed that Kent requested its assistance applying for those permits and navigating the NEPA review process. Port staff was scheduled to bring the proposed agreement to the Board of Port Commissioners on September 12, she said, but Port staff requested more time to allow the details of POAs application for federal permits to develop, and for the process of review by federal agencies under NEPA to become more set. In the 18 to 24 months it will take to garner approvals, Kent wrote in his email, the public will be afforded extensive opportunity to comment on the proposed farm. Brett Kavanaughs future as a Supreme Court justice is now in the hands of the full Senate. A day after he adamantly denied sexually assaulting a woman who testified she was 100% sure he was her alleged attacker, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Kavanaughs confirmation. The 1:30 p.m. vote, split 11-10 along party lines, was preceded by a chaotic morning fraught with emotion as protesters descended upon Capitol Hill and Democrats continued to voice their opposition to Republican efforts to speed up the process of confirming Kavanaugh. Moments before the panel convened in the morning, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) announced he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh. He said the appeals court judge nominated by President Trump was entitled to the presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence. Advertisement Flake was confronted by a pair of rape survivor who implored him to change his mind before he entered the chamber. You are telling me that my assault doesnt matter. one woman said through tears. Democrats walked out of the meeting in the morning in protest, although some returned later to share their opposition to Kavanaughs appointment. The heated political battle raged as the future make up of the Supreme Court precariously hung in the balance. Kavanaugh, a conservative jurist who once worked for the George W. Bush White House, could swing the court to the right for a generation. The vote came after an emotional day of testimony from both Kavanaugh and psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford that exposed deep divides over partisan politics, Senate protocol and the national conversation about sexual assault. Coming weeks before the midterm elections, the testimony and ensuing vote ensured the debate would play into the fight for control of Congress. Ford insisted Thursday that shes 100% sure a drunken Kavanaugh assaulted her at a Maryland house party in 1982, when they were both in high school. Kavanaugh followed with a tearful and at-times aggressive rebuttal, refuting Fords claims and accusing Democrats of playing politics. While the President and Republicans remaining in his corner, several institutions were swift in either rescinding their support or calling for an investigation into Kavanaughs past. The American Bar Association urged the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate to delay the vote until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims something President Donald Trump has refused to order. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that Friday, telling reporters that Kavanaugh has already been through six separate background investigations by the FBI. Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and should be withdrawn. If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a womans report of an assault, the America magazine editors wrote. Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country. The dean of Kavanaughs alma mater, Yale Law School, also called on the panel to postpone its vote. The full Senate could start taking procedural votes Saturday on Kavanaugh, setting up a final vote as soon as Tuesday. Were going to move forward, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as he exited a private late night strategy session with Republican senators. The committee is going to vote. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and accuser Christine Blasey Ford werent the only ones to face questions Thursday at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on her allegation of sexual assault: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the panels top Democrat, came in for some grilling as well. Senate Republicans, determined to press their strategy that the controversy threatening Kavanaughs confirmation is a Democratic con job, as President Trump calls it, repeatedly blamed Feinstein, accusing her of bottling up Fords allegation for weeks and then having it leaked only as the committee and the Senate neared votes on the nominee. Their tactic had another political angle roughing up the California Democrat just weeks before she is up for reelection in the midterm election in November. Its far from clear, however, that GOP attacks would have their intended effect; they instead could solidify support for Feinstein on her partys left, which has been cool to her candidacy. Through most of the hearing, after defending herself in her opening statement, Feinstein mostly ignored the repeated jabs. At the end of a hearing that stretched nearly nine hours, however, the California senator interrupted Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, to push back. Advertisement I did not hide Dr. Fords allegations. I did not leak her story, Feinstein said emphatically. l was given some information by a woman who was very much afraid, who asked that it be held confidential, and I held it confidential until she decided that she would come forward. Nearly every Republican on the committee, and Kavanaugh too, critically singled out Feinstein. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina who burnished his status as one of Trumps most vocal allies, angrily charged that Democrats led by Feinstein were lying in wait to release Fords original letter making her accusation. Kavanaugh echoed that same phrase in his opening statement. Some of you were lying in wait and had it ready, Kavanaugh said. This first allegation was held in secret for weeks by a Democratic member of this committee, and by staff. It would be needed only if you couldnt take me out on the merits. Feinstein kept the secret for weeks after receiving the letter in which Ford made her allegation on July 30. She stayed mum even while meeting with Kavanaugh and through days of the committees initial confirmation hearing questioning the nominee. Republicans countering Feinsteins claim that she kept Fords complaint private, even from other Democrats, to honor Fords desire for privacy insisted that they could have investigated the allegation while protecting Fords identity and without delaying the confirmation process. Ford, a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a researcher at Stanfords School of Medicine, decided to go public Sept. 16 with an interview in the Washington Post after news and vague details about her letter to Feinstein and Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, the Democrat from Menlo Park who is Fords congresswoman, leaked to the news media. That forced the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee to reopen its hearing into Kavanaughs confirmation. Ford, in her opening statement, thanked Feinstein for respecting her original demand for confidentiality. Feinstein, in her own opening statement early in the hearing, forcefully defended herself after days of criticism and in anticipation of the Republicans attacks. Yes, I did receive a letter from Dr. Ford, conveyed by Eshoo, Feinstein said, noting that she called Ford the next day. She reiterated that she wanted this held confidential. And I held it confidential, up to a point where the witness was willing to come forward, she said. She added: Because how women are treated in the United States, with this kind of concern, is really wanting a lot of reform. Otherwise at the hearing, Feinstein mostly kept quiet as Republicans took their swipes. That she should be a target in a controversy involving a Supreme Court nominee facing allegations of sexual misconduct had some irony: Feinstein was first elected to the Senate in 1992, the so-called Year of the Woman that reflected widespread anger about the Senates treatment of Anita Hill after her accusations against Clarence Thomas, who went on to be confirmed. One Democrat, Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, came to Feinsteins defense, and that of Democrats more broadly. She told Republicans they were focusing on the complaints about alleged political manipulation to change the conversation from Fords compelling and widely praised testimony about Kavanaughs alleged attack on her when she was 15 and he was 17. They want to distract us, Hirono said of Republicans, from what happened here this morning. The latest from Washington More stories from Sarah D. Wire sarah.wire@latimes.com Follow @sarahdwire on Twitter Former FBI officials expressed confidence Friday that agents could quickly interview key witnesses and track down potential leads into Christine Blasey Fords allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both high school students in the early 1980s. Doing so might offer greater clarity than the dueling but inconclusive testimony that emerged in a wrenching Senate hearing on Thursday from the 51-year-old California professor and the 53-year-old federal judge. For the record: An earlier version of this story contained descriptions of a house in Rockville, Md., that appeared to be the home of Tim Gaudette and his family in July of 1982. It is unclear whether the building is the correct house so descriptions of it have been deleted from this story. Ford said she was 100% certain Kavanaugh had tried to rape her, and Kavanaugh said he was 100% certain he had never sexually abused Ford or anyone else, leaving senators to decide for themselves who was telling the truth. Senate Republican leaders agreed Friday afternoon to seek a supplemental FBI background inquiry of Kavanaugh, limited to current credible allegations and with a one-week deadline, in an abrupt reversal of their previous refusal to permit further investigation. Advertisement They backed down after two potential swing votes in the closely divided Senate Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska suggested they would not vote to confirm Kavanaugh until the FBI is given time to probe Fords allegations. Republican leaders moved ahead with a procedural vote on the nomination Friday evening. Over nearly nine hours of often grueling testimony Thursday, Ford and Kavanaugh provided several details and clues from names of witnesses to dates and places that experienced investigators now can chase down. There is plenty of lead value in the testimony that was provided during the confirmation hearing and there are plenty of living witnesses that can be identified, contacted and interviewed, said James McJunkin, a former top FBI official. They can do this fairly quickly. Information from the hearing could provide crumbs agents could follow, said Bobby Chacon, a former FBI agent who retired in 2014. There might less than a handful of interviews they may want to do and follow up. FBI spokeswoman Jacqueline Maguire declined to comment. Fords dramatic testimony and details scrawled on the calendars Kavanaugh said he kept from the summer of 1982, when Ford believes the alleged assault occurred, offered promising lines of inquiry, the former officials said. Among other clues, Ford provided the names of several potential witnesses to her account, including two classmates of Kavanaughs at Georgetown Preparatory School in the Washington suburbs. The friends, Mark Judge and Patrick Smythe, have said in statements that they do not recall the party or the alleged assault. Ford testified that Smythe attended the party and that Judge was present in the bedroom when Kavanaugh groped her and covered her mouth to muffle her screams. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, Judge wrote that he would cooperate with any law enforcement agency that is assigned to confidentially investigate these allegations. Ford said Leland Ingham Keyser, a classmate of hers, was present at the party, although not in the room; Keyser has said through her lawyer that she did not recall the gathering and did not know Kavanaugh. If the FBI gets involved, agents would probably focus their first interviews on Ford, Kavanaugh, Judge, Smythe and Keyser, former agents said. They would then expand the circle as they developed leads. Former agents noted that Kavanaughs calendar entries from 1982 could help provide timelines and additional witnesses. They noted, for example, a calendar entry on July 1 of a party with several friends, including Judge and Smythe. Kavanaugh confirmed in his testimony that Chris Garrett, a Georgetown Prep classmate, was at that gathering. Ford testified that Garrett had introduced her to the future judge. The party was at the home of another Georgetown Prep classmate, Tim Gaudette, according to Kavanaughs calendar and testimony. Gaudette did not return text messages or respond to messages left on his voicemail. Ford told the committee that she drank a beer at the house, and then went upstairs to use the bathroom. At the top of the stairs, she testified, she was pushed into a bedroom across the hall. During the following assault, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her down and groped her. She escaped after Judge jumped on the bed and they all tumbled to the floor, she testified. She said she ran out of the room and into the bathroom across the hall. The FBI does not typically investigate crimes that are handled by local authorities, such as sexual assault. Agents do, however, conduct background investigations on presidential nominees to determine if they are a threat to the United States or a security risk. They submit reports of their investigations to administration officials for consideration. The White House tapped the bureau in 1991, for example, to look into Anita Hills allegations that she was sexually harassed at work by Clarence Thomas, who was later confirmed to the Supreme Court. In a letter, the police chief and state attorney in Montgomery County, where the assault allegedly occurred, said they would not investigate the incident without a complaint from Ford. They also noted they could do little to prosecute such a case assault and attempted rape were misdemeanors in 1982 and subject to a one-year statute of limitations. The Democrats got their way. After a dramatic turn of events, President Trump on Friday finally acceded to Democratic demands and ordered the FBI to open an investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, even as his Supreme Court nomination was confirmed for a full Senate vote. Ive ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaughs file, Trump said in a statement. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week. Hours earlier, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Kavanaughs confirmation amid a flurry of chaotic last minute negotiations, which came one day after he adamantly denied sexually assaulting California professor Christine Blasey Ford who testified she was 100% sure he was her alleged attacker. Advertisement The Judiciary Committee was split 11-10 along party lines in a vote preceded by a chaotic morning fraught with emotion as protesters descended upon Capitol Hill and Democrats continued to voice their opposition to Republican efforts to speed up the process of confirming Kavanaugh. Moments before the panel convened in the morning, outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) announced he would vote to advance the nominee. He said Kavanaugh, currently an appeals court judge, was entitled to the presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence. But the senator, who had been on the fence about Kavanaughs nomination, was later confronted by a pair of women in an elevator who said they were rape survivors and passionately implored him to change his mind. Dont look away from me, one woman told a visibly uncomfortable Flake through tears. Look at me and tell me that it doesnt matter what happens to me. Flake later huddled with Democrats in an anteroom off the main chamber ahead of the 1:30 p.m. vote. He emerged and said he would not back Kavanughs confirmation in the full Senate without an FBI investigation and a weeks delay. We ought to do what we can to make sure we do all due diligence with a nomination this important, Flake said. This country is being ripped apart here. Republican leaders begrudgingly agreed to the delay. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said, Theres going to be a supplemental background investigation, which would delay a vote no later than one week. Democrats have repeatedly asked for such a probe as a political firestorm erupted around Kavanaughs confirmation hearings. Republicans and Trump have insisted its not necessary. A Democratic aide close to the confirmation process was pleased after Trumps announcement. This is exactly what we wanted, the source told the Daily News. Kavanaugh continued to maintain his innocence. Ive been interviewed by the FBI, Ive done a number of background calls directly with the Senate, and yesterday, I answered questions under oath about every topic the Senators and their counsel asked me, Kavanaugh said in a statement released by the White House. Ive done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate. Several Democrats walked out of the committee meeting Friday morning in protest, but returned for the vote and Flakes change of heart. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., called for a weeks delay on the full Senate voting on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaughs confirmation. (Andrew Harnik / AP) The heated political battle around Kavanaugh has raged as the future make-up of the Supreme Court precariously hangs in the balance. The conservative jurist who once worked for the George W. Bush White House could swing the court to the right for a generation. The Republicans hold a tight 51-49 majority in the Senate and a small handful of moderate lawmakers could make all the difference. While walking into Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells office on Friday afternoon, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ak.), one of the key votes, said yes, when asked if she supports Flakes proposal. Yes I do. It has to be limited in time and scope, she said. The dramatic vote unfolded a day after both Kavanaugh and psychology Ford testified before the panel. Ford insisted Thursday that shes 100% sure a drunken Kavanaugh assaulted her at a Maryland house party in 1982, when they were both in high school. Fords testified that a drunken young Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothes and clasped a hand over her mouth as she tried to yell for help. A friend of her alleged attacker stood by and she recalled the uproarious laughter between the two, and their having fun at my expense. Several other women have since come forward with similar claims. Kavanaugh followed with a tearful and at-times aggressive rebuttal, refuting Fords claims and accusing Democrats of playing politics. Trump earlier Friday called Fords testimony credible and compelling and indicated he has his doubts about the fate of his pick to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. I dont know if this is going to continue onward or if were going to get a vote, he said. As the FBI is now set to reopen Kavanaughs file, agents will interview accusers and witnesses and gather additional evidence or details that could help corroborate or disprove the allegations. Democrats have been particularly focused on getting more information from Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh who Ford said was also in the room during her alleged assault. In her gripping testimony, Ford said Kavanaugh and Judges laughter during the incident has stuck with her nearly four decades later. Judge has said he does not recall any such incident, and a Democratic motion Friday to subpoena him was blocked by Republicans in a vote. But he later said he would cooperate with any law enforcement agency investigating the assault claims, according to a statement provided by his lawyer. What the FBI will do is to interview everyone involved, like Mark Judge for example, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti told The News. Theyre going to ask detailed questions and follow up on those and confront them with evidence. Theyll also gather information and run down leads such as when did Mark Judge work at Safeway. Judge Brett Kavanaughs confirmation moved to the full Senate as Sen. Jeff Flake called for an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations. (Win McNamee / Getty Images) Several institutions were swift in either rescinding their support or backing the idea of an investigation into Kavanaughs past. The American Bar Association pushed for a delay until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims. Before Trumps announcement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed the idea, telling reporters ahead of Flakes proposal that Kavanaugh has already been through six separate background investigations by the FBI. Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States rescinded its endorsement, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and should be withdrawn. If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a womans report of an assault, the America magazine editors wrote. Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country. The dean of Kavanaughs alma mater, Yale Law School, also called on the panel to postpone its vote. They believed her more than they believed him. A Survey USA poll of Californians conducted after Thursdays hearing for the Union-Tribune/10News says that 60 percent of the respondents found Christine Blasey Fords story about sexual assault believable. Thirty-five percent of those polled found Brett Kavanaughs denials believable. Yet few opinions were changed about whether he should be seated on the U.S. Supreme Court. Advertisement Nine percent of those who supported his selection before the hearing now oppose it, while four percent who opposed it before now support it. Thirty-one percent who supported his nomination still do and 45 percent who opposed it were unmoved. The poll was taken shortly after a daylong televised hearing in Washington D.C. in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote on Kavanaughs nomination Friday. Much of the country was riveted by the testimony. The poll of 1,100 Californians found that 97 percent had been paying attention to news stories about the sexual-abuse allegations leading up to the hearing, and about 78 percent of them listened to at least some of the days testimony. They were asked a series of questions about the two main participants, and the results often split along gender and political lines. When asked whether they had favorable opinions of Kavanaugh, for example, 38 percent of the men and 27 percent of the women said yes. Among Republicans, 75 percent were favorable. Democrats 7 percent. Blasey Fords favorability was more evenly split, with 49 percent of both men and women saying yes. But while 72 percent of the Democrats found her so, only 15 percent of the Republicans did. There were similar divides on the believability of the stories each told during the hearing. Women (62 percent) and Democrats (79 percent) were more likely to find her believable, while men (40 percent) and Republicans (76 percent) found him that way. Forty-three percent of the respondents said they believed Blasey Ford had come forward on her own and was telling the truth, while 23 percent said she had been pressured into coming forward. Nineteen percent said they believed she had been paid by others to make up the allegations. Those results, too, showed a sharp divide by political affiliation, with 87 percent of Democrats believing Blasey Ford was telling the truth and 33 percent of Republicans feeling that way. When asked to assume the truth of her allegations, 69 percent of the respondents said Kavanaugh is not the right person for the Supreme Court and 22 percent said he is. Forty-two percent said if her story is true, the assault represents a criminal act. They also were asked, if Kavanaugh is confirmed, how history will remember him. More people (36 percent) said he will come to be seen as an embarrassment than those who said hell be seen as a brilliant legal scholar (21 percent) or an unremarkable one (23 percent). Fifty percent said confirming him will go down as one of democracys darkest moments, while smaller percentages said it would be one of democracys finest hours (13 percent) or a day quickly forgotten (21 percent). For all its political and historic import, Thursdays hearing left a bad taste in the mouths of the poll respondents. Only 6 percent said the process on display is how the system is supposed to work. john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com This is a circus, roared the furious Judge Brett Kavanaugh, reflecting how we often respond when a seemingly controlled life of achievement devolves into escalating chaos that we discover we cant control. Were all in show business. But that was not the right metaphor for a dramatic spectacle Thursday so raw, so gripping, so emotional, so terrifying, frankly, that anyone who started watching could not pull themselves away. Not unless you meant the circus of human pain. On Thursday, the Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, a woman who accused him of sexual assault in the 1980s, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C. This was a day so excruciating, in fact, so relentless in its emotional cruelty, that merely to consume it (all day long) involved feelings of personal guilt. It was a reminder, another reminder, of the ineptness of the U.S. Senate when it comes to the safe and fair examination of personal accusation. Thursday morning, between monologuing senators arguing about their own palpably destructive procedures and sticking to their talking points, America watched an unspeakably brave woman reliving something that remained firmly in her present. Advertisement Memories of traumatic events do not leave us and are often manifest in overt vulnerability, which requires enormous strength to live with, let alone overcome. Anyone who follows the theater, that art form where we come together to hear often painful stories of past experiences in the hope that we might better learn how to live together on this planet, comes to prize moments when we watch what seems like life being lived in the moment. See enough of it and you learn when pain is fake. But our most vaunted theater actors are people living truthfully in imaginary circumstances. It is actually far more difficult to live truthfully in truthful and terrible circumstances. That was what Ford clearly was doing Thursday morning; to interpret her testimony, as intellectually rich as it was sincere, merely as a performance or an act of political partisanship was to suggest an acting ability so profound as to be inconceivable. Everything about Ford her trapped voice, her gulps, her presence in the moment, her forthcoming nature, the desire for everything to be over rang true. Whatever ones political stripe, no reasonable person with an open mind could possibly doubt that this was anything other than her personal truth. But in this particular arena, even this could not be conceded. To many of us watching, this day was a clear delineation of how privileged winners get to write their own history of personal achievement; their victims must suffer in silence. It also was a reminder of how a night trivial in memory to one party can be catastrophic to another, ricocheting through decades of her subsequent life, changing everything from her voice to her potential for happiness. Once Kavanaugh took the stand, he roared and railed like Coriolanus in a tragic Shakespearean mixture of anger, defiance and sorrow. The senators certainly looked Shakespearean in their pervasive pettiness, nattering nabobs of repetition and personal brand burnishment, lacking in feeling and consumed by covering themselves. Even as those before them suffered. That said, tragic metaphors dont sit so easily with a defense that include the cultural dominance of Porkys and Fast Times at Ridgemont High as potential evidence. More clearly than ever before, the horrors of a youth in the cultural petri dish of the early 1980s was on naked display. What was the impact of those Hollywood films on the young men who watched them? This was the formative era of many of those who now are being called to account. What did those movies do? Kavanaughs rage was understandable and unsurprising: after all, his potential fate was professional death, at a minimum, and he surely had intuited the most likely result of the day, which would be no conclusive disposition of what had happened. All historical events are, by their very definition, absent and subject to interpretation. But what was so extraordinary about this event was its very existence was contested by Kavanaugh. He found himself in a fight not so much about what happened on the night in question, but whether it happened at all. On a deeper level, Kavanaugh also had clearly figured out he was caught in precisely the kind of trap that befell Oedipus the King in the iconic Sophocles play of that name. He surely knew that the anger he needed to summon to defend himself against what he saw as a smear campaign by the Democrats on the committee would, in fact, disqualify him for the very job he sought: that of a nonpartisan judge capable of gaining the trust and respect of all Americans. Especially its women. He knew he could not win. His fate was otherwise. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@chicagotribune.com Kavanaugh says Im innocent as Durbin pushes judge to agree to FBI investigation How social media is reacting to the Kavanaugh-Ford Senate hearing Chicagoans tune in at work to watch Ford, Kavanaugh testify at Supreme Court confirmation hearing I could not believe my eyes! It was a pure work of art! At Bunghat, the Karnali water had scoured the big boulders eroding them into an exquisite piece of sculptureas if, an artist had taken great pains to carve them with his chisel and hammer. The fast flowing turquoise waters of Karnali and the resonant rumble provided a perfect backdrop to the aesthetic ambience of the place. I had heard and read about Chisapani and its landmark bridge over the great Karnali River. When I finally made the journey to this far western region and got the opportunity to see the bridge for real, I literally gawked at the behemoth as it towered over me, a sheer bulk of concrete, steel, and cables (3,870 tons) dominating the skyline. The sight of the Karnali River making a dramatic entry through a steep rocky gorge, flowing down southward under the bridge was just awe-inspiring. The single-pylon Chisapani cable-stayed bridge spanned the Karnali River, separating Bardiya and Kailali District on the East-West Mahendra Highway, 576km southwest of Kathmandu and some 90 km northwest of Nepalgunj. Completed in June 1993, its the only cable-stayed bridge in Nepal and considered one of the longest of its type in the world, 500 meters long, 10 meters wide and 125 meters high. The longest single-pylon bridge in the world is the Surgut Bridge over the Ob River in Siberia, Russia with a span of 2,070m. Engineering marvel An exceptional feat of engineering, every inch to the hilt! It took six years for Kawasaki Heavy Industries of Japan to build it leaving behind reminiscences of heroic efforts, great determination and punishing hard work put in by the engineers, contractors and construction crews against all odds and challenges. Those epic six years also took a heavy toll in mounting injuries and loss of a few lives. Hitherto little known, Chisapani rose to prominence and trade after the bridge emerged, thus linking far western regions like Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur, Doti, Bajhang, Baitadi and many more. The local elders still remember the old days before the bridge came, when crossing the boisterous Karnali by boats and ferries was a perilous task, near impossible to venture during the monsoon spate. Like all the far western regions, Chisapani was no more than a remote unknown settlement in the back of beyond surrounded by thick jungle before the east-west highway opened in the 1980s. The only access to this little town was to fly to Nepalgunj, and then either take a five/six-day elephant ride through the dense Bardiya forest or by foot along a jungle foot trail infested with all manner of wild animals and the dreaded killer malaria. Invariably, all the far western districts in those days could be reached from Kathmandu only by traveling via India. It was my passion for fishing, which brought me to this little highway town in far-west Nepal way back in 2011. Translating to cold waters the locals believed Chisapani was named after the cold waters of the snow-fed Karnali River. The small highway settlement was located on the western high banks of the Karnali, the longest (1,080km), probably the wildest and by far the most untamed river in Nepal. Seven tributaries including Mahakali, Seti (Budhi Ganga) and Bheri converge on the river Karnali. After the chaotic, dusty, humid and squalid Nepalgunj, followed by vast expanses of farmland, the landscape dramatically changed after the highway entered the Bardia district. Soon, we were at the perimeters of the Bardiya National Park as the road cut through the dense forest. In the north, the diminutive Chure hills rolled along keeping us company as our truck sped on the highway. A friend from Nepalgunj had chosen to drive me to Chisapani in his pickup truck. It took some two and a half hours to arrive at our destination. Highway town Chisapani bazaar was located across the colossal bridge. To the east, beyond the bridge, forested hills stretched out as far as you could see. The imposing forest-clad Chure hills that rolled northward formed the northern border of Bardiya National Park. The due north offered an untamed landscape as the tall Chure ridges flanked the awesome Karnali, which cut through a deep gorge on its southward journey. The west was marked by the receding hills, stretches of farmland and the east-west highway. Southward, the river spread out into vast swathes of Terai floodplains and then disappeared from view behind the dense rainforests of Bardiya National Park. Chisapani boasted of three things: the landmark bridge; the mighty Karnali River and the many roadside tea stalls that served fish. The source of river Karnali can be traced as far up as the Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in western Tibet. Going by three different names: Kong-chiao Ho in China, Karnali in Nepal, and Ghagra in India, it finally converges with the legendary Ganges. Its wild descent into Nepal after Tibet carries it through high canyons and deep gorges with many a V-grade rapids and drops on its southward journey joined in by feeder streams like the Seti in Doti and the Bheri in Surkhet Districts Typical of most highway hubs, Chisapanis main bazaar was a cluster of eateries that flanked the road sprawled out in a haphazard fashion. On one side, if ramshackle houses served as eateries and crummy lodges, the other side made for makeshift lean-tos where travelers bought tea, fruits and tidbits. What struck us most at the market eateries was the row upon row of fresh as well as dried smoked fish hanging by the shop fronts. On arrival of a bus, I watched hordes of travelers heading for those eateries to try a platter or two of fried fish, the local delicacy. To me, it looked that Chisapani bazaar was doing a brisk business selling fish. Later, I came to learn that all that fish did not come from the Karnali River. Overfishing and rugged terrain had reduced the fishing in the Karnali waters to almost nil. The bulk of the fish came from the nearby village ponds commercially run by the local farmers. The legendary Golden Mahseer (Tor putitora) in the Karnali River has fared the worst. Their numbers in the Karnali waters of Chisapani have dwindled disastrously. There was a time when even Gangetic dolphins could be sighted at Bunghat, north of Chisapani bazaar. Today, they have completely disappeared from the waters around Chisapani. Chisapani used to be a bustling town doing brisk business as it also happened to be a busy route to far west regions like Accham, Dailekh, Kalikot, and Jumla, but the town lost its prominence after the Kohalpur-Surkhet road was built. Harkha Rawat, a resident of Chisapani, told me. To the north of the town, a road headed north that ran all the way down the foothills of the Chure. Called the Tuki Bazaar, the place was flanked by rows of tin-roofed shanty houses most of which served as shops selling all kinds of wares from grocery to electronics. That road happened to be the old foot trail to the many hilly districts like Achham, Dailekh, and Jumla. The back of the houses seemed to function as living quarters. The bazaar thinned out as the road led to the foothills and the next village called Pitmari. Pitmari afforded a stunning view of the river gorge where it cut its way south through the hills. A local guy told me that the gorge at the spot was famed for many a prize catches of the legendary Golden Mahseer fish in the past. I was at the river banks a few days ago casting for that great fish. At Bunghat, way down north of Pitmari, my eyes met a strange sight while working the river up and down at the rocky banks. I could not believe my eyes! It was a pure work of art! At Bunghat the Karnali water had scoured the big boulders eroding them into an exquisite piece of sculptureas if, an artist had taken great pains to carve them with his chisel and hammer. The fast flowing turquoise waters of Karnali and the resonant rumble provided a perfect backdrop to the aesthetic ambiance of the place. Sparsely populated, Chisapani was inhabited by a heterogeneous class of Magars, Gurungs, Thakuris, Chhetris, Newars, and Brahmins. With cultivation on a modest scale, the local people live on trading, fishing, cattle-raising, piggery, labor work and doing odd jobs. Its residents also included quite a number of Indian Army recruits and pensioners. Local legend Every town or city is bounded by some kind of myths and history. Chisapani was no exception. Harkha Rawat related this local legend to me, which sounded interesting. In the ancient times, he began, the Jumli Raja (King of the old principality of Jumla) wed his daughter to a prince from a Terai state. Both the king and queen were, however, gravely concerned that their beloved daughter, brought up in a cold climate had to endure the windless, blistering heat of the Terai. The rest of the story went like this: After a deep consultation with the royal councilors and palace tantrics (shamans), the king ordered his shamans to trap an enormous quantity of wind into a gabu (a bamboo cylinder) to send as part of the dowry along with the grooms royal entourage. That gift, they thought, would alleviate the scorching weather of the Terai. The king and the queen entreated the princess not to open the bamboo cylinder until she reached the princes home. Fate, however, took a sharp turn and unable to contain her curiosity, the princess forced open the mysterious container at a place called Bunghat (north of Chisapani). The wind trapped in the cylinder suddenly escaped with such savage fury that it triggered a hurricane and turned the river into a raging torrent. The boats carrying the royal entourage capsized. The prince was swept away by the raging Karnali and was bashed into a big boulder and died. The princess met the same fate after hitting a smaller boulder a little way downriver. These boulders eventually came to be known as the Prince and the Princess. The Prince boulder can be seen at the south of the Karnali bridge, while the Princess boulder is a little farther downriver normally visible when the waters of the Karnali recede in wintry months. Untamed wind Maybe there was some truth in that myth and that accounts for the high winds that reach gale force proportion in Chisapani, said Harkha and smiled. Interesting, I said and smiled back. Harkha further told me that those winds last almost eight months a year. The winds are fiercest in December, January, and February, starting as early as nine in the morning and lasting until one in the afternoon, then resuming again after sunset. The windy conditions lessen considerably during the monsoon months of July through September. The bridge is the worst hit as the wind gathers a huge momentum barreling down the narrow Karnali gorge. Even in late March, during my visit, my legs felt wobbly on the bridge because of the strong wind and I literally had to shout to be heard as the wind made a deafening sound. Many a time, village women carrying loads of grass on their back are knocked flat when the winds are at their highest a lady from Chisapani, told me. The locals say that the monsoon rains bring respite to Chisapani from the notorious winds from July through September. For Chisapani, the winds, however, are a blessing in disguise since in its absence the place would turn into one of those humid and sweltering Terai settlements. Among other things, even in late March, I was surprised to find few mosquitoes in Chisapani; they stood no chance against the strong wind. In contrast, Nepalgunj swarmed with an army of them. Chisapani is also well known among the travel trade circle as the put-out point for rafting expeditions. Many travel outfitters mount seven to eight-day expeditions on the Karnali with class III to awesome class V rapids. The put-in point happens to be at Dhungeswor, Surkhet. So, if you wish to arrive in Chisapani a little off the beaten track, try that eight/nine-day raft trip from Dhungeswor, if of course, you have the taste for a gut-wrenching, adrenalin-pumping spree doing a classic roller-coaster ride through narrow gorges and white water rapids on the churning water of the Karnali. Not for the faint-hearted though! All things considered, Chisapani, the small town in Nepals untamed far west as a travel destination can well fit into a fantastic itinerary. You can include a visit to the nearby Bardiya National Park at Thakurdwara in the package to further guarantee a rewarding bargain. Last but not least, if you happen to be a fishing enthusiast, angling for the elusive Golden Mahseer in the great Karnali can offer a thrilling adventure. [email protected] Its not exactly a mystery how The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board feels about the 50th Congressional District race. In May, before the primary election, we wrote that voters should support anyone but Duncan Hunter, citing the Alpine Republicans pathetic campaign finance scandal, in which he and his wife Margaret routinely used campaign funds for their personal and family needs. Rather incredibly, Hunter at various times suggested he was the true victim in the scandal, blaming his wife and the dishonest reporting of the Union-Tribune. On Aug. 21, when the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Diego released a 60-count indictment that laid out in painstaking detail how Hunter and his wife had spent more than $250,000 in campaign funds from 2010-2017, we called for his resignation, saying he doesnt deserve the privilege of representing the 50th district in Congress. The good news for voters in the district is that the Democrat running against Hunter Ammar Campa-Najjar, a former White House fellow and former director of communications and public affairs for the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is bright and knowledgeable. He is only 29. But we encourage voters who might hold his age against him to read the transcript of his hour-long interview with the editorial board. Campa-Najjar made empathetic points about veterans and military families, touted apprenticeship programs and how effective they are in Germany, and dissected the shortcomings of our health care system. Hes not doctrinaire on issues, criticizing the 2017 state gas tax hike pushed through by Gov. Jerry Brown. In short, he meets the test of being a credible candidate. We endorse Campa-Najjar for Congress. He is far superior to the troubled incumbent. This fact is underlined by the despicable ad that Hunter has begun to air in recent days suggesting that his Palestinian Mexican millennial opponent was linked to terrorist groups and was working to infiltrate Congress. Its well-known that Campa-Najjars grandfather was a terrorist who helped plan the 1972 attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Its also well-known that Campa-Najjar, a Christian, has had literally nothing to do with his grandfather. As Campa-Najjar notes, when he worked at the White House, he was given a security clearance by the Secret Service after a thorough background check. With this smear, Hunter continues to demolish his own reputation. Related: Duncan Hunters radical Muslims statement draws reaction Advertisement Thursdays riveting testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by professor Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee she accuses of an attempted rape in 1982, provided vast new fuel for the mutual partisan loathing that has become close to the depressing norm in American life since the disputed 2000 presidential election. Fords testimony seemed like a knockout blow. Her measured, even deferential demeanor her matter-of-fact recounting of her story, her composure, her aura of woundedness was powerful and believable, as even Fox News commentators agreed. I have had to relive my trauma in front of the entire world, and have seen my life picked apart by people on television, in the media and in this body who have never met me or spoken with me, she said. But then came Kavanaughs extraordinary 45-minute opening statement railing about how in just 10 days, his life and his family had been ruined by an account from Ford one that was not corroborated by those she said were at the Maryland house party where she said Kavanaugh assaulted her and by appalling new claims including gang rape that were given a wide airing by the media without even cursory vetting. Advertisement This confirmation process has become a national disgrace, he said. The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process, but you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy. Kavanaughs indignant opening remarks came across as heartfelt and genuine. But his subsequent bluster and anger in responding to questions posed by Senate Democrats accomplished nothing. When Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, asked if he would support a one-week break to allow for a fuller FBI probe, Kavanaugh should have immediately said yes, bring it on. Instead, he responded with the suggestion that Fords allegation had already been investigated and disproved. Thats not a view a neutral person is likely to believe. There is no way both Ford and Kavanaugh are telling the truth. And there is probably no way for this saga to come to a conclusion that wont leave one side or the other raw with rage. But the best path going forward the one with the most hope of limiting rancor is for the Judiciary Committee to delay any vote and to request a fuller FBI investigation in which subpoenas are used to try to get to the bottom of Professor Fords story; to much more fully question Mark Judge, Kavanaughs high school drinking buddy and alleged witness to his alleged attack; and to examine the new allegations that have been made against Kavanaugh in recent days. As Coons said, such a probe could be done in a week. The Senate Judiciary Committee must not proceed with its planned Friday vote. If Kavanaugh is telling the truth, transparency is on his side. He wont convince anyone by acting angry. As a judge, he should understand that truth is our only master. Facts and an impartial inquiry will convince those who havent made up their minds. There is no outrage in investigation. To the contrary: The only outrage is a rush to judgment. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Re Meet the candidates for the 49 District, U.S. House of Representatives (Sept. 21): I found the U-Ts Opinion pieces on Diane Harkey and Mike Levin to be quite interesting in that the questions asked showed such a difference between the two candidates. Harkeys questions mainly concerned her past legal problems, her acceptance of Trumps policies including the new tax bill, and the skirting Trumps mannerisms. Levins questions concerned his background, his involvement against polluters, the need for clean air, water and for greater communication in Congress. While I feel your portrait of Levin was much stronger I also, from this first Opinion piece, must come to the conclusion that Diane Harkey is an exception, and not a strong part of this years womens movement. Harold Zaroff Advertisement Vista Your print interviews with the 49th Congressional District candidates Harkey and Levin, as usual, were slanted against the Republican. You printed seven of Harkeys responses to questions, three of which were Trump-related, and only three of Levins, one of which (San Onofre) he led you to ask. I must admit I now know more about Levins grandparents than I know about him. By the way, whats his business and/or professional background? Since, I predict that the U-T will endorse Levin, perhaps you may want to redo this print article and publish some of the more serious policy questions that were only presented online. Paul C. Christian Carlsbad The interviews with 49th Congressional District candidates Harkey and Levin are very revealing. Levin is eloquent about core American values of diversity and inclusion, drawing on his personal roots and his resistance to the current toxic politics of divisiveness in Washington, led by the president. Any similar moral stance from Harkey? Apparently not. Levin would be a strong voice against such politics. Harkey however would be a very junior member of the Washington party whose leaders now enable (Levins word) this toxicity. The best she can muster is a mild rebuke of the presidents Tweet diarrhea. Levin is clear about the need for strong environmental policies, on air quality, oil spills and San Onofre nuclear waste. Harkey would slow down on emission standards, in step with the misguided Washington leadership of her party. And so on. A very clear choice. Vote for Levin and help him win. Robert Knox Del Mar Heights Letters and commentary policy The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below. Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook. Investigation would serve no purpose Re Bring in the FBI dont rush to judgment (Sept. 28): What youre failing to acknowledge is one simple, glaring fact: that not one Democrat member of the Judiciary Committee was going to vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be nominated to the Supreme Court. They had all already gone on record as opposed to him. Therefore, the request for another investigation, FBI or otherwise, was a smoke screen to delay the vote. Pure and simple. It was the Democrats last-ditch effort to remove this man from consideration even at the expense of destroying his career and family. When youre desperate, anything goes. How low have we gone in this country? Advertisement Martha Jamieson Solana Beach After Christine Blasey Fords and Brett Kavanaughs testimony on Thursday, it became apparent only Kavanaugh had verifiable facts on his side. The detailed calendar he kept during the time in question did not show any party such as Ford described. Also, all the people Ford claims were at the event deny any knowledge of it. It is unfortunate that Ford was not asked about how research into long-term memory was relevant to her accusation. Since she is a psychology professor, she should know that although her memory of being sexually assaulted may be true because it was an emotional event, her accusation that Brett Kavanaugh was the perpetrator is probably an easily implanted false memory. Her polygraph test would only show that she believes her testimony not that it is true. It would be a dangerous precedent to deny Kavanaughs appointment because of an unsubstantiated and unprovable allegation. Deanne McCubbin Rancho Bernardo Letters and commentary policy The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below. Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook. You guessed it.Nine lives captions dominated the inbox this week. We try to reward originality and gave the top spot to Jim Austin. Congratulations, sir! He will receive Steve Breens signed original in the mail. Thanks to all those who participated. Next weeks cartoon is below. Please remember to limit your submissions to three and keep em brief. Good luck! Winner Coughing up a hairball and spitting it out the window is still considered littering. Jim Austin, Encinitas Finalists No, you dont get extra points for hitting dogs. Jake Jacoby, San Diego Advertisement You may have nine lives, but I dont. Wilbur Smith, San Diego You passed, and yes, inside the DMV are some cat treats. Dee Heslar, Phoenix Youre right. Nowhere in the drivers handbook does it say that the driver cant use a booster seat. Sherry Brown, National City Driving is not allowed after taking catnip. Jake Jacoby, San Diego You cant keep speeding up after the Truly Nolan pest control mouse car. Josh Board, San Diego Keep your paws at 10 and 2. Debbie Forbes, Fallbrook I dont like you hissing at me every time I tell you youve made a mistake. Gene Basye, San Diego You passed by a whisker. Mike Fillat, Rancho Penasquitos Sorry, two more exits to a litter box. Ken Turek, San Diego Grooming at stoplights will get you a distracted driver ticket. Susan Wiczynski, La Jolla K-12 You lost points for stopping at Point Loma Seafood. Hannah Yeates, sixth grade, Dana Middle School For the last time, you cant fill the car with milk. Harry Pearce, sixth grade, Muirlands Middle School Stop being a scaredy cat and drive. Shereese Kallungi, seventh grade, Correia Middle School Youve got to be kitten me. Rebecca Lopez, eighth grade, Correia Middle School Next weeks cartoon (Steve Breen) To enter, email entries to cartooncontest@sduniontribune.com by 10 a.m. Tuesday. Please remember to limit your submissions to three and keep em brief. View last weeks winners. An author event and homemade quilt opportunity drawing on Oct. 13 are two ways the Rancho Bernardo branch of the American Association of University Women is reaching out to the community to raise money for its philanthropic work. It includes providing financial support of women and girls educational opportunities. For example, the club sends eighth-grade girls to the Tech Trek summer camp to encourage them to pursue science- and math-related studies and careers. It also provides educational scholarships for women re-entering the workforce who have left a domestic violence situation or are the head of their household, said Program Chairwoman Judy Horning. She said the members goal is to raise around $3,000. The author event is limited to 100 attendees, but the drawing for one of two quilts is open to anyone, including those not attending the luncheon, which is where the drawing will occur. Members Joan Barr and Pat Dellios made the quilts. Barrs Turn & Tumble is 53-by-42-inches and can be displayed as a wall hanging. Dellios Winged Inspiration will fit a twin extra long bed. Drawing tickets are $2 each. Enter by mailing payment via check for the number of tickets wanted to AAUW-Author Event, 4041 Vortex Place, Escondido, CA 92025. Make checks payable to AAUW-RB with scholarship written on the memo line. The entry deadline is Oct. 11. The chapters inaugural author event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13 at The Brigantine, 13445 Poway Road in Poway. Tickets are $50 for AAUW members (any branch) and $55 for non-members. The luncheon menu will include chicken Caesar salad and creme brulee. The deadline to purchase tickets is Oct. 10. Contact Horning at 858-748-0069 or judy@judyhorning.com. Poway resident Susan Meissner, whose latest book is As Bright as Heaven, will be the Oct. 13 luncheon speaker. (Courtesy photo) The speaker will be Poway resident Susan Meissner, who will talk about her latest historical novel, As Bright as Heaven. Copies will be available for purchase at the event through Warwicks. The novel revolves around a family that moves to Philadelphia just months before the Spanish flu sweeps the city, killing 12,000 people there within a month in 1918. The books release earlier this year was timed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the pandemic that killed more people than both world wars combined. This is the first hardcover book for Meissner, who has written more than a dozen published novels that often combine present day characters with those of decades or centuries past. She is Hornings daughter. Horning said the 49-year-old club has always conducted fundraisers among its 100-plus members in addition to receiving financial assistance from other groups, such as the Rotary clubs in Rancho Bernardo for Tech Trek. However, after nearly a half-century of using these methods, the membership decided to reach out to the wider community to help fund some endeavors. She said their goal is to raise $3,000 between the author event and drawing, adding they decided to hold an author event due to their popularity. email: rbnews@pomeradonews.com Scientists are hustling on behalf of the weed industry to find new ways to produce the most valuable compounds in marijuana, ditching greenhouses in favor of big steel vats of yeast that can brew cannabis like Budweiser brews beer. The science, once brought to market, would be a goldmine for those who perfect it, giving two separate industries pharma and legal weed stable, potent, and cheap sources of the ingredients they need. Right now, the industrys two most in-demand ingredients are THC, the compound in marijuana that gets you high, and CBD, another cannabis compound used for its medicinal effect. Today, we get those compounds by growing weed plants in large greenhouses, then extracting and isolating the active ingredients. Its a big, dirty and expensive process. A recent boom in the cannabis industry, however, has driven a need to find cheaper and faster way of getting THC and CBD. Legal weed in particular has increased demand for products that will appeal to non-smokers. Instead of the traditional lump of dried green flower, pot dispensaries are selling everything from oils, foods and drinks infused with THC and CBD. The food and drink items (called edibles) have seen significant growth in recent years, now making up 40 percent of dispensaries marijuana sales, according to some estimates. They cant grow cannabis fast enough, which is why scientists are trying to produce it in labs. Advertisement And biotech companies including two in San Diego are trying to deliver. Instead of growing actual plants, these researchers have found a way to get yeast to do the dirty work. In the simplest terms, scientists insert the genes of a cannabis plant into the DNA of yeast. These mutant strains of yeast then manufacture cannabinoids like THC and CBD, only asking for copious amounts of sugar in return. This type of bioreactor isnt a new idea; yeast and other organisms have long been used to create and isolate drugs and substances. But using yeast to produce specific cannabinoids is a new branch of the science, and those in the field are still sorting out how to manufacture the stuff at an industrial scale. Whoever figures it out first will have a valuable commodity on their hands. San Diego biotechs at work San Diego has two startups working in this space: Librede, an early entrant that got started back in 2013 (and has two issued patents to its name, and one pending), and CB Therapeutics, a rising star in the startup world for landing among finalists in a recent TechCrunch pitch competition (patents pending). The two companies have been fighting naysayers from the start, they say, struggling to get investors to understand the value of cannabinoid biofactory. I was pitching this idea in San Diego a few years ago, and its funny how things change, said 31-year-old Sher Ali Butt, co-founder and CEO at CB Therapeutics. Before legalization in California, nobody wanted to even take my phone call. I would go places and people would laugh me out of the room. Libredes founder Jason Poulos, 35, said fundraising was exhausting for this very reason.Everyone just laughs and makes a stoner joke about the yeast getting high or something, he said. But the laughs have died down. The idea of yeast making cannabinoids is now out of the bag, and biotech companies across the nation are racing to patent yeast strains and the manufacturing methods of their weed biofactories. Whoever figures it out first could snag the biggest slice of the $10 billion cannabis industrys pie. Jacob Vogan, Chief Scientific Officer (left) and Sher Ali Butt, CEO (right). (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) Giants moving in Librede and CB Therapeutics are joined by several other companies in the space, including the latest entrant: Intrexon, a Maryland-based company with a $2.4 billion market cap. The synthetic biology company just announced in late September that it had engineered a yeast strain for cannabinoid production, boosting the companys stock 27 percent overnight. Intrexon declined to share details about its research, but noted theyd been working on it for quite some time. This year has been pivotal for the cannabis industry in two ways. First, the FDA approved the first CBD drug in history this year with GW Pharmaceuticals seizure drug Epidiolex. The approval will likely spur follow-on research by other drugmakers, including those studying the more than 100 cannabinoids in cannabis other than CBD that could have therapeutic effects. But the recreational weed market has also boomed. In the last two years, five additional states have legalized recreational use: Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, California and Vermont. They join legal weed early adopters: Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon. Investors and risk Startup investors have suddenly changed their tune, Butt said. Now, hes turning away investors on a regular basis. I dont have enough room to accommodate them (on the cap table), he said. Poulos said interest has certainly spiked, but he thinks investors are still cautious. Its a nonstop cannabis bubble going on, so theres tons of money, Poulos said. And this is a hot new tech in a hot new market. More people are into it; theyre eyeballing the market. Despite the upside, Procopio attorney John Cleary said he still advises his clients to avoid these sort of investments for now. Anything that relates to the growth or cultivation process of a product containing THC is a federal crime, Cleary said. In 2017, Poulos raised several hundred thousand in private money to add to his $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Butt said hes also raised money from his time at Y Combinator and TechCrunch, but isnt disclosing the specifics. CB Therapeutics is poised to commercialize their cannabinoids within the next two months, Butt said, tackling the nutraceutical and pet markets first. All hes waiting on is getting his manufacturing facility up and running. Theyve secured a space near San Diego, but still need to bring the process up to speed. As for Librede, Poulos said hes still raising money to get commercialization off the ground. He hopes to close a new round of investment capital in the next few months. Business brittany.meiling@sduniontribune.com 619-293-1286 Twitter: @BrittanyMeiling 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. Almost all broadsheet dailies published in Kathmandu on Friday have given priority to reports related to ruling party senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepals scathing remarks against the government. Other economic and political issues have also received attention from the editors. Heres a summary of important, ignored and interesting reports that made it to the front pages on Friday. Important At a time when the main opposition has been unable to galvanise anti-government voices in the country, a ruling party senior leader has criticised the government for failing on multiple fronts. The point is highlighted in Kantipurs editorial cartoon, which says that the Opposition should takes cues from Madhav Nepal to make the government aware of its failures. Naya Patrika says that Nepals remarks need to be connected to growing dissatisfaction within the NCP over the functioning of the government. The paper says that the Madhav Nepal group is outraged over Party Chairman KP Olis move to get the party secretariat to finalise nominees for various provincial positions within the party. Nepal has been saying that the decision should have been taken by the Standing Committee. Nepal has also alleged that Oli took the decision while he was on his African tour. The Himalayan Times quotes Madhav Nepal as saying in Parliament, I can understand peoples frustration over governance issues. The government should listen to peoples grievances and act accordingly. Nepal said that some people were openly challenging the sovereignty of the country, but the government was not taking action against them. Meanwhile, Nagarik, reports that top leaders of the NCP, who were committed to ending factionalism in the new party, have formed their respective corteries. The paper says that leaders Oli, Dahal, Nepal, Gautam, Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Ram Bahadur Thapa now have their corteries. Ignored Nijgadh Airport: MPs file motion against plan to fell trees The Himalayan Times says that Nepali Congress MPs Pradeep Giri, Gagan Thapa and Dibyamani Rajbhandari have filed a motion of urgent public importance in Parliament raising concern over the governments plan to cut down a large number of trees in Bara even before the detailed design of the new airport was prepared. Melamchi to pay Rs 900 million in compensation for road damages Naya Patrika says that the Melamchi Drinking Water Project is paying Rs 900 million to the Department of Roads to repair roads damaged during the laying of drinking pipes. The paper says that the amount will be paid for the department to repair main roads damaged by the project. However, the project will repair secondary roads on its own. Interesting Nepal-China energy meet to kick off in Kathmandu Karobar reports that a key meeting of energy sector officials from China and Nepal is taking place in Kathmandu on Friday. The report says that the five-day meeting will discuss energy demand and supply projections in both the countries. According to the paper, discussions will also be held on the possibility of building cross-border power lines and hydels such as Nalgadh, Naumure, Sun Koshi 2 and 3, Tamore, Fukot and Karnali. Indian petroleum minister Pradhan due in Kathmandu Arthik Abhiyan reports that Indian Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is expected to land in Kathmandu on Friday, a day after the Indian delegation which was supposed to attend an Indo-Nepal petroleum meeting failed to show up. The details of the visit are under wraps. Kathmandu, September 28 A key meeting between energy officials from Nepal and China has kicked off in Kathmandu. According to officials involved in the meeting, the two sides will discuss ways to boost energy trade between the two neighbours. The Nepali delegation is being led by Anup Kumar Upadhyay, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation. The Chinese side is being led by International Economic Departments Deputy Director Hi Yang. The meeting was scheduled to begin on Thursday, but was postponed until Friday. Participants of the meeting are expected to deliberate on energy projections of both the countries, and the prospect of joint development of power generation and transmission projects. The meeting is being organised to follow-up on agreements reached between the two countries during Prime Minister KP Olis recent visit to China. If you attended or performed in a Gustave Baumann marionette performance between 1933 and the final shows at the Museum of International Folk Art in 1959, or know someone who did, the museum would like to hear from you. Over the course of the 20th century, Gustave Baumanns name was practically synonymous with Santa Fe. A master craftsman who worked in the mediums of painting and furniture making, he infused all aspects of his life with a vibrant, playful, and magical sense of artistry. But it is his work as a master printer for which hes most remembered. Dallas, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/27/2018 -- The jet fuel is a type of aviation fuel and one of the major petroleum products produced from processing crude oil in a petroleum refinery. The jet fuel market is expected to witness a high growth rate during the forecast period, 2018 to 2023. Demand for air travel is expected to double in the next two decades and grow by almost 4% every year. The strong economic growth in the emerging countries such as China and India and an expanding middle class in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to boost the total number of passengers resulting in growth for jet fuel market. Similar to the consumer demand for road transport, growth for air travel is expected to be fueled by the emerging markets such as China, Japan and India. Asia-Pacific holds a major share in the jet fuel market followed by Europe and North America regions. Request for sample copy of Jet Fuel Market report at: http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2324909 Increase in the Air Passenger Number Driving the Jet Fuel Market Demand for jet fuel has increased significantly over the last two years owing to the rise in airline passenger traffic. As per the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), 3.97 billion passengers flew on scheduled flights around the world in 2017. According to the International Air Transport Association, this passenger number represented a growth of 8.8% y-o-y, as measured by revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs). These factors contribute to the increasing demand for jet fuel, which has been one of the strongest performers among transportation fuels in recent years. Jet fuel market is expected to witness a high growth rate with increased aviation travel and limited substitutes in this market. The International Energy Agency in its New Policies Scenario has stated that the demand for jet fuel is expected to rise more than 50% to above 9 million barrels per day by 2040. Read more details of the report at: http://www.orbisresearch.com/reports/index/global-jet-fuel-market-growth-trends-and-forecast-2018-2023 Asia-Pacific Holds the Larhest Share in Jet Fuel Market Asia-Pacific has emerged as one of the largest jet fuel markets in the recent years. With the rise in urbanization and increasing disposable incomes in the emerging economies across the region has resulted in the growth of air passengers in this region. Driven by changing demographic trends, Asia-Pacific increasing investments in transportation and manufacturing infrastructure is expected to boost the demand for jet fuel. Countries such as China, India, and Indonesia are expected to be the fastest growing markets in terms of annual additional passengers by 2036. With China's economy shifting towards a more service- and consumption-driven model, the medium term demand for air freight is expected to increase in the coming years. These are some of the significant factors contributing to the growth of jet fuel market during the forecast period. Passenger Aircraft A Huge Market Potential Due to the sharp increase in economic growth and disposable incomes in emerging countries demand for air travel is expected to double in the next two decades and grow almost by 4% each year. In 2017, approximately 3.97 billion passengers traveled by passenger aircrafts, and every year, more than half of the world's tourists who cross international borders choose to go by air. This has generated a global revenue to the value of USD 534 billion in 2017. As international travel has become more accessible, the global tourist arrival count has greatly increased 1.24 billion in 2016. Increasing the number of flights performed and the number of low-cost carriers in countries such as China and India have accounted for more than 10% of the total aviation market in these countries. Key Developments in the Jet Fuel Market Nov, 2017: Shell aviation announced that it has signed a fuelling concession agreement to operate the new into-plane and fuel farm facilities as the sole jet fuel supplier at Salalah International Airport in Oman. Jet Fuel Market Major Players Exxon Mobil Corporation Qatar Jet Fuel Company Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd BP p.l.c Chevron Corporation Royal Dutch Shell Plc Vitol Allied Aviation Services, Inc. Valero Marketing and Supply Gazprom Neft PJSC Reasons to Purchase Jet Fuel Market Report Current and future jet fuel market outlook in the developed and emerging markets Analyzing various perspectives of the market with the help of Porter's five forces analysis The segment that is expected to dominate the market Regions that are expected to witness fastest growth during the forecast period Identify the latest developments, market share, and strategies employed by the major market players. 3 months analyst support along with the Market Estimate sheet (in excel) Customize Jet Fuel Market Report This report can be customized to meet your requirements. Please connect with our representative, who will ensure you to get a report that suits your needs Companies Mentioned: Exxon Mobil Corporation Qatar Jet Fuel Company Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd BP p.l.c Chevron Corporation Royal Dutch Shell Plc Vitol Allied Aviation Services, Inc. Valero Marketing and Supply Gazprom Neft PJSC Enquire more details of the report at: http://www.orbisresearch.com/contact/purchase/2324909 About Orbis Research Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients. New York, September 28 Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Friday held talks with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in New York. PM Oli, who is currently in the United States to the UN General Assembly, extended gratitude towards the UN for its support and assistance to the development of Nepal. During the meeting, the two leaders discussed various aspects of cooperation between Nepal and the UN, said a statement issued by the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the UN. Issues related to peacekeeping and Nepals role in it were also discussed. Guterres reiterated the UNs commitment to continue assistance to Nepal for it to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals. Astronomers using NSFs Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array have discovered a fast-moving jet of material propelled outward from a strongly magnetized neutron star. The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, forces rethinking a longstanding theory about the origin of such jets. Neutron stars are superdense objects, the remnants of massive stars that exploded as supernovas. When in binary pairs with normal stars, their powerful gravity can pull material away from their companions. That material forms a disk, called an accretion disk, rotating around the neutron star. Jets of material are propelled at nearly the speed of light, perpendicular to the disk. Weve seen jets coming from all types of neutron stars that are pulling material from their companions, with a single exception. Never before have we seen a jet coming from a neutron star with a very strong magnetic field, said Jakob van den Eijnden, an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam. That led to a theory that strong magnetic fields prevent jets from forming. The new discovery contradicts that theory. van den Eijnden and colleagues studied an object called Swift J0243.6+6124, discovered in October 2017 by NASAs Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, when the object emitted a burst of X-rays. The object is a slowly-spinning neutron star pulling material from a companion star that is likely significantly more massive than the Sun. The magnetic field of the neutron star we studied is about 10 trillion times stronger than that of our own Sun, so for the first time ever, we have observed a jet coming from a neutron star with a very strong magnetic field, van den Eijnden said. The discovery reveals a whole new class of jet-producing sources for us to study. The observations with NSFs Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array began a week after the Swift discovery and continued until January 2018. Both the fact that the neutron stars emission at X-ray and radio wavelengths weakened together over time and the characteristics of the radio emission itself convinced the astronomers that they were seeing radio waves produced by a jet. This combination is what we see in other jet-producing systems. Alternative mechanisms just dont explain it, van den Eijnden said. Common theories for jet formation in systems like Swift J0243.6+6124 say the jets are launched by magnetic field lines anchored in the inner parts of the accretion disks. In this scenario, if the neutron star has a very strong magnetic field, that field is overpowering and prevents the jet from forming. Alternatively, the team suggests that Swift J0243.6+6124s jet-launching region of the accretion disk could be much farther out than in other types of systems, where the stars magnetic field is weaker. Another idea is that the jets may be powered by the neutron stars rotation, instead of being launched by magnetic field lines in the inner accretion disk. Interestingly, the rotation-powered idea predicts that the jet will be significantly weaker from more slowly rotating neutron stars, which is exactly what we see in Swift J0243.6+6124, said Dr. Nathalie Degenaar, also from the University of Amsterdam. A jet from Swift J0243.6+6124 may mean that another category of objects, called ultra-luminous X-ray pulsars, also highly magnetized, might produce jets, the astronomers said. _____ J. van den Eijnden et al. An evolving jet from a strongly magnetized accreting X-ray pulsar. Nature, published online September 26, 2018; doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0524-1 A new species of hummingbird, called the blue-throated hillstar (Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus), has been discovered in the southwestern Andes of Ecuador by an international team of ornithologists. Hillstars are hummingbirds of the genus Oreotrochilus. These birds are approximately 5 inches (13 cm) in length with fairly long, slightly decurved bills. They are unusual among hummingbirds they live in high-elevation habitats in the Andes and have special adaptations to cold temperatures. Dr. Francisco Sornoza-Molina of the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversida in Quito, Ecuador, and colleagues first observed and photographed a previously unknown hillstar during fieldwork in the southwestern highlands of Ecuador an area historically poorly explored by ornithologists in April 2017. After the first expedition, the team returned in May to capture several specimens and confirm the finding. The hillstar hummingbirds occur in the most rugged, isolated, and inaccessible parts of the Andes, where they roost in caves, forage on the ground, and spend half their lives in hypothermic torpor, so the discovery of a new species in this group is incredibly exciting, said hummingbird expert Dr. Christopher Witt, a researcher at the University of New Mexico, who was not involved in the study. This striking discovery confirms that life in the high Andes still holds many secrets to be revealed. The new species is found only along bush-lined creeks in an area of about 114 km2. The distributional range of the blue-throated hillstar, as currently known, is confined to small ridges not surpassing 3,700 m, both on east- and west-facing slopes and upper ridges of the west Andean cordillera, Dr. Sornoza-Molina and co-authors said. It is limited by the Jubones-Leon river valley to the north and northeast, respectively, and by the lower Andes of the Puyango-Catamayo drainages to the south. The scientists estimate there are no more than 750 individuals. Threats to its habitat include fire, grazing, and gold mining, and it meets the criteria to be considered critically endangered. The fate of this species is likely critical, with no land protection and no conservation measures known to us, they said. Even though population numbers are not known, we suggest a very small population (at best, 250750 individuals, but possibly below 500 individuals) inferred from numbers of male birds and territorial females observed in the field, and limited suitable feeding and nesting habitat along a small range. Complete support from national and international conservation agencies is needed in order to save this species. The action plan for the conservation of this bird is creating a network of protected areas along its geographic range, Dr. Sornoza-Molina said. The discovery is reported September 26, 2018 in The Auk. _____ Francisco Sornoza-Molina et al. 2018. A striking, critically endangered, new species of hillstar (Trochilidae: Oreotrochilus) from the southwestern Andes of Ecuador. The Auk 135 (4): 1146-1171; doi: 10.1642/AUK-18-58.1 After decades of conflicting evidence and numerous publications, a team of researchers at the Zoological Society of Londons Institute of Zoology has finally put the worlds largest bird debate to rest. Elephant birds are members of the extinct family Aepyornithidae, with two genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis previously recognized by scientists. These enormous, flightless birds were rarities, like the ostrich, rhea, emu, cassowary and kiwi. They lived on the island of Madagascar during the Late Quaternary and went extinct somewhere around the 13th to 17th centuries. The first species of elephant bird to be described, Aepyornis maximus, has often been considered to be the worlds largest bird. In 1894, British scientist C.W. Andrews described an even larger species, Aepyornis titan, which has usually been dismissed as an unusually large specimen of Aepyornis maximus. However, the new study, led by James Hansford, reveals Aepyornis titan was indeed a distinct species. Now named Vorombe titan (meaning big bird in Malagasy and Greek), the species had a body mass of 800 kg and grew up to 10 feet (3 m) tall. Elephant birds were the biggest of Madagascars megafauna and arguably one of the most important in the islands evolutionary history even more so than lemurs, Hansford said. This is because large-bodied animals have an enormous impact on the wider ecosystem they live in via controlling vegetation through eating plants, spreading biomass and dispersing seeds through defecation. Madagascar is still suffering the effects of the extinction of these birds today. In the study, Hansford and his colleague, Professor Samuel Turvey, analyzed hundreds of elephant bird bones from museums across the globe to uncover the worlds largest bird, while also revealing their taxonomy is in fact spread across three genera and at least four distinct species; thus, constituting the first taxonomic reassessment of the family in over 80 years. Without an accurate understanding of past species diversity, we cant properly understand evolution or ecology in unique island systems such as Madagascar or reconstruct exactly whats been lost since human arrival on these islands, Professor Turvey said. Knowing the history of biodiversity loss is essential to determine how to conserve todays threatened species. The study is published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. _____ James P. Hansford & Samuel T. Turvey. 2018. Unexpected diversity within the extinct elephant birds (Aves: Aepyornithidae) and a new identity for the worlds largest bird. R. Soc. open sci 5: 81295; doi: 10.1098/rsos.181295 Kathmandu, September 28 Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has called on the international community to ensure the right of refugees to return home in a dignified manner and on regional governments to revitalise an important platform such SAARC. The Prime Minister, in his address to the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York, said that his government not only enjoyed support of more than two-third of lawmakers, but also those in the provinces. Nepal has hosted thousands of refugees for decades on a humanitarian ground. The international community must uphold the refugees right to return to their homeland safely and with full dignity, said the Prime Minister in a veiled reference to the Tibetan and Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. The PMs statement comes at a time when the government is under pressure from the West to speak up in favour of Tibetan refugees. The Prime Minister told the UNGA that Nepal has an independent voice on global issues and wants friendship with everyone. Our foreign policy guides us to maintain amity with all and enmity with none. It has shaped our independent outlook on global issues which we consider on merit basis. We believe that regional and global efforts complement our national development efforts, he said, adding that Nepal wants to revitalise SAARC. The Prime Minister also took the opportunity to say that the peace process had gathered momentum, and perpetrators of heinous crimes will not be provided amnesty. He thanked the UN for its support in Nepals peace process. #stocks KOSPI may face selling pressure next week on inflation risk South Korea's benchmark stock index is likely to come under selling pressure next week as uncertainties from the fast-growing inflation continue to fan expectations of a quick rate... Press Release September 28, 2018 GORDON URGES PNP, NBI TO INTENSIFY MANHUNT VS RROW PAYMENT SCAM FINANCIER Senator Richard J. Gordon has urged the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigations to intensify the manhunt for the alleged financier of the syndicate that has defrauded the government of P8.7-billion in Road Right of Way payments. During Thursday's hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, Gordon, committee chairman, flashed photos of Nelson Ti and urged the law enforcement groups to exert more effort in locating him. "I am urging the PNP and the NBI to intensify your search for Nelson Ti, who is said to be the financier of the syndicate behind the road right of way scam. He is wanted for multiple charges and several warrants of arrest have been issued against him," he said. Gordon made the call after Ti continued to ignore the Blue Ribbon's summons to attend the hearings. "We have sent him several invitations but he continues to ignore them. He has a lot to answer for in our investigation into the RROW payment scam," he said. Ti had been tagged as the financier who provides funds to advance the payments to claimants and to finance the processing of their claims. He is said to be a close friend of Eldon Cruz, husband of former President Benigno Aquino III's sister, Ballsy or Maria Elena. The modus operandi of the syndicate was to claim for just compensation of RROW which are intended for rightful owners who were affected by national highway construction at General Santos City. The Right-of-Way Act mandates the government to provide just compensation for landowners whose properties were or will be used or affected by national infrastructure projects, such as the building of roads. Gordon has exposed during the investigation the syndicates' modus operandi of submitting fake titles which had already cost the government P255.55-million for nine parcels of land alone in General Santos City. He presented a table which showed that the sizes of the parcels of land covered by the titles that the claimants submitted, which the Land Registration Authority certified to be authentic and genuine, were jacked up several times over. The locations of the alleged properties were also in areas other than the locations indicated in the titles. Pyne Gould Corp wants to quit the NZX in favour of a listing in Guernsey, where the company is now based. The board said leaving New Zealand and listing on The International Stock Exchange (TISE) in Guernsey, one of the channel islands off the coast of France, was in the best interests of the firm given the company's domicile and its inability to get a waiver for Grant Thornton NZ to act as auditor. Pyne Gould director Russell Naylor said in the annual report that TISE would "provide a more liquid market for PGCs shares and access to a wider pool of potential investors. This will make it easier for shareholders to sell shares. "We will provide additional updates on this as we progress this initiative." Pyne Gould's auditor Grant Thornton NZ resigned in July after a waiver from the Guernsey regulator expired, and was replaced by Grant Thornton Guernsey to meet the local law. The firm has had a checkered history with its auditors, and is onto its fourth firm since 2012, when KPMG quit over a disagreement with shareholder George Kerr over whether some related party transactions needed disclosing. Later Grant Thornton NZ took over the audit from PwC. PGC is blaming a slow handover for the late filing of accounts that has attracted censures from the stock exchange. Pyne Gould listed on the NZX in 2004, saying it wanted to boost liquidity for its shareholders in a transparent market. At the time it had 2,000 shareholders, more than three-quarters of whom were from Canterbury. Its businesses consisted of the rural services unit Pyne Gould Guinness (which later merged with Wrightson), Marac Finance and Perpetual Trust. The company is now controlled by Kerr, whose great-great-grandfather founded Pyne & Co. Of its 1,434 shareholders, 1,395 are New Zealanders. Pyne Gould has gone through a radical change in the wake of the global financial crisis, spinning out Marac to form the listed bank, Heartland Bank, and creating a Torchlight entity to make long-term investments when prices were depressed, including ring-fencing distressed assets. Its largest investment currently is in RCL, which has a series of property development projects in Queenstown and Australia. Naylor said the company is in a position to return capital to shareholders and would probably use share buybacks to do so. On-market transactions made more sense because the shares trade below Pyne Gould's net asset value, while off-market buybacks will probably be used in larger events, he said. Pyne Gould's short-term focus is finishing the sale of what it says are non-core assets. That includes earn-outs it might be entitled to from its 2013 sale of Perpetual Trust. The company resumed litigation against Perpetual Trust's buyer, claiming to be owed $22 million. The transaction included a potential earnout in the event of a listing. The shares were unchanged at 33 cents. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Contact Energy Limited (NZX: CEN) Sets Interest Rate for Green Capital Bonds Rakon Limited (NZX: RAK) Upgrades Earnings Guidance 12th November 2021 Morning Report The Warehouse Group Limited (NZX: WHS) FY22 First Quarter Sales Update Infratil Limited (NZX: IFT) Interim results for the period ended 30 September 2021 11th November 2021 Morning Report Goodman Property Trust (NZX: GMT) Delivers Interim Profit Before Tax of $570 Million Mainfreight Limited (NZX: MFT) Half Year Financial Results 30 September 2021 Arvida Group Limited (NZX: ARV) Completion of Shortfall Bookbuild Auckland International Airport Limited (NZX: AIA) Announces Interest Rate for Retail Bond Issue Infratil has raised its full-year earnings guidance on the performance of its Longroad Energy business in the US. The infrastructure investor is expecting its underlying operating earnings will lie between $540 million and $580 million in the year to March 31, 2019. That compares with $552.4 million last year and the firms previous forecast for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and changes in financial instruments of $500 million to $540 million. Infratil said the increase reflects a $34 million improvement in the contribution it expects from Longroad, a US wind and solar developer part-owned by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. The firms shares rose 0.7 percent to $3.58, having gained 5.6 percent so far this year. Infratils earlier forecast was made in May. In July, Longroad agreed to sell its 250 MW Phoebe solar project in Winkler County Texas to Canadian investor Innergex Renewable Energy. In August Infratil said it expected a US$30 million distribution from Longroad post the Phoebe sale. Infratil said it has been working with Longroad since July to finalise the net development gains and accounting profit from the project sale. The latest forecast also includes an update of Longroads forecast earnings for the remainder of the financial year. Wellington-based Infratil has controlling stakes in Trustpower and Wellington International Airport and is in the process of taking over Tilt Renewables in partnership with Mercury NZ. It also has stakes in retirement businesses, student accommodation and data centres. It said the other assumptions for its earnings forecast remain unchanged. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Contact Energy Limited (NZX: CEN) Sets Interest Rate for Green Capital Bonds Rakon Limited (NZX: RAK) Upgrades Earnings Guidance 12th November 2021 Morning Report The Warehouse Group Limited (NZX: WHS) FY22 First Quarter Sales Update Infratil Limited (NZX: IFT) Interim results for the period ended 30 September 2021 11th November 2021 Morning Report Goodman Property Trust (NZX: GMT) Delivers Interim Profit Before Tax of $570 Million Mainfreight Limited (NZX: MFT) Half Year Financial Results 30 September 2021 Arvida Group Limited (NZX: ARV) Completion of Shortfall Bookbuild Auckland International Airport Limited (NZX: AIA) Announces Interest Rate for Retail Bond Issue Tariff changes are unlikely to assist low-income households with energy costs when their usage is structurally higher than that of other users and is also declining more slowly, Vector chief executive Simon Mackenzie says. Energy usage in low socio-economic areas can be 21 percent higher per square-metre than others for a range of factors, including lack of insulation and the types of appliances used. Household usage is also falling three-times slower than in the wealthiest homes. That is a real concern and ways to help vulnerable consumers is a legitimate focus of the governments electricity price review underway, he told delegates at the Sustainable Energy Association conference in Auckland today. But he said special tariff structures such as the existing low-user fixed charge were unlikely to provide an enduring fix. Sometimes putting a tariff in is not necessarily going to change the problem if they are using more energy, he said. How do we help with efficiency or other initiatives that actually put in enduring solutions rather than just handing out money? The review has been tasked with assessing the efficiency of the electricity industry, but particularly whether it is delivering fairly priced energy to all groups of consumers across the country. The future of the low-user charge is a specific remit of the inquiry which delivered its first issues paper earlier this month. Mackenzie noted that falling energy consumption means 70 percent of Vectors consumers spread across all demographics - now qualify for the low fixed charge regime. Average consumption is now down to 6,900 kWh, when the threshold to qualify for the tariff was set at 8,000 kWh 14 years ago. He said the government, the panel and the industry need to be more open to the potential of new technology like solar to really lower energy costs for consumers. The panel is looking at whether existing regulatory structures may hamper the take-up of new technology. Mackenzie observed that the $700 winter energy payment the government introduced for beneficiaries this year could in 10 years fund a 3 kW solar array for most homes. And he said that cost could probably be reduced if the government tendered for the panel supply at scale. That would not only reduce winter energy costs, but lock-in lower costs throughout the year. Maybe that would be a better outcome actually than just forking out $700 and not knowing where it ends up. The independent review panel found no evidence of excessive profiteering in the sector. But the government has continued to emphasise the increase in energy costs during the past two decades, particularly the higher rate of increase for residential users relative to commercial and industrial users, and higher costs in some parts of the country. Mercury NZ chief executive Fraser Whineray told the companys shareholders in Auckland today that the review and its consultants have been consulting extensively and havent found a smoking gun. Because there isnt one. He said there will be changes the industry can make. But he noted that consumers in provincial New Zealand face higher network costs than users in the cities because their local lines are longer with fewer consumers to fund them. And he said Mercury and other retailers have been working hard to find better options to help consumers struggling with energy costs. Whineray said Mercury will be encouraging the review panel to have the courage to challenge the negative narrative being pushed by some groups and to present the facts to the government and consumers with balance. Any outcome must ensure that long-term harm isnt done to New Zealand and New Zealanders for the purposes of needing something politically big and bold. He said the prices and level of service New Zealands power industry achieves is world-leading, given it operates in a competitive, unsubsidised, renewable, reliable and islanded electricity market. And he urged people to look critically at the Australian and UK electricity markets, both of which have also been subject to government reviews. In the UK default tariffs have been implemented. They have been recommended in Australia. They are both in a shambles. They are in a shambles because of expedient, non-dynamic and politically-motivated tinkering and in the case of Australia theyve experienced a doubling of gas prices through liquid natural gas exports. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Contact Energy Limited (NZX: CEN) Sets Interest Rate for Green Capital Bonds Rakon Limited (NZX: RAK) Upgrades Earnings Guidance 12th November 2021 Morning Report The Warehouse Group Limited (NZX: WHS) FY22 First Quarter Sales Update Infratil Limited (NZX: IFT) Interim results for the period ended 30 September 2021 11th November 2021 Morning Report Goodman Property Trust (NZX: GMT) Delivers Interim Profit Before Tax of $570 Million Mainfreight Limited (NZX: MFT) Half Year Financial Results 30 September 2021 Arvida Group Limited (NZX: ARV) Completion of Shortfall Bookbuild Auckland International Airport Limited (NZX: AIA) Announces Interest Rate for Retail Bond Issue Investors still see upside in Xero's growth story in oversubscribing to a US$300 million convertible note offer that would see them pay a 70 percent premium to turn those securities into shares. The five-year notes pay annual interest of 2.375 percent and have an initial conversion price of US$46.34, compared to a A$49 reference price. However, to convert that to ordinary shares in 2023 the exercise price is US$60, representing a 70 percent premium. Chief financial officer Sankar Narayan says this type of offer is commonplace in the US, but hasn't been used outside North America in the way Xero's used it. Linking the security to the company's equity was an attractive way to raise money without watering down existing investors' holdings, he said. "As an alternative to equity raising it was a lot less dilutive to existing shareholders, that's why it's popular in the US," Narayan told BusinessDesk. "Capital markets are really good globally and it was a really opportune time to do it." Xero will spend almost US$30 million on a call option it has with joint lead managers Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to cover the higher conversion price in five years time. Another US$7.4 million will cover commissions, professional fees and admin costs. The funds will also go to repaying NZ$30.9 million of term debt. That will leave about US$242 million to pursue acquisitions and investments along the lines of its recent Hubdoc purchase. And depending on the level of conversion in five years, it could provide another cash injection for the company. Chief executive Steve Vamos said Hubdoc was a good indication of the type of investment Xero is interested in. That centres around extending the features, functionality and usage cases for small business, accountants and bookkeepers using the platform. "We're a growth company, we're a global company. This is a reflection of our very strong intent to build our platform," Vamos said. Macquarie Securities analyst Avinash Srinivasan said Xero has a wide range of options given more than 700 applications connect to its platform. Morningstar's Gareth James said acquisitions may extend short-term losses but will also accelerate the "already high revenue growth rates". Xero had to scale the offer, which Narayan said attracted both existing and new investors. The notes will be trade over the counter on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading, which is common for these types of securities. Morningstar's James said he was comfortable with the convertible note as a means to raise money but would have preferred a pro-rata equity issue to take advantage of what he sees as an overvalued share price. "If Xero's business model stumbles, note holders will likely want repayments of the debt in cash and Xero may find refinancing difficult, a situation which could force the company to issue new equity at a beaten down share price and materially dilute shareholders," he said. The ASX-listed shares last traded at A$49.21, still a premium to the A$49 reference price used in the offer. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Contact Energy Limited (NZX: CEN) Sets Interest Rate for Green Capital Bonds Rakon Limited (NZX: RAK) Upgrades Earnings Guidance 12th November 2021 Morning Report The Warehouse Group Limited (NZX: WHS) FY22 First Quarter Sales Update Infratil Limited (NZX: IFT) Interim results for the period ended 30 September 2021 11th November 2021 Morning Report Goodman Property Trust (NZX: GMT) Delivers Interim Profit Before Tax of $570 Million Mainfreight Limited (NZX: MFT) Half Year Financial Results 30 September 2021 Arvida Group Limited (NZX: ARV) Completion of Shortfall Bookbuild Auckland International Airport Limited (NZX: AIA) Announces Interest Rate for Retail Bond Issue It is the last Friday of September, and the release rush hour continues. Total number of releases till today for the year stands at 131. The 48 days strike period has affected the number of releases and for the first time in four years , this year the Tamil releases would fall short of 200. The weeks Tamil releases are Mani Ratnams Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, which released on Thursday and today there is the raved about Pariyerum Perumal. The English releases are Johnny English Strikes Again, Smallfoot and Peppermint. The Hindi releases are Sui Dhaaga Made In India and Pataakha. Isai Puyal AR Rahman has composed music for the film, and as his previous album Mersal with Vijay crossed more than 350 million streams, many music labels competed to snap the audio rights but finally, Sun Pictures, producers of Sarkar sold the rights to Sony Music. Market leader Sony Music South has procured the audio rights of Thalapathy Vijays most anticipated film The shoot of Sarkar wrapped up long back and the post-production is progressing at a brisk pace. The audio launch of the film is scheduled to happen on October 2 in Chennai. AR Murugadoss is directing the film which also has Keerthy Suresh, Varalakshmi, Yogi Babu, Radha Ravi, and Pala. Karuppaiah in important roles. The film is scheduled to release for this Diwali. While pronouncing the order Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra said that the ban in place violated Constitutional principles and that women's rights cannot be subverted as they are in no way less than men. In a verdict that stands for gender equality, the Supreme Court on Friday opened the gates of the Sabarimala Temple of Lord Ayyappa in Kerala to the women of all ages, including those in the 10-50 age group.. Allowing women of all ages to enter the holy site, the court said that no physiological and biological factor can be given legitimacy if it doesn't pass the test of conditionality. The top court said that devotees of Lord Ayyappa are Hindus and do not constitute a separate religious denomination, while adding that restrictions put by Sabarimala temple cannot be held as essential religious practice. \\ Women no way inferior to men. On one hand, women are worshipped as Goddesses, but there are restrictions on the other hand. Relationship with God can't be defined by biological or physiological factors: CJI Dipak Misra on the ban on entry of women in Keralas Sabarimala temple. pic.twitter.com/DfwZR9xsan ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 4 judges have the same opinion in the #Sabarimala temple case; one dissenting opinion by Justice Indu Malhotra. CJI Dipak Misra reading out the verdict pic.twitter.com/dklMutamwz ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 On one hand, women are worshipped as Goddesses, but there are restrictions on the other hand, said CJI Misra while reading the judgement. "Relationship with God can't be defined by biological or physiological factors," he added. The verdict was pronounced by the bench presided by CJI Dipak Misra and comprising Justices Rohinton Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, in which Justice Malhotra had a dissenting view. Reacting to the landmark verdict, A. Padma Kumar, Kerala Devaswom Board president said that the Board will file a review petition in the case. Sabarimala Temple is run by the Devaswom Board. On August 1, the five-judge Constitution bench had reserved its judgement on the petitions challenging the ban after hearing the case for eight days. During the course of the hearing, CJI Misra had observed that even the deity of Sabarimala Temple has rights with respect to certain aspects, including 'Right to Privacy', but the same has to be tested on Constitutional legitimacy. Another judge, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had stated that the right to pray is equal for both men and women. Before that on July 26, the Pandalam Royal family challenged the petition seeking entry of women into the temple, terming it 'mischievous' on grounds of being against practices of the Hindu faith. The lawyer appearing on their behalf had told the court that the temple deity, Lord Ayyappa, is an eternal celibate and therefore women of menstruating ages should not be allowed in the premises. While the Kerala government initially supported the ban, it later changed track and in 2016 it told the top court that it was ready to allow women inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. As per norms prescribed by the temple board women of menstruating ages were prohibited from visiting the premises. The rules which mandate the ban are listed in the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules of 1965. The petition challenging the ban was filed in the Apex Court by Indian Young Lawyers Association over a decade ago in 2006, alleging that the rule violates the freedom to follow and propagate religion, listed in Article 25 of the Indian Constitution. The matter was referred to a three-judge bench two years later in 2008. The case came up for hearing seven years later in 2016 and was referred to a Constitution bench in February 2017. Sabarimala Temple, a prominent Hindu pilgrimage site, is set in the hilly forests of Kerala. In January this year, the temple authorities had made it mandatory for female devotees to furnish their age proof while visiting. The decision came after a number of women from the banned age group were detained while entering Sabarimala. Devotees of Lord Ayyappa are Hindus,don't constitute a separate religious denomination. No physiological&biological factor can be given legitimacy if it doesn't pass the test of conditionality.Restrictions put by Sabarimala temple can't be held as essential religious practice:CJI ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 Supreme Court allows entry of women in Keralas #Sabarimala temple. pic.twitter.com/I0zVdn0In1 ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 Women of all age groups will now be allowed in Kerala's #Sabarimala temple https://t.co/AcBfH4pGkG ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 The practice of barring women in age group of 10-50 to go inside the temple is violative of constitutional principles: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. #SabarimalaVerdict pic.twitter.com/jhYEqnEhwv ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdade0720)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdacfe950)', '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(0x7f3fdade0720)') 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(0x7f3fdacfe950)') 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(0x7f3fdadefcc0)') 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(0x7f3fdacfe950)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdacfe950)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fda90e068)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fda90d798)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fda90d798)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdb106890)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdb22c968)', '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(0x7f3fdb106890)') 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(0x7f3fdb22c968)') 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(0x7f3fdb22f7e8)') 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(0x7f3fdb22c968)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdb22c968)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fda90efc0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdb29b3f0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdb29b3f0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdb8aa098)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdb890ca8)', '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(0x7f3fdb8aa098)') 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(0x7f3fdb890ca8)') 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(0x7f3fdb897d98)') 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(0x7f3fdb890ca8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdb890ca8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fda90dd08)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdb8509f8)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdb8509f8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdadf7860)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdb932878)', '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(0x7f3fdadf7860)') 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(0x7f3fdb932878)') 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(0x7f3fdae393e0)') 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(0x7f3fdb932878)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdb932878)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fda90dfc0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdadedbf0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdadedbf0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fdadd5090)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdadce2a0)', '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(0x7f3fdadd5090)') 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(0x7f3fdadce2a0)') 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(0x7f3fdaec04e8)') 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(0x7f3fdadce2a0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdadce2a0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdad508a8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdad50c98)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdad50c98)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Brilliant, brash and volatile, Elon Musk faces new challenge Washington, Sept 27 (AFP) Sep 27, 2018 He is looking to revolutionize transportation, colonize space and develop implantable brain-computer interfaces. But along with Elon Musk's grand ambition comes a brash demeanor with little tolerance for criticism. The founder and chief executive of Tesla and other companies now faces securities fraud charges over a tweet which regulators said misled investors about taking the electric automaker private. The charges come with Musk facing increased scrutiny over his volatile behavior that has included smoking marijuana during a podcast interview and assailing a Briton involved in the Thailand cave rescue as a "pedo guy." Musk has built the widely-admired auto-manufacturer with global ambitions Tesla, along with the private space exploration firm SpaceX, the brain-computer interface startup Neuralink and Boring Company -- designed to build tunnels that could transform mass transportation. This month, SpaceX said it would send Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to fly around the moon as early as 2023. But his eccentric behavior has fueled concerns in recent months over his ability to manage his vast empire. "At times, Musk appears to be working against himself," analyst Gene Munster of Loup Ventures wrote in a research note this month. Musk has lashed out at analysts during quarterly conference calls as "boring" and criticized the media for scrutinizing his actions. A week ago, a British caver who helped in the dramatic rescue of 12 boys trapped in Thailand earlier this year sued Tesla founder Elon Musk on Monday for calling him a "pedo guy" and a "child rapist." The defamation suit filed in Los Angeles by Vernon Unsworth, a Briton involved in several cave rescues, follows a highly public spat between the two after Musk traveled to Thailand and offered to assist in rescue efforts. - Like Trump? - Still, the 47-year-old South African-born Musk is recognized as one of the most influential innovators in the United States, and has an estimated net worth of more than $20 billion. Musk's conduct has drawn comparisons to US President Donald Trump, another prominent figure who has embraced filter-free social media and whose mental stability has been questioned. And like Trump, Musk has lambasted the media and been picky about appearances, granting a few rare interviews to publications like the Wall Street Journal, while favoring Rolling Stone magazine. Musk has suggested the skeptical coverage of the company stemmed from the media's dependence on advertising from the oil and conventional car industry. He has discussed creating a website to "rate the core truth of any article" that would be called Pravda. Regardless of his reputation, Musk, who has frequented the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual gala among other glitzy appearances, has seen his wealth soar with Tesla after earlier ventures. After leaving South Africa, Musk, who holds US and Canadian nationalities, completed academic work in Ontario and the University of Pennsylvania. By 25, he had created Zip2, an online advertising platform, and was a millionaire by age 30 after selling the company to Compaq Computer in 1999. He followed that with the creation of the online bank, X.com, which was later merged into PayPal and in 2002 bought by eBay for $1.5 billion. He also manages a foundation focused on education, renewable energy and pediatric health. Musk has also had a stormy personal life, having been divorced three times -- twice from the same woman -- and has five living sons. Workplace messaging startup Slack eyes 2019 IPO: report Washington, Sept 28 (AFP) Sep 28, 2018 Workplace collaboration software firm Slack is actively preparing for a share offering in early 2019, which be the largest in the tech sector since Snap's debut last year, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said Slack is aiming for an initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of the year that would value the California startup at well above the $7.1 billion it reached in its most recent funding round. The company declined to comment, with a spokesman saying "Slack does not comment on rumors or speculation." In August, the company raised $427 million to give it a valuation of some $7.1 billion, making it one of the most richly valued "unicorns," or startups with private funding worth at least $1 billion. Slack, which offers real-time messaging for the workplace, said in its announcement it has more than eight million daily active users and more than 70,000 "paid teams" that subscribe to its premium services. Created in 2013, Slack has been a leader in the new segment but faces competition from the likes of Microsoft, Facebook and others offering workplace collaboration tools. Analysts say Slack has found a niche, especially among small- and medium-sized businesses, where employees can face information overload from email. Other richly valued unicorns reportedly aiming for an IPO in 2019 include ridesharing giants Uber and Lyft, and lodging startup Airbnb. Facebook says up to 50 mn accounts breached in attack San Francisco, Sept 28 (AFP) Sep 28, 2018 Facebook announced Friday that up to 50 million accounts were breached in a security flaw exploited by hackers. The large social network said it learned this week of the attack that allowed hackers to steal "access tokens," the equivalent of digital keys that enable them to access their accounts. "It's clear that attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook's code," vice president of product management Guy Rosen said in a blog post. "We've fixed the vulnerability and informed law enforcement." Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said engineers discovered the breach on Tuesday, and patched it on Thursday night. "We don't know if any accounts were actually misused," Zuckerberg said. "This is a serious issue." As a precaution, Facebook is temporarily taking down the "view as" feature -- described as a privacy tool to let user see how their own profiles would look to other people. "We face constant attacks from people who want to take over accounts or steal information around the world," Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page. "While I'm glad we found this, fixed the vulnerability, and secured the accounts that may be at risk, the reality is we need to continue developing new tools to prevent this from happening in the first place." Facebook said it took an additional "precautionary step" of resetting access tokens for another 40 million accounts where the vulnerable feature was used. This will require those users to log back in to Facebook. "We're taking this incredibly seriously and wanted to let everyone know what's happened and the immediate action we've taken to protect people's security," Rosen said. "People's privacy and security is incredibly important , and we're sorry this happened." The breach is the latest privacy embarrassment for Facebook, wich earlier this year acknowledged that tens of millions of users had personal data hijacked by a political firm working for Donald Trump in 2016. Germany announces $135m for UN refugee agency United Nations, United States, Sept 28 (AFP) Sep 28, 2018 Germany announced Friday it would provide the UN's cash-strapped refugee agency with an extra $135 million in funds to help cope with the massive outpouring of Syrians into neighboring Arab countries. In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said it was "shameful" that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was running short of cash to aid the millions of Syrians who have fled war in their homeland and called on other wealthy countries to step up to the plate. "As the second-largest humanitarian donor, Germany is willing to provide UNHCR with a further 116 million euros ($135 million) -- that is half of the amount currently needed -- to help Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon," Maas said. "But others also need to step up. After all, the Charter talks about 'we the peoples'," he said in reference to the UN's founding treaty. Syrians accounted for a significant proportion of the hundreds of thousands of migrants that Germany has accepted across its border since 2015 -- an influx which has weakened Chancellor Angela Merkel politically and split the European Union. With immigration becoming an increasingly toxic issue in Germany, Merkel's government has since repeatedly tightened immigration and asylum laws. According to the UN, around 5.6 million Syrians are living outside the country as refugees as a result of a devastating seven-year war. The foreign minister's speech to the body also included several thinly-veiled rebukes to US President Donald Trump's "America First" foreign policy. The United Nations "thrives on our common pledge of 'together first'," said Maas whose center-left Social Democratic Party is a junior partner in Merkel's coalition. Speaking of climate change, Maas also criticized governments who put "my country first" as he restated Germany's commitment to the internationally-backed Paris agreement to combat global warming that Trump has decided to quit. Israel PM lashes Iran, claims secret atomic warehouse United Nations, United States, Sept 28 (AFP) Sep 28, 2018 Israel's prime minister on Thursday accused arch-enemy Tehran of harboring a secret atomic warehouse, making deft use of ample props and vowing that his country would never let Iran develop nuclear weapons. Iran "hasn't abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons," Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly, where his annual appearance has frequently focused on Israel's chief enemy, the Islamic republic. "Israel will never let a regime that calls for our destruction to develop nuclear weapons. Not now, not in 10 years, not ever," he said. "Israel will do whatever it must do to defend itself against Iran's aggression." "What Iran hides, Israel will find," the prime minister added. Israel bitterly opposes the Iran nuclear deal, brokered by the United States, Russia, China and European nations in 2015 and has congratulated President Donald Trump for walking away from the deal. Netanyahu opened his speech by claiming that Iran had a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran, holding up a map and a photograph of an outwardly "innocent looking compound" which he urged the UN atomic agency to inspect. "Today I'm disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program," he said. He also claimed that the Iranian-linked Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah had positioned three missile sites near Beirut airport, holding up what he called "a picture worth a thousand missiles" and titled "Beirut Precision Guided Missile." Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later ridiculed Netanyahu's allegations, saying that previous claims by Israel had not stood up to scrutiny when investigated by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. "Netanyahu has to explain how Israel, being the only regime that has nuclear weapons in the region, can so cynically level such allegations against a country whose nuclear program's peacefulness has been repeatedly certified by the IAEA," Zarif told Iran's official IRNA news agency. "The only purpose of this is to undercut the reality that Israel is the biggest threat to the region and Netanyahu himself has stood in a facility that produces nuclear weapons and threatened the annihilation of other nations." - 'European appeasement' - Netanyahu also accused Iranian agents of plotting attacks in the United States and Europe, as well as being an aggressor in the Middle East. He accused the Iranian regime of brutally oppressing its own people for four decades, and of waging violence in Iraq and Syria, arming Hezbollah in Lebanon, financing Hamas in Gaza and firing missiles into Saudi Arabia. He tore into Europe for its policy of "appeasement" with Iran, a word that evokes in history European capitals' reluctance to stand up against Adolf Hitler in the run-up to World War II. "Have these European leaders learnt nothing from history? Will they ever wake up?" Netanyahu hectored. "We in Israel don't need a wake-up call because Iran threatens us every day." He said Israel was "deeply grateful" to the Trump administration for withdrawing from the Iran deal, an agreement which he claimed had had the "unintended consequence" of bringing Israel closer to its Arab neighbors. "By empowering Iran, it brought Israel and many Arab states closer together than ever before ... in an intimacy and friendship that I've not seen in my lifetime and would have been unimaginable a few years ago." Iran city mayor apologises over billboard showing Israeli troops Tehran, Sept 28 (AFP) Sep 28, 2018 An Iranian mayor has apologised for a billboard which mistakenly featured Israeli soldiers although it was meant to mark the Iran-Iraq war, the online conservative news agency Tasnim reported Friday. "The billboard was installed in Shiraz showing three male soldiers standing on a rocky outcrop" next to a quote from an epic Persian poem, Tasnim wrote. But the shot was actually a photoshopped picture of Israel Defense Forces, according to Tasnim, with a female soldier from the original picture having been cropped out. The banner was pulled down from the southwestern city Wednesday night and the mayor issued an apology the next day. "This mistake of putting up such a despicable banner during the sacred defence week is unforgivable," Tasnim quoted mayor Heydar Eskandarpour as saying. Iran commonly refers to the brutal eight-year war with Iraq as "the sacred defence". In recent days, the country has been marking the start of the conflict which began on September 22, 1980. Two million people died. "In addition to apologising to Shiraz's pious and noble people, I ask the authorities to investigate the roots of this suspicious act and promptly report to the people," the mayor added. Two public relation officials at the municipality were later fired on Thursday night, according to conservative news agency Fars. Iranian social media was abuzz with heated reactions to the controversy. "M16 guns, straps, clothes, helmets: all clearly belong to Zionists. The best I can say is that you did something idiotic," wrote a Twitter user identified as @mhrezaa. Another Iranian user @masoudasadi67 also called for the swift punishment of "those who committed such a heinous act." Nigerian air force pilot killed in crash outside Abuja Abuja, Sept 28 (AFP) Sep 28, 2018 Nigeria's air force said on Friday that one of its pilots was killed in a plane crash during a rehearsal for the nation's independence day anniversary. Air force spokesman Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola initially said two jets were involved in an "incident" outside the capital Abuja as they prepared for Monday's event but added that no lives were lost. But he added later: "It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully announce that one of the pilots who successfully ejected from one of the F-7Ni aircraft that crashed earlier today has passed on." No further details were given but witnesses said the two jets were flying at a low altitude when one crashed into a hill at Katampe, on the outskirts of the capital. "I saw the two jets flying together at a very low altitude. I thought it was a show of force," said James Ogbu, a civil engineer, who lives near the scene of the crash. "Then suddenly I saw three persons in parachutes jumping out of one of the jets while the other jet was just hovering the sky." "Two parachutes went to one direction while one went down straight and I saw the jet headed for the rocky hill." The scene was cordoned off by security agents, according to an AFP reporter at the scene. Motorists stopped their cars on the side of the road as thick smoke billowed into the sky from the burning plane. Firefighters and other relief workers helped with emergency operations. Africa's most populous nation is a former British colony that won independence on October 1, 1960. The date is traditionally marked with a military parade and fly-past. F-35 stealth fighter crashes for the first time Washington, Sept 28 (AFP) Sep 28, 2018 A US F-35 stealth fighter plane was completely destroyed in a crash during training on Friday, officials said. The pilot safely ejected. The crash is the first of its kind for the troubled F-35 program, marking an unfortunate moment for the most expensive plane in history. The Marine Corps said in a statement that a Marine Corps F-35 had crashed around 11:45 am (1615 GMT) outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. "It's a total loss," one official said. Images on social media show a plume of black smoke rising above what users said was a crash site. The crashed plane was an F-35 "B" variant, used by the Marine Corps and capable of taking off from a short runway and landing vertically. The Air Force and Navy have their own models. The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said the pilot safely ejected and was being evaluated for injuries. Unit costs vary, but the price tag of F-35s is around $100 million each. Future production lots of F-35s are projected to drop slightly in price. The crash comes just one day after the US military first used the F-35, which has been beset with delays and cost overruns, in combat. Multiple Marine Corps F-35s struck Taliban targets in Afghanistan. Launched in the early 1990s, the F-35 program is considered the most expensive weapons system in US history, with an estimated cost of some $400 billion and a goal to produce 2,500 aircraft in the coming years. Once servicing and maintenance costs for the F-35 are factored in over the aircraft's lifespan through 2070, overall program costs are expected to rise to $1.5 trillion. Proponents tout the F-35's radar-dodging stealth technology, supersonic speeds, close air support capabilities, airborne agility and a massive array of sensors giving pilots unparalleled access to information. But the program has faced numerous delays, cost overruns and setbacks, including a mysterious engine fire in 2014 that led commanders to temporarily ground the planes. So far, the US military has taken delivery of 245 F-35s, most of them to the Air Force. 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. The Shadowy Arms Trade A Look Back at a Questionable Tank Deal An intermediary received a commission of almost $200 million for the sale of battle tanks to United Arab Emirates. Some of that money, though, may have been used to bribe government officials. Armageddon Postponed Syria's Idlib Province Gets New Lease on Life The looming military offensive on the Idlib province in Syria has been called off for now. People there are yearning to return to normal life and rapidly planning for the future. But how long with the peace last? New York, (United States) Sept 28, 2018. (SPS) the Personal Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Western Sahara, Mr. Horst Kohler has received a Saharawi delegation on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. During the meeting, Mr. Kohler informed the Saharawi delegation on the proposals and steps he intends to take in the near future in order to boost the political process sponsored by the United Nations, to a new round of direct negotiations between the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco before the end of this year. For its part, the Saharawi delegation welcomed the efforts made by Mr. Kohler, voicing at the same time, POLISARIOs commitment to cooperate fully with the Personal Envoy, in direct negotiations with Morocco under the auspices of the United Nations. , as requested by the Security Council in order to reach a just, peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, ensuring the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence. The meeting was attended by Mr. M'hamed Jadad, Saharawi Coordinator with MINURSO, Mr. Mohamed Salem Uld Salek, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar, representative of the Frente POLISARIO to the United Nations. The meeting was also attended by Mr. David Hvake, Kohler's Advisor, and some of his collaborators from the Department of Political Affairs of the General Assembly of the United Nations. SPS 125/090/TRA New York, Sept 28, 2018 (SPS) - The Minister of Foreign Affairs , Mohamed Salem Ould Salek has met with numerous heads of foreign delegations participating at the 73rd ordinary session of the General Assembly of the United Nations taken part in New York The Saharawi Minister explained to his interlocutors the moment in which the national question is going through, focusing on the efforts of the AU and the UN to complete the process of decolonization of Western Sahara. The head of Saharawi diplomacy has also taken the opportunity to exchange ideas with his interlocutors about the need to accelerate the eradication of colonialism, taking advantage of the last two years of the Third International Decade for the Elimination of Colonialism (2011-2020). The debate on the Sahrawi conflict is basically part of the agenda of the Special Political and Decolonization Commission (Fourth Committee) under the theme of the program entitled Application of the Declaration of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (item62). several delegations, during this session, have referred to the need to end the last case of decolonization of the African continent and have expressed their support for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and sovereignty national. Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, heads an important Saharawi delegation including Mhamed Khadad, Saharawi coordinator with MINURSO, Sidi Mohamed Omar representative of the Frenet POLISARIO to the UN and Malainin Slama member of POLISARIO representation to the UN. SPS 125/090/TRA English27/09/2018 WORK METHODOLOGY OF COMMISSIONS INVESTIGATING SUFFERING ACCEPTED BANJALUKA, September 27 /SRNA/ - The Government of Republika Srpska accepted the Work Methodology of the Commission examining the suffering of Serbs in Sarajevo in the period 1991-1995 and the Work Methodology of the Commission examining the suffering of all peoples in the Srebrenica region in the period 1992-1995, which were proposed by the Ministry of Justice and Centre for Research of War, War Crimes and Search for the Missing. The Ministry of Justice was ordered to propose the criteria for the appointment of members to both commissions as soon as possible. That would create the prerequisites for identifying the institutions that will propose members to the commissions, specifically bearing in mind that the commissions should be international, reports the Government PR Office. The Government also adopted the information on the establishment of a HLA laboratory in the Institute of Transfusion Medicine and appointment of the working group for forming a transplantation coordinating centre. The working group has the task to analyse the necessary procedures for establishing the centre, examine all possibilities and create a comparative overview including the neighbouring countries, and based on all this create a proposal on the future steps concerning the formation. "The Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Health and Social Welfare have to secure the funds for the HLA laboratory. The Institute of Transfusion Medicine is supposed to launch the procedure of forming the laboratory which will be under its jurisdiction, read the press release. The Government made a decision on the transfer of real estate ownership rights, transferring the right of ownership of property managed by the Ministry of Refugees and DPs. "The decision concerns two apartments in Prijedor and two in Srebrenica, which are transferred to the city of Prijedor, i.e. the municipality of Srebrenica, without charge for the purpose of providing housing to socially vulnerable categories, reads the press release. The Government issued a decision allowing Republika Srpska to take possession of expropriated immovable property until the decision on expropriation becomes final, for the purpose of building an energy infrastructure facility, the gas pipeline Sepak-Bijeljina. It has also made a decision approving the relocation of funds to the Basic Court in Srebrenica, for the period January 1- September 30 in the total amount of BAM20,000, which was necessary for the procurement of a pellet furnace and other equipment for heating in the court building. /end/ds Farmers affected by this summers dry weather have been offered further assistance by the UK government. New flexibility from the EU Commission has been secured, which will help farmers increase the amount of feed they can grow for their livestock. The dry weather earlier this summer has meant many livestock farmers have not had enough pasture to graze their animals on, with some having to break into their winter feed supplies early. From today, farmers will be allowed to grow grass and other edible forage in areas that are not usually allowed for grazing. This is after the UK government secured a derogation from the EUs Ecological Focus Area (EFA) winter crop requirements, which stipulates that certain areas must be left fallow or sown with crop mix that cannot be grazed. This is the latest in a series of practical solutions to help farmers affected by the dry weather, including: Granting of 89 flexible water abstraction licenses by the Environment Agency for farmers to safeguard food production and animal welfare. The majority of applications received have been approved. Publishing guidance for 40 Countryside Stewardship options which can be adjusted for this year without penalty if agreement holders notify Natural England by the end of 2018. Published: 28 September 2018 General government deficit 0.7 per cent and debt 61.3 per cent relative to gross domestic product in 2017 According to the revised preliminary data reported by Statistics Finland to Eurostat, general government deficit was 0.7 per cent relative to gross domestic product in 2017. The deficit was clearly below the reference value of the European Unions Stability and Growth Pact, which is three per cent relative to gross domestic product. General government EDP debt, or consolidated gross debt, was 61.3 per cent at the end of 2017 relative to gross domestic product. The ratio of debt to GDP has now been over the reference value of 60 per cent during four years, but it has fallen in the last two years. General government EDP deficit (-), relative to GDP In 2017, general government deficit, or net borrowing according to national accounts, was EUR 1.5 billion. The financial position of general government improved by EUR 2.2 billion from the previous year. The central government's financial position improved most, by EUR 1.8 billion compared with 2016, and it was particularly due to the significant growth in tax revenue. However, the central government remained clearly in deficit, its deficit being EUR 4.0 billion in 2017. The local government sectors deficit, or net borrowing was EUR 299 million in 2017, which is EUR 621 million less than one year earlier. Social security funds are divided into employment pension schemes and other social security funds. The surplus of employment pension schemes continued to contract. The sectors surplus was EUR 1,996 million in 2017, or EUR 433 million less than in the previous year. Other social security funds were in surplus for the second successive year. Their surplus grew by EUR 208 million from the year before and was EUR 718 million in 2017. Compared to the preliminary data released at the end of March, the deficit of general government was revised to EUR 263 million more. Of general government subsectors, the biggest updates concerned central government where deficit grew compared to March by EUR 151 million to EUR 3,957 million. General government EDP debt relative to GDP Consolidated general government gross debt (EDP debt) amounted to EUR 137.3 billion at the end of 2017. The debt grew by EUR 1.1 billion in 2017. Central government debt increased by EUR 1.2 billion and local government debt by EUR 0.1 billion. The debt of social security funds grew by EUR 0.5 billion, which was caused by an increase in received cash collateral related to employment pension schemes derivative contracts and securities lending. The increase in consolidated items between general government by EUR 0.7 per cent contributed to the debt of the entire general government sector growing only by said EUR 1.1 billion in 2017. The EDP debt describes general governments debt to the other sectors of the economy and to the rest of the world, and its development is influenced by changes in both the unconsolidated gross debt and the internal general government debt. Compared to the preliminary data released in March, the ratio of debt to GDP was now updated 0.1 percentage points lower, and was thus 61.3 per cent in 2017. The change was almost entirely caused by the revision of GDP. Eurostat will verify the deficit and debt figures reported by the Member States over the following weeks. In this process, changes may be made to the figures reported by Statistics Finland. In that case, the updated figures will be released on the pages of these statistics on the same day that Eurostat publishes the data (preliminarily on 22 October). About the content and concepts of the statistics General government surplus/deficit refers to net lending/borrowing according to the sector accounts of national accounts, which is the difference between the total revenue and expenditure. For instance, in the case of local government, the concept differs from the surplus/deficit of the accounting period according to the profit and loss accounts of municipalities and joint municipal authorities included in the sector. The key difference concerns investments, which are recorded in national accounts as expenditure as such. In general government accounts, the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF is, based on Eurostat's decision, handled so that the EFSF's borrowing is recorded as part of the gross government debt of the countries that have provided guarantees. The loan received by the beneficiary country from the EFSF is recorded as if it had been received from the countries in the euro area that have provided guarantees and these countries in turn owe the corresponding amount to the EFSF. As a result, the EDP gross debt of the countries that provided guarantees grows but the net debt remains unchanged because the countries have a similar receivable from the beneficiary country. The gross government debt to be recorded for each country on the loans granted by the EFSF is calculated by dividing the loan granted to the beneficiary country by the contribution key (based on the share in the ECB's capital of each country participating in the support operations). At the end of 2017, Finland's general government debt includes EUR 3,401 million of debt granted by the EFSF to beneficiary countries. At the end of 2016, the amount was the same. Corresponding treatment does not apply to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Central government's EDP debt differs as a concept from the central government debt published by the State Treasury. Central government's EDP debt includes loans granted to beneficiary counties by the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF, received cash collateral related to derivative contracts, the capital of the Nuclear Waste Management Fund, debts generated from investments in central government's PPP (public-private partnership) projects, and coins that are in circulation. In national accounts, central government is also a broader concept than the budget and financial economy, in addition to which it includes, for example, universities, Solidium, the Finnish Broadcasting Company and Senate Properties. When these differences are taken into consideration, we reach the central government non-consolidated gross debt in accordance with the EDP concept (Appendix table 2). In 2017, the State Treasury's central government debt EUR 105.8 billion + conceptual differences of the debt EUR 7.0 billion + differences caused by the sector delimitation EUR 4.2 billion = central government gross debt EUR 117.0 billion. The valuation principle for both debt concepts is the nominal value, where the effect of interest-rate contracts and currency swaps is taken into account. A list of units belonging to general government (only in Finnish) can be found at http://www.stat.fi/meta/luokitukset/_linkki/julkisyhteisot.html. Decisions on major sector classification cases (only in Finnish) are available at http://www.stat.fi/meta/luokitukset/_linkki/soveltamisp.html. Source: General government deficit and debt. Statistics Finland Inquiries: Atte Virtanen 029 551 3685, Timo Ristimaki 029 551 2324, financial.accounts@stat.fi Director in charge: Ville Vertanen Publication in pdf-format (243.4 kB) Updated 28.9.2018 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): General government deficit and debt [e-publication]. ISSN=1799-5914. 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 13.11.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/jali/2017/jali_2017_2018-09-28_tie_001_en.html A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: General government debt by quarter 2021, 2nd quarter Published: 28 September 2018 General government debt grew by EUR 0.4 billion in the second quarter of 2018 General government EDP debt, or consolidated gross debt at nominal prices amounted to EUR 135.8 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2018 and grew by EUR 0.4 billion during the second quarter. Correspondingly, general government debt has fallen by EUR 0.4 billion compared with the respective period of the year before. These data derive from Statistics Finland's statistics on general government debt by quarter. General government debt by quarter During the second quarter, central government debt grew by EUR 0.3 billion and was EUR 115.4 billion at the end of the quarter. The amount of short-term debt instruments with a maturity of under one year decreased during the second quarter by EUR 0.4 billion due to amortisations. The stock of bonds grew by EUR 0.7 billion over the same period. The stock of short-term and long-term loans remained nearly on level with the previous quarter. The local government sector's debt decreased by EUR 0.1 billion and totalled EUR 19.7 billion at the end of the quarter. The stock of money market instruments grew by EUR 0.6 billion, but bonds and long-term loans decreased by EUR 0.7 billion. The debt of social security funds totalled EUR two billion at the end of the quarter. The amount of short-term loans of social security funds decreased by EUR 0.5 billion due to the decline in cash collateral received in connection with employment pension schemes' derivative contracts and securities lending. General government EDP debt describes general governments debt to other sectors of the national economy and to the rest of the world, and its development is influenced by changes in unconsolidated debt and internal general government debts. Consolidated general government gross debt is derived by deducting debts between units recorded under general government from unconsolidated gross debt. For this reason, general government debt is smaller than the combined debts of its sub-sectors. The EDP debt of general government differs conceptionally to some extent in the case of central government from the central government debt published by the State Treasury. Central government's EDP debt also includes loans granted to beneficiary counties by the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF, received cash collaterals related to derivative contracts, the capital of the Nuclear Waste Management Fund, debts generated from investments in central government's PPP (public-private partnership) projects, coins that are in circulation, and the deposits of the European Commission. In National Accounts, central government is also a broader concept than the budget and financial economy (http://www.stat.fi/meta/luokitukset/_linkki/julkisyhteisot.html). The valuation principle for both debt concepts is the nominal value, where the effect of currency swaps is taken into account. Source: General government debt by quarter, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Timo Ristimaki 029 551 2324, Henna Laasonen 029 551 3303, rahoitus.tilinpito@stat.fi Director in charge: Ville Vertanen Publication in pdf-format (217.1 kB) Updated 28.9.2018 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): General government debt by quarter [e-publication]. ISSN=1799-8034. 2nd quarter 2018. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 13.11.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/jyev/2018/02/jyev_2018_02_2018-09-28_tie_001_en.html 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. It is common for companies to organize various informal events where workers can come with their partners. One of those... India is refusing to talk with Pakistan until the Pakistani military at least reduces its Islamic terror activity in Kashmir. Pakistan denies there is any such thing, despite a growing body of evidence from captured Islamic terrorists, documents and electronic intercepts. Pakistan has found that their best tactic in the face of all this evidence is to just continue denying while putting all the blame on India. Even veteran diplomats find this approach tiresome and repugnant. Pakistani elected officials (and many more retired civil and military personnel) have admitted this but often quietly because the Pakistani military does not respond well to public criticism from anyone inside Pakistan. In the last month, Pakistan has ordered its Islamic terrorists operating in Kashmir to terrorize the locally recruited police as well as their families. There are about 26,000 of these SPOs (Special Police Officers) in Kashmir and the threats caused about fifty resignations. India responded by increasing the pay of SPOs, especially those with years of experience. The intent of the terrorist threat is to destroy the local police and force India to bring in outsiders to provide local policing. This would make it easier for the Pakistani terrorists to carry out another mission; make it more difficult to hold elections, especially those that elect local officials. Most Kashmiris are hostile to both of these Pakistani efforts but there is not much they can do about it. As long as there are a few hundred Islamic terrorists out in the hills, and those Islamic terrorists are willing to take a lot of casualties (which they are as a result of engaging in a high-risk activity like kidnapping locals and killing those who are police) Pakistan can keep Indian Kashmir in disarray. While more young men from Kashmir are joining the Pakistani Islamic terror groups police point out that these recruits are not trained (often for a year or more), like the ones from Pakistan are and rarely last more than a year before getting killed or dying from disease or accidents or getting captured and jailed. Pakistan can bring over more of their trained Islamic terrorists but the losses getting across the border are high and despite their training, the imported Islamic terrorists dont last long either. Pakistani planners believe if they can amp up the violence in Kashmir the Indian forces will react and that will mean more pain and loss for civilians because the paramilitary police prefer to avoid casualties at all costs and thus deal harshly with any civilians suspected of harboring Islamic terrorists. The civilians usually have no choice and thats why its so important to have local police, who can determine who is a victim and who is supporting the Islamic terrorists. Pakistan is willing to impose more and more pain on the Kashmiri population because after more than 20 years of this nothing has worked. Most Moslem Kashmiris are not interested in becoming part of Pakistan (they know how it is over there) but there are a minority of Kashmiris who do support Pakistan and thats enough for Pakistan to keep the violence going but not enough to win. Apparently, Pakistan believes they have nothing to lose with their burn the place down approach. Afghan Angst The Afghan Taliban is divided over the issue of being controlled by Pakistan and being held responsible for the growing number of Afghan drug addicts. Then there is the role of Pakistan in sustaining the chaos Afghanistan has suffered since the late 1970s (when Russian backed Afghan communists tried to start a revolution). The communists were followed by a Russian invasion, drug gangs, an Islamic revolution, civil war and Pakistan seeking to take control in the 1990s with their Taliban movement. Pakistan did serve as a base for millions of Afghan refugees and thousands of Afghan rebels during the 1980s but that led to Pakistan believing it could continue to support violence in Afghanistan if it was deemed to be serving Pakistani interests. The Pakistani created and supported Taliban had control of Afghanistan (or at least most of it) from the late 1990s until 2001. That led to the American invasion and Pakistan continuing to support the drug gangs and Taliban while assisting the U.S. in its war on terror. Many Americans want to just leave. The problem is just getting out leaves Afghanistan at the mercy of Pakistan, Iran and Russia, as well as all the drug gangs, Islamic terror groups and numerous Afghans who oppose the drugs and all the outside interference. The drugs and Islamic terrorism will still be major exports. The West can leave Afghanistan but the ills of Afghanistan wont leave the West and that is just fine with Pakistan. A growing number of Afghan Taliban leaders want peace and an end to being manipulated by the Pakistanis. Despite that, the senior Afghan Taliban leader and the Pakistani generals are not inclined to consider peace talks because of all that money from the drug gangs as well as the ability to control (or at least disrupt) Afghanistan. The U.S. recently repeated its accusation that Pakistan had done nothing about the Pakistan sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network and several other Islamic terror groups that do the bidding of the Pakistani military. Direct peace talks between Afghan Taliban leaders and the United States, which is now a possibility, are very risky for the Taliban and their Pakistani patrons because the existence of their sanctuaries in Pakistan, while denied by the Pakistani military, are an open secret in Pakistan where it is also obvious that the Pakistan military and its intelligence agency (the ISI) handles these sanctuaries. Those sanctuaries make it possible for the Afghan Taliban to plan and organize attacks on internal enemies (factions that oppose Pakistani control). Peace talks between the Americans and factions of the Afghan Taliban are just one of the problems the Afghan Taliban face. There has been growing internal unrest, mainly between factions that believe they are serving Pakistan at the expense of Afghans. On an individual basis, more Afghan Taliban veterans are quitting to join ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) because they see the Afghan Taliban becoming more of a drug gang security force than anything else. Other Taliban veterans just quit. The Afghan Taliban is gradually losing its true believers (in the original goal of establishing a religious dictatorship in Afghanistan) and turning into mercenaries. Whatever the Afghan Taliban evolves into the Pakistani military will have a major role to play. The Pakistani military does what it wants in Afghanistan, just like it does in Pakistan, where the military is very much above the law and can usually act like it. That is not a secret because about half the time since Pakistan was created in 1947 the military has openly run the government (after a coup) until popular opposition (and frustration at the task of governing) forced the generals to allow elections again. The Afghan Taliban insist their main goal is to get foreign troops out of Afghanistan but say nothing about suppressing the widely unpopular drug trade. Moreover terrorism related deaths are overwhelmingly caused by the Islamic terrorists, mainly Taliban and Haqqani Network attacks. These men die protecting the drug production that has turned millions of Afghans into addicts and crippled efforts to build the economy and educate the children. Few Taliban really believe they are doing anything good for Afghanistan or the average Afghan. To maintain control of the Afghan Taliban the ISI calls on another of their protected Islamic terror groups; the Haqqani Network. This group was once a faction in the 1990s Afghan civil war but always had a good relationship with the ISI. Over the last two decades Haqqani have turned into a criminal gang that also manages terror operations in Afghanistan for ISI. Because of that Haqqani, at the behest of ISI, also became part of the current Afghan Taliban senior leadership. Most Afghans know all about this and are not happy with how the Pakistani military gets away with it. This has caused a split in the Afghan Taliban with several factions still working for drug gangs but refusing to take orders from the ISI controlled Afghan Taliban leadership. Since 2015 there has been a lot more violence in Afghanistan and most of it has involved fighting between Islamic terror groups as well as with local tribal militias and Afghan security forces. What drives this extraordinary degree of violence is the drug trade, which is seen as a quick path to wealth by many uneducated and unemployed Afghans. While Taliban attacks on urban areas are always big news outside of Afghanistan what is important to the Taliban is control of key rural areas where opium and heroin are produced as well as the routes to external markets (usually via Pakistan, as well as Iran and Central Asia). The routes to Pakistan are also important for importing chemicals (to turn opium into heroin), weapons and other illegal suppliers. The Americans have revised their strategy in Afghanistan to recognize the key importance of Pakistan. This is where most of the heroin moves from Afghanistan to world markets (via the Port of Karachi) and where the Pakistan military makes sure whatever the Taliban in Afghanistan needs gets safely to the Afghan border. Since 2oo2 the U.S. has respected Pakistani demands that the Taliban leadership sanctuary in Quetta (the capital of Baluchistan Province and near the Afghan border and Kandahar province, where most of the worlds heroin comes from) not be attacked by American UAVs. Apparently those conventions are being reviewed while all military aid to Pakistan has been halted. Pakistan received over $33 billion in aid since 2001. Halting all military aid to Pakistan has caused the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistan military to reconsider their strategy towards the drug trade and efforts to maintain influence over Afghanistan by sponsoring lots of violence inside Afghanistan. By continuing to refrain from hitting Afghan Taliban sanctuaries Pakistan has an incentive to continue allowing NATO to move supplies from the port of Karachi, by road, into Afghanistan. Afghan Sanctuaries Meanwhile the remnants of the Pakistani Taliban hide out in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border. A favorite hideout for all sorts of Islamic terrorists, smugglers and outlaws is Nangarhar province where the Afghan military and American forces are constantly seeking out all manner of Islamic terrorists (Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, ISIL and both flavors of Taliban). For example on August 25th an American air strike killed the head of the Afghan branch of ISIL. This sort of thing slows down but does not stop ISIL efforts to expand its operations in into Pakistan. This is something the Pakistani military would rather not dwell on because Pakistan prefers to insist that Afghanistan and the Americans are not doing enough to suppress Islamic terrorists who are hostile to Pakistan (especially the Pakistani Taliban). The Afghan-Pakistan branch of ISIL (Wilayat e Khurasan or just Khurasan) has found it is possible to operate in Pakistan. First ISIL had to find existing groups that were at war with the Pakistani government and done so by successfully adapting to the military counter-terrorism efforts. The two most hospitable groups were the rebellions Baluchi tribesmen in Southwest Pakistan (Baluchistan). The second haven was urban areas in Sind and Punjab provinces. These two provinces contain most of Pakistans population and economic activity. This is also where most of the better educated (and often unemployed) ISIL recruits can be found. There were already some ISIL support networks in these urban areas and ISIL has learned how to use them for organizing attacks. While ISIL attacks in Baluchistan can be attributed (by the military) to Baluchi separatists or other Islamic terror groups that survive there , the attacks in Sind and Punjab are generally accepted as ISIL efforts and that embarrasses the military. All Quiet On The Pakistani Media The Pakistani military won a major victory in 2018 that they prefer not to publicize. The loser here has been Pakistani press freedom and all that goes with it. The key to calling this a victory is the military gaining control over the courts, especially the highest tribunals beyond which there is no appeal. The military can now act freely to intimidate and silence any media critics. The intimidation comes in many forms. One is to have ISI (military intelligence) agents break into the homes of uncooperative journalists and steal items related to investigations of military misconduct. The victims usually suspect the ISI because if you have been active online or in print or electronic media criticizing the military the ISI will send you a message. Burglary is one of the milder forms of ISI media intimidation. If a Pakistani online critic lives outside the country the ISI will threaten parents or other kin who still live in Pakistan. The threats often include kidnapping and torture if their overseas critic does not shut up. If the victims in Pakistan seek out the police and courts for protection they receive no help. Few of these offshore online critics and family in Pakistan continue to defy the ISI. This sort of thing explains why a mid-2018 survey found that 88 percent of Pakistani journalists admitted that they self-censor to avoid problems with the military (which now prefers to be referred to as the Institution.) Kidnapping and injuring kin of foreign critics is often risky for the ISI because the UN and many foreign nations are already pressuring the Pakistani military to halt its support for Islamic terrorism against neighbors and police terrorism against critics inside Pakistan. That is less of a problem as the military escalated its use of coercion against uncooperative Pakistani mass media. Recent examples of this can be seen in the blocking of the distribution of the Dawn newspaper in early May because Dawn printed an interview with a former prime minister (Nawaz Sharif) who admitted that the 2008 Islamic terror attacks on India in Mumbai were the work of a Pakistan based Islamic terrorist group that has long, and still does, receive support and sanctuary by the Pakistani military. The military also sought to suppress news of a recent book by Asad Durrani, a former (1990-92) head of ISI (military intelligence) that was written with a former head of RAW, the Indian equivalent of ISI. These two intel experts compare perspectives and it does not look good for the Pakistani military. As a result Durrani was barred from leaving the country for any reason. Durrani and Sharif are but the latest (and among the most senior) Pakistani insiders to go public with details of how the Pakistani military operates. The military wants to minimize the damage these traitors inflict on the reputation and credibility of the military. A growing number of Pakistanis believe it is too late for that. While the Pakistani military is gradually losing its popular support due to relentless and growing opposition inside Pakistan, the military still controls nuclear weapons. Worse there are a growing number of generals who are true believers in Islamic radicalism (some have even joined Islamic terror groups after retiring). These true believers are a minority in the military leadership but that fact that they exist and the fact that Pakistan was able to build nuclear weapons via corrupt practices (and then secretly offer some of the tech for sale) makes a lot of people inside and outside Pakistan nervous. Dawn continued to report on that Sharif interview, the book and the reaction of readers inside Pakistan and worldwide. Details of the 2008 Mumbai attack are well documented and widely accepted worldwide and were included book Dawn gave a lot of attention to. But to discuss this in inside Pakistan can get you into trouble. Sometimes fatal trouble. Dawn is the oldest and most read English language newspaper in Pakistan. The military had suspended distribution of Dawn in areas that the military controls (because of military bases, military operations or because the military controls much of the local economy.) This sort of thing backfires because the military cannot control the Internet and as the news gets through anyway people are eagerly seek it out and embrace it. Among those embracing this news are many Pushtuns in the northwest who are openly blaming the military for all the Islamic terrorism and chaos in the Afghan border areas where most Pushtun live. China Tries Harder As India achieves a higher GDP growth rate than China and will soon have more people than China it has become popular for Indians to seek other comparisons. That does not work out well. India is playing catchup with China when it comes to explosive economic growth and India has several serious shortcomings compared to China. For one thing the Indian workforce is less educated than the Chinese. This is due to the rampant corruption throughout Indian public education. China, in comparison, has far higher standards in public education. While China has problems with corruption the problem is much more severe for India, especially in the government. This means key decisions (like military procurement and educational or other reforms) are delayed for years, or decades, because of the corruption and political deal making. Its a cultural thing and India will have to work hard to become competitive with China. On a practical level Indian military capabilities are inferior to the Chinese because of the corruption and government sloth. For example the Indian military cannot get needed new weapons or essential support to keep existing one operational. Efforts to improve roads and other infrastructure in border areas claimed by China are way behind schedule because the government delays and procrastination. These are not new problems but have been around for centuries. China overcame them and if India does not China will always have the upper hand in tech, economy and military power. September 25, 2018: In northwest Pakistan (North Waziristan) the government has ordered customs officials to strictly enforce import-export rules and block any Afghan imports that do not have the proper paperwork. That means an Electronic Import Form, which is available, for a fee. Many Afghans refuse to get the forms because they see it as a ploy by Pakistan to impose fees to get goods into Pakistan, particularly perishables (like fruit and vegetables). Pakistan didnt demand the paperwork when they reopened the border to trade in May. September 24, 2018: In northwest Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) a policeman guarding polio vaccination workers was shot dead on the first day of another major vaccination effort. Pakistan is on the brink of eliminating polio, with only four cases of it so far this year. Afghanistan is having more of a problem (because of more widespread Taliban violence) and has had 14 cases of polio so far this year. The only other nation on the planet with cases of polio is Nigeria and there the vaccination efforts are sharply reducing the number of cases. Vaccination teams are particularly vulnerable because they must visit the most remote and lawless areas to deliver the vaccination to vulnerable children. Parents tend to favor the vaccination and given the proliferation of cell phone service it is rather easy to call in or text a tip about some threat to the vaccination effort. In the last decade the main obstacle has been Islamic terror groups who ban polio vaccinations and attack anyone trying to deliver the vaccine to children. Islamic terrorists in general tend to believe the vaccination teams are spying for the government and that the vaccinations are a plot to sterilize or kill Moslems. In Pakistan and Afghanistan there are still religious problems with vaccination. The Afghan Taliban now openly support the vaccination program but there still some rural areas where local Moslem clerics or teachers continue to denounce the vaccinations. There is a similar situation in Pakistan, where some fringe Islamic groups still try and kill members of the vaccination teams. Despite the death threats there was another major effort in 2017 to vaccinate vulnerable Afghan and Pakistani children against polio. In 2016 there were 20 cases of polio in Pakistan and 13 in Afghanistan. There were four in Nigeria, a country that is expected to be free of polio this year or next. Despite this continued resistance polio cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan continues to decline. For Afghanistan there were fewer cases in 2017 and 2016. In Pakistan the situation is similar with about the same number of cases in 2017. Nevertheless the global vaccination effort has worked. In the 1980s, when the polio elimination effort began there were 350,000 cases in 125 countries. For the last several years there have been fewer than a hundred cases worldwide. After a few years of no reported cases polio will gone, as happened with smallpox in the 1970s. In Pakistan a journalist for the Dawn newspaper is accused of treason for interviewing a former prime minister (Nawaz Sharif) who admitted that the 2008 Islamic terror attacks on India in Mumbai were the work of a Pakistan based Islamic terrorist group that has long, and still does, receive support and sanctuary by the Pakistani military. While most of the world accepts this as true the Pakistani military wants to discourage Pakistanis from publishing this sort of thing. Treason is a capital offense. September 22, 2018: In northwest Pakistan (North Waziristan) an army patrol clashed with a group of Islamic terrorists crossing the border from Afghanistan. Seven soldiers and nine of the intruders (apparently Pakistani Taliban) were killed during the battle. The surviving Islamic terrorists fled back into Afghanistan. September 21, 2018: India cancelled a high level meeting with Pakistani officials because of the uproar in India over continued Pakistani violence on the border and in Kashmir. Imran Kahn, the new Pakistani prime minister, suspected of being under the control of the Pakistani military has quickly shown that is true. Kahn has come out and praised the Pakistani military not matter what the generals do and that includes imposing media censorship and making public criticism of the military a punishable (legally or otherwise) offense. India has been subjected to these tactics for decades and there is little patience left for Pakistan to turn itself around. That means India is more inclined to meet force with force and, for example, carry out more attacks at Islamic terrorists targets inside Pakistan. While that could mean nuclear war, India is apparently not dissuaded by that anymore. September 18, 2018: Due to the worsening economy in Iran (made worse by the American revival of sanctions in March) over 15 percent of the three million Afghan refugees still in eastern Iran have returned to Afghanistan so far this year. Nearly all of these Afghans are Shia who feared returning as long as the Afghan Taliban (and ISIL) were active in Afghanistan. These two groups, and Sunni Islamic terror groups in general, consider Shia heretics and targets them for death on a regular basis. But Iran has made returning to Afghanistan easier by increasing its support for the Afghan Taliban. This gesture is also a favor to Pakistan, which Iran is trying to maintain good relations with (as Pakistan is also an ally of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is the only Moslem nation with nukes). September 17, 2018: In Bangladesh police commanders are complaining that NGOs (non-government organizations) and the UN are discouraging Rohingya refugees from returning to Burma. Thats not hard to do but the accusations are disputed by the UN and NGOs, What is undisputed is that the NGOs do often have their own foreign policy and a tendency to try and work the mass media to persuade or coerce governments to work for them. This has led Bangladesh to impose restrictions on what the 41 NGOs operating in the Rohingya refugee camps. September 12, 2018: In northwest Pakistan (South Waziristan) a truck from Pakistan was seized by Afghan police as it crossed into Paktika province. The truck from Pakistan carrying over half a ton of ammonium nitrate (used for explosives). Two Haqqani Network members were arrested and it was discovered that the ammonium nitrate came from a Haqqani base across the border in Pakistan (South Waziristan). This shipment of ammonium nitrate was headed for Ghazni province where Islamic terrorists were planning another series of attacks. Bangladesh again proclaimed that it would never assimilate the Burmese Rohingya refugees, even those the Rohingya are ethnically Bengali and share the same religion as Bangladeshis. Most of the Burmese Rohingya comes from families that have been in Burma for over a century and most speak Burmese and consider themselves Burmese. There has also been some intermarriage with ethnic Burmese (who are East Asian, like most Chinese rather than Indo-European as most Bangladeshis are) which means many Burmese Rohingya no longer look like Bengalis. September 6, 2018: China has agreed to establish multiple hotlines along their mutual border and also between the defense ministries of both nations. This revives previous efforts to establish a hotline. In 2016 China and India have worked out and agreed to details of a hotline for commanders on both sides of the LAC (Line of Actual Control). Also known as the MacCartney-MacDonald Line the LAC is the unofficial border between India and China. The LAC is 4,057 kilometers long and is found in the Indian States of Ladakh, Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal, and Arunachal. On the Chinese side it is mostly Tibet. China claims much territory that is now considered part of India. There have been hundreds of armed confrontations over the last few years as one side or the other accuses foreign troops of crossing the LAC. The agreement fell apart when India went ahead, despite Chinese protests, and expanded its military ties with the United States. China has a history of expecting nations to do China an extra favor if they want a hotline arrangement. In the case of South Korea the hotline agreement did not go into effect until after South Korea cut some of its military ties with Taiwan. A hotline is nothing new for China. There has been one with North Korea since the 1950s. This enabled senior Chinese military leaders to pick up a phone and call their North Korean counterparts to quickly deal with any mutual problems. In 2008 China and the United States approved an agreement for a communications hotline followed in 2011 by a similar agreement between China and South Korea. A hotline like this is quicker and more accurate than waiting for the usual diplomatic channels to be used (and having to depend on the mass media in the meantime.) September 4, 2018: The recent death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, 79 year old founder of the Haqqani Network, was revealed by the Afghan Taliban. Jalaluddin Haqqani was thought to have died in 2o14 but that was actually when he became so disabled that he turned over control of the network to his successor (Siraj Haqqani). This transition was smooth and Siraj Haqqani continued to cooperate with the Taliban and maintain subservience to ISI (Pakistani military intelligence). Because Jalaluddin Haqqani helped Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders escape Afghanistan in 2001 there has always been a sense of mutual dependence. For that reason Haqqani leaders were able to help deal with the mid-2015 power struggle within the Taliban and thwart the recruiting efforts of ISIL. Given that Haqqani works for ISI, Pakistan had to approve, if not help bring about this new arrangement. September 2, 2018: The United States told Pakistan that $300 million in military aid was suspended because continued refusal of Pakistan (specifically the military) to shut down Islamic terrorist operations inside Pakistan. The Pakistani military showed, in 2014, that it could do so against Islamic terror groups (Pakistani Taliban, ISIL) that threatened the Pakistani government. But Pakistan has refused to admit it protects Islamic terror groups, like the Afghan Taliban, Haqqani Network and several groups that carry out attacks in India. August 31, 2018: In southwest Pakistan (Baluchistan) Iranian border guards clashed with Iranian Sunni separatists who were based in Pakistan and returning to Iran to carry out an attack. Four of the separatists were killed and three wounded while survivors fled back into Pakistan. The Iranian forces suffered one wounded. A FASCINATING yet often overlooked chapter of the Second World War is the vital role women played helping Britain on the home front by working on the land. Vivid memories and timeless songs brought a tear to many eyes at The Old Slaughterhouse Heritage and Arts Centre as Escape Arts earlier this month launched a free historical exhibition The Food of Love with specially invited guests who served locally in the Womens Land Army. The launch brought together eight land army women now aged in their 80s and 90s who - like thousands of others - rose to the challenge of keeping Britain safe and fed on the home front while men went off to fight. This period is also regarded as pivotal in the growth of womens social and economic equality. To coincide with the Heritage Open Days in the town centre Escape Arts also hosted Here Come The Girls, a living history event involving local people, partnership organisations businesses and schools. There was also a recreation of a land-girl wedding featuring a handmade embroidered parachute wedding dress, wartime food and recipes, a bake off, a wonky veg competition make do and mend workshops, theatrical performances by Second Thoughts Theatre Company with support from Phoenix Players. The exhibition continues through to Christmas. How a recreation of the Birthplace could look. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) have given their backing to a project in China to recreate Shakespeare's Birthplace and Shakespeare's New Place. Delegates from SBT are currently in the city of Fuzhou where they have signed an exclusive Co-operation Agreement with the Fuzhou Culture and Tourism Investment Company Ltd. As part of the deal SBT will act as consultants on the project to help recreate the two Shakespeare heritage sites as faithfully as possible. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will provide historical and contemporary data for the design and construction of the original houses, together with expert guidance on traditional building methods and materials, and support for exhibition content and presentation. It will have approval of all stages of design, build and interpretation. For more on this story, read next Thursdays Herald. Since the premiere of the Monaco Yacht Show almost three decades ago, the world leader event in superyachting continues to present the pinnacle of luxury. But why is the yacht show still so successful year after year. Gaelle begins by speaking about the unrivalled location; "Monaco Yacht Show is in a fantastic country, very safe, the principality of Monaco is a tiny city but it has a lot to offer, a fantastic place for organising a nice event at night and also there's an opportunity to have parties on board yachts [...] it's really an international capital for yachting here in Monaco." In fact, this is the 28th edition of MYS. Gaelle suggests that this could be the best year yet, with the most respected superyacht shipyards, designers, brokerage houses, luxury manufacturers and top-of-the-range service suppliers gathering in a new way to exhibit across four busy days. This year, it's much improved and Gaelle tells us why... "We have improved the yacht show by gathering together in each dock the activities, for example you will find nearby the yachts more displays for brokers, shipyards and designers and clustering activities such as the creation of yachts, all the luxury products in the Parvis Piscene tent and another tent for the technical fitters of yachts." Closing with a discussion of the future of yachting and the yacht show, Gaelle speaks volumes on the recent suggestion that the industry is bringing in a younger generation with its evolution... "We always have in mind the needs of the young demogrpahic coming to the yacht show. This is why we have included a full deck for tenders and toys as the young owners want to enjoy these with their friends!" For the full interview, watch the video above. The chief minister, Fabian Picardo, and deputy chief minister Dr Joseph Garcia held another meeting in London to discuss Brexit on Wednesday, this time in Downing Street with Dominic Raab, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Robin Walker. This was the latest in a regular series of meetings between the UK and Gibraltar governments which have been taking place since the EU referendum, but the work schedule is intensifying even further now in the run-up to the next meeting of the European Council in October. The United Kingdom and Gibraltar governments, as has already been announced, are both preparing for a deal and for a no-deal Brexit at the same time. This high-level political meeting followed detailed technical talks between officials from different UK government departments and other members of the Gibraltar team, including Attorney General Michael Llamas and Financial Secretary Albert Mena. As the Gibraltar government has been at pains to point out recently, nothing has been settled yet and the next six to eight weeks will be vital. However, during the meeting the Secretary of State expressed his full support for Gibraltar in the Brexit negotiations and going forward, and although no details have been given by the Gibraltar or Spanish authorities there have been indications that talks between them are progressing well although nothing has yet been agreed. The Gibraltar government insists that none of its red lines will be crossed. HMS Echo arrived at the Naval Base in Gibraltar for a routine scheduled visit on Wednesday. The Echo is the first of two multi-role hydrographic survey ships commissioned by the Royal Navy. The other survey vessel of this type is her sister ship, HMS Enterprise. The Echo was built in Devon, UK, in 2002 by Appledore Shipbuilders and is designed to carry out a wide range of survey work, including support to submarine and amphibious operations. Born in Palencia (Spain) in 1872 to a middle class family, Trinidad Arroyo Villaverde lived at a time where women were seldom seen to have high-powered careers. With many prevented from gaining the necessary qualifications, many women were expected to forgo a career altogether and remain at home. Arroyo, however, with the support of her father, was able to succeed at school and eagerly applied to study Medicine at university. Despite her academic success, however, as a woman, she found herself rejected. Her mere presence in the classroom was considered likely to be a distraction and threaten the academic prowess of the institution. The following year, she had to sit an exam in order to prove her academic excellence and convince the director of the university she was worthy of a place. No male student was expected to complete this exam. But in spite of this early adversity, she graduated to become Spain's first female ophthalmologist in 1896. Arroyo then dedicated her life to understanding and treating diseases and conditions, with a particular focus on those affecting sight. In 1898 she decided to return to her birthplace of Palencia and opened a practice alongside her brother. She treated patients from all over the region and often travelled throughout Spain to operate on them. Her career was flourishing. In 1902 she married Manuel Marquez, also a doctor, and the man who had encouraged her to study Ophthalmology in the first place. Together, they continued to practice medicine successfully for many years. However, at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936 when Arroyo was 64, the couple decided to go into exile in Mexico, allowing them to continue with their careers without disruption. Throughout her life and especially during the Civil War, Arroyo worked closely with political and social organisations advocating especially for women's rights. Due to the struggles she faced in her own education, Arroyo was particularly focused on changing the status for women in education and the workplace. She was a member of the Lyceum Club Femenino, vice president of the Comite Femenino de Higiene Popular in Madrid, honorary president of the Spanish Association of Women Physicians and a contributor to the Spanish Social Medicine journal for the controversial and informative section, 'Feminist Notes. From woman to woman'. Through this work she remained a well-known figurehead in both the fields of medicine and women's rights. Arroyo remained in Mexico until her death on 28 September 1959. A statue in her honour can be found at the Instituto Jorge Manrique in Madrid and a school in Palencia has taken her name. Thirty years ago a long line of cars brought the centre of Torremolinos to a standstill. Their occupants threw confetti and people in the streets started dancing, shouting "We're a town now!" What had been an outlying district of Malaga city had just been recognised as a municipality in its own right by the Junta de Andalucia, an independence which it achieved by separating from Malaga 64 years after being annexed. The SUR newspaper featured the story the next day: "After touring the streets, the members of the Pro-Autonomy Committee put signs up by Campamento Benitez, showing where the municipality's boundary was," it said. The keenly-awaited segregation brought an end to years of political convulsion, but it also opened other wounds, some of them which have yet to heal. For five years the mayor of Malaga at the time, Pedro Aparicio, had refused to talk officially to the Pro-Autonomy Committee, whose president was Pedro Fernandez Montes. "The relationship wasn't exactly cordial," they admitted. The committee was dissolved when the powers were transferred to the new council. It was down to them, though, to celebrate the town's independence and enjoy the San Miguel Fair, which was inaugurated for the last time by the mayor of Malaga, but also to determine the boundaries of Torremolinos, and that process hit its greatest stumbling block at the Cortijo de Mazas. Article One of the decree approved by the regional government established the segregation from Malaga "for the constitution of a new and independent municipality, which will be called Torremolinos, and whose capital will be the urban nucleus of the same name". Torremolinos became Malaga province's 100th municipality . As well as the division of territory there had to be a separation of assets, rights and actions, as well as debts and charges among the two municipalities. Malaga city hall continued to provide services until an agreement was reached with the management committee. The debt which Torremolinos owed to the city at that point was the equivalent of nearly 20 million euros. The High Court of Justice ofAndalucia (TSJA) ratified this amount, which was for cleaning, rubbish collection and use of the rubbish dump until 1990. The initial debt had been 9.8 million euros, but the long litigation instigated by Fernandez Montes, who always insisted that the sentence "is not fair" meant that interest doubled the amount. The present mayor, Jose Ortiz, reached an agreement with his counterpart in Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, in 2015 about restructuring the debt. Socialist Miguel Escalona was chosen to be president of the management committee of Torremolinos, which governed the municipality from the time of the segregation to 1991, after obtaining the vote of all parties except Alianza Popular. Ramon del Cid, his main political rival, who is still a PP councillor today, obtained eight votes compared with Escalona's 13, so the latter became the first mayor of Torremolinos. Officials from Malaga city hall declined the invitation to attend the extraordinary council meeting, another sign of the breach which had opened years before. Torremolinos had been independent until 1924. The segregation process achieved independence again over six decades later, but it was not an easy path. Many local people became so angry about delays that they held a protest in Seville to demand that the bureaucratic process be speeded up. When the Junta announced its decision, Aparicio was highly critical because he considered independence to be "a serious mistake which the people of Malaga and Torremolinos will only be able to judge sufficiently in the year 2000". Months earlier, residents of the former district supported a general strike to protest about the city having "kidnapped the file" in order to hold the process up. Fernandez Montes, one of the first to promote autonomy and celebrated "Independence Day" during his legislature, became mayor in 1995, after Escalona. His council remained in power with absolute majorities until 13 June 2015, when he lost the post in a controversial council meeting during which there was a great deal of argument and heckling people had to be removed from the room. Ortiz is the third mayor of the municipality since its segregation in 1988. Volunteers from Lux Mundi Torre del Mar and Fuengirola met at the Santa Rosa hotel in El Morche, Torrox, on Wednesday for their annual lunch. This year it was the turn of the East of Malaga centre to host the event, coinciding with the silver anniversary of the opening of the Torre del Mar centre. Around 80 volunteers from both sites enjoyed a buffet lunch while reflecting on the centre's achievements over the last 25 years. The many nationalities that make Lux Mundi the international ecumenical centre that it has become were represented around the table with attendees from Spain, the UK, Germany, Colombia and Singapore, to name but a few. The volunteers also provided an update on the charity work that the two centres are doing as well as the work of those who help out with food banks, such as Los Angeles de la Noche and others. Irene Weinhoppel Volunteer Patricia Rothwell Press officer Pilar Flores Secretary, Torre del Mar Centre director, Gloria Uribe, said, "It's thanks to our volunteers that the waves that we create grow and for that we are extremely grateful. I hope that between us Lux Mundi will continue for another 50 years, or more, providing a service to the church and to society." The Torre del Mar centre opened its doors to the public in September 1994, after founder of the original centre in Fuengirola, the late Father Delius, also recognised a need to help the growing international Christian community in the east of Malaga area. Gloria explains that it was during a meeting of the executive committee of Lux Mundi Fuengirola in 1993 that the idea of opening a centre in the Axarquia area first arose. An appropriate building was sought and after extensive searches in Nerja, Rincon de la Victoria and other towns in the area, in May 1994 the Casa de la Vina, a then small, run-down house at the bottom of the Vina Malaga area of Torre del Mar, was chosen as the location. Work started to turn the space into a useable facility and it opened its doors in September 1994. It has been extended and reformed since and many people have walked through its doors. "Since then Lux Mundi has grown, we have met wonderful people all of whom have left their mark here," reflected Gloria. Over the years, and like many other organisations in Spain, Lux Mundi Torre del Mar has felt the effects of the financial crisis, seen many volunteers come and go, and lost many cherished friends, either who have passed away or returned to their native countries. Gloria has expressed a wish for people who have used the centre, or been a volunteer, to get in touch with a view to marking this year's anniversary with memories of the help given to, or received from, Lux Mundi Torre del Mar. Another key member of the Lux Mundi Torre del Mar staff is Pilar Flores. Pilar, who is from Malaga, first met Gloria 25 years ago when she was looking after Gloria's grandmother. Another coincidence was that the house next to the centre belonged to Pilar's family. She explains that she has officially worked for Lux Mundi for 18 years as the centre's secretary and Gloria's 'right-hand woman'. "It's like a big family," says Pilar, whose son, Pablo, was born shortly after she started working there. "Everyone at Lux Mundi treats him like their nephew," she laughs. Pilar gives the twice-weekly Spanish classes and organises many of the events that take place there. "I am always there," she jokes. Irene Weinhoppel, who is originally from Germany but has lived in the Axarquia for the last 15 years, is also a volunteer and has spent a decade helping German people who come to the centre and who need advice and translation, "particularly when they first arrive". Irene says that she is "always there on Fridays" for the coffee morning and also loves organising the regular charity fashion shows. Another volunteer who has been with Lux Mundi Torre del Mar and who attended the lunch is Katherin Ockenfels, who is originally from Singapore, but who moved to Spain with her German husband in 2000. "I was looking for somewhere I could attend Mass," Katherin explains, adding "two Spanish ladies, all dressed in black, literally dropped me at the door of Lux Mundi. I spoke no Spanish and I don't know how they understood what I was looking for," she recalls. Since then she has been a loyal volunteer, teaching English and "helping out with whatever Gloria asks me to do," joke Katherin. Another important member of the Lux Mundi team, especially for SUR in English, is press officer, Patricia Rothwell, who keeps the newspaper informed of the many events and trips organised by both centres. Patricia explains that she divides her time between Torre del Mar and Fuengirola. With a general decline in people practicing Christianity and a loss in volunteer numbers over the years, Gloria and her team know that there is a lot to do to keep Lux Mundi going, but with their hard work and dedication, the centre is sure to celebrate many more anniversaries over the years. The Four Seasons hotel chain, one of the world's leaders in luxury tourism, is preparing to land on the Costa del Sol with the creation of a 600-million-euro resort. This, the chain's second project in Spain after the construction of a 22-room hotel in Madrid got under way last year, is more ambitious, both in terms of volume and location. The resort will be built on a 400,000-square-metre area of land on the seafront, occupying both sides of the A-7 in Los Monteros, one of the most desirable areas of Marbella. The land is owned by Villa Padierna, belonging to Malaga businessman Ricardo Arranz, who has partnered with North American firm Fort Partners and Belgian real estate company Inmobel. Four Seasons will not only manage the hotel, but will also give its name to the entire development which includes, in addition to a 200-room hotel, private residences and villas. The complex will also include internationally-renowned restaurants that will come to Spain solely for this project. Of the 400,000 square metres of land, it is expected that the urban developments will occupy approximately a quarter. The project will be developed by architect Richard Meier and building will begin as soon as permissions, which have already been approved, come into effect, Arranz explained. One of the most distinctive features of the project is a tunnel which will pass under the motorway, allowing the hotel and the houses that are built to the north to have sea views. For this part, applications for planning permits have already been submitted. Combatting seasonality The arrival of a leading brand such as Four Seasons is highly significant for both Marbella and the Costa del Sol, argued Arranz. The businessman highlighted the size of the brand and stated his belief that it would be a major force in battling seasonality in the area thanks to the enormous client portfolio that the company boasts. Laying the first stone Secretary general of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), Zurab Pololikashvili, has been invited to participate in the ceremony for the laying of the first stone, scheduled for next Friday, 5 October. Also in attendance will be the president of the Junta de Andalucia, Susana Diaz, and other dignitaries, including Marbella mayor, Angeles Munoz; regional Tourism minister, Javier Fernandez; and president of the Diputacion provincial authority, Elias Bendodo. A 47year-old man was sent to prison without bail on Wednesday in connection with the brutal murder of a council employee in Algarrobo in the early hours of Saturday morning. Sixty-three-year-old Antonio Camacho Reina, known locally as 'El Manco', died in a violent attack at around 4am on Saturday morning at the Las Escalerillas park in the town. He was there to look after the electrical equipment used during the Fiesta de la Quema celebrations. The Guardia Civil quickly arrived on the scene having been informed of a possible attack in the park. On arrival, 'El Manco' was already dead. Officers spoke to a witness who said they saw a man jumping on the victim's head. According to the subsequent autopsy, the victim suffered around a dozen blows to the head and neck area, causing severe facial disfigurement. His injuries suggested that he had been punched, kicked and stamped on. Motive The motive of the attack is not yet known. The theft of the electrical equipment has not been ruled out but the principal hypothesis points towards previous bad blood between the two men; the alleged aggressor is known to have threatened to kill the victim on a previous occasion. According to sources, the victim had recently started a relationship with a former partner of the alleged attacker. The suspect, identified as J. J., is a former legionnaire and lives with his older brother. Sources said he has a mental illness and that police officers seized several marijuana plants from his property. He has been jailed without bail while investigations continue. Both men are well known in the small town, where two official days of mourning were declared and the festivities postponed. The trial of a taxi driver, accused of raping a British tourist in Benalmadena on 21 June 2014, took place this week with the prosecution calling for 13 years' imprisonment. The alleged victim, who the public prosecution pointed out had bruising and injuries consistent with a sexual assault, spoke via video call with the help of a translator. She said: "He stopped the car, locked the doors and came into the back where he held me down and raped me." According to the prosecution, the 35-year-old picked up the young woman, who was under the influence of alcohol, in Plaza Solymar in Benalmadena. Instead of taking her straight to her hotel he stopped in a secluded area where the alleged attack took place. He then drove her to her hotel where she called the police from the reception desk. The accused claimed on Wednesday that she had reported him out of "spite". "She told me in English that she wanted sex," he said. "We went to a quiet area and we had [sexual] relations [...] When we finished she wanted more but when I refused to go up to her room, she called the police." The case is pending sentencing. Mijas council's most ambitious project for this legislatative period has taken an important step forward. Last week it was announced that about 70 per cent of the more than 200 apartment and house developments that do not currently get road maintenance services from the town hall can have them at last if they want them, and at no upfront charge to the homeowners. Mayor Juan Carlos Maldonado explained that, until now, "for 40 years no local administration had thought about those affected residents". The council is expected to publish in the next few days details of the process for the residents' associations in the different "urbanizaciones" to become fully adopted by the council. The move has been made possible as the council has no deficit and a 95-million-euro surplus Recently the town hall completed a study of all parts of the municipality that still have private roads to estimate the cost of incorporating them, something that the residents have been asking for for a long time as services tend to be cheaper via the council. Some developments need prior investment for the council to take over maintenance. However with the decision that 70 per cent can join at no charge, some 20,000 residents, including larger estates on Mijas Costa with many expatriate residents, such as Riviera, Calahonda, El Coto and Calypso, could benefit. Mijas council has 90,000 residents in its municipal area. Although many of these 140 developments have roads in a poor state of repair, the council has agreed to take them on if owners want and carry out repairs gradually, as it does for the rest of the municipality, without immediate action in most cases. To be able to begin work, the mayor plans to use part of the surplus budget that has been accumulated of some 95 million euros. "Very soon residents will have a complete road map to follow to ask to be adopted. Residents on the 'urbanizaciones' are celebrating, as for the first time in the history of the municipality an administration has taken a clear step forward so that all the local population can be treated equally across the municipality," said Maldonado. The ProDunas association, which has been fighting for decades for the protection of the last dune enclaves of Marbella, the most important in Malaga province, is pleased that the council has decided to invest in improving and maintaining the 11 ecosystems in the municipality. "We must be thankful that at last the town hall has realised the environmental value of the dunes and wants to spend money on maintaining them," says spokesperson Susanne Stamm, who points out that ProDunas has been asking the authorities for an investment plan to recover the lost ecosystems for years. "It's fabulous, it's positive and we applaud it. For us it is a measure which has come late, but late is better than never," she says. The ProDunas Marbella association, which won the Andalusian Environmental Prize in 2012 and is a member of the Provincial Environmental Biodiversity Council of Malaga, says the project needs to begin as soon as possible because the invasory species are growing uncontrolled in two main areas: El Barronal de la Morena and Real de Zaragoza. It also stresses the importance of 'floating walkways' being placed across the sand. Manuel Valls, former Prime Minister of France, is to stand as an independent anti-Catalan-nationalism candidate in Barcelona's mayoral elections next May. As had long been rumoured, Valls, a Catalan, has finally decided to stand to run the city where he was born (before emigrating to France). He has been seeking a new role ever since president Emmanuel Macron refused him a post in the French government last year. Valls will stand as an independent and pro-Spain, and hopes to draw together support from non-separatist voters. The top politician, who served as French PM under Francois Hollande, will use the slogan, "Barcelona, European Capital". Valls will stand against left-leaning existing mayor Ada Colau. Speaking of his incumbent rival, Valls said that he felt she was doing a good job given she was unprepared for the role. He said that he wanted to be the "mayor of everyone" and "candidate of moderation". Valls already has the support of Ciudadanos, the largest party in Catalonia and who will not campaign against him, and he is hoping to secure a "non-aggression pact" with the conservative PP party. But it is from the Socialist PSOE party that many votes are also expected to come. Advisers are betting that the independence-leaning parties will be divided enough to allow him to win. Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, last week promised that Spain and the UK would reach an agreement over Gibraltar, in the context of Brexit, by the middle of October. Speaking after the EU leaders' summit in Salzburg, he signalled that there were still "complications" in discussions with the British government but expressed "the will" of both sides. The "complications" in the negotiations are disagreements over "judicial and police cooperation as well as the environment and tax" and " tobacco", listed Sanchez, who also said that he wanted a socioeconomic commitment from Gibraltar to help develop the Campo de Gibraltar area of Spain. "We're very near to reaching an agreement," added the PM, saying that the "focus and behaviour of the British government is very constructive". "I think that we can reach an agreement in October," he said. In parallel, the Gibraltar government has complained that a Guardia Civil patrol boat entered a security zone in waters around the peninsula last Thursday as a Royal Navy submarine was leaving. A British vessel let off a warning flare. A planned summit in Brussels on 18 October over Brexit is seen as a crunch point in negotiations with the possibility of a further summit between EU leaders in November if needed. Does anyone care about growth forecasts pertaining to the Spanish economy? There was reason to ask that question once again this week, because the Bank of Spain has lowered its prediction for Spain's GDP expansion in 2018, from 2.7% to 2.6%. Although presumably of importance to some academic economists, this statistic will make zero difference to most Spaniards. What is interesting, though, is the reasoning behind the bank's slightly-increased pessimism. Justifying its lowered expectations, the Bank of Spain cited (amongst other factors) the unstable nature of Spain's Socialist government. The PSOE, led by Pedro Sanchez, holds only 84 seats in the 350-seat parliament - a minority status that's already proved a barrier to passing new legislation. There are indications, though, that Sanchez could bolster his hold on power if he risked holding early elections. The most recent opinion poll - carried out between the 1st and 11th of September by Spain's Sociological Research Centre - showed that, if an election were held today, the PSOE would win with 30.6% of the vote. Pablo Casado's flailing Popular Party (PP) came in a far-removed second, with just 20.8% of the national vote. But it's highly unlikely that Sanchez is going to capitalise on this by holding elections before his term expires in 2020. The PSOE leader is too attached to his unelected position as Spanish prime minister, even if risking an early vote might strengthen his position in congress. Note that the government's popularity has increased even though it's suffered two scandals since taking office four months ago. The first occurred just a week after Sanchez became prime minister and involved newly sworn-in culture minister Maxim Huerta, who resigned amidst allegations that he didn't pay taxes when working as a journalist ten years ago. Huerta's hasty departure was followed by health minister Carmen Monton's resignation earlier this month. Monton, it transpired, obtained a master's degree from Madrid's Juan Carlos University under questionable circumstances. Said university is clearly a favourite among Spanish politicians: PP leader Casado is also suspected to have received a qualification from this relaxed institution, although he allegedly did no work to earn it. And yet the PSOE is riding high in the opinion polls. Clearly, the party's core voters are so used to corruption in Spanish politics that they simply don't notice it anymore. We're also led to the conclusion that Sanchez's more flashy policies - exhuming Franco's remains from their state-funded mausoleum, increasing taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals - are going down extremely well. Popular as some of his ideas might be, Sanchez is going to have a tough time enacting them with such a small parliamentary majority. There's a possible solution to that problem, but the risk attached is too much for a prime minister enjoying a prolonged honeymoon period. Though the curtain is coming down on September, there is still time to enjoy the last of the traditional Andalusian summer fairs. FAIRS Torremolinos. Until Sunday. Fuengirola. 6 to 12 October. Nerja. 8 to 12 October. Ojen. 5 to 9 October. San Pedro Alcantara. 16 to 21 October. This week on the Costa del Sol is the Feria de San Miguel, which got under way in Torremolinos this week. The colourful festivities are set to continue until Sunday. The four-day event is divided between the day fair (where live music and cultural events take place in the town's main squares) and the night fair, when revellers head to the fairground next to the pine forests to enjoy the attractions of the fair and the delights of the casetas (bars). The fun begins at 1pm, when dance academies, flamenco troupes and a mixture of local bands will perform in the large marquees erected in Plaza La Nogalera, Plaza Costa del Sol and Plaza de la Union Europa. Night concerts will take place in the municipal auditorium from 11pm and will include celebrated artists such as Siempre Asi, Ziryab and El Canijo de Jerez. The highlight of the feria takes place on Saturday, a local holiday dedicated to the town's patron, the archangel San Miguel. The events start with a midday mass held in the San Miguel church, which includes a performance from the Pilgrims Choir, followed later by the main procession of the saint himselve. This leaves the church at 7pm and is accompanied by the Spanish Legions Band and thousands of devotees on a journey around the streets of Torremolinos. The feria closes down on Sunday afternoon, with a series of live music concerts supplied by The Money Makers, Ipop and Meskalina. Fuengirola fair Just a week later and Fuengirola will celebrate its popular Feria del Rosario from Saturday 6 until Friday 12 October. This is one of the more traditional-style ferias that adheres to the ambience of the 1960s and 70s. It is one of the most prestigious in Malaga and includes an extensive programme of activities. During the daytime, the casetas are full with revellers dancing to Sevillana music and enjoying all the pleasures this fair has to offer. During the dark hours, the fairground comes alive with traditional flamenco, while concerts by celebrated Spanish artists, which this year includes Isabel Guerrero, are held in the Palacio de la Paz theatre. The traditional, pre-feria Romeria (procession) will leave the Plaza de la Constitucion at10.30am on Sunday 30 September. The last of the remaining ferias on the Costa del Sol take place from 8 to 12 October in Nerja, from 5 to 9 October in Ojen, and from 16 to 21 October in San Pedro de Alcantara. Posted on Friday, September 28, 2018 KINGSVILLE (September 28, 2018) The Javelina Alumni Association (JAA) at Texas A&M University-Kingsville honors several distinguished alumni each year at Homecoming and 2018 is no exception. However, a new award will be given this year as the JAA gives an Honorary Alumni Award to University President Dr. Steven H. Tallant. I am honored and humbled to be receiving this award, said Tallant. I have enjoyed my tenure at Texas A&M-Kingsville and I share this honor with all the faculty and staff who have been here as we put our ideas in motion to make this university a great place to get a college education. Dr. Tallant has a saying The students are the heart of the university and alumni are the soul. Well, Dr. Tallant has poured his heart and soul into our university and the results prove it, said Rick Garza, president of the Javelina Alumni Association. Our alma mater is undeniably a better university because of his work and the Board of Directors of the Javelina Alumni Association is honored to bring Dr. Tallant into our ranks as the first Honorary Alumnus, Garza said. Tallant will end his 10-year stint in Javelina Nation when he retires at the end of the year. He oversaw enrollment growth as high as 58 percent during his tenure earning the designation of the Fastest-Growing Public Doctoral Institution in the United States from The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2015. A&M-Kingsville became the 13th public university in Texas to reach more than $100 million in endowment funds, which will produce more than $4.5 million for the university to spend in the 2018-2019 academic year. Campus construction projects under Tallants presidency totaled more than $200 million and included student housing, research centers, sporting and recreation facilities and the $60 million Music Education Complex, funded by Capital Construction Revenue Bonds from the state. Tallant also pioneered an educational alliance with the Premont Independent School District, in which the university helped the district meet academic standards and improve its financial health through securing grants, professional development for district employees, and raising college awareness among Premont students. The JAA will honor Tallant and the other recipients at the Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, in the Grand Ballrooms of the Memorial Student Union Building. Nominations for the Honorary Alumni Award will be taken by the JAA beginning next year; however, it may not be given each year. The Honorary Alumni Award will honor individuals who have provided service and support to the university that is characteristic of the most dedicated alumni. The Board of Directors reserves this award to recognize friends of Texas A&M-Kingsville who are not alumni, but whose efforts have had a great impact on advancing the mission of the university. For more information about the Distinguished Alumni event visit this site https://www.javelinagiving.org/daa. Ticket and sponsorship information can be found at https://moneyconnect.tamuk.edu/C20209_ustores/web/store_cat.jsp?STOREID=7&CATID=286. For more information, call 361-593-4191. -TAMUK- Confidence wanes slightly Shipping confidence dipped very slightly in the three months to end-August 2018, according to Moore Stephens latest Confidence Survey. The average confidence level expressed by respondents was down to 6.3 out of a maximum 10, compared to the four-year-high of 6.4 recorded in May, 2018. Owners confidence, however, was up from 6.6 to 6.8, equalling the highest level achieved by this category of respondent since the survey was launched in May, 2008, with an overall rating for all respondents of 6.8 out of 10. Confidence on the part of charterers was also up, from 6.7 to 7, the highest level for nine months. The rating for managers, however, was down from 6.7 to 6.2, and for brokers from 6.3 to 4.9. The likelihood of respondents making a major investment or significant development over the next 12 months was up from 5.2 to 5.5. Owners' confidence was up from 5.5 to 6.5, but charterers recorded a drop from 6.7 to 4. The number of respondents who expected finance costs to increase over the coming year was down to 59% from 63% last time. Owners (up from 64% to 70%) and charterers (up from 33% to 50%) expected these costs to increase, but managers (down from 65% to 45%) and brokers (down from 75% to 71%) were of the opposite opinion, Moore Stephens said. In the tanker trades, the number of respondents expecting higher rates over the next 12 months went up by 3% to 53%. Demands trends were identified by 28% of respondents as the factor likely to influence performance most significantly over the coming 12 months. Competition (23%) came in second, followed by finance costs (17%). In a stand-alone question, 44% of respondents said they expected tariff wars to have some impact on the industry over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, 42% categorised such impact as considerable, and 11% felt that it would be minimal. Richard Greiner, Partner, Shipping & Transport, said,A small dip in confidence is not the news the industry wanted to hear, but confidence remains at its second-highest level for four-and-half years. Moreover, it is significant that the confidence of both owners and charterers actually increased. Concerns about geopolitical factors dominated the comments from respondents. These were led by President Trumps efforts to transform US trade relations, but also included state support for shipping in China and South Korea. Shipping will always stand to reap the benefits of its global identity and presence, but will also court the risks that this must inevitably embrace. Fortunately, shipping is accustomed to playing on the big stage, against a volatile backdrop and to a demanding audience. The Baltic Dry Index is up on a year ago and oil prices are on the rise. These and other positive portents encourage the belief that shipping is starting to recover, albeit slowly, from a 10-year downturn, he concluded. Liberia calls for early compliant fuel availability reporting Liberia has submitted a paper to the forthcoming IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 73) calling for early reporting on the availability of fuel oil that is compliant with the new 0.5 fuel oil sulfur limit. This should be actioned well in advance of 1st January, 2020, the effective date the new fuel oil must be used on board ships, the registry stressed. David Pascoe, senior vice president, maritime operations and standards, Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR), the US-based manager of the Liberian Registry, said, Shipowners and operators hold a disproportionate responsibility in meeting the challenges associated with implementation of the 0.5% m/m global fuel oil sulfur limit and should not need to guess where or whether compliant fuel will be available. Smooth and effective implementation requires co-operation and compliance by all stakeholders, including states and fuel oil suppliers. It is critical that states carry out their responsibilities under MARPOL and SOLAS to promote the availability of fuel oils that are safe and which comply with the new sulfur limit, and report availability in their ports and terminals to IMO. IMO has established the means for states to effectively report through IMOs Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS). We are therefore urging IMO to issue a resolution or circular calling on states to report the availability of compliant fuel oil well in advance of 1st January, 2020 to help shipowners and operators meet their responsibilities and to gain experience on the carriage and use of the new fuels on their ships, to test implementation plans, and to assist in a smooth and effective transition to the new regulatory requirements. Liberias submission to MEPC comes after its co-sponsorship, together with major flags and industry organisations, of an IMO paper proposing the establishment of an Experience Building Phase (EBP) to help address the safety implications and other challenges associated with 2020-compliant fuels. Contrary to some inaccurate media reports, the paper proposing the EBP is not intended to delay the 1st January, 2020 compliance date. That date has been agreed previously and supported by Liberia, he concluded. Markets - Increased activity leads to firming rates A decent amount of activity was seen in all areas last week, as the VLCC owning community pushed for higher rates. Tight tonnage lists in the east, along with firmer bunker prices and increased volumes out of West Africa and South America, contributed to the rates closing in on the WS60-mark for MEG-WAfrica/east voyages, Fearnleys reported. Even with the current firmer trend, TCEs for WAfrica/east voyages were still just below $20,000 per day. We have also experienced a active fixing week with Suezmaxes, especially from Med/Black Sea. Rates for east destination firmed not only due to higher bunker prices but also due to more delays in the Turkish Straits. TD20 did not benefit from the same development and remained flat, however we expect to see rates increase here as well in the next few days, on the back of firmer rates in other western areas. The North sea and Baltic markets remained firm over the weekend, and with a decent amount of activity on Monday, rates kept firmed slightly. Once again, it was the lack of owners willingness to give short options out of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, which made the rates move upward by a few points. Rates should move sideways going forward, as supply and demand seem to be well balanced. In the Med and Black Sea, we saw quite good Aframax activity last week. There are still available ships around, but with the tonnage list looking a bit tighter, owners did a good job in keeping the market at three digits. Going forward, we expect increasing delays in the Turkish Straits and usually this is a good indicator of higher rates, Fearnleys concluded. In the S&P sector, it seems that the VLCC Seaways Sakura was sold for further trading, as she was reported as taken by Hellenic Tankers for about $18.4 mill. The 2003-built Suezmax African Spirit was said to have been sold to Avin Tankers for $13 mill. Zodiac was thought to have picked up six Toisa newbuildings at a Chinese yard for $280 mill en bloc. These were three Suezmaxes and three Aframaxes. Union Maritime was thought to have purchased eight 2005-2006-built Aframaxes from BP Shipping for $108 mill en bloc. The deal was believed to be subject to financing brokers said last week. Other sales reported recently included the mid-2000s built LR1s Formosa Falcon and FPMC P Alpina to Asian interests for $8.2 mill each. The 2013-built BWTS fitted, SS passed MR Great Manta was reported sold to PCL for $27 mill, while the 2000-built MR Torm Neches was said to have fetched $7.8 mill from Indonesian buyers. More newbuilding news has emerged this week. For instance, KNOT Offshore Partners has announced that Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers was awarded a contract to build two new shuttle tankers. The two 153,000 dwt DP2 shuttle tankers will be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries and delivered in 2020. The vessels were contracted on the back of long-term charters with energy major Equinor and will operate in Brazil. We are pleased to announce these new shuttle tanker contracts with Equinor, which further builds on KNOTs market leading position in the Brazil and continues our long relationship with Equinor, which was established in 1984 when we ordered our first shuttle tanker, commented Knutsen head, Trygve Seglem. Elsewhere, Faerder Tankers was said to have contracted two, option two Suezmaxes at Daehan. They were ordered on the back of long term charters to Chevron and will be closed loop scrubber fitted thus Tier III compliant. The price per vessel was thought to be in the low $60 mill range. Cukurova Holdings was reported to have placed an order for four Aframaxes at Hyundai Subic for 2020 deliveries. They will also be scrubber fitted and will cost around $46 mill each, according to brokers reports. In another move, the Hunter Group has said that DSME has agreed to further extend the option agreement for the three VLCCs to 19th October 2018. Delivery time and price were unchanged at first half 2021 and $92 mill per vessel. Finally, Croatian shipowner Uljanik Plovidba has reached an agreement on the refinancing of two MRs after securing a discount with its existing lenders. The company has refinanced an existing syndicated loan issued for the purchase of two tankers - Kastav and Pomer. In a stock exchange filing, Uljanik Plovidba said that it was granted an approval for the significant debt relief by a group of international banks, led by Credit Suisse, after months of talks. The new deal is expected to be finalised in early November, 2018. Scrubber interest gains tanker momentum Several tanker companies have announced that they are going down the scrubber road this week. For example, International Seaways (INSW) has signed contracts with Clean Marine of Norway for the purchase and installation of exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers) on seven of its modern VLCCs. In addition, there are options for a further three systems covering the remaining three VLCCs in the fleet. The seven scrubbers are all to be installed prior to 1st January, 2020, when the new 0.5% IMO sulfur emission cap comes into effect and they will be funded with available liquidity. Following significant economic analysis and evaluation of different systems, we are pleased to have executed contracts to install scrubbers on a large portion of our VLCC fleet, said Lois Zabrocky, INSW President and CEO. We believe that by installing scrubbers on our largest ships, we will gain an economic advantage while further demonstrating a commitment to the environment, as we did with our recent acquisition of highly efficient VLCCs. In addition to being well positioned to capitalise on a market recovery based on International Seaways sizeable high-quality fleet, our scrubber initiative also strengthens the companys ability to take advantage of a potential strong tanker market resulting from the IMO regulations, as both crude and product tankers stand to benefit from increased transportation demand, she said. Clean Marines systems are well suited to tankers, INSW said. Newcomer ASD Crude Carriers is also to fit scrubbers on board its VLCC fleet. The company was set up in April this year and now has a fleet of three VLCCs. After a period of start-up activities and building up the initial fleet of VLCCs, the company will focus on streamlining the operations to maximize shareholder returns. In addition, the project of installing scrubbers on board the vessels for the purpose of reducing emissions and operating costs will be started, the company said in its first financial report. All three ships have been delivered and have secured employment. The ADS Eagle ex Front Page, was delivered on 20th July and went directly on charter as an FSO off Nigeria for between 150 and 210 days. ADS Stratus was delivered on 9th August, 2018 and is on an about 40-day spot charter. Finally, ADS Serenade was delivered on 13th September, 2018 and will trade in the spot market. The vessels are under Frontline Management commercial management and OSM Ship Management technical management. Finally, the Scorpio Group has confirmed that it will install 100 hybrid-ready scrubbers across its fleet of 56 bulkers and 109 tankers, mainly on the larger vessels in each type, chief operating officer Cameron Mackey reportedly this week. "We have decided to install scrubbers on the majority of our fleet to be ready sometime in 2020," Mackey said during a luncheon presentation at the Association of Ship Brokers & Agents cargo conference in Miami. Two-thirds of the scrubbers will be fitted by 1st January, 2020, while the rest are expected to be installed during the first three months of that year, Mackey reportedly said. TMC wins seven VLCC order TMC Compressors of the Seas (TMC) is to supply marine compressed air systems to seven VLCCs under construction at Daewoo (DSME) for the Hunter Group. Under the terms of the contracts, TMC will deliver service air compressors, as well as air compressors to the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems for each of the seven VLCCs. All of the compressors will be delivered to DSME in South Korea. Four of the VLCCs are scheduled for delivery next year and the remaining three in 2020, in time for the new IMO 2020 low sulfur regime. To be awarded contracts to supply equipment to seven VLCCs is nothing short of magnificent. The VLCCs are built with a clear environmental profile, which TMCs compressors matches with low energy usage and low maintenance costs, said Hans Petter Tanum, TMCs director of sales and business development. WFW advises Teekay Tankers Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has advised long-standing client Teekay Tankers on the sale and leaseback of six Aframaxes. This deal improving Teekay Tankers net liquidity position by $60 mill after the repayment of outstanding related debt. As part of the financing, one of a range of initiatives announced in early August, was that Teekay Tankers will bareboat charter-in the vessels for nine to 10 years, with purchase options after two years and purchase obligations for each ship when the deal expires. The vessels are the Whistler Spirit and Blackcomb Spirit (both built 2010) and Emerald Spirit and Garibaldi Spirit (both built 2009); Tarbet Spirit (built 2009) and Peak Spirit (built 2011). A subsidiary of Teekay Corp, the copmany currently owns 46 tankers, including 26 Suezmaxes, 11 Aframaxes and nine LR2s, and has six Aframaxes and four Suezmaxes related to capital leases and two contracted time charter-in vessels. In addition it owns a VLCC through a 50:50 joint venture, as well as a ship-to-ship transfer business. The WFW London Maritime team advising Teekay Tankers was led by Partner and firm Chairman, Nigel Thomas and Partner Patrick Smith, working closely with Associates Natalia Golovataya and Electra Stamatopoulos. Smith commented: Were delighted to have once again been able to assist Teekay Tankers on another important strategic financing initiative, which significantly improves Teekay Tankers net liquidity and extends its debt maturity profile. It also demonstrates WFWs standing as one of the leading law firms worldwide for sophisticated, highly structured ship financings. Both Thomas and Smith have advised Teekay Tankers on numerous high profile transactions over the past decade, including large-scale syndicated debt facilities and other forms of financing, including sale and leaseback structures. Tomatin releases 30 Years Old single malt Tomatin has released a new 30 Years Old single malt from its Highland distillery. Retailing at 300, the golden-amber expression is a premium batch release decanted into individually numbered bottles, with only 900 available in the UK. The whisky, finished in first fill ex-Bourbon barrels, is presented in a premium oak box and is accompanied by a carrying case. Jennifer Masson, Tomatins marketing manager, says: We are delighted to be able to release this premium whisky to our customers just in time for Christmas. This is sure to be a must-have gift for any whisky lover or keen collector. Our core range has a wide breadth of whiskies and we expect the 30 Years Old will prove very popular with our customers who are looking for something premium and luxurious, and recognisably Tomatin." Graham Nicolson, Tomatins sales director, says: This luxurious expression is elegant and flavourful a neatly packed whisky with taste sensations to delight the senses. From the spices that add an incredible depth, to the creamy buttered vanilla that brings an unbelievable layer of richness the 30 Years Old is definitely one for every whisky drinkers gantry." The 30 Years Old expression replaces the 1988 vintage in Tomatins core range and is available from specialist retailers at a cost of RRP 300 and comes in a 70cl bottle (46% ABV). 28 September 2018 - Sam Coyne The Drinks Report, editor Winners revealed in World Beer Awards 2018 The World Beer Awards have concluded for this year and its judges have identified the bests beers in the nine different categories. Over 2,300 beers from more than 50 countries entered into this years awards and judges blind tasted and scored the entries across three rounds of judging. The final round was held in London, where 100 international brewers, industry experts and journalists tasted and voted for the winners of the Worlds Best Beers 2018. Adrian Tierney-Jones, chair of the World Beer Awards says: Once again the winners in the World Beer Awards show an exciting snapshot of some of the best beers being brewed across the globe today. Naturally I would like to congratulate these winners, but I would also like to thank the many judges who have applied themselves to their tasks with diligence and great professionalism. Im already looking forward to next years awards. As well as taste quality, design excellence was also judged, chaired by Felicity Murray, founder of TheDrinksReport.com. Samples were judged in five categories. Felicity says: It always refreshing to see so many imaginative label designs and this year was no exception. The Judges were particularly impressed by the growing number of beer brands breaking away from the category norm with creative new ideas that stand out from the crowd. Taste World's Best Dark Beer Collesi, Rossa World's Best Flavoured Beer Sons of Liberty, Bourbon Barrel Aged Uprising Stout World's Best IPA Hobgoblin, IPA World's Best Lager Schwarzbrau, Schweden Pils World's Best Pale Beer Unibroue, 25e Blonde de l'Enfer World's Best Sour Beer Rodenbach, Vintage World's Best Speciality Beer Rugener Insel-Brauerei, Quadriga World's Best Stout & Porter Bogota Beer, Macondo Coffee Stout World's Best Wheat Beer Maisels Weisse, Original Design World's Best Beer Design Kerel, Saison All style winners as well as country, Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists can be found on . All style winners as well as country, Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists can be found on www.worldbeerawards.com 28 September 2018 - Sam Coyne The Drinks Report, editor The University of Florida Levin College of Law seeks applications for the following positions from experienced scholars possessing outstanding academic credentials, demonstrated teaching ability, and distinguished scholarship to begin in the 2019-20 academic year. The University of Florida Levin College of Law embraces diversity in its faculty, students, and staff and welcomes applications from persons who would add to the diversity of our academic community. Salary, benefits, and research support will be nationally competitive. The University of Florida is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status, and will not be discriminated against because of their protected status. Applicants to and employees of this institution are protected under federal law from discrimination on several bases. Follow the link below to find out more: EEO is the Law ( http://www1.eeoc.gov/employers/upload/eeoc_self_print_poster.pdf ). Yesterday, the Chile unveiled a new long-distance hiking trail through Patagonia. Called the Route of Parks, the trail covers 2,800km (1,740 miles) of wilderness from the city of Puerto Montt down to Cape Horn. The Route of Parks or the Ruta de los Parques de la Patagonia passes through 17 national parks and more than 60 surrounding communities on its route from Puerto Mott to Cape Horn. The long distance trail ties together the Carretera Austral, the Patagonia Channels, and the End of the World Route. This new hiking trail was made possible by the recent substantial land donation from Tompkins Conservation. We want Chile to be internationally recognized for having the most spectacular scenic route in the world, and thus become a benchmark for economic development based on conservation, said Carolina Morgado, executive director at Tompkins. To promote the new trail, Tompkins Conservation together with Imagen de Chile launched a website where you can find further information on the route as well as the terrain and communities it passes through. The site includes transportation and accommodation tips, with more than 50 trails already traced by GPS. And while you may not have time to hike all 2800 kilometers, the website offers up some suggested shorter itineraries such as a five to six day trek through the glaciers and lakes of Aysen or three to four days in the fjords of northern Patagonia. Whos up for hiking the entire trail with me? Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Klara Virencia (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 09:51 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774ee638 3 Opinion sanitation,sanitary-equipment,development-outside-Java,development,infrastructure,Gap Free Gone are the days of measuring a countrys development solely in terms of economic performance. In an archipelagic country like Indonesia, emphasis on economic growth risks encouraging greater disparity between densely populated areas and isolated regions. Departing from this, the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) has adopted a new vision for developing Indonesia. A fresh perspective it was, especially in reflecting how far we have (not) prospered as a nation after 73 years of independence. Addressing the Indonesian Development Forum in July, National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro exposed the stark contrast in development between Indonesias western and eastern regions. Jakartas Human Development Index [HDI], for example, is similar to that of the Russian Federation, but that of the neighboring province of Banten is similar to Libyas. West Java is similar to Uzbekistan, Lampung is similar to the Philippines, and West Papua is similar to India, the minister said. Indonesias HDI improved to 70.81 in 2018. This number is high according to the United Nations Development Program. Yet, Greater Jakarta is the only province with an HDI that is very high. Most western provinces are high, while eastern provinces dominate the middle HDI category. Papua, meanwhile, is the only province with a low HDI reading. Last year, the first-ever development forum addressed inequality as an important aspect of growth. Now, the forum strives to highlight HDI as the measuring tool for eradicating inequality, while noting the importance of provincial data and innovation. Thus, tackling regional disparities across the archipelago is rightfully the theme of this years development forum. Among various options to close the regional development gap, delivering basic services is one of the main pathways. Precisely defining the elements of basic services is still quite tricky. Access to sanitation or proper toilets, for example, often gets overlooked when discussing health and education. As trivial as it may seem, sanitation is closely related with school participation rates. In rural areas, where sanitation at schools is wanting, female students are more likely to be absent during their menstrual days. They are not comfortable with changing sanitary pads at school due to the poor hygiene, explained the senior water and sanitation specialist of the World Bank in Indonesia, Deviariandy Setiawan. Such conditions are unimaginable for those living in more privileged areas. Deputy National Development Planning Minister Subandi disclosed the importance of proper sanitation in reducing the risk of stunting. We always thought [stunting] was solely the responsibility of the Health Ministry, said Subandi. It turns out that, if access to sanitation and clean water is lacking, that translates into inadequate nutrition for our children, too. Deviariandy echoed widespread concern over the lack of access to proper sanitation, which has contributed to diarrhea. When children in their first 1,000 days of life suffer from diarrhea, their digestive system will absorb less nutrition. As a result, their cerebral development will be hampered, as well as their physical growth. Despite increased access to sanitation facilities and clean water being one of the global Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, investment in sanitation access is still unpopular when compared to the investment interest in infrastructure. As a cooperative that invests heavily on building decent toilets for low-income citizens, a cooperative called the Koperasi Syariah Benteng Mikro Indonesia is all too familiar with this phenomenon. Kamaruddin Batubara, its president director, admitted that he had struggled to woo domestic banks to fund his toilet-building projects. Until now, the funding he has received is from Russia, the Netherlands and the United States. Banks tend to consider investing in sanitation unattractive, said Kamaruddin. Around 5 million more toilets are still needed to fully eradicate open defecation in Indonesia, according to Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Eko Putro Sandjojo. Up until 2017, transfers from the central government under the village fund program have been used to build 112,003 toilets. The village fund transfers, amounting to Rp 60 trillion (US$4,021 billion) in 2018, could contribute greatly to meeting these needs. Yet at the village level, the allocation of the funds relies heavily on the interests of village heads. In Indonesias institutional model, governors, mayors and regents play a key role in relaying the need for proper sanitation to village heads. In Central Sulawesi, North Luwu regency is among those that succeeded in utilizing village funds for sanitation needs. With the encouragement of Regent Indah Putri Indriani, 10 percent of the village funds have been allocated to building toilets. In developing a region, it is impossible to build all aspects at once, shared Indah. We need to set the right priorities. In North Luwu, sanitation is a priority. Despite the success in using village funds, Indah admitted that relying on conventional funding would take time. Instead of solely waiting for state budget, regional budget or even village fund transfers, North Luwu regency also sought funding from philanthropy foundations as well as corporate social responsibility schemes from both state-owned and private enterprises. National access to proper sanitation currently stands at 77 percent, far behind the target of 100 percent for 2019. To close the gap, Bambang has offered a novel perspective on funding prioritization. We could pursue two tracks in funding sanitation, the minister proposed. Besides understanding sanitation as a basic service, we should not forget that sanitation is also a key aspect in eradicating stunting. Thus, we could utilize budget funds related to the stunting issue as well. Understanding the correlation of sanitation with other development goals might be the key here. While largely invisible, poor sanitation is the root of various welfare and health-related problems. Reluctance to address it is understandable, since it is demanding in terms of both infrastructure and funding. Yet, if we only act upon issues that are currently in the whirlwind of public attention and ignore the need for radical change, what exactly does that say about us as a nation? *** The writer works at the Urban Sanitation Development Program, a technical assistance project for Accelerated Sanitation Development for Human Settlements Program (PPSP) at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas). Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Lulu Yilun Chen (Bloomberg) Fri, September 28, 2018 09:06 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774eb8c5 2 Science & Tech patent,China Free For nearly a decade, China has taken great pride at filing the largest number of domestic patents. Its proving less keen on keeping them. Despite huge numbers of filings, most patents are discarded by their fifth year as licensees balk at paying escalating fees. When it comes to design, more than nine out of every ten lapses -- almost the mirror opposite of the U.S. The high attrition rate is a symptom of the way China has pushed universities, companies and backyard inventors to transform the country into a self-sufficient powerhouse. Subsidies and other incentives are geared toward making patent filings, rather than making sure those claims are useful. So the volume doesnt translate into quality, with the country still dependent on others for innovative ideas, such as modern smartphones. It means these patents really arent as valuable as people thought, said Lu Junfeng, a patent attorney at Shanghai-based JZMC Patent and Trademark Law Office. If the retention rate is so low for design patents, then it calls into question whether theres a bigger systematic problem. China overtook Japan eight years ago to become the biggest hoarder of domestic patents and has remained in the lead ever since, approving 1.8 million last year alone. President Xi Jinpings Made in China 2025 program -- now at the center of tensions with the U.S. -- aims to make the country a global leader in technology, and developing a hoard of intellectual property has become a central element of achieving that. To get a clearer picture on the countrys patent history, its important to understand that not all of them are equal. In China there are three different categories: invention, utility model and design. Invention patents, as the name suggests, are for new ideas that represent notable progress in advancing a technology. This category represents what most people understand about patents, a breakthrough in design, process or concept. It accounted for just 23 percent of the patents granted in China last year. Just like in the U.S., they face a challenging path to approval in a process that can take 18 months and exposes them to testing and scrutiny. Successful ideas are protected for 20 years. Its the two other categories, which both have a 10-year life, that swell the headline numbers but are proving far less valuable. An example of a design patent would be the shape of a soda bottle, while a utility model would include something like sliding to unlock a smartphone. Neither is subject to rigorous examination and can be granted within less than a year. As of last year, more than 91 percent of design patents granted in 2013 had been discarded because people stopped paying to maintain them, according to JZMC Patent and Trademark data compiled for a Bloomberg query. Things arent much better for utility models with 61 percent lapsing during the same five-year period, while invention patents had a disposal rate of 37 percent. In comparison, maintenance fees were paid on 85.6 percent of U.S. patents issued in 2013, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Read also: Patent Law and transfer of technology The fact that design patent disposal rates are so high is astonishing, said JZMCs Lu. People have such a low desire to keep them. While the Chinese government provides an incentive for new applications, thats not the case once a patent is granted, and holders must pay ever-increasing fees just to keep them. It costs 900 yuan ($131) a year to own an invention patent, a price that rises to as much as 8,000 yuan later in its life. For the other categories, tolls rise from 600 yuan to 2,000 yuan annually in the last two years. A lax approval process for the less inventive categories has led to a flourishing of filings, where people literally copy a patent in the U.S. and seek approval in China, often with the intention of parlaying that into a settlement fee, said Wang Xiang, head of law firm Orricks China IP practice. Some companies have also been exposed as frauds, seeking to use patent filings to get tax and residency benefits for employees. Since 2008, as part of Chinas national policy to encourage innovation, companies certified as high-tech firms have won significant tax cuts and annual subsidies of 500,000 yuan in provinces like Hainan. Theres probably a lack of motive to strictly vet these companies, Wang said. Unfortunately under the existing judicial system, there is no effective deterrence against fraudulent filing or falsifying evidence. Chinese regulators are only just starting to notice some of the suspect practices. The Ministry of Science and Technology revoked high-tech licenses for at least 14 companies this year, without citing specific reasons. In an unusual move, the state-owned Xinhua News Agency lambasted Chinas IP industry for plagiarism, forgery and other sub-par practices in August. It said the sector was beset by weak IP, fake demands and some companies fervent on phony innovation. Fake innovation takes up resources for subsidies, hurts innovators who are working hard, and also tampers with objectivity with policy makers, it said. To be sure, Chinas support for patents has bolstered some sectors like artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Chinese companies filed eight times as many patents related to those technologies as their U.S. counterparts, according to Nigel Swycher of London-based IP consultancy Aistemos. Tencent Holdings Ltd., with the largest portfolio among the Chinese trio, now holds three times as many patents as Facebook and double that of Amazon.com Inc.s, Aistemoss data shows. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has also outpaced those U.S. firms. Yet the high disposal rates mean China still has a long way to go till it becomes the technologically sophisticated nation it aspires to be. While Chinese patent qualities have been improving every year, they are still far from close to the U.S. counterparts, said Orricks Wang. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Moscow Fri, September 28, 2018 06:01 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774e6bd7 2 Science & Tech leica,camera,digital-camera Free German camera manufacturer Leica is reviving the legendary Soviet Zenit camera more than 30 years after its mass production ended, with a new digital model unveiled on Wednesday. The new camera, showcased at a photography exhibition in Cologne on Wednesday, will be available from December in Europe and from January 2019 in Russia. The design of the new Zenit M is inspired by the Soviet Union's Zenit and Zorki cameras -- which, in turn, had ironically been inspired by Leica. The new camera will be jointly produced by Russia and Germany and will sell for 5,000 to 6,000 euros ($5,900-$7,000). "The main target audience is luxury and amateur photographers," a spokesman for the Russian holding company Shvabe told AFP, insisting that the cameras will be worth their price tag. "The price of the product will be absolutely adequate, taking into account the brands that are taking part in this project," the spokesman said. Read also: Between DSLR and mirrorless camera Shvabe -- which is controlled by Russia's state conglomerate Rostec -- describes the project as a "synergy" between Leica technologies and the Krasnogorsk plant, the maker of the original Zenit and Zorki cameras. The partnership will allow the Russian group to resume the production of the camera under the Zenit brand name, while embarking on a new digital course. Production of Zenit cameras flourished in the Soviet Union. They were also widely exported to the Eastern Bloc and eventually became available in the West. Mass production of the camera stopped in 1986. A limited number of cameras was still made at the plant until 2005, when it stopped assembling whole cameras and began making lenses. The new camera will be based on the Leica M 240 platform, with a lense "completely designed and manufactured in Russia," the Shvabe holding said. "The new optics will be manufactured according to the new quality standards set by Leica Camera, but at the same time will preserve that unobtrusive artistic picture received on the lenses of the Krasnogorsk plant," its spokesman said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Olga Nebdaeva and Fiachra Gibbons (Agence France-Presse) Paris Fri, September 28, 2018 07:08 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774e7101 2 Lifestyle fashion,eco-friendly,eco-fashion,#fashion,plastic,catwalk Free It may have been a long time coming, but eco-fashion is no longer a hippie pipe dream. Biker jackets made from pineapple leaves and leather tanned with olive extract rather than hugely polluting chemicals are now within reach, experts say. Everyone from young avant garde designers to the big-name brands are racing to hop on the bandwagon, with trainers with soles made from recycled plastic bottles already selling by the million. Last year alone Adidas sold one million of its Parley trainers -- made from plastic fished from the ocean -- and the German sportswear giant is ramping up production of a range of similarly recycled styles. And on Wednesday Yolanda Zobel, the new designer at the futuristic French brand Courreges, did the "unthinkable" and declared that she was doing away with the space-age vinyl that has been the label's stock and trade since the 1960s. After a final numbered capsule collection called "Fin de Plastique" (The End of Plastic) that will count down its stocks of vinyl, the German will try to source sustainable or recycled versions of the shiny fabric. "There's no better world coming if we don't take actions today," Zobel said. Attitudes to eco-fashion have "totally changed in the last few years", said Marina Coutelan, who helps run Premiere Vision, a hugely influential twice-yearly trade fair in Paris where the movers and shakers of the fashion industry flock in search of new materials and ideas. Millennials driving change With the millennials (those born between 1980 and 2000) now beginning to call the shots in the fashion industry, "we are seeing lots of trendy products from sustainable materials because they have grown up with the idea that we need to be eco-responsible", Coutelan told AFP. A case in point are rising stars Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh, the Dutch pair who have just been headhunted to take over the Nina Ricci Paris fashion house. "Sustainable fashion was always talked about," said 28-year-old Herrebrugh. "Now it is something we can see." Read also: Nike, H&M and Burberry join forces for sustainable fashion Their own Botter brand makes hats, scarves and jackets from recycled plastic bags and bottles often found in the sea -- a cause dear to Botter, who was born on the Caribbean island of Curacao. High street chains may still be obsessed with fast, throwaway fashion, but luxury brands are leading the way in trying to rethink the business, said Coutelan. She points to the French giant Kering, which owns Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen among others, as one of the pioneers of sustainability. Second biggest polluter "It has reduced its environmental impact by a quarter and hopes to cut it by 40 percent by 2025," she said. Even so, fashion is still by some measures the second most polluting industry the world. Kering until recently owned a 50 percent stake in Stella McCartney, the label that has pushed the ethical and environmental envelope the furthest, refusing to use fur, leather or feathers. The British designer uses recycled wool and polyester made from plastic water bottles, and intends to stop using "virgin" nylon entirely within two years and new polyester by 2025. Invitations for her Paris fashion week show on Monday proclaim that "Green is the new black" and feature a new cartoon where she stars with Minnie The Minx in a story extolling the virtues of regenerated cashmere. McCartney told AFP that she would like to go faster but "the technology we need to reach this point is not yet available in a sustainable and circular way." Campaigners say there are multiple ways to make sustainable clothes. The highly-rated young French designer Marine Serre is an often brilliant upcycler -- turning old bed covers into evening gowns in her latest Paris fashion week show Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Canadian Marie-Eve Lecavalier has made a name for herself with leather knitwear made from leftover ends rejected by luxury brands. "It takes a lot of work but the result is great. In North America people waste so much. We have to find another way," she told AFP. Read also: McCartney proves eco fashion can turn a profit With tanning one of the world's dirtiest trades, leather alternatives like Pinatex, which is made from the fibres of pineapple leaves but is equally supple and strong, are gaining ground. Hugo Boss has already made trainers and Lancel bags from the material, which is being marketed by the British firm Ananas Anam that works with farmers' cooperatives in the Philippines. The German group Wet Green has developed a potentially revolutionary line called Olivenleder, biodegradable leathers tanned with an agent made from olive fibres. It is so safe "you can even eat it", joked spokesman Thomas Lamparter. For Chantal Malingrey, of Premiere Vision, wholly sustainable fashion "is not yet the norm". But such is the pace of innovation, she insisted, that the trend is "irreversible". Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Pierre-Henry Deshayes (Agence France-Presse) Oslo, Norway Fri, September 28, 2018 21:09 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087751537b 2 Art & Culture Nobel-Prize,Nobel Free It's easier to lose a Nobel Prize than to win one. Smuggled out to impress girls in a bar, or dissolved to prevent the Nazis from getting their hands on one, the precious gold medals have gone missing in crazy, tragic or spectacular ways over the more than hundred-year history of the Nobel Prize. Here are some of them: Dissolved in acid When the Nazis invaded Denmark in April 1940, scientists at Niels Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics began to worry about the 1914 and 1925 Nobel Physics Prize gold medals that two German laureates -- Max von Laue and James Frank -- had placed there for safekeeping. "In Hitler's empire it was almost a capital offence to send gold out of the country, and, Laue's name being engraved into the medal, the discovery of this by the invading forces would have had very serious consequences for him," Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy, who was working at the Institute, wrote in 1962. After being persuaded not to bury the medals as they could be unearthed, de Hevesy decided to dissolve the two 23-carat-gold discs with aqua regia acid mixture, the only solution able to do so. Stored high up on a shelf in his laboratory, the orange-coloured liquid went unnoticed by the Nazis. After the war was over, de Hevesy -- who won the Nobel Prize himself in 1943 -- turned the gold back into a precipitate in 1950. He gave it to the Nobel Foundation so it could be recast into two medals which were presented to the men in 1952. In a less triumphant moment, Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun gave his Nobel Literature Prize medal to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1943. A strong supporter of the Nazis, Hamsun was convicted of treason in 1947 and spent the rest of his life in mental institutions. It is not known what became of his medal. Read also: How do you get one? 5 things to know about the Nobel Prizes Under the Hammer Sometimes, because of acts of charity, inheritance disputes or just because life can take odd turns, the Nobel medals end up for sale at auctions. With varying results. The Nobel Peace Prize won by Frenchman Aristide Briand in 1926 for his role in France and Germany's short-lived post-war reconciliation was sold for the modest sum of just 12,200 euros ($14,000) in 2008. Six years later, US scientist James Watson, who won the 1962 award for his co-discovery of the structure of DNA and who has made controversial remarks about Africans, sold his medal for a record $4.1 million excluding taxes. A bonanza for the US biologist -- especially after the buyer, Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, returned the medal to him. Stop, thief There have also been times when medals have just disappeared. France's Heritage Museum Ecomusee of Saint-Nazaire only had Aristide Briand's medal in its possession for a few years after buying it so cheaply: it was stolen in 2015 and has yet to be recovered. And in India in 2017, robbers made off with the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize medal won by Kailash Satyarthi. Or so they thought. The medal was a replica -- the real one is on display in a museum -- and it was quickly recovered. No such luck for the 1913 Nobel literature medal awarded to Rabindranath Tagore, whose medal was snatched in 2004 and has not been found. Confiscated Iranian lawyer and human rights champion Shirin Ebadi in 2009 accused Tehran of confiscating her assets over unpaid taxes. A bank deposit box containing her 2003 Nobel Peace Prize medal and her Legion d'Honneur medal were seized to pay $410,000 in back taxes, she said. Iranian authorities denied the claim. After an international outcry, Ebadi's Nobel medal was returned to her. Read also: Blank page for Nobel Literature Prize in 2018 awards season Gold War Nobel laureates' names are engraved on the reverse side of their medal, except for the prizes for Peace and Economics, where the names are written on the edge. So it's perhaps not so strange to get your gold mixed up: 1975 Nobel Economics Prize co-laureates Leonid Kantorovich of Russia and Tjalling Koopmans of the US returned home with each other's medals, according to the official Nobel website www.nobelprize.org. Because of the Cold War, it took four years of diplomatic efforts for each medal to be returned to its owner. Showing off to girls Panic erupted in December 1999 at a suite in Oslo's Grand Hotel. The Nobel medal, just awarded to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), had disappeared. The next day, the medal was back where it belonged. Members of the French MSF delegation had borrowed it to impress girls in Oslo's bars. "You could see the traces of the teeth of everyone who wanted to see if the medal really was made of pure gold," Morten Rostrup, a member of the Norwegian MSF delegation, revealed in a 2006 book. "But they would have needed more than a Nobel medal to hook up," he told AFP in an email. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marcel Thee (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 09:32 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774ed608 4 Entertainment Guns-N-Roses,#AlbumReview,Album-review,album,#music,music Free What justifies a box set that comes with a price tag of over a thousand American dollars? Whether or not it is an encompassing reissue of one of rock musics best and best-selling albums depends on how much of a Guns N Roses fan or rock music enthusiast one might be. Appetite for Destruction is indeed one hell of an album, and the bonus tracks that arrive with this Locked N Loaded box set (and the less-pricey deluxe edition of this reissue) really are great strong classic rock tracks with blues and glam rock flourishes that add context to the complete Appetite experience. Even the remastered version of the original album does more than be a compulsory entry; brimming with tiny details that act as more than mere gimmicks, providing different nuances to these tracks that are so ingrained in rock n roll history these remastered versions enhance the experience without sounding overly polished. Harmonies pop out more, as do the guitar and bass licks. The ultimate box set version includes that remaster of Appetite; a disc of B-side tracks; a demo recorded in 1986 at the legendary Sound City Studios in Los Angeles as an audition of sorts for a producer who was considered for Appetite but did not end up doing so; two previously unreleased songs from sessions recorded with producer Mike Clink (who produced Appetite); and a Blu-Ray with music videos including a previously unreleased one for Its So Easy capturing the band in all its sweaty, poodle-haired glory. In a set like this, its not just music that is just the selling point, of course. Theres a hardcover book filled with historical goodies, including personal photos from frontman Axl Roses personal vault; six lithographs; three very authentic-looking replicas of old school concert tickets; a replica of a flyer drawn by guitar player Slash to invite people to come as extras to their video shoot for Welcome to the Jungle; a poster; and even temporary band tattoos. All of this is boxed in a large chest drawer that will certainly be a striking addition to any music collection. Apart from the above, it also houses collectables such as guitar picks, buttons and rings all embossed with Appetite-related graphics. Its all admittedly a very strong package. But the true value comes from the music, and in this Appetite still delivers. Thirty years on from its original release date, the album still sounds urgent and menacing. The big hits Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O Mine, Paradise City are as immediate as ever melodically, rhythmically, and with all the elements that would make Guns N Roses ... well, Guns N Roses. From Slashs solos, which are often as melodically eventful as the lead vocal lines, to Axl Roses love-it-or-hate-it-its-iconic voice. Of course, its not just those two that made Appetite a lightning in a bottle moment; the kind that even the band, already with a different line-up by their second full length, could not replicate. The drumming of Steven Adler provides the perfect amount of swagger and sleaze that the drummers that came after him could never embody, no matter their more-able technicality. The way Adler carries the rhythm while adding a swinging, almost drunken, momentum is uncanny. The cowbells and the washes of cymbals sparkle with glee, providing these songs almost all of which embody the darkness of the bands drugs-and-overindulgence-of-hedonism time then with joy. Paired with bassist Duff McKagans solid rhythms and simple yet effective fills, such as the famous bassline in Sweet Child O Mine Guns had an underlying solidness that mashed perfectly with its more unpredictable side. Izzy Stradlin, the bands mysterious quite George Harrison, glues it all together with rhythm guitars that serve up everything from efficient strumming to jagged rhythms that punch-and-pull with precision. Listen to his playing in Jungle and see how effectively he works the basic dynamics of that massive Guns hit. Aside from the hits, the album is arguably a flawless summary of 80s rock, with doses of the burgeoning hair metal and hints of glam punk throughout. Its So Easy remains one of the bands best tracks in its lurching danger (gross misogynist lyrics aside); Mr. Brownstone is almost danceable in its blues-rock shuffle; Rocket Queen is a glam spectacle of sex and lust; Nighttrain is all energy, unforgettable guitar riffs and melodic twists that swell and swell. The Sound City sessions make it clear that under any production, these songs soared. The outtakes Shadow Of Your Love, the rough versions of eventual hits like November Rain and acoustic takes of songs like Youre Crazy are contextual documentation of the band and of the era, but are also showcase of the stars aligning, with each band member complimenting each other with musical immediacy. They even already sound like Guns in the early Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stone covers, showing how high the band was reaching and how they pictured their own legacy. These bonuses come in audio quality that are for the most part, good-to-very-good rough by a dusty clarity of age to it. Even those who despise Guns embrace of the worst side of rock n roll cliches (sexism, homophobia, hedonism and eventually, with popularity and richness, over self-indulgence), there is no denying the purity of Appetites sentiment. These were five of the coolest looking guys on and from the street, making raw rock n roll that was perfect in every way. That the songs are all catchy as hell, with nary a filler to be found makes it easy to crown it one of the best rock albums of all time. *** The various sets can be purchased through gunsnroses.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Stockholm, Sweden Sat, September 29, 2018 01:01 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087751a9f8 2 People Alfred-Nobel,Nobel-Prize,Nobel,history Free Swedish inventor and scholar Alfred Nobel, who made a vast fortune from his invention of dynamite in 1866, ordered the creation of the famous Nobel prizes in his will. His 1895 testament stipulated that his fortune was to be placed in a fund destined to honor "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind". He died a year later in San Remo, Italy. Nobel had decreed that the bulk of his estate should be invested in "safe securities" and, as a result, about 31.5 million Swedish kronor, equivalent today to about 1.7 billion kronor ($210 million, 180 million euros), were used to create the Nobel Foundation. The will specified that equal prizes should be given for the "most important discovery" in physics, chemistry and medicine, as well as the "most outstanding work in an ideal direction" in the world of literature. A fifth prize would be for peace, "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses". Since 1901, the year the first Nobel prizes were awarded, the Nobel Foundation has funded the awards. This year's laureates will receive nine million kronor ($1.01 million, 870,000 euros) per award, to be shared if there are several winners in one discipline. The Nobel Prize for Economics, the only award not included in Nobel's will, is funded by the Swedish Central Bank, which created the prize to mark its 300th anniversary in 1968. It was first awarded in 1969. Read also: Blank page for Nobel Literature Prize in 2018 awards season - Surprise and resistance - When Nobel died childless and the will was read, the contents surprised many, including his own family. Two nephews tried to have it nullified, and even King Oscar II of Sweden opposed Nobel's wishes, saying they were not "patriotic minded". Adding to the confusion, Nobel had not appointed an executor for the testament, nor had he consulted the various institutions he had assigned to award the prizes to ensure that they were willing to undertake the task. After more than three years of haggling, the Nobel Foundation was created to manage the capital in the inventor's estate, and four institutions agreed to award the prizes as Nobel had wished. In Stockholm, the Karolinska Institute awards the medicine prize, the Swedish Academy handles literature, and the Royal Academy of Sciences has responsibility for physics, chemistry and economics. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, meanwhile, awards the peace prize. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stevie Emilia (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 08:49 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774eb199 1 Art & Culture art-exhibition,Hong-Kong,contemporary-art,Indonesian-artists Free The works of 12 artists on display in the Reflections group exhibition in Chinese Hong Kong, held jointly between six renowned art galleries from six countries, reflects growing dialogue and interconnectedness across regions, generations and diverse artistic genres. Curated by Puerta Roja in Hong Kong to mark the gallerys eighth anniversary and running through to Oct. 25, Reflections aims to create dialogue between the gallerys artists and those brought in by its six partner galleries in Belgium, Chile, Indonesia, South Korea and Singapore. British-Indonesian artist Sinta Tantra is representing Indonesia at the exhibition through the auspices of the ISA Art Advisory, while Balinese artist Wayan Novis is on behalf of Singapores Art Porters. Sinta describes herself as a painter working within an architectural scale in an abstract geometric style, and explores color, identity and narratives while questioning the function of spaces. True to form, she has contributed Tabuh Tabuhan II in Prussian (Colin McPhee), geometric abstractions in tempera on a linen canvas, which was inspired by her fascination with American composer Colin McPhee and his explorations into the traditional Balinese gamelan orchestra. Sinta explained that, while her previous works used color to celebrate spectacle, she had recently started thinking about what would happen if color was taken out of the equation. After studying the blueprint designs used to prepare my public art projects, I became fascinated by line, and how at times it offered more imaginative possibilities than color. Could total immersion be achieved through the simplicity of line alone? How does this relational experience alter the way we see and imagine? said Sinta. Largely known for her murals and public installations and commissioned for various projects in many cities from the United Kingdom to South Korea, Sintas most renowned public work was the 300-meter painted bridge commissioned for the 2012 London Olympics. Sinta said she felt immensely fortunate that she could travel the world as an artistexhibiting her art, doing commissions and making projects. Geometry of nature: The meditative Japanese paper work titled Leiunare #07, Estratum Series (left) by Spanish artist Javier Leon Perez resonates with Whorl, a coiled feather sculpture by British artist Kate MccGwire. (Courtesy of Puerta Roja Gallery/-) [Traveling] also inspires me to look at the world differently. I meet new people, see new sights and experience new things, she said. This can directly affect my art, since even the light varies depending on the part of the world. Its also amazing and a privilege to witness the impact of art globally. We share a lot more in common than we often think. Sintas piece is juxtaposed against Geometric balance 01, a gravity-defying bamboo sculpture by Laurent Martin Lo, who is renowned for his exquisite bamboo creations. A member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors who currently lives and works in Spain, Lo was born in France and trained as a visual artist, but has worked for many years as a creative director in the advertising and fashion industries. His first encounter with bamboo was entirely incidental, but as he recalled, it was love at first slight. Bamboo became his obsession, a passion so strong that drove him to become a full-time artist and embark on a journey of discovery he refers to as Bamboo Routes. Cross-cultural: Wayan Novis Growing Bloom (right) is paired with Maria Garcia-Ibanezs Cradle at the exhibition. (Courtesy of Puerta Roja Gallery/-) I work with geometry using bamboo, its own structure and natural movement. I draw in the air, creating calligraphy made of bamboo gestures, threads, lines and spheres used for balance and in order to build organic environments. The meeting point is the fullness and the void, what is interpreted and what is not, he said. Lo found Sintas geometric works fascinating, as they used colors and graphic lines to create architectural environments in a bidimensional space. I particularly like how Sintas and my works are complementary in how theyre looking for balance. In a fourth dimension, our works could probably merge, he said. The work by Wayan Novi, a Balinese artist who works and lives in Yogyakarta, is no less fascinating. The 29-year-old is known for his persistence in exploiting the eyes insensitivity to details through his imaginative natural landscapes. Wayans Growing Bloom, an intuitive piece in acrylic on canvas, is paired with Maria Garcia-Ibanezs Cradle, a series of meticulously detailed pencil drawings that explore memory and intimacy through everyday objects. Puerta Roja founder and director Adriana Alvarez-Nichol, who is also the current co-president of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association, said that by inviting like-minded galleries to co-curate the exhibition, Reflections was a statement on the power of collaboration and cross-cultural dialog. Founded in 2010, the gallery has a dual-pronged mission to expand appreciation for Latin American and Spanish art across the Asia-Pacific and to increase awareness of the regions rich contributions to the global artistic landscape. The hidden but strong connections between our different artists will create an eclectic and strong exhibition that challenges traditional categorizations or demarcations for gallery exhibitions, she said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 12:47 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774f7434 1 Food aruna-dan-lidahnya,Aruna-and-Her-Palate,Adhika-Maxi Free Now playing in theaters, the movie Aruna dan Lidahnya (Aruna and Her Palate) further entertains moviegoers and foodies alike by the variety of dishes featured in it. Depicting the story of Aruna, a bird flu investigator who happens to be a food lover, the movie showcases more than 20 dishes, beverages and snacks. And to spice things up even more, the main protagonist is accompanied by friends whose lives also revolve around food. The adventurous Nad is a food writer while Bono is a chef. As if knowing that the food appearing on screen will arouse viewers appetites, Union Cafe at Senayan City pays tribute to the movie (and to foodies) by offering several dishes featured in the movie. They include head chef Adhika Maxis take on mie kepiting (crab noodles), nasi goreng Aruna (Aruna fried rice, cooked with aromatic ginger), nasi cumi pedas (spicy squid rice) and kari udang (shrimp curry). Adhika Maxi, who also founded Union brasserie in Plaza Senayan, Pondok Indah Mall Street Gallery, Grand Indonesia, Pantai Indah Kapuk Avenue and Senayan City, told The Jakarta Post that he helped Nicholas Saputra, who plays Bono the chef, when the movie was being made. Read also: Aruna dan Lidahnya tells you to savor the little things During the scene in Union [I] gave him [Nicholas] some pointers. I also cooked and inspired a few dishes, said Adhika, recalling the scenes he shot at Union Pondok Indahs kitchen. When asked what his exact role in the movie was, he laughed and told The Post to ask Laksmi Pamuntjak, the author of Aruna dan Lidahnya novel. Please ask Laksmi [] I believe the character of chef Bono was inspired by me. Later in a press conference held at Union brasserie Senayan City, Laksmi told the audience that she was inspired to create the character after dining at a friend's house where Adhika was the chef. "Aruna dan Lidahnya is born from a dining experience at a friend's house, a private event with [Adhika]. [Chef] Bono is actually based on Maxi. And I am very thankful for the experience as it gave me courage to write [the novel]. Because this is a reflection of our culinary world now. We talk about inspiration from everywhere," Laksmi said. Adhika, who previously worked with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, has worked in restaurants in the United States and written a cookbook for bachelors looking to impress with their cooking. The dishes inspired by Aruna dan Lidahnya will be available for a limited time at Union Cafe at Senayan City, from Thursday to Sunday. (mut) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Helene Dauschy (Agence France-Presse) Stockholm Fri, September 28, 2018 20:06 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877514388 2 Lifestyle fashion,#fashion,brands Free Swedish ready-to-wear giant H&M on Thursday said it saw a major boost in online sales in the third quarter, even as a cumbersome shift to faster logistics weighed down on profits. Hennes and Mauritz and other global high street chains have been pressing a drive to better integrate online markets, but the transition has faced stiff competition from fast fashion websites popular with millennials, and from behemoths like Amazon. For this year's summer months, H&M reported a 32 percent increase in online sales, even as profits shrank 19.2 percent. In a statement, the company blamed the drop in profits on "problems that arose during the implementation of new logistics systems in the US, France, Italy and Belgium during the spring (that) led to extraordinary costs". Net profit was 3.1 billion krona ($350 million, 300 million euros), with sales hitting 55.8 billion krona, an increase of 9 percent. "The rapid changes in the fashion industry are continuing and the H&M group is in an exciting transitional period," H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson said in a statement. "Our transformation work has contributed to a gradual improvement in sales development with increased market share in most markets during the third quarter, particularly in Germany, Sweden, Eastern Europe, Russia and China." Read also: H&M accused of failing to ensure fair wages for factory workers 'Long-term perspective' Persson said H&M is now present online in 47 markets, adding that the company is working "at full speed" to bring the brand's products to more online markets. He also said the trouble implementing the new logistics systems has now "largely been resolved". The systems, he said, are "an essential part of our work to make our supply chain faster, more flexible and more efficient". Experts say chains like H&M have struggled to compete with rising fast fashion online brands like Boohoo that are doted with a faster design-to-website product turnaround. "As always, we have a long-term perspective. Our improvement work is continuing and although many challenges remain, there are more and more indications that we are on the right track," Persson said. Investors welcomed H&M's rise in online sales, boosting its share price by 10 percent in early Thursday trading on the Swedish stock exchange. H&M poured $700 million -- 45 percent of its total investments -- in 2017 into efforts to boost its online prowess. It has meanwhile opened 380 new stores in emerging markets, including Ukraine and Uruguay, in 2018, while shutting down some 140 stores in other countries. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fiachra Gibbons (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France Sat, September 29, 2018 05:09 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087751b720 2 Entertainment France,film,Roman-Polanski,anti-Semitism Free He has spent half his life as the accused, but director Roman Polanski's next film will be called J'accuse (I accuse), its producers told AFP Thursday. The Polish-born film legend, who has spent four decades as a fugitive from US justice after admitting to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977, is making a historical spy thriller based on the Dreyfus Affair -- the most famous miscarriage of justice in French history. The script has been written by British novelist Robert Harris, who previously worked with Polanski, 85, on the critically-acclaimed The Ghost Writer in 2010 starring Ewan McGregor. J'accuse will star French Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin as the often forgotten counter-espionage officer who proved that the Jewish Captain Alfred Dreyfus had been wrongly accused of spying for the Germans. The case divided France for more than a decade from 1894, with the bitterness and divisions it created rankling right up until World War II. Legende Films confirmed that shooting would begin soon around Paris, and began advertising for extras Thursday for scenes to be filmed at the end of November. The French title of the film -- the working title in English is The Dreyfus Affair -- comes from the famous open letter written by novelist Emile Zola in support of the captain, lambasting the French government for its anti-Semitism. Such was the official backlash that the author of "Germinal" had to flee into exile in England for about 10 months after being convicted of libel. Read also: Polanski threatens to sue Oscars body after expulsion - 'Story of a witch-hunt' - Polanski, the maker of such classic films as Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby and Tess, has tried to get an English-language version of the story of Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart off the ground for years without success. "I have long wanted to do a film about Dreyfus, not as a costume drama but as a spy thriller," Polanski said in 2012. The story, he argued, was "absolutely pertinent for today's world -- a witch-hunt against a minority, paranoia about security, secret military courts and intelligence services out of control; lying governments and an enraged press." The new film will be in French, with actor Louis Garrel playing Dreyfus, and will also star Bond villain Mathieu Amalric and Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner. While Dreyfus was rotting in the notorious Devil's Island penal colony off French Guiana, Picquart reinvestigated the case in secret, proving that he was not the German mole. But when he presented the evidence to the general staff of the French army they refused to admit there had been a mistake and did everything in their power to destroy him. The producers said that "Picquart is the forgotten hero of the Dreyfus Affair... who discovered that the evidence against the captain had been fabricated". "From that moment he put his life and career at risk, and he never stopped trying to identify the real guilty parties and to rehabilitate Dreyfus," they told Le Film Francais magazine. Picquart was later made war minister in 1906 in a government led by Georges Clemenceau, who would go on to lead France during World War I. Meanwhile, Polanski will be played by the Polish actor Rafal Zawierucha in Quentin Tarantino's new film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, about the Manson Family murders that rocked Los Angeles in the late 1960s. Polanski's actress wife Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the group in their home in 1969. She was eight-and-a-half months pregnant at the time. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 09:56 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774ef1bd 1 Entertainment Kunto-Aji,music,#music,indonesian-music,local-musician,indie Free Musician Kunto Aji delves deep into his own psyche to address his vulnerabilities and face the obstructive thoughts that have plagued him in his second album, Mantra Mantra. Kuntos second album comes three years after his first album, Generation Y, and the level of anticipation, for the positive response to and the mechanisms behind how Mantra Mantra was created and distributed also show that he is a successful example of a new kind of mainstream that has risen within an industry driven mainly by young creators who now dictate the publics taste. Kuntos music in Mantra Mantra is youthful, hip and molds well and easily into ears. If one were to choose corners to describe his music, he would be a sort of Bruno Major pop-soul crooner swimming through reverbed beats and melancholy melodies that sonically depict the feelings of overthinking and doubt. The themes explored in his second album display honesty and admissions of weakness, topics that are seen more often in todays music. No longer do young artists have to deal with the burden of putting on a strong face when they honestly cannot. Here, Kunto lays bare his full self, his admissions of overthinking and the ways it affects him in various aspects of his life, thereby presenting himself as an honest human being. Back in the day, pop stars used to be told by label executives to project an image that put them high on a pedestal, thus making them appear indestructible but putting them out of reach from their fellow man. Todays stars employ the opposite track of just being themselves, and do so to wonderful responses and a higher level of self-contentment. This kind of honesty is the one thing that many major label Indonesian artists lack, be it of their own choice or because of the directions of their overbearing label bosses. Compared to when he was fresh out of participating in Indonesian Idol back in 2008, it is now in this free environment that he is able to truly break out as an artist. Kuntos success and his independent result and content finish is a result of a new mainstream music movement predominantly in urban Jakarta, driven by creators and passionate sympathizers. The cliche of the corporate major label record contract no longer feels relevant or even attractive anymore to artists like him, and thus artists such as Kunto are able to break out into the scene, miles away from the rigid Indonesian Idol structure, with little to no compromise to their identities in order to hustle and fight for what they want. This youthful, fresh movement is slowly usurping the roles of obsolete major labels that once used to call most of the shots in the music industry; establishing themselves as the new major labels. Mantra Mantra (Courtesy of Juni Records/-) Aside from Kunto, some of the producers of Mantra Mantra are also products of this new mainstream, such as Petra Sihombing and Bam Mastro. Musically, both men click very much with Kuntos style and their touches bring out subtle extras to the songs they worked on, especially Bam Mastros ambitious and distinctive hip-hop flavors given on the track Saudade. Kunto admits that this album took a long time to complete, due to several delays that occurred and also with his own struggles with overthinking and self-esteem issues. But to tackle those issues, the artist says he credits the presence of others as one remedy toward feeling better. I am trying to highlight one aspect of mental health that tends to be overlooked and dismissed by many, which is overthinking, he said. This happens to me a lot and thats why it took a long while to finish the record. The artist admits that he has self-doubt issues that used to hinder him from carrying out everyday activities, and also affected the pace at which he made his music. So much so that a month before Mantra Mantra was released, he released a small EP made up of demos for the current album, fittingly called Overthinker EP, as a small answer to the pressure of finishing his album. The first single, Topik Semalam (Last Nights Topic), was chosen by Kunto mainly because it is representative of what he is trying to convey about his struggles with obstructive thoughts, and the value of those around him who want him to see outside of his negative thoughts. To cope with such feelings, visits to the psychiatrist have helped him, and through processes like these he gradually found his answers toward getting better. With the support of a wife and an encouraging circle of friends, as well as a shoulder on his spirituality, Kunto managed to then complete his album one step at a time. I feel better when I talk about these problems with people Im not really close with, or even strangers, hence the psychiatrist, Kunto said. Because for me, its easier to vent yourself to a stranger because you tend to not really care about what they think about you compared to how much you care about your loved ones opinions. But again, everyone whos dealing with this handles it differently. Im just glad [the album] is out already but will it stop the overthinking? I hope so. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Star/ANN) Petaling Jaya, Malaysia Fri, September 28, 2018 07:27 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774e7a5a 2 World #Malaysia,#workers,Malaysia,foreign,workers,levies Free The Cabinet should clarify which ministry is in charge of the foreign worker levy issue as three ministries seem to be involved, causing confusion, says Perak MCA chairman Dr Mah Hang Soon. He asked whether the issue fell under the jurisdiction of the Finance, Home or Human Resources Ministry. "I urge the Cabinet to clarify which ministry is in charge. On Sept 24, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that skilled foreign workers who had worked in the country for 10 years would need to pay 80% of the RM10,000 levy, with employers bearing the remaining 20%, should they decide to extend their service for an additional three years. image: https://content.thestar.com.my/smg/settag/name=lotame/tags= Dr Mah said in a statement on Thursday (Sept 27) that Perak DAP chairman Nga Kor Ming should intervene and resolve the matter as he had commented that the RM10,000 levy was too expensive and needed to be reviewed. "Nga also suggested collecting RM3,000 instead and promised to bring the matter up with the relevant minister. "I hope Nga honours his promise and find the relevant minister to bring down the levy to RM3,000," he said. According to Dr Mah, since Nga said he would discuss with the relevant minister, he should keep his word. However, with three ministers involved, the question that arose was: Who should he talk to? "The Cabinet should clarify with Nga and businesses as to which minister they should talk to and which ministry they should follow up with" he said. The RM10,000 levy imposed on foreign workers who have worked in Malaysia for more than 10 years was first announced by Human Resource Minister M. Kulasegaran. "However, he later claimed that he was not in charge of the matter, and that it should fall under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry and that he was merely following the Prime Ministers instruction to make the announcement," said Dr Mah. "Kulasegaran also asserted that this decision was made by the Cabinet in a meeting on Aug 28," said Dr Mah. "I believe Nga may not even know which minister to meet, so there is still no news of him meeting any minister on the matter. "If businesses wished to meet the relevant minister to obtain a solution for this, they too would be in the dark as to which ministry to consult," he added. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 08:09 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774e91b3 1 City student-brawl,street-crime,jakarta Free A vocational high school student of SMK Malaka in East Jakarta, identified as Fahri, 17, sustained a cut on his back after refusing to join in a brawl on Wednesday. According to East Jakarta Police chief Comr. Suhut, the incident occurred when three unnamed perpetrators, claiming to be alumni of the school, told Fahri and two of his friends to join a brawl. When they all refused, one of them took out a sickle and slashed the victim, Suhut said Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com. Two of the suspects were then beaten by a mob who thought they were part of street robber gang, while the third suspect fled the scene. The two suspects were taken to the Duren Sawit Police station, while the victim was taken to the Pondok Kopi Islamic Hospital. (stu) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 09:35 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774ed634 1 City exotic-animals,protected-animals,animal-trading,animals Free Jakarta Police arrested a man in Tangerang, Banten, earlier this week over the illegal trade in and possession of 128 pig-nosed turtles, a protected species native to Papua. Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said the turtles were sold via social media, where they fetched between Rp100,000 (US$7) and Rp1 million, depending on their age. Police investigator Adj. Sr. Comr. Ganis Setianingrum added that all the known buyers were Indonesians who keep the turtles as exotic pets. However, the suspect, identified only as ES, allegedly had plans to export the turtles to Taiwan and Hong Kong, where they can fetch a higher price and are also used as an ingredient for medical and cosmetic products. Ganis said ES had been selling the turtles since August, lured into the business by his friend and fellow turtle trader. They have their suppliers in Papua, who usually smuggle the turtles to Tangerang by plane, he said, as reported by wartakota.tribunnews.com. ES will be charged with violating Article 40(2) of the 1990 Conservation Law, which carries a maximum penalty of five years of imprisonment and Rp100 million in fines. Fewer than 10,000 pig-nosed turtles are left in the world, spread out across northern Australia, Papua and Papua New Guinea. In Indonesia, they are protected under Environment Ministry Regulation No. 20/2018 on protected flora and fauna. (nor) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) New York Fri, September 28, 2018 08:44 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774ea423 1 National illegal-fishing,#IllegalFishing,Susi-Pudjiastuti,#SusiPudjiastuti Free Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has said countries should start to consider redefining governance on the high seas and imposing a complete ban on transhipment to curb illegal fishing. Susi added that it would take a global commitment and international cooperation to effectively eradicate irregular, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and other crimes, like human trafficking, on the high seas or international waters, which make up about 61 percent of the worlds surface. No single country can do it [curb IUU fishing on the high seas] because [its] resources will not be enough, Susi said on Wednesday while presenting a public lecture at Columbia University in New York. So it needs commitment and international institutions, a kind of UN [United Nations] body guarding the high seas. An undergraduate international politics student named Melissa asked Susi whether increasing surveillance on the high seas could prevent IUU fishing. I would say not only surveillance [that is important[, but also enforcement [to effectively combat IUU fishing on the high seas], Susi replied. The Jakarta Post joined the visit to New York under an official invitation from the ministry. The UNs Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO), Susi said, had a good initiative to not only curb illegal fishing, but also help prevent illegal transhipment at sea through the its Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) -- the first binding international agreement to specifically target IUU fishing. The PSMA requires countries to conduct port inspections of fishing vessels, regardless the status of their flags, to prevent illegal catches from landing up in ports. So far, 50 countries, including Indonesia, have signed the agreement, which came into effect in 2016. Last year, during the Our Ocean Conference in Malta, the FAO urged all countries to join the PSMA, which it described as one of the most cost-effective ways to curb IUU fishing. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) London, United Kingdom Fri, September 28, 2018 16:40 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308775077d6 2 World #humanrights,#Bahrain,AmnestyInternational,bahrain,prison,medical-issues Free Bahraini prisoners suffering cancer, multiple sclerosis and sickle-cell anaemia do not have access to medical care, Amnesty International said Friday, accusing local authorities of "negligence". Family members of 11 Bahraini prisoners, including high-profile activists, described treatment ranging from "petty harassment to needless cruelty", according to a new report by Amnesty. Amnesty said their accounts, supported by documentary evidence, showed health care in Bahrain's prison system was "marred by regular instances of negligence, delay, and arbitrary exercise of authority". Inmates with serious conditions like cancer and multiple sclerosis are regularly denied specialist care and pain medication, Amnesty said. "Although medical treatment is provided, it is far from adequate, and prisoners are frequently subjected to disruptions, delays and needless, petty cruelty," the report said. "In one appalling case, a man with stage-three cancer was sent back to prison just days after a biopsy the same individual recently had to wait for more than a month for his medication." Among the families interviewed are relatives of activist Hajer Mansoor Hassan, mother-in-law of Sayed Ahmed Wadei, head of advocacy for the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. The family of Ahmed Merza Ismaeel, half-brother of jailed cleric Sheikh Ali Salman, was also among those interviewed. Salman, one of the main faces of the 2011 Bahrain protests demanding changes in government, was acquitted of charges of espionage this year. Bahrain's public prosecutor has appealed the verdict. Hundreds of Bahrainis have been jailed, and some stripped of citizenship, since 2011, as authorities continue to crack down on political dissent. The government accuses Iran of inciting unrest in the Shiite-majority kingdom. Tehran denies the charge. Located between rival regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran, Bahrain has been ruled for more than two centuries by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty. It is a key US ally and home to the Fifth Fleet. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 09:32 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774ec7fd 2 Business connectivity,Indonesia,customers,consumption,digital,technology Free Fast-growing digital technology and connectivity are reshaping consumer behavior. According to the latest report by London-based strategic market research company Euromonitor International, which breaks down consumer trends and spending in Indonesia, digital technology, connectivity and social media play an important role in how consumers make decisions. Euromonitor groups the products and services into five categories that Indonesian consumers spent their money on last year (see the table). From these five categories, they spend the most on food, beverages and tobacco (34 percent). But the research company notes the two other categories -- consumer food service and travel -- which are in second and third position, respectively, have posted greater growth over the last five years, compared to other categories. Euromonitor research manager Adhitya Nugroho noted that Indonesians spending behavior was currently shifting from product type to service type purchases, adding that the increased spending on travel and consumer food services was strongly influenced by social media and the emergence of a huge number of millennials who tend to spend more on traveling. Graphic of five categories of products and services for which the Indonesian consumers spent in 2017. (Euromonitor/File) Nineteen percent went to food services last year, while 14 percent were spent on travel, which was also recorded as the sector with the fastest growth in the last five years, while consumer food service was the second fastest. Social media actually influences them to decide where to travel [] It is also important in terms of how they show off [their travel experiences] to their friends, Adhitya said at the Indonesia Euromonitor International Conference on Tuesday. Indonesia has a demographic bonus with a high number of millennials -- roughly around 60 million people -- and it also contributes to the rise of spending on travel. This segment is more interested in traveling and they are more adventurous than the previous generation. When they have extra money or disposable income, they will spend more on travel, he added. In fact, travel blogs have also inspired people to travel more. The presence of hotel and airline ticketing platforms like Traveloka also make traveling easier. Many platforms also offer discounts that encourage people to travel. Social media also plays a role in driving people to spend money on food services as more, especially millennials, are looking for exciting culinary experiences. They will go on social media to find recommendations on unique food experiences. Euromonitor International research manager Adhitya Nugroho speaks when delivering a report on Indonesia consumer behavior at the Euromonitor International conference in Jakarta on Sept. 25. (JP/Riza Roidila Mufti) Euromonitor also notes that cashless payments are one of the important developments that help people to spend. Adhitya said cashless payments were becoming more and more popular since the government kicked off the cashless society campaign last year. Maybe cashless payments do not encourage people to spend more, but it is actually creating a unique convenience. If cashless payments are convenient, it will influence consumers to purchase things in the long run. Based on Euromonitors digital consumer data, 75 percent of online food service purchases have been made on smartphones. Digital payments are expected to grow as the number of people owning smartphones is on the rise. Meanwhile, a Euromonitor consulting team led by Dhea Sutanto said there were three relevant megatrends that shaped Indonesian consumers behavior today and they would define consumer behavior in the future the connected consumer, premiumization and experience, adding that the three were important insights for business players to formulate their business strategies to attract consumers. Connected consumers are those who are connected to the internet and are able to access digital experiences, interactions and content. Euromononitor International estimates that 58 percent of households own smartphones in 2018, and this figure will grow to 78 percent by 2020. Based on its global consumer trend survey on mobile phone activity in Indonesia, 84 percent of people with mobile phones browse the internet and 65 percent visit social networking sites every day. Meanwhile, 13 percent use mobile phones to book or order ride-sharing services and 11 percent order food and drink online, while 10 percent buy items or services through their mobile phone every day. Connectivity has changed almost all aspects of the consumers life. Hence, understanding how consumers behave in their lifestyle choices is important for successful marketing strategies, said Dhea, adding that the number of connected consumers would increase in the future. Meanwhile, premiumization means that nowadays consumers are important to premium brands. This is driven by several factors, such as the rise of a new affluent class and the surge in lifestyle spending. Premiumization drives business players to offer better consumer services, even though they are not a branded product or service. With the rise of a younger population with mobile connectivity, consumers are also looking for a variety of experiences. It drives many brands to offer different experiences and services to their consumers. In accommodation, for example, several hotels have offered capsule pod-type rooms, something that people have never experienced before, Dhea said. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Taipei, Taiwan Fri, September 28, 2018 19:27 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877512a03 2 World #Crime,#iPhone,Foxconn,manager,stealing,iPhone Free A former manager at Taiwan's technology giant Foxconn has been jailed for stealing and selling 2,000 iPhones to pocket around Tw$8.46 million ($277,000), a court said Friday. Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, is the world's largest contract electronics maker and assembles products for international brands such as Apple and Sony. It employs about one million workers at its factories across China. Tsai Yi-wei, who worked in the company's testing department, had instructed eight employees at Foxconn's factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen to smuggle out iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s test models between July 2013 and December 2014, the high court said. Tsai and his accomplices then sold the phones, which were supposed to be scrapped, to stores in Shenzhen. He was sentenced to two years and four months in prison on Thursday and can appeal the ruling. "The defendant was the head of a department but violated the company's trust," the court said in a statement. Foxconn reported the case to Taiwanese authorities following an internal audit and Tsai was indicted in late 2016. The firm has been hit by a number of scandals in recent years, from employee misconduct to labour disputes. In 2016, five former Foxconn employees were given up to 10 years and six months in prison for soliciting Tw$160 million in kickbacks from suppliers in exchange for clearing quality checks and buying their equipment. The company had also come under the spotlight over labour unrest, from employee suicides to the use of underage interns at its Chinese plants several years ago. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 16:48 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087750b78b 4 Business FreeportIndonesia,smelter,divestment,Inalum Free After reaching a divestment deal on Thursday, gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) will now focus on a smelter construction plan, which is required for the company to obtain the special mining permit (IUPK) that is needed to operate the Grasberg gold and copper mine in Papua. The smelter is part of our agreement. So if the divestment is completed, we will turn to [smelter] construction, PTFI vice president of corporate communications Riza Pratama said in Jakarta on Thursday as reported by kompas.com. He said PTFI had showed a commitment to constructing a smelter through engineering design and land preparation processes at the planned location of the smelter in Gresik, East Java. After years of negotiations, Indonesia signed on Thursday an agreement with American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX), on the purchase of a majority stake in PTFI, which operates the gold and copper mine. To conclude the deal, however, state mining holding PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum), which represents the government in the talks, needs to settle a payment of US$3.85 billion to FCX and Rio Tinto Group within six months. The planned smelter in Gresik would manufacture 60 percent of the total copper concentrate mined from Grasberg, while another 40 percent would be manufactured at the existing smelter in Gresik. When asked if PTFI would continue with the plan to construct a smelter in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Riza said it was still in the works. The company is currently assessing the feasibility of constructing a smelter on the island. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 14:37 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774ffa2b 1 Business tourism,Thailand,bali,Indonesia Free Tourism Minister Arief Yahya has said that Indonesia needs to improve three key aspects of Indonesian tourism, and it could do so by learning from its Southeast Asian neighbor. Properly developed tourist destinations, skilled human capital and strong marketing were strengths of Thailand, Arief said. The country has managed these three things very well. Its tourist destinations are well-developed, human capital well-managed and its marketing and promotion have been properly implemented, the minister said, adding that its government and the people had worked hand-in-hand to develop the industry. Similarly, Bali also excelled in these three areas, hence the resort island's status as world-class tourist destination, Arief said. [Thailand] is just like Bali. Its people and destinations are ready to welcome tourists. Meanwhile, promotion and marketing there are ready [to support tourism], he said. Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia monetary and economic policy director Reza Anglingkusumo echoed Arief's opinion, saying that Thailand could be the benchmark for Indonesia in developing tourism. Even though Thailand has fewer tourist attractions than Indonesia, its industry earned US$62.2 billion in 2017, a significant difference compared to Indonesia's US$14.1 billion in the same year. Indonesia, he said, had 1,734 tourist attractions, while Thailand had 1,715. We could maximize our potential in tourism by capitalizing on foreign exchange, thereby narrowing the current account deficit, Reza said. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 10:19 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774ef53c 4 Business IMF-WB-meeting,#IMFWorldBankMeeting,infrastructure-project,Budi-Karya-Sumadi,#IMFWBG Free The government is planning to offer six infrastructure projects at the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, which will be attended by representatives from 189 countries, in Bali next month. Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said in Jakarta on Thursday that the six projects comprised three for the light rapid transit (LRT), two for airports and one for a seaport. The LRT projects, he said, would be developed in Bandung, Surabaya and Medan. The value of each project ranges from Rp 5 trillion (US$335 million) to Rp 10 trillion, Budi said as reported by kontan.co.id. Two airport expansion projects one for Kualanamu International Airport in Medan and one for an airport in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara required an investment of between Rp 3 trillion and Rp 6 trillion for each project, Budi added. Another project, the Kuala Tanjung Seaport in North Sumatra, needed a total investment of between Rp 3 trillion and Rp 5 trillion, he said, adding that the government had no preference on which investors to bring in. We offer [the projects] to all participants. We will hold a presentation at the venue [for the event], Budi said. He said the six were strategic projects and that Indonesia needed to cooperate with foreign companies to operate them once they are completed. The 2018 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings will be attended by an estimated 15,000 delegates from 189 countries. Participants will include finance ministers, central bank governors, representatives of global and regional institutions, businesses, academics and journalists. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Tehran, Iran Fri, September 28, 2018 22:10 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877516a67 2 World #religion,#Bahai,#Iran,intolerance,Iran,arrest,Bahais Free Iran has detained a member of the Shiraz city council for supporting two Iranians of the minority Bahai faith and expressing concern over their arrest, state news agency IRNA reported Friday. "Mehdi Hajati, a member of this council, was arrested Thursday evening for supporting two people of the outlawed cult of Bahaism," IRNA quoted council presiding board member Ghasem Moghimi as saying. Hajati, a reformist, had tweeted on Tuesday that "for the past 10 days, I did whatever I could to release the two Bahai friends that were arrested but failed". "Our generation is tasked to not back down in reforming judicial processes and other things that endanger social justice," he wrote, also using a Persian hashtag that translating into English as "fair trial". His twitter account, @MehdiHajati was suspended hours after his arrest. Bahram Parsayi, a lawmaker from Shiraz, came to Hajati's defence on Thursday. "Defending the civil rights of citizens should not be equated with supporting a cult," semi-official news agency ISNA quoted him as saying. Parsayi also vowed to pursue the case through the judicial and security authorities. Iran allows religious freedom for several minorities but targets the Bahai faith, which believes in unity among religions and equality between men and women. The Bahai faith considers Bahaullah, an Iranian born in 1817, to be the latest prophet sent by God, in contrast with Islamic orthodoxy. Bahais have been targets of persecution and discrimination in Iran since the emergence of the faith in the second half of the 19th century, well before the 1979 Islamic revolution. The Islamic republic regards Bahais as "heretics" and suspects many of espionage for Israel, where the community has a centre in the northern city of Haifa. The Bahai faith has an estimated seven million followers worldwide, including some 300,000 Iran where the community says they are barred from pursuing higher education and holding government jobs. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin John Irish and Arshad Mohammed (Reuters) United Nations, United States Fri, September 28, 2018 08:08 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774e8913 2 World #Israel,#Iran,#nuclear-technology,Israel,BenjaminNetanyahu,Iran,nuclear-plants Free Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday described what he said was a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran and accused Europe of appeasing Iran as he sought to rally support for US sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu showed an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow and pointed to what he said was a previously secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material. He argued this showed Iran still sought to obtain nuclear weapons, despite its 2015 agreement with world powers to curb its program in exchange for loosening of sanctions. Netanyahu spoke 4-1/2 months after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord, arguing it did too little to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions and triggering the resumption of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran. Netanyahu said the site contained some 15 kg (33 pounds) of radioactive material that has since been moved, and called on the UN atomic agency to inspect the location immediately with Geiger counters. "I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran's secret nuclear program," Netanyahu said. The world will laugh at Netanyahu's claims, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to Fars News. "The world will only laugh loudly at this type of false, meaningless and unnecessary speech and false shows," Qassemi said. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that there should be more scrutiny on Israel's nuclear program. "No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program - including an *actual atomic arsenal*. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors," Zarif tweeted. Israel has pushed the United States toward isolation, Zarif said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). "In recent days we've seen how much the policies that Netanyahu has imposed on America has isolated them in the General Assembly and Security Council," Zarif said, according to IRNA. "Now see when they can pull America to this level of isolation how isolated they are themselves." Netanyahu did not identify the material nor specifically suggest that Iran had actively violated the nuclear deal. An outspoken opponent of the deal, Netanyahu has previously made allegations about Iran's nuclear activities that are difficult or impossible to verify, including presenting a cartoon bomb to the General Assembly in 2012 warning of how close Tehran was to producing a nuclear device. In April, Netanyahu presented what he said was evidence of a large secret archive of documents related to Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program at a different site in Tehran. He said Israeli agents removed vast amounts of documents from that site. At the time, Iran said the documents were fake. In a speech in which he said relatively little about efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said Iran had since begun moving items out of the second site. "Since we raided the atomic archive, they've been busy cleaning out the atomic warehouse. Just last month they removed 15 kilograms of radioactive material. You know what they did with it?" he said. "They took it out and they spread it around Tehran in an effort to hide the evidence." He said Iranian officials still had a lot of work to do because there were some 15 shipping containers full of nuclear-related equipment and materials stored at the second site. "This site contained as much as 300 tonnes - 300 tonnes - of nuclear-related equipment and materiel," he said. Under the nuclear deal struck by Iran and six major powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for relief from U.S. and other economic sanctions. The International Atomic Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly said Tehran was abiding by its commitments to the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), including in a document reviewed by Reuters on Aug. 30. France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia have stayed in the pact, vowing to save it despite the restoration of U.S. sanctions and this week discussing a barter mechanism they hope may allow Iran to circumvent the U.S. measures. Netanyahu criticized Europe for doing so in unusually harsh language that evoked European nations' initial failure to confront Nazi Germany in the 1930s. "While the United States is confronting Iran with new sanctions, Europe and others are appeasing Iran by trying to help it bypass those new sanctions," Netanyahu said. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is aware of the facility Netanyahu announced and described it as a "warehouse" used to store "records and archives" from Irans nuclear program. A second U.S. intelligence official called Netanyahus comments "somewhat misleading. First, we have known about this facility for some time, and its full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminium tubes for centrifuges, and second, so far as anyone knows, there is nothing in it that would allow Iran to break out of the JCPOA any faster than it otherwise could." The Israeli leader also lambasted Iran's ballistic missile activity, identifying three locations near Beirut airport where he said Lebanon's Hezbollah was converting missiles. "In Lebanon, Iran is directing Hezbollah to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles, missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of 10 metres (yards)," he said. The IAEA and Hezbollah were not immediately available for comment. The Israeli military released a video clip and photos of what it said were Hezbollah Shi'ite militia rocket building sites in Lebanon, shortly after Netanyahu's address. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) United Nations, United States Fri, September 28, 2018 11:22 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774f2b00 2 World #Palestine,#refugees,Palestine,refugees,funding,USA Free The Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA on Thursday received pledges of $118 million from donor countries to help it overcome a crisis triggered by US funding cuts. Kuwait and the European Union were among the biggest contributors along with Germany, Ireland and Norway, UNRWA chief Pierre Kraehenbuehl told a news conference. France said it would contribute next year. The United States, which was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), announced in August that it would no longer fund the agency. Kraehenbuehl said the new funds were "a significant step in the direction of overcoming UNRWA's greatest and gravest financial crisis ever", adding that the shortfall in the annual budget now stood at $68 million. The administration of President Donald Trump has backed Israel in accusing UNRWA of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that millions of Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel. Created in 1949, the agency supplies aid to more than three million of the five million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories. Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who co-hosted the meeting on UNRWA's funding crisis on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, said discussions were under way on ensuring long-term financing for the agency. Safadi said the international community had a "firm, unwavering" commitment to keep UNRWA alive and ensure it continues to provide health and education services to Palestinian refugees. Aside from cutting funds to UNRWA, the Trump administration has also cut $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinians for projects in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said the United States would only give foreign aid "to those who respect us and frankly are our friends." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 11:35 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774f43ec 4 Business Pekan-Raya-Indonesia,opening-ceremoney,Tangerang,Banten Free PT Indonesia International Expo, an organizer of Pekan Raya Indonesia, an annual trade expo, has set a target to welcome 1 million visitors to this year's expo at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition in Tangerang, Banten, from Sept. 27 to Oct. 7. Last year, a similar event was attended by 630 visitors, with a total transaction value reaching Rp 600 billion. Indonesia International Expo president director Ryan Adrian said on Thursday that although this year's 11-day expo was shorter than last years 18-day event, he hoped this year would see more daily visitors. With 600 tenants with more than 2,000 trademarks, the event will see the participation of the property, automotive, fashion, food and beverage, and electronics sectors as well as creative businesses and small and medium enterprises. Ryan said around 30 coffee exhibitors grouped under the Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters (AEKI) would display their products during the event, while some 80 clothes exhibitors would display both local and imported products. The organizers will also present the International Indie Music Festival (IIMF), which will feature artists, including Danilla, Efek Rumah Kaca, Mocca, Fourtwnty and groups from foreign countries, kontan.co.id reported on Thursday. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28 2018 Gathering support for the Palestinian struggle for independence remains one of Indonesias top priorities as Jakartas high-level delegation ploughs through a flurry of meetings at the United Nations General Assembly. For almost a week, hundreds of leaders, officials, activists and diplomats descended upon the halls and meeting rooms of the UN headquarters in New York for countless meetings amicably dubbed as an exercise in diplomatic speed-dating. The issue of Palestine had been brought up in a number of key meetings this week, with more to come, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said on Wednesday. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 12:20 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774f6281 1 World Rizieq-Shihab,Saudi-Arabia,Indonesian-ambassador,visa-violation,overstayers,FPI,GNPF Free Rizieq Shihab, a firebrand cleric who has been on the run overseas for more than a year, has overstayed his visa in Saudi Arabia, the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh said in a statement on Friday. "Based on our investigation, Mohammad Rizieq Shihabs visa to reside in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has passed its prescribed expiration date," Indonesian Ambassador Agus Maftuh Abegebriel said in the statement. His first visa expired on May 9 this year but had been renewed until July 20. Any foreign national seeking to further extend their stay is required to leave the country to apply again. "But because Rizieq has been in the kingdom up until today, he no longer has a valid staying permit," Agus said. The envoy was quick to add that the embassy in Riyadh would provide the necessary assistance in accordance with Saudi Law should Rizieq experience any legal problems in the country. The statement was released in response to complaints by the hard-line cleric's supporters, who had claimed that a restriction was imposed on the activities of the FPI leader in Mecca. The response also seems to corroborate claims that the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader was taken into custody for questioning by Saudi authorities. However, Agus said he had no knowledge of Rizieq's whereabouts in Saudi Arabia. "The Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, as a channel of communication between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, has neither received a diplomatic note nor a facsimile from the foreign minister, the National Police chief, the head of [the intelligence agency] or other relevant officials about the presence of Rizieq in Saudi Arabia," he said. Agus also revealed that Rizieq had been on a ziyarah tijariyyah (visiting business) visa, which does not permit him to work in the country. Rizieq had been charged by the police with violating the 2008 Pornography Law in May 2017. By that time, Rizieq had fled to Saudi Arabia and refused to return to Indonesia, despite several police summonses. The police dropped the case in June, citing a lack of evidence. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fachrul Sidiq (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28 2018 The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Jakarta chapter has warned residents to be selective when receiving a blood transfusion, as it could transmit deadly diseases if not carefully checked. It said recipients and relatives should only accept certified blood, which had been screened through a nucleic acid test (NAT) scheme, which provided a fast and accurate assessment of the blood. PMI Jakarta has fully implemented the NAT platform to check donated blood. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login TheJakartaPost Please Update your browser Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below. Just click on the icons to get to the download page. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Star/ANN) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Fri, September 28, 2018 11:11 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774f2806 2 World #Malaysia,#alcohol,Malaysia,methanol-poisoning,death Free Another three people have died from methanol poisoning, bringing the total number of deaths to 40, the Health Ministry reported. The three deaths were from Perak, Selangor and Negri Sembilan, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. From Sept 15 to 27 noon, the number of deaths in Selangor is 24, four in Perak, 11 in Kuala Lumpur and one in Negri Sembilan, he said. Furthermore, the Ministry has received 95 case notifications of methanol poisoning from its health facilities for the same period, he said in a press statement on Thursday (Sept 27). image: https://content.thestar.com.my/smg/settag/name=lotame/tags= As of 12 noon on Thursday, there were 17 patients receiving treatment in six hospitals in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Perak and Negri Sembilan, he said. From the 17, seven were in critical condition, he said. Meanwhile, eight patients, whose conditions had stabilised, had been discharged, he said. Dr Noor Hisham said that from the 95 cases, 22 were Malaysians, 33 Nepalese, 21 Myanmarese, 10 Bangladeshis, four Indians, one Indonesian and four whose nationalities were unknown. The ministry has carried out educational and awareness sessions on methanol poisoning, among those at high risk such as factory workers and their family members and friends, he said. The ministry, through the Food Quality and Safety Division, has also inspected 1,581 premises that sell alcoholic drinks and 5,905 bottles of the drinks of various brands, including the brands linked to methanol poisoning, had been confiscated for not adhering to the Food Act 1983 and Food Regulations 1985, he said. We urge members of the public to bring their family members and friends with symptoms of methanol poisoning, such as stomachache, nausea, vomiting, headache and blurred vision within five days of consuming alcoholic drinks to visit the nearest clinics and hospitals for treatment, he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Keshie Hernitaningtyas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 10:22 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774effcf 1 News Indonesia,Saudi-Arabia,Makkah,travel,AccorHotels,pilgrimage,travelers,tourism,AccorHotels-Makkah-Complex Free As the largest Muslim country in the world by population, Indonesia serves as a very important market for the hospitality sector in Saudi Arabia. "Indonesia is generally a very important market for the whole of Saudi Arabia; it represents over 900,000 visitors every year -- [measured by] the number of visas that have been issued to Indonesians. The number hasn't reached the millions yet but hopefully, it will soon -- this is our target," said Alaaedin Saleh, the managing director for AccorHotels Makkah Complex, at an event in Jakarta on Wednesday. The country reportedly hosted up to 220,000 Indonesian pilgrims in 2017. Meanwhile AccorHotels Makkah Complex, which offers over 5,500 guestrooms through its five upscale brands that boasts close proximity to the sacred Masjid Al-Haram -- Raffles Makkah Palace; Makkah Clock Royal Tower, A Fairmont Hotel; Swissotel Al Maqam Makkah; Swissotel Makkah; and Pullman Zam Zam Makkah -- is said to have had 72,000 of its rooms booked by Indonesian pilgrims that same year. "Indonesia represents a lot as a market for our hotels, which caters to the luxury and upscale segment," said Saleh. Read also: Come to pray, stop to shop, Saudis set to triple malls in Mecca As those staying at the complex are umrah (minor haj) and haj travelers, Saleh said most of the Indonesian guests' utilized travel packages from travel agency services, which include transportation, accommodation and food. "They prefer packages, as it's a long trip between Mecca and Medina. Most of the agencies offer leisure excursions after umrah, where guests can spend some time in Mecca and Medina and then visit Istanbul, Egypt or Europe, depending on their budget," said Saleh. Other than expanding and extending its collaboration with travel and tourism companies in Indonesia, AccorHotels also strives to better its service for Indonesian guests. "Each country has its own demand. Food, for instance, is very important, especially breakfast. Hence at least 20 percent of our hotels' staff must represent Indonesia -- Asians in general, but mainly Indonesia. Because cuisine is very important [for Indonesians]; and [the variety] is very wide," said Saleh, adding that the complex even has cooks from different parts of Indonesia to fully cater for guests. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java Fri, September 28, 2018 12:35 1142 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308774f70f3 1 Destinations Jakpost-explores,bandung,West-Java,Museum,gallery,art,culinary,#food,travel,destination,#Jakpostexplores Free Bandung is the capital of West Java and enjoys a relatively cool climate as it sits on a plateau 768-meters above sea level. Situated near to the densely-populated capital of Jakarta, Bandung is often the choice weekend getaway for many Jakartans looking for a quick escape. How to get there One of the easiest ways to reach Bandung from Jakarta is by train, which departs multiple times daily from Gambir Station in Central Jakarta. The trip takes just over three hours, passing through scenic hills on the way, taking passengers to Bandung Station that is situated right in the heart of the city. Alternatively, there are also flights from Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in Jakarta to Bandung's Husein Sastranegara. The direct route is served by Wings Air, a subsidiary of low-cost airline Lion Air Group, with a flight time of 35 minutes. Best time to visit Bandung offers a varied experience as a city destination, making it an appropriate choice throughout the entire year. Climate Situated 768-meters above sea level, Bandung presents a slightly cooler climate than Jakarta. The comfortable breeze that accompanies the warmth of the sun creates a pleasant environment for outdoor exploration, such as visiting the many cafes and stores around the city on foot or merely enjoying fresh air in a park. Read also: Jakpost explores Bali Popular areas Visiting museums and art galleries are among the top things to do when in Bandung, as the urban landscape has witnessed some of Indonesia's most important historical events and over the years and has grown to be one of the nation's buzzing creative hubs. Merdeka Building Inside Merdeka Building's main hall. (JP/Liza Yosephine) Ten years after Indonesia's independence in 1945, the country hosted the Asian-African Conference, which was the first non-aligned movement aimed at promoting Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and opposing colonialism or neocolonialism by any nation. Merdeka Building is now one of Bandung's most popular museums. (JP/Liza Yosephine) The historical event was held in 1955 at the Gedung Merdeka in Bandung, which is located on Jl. Asia Afrika. The art-deco building now serves as a museum displaying collections and photographs from the conference. It remains one of the most popular tourist destinations as visitors seeks to learn about the history of the city. Admission is free. Geological Museum The Geological Museum is located on Jl. Diponegoro. (JP/Liza Yosephine) The Geological Museum in Bandung is the only museum of its kind in the country, displaying fossils, stones and artifacts unearthed in Indonesia. Located on Jl. Diponegoro, the art-deco building was first established in 1928. It has since gone through two renovations, in 1998 and 2000. A glimpse of the Geological Museum's display of bone artifacts. (JP/Liza Yosephine) Now the museum is a popular educational destination for students and tourists, as visitors can learn about Indonesia's geology, including through seeing several historical artifacts, as well as videos and other visual aids. NuArt Sculpture Park A miniature display of the Garuda Wisnu Kencana by Nyoman Nuarta at the NuArt Sculpture Park in Bandung. (JP/Liza Yosephine) NuArt Sculpture Park is a private gallery primarily displaying works by renowned artist Nyoman Nuarta, who created the recently inaugurated Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue in Badung regency, Bali. The gallery is located on Jl. Setraduta Raya and spans 3 hectares. NuArt Sculpture Park, as the name suggests, also stretches out onto an outdoor area. (JP/Liza Yosephine) It boasts a unique layout that comprises of a three-story building hosting numerous works displayed indoors, as well as a spacious outdoor park. The space was designed with art enthusiasts in mind, as well as a center dedicated to encouraging creativity and the development of the arts, facilitating various events throughout the year. Selasar Sunaryo Art Space Artist Sunaryo, 76, in front of his work, titled 'Lawangkala' in Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, on Sept. 15. (JP/Arya Dipa) Selasar Sunaryo Selasar Sunaryo Art Space is another unique gallery that is a must visit when in Bandung. Located up on the hills on Jl. Bukit Pakar Timur, the gallery sits on the outskirts of the city and boasts a unique architectural layout designed to blend right in with nature and the local topography. Featuring artwork by Sunaryo, the gallery earlier this month celebrated its 20th anniversary with an exhibition by its namesake artist titled "Lawangkala" that will run until Dec. 23. Read also: Jakpost explores Sumba Up-and-coming areas A cafe in Ciumbuleuit, Bandung, overlooking a lush mountain area. (JP/Liza Yosephine) Up in the northern parts of Bandung lies Ciumbuleuit, an upscale and quiet neighborhood that presents an alternative environment to the city center of Bandung. Its quiet streets and lush environment make for a pleasant area to explore on foot, where visitors can stumble upon cafes and eateries with picturesque views of the mountains. Rabbit Town was established as a selfie destination in Bandung. (JP/Liza Yosephine) The area is also home to Rabbit Town, a peculiar complex designed as a selfie destination, with various corners around the building designed as photo spots. To add to the unconventional variety, Rabbit Town also has animal clusters inside, such as rabbits, birds and monkeys that visitors can feed. The destination, however, is probably best known for its installations seemingly taking after a few notable artworks, including Chris Burdens Urban Lights, Yayoi Kusamas Obliteration Room and parts of the Museum of Ice Cream in the United States, which drew criticism from the public yet still attracts curious visitors. Cuisine Visitors can enjoy lemon cake and iced latte with a mountainous view at Kiputih Satu cafe in Ciumbuleuit. (JP/Liza Yosephine) Bandung is home to numerous cafes and restaurants scattered throughout the city. With sweeping views afforded in Ciumbuleuit, the area is home to new and unique cafes opening up around the vicinity. Among standouts include Kiputih Satu, a laid-back cafe located on Jl. Kiputih. Pick a table on the balcony and breathe in the fresh mountain air while sipping on coffee and tucking into cake on a fine afternoon. The House Tour with a Potting Shed on Jl. Panumbang Jaya not only offers delicious food and beverages, it can be enjoyed inside its unique glass house for a cozy meal. Try its Winner Chicken Dinner, comfort food comprising fried chicken with batter served with a side of a unique and creamy mashed sweet potato and salad. Winner Chicken Dinner is a signature dish at The House Tour with a Potting Shed in Bandung. (JP/Liza Yosephine) Another pick is Nara Park, a dining destination with a unique concept. Located on Jl. Rancabentang, Nara Park comprises several restaurants and cafes clustered together on a spacious and lush complex. Visitors can choose to sit anywhere and order from any of the restaurants, which offer a variety of cuisines such as traditional Indonesian, Japanese Teppanyaki and European Bistro. When down in the shopping district of Cihampelas, stop by the original branch of Kambing Bakar Cairo (Cairo Roast Goat), which serves succulent lamb roast and refreshing orange juice. Roast lamb at Kambing Bakar Cairo (Cairo Roast Goat). (JP/Liza Yosephine) What to bring back One of the most famous and popular gifts to bring back from Bandung is Kartika Sari's pisang bolen, a banana-filled pastry with a variety of flavors, such as chocolate and cheese. Its main store is located on Jl. Ir. H. Djuanda, where there are also a wide range of culinary goods worth trying, such as local delights of cakes and crackers. Where to stay The House Tour Hotel has a cozy glass potting shed-style building just outside its restaurant. (JP/Liza Yosephine) In Cihampelas, which is a popular shopping area, find comfort in the affordable Amaris Hotel Cihampelas located on Jl. Cihampelas. For a visit in the quieter area of Ciumbuleuit, The House Tour Hotel on Jl. Panumbang is set to welcome guests in October. Tips If possible, visit Bandung on a weekday, as weekends can get crowded and streets get jammed. Public transportation can be a bit complicated. However, like Jakarta, Bandung is also easy to get around with app-based transportation. (wng) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 28, 2018 18:38 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308775104cd 4 News JavaMifi,Wi-Fi,pocket-Wi-Fi,rentals,Internet,travel,tourism,tourists,foreign-tourists Free A local brand that offers a pocket Wi-Fi rental service has officially opened outlets at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, and Husein Sastranegara International Airport in Bandung, West Java. According to tempo.co, travelers can find the JavaMifi outlets at Soekarno-Hatta's Terminal 2 and Husein Sastranegaras international arrivals terminal. On Thursday, JavaMifi founder Andintya Maris said the two airports were chosen due to their status as the main entry and exit hubs for foreign and domestic tourists. "These outlets allow Indonesians, who are going abroad, to pick up pocket Wi-Fi. They will also provide an easier connection for foreign tourists once they arrive in Indonesia," said Andintya. Established in 2015, JavaMifi introduced inbound communication solution services in the form of 4G unlimited internet connection for foreign tourists who are seeking to explore different parts of the archipelago. It is cooperating with several big telecommunication providers in Indonesia to provide a stable internet connection. Read also: Railway operator to fit all trains with free Wi-Fi In the near future, it is set to add more outlets at other airports, such as Bali, Surabaya, Medan and Yogyakarta. Additionally, JavaMifi has cooperated with VSF Global Jakarta in Kuningan and its representative office in BSD to add more options for customers to pick up pocket Wi-Fi. It has introduced features like "Tiongkok tanpa VPN" that allows tourists traveling to China to stay connected to social media and Google-based email services, as well as aligning with partners in Japan, China, the United States, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong to provide local support in each country. (kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington Fri, September 28, 2018 15:09 1141 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877501122 2 News online-harassment,Youth,teenagers,united-states,cyber-bullying Free A majority of US teenagers say they have been victims of online harassment or bullying, and that social media companies aren't doing enough to fight the problem, a survey showed Thursday. The Pew Research Center survey found that 59 percent of US teens reported being bullied or harassed online, and 63 percent said it was a major problem for people their age. The most common type of harassment cited was name-calling, cited by 42 percent, while 32 percent said someone had spread false rumors about them on the internet and 16 percent said they had been the target of physical threats online. Among teens surveyed, one in four said they had received unwanted explicit images, received queries about their whereabouts from people other than a parent or had explicit images of them shared without their consent. "Name-calling and rumor-spreading have long been an unpleasant and challenging aspect of adolescent life. But the proliferation of smartphones and the rise of social media has transformed where, when and how bullying takes place," said Monica Anderson, the lead researcher for the Pew report. According to Pew, similar shares of boys and girls have been harassed online, but girls are more likely to be the targets of rumor-spreading or nonconsensual explicit messages. Teens from lower-income families are more likely than those from higher-income families to encounter certain forms of online bullying, Pew said. Read also: Public suicide of harassment victim in China sparks onlinesoul-searching Most young harassment victims feel that teachers, social media firms and politicians are doing a poor or fair job in addressing the problem of cyberbullying -- an issue which has drawn the attention of US First Lady Melania Trump and Britain's Prince William. The teens believe parents are doing better -- with 59 percent saying that parents are doing a good or excellent job in addressing online harassment. One of the factors fueling online harassment is that many teens are on their phones or online so frequently. A previous Pew study showed 95 percent of US teens had a smartphone and nearly half were online "almost constantly." The latest report showed two-third of teens who say they are online almost constantly have been cyberbullied, compared with 53 percent of those who use the internet several times a day or less. Pew said that 59 percent of parents interviewed during the research were worried about their teen being harassed or bullied online, and a similar percentage were concerned about their teen sending or receiving explicit messages. The researchers surveyed 743 teens between the ages of 13 and 17 and 1,058 parents between March 7 and April 10. The estimated margin of error is five percentage points for the teen group and 4.5 points for the parents. By Esther Hwang hwangest@grinnell.edu This fall, the College hired a new librarian, Megan Adams, to step in for four librarians, Rebecca Ciota, Chris Jones, Julia Bauder and Liz Rodrigues, who will be taking consecutive leaves in the academic years of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Growing up in Largo, Florida, Adams aspired to be a teacher. However, while she was attending the University of South Florida, she realized that working in public schools was not for her. Working with kids is a skill, and you should be passionate and good at it, Adams said. Instead, Adams decided to work in education with young adults. She obtained a Master of Library Studies (MLS) and an MA in literature at UW-Madison. For her thesis, Adams looked at historical trauma in two writers countries of origin Haiti and the Dominican Republic. She looked at the way these 1.5 generation immigrants represented a violent incident that occurred at the borders and how they used their voices in a way that people back home could not. One of the writers she looked at was the Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat, whose book Farming of Bones is her favorite. It talks about violence in a disturbing way thats also beautiful, the way the characters work through things and experience stuff, experience each other. I think thats one that will last, Adams said. She has also worked in GRE test assessment, done freelance editing with graduate students, most often with international students and is also interested in web design, nature and drawing. Her job at Grinnell is her first time working as a librarian instead of as a library assistant, and Adams hopes to support students during her time here. I like connecting people with information. I realized the thing I hated about standardized test assessment, besides the fact that its standardized test assessment, was that it was too late to help the people. Youre just assessing it at that point. They dont get feedback beyond the score, Adams said. I realized I wanted to work with people in the process. So, I started putting all those things together and realized Oh, I could be a librarian. Because you get to work with people in the process, help people find information, organize information. Thats whats interesting to me. She has been settling into Grinnell and, so far, she has enjoyed talking to Kamal Hammouda, the owner of Relish and going to a folk music performance at the Arts Council with her partner. She is thrilled about the two-minute walking commute to Burling. By Henry Brannan brannanh@grinnell.edu This Friday marks the start of the 70th annual Family Weekend here at the College, and although the weekend is a cherished tradition for many students and families, for others, it is a particularly difficult time. Students from a variety of backgrounds including low-income, international, survivors of familial trauma and/or those without ties to a nuclear family face a variety of seldom-considered challenges. Low-Income Students For low-income students, high travel and lodging costs arent the only factors keeping their families home this weekend. Not just the cost of traveling, but the time cost for my family, Joe Fitzpatrick 21 said, my parents would have to take off work, and for many low-income families, missing work is simply not an option. International Students As with domestic students, international students face barriers in the astronomical cost of travel and the challenge of family members getting time off work; however, many also face the added challenge of going through the often arduous and expensive process of attaining a visa. Fit Getahun 21, an international student from Ethiopia, explained that for his family, in addition to $1,200 to $1,300 for each plane ticket, they also have an additional $500 per-person at least for the visa. All in all, Its a lot of ifs and its a lot of money, Getahun said, and for many like English international student Anita Hill 21, having family come out for a weekend, for that distance, just doesnt make sense at all. Trauma and Estrangement However, the experiences of those who might struggle with Family Weekend are not monolithic. While many wish their family could visit, for others with histories of trauma and/or those with identities their family doesnt accept, the possibility of family visiting is not an exciting one. Being around my parent is an experience that makes me vastly uncomfortable, [I dont] feel like I can be myself and [Im] subjected to many rules and social codes that [go] against my way of living, said Harley Rivers 19. Rivers explained, Family Weekend can be a tool that parents with abusive behaviors use to maintain contact. If its not completely explicit, its still implicitly known that if you dont allow [family members] to see you, then you will not get financial assistance from your parents, which for most people here means you will not be able to go to college, Rivers said. This reality forces students into situations where the College becomes the leverage families can use to maintain unhealthily and/or abusive relationships. Loneliness, Frustration and Distrust Overall, for many Grinnellians, Family Weekend is just another difficult and sad reminder of life circumstances. It just really sucks when everyones family is here and theyre having a good time and yours isnt, Fitzpatrick said. Its just kinda like, Oh, damn, Im too poor.' This experience can be particularly common during students first semester here when they may not have built a community and support system yet. First semester when Family Weekend happened, I couldnt make sense of it. I didnt understand, said Off-Campus Senator Carrie Stallings 19. I was mad at the people and the families everybody. And I was just pissed off and sad and disappointed and all these things, said Stallings, who added that she feels this can be even harder as a student of color who perceives that most of the families attending are white. Structural Barriers Despite their frustration, students recognize that in many ways, the problems of Family Weekend are not specific to Family Weekend, but instead part of larger societal problems that impact their lives everywhere. Stallings explained she isnt mad at the families here and appreciates Family Weekend. Its just that I can see the skeleton of everything thats making sure their families are there and mine isnt, she said. This sentiment is for many the crux of the issue. According to multiple students interviewed, many students, particularly those who are low income or estranged from their families, feel the College has done little to acknowledge and address the barriers they face and that leaves Stallings feeling that Family Weekend is not for her family. That space is not for my father. That space is not for my mother. These spaces are not designed to cater to my family. Cause they know theyre not coming. Stallings isnt alone in this frustration. Many students feel betrayed by how much effort and resources are put into an event that, at a school with such large international and low-income populations, so many students and families here simply cannot participate in. To many, like Fitzpatrick, it feels like the College doesnt care unless theres somebody to impress. For Hill, the Colleges lack of response to her experience compared to those whose families can come definitely gets to me a lot more than the fact that I cant have my parents come visit. Push For Inclusivity Michael Sims, director of campus center operations and student activities, who, with Student Affairs Technical Assistant Nancy Guinane, puts on Family Weekend, recognizes the challenges Grinnell faces in making Family Weekend more inclusive. It is something that is thought about, Sims said. However, he stresses the complexity of the problem, later continuing, Its not just a money issue in order to resolve, theres a variety of reasons why families are not able to come. Sims and Guinane stress that students are welcome and encouraged to come to all events regardless of whether their family is here or not. Youre a student here this is your place, emphasized Sims. [Family Weekend] follows the typical Grinnell form of [being] open to all. We try to eliminate the haves and the have-nots and then that way everything is still free and open for everyone to participate, Guinane added. We encourage the entire campus to come to the information desk, get a program, get a schedule and participate in anything they want to. But for many students, simply welcoming all to the existing programming is not enough. They see the entire purpose of Family Weekends events to be enabling those who can be with their families to enjoy that time together. Without her family, Hill feels uncomfortable attending events created and run for families, saying her invitation to them feels very contrived and very not aimed at us. Cherished Tradition Despite its challenges, everyone interviewed agrees that the tradition is an important part of Grinnell. Even those who dont get to see their family like Joel Choi 22 feel glad that Grinnell has Family Weekend and appreciate that its a great way for parents to check up on their kids. And for many others, fellow Grinnellians responses to the barriers they face have been deeply heartening. During Family Weekend her first year, a mother in town for Family Weekend saw Stallings crying in the Alumni Recitation Hall and stopped to talk with her nearly four years later the two still keep in touch and Stallings said the experience and the bond it lead to redefined Family Weekend for me. Although Stallings experience is certainly not the norm, many students interviewed spoke of how they had been invited to spend time with their friends families and how that can, in Getahuns words, go a long way for a person who is homesick! Possible Improvements Regardless of how widespread these individual acts of kindness are, changes are still needed to address the structural barriers that negatively impact students experiences of Family Weekend. Part of the solution could be modeled by the programming the Office of International Student Affairs does to foster community here. Getahun, Hill and Paul Chan 21, an international student from Myanmar, all separately felt the programming put on by the Office, in particular, the Friends of International Students program does wonders to create support systems and community. Hill thinks programming specifically designed for students whose parents cant make it to Family Weekend would significantly help in making the tradition less exclusionary. And for Stallings, the value of that programming would not just be that it gives students whose families arent here something to do, but that their peers and the College would acknowledge their experience. Just to even acknowledge, Hey, we know there are a lot of students who really arent getting anything out of this event, [do] everything they can to avoid it, [do not] want to look at it [get] really sad when they do. Just something to acknowledge that. By Chloe Wray wraychlo@grinnell.edu On Sept. 5, Pals of PALS, the student group in support of the Poweshiek Animal League Shelter (PALS), announced in an email to student volunteers that Pals of PALS would no longer work with the shelter. It saddens us deeply to say this, however starting tomorrow Pals of PALS will no longer operate in conjunction with Poweshiek Animal League Shelter, the email read, later stating that the leaders can help put students in contact with PALS and connect them with rides. Previously, the group had coordinated volunteer shifts each week, recruiting students to fill them and providing transportation. Gemma Nash, Katie Lou McCusker and Seth Ruiz, all 19, were leaders of Pals of PALS. Each had three years of experience volunteering at PALS. Nash believes that, based on archived email exchanges, the group dates back to 2012. The dissolution of the relationship between the student group and the shelter comes with a shift in the PALS administration. In December 2017, Kacie Fattig and Jenny Fiebelkorn were hired to fill the role of part-time shelter co-managers. Fiekelborn shared that she and Fattig assumed their roles after previous management had vacated their position, leaving the new managers to learn the ways of the shelter on their own. PALS has significantly professionalized since Jenny and Kacie, our two part-time managers, took over at the start of 2018, Professor Barry Driscoll, political science and member of the PALS Board of Directors, wrote in an email to The S&B. Theyve built relationships with animal welfare professionals outside of Iowa and have started to import some best practices for modern shelter care. A successful program needs volunteers who understand their role in an organization and the negative impact made when volunteers are not reliable or ignore policies and procedures. Recent policies regarding volunteering introduced by Fiebelkorn and Fattig include new training procedures and request that volunteer shifts be requested three weeks in advance. Pals of PALS shared that it was difficult for students with shifting schedules to commit so far in advance, especially when their volunteers were used to signing up for shifts on a weekly basis. Additionally, PALS now requires volunteer training by employees or board members for safety and liability reasons, whereas in the past Pals of PALS had been allowed to train their own volunteers. The adjustment to the new management contrasted with experiences Pals of PALS had with previous management who were perceived as relaxed, if not at times unorganized. I understand PALS reasons for making the changes that they did, it was just that there was a lot of difficulty in making that transition and I think that left an image issue. While the reasoning is understandable, I think their attempt to phase us out became a lot more apparent, Ruiz wrote in an email to The S&B. Nash and McCusker were abroad when the PALS management shifted and the new policies took effect, a factor which both Pals of PALS and PALS expressed in contributing to misunderstandings. Previously Nash and McCusker interned at PALS, employed through the Service Learning Work Study program, however, in the time they were abroad, PALS hired new interns. We have a lot of experience, we have a lot of value, and we werent assigned that value, said McCusker. Ruiz wrote that Pals of PALS had essentially been relegated into a taxi service who no longer had input into the shelters organization. The leaders of the former Pals of PALS, which is in search of a new name, are investigating alternate animal-care volunteer options in the area, such as Jasper County Animal Rescue League, who McCusker feels are more open to changing student schedules. PALS, however, still welcomes Grinnell College students to volunteer independently. Fiebelkorn says that within the past month, over 40 students have expressed interest in volunteering with PALS, about half of whom have completed the two-hour training. Within the new volunteer model, the Service Learning Work Study students are responsible for communicating with student volunteers and arranging transportation through College drivers. With the interns each at the office an average of five hours a week they have become attune to the daily and weekly needs of the shelter, making them well suited to acting as liaisons between the College and PALS, says Fiebelkorn. Students interested in volunteering can contact PALS directly, or email the leaders of the group formerly known as Pals of PALS to explore other options. By Julia Anderson anderson14@grinnell.edu It came as a surprise to many students to hear that Rabbi Rob Cabelli would not be returning to Grinnell College this fall. For those involved in Chalutzim, Grinnells organization for Jewish students, the news meant more than losing a member of the Grinnell community: it signaled a major restructuring in the groups organization and leadership. Fortunately, students on the Chalutzim board have worked with Stacey Cannon, technical assistant for the Center for Religion, Spirituality and Social Justice (CRSSJ) and the Dean of Religious Life, Deanna Shorb, to maintain Chalutzims active presence on campus. While we dont have an associate chaplain and rabbi, its certainly my expectation that Stacey and I would help as far as possible Chalutzim continue to be able to celebrate cultural and religious holy days and activities, said Shorb. Shorb and Cannon help organize certain details for Jewish events, such as inviting former Grinnell Rabbi Deborah Brin back to campus to lead services during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. For the most part, though, students have completely taken over the groups responsibilities. I really didnt know how much [Cabelli] did until he left, said Amelia Geser 19, a member of the Chalutzim board. One of the most challenging tasks for students to administer has been financial, as Cabelli previously oversaw the organizations budget. Were pretty lucky that this year we already have strong student leadership across different years, said Noah Segal 19, also a member of the Chalutzim board. More students have become involved with the board this semester, motivated to support the continuation of Chalutzim and provide a welcoming Jewish community to the campus following the rabbis departure. The leaders of Chalutzim volunteer around five hours a week to maintain Jewish life for students, notably through hosting a weekly Shabbat table. This event involves meal planning and preparation, coordinating cooking groups, leading Shabbat blessings, cleaning the kitchen and more. It requires considerable assistance, but students have been enthusiastic about helping. From what Ive seen, theres more engagement, and Im hoping that that turns into more campus-wide Jewish community engagement, Segal said. Despite the initial adjustment and challenges, Chalutzim leaders are optimistic about the future of the organization and Jewish life at Grinnell as a whole. I think that structurally, this has been kind of a blessing in disguise. I think that weve really come into our own as an organization. People who previously took a backseat have stepped up and taken more of a leadership role, Geser said. Chalutzim leaders emphasized that essentially all multicultural organizations on campus are completely student-run, and Chalutzim is inspired to revamp their student leadership. In this period of transition, students have the opportunity to reconsider the structure of the group and to offer their own ideas for changes. I think that having it be more student-led is going to be more valuable in creating a stronger community and in students taking initiative and responsibility, Segal said. Were all sad that we lost our leader, and were all going to miss Rob, but this is a chance for us to rethink our mission and to grow as an organization, Geser said. As for the future, the Chalutzim board aims to continue student involvement and to further increase Jewish life and community on campus. Though they acknowledge that it is difficult to hold religious events without a rabbi, the group anticipates hosting more social and cultural events in addition to weekly Shabbat table. Nonetheless, Jewish students recognize the need for a rabbi on campus. Weve all taken on new roles that we didnt know we had, but the one role that none of us can fill is that of a spiritual leader, Geser said. The search for a new associate chaplain and rabbi is underway, though no developments are certain yet. The Chalutzim board will be involved in the hiring process. Students can email [chalutz] to be added to the Chalutzim email list and keep up with Jewish life at Grinnell. By Mayo Sueta suetamay@grinnell.edu For fourth-year students applying to the Fulbright Grant and Watson Fellowship, national merit-based awards for after college, the start of the semester has been even busier than the already hectic schedule of a typical Grinnell student. Reina Matsuura 19 committed to apply to the Fulbright Grant for the English teaching assistantship in South Africa close to the deadline. I committed at the last minute and I had a MAP this summer and the MAP actually went into basically a few days before classes started, said Matsuura. I was pretty stressed, I cried a couple of times, Im not gonna lie. For Matsuura, the biggest struggle of the application process was keeping up her self-confidence knowing that she was in competition with many other applicants. I guess the most challenging part was looking at what these programs want and being like Im not good enough because part of the whole process is youre gonna be compared, she said. So, going through those self-esteem moments I think was the most challenging. In such a grueling process, Matsuura stressed how the College, specifically the meetings with the Assistant Dean & Director of Global Fellowships & Awards Ann Landstrom, served as a helpful resource, and she urged future applicants to also take advantage of the CLS as a resource. Go to the CLS. Even if its just [to] set up appointments just to force yourself to get drafts in. Even having someone else listen to your own academic trajectory really helps because other people are more attune to what you can present and what you should highlight. For Lily Hamilton 19, who worked on a big part of her application over the summer, the process was a long one. Its been good. Its been long. I started talking to the adviser about it last May, and Ive been working on essays and meeting with her over Skype and stuff since June basically, said Hamilton. I have eight drafts of essays and things, its only two one-page essays so its been a long process but its kind of nice to have it done in October. Hamilton is applying for the English teaching assistantship in Morocco, where she hopes to continue to learn and speak French, which she started studying in Grinnell. I really liked how learning a language prompted me to think in new and different ways and also to kind of reevaluate my role as an American citizen but then also as a global citizen, and how my American identity helps me fit into different contexts, she said. Receiving the Fulbright Grant would also help her acquire skills that she would need in the future, as she hopes to go to law school and work in the realm of civil rights law or criminal law reform or just legal advocacy more broadly. Doing that would require me to work with a lot of communities holding a lot of identities that I dont have and that would require a lot of cross-cultural communication of me so I thought that doing a Fulbright would be a good opportunity for me to really develop those skills in a way that would serve me in the future as well, Hamilton said. Hamilton said the biggest challenge she faced during the application process was trying not to get overwhelmed by the idea of putting herself in a completely new environment. For me this would be a huge step, living abroad in a non-Western country where I know women have very different rights and I would be stepping into a role that I dont have a ton of experience in, Hamilton said. I think the biggest challenges have mostly been my personal introspection and sort of using that as an understanding that informs my process, but also recognizing that yeah, it is gonna be hard. But that also presents opportunities for growth so just trying not to get too overwhelmed by that, too. Steven Duong 19 has also been very busy with applications, as he is applying for both the Fulbright Grant and the Watson Fellowship. I applied for both the Fulbright Grant and the Watson Fellowship because I really want my year after graduation to be like a sort of an exploration in a place thats very unfamiliar to me, Duong said. A lot of people have talked to me like Oh, I thought you werent allowed to do that, youre not allowed to apply to both the Watson and the Fulbright, but you are, its just a shit ton of work, Duong said. You just have to be sure that if you were able to get either of these youd actually wanna do them, and thats the case with me. For the Fulbright Grant, he is applying for the English teaching assistantship in Vietnam, and for the Watson Fellowship, his project entails going to four different countries. For Duong, the process was definitely a stressful one. The interview process, definitely very stressful because, just a lot of dates and deadlines I had to come through for sort of just like a lot of work, a lot of time, Duong said. However, similarly to the other Grinnell applicants, the CLS and his professors helped with navigating the application process. Ann Landstrom was really helpful She was here during the summer so I just came in with drafts of my essays for each of these applications and like worked on it throughout the summer. Probably had like six or seven drafts for each one, Duong said. And my professors definitely really helpful, just like giving advice One of my professors who was my recommenders was also a Watson fellow so he was really helpful with the process. Ive had support from both faculty and staff Its been good. Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. High 9C. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. Low 3C. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. MBABANE Are you an organic farmer or have the zeal to produce gluten free food? Then you have a E0.5 trilllion (US$50 billion) market waiting for you in the United States. Southern Africa Trade Investment Hub Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) Exports and Linkages Specialist Cosmas Mamhunze has advised Eswatini businesses to maximise on the available opportunity to export organic foods to the US. Speaking during a sensitisation workshop for more local businesses to tap into the available opportunities under AGOA, where about 6 500 products can be exported into the US duty free market, Mamhunze disclosed that there was a huge demand for organic foods in the US which needs to be tapped into. Mamhunze explained that the growing demand for speciality foods was substantiated by the absorption of specialty food from E1.27 trillion (US$127 billion) in 2016 to E1.4 trillion in 2017 (US$140 billion). There is a E500 billion (US$50 billion) market for organic and gluten free foods not only in the US but the European Union as well, disclosed Mamhunze during the workshop convened at Sibane Hotel on Wednesday. The exports specialist strongly emphasised on the need for local businesses, which intend exporting their produce to the US, to familiarise themselves with the compliance standards and certification procedures. Mamhunze further lamented at the fact that not many businesses in the kingdom export their produce to the US yet the kingdom also enjoyed duty free access to one of the worlds largest economies, the US. He pointed out that it was of vital importance for the country to ensure that it finalised the development of an AGOA utilisation strategy that would outline precise implementation procedures as to how the kingdom will ensure that it maximises all available opportunities under the trade agreement. Swaziland Investment Promotion Authoritys (SIPA) Sibusiso Mnisi informed the nearly 30 business delegates that plans were well underway to formulate the Eswatini AGOA utilisation strategy. We are hopeful that a draft AGOA utilisation strategy would have been collated by the end of this year, said Mnisi. Mamhunze also revealed that plans to avail a grant programme for all countries under AGOA had been shelved for now until such time when US authorities and stakeholders decided otherwise. Aware I am aware that two companies had applied for funding under the grant programme unfortunately it has been put on hold, said Mamhunze. Coley Anderson, who provided a lecture on the certification procedures for companies that may be interested in taping into the AGOA market, strongly emphasised on the need for entities to have a reputable US based agent to handle registration and certification on their behalf. She encouraged businesses to register their businesses in the US to avoid disappointments when they try to export their produce. It is important to ensure that you adhere to the set standards in order to fully enjoy the benefits of AGOA, advised Anderson. SIPA Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hanalora Strydom said a number of products were currently being exported to the US under AGOA. She said these include sugar, specialty foods, and handicraft together with textile and apparels. Having fully regained AGOA, we are now focusing on diversification of Eswatini export products with the assistance of USAID Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub. We are exploring sectors covering food, beverages, cosmetics and drug exports which will be additional to the already successful sugar and textile exports to the US, said Strydom. Eswatini lost AGOA eligibility in 2015 due to concerns over restrictions on the freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, and expression. However, U.S. President Donald Trump restored trade benefits to Gambia and the kingdom in December 2017. According to the official AGOA website, it is explained that AGOA provides duty-free market access to the US for qualifying Sub-Saharan African beneficiary countries by extending duty-free preferences previously available under the US Generalised System of Preferences. Virtually all GSP tariff lines are (also) denoted D, meaning that they are AGOA eligible. AGOA goes beyond this, by allocating D classification to more than 250 additional tariff lines. Furthermore, AGOA provides duty-free access to textiles and apparel subject to the wearing apparel provisions, having their own requirements and rules of origin. For example, apparel made in a lesser developed beneficiary country is granted duty-free access, even when the fabric used in such manufacture is sourced from third countries. Textiles are also eligible provided that they are manufactured in the AGOA beneficiary countries. Altogether 6,421 tariff lines (status November 2016) are granted AGOA duty-free preferences. This number can, however, change from time to time. NGCAYINI A teenage boy died after he was allegedly assaulted by his uncle with fists, kicks and open hands last week. The deceased Sibusiso Simelane (17) was staying with his uncle, Mduduzi Khweshu Dlamini (35) of Ngcayini. The uncle is a construction worker. He took him in after his mother abandoned him. The boys mother is now late. However, before she died she had abandoned the child at a place situated in Lavumisa. Through some of his mothers friends, we managed to locate his whereabouts and he was eventually brought home by his uncle, the same man alleged to have killed him, the boys other uncle, Boy Dlamini, said yesterday. Boy revealed that as a family, they were not aware of any physical or other form of abuse as the suspect had his own house, situated a kilometre away from the main Dlamini homestead. He said the two lived together and there was no suspected abuse until Simelanes death last Wednesday. Since he was in the construction industry, he would take his nephew to sites when schools were closed or during school holidays and we would not see them at all. They would also go together to work in the maize fields from early in the morning until late. He instilled some sort of discipline, however we all assumed it was part of a grooming process so he could be a better person, Boy added. A day before Simelanes demise, Boy revealed that a resident of the area came running and knocked on his door, shouting, Inyandzaleyo, Sibusiso uyafa lapha - loosely translated, Please help, Sibusiso is dying over there, pointing at the accused persons house. Boy said when he rushed to Mduduzis home, together with his wife, they found the suspect pacing up and down the veranda, looking frustrated and confused. He said when he got inside the house, Simelane, who had missed school, was rolling on the floor and complaining of a severe stomach ache. Boy said when he asked him what was wrong, Simelane allegedly told them he had inyongo (bile) and he was vomiting. MANZINI There is no stress about that. This is what the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) outgoing Secretary General Zwelithini Mndzebele said about the intended implementation of the no-work-no-pay rule. Mndzebele said according to their understanding as a union, they had a recognition agreement with government, which meant that if they decided to call a meeting, their members should attend. We officially stopped our proposed strike as per the court ruling, he said. However, Mndzebele said officially stopping the strike did not take away their right to call meetings for their members. This is our absolute right and we will enjoy it without fear, he emphasised. On another note, Mndzebele said they only took such statements as means of intimidating their members, which was something they would not allow to happen. MBABANE The doctrine of no-work-no-pay will apply to teachers who will absent themselves from work without any justification. Attorney General (AG) Sifiso Mashampu Khumalo said when a person was employed, he or she was expected to perform the duties assigned to him or her and when the work was not done, that individual was not eligible for payment or remuneration. He emphasised that the no-work-no pay doctrine was an international principle. The AG said an employer had a right to apply that principle where necessary. The doctrine of no-work-no-pay is a fundamental axiom in industrial relations. The philosophy is very simple. When a person is employed, it is expected that the work assigned will be carried out. When this work is not done, the employee is not eligible for payment of any salary, he said in an interview. Khumalo also stated that in the event their client (Ministry of Education and Training) instructed them that teachers were on strike notwithstanding the court order stopping it, they would urgently approach the court for an order that they be found to be in contempt of court. He said as far as they were concerned, there was no strike action by teachers as there was a court order interdicting or stopping it. Teachers are advised to respect orders of the court as they will need the very same courts in future. They should not only respect court orders when they suit them, said the attorney general. He emphasised that there was a court order deferring the strike action by the teachers. On Wednesday, during the extraordinary meeting, which was attended by over 5 000 members, the teachers are reported to have resolved to abide by the court ruling by calling off the intended strike action. The strike action was supposed to start on Tuesday and end today. However, the teachers decision was clear that even though they had called off their proposed strike action, they would ensure that teaching and learning did not take place in schools around the country. The teachers agreed to do this by attending a series of activities to be organised by their association on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. In their agreement, they said teachers, especially SNAT members, were only expected to go to their workplaces on Mondays and Fridays until government acceded to their demand for 6.5 per cent cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) for 2018/2019 financial year. Last Sunday, the Industrial Court ruled that although the intended strike action by teachers was lawful, it should be deferred to November 23, 2018 to give the new government time to deal with SNATs demands. Judge Dumisani Mazibuko further ordered that in the event the teachers decided to strike after November 23, they are expected to give new notices. Only 23 percent of Brits, particularly among the young wanted to keep the sculptures, unlike the Greeks (who) continue to care deeply about them Brexit may just hold the key to gaining back the Parthenon Marbles for Greece, according to The Guardian columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett who wrote the article Brexit Chisels Away Any Right Britain had to the Parthenon Marbles. Cosslett notes once Britain leaves the EU it should finally have the decency to return Greeces plundered heritage, which resides in a gloomy room in the British Museum, to Greece, where the remaining Parthenon Marbles are bathed in sunlight and overlooked by the temple that was their original site. Cosslett also points out that only 23 percent of Brits, particularly among the young wanted to keep the sculptures, unlike the Greeks (who) continue to care deeply about them. Read full article at theguardian.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: Solipsist commonswiki License: CC-BY-SA The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Ministry of Tourism of Greece and the Region of Central Macedonia have partnered together to organize the 8th UNWTO International Meeting on Silk Road Tourism in the Northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki, on October 10-12 2018. After joining the Executive Council of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (22nd UNWTO General Assembly, September 2017, in Chengdu, China) along with Lithuania, Russia, Romania and Azerbaijan, for the 2018 2021 four-year term, and becoming its member (of the board) for the first time, Greece will host this International meeting dedicated to tourism on the Silk Road for the first time as well. It was decided that Greece would host the event after the competent Tourism Minister, Elena Kountoura and the General Secretary of the Organisation, Zurab Pololikashvili, signed the relevant deal in May 2018. After being elected in the UNWTOs Executive Council, Greeces Kountoura had stressed in an announcement: Greece is a leading global tourist destination and our participation for the first time in the Executive Board of the World Tourism Organization symbolizes the recognition of our countrys strengthened image internationally, also thanking the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias for his support to the cause as well as all other member countries of the UNWTO that showcased their faith in Greece by supporting its candidacy. The Tourism Ministry, Mrs Kountoura had then continued, is promoting a series of targeted actions that fulfill our goal of making Greece even more active and to have an essential role in international institutions and associations of tourism and to have a strong presence and representation abroad. The Member States of the Silk Road, the co-operating WCO members and the international bodies representing the public and private sectors that will take part in the upcoming International Meeting, will also have the chance to attend a Round Table organised with the participation of ministers of member-states as well as targeted sessions on the role and interconnectivity of historical silk paths in the international scene. Source: Lida Filippakis/balkaneu 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 The issue of the economy is the basic focus of Tsipras' trip to New York, according to officials, who add that particular weight is being given to investments Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is having meetings with officials from the Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley during his trip to New York, ANA reports. As noted by government officials, the prime minister will present in meetings with top US bankers "the facts and the strong growth dynamics of the Greek economy, as well as Greece's possibilities for steady and uninterrupted access to international capital markets." 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: Dan Smith License: CC-BY-SA The Merlin Estate is some 11 kilometers from Corfu Town and is one of the islands most historic properties with great potential for tourism utilization Alpha and Piraeus Bank are in advanced talks with investors interested in the Merlin Estate on the Greek island of Corfu, which, given its history, is one of the most emblematic properties in their portfolios. The Merlin Estate is a 600,000-square meter seaside plot at Dassia that has belonged to the two banks since 2008, after a debt settlement agreement with APE Fixed Assets SA and the AEGEK construction company. It holds great potential for tourism utilization. The actuarial value of the property, which is 72.2 percent owned by Alpha and the rest by Piraeus, is estimated at 40 million euros. However, the final price may be much higher given the added value tourism can bring to it. The investor who finally obtains the property will likely be able to reap major capital gains from it in the future if it is taken in the direction of tourism development. The Merlin Estate is some 11 kilometers from Corfu Town and is one of the islands most historic properties: In 1925 the British botanist Lord Sidney Merlin introduced the Washington Navel orange to his estate still known as the Merlin in Greece today along with bringing kumquats to the island from Japan. Washed by the sea and split by a small river, the property also includes the abandoned house of Lord Merlin. Read more at ekathimerini.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: Martin Falbisoners License: CC-BY-SA ABSTRACT We have presented the evolution of angular momentum and orbital period changes between the component spins and the orbit in close double white dwarf binaries undergoing mass transfer through direct impact accretion over a broad range of orbital parameter space. This work improves upon similar earlier studies in a number of ways: First, we calculate self-consistently the angular momentum of the orbit at all times. This includes gravitational, tides and mass transfer effects in the orbital evolution of the component structure models, and allow the Roche lobe radius of the donor star and the rotational angular velocities of both components to vary, and account for the exchange of angular momentum between the spins of the white dwarfs and the orbit. Second, we investigate the mass transfer by modeling the ballistic motion of a point mass ejected from the center of the donor star through the inner Lagrangian point. Finally, we ensure that the angular momentum is conserved, which requires the donor star spin to vary self-consistently. With these improvements, we calculate the angular momentum and orbital period changes of the orbit and each binary component across the entire parameter space of direct impact double white dwarf binary systems. We find a significant decrease in the amount of angular momentum removed from the orbit during mass transfer, as well as cases where this process increases the angular momentum and orbital period of the orbit at the expense of the spin angular momentum of the donor and accretor. We find that our analysis yields an increase in the predicted number of stable systems compared to that in the previous studies, survive the onset of mass transfer, even if this mass transfer is initially unstable. In addition, as a consequence of the tidal coupling, systems that come into contact near the mass transfer instability boundary undergo a phase of mass transfer with their orbital period. Keywords: Stars: DWD Binaries, Mass Transfer, Methods: Numerical 1. Introduction Double white dwarf (DWD) binaries provide an interesting key to understand a variety of areas in astrophysics. Their birth properties provide insight into the evolution of their progenitors [1] , as well as the dynamics of common envelope evolution [2] . From a population standpoint, the DWD binary systems may make up the largest fraction of the close binary stars in our Galaxy. Following common envelope evolution, DWD binaries may emerge with a sufficiently short orbital period and rotational angular velocities, allowing gravitational radiation (GR), tides and mass transfer to drive the stars closer together on an astrophysically interesting time scale. Prior to the onset of mass transfer, their orbit will be shrink due to the effect of angular momentum via GR. Tidal forces are thought to synchronize the spin and orbital periods of the white dwarfs by the time that the white dwarfs are close enough together to begin transferring mass ( [3] [4] ). As the degenerate components of a DWD binary orbit continues to shrink via GR, the less massive component will inevitably fill its Roche lobe and begin transferring matter to its companion and the system will enter into a stable semi-detached state. In the case where the mass transfer is stable, such systems may be identifiable as AM CVn ( [5] [6] ), which have extremely short orbital periods, but we still lack a uniform theoretical understanding of the detail nature of those binaries for all possible mass ratios, orbital parameters and origins. However, one would like our theoretical understanding to be such that given a white dwarf binary of arbitrary masses and compositions at the time that the less massive component gets into contact, one could reconstruct the previous evolutionary pathways and the subsequent evolution to merger, tidal disruption or stable mass transfer. Mass transfer in close DWD binaries has generally been taken to be stable if the mass ratio is smaller than 0.8. However, [6] identified the interesting possibility of the mass transfer stream that directly impact the surface of the accretor during this phase. The nature of it may depend both on the structure of the donor and the mass ratio of components. Thus, a stream of matter is pulled from the donor star through the inner Lagrangian point. If the matter stream does not impact the surface of the companion star, then the mass lost from the donor is expected to settle into a disc [7] and the division between the disc accretion and direct impact has been studied before ( [8] [9] [10] ). Torques exerted between the discs and the component white dwarfs allow angular momentum stored in the disc to be transferred back to the orbit ( [7] [11] ). However, the life time of these systems is defined not by feedback of angular momentum to orbit, but by angular momentum loss from the systems due to GR. If direct impact drives the system apart, both [9] and [10] showed that a stabilizing accretion disk is likely to be created. If direct impact mass transfer increases the mass ratio and decreases the orbital period, the mass transfer rate may eventually become dynamically unstable, which can result in a merger. As we have showed in [12] henceforth called paper I that mass transfer phase in binary stellar evolution can either decrease or increase the orbital period of the system, crucially depending on the exchange of angular momentum between the binary components, the orbit and the component spins. In order to calculate the angular momentum changes during mass transfer, both the studies of [9] and [10] utilize a numerical prescription based on [13] approximations to more accurately determine the flow of angular momentum between the component spins and the orbit. In that formulation, it is assumed that the angular momentum transferred from the orbit to the spin of the accretor is exactly equal to the angular momentum of the ballistic particle in a circular orbit around the donor at its average radius during its motion from donor to accretor1. The present study will building upon these studies and crucially depending on the changes in the orbital angular momentum, the period and radius of the donor stars and that of its Roche lobe in response to the mass transfer, providing direct ballistic integrations of the mass transfer stream using an approximation adopted from the [13] . This led us to extend the analytical and numerical solution of [14] for the time dependent behavior of the mass transfer by relaxing most of the assumptions made to provide the problem manipulable. Here, we retain the simplifying assumption of Roche lobe calculation, but allow all the binary parameters to vary self-consistently. The aim of this paper is to determine the evolution of angular momentum and orbital period changes between the component spins and the orbit in close DWD binaries throughout GR, tides and mass transfer effects by providing different range of orbital parameters and stellar models in a full self-consistent manner. In particular, we examine the comparison between numerical and analytical solutions to determine these systems whether, and under what circumstances, dissipative tidal coupling of the accretor to the orbit, through direct impact, can stabilize the dynamical mass transfer. This paper is organized as follows: 1 [9] assume that the donor remains tidally locked, while [10] does allow for variation in the spin of the donor, but does not do so in a self-consistent manner. In Section (2) we develop the basic differential equations which governing the evolution of orbital parameters, assuming mass transfer through some well-specified model(s) and the basic assumptions with dynamical stability of mass transfer and discuss the difference between this method and the method utilized by the previous studies. In Section (3) we find and discuss the numerical solutions of the systems. In Section (4) we illustrate the results and discussion of this paper in comparison to the previous studies. Finally our main conclusion is summarized in Section (5). 2. Mass Transfer and Evolution of Orbital Parameters 2.1. Basic Assumptions In this paper, we consider a close binary system of two white dwarfs with masses M d and M a , volume-equivalent radii of R a and R d , and uniform rotational angular velocities of a and d with axes perpendicular to the orbital plane for the accretor and donor, respectively2. We assume that the mass of each star is distributed spherically symmetrically. The binary is assumed to be in an initially circular keplerian orbit with orbital period, P orb . The radius of each object is assigned following Eggletons zero-temperature mass radius relationship of [13] . We chose the P orb of the orbit such that the volume-equivalent radius of the mass of the donor (R d ) is equal to the volume-equivalent radius of its Roche lobe (R L ) as fit by [15] . Both the M d and M a initially rotate synchronously with the orbit3. 2.2. Method In this paper, we perform a Monte Carlo integration to calculate the volume-equivalent Roche lobe radius [16] over a two dimensional grid in P orb and mass ratio, q parameter space. We also apply Runge-kutta methods for numerically estimating solutions to basic differential evolution equations of obit, which will be discussed in Section (3). Hence, we determine the set of orbital parameters and their differential equations which governs the evolution of angular momentum and orbital period changes due to direct impact accretion in close DWD binaries, using the Eggleton function for the Roche lobe, R L , E g g for calculating its size, the dynamical mass transfer rate, and the corresponding synchronization time scales for different cases, under certain restrictive approximations which determine the strength of tidal coupling. We now have all the steps in place to solve the evolution of these systems. Our basic calculations are performed using a Monte Carlo integration method in a stationary inertial reference frame located at the initial center of mass of the binary system, which solving ordinary differential equations of orbital parameters at equivalent points. Following the above assumptions, we can investigate the outcomes for these systems with total mass, M and the orbital parameters such as P orb : P o r b = ( 4 2 a 3 G M ) 1 / 2 , (1) 2Throughout this paper, the subscripts a and d will correspond to the accretor and donor, respectively. 3If the donor rotates non-synchronously, the Roche lobe radii can be calculated as given in [16] . where G and a are the universal gravitational constant and semi-major axis, respectively, and taking the donor to be the less massive star, the one that fills its Roche lobe. 2.3. Evolution of Angular Momentum As we have investigated in [12] , as the matter is being transferred between the components in the binary systems, not only the mass ratio, q, but also the P orb will be changed due to angular momentum redistribution between the components of two stars. Then the total angular momentum, J t o t , of the binary system is given by: J t o t = J o r b + i = 1 2 ( J s p i n , i ) ; i ( a , d ) (2) where J o r b is the orbital angular momentum, which is given by: J o r b = M a M d ( G a M ) 1 / 2 , (3) and the spin angular momenta of the accretor and donor are J s p i n , a = K a M a R a 2 a and J s p i n , d = K d M d R d 2 d , respectively, where K a and K d are dimensionless constants depending upon the internal structure of the accretor and donor, respectively. Here, we express the total angular momenta in terms of the rotational rates of the accretor, f a and donor, f d relative to the orbital angular velocities of the stars. Thus the rotational angular velocities of the stars, i can be written in terms of the rotational rates and the angular velocity of the circular orbit, o r b is given by i = f i o r b . (4) Then we can rewrite the total angular momentum of the binary system as: J t o t = M a M d G a M + i = 1 2 ( K i M i R i 2 f i ) o r b . (5) The form of the J o r b term adopted above assumes the binary revolves at the Keplerian angular velocity of the circular orbit, o r b 2 = G M / a 3 , which is a good approximation if the stars are centrally condensed. Here, we introduce three effects that change the J o r b , P o r b and i over time: mass transfer (MT), tides, and GR. Assuming each effect is independent of the others, we can then write the change of the orbital angular momentum as the sum of the change due to each of the above effects: J o r b = J o r b , M T + J o r b , G R + i = 1 2 ( J o r b , t i d e s , i ) , (6) which is known as the orbital angular momentum balance equation. To determine the total change in the angular momentum, then, we simply need to write the change due to each of the above effects. A system of two point masses orbiting around each other, in circular orbits, radiates gravitationally ( [17] ). Then the change in orbital angular momentum due to GR for a circular orbit is given by: J o r b , G R = ( 32 5 G 3 c 5 M a M d M a 4 ) J o r b . (7) Prior to the onset of mass transfer, we assume that the spins and orbit to be synchronized, the binary orbit will shrink and the P o r b of the system will decrease due to the effect of angular momentum via GR as seen in Equation (7). During this time, tidal coupling will act to circularize the binary as well as synchronize the spins of the stars with the orbit. As mass transfer begins, angular momentum will be exchanged between the spin of the component stars and the orbit. This will ultimately affect the dynamical stability of the mass transfer process. As in [10] , we express the exchange of orbital angular momentum due to tides as: J o r b , t i d e s = i = 1 2 ( K i M i R i 2 i ( f i 1 ) o r b ) ) . (8) The term in the bracket of Equation (8) represent the torque due to dissipative coupling upon the accretor and donor. Hence, torques are parameterized in terms of the synchronization time scales ( [18] ) of the accretor, a , donor, d and are linearly proportional to the difference between the component and the orbit spin, which determines the strength of tidal coupling relative to MT and GR. We assume that the tidal synchronization time scales change because the masses and stellar radii relative to the orbital period are changing. As [10] , we explore two different values for the synchronization time scale at contact: = 10 15 years (very weak tidal coupling) and = 10 years (very strong tidal coupling), which may be a better approximation for systems with short orbital periods, as we consider in our analysis. In this work, we are only interested in direct impact mass transfer and orbital changes due to ballistic integrations where the particle impacts the surface of the accretor within one orbital period. In this case, the evolution of orbital parameters is determined by the differential equations, which will be given in Section (2.4). If the particle accretes within one orbital period, we classify this as a direct impact. If the particle does not accrete within one orbital period, it is likely that the ejection stream from the donor will self-intersect, resulting in the eventual formation of an accretion disk. To determine J o r b , M T , we use the ballistic mass transfer calculations of [19] to examine the instantaneous effect of mass transfer in close DWD binary systems. This method uses a fully self-consistent, conservative, ballistic model of the transferred mass to determine the orbital parameters of the system after a single mass transfer event. Then, the change in the orbital parameters per unit mass that results is directly proportional to the mass transfer rate of our evolving DWD, M d : J o r b , M T = ( J o r b , b M P ) M d , (9) where J o r b , b is the change in the orbital angular momentum for a close DWD binaries as calculated by the above ballistic model for a single mass transfer event ejecting a particle of mass M P . In this method, changes in J o r b , M T are calculated at each time step by integrating the three-body system consisting of the two stars and the discrete particle representing the mass transfer stream. The change in the J o r b , M T per unit mass transferred is independent of the mass of the ejected particle as long as M P M d , M a . 2.4. Differential Equations for the Evolution of Orbital Parameters As we investigated the rate of change of orbital angular momentum in Section (2.3), we develop the equations for the evolution of orbital period and the rotational angular velocities of the stars. It follows from Equation (3) and [12] that J o r b J o r b = ( 1 q ) ( M d M d ) + 1 3 P o r b P o r b (10) for conservative mass transfer ( M = 0 ) 4 and q = M d M a . Since M a = M d . Hence for the conditions M = constant and J orb = constant it then follows that: P o r b P o r b = 3 ( M a M d ) ( q 1 ) > 0. (11) 2.4.1. Evolution of the Orbital Period We examine the changes of the P o r b due to dynamical mass transfer, tides and GR. We assume that each effect is independent, and write the total change in the P o r b due to each of the above effects, respectively, as: P o r b = P o r b , M T + P o r b , G R + i = 1 2 ( P o r b , t i d e s , i ) . (12) To calculate P o r b , M T , we utilize the model for mass transfer developed in [19] . Using this models, we calculate the time rate of change of P o r b due to mass transfer rate as: P o r b , M T = ( P o r b , b M P ) M d . (13) Here, P o r b , b is the change in the orbital period for a close DWD binaries as calculated by the above ballistic model of [19] as described in Section (2.3) for the evolution of orbital angualar momentum. 4Recall that we assume the orbit remains circular in this paper. Next we calculate P o r b , t i d e s and P o r b , G R . As noted by [9] and [10] , we used a different metric for changing the spin angular momentum due to tides of Equation (8). Hence we develop P o r b , t i d e s from that angular momentum change. Holding the donor mass constant ( M = 0 ) for the final two terms of Equation (12) we can combine Equation (6) with Equation (11) to obtain: J o r b , t i d e s + J o r b , G R = ( 1 3 P o r b ( P o r b ) t i d e s , G R ) J o r b , (14) where ( P o r b ) t i d e s , G R is the total change of the orbital period due to the combined effects of tides and GR. Assuming as before that changes to the orbital period due to tides and changes due to GR are independent we can rewrite the above as: J o r b , t i d e s + J o r b , G R = ( P o r b , t i d e s 3 P o r b + P o r b , G R 3 P o r b ) J o r b . (15) Using Equation (3), Equation (7), and Equation (8), it follows that: P o r b , t i d e s = 3 P o r b G a M i = 1 2 ( K i M i R i 2 i i ) , (16) and P o r b , G R = 96 5 G 3 c 5 M a M d M a 3 . (17) From Equation (4) and Equation (8) we can re-write Equation (16) as P o r b , t i d e s = 3 ( P o r b M 2 ) 1 / 3 ( A a + D d ) , (18) where A a = K a M a R a 2 a ( a o r b o r b ) , and D d = K d M d R d 2 d ( d o r b o r b ) . (19) Finally, inserting Equation (13), Equation (17), & Equation (18) into Equation (12) leads to the equation for the dynamical evolution of the orbital period with time as: P o r b = ( P o r b , b M P ) M d + 3 ( A a + D d ) ( P o r b M 2 ) 1 / 3 P o r b , G R . (20) 2.4.2. Evolution of the Rotational Angular Velocities of the Stars We derive the equations for the evolution of the components spins, a and d . Thus the changes in both components can be defined as: i = i , M T + i , t i d e s + i , G R . (21) Analogous to P M T in Equation (13), the change in i due to mass transfer, i , M T can be expressed as: i , M T = ( b , i M P ) M d . (22) Here, b , i is the change in the rotational angular velocities of the star i resulting from a single mass transfer as described in Section (2.3). As in Equation (4), the spin angular momentum of each component can be written as: J s p i n , i = K i M i R i 2 i , (23) where i = f i o r b . Hence, we consider that the tidal forces exist to redistribute angular momentum, working to keep the spins of the donor and accretor synchronous with the orbit ( f i = 1 ). Now we can determine i , t i d e s and i , G R by differentiating Equation (22) with respect to time assuming the mass held constant: J s p i n , i = K i M i R i 2 ( i , t i d e s + i , G R ) 2 3 K i M i R i 2 i P o r b ( P t i d e s + P G R ) . (24) The second term in Equation (24) depends only upon changes due to tides and GR. Since we do not include any GR effect on the spin angualar momentum of the components, conservation of angular momentum indicates that any changes in the spin angualar momentum of a component must be equal and opposite to the changes in the orbital angular momentum of the system due to tides acting on that component. Using Equation (4) and Equation (8), we have: J s p i n , i = i = 1 2 K i M i R i 2 i ( i o r b ) . (25) By combining Equation (24) and Equation (25) we can derive the expression for i , t i d e s + i , G R as: i , t i d e s + i , G R = i i 2 3 i P o r b [ G R + 3 ( A a + D d ) ( P o r b M 2 ) 1 / 3 ] , (26) where G R = 96 G 3 M a M d M 5 c 5 a 3 . (27) Using Equation (21), Equation (22) and Equation (26) we obtain the equations for the evolution of a and d as: a = ( b , a M P ) M d a a + 2 3 a P o r b [ G R + 3 ( A a + D d ) ( P o r b M 2 ) 1 / 3 ] , (28) and d = ( b , d M P ) M d d d + 2 3 d P o r b [ G R + 3 ( A a + D d ) ( P o r b M 2 ) 1 / 3 ] , (29) 2.5. Mass Transfer Rate The nature of mass transfer and its stability is very important in a close DWD binaries. It is rooted in a similar treatment of mass transfer under consequential angular momentum losses via GR [20] . Whether, once started, mass transfer will proceed in a stable or dynamically unstable manner depending on the response of the mass losing donor star and its Roche lobe to the mass transfer. For all types of donor star, the mass transfer rate is a strong function of the depth of contact, defined here as the amount by which the donor overflows its Roche lobe as: = R d R L , (30) where R d is the radius of the donor and R L is the radius of its Roche lobe. The mass loss rate from the donor monotonically increases with . The way in which the mass transfer rate varies with has been investigated in many analyses (see, for example, [21] [22] [23] ). The correct way to treat this is to compute the stellar structure ( [23] ). In accordance with [9] , we approximate the mass transfer as adiabatic ( [24] ). In the adiabatic response, which for a white dwarf donor gives a mass transfer rate of M d = f ( M a , M d , a , R d ) 3 , (31) for > 0 , and zero for < 0 . Combining results from [24] [25] and [22] , the function f is given by: f ( M a , M d , a , R d ) = 8 3 9 ( 5 G m e h 2 ) 3 / 2 ( e m n ) 5 / 2 P o r b , (32) where = ( 3 M d / 5 r L R d ) 3 / 2 [ a d ( a d 1 ) ] 1 / 2 , m e is the mass of an electron, m n is the mass of a nucleon, e is the mean number of nucleons per free electron in the outer layers of the donor (which we will assume to be two) and and a d are parameters associated with the Roche potential = M d M a + M d and a d = X L 1 3 + 1 ( 1 X L 1 ) 3 . (33) where, X L 1 is the distance from the center of the donor to the inner Lagrangian point of the donor, in units of the semi-major axis, a. 2.6. Roche Model In the case of [9] , where the rotational angular velocity of the donor is fixed to the orbital velocity and the orbit is circular throughout, the shape and volume of the Roche lobe depends only upon the mass ratio and the semi-major axis of the system. For higher mass ratio, stars become more and more deformed. Thus mass transfer is dynamically unstable. In that case, we introduce the effective radius, r L , of the Roche lobe, the most widely used approximation being from [15] , r L = 0.49 q 2 / 3 0.69 q 2 / 3 + log ( 1 + q 1 / 3 ) , (34) effectively, it is a tidal radius where mean density in lobes are equal: R L = r L a , (35) for 0.1 q 1 and so with the notation of [9] , we have R L R L = r L M d M d + 2 3 P o r b P o r b , (36) where r L takes values between 0.33 and 0.48 is the logarithmic derivative of r L with respect to M d for both [26] and [15] small q approximation for the Roche lobe radius. In the same spirit we write the logarithmic time derivative of the donor radius, R d R d ( M d , t ) as: R d R d = D + a d M d M d , (37) where D = ( log ( R d ) / log ( t ) ) M d , represents the rate of change of the donor radius due to intrinsic processes such as thermal relaxation and nuclear evolution, whereas a d usually describes changes resulting from adiabatic variations of M d [27] . If the donors are degenerate as in the white dwarf case, a d is simply obtained from the equilibrium mass radius relationship for the donor5. As a d and r L are both monotonic functions of mass loss, it is a sufficient condition that mass transfer be stable at the onset of Roche lobe overflow in order to ensure dynamical stability of mass transfer, which depends on the tidal coupling between the accretor and the orbit undergoing direct impact accretion. The larger a d , the more stable the mass transfer is. To consider stability in detail, we will use the linear stability analysis following ( [11] [28] ). 3. Numerical Solutions 5The radius of each object is assigned following Eggletons zero temperature mass radius relation ( [13] ). We assume that both the donor and accretor initially rotate synchronously with the orbit. We integrate numerically the orbital evolution Equation (2), Equation (4), Equation (6), Equation (11), Equation (20), Equation (28), Equation (29), Equation (31), Equations (35)-(37) using 6th and 8th order Runge-Kutta ordinary differential equation solver [29] , allowing the binary parameters to adjust self-consistently. We consider that the orbital angular momentum of the system are conserved throughout the integration over the entire parameter space. Specifically, we compute the angular momentum and orbital period changes between the component spins and orbit in close DWD binaries undergoing mass transfer through direct impact of the transfer stream, allow the binary separation to change and compute the values of a d as it evolve. Here, we use Eggletons approximation of the zero-temperature mass radius relationship cited by [13] and [9] , which is a good approximation for systems containing white dwarfs. Also, a a d significantly different from 0.33 clearly affects the stability and evolution of the systems at the onset of mass transfer, and can lead to shrinking orbits even if the mass transfer is stable with M d = 0 . In our subsequent analysis, where we are concerned about the long term integrations of the orbital evolution equations, we set ( log R d / t ) M d = 0 and use the zero-temperature mass-radius relationship. In our integrations, we need to either assume or determine from other assumptions how the mass and angular momentum are redistributed in a close DWD binary system during mass transfer. This depends on the mode of accretion appropriate for the binary considered: does the stream impact the accretor or is an accretion disk present; is the mass transfer sub-Eddington and conservative, or are mass and angular momentum being ejected from the system following super-Eddington mass transfer. For most of the numerical integrations that follow, we use the appropriate rate of change of orbital angular momentum due to GR, MT and tides. However, if one is interested in the relatively rapid phases of dynamical mass transfer that follow contact and onset, then the qualitative properties of our integrated evolutions depend strongly on these assumptions. Figure 1 shows the evolution of the orbital period and angular momentum conservation with their spin angular momentum of the accretor and donor in close DWD binaries over the entire parameter space of interest for integrations that calculated using the Eggleton approximation for the Roche model. In this result, we are only interested in direct impact mass transfer where the particle impacts the surface of the accretor within the orbital periods. Compared to direct impact accretion, disc accretion is provide a basic mechanism for redistributing spin angular momentum in the accretor back into the orbit through tidal coupling in [7] . As a result, it is likely that once a system enters a phase of disc accretion it will remain in this phase or perhaps even become detached as the orbital period continues to grow and the mass ratio decreases due to continued mass transfer. Thus if a disk is formed at any point the integration stops and the system is assumed to be stable throughout its lifetime. Figure 1. The evolution of orbital period and angular momentum conservation with their J s p i n , a and J s p i n , d over entire close DWD binary system, which obtained using the Eggleton approximation from Equation (5) for the calculation of the Roche lobe overflow and rapid mass transfer stream. As a system evolves, it is possible to pass back and forth through phases of mass transfer and phases of no mass transfer as the orbital period and the two masses change. If P o r b increases enough for mass transfer to stop altogether, the integration proceeds (with M d = 0 ) until the action of GR shrinks the orbit sufficiently for mass transfer to resume rather than the analytical one. We integrate over a period of 1.25 G yr. As in [9] , if M d less than 0. 1 M yr 1 at any point during the integration, the integration continued and the system is desired as dynamically stable. In Figure 2 we show the approximate adiabatic mass radius exponent, a d from Equation (37) using the Eggletons approximation of the zero-temperature mass radius relationship [13] for stars with initial masses from 0.12 M 0.78 M and the corresponding mass radius relations. These were calculated by assuming a constant mass loss rate of 1 0 5 M yr 1 . The large initial values for a d imply that the star has to lose very little mass to shrink significantly. This simply represents the fact that, in these systems, a large fraction of the envelope contains very little mass. 3.1. Angular Momentum and Orbital Period Changes Due to Direct Impact Accretion In this section, we investigate the numerical integrations for the change in the evolution of orbital angular momentum per unit transferred mass, which is independent of the mass of the ejected particle as long as M P M d from Equation (9) following a single ballistic orbit as a function of the donor mass for white dwarfs undergoing direct impact mass transfer. Figure 3 shows the evolution of orbital angular momentum change per unit transferred mass, J o r b , M T and period changes from Equation (9) and Equation (11), respectively, with the less massive donor and the massive accretor stars. Hence, we compared the results of Figure 2. Results of the approximate adiabatic mass radius exponents over the total mass of the system for evolved stars of initial masses 0.12 M , 0.14 M , 0.16 M , 0.24 M . Figure 3. The J o r b , M T per unit transferred mass correspond to variations in the mass of accretor and mass ratios of the systems versus P o r b . Here, in our calculation the region above the J o r b , M T shows the unstable mass transfer whereas the region below the M d shows the stable mass transfer. Hence, the dashed black line represents the analytical solution between these stable and unstable systems. the J o r b , M T and M d due to direct impact accretion with the P o r b and M a . As expected, our numerical results agree quite well to this analytic solution. In Figure 4 we investigate a single ballistic integration as a function of the masses of the donor and accretor. The solid blue and dashed black lines above a solid cyan line are a region corresponds to systems that undergo direct impact and reach stable configuration, while below this solid cyan line such as solid black and dashed red lines are a region corresponds to systems that undergo deformation. The solid cyan line between these two regions shows the analytical solution to this region, which was first derived and presented by [6] [9] . Thus, the change in the orbital angular momentum appears to become more positive with increasing donor mass. Following them, we calculate this line by taking the distance of closest approach for a ballistic integration given by [30] ; as analytically fit by [6] and setting it equal to the radius of the accretor (as given by Eggletons zero temperature mass radius relationship of [13] . In calculating this line, we assume the donor (also described by the same zero temperature mass radius relationship) completely fills its Roche lobe ( [15] ). Following the above consideration, we show the orbital angular momentum changes per unit transferred mass in the parameter space of close DWD binaries with a low donor mass are more likely to remain stable over long periods of time, while the majority of the parameter space is expected to be unstable. Thus, we further investigate these parameter space from deformation to direct impact where the orbital angular momentum decreases more rapidly than previous studies, which shown as in solid red line. Figure 4. Result of a single ballistic integration as a function of the masses of the donor and accretor, which undergoing direct impact accretion from Equation (9). 3.2. Evolution of Systems with Strong Tidal Coupling It is commonly assumed ( [9] ; but see also [10] ) that the rotational angular velocity of the donor will remain synchronized with the angular velocity of the circular orbit. This is generally expected since Roche lobe overflow requires extreme tidal distortions in the donor star which act to synchronize its rotational angular velocity on short time scales. The accretor is generally not affected as strongly by tidal synchronization since, being more massive, it is not expected to be significantly tidally distorted. Some tidal coupling between the donor and the orbit is generally assumed, though it is not expected to be strong enough to keep the accretor from becoming a rapid rotator. In Figure 5 we present the orbital parameters of the tides with initial tidal synchronization time scale of = 10 years : 1) the evolution of the rate of change of the spin angular momenta per unit transferred mass of the the donor ( J s p i n , d , for d = 0.25 ) and accretor ( J s p i n , a , for a = 0.8 ) from Equation (25), 2) the evolution of the rate of change of orbital angular momentum and period corresponds to the mass transfer rate from Equation (10) and Equation (31), respectively, and 3) the effective Roche lobe radius of the donor stars, which shows the end evolution of Roche lobe overflow. In general, systems with a smaller mass conserve orbital angular momentum better than systems with a higher mass. Systems where the orbital angular momentum conservation is larger tend to be systems where the numerical integration runs for many orbits, allowing systematic errors in the numerical integration to accumulate. Even so, all systems presented in this paper conserve mass and orbital angular momentum to better than 1% throughout the entire evolution. 4. Results and Discussion As we developed and discussed the basic equations for the evolution of orbital Figure 5. Results of evolution for the orbital parameters of the tides generating body with initial tidal synchronization time scale of = 10 years using the Eggleton approximation for the Roche lobe that can be calculated from Equation (8), Equation (10), Equation (25) and Equation (31). It shows the rate of change of orbital angular momentum between the donor and the orbit, i.e., the J s p i n , d , and J s p i n , a correspond to the rotational angular velocities of the donor and accretor, respectively. Here, the rotational angular velocity of the donors, d = 0.86 remains synchronized to the rotational angular velocity of the circular orbit, o r b = 1.25 . Hence, we assume the angular momentum that would be removed from the spin of the donor is immediately returned from the orbit. parameters in Sections (2) and (3), respectively, we compute the evolution over a grid in M d , M a and P o r b parameter space for two different tidal synchronization time scales at contact: = 10 15 years and = 10 years to determine the dynamical stability of various systems. We also elaborate the comparisons between numerical and analytical solutions for the evolution of angular momentum and orbital period changes due to direct impact accretion in close DWD binaries by various stellar model approximations of mass transfer, with particular attention payed to the dynamical stability of these processes against runaway on synchronization time scales of the mass donating star. 4.1. Evolution of Systems Using Eggleton Roche Lobe As we discussed in Section (3), Figure 5 shows the end result of systems with an initial synchronization time scale of = 10 years using R L , E g g . Assuming that once a disc is reached, the system will remain stable for the remainder of its evolution, therefore we stop the integration once a disc is formed. However, with the exception of dynamically unstable systems, the evolution of all systems in this plot is stopped when the system reaches a phase of disc accretion. The time it takes to reach this phase of disc accretion varies from system to system. As noted by [10] that allowing the spin of the donor to vary and by including the resulting effects of tidal coupling between the donors spin and the orbit, the number of stable systems increased compared to the analysis of [9] . Hence, the main difference between our analysis and that of [10] is in the treatment of the way we manage the evolution of angular momentum and orbital period changes during the direct impact accretion process. In observing the increase in the number of stable systems compared to the analysis of [10] , we conclude that by utilizing a mass transfer treatment that allows the rotation rates corresponds to rotational angular velocities of both components to vary and self-consistently accounts for the exchange of angular momentum between the spins of the components and the orbit, we are able to increase the number of stable systems. Stronger tidal coupling will allow more spin angular momentum from the accretor to be transferred back into the orbit, which correspondingly slower increase in orbital period, causing the mass transfer rate and the rate of change of orbital angular momentum to decrease. This is to be expected and in agreement with the analyses of [10] and [9] . This results in an increase the stability of the systems in general. In Figure 5 we have presented the dynamically stable mass transfer with increasing orbital period, but decreasing the mass ratio of the systems. However, in Figure 6 we have presented the dynamically unstable mass transfer with rapid increase in the orbital period for = 10 15 years is a direct result of the conservation of angular momentum: the angular momentum lost during the spin down and mass loss of the donor is greater than the angular momentum gained by the accretor. The net decrease in spin angular momentum corresponds to an increase in the orbital angular momentum, increasing the orbital period. The mass transfer rate increases rapidly as the mass loss from the donor causes the radius Figure 6. Same as in Figure 5, but with = 10 15 years using R L , E g g for the Roche lobe calculation. In this result, we observe that the P o r b increases due to the effect of tides. As a result M d increases rapidly and the accretor spin increases significantly. to increase, even as the Roche lobe grows due to the increasing orbital period (see, e.g., Equation (30) and Equation (31)). Thus, we present the results of evolution for the orbital parameters of the tides generating body with tidal synchronization time scale of = 10 15 years . Here, we acknowledge the main limitation of our result to assume that systems are stable once they reach a phase of disc accretion. Systems with the less masses of the donor stars parameter space of interest here begin the integration in a disc phase, and are therefore labeled as stable. However, it is feasible that if these high donor mass systems were allowed to evolve through the initial disc phase, they would eventually become super-Eddington and potentially dynamically unstable. 4.2. Comparison of System Evolution with analytical Solutions We have computed different orbital parameters of close DWD binaries and their evolution with synchronization time scales using R L , E g g . Hence, for = 10 15 years , the system is dynamically unstable and for = 10 years the system is stable, but passes through a phase of super-Eddington accretion. In this section, we compare the analytical solutions of the various orbital parameters of these systems with the numerical solution that we investigated in Sections (3) and (4). The rotational angular velocities of the component white dwarfs remain closer to synchronize. In our work, when we apply the R L , E g g , the mass transfer rate will continue to increase until tides have transferred sufficient angular momentum from the spin of the components to the orbit to expanded the orbit and decrease the mass transfer rate. Thus, the mass transfer rate is decreased and tides continue to redistribute angular momentum between the component spins and the orbit (see, Figure 5). In Figure 7 we show the evolution of the mass radius relationship using the Eggleton approximation for the Roche lobe calculation. We also determine the evolution of the orbital period changes on a much longer time scale for the R L , E g g numerical solution than the analytical solution. This is due to the fact that, as mass transferred from the donor to the accretor, the mass ratio q and the mass of the donor decreases relative to the orbit and the radius and mass of the accretor increases. These were calculated by assuming the constant mass loss rate of 1.25 10 5 M yr 1 . In Figure 8 we show the evolution of orbital parameters (i.e., the mass of the donor as a function of mass ratio) due to direct impact accretion. Hence, the solid blue line also indicates the deformed donor star at different moments in time. The solid green line show the evolution of orbital parameters for both synchronization time scales over which the mass transfer rate changes in Equation (31) for the non-deformed donor star whereas the dotted gray line is the deformed donor star and it is analytical solution, wich shows the evolution of the Roche lobe overflow. In general, the peak of solid gray, red, green, and blue lines indicate the evolution of the Roche lobe overflow in close DWD binaries through direct impact. Figure 7. Result of the comparison between the numerical integrations and analytical solution for the evolution of the Roche lobe radius as a function of the mass of the donor stars for = 10 years with initial masses of M d = 0.12 M and M a = 0.8 M in a close DWD binary system. Hence 103 years of evolution with solution obtained using R L , E g g for the calculation of the Roche lobe. Figure 8. Results of the comparison between the numerical integrations and analytic solutions for the evolution of orbital parameters, i.e., M d ( M ) versus the mass ratio, q with the rotational angular velocities of the donor, d and accretor, a on the Roche lobe radius in Equation (28) and Equation (29) for the second rotational angular velocity of the WD when the effect of the tides and rotation on the donors structure are ignored (solid red line) or included (green, blue and dotted gray lines). Figure 9 shows the evolution of orbital parameters due to tidal coupling for = 10 years from Equation (28) and Equation (29). Thus, we numerically and Figure 9. The comparison between the numerical and analytical solutions of orbital parameters for = 10 years . These results obtained using the R L , E g g calculation of the Roche lobe. In these systems the donor decreases its mass until it finally detached from the Roche lobe and forms a 0.28 M He WD and decrease the J s p i n , d . analytically investigate the evolution of the rotational angular velocities of both donor and accretor stars in close DWD systems with initial masses of the donor, M d = 0.86 M and accretor, M a = 1.2 M . In these systems, we provide a comparison between the numerical and analytical solution for the rate of change of the spin angular momentum for the accretor and the rate of change of the mass transfer rate corresponds to the d and a , which shows our calculation stops when the donor reached 1.45 M (disc accretion). 4.3. Comparison to Previous Results As it was studied by [8] [9] [10] that systems with a low donor mass are more likely to remain stable over long periods of time, while the majority of the parameter space (depending on the strength of the tidal coupling) is expected to be dynamically unstable. Here, by including the additional mass transfer effects presented here in a self-consistent way, DWD direct impact mass transfer may induce a stabilizing effect over a larger area of the parameter space. As seen in Figures 1-5, we discussed the evolution of angular momentum and orbital changes due to direct impact and evolution of systems with strong tidal coupling. Also, in Figures 7-9, we investigated the comparison between the numerical and analytical solution of the systems for the evolution of parameters for = 10 years . However, as seen in Figure 6, the mass transfer rate increases initially, which causes the accretor to spin up and the donor to spin down. Hence, when we using R L , E g g , the mass transfer rate will continue to increase until tides have transferred sufficient angular momentum from the spin of the components to the orbit to widen the orbit and decrease the mass transfer rate. Once this happens, the tides continue to redistribute angular momentum between the component spins and the orbit (see, Figure 5). When the system is dynamically unstable, the time scale for changes in the mass transfer rate becomes greater than the time scale at which the orbital period increases due to the effect of tides. As a result, the mass transfer rate increases rapidly and the spin of the accretor increases significantly. 5. Conclusions We have presented the evolution of angular momentum and orbital period changes between the component spins and the orbit in close DWD binaries undergoing mass transfer through direct impact accretion, including the effects due to mass transfer, gravitational radiation, and tidal forces between the donor, accretor, and the orbit. The theoretical framework that we have outlined in this paper can be used to generate the models for the rotational angular velocities and the orbital periods of close DWD binaries in general. Thus, we implemented the ballistic mass transfer treatment developed in [19] to calculate the changes to the evolution of orbital parameters during direct impact mass transfer from the donor to the accretor, which can be described by numerical solutions. Here, the numerical solutions that we have presented are more specific than the analytical solutions of the previous studies in the sense that we allow for conservative mass transfer. By implementing this method, we found that the number of stable close DWD binaries increased for both weak and strong tidal coupling compared with the results of [9] and [10] , which shown as in Figures 1-10. A direct comparison of the results obtained from the numerical solutions in Section (3) with those of analytical solutions in Section (4) shows that both the numerical solution and the Eggleton approximation for the Roche lobe calculations are quite accurate. In many cases the orbital angular momentum lost from the orbit can be significantly less than the standard assumption, making this process less destabilizing than expected. This may allow for more DWD to survive the dynamical instability of mass transfer rate and evolve into systems like AM CVn, instead of merging to create Type Ia supernovae evolving to higher separations and diminishing mass transfer rates. This result, which was not predicted by the analytical solution in [28] has important consequences for population synthesis models of these objects. Furthermore, we have seen that the near constancy of the mass transfer rate over most of the mass transfer phase seen in the results by previous studies is not a generic feature of this type of evolution but rather a consequence of a particular choice of orbital parameters. In a few cases, we have shown that mass transfer may increase the orbital angular momentum of the orbit, thereby providing a stabilizing effect on the orbit. Hence, any stabilizing effect increases the chances of a long-lived close DWD binaries, lending acceptance to the creation of AM CVn through the DWD models. Figure 10. Evolution of the orbital period, P o r b , compared to its initial orbital period, P o r b ,0 , for three different mass ratios with synchronization time scale, = 10 15 . Here we observe that the P o r b increases due to the effect of the tides. As a result, M d increases rapidly and the accretor spin, J s p i n , a increases, whereas the donor spin, J s p i n , d decreases. We also account for the modification of the Roche lobe size due to the orbital period and a d of the donor stars. As a result, we found that the number of stable systems increases, particularly for the case of strong tidal coupling, as shown in Figure 1, Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 7. Note that all the systems that undergo direct impact systems, at least for the system orbital parameters and synchronization time scales that we have considered. Thus, when the system is dynamically unstable, the time scale for changes in the mass transfer rate becomes greater than the time scale at which the P o r b increases due to the effect of tides. As a result, the M d increases rapidly the spin angular momentum of the accretor increases significantly. We conclude that the stable systems occurred when using the Eggleton approximation for the Roche lobe calculation create artificially high mass transfer rates which leads to an artificially high number of dynamically unstable systems. Hence, our finding yields a higher number of stable systems. Finally, the large scale numerical computations presented in this paper have provided the realistic models that describing the evolution of angular momentum and orbital period changes and its stability of mass transfer in close DWD binary systems. Acknowledgements We thank Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI)-Entoto Observatory and Research Center (EORC), Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Development Department for giving research opportunity and facilities. Negu S. H. thanks Jigjiga University for giving study leave. This research has made use of NASAs Astrophysical Data System. Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper. Cite this paper Negu, S.H. and Tessema, S.B. (2018) Evolution of Angular Momentum and Orbital Period Changes in Close Double White Dwarf Binaries. International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 8, 275-298. https://doi.org/10.4236/ijaa.2018.83020 References Distinguished guests, Professor Sunstein, Cynthia McCaffrey, Alexandra De Filippo, colleagues from UNDP, UNICEF and sister agencies. Good afternoon. UNDP is honoured to join UNICEF in welcoming Prof Cass Sunstein to the UN during the General Assembly. This September it has been almost three years that the Sustainable Development Goals came into effect. It has been ten years that the ground-breaking book Nudge was published. Behaviour change on a global scale is instrumental to achieve the SDGs. To make progress we need to better understand the importance of choice architectures and of cognitive biases, including our own. For example, SDG 12 on responsible production and consumption lists targets that require individual changes to our daily nutrition intake. To successfully address global health challenges, such as obesity or excessive personal consumption patterns of water or energy, we need to address policies and education, among other things. In light of the #metoo movement it is also increasingly clear that attitude changes and associated behaviour are essential to empower women and girls and eliminate sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse. Approaching human behaviour with a pragmatic view on the complexity of our decision-making processes has not always been at the core of public policy and development programme formulation. The Homo Economicus, that uber-rational, self-interested prototype posited by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, has long influenced how policies were formulated. Evidently, there is a lot more driving us than competitive self-interestand this has implications for development and public policy. The work of behavioural scientists like yourself, Richard Thaler, Daniel Kahneman and others is increasingly influencing how governments and development organizations design interventions. Over the past five years, UNDP has been investing in applying findings from behavioural science in its programme design and its support for policy formulation. What began as a first experiment to support the Government of Moldova with improving the adherence rate of tuberculosis patients, matured into an emerging service line of the organization. Back in 2013, UNDP Moldova with the support of the Innovation Team started a collaboration with the Behavioral Insights Team from the United Kingdom, together with the Government.[1] The partners designed an experiment to support TB patients with following through with their medical treatment, achieving a 100% increase with an intervention that removed a significant behavioural barrier. We will hear more details about this trial later. Allow me to underline the important elements of this approach: Behavioural Insights in the development context can be understood as a two-pillar approach. The first pillar consists of investing in context-specific behavioural drivers and barriers, while leveraging insights from behavioural science. The second pillar entails designing experiments that are based on rigorous monitoring and evaluation systems. For the past four years we invested in a portfolio of country-based experiments, with the generous support of the Government of Denmark. We designed and scaled behaviourally-informed interventions to address environmental protection in China and Mongolia, to address gender-based violence in Egypt, Georgia and South Africa, to increase tax compliance in Moldova and Armenia and to improve our cash-transfer system to poor households in Bangladesh to name a few. These trials, based on a behavioural insights approach, are part of a larger approach in UNDP to embed innovation and experimental ways of working in how we do business and in how we support partners. With a portfolio of over 140 experiments in 85 countries, our data shows that partners from governments and the private sector chose to contribute additional resources in 60% of this portfolio a first proxy for scale. These initiatives also attracted 50% more private sector partnerships than the average UNDP project. For every dollar invested, additional 2.1 dollars were mobilized on the country-level. These country-level innovation experiments have led to the emergence of new service lines around alternative finance, data innovation, public policy labs, tech and behavioural design. These are important achievements but it not enough. In UNDP, we are entering a new phase of innovation. A key challenge we are addressing is scaling, not only solutions, but also processes. We are working on embedding principles of experimentation, adaptive management and user-centric methods in how our organization operates as well as in the mindsets of our staff. A key component of innovation is humility: acknowledging that we do not have the full understanding of the complexity of development challenges and that no single actor can have solutions to complex problems. Partnerships are essential to address the challenges of our time and I am delighted that UNDP and UNICEF are committed to collaborating closely on the corporate level. For the past years, our organizations already have been working closely together on innovation exchanging lessons, designing joint work on the ground and jointly growing the UN Innovation Network. Today, I look forward to a discussion that helps us better understand our own biases and heuristics, and to listen to experiences on how experimental ways of working were introduced in governments. We are committed to embedding behavioural insights as a key approach in our toolbox to address complex development challenges. In July, we co-organized the first UN Behavioural Insights Day during the High-Level Political Forum. Together with UNICEF, UN Women and UNITAR we had Prof Dan Ariely with us and advocated for behavioural design. Today we are following-up and are focusing on how to institutionalize this approach. Later today, a small group of colleagues from various agencies will discuss this in more detail with Prof Sunstein and I expect concrete recommendations and steps from my entrepreneurial team! On this note, I would also like to thank the moderator of our event today, Alexandra De Filippo. For the past years, Ms De Filippo and colleagues from the Behavioural Insights Team, have been working with UNDP Country Offices and our Innovation Facility on the design and implementation of trials as a trusted partner. It will be my great pleasure to learn from Prof Sunstein today, together with our friends from UNICEF and you distinguished guests. Let us explore insights on the bounded rationality of our behaviour, how we can apply these findings to design better policies and programmes for the SDGs and scale new ways of working. Thank you. Members of the Mbuti indigenous community stand beside their shelters at a makeshift site for internally displaced people in Oicha, North Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. UNHCR/Natalia Micevic UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is gravely concerned for the safety of tens of thousands of civilians in the north-eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where violence by armed groups has recently claimed more than 20 lives. The attacks are on the rise in the Beni area of North Kivu Province and further north in Ituri Province, both situated near the border with Uganda. It is estimated that more than a million people are displaced in North Kivu. An estimated half a million people have been forced from their homes this year alone. UNHCR is calling on all parties involved in the conflict to protect and respect the lives of civilians displaced in a region that is already having to respond to a deadly outbreak of Ebola. An attack by the main rebel groups, the Allied Democratic Forces National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-Nalu) in the city of Beni in North Kivu last weekend killed more than 20 people, most of them civilians. While these groups have previously been active around Beni, it is the first time that fighting has reached the city itself. In another attack on Oicha, a town nearby Beni, an armed group, presumably also from ADF-Nalu, shot dead a 47-year-old man, abducted at least nine children, then looted and burned houses. UNHCR staff report a sharp rise in abuses against civilians and in displacement in the Beni area over the past months, where alone in August some 13,000 people had to flee their homes. While rising tension and protests by the local population against the insecurity have slowed some humanitarian activities, UNHCR plans to extend its activities on behalf of the conflict-affected population. The latest displacements in Beni further increase humanitarian misery in North Kivu a province that has the highest number of internally displaced people in all DR Congo. The city is reported tense since Sunday with people in shock. A Ville Morte (Dead City) situation means that all shops are closed, nobody is at work, schools are closed and there has been no traffic inside the city since Monday. Many humanitarian workers have had to put activities on hold this week as a result. UNHCR is preparing shelter assistance for the most vulnerable among the displaced in the region, and other measures to improve the protection of a rising number of displaced in urban areas. Further north, in Djugu Territory, Ituri province, a series of new attacks are destabilizing the area which was on the way to stabilization after having been shaken by massive violence in the first half of the year, displacing an estimated 350,000 people. This return to peace is now being threatened, and UNHCR staff report 16,000 people fleeing their homes, many of them for the second time in one year. Some of the displaced in Ituri have again joined their former host families but others lack proper shelter and are forced to live in the open. They are in urgent need of shelter materials, food and medicines. In Uganda, on the other side of the Lake Albert, the number of people fleeing the DRC has remained largely stable so far. The average arrivals rate is 200 people per day, or 6,000 new refugees per month with a slight increase over the past few days. However, refugee arrivals represent only a tiny fraction of the much larger daily movement of people between DRC and Uganda - including traders, family visits and others. UNHCR is meanwhile contributing to efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Ugandan government to screen people crossing the border into Uganda, and has established procedures to medically screen refugees. No cases are reported in the refugee population. UNHCR has 3 transit centres, multiple collection points and two refugee settlements in Kyangwali and Kyaka to accommodate the new arrivals from the DRC. We are working with the authorities on contingency planning and are ready to receive more refugees. At the refugee reception and the transit centres, all new arrivals pass through the medical and hygiene screening points. Health staff screen every new arrival using the infra-red thermometer and symptom checklist that includes the villages of origin and where they have passed. Arrangements are in place to detect suspected and alert cases who are to be isolated in the established medical isolation tents and with the district surveillance team notified. For more information on this topic, please contact: Rwandan refugee Amelie Fabian was able to study at a Canadian university thanks to an education program for refugees. UNHCR/Michelle Siu NEW YORK When she had to leave Rwanda in 2001 with her family and became a refugee in Malawi, six-year-old Amelie Fabian was determined not to miss out school. In Malawi she had to beg her parents to allow her to attend class. She was bullied by peers and teachers for being a foreigner. She had to switch schools several times. I never even for a second considered dropping out, she said. Amelie's excellent grades allowed her to become one of the 80 refugee students who every year are granted access to university studies in Canada through its Student Sponsorship Program (SRP). After graduating from McGill University in Montreal, Amelie recently started working as an accountant at the consulting firm Deloitte. I long for the day when my story ceases to be the exception and becomes the norm, she said. The international community must strive harder to provide refugee children, especially refugee girls, with the education they deserve. As refugees, education equips us with the power to determine our own fate. Amelie shared her inspirational story in front of a room filled with humanitarians, international policy makers and country leaders at UNICEF House during the UN General Assembly in New York. The Action for Refugee Education meeting aimed to catalyse support to ensure that refugee childrens right to education is fulfilled. Today, over four million refugee children are out of school. This is an increase of half a million children from 2016. Only 61 per cent of refugee children attend primary school compared with a global average of 92 per cent. As refugee children age, the obstacles to education increase. Just 23 per cent of refugee children are enrolled in secondary school and only one per cent of them attend university. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi highlighted Fabians story as an example of how education can bring you out of a very difficult situation. She is unique in her skills, her intelligence, her eloquence, but she should not be unique in the opportunities she is given, Grandi added. In her address to the leaders in the room, Amelie stressed that education is essential for the future of refugee girls, who might be at risk of marrying too young if they lack other opportunities. As refugees, education equips us with the power to determine our own fate, she added. Education taught me I have a voice. Education holds the key for a better life for children and young people, said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. She noted that many collective benefits come from better education for all, like enhancing economic growth and reducing the likelihood of conflict. The international leaders in the room agreed on the importance of integrating refugee children into national school systems, ensuring that both local and displaced communities can benefit from further development. Countries in developing regions host 92 per cent of the worlds school-age refugees. Many struggle with education infrastructure and need more sustained financial support from the international community. The Global Compact on Refugees, to be endorsed by the UN General Assembly at the end of 2018, would mobilize more direct financial support in the hosting communities to meet the specific education needs of refugees. Beyond supplying school books and teachers, Save the Children CEO Helle Thorning-Schimdt said it is also essential to invest in psychosocial support for refugee children. A traumatized child will have a hard time learning, she said. We need to focus on those children. When they receive proper education, refugees become leaders. Foni Joyce Vuni is a South Sudanese refugee living in Kenya, as well as the co-chair of UNHCRs Global Youth Advisory Council. She has conducted consultation with over a thousand young refugees and their needs, for whom more formal and informal education opportunities are paramount. When they receive proper education, refugees become leaders, she said. Foni recently joined a delegation of refugees who participated in the South Sudan peace negotiations something she could never have achieved without education, she said. Education taught me I have a voice, Foni said. International leaders expressed their commitment to strengthening collective responses to ensure that all refugee children have access to quality education. It is the challenge of our generation, facing this refugee crisis, said Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and chair of the Education Cannot Wait fund. We can win it, by acting together. South Sudanese surgeon Dr. Evan Atar Adaha has been named the 2018 winner of UNHCRs Nansen Refugee Award. Known as Dr. Atar, he is being honoured for his outstanding 20-year commitment in providing medical services to people forced to flee conflict and persecution in Sudan and South Sudan, as well as to the communities that welcome them. Dr. Atar is based in Bunj, in north-eastern South Sudan, where he runs the only functional hospital, serving more than 200,000 people. These include 144,000 refugees from Sudans Blue Nile State and the local Maban County population of about 53,000. His team at Maban hospital carries out an average of 58 operations per week in difficult conditions with limited supplies and equipment. There is no provision for general anesthaesia, meaning doctors work with ketamine injections and spinal epidurals. The only x-ray machine is broken, the only surgical theatre is lit by a single light, and electricity is provided by generators that often break down. Since it is the only hospital in Upper Nile State, it is often crowded with patients and wards extend into the open air. South Sudan, the worlds youngest nation, gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a peaceful referendum. A civil war now in its fifth year has created South Sudan Africas worst refugee emergency in terms of numbers and the worlds third biggest refugee crisis. It is the fastest-growing refugee situation In Africa. Almost 1.9 million people are displaced internally and another 2.5 million have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. The crisis in South Sudan has had a devastating impact on millions of people uprooted from their homes, or whose lives have been torn apart by conflict, violence and food insecurity, said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Yet, even in the midst of tragedy, acts of heroism and service to others have emerged. Dr. Atars work through decades of civil war and conflict is a shining example of profound humanity and selflessness. Through his tireless efforts, thousands of lives have been saved, and countless men, women and children provided with a new chance to rebuild a future. Often risking his own safety, his dedication to serving victims of war and conflict has been extraordinary and deserves global attention and acknowledgement.. Originally from Torit, a town in southern South Sudan, Dr. Atar earned a scholarship to study medicine in Khartoum, Sudan, and afterwards practised in Egypt. In 1997, as war ravaged Sudans Blue Nile State, Dr. Atar volunteered to work there, establishing his first hospital from scratch in Kurmuk and working at the heart of a large-scale conflict, often under direct aerial bombing. In 2011, increasing violence forced Dr. Atar to pack up his hospital in Sudans Blue Nile State, fleeing with his staff and as much equipment as he could transport, a journey that took a month. Arriving in Bunj, he set up his first surgical theatre in an abandoned local health centre, stacking tables to create a raised operating table. Since its establishment, Dr. Atar has worked tirelessly to secure funding and train other young people to become nurses and midwives. In 2017, refugees accounted for 71 per cent of surgical patients, but his commitment to treating all those in medical need regardless of their background has earned him the respect of all refugee and local communities. We treat everyone here regardless of who they are -- refugee, internally displaced, host community, says Dr. Atar. I am most happy when I realize that the work that I have done has saved somebody from suffering or has saved his life. Dr. Atar can sometimes work 48 hours non-stop and is on call at all hours. The personal sacrifice he makes is huge. He lives in a canvas tent near the hospital and his family is in Nairobi, Kenya. He is able to visit them three times a year during short breaks to recover from his gruelling medical work. South Sudan hosts nearly 300,000 refugees, of whom 92 per cent are Sudanese from the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions close to the South Sudanese border. UNHCR currently only has 15 per cent of the money requested to deal with this emergency and provides funding for Dr. Atars work through its partner organisation, Samaritans Purse (SP). UNHCR and SP have been working together since 2012 to provide health services at Maban hospital in the absence of functioning national services. Since it opened, the hospital has been upgraded every year since 2012 but more is needed. UNHCRs Nansen Refugee Award honours extraordinary service to the forcibly displaced. Recent winners include Sister Angelique Namaika from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zannah Mustapha, a lawyer and mediator from Borno state in north-eastern Nigeria, and the Hellenic Rescue service and Efi Lafsoudi from Pikpa Village on the Island of Lesvos. The 2018 award ceremony will be held on 1 October in Geneva, Switzerland, featuring a keynote address delivered by UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and actor Cate Blanchett and hosted by South African actress and advocate for UNHCRs LuQuLuQu campaign Nomzamo Mbatha. This years ceremony boasts an incredible lineup of performances; including globally renowned sitar player Anoushka Shankar, Syrian ballet dancer Ahmad Joudeh and Norwegian pop star Sigrid. British radio and television presenter Anita Rani will also be hosting a Facebook Live stream of the ceremony. Notes to Editor Media materials including photos and b-roll video are available at the following link: http://www.unhcr.org/media-nansen-refugee-award-2018 For media enquiries About UNHCRs Nansen Refugee Award: UNHCRs Nansen Refugee Award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian work on behalf of refugees, internally displaced or stateless people. The award includes a commemorative medal and a US$150,000 monetary prize generously donated by the governments of Switzerland and Norway. In close consultation with UNHCR, the laureate uses the monetary prize to fund a project that complements their existing work. The Nansen Refugee Award program is funded in partnership with the Swiss Government, The Norwegian Government, the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, the Administrative Council of the City of Geneva and the IKEA Foundation. About UNHCR UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, leads international action to protect people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. We deliver life-saving assistance like shelter, food and water, help safeguard fundamental human rights, and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home where they can build a better future. We also work to ensure that stateless people are granted a nationality. Evan Atar Adaha, surgeon and medical director at a hospital in north-eastern South Sudan, is the 2018 winner of the Nansen Refugee Award, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced on Tuesday. The award is in recognition of Dr. Atars outstanding commitment and self-sacrifice in providing medical services to more than 200,000 people, including approximately 144,000 refugees from Sudans Blue Nile state, the agency said. His team carries out an average of 58 operations per week in difficult conditions at the hospital in Bunj, Maban County, with limited supplies and equipment. The only x-ray machine is broken, the only surgical theatre is lit by a single light, and electricity is provided by generators that often break down. Since it is the only hospital in Upper Nile State, it is often crowded with patients and wards extend into the open air. South Sudan, the worlds youngest nation, gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a peaceful referendum. A civil war now in its fifth year has created South Sudan Africas worst refugee emergency in terms of numbers and the worlds third biggest refugee crisis. "Thousands of lives have been saved." Dr. Atars work through decades of civil war and conflict is a shining example of profound humanity and selflessness, said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Through his tireless efforts, thousands of lives have been saved, and countless men, women and children provided with a new chance to rebuild a future. Dr Atar will be presented at a news conference in Nairobi, Kenya, today, as the 2018 winner. It will be attended by the UNHCR representative for South Sudan, Johann Siffointe, as well as Arnauld Akodjenou, UNHCR regional refugee coordinator for South Sudan, and representatives of the Swiss and Norwegian governments as the main sponsors of the award. Check out this years amazing #NansenAward winner Dr. Atar - his hospital is the last hope for 144,000 refugees in South Sudan https://t.co/KiEHbrPwYv pic.twitter.com/IKHUxUUoVt UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) September 26, 2018 This year UNHCR also announced four regional finalists. These are individuals or organisations short-listed out of more than 450 nominees for the main award and whose work UNHCR wanted to highlight as particularly outstanding. The regional finalists are: Samira Harnish (USA) for setting up Women of the World in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her organisation has helped more than 1,000 refugee women become self-reliant in the United States. Mayor Andreas Hollstein and the volunteers of Altena, Germany for tireless work in welcoming refugees to their small town, taking in more than their official quota. Tuenjai Deetes for devoting four decades of her life to ending statelessness in Thailand Reclaim Childhood from Jordan for empowering 500 refugee girls through sport and building better links with their local communities. Originally from Torit in southern South Sudan, Dr. Atar studied study medicine in Khartoum, Sudan, and afterwards practised in Egypt. In 1997, as war ravaged Blue Nile State, Dr. Atar volunteered to work there, establishing his first hospital in Kurmuk in the midst of a large-scale conflict, often under direct aerial bombing. In 2011, increasing violence forced Dr. Atar to pack up his hospital in Sudan, fleeing to South Sudan with his staff and as much equipment as he could transport, a journey that took a month. "We treat everyone here regardless of who they are." Arriving in Bunj, he set up his first surgical theatre in an abandoned local health centre, stacking tables to create a raised operating table. Since its establishment, Dr. Atar has worked tirelessly to secure funding and train other young people to become nurses and midwives. We treat everyone here regardless of who they are -- refugee, internally displaced, host community, says Dr. Atar. I am most happy when I realize that the work that I have done has saved somebody from suffering or has saved his life. South Sudan hosts nearly 300,000 refugees, of whom 92 per cent are Sudanese from the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions close to the South Sudanese border. UNHCRs Nansen Refugee Award honours extraordinary service to the forcibly displaced. The 2018 award ceremony will be held on 1 October in Geneva, Switzerland. See also: By Suresh Nautiyal Rome, Italy, Sep 28 (UNI) Giving blank cheques to politicians must stop as the elected representatives never took people into confidence before taking decisions, and they may be recalled if they fail to deliver. This was the collective feeling on the second day of the seventh edition of the Global Forum on direct democracy here on Thursday at Palazzo Senatorio in Piazza del Campidoglio. Democracy is not a one-way passage. Trust and transparency, besides inclusiveness, are very much required. And the struggle to achieve democracy has to be a constant note on the theme of people," said the speakers. "Instead of blank cheques, we need to assign them their job and recall them if they do not deliver, they said, adding that blank cheque democracy (representative democracy) cannot help anyone for a longer period of time. The second day of the meet was full of activities. From introduction to the modern direct democracy to the best of local democratic governance around the world was on the table. Democratic notes from Seoul, Sacramento and Tunis to Donostia, Tricity and Nashville were there to inspire those thinking of replicating the tools of direct democracy back home. While Germanys 30-year experience of direct democracy enthralled and inspired the audience, the success stories of democratic experiences in other places assured that there was hope and there were committed people who wouldn't not allow rulers to marginalise the people. It is easier for the rulers to rule if they keep the people out. But, this has to be resisted at any cost, said Ms Angelika Gardiner, a senior journalist from Hamburg, Germany, during a session on thirty years of direct democracy in Germany, adding that the direct democracy was a precious thing as it was achieved after a great struggle. The light of direct democracy has to be put on all the time, she said. Mr Daniel Schily, one of the board members of the Democracy International organisation, said that the path of direct democracy was the only hope for the people. In a session on the future of direct democracy in Italy, speakers hoped that direct democracy in the country would thrive as it has got the first direct democracy minister in Riccardo Fraccaro and that the president of it was a former university professor with a vision for direct democracy. Yes, we are optimistic about the future of direct democracy in Italy because the processes involved were being made simpler, said Mr Thomas Benedikter, an Italian author belonging to an autonomous region of the country. He said the use of the direct democracy tools also saved public money on unnecessary infrastrural projects. Similar were the views of Mr Lorenzo Liparini, a Milan city councilllor, for participation, active citizenship and open data. We are very much hopeful. Italy is the first country to establish the direct democracy ministry. The direct democracy tools and proposals were not there before. The previous governments had different ideas about governance, but now we have direct democracy. In fact, direct democracy is helping us in bridging several gaps in governance. Direct democracy is the keypoint for our government and in all these processes the voters have great roles," stated Mr Lipparini, adding that it was a starting point only and the journey was quite long and arduous. Mr Paul Jacob of Citizens in Charge, United States, also hoped that direct democracy would succeed in Italy. The co-presidents of the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, Bruno Kaufmann and Mr Joe Mathews moderated the main session during the day. We will not limit ourselves to comparison and learning. On the contrary, we will produce a real new vision regarding what democracy must mean in the city. The city council of Rome has officially asked the Global Forum to produce a new Magna Carta for the democratic cities of the world. And so, through the continuous comparison and contribution of all the participants in the forum, we will gather a document that answers the question about what the cities should do in terms of elections, citizen participation, budget, planning, public space and assistance to citizens, to be considered truly democratic, he added. The draft of the Magna Charta produced in Rome will be just a beginning. Since all roads lead to Rome, the streets of Rome lead all over the world. And next year, the Charter for Democratic Cities will travel around the world, added Mr Kaufmann, also a journalist. The Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy is being sponsored by the city of Rome and organised by the Global Forum consortium in collaboration with civil society organisations. The general and international secretariat of the event is being organised by the Democracy International organisation. The Global Forum had its previous events in Switzerland, Korea, US California, Uruguay, Tunisia and the Basque Country Spain. It has long been based on the practice of sharing and confrontation. According to Mr Kaufmann, the 2018 Global Forum will go even beyond the previous editions. The second day concluded with a dinner hosted by the Swiss ambassador in Italy. Wishing the participants of the 2018 Global Forum, the Swiss ambassador said the world would be a far better place if direct democracy was adopted by the governments in different regions. UNI SNU SRJ 1544 New Delhi, Sep 28 (UNI) Rani Mukerjis much loved film 'Hichki' will release in Hong Kong on November 8. The film has been titled 'Miss (My Extraordinary Teacher)' for its Hong Kong release. Ranis performance as Naina Mathur, a school teacher dealing with an involuntary nervous system disorder, Tourette Syndrome, has been widely lauded by audiences and critics alike across the world. Her brilliant performance has seen her sweep awards and accolades this year. 'Hichki' has also been receiving worldwide acclaim and honours. It received a standing ovation at the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) and Indian Film Festival of Melbourne(IFFM). UNI PY SY 1453 . , . ... New Delhi, Sep 28 (UNI) Alleging links of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah with the ISI, the Congress on Friday said that there is a lot of evidence to show that the duo of Modi and Shah have a Grand alliance with the ISI for which they should apologise to the nation. Talking to reporters here, AICC media incharge Randeep Surjewala said,the biggest proof of links between the ISI and Mr Modi and Mr Shah is the statement by former Chief Lieutenant General of the ISI Assad Durrani that Mr Modi is ISIs favourite choice as the Prime Minister of India. Mr Surjewala said that it was because of this Grand alliance that for probing the Pathankot terrorist attack the Modi Government invited the same ISI that had carried out this attack . The Pakistani delegation that was invited to probe the Pathankot terrorist attack also included the members of the ISI. PM Modi should tell the nation on what basis was the ISI , that was responsible for the Pathankot attack allowed to carry out a probe into the attack,Mr Surjewala said. Mr Surjewala said that on March 30 , 2016, BJP chief Amit Shah had , while addressing a public rally in Kolkata, stated that Pakistan has made serious efforts to probe the Pathankot terrorist attack. Mr Shah should tell the nation why did he praise Pakistans ISI if he did not have links with it,Mr Surjewala said. The remarks by Mr Surjewala are seen as a response to the statement by the BJP that the revelations being made by Congress president Rahul Gandhi on the Rafale deal are aimed at helping Pakistan. UNI AR ADG 1711 Modi to write for DA case against convicted RJD leader Illiyas in coal tar scam Patna, Sep 28 (UNI) Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi today said he would personally write a letter to CBI for lodging of Disproportionate Asset (DA) case against the then state road construction minister Illiyas Hussain, convicted in coal tar scam by special CBI court of Ranchi, which proved the fact that scam was responsible for dilapidated condition of roads in Bihar during RJD regime from 1990 to 2005. Mr Modi told media persons here that huge government fund was misappropriated in coal tar scam and those convicted had amassed assets disproportionate to their known sources of income and he would write to CBI for lodging of DA case against them. The huge disproportionate assets of convicts in coal tar scam should be throughly investigated by Income Tax Department, he demanded. The Hague, Sep 28 (UNI) The World court will rule on Monday whether Chile must negotiate access to the Pacific ocean with landlocked Bolivia, AFP said on its website on Friday. The case has fouled relations between the two neighbours for decades. A 15-judge bench at the International Court of Justice will hand down judgement in the bitter legal battle which revolves around Bolivia's struggle to restore badly-needed access to the sea -- lost in 1884 after defeat in a war with Chile. La Paz in 2013 dragged Santiago to the Hague-based ICJ, set up after World War II to rule in disputes between countries. The court's findings are binding and cannot be appealed. Bolivian President Evo Morales is due to attend the announcement at 1300 GMT, as the leftist leader has before with previous hearings in the case. Chile and Bolivia have had no diplomatic relations since 1978 when Bolivia's last attempt to negotiate a passage to the Pacific broke down in acrimony, the news agency added. Bolivia says regaining its territory which comprises of several hundred kilometres (miles) of coastline along the northern tip of Chile will stimulate growth and development in South America's poorest country. Its lawyers have argued that it has tried several times over the last century to discuss possible access to the Pacific, but to no avail. Bolivian activists said the loss of the Chuquicamata mine, the world's largest open-pit copper mine which is situated in the disputed area, has also badly hit the country's indigenous peoples. These attempts were continuously slapped down by the Chileans, La Paz's lawyers said, leading to the breakdown in diplomatic relations. Santiago in turn said the border is based on a 1904 peace treaty signed with Bolivia in the wake of the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific and therefore must be respected. Both capitals were bound to attach political significance whatever the outcome, experts said. Morales's presence at the hearings may also play a role in his aspirations to run a fourth time in Bolivia's presidential polls next year, experts said. "What is at stake is not so much sovereignty of access to the sea, but the political strategy of (Bolivian President) Evo Morales," said Lucia Dammert, a Peruvian analyst based in Santiago. "Whatever happens," Morales will see as a victory, Dammert told the news agency. Chile will not negotiate with Bolivia over the issue as "our sovereign territory is protected and will not be a part in anyone's negotiations," its Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero said last week. But President Sebastian Pinera has not ruled out an "intermediate solution" in which the ICJ "invites parties to negotiate in good faith which may be with or without a predetermined result." "The question remains whether the result of negotiations are pre-set, in other words give some form of access to the sea," said Eric De Brabandere, professor of international dispute settlement at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Or "whether there is merely an obligation to sit down and negotiate in good faith without any commitment as to the outcome of the negotiations," he told the new agency. Meanwhile, Chile has opened its own case against Bolivia over the Silala waterway, which flows into the parched Atacama desert and which La Paz has threatened to divert. UNI XC SDR 0726 Police seize 12 AK 47 assault rifles from well Munger, Sep 28 (UNI) Police seized 12 AK 47 assault rifles from a well at Bardhe village in the district in the wee hours today taking the number of recovery of the sophisticated firearms to 20 in the district in the recent past. Munger police superintendent Babu Ram said here today that 12 AK 47 rifles were seized on the basis of confessional statement given by an arms smuggler Tanvir Alam, who was arrested from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand recently. Police have started seizing AK 47 assault rifles in the district following confessional statement by Purushottam Lal Das, a retired military armourer of a government-run ordnance depot at Jabalpulpur in Madhya Pradesh during his interrogation. Stoicism Scholar Pigliucci to Speak at UW Oct. 9 Massimo Pigliucci Massimo Pigliucci, a popular figure in the world of stoicism, will speak at the University of Wyoming Tuesday, Oct. 9. The event, which is free and open to the public, will start at 7 p.m. in UWs College of Business Scarlett Auditorium and is hosted by the UW Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. We are very excited to be hosting Massimo Pigliucci at the University of Wyoming, says Rob Colter, UW lecturer in philosophy. He is one of the leading figures in the modern stoicism movement and brings a contemporary perspective to ideas of a 2,000-year-old tradition that guided the lives of such figures as Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism offers a way of situating ourselves successfully in a world largely out of our control, which may never have been more relevant than today. Pigliucci is a professor of philosophy at the City University of New York, but he is most known as former co-host of the Rationally Speaking podcast and former editor-in-chief for the online magazine Scientia Salon. He also has written and published numerous blogs, articles and books, including his most recent book, How to Be a Stoic. Pigliuccis talk will focus on stoicism as a philosophy of life. He will answer questions including: What, exactly, is a philosophy of life? Who needs it and why? He will discuss the articulation of one of the most influential philosophies of antiquity: stoicism. That philosophy is experiencing a comeback in the 21st century, for the simple reason that it resonates with fundamentals of the human condition, and it works in practice, Pigliucci says. Pigliucci says stoicism can offer a compass to navigate life; to set priorities for what is important, to become better citizens of the world; and even to prepare people for the most difficult test of their character: their own demise at the end of their lives. Pigliucci holds doctoral degrees from the University of Connecticut in evolutionary biology and the University of Tennessee in philosophy. His research interests include the philosophy of biology, the relationship between science and philosophy, and the nature of pseudoscience. For more information, call Colter at (307) 766-6200 or email rcolter@uwyo.edu. The General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) recently released the 2017 Economic Census, which includes information about economic establishments, business activities, labor market, and outsourcing activities. It covers State and non-state domestic enterprises as well as foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs). Enterprises in Vietnam According to the census, as of April 2017, there were 517,900 businesses operating in Vietnam, up 51.6 percent compared to the 2012 census. However, large companies accounted for only 1.9 percent of the total. Currently, there are only 10,000 large firms, up 29.6 percent compared to 2012. The majority (98.1 percent) of the firms continue to be small, medium, and micro-enterprise, which grew by 52.1 percent compared to 2012 to 507,860. Region Southeast Vietnam accounted for 216,000 businesses, 41.7 percent of the total number of companies in the country. The region attracted 5.3 million workers, 37.7 percent of the total labor force. Red River Delta, which ranks second with 161,000 firms, accounted for 31.1 percent of the total number of businesses and 32.5 percent of the total number of employees. The Central Highlands accounted for only 2.6 percent of the total number of enterprises, the lowest in the country. Revenue Net revenue in 2016 increased by 71 percent higher compared to 2011 to VND 17,858 trillion (USD765.1 billion). Highest earnings were recorded in the non-State businesses, accounting for 55.9 percent of the total net revenue. However, the highest growth was witnessed in the FDI sector, which grew by 134.5 percent in 2016 compared to 2011. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) recorded the lowest contribution to the net revenues between 2011 and 2016. Return on assets In 2016, FDI firms had the highest return on assets (ROA) at 6.9 percent, followed by SOEs and non-State companies at 2.6 and 1.4 percent respectively. Sector-wise, the industrial and construction sector had the highest ROA in 2016 at 4.8 percent, followed by the agriculture, fishery and forestry sector at two percent. The ROA for the services sector was 1.6 percent in 2016. Enterprise and labor growth The number of SMEs between 2012 and 2017 grew rapidly, however, the number of employees in larger enterprises grew faster compared to SMEs. Between 2012 and 2017, the number of SMEs grew by 8.8 percent, faster than the number of large enterprises which grew by 5.3 percent. Labor force in large enterprises grew by 33.8 percent, while in SMEs, the growth was only 22.1 percent. SOEs The number of SOEs and employees between 2012 and 2017 decreased by 18.4 percent and 23.1 percent respectively. FDI In 2017, the number of FDI firms and employees witnessed the highest growth compared to state and non-state entities at 54 percent and 62.8 percent respectively compared to 2012. Non-state enterprises The number of non-state enterprises and employees grew by 52.3 percent and 27.9 percent respectively, second only to FDI firms. Major economic sectors According to the economic census, the industry and construction sector contributes the most to the governments budget, while the services sector which accounts for the highest number of firms, is growing the fastest. As of 2017, the number of firms in the services sector grew by 57.1 percent, compared to 2012, while the labor force grew by 31.5 percent. In the wholesale, retail and repair sector, the number of enterprises grew by 51.6 percent, while the labor force grew by 24.5 percent. The number of companies involved in the scientific and technology sector expanded by 59.8 percent, while employees in the sector grew by 24.6 percent. Employees in the production and distribution of electricity, gas, hot water, steam, and air conditioning sector grew by 33.3 percent, while the number of firms expanded by 25.3 percent. Workers involved in the agriculture sector declined by 0.4 percent, while the number of firms grew by 27.5 percent. International integration survey The government conducted a survey of 3,500 enterprises in the manufacturing and processing sector that covered the impact of trade agreements, relations with foreign partners, and feedback for the government. Around 95 percent of the surveyed firms were knowledgeable about the existing and upcoming free trade agreements and 83.9 percent of the companies supported the countrys participation in FTAs. Enterprises stay updated about the FTAs through information channels such as media, industry associations, and state management agencies. With respect to the impact of foreign business partners, 42.1 percent of the surveyed firms were most optimistic about East Asia and Pacific partners, closely followed by the US at 42 percent. Businesses who were optimistic about Southeast Asian and European partners accounted for 35 percent, while only 23.6 percent of the firms were in favor of Chinese partners. The feedback for the government with respect to FTAs focused on administrative procedures, market information, and details about the agreement. More than 84 percent of the firms wanted the government to simplify the procedures, while 69.4 percent wanted detailed information about the trade agreements. Over half of the surveyed businesses would like the government to provide information on foreign markets, while 48.9 percent would like information on domestic markets. Outsourcing revenue The 2017 Economic Census is the first census that includes the revenue generated by Vietnamese firms from outsourcing goods for foreign manufacturers. In 2016, there were 1,740 enterprises involved in outsourcing activities with revenues amounting to US$8.6 billion. Out of the total, 1,687 firms provided outsourcing services, while 52 firms sent materials to foreign businesses for processing. Major products in the outsourcing industry include textiles, footwear, telephones and components, computers, and electronic devices. Textile and footwear sector accounted for 48 percent of the total outsourcing revenue, while footwear accounted for 32 percent. Assembly of electronics devices accounted only for 0.7 percent. Imports related to outsourcing activities reached US$20.2 billion, with FIEs accounting for 80.7 percent of the total import value. Export value of processed goods reached US$32.4 billion, with FIEs accounting for 79 percent of the total. South Korea, Taiwan, China, the US, and Japan were the major outsourcing partners for Vietnam. Labor Age In 2017, the labor force below the age of 30 accounted for 35.2 percent of the total labor force, while laborers between 31 and 45 were the majority at 42.7 percent. In the enterprise sector, the labor force between the ages of 16 and 30 accounted for the largest share, while in the administrative units, laborers between 31 and 45 were in majority. Education The share of unskilled labor to the total number of employees in economic, administrative, and religious units decreased from 34.7 percent in 2012 to 29.7 percent in 2017. University educated labor force grew from 17.9 percent to 18.4 percent during the same period. Between 2012-17, the share of the college-educated labor force increased from 4.9 percent to 6.7 percent, while the share of workers with primary education increased from 6.8 percent to 8.8 percent. In the corporate sector, the percentage share of employees with a university education or higher was more than 50 percent. The demand for high-skilled labor is highest in the finance, banking, insurance, information and communication, and education sectors. The Economic Census highlights the importance of FDI in the Vietnamese economy. FIEs continue to grow faster compared to SOEs and non-State entities in all areas such as labor, revenue, exports, and the number of establishments. In addition to the FDI sector, the government needs to focus on the domestic sector. It needs to accelerate the divestments of SOEs and increase support for domestic entities in areas such as labor quality, access to capital, higher value-added activities, and boosting linkages with foreign companies. Vietnams energy demand is predicted to increase by over 10 percent by 2020, while energy consumption is projected to increase four-fold by 2030 compared to 2014. To meet the growing demand which cannot be fulfilled by sources like coal and hydro, the government is promoting other renewable sources such as biomass, solar and wind to reduce the gap between demand and supply. Solar power industry The potential for solar energy in Vietnam is between 60 and 100 GWh per year for concentrated solar power, while for photovoltaic (PV) systems, it is around 0.8 to 1.2 GWH per year. With around 1,600 to 2,700 hours of sunlight per year and an average direct normal irradiance (DNI) of 4-5 kWh/m2, the country has huge potential for solar power. DNI is the amount of solar radiation received per unit area by a surface perpendicular (normal) to the rays. Region Ninh Thuan province in south-central Vietnam has the highest potential for solar power generation. The region has already attracted over 140 projects. Other potential areas include Binh Thuan, Daklak, and Khanh Hoa which have attracted 100, 13, and 12 projects respectively. Government targets Solar power accounts for only 0.01 percent of the total output, and the government aims to increase this to 3.3 percent and 20 percent by 2030 and 2050 respectively. The governments target by 2020 and 2025 is to install 850 MW and 4 GW respectively. By 2030, it aims to increase it to 12 GW. Projects The government has approved more than 70 new projects, with a total capacity of over 3,000 MW that needs to begin operations before June 2019. As of July 2018, projects with a total capacity of 12,622 MW were in the pre-investment phase, while 1,432 MW were in the development and feasibility phase. Around 1000 MW are under construction, while only 8 MW is in the operating stage. As of July 2018, 748 solar roof-top projects are in operation with a total capacity of 11.55 MW peak. Major companies that installed roof-top systems include Intel, Avery Dennison, and Deutsche Bekleidungswerke. In addition, government buildings of the MoIT, National Assembly, and UN have also installed roof-top solar systems. According to government estimates, rooftop solar projects can reduce monthly power bills by over 50 percent. Major companies Major investors in the solar power industry in Vietnam include German ASEAN Power, B.Grimm Power Public Co Ltd, Trina Solar, Siemens, Schletter Group, JA Solar, Sunseap International, Nippon Sheet Glass, Ecoprogetti, Tata Power, Shapoorji Pallonji Infrastructure Capital, Gulf Energy Development, InfraCo Asia Development, and ACWA Power. Although there is no foreign ownership restriction in the industry, PPP projects in the form of BOT contracts are usually preferred due to government guarantees and incentives. Incentives Investors are entitled to exemption from the land use fee for a period of 11 years and 15 years in case of rural areas. In addition, during the construction of the plant or building, investors are entitled to exemption from land and water surface rents. Corporations can also avail a reduction in corporate income taxes (CIT). A CIT of 10 percent is applicable for renewable energy producers for the first 15 years. Under certain conditions, CIT exemptions are also provided for investors. Import duties are also exempted in case imported goods are raw materials or are used in the manufacturing of components. Regulations In 2017, the government issued Decree No.11/2017/QD-TTg on mechanisms for encouraging the development of solar power in the country. Guidelines on PPA for solar projects were set out in Circular 16/2017/TT-BCT. Together, these include guidelines on the approval process, power development plans, technical requirements, and tariff structures and covers both commercial as well as rooftop projects. In Vietnam, the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) is the sole buyer of energy generated from solar power projects. Feed-in-tariffs (FIT) for commercial and rooftop projects have a commercial operation date (COD) of June 2019. Investors have recommended the government to increase the COD beyond 2019 as it is a tight deadline that can deter long-term investments. Based on the feedback, the government extended the COD to 2020 through Resolution No. 115/NQ-CP, but only for the Ninh Thuan province. The government is planning to do the same for other provinces as well. The government is also planning to introduce a direct power purchase agreement (DDPA) for renewable energy in 2019. DDPA is an agreement between a power generator and a corporate consumer, which will allow power generation companies to sell their electricity directly to corporations. Feed-in-tariffs The FIT for utility solar power plants is VND2,086 (9.35 US cents/kWh) for a period of 20 years. For rooftop projects, the net-metering is 9.35 US cents/kWh. This rate will also apply for excess power generated from rooftop solar projects that begin their operations before the 2019 deadline and sell it to the EVN The FIT will be applicable for projects beginning operations before 30 June 2019, except for ones in Ninh Thuan province, which have a 2020 deadline. Once the COD deadline expires, new FIT rates will be finalized, which may be lower than current rates. Challenges The major challenges facing investors are government policies on solar prices and COD deadlines. Government policies need to be more consistent and COD deadlines need to be extended beyond 2019, as permitting processes and land acquisitions in Vietnam take time which can lead to project delays. Other challenges include lack of financing, technical expertise of the local developers, and grid infrastructure quality. The government needs to increase transparency, provide financial support, reform administrative processes related to permits and land acquisitions, create consistent pricing policies, and develop the grid infrastructure to meet the growing energy demand. We, the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America made the following statement of support for the urgent convening of a constitutional committee to advance the UNs efforts to achieve a political solution to the conflict in Syria on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2254. The Syrian conflict has dragged on for more than seven years at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives lost and millions forcibly displaced by violence both within Syria and beyond its borders. There is an urgent need for concerted diplomacy and international political will to end the conflict. There is no military solution to the war and no alternative to a political solution. We affirm in the strongest terms that those who seek a military solution will only succeed in increasing the risk of a dangerous escalation and wider conflagration of the crisis to the region and beyond. It is, therefore, imperative to move forward with a political solution consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254. To that end, we call on the UN and the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria to convene, as quickly as possible, a credible, inclusive constitutional committee that will begin the work of drafting a new Syrian constitution and laying the groundwork for free and fair UN-supervised elections in a safe and neutral environment in which all eligible Syrians including those in the diaspora have a right to participate. We urge the UN Special Envoy for Syria to report back to the Security Council on his progress no later than October 31. We underscore the Office of the UN Special Envoys clear mandate from the Secretary-General and the UN Security Council to move forward with convening a constitutional committee, and encourage all sides to ensure the Syrian parties are prepared to engage substantively in the committees proceedings once convened. On 22 September, an attack during a military parade killed 24 people and wounded 60 others, in Ahvaz (Iran). Ahvaz is the capital of the Iranian Arab region of Khuzestan. On 22 September 1980, the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein tried to annex this population to Iraq. This unleashed a war between Iran and Iraq. At the time, the overwhelming majority of Iranian Arabs opposed the foreign Iraqi invasion. The military procession on September 22 2018 marked the anniversary of this terrible war, funded by the West against the Khomeini Revolution. Various groups are regularly organizing protests and attacks in Khuzestan: the Party of Democratic Solidarity of Ahvaz (supported by the US CIA and the British MI6), is trying to link up different non-Persian minorities in Iran. the Party for Liberation of Ahvaz (supported by those who supported the long deceased Saddam Hussein). Responsibility for this weeks attack was claimed by two groups: the Popular Democratic Front of the Arabs of Ahvaz (which allegedly groups different pro-Iraqi organizations) and by Daesh (which published a video of the kamikaze before the action). Let us recall that the Hussein regime in Iraq abandoned the state following a secular path by its programme Return to Faith. Following the toppling of Saddam Hussein and the US invasion, members of the Iraqi Baath Party were banished from national politics and the national army was dissolved, while Iraq was governed by the Shiites linked to Iran. As the former Vice President, Ezzat Ibrahim Al-Douri the Grand Master of the Nachqbandis Order (a Sufi brotherhood) formed an alliance with the CIA and MI6 to integrate its men into Daesh and to obtain its revenge against the Shiites. This explains how both claims of responsibility led, by different paths, to Washington and London. This is why the Iranian Republic of Iran immediately accused the Westerners and the Gulf States, that sponsor of terrorism, of being responsible for the attack. However, Professor Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, one of the advisers to the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, declared that his country has succeeded in bringing war to the territory of Iran, claiming, thus, publicly a role in the attack. This type of declaration is not very surprising in the Middle East. In 2015, the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had publicly congratulated the attacks that had been sponsored in Europe. The United Arab Emirates position on Iran changed all of a sudden. This was not due to the war in Yemen (where they were fighting against the Hutis supported by Iran) but by the rupture of the Iran deal (JCPoA). Over the last two decades, the Emirates has increased its wealth through measures that the Islamic Republic had to adopt to buffer the US sanctions applied on Iran. The port of Dubai, became the centre of this traffic. With this change, the two countries became enemies and the bilateral dispute over the possession of an islet situated in the Arab-Persian Gulf was reopened. The Iranian President, Sheikh Hassan Rohani, promised the Emirates a terrible response, forcing the Emirates Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, to back off and to deny the prior declarations of the adviser to the Crown Prince. Today, the new US ambassador to Athens, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, who, together with Victoria Nuland organized the coup detat in Kiev in 2014 [1], is determined to set up an Independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The Orthodox Church is organized into 7 patriarchies. Of these, the patriarch of Constantinople is the first among equals. The ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, has practically no religious followers in Turkey but shepherds a flock consisting of the Greek diaspora all over the world. In contrast, the Patriarch at Moscow, Cyril I, has all orthodox Russians including Ukrainians, in his flock. The separation of the Ukrainian orthodox from the Patriarchy of Moscow would signify a harsh coup for Russian culture in the country. From May 2018, Bartholomew I has refused to grant visas to the orthodox fathers of the Patriarch of Moscow desiring to go to Mount Athos. On 31 July 2018, Bartholomew I signed a joint declaration with the leaders of religious minorities in Turkey assuring that this country is marvellous and that religion flourishes there even though in the past such was not always the case [2]. This text awakened the anger of believers of different religions that suffer intimidation and humiIiation on a daily basis at the hands of the Turkish administration. On 31 August, Cyril and Bartholomew had a friendly meeting in Istanbul. But on 6 September, the Patriarch of Constantinople, appointed two special envoys tasked with establishing an independent church in Ukraine. The leaders of the canonical Church of Kiev refused to recognize them. For his part, Filareto, the Ukrainian ecclesiastical leader of Kiev, a former KGB agent who was ex-communicated following the fall of the Soviet Union, creates a sect, the Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Church (non-canonical). He supported those responsible for the coup at Kiev and qualified the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as Cain and Judas. Nowadays, he is considered as the leader of the Independent Church that could be recognized by Bartholomew I, the Patriarch of Constantinople. On 14 September 2018, Filareto went to the United States. He was received in the Department of State with two special envoys of Bartholomew I, who had just met the President Petro Poroshenko, in Kiev. He was also received by the former Vice President Joe Biden, with whom he has maintained close relations since 2014. Nowadays, Bidens son, R. Hunter Biden, sits on the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, the leading Ukrainian company for gas exploration. Philareto has decorated Joe Biden with the Order of St Vladimir, just as he had done with Senator John Mc Cain. A dispute going way back in time on the Orthodox Church of Macedonia is also in the process of being revived but in a different form: this time the Patriarch of Constantinople refuses to recognize it as long as it used the name of Macedonia (which Greece considers to be its exclusively). Cyril met a Special Synod in Moscow. On 14 September, the Russian Orthodox Church decided to no longer name in the prayer, the Patriarch of Constantinople. That it to say, to no longer pray for him. It also decided to suspend all concelebrations with him, finally, and to break all working relations on the matters that they were working on together. On 19 September, the Patriarch of Alexandria and all of Africa, Theodore II, called the two parties to reason. A schism is possible. In two weeks time, the Russian Federation will hand over to Syria, S-300anti-air defense batteries, and modern systems for automated control for anti-air command posts. This equipment has until now only been available in the Russian military installations in Syria. The information was divulged by the Russian Minister of Defence. However he did not specify which model of the S-300 will be handed over to Syria. In 2013, the Russian Federation had promised S-300 version V4 to Syria. However Russia did not follow through with its promise so as not to endanger Israels control over its air space. The Russian Minister of Defense, Sergey Shoigou, declared that handing over the anti-air missiles S-300 to the Syrian Arab Republic: will specifically guarantee the centralized management of all forces and installations of Syrian anti-air defense, the vigilance of the air spaces and speedy decision-making. But more importantly, it will ensure that the Syrian anti-air defence identifies all Russian planes. Moscows decision follows the British, French and Israeli attack of 17 September 2018 on Lataquia during which the Russian Ilyushin Il-20 was destroyed. 15 men were on board. Syria is the seventeenth country to equip itself with the S-300. The anti-air missiles of the S-300 system have a range of 300 km. This makes it impossible for enemy planes to fly over Syrian territory or to approach Syria from the Mediterranean or any neighbouring country. Supplying these missiles to Syria sends out a serious warning to the air forces of the United Kingdom, France and Israel. Supplying Syria with these modern Russian anti-air systems will end Israels control over the air space of the Middle East. The handing over of S-300 had been planned five years ago. However it was cancelled and this was clearly at the request of the United States to protect the Israels vastly superior air capacity. The new decision taken by Russia clearly downgrades the US veto from its triple A status. However in the US National Security Council, John Bolton, defined this Russian decision as an escalation, clearly to preserve the image of President Trump during the campaigns for the US legislative elections. But the Russian Minister of Defense commented in Moscow that We are convinced that the implementation of these measures will help to cool down the "raging bulls and to discourage senseless actions that threaten our soldiers. If not, we will have to respond according to the situation. So he declared, with clear reference to Israel. Russia has already pointed that Israel was responsible for the death of 15 Russian soldiers that had been on board the Illushin-20 which had been destroyed in the incident on 17 September. The European Union is fighting intensely to preserve the rules-based international order, which is currently under great strain, in terms of trade, security, climate change or human rights. We say this not only as countries strongly supporting the United Nations, but as a continent that cares deeply about respect, mutual understanding and solidarity between nations. As leaders, we must equip the United Nations with the means to fulfil its mandate successfully. More unity and collective action are needed in the struggle against conflict, poverty and famine, terrorism and mass displacement of people, of the kind we see in Venezuela, Syria, Myanmar and many other places. To that end, the European Union firmly supports the current effort to reform the UN. These reforms are badly needed and overdue. The urgency is clear and implementation is essential. The European Union is taking on more responsibility for security matters. We have initiated ambitious co-operation among our own militaries. We are ready to step-up help to our neighbours through crisis management missions, capacity building and peacekeeping, in cooperation with others, including NATO, the African Union and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The Union also supports the Action for Peacekeeping initiative and expects it to produce more effective and better resourced global security solutions. Europe has undertaken action against the increased use of disinformation and outside propaganda in open democratic elections. The anonymity of cyberspace is used by external actors to cloak malicious political interference. It is not just Europes problem; many others here today are similarly affected. The United Nations should help expose this phenomenon, attribute responsibility and increase democratic resilience. One hundred years since Nelson Mandelas birth, we remember his triumph over apartheid in South Africa. I am very pleased that this occasion has also coincided with deeper ties between the African and European Unions. The summit of our both Unions in Abidjan last November was key. Thanks to the excellent cooperation between the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations we have until today helped over 30.000 people to leave Libya through voluntary humanitarian returns. We want to expand the work with our partners in other areas. Therefore, education, investment in development, climate change and free trade will be at the heart of our future relations. Africa is a continent of great challenges but it is also a continent of equally great opportunities. Instability in Libya has brought the worlds attention to the suffering caused by human smugglers and traffickers who take brutal advantage of people and weaken the states in which they operate. The Security Council named some of worst violators last June. They and those like them, should be sanctioned, apprehended and brought to justice. In the meantime, the European Union will work diligently and in good faith with our North African partners on search and rescue efforts in the Mediterranean. Only collective responsibility can offer effective solutions to global phenomena such as migration and forced displacement. And I truly hope that the recent UN debates on the future governance of migration and refugee protection represent a step in the right direction. The European Union leads global resettlement efforts, including through resettlement from Turkey, which is hosting refugees displaced by the fighting in Syria, as are Jordan and Lebanon. The Syrian people are suffering as the war continues. The memorandum of understanding on Idlib needs to be fully implemented to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. All parties must respect international humanitarian law, ensure the protection of civilians, and allow aid to reach those in need. A meaningful political process under the United Nations auspices is especially needed to bring about a resolution to the conflict. Sustainable development and increasing continent-to-continent connectivity will bring countries, people and societies closer together. These priorities will be crucial in our future relations with Africa and also at the next months Asia-Europe Meeting, which I will be hosting in Brussels. They go hand in hand with the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and with other international commitments. From floods to fires, the impact of climate change becomes more visible every year, and sadly, we are now measuring the impact in loss of human life. And still, even though only slow progress is being made on our main task, namely to implement the Paris Agreement, the European Union remains fully committed to it and makes it a priority in its relations with our partners. And when we talk about the environment, let me use this occasion to appeal to all the leaders to undertake action to protect the waters around the Antarctic. There is still time to save the natural habitat of many endangered species by establishing maritime sanctuaries in the Southern Ocean. Let me say it loud and clear: those who can imagine our planet without whales, penguins and other species will also have to imagine our planet without humans. Non-proliferation is another global challenge we face but here, things are looking up thanks to multilateral action on sanctions. On the Korean peninsula, a year ago the situation was critical. Although much depends on the attitude of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), we have seen that diplomacy can open the way to more comprehensive solutions. A similar situation exists with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. While addressing nuclear issues, the deal has also helped to create space for dialogue on other concerns, like Irans regional behaviour and ballistic missile programmes. The agreement is good for European, regional and global security. That is why the European Union is committed to maintaining the agreement, as long as Iran remains fully committed to it. A while ago, I mentioned the one hundredth birthday anniversary of Nelson Mandela. In the coming hours, the seventy fifth birthday anniversary will be celebrated by another Nobel peace prize winner, a great Pole, Lech Waesa. They are both symbols of a beautiful cause: how to win without violence, how to forgive our oppressors, and how in public life, to overcome evil with good. Today, when so many people, also here in this hall, including even the most powerful world leaders, are starting to give up on freedom, solidarity and democracy, let us remember Mandelas and Waesas message. And that, regardless of how difficult their situation was, they never capitulated in their fight. Thank you. President of the Assembly, Secretary General, Chiefs of State, Prime Ministers, Ministers, Delegates. lt is my honour to address you as President of the Government of Spain. I do so with the emotion that this Hall inspires in me, and with respect for the values that shaped this Organization and which guide its day-to-day work. I would like to begin by highlighting that this is the first time in history that a Latin American woman, Marfa Fernanda Espinosa, in presiding over this Assembly. This is yet another reflection of the fact that, in the twenty-first century, global governance is inconceivable without the leadership of women. I am a feminist politician. Now is the time for women. I have always firmly believed that multilateralism allows us to reach levels that would be unattainable through the individual actions of states. With this idea in mind, I would like to reassert the value of agreement and dialogue as means of addressing the challenges faced by the international community. Challenges that Spain is meeting in a hopeful spirit of collective action, in the face of those who would spread fear and uncertainty. Spains commitment to the United Nations is based on shared values and a shared conviction: The pursuit of justice in all its forms, through respect for human dignity, democracy, freedom, equality and human rights, embracing-now, more than ever-the goals of promoting the peace and wellbeing of all peoples. The United Nations, like the European project in which I so firmly believe, was not born from an idealist utopia, as some disparagingly suggest. lt was born from a victory over the forces of hate, racism, and tyranny. Today, the world is facing enormous global challenges. We have been c.alled upon to act. To produce an agenda for real change. These times do not need nationalist or non inclusive rhetoric. Now is the time to cultivate a new cooperative leadership, based not only on a willingness to listen to others, but also on a readiness to understand their motivations. it is the time to accept, with heartfelt empathy, that no single person has a monopoly on the truth. We need leadership that can build consensus and forge agreements; that can find solutions and make the most of synergies. We cannot simply dismiss everything we have accomplished by working together. Today, the world is better than it was, and much better than it would have been had the United Nations never existed. However, the real strength of this organization does not lie in its past achievements, but rather in everything it can do to shape the future. The time is now. We are the last generation that will have the chance.to halt the consequences of climate change. And we are the first generation to have the wherewithal to eradicate poverty from the world. lt is not a question of seeing obstacles, but of identifying opportunities. lt is a question of making change a catalyst for achieving sustainable development. And it is not an ideal. it is a necessity. Many countries face the dilemma between continuing to be pits societies or transfo ming themselves into closed societies. As if a return to the false calm of borders, and renouncing collective action, were the only means of addressing the uncertainties of these times. We already know where such ideas lead. Now, we must look beyond the seeming dictates of these fast-moving times; times in which everything seems to change from one minute to the next. Let us move past the lost decade of the economic crisis and growing inequality. Our commitment has a name, a date and goals: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. it was Kofi Annan-to whom I wish to pay tribute-who taught us that human rights, development, and security are all interdependent. I would like to call to mind these pillars, accompanied by an additional thought: The dignity of human beings must be at the heart of all political action. The principles that have brought us to this point in our history are not in retreat, and never will be. In fact, they are more relevant than ever. And that is where Spain will continue to stand: defending those values. Because without dignity, without equality between women and men, without respect for human rights, there will no peace and no development. As a Member State of the United Nations Human Rights Council until 2020, Spain support initiatives that strengthen the capacity of the Council and of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. We are fortunate to have, in the High Commissioner, a person of the political and personal stature of Michelle Bachelet. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which celebrates its seventieth anniversary, provides the framework to move forward. Madam President, There is no greater injustice than that which defines what a human being will or will not be, based on whether they are born a boy or a girl. How to measure everything that generations of our societies I;;Ne lost by accepting this discrimination? Humankind must not tolerate this injustice. We must develop a truly global roadmap to eradicate all forms of discrimination still suffered by women, whether it is gender-based violence, trafficking of women, or female genital mutilation. In this endeavour, the United Nations can rely on Spains commitment. The cabinet of Ministers I lead is made up of 60% women, because we aim to lead by example. Because the battleground is in companies, in education and in society itself. In leadership where glass ceilings remain, simply due to inertia. I would like to congratulate the Secretary General on having reached full parity in his Senior Management Group for the first time in the history of the United Nations. Spain will continue to promote the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. it is crucial that women participate as peace brokers in all phases of conflicts. We will continue to support the impeccable work of UN Women; Spain was an extremely active contributor to UN Womens creation, and was the first donor to establish a Partnership Framework with the organization. I have also joined the Circle of Leadership promoted by the Secretary-General to combat sexual exploitation and abuse in UN operations. it is essential that we promote a zero-tolerance culture in this area. Madam President, There are no shortcuts or quick fixes for todays major challenges, such as the refugee and migration crisis. Humanity cannot simply accept as inevitable the fact that 68 million people have been forcibly displaced around the world, of whom more than 25 million are refugees, and over 3 million are asylum seekers. During this session, the General Assembly will adopt the Global Compact on Refugees. This is a great leap forward. We must work closely with the High Commissioner for Refugees, and we must acknowledge the situation that this turmoil causes in host countries. Above all, in the knowledge that 85% of the worlds refugees and asylum seekers are concentrated in developing countries. These states need our empathy and commitment. And, above all else, justice and an equitable distribution of this responsibility; we all have the obligation to help. Madam President, Spain has suffered the calamities of the economic crisis more than almost any other Western European country. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Spanish society has never turned its back on the tragedy resulting from migration. And of this, I am proud. I am proud of our society, which has not let itself be radicalized by the fever of xenophobic discourse, based on a culture of fear of the other. Perhaps this is because we remember our own history. So many Spaniards have themselves been emigrants-and refugees. And that is why we will not abandon our international commitments. If we take in a boat that is adrift in the Mediterranean, with 630 people on board, it is not only because international law demands it, but also because it is a moral imperative. Spain welcomes the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which is set to be adopted in Marrakech in December. When migration is safe, orderly and regular, we can benefit from its positive impact. Rather than an image of countries as fortresses, with exclusionary and xenophobic narratives, we champion the concepts of solidarity, humanity and respect. Spain is well aware of what this challenge entails. We are a country of origin and of transit; a destination country, and a country of return. We defend migration policy whose fundamental goal is to address the root causes of migration, such as poverty, environmental degradation, and lack of opportunities. Ultimately, we must aspire for migration to be a free choice, not a necessity. Such a policy requires dialogue and cooperation with the countries of origin and transit. And especially with African countries, where nine out of ten people are expected to be living in extreme poverty by 2030. Madam President, There are many forms of poverty. Please allow me to underscore the abomination of childhood poverty, and poverty that afflicts women. More than 15 million girls will neve, iave the chance to learn to read or write in primary schooL And 330 million women are living on less than 2 dollars a day. To combat this and other forms of poverty, I would like to mention the reason for a global perspective. The reason for a new 21 51-century humanism, based on the values that have brought the greatest prosperity ever known to humankind. The 2030 Agenda, and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, are the current embodiment of that spirit, with humankind and the planet at its heart. We must adopt it as a new Global Social Contract, binding us all and connecting us with future generations. Spain is going to work with determination to make this change. We have approved an Action Plan for implementing the Agenda 2030, and we will launch our own National Sust inable Development Strategy. Indeed, many of the measures adopted by my government are directly tied to our commitmentto meeting the SDGs: combating gender violence, child poverty, and energy poverty; policies promoting universal healthcare; grants and scholarships to advance equal opportunities and improving workers rights. This is the 2030 Agenda. Spain is moving forward along the path traced by the United Nations. Spain has done this before, when we championed the Millennium Development Goals, with the largest contribution from any single donor in the UN system, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. Furthermore, Spain created the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean, in which we have invested more than 800 million euros. However, despite all these efforts, none of them make any sense unless we tackle the greatest threat of our generation: the impact of climate change. I come from a country where 40% of our surface area is threatened by desertification. We must fight this battle at every leveL This means addressing its most immediate effects. But it also means addressing underlying structural causes. This is why we are keenly aware of the need to undertake a steady de-carbonization of our economy. Yesterday, I announced that Spain would join the Towards Carbon Neutrality coalition. With this step, we deepen our commitment to implementing ambitious long-term strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which will enable us to fully comply with the Paris Agreement Because the fact is, we cannot delay any further in making a just ecological transition, laying the foundations for a new production modeL Our future depends on renewable energy and clean technologies. Only from this starting point will we able to combine material wellbeing with social justice and environmental sustainability. Spain will participate constructively to ensure that the Cop24 in Katowice (Poland), and the Climate Change Summit that the Secretary General will convene next year are a success. We have to be able to move forward and comply with the Paris Agreement, and these meetings offer the occasion to do so. Madam President, lt is also up to us to make progress on the security agenda, but a security focused on human beings. lt has taken us a long time to learn that security is much more than a concept tied to defence, in the military sense of the term. Security finds its raison detre not in the absence of conflict, but in guaranteeing human beings ability to be free. Terrorism continues to be one of the major threats to freedom. This phenomenon was not born out of a supposed "clash of civilizations", as some have claimed. There are few areas in which cooperation, multilateralism, and collaborative leadership can bear such abundant and beneficial fruits. The fight against terrorist financing networks is crucial, as are international police and judiciary cooperation, and the exchange of information and intelligence. However, it is also essential to combat the hatred and violence that is being echoed in so many forums. We must do all that we can to prevent young people from falling prey to fanaticism, and to radical, exclusionary discourse. Governments and civil society must build social and economic integration, able to keep recruitment networks from taking over this space. it is here, in this space devoid of expectations for personal development, where we must win the battle. Likewise, we must be able to overcome the slightest hint of division and resentment, also crafting a narrative of solidarity and remembrance that includes the voice of the victims of terrorism, and strengthens the cohesion of our societies. Other essential efforts are investing in education, in our young people; taking an app1opriate and comprehensive view of migratory issues; and providing the media with tools to combat hate speech and to fight stereotypes. These are precisely the areas of action that fall under the remit of the Alliance of Civilizations, an instrument for dialogue between cultures and religions. The growing tensions regarding nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction are equally troubling. The world cannot afford another arms race. We must make the effort to regain lost consensus, and strengthen the non-proliferation system. The spread of armed conflicts and their changing nature-increasingly hybrid and complex-also demand our attention. Spain is firmly committed to strengthening the UNs role in maintaining peace and international security. We support the measures promoted by the United Nations Secretary-General to position prevention and peace-building at the centre of the UNs work. We also support his efforts to reform the architecture and management of UN Peacekeeping Operations, to which Spain has been a very active contributor for decades. More than 160,000 Spanish troops have served, with loyalty and commitment, to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Consequently, Spain has supported the Secretary Generals Action for Peacekeeping Declaration regarding peacekeeping operations. But prevention, and maintaining and consolidating peace, are not enough; wherever a conflict breaks out, we must act. Spain supports respect for and enforcement of international humanitarian law, so that no violation enjoys impunity. I call upon the justice system to pursue and to prosecute those who commit war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Here, the efforts of the International Criminal Court are irreplaceable. I call also upon the leaders of states and of the international community to protect their civilian populations. Spain supports the France/Mexico initiative to limit the use of veto powers in cases of mass atrocity. Humanitarian disasters like those in Syria and Iraq remind us of the high price of failing to arrive promptly. Madam President, For the Multilateral system to be effective, we must renovate and reinforce it. In so doing, we will be defending everything that we believe in. Spain strongly supports the reform of the United Nations system promoted by the Secretary-General. We have before us the challenge of clearly integrating the pillars of peace, sustainable development, and human rights. And to avoid the duplications and overlapping which are dragging down this institution. We must win back public opinion, and the favour of a global citizenry that has come of age in an atmosphere of growing scepticism about an organization than can longer rest on its past achievements, and which must tackle with ambition the task of winning over new generations. Our sole source of strength lies in the capacity of the United Nations to project this message to the world. Therefore, I ask that all of you serve as role models. To be worthy of the example set by those who represent the very best of the . UN: those workers who risk their lives in conflict zones. To all of these men and women," to who face up to problems on the ground every day, my sincerest recognition. The challenge of the disrepute into which politics has fallen is also at stake in the multilateral arena. We must win this battle against those who would spread the shadow of uncertainty with a single goal: to cast doubt on the role of international organizations. Spain is a solid ally in this task. Madam President, There are two issues I would like to call your attention to. As regards Gibraltar, Spains position is well-known, and aligned with UN doctrine. The United Kingdoms decision to leave the European Union means that Gibraltar will also leave the Union. I would like for us to take advantage of this historic occasion to establish a new relationship, which inevitably involves Spain, between the European Union and Gibraltar. A relationship bringing prosperity to the benefit of the entire region: to Gibraltarians, and to those in wider area of Campo de Gibraltar. We are concerned by the persistent crisis, such as that in the Western Sahara, which is so close to us. Spain defends the central role of the United Nations, and would like to contribute to the efforts of the UN Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy to achieving just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in H< context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the Uniied Nations. Madam President, Spain is a fully-fledged democracy, ranking high on all of the global indexes that measure the democratic quality of countries institutions. Moreover, Spain has made defence of and commitment to multilateralism a hallmark of our foreign policy. Today, the world faces major threats, just as it did eight decades ago. Cooperative leadership, of which Spain is a part, demands a renewed commitment to multilateralism. Solutions for global problems can only be found through cooperation between States. Let us take on the task of making the coming decade a landmark victory for consensus, and a defeat of those who only seek to hear the echo of their own voice. I address you today in a city which saw the arrival of millions of human beings fleeing from poverty, and from political, racial, or religious persecution. The immense majority of them were Europeans. Today, on both shores of the North Atlantic, a collective veil of amnesia is being drawn over the memory of what we were, and of what we are: diversity, and nothing but diversity. As Leon Felipe, the great poet of Spains 201h-century exiles, wrote: "Its not a matter of getting there first on your own, but of arriving in time, with everyone". Nothing defines better the UN goals than the Agenda 2030s vitality. lt represents this decades horizon of hope, one that must be conquered in order to arrive, in the end , together, at the same time, and leaving no one behind. Thank you very much. How to apply a total no fly zone in Syria? Military science used the expression security measures used in combat. The United States has applied extremely sophisticated security measures of combat in all theatres in which they operate to protect their soldiers. As Russia did not want to get on the wrong side of Israel, Turkey and the United States, did not want to take this type of measure. They told themselves: everythings fine. But this policy has not worked. They have lost 15 officers, who died when the Russian reconnaissance plan, IL-20, was brought down. All these officers were highly qualified in a very sensitive sector. Russia will need 5 to 6 years before they can be replaced. The consequence of this drama is that Moscow is going to take very tough security measures in Syria, regardless of what the reaction of Washington may be. Thus the Russian Minister of Defense has declared that in two weeks time he would provide Syria with modern systems of anti-air (AA) missiles: S-300 / PMU2, with a 250 km range. But it is not these missiles that will guarantee the security of the planes and the Russian and Syrian land targets. This is why they are not the most important element. The true importance is the global architecture created by Russia around the Syrian air space. In addition to the AA systems S-300 / PMU2, Russia is going to deliver the most modern system in the world for air-management. This is called C3I which ensures automated management. This represents a giant step for the Syrian army, increasing precision by 50 times. Thus the launch of the oldest missiles belonging to the Soviet period (the S-200, S-75, S-125, etc.) will no longer be a risk-ladened venture; in fact, it will be almost as precise as the S-300. The role of the systems of automated management is an interface that is necessary to enable the Syrian air and defense units to work at the same time, now with the Russians as well. 1. Once a radar in Syria detects an air target in Syria, the automated system will display the information on all the radars for recognizing and controlling the air force and the Syrian and Russian missiles and AA artillery. 2. All the units of AA missiles and the Syrian inceptor planes will be stored in the memory of the Russian integrated computer servers that store the radar print of all the air targets and include cruise missiles and the F35. 3. Once identified, the air targets are recorded and their data re-dispatched from the central automated system towards the command of the Syrian Armed Forces. The entire process is automatically supervised by the Head of the Russian Contingency in Syria. 4. All air targets (civil planes, Russian, Syrian and foreign military planes) are symbolized by coloured buttons, ranging from blue, green, yellow, orange and red according to the degree of risk. This also creates an order of priority for responding to enemy attack. In the second screen shot (see image) the automated management system observed how the Israeli F-16 manoeuvred so as to put the Russian IL-20 plane between it and the s-200 missile. 5. The Russian IT system then puts in a position of combat, all the units of Syrian Air Force and the Syrian missiles that extrapolate the trajectory of the targets assigned, by predicting the land targets of the enemy, by calculating the number and type of fighter planes available and the AA missiles that have to enter into action. 6. The Syrian planes and missiles are controlled by a channel of data flow, impossible to mess with. 7. The automated systems of management have also equipment that makes any interference impossible. It calculates, by a method of triangulation, the coordinates of the air target, that generates the interference. The Syrian Army will also receive from Russia specialized material in this domain. The result is a precise following of the evolution of the generators of interference and the elimination of false targets. 8. Russia will deploy equipment that permits to interfere the navigation teams by satellite (GPS), naval or air transported radars, the data and communications for all means of attack against Syria from the Mediterranean. This interference equipment will operate under the coordination of the management system of the Syrian air space. The British invisible cruise missiles Storm Shadow, the French Scalp, the US JASMM missiles and the invisible Tomahawk launched last April, are guided by GPS. Fortune no longer favours them, for no longer will they be able to touch any more any targets in Syria. And all this due to the operation by which the Israelis provoked the destruction of the Russian plane IL 20, with the participation of a French frigate and a British Tornado plane. 9. It is very probable that the system of automatisation deployed will be Polyana D4M1. It can: cover an area of 800 km2 (the equivalent of the entire area of France) follow 500 air targets and ballistic missiles at the same time and act at the same time against 250 of them. integrate more than 14 divisions of the long range AA missiles S-300, short range and medium range AA missiles, of whatever generation. The reaction time is 1-3 seconds. 10. Once the Syrian Army will be integrated in this system of air space management, its system will be similar to those of the Russian, US, British, French and Israeli armies. The Syrian Arab Army will then be able to unleash an offensive against the terrorists in the province of Idleb, without fearing US, British, Israeli and French reprisals. And from this point of view, the external aggression waged in Syria, masked by the expression civil war will soon end. Contrary to Syria, which received this system from Russia without having to pay a cent, Romania, a Nato member state, has bought 7 US Patriot anti air batteries, 3.6 billion euro.. without the system of automatization of management. If war breaks out, hundreds of Patriots missiles will be launched against false air targets. Residential Parking Scheme Zone 3 End of Amnesty Period Following the launch of the Residential Parking Scheme (RPS) Zone 3 on 26th June 2018 and the scheme going live on 11th September 2018, Government are informing the public that the amnesty period which began on 11th September 2018 will conclude on Sunday 30th September 2018. As from 1st October 2018, vehicles without their RPS Zone 3 permit will be liable to be issued a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN). The implementation of designated residential parking zones aims to provide residents of the area with an improved chance of parking whilst still supporting the needs of visitors and commercial activity in those areas through part time parking that are evenly distributed throughout the Zone. The success of the RPS will rely on effective parking enforcement and will be regularly patrolled by Parking Management Officers (PMOs). The Residential Parking Scheme will also indirectly tackle the issue of derelict vehicles on the public highway in view of scheduled, regular street cleaning campaigns, which will result in better management of existing on-street parking stock. Residents within the defined zone, known as Zone 3, were invited to apply for permits as from the launch date (26th June 2018) and can still do so through the offices of Gibraltar Car Parks Ltd. Eligible applicants will need to provide proof of residence within the Zone, a valid MOT certificate (if applicable) and the Certificate of Vehicle Registration (Logbook), together with proof of identity. Further details and the application form is provided within an information booklet, which is available at Gibraltar Car Parks Ltd, situated at their offices at Unit 99, Harbours Walk, The New Harbours, Rosia Road. The information booklet and application forms are also available for download on the HM Government of Gibraltar website on: https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi Government are reminding the public that pockets of part time parking are available, which addresses the needs of visitor parking to the Zone. A supplementary sign below the standard Zone 3 sign stipulates part time parking hours, which is available for all to use. After the specified timings, these parking bays revert to Zone 3 residential parking. These Part Time parking locations can be found at: Rosia Road (along New Harbours) Rosia Road (along the Anchorage) Rosia Road (by Parsons Lodge/ Nelsons View) South Barrack Parade Rodgers Road (by St. Josephs Church) South Barrack Close South Barrack Road St. Bernards Road (by Mount Alvernia) Zone 3, similar to previously launched zones, will be regularly monitored to see how it performs. The intention of the RPS is to make the lives of residents easier with respect to increasing their chances of finding a parking closer to home while at the same time trying to accommodate visitors and commercial vehicles, who also need to access the same. The Gibraltar Fire & Rescue Service at the Emergency Services Show Mr Anthony Yusifredo, Chief Fire Officer (CFO) and two other officers recently attended the Emergency Services Show (ESS) in Birmingham, UK. The Emergency Services Show is the UKs leading annual showcase of the blue light sector, featuring over 450 exhibitors, live demonstrations, unique learning opportunities and unrivalled networking. The two-day event brings together all disciplines from the emergency services sector to discover innovative technology and operational solutions, share their experiences and unite in their approach to public safety. The fair exhibition zones are used by leading fire service vehicle manufacturers to showcase their range of appliances, specialist vehicles and cutting edge equipment. This year saw a substantial emphasis on aerial ladder platforms, owing to the high demands on the market. Angloco, the manufacture of the two new Gibraltar Fire and Rescue Service (GFRS) fire tenders under construction in the UK displayed one of these at their stand. High Life Photo: A24 After alls said and done, the New York Film Festival remains a wonderful beacon amid the madness of the fall festival and awards season. It has remained manageable in size. It hasnt tried to turn itself into a world premiere and Oscar-buzz showcase, though it certainly has its share of big-ticket premieres and glitzy titles. It still gives itself the luxury of being able to pick among the best films of the year from Cannes, Sundance, Venice, and Toronto no matter how obscure or challenging or divisive those films may be. As a result, the festival continues to be the kind of place where artists like Lee Chang-dong and Yorgos Lanthimos are treated as conquering heroes, not also-rans. Even as everything around the industry production, exhibition, distribution, reception has been changing, the NYFF has remained true to its roots and its mission. To put it another way: Its showing some amazing movies again, and here are some of the best that were looking forward to seeing (for the first time or again). The Ballad of Buster Scruggs The Coen Brothers latest project was assumed to be a limited series for Netflix, until showing up on the lineup for this years Venice Film Festival as a two-and-a-half-hour movie. The omnibus format is split into six separate frontier narratives, starting with the tale of the titular homicidal singing cowboy, and letting the body count pile from there. The first two chapters are as darkly hilarious as anything the Coens have produced, but things slide toward sleepiness and repetition as the second hour wears on. Will that stop a Coen Brothers film from being one of the hottest tickets at NYFF? Absolutely not. The Favourite Yorgos Lanthimos returns after a dark detour in last years The Killing of a Sacred Deer with perhaps the closest thing well ever get to mainstream from him. And yet The Favourite, with its wry, juicy script and top-notch leading trio, is still plenty weird in its depiction of the excesses and absurdities of the 18th-century court of Queen Anne. Olivia Colman, playing Her Majesty, won the award for best actress after the films world premiere at Venice, and shes the heart of the catty, cruel, and ultimately vulnerable love triangle that fuels Lanthimoss outrageous courtly war. Roma The word masterpiece started floating around as soon as Alfonso Cuarons opus started unspooling in Venice this year, and grew louder after its Toronto premiere days later. Roma arrives for its U.S. premiere at NYFF with a huge reputation preceding it, and New Yorkers may be surprised such an initially understated, patient film earned all those raves. But the film, which follows a young nanny working for an upper-middle-class Mexican family closely based on Cuarons own just grows and grows as it goes on, and contains some of the most technically ambitious and emotionally sweeping storytelling the director has ever attempted. While Netflix dillydallies over whether and how much of a theatrical release to give the film, make every effort possible to see this one on a big screen. Non-Fiction If theres one thing New York has a surplus of, its people in sweaters sitting around drinking and talking about the state of publishing. But what if they were French people in Paris, and what if one of them was Juliette Binoche as a CSI: Paristype TV actress? For non-French speakers out there, the overeducated ensemble of Olivier Assayass latest will challenge your subtitle speed reading, but its more than worth it for the soapy mishmash of intellects sleeping with each other and writing stories about sleeping with each other and talking about the viability of digital content. No film in 2018 will date itself as specifically as Non-Fiction, and theres a certain excitement to that. Long Days Journey Into Night Outsider Chinese director Bi Gans second feature was one of the more adventurous titles from this years Cannes lineup, and hopefully a New York audience will be more receptive to his hypnotic, noirish, absolutely unforgettable creation. The loose story follows a man searching for his lost love in his hometown, but it plays with dreams and the experience of watching movies at one point, the audience is invited to put on a pair of 3-D glasses, and is treated to a nearly hour-long take as our protagonist (Huang Jute) follows the object of his desire through the surreal nighttime landscape. If you find yourself nodding off during the film, take heart: thats kind of part of the experience. At Eternitys Gate Willem Dafoe won the best actor prize at the Venice Film Festival for his eerily accurate-feeling portrayal of Vincent van Gogh in Julian Schnabels dreamy artist biopic. I say accurate-feeling because its hard to know what to compare it to, but At Eternitys Gate feels like it captures the essence of an artist so renowned as to have become a cliche, and makes one appreciate the world and reality and mental pain he worked in and through when he was very much non-renowned. Even if especially if you think youve seen all the dreary biopics you think you need to see in your lifetime, this one will surprise you. Oscar Isaac shows up as Paul Gauguin, and Rupert Friend plays van Goghs loyal, loving brother Theo. Burning Burning had critics raving at Cannes for its timely, unsettling depiction of an intensely class-stratified modern-day Korea. Poetry director Lee Chang-dongs first film in eight years (and South Koreas official Oscar entry this year) is based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, and expands on its source material in almost every way, creating a quietly simmering love triangle/mystery that you watch almost dreading the moment it inevitably bubbles over. Steven Yeuns first Korean feature-film performance is as malevolently charming as you may have heard, and newcomer Jeon Jong-seo gives an unforgettably bruised and heartbreaking performance as the woman torn between him and aimless 20-something Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in). Shoplifters Hirokazu Kore-eda isnt straying too far from his usual (highly effective) territory in the family drama that finally won him the Palme dOr this year, but theres a little extra punch to Shoplifters that vaults it into his personal best and certainly one of the years best films. The story of a chaotic brood living in disastrous poverty in the suburbs of Tokyo is as much about the healing power of a family unit as its tenuousness and fallibility. Sakura Ando is heartbreaking as the matriarch, and it also features one of longtime Kore-eda muse Kirin Kikis final performances. This one has (happily) not been spoiled too widely online, so dont read up too much before heading to a screening. Cold War A Star Is Born may be getting all the buzz as far as tragic, music-fueled romances go this year, but dont sleep on Pawe Pawlikowskis stunning postwar love song, based loosely on the story of his parents. In particular, do not sleep on Joanna Kulig, who plays a young ingenue drafted into a nationalistic song-and-dance corps in the bleak postwar Polish countryside that soon falls into a torrid, impossible romance with its director (Tomasz Kot). Their love affair pulls them back and forth across the Iron Curtain, and the music swings from the stirring folk tunes of their homeland to the thrilling new world of Paris jazz, as they try to figure out where and when their love can work. Three Faces The fourth and most ambitious of director Jafar Panahis films since the Iranian government banned him from filmmaking and put him under house arrest a few years ago, this is also perhaps his most self-critical work. Structured almost like a mystery, the film follows Panahi and popular actress Behnaz Jafari (both playing themselves) as they travel to a remote Turkic village to investigate a mysterious video of a teenage girls suicide. But this isnt a whodunit: The real attraction here is the way their own relationship changes, and the ways that Panahi uses his status to avoid facing the complicated realities of life. Its fascinating: The government tried to stop Panahi from making movies; he has instead continued to make films that interrogate both his role as a filmmaker and the deep inequities of the society in which he lives. The Image Book Jean-Luc Godards impenetrably entertaining latest is effectively a montage that seeks to explore the way images subconsciously create meaning. Godard travels through film history finding footage of war, chaos, travel, water, you name it to catalogue how our minds are organized through the cultural products were presented with. Along the way, he also incorporates surveillance video from ISIS attacks, juxtaposing them alongside images of conflict from other movies (including his own), to show how even our understanding of terrorism and otherness is effectively an offshoot of our experiences with pop culture. And in a final section set in the Middle East, incorporating scenes and shots from lesser-known cinema of the Arab world and beyond, he suggests an alternative approach to changing our hearts and minds. Or at least, thats one way to read this wild, perplexing new film. If Beale Street Could Talk James Baldwins 1974 novel about a pair of young black lovers in Harlem whose lives are upended when he is falsely accused of rape and sent to prison has been adapted by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins into whats been billed as a gentle, time-hopping period piece with remarkable performances from KiKi Layne, Stephan James, and Regina King. Its certainly an ideal match between source material and director: With his work to date, Jenkins is quickly becoming contemporary American cinemas most exciting chronicler of romantic melancholy. The Wild Pear Tree Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylans sprawling tale of a young teacher and aspiring novelist trying to find his place in the world is the filmmakers funniest movie as well as one of his most personal works. Jumping between the protagonists small village and the city where he hopes to make a living, and alternating between lengthy (often hilarious) dialogues and lush, dreamy reveries, Ceylan tackles the question of how an artist should engage with his times a key question for a filmmaker whose own international profile has risen as his troubled countrys social and political problems have grown. The Other Side of the Wind Well, its here. Whether its the late Orson Welless final movie might be up for debate theres another one called The Deep that may yet see the light of day but this is certainly the one he poured his heart and soul into the last decade and a half of his life. At the time of the Citizen Kane directors death, it was left unedited and inaccessible thanks in part to an almost byzantine series of rights issues that involved not just Welless feuding heirs but also (no, really) the deposed government of Iran! so this is the kind of movie whose behind-the-scenes story might be more interesting than whats onscreen. Except that whats onscreen in this case is also fascinating: a mixed-media, shape-shifting, improvisational film-within-a-film mockumentary freak-out involving an aging directors desperate attempts to claw back to relevancy in a changing world. To get the full experience, also be sure to watch Morgan Nevilles Theyll Love Me When Im Dead, a dense and powerful documentary about the making of The Other Side of the Wind. Orson would have wanted it that way: Welles himself often talked about turning Wind into a documentary about its own making. High Life We havent seen it yet, but you had us at Claire Denis makes a space movie, and you really really had us at Juliette Binoche does sex experiments on Robert Pattinson. (Not to mention spaceship designed by Olafur Eliasson.) One of the most distinctive filmmakers of our time, Denis works in an impressionistic, organic style that values intimacy and mood over narrative and spectacle. So itll be interesting to see her take this approach into the world of melancholy sci-fi, and in her first English-language movie no less. Ash Is Purest White Jia Zhangke is back with another, era-spanning tale of modern China, again starring his wife Tao Zhao, with whom he collaborated so successfully in 2015s Mountains May Depart. This time, Tao stars as the lover of a small-town gangster, who fires a gun to defend him in 2001, goes to prison, and spends the ensuing decade destitute and searching for him in a China that is changing so quickly its barely recognizable from one day to the next. Tao is tense, desperate, and beyond compelling in the lead role, and Jia constructs some sublime sequences at various points in her journey, making visual poetry out of the loneliness and absurdity of the modern world. Happy As Lazzaro Alice Rohrwachers magic-realist tale of a friendship that spans decades won her the Cannes prize for Best Screenplay, and now the film has found a home on Netflix for a release later this fall. In the mid-1990s Italian countryside, Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo) is an angelic, supposedly slow-witted young servant working in illegal slavery for a tobacco baronesss villa. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with the bratty heir (Luca Chikovani), which is cut short but has an improbable second act in the present day. Rohrwachers direction is understated, with just a hint of mystical wonder floating over it. Her Smell A new film from local indie hero Alex Ross Perry is right at home at NYFF after its Toronto premiere; well just have to find a way to say the title without immediately grimacing. Elisabeth Moss gives whats been described as a scorching and often veering-into-total-unpleasantness performance as a Courtney Lovetype rock star. With her heyday passed, Beckeys substance abuse gets worse and worse, and her toxic persona infects everything around her. It may be an endurance test, but fans of Moss and Perrys alike will surely want to see what they cook up together after 2015s acidic Queen of Earth. Alyssa Milano attended Thursdays Senate Judiciary Hearing. Photo: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/Getty Images Contrary to initial reports that came out of Thursdays Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Alyssa Milano says her phone was not confiscated by security. Milano attended as a guest of Senator Dianne Feinstein, and live-tweeted from the hearing. P.S. I did not have my phone confiscated as proven by the fact that I didnt stop making social media posts, Milano wrote in the tweet. I did have my, believe woman sign confiscated though. And a policeman warned me about taking video on my phone. P.S. I did not have my phone confiscated as proven by the fact that I didnt stop making social media posts. I did have my, believe woman sign confiscated though. And a policeman warned me about taking video on my phone. Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 28, 2018 Milano told The Hollywood Reporter Friday morning that she wasnt there with a political agenda. I was there to support a survivor of sexual assault, she said. As a survivor, it literally is all of our worst nightmares come true. This is exactly the reason why we dont come forward, or we dont report. Because of the scrutiny. Because a mans word will always mean more than our word. And its disgusting. Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage Ariana Grande pulled out of Saturday Night Lives season 44 premiere this weekend because shes having a tough month. According to Us Weekly, Lorne Michaels told James Andrew Miller on his podcast Origins that Kanye West was tapped to replace Grande after she dropped out. We had Ariana drop out for emotional reasons two days ago, Michaels said on the episode released Thursday. Thats our premiere, and then Kanye West stepped up, and hell be there. So, the reach of the show and the number of people who will step forward is now somehow now, I think, probably at its peak. Kanye West will perform Saturday, and Adam Driver will host. After releasing her album Sweetener and getting engaged to SNL star Pete Davidson, Grandes ex-boyfriend Mac Miller died from an overdose. This week, shes shared melancholy messages on Twitter: Im so tired pls. ty for loving me sm i do not deserve it. Much like cocaine, money is one hell of a drug, and both of those things feature prominently in the trailers for Showtimes upcoming series Black Monday (originally titled Ball Street). Executive-produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the series chronicles the catalyzing events of the stock market crash of 1987, which lives on in infamy as the biggest crash in the history of Wall Street that ended up wrecking the American financial system. Don Cheadle, Regina Hall, and Andrew Rannells star in this catalogue of excess and Rannellss extremely convincing crazy-eyes face. You can watch the trio burn the American economy down across ten episodes starting in January of 2019. See the official first trailer above and the teaser below. Photo: CJ Rivera/Getty Images Turn off the tanning beds, fold up the T-shirts, and cancel the cabs, we have now entered a period of guido mourning. JWoww and Roger, whose relationship began and flourished during JWowws time on MTVs Jersey Shore, are getting a divorce. The Asbury Park Press is reporting that Jenni JWoww Farley has filed for a divorce from Roger Mathews, her husband of almost three years. Her filing cites irreconcilable differences and indicates the issues have been going on for at least six months, which fans of the couple may not be surprised by given Rogers Instagram posts from earlier this year. In one video from January, he talked about the difficulties of being alone with their two children for a month while Farley filmed Jersey Shore: Family Vacation in Miami. In the caption on the video he called the filming a mid life crisis and noted of their relationship, It isnt all cupcakes and unicorns. Farley is seeking joint custody of their kids, an equitable distribution of property, and child support. Seth Meyers on Late Night. Photo: NBC Yesterdays congressional hearings for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh forced all the late-night hosts to get serious. They offered their takes in hopes of shedding a little light and adding a little levity to an otherwise bleak situation. Heres how they handled topics like Kavanaughs taste for beer, Fords powerful opening statement, and the way Donald Trump handled the situation. In his segment A Closer Look, Seth Meyers took a deep dive into Trumps press conference, saying Trump taking hold of the situation is like if your computer froze and your grandpa was like Lemme see that thing! Meyers also dedicated some time to highlight Fords educated explanation for how memory works: She gave a detailed anatomy of the hippocampus and the memory setters in the brain to a room full of guys who look like they eat brains. The Daily Shows Trevor Noah called the hearings a sad Super Bowl. He slowed it down to address how Ford has sacrificed a lot to speak out on this, only to be called a political pawn. Which is unfair to her and also to pawns, he pivoted. People always act like pawns are the only pieces that get moved around the board, but you realize thats every piece. Today was the most divisive day in America since Laurel and Yanny, began Stephen Colbert. After noting Fords grace and strength, Colbert went in on Orrin Hatch, Lindsay Graham, and other Republicans responses. He fired off the second part of his monologue by responding to Kavanaughs remark that he fears for the future. Staring directly into the camera, Colbert solemnly said, #MeToo. Later in the episode, Colbert noted how the all-male Republican panel hired a female prosecutor in a skit where the men of the GOP Senate Judiciary Committee put on wigs and try to relate to Ford. After Senator Roger Keeler (played by writer Brian Stack) speaks, Scott Adsit as Senator John Whitemore begs, Is there any chance you might have the lady crazies? Jimmy Fallon kicked off by listing off a few judges we should be throwing into the ring: Lets get Judge Judy in there! Judge Joe Brown. Simon Cowell! After touching on Donald Trumps press conference and Robert Muellers trip to the Apple Store, Fallon switched to lighter news in a little segment called In Lighter News. Set to soft music and told in a roses are red scheme, the comedian listed off headlines like Gay penguins kidnap chick from straight parents at Denmark zoo. Its hard-hitting stuff. Jimmy Kimmel compared yesterdays depressing scene to NBCs This Is Us, saying that with the way people were crying in front of their TVs you wouldve thought Milo Ventimiglia got killed by a Crock-Pot. Like a few of the other hosts, Kimmel just couldnt get past Kavanaughs love for beer. He played a super-cut of every time the judge said the word beer, ending with a dubbed-in burp. I was so inspired and humbled by Dr. Fords testimony today, began James Corden. I felt that her bravery in the face of intimidation and abuse and bullying was truly remarkable. Corden was one of the many hosts to comment on Chairman Grassleys conduct during the hearing. The only speaking role he should have is doing the voice-over in a Werthers candy commercial, Corden said. Moving on. Photo: Vulture With a brand-new podcast network, a tour of live shows, and a hit show of their own, My Favorite Murder hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark are building a bona fide comedy true-crime empire. Thats no small feat, given all of the podcasts, books, and Netflix shows crowding up the true-crime genre and now theyve written a book, too. Stay Sexy & Dont Get Murdered is Kilgariff and Hardstarks dual memoir for all the non-Murderinos out there, the title doubles as the podcasts longtime catchphrase and it promises to explore never-before-heard stories ranging from their struggles with depression, eating disorders, and addiction. Between recent My Favorite Murder live shows, the duo answered our most pressing questions about themselves. Below, read on for their answers and an exclusive excerpt from Stay Sexy & Dont Get Murdered, ahead of its release in May 2019. Who would play you two in the movie adaption of this book? Kilgariff: Paul Giamatti. Hardstark: Shelley Duvall. If you could have a Mariah Carey-esque rider, what would be on it? Kilgariff: A Mariah Carey-sized pile of cocaine. What true-crime story would be best told as a musical? Both: We think the dual of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr would make a perfect musical. What regional food are you dying to try, but havent yet? Hardstark: The list is very long, but the fact that Cincinnati puts chili on spaghetti makes me so happy. What was your favorite Halloween costume as a child? Kilgariff: I was a pilgrim one year. I think I was just in it for the bonnet. Hardstark: An itchy, smelly, highly flammable, hand-me-down Cookie Monster suit. Above all else, what should people remember you by? Hardstark: My cats Instagram account. Kilgariff: Im the girl that drank all the Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers in 1986. Excerpt: Stay Sexy & Dont Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark William Jackson Harper as Chidi in The Good Place. Photo: NBC As its second season finale teased, The Good Place is going back to Earth in its third season, with Chidi and Eleanor meeting up in Australia after she watches a video of him giving a lecture on ethics. Thats all well and good, until you realize that Chidi is speaking English. With an American accent! Sure, William Jackson Harper spoke that way in the shows version of the afterlife in previous seasons, but as Chidi explained to Eleanor in the pilot, hes from Senegal and supposed to be speaking French thats automatically translated to her American ears. So, why doesnt he speak French on Earth? Or English with a Senegalese accent? In the shows season-three premiere, after speaking a bit of French to a colleague, Chidi explains things to Eleanor. I grew up in Senegal so my native language is French, but I went to American school so I also speak English, he says, and German, and Greek, and Latin, just in case it ever comes back. The Good Places creator Michael Schur previously talked to Rolling Stone about Chidis accent, explaining that they considered having him speaking French, or Wolof-accented English, or something else on Earth. In the read-through, when Eleanor watches his video, [William Jackson Harper] read the lecture in a sort of pan-African accented English, Schur said, and it was wonderful, and flawless. Like in a Meryl Streep doing a dialect kind of way. But then, Schur realized that Chidi spoke American-accented English in his flashbacks in previous seasons, and also that he didnt want to mess up Harper and Kristen Bells rapport. He and Kristen have such a specific chemistry and rhythm, I was afraid accented English would mess with it somehow, he said. There you have it: Chidi is very bad at decision-making, but apparently great at picking up accents. Tiffany Haddish. Photo: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images The comedy podcast universe is ever expanding, not unlike the universe universe. Were here to make it a bit smaller, a bit more manageable. There are a lot of great shows and each has a lot of great episodes, so we want to highlight the exceptional, the noteworthy. Each week our crack team of podcast enthusiasts and specialists and especially enthusiastic people will pick their favorites. We hope to have your ears permanently plugged with the best in aural comedy. The Bill Simmons Podcast - Tiffany Haddish Tom: There is no denying Bill Simmons is a skilled interviewer. Hes been able to have relaxed yet insightful conversations with world-class athletes, politicians, and some of the biggest names in Hollywood. This week, however, guest Tiffany Haddish turns the tables on Simmons. Much to the delight of the listener, the Girls Trip and Night School star has Simmons on his heels from the get-go. If youve ever wanted to hear the sound of someone blushing, download this episode right away. Simmons takes such a long pause after Haddish tells him what she learned about 13-year-old boys while working a Bar Mitzvah, I checked to see if I accidentally paused the podcast. From talking about who she finds to be the funniest person in the room were looking at you, Kevin Hart and Will Forte to why shed be happy to host the ESPYs, Haddish is great match for Simmons. Their conversation hits its peak when Haddish runs a new bit by Simmons that involves his wifes internet browser history and pornography. If none of that interests you, at least tune in to hear Haddish scold Simmons for not knowing his own credit score. Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website Doughboys - Benihana with DArcy Carden Anna: The Doughboys and guest DArcy Carden (The Good Place, Barry) initially label Benihana a place for special occasions, maybe dates, and definitely podcasts. Do they change their own minds? First, though, is a magical coincidence surrounding orecchiette. It would seem wizardry abounds, with actual moments of genuine gratitude and love from the Spoonman and (newly nicknamed) Morning Boy, but its all Carden. Quick with digs, her upbeat and supportive energy is a nice match for the hosts. The trio swears its totally fine to be a foodie, celebrates fall with a confusing soup-ranking system, and shares on-set snacking and nap secrets of the stars. We love naps, but were here for dinner and a show! Is it a spoiler to say its an overall enthusiastic review of Benihana and all of its garlic-butter glory? Only if youre not here for pointless arguments and deep dives into Mario characters. Cardens willingness to try anything lands her in the middle of the growing debate/criticism over Yusongs green-tea ice cream. Also, does she personally know Elviss preferred Benihana chef? Like a good meal, this episode ends with a treat: the reveal of this years Rockdoughberfest. Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend - Ralph Garman Doesnt Hold Grudges Anymore Pablo: While not as famous as KROQs other alumnus Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla, Kevin & Beans Ralph Garman has made a nice career for himself as a voice actor, host of the cult-classic reality show The Joe Schmo Show, and co-host of the Hollywood Babble-On podcast with Kevin Smith. Morning zoo radio personalities get a lot of well-deserved flak, but Garman elevated the show from the usual a.m. drudgery with his Swiss Army knife array of impressionist talents. I use the past tense because after 18 years, Garman was recently fired by KROQs new management and it was not a pretty exit. As he tells Alison Rosen who had her own unceremonious exit from Carollas podcast his longtime co-workers and namesakes of the show knew about the layoff but kept it a secret. Worst of all, Garman was not allowed to give specifics about his departure, which led to rumors that he was Me Tood! But after decades in show business, Garman now says hes trying to be a move on guy, instead of the young hothead who used resentment as fuel. Not having to be at work before the sun rises certainly helps with that new mind-set. Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website Dumb People Town - Greg Fitzsimmons - Show Me Whats the Truth Marc: I was surprised it took comedian Greg Fitzsimmons, host of Fitzdog Radio, this long to make his way into Dumb People Town, but it was worth the wait. After all, his sardonic slant on the stupidity of people has been popping up on his own podcast for years in segments like Overheard. So when he gets the chance to sink his teeth into the delicious dumbness of the trio of news bites in the latest installment, hes the perfect complement to hosts Jason and Randy Sklar and Daniel Van Kirk. From the very first story about a Florida (surprise!) couple that installed a drive-thru window on the side of their mobile home so that they could sell drugs more conveniently (Not only that, we can deliver! quips Fitz), through the tale of a man who put up an electric fence to keep the kids waiting at the nearby school bus stop from playing in his yard, and ending with a third story about a remedial robber who loses his gun and almost his pants, Fitzs well-placed zingers hit every time. He may not be one of the three mayors, but he clearly has the qualifications to be on the Dumb People Town council. Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website Suicide Buddies - Attempts tr3s! Mark: The excellence of Suicide Buddies dark comedy has already been well-documented here on Vulture, but the show also deserves credit for its lightest episodes. Enter the third installment in the hilarious Attempts series, a.k.a. Hamptons Mind-Blowers, where Dave Ross tries to blow co-host Hampton Younts mind with stories of those who lived through suicide attempts. Many of these survivors went on to do extraordinary things, like past mind-blowers Mike Wallace (wow), Oprah (woah!) and Princess Diana (WHAT?). Its basically Suicide Jeopardy! After a rare topical rant about Brett Kavanaugh and his recent drop-in at the Comedy Cellar, they dive right into the failed attempts. No spoilers, but stories about a certain game-show host, a spelunking country music legend, and a beloved member of the Fab Five are all here to blow minds. With the recent creation of a supportive community of Buddies on the cesspool of humanity known as Facebook, Suicide Buddies has gone well above and beyond its origins as a vehicle for highly specific Rage Against the Machine and Blink 182 riffs. Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website Yelling About Pate - Alt Milk w/ Kate Berlant Elizabeth: Dont listen to the first 20 minutes of the latest Yelling About Pate if youre hungry or if you cant eat gluten because you will want pizza. Hosts Joel Miller and Karl Hess take listeners on a tour of Los Angeles pizza hot spots before speaking out against mayo shaming and putting Ranch on blast as the quintessential white-person food. After inventing guacamayo, theyre joined by comedian and alternative-milk enthusiast Kate Berlant who comes in hot on Scottish food (completely inedible) and Michelin stars (total bullshit). Berlant talks about her struggle to find oat milk in Los Angeles and making her own nut milks at home. They break down the milk-making process and their most wanted kitchen appliances. They go through Berlants hot takes on shredded carrots, Prosecco, and juice, and she declares that she would rather die of thirst than get a Brita filter. L.A.-based listeners will come away with a list of restaurants to try and maybe even an urge to try oat milk. Maybe. Listen: Apple | Website The Breadcast - Lauren McGuire Kathryn: (Trigger warning: chewing sounds.) In the first of the three-part series The Breadcast, host Joe Saunders makes a zucchini spice bread recipe for guest Lauren McGuire (Wrecked, Comedy Bang Bang). Its a limited series expansion of the After Dough With Joe segment of the Doughboys podcast, available under the umbrella of their Patreon, because listeners have an insatiable appetite for Doughboys content. Saunders is an amateur baker the way the bakers on The Great British Baking Show are amateurs: still pretty good. Its not a gross-out, eat-this-trash-I-made podcast, its an I made a nice thing I want to share with a friend podcast, and Joe and Lauren chat casually about the Martha Stewart recipe, and whether or not to squeeze the water out of grated zucchini (the Martha Stewart recipe doesnt specify). As long as you dont mind hearing people chew on mic, youll have a pleasant half hour with The Breadcast. Its short and sweet and not too labor intensive as long as you already have all the ingredients (which, if youre a fan of Doughboys, you do). Listen: Website Other Podcasts Were Listening To: Black Men Cant Jump in Hollywood - The First Purge ft. Tosin Morohunfola Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website The Dumbbells - Weighing In (w/ Jon Gabrus and Ben Rodgers) Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website Entry Level With Brooks Wheelan - Matt Braunger Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website Origins - SNL / Goodbye Vacation; Hello Studio 8H Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website Bill Burrs Monday Morning Podcast 9-24-18 Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website We Hate Movies The Stepford Wives (2004) Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website Got a comedy podcast recommendation? Drop us a line at comedypodcasts@vulture.com. This weeks reviewers: Pablo Goldstein, Kathryn Doyle, Marc Hershon, Elizabeth Stamp, Mark Kramer, Tom Rainey, and Anna Marr. A new episode of Sarah Silvermans I Love You, America debuts on Hulu today, and we have a sneak peek revealing a very special guest appearance. The one and only Greek philosopher and Athenian coastal elite Socrates who happens to look a lot like Will Ferrell sits down with Silverman for a delightful lunch chat about democracy, informed versus uninformed voters, and politicians. Also, how delicious paninis are Socrates is really into paninis, it turns out: Its like Dionysus is in my mouth, and hes throwing a fucking flavor party! Check out the rest when todays episode premieres on Hulu at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET. Agents arrested twenty-four men in New Jersey accused of trying to lure children for sex on popular online apps and video games. All of the suspects joined games and apps with chat room features that allowed them to talk to their targets. Mother Emily Perry told WAAY 31 she monitors her son's online activity now, closer than ever before. Recently, her son had a scare while playing an online video game that allowed him to interact with other players. "He was playing Roblox and they kept asking, accept my request, accept my request, as in a friend request. So I accept the request and think it's just a normal age child like he is, and come to find out it's a woman. She was like, you can come to my house and play," said Perry. According to the Crimes Against Children Research Center, 1 in 5 U.S teenagers who regularly log onto the internet say they have received unwanted sexual solicitation via the web. Research from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows 75 percent of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services. Special agent with the FBI Scott Pierre deals with the worst of the worst child exploitation cases in our region. He said more than half of them typically begin with the predator making contact with a child online. "All the video game systems now have the ability to play online, and kids love to do that. My own kids love to do that themselves. They want to play against other kids, they want to compete against other kids. The issue is the same that we see with these social media apps; you don't always know who the other person is on the other game system," said FBI Special Agent, Scott Pierre. In Perry's case, she blocked the adult who tried to make contact with her child and no longer allows her son to play interactive video games, unless she is sitting right next to him. FBI agents told WAAY 31 you should not allow your children to play interactive video games unsupervised. They also reinforce that they should never accept an online friend request from someone they don't personally know. Experts also offer the following advice: -Keep the computer in a high-traffic area of your home. -Establish limits for which online sites children may visit and for how long. -Remember that Internet technology can be mobile, so make sure to monitor cell phones, gaming devices and laptops. -Surf the Internet with your children, and let them show you what they like to do online. -Know who is connecting with your children online and set rules for social networking, instant messaging, e-mailing, online gaming and using webcams. -Continually dialogue with your children about online safety. Montview Elementary School in Huntsville is getting an updated library, thanks to the generosity of a former student. Nearly four decades ago, James Stone attended Montview Elementary, and when he learned the school was celebrating its 50th anniversary, he wanted to do something special. He reached out to the school's principal, and they came up with a plan. The library would be remodeled and unofficially named after Stone's fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Barry, who he said had a huge impact on his life. Mrs. Barry, now retired, returned to the school for the unveiling of the new library, which received a fresh coat of paint, new floors and new furniture. "This is a gateway to lifelong learning. It is something I value. It's something that James Stone values. And the children that come through here for year, after year, after year are going to be the recipient of this wonderful opportunity," said former teacher, Meg Barry. Stone also gifted the school a broadcast booth, and he is in the process of creating an after school program. The principal told us Stone has donated around $40,000 for the projects and that the school district has contributed as well. As a scheduled committee vote on Judge Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court draws closer, senators representing those in the Tennessee Valley have started weighing in on their votes. By late Thursday night, three out of the four senators between Alabama and Tennessee announced their line of thinking regarding Kavanaugh. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in before testifying during the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in before testifying during the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander was the first to speak out on social media. Shortly before 6:30 p.m., he took to both Twitter and Facebook to declare that he will vote for Kavanaugh because of his 26 years of distinguished public service and his reputation as a superior jurist, lawyer and teacher. During her testimony on Thursday, Dr. Christie Blasey Ford reaffirmed her desire for a formal FBI investigation into her allegations against Kavanaugh. Two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, also expressed a desire for their claims against Kavanaugh to be investigated by the FBI. However, in his statement, Alexander echoes the sentiment of other Republican senators that a new FBI investigation is unnecessary. Judge Kavanaugh denies under oath Dr. Fords account of an alleged incident 36 years ago, Alexander said in a statement. The FBI has conducted six background investigations of Judge Kavanaugh since that alleged incident and found no such conduct. Every person Dr. Ford alleges was present at the incident says, under penalty of a felony, it didnt happen. Just over an hour later at 7:49 p.m., Tennessee Senator Bob Corker also weighed in stating on Twitter that he will plan to vote to confirm [Kavanaugh]. Corker noted that it took courage for Dr. Ford to appear before the committee on Thursday. However, he argued that While both individuals provided compelling testimony, nothing that has been presented corroborates the allegation. There is no question that Judge Kavanaugh is qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, and in a different political environment, he would be confirmed overwhelmingly, Corker said in a statement. Alabama Senator Doug Jones took the opposite stance. Just before 10 p.m., Jones took to Twitter stating that he will vote against Kavanaughs nomination. The Kavanaugh nomination process has been flawed from the beginning and incomplete at the end, Jones said. Dr. Ford was credible and courageous, and I am concerned about the message our vote will be sending our sons and daughters, as well as victims of sexual assault. I will be voting no. The ABC station in Birmingham, 33/40, received the following statement from Alabama Senator Richard Shelby: "I know this was a difficult day for Dr. Ford, Judge Kavanaugh, and their families. I appreciate Chairman Grassley giving both sides a fair chance to be heard. I watched the hearing today. I thought that Dr. Ford was credible, but I thought that Judge Kavanaugh came on very strong and was also very credible. WAAY 31 also reached out to Shelbys office to determine if Shelby has decided definitively how he will vote. We will update this story with his response. A vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled for Friday morning. The World Customs Organization (WCO) organized a Customs Risk Analysis and Profiling Workshop from 17 to 21 September 2018 in Astana, Kazakhstan, with financial support from the Customs Cooperation Fund of China (CCF/China). The Workshop was attended by 24 Customs officials at headquarters and field level. Mr. Talgat Mamaev, Director of the Department of Analysis, Statistics and Risk Management, and Mr. Serik Biyekenov, Deputy Head of the Training Methodological Center, attended the opening session together with the WCO facilitator. During their opening remarks, they highlighted the importance of adopting a holistic approach to risk management implementation. The relationship between risk-based selectivity and effective resource allocation, facilitation and control was also underlined. Throughout the Workshop, several topics relating to organizational and operational aspects of risk management were covered, including risk-based cargo selectivity and targeting. Most of the sessions were followed by practical exercises and case studies in groups. Over the course of this five-day Workshop, participants discussed how to identify and address risks as well as how to develop an effective profile using the methodology described in the WCO Customs Risk Management Compendium. Case studies and practical exercises also contributed to greater understanding of the various topics. Additionally, participants considered ways of improving the State Revenue Committees existing profile development and review processes. If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit : , 1 3 . , , , . : - , 1 . ? : 1 3 . 80- . 20- 1992 . . . , . , . 18 . 18.30 . , . (). : . ? ... : , , , , - , , . , . . - , , . , , , .. .. , . 20:30 . , , . . : ? : - , , . , , . - , , .., , , . - . 15 , . , . 17 . , . 21 , , - . . , 10 , , . - , , . , , . . : " "? : . , . , - , , , . 2004 , , - , - . : , ? : . , - , - , . 9 000 , 400. , , . , - . , , . , 2006 - . , . 12 . . - . , , , .. , , . , 10-12 15 , - . : , , , ? : , , , , . , - , . , , , 1 , . : ? , ? ... : , . , - , , . , , , , , , - . : ? : , , , . - . , , , , , , , .., . , , , . , , , , . : - , -? : . , - . - . - . : . : - . Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. Advertisement By Bill Hughes Sep. 27, 2018 | PADUCAH By Bill Hughes Sep. 27, 2018 | 07:03 PM | PADUCAH McCracken County was awarded Thursday afternoon for its economic impact to the region through tourism. Hank Phillips, CEO and President of the Kentucky Travel Industry Association, presented the "Kentucky Economic Engine" award to Mary Hammond, Executive Director of the Paducah Convention and Visitors Bureau. The presentation was made at the meeting of the Kentucky Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue, which was held at the Paducah campus of Murray State University. In Kentucky, travel and tourism is a $15 billion industry that provides over 196,000 jobs. Phillips said the award is given to counties where tourism is an economic driver that impacts the state in one of two ways. Phillips said, "With McCracken County having over a $367 million economic impact from tourism, and 3,000 jobs in this county alone supported by tourism, McCracken County has the distinction of having earned its award on the basis of both criteria, not just one." Hammond accepted the award on behalf of the entire community, from legislators and local officials to tourism advocates to dedicated workers who "roll their sleeves up every day," providing services to visitors. Hammond told legislators and others at the meeting, "Culture is the oxygen of cities. What does that has to do with tourism? What we're selling is who we are. That's why people come to Kentucky - we're not Disney World - they come here because we have the character of Kentucky. Our identity as Kentuckians is what I sell in tourism." Rep. Steven Rudy, who chaired the meeting, encouraged everyone to sample Barbecue on the River before they leave town, and to find time to spend at a few days exploring Paducah sometime soon. Paducah Mayor Brandi Harless and MSU Interim President Bob Jackson spoke briefly at the meeting, which was also attended by Rep. Richard Heath, Senator Danny Carroll and Senator Stan Humphries. By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 27, 2018 | 06:20 PM | PADUCAH Paducah police are investigating several reported thefts from vehicles, and also the theft of a vehicle from Paducahs west end overnight Tuesday.A resident of Hillgate Road reported someone broke into his vehicle and took a Glock .380-caliber handgun from the glove compartment. The man said the vehicle was locked, and there was damage where the glove compartment was forced open.Several blocks away, on Country Club Lane, a man reported a 2012 Acura MDX, valued at more than $10,000, was stolen from his driveway. He said he believed the vehicle was locked.In Lone Oak, a Seminole Drive resident reported someone entered his unlocked vehicle and took a Ruger pistol and his wallet from the console.Officers said crimes of this nature generally are crimes of opportunity, and vehicles left unlocked or with items in plain view are easy targets. Residents are reminded to be vigilant, to lock their vehicles and secure firearms and other valuable items.Any nearby residents with security cameras are asked to check footage from overnight Tuesday, and report any suspicious activity.Anyone with information is asked to call the Paducah Police Department at (270)-444-8550. Information also may be provided anonymously through West Kentucky Crime Stoppers by texting WKY and your tip to 847411 (tip 411) or by downloading the app WKY Crime Stoppers from the Apple Store or Google Play. Tipsters also may access the online tip form through the City of Paducah website at http://paducahky.gov/west-ky-crime-stoppers.Information leading to an arrest or indictment may result in a reward of up to $1,000. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 27, 2018 | MURRAY By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 27, 2018 | 10:38 AM | MURRAY Update: According to The Murray Ledger and Times, Calloway County Coroner Ricky Garland said a preliminary autopsy examination on the body of a Murray man, believed to have been the victim of a homicide, was performed Thursday. Garland said the examination of 56-year-old Jimmie Craig Taylor, of Murray, shows that he died as the result of a single gunshot wound to the head. Taylor was found deceased Wednesday evening under a mobile home east of Murray, on Heather Lane. Charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence in the case is 54-year-old Tammy A. Allen, of Murray. She was arrested Wednesday night in Jackson, Tennessee. Calloway County Sheriff Sam Steger said he hopes Allen will be returned to Kentucky either late Thursday or on Friday. He said earlier Thursday afternoon that Allen was extended an opportunity to waive extradition from Tennessee, which, if she accepts, would probably mean she would be escorted by Calloway County Sheriffs Office investigators, who have been in Jackson since Wednesday evening. ORIGINAL STORY: A Murray woman has been charged with murder, after the body of a man was found Wednesday at a Calloway County home. The Calloway County Sheriff's Office told KFVS 12 that 54-year-old Tammy Allen of Murray was arrested on murder and tampering with evidence charges Wednesday night in Jackson, TN after the body of 56-year-old Jimmie Craig Taylor, also of Murray was found at a home on Heather Lane. Police have not released Taylors cause of death. An autopsy has been scheduled at the Kentucky State Medical Examiners Office in Madisonville. Police said their investigation into the death is ongoing. Supreme Court of Appeal rules social grants must be protected CALS and Black Sash note SCA ruling that it is up to government to protect social grants from predatory marketing practices and unlawful deductions The Centre for Applied Legal Studies and the Black Sash Trust note yesterdays judgment in the Supreme Court of Appeal concerning deductions made from social grants. The Court has ruled that it is up to government to draft legislation that protects social grants from predatory marketing practices and unlawful deductions. Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Appeal handed down judgment in an appeal brought by SASSA against Net1 and its affiliate companies Money Line, Manje Mobile, FinBond and SmartLife. The matter concerns the interpretation of regulations aimed at limiting deductions from social grants and appeals an earlier decision of the High Court. CALS, on behalf of the Black Sash Trust and six individuals, sought to intervene to highlight the impact of unauthorised debit orders on grant beneficiaries and emphasise the states duty to protect social security rights. In May 2017, the High Court ruled that the regulations developed by SASSA in response to concerns over unauthorised deductions from grants did not prohibit debit orders from beneficiaries bank accounts and dismissed our application to intervene in the matter. This judgment was taken on appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal, which heard the matter on 16 August 2018. Yesterdays judgment emphasises the South African Post Office new Special Disbursement Account (gold card), as the SASSA payment method, does not allow for debit and stop orders, which is one mechanism to stop predatory deductions. The ruling also grants our application to intervene and acknowledges the importance of having legislation in place that does sufficiently protect social grant beneficiaries against unscrupulous vendors and corrupt activities by employees of service providers. The judgment concludes that what is urgently needed is legislation that provides clearly defined, enforceable protective measures to ensure that social grants are not unlawfully depleted. The judgment has sent a clear message that social grant beneficiaries must be protected from abuse and exploitation, says Wandisa Phama, Acting Deputy Director at CALS. In granting our application, the Court has also acknowledged the importance of giving beneficiaries of the social assistance programme a voice in the regulations that govern it. We receive thousands of complaints that corporate entities have unjustifiably depleted the social grants of beneficiaries, says Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker, National Advocacy Manager of Black Sash. These are not isolated incidents, but endemic across South Africa, affecting millions of beneficiaries. These practices need to be stopped by effective regulations and oversight as the Court suggests. Read the full judgment here. For inquiries, please contact: From CALS Wandisa Phama, Acting Deputy Director, on 065 639 1664 / 011 717 8608 or at wandisa.phama@wits.ac.za From Black Sash China issued a rebuke to the United States on Friday, decrying protectionism and unilateral trade moves that "bring damage to all" in a wide-ranging challenge to President Donald Trump as tensions between the two countries continue to rise. Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly two days after Trump accused Beijing of election interference and a week after his administration announced new tariffs that mean roughly half the products China sells to the US will now be penalized, Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared that China "will not be blackmailed or yield to pressure." Asia Beijing Business, economy and trade China Continents and regions Donald Trump East Asia Economic policy Economy and economic indicators Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government organizations - Intl International relations International relations and national security International trade International trade law North America North Korea North Korea nuclear development Political Figures - Intl Political Figures - US Protectionism Tariffs and customs The Americas Trade and development Trade regulation and policy United Nations United States US federal government Wang Yi White House "International trade is complementary and win-win by nature," Wang said. "It should not be a zero-sum game in which one gains at the expense of others, and no one should be allowed to place its own interest above the interest of others. Protectionism will only hurt oneself, and unilateral moves will bring damage to all." Wang did not mention the US during his remarks on trade, but said Beijing wants "a proper settlement based on rules and consensus through dialogue and consultation on an equal footing." He framed China's approach as a defense of the broader free trade system against unilateral and destructive steps by others. "China has taken steps not just to defend its own legitimate rights and interests," Wang said. "China is also acting to uphold the free trade system and international rules and order for the benefit of global recovery and the common interests of all countries." Wang spoke after Trump this week accused Beijing of election interference meant to hurt him personally because of his stance on trade and a little more than a week after the Trump administration sharply escalated America's trade war with China. "They do not want me, or us, to win because I am the first President ever to challenge China on trade," Trump said on Wednesday. The US imposed a 10% tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, starting on Monday. The levy will increase to 25% at the end of the year. The additional tariffs are on top of penalties enacted earlier this year on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. Taken together, it means roughly half of the products that China sells to the United States each year will be hit by American tariffs. Trump has also threatened to launch a third round of tariffs on $267 billion in goods on Beijing. "I have great respect and affection for my friend, President Xi Jinping", Trump told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. "But I have made clear our trade imbalance is just not acceptable. China's market distortions and the way they deal cannot be tolerated." Defense Secretary James Mattis, asked about the recent tensions with Beijing at the Pentagon on Wednesday, said "we're sorting out obviously a period with some tension there, trade tension and all, so we'll get to the bottom of it. But I don't think that we're seeing a fundamental shift in anything; we're just going through one of those periodic points where we got to learn to manage our differences." Those differences include some military tension. The day before Wang spoke, China had criticized the US for flying B-52 bombers in the vicinity of the South China Sea, calling it "provocative" and demanding that the US take steps to improve military relations amid heightened tensions between the two countries. The Chinese foreign minister's remarks on trade were part of a broader criticism of US policies under Trump and seemed designed to present China as a global leader on issues that the US President didn't address in his own remarks to the UN: climate change, cyber threats, sustainable development and the importance of multilateralism, an approach US officials explicitly questioned. "What we see today is that international rules and multilateral mechanisms are under attack, and the international landscape is filled with uncertainties and destabilizing factors," Wang said. "Should we stay committed to multilateralism or let unilateralism have its way," he asked, adding, "China's answer is clear-cut. All along, China has upheld the international order and pursued multilateralism." Wang touched on several global challenges that Trump didn't mention in his address to the UN, including cyber and outer space. Wang also directly addressed specific US policies, including its approach to North Korea and Iran. The Chinese foreign minister called for the US to make more concessions to North Korea instead of insisting that the world join the US in maintaining intense economic pressure on Pyongyang through sanctions. "We believe it is also right for the US to make timely and positive responses so as to truly meet the DPRK half way," Wang said. The day before, in a UN meeting on the Korean peninsula, he called for the US to formally end the war with North Korea and declare peace. And he called for continued implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from in May. The US is now engaged in an effort to drastically ratchet up pressure on Iran in what US officials say is an attempt to change Tehran's behavior. "If the agreement fails to be implemented, the international non-proliferation regime will be undermined, the authority and role of the Security Council challenged, and peace and stability in both this region and the wider world jeopardized," Wang said. "That is a scenario in which no one stands to gain." "State-to-state relations should be based on credibility, not willful revocation of commitments," Wang said. "International cooperation should be guided by rules, not impulse." He added that what "we need to do is to replace confrontation with cooperation and coercion with consultation." SMITHFIELD An Oneida man was killed in a one-car crash in Madison County on Thursday, according to New York State Police. Police say 18-year-old Miller Wade was driving a 2009 Toyota Yaris northbound on Buyea Road in the town of Smithfield when the vehicle left the road from the east shoulder, stuck an embankment and became airborne. The car then struck a tree and came to a rest in a ravine. The back-seat passenger, 23-year-old Trevor Rice of Oneida, was pronounced dead at the scene. Wade was airlifted to SUNY Upstate Medical University with severe head trauma and he is listed in critical condition. A front-seat passenger, 23-year-old Brett Moyer of Oneida, was extricated from the vehicle and taken to Upstate Medical University with non-life-threatening injuries. Police say the investigation is continuing. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh (all times local): 5:05 p.m. President Donald Trump is directing the FBI to launch a supplemental investigation into his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Trump says in a statement that the updated investigation, which comes in response to sexual misconduct allegations, "must be limited in scope" and "completed in less than one week." The decision marks a reversal for the administration, which had argued that Kavanaugh had already been vetted. Kavanaugh has adamantly denied the allegations. Senate Republican leaders agreed Friday to delay a final vote on Kavanaugh to allow time for an investigation by the FBI at the request of Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake. Kavanaugh says he's done "everything" the Senate has asked of him and "will continue to cooperate." __ 5 p.m. Judge Brett Kavanaugh says in a statement released by the White House that he "will continue to cooperate" after senators asked President Donald Trump to open a supplemental background investigation of the embattled Supreme Court nominee. Kavanaugh says he's been interviewed by the FBI during his confirmation process and conducted "background" calls with the Senate. He says he answered questions under oath Thursday "about every topic the Senators and their counsel asked me." Kavanaugh says, "I've done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate." Trump is ordering the new FBI probe of Kavanaugh, saying it must be "limited in scope" and last no longer than a week. __ 4:40 p.m. Two Republican senators who could be the deciding votes on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are endorsing a FBI background investigation into the sexual misconduct accusations against him. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told reporters they support a deal reached among senators to delay a vote on Kavanaugh. Collins says the deal "is an important development and I believe it will let us go forward." Murkowski says she wants to make sure senators "do our due diligence." President Donald Trump will have to ask the FBI for the investigation into Kavanaugh. The Senate Judiciary Committee said the probe should be limited to "current credible allegations against the nominee" and be finished by Oct. 5. Kavanaugh denies the allegations. Both Collins and Murkowski are undecided on whether to vote for Kavanaugh. __ 4 p.m. The Senate Judiciary Committee says it will ask President Donald Trump to open a supplemental background investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. In a statement, the committee says it will ask that the FBI's probe be limited to "current credible allegations against the nominee." It also says that investigation should be completed no later than Oct. 5. Democrats for days have been demanding an FBI investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh, but Republicans had refused to seek one. That changed Friday when Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona said a background investigation should be conducted before a final Senate vote on the nominee. Only Trump can order the FBI to reopen the investigation. __ 3:50 p.m. Senate Republican leaders have agreed to delay a final vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to allow time for an investigation by the FBI of the sexual misconduct allegations against him. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican, says, "There's going to be a supplemental background investigation," which would delay a vote "no later than one week." Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called earlier Friday for the FBI to investigate the sexual misconduct claims against Kavanaugh. He said the process should not take longer than a week. After Flake made that call, the Judiciary Committee sent Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate in an 11-10 vote. __ 3:15 p.m. A high school friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that will "confidentially investigate" sexual misconduct allegations against him and Kavanaugh. Mark Judge sent a signed letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, saying he "categorically" denies sexual misconduct allegations made by Julie Swetnick. In a sworn statement released Wednesday, Swetnick accused Kavanaugh and Judge of excessive drinking and inappropriate treatment of women in the early 1980s, among other accusations. Judge says in his letter that he doesn't know Swetnick and does not recall any parties in the early 1980s where he "fondled or grabbed women in an aggressive or unwanted manner." He says Swetnick's allegations are "so bizarre" and he "would remember actions so outlandish." __ 3:10 p.m. One of the few Senate Democrats who remains undecided on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court is backing calls for an FBI investigation of sexual misconduct claims against the nominee. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said senators need to slow down on confirming Kavanaugh so the investigation can be conducted. The probe should happen, in his words, "so that our country can have confidence in the outcome of this vote." He applauded the "courage" of Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, who on Friday urged a delay of up to one week on Kavanaugh's nomination to allow time for the FBI investigation. Manchin is facing a tough re-election race this year in West Virginia, a state President Donald Trump won handily in the 2016 election. __ 2:50 p.m. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is meeting with Republicans senators in his office to discuss the next steps on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate Friday afternoon. GOP senators from the panel dashed to McConnell's office immediately after the vote. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a member of the committee, has called for the FBI to investigate the sexual misconduct claims against Kavanaugh. Asked what he hoped to accomplish, Flake replied: "A better process." Flake wants a delay of up to a week. The decision rests with Republican leaders. Entering McConnell's office, Sen. John Kennedy called the developments a "grotesque carnival." Kavanaugh denies the charges. __ 2:35 p.m. President Donald Trump says he found Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school, "a very credible witness." Trump told reporters Friday at the White House that he thought Ford's testimony Thursday to the Senate Judiciary Committee "was very compelling" and that "she looks like a very fine woman, very fine woman." But Trump also says he though Kavanaugh's adamant denial "really something that I hadn't seen before. It was incredible." Trump called it "an incredible moment I think in the history of our country." The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Friday to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor - but Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said the full Senate vote should be delayed for a week. __ 2:25 p.m. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says it's going to fall to him to lay out to President Donald Trump why Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation vote has been delayed. He spoke after Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said he would vote to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate only if the final confirmation vote is delayed for an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations. Christine Blasey Ford says Kavanaugh attacked her in a locked room at a high school house party. Kavanaugh denies that. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Friday to advance the nomination to the full Senate, but Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley noted the timing on Senate vote was up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Graham, of South Carolina, is a Trump ally who is on the panel. Graham told reporters after the committee vote that somebody is going to have to explain the delay to Trump. Graham added: "I guess that'll be my job." __ 2:18 p.m. President Donald Trump says he'll leave it to the Senate to determine when it will vote on his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But Trump is expressing optimism, saying: "I'm sure it will all be very good." Trump told reporters Friday during a meeting with the President of Chile that undecided Republican senators "have to do what they think is right" and "be comfortable with themselves" on the Kavanaugh vote. But he said he hadn't thought at all about a replacement, "Not even a little bit." The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Friday along party lines to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor. But Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona said at the last minute that he could not promise to vote for Kavanaugh on the Senate floor and called for a delay of up to a week for a further investigation of sexual assault accusations. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations. __ 2:10 p.m. Sen Jeff Flake says Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination should on hold so the FBI can investigate the sexual misconduct allegations against him. Flake, the deciding vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to a full floor vote, but said the vote should be delayed for up to a week to allow time for the investigation of Christine Blasey Ford's claims. Ford says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school. Kavanaugh has denied Ford's accusation. __ 2 p.m. The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted along party lines to advance Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination to the Senate floor. The 11-10 vote Friday came just one day after Republicans heard testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teens. Kavanaugh denied the accusation. At the last minute, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, said he could not promise to vote for Kavanaugh on the Senate floor and called for a delay of up to a week for a further investigation. Republicans voted to move ahead with Kavanaugh's nomination. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley noted the timing on Senate vote was up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. __ 1:40 p.m. The Senate Judiciary Committee was supposed to be voting at 1:30 p.m. Friday on whether to recommend Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, but something is afoot. Behind-the-scenes negotiations have delayed the committee vote on Kavanaugh's nomination. It wasn't clear what was being discussed. Republicans believed they had to votes to advance Kavanaugh out of the committee when Sen. Jeff Flake announced his support earlier Friday. But senators seated in the hearing room are talking among themselves -- and Flake is not seated. Some senators have stepped out of the room. __ 1:10 p.m. Senate Republicans do not yet have the votes to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. That's according to Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking member of Republican leadership. Thune said that Republicans still have "a little work to do" to get enough support. Whether Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court could hinge on the votes of two Republican senators: Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. It does not appear that President Donald Trump or the White House is reaching out to them to try and influence their decision. Thune said while such calls may be well-intended, "it's better to let people decide on their own up here." Republicans have set a committee vote for Friday afternoon to send Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate. __ 1:10 p.m. Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota says "there are a lot of lawyers in America who can sit on the court" and Brett Kavanaugh isn't the only person who can do the job. Heitkamp said Friday she hasn't decided whether to support Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court. But her remarks to the AP suggest she may vote no. Heitkamp is facing a tough re-election this year in a Republican-leaning state. Her decision on Kavanaugh is being closely watched. She said she found testimony from both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of sexual assault, "compelling" but "this is not a criminal case." Heitkamp says appointees "don't all have to come from Harvard and Yale and they don't all have to come from prep schools __ 12:40 p.m. Montana Sen. Jon Tester says he will join other Democrats in voting against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Tester is up for re-election this year in his deeply Republican home state. But he said he has concerns about Kavanaugh's positions on privacy issues, campaign finance and about a California professor's claim that he sexually assaulted her when both were teenagers. Kavanaugh denied Christine Blasey Ford's allegations in a hearing Thursday. Tester said he has requested a meeting with Kavanaugh "numerous times" but the White House wouldn't commit. The Montana senator said his office had received "thousands of calls and emails from Montanans" about Kavanaugh, a majority of which were opposed to his confirmation. ___ 12:30 p.m. The dean of Yale Law School is calling for additional investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate votes on his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Dean Heather Gerken said in statement Friday that she agrees with the American Bar Association that more investigation is needed. Gerken said proceeding with the confirmation process without more review is not in the best interest of the Supreme Court or the legal profession. Kavanaugh received his undergraduate and law degrees from Yale. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination Friday afternoon. A vote in favor will send the nomination to the full Senate. Kavanaugh denies allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he assaulted her when they were in high school. Kavanaugh says he's never sexually assaulted anyone. ___ 11:50 a.m. Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly says he'll vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Donnelly is a moderate Democrat who voted for President Donald Trump's first nominee to the high court, Neil Gorsuch (GOR'-suhch). Donnelly is up for re-election this year in Indiana, which is a strongly Republican state. His decision comes after a hearing Thursday when a California professor testified that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh also testified and denied Christine Blasey Ford's allegations. Donnelly says Ford's allegations are "disturbing and credible" and should be investigated by the FBI, which Trump and Senate Republicans say isn't needed. ___ 11:45 a.m. Anita Hill says one of the things that stood out to her from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's testimony was how emotional and angry it was compared with the "calm" words coming from the woman accusing him of sexual assault when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh denies the accusation. Hill gave Senate testimony in 1991 about her allegations of sexual harassment by then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Hill - speaking Friday in Houston - says Kavanaugh "was able to express a real anger, an aggression, as well as a lot of emotion." She said no woman nomination to the high court "would ever have the license to express (herself) in that way." Hill says she was impressed with the calm and careful testimony of Kavanaugh's accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. ___ 11:40 a.m. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas says it is "cruel" and "indecent" for Democrats to seek public testimony from Mark Judge, a high school friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Judge has told the committee in a signed statement that he doesn't recall the events described by Christine Blasey (BLAH'-zee) Ford. She accuses Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teens. Kavanaugh denies the accusation. Ford has told senators that Judge was in the room during the alleged assault. Democrats have asked for the committee to subpoena Judge, but Republicans have voted down the request. Cornyn says Judge admits to being a recovering alcoholic and is a cancer survivor. Cornyn says Democrats are ignoring that and seeking to "drag Mr. Judge into this circus-like atmosphere" and subject his battles with addition to public ridicule. In Cornyn's words: "That is cruel. That is reckless. That is indecent." ___ 11:10 a.m. CNN cameras caught an extraordinary scene of Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake being confronted by two protesters as he waited in an elevator to take him to the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting. Moments earlier, Flake had announced he'd vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Flake stood looking downcast as one of the women said to Flake: "Tell me, I'm standing right here in front of you, do you think he's telling the truth to the country?" The senator listened for nearly two minutes until the elevator door closed. He told the women he had put out a statement and would have more to say before the committee. CNN's Jim Scutto said: "I don't think we've witnessed a moment like that in recent memory." ___ 10:50 a.m. "Feels like Alice in Wonderland." That's what a top Democrat says about the Senate Judiciary Committee in moving forward with Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Vermont's Patrick Leahy is denouncing the way that majority Republicans have handled Kavanaugh's nomination. Leahy says the committee has lost its independence and become, in his words, "an arm, and a very weak arm, of the Trump White House." The committee has set a vote for later Friday on whether to recommend the nomination to the full Senate. Leahy says Kavanaugh has been "credibly accused of sexual assault" and the committee has failed to conduct a meaningful investigation. Christine Blasey Ford testified Thursday that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens. Kavanaugh says the accusation is "categorically" false. ___ 10:30 a.m. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (FYN'-styn) says the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh is "a real test" for the Senate and the nation "to see how we treat women, especially women who are survivors of sexual assault." The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee says that 27 years after the Clarence Thomas hearings, Republicans appear to have a new strategy for handling sexual assault allegations. She says, "The Republican strategy is no longer 'attack the victim.' It is to ignore the victim." Feinstein says she's disappointed the committee is set to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination less than a day after emotional testimony by Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accuses Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when both were teenagers. He denies the allegation. ___ 10:25 a.m. The wife of Justice Clarence Thomas is praising Sen. Lindsey Graham for his criticism of Senate Democrats for their treatment of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Ginni Thomas says on her Facebook page "Thank you, Senator Graham, for speaking for so many of us!" Thomas included a link to video from Graham's fiery comments Thursday when he called the Democrats' actions the "most despicable thing" he has seen in politics. The link says Graham "exposes Democrat Kavanaugh sham." Ginni Thomas is a conservative activist who once worked for congressional Republicans. She made headlines in 2010 when she called Anita Hill and asked Hill to apologize for making sexual harassment allegations about Clarence Thomas after he had been nominated to the Supreme Court. ___ 10:15 a.m. Several Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have walked out of a hearing on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Kamala Harris of California, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island left after the GOP chairman set a vote on the nomination for 1:30 p.m. Friday. That was approved by a committee vote. Democrats say Republicans are rushing the confirmation. During that vote, Hirono yelled: "''I strongly object! What a railroad job! No, no, NO." ___ 10:05 a.m. Republicans have blocked Democratic efforts to subpoena a high school friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh who's been described as a witness to an alleged assault involving Kavanaugh about three decades ago. The Senate Judiciary Committee's vote to subpoena Mark Judge has been defeated in a party-line vote, with all 11 Republicans on the panel voting against the motion and all 10 Democrats voting for it. Democrats say Judge has never been interviewed by the FBI or questioned by a member of the committee, and that committee has a responsibility to subpoena Judge before it votes on whether to recommend Kavanaugh to the full Senate. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. The committee chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, has read a statement from Judge that says he doesn't recall the events described by Kavanaugh's accuser and "never saw Brett act" in the way that he's accused of. ___ 10 a.m. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote at 1:30 p.m. on whether to recommend Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate. The chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, announced the vote as the committee began its meeting. Kavanaugh has just picked up a key vote of support from a committee Republican, Arizona's Jeff Flake. Republicans have slim 11-10 majority on the committee. With Flake's support, Kavanaugh's nomination is expected to clear the committee and go to the full Senate. The Senate could begin taking procedural votes over the weekend ahead of a final confirmation vote early next week. ___ 9:55 a.m. Emotions in the Capitol are running high over the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. Soon after Republican Sen. Jeff Flake announced he'd vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, he was cornered by two women as he got into an elevator to head to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Through tears, the women implored him to change his mind about his Kavanaugh vote. The women were seen in TV footage blocking the Arizona senator from closing the elevator door. One woman begged Flake to look him in the eye. She said: "Look at me and tell me that it doesn't matter what happened to me." Another woman said Flake was allowing someone who "violated someone" to serve on the Supreme Court. Both women cried as they spoke to him. Eventually a member of Flake's staff said they needed to go and the doors closed. A committee confirmation vote is set for 1:30 p.m. Kavanaugh has denied that he sexually assaulted a woman when they were teenagers. The committee on Thursday heard emotional and sometimes combative testimony from both Kavanaugh and his accuser. ___ 9:40 a.m. It'll be a "yes" vote on Brett Kavanaugh from one of the most closely watched Republican senators who's determining the fate of the Supreme Court nominee. The announcement from Arizona's Jeff Flake that he'll vote to confirm Kavanaugh virtually ensures that the nomination will advance to the full Senate from the Judiciary Committee. The committee is expected to vote Friday - and if the nomination advances to the full Senate, then senators could begin voting as early as Saturday. Flake says he wishes he could express the confidence in Kavanaugh that some of his other GOP colleagues have. But Flakes says in a statement he still has "much doubt" after the committee's explosive hearing Thursday. Kavanaugh has denied Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that he sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. Flake says that without evidence to corroborate Ford's story, he believes "our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence." ___ 9:10 a.m. A Democratic senator who's facing a tough re-election race has come out against President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Bill Nelson of Florida tweets that he'll vote "no" if the nomination comes to the full Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on Kavanaugh on Friday. Nelson's decision comes a day after Kavanaugh told the committee that he didn't sexually assault a woman when they were teenagers. The accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, says she's "100 percent" certain that he did. Nelson hadn't taken a public position on the nomination before his announcement Friday. Nelson had never met with Kavanaugh even though his office said they tried several times to schedule a meeting. The senator is in a tight re-election race with Florida's Republican governor, Rick Scott, who has previously come out in support of Kavanaugh. Scott's campaign hasn't responded to questions about Ford's testimony. ___ 8:45 a.m. Former President George W. Bush has been advocating for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh with wavering senators in recent days. That's according to a person familiar with the outreach who wasn't authorized to discuss the development publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Kavanaugh is a former top aide in Bush's administration. Bush has reached out to Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine. Bush spoke earlier this month to Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia in a call the senator's office says Manchin initiated. -Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey. __ 8:05 a.m. The White House is pushing back against a call from the American Bar Association to slow the vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until the FBI can do a full background check. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Friday that Kavanaugh has already "been through six separate background investigations by the FBI." Kavanaugh testified Thursday to the Senate Judiciary Committee over an allegation of sexual assault when he was in high school. His accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, also appeared before the committee during the emotionally charged day. Sanders stressed Trump's support for Kavanaugh and said he wanted to see a vote. She said Trump thought Kavanaugh's testimony was "powerful, it was riveting and it was honest." ___ 1:30 a.m. The American Bar Association has urged the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate to slow down on the vote on Brett Kavanaugh for a position on the Supreme Court until the FBI has time to do a full background check on claims of sexual assault made by Christine Blasey (blah-zee) Ford and other women. "We make this request because of the ABA's respect for the rule of law and due process under law," the ABA letter to committee leadership said. "Each appointment to our nation's highest court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote." The Judiciary committee plans a vote on Kavanaugh Friday. ___ 12:35 a.m. Senate Republicans are plowing forward with a committee vote Friday on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. Voting at the Senate Judiciary Committee comes after an extraordinary and highly emotional hearing over Christine Blasey Ford's allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens. The marathon session appears to have only deepened the partisan divide. The Judiciary committee is narrowly split with the slimmest Republican majority. And Democrats are expected to oppose President Donald Trump's nominee. But even if the panel deadlocks over recommending Kavanaugh, the nomination can push forward. The full Senate may start taking procedural votes as soon as Saturday toward confirmation next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the committee's going to vote Friday and "move forward." (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) UTICA October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the YWCA Mohawk Valley plans to offer a variety of programs throughout the upcoming month. The announcement was made by YWCA Mohawk Valley CEO Dianne Stancato at Rutger Park in Utica. Stancato says its to let victims of domestic violence know that we hear you, we believe you, and were here to help. She says the programs that will be offered not only raise awareness about domestic violence, but they also help to prevent the violence. One of the two main events in October will be the Purple Ribbon Campaign, where you can purchase a ribbon with the domestic violence hotline number on it and all proceeds go toward paying for the programs that the YWCA offers. The second event is the Week Without Violence, which will include two Take Back the Night rallies, one in Utica and one in Rome. "Those are primarily survivor events, everybody though is welcome to come, Stancato said. And that is for survivors to speak out and to find their voice. There's a lot of power in that, in recovery, if they can do that and get up and tell their story in a safe space. Its really a very moving evening and I invite everyone to join us, because it will forever change the way you think about domestic violence." Stancato says that all of the programs the YWCA offers to victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse are free and confidential. Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation was suddenly thrown into doubt Friday after Republicans and the White House agreed to a one-week delay so the FBI can investigate sexual assault allegations facing President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee. "I've ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh's file," Trump said in a statement. "As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week." The fast-moving developments Friday mean that the full Senate will not vote early next week, as expected. Members voted Friday night to formally open consideration of Kavanaugh's nomination, a procedural move that allows Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to keep his options open. The delay is the result of a last-minute change of heart by Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, whose stunning move to force an investigation was quickly backed by several senators considered swing votes on Kavanaugh's confirmation. Flake made the demand for the FBI probe after a chaotic scene at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in which the panel advanced Kavanaugh by a 11-10 party line vote -- saying his vote was conditioned on a probe taking place, and that he would oppose Kavanaugh on the floor of the Senate unless his demand was met. Swing votes Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin subsequently backed an FBI investigation before they'll vote to confirm Kavanaugh. The Judiciary Committee officially requested the FBI investigation, saying it should probe "current credible allegations" against Kavanaugh, and Republicans said it would be up to the FBI to decide what allegations are considered credible. It was Flake, Collins and Murkowski who set the terms of the investigation, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. A separate Republican source familiar with the matter told CNN that the undecided GOP senators believe a key FBI focus should be on, but not limited to, Mark Judge, Kavanaugh's friend who Christine Blasey Ford has alleged was also in the room during the alleged assault and is also named as a witness to other incidents alleged by Julie Swetnick. Judge has said he does not recall incidents alleged by Ford or Swetnick. Kavanaugh has denied allegations made by Ford and Swetnick. The FBI is looking at the accusation of another woman, Deborah Ramirez, who has alleged Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at dormitory party while the two were undergraduate students at Yale. The FBI has reached out to Ramirez, her attorney said, confirming a report in The Washington Post. "We can confirm the FBI has reached out to interview Ms. Ramirez and she has agreed to cooperate with their investigation," the attorney, John Clune, said in a statement. "Out of respect for the integrity of the process, we will have no further comment at this time." Kavanaugh has denied Ramirez's allegation, which was reported by The New Yorker. "This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen, Kavanaugh said in a statement last Sunday when The New Yorker published the article. "The people who knew me then know this did not happen and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple." Separately, on timing, a senior GOP leadership aide told CNN the agreement among the three key Republican senators and GOP leadership was to take the first key procedural vote on the Senate floor on the nomination no later than next Friday. It could happen earlier if the FBI is finished before then. The expectation is that like other FBI background checks, the results of the FBI's investigation will be private and put in Kavanaugh's file and made available to senators but not the public, the aide said. The tumult came just hours after Kavanaugh appeared to be on solid footing, with Republicans rallying to his side after his denials of Christine Blasey Ford's allegation in a Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday. In a statement Friday, Kavanaugh said he would "continue to cooperate" with the FBI. "Throughout this process, I've been interviewed by the FBI, I've done a number of 'background' calls directly with the Senate, and yesterday, I answered questions under oath about every topic the Senators and their counsel asked me," Kavanaugh said. "I've done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate." Ford's attorney welcomed the new investigation but criticized the time frame. "A thorough FBI investigation is critical to developing all the relevant facts," said Debra Katz. "Dr. Christine Blasey Ford welcomes this step in the process, and appreciates the efforts of Senators Flake, Murkowski, Manchin and Collins -- and all other senators who have supported an FBI investigation -- to ensure it is completed before the Senate votes on Judge Kavanaugh's nomination. No artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed on this investigation." Kavanaugh, a Republican who played a lead role in the Ken Starr investigation of Bill Clinton's sexual misconduct and later worked in former President George W. Bush's White House, is a DC Circuit Court of Appeals judge. He would replace the retiring Supreme Court swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, possibly cementing a conservative majority for a generation. Flake changes his mind Senate Republican leaders appeared Friday morning to have 49 solid yes votes, one shy of the 50 they need to confirm Kavanaugh -- meaning they could lose one Republican and have Vice President Mike Pence break a potential tie. On Friday morning, Flake -- who had been seen as one of three swing votes in the Republican caucus -- announced he would support Kavanaugh's confirmation. Then, on the way to the Judiciary Committee's hearing room, he was involved in a dramatic confrontation, when two protesters blocked Flake's elevator. By voting to confirm Kavanaugh, "you're telling me that my assault doesn't matter," one tearfully told him live on CNN, as Flake listened and nodded. Inside the committee room an hour from Friday's scheduled 1:30 p.m. vote, Flake tapped his friend Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, on the shoulder, and the two retreated to a private anteroom. It set off an hour of frantic behind-the-scenes negotiations, as questions about whether Flake had changed his mind hovered. "Jeff said, 'I'm concerned that we are tearing the country apart,'" Coons told CNN. "That the powerful testimony of Dr. Ford did not seem to be taken seriously and investigated -- and that Judge Kavanaugh and his family were distraught by allegations that weren't credible." When Flake emerged, he announced his position: He'd vote for Kavanaugh Friday -- giving the committee an 11-10 majority to send him on to the Senate floor -- but wouldn't vote for him in the full Senate unless the FBI could investigate first. "We ought to do what we can to make sure that we do all due diligence with a nomination this important," he said. WATCH: Flake confronted by two female protesters after announcing he'll back Kavanaugh There was no guarantee at the time an FBI probe would happen, however. "This is all gentlemen's and women's agreement," Grassley said after the vote to committee members. Wrenching hearing During an intense, day-long hearing Thursday, Ford, a California professor, testified that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were both teenagers in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh later offered a vociferous and emotional defense, alternately shouting and tearing up on national television. On Thursday, Ford told the committee she is "100%" certain it was Kavanaugh who attacked her at a party when the two were teenagers in 1982. As the nation watched, she said she "believed he was going to rape me." She told senators it has "haunted me episodically as an adult." Then, Kavanaugh denied that allegation and other accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct he has faced in recent days. He blamed Democrats for what he said was a "calculated and orchestrated political hit" designed to keep him off the Supreme Court. He also refused to support a Democratic push for an FBI investigation of the allegations. "I've never done this," Kavanaugh said of Ford's assault charge. "It's not who I am. I am innocent." Late Thursday night, the American Bar Association took the extraordinary step of recommending the Senate Judiciary Committee pause on Kavanaugh's nomination until a FBI probe into the allegations is completed. The association had previously given Kavanaugh a unanimous "well-qualified" rating, its highest rating. "The basic principles that underscore the Senate's constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI," said Robert Carlson, president of the organization, in a Thursday night letter. "Each appointment to our nation's Highest Court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote," Carlson wrote. "Deciding to proceed without conducting additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senate's reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court." LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette is being sued for refusing to acknowledge and address a sexual abuse claim involving a former priest. The victim, now an adult, claimed he was molested in 1982 when he was minor. He named his abuser as Father James J. Grear. The Catholic Diocese of Lafayette confirmed that Grear was ordained a priest in 1970. The lawsuit filed in Hamilton County said the victim was abused by Father Grear while attending a Catholic youth rally at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish. That church is located in Carmel in Hamilton County. The report said the victim then returned to his home parish, Saint Ann, located in Monterey Indiana in Pulaski County. Both churches are in the Lafayette Diocese jurisdiction. The lawsuit said after he was molested, he attended confession at Saint Ann's with Bishop Raymond Gallagher where he told the Bishop about the abuse. The suit says the Bishop told the victim to forget about the abuse, pray to God for forgiveness, and not disclose the abuse to anyone else. Grear was a priest that tended to not stay long in any given place. The lawsuit says In 1972 he was assigned to be a chaplain at Ball State University. In 1974, he is listed as being assigned on duty outside diocese at Brebeuf Preparatory School, which is part of Archdiocese of Indianapolis. 1976 through 1979 found him in the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona.He was moved around to various positions during his time in Arizona. In 1987, he was assigned to the South Bronx Pastoral Center in the Archdiocese of New York. In 1990, he was assigned to a school in the territory of Guam. However, the lawsuit said from 1980 through 1985, he was not listed in the Official Catholic Directory. This is the period of time in which John Doe claims he was sexually abused. The lawsuit claimed that the Lafayette Diocese knew that Grear had sexually abused other boys before, during, and after the time that John Doe is recalling. This is not the first time a lawsuit has been filed against the Lafayette Diocese regarding Grear. Another was filed in 2011, by the same attorney. The lawsuit names five other incidents that the Lafayette Diocese knew of involving priests sexually abusing minors. A communications manager for The Lafayette Diocese said the following in an email statement: As of today, September 27, 2018, the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana has not been formerly served with notification of the lawsuit filed in Hamilton County regarding James Grear. Until the Diocese and its attorneys have been able to review the lawsuit, we are not in a position to comment on the elements of the suit. Bishop Timothy Doherty, current head of the Diocese of Lafayette, posted a response to the resignation of Archbishop McCarrick on the Diocese website on August 5th, 2018. ...the suffering of victims of sexual abuse must be acknowledged. The victims themselves need acknowledgment. General prayers and apologies are necessary, but not sufficient, he said in that post. On September 18th, he posted a statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Administrative Committee. He added his own statement saying, In recent weeks, a number of Catholic dioceses have announced the intention to publish a list of credible and substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against minors by priests in their dioceses. My offices have been preparing the same. No priest who is currently in active ministry in this diocese has had a credible and substantiated allegation of the abuse of a minor brought against him. The lawsuit claimed that John Doe has suffered emotional and physical distress in the years since the alleged incident took place. Including loss of self-esteem, struggles with spirituality, and overall problems obtaining the full enjoyment of life. The Diocese said Father Grear retired in 2007, however the lawsuit said Grear did not appear in the Official Catholic Directory after 1993. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Friday afternoon to advance the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the full Senate. The vote comes one day after Kavanaugh and the woman who has accused him of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford, each delivered emotional testimony on Capitol Hill. However, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said that he would not vote yes on a motion to proceed with the confirmation process unless it is delayed with an FBI investigation time-limited to one week. As CBS News' Nancy Cordes reports, this is significant because, assuming all Democrats vote no, Republicans can not afford to lose more than one of their own senators on the floor. Flake might not take this step without an understanding that Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski would stand with him. Ford said she was "100 percent sure" Kavanaugh assaulted her, and Kavanaugh insisted he is completely innocent. Senator Jeff Flake calls for investigation Flake entered the room shortly after 1:50 p.m. He said that he believed it would be proper to delay the floor vote to allow the FBI to conduct an investigation "limited in time" to no more than one week. The committee voted to continue to a floor vote in the Senate, which fell along party lines, 11-10. "This country is being ripped apart here, and we've got to make sure we do due diligence," Flake said. He added that he would be more "comfortable" with an FBI investigation. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been a staunch supporter of Kavanaugh, seemed resigned to Flake's decision. "Last time I checked, you need fifty votes," Graham said about Jeff Flake's proposal. "And somebody's got to explain this to Trump, and that'll be my job!" Senate Judiciary Committee convenes Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked to postpone the 1:30 p.m. vote, after discussions between Democrats and Senators Jeff Flake and Ben Sasse. CBS News' Ed O'Keefe reported that a senator had texted him that "something is up" with Flake. The meeting was delayed as senators, including Flake and all Democrats, continued to huddle in an anteroom outside of the hearing room. When does the Senate Judiciary Committee vote? The committee is set to vote at 1:30 p.m., after senators made lengthy speeches describing why are are supporting or opposing Kavanaugh. On Friday morning, protesters were kept down the hall and around the corner from the hearing room, but they can be heard chanting, "November is Coming!" and blowing whistles. Some have been arrested by Capitol police. Before the vote, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, motioned that Kavanaugh's friend, Mark Judge, should be subpoenaed as a witness to appear before the committee. Judge was alleged by Ford to have been in the room during her assault. Blumenthal acknowledged that Judge had sent a "cursory six-sentence" letter with a statement denying any recollection of the incident. The motion was defeated on a party-line vote. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, moved to hold the vote on Kavanaugh at 1:30 p.m., a motion which passed the committee on a party-line vote 11-8. Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, both visibly angry, declined to vote in protest. Several Democrats walked out of the committee room in protest -- Booker and Harris, as well as Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. They talked to reporters outside the hearing room and accused the majority of ramming through Kavanaugh's nomination, and they continued to insist that the FBI investigate the allegations against Kavanaugh. It's not clear yet, CBS News' Ed O'Keefe notes, whether the senators will be back in their seats at 1:30 p.m. for the committee's vote on Kavanaugh. Divisions between parties evident in morning hearing Inside the hearing room, senators also continued to talk about the allegations against Kavanaugh, including that of Deborah Ramirez, a client of lawyer Michael Avenatti. Grassley said that his committee has asked other accusers for evidence of their claims but has not received any. Most Republicans on the committee are standing by Kavanaugh and want to proceed with his confirmation, while Democrats want the process slowed and are calling for an FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh. The 21 senators on the committee -- 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats -- are likely to vote along party lines to advance him. Sen. Jeff Flake, who was among a handful of senators who have not yet said how they'll vote, announced in a statement Friday just before the committee vote that he would support Kavanaugh's confirmation. His support likely ensures that Kavanaugh's nomination will pass out of the committee with a one-vote majority. The committee is also considering the nominations of eight other judges in its meeting Friday. With a 51-49 split in the GOP-controlled Senate, the margin is slim. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is planning the first procedural votes on Kavanaugh's nomination to take place as early as Saturday morning, with the final vote to take place on Tuesday. If all Democrats vote against confirming him, Republicans can only afford to lose a single vote. The two Republicans to watch in the final vote are Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who have not said whether they'll support Kavanaugh. And there are also three Democrats who voted to confirm President Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and none of them has said whether they'll support Kavanaugh: Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. Ed O'Keefe, Kathryn Watson, Nicole Sganga, Bo Erickson, Rebecca Kaplan and Grace Segers contributed to this report. 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) -- Pickleball players from around the country were in Lafayette for one of the largest tournaments in the Midwest. Lafayette Indiana Pickleball Association (LIPA) hosted a Survivor-themed tournament. The tournament is the first of its kind at the new pickleball courts at McCaw Park. The pickleball facility at McCaw is the largest of its kind in the state. 220 players from eight states and from as far away as Alabama competed in the three-day event. There were singles and doubles groups for both men and women. Players were also divided into age groups ranging from the youngest player at 17 years-old to players in their 80s. Co-tournament director, Brian Elmore, said the sport is very inclusive. "Pickleball offers all ranges, all levels so from the beginners to the pros there's a court for everybody," said Elmore. From its humble beginings with just four players in 2011, LIPA has grown to more than 200 local members. Elmore said they hope to keep growing the sport in Lafayette. "We started this tournament for our local players. We wanted them to experience a tournament and then something happened with our format that we attracted people nationally," said Elmore. They would like the tournament to become an annual tradition and would like to add another annual tournament in the spring. The Survivor tournament kicked off on Friday and will continue from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) A Purdue student is speaking out against Granite Management in Greater Lafayette. The company took him to court for damages he said he didn't do. Now that a jury has sided in his favor, he thinks it's time other students fight back too. Granite Management has a reputation for taking tenant matters to court. Attorney Duran Keller thinks he knows why. "They're suing and the attorneys who are asking for attorneys fees work for Stuart Gutwein, who is an owner of the Gutwein Law firm but he's also an owner of Granite Management." said Keller. "So, this is how the rich stay rich." Keller took Umar's case because this student was willing to fight. He asked us not to use his last name for this story. "Most students don't show up to court because they don't realize their rights," said Umar. Granite claimed Umar flushed sanitary wipes down the toilet of his apartment in the Varsity building on Andrew Place. Their proof? Maintenance found Clorox wipes in his apartment. "As if I was the only one that had Clorox wipes in the building," said Umar. He refuted the charges and continued to pay rent. "They would not count my rent even though my rent was paid," said Umar. "They would literally convert the rent payment to this bogus charge." And then charged him ten dollar late fees per day. "So, it came to about almost $3,000 by the time I moved out," said Umar. Granite sued Umar in January of 2017. He finished out his lease and counterclaimed against the company. "I think when you are in a situation of bullying people all of the time, you don't see what it is going to look like when somebody pushes back, and they saw it in this case," said Keller. Granite offered to settle the case if Umar cut them a check. "I had to pay them," said Umar. "I had to pay them $20,000. This was in November of last year, 2017." So, Umar took his case to a jury instead. "It wasn't about money, it really wasn't for me, it was mainly about doing what's right," said Umar. He only asked the jury for vindication and one dollar. "The thought was we take that dollar and we put it in a frame and it says look this is an experience in my life where I fought back against the big guy and I won," said Keller. Granite failed to convince the jury Umar was responsible for any damages. However, the jury did find Granite liable for breach of quiet enjoyment and failure to maintain basic levels of habitability. They ordered the company to pay Umar more than $5,000. "Their theme of the trial was, this is an old building you know what you are getting into, and I don't think anybody agreed with that," said Keller. While living at Varsity Apartments, Umar said he was constantly without water. "We would have to take showers at the Co-rec, go over to our friends' places," explained Umar. "It was a little embarrassing." He took videos showing how Granite failed to clean up water in a timely manner without any wet floor signs. Umar said he saw several people slip and fall. He also worried about mold and mildew in the building. "I don't think anybody would agree that you can pay $725 a month for rent and not have hot water and not have heat," said Keller. Umar hopes students learn from his case and defend themselves. "Show up to court, say your piece and do what you feel is right," said Keller. "My dad taught me to stand up to bullies, you know? These guys were trying to bully people into submission and I realized that was what was happening with me," said Umar. Granite declined to go on camera and answer questions about this case. However, they did send a statement. "Though Granite disagrees with the outcome of the case and believes the jury's determination is not a correct application of the law, the appellate deadline litigation is still pending and we feel it is improper to comment further at this time." Granite has not yet filed any notice of an appeal. Coming up on News 18 Friday at five and six, we'll talk about Umar's contract and why his attorney believes there's a need for legislation on this topic. 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 Welsh Labour Leadership: Contest to choose Carwyn Jones successor underway This article is old - Published: Friday, Sep 28th, 2018 Nominations have officially opened to choose the successor to Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Carwyn Jones. Carwyn Jones, who has served as the first minister since December 2009, formally notified the Welsh Executive Committee of his intention to resign as the Welsh labour leader in April, triggering the process to elect a successor. Nominations opened at midday yesterday (Thursday 27th September) and close at midday on Wednesday 3rd October. Ballots will go out on Friday 9th November and the result will be announced on Thursday 6th December. Candidates need the support of five Assembly Members to get on the ballot paper. Locally both Lesley Griffiths AM and Ken Skates AM have given their backing to current Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford who has the support of 16 AMs. Health Secretary Vaughan Gething has the backing of five AMs. Earlier this week Carwyn Jones said he would be willing to nominate Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning, Eluned Morgan after concerns about the lack of female candidate in the contest. Indias Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is pushing Air India, the heavily indebted, state-owned airline, toward a financial precipice so as to facilitate its breakup and privatization. Events suggest the Modi government may even choose to force Air India into bankruptcy, as happened with Swissair following the mid-1990s deregulation of Europes airline industry. This would open the door to hedge funds and other vulture capitalists hiving off the airlines considerable assets, including aircrafts, hotels, and other properties, while leaving the Indian people to pay for the airlines debts through increased taxes and social spending cuts. Earlier this year, the BJP government tried to sell off a 76 percent ownership stake in Air India and 100 percent of its low-cost carrier, Air India Express, but did not receive a single purchase offer by its May 31 deadline. Indias principal air carrier is weighed down by a massive combined short and long-term debt, which as of March 31, 2017 stood at 658 billion rupees (Rs) or $10.3 billion. Interest payments on this debt amounted to a massive Rs. 42 billion in 2017 ($650 million) while profits were a measly Rs. 57 million ($890,000). The Modi government has been deliberately exacerbating the airlines crisis by withholding the funds Air India desperately requires for its long-term survival. This is because the government is determined to use the crisis to push for a corporate restructuring aimed at slashing costs and squeezing more profit from the workforce, in order to make Air India more attractive to private investors. The Modi governments hard line towards the airline, which has the implicit approval of the opposition parties, is meant to send a political signal that the government is determined to push forward with its privatization drive. The government is utterly indifferent towards the fate of the airlines workforce, which, whether under bankruptcy or privatization, will face huge job losses and a frontal assault on wages and benefits. Air India, which in recent months has repeatedly failed to meet its payroll, has seen its pleas for support rejected by the government. This week, junior Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha claimed discussions within the government on an Air India bailout are at an advanced stage. But even if true, the focus of any rescue plan will be on reducing the debt on Air Indias balance sheet so as to make it more attractive to investors. Sinhas boss, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, recently told the Press Trust of India, Forget Air India, nobody can handle that debt. For any airline to service that debt is not possible. Currently, the airline is staying afloat from the trickle of funds that remain from a Rs. 300 billion cash injection granted by the then-ruling Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2012. The selling off of public assets at fire sale prices has been a key part of the Indian bourgeoisies class strategy since it jettisoned state-led capitalist development in 1991, in favor of Indias full integration into international capitalist markets and transformation into a cheap-labor haven for global capital. However, the Hindu supremacist BJP has accelerated the privatization drive. This has included targeting some of the so-called navratna public sector companies (those, generally highly profitable, in strategic sectors like oil production and distribution) for disinvestment or partial privatization. This is for ideological reasons, but also because the revenues from disinvestment are an important element in the governments neoliberal fiscal strategy, which aims to keeps taxes low for big business and the rich while reducing Indias budget deficit at the expense of Indias workers and toilers. Each year the finance minister announces during his annual budget presentation the amount of funds the government expects to raise from selling off government ownership in Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs). The proceeds are then used to help meet the governments annual fiscal deficit target. Air Indias travails are largely a result of successive Indian governments compelling this previously high-quality airline to compete in a cutthroat manner with a plethora of low-cost private air carriers that were licensed to operate especially since the beginning of this millennium. Other important contributing factors are: Indias heavy fuel taxes; the UPA governments insistence the airline purchase 111 Boeing and Airbus aircraft at a cost of Rs. 700 billion in 2006-7; and its forcing the state-owned carrier to cede many lucrative routes to the new private airlines. Many of the private carriers that came to proliferate Indias skies after 1991 have since gone bankrupt. These private airlines low-cost model resulted in working environments characterized by low wages and brutal exploitation and air fleets comprised of decades-old aircrafts. Such precariously run airlines were lauded by the ruling class as a magical outcome of the free market. Their bankruptcies have further inflated the huge portfolio of unpaid corporate debt that is weighing down Indias public-sector banks and threatening to trigger a major financial crisis. So dire is Air Indias financial condition, it now must borrow funds just to finance its day-to-day operations, including the payment of salaries to its 17,000 employees. It also has been unable to obtain spare parts, grounding many aircraft. The current employee count is a steep decline from the 33,000 workers the airline employed when the UPA government created it in 2007 through the amalgamation of the state-owned overseas carrier, Air India, and its domestic counterpart, Indian Airlines Ltd. Since March, the payment of workers wages has been delayed every month by management without any prior notification. Air India paid the flying allowances for the month of June to its pilots only on August 20, and only after they had threatened to stop flying if payment was not made immediately. In mid-August, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), which represents the airlines 600 pilots, wrote a pleading letter to management urging it to partner with them to find a solution to the crisis. The letter went on to ask whether Air Indias planes were even safe to fly, since routine maintenance has being heavily impacted by cost cutting. The BJP government has been emboldened to act in this high-handed fashion by the inaction and indeed criminal passivity of the numerous trade unions that claim to represent Air India employees, and more generally by the unions and Stalinist political parties complicity in implementing the Indian bourgeoisies neoliberal agenda. The Stalinist Communist Party of India (Marxist) has pursued what it itself describes as pro-investor policies in those states where it has held office over the past quarter-century and it has systematically tied the working class to pro-big business governments, most of them Congress-led, at the Center in the name of blocking the BJP. The day-long, nationally televised hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, devoted to allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, was an exercise in political degradation. The Democratic Party has chosen to wage its campaign against the nomination of Kavanaugh on the most right-wing basis possible. Rather than focus public attention on Kavanaughs ultra-right political viewshis opposition to abortion rights, his rubber-stamping of police violence, his consistent defense of corporate interests against workers and consumersor on his lengthy record as a partisan legal thug going back to the Clinton impeachment, the Democrats engineered a hearing in which all attention was focused on Kavanaughs personal conduct as a teenager. Six broadcast and cable networks provided all-day coverage, even pre-empting their own evening news programs when the hearing ran past 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The national television audience was subjected to hour after hour of grilling by Democrats on such matters as references to flatulence and vomiting in Kavanaughs high school year book, whether Kavanaugh and his high school classmates drank beer on weeknights, and the meaning of obscure entries in a day-to-day calendar kept by a 17-year-old boy. Perhaps the low point came when Senate Judiciary Committee lawyer Rachel Mitchellbrought in for the day to serve as an expert questioner so that Republican senators wouldnt be seen as bullies of Kavanaughs accuser, Christine Blasey Fordtook Judge Kavanaugh through a carefully worded denial that he had ever exposed himself or placed his penis next to a Yale woman classmates face while they were both drunk at a party. What has any of this to do with the social and political issues confronting tens of millions of working people in the United States? How does the obsessive focus on the 36-year-old actions of a teenage boy in any way advance the struggle against the reactionary politics of Judge Kavanaugh and President Trump today? Those who defend the #MeToo-style campaign against Kavanaugh will have no second act if they succeed in blocking the nomination. Trump will simply replace the nominee with an equally reactionary juristperhaps a womanor one like his first Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, who was easily confirmed last year, with some Democratic votes in the Senate, despite a record of political reaction virtually identical to Kavanaughs. The Democratic Partys decision to focus exclusively on Kavanaughs alleged sexual misconduct, to the exclusion of his politics, was a deliberate political choice. It was the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein of California, who held back the allegation by Blasey Ford until after it was clear that Kavanaugh would likely be confirmed otherwise. The charges were then leaked to the press, undoubtedly via the Democratic Party, using journalistic mouthpieces like Ronan Farrow, the former State Department official who has become the spearhead of the #MeToo campaign in Hollywood and Washington. These leaks in turn forced Blasey Ford to come forward publicly, against her own wishes. In her testimony, Ford forcefully accused Kavanaugh of carrying out a sexual assault on her at a party in 1982, aided by a second boy, Mark Judge. Kavanaugh made an equally forceful denial. He repeatedly cited statements from individuals who were said to be at the party, including a friend of Fords, that they recalled no such party taking place. Thursdays hearing demonstrated the deeply reactionary and anti-democratic character of the #MeToo campaign, as Democrats suggested they believed Blasey Ford even before hearing Kavanaughs testimony. The commentary in the media followed suit, proceeding from the assumption that Fords allegations were undeniably true. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin declared, that just the idea that anyone could consider this [to be] false testimony was outrageous. The WSWS takes no position on the truth or falsity of the allegations. However, Blasey Ford presented no corroborating evidence beyond her own memory, nor was she asked to do so by the Democratic senators. From a legal standpoint, there were significant gaps in her account. This allowed Republicans like Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn, defenders of torture and police murders, to posture as advocates of democratic principles like the presumption of innocence, and to proclaim that America was not a police state. The Supreme Court nominee had clearly been told that he had to launch an aggressive counter-attack in his opening statement, if only to reassure Trump, who had suggested at a press conference Wednesday that he might be swayed if Blasey Fords testimony was effective. After stating that Blasey Ford may have been the victim of a sexual assault, just not by himself, Kavanaugh launched a frontal assault on Senate Democrats, a much easier and less sympathetic target than Blasey Ford. His opening statement included a historically unprecedented political diatribe for a nominee seeking the highest judicial position in America, a position supposedly above politics or requiring at least a formal disavowal of direct partisan interests. He denounced a frenzy on the left to block his nomination, cited the statement by Democratic Senate leader Charles Schumer that he would oppose me with everything hes got, noted that another Democratic senator had referred to me as evil. He denounced Another Democratic senator on this committee and a former head of the Democratic National Committee for their public attacks on his nomination. But even this open demonstration of his political standpoint as an ultra-right Republican did not evoke any significant protest from the committee Democrats. There were one or two references to Kavanaughs partisan diatribe, but not a single Democrat pointed to the statement as a virtual self-disqualification of the nominee as an impartial and politically neutral jurist, revealing him as a political hatchet-man for the extreme right. That is in large measure because the real purpose in focusing on the sexual misconduct charges against Kavanaugh is not to defeat the nomination, but to shift the axis of official American politics even further to the right, both in the November 6 elections and beyond. The Democratic Party has based its supposed opposition to Trump not on his reactionary attacks on democratic rights, particularly in relation to immigrants, or his tax cuts for the wealthy, or his embrace of militarism and war, but on claims that Trump is too soft on Russia. The anti-Russia campaign, an attempt to attack Trump from the right, has failed to gain any significant public support. Supplementing the anti-Russia campaign is the raising of sexual allegations against Republican Party officeholders, including Trump himself. This was effective in defeating the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, Roy Moore, and is now being utilized against Trumps second Supreme Court nominee. Whether or not Kavanaugh is placed on the court, the Democrats calculate they will appeal to their upper-middle-class social base. A particularly remarkable moment in the hearing came in Kavanaughs opening statement, when he declared, This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons, and millions of dollars and money from outside left-wing opposition groups. Kavanaugh seized the opportunity provided by the Democrats to portray himself as the victim of a left-wing crusade. In fact, there is nothing left-wing about either the use of sexual allegations to discredit an opponent, or the claim that all victims must be believed regardless of evidence. The Democrats are embracing the arguments that were traditionally those of the extreme right. The reference to revenge on behalf of the Clintons was revealing in this regard. Kavanaugh was making reference to his own role in the Kenneth Starr investigation into President Bill Clinton, when the future Supreme Court nominee drafted the bulk of the report which provided graphic details of Clintons sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a milestone in the degradation of political life in America, which reached a new low point yesterday. Almost exactly 20 years ago, the World Socialist Web Site commented as follows on the Starr document: The process of investigating Clinton's sex life is not only degrading, but inherently intimidating. If a president of the United States, supposedly the most politically powerful officeholder in the country, can be persecuted in this fashion, what can ordinary citizens expect if they come into conflict with the state? It might appear odd that it is left to socialists, who oppose Clinton on his economic, social and foreign policies, to remind our audience of what the US political establishment has abandoned: elementary precepts of bourgeois law, due process and democratic rights. The same thing could be said today in relation to Kavanaugh. There is no call for rejoicing that the author of the Starr report has now been hoisted on his own petard. It is necessary to understand the historical logic of this process. Under conditions of mounting radicalization in the working class, expressed in the outbreak of powerful statewide teachers strikes, unanimous strike votes by steel and other industrial workers, and open support for socialism voiced by growing numbers of workers and a majority of young people, the two capitalist parties have definite class reasons to fear any open discussion of policies, domestic or foreign. Accordingly, they are compelled to fight out their differences through the methods of backroom conspiracy and mudslinging of the filthiest description, seeking to pollute public consciousness and block any political intervention from below. Late Tuesday congressional Democrats and Republicans approved compromise legislation that purports to address the opioid crisis, which claimed more than 70,000 lives last year. The House might approve the measure this week. Assuming Senate approval, it could be signed into law by President Donald Trump as early as next week. The 653-page bill, reconciled from two previously-adopted Senate and House bills, is primarily focused on law enforcement. One measure contained in the legislation targets the importation of synthetic fentanyl and other illegal opioids through the mails. It will require anyone sending a package to the United States to provide their own name and address and to describe the packages contents. If this is not done, the parcel could be detained or destroyed. It also creates provisions for monitoring the dispensation of prescriptions and puts in place packaging rules designed to limit prescription abuse. The bill would allow physicians assistants and certain categories of nurses to prescribe buprenorphine, an anti-addiction medication that, currently, only 5 percent of physicians nationwide can prescribe. It provides a modest amount of temporary funding for health experts to research less addictive forms of pain relief. However, the most immediate factor driving the spike in drug overdose deathswhich, according to the CDC, increased last year to 72,000, most of which were caused by opioidsis a lack of both in-patient and out-patient treatment. The bills only provision in this regard is a measure that lifts a rule blocking Medicaid reimbursements for some forms of inpatient treatment at mental health care facilities with more than 16 beds. Funding in the bill can only be called derisory, given the dimensions of the epidemic. Its precise cost is not clear, but one early version would have earmarked about $8 billion over five years, or roughly $1.6 billion per yeara figure, that were it translated into personal wealth, would not make the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. It would also be less by a factor of about 600 than the amount doled out to the American militarya figure expected to reach $1 trillion in the coming yearswhich politicians of both parties endlessly justify by the claim that it protects American lives. In fact, while the opioid crisis last year killed more Americans than died in the entire Vietnam War, the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian governmentsthe primary targets of the US military build-uphave not killed a single American in decades. Advocates roundly criticized the bill for not providing adequate funding. Without real money, its just lip service, said John Rosenthal of the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery. This disease has been raging for more than a decade without any serious federal response. Now theyre playing catch-up. Chuck Ingoglia of the National Council for Behavioral Health told Politico that the level of funding does not meet the dimensions of the crisis. The data keeps showing us we have more and more people dying, so whats the reluctance to actually spend money and actually do something? he asked. In general the media has hailed the bill as an example of bi-partisan cooperation. However, it has also been admitted in some quarters that the legislation is largely for public consumption prior to the upcoming November elections. In the words of the Washington Post online health industry blog, Regardless of the disagreement over the bills effectiveness, its really come down to a question of optics. The fact that Congress rushed to finish this work before the midterms shows how eager lawmakers on both sides are to be able to go home with this victory in their back pockets. As it worked its way through Congress the bill very nearly added a $4 billion windfall for the giant pharmaceutical corporations in the form of relief from a budget law passed last February that required them to give elderly Medicare recipients a discount on expensive prescription drugs that fall in the Medicare Part D doughnut hole. However, lobbyists for the pharmaceuticals were opposed by those representing the major health insurance corporations, as well as the American Hospital Association, and the measure was excluded by a narrow margin. This is the second piece of legislation addressing the opioid epidemic in as many years. The crisis has grown dramatically worse since 2016, when President Barack Obama signed into law the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which allotted paltry grants to states for rehabilitation and prevention. The author also recommends: Dopesick by Beth Macy: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America [25 September 2018] Over twelve months ago, the Health Services Union (HSU) and the Victorian state Labor government ended industrial action by workers at Dorevitch Pathology, pushing a long running dispute for a new work agreement covering 1,800 employees into forced arbitration by the Fair Work Commission (FWC), the federal industrial tribunal. Earlier this month, the FWC reportedly awarded pay increases for the Dorevitch workers ranging from approximately 4 percent to 20 percent. Dorevitch, which has facilities across the states regional centres and in Melbourne, is a subsidiary of Australias second largest pathology provider Primary Health Care. HSU state secretary Diana Asmar immediately heralded the FWC ruling as a big win for all Dorevitch employees. Last year, the union likewise welcomed the FWCs ruling ending all industrial action on application from the state government, on the grounds that it threatened community welfare, as good news for Dorevitch Members. An examination of the determination demonstrates it is far from the big win proclaimed by Asmar. It continues the low wage regime long endured by the pathology workers, who work long hours in difficult and at times dangerous conditions. The pay increases mandated by the FWC will be backdated to July last year, even though the workers have not received a pay increase since the last agreement expired in 2007. In other words, the company, with the assistance of the HSU, has effectively imposed a ten-year pay freeze. The last agreement, in 2004, provided for annual wage rises as low as 1.5 percent per annum, resulting in pay rates of just $20 and $22 an hour. This was 17 percent below the industrial standard. Even if the 20 percent rise granted by the FWC was to apply across the entire workforce, and of course it will not, hourly pay would increase, at best, by just over $4, to $26 an hour. In bringing down its determination, the FWC made clear it would perpetuate the Dorevitch low wage regime declaring, the total increase will remain significantly below the rate of increase in the National Minimum Wage (40.5 percent) and average wages growth (38.8 percent that have occurred since the expiry date of the last agreement.) In a statement last week, Primary Health Care said the FWC determination would cost it about $10 million per annum extra in wages. The company stated, however, that the impact would be fully offset, undoubtedly through cost-cutting measures such as redundancies and intensifying workloads. In a telling statement following the FWC decision, Asmar described the Dorevitch workers as an isolated and fearful workforce that had their real wages cut for over a decade. She added: It took court applications, strikes, government intervention, weeks of forced mediation, and years of struggle to get this outcome. In reality, the pathology workers demonstrated they were determined to fight for pay and conditions including by launching an indefinite strike in August 2007, which was called off by the union in compliance with the order issued by the FWC. The fact that the Dorevitch workers were isolated was the direct result of deliberate action by the union. From the outset, the HSU worked to contain the dispute and to prevent the emergence of a unified struggle by health workers across the country who face similar attacks. The HSU was fearful that such a mobilisation would cut across the close working relations it has with the private health providers and undermine its position as an industrial police force of governments and the corporations, from which the privileges of its officialdom are derived. The suppression of any struggle by pathology workers, by the HSU, has facilitated the privatisation of the sector, and ensured that companies make enormous profits, while workers endure poverty-level wages. From 201617, Dorevitch, with contracts across 32 Victorian public health facilities, including hospitals and prisons, recorded a $92 million profit. Primary Health Care posted an estimated $1.2 billion in profits since the last pay deal covering Dorevitch Pathology workers was signed in 2004. Primary Health Care, like other private providers, has been the beneficiary of substantial public contracts, as successive governments, Liberal and Labor, have outsourced pathology and other health services. Primary Health Care now provides 32.7 percent of pathology services funded under the government Medicare Benefits Schedule. Its major competitor, Sonic Healthcare provides 41.4 percent. In sharp contrast, public pathology providers now account for just 11 percent. The record makes clear that contrary to the claims of the HSU, the government and the FWC did not intervene into the Dorevitch dispute in the interests of the workers. The FWC is not an independent umpire as is claimed by the unions. Established in 2009 by the previous federal Labor government, with the support of the major unions, it is an instrument to enforce the dictates of the corporate elite to slash wages, ban strikes and drive down costs for big business. The FWC oversees the draconian anti-strike provisions in the Fair Work Act that outlaws all industrial action other than during the narrow bargaining period for a new enterprise work agreement. To take protected action, workers must go through a lengthy process and even then must receive permission from the FWC. The legislation contains wide-ranging pretexts for the FWC to shut down even protected industrial action, including when it would cause economic harm to the employer, significant harm to a third party, endanger safety and welfare, or cause significant damage to the Australian economy or part of it. Such pretexts were used to end last years Dorevitch Pathology strike and a raft of other actions, including a planned strike earlier this year by 9,000 rail workers in New South Wales fighting to defend wages and conditions. The Australian Council of Trade Unions recently installed president, Michele ONeil, has hailed the outcome of the Dorevitch dispute to promote the peak union Change the Rules campaign. ONeil declared: The Dorevitch workers struggle shows that we need to change the rules so that people can get fair pay rise. The campaign has nothing to do with defending workers interests but is aimed at harnessing widespread anger over the decades-long assault on jobs and working conditions behind the election of another pro-business Labor government, on the basis of bogus claims that it will refashion industrial laws more favourable to workers. Labor, in recent proposals on industrial relations policy, has made clear it will maintain all the essential aspects of the current repressive regime. In government, it would retain the FWC and boost its powers to end disputes and impose any outcome it sees fit. As the experience of Dorevitch Pathology workers shows, this would result in settlements based entirely on the profit requirements of the corporate and financial establishment. PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX This is the third in a series of articles published by the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Sri Lanka to mark the 50th anniversary of its foundation in June 1968. Established as the Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), it was renamed the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in 1996. A statement has already been published to mark the RCLs founding congress on June 1617, 1968. These articles will elaborate the RCLs principled foundations and draw the essential political lessons from the struggle for these principles over the past 50 years. The RCL was founded on the program and perspective of socialist internationalism that the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), which claimed to be a Trotskyist party, had betrayed by entering the bourgeois government of Madame Sirima Bandaranaike in 1964. Central to the work of the SEP has been the fight for Trotskys Theory of Permanent Revolution, which established that, in countries of a belated capitalist development, only the working class is capable of leading the struggle for the basic democratic and social rights of the workers and rural toilers, as part of the fight for socialism internationally. These lessons are critical for the emerging struggles of the working class, not only in Sri Lanka, but throughout Asia and the world. The theoretical and political fight against petty-bourgeois radicalism has been a central feature of the 50-year history of the Revolutionary Communist League/Socialist Equality Party (RCL/SEP) and carries crucial lessons for workers and youth in building the revolutionary party. The RCL was established in 1968 to fight the Great Betrayal of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) which, in 1964, joined the bourgeois Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) government of Madame Bandaranaike. By openly abandoning proletarian internationalism and embracing the SLFPs Sinhala supremacism, the LSSP opened the door for the unrestrained growth in Sri Lanka of communal politics. Various petty-bourgeois nationalist groups emerged to exploit the resulting political confusion and gain a hearing among radicalised youth. In particular, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), or Peoples Liberation Front, was established in 1965, just one year after the LSSPs betrayal. Like all these groups, the JVP based itself on the glorification of armed struggle and an eclectic mixture of Maoism, Castroism and Guevarismthe fashionable theories of the day around the world. In opposition to Marxism, they all rejected the revolutionary role of the working class. The LSSP (R) split from the LSSP after its betrayal, but did not break from the Pabloite opportunism embodied in the United Secretariat (USec), which had paved the way for the LSSPs political backsliding over the previous decade. The USec was instrumental in promoting petty-bourgeois radicalism in all its forms, including guerrillaism, which had devastating consequences, especially in Latin America. After the Bandaranaike government collapsed in 1965, the LSSP maintained its coalition with the SLFP, which was extended to the Stalinist Communist Party (CP). The SLFP-LSSP-CP exploited the growing discontent and opposition, in the working class and rural poor, towards the United National Party (UNP) government with a combination of anti-imperialist demagogy and empty promises to return to power with a large majority in the 1970 election. During the election, the newly-formed RCL made a tactical mistake. While denouncing the LSSPs and CPs treachery and warning of the reactionary aims of the coalition, it called for a critical vote for the SLFP-led coalition. As Michael Banda, a leader of the Socialist Labour League (SLL), the British section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), explained in a letter to the RCL, its policy was an unwarranted concession to the reformists and the radical bourgeoisie. Banda advised the RCL to give no support to the SLFP-led government and to mobilise workers around the tactical demand that the LSSP and CP break from the coalition and fight for the formation of a workers and peasants government, to implement socialist policies. The tactic was aimed, not at fostering illusions in the opportunist manoeuvres and policies of the LSSP and CP, but at exposing them, thus developing the struggle for the political independence of the working class. Wilfred Spike Pereira, Keerthi Balasuriya and Mike Banda As The Historical and International Foundations of the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) explained, The response of Keerthi Balasuriya and the RCL provides a classic example of how a Marxist party makes a principled correction. The party leadership first initiated an exhaustive inner party discussion of Bandas correspondence and the political implications of the error. Then, it publically corrected the mistake in a statement declaring: To force the Samasamajist and Stalinist leaders to break from the coalition government is the form that the fight for the class independence of the working class takes. At the same time, RCL General Secretary Balasuriya understood that the mistake was the product of considerable pressure being exerted on the party by the flourishing of petty-bourgeois radicalism. The partys statement insisted on the necessity of grasping the roots of this error because the same hostile class pressure that acted on the RCL can emerge in another form in other circumstances. Having drawn that conclusion, Balasuriya decided to politically and theoretically expose the JVP, which was the epitome of middle-class radicalism in its touting of Mao, Castro and Ho Chi Minh. He wrote a series of articles in the RCLs Sinhala-language newspaper, Kamkaru Puwath (Workers News), titled The Politics and Class Nature of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which was later published in book form. The Politics and Class Nature of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Balasuriya noted, in his Preface to the book, that the purpose of exposing the JVP was to defend and develop Marxist theory which is at the core of building the revolutionary party. The RCL had been founded on the struggles of the ICFI against Pabloite revisionism, in particular the Pabloite glorification of Castro and the Cuban Revolution. The Pabloites falsely concluded that in economically backward countries, it was possible to establish a workers state with a blunted instrumentthat is, without a Marxist party and the independent mobilisation of the working class. In his book, Balasuriya explained: The JVPlike Castro, Guevara and Maowas organically hostile to the working class and rooted in reactionary nationalism. In the JVPs distorted terminology, the proletariat referred to the oppressed layers of the peasantry. The organisation belittled the economic struggles of workers as struggles for cups of porridge that distracted from the patriotic struggle against imperialism. Modelling itself on Castro, the JVP declared that an uprising staged by a group of patriots could undermine the power of the ruling class. Balasuriya explained that the JVPs patriotism was nothing but Sinhala patriotism used by the Sri Lanka ruling class to divide the working class on a communal basis and to subordinate it to the bourgeoisie. The JVP fostered dangerous illusions in the progressive nature of the so-called national bourgeoisie. It backed the SLFP-LSSP-CP coalition, initially describing it as a progressive government when it won the 1970 election. In exposing the JVPs positions, the RCL based its analysis on Trotskys Theory of Permanent Revolution, which insists that the national bourgeoisie in backward countries is incapable of playing a progressive role in fulfilling unsolved democratic tasks or addressing social questions. Only the working class could deal with these unresolved issues by rallying the rural poor and oppressed under its leadership and establishing a workers and peasants government, as part of the fight for world socialist revolution. This was the lesson of the victorious socialist revolution in Russia in 1917. Keerthi Balasuriya addressing a meeting The JVPs anti-imperialist demagogy included denunciations of Indian expansionism and privileged Tamil-speaking plantation workers, whom it branded as enemies of the Sinhala workers. This virulently anti-working class and racist slander against the countrys plantation workers served the same divisive purpose as the Sinhala populism of the SLFP and its allies. Balasuriya warned: In a period where British imperialism and the Lankan bourgeoisie are driven by their own class interests to devastate the conditions of the plantation workers, petty-bourgeois hostility to these same workers turns into a weapon in the hands of monopoly capitalism. This racism is one that leads to fascism. The JVP is creating an anti-working class movement in Lanka, which could well be utilised in the future by a fascist movement. Far from being progressive, the second coalition government increasingly attacked the democratic and social rights of the workers and rural poor. In response, the JVP flipped from uncritically supporting the SLFP-LSSP-CP coalition to rabidly denouncing it. In April 1971, the JVP launched an adventurist insurrection of rural youth, isolated from the urban working class, which set about attacking police stations. The coalition government unleashed a police-military bloodbath in response, massacring an estimated 15,000 youth and detaining thousands, including JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera. Those detained were summarily tried by special courts and jailed for years. The RCL took a principled stand against this brutal state repression, demanding the release of the JVP political prisoners, while continuing to expose the JVPs reactionary policies. As a result, the coalition government targeted the RCL leadership. Two Central Committee members, Lakshman Weerakoon and L. G. Gunadasa, were arrested and killed in the Kandy prison. Police raided the house of Wilfred Pereira, which was being used as the partys office, and destroyed its library and documents. Under the emergency laws, the publications of the RCL and its youth wing were banned, forcing the party and its leaders to go underground. The RCL nevertheless mounted a vigorous campaign among workers throughout the country for the release of all political prisoners. At the same time, it exposed the posturing of groups like the LSSP (R), which issued empty appeals to the government to release the JVP prisoners, but opposed the mobilisation of the working class against the government and for an end to state repression. Rohana Wijeweera The RCL campaign won widespread support. Freedom for political prisoners became a major demand of the general strike against the coalition government that erupted in December 1976. In 1978, the UNP, which won the 1977 election, was compelled to free Wijeweera and other political prisoners. After his release, Wijeweera personally visited the partys office to publicly thank the RCL. The next four decades marked a sharp turn to the right by the JVP, confirming Balasuriyas warnings about its political trajectory and the blind alley of petty-bourgeois radicalism. Behind this rightward turn were vast changes in world economics and politics, brought about by the globalisation of production, which was undermining all parties, organisations and institutions based on the old program of national economic regulation. The UNP government of Prime Minister J.R. Jayewardene was among the first in the world to implement open market policies, including the gutting of social spending and the privatisation of state-owned corporations and services. Jayawardene prepared for his governments class war against the working class by repeatedly whipping up anti-Tamil communalism and establishing an executive presidential system with sweeping autocratic powers. In July 1980, in opposition to the governments attacks, public sector workers launched a general strike, which Jayawardene crushed by sacking nearly 100,000 employees. The JVP played a critical role in assisting the government in isolating the striking workers, thus laying the basis for the mass sackings. From the outset, the JVP opposed the strike, insisting that the [working] class is not ready to fight and that it would invite repression. The problem was not that workers were unwilling to fight, but that its leaderships, including the JVP, opposed transforming the strike into a political struggle against the government. Despite the JVPs directive not to take part in the strike, the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU), facing widespread anger among its members, broke from the JVP and joined the strike. As hostility to the government continued to mount, Jayawardene staged one anti-Tamil provocation after another, culminating in island-wide pogroms in 1983 that plunged the country into a protracted communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Jayawardene banned the JVP, blaming it for the Colombo pogrom, which, in fact, was initiated by government-backed goons. The JVP nevertheless became an enthusiastic supporter of the war, substituting crude Sinhala patriotic appeals for its previous socialistic and pseudo-Marxist phrase-mongering. R. A. Pitawela In 1987, the Colombo government, facing a deep political crisis produced by the war and growing social unrest, turned to India to prop up its rule. The Indo-Lanka Accord devolved limited powers to the Tamil elites in the north and east of the island, while calling on the LTTE to lay down its arms. New Delhi sent 100,000 Indian peacekeepers to supervise the Accord and to forcibly disarm the LTTE. The JVP immediately launched a chauvinist Motherland first campaign, condemning Indian expansionism and accusing Jayawardene of dividing the nation. The JVP organised riots against the Accord and carried out fascistic attacks on anyone who refused to support its racist campaign. JVP gunmen killed hundreds of political opponents and workers, including three RCL members, R. A. Pitawela, P. H. Gunapala and Gretian Geekiyanage. P. H. Gunapala The RCL opposed the Accord from the standpoint of defending the working class, not the Sinhala nation, and thus fought for the unity of workers in Sri Lanka and India on a common socialist perspective. With the support of the ICFI, it called for a united front of working class organisations to defend workers from the UNP governments repression and JVP fascistic attacks, and appealed to workers around the world to defend their class brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka. In this struggle, the ICFI and the RCL advanced, for the first time, the perspective of the United Socialist States of Lanka and Eelam, to strengthen the campaign to unite Sinhala and Tamil workers, and as part of the fight for a Union of Socialist Republics in South Asia and internationally. Gretian Geekiyanage After first toying with the idea of forming a coalition with the JVP, the UNP government under Jayawardene, then R. Premadasa, unleashed wholesale repression, not only against the JVP, but, above all, against the JVPs social base among alienated Sinhala rural youth. In 198990, the military and police slaughtered around 60,000 youth and decimated the JVP, murdering its leaders, including Wijeweera. Despite the JVPs killing of the RCLs own cadre, the RCL opposed the governments murderous campaign against the JVP on a principled basis. In the same period, the Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were liquidated, sparking a wave of triumphalism in bourgeois circles heralding the triumph of the market and the end of socialism. While the RCL and the ICFI established that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was the product of the impact of globalisation and the Stalinist program of national autarchy, the JVP joined a long line of petty bourgeois radical organisations that declared the failure of socialism. The JVP used the opportunity to exchange its military fatigues for suits and parliamentary seats when the SLFP-led coalition under Chandrika Kumaratunga took power in 1994. As hostility grew to the two major bourgeois partiesthe UNP and SLFPthe JVP functioned as a crucial political safety value for the ruling class by deflecting the opposition of workers and youth into the dead-end of parliamentary politics. Over the past quarter century, the JVP has completely integrated itself into the Colombo political establishment. In the 1960s and 1970s, the JVP gained a hearing among Sinhala youth by denouncing the LSSP for its coalition with the SLFP. In 2004, it entered Kumaratungas SLFP-led government and JVP ministers assumed direct responsibility for imposing an IMF austerity program. When the SLFP-led government of President Mahinda Rajapakse restarted the communal war against the LTTE in 2006, the JVP was its most vocal advocate, defending all the governments war crimes, right down to the final bloodbath in 2009, when tens of thousands of civilians were killed and 300,000 incarcerated. The anti-imperialist demagogues of yesteryear have become slavish supporters of US imperialism. In 2001, the JVP backed the Bush administrations bogus War on Terror and invasion of Afghanistanthe first imperialist military occupation on the Indian subcontinent since the end of British rule in 194748. JVP leaders have repeatedly visited the US embassy in Colombo for discussions. It is no accident that the JVP supported the January 8, 2015 regime-change operation in Colombo, orchestrated by Washington, to oust President Rajapakse and install Maithripala Sirisena in power. The US was not opposed to Rajapakses human rights abuses, but to his close relations with China. The Sirisena government rapidly reoriented foreign policy away from Beijing and towards Washington. The RCL/SEPs political struggle to expose the JVP and all forms of petty-bourgeois radicalism constitutes a powerful vindication of contemporary Marxismthat is, of Trotskyism, which is embodied only in the ICFI. Its political record deserves careful study by all workers and youth seeking to find a way to fight for socialist internationalism against the ongoing depredations and calamities being produced by the capitalist profit system. Weeks have passed since over 30,000 steel workers passed unanimous strike votes earlier this month at US Steel and ArcelorMittal plants throughout the United States. Meanwhile, the United Steelworkers union (USW) has kept workers in the dark and laboring under an extended contract to bide time to work out a concessions deal with the two major corporations. The contracts covering an estimated 16,000 workers at US Steel and 15,000 ArcelorMittal workers expired on August 31 and have been under negotiation since July. The USW announced Wednesday that it is preparing for its members to strike the US locations of ArcelorMittal, the worlds largest steel company. Since Wednesday, the union has begun to distribute picket duty surveys to its members but USW officials have stressed that the preparations are not a declaration of a strike. USW Local 6787 President Pete Trinidad told the Chicago Tribune Wednesday that USW members at ArcelorMittal plants in northwest Indiana will begin putting together shanties for picket lines in the event of inclement weather, gathering wood for the barrels used to warm up picketers in the cold and will be discussing rules and regulations in the coming days. Mainstream news outlets were unable to ignore the mounting anger of steelworkers after unanimous strike votes passed at ArcelorMittal plants across the US early last week. A video of two US Steel workers interviewed by Vice News has over 116,000 views on Twitter. National Public Radios All Things Considered segment featured an interview on Monday, which pointed to the growing anger of ArcelorMittal workers at falling wages and rising profits, and the fear among corporate heads that the steel profit bonanza could soon come to an end, faced with the combined threat of falling domestic demand, counter-tariffs and workers growing wage demands. In spite of the populist posturing of President Trump, including his delivering a speech at US Steel in Granite City, Illinois, in July, the 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports rolled out in June were never meant to benefit the working class. On the contrary, they were aimed at transferring a large amount of wealth from the working class to the major shareholders in the steel and metals industries by pitting workers in the US against their brothers and sisters around the world. This involves forcing workers to accept even more givebacks in wages, benefits and work rules to lower the cost of domestic-made steel. Faced with the growing militancy of steelworkers who want to recoup decades of USW-backed concessions, the union first called strike votes and is now going through the motions of preparing for a walkout. The USW, however, has no intention of leading a serious strike. If they are forced to call a strike, USW President Leo Gerard and his army of union functionaries will do everything to isolate the struggle and beat back the resistance of rank-and-file workers to further concessions, which would benefit the company and the USW bureaucracy itself. This is exactly what the USW did during the last contract negotiations when they ordered US Steel and ArcelorMittal workers to stay on the job, even as ATI workers were locked out, before they signed sellout deals at all three steelmakers. The USW has not called a national strike since the 1986 US Steel strike, which the union betrayed. Over the last four decades, USW officials have collaborated in the destruction of the jobs, living standards and working conditions of hundreds of thousands of steelworkers. During the same period, the USW bureaucrats at the unions headquarters in Pittsburgh collaborated with Wall Street asset strippers, like Trumps commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, to restructure the industry at the expense of workers, their families and communities. In its announcement, the USW said it remain[s] hopeful that management will change direction before forcing us into a labor dispute. The steel bosses have only been emboldened by the efforts of the USW to block a strike. US Steel is demanding a six-year contract that will increase healthcare costs and eat up the companys proposed minimal wage increases of 4 percent in the first year and just 2 percent in each year after that. ArcelorMittal is also demanded sweeping concessions, including wage givebacks and cuts to vacation pay, as well as the elimination of profit-sharing bonuses for newer workers. Out-of-pocket health care costs will increase by up to $9,300 over the three years of the contract. Combined, the two companies made over $9 billion in gross profits in 2017, thanks to the USW pushing through a deep concessions contract in the first half of 2016. Gerard and other USW bureaucrats justified this by telling workers that they needed to sacrifice to keep their jobs. Immediately after the contracts were forced through, USW worked with the steel corporations to lay off thousands of workers and idle mills, creating dangerous conditions that led to several unnecessary injuries and deaths. Officials in Indianas Democratic Party-controlled Lake and Porter counties, both of which house US Steel and ArcelorMittal operations, have declared their support for whatever concessions the corporations and USW decide to force upon workers. Officials in Lake County, home of Gary, Indiana, expressed their desire to avoid a struggle like the 1986 US Steel strike, when the corporation brought a shipment of tear gas and a grenade launcher into USS Gary Works and Democratic Mayor Richard Hatcher deployed a special detachment of police to intervene in the strike. Steelworkers are determined to fight but they need a new organization of struggle and a new political strategy. Steelworkers across the US must form rank-and-file committees in every plant to organize a struggle, independent of the pro-company USW. These committees should draw up with own list of demands and prepare a strike to fight for it. These should include: An immediate 40 percent across-the-board raise and restoration of COLA payments. All health care and pension benefits to be paid for by the company, regardless of labor grade. A reduction of hours with no reduction in pay. Workers control over production, including output speed and health and safety. Steelworkers should reject the nationalist poison long peddled by the USW to provide a cover for its collusion with the steel corporations and divide American steelworkers from their class brothers and sisters in Europe, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere. Instead, rank-and-file committees should fight for a unified struggle of steelworkers around the world against the giant global corporations and the big business politicians they control. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTTV) The Hoosier States two U.S. senators have weighed in on Thursdays Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. During the hearing, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh denied allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when both were high school students. Ford told the committee she was 100 percent certain a drunken young Kavanaugh had pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothes and clapped a hand over her mouth as she tried to yell for help. Although Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) says he was struck by both testimonies, he says he wasnt convinced that Kavanaugh was involved in the alleged assault and he still plans on voting to confirm the judge. It was important for both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh to appear before the committee today. I watched the hearing closely and was struck by the power of both testimonies. I was not, however, persuaded that Judge Kavanaugh was involved in this alleged incident 36 years ago. I believe Judge Kavanaugh was truthful under oath during todays hearing, and I trust the statements of the witnesses named by Dr. Ford who said under penalty of felony that they have no recollection of the alleged incident. After watching todays hearing, and conducting a thorough and objective review of his nomination, I remain convinced that Judge Kavanaugh is a man of integrity who will be an excellent addition to the Supreme Court. I will be voting to confirm him. As for the states Democratic senator, Joe Donnelly, he hasnt expressed who he believes or where his vote lies. However, he did say the FBI should investigate the allegations. We all have a responsibility to listen to survivors of sexual assault. Todays hearing with Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh provided the Senate with more information that we can use to make a decision on this nomination. The allegations described by Dr. Ford today against Judge Kavanaugh are serious, merit further review, and I believe should be investigated by the FBI. Senate Republicans say judiciary committee will vote Friday morning on whether to favorably recommend Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court. If approved, GOP lawmakers say the first procedural vote will take place on the Senate floor Saturday. This story was orgionally posted on CBS4indy.com COLUMBUS, Miss. (WTVA) - Two of the defendants in a lawsuit filed over the shooting death of Ricky Ball by a Columbus police officer may soon be removed from the suit. Papers filed in U.S. District Court show unopposed motions for dismissal for Canyon Boykin and Tony Carleton. Boykin shot and killed Ricky Ball in October of 2015 after Ball ran from a traffic stop. He has been indicted for manslaughter in connection with the shooting. Carleton was the police chief at the time of the Ball's death. The documents do not mention a possible settlement, but a settlement conference was held late last month. The motions mention each side will pay the costs of their attorneys and other costs. Boykin is still waiting to stand trial on the criminal charges. OXFORD, Miss. (WTVA) - A Tennessee man has been arrested for the bizarre break-in at Oxford High School. On Sunday, September 23 at approximately 10 a.m., police responded to the school for a report of an open door. Police made contact with a school employee who said she found the phrase M2K drawn out with salt on the floor inside. Police say there were also duplicate notes spread throughout the school asking people to be kind to one another. Officers watched security video and saw a masked person walking around the school sometime near 12:55 a.m. The phrase M2K led police to a Twitter and Instagram account with the name Michael Kacy. Pictures were posted from that account of someone outside and inside the school. Those accounts were subpoenaed by investigators with Oxford police. Police say an anonymous tip identified the suspect as Caleb Johnson, 20, of Millington, Tenn. Oxford police traveled to Tennessee and located Johnson who was arrested later that day for burglary. He was booked into the Lafayette County jail and given a $2,500 bond. This is an ongoing investigation. UPDATE: Oxford Police announced late Thursday night that an arrest in the break-in has been made. The suspect arrested has not been identified at this time. Original Story: OXFORD, Miss. (WTVA) - Oxford police are actively investigating a weekend break-in at Oxford High School. The morning of Sunday, September 23, Oxford police responded to the school in reference to a burglary. When officers arrived, they spoke with a school employee who found one of the doors unlocked. After going inside, police determined that someone had broken into the school sometime during the night. Police say they did not find any damaged or missing property inside the school. We are working with multiple agencies as we follow up on leads, police stated. We have enhanced patrol efforts in and around each school within the school district to ensure parents and students that we are aware and taking added measures to keep our schools safe. This is a developing story. PONTOTOC, Miss. (WTVA) - Hundreds of employees attended a meeting less than 24 hours after the flames at Washington Furniture to find out what the company will do with their employees. Employees were informed that they will still be employed by the company and paid during the next three weeks. The management team all of our supervisors rallied this morning to make sure our employees know that they make this company understand that they are going to be taken care of and without them, we are not a company, said John Beard, Vice-President of Sales at Washington Furniture. It is still unclear at this time what caused the fire but the warehouse will be shut down over the next three weeks. Workers praised the company for making sure its employees are taken care of. You know things like this do happen, I'm really grateful to work for a company that gives us some great compensation while they figure out the next plan," said Corey White. According to the company's CEO Lyle Harris, they plan to have the reconstruction done by mid-October. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The American Heart Association hosted its annual Heart Walk at Cascades Park. Hundreds of people packed Cascades Park on Thursday night for the American Heart Association's 25th Annual Heart Walk. The event raises money to fight heart disease and other cardiac problems. But Tallahassee's regional director of The American Heart Association. Todd Kuntz, says this event is about more than just raising money. "Today is just so special because it's our big chance to celebrate the survivors in our community and fighters and the folks affected by heart disease," Kuntz says. "You know, everyone come together and remember and think about the ones we loved and lost and the ones who survived it." The Heart Walk expects to raise about $140,000. One woman who received a heart transplant, Libby Smith, says with that money at stake, the community support is amazing. "Heart research has come such a long long way," Smith says, "and I witnessed that through my trials with heart problems here in Tallahassee and then through my heart transplant, so definitely to see all these people it is extremely rewarding." Smith is not the only heart patient walking the three-mile track. Dennis Murphy currently deals with heart issues, but he could not miss a chance to support the fight against one of the leading causes of death in the United States. "I like this activity and being a part of it and joining with so many other people to enjoy this wonderful evening," Murphy says. Many others showed up to support the community, including Kim Shipp, a nurse manager at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. "I am a cardiac nurse by heart," she says, "so it has always been my passion, it is always what I wanted to be and that is what I do. Heart disease - I see it with my patients, I see it in the community, see it with your own parents and it is really important to me. " VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) - A California man has been arrested after he broke into a local convenience store and stole several items. The Valdosta Police Department says that they were called to the A&B Food Mart at 607 East Hill Avenue around 4:14 a.m. Friday morning. Police officers immediately responded to the store to investigate an active burglary alarm. When they arrived, they saw that the front door of the business had been shattered and items were scattered all over the floor. According to VPD, officers set up a perimeter around the area and brought on a K-9 unit. The K-9 picked up on the suspect's scent, leading officers to the man within minutes. When officers searched the man, identified as Patrick McJoseph of San Diego, California, they found multiple items that were confirmed as stolen by the store's owner. McJoseph was taken into custody and transported to the Lowndes County Jail. He has been charged with burglary. The Valdosta Police Department continues to encourage business owners to invest in surveillance equipment and alarm systems for their businesses. This case is a prime example of how this technology greatly assisted law enforcement in identifying and arresting the offender in short order, said Lieutenant Adam Bembry. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A convicted Florida felon who was arrested after he was accused of robbing a victim at gunpoint for his gold watch back in May has been found guilty. Carlos Kenon, 23, was found guilty at trial of armed robbery with a firearm. His sentencing has been set for Oct. 1. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A convicted Florida felon was arrested after he was accused of robbing a victim at gunpoint for his gold watch. Carlos Kenon, 23, was arrested on May 4 by the Tallahassee Police Department. On May 4 around 11:21 p.m., TPD responded to Taco Bell on West Tennessee Street in reference to a robbery. When officers arrived, they made contact with the victim who said he had been robbed at gunpoint by Kenon. The victim told officers that he and three of his friends had gone into Taco Bell and bought some food. The victim informed officers while waiting for their food, Kenon asked the victim's girlfriend what he was "smoking." She told Kenon it was an e-cigarette, and he then began a conversation with the victim. Kenon mentioned to the victim that he had "just gotten out of prison," and then specifically asked the victim about his watch, wanting to "see it." Unsure of what Kenon was asking, the victim told him it "wasn't an expensive watch" and that he could get one online. The victim said Kenon asked again to see his watch and when he declined, Kenon lifted his shirt revealing a "small compact black pistol, possibly a Taurus" in his pocket. The police report states, Kenon lifted the gun out of his pocket to "about the trigger" and again asked the victim to "see" his watch. The victim told Kenon, "so it's going to be like that" and Kenon responded "yep," keeping his shirt raised with the gun half pulled out from his pocket. The victim told officers he gave the watch to Kenon, who said he was "going to keep it." When the victim and his friends made it outside of the store, he saw Kenon get into a "white Charger." Unsure if Kenon was going to follow them, the victim advised they "drive away fast" and call law enforcement. According to the police report, officers then saw a white Charger at Whataburger on West Tennessee Street and was able to pin the car in the parking lot, conducting a felony stop. Officers placed Kenon in handcuffs and asked him where the watch was. Officers searched his pockets twice but were unable to find the watch. They then asked Kenon to finally give up the watch. According to the police report, he reached into the back of his boxers and pulled out the watch. Kenon was unable to explain to officers why he had the watch hidden in his boxers. He also maintained his story to officers that he bought the watch from the victim without conflict. Officers searched the car and found a loaded firearm under the driver seat of the vehicle. Based on the evidence, Kenon was arrested and charged with robbery with a firearm and possession of a weapon or ammo by a convicted Florida felon. His bond is set at $50,000. Kenon, who is on Florida inmate supervised release status/violent felony of special concern status, was found guilty in May 2012 of armed robbery, kidnapping to facilitating a felony with a firearm, and resisting officer without violence in Gadsden County,. Kenon was also found as a delinquent for possession of a firearm on school property in Gadsden County back in Feb. 2010. (WTXL) - Two young children reported missing out of Live Oak have been found safe in Houston, Texas. The Suwannee County Sheriff's Office says Brian Meijas, 7, and Gabriela Mejias, 6, were found safe in Houston, Texas. Sheriff's Office says that the whole family was part of a caravan, with a final destination of Madison County for some sort of family gathering. They were traveling through Live Oak and stopped to cash some checks. The cashier at the check cashing facility noticed that the checks were fraudulent and called the Sheriff's Office. The cashier told the group that authorities had been called and that's when the group panicked. Deputies say two guys in the group ran to one of the vehicles and took off with the two children inside, leaving the mother of the children at the facility. The two guys drove all the way back to Texas (where their caravan originally came from). The children were seen attending their regular school the following day, safe and sound. SCSO says charges for the fraudulent checks are pending. LIVE OAK, Fla. (WTXL) - A Florida AMBER ALERT has been issued for two young children reported being last seen in Live Oak. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Brian Meijas, 7, was last seen wearing a red shirt and blue jean shorts and Gabriela Mejias, 6, was last seen wearing a pink dress. Brian's hair is short, with a hard part to the left. He is missing teeth on the top right. He has a scar below his hairline on the right side of his forehead. Gabriela has long, dark hair past her waist. She has noticeable dimples, and all her teeth are crowned except the front four. FDLE stated the children were last seen in the area of the 900 block of Ohio Avenue North in Live Oak. They may be traveling in a black Toyota Camry, with a Texas license plate. The Camry has dark tinted windows and is possibly being driven by a male named Rochie. According to FDLE, the vehicle is possibly travelling in a caravan of three vehicles. One of the other vehicles is a grey, Chevy Tahoe or Suburban with lightly tinted windows and a Texas license plate. The other possible vehicle is a beige Chevy Tahoe or Suburban with no tint and it is possibly being driven by a male named Melecio and occupied by a female named Alexia. According to Suwannee County Sheriff Sam St. John, the two kids are originally from Houston, TX. and the plan was for the adults that they were with, including their mother, to go around trying to cash fake checks to different stores around Live Oak. Sheriff St. John told us they have a friend in Madison they were going to visit. Sheriff St. John said when one of the stores in Live Oak figured out they were trying to cash a fake check, the police were called and the men fled the scene, leaving the mother behind. There are possibly 13 subjects in total plus the two children. They may be travelling West towards Texas or West towards Madison, Florida. If you have any information on the whereabouts of the two children, please call the Suwannee County Sheriff's Office at 386-362-2222 or 911. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Georgia man accused of agreeing to meet a 14-year-old child in Tallahassee to make a "sex movie" has been found guilty. Douglas Yocom, 37, received a sentencing date of October 3. According to a probable cause affidavit, Yocom was caught by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Internet Crimes Against Children's Undercover Operation during the week of Feb. 8, 2017. A Tallahassee Police Department investigator posted a "counter-intelligence Craigslist ad" that posed as being from a 14-year-old female child. Replying by email to the investigator, Yocom, using an assumed name, said he was a 35-year-old man looking for a girl to make a "sex movie" for private viewing and eventually offered to pay up to $3,000. In the emails, Yocom said he knew what he was doing was wrong. "I don't know what you look like either plus I can go to jail for this unlike you," he said in an email. Yocom agreed to travel to meet the child but did not arrive at the designated location, a court document said. An investigator searching through Yocom's emails noted a man wearing a U.S. Navy uniform that had the insignia of a petty officer and saw the name tag "Yocom." A special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Pensacola provided the investigator with information about Yocom and his Georgia driver's license photo. Yocom's emails showed that on multiple occasions he sent emails and photos to people on Craigslist inquiring about sexual acts, the court document said. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Lamont man who was arrested, accused in an October 2017 car crash that killed a man has been sentenced to two years in jail. Azende Thompson, 20, was found guilty during trial of two counts of reckless driving causing serious bodily injury. He has been sentenced to two years in the Florida Department of Corrections followed by three years of probation. Additionally, he will have his driver's license revoked for five years. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Lamont man who was arrested, accused in an October car crash that killed a man, failed a drug test after bonding out. Azende Thompson, 20, bonded out on Jan. 11 then failed a drug test which tested positive for THC (the component in marijuana that gets people high) which violated the terms of his pre-trial release. This was also the same drug he was allegedly smoking when he wrecked the vehicle. He was arrested and taken back to the Leon County Detention Center Wednesday. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Lamont man has been arrested, accused in an October car crash that killed a man. Azende Thompson, 20, was arrested on Wednesday for vehicular homicide. They say the charges stem from a crash on October 14, 2017 where Thompson was driving and crashed into a large oak tree head on after failing to turn with a curve in the road. Emergency responders were called to the scene on Old St. Augustine Road and provided medical attention to 20-year-old Tyrone Ivey Jr. Ivey later died from his injuries. One other passenger suffered broken bones in the crash, but lived. When interviewed, the passenger admitted that all three had been smoking marijuana prior to the crash. A blood test confirmed that Thompson was under the influence of marijuana at the time of the crash. Further investigation determined that the car had been going over 80 miles per hour before colliding with a tree. The speed limit on Old St. Augustine Road is 40 mph. Thompson is in the Leon County Detention Center on a $15,000 bond. BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA (WTOC) - A military plane crashed on Friday around 11:45 a.m. in Beaufort County, South Carolina. According to the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office, the pilot ejected safely. Medical personnel will evaluate him or her for injuries. The pilot from the military plane crash safely ejected. Being a valuated for injuries. Beaufort County Sheriff's Office,SC (@bcsopio) September 28, 2018 The plane went down around Clarendon Road and Joe Allen Drive in Grays Hill. CBS reported the plane was an F-35. The Beaufort County Sheriffs Office advised people to stay away from the area. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - Shrimp harvested in Florida waters and shipped out for human consumption literally wont have to be put on ice any longer. With an eye on growing Asian markets across the U.S., the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved a rule change Thursday that had required shrimp harvested as food to be dead and put on ice when transported from the docks to stores. The change clarifies that the icing requirement no longer applies to food shrimp prior to sale. Kelly Runnels, a commercial fisherman who harvests shrimp from boats docked in Hernando Beach, told the commission that his industry views markets within Asian communities across the U.S. as very lucrative. From when kids go back to school until January is a very slow time. So, right now well start selling to the Asian markets and it keeps us going through the fall of the year," said Runnels. "It keeps all the boats working and all of the people working. The icing rule had been considered a seafood safety measure. FWC estimates the shrimp industry in Florida has a $45.9 million economic impact annually. For many years, there has been a market for people to sell them live. But, its really just grown over the past few years," said Amanda Nalley, spokesperson for FWC. FWC is continuing to work on changes to shrimp harvesting rules, which currently includes a prohibition on commercial harvesting on weekends and holidays during the open season. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 00:35:12|Editor: yan Video Player Close FRANKFURT, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), called Thursday in Frankfurt for widening macroprudential toolkit in the European Union (EU) to address risks beyond banking sector. While delivering speech at the annual conference of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) also chaired by him, Draghi welcomed the efforts of EU policymakers who have already started using macroprudential tools to address risks in the real estate sector and banking sector as well as structural risks in member states. "Since the new EU prudential rules for banks entered into force at the start of 2014, policymakers have been proactive in using macroprudential tools to address emerging areas of risk," Draghi said. The EU economy has been growing now for more than five years, to which important contributions were made by macroprudential policy as well as by monetary policy, the ECB chief said. However, he reminded that macroprudential instruments in the EU so far for the most part target the banking sector, given the predominance of bank-based finance at the time that the initial response to the global financial crisis was designed. "Yet non-bank finance is playing an increasingly important role in financing the economy," Draghi underlined. With total assets of over 42 trillion euros (49 trillion U.S. dollars), the shadow banking sector accounts for around 40 percent of the EU financial system, according to the estimation by the ECB. "As the Capital Markets Union progresses, the role of non-bank finance is expected to increase further," Draghi said. Thus he urged that policymakers need a comprehensive macroprudential toolkit to act in case existing risks migrate outside the banking sector or new risks emerge. Tools for insurance should be involved in the wider toolkit, in addition to further tools which should deal with liquidity risk and those risks associated with leverage among some types of investment funds, said Draghi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 00:55:15|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's participation in the Vostok-2018 (or East-2018) strategic drills in Russia would promote regional peace and stability, and was not targeting any third parties, China's Ministry of National Defense said Thursday. "In recent years, China-Russia joint military training has already been institutionalized and normalized through bilateral arrangements or under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization mechanism," Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for the ministry, said at a regular press conference. "Whether China will continue to participate in strategic drills in Russia on a regular basis depends on the requirement of security needs and is up to the two countries." On recent U.S. sanctions of a Chinese military unit, Ren said that China-Russia military cooperation is legal under international law, and the United States has no right to interfere. "The military technology cooperation projects between China and Russia are proceeding as planned, and both sides will further promote cooperation based on the principle of mutual benefit and consensus-building," Ren said. The U.S. State Department announced last Thursday that it would impose sanctions on the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission and the department's director, alleging that China had violated the "Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 01:50:22|Editor: yan Video Player Close BERLIN, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Ryanair is behaving inconsistently in negotiations to resolve a long-standing labor dispute with staff and will hence trigger a further escalation of the conflict unless it starts to offer "constructive solutions", the German pilot trade union "Vereinigung Cockpit" (VC) told Xinhua on Thursday. "At the moment we are in a sort of bath with mixed hot and cold waters. In one moment we see progress together (in talks) with the (Ryanair) management, but then in the next we are surprised again," VC spokesperson Janis Schmitt said. He consequently complained that it "felt as if previous assurances are taken off the table again and one has to start at zero again." The comments by the pilot trade union were made shortly before the start of yet another round of Europe-wide strikes at Ryanair on Friday to demand better working conditions at Europe's largest budget airline. The Irish carrier has confirmed that it expects up to 190 flights in total to be cancelled as a consequence of industrial action participated in by pilots and flight attendants from Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. As recently as August, Ryanair already experienced its largest ever episode of industrial action as pilots from Germany, Belgium, Ireland and Sweden participated in a Europe-wide strike. Across the continent, a total of 55,000 passengers were affected by resulting flight cancellations and delays at the time. In early September, German pilots and cabinet then united in their first ever joint strike for a period of 24-hours which also led to heavy disruptions. Trade unions have only been officially recognized by the management at Ryanair since 2017 and its combative Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael O'Leary has repeatedly resisted calls from staff for better pay and working conditions which he claims would endanger his ultra-low-cost business model. On Thursday, Ryanair announced that it had filed a complaint with EU competition regulators because it believes that staff from rival airlines has been instrumental in organizing the Europe-wide industrial action. VC has already been negotiating unsuccessfully on behalf of German pilots with Ryanair to sign its first ever collective wage agreement since January. In a conversation with Xinhua, the trade union complained that there had been "no durable progress" on the issue so far. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (2nd R) meets with Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde (2nd L) in New York, the United States, on Sept. 26, 2018. (Xinhua) NEW YORK, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde on Wednesday, exchanging views on multilateralism and the reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO). During the talks, Wang emphasized China's stance in upholding multilateralism, free trade and international rules and law. Wang also called for increased international efforts to safeguard multilateralism. Echoing Wang's views, Lagarde said it was one of IMF's principles to advocate multilateralism and international trade. The international community should firmly protect multilateral trading system and abide by rules and regulations in international trade while addressing disputes through consultations, she said. When discussing issues on the reform of WTO, Wang proposed the reform should be transparent, open and inclusive, since it is related to interests of all its members. Opinions of all WTO members, especially the developing countries, should be considered, said Wang, noting that the global trade body plays a vital role in the development of international trade. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 02:05:25|Editor: yan Video Player Close BERLIN, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Only 24 percent of German companies have fully implemented the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in their business to date, according to a survey published by the German digital association Bitkom on Thursday. "The results are disillusioning," said Susanne Dehmel, managing director of Bitkom for law and safety, four months after the new data protection rules of the European Union came into effect. According to the study, 40 percent of companies in Germany have implemented most of the regulations, but three out of 10 companies are only partially meeting the requirements. And about 5 percent of the German companies have just begun making the required adjustments. The results are in line with a previous Bitkom survey published in May 2018, in which only 24 percent of the companies surveyed stated that they would complete the implementation of the EU data protection regulations by the deadline of May 25, 2018. "Many companies have clearly misjudged themselves on the implementation of the GDPR. For others, the complete implementation is probably not a time-related problem, but an ideal that cannot be achieved at all," stated Dehmel. According to the Bitkom study, eight out of 10 German companies complained about a higher cost for their day-to-day business because of the GDPR. And 96 percent of companies surveyed are demanding that the new rules should be improved and six out of 10 companies said that the GDPR must be simplified. The first priority in this regard would be a fundamental simplification of the data protection regulations for smaller companies. "Completely new data protection obligations are difficult to manage, especially for small businesses," added Dehmel. The GDPR restricts companies in their handling of customer or user data and the passing on of personal data is made more difficult. Consumers must be informed if personal data such as names, postal addresses, e-mail addresses and ID numbers are collected. The new rules also include the right of oblivion, allowing users to request the deletion of their personal data. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 02:25:31|Editor: yan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that the session of the 73rd UN General Assembly and related events further exposed the U.S. isolation in the world. Rouhani said that U.S. President Donald Trump's anti-Iran UN speech "did not bring any achievement" to him, the Press TV reported. "Neither did he succeed with his anti-Iran agenda in the UN Security Council meeting," Rouhani said, adding that Washington sought to use its capacity as chair of the UN Security Council to single out Iran at the meeting, only to face the "reverse effect." That UN Security Council meeting turned, instead, into "a strong show of support" for the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, which the Trump administration scrapped in May, Rouhani said. Speaking at the UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, Trump said that the U.S. will impose "tougher than ever" sanctions on Iran in November. The Iranian nuclear deal was reached in Vienna in 2015 between Iran, the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, China, France, Russia, Britain, the United States, plus Germany). In May, Trump announced Washington's withdrawal from the landmark Iranian nuclear deal. Since then, the Trump administration has reimposed sanctions on Iran, while vowing to apply more in November. In response, EU foreign affairs and security policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday that the EU will set up a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran in light of the U.S. sanctions. The legal entity will allow European companies to continue to trade with Iran in accordance with the EU law and could be open to other partners in the world, Mogherini said. On Tuesday, Rouhani blasted the U.S.-led sanctions against his country as "economic terrorism." "World security is under threat by some states' recklessness and disregard of international values and institutions," Rouhani made the remarks during the general debate of the 73rd UN General Assembly. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 02:40:34|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The air defenses of the Saudi-led coalition on Thursday intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthi rebels toward Yemen's southern port city of Aden, a security official told Xinhua. "The Houthis aimed at targeting the main headquarters of the Saudi-led coalition forces with a ballistic missile, but the attack was aborted," the local security source said on condition of anonymity. The missile attack, which targeted the coalition's headquarters based in Aden's district of Buraigah, caused no casualties among the Saudi-led coalition forces. Aden's district of Buraigah has key military bases of the Saudi-led coalition and the United Arab Emirates fighting the Houthis in Yemen. Residents told Xinhua that "loud explosions were heard near the coalition's headquarters." Yemen's Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani confirmed the incident on his official Twitter account, saying "the coalition's air defences shot down a missile over Aden." But according to local media, the Saudi-led coalition downed two ballistic missiles. In July, the Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for targeting the coalition's main camp in Aden with drones, threatening that "there will be no safe place for coalition leaders or gatherings in Yemen." The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to roll back the Shiite Houthi rebels and support the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Since September 2014, the rebels have seized control over much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, and forced Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia. The war has so far killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced 3 million others, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 03:20:41|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Tunisian Interior Minister Hichem Fourati attends a press conference with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini (not in the picture) in Tunis, Tunisia, on Sept. 27, 2018. Italy will make efforts to halt illegal immigration from Tunisia by boosting investment in the country to eliminate the root causes of illegal immigration, Salvini said Thursday. (Xinhua/Adele Ezzine) TUNIS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Italy will make efforts to halt illegal immigration from Tunisia by boosting investment in the country to eliminate the root causes of illegal immigration, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Thursday. Salvini, on his first official visit to Tunisia, told a press conference that he believes "the relatively high unemployment rate in Tunisia remains the main reason for the increase of illegal immigration." After talks with his Tunisian counterpart Hichem Fourati, Salvini said "Italy hopes to become Tunisia's first partner in the economic, cultural and political fields." Italy is determined to "strengthen the legal channels of immigration between the two Mediterranean countries through investment in Tunisia, in addition to the creation of jobs essentially in southern Tunisia," said Salvini. For his part, Fourati said that his meeting with his Italian counterpart was an opportunity to address issues of common interest, essentially more coordination in the fight against crime and terrorism. "We talked about the tools that could be used to deal with human trafficking networks through illegal immigration that cost the lives of our young people, off the Mediterranean," Fourati said. Fourati said Tunisian authorities had detained no less than 500 individuals convicted of involvement in human trafficking cases by Sept. 20 this year. The number of illegal Tunisian immigrants leaving home country has reached 4,000 so far this year, according to International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Tunisia. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 03:30:43|Editor: yan Video Player Close BERLIN, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- China and Germany are to further strengthen dialogue and consultation on macroeconomic policies between the two countries, delegates of both sides said after the 20th Economic Policy Consultation. At the invitation of German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, visited Germany with a Chinese delegation between Sept. 23 and Sept. 26. During his visit, Ning hosted together with Ulrich Nussbaum, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the 20th Economic Policy Consultation. The two sides exchanged views on the macroeconomic situation and policy orientation of the two countries, the impact of trade frictions, the WTO reform, the policy measures of structural reforms, and the third-party market cooperation. In addition, the Chinese delegation also visited the headquarters of Siemens and the regional headquarters of COSCO Shipping in Europe for a better understanding of market development among Chinese and German companies. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 03:35:45|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close ALGIERS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- China will be the guest of honor at the 23rd International Book Fair of Algiers slated for Oct. 29, local media reported on Thursday. Hamido Massoudi, commissioner of the fair, said that 970 publishers from 47 countries, including 271 Algerian publishing houses, are expected to attend the exhibition, the state-run Channel 1 radio reported. He pointed out that China will participate in the fair by exhibiting about 3,000 books in Arabic and English. Massoudi said that inviting China as a guest of honor at the fair coincides with the two countries' celebrating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations. Djamel Foughali, head of the Reading Committee at the Ministry of Culture, said that as many as 260,000 books have been approved for exhibition so far. Foughali stressed that some books have been banned from participation, citing that Algeria's laws forbid any book that touches state symbols and glorifies violence, terrorism and racism. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 03:45:49|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Palestinians watch Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivering a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on a large screen, in the West Bank City of Nablus, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Ayman Nobani) RAMALLAH, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Palestinians rallied on Thursday night around a large screen in the city center of the West Bank's Ramallah to watch the speech of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly. Laila Ghannam, governor of Ramallah, said Abbas' speech has delivered a message that the Palestinians want peace, but not in the way the Americans and Israelis have defined. "The message is delivered: Jerusalem is ours and there cannot be a solution without the refugees," she said. The United States and Israel "always escape their obligations and impose what they want on our people," Ghannam added. In his speech, Abbas called on the U.S. government to rescind its decision on Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees in order to salvage the prospects for peace. He also called on Israel to honor all the agreements signed with the Palestinians. "Otherwise, the Palestinians will not abide by them anymore," Abbas warned. The Palestinians has been boycotting the United States since Dec. 6, 2018 when Trump declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, especially after May 14, the day the U.S. embassy to Israel was moved to the disputed holy city. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 04:20:58|Editor: yan Video Player Close PRAGUE, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic on Thursday confirmed the first domestic contraction case of West Nile fever. The case was firstly reported by local Nova television on Thursday, and later confirmed by Czech Deputy Health Minister Roman Prymula on the same day. The case involved a 72-year-old woman who died after she was contracted the virus in the Czech Republic. The woman also suffered from other serious chronic problems. Epidemiologists have already discovered the virus in mosquitoes and horses in south Moravia in June. The first case occurred in early September, when a Czech man returned from Greece in August was taken to the infection clinic of Central Military Hospital (UVN) in Prague after suffering health troubles. The Health Ministry spokeswoman Gabriela Stepanyova said that this is a logical development of the situation due to the climate conditions and the distribution of the incidence of the West Nile fever. She said no case has been recorded in which the West Nile virus was transferred from one man to another. The relevant measures have been taken and the relevant authorities, such as the State Veterinary Administration, have been contacted. West Nile fever is a viral infection typically spread by mosquitoes. The incubation period ranges from three to 14 days. The infection can lead to serious complications including meningitis and encephalitis. Serious infection could endanger patients' life. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 04:25:59|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close JUBA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- A group of African diplomats in South Sudan on Thursday urged the country's leaders not to squander the recently signed peace deal, urging them to ensure that is it fully implemented. The African Diplomatic Corps in South Sudan, an association of 11 African ambassadors in the East African country, said the latest peace deal provides hope for restoration of stability in the war-torn country, and the signatories to the pact must stop their forces from fighting. The group's head and Kenya's ambassador to Juba, Cleland Leshore, said Africa wants to see a peaceful and prosperous South Sudan, and that dream can be achieved if the latest peace deal is implemented fully. Jerome Biswaro, the African Union (AU) Representative in South Sudan, said the country's leaders should drop their personal interests and silence the guns in the oil-rich nation. "Let us embrace the recently signed peace agreement. It is a South Sudanese peace that has to be implemented by South Sudanese across the board. Make sure it is implemented to letter and spirit," the AU envoy stressed. The envoys spoke during a working visit to the country's biggest public health facility, the Juba Teaching Hospital on Thursday. South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013, and the conflict has created one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world. The UN estimates that about 4 million South Sudanese have been displaced internally and externally. A peace deal signed in August 2015 collapsed following renewed violence in the capital, Juba in July 2016. South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, his former deputy and arch rival Riek Machar and several opposition groups early this month signed a new power-sharing deal aimed at ending the five-year old conflict that has devastated the world's youngest nation. But the latest deal is being threatened by fresh wave of clashes that erupted shortly after it was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both government and the main rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) have blamed each other for the renewed fighting in the northern and Southern parts of the country. "There continue to be some violations here and there. We call upon all parties to live to letter and spirit so that we silence the guns," said Biswaro. "The AU flagship is 2020 to silence the guns across the continent, and South Sudan should start today." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 04:41:03|Editor: yan Video Player Close JUBA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said Thursday they have developed a long-term plan to fight Fall Armyworm (FAW), an insect that destroys crops. The UN food agency said the five-year plan for sustainable management and control of Fall Armyworm in South Sudan entails guidance to help the country mobilize resources to significantly reduce yield losses from infestation by the pest. Pierre Vauthier, FAO Deputy Representative in South Sudan, said the ministry and UN agency have also been able to train trainers at the national, state, county and village levels, as well as training NGOs that work with farmers. "The highest level of infestation was recorded in the Eastern Equatoria and Central Equatoria regions," Vauthier said in a statement. Fall Armyworm, which first arrived in Africa in 2016, has quickly spread across the continent, according to FAO. South Sudan reported it first in 2017 and the pest has now spread across the entire country. Vauthier said the strategic plan provides a chance for effective management and control of Fall Armyworm in order to reduce crop damage and yield loss. The move comes after the UN food agency on Tuesday introduced a new digital tool to fight the fall armyworm in South Sudan amid massive crop failure caused by the voracious pest. FAO said that it will be using an early warning mobile application system to enable farmers to document and share information about the location and severity of fall armyworm infestations. It will distribute electronic tablets to 220 villagers and crop monitoring committees across the east African country to monitor and transmit information about the spread of the fall armyworm. According to FAO, the pest feeds on more than 80 host plants, but prefers maize or sorghum, the major staple crops in South Sudan. "Any production loss to this pest is likely to have a significant impact on the already precarious food security situation in the country," the UN agency warned, noting that latest food security situation analysis also shows that around two-thirds of the population are at risk of extreme food insecurity. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 06:16:23|Editor: yan Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- A deputy governor of Istanbul on Thursday pledged all efforts to promote relations between Turkey and China "in every field." Addressing a reception hosted by the Chinese Consulate General to mark the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Ismail Gultekin referred to the fact that Turkey and China have developed commercial and cultural relations for many years through the historical Silk Road and established close ties. "As for the Istanbul governor's office, we will continue to do our best to contribute to the development of the relations between the two countries in every field," he said. Cui Wei, the Chinese consul general in Istanbul, drew attention to the progress made in bilateral economic cooperation under China's Road and Belt Initiative during the past five years, including more than 100 billion U.S. dollars in bilateral trade, a growth of 120 percent in terms of China's investment in Turkey, and the establishment of branches or offices in Turkey by 1,000 Chinese companies. The Belt and Road Initiative, formally known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Africa and Europe along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road. The overall trade between China and countries along the Belt and Road has hit 5 trillion dollars since the initiative was proposed five years ago, and China has made a total investment of 70 billion dollars in these countries, thus creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in tax revenue for them, Cui said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 06:46:28|Editor: yan Video Player Close ALGIERS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Algerian Energy Minister Mustapha Guitouni said on Thursday that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is "free and independent" in making decisions. His remarks came after U.S. President Donald Trump recently accused the cartel of monopolizing the oil market at the ongoing UN General Assembly meeting held in New York. "We defend many of these (OPEC) nations for nothing and then they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices, not good," Trump said. "We want them to stop raising prices. We want them to start lowering prices, and they must contribute substantially to military protection," he added. In response, Guitouni said the current oil price per barrel ranging between 70 U.S. dollars to 80 dollars is "appropriate." "In case the prices are high, the industry will slump; demand will decline; stock will increase and ultimately prices will fall. That's why we have to reach consensus to assure sustainable balance between supply and demand," he explained. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 07:01:30|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close CHICAGO, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- A former male nurse in U.S. Wisconsin state was charged on Thursday with 19 felony counts of child abuse involving nine infants. Christopher Kaphaem, 43, was accused of multiple counts of intentional child abuse and one count of abuse of a patient causing great bodily harm at a hospital in Madison from March 2017 to February of 2018. Kaphaem was suspended from UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital and his nursing license was suspended earlier this year, following an investigation into unexplained bruises on babies in a neonatal intensive care unit. Five babies were found to have injuries ranging from bruising on arms and legs to a broken arm and a skull fracture, reported Wisc-TV News 3. According to court documents, hospital staff interviewed by local police revealed that Kaphaem would regularly keep doors closed when he did care exams. Mother of one baby told police that she had concerns about Kaphaem and would stay until his shift ended. The hospital said in a statement on Thursday that they remain "devastated by what happened," adding they have already taken measures to increase safety in order to earn back trust. The measures include implementing 24/7 video monitoring in patient rooms and care areas and updating policies for detection and reporting of abuse. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 07:06:31|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close European Council President Donald Tusk addresses the General Debate of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Qin Lang) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- European Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday that the European Union is fighting to preserve the rules-based international order, which, he said, is under great strain in terms of trade, security, climate change or human rights. "We say this not only as countries strongly supporting the United Nations, but as a continent that cares deeply about respect, mutual understanding and solidarity between nations," Tusk told the UN General Assembly. "As leaders, we must equip the United Nations with the means to fulfil its mandate successfully. More unity and collective action are needed in the struggle against conflict, poverty and famine, terrorism and mass displacement of people, of the kind we see in Venezuela, Syria, Myanmar and many other places." To that end, the European Union firmly supports the current effort to reform the United Nations, he said. "These reforms are badly needed and overdue. The urgency is clear and implementation is essential." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 07:26:00|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Visitors view exhibits at a culture exhibition of the 3rd Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province, Sept. 27, 2018. More than 7,000 items were displayed on the exhibition which kicked off here on Thursday. (Xinhua/Fan Peishen) Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 07:21:34|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close KIEV, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Ukraine hosted a ceremonial reception on Thursday to mark the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The event was attended by about 400 high-ranking guests, including Ukrainian government and parliament officials, foreign diplomats, as well as Chinese and Ukrainian business people. In his welcoming speech, Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei highlighted the achievements China has made in the past 69 years, saying that the success is the result of hard work of the Chinese people. Five years ago, China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, and now the overall trade volume between China and the countries along the Belt and Road has exceeded 6 trillion U.S. dollars, Du said. China's direct investment in the Belt and Road countries amounted to about 70 billion dollars, he added. "We will continue reform and opening-up policy. China strongly supports globalization and free trade, and opposes protectionism and unilateral policies," Du said. Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv conveyed congratulations and best wishes to China from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, saying that China's achievements have provided great opportunities to other countries. Kubiv said that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has become an "intercontinental project of the 21st century," which serves the interests of its participants, including Ukraine. He also said that Ukraine hopes to benefit from the China International Import Expo (CIIE), which will be held in Shanghai in November. "This exhibition will allow Ukrainian businesses, Ukrainian private and state enterprises to present the latest competitive products and expand our sales markets in Asia," Kubiv said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 07:51:40|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) shakes hands with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during their meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Qin Lang) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday, vowing to cement bilateral cooperation. Being Turkey's friend, China firmly supports Turkey's efforts to safeguard national stability and development, and is willing to maintain communication at all levels with Turkey to strengthen mutual understanding, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, and fully consider each other's core interests and major concerns, Wang said. Under the current circumstances, Wang said, the two sides should enhance coordination and cooperation in international affairs, make joint efforts to safeguard multilateralism, international system and international rules, and work together to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of emerging economies and developing countries. For his part, Cavusoglu said Turkey attaches great importance to the ties with China, and hopes to expand practical cooperation with China in various fields including economy and trade, energy and counter-terrorism. Turkey spoke highly of China's just and balanced position in dealing with international affairs, and expects closer cooperation under multilateral frameworks, said the Turkish foreign minister. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 10:22:08|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close RAMALLAH, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- A top Palestinian official on Thursday criticized as "misleading" the speech made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). "Netanyahu insists on misleading the international community and exporting his old falsehoods that criminalize the victim and blame them in order to protect the system of the colonial occupation," Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, said in an emailed press statement. "The peace that Netanyahu wants requires a Palestinian state on 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital and a fair solution to Palestinian refugees issue in accordance to resolution 194," he said. The veteran Palestinian negotiator also said, "Netanyahu's speech clearly shows Israel's systematic denial of the inalienable rights of our people to self-determination and freedom." Earlier in the day, the Palestinian consensus government called on the international community to take the speech made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the UNGA as a reference for any future move to revive peace in the Middle East. Spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud said in a press statement that the speech by Abbas is so important in all its dimensions and its cultural and humanitarian implications. "The speech touches the spirit of love, peace, dialogue and adherence to the struggle and the struggle for freedom and independence, which is enshrined in all the norms and international agreements and laws," said al-Mahmoud. In his speech, Abbas blamed Israel for damaging the peace process in the Middle East and accused the United States for being biased towards Israel. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 10:37:10|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close European Council President Donald Tusk addresses the General Debate of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Qin Lang) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- European Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday that the European Union (EU) is fighting to preserve the rules-based international order, which, he said, is under great strain in terms of trade, security, climate change and human rights. "We say this not only as countries strongly supporting the United Nations, but as a continent that cares deeply about respect, mutual understanding and solidarity between nations," Tusk told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). "As leaders, we must equip the United Nations with the means to fulfil its mandate successfully. More unity and collective action are needed in the struggle against conflict, poverty and famine, terrorism and mass displacement of people, of the kind we see in Venezuela, Syria, Myanmar and many other places." To that end, the EU firmly supports the current effort to reform the UN, he said. "These reforms are badly needed and overdue. The urgency is clear and implementation is essential." Tusk said that the EU is committed to the Iran nuclear deal. The deal has also helped to create space for dialogue on other concerns, like Iran's regional behavior and ballistic missile programs, he said while addressing nuclear issues. The agreement is good for European, regional and global security, he said. "That is why the European Union is committed to maintaining the agreement -- as long as Iran remains fully committed to it." Tusk was commenting on U.S. President Donald Trump's decision earlier this year to quit the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia as well as the United States, and to re-impose sanctions on Iran. Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. After the U.S. withdrawal, the remaining five powers have been trying to keep the deal afloat. The foreign ministers of the five powers and Iran met on Monday on the margins of the UNGA to reaffirm their support for the deal. After chairing the meeting, EU foreign and security policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU will set up a legal entity to circumvent U.S. sanctions. The legal entity will allow European companies to continue to trade with Iran in accordance with EU law and could be open to other partners in the world, said Mogherini. The EU action immediately drew fire from Washington, saying the EU move is unacceptable. The EU is taking on more responsibility for security matters, said Tusk. "We have initiated ambitious cooperation among our own militaries. We are ready to step up help to our neighbors through crisis management missions, capacity building and peacekeeping, in cooperation with others, including NATO, the African Union (AU) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe." He promised to work with the AU and the UN on migration and peacekeeping. The EU is committed to the fight against climate change, said Tusk. "Even though only slow progress is being made on our main task, namely to implement the Paris Agreement, the EU remains fully committed to it and makes it a priority in its relations with our partners." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 10:57:12|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close MEXICO CITY, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Mexican exports saw a year-on-year growth of 10.1 percent in August, reaching a total of 39.536 billion U.S. dollars, its highest gain so far this year, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) said Thursday. The growth was due to demand of products from the United States. Imports increased 9.4 percent year-on-year in August, to 42.127 billion U.S. dollars, Inegi said in its monthly report on commercial balance of goods. Mexico registered a trade deficit of 2.59 billion U.S. dollars in August, less than the 2.889 billion U.S. dollars registered in July, according to historical data from Inegi. In regard to shipments abroad, Inegi said non-petroleum exports totaled 36.813 billion U.S. dollars, and petroleum exports 2.724 billion U.S. dollars. Non-oil exports to the United States grew at an annual rate of 10 percent, while those sent to the rest of the world fell 0.4 percent, Inegi said in the report. Mexico's trade is virtually geared toward the United States, its main trade partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In a letter to its customers, financial group Banorte said the trade figures are consistent with a more vigorous economic expansion forecast during the third quarter of 2018. "Similar to the previous month, we continue to hope that export will keep recovering in the coming months," Banorte said. The factors that can help this drive are less uncertain following the preliminary agreement reached by the United States and Mexico regarding NAFTA on Aug. 27, said Banorte. Another influencing factor will be the strength of industrial activity in the United States, which has been evident in recent data and would be especially favorable for the automotive sector, said Banorte. Mexico's economy, the second largest in Latin America following Brazil, could see a growth of 2 to 2.6 percent this year, according to the estimates of the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico). Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 11:12:16|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close SANTIAGO, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chilean environmental authorities on Thursday approved the construction of Latin America's largest solar powered desalination plant, with an estimated initial investment of 500 million U.S. dollars. The "Energy and Water of the Pacific" (Enapac) plant will be able to desalinate 2,630 liters of water per second once built, said the Chilean constructors, TRENDS Industrial. The new plant will be built in the Atacama region, located in the Atacama Desert, one of the most arid places in the world. "Our vision is that many users can access a sustainable source of water ceasing the use of continental waters and basins of the region, which are under severe water stress," said Rodrigo Silva, the CEO of TRENDS Industrial. The Enapac project will be one of the "most advanced projects in the world with a combination of reverse osmosis desalination and photovoltaic energy," said TRENDS Industrial in a statement. Atacama governor Francisco Sanchez welcomed the decision, saying the plant will be built according to the highest environmental and quality standards, with respect for the environment and local communities. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 11:17:16|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly adopted by acclamation a political declaration mobilizing accelerated effort to address non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The document included commitments to reducing by one third premature mortality from NCDs by 2030, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN. While acknowledging the progress achieved by some countries in controlling four major NCDs -- cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases, the text recognized action to realize the commitments is inadequate. The declaration requested the UN secretary-general, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and other relevant parties, to submit to the General Assembly a report on the progress achieved in its implementation by the end of 2024. The text, entitled "Time to Deliver: Accelerating our response to address NCDs for the health and well-being of present and future generations," was adopted at the General Assembly's third High-Level Meeting on Prevention and Control of NCDs. While hailing it as "ambitious and balanced," UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces called for attention to the fact that a huge number of people between the ages of 30 and 70 will die in 2018 because of NCDs. The poorest will likely suffer most from illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which more broadly lead to annual GDP losses of up to 6 percent, she added. Also speaking at the meeting were UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, on behalf of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 11:27:18|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatened on Thursday to renege on agreements with Israel, the United States and the Islamic Hamas movement over their failure to be committed to the accords. Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly, Abbas said, "We have concluded agreements with Israel and they have abrogated all of them. Either Israel abides by these agreements, or else we will renege on them. Israel will bear the responsibility and consequences of this." However, he added: "We will never return to violence and terrorism, no matter what the situation or conditions are." The Palestinian leader then mentioned unspecified agreements with the U.S. administration. "Why have they reneged on all of them, and how should we address this? Please answer me," he said. "Either it respects its commitments, or we are not going to comply with any of these agreements." Speaking of the Palestinian party Hamas, which rules Gaza, Abbas said: "We have also concluded agreements with Hamas. Either they implement them fully, or we will distance ourselves from any agreements or measures that are concluded without our approval and will not bear any responsibility." Reacting to U.S. decisions to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and slash funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Abbas said: "We will also not accept sole American mediation in the peace process because the U.S. administration has lost its eligibility due to its recent decisions." He called on Britain, "which bears a historical, political, legal and moral responsibility with regard to the suffering and displacement of the Palestinian people as a consequence of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, to rectify this historic mistake by recognizing the State of Palestine and compensating the Palestinian people for their pain and suffering." Abbas said the United States, which strongly supported the Balfour Declaration and cooperated with Britain to implement it, should "do the same." "Why does the Security Council not uphold its duties to compel Israel to abide by international law and to bring an end to its occupation of the State of Palestine?" Abbas asked. The answer is that the United States, a staunch supporter of Israel and a member of the five permanent members of the council, holds the power of veto, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 11:37:19|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of seven nations on Thursday urged convening as soon as possible a constitutional committee to begin drafting a new Syrian constitution. According to a statement released by the U.S. State Department, foreign ministers of Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the United States expressed "support for the urgent convening of a constitutional committee to advance the UN's efforts to achieve a political solution to the conflict in Syria on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2254." "We call on the UN and the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria to convene, as quickly as possible, a credible, inclusive constitutional committee that will begin the work of drafting a new Syrian constitution and laying the groundwork for free and fair UN-supervised elections in a safe and neutral environment in which all eligible Syrians - including those in the diaspora - have a right to participate," the statement read. "We urge the UN Special Envoy for Syria to report back to the Security Council on his progress no later than October 31," said the foreign ministers. "The Syrian conflict has dragged on for more than seven years at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives lost and millions forcibly displaced by violence both within Syria and beyond its borders. There is an urgent need for concerted diplomacy and international political will to end the conflict," they said. "We underscore the Office of the UN Special Envoy's clear mandate from the Secretary-General and the UN Security Council to move forward with convening a constitutional committee, and encourage all sides to ensure the Syrian parties are prepared to engage substantively in the committee's proceedings once convened," read the statement. Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to establish a demilitarized zone in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the war-torn country which the government forces have been trying to take over. Iran welcomed the deal between Russia and Turkey, saying it was "the result of intensive responsible diplomacy." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 11:57:24|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close HANOI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Police of Vietnam's northern Son La province said on Friday they detained three local men on Thursday when they were transporting 10 cakes of heroin. The trio included Hang A Giong, 38, Hang A Ho, 34, and Hang A Ly, 29, all from Son La's Muong La district. The provincial police were further investigating the case. According to the Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces death penalty. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 12:22:28|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close SYDNEY, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A new antibiotic, developed by an Australian led-team of scientists, revealed on Friday, could present a solution to the problem of drug resistant bacteria, which is expected to present an ever increasing concern in the coming century. The new kind of antibiotic was developed to limit multidrug resistance by targeting and disrupting key elements in bacterial cells, by scientists from Griffith University (GU), in collaboration with colleagues from Queensland University of Technology, the United States' Indiana University and China's Dezhou University. "We tried to develop a new type of antibiotics that act differently than what we are using right now," Professor Yaoqi Zhou from GU's Institute for Glycomics told Xinhua. "The way most antibiotics stop key functions in bacteria is that they bind to the surface of an essential protein so that it is unable to perform its normal function." "Our technique with this new antibiotic approach is different -- instead of binding to the surface of the protein, we disrupt the structure of the protein, which stops it functioning." In one test Zhou said, the team saw a 500-fold resistance develop to a commonly used antibiotic over 30 days, where as their newly developed antibiotic encountered no developed resistance at all. Additionally the new drug may be useful in cancer treatment, another area where drug resistance is a major hurdle. "What we've found in the concept is that it's not only working for antibiotics but should also work for anti-cancer, which also has a lot of problems in terms of drug resistance, also anti-viral - viral infections have a lot of problems with anti-drug resistance," Zhou said. "So I think this is a concept that should be useful for any other kinds of disease which also has problems with drug resistance issues." Although still in the early theoretical stage, Zhou is hopeful that the method will progress to animal testing and eventually clinical trials, and provide an answer to what is an increasingly urgent international crisis. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 12:52:33|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close JAKARTA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has announced a plan to publish weekly briefings on fake news, reports said on Thursday. The government made the decision to prevent disinformation from spreading on social media and push "digital literacy" in the political arena. "Every week we will announce hoax news," Communications Minister Rudiantara told CNN Indonesia. "The ministry will not just stamp a story as hoax, but we will also provide facts." With a 70-member specialized content control team, the initiative will start as soon as possible. Apart from the weekly briefings, the debunked posts will also be posted on an official website. The plan was designed to encourage the Indonesian people to think critically about the news they consume and help them "sort through the news" in the upcoming presidential election, Rudiantara said. According to the local media Jakarta Globe, Indonesia is the fifth-biggest Twitter user and the fourth-biggest Facebook user in 2017. With one of the largest active social media user groups, the country has witnessed the spread of fake news and misinformation which can be used to manipulate political campaigns and inflame social tensions. Several days after the presidential election officially started and presidential candidates committed to a peaceful campaign last week, a salacious website detailing the alleged affairs of one of the candidates appeared online, but was soon blocked by the communications ministry. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 13:07:38|Editor: Liu Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday asked for an early repatriation of Bengali-speaking Rohingya refugees from her country to Myanmar. In her speech at the UN General Assembly General Debate, Hasina regretted the fact that repatriation has not started in a permanent and sustainable manner. "Myanmar is one of our neighbors. From the outset, we have been trying to find a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis through bilateral consultations," she said. "So far, three bilateral arrangements have been concluded between Bangladesh and Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation. Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingya, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back." "The Rohingya crisis has had its origin in Myanmar. As such, its solution has to be found in Myanmar. ... We want an early, peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis," said Hasina. The Rohingya hosted in Bangladesh are living in an uncertain situation, she said. Bangladesh has made arrangements for their food, clothing, health care, child care and security to the best of its ability. Many countries and organizations, including the United Nations and the Commonwealth, have shown solidarity with the Rohingya and extended support and assistance for them. Bangladesh has started working on a new housing facility for the refugees. "So long the Rohingya are not able to return home, they should, as a temporary arrangement, be able to live in a good and healthy condition," she said. The prime minister called upon international organizations to work with her country in the relocation of the Rohingya to the new facility. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 720,000 Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority living in mostly Buddhist Myanmar's northern Rakhine State, have fled to Bangladesh since violence broke out in August 2017. They joined another 200,000 Rohingya who earlier fled into adjacent Bangladesh, said the UNHCR. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 13:07:39|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close HANOI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam welcomed 3.8 million Chinese visitors in the first nine months of this year, or 32.8 percent of the total international arrivals, posting a year-on-year surge of 29.7 percent, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said on Friday. Meanwhile, Vietnam recorded a total of more than 11.6 million international arrivals, up 22.9 percent on-year, with the highest growth of 49.6 percent in the number of visitors from South Korea, followed by Finland, up 33.8 percent, and China, up 29.7 percent. Of the foreign visitors between January and September, more than 9.4 million came to Vietnam by air, up 17.4 percent; over 2 million by road, up 62.1 percent; and 190,800 by sea, up 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, over 9 million visitors were from Asia, up 27.2 percent; more than 1.5 million from Europe, up 9.8 percent; 690,900 from the Americas, mainly from the United States, up 12.5 percent; 334,000 from Oceania, up 6.3 percent, and 31,100 from Africa, up 19.5 percent. Vietnam plans to receive 16 to 17 million foreign visitors and 78 million domestic ones, and gain tourism revenues of 27.5 billion U.S. dollars this year, said the administration. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 13:32:42|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close SYDNEY, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- An Air Niugini flight, bound for Port Moresby, has overshot its runway and landed in water, while attempting to make a stopover on an island of the Micronesian Chuuk State. Reports of numbers on board vary, although according to local media all passengers and crew were promptly rescued and are safe, although the aircraft itself, a Boeing 737-800, is now fully submerged. Small private boats were the first on hand to assist the downed aircraft, with authorities arriving soon after. Images and video posted on social media show local fishermen surrounding the partially submerged aircraft, close to which life rafts had also been deployed. Air Niugini is the national carrier of Papua New Guinea and had recently expanded its international services. It is not yet known what caused the crash. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 13:47:44|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close JAKARTA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A photo exhibition kicked off here to commemorate 15th anniversary of China-ASEAN strategic partnership, illustrating colorful narrative of dynamic and harmonious relations between the two sides. The event, held in Al-Azhar University in downtown Jakarta, was jointly launched by Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Huang Xilian and Singapore Permanent Representative to ASEAN Tan Hung Seng Thursday. Some 40 photos from China and 10 ASEAN countries were displayed in the venue that will run until Oct. 5, under four sub themes of "Harmony with Nature," "Harmony with Modernity," "Harmony among Communities" and "Harmonious Relations." The exhibition features the beautiful scenes of ASEAN and China as well as their close friendship. In his remarks to open the photo exhibition, Ambassador Huang said "harmonious coexistence" is the essence of Asian culture, and "harmonious coexistence" is also a vivid portrayal of China-ASEAN relations. China has always regarded "mutual respect and mutual assistance" and "harmonious cooperation" as the way to get along with ASEAN. For the students of Al-Azhar University, especially the students of the Confucius Institute, Huang said the Confucius Institute in Indonesia is a bridge of two cultures conveying the friendship between the two peoples. He hoped more young students could go to China to experience China's history and development, and contribute to the friendship between China and Indonesia and other ASEAN countries. Tan said ASEAN and China have always attached great importance to building a harmonious relationship and mutually beneficial partnership. The two sides have deepened cooperation in both traditional and emerging areas such as tourism, anti-corruption, environmental protection, infrastructure connectivity, smart cities development and cyber security cooperation in recent years, he added. "We have also promoted greater people-to-people links through educational exchanges and tourism," Tan said. China-ASEAN relations have developed over the past 15 years with deepening mutual trust, closer economic and trade cooperation, and enhanced people-to-people exchanges. China has been ASEAN's largest trade partner for nine consecutive years, while ASEAN has been China's third largest trade partner for seven consecutive years. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 13:57:47|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia will introduce an online birth registration system to hospitals here from Oct. 1 and to hospitals in other parts of the country as of Nov. 1, the Mongolian Health Ministry said Friday. "The new system launched under a national program called 'One citizen and One registration' will revolutionize the registration of newborn babies by simplifying the procedures for parents to obtain birth certificates with correct information for their babies," the ministry said in a statement. It added that possessing a birth certificate is the basis for children to fulfill their rights, including accessing education, health care and other basic services. According to the Mongolian national law, newborns must be registered within 30 days after birth. It is estimated that around 80,000 babies are born in Mongolia every year, nearly 600 of whom are not registered at birth. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 13:57:48|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly's 73rd session, in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday that both China and Japan are obliged to defend multilateral system and international trade. Wang made the remarks when meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly's 73rd session. During the meeting, Wang said that as important neighbors and major economies, China and Japan should be jointly committed to multilateralism, maintain the international trading system, and safeguard international laws and rules. China is willing to expand mutually beneficial cooperation with Japan in such areas as economy and trade, finance and innovation, and increase exchanges between youths and local governments, he said. He added that the two countries have been engaged in a slew of active interactions for some time, and that they should value and protect such hard-won momentum, seek common grounds and manage disputes, so as to secure a stable and healthy bilateral relationship. In achieving this, both nations need to draw lessons from the past ups and downs and even regressions in their ties, and address properly the problems hampering the healthy development of bilateral ties, such as issues concerning Taiwan and history, Wang said. The Japanese side should put into practice its positive cognition that China's development is an opportunity for Japan, Wang emphasized. Kono said it is a bliss to see bilateral ties have returned to normal. The two countries share key responsibilities for regional peace and stability, and the significance of improving bilateral ties exceeds the bilateral scope, he said. Kono expressed his appreciation to China for sending regards to Japan when his country was hit by a typhoon and an earthquake earlier this year. Japan is ready to work with China to strengthen collaboration in various fields, properly handle disputes, and get fully prepared for the further development of bilateral ties, he said, adding that Japan hopes to enhance exchanges with China on international and regional issues. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 14:17:51|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C) poses for a group photo with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj (1st L), South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu (2nd L), Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes (2nd R) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before their meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. Foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) vowed on Thursday to uphold multilateralism, safeguard international law and rules, object to unilateralism and protectionism, and push globalization toward a more balanced, just and inclusive development. (Xinhua/Qin Lang) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) vowed on Thursday to uphold multilateralism, safeguard international law and rules, object to unilateralism and protectionism, and push globalization toward a more balanced, just and inclusive development. The ministers, meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, unanimously agreed to implement agreements made at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, further strengthen strategic communication, deepen pragmatic cooperation, enhance people-to-people exchanges and implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed four ways to strengthen cooperation among BRICS at the meeting. He said the countries should continue safeguarding multilateralism and the UN-centered contemporary international system, and build a new type of International relations featuring mutual respect, fairness and justice, cooperation and mutual benefits. Wang emphasized the importance of holding dialogues to solve problems, calling on the BRICS nations to stand together on major issues, and safeguarding the legitimate development interests of emerging markets including the BRICS nations. He also called on the convening countries to expand "BRICS Plus" cooperation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 14:22:51|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close CANBERRA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Australia's largest financial institutions knowingly engaged in misconduct for the sake of profit, a comprehensive inquiry into the sector has found. The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry on Friday delivered its interim report. Commissioner Kenneth Hayne said that the key question the commission had to answer was why misconduct had become so widespread. "Too often, the answer seems to be greed - the pursuit of short-term profit at the expense of basic standards of honesty," he wrote. "How else is charging continuing advice fees to the dead to be explained? "Selling became their focus of attention. Too often it became the sole focus of attention. "Products and services multiplied. Banks searched for their 'share of the customer's wallet'." The interim report was delivered after months of public hearings, in which commissioners heard that Australia's big four banks and financial services giant AMP charged customers at least 1 billion Australian dollars (721 million U.S. dollars) for services that were never delivered. Commissioners heard that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the nation's largest bank, charged dead customers fees for up to 10 years after they died. "When misconduct was revealed, it either went unpunished or the consequences did not meet the seriousness of what had been done," Hayne wrote. Josh Frydenberg, Australia's treasurer, said the report "shine a very bright light on the poor behavior of our financial sector". "Banks and other financial institutions have put profits before people," he told reporters. "Greed has been the motive ... as short-term profits have been pursued at the expense of basic standards of honesty. "Almost every piece of conduct identified and criticized in this report can be connected directly to some monetary benefit from engaging in conduct. "This interim report is a frank and scathing assessment of the culture, conduct and compliance of our financial system. Australians expect and deserve better." The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on Friday demanded that the National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia New Zealand (ANZ) Banking Group and Westpac Banking Corporation follow in the CBA's footsteps by conducting a comprehensive cultural review. Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), took to social media to demand that Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologize for opposing the royal commission. Morrison and the government voted against the royal commission 26 times before reluctantly agreeing to establish the inquiry. Tanya Plibersek, deputy leader of the ALP, used a press conference to call for the inquiry to be extended. "Australians have been appalled by conduct in the financial sector that has been exposed by this royal commission," she said. "Scott Morrison voted against this royal commission 26 times. Scott Morrison called it, and I quote, 'A reckless distraction', and I quote 'A QC's complaints desk, a populist whinge'. "Given this damning interim report, we believe that there is a strong case to consider extending the banking royal commission in order to hear from more victims in more places, in more parts of Australia. " The commission also recommended that current laws be simplified rather than introducing new laws to stop misconduct from occurring in the future, saying the latter path would "add an extra layer of legal complexity to an already complex regulatory regime". Anna Bligh, chief executive of the Australian Banking Association (ABA), acknowledged the failings of the banks. "Australians have every right to expect the world's best banks. It is clear today that as an industry we have failed to deliver that. Make no mistake, today is a day of shame for Australia's banks," she said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 14:27:53|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday that China supports multilateralism and the United Nation's central role in international affairs. Wang made the remarks at a breakfast meeting held between foreign ministers of the permanent members of the UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly. The top Chinese diplomat said that the UN Security Council, especially its permanent members, shoulders great responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security. He said the five permanent members of the UN Security Council should implement their consistent policies, abide by UN Charter and international agreements, strengthen coordination and communication, and promote unity and cooperation, so as to live up to the expectations of the international community. Foreign ministers of the five permanent members and Guterres exchanged views on issues of common concern, including the Korean Peninsula, the Syrian crisis and the Iranian nuclear deal. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 14:37:55|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Top Chinese and European Union (EU) diplomats said on Thursday that the two sides are willing to strengthen cooperation and enhance Eurasian connectivity. China welcomes the EU to participate in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and is willing to promote the alignment of the BRI with the EU-proposed connectivity plan, said Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Wang made the remarks during his meeting with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. Both diplomats are attending the United Nations General Assembly. Both China and the EU advocate multilateralism and resolving international disputes through peaceful settlement, Wang added, noting that maintaining and enhancing China-EU relations is the shared responsibility of both sides. Mogherini said the newly-released European Commission plan that calls for a comprehensive, sustainable and rule-based connectivity goes along with the BRI and will contribute to bilateral cooperation. She said it is important for the two sides to exchange opinions on strategic issues of common concern. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 14:52:58|Editor: mym Video Player Close BANGKOK, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) issued on Friday the draft Terms of Reference(TOR) for the construction of the second section of the first phase of Thai-Chinese high-speed rail project in Korat Province, or formally as Nakhon Ratchasima. The draft TOR for the second section of the high-speed rail project between Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima province calls for the construction of a 11-km-long section between Sikhio area and Kudchik area, which is estimated to cost 3.35 billion baht (about 101.51 million U.S. dollars), according to an SRT statement. The TOR calls for an e-bidding to pick a winning contractor, who will be picked from among bidders in November. Interested parties and the public may submit viewpoints and comments pertaining to the TOR within Oct. 4. Meanwhile, the initial phase of the construction covering 3.5 km between Klang Dong area and Pang Asok area in Nakhon Ratchasima is now under construction and expected to be completed later this year. The third phase of the construction between Kaeng Khoi and Nakhon Ratchasima and the fourth phase between Bangkok and Kaeng Khoi, each covering a 119 km distance, are scheduled to go for a bit late 2018. Apart from the first phase, or Bangkok Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand and China also talked on a second phase, which links Nakhon Ratchasima to Nong Khai on Thailand-Laos border. The whole rail project was designed to link Bangkok and northeastern Thailand with southern China through the Lao capital Vientiane across Mekong River from Nong Khai province. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 14:52:58|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The State Council has revised 10 administrative laws and regulations to reassign state organ functions affected by a recent large-scale institutional reform, according to a decision released Friday. The document, signed by Premier Li Keqiang, will go into effect as soon as it is released. The revisions were made in accordance with a decision by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on deepening reform of Party and state institutions adopted at the third plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee in February, and an institutional reform plan of the State Council approved at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress in March. Some functions, of the former State Administration for Industry and Commerce, former General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and the Ministry of Commerce, stipulated by the regulations have been reassigned to the State Administration for Market Regulation, according to the document. Provisions concerning the functions of the former Ministry of Environmental Protection have been reassigned to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, while the film management functions of the former State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television have been reassigned to the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 16:03:11|Editor: ZX Video Player Close XI'AN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A video production company based in northwest China's Shaanxi Province was ordered to apologize on Friday over a controversial parody video clip, which the court said has humiliated renowned Chinese revolutionary figure Ye Ting and hurt the feelings of his descendants. The court also ordered Xi'an Momo Tech Company, which hosts video streaming channel "Baozoumanhua," to pay 100,000 yuan (14,526 U.S. dollars) to Ye's family as compensation. The court found "Baozoumanhua" to be responsible for the video, in which a famous poem of Ye was altered to ridicule "painless abortions." The video clip, widely circulated on Chinese social media but later taken down, has caused a flurry of complaints and outcry. The court said it "caused a negative impact." Ye, a revolutionary martyr remembered by the Chinese people as an unyielding hero who refused to succumb to enemies during the civil war, was humiliated and his reputation was tarnished, the court said, citing a law to protect the reputation and honor of martyrs. After the verdict was announced on Friday, Xi'an Momo released a statement on its website, saying the company is sincerely sorry for the video. "The incident has raised alarm bells for us and we will produce and spread more productions advocating positive messages," it said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 16:08:12|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JAKARTA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A shallow under-land quake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale struck off Central Sulawesi province of central Indonesia on Friday, the meteorology and geophysics agency said here. The quake jolted at 2:00 p.m. local time (0700 GMT) with epicenter at 8 km northwest Donggala of the province and a depth of 10 kilometers, an official in charge at the agency Fauzi said. "The highest jolt was recorded at IV MMI (modified mercalli intensity) in Donggala," he told Xinhua over phone. Still, the official has not got any preliminary report of damages or casualty. Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on a vulnerable quake-affected area popularly known as "the Pacific Ring of Fire." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 16:28:15|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly approved a draft political declaration re-affirming the need to reduce deaths by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by one third by 2030. The document included commitments to reducing by one third premature mortality from NCDs by 2030, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN. While acknowledging the progress achieved by some countries in controlling four major NCDs -- cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases, the text said efforts to reach the commitments has been inadequate. The text, entitled "Time to Deliver: Accelerating our response to address NCDs for the health and well-being of present and future generations," was adopted at the General Assembly's third High-Level Meeting on Prevention and Control of NCDs. While hailing it as "ambitious and balanced," UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces called to attention that a huge number of people between the ages of 30 and 70 will die in 2018 because of NCDs. The poorest will likely suffer most from illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which more broadly lead to annual GDP losses of up to 6 percent, she added. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted in his remarks, delivered by his deputy Amina Mohammed, that NCDs are responsible for some 70 percent of deaths globally. The UN chief went on to elaborate on the economic, environmental, social aspects of the NCDs. "The costs of NCDs are enormous -- not only to the people affected, but also to national budgets, health systems, and the global economy," according to his speech. Also, climate change and air pollution increase the risk of NCDs, he pointed out. Air pollution causes a quarter of adult deaths from both heart disease and stroke, while it is responsible for some 30 percent of deaths due to lung cancer, his remarks cited the World Health Organization as saying. "The result is an alarming loss of 7 million lives prematurely each year to polluted air." The secretary-general also pointed to the need to address long-neglected mental health. "One-in-four of us will experience a mental health episode at some point in our life," he said. "One-in-five of adolescents experience a mental health disorder in any given year." The political declaration also recognized mental health conditions, as well as neurological disorders, contribute to the global burden of NCDs. Moreover, alcohol and drug use deserves greater attention, Guterres continued, detailing more than 3 million people die every year from the harmful use of alcohol, and almost half a million because of drug abuse. Furthermore, the world is facing a double burden of under- and over-nutrition, with some 810 million people undernourished with obesity skyrocketing at the same time. Concluding these remarks, Guterres urged member states to ensure that NCDs "are embedded in the greater health and development agenda, including strengthening health systems and moving towards universal health coverage." WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the challenges the world faces in meeting the UN target set out both in the 2030 Agenda and the declaration. He warned "we are dangerously off course (for reducing by one-third pre-mature mortality from NCDs by 2030)," predicting "at the current pace, less than half of the world's countries will meet that target." However, he said "we can change course," adding "we could prevent 10 million of these deaths by 2025." Ghebreyesus was referring to WHO's "Best Buys," a set of 16 practical interventions that are "cost-effective and feasible for all countries including low- and middle-income countries." Its list includes tobacco control measures, vaccination campaigns, and the production of food that contains less sugar, salt and fat. Stressing that the "benefits go beyond health," he noted that "every dollar invested in the Best Buys, will yield a return of at least seven dollars." He proposed the creation of a "coalition of champions" that would spearhead a three-to-five-year commitment for the quick and intense implementation of the WHO interventions, and showcase their potential impact. In his remarks, Ghebreyesus outlined a number of NCDs and asked delegates to stand up when they heard the disease that had killed someone they loved. "Heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, chronic Lyme disease, depression..." As the list went on, one by one, every single person in the room got to their feet. Every year, 41 million people are killed prematurely by preventable NCDs, which Ghebreyesus declared a "needless suffering, expense and death." The figure represents 70 percent of all deaths globally. What's more, NCDs affect mostly the poor. Of that 41 million total, 85 percent are in developing countries. Closing his remarks, the head of WHO said that three key things are needed in every country to win the "fight against NCDs" and achieve the UN 2030 target: political commitment, domestic investment and universal health coverage. Thursday's meeting is the Assembly's third on the issue since its landmark 2011 summit and 2014 review, with the draft declaration to be sent to the Assembly plenary for adoption at a later date. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 16:46:54|Editor: ZX Video Player Close 1 2 3 4 Next 1 2 3 4 Next A ceremony is held to mark the 2,569th anniversary of the birth of ancient Chinese sage and educator Confucius at the Confucius Temple in Qufu, hometown of Confucius, in east China's Shandong Province, Sept. 28, 2016. Confucius (551-479 B.C.), an educator and philosopher, founded Confucianism, a school of thought that deeply influenced later generations. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui) Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 16:58:24|Editor: ZX Video Player Close JINAN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A documentary on Confucius started shooting in the city of Qufu, the birthplace of the ancient Chinese educator and philosopher in east China's Shandong Province Friday, the 2,569th anniversary of his birthday. The six-episode documentary, with a total length of 300 minutes, will focus on the influence of Confucianism today. "The documentary will present history, and create a dialogue between past and present, taking a record of how Chinese traditional culture is passed on and innovated," said Yan Dong, director of the documentary. Many of the 600,000 cultural relics kept in archives in the Kong Family Mansion will also be presented for the first time in the documentary, he said. Confucius (551-479 B.C.) founded Confucianism, a school of thought that has deeply influenced later generations. The ideas advocated by Confucius include rule by virtue, self-discipline in appeasing others and harmony in diversity. The documentary will be released on Sept. 28, 2019, the 2,570th anniversary of the birth of Confucius. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 17:03:24|Editor: ZX Video Player Close MEXICO CITY, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's government-elect must maintain investment in tourism to attract Asian visitors, said Mexican Tourism Minister Enrique de la Madrid on Thursday. At an event in Mexico City to celebrate "World Tourism Day" which falls annually on Sept. 27, the minister called for continued investment to meet the demands of the changing tourism landscape. "We have a reduction of growth in tourism from the United States to Mexico," said De la Madrid," We also have economic issues in Argentina and Brazil, and areas of opportunity for growth are in Asian countries." The minister's comments came weeks after president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador suggested he would use tourism industry financing to build the ambitious Maya Train project. According to Mexican daily El Universal, the train route, which would stretch 900 km through the southern states of Quintana Roo, Chiapas and Tabasco, would take four years to build and cost six to eight billion U.S. dollars. The minister believes that in the future Mexico could raise tourist numbers from 40 million to 60 million a year, generating 40 billion dollars in foreign currency income. At the event, a representative from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Antonio Lopez de Avila, added that tourism is the third largest economic sector in the world, which drives economic growth and social inclusion. According to data from UNWTO, in 2017 Mexico became the world's sixth most popular tourist destination, up from the eight spot, and welcomed 39.3 million visitors. Mexico's tourism ministry estimates that 41 million tourists would visit the country in 2018, which would represent an extra 7 percent in foreign currency income. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 17:03:25|Editor: ZX Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli military on Thursday evening released satellite images of three sites in central Beirut they claimed to be used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah to construct missile conversion infrastructure. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night first revealed these sites during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, the Israeli army released the videos and photos of the sites. The three sites are located near the Beirut Rafiq Hariri International Airport, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The attempts to establish infrastructure to convert missiles are "another example of Iranian entrenchment in the region and of Iran's negative influence," said the Israeli army. "In Lebanon, Iran is directing Hezbollah to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision guided missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of ten meters," said Netanyahu during his speech. The IDF noted that the Hezbollah has been trying to establish infrastructure to convert surface-to-surface rockets to accurate missiles in the Uza'i neighborhood in Beirut near the international airport over the past year. Israel is monitoring these sites with various means and is responding with various operational tools and methods, added the Israeli army. The Israeli fighter jets on Sept. 18 targeted a facility of the Syrian Armed Forces in the coastal province of Latakia overnight. The strike was aimed to prevent the delivery of systems to manufacture "accurate and lethal weapons" from Iran to the Iran-backed Shiite militia of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the military said. A Russian reconnaissance plane was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire launched in response to the Israeli airstrike on Iranian target in Latakia. The 15 Russian aircrew members were killed. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 17:13:29|Editor: ZX Video Player Close GUANGZHOU, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi Hawks, the Royal Saudi Air Force aerobatic team, will make their debut in China in November at the country's major airshow, according to a deal signed Friday. The executive board of China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China) in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, inked the deal with Saudi air force to put on a joint aerobatic performance during the event, which will also involve Chinese and Pakistani air forces. The Saudi Hawks are equipped with seven Hawk MK 65A trainers. The team was established in 1998 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Saudi Arabia in 1999. It earned a Guinness world record for drawing the largest Saudi national emblem with smoke in the air. The team's display will have two sections: the first part will see the team's seven planes flying in close formation and end with their signature move of creating the Kingdom's emblem, and the second part will show pilots demonstrating difficult skills and maneuvers. A total of 43 countries and regions have confirmed their participation in this year's Airshow China. The event is expected to receive more than 130,000 visitors and nearly 200 military and political delegations from over 60 countries. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 17:48:37|Editor: ZX Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Malaysian government remained committed to further developing friendly relationship with China, and hoped China would import more from Malaysia to help its development, a senior Malaysian official said Friday. "We will make sure that the good things will be shared between our countries, we will also make sure the trade between our countries will continue to growth," International Trade and Industry Minister Darell Leiking said during the opening ceremony of "Building a Better Future Together" photo exhibition organized by the Chinese embassy in Malaysia. Malaysia continued to welcome businesses from China and hoped China would "buy a lot more of our products," he said. Darell Leiking stressed that the relations between the two governments remained close following Malaysia's general election in May. "The government of Malaysia led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is very committed to working with the Chinese government," he said. For his part, Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian said there was huge potential and bright prospects between the two countries. "History is the best textbook we can learn from. From the exhibition, you can see how China and Malaysia have progressed and developed together," he said, "I hope we may draw wisdom and strength from these pictures to promote our bilateral relations to new heights." The exhibition displays over 200 photographs in three major themes, capturing moments from China's success since the Reform and Opening-up, the development of China-Malaysia relationship, and also featuring the achievement of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 17:58:40|Editor: ZX Video Player Close HARARE, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe is on the verge of rejoining the Commonwealth after President Emmerson Mnangagwa this week met the organization's secretary-general Patricia Scotland to work on modalities for readmission, local media reported on Friday. The two met on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly currently underway in New York. Outgoing British ambassador to Zimbabwe Catriona Laing confirmed the meeting to journalists in Harare Thursday after bidding farewell to Acting President Kembo Mohadi, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported. Laing said the United Kingdom is supportive of Harare rejoining the international organization, which Zimbabwe left in 2003 at the height of a diplomatic tiff between Harare and London. She said there is a process that has to be followed for Zimbabwe to rejoin the grouping of former British colonies. "That process, as I understand it, has started but it would not formally conclude until the next Commonwealth summit, which will be in Malaysia in 2020," Laing said. "It's not automatic. It involves ensuring that the Harare Declaration, which was signed here in early 1990s, is enacted," the outgoing envoy said. Britain is encouraged by improvements in Zimbabwe's electoral processes although she it is concerned about the tragic events of Aug. 1, when six people were killed after violent protests by members of the opposition. She said where possible, London is ready to give advice following the announcement by Mnangagwa that he wants to create an office of the opposition leader as is the case with the British parliamentary system. Mnangagwa has said the office of the opposition is not meant to appease any particular individual but is an effort to create strong institutions that help entrench democracy and political inclusivity in the country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 18:18:44|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close Christine Ford testifies on a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, Sept. 27, 2018. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday held a hearing to determine whether a sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh was credible. (Xinhua/POOL/Michael Reynolds) WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday held a hearing to determine whether a sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh was credible. Both Kavanaugh and his accuser, university professor Christine Ford, testified before the 21-member panel in an 8-hour-long hearing. Ford, recounting the day of the alleged attack, said she was 100 percent certain that it was Kavanaugh who attacked her in a home during a gathering of high school students. Kavanaugh, who testified separately after Ford did, said he was also 100 percent certain that the event that Ford asserted had never happened, slamming Democratic lawmakers for trying to use the allegations to ruin his name. Democratic lawmakers questioned Kavanaugh's reluctance to have the Federal Bureau of Investigation launch a probe to verify the allegations, but were accused by their Republican peers of harboring an alternative motive of sabotaging a conservative justice nominee. Many lawmakers commented the session, which laid bare the deep division between the two political parties, as one of the ugliest nomination hearings in decades. The Judiciary Committee decided after the hearing to adhere to a previous plan of voting on the nomination Friday morning, allowing the Senate to enter procedural votes as early as Saturday. The formal vote for Kavanaugh's confirmation will likely take place early next week. Aside from Ford, several other women, including two who had come forward, have accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting or harassing them during his high school and university years. Kavanaugh has denied all accusations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 18:23:45|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SHIJIAZHUANG, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Yao Gang, former vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for taking bribes and insider trading, and fined 11 million yuan (around 1.6 million U.S. dollars) on Friday. His illegal gains will be confiscated by the state, according to the verdict announced by the Intermediate People's Court of Handan, northern China's Hebei Province. The court found that Yao took advantage of his positions in order to seek benefits for certain organizations and in return accepted money and property worthy of over 69.61 million yuan through his family members between 2006 and 2015. He was also found guilty of using insider information acquired during his work from January to April 2007 to carry out insider trading and of illegally gaining more than 2.1 million yuan. The court also said that Yao was given a lenient punishment as he confessed to his crimes, showed repentance and voluntarily surrendered his illicit gains, all of which have been recovered. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 18:28:47|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) shakes hands with Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem during their meeting in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Qin Lang) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday that China respects Syria's sovereignty and independence, and is willing to support its social and economic development. Wang made the remarks when meeting with Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem at the United Nations headquarters. He said China is pleased to see the situation in Syria is developing steadily with the efforts made by the Syrian people. China has always held that the Syria issue should be solved by political means following the principles of Syrian leadership and Syrian ownership, Wang said, adding that China has always called for respecting the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria. China attaches great importance to Sino-Syrian relations, will not be absent from Syria's reconstruction and is ready to play a positive role in the economic and social development in the country, said Wang. Also, China appreciates Syria's active engagement in the Belt and Road Initiative and would like to take this opportunity to promote further economic exchanges, he said. Echoing Wang, Muallem said that Syria treasures its friendship with China which is a major country with global influence, adding that his country commends China's constructive role in pushing for peace and stability in Syria and in mitigating the humanitarian situation. Syria is ready to advance cooperation with China in a wide range of areas and positively participate in the joint construction of the Belt and Road, injecting new impetus into bilateral practical cooperation. Wang and Muallem met on the sidelines of their attendance at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York. English French NOT FOR PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN OR SOUTH AFRICA Paris, 28 September 2018 In a release dated 14 September 2018, LVMH indicated that it received on 12 September 2018 a notification which triggered the procedure provided under 7.1(a)(v) of the Terms and Conditions of the Bonds (the T&C ). LVMH informs the holders of the Bonds that at the end of the Reference Period (as defined in the T&C) that ran from 13 September 2018 (included) until 26 September 2018 (included), the Trading Condition, as per 7.1(a)(v) of the T&C and as verified by the Calculation Agent, is not met. About LVMH LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton is represented in Wines and Spirits by a portfolio of brands that includes Moet & Chandon, Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Krug, Ruinart, Mercier, Chateau d'Yquem, Domaine du Clos des Lambrays, Chateau Cheval Blanc, Colgin Cellars, Hennessy, Glenmorangie, Ardbeg, Belvedere, Woodinville, Volcan de Mi Tierra, Chandon, Cloudy Bay, Terrazas de los Andes, Cheval des Andes, Cape Mentelle, Newton, Bodega Numanthia and Ao Yun. Its Fashion and Leather Goods division includes Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior Couture, Celine, Loewe, Kenzo, Givenchy, Thomas Pink, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Marc Jacobs, Berluti, Nicholas Kirkwood, Loro Piana and RIMOWA. LVMH is present in the Perfumes and Cosmetics sector with Parfums Christian Dior, Guerlain, Parfums Givenchy, Kenzo Parfums, Perfumes Loewe, Benefit Cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, Acqua di Parma, Fresh, Fenty Beauty by Rihanna and Maison Francis Kurkdjian. LVMH's Watches and Jewelry division comprises Bvlgari, TAG Heuer, Chaumet, Dior Watches, Zenith, Fred and Hublot. LVMH is also active in selective retailing as well as in other activities through DFS, Sephora, Le Bon Marche, La Samaritaine, Groupe Les Echos, Cova, Le Jardin d'Acclimatation, Royal Van Lent and Cheval Blanc hotels. NOT FOR PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN OR SOUTH AFRICA DISCLAIMER Available information The issue of the Bonds is not subject to a prospectus approved by the French Financial Market Authority (Autorite des marches financiers) (the "AMF"). Detailed information on LVMH (the "Company"), including its business, results, prospects and related risk factors are described in the Company's reference document, the French version of which was filed with the AMF on 22 March 2018 under number D.18-0166, which is available together with all the press releases and other regulated information about the Company, on LVMH's website (http://www.lvmh.fr). Important information This press release does not constitute or form part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for or to sell securities to any person in Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States of America or South Africa or in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer is unlawful, and the offering of the Bonds is not an offer to the public in any jurisdiction, including France. This press release may not be published, distributed or released directly or indirectly in Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States of America or South Africa. The distribution of this press release may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions and persons into whose possession any document or other information referred to herein comes, should inform themselves about and observe any such restriction. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No communication or information relating to the offering may be transmitted to the public in a country where there is a registration obligation or where an approval is required. No action has been or will be taken in any country in which such registration or approval would be required. The issuance or the subscription of the Bonds may be subject to legal and regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions; none of the Company or the joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners assume any liability in connection with the breach by any person of such restrictions. 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For the purposes of this paragraph, (i) the notion of an "offer to the public of Bonds" in any Relevant Member State, means any communication, to individuals or legal entities, in any form and by any means, of sufficient information on the terms and conditions of the offering and on the Bonds to be offered, thereby enabling an investor to decide to purchase or subscribe for the Bonds, as the same may be varied in the Relevant Member State by any measure implementing the Prospectus Directive, (ii) the expression "Prospectus Directive" means Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 4 November 2003 as amended, and includes any relevant implementing measure in each Relevant Member State. These selling restrictions with respect to Member States apply in addition to any other selling restrictions which may be applicable in the Member States who have implemented the Prospectus Directive. 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The Bonds have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America, except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. The Bonds will be offered or sold only outside of the United States of America in offshore transactions in accordance with Regulation S of the Securities Act. The Company does not intend to register all or any portion of the offering of the Bonds in the United States of America or to conduct a public offering of the Bonds in the United States of America. Australia, Canada, Japan and South Africa The Bonds may not and will not be offered, sold or purchased in Australia, Canada, Japan or South Africa. The information contained in this press release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in Australia, Canada, Japan or South Africa. The distribution of this press release in certain countries may constitute a breach of applicable law. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 18:28:48|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close NANCHANG, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust announced on Friday that it will help to build a replica of British playwright William Shakespeare's family house in the hometown of ancient Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu, in Fuzhou, east China's Jiangxi Province. "It will be the first time the house has been built anywhere in the world," said Philippa Ann Rawlinson, director of marketing and operations at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Shakespeare played out much of his life in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon, where his house was knocked down in 1759. The trust has made extensive archaeological findings from the former building and plans to share architectural drawings with its Chinese partner for the making of the replica. The trust has signed a cooperation agreement with the government of Fuzhou after two years of extensive discussions. "We will help build Shakespeare's birthplace and Shakespeare's new place over the next two years in Sanweng Town," said Rawlinson. The to-be-built town's name of Sanweng literally means "Three Seniors" to refer to Tang, Shakespeare and Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, all of whom died in 1616. Tang, a prominent writer born in Fuzhou during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and Shakespeare were both active in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. "Sanweng celebrates both our cultures, brings us close together and allows us both to learn about each other. We have a statue of Tang Xianzu in Shakespeare's birthplace," said Rawlinson. Sanweng Town, with a planned coverage of 89 hectares, is still under construction and is scheduled to be completed in 2022. In addition to restoring the former residences of the three great writers, the town will also showcase cultural landscapes reflecting their masterpieces. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 18:28:48|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A fire broke out on Friday at a nursing home in Istanbul, forcing the evacuation of the building, local media reported. The incident happened at the Sultangazi Nursing Home located at the Sultangazi district, the NTV broadcaster said. Firefighters and ambulances were dispatched to the area and residents were evacuated in a short time period, NTV said. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear, the broadcaster said, noting the firefighters were trying to determine whether anyone was trapped inside. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 18:38:51|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Two Afghan National Police personnel were killed and three police officers were wounded in a shooting incident in the country's southern province of Kandahar, a local official said Friday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 18:38:51|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Beijing authorities have set a limit on the number of shared bikes in the capital city as the industry continues to grow. In a regulation passed Friday by the Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress, authorities decided that 1.91 million would be the limit of the total number of shared bikes. According to the regulation, transportation authorities could designate off-limit areas for shared bikes. Shared bike operating companies should update information regarding the number of bikes and their location on a government Internet platform. The regulation demands that damaged bikes be recycled, and public deposits returned to users on demand. Online security should be guaranteed. The regulation added that shared electric bike businesses would not be developed. The number of shared bikes in the Chinese capital dropped by about 20 percent from a peak period last year, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport said in August. China's bike-sharing market has grown rapidly over the past few years as part of a booming digital economy. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 18:43:52|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is committed to building a community with a shared future for humanity and will continue to work with the UN to make it happen, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Thursday. During a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Wang said China, as an advocate and practitioner of multilateralism, firmly safeguards the international order based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. China has always and will continue to support the UN's work including its efforts to play a more significant role in international affairs, said the state councilor. China stands ready to work closer with the UN in a variety of areas, thus contributing more to world peace and prosperity and building a community with a shared future for humanity, he said. The Chinese people, relying on their diligence and wisdom, have ushered their country into the era of modernization, a remarkable feat in human history. It is an inevitable trend for emerging countries such as China to develop, Wang said. However, many countries have grown concerned over the increasing instability and uncertainties amid intensified unilateralism and protectionism. Wang noted that the world is in dire need of joint efforts to safeguard multilateralism, international rules and laws. For his part, Guterres said UN welcomes China's development and rise and highly values China's leading role in global governance as well as major international and regional affairs. While appreciating China's staunch support for his organization and in safeguarding multilateralism, the UN chief said he expects China to play a greater role in international affairs. The UN supports China's Belt and Road Initiative, he added. The two sides also discussed hotspot issues such as the Korean Peninsula, Iran nuclear deal and climate change and reached consensus. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 18:53:53|Editor: zh Video Player Close GABORONE, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of Chinese tourists who visited Botswana in 2016 was more than six times the 2015 record, the latest figures from the country's statistical agency show. Figures released Thursday by Statistics Botswana (SB) recorded at least 7,447 Chinese tourists visiting the country in 2016 while 1,138 visited the landlocked country in the previous year. According to the 2016 report, the bulk of the tourists were related to Chinese working and residing in Botswana, totaling 4,295, while 1,331 visitors arrived for business purposes. "Strengthened ties and more frequent exchanges between China and Botswana have resulted in more Chinese tourists visiting our country," Statistician General Burton Mguni told Xinhua in an interview. According to Mguni, with the opening of direct flights, relaxation of visa regimes and other incentives, Botswana is expecting the arrival of more Chinese tourists in the future. Keitumetse Setlang, Botswana Tourism Organization (BTO) spokesperson, said Chinese visitors are expected to double the current number by 2018 in a telephone interview on Thursday evening. In order to lure Chinese tourists to the southern African nation, she said BTO has intensified efforts to "woo Chinese tourists," including launching tourism campaigns in partnership with key travel agencies through Botswana's embassy in Beijing. Last month, China unveiled an offer of 60 billion U.S. dollars in funding support to strengthen its cooperation with Africa. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:03:55|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Israel's nuclear arsenal is the "biggest threat" to the security of Middle East, official IRNA news agency reported on Friday. Zarif made the comment after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of holding a "secret atomic warehouse" during his speech at the UN conference on Thursday. Netanyahu presented what he claimed to be an aerial photo of a previously unknown nuclear facility in Iran's capital Tehran, saying the 2015 nuclear deal enabled Iran to continue its attempts to build nuclear weapons. "The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly announced that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful," Zarif told IRNA. "Netanyahu must explain how Israel, as the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East region, can put itself in a position to level such brazen accusations against a country whose (nuclear) program has been repeatedly declared as peaceful by the IAEA," Zarif was quoted as saying. Netanyahu's move is only aimed at deflecting attention from the fact that Israel is "the biggest threat to the Middle East," as it has a nuclear weapons facility and threatens other states with atomic annihilation, Zarif said according to Press TV. "It (Israel) will never manage to achieve anything by playing such games," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:08:56|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close MAIMANA, Afghanistan, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Twenty militants, including some key Taliban members, were killed and 10 others wounded, following an Afghan Air Force-led airstrike in Afghanistan northern province of Faryab, an official said Friday. The A-29 warplanes pounded a militants' base, Thursday afternoon, on the border between Qaisar and Ghormach districts, where a group of Taliban members had planned to launch an attack on the government forces' positions, Hanif Rezai, spokesman of army Corps 209 Shaheen based in the region, told Xinhua. "Up to 20 armed fighters, including some key Taliban members, were killed and 10 others critically injured in the incident," said Rezayee who assured of safe civilian individuals in the incident. The Taliban militants fighting government forces in the area have yet to confirm or reject their fighters' death in the incident. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:13:57|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Two Afghan National Police personnel were killed and three police officers were wounded in a shooting incident in the country's southern province of Kandahar, a local official said Friday. "A police officer, who recently recruited into the ANP rank, turned his weapon against his fellow officers on Thursday night at a security checkpoint in remote Arghistan district, killing two and injuring three others," Aziz Ahmad Azizi told Xinhua. The shooter fled the checkpoint shortly after the firing and a probe is going on into the incident, he said. The incident is a latest insider attack in the militancy-hit country. Similar incidents had happened in the past when Afghan security force members turned their weapons against their fellow soldiers. Taliban militants often claim responsibility for the attacks. Earlier this month, on Sept. 18, nine Afghan policemen were shot and killed in an insider attack in northern Balkh province. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:29:00|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Kong Hongmei (1st R), chief of the cultural delegation from Zhengzhou of central China's Henan Province, addresses the opening ceremony of China Reading Corner in Suva, Fiji, on Sept. 28, 2018. China Reading Corner opened here on Friday in the Fiji National Library to help strengthen the cultural exchanges between China and Fiji. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing) SUVA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- China Reading Corner opened here on Friday in the Fiji National Library to help strengthen the cultural exchanges between China and Fiji. The China Reading Corner consists of over 6,000 books, 20,000 e-books and other hardware such as computers, reading desks, chairs, and book shelves donated by China's Zhengzhou Library. Speaking at a grand opening ceremony in the Fiji National Library in the Fijian capital city of Suva, Kong Hongmei, chief of the cultural delegation from Zhengzhou, capital of China's Henan Province, said that the opening of this corner demonstrates the deep friendship and close relationship between China and Fiji. Describing the China Reading Corner as "a milestone of the cultural exchanges between China and Fiji," she said that this China-aided project sets a good example and provides a sustainable stage for the cultural exchanges between the two countries in the future. Chinese Ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo said that, with this reading corner, Fijian people know where to find the information they are interested in and the reading corner will serve as a window for Fijian people to look out to the outside world. "With more cultural exchange in this way, the Chinese and Fijian people will further deepen their friendship and have better understanding of each other," he said. Allision Burchell, permanent secretary for Fiji's Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts, Merewalisi Vueti, director of Fiji's Department of Library Services, welcomed the opening of the China reading corner, saying that Fiji has a lot to learn from China and this corner will help Fijians know better of China's great culture. Meanwhile, Deng Xianfu, director of China Cultural Center in Fiji, said that this is a very good start and in the future, they will try to get more libraries in China to donate more books to Fiji National Library to enrich the collections. All amounts in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SIG Combibloc Group (SIG), a leading provider of aseptic carton packaging solutions for the food and beverage industry, announced today it has successfully priced the initial public offering of its ordinary shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange at CHF 11.25 per share. The market capitalization of SIG at the offering price will be CHF 3.6 billion. SIG issued 105,000,000 new shares and Onex Corporation (Onex) (TSX: ONEX) and its affiliates (the Onex Group) and certain members of SIG management (together the Selling Shareholders) sold 27,000,000 existing shares. The joint global coordinators were granted a 30day over-allotment option (the greenshoe) of up to 19,800,000 existing shares from the Selling Shareholders. SIGs ordinary shares are now trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol SIGN. The offering is expected to close on October 2, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions. The Onex Group have agreed with the underwriters not to dispose of further SIG ordinary shares (except under the greenshoe) until 180 days after the first day of trading, subject to customary exceptions. At the offering price and excluding the greenshoe, proceeds to the Onex Group will be approximately $300 million, of which Onex share will be approximately $105 million as a limited partner in the fund and as a co-investor. The Onex Group continues to hold approximately 182 million shares of SIG resulting in a 57% interest, of which Onex share is approximately 64 million shares for a 20% interest. About Onex Onex is one of the oldest and most successful private equity firms. Through its Onex Partners and ONCAP private equity funds, Onex acquires and builds high-quality businesses in partnership with talented management teams. At Onex Credit, Onex manages and invests in leveraged loans, collateralized loan obligations and other credit securities. Onex has more than $33 billion of assets under management, including $6.8 billion of Onex proprietary capital, in private equity and credit securities. With offices in Toronto, New York, New Jersey and London, Onex and the team are collectively the largest investors across Onex platforms. Onex businesses have assets of $48 billion, generate annual revenues of $31 billion and employ approximately 211,000 people worldwide. Onex shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the stock symbol ONEX. For more information on Onex, visit its website at www.onex.com. Onex security filings can also be accessed at www.sedar.com. This news release may contain forward-looking statements that are based on managements current expectations and are subject to known and unknown uncertainties and risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Onex is under no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein should material facts change due to new information, future events or otherwise. This document is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to purchase or subscribe for shares. This document is not a prospectus within the meaning of Article 652a of the Swiss Code of Obligations, nor is it a listing prospectus as defined in the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange AG or a prospectus under any other applicable laws. Copies of this document may not be sent to jurisdictions, or distributed in or sent from jurisdictions, in which this is barred or prohibited by law. For further information: Emilie Blouin Director, Investor Relations Tel: 416.362.7711 Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:34:01|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- In his 10th address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded as determined as ever to expose what he believes is the largest threat to his country's security: the Iranian nuclear program. Not mentioning the pressing issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu focused, once again, on Israel's archenemy, while exposing what he claims to be "a secret warehouse" in Tehran where the Iranian government continues it's nuclear program. As he held satellite images of the alleged site, he criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for not taking action since he exposed a supposed nuclear archive seized by Israeli covert forces five months ago. "Months have passed. The IAEA has still not taken any action. It has not posed a single question to Iran. It has not demanded to inspect a single new site discovered in that secret archive," Netanyahu said at the UN conference. According to the Israeli prime minister, Iranian officials have been busy transporting nuclear material throughout the country in an attempt to hide it. The Iranians, he said, were using a rug-cleaning plant as a cover for a nuclear warehouse. Iran immediately dismissed the claims. Backed by the United States which withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal in May this year, Netanyahu appeared emboldened. "Israel is deeply grateful to President Trump for his decision to withdraw from the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran," he said. "The goal ... was to garner support for Israel's policy vis-a-vis Iran," said Emeritus Uri Bar-Joseph, a professor of Haifa University, questioning whether Netanyahu will be successful. "Iran will be nuclear," Bar-Joseph told Xinhua. "Even if it won't, it creates through Hezbollah and its missile arsenal probably the biggest threat to Israel since 1948, and the question is whether the strategy Netanyahu and his government are taking is the right one." Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy militant organization, has been in a decades-long conflict with Israel. The last war between the two in 2006 saw Hezbollah-controlled territories in southern Lebanon all but obliterated by Israeli fire power. A renewed conflict between the sides is believed to be only a matter of time and will likely be much deadlier than the last because of Iran's alleged funneling of precision missiles to Hezbollah. Netanyahu held up a map of what he claimed as Iranian missiles caches in Lebanon. Perhaps it was a move to legitimize hundreds of airstrikes Israel has been reportedly conducting in both Syria and Lebanon in attempt to curb Iran's expansion. But it is doubtful that Israel will attack Iran. As long as the nuclear agreement is in place with large international support, Netanyahu will not be able to justify a pre-emptive strike. Also, the U.S. support for such an adventure seems highly unlikely. For years, Netanyahu seems to put insufficient focus on the issue very close to home. The conflict with the Palestinians has the potential of boiling over and becoming a major headache at any moment. "Lack of advancing to a solution of the conflict with the Palestinians is an incubator for more problems for Israel," said Bar-Joseph. The Israeli leader briefly said he was looking forward to making peace with the Palestinians, amongst other Arab countries. He then proceeded to criticize Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his policies. "Year after year, his UN speeches are all about the Iranian issue. This will eventually lose the attention of the international community and even in Israel," said Nimrod Goren, head of Mitvim, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies. "It reduces Israel's foreign policy to a single issue while there are a lot of other issues that are important to raise and engage the international community in," Goren stressed. While Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump still find themselves largely isolated on issue of the Iranian nuclear program, the Israeli prime minister has managed to sideline the Palestinian matter and push it back in the international agenda. "He is successful in having the international community less and less engaged in the Palestinian issue," Goren told Xinhua. Netanyahu may have left the podium convinced that his revelations will shock the world into the action he seeks: more sanctions on Iran. But more likely, the speech will be archived like his previous ones and he will be left alone, accompanied only by the United States. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:48:03|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close People deprived of freedom leave the library of the District Prison, in Bogota, Colombia, on Sept. 27, 2018. The library of the District Prison celebrates the first anniversary since its opening. (Xinhua/Jhon Paz) Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:39:02|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close Jo Leinen, chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with China, speaks to the media in Brussels, capital of Belgium, on Sept. 25, 2018. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan) by Xinhua writer Jin Jing LONDON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nikhil Rathi, CEO of the London Stock Exchange, could barely conceal his excitement over an innovative project. "We are looking forward to further milestones on that project this year," Rathi said of the much anticipated Shanghai-London Stock Connect at a recent forum in central London. The project, the first of its kind in Europe, will make it possible for investors in either Shanghai or London to trade stocks listed in the other market through depository receipts after its launch, scheduled for this year. Such a project, which Rathi said could potentially change the outlook of the global financial markets, is a strong testimony to the growing cooperation between an increasingly open China and Europe, both supporters of free trade and globalization, in the face of the specter of protectionism. INDUSTRIAL DUISBURG REJUVENATED The German inland port city of Duisburg was a heavy industry center in the Ruhr region in its heyday, but later struggled in economic terms. Nowadays, the China Railway Express (CRE) freight service runs regularly through the town. The city is booming, with transport terminals in place of steel mills, in hopes of becoming a logistics hub in West Europe. The CRE freight service now links 48 Chinese cities with 42 cities in 14 European states as it winds its way across the vast continent. Made-in-China laptops, mobile phones and textiles are the most popular products reaching Europe thanks to the trains, while made-in-Europe high value-added fine wines and vehicle spare parts are shipped to China. The CRE freight service has been a flagship project in line with the spirit of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a development initiative proposed by China in 2013 envisioning trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road routes. Partly thanks to the CRE, more than 6,000 jobs have been created in Duisburg. A "small industry" has even emerged, generating tax revenues and strengthening the reputation and importance of the city, said Markus Taube, an economist with the University of Duisburg-Essen. "SO CLOSELY LINKED TOGETHER" Jim O'Neill, chairman of the renowned British think tank Chatham House, known for coining the acronym BRIC for Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2001, said the BRI is "possibly one of the most important things for the future world trade." China has been encouraging other countries to dovetail their development plans with those of other countries and regions under the initiative. The synergy between the BRI and the development plans of the EU will create opportunities for the world, said Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese mission to the European Union (EU). Despite the specter of rising protectionism and unilateralism, China and Europe are determined to increase their cooperation. "We see now very dangerous elements in the world ... I think China and the EU have to work together with other partners to guard the World Trade Organization and the rule-based global system," said Jo Leinen, chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with China. The EU itself is a multilateral system of 28 member states, Leinen said. Arancha Gonzalez, executive director of the Geneva-based International Trade Center, said unilateralism is not effective to address systemic problems in economy and trade and called for a coordinated approach. Dr. Michael Borchmann, a former ministerial secretary of the German state of Hesse, said in Berlin that it is very important for countries like China and Germany, both supporters of globalism and free trade, to work together. The world economy is "so closely linked together" and the impact of U.S.-initiated trade disputes and rising protectionism can be felt in Germany, he said. CHANGE IN CHINESE INVESTMENT Former Slovenian President Danilo Turk sees a role for the BRI in helping bridge the gaps in Europe. China and the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have worked together to improve transport networks, like the E763 highway project in Serbia, the Budapest-Belgrade railway, and a thermal power plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia, could become a logistics hub in eastern Europe if the infrastructural links can drive its development as envisioned, Turk said. The BRI has led to "a massive change" in the direction of Chinese investment, said Piotr Romanowski, global accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)'s partner on advisory business in CEE countries. "In recent years surging investment from Chinese companies has brought real business opportunities to the (CEE) region," he said. FROM LESS THAN 20 TO 1,500 China, after four decades of reform and opening-up, has pledged steps to further open up its market and improve intellectual property right protection. It will host the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November. Airbus, the European aviation giant, delivered its first aircraft to China in 1985 and that number had only grown to less than 20 by 1994. However, by late 2017, there were more than 1,500 Airbus commercial jetliners in service in China, and nearly a quarter of Airbus deliveries went to China, said Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders. Airbus launched its first final assembly line outside of Europe in Tianjin in 2008. Laurence Barron, head of the Tianjin final assembly line project and former CEO of Airbus China, said the company aims to have 2,000 aircraft operating in China before the end of 2020. In 2017, Airbus established its second global innovation center in Shenzhen, a young city known for pioneering China's reform and opening-up efforts. "The achievements made by Airbus in China are a good example of how foreign companies can take advantage of the reform and opening-up and better position themselves in China," Barron said. In London, Rathi said the Shanghai-London Stock Connect "will allow global investors to benefit from China's growth through London, and UK-listed companies will be able to access Chinese investors directly." "The opportunities are immense with new ways of connecting," Rathi said. (Xinhua correspondents Zhai Wei, Shuai Rong, Tian Dongdong, Zheng Jianghua, Han Chong in Brussels, Tian Ying, Zhu Sheng, Ren Ke in Berlin, Han Qian in Paris, Nie Xiaoyang in Geneva, Wang Yahong in Ljubljana, Guo Mingfang in Vilnius, Liu Lihang in Tirana, and Zhang Xiuzhi in Sarajevo contributed to the report.) (Video editors: Cao Ying, Zhu Jianhui) Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:39:02|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ABUJA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Nigerian military aircraft on Friday crashes into a mountain in Abuja, a witness said. According to the witness, heavy smoke can be seen rising from crash site, and two pilots had been seen parachuting from the aircraft. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:49:06|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia will establish a sovereign wealth fund next year as part of its strategy to manage growing revenues from its resources, the government press office said on Friday. "The government of Mongolia made the decision during a regular meeting on Friday in a bid to save money from revenues of natural resources for future generations," the press office said in a statement. Mongolia plans to take 553 billion Mongolian tugrik (217.3 million U.S. dollars) from its resource revenues into the fund called "Future Heritage" in 2019. Afterward, one trillion Mongolian tugrik (392.9 million U.S. dollars) will be put into the fund every year. Mongolia is rich in natural resources such as gold, silver, iron, coal, copper, molybdenum, tungsten, phosphates, tin, nickel, zinc, and fluorspar. The country's economy is heavily dependent on mining and commodity exports. Currently, mineral products account for over 90 percent of the landlocked country's total exports. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 20:04:09|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Guests attend the foundation laying ceremony of a water testing laboratory at the Peradeniya University, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sept. 28, 2018. Sri Lanka and China will launch the construction of a state-of-the-art water testing laboratory at the Peradeniya University, in the central highlands of the island country to find a scientific solution to end chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu), Sri Lanka's government information department said in a report on Friday. (Xinhua) COLOMBO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka and China will launch the construction of a state-of-the-art water testing laboratory at the Peradeniya University, in the central highlands of the island country to find a scientific solution to end chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu), Sri Lanka's government information department said in a report on Friday. Sri Lanka's City Planning and Water Supply Minister, Rauff Hakeem said the construction of the China, Sri Lanka Joint Research and Demonstration Center for Water Technology would begin on Saturday and will be completed by May 2020. The University of Peradeniya, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the City Planning and Water Supply Ministry are partners to the project, Minister Hakeem said. Hakeem further said the project grant by the Chinese government was a result of President Maithripala Sirisena's visit to China in 2015. The project construction is undertaken by China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (CTCE). Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena last year said that illnesses related to the Chronic Kidney Disease had become a national disaster in Sri Lanka. According to official figures here, there are 20,828 patients and 5,000 deaths per year. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 20:33:43|Editor: zh Video Player Close Photo taken on Sept. 28, 2018 shows giant panda cubs at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. A total of 12 cubs born in the base in 2018 met the public here Friday. (Xinhua) Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 20:39:23|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close By Peter Mertz DENVER, the United States, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- It is unlikely U.S. government officials considered that the tariff spat with its major trade partners would impact America's some 100 million beer drinkers. But it has. Beer industry insiders told Xinhua that their industry is being hit in several ways by the escalating trade disputes with Canada, Mexico and China. In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Robert Pease, president of the Brewer's Association (BA), voiced his industry's concerns with the imprudent tariffs policies by U.S. government. "It's a serious issue for us, it's a serious issue," Pease emphasized. BA represents 4,465 breweries across the country, and its affiliate, the American Homebrewers Association, has 46,000 members. Pease made the remarks in Denver when the 2018 Great American Beer Festival was held there on Sept. 20-22 and thousands of beer brewers from across the country met to bemoan the negative impact the tariffs are having on their business. "We support fair trade, we support free trade, but we oppose these tariffs," said Pease, who has been with BA for 27 years. Craft beer sales grew eight percent in 2017 and now total 26 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 23 percent of the country's 111.4 billion dollar beer market, BA statistics show. All told, the craft brewing Industry contributed 76.2 billion dollars to the U.S. Economy in 2017 as well as more than 500,000 jobs. "The tariffs on aluminum impact beer cans and the steel hikes affect the price of kegs," Pease noted. His words echoed Molson Coors Chairman Pete Coors's warning in May, when the beer industry mogul wrote an opinion article to the Wall Street Journey saying beer and other drinks packaged in aluminum cans will cost more for consumers because of an aluminum tariff implemented by the administration of President Donald Trump. Gavin Hattersley, CEO of MillerCoors, the second largest beer producer joint-ventured by SABMiller and Molson Coors, also disclosed his company is bracing for a 40 million dollar hit to its profits due to the tariffs on foreign aluminum and steel. He said the tariffs force the company to scale back investment, hit the pause button on hiring new employees, and increase beer prices, since the company's shareholders won't simply accept the hit. Moreover, American Keg CEO Paul Czachor had to explain to local media at the end of August why the tariff hurt the Pennsylvania based keg producer, the only U.S. beer keg maker relying entirely on domestic steel. He said the tariffs did not create more jobs for the company as the White House planned; on the contrary, it dried up steel imports, causing demand and prices to rise for U.S. steel, which then led the company's old customers to use imported kegs. Czachor told National Public Radio his company had fired 10 of its 30 employees. Not only have hikes on steel and aluminum hurt their bottom line, commodity losses in America's field crops, which were used to make beer, have also been affected by the tariff frictions. FARMERS ALSO SUFFER Some 1,100 kilometers away from Denver, Montana barley farmer Matt Flikkema told Xinhua he is getting hurt by the increased cost of steel that affects his equipment upgrades and purchases, and by the decreased amount of revenue he gains from selling his product. "That field of barley goes to Molson-Coors," Flikkema said, pointing to a field of high-grade barley headed to make beer for the world's fifth largest beer company. But thanks to the trade war, Flikkema will earn much less for the barley he planted. Many wheat and barley farmers are considering alternative crop production, and that could affect the cost and quality of domestic beer. "We've lobbied our supporters in the U.S. Congress, and tried to educate them about why we think the tariff is not a good policy for small and independent breweries," Pease told Xinhua. Both Pease and BA Chief Economist Bart Watson emphasized that the tariffs particularly hurt small, independent brewers, who are surviving on tight profit margins. "We see an annual three-to-five percent closure rate on new breweries," Watson told Xinhua. Industry officials are holding their breaths to see if more small start-ups fail due to the tariffs. "The price of steel increasing is not good for our members, especially the smaller businesses," Pease said. "That's going to inhibit expansions, inhibit innovation, and inhibit job creation in this industry," he added. Additionally, bigger breweries are holding back on growth and investment due to the tariffs, the industry official said. "One member told me this week they were looking at an expansion -- that may not be possible because of the big jump in steel prices," Pease said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 20:54:28|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JUBA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's peace monitors said on Friday there has been some positive progress by the warring parties in the formation of key structures to support implementation of a peace agreement signed recently to end over four years of conflict. A status update issued in South Sudan by the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) on the implementation of the recently signed revitalized agreement said some deadlines have been met while others have been missed. "Activities implemented include nominations and appointment of the National Pre-Transitional Committee (NPTC), which was constituted by the president of South Sudan on Tuesday, the Permanent Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements (PCTSA) workshop, and several declarations of commitment to the revitalized peace agreement by the parties," it said. The JMEC said progress has been made in confidence building, through declarations by the parties, celebration to mark the signing of the revitalized agreement, dialogue between the party leaders and invitations extended to all opposition leaders to visit Juba. President Salva Kiir recently invited all opposition members, including Riek Machar, the leader of the main rebel group the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-in opposition (SPLM/A-IO), to visit Juba to build trust and confidence. The peace monitors noted that the ongoing pre-transitional activities include ratification of the agreement by the leadership of the various parties, the dissemination of the signed revitalized agreement by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), preparation for the urgent actions required from the mediation to kick-start the implementation of the agreement, and reconstitution of the various boards and commissions of the agreement. However, it also noted that while the deadlines for the appointment of the National Pre-Transitional Committee (NPTC) and the convening of the PCTSA workshop, and reconstitution of the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangement Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM) board have been adhered to, others have been missed. "Deadlines missed include the ratification of revitalized agreement by the Transitional National Legislature (TNL), the reconstitution of the National Constitution Amendment Committee (NCAC), reconstitution of JMEC, the formation of the Joint Defense Board, and the release of all prisoners of war and political detainees," it said. The warring parties resumed intermittent fighting a few days after the signing of the agreement, with clashes taking place in the northern Unity region, Wau, and in the Yei River state. The clashes were condemned by the international community, which has been hesitant of late to support the revitalized agreement due to fears that it may collapse, just like several previous agreements. The JMEC urged the parties to give due consideration to gender and age representation in selecting their nominees to the various bodies and to expedite the process of reconstituting and establishing them. "The parties should adhere to the provisions of the permanent ceasefire, and hold violators accountable. The revitalized agreement should also be widely disseminated by the parties and all stakeholders, and the revitalized agreement should be ratified by the TNL," it added. South Sudan descended into conflict in December 2013. The conflict has also displaced about 4 million people, both internally and externally, fuelling Africa's biggest refugee crisis, with over 2 million refugees living in neighboring countries like Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 20:54:31|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SANTIAGO, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The aroma of fruits, grilled meat and the intense flavors of candies filled the air of the agri-foods Espacio Food & Service fair this week. The fair, one of the most important exhibitions in the agri-food industry of Chile, attracted over 400 exhibitors from 20 countries and brought together products providers, public organizations and professionals from the industry, according to the event director Andres Ilabaca. About 40 Chinese businesses displayed their best products at the fair, trying to get a share of the Latin American marketplace. Among them was the Shaanxi Co-op Enterprise Group, which is dedicated to the production and export of agricultural foods and one of world's most important vendors of kiwifruit. The geography of northwest China's Shaanxi Province is very similar to that of Chile, and these are the spots where soy or fruits are produced, said Wu Jingyuan, general manager of the group. "Our company produces many products and we export products such as kiwifruit and tea to the entire world," he said. Wu said that Chile's positive view of globalization helps China and emphasized that the geographical distance between the two countries is not a problem. "Chile is a country with a very prosperous agricultural industry and there are many production techniques. It is very valuable for us to study from them," he said. At the fair, the caramel candies from the Chinese company Fujian Fuhua Foods Co., Ltd, were on prominent display. The company is looking to introduce its product to the South American country. Zheng Yi, one of the company's representatives, told Xinhua that many of their products cannot be found in Chile and they are eager to change that, for example, by including gum with added vitamins. "We always take part in exhibitions outside the country to explore international markets," Zheng said. The products displayed by the company at the fair included hard candy, mints and peanut butter which are exported to Indonesia, Singapore, Yemen and Sudan, Zheng said. More than 1,200 meetings were held and valuable agreements were made, said Jorge O'Ryan, director of ProChile, an official agency dedicated to promoting Chilean exports. Latvian English Riga, Latvia, 2018-09-28 09:51 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- There were almost 3,300 creditors who responded to the call of liquidators of ABLV Bank, AS in liquidation to lodge their claims by 18 September 2018, which makes the claims amount to slightly more than EUR 2 billion, which is 98% of the banks liabilities. Credit Institutions Law of Latvia does not provide a deadline for accepting creditors claims, so the creditors who failed to lodge their claims by 18 September 2018 can do it later, as well, yet in this case they will qualify for another (subsequent) group of disbursements of claims, as it is provided by the law. Liquidation Committee appreciated the achieved numbers. Despite the relatively short term given for lodging the claims, there was virtually the highest possible volume of claims accepted. This was achieved through precise and efficient organisation of operation. The next stage is going to be no less challenging, since it implies scrupulous and responsible compliance evaluation of all claims, says Arvids Kostomarovs, the liquidator of ABLV Bank, AS in liquidation. After the methodology of evaluation of creditors is approved, it is going to take at least three months to verify compliance of the creditors claims and compile lists of creditors. So the disbursements to the creditors who at the moment of commencement of the liquidation had balances exceeding state guaranteed compensations could probably start in January 2019. First of all, the disbursements will be made to individuals, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in accordance with the provisions of Law on Recovery and Resolution of Credit Institutions and Investment Brokerage Firms. Recognition and satisfaction of the creditors claims shall be carried out under strict supervision of the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC). The international audit company EY (previously known as Ernst&Young) that has been engaged in the liquidation process has already developed a methodology on AML/CTF and sanctions compliance, audit of creditors and supervision of disbursements. The draft methodology is currently being coordinated with the FCMC. Since 12 June 2018, the day of approval of the voluntary liquidation of the bank, the Liquidation Committee of ABLV Bank, AS in liquidation has also been dealing with recovery of assets: evaluating all of the banks investments, including the ones in securities and subsidiaries, analysing currency risks of the assets, as well as it started cooperation with advisors to study the options of asset sale. Since the approval of the liquidation there are in total already EUR 80 million recovered. The main goal of the Liquidation Committee of ABLV Bank, AS in liquidation is to carry out liquidation of the bank professionally, thus contributing to the recovery of the reputation of Latvian financial sector. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 20:59:32|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday sent a congratulatory letter to the 35th Annual Plenary Session of the InterAction Council which opened in Beijing. In the letter, Xi, on behalf of the Chinese government and Chinese people, and in his own name, extended his congratulations on the opening of the session and sincere welcome to the members of the InterAction Council present at the session. Xi said the reform of the global governance system and the international order was accelerating, and it has become a general trend and the common task for all countries to strengthen global governance and improve the global governance system. The InterAction Council has made continuous efforts on solving global challenges and played an active role in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development, Xi said. The session focused on topics about global governance affairs, Xi said, adding that he believed it would help various parties deepen their consensus and improve the global governance system. He stressed that China always follows the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration in engaging in global governance, firmly supports multilateralism, and actively promotes the building of a new type of international relations as well as a community with a shared future for humanity. "We stand ready to work with the international community to strengthen the exploration and practice on improving the global governance system and jointly build a better future for humanity, " Xi said, adding that he wished the session a complete success. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 21:04:34|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JAKARTA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian meteorology and geophysics agency lifted the tsunami warning after a series of strong quakes including a 7.4-magnitude one rattled the Central Sulawesi province in central parts of the country, an official said Friday. "The tsunami warning was lifted as the tsunami did not occur," official in charge of the agency Suci Dewi told Xinhua by phone. The agency issued the warning after a revised 7.4 magnitude quake struck at 5:02 p.m. local time (1002 GMT) with an epicenter of 10 km underground at 27 km northeast Dongala district, the official said. At least one people was killed and 10 others were injured after a series of strong quakes hit central Indonesia on Friday afternoon. The agency first set the scale at 7.7-magnitude but then revised it to 7.4. Twelve minutes after the quake, a strong aftershock of 6.1-magnitude followed. The main shock rattled about three hours after a revised 6.0-magnitude quake jolted the area, killing one person and injuring 10 others with scores of houses damaged. The jolts were felt strongly in Sirenja sub-district of Dongala district, triggering panic and forcing folks to rush outside their houses, spokesman of national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. "Several houses were collapsed and damaged. The victims were hit by debris and falling blocks of concrete," he told Xinhua in a text message. Evacuation and risks assessment are underway, the spokesman said. Most of the folks in the affected areas remain outside their houses as aftershocks persist, Sutopo added. The quakes led to the closure of the main airport in the province and cut off communication, officials said. Indonesian transport ministry shut down the SIS Al-Jufrie airport at 7:26 p.m. local time Friday (1126 GMT) and will reopen it at 7:20 p.m. local time Saturday (1120 GMT Saturday), spokesman Sindu Rahayu said. Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on a vulnerable quake-affected area popularly known as "the Pacific Ring of Fire." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 21:04:35|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BERLIN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Unemployment has fallen once again in Germany, official figures published on Friday by the Federal Labor Office showed. According to the Nuremberg-based government agency, there were 2,256,000 registered unemployed inhabitants in September. The figure marked a further decline of 94,000 compared to the previous month and 192,000 compared to the same period last year respectively. The official German unemployment rate was measured by the Federal Labor Office at 5.0 percent during the current month. Using a standardized International Labor Organization (ILO) definition, the Office previously calculated the figure at 3.4 percent for the August. The German Central Bank (Bundesbank) and several economic institutes have recently pointed to the continued strength of the domestic labor market, and a resulting rise in wages, as an increasingly important pillar of German growth. The Office attributed the latest positive development in this regard to a traditional drop in unemployment which occurs when Germans return from their summer holidays in early autumn. Underemployment, a category which also includes people who are temporarily unable to work or receive some form of related government aid, declined as well in September. The total figure was measured at 3,170,000, down by 17,000 on a monthly and seasonal-adjusted basis and by 235,000 compared to September 2017. The Office highlighted that demand for new workers among employers remained "very high" after seven consecutive years of economic growth in Germany. The number of registered vacancies rose by 61,000 to 834,000 between September 2017 and September 2018. Speaking to Xinhua on Friday, Holger Schaefer, senior economist for employment and unemployment at the German Economic Institute (IW), said that the latest figures provided more evidence of the healthy state of the German labor market. "The decline in unemployment has continued in September. Underemployment decreased significantly too without this development being overly reliant on an expansion of labor policy measures," Schaefer said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 21:04:36|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Photo taken on Sept. 23, 2018 shows the view of El Gouna, Hurghada, Egypt. Restaurants, cafe shops and hotels in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of El Gouna bustled with tourists and guests, as the second El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) kicked off on Sept. 20. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) by Ahmed Shafiq HURGHADA, Egypt, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Restaurants, cafe shops and hotels in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of El Gouna bustled with tourists and guests, as the second El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) kicked off on Sept. 20. "There is a notable difference of tourists' turnout before, during and after the film festival," Nader Hatem, a manager of a restaurant in El Gouna, told Xinhua. "The time of the festival has become a season for us." Hatem, whose restaurant serves Egyptian food, said the festival, first launched in 2017, has well promoted tourism in El Gouna, a famous classy attraction in Egypt's Hurghada. "In addition to the festival's team, it also attracts thousands of visitors and guests who come from different countries as well as other Egyptian cities," Hatem said as he watched a group of young people stepping into his restaurant. He added that the restaurant sometimes receives no customers at all, "but it is sometimes fully booked during the festival." The second GFF hosted over 400 film celebrities and filmmakers and is set to screen dozens of movies from over 30 countries. The festival, which will run until Sept. 28, will screen 80 films, including 11 world premieres, and feature a multitude of workshops and panels. "This festival is not important for cinema industry, but it might be more important for business owners in El Gouna who have been suffering recession for a long period of time," Hatem said. Egyptian tourism sector, a major source of national income and foreign currency, has witnessed recession over the past seven years. The number of tourists to Egypt declined from 14.7 million in 2010 to about 8 million in 2017 due to political instability and relevant security challenges, including two mass uprisings that toppled two presidents, forcing several countries to ban their citizens from traveling to Egypt for safety reasons. Tourism in Egypt was further hit with a heavy blow following the Russian airplane crash in North Sinai in October 2015, after which Russia suspended its direct flights to the country and some other nations including Britain suspended flights to Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh. However, a boom in the sector is expected after Russia and Egypt resumed direct flights between the two countries in April. El Gouna is a favorable attraction to foreign and Egyptian tourists for its clean air and sunny sandy beaches. The town, founded by the billionaire Samih Sawiris more than two decades ago, is located just north of Hurghada on the west coast of the Red Sea. The town is easily accessed from Europe via the nearby Hurghada International Airport and boasts superb infrastructure and excellent services as well as natural beaches and year-round sunshine. The film festival, which was also co-founded by Sawiris and his business tycoon brother Nagib Sawiris, breathed life again into the town which has always been an example of modernity and beauty. Egyptian actress and CEO of the festival Bushra told Xinhua that the gala was not only launched for cinematic or cultural reasons, but also to promote tourism in El Gouna in particular and in Egypt in general. "El Gouna is a very spectacular destination and we would like to attract people from all over the world to be here ... of course there is a touristic side of the festival," she said. She said one of the messages of the festival is that Egypt is a civilized country with peaceful people who appreciate cinema, culture art and diversity. "That is what El Gouna is all about ... It is a place that respects diversity and it is a land of acceptance, it welcomes everyone and it is very safe," she stressed. In the resort's downtown, dining places, cafe shops and bazaars were crowded with guests and shoppers. The majority of them came for the film festival. Joseph Samy, owner of a bazaar, said the downtown was almost deserted in the past few months, adding that the film festival revives the business in the town. "Business dwindled recently as the number of tourists declined in the past year," Samy told Xinhua. "But more people are visiting now thanks to the film festival which promoted the town internationally." The young man said business has remarkably improved since the first film festival was launched in 2017. "I hope that the festival will be held every year ... it keeps the business going," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 21:09:36|Editor: ZX Video Player Close MACAO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 32nd Macao International Music Festival kicked off here on Friday in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), bringing a number of performances by musicians from around the world. The theme of this year's festival was "Enjoy - The Moment in Music." The opening performance was the opera L'Elisir d'Amorer, written by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. In addition, Austrian composer Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor will be presented jointly by the Macao Orchestra and the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra in October. Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander will perform his trio. Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses will present the public some classical pieces. The festival will come to a close with two concerts by the Staatskapelle Dresden, one of the world's oldest orchestras, which will perform the complete cycle of Schumann's symphonies. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 21:09:37|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JUBA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan President Salva Kiir has ordered the release of all political detainees held by his government as part of a recently signed peace deal. In a presidential order read on state-owned radio on Friday, South Sudan Broadcasting Cooperation (SSBC), Kiir directed his army chief to free all political detainees, stop new recruitment into the army and observe the "permanent" ceasefire deal signed in June. "The SPLA chief of defense force is hereby directed to immediately release the prisoners of war and detainees under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in accordance with provisions of article 216 of the revitalized agreement on the resolution of the conflict in the Republic of South Sudan," Kiir said, using the acronym for govenment forces, Sudan People's Liberation Army. "The SPLA and all other organized forces are hereby directed to ensure that there shall be no revenge, retaliation and violation of the permanent ceasefire," it added. Kiir, his former deputy and arch rival Riek Machar and several opposition groups earlier this month signed a new power-sharing deal aimed at ending the five-year old conflict that has devastated the world's youngest nation. But the latest deal is being threatened by fresh wave of clashes that erupted shortly after it was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both government and the main rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO), have blamed each other for the renewed fighting in the northern and southern parts of the country. A group of African diplomats in South Sudan on Thursday called on the country's leaders not to squander the peace deal and urged them to ensure that is it fully implemented. South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013, and the conflict has created one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world. The UN estimates that about 4 million South Sudanese have been displaced internally and externally. A peace deal signed in August 2015 collapsed, following renewed violence in the capital, Juba, in July 2016. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 21:39:44|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SHENYANG, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has stressed the revitalization of China's northeast region with fresh efforts. Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during a research trip from Tuesday to Friday to the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. To revitalize the region, China should implement a series of policies made by the CPC Central Committee, stick to the new development philosophy, forge ahead with determination and an open mind, maintain targeted and continued efforts, deepen reform to tackle contradictions, and make good use of advantages while avoiding shortcomings, Xi said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 21:39:44|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BERLIN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Wintershall and DEA have reached an agreement on a merger which will create Germany's biggest oil and gas producer, Wintershall's parent corporation BASF announced on Thursday night. BASF said it had signed a binding agreement with DEA owner LetterOne to merge the previously rivalling German oil and gas companies into a single entity. "With Wintershall DEA, we will create the leading independent European exploration and production company," a statement by BASF deputy chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) Hans-Ulrich Engel read. Wintershall and DEA first announced their fusion at the end of 2017. The two companies hope that the creation of Wintershall DEA will allow them to achieve savings of at least 200 million euros per year from synergy effects. The transaction is scheduled to be completed by the first half of 2019. Initially, BASF will receive 67 percent of ordinary shares of Wintershall DEA, while Letter One controls a 33 percent stake. BASF said that the two parties also planned to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) of the new Wintershall DEA company at a still unconfirmed date in the medium-term as the second stage of the fusion. Wintershall and DEA currently have a combined staff of 3,200 working in oil and gas exploration, production and transportation across Russia, South America, North Africa and the Middle East. The two companies will retain their respective administrative headquarters in Kassel and Hamburg following the merger. Egyptian Tourism Minister Rania al-Mashat (R) and the founder of the festival Samih Sawiris attend El Gouna Film Festival in El Gouna, Hurghada, Egypt, on Sept. 20, 2018. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) HURGHADA, Egypt, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Restaurants, cafe shops and hotels in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of El Gouna have been bustling with tourists and guests in the past week, as the second El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) concluded on Sept. 28. "There is a notable difference of tourists' turnout before, during and after the film festival," Nader Hatem, a manager of a restaurant in El Gouna, told Xinhua. "The time of the festival has become a season for us." Hatem, whose restaurant serves Egyptian food, said the festival, first launched in 2017, has well promoted tourism in El Gouna, a famous classy attraction in Egypt's Hurghada. "In addition to the festival's team, it also attracts thousands of visitors and guests who come from different countries as well as other Egyptian cities," Hatem said as he watched a group of young people stepping into his restaurant. He added that the restaurant sometimes receives no customers at all, "but it is sometimes fully booked during the festival." The second GFF hosted over 400 film celebrities and filmmakers and is set to screen dozens of movies from over 30 countries. The festival, which kicked off on Sept. 20, screened about 80 films, including 11 world premieres, and featured a multitude of workshops and panels. Photo taken on Sept. 20, 2018 shows the scene of El Gouna Film Festival in El Gouna, Hurghada, Egypt. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) "This festival is not important for cinema industry, but it might be more important for business owners in El Gouna who have been suffering recession for a long period of time," Hatem said. Egyptian tourism sector, a major source of national income and foreign currency, has witnessed recession over the past seven years. The number of tourists to Egypt declined from 14.7 million in 2010 to about 8 million in 2017 due to political instability and relevant security challenges, including two mass uprisings that toppled two presidents, forcing several countries to ban their citizens from traveling to Egypt for safety reasons. Tourism in Egypt was further hit with a heavy blow following the Russian airplane crash in North Sinai in October 2015, after which Russia suspended its direct flights to the country and some other nations including Britain suspended flights to Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh. However, a boom in the sector is expected after Russia and Egypt resumed direct flights between the two countries in April. El Gouna is a favorable attraction to foreign and Egyptian tourists for its clean air and sunny sandy beaches. The town, founded by the billionaire Samih Sawiris more than two decades ago, is located just north of Hurghada on the west coast of the Red Sea. The town is easily accessed from Europe via the nearby Hurghada International Airport and boasts superb infrastructure and excellent services as well as natural beaches and year-round sunshine. Syrian actor Abed Fahed (L) attends El Gouna Film Festival in El Gouna, Hurghada, Egypt, on Sept. 20, 2018. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) The film festival, which was also co-founded by Sawiris and his business tycoon brother Nagib Sawiris, breathed life again into the town which has always been an example of modernity and beauty. Egyptian actress and CEO of the festival Bushra told Xinhua that the gala was not only launched for cinematic or cultural reasons, but also to promote tourism in El Gouna in particular and in Egypt in general. "El Gouna is a very spectacular destination and we would like to attract people from all over the world to be here ... of course there is a touristic side of the festival," she said. She said one of the messages of the festival is that Egypt is a civilized country with peaceful people who appreciate cinema, culture art and diversity. "That is what El Gouna is all about ... It is a place that respects diversity and it is a land of acceptance, it welcomes everyone and it is very safe," she stressed. In the resort's downtown, dining places, cafe shops and bazaars were crowded with guests and shoppers. The majority of them came for the film festival. Joseph Samy, owner of a bazaar, said the downtown was almost deserted in the past few months, adding that the film festival revives the business in the town. "Business dwindled recently as the number of tourists declined in the past year," Samy told Xinhua. "But more people are visiting now thanks to the film festival which promoted the town internationally." The young man said business has remarkably improved since the first film festival was launched in 2017. "I hope that the festival will be held every year ... it keeps the business going," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 21:44:46|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), attends a reception to mark the National Day that falls on Oct. 1 in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 28, 2018. The reception was organized by the General Office of the CPPCC National Committee, the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Top political advisor Wang Yang on Friday called for further development and consolidation of the broadest possible patriotic united front. Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks when addressing a reception held Friday to mark the National Day that falls on Oct. 1. The Chinese nation has achieved a tremendous transformation as it has stood up, grown rich and is becoming strong, which is a result of the courage, hard work and successes in overcoming difficulties of Chinese people of all ethnic groups, united and led by the CPC, as well as joint efforts made by all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation at home and abroad, according to Wang. He stressed to fully and faithfully implement the principle of "one country, two systems" and act in strict compliance with China's Constitution and the basic laws of Hong Kong and Macao, as well as support the two special administrative regions in integrating their own development into the overall development of the country. It is the desire of the people to promote the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and advance the process toward the peaceful reunification of China, Wang said. "We should firmly uphold the 1992 Consensus, oppose 'Taiwan independence,' and hold the conviction that we are all of the same family," he said, demanding measures implemented to strengthen the cross-Straits economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation. He also promised that the CPC's policies regarding overseas Chinese affairs will be fully implemented and dedicated services of all types will be provided to overseas Chinese. Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, hosted the reception, which was attended by more than 2,800 representatives from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities. The reception was organized by the General Office of the CPPCC National Committee, the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. Selbyville, Delaware, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hydrophobic Coatings Market size will exceed USD 2 billion by 2024; according to a new growth analysis report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Increasing development of water-repellent materials has recently attracted a lot of attention due to wide range of applications that these surfaces offer hence, expecting favorable hydrophobic coatings market growth. Self-cleaning surfaces, stain resistant textiles or anti-icing Coatings, anti-fouling materials, are just some examples that show the potential of these materials. Additionally, the development of paints and Coatings for outdoor use will further propel product demand. China fluoropolymer based hydrophobic coatings market size is expected to surpass USD 110 million in the projected timeframe owing to increasing electronic regional market. It is resistant to acids, solvents and friction. Increasing consumer preference towards high quality electronic products along with rising investment in Coatings industry braced by implementation of sustainable techniques will have a positive impact on market growth. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2919 Hydrophobic coatings market size from aerospace application may witness significant gains up to 5% by 2024. The product would be applied to whole surface of plane and could help prevent buildup of ice deposits. The ice-building up on the exteriors of aerospace machines owing to flying higher altitudes and encountering supercooled water when flying through low-lying clouds could cause substantial problems, including drag and lift specially, accumulations of ice could result in severe transportation problem owing to imbalances of aircrafts under a high speed. Heavy capital expenses in infrastructure capabilities, expensive treatment and corrosion in contrast to easily available substitute including hard-wax will restrict industry profitability, thus affecting hydrophobic coatings market price trends. Emissions released by overheated PTFE are toxic to humans & animals and does not provide same resistance to deterioration which may bound industry growth. Browse key industry insights spread across 520 pages with 846 market data tables & 31 figures & charts from the report, Hydrophobic Coatings Market Share & Forecast, 2018 2024 in detail along with the table of contents: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/hydrophobic-coatings-market Hydrophobic coatings market size from medical application is anticipated to exceed USD 60 million by 2024. With the product properties of repellency to fluids, blood, and tissue sheets which slide off easily. It keeps surgical tools clean and reduces risks of infection and contamination in patients owing to its anti-microbial, self-cleaning and antifouling properties, thus stimulating product demand. Metal substrate segment may witness strong gains up to 6% by 2024. The product is transparent fluid resistant and durable which has been developed for corrosion mitigation. They have high concentration than traditional organic polymer Coatings and are electrically protecting, ensuring improved barrier properties to water and corrosion. Metals attract water owing to electromagnetic attraction causing corrosion. The product can be applied easily & safely without complications machinery which would boosting market growth. U.S. titanium dioxide based hydrophobic coatings market size is anticipated to exceed USD 20 million in the projected timeframe owing to anti-smudging and easy-to-clean properties. They are very effective for developing durable and mechanically stable Coatings that can also serve as a barrier. It has extensive usage in cements, paints, window glasses & textiles application which will contribute towards regional product demand. Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2919 Hydrophobic coatings market size from anti-microbial property may witness significant gains up to 4% by 2024. Antibacterial and water-repellent Coatings on textile surfaces are being increasingly utilized as they are healthier and more comfortable on garments in daily life. Manufacturers are using sol gel techniques which have recently attracted a wide attention to develop innovative high value-added products. Global hydrophobic coatings market share is fragmented and competitive with major players including DryWired, NeverWet, 3M, Aculon, PPG, NEI Corporation, AkzoNovel, Cytonix, and Nippon Paint. Browse Related Reports: Aerospace Coatings Market Statistics, 2017 2024 Aerospace Coatings Market size was worth over USD 680 million in 2016 and the demand is estimated to cross 16 kilo tons by 2024 at 5.4% CAGR from 2017 to 2024. North America aerospace coatings market size crossed 3 kilo tones in 2016. Presence of key aircraft manufacturers coupled with new aircraft advancements such as 787 & 737 MAX by Boeing and A350 & A320neo by Airbus will support the industry growth. https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/aerospace-coatings-market Textile Coatings Market Statistics, 2017 2024 Global Textile Coatings Market size was worth over USD 5.1 billion in 2016 and will surpass 5,600 kilo tons by 2024. Asia Pacific is among the dominant region accounting more than 50% of overall market share. Constant demand from construction, transportation and clothing application will support the overall textile coatings market growth. https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/textile-coatings-market 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. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 21:49:50|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close File photo taken on July. 23, 2014 shows Mutware, one of the oldest elephants, living in the Akagera National Park, eastern Rwanda. Rwandan wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists are mourning the death of one of the country's oldest elephants, which passed away quietly at the age of 48. (Xinhua/Cyril Ndegeya) KIGALI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists are mourning the death of one of the country's oldest elephants, which passed away quietly at the age of 48. Mutware, meaning "chief" in English, died of natural causes. It was one of the oldest elephants in Rwanda's Akagera National Park, Kayonza district, Eastern province, the park management announced Thursday in a statement. It was an iconic elephant loved by everyone in the park and it's a great loss to park fraternity and those wildlife enthusiasts who cherished it, park manager Jes Gruner told Xinhua in a phone interview on Friday. The elephant might have died in early August, said Gruner, adding it seems that Mutware died of old age. According to him, there are more than 100 elephants in the park and Mutware was one of the original 26 young elephants, who were all under the age of eight years, brought to Akagera from Bugesera district in southern Rwanda in 1975. Mutware was easily recognizable to those who knew him as he had broken his tusks years ago, according to the park statement. Mutware, raised alongside humans, was popular with tourists, who can touch or feed him, the statement added. Akagera National Park, located along the border with Tanzania, is central Africa's largest protected wetland and the last remaining refuge for savannah-adapted species in Rwanda, according African Parks, which jointly manages the park with the Rwanda Development Board. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 22:04:53|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A foreign fishing vessel conducting illegal fishing activities in Brunei waters about 130 nautical miles from the coast of Brunei was apprehended by the Royal Brunei Navy, the country's Ministry of Defense said on Friday. According to a press release on its website, the ministry said that a total of four foreign fishermen including the owner of the boat were found onboard the trawler. The trawler and the fishermen were then escorted and handed over to the Marine Police Royal Brunei Police Force, in the presence of a representative from the Fisheries Department. This is the second foreign fishing vessel apprehended by the navy this year, the first being in May, when 37 Vietnamese men, aged 18 to 52, were found conducting illegal fishing on a Vietnam-registered vessel within Brunei waters. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 22:04:53|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close The wreckage of a Nigerian Air force jet is seen at Katampe hill in Abuja, Nigeria, on Sept. 28, 2018. Nigerian air force spokesperson Ibikunle Daramola confirmed two military aircrafts on Friday collided while rehearsing for an air display over Abuja, and one pilot was killed. (Xinhua/Olatunji Obasa) ABUJA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian air force spokesperson Ibikunle Daramola confirmed two military aircrafts on Friday collided while rehearsing for an air display over Abuja, and one pilot was killed. Daramola told Xinhua the crash occurred as the two jets were rehearsing for Nigeria's 58th independence anniversary celebrations. The pilot flying an F7-Ni jet was killed on the spot. Mohammed Gidi Nass, who led a rescue team before the arrival of emergency officials and military personnel, told Xinhua they carried one dead body and rescued three others. Among the three rescued, one was injured and two were unhurt. A witness living nearby said earlier a big bang was heard before he saw heavy smoke arising from a mountain behind his office in the Katampe area of Abuja, and two pilots were spotted landing with parachutes. Nigerian defense ministry spokesman John Agim confirmed the accident to Xinhua via telephone. "Our men are still at the crash site, working. We shall address the media after the ongoing emergency operation," he said. Nigeria will hold a grand ceremony on Monday celebrating the 58th anniversary of the country's independence. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 22:14:56|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close WELLINGTON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Minister for Biosecurity Damien O'Connor on Friday called on every New Zealander to help build a biosecurity team of 4.7 million as part of "This Is Us" campaign. "'This Is Us' is an independent biosecurity brand that aims to connect all of us with the many ways we can help protect Aotearoa from pests and diseases," O'Connor said in a statement. With biosecurity in the spotlight as New Zealand attempts to eradicate cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis, turn away ships to keep the Brown marmorated stink bug out of New Zealand, and deal with the emergence and spread of Myrtle rust and Kauri dieback, "now is the time for every New Zealander to stand up and take action on biosecurity," O'Connor said. "Biosecurity keeps safe everything that shapes our unique way of life, from the great outdoors we farm, fish, hunt and play in to the biodiversity of our unique ecosystems," he said. It also focuses on appropriate biosecurity behaviors and actions in three core areas: moving people and goods, vigilance and readiness, and pest and disease control, the minister said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 22:14:57|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for efforts in strengthening the capacity in preventing and controlling forest fires and grassland fires during fire-prone seasons. In written instructions made public Friday, Li demanded progress in reforming the fire prevention and control mechanism for better coordination and asked authorities across the country to shoulder their responsibilities in fire prevention. Emergency response units at all levels should intensify the fire early warning and monitoring efforts and perform their duty in responding to fires, according to Li. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 22:24:59|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Kurdish security personnel enter a polling center in Erbil Province in the Kurdistan region, Iraq, on Sept. 28, 2018. The semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq on Friday held its early parliamentary vote with participation of more than 170,000 Kurdish security personnel eligible to cast their ballots. (Xinhua/Yasser Jawad) BAGHDAD, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq on Friday held its early parliamentary vote with participation of more than 170,000 Kurdish security personnel eligible to cast their ballots. Sherwan Zarar, spokesman of the regional Independent High Electoral and Referendum Commission, said the voting started at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) at 93 polling centers distributed across the three provinces of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk in the region. The voting by the regional members of the Kurdish security forces, including Peshmerga and Asayish, will continue until 6 p.m. (1500 GMT), Zara added. The vote counting will start immediately after the closure of the polling centers, but the result may not be announced immediately after the counting is finished, he noted. The early vote comes ahead of the regional parliamentary elections on Sept. 30, when about 3 million eligible voters will cast their ballots for more than 700 candidates within 28 lists vying for the 111 seats in the regional legislature. Under the quota system, the Kurdish political parties will take 100 seats, while the minority groups will share the remaining 11 ones. The Kurdish parliamentary elections came more than four months after the Iraqi national elections on May 12, which were fraught with allegations of fraud and have yet to result in a new federal government. The elections are the fifth of their kind since the Iraqi Kurds established the region in 1991. File Photo: Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai addresses the 2018 Penn Wharton China Summit in Philadelphia, the United States, April 15, 2018. (Xinhua) WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese ambassador to the United States on Thursday called on Washington to make right decision to put bilateral relations with China back on the right track. Speaking at a reception here to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai noted that China and the United States, the world's two largest economies, must make a historic choice on where they want to steer the relationship, at a time when the world is undergoing unprecedented change. "At stake are the interests of our workers, farmers, entrepreneurs, men and women in military services and all other sectors, especially the future and fate of the young generation of the two countries," the ambassador said. Cui said China has already made its choice, vowing a commitment to the principle of no-conflict, no-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation with the United States. Beijing is also committed to settling differences in a constructive way, and to a sound, steady and growing China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the people of both countries and the whole world, the Chinese envoy said. "We call on and expect the U.S. side to make the same right choice," said Cui. Noting that 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of China-U.S. diplomatic relations, Cui said that the two countries have witnessed dramatic changes across the world and China-U.S. relations have also evolved profoundly over the past four decades. "History has proven that cooperation benefits both countries while confrontation hurts both, and that the only right choice for us is cooperation," the veteran diplomat added. Addressing the audience at the reception, Matthew Pottinger, White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs, acknowledged China's achievements and great potential in the future, adding that there is nothing to be afraid of when Washington and Beijing are found competing with each other. U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed to form a constructive and result-oriented U.S.-China relationship, which will bring unprecedented opportunity for the cooperation of the two countries, Pottinger added. About 600 people, including U.S. government officials, representatives from the intellectual and industrial sectors, as well as diplomats from foreign embassies, attended the reception on Thursday evening. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 22:35:01|Editor: yan Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has added nine new destinations for hot-air balloon flights across the country amid growing interest of tourists. Previously, the Cappadocia region in the central province of Nevsehir was Turkey's single destination for balloon rides, attracting over 500,000 riders every year. In Cappadocia, 239 hot-air balloons belonging to 25 companies take off at least 260 days a year in an area filled with cone-shaped rock formations. "Allowing new destinations for hot-air balloon flights is an important decision for the enrichment of the touristic products variety in the country," Firuz Baglikaya, chairman of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, told Xinhua. He singled out Pamukkale, or Cotton Castle, a main tourist attraction in Turkey known for its white travertine made up of natural calcified waterfalls and a series of terraced basins. The site draws nearly 2 million tourists annually. "The new destinations are expected to contribute positively to the development of the selected locations which include Turkey's and the world's well-known cultural and natural beauties," said Baglikaya. Turkey hosted 27 million foreign visitors from January to August this year, up 22.9 percent year-on-year, according to figures released by Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Friday. In Baglikaya's view, the new destinations will boost the number of foreign arrivals further, as tourists have a growing interest in balloon rides. Turkey's tourism industry is rebounding after suffering from a spate of terror attacks and chilling relations with Germany, Russia and others in the past years. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 22:35:01|Editor: yan Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian National Assembly's President Samdech Heng Samrin on Friday praised the excellent ties and cooperation between Cambodia and China, a spokesman said. The country's top legislator made the remarks during a farewell meeting here with outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo, said Keo Piseth, a spokesman for Heng Samrin. "As this year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Cambodia and China, Samdech Heng Samrin said he was very pleased to see ties and cooperation between the two countries reaching an all-time high in the history," the spokesman told reporters after the meeting. Samrin said the two countries had enjoyed close ties and cooperation in all fields, especially in politics, diplomacy, economics, trade, investment, and tourism. Samrin also expressed his profound thanks to the government and people of China for always providing support to Cambodia for its socio-economic development, saying that China's assistance was vital to strengthen Cambodia's sovereignty, independence, stability, security and development. The National Assembly president also praised Xiong for his active contributions to further promoting Cambodia-China relations during his tenure. For his part, Xiong thanked Samrin and National Assembly members for working closely with the Chinese Embassy here, which led to the successful completion of his diplomatic mission in the kingdom. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 22:50:07|Editor: yan Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on Friday that it will grant full licenses to two Chinese dockless bicycle-sharing operators, Mobike and ofo, and a local-born operator, SG Bike, by the end of October. Meanwhile, it will grant sandbox licenses to three other service operators, Anywheel, Grabcycle and Qiqi Zhixiang, but will not grant a license to the seventh applicant, GBikes, as it did not satisfy the assessment criteria. After paying for the license fees, the six service operators with licenses will be required to right-size their bicycle fleets to the approved fleet size, because the current utilization rate of the more than 100,000 shared bicycles in Singapore is at a low level, according to the LTA. The authority said about half of the entire shared bicycle population in Singapore is not actively used. "We will give operators sufficient time to right-size their fleets and transit to the new licensing regime," it added. LTA also said it intends to grant sandbox licenses to the three operators with little or no experience in operating shared bicycles, to encourage innovation and reduce barriers to entry for new operators. TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WeedMD Inc. (TSX-V:WMD) (OTC:WDDMF) (FSE:4WE) (WeedMD or the Company), a federally-licensed producer and distributor of medical-grade cannabis, is pleased to announce that it has delivered its first shipments of WeedMD-branded cannabis to contracted provinces ahead of the landmark date of October 17, 2018 an important milestone for the Company as it successfully ramps up production from its best-in-class cultivation facilities. Were on the cusp of making history in Canada as the adult-use cannabis market opens up in the coming weeks. Im proud of the dedication and hard work the WeedMD team has put into ensuring that our branded medical-grade cannabis is made available and accessible to all of our market channels, said Keith Merker, CEO of WeedMD. With the continued production ramp-up of both our large-scale, state-of-the-art greenhouse and our premium indoor growing facility, our team is executing to plan and delivering on all fronts to meet our supply commitments to the provinces, Shoppers Drug Mart and our medical markets. Were looking forward to these long-term partnerships and the expansion opportunities that they bring. WeedMD has signed five cannabis supply and purchase agreements including with the Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis Commission (AGLC), the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BC LDB), the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC), the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation (OCRC), operating as the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) and Shoppers Drug Mart. Additionally, WeedMD continues to be engaged in discussions with other provincial liquor boards and emerging private retail operators. For more information, access WeedMDs investor presentation here and recently updated corporate video here . About WeedMD Inc. WeedMD Inc. is the publicly-traded parent company of WeedMD Rx Inc., a federally-licensed producer and distributor of cannabis plant, dried flower and oil under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR). The Company operates two facilities: a 26,000 sq. ft. indoor facility in Aylmer, Ontario and a state-of-the-art greenhouse facility located in Strathroy, Ontario. The greenhouse currently has 44,000 square feet of licensed space in production and is expected to have a total footprint of more than 500,000 square feet online by year-end 2018. WeedMD has a multi-channeled distribution strategy that includes supply agreements with Shoppers Drug Mart and provincial distribution agencies, as well as through strategic relationships across the seniors' market in Canada. Follow WeedMD On: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weedmd/ LinkedIn: https://fr.linkedin.com/company/weedmd Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeedMD Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weedmd/ For further information, please contact: WeedMD Inc. Keith Merker, Chief Executive Officer Tel: 519-765-2440 Ext. 222 Email: investor@weedmd.com To learn more, visit us at www.weedmd.com For Media Inquiries: Marianella delaBarrera Corporate Communications & Public Affairs Tel: 416-897-6644 Email: marianella@weedmd.com Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation which are based upon WeedMD's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs and views of future events. Forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expect", "likely", "may", "will", "should", "intend", "anticipate", "potential", "proposed", "estimate" and other similar words, including negative and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may", "would" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy. The forward-looking information in this news release is based upon the expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and views of future events which management believes to be reasonable in the circumstances. Forward-looking information includes estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, targets, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking information in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to internal expectations, expectations with respect to actual production volumes, expectations for future growing capacity and the completion of any capital project or expansions. Forward-looking information necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation, risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; loss of markets; future legislative and regulatory developments; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; the cannabis industry in Canada generally; the ability of WeedMD to implement its business strategies; competition; crop failure; and other risks. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, WeedMD does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for WeedMD to predict all such factors. When considering this forward-looking information, readers should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in WeedMD's Annual Information Form dated December 13, 2017 (the "AIF") and other disclosure documents of WeedMD filed with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . The risk factors and other factors noted in the AIF and other disclosure documents could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking information. 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 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows a photo marking "Iran's Secret Atomic Sites" during his speech at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 27, 2018. (Reuters photo) JERUSALEM, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- In his 10th address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded as determined as ever to expose what he believes is the largest threat to his country's security: the Iranian nuclear program. Not mentioning the pressing issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu focused, once again, on Israel's arch-enemy, while exposing what he claims to be "a secret warehouse" in Tehran where the Iranian government continues it's nuclear program. As he held satellite images of the alleged site, he criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for not taking action since he exposed a supposed nuclear archive seized by Israeli covert forces five months ago. "Months have passed. The IAEA has still not taken any action. It has not posed a single question to Iran. It has not demanded to inspect a single new site discovered in that secret archive," Netanyahu said at the UN conference. According to the Israeli prime minister, Iranian officials have been busy transporting nuclear material throughout the country in an attempt to hide it. The Iranians, he said, were using a rug-cleaning plant as a cover for a nuclear warehouse. Iran immediately dismissed the claims. Backed by the United States which withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal in May this year, Netanyahu appeared emboldened. "Israel is deeply grateful to President Trump for his decision to withdraw from the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran," he said. "The goal ... was to garner support for Israel's policy vis-a-vis Iran," said Emeritus Uri Bar-Joseph, a professor of Haifa University, questioning whether Netanyahu will be successful. "Iran will be nuclear," Bar-Joseph told Xinhua. "Even if it won't, it creates through Hezbollah and its missile arsenal probably the biggest threat to Israel since 1948, and the question is whether the strategy Netanyahu and his government are taking is the right one." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows a photo marking "Beirut-Precision Guided Missile" during his speech at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 27, 2018. (Reuters photo) Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy militant organization, has been in a decades-long conflict with Israel. The last war between the two in 2006 saw Hezbollah-controlled territories in southern Lebanon all but obliterated by Israeli fire power. A renewed conflict between the sides is believed to be only a matter of time and will likely be much deadlier than the last because of Iran's alleged funneling of precision missiles to Hezbollah. Netanyahu held up a map of what he claimed as Iranian missiles caches in Lebanon. Perhaps it was a move to legitimize hundreds of airstrikes Israel has been reportedly conducting in both Syria and Lebanon in attempt to curb Iran's expansion. But it is doubtful that Israel will attack Iran. As long as the nuclear agreement is in place with large international support, Netanyahu will not be able to justify a pre-emptive strike. Also, the U.S. support for such an adventure seems highly unlikely. For years, Netanyahu seems to put insufficient focus on the issue very close to home. The conflict with the Palestinians has the potential of boiling over and becoming a major headache at any moment. Jewish Americans hold a protest against the State of Israel outside of UN headquarters as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Reuters photo) "Lack of advancing to a solution of the conflict with the Palestinians is an incubator for more problems for Israel," said Bar-Joseph. The Israeli leader briefly said he was looking forward to making peace with the Palestinians, amongst other Arab countries. He then proceeded to criticize Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his policies. "Year after year, his UN speeches are all about the Iranian issue. This will eventually lose the attention of the international community and even in Israel," said Nimrod Goren, head of Mitvim, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies. "It reduces Israel's foreign policy to a single issue while there are a lot of other issues that are important to raise and engage the international community in," Goren stressed. While Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump still find themselves largely isolated on issue of the Iranian nuclear program, the Israeli prime minister has managed to sideline the Palestinian matter and push it back in the international agenda. "He is successful in having the international community less and less engaged in the Palestinian issue," Goren told Xinhua. Netanyahu may have left the podium convinced that his revelations will shock the world into the action he seeks: more sanctions on Iran. But more likely, the speech will be archived like his previous ones and he will be left alone, accompanied only by the United States. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 23:10:12|Editor: yan Video Player Close by Naim-Ul-Karim DHAKA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh exports thousands of tons of crab worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars each year as foodies in East and Southeastern Asian countries, mainly in China, have a special penchant for the tasty crustacean. Exporters here collect crab from mainly coastal zones in Bangladesh as they are fatter and heavier than those of other nations. The country's weather, soil and water quality is particularly favorable for crab and exporters say they are in great demand in parts of Asia. Before the sun rises, workers start the process of sorting and packing live crabs into thousands of baskets at their factories in downtown Dhaka areas, including Nolvoge, Uttara. They heave a sigh of relief when all the baskets are loaded into trucks for export before midday. Anup, a worker at a crab exporting firm in Dhaka, said they have to separate male crab from the females. These crab come from almost everywhere in Bangladesh, he said, adding they send the crabs abroad after dressing and packing them properly. "We get crabs from farms and natural sources. After careful sorting, we send them mainly to China," he said. There is a high demand for large-sized male crabs in Shanghai, China. "Buyers from Shanghai order far more male crabs," said Gopal Chandra Biswas of Biswas Trade International. Other Chinese regions including Guangzhou prefer female crabs, he said. At the factory, baskets full of live male and female crabs are prepared and ready to be sent to different destinations in China and other parts of Asia. Every day, about 35 to 40 tons of crabs are exported to China from Bangladesh alone, according to industry statistics. Such is the huge demand for crabs from Bangladesh that the industry now provides a significant amount of work for farmers and exporters. Biswas said his farm employs 40 people in Dhaka and 25 more people at each crab collection center elsewhere in the country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 23:15:13|Editor: yan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of Kenyans going for plastic money cards continues to rise despite the almost ubiquitous use of mobile money services. In July, according to the latest data available from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), 17.2 million citizens of the east African nation held plastic cards, a record high. The number has steadily risen, from 15.4 million cardholders in December 2017 to 16.6 million in January, an indication that cards are still a necessity in Kenya despite the dominance of mobile money. According to World Bank estimates, Kenya's population stood at about 49.7 million in 2017. Debit cards remain the most popular cards among Kenyans, with some 15.4 million citizens holding them, followed by prepaid cards at 1.3 million and credit cards at 238,121, according to the CBK. The popularity of debit cards is attributed to the move by the country's commercial banks in 2015 to transit customers to secure EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) debit and credit cards, which offer customers an array of services. Usage of the cards is similarly on the rise, with a good number of Kenyans using them for shopping and to pay for bills, besides withdrawing money from automated teller machines. In July, according to the apex bank, plastic money transactions stood at 1.17 billion U.S. dollars, a slight decline from 1.18 billion dollars in January. Mobile money transactions in July stood at 3.32 billion dollars, up from 3.17 billion dollars in June, according to the central bank. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 23:35:16|Editor: yan Video Player Close ROME, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Financial markets were on their heels Friday, a day after Italy's populist, anti-establishment government announced it would widen its budget deficit in order to finance costly electoral promises. Thursday's blueprint says the government would widen the 2019 budget deficit to an estimated 2.4 percent of the gross domestic product, almost surely putting the country on a collision course with the European Union (EU). The EU has called for Italy to focus on paying down the government's deficit, the highest in the bloc in absolute terms and the second highest when measured as a percentage of gross domestic product. The 2.4-percent figure is around three times higher than the estimates put forward by the previous government, which ended its term May 31. It is also far above the 1.6-perfect figure promised by Minister of Finance Giovanni Tria. Still, it is below the more than 3.0-percent deficit the government said it wanted in August. Tria, a political independent not associated with either of the political parties backing the Giuseppe Conte government, reportedly vowed to resign if he lost the battle over the budget. There were no immediate signs Tria would follow through with his threat on Friday, but the Italian media reported it could still happen. In absolute terms, the difference between Tria's 1.6-perfect deficit promise and the 2.4-percent target announced Thursday is around 175 billion euros (205 billion U.S. dollars) in extra spending. That figure is more than the gross domestic products of 15 of the 28 EU member states, including Greece, the only EU country more indebted than Italy. Italy has the third largest economy in the 19-nation euro currency union. Luigi Di Maio, Italy's minister of labor and the head of the Five-Star Movement, said the extra spending would pay for itself through higher economic growth. "We must explain to markets that there are so many smart investments inside this 2.4-percent figures that we will be able to grow the economy as much as we want to," Di Maio said in a press conference. But analysts were less convinced. "Before the figure was announced I thought that Tria's 1.6-percent figure was not likely, but that 2.4 or above would mean outright war with the European Union," Riccardo Puglisi, a political economist with the University of Pavia, told Xinhua. "At close to 2.0-percent, it would have been a skirmish. But 2.4 percent is bad news." Ugo Arrigo, an economics and statistics professor with Bicocca University in Milan, said the decision was likely based on politics and not economics. "Really, the deficit should have been 1.6 or 1.7 percent," Arrigo said in an interview. "Above 2 is trouble because it means the government is putting electoral promises above sustainability." Among the costly promises put forth by the four-month-old government: a universal basic income for all Italian citizens, an earlier retirement age for workers, and a flat tax for Italian companies. The spending measures alone are expected to add at least 100 billion euros to the deficit. Financial markets responded badly to the news: both because of the fiscal implications of the 2019 budget and the likelihood it could ultimately destabilize the government, especially if Tria stepped down. In trading Friday, the first session after the latest developments, bond yields surged as much as 12 percent higher, reaching a yield of 3.35 percent in midday trading for the benchmark ten-year bonds. That is approaching their highest yield since 2014. Higher yields for bonds reflect investor nervousness, and they increase the government's costs when it borrows money. The MIB-30 index of blue chip stocks also took a hit, falling 3.8 percent, with 27 of 30 issues losing ground. Even the euro currency took a step back, losing around 1.5 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar, its weakest level in three weeks. The full budget, including details for the spending plans, will be submitted to the EU next month. Brussels could reject the measure, which would send the government back to the drawing board to restart negotiations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 23:40:17|Editor: ZD Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday sent a congratulatory letter to the 35th Annual Plenary Session of the InterAction Council which opened in Beijing. In the letter, Xi, on behalf of the Chinese government and Chinese people, and in his own name, extended congratulations on the opening of the session and sincere welcome to the members of the InterAction Council present at the session. Xi said the reform of the global governance system and the international order is accelerating, and it has become a general trend and the common task for all countries to strengthen global governance and improve the global governance system. The InterAction Council has made continuous efforts on solving global challenges and played an active role in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development, Xi said. The session focused on topics about global governance affairs, Xi said, adding that he believed it would help various parties deepen their consensus and improve the global governance system. He stressed that China always follows the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration in engaging in global governance, firmly supports multilateralism and actively promotes the building of a new type of international relations, as well as a community with a shared future for humanity. "We stand ready to work with the international community to strengthen the exploration and practice on improving the global governance system and jointly build a better future for humanity," Xi said, adding that he wished the session a complete success. The InterAction Council, an international non-governmental organization composed of some former world leaders, was established in 1983 and aims to put forward suggestions and solutions for global political, economic and social issues. The InterAction Council held its 11th plenary session in Shanghai in 1993 and its 30th plenary session in Tianjin in 2012. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 23:45:18|Editor: yan Video Player Close MINSK, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Belarus will increase exports duties on oil and oil products, which are exported outside the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), on Oct. 1, the government said Friday. The export duty on crude oil will increase from 130 U.S. dollars to 137.5 dollars per tonne, while the duty for straight-run gasoline will increase from 71.5 dollars to 75.6 dollars per tonne, the government said in a statement. Export duties on commercial gasoline will increase from 39 dollars to 41.2 dollars per tonne. The same rate will be applied to diesel fuel, benzene, toluene, xylene, lubricants, and other oils. The export duties on crude oil and some categories of derivative oil products were previously revised downwards on Sept. 1. Li Xuhang (2nd L), Charge d'Affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya and Jerome Ochieng (2nd R), Principal Secretary for information, communication and technology (ICT) unveil a plague during Huawei's "Seed for the Future" initiative, in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, Sept. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Charles Onyango) NAIROBI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nine Kenyan students on Thursday were flagged off for a two-week training program in advanced information, communication and technology (ICT) systems at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen under the company's "Seed for the Future" initiative. Li Xuhang, Charge d'Affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, said during the occasion that the program offers first hand learning opportunities where participants gain hands-on practice and witness live demonstrations of the latest ICT skills. "I firmly believe that the participants here today will bring the technology and experience back and serve the country's ICT industry. Apart from technology transfer and capacity building, we also encourage Chinese companies in Kenya to fulfill social responsibility," Li said. Jerome Ochieng', Principal Secretary for ICT, said that in order to realize Kenya's digital transformation, it is vital for the government to partner with ICT players in the private sector such as Huawei to find the best solutions and implement them. "Apart from the 'Seeds for the Future Program', my ministry also works closely with Huawei on critical infrastructure projects such as national optic fiber backbone, the Safe City project, Smart Transport solutions," the PS remarked. "It is important to note that all students here have been attached to Huawei Kenya, some of whom have actually obtained permanent jobs. These experiences have made a big difference by empowering the youth with ICT skills and further expose them to the job market," Ochieng' said. Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Technology Kenya addresses participants during the launch of Huawei-Redington partnership framework in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, Sept. 19, 2018. (Xinhua/Charles Onyango) During the occasion, the Chinese ICT solutions provider launched the 'Huawei Kenya Sustainability Report 2018' which highlights the company's relationship with the public. Stone He, Huawei Kenya CEO, said the firm has integrated sustainability into business operations and strategy by creating a solid foundation that ensures employees can fulfill their personal ambitions in a work environment that is safe, equal and inclusive. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 23:55:19|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- An unofficial meeting involving government ministers from China, Myanmar and Bangladesh here at the UN headquarters on Thursday produced three points of consensus on the Rakhine issue. The meeting involved Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Myanmar's Minister of the State Counselor's Office U Kyaw Tint Swe, and Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was invited to the meeting. Wang said that an earlier unofficial meeting involving the three ministers in June in Beijing had produced a four-point principled consensus on properly resolving the Rakhine issue. The Rakhine issue involves a complicated history, and its proper resolution will be in the common interests of Myanmar and Bangladesh and benefit regional peace and stability, Wang said. Wang said that the Rakhine issue is essentially an issue involving Myanmar and Bangladesh, and China is not in support of approaches that tend to complicate and escalate the issue or make it more international. China hopes that Myanmar and Bangladesh finds solutions to the problems through friendly consultations and by making efforts to bring their stance closer to each other. The priority is to achieve the first repatriation of the people who fled from Rakhine state in Myanmar to Bangladesh, Wang said. China, as a friendly neighbor, is willing to continue helping facilitate the communication and consultations between Myanmar and Bangladesh, Wang said. The senior Chinese diplomat said he sees a constructive role for the international community, including the United Nations, in resolving the Rakhine issue. China thinks highly of the efforts made by the UN institutions and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, he said. The meeting was friendly, frank and constructive and produced three points of consensus. Myanmar and Bangladesh share the consensus that the Rakhine issue should be resolved through friendly consultations. Bangladesh said it is prepared to repatriate the first group of displaced persons from Myanmar's western Rakhine state who fled to Bangladesh, while Myanmar said it is prepared to receive them. Myanmar and Bangladesh agree on holding a joint working group meeting as soon as possible so as to work out a roadmap and timetable for the repatriation and achieve the first repatriation as early as possible. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 00:05:24|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close JAKARTA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Friday evening that the government is ready to take measures in response to the earthquakes that hit Central Sulawesi province earlier in the day. At least one person was confirmed dead and 10 others injured after a series of strong quakes hit the central part of the country on Friday afternoon. A tsunami triggered by the quakes struck off the coastal areas near Talisa beach of Dongala district of Sulawesi later in the day, leaving at least five people missing and scores of houses destroyed. "I am monitoring it, preparing related government institutions to face and handle all possible aftermath of the earthquakes," the president said in his official twitter account. He called on people in the country to pray for the safety of those in the affected areas. The province's city of Palu and Dongala were jolted by several powerful earthquakes measured at 6.0, 7.4 and 6.1 magnitude respectively, followed by minor aftershocks. A tsunami occurred later in the province's coastal capital city of Palu in late afternoon. Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said the tsunami has swept Palu coastal areas at a height of up to 3 meters. Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency Spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the tsunami cut off communication to the affected areas. Scores of houses were reportedly damaged from the quakes. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 00:15:27|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Wang Yang (R, front), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), meets with a delegation from ethnic minority groups in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 28, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Wang Yang Friday met with a delegation from ethnic minority groups in Beijing, urging them to contribute to boosting ethnic unity and prosperity. Wang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), applauded the tradition of ethnic minority delegations visiting some areas of the motherland. The visits allow people from ethnic minority groups to better understand the development and reform of the country, said Wang, adding that the visits also help enhance their connection with the country, the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and socialism with Chinese characteristics. Wang called on members of the delegation to continue supporting the CPC, safeguarding ethnic unity and prosperity, promoting poverty reduction and development of ethnic regions and contributing to reform and opening up. The delegation was made up of 214 outstanding members of ethnic minority groups from across the country who have been recognized for their contributions to national solidarity. They visited Sichuan, Shaanxi and Hebei before arriving in Beijing. IRVINE, CA, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Cannabis Science, Inc. (OTC: CBIS), a U.S. company specializing in the development of cannabinoid-based medicines, is pleased to announce the Company has appointed Dr. Joe Wilson, an information technology (IT) and risk management expert, to its International Government Affairs Board (IGAB). For over 20 years, Dr. Wilson has successfully promoted the adoption and use of IT security standards and measurements inside public and private organizations. He has been an active participant with the development of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, and will advise CBIS in a number of areas, including IT security, risk management, blockchain applications, international collaborations, and public/private partnerships. As a military veteran, Dr. Wilson provides volunteer services to the American Red Cross to assist veterans with transitioning into cybersecurity work positions. In his civic role, Dr. Wilson is a board member of the Las Vegas Urban Chamber of Commerce. The Las Vegas Urban Chamber of Commerce helps promote local business growth and development through its collaboration with government, industry, business, and academia. These partnerships have successfully created business opportunities for Nevada companies both nationally and internationally. Dr. Wilson recently visited South Africa as a member of Nevada Governor Brian Sandovals 2018 trade mission to Africa. While in South Africa, the Governors delegation, including Dr. Wilson, visited with Pan African Agriculture & Food Security Ambassador Brylyne Chitsunge, a member of CBIS Scientific Advisory Board and CEO of Elpasso Farms, one of the leading commercial farms in South Africa. Dr. Wilson had the opportunity to discuss the Elpasso Farm initiatives with CBIS in Southern Africa, generally, as well as the Companys specific drug-development activities in South Africa to include research, development, clinical trials, education, training, and job creation. A press statement regarding Governor Sandovals trade mission to Africa can be viewed at http://diversifynevada.com/news/news-articles/nevada-in-africa-trade-mission-wraps-up-in-durban-south-africa Dr. Wilson is the founder and CEO for CyberEnginuity, LLC. Dr. Wilson founded CyberEnginuitys parent company, TelcoCapital, in 2002 in Seattle, WA. Dr. Wilson has been an IT security professional for over 20 years. His background includes the role of engineer/scientist at The Boeing Company in Seattle, where he was responsible for designing secure air-to-ground communications systems and cryptographically-secure network management systems. At the Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA), he was an infrastructure consulting engineer while contracting for Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS), an Indian multinational information technology (IT) service, a consulting and business solutions company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. TCS is comprised of over 100 operating companies, with operations in more than 100 countries across six continents, and exports products and services to over 150 countries. Dr. Wilson joins CBIS IGAB at an important time and is expected to contribute significantly to this advisory boards relaunch. The Company recently announced Mr. Jacques Walker as the new President of its IGAB. Mr. Walker joined the IGAB in 2016, and has actively supported a number of CBIS U.S. and international research, development, education, and training initiatives. We are excited to have Dr. Wilson join the CBIS team, stated Mr. Raymond C. Dabney, CBIS President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Co-founder. Dr. Wilson is a seasoned and recognized high-technology expert. And perhaps more importantly, Joe is quite astute at understanding the applications of technology and how disruptive technologies can add value to business operations. Additionally, Dr. Wilson has experience with public/private partnerships and will advise the Company on our international collaborations. Dr. Wilson is a 2013 Ph.D. graduate with distinction from Capella University (Minneapolis, MN). He majored in Information Technology, with a specialization in IT Assurance and Security. His research interest revolves around cybersecurity ethics, policy, and legal issues. Dr. Wilson is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) in good standing with (ISC)2 since 2006. As a college educator for sixteen years, Joe attained a Post Masters Certificate in College Teaching (2007) from Capella University (Minneapolis, MO). He currently teaches online cybersecurity courses at Liberty University (Lynchburg, MO), and is a cybersecurity subject matter expert for colleges and universities. Joe is an honorary member of the Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education. As an IT Security and Risk Management consulting professional, Dr. Wilson provides leadership to public and private organizations for the ongoing evolution of their regulatory compliance programs. A recent client of Dr. Wilson was recognized by a leading industry auditor to be a national leader among similar businesses in designing and maintaining mature compliance management programs in the areas of ISO 27002, NIST-800, GLBA, HIPPA, HITRUST, PCI-DSS, Nevada NRS 603a, Massachusetts 201 CMR 17.00, FTC Red Flags Rule, and the NY Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Organizations. Dr. Wilson is passionate about promoting the adoption and use of IT security standards and measurements inside public and private organizations. He has been an active participant with the development of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. This project was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce under Executive Order 13636, and provides policy-based approaches for cybersecurity risk management. The Framework is recognized internationally as an effective and essential cybersecurity protection capability. Dr. Wilson is also the founder of Innovative Blockchain, LLC, which provides education, training, and consulting services for emerging blockchain applications. Cannabis Sciences primary objective is to research and develop U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, cannabinoid-based medicine to fight a number of targeted critical ailments, including various Cancers, Neurological Conditions, PTSD, Sleep Deprivation, Chronic Pain, HIV/AIDS, Autism, Parkinsons Disease, Epilepsy, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and others. CBIS and its collaborators are well underway on a number of research projects targeting Lung Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Chronic Pelvic Pain, and Oro-bucco-lingual Dyskinesias. To help accomplish this, Cannabis Science recently launched the Cannabis Science Global Consortium as a framework and platform to cooperate and collaborate with stakeholders worldwide. The Cannabis Science Global Consortium links universities, foundations, corporations, and individuals to share research, ideas, and other relevant information, as well as to implement a cutting-edge research program to develop medicines and delivery mechanisms from bench-to-bedside. About Cannabis Science, Inc. Cannabis Science, Inc. takes advantage of its unique understanding of metabolic processes to provide novel treatment approaches to a number of illnesses for which current treatments and understanding remain unsatisfactory. Cannabinoids have an extensive history dating back thousands of years, and currently, there are a growing number of peer-reviewed scientific publications that document the underlying biochemical pathways that cannabinoids modulate. The Company works with leading experts in drug development, the characterization of medicines, and clinical research to develop, produce, and commercialize novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment for illnesses caused by infections as well as for age-related illness. Our initial focus is on cancers, HIV/AIDS, and neurological conditions. The Company is proceeding with the research and development of its proprietary drugs as a part of this initial focus: CS-S/BCC-1, CS-TATI-1, and CS-NEURO-1, respectively. Forward-Looking Statements This Press Release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. A statement containing words such as "anticipate," "seek," intend," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "project," "plan," or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Some or all of the events or results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not occur. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based drugs. Cannabis Science, Inc., does not undertake any duty nor does it intend to update the results of these forward-looking statements. Safe Harbor Statement. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a 'safe harbor' for forward looking statements. Certain of the statements contained herein, which are not historical facts are forward looking statements with respect to events, the occurrence of which involved risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements may be impacted, either positively or negatively, by various factors. Information concerning potential factors that could affect the company is detailed from time to time in the company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Attachment Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 00:20:29|Editor: yan Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The third edition of "Chindia TMT (technology media telecom) Dialogue" was held here on Friday, with 89 business leaders and experts from India and China discussing the opportunities and challenges of the internet market. Amitabh Kant, CEO of the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) said that India's startup ecosystem consists of thousands of startups in different sectors. Inviting Indian and Chinese businessmen to come together, he said that cross-border synergies will bring size and scale solution, and that the e-commerce market in India will be huge in the coming years. The dialogue will bring leading entrepreneur of the two countries together. It will help explore ideas and area of collaborations that will converge inurement of mutual interest, said Kant. According to him, at present there were nearly 4,400 technological startups in India, and the number would reach 12,000 by 2020. He stressed the need for more Chinese investment. "We have over 100 Chinese companies but still should increase. The Chinese companies should catch up in terms of investing more in India." Commerce Counselor at the Chinese embassy Li Baijun said the "Chindia TMT Dialogue" had been organized successfully on two previous occasions, laying the foundation for communication and cooperation between India and China. He said information technology via internet is changing lives and enhancing people's capabilities and transforming the world. Distance no longer prevents people from communicating and people are more connected to each other than ever before. China and India are both huge countries in terms of internet usage, and there is huge potential for cooperation between the two, Li said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 00:20:29|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Dhaka University's Dean of the Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences ASM Maksud Kamal (L) shakes hands with Jinming Hu, dean and professor at the Institute of International Rivers and Eco Security of Yunnan University, in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Sept. 28, 2018. A conference of leading Bangladeshi and Chinese universities kicked off Friday in Dhaka to share experiences in dealing with environmental and ecological risks amid a warming planet. (Xinhua) DHAKA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A conference of leading Bangladeshi and Chinese universities kicked off Friday in Dhaka to share experiences in dealing with environmental and ecological risks amid a warming planet. The "China, South, Southeast Asian conference on Environmental and Ecosystem Risk Management" was attended by scores of dignitaries from local and foreign organizations. The conference was organized by the Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Dhaka University in collaboration with China's Yunnan University and Confucius Institute at Dhaka University. Dhaka University's Dean of the Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences ASM Maksud Kamal said industrialization, climate change, unplanned urbanization, urban pollution, armed conflicts and refugee crisis, among others, are escalating the environmental and ecological risk, particularly in developing world, almost every day. "To achieve the targeted progresses on SDGs which emphasizes on climate change, sustainable consumption, sustainable cities and communities, affordable and clean energy, we must concentrate on ensuring environmental and ecosystem balance," said the professor. Most of the world's fastest growing economies -- China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Bangladesh -- are in South and Southeast Asia, he said, adding that they are among the countries in the world which are facing some form of environmental and ecosystem risk. Hu Jinming, dean and professor at the Institute of International Rivers and Eco Security of Yunnan University, said as geographical neighbors, China and nations in South and Southeast Asia are experiencing risks caused by frequent and extreme climate change and increasing human disturbances. "We jointly launched this international conference to add relevant issues of environmental and ecological risk management," said Hu. The conference also brought together experts from Nepal and Myanmar to share their experiences and research. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 00:45:33|Editor: yan Video Player Close by Elias Gebreselassie, Wang Shoubao ADI-GRAT, Northern Ethiopia, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) --The streets of Adi-Grat city, located in Ethiopia's northern Tigray regional state, about 40 km south of the Ethiopia-Eritrea border, are more crowded and busier than previous years. With the opening of the Ethiopia-Eritrea border on Sept. 11 in the wake of fast-paced diplomatic rapprochement since July this year, Adi-Grat is busy serving as a gateway and meeting point in renewed commercial and cultural interaction between the two countries. Such interactions seemed unthinkable just several months ago, with the stationing of thousands of soldiers from the two countries in a state of armed standoff, a legacy of a bitter border war, from 1998 to 2000, that killed an estimated 70,000 people from both sides. Despite a peace deal signed in Algiers in December 2000 ending the armed conflict, the two countries had remained in a state of bitter enmity along their 1,100 km border. That hostility all changed when Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace declaration in July, enabling the restoration of air services, phone lines and the re-opening of their common border. One such point of renewed interaction between Eritreans and Ethiopians is Meskel festival, celebrated annually on Sept 26-27, by adherents of Orthodox Christianity from both countries. In Adi-Grat, Yohannes Tewolde, 42, an Eritrean national, is celebrating Meskel with seven of his Ethiopian siblings, after two decades of separation. Speaking to Xinhua on Thursday, Yohannes, said he had been dreaming to meet up and celebrate Meskel with them together. "Because of the border conflict, Ethiopia and Eritrea forgot they were brotherly nations, instead of being enemies," he said. "Today's Meskel celebration in Adi-Grat city with adherents from both countries attending represents a major symbolic move to reconcile the two people." "We suffered because of the war and its aftermath, I'm hoping we have learned our lessons from our mutual hardship and hostility to make the future better for all of us," he said. Yohannes' elation was shared by his younger Ethiopian brother Tarekegn Tewolde, 25. Tarekegn, who last saw his older brother as an infant, before the outbreak of war between the two countries, said he was one of the first group of Ethiopians to travel to Asmara, the Eritrean capital, by road after the two countries' border was re-opened earlier this month to meet up with lost relatives. "I'm so happy. It feels like a dream that both countries have reconciled. The past is past. Now is the time to look into the future," said Tarekegn. Hadgu Wolday, owner of Ambassador Promotion and Event Company, which co-organized the Adi-Grat Meskel festival celebrations, told Xinhua that there are plans to make religious festivals such as Meskel key points of reconciliation between Ethiopia and Eritrea. "Earlier this month, we had a group of 500 Eritrean Muslims who came here to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Ashura, an occasion also for many of them to meet up with separated family members," he said. Wolday plans to coordinate with the federal government and the Tigray regional state government to encourage more cultural exchanges between people of Ethiopia and Eritrea to deepen the ongoing reconciliation process. "There are plans to start package tourism, where tourists and pilgrims from Ethiopia and Eritrea can visit each other's holy places, with coordination with Tigray regional tourism bureau and the Ethiopia Ministry of Culture and Tourism," he said. Wolday's plans do not cover Ethiopians and Eritreans only. "With the Ethiopia-Eritrea border now open, there are plans to attract tourists from other parts of east Africa and even from far-flung nations such as the U.S. and China to visit monasteries, Islamic shrines and pre-historic cultural sites that dot the border regions of the two countries," he said. Wolday hopes catering to the needs of these tourists will add an economic boost to the ongoing reconciliation process between Ethiopia and Eritrea, whose border regions have in the past been hard hit by the two decades of hostilities. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 00:55:34|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister of Samoa Tuilaepa Malielegaoi on Friday called for urgent action to tackle climate change, saying it poses the single greatest threat especially to small island states like his. "Put simply, climate change poses the single greatest threat especially to small island developing states like Samoa, not through our doing or choice, and that the need to take effective action to mitigate against climate change impacts is urgent and real," he told the UN General Assembly. Climate change is a societal problem requiring a decisive global response, said Malielegaoi. "Its global reach and impact should unite and strengthen our resolve, not weaken and divide us." United, the international community can do a great deal to arrest and even reverse the threat of climate change, he said. "Its impacts are worsening by the day. No one country, or single group of nations, and no single organization can solely win the war against climate change. The divergent, yet inextricably linked interests of member states demand that we work together," the prime minister said. Ugandan youths perform traditional dance during a celebration in Western Uganda tp welcome the news of being selected the world's tourist destination for the year 2012 by "Lonely Planet", an international publisher of the world's largest travel guidebook and digital media. (Xinhua/Yuan Qing) KAMPALA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- As the world marked World Tourism Day on Thursday, Uganda said it is targeting to use digital platforms to attract millions of tourists into the east African country. The day was marked in the eastern Ugandan district of Jinja, where River Nile, the world's longest river, starts its journey to the Mediterranean Sea. The theme was, "Tourism and Digital Transformation. Godfrey Kiwanda, minister of state for tourism, told Xinhua in a recent interview that the world is becoming digital and therefore Uganda has to match the trend. "Tourism has to trend just like other sectors are trending through online promotion. Through digital transformation, we can make quick advertisement and even reach more people cheaply," Kiwanda said. "We are embracing digital transformation in order to achieve our target of receiving 4 million tourists per year by 2020," the minister said. Photo taken on Feb. 4, 2011 shows buffalos cool themselves in the waters of Kazinga channel at Queen Elizabeth National Park in Kasese, west Uganda. (Xinhua/Yuan Qing) Uganda currently receives between 1.5 million and 2 million visitors per year and earns 1.4 billion U.S. dollars from tourism. Kiwanda said Uganda still faces some challenges such as product development and value addition. "We must add value in order to be at the same level with the rest of the world. We have the potential, such as the source of the Nile, many falls, and so on but there is need to add value. We need to build more roads to tourism sites, we need cable cars to be used to tour mountains and we need more first class hotels in tourism hot spots," he said. He said the country also faces the challenge of product promotion, which involves aggressive marketing. "Right now we are using only three international public relations firms to market our products in Germany, the United States and United Kingdom. But there are other bigger economies such as China and India which we have not utilized." Video clip taken on Oct. 13, 2011 shows a mountain gorilla at Bwindi impenetrable National Park, west Uganda.(Xinhua/Yuan Qing) "If you must penetrate China and India, you definitely have to go digital. We hope to attract many more tourists from these economies through online marketing among other products," Kiwanda said. He said the country would continue maintaining peace and stability and that tourists were assured of safety anytime they felt like coming in. James Musinguzi, the executive director of Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC), said the World Tourism Day theme was timely as they hoped to embrace the digital platform to spread information on the different species of wildlife they have in the country. UWEC was recently elected as a top notch zoo by the Pan African Association of Zoos and Aquaria. Photo taken on Feb. 4, 2011 shows an eagle in Murchison falls National Park in Western Uganda along the River Nile. (Xinhua/Yuan Qing) "We have already started going digital. We have adopted the zoological management information system where we have all our animals in a database, which database is shared worldwide. Somebody in California is able to notice that we have particular animals here," he said. "Someone abroad may request for that animal in exchange for another animal we don't have here. So through the digital era, we can be able to exchange animals online but also monitor the animals' health, welfare, and ages using our digital platform," Musinguzi added. He said this will also boost tourism as more people would get to learn about Uganda. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 01:35:42|Editor: mmm Video Player Close Visitors view the booth of Changhe, a Chinese brand automobile, on the 25th Cairo International Motorshow 2018 entitled "Automech Fromula" held in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Sept. 26, 2018. A large hall with separate booths and showrooms hosting several Chinese brands of cars was crowded with visitors during an international motor show held in the Egyptian capital Cairo, reflecting the growing popularity of Chinese cars in Egypt. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) by Mahmoud Fouly CAIRO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A large hall with separate booths and showrooms hosting several Chinese brands of cars was crowded with visitors during an international motor show held in the Egyptian capital Cairo, reflecting the growing popularity of Chinese cars in Egypt. A dozen of Chinese automakers joined the 25th Cairo International Motorshow 2018 entitled "Automech Fromula," held on Sept. 26-30, including Geely, Chery, Brilliance, Zotye, Changan and others. Geely launches two new cars in the Automech Fromula this year, Emgrand X7 and Imperial. Chery offers Tiggo 4 and Arrizo 5; Brilliance launches V6 and V7; Changan joins with its new V7, and Zotye displays its T600 Coupe. Liu Shubin, African market director of Geely Automobile International Corporation, said that Geely became No. 1 automaker in China in 2017 by selling 1.24 million cars at home, noting that the brand has also become very popular among Egyptians in recent years. "In recent years, Egypt has been a very important market for Geely. When Egypt's economy flourished in 2014, Geely's exports to Egypt were about 30,000 to 40,000 vehicles," Liu told Xinhua at the exhibition. He added that Geely's sales declined in the Egyptian market over the past two years due to Egypt's difficult economic conditions, but the company adapted very quickly to boost its presence in the most populous Arab state. "With the adjustments made to our vehicles in 2018 and the support of our distributor in Egypt Ghabbour Auto, we are very confident about the increase of our sales in 2019," Liu said, expecting the purchase power in Egypt to rise in 2019 and 2020 due to the ongoing economic growth. Geely and Chery are partners with Ghabbour Auto, a leading corporation in the automotive industry in Egypt, which is in charge of their marketing, distribution and after-sale services. Farid Fadel, vice president of Ghabbour Auto's Geely franchise, said that since Geely's collaboration with Ghabbour Auto in 2012, Geely has managed to gain a market share of 8 percent in Egypt, selling about 45,000 cars so far. "The Egyptian market is very promising with potentials for further expansion, as the number of cars in Egypt is too small compared to its more than 100 million population," Fadel told Xinhua. As for Chery, it has sold over 12,000 cars in Egypt over the past three years, according to Kamal Naguib, Ghabbour Auto's Chery franchise manager, who expressed confidence about raising the number very soon due to Chery's good name in the Egyptian market. "Chery has been doing very well for a very long time, especially for the Tiggo 3. Now we're introducing the new generation of Chery, the Arrizo 5 and Tiggo 4. It's a completely new generation with a new technology that will change the market of Chinese cars in Egypt," Naguib told Xinhua in front of a displayed Tiggo 4. Rania Osama, a lady in her 30s who owns a 2017 Tiggo, said that she was interested in the Chinese section of the auto show, noting that her car has been doing very well since she bought it last year. "It never breaks down or has had any problems ever since," Osama told Xinhua, adding that the car was recommended by many of her friends before she bought it. "I see at least 25 Chinese vehicles in the compound where I live in Giza, and I believe Chinese cars are gaining more popularity year after year in Egypt," Osama said. At another corner of the large hall, Brilliance Bavarian Auto displays its Brilliance V7 that is supported by BMW Group Technology. "Brilliance has achieved positive results in Egypt since it entered the market in 2006, selling from 10,000 to 15,000 vehicles in the country," said Khaled Saad, general manager of Brilliance Bavarian Auto and head of the Egyptian Automobile Manufacturers Association. "Chinese automakers in Egypt achieved more than 40 percent of the market share of commercial cars, while private cars have from 15-20 percent of the market share in Egypt," Saad told Xinhua in an interview at the Brilliance booth. The 25th Cairo International Motorshow 2018, Automech Fromula, comprises 40 car brands out of 48 brands in the Egyptian market in general. "It is one of the most important auto events in Egypt," Khaled Khafagy, the exhibition manager, told Xinhua. There are more than 12 Chinese large automakers joining the exhibition this year, he added. Khafagy pointed out that there's a notable development in the automobile market in Egypt after a decline of sales in the past two years due to Egypt's local currency devaluation in late 2016 as part of the country's ongoing economic reform program. "With the improvement of Egypt's economic growth, this year the auto market started to flourish and make up for the past decline," he said. Khafagy said that some Chinese automakers sell up to 9,000 cars per year, which is a good number that reflects their good position in the Egyptian market. "In fact, the quality and durability of Chinese vehicles and the reliable investors and partners with Chinese automakers have greatly developed over the past couple of years," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 01:55:47|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister of Samoa Tuilaepa Malielegaoi on Friday called for urgent action to tackle climate change, saying it poses the single greatest threat especially to small island states like his. "Put simply, climate change poses the single greatest threat especially to small island developing states like Samoa, not through our doing or choice, and that the need to take effective action to mitigate against climate change impacts is urgent and real," he told the UN General Assembly. Climate change is a societal problem requiring a decisive global response, said Malielegaoi. "Its global reach and impact should unite and strengthen our resolve, not weaken and divide us." United, the international community can do a great deal to arrest and even reverse the threat of climate change, he said. "Its impacts are worsening by the day. No one country, or single group of nations, and no single organization can solely win the war against climate change. The divergent, yet inextricably linked interests of member states demands that we work together," the prime minister said. Climate change is one of the most pressing security challenges for island countries, affecting food security, access to safe water, fundamentally affecting their ability to draw sustenance from the pristine ocean and seas that surround those countries, he said. The Paris Agreement on climate change is a beacon of hope especially for the vulnerable island states, said the prime minister. It is based on shared responsibilities, trust, collaboration and principled action. It demonstrates a new brand of cooperation and broad outlook, where the narrow pursuits of self-interests, the use of economic and political expediencies were to be set aside. Climate change is the highest priority challenge facing countries of the world and does not discriminate between rich and poor, he said. It is worrisome and alarming that the level of commitments to the Paris Agreement by member states will not keep global warming anywhere below 1.5 degrees Celsius, he said. "Without that, the continuing existence of some low-lying islands in our Pacific region and elsewhere will be in grave doubt." He asked world leaders to work together with a sense of urgency and commitment to address climate change -- today and now. "Clearly, we want leaders who view the world as a single constituency where all must work together within the limits of their capacity and capability to be part of the total solution," he added. The United Nations remains the last best hope to provide the political will and the necessary commitment to turn the tide against climate change, he said. "As custodians of our world's environment, we owe it to our future generations to do what needs to be done quickly, and decisively." The Pacific region is already facing the destructive impacts of climate change and disasters: cyclones, floods, droughts. Sea level rise and ocean acidification are taking their toll on the health and well-being of the peoples, environment and economies, he said. "When the future existence of sovereign island nations, populations and cultures are at stake, then there is a moral imperative for the world to act decisively and collectively." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 02:00:49|Editor: yan Video Player Close LONDON, Sept.28 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May was urged Friday by her former foreign secretary Boris Johnson to scrap her so-called Chequers blueprint for a future trade deal with the European Union. Instead Johnson has called on May's government to switch to a Canada-style free trade deal with Brussels, adapted for the special needs of Britain. Johnson outlined his own plans in the Daily Telegraph as May and her senior ministers were preparing to head to Birmingham for the start this weekend of the Conservative Party's annual conference. May is highly likely to use her key-note conference speech to promote her own deal which was worked out during a meeting of her top ministers in July at her Chequers country retreat. Within hours of that deal being agreed as Britain's Brexit position, both Johnson and then Brexit Secretary David Davis resigned. In a hard-hitting commentary Johnson described May's Chequers plan as a moral and intellectual humiliation which would leave Britain "half in, half out" of Europe. "There has been a collective failure of government, and a collapse of will by the British establishment, to deliver on the mandate of the people. The government must now have the guts to scrap the democratic disaster of Chequers and truly take back control of our laws and our lives," said Johnson. Johnson says because two years of negotiating time have been wasted since the June 2016 referendum, his proposed six-point Super Canada deal should be negotiated with Brussels during a 21 month transition period that starts next March when Britain ends its membership of the EU. He said his plan would avoid the need for a hard border between Northern Ireland and the neighboring Irish Republic. The Daily Telegraph in its editorial said Johnson's 4,600-word essay, titled My plan for a better Brexit, does not directly attack May, and does not call for a change of the Conservative Party leadership to see Brexit through. "However, his brutal assessment of the government under her leadership will only add to speculation about a possible leadership challenge before the end of the year," added the Telegraph. In his article Johnson says: "We must decide whether we have the guts to fulfill the instruction of the people -- to leave the EU and truly take back control of our laws and our lives. The next few weeks are critical. If we continue on the current path we will, I am afraid, betray centuries of progress. First we should chuck Chequers, and stop wasting time on a solution that can never be in the longterm interests of this country." He concludes with the message: "This is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit. We have the chance to get it right, and I am afraid that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 02:05:50|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that climate change is absolute priority, while urging the international community to take immediate action. Speaking at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), an intergovernmental organization, which holds UN observer status, the UN chief said that with COP24 (the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) coming up in November, and the UN Climate Summit scheduled for September 2019, "the world needs to urgently step up action." The meeting, at UN headquarters in New York, comes shortly after the organization's annual summit, in Nauru on Sept. 3-6, which reaffirmed in an official communique known as the Boe Declaration, that "climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific." "It will be the central concern to ensure countries enhance their ambitions over the next two years," he said, noting that "for the moment, unfortunately we are going too slow regarding what we promised in Paris. And what we promised in Paris was not enough." Forum leaders welcomed the secretary-general's leadership on climate change, calling for the appointment of a special adviser on climate change and security, to strengthen the global focus on climate change as a security risk. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 02:05:51|Editor: yan Video Player Close KUWAIT CITY, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Regarding the National Day marking China's 69th birthday, people of different walks of life in Kuwait expressed congratulations to the Chinese government and people, calling for a closer bilateral cooperation between the two countries. Mohammad Abulla Abulhasan, advisor to the Amiri Diwan of Kuwait which serves the royal palace of Kuwaiti Emir, reviewed that Kuwait is the first Gulf Arab country to establish diplomatic relations with China. "When we look at the status of the Kuwaiti-Chinese relations, we find that they have moved forward with very big leaps," he said. Abulhasan was the second Kuwaiti ambassador to China during the period 1975 to 1978 after the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1971. Kuwaiti-Chinese relations have opened new horizons in all fields such as economy, trade, investment, education, culture, energy, and infrastructure, he noted. The former ambassador speaks highly of the current relations between the two countries. "The relations between Kuwait and China have become a model. Concerning the future, I believe that the memorandums of understanding and the agreements signed during the visit by the emir will open new horizons not only inside Kuwait, but also for the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative," he noted. The Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah paid a state visit to China from July 7 to 10 this year, during which the two countries agreed to establish a strategic partnership to inject new impetus into bilateral ties and open up new prospects in the new era. Abulhasan hoped that Kuwait would be the first country in the Gulf region for the Chinese capacity to use as a base to move to neighboring markets such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq and Iran, and to Africa. Anwar Alshriaan, the president of Kuwait University faculty association, said that the global political and economic situation has changed in recent years and China has become one of the most important economic powers in the world. Kuwait has no other strategic choice but to partner with China at this stage, he said, noting that China is manufacturing almost for the whole world. "China is not only manufacturing goods, but also turning towards the industry of technology and services," he added. He pointed out that China is about to be among the top countries in the world soon economically, culturally and educationally, expressing the hope that Kuwait would attract some distinguished visiting professors from Chinese universities in the coming years. As of the media area, Saad Ali Mohammad, chief of editors and deputy director general of Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) for Editorial Division, said that there are historical ties between KUNA and the China's state news agency Xinhua News Agency. There is cooperation between the two agencies, he said, adding that he hopes to enhance bilateral cooperation between the media of the two countries. The Kuwaiti side is keen to strengthen cooperation with Chinese media and boost the presence of Kuwaiti media in China, he noted, saying that the recent visit of the Kuwaiti emir gave great impetus for this issue. "Agreements signed during the visit require the Kuwaiti and Chinese media to give ideas to promote cooperation between the two countries," he said. Nasser Al Khalidi, consular for Youth Public Authority of Kuwait, visited several factories and cities in China last April. "I am encouraged by the development I saw there during the past two decades in many fields, especially communications and electronics, which gave us more motivation to develop ourselves and benefit from Chinese experience," he noted. Kamel Al Abdul Jalil, director general of National Library of Kuwait, told Xinhua that the Chinese embassy in Kuwait has donated about 1,000 books to the library to promote bilateral cultural exchange between China and Kuwait. The books cover fields of history, economy, tourism, culture and the ancient heritage which represents the great civilization of China, he stressed. "There are many areas in which we can cooperate with the Chinese side to boost the culture, knowledge and arts in Kuwait," he said. He pointed out that Kuwait will host the third meeting between the Chinese and the Arab library experts in May next year. The meeting aims at exchanging views, information and experiences on aspects of cooperation and joint coordination between the Chinese and Arab libraries, he said. The event is held regularly every two years under the auspices of the League of Arab States, he told Xinhua, saying that the first meeting was held in March 2015 in Cairo, and the second in May 2017 in Beijing. TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stratabound Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SB) (Stratabound or the Company) is pleased to announce that the Company has made the required payments of cash and shares to continue the Golden Culvert and Little Hyland options through September 27, 2019. Per the terms of the option agreements, Stratabound has paid the Optionors a total of $80,000 in cash and 1,355,934 common shares of Stratabound. The Company has also taken actions to reduce its debt obligations. First, the Company has converted one of its notes to Bellport Resources Ltd. into shares by making an election provided to Stratabound under the note and issuing 2,400,000 common shares at $0.05 per share to extinguish the $120,000 note. The remaining $130,000 note remains in place and has been extended until June 30, 2019. Additionally, as part of our continuing effort to reduce accounts payable incurred prior to the 2016 reorganization and management changes, Stratabound has agreed to issue 1,386,972 shares to two creditors to settle obligations totaling $76,283 which dated back as far as 2014, at a deemed price of $0.055. All shares issued as described above will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day. President and CEO, R. Kim Tyler commented, "We are pleased that we have been able to continue the Golden Culvert and Little Hyland options for another year, as we look forward to receiving the results of the drilling we conducted at the property this summer. We have also made significant strides in cleaning up our balance sheet by settling with several of the old creditors, and by exercising our conversion rights with respect to the Bellport note. About the Golden Culvert and Little Hyland Properties Golden Culvert and Little Hyland cover 83.8 square kilometres in the southeast Yukon Territory across a 24-kilometre strike located approximately 20 kilometres northeast of and parallel to Golden Predator Mining Corp.s 3 Aces property. Work filed in Yukon mineral claims assessment reports has outlined a northerly trending, 3 kilometre by 250 metre, +30 ppb Au up to 791 ppb Au gold-in-soil anomaly that remains open at both ends. The soil anomaly is centred around partially exposed primary gold-bearing quartz veins grading between 7.7 to 22.8 gpt gold over 1 metre and complimentary gold-bearing quartz vein stockwork within a larger silicified, altered, sulphide and gold-bearing wallrock grading up to 2.27 gpt gold over 0.5 metre. Prior to this summers exploration program a total of $564,400 of work had been done on the Property, including 3,645 soil samples, 48 stream samples, 239 rock samples, 19.4 line-km of ground magnetic survey and 18.5 line-km of VLF survey. This summers program of $0.75 million includes the completed trenching and ongoing drilling to further explore the highly mineralized areas of the property. About Stratabound Stratabound Minerals Corp. is a Canadian exploration and development company focused on the Yukon Territory and to a lesser extent the Bathurst Mining Camp in New Brunswick. Stratabound management has a diversified track record of exploration, development and operating successes that will facilitate the development of the Companys exploration projects. For further information, please see the Golden Culvert presentation and the NI 43-101 technical report on the Stratabound web site, www.stratabound.com. For further information contact: R. Kim Tyler, President and CEO 705-822-9771 ktyler@stratabound.com Ritu Gupte, Investor Relations Consultant 647-267-5380 rgupte@stratabound.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. WARNING: the Company relies upon litigation protection for forward looking statements. The information in this release may contain forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. This forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking information. Factors that may cause actual results to vary materially include, but are not limited to, inaccurate assumptions concerning the exploration for and development of mineral deposits, currency fluctuations, unanticipated operational or technical difficulties, changes in laws or regulations, failure to obtain regulatory, exchange or shareholder approval, the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits, changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets and the inability to raise additional financing. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information. The Company does not assume the obligation to revise or update this forward-looking information after the date of this release or to revise such information to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 02:05:52|Editor: yan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Friday denounced recent allegations leveled by Israeli prime minister about Tehran's nuclear program as "lies." The "craft show" by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran's nuclear program cannot cover up Israel's secret nuclear weapons program, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday. "No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program - including an *actual atomic arsenal*," Zarif tweeted. Also Zarif told official IRNA news agency on Friday that Israel's nuclear arsenal is the "biggest threat" to the security of Middle East. Zarif made the comment after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of holding a "secret atomic warehouse" during his speech at the UN conference on Thursday. Netanyahu presented what he claimed to be an aerial photo of a previously unknown nuclear facility in Iran's capital Tehran, saying the 2015 nuclear deal enabled Iran to continue its attempts to build nuclear weapons. "The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly announced that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful," Zarif told IRNA. "Netanyahu must explain how Israel, as the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East region, can put itself in a position to level such brazen accusations against a country whose (nuclear) program has been repeatedly declared as peaceful by the IAEA," Zarif was quoted as saying. Netanyahu's move is only aimed at deflecting attention from the fact that Israel is "the biggest threat to the Middle East," as it has a nuclear weapons facility and threatens other states with atomic annihilation, Zarif said according to Press TV. "It (Israel) will never manage to achieve anything by playing such games," he said, stressing that "time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors." Besides, Iran's representative at the United Nations General Assembly dismissed as "despicable lies" Netanyahu's claims about a "secret atomic warehouse" in Tehran and said no lies can cover up the Tel Aviv regime's "criminal nature." "Israel, the warden of the world's biggest open prison - Gaza, dares to stand here once again and makes a statement filled with despicable lies," Farhad Mamdouhi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency on Friday. "No amount of slur, no amount of lie, no amount of fabrication would cover up the criminal nature of Israel," Mamdouhi said. In a statement on Friday, Iran's Foreign Ministry also dismissed the allegations by the Israeli prime minister as "false and fabricated," according to the ministry's website. "After the United States and Israel's failure to play out anti-Iran scenarios, these farcical claims and shows by the prime minister of the occupying regime (of Israel) were not unexpected," Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said. "This is a new show by the authorities of the occupying regime of Israel which we strongly reject, though it is not worth talking about," said Qasemi. "Israel and the United States sought to represent an unpleasant image of Iran at this year's UN General Assembly meeting, but they failed to do so," he was quoted as saying. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 02:05:53|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presides over a symposium on advancing revitalization of northeast China in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, Sept. 28, 2018. Xi has stressed the revitalization of China's northeast region with fresh efforts during a research trip from Sept. 25 to 28 to the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) SHENYANG, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has stressed the revitalization of China's northeast region with fresh efforts. Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during a research trip from Tuesday to Friday to the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. To revitalize the region, China should implement a series of policies made by the CPC Central Committee, stick to the new development philosophy, forge ahead with determination and an open mind, maintain targeted and continued efforts, deepen reform to tackle contradictions and make good use of advantages while avoiding shortcomings, Xi said at a symposium during the trip. Han Zheng, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese vice premier, attended the symposium. On Tuesday, Xi inspected Jiansanjiang, an important grain production base in Heilongjiang Province. At a local agricultural machinery center, Xi listened to briefings on modern agriculture development, grain production and water resource utilization. In the rice field, Xi talked with farmers on grain production and asked about their livelihoods. Xi stressed that agricultural reclamation has made significant contributions to ensuring national food security and supporting national development while maintaining stability at the borders. He called for implementing the new development philosophy and accelerating the development of large modern agricultural bases, companies and industries. "It is necessary to speed up the development of green agriculture and work to avoid the loss and degradation of black soil," Xi said. "China should always have control over its own food supply." At an agricultural science park at Jiansanjiang, Xi was briefed on the research and application of agricultural technology. China's modernization cannot be achieved without agricultural modernization, the key to which is science and technology and talent, Xi said, adding that more prominence should be attached to the development of agricultural technology and vigorous efforts should be made to advance mechanized agriculture and smart farming. On Wednesday morning, Xi inspected two large state-owned equipment manufacturers in Qiqihar, an old industrial base in Heilongjiang Province. During a visit to CRRC Qiqihar Rolling Stock Co. Ltd., a freight train producer, Xi heard reports on its production and sales and watched fatigue and vibration tests of freight trains. The president recognized the company's achievements and encouraged it to achieve new successes by further exploring global markets and better serving the Belt and Road Initiative. Equipment manufacturing is a pillar of the nation, as well as a significant component of the real economy, Xi said, asking the company to make greater efforts to step up indigenous innovation and develop new technologies and products. Xi also went to the workshops of China First Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. and learned about its world-class, self-developed 15,000-tonne hydraulic press. High quality development of the manufacturing sector, in particular that of equipment manufacturing, plays a major role in China's drive toward high-quality development of economy and is indispensable for a modernized nation, Xi said. China must stick with the path of self-reliance amid rising unilateralism and protectionism in the present world, Xi said. On Wednesday afternoon, Xi inspected the ecological protection of Chagan Lake, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the country. The sound environment is a precious resource for the economic and social development of the northeastern region, serving as an advantage for its revitalization, Xi said, asking local authorities to give priority to environmental protection and remain steadfast in green development. In the city of Liaoyang, Xi visited a local branch of state-owned oil giant PetroChina Thursday, stressing that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) hold an important position and play a key and irreplaceable role as a significant strength for the Party and the nation to count on. SOEs should also make reforms and innovation and constantly improve and develop themselves, Xi noted. He urged consistency in upholding the Party leadership over SOEs and in advancing SOE reforms in order to achieve development of higher quality and better efficiency with improved structure. Also in Liaoyang, Xi visited a private industrial enterprise, where he stressed that China adopts a basic economic system in which public ownership is the mainstay of the economy and economic entities of diverse ownership develop together. "Private enterprises should strengthen their confidence," he said, noting that the CPC Central Committee has always supported and encouraged the development of the private economy and has rolled out a slew of reforms to help the sector develop since the 18th CPC National Congress. Xi urged efforts to create a sound legal and business environment for private enterprises, protect their rights and interests in accordance with the law and work to encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public sector. On Friday, Xi visited a memorial hall for Lei Feng, a soldier well-known in China for his generosity and altruistic deeds, in the city of Fushun, Liaoning, where Lei served in the army. Calling Lei "a model of the time" and the Lei Feng spirit "ever-lasting," Xi said more models of the time are needed to achieve national rejuvenation. "We should learn from Lei's spirit and practices to turn lofty ideals, convictions and moral qualities into concrete actions in ordinary life and work, and make our due contributions so as to carry on the Lei Feng spirit for generations," he said. While inspecting a coal mine in Fushun, Xi said well-conceived assessments should be made to comprehensively improve the conditions of areas affected by coal mining-induced subsidence. He then visited a community relocated from the subsidence-affected area and chatted with residents, noting that he is very much concerned about the transition and development of resource-exhausted cities. Xi said it is necessary and worthwhile for the CPC Central Committee to make significant investments into rebuilding shanty towns and improving the conditions of subsidence-affected areas. Solving problems concerning people's livelihood and helping those living in difficulties should be given priority in the transition and development of resource-exhausted cities, Xi said. On Friday afternoon, Xi convened and presided over a symposium on advancing revitalization of northeast China, in the city of Shenyang, Liaoning Province. He delivered a speech at the symposium on the issue, where he gave six-point instructions on making further progress of the cause. First, efforts should be made to comprehensively deepen reform on the basis of improving the business environment. Reforms should be refined with solid steps taken in facilitating the deepening of supply-side structural reform, fostering new growth drivers, energizing market entities and strengthening the people's sense of fulfillment, as well as mobilizing and protecting the enthusiasm of officials and the people. Xi called for comprehensive measures to make certain that the region can retain talent. Second, priority should be given to fostering new growth drivers and stimulating the internal forces powering economic growth. Xi urged efforts to solidify and strengthen the real economy by relying on innovation, comparing the efforts in supporting faster development of emerging industries to "vacating the cage and changing the bird" and the "nirvana of the phoenix." Third, Xi stressed efforts in developing modern metropolis circles and enhancing the cooperation in key regions and areas to forge greater synergy of the region's opening-up. Xi highlighted integrating the northeast region's development with the country's major development strategies, including the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and development of the Yangtze Economic Belt. Fourth, Xi called for efforts to better support ecological construction and food production to build on the strength of green development. Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets and so are ice and snow, Xi said, calling for making the local environment even better and giving a full play to the region's special resources and strength in developing winter economy. Fifth, Xi stressed the need of deeply integrating the region with the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative toward new heights in opening up. Major tasks concerning the pilot free trade zone in Liaoning Province should be implemented in a faster manner, while infrastructure of major border ports should be improved and clusters of competitive industries should be developed, Xi said. Sixth, Xi called for greater efforts in shoring up points of weakness related to public well-being to let the gains of the revitalization benefit the people. Upholding and strengthening overall Party leadership are strong guarantees of the region's revitalization, Xi said. Xi also called for strengthening Party building in the region, improving the Party's political ecosystem and showing zero tolerance for corruption. Iranian raise anti-US and anti-Israel signs during a demonstration following the weekly Muslim Friday prayer in the capital Tehran on September 28, 2018. (AFP photo) TEHRAN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Friday denounced recent allegations leveled by Israeli prime minister about Tehran's nuclear program as "lies." The "craft show" by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran's nuclear program cannot cover up Israel's secret nuclear weapons program, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday. "No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program - including an *actual atomic arsenal*," Zarif tweeted. Also Zarif told official IRNA news agency on Friday that Israel's nuclear arsenal is the "biggest threat" to the security of Middle East. Zarif made the comment after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of holding a "secret atomic warehouse" during his speech at the UN conference on Thursday. Netanyahu presented what he claimed to be an aerial photo of a previously unknown nuclear facility in Iran's capital Tehran, saying the 2015 nuclear deal enabled Iran to continue its attempts to build nuclear weapons. "The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly announced that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful," Zarif told IRNA. "Netanyahu must explain how Israel, as the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East region, can put itself in a position to level such brazen accusations against a country whose (nuclear) program has been repeatedly declared as peaceful by the IAEA," Zarif was quoted as saying. Netanyahu's move is only aimed at deflecting attention from the fact that Israel is "the biggest threat to the Middle East," as it has a nuclear weapons facility and threatens other states with atomic annihilation, Zarif said according to Press TV. "It (Israel) will never manage to achieve anything by playing such games," he said, stressing that "time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors." Besides, Iran's representative at the United Nations General Assembly dismissed as "despicable lies" Netanyahu's claims about a "secret atomic warehouse" in Tehran and said no lies can cover up the Tel Aviv regime's "criminal nature." "Israel, the warden of the world's biggest open prison - Gaza, dares to stand here once again and makes a statement filled with despicable lies," Farhad Mamdouhi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency on Friday. "No amount of slur, no amount of lie, no amount of fabrication would cover up the criminal nature of Israel," Mamdouhi said. In a statement on Friday, Iran's Foreign Ministry also dismissed the allegations by the Israeli prime minister as "false and fabricated," according to the ministry's website. "After the United States and Israel's failure to play out anti-Iran scenarios, these farcical claims and shows by the prime minister of the occupying regime (of Israel) were not unexpected," Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said. "This is a new show by the authorities of the occupying regime of Israel which we strongly reject, though it is not worth talking about," said Qasemi. "Israel and the United States sought to represent an unpleasant image of Iran at this year's UN General Assembly meeting, but they failed to do so," he was quoted as saying. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 03:16:08|Editor: yan Video Player Close KIGALI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Only 15 percent of inmates incarcerated in Rwanda over the 1994's genocide against Tutsi have asked for forgiveness from families of genocide victims, an official of Rwanda Correctional Services said Friday. According to Rwanda Correctional Services, there are about 29,000 genocide inmates out of over 66,000 inmates incarcerated in various correctional centers in the central African country. Speaking at a ceremony where some 100 genocide convicts openly asked forgiveness from families of genocide victims in southern Rwanda's Bugesera district, Jean Bosco Kabanda, Commissioner for welfare at Rwanda Correctional Services, appealed to those yet to show remorse to come out and ask for forgiveness, saying it facilitates the healing process. At the same event, executive secretary of Rwanda's National Unity and Reconciliation Commission Fidele Ndayisaba urged genocide perpetrators to discard genocide ideology, show remorse and speak the truth about what happened because it is paramount in fostering unity and reconciliation in the country. On April 6, 1994, then Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana died in a plane crash, triggering a three-month long genocide which claimed over 1 million people, mainly Tutsi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 03:31:10|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Britain have signed an agreement with DCA Mine Action for a demining project in the Libyan city of Sirte, some 450 km east of the capital Tripoli, U.S. Embassy to Libya said in a statement on Friday. "The United States and Britain signed an agreement with DCA Mine Action to continue a critical demining project in Sirte," the statement said. "The United States is providing 1.5 million U.S. dollars to this 16-month project which aims to help the people of Sirte in their efforts to revive their city after Daesh occupation," the statement confirmed. Sirte has witnessed a violent war that lasted for seven months between forces allied with the UN-backed government and Islamic State (IS) affiliates. In December 2015, the government forces managed to defeat and expel the terrorists, who later fled the southern valleys and mountainous areas. File Photo: A Turkish army tank is seen in Afrin, Syria, on Jan. 22, 2018. (Xinhua) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of seven nations on Thursday urged convening as soon as possible a constitutional committee to begin drafting a new Syrian constitution. According to a statement released by the U.S. State Department, foreign ministers of Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the United States expressed "support for the urgent convening of a constitutional committee to advance the UN's efforts to achieve a political solution to the conflict in Syria on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2254." "We call on the UN and the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria to convene, as quickly as possible, a credible, inclusive constitutional committee that will begin the work of drafting a new Syrian constitution and laying the groundwork for free and fair UN-supervised elections in a safe and neutral environment in which all eligible Syrians - including those in the diaspora - have a right to participate," the statement read. "We urge the UN Special Envoy for Syria to report back to the Security Council on his progress no later than October 31," said the foreign ministers. "The Syrian conflict has dragged on for more than seven years at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives lost and millions forcibly displaced by violence both within Syria and beyond its borders. There is an urgent need for concerted diplomacy and international political will to end the conflict," they said. "We underscore the Office of the UN Special Envoy's clear mandate from the Secretary-General and the UN Security Council to move forward with convening a constitutional committee, and encourage all sides to ensure the Syrian parties are prepared to engage substantively in the committee's proceedings once convened," read the statement. Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to establish a demilitarized zone in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the war-torn country which the government forces have been trying to take over. Iran welcomed the deal between Russia and Turkey, saying it was "the result of intensive responsible diplomacy." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 03:36:13|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migrants (IOM) on Friday said it provided more than 500 illegal migrants with humanitarian aid in a detention center, with the support by the European Union Trust Fund (EUTF). "More than 500 migrants received humanitarian aid in Shuhada AlNasr detention center, with the support of the EUTF. That includes mattresses, summer blankets and hygiene kits, but the needs are far greater," IOM said in a statement. The organization pledged to "continue to cover the basic needs of people that it witnesses on the ground." Migrant reception centers in Libya are overcrowded with illegal migrants arrested or rescued at sea by the Libyan authorities. Libya is a preferred point of departure for illegal immigrants wanting to cross the Mediterranean toward European shores, due to the state of insecurity and chaos in the country following the 2011 uprising that topped former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 04:01:20|Editor: yan Video Player Close SKOPJE, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Macedonian citizens will vote in the name referendum on Sept. 30 in an atmosphere in which the main political leaders in the country ended the referendum campaign with opposite messages to the voters. Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov on Thursday told Macedonian citizens that voting in a referendum is their right, not an obligation. "Every citizen in Macedonia has the right to decide how to act on this referendum, to come out and to vote, or not even go out and boycott," said Ivanov. Ivanov declared that he will boycott the referendum. "On September 30, I will not go out to vote. I believe that you, my fellow citizens, will make a wise decision," said the president, adding that "This irrational dispute has had detrimental consequences for Macedonia and its citizens." On a press release, the SDSM party called Ivanov's statement embarrassing. "It is clear that the referendum is for Macedonia's European Union (EU) and NATO membership with a strong and secure identity. No plan B. Ivanov is not the one who decides, only the citizens who will come to the referendum decide, only citizens choose a future, choose membership in NATO and the EU for European Macedonia," the SDSM said in the press release. Also on Thursday, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev concluded the campaign "For European Macedonia" in Tetovo, northwest Macedonia. "Here we are, united as never before. Let this generation leave a mark we have mustered the courage to secure the future of this multi-ethnic Macedonia," underlined Zaev. Meanwhile, the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party opposes the agreement reached with Greece. On Thursday, VMRO DPMNE's Vice President Aleksandar Nikolovski declared that the referendum would fail to reach the turnout. Around 1.8 million voters in Macedonia will on Sunday choose whether or not to support the agreement with Greece on the country's name and will have to answer the referendum question: "Do you support EU and NATO membership by accepting the deal 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. Under an accord signed by Greece and Macedonia in June, the official name of the country will become the Republic of North Macedonia. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 04:16:23|Editor: yan Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Tanzania People's Defence Forces (TPDF) on Friday succeeded to tow off the ferry that capsized in Lake Victoria, killing more than 200 people. Isack Kamwelwe, the Minister for Works, Transport and Communication, said the ferry was finally pulled out of the waters of one of Africa's great lakes after eight days of a grueling task. "President John Magufuli has commended the army, the general public and all Tanzanians for their participation during the rescue and recovery operations, and the towing off the ferry," Kamwelwe told state-owned Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC). The minister did not mention the final count of the death toll but President Magufuli said on Thursday that the number of people killed in the grisly ferry accident was 230. Richard Mutayoba, the chief of navy, said the ferry was not damaged. On Monday Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said President Magufuli had directed relevant authorities to immediately announce tenders for the assembly of a new 50-tonne ferry with the capacity to ferry more than 200 people. He said the government has formed a seven-member investigative team of experts led by former army general George Waitara to establish what had caused the sinking of the ferry. "I have directed the team to come up with a full report in one month's time," said Majaliwa. Following the ferry accident, President Magufuli on Sunday dissolved the board of directors of the Tanzania Electrical, Mechanical and Electronics Services Agency (TEMESA), which is mandated to provide efficient and effective electrical, mechanical and electronic services, and reliable and safe ferry transport services. A terse statement by the Directorate of Presidential Communication at State House in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam said President Magufuli dissolved the TEMESA board of directors chaired by retired army Brig. Gen. Mabula Mashauri to pave way for investigations. At the same time, Magufuli on Monday revoked the appointment of the chairman of the Board of Directors of the country's transport regulator, Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (SUMATRA), John Ndunguru. The president also dissolved the SUMATRA board of directors following the ferry accident and several other accidents across the country that have claimed the lives of hundreds of people and caused loss of property. On Sunday, Prime Minister Majaliwa said police have arrested a number of officials responsible for operations of the ill-fated ferry. According to sources, the ferry, with a capacity of 101 passengers and 25 tonnes of cargo, capsized at around 1 p.m. local time on Sept. 20. The last major ferry accident on Lake Victoria occurred in 1996 in the same region, killing at least 500 people. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 04:21:24|Editor: yan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Arab Organization for Human Rights on Friday condemned the violent clashes in west of the capital Tripoli between armed groups. The Organization said that both fighting groups are affiliated to the UN-backed government, calling for immediate cease-fire and stressing the need to bring "violators of international humanitarian law to justice and guarantee they do not remain unpunished." The Organization also expressed support for the efforts of the UN Special envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame, regarding appointment of an international special human rights rapporteur. The reasons for the clashes remain unknown. No government statement has yet been issued regarding the clashes. Southern Tripoli recently witnessed fierce fighting between forces allied with the government and armed groups, which killed and injured hundreds of people. The fighting ended a few days ago with an agreement signed by the warring parties. Libya has been suffering insecurity and escalating violence since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. Harrisburg, PA, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PSECU, Pennsylvanias largest credit union, opened the application period for its annual scholarship program today. The program awards six scholarships valued at up to $8,000 each to graduating high school seniors to help reduce the financial burden of pursuing postsecondary education. Since its inception in 1997, the PSECU scholarship program has awarded more than half a million dollars in scholarships to over 100 students. Were proud to announce that the application period for this years round of PSECU scholarships is now open, and we look forward to continuing to help students reach their educational goals, said PSECU President Greg Smith. The application is available for completion online at psecu.com/scholarships. Each winner will receive a $2,000-per-year scholarship that is renewable for up to four years based on the fulfillment of set academic requirements, including GPA. The total potential value of each scholarship is $8,000 per student. We at PSECU understand that paying for higher education can be a challenge, said Sara Weiser, PSECU Financial Education Manager. Thats why, in the credit union people helping people spirit, we make the annual PSECU scholarship available for students. It is our hope that through this merit-based support, coupled with offerings from our financial education program WalletWorks - and the PSECU blog, students have the resources they need for success. To qualify for PSECUs 2019 scholarship program, applicants must: Be a current PSECU member (by December 31, 2018). Note that a student who is a joint owner on an account is NOT automatically a member. The student must have a custodial account or have his or her own separate account. Be a high school senior graduating in spring 2019 Plan to attend a two- or four-year college or university Completed applications must be submitted by noon (ET) on Thursday, February 28, 2019 to be considered. For more information or to apply, visit psecu.com/scholarships. About PSECU Opened in 1934, PSECU was founded by 22 ordinary people who made an extraordinary commitment to each other: To create a financial institution where pooled resources benefit all members. Today, we are a full-service credit union serving more than 450,000 members and have over $5 billion in assets. As a not-for-profit financial institution, our goal remains to help our members and their families achieve a better life. For more information about PSECU, visit psecu.com. View our Community Report Card to learn how we contribute to the greater good. This credit union is federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration. Equal Opportunity Lender. ### Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 04:46:33|Editor: yan Video Player Close RABAT, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Morocco and Papua New Guinea signed Friday in New York a joint statement on the establishment of diplomatic relations, the Moroccan official MAP news agency reported. The document establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries was signed by Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Papua New Guinea Rimbink Pato Obe, on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, the report said. The establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries aims to boost bilateral cooperation, it added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 04:51:36|Editor: yan Video Player Close BEIRUT, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Famous young Chinese pianist Yuan Jie delighted Friday an audience of over 200 people with his amazing piano performance to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The concert, which was held at St. Joseph Church in Beirut, was attended by Lebanese and Chinese officials in addition to music lovers. The pieces of Chinese music that played during the concert are among the best known and most popular Chinese instrumental compositions from the 1950's to the 2000's. Some were inspired by folklore music of China, while the last one depicted the scenery of Tianjin in the language of music. Yuan's great talent in playing Chinese music, however, will not constrain him from learning to play other types of music. "I am looking forward to having the opportunity to put on some Lebanese piano music on my program in the future," he told Xinhua in an exclusive interview prior to the concert. "I believe this concert will open for me the door to get to know more about Lebanese music and musicians. I am sure in the near future I will be able to play some Lebanese music," he said. "The biggest challenge today is to discover more variety of music like Arabian and Latino American music," he said. Yuan explained that challenges were different throughout the different stages of his piano career. "When I was younger the challenge was to learn the technical part while after university I had to take the challenge of finding my own style while keeping the original thoughts of composers to keep my music balanced," he said. Yuan is regarded as one of the most successful young pianists in China. Yuan has earned top prizes at Cliburn, Busoni, Casagrande, Bechstein, Shanghai, Hamamatsu, Crescendo, Seattle and Hong Kong International Piano Competitions. He has concerts throughout all five continents in over 40 countries and regions, towering nearly 500 cities. China's Ambassador to Lebanon Wang Kejian praised Yuan's amazing performance saying that he enjoys reputation domestically and internationally. Wang said that the Chinese National Day Concert has become one of the most important events within the framework of "China-Arab Cultural Journey along the Silk Road" initiated by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Wang added that this year marks the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up for China. Wang also said China will help Lebanon build the new Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music. The conservatory, funded by China, will be worth of 31.9 million U.S. dollars. It will cover 25,000 square meters in the northern Beirut suburb of Dbayeh. The project is considered a musical city and a cultural monument for Lebanon with teaching rooms, a library, lecture and auditorium halls. It will also house a music show room with the most advanced logistical and technology equipment, which can host up to 1,200 people. Caretaker Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury thanked China for helping Lebanon on the cultural level and other levels as well. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-29 05:11:41|Editor: yan Video Player Close LUSAKA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government on Friday announced the scrapping of the value added tax (VAT), a consumption tax which was introduced in 1995. Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe said in her 2019 budget address that the government has decided to scrap the tax and replace it with a simpler non-refundable sales tax after reviewing the various taxes and the need to enhance domestic mobilization. The government, she said, will finalize audits of all outstanding VAT refund claims and enforce all outstanding VAT assessments in order to collect any unpaid taxes. She further said the government remains committed to settling the verified VAT refund claims that have so far been accumulated. Meanwhile, the government has also proposed to increase excise duty on plastic carrier bags to 30 percent from 20 percent in order to discourage the use of plastic carrier bags and curtail their negative impact on the environment. Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., the United States, Sept. 27, 2018. (REUTERS Photo) WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ordered a new probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into sexual assault allegations against his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. "I've ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh's file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week," Trump said in a statement released by the White House. In a separate statement simultaneously released by the White House, Kavanaugh said he will continue to cooperate with further investigation. Trump's decision came after Republican Senator Jeff Flake supported delaying a vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation to allow for further investigation. Currently, three women have come forward to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual harassment or assault during his high school and college years. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-25 20:11:50|Editor: mmm Video Player Close LUANDA, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Jose Filomeno dos Santos, former head of the Sovereign Fund of Angola, was detained Monday here on charges of money laundry, embezzlement, fraud and criminal association. According to a press release from the Attorney General's Office, the detention of the son of former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is "based on the complexity and seriousness of the facts and on the effectiveness of the investigation" carried out around the case. The case centered around an alleged irregular transfer in September last year of 500 million U.S. dollars from Angolan central bank to a British bank. At the time the London authorities suspected the transfer and therefore blocked the funds. The case also involves Valter Filipe, former governor of the central bank. He was formally accused of fraud over the alleged illegal transfer in March. The operation was launched weeks before former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos left power. Jose Filomeno dos Santos, also former CEO of the country's sovereign wealth fund, was dismissed from the position in January by President Joao Lourenco. Lourenco launched an anti-corruption campaign after taking over the presidency in September 2017. Previous high-profile arrests under the campaign also includes former Transport Minister Augusto da Silva Tomas. The Prime Ministers Office and the municipal authorities are examining the option of building a tunnel linking the capital citys Deli and Nyugati railway stations, with the involvement of European Union funding. Balazs Furjes, government commissioner for Budapest and its agglomeration, said that a plan had been drawn up as early as 1937 to connect the two railway stations with the tunnel, and such a plan should be revisited today. Deli railway station would be put underground, paving the way for surface areas to be developed. Similarly, in the case of Nyugati railway station, a large area would be freed up and part of the railway would be placed underground, he said. Hungarys rolling average three-month jobless rate was 3.7% in June-August, up from 3.6% in the previous period and down from 4.2 % in the same period a year earlier, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said. The rate covers unemployment among those between the ages of 15 and 74. In absolute terms, there were 173,100 unemployed in Hungary in June-August, 6,900 more than in May-July but 22,300 less than in the same period a year earlier, KSH said. Out-of-work Hungarians spent about 15.9 months on average looking for employment during the period. About 41.0 % of the unemployed had been seeking work for one year or longer. Analyst Orsolya Nyeste of Erste Bank attributed the slight increase in the jobless rate to the fall in the number of people employed in fostered work schemes since the employment rate was unchanged and activity rate continued to rise. She does not expect the unemployment rate to drop further but to remain below 4 % in the remaining part of the year. Andras Horvath of Takarekbank said that in comparison with more competitive EU member states, there is still room for boosting employment substantially, by about 250,000-300,000, based on the number of the population of active age. He said the Hungarian economy still has workforce reserves of about 500,000 considering the number of the inactive, those involved in public work schemes, people working abroad and the jobless, although there are severe problems concerning skills and qualifications. Concerning US President Donald Trumps address in the United Nations, the Hungarian prime minister told public radio that Trump represents the US position as an icon. Viktor Orban suggested that under the current administration the US departed from its earlier attitude of forcing its world-improving efforts on other countries, which Americans felt was against their own national interests. The US should be seen in a different light, and we no longer need to fence off illegitimate attempts at cultural influencing but build a partnership based on mutual benefits, Orban said. MTI Photo The Hungarian government believes the best way to protect civilians is by trying to prevent conflict and young people should be given an important role in this effort, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York, at a Group of Friends of Mediation event, focussing on the role of young generations. Szijjarto said the role of young people is important in prevention which should start with hindering radicalisation and moving towards extremism. He emphasised the importance of local initiatives and that young people should be given the opportunity to communicate and be represented in organisations where they get a chance to find solutions. He also talked about the role of moderate religious leaders who can be strategic allies in peace mediation efforts. Hungary urges the utilisation of historical churches in this process because their representatives can play an effective role in involving young people in community life and mediation processes, he added. Hungary is trying to contribute to expanding the role of young people by granting thousands of scholarships and helping youngsters build links with others who come from countries where peace is not yet guaranteed, Szijjarto said. MTI Photo KKM / Mitko Sztojcsev CENTENNIAL, Colo., Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NioCorp Developments Ltd. (NioCorp or the Company) (TSX: NB; OTCQX: NIOBF; and FSE: BR3) is pleased to announce the close of the second and final tranche (the Second Tranche Closing) of its non-brokered private placement (the Offering) announced August 29, 2018. Aggregate gross proceeds for the Offering (including both the first and the final tranche) totaled approximately C$3.13 million. Pursuant to the Offering the Company issued an aggregate total of 4,975,158 units of the Company (Units) at a price of C$0.63 per Unit. Each Unit was comprised of one Common Share of the Company and one half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each full Warrant entitles the holder to acquire a Common Share of the Company at a price of C$0.75 until September 28, 2020. NioCorp closed the first tranche of the Offering on September 14, 2018, consisting of the issuance of 2,917,587 Units, at a price of C$0.63 per Unit, for gross proceeds of C$1,838,080. The Second Tranche Closing consisted of the issuance of 2,057,571 Units at a price of C$0.63 per Unit, for gross proceeds of C$1,296,270. Net proceeds from the Offering will be used by the Company for continued development of NioCorps Elk Creek Superalloy Materials Project and for general corporate purposes. The Company paid cash commissions of C$17,766 in connection with the Offering to brokers outside of the United States. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a hold period under Canadian law expiring four (4) months and one day from the closing of each respective tranche and are subject to resale restrictions under United States securities laws. "NioCorp extends a warm welcome to our new investors and to the many existing investors who expanded their position through this offering, said Mark A. Smith, Executive Chairman and CEO of NioCorp. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. These securities have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act), or any applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to, or for the account or benefit of, a U.S. person or person in the United States absent such registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. United States and U.S. person are as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act. Source: NioCorp Developments, Ltd. @NioCorp $NB $NIOBF #Niobium #Scandium #ElkCreek For More Information: Contact Jim Sims, VP of External Affairs, NioCorp Developments Ltd., 720-639-4650, jim.sims@niocorp.com About NioCorp NioCorp is developing a superalloy materials project in Southeast Nebraska that will produce Niobium, Scandium, and Titanium. Niobium is used to produce superalloys as well as High Strength, Low Alloy ("HSLA") steel, which is a lighter, stronger steel used in automotive, structural, and pipeline applications. Scandium is a superalloy material that can be combined with Aluminum to make alloys with increased strength and improved corrosion resistance. Scandium also is a critical component of advanced solid oxide fuel cells. Titanium is used in various superalloys and is a key component of pigments used in paper, paint and plastics and is also used for aerospace applications, armor and medical implants. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this document. Certain statements contained in this document may constitute forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding the intended use of the proceeds from the Offering. Such forward-looking statements are based upon NioCorps reasonable expectations and business plan at the date hereof, which are subject to change depending on economic, political and competitive circumstances and contingencies. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause a change in such assumptions and the actual outcomes and estimates to be materially different from those estimated or anticipated future results, achievements or position expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause NioCorps plans or prospects to change include changes in demand for and price of commodities (such as fuel and electricity) and currencies; changes or disruptions in the securities markets; legislative, political or economic developments; the need to obtain permits and comply with laws and regulations and other regulatory requirements; the possibility that actual results of work may differ from projections/expectations or may not realize the perceived potential of NioCorps projects; risks of accidents, equipment breakdowns and labor disputes or other unanticipated difficulties or interruptions; the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated expenses in development programs; operating or technical difficulties in connection with exploration, mining or development activities; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities of grades of reserves and resources; and the risks involved in the exploration, development and mining business and the risks set forth under the heading Risk Factors in the Companys S-1 registration statement and other filings with the SEC at www.sec.gov. NioCorp disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. U.S. Army modernization contract enables soldier readiness The U.S. Army selected Lockheed Martin to upgrade nearly 500 simulators for the services tactical vehicle fleet at dozens of locations worldwide. The Close Combat Tactical Training (CCTT) Manned Module Modernization (M3) contract, worth up to $356 million, modernizes training while increasing sustainability in support of emerging Army training requirements and systems.1st Lt. Larry Penrod, tank commander, B Company, 3rd Combined Arms Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division analyzes a map while training in a tank simulator at the Close Combat Tactical Trainer located on Fort Stewarts Mission Training Complex. Photo by Spc. Noelle Wiehe.The CCTT M3 system integrates all facets of combat vehicle operations, immersing soldiers in real-world battle scenarios through computer-based simulations. Through CCTT M3, Abrams, Bradley and Reconfigurable Vehicle Simulator (RVS) upgrades ensure simulators remain concurrent with the vehicles in the field, with modernization and support in place for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle and other emerging Army ground vehicle platforms. Modernizing these systems improves sustainability and cybersecurity, preparing the system for future Army simulation architectures.Lockheed Martin is honored to continue providing the U.S. Army with an affordable complement to live training through the CCTT M3 program, said Tom Gordon, vice president of Training and Simulation Solutions at Lockheed Martin. We look forward to enabling soldier readiness through the programs design, production and fielding of concurrency and modernization upgrades.Lockheed Martin partners with two small businesses on this work AVT Simulation and Dignitas Technologies, both in Orlando, Florida. Together, the integrated team brings the most experienced system architecture and visual system experts together to accomplish the CCTT M3 development, production and fielding requirements for the U.S. Army.Since 1992, Lockheed Martin has developed and delivered nearly 500 CCTT systems. Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin was awarded a seven-year, $3.53 billion contract to globally sustain more than 300,000 fielded Training Aids, Devices, Simulators and Simulations (TADSS), which includes the CCTT M3 system.For more information, please visit: https://www.lockheedmartin.com 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... Un barbat de 41 de ani a revenit la viata dupa 2 saptamani de coma, din cauza Covid-19 Un barbat de 41 de ani a revenit la viata dupa doua saptamani de coma, din cauza infectiei cu SARS-CoV-2. A ajuns la spital aproape fara speranta, cu plamanii afectati in proportie de 80%. Nevaccinat, [citeste mai departe] New York, NY, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zion Market Research has published a new report titled Mattress Market by Product (Memory foam, Gel, Innerspring, Water bed, Air bed, Latex Mattress, and Adjustable bases), by Size (King size, Double size, Queen, Twin XL, Twin), by End-User (Hotel industry, Household, Hospitals, and Others) - Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis and Forecast, 2017 2024. According to the report, global mattress market was valued at around USD 27 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach approximately USD 43 billion in 2024, growing at a CAGR of slightly above 6.5% between 2018 and 2024. A mattress is a rectangular or square shaped large pad that supports reclining body and is designed to be used on a bed frame or as a bed. Mattresses consist of a quilted or fastened case of heavy cloth that contains foam rubber, cotton, straw, hair, metal springs, etc. Mattresses are also filled with water or air. There are many types of mattresses available in the market; most producers manufacture more than one type. Multiple varieties are produced through different manufacturing processes with varied cost. Request Free Sample Report of Global Mattress Market Report @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/mattress-market Escalating number of home ownership and rising home refurbishment pursuits are propelling mattresses sales. A revival of the economy in North American and European countries post economic slump of 2008 has registered an upward trend of new houses sales. In spite of the increased number of houses built in 2014, a number of new homes constructed in the UK were less than half required to fulfill the demand. As per Department for Communities and Local Government UK, 118,760 houses were completed in 2014, registering an increase of 8% as compared to the previous year. This figure was quite below the mark of 250,000 houses that were required to tackle the housing crises in the country. Luxurious mattresses are majorly deployed in hotels for the customers comfort and pleasing appearance. The global hotel industry has generated revenue of nearly USD 550 billion in 2016 and was USD 457 billion in 2011. This indicates an increase of USD 100 billion in 5 years of time span, justifying the potential of the hospitality industry. Globally hospitality, tourism, and travel sectors are crucial for job creation and economic development. In the current era, where transport is becoming more affordable along with blurring countrys borders, tourism and travel will remain a significant sector in the near future. The Asia Pacific and Europe are the key regions with the highest hotel occupancy rates of nearly 68%. The Middle East and Africa is the most expensive region, the hotel room rates with an average price of USD 165.97. Download Free PDF Report Brochure: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/requestbrochure/mattress-market Global mattress market is classified according to its products as memory foam, gel, innerspring, water bed, air bed, latex mattress, and adjustable bases. Based on the size, global mattress market is bifurcated as king size, double size, queen, twin XL, and twin. Various end-use industries deploying mattress are hospitals, household, hotel, and others. Global mattress market is divided into prominent regions such as Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. The Asia Pacific is leading in terms of revenue generation in the industry owing to its strengthening economies that have grown in the construction industry. Further, the rising number of households spending heavily on premium home furnishing will give a positive outlook to the regional market during the forecast timeframe. Browse the full "Mattress Market by Product (Memory foam, Gel, Innerspring, Water bed, Air bed, Latex Mattress, and Adjustable bases), by Size (King size, Double size, Queen, Twin XL, Twin), by End-User (Hotel industry, Household, Hospitals, and Others) - Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis and Forecast, 2017 2024" report at https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/mattress-market Key players in global mattress market are Paramount Bed Holdings Co. Ltd., KING KOIL Inc., Sealy Corporation, Southerland Bedding Co., Kingsdown Inc., Select Comfort, Spring Air Company, Simmons Bedding Company LLC, Serta Inc., and Tempur-Pedic International Inc. Inquire more about this report before purchase @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/inquiry/mattress-market The report segments the global mattress market as follows: Mattress Market: Product Segment Analysis Memory foam Gel Innerspring Water bed Air bed Latex mattress Adjustable bases Mattress Market: Size Segment Analysis King size Double size Queen Twin XL Twin Mattress Market: End-User Segment Analysis Hotel industry Household Hospitals Others Mattress Market: Regional Segment Analysis North America The U.S. Europe UK France Germany Asia Pacific China Japan India Latin America Brazil The Middle East and Africa About Us: Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting-edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the clients needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us. Follow Us LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zion-market-research Follow Us Twitter: https://twitter.com/zion_research Blog: http://www.intenseresearch.com | http://www.mrsresearchgroup.com | http://www.marketresearchtrade.com | https://qyresearchgroup.com | http://marketnreports.com | https://zmrnewsjournal.us | http://www.e-marketresearch.com Contact Us: Joel John 244 Fifth Avenue, Suite N202 New York, 10001, United States Tel: +49-322 210 92714 USA/Canada Toll-Free No.1-855-465-4651 Email: sales@zionmarketresearch.com Website: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com Jeremy Hare, a banned Philadelphia stockbroker who reinvented himself as the president of a staffing company, pleaded guilty on Friday to an invoice scam that defrauded a California commercial lending firm of more than $400,000 in 2017, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Craig Carpenito, announced. Hare, 47, appeared in Camden federal court before U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb, pleading guilty to wire fraud. Scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 4, Hare faces a maximum 20-year prison term and $800,000 fine, according to a plea agreement. Hare's attorney, Ronald L. Greenblatt, could not immediately be reached for comment. Blocked from a stock-trading career because of investor complaints, the telegenic Hare who had appeared as an expert on the stock market on the Fox Business cable channel reinvented himself as a high-end recruiter of financial executives and accountants through his new company, Apollo Search Partners LLC, with locations in Cherry Hill and One Liberty Place in September 2015. According to federal court documents, Hare submitted bogus invoices to a California lending company for the salaries of employees he claimed to have placed in Philadelphia-area companies but never did. Hare used the money for personal expenses, the the plea agreement said. SEPTA is closing in on its goal of making the Key card the standard fare system for the region's public transit service. As of last month, 980,000 cards had been sold, SEPTA officials said, and on city transit between 70 percent to 80 percent of fares are paid with the smart card. The cards can be used for monthly or weekly fare plans, can maintain a balance to pay for trips, or can be loaded with money as needed by infrequent transit users. SEPTA is unveiling the system for Regional Rail, the last major service that hasn't widely converted to Key. This conversion to a digital fare system, though, won't work for the city's poor, argued Lance Haver, policy director of Pennsylvania Save Our Safety Net Coalition, a group advocating for government social services. "For those tens of thousands of riders who don't have credit cards, who are unbanked, we should be asking if the Key card is an improvement, or does it make it more costly to ride SEPTA?" Haver said at SEPTA's monthly board meeting Thursday. Lacking a bank account or credit or debit card makes it impossible for card holders to reload their cards automatically through SEPTA's website. Key card dispensing kiosks at all SEPTA subway stations allow a card to be reloaded with cash, but Haver noted that many transit users in the city, particularly bus riders, don't use the Broad Street or Market-Frankford Lines and would have to go out of their way and spend money for an extra trip to reach a subway station kiosk. Noting that 42 percent of SEPTA's riders have incomes under $35,000 a year, Haver called for the board to form a committee to review how Key may make transit more expensive for the city's poor. Riders can still pay for SEPTA fares with cash, but a trip costs $2.50, compared to $2 with a Key card. SEPTA officials will meet with Haver, said Rich Burnfield, SEPTA's deputy general manager and treasurer, though he did not commit to forming a committee. Haver said the hardest transition for the poor has been SEPTA's substitution of the fare card for tokens, which for years were sold at corner shops and convenience stores. The Key program calls for 1,500 businesses around the city to sell the cards, but about two years into its use on city transit, they are sold at only about 500 businesses, Burnfield said. Card users have told Haver that businesses that do provide Key cards charge service fees of up to $2 to reload a card, something SEPTA officials say should not happen. Other issues Key users complain about make travel even more complicated, Haver said. Key card validators don't give any warning when a card is close to a zero balance, he noted, and SEPTA's app doesn't make it easy to find locations where Key cards can be bought. "From the beginning of the ride, the current system seems to put those unbanked and without credit cards at a disadvantage," Haver said. He also criticized the function that allows the transit card to be used as a debit card. The debit function, administered by Metabank, includes significant fees, including $4.95 in monthly fees and $3 to receive a paper transaction summary by mail. Haver called the charges predatory. Burfield said the fees were in line with those associated with prepaid debit cards. Fewer than 100 people are using the Key card's debit function, he said. Burnfield wanted more information on businesses that were charging service fees to reload cards for transit purposes. SEPTA has tried to make the card more accessible to the poor with a minimum reload value of $5 instead of $10, and by unrolling round-trip and one-way options for social service agencies that have traditionally handed those out to clients. "We're going to meet with him," Burnfield said of Haver. "We want to serve our customers." In the Trump era, everything is politically tribal: Keurig coffee makers, Nike socks, Kellogg's cereal. Even the legendary rivalry between Wawa and Sheetz can't escape the gravitational pull of politics. Campaign records released this week show that Philadelphia's favorite convenience store recently donated $10,000 to Scott Wagner, the Republican businessman running against Gov. Wolf. Wawa's political action committee donated an additional $2,500 to Wagner's gubernatorial campaign earlier this year. Meanwhile, the PAC for Sheetz, whose fans are based in central and Western Pennsylvania, cut a $10,000 check to Wolf. Is there a proxy war underway in the governor's race between Wawa and Sheetz? Good God, that could ignite a civil war in Pennsylvania. >> WANT MORE CLOUT? We're launching a weekly newsletter, sent straight to your inbox In Philly, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 7-1, liberal voters won't like Wawa's donations. In the western part of the state, which has trended red in recent years, conservative voters will be unhappy with Sheetz's. Wolf and Wagner seem all too aware of how politically precarious this issue is: When Clout asked the two men which side they're on, both dodged. Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Wagner, said he "loves all the convenience stores in Pennsylvania and will stop at whichever one is closest when he wants a coffee or an iced tea." Wolf's spokesperson, Beth Melena, said that "though he is a fan of both Wawa and Sheetz, Gov. Wolf is a Rutter's guy," referring to a hometown favorite store. Wawa and Sheetz played it safe, too. Nick Ruffner, Sheetz's public relations manager, said the company has given to Democrats and Republicans who "promote policies that strengthen the economy of the states we serve." Wawa spokesperson Lori Bruce said the company has "a great relationship with Gov. Wolf," adding, "We also made an equal contribution within the past month to the Democratic Governors Association as part of its recent event in support of his reelection campaign." It's not the same, Wawa. It's not the same. And besides, this isn't the first time Wawa donated to Wolf's opponent: When Wolf first ran for governor in 2014, the store contributed to his Republican rival, then-Gov. Tom Corbett. That's not the only duplicitous thing Clout discovered. Despite his professed love for Rutter's, Wolf's team hasn't spent a dime at that store this year, according to his most recent filings. His campaign has, however, paid $145 to Wawa. Hey, who can blame them? It's America's greatest convenience store. How not to deal with campaign trackers: A lesson When it comes to political "trackers" operatives who tail and videotape candidates in hopes of capturing embarrassing blunders it's best to handle with care. After all, you're on camera. Somebody forgot that when a tracker for the liberal group American Bridge filmed a Republican Jewish Coalition forum for congressional candidates, at Fox Rothschild's law offices in Blue Bell. The candidates, Republicans Bryan Leib, Dan David, and Pearl Kim, were fielding questions when a man who identified himself as a doctor at "inner-city hospitals" said: "The people that are going to change the black community, I believe, are the black women. Forget the men. They're too stupid." At that, Fox Rothschild lawyer Bill Wanger, the host, noticed the tracker and ushered him out of the room, accusing him of trespassing and telling him he couldn't leave until police responded. Wanger told Clout the tracker was a "hooligan" who "snuck into my building." And he raised security concerns, noting the event happened "the night before the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur." Andrew Bates at American Bridge said the tracker went to the police and showed video. Wanger, a Republican committee person in Montgomery County, said he tried to file charges against the tracker last Friday. Instead, he learned he was charged with a summary offense of harassment. "This is disgusting," Wanger said. "This is a case of turning the victim, which is me, around. He is a trespasser. This is all political." An opaque group jumps into Pa.s General Assembly races Political insiders are whispering about a mysterious new group in Pennsylvania's General Assembly races. This week, the pro-Democratic organization PA Fund for Change began airing TV advertising in a state Senate campaign in Allegheny County, according to its website. It says it is targeting nine additional races, most of them in the Philadelphia suburbs, where Democrats hope to gain seats in the legislature. PA Fund for Change's treasurer, according to state records, is settlement planner George Audi. That's notable because Audi was also treasurer of Pennsylvanians for Judicial Reform, a pro-Democratic super PAC that spent more than $2.5 million on TV ads in the 2015 state Supreme Court elections. Will PA Fund for Change fork over seven figures to help Democrats in state legislative races, too? Will it raise money from trial lawyers and unions, like Pennsylvanians for Judicial Reform did? Asked about its donors, spending plans, and targeting decisions, the PAC revealed little. "All PA Fund for Change financial information will be reported as required by applicable law," said an email from info@pafundforchange.com. As if that weren't opaque enough, no name was attached. It came into Clout's inbox as "Executive Staff." Staff writer Jonathan Lai contributed to this column. Yo, Clout readers: Were launching a weekly newsletter. To get the scoop on the midterm elections sent straight to your inbox, visit philly.com/philly/newsletters/clout. Hundreds #FillTheSteps Against Violence on the Art Museum step organized by Inquirer and Daily News columnist Helen Ubinas Monday June 11, 2018. DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer Read more With apologies to Sixers fans everywhere: Don't trust the process especially when it comes to city government. Last year I suggested that we start evaluating the city's antiviolence programs, which happened to be around the same time that the city started its Office of Violence Prevention. Better late than never, right? From the start, there was difficulty in defining just what programs would fall under violence prevention. Same with the money set aside for them, also a moving target. The city initially identified $60 million in federal, state, and city funding spent across 10 departments yearly on community-based prevention programs focused on gun violence. Later, Shondell Revell, who was hired in 2017 to head the office, said it was closer to $48 million in city, federal, and state funding, with $13 million coming directly from the city. The office went with a softer auditing approach than the one I was pushing, which was: Prove your antiviolence program works or lose your funding. But I put hope in plans to hold community meetings with city residents who have long said that the existing programs weren't having an impact on their lives. I hadn't heard anything for months. And then on Thursday afternoon at the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network in North Philadelphia, Mayor Kenney announced that he was giving his administration 100 days to come up with a new approach. "Get mad about the violence in our streets, get mad about what's happening in our community," said City Council President Darrell L. Clarke. I'm not sure where Clarke's hanging, but people are already plenty angry about the violence in Philly. And I only got angrier when Deputy Managing Director Vanessa Garrett Harley said that as part of the directive, they'd be evaluating all existing efforts to reduce violence. Wait. What? Weren't we already doing this? They said so. And if we weren't, just what in the world had the Office of Violence Prevention been doing for the last year? Turns out, they're pretty good at spending money. First by hiring Theron Pride in June to the newly created position of senior director of Violence Prevention Strategies and Programs. Annual pay: $133,900. Revell, who makes $118,450 a year, also remains on the job. Garrett Harley, who will oversee the efforts as the newly appointed deputy managing director for Criminal Justice and Public Safety, makes $164,800. And then by spending $300,000 on the Community Crisis Intervention Program, a community outreach program that sounds a lot like other community outreach programs that already exist. As for the accounting of the programs well, there was a lot of spin that boiled down to this: Trust them and their newly hired expertise. Brian Abernathy, the city's newly named managing director, said the office got to a point where it needed to make adjustments; it didn't have the staffing. Translation: The office was out of its depth and rather than clean house, it invested more money in a renovation. In the meantime, let's just blindly continue to fund programs. No, let's continue to blindly fund more programs. One guy, promoting his own program at the news conference, told city officials that they were BS'ing themselves if they kept addressing gun violence in the same old ways. Worse, I thought, they're conning the residents of Philadelphia as they hire more experts, form more task forces, and give chest-pounding, 100-day directives that don't amount to anything but headlines that the dead rarely make. Shootings are up since last year. Same with homicides; 246 people have been murdered in Philly as of Sept. 27. We had the most violent August in at least a decade. Thursday morning, hours before city officials packed a room to announce they'd come up with yet another plan to combat violence in 100 days, an 18-year-old was gunned down. That night, a 15-year-old was shot. Maybe sometime in the next 100 days, someone from the city can find the time to visit their families. You know, tell them to buck up and trust the process. This was a heavy-duty week for introspection about America's painful internal divisions. The Kavanaugh hearing laid bare the ugly political partisanship that threatens the reputation of the U.S. Supreme Court. And a high-powered colloquium at the University of Pennsylvania featuring former Vice President Joe Biden, along with former National Security Advisers Susan Rice and H.R. McMaster exposed the competing visions of the future global order pursued by the Obama and Trump White Houses. Yet the intense discussions at Perry World House, UPenn's new foreign-policy center, laid bare something intriguing: that the supposed zero-sum war between America Firsters and so-called globalists is a vast exaggeration promoted by President Trump and alt-right ideologues. With a less divisive president, centrist Democrats and Republicans could find common ground on many key international issues, including the necessary role of alliances and multinational organizations. The UPenn colloquium was a reminder of how desperately the country, and the Congress, needs a more civilized foreign-policy debate. McMaster, who resigned as national security adviser in March, criticized the Obama administration's lead-from-behind foreign policy, especially in the Mideast and Afghanistan. He contended that Barack Obama had made "a conscious decision to disengage without consideration of the disadvantages." The retired three-star general argued, correctly, that Obama's Mideast "passivity" helped foster the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. He also noted that the Obama team incorrectly assumed Iran would moderate its aggressive behavior in the Mideast once it signed the 2015 nuclear deal a deal from which Trump has now withdrawn. Yet McMaster, who was regarded as a moderating influence on his boss, also said things that overlap with the positions of centrist Democrats. He emphasized the importance of America's NATO allies and our bonds with Japan and South Korea (allies Trump often treats cavalierly). As national security adviser, he worked to maintain tight security ties with those countries, even as Trump insulted their leaders. Moreover, the former Trump adviser was blunt about the need for more pressure on the Russians, especially given their support of Iran in Syria. This in sharp contrast to Trump. Most particularly, McMaster stressed the need for a more civilized discourse on foreign policy (he himself was the victim of a vicious alt-right social-media smear campaign during his time in the White House). Moreover, he admitted, "There is a point where GOP isolationism [of some] meets Democratic retrenchment." That point is defined by the America First campaign. For her part, Susan Rice stressed the danger of Trump's focus on bilateral deals to the exclusion of multilateral pacts and organizations (of course, she defended the Iran deal). But she also insisted on America's leadership role abroad. There were clear lines of overlap between the ex-Obama adviser and McMaster: a stress on the value of security alliances; the need to forge a united front of allies to challenge China on trade (rather than launch a unilateral trade war); a tougher stance toward Vladimir Putin's aggressive behavior (even if Obama got the reset wrong). Most important, Rice emphasized the need to "stop making ourselves vulnerable internally to our adversaries. The greatest threat to us is our internal divisions," she said, correctly. "This is what makes Russia's efforts to divide us effective." She also complained that the current denigration of facts by the right wing, along with the discomfort on campuses with arguments from all sides, "means we can't have rational debate." Too true. Between the two security experts you could discern an outline of a future foreign-policy consensus between GOP and Democratic centrists: a continued active U.S. leadership role abroad; investing in alliances to counter a revanchist Russia and aggressive China; and strong policies to keep future terrorists down. Last up was former Veep Joe Biden, who rightly proclaimed: "A vast majority of Americans are sick of rank partisanship." (Hats off to the bipartisan senatorial group that pressed Trump to accept a one-week delay on the confirmation vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh to allow time for an FBI investigation.) Biden related a story of a Singaporean leader who told him, "China is in America looking for the 'black box.' " When the vice president asked what that meant, the Singaporean replied, "America is the only country that can remake itself," meaning a country that can challenge orthodoxy, invite in new blood (immigrants), and overcome adversity. Other nations still envy that. "America is an idea," Biden said. "It is contained in the Constitution, the one thing that unites Americans." In the ugly Trumpian era, political language has become debased, rule of law denigrated, and serious debate over foreign policy in Congress has become nearly obsolete. As the symposium ended, a group of students rushed to the stage, and one handed Biden a pocket copy of the Constitution to autograph. Somehow, that youthful gesture gave me hope. As support mounts for an FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, two local law school deans added their voices. "I support a delay in the vote to allow an FBI investigation," said Rod Smolla, dean of Widener University's Delaware Law School. "I think you saw conflicting evidence yesterday, and the best way to try to resolve it, one way or another, is to investigate it as completely as you can, and that has not taken place." His comments came one day after college professor Christine Blasey Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were in high school, and Kavanaugh, just as forcefully, told the governing body he did not. Michael Cahill, co-dean of Rutgers Law School in Camden, said he could see no reason not to conduct an investigation. "It might turn up further evidence to corroborate or refute either party's account, which would lend more legitimacy to the ultimate outcome either way; if such further evidence (in either direction) came to light only after the confirmation vote, it could profoundly damage public perceptions of both this process and the Court itself. The only significant cost is the time it would take, and the experience of the Merrick Garland nomination indicates that the Senate is not uncomfortable with a lengthy confirmation timetable when circumstances might warrant one." Earlier Friday, both the American Bar Association and the dean of Yale's Law School spoke up in support of further investigation. "Proceeding with the confirmation process without further investigation is not in the best interest of the court or our profession," Yale law dean Heather Gerken said. Smolla acknowledged that the investigation could take longer than a week. Once an investigation starts, it could lead in other directions, he said. But it's important that the probe take place, he said. "Whatever views people have, it at least makes it appear that it wasn't an intentionally rushed effort to avoid the truth," he said. John Culhane, a distinguished professor of law at Delaware Law School, said without an FBI investigation, consequences could be dire. "If they don't, chances are there will be impeachment proceedings by the Democrats in 2019," said Culhane, who teaches constitutional law. Even with an investigation, Democrats could still try to impeach Kavanaugh if they think the review was cursory or just an attempt to check the boxes, he said. "But I think it makes it less likely," he said. Not for distribution to U.S. news wire services or dissemination in the United States. MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- goeasy Ltd. (goeasy or the Company), a leading full service provider of goods and alternative financial services that provides everyday Canadians with a chance for a better tomorrow, has announced today that, due to strong demand, the Company has increased the size of the previously announced bought deal offering to 800,000 common shares (the Common Shares), at a price of $50.50 per Common Share, for gross proceeds of $40,400,000 (the Offering). The Offering is led by BMO Capital Markets, Raymond James Ltd., and Cormark Securities Ltd. The Company has granted the Underwriters an option, exercisable at the offering price for a period of 30 days following the closing of the Offering, to purchase up to an additional 15% of the Offering to cover over-allotments, if any. The offering is expected to close on or about October 10, 2018 and is subject to goeasy receiving all necessary regulatory approvals. Net proceeds of the Offering will be used to support the growth of the easyfinancial consumer loan portfolio. The Common Shares will be offered in all of the provinces of Canada, excluding Quebec, pursuant to the Companys base shelf prospectus dated May 19, 2017 and may also be offered by way of private placement in the United States. The securities offered have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Forward-Looking Statements All figures reported above with respect to outlook are targets established by the Company and are subject to change as plans and business conditions vary. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the foregoing guidance. Actual results may differ materially. This press release includes forward-looking statements about goeasy, including, but not limited to, its business operations, strategy, expected financial performance and condition, the estimated number of new locations to be opened, targets for growth of the consumer loans receivable portfolio, annual revenue growth targets, strategic initiatives, new product offerings and new delivery channels, anticipated cost savings, planned capital expenditures, anticipated capital requirements, liquidity of the Company, plans and references to future operations and results and critical accounting estimates. In certain cases, forward-looking statements are statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and/or can be identified by the use of words such as expects, anticipates, intends, plans, believes, budgeted, estimates, forecasts, targets or negative versions thereof and similar expressions, and/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 certain factors and assumptions, including expected growth, results of operations and business prospects and are inherently subject to, among other things, risks, uncertainties and assumptions about the Companys operations, economic factors and the industry generally, as well as those factors referred to in the Companys most recent Annual Information Form and Management Discussion and Analysis, as available on www.sedar.com, in the section entitled Risk Factors. 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 expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made by the Company, due to, but not limited to, important factors such as the Companys ability to enter into new lease and/or financing agreements, collect on existing lease and/or financing agreements, open new locations on favourable terms, purchase products which appeal to customers at a competitive rate, respond to changes in legislation, react to uncertainties related to regulatory action, raise capital under favourable terms, manage the impact of litigation (including shareholder litigation), control costs at all levels of the organization and maintain and enhance the system of internal controls. The Company cautions that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. The reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully and not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or alter the forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by law. About goeasy goeasy Ltd. is a leading full-service provider of goods and alternative financial services that provides everyday Canadians with a chance for a better tomorrow, today. goeasy Ltd. serves its customers through two key operating divisions, easyfinancial and easyhome. easyfinancial is a non-prime consumer lender that bridges the gap between traditional financial institutions and costly payday lenders. It is supported by a strong central credit adjudication process and industry leading risk analytics. easyfinancial also operates an indirect lending channel, offering loan products to consumers at the point-of-sale of third party merchants. easyhome is Canada's largest lease-to-own company, offering brand-name household furniture, appliances and electronics to consumers under weekly or monthly leasing agreements through both corporate and franchise stores. Both operating divisions of goeasy Ltd. offer the highest level of customer service and enable customers to transact through a national store and branch network and through its online and mobile eCommerce enabled platforms. goeasy Ltd.s. common shares are listed for trading on the TSX under the trading symbol GSY and goeasys convertible debentures are traded on the TSX under the trading symbol GSY-DB. goeasy is rated BB- with a stable trend from S&P and Ba3 with a stable trend from Moodys. For more information, visit www.goeasy.com. goeasy Ltd. is listed on the TSX under the symbol GSY. For more information, visit www.goeasy.com. For further information contact: David Ingram Chief Executive Officer (905) 272-2788 It just got easier to apply to multiple charter schools in Philadelphia. Starting Friday, a new website, Apply Philly Charter, enables parents and students to apply to more than 70 of the city's charter-school campuses as many as they want, with one online application. Its backers say it's not intended to boost enrollment at charter schools, which are publicly funded but aren't run by the School District. About 70,000, or one-third, of Philadelphia public-school students attend charters. "The purpose of Apply Philly Charter is not to expand the charter sector," said Mark Gleason, executive director of Philadelphia School Partnership, a nonprofit that funds charter, district, and private schools in the city and is operating the site. "It's to make sure every family has easy and equitable access to the charter sector, if they want it." As school options have grown, cities have moved to streamline applications. "It's a pretty commonsense step in a city with a lot of choice," said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell. Some, including Denver and Washington, D.C., have gone beyond Philadelphia's initiative, creating a unified enrollment system for district-run and charter schools. But the concept has sparked controversy. NEA Today, the national teachers' union publication, has labeled common enrollment "the newest page in school privatizers' handbook." In Boston, a proposal for a unified enrollment system drew "vehement opposition" from some parents, including opponents of charter expansion, according to the Boston Globe. In Camden, which unified enrollment for its district and charter schools in 2015, the president of the local teachers' union has urged parents to boycott the system, which is funded in part by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. It has supported certain charter-network expansions and awarded up to $1.4 million to support Philadelphia's new charter application process. Unified application systems are "a great tool for ensuring equitable access to great public schools," Neerav Kingsland, managing partner at the City Fund, a nonprofit funded by the foundation, said earlier this year. Five years ago, at the request of an alliance of district, charter, and archdiocesan schools, Philadelphia School Partnership put forward a plan for a unified system. But "we decided to pull the plug, for a number of reasons," including that it was Superintendent William R. Hite Jr.'s first year and the district was still facing a budget crisis, Gleason said. Critics questioned who would run the system and how students would be assigned, and some opposition came from families whose children were applying to the district's special-admission schools. This time, Gleason said, "we decided to proceed more cautiously" in simplifying the enrollment process. Since 2014-15, the Philadelphia School District has also conducted its application process online and has since received more applications for special-admission and non-neighborhood schools, spokesperson Lee Whack said. "We want to certainly keep that going. Whether students and families are selecting district or charter schools, we encourage participation," Whack said. Apply Philly Charter doesn't govern enrollment. Participating schools will still run their own lotteries. But they must conduct them between Jan. 28, the application deadline, and Feb. 19, the deadline for charters to let students know whether they have been accepted. Not all charter schools are participating. "For certain charter schools that need applicants, I think that it works," said Ed Poznek, CEO of Christopher Columbus Charter School in South Philadelphia. But, he added, "we have such an extensive waiting list, we could open another school and never need another application." Scott Gordon, CEO of Mastery Charter Schools, said the network's 18 Philadelphia campuses are participating because it would benefit parents. "We feel like we're part of a system, and parents should have access in as easy a way as possible to that system," Gordon said. The Apply Philly Charter website which will be available to use at the High School Fair Friday and Saturday requires parents to create an account with an email address. It then allows them to create a family profile with information about their children, including their current schools and grade levels, and to select from a list of charter schools. The process will yield new data, including how many schools the average family applied to and neighborhoods with high concentrations of applicants. It "should have some value for policymakers," Gleason said. On Friday, a portrait of trailblazing Philadelphia educator Ruth Wright Hayre was unveiled at the school named for her grandfather in North Philadelphia. Read more Latiesha Carter had no idea who Ruth Wright Hayre was. But someone commissioned Carter a 22-year-old painter and student working her way through classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to produce a portrait of the legendary Philadelphia educator, and she learned. Carter learned how Hayre battled racism to rise to become a respected educator, the first black high school principal in Philadelphia and, eventually, school board president; how she paid with her own savings for students to go to college. On Friday, in a quest to keep Hayre's legacy from being lost to history, Carter and dozens of others gathered in a Strawberry Mansion elementary school library to unveil the portrait. "Her life," Carter said, "is an inspiration to all of us." Hayre was a precocious student who graduated from West Philadelphia High at 15 and earned a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania by age 20. She was turned away from teaching in Philadelphia because the public school system did not hire black secondary school teachers, so went on to teach in Arkansas before earning her doctorate and finally getting hired in Philadelphia. She came from a family of remarkable people. In 1970, the school system named Richard Wright Elementary at 27th and Dauphin for Hayre's grandfather, who founded the first African American bank in Philadelphia. Richard Wright was born a slave, and after emancipation, he and his mother walked 600 miles so he could attend school. His granddaughter, who died in 1997, always remembered that. Christopher McGinley, a current school board member, remembers vividly the first time he talked to Hayre: when she called the McGinley home to talk to his father, then principal of Lehigh Elementary. Hayre was his boss, and she was unhappy with something the principal had done. "She was a tough boss, and she was a brilliant scholar, a wonderful teacher, a wonderful principal, and somebody who had high standards for herself, and somebody who had high standards for everyone who worked for her," Christopher McGinley said Friday. "She devoted her life to making life better for others, especially young people," said State Rep. James Roebuck (D., Phila.) Steve Sattell met Hayre near the end of her life. Sattell, an author and educator, was so moved by her work that he commissioned the portrait and worked with the district to have it hung in the Wright School library. (A portrait of Hayre hangs at school system headquarters, but Sattell wanted one to be more accessible among children.) "Ruth Wright Hayre knew how to set a tone," Sattell said. "She knew how to navigate obstacles. We need to promote that for a lifetime, for our kids." At first, Wright fifth graders children born a decade after Hayre's death wiggled in their wooden seats Friday as grown-ups made speeches before the portrait was unveiled. But then they started sitting up straighter, listening. After dignitaries including Ruth Wright Harrison, Hayre's daughter, lifted the cover off the portrait, the fifth graders crowded around to examine it. "I love it," said Dessarae Ortiz, 10. "This lady made a difference." Things weren't always easy for Hayre, said Braheem Donaldson, also 10. "But she wanted to make things better," he said. "For us." You're forgiven if you can't tell what's real from what's not in Anissa Mack's exhibition "Junk Kaleidoscope" at Arcadia University's Spruance Gallery. Most people can't. Each of Mack's works seems as though it might have been assembled from flea market finds, and though that's partly the case, the overall look of her pieces is determined by Mack's sculpting, painting, and various crafting techniques. Mack's no slouch at crafting she honed her skills by entering all 73 craft categories of Connecticut's Durham Fair in 1996. She wove a basket, caned a chair, carved a Christmas mantel decoration, and stenciled her way to numerous prizes. Together, those efforts became her art installation "The Durham Fair," a project she repeated 10 years later, but with fewer fair entries. In "Junk Kaleidoscope," at Arcadia after an earlier version last year at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Mack incorporates leg mannequins sheathed in jeggings, among other materials. She'd seen them in storefronts in her Brooklyn neighborhood and was reminded of the gold figures guarding the mummified organs of King Tutankhamen, and there is something strangely ancient and dignified about their placement in the center of the gallery here, in front of what appears to be an altar. But it's no altar. Wilkum (Arcadia), made specifically for this exhibition, references two works in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection that Mack saw in the mid-1990s as a graduate student at the Tyler School of Art: Charles Willson Peale's architectural trompe-l'oeil Staircase Group, from 1795, and Marcel Duchamp's last major work, Etant donnes (1946-1966), a view of a nude woman in a landscape seen the through a peephole in a real wooden door. In Mack's mashup, a life-size photographic replica of a door, reached by an actual stair, offers a peephole view through which a found object (sorry, no spoiler alert) is seen on a continuously rotating pedestal. I'd guess Mack is also quoting Duchamp's 1935 Rotoreliefs, double-sided discs that were meant to be viewed on a rotating turntable. There may have been more smoke and mirrors in this piece it even occurred to me that the turning object was a video projection but however Mack made it, it's a witty meeting of pop culture, craft, and high art. A tidy installation of Mack's smaller, wall-mounted works also suggests a chapel-like space, an effect heightened by O-rama, a mixed-media work that could easily pass for a stained glass window. It's quickly apparent that all of Mack's pieces demand a close look. In Junk, what appears to be real piece of denim jeans on a support of some kind is actually paint and marker on cast plaster, and what looks like a piece of denim jeans in She goes to your head is, in fact, the real thing. What's most likable about this show and Mack's artistic practice in general is that her work could so easily slip into camp or irony, but it instead displays her ingenuity and a love for making things and making them express the most with whatever is at hand. Through Dec. 9 at Arcadia University, Spruance Gallery, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays, noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. 215-572-2131 or arcadia.edu. Reclusive to revered Few people knew that David Byrd, who was born in Springfield, Ill., in 1926, and who died in Upstate New York in 2013, was a painter. But his friend and neighbor, the artist Jody Isaacson, saw the large body of work Byrd had created over the years and then saw to it that his paintings were shown in two galleries during his lifetime. It's now getting the attention it deserves. His paintings can be seen for the first time in Philadelphia, in "David Byrd: Patient Pondering" at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery. Byrd was not a self-taught artist. In the 1940s, after his service in the Merchant Marine in World War II and the Army afterward, he studied on the GI Bill with the Cubist painter Amedee Ozenfant at his school in New York. Another powerful influence on Byrd's painting came from his years working in a psychiatric hospital and the despair he witnessed there, as recorded in his grim painting Patient Pondering from 1995. His quasi-erotic painting of a young woman, Fixing Her Hair from 1995, is clearly influenced by Balthus' works, suggesting that Byrd's isolation did not wall him off from the art of the times. Through Nov. 10 at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, 1216 Arch St., 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays. 215-545-7562 or fleisherollman.com. Modesty, individuality Yusef Abdul Jaleel, based in Yonkers, N.Y., celebrates Muslim women in his show "Covered" at Art Sanctuary. His portraits are intended to combat negative stereotypes of modesty and covering, and are rendered in colors intended to express each individual's mood. Velma, a close-up view of a woman wearing a violet head scarf and large Jackie-O sunglasses, borrows its style and bright color from pop art, and Desert Oasis, showing a woman standing alone in a desert, has a soft, earthy palette. Jaleel's small works look like paintings but are in fact giclee prints on stretched canvases. A dozen portraits are on display here. Taken as a whole, they accomplish the artist's intent, showing Muslim women as strong individuals, self-assured in their choice of clothing. Through Nov. 15 at Art Sanctuary, 628 S. 16th St., noon to 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. 215-232-4485 or artsanctuary.org. The #1-ranked competitive eater in the world, Joey Chestnut, center, drinking water, eats donuts with other contestants at Liberty Place, in Philadelphia, to compete in the first-ever Hostess Donettes-eating contest, Friday, June 1, 2018. Read more For most, National Doughnut Day goes unnoticed or is celebrated with one, or maybe two, glazed morning or midday treats. For Joey Chestnut, the day Friday meant inhaling 257 powdered Hostess Donettes in six minutes, which won him $4,000 at a Major League Eating event Friday at the Shops at Liberty Place. "It was easier than I anticipated, and one of the way-tastier events that I've done," said Chestnut, 34, a full-time competitive eater with a baker's dozen of years of tournaments under his belt. Three-time Wing Bowl champ Chestnut, of San Jose, Calif., participates in events nearly every weekend. He's broken records with foods ranging from fish tacos to asparagus and cheesesteaks, and travels to destinations including Australia and China, and all across the country, to chow down for cash. Sporting a perfectly shaped beard of powder and a not-so-perfect showing of crumbs and water on his T-shirt, Chestnut recalled that the hardest part of the Donettes event came at the start. "The first bite is always the most challenging for me," Chestnut said. "But once I get past the nerves, I can get into a rhythm. The powder actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be." Chestnut said he was able to spill water into his mouth between fistfuls of compacted Donettes, helping to counteract the dryness that comes with eating more than 40 mini powdered doughnuts per minute. Among the other nine competitors, tactics included adding milk and coffee, wearing plastic gloves, and using huffing techniques to speed up swallowing. Donette dipping in water was not permitted. More than Chestnut went home with money on Friday, with a total of $8,000 distributed among the top seven doughnut-downers. The second-place contender, Carmen Cincotti, was just 13 Donettes short of tying with Chestnut, polishing off 244 to win $2,000. "I feel really good, so I wish it was longer," said Cincotti, from New Jersey. "I could've gone for a full 10 minutes. Doughnuts are good, much better than some of the stronger foods I've dealt with." Rene Rovtar, superintendent of schools in Montville, N.J., took last place with 24 Donettes consumed. Weighing in at just over 100 pounds and the only female participant at Friday's table, Rovtar is not new to the circuit. Past events have featured pork rolls and hot dogs among the array of challenges she takes on for fun. As the audience counted down the final 10 seconds of Friday's event, watching Chestnut with his eyes closed and facial grimacing made it hard to imagine competitive eating as fun. The 6-foot-tall, 215-pound man had to stomach nearly 16,000 calories in six minutes. Yet Chestnut is quick to say that his new career is better than his former job as a construction manager. "My job today is to celebrate National Doughnut Day. That's a good deal," said Chestnut, noting that the doughnuts were settling surprisingly well. "I get to break records and make people happy, and food always brings people together." Around 50 people were in the rotunda of Liberty Place, with a couple dozen spectators leaning on the railing on the second floor. Many hurried over to Chestnut and Cincotti post-competition to pose for photos. "It's ridiculous. I don't know how else you could describe this," said Bob Manning, 27, who popped out of his office at Liberty Place to catch the action. "I watch Joey every Fourth of July in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, so it was awesome to see him here." Chestnut hopes to return to the city for the 2019 Wing Bowl, a competition he hasn't participated in for 10 years. "I won three, and then they told me I couldn't come back," said Chestnut, who saod the organizers wanted to see a local competitor win. "We're now back in talks, though, and I hope to be out there next year. I love Philadelphia, so it'd be great to get back." If he does compete, odds go down for the others. "He's like Tom Brady Chestnut is the greatest of all time when it comes to competitive eating," said Richard Shea, president of Major League Eating. "It's beautiful to watch him and the way that he works." Chestnut's next challenge comes less than 48 hours after stomaching his last Donette. On Sunday he'll take on ice cream sandwiches in an event in San Diego. His goal: Eat more than 26 in another six-minute round of chowing down. CNN founder Ted Turner (left) with Ted Koppel during an interview that will appear on "CBS Sunday Morning" on Sunday, Sept. 28. Turner told Koppel he has Lewy body dementia, a brain disorder Read more Ted Turner has Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder, the CNN founder tells Ted Koppel in an interview to be broadcast this weekend on CBS Sunday Morning. "It's a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer's. It's similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer's is fatal," Turner, 79, tells Koppel in an excerpt of the interview released Friday by CBS News. "Thank goodness I don't have that. But, I also have got, let's the one that's I can't remember the name of it." After a pause, according to CBS, Turner said, "Dementia. I can't remember what my disease is." Evidence of Lewy body dementia was found in the autopsy of comedian Robin Williams, who died by suicide in 2014 after reportedly experiencing a bewildering series of mental and physical symptoms. Turner, who was interviewed on his ranch in Bozeman, Mont., reported his symptoms to be forgetfulness and fatigue. But as CBS News notes, he has been "known for going through euphoric highs and dark lows, which were initially diagnosed as symptoms of manic depression. Turner says that was a misdiagnosis." Lewy body was a plot point in the 2011-12 Starz drama Boss, in which Kelsey Grammer starred as a fictional Chicago mayor who was trying to hide his diagnosis while experiencing symptoms that included hallucinations. The actor also participated in a public-service campaign for the Lewy Body Dementia Association to promote awareness of a condition that's believed to affect some 1.3 million Americans. According to the LBDA, "Lewy body dementia is an umbrella term for dementia associated with the presence of Lewy bodies (abnormal deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein) in the brain." Symptoms vary, and are treatable, according to the LBDA. Other topics of Sunday's interview include Turner talking about the current state of his former network he thinks "they're stickin' with politics a little too much" and the idea Turner once had to run for president. "Well, the closest I came to running for office was when I was married to Jane Fonda. And when I discussed it with her she was married to one politician," Turner tells Koppel, as reported by CBSNews.com. "And she said, you know, 'If you run for, for office, you run alone.'" Ilene Warner-Maron, a nurse, listens at the podium while a panel discusses the dangers of guns and older adults with dementia or depression. From left, they are Jennifer Spoeri, director of older adult protective services at Philadelphia Corporation for aging; officers Tracy Lewis and Rick Brehant from the Philadelphia Police Department, and Fritz Walker, secretary of the board of directors of CeaseFirePA, A photo of Warner-Maron's mother and her gun served as a backdrop. Read more Ilene Warner-Maron, a nurse who specializes in geriatric cases, opened a discussion on gun-owning elders with dementia, depression, or other serious infirmities by showing a picture of an 87-year-old woman gripping a gun in both of her outstretched hands. The woman, Warner-Maron told a full classroom this week at Philadelphia Corporation for Aging, is her mother. She weighs 105 pounds and lives in a gated community in Boca Raton, Fla. "I cannot get my mother to give up her gun," Warner-Maron said. The panel of experts with her, which included two Philadelphia police officers, did not have easy answers. It can be even harder to get elderly parents to give up their weapons than their car keys, they said. When possible, subterfuge may be the best option. "It's tough to get somebody who cares about their firearms to give them up," said Rick Brehant, a Philadelphia police officer in the gun permit unit. While Philadelphia has some extra rules surrounding gun ownership, "Pennsylvania is a gun-friendly state," he said. Warner-Maron led a panel during PCA's annual regional conference on aging, which drew nearly 550 professionals this week. The subject of guns is important, she said, because advanced age raises the risk for both dementia and depression. Dementia can sometimes make people paranoid or unable to recognize caregivers or even close family members. Several years ago, a PCA caregiver was shot by a longtime patient with dementia. A Pew Research Center report last year found that one-third of Americans over age 65 own a gun, meaning that older adults have the highest rate of gun ownership. They also have the highest rate of suicide, with older white men especially likely to commit suicide. More than 70 percent of older adults who kill themselves use guns to do it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among people with dementia, firearms were used in 91 percent of suicide deaths. The FBI reported people over 65 were responsible for 238 homicides by gun in 238. Yet adult children and doctors are often more worried about whether the elderly can safely drive. "If we're that concerned about driving," Warner-Maron said, "shouldn't we be equally concerned about issues involving guns?" She thinks doctors should routinely ask patients with dementia or depression and their caregivers whether there are guns in their home and whether the guns and their ammunition are stored safely. Warner-Maron's mother does not have dementia and lives independently. She thinks the gun could protect her, but also enjoys target practice with her friends. "All my friends have guns," she tells her daughter. Warner-Maron, meanwhile, is worried that the recoil from the gun could knock her mother down, let alone a bad guy who could easily steal the weapon from her. "She could be so easily victimized by the very gun that's going to protect her," Warner-Maron said. There's little she can do to wrest the gun from her cognitively intact mother other than reason with her, perhaps pointing out that statistics show that people are more likely to be shot by their own weapon than they are to use it for protection. But, even if a parent has dementia, even if she is losing her sight, a family in Pennsylvania can't get much help from law enforcement if they want to get a gun out of the house, with a couple of exceptions. It is possible to take away an impaired person's right to carry the gun in public, but the bar is much higher for removing it from the home. Someone who is forcibly admitted for psychiatric treatment, which can only occur when they are a danger to themselves or others, cannot have a gun, Brehant said. Guns can be removed from the home in some domestic-violence situations and when the older person has a court-appointed guardian, said Jennifer Spoeri, director of older-adult protective services at PCA. To qualify for that, the person must be at imminent risk and incapacitated by something, plus lack a responsible caregiver. Brehant said a doctor can report a medical condition that could interfere with safe gun use to the permit issuing authority the Police Department in Philadelphia and the Sheriff's Department in most other counties. They can revoke the license to carry, but won't remove the gun from a home because of dementia. A worker in the audience said that one of her gun-owning clients is paranoid and blind. She thinks she has dementia. The woman's children have resisted taking the gun away. "I would be leaning on those kids hard," Spoeri said. Tracy Lewis, a victim advocate with the Police Dpartment, said officers can only take guns away if they were used in a crime, someone held a gun while threatening to use it, or the gun is believed to have been used in a crime in the past. "It really has to be a physical threat," she said. Warner-Maron said families may have to be a little devious with people who have dementia. If someone won't give up a gun voluntarily, they may let a relative "borrow" it or take it for cleaning. A professional can disable the trigger. Lewis said a neighbor in her 80s knocked on her door one day holding a brown paper bag. "I have something for you," she said. The bag held a loaded revolver. She said her husband couldn't handle it anymore and she didn't know how to unload it. Lewis kept it. Brehant said his family worried about his Uncle Harry, who, in his 80s, had Parkinson's, "medication fog," and Alzheimer's. He wouldn't give up his guns, but his wife convinced him to get a safe. Brehant and other relatives went for a visit. Uncle Harry took them to the 10 guns he could remember. They found five more. They put them in the safe and showed him the combination. Then, they changed the combination. Uncle Harry, who has since died, never discovered what they had done. Eisenhower is shown here at a White House press conference in October 1957, a month before his health crisis. Read more During a White House cabinet meeting on Nov. 25, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower suddenly could not complete his sentences. He was described by his secretary as having "sudden cold feeling, dizziness, his right hand dropped his pen, could not pick up papers, words on paper ran off top of page, spoke gibberish." The White House physician diagnosed an abnormality of the brain's left middle cerebral artery. After remaining in seclusion for three days, Eisenhower, who was then 67, returned to his presidential work, his speech not yet back to normal. Observers thought reporters seemed to count Eisenhower's goofs during the press conferences. Later, Eisenhower said: "Words, but not the ones I wanted on my tongue. It was impossible for me to express any coherent thought." He was also described as leaning to one side. Yet he appeared to recover and continued as president until 1961. Eisenhower had a long history of cardiovascular disorders starting with a surprisingly early recording of hypertension. He was first recognized as having intermittent elevated blood pressure followed by periods of normal blood pressure dating back to 1930 and 1934 as an army officer. He almost did not get promoted because of a sudden episode of hypertension recorded during a 1940 physical exam. Days later, after bed rest, he passed the exam and got his promotion to colonel. Eisenhower's medical history, early in his presidency, included a 1955 heart attack associated with hypertension, pericarditis (inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart) and a left ventricular aneurysm. At that time, he was prescribed the blood-thinner warfarin. To complicate his presidential medical history further, Eisenhower had emergency surgery in June 1956 for a small intestinal obstruction due to Crohn's disease. After his recovery from the 1957 cabinet meeting symptoms, the president's blood pressure intermittently spiked to 160/90 in 1959 and 190/90 in 1960. (Normal blood pressure is considered to be below 120/80.) Eisenhower had been known for sudden temper episodes and crankiness, almost as if having a chemical reaction within his body. In later years, his blood pressure readings went as high as 245/120, and he had at least four additional heart attacks and heart failure. What caused Eisenhower's hypertension and intermittent spiking blood pressure elevations and secondary cardiovascular complications of multiple heart attacks and stroke? Solution President Eisenhower's autopsy revealed a 1.5-centimeter tumor called a pheochromocytoma (PCC) in the left adrenal gland. PCC is a neuroendocrine tumor of the inner portion of the adrenal glands, which secrete high amounts of the chemical hormones known as catecholamines, including adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones raise the blood pressure and stimulate heart contraction and function. Hypertension, either sudden or sustained, is the most consistent symptom of PCC tumors, and the classical symptoms of headache, palpitations, and sweating are present in more than 50 percent of these patients. In severe cases, a patient can present with heart attack, heart failure, pulmonary edema, cardiac arrhythmias, stroke or intracranial hemorrhage. In 1967, Marvin "Bucky" Bacaner, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, gave Eisenhower's doctors at Walter Reed Army Hospital a new investigational medicine called bretylium, which works by blocking release of the "fight or flight" hormones secreted by the adrenal glands. This stopped activation of the nervous system to prevent Eisenhower's cardiac arrhythmias, indirectly demonstrating that the president had excess adrenaline in his system. Yet after his death, autopsy investigators found no documentation of blood or urine tests for a chemical cause of his hypertension, though testing for the catecholamines was available during Eisenhower's presidency. Clearly, no one suspected PCC as a cause of Eisenhower's blood pressure spikes and other symptoms. Elevated test results could have led to further examinations to locate the tumor and then to surgical removal of the tumor and the affected left adrenal gland. Allan B. Schwartz, M.D., is a professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology & Hypertension at Drexel University College of Medicine. The announcement came over the school PA system that a man driving a white van was targeting students near schools, trying to get us into his vehicle. The pervs always drive vans, I thought back then. It was the early 1980s; the sexual revolution of the '60s had passed and social conservatism was making a comeback. That day the sun was shining bright, and as I walked home alone in the peaceful well-to-do suburb in North Jersey, I was not thinking about the announcement. When the blue sedan stopped near me on the street where I lived, I thought the driver needed directions. Instead, he asked if I wanted a ride. "No, thank you," I said, glancing past his black peppered hair, and his white starched collar to see he was wearing no pants. I could see his bare thigh, but I could not tell whether he was wearing white boxers or whether it was his shirttail. He may have been wearing a tie, but he was not wearing pants for sure. I studied his license plate as he pulled away and scratched the number in dirt with a stick. Shaken, I went to the nearest house and the neighbor called police. Soon afterward, I would learn, police found the man near an elementary school. He was wearing pants. Police called my mom and asked that she bring me to the station so I could view a lineup. I would recognize the guy. That hair, the mustache, his clothing. When we got there, there were two detectives who fired questions at me. What was I doing? Why did I approach the car? What did I see? Was I sure? "What model car was he driving?" I did not know. "Was it a Cadillac?" No. "Are you sure." Yes. It seemed like one detective believed me, and the other did not. My mom asked, "Did the car look like our neighbor's Cadillac?" No. She told the cops I would not recognize a newer Caddy. The blue sedan was, in fact, a Cadillac. The man, they explained, thought I was lost (I was a block from home) and that I needed help. He apologized for scaring me, they said. The one detective concluded that I was too short to see inside the car. There was no need for a lineup. They let him go. That was the first and the last time I ever reported such an incident. A few years later, I was walking to school at dawn when a stranger leaning against a telephone pole jump-started my heart. He was looking in all directions before he began walking my way. I kept my pace until he opened his pants and masturbated. "Get away from me!" I ordered. In an instant, he was gone, and a man dressed in a business suit came out of a nearby house. I thought he was going to ask if I was OK, but he just stared at me. Fear turned to anger as I decided to chase after the morning stalker. Where did he go? The businessman got into his car and followed me. I darted through a backyard and came out a block over just as I could see the car pass. When the driver spotted me, he reversed and came in my direction. I shot through another backyard and did it again until I was in the safety of a friend's home and the driver was gone. "We have to call the police, Barbie. This guy's a sicko," my friend's dad, Big D, told me. The guy in the car, I suspected, was conspiring with the stalker. I did not want to call police. They will not do anything, I thought. When the creep at the beach was riding the waves near me and his hands touched my body under the water several times, I did not tell my parents. I just got out of the ocean. When a guy was watching me as I waited for a friend on a darkened street on St. Thomas, I had a bad feeling and walked away. He yelled for me to stop, and I ran. He chased me, but I had too much of a head start weaving through side streets and alleys. There would be other close calls. My experiences always ended the same. I got away. Looking back, I was lucky. I easily could have become part of an unfortunate group of those who did not get away. Only 23 percent of those raped or sexually assaulted report the attacks to police, according to a 2016 victimization survey by the U.S. Department of Justice. As a result, the vast majority of assailants 994 out of 1,000 walk free, according to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network. I wonder what happened to those men. Were there other children and women who were victimized far worse than me by the same predators? What if police believed me the first time? Did the police even write a report? When I was a young reporter in rural Florida, I checked reports each week at the local sheriff's office. There were several reports by women who reported they were sexually assaulted. Investigators concluded they lied. One Monday morning I saw that a 14-old-old alleged her stepfather raped her. She lied, I was told. She had reported he raped her once before and recanted. Who is investigating, I asked. It had not been assigned to a detective yet. Then how do you know she lied, I persisted. I questioned why the girl remained in the home over the weekend with no contact with child protective services. It's not the first time that I had pissed off the spokesman, but that morning the vein in his forehead was bulging as he squinted and told me, "If you were a guy I would take you outside and punch you in the face." I asked the same questions every week. Was the stepdad given a lie-detector test and why not? After several weeks, the answer was yes. Only then did the assailant admit he had sex with the girl. Only then was he charged. I could probably empty a barrel of ink documenting the injustices I have witnessed over the years. I have two daughters who I teach to be safe, keep your guard up, stay aware of your surroundings, walk in groups, avoid secluded areas, lock the door behind you so no one can hurt you. When they were younger I told them never help someone looking for a puppy and run inside when a stranger approaches. There are people who will hurt you. My older daughter asked, "What if I know where the puppy is?" My younger daughter once asked, "Why would someone want to hurt me?" In that moment I was speechless. I had no answer. It took years before I understood why pedophiles abuse children, why men rape. Big D was right. They are sickos. Try explaining that to a 6-year-old. Gallery stylists at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts position antique Winnie-the-Pooh bears while preparing for the new exhibition. Read more When people care too much, Winnie-the-Pooh argues, it's just love. That bit of time-tested wisdom is as relevant today as it was nearly a century ago, when the beloved teddy bear and main character in A.A. Milne's children's books series first appeared in print. These days, Pooh Bear and pal Christopher Robin star in Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic, a new exhibition at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts that continues through Jan. 6 "The exhibit addresses the fact that Winnie-the-Pooh is a global phenomenon," said Meghan Melvin, who curated the show. "Surprisingly, many people are not that familiar with the origin of the story." In curating the show, Melvin's goal was to reconnect visitors with an iconic story and introduce the books' endearing characters Tigger! Eyeore! Piglet! to a wider audience. The exhibition is divided into five themes examining how Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard dreamed up Winnie-the-Pooh and brought him to life, eventually making Pooh and his honey pot a global sensation. It's composed of nearly 200 original drawings, letters, photographs, and early editions on loan from, primarily, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Plus, there are interactive elements for visitors, including "Pooh sticks" floating by in a projected river and a slide for kids inside Pooh's house. The first of the four books, When We Were Very Young, was published in November 1924; the last, House at Pooh Corner, came out in October 1928. The books have been translated into 50 languages, with millions of copies sold worldwide. Generations of parents felt a connection to the familiar narratives and illustrations of Winnie-the-Pooh as children, and they've been passing it on to their own kids, explained Lisa Kennedy, an assistant professor of illustration at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. "The illustrations allow readers to suspend reality and go on a journey," Kennedy said. "The illustrations are an inviting point of entry that allows us entry into the world of these characters." Information: mfa.org. The Rev. Mark Hatcher, pastor of Holy Ghost Headquarters, stands inside the Met Philadelphia, a former opera house being renovated in Francisville. The church owned the 110-year old building before selling it to a developer, who is turning the venue into a concert hall where the church will continue to hold services. Read more On Dec. 9, six days after 3,500 devotees of Bob Dylan pack the grandly renovated Met Philadelphia, another audience, one carrying Bibles and holy oil, will gather in the North Broad Street concert venue to worship an even higher power. The congregation of Holy Ghost Headquarters will be returning for its first Sunday service in the refurbished building a historic, former opera house that had been church-owned for 60 years. Members had saved the 39,000-square-foot structure from demolition and labored to maintain it, only to have the burden grow too onerous for the Pentecostal flock of a few hundred. So, in 2012, Holy Ghost Headquarters sold a 50 percent stake in the property to developer Eric Blumenthal for $1, a share in rental profits, and the right to continue worshiping there. The deal opened the way for a $56 million makeover of the old Metropolitan Opera House, built in 1908 by theater impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. For the church, it meant survival in the transfigured Francisville neighborhood at a time of life-threatening crises for congregations nationwide. Holy Ghost Headquarters' strategy of giving up property ownership in order to keep a roof over its head is catching on with other churches whose aging, often oversize buildings are draining their budgets dry. Some are selling off all or part of their properties, and using the financial windfall not to relocate but to stay put as tenants, or as owners of smaller sections of their original buildings, or, in Holy Ghost Headquarters' case, as business partners. "This whole area has changed, and this new generation [of young people] is totally different," said the Rev. Mark Hatcher, the pastor. "You can't keep up with changes in your neighborhood with a raggedy building. It becomes financially necessary to change [your approach]. We chose to stay and work it out with a developer." Holy spaces might be transformed into condos, apartments, community centers, concert venues mixed-use secular and divine. >> READ MORE: Here's what the new Met Philadelphia will look like Mount Airy Presbyterian Church has sold its buildings to developer Ken Weinstein, who is turning the former education wing into 19 condominiums. The church can remain in the sanctuary for at least 10 years. Kensington United Methodist Church, known as "Old Brick" church, has an agreement of sale to Rabbi Elliot Kopel, of Aish Philadelphia synagogue in Bala Cynwyd. He plans to turn it into condos and renovate a section of the property as a small sanctuary where the congregation can continue to worship. In Atlantic City, Asbury United Methodist Church is exploring selling part of its property to developers for a 15- to 20-story affordable-housing apartment building. "If the congregation decides it wants to remain together at the same location, [these arrangements] make perfect sense," said Rachel Hildebrandt, senior program manager at Partners for Sacred Places, a Philadelphia nonprofit that helps struggling congregations and is creating a resource guide for those considering a transition in ownership. Although most buyers are developers converting properties into residential complexes, Hildebrandt said, the new owner could be a senior center, or an early-childhood education business. Sometimes, the ownership change is from one religious group to another, from the struggling to the strong. In 2016, Congregation Hesed Shel Emet (Mercy and Truth) synagogue in Pottstown sold its then 54-year-old building to the growing Bethel Community Church, which had been renting space for a year. Now, the synagogue is the tenant. The same thing happened in Center City with First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, which swapped ownership with former-tenant Liberti, associated with the Reformed Church in America. >> READ MORE: A synagogue, an African American church and a Quaker meeting share space in Pottstown New Spirit Community Presbyterian Church sold its Kingsessing building in 2013 to Wayne Presbyterian Church, which turned it into the Common Place, a community center that now not only houses New Spirit but also an after-school program, social service agency, neighborhood advocacy group, and spiritual direction center. Such multi-use occupancy has a biblical basis, said Bishop John Schol, of the 550-congregation United Methodist Church of Greater New Jersey. The first Solomon's Temple not only was a place of worship, but also had a market around it and other gathering spaces. John Wesley, cofounder of Methodism, used his first building, an old London foundry, as a sanctuary, a library, a home for widows and orphans, and the headquarters of a feeding program. "From the earliest times, where people worship was much more than a place where people gathered for worship," Schol said. "It was a gathering center or economic center, where people bought and sold things." The Greater New Jersey Methodist Church has started an initiative called the Nehemiah Properties, which helps congregations explore repurposing their properties in ways that benefit their neighborhoods. In addition to the proposed Atlantic City project, a 25-story affordable-housing apartment building is being developed at a church in Jersey City, Schol said. Ideally, the transition helps churches reimagine their role in the community, Hildebrandt said. It can be the shot in the arm if done by a still-viable congregation. Freed from the weight of building upkeep, Mount Airy Presbyterian Church has been able to focus more on outreach and ministry, and is seeing renewed interest from neighbors in their 30s and 40s, said the Rev. Anna Grant-Borden, the pastor. >> READ MORE: Developer Ken Weinstein helps housing boom reach Mount Airy Hoping its sale will be a lifeline, First Baptist Church in Center City is looking for a new pastor and viewing the transition as a start-up. It passed on a deal with a developer to convert the first floor, including the sanctuary, for retail and reserve space in an upstairs chapel for congregants. Instead, the church chose to sell to its tenant, Liberti, which has attracted young believers First Baptist lost. "It was important that [a church] presence remain at 17th and Sansom," said Roy Harker, First Baptist's executive director. The congregation has had to adjust to life as a tenant. Instead of the main sanctuary, members worship in that upstairs chapel. It's heart-wrenching to walk by the "beautiful sanctuary," Harker said. A church that elects to sell and stay must engage in serious self-examination, Hildebrandt said. Is it strong enough to survive and reconnect with the neighborhood? Or is it just postponing a sad demise? Kensington United Methodist Church is asking itself those questions as it plans a sale. On a recent Sunday, a group of about 10 worshipers gathered for a sermon by their pastor, the Rev. Marcia Lincoln-Heinz, who divides her time between Old Brick and Fox Chase United Methodist Church in Northeast Philadelphia. "The congregation has an assignment to pray and discern about who we are, what we are, and why do we exist as a congregation?" Lincoln-Heinz said. "Why would people want to come to be a part of us? What do we have to offer? We have to know that before we can build and grow." Lincoln-Heinz is holding fast to a belief in the church's future. "There's a lot of work ahead," she said, "but I believe the Holy Spirit can do anything." VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Belvedere Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: BEL) (the Company) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding definitive share exchange agreement dated September 27, 2018 (the Definitive Agreement) with BlockCoBuilders Inc. (BlockCo), to provide for the completion of a business combination with the Company (the Transaction), as more particularly described below. The Transaction was initially announced in a Company press release dated June 13, 2018, indicating the Company and BlockCo had entered into a binding letter of intent in respect of the Transaction. The combined entity (the Resulting Issuer) will continue the business of BlockCo, being a technology issuer with a focus on developing blockchain-based software technologies and applications. The Transaction is subject to a number of terms and conditions as set forth in the Definitive Agreement, including (among other things) the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the Exchange). If completed, the Transaction will constitute a Change of Business transaction pursuant to Policy 5.2 Changes of Business and Reverse Takeovers (Policy 5.2) of the Exchange. The Transaction Pursuant to the Definitive Agreement, the Company will acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of BlockCo from its shareholders in exchange for 16,600,000 common shares of the Company at the closing of the Transaction for aggregate deemed consideration of $13,612,000 (based on the price of $0.82 per share, being the last closing price of the common shares of the Company prior to the announcement of the Transaction). Upon completion of the Transaction, BlockCo will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company and the Company will change its name to Helix Applications Inc. or such other name as the parties may reasonably agree upon. The Transaction is conditional upon, among other things: the confirmation of representations and warranties of each of the Company and BlockCo as set out in the Definitive Agreement being true and correct at the closing of the Transaction; the absence of any material adverse change in the condition (financial or otherwise), of the assets of each of the parties; the parties receiving all requisite regulatory approval, including the approval of the Exchange, and any third party approvals and authorizations; the parties obtaining requisite board approvals for the Transaction; each of the parties required by the Exchange entering into an escrow agreement upon the terms and conditions imposed pursuant to the policies of the Exchange; Belvedere completing one or more private placement financings for minimum aggregate gross proceeds of not less than $2,000,000 (see the Companys August 27, 2018, June 20, 2018 and June 14, 2018 press releases); and the Resulting Issuer meeting the applicable Initial Listing Requirements of the Exchange as a Technology Issuer (pursuant to Policy 2.1 Initial Listing Requirements of the Exchange). Sponsorship of a Change of Business transaction is required by the Exchange unless an exemption or waiver from sponsorship requirement is available. The Company intends to apply for an exemption from the sponsorship requirements pursuant to the policies of the Exchange. The Company is preparing and will submit a filing statement in connection with the Transaction in due course (the Filing Statement). About BlockCo and its Business As initially disclosed in the Companys June 13, 2018 press release, BlockCo is a technology company incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act, with a focus on developing blockchain-based software technologies and applications. Its first project is the development of a blockchain software application for trucking and logistics businesses (the Trucking Application). This Trucking Application aims to provide a low-cost software for small and medium sized trucking companies that either deliver or collect along the same or similar routes. This software allows those companies the ability to visualize their routes on a map and make changes digitally, rather than on paper, as many have done in the past. BlockCo has a working demo of this Trucking Application. It is believed this will be one of the first blockchain-based products to be sold in the market. Once the Trucking Application is operational and commercialized, BlockCo expects to develop other blockchain-based software applications, targeting other industries. On June 11, 2018, BlockCo undertook a number of transactions by which in exchange for common shares of BlockCo, it acquired 100% of the intellectual property and interests in the Trucking Application, along with other intellectual property that BlockCo may apply to future blockchain applications, from Tom Thompson (a founder, President and holder of 79% of the outstanding shares of BlockCo), from Brad Dunne (a founder, Secretary and treasurer and holder of 18% of the outstanding shares of BlockCo) and from a third party. Financial information regarding BlockCo for the period ended July 31, 2018 is now available, and provides the following: (i) as at July 31, 2018, BlockCo had assets of $1,952,014 (of which $1,928,512 is comprised of intellectual property) and liabilities of $6,935; and (ii) for the period of seven months ending July 31, 2018, BlockCo had no revenues and expenses of $136,133. This financial information is unaudited at this time, but will be included in the Filing Statement and will be presented on an audited basis. About the Resulting Issuer Directors and Officers The Company reconfirms that its current Board of Directors and senior management is anticipated to be the directors and officers of the Resulting Issuer upon completion of the Transaction (other than Brad Dunne, who is expected to be appointed as Chief Operating Officer of the Resulting Issuer). For a reminder, the following is information on each of these individuals: Rufus Round (CEO and Director) - Mr. Round has been an early adopter of and investor in blockchain technology. He is an expert in financial markets and believes blockchain will be the foundation for the next generation of enterprise financial applications. Formerly an investment manager with over twenty years of experience in multi-asset investment, he most recently managed funds at award winning London-based hedge fund, Cheyne Capital. Prior to that, he was a partner at niche arbitrage specialist Boston & Alexander, also based in London. Brian Hinchcliffe (Executive Chairman) - Mr. Hinchcliffe has been involved in projects in the natural resources sector for nearly 20 years and has sat on the board of directors of numerous publicly listed companies. He served as Vice President at Goldman Sachs for ten years before launching an entrepreneurial career. Mr. Hinchcliffe is a co-founder of Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. and previously served as its President and CEO. Mr. Hinchcliffe is currently Executive Chairman of Rupert Resources and BTL Group Ltd. Alice Reimer (Director) - Ms. Reimer is a successful tech entrepreneur and dedicated community mentor and leader. She co-founded Calgary-based Evoco, leading the innovative software firm from initial concept through to a 2012 acquisition. Evoco's technology became the standard construction management system for global retailers including Home Depot, Walmart and Luxottica. Most recently, Alice was the CEO of Chaordix, a pioneering software leader in the crowdsourcing and open innovation space, with global clients including LEGO, Procter & Gamble, KPMG and IBM. Max Hinchcliffe (Director) - Mr. Hinchcliffe started his career at Morgan Stanley where he worked closely with its research and banking divisions as a desk analyst covering industrial and material stocks. He has spent the last two years as the VP of finance at Rupert Resources Ltd. where he was involved in budgeting for its exploration program and examining potential new investments. Mike Sutton (Director) - Mr. Sutton, is a geologist who has worked in some of the largest gold camps in the world, including Witwatersrand, Timmins and Kirkland Lake, serving in various capacities related entirely to the exploration and mining of gold. Mr. Sutton was awarded the Prospector of the Year for Ontario for the discovery of the South Mine Complex while he was Chief Geologist and Assistant Manager at Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. Mr. Sutton is currently a director of Galway Gold Inc., Galway Metals Inc. and Rupert Resources Ltd., all of which are listed on the Exchange. Brad Dunne (Proposed Chief Operating Officer) - Mr. Dunne combines his experience in accounting with a drive for finding efficiencies through data automation. His deep understanding of joint venture contracts and the energy industry led him to blockchain technology as a solution to the complex world of oil and gas joint venture contracts. He has over five years of accounting, financial analysis and forecasting experience in Canadas energy sector as well as eight years of experience in project management and sales in the commercial manufacturing sector. Most recently, he developed business logic and automation systems for the transfer of production accounting contract data for Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources Limited. Steve Cuthill (Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary) - Before joining the Company in 2003, Mr. Cuthill served as Treasurer for Sovereign Oil & Gas Plc in London, UK and held accounting positions with several mineral resource companies including, Operations Accountant (N. America) with Homestake Mining Ltd. Financings The Company continues to work towards completion of its previously announced non-brokered and brokered private placement of subscription receipts being completed in connection with the Transaction. See the Companys June 14 and August 27, 2018 press releases for further information about the non-brokered private placement and the Companys June 20, 2018 press release for further information about the brokered private placement. Trading Halt Trading in the common shares of the Company remain presently halted. It is uncertain whether the common shares of the Company will resume trading until the Transaction is completed and approved by the Exchange. Other Insiders of the Resulting Issuer Assuming the Company completes the aforementioned private placement financings, and assuming those financings total $7,885,000, then it is expected that Tom Thompson will hold approximately 19.9% of the outstanding common shares of the Resulting Issuer, and current shareholder and insider of the Company, Zila Corporation of Monaco (controlled indirectly by Val Huxley of Monaco) is expected to hold approximately 11% of the outstanding common shares of the Resulting Issuer. The Company will issue additional press releases related to the completions of the financings, sponsorship and other material information as it becomes available. BELVEDERE RESOURCES LTD. Rufus Round, CEO c/o 82 Richmond Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, ON, M5C 1P1 Tel. +00 44 20 3286 2904 rufus.round@gmail.com www.belvedere-resources.com Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to acceptance by the Exchange and if applicable pursuant to the Exchange requirements, majority of the minority shareholder approval. Where applicable, the Transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular or filing statement to be prepared in connection with the Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the acquisition may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. The Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements The former president of a for-profit education firm linked to Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr. was sentenced Thursday in federal court to more than six years in prison for embezzling $800,000 intended to help guide at-risk students in Philadelphia. David T. Shulick, head of the now-defunct Delaware Valley High School Management Corp. in Bala Cynwyd, was sentenced to 80 months and ordered by Senior U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III to pay $764,735 in restitution to the Philadelphia School District. He is to surrender to federal authorities on Oct. 24. Shulick, 48, of Gladwyne, was found guilty in May by a federal jury of conspiracy, embezzlement, fraud, and tax violations between 2010 and 2012. He used the embezzled funds, which were meant to help struggling teens, on his $1.1 million, 13-room Gladwyne home and his beach house in Margate, N.J., prosecutors said. He also lied about many of those expenses on his personal and corporate income taxes, and schemed to defraud PNC Bank. Hope C. Lefeber, Shulick's lawyer, said Thursday night that Shulick intended to appeal his conviction and sentence. Lefeber said the prosecution overstated the amount of money involved, and called Shulick's conduct "careless but not criminal." As she did during Shulick's three-week trial, Lefeber blamed Fattah Jr. for Shulick's problems, calling the son of former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah a "fraudster extraordinaire." U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said in a statement: "Shulick promised to provide at-risk school students with counseling, security, and support services. He also promised to pay teachers a decent wage. He broke all of those promises and lined his pockets with funds that he had no business taking, all the while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars renovating his Gladwyne home and his vacation home in New Jersey. Shulick's actions were an appalling abuse of trust, which the sentence makes clear." Shulick hired Fattah Jr. in 2009. The prosecution's sentencing memo said Shulick sought his services "for one reason only" he was the son of a congressman. Between 2010 and 2012, Shulick's company, through a subsidiary called Unique Educational Experiences Inc., held a $2.1 million contract with the School District to run an alternative school in Southwest Philadelphia. FBI and IRS agents raided Shulick's Logan Square office in 2012, and his company eventually declared bankruptcy in 2015, the same year Fattah Jr. went on trial for bank and tax fraud in a related case. Fattah Jr. was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. A Bucks County man who eluded police for more than a week as he was sought on charges of raping two girls for years was arrested Friday after authorities said they found him hiding in a closet. Acting on a tip, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and local police officers surrounded a home on the 100 block of Roberts Road in Aston, Delaware County, about 10:15 a.m., authorities said. Inside the house, they found David Allen Hamilton Jr. hiding upstairs, authorities said. The house belonged to one of Hamilton's relatives, who faces no charges in the case. Two nearby schools were locked down while the operation was underway, officials said. "We are extremely glad we were able to bring Mr. Hamilton into custody without incident and in a timely manner," Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark said. Clark said Hamilton offered no resistance and the relative was not there. Despite suspicions that he had been living outdoors, Hamilton didn't look "messy, disheveled, dirty" when he was apprehended, Clark said. "He definitely wasn't living outside the past couple of days," he said. Hamilton, of Trevose, had been sought since last week after being accused of sexually assaulting two girls over five years. Authorities said the girls, now 12 and 14, told police Hamilton had assaulted them for several years in Trevose and at two locations in Feasterville. The older child said the assaults began when she was 9. She said Hamilton once locked her in the bathroom and took an explicit picture of her. The younger child told detectives Hamilton began assaulting her when she was in fourth grade, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. Hamilton was nearly captured on Sept. 21, when two New Hope officers were poised to arrest him, but he escaped after a struggle during which, authorities said, he wrestled one officer to the ground and attempted to steal his firearm. The officer fell and Hamilton took off, police said. Over the next several days, Hamilton, a 20-year Army veteran, went from one place to another by foot, bike, and car. As authorities searched for him in a multi-day manhunt in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Trenton, and Delaware, he was spotted at a Target store in Oxford Valley, where he purchased a white tent with a red top and other supplies. On Wednesday, Meredith Custodio, 58, was charged with hiding Hamilton for several days in the Solebury home where she works as a caretaker and allowing him to steal her client's car. He was last reported to have been spotted in New Castle, Del., Wednesday morning. When authorities converged on the house in Aston on Friday, neighbor Joe Derrickson was startled. "To have him [Hamilton] across the street from your house is crazy," he said. "I'm glad they got him off the street." Staff writer Joseph A. Gambardello contributed to this article. Guides like New York's and Philadelphia's aim to help women address gender wage gaps, career stagnation, and other forms of gender-specific discrimination. Read more Two years in the making, Philadelphia's online guides specifically for women have been posted, directing them to groups that can help develop job and leadership skills, fight discrimination at work, raise money for small businesses, and find financial support. The first installment went online last month, and the Philadelphia Commission for Women in the Mayor's Office of Public Engagement has since added more guides with additional ones planned, including one targeted to women getting out of prison. The city's effort comes a few months after New York City launched a website in May women.nyc that helps women find jobs, health care, child care, and financial and legal help in a bid to brand the city as a destination for women. Philadelphia officials had been working on their own, similar resources guide. Their ambitions are more modest its guide is not as user-friendly or elaborate as New York's but it is still a step above the paper packet Philadelphia had been distributing. "A printed resource guide is out of date the minute you print it, because organizations come and go," said Jovida Hill, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission for Women. "A digital version permits us to be accurate. It permits us to be relevant and topical." Guides like New York's and Philadelphia's aim to help women address gender wage gaps, career stagnation, and other forms of gender-specific discrimination. Hill said in June that if Philadelphia hopes to shed its title as the country's poorest big city, it needs to lift its women out of poverty. Sixty-one percent of households in poverty in Philadelphia were headed by women in 2016, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. So far, the commission has outlined available resources in four categories: economic empowerment, health and wellness, education, and leadership and civic engagement. It posted lists of organizations with the groups' contact information and links to their websites. The guides are samplings of organizations the commission is familiar with, a contrast to New York's guide, which mostly highlights the city's own resources. New York's guide is a separate, interactive website with a personal feel, photos, and resources grouped by actions and needs. Women.nyc's drop-down menu makes finding answers to specific questions easy with choices such as "find a job," "manage my money," and "afford NYC living." No other city government has attempted a project as ambitious as New York's. Hill called Philadelphia's guide a "run-of-the-mill resource guide," and said New York was trying to do "something broader and different." Philadelphia officials said web upgrades that transformed the city government website last month will be adopted by other city agencies, and the Philadelphia Commission for Women may then decide to redesign the resource guides. "Our resource guide is not the New York City portal," Hill said. "I don't think our resource guide fairly should be compared to that, because the goals were different and the resources were different." Philadelphia did not dedicate funds specifically for the guides and worked within the parameters of the commission's website using a simple listing format. New York is working with a $450,000 budget for its website, including nearly $100,000 just to get the word out about it. Philadelphia's health and wellness guide includes groups such as Women Against Abuse, Girls on the Run, and the Black Women's Health Alliance. The Asian American Women's Coalition, the Forum of Executive Women, and the League of Women Voters of Philadelphia are among the organizations featured in the leadership and civic engagement guide. The education guide includes the Network for Women with Careers in Technology, Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs, and Teen Uprise, a mentoring organization. The economic empowerment guide includes Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Philadelphia, Female Hebrew Benevolent Society, and the Women's Opportunities Resource Center. File photo of the clean up following the Democratic National Convention. Read more The U.S. Department of Justice is questioning Philadelphia's use of nearly $15 million during the 2016 Democratic National Convention and what it considers overall bad bookkeeping of federal grant money. In an audit, the department's Office of the Inspector General cited millions of dollars in what it called "unallowable and unsupported" expenses, including overtime to firefighters, meals and lodging for law enforcement agencies, and payments to vendors for items ranging from a secure bus system to credentialing for the three-day event. The report, released Thursday, noted the city generally spent the $46 million grant for its intended purpose keeping delegates, visitors, and residents safe during the convention. But auditors found that Philadelphia lacked proper budget management. "We found significant deficiencies in Philadelphia's management of the grant funds, and overall, we identified over $14 million in unallowable or unsupported expenditures," Inspector General Michael Horowitz said. "We found that Philadelphia didn't have effective internal controls for grant administration." Philadelphia officials on Friday accepted most of the findings "we could have, and should have, done better," they said in an emailed statement but took issue with the two largest questioned expenses: $7.6 million to partner law enforcement agencies and $6 million for contracts distributed by the convention's host committee. They also called the July 2016 convention at the Wells Fargo Center "incredibly successful despite significant obstacles, including heat, protests, multiple major venues." The audit is the latest inquiry into how the city and its host committee managed and paid for the event, which drew 29,000 people for Hillary Clinton's presidential nomination. Pennsylvania's auditor general last year examined $1 million the committee gave its staff in bonuses following the convention and referred the case to the IRS, given the committee's nonprofit status. It's unclear if more fallout could come from Horowitz's review. The report lists all but one of the 13 findings as "resolved," after getting responses from the city and the Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance, which issued the grant. The Inspector General 's Office, however, has asked the city and bureau to provide backup documentation. The report also noted the city's delay in providing records as the reason why the audit took more than a year to complete. In the 61-page report, the Inspector General's Office found that the DNC host committee failed to comply with federal and local requirements when it awarded $6.4 million of the city's grant money to various vendors, including $5.2 million for a secure bus system, $146,000 for private security, and $129,000 in credentialing and scanning equipment, among other expenses. The host committee involved the Democratic National Convention Committee in its contract decision-making, which the auditors said could create the appearance of improper political influence, because the convention committee is affiliated with the Democratic Party. In response, the city argued that the three entities needed to coordinate "to avoid significant operational security issues." It also defended the host committee, saying it complied fully with the law and appropriately administered those funds. The other major finding in the audit was that the city paid $7.6 million to 69 area law enforcement agencies without establishing and sharing with the agencies the federal guidelines for how the money was to be spent. The audit said that the money was to be used just on personnel, but that the city also used it to cover equipment, meals, lodging, and other items. Auditors also criticized Philadelphia for using an average cost to calculate the $1 million in overtime costs for the Fire Department. The Inspector General's Office said the "weighted average" formula did not allow the office to determine whether the overtime charges were allowable under grant guidelines. (The city said this was due to its archaic legacy payroll system but vowed to provide actual overtime payments per firefighter.) The audit was initiated on June 29, 2016, before the convention started. More than 15 months later, the office was still waiting for records to justify expenses. On Oct. 3, 2017, the deadline for the 20-day notice, the city provided the federal government with several emails containing attachments, which federal officials deemed to be "incomplete" and "unreliable." It wasn't until Nov. 6, 2017, that the city turned over proper accounting records, allowing the office to conduct its audit. The Associated Press reported that a parallel review of security grant spending at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland found only one record-keeping discrepancy, with $3.2 million worth of vehicles purchased with federal money. Philadelphia spent $46 million of the $49 million it was awarded and has received $41 million in reimbursements. City officials say they expect to resolve the audit findings with the Justice Department and receive the rest of the $5 million the city says it is owed in reimbursements. City spokesperson Mike Dunn noted that the report didn't cite "any implication of fraud, waste, or abuse" and said the city would continue to cooperate with the inspectors. "We feel confident that we can work with the Department of Justice to resolve these issues without the need for reimbursement" to the federal government, he said. Police searched for hours into the night before finding suspect Matthew Hox hiding in woods not far from where he allegedly shot his parents. Read more A 31-year-old man was arrested early Friday, hours after he allegedly shot his parents in their Tinicum Township, Delaware County, home, killing his father and wounding his mother, police said. Police found Matthew Hox hiding in woods about a block from the home about 3 a.m., officials said. Hox shot his father, Henry, 77, and mother, Donna, 62, around 8 p.m. Thursday following an argument in their home on the 400 block of Iroquois Street, authorities said. Henry Hox was pronounced dead at the scene. Donna Hox was taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where she was able to speak to investigators, according to 6ABC. Matthew Hox was charged with murder, aggravated assault, and related offenses. He was ordered to be held without bail at the Delaware County jail. Tinicum Township Police Chief Steve Edmiston said detectives found a weapon in the house. He said the nature of the argument was not yet known. The shooting was the second in eight days in the Philadelphia suburbs in which a son allegedly targeted his parents. On Sept. 19, Bruce Rogal killed his parents, William, 89, and Nancy, 87, in a Chester County nursing home before killing himself to end a shooting spree that began when he shot at his ex-wife. >> READ MORE: 'You're in danger.' What happened the night of the Chester County nursing home murders >> READ MORE: Before Bruce Rogal's murderous spree, his rage boiled over at home With the 2018 elections now just under 40 days away, worries abound over election security. Bad enough that the American public has dwindling confidence in all levels of government. Worse even that the same public has less confidence in the ability of government to facilitate what should be the very simple yet very consequential practice of elections. When the topic of election security comes up, we seem lulled into satisfaction that Facebook is handling it. Social-media networks digital vacuums of narcissism and self-spin on constant loop are suddenly viewed as essential as the pillar functions of seamless voter registration, adequate voting machines, and complete access to polling places. Russian hackers, who epically punked the American population into choking on its own political and racial insecurities, rise to a higher threat level than the much more dangerous and real American politicians who routinely dismantle voting rights. Election protection is, weirdly, becoming increasingly privatized as Silicon Valley appears more tightly coordinated on the matter than our own federal government. Meanwhile, Trump administration officials offer comically empty promises that election security is a priority when clearly, it's not. The problem, however, is that from Washington to Philadelphia, we've got our election security priorities twisted. What's missing is a central focus on total voter access as the key to complete election integrity. You can't expect democratic elections when most voters are missing. This is, in fewer places, nowhere more problematic than in Philadelphia, where that expectation was (ironically) birthed. Yet, Philly ranks among the worst voter-turnout cities, consistently averaging less than a quarter voter turnout in general and primary election cycles. We seem content with just 11 percent of residents making final decisions on who governs for the rest. That should be reason for apoplectic distress among city officials. It's not. The City Commissioners office, tasked with ensuring proper management of elections in Philadelphia, may be increasing registration outreach. But it keeps failing on important stuff: turnout. And with little, if any, pressure from City Hall on that office to reverse disastrous turnout trends (such as appropriating funds based on turnout performance), Philadelphia leaders aren't framing this as the urgent election security issue that it is. As WURD's city politics expert, Vincent Thompson, points out, "The biggest problem is people are not registered to vote where they live." As a result, untold numbers of voters are walking away from Philadelphia precincts on Election Day. "They go to their West Philly polling place, they don't see their name in the book, and they get frustrated and they don't vote," Thompson said during a recent broadcast on WURD's Reality Check. A bigger problem is the city commissioners' mind-set on that. As Thompson reports, Chair Lisa Deeley responded that increased turnout is ultimately "up to the candidates." There is no alarm around anemic Philadelphia voter turnout. Yet, it is the leading measurement for both civic engagement and election security. If alarm was there, then city commissioners would have immediately responded to voter-registration confusion by creating fresh new systems that ensure no voter ever walks away from a polling place. Philadelphia's turnout woes contribute to a state that, as the Center for American Progress revealed, gets a "D" on election security. How can you achieve free, open, and fair elections if more people are turned away than turning out? Philadelphia, a largely Democratic Party-run city, loves fashioning itself as virulently anti-Trump. But it hypocritically wades in the subtle totalitarianism of low turnout as it allows blatant forms of voter inaccessibility, reduced civic engagement, and mass confusion. It also, quite frankly, violates the Voting Rights Act. When voters don't have easy recourse to immediately resolve simple registration problems, that's not on the voter, that's on the officials mandated with ensuring smooth election functionality. The absence of such is a form of voter suppression. Voter suppression creates irreparable breaches in election security and any semblance we think we have of democracy. Charles D. Ellison is a veteran political strategist and executive producer/host of "Reality Check," a daily public affairs program on WURD radio in Philadelphia. He is also managing editor of ecoWURD, contributor to the Philadelphia Citizen, and principal of D.C.-based B|E Strategy. @ellisonreport. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony Thursday detailed an alleged sexual assault in suburban Maryland from the early 1980s. She discussed how it changed her for the rest of her life. Incidents such as Ford described are what young women in Philadelphia universities attempt to avoid, through such protective measures as watching their drink or holding their keys to fend off an attacker. The Inquirer and Daily News went to college campuses in the city to ask young women: Do you feel vulnerable around men? And have the Brett Kavanaugh and Bill Cosby stories increased that? Niamh Hayes, 19, University of Pennsylvania, communication studies major "Context is really important when thinking about whether or not I feel comfortable. I think certain settings and certain ways men carry themselves impact how I feel about them. I think I always feel a little bit wary about guys that I don't know, especially when I'm out at night. If I don't know them very well, I'm always wary about what their intentions are, as opposed to people I know really well I don't ever feel vulnerable or anything around them. When I'm alone, I'm more aware of my surroundings. If I see a guy walking alone while I'm alone, I think always take a second. I take in my surroundings a little bit and pause and make sure there's enough of a distance between us. I always clasp my keys. I think that's instinctual when you're by yourself. When I go out, I'm with my guy friends, so I even feel safer. If anything happens I have these guys, they'll take care of it. It's funny how it flips like that. I feel more safe in a group with guys that I know." Emily Schwerdt, 19, Drexel University, nursing major "If I'm by myself I have to think of so many different other things when I see men around, as opposed to when I have a group of friends, it's lessened. I avoid all eye contact because I feel like that's a big thing. You don't look at them, you don't give them any attention. Then they can't say, 'Oh she looked at me.' I'm always with a group when I go to a party. You never go alone to a party, you never get left alone at a party unless I fully trust the guy that I was with. I feel like it's scary because they've gotten away with it for so long." Marissa Bruette, 21, Temple University, communication studies major "When it comes to being a woman, there's always a sense of fear. It's clearly different how men and women live their lives. A man can walk down the street at 9 o'clock at night after the sunset, and they don't have to worry. Me, when I'm coming home from a night class, I feel like I need to Facetime somebody. It's not just because I live in Philly, I would still have that sense of fear. There's always a state of vulnerability Even if I'm Ubering alone, I feel weirded out. I'm always very aware of the conversation I'm having when I'm with a man, like you're always aware of where they're looking." Lisa Kamara, 24, Temple University, media studies and production major "You see the world we live in, we live in a very masculine world where no matter, guys always want us to do good but never better than them. So you really have to think about that. I can say I'm this powerful black girl, Black Girl Magic, dadada, all that jazz, but at the end of the day what does it really mean when I'm faced with my biggest opponent, which is the opposite sex? You have to think of it like how you would think of color. We are vulnerable. Being a female comes with a lot of rules now for the simple fact that we're females. `Oh, you can't do that, you're a female. You can't do this, you can't talk that way, you can't walk that way, you can't lift that way, you can't eat that way, you can't sleep that way.' I got pepper spray, always. They be trying to hit on me in the back of the car. I'm from South Philly, so I don't have time for that. I don't let [Ubers] drop me off at my crib, I let them drop me off down the street and take that journey myself." Emily Womer, 21, Temple University, global studies major "It's weird because with men I trust, I don't feel vulnerable. However, I feel like if I don't trust them to a certain degree then, yeah, I'm always watching myself. I do find myself always looking at my drink or seeing if there are other women around me. Oftentimes, if I'm going over to a man's house for the first time, I text my friends saying, 'Hey, I'm going over to this guy's house at 10 o'clock,' just so they have an idea of where I am if anything happens. I go about my day, and I'm not assaulted, I'm fine. I talk to so many people and men, and I'm fine, but there is something constantly in the back of my head. [Kavanaugh] is further perpetuating that idea, and therefore I feel less safe, because if he can become a Supreme Court justice after making that mistake, then it's a lot like America and senators saying, it's no big deal. Honestly, it makes me feel better there are so many people saying this shouldn't keep happening, so we're having conversations." Susan Kelley, 22, Drexel University, chemical engineering major "I just think that's an unfair question. Women can also be vulnerable around other females. Whereas when we're talking about overall, women say that an unknown male is someone who is scarier than a known male, when in fact, 90 percent of rapes are by men you know. And so I think that instead of asking, am I vulnerable around a man, it's like, why aren't I more comfortable saying something? Title IX wasn't originally intended to deal with sexual assault, so why don't we have a separate place not just on Drexel but on all campuses where you should be really, really comfortable going to, that's only doing sexual assault [services], and that's its main purpose. Then you don't have things like Brock Turner." English Lithuanian Dommo Grupa, a company owned by the real estate investment company INVL Baltic Real Estate, on 28th September 2018 signed a preliminary agreement regarding the sale of 20.6 hectares of land plots in Latvia. In order for the transaction to be completed, the buyer of the land plots must by the end of 2018 sign a lease agreement for the properties planned to be built on the land plots, and also make an advance payment and perform other actions envisaged in the agreement. If the parties fulfil all the stipulated conditions, the transaction could be completed by 1st July 2019. Given that the preliminary agreement may cease to have effect due to circumstances beyond the control of INVL Baltic Real Estate, and that there are no guarantees that the transaction will be completed, its amount is not being disclosed. If the transaction was completed, it would have a positive impact on equity of INVL Baltic Real Estate (considering the asset valuation published together with the Company's most recent financial results). The total land holdings of the Dommo Grupa manufacturing, warehouse and office complex are 58.21 hectares. Baghdad: Iraqi model and Instagram starlet Tara Fares has been shot dead at the wheel of her Porsche convertible in central Baghdad, sending ripples through social media circles. The Interior Ministry opened a probe into Thursday's murder of the 22-year-old who suffered "three fatal bullet wounds" as she drove through the capital's Camp Sarah district. Fares, a fashionista with 2.7 million followers on Instagram for her pictures sporting tattoos, different hair colours and adventurous clothes, was a victim of her fame and targeted because of her lifestyle, Twitter users wrote. "I am beyond disappointed and hurt after hearing about another tragic loss in Iraq. Tara Fares, a model and social media influencer was gunned down in broad daylight in #Baghdad," one said. "A young Iraq model was simply enjoying & loving life like other pretty girls. Unfortunately, she got shot & killed by few militants. I am truly heart-broken & saddened by such a tragic news," another wrote. "This Thursday it was Tara... Next Thursday, who will it be?" a third tweeted. Ahmad al-Basheer, an Iraqi satirist who lives in exile in Jordan after having faced death threats, condemned the murder of Fares, who was based in Iraqi Kurdistan and rarely travelled to her native Baghdad. "Anyone who finds excuses for those who kill a girl just because she had decided to live like most other girls on the planet is an accomplice to her murder," he wrote. BENGALURU: Bengaluru is all set to elect the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Friday. The elections were necessitated after the term of Mayor R Sampath Raj and Deputy Mayor Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy ended on Thursday. Till Thursday evening, the Congress had been engaged in hectic consultations to decide the candidate for the elections. The Congress has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has poached two independent corporators who had been supporting the former. After the two independent corporators switched loyalties to the BJP, Congress deputed its MLAs ST Somashekhar and Munirathna to keep five other independent corporators under their watch at the resort on the outskirts of the city. However, KPCC President Dinesh Gundurao has said that he is confident of getting the support from the two corporators. "We have with us all the independent corporators except for the two who are learnt to have gone to the rival side. We are confident that they will also come back," Somashekhar said. BJP had emerged as the single largest party in the 2015 Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council by winning 100 seats. The Congress had come second with 75 seats while the Janata Dal Secular (JDS) bagged 15 seats. The Congress and the JDS had come together with a support of seven other independent corporators. Reaching an agreement over power sharing, Congress got the mayor post while deputy mayor post was given to the JDS. The term of the municipal council is of five years, but mayor and deputy mayor have a term of 11 months. The mayor and deputy mayors are elected by an electoral college comprising corporators and also MLAs, MLCs, MPs, who are voters in the city. BENGALURU: The Congress-Janata Dal Secular (JDS) alliance on Friday won the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Mayor elections. Congress candidate Gangambike Mallikarjun was elected as the Mayor while JDS candidate Ramila Umashankar was appointed as the Deputy Mayor. The Congress had alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to poach the legislators in its favour. After the results, Congress tweeted: "BJP walks out after #OperationKamala Failure." Congress also hit out at Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman for abstaining from voting, saying that is "shows her interest towards Bengaluru." The party also alleged that BJP elected representatives manhandled a reporter. Hearty congratulations to Gangambike Mallikarjun of Congress and Remila Umashankar of JD (S) on being elected Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively of BBMP. KPCC President (@KPCCPresident) September 28, 2018 Till Thursday evening, the Congress had been engaged in hectic consultations to decide its candidate for the elections. After the two independent corporators had on Thursday switched loyalties to the BJP, Congress had deputed its MLAs ST Somashekhar and Munirathna to keep five other independent corporators under their watch at the resort on the outskirts of the city. BJP had emerged as the single largest party in the 2015 Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council by winning 100 seats. The Congress had come second with 75 seats while the Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) bagged 15 seats. The Congress and the JDS had come together with a support of seven other independent corporators. Reaching an agreement over power-sharing, Congress got the mayor post while deputy mayor post was given to the JDS. The term of the municipal council is of five years, but the mayor and deputy mayor have a term of 11 months. The mayor and deputy mayors are elected by an electoral college comprising corporators and also MLAs, MLCs, MPs, who are voters in the city. New Delhi: After gaining massive response to Ravi Kishan and Anjana Singh starrer 'Sanki Daroga', the makers are planning to take the film across the border over to Thailand more some more collection. The film will release in Thailand on October 12. Lead actor Ravi Kishan, who recently went to Thailand on a personal visit, said that the film will be released in Bangkok's SF Cinema, Central World and Century Plaza. The film is being released by Ravi Kisan Productions. This is in a first when a Bhojpuri film is being released in Thailand. In fact, there have been only very few occasions when any Bhojpuri film has been released outside the country. Speaking about the same, the actor said that now the route of Bhojpuri film has opened to Thailand and interested producers can contact him. 'Sanki Daroga', Ravi Kishan's home production is based on real-life incidents and directed by Saif Kidwai. Kishan plays Raghuraj Pratap Singh, an IPS officer in the film. Bhojpuri diva Anjana Singh has been paired along with him in the film. The megastar sports two looks in the film. He sports a handlebar moustache in the end but throughout the trailer, he is seen sporting a clean-shaven look. The film co-produced by Priti Shukla has been written by Kishan himself and stars Manoj Tiger in a supporting role. 'Sanki Daroga' hit the theatres across Bihar, Jharkhand, Mumbai and Gujarat on September 7. PATNA: Days after posters were put up in Patna categorising Congress leaders including party chief Rahul Gandhi on the basis of their castes, the Bharatiya Janata Party has given its reply in the form of its own poster. The BJP in its poster has photos of several top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh. Below the photos of these leaders, they have been individually characterised as 'Bharatiya' (Indian). The poster has been put up by BJP's youth wing- Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. It also has the caption of the party of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas'. Earlier, the BJP had criticised the Congress for putting up caste based posters and had asked the Election Commission to take note of the 'political gimmicks'. The Congress posters depicted the party leaders as representatives of their respective caste groups. While Rahul Gandhi and Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee president Madan Mohan Jha were described as representatives of "Brahmin community", Gohil's image was labelled "Rajput samuday". Images of campaign committee chairman and Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh were labelled "Bhumihar samuday" and "pichhda samuday" respectively. The posters also had images of a few other prominent party leaders, with their respective caste groups mentioned thereon. In the posters, Rahul and AICC in-charge for the state Shaktisinh Gohil were thanked for constituting a new state Congress Committee and "setting an example of social harmony". The Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee was revamped last week with the appointment of new office-bearers. While the BJP continued to attack, the Congress leaders have been avoided questions on the posters. BJP state spokesman Nikhil Anand urged the Election Commission to "take note of the brazen attempt at playing the caste card ahead of the Lok Sabha polls". "In sheer desperation, the Congress has been resorting to gimmicks like proclaiming Rahul Gandhi as one who wears the sacred thread, worships Lord Shiva and goes to Kailash Mansarovar on pilgrimage. The posters mark a new low in the history of the Congress which Mahatma Gandhi had, rightly, wished to abolish after Independence. The party and its national president should apologise to the nation for the antics while the EC should take note of the attempts to whip up caste and religious feelings and initiate appropriate action," Anand had said. With both parties cornering each other over any and every issue, this poster war will certainly set the political tempers running. Aligarh: The controversy over the alleged fake encounter of two suspected criminals took a new twist on Friday with the police booking 10 activists, including AMU and JNU student leaders, for abducting family members of one of the deceased. The case was registered at Atrauli police station on Thursday on the basis of a complaint filed by the wife of Mustaqeem (22), one of the suspected criminals shot dead in the encounter, Hina, SHO Pervaish Rana said. The activists have been charged with abducting Mustaqeem's mother and grandmother. The group of activists included Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid, but he has not been named in the complaint. Those named in the complaint include activists of "United Against Hate" forum, including former presidents of Aligarh Muslim University's student union Masqoor Usmani and Faizul Hasan, Rana said. According to Hasan, the activists visited Mustaqeem's residence on Thursday and assured his family members of all possible legal aid in their quest for justice. The group then visited Atrauli police station and raised the issue of alleged harassment of Mustaqeem's family members by police. Hasan told reporters that while the group was talking to the SHO, some local saffron group leaders came there and tried to browbeat them into leaving the place. An argument ensued and the police had to intervene. Mustaqeem's mother, Shabana, and grandmother, Rafiquan, then accompanied the activists to Delhi. On September 20, Mustaqeem and another alleged criminal Naushad, who carried a bounty of Rs 25,000 each on their heads, were killed in an encounter with police in Harduaganj here. The police had claimed that the two, who were riding a motorcycle, opened fire at policemen when they tried to stop them at a checkpost. A chase and exchange of fire ensued in which Mustaqeem and Naushad were grievously injured. They succumbed to injuries, they had said. Before they died on way to a hospital, they confessed to their involvement in the killing of two sadhus earlier this month, Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Sahani had said. However, Naushad's mother, Shaheen, had refuted the charges and claimed that the two did not have any criminal record. Former Aligarh MLA Haji Zameer Ullah, now a BSP leader, and Congress district unit president Brijendra Singh had alleged the encounter was fake and demanded a high-level probe into the incident. NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Friday dismissed the anticipatory bail application of in-laws in the alleged suicide case of city-based air hostess, Anissia Batra. The 39-year-old air hostess, who had been married for seven years to Mayank Batra, a software engineer, had jumped off the terrace on July 15. She was rushed to a nearby hospital by her husband and in-laws where she was declared dead by the doctors. Following the death, her family accused the husband and in-laws of troubling Anissia for dowry over the last seven years. Hours before taking the extreme step, the victim had sent a message to one of her friends saying that her husband had locked her in a room. She also sent a text to her husband just before jumping off the terrace. The Delhi Police filed a case under section 420-B of the Indian Penal Code. According to the police, a complaint about a domestic fight was filed by Anissia on June 27 as well. Following this, she had lodged a complaint at the Hauz Khas police station. In her complaint, she had also said her husband and his family would be responsible if anything happened to her. The case was later transferred to the Crime Branch of Delhi Police. TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Representatives from the $15 and Fairness movement, including Ontarios Fight for $15 & Fairness, the Ontario Federation of Labour, a doctor, and an Imam from a Mosque in Etobicoke held a press conference at Queens Park today to call on the government to protect the $15 minimum wage and fair scheduling rules coming in on January 1, 2019. Ontario is only thirteen weeks away from giving nearly two-million workers a much-anticipated raise to $15, closely following Alberta where $15 is set to come into effect on October 1. Across Canada, support for a $15 minimum wage is on the rise, with active Fight for $15 campaigns being led in almost every province, from Quebec to Manitoba, British Columbia to Nova Scotia. In fact, an Angus Reid poll released in August showed that over 66 per cent of Canadians support a $15 minimum wage. A similar percentage of Ontario small business owners 62 per cent also believe the minimum wage should be at least $15 an hour, according to a Campaign Research poll. Despite this majority support, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce has been calling on Premier Doug Ford to fully repeal Bill 148; legislation that made Ontario the first jurisdiction in Canada to provide two paid sick days to all workers, unpaid emergency leave, in addition to fairer scheduling laws and a $15 minimum wage taking effect January 1, 2019. Deena Ladd of the Workers Action Centre, a non-profit that operates a confidential bad boss hotline for workers who need help, argued repealing the bill would be a grave mistake. After nearly 5 years of consultation, committee review and hearings, the Ontario government brought in Bill 148 last year to deal with the massive deterioration of wages and working conditions in this province, said Workers Action Centre Coordinator Deena Ladd. The Ministry of Labour itself found, during proactive investigations, that three-quarters of employers who break the law are repeat offenders. Clearly what is needed here is stronger enforcement, not the rollback of new labour laws that offer modest protections. It is shameful that the Ontario Chamber of Commerce is calling on the government to eliminate every single step forward we have made in the last year, steps toward decent work and making it easier to join a union, said Ontario Federation of Labour President Chris Buckley. They even want to eliminate the unpaid emergency leave that prevents workers from losing their job if they have to miss work to care for a sick child. It makes a person ill just thinking about what eliminating this provision would mean for a single parent. Christine, a minimum wage earner, spoke at the press conference to ask the government to stand up for people just like her instead of giving into corporate demands. Working for minimum wage is a struggle, she said. Im a college graduate. I'm in my mid-40s. I live alone. I have the same bills most families do, and I struggle to pay them. That's with four jobs across the GTA. All my jobs are minimum wage. Last year I earned around $22,000. You cant live in Toronto on that. You cant live anywhere in Ontario on that. You just can't. I'd like to say that's after taxes, but the truth is I don't earn enough to pay taxes. Two-thirds of minimum wage earners don't. Negative predictions from right-wing think-tanks like the Fraser Institute about the higher minimum wage have proven false. Ontarios job numbers have been outperforming the rest of the country. According to the August Labour Force Survey by Statistics Canada, Ontarios average weekly hours of work increased from 36.3% in August 2017 to 36.5% in August 2018 better than the national average. In fact, total hours worked in Ontario rose by 3.3 per cent from January to August, after Bill 148 came into effect. The incoming minimum wage increase is only one of the many aspects of Bill 148 that the broad coalition of community and labour advocates are speaking out for. Ensuring paid sick days is not just an improvement to labour standards, but also a major public health advance, explained Dr. Edward Xie. The flu season begins next week, and for the first time ever in Ontario, every worker will have the right to paid leave if they are sick. Of course, only two of the ten personal emergency days are paid, so for many Ontarians, this is still a financial struggle. We need to be providing more paid sick days, not penalizing workers for getting sick, as everyone eventually does. The Fight for $15 and Fairness is a growing movement of workers committed to fighting for decent work, and includes students, faculty, labour groups, health providers, anti-poverty activists and faith leaders. To learn more, visit: www.15andFairness.org. The Ontario Federation of Labour represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.ofl.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter. To arrange interviews or for further information, please contact: Nil Sendil Communications Coordinator, Fight for $15 & Fairness info@15andfairness.org l 647-710-5795 Meagan Perry Director of Communications, Ontario Federation of Labour mperry@ofl.ca l 416-948-5720 cope343 New Delhi: Barely an hour after the Supreme Court ruled that arrests of activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence are not because of dissent and difference in political views, Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to post a sarcastic message on the fate of activists in the country. It was met with a stern rebuke from Amit Shah. In his tweet, Rahul Gandhi targeted RSS and implied that there was no place for NGOs and activists to work in the country. "There is only place for one NGO in India and it's called the RSS. Shut down all other NGOs. Jail all activists and shoot those that complain. Welcome to the new India," wrote the Congress president. Within minutes, BJP president Amit Shah fired back by elaborating on what he thought Congress had become under Rahul. "There is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress. Support Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang, Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working. Welcome to Rahul Gandhis Congress," he wrote. There is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress. Support Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang, Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working. Welcome to Rahul Gandhis Congress. #BhimaKoregaon https://t.co/eWoeT0qo1L Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 28, 2018 The arrest of the five activists - Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha - has been a matter of heated political debate in the country. They will continue to remain under house arrest which could possibly spark more debates. This, however, is hardly the only issue on which Rahul and Amit Shah have duelled. Just a day earlier - on Thursday - Amit Shah accused Rahul of 'discreditng' a project to honour Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Rahul had said that a Rs 3,000 crore statue to honour Patel in Gujarat was 'Made in China.' Apart from this, the two have gone head-to-head in matters dealing with demonetisation, Rafale deal, oil prices, job creation as well as other issues related to individual states. Ahmednagar: Noted Gandhian activist and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare has warned that he will go on a hunger strike from October 2 to protest against the Centre's alleged dilly-dallying on the issue of appointing a competent anti-corruption ombudsman or Lokpal. Hazare also accused the BJP-led government of not fulfilling its promise of appointing a strong Lokpal despite coming to power due to the Lokpal agitation. The anti-corruption crusader had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, alleging that in the last four years the government only made tall promises but did not appoint Lokpal and Lokayukta. "On August 16, 2011, the entire country took to the streets for the appointment of Lokpal and Lokayukta...Your government came to power because of that agitation," Hazare wrote in his letter. "Gratefulness is our culture. You (government) should have been grateful towards people and given priority to their demand," Hazare, who had launched an indefinite fast over the issue in Delhi in 2011, said. "Four years have passed but the government is avoiding the appointment of Lokpal and Lokayukta on one or the other pretext," he alleged. The noted Gandhian activist alleged that the Prime Minister did not fulfil the "written assurances" given to him when he ended his recent hunger strike on the issue at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan in March this year. Hazare had earlier announced that he would sit on fast at Ralegan Siddhi from October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. He also said in the letter that the BJP-led government at the Centre had promised to look into his demand of grant of autonomy to the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) but it did nothing. The CACP determines the minimum support prices of various agricultural commodities. Hazare said that farmers are not getting adequate price for their produce which is leading to farmer suicides. "The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices is controlled by the Agriculture Department and hence the prices of farm produce are low. We had requested many times that it should be given autonomy, like in the case of Election Commission," he said. (With Agency Inputs) NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the arrests of activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence are not because of dissent and difference in political views. The SC also ruled that the five activists - Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha - will continue to remain under house arrest for four more weeks. The SC has also declined the plea on behalf of the activists to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case. While denying the plea, the SC said that the accused persons cannot choose which investigating agencies should investigate the case. "Investigation officers are permitted to continue with the investigation," the SC said. The apex court said that the accused are at the liberty to pursue other appropriate remedies. The verdict has been pronounced by a three-judge Bench led by CJI Dipak Misra also comprising of Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud. However, Justice Chandrachud has dissented yet again in this case as well saying that he is unable to agree with views of the CJI and Justice Khanwilkar. "Technicalities should not be allowed to override substantive justice," Justice Chandrachud said. He also came down heavily on the Pune Police for holding a press conference immediately after the SC passed an interim order. "Letter alleged to be written by Sudha Bhardwaj was flashed on a TV channel, Police selectively disclosing probe details to media casting cloud on the fairness of the investigation. Acts of Maharashtra police raises a question whether Maharashtra police can be trusted to carry out the investigation," Justice Chandrachud said. Dissenting with his fellow judges, Justice Chandrachud said that an SIT should be formed. "Voices of opposition cannot be muzzled because it is a dissent. Deprivation of liberty cannot be compensated later," he said. CHANDIGARH: The BJP's Punjab unit on Friday accused Congress of failing completely and announced a state-wide agitation from October 2 against the Amarinder Singh government. BJP president for Punjab Shwait Malik alleged that Amarinder Singh's government has not worked in the state and no development has taken place. The law and order situation has deteriorated under the Congress government, Malik added. "We will start an agitation with the slogan Congress Gaddi Chodo from October 2 against the Congress regime which has failed on all fronts. The agitation will start from Jalandhar," he told said. "The funds which were released during the previous SAD-BJP regime have been returned unspent. This government is by the people, but it is certainly not for the people. It is only serving Congress workers and leaders," the Punjab BJP chief said. Accusing the Congress of making excuses, Malik alleged that the government has been lying about inheriting an empty exchequer ever since it came to power in March 2017. Adding that there is no governance in the state, the BJP leader said that the government had no intention to work for the welfare of the people "The administration is run by the bureaucracy and the chief minister is completely missing. He (Amarinder Singh) neither goes to office nor meets people," he said. Malik accused the Punjab government of failing to honour its poll promises. "Whatever promises the Congress had made before the (assembly) elections continue to remain unfulfilled. Farmers who were expecting a complete debt waiver are feeling cheated. "Youths are not getting jobs. Where is the Rs 50,000 Shagun scheme which was promised? Industry was promised power at Rs 5 per unit. But now the state's industry was being forced to pay Rs 10 per unit," he said. Malik also charged the state government with trying to vitiate the atmosphere under the garb of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents in order to divert attention from its "failures". "We demand that the real culprits involved in the sacrilege incidents, whichever party they belong to, must be arrested," he said. Taking on the state government on the issue of law and order, Malik alleged that the situation has deteriorated under the present dispensation. "At least four robbery incidents have been reported alone in Amritsar district in the past few days and police have failed to nab any of the accused," he said. The BJP leader demanded from the state government to take action against anti-social elements that are trying to disturb peace, harmony and brotherhood in the state. Malik also said his party's state unit had held its executive committee meeting here. In view of Lok Sabha elections next year, a campaign committee has been formed, he said. (With PTI Inputs) Ranchi: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday urged the people to get out of the colonial mindset and return to the roots -- Indian culture, which is the greatest in the world. Naidu also stressed upon communicating in one's mother tongue at home. "Learning English is not bad, but the English mindset is an ailment and we must come out of it. Think of our nation. It has such great tradition that we must get back to our roots," he said on the opening day of four-day Lok Manthan 2018 programme here. He, however, clarified that he was not against the English language, saying one can learn any number of languages but one should always communicate in one's mother tongue at home as it connects emotions and mind. "We should get back to our roots as the culture and civilisation of India is the greatest," Naidu said. The Vice President said the long colonial rule not only destroyed our political ideals and institutions but also disrupted the natural growth of those systems. "Therefore, it is necessary that our society should develop self-assessment of the history. We should include oral history, folk tradition and local traditions, language, literature, folk arts, etc. As important evidence of our history," he said. Naidu said, "Some leaders and people go out of India and criticise the country. This is wrong. They must understand every Indian believes in 'sarva dharma samabhav' (equal treatment for all religions),". He said several people and organisations spread rumours about India being intolerant on frivolous issues. "If you look at the world you will find that India is the most tolerant country. And secularism is in the DNA of every Indian. We are a great nation. We have such a tradition of sharing and caring and that is the core of Indian philosophy. In our tradition, if we have one bread we distribute it and if a piece remains only then we eat it," he said adding that this is the Hindu way of life. Naidu said it was imminent to study and discard social evils which came into being in the society because of long period of political dominance under the colonial rule. The country's struggle for freedom was not for only political independence but also social reforms such as untouchability and castesism, the Vice President said. He said, "Because of commitment towards people, our Constitution was framed to ensure social, economic and political justice to all the citizens of the country." The Constitution consisted of special provisions for the minorities, the backwards, tribal regions and the deprived classes, Naidu said. He said he recently got an opportunity to attend the 125th anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda's Chicago speech. "Swamiji had said if and when the true history of India is written it will be proved that on the subject of religion and performing arts India had always been world leader," he said. In the next century, India fought against the strongest colonial power of the West through non-violence, and in this movement resurrected old traditions and culture - truth, non-violence, service, community, equality, independence and other values, Naidu said. Naidu said, "I know we are divided today politically, socially and economically. And we are also strongly opposed to each other... But if time and circumstances will favour us then no power of the world can stop this country from being united." "Any country is made of its people, culture and people's aspirations. So, it is necessary to keep alive the discussions and deliberations," the Vice President said. He cited various debates mentioned in the Puranas to prove that debates, communications and discussions are traditions of India. In an oblique reference to disruptions in legislatures, Naidu said, "Legislatures are made to propose, oppose and dispose. They are not meant for disruption. Let us respect the mandate of the people at any cost." At least three people were injured and a subsequent bandh had to be called on Thursday in Halvad town in Gujarat's Morbi district after two Bajrang Dal activists were allegedly attacked by a group of people reportedly belonging to a minority community, police said. The incident took place on Wednesday night and the police arrested 17 people. A total of 37 people were booked -- 22 booked under Section 307 and 15 booked under Section 323,324 and rioting. According to the police, two FIRs were registered. Police said that Bhavesh Thakkar and Alpesh Parejiya were attacked in Jungri Vaas by a group of people with whom the duo had a scuffle two days ago. Even as police was rushed to the area late Wednesday night, a scrap godown was set ablaze by unidentified persons, the official informed. During the "Halvad bandh" called Thursday by the local Bajrang Dal unit, heaps of paper were burnt in some places, the official said, adding that the situation was tense but under control now. "The situation is under control now. We have deployed police personnel across the town to maintain law and order," Morbi Superintendent of Police Karanraj Vaghela said Thursday. A Halvad police station official said that a case of rioting had been registered, based on the duo's complaint, and a probe was underway. The Halvad police official added that no arrests had been made in this connection so far. He said that Thakkar and Parejia had been shifted to Ahmedabad for medical treatment. Some people also protested in Junagadh against the attack, an official said. The police has been patrolling the entire district and the situation is peaceful. NEW DELHI: Outgoing Border Security Force (BSF) Director General KK Sharma on Friday confirmed that Head Constable Narendra Singh was murdered and mutilated by the Pakistani Border Action Team recently. Addressing a press conference, the outgoing BSF DG said, ''Based on our investigation, we can say that head constable Narendra Singh was brutally murdered and mutilated by the Pakistani Border Action team.'' ''Singh was killed by a Pakistani bullet, then his body was dragged to that side of the border and an attempt was made to slit his throat. Singh's killing was a very unfortunate incident. But, it was very important for us to retrieve his body first before doing anything. So far, the BAT action was limited to the LoC. But, it's the first time that such an incident has taken place on the International Border too,'' Sharma added. Sharma, however, said that the BSF is prepared to give a befitting reply to Pakistan if such a thing happens in future. ''In the past, we have given a befitting reply to Pakistan, we will do it again..Now, we are preparing our jawans for BAT action on the International Border too,'' he said. The remarks from the outgoing BSF DG came days after the brutal murder of the BSF head constable allegedly by the Pakistani border forces triggered a massive outcry leading to the cancellation of scheduled Foreign Ministers-level talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York. KK Sharma also warned that there has been a surge in incidents like the attack on security forces, civilians, cross-border infiltration after the Imran Khan-led government came to power in Pakistan. The BSF DG also warned that many terror launch pads were still active along the International Border and the Line of Control. ''There are a number of launching pads (terror) along the International Border. In some cases, some terror camps are 5-7 km close to the International Border and some are further deep,'' the outgoing BSF DG said. There's no doubt that along the borders (International Border & Line of Control) there are a number of launching pads (terror). Sometimes camps are 5-7 km close to the international border and some are further deep: KK Sharma, outgoing BSF DG pic.twitter.com/2v03n9zNMr ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 Replying to a question on border fencing, Sharma said, ''The CIBMS (Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System) is a foolproof technology, there's no doubt about it. It's only 11 km now but borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh are more than 6500 km. In the future, our borders will be more secure.'' When asked about the Rohingya problem, Sharma said, ''It is a serious and constant problem. This will remain a challenge for the BSF.'' ''We have successfully contained the influx of Rohingyas. However, smaller groups often try to enter but we haven't allowed them to enter, '' Sharma added. Though not willing to court a fresh controversy, Sharma alleged that the "West Bengal government has a soft approach for Rohingyas.'' The remarks from the outgoing BSF DG came days after Narendra Kumar, a head constable with the BSF, was hacked to death, his throat was slit, eyes gouged out and body mutilated by the Pakistani troops along the international border (IB) near Jammu on Tuesday last week. After the ''brutal'' and "unprecedented" incident, which took place in the Ramgarh sector, the security forces issued a "high alert" across the entire IB and the Line of Control (LoC). The Border Security Force lodged a strong complaint with its counterparts - the Pakistan Rangers. According to BSF sources, the body of Head Constable Narender Kumar also bore three bullet wounds and it could only be retrieved from a spot ahead of the Indo-Pak fence after over six hours as the Pakistani side "did not respond" to the calls to maintain the sanctity of the frontier and ensure that the BSF search parties were not fired upon. The Pakistan Rangers, the sources said, was asked to take part in a joint patrolling to trace the missing jawan, but they only came up to a point and cited water-logging issues in the area that prevented them from undertaking a coordinated action. The BSF then waited for the sun to set and launched a "risky operation" to bring the jawan's body back to the post. Officials in the security establishment said the incident of brutality with the jawan, probably a first at the IB, was taken "very seriously" by the Government and the Ministry of External Affairs. The Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) also lodged a complaint with its Pakistani counterparts. They said since the BSF patrol party that went ahead of the fence to cut the tall "elephant" grass to clear the field was first fired upon at 10.40 AM on Tuesday, hectic phone calls and communication exchanges went on throughout the day from the Indian side to across the border in order to locate the body of the jawan, who was first declared missing. However, this was not the first time that the Pakistani forces had given an ''inhuman and barbaric treatment'' to the Indian soldiers. Last year, the Pakistani forces had killed two Indian soldiers and mutilated their bodies after a targeted attack on frontier posts in Jammu and Kashmir - an act which was described as ''despicable'' by the Indian Army. The slain soldiers were identified as Naib Subedar Paramjit Singh, a junior commissioned officer (JCO) with the Armys 22 Sikh Regiment, and Head Constable Prem Sagar of the BSFs 200 Battalion. The 42-year-old Singh was from a village in Punjabs Tarn Taran district, while Sagar was a native of Deoria in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday criticized the Muslim community who follow 'fatwas'. Speaking at a function in Gorakshpeeth temple, Adityanath said that the country is not run people who dish out fatwas but by the constitution. Backing up the constitution, he further added, "The nation will be safe when religion is". Citing an example from his political career, Adityanath added that Gorakhpur would not have developed had he been paying heed to what people said about him because of his religion. "Here there is no disparity. All sects, communities, religions are treated alike," he said while detailing the various health and other programmes undertaken by the temple. The 46-year-old claimed that India had marched ahead on the path of progress and prosperity as it followed the path shown by holy men. Former BJP MP Ram Vilas Vedanti also addressed the gathering. He said that in 2015 the late VHP leader Ashok Singhal had told him that in 2017 Yogi Adityanath would become the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and only then would a grand Ram temple be built in Ayodhya. It was announced that Hindu seers and saints will congregate in New Delhi on November 3-4 to oppose the "fatwa politics". MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule on Friday demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France, a day after her father and party chief Sharad Pawar backed the Prime Minister, saying ''no one doubted his intentions''. In a series of tweets, Sule also claimed that it was "disappointing" that the issues raised by her father Sharad Pawar regarding the Rafale fighter jet deal were ignored. Sule questioned if the Modi government is so confident of facts then why is it shying away from a JPC probe into the deal?. Its disappointing that people have not heard @PawarSpeaks Saheb where he has clearly raised three questions: 1) what is the justification for a 300 percent price increase from Rs. 526 crores to Rs. 1,670 crores which potentially could be a significant loss to the exchequer? Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) September 28, 2018 2) If such doubts have been raised and the government is so confident, then why are they shying from setting up a JPC? Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) September 28, 2018 3) when the BJP raised both price and specification issues during the Bofors allegations, then why are they hiding behind artificial justification of secrecy of agreements vis-a-vis both commercial price and offset agreements. Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) September 28, 2018 Sule's demand for a JPC probe came shortly after NCP's Katihar MP Tariq Anwar resigned from the party and from the Lok Sabha over Sharad Pawar's apparent ''clean chit'' to PM Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal. "Our (NCP) national president Sharad Pawar indirectly gave a clean chit to PM, in a statement on Rafale deal. PM is completely involved in the deal. The opposition is demanding constitution of JPC for a probe in it. I'm upset with his statement," Tariq Anwar said after resigning. NCP Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Majeed Memon and party leader Nawab Malik later confirmed Anwar`s resignation. At a time when the entire Opposition led by the Congress party has been mounting attacks on the BJP government at the Centre over the deal to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets from France, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had backed the Prime Minister, saying ''no one doubts his intentions.'' ''People do not have doubts over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intentions,'' the veteran NCP leader had said. Pawar said this in an interview with a Marathi news channel during which the former Defence Minister also suggested that the Opposition's demand for sharing technical details relating to the fighter jet "made no sense". The NCP chief, however, said that there was no harm for the government to reveal the cost of the Rafale fighter aircraft. "I don't think people have doubts about Modi's intentions personally," Pawar said. Pawar, however, added that the way Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the government's side on the controversial deal led to confusion in the minds of people. "Now, (Union Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley can be seen articulating (government's stand) on the issue (instead of Sitharaman)," he remarked. The Congress has launched a major offensive against the Narendra Modi-led BJP government over the Rafale jet deal, alleging corruption and violation of rules by the NDA government. It has accused the government of causing loss to the public exchequer and endangering national security by bypassing state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in favour of some businessman "friends" for offset contract. The Congress party has also termed the Rafale fighter jet deal as the country's biggest defence scam of the country. (With Agency inputs) PATNA: Katihar MP Tariq Anwar has resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and from the Lok Sabha. He resigned following NCP leader Sharad Pawar's comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal. "Our (NCP) national president Sharad Pawar indirectly gave a clean chit to PM, in a statement on Rafale deal. PM is completely involved in deal. Opposition is demanding constitution of JPC for probe in it. I'm upset with his statement," said Tariq Anwar after resigning. NCP Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Majeed Memon and party leader Nawab Malik confirmed Anwar`s resignation. NCP chief Sharad Pawar has said people "do not have doubts" over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intentions. In an interview with a Marathi news channel, former Defence Minister Pawar also said the opposition's demand to share technical details relating to the fighter jet "made no sense". \ He, however, said there was no harm for the government to disclose prices of the aircraft. Anwar was a Lok Sabha member from Katihar in Bihar. The Muslim leader was a prominent NCP face in Bihar. TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GrowMax Resources Corp. (the Company or GrowMax) (TSX-V: GRO) announces that the Company is waiting for BullRun Capital to provide accurate and complete information about its proposed dividend scheme and nominations ahead of GrowMaxs annual and special meeting of shareholders (the Meeting). On September 24, 2018, the Company announced the postponement of the Meeting to October 4, 2018, as a result of BullRuns press release of September 18, 2018 describing its intention to declare a dividend if BullRuns board nominees are elected (the BullRun Press Release) at the Meeting. The BullRun Press Release does not sufficiently explain BullRuns intention to seek shareholder approval before proceeding with the dividend, fails to adequately address corporate law tests that must be satisfied before a dividend can be declared and paid, and does not disclose the risks that the dividend proposal would create for GrowMax under the share purchase agreement. The proposed dividend also brought to the Companys attention what appear to be inaccurate and false statements in BullRuns August 20, 2018 Advance Notice material regarding the independence of BullRuns board nominees. Subsequently, on September 26, 2018 the Company, on the advice of its advisors, sent a letter to BullRun with questions about the proposed dividend so that, when the answers are received, shareholders can be appropriately informed. The Company has asked BullRun to reconstruct and disclose the events leading to the announcement of the dividend proposal on September 18. BullRuns latest press release of September 27, 2018 does not provide the information the Company requested. Its lack of detail validates GrowMaxs initial concerns and reinforces the need for a comprehensive chronology of steps BullRun took. The Company has requested BullRun to provide the Company with responses by end of business day on September 28, 2018 and will update shareholders as appropriate. Postponing the meeting wasnt anyones first choice. But when BullRun announced its dividend scheme only three days before the voting deadline, we and our advisors took the necessary time to look at the materials and concluded that BullRuns disclosures were inaccurate and insufficient, said GrowMax CEO and President Stephen Keith. The Boards actions have been measured. We have not cancelled the meeting and have not disallowed any votes. Our Board of Directors has simply decided to delay the meeting in order to allow BullRun some time to provide shareholders with complete and accurate information. Shareholders have the right to be fully-informed before the postponed meeting. GrowMax Releases New Video Showcasing PrimaSea GrowMax has released a new video showcasing PrimaSea and its assets. The video, produced in September 2018, shows PrimaSeas working ship excavating lithothamnion from the ocean floor and the materials being offloaded and transported to PrimaSeas facilities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTAxe3ZfG_Q&feature=youtu.be Since we announced the PrimaSea acquisition, BullRun has been spreading misleading information about the transaction, said Mr. Keith. Weve released this video to help correct the misleading statements made by BullRun. As the video shows, PrimaSeas ship is in good working condition and helping the Company produce revenue. Shareholders are encouraged to vote only their BLUE Proxy FOR the PrimaSea acquisition and FOR all of managements qualified and experienced director nominees well in advance of the new deadline on Tuesday October 2, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. (Calgary time), being 12:00 p.m.(Toronto time). Shareholders are asked to vote online at www.proxyvote.com to ensure votes are received in a timely manner. If you have already voted using another proxy, you may vote again on the BLUE Proxy. The later dated BLUE Proxy will count as it supersedes any previously given proxy. If you have already voted your BLUE proxy, there is no need to take further action. Vote BLUE today at www.proxyvote.com or by contacting Kingsdale Advisors toll free at 1-866-581-1479 or by email at contactus@kingsdaleadvisors.com. There is a team standing by to help. For more information, please contact: Stephen Keith, P. Eng. President and CEO Tel.: +1 (647) 299 0046 Email: info@growmaxcorp.com www.growmaxcorp.com Media Contact: Ian Robertson Executive Vice President, Communication Strategy Kingsdale Advisors Direct: +1 (416) 867-2333 Cell: +1 (647) 621-2646 Email: irobertson@kingsdaleadvisors.com Forward Looking Information Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information as such term is used in applicable Canadian and US securities laws. Any information or statements contained herein that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events should be viewed as forward-looking information. Such information relate to analyses and other information that are based upon forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Such forward-looking information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of GrowMax to be materially different than those results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forwardlooking information is based on managements beliefs, expectations, estimates and opinions on the date statements are made and GrowMax undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information and whether the beliefs, expectations, estimates and opinions upon which such forward-looking information is based has changed, except as required by applicable law. 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 THE RELEASE. Agartala/Bhubaneswar: Several students from Odisha, studying at Agartala-based Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, have alleged that they were physically tortured by local students who even threatened to kill them. Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Thursday assured full protection to the Odia students who have been studying B-Ed in the institute, a deemed university. The panic-stricken students through a video message to their friends and families have alleged that they were attacked by some students as they did not participate in a strike following some dispute during the 'Ganesh Puja' celebrations. One of the Odia girl students claimed that some local students have beaten them. "They had also asked us to leave the institution immediately, failing which they have threatened to kill us," she alleged. "We have taken admission in the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan after clearing the entrance examination. But here the local students and people are harassing us," she said. "We request the Odisha government to come to our rescue as our life is at stake," some students said. Director General of Odisha Police, R P Sharma twitted that he has spoken to his Tripura counterpart Akhil Kumar Shukla and subsequently the local SP visited the institute and assured security and help to the students. "Closely monitoring the situation & in regular touch with the DGP there," he twitted. The Tripura DGP said, "Officials concerned are looking into the matter. Appropriate actions are being taken." Tripura Chief Minister said in a tweet, "Students from Odisha are Tripura children too. No anti-social activities shall be allowed on the land of Ma Tripursundari. I assure full protection for students from across India in #Tripura." In the tweet, Deb said he also talked to senior BJP leader of Odisha and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on this issue and assured him full safety for the Odia students. The chief minister also directed Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath to meet the principal of the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan and Odia students on Thursday night to resolve the issue, official sources said in Agartala. The Odia students alleged that though the incident was reported to the vice-chancellor of the Institute on September 20, the authorities have not taken any action so far. They said they did not lodge any police complaint in Tripura. West Tripura district SP Ajit Pratap Singh said, "On receipt of information about tension in the institute, we rushed to the spot and talked to the students and the principal. But all of them said there was no clash there. "However, the students said they were afraid. So we have arranged for 24-hour surveillance and also set up a police picket before the institution," the SP said. Odisha Higher Education secretary B P Sethi said Director of Higher Education Department Parmeswaran B would visit Agartala to resolve the issue. Hours after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi accused India of obstructing SAARC's progress on Thursday, the allegations were dismissed as baseless and away from reality. External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj in her speech had extensively dealt with various SAARC related projects and expressed India's commitment for making SAARC a success as a regional grouping, said news agency ANI quoting sources. Further, the sources said Qureshi's remarks that Swaraj left SAARC Foreign Minister's informal meeting mid-way were surprising and unfortunate as she was neither the first one nor the only one who left the meeting. The sources highlighted that the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Bangladesh left the meeting before Swaraj and that leaving a meeting after delivering own speech is a standard practice in multilateral engagements. It also added that Swaraj had to leave as she had another meeting lined up with Indian community groups and other bilateral engagements. "Allegations by Pakistani Foreign Minister regarding India not being serious about SAARC are baseless & away from reality. EAM in her speech had extensively dealt with various SAARC related projects and expressed India's commitment for making SAARC a success as regional grouping. Remarks by Pakistani Foreign Minister about EAM leaving SAARC Foreign Minister's informal meeting were surprising and unfortunate. It should be noted that she was neither the first one nor the only one who left the meeting," said the sources to ANI. "The foreign minister of Afghanistan and Bangladesh left the meeting before EAM. Also, leaving a meeting after delivering own speech is a standard practice in multilateral engagements. EAM left as she had another meeting lined up with Indian community groups and other bilateral engagements. However concerns about terrorism and challenge it poses before the development of south Asia can not be brushed aside," added the sources. Swaraj in her statement to SAARC countries said that an environment of peace and security in South Asia is essential for cooperation and economic development and that terrorism remains the single-largest threat to peace and stability in South Asia and the number of incidents endangering the region are on the rise. Swaraj's statement on Thursday came at a meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters that Pakistan wants to see SAARC become result-oriented. "We have to decide the next step. I have no hesitation in saying that in the way of SAARC's progress and in the way of the region's connectivity and prosperity, there is only one obstruction and one attitude. The attitude of one nation is making the spirit of SAARC and the spirit of the founding fathers of SAARC unfulfilled," he said, without naming India. Asked if he had talks with Swaraj at the meeting, Qureshi denied. "She left the meeting mid-way, may be she was not feeling well," he said. He said Swaraj talked about regional cooperation, but "my question is how will regional cooperation be possible when the regional nations are ready to sit together and you are the obstruction in that dialogue and discussion." Qureshi said a majority of the members present in the meeting understands the significance of SAARC. "They want to move on. I cant speak for them but I can deduce from their body language, disappointment; because if you do not move on and if you do not sit and convene meetings how do you move on," he said. He cited other regional groupings such as ASEAN and the EU and said "look at this (SAARC) atmosphere" He called Swaraj's statement at the meeting "very vague". He said "you said the next summit will not happen until there is conducive environment. How do you define what conducive environment is? It can vary from country to country." Qureshi's remarks came days after New Delhi cancelled a proposed meeting between foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in New York. India cited attacks by Islamabad-backed groups in Jammu and Kashmir and stamps released by Pakistan glorifying Kashmiri terrorists as reasons for cancellation of the proposed talks. SAARC member-states have previously said they view the strained relations between India and Pakistan as one of the reasons for the little progress achieved by the geopolitical grouping in recent years. Nepal And Sri Lanka have expressed interest in reviving the summit postponed in 2016 after New Delhi pulled out over Islamabad's unrelenting support to terrorist activities in India and after Pakistan-based terrorists attack an Indian Army base in Uri. Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan had also joined India in boycotting the summit. SAARC summits are usually held biennially. The member-state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the association. The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. NEW DELHI: Flagging the issue of cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, India on Friday said the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has "suffered" because of "one nation" that continues to give problems. Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, during his address at the annual session of the PHD Chamber of Commerce here, also asserted that a "greater engagement" with China is happening, as one cannot stay in a "state of perpetual enmity or seeming enmity". "The SAARC has suffered because of one nation, and that nation continues to give problems... You cannot indulge in terror against countries with whom you want to take the grouping forward," he said in a veiled reference to Pakistan. "Therefore, the SAARC has suffered despite the secretariat being there, and all the mechanisms existing. Because of this one nation, with whom a couple of other nations cannot get together. Therefore, it will take a little time to even out, to look at it," Singh said. The SAARC is the regional intergovernmental organisation and geopolitical union of nations in South Asia. Its member states include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. On Thursday, in a veiled attack on Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New York told a meeting of the SAARC foreign ministers that the scourge of terrorism remains the single largest threat to peace and stability in the South Asian region and it is necessary to eliminate the ecosystem of its support. India had boycotted the 2016 SAARC summit citing Islamabad's unrelenting support to terrorist activities in India and after Pakistan-based terrorists attacked an Indian Army base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir. Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan had also joined India in boycotting the summit. Union minister Singh made his address during a session on 'India's strategic approach towards neighbouring countries: challenges and way forward". He said, BIMSTEC, on the other hand is "thriving" and getting better, getting more attention, because there is no such problem there. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation of seven nations of South Asia and South East Asia. Its member states are -- Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan. On relationship with China, he said, India has "consciously taken a decision that China needs to be engaged, you cannot stay in a state of perpetual enmity, or seeming enmity". "Therefore, a greater engagement has taken place in manners that were not thought of earlier. So, who would have thought of the unofficial summit at Wuhan, where the Chinese President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sat together without any agenda, taking things forward from there," he said. The minister said India's economic engagement with China has "increased" and similarly, China's engagement with India has increased. "And, that is the way forward, where you can have people-to-people contacts, better understanding, and can have economics dictating how relations will pan out in the future," he said. On the land boundary with China, Singh said, its a "complex issue" for many reasons. "There is history to it, egos to it, many things to it. That needs to be settled when the atmosphere can be made conducive, and that is what is being attempted with the greater engagement with China," he said. The minister earlier in his speech also highlighted the nature of ties India now enjoys with other neighbours, including Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, Sri Lanks and Bangladesh. With Bhutan India has "excellent relationships", strategic and otherwise, he said. "Relationships with Myanmar were slightly wavering at a particular period of time where we toed a particular line, propogated by people who did not know Myanmar... Today, it firmly believes its best friend is India," Singh said. On ASEAN ties, he said, "We are firmly plugged into various calculations for ASEAN. We have a much deeper understanding of them and they have a much deeper understanding of us. Ten heads of states from ASEAN attended the Republic Day celebrations in India." "Our resolve to break the barriers and reach out in manners, which were not feasible earlier," he said. The verdict of the Supreme Court on Friday allowing females to enter the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala has been welcomed with open hands by the women, including political leaders and activists across the country. Reacting to the judgement, Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi welcomed it as a "wonderful" judgement that paves the way to make Hinduism even more inclusive. "It opens up the way forward for Hinduism to become even more inclusive and not a property of one caste or one sex," Gandhi said. Hailing the apex court's judgement, National Commission for Women (NCW) Chief Rekha Sharma said that now women have the right to make the decision if they want to go inside the temple. She added that earlier it was imposed on them. "I welcome the decision. Now women can choose if they want to go or not. Earlier it was imposed on them in name of religion. When the right to equality and religion are there, right to equality should win," said the NCW Chief. Karnataka Women and Child Development Minister Jayamala termed the decision "historic" saying that women have now got justice. "There is no happier moment in my life other than this. I thank the women community, Supreme Court judges and God today...I also thank Ambedkar who wrote our Constitution," Jayamala told reporters. She said she had expected such a judgement and credited the country's legal system and Constitution for it. "Women have got justice today. This is a historic moment," the minister added. The actress-turned-politician had created a storm in June 2006 by claiming that she had in her prime youth entered the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and touched the idol of the presiding deity. In 2010, the Crime Branch of Kerala Police had charge-sheeted her along with others stating that they were involved in a deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings under Section 295 of Indian Penal Code. Responding to a question on the earlier incident, Jayamala said, "That day also I had faith and belief in God and our Judiciary, and that faith and belief has come true today." Asked about the opposing voices to the judgement, she said: "God will protect." Women activists hailed the judgement but expressed concern over its acceptance at the ground level by people. Chhavi Methi, a women rights activist welcomed the judgement but said its acceptance remains to be seen. "I am doubtful the temple authorities would take it in the right spirit. Women would accept it but its implementation might pose a problem," she said. Another women rights activist Vani Subramaniam said the decision is an extension of various pro-equality judgements taken by the Supreme Court, but she too expressed concern over the community's reaction to it. "Question remains to be seen how it is accepted in the community and by the people at the ground level," she said. Mariam Dhawale, General Secretary of The All India Democratic Women's Association, called it another step that would help in bringing equality. "We welcome the judgement. Women have a constitutional right to be able to visit the temple and whoever wishes must be allowed to visit it," she said. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. The apex court pronounced its verdict on a clutch of pleas challenging the ban on entry of women of menstrual age in Kerala's Sabarimala temple and said law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. Justice Chandrachud said religion cannot be used as cover to deny rights of worship to women and it is also against human dignity. He said the prohibition on women is due to non-religious reasons and it is a grim shadow of discrimination going on for centuries. The CJI said the practice of exclusion of women of 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as essential religious practice and Kerala law denies rights to women on the ground of physiological reasons. Justice Nariman said the Sabarimala temple custom barring women of 10-50 age is not backed by Article 25 and 26 of the Constitution. The custom of barring women is violative of Article 25 (Clause 1) and Rule 3(b) of Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (authorisation of entry) Rules, 1965 is struck down by Justice Nariman. Amid the ongoing tussle between the Congress and the BJP over the Rafale deal, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan on Friday said an investigation should be demanded on the issue as there is suspicion regarding the controversial deal. Haasan clarified that it is a suspicion and not an accusation. "There is suspicion and we should demand an investigation. We are not accusing, but we are suspecting," said Kamal Haasan as reported by news agency ANI. Earlier in this year, Haasan launched his new party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) and said that it is ready to test the electoral waters in 2019 General Elections. "We are getting ready for it (2019 general elections) and it's true that we are ready already," the iconic Tamil filmstar had said. On Thursday, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who has been accused by the Congress-led Opposition of lying and suppressing facts related to the Rafale fighter jet deal, denied any wrongdoing on the part of the Narendra Modi government. The Defence Minister, while categorically rejecting the Congress party's allegations, said that the Rafale jet deal was sealed under a legal framework. To a question about former French President Francois Hollande's explosive claims that the selection of the Indian company (Reliance Defence) in the Rafale deal was done at the behest of the Indian Government, which eventually led HAL kicked out of the deal, Sitharaman said, 'You should ask this question to the Congress party since it was during the UPA government that 95% of the deal with HAL as the Indian partner of France's Dassault Aviation was reportedly finalised. I want to ask Congress why the deal could not be finally sealed when 95% of it was already cleared?'' The clarification from the Defence Minister came hours after French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that the defence deal for the purchase of French-manufactured 36 Rafale fighter jets was a government-to-government deal. In a big boost to the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, the French President had on Wednesday confirmed that the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France was a government-to-government deal. India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September in 2017 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore, nearly one-and-half years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the proposal during a visit to Paris. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019. While Prime Minister Modi has not spoken on the Rafale controversy himself, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other senior ministers have asserted that people of India have put a closure to the issue, saying there were no irregularities. Prime Minister Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after holding talks with the then French president Francois Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris. The final deal was sealed on September 23, 2016. Katihar/Patna/New Delhi: The Congress on Friday said that Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) founding member Tariq Anwar is welcome to return shortly after he quit the party and resigned from his Lok Sabha membership over his party chief Sharad Pawar's apparent "clean chit" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal. Lauding Anwar's step, senior Congress leader Prem Chand Mishra said that his party would be keenly watching his next political move and if he chooses to return to the party (Congress), he would be most welcome. The Bihar NCP leader said that he was completely taken aback with Pawar's clean chit to PM, which he said has shattered the faith of countrymen in the Opposition. His resignation from the party, which he founded along with Sharad Pawar, has triggered speculation about his next move ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Latching on to the opportunity, the Congress said that Anwar was "welcome" to return to the party from where he started his political career. Anwar was the Bihar Congress president in the 1980s and had represented his current parliamentary constituency Katihar as a Congress MP for times, before he joined hands with Pawar and deceased Meghalaya leader PA Sangma to form the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999. The NCP later allied with the Congress and Anwar served as a Union Minister in the UPA-II government. The announcement, made by Anwar in his parliamentary constituency, is seen as a politically significant development for possible alignments in Bihar, where Congress, NCP and RJD have been part of the 'grand alliance or ''Mahagathbandhan'' against the BJP and its allies. The Mahagathbandhan camp leaders have lauded Anwar's decision, with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) urging Sharad Pawar to review his stand on the issue. While, the JD(U), headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and an ally of the BJP, termed Anwar's move opportunistic and aimed at "greener pastures". Anwar's Katihar constituency has a large number of Muslim voters and any indication towards his party or party leaders being sympathetic towards the BJP or Modi government could be politically incorrect, party leaders said. Notwithstanding the ''Modi wave'', Anwar had managed to win 2014 Parliamentary poll from Katihar as the NCP had fought at that time in alliance with the RJD and the Congress. In a statement after making the announcement before journalists in Katihar, 67-year-old Anwar said he was resigning from the posts of the NCP's national general secretary and as its leader in the Lok Sabha, besides giving up the party's primary membership and vacating his parliamentary seat. Anwar alleged the Prime Minister is fully involved in the Rafale deal and it was also substantiated by former French President Francois Hollande, referring to his reported remarks about France being left with no option in Dassault selecting Reliance Defence as an offset partner as part of the multi-billion dollar deal. Anwar's move came a day after media reports quoted Pawar having told a Marathi news channel that he did not think people had doubts over the prime minister's intentions in the Rafale fighter plane deal. Pawars reported statement was lauded by BJP chief Amit Shah who asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take a cue from his ally and place national interests above party politics. The Congress and other opposition parties have been targeting PM Modi and the NDA government over the Rafale deal, alleging corruption and crony capitalism. The government has flatly denied the charges. Attempting to do a course correction, an NCP spokesperson, however, issued a clarification terming the media reports quoting Pawar as "misleading and confusing" and claimed the party chief has had not given a clean chit to Modi. Sharad Pawar's daughter and NCP MP Supriya Sule too demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal. In a series of tweets, Sule questioned why was the Modi government shying from calling a JPC probe if it was so confident of facts and figures? RJD spokesman and MLA Bhai Virendra said that his party welcomes the bold stand taken by Anwar. "We urge Sharad Pawar, who is a senior and widely respected leader, to review his stand on the issue," he said. Meanwhile, JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said that Pawar had only aligned himself with the popular sentiment in the country. Calling Anwar;'s move an act of opportunism, Prasad said that he quit his party shortly ahead of Lok Sabha polls to find "greener pastures". (With PTI Inputs) West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vice president and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew, Chandra Kumar Bose on Friday criticised party state president Dilip Ghosh and alleged that he has not been making any efforts to protect BJP Yuva Morcha (BJPYM) state president Debjit Sarkar, who is currently in police custody. Sarkar was reportedly arrested on Wednesday after the BJP called for a 12-hour bandh across the state after the death of two students, allegedly killed in police firing in North Dinajpur's Islampur. What is the party President @BJP4Bengal doing? Is he sleeping?He doesn't hesitate to use abusive language against our opponents- which is having detrimental effect on the electorate! It would be better if he takes the lead to save & protect our leaders & Karyakartas who beaten up pic.twitter.com/KLJQsVUNMH Chandra Kumar Bose (@Chandrabosebjp) September 27, 2018 Taking to Twitter, Bose lambasted Ghosh saying, "What is the party President @BJP4Bengal doing? Is he sleeping? He doesn`t hesitate to use abusive language against our opponents - which is having detrimental effect on the electorate! It would be better if he takes the lead to save and protect our leaders and Karyakartas who (were) beaten up." Bose posted a letter, that was received by Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Thursday from BJYM`s national vice president Madhukeshwar Desai, as stated by his additional private secretary Sonam Gechen Agola. The letter alleged that Sarkar is "being tortured in jail custody of Islampur Police Station, Uttar Dinajpur West Bengal" since Wednesday. It further read, "Apprehension regarding safety/security of some of the state executives of BJYM, stuck in Dalkhola area have also been expressed." At least two student was killed when a mob clashed with the police over the entry of newly-appointed Urdu teachers in a school in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district on Thursday, police said. The students the Darivit High School in Islampur were agitating against the newly recruited teacher for Urdu subject, demanding teachers recruitment for other subjects. The agitation had begun since Monday but on Thursday when the students prevented the new teacher from entering the school, police escorted the teacher. Immediately, the students clashed with the police. They allegedly pelted stones at the police. In retaliation, the police reportedly fired tear gas shells and resorted to a lathi-charge. Policemen attacked us, there were no women constables on the campus. They abused us and manhandled us. What were we doing that they had to resort to a lathi-charge? We were just protesting against something, said a student of Darivit High School. On the other hand, Shankar Chakraborty, BJP district president said that police should not have resorted to a lathi-charge on students on campus. What was the police doing on campus? Even if the students were agitating, there are ways to deal with the situation. What they did was not right. You can never enter campus and attack students, said Chakraborty. KOLKATA: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized exotic birds smuggled into India from Bangladesh at Kolkata airport, according to an official statement. Acting on intelligence, the officials intercepted a consignment at air cargo, Kolkata airport, which was to be transported to Hyderabad Thursday, it said. The consignment, containing 38 exotic birds badly cramped in four narrow cages, was offloaded from the flight, the DRI said in the statement. On inspection, the live exotic birds were identified as Java Sparrow, Star Finches, Golden Finches, Cockatiel and Aracari, it said. All the birds have been handed over to Kolkata Zoo authority for safe custody. "All these birds are of foreign origin," the DRI said. Aracari is mostly found in South American continent and is a kind of Toucan, while the Finches and Cockatiel are Australian in origin. The Java Sparrow as the name suggests is Indonesian in origin. "All these birds appear to have been illegally imported into India without declaration or through illicit routes making their import into India liable to confiscation," the probe agency said. In another case, the DRI in a joint operation with Tripura Police conducted a search operation Thursday at two separate locations under Sonamura and Kalamcherra police stations of Sepahijala district of Tripura and recovered 1,400 Kg of cannabis stored in plastic vats hidden underground. The operation ran into almost 20 hours and heavy earth movers had to be used in the operation. The plastic vats containing high-quality cannabis were hidden about 10 to 12 feet under the earth in the hilly tracts of the area, and large plots of open land had to be dug up for the detection and recovery, the DRI said. The market value of the seized cannabis is Rs 1.5 crore, it said. "Organized cultivation and harvesting of ganja for commercial purpose in Tripura is seen to be a new trend and DRI is closely monitoring the development in the Eastern sector in partnership with Tripura Police and other enforcement agencies and paramilitary forces," the agency said. It has been observed that cultivation of ganja is taking place in the hilly tracts and jungles of Tripura under the thick foliage of rubber plantations, the agency said. Often business persons obtain lease of land and government sanction for cultivation of rubber plants and misuse bank loans by concentrating more on cultivation of ganja contrary to the government approval and to what bank loans were intended for, the DRI said. This is the fourth successful operation with Tripura Police in the last eight weeks where ganja has been seized. REWA: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi yet again over demonetisation, farmers' loan waiver, Rafale deal and rising oil prices and accused the BJP government of making false promises to the people before coming to power. Criticising the Centre's note ban move, the Congress chief said while the exercise forced innocent people to stand in serpentine queues, it helped the corrupt to convert their black money into white. The Gandhi scion made these remarks while addressing a huge gathering of Congress supporters in Baikunthpur town of the Rewa district in Madhya Pradesh. "Note ban was brought with a promise to purge the system of black money... The common man was made to stand in queues across the country. But the fact is that the sole purpose of imposing demonetisation was to facilitate the conversion of black money into white," the Congress chief said. Rahul also dared the Prime Minister to disclose how much black money returned to the banking system. Congress President, @RahulGandhi in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, gives us the truth on the rise of petrol prices. #BadlegaMadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/jLYqZWgGWs Congress (@INCIndia) September 28, 2018 Sharpening his attack on the Centre, Rahul said, ''As if note ban was not enough, now the government has brought 'Gabbar Singh Tax' (GST), which has hit the small traders hard, posing a serious threat to their livelihood. The money being collected in the name of GST is being used to fill the pockets of the likes of Anil Ambani." "The next time Modi ji comes here, ask him why he bought a Rs 526 crore jet for Rs 1,600 crore? Why he snatched contract from HAL and gave it to his industrial friend? The UPA had given the contract to HAL so that youth from Bengaluru and from Madhya Pradesh could get jobs. But Modiji came and snatched that contract from HAL," Rahul said. He said that PM Modi "wrote off Rs 1,50,000 crore of loan of his 15 industrial friends" but refused to waive small loans of the farmers. Rahul Gandhi assured that if his party came to power in the poll-bound state, education and health care services will be put back on track and the government will work for every section of the society. "If the Congress is voted to power, we will waive farmers` loan within 10 days. It would not be put off for the 11th day, I assure you," he said. During his speech, Rahul also targeted Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and said that people have started calling Chouhan as "announcement machine" as he has made around 20,000 announcements (of development/welfare schemes) without fulfilling most of them. "The Chief Minister says the state's roads are better than US roads. The fact is there are more potholes than the road. You cannot travel here," he said. He said half of the total workforce in the state is working on a contractual basis. In the absence of permanent jobs, their future is uncertain. Rahul Gandhi is on a two-day visit to poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. He had visited Chitrakoot - a religious town associated with Lord Rama - in Satna district of the state on Thursday where he offered prayers at the famous Kamta Nath temple. Speaking at a public meeting in Chitrakoot, he had targeted PM Modi over the Rafale fighter jet deal, saying the country's "chowkidar" (watchman) has committed "chori" (theft). He also held a road show while on his way to Rewa from Satna on Thursday night. Mumbai: Salman Khan took to Twitter Thursday evening to share a picture of him wearing a traditional jacket from Arunachal Pradesh. Known as Monpa, the jacket looks stylish and men would love to add it to their wardrobe. Salman, who can carry almost anything effortlessly, wore a cherry red 'monpa' with a dash of bright blue in the sleeves. The Bollywood superstar even spoke about the beauty of Arunachal by tweeting: "Wearing a traditional lovely #monpa jacket from Arunachal Pradesh. If u want to be with real nature and at peace, visit the beautiful #ArunachalPradesh (sic)." Wearing a traditional lovely #monpa jacket from Arunachal Pradesh. If u want to be with real nature and at peace, visit the beautiful #ArunachalPradesh pic.twitter.com/ORqK9KqJwc Salman Khan (@BeingSalmanKhan) 27 September 2018 Interestingly, Salman had shot Tubelight in Arunachal and the film had a little boy from the state playing an important role in it. Salman had attended a curtain-raiser event for the second `MTB Arunachal Mountain Bicycle Race' along with Union minister Kiren Rijiju here Thursday. The 650-km race from Mechuka Valley in Arunachal Pradesh to the state's capital Itanagar will start on November 14, and participants are expected to finish it within seven days. "Google Earth has described the route from Mechuka to Itanagar as the world's toughest, so this bicycle race would be the toughest bicycle rally," said Rijiju. On the way, riders will pass through dense rain forests and river-beds, he said. "More than 100 professional cyclists from 10 countries along with some members of our paramilitary forces are participating in it," he said. Salman is presently hosting Bigg Boss season 12. He is also busy preparing for his role in Ali Abbas Zafar's Bharat which is slated to release on Eid next year. The film stars Katrina Kaif, Tabu, Disha Patani, Aasif Sheikh and Sunil Grover in important roles. Apart from Bharat, Salman will be seen in the third instalment of his blockbuster film Dabangg co-starring his 'Rajjo' Sonakshi Sinha. The heavyweight from Tinsel Town, who is still one of the most eligible bachelors in the country, will turn 53 on December 27 this year. (With PTI inputs) TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) calls on the WSIB and the Ford government to reverse the $1.45 billion dollar gift to Ontario employers, and instead put that money towards restitution for injured workers who have been unjustly denied or cut off benefits. The 30% reduction to employer premiums announced on Wednesday means less revenue coming into the system, and will inevitably lead to a further reduction in compensation provided to workers who have been injured and made ill on the job. Injured workers have already borne the burden of paying off the WSIBs manufactured financial crisis, said ONIWG President Willy Noiles. Since 2010, compensation benefits provided to injured workers have been slashed by over $2 billion. Almost half of injured workers with a permanent disability are living at or near poverty levels. And now that the WSIB is happy with its financial picture, instead of restitution, the Ford government and the WSIB have decided to become reverse Robin Hoods and reward employers. ONIWG has alerted the Ford government of its Workers Comp is a Right campaign. The campaign is based on ensuring that the WSIB listens to injured workers own doctors, eliminate cuts due to so-called pre-existing conditions, and eliminate the practice of deeming. This is a bureaucratic practice of reducing or ending benefits to the injured by pretending that they are well or have more income than they actually have. With this campaign and the Real Healthcare campaign, injured workers are reminding the Ford government that workers compensation is a right, said Noiles. It is not charity or a burden on employers or the province. The rate cut announcement is making a mockery of the historical compromise at the root of our century old system of protection to workers. Ontarios government for the people has ignored some of the provinces most vulnerable. Injured workers are offended by the idea that condemning injured workers to poverty will boost the economy of Ontario. More poverty means more mental stress, and more economic and social disruption. ONIWG calls on the Ford government to reverse this gravy train, and ensure that the WSIBs strong finances be put to proper use to compensate all those who have been made to suffer by the Boards austerity measures. For further information, please contact: Willy Noiles, 289-219-4473 New Delhi: Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta has been making headlines for initiating the #MeToo campaign in India by accusing senior veteran actor Nana Patekar and few others of sexually harassing her in 2008 on the sets of Horn Ok Pleassss. In her allegations, the former Miss India Universe also said that Patekar has a history of harassing women and even questioned biggies like Akshay Kumar and Rajinikanth for working with him. Now, the actress, without taking his name, accused filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri of behaving inappropriately with her on the sets of 2005 film 'Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets'. The actress recalled that without any warning, she was asked to strip and dance off camera in order to provide her co-star (Irfan Khan) with some 'cues'. Though Tanushree didn't take Vivek Agnihotri's name, it is well-known that Chocolate was helmed by him. In fact, only recently, Vivek hogged all the limelight for his distasteful remarks and posting multiple offensive and abusive tweets against Swara Bhasker. DNA quoted Tanushree as saying, "This guy wanted me to give cues to an actor. It was an actor's close-up. It was not even my shot. I was not even going to be in the shot. It was the actor's close-up and he had to just look at something and give expressions. This director, he told me 'jao jaake kapde utaar ke naacho, usko cues do'." The actress added that the actor shot back at the director saying Tanushree doesn't have to strip and dance for him to give facial expressions. Tanushree said that "Irrfan was horrified with what happened on the sets. And, because he had done some work, he could say something. He just told the director, 'What are you talking about? I can give my closeup. Mujhe acting aati hai'." "This was Irrfan Khan. I really appreciated that he actually spoke up like that because it was his close-up shot. I'm not in the frame. He had to look at me and give some expressions. Why do I have to dance in front of him for him to give expressions on his close-up shot." Disclosing further details, Tanushree said, "Suneil Shetty, who was also there, heard the entire conversation and got offended by it. He was like, 'Main aayun kya wahaan cues dene ke liye?' Yeah, of course, there are good people in the industry. Both, Irrfan Khan and Suniel Shetty spoke up. Suneil scolded that guy," she said. Though Tanushree didn't name Vivek Agnihotri anywhere, she did say that it is because of good people like Sunil Shetty and Irrfan Khan that she didn't give up on acting at an early stage. In the meantime, Nana Patekar has reacted to the allegations levelled against him by Tanushree and said that he will find a legal way to deal with it. The actor is currently in Jaisalmer shooting for the fourth installment of 'Housefull'. Mumbai: Bollywood star Salman Khan says he has been keen on visiting Arunachal Pradesh for a long time. Salman was interacting with media as he attended a curtain-raiser event for the second edition of an MTB Arunachal Mountain Bicycle Race along with Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju here. On his love for Arunachal Pradesh, Salman said: "I have never been there, but I don`t know why I like Arunachal Pradesh so much that I just wanted to go there for longest time to see the place and to be there. I did a film called `Tubelight` with child actor Matin Rey Tangu who hails from Arunachal Pradesh. So, whenever he used to meet me, he used to tell me to visit Itanagar which is in Arunachal Pradesh. "He used to keep on talking about rivers, mountains and the pollution-free environment of Itanagar and Pasighat. So, I got very fascinated with that. He always tells me that `Every time you promise me, but you don`t come there. I don`t like Mumbai but then also, I come here to meet you`." For the event, Salman was dressed in a traditional maroon Monpa jacket from the state. The actor hopes he can make it to the cycling event. "I tried to go there many times, but this time I hope I can make to this event. That time (when the event takes place), I am shooting for `Bharat` in Delhi. So, if I get one day off from the shoot, the first thing I want to do is to be a part of this event." Asked about the Tanushree Dutta-Nana Patekar controversy in which the actress has alleged that the veteran actor tried to sexually harass her on a film`s set, Salman said: "I am not aware of this. Let me know and understand what is happening then, I will be able to comment on that." He lauded the trailer of "Thugs Of Hindostan", which features Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh. "It is outstanding," he said. New Delhi: All 6000 stations in the railway network will have free WiFi connections in the next 120 days if collaborations with private players like Google are successful, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. Speaking at the launch of the project, 'The Railways-Lifeline of the Nation' (digitization of Indian Railway Heritage and bringing it online for wider dissemination and worldwide viewing) in collaboration with Google Cultural Institute, Goyal said that 711 railway stations already have free WiFi and his target was to reach the 6000 station mark in the next four months. "Google with railways has provided free WiFi in over 400 stations, this shows how powerful collaborations can be and how it can be used to serve the people. "We should expand this to all 6000 stations so that local people in the vicinity of the stations, particularly from the poor or marginalised sections of the society can use this and enjoy the fruits of the country's development," he said. He highlighted the need for partnership in making this possible and urged Google to partner with railways to provide free WiFi in more stations. "We have offered over 5000 stations for public private partnership on Rail Sahayog website for WiFi...Maybe Google can take some of these stations up. I hope to have WiFi connections in all 6000 stations in the next 120 days in the spirit of partnership," he said. 'The Railways-Lifeline of the Nation' project will showcase the heritage of Indian Railways on Google Arts and Culture, an online platform of art and culture by the search engine giant. It will have more than 100 online exhibitions, more than 150 videos and 3500 images. It will offer an in-depth exploration of the sights, sounds and significance of Indian railways. The project will also bring alive the lesser known stories and heroic efforts of people like trackmen, station incharges and workshop engineers, to celebrate their contribution to India's railways. "The extraordinary heritage, history and culture of Indian Railways is truly fascinating, and a treat for both the young and the old. This initiative is all about the iconic moments, the heritage, and the making of Indian Railways, which today is the backbone of the country in many ways," said Amit Sood, Director, Google Cultural Institute. Google Arts & Culture has partnered with more than 1800 institutions in 80 countries globally, with 50 million people using the Google Arts & Culture platform every month. In India, Google Arts & Culture has partnered with over 50 cultural institutions to bring digital exhibits capturing country's rich culture online. Users all around the world can explore these on Google Arts and Culture website and mobile app for free. Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Labour Minister Swamy Prasad Maurya on Friday lashed out at Congress President Rahul Gandhi for attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and called him a "madman who doesn`t deserve to lead India`s oldest political party". "Rahul Gandhi has been continuously calling the Prime Minister a thief. Look at the decency of Modi that he is not (even) responding," said Maurya, who switched sides from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2017 Assembly elections. "It is a matter of great shame that the Congress leader is mouthing such (abusive) language for the country`s Prime Minister," the Minister told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mainpuri. He said that "this childish behaviour did not behove of the Congress chief", adding that the opposition party should be worried since this will invite public ire. Maurya said that the "immature behaviour" of Gandhi was for all to see as he had embraced Modi in the Lok Sabha and also gave statements that even a child would not. The Minister also said that the vicious Congress campaign on the Rafale deal will not cut into BJP victory prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. UNITED NATIONS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday described what he said was a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran and accused Europe of appeasing Iran as he sought to rally support for US sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu showed an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow and pointed to what he said was a previously secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material. He argued this showed Iran still sought to obtain nuclear weapons, despite its 2015 agreement with world powers to curb its program in exchange for loosening of sanctions. Netanyahu spoke 4-1/2 months after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord, arguing it did too little to rein in Tehran`s nuclear ambitions and triggering the resumption of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran. Netanyahu said the site contained some 15 kg (33 pounds) of radioactive material that has since been moved, and called on the U.N. atomic agency to inspect the location immediately with Geiger counters. "I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran`s secret nuclear program," Netanyahu said. The world will laugh at Netanyahu`s claims, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to Fars News. "The world will only laugh loudly at this type of false, meaningless and unnecessary speech and false shows," Qassemi said. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that there should be more scrutiny on Israel`s nuclear program. "No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program - including an *actual atomic arsenal*. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors," Zarif tweeted. Israel has pushed the United States toward isolation, Zarif said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). "In recent days we`ve seen how much the policies that Netanyahu has imposed on America has isolated them in the General Assembly and Security Council," Zarif said, according to IRNA. "Now see when they can pull America to this level of isolation how isolated they are themselves." Netanyahu did not identify the material nor specifically suggest that Iran had actively violated the nuclear deal. An outspoken opponent of the deal, Netanyahu has previously made allegations about Iran`s nuclear activities that are difficult or impossible to verify, including presenting a cartoon bomb to the General Assembly in 2012 warning of how close Tehran was to producing a nuclear device. In April, Netanyahu presented what he said was evidence of a large secret archive of documents related to Iran`s clandestine nuclear weapons program at a different site in Tehran. He said Israeli agents removed vast amounts of documents from that site. At the time, Iran said the documents were fake. In a speech in which he said relatively little about efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said Iran had since begun moving items out of the second site. "Since we raided the atomic archive, they`ve been busy cleaning out the atomic warehouse. Just last month they removed 15 kilograms of radioactive material. You know what they did with it?" he said. "They took it out and they spread it around Tehran in an effort to hide the evidence." He said Iranian officials still had a lot of work to do because there were some 15 shipping containers full of nuclear-related equipment and materials stored at the second site. "This site contained as much as 300 tonnes - 300 tonnes - of nuclear-related equipment and materiel," he said. Under the nuclear deal struck by Iran and six major powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for relief from U.S. and other economic sanctions. The International Atomic Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly said Tehran was abiding by its commitments to the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), including in a document reviewed by Reuters on August 30. France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia have stayed in the pact, vowing to save it despite the restoration of U.S. sanctions and this week discussing a barter mechanism they hope may allow Iran to circumvent the US measures. Netanyahu criticised Europe for doing so in unusually harsh language that evoked European nations` initial failure to confront Nazi Germany in the 1930s. "While the United States is confronting Iran with new sanctions, Europe and others are appeasing Iran by trying to help it bypass those new sanctions," Netanyahu said. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is aware of the facility Netanyahu announced and described it as a "warehouse" used to store "records and archives" from Irans nuclear program. A second US intelligence official called Netanyahus comments "somewhat misleading. First, we have known about this facility for some time, and its full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminium tubes for centrifuges, and second, so far as anyone knows, there is nothing in it that would allow Iran to break out of the JCPOA any faster than it otherwise could." The Israeli leader also lambasted Iran`s ballistic missile activity, identifying three locations near Beirut airport where he said Lebanon`s Hezbollah was converting missiles. "In Lebanon, Iran is directing Hezbollah to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles, missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of 10 metres (yards)," he said. The IAEA and Hezbollah were not immediately available for comment. The Israeli military released a video clip and photos of what it said were Hezbollah Shi`ite militia rocket building sites in Lebanon, shortly after Netanyahu`s address. SYDNEY: A flotilla of small boats rescued all 47 passengers and crew from an Air Niugini flight that crashed into the sea short of the runway at an airport in the tiny South Pacific nation of Micronesia on Friday, the airport`s manager said. "It was supposed to land but instead of landing it was 150 yards short and she went down," Jimmy Emilio, general manager of Chuuk Airport at Weno in Micronesia, told Reuters by telephone. "We don`t really know what happened ... people were rescued by boats - 36 passengers and 11 crew were all rescued, only the plane is sinking right now," he said. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft hit the lagoon surrounding the small island about 9.30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Thursday), Emilio said. The passengers and crew were taken to hospital but no serious injuries were reported. "I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in," passenger Bill Jaynes said in a video posted by the Pacific Daily News website. "I thought, well, this is not like the way it`s supposed to happen," he said. Water was waist-deep in the cabin before rescuers arrived, he said. Video published online by Radio New Zealand and pictures posted on Twitter showed the half-submerged aircraft surrounded by small speedboats. Air Niugini said in a statement the airline is "making all efforts" to look after the passengers and crew. A spokesman for Papua New Guinea`s Accident Investigation Commission said investigators would fly to the scene as soon as possible to piece together what happened. In 2013, all 101 passengers aboard a Lion Air flight that overshot the runway at Denpasar in Indonesia and landed in shallow water were similarly rescued by boats without casualties. Bangaldesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday criticized Myanmar for not taking back Rohingya Muslims who had fled to Bangladesh. Myanmar had verbally committed to take back Rohingyas who have fled due to ethnic and religious persecution in their country. Speaking at the annual gathering of world leaders at the Uniter Nations, Hasina confirmed Myanmar's commitment and described the military crackdown in Myanmar as "tantamount to genocide and crimes against humanity". Urging the world leaders to take promt action for a peaceful solution, Hasina said, "The world cannot ignore or remain silent over the plight of the Rohingya people driven from their homes in Myanmar and sheltering in Bangladesh". "We are disappointed that despite our earnest efforts we have not been able to begin Rohingya repatriation in a permanent and sustainable manner. Myanmar is one of our neighbours. From the outset, we have been trying to find a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis through bilateral consultations," said the Bangladeshi premier noting that her country has concluded three refugee repatriation arrangements with Myanmar, UN News reported. "Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingya, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back," Hasina said. Hasina also recalled the five-point proposal she presented to the UN General Assembly last year, which outlined a durable and peaceful solution for the plight of the forcibly displaced Rohingya. She said Bangladesh is hosting some 1.1 million members of Myanmar's minority Rohingya Muslim community and, supported by humanitarian organisations, including UN agencies, is providing them with food, clothing, healthcare and security. Work is also underway to provide improved housing, as well as education and other services. "I call upon international organisations to join hands with us in this initiative. I also seek their assistance to help relocate the Rohingya to the facility," she added. Most of the Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh since August, 2017 when attacks by Rohingya militants led to a major crackdown by Myanmar's security forces that triggered a massive cross-border exodus of refugees. (With PTI Inputs) WASHINGTON: Fighting to salvage his US Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh angrily and tearfully denied on Thursday a university professor`s accusation that he sexually assaulted her 36 years ago and complained about a "political hit" after she told a dramatic Senate hearing she was "100 percent certain" he did it. Christine Blasey Ford, her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, appeared in public for the first time to detail her allegation against Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge chosen by President Donald Trump for a lifetime job on the top US court. Ford told the committee she feared Kavanaugh would rape and accidentally kill her during the alleged assault when both her high school students in Maryland. Kavanaugh testified after Ford finished her appearance, and they were never in the hearing room together. "I swear today, under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge," Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee. The clash pitted her word against his. Members of the Senate, controlled 51-49 by Trump`s fellow Republicans, must now decide whether to vote to confirm him after the extraordinary nearly nine-hour-long hearing. Senate Republicans planned to meet on Thursday night to discuss the next steps on the nomination. Calling himself a victim of "grotesque and obvious character assassination," Kavanaugh, speaking passionately, said he "unequivocally and categorically" denied Ford`s allegation. "I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process," Kavanaugh added. Writing on Twitter after the hearing, Trump said of Kavanaugh, "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats` search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" Kavanaugh at times choked back tears, especially when he mentioned that his daughter suggested they pray for Ford, when he spoke of his father and when he mentioned women friends who have rallied to support him. Kavanaugh sharply attacked Democratic senators, calling himself the victim of "a calculated and orchestrated political hit" fuelled by anger on the left at Trump`s 2016 election win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, his conservative judicial record and revenge on behalf of Clinton and her husband Bill. Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, said over four hours of testimony that a drunken Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a gathering of teenagers when he was 17 years old and she was 15 in 1982. The hearing, which has riveted Americans and intensified the political polarization in the United States, occurred against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault. "With what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you?" Democratic Senator Richard Durbin asked Ford. "One hundred percent," she replied, remaining firm and unruffled through hours of testimony even under questioning by a sex crimes prosecutor hired by the committee`s Republicans. For his part, Kavanaugh testified he was "100 percent certain" none of the alleged incidents of sexual misconduct occurred. Ford said "absolutely not" when Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her if it could be a case of mistaken identity, as Kavanaugh has suggested. Democrats lauded Ford`s testimony as credible, brave and, in the words of Senator Cory Booker, "nothing short of heroic." "I want to thank you for your courage. And I want to tell you I believe you. ... And I believe many Americans across the country believe you," Democratic Senator Kamala Harris said. While some Republicans and Trump have called the allegations by Ford and the two other women part of a smear campaign, Ford told the committee she had no political motivation, adding, "I am an independent person and I am no pawn." Ford was seated at a table in the packed hearing room flanked by her lawyers, facing a bank of senators. Cameras from news photographers clicked as she entered the room and took her seat, smiling nervously. Ford told the senators she was "terrified" to testify but felt it was her civic duty come forward. "Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was very inebriated and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothing. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help," Ford said, adding that Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were "drunkenly laughing during the attack." Democratic senators sought to score political points during their five minutes apiece of questioning Ford. The panel`s Republican senators, all men, did not question her, assigning that task to Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor. While Mitchell sought to probe Ford`s account including any gaps in her story, her questioning seemed disjointed. She took turns with the Democratic senators to ask questions in five minute segments, disrupting her flow. During Kavanaugh`s testimony, Republican senators ditched Mitchell and asked their own questions. The controversy has unfolded just weeks ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to seize control of Congress from the Republicans. Kavanaugh`s confirmation would cement conservative control of the high court as Trump moves to shift it and the broader federal judiciary to the right. `VICIOUS AND FALSE` Kavanaugh, sitting alone at the witness table, said he wanted to testify as soon as Ford`s allegation first emerged last week and was not surprised that other allegations followed. "In those 10 long days, as was predictable and as I predicted, my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations." The delay in scheduling a hearing "has been horrible to me and my family, to the Supreme Court and to the country," Kavanaugh said. Looking sombre, Kavanaugh was accompanied by his wife as he entered the hearing room. A handful of moderate Republican senators who have not announced whether or not they support Kavanaugh could determine his fate. One of them, Senator Lisa Murkowski, told Reuters: "I find Dr. Ford`s testimony to be credible." The committee could vote on Kavanaugh`s confirmation on Friday, with a final Senate vote early next week. Kavanaugh repeatedly tangled with Democratic senators, interrupting several of them, including Dianne Feinstein and Amy Klobuchar, during testy exchanges. When Klobuchar asked him about his teenage drinking, he threw the question back at her, asking her whether she had ever been blackout drunk. He later apologised for the question. Kavanaugh was careful not to denounce Ford, noting that he wished her "no ill will." He said that he was not questioning that Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time, but that he had never assaulted her or anyone. Some Democrats have called on Kavanaugh to withdraw in light of the allegations. At the hearing, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham castigated Democratic senators, seeking to rally Republicans not to abandon the nominee. "This is the most unethical sham since I`ve been in politics," Graham said, adding that voting against Kavanaugh would legitimize the attacks on the nominee. Ford said Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming during the assault, adding, "This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me." Her strongest memory of the incident, Ford said, was the "uproarious laughter between the two (Kavanaugh and Judge) and their having fun at my expense." She said the laughter has haunted her ever since. Two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in the 1980s. Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself during a drunken dormitory party during the 1983-84 academic year when both attended Yale University. Swetnick said she witnessed efforts by Kavanaugh and others to get girls drunk at parties so they could be raped. She said Kavanaugh was present at a 1982 party where she was raped. Trump, who has himself faced accusations of sexual misconduct, chose Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired effective in July. NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mother Nature can throw more at us than just hurricanes, heat waves, and Noreasters. Sometimes major storms are from out of this world. Monitoring solar flares is part of Con Edisons strategy to make sure New York City and Westchester customers have continued reliable energy service. In the companys current Plugged In podcast, Con Edison experts discuss how they monitor and protect the energy grid from solar flares. Listen to the podcast here . Solar flares release clouds of charged particles that interact with the Earths magnetic field creating fluctuations in electricity, known as Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC). Con Edison uses special GIC sensors to monitor unusual currents and uses strategies like early awareness protocols, mobilizing local power reserves to support voltage and de-loading vulnerable transformers to protect them from overheating. Rain or shine, the sun ultimately calls the shots, says, Michael Berlinger, a Con Edison meteorologist. We cant predict when solar flares are going to happen. But we can anticipate and predict their impact on our equipment once they occur and then do whatever is necessary to keep the power on. Solar flares are rare and cyclical. While solar activity has been quiet for the last few years, Con Edison recognizes that as with hurricanes, early warning capabilities and investment in technology will enable the company to take preventive actions to keep the power running. The podcast runs 10 minutes and also includes an interview with Con Edison Senior Engineer Sergo Sagareli. CONNECT WITH US: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConEdison Twitter: https://twitter.com/conedison YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/conedisonny Contact: Media Relations 212-460-4111 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/073f2442-6c14-45a1-8ce4-b622f0d19ac6 All you need to know about Ukraine's new rules for parking Open source Ukraines Law No. 2262-VIII "On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Restructuring of Parking for Vehicles" came into force. The law provides for new rules for punishing drivers who do not pay for parking or leave the car in prohibited places. If the car is parked in the parking lot for more than 10 minutes, the driver has not paid for it, and the violation was recorded on video or photo, a penalty is presumed. The receipt of the penalty might be left on the windshield of the car, and if the record occurred automatically, the penalty will be sent by registered mail. Previously, the penalty for unpaid parking was 5-7 USD, according to the new rules it is a 20 times value of fold amount of parking cost per hour, and in the case of an unreasonably occupied place for the disabled 30 times value of the price for parking. It is supposed that the parking inspector would fill out a fine. If he takes cash from the driver as payment for the service, he faces a fine of 30 to 42 USD. The driver or the owner of the car might pay only half of the penalty if he has time to do it within 10 banking days (a receipt left on the windshield or sent by mail must contain the requisites for payment). The law allows representatives of the National Police and parking inspectors to evacuate the car if it impedes traffic or creates a threat to traffic safety. An exhaustive list is given. Therefore, in order not to evacuate the car, it should not be left: in the second row of the carriageway, at the railway crossing, on the tramlines, on the overpass or bridge and under them in a tunnel, at a pedestrian crossing and 10 meters near it, except for a stop to provide advantages in motion, at intersections and area of 10 meters from them, except for giving an advantage in motion and stopping in front of the side passage at T-like intersections where there is a continuous line or broken lines, on the carriageway, where the distance between the continuous line or the opposite edge of the carriageway and the transport that has stopped is less than 3 meters, closer than 30 meters from the public transport stop or from the road sign of such a stop, closer than 10 meters from the roadworks, in places where it will be impossible to go around the parked vehicle, closer than 10 meters from the exits from adjacent territories and directly at the exit point, if the car interferes with the movement of people with disabilities and pedestrians in wheelchairs, on the lane for public transport, on the bicycle path, if the car interferes with the snow-removing vehicles or other municipal transport in case of introduction of a state of emergency, if the car breaks the parking scheme and blocks travel on two or more lanes. If the car owner wants to receive a text message or an e-mail in case of an evacuation, he should contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs and provide his contacts. Immediately after paying the fine and the cost of transportation/storage, the car must be returned to the owner or user. The representatives of the National Police and parking inspectors appointed by the local government will be able to evacuate the car. But they should have special insurance in case of damage to vehicles when moving, there is a penalty from 42 to 60 USD for the violation. The law recommends that local authorities introduce an automated parking control system, and the Cabinet should review the possibility of increasing the number of parking lots for the cars. Penalties for parking owners increase too. In the event that parking requirements are violated, the previous fine was 12-18 USD, and now it amounts to 18-39 USD. If the paid parking lots are not equipped in accordance with the current legislation - the sanction will make 24-40 USD. Read the original text at 112.ua. On September 28, the militants performed 13 shelling of Ukrainian positions in the JFO zone Two warriors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were injured during hostilities in the Joint Forces Operation zone on September 28. The press office of the JFO HQ reported this on Facebook. During the day, from 7 a.m. through 6 p.m., Russian occupation forces violated ceasefire regime 13 times. Yet, the enemy used weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements two times. Two servicemen of the joint Forces were injured today, during hostilities, reads the report. Related: 24 hours in Donbas: Militants violate ceasefire three times, no casualties observed In case of threat of life, the commanders adopt decisions on carrying out a fire impact on the enemy in order to force him to stop the firing. The enemy was opening aimed fire from mortars, weapons of infantry fighting vehicles, anti-aircraft installations, grenade launchers of different systems, heavy machine guns and small arms at the positions of the Joint Forces in the areas of the settlements Krymske, Novotoshkivske, Zolote-4, Zolote, Luhanske, Novoluhanske, Marinka, Hruntove, Vodiane and Lebedinske. Related: 24 hours in Donbas: Militants shell Ukrainian militaries in Donbas eight times The militants shelled the strongholds near Novoluhanske and Hruntove from 82mm mortar. Also, the enemy opened heavy fire at the defenders of Hruntove and Zolote from ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft installations. The JFO positions near Hruntove and Krymske were shelled from weapons of IFV. The number of the actual issues security, prisoners exchange and social topics to be discussed at the session of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk on October 2. Open source Leonid Kuchma, the representative of Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk and ex-president of Ukraine claimed Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia should be asked about of the peace in Donbas and even the fortune tellers do not know when peace will come there as Interfax-Ukraine reported. And when the peace will come there, nobody knowseven the fortune tellers. Putin should be asked about his when he is going to give peace to the people at these territories, Kuchma claimed. Talking about the upcoming session of the Trilateral Contact Group, Kuchma noted that the agenda will remain unchanged - security, prisoners exchange and social topics. I have not received the agenda yet but I am sure that it is unchanged: security issues at the first place, the exchange of the illegally detained personshumanitarian, social problems, which were always raised, he said. According to Kuchma, the provision of the water, gas, electricity, payment of the pensions, checkpoints that should be crossed normally, without long lines are also on agenda. So, such issues will be there they were and remain to be, Kuchma noted, emphasizing that these issues are hard to be solved until there is no peace in Donbas, until this territory is not our territory in fact. Earlier Kucma claimed that there are few chances of holding another round of prisoners exchange in Donbas. On August 22, the Trilateral Contact Group agreed to begin the school ceasefire in Donbas on August 29. Related video: Militants did not open fire from any of Minsk-banned weapons On September 27, Russian mercenaries attacked Ukrainian positions in Donbas eight times. In most cases, they opened adjusted fire; none of the Ukrainian defenders were wounded or killed in action. The HQ of the Joint Forces Operation reported this on Thursday evening. The enemy armed units opened fire from IFVs, grenade launchers, heavy machineguns, and small arms; skirmishes were observed in Krymske, Novotoshkivske, Zolote, Novotroitske, Hnutove, and Vodyane. Militants did not open fire from any of Minsk-banned weapons, mortars or artillery. As we reported earlier, the entry-exit checkpoint in Novotroitske, Donetsk region, undergoes reconstruction; this causes temporary limitation of transport capacity. The press service of the Joint Forces Operation HQ reported that on Facebook. 'Under the government's orders, Novotroitske entry-exit checkpoint currently undergoes reconstruction works and improvement of the infrastructure - so as to improve the conditions of crossing the checkpoint', reads the message. The government asks citizens to be patient and to excuse any inconveniences that may occur during the works. The zone of increased economic pressure After the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine has automatically lost control over hundreds of kilometers of the sea state border and the coastline. In particular, Kerch was taken from us, and with it, Russia took the "keys", thanks to which the port-industrial complexes of the Azov Sea (Berdyansk and Mariupol) are connected with the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic. But this was not enough for the aggressor. Today, Russian border guards have stepped up administrative pressure on foreign vessels bound for Ukrainian ports. We see the paradox - they do it without a formal violation of the Treaty between Ukraine and Russia on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait (hereinafter - the Treaty). After all, the Treaty provides freedom of navigation in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait to merchant ships and warships under the flag of Ukraine or the Russian Federation, and ships under foreign flags do not have such freedom. That is, border guards of both states parties to the Treaty have the right to stop them for inspection and verification. In the Treaty between Ukraine and Russia on the Ukrainian-Russian state border from January 28, 2003, agreements were reached on the delimitation of the land segment of the Ukrainian-Russian border from the junction of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus to the Azov Sea. Also, for the first time, the position on internal waters was officially considered, namely in Art. 5: "... nothing in this Treaty shall prejudice the positions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation regarding the status of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait as internal waters of the two states." This norm can be considered the first mistake of Ukrainian diplomacy in the context of the struggle for Azov, since, according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10.12.1982, each state can independently determine the outer boundary of its territorial sea to 12 nautical miles from the extreme points of the coast. If Ukraine achieved the status of international waters for the Sea of Azov, the presence of third-country ships would be allowed in its waters. According to the Convention, it was also possible to recognize the status of inland waters of the Sea of Azov by states that have opposite or adjacent coasts. Then the delimitation of the maritime boundary would be carried out on the basis of a midline along the water surface. The key strategic issue that caused disagreements among the delegations was the ownership of the Kerch- Yenikale canal and the island of Tuzla, which, before the annexation of Crimea, were in the jurisdiction of Ukraine. Even then, 15 years ago, Russia categorically refused to recognize the Kerch- Yenikale canal as a Ukrainian territory, promoting the idea of its "joint use" and agreeing to set boundaries only on the bottom. Water spaces and the continental shelf of the Azov water area were proposed to be used together. Read the original text at 112.ua. Foreign Minister of Australia Marise Payne urges Russia to recognize the results of the investigation of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the downing of MH17 flight in Donbas as news.com reported. I reaffirmed our unconditional support for the JIT's independent investigationWe regret that Russia has not accepted the factual findings of the JIT to date and reiterate that Australia has full confidence in the impartiality, independence, and professionalism of the JIT and in its findings, she claimed on the results of the meeting with the colleagues from the countries entering the group. Payne emphasized that Australia has familiarized with the interim results of the reasons for the catastrophe of the Malaysian Boeing and completely recognizes them. My Dutch counterpart, Stef Blok, also took this opportunity to brief our colleagues from the other JIT countries on our decision to hold Russia responsible, under international law, for its part in the downing of MH17 and reaffirmed our common resolve, the minister said. The Netherlands and Australia officially accused Russia of the downing of the MH17 plane. Particularly, when the Dutch prosecutors found the evidence that the plane was downed by the Russian Buk. Boeing 777 of Malaysian Airlines, flight number MH17, was destroyed while performing a regular flight from the Netherlands to Malaysia in July 2014. The tragedy took place in the sky over the militant-held section of Donetsk region. All 298 people aboard deceased; most of the victims, 196, were Dutch, but there were citizens of other nine countries as well. Related video: The Israeli soldiers earlier informed the Russian side on the beginning of the operation in Syria Israeli F-16 Open source The Israeli fighter F-16 did not hide behind the Russian IL-20 downed by the Syrian air defense systems as at the moment of the strike the aircrafts were in different areas and heights. Haarets newspaper claimed this as Radio Liberty reported. According to the message in the Israeli report, on September 17, at 21:38, the Israeli military men informed the Russian side on the beginning of the operation in Syria. The F-16 fighters were going to strike the trucks with Iranian hardware for the production of the high precision missiles in Lattakia. At 21:42, they hit the ground targets and at 21:50 the successful attack was confirmed. According to Israel, the Syrian air defense systems opened fire at 21:52 and one of their missiles hit the Russian IL-20 at 22:05 when F-16 was near Haifa, in other words, in the airspace of its country. The Israel Defense Forces think that the Syrian air defense systems could indicate the presence of the Israeli aircraft in the air by mistake. Earlier several airstrikes were launched at Syrian port Lattakia. Russian Defence Ministry informed that IL-20 with 14 military servicemen got lost. It supposed to have been back at the Russian base Humaimam, Syria. Russia accused Israel of this incident as IL-20 was downed over the Mediterranean Sea by Syrian air defense system as Israeli F-16 fighter aircraft hid behind the Russian aircraft. Moreover, Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned Harry Koren, the Israeli Ambassador, due to the crash of Russian IL-20 in Syria. Later Russias Defense Ministry claimed that it possesses the evidence of the guilt of the Israeli Air Force in the downing of the Russia IL-20 on September 17 in Syria. Reportedly, 13 people died as a result of Russias airstrikes at Syrian province Idlib. Later, Russia claimed to be continuing bombardments in Idlib, if necessary. Related video: Open source After the end of the term of office of Alexander Hug, Mark Etherington will become new Deputy Chairman of OSCE SMM to Ukraine, Ukrinform reports. Mark Etherington was appointed Deputy Chairman of OSCE SMM to Ukraine, the Organization reported. As it was reported earlier, Alexander Hug resigned from the office of OSCE SMM deputy head, his mission ends on October 31. Related: OSCE, Joint Forces Operation representatives discuss Donbas restoration Reportedly, Alexander Hug claimed that one of the main reasons for the ongoing violence in Donbas is hidden in politics. According to him, since the beginning of the new ceasefire, the number of the attacks has decreased rapidly, but then it returned to the same level. Besides, he thinks that the reason the attacks resumed is related to the political level. At the same time, he thinks that the increase in the number of OSCE SMM observers will not settle the conflict. Related: OSCE: Prisons of occupied Donbas do not differ from Ukrainian ones I am not sure that the increase in the number of the observers will improve the situation in the region. The reaction of the sides in terms of this is more important, Hug stressed. Alexander Hug joined the OSCE SMM in Ukraine in late March 2014. In response, Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that there should be more scrutiny on Israels nuclear program Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed a secret Iranian nuclear storage facility in Tehran and hidden missiles in Beirut during his address at the United Nations' General Assembly 73rd session on Thursday. The Israeli prime minister said the Iranian facility contains technology for Iran's nuclear program, adding that Iran "took this radioactive material and spread it around Tehran like Nutella." Netanyahu said that Iran removed 15kg of radioactive material from the warehouse last month, and that it contained up to 300 tons of nuclear-related material. Netanyahu called on the IAEA to inspect the facility immediately. In response, Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that there should be more scrutiny on Israels nuclear program. No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program - including an *actual atomic arsenal*. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors, Zarif tweeted. No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program - including an *actual atomic arsenal*. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors. Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 27, 2018 British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the margins of the UN General Assembly British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt says Russia that "the price will be too high" if it continues to act against international norms. He said in an interview with Sky News. Hunt suggested Moscow will be wondering whether the Salisbury chemical weapons attack was "a smart thing to do." Speaking to The Kay Burley Show in New York, he revealed his "frank exchange of views" with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, during a "pretty tough" meeting at the UN General Assembly. One of the Russian men accused of the Salisbury poisonings has recently been exposed as a military officer who received an honor from his country's president, Vladimir Putin. "It is not acceptable for Russia to instruct two GRU agents to use chemical weapons on British soil, the first time it's ever happened, Hunt said. "This is a very significant thing and the significance isn't about bilateral spats between Russia and the UK. We have international norms where you don't use chemical weapons. "Our message for Russia is very straightforward: If you do this, the price will be too high." The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed Britains conclusions that ex-GRU officer Sergei Skripal was poisoned with the nerve agent. Ex-colonel of Russias GRU, Chief Intelligence Department, Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia, poisoned in the center of Salisbury town in the evening of March 4, are still struggling for life in the intensive care unit of the local hospital. The British special services suppose that Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by his ex-colleague Andrey Lugovoy, who acted on orders from Moscow. Earlier, MI6, the British secret intelligence, recommended that former GRU colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia change identities and move the U.S. to avoid any new assassination attempts. This was decided after negotiations between MI6 and their counterpart from the CIA. NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The New York Daily News announced today that nationally acclaimed theater critic Chris Jones will bring his theater coverage to the New York Daily News. From Broadway to Off-Broadway and beyond, New York Daily News readers will now have access to theater news and definitive reviews from one of the most influential theater critics in America as named by American Theatre magazine (2001). Jones will continue to be the chief theater critic and Sunday columnist for the Chicago Tribune, where he has worked since 2002. Jones will now also cover New Yorks theater scene for the New York Daily News. A longtime advocate for the theater audience, his sophisticated coverage reflects a deep understanding of culture, politics and ideas of the moment. He will help Daily News readers grasp Broadway's crucial role in the New York economy. He'll show you where the money goes--and what makes a flop and a hit. Jones has been covering Broadway and its tours for more than 25 years, beginning at Variety. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and American Theatre. In 2014, Jones became the director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Critics Institute in Waterford, Connecticut. And in 2015, he was the winner of Cornell University's George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. "We're thrilled to have such an iconic and respected theater critic cover New Yorks theater scene for the Daily News. Our print and digital audience will now have access to Chriss valuable theater insights and respected theater reviews, said New York Daily News Editor Robert York. Jones has a new book, "Rise Up! Broadway and American Society from "Angels in America' to 'Hamilton'" coming out this November from Bloomsbury's Methuen. About New York Daily News One of New Yorks most iconic media brands, the New York Daily News has been serving the city of New York and its surrounding communities since 1919. The Daily News delivers up-to-the-minute local and national reporting, rich photography and compelling video through its print, digital and mobile editions. Over its history, the Daily News has won 10 Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2017 Pulitzer for public service. Renee Mutchnik office: 410-332-6431 Alyakin is put on the wanted list by the Russian authorities on the suspicion of the fraud In Kyiv region, the law enforcers detained Alexey Alyakin, the ex-owner of the Russian bank Pushkino on the request of the Russian Federation as Ukrainian News reported citing the materials of the court. The Russian businessman is wanted by the Interior Ministry of Russia on the suspicion of the serious fraud. He was arrested in absentia by the ruling of Tverskoy Court of Moscow on March 10, 2016. In Ukraine, he is a co-owner of the building company Progres Bud (Boryspil, Kyiv region). In 2013, the businessman has obtained the Ukrainian citizenship, however, on July 30, 2018, the State Migration Service of Ukraine annulled it. The prosecutors office asked the court to arrest the defendant. The defense of Alyakin asks to release him on house arrest, appealing that Alyakin needs the hospital care, he has solid social ties and supports Ukraine in the armed conflict in Donbas. Particularly, the defense stated that the businessman served at the volunteer units Arata and Aidar and provided the Donbas veterans and soldiers with work and accommodation. In his turn, Alyakin claimed that he considers himself a citizen of Ukraine. The lawyers noted that in the case of the extradition, ex-banker might be persecuted for the political motives in Russia. The court chose the restrictive measure in the form of the arrest (extradition remand) until the Prosecutor Generals Office will deliver a decision on his extradition to Russia but not longer than September 15, 2019. In August 2018, Pushkinsky Court of Moscow Oblast sentenced two Alyakins accomplices for three and four years in the prison for the embezzlement of $9.1 million from this credit institution. On September 12, it became known that Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine extradited Timgoev to Russia, as the Russian federal security service requested. Explaining the decision, the Ukrainian side said that Timgoev was wanted by the Russian Federation as the ISIS militant; he allegedly served with the Islamic State fighters in Syria. Timgoev twice asked for the refugee status in Ukraine, but his requests were turned down. Related video: The U.S. passed Ukraine two Island-class patrol boats; the ceremony took place at the Baltimore base of the U.S. Coast Guard The U.S. passed Ukraine two Island-class patrol boats; during the ceremony at the Baltimore base of the U.S. Coast Guard, Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko described this as the improvement of defense cooperation among the two countries. 'Ukraine is de-facto NATO Eastern flank, and this gesture of support has boosted defense cooperation between our nations', the President said as quoted by his press service. The head of the Ukrainian state marked the importance of the current transfer by the U.S. side, calling it 'a proof of how much Ukraine matters for the future of the entire free world'. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Robert Karem assured of the unwavering position of the United States with respect to the firm support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia occupied Crimea and continues the conflict in Donbas trying to enforce the change of borders. Russian aggression is not only a threat to Ukraine. It is a threat to the whole region, Europe, the United States of America and the stability of the world order,' he said as Poroshenko's press office quoted him. Anna Kovalenko referred relevant documents to the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine and to the Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament for National Security and Defence Matters Ukrainian scrap metal suppliers violated sanctions against Moldovan metallurgical plant (Transnistria), introduced by the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine (NSDC) in May 2018. Anna Kovalenko, Adviser of the Ukrainian Parliament for National Security and Defence Matters claimed this with a reference to the data of freight traffic published by Ukrzaliznytsia, Podrobnosti reports. In particular, Anna Kovalenkoclaimed that 1447 tons of ferrous scrap were sent from Zaporizhzhia-Live station via the wagons of Ukrzaliznytsia in September 2018, it is planned to send 6210 tons of ferrous scrap. Related: Poroshenko vetoes law providing increased liability for illegal timber export According to the report of Ukrzaliznytsia, the freight is dedicated for Novastral Prim company and unloaded at Mateuti station, which is situated near Moldovan metallurgical plant. The freight is carried by Ukrainian transportation company, which belongs to the group called Ukrmet - the largest scrap metal producer in Ukraine. Anna Kovalenko claimed with a reference to the order of Ukrzaliznytsia from January 24, 2018, that public railway carrier violated its internal ban regarding dispatching wagons to the territory of Transnistria. Related: Parliament criminalizes illegal export of woods and timber Anna Kovalenko referred relevant documents to the NSDC, the SBU and to the Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament for National Security and Defence Matters in react for these facts. Moldovan metallurgical plant (Transnistria) put in sanction list by the order of the President from May 24, 2018. The fifth-generation multirole aircraft is supposed to become the NATO's major air superiority fighter in the coming decades The U.S. Armed Forces deployed a Lockheed F-35B stealth fighter in combat. The aircraft successfully completed its first official mission, landing a strike on the Taliban movement's positions in Afghanistan. Reuters reported that, referring to its anonymous source. 'The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the F-35B jet took off from the USS Essex amphibious assault ship in the Arabian Sea', the news agency reported. Israel became the first country to use F-35 in combat in May 2018. The F-35's key feature is the modern stealth technology, which allows the aircraft to approach the target and attack it from the safe distance before being spotted on the radar. The multirole aircraft can move at ultrasonic speed without using the afterburners, it is capable of hitting the ground, air and naval targets. F-35 is the fifth-generation multirole aircraft, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead; it is supposed to become one of the NATO's major air superiority fighter in the coming decades. By 2020, Lockheed Martin Corporation, the aircraft's designer and manufacturer, plans to release over 3,000 fighters to be employed by armed forces in eleven countries across the globe. The message about the alleged mining of government facilities was sent to the mailboxes of State institutions Open source Unknown spread fake messages with malware among Ukrainian State institutions allegedly from Anti-Terrorist Centre about mining the government facilities. The press office of the Security Service of Ukraine reported on Facebook. On the eve of key events of the public-political life of our country, the wave of hybrid aggression got activated and predictably rising. We all remember about the cyber-attacks, as Not Petya, BlackEnergy and the other outrages of Russia. Therefore, we state on another Russian intrigue. It is much more modest right now, but still. They took advantage of primitive method have committed mailing of fake messages with malware. On September 17 and 27, allegedly, law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Defence, the embassies of Ukraine abroad and foreign diplomatic missions received messages about pseudo-mining of government facilities from Anti-Terrorist Centre, SBU reports. Related: Hackers attack Gmail accounts of U.S. senators It was determined that the true IP-addresses of the senders turned out to be Russian. SBU claimed that methodical recommendations for strengthening information security were mailed to the addresses of the relevant agencies, and recalls that Anti-Terrorist Centre confidentially informs the departments responsible for combating terrorism in accordance with the established procedure in case of real threats. His team indicated that a lack of communications leaves his position as editor of the organization, which publishes secret information, untenable, although he remains its publisher Julian Assange has stepped aside as editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, the Wikileaks released a statement on their website. Due to extraordinary circumstances where Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks has been held incommunicado (except visits by his lawyers) for six months while arbitrarily detained in the Ecuadorian embassy, Mr Assange has appointed Kristinn Hrafnsson Editor in Chief of WikiLeaks, reads the message. It is also reported that Mr Assange will continue to be the publisher of WikiLeaks. Mr Hrafnsson is an Icelandic investigative journalist selected in 2010 as Icelandic journalist of the year (his third award) for his role in the Collateral Murder publishing collaboration with WikiLeaks. That same year, he became spokesperson for the organization and kept that post until 2016. Since then he has overseen certain legal projects for WikiLeaks. The 47-year-old whistleblower is still living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has sought refuge for six years since August 2012, fearing arrest by the British authorities and extradition to the US for breaking bail conditions if he leaves. Prosecutor Generals office of Russia sent a request to Ukraine on the extradition of the owner of Pushkino Bank Oleksii Aliakin. Earlier Alyakin, who was on the international wanted list for fraud was detained in Odesa region. Kommersant reports this. Oleksii Aliakin was detained by the officers of SBU as an individual who was in the wanted list of the Interpol, he was placed under pre-extradition arrest by court order after the Russia MIA sent the confirmation of his tracing, the outlet notes. Related: Russian banker arrested in Ukraine on Russias request, he might be extradited The results of the examination of the request for extradition are as yet unknown. Oleksii Aliakin is accused of embezzlement of $9.2 million from Pushkino Bank from the September of 2011 until the August of 2012. He jointly with his classmate, Deputy Head of Administration Denis Hontarev created the scheme of illegal withdrawal of money by issuance of loans to fake legal persons. The bank was deprived of the license on September 30, 2013. The officer demanded USD 5,000 from a contract serviceman for pushing the General Staff decision to include him to the UN peacekeeping contingent in the Democratic Republic of Congo A Ukrainian Army Colonel was busted with extortion and bribe-taking. The incident took place in Khmelnytsky region, central Ukraine, the press service of the Western Region's Military Prosecutor's Office says. The senior officer of the Moral and Psychological Support Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces demanded money from a serviceman who served under the contract. 'The 5,000 U.S. dollars were supposed to ensure the influence while making the decision by the General Staff of the Armed Forces about including the serviceman to the UN peacekeeping forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo', reads the message. The Colonel was detained in flagranti, as the deal took place. He faces from three to eight years in prison with property confiscation. The internal investigation is underway. American claimed that he headed to Russia for a date with his favorite but couldn't receive a Russian visa Open source The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) detained a U.S. citizen in Kharkiv region who tried to illegally get to Russia on a bicycle. The press office of the Eastern Regional Department of the SBGS reported this on Facebook. Related: Russian detained in Norway on suspicion of espionage It is said that the American was detained by the personnel of the Kozacha Lopan unit of the Kharkov detachment. He tried to cross the State border outside of the checkpoint. The border officers received the information on the violator from a district inspector. Sent to the border squad detained the U.S. citizen in ten meters from the State border line. Related: Ukrainian tries to bring 49 hidden iPhones from Russia, gets detained During the conversation, the man explained that he tried to get to Russia to see his favorite. Due to the impossibility to get the Russian visa, he legally got to Ukraine, bought a bicycle and headed out to an illegal trip to Russia, border police officers state. Currently, the violator is detained. He will be brought to administrative responsibility for attempting to violate the border. The fate of the US citizen will be decided by the court. Donbas conflict zone, Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia, sanctions, UNGA - news for the week on one page 112 Agency About Donbas Alexander Hug stepped down as the deputy head of OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine. The counterintelligence of Ukraine's Security Service managed to get an ex-official who served with the government of self-proclaimed 'Donetsk People's Republic'. A case of mass poisoning of the civilians by the drinking water took place in Makiivka, the occupied part of Donetsk region. *** About Ukraine at the UNGA The United Nations General Assembly kicked off this week. Ukraine was honored to have a chance to address the world - President Poroshenko was expected to and he did speak about Russian aggression, peacekeepers, UN reform. He also met Kurt Volker and got a present from him. He also got a meeting with Trump and Polish Duda, no presents reported this time. *** About Sea of Azov Future Ukrainian military base in the Sea of Azov will use the infrastructure of commercial ports. Ukraine's Armed Forces and the Border Guard detachments held a tactical exercise that included a simulated aggression from the sea. The drills involved the use of tank units and other armored vehicles. Earlier, Ukrainian vessels Donbas and Korets entered controlled by the occupants Kerch Strait and went under the Crimean Bridge. Reportedly, Donbas and Korets left Odesa military base and directed to Crimea. Ametist coast guard patrol ship of Russian FSS started accompanying them near occupied Sevastopol, later another unidentified ship joined him. *** About Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia Speaking of Oleg Sentsov, on September 24, he became an honorary citizen of Paris. The Ukrainian movie director, illegally kept in Russia, wrote "a letter about belief and hope for the best'. He believes in the good outcome of this story, despite anything: "Nothing lasts forever, even bad things!". Certainly, Sentsov was mentioned during Poroshenkos speech at the UN General Assembly. On September 27, Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian political prisoner in Russia has been approved as the candidate for this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. On September 25, Ukrainian parliamentary ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova asked Red Cross doctors to visit and examine Ukrainian political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh. *** About anti-Russia sanctions On September 25, the U.S. Federal Register is about to release the document, which introduces sanctions against twelve Russian companies, which act against the U.S. national interests. The Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the EU confirmed a new sanction regime due to the Skripals case. *** About Ukraine-Hungary relations Hungary claimed it might expel Ukrainian diplomat of the same rank as the Hungarian one due to passport scandal Zakarpattia Governor claimed that the video was published by the officer of the Border Guard Service of Ukraine, however, he does not confirm that the office did it on purpose. Also, Ukraines Security Service started investigating the cases of issuance of Hungarian passports to the residents of Zakarpattia region. *** About Orthodox Church in Ukraine Patriarch Bartholomew insisted that the Ukrainian Church enjoys the right for autocephaly; later, the U.S. government supported the church leader. The Moscow Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church asked the Patriarch to stay away from Ukraines affairs in this field. Vatican abstained from any comments on the matter. *** Attack on Odesa activist Oleh Mykhailyk On September 23, Odesa activist Oleg Mykhailyk was shot in the chest. Later the police detained the suspects in the attack on the activist , one of them was earlier suspected in the murder of the Georgian criminal lord. At the same time, Mykhailyk gets better; he slowly recovers. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Caldwell Investment Management Ltd. (CIM), the manager of Caldwell U.S. Dividend Advantage Fund (the Fund) (TSX: UDA.UN) is pleased to announce that the special meeting (the Special Meeting) of unitholders of the Fund (Unitholders) was held today. At the Special Meeting, the Unitholders approved the previously announced conversion (the Conversion) of the Fund into an open-end mutual fund, as contemplated in the management information circular of the Fund dated August 27, 2018. It is proposed that the Conversion will occur on or about November 9, 2018. In anticipation of the Conversion, it is expected that the Units of the Fund will be de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange at the close of trading on or about October 26, 2018. For more information on the Fund, the Conversion or CIM, please visit our website at www.caldwellinvestment.com or contact us at 416-593-1798 or 1-800-256-2441. Certain statements in this press release may be viewed as forward-looking statements. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as expects, is expected, anticipates, plans, estimates or intends (or negative or grammatical variations thereof), or stating that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Statements which may constitute forward-looking statements relate to: the proposed timing of the Conversion and expected completion thereof; and the proposed timing of the de-listing of the Units of the Fund from the Toronto Stock Exchange in connection with the Conversion. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements including as a result of changes in the general economic and political environment, changes in applicable legislation, and the performance of the Fund. There are no assurances that the Fund can fulfill such forward-looking statements and the Fund and CIM do not undertake any obligation to update such statements. Such forward-looking statements are only predictions; actual events or results may differ materially as a result of risks facing the Fund, some of which are beyond the control of the Fund and CIM. Documents are being prepared, and he will be released today in the evening Open source Zhovtnevyi District Court of Kharkiv adopted a decision on urgent release of Gnat Kromsky, member of the guards of anti-Maidan known under the code name Topaz. Lawyer Dmytro Horshkolepov claimed this, Interfax-Ukraine reports. The court granted the application of the lawyer about recalculation of the served sentence based on real detention. According to the Supreme Courts clarification of the application of Savchenkos law, it appears that he was held in custody for more than eight years. Zhovtnevyi District Court adopted the decision on his urgent release. Currently, documents are being prepared. He must be released today in the evening, Horshkolepov said. Related: Sentsov sends letter, saying he will not surender, - Automaidan activist Reportedly, on January 30, 2018, Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv found Gnat Kromsky, known under the code name Topaz guilty in the attack on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine. The judicial panel sentenced Kromsky to eight years in the prison with the confiscation of the property. Gnat Kromsky, the citizen of Kharkiv was a member of the guards of anti-Maidan in Mariyinsky Park in Kyiv. He became known under the code name Topaz after the publishing of video shot at the camp of anti-Maidan activists. Also, he participated in the capture of the building of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration on March 1, 2014, and in the mass unrest in spring 2014. Open source The order of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the dismissal of 13 members of the Central Election Commission and appointment of 14 new members was published in the official newspaper Holos Ukrayuny. The order #2558-VIII on the dismissal of the commissions members the term of office of whom expires, particularly ex-Chairman of Central Election Commission Mykhailo Okhendovsky was published. Earlier, Ukraines Verkhovna Rada has increased the number of members of the Central Election Commission from 15 to 17 people. 236 people's deputies supported the decision during the session. The bill provides for a unified amendment to the Law "On the Central Election Commission" - increase in the number of members of the Central Election Commission from 15 to 17 people. The author of the legislative initiative is a Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy. In the morning, he substantiated his position, stressing that such a decision unlocks the process of changing the composition of the CEC, and the number 15 has once been taken from similar norms in the Russian Federation, and has no fundamental significance. The Central Election Commission in Ukraine consists of 15 people. Only two people have the authority in the current Central Election Commission, - Oleh Didenko and Kateryna Makhnitska. And it will be so until April 2021. The term of office of the other thirteen members has long passed. Related video: Tamara Klykh noted that her son does not believe in the release Ukrainian political prisoner in Russia Stanislav Klykh wrote a letter to another Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov with an urge to stop a hunger strike. Tamara Klykh, the mother of the prisoner claimed this to Ukrayinska Pravda. He asked Sentsov, he said: Mom, tell Denisova, she has to ask him to stop the hunger strike. We understand that he is doing it for all of us, we will not condemn him if he is the only to be released as he has two children and one of them is ill. He should think about children and stop the hunger strike, Tamara Klykh told the words of her son. Now the mother of Klykh intends to file the letter to Sentsov and pass it through Ukrainian ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova. Stas wrote a letter to Sentsov. I took it and will send it and will tell his urge to Lyudmyla Denisova. Stas said that Sentsov wrote him a postcard and letter, probably, before the hunger strike but the jailers said that they do not pass the letters to other jailers. He asked to send it through me, she stated. Tamara Klykh noted that her son does not believe in the release. He does not believe in any release. Absolutely. We saw on [Russian] NTV Channel (the consul has sent a TV set to Klykh) - how did they allow to show this? Stanislav, Balukh, Karpyuk, and Gryb; that they prepare some exchange roadmap but it is unknown who and how would be exchanged, she concluded. As we reported, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova has received a letter from Mikhail Fedotov, the adviser of Russias president that reveals the health state of Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov. According to Fedotov, Sentsov is under outpatient monitoring due to the locomotor system disease. Today is the 138th day of his hunger strike and the individual dynamic medical monitoring is established. Earlier President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko claimed the necessity to make more efforts to release Ukrainian political prisoners Oleg Sentsov and Volodymyr Balukh during his speech at UNGA. As we reported earlier, Oleg Sentsov, Ukrainian political prisoner announced a hunger strike in May 2014, demanding to release him and the rest of Ukrainian political prisoners illegally kept by the Kremlin. Sentsov already survived three health crisis; the medics warn that the fourth one, which might involve the breakdown of the body's internal organs, could begin anytime. Related video: President of Ukraine expressed the hope: if the world leaders continue to support the extension of the sanctions, Ukraine will defeat the aggressor The U.S. declaration on the non-recognition of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 will be placed in the office of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko as his press service reported. My presence here, in the U.S. and the meeting in New York where we had the great honor to get the declaration on Crimea signed by State Secretary Pompeo. It will be placed in the presidential office. I promise you, Poroshenko claimed. The document was published by the U.S. Department of State on behalf of State Secretary Mike Pompeo in July 2018 and during the 73rd session of the UNGA, its copy was passed to the president of Ukraine. It is a very important document, Poroshenko emphasized. President of Ukraine expressed the hope: if the world leaders continue to support the extension of the sanctions, Ukraine will defeat the aggressor. If we maintain the pressure, then Crimea will become an intolerable burden for Moscow and aggression will be senseless. Russia started to pay the price for its irresponsible behavior, for illegal annexation of Crimea, aggression in the east of my country. Sanctions are working and it is necessary to reinforce them, the president said. At the same time, Poroshenko expressed the confidence that after the return of Crimean peninsula under the sovereignty of Ukraine, Russia will not be able to destabilize the situation in the Black Sea region. With the liberation of Crimea, Russia will be out of a launching pad to project its power over Syria, to threaten the NATO flank in the Black Sea, to undermine the US-led non-proliferation regime by refurbishing Soviet nuclear facilities in Crimea, Poroshenko concluded. As it is known, Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 after the illegal referendum. On March 17, 2014, Putin signed an order which recognizes Crimeas independence. On the next day, he signed an agreement which joins Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia. Related video: Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova has received a letter from Mikhail Fedotov, the adviser of Russias president that reveals the health state of Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov, as the press service of ombudswoman reported. According to Fedotov, Sentsov is under outpatient monitoring due to the locomotor system disease. Today is the 138th day of his hunger strike and the individual dynamic medical monitoring is established. Fedotov claims that the filmmaker gets the food mixture and daily infusion therapy. The last panel of the doctors of Labytnangi city hospital took place on September 12. They estimated the health state of Oleg as stable, without a negative dynamic. The doctors state that his life is out of danger, there are no grounds for the forcible nutrition. The next examination of Sentsovs health should take place on October 3. Then the panel of the doctors of Labytnangi city hospital will gather again, the adviser wrote. In her turn, Denisova claimed that she does not believe in the provided information. Fedotov assures me and all Ukrainians that the medical provision of Oleg takes place in the accordance with their legislation and there is not special (negative) attitude against him. But I am sure that those common doctors are not independent, and they do not fulfill Hippocratic Oath faithfully. The evidence is that Oleg has already refused from them due to the horrible attitude, she wrote. She also emphasized that any supporting documents were sent with the letter. The medical certificate could convince that Oleg is fine. Exactly because of this Lyudmyla Denisova insists on the creation of the independent doctors commission that will provide its conclusion in the written form. Such a document, according to Denisova, could show that Oleg Sentsov, his life, and health are out of danger, the message said. Earlier President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko claimed the necessity to make more efforts to release Ukrainian political prisoners Oleg Sentsov and Volodymyr Balukh during his speech at UNGA. As we reported earlier, Oleg Sentsov, Ukrainian political prisoner announced a hunger strike in May 2014, demanding to release him and the rest of Ukrainian political prisoners illegally kept by the Kremlin. Sentsov already survived three health crisis; 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 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: TEDxABQ, that is? You know the conceptyouve probably even watched the YouTube videos and then retreated to your bedroom to practice power poses or study your third language. But have you tapped into all of the local genius via this Albuquerque-centric event? Get in on the brilliance and learn from your fellow Burquenas and Burquenos at TEDxABQ , an ongoing series of events that is looking to the next chapter on Friday, Sept. 28 at 6pm and Saturday, Sept. 29 at 1pm , titled Imagining Albuquerque, held at the National Hispanic Cultural Center . Tickets for this knowledge exchange start at $25 . Find all the details at nhccnm.org . (Maggie Grimason) An exploration of emerging ideas from New Mexicans focused on the community. This September, TEDxABQ Main Event returns to Albuquerque with an exploration of emerging ideas from New Mexicans and focused on our community. The event, which will be hosted at the National Hispanic Cultural Center will take place over two days. Friday, September 28th at 5:00 pm, we start with Imagine Alburquerque. This event is an evening to explore the boldest ideas for, and by the city of Albuquerque. 7 Inspiring Speakers, 2 Performers, 2 TED Videos and 2 Films. There will also be audience engagement and VIP Reception. Featured speakers will be Andrew Lovato, Chris Sylvan, David Campbell, Monique Fraqua, Sofia Michelle Sanchez, and T.J. Cook $25 Students* (Friday Only) $35 General (Friday Only) $110 VIP (Friday Only) $160 Two Day VIP option (*Student ID required at registration) Saturday, September 29th at 9:00 am, The Main Event is broad in scope and theme, showcasing the best and most diverse ideas and experts across all disciplines. There will be 14 Inspiring Speakers, 4 Performers, 2 TED Videos, and 4 Films. Audience Opportunities & VIP Lounge speakers will be Angel Mondragon, Arman Rashidi, Chantelle Wagner, David Rakel, Devonte Watson, Jeff Nichol, Jill Geltmaker, Kaatje Gotcha, Matthew Fricke, Pilar Sanjuan, Robert Arrieta, and Dr. Victoria Mora. $35 Students* (Saturday Only) $55 General (Saturday Only) $100 VIP (Saturday Only) $150 Two Day VIP option (*Student ID Required At Registration) English French Canadas national nuclear laboratory welcomes over 60 nuclear vendors from across Canada and 25 local organizations and businesses to annual Industry Day networking event CHALK RIVER, Ontario, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canadas premier nuclear science and technology organization, is pleased to announce that it welcomed over 60 nuclear vendors from across Canada and 25 local organizations and businesses to the Chalk River Laboratories site yesterday to participate in its annual Industry Day networking event. Held in collaboration with the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries (OCNI) and local economic development groups, the annual fall tradeshow offers CNL employees the opportunity to interact with representatives from the Canadian nuclear supply chain, promoting industry engagement between CNLs nuclear partners and local companies, organizations and Indigenous communities. In addition to the tradeshow, which encourages economic development and collaboration in the Ottawa Valley region and more broadly across the Canadian industry, CNL representatives also conducted a series of presentations on its decommissioning, science and technology, and capital programs, as well as its procurement activities, and contractor management program. Overall, the event was well attended and once again served as an important forum to bring together a variety of leading technology vendors, local businesses and economic development professionals. From networking and partnership building, to knowledge sharing and collaboration, Industry Day gives CNL the opportunity to help shape the future of the nuclear sector in Canada, and to more firmly establish the role that nuclear science and technology will play in solving the technical challenges facing this country, commented Mark Lesinski, CNL President and CEO. Work through the supply chain is also integral to CNLs ability to do business worldwide, and this event is a great way for the nuclear community to find ways to support one another and solicit input on all forms of nuclear products and services. The Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries is pleased to work closely with CNL in making todays event a success by bringing OCNI member companies from across Ontario and Canada to link with local suppliers to support the revitalization of the Chalk River site, while creating jobs and economic development in the local communities, commented OCNI President and CEO, Dr. Ron Oberth. CNLs Industry Day is part of a broader effort by the company to diversify its supply chain and cultivate better relationships with nuclear vendors and small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly organizations that are local to CNLs Chalk River Laboratories site. Last year, CNL also launched a new vendor portal, which provides comprehensive information about upcoming industry events, scheduled procurement activities, recent awards, published framework agreements, and tips on how to do business with CNL. Together, CNL hopes these initiatives will help to establish higher standards in the procurement of goods and services, in a more timely and cost-effective manner, to support external supply chain vendor needs and to enable collaboration opportunities. For more information about how to do business with CNL or to register as a potential supplier, please visit CNLs vendor portal at www.cnl.ca/vendors . About CNL Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is a world leader in nuclear science and technology offering unique capabilities and solutions across a wide range of industries. Actively involved with industry-driven research and development in nuclear, transportation, clean technology, energy, defence, security and life sciences, we provide solutions to keep these sectors competitive internationally. With ongoing investments in new facilities and a focused mandate, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is well positioned for the future. A new performance standard reinforced with a strong safety culture underscores every activity. For more information on the complete range of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories services, please visit www.cnl.ca or contact communications@cnl.ca . Contact: Patrick Quinn Director, Corporate Communications CNL, 1-866-886-2325 Washington D.C., Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 28, 2018 The American Childhood Cancer Organization (ACCO), the sole U.S. member of Childhood Cancer International (CCI) provided its overwhelming support today for the World Health Organizations (WHO) announcement of its new global initiative to address the disparity between childhood cancer survival in low-middle versus high-income countries. The announcement came at the United Nations (UN) General Assemblys side-meeting on childhood cancer which was organized by the Missions of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, El Salvador, the Republic of Moldova, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Republic of Philippines and the Russian Federation. Funded through a generous donation from St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer partners with national and international stakeholders including CCI to provide leadership and technical assistance to support governments in building and sustaining high-quality childhood cancer programs. Each year, more than 300,000 children ages birth to 19 years are diagnosed with cancer around the world. Approximately 8 in 10 of these children live in low and middle-income countries where their survival rate is often near 20%. This is in stark contrast to high-income countries, where cure rates exceed 80% for many common childhood cancers. How urgent is this global initiative? Childhood cancer is the number one non-communicable disease (NCD) cause of death in children globally, said Ruth Hoffman, ACCOs Chief Executive Officer, and President of Childhood Cancer International. Childhood cancer has no borders. Why should childhood cancer treatments and cures? Even in the U.S. the majority of children with cancer continue to be treated with old drugs that were developed in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. These drugs cost very little yet are too often unavailable to the majority of children with cancer in the world who happen to live in low to middle income countries. With increased access to essential childhood cancer medicines and radiation, children can be cured of their disease regardless of where they live in the world. Ms. Hoffman will continue to represent the voice of the families of children with cancer as a member of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer. The target goal of the WHO Global Childhood Cancer Initiative is to achieve at least 60% survival for all children with cancer by 2030. This represents an approximate doubling of the current cure rate and will save an additional one million childrens lives over the next decade. The objectives are to: Increase political commitment and capacity of countries to deliver best practices in childhood cancer diagnosis and treatment; Support governments to develop high-quality cancer centers as well as develop standards and tools to guide the planning and implementation of interventions for early diagnosis, treatment and palliative and survivorship care inclusive of the needs of childhood cancers; Improve access to affordable essential child cancer medicines and technologies; Support governments to safeguard families of children with cancer from social isolation and financial ruin as a result of cancer care; Prioritize cancer as a child health priority and increase available funding at the national and global levels. This initiative is founded on the World Health Assemblys resolution Cancer Prevention and Control through an Integrated Approach (WHA70.12), which urges governments and WHO to accelerate action to achieve the targets specified in the Global Action Plan and 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development to reduce premature mortality from cancer. Actions to increase childhood cancer survival today represent effective and tangible steps as part of the broader fight against non-communicable diseases steps that will catalyze global efforts to transform childhood cancer outcomes worldwide and ultimately save many more lives of children, now and for years to come. _________________________________ The American Childhood Cancer Organization was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by parents of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer to advocate for their needs and support research so every child survives and leads a long and healthy life. The U.S. largest grassroots organization at the forefront of the crucial battle against childhood cancer, the ACCO is dedicated to shaping policy, supporting research, raising awareness and providing educational resources and innovative programs to children with cancer, survivors and their families. Since its inception, the ACCO has helped support more than half a million families affected by childhood cancer. ACCO now has 35 local ACCO affiliates known as Founding Hope chapters throughout the United States. www.acco.org. Childhood Cancer International (CCI) was founded in 1994 and is recognized as the largest patient support organization for childhood cancer in the world. Comprised of 188 member organizations in 98 countries, CCI represents the voice of children and adolescents with cancer, childhood cancer survivors and their families globally. Operating as a non-State Actor in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), CCI engages with the WHO as well as international development organizations, policy-makers, civil society organizations, research and medical professionals to advocate for the rights of children and adolescents with cancer and prioritize childhood cancer as an integral part of the local, national and global child health and development agenda. www.childhoodcancerinternational.org FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO SET UP AN INTERVIEW: Contact Ruth Hoffman, Chief Executive Officer, American Childhood Cancer Organization and President, Childhood Cancer International. rhoffman@acco.org; 202-262-9949. WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Smithfield Foods, Inc. donated more than 35,000 pounds of protein to the Capital Area Food Bank and DC Central Kitchen. Smithfields contribution was part of the companys 2018 Helping Hungry Homes donation tour. Now in the programs 10th year, Helping Hungry Homes is Smithfields signature hunger-relief initiative focused on alleviating hunger and helping Americans become more food secure. The donation, equivalent to more than 140,000 servings, will help families fight hunger in the DC metro area. Food has the power to nourish today and to transform lives tomorrow, said Radha Muthiah, president and CEO of Capital Area Food Bank. Were incredibly grateful to collaborate with partners who share a deep commitment to relieving hunger for people in our local community, and to see a generous donation like this one from Smithfield make its way to the tables of those who need it. Smithfield presented the donation to the Capital Area Food Bank and DC Central Kitchen at an event this morning. Members of each organization discussed food insecurity in the local community and the significance of this donation, which will provide protein to food insecure individuals across the area. Volunteers from each organization prepared 5,000 healthy meals, which will be delivered to more than 80 homeless shelters and other nonprofit partners across the city. In addition to preparing the barbeque-style meal with DC Central Kitchen, local chefs Kwame Onwuachi and Alex McCoy attended the event and led a training course for students in DC Central Kitchens culinary job training program on the various methods of cooking protein. Protein is a center-of-the-plate item we are always in need of to provide wholesome meals to those we serve, said Mike Curtin, Jr., CEO of DC Central Kitchen. We are incredibly thankful for this donation that will allow us to prepare nutritious meals for our partner nonprofits so they can focus on supporting their clients and addressing the barriers that left them hungry in the first place. This is the 45th large scale protein donation made by Smithfield to food banks across the country during its 2018 Helping Hungry Homes tour. Since the programs inception in 2008, Smithfield has provided more than 100 million servings of protein to food banks, disaster relief efforts, and community outreach programs nationwide. Smithfield is in the business of feeding people, and we are proud to witness our hunger-relief efforts come to fruition with the help of our community partners, said Jonathan Toms, associate manager of charitable initiatives for Smithfield Foods. Its humbling to work with the local advocates who are a part of this donation. Its their support that allows us to make a positive impact on this community and helps us to further our cause to alleviate hunger across the country. For more information about Smithfield Foods Helping Hungry Homes initiative and a list of upcoming donation events, visit helpinghungryhomes.com . About Smithfield Foods Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan's Famous, Farmland, Armour, Farmer John, Kretschmar, John Morrell, Cook's, Gwaltney, Carando, Margherita, Curly's, Healthy Ones, Morliny, Krakus and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com , and connect with us on Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn . About Capital Area Food Bank The Capital Area Food Bank is the largest organization in the Washington metro area working to solve hunger and its companion problems: chronic undernutrition, heart disease and obesity. By partnering with nearly 450 community organizations in DC, Maryland and Virginia, as well as delivering food directly into hard to reach areas, the CAFB is helping 540,000 people each year get access to good, healthy food. Thats 12 percent of our regions mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, and grandparents. To learn more, visit capitalareafoodbank.org , or find the Capital Area Food Bank on Facebook at facebook.com/CapitalAreaFoodBank / CapitalAreaFoodBankEnEspanol ; Twitter at @foodbankmetrodc / @cafb_es ; and Instagram at @CapitalAreaFoodBank . About DC Central Kitchen As the nations first and leading community kitchen, DC Central Kitchen develops and operates social ventures targeting the cycle of hunger and poverty. The organizations life-changing ventures provide culinary training to jobless adults, turn wasted food into balanced meals for shelters and nonprofits, expand access to healthy food, and provide healthy, scratch-cooked meals in low-income schools. These efforts have been recognized with the leading national award for healthy school food innovation, The Golden Carrot ; the Washington Business Journals Green Business Award for Innovation; and the DC Chamber of Commerces Community Impact Award. To learn more, visit www.dccentralkitchen.org or follow @dcck on Twitter . Media Contacts: Dalton Agency for Smithfield Jana Beasley (904) 534-8568 jbeasley@daltonagency.com Capital Area Food Bank Hilary Salmon (202) 644-9864 hshsalmon@capitalareafoodbank.org DC Central Kitchen Erica Teti-Zilinskas (202) 664-7949 eteti@dccentralkitchen.org A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a2b392da-1909-45a5-8b9f-6f9ab66b1e7b NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Lannett Company, Inc. (Lannett or the Company) (NYSE: LCI) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and docketed under 18-cv-3635, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Lannett securities between February 7, 2018 through August 17, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased Lannett securities between February 7, 2018, and August 17, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until October 26, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here to join this class action] Lannett develops, manufactures, packages, markets, and distributes solid oral (tablets and capsules), extended release, topical, and oral solution finished dosage forms of drugs that address a wide range of therapeutic areas. Lannett also produces, through its subsidiary Cody Laboratories, Inc., active pharmaceutical ingredients. Lannett derives the majority of its revenue from the sale of drugs that are bioequivalent to certain patented drugs once their patent expires. At all relevant times, Lannett has had an exclusivity agreement with its primary supplier, Jerome Stevens Pharmaceuticals (JSP), owned and operated by the Steinlauf family, set to expire on March 23, 2019. JSPs products have historically accounted for at least one-third of Lannetts sales. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Companys business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose that: (i) Lannett faced a substantial risk of the loss of its exclusivity agreement with JSP; (ii) accordingly, Lannetts reported revenues were unsustainable, and (iii) as a result, Lannetts public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On August 20, 2018, prior to market open, Lannett announced that its distribution agreement with JSP will not be renewed upon its expiration in March 2019. Lannett stated that it intend[ed] to redouble our continuing efforts to explore options for addressing our capital structure. On this news, Lannett's share price fell $8.15, or 60.3%, to close at $5.35 on August 20, 2018. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Affinor Growers Inc. (AFI or the Company) (CSE:AFI, OTC:RSSFF, Frankfurt:1AF) announces that Mr. Nick Brusatore has decided to step down as President and CEO of the Company. Mr. Brusatore will be focusing his time and effort on working with VDA Vertical Designs Aruba VBA in preparing the vertical farming project as well as working with the Government of Aruba in setting up and developing an agricultural research facility. In addition, Mr. David Mack has decided to step down from the Board of Directors in order to focus his energies on his legal career. The Company is very thankful to both Mr. Brusatore and Mr. Mack for their service to the Company and wish them both the best in their future endeavors. The Company is excited to announce that the Companys current CFO, Mr. Minhas, will be replacing Mr. Brusatore as the new President and CEO and will also join the Board as a Director. The Company has started the search for a new CFO to replace Mr. Minhas. Until such time as a replacement has been found, Mr. Minhas will remain on as the interim CFO. The Company has also appointed Mr. Whitlock, a current director, as the Chairman of the Board. Mr. Whitlock has played an integral role in helping the Company move forward with its technology and in working to get the vertical farming project approved in Aruba. Mr. Brusatore, commented that The Company is in a great position to capitalize on its vertical farming technology. I felt I had done all I could do in getting the technology ready for commercialization and it was time to step down and focus my energies on Aruba. I have a great working relationship with the Government of Aruba and I am looking forward to working with them and VDA Vertical Designs VBA in developing the vertical farming project as well as an agricultural research facility. Having been involved in designing the vertical farming technology, serving in various roles within the Company over the years and being an investor in Affinor, I am extremely excited in the direction the Company is headed under the leadership of Mr. Minhas, Mr. Whitlock and the rest of the Board. In connection with the appointment of Mr. Minhas as the new CEO and Director and Mr. Whitlock as the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Minhas and Mr. Whitlock have been granted 500,000 stock options each at an exercise price of $0.10, exercisable for a period of three year. About Affinor Growers Affinor Growers is a publicly traded company on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol ("AFI"). Affinor is focused on growing high quality crops such as romaine lettuce, spinach, strawberries using its vertical farming techniques. Affinor is committed to becoming a pre-eminent supplier of vertical farming technology. Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain assumptions, estimates, and other forward-looking statements regarding future events. Such forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and are subject to factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control that may cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. AFFINOR GROWERS INC. www.affinorgrowers.com NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Ampio or the Company) (NYSE: AMPE) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, District of Colorado, and index under 18-cv-02252, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired the publicly traded securities of Ampio between December 14, 2017 and August 7, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period). Plaintiff seeks to recover compensable damages caused by Defendants violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder. If you are a shareholder who purchased Ampio securities between December 14, 2017, and August 7, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until October 24, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here to join this class action] Ampio is a biopharmaceutical company which focuses on the development of therapies for the treatment of prevalent inflammatory conditions in the United States. Ampion, a biologic intra-articular injection being studied for the treatment of pain due to osteoarthritis of the knee, is one of the Companys lead product candidates. The Company conducted a Phase III trial for Ampion, titled: AP-003. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Companys business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose that: (1) the FDA would find Ampios AP-003-C Phase 3 clinical trial inadequate and not well-controlled; (2) as a result, Ampio had not successfully completed two pivotal clinal trials for Ampion; (3) consequently, Defendants public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On August 7, 2018, after the market closed, Ampio announced updated business disclosures relating to its AP-003-A and AP-003-C trials, disclosing that the FDA found that a single trial the AP-003-A study alone does not appear to provide sufficient evidence of effectiveness to support a BLA and that the FDA does not consider the AP-003-C trial to be an adequate and well-controlled clinical trial. On this news, shares of Ampio fell $2.25 per share or over 78% to close at $0.61 per share on August 8, 2018. Shares continued to fall another 21.3% the next day. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com ATLANTA, September 28, 2018 - The Board of Directors of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI; "Company") today declared a quarterly dividend of 13 cents per share. The dividend is payable on November 1, 2018 to stockholders of record on October 18, 2018. The Company will hold its Annual Meeting of Stockholders at 11:00 a.m. ET on Friday, January 4, 2019, at the Four Seasons Hotel, 75 Fourteenth Street, NE, Atlanta, Georgia. About Acuity Brands Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is the North American market leader and one of the world's leading providers of lighting and building management solutions. With fiscal year 2017 net sales of $3.5 billion, Acuity Brands currently employs over 12,000 associates and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with operations throughout North America, and in Europe and Asia. The Company's products and solutions are sold under various brands, including Lithonia Lighting, Holophane, Peerless, Gotham, Mark Architectural Lighting(TM), Winona Lighting, Juno, Indy(TM), Aculux, Healthcare Lighting, Hydrel, American Electric Lighting, Antique Street Lamps(TM), Sunoptics, Distech Controls, nLight, ROAM, Sensor Switch, Power Sentry, IOTA, and Atrius(TM). Visit us at www.acuitybrands.com. # # # # # Company Contact: Dan Smith, 404-853-1423 dan.smith@acuitybrands.com TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To mark the beginning of Child Abuse Prevention Month, Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre (Boost CAYC) is preparing to expand across the city of Toronto by opening a new, larger facility. This opening coincides with the public release of a recent study that uncovers the economic and social benefits of the child & youth advocacy centre model. At the official opening next week, former Justice Minister and Boost CYAC Chair, The Honourable Peter MacKay will discuss the findings of the study that confirms the benefits of a model he has championed for years. Interview and photo opportunities available. Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018 Location: Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre 245 Eglinton Ave. E, 2nd Floor Toronto, ON M4P 3B7 Time: 9:00 a.m. About Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre (Boost CYAC) Boost CYAC is the recognized leader for responding to child abuse response and providing necessary recovery services. A partnership with community and government agencies, it co-locates all professionals involved in child abuse cases under one roof, for a coordinated, interdisciplinary response to child abuse victims in Toronto. Boost CYAC partner agencies include Toronto Police Service, Childrens Aid Society of Toronto, Catholic Childrens Aid Society of Toronto, Native Child & Family Service of Toronto, Jewish Family & Child, the SCAN Program at The Hospital for Sick Children, and Radius Child & Youth Services. In addition to housing Ontarios largest child & youth advocacy centre, Boost CYAC offers a number of direct services including, primary prevention, public education, trauma assessment and therapy and court preparation for child witnesses. For further information, visit www.boostforkids.org . TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (the REIT) (TSX: WIR.U - OTCQX: WPTIF) will issue its results for the quarter ended September 30, 2018 on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 6, 2018. A conference call hosted by the REITs management team will be held on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 9:00 am Eastern Time. The telephone numbers to participate in the conference call are: Canada Toll Free: (855) 669-9657 U.S. Toll Free: (888) 249-8268 International: (412) 902-4153 The conference call will also be webcast over the REITs web site at www.wptreit.com . Please click on Investors and follow the link. Participants are requested to dial-in or access the webcast at least ten minutes before the start time. The telephone numbers to listen to the call after it is completed (Instant Replay) are Canada Toll Free (855) 669-9658, U.S. Toll Free (877) 344-7529 and International (412) 317-0088. The Passcode for the Instant Replay is 10124762#. A recording of the call will also be archived on the REITs web site at www.wptreit.com . About WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust established pursuant to a declaration of trust under the laws of the Province of Ontario. The REIT has been formed for the purpose of acquiring, developing and owning primarily industrial investment properties located in the United States, with a particular focus on warehouse and distribution industrial real estate. As at June 30, 2018, WPT Industrial, LP (the REITs operating subsidiary) indirectly owned a portfolio of properties consisting of approximately 18.1 million square feet of gross leasable area, comprised of 54 industrial properties and one office property located in 15 states in the United States. For more information, please contact: Scott Frederiksen, Chief Executive Officer WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust Tel: (612) 800-8501 ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Academy of PAs (AAPA) and the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) have partnered to raise public awareness of the PA profession by funding a nationwide advertising campaign. NCCPA has contributed $500,000 to this joint effort, matching funding approved by AAPAs Board of Directors. This joint effort coincides with the start of PA Week, recognized every year from Oct. 6-12, when PAs are celebrated for their contributions to the nations health. PAs deliver high-quality, cost-efficient, patient-centered medical care nationwide and are a vital solution to many of todays healthcare challenges, said Jonathan E. Sobel, DMSc, MBA, PA-C, DFAAPA, FAPACVS, president and chair of the AAPA Board of Directors. AAPAs Board of Directors recognized the importance of raising the public awareness of PAs as we work to modernize PA practice laws across the country. We would like to sincerely thank NCCPA for joining our effort. Advertising begins next week with a half-page advertisement in USA Today, along with 60 newspapers in the USA Today Network in communities nationwide. Additional ads, which will be appearing into 2019, are part of AAPAs public awareness campaign launched earlier this yearYour PA Can Handle It. The campaign includes an integrated mix of video, print, radio, and digital components. PAs are medical professionals who diagnose illness, develop and manage treatment plans, prescribe medications, and often serve as a patients principal healthcare provider. With thousands of hours of medical training, PAs practice in every state and in every medical setting and specialty, improving healthcare access and quality. There are more than 123,000 certified PAs currently practicing in the United States and the profession is projected to increase 37 percent from 2016 to 2026significantly faster than average for all occupations. NCCPA is proud to collaborate with AAPA to double our efforts and focus attention on the amazing contributions that PAs are making to healthcare, said Paul Lombardo, MPS, PA-C Emeritus and NCCPA Board Chair. This is a timely opportunity to work together to increase the publics awareness and elevate the dialogue about PAs and the broad range of services and high-quality care they provide. ### About the American Academy of PAs AAPA is the national organization that advocates for all PAs and provides tools to improve PA practice and patient care. Founded in 1968, AAPA represents a profession of more than 123,000 PAs across all medical and surgical specialties in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories and the uniformed services. Visit www.aapa.org to learn more. About the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants The National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) is the only certifying organization for physician assistants (PAs) in the United States. The PA-C credential is awarded by NCCPA to PAs who fulfill certification, certification maintenance and recertification requirements. There are more than 123,000 certified PAs in the U.S. today. NCCPA also administers the Certificate of Added Qualifications (CAQ) program for experienced certified PAs practicing in seven specialties. For more information about certified PAs, visit http://www.nccpa.net. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES MONTREAL, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (http://pyrogenesis.com) (TSX-V: PYR), a TSX Venture 50 high-tech company, (the "Company", the Corporation or "PyroGenesis") a Company that designs, develops and manufactures plasma waste-to-energy systems and plasma torch systems, is pleased to announce today that that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement financing (the "Offering") for gross proceeds up to $4,060,000, by issuing 7,000,000 Units at a price of $0.58 per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one common share in the capital of the Company and one full common share purchase warrant (Unit Warrant), each full Unit Warrant entitling the holder to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.58 until January 28, 2021. Fiducie de Credit Mellon Trust, a trust related to Mr. P. Peter Pascali, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation has subscribed for an aggregate amount of 3,448,276 Units of the Corporation (the "Units") at a price of $0.58 per Unit, for gross proceeds of $2,000,000.08 to the Corporation. The Corporation will not pay finder fees or issue any finders compensation warrants in connection with this Private Placement. The proceeds from the Private Placement will be used by the Corporation for general corporate purposes. The proceeds will not be used to purchase any of the Corporations issued and outstanding shares pursuant to a Normal Course Issuer Bid conditionally accepted by the TSX Venture Exchange and more fully described in the Corporations press release of September 18, 2018. The Private Placement is subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) as well as other customary closing conditions. Separately, the Company provides clarity on the following issues: Related Parties: For sake of clarity, Photis Peter and Peter Photis Pascali are in fact two different people. Photis Peter Pascali is the CEO of PyroGenesis Canada Inc, and the son of Peter Photis Pascali. In the recent past, related parties were noted as being: Photis Peter Pascali, CEO of PyroGenesis Peter Photis Pascali, Father of the CEO Fiducie de Credit Mellon Trust, a trust related to Mr. Photis Peter Pascali, 8339856 Canada Inc, a legal entity related to Mr. Photis Peter Pascali, Phoenix Haute Technology Inc, a legal entity related to Mr. Peter Photis Pascali Peter Photis Pascali and Phoenix Haute Technology Inc are no longer related to the Company. Q1 2018 Private placements (Consisting of Initial Subscriptions on February 9, 2018 announced in a press release dated February 9 th , 2018 and Subsequent Subscriptions on March 7, 2018 announced in press releases dated March 7 th , 2018): 4,871,429 units were issued. Each unit consisted of one common share in the capital of the Company and one full common share purchase warrant. Each full warrant entitling the holder to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $1.25 until August 9, 2019. $1,329,999.30 of the Initial Subscriptions were later credited to a settlement of $5,531,928 claim on April 30, 2018 (more fully described below) filed by Peter Photis Pascali and, as such, have been reallocated as a share for debt Transaction. The appropriate amendments have been filed with the required authorities. Each Unit was subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day from the date of closing. Initial Amount: PyroGenesis Priv. Placement Share for Debt Units Gross Proceeds Units Gross Proceeds February 9 3,271,429 $ 2,290,000.30 0 0 March 7 1,600,000 $ 1,120,000.00 0 0 Total 4,871,429 $ 3,410,000.30 0 0 Adjusted Amount: PyroGenesis Priv. Placement Share for Debt Units Gross Proceeds Units Gross Proceeds February 9 2,200,000 $ 1,540,000 1,071,429 $ 750,000.30 March 7 771,430 $ 540,001 828,570 $ 579,999.00 Total 2,971,430 $ 2,080,001 1,899,999 $ 1,329,999.30 For further clarification we advise that as a result of the Initial Subscriptions and Subsequent Subscriptions, the Corporation had issued and sold pursuant in the Private Placements a total of 2,971,430 Units for gross proceeds of $2,080,001 to the Corporation. The proceeds from the Private Placements were used by the Corporation for general corporate purposes. Concurrently the Company issued shares for debt in the amount of 1,899,999 Units representing the settlement of $1,329,999.30 of a claim described below. With respect to the final settlement of claim described in the Companys audited year-end financial statements 2017 issued on April 30, 2018: Subsequent to year end, the Company and Mr. Peter Photis Pascali, the father of the CEO Photis Peter Pascali, and unrelated to the Company, entered into a settlement agreement to resolve a claim in the amount of $5,531,928 filed on or about April, 5, 2018, made by Mr. Peter Photis Pascali, in connection with the share for debt conversion transaction between the parties that took place in 2014. Under the share for debt conversion, the Company issued 7,500,000 common shares in 2014 to settle $6,000,000 of the carrying value of the Balance of sale payable. The current claim was settled for an amount of $3,699,999.80. The settlement agreement also constitutes the final payment of the Balance of sale, and provides for the issuance of units by the Company having a fair value of $3,327,571 to Mr. Peter Photis Pascali as follows: (i) on February 9 and March 7, 2018, issuance of 1,899,999 units at a value of $0.70 per unit with each unit consisting of 1 common share of the Company and 1 common share purchase warrant which entitles the holder to purchase 1 common share at a price of $1.25 until August 9th , 2019, and (ii) on April 30, 2018, issuance of 3,385,715 units at a value of $0.59 per unit with each unit consisting of 1 common share of the Company and 1 common share purchase warrant which entitles the holder to purchase 1 common share at a price of $0.85 until April 19, 2020. As the claim related to a dispute that existed at year-end, a liability and related expense of $3,215,643 was recorded as at December 31, 2017. The liability was measured based on the fair value of the units as at their issuance date, which is $0.70 on February 9 and March 7, 2018 and $0.59 on April 30, 2018. In Summary: $5,531,928 claim was settled for $3,699,999.80 The claim was made by Peter Photis Pascali, the father of the CEO Photis Peter Pascali, and unrelated to the Company part of the claim was settled with units described above and the balance of $2,370,000.5 was settled by the issuance of 3,385,715 units at $0.70 each. Each unit consisted of one common share in the capital of the Company and one full common share purchase warrant. Each full warrant entitling the holder to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.85 until April 20, 2020. The share price on the previous days close to this transaction was $0.59. Of note, none of the clarifications/reallocations noted above have/will result in additional shares/warrants being issued. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States, unless an exemption from such registration is available. About PyroGenesis Canada Inc. PyroGenesis Canada Inc., a TSX Venture 50 high-tech company, is the world leader in the design, development, manufacture and commercialization of advanced plasma processes. We provide engineering and manufacturing expertise, cutting-edge contract research, as well as turnkey process equipment packages to the defense, metallurgical, mining, advanced materials (including 3D printing), oil & gas, and environmental industries. With a team of experienced engineers, scientists and technicians working out of our Montreal office and our 3,800 m2 manufacturing facility, PyroGenesis maintains its competitive advantage by remaining at the forefront of technology development and commercialization. Our core competencies allow PyroGenesis to lead the way in providing innovative plasma torches, plasma waste processes, high-temperature metallurgical processes, and engineering services to the global marketplace. Our operations are ISO 9001:2015 certified, and have been since 1997. PyroGenesis is a publicly-traded Canadian Corporation on the TSX Venture Exchange (Ticker Symbol: PYR) and on the OTCQB Marketplace. For more information, please visit www.pyrogenesis.com This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "in the process" and other similar expressions which constitute "forward- looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Corporation's current expectation and assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding the acceptance of our products by the market, our strategy to develop new products and enhance the capabilities of existing products, our strategy with respect to research and development, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, and uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process. Such statements reflect the current views of the Corporation with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Corporation's ongoing filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com , or at www.otcmarkets.com . Actual results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward- looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. SOURCE PyroGenesis Canada Inc. For further information please contact: Clemence Bertrand-Bourlaud, Marketing Manager/Investor Relations, Phone: (514) 937-0002, E-mail: ir@pyrogenesis.com RELATED LINKS: http://www.pyrogenesis.com/ NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Tribune Media Company (Tribune or the Company) (NYSE: TRCO). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980. The investigation concerns whether Tribune and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here to join a class action] In May 2017, Tribune and Sinclair Broadcasting Group, Inc. (Sinclair) announced a prospective merger of the two companies (the Merger). On July 16, 2018, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai issued a statement expressing serious concerns about the Merger. In particular, Chairman Pai stated that certain station divestitures that have been proposed to the FCC would allow Sinclair to control those stations in practice, even if not in name, in violation of the law. Chairman Pais statement signaled that Sinclair was not agreeing to the regulatory requirements necessary to complete the Merger, although Tribune had discussed these station divestitures repeatedly in its public filings since the May 2017 announcement of the Merger. On this news, Tribunes stock price fell $6.44, or 16.7%, to close at $32.12 on July 16, 2018. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com 888-476-6529 ext. 9980 ??| Encuentro del Canciller @NestorPopolizio con el Secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, Mike Pompeo, en el Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas, en Nueva York. pic.twitter.com/Ocjgk2XGup "Montenegro was mayor of Lima two times. The evidence that corroborates the existence of this vineyard is included in a document of merits and services written in Lima in 1556," he told EFE. The researcher is publishing the evidence in the book "The vineyards of Lima: the beginnings of South American viticulture, 1539-1551." After searching in Peruvian archives, in the Provincial Historical Archive of Valladolid and in the General Archive of the Indies of Seville, Toro-Lira found a set of documents that the captain incorporated in a trial to demonstrate "all of his loyal contributions to the crown." In one of those 16th-century documents, witnesses are asked "if they know who was the first person to plant vineyards in the kingdom of Peru, which were later taken to Huamanga, Cusco, and Arequipa, and as far as Chile." One of those witnesses was Alonso Martin de Don Benito, mayor of Lima in 1551, who said "it is true that he (Montenegro) was the first to plant a vineyard in this city. He planted it at his home and it provided the vineyards of Huamanga, Arequipa, Cusco, and Chile." Another witness was Nicolas de Ribera, who served as the first mayor of Lima in 1535 and who corroborated that Montenegro "was the first person to plant vineyards in this city, from where they expanded to the rest of the kingdom." Toro-Lira's findings allowed him to determine that Montenegro's first vineyard was located in a field where Peru's National University of Engineering now stands, and where an old pre-Hispanic road toward Trujillo used to pass. 1551, and that the silver mines of Potosi, located in present Bolivia, "represented the first important market for The researcher also found that the first South American wine was produced in Lima inand that the silver mines of Potosi, located in present Bolivia, "represented the first important market for Lima's wine ." "Starting in 1551, a trading route connecting Lima and Potosi was created, through which wine was transported to Potosi, coming back converted into silver," Toro-Lira said. ?Un hito ambiental para America Latina y el Caribe! La ministra del Ambiente, @FabiolaMunozD, representando al ????Peru, firmo #AcuerdoDeEscazu, el primer tratado regional que contribuye a fortalecer la democracia ambiental.#UNGA pic.twitter.com/oIIWmmcdHP Presidenta del Consejo de Ministros se reunio con lideres de organizaciones indigenas de la Aidesep 4 Alexia Sotomayor obtiene su tercera medalla de oro en Sudamericano de Deportes Acuaticos 8 Argentina vence 1-0 a Uruguay por las Eliminatorias Qatar 2022 10 Ministro #JavierPique: Estamos trabajando en varias zonas de Lima para llevar agua segura de calidad, es el compromiso del Gobierno de cerrar las brechas. Culminaremos nuestra meta para que en el 2021 todos los peruanos que vivimos en la zona urbana tengamos agua y saneamiento pic.twitter.com/3hr8v7Tadz Besides, more businesses from the neighboring country explore the Inca nation's market to make decisions. "What might be a problem for Peru, such as an infrastructure deficit , is an investment opportunity for us," Gomez expressed. "US$2 billion is destined for the infrastructure , energy, transmission, hotel, transport, and cosmetics sectors," he added. The officer also highlighted Colombian enterprises have found opportunities in the "Work for Taxes" mechanism. Works for Taxes is an income tax payment mode that allows companies to pay part of their tax bill by investing in public works, thus eliminating government institutions' need to mobilize public funds. "Peru needs a more advanced road infrastructure, and Colombia is very good at that. There are also various Colombian companies that have projects on social housing to make them available to Peruvians," he said. Within this framework, he praised the treaties to avoid double taxation between Peru and Colombia benefit the latter's competitiveness. "US$14.9 billion has been accumulated between 1980 and 2017. By 2021 when President Vizcarra ends his term in office we will exceed US$21 billion," the representative highlighted. "There's a lot to develop in Peru. Besides, Colombia is prepared and ready to contribute (to this development ) with its investments ," he concluded. NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Philip Morris International Inc. (Philip Morris or the Company) (NYSE: PM) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Philip Morris common stock between February 8, 2018, and April 18, 2018 (the Class Period), seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the 1934 Act). If you are a shareholder who purchased Philip Morris securities between February 8, 2018, and April 18, 2018, both dates inclusive, and wish to discuss this action, please contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. [Click here to join this class action] Philip Morris is one of the largest and most recognizable cigarette and tobacco manufacturing companies in the world. The Companys subsidiaries and affiliates and their licensees are engaged in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes and other nicotine-containing products in markets outside of the United States. The Complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose adverse information regarding the Company's business and prospects, including that Philip Morris was experiencing a faster decline in overall cigarette and e-cigarette (or "heated tobacco") sales volumes during the first quarter of 2018 than investors had been led to believe, that its much-lauded sales initiatives had stalled, and that it was experiencing adverse sales headwinds in key markets. As a result of these misrepresentations, Philip Morris stock traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, reaching a high of $109 per share. On February 22, 2018 one day after making rosy statements about the Companys ongoing sales trends and expected results to investors the Companys Chief Executive Officer, Andre Calantzopoulos (Calantzopoulos), sold 49,000 shares of Philip Morris stock at $103.66 per share for over $5 million in gross insider trading proceedings. This sale was unusual in both timing and amount, representing a greater than 22% increase over the next greatest number of shares sold by Calantzopoulos in a single day in at least the preceding five years. Then, on April 19, 2018, Philip Morris issued a press release announcing disappointing results for the Companys first quarter of 2018. Against its easiest prior-year comparison, the Company reported that a combined cigarette and heated tobacco unit shipment volume had declined by 2.3% during the quarter. The Company also stated that key sales initiatives had stalled, as the Companys heated tobacco unit growth had plateaued due to market demographics and faltering consumer conversion tactics and, further, that cigarette shipments had fallen by 5.3% during the quarter, signaling persistent adverse trends in the business. On this news, the price of Philip Morris stock declined $15.80 per share or more than 15%, to close at $85.64 per share on April 19, 2018. This represented the worst daily decline for the Company in nearly a decade and a closing price of more than 17% below the price at which Calantzopoulos had sold his Philip Morris stock less than two months before. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com 888-476-6529 ext. 9980 10:28 | Lima, Sep. 28. The survey shows that 74% of respondents want a ban on the re-election of lawmakers , 55% back a bicameral Parliament, and 63% are in favor of regulating political parties' private financing. As noted in previous posts here (Aug. 29, econospeak.blogspot.com/2018/08/marrying-nafta-and-tpp-us-mexico-free.html and Sept. 6, econospeak.blogspot.com/2018/09/has-trump-gone-over-the-edge-on-negotiating.html , sorry having trouble providing the links), top Republican senators such as No. 2 John Cornyn of Texas and others have said they will not approve a deal that does not include Canada, a reformed NAFTA. Let me note that it was not impossible for this US-Mexico trade deal to form the basis of such a deal. But, unfortunately, in the immediate aftermath of the announcement of the US-Mexico deal Trump announced that Canada must settle the negotiation on our terms. Oh. The funny thing is that there was a possible deal. The US was making demands of Canada about the dairy industry (never a part of NAFTA because it was so hard to make a deal) and Canada was making demands about the lumber industry, generally described as a dispute over dispute resolution. There were other issues, but these were the politically hard and sensitive ones involving such places as Wisconsin and Quebec. In the end it appears that no deal between the US and Canada has been made and probably will not be made in time for the Sept. 29 deadline. Nobody is calling it that, but the low key story on the back pages of Wednessdays major papers report that this is what has happened, not to my surprise. September 29 (or maybe the 30th at a stretch) is the deadline for President Trump to submit to the Congress the final version of the US-Mexico trade deal if there is any chance of it being passed by the US Senate in time for outgoing Mexican President Pena Nieto to sign it on his lats day in office on November 30 after the outgoing Mexican parliament could approve of it. The US Senate rules are that there is a 90-day waiting period for the initial announcement of a trade deal and a 60 day waiting for delivering the final detailed agreement. The Trump administration got their initial report in on time, but with only it involving US and Mexico. Sept. 29 is the deadline for the final deal. The newspaper reports provide zero details of the official negotiations, led by official US trade rep Robert Lighthizer on the US side, a hardline but experienced and knowledgeable official. All we have is that there is no deal between and the US and there will be no further official negotiations between now and the deadline of Sept. 29 or 30. We have just passed a last possible moment to save the US-Canada negotiation at the UN meeting (where the US president for the first time in history was laughed at while addressing the UN General Assembly filled with around 100 national leaders from around the world), actually two. One was a possible meeting between Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Minister, Chyrsta Freeland, which might have happened on the sidelines of the UNGA meetings. I do not think that happened, and while she has in the US media been regularly identified as the Canadian opposite number of Lighthizer, she certainly was not the Canadian rep in the now failed negotiations, presumably somebody on the same level as Lighthizer (US SecState Pompeo is the opposite number of Freeland), whose name I have never seen reported. But that meeting became completely irrelevant as there became a possible meeting at the same meeting (after Trump got laughed at) between Trump and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. Trump very loudly and publicly declared that he would not meet with or speak with Trudeau, claiming that he did not like the Canadian ngotiating style. Really. In any case, any possible meeting between Lighthizer and Freeland was simply out the window. And, of course, this means there will be no agreement between the US and Canada prior to the Sept. 29 deadline. According to the back page WaPo report today, despite this failure of getting an agreement with the USs largest national export destination, the Trump admin will submit the current US-Mexican agreement without Canada (NAFTA minus Canada) to the US Senate (assuming that some not well-reported details of this agreement with Mexico have been resolved). I suppose there is a small chance that the Senate will accept it and that will be it. But based on previous statements by important Republican senators, this will not pass without Canada aboard, and while a few Dem senators (Sherrod Brown) have made supportive noises about Trumps trade war, I doubt there will be enough to offset the loud GOP opposition, especially given that that United Autoworkers Union has come out against the agreement without Canada, joining in this with the US Chamber of Commerce and the US Business Roundtable. It looks like the successor to NAFTA, if anything, will have to be renogiated from scratch with the incoming leftist Mexican president, Lopez Obrador, but Canafa will have to be brought in, no matter what, or else involved will laugh very loudly at President Trump. Barkley Rosser Russia and Finland are considering joint initiatives to improve the environmental situation in the Arctic, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced after talks with his Finnish counterpart Juha Sipila. The two countries are ready to discuss a cooperation format for the disposal of chemical waste from the Krasny Bor test range in the Leningrad Region, in which both Russian and Finnish companies would take part, Mr. Medvedev said after the meeting. "Together with our Finnish partners, we are working on environmental projects. Finland has extensive experience in this area. <> There are initiatives aimed at reducing black soot emissions in the Arctic and at cutting the amounts of fuel oil used by vessels," the Russian prime minister wrote in VKontakte. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Miss Baghdad 2015 Tara Fares has been shot dead in the Iraqi capital on Thursday, the countrys interior ministry said. Fares, 22, was shot three times. According to local media Fares, who was engaged in modeling, used to live between Turkey and Iraq and had recently lived in the UAE. According to the interior ministry, police are currently questioning a person who was accompanying Fares at the time of the attack. No other details were immediately clear. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has met with Estonian counterpart Sven Mikser on September 27 in New York City, the foreign ministry said. During the meeting the sides addressed the Armenia-EU partnership, highlighting CEPA in terms of prospects of cooperation with the EU, as well as bilateral format cooperation with member countries. The FMs discussed the upcoming La Francophonie summit, due in Yerevan. Mnatsakanyan presented the priorities of Armenias chairmanship at the organization, pointing out innovation and digital agenda. In this context the ministers were pleased to note the productive bilateral cooperation in the IT sector. They also stressed the activation of bilateral cultural ties. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk on Thursday of fraud and sought to remove him from his role in charge of the electric car company, saying he made a series of false and misleading tweets about potentially taking Tesla private last month, Reuters reports. In a lawsuit, the regulator described Musk surprising members of his own team and investors with a series of tweets, starting with the Aug. 7 announcement that he was thinking of taking Tesla private. Twelve minutes after the first tweet, Teslas head of investor relations texted Musks chief of staff to ask whether Musks announcement was legit, the SEC said. Musk, 47, is the public face of Tesla and losing him would be a big blow for the money-losing car maker which has a market value of more than $50 billion, chiefly because of investors belief in Musks leadership. The Department of Justice, which has the authority to press criminal charges, has also questioned the company about Musks tweets, the company said this month. Musk said he had done nothing wrong. This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed, he said in a statement. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way. Teslas board said they are fully confident in Musk. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has met with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjrn Jagland on September 27 in New York City. The Armenian FM is in NYC for the 73rd UN General Assembly. During the meeting Mnatsakanyan and Jagland spoke highly about the effective cooperation between Armenia and the Council of Europe and discussed several issues concerning Armenias involvement in the organization, the foreign ministry said. The sides addressed the possibilities of finding solutions to a number of issues facing the organization. The Armenian FM spoke about the latest domestic developments, priorities of the new government, including its efforts aimed at the protection of human rights, strengthening of democracy and combating corruption. Mnatsakanyan presented to Jagland the stance and priorities of the Armenian side in the NK conflict settlement process, attaching importance to the creation of an atmosphere contributing to peace for advancing the talks process, the full adherence to the ceasefire and refusal from aggressive rhetoric. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Uruguays foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa held a meeting September 27 in New York City. During the meeting the FMs discussed issues of expanding the existing close cooperation in both bilateral and multilateral formats, the foreign ministry said. Both sides stressed the importance of holding consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries. Mnatsakanyan noted that despite the geographic distance between Armenia and Uruguay the countries are united by firm friendship and commitment for universal values. The FMs emphasized the active involvement of the Armenian community in different fields of Uruguays life and its bridging role in strengthening friendship between the two states and peoples. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Rodolfo Nin Novoa exchanged ideas over regional issues and efforts for solving them. The Armenian FM presented the stance and priorities of the Armenian side in the peaceful settlement process of the NK conflict, stressing the need for creating a favorable atmosphere contributing to peace for advancing the negotiations process. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenias foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Kazakhstans foreign minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov held a meeting September 27 in New York, the foreign ministry said. The ministers discussed bilateral and multilateral cooperation and outlined joint actions for deepening the mutually beneficial cooperation even more. The Armenian FM attached importance to initiating bilateral cooperation projects in the IT sector, given Armenias achievements and progress in the field, which in turn is a priority development direction for the government. The FMs exchanged ideas over a number of pressing regional and international issues. Speaking about Armenias stance and priorities over the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh (NK) conflict, Mnatsakanyan emphasized the need for creating a favorable atmosphere contributing to peace for advancing the negotiations process. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan DUSHANBE, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Turkmenistan has assumed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) chairmanship from Tajikistan. The decision was made today at the ongoing CIS summit in Dushanbe, attended by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Speaking at the expanded format meeting, CIS Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev said that the narrow format session focused on the results of cooperation of 2018 and the main direction for future development of partnership within the organization. The preparation works for a joint celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War victory in 2020 was highlighted, he said. The Council adopted a statement on the 70th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights protection, approved the CIS Cultural Capital to be held in Tajikistan in 2021, and to declare 2021 the year of architecture and urban development in the CIS. The 2019-2023 joint intergovernmental program of combating crime was approved and an IT field anti-crime agreement was signed between the CIS states. Amendments were made in the charter of defense ministerial council of the CIS states and the charter of the CIS anti-terrorist center. A number of multilateral cooperation documents in the humanitarian, law enforcement and military fields were signed. The next CIS summit will take place October 11, 2019 in Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Otis Gold Corp. (Otis or the Company) (TSX-V: OOO) (OTC: OGLDF) is pleased to announce it has filed, on SEDAR, a technical report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 on the Kilgore Project in Clark County, Idaho. The technical report supports the disclosure made by the Company in its news release dated August 14, 2018, titled, "Otis Increases Kilgore Indicated Gold Resource by 59%." There are no material differences from the mineral resources contained in the technical report from those disclosed in the August 14, 2018, news release. The technical report, titled, "Independent Technical Report and Resource Estimate for the Kilgore Project, Clark County, Idaho, U.S.A.," is dated September 28, 2018, and has an effective date of August 14, 2018. The Technical Report was prepared by David Rowe, CPG, of Rowearth LLC, and Global Resource Engineering, Ltd. Highlights: At a gold price of US$1,300/oz and a cut-off of 0.006 ounces per short ton gold (0.21 grams per metric tonne gold) the pit-constrained Kilgore mineral resource contains: an Indicated Resource of 825,000 oz Au in 44.6 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.58 g/t Au an Inferred Resource of 136,000 oz Au in 9.4 million tonnes at a grade of 0.45 g/t Au The deposit is robust in respect of sensitivity to lower gold prices down to $1,100 per ounce gold. The mineral resource estimate is supported by 323 drill holes totaling 68,800 metres with an increased proportion of core holes contributing to the resource. Otis has utilized modern 3D geologic modeling to constrain the resource using both lithology and structure, which will be used as both an exploration planning tool and for engineering activities. Approximately 85% of the Indicated gold ounces (versus 64% as estimated in the Otis news release dated August 14, 2018) are contained within the Tertiary Volcanic and Intrusive host rocks. Further, an estimated 15% of the Indicated gold ounces are contained within the Tertiary Volcanic-Cretaceous Aspen Formation sedimentary host rocks. Alan Roberts, MSc, CPG, and Vice President of Exploration, is the Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and has reviewed and approved its scientific and technical content. About the Kilgore Project The Kilgore Project lies on the north-eastern margin of the Miocene-Pliocene Kilgore Caldera complex in the Eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho. The Kilgore Project contains the Kilgore Deposit with a current NI 43-101 compliant resource: Indicated Resource of 825,000 ounces Au in 44.6 million tonnes at a grade of 0.58 g/t Au and an Inferred Resource of 136,000 ounces Au in 9.4 million tonnes at a grade of 0.45 g/t Au (the Deposit). The Kilgore Deposit is a low-sulphidation, gold bearing, quartz-adularia epithermal system hosted in Tertiary volcanic rocks, local Tertiary intrusive rocks, and Late Cretaceous, Aspen Formation sedimentary rocks. About the Company Otis is a resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of precious metal deposits in Idaho, USA. Otis is currently developing its flagship property, the Kilgore Project, located in Clark County, Idaho and the Oakley Project, located in Cassia County, Idaho. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Craig T. Lindsay President & CEO For additional information, please contact: Mr. Tony Perri Corporate Development Tel: (604) 424-8100 Email: tony@otisgold.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This News Release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the US Securities Act) or any State securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to US Persons unless registered under the US Securities Act and applicable State securities laws, or an exemption from such registration is available. Forward Looking Statements Certain information in this news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and expectations of Otis as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Otis's management. Such statements reflect the current risks, uncertainties and assumptions related to certain factors including, without limitations, drilling results, the Company's expectations regarding mineral resource calculations, capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates, production rates varying from estimates, changes in world metal markets, changes in equity markets, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, equipment failure, unexpected geological conditions, imprecision in resource estimates or metal recoveries, success of future development initiatives, competition, operating performance, environmental and safety risks, delays in obtaining or failure to obtain necessary permits and approvals from local authorities, community agreements and relations, and other development and operating risks. Should any one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein. Although Otis believes that assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. Except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Otis disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement. DUSHANBE, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. A meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Kazakhstans Prsident Nursultan Nazarbayev is underway within the framework of the CIS summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The meeting began immediately following the CIS summit. In opening remarks the Armenian and Kazakh leaders attached importance to the development and enhancement of bilateral economic relations. Several Kazakh companies have expressed desire to enter the Armenian market, which we welcome, Pashinyan said. Nazarbayev stressed that trade turnover in 2017 between Armenia and Kazakhstan grew 60% and added that the governments should continue working in order to continue this trend. Kazakhstan is open for Armenian products and businesses. We are interested in deepening economic partnership, Nazarbayev said. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. French multinational retailer Carrefour will open its second hypermarket in Yerevan within the framework of the upcoming La Francophonie summit in the Armenian capital, Ambassador of France Jonathan Lacote said at a news conference today. The ambassador expressed hope for increased French investments in Armenia. Not only do French investors bring investments with them, but also skills, ethics, social responsibility. We hope that as result of the 2018 political and diplomatic realities in Armenia the investments will increase, he said. The La Francophonie summit will also feature a business forum, with a number of French organizations expected to arrive. The second Carrefour hypermarket in Yerevan will be located on Tigran Mets Avenue near the Zoravar Andranik subway station. The first hypermarket of the French retailer was opened in Yerevan in 2015. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan says he will disclose details of a brief conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after returning to Armenia. A conversation took place between me and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe. I will tell the details after returning to Yerevan, Pashinyan said on Facebook. Before the CIS summit kicked off in the Tajik capital, the CIS leaders posed for a group photo, after which the Armenian PM and the Azerbaijan president were seen walking together and exchanging a few words. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenias foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has held a meeting with Algerias foreign minister Abdelkader Messahel in New York City within the framework of the 73rd UN General Assembly. The sides exchanged ideas over several issues of the bilateral agenda, the foreign ministry said. They stressed the commitment for initiating practical steps for strengthening cooperation in various fields and addressed prospects of development of partnership in international organizations. The FMs also discussed the upcoming La Francophonie summit due in Yerevan. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has participated at the CIS Council sitting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan took part in the session, the PMs office said. The results of cooperation of 2018 and the main direction for future development of partnership within the organization were summed up. The preparation works for a joint celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War victory in 2020 was highlighted. Several bilateral cooperation documents were signed. The CIS chairmanship was passed on to Turkmenistan. The Council adopted a statement on the 70th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights protection, approved the CIS Cultural Capital to be held in Tajikistan in 2021, and to declare 2021 the year of architecture and urban development in the CIS. The 2019-2023 joint intergovernmental program of combating crime was approved and an IT field anti-crime agreement was signed between the CIS states. Amendments were made in the charter of defense ministerial council of the CIS states and the charter of the CIS anti-terrorist center. A number of multilateral cooperation documents in the humanitarian, law enforcement and military fields were signed. The next CIS summit will take place October 11, 2019 in Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan. At the narrow-format session the Armenian Prime Minister attached importance to raising effectiveness of cooperation within the CIS and deepening of ties. According to Pashinyan steps should be taken to realize the potential of the CIS for developing regional cooperation. It will contribute to increasing competitiveness of national economic and the welfare of citizens, development of humanitarian ties and strengthening of human relations, he said. Speaking about the 75th anniversary of Victory in 2020, the PM noted that May 9th will forever remain a symbol of unbending courage and unity of peoples, who fought together at the front and selflessly struggled for the common victory, bringing decisive contribution in liberating the world from Nazism. The Armenian nation has unique attitude in shaping the Victory. Half of the Armenians who were conscripted to the army did not return home from this terrible war. More than 70,000 Armenian servicemen were awarded military certificates and medals, and more than 100 of them were awarded the title of USSR Hero. This holiday, as well as the memory of the fallen, call upon us all to mark the 75th anniversary of Victory deservedly, jointly counter the attempts of re-writing history and glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism propaganda, Pashinyan said. Pashinyan also emphasized the importance of adopting the statement on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Cooperation in the economic, innovative, cultural-humanitarian fields is developing in the CIS. In this context I would like to inform that the Global IT Forum will take place in Yerevan in 2019, which will become an important arena for developing practical and scientific ties between representatives of various countries of the world. We expect our CIS partner countries to have active participation in this important event, he said. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, 28 SEPTEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 28 September, USD exchange rate up by 0.46 drams to 482.71 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 4.92 drams to 559.65 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate stood at 7.33 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 3.36 drams to 629.79 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price down by 119.68 drams to 18396.8 drams. Silver price down by 0.64 drams to 223.79 drams. Platinum price down by 174.05 drams to 12601.82 drams. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan participated in the ministerial meeting of the Forum of Ancient Civilizations in New York on September 27. Foreign Ministers of Bolivia, Greece, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq and high ranking officials from Italy, China and Peru participated in the forum. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia, in his speech Minister Mnatsakanyan thanked all his colleagues for giving Armenia an opportunity to become a full member of the Forum of Ancient Civilizations. We understand the vulnerability of our joint cultural heritage, places, material and non-material heritage. This heritage needs to be protected and with this sense of responsibility we want to work together, acting as a very vigorous member of the forum, the Armenian Foreign Minister said. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Foreign ministers of Armenia and Kuwait, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah, met on September 27 in New York in the sidelines of the 73th session of the UN General Assembly. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia, the Ministers noted that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Kuwait, which is a good opportunity to sum up the past and to outline the steps for maximally productively utilizing the existing potential for the development of relations. In this context, the Foreign Ministers highlighted the regular consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries. The interlocutors discussed in detail the bilateral agenda and a broad scope of issues referring to partnership on multilateral platforms, highlighted the activation of political dialogue, as well as the expansion of cooperation in tourism, culture, science, and innovation. The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Kuwait highly assessed the role of the Armenian community in Kuwait as a link between the two friendly countries. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah discussed a number of international and regional issues. Minister Mnatsakanyan presented to his counterpart the efforts aimed at the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev met in Dushanbe and agreed to de-escalate the situation on the border line and prevent incidents, ARMENPRESS reports PM Pashinyan announced in a live broadcast on Facebook. This time we had more practical conversation based on which we recorded a number of important points. We agreed that we will task our defense ministers to take measures to de-escalate the situation and to prevent border incidents. I think this is an important agreement, Pashinyan said. According to him, President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan has also been informed about this agreement. I have given relevant instructions to our Armed Forces and I can say that the previous night was the most peaceful since I was elected Prime Minister, the PM said. Nikol Pashinyan also emphasized that during the conversation the commitment to the negotiation process was recorded. We agreed to establish operative communication channels but we have not agreed about its technical implementation, Pashinyan said, adding that there were no other discussions. I am happy and hope that those agreements will be respected, since they are extremely important, PM Pashinyan said. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan had a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Dushanbe, during which a broad scope of issues of bilateral relations were discussed. We can record that the Armenian-Russian relations are really on a new level and in my opinion our relations had never been on such a high level like its now, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan said in live broadcast on Facebook. He emphasized that there is full mutual understanding between him and the Russian President. This does not mean that we hold the same position on all the issues. There are no unsolvable issues in our relations and an excellent working atmosphere has been created, he said. Pashinyan also talked about his New York meetings. I had short meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, State Secretary Mike Pompeo and the main topic of those interactions was the opportunities of future development of the Armenian-U.S. relations, Pashinyan said. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan English French MONTREAL, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Theratechnologies Inc. (Theratechnologies) (TSX: TH) today announced that it was informed by Lyne Fortin, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, that she will retire from the Company by year-end. Until then, she will remain in her position and will help in the transition of her files to her successor. I want to take this opportunity to thank Lyne for the significant contribution she made in making our Company become what it is today. Lyne brought the knowledge and experience that were needed to successfully make the transition towards becoming a commercial company and to help us launch Egrifta and Trogarzo in the United States, said Luc Tanguay, President and Chief Executive Officer, Theratechnologies Inc. I am proud of what we accomplished as a team during my five-year tenure as Chief Commercial Officer. I want to thank everyone at Theratechnologies for giving me the privilege and pleasure to be a part of a Company that successfully reinvented itself. It is now time for me to pass on the torch to bring Theratechnologies to yet another milestone on the path of growth and profitability, said Lyne Fortin, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. About Theratechnologies Theratechnologies (TSX: TH) is a specialty pharmaceutical company addressing unmet medical needs by bringing to market specialized therapies for people with orphan medical conditions, including those living with HIV. Further information about Theratechnologies is available on the Company's website at www.theratech.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information, or, collectively, forward-looking statements, within the meaning of applicable securities laws, that are based on our managements belief and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. You can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as may, will, should, could, would, outlook, believe, plan, envisage, anticipate, expect and estimate or the negatives of these terms, or variations of them. Forward-looking statements are based upon a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Theratechnologies control that could cause actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. We refer potential investors to the Risk Factors section of our Annual Information Form dated February 6, 2018 available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for additional risks and uncertainties about Theratechnologies and its business. The reader is cautioned to consider these and other risks and uncertainties carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and speak only as of the date of this press release and represent our expectations as of that date. We undertake no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law. Media inquiries: Denis Boucher Vice President, Communications and Corporate Affairs Tel.: (514) 336-7800 Turkey on Monday donated military equipment to Gambia at latters military headquarters in the capital, Banjul. Among the donated items were 5,000 sets of uniforms, 1,359 cartridges and belts, 5,000 water bottles, 50 five-man tents and 50 20-man tents. Maj.Gen Yankuba Drammeh, Gambia's deputy chief of staff (left). (Picture source: YeniSafak) Maj. Gen. Yankuba Drammeh, Gambias deputy chief of staff, said the donated items will enhance the operational readiness of the Gambian forces. This is not the first time we have received gifts from the Turkish government and the Turkish Armed Forces [] The gesture spans three decades and the relation is characterized by mutual trust, understanding and high sense of cooperation between our two armed forces and [] two governments [], Drammeh said. It [donation] comes at a time when the armed forces are going through some transformation and these will enhance our operational readiness, he added. Turkish and Gambian armies established relations in the 1980s. In recent years, about 1,500 Gambian military officials received training in Turkey. Ismail Sefa Yuceer, the Turkish ambassador to Gambia, said Turkey is committed to intensifying its support to the Gambian armed forces in the areas of training and logistic support. Within this framework every year, Turkey will provide the Gambian armed forces with logistics assistance, with the exception of arms, Yuceer said. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, said the tests of new Ukrainian weapons and military equipment were held at the military proving ground of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. WB Group FT-5 LOS tactical UAV (Picture source: NSDC) According to Turchynov, the aviation tests of a new operational-tactical unmanned system, "capable of conducting reconnaissance, coordinating fire, providing radio-electronic combat-resistant communications at an operational depth up to 200 km, while in the air for up to 24 hours" were conducted. A combat unmanned system that can carry a powerful high-explosive or thermobaric combat charge and accurately strike targets in the deep rear of the enemy was also tested, the NSDC's press service said. "These unmanned systems were created by Ukrainian gunsmiths in cooperation with our foreign partners," Turchynov said. Lightweight multipurpose helicopters "Scout" and AK1-3 were demonstrated (Picture source: NSDC) In addition, the flight-technical characteristics of Ukrainian lightweight multipurpose helicopters "Scout" and AK1-3 were demonstrated. Turchynov said these helicopters are capable of providing reconnaissance and early reporting to the troops, carrying out border guard tasks, "as well as of ensuring combat missions, striking targets both day and night, in particular, working in the unmanned mode, in complex with modern weapons." Upgraded ZU-23-2 (Picture source: NSDC) The upgraded ZU-23-2 was also tested. "Combining this robust anti-aircraft system with an electronic system for automatic target detection and fire control will securely eliminate air and land targets, including UAVs on Russia's armament," he said. "An important part of this modernization is the ability, thanks to an automatic system, to direct fire from several anti-aircraft systems simultaneously at a distance, from protected positions, without endangering the lives of our servicemen," Turchynov added. Firing of RS-80 missile (Picture source: NSDC) New ammunition of Ukrainian production was also demonstrated and tested at the proving ground, in particular, RS-80 missiles suitable for use in various applications, and a high-explosive fragmenting projectile for the popular MT-12 "Rapira" guns. "All the new tested developments of the Ukrainian defense-industrial complex have demonstrated their high efficiency, and after taking them on armament, they will considerably strengthen our military potential," Turchynov said. Nearly 100 Australians have been killed at work in 2018 so far, and its only September. But some industries are more risky than others. Transport, postal and warehouse workers have the most unsafe work environments, followed by workers in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries, new numbers from Safe Work Australia reveal. Also read: Secrets to successfully bagging a pay rise So far, 29 transport and warehouse workers and 27 from the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry have died at work. However, thats an improvement on last years figures for the same period. Over that period, 44 transport, postal and warehousing workers and 29 agriculture, forestry and fishing workers died on the job. Construction, manufacturing and mining workers also have unsafe jobs, with 31 workers in these industries dying at work this year, followed by electricity and wholesale trade workers. Why is transport work so deadly? Speaking to Yahoo Finance, the national secretary of the Transport Workers Union (TWU), Michael Kaine said its no surprise that transport is again Australia deadliest industry. The high numbers of transport workers killed so far this year is shocking and correlates to Safe Work Australias final tally last year of 65 transport workers killed on the job, he said. Also read: The only industry where women get a $1,500 head start Sadly, we know these statistics are not the full picture: not all transport workers deaths are recorded as workplace deaths. Horrific injuries are also a major problem in our industry. Transport workers including track and delivery drivers and transport operators are under intense financial pressure from supermarkets, online retailers and online manufacturers. This can lead to stressed and fatigued workers required to drive long hours, skip mandatory rest breaks and even speed, he said. Just two weeks ago two truck drivers from the same transport company were killed in a head-on collision in Queensland. Story continues The company involved had previously been investigated for fatigue breaches, the type of safety risks which leads to fatal truck crashes, and had several charges laid against it in 2012 which were eventually dropped last year. According to a Macquarie University report, unsafe loads, unsafe schedules and an inability to raise safety concerns without jeopardising their jobs are all major factors in truck drivings dangerous reputation. Also read: Dont let a robot replace you: 6 ways to upskill to stay relevant It found 80 per cent of truck drivers work more than 50 hours a week, with 10 per cent working more than 80 hours. It also found nearly one in five drivers would not report being pressured to falsify their work diary, citing job security a major concern. The Federal Government removed the road safety watchdog responsible for setting pay and conditions for transport workers in 2016. This watchdog had the power to hold wealthy companies at the top to account for low cost contracts which are leading to the high death toll, Kaine said. We have now seen more than 430 people killed in heavy vehicle crashes since this destructive move by the government, while the number of transport workers being killed is also too high. Bahraini prisoners suffering cancer, multiple sclerosis and sickle-cell anaemia do not have access to medical care, Amnesty International said Friday, accusing local authorities of "negligence". Family members of 11 Bahraini prisoners, including high-profile activists, described treatment ranging from "petty harassment to needless cruelty", according to a new report by Amnesty. Amnesty said their accounts, supported by documentary evidence, showed health care in Bahrain's prison system was "marred by regular instances of negligence, delay, and arbitrary exercise of authority". Inmates with serious conditions like cancer and multiple sclerosis are regularly denied specialist care and pain medication, Amnesty said. "Although medical treatment is provided, it is far from adequate, and prisoners are frequently subjected to disruptions, delays and needless, petty cruelty," the report said. "In one appalling case, a man with stage-three cancer was sent back to prison just days after a biopsy ? the same individual recently had to wait for more than a month for his medication." Among the families interviewed are relatives of activist Hajer Mansoor Hassan, mother-in-law of Sayed Ahmed Wadei, head of advocacy for the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. The family of Ahmed Merza Ismaeel, half-brother of jailed cleric Sheikh Ali Salman, was also among those interviewed. Salman, one of the main faces of the 2011 Bahrain protests demanding changes in government, was acquitted of charges of espionage this year. Bahrain's public prosecutor has appealed the verdict. Hundreds of Bahrainis have been jailed, and some stripped of citizenship, since 2011, as authorities continue to crack down on political dissent. The government accuses Iran of inciting unrest in the Shiite-majority kingdom. Tehran denies the charge. Located between rival regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran, Bahrain has been ruled for more than two centuries by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty. It is a key US ally and home to the Fifth Fleet. Family members of 11 Bahraini prisoners, including high-profile activists, describe treatment ranging from "petty harassment to needless cruelty" The long weekend is off to the worst possible start on our roads, with two people dead in separate crashes. A passenger was killed when the BMW he was travelling in smashed into the back of a truck at Botany in NSW. Just before midnight on Thursday, Foreshore Road at Botany became the scene of another tragedy. Sadly, the passenger has died as a result of what is a very sad and tragic event on our roads, Chief Inspector Phil Brooks of the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command said. Ryan Nugent, 28, died on impact. Mr Nugent was the passenger in a BMW when it slammed into the back of a semi-trailer which was stopped at a red light. Emergency services at the scene. Source: 7News The 27-year-old driver was trapped for 40 minutes and was later taken to hospital clinging to life. The truck driver was not hurt. This is a very challenging situation for that truck driver, he would have got out of that vehicle and seen these events unfolding and quite likely a very life-changing experience, Inspector Brooks said. Police say the BMW hit another car moments earlier, at the intersection of Foreshore Road and Botany Road. The fatal crash was just three kilometres away. The BMW after the crash. Source: 7News That vehicle has got out to exchange particulars where upon this BMW has left the scene, Inspector Brooks said. The BMW sedan will now be forensically examined at the police holding yard. Investigators will be looking at the possibility was drunk and speeding. A driver in his 40s was also killed 90 kilometres northwest of Parkes when his Holden Commodore went off a bridge. Another man, a 23-year-old passenger, recovers in hospital after a late-night crash at Lakemba in southwest Sydney. Two former Bolivian presidents rejected an amnesty offered on Thursday by incumbent Evo Morales as part of a bid to garner their support in his territorial dispute with Chile over access to the Pacific Ocean. The International Court of Justice in The Hague is due to rule on Monday on the case Bolivia brought in 2013 seeking to regain access to the sea that it lost following an 1879-84 war it fought against Chile and alongside Peru. Earlier on Thursday, Morales pardoned Carlos Mesa and Jorge Quiroga but both were quick to turn it down, protesting their innocence. Mesa faces a trial over decrees during his 2003-05 presidency that affected Chilean mining company Quiborax, leading the World Bank's investment dispute arbitration institution to order Bolivia to pay $42.6 million in compensation. Writing on Twitter, Mesa said: "I appreciate the president's gesture. But I don't accept the presumption of guilt." Quiroga is in the dock for allegedly signing agreements with oil companies without parliament's consent during his one-year tenure from 2001-02. "I've nothing to be pardoned for," he said in a press conference. "If there was justice in Bolivia, 'Tuto' Quiroga would be decorated." Earlier on Thursday, Morales said in a statement that he had "taken the decision that no ex-president, except those accused of crimes against humanity or genocide, should have legal cases" while the country is fighting for "the defense of our maritime rights." Such an amnesty would need to be approved by Congress, although that is controlled by the left-wing president. Bolivia and Chile are involved in a pair of disputes that have been taken to the ICJ. The first is over Bolivian claims to a sovereign passage to the Pacific Ocean. Defeat in the 19th century war left Bolivia landlocked and today it is one of the poorest countries in South America, despite vast gas reserves. In 1978, Bolivia tried to negotiate a deal but rejected Chilean counterdemands for a territory swap. The neighbors have not had diplomatic relations since then. More recently, they have been at loggerheads over the nature of the Silala river that runs along their border. Two years ago, Chile asked the ICJ to recognize the Silala as an international river, giving the two countries equal rights to share its water. But Bolivia submitted a counterclaim arguing that the river was made artificially 100 years ago by Chilean canalization and that the water source originates in wetlands in its territory. Bolivia President Evo Morales offered amnesty to two ex-presidents awaiting trial but each turned him down protesting their innonce. China and Russia denounced the use of "blackmail" Friday in thinly-veiled rebukes of President Donald Trump, highlighting the chasm between the US and its rivals on issues ranging from trade to the war in Syria. Days after Trump slapped $200 billion in tariffs and vowed to press on until China buckles, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the UN General Assembly that Beijing would not be bowed. "China will not be blackmailed or yield to pressure," Wang told the chamber amid an escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing. Russia's foreign minister took to the same stage, condemning countries that resort to "political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force" in a bid to prevent the emergence of rival global powers. Trump forged initial bonhomie with Chinese President Xi Jinping after his unexpected election victory, but has often had to fight off accusations that he is too soft towards his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Nevertheless, relations between Washington and both Beijing and Moscow have plummeted in recent months and the General Assembly, the world's biggest annual diplomatic gathering, has if anything witnessed a deepening of divisions since it opened on Tuesday. Wang did try to play down the spurt in tensions as natural between two major countries and also insisted that China had no ambitions to replace the US as the world's pre-eminent power. "Various frictions may ensue and this is not surprising, and it is also no cause for panic," Wang said in a separate speech to a New York think tank. But his speech to the General Assembly contained multiple repudiations of Trump's "America First" foreign policy, which the US president again championed in his own combative speech at the UN this week. - Championing multilateralism - "China will keep to its commitments and remain a champion of multilateralism," he said. "We must pursue win-win cooperation.... We need to replace confrontation with cooperation and coercion with consultation. We must stick together as a big family as opposed to forming closed circles." With characteristic bluntness, Trump this week said his friendship with Xi may be over and accused China of interfering in midterm US elections to punish him for his tough trade stance. US tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese imports took effect earlier this week, bringing the total amount of goods hit by duties to more than $250 billion, roughly half of China's exports to the United States. Wang flatly denied a key charge behind Trump's hard line on trade -- that China is stealing US technology to boost its own companies. "This is simply not true. We hope that such untrue allegations will stop," he told the Council on Foreign Relations. US officials say China seizes the technology indirectly by requiring foreign companies to ally with local firms to enter the world's most populous market, with the partners then seizing the know-how for themselves. Like Wang, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not mention Trump by name, but there was little doubt about whom he meant when he denounced leaders who make "loud statements" that pursue "self-serving unilateral approaches." - 'Brute force' - "These powers do not hesitate to use any methods including political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force," Lavrov told the assembly. Lavrov lamented that "attacks" were being launched against the Middle East peace process, the Iran nuclear deal, trade agreements under the World Trade Organization and the Paris climate accord. "We are observing an onslaught of belligerent revisionism against the modern system of international law," he said. Relations between Western powers and Russia have been tense over the war in Syria, where Moscow is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Lavrov said the international community and UN agencies must make the return of refugees to Syria "a priority" as Russia pushes for reconstruction aid for its ally. Russia and the United States are at odds over the Iran nuclear deal, although key US allies France and Britain have also vowed to defend the agreement that Trump ditched in May. Relations with Germany -- another key ally which is a signatory to the Iran accord -- have also been strained in recent months. In his speech to the chamber, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also took an apparent swipe at Trump's "America First" foreign policy. The United Nations "thrives on our common pledge of 'together first'," said Maas, whose center-left Social Democratic Party is a junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi flatly denied American claims that China is stealing technology from US and other foreign businesses Hundreds of Danish police officers and soldiers launched a massive manhunt on Friday, suspending ferries and shutting down the Oresund Bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden, authorities said. Road and rail traffic on the bridge, the setting of the popular Nordic noir series "The Bridge", was cut off around 1200 GMT in both directions between Copenhagen and Sweden's third-largest city Malmo. The Copenhagen police said in a statement that they were looking for a Sweden-registered Volvo carrying three people "connected to serious crimes". Ferry traffic to Sweden and Germany was interrupted and the Great Baelt Bridge between the large Danish islands of Sjaelland and Fyn was also closed. Both bridges were reopened around 1400 GMT as thousands of travellers were stranded in train stations, tunnels and on roads around Copenhagen. Maritime traffic was slowly recovering and some trains linking western Denmark to Copenhagen skipped some stops to catch up, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. "I spent 41 years in the Danish police, I have never seen such a big action taken before," Hans Jorgen Bonnichsen, the former head of operations at the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), told local media. Police block a road to the Oresund Bridge which connects Denmark and Sweden on Friday as part of a massive manhunt Georgetown, Cayman Islands, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Total market capitalization Cryptocurrency market capitalization continued to grow for the second week in a row. This time it increased by more than 10%, or by $21 billion, from $203 billion to $224 billion. However, as usual, the week was not without its intense peaks and valleys. The most characteristic day in this regard was September 19. First the market plummeted due to the news on the hack of the Japanese exchange Zaif and the theft of nearly 6,000 BTC, BCH and MONA tokens worth a total of $60 million. Then, on the same day, the market did a complete 180 turn, which might have been triggered by the purchase on the BitMEX exchange of five million bitcoin futures contracts at a higher price. Market trends also continue to be affected by nearly any news regarding the actions of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It should be noted that this past week one and the same news item - that the SEC had requested more information before taking a decision on bitcoin ETFs - managed to cause diametrically opposed reactions among market participants over a very short span of time, provoking a wave-like movement of prices. Cryptocurrency trends IBRC experts have observed that Bitcoin dominance increases during a prolonged fall in capitalization, but during a market recovery, the opposite occurs. This is exactly what happened last week: the dominance of the main cryptocurrency fell from 55.5% to 51.7% against the backdrop of a 3% increase in its price (from $6,537 to $6,715). All the main altcoins showed a positive price trend. For example, Ethereum appreciated by 8% (from $223 to $241), Bitcoin Cash by 9% (from $448.5 to $488), and Litecoin by 7% (from $56.6 to $60.6). The unquestioned leader of the week was Ripple, which experienced a price jump of more than 100% over seven days! This cryptocurrency even managed to overtake the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization, Ethereum, for a short time. This was the first time this had happened since December 2017. Ripples meteoric growth was caused by a series of positive news items and events, including the full-scale launch of the xRapid product along with the adoption of Ripple by a growing number of companies and banks. Key events having an influence on the market Our experts identified a number of key events that had varying effects on the markets last week. Most notably was the announcement that Ripple was partnering with Saudi Arabias largest bank, The Saudi Arabian National Commercial Bank, in order to help them implement new technology that will establish connections with Singapore as well as other Asian and American establishments. Meanwhile, Taiwan, Asias seventh largest economy, is investigating creating crypto-friendly regulations. The island state is seen as the next major cryptocurrency market, and a friendly regulatory frameworks could prove to be a boost for economic growth there. As noted above, Ethereum experienced some recovery last week, and that is in part due to the announcement of the upcoming launch of Komgo SA. Conceived of by Dutch bank ING, France's Societe Generale, and Mercuria, commodity trading giants like Guvnor Group and Royal Dutch Shell will collaborate with a number of international banks to develop the Ethereum-based exchange platform. The adoption of blockchain technology could have a transformative effect on that sector. Also having a positive influence on markets is the prediction by billionaire investor and legendary former hedge fund manager, Michael Novogratz, that bitcoin prices will see a 30% rise in 2018. Novogratz believes its impossible for Bitcoin not to rebound to the $8,800 to $10,000 range. The IBRC experts are also keeping an eye on talk of regulation of cryptocurrency in the UK. Treasury Committee chair Nicky Morgan was quoted as saying, Its unsustainable for the Government and regulators to bumble along issuing feeble warnings to potential investors, yet refrain from acting. For now, this will have neutral to uncertain effects on markets. On the negative front, the SEC has asked for more information regarding the CBOE Bitcoin ETF. Its expected to make a ruling on September 30, 2018. After the SEC postponed its decision in early August of this year, cryptocurrency markets lost of $20 billion. As discussed below, the SEC could further postpone this decision which will continue to affect markets. Events that could influence the market in the near future Ripple could see more growth as the company hints that its cryptocurrency product xRapid may launch as early as next month. The product is being developed to help banks speed up XRP transactions. Meanwhile, Ethereum plans to activate the Constantinople hard fork some time next month as well, which could lead to a reduction in rewards per block of Ethereum from 3 ETH to 2 ETH. At the moment the news is considered by IBRC experts to have a neutral to uncertain influence on markets in the near future. The SEC may continue to drag its feet on its bitcoin ETF decision, which could in turn create a continued negative effect on cryptocurrency markets overall. As well, two major cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea have decided that users must have verified real-name accounts in order to withdraw fiat from the exchanges. Bithumb, the countrys largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, as well as the third largest exchange, Coinone, both announced the change last Friday. This will bring the exchanges in line with new South Korean cryptocurrency regulations stipulating real-name requirements that will come into effect in January 2019. ICO statistics and the most important projects to complete their initial coin offerings The number of projects that have completed their ICOs and disclosed information on collected funds has fallen for the third week running. Last week there were only seven such projects. They collected $64.2 million, the lowest figure in September. In total, more than 30 ICOs were completed from September 16-23. The leader in funds collected was the Ankr Network project, which managed to collect $18.7 million. However, this is the smallest amount collected by a weekly leader so far this month. The project aims to create a blockchain-based cloud computing platform which will give participants incentives to share their computing resources with its network in order to reduce costs and improve computing efficiency. The platform expects to be less expensive than centralized solutions such as Amazon or Google cloud services. Key news item of the week The key news item this week was that Coil will be facilitating XRP micropayments on YouTube, Twitch, and Wikipedia. Coil is an XRP-driven platform that was developed by former Ripple CTO, Stefan Thomas, as a flat-rate subscription service. Fiat micropayments have been something of a impractical concept for digital platforms to date, but cryptocurrency technology could change all of that. According to IBRC expert, Dima Zaitsev, who is head of PR International at ICOBox, More than 2 billion people per month use YouTube and Twitch to watch videos, while 2.5 billion access Wikipedia. If the implementation of XRP by these companies is more than mere hype, it could mark the beginning of widespread adoption of cryptocurrency on the Internet and in other facets of everyday life. That possibility is colossal, and regulators who are dragging their feet will need to step up to meet the demands of what could be a watershed moment in cryptocurrency markets worldwide. Strangest news item of the week Chechen authorities announced a plan to create an Eurasian mining pool in the Republic. They claim to want to create a crypto cluster in the Russian republic in order to combine the resources of miners from the EAEU while helping them save on commission fees to foreign intermediaries. On the face of it, this may not seem particularly strange. But there are two catches. The first is that Russia does not have legislative regulations on cryptocurrency and crypto mining. More importantly, its best to take announcements such as these with a pinch of salt. Chechen authorities are notorious for their love of bombastic PR. About ICOBox: ICOBox is the worlds leading ICO solutions provider, offering a wide range of technical, legal and marketing services to projects selling their products and services via Initial Coin Offerings. As a global blockchain startup accelerator, ICOBox has helped organize dozens of ICOs, including such prominent projects as INS, Universa, Play2Live, Crypterium, Celsius, Patron, Storiqa, Tokenstars, CrowdGenie, SM.M, NVB, and more. For more information please visit https://icobox.io/ Five Egyptian fishermen detained in breakaway northern Cyprus have been freed, Egypt's foreign ministry said Friday, after diplomatic protests against their arrest by Turkish forces. A court in the northern city of Kyrenia fined the five fishermen 500 euros each and allowed them to leave with their boat, Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement. The Greek-Cypriot company that owns the boat paid the fines, the ministry added. The boat is scheduled to arrive at the southern port of Limassol in the Republic of Cyprus on Saturday, the statement said. Personnel on board a Turkish military vessel arrested the five fishermen on September 21 and towed their boat to Kyrenia, the Cyprus News Agency said, citing the boat owner. Turkish Cypriot media said the fishermen were arrested for straying into Turkish-controlled waters, 14 kilometres off the island's north coast. The Cypriot government said it had protested to the United Nations over the detention of the Cypriot flagged vessel and its crew. Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-sponsored military coup seeking to unite the Mediterranean island with Greece. Turkey is the only country to recognise the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, while the rest of the island is a European Union member state. Turkey has long maintained as many as 35,000 troops in the breakaway north although the military does not give official figures. A court in the northern Cypriot city of Kyrenia fined the five fishermen 500 euros each and allowed them to leave with their boat Venezuela's migrant crisis is costing neighboring Colombia about 0.5 percent of GDP -- or around $1.3 billion -- its President Ivan Duque said Friday after talks with a top World Bank official. Duque said Colombia would continue its "open arms" policy towards migrants from its crisis-worn neighbor but the economic and social costs on his country had to be evaluated. "The economic impact that the migration crisis may have can be of the order of 0.5 percent of GDP and obviously we want ot look at how that is reflected in health, in education, in infrastructure, in many public assets," the president said. Duque was speaking after talks in Bogota with the World Bank's vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jorge Familiar. Familiar said the bank would deliver a detailed report on the social impact of the crisis on Colombia in a few weeks. Duque said it would "serve to guide" his government in dealing with the crisis. The UN says 2.3 million Venezuelans are living outside the country, with 1.6 million having fled since 2015. An estimated 90 percent have fled to other Latin American countries. Colombia has taken in more than a million Venezuelans. Familiar praised Colombia's leadership in the migration crisis, but said "this is a regional issue that will require a regional response." Duque's administration, like that of his predecessor Juan Manuel Santos, has branded Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a dictator. Oil income-dependent Venezuela's economic woes began in 2014 with the crash in the price of crude. A Venezuelan migrant family get off a truck on the Pan-American highway, between Pasto and Ipiales in Colombia, on August 23, 2018. A husband-to-be has suffered a fractured neck a week before his wedding after a bucks party prank went horribly wrong. Tim Cornthwaite was with friends over the weekend celebrating his last few days of freedom on the Gold Coast when a bungee jump prank left him in hospital. Friends blindfolded the father-of-two and pretended he was about to embark on a bungee jump. Instead he fell forwards into a childrens pool as part of the gaff, but fell awkwardly, fracturing his neck. Tim Cornwhaite lies in hospital after fracturing his neck when jumping into a childrens pool blindfolded at his bucks party. Source: Chloe Zammit/ Facebook When I landed from my shoulder blades up just went instantly stiff, he told 7News. I thought it was just like whiplash. Despite complaining of soreness, it was only until a few days later that he decided to go to hospital where a CAT scan revealed the extent of the damage. He has multiple unstable fractures to his neck. He is okay and will be 100% okay eventually, we just have a long road of recovery ahead, his partner, Chloe Zammit, revealed on Facebook. He will now be forced to wear a neck brace attached to his skull for up to six months. The couple, pictured with their two young sons, will now have their wedding reception in six months time. Source: Facebook/ Chloe Zammit Despite cancelling their wedding reception, the couple will go ahead with their ceremony. However while the delayed wedding will be a huge blow to Ms Zammit, their main concern now lies with Mr Cornthwaites recovery. The concrete cutter will be out of work for the unforeseeable future and his wife-to-be has dropped work to care for him. Along with their children and mortgage, the family now face an uphill battle to make ends meet. The concrete cutter faces up to six months in his neck brace and a similar lay off from work. Source: Facebook/ tim Cornthwaite In a bid to support the family financially, a friend has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover costs and support them whilst their income has run dry. [Tim] and the fiance are in good spirits and see the funny side as they are two of the most down to earth, selfless people youll meet, the fundraising page reads. What isnt funny is working out how they will pay their mortgage and look after their two young boys with them both not working for the next 3-6 months. Any help at all would go a long way in getting them through a pretty challenging time in their lives. Story continues So far the page has raised over $9000 for the family. On Thursday Ms Zammit thanked everyone for their continued support following her partners injury. Thank you so much to everyone. We are so overwhelmed with support, offerings of help and kind words, she said. The Kremlin said Friday it was difficult to separate truth from fiction in media reports after a respected investigative group revealed the identity of a suspect in the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal. "Over the past months a lot of news about the Skripals' affair has appeared in British media and media in other countries," Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "No one can truly figure out which news is fake and which is true," he told reporters, doubting that it was possible to check the identities of the people mentioned in media reports. On Wednesday, Bellingcat, the British based investigative group, said that the real name of Ruslan Boshirov, one of the two men accused by British authorities of poisoning Skripal and his daughter Yulia, was Anatoly Chepiga. The 39-year-old is a military intelligence colonel decorated with the country's top award, the Hero of Russia, Bellingcat said. The report included a passport photo of Chepiga from 2003 which resembles a younger version of the photo of Boshirov released by British authorities. Peskov said the Kremlin no longer wanted to discuss the subject with journalists, saying the fact that someone may resemble Boshirov did not prove anything. "I beg your pardon but we have 10 Stalins and 15 Lenins running around Red Square," Peskov said, referring to street performers impersonating Russia's Soviet leaders. "They all look extremely similar to the originals." Peskov also denied that the suspect was awarded the country's top award. "We have checked it. I have no information about a man with such a name being awarded." Chepiga was bestowed the Hero of Russia award in 2014 for "conducting a peace-keeping mission," a likely reference to the Ukraine conflict. Bellingcat said it was "highly likely" that Putin knew Chepiga because he personally hands out these awards. Only a handful of such awards are given each year, often posthumously. A respected Russian broadsheet, Kommersant, said Thursday that several residents of a small far eastern village where Chepiga's family used to live, identified him as one of the suspects wanted by Britain. British authorities have identified the two Russian suspects it would like to question over the nerve agent attack as Ruslan Boshirov (left) and Alexander Petrov A Halloween decoration hanging in the window of a couples home is so scary that it prompted calls from concerned neighbours and at least one plea for police assistance. The sign reading Help Me, which appears to be written in blood, is part of North Dakota resident Becky Muhs display for her favourite holiday. A Halloween decoration hanging in the window of a home in North Dakota, US, home is so scary concerned neighbours called the police to check on the residents. Source: WDAY-TV WDAY-TV reports Ms Muhs and her husband began getting messages from neighbours over the weekend asking if they were OK. One neighbour even dialled 911, leading to a police officer visiting their West Fargo home. Ms Muhs says the incident ended in a laugh and that the officer didnt ask her to take the sign down. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hailed Friday US President Donald Trump's isolationist speech at the United Nations as marking a welcome end to American interference in other countries' affairs. In a robust address to the UN General Assembly, Trump denounced Tuesday a "globalist" view of the world, and signalled his commitment to following an "America First" foreign policy. "In the last few decades the US took on some kind of role of making the world better that in fact was contrary to American interests, that's what President Trump spoke about," Orban said on Hungarian public radio. The leader of the world's most powerful country had now "declared the end of that policy," according to the Hungarian premier, one of Trump's biggest supporters in Europe. Under previous administrations, the "US thought it knows what is good, moral, just, and how the world should be, but we felt that... it wanted to impose its will on the whole world, for example on Hungary too," Orban said. Trump's approach means the US can now be viewed differently, the prime minister added. "We don't have to defend ourselves against it, or its incompetent attempts to wield cultural influence, but rather can now try to build a partnership on the basis of interests." The fiercely nationalist Orban was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump after his shock election victory in 2016, and has regularly praised the US leader's immigration and security policies. Trump is increasingly regarded globally as "a phenomenon, an icon... someone who represents something much more than himself," he said Friday. After coming to power in 2010, the maverick Hungarian was often accused by Washington of steering his country away from democratic norms. Former President Barack Obama and Trump's defeated election rival Hillary Clinton both warned Hungary against clamping down on the judiciary, press, and civil society organisations. Orban said Friday that US policy towards Hungary in recent decades had often been "unfavourable". "I suffered so much with (Clinton) that I cannot even tell you," he said. Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban hails Donald Trump's anti-"globalist" message to the UN. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday dismissed Israeli claims that Tehran was harbouring a secret atomic warehouse. "No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons programme," Zarif said in a tweet. He called on Israel saying it was "time to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons" programme to international inspectors. "How can Israel, as the only holder of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, so shamelessly accuse a country whose programmes have repeatedly been declared as peaceful by the IAEA," the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying. He said Israel and the United States stood "alone" on the world stage, as "policies forced by Netanyahu on America" had driven them both to isolation. Zarif was responding to allegations made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in a speech to the UN General Assembly, embellished by ample use of the colourful props that have become his trademark. Netanyahu held up a map and a photograph of an outwardly "innocent looking compound" which he said was a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran and urged the IAEA to inspect. "Today, I'm disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran's secret nuclear weapons programme," he said. Israel, along with Saudi Arabia and its allies, are the main supporters of US President Donald Trump's abandonment of a landmark 2015 nuclear accord between the major powers and Iran. The move, announced in May and accompanied by the subsequent reimposition of crippling US sanctions, has put Washington at odds with other major powers, including longstanding allies. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has dismissed as an "art and crafts show" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim at the UN General Assembly on Septmber 27, 2018, that Tehran is harbouring a secret atomic warehouse A year ago, the roads of Iraqi Kurdistan were decked out with green, red and white Kurdish flags as the region voted overwhelmingly for independence from Baghdad. Today, the election posters lining the streets of regional capital Arbil ahead of Sunday's parliamentary vote are simply an annoyance to many Kurdish voters, angry at their leadership and the economic crisis deepened by the September 2017 poll. "They are spending crazy money on printing campaign posters," said Abdullah Mohammed, a 69-year-old retiree. "But when people in need ask for help, they say there's a crisis and there's no money." Twelve months since a controversial referendum that sparked a punishing backlash from Baghdad, Iraq's divided Kurds will elect a regional parliament Sunday, their dreams of statehood shattered. "These elections don't interest me at all," Mohammed said, a black and white kuffiyeh scarf on his head. Last year's poll, held in defiance of the international community, sparked anger and a firm rejection from the Iraqi capital. It also deepened the divide between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of longtime regional leader Massud Barzani, who championed the referendum, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Less than three weeks after the vote, federal forces moved in to oust PUK forces that were controlling the disputed province of Kirkuk. The provincial governor, who had supported the KDP-backed referendum, took to the airwaves to call people to arms -- even as PUK forces withdrew without a fight. Iraqi President Fuad Masum, a PUK member, blamed the referendum for triggering the assault on Kirkuk, whose rich oil resources would have been essential to the survival of a Kurdish state. Barzani, who stepped down shortly after the poll, indirectly accused the PUK of "high treason" for withdrawing. The episode exposed the deep split between the two parties that dominate Kurdish politics. - KDP upbeat - Despite the backlash sparked by the referendum, the fact that three million Kurds voted for independence will have major implications for the election, according to Adel Bakawan, director general of the Kurdistan centre of sociology at Soran University near Arbil. "By portraying themselves as victims of an international and regional system that prevents the Kurds entering history by founding their state, the separatists are hoping to win back those votes," he said. The KDP has already reaped the rewards of its separatist stance, winning 25 seats in May elections to the Iraqi national parliament, making it the top party from the Kurdistan region, he said. Party officials are upbeat. "All the signs indicate that the KDP will dominate and win by a landslide" on Sunday, said Sobhi al-Mandalawi, a high-ranking party member in Arbil. The stranglehold the two heavyweights have over Kurdish politics means smaller parties are excluded from decision-making, Bakawan said. That has created distrust that could prompt record levels of abstention, he said. That will likely prolong the PDK's grip on power, according to Abdulrazaq Sharif of the Goran (Change) movement, set up in 2009 to challenge the monopoly of the two main parties, which it accuses of corruption. "Goran wants to see Kurds play a real role in the central government," he said. Wahid Kurdi, a 57-year-old former Peshmerga fighter from Arbil, said the regional government's key priority should be the wellbeing of "Kurds who are suffering in Kirkuk" and other disputed areas. "Once they're in parliament, MPs must not forget the disputed zones," he said. "They should work to bring them back inside the borders of Kurdistan." In the autonomous region's second city Sulaimaniyah, Ahmed Bashdari, 65, said he plans to vote -- "for those who don't put Kurdistan in danger" -- and urged leaders to rebuild the bridges damaged by the referendum. Leaders in Kurdistan and Baghdad "must make concessions so their conflicts stop damaging people's lives," he said. Twelve months since a controversial referendum that sparked a punishing backlash from Baghdad, Iraq's divided Kurds will elect a regional parliament Sunday Map of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan. The KDP won 25 seats in May elections to the Iraqi national parliament, making it the top party from the Kurdistan region German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she and the leaders of Turkey, Russia and France planned to hold a summit next month on the situation in war-ravaged Syria. "We are in favour of a four-way meeting with the presidents of Turkey, Russia and France and myself because the situation (in Syria) is still fragile," Merkel told reporters after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We aim to do this in the month of October." Merkel said the talks were particularly urgent in light of the fraught situation in Syria's rebel-held province of Idlib. Turkey has backed rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but since late 2016 has been working increasingly closely with Iran and Russia to bring an end to the Syrian conflict. Russia and Turkey agreed during a summit meeting in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on September 17 to set up a buffer zone in Idlib aimed at preventing a military assault. Syria, which has received vital military support from Russia and Iran, had said that it planned to seize Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the seven-year war. The Russia-Turkey deal was agreed following warnings that an all-out military offensive would trigger a bloodbath in the province of three million people. Erdogan had previously indicated that he planned to host a summit to discuss Syria on September 7 in Istanbul with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and Merkel but the meeting never came together. Merkel praised Turkey's "outstanding" work in hosting more than three million Syrian refugees. Germany has taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrian asylum seekers -- a policy that has proved deeply divisive within Merkel's own government. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held bilateral talks on September 28 at the Chancellery in Berlin Its not known why, but for some reason a university lecturer has shown pornography to a class full of students. The clip was projected onto a screen for whats believed to be 500 hysterical students at an introductory psychology lecture at the University of Toronto in Canada, the Sun reports. Video of it was shared on Snapchat, according to the campus newspaper The Varsity. A University of Toronto lecturer has shown pornography to a lecture theatre full of students leading to chaos. Source: Snapchat/ The Sun In the vid, some students are seen laughing hysterically while others leave their seats. One man is seen, head in hands, in utter disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of him. The school is offering support to anyone affected by the pornography. A student laughs in disbelief. Source: Snapchat/ The Sun University spokesman Don Campbell told City News campus staff are aware of what happened but couldnt comment further. Its believed it was shown by accident. In other school-related news, a teacher was suspended from an Ohio school for setting a morality test, labelled sick by parents, for students. Questions included whether it was appropriate to stone cats to death if homes couldnt be found for them and whether its was acceptable for women to be promiscuous. ROCHESTER, N.H., Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lydall, Inc. (NYSE:LDL), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Lydall Performance Materials, Inc. (Lydall), announced today that it is expanding its portfolio with the introduction of new, innovative, LydAir GP gas phase filter media. Layered in pleatable substrates, LydAir GP media consists of highly uniform, highly efficient, specialty sorbent particles that aid in the adsorption of acid and base contaminants as well as other volatile organic compounds. Lydalls flexible process creates multiple opportunities for technically advanced composite development with LydAir GP filter media and Lydalls core particulate filtration media. Particulate layers can range from MERV 8/G4 to HEPA and can be laminated with a variety of Lydall adsorption layers to allow for removal of multiple airborne molecular and particulate contaminants in one medium. Paul A. Marold, President, Lydall Performance Materials, commented, We are extremely excited about yet another transformational move by our business. Our entry into gas phase filtration supports our strategy of continuing to invest and grow in the filtration space and adjacencies with high-quality, high-performing products that are valued by our customers. Filter manufacturers worldwide will benefit from Lydalls wide range of gas phase options in both design and functionality, which is unmatched in the industry today. Plus, Lydall can deliver the engineered composite materials in roll good form or in pleated panels - saving customers time and money. Chris Sipes, Director, Business Development, commented, Our multi-layer combination medias offer innovative solutions to complex problems. Sipes continued, Through Lydalls expert composite engineering and the exceptional performance of new LydAir GP media, we look forward to serving the needs of filtration specialists around the globe in the removal of airborne molecular contaminants. LydAir GP media is perfectly suited for applications such as office buildings, airports, restaurants, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, automotive cabin air or any environment where airborne molecular contaminants are a concern. Lydall Performance Materials, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lydall, Inc. (NYSE: LDL), a New York Stock Exchange listed company, headquartered in Manchester, Connecticut with global manufacturing operations producing specialty engineered products for the thermal/acoustical and filtration/separation markets. For more information, visit http://www.lydall.com. Lydall is a registered trademark of Lydall, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. There is no cutoff date for Canada to join the US-Mexican deal meant to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico's president-elect said Friday as the text was submitted to legislators. "There is no fatal date, there is still time to reach a deal... to keep (NAFTA) trilateral," said President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on December 1. Lopez Obrador spoke as the US and Mexican Congresses were due to receive the final text of the two-way deal, moving it a big step closer to becoming reality. At the same time, the United States and Canada continued to spar over the terms of Canada's possible inclusion in what was originally a three-country deal. Lopez Obrador said he had spoken by phone Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who told him his government's talks with Washington were "difficult." "He said the negotiation was very difficult, that it might not be possible (to reach a three-way deal), but that they (Canada) had made a proposal," he told a press conference. He said he had been informed Friday that there was a counter-proposal from the United States. "That means the negotiations aren't over yet," he said. The leftist president-elect reiterated his insistence that Mexico prefers to keep NAFTA 2.0 a three-country deal. But he said he considered the substance of the US-Mexican deal to be final, and that Mexico did not want to renegotiate points that had already been agreed with Washington. Lopez Obrador, widely known as "AMLO," has been actively involved in the negotiations to update the trade agreement. US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a complete overhaul of NAFTA, which entered into force 25 years ago between the United States, Canada and Mexico. In August, after breaking away for two-way talks on their outstanding issues, the United States and Mexico announced they had reached a two-way deal. But talks to incorporate Canada have stumbled over issues including the protected Canadian dairy industry and a provision for settling trade disputes. "We're not getting along with their negotiators," Trump said Wednesday of Canada. "Canadians are tough negotiators, as we should be," Trudeau fired back. Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador widely known as "AMLO," has been actively involved in the negotiations to update the North American Free Trade Agreement A passenger jet has landed in the ocean after overshooting the runway in the Federated States of Micronesia. Papua New Guinea authorities confirmed that the Air Niugini flight PX073 ended up in the ocean while trying to land at about 9.30am (local time) in Chuuk. Local media has reported that the 36 passengers and 11 crew members on board the Boeing 737 are all safe. Dramatics images provided to Yahoo7 News by first responder Dr James Yaingeluo shows a series of small boats removing passengers from the submerged aircraft. Passengers can be seen evacuating the submerged aircraft. Image: Supplied by Dr James Yaingeluo Social media posts shows a series of small boats helping passengers from the submerged aircraft. Image: Twitter/Deni ToKunai Witness Bill Davis told Yahoo7 News that all the passengers were evacuated quickly, a few of whom had minor injuries. The manager at Chuuk International Airport, Jimmy Emilio, said that the Boeing 737 was approaching the runway when it crashed into the lagoon, about 146 metres from the runway. He said the passengers and crew were at the local hospital undergoing checks, with no serious injuries reported. Its understood the flight was scheduled to continue on from Pohnpei Chuuk to Port Moresby. The PNG Accident Investigation Commission is preparing a team to travel to the site of the accident. More to come. Passengers were forced to swim for their lives Friday when an airliner ditched into a lagoon after missing the runway on a remote Pacific island and began sinking. The Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 was attempting to land at Weno airport in Micronesia but ended up half submerged in Chuuk lagoon after the accident on Friday morning. Within minutes, locals scrambled a flotilla of small boats to pluck the 35 passengers and 12 crew from the water. The airline said the plane, which was involved in a collision with another aircraft earlier this year, had "landed short of the runway". Remarkably, it reported no serious injuries among those on the plane, which was making a scheduled stop on its way from the Micronesian capital Pohnpei to Port Moresby. "Air Niugini can confirm that all on board were able to safely evacuate the aircraft," the firm said in a brief statement. "The airline is making all efforts to ensure the safety and immediate needs of our passengers and crew." The airline did not detail what caused the accident, which occurred at about 9:30am (2330 GMT Thursday). But it said it had been informed that "the weather was very poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of incident". Passenger Bill Jaynes, editor of the Pohnpei-based Kaselehlie Press newspaper said he did not even realise there had been an accident until he saw water gushing into the fuselage. "It was surreal," he told Bible Baptist Radio Chuuk shortly after being discharged from hospital with a gash on his forehead. "I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water coming in. I thought 'this is not the way it's supposed to happen'." Jaynes praised the response of the locals. "They immediately starting coming out in boats. They were awesome and I was really impressed," he said. - Previous accident - A witness told the media the plane approached the airport "very low" before hitting the water. The runway, like others in the north Pacific, is relatively short at 1,831 metres (6,006 feet). It is surrounded on three sides by water. The Chuuk lagoon was a famous World War II battle site and dozens of Japanese vessels and planes are on the lagoon floor, now a tourist attraction for scuba divers. It is not the first time a plane has overshot the runway in Micronesia. In 2008, an Asia Pacific Airlines cargo Boeing 727 overran and ended up with its nose landing gear in the lagoon at the end of the Pohnpei airport runway. Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) said it was preparing to send investigators to Weno. "We're trying to arrange a team to go there but I cannot give you any more information because I simply don't have it," a spokesman told AFP. Air Niugini is Papua New Guinea's national airline and lists only one 737-800 among its fleet of 21 aircraft on its official website. According to registration details supplied by the airline, the plane was built in 2005 and had previously been owned by Air India Express and Mumbai-based Jet Airways. The AIC website details an incident involving the aircraft in May this year when a Hercules operated by a freight company clipped the 737's wing while taxiing, causing "significant damage". The website said the accident is still under investigation. The Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 missed the runway and ended up half submerged in Chuuk lagoon Map locating the area where a passenger plane ditched into a Pacific lagoon Friday. Pictures and video posted on social media showed locals scrambling in small boats to rescue the passengers and crew Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) said it was preparing to send investigators to Weno after the plane missed the runway In what can only be described as a case of mistaken identity, police have uncovered a rather unusual scene after responding to reports of a dead body. Officers in the Colerain Township of Ohio were called out to a nature preserve in Hamilton County on Thursday afternoon. After arriving at the scene, they called the county coroners office to investigate the body. The life-sized sex doll was discovered on the side of the road after reports of a dead body. Image: WLWT5 It was at this point it became apparent that they had discovered a discarded sex doll. Colerain Township Police Chief Mark Denney said the life-sized doll was partially wrapped in a black garbage bag and not easy to identify from a distance. A report was not prepared for the coroner. Russia's foreign minister on Friday accused the West of resorting to "political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force" to prevent the emergence of rival global powers. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Western powers wanted to "retain their self-proclaimed status as world leaders." "These powers do not hesitate to use any methods including political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force," Lavrov told the assembly. At the podium earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denounced "blackmail" in what was an apparent attack on President Donald Trump over trade and declared that Beijing would remain a "champion of multilateralism." Although he also did not mention Trump by name, there was little doubt about who Lavrov was referring when he denounced leaders who make "loud statements" that question the legal validity of international agreements and "declare the priority of self-serving unilateral approaches." He said that "attacks" were being launched against the Middle East peace process, the Iran nuclear deal, trade agreements under the World Trade Organization and the Paris climate accord. "We are observing an onslaught of belligerent revisionism against the modern system of international law," he said. Relations between Western powers and Russia have been tense over the war in Syria, where Moscow is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Lavrov said the international community and UN agencies must make the return of refugees to Syria "a priority" as Russia pushes for reconstruction aid for its ally. Russia and the United States are at odds over the Iran nuclear deal, although key US allies France and Britain have also vowed to defend the agreement that Trump ditched in May. Trump has also faced global outrage over the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, disregarding UN resolutions that declare the city's final status must be resolved through negotiations. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Western powers were resorting to "political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force" in order to "retain their self-proclaimed status as world leaders" Ryanair cancelled scores of European flights on Friday as unions staged what they warned could be the biggest strike in the airline's history. The Dublin-based carrier has played down fears of widespread disruption but confirmed it would cancel about 250 flights. "Today, over 2,150 Ryanair flights (90 percent of our schedule) will operate as normal carrying 400,000 customers across Europe," the airline said in statement. Walk-outs by cabin crew took place in Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. In some countries, pilots' unions also took action. At Charleroi Airport in Belgium, around 20 strikers unfurled a strike banner at the terminal and four of 12 scheduled services were cancelled. "Some cabin crew staff earn 2,000 euros, and you have a colleague who does exactly the same work, who only earns 1,000 euros, and with 1,000 euros in Belgium, it is impossible to live," said Yves Lambot of the CNE union in Belgium. Tensions ran high at Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands where some passengers had already passed though security when a flight to London was cancelled with just half-an-hour until take-off. The Dutch union VNV said it was seeking to take legal action to prevent Ryanair from bringing pilots in from abroad to replace striking Dutch crews. At Porto airport, where Ryanair has its main base in Portugal, about 10 people queued up Friday morning in front of the airline's counter to find alternatives to cancelled flights. "The company has provided a bus. It's not that comfortable. Instead of 50 minutes, the trip will take five hours. But at least I will arrive today," one traveller told Portugal's SIC television. Affected customers received email and text message notifications on Tuesday to advise them of cancellations and options, Ryanair said. Trade unions hope that Friday's 24-hour stoppage will be the biggest strike in the Irish carrier's history. Ryanair staff have been seeking higher wages and an end to the practice whereby many have been working as independent contractors without the benefits of staff employees. - Workers' rights - A key complaint of workers based in countries other than Ireland is the fact that Ryanair has been employing them under Irish legislation. Staff claim this creates huge insecurity for them, blocking their access to state benefits in their country. EU Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen said on Wednesday air crew should be employed under contracts from the country where they work. "Respecting EU law is not something over which workers should have to negotiate, nor is it something which can be done differently from country to country. I made this very clear to Mr O'Leary today," Thyssen said in a statement after a meeting between Ryanair's combative chief executive Michael O'Leary and EU officials. At a press conference the same day, O'Leary called for cancellation of the strike, threatening that he would shrink Ryanair's fleet at two Brussels airports if it went ahead. Last month, Ryanair pilots across Europe staged a coordinated 24-hour stoppage to push their demands for better pay and conditions, plunging tens of thousands of passengers into transport chaos at the peak of the busy summer season. In July, strikes by cockpit and cabin crew disrupted 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, affecting 100,000 travellers. This week, Ryanair signed deals with cabin crew unions in Italy to provide employment contracts under Italian law. The UK's Civil Aviation Authority has called on Ryanair to compensate passengers affected by the strikes. In July, strikes by Ryanair cockpit and cabin crew disrupted 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, affecting 100,000 travellers The Dublin-based carrier said it would have to cancel nearly 250 flights amid walk-outs in Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain ahead of the strike The revival of the American sitcom "Murphy Brown" premiered Thursday with a surprise cameo from none other than 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The 90s-era series -- which stars Candice Bergen as the famous investigative television journalist Murphy Brown -- is staging a comeback in the tradition of other hit shows including Will and Grace, The X-Files and Roseanne. The latest season of the series -- which wears its pro-liberal heart on its sleeve -- is set in the aftermath of Donald Trump's election to the White House, with Brown and several colleagues returning to the air on a cable news program. The CBS sitcom's longstanding gag about a revolving door of secretaries continues, with former secretary of state Clinton guest-starring to interview with Brown for the position. "I want you to know I'm not afraid of hard work, I'm qualified, and I'm ready on day one," says Clinton's character "Hilary," who unlike the former White House hopeful spells her name with just one "L." Asked if she has prior experience, the interviewee replies: "For four years I was the secretary -- I was the secretary of a very large organization." "I do have some experience with emails," she adds. Calling her "maybe a little over-qualified," Brown says she needs time to mull over the hire -- after which Clinton leaves her with a business card featuring the email address "Hilary at you could have had me dot com." The first run of "Murphy Brown" lasted from 1988 to 1998, touching on subjects including equal pay, single motherhood, and women's health care issues. The first ten seasons regularly saw feuds between patronizing men and exasperated women. In 1992 it became a source of political controversy when then vice president Dan Quayle lambasted the show's title character for "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone." The reboot's premiere coincidentally fell on a politically -- and for many emotionally -- charged day that saw professor Christine Blasey Ford publicly describe in sharp detail her charges of sexual assault against Trump's Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh, who forcefully denied them. Candice Bergen is starring in a reboot of the 90s-era series "Murphy Brown," returning to her role as the eponymous newsanchor SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) San Joaquin Branch awarded California Water Service (Cal Water) the Water Project of the Year for its 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) treatment and compliance project at the ASCE San Joaquin Branch banquet yesterday evening. The utility will also accept the Water Project of the Year award by the ASCEs Los Angeles Section, which encompasses all ASCE branches within southern California, on Oct. 6, 2018. According to ASCE, both levels of the organization selected Cal Waters TCP wellhead treatment project based on its unique technical achievements, complexity, scope, and engineering features. After the State of California set a water quality standard for TCP at 5 parts per trillion in July 2017, Cal Water needed to install treatment at 36 impacted well sites in its Central Valley districts before the compliance monitoring deadline of January 2018. Because the utility had already been actively monitoring its groundwater supplies, researching best available treatment technologies, designing treatment facilities, and securing contractors to construct and install treatment ahead of the regulation being set, Cal Water was able to build and install granular-activated carbon treatment at 21 well sites with the highest TCP concentrations in Bakersfield, Selma, and Visalia within the six-month timeline, with the remainder of impacted sites taken offline until treatment was installed. Treatment was installed at the remaining sites by summer 2018 to enable the districts to bring additional sources back online to meet demand. Protecting our customers health and safety is our highest priority, and the 307,000 residents we serve in the Central Valley can rest assured knowing that their water continues to meet all federal and state water quality standards, said Martin A. Kropelnicki, President and CEO. We are pleased to be recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers for our efforts to continue delivering a reliable supply of high-quality water to our customers. The UN's top court will rule on Monday whether Chile must negotiate access to the Pacific Ocean with landlocked Bolivia, in a case that has fouled relations between the two neighbours for decades. A 15-judge bench at the International Court of Justice will hand down judgement in the bitter legal battle which revolves around Bolivia's struggle to restore badly-needed access to the sea -- lost in 1884 after defeat in a war with Chile. La Paz in 2013 dragged Santiago to the Hague-based ICJ, set up after World War II to rule in disputes between countries. The court's findings are binding and cannot be appealed. Bolivian President Evo Morales is due to attend the announcement at 1300 GMT, as the leftist leader has before with previous hearings in the case. Chile and Bolivia have had no diplomatic relations since 1978 when Bolivia's last attempt to negotiate a passage to the Pacific broke down in acrimony. Morales' presence at the hearings "arguably signals a commitment to pursue legal arguments for historical change," said Geoff Gordon, an analyst at the Hague-based Asser Institute. It also "underscores the high stakes for Bolivia and Chile, which has much to lose in respect to area of coastline," he added. "Each side seems likely to respond with disappointment and anger to an adverse ruling," Gordon added. Bolivia says regaining its territory which comprises of several hundred kilometres (miles) of coastline along the northern tip of Chile will stimulate growth and development in South America's poorest country. Its lawyers have argued that it has tried several times over the last century to discuss possible access to the Pacific, but to no avail. Bolivian activists said the loss of the Chuquicamata mine, the world's largest open-pit copper mine which is situated in the disputed area, has also badly hit the country's indigenous peoples. These attempts were continuously slapped down by the Chileans, La Paz's lawyers said, leading to the breakdown in diplomatic relations. - 'Sovereign territory' - Santiago in turn said the border is based on a 1904 peace treaty signed with Bolivia in the wake of the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific and therefore must be respected. Both capitals were bound to attach political significance whatever the outcome, experts said. Morales's presence at the hearings may also play a role in his aspirations to run a fourth time in Bolivia's presidential polls next year, experts said. "What is at stake is not so much sovereignty of access to the sea, but the political strategy of (Bolivian President) Evo Morales," said Lucia Dammert, a Peruvian analyst based in Santiago. "Whatever happens," Morales will see as a victory, Dammert told AFP. Chile will not negotiate with Bolivia over the issue as "our sovereign territory is protected and will not be a part in anyone's negotiations," its Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero said last week. But President Sebastian Pinera has not ruled out an "intermediate solution" in which the ICJ "invites parties to negotiate in good faith which may be with or without a predetermined result." "The question remains whether the result of negotiations are pre-set, in other words give some form of access to the sea," said Eric De Brabandere, professor of international dispute settlement at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Or "whether there is merely an obligation to sit down and negotiate in good faith without any commitment as to the outcome of the negotiations," he told AFP. Meanwhile, Chile has opened its own case against Bolivia over the Silala waterway, which flows into the parched Atacama desert and which La Paz has threatened to divert. Bolivia -- South America's poorest country -- became landlocked after losing a four-year war against Chile at the end of the 19th century, forfeiting territory and its access to the Pacific coast Bolivian President Evo Morales will attend the announcement of the UN court's ruling Based in The Hague, the International Court of Justice was set up in 1945 to rule on border and territorial disputes between nations Bolivia says regaining its territory which comprises of several hundred kilometres of coastline along the northern tip of Chile will stimulate growth and development World War I was sparked by the assassination of a prince in Sarajevo 1914 and ended with an armistice signed in a French forest in 1918. Here are 10 key moments in the conflict, which claimed the lives of some 10 million soldiers, brought down three empires and sowed the seeds of the communist revolution in Russia and World War II. - Crown prince assassinated - On June 28, 1914 the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie are visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Bosnia is at the time a province of the empire, a situation resented by some Bosnians and neighbouring Serbia. As the couple move through the city in a motorcade, nationalist Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip opens fire and both are killed. Austria-Hungary accuses Serbia of being responsible, setting off a chain of events that will in weeks lead the European powers into war, sucked in by a web of military alliances. - Wars declared - Austria declares war on Serbia on July 28, 1914 and attacks Belgrade. Two days later Serbia's ally and protector, Russia, orders a general mobilisation of its army to intimidate Austria. On August 1 Germany, ally of Austria, orders the same. France, allied with Russia, immediately follows. Germany declares war on Russia the same day. On August 3 it declares war on France and its troops invade Belgium. The next day, Britain -- allied with France and Russia -- declares war on Germany for violating the neutrality of Belgium. - Battle of the Marne - By early September 1914 German troops have advanced to just tens of kilometres (miles) outside Paris. The French government retreats southwest, to Bordeaux. On September 6, French and British troops launch a desperate counter attack along the Marne River, northeast of the capital. With the rail network around Paris in chaos, the military governor requisitions 700 taxis to bring 6,000 troops to the battlefront in the first military use of motorised transportation in history. The battle is ferocious, a foretaste of what is to come, but German forces are eventually forced to pull back. Casualties are high: nearly 100,000 are dead or missing on both sides and double this number injured. By November 17, the Western Front trench system stabilise, stretching from the North Sea to Switzerland, as both sides dig in for a war of attrition. The conflict drags on in a bloody stalemate until the German offensives of March 1918. - Gallipoli Campaign - On April 25, 1915 British and French troops land on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Dardanelles Strait in Germany-allied Ottoman Turkey. The Ottoman empire closed the straits at the start of the war, cutting off Russia from the Mediterranean. The Allied campaign, pressed by Winston Churchill, aims to push through the straits and beyond, to attack Germany and Austria from the east and establish a link with Russia. It is a catastrophe for the Allies, resulting in 180,000 deaths before they withdraw in January 1916. Australia and New Zealand lose more than 10,000 men but Gallipoli becomes for them a defining event, marking the first time these newly independent countries fight under their own flags. - Verdun, the longest battle - On February 25, 1916 German forces launch an offensive at Verdun, east of Paris, to "bleed France white" and force the country to the negotiating table. The German forces advance but are contained. By the time the fighting ends in December, the frontlines have barely changed despite staggering casualties. More than 300,000 men are killed altogether, each side losing more or less the same number, and hundreds of thousands more are wounded. Dragging on for more than 300 days, the Battle of Verdun is the longest of the war's Western Front. - Somme, the bloodiest - The 141-day Battle of the Somme is the bloodiest of the war, with more than a million casualties, including about 400,000 dead or missing. It opens on July 1, 1916 as Allied forces -- mainly British -- aim to relieve pressure on the French, who are on the rack in Verdun, by attacking the Germans hundreds of kilometres to the northwest, around the Somme river. The five-month battle is the deadliest in Britain's history, with 20,000 dead or missing in just the first hours, and 40,000 wounded. When it is over, the Allies have advanced only a few kilometres. - United States enters the war - In January 1917 Germany -- under pressure from a British sea blockade -- steps up a campaign of attacking British merchant vessels with U-boat submarines, aiming to throttle the island. It pushes the United States to enter the conflict, angered by the torpedoing of neutral ships in the Atlantic and vessels carrying US citizens. Washington declares war on Germany on April 6 and on June 26 the first US deployment arrives at the French port of Saint-Nazaire. By mid-1918 there are one million US troops in the conflict. By the war's end there will be two million and nearly 117,000 US soldiers will have died. - French soldiers mutiny - In mid-April 1917 the French army sends one million men into battle against the Germans at Chemin des Dames in Picardy. The German resistance is strong and by the start of May the French have been able to advance only a few hundred metres at the cost of casualties that reach around 100,000 in just a few weeks. French soldiers revolt, 30,000-40,000 taking part in various mutinies. A month into the disastrous offensive, General Philippe Petain steps in and brings it to a halt. The authorities are strict with the mutineers: 554 are sentenced to death and 49 executed. The episode is remembered in Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" (1957), only released in France in 1975. - Revolution in Russia - Between 1914 and 1917 Russia loses more than two million soldiers and officers on the Eastern Front where its poorly equipped forces are decimated. The conflict becomes highly unpopular. Rioting snowballs into revolution in March 1917 and forces the abdication of Nicholas II, Russia's last tsar. The new socialist-led government battles to impose control and does not envisage a withdrawal from the conflict. There is a second revolution a few months later and Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks seize power. Their first decision is to seek a way out of the war. By December 15, Lenin has concluded an armistice with Germany. The Brest-Litovsk treaty that follows in March is a disaster for Russia, ceding huge chunks of its western territories to Germany -- including Poland, the Baltic states and Finland -- and slashing its population by nearly a third. - Armistice - Hit hard by four major German offensives in early 1918, the Allies -- reinforced by US troops -- launch a broad counter-offensive on July 18, using tanks on a large scale to make the vital breakthrough which had eluded them for so long. Planned by French forces commander General Ferdinand Foch, it changes the course of the war, forcing a German retreat on all sides. Germany's allies begin to collapse: Bulgaria agrees an armistice by the end of September; Austria is defeated late October; and Turkey is forced to call a halt a few days later. Germany is in turmoil and Kaiser Wilhelm II is forced to abdicate on November 9. On November 11 a German delegation, meeting Foch in a secluded forest setting north of Paris, agrees to an armistice. Among the terms, Germany is to halt hostilities immediately and evacuate large areas it has occupied in less than a fortnight; it will surrender vast amounts of war materiel; all Allied prisoners of war are to be released. The deal is signed at 5:20 am. The ceasefire begins just hours later, at 11:00 am. World War I is over. Gavrilo Princip is arrested after assassinating the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo Posters ordering the general mobilisation of troops went up across France before the start of World War I Taxis in France take troops to the front in 1914 for the Battle of the Marne A reconstruction, pictured in 2014, of a trench at one of the sites of the Gallipoli Campaign that began in April 1915 French soldiers tend to the injured in a trench at the 1916 Battle of Verdun Photographs of some of the soldiers who took part in the 1916 Battle of the Somme on display at the Thiepval war memorial in France African-American soldiers in 1919 after receiving a French military cross for bravery during World War I The French World War I military cemetery at Cerny-en-Laonnois on the Chemin des Dames, pictured in 1998 Lenin in October 1918, addressing supporters on the first anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution General Ferninand Foch (bottom, second right) and other signatories of the armistice at Rethondes on November 11, 1918 The world's biggest copper mine by output, Chile's Escondida, announced on Friday profits of $1.086 billion for the first semester, just over a month after avoiding a strike by workers. Production increased by 45 percent between January and June, thus recuperating lost revenue over the same period last year that was provoked by a 44-day strike. The mine's president, Mauro Neves, described the results as "positive" and said owners BHP had paid the Chilean state $524 million in taxes. Production, boosted by a new plant, reached almost 650,000 tonnes for the period. Following a $3.4 billion investment, Escondida also launched the biggest desalination plant in Latin America, capable of supplying 2,500 liters of water a second to the mine. A potentially crippling shutdown was averted on August 17 following weeks of negotiations with the signing of a new collective contract between the largest trade union representing 2,500 miners and the plant's Anglo-Australian owners. Last year's strike caused a 39 percent drop in production over the first half of the year, costing the company $740 million. Even so, the mine earned $1.2 billion last year, an increase of 20 percent on 2016. Almost a third of the world's copper, around 5.6 million tons, is produced in Chile, fueled largely by China's huge industrial demand. Escondida avoided potentially crippling strike action earlier this year by signing a new collective contract giving miners a 2.8 percent pay raise A nurse practitioner from Syracuse is featured in a new commercial for U.S. Rep. John Katko's re-election campaign that criticizes Democratic challenger Dana Balter's support of Medicare-for-all. The 30-second TV ad, titled "Make Care Worse," will air on broadcast and cable stations in the 24th Congressional District. It stars Lisa, a nurse practitioner, who says people in the region rely on Medicare and was "intrigued" when she heard Balter, D-Syracuse, discuss health care. Balter supports transitioning to a Medicare-for-all system. In her view, this would provide a basic level of coverage to all Americans. She also believes there would be a place for the private insurance market to supply additional coverage to those who want it. But in the ad for Katko's campaign, Lisa dismisses Medicare-for-all as a "government takeover of health care" that will destroy the social insurance program. She also claimed it will lead people to change their doctors and double income taxes. "Putting bureaucrats between hospital staff and patients? That might make sense to a visiting professor, but I know it will make people's care worse," Lisa said in the commercial. "Dana Balter is way too extreme." One study projected that even doubling federal income taxes wouldn't be enough to pay for the Medicare expansion. However, to pay for the program, it's expected that there would be some sort of tax increase. That has been a line of attack used in previous ads by the Katko campaign. Balter has said in public appearances that to pay for Medicare-for-all there would be a tax increase. One idea is increasing the existing Medicare payroll tax. Balter defends the tax increase by explaining that while there would be a hike under Medicare-for-all, it would reduce or eliminate out-of-pocket medical expenses. Katko's ad is the latest to focus on health care in the 24th Congressional District race. This week, Balter's campaign released a new commercial that pans Katko's vote on the tax reform bill passed last year and how it "gutted" the Affordable Care Act, a 2010 health care law supported by Democrats. Katko is running for a third term in Congress. He was first elected to represent the 24th district in 2014. This is Balter's first run for political office. She is visiting assistant teaching professor at Syracuse University and was an activist with the CNY Solidarity Coalition. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6. Love 5 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 11 U.S. Rep. John Katko doesn't have a vote, but he commented Friday on the ongoing debate over Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Katko, R-Camillus, reiterated what he has said in previous public statements that "there is no need to rush a confirmation." Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least three women, including Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday. "Women with the courage to come forward with allegations of sexual assault, rape, and domestic violence must always be taken seriously. They deserve to be heard," Katko said. He added, "Just as we cannot allow for elimination of due process in this country we cannot allow for victims to live in fear of speaking out." Katko's statement followed a lengthy committee hearing Thursday that featured testimony from Ford and Kavanaugh. While Ford detailed the alleged sexual assault, Kavanaugh vehemently denied he was the perpetrator. It doesn't appear the allegations against Kavanaugh will derail the confirmation process. Senate Republicans support the nominee and some who were undecided, namely U.S. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, have said they will vote yes. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance Kavanaugh's nomination. But Flake, who voted yes in committee, said he would withhold his support if there isn't an FBI investigation into the sexual assault allegations. He wants the Senate floor vote delayed to give the FBI time to review the accusations. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, support Flake's call for an FBI investigation. Both senators haven't decided whether to support Kavanaugh's nomination. Katko offered an additional observation after Thursday's hearing. He said it's clear that the process is "broken." "Senators from both sides of the aisle need to come together to de-politicize the process so that we can learn the full facts surrounding the allegations made," he said. Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 The Finger Lakes Ski Club will kick off its 45th season with a meeting and party at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, at the Knights of Columbus, 47 Market St., Auburn. Representatives from local ski destinations will be present. There will also be food, beer, door prizes and camaraderie with fellow skiiers. The club will visit Gore Mountain in February, and Sun Valley, Idaho, for a week in March. For more information on the club, including membership and trip registration, visit fingerlakesskiclub.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Post familys relationship with Owasco Lake goes back to 1796, when William Post, at the request of his father, Christopher Post, from Sommerset County, New Jersey, arrived to examine lot 91 in what is now Fleming. Christopher subsequently purchased 471 acres, south of what is now Stone School Road, and bordering the Wyckoff property to the north. The Peterson family, with whom Christopher and his family traveled from Sommerset County, settled north of the Posts. These two families were related through marriage. The original Post farm was located near the current location of Chantelle Marie. Allen Post and his wife, Frances Yantch Post, were the last Post descendants to farm the land on Westlake Road. Allen was a direct descendant of Christopher Post. Over the years, the Post homestead existed in harmony with Owasco Lake, providing both sustenance and recreation to generations of their descendants. In 1868, the Southern Central Railroad Co. obtained a right of way, allowing its tracks to cross through the property. In 1883, Justus Allen Post, Christophers great-grandson, moved his branch of the Posts to a farm in Scipio, just south of Wyckoff Station, maintaining the family tradition as farmers. Justus grandson Ray Post, raised his family on the Fleming-Scipio Townline Road, just around the block from his childhood home on Wyckoff Road. The Wyckoff farm is currently owned by one of Rays sons, and his family. Other descendants of Justus Allen also live on Wyckoff Road, on land that was once part of the farm that he, and subsequently his son Otto, owned. Although raised on the Scipio farm on Wyckoff Road, Allen Post, Rays oldest brother, acquired part of the original farm on Westlake Road, Fleming, near other descendants of the Post family, including the Wordens. There, Allen and Frances raised their family, and resided until their deaths. Another five generations have continued their relationship with Owasco Lake, picnicking on its shores and fishing, canoeing and swimming in its waters. Over the years and across the generations, Owasco Lake has been an integral part of the family. Stories abound about clearing the land, riding over the frozen lake in a cutter to reach Auburn in 1917, or attending a one-room schoolhouse, otherwise known as Bang Hall, a name given to the school because of the rowdy behavior exhibited by its students, including tossing live 22 rounds into the wood stove. Stories about trips to Ensenore, then a destination for recreation on Owasco Lake, and of wrestling a bear (among other tales) have been passed down from the maternal grandmother side of family the Bishop, Tracy, Hanlon and Chapman families who settled in Scipio Center. Owasco Lake and its watershed have been part of the very fabric that has woven the lives of Christopher Posts descendants, including those currently residing above Owasco Lake. These deep roots set by the ancestors living and working on the west side of Owasco Lake have provided the current generation of Posts with a unique perspective on the lake. They, too, must become its stewards. The harmonious relationship that has existed between people and the water has become more perilous in the recent past. The beauty that surrounds us, the water that helps sustain life and the unique opportunity to enjoy a lake that has existed since the end of the last ice age, is in peril. Like nine generations of the Posts, many other families have enjoyed Owasco Lake and its surroundings. Yet they may not be able to safeguard its future without an unwavering determination to find a solution that will protect its waters for recreation and drinking. In 2018, the challenge and threat come from blue green algae (cyanobacteria); a different threat may confront us in the future. As an informed, vigilant and engaged community, we can face these challenges and maintain the life of Owasco Lake and its native species. There is no alternative. Miguelina Cuevas-Post is a member of the Owasco Watershed Lake Association. For more information, visit owla.org. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 AUBURN City of Auburn and Cayuga County staff and elected officials are frustrated with the state on a variety of issues surrounding harmful algal blooms. Thursday night during the Auburn City Council meeting, Director of Municipal Utilities Seth Jensen and Cayuga County Health Department Director of Environmental Health Eileen OConnor gave an overview of how the city and county are treating and reporting HABs. Jensen said there has been a lower frequency of blooms this year and the city's powder-activated carbon system, which removes microcystins from drinking water, has been running well. No toxins have been reported in the city's finished drinking water. Councilors expressed their frustration with new reporting procedures implemented by the state. According to O'Connor, in the past, the city and town of Owasco would send their water samples to a state-run lab to test for microcystins and the state would alert the municipalities if any toxins above 0.15 parts per billion were detected. According to state standards, water is unsafe to drink if microcystins measure 0.3 parts per billion or above. Last year, the state tried to change its reporting procedures to alert municipalities only if microcystins in their water tested 0.3 parts per billion or above because readings below 0.3 parts per billion are less reliable. However, after the city expressed concern with this change, the lab decided to continue reporting readings below 0.3 parts per billion with a disclaimer explaining that there is a certain margin of error associated with lower readings. Now, since harmful algal blooms have impacted nearly 100 water bodies in New York, the state has begun outsourcing testing for HABs to private labs that are state certified and those labs are not allowed to disclose any readings below 0.3 parts per billion or they could risk losing their state certification, O'Connor said. Councilor Terry Cuddy said there are other testing methods used by other states that are able to detect lower levels of microcystins with greater levels of confidence. He questioned why New York is not using one of those methods because it would be helpful for staff to have those numbers so they could look for trends during algal bloom season. "I think it's important for the city of Auburn and the town of Owasco and the Cayuga County Health Department to see trends," Cuddy said. "With this, there's no trend. It's, we've been breached. It gives me concern, it gives me pause." Councilor Jimmy Giannettino also expressed frustration with the new reporting protocols. He agreed with Cuddy's statement about looking for trends and added that the information would help the city test the effectiveness of its PAC system. He said the public has the right to know what is in the water. Giannettino also said he was frustrated with the way the state is rolling out $65 million worth of funding for municipalities battling HABs. He said he hopes the state will provide funding for the municipalities, like Auburn, that are responsible for providing safe drinking water to offset treatment costs, so those added expenses don't have to get passed down to the taxpayers or water users. "While we have to address this problem, we didn't create this problem," Giannettino said. "That's the frustrating thing for me. We don't live in the watershed, we don't contribute to the pollution of the lake, yet we have to supply safe water." Additionally, Giannettino said he would like to see funding from the state for the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council to hire more watershed inspectors. "These are very real things that we need, yet in the $65 million plan, the funding is not available," he said. Staff writer Natalie Brophy can be reached at (315)282-2239 or natalie.brophy@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @brophy_natalie. Love 1 Funny 3 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 3 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. NEW YORK Several political campaigns in New York have come under criticism in recent weeks over campaign messaging that some say was designed to exploit voters' racial biases or xenophobia. In the latest skirmish, a Democratic congressman in California assailed a Republican colleague in New York this week over a campaign attack ad that showed his opponent speaking Korean, over a backdrop of ominous music, a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and captions falsely implying he was talking about sending American jobs to Asia. "Take your racist ad and shove it. You are an embarrassment to the House of Representatives," U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu of California wrote on Twitter, addressing U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, of western New York. A spokeswoman for Collins, who is campaigning for re-election in New York's 27th Congressional District while under indictment on insider trading charges, said the ad was a comment on the economic policies of Democratic opponent Nate McMurray, and that race had nothing to do with it. "Another day, another tired and false attack from anti-Trump, liberal Democrats," spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said in a statement. Earlier this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was roundly criticized over a flyer the state Democratic Party sent to predominantly Jewish households accusing his Democratic primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, of not caring about anti-Semitism. Nixon, who is raising her children as Jewish, was outraged. Cuomo, who won the primary, agreed the flyer was "inappropriate" but denied any involvement in its creation. In New York's 19th Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. John Faso was accused of "race baiting" by The New York Times editorial board after the National Republican Campaign Committee put out an ad showing his Democratic challenger, Antonio Delgado, performing in a rap video. Faso is white, as is 90 percent of his district north of New York City. Delgado, a Harvard Law School graduate and Rhodes Scholar, is black. The ad featured clips from a 2007 video Delgado recorded under stage name "AD the Voice" in which he uses profanity, quips that he's "gotcha sweatin' this like ya having sex to a porno flick," and says "God bless Iraq," in a song opposing the Iraq war. It concludes with a picture of Delgado wearing a hooded sweat shirt. Faso said his campaign had no control over the ad, but defended it as a valid criticism of lyrics he considered offensive. And in the 22nd Congressional District, in upstate New York, Republican U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney was criticized after her campaign sent a memo warning staffers to be mindful of their safety because the family of her Italian-American opponent, Anthony Brindisi, had "used their political connections to get away with violence, intimidation and thuggish behavior." Brindisi's father, Louis, was a lawyer who formerly represented people connected to organized crime and once pleaded guilty to drug possession, but insisted he was not a mobster. Brindisi's campaign accused Tenney of "blatant and false attacks on Italians." Stephen Maynard Caliendo, a dean and professor at North Central College in Napierville, Illinois, who has researched the role of race in political communication, said it isn't unusual for political ads to use coded language to appeal to voters who might have ethnic prejudices. "You wink, you nod, you hint," he said. Vincent Hutchings, professor of political science at the University of Michigan, said the question isn't whether or not it's fair game to bring up an opponent's work history, raise questions about policy stances, or question past activities in a political campaign. "The question is, 'Is this inflaming racial passions or isn't it?" he said. "If a candidate wants to raise issues without inflaming racial passions, there are ways to do that." Caliendo, after viewing the Collins ad targeting McMurray, said "the suggestion is, we can't trust him to represent. He's not like us, he speaks Korean," Caliendo said. The ad is based on a video of McMurray, the town supervisor in Grand Island, New York, talking, in Korean, about relations between North Korea and South Korea. McMurray, who is white, has studied in South Korea, taught law there and is married to a woman from South Korea who is now an American citizen. "I watched that ugly attack ad with my son. His mom is Korean. My son speaks Korean. He looked at me with a grave sadness on his face," McMurray said. Collins pleaded not guilty to insider trading charges in August and had said he would leave the race, but reversed course over the difficulty in removing his name from the ballot in the district, which represents an area between Buffalo and Rochester. He was an early and strong supporter of President Donald Trump. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jones Energy, Inc. (NYSE: JONE) (Jones Energy or the Company) announced today that Mr. John Lovoi and Mr. Paul B. Loyd are stepping down from the Companys Board of Directors (the Board), including from their roles on the Boards standing committees. The Board and management thank both Mr. Lovoi and Mr. Loyd for their service and contributions and look forward to their continued support as large shareholders. The Board voted unanimously to appoint Mr. Carl Giesler, Jones Energys Chief Executive Officer, as a new Director. The Board also voted unanimously to appoint Mr. Hal Washburn as Chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and to reduce the size of the Board from eight to seven members. The Board plans to move expeditiously to appoint a seventh director to the Board, who will be an independent director qualified to join the Audit Committee, satisfying NYSE requirements. About Jones Energy Jones Energy, Inc. is an independent oil and natural gas company engaged in the exploration, development and acquisition of oil and natural gas properties in the Anadarko basin of Oklahoma and Texas. Additional information about Jones Energy may be found on the Companys website at: www.jonesenergy.com . Investor Contacts: Robert Brooks, 512-328-2953 Executive Vice President & CFO Or Page Portas, 512-493-4834 Investor Relations Associate AUBURN On Sunday, for the first time in almost 20 years, the public will be welcome inside City Travis L. Garritillo, 35, 202 Genesee St., Apt. 8, Auburn, was charged Sept. 25 with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, first-degree menacing and obstruction of breathing. Justin M. Tillmon, 31, 144 Washington St., Apt. 4, was picked up Sept. 25 on an indictment warrant and charged with first-degree criminal contempt, nine counts of second-degree criminal contempt and two counts of fourth-degree witness tampering. Travis J. Breedlove, 44, 19 Venice St., Auburn, was picked up Sept. 25 on an indictment warrant and charged with third-degree burglary and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Derrick A. Thomas II, 24, 80 Owasco St., Apt. 1, Auburn, was charged Sept. 27 with fourth-degree grand larceny. Jessica R. Carpenter, 28, 218 Genesee St., Auburn, was charged Sept. 27 with two counts of endangerment of the welfare of a child. State Marino Padilla, 29, Auburn, was charged Sept. 25 with five counts of assault, first-degree possessing dangerous contraband in prison and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Barbara J. Wertman, 57, Port Byron, was charged Sept. 26 with petit larceny. Mark E. Brown, 24, Auburn, was charged Sept. 27 with first-degree possession of contraband in prison and second-degree possession of contraband in prison. Kurt R. Werner, 58, Auburn, was charged Sept. 27 with driving while intoxicated and operating a motor vehicle with BAC of .08 or more. John W. Barnes, 52, Clyde, was charged Sept. 27 with first-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree unlawful imprisonment, second-degree menacing and three counts of fourth-degree criminal mischief. Love 0 Funny 4 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 5 Check out the story No bid for soybeans in North Dakota": (https://www.willistonherald.com/news/soybeans-are-stuck/article_6b97f31c-b52a-11e8-a0de-cbedc2e7ce07.html). Do you know what that means for the farmer? It means that market has locked up, the farmer has no place, no place at all, to sell his crop, no way to raise money, no way to pay his bills, and no money to pay school taxes. Now, things arent quite that bad yet here in New York but its headed that way and getting worse all the time. And remember, there are upwards of 50,000 acres of soybean in John Katkos congressional district to be harvested, need to be marketed in the next few months that would have been worth upwards of $20 million if it hadnt been for Trumps trade war with China and now might not even be sold. What happens to CNY producers if CNY goes no bid for soybeans in the next couple of months? That 82 cents per bushel market adjustment the Trump administration recently announced? Thats not even 10 percent of the price of a bushel of beans. Its a joke, an insult, given the situation. Its like putting a Band-Aid on a compound fracture. And practically the same situation exists for the milk farmers. For months now, I have warned my fellow farmers just how serious this situation could become. But even I have been surprised at how rapidly this has developed. I shouldnt have been; weve seen it before in the 1980s. But what I resent most is that months ago I expressed my reservations to Congressman Katkos staff in Washington. Its obvious that John Katko didnt take me seriously, wasnt concerned enough to act. And the reason is obvious. John Katko was afraid of Trump and Trump supporters. When we needed somebody to stand up and object, when we needed someone to talk sense to the administration, when we needed somebody to represent our vital interest in Washington, he sat quietly on his hands. The voters of this district need to take note. John Katko cant be depended on to stand up for you when it matters most, when your livelihood is at stake. The lesson is clear, vote for the candidate who isnt beholden to Trump, doesnt have something to lose by criticizing him and most of all, isnt afraid. Vote for Dana Balter and save us from this catastrophe. Richard Glenister Locke Love 3 Funny 6 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3 WASHINGTON, D.C.Following Thursdays dramatic hearing, only one Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee remained undecided on whether or not to send Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. But on Friday morning, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, who has frequently spoken out publicly against Trump and yet voted in favor of Trumps agenda almost 84 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.com, made up his mind. He announced that he will, after all, vote to support Kavanaughs nomination. On Thursday, Palo Alto University psychologist Christine Blasey Ford, pictured above, gave compelling and emotional testimony detailing what she described as a sexual assault on her by Kavanaugh. Later in the day, Kavanaugh also testified and often breaking into tears, angrily denied that he had committed the assault. At a Friday Judiciary Committee meeting, Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal asked the committee to issue a subpoeana for Mark Judge, the high school friend of Kavanaugh identified by Blasey Ford as Kavanaughs accomplice in the alleged assault, and whose uproarious laughter together with Kavanaugh, Blasey Ford recalled hearing during the assault. But all 11 Republicans on the committee voted down Blumenethals request, and Chair Chuck Grassley set a vote on Kavanaugh for 1:30 p.m. Eastern Timewhich led several Democratic senators including Blumenthal, Californias Kamala Harris, and Hawaiis Mazie Hirono, to walk out. From top to bottom this has been about bullies, Harris said at a press conference after she left the committee meeting. All we have asked for is that there be an FBI investigation. Dr. Ford came in and she poured out her heart, she cooperated with the process.... For the sake of our democracy and the integrity of our democracy, you would think that members of the United States Senate would say, 'Wait a minute, theres enough here to push pause. Lets reflect on what were about to do.' Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse did not walk out of the meeting, but remeained to give a statement accusing the committee of refusing to allow an FBI investigation into Blasey Fords allegations, instead employing partisan interviews by partisan staffers to force the nomination through. The American Bar Association on Friday also sent a letter to the committee requesting that the vote on Kavanaugh be put on hold to allow for an FBI investigation of Fords allegations. But at the meeting, Grassley dismissed the letter, claiming that it represented only the views of ABA President Robert Carlson, who signed the letter, not the organization as a whole. In one sign that gave encouragement to opponents of Kavanaugh, Indiana Democrat Joe Donnelly announced Friday that he would vote no on the nomination, partly citing the ABA call for an FBI probe. Donnelly had voted in favor of Trumps previous nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and was believed to be a possible Democratic vote in favor of Kavanaugh. Following yesterdays hearing, Donnelly met privately with fellow red state Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. According to some unnconfirmed reports, the four planned to vote the same way. If those reports prove accurate, the Kavanaugh nomination would need at least one Democratic vote to prevail. As Flake walked from his office to the hearing room, he was confronted by two women who said that they were survivors of sexual assault. But Flake did not respond to them, telling them only to read his written statement of support for Kavanaugh, as he entered an elevator. Those interested may watch a video of that encounter at this link. Photo by CSPAN / Wikimeda Commmons Public Domain When Stormy Daniels was arrested in July, during a strip club performance in Columbus, Ohio, her attorney Michael Avenatti immediately speculated that the bust may have been politically motivated, because of our opposition to (Donald) Trump. Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating how and why the arrest if Daniels happened, according to a Columbus Dispatch report. Within a day of the arrest, as AVN.com reported, the lead detective in the arrest was revealed by his own social media posts to be a Trump supporter. Daniels was arrested supposedly for violating a local law prohibiting nude performers from any sort of physical contact with audience members. But it quickly became clear that Daniels did not violate the law, which applied only to regular performers in a specific venue, and the charges against her were dismissed. About two weeks later, a report on a local news website revealed internal emails between officers involved in the arrest that appeared to show that the arrest if Daniels was planned in advance by the Columbus vice cops, and that the officers stated explanation that the bust had been part of an ongoing prostitution and human trafficking investigation was merely a cover story. The allegations, along with another incident involving an police shooting of 23-year-old woman during a prostitution arrest, led earlier this month to the Columbus Police Department temporarily shutting down the 20-officer vice squad to conduct a comprehensive review of the units activities. On Thursday, Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs turned the investigation of the departments vice unit over to the FBI, after the departments internal investigation turned up what the Dispatch report simply described as evidence in the probe, which Jacobs had earlier described as aiming to uncover bad cops in the vice unit. In July, after the arrest of Daniels, the citys police union denied that politics played a role in the bust. Daniels, of course, has made national headlines since March when she filed a lawsuit against Trump over a hush deal she signed just days before the 2016 presidential election to keep her quiet about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. Photo by Raymond Wambsgans / Wikimedia Commons WASHINGTON, D.C.Ann Wagner, the United States House Representative from Missouri who was the main force behind FOSTA, the sex trafficking bill that was signed by Donald Trumpand that sex workers say has made their lives more dangeroushas a new bill that would allow nonprofit groups as well as banks and law enforcement to share private financial information in the interest of combatting sex trafficking. Wagners little-heralded bill, known as the Empowering Financial Institutions to Fight Human Trafficking Act, quietly passed the House on Wednesdaysailing through without much attention as the Brett Kavanaugh hearing occupied the media and public imagination. The bill, HR 6729, passed by a 297-124 vote, with 202 Republicans voting in favor and only 29 against. Democrats who voted were split equally 95-95. One of the Republicans who voted against the bill, Justin Amash of Michigan, blasted the bill on his Twitter account calling HR 6729, a disguised effort to expand the #PatriotAct. GOP leaders put Fight Human Trafficking in the title to conceal the bills true purpose: to give the government more power to unconstitutionally spy on law-abiding Americans without a warrant. Like FOSTA, the bill could have a disproportionate impact on sex workers an the adult industry, who could have their financial information shared and exposed in the guise of combatting sex trafficking. In fact, according to Adam Brandon of the Libertarian site Freedom Works, the law could even lead to increase(d) warrantless surveillance of Americans through information sharing programs. All of those possible outcomes of the law, could directly affect the adult industry, according to Elizabeth Nolan Brown, writing on the site Reason. Allowingor demandinginformation sharing between banks, cops, and nonprofits that work with sex workers could go a long way toward not just shuttering individual sex worker bank accounts but facilitating money-laundering charges against any website that allows escort ads or otherwise enables communication that connects sex workers and clients, Brown wrote. The bill must now go to the Senate, with no vote yet scheduled in that legislative body. Photo by Official White House / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain Pret A Manger has said it will make meaningful change following the death of a teenager who suffered a fatal allergic reaction to one of its sandwiches. The inquest into the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse heard the 15-year-old died on a British Airways flight from London to Nice in July 2016 after eating an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette bought at Heathrow Airports Terminal 5. The dough in the baguette contained sesame to which she was allergic. Recording a narrative conclusion at West London Coroners Court on Friday (28 September), coroner Dr Sean Cummings said he will write to environment secretary Michael Gove questioning allergen food labelling regulations. Under current regulations, there is no obligation for businesses to label allergens on foods prepared on the same premises as they are being sold. Companies are required to warn customers about allergy risks either on signs and packaging or orally, usually meaning they are told to inquire themselves. Pret chose to deliver allergy information orally. "The baguette was manufactured to Pret specifications and contained sesame to which she was allergic, said Cummings. "There was no specific allergen information on the baguette packaging or on the (food display cabinet) and Natasha was reassured by that." During the week-long inquest, it was revealed that a Pret complaint log showed nine cases of sesame-related allergy incidents between July 17, 2015 and June 29, 2016. Four of these led to customers seeking hospital treatment, while another went to a medical centre. More than a year after the complaint, Pret changed the design of a label in its fridges that tells customers to ask staff for allergy information. In a statement issued following the inquest, Pret chief executive Clive Schlee said the business was deeply sorry for Natashas death. We cannot begin to comprehend the pain her family have gone through and the grief they continue to feel, he added. We have heard everything the coroner and Natashas family have said this week. And we will learn from this. All of us at Pret want to see meaningful change come from this tragedy. We will make sure that it does. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) has approved the Insurance Corporation of British Columbias (ICBC) 2018 Basic Insurance Rate Design Application. On August 9, 2018, the Lieutenant Governor in Council issued Orders in Council (OIC) No. 458 and 459. The government directive letter contained in OIC 458 directed ICBC to apply to the BCUC, by August 15, 2018, for rate design amendment approvals (the 2018 Rate Design Directive). OIC 459 required that the BCUC must, within 45 days of ICBCs application, regulate and fix the rates using the factors, criteria, and guidelines set out in the 2018 Rate Design Directive. The 2018 Rate Design Directive begins by stating that the amendments will improve fairness in B.C.s insurance system and will build on recently-enacted legislative changes. The BCUC established a public proceeding to review the ICBC application, which included a Streamlined Review Process (SRP) and oral arguments, intended to expedite the flow of information between participants in the review process. Eight interveners participated in the proceeding and five parties submitted letters of comment. The Panel did not find any evidence that was inconsistent with the government-stated objectives in ICBCs 2018 Rate Design Application, with the exception of an incorrect tariff page section that ICBC identified. Aside from this exception, the BCUC approves ICBCs application, in accordance with the criteria and within the timeline established in OIC 459. The majority of the rate design changes will take effect starting September 1, 2019. The BCUC recognizes the critical importance of the changes required leading up to and following implementation of the rate design amendments. As part of our ongoing regulatory oversight of Basic insurance, the BCUC has directed ICBC to file reporting on information technology implementation, customer communications, and the impact of the new rate design to ensure its proper and timely delivery. For more information on BCUCs review and decision, please see Order G-188-18 . All proceeding documents are public and available on our website here . About the BCUC The BCUC is a regulatory agency responsible for oversight of energy utilities and compulsory auto insurance in British Columbia. It is the BCUCs role to balance the interests of customers with the interests of the businesses it regulates. The BCUC carries out fair and transparent reviews of matters within its jurisdiction and considers public input where public interest is impacted. CONTACT INFORMATION: Julie Swetnick, the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of participating in a gang-rape ring during his high school years, sued her former employer for sexual misconduct claims using a law firm run by the lawyer representing one of the other women accusing Kavanaugh. The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday.A spokesperson for New York Life told The Wall Street Journal that Swetnick worked for the organization for less than two years. The Journal notes that Swetnick did not list her employment at New York Life Insurance on a resume of hers that they reviewed. The Journal adds that a spokeswoman for Katz refused to comment.The Daily Caller News Foundation reports that Swetnick appears to have had her share of major financial struggles in recent years:On Wednesday, Politico reported that a Miami Dade County court docket shows that an ex-boyfriend of Swetnick, Richard Vinneccy, filed a restraining order against Swetnick in 2001 for threatening him.Vinneccy, a 63-year-old registered Democrat, told Politico.he said, telling the outlet that he was speaking to an attorney before making any more public statements.This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.Correction: This article has been corrected to specify that the Wall Street Journal and Politico reports were published Wednesday, not Tuesday. The ex-boyfriend of Julie Swetnick, the woman who accused Brett Kavanaugh of participating in a "gang rape" ring in the early 1980s, filed a restraining order against her in 2001 for issuing multiple threats against him after their four-year relationship came to a halt.According to Politico, a Miami-Dade County court docket shows "a petition for injunction against Swetnick was filed March 1, 2001, by her former boyfriend, Richard Vinneccy." The case was dismissed 13 days later "not long after an affidavit of non-ability to advance fees was filed."Vinneccy, a 63-year-old registered Democrat, claims that Swetnick threatened him multiple times after they broke up, persisting even after he married his current wife, with whom he had a child.Vinneccy told Politico.he said.Julie Swetnick claims that she attended as many as 10 parties in the early-'80s at which women were allegedly drugged with spiked drinks and then raped by scores of unnamed prep school boys. Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were allegedly "present" at these parties; Swetnick does not claim Kavanaugh assaulted her or participated in the gang rapes. She also claims this happened between 1980-1981 during which she would have been a college student. Kavanaugh would have been 15 or 16 at the time.Vinneccy does not believe a word of Swetnick's story and told Politico that he has "a lot of facts" to back his claims against her. "I have a lot of facts, evidence, that what she's saying is not true at all," he said.Swetnick's attorney, Michael Avenatti, told the outlet he knew nothing about this restraining order, despite having claimed publicly to have vetted her extensively. In his response, he characterized Politico's inquiry assaid Avenatti.he added.Vinneccy understood the sensitive nature of the current case due to the underlying politics and wanted to speak with an attorney before any further discussions. TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crystal Peak Minerals Inc. (Crystal Peak or the Company) (TSXV: CPM, OTCQX: CPMMF) announces that, further to its news release dated August 31, 2018, it no longer intends to draw down the second tranche of the Convertible Loan Agreement with EMR Capital Investment (No. 5B) Pte. Ltd. in early October. Crystal Peak does not require the funds at this time and will reevaluate later in October as further work on the Sevier Lake Project advances. About Crystal Peak Minerals Inc. Crystal Peak is focused on the production of premium specialty fertilizers. The Company controls, directly or through agreement, mineral leases on more than 124,000 acres on its Sevier Playa property in Millard County, Utah. With a brine mineral resource known to contain potassium, magnesium, sulfate, bromine, and other beneficial minerals, Crystal Peak is targeting the production of specialty fertilizers and associated products through the use of brine extraction and a cost-effective solar evaporation process. Sulfate of potash (SOP) and other specialty fertilizers are used in the production of high value, chloride-sensitive crops such as fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts. For further information, please contact: Woods Silleroy Corporate Secretary (801) 485-0223 woods@crystalpeakminerals.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the targeting of the development and production of specialty fertilizers and associated minerals, including SOP, lithium, and magnesium compounds through the use of a cost-effective solar evaporation process; the exercise of the second tranche pursuant to the Convertible Loan Agreement; and Crystal Peaks future business. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, is expected, expects or does not expect, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, believes, or variations of such words and phrases; or terms that state that certain actions, events, or results may, could, would, might, or will be taken, could occur, or be achieved. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is made, and is based on, a number of assumptions 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 Crystal Peak to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Although Crystal Peak 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. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Crystal Peak does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hudbay Minerals Inc. (Hudbay or the company) (TSX, NYSE: HBM) senior management will host a conference call on Thursday, November 1, 2018 at 10 a.m. ET to discuss the companys third quarter 2018 results. Third Quarter 2018 Results Conference Call and Webcast Date: Thursday, November 1, 2018 Time: 10 a.m. ET Webcast: www.hudbay.com Dial in: 416-849-1847 or 1-866-530-1554 Hudbay plans to issue a news release containing the third quarter 2018 results on Wednesday, October 31, 2018 and post it on the companys website. An archived audio webcast of the call also will be available on Hudbays website. About Hudbay Hudbay (TSX, NYSE: HBM) is an integrated mining company producing copper concentrate (containing copper, gold and silver) and zinc metal. With assets in North and South America, the company is focused on the discovery, production and marketing of base and precious metals. Through its subsidiaries, Hudbay owns four polymetallic mines, four ore concentrators and a zinc production facility in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan (Canada) and Cusco (Peru), and a copper project in Arizona (United States). The company is governed by the Canada Business Corporations Act and its shares are listed under the symbol "HBM" on the Toronto Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange and Bolsa de Valores de Lima. Hudbay also has warrants listed under the symbol HBM.WT on the Toronto Stock Exchange and HBM/WS on the New York Stock Exchange. Further information about Hudbay can be found on www.hudbay.com . For further information, please contact: This resource is no longer available This resource is no longer available. Return to previous page. After 2021, the law will ban wire flooring and will require an increase in the size of the kennels. Above, dogs at an Ohio puppy mill that appeared in our 2018 Horrible Hundred report. Photo by Ohio Department of Agriculture 192.9K shares Starting today, commercial breeders in Ohio can no longer cram dogs into cages that are stacked on top of each other and deprive animals of basic necessities, like space to move, exercise and access to veterinary care. A pathbreaking new law that goes into effect today upgrades standards of care for dogs kept in breeding kennels that churn out large numbers of puppies, also called puppy mills. Under the new law, each dog must be given daily exercise that allows the animal to extend to full stride, play and engage in other types of mentally stimulating and social behaviors, receive an annual veterinary exam, and be housed with other dogs in temperature-regulated kennels, among other reforms. The law also mandates that only healthy dogs can be bred, and limits the number of times a female dog can be bred. It requires retailers selling puppies in Ohio to acquire animals solely from breeders who meet these standards, regardless of what state they are in. After 2021, the law will ban wire flooring and will require an increase in the size of the kennels. Today is the culmination of years of work to improve the lives of dogs in Ohio and advocates all across the country have reason to celebrate. This is one of the strongest puppy mill laws on the books anywhere in the United States, and I want to commend our colleagues in the Humane Society of the United States puppy mills campaign, our Ohio State Director Corey Roscoe and the many volunteers in the state who worked long and hard for this outcome. We also thank Gov. John Kasich for signing this bill into law. This is a major victory for companion animals and their welfare, and we hope it will set the trend for more states to pass similar legislation to stop some of the most abusive practices in puppy mills. As if we needed more evidence of the harm puppy mills cause to both animals and humans, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals what we have long suspected: that commercial dog breeders, transporters and pet stores are routinely giving puppies strong antibiotics to prevent disease, rather than to treat it. Using antibiotics widely and recklessly in this way renders them ineffective in fighting human and animal diseases and conditions by contributing to drug-resistant strains. Already, we know of one zoonotic disaster caused by such antibiotic use: the study revealed that a number of puppy-selling pet stores, including Petland, were linked to a disease outbreak caused by an antibiotic resistant strain of campylobacter, a disease-causing bacterium. The outbreak is known to have infected at least 118 people, with some ending up in the hospital. The CDC has called for the commercial dog breeding industry to be more judicious in its use of antibiotics, but those of us who fight this problem daily know that much more work is needed before these problems can be erased. We also need to work to keep new, exploitative practices from taking hold. For instance, a practice called pet leasing has been growing in popularity and has come under the spotlight in recent years. Predatory marketers lease out pets to people for a period of time and then allow them to make a final balloon payment to keep these pets. There have been well-publicized cases of consumers who had no idea they were leasing their new four-legged family member and were terrified their pet would be taken away from them because they missed a payment. California and Nevada have already passed laws against pet leasing, and this week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had earlier committed to create a stronger, more humane New York, signed a law banning this practice in his state. Kudos to our New York staff and volunteers who pushed for the passage of this bill. Our work to fight puppy mills is one of our most important priorities at the Humane Society of the United States. Our federal and state legislative teams, attorneys, puppy mills campaign staff, investigative team and our Animal Rescue Team attack this problem from every angle, whether its reaching consumers through education, working with pet supply stores, taking unscrupulous online puppy sellers to court, collaborating with responsible breeders and other stakeholders, helping pass state and federal laws, saving animals from terrible situations in puppy mills, conducting undercover investigations, and raising awareness about puppy mills through our annual Horrible Hundred report. Every victory we achieve takes us closer to the day we can end this scourge once and for all. You can do your part too, by making the right choice when you acquire your next companion animal: from a shelter, a rescue group, or a responsible breeder, and not from an internet seller or a pet store or a puppy mill. America needs a fundamental change in how dogs are raised and sold here, and as the victory in Ohio shows, we can work together to make that change happen. P.S. You can also help fight puppy mills by coming to our Puppy Mill Action Boot Camp in Malvern, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The boot camp, which will run from Oct. 20-21, will help anti-puppy-mill advocates learn how to work with lawmakers, speak to the media, and organize grassroots efforts. It includes eight workshops, four meals, many dynamic expert speakers and even some fun surprises, all for only a $25 registration fee. Hotel discounts are available for those who register by Sept. 29, so sign up now. The American Bar Association, implied by apoplectic US Senator Lindsay Graham as offering their "gold standard" rating to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, has asked the US Senate to investigate said nominee. Seems the ABA also had problems with Kavanaugh in the past, which the Senate also ignored. Via NPR: The American Bar Association says the Senate should not hold a confirmation vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court until the FBI has investigated sexual assault allegations against him that were made by Christine Blasey Ford and other women. Citing the ABA's "respect for the rule of law and due process," ABA President Robert Carlson wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, "The basic principles that underscore the Senate's constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI." Carlson sent the letter after the committee heard testimony from both Kavanaugh and Ford a hearing that gripped the nation on Thursday. The ABA had previously given a rating of "well qualified" to Kavanaugh when he was nominated in July. "Each appointment to our nation's highest court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote," Carlson told the committee, which was expected to vote on the nomination Friday. Police in Colerain Township, Ohio, were summoned to a nature reserve after a dead body was spotted at the side of the road. Eventually, specialized personnel turned up who were able to determine that it was in fact a sex doll. WLWT: When Colerain police officers arrived and saw the body for themselves, they called the coroner. As the coroner went to pick up the body, they realized it wasn't human. What they had found was a sex doll, Colerain Police Chief Mark Denney said. English French TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (BlackRock) (NYSE:BLK) and manager of the iShares Balanced Income CorePortfolio Index ETF (CBD) and iShares Balanced Growth CorePortfolio Index ETF (CBN, and together with CBD, the iShares Funds), announced today that it has called special meetings of the unitholders of CBD and CBN (the Meetings), to be held on or about December 3, 2018, to approve changes to the fundamental investment objective of each iShares Fund and certain related matters (the Proposals). BlackRock Canada is proposing to change the fundamental investment objective of each iShares Fund as follows: Current Name (and TSX Ticker) Current Fundamental Investment Objective Proposed Fundamental Investment Objective iShares Balanced Income CorePortfolio Index ETF (CBD) The Fund has been designed to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the Sabrient Global Balanced Income Index, net of expenses. The Fund seeks to provide long-term capital growth and income by investing primarily in one or more exchange-traded funds managed by BlackRock Canada or an affiliate (iShares ETFs) that provide exposure to equity and/or fixed income securities. iShares Balanced Growth CorePortfolio Index ETF (CBN) The Fund has been designed to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the Sabrient Global Balanced Growth Index, net of expenses. The Fund seeks to provide long-term capital growth by investing primarily in one or more iShares ETFs that provide exposure to equity and/or fixed income securities. In connection with these proposed changes, each iShares Funds investment strategy would change from investing primarily in the exchange-traded funds included from time to time in its index to a long-term strategic asset allocation strategy, whereby each iShares Fund would invest in a portfolio of iShares ETFs managed to specified target allocations. BlackRock Canada believes these changes will allow investors to continue to benefit from balanced income and growth strategies, using a simplified and more transparent portfolio of iShares ETFs. In connection with the Proposals, the following changes, which do not require unitholder approval, are expected to be implemented following the Meetings if the Proposals receive all necessary approvals: (a) a reduction in the management fees and change to the fee structures of the iShares Funds, (b) a change in the names of the iShares Funds and their TSX tickers, and (c) a change in the distribution frequencies of the iShares Funds from monthly to quarterly. Further details regarding the Proposals and related changes will be provided in a joint management information circular to be delivered to unitholders of record of the iShares Funds as of October 19, 2018, in connection with the Meetings and will be available on www.sedar.com. Implementation of the Proposals is also subject to applicable regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. If the changes to the fundamental investment objectives are approved by unitholders of the iShares Funds, BlackRock Canada expects that the transition to the proposed new fundamental investment objectives will be fully implemented no later than December 31, 2018. If the new fundamental investment objectives are approved, the units of the iShares Funds will no longer be index participation units under National Instrument 81-102 Investment Funds as the iShares Funds will no longer seek to invest in a manner that causes them to replicate the performance of an index. About BlackRock BlackRock helps investors build better financial futures. As a fiduciary to our clients, we provide the investment and technology solutions they need when planning for their most important goals. As of June 30, 2018, the firm managed approximately US$6.3 trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/ca | Twitter: @BlackRockCA | Blog: www.blackrockblog.com/can About iShares iShares is a global leader in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with more than a decade of expertise and commitment to individual and institutional investors of all sizes. With over 800 funds globally across multiple asset classes and strategies and more than US$1.8 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2018, iShares helps clients around the world build the core of their portfolios, meet specific investment goals and implement market views. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock, trusted to manage more money than any other investment firm.1 1 Based on US$6.3 trillion in AUM as of 6/30/18. iShares ETFs are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited. Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in iShares ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional. 2018 BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited. All rights reserved. iSHARES and BLACKROCK are registered trademarks of BlackRock, Inc., or its subsidiaries in the United States and elsewhere. Used with permission. Contact for Media: Julia Koene T 416-643-4010 Email: julia.koene@blackrock.com Facebook says an attack on its network left the personal information of some 50 million usersperhaps you?exposed to hackers. Who were the hackers, and what did they want? Facebook doesn't know, or won't say. But the company has confirmed that execs Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sanders were among the users affected. "We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you," Zuckerberg said about Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal earlier this year. Well. You heard the man. Mike Isaac and Sheera Frankel in the New York Times: The company discovered the breach earlier this week, finding that attackers had exploited a feature in Facebook's code that allowed them to take over user accounts. Facebook fixed the vulnerability and notified law enforcement officials. More than 90 million of Facebook's users were forced to log out of their accounts Friday morning, a common safety measure for compromised accounts. Facebook said it did not know the origin or identity of the attackers, nor had it fully assessed the scope of the attack. The company is in the beginning stages of its investigation. The discovery of the hack comes at one of the most difficult times in Facebook's history. The company has dealt with fallout over its role in a widespread Russian disinformation campaign around the 2016 presidential election. () Even before Friday's disclosure, Facebook was facing multiple Federal investigations into the company's broader data sharing and privacy practices. The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into Facebook's statements on Cambridge Analytica. READ THE REST. Facebook faces likely government regulation over monopoly and influence concerns, and it faces consequences for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, from EU, UK, and US legal forces. This major news will not help Mark Zuckerberg and his company in their struggles. Every year, security researchers gather at Defcon's Voting Village to probe voting machines and report on the longstanding, systematic security problems with them, in order to give secure voting advocates the ammunition they need to convince Congress and local officials to take action into improve America's voting security. Whether it's showing that "secure" firmware can be dumped with a $15 electronic component or that voting systems can be hacked in minutes, the Voting Village researchers do yeoman duty, compiling comprehensive reports on the dismal state of America's voting machines, nearly 20 years after Bush v Gore put the country on notice about the defective systems behind our elections. This year's report is the most alarming yet: it singles out the ES&S M650 tabulating machine, manufactured by Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Nebraska, which still has outstanding defects that were reported to the manufacturer a decade ago. The M650's manifest unsuitability is so terrible that it would be funny if it wasn't so serious: this is a machine that uses an operating system developed for the Blackberry phone (!) and then uses Zip cartridges (!!) to move data around. The M650 is one of the most widespread pieces of equipment in American election systems, used to count in-person and absentee ballots by optically scanning ballot papers whose bubble-in forms have been filled in by voters. The system connected to the internet by default is used for county-wide tabulations in 23 states. As the report states: "Hacking just one of these machines could enable an attacker to flip the Electoral College and determine the outcome of a presidential election." The researchers identified defects in other systems, too: one could be compromised in two minutes, less time than it takes the average voter to cast a ballot on it. Another could be wirelessly hacked with a nearby mobile device and made to register an arbitrary number of votes. The report goes on to warn about attacks on voting machine supply chains, which could compromise whole batches of machines before they even reached the polling place. As always, this year's Voting Village report closes with a set of clear, sensible recommendations, focusing on legislative and regulatory action as well as technical advice for manufacturers and electoral officials making purchase decisions. This summer, Senate Republicans killed bipartisan legislation to fund additional cybersecurity funding for American election systems. The machine in question, the ES&S M650, is used for counting both regular and absentee ballots. The device from Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Nebraska, is essentially a networked high-speed scanner like those used for scanning standardized-test sheets, usually run on a network at the county clerk's office. Based on the QNX 4.2 operating systema real-time operating system developed and marketed by BlackBerry, currently up to version 7.0the M650 uses Iomega Zip drives to move election data to and from a Windows-based management system. It also stores results on a 128-megabyte SanDisk Flash storage device directly mounted on the system board. The results of tabulation are output as printed reports on an attached pin-feed printer. The report authorsMatt Blaze of the University of Pennsylvania, Jake Braun of the University of Chicago, David Jefferson of the Verified Voting Foundation, Harri Hursti and Margaret MacAlpine of Nordic Innovation Labs, and DEF CON founder Jeff Mossdocumented dozens of other severe vulnerabilities found in voting systems. They found that four major areas of "grave and undeniable" concern need to be addressed urgently. One of the most critical is the lack of any sort of supply-chain security for voting machinesthere is no way to test the machines to see if they are trustworthy or if their components have been modified. Defcon 26 Voting Village [Matt Blaze, Jake Braun, Harri Hursti, David Jefferson, Margaret MacAlpine and Jeff Moss] Defcon Voting Village report: bug in one system could "flip Electoral College" [Sean Gallagher/Ars Technica] Donald Trump, meet the U.S. Constitution's 'emoluments clause.' A federal judge ruled today that 200 congressional Democrats do have standing to sue Donald Trump for violating the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments while he holds the office of President, according to the Washington Post. Here's a key passage in the ruling: Judge says @realDonaldTrump has a duty to ask Congress's permission, and he didn't. So Dems can sue. pic.twitter.com/jdDiDdGjc1 From the Washington Post: The lawsuit is based on the Constitution's emoluments clause, which bars presidents from taking payments from foreign states. Trump's business, which he still owns, has hosted foreign embassy events and visiting foreign officials at its downtown D.C. hotel. The decision opens up yet another legal front for the president, who is now facing an array of inquiries into his business, his campaign and his charity. Trump is already facing a separate emoluments suit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, D.C. and Maryland that is moving forward. In addition, he is contending with the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference, a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General that alleged "persistently illegal conduct" at his charitable foundation and a defamation lawsuit brought by former "Apprentice" contestant Summer Zervos. In his ruling, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan wrote that the members of Congress "appropriate seek relief in federal court" because they have no way to address their concern about Trump's alleged violation of the emoluments clause with legislation. "The Clause requires the President to ask Congress before accepting a prohibited foreign emolument," Sullivan wrote. If the allegations made by Democrats are true, he said, then "the President is accepting prohibited foreign emoluments without asking and without receiving a favorable reply from Congress." By not asking Congress, Sullivan said, Trump could have effectively "nullified their votes" which, he said, meant legislators could seek the unusual remedy of filing a lawsuit against the president. - Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba is suing author and media personality Redi Tlhabi for deformation after the author refused to apologise for a series of tweets - Gigaba and Tlhabi have been engaged in a dramatic and at times ugly social media war of words - Tlhabi accused Gigaba of allowing personal feelings to influence his policy decisions PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see Briefly news on your News Feed! The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed that minister Malusi Gigaba has started legal proceedings against the respected author and media personality Redi Tlhabi. Gigaba is suing Tlhabi for defamation after she refused to apologise for a series of tweets. Gigaba and Tlhabi have been engaged in a dramatic and at times ugly war of words on social media in recent days. The spat culminated in a series of tweets in which Tlhabi accuses Gigaba of allowing personal feelings to influence his policy decisions with regards to childrens travel restrictions. READ ALSO: Duduzane Zuma admits meeting with Mcebisi Jonas, denies trying to bribe him On Wednesday, Gigaba demanded that Tlhabi apologise and retract a tweet in which she accused Gigaba of changing travel regulations with children because of a vested personal interest in the matter. Briefly.co.za gathered that Tlhabi refused to apologise or retract her tweets which led to Gigaba instructing his legal representative to start the legal process. Businesslive.co.za reported that Tlhabi claimed Gigaba had amended the visa regulations related to children and minors travelling with adults because he was incensed by a family incident in which a relative of his ex-wife took his child on holiday without Gigabas permission. Whether or not this accusation is true or false the fact is that Gigaba amended the travel policy for minors recently. One of the new requirements is that written consent is required from a childs parents when that child travels without their parents. This change is in addition to an unabridged birth certificate needing to be presented in conjunction with the childs passport. Gigaba announced that travel restriction would be eased in order to boost tourism which had dropped in part due to harsh requirements which were originally aimed at curbing child trafficking. Tlhabi questioned whether Gigabas travel policy had been successful in its stated aim of lowering child trafficking. She claimed the policy was aimed squarely at the ministers ex-wife. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app Gigaba has since published documents which prove the original policy was approved in 2014 before he was appointed to the position of home affairs minister. Gigaba said he had simply implemented an approved policy and had no part in its makeup. The policy in question has been blamed for a dramatic drop in international tourism as foreign and local tourist struggled to comply with the near draconian requirements for travelling with a child. Tourism experts said the industry had lost countless billions in direct income which led to job losses and a diminishing of South Africas reputation as a tourist destination. READ ALSO: Durban businessman appears in court over k-word rant, asks Ramaphosa for forgiveness For more amazing, funny and informative videos, please visit Briefly South Africa's YouTube Channel. Do you have a story to share with Briefly? Visit our Facebook page where you can send us a message or leave us a comment. Your story could be shared online. To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on iTunes or GooglePlay today. Source: Briefly.co.za News / National by Staff reporter Local Government minister July Moyo was yesterday grilled in Parliament over government's engagement of a company owned by former first lady Grace Mugabe as debt collectors in several local authorities.Opposition MDC MP Job Sikhala set the ball rolling yesterday during the questions without notice session in the National Assembly, questioning the legality of the engagement of Wellcash Debt Collectors whose directors allegedly include former Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere."We know that during the climax of the previous government commissions were appointed to run local authorities which went on to engage Wellcash Debt Collectors which we know for certain is owned by Grace Mugabe and Kasukuwere so we would want to know what the company's locus standi is in doing so," Sikhala asked.In response, Moyo said he was not aware of the company and suggested that the former St Mary's MP bring evidence to that effect.This drew the ire of MDC legislators who all stood up in unison, each of them itching to ask follow up supplementary questions.National Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda, however, gave it to Sikhala to exhaust his questions as he had also stood up on a point of clarification."If the minister does not know about the company that is collecting debts on behalf of local authorities including Harare, Chitungwiza, Gweru and some other municipalities, then it is safe to conclude that he is sleeping on duty," Sikhala said, adding that "I can bring primary evidence to substantiate what I am saying".This prompted Mudenda to direct Moyo to properly respond to the question to which the minister responded by saying "I am not aware of any policy of government that allows local authorities to engage debt collectors and if there is any, the MP can give me the names so we can correct that".However, Mudenda clearly unsatisfied by the response reminded Moyo that the company is known and that he ought to consider what the legislator had raised."The company is known and I suggest that the minister should go down and find out and then come back with a ministerial statement on the issue," Mudenda ruled.The Wellcash issue is not new in Parliament after it was raised in the eighth Parliament in a motion moved by the then Matabeleland South Proportional Representative MP Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga (MDC).Misihairabwi-Mushonga wanted to know why and how the company was contracted by several entities to do debt collection ahead of other companies.While the legislator pointed out that Wellcash has four directors including John Mutonono, Cashington Mavunduke, Panganai Fobo and Lancilot Muswere she doubted that given the coverage that it enjoyed in the public media "it just cannot have these people, they must be some bigger force somewhere".The same issue was also raised by the then Zanu-PF Goromonzi West MP Beata Nyamupinga. News / National by Staff reporter PROMINENT businessman, Mr Herbert Nkala, has been appointed chairman of the OK Zimbabwe Limited board.He replaces, Mr David Lake, who has stepped down from the position with immediate effect.In a notice yesterday, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) listed retailing firm said Mr Lake would continue to serve as an independent non-executive director until his retirement on 31 December 2018."Following the retirement of David Lake, the board is pleased to announce the election of Mr Herbert Nkala as the new chairman with immediate effect," said Ok Zimbabwe."The board congratulates Herbert Nkala on his election as chairman and wishes him a successful tenure."Mr Nkala joined the OK board in 2012. He boasts wide experience as a business leader and has sat and chaired many public and private boards in and outside Zimbabwe. Mr Nkala is currently group chairman for FBC Holdings Limited. He also chairs the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of Zimbabwe and is a board member of Tanganda Tea Company.Mr Nkala holds a BSc Honours Degree from the University of Wales, United Kingdom, an MBA from the University of Zimbabwe as well as numerous professional qualifications.OK Zimbabwe has paid tribute to Mr Lake, an experienced lawyer and businessman, for his capable leadership during his term of office. Mr Lake joined the OK board upon the public listing of the company in 001 and served as chairman for the last nine years. News / National by Staff reporter AN International Monetary Fund (IMF) team of tax experts has completed a diagnostic assessment of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra)'s tax administration and pointed out areas where reform is required to bring it in line with international best practice.Senior economist in Revenue Administration and Fiscal Affairs department, Rebecca Sparkman, led the IMF team which conducted a Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT) from September 10 to 25.Zimra commissioner-general Faith Mazani revealed that the diagnostic assessment was done at the instigation of Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, who sees the technical assistance as key to the development of a new strategic plan for Zimra for the period from 2019 to 2023.Launched in 2014, the current strategic plan is coming to an end this year."So, I will tell you the TADAT tool is actually very unique for different countries," Sparkman said."We saw strengths and weaknesses in tax administration and it is up them (Zimra) to determine what the reform priorities are and where do they want to go with the plans to take Zimra to the next level of international good practice. We saw a high quality calibre of employees at Zimra and are capable to take Zimra to the next level."TADAT is a tool developed by multiple tax administrations around the world to look at what is good practice in different areas.The diagnostic assessment will help Zimra seek technical assistance, funding and other forms of aid under the ambit of a co-operating partnership required to address challenges in priority areas."The team was using TADAT to look at evidence on the administration here in Zimbabwe to determine in different areas where do they match with the international practice," Sparkman said."So this is a standardised objective tool that we apply that requires evidence to prove where they are in international good practice. So we are looking in different areas; where do they meet or exceed or maybe fall short of these standards of good practice in tax administration?"Zimra is already reforming its tax administration within the framework of Zimbabwe's "open for business" reform agenda.Mazani said Zimra would use the IMF diagnostic assessment report to build on reforms already under way and to develop a baseline for its strategic plan.Part of the reform effort includes staff development, which is key to Zimra's broader aim to align its operations with international best practices."We are at a point where we are reviewing our performance within the current strategic plan, which is coming to an end by end of this year. It started in 2014. We are also in the process to developing our strategic plan from 2019 to 2023," Mazani said."So we are going to embark on a reform programme and some of the areas the TADAT was looking at are in terms of our compliance, registration and the payment."The weaknesses that were identified are some of the things that we are aware of because our systems, our compliance levels are low. They actually indicated areas where are falling short against good practice." News / National by Sterphen Jakes Independent legislator Temba Mliswa has exposed some legislators in parliament as land barons who have caused the outbreak of cholera in Harare due to allocation of land to residents when there are no sanitary facilities."There is also the issue of the land barons, some of whom are in this House. In Norton, we have Hon. Cuthbert Mupame who is implicated in the Kingsdale issue. We have Hon. Cde. Killer Zivhu, who is implicated in the Galloway issue. I speak about this with a heavy heart because these people have made people of Norton suffer," he said."The cholera that we talk about today is a result of land barons who have gone and built more stands without complying with the master plan. Every town has got a master plan and if you look at it you give people land who are the land barons to build but they do not build any infrastructure to augment the new houses which are being built. That cholera which is there is a result of the land barons who have been given land and not only that, but they are the same land barons who were sponsoring the G40, but I see them in this House again."He said at times he wonder what really happened to the party."Where are the eyes of the party? They created so much division in the country. They were the ones supporting the former first lady but today I see them here. I wonder - where was the Zanu-PF vetting system in terms of elections to stop these criminals from coming here? When another faction comes, you know where it is coming from. You failed to stop them at the end of the day. The reason why I talk about the factions is because they have played a part in this economy not taking off. The only thing that the ruling party did in the Eighth Session was to just fight and fight. There was no progress at the end of the day," he said."I talk about the aspect of corruption because it is an issue and it is quite sad that some of the issues to do with the Land Commission was set up by the President to look into the land barons. But, I then asked myself how will the Land Commission be able to investigate other Members of Parliament when they are also part of that investigation? It says a lot about what we need to do. I also talk..."Mliswa said he made the remarks because he have written that and they are part of the investigation of what is going on in the Land Commission."So there is evidence that I have written to the authorities in this country and Hon. Cuthbert Mpame was brought before the courts as a result of the Kingsdale issue. So that evidence is there. I would not talk about something which has not gone before the courts and so forth. They are being investigated with the Land Commission. My question is - how fair will the investigations be now that they are Members of Parliament? This is an issue of corruption that I am talking about that at times we need to be very clear in terms of that," he said."I also want to talk about the issue of bureaucracy in Government. The President was very clear and I think that the Government has not changed its ways of doing things. The President is much ahead of Government. You can see that there is so much bureaucracy still in Government. It seems that people still have the DNA of the former President Robert Mugabe in terms of how they work and all that, yet the new President is very clear about how he wants things to perform. The onus is on the new administration, the Ministers - to appoint people around them who will be able to align themselves to the vision of the President which he has shown by appointing them.""We are hoping that there will be a truly new dispensation because for as long as Government is not performing - Government institutions have got to perform he mentioned that."He said the police are trained to investigate; Homicide section can do armed robber cases, CID can do frauds but they never hear of ZRP arresting anybody for corruption."We hear of ZACC arresting people for corruption. ZACC does not have the capacity that ZRP has. ZRP has stations around and they have a training centre, but you wonder what these institutions are doing in terms of ensuring that they are up to a lot of things. It says a lot again in terms of how the training goes in terms of the crime which is there. Hon. Musabayana spoke about the cyber crime which is highly sophisticated. As a result, we also need to find people who are able to deal with white collar crime and I do not know how far we have gone in terms of introducing that," he said. News / National by Stephen Jakes Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has called Binga South legislator Prince Dubeko Sibanda to order after he questioned the qualifications of the Minister of Health Obadiah Moyo.Sibanda had asked Moyo to clarify his qualifications following allegations that he was not a truly qualified doctor."I think the Hon. Member should withdraw his statement or else I will invoke the Standing Rules and Orders so that he can be charged. He has alleged that I am not registered. Can investigations be done and if the Member is found to be at fault, he should be charged. I think this is an honourable House, you should not come with disparaging remarks which you have not researched like what the Honourable Member is doing," minister Ziyambi said."He should do his research first and come and present facts into the House rather than hearsay. I said, according to Section 104, he is a learned colleague, he should be well vested with the Constitution. The appointing authority is the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and nowhere is it written that qualifications are a prerogative of being appointed a minister."He added that people should not disgrace the Minister when he is giving a Ministerial Statement concerning cholera. News / National by Staff Reporter The government through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has intervened to avert a pending bread shortages by availing foreign currency towards the importation of wheat in a move that has been hailed by the industry.The Food and Nutrition Cluster is one of the critical areas on the central bank's foreign currency allocation list.Therefore, the government has moved in to avert a pending crisis of wheat shortage in the country in the face of a change of lifestyle by Zimbabweans which has seen demand for wheat almost doubling since June this year.Addressing journalists in Bulawayo on Thursday evening, Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe Chairman Mr Tafadzwa Musarara heaped praises on President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration for considering the industry's plight by availing funding enough to supply the nation for a month."We have been affected by lack of wheat locally which has seen a steep price of bread with the industry only supplying to urban areas as we have been producing 50 percent of national demand. However, I want to thank the leadership for allowing the industry to make a solution to the pending crisis which is a first in this country. We hope and believe that the wheat situation will start improving in the next two weeks but pricing will not likely to change as demand globally is outweighing supply," said Mr Musarara.On the pending El Nino induced drought, Mr Musarara says industry is in talks with government to ensure that key supplies are in stock, urging people to avoid panic buying of commodities like rice since mechanisms to ensure availability of such products will be put in place.The Grain Millers Association expressed hope that the coming on board of a new minister will translate to change of policy with regards to food fortification which the association says is meant to create unnecessary demand for forex through the importation of ingredients to fortify products like flour and mealie meal. MEXICO CITY, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Terrafina (TERRA) (BMV: TERRA13), a leading Mexican industrial real estate investment trust (FIBRA), externally advised by PGIM Real Estate and dedicated to the acquisition, development, lease and management of industrial real estate properties in Mexico, announced today the signing of a binding contract for the construction of a built-to-suit (BTS) industrial property located in Ciudad Juarez. During the last six months, Terrafina participated in an open bidding process and was awarded the construction of an industrial BTS property for an existing tenant in the automotive sector. The total estimated investment in this property (excluding taxes) is of US$13.8 million. This property is expected to generate a development yield over stabilized net operating income (NOI) of above 12%. The construction process will take place in two phases. During the first phase, an estimated 100,000 square feet will be developed and delivered in the next six months. The second phase will consist of an expansion of approximately 160,000 square feet with the option for an additional 265,000 square feet. The leasing contract was signed for a ten-year period. With this type of development opportunity, we aim to strengthen business relationships with our tenants, thereby prompting growth opportunities in the real estate sector. Together with the expertise and market knowledge of our property managers, we expect to take advantage of more active demand in the industrial space to continue promoting the manufacturing-for-export sector in Mexico. I also want to mention that we are initiating the process for LEED certification at this industrial property. In this manner, we seek to guarantee the application of sustainable strategies during the construction process, as well as maximizing sustainability levels during its usage phase, stated Alberto Chretin, Terrafinas CEO. About Terrafina Terrafina (BMV: TERRA13) is a Mexican real estate investment trust formed primarily to acquire, develop, lease and manage industrial real estate properties in Mexico. Terrafinas portfolio consists of attractive, strategically located warehouses and other light manufacturing properties throughout the Central, Bajio and Northern regions of Mexico. It is internally managed by highly-qualified industry specialists and externally advised by PGIM Real Estate. Terrafina owns 298 real estate properties, including 286 developed industrial facilities with a collective GLA of approximately 40.9 million square feet and 12 land reserve parcels, designed to preserve the organic growth capability of the portfolio. Terrafinas objective is to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns for the holders of its certificates through stable distributions and capital appreciations. Terrafina aims to achieve this objective through a successful performance of its industrial real estate and complementary properties, strategic acquisitions, access to a high level of institutional support, and to its management and corporate governance structure. For more information, please visit www.terrafina.mx . PGIM Real Estate PGIM Real Estate is the real estate investment business of PGIM Inc., the global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU). Redefining the real estate investing landscape since 1970, PGIM Real Estate has professionals in 18 cities in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific with deep local knowledge and expertise, and gross assets under management of US$69.2 billion (US$49.5 billion net) as of June 30, 2018. PGIM Real Estates tenured team offers to its global client base a broad range of real estate equity, debt, and securities investment strategies that span the risk/return spectrum. For more information, visit www.pgimrealestate.com . About Prudential Financial, Inc. Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with more than US$1.4 trillion of assets under management as of June 30, 2018, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudentials diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudentials iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit www.news.prudential.com . Forward Looking Statements This document may include forward-looking statements that may imply risks and uncertainties. Terms such as "estimate", "project", "plan", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", and other similar expressions could be construed as previsions or estimates. Terrafina warns readers that declarations and estimates mentioned in this document, or realized by Terrafinas management imply risks and uncertainties that could change in function of various factors that are out of Terrafinas control. Future expectations reflect Terrafinas judgment at the date of this document. Terrafina reserves the right or obligation to update the information contained in this document or derived from this document. Past or present performance is not an indicator to anticipate future performance. Contacts in Mexico City: Francisco Martinez Investor Relations Officer Tel: +52 (55) 5279-8107 E-mail: francisco.martinez@terrafina.mx Contacts in New York: Maria Barona i-advize Corporate Communications, Inc. Tel: +(212) 406-3691 E-mail: mbarona@i-advize.com Opinion / Columnist The AK 47 stands for Avtomat (Automatic) Kalashnikov: and 47 is the year in which it was invented. Mikael Kalashnikov is the sole inventor of AK47, he was at an early age obsessed with creating a sub-machine gun. At his hospital bed, he invented a prototype sub-machine gun, then refined it to a carbine that later saw the birth of the deadliest weapon in the history of mankind the AK47. Ironically it was invented after the end of the Second World War, the WW2 ways of combat approach actually gave insight to the young man Mikael Kalashnikov to be curious enough to invent a weapon that will see Russia win wars better than the weaponry used in the WW2. The AK47 is the most popular assault rifle world over because of its prolific and effective combat use. It is simple a light weapon, durable easy to use and very cheap in the market ever since it was invented to this day.This light weapon is responsible for the death of a quarter of a million deaths world-wide, every year. The weapon industry revolutionarized the way war would be fought after the WW2. The high-tech-Atomic bomb ended the WW2, because of its mass destruction, no country had any appetite for nuclear weapons, only to be replaced by a lower tech-AK47, deadlier than any other weapon used in any war situation. The AK47 is known for its destruction in eastern bloc countries. The SU used it to suppress any uprising in the eastern bloc countries. The Czechoslovakian and Hungarian uprisings of 1950s were suppressed using the effective AK47. About 50,000 Hungarians were casualties of AK47: gunned down against 7000 SU soldiers who also perished in the conflict.All other wars in eastern countries; SU used the AK 47 to spread communism in Eastern Europe. When conflict ended, AK47 will be collected by sales-brokers to any other conflict in the world. The cold war was fought using AK47. The SU gave its allies the military artillery: mainly the AK47 because they were cheap and durable and in abundance since the wars in Europe had ended. The Vietnam War was won because the Vietnamese used AK 47 against the USA weapon M-14 or M-16, the USA equivalence of an AK47. The liberation movements in Africa were equipped with AK 47 weapons, was easy to facilitate them as they were cheap and durable, easy to transport to locations intended to use.The end of the cold war meant overall transformations and upgrades designed to make weapons better to combat modern type of wars after the WW2. The weapons innovations during the cold war rendered the AK47 a third-world weapon of mass destruction. The SU and its allies found themselves with so many AK47 rifles; they had to find means to sell them elsewhere to get some profit than to send them for destruction. The AK 47 found its permanent home in African continent because in this continent's conflicts are never ending. Who has ever seen an African holding an AK47 on his hands, the excitement he shows in possession of a weapon that determines life and death? These weapons are not invented in Africa but elsewhere. The African continent is a consumer of such weapons of mass destruction. They are cheap and in abundance, the illicit trading of small arms and light weapons is a multi-billion dollar profit because the demand in Africa is permanent.African is so to speak, a dumping place of such "out of date" weapons because of numerous conflicts in Africa. There has been an estimated of 630 state-based and non non-state armed conflicts in the entire continent: this trade will always exist and will continue to make billions of profits to sustain unquenchable demand for SALW.Globally, the African continent has the greatest number of conflicts. Whereas some conflicts are latent, most of them are active and open hostilities are expressed through armed conflicts. The countries with active conflicts are: Angola, Burundi, Chad, Cote d'voire. DRC, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Republic of Congo Senegal, Sierra Leone Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania Zanzibar, and Uganda and very soon it will be Zimbabwe. Illicit trading of small arms is what nurtures conflicts in Sub-Sahara. The influx of small arms and light weapons is financed by cash, diamonds, oil reserves, minerals and of course other means. However it is not the availability of light weapons that cause of the wars in Africa.Because SALW are cheap to get in the market, their easy availability triggers, and nurtures and prolongs these African conflicts. The disproportionate number of casualties in Africa due to conflicts triggered by the availability of SALW is about 7 to 8 million since 2001 and 14 million refugees and asylum seekers in the world are of African origin. Of the 21 million internally displaced people in the world, 10 million are Africans.But this trade still and makes billion worth of dollars each year and there is nobody in the continent that can control it effectively. These small arms and light weapons land generally in the hands of failed politicians (Jonas Savimbi of Angola) to a certain extent but in most cases conflicts arise between political parties, between groups, groups and governments and communities trying to finding solutions are most combative, small arms and light weapons come in handy to determine the conflict forcefully, summed up as "Frustration and Aggression Theory."One can even talk of gun-culture in some parts of Africa like South Africa. Global arms-industries know where lucrative profits are on demand: the African continent. Africa has unending conflicts in many regions and this arms trade feeds them with the easily available arms necessary to perpetuate conflicts, a preponderance of repeat civil wars. Some civil conflict develop to full scale wars whereby the rebel groups will have acquired arms, sometimes seized or stolen from government forces, to a certain extent looted from state armouries or purchased from corrupt soldiers.Some countries in Africa do produce small arms and light weapons; South Africa and Ghana are the two of the few countries known to produce small arms. But their trade is strictly monitored by the respective governments; their products usually do not land in rebel groups that will use the arms in conflict situations. According to Schroder and Lamb, the arms trade in Arica is opaque, amorphous and dynamic, the methods of smuggling the small arms is limitless and the demand for small arms and light weapons is limitless too. Small arms range from assault rifles, machine-guns, rocket propelled grenades are all lightweight armed easy to conceal on their way to the recipients stimulate the formation of insurgencies.Outside Africa, the countries that produce arms that reach the shores of Africa are China, Israel and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) The specialised globber-trotting arms dealers either fly or ship their consignments illicitly into Africa. The route supply of arms in Africa also could be by road, rivers and along the coasts. The transfers are dizzyingly complex says Schroder and Lamb: they consist of backdoor companies that do the transactions, false paperwork and loose collection of brokers. (Simon Mann in Zimbabwe)Inter-community tensions in some cases are due to various natures of conflicts; such as minerals wealth, water, disputes on cattle grazing lands, the weak states such as Somalia and DRC, ethnic tensions are violently intensified due to the availability of SALW. According to the United Kingdom Parliamentary Office on Science and Technology, the combination of the lucrative "bush-meat" trade which supplies the meat of wild animals and ineffective governance in many central African areas is linked to groups of poachers whose actions have decimated endangered wildlife. (Taken from Schroder and Lamb: "the illicit arms trade in Africa")Illicit trading of arms has a devastating effect in any community development. There are constant deaths resulting from despites due to the availability of SALW. Deaths and trauma of victims resulting from the use of small arms, mares' meaningful development, and families are displaced; no food production is possible because communities are disrupted from their normal day to day existence. According to Schroder and Lamb, military conflicts has resulted in approximately 4 million people in the DRC an estimated of 7% of the population. In Sudan one million people have lost their lives and six million are internally displaced due to civil war induced by the availability of small to medium arms from the war-lords and arms-dealers.Arms conflicts disrupt normal democratic governance, contribute to collapse of fragile states, causes human rights violations, and generate refugees; communities are internally displaced and are unable lead normal lives. Conflicts divert scarce resources away from social services, can also disrupt trade and no tourism is possible in conflict countries. When the communities cannot produce food for their livelihoods because of displacements, they depend on food-handouts from donor agencies. The irony of it is that those donor agencies cannot reach those fragile communities intended to assist because the armed rebels disrupt passages for food agencies to give necessary assistance. As a result so many people die of hunger and malnutrition. Many roads and railway infrastructure are destroyed by militant groups who disrupt any form of communication in rural communities.Any war kill, maims and the consequences extend beyond deaths and destruction. The consequences of conflicts are pervasive and have grave psychological scars on the populations. Children are left traumatized and become accustomed to the culture of violence. Violence on children becoming child-soldiers: child soldiers are recruited by armed militia to fight for them. "Coalition to Stop the Use of Children as Child Soldiers" claims that from 300,000 world-wide, there are 120,000 child-soldiers in Africa alone. Conflicts that have child-soldiers are Angola, -Burundi, DRC, Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda. These that are thought to have the largest child-soldiers. It is imaginable and possible that Siwela et al will also use child-soldiers to fight for Mthwakazi independence and the restoration of Nguni kingdoms in Mathebeleland.The armed conflicts in Africa are very complex and almost impossible to bring them to an end. There is profit made in these conflicts, to some it is already a way of life to subsist. Soldiers and guerrillas do profit immensely from SALW sales especially to those who have access to diamonds, gemstones, rare minerals, arms markets are again unlimited making the barter system of selling and buying possible. In the region of Mathebeleland, the bone of contention is the vast diamond bed stretching from Botswana to Mathebeleland.To conclude this essay: Our rhetoric on war as the means to solve conflicts and to incite violence is always the result of the conscious decisions of groups done out of frustration: (e. g. Nelson Chamisa and Paul Siwela). The consequent of frustration is aggression. To continue to incite violence and stimulate an armed confrontation in an unstable continent like Africa is wholly irresponsible.Much as we may understand the frustration of certain groups that suffer from regional marginalization, a war conflict is not a solution. It is the women and children who suffer more than the cowardice of our men who stimulate it. In any military conflict, our men run for their dear lives leaving women and children at the mercy of the genocide perpetrators.The least we need is a conflict right in the middle of southern cone of Africa. Ambassador Kofi Annan said, if you incite violence, you do not know how that violence can go: it can go into a direction wholly unintended by those who instigated, stimulated and incited it. Would I rather be told, I am scared than to put women and other people's children lives at risk. Paul Siwela and others in the group are away from the crime scenes, safe together with their children. Any kind of armed conflict in Mathebeleland/ Zimbabwe will be fought by children of lesser gods. Paul Siwela et al will be in his safety and comforts of Sweden. Hoe responsible! Pun intended! Another endangered killer whale is losing weight, but several believed to be pregnant Less than a month after an ailing southern resident killer whale known as J50 died, scientists are raising alarm bells about another sick member of the West Coast orca population. According to a release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a 27-year-old male whale known as K25 looks to be in "notably poorer body condition compared to recent years," judging from aerial photographs. "This year, his body profile is thinner than previous years," the release reads in part. Southern resident killer whales inhabit a range between southeast Alaska and central California, but are commonly seen off southern Vancouver Island and northern Washington state during the summer. While the reasons for J50's emaciation were never determined, scientists have a theory about why K25 may look thin. "This change coincides with the loss of his mother, K13, in 2017, and likely reflects the challenges he faces without her help in capturing and sharing prey," said the release. Male killer whales tend to rely on help from their mothers and other family members to meet their increased energy demands, and are often vulnerable following their mother's death. While J50 was just three years old. K25 is much older just three years short of the typical 30-year-old lifespan of a male killer whale. Multiple whales pregnant But there's also good news for the whale population that experienced tragedy after tragedy over the summer. NOAA said aerial images indicate whales in all three pods J, K, and L are pregnant, including K25's sister, K27. "This is vital news for this critically endangered population," said Scott Rumsey of the NOAA. "We ask that vessels minimize disturbance of these pregnant whales, in addition to K25, to maximize the chances of successful pregnancies." The population has a high rate of unsuccessful pregnancies. Over the past 10 years, only three whales have been born. Story continues With the death of J50 in August, only 74 southern resident killer whales remain. The southern residents rely on their favoured food: chinook salmon. While they look like other killer whales on the West Coast, they breed and feed among themselves, travelling in tight family groups. The whales are threatened due to high levels of vessel noise and toxic contamination levels, and low supplies of prey. Read more from CBC British Columbia By Christian Shepherd and Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - China demanded the United States "dispel obstacles" to improving military ties and stop slandering it, amid growing tensions over trade, Taiwan, the South China Sea and U.S. President Donald Trump's claims of China meddling in the upcoming U.S. election. Trump on Wednesday accused China of seeking to interfere in the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections, saying that Beijing did not want him or his Republican Party to do well because of his pugnacious stance on trade. The two countries are already embroiled in an acrimonious trade war and have continued to butt heads over a list of sensitive issues including the disputed South China Sea and self-ruled Taiwan, armed by Washington but claimed by Beijing. On Saturday, China summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and postponed joint military talks to protest Washington's decision to sanction a Chinese military agency and its director for buying Russian fighter jets and a surface-to-air missile system. Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang told a monthly briefing that the United States should take steps to improve military relations and expressed China's firm opposition to "provocative" U.S. air force flights over the South China Sea, after U.S. B-52s flew in the vicinity of the waterway this week. He even hinted a planned visit to the United States later this year for Defence Minister Wei Fenghe could be in doubt. "The United States is to blame for the present problem, so the United States must immediately correct its mistakes, and withdraw the so-called sanctions to dispel obstacles that interfere in the healthy development of relations between the two militaries," Ren said, when asked about Wei's trip. Beijing has also denied a request for a U.S. warship to visit Hong Kong, the U.S. consulate in the Chinese city said on Tuesday. Ren said he had no further information on that. Adding fuel to the flames, China was angered this week when the United States approved the sale of spare parts for F-16 fighter planes and other military aircraft worth up to $330 million to Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province. ELECTION INTERFERENCE Speaking at a separate briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated a denial of Trump's accusation that Beijing is trying to influence the U.S. congressional elections in November. "We advise the United States to stop this unceasing criticism and slander of China," Geng said. "Stop these wrong words and deeds that damage bilateral relations and the basic interests of both countries' peoples." Trump also said on Twitter on Wednesday that China was "placing propaganda ads" in U.S. newspapers, referring to a Chinese government-run media company's four-page supplement in the Sunday Des Moines Register promoting the mutual benefits of U.S.-China trade. Asked about the tweet, Geng said that such advertisements by foreign media were commonplace and allowed by U.S. law. "To say that this regular cooperation is China's government interfering in the U.S. elections is totally far-fetched and without foundation in facts," he said. The military spat and election accusation have worsened a relationship already poisoned by the Sino-U.S. trade war. China's commerce ministry said it was "ridiculous" for the United States to think that pressure could force concessions from China, sparked by Trump's blaming China for stealing U.S. intellectual property, limiting access to its own market and unfairly subsidizing state-owned companies. "I want to stress that bullying and maximum pressure will not scare China and will not cause China's economy to collapse," ministry spokesman Gao Feng told reporters. Gao was answering a question about comments by former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who last week told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post that Trump planned to make the trade war "unbearably painful" for Beijing and would not back down. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Christian Shepherd; Additional reporting by Yawen Chen and Se Young Lee; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Nick Macfie) When I was given the opportunity to go to Costa Rica, I said yes without question. A chance to travel to a new place and go to an all-women surf camp? Sign me up. But as the trip grew near, the reality started to set in. At the age of 26, Id never traveled alone. And although I would be at an all-inclusive retreat, I would be navigating it by myself and that scared the shit out of me. For the most part, Ive always played it safe. Ive never even lived outside of my hometown. After graduating, I immediately started working in my chosen field. Im not unhappy with my life, but I believe that to transcend to another level of life, you have to do things youve never considered. As such, I quickly realized that going on this trip would mean a lot more than simply learning to surf. So, with the intention of letting go, I packed my bags. After a four-hour flight and a two-hour drive, I finally arrived in Nosara, Costa Rica. From the moment I stepped foot onto Olas Verdes, the hotel gave off nothing but relaxing vibes. Since it was tucked away in what the locals called the jungle, we were surrounded by sounds of nature. It was so calming to be in such a remote location, but I knew that soon, my mind and body would be put to the test. Shanelle Drakeford Costa Rica Surfboard Courtesy of Shanelle Drakeford After eating dinner the first night, the attendees all gathered to meet the instructors, see the schedule, and learn more about the retreat. Safari Surf School is run by an amazing team of women surfers under the direction of former olympian surfer, Andrea Diaz. Andrea assured us wed have a great experience but that she was going to push us all to ensure that we got the most out of our trip. The next few days were a journey, as Id completely underestimated how difficult learning how to surf would be. I felt defeated after my very first surf session; I didnt catch any waves and was exhausted just from fighting the current. Aside from understanding how to read waves, surfing requires a lot of strength that Id fooled myself into thinking I had. But my confidence led me to believe that the next day would be better and that Id be excelling in no time. Story continues Shanelle Drakeford: Costa Rica Beach Courtesy of Shanelle Drakeford However, the next day was not better and to be frank, the next few days werent, either. I was at war with the water and myself. I found myself in a constant loop of paddling, trying to stand, falling, repeat. One day, I decided to go further into the water, past the shallow part where the waves break. The water was calmer but it was also a bit deeper than what Id become used to. I hadnt become completely comfortable with such a large body of water, so I heavily relied on my board to keep me afloat. Soon, however, a huge wave knocked me from the stability of the board, and I panicked when I realized I was unable to touch the seafloor. I found my way back on my board, but I was so shaken up that I went back to the shore. As I stood on the beach watching everyone surf, I felt a flood of emotions wash over me and began to cry. I was still scared from what had just happened, but I was also angry Id let the experience keep me from finishing my session. Shanelle Drakeford Costa Rica Yoga Courtesy of Shanelle Drakeford Right there on the beach, I began recounting my time in Costa Rica and started to question whether coming on this trip was right for me. It seemed like I was the only one swatting mosquitoes at the dinner table while everyone else enjoyed each others company. I was the only one who wasnt having fun surfing. I even thought about the nickname I had acquired, princess, from how prissy I was acting. In between sobs, Ines, the photographer, opened up to me. She explained that learning how to surf isnt so much about catching the wave but simply not giving up. Somehow, she convinced me to go back in the water. Though I stayed in the shallow part, I kept trying. Shanelle Drakeford Costa Rica Beach Courtesy of Shanelle Drakeford Initially, I blamed what was happening in Costa Rica on my circumstances. I knew how to swim but wasnt truly comfortable in large bodies of water. I reasoned that I had never surfed before. I even placed blame on the instructors, and wondered if I was being left behind because I was a beginner. And although some of these things were true, at the root of it all, they were mere excuses. I realized I was lacking the drive to keep going because I wasnt seeing the progress I wanted to see. I knew something had to change. I had two days left in Costa Rica and wasnt going to waste them crying on the beach. Those last two days I made more progress than during the entire rest of the trip. The most rewarding part was catching my first and only wave. I rode it for approximately five seconds, but they were my happiest five seconds in Nosara. Shanelle Drakeford: Costa Rica Surfing Ines Espinoza Since returning to the states, my new surfing skills have not been put to use. However, I have applied a new way of thinking to my life. While I was in Costa Rica, the instructors frequently said, Be water, to teach us how to be better surfers. Andrea says that great surfers are just like water they move with it, they adapt to it, they dont fight it. This applies to life as well. I think the reason Ive always played it safe is because with familiarity comes control. However, familiarity doesnt allow space for growth, and thats what I was missing out on. I found that by spending every waking moment trying to control my life, I was missing out on a lot of experiences and lessons along the way. Letting go in certain ways has ironically made me feel more powerful than ever. Having the faith to be able to go wherever life takes me is a lot more important to me now. Read more travel stories below: Done reading? Check out these life-changing stories about self-acceptance: Follow Shanelle on Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to Allure's newsletter for daily beauty stories delivered right to your inbox. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A disgraced former state governor from Mexico's ruling party was sentenced on Wednesday to nine years in prison for money laundering and links to organized crime in a case that public auditors said was the worst they had ever seen in Mexico. Javier Duarte, who governed the Gulf coast state of Veracruz for outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) until 2016, pleaded guilty to the charges in federal court, according to Mexican media. The court also fined Duarte 58,890 Mexican pesos ($3,123) and seized 40 properties. Prosecutors argued that Duarte headed an organization whose criminal operations were carried out in Veracruz, the eastern Gulf state of Campeche and Mexico City between 2011 and 2016. Lawlessness in Veracruz spiked under Duarte, with top Mexican auditor ASF saying in 2016 that the irregularities in public funds under his rule were the highest amount it had ever seen. Duarte's case became emblematic of government failure to root out corruption and undermined support for the PRI, which has been Mexico's dominant party for most of the past century. Elected governor in 2010, he is alleged to have acquired luxury properties in Mexico and abroad, defrauding taxpayers of sums some estimates put in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and using shell companies to transfer and hide public funds. Duarte was arrested in Guatemala in April 2017 after more than five months on the run and was extradited to Mexico three months later. ($1 = 18.8562 Mexican pesos) (Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Paul Tait) U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegation that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford decades ago, saying he "never committed sexual assault" and calling the confirmation process "a national disgrace" a message echoed by several Republican senators. His opening statement before the Senate judiciary committee Thursday came after Ford, her voice cracking, told senators she is certain it was Kavanaugh who sexually assaulted her in 1982, when she was 15 and he was 17. Ford, a research psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University in California, told senators on Thursday that a drunken Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a social gathering in Maryland. "I believed he was going to rape me," she said in her opening statement. She also said she believed she might die when, she alleged, Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth to stifle her calls for help. "It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me," she told the committee of 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Watch Ford describe the alleged assault: Emotional and defiant In a blistering and occasionally tearful opening statement, Kavanaugh, 53, said that the 10-day delay between the emergence of Ford's allegation and the hearing had permanently damaged his family and his reputation as well as the Supreme Court and the country. This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fuelled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election. - Brett Kavanaugh, Supreme Court nominee He said "this whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fuelled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election." "I was not at the party described by Dr. Ford," he said. Defiant in his denials, Kavanaugh said he wouldn't be "intimidated" into withdrawing from the confirmation process. Story continues Watch Kavanaugh answer questions about allegations other than Ford's: The federal judge said he's not questioning that Ford may have been assaulted "by some person, in some place, at some time." "But I have never done that to her, or to anyone," he said, before turning back to 1982 and disputing the details of the allegation. Gabriella Demczuk/Reuters The allegation isn't "merely uncorroborated. It is refuted by the very people she says were there," he said. The Associated Press reported that three people who Ford remembered being present stated they had no recollection of the party Ford described in her allegation. But their statements did not disprove the allegations, either. Democrats, Republicans disagree after Kavanaugh is asked to back FBI probe: Ford said during her testimony she did not tell any of those who attended about the alleged assault at the time and wouldn't expect anyone but those involved to remember it as it was an unremarkable gathering for anyone but her and the two men she said took part in the assault. Kavanaugh, who said several times that he thinks accusers should be heard, maintained that the allegation was uncorroborated through hours of questioning, in which he was asked about everything from his teenage drinking to his character. As the hearing proceeded, Trump's nominee was pushed by Democrats to ask the White House to pause the process so the FBI could investigate. Republican Lindsey Graham says he's voting for Kavanaugh: Republicans were largely supportive of Trump's pick, praising his record and the way he's comported himself through the confirmation process. The all-male Republican members of the committee brought in an outside prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, to pose their questions to Ford. Mitchell, who has years of experience prosecuting sex crimes, also had some of her own questions for Kavanaugh. Win McNamee/Reuters But some Republicans, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, addressed Kavanaugh directly themselves. Graham called the process the most "unethical sham" he's ever seen in politics and confirmed he'd be voting for Kavanaugh. "You're looking for a fair process? You came to the wrong town at the wrong time, my friend," Graham said. Near the end of the daylong hearing, Jeff Flake, a retiring Republican senator who has often clashed with Trump and is considered a possible swing vote in the confirmation, spoke about the difficulty of properly handling allegations such as Ford's in the Senate committee setting. Michael Reynolds/Associated Press "This is not a good process, but it's all we've got," he said. The senators were 21 imperfect people trying to do their best to assess the claims and come to a consensus. "And in the end, there is likely to be as much doubt as certainty going out of this room today," Flake said. Trump who has staunchly defended his nominee but said Wednesday that he was "open" to changing his mind made his position clear on Twitter shortly after the hearing adjourned, calling Kavanaugh's testimony "powerful, honest, and riveting." '100 per cent' Ford, 51, told senators that Kavanaugh groped her and tried to take off her clothes. "I convinced myself, because Brett did not rape me, I should just move on," she said when asked why she didn't tell anyone about the assault for years. Ford said she did tell a few people about the incident decades later, including her husband, Russell. She told senators she agonized over her decision to come forward but felt it was her civic duty to flag the incident once she learned Kavanaugh was on the short list to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy in July 2018. She admitted she couldn't be clear on all of the details of the day in question in 1982 including who drove her home from the gathering that night but said it was impossible she could be mistaken about the attacker's identity. "Absolutely not," she responded when asked about it by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Jim Bourg/Reuters She testified later that she was sober on that day, having had one beer at the party. When Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois asked with what degree of certainty she could say Kavanaugh attacked her, she answered, "100 per cent." Judiciary committee chair Chuck Grassley opened the hearing with an apology to both Kavanaugh and Ford for the way they've been treated in the days since Ford went public with her accusations, saying they and their families have received "vile threats." Ford explains why she came forward: Party members clash Some Republicans including the president have derided Ford's allegation as part of a smear campaign and a Democratic plot to sink Kavanaugh's nomination. But after more allegations emerged, some Republican senators allowed that much is riding on Kavanaugh's performance. At the hearing, Ford stressed, "I am an independent person and no one's pawn." Mitchell began her questions by saying "sorry" to Ford for what she's endured. Later, Mitchell was more forceful, focusing on Ford's apparent vagueness about the year the attack occurred in statements to the committee and in a polygraph test she took in August on the advice of her attorney. The documents submitted to the committee indicate Ford took the test at a Maryland hotel on Aug. 7 and seem to support her claim that she passed it, though there has been no independent verification of the results by an expert. Mitchell questions Ford about the polygraph she took: Ford said she came to the belief that the assault occurred in 1982 based on her remembrance that she did not yet have her driver's licence at the time. When asked what other details about that night stuck out for her the most, Ford said one thing she'll never forget is that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge laughed to themselves after she managed to fend off the attack. "The uproarious laughter between the two and their having fun at my expense," she said when asked by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy to recount her strongest memory of the assault. Judge, whose name appears in accusations from the 1980s about Kavanaugh made by a separate woman, has not been subpoenaed by the committee. Kavanaugh was later asked by Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris if he had taken a polygraph. He said he hadn't, saying that they aren't reliable. The California Democrat then questioned Kavanaugh's assertion that the process was a Democratic smear campaign, pointing out that Democrats had recently gone through the same process with Neil Gorsuch, a Republican Supreme Court nominee who was confirmed in April 2017, a few months after Trump took office. Andrew Harnik/Associated Press "How do you reconcile your statement about a conspiracy against you with the treatment of someone who was before this body not very long ago?" Harris asked. Kavanaugh referred Harris to the evidence, pointing to witness statements and his own calendars from the time of the alleged assault. Kavanaugh had provided the committee with detailed pages from his high school calendar describing activities he had noted down during the summer of 1982, which were discussed several times throughout the day. Watch Ford's full opening statement: Watch Kavanaugh's full opening statement: High stakes The stakes for both political parties and the U.S. as a whole are high. Republicans are pushing to seat Kavanaugh before the Nov. 6 midterm elections, when Senate control could fall to the Democrats and a replacement Supreme Court nominee could have even greater difficulty getting confirmed. Kavanaugh's ascendance to the high court could help lock in a conservative majority for a generation, shaping dozens of rulings on contentious issues such as abortion and the environment. But Republicans also risk rejection by female voters in November if they are seen as not fully respecting women and their allegations in the wake of the #MeToo movement. More allegations The politically explosive hearings evoke comparisons to 1991, when Anita Hill accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing. Thomas denied Hill's accusation. Two other women have publicly come forward with years-old allegations concerning Kavanaugh's behaviour in high school and college. Saul Loeb/Reuters Deborah Ramirez, whose allegations of sexual misconduct were reported earlier this week by The New Yorker magazine, accuses Kavanaugh of exposure and unwanted physical contact with his genitals during the 1983-84 academic year, when both attended Yale University. Julie Swetnick, a longtime federal government employee, submitted an affidavit to the committee in which she accuses Kavanaugh of "abusive and physically aggressive behaviour towards girls." She also alleges being drugged and sexually assaulted by unspecified males at a party Kavanaugh and Judge attended. Kavanaugh, when questioned Thursday about the other allegations, called the claims from Swetnick a "farce." If allegations made in the affidavit were proven to be false, Swetnick would be subject to charges of perjury. Watch key moments from both Ford and Kavanaugh: With files from Associated Press and Reuters Killer whale populations around the world may collapse in as little as 30 to 50 years. That's according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science, which says some killer whales have extremely high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) an organic pollutant that was banned in Canada in 1977. Researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark, took biopsies of orcas or killer whales in northern Norway, Iceland, and eastern Greenland and compared datasets from around the world to determine how PCBs are affecting killer whale populations. Of the 19 populations studied, researchers found more than 50 per cent had levels high enough to impair population growth. Eight are in severe danger of collapse in only a few decades. Whales living in areas with a high contamination of PCBs, like near Brazil, the U.K., and the Strait of Gibraltar, were most affected. In the Arctic, most areas were insulated from the effect. Orca populations near Iceland, Norway, and Alaska are thriving. Audun Rikardsen But lead author Jean-Pierre Desforges said that isn't the whole story. "The killer whales that we know frequent the waters off of eastern Greenland they were quite highly exposed," he said. He explained PCBs accumulate more easily in predators. So killer whales that eat other predators like seals, sharks, and tuna have much higher rates of PCBs than the whales that tend to consume small fish. According to Desforges, that's why the whales near Iceland are still going strong while the seal-fed whales in nearby Greenland show high levels of contamination. Are humans in danger? Desforges also said the findings show there may be ramifications for humans that regularly eat marine predators, like seals or killer whales. Previous studies have revealed high levels of PCBs and other organic pollutants in northern communities. While Desforges said communities that feed on marine mammals have a higher risk of PCB exposure, linking that exposure to health effects is more complicated. Story continues "In humans, we have a lot of different risk factors, whether you're smoking, or drinking, or exercising," he said. "There's a lot of things that affect our health." Submitted by Jean-Pierre Desforges Desforges said whales are particularly susceptible to PCB accumulation because their metabolisms can't eliminate the contaminants. Humans are "much better at degrading these compounds once they enter our bodies," he said. Nevertheless, Desforges said PCBs can still cause long-term problems in humans. According to the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, PCBs can have many toxic effects and can be carcinogenic in humans. 'Not all bad news' While this seems pretty dire for both whales and humans, it's not all bad news. A recent study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment found that overall, the levels of organic pollutants have decreased in most Arctic wildlife. These results follow a concerted effort by 152 countries to stop the use of PCBs through the Stockholm Convention, which came into place in 2001. Audun Rikardsen Desforges said that while the Stockholm Convention has already been a success, it doesn't help marine predators with long lifespans. A female killer whale, for example, can live up to 60-70 years. "The levels [of PCBs] have started to go down since the '80s, but they've kind of stabilized now and we know that in long-lived species, they're still extremely high," he said. "It's kind of trapping the contaminant into this biological loop, and that's a major issue for long-lived species." By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada on Thursday shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism that talks to modernize NAFTA were moving too slowly and made clear it had to keep negotiating as long as there was a chance of success. The prospects for a quick deal to update the North American Free Trade Agreement appeared to dim on Wednesday after Trump blasted Canada's stance and threatened to impose tariffs on cars imported from Canada. "The Americans are finding that the negotiations are tough because Canadians are tough negotiators, as we should be," Trudeau told reporters on the way into a regular weekly cabinet meeting in Ottawa. "But a good, fair deal is still very possible. We won't sign a bad deal for Canadians," he added, saying his office had not requested a private meeting with Trump. He declined to answer when asked whether Trump had lied. The United States has imposed a Sept. 30 deadline for Canada to agree to the text of a new NAFTA. The 1994 deal underpins $1.2 trillion in annual trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States. Canada, which sends 75 percent of its goods exports to the United States, is vulnerable. The Canadian dollar weakened to its lowest in more than two weeks against the U.S. greenback early on Thursday. But insiders - who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation - say there is no alternative for Canada but to keep trying to settle the differences between the two nations and ignore mounting pressure from the U.S. administration. "Plan A, B, C and D is NAFTA. If the government listened to everything the Trump team said about the negotiations we'd never get anything done," said one source with direct knowledge of Ottawa's stance. Separately, a well-placed Canadian source said there were no immediate plans for any more talks with the United States. Washington has already wrapped up a deal with Mexico, the third NAFTA member, and is due to publish the text on Friday. Although U.S. lawmakers said they expected that text to completely exclude Canada, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has made clear Ottawa could sign on later. Canadian officials say there is no rush to get an agreement since any move to recast NAFTA as a bilateral deal would have to be approved by the U.S. Congress. Some U.S. legislators - echoing comments by business leaders - say the agreement must stay a three-nation affair. Rep Brian Higgins, a Democrat whose district borders Canada in upstate New York, attended a briefing by Lighthizer and afterwards attacked the plan to proceed with Mexico. "(Lighthizer) indicated there was no deal with Canada, but the hope is that Canada will come in later on, which I think is totally unacceptable. This is an abject failure," Higgins said. U.S. lawmakers at the Lighthizer meeting cited him as saying the earliest they would be able to consider a deal with Mexico, even a bilateral agreement, would probably be next February or March. One Canadian government source said there was a significant chance that Congress would balk at any move to turn NAFTA into a bilateral pact. Yet people close to Trudeau acknowledge that it is quite possible Trump might slap tariffs on Canadian autos, which would have major consequences. Andrew Scheer, leader of Canada's official opposition Conservatives, on Thursday cited the risk of auto tariffs and told legislators that "Canadians are rightly becoming more and more nervous" about the way the talks were going. Trudeau responded by saying, "the Conservatives want to sign any old deal quickly at any cost." Polls suggest Trudeau would easily retain power in a federal election set for October 2019. A recent Reuters/Ipsos/UVA Center for Politics poll showed a majority of voters in the industrial states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin opposed tariffs on Canada. Half the voters in Indiana also rejected the idea. The survey suggested politicians in America's Rust Belt would likely struggle to capitalize on Trump's trade war in November congressional elections. (Additional reporting by David Lawder and Megan Davies in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Paul Simao and Nick Zieminski) Canada's privacy watchdog is accusing the federal government of dragging its heels as privacy concerns reach "crisis levels." In his annual report tabled in Parliament today, Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien slammed the government for not taking necessary steps to protect Canadians' privacy. "Unfortunately, progress from government has been slow to non-existent," said Therrien in a news release. "Not only are the privacy rights of Canadians at stake, so too is our democracy and other fundamental values." Massive privacy breaches including the Equifax and Facebook/Cambridge Analytica incidents have thrown a spotlight on privacy issues. Yet the government's response has been to launch a consultation process rather than to take action to strengthen laws and give his office the necessary powers to make orders, impose fines and carry out inspections to ensure businesses respect the law, Therrien said. "It's not enough for the government to ask companies to do more to live up to their responsibilities. To increase trust in the digital economy, we must ensure Canadians can count on an independent regulator with the necessary tools to verify compliance with privacy law," he said. In his report, Therrien said the Privacy Act was adopted 35 years ago to regulate privacy in the public sector. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould announced in 2016 that she had instructed her officials to begin "concentrated work" toward modernizing the law, yet no concrete proposal has yet been made public, he said. Therrien said Canadians can't wait years to see deficient privacy laws fixed. "Technology is evolving extremely rapidly and many new technologies disrupt not only business models but also social and legal norms. Legal protections must improve apace if consumer trust is to reach the level everyone desires," he wrote in his report. Treasury Board President Scott Brison said the government is developing an action plan to modernize the process for reporting privacy breaches in the public service that will be released in the coming weeks. Story continues "We take very seriously the important responsibility we have to protect the privacy of Canadians. We recognize that times have changed that require new approaches, and that's why the action plan will be introduced in the coming weeks," he said. 'Right to be forgotten' Following on his draft report earlier this year on the "right to be forgotten" issue, the commissioner said he plans to file a reference with the Federal Court to seek clarity on the issue of whether Google's search engine is subject to Canada's privacy laws before proceeding further with complaints made to his office. At issue is "de-indexing," the process through which a web page, image or other online resource is removed from search engine results. Therrien said social media and search engines post information that may be inaccurate, outdated or presented out of context information that can be used for decisions on employment, housing or credit. He believes that, under the existing law, Canadians have a right to ask search engines to de-index web pages, and websites to remove or amend content, that contains inaccurate, incomplete or outdated information. Privacy advocates say Canadians should have the right to remove certain search engine results to protect their reputations, and that the right already exists within current privacy laws. But freedom of expression advocates, including certain journalism groups, say it could infringe on freedom of expression guarantee in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said many have compared the "right to be forgotten" to removing the cards from a library card catalogue while leaving books on the shelf. "However, on the Internet, there are no shelves to browse, no way to walk through the stacks and follow the alphabet to the information you seek," he said in a statement. "Removing lawful information from a search engine limits access to media properties, past decisions by public figures and information about many other topics. Freedom of expression is a broadly recognized and passionately defended right in Canada and we believe that every Canadian has the right to access lawful information." The commissioner also repeated calls for more resources to carry out his office's critical functions. "My office needs a substantial budget increase to keep up our knowledge of the technological environment and improve our capacity to inform Canadians of their rights and guide organizations on how to comply with their obligations," he said. It was nice of Cheney-Lippold to tell us. Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. . ..Commentary Magazine..20 September '18..John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan, has been the subject of withering criticism of late, but Im grateful to him. Yes, he shouldnt have refused to write a recommendation for a student merely because the semester abroad program she was applying to was in Israel. But at least he exposed what the boycott movement is about, aspects of which I suspect some of its blither endorsers are unaware.We are routinely told, as we were by the American Studies Association, that boycott actions against Israel are limited to institutions and their official representatives. But Cheney-Lippold reminds us that the boycott, even if read in this narrow way, obligates professors to refuse to assist their own students when those students seek to participate in study abroad programs in Israel. Dan Avnon, an Israeli academic, learned years ago that the same goes for Israel faculty members seeking to participate in exchange programs sponsored by Israeli universities. They, too, must be turned away regardless of their position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.When the American Studies Association boycott of Israel was announced, over two hundred college presidents or provosts properly and publicly rejected it. But even they might not have imagined that the boycott was more than a symbolic gesture. Thanks to Professor Cheney-Lippold, they now know that it involves actions that disserve their students. NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coterie, the premier global womens fashion event, is partnering with the Australian Fashion Council (AFC), a non-for-profit membership organization which works to promote the growth of the textile and fashion industry in Australia, to introduce Australian brands to the U.S. market. On October 9th, Coterie will host a seminar in Sydney from 4pm to 6pm at the QT Hotel, 49 Market Street, Sydney NSW in the Central Business District to present a detailed overview of how to successfully enter the U.S. market as an Australian brand and additional pertinent information on exhibiting at Coterie. While the conversation will focus on fashion brands, beauty and skincare brands are welcome to attend, and sought after in Beauty @ COTERIE, as well. Australian brands have been increasing in popularity over the last 5 years and Coterie has helped to grow their footprint in the North American market. We are excited to come to Australia and discover the next wave of talent for our retailers to invest in, states Danielle Licata, Womens Fashion Director and VP of Coterie. Coterie has already seen tremendous success with Australian brands entering the U.S. market such as Alice McCall, Bec and Bridge, Camilla, One Teaspoon among others and has served as a strategic launching pad for them. Through the partnership with the Australian Fashion Council, eligible brands may apply to the Australia Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) for a grant established to support domestic brands with export promotion, including developing a wholesale distribution in the North American market. David Giles Kaye, CEO, Australian Fashion Council states, The Australian Fashion Council is proud to be working with Coterie in facilitating a valuable connection between our members and North America. Coteries trade show expertise will offer Australian fashion brands an exclusive insight into how to access and achieve success within this vital export market. In addition, the February 2019 edition of PROJECT WOMENS, which takes place in Las Vegas during MAGIC, will have a focus on Australian brands in the popular OASIS section, which houses an inspiring edited section of emerging brands and serves as a must-see destination on the show floor. Previous Australian brands that have exhibited include Golden One, The Wolf Gang, Richer Poorer, The Beach People and Pared. You can learn more about PROJECT WOMENS by visiting https://ubmfashion.com/shows/project-womens @coterie_show #coterie @ausfashioncouncil #ausfashioncouncil About Coterie | Coterie is the premier global event within the New York marketplace that bridges women's apparel and accessories designers to the international 'Whos Who' of retailers that runs concurrently with Stitch, Sole Commerce, Fame, Moda, The Accessories Show and The Edit. Coterie builds exclusive shopping experiences from the ground up so that designers and buyers can create a synergy that fuels their businesses, continuing to be a platform for generating revenue and inspiring trends. About UBM Fashion | UBM Fashion is organized by UBM, which in June 2018 combined with Informa PLC to become a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B events organizer in the world. To learn more and for the latest information visit www.ubm.com and www.informa.com. About Australian Fashion Council | The Australian Fashion Council is a non-profit membership organization with over 65 years of service to the industry. It exists to promote the growth of the textile & fashion industry in Australia. Members are drawn from across the fashion & textile industry value chain, and range from micro to large companies, education, state and national industry associations and students. AFC activities and projects act to support five focus areas; strengthening supply chains, fostering design & innovation, promoting ethical practice, supporting emerging business and building Australian export. Media Contact: Alyssa Kane | Coterie@prconsulting.net A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/af0509cf-84d8-48b1-be0b-5c14b66e5c21 Joya de Nicaragua is continuing to celebrate 50 years in the tobacco business as the company has announced it is releasing Cinco Decadas: The Rise of the Nicaragua Cigar. Its a book that tells the story of the history of the company while in parallel telling the story of the culture and history of Nicaragua. In a press release, Joya de Nicaragua said the book is intended to shed light on the collective evolution of the Nicaraguan people, of the country, and the company through the lens of one singular product: the most Nicaraguan cigar. The book was authored by Nick Hammond, a renowned British journalist who put in two years of research to write the book. Being asked to write the story of Joya de Nicaragua was something of a dream come true. Finally, the chance to really get my teeth into some cigar research. To write of a cigar firm which has defied the odds to survive and thrive today. To write of a country which ceaselessly fights for a better life. And to write of the company owners the Martinez family whom I hold in the very highest regard. Im very proud to have been involved in this remarkable project, commented Hammond. Meanwhile, Joya de Nicaragua Executive President Juan Ignacio Martinez added, For many people, Nicaragua is a newcomer to the cigar world; but at Joya de Nicaragua weve always known how deep and rooted tobacco culture has been in our history and in our identity. We wanted to demonstrate this to the world, but we wanted to do it in a remarkable way, one unlike any other cigar book out there. With Cinco Decadas our goal was to showcase the profound impact that tobacco and cigars have had in our country, in our people, our culture and in our future. Its not a book about a person, or a family, or the process of making cigars. Its book about all of those things. This book allows us to appreciate cigars in a more meaningful and complete way. The book itself is 11 chapters and 204 pages. In addition to Hammonds work, the book features photography and design by some of the Nicaraguan regions top talent. Plans are for the book to roll out at Joya de Nicaragua events and select specialty shops this October. There are also plans to offer the book online by the end of the year. While the book is in English, there are plans for other translations, including a Spanish one. Photo Credits: Joya de Nicaragua FRIDAY, Sept. 28, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- American teens are partaking of pot in any way they can, from smoking to vaping to eating marijuana edibles, new research shows. The study, of Los Angeles-area high school students, found that about one-third had ever used marijuana. And most of them had used it in more than one way. Smoking was most popular, but many kids also took the drug via "edibles" or "vaping" -- where cannabis aerosol is inhaled, smoke-free, with the help of electronic cigarettes. There are a few reasons the findings are concerning, said senior researcher Adam Leventhal, a professor at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, in Los Angeles. "Smoking has traditionally deterred some kids from trying marijuana," Leventhal said. "They don't like the way it tastes, or the way it burns their throat." In contrast, he said, kids may be readily attracted to the "alternative" ways of using the drug -- like gummy bears spiked with cannabis extracts, or via vaping liquids that are flavored like bubblegum. Leventhal pointed to another potential worry: If teens are using multiple forms of marijuana -- and having greater exposure to its active ingredient -- could that increase the odds of chronic, problem use? Past studies have found that teenagers who use marijuana are at greater risk of marijuana use disorders in adulthood, Leventhal said. Some research has also suggested they may have somewhat lower IQ scores or poorer memory and attention. It's not clear, though, whether using multiple types of marijuana might exacerbate any effects, according to Leventhal. The findings were based on a survey of nearly 3,200 10th graders at 10 Los Angeles-area schools. Overall, 34 percent said they'd ever used marijuana. Smoking was the most popular method, but almost 62 percent had taken the drug in at least two forms. About 8 percent of all kids who'd used marijuana had tried all three methods the survey asked about: smoking, vaping and edibles. The findings were published online Sept. 28 in the journal JAMA Network Open. The study leaves some unanswered questions, according to Joseph Palamar, an associate professor of population health at NYU Langone Health, in New York City. Palamar noted that the survey was done before California legalized recreational marijuana -- and it's not clear whether and how that might relate to teenagers' use of different products. "It would be interesting to see how use of different products shifts over time as policy changes," said Palamar, who was not involved in the research. Similarly, it's not clear whether the patterns seen at LA high schools reflect other areas of the country, he added. Both researchers said similar surveys in other states would be useful -- particularly as the trend toward legalization grows. Recreational use is not legal for minors. But, Leventhal explained, legalization may give some kids the impression marijuana is harmless. That is not the case, however. Palamar cautioned on edibles, in particular, since it's easy for kids to ingest large amounts of the drug. "A lot of people eat too much, especially when the effects take time to kick in," Palamar said. "If you eat too much, there's no turning back and you're stuck with the full effects -- unlike smoking weed, where users can at least titrate their doses." The bad news for parents, Leventhal said, is that it's harder to tell when their kids are using edibles or vaping, versus smoking pot. "With smoking, you can smell it. Or you might find the bag of weed," he pointed out. "But gummy bears with cannabis extracts look like gummy bears." Palamar agreed. "Parents and teachers can no longer rely on the 'smell test.'" Leventhal suggested that parents talk to their kids about marijuana use in all its forms -- including the fact that edibles and vaping should not be presumed "safe." More information For facts on marijuana geared for teenagers, visit the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram New York, September 28, 2018At a panel discussion held today during the U.N. General Assembly, the Committee to Protect Journalists denounced several countries for imprisoning journalists, and others for failing to admonish those that do. The event highlighted global press freedom challenges, with specific emphasis on Myanmar, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Kyrgyzstan. The three panelistsCPJ Executive Director Joel Simon, barrister Amal Clooney, representing Reuters Journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and Stephen J. Adler, president and editor-in-chief of Reutersstrongly called on country authorities and U.N. member states to speak out against press freedom violations around the world. The journalists we will highlight today are reporters who have sacrificed their liberty to keep their communities and the entire world informed, Simon said during the event. Adler and Clooney focused on the case of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have been convicted under Myanmars Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years hard labor, all part of authorities efforts to silence their truthful reporting. Today marked the first time Clooney has spoken publicly regarding the case. For almost a year, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been separated from their young families and paraded into a courtroom for a sham trial, Clooney said. Their conviction and sentence is a travesty of justice and it is now up to the government to set them free. Simon spoke about the cases of photojournalist Shahidul Alam, imprisoned in Bangladesh; journalist and human rights defender Azimjon Askarov, imprisoned in Kyrgyzstan; and blogger Alaa Abdelfattah and photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid (Shawkan), imprisoned in Egypt. The jailing of journalists around the world is successfully censoring coverage of key global issues and violating our collective right to seek and receive information vital to public understanding, said Simon. Its an issue the U.N. can no longer ignore. CPJ recently published a video highlighting the five journalists featured at the event. Want to join the conversation? Follow #FreeThePress and #FreeWaLoneKyawSoeOo on Twitter and Facebook. ### CPJ is an independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. Media contact: Bebe Santa-Wood Communications Associate press@cpj.org 212-300-9032 Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Berlin, September 28, 2018Slovak police today charged three people with the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, according to news reports. The unnamed suspects were among eight people arrested in a raid yesterday, according to reports. The other five were released today, according to a prosecutor cited in news reports. The murder charges brought today in the case of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova are a welcome step, but Slovak authorities must leave no stone unturned. This means finding the people who ordered the killing of a courageous reporter in order to censor the truth, said CPJ European Union Representative Tom Gibson. The families of the victims, their friends and colleagues deserve full justice. Kuciak and Kusnirova were found murdered on February 25, 2018, in Velka Maca, some 50 kilometers from the capital Bratislava. Kuciak had reported on fraud cases involving Slovak businessmen and the Italian mafia Ndranghetas incursions into Slovakia, according to reports. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon addressed a panel event at the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on September 28, 2018. The event highlighted global press freedom violations and the jailing of journalists in countries around the world, with a specific focus on cases in Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Here are his remarks, as prepared for delivery: Good morning, Im Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ is an international organization that promotes press freedom around the world and defends the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. Over many years, weve engaged with the U.N. and its agencies and institutions on a number of matters relating to press freedom and the rights of the journalists. For example, weve met with the last several Secretary Generals to express deep concern about the murders of journalists around the world and the issue of impunity. Weve discussed the protection of journalists working in conflict zones. We have been pleased to see an increasing willingness to speak out on these issues, even while we acknowledge that conditions have not changed much for journalists on the ground. But there is one issue in which it has been difficult to engage with the U.N. And that is around the unjust imprisonment of journalists throughout the world. That is because governments are directly responsible for this grave abuses, and the U.N. has a culture of rarely calling out its members. But the jailing of journalists has reached unprecedented levels. At the end of last year, there were 262 journalists jailed around the world, the highest number ever recorded by CPJ. The jailing of journalists is a brutal form of censorship and is having a profound impact on the flow of information around the world. The time has come to speak out and to name names. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon speaks at the Press Behind Bars panel in New York on September 28. (CPJ/Gulnoza Said) At the end of last year, Turkey was the leading jailer of journalists, with 73 journalists behind bars. China was second with 41, followed by Egypt with 20. Together these three countries jail 134 journalists, more than are imprisoned in all of the rest of the world. At todays event we want to talk not just about the numbers. We want to talk about the journalists themselves. The journalists we will highlight today are reporters who have sacrificed their liberty to keep their communities and the entire world informed. Weve selected five cases in which we believe sustained international attention can make a difference. The journalists come from Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, and Myanmar. I want to start with Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who are jailed in Myanmar. These two journalists have been sentenced to seven years in prison on retaliatory charges of violating Myanmars colonial-era Officials Secrets Act. Working for an international news organization, they reported on a story of profound global significance. Their unjust imprisonment not only violates their own individual rights, it violates the rights of everyone is this room and even around the world. Each of us, under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a foundational U.N. document, has the right to seek and receive information through any medium and regardless of frontiers. But how can we do so when the people who are informing us are being imprisoned for their efforts? As world leaders gather in New York this week for the U.N. General Assembly, the issue needs to feature squarely on the agenda. The list of journalists jailed around the world is long. In fact, its never been longer. But I want to focus now on three other journalists from that list who like Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are unjustly jailed in reprisal for reporting on stories of global significance. Shahidul Alam is a renowned photojournalist, commentator, and founder of a Bangladeshi multimedia organization. His photographs of street life, political protest, and Bangladeshs ecological challenges have captivated his country and the world. Last month Shahidul was arrested while covering student protests in Bangladesh. A day later, a Dhaka court ordered that he be held for seven days to determine if he violated Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act by spreading propaganda and false information. When Shahidul was brought into court, he screamed that had been tortured. He was unable to walk without assistance. Nearly two months later, he remains behind bars. As with Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Shahiduls case is rife with due process violations. The American Bar Association Center for Human Rights released a report that concluded the entire criminal process against Dr. Alam has been only a means of intimidation and retaliation and a gross subversion of the Bangladesh justice system. Around the world, 52 percent of all journalists imprisoned are in jail for reporting on human rights violations. Azimjon Askarov is another example. Askarov is a journalist and human rights defender in Kyrgyzstan who has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail. He has already been in prison since July 2010. Askarovs crime? Covering deadly ethnic clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan in summer 2010. During his trial, Askarov and his lawyer were assaulted. Exculpatory testimony from his wife and neighbors was ignored. CPJ conducted its own investigation into the case in 2012 and found that charges against Askarov were in retaliation for his reporting on corrupt and abusive practices by regional police and prosecutors. Askarov himself told CPJ that authorities had long threatened him, probably because he had exposed fabricated criminal cases, arbitrary detentions, and the rape and abusive treatment of detainees in his native Jalal-Abad region. The U.N. Human Rights Committee looked into Askarovs case, and found that numerous violations took place between the day of his arrest and sentencing. In early 2016, the body called on Kyrgyzstan to release Askarov. This summer, CPJ asked for permission to visit Askarov in prison. The Kyrgyz government said no. Today, we are calling on President Jeenbekov to use his authority to free Askarov and unequivocally commit to protecting press freedom. We also call on member states to insist that President Jeenbekov and the Kyrgyz government comply with the recommendations of the U.N. Human Rights Committee. It is beyond sad that media repression continues to mount in Egypt. Since 2013, the country has been among the worlds worst jailers of journalists, according to CPJ research. Of the 20 journalists in Egyptian jails last year, some face politically motivated anti-state charges. Others face charges for publishing false news. Among them is Alaa Abdelfattah, a prominent blogger and activist who has written about politics and human rights for numerous outlets. Alaa is serving a five-year prison sentence on charges that he organized a protest and assaulted a police officer. We believe the charges are trumped up and in retaliation for Alaas coverage of alleged human rights abuses by the police and security forces. We hope that Alaa will be released soon. But even when that day comes his ordeal will not be over because of draconian parole conditions that would require him to spend each night in a local police station. Photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as Shawkan, is an object lesson in the absurdity of the Egyptian criminal justice system. Shawkan was arrested in 2014 and held for five years without charge. He was recently convicted, but sentenced to time served. But he has still not been released. Governments around the world routinely use emergency laws to censor media outlets and publications. Increasingly, they also bring fake news charges against journalists who contradict official statements. They try journalists in military courts, and hold them in pretrial detention indefinitely. These are all actions that contradict international human rights law and the standards set by the U.N. Few countries have been held to account for their repressive practices. One of the reasons is that key international bodies like the United Nations and its member states follow arcane diplomatic protocol and refuse to name names. Even leading democracies abide by this absurd custom. Why are they afraid to stand up for their values? The General Assembly must be more than a parade of speeches. The U.N. has taken up the issue of the journalists safety, through a series of resolutions, a plan of action, and the engagement of the Secretary Generals office. We are grateful for those efforts. But today we are asking the U.N. to expand its engagement in response to the record number of journalists imprisoned around the world. And we are asking member states that support press freedom to speak out about these abuses and demand answers. The jailing of journalists around the world is successfully censoring coverage of key global issues and violating our collective right to seek and receive information vital to public understanding. Its an issue the U.N. can no longer ignore. Digital Fiat Booming in South Korea South Korea is witnessing a boom in local authority-issued digital fiats, with 65 municipalities in the country planning to launch tokens in the near future. Source: iStock/rzelich Per South Korean media outlet EBN, the city of Siheung a satellite city on the outskirts of Seoul has recently become the latest local government authority to issue a digital fiat. The city launched its Siru token just ahead of this weeks Harvest Moon Festival. Siheung says the Siru project has seen 3,800 local companies sign up so far, which represents about one fifth of the citys small businesses and self-employed workers. The city says residents will be able to use the fiat to pay for local goods and services. Siheung claims the scheme will allow customers to enjoy discounts of 5% on their bills, while merchants will be able to do away with the burden of card fees. As previously reported on Cryptonews.com, many authorities in the country are now hurrying to follow the lead of Nowon, a district in Northern Seoul. The districts precedent-setting Nowon Coin issued in February this year is already allowing residents to make purchases in book stores, food markets and grocery stores. Plans are also afoot for the district to issue child support benefits and other welfare payments in Nowon Coin. A customer pays for a purchase in a digital fiat in South Korea. Source: Nowon-gu Office Perhaps the most ambitious digital fiat scheme yet will involve the industrial city of Gumi, in North Gyeongsang Province. Gumi has teamed up with the blockchain unit of South Korean telecommunications giant KT, and says it will issue some USD 9 - USD 10 million worth of its new token in February or March next year. Also hoping to issue a digital token of its own is Jeju Province, a semi-autonomous island region. Jejus governor hopes the provinces special legal system will allow him to ensure the token can be launched in the form of an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The move would test the resolve of the central government, which is still standing by its nationwide ICO ban, issued in September last year. However, the National Assembly, South Koreas parliament, has begun debating whether the government should overturn the ban. English French Not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, in the United States. SAINT-MICHEL-DES-SAINTS, Quebec, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NOUVEAU MONDE GRAPHITE INC. (the Corporation or Nouveau Monde) (TSX Venture Exchange: NOU) (OTCQX: NMGRF) (Frankfurt: NMG) is pleased to announce that it has closed the second tranche of an non-brokered private placement of an aggregate number of 11 585 168 units (the Units) in the capital of the Corporation, at a price of $0.30 per Unit, for aggregate gross proceeds of $3,475,550.40 (the Offering). Each Unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Corporation and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the capital of the Corporation (the Warrant Share), at a price of $0.40 per Warrant Share, for a period of 24 months following the closing of the Offering. Given the interest received by subscribers, the Corporation expects to announce the closing of a third tranche next week. The net proceeds of the Offering will be used by the Corporation for capital allocations in connection with Nouveau Mondes demonstration plant in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, for value-added product development, and for working capital and general corporate purposes. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a restricted period ending on February 3, 2019 under applicable Canadian securities legislation. The Corporation expects to be able to file shortly all required documentation to satisfy the conditional acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange (the TSXV). The Government of Quebec, via its mandatary Ressources Quebec Inc. (RQ) has subscribed for 8 333 334 Units of Nouveau Monde for an aggregate gross proceeds of $2,500,000.20. Pursuant to this subscription, RQ will be considered an insider of Nouveau Monde within the meaning of Regulation 55-104 respecting Insider Reporting Requirements and Exemptions and the policies of the TSXV. RQ also convened not to exercise any warrants over which it exercises control directly until the final approval of the TSXV. A material change report in respect of this related party transaction will be filed by the Corporation but could not be filed earlier than 21 days prior to the closing of the Offering due to the fact that the terms of the participation of each of the non-related parties and the related party in the Offering were not confirmed. An aggregate of 833 334 Units were subscribed by Les Placement Charles Armand Turpin inc., controlled by Mr. Charles Armand Turpin, an insider of the Corporation, which constitutes related party transaction within the meaning of Regulation 61-101 respecting Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (Regulation 61-101) and TSXV Policy 5.9 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. However, the directors of the Corporation who voted in favour of the Offering have determined that the exemptions from formal valuation and minority approval requirements provided for respectively under subsections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of Regulation 61-101 can be relied on as neither the fair market value of the Units issued to this insider nor the fair market value of the consideration paid exceed 25% of the Corporations market capitalization. None of the Corporations directors has expressed any contrary views or disagreements with respect to the foregoing. A material change report in respect of this related parties transactions will be filed by the Corporation but could not be filed earlier than 21 days prior to the closing of the Offering due to the fact that the terms of the participation of each of the non-related parties and the related party in the Offering were not confirmed. Flow-Through Shares Private Placement The Corporation also announces that it has closed a second tranche of its non-brokered private placement (the FT Shares Offering) of an aggregate of 2 506 489 flow-through shares (the FT Shares) at a price of $0.36 per FT Share, for an aggregate gross proceeds of $902,336.04. The Corporation has retained the services of Echelon Wealth Partner Inc., which has received an aggregate cash commission of $7,106.40 and an aggregate of 19 740 broker warrants to purchase up to 19 740 common shares in the capital of the Corporation, at a price of $0.40 per common share, until September 28, 2020. The Corporation has also retained the services of EMD Financial Inc., which has received an aggregate cash commission of $38,861.75 and an aggregate of 107 949 broker warrants to purchase up to 107 949 common shares in the capital of the Corporation, at a price of $0.40 per common share, until September 28, 2020. The aggregate gross proceeds of the FT Shares Offering will be used by the Corporation to pay for exploration expenses on its Matawinie property. All securities issued pursuant to this FT Shares Offering are subject to a restricted period ending on February 3, 2019 under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Given the interest received by subscribers, the Corporation filed for and received the conditional approval of the TSXV with respect to the increase of the maximum threshold of the FT Shares Offering from $2,000,000 to $2,500,000. The Corporation expects to announce the closing of a third tranche next week. This press release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States or to U.S. persons (U.S. persons), as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act). The securities being offered have not been, nor will be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. About Nouveau Monde Graphite In 2015, Nouveau Monde Graphite discovered a major and high-quality graphite deposit on its Matawinie property, located in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, 150 north of Montreal, Quebec. This discovery led to the completion of a Prefeasibility Study which revealed strong economics with a projected graphite concentrate production level of 52,000 tonnes per year over a 27-year period. In the coming weeks, Nouveau Monde will be distributing its first tonnes of graphite concentrate to interested parties. The demonstration plant has been built for a production capacity of 2,000 tonnes of concentrated flake graphite over a two-year period. Moreover, in a vertical integration and sustainable development perspective, the company is planning the establishment of a large-scale graphite secondary transformation facility, catering the needs of the booming lithium-ion battery market. With over 60 years of experience in the world of graphite, NMGs team develops its projects with the utmost respect of neighboring communities, while favoring a minimal ecological footprint. NMGs project is privileged by direct access to the workforce and infrastructure needed to operate its mining project, and it can also rely on an abundant, affordable and renewable source of hydroelectricity. The press release was reviewed by Eric Desaulniers, M.Sc., P.Geo., President and CEO of Nouveau Monde, a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 guidelines. For more information : Eric Desaulniers President & CEO Tel: +1 (819) 923-0333 www.nouveaumonde.ca Subscribe to our newsfeed: http://nouveaumonde.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f5e3304c32bfb54992fd9acce&id=603de466df 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. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release including, but not limited to generally, or the About Nouveau Monde Graphite paragraph which essentially describe the Corporations outlook and objectives, constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as of the time of this press release. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Corporation as of the time of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. These estimates and assumptions may prove to be incorrect. Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can directly or indirectly affect, and could cause, actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. 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. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about managements expectations and plans relating to the future. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron jointly awarded 2018 Champions of the Earth award, UNs highest environmental honour. They were chosen in Policy Leadership category of the award for their pioneering work in championing International Solar Alliance (ISA) and promoting new areas of levels of cooperation on environmental action. It also PM Modis unprecedented pledge to eliminate all single-use plastic in India by 2022. Background This year six of the worlds most outstanding environmental changemakers were recognised with the Champions of the Earth Award by United Nations Environment Programme. They were recognised for combination of bold, innovative and tireless efforts to tackle some of most urgent environmental issues of our times. The awards will be presented during the Champions of the Earth Gala in New York City, on the sidelines of the 73rd UN General Assembly. Other winners of 2018 Champions of Earth awards Indias Cochin International Airport: It was awarded in Entrepreneurial Vision category for its leadership in the use of sustainable energy. It is worlds first fully solar-powered airport. Joan Carling: She was awarded lifetime achievement award for her work as one of the worlds most prominent defenders of environmental and indigenous rights. Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods: They were jointly recognised in Science and Innovation category for their revolutionary development of a popular, plant-based alternative to beef, and for their efforts to educate consumers about environmentally conscious alternatives. Chinas Zhejiangs Green Rural Revival Programme: It was awarded in inspiration and action category for transformation of once heavily polluted area of rivers and streams in East Chinas Zhejiang province. Champions of the Earth award It is UNs highest environmental recognition celebrating exceptional figures from public and private sectors and from civil society, whose actions have had transformative positive impact on the environment. It was established in 2005 by United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment). This award programme is successor to UNEPs Global 500 Roll of Honour. Past laureates include: Afroz Shah, who led worlds largest beach cleanup (2016), Rwandan President Paul Kagame (2016), Ocean Cleanup CEO Boyan Slat (2014), scientist-explorer Bertrand Piccard, developer of Google Earth Brian McClendon (2013), and former US Vice-President Al Gore (2007). An Indonesian teenager stayed alive for 49 days while floating thousands of kilometres across the Pacific Ocean on a timber hut.Aldi Novel Adilang, 19, was working alone as a lamp keeper in July aboard a floating fish trap 140kms off North Sulawesi in Indonesia when high winds snapped the mooring.He was pushed out into the vast Pacific where he survived on dwindling food supplies until he was rescued by a passing ship in August, reports the Jakarta Post.After being picked up in waters near Guam, Mr Aldi was landed in Japan. He was finally reunited with his family earlier this month.His hopes of rescue were dashed repeatedly when 10 passing ships failed to come to his aid, Indonesian diplomats said.'Aldi said he had been scared and often cried when adrift,' said Fajar Firdaus, a diplomat based in the Japanese city of Osaka.'Every time he saw a large ship, he said he was hopeful, but more than 10 ships had passed him, none of them stopped.'Mr Aldi's basic hut known as a Rompong did have a basic gas-powered stove but no engine or paddle.When his food supplies were exhausted, he survived by catching fish and drinking sea water.'After he ran out of cooking gas, he burned the rompong's wooden fences to make fire for cooking. He drank by sipping water from his clothes,' said Mirza Nurhidayat, the Indonesian consul general in Osaka.Mr Aldi's plight finally ended on August 31 when a Panamanian-flagged tanker came to his aid.After waving a cloth at the vessel, the teenager switched his radio to an emergency frequency and the ship's captain caught the signal.But due to high waves, the tanker was unable to attach a rope to Mr Aldi's floating hut.After four failed attempts, Aldi made a desperate decision.'Aldi then decided to jump into the sea to grab the rope, while the waves and wind rocked him,' Mr Fajar said.After weeks at sea, Mr Aldi was very weak and nearly lost the rope, but the ship's crew caught his hand. Iran's president has accused an unnamed US-allied country in the Persian Gulf of being behind a terror attack on a military parade that killed 25 people and wounded 60, further raising regional tensions.Hassan Rouhani's comments came as Iran's Foreign Ministry also summoned Western diplomats over them allegedly providing havens for the Arab separatists who claimed Saturday's attacks in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.The Iranian moves, as well as promises of revenge by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, come as the country already faces turmoil in the wake of the American withdraw from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. The attack in Ahvaz, which saw women and children flee with uniformed soldiers bloodied, has further shaken the country.Rouhani's remarks could refer to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain close US military allies that view Iran as a regional menace over its support for militant groups across the Middle East.'All of those small mercenary countries that we see in this region are backed by America. It is Americans who instigate them and provide them with necessary means to commit these crimes,' Rouhani said before leaving for the UN General Assembly in New York.Iran meanwhile summoned diplomats from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands early Sunday for allegedly harboring 'members of the terrorist group' that launched the attack. Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen condemned the attack and stressed that there would be 'consequences' if it turns out that those responsible have connections to Denmark.The ministry later summoned the UAE's envoy as well over what it called the 'irresponsible and insulting statements' of an Emirati adviser, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. The UAE did not immediately acknowledge the summons.Saturday's attack, in which militants disguised as soldiers opened fire on an annual Iranian military parade in Ahvaz, was the deadliest attack in the country in nearly a decade. Women and children scattered along with once-marching Revolutionary Guard soldiers as heavy gunfire rang out, the chaos captured live on state television.The region's Arab separatists, once only known for nighttime attacks on unguarded oil pipelines, claimed responsibility for the assault, and Iranian officials appeared to believe the claim. The separatists accuse Iran's Persian-dominated government of discriminating against its ethnic Arab minority. Khuzestan province also has seen recent protests over Iran's nationwide drought, as well as economic protests.The attack killed at least 25 people and wounded 60, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. It said gunmen wore military uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting. State TV hours later reported that all four gunmen had been killed.At least eight of the dead served in the Revolutionary Guard, an elite paramilitary unit that answers only to Iran's supreme leader, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The Guard responded to the attack on Sunday, warning it would seek 'deadly and unforgiving revenge in the near future.'Tensions have been on the rise in Iran since the Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran in May and began restoring sanctions that were eased under the deal. It also has steadily ramped up pressure on Iran to try to get it to stop what Washington calls its 'malign activities' in the region.The US government nevertheless strongly condemned Saturday's attack and expressed its sympathy, saying it 'condemns all acts of terrorism and the loss of any innocent lives.'The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on its Amaaq news agency, but provided no evidence it carried out the assault. They also initially wrongly said the Ahvaz attack targeted Rouhani, who was in Tehran. The militants have made a string of false claims in the wake of major defeats in Iraq and Syria.On Sunday, IS militants posted a video online of three men, two of whom who spoke in Arabic extolling the benefits of martyrdom. A third who spoke in Farsi said they wanted to attack the Guard. The video included no time stamps, nor any specific references to the Ahvaz attack.The attack dominated Iranian newspaper front pages on Sunday. The hard-line daily Kayhan warned that Iranians would demand Saudi Arabia feel the 'hard slap' of the country's power.Iran's government declared Monday as a nationwide public mourning day, state-run IRNA news agency reported Sunday.Also all governmental organizations, banks, schools and universities in southeastern Khuzestan province will be closed on Monday, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.An overnight impromptu candle-light vigil in Ahvaz honored the dead and wounded. Among the dead is 4-year-old Mohammad Taha, who was captured by a photographer being carried away from the attack by a Guardsman in full dress uniform and sash. The photograph, showing the boy bloodied and helpless, shocked Iran.A doctor interviewed on state television said Mohammad had been up the night before marking Ashoura, a commemoration of the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints. Mourners wear black in honor of his 7th century death in the Battle of Karbala in present-day Iraq.'He was wearing a black shirt when he was martyred,' a doctor said, standing next to the boy's tiny corpse, now wrapped in a blue body bag. There are only a handful of very large bird species around today, but as intimidating as an ostrich might be when it's staring down at you from eight feet high it's nothing compared to the massive birds that roamed the Earth thousands of years ago. The title of largest bird that ever lived has long been held by a specific species of elephant bird that lived between 10,000 and 1,000 years ago, but a new challenger has just usurped the throne.Vorombe titan, which quite literally means 'big bird,' is now considered to be the largest bird species that ever lived. Researchers explain how they came to that conclusion in a new paper published in Royal Society Open Science.As the Zoological Society of London explains, the first species of elephant bird to gain attention from scientists was Aepyornis maximus, and it held the title of world's largest bird for a long time. Around the turn of the century a paleontologist discovered the remains of an even larger bird, describing and naming the new species Aepyornis titan.Unfortunately, the discovery was dismissed by many other researchers who thought that the bird was just a particularly large member of the existing maximus lineage. Now, with more sophisticated classification techniques at their disposal, a new team of researchers led by Dr. James Hansford of the Zoological Society of London says the larger bird is indeed an entirely new, though closely-related, species.Vorombe titan, like others in the elephant bird family, lived on Madagascar a few thousand years ago. Towering nearly ten feet tall and weighing in at over 1,700 pounds, the birds were absolutely massive. By comparison, the largest birds around today are male ostriches which can top nine feet but weigh only around 350 pounds.'Elephant birds were the biggest of Madagascar's megafauna and arguably one of the most important in the islands evolutionary historyeven more so than lemurs,' Dr. Hansford said in a statement. 'This is because large-bodied animals have an enormous impact on the wider ecosystem they live in via controlling vegetation through eating plants, spreading biomass and dispersing seeds through defecation. Madagascar is still suffering the effects of the extinction of these birds today.' US President Donald Trump has said a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is likely to take place 'quite soon'.Speaking at the United Nations, Trump said the relationship with the country whose leader he last year branded as 'Little Rocket Man' is much improved.'It was a different world. That was a dangerous time,' Trump said on Monday.'This is one year later, a much different time.'Trump said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is working out the details for the second Trump-Kim meeting.Kim requested a second meeting with Trump in a letter this month, and Trump said, 'we will be doing that'.The president is set to meet South Korea's Moon Jae-in to discuss North Korea and trade details.Moon is expected to convey to Trump a personal message from Kim delivered at their inter-Korean talks last week. Tripura: Fish supply hit hard after extortion threat to Bangla traders September 28,2018 | Source: The Shillong Times The fish-loving citizens of Tripura are facing a harrowing time with Bangladeshi exporters stopping the supply of fish to the state early this month over alleged extortion demand by anti-socials. With only a fortnight to go before the start of the Durga puja festival, the snapping of supply has led to the increase in the prices of fishes like rohu, katla, and pabda in the state, which is dependent on arrival from Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Bangladesh. The supply was stopped after suspected goons allegedly stopped some exporters from entering the state after they refused to pay tola (extortion money) at the Agartala-Akhaura integrated-checkpoint on September 4. A sizeable amount of fish enters the markets through the checkpoint, a customs official on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday. Around 10,000 kg of fish, therefore, got spoiled, resulting in the loss of around 37,000 USD (approximately Rs 26,87,495 at current rates), he added. When the Indian traders contacted their counterparts in Bangladesh, they clearly stated that if a responsible government official from India give a written assurance against any illegal interference in the trade in future, only then would they resume fish exports, the official said. There was a meeting of the exporters from Bangladesh in their country on September 17, during which they raised a question about how would they be compensated for their loss on September 4, an executive of the Agartala Exporter and Importer Entrepreneur Sangha said. The joint director of the state fisheries department, Abani Debbarma, said roughly 70 per cent of the total consumption of fish was produced in the state and the rest comes from Bangladesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. The total consumption of fish per year in Tripura is 92,000 million tonnes, of which 72,276 million tonnes are produced in the state and the rest comes from outside, including Bangladesh. The per-capita fish consumption is around 22 kg in the state. Speaking on the issue, ruling Bharatiya Janata Partys state vice-president, Pratima Bhowmik, said she would take the initiative to solve the problem. I will hold a meeting with the exporters and importers of the state to discuss how the problem can be solved. I am hopeful a solution will come out, she told PTI. A fish trader, Adhir Das, who sells fish at the Battala Market, the capitals main market, said, The price of fish is soaring every day, because production in the state is not sufficient for consumption. We are facing livelihood problem because there are hardly any customers. We are facing the problem for the last one month. When contacted, Selim Shah, economics professor at Tripura University, said, Tripura is not self-reliant in fish production. We mainly depend on fish from Andhra Pradesh and Bangladesh. The people are fond of fish from Bangladesh, because those are fresh. Durga puja is also knocking at the door. Requirement of fish is more during the festive season, Shah said, expressing apprehensions that if the stalemate continued, fish would be out of reach of the common people. Chairing a special session of the UN Security Council, Pompeo said President Donald Trump's diplomatic breakthrough with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has led to a point where the nuclear threat from the country can be resolved. (Photo: File | AP) United Nations: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that the world stands at the "dawn of a new day" in relations with North Korea but that international sanctions must remain in place and vigorously enforced if diplomatic efforts to get the country to denuclearise are to succeed a position that faces resistance from China and Russia. Chairing a special session of the UN Security Council, Pompeo said President Donald Trump's diplomatic breakthrough with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has led to a point where the nuclear threat from the country can be resolved. But the "unprecedented diplomatic opening" would close unless the pressure from sanctions is kept up. "Until the final denuclearisation of the DPRK is achieved and fully verified, it is our solemn collective responsibility to fully implement all UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to North Korea," he said, using the initials for the country's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Pompeo said the US has evidence that UN sanctions, particularly those restricting North Korean oil imports and coal exports, are being violated and he demanded that UN members ensure they are respected. "Enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realise final, fully verified denuclearisation," Pompeo said. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, whose country is North Korea's main ally, agreed that the sanctions "remain valid," but he said the resolutions provide for them to be modified based on North Korea's compliance and the council should consider doing so. "China believes that the Security Council may consider invoking in due course this provision in order to encourage (North Korea) and other relevant parties to move denuclearisation further ahead," he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow believes that certain sanctions, unrelated to the nuclear program, should also be eased. China and Russia also said they share with North and South Korea a desire to produce a document that would declare an end to the Korean War, which ended with an armistice and not a formal peace treaty. The Trump administration has balked at signing such a declaration without significant progress on denuclearisation, such as North Korea submitting a complete inventory of its nuclear and ballistic missile facilities that could be used by international inspectors to verify they have been dismantled. Pompeo, who met on Wednesday with North Korea's foreign minister, will make a third trip to North Korea next month to set the stage for a second summit between Kim and Trump, who met in Singapore in June. Trump, Pompeo and other US officials have repeatedly reported progress in the denuclearisation discussions with the North, but there has been little visible evidence of that to date. Vietnam warned it is planning one airport too many Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet aircraft at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Reuters/Kham Vietnamese provinces are proposing new airports without realizing that the country is already overloaded with these facilities, experts say. Authorities in the southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province have been working with private firm Ho Tram Ltd. on constructing a civilian airport. The airport, estimated to cost VND4.2 trillion ($193.6 million), will cover 250 hectares (618 acres) with a runway of 2,400 meters. It will be invested in by Ho Tram, the investor of the Grand Ho Tram Strip resort nearby. The province had previously proposed another airport to serve military and cargo purposes, which is estimated to cost $1 billion. These two airports would be just 30 kilometers away from each other. Meanwhile, Ba Ria-Vung Tau already has an airport on Con Dao Island in operation and the mega Long Thanh International Airport being planned in southern Dong Nai Province is just 40 kilometers away. In July, the northern province of Lao Cai proposed that an airport built near Sa Pa, one of Vietnams top tourist attractions, for both civilian and military purposes. Provincial authorities estimated investment for the airport at over VND5.7 trillion ($246 million). Apart from the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, the northern region is already set to get another one, the Van Don International Airport near Ha Long Bay, this December. Experts are concerned that Vietnam is building too many airports without carefully evaluating their necessity. Airport race Dr. Nguyen Thien Tong, former faculty head of aeronautical engineering at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, said that there is an airport race in the country. If every province in the country had an airport, things would be chaotic, he told VnExpress International. Its not necessary to have two new airports in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, as the province does not have a large number of tourists, Tong added. Echoing Tong, Ngo Viet Nam Son, an architect who participated in designing the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal in the Philippines, said that the province should only have one helicopter airport. It would be much more efficient if money is spent on building an expressway which connects Ba Ria-Vung Tau and HCMC, Son told VnExpress International. Speaking of the proposed airport near Sa Pa, Tong said that roads should be the focus of this area, not airports. There needs to be a very large number of tourists influx to result in profits for an airport, otherwise it would be a waste, he said. Investing in roads in this area will allow different vehicles to travel to multiple destinations in the north, serving the majority of the population, Tong added. Son was concerned about the distance from the airport to Sa Pa town, which is about 100 kilometers away, a distance too long to attract tourists. Traveling from the airport to Sa Pa town will take two hours with that distance, the same time tourists have to spend for flight procedures, he noted. As travelling from Hanoi to Sapa now takes just five hours via expressway, roads should be the main focus of the area, not airports, Son said. A majority of airports in Vietnam are not making profits. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran No profit Tong said that Vietnam has been building too many airports in recent years, and the majority of them are not making any profit. The Can Tho International Airport in the south is one of those. In November last year, the province requested financial support from the government for the airport because it was not meeting its designed capacity. The airport started operating in 2011 with a capacity of 3-5 million passengers per year, but authorities said that it could only serve about 612,000 passengers by the end of 2017, roughly 20 percent of its capacity. The province has requested that a 30 percent discount be given to passengers flying from and to the airport, with the money taken from the state budget. Can Tho is not the only airport in the country failing to make ends meet. Vietnams top watchdog, the Government Inspectorate, said last October that the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) had to cover the losses for a majority of its airports. It said that 16 to 18 of the countrys 22 airports did not generate enough revenue to cover expenses from 2012 to 2015, thus ACV had to spend over VND5.56 trillion ($236.57 million) for them. Low number of passengers are one of the reasons why these airports are not making profits, the inspectorate said. Tong said that the aviation industry in Vietnam has been building airports without conducting any market research to assess the actual demand for air transport in the country. Cost-efficiency should be the top criteria in determining whether an airport should be built, he said. What matters most is that an airport makes a profit. Vietnam's aviation industry served more than 94 million air passengers in 2017, up 16 percent from the previous year, including 13 million foreigners. Petrolimex is seeking permission from the government to pull out of Nam Van Phong refinery project. Photo by VnExpress Cash-strapped firms are seeking to withdraw from major oil refinery projects, opening the door wider for foreign investors. Petro retail giant Petrolimex is seeking permission from the government to pull out of a much-delayed refinery project in southern Khanh Hoa Province to "focus resources on other projects". Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Hieu, in a meeting with the Prime Minister's working group, said he believed the main reason for the withdrawal is Petrolimex's limited financial capability. The Nam Van Phong refinery project was first approved by the government in 2008 at an estimated cost of $4.4-4.8 billion and an annual capacity of 10 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline (RON 92, 95 and 98), kerosene, and diesel. The government tasked Petrolimex with preparing project and feasibility reports with a focus on the environmental impact assessment, technology, capital structure, and identification of partners. Construction was to start in 2011 with the refinery going on stream in late 2013. But it has since been a story of repeated delays. In 2014 the proposal was revived with the cost now rising to $8 billion. But by this time Vietnam had several other refinery projects including Dung Quat, Nghi Son, Vung Ro, and Long Son. Petrolimex signed a memorandum of understanding for strategic cooperation with Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation, opening the door for the Japanese firm to work on the proposed refinery. According to the MoU, the two companies were to establish a joint firm to work on the project in mid-2015. Despite the Japanese giant acquiring an 8 percent stake in Petrolimex and becoming its strategic investor, the project saw little progress. Long Sons woes Long Son Petrochemical Complex project in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau was another billion-dollar project to suffer a similar fate. Approved in 2008 at a cost of $3.7 billion, the project was to be jointly developed by PetroVietnam (PVN), chemical group Vinachem and Thailand's Siam Cement Group Public Company Limited (SCG). But Vinachem pulled out due to financial difficulties and sold its stake in the project to Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) in 2012. QPI in turn withdrew in April last year and sold its shares to SCG. In January this year it was PVNs turn to announce a pullout, citing an inability to raise its share of the capital and the delay caused by long contractor approval procedures. The withdrawal of state-owned corporations from the Nam Van Phong and Long Son projects enabled foreign investors to step in. SCG acquired all of PVN's stake in the Long Son Petrochemical Complex project to raise its ownership from 71 percent to 100 percent. SCG began construction in February, and the petrochemical complex is scheduled to become operational in 2022. As for the Nam Van Phong project, while Petrolimex's withdrawal request has yet to be approved, ministry representatives have backed it. Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan said the pullout is in line with his ministry's recommendation. The Ministry of Planning and Investment said since Vietnam already has two major oil refineries, Dung Quat and Nghi Son, a third is no longer needed to ensure the countrys energy security. Following Petrolimex's demand, Nguyen Cao Luc, Vice Chairman of the Government Office and deputy head of the prime minister's working group, has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to submit a report. Destroyer INS Rana of the Indian navy arrived at Saigon Port Thursday for a three-day visit. The vessel, a Rajput-class destroyer commissioned in 1982, has come with a crew of more than 300 to Vietnams southern city as part of the Indian navys operational deployment in the South China Sea, known as the East Sea in Vietnam, and the northwestern Pacific. The destroyer is 146.5 meters long, has a beam of 15.8 meters and a helipad, and is equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine missiles. The vessel will carry out communications and coordination exercises at sea with Vietnamese naval vessels during its stay. Colonel Atul Dawel, the captain of the destroyer, said the visit this time "will strengthen the bonds and friendship between the two countries and contribute to security and stability in the region and the world." Vietnamese Navy officers visit the Indian ship on Thursday. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen This is the second time this year the Indian navy has sent a vessel to Vietnam after a fleet of three Indian ships with 900 officers and sailors arrived at Tien Sa Port, Da Nang, in May. From HCMC, INS Rana will sail to South Korea for the International Fleet Review to be held at a naval base on Jeju Island from October 10 to 14. Vietnamese frigate Tran Hung Dao will also attend the event. Over the course of less than a month a number of foreign naval vessels have made port calls in Vietnam. South Korean destroyer ROKS Moon Mu the Great (DDH-976) docked in the central city of Da Nang on September 11 and Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force vessel Kuroshio arrived at Cam Ranh Port on September 18. They were followed by Canadian ship HMCS Calgary that came to Da Nang on September 26, and Royal New Zealand Navy frigate HMNZS Te Mana which arrived in Saigon Tuesday for a four-day visit. Carl Thayer, an Australia-based regional security analyst, said about the port calls: "All maritime powers have a national interest in the maintenance of freedom of navigation and overflight over the high seas. The sea lanes that pass through the South China Sea are vital sea lines of communications that sustain the global economy." Some $3 trillion worth of ship-borne trade passes through the waterway annually. On a 5,000 plus sea miles voyage, the Vietnamese navys Tran Hung Dao docked at Japans Yokosuka Port Thursday. Japanese navy accord a ceremonial welcome to the crew of Vietnam's missile defense vessel Tran Hung Dao at Yokosuka Port on Thursday. Photo courtesy of Hai Quan Newspaper The Russian built Tran Hung Dao is a Gepard-class frigate. She was launched on February 6 and is said to be equipped with advanced military equipment. The vessel, captained by Colonel Le Hong Chien, Deputy Commander of the Naval Region 4 Command, which is in charge of ensuring peace and stability in the waters off Vietnam's south central coast, including the Spratly Islands, began an international voyage on September 15 from the Cam Ranh Port in central Vietnam. During their three-day stay in Japan, the crew of Tran Hung Dao will play friendly games with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in Yokosuka before visiting Sakai City in Osaka Province, four hours west of the port. Crew members on Tran Hung Dao. Photo courtesy of Hai Quan Newspaper The Vietnamese naval vessel is scheduled to leave Japan on Sunday to join the International Fleet Review to be held at a naval base in Jeju Island off South Korea on October 10-14, and then take part in a joint ASEAN-China maritime field training exercise in Zhanjiang, China. The entire voyage, covering more than 5,000 sea miles, and is the longest voyage that a Vietnamese naval vessel has undertaken, according to Bao Hai Quan, Vietnamese Navys newspaper. The voyage aims to strengthen friendly relations, cooperation and development among naval forces in the visited countries and affirm the capability and position of the Vietnam People's Navy in international integration, the paper reported. On September 17, the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force submarine docked at the Cam Ranh Port in its first visit to Vietnam. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the UN General Assembly debate in New York on Thursday. Photo courtesy of the UN Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said Vietnam staunchly backs the central role the U.N. plays in ensuring global peace. Vietnam staunchly supports its central role in maintaining global peace and security, protecting and promoting human rights, and fostering development cooperation, he told the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly held at the U.N. headquarters in New York. Speaking at the high-level general debate of the United Nations General Assembly Thursday, he also called for international collaboration in solving problems facing the world today. Phuc noted significant achievements in recent years thanks to global cooperation and development, such as the adoption of the Convention on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, United Nations reforms, advances towards Millennium Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The U.N. has become a true symbol of global solidarity, Phuc said. Talking about Vietnam, he said that as a party to 16 free trade agreements, the country enjoys free trade relations with almost 60 major countries and partners worldwide. Vietnam hosted the 2018 World Economic Forum on ASEAN and it is working towards realizing the 2025 Vision for the ASEAN community, he said. On regional peace and order, Phuc said international disputes should be settled by peaceful means in line with international law and the U.N. Charter, stressing that the dispute concerning the South China Sea, known as the East Sea in Vietnam, should be addressed on the basis of the 1982 U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea as well as on the principle of safeguarding maritime security, navigation and overflight rights and freedoms. He also noted the value of international cooperation and assistance in Vietnams progress towards sustainable development, international integration and poverty reduction. While scientific and technological breakthroughs as well as globalization are creating opportunities for unprecedented economic growth, the world is also facing new and immense obstacles, he said. Power politics, the use or threat of force and the rise of unilateral measures still threaten global peace and stability, while injustice, inequality, climate change, pollution and poverty persist. No single nation can singlehandedly address the enormous global challenges, he said, stressing that common efforts and collaboration of all nations are needed. The international community should uphold dual responsibility in which each nation and individual should take additional responsibility for addressing global issues. Mankinds progress is measured not only by technological advances, but by peace and prosperity; even the smallest opportunity for peace must be cherished and nurtured. The voice of small nations and the aspiration of the disadvantaged need to be respected, heard and shared, he said. He also called for stronger highlevel cooperation between the U.N. and ASEAN. This year the U.N. session will focus on Making the United Nations relevant to all people: global leadership and shared responsibilities for peaceful, equitable and sustainable societies. PM Phuc also met with leaders of the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary-General of the U.N. on the sidelines of the event. He also met Thursday with U.S. companies. He spoke to them about investing in Vietnam in the Industry 4.0 era. Vietnam is actively campaigning to be elected a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council for the 2020-2021 term. Asia-Pacific nations in May had agreed to nominate Vietnam to this position. Vietnam will join the vote in June next year. If elected, it will be the second time Vietnam holds such a position after the 2008-2009 term. EIB to allocate EUR 50 mln loan to Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukravtodor The bank expects that the credit line will help improve the transport network in Ukraine's eastern regions. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Azerbaijan and Ukraine enjoy sustainable prospects of bilateral relations in political, economic, energy, transport and humanitarian fields. The Azerbaijan-Ukraine relations have reached the level of strategic partnership, said Azerbaijani First Deputy Prime Minister Yagub Eyyubov at an event dedicated to the 27th anniversary of Ukraine's independence in Baku on September 26. "The relations between the two countries are based on friendship and mutual respect. Economic ties are developing rapidly," he said, AzerVews wrote. Eyyubov underlined the role of the Azerbaijan-Ukraine intergovernmental commission in intensification of economic ties between the two countries. Read alsoAzerbaijan invites Ukraine to join Southern Gas Corridor Ukrainian ambassador to Azerbaijan Alexander Mishchenko also made remarks at an event, speaking about successfully cooperation of the two countries in many areas. The ambassador stressed that many companies with Ukrainian share work in Azerbaijan. At the same time, he stated that construction of a pharmaceutical plant of Ukrainian company Indar will be launched in Azerbaijan soon. Azerbaijan and Ukraine enjoy sustainable prospects of bilateral relations in political, economic, energy, transport and humanitarian fields. Azerbaijan is one of the main trade partners of Ukraine among the CIS countries. Azerbaijani State Customs Committee reports that trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Ukraine amounted to $343.87 million in January-June 2018, $146.57 million of which accounted for the export of Azerbaijani products. Main goods imported from Ukraine to Azerbaijan are products of metallurgy, machine building, agriculture and chemical industry. Meanwhile, goods exported from Azerbaijan to Ukraine are generally products of fuel energy industry, chemical industry and agro-industry. At a packed town hall meeting in Brooklyn Thursday evening to discuss options for saving a crumbling section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, city officials from the Department of Transportation came up against some not-unexpected pushback against a proposal that would involve closing the Brooklyn Heights promenade for six years. This was the first public meeting since the city unveiled two separate proposals for the project last week. The meeting opened with a presentation of both optionseach projected to cost between $3 billion and $4 billionwhile Polly Trottenberg, the citys transportation commissioner, braced herself for the inevitable backlash. I understand a lot of people are going to hate what we propose, Trottenberg said at the outset, but I think what we found when we looked at it is none of the alternatives are going to be very loveable. The city has been studying options for repairing or replacing the 1.5-mile stretch of highway between Atlantic Ave. and Sands Street for the past few years, cautioning that leaving the aging structure to deteriorate could cause trucks to be rerouted due to weight restrictions in 2026 and result in a total shutdown by 2036. The traditional option the city came up with involves lane-by-lane repairs, mostly taking place at night, that would go on for eight or more years and could cause significant disruptions to traffic on the cantilevered highway, which serves about 153,000 vehicles daily. In this scenario, the promenade would be shut down for up to two years. Under the nontraditional approach, favored by city officials, an elevated six-lane highway would be erected parallel to the promenade above the BQE, where traffic could be redirected while construction takes place on the existing roads down below. The promenade would be closed the entire time, but the city says there would be greater opportunities to improve and possibly even expand it in the process. There would also be less risk of construction delays or going over budget. Although city officials touted the benefits of the latter plan, Trottenberg sought to assure the many Brooklyn Heights residents who were hostile to the proposal that it was not set in stone and all options were still on the table. We have 50,000 pages of options and designs, said Trottenberg. We tried to pick a couple that seemed the most feasible. Some residents said they would prefer to address the highways structural issues the traditional waylane by laneif they were going to have to deal with noise and air pollution for years on end either way. I think the traditional approach would ultimately be more bearable, Debra DeWan, whos lived in Brooklyn Heights for more than 40 years, said after the meeting. I absolutely am opposed to them closing the promenade for what they claim will be six years. I totally dont trust that estimate and I dont think they will find the funds once the project is done to complete the restoration of the promenade. Ive lived in the city my entire life and Ive seen promise after promise being broken. Close-up of decaying column; note light coming through a giant crack at center top, which shouldn't be there. More photos here. (Jake Dobkin / Gothamist) Another Brooklyn Heights resident pointed out during his turn at the mic that the promenade, enjoyed by both locals and visitors from all over the world, has a perfect five-star rating on Yelp (Prospect Park, for comparison, had a measly 4.5 as of this writing). Conceding that it is a beloved public space, Trottenberg couldnt help but point to the walkways fatal flaw: The unfortunate tragedy of the promenade is that its attached to a highway that does not get a 5.0. Others offered suggestions that Trottenberg made clear were unlikely to get approved, even though she was hesitant to shut them down outright. One audience member suggested, to raucous applause, that if there had to be a temporary elevated roadway, it should be constructed over Brooklyn Bridge Park, which sits on the other side of the BQE. As terrible as the situation with the promenade is, I think wed have a different room probably even more full than this one [to oppose that], Trottenberg said in response. The existing problems at that stretch of the BQE (DOT) Several people wondered why the city couldnt just dig a tunnel to relieve traffic. There was no shortage of tunnel proposals when the state Department of Transportation was originally considering how to rehabilitate the BQE, before it abandoned the project for lack of funds back in 2011. When the citys Transportation Department took up the project under Mayor Bill de Blasio it studied several options but ultimately deemed a tunnel too costly to construct and limited in the amount of traffic it could handle. In New York we build one tunnel every 50 years, Trottenberg said. Were not an agency that knows how to build tunnels. The city will continue conducting public outreach through the fall and aims to draft a request for proposals seeking a joint design and construction team to execute the project late 2019. First train linking four capitals departs from Kyiv for Riga The fifth capital city of Tallinn (Estonia) is likely to be added to the train route late in 2018 or early in 2019. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Amid nearly six hours of jeering and bouts of ecstatic applause, a raucous crowd of young, progressive-minded Democrats tested the Kings County machine at its post-election county committee meeting Thursday night, venting their frustrations with its opaque decision-making and Byzantine parliamentary rules. Nevertheless, despite a series of attempts by insurgent reformers to change party leaders and procedure, the Brooklyn Democratic Party hierarchy remained intact. Reform groups, principally the New Kings Democrats (NKD), had sought to challenge the often-preordained elections of favored committee executive officers and civil court judges. Theres a lot of new blood, a lot of interest, a lot of grassroots activism thats coming, said NKD president Brandon West, before the meeting. There will be a larger voice for that at this meeting and I think that will be amplified in the future. New York Citys county committees are local political groups that set out rules for political parties, select leaders, and control the budget. But they also have unique powers to nominate judges in often-uncontested elections and to elect special election candidates whenever an elected official vacates office earlyfor a resignation, another elected office, or due to an indictmentwhich is remarkably common. As West had hoped, attendance was high. In fact, it appeared that party officials struggled to deal with the numbers of committee members involved in the eventa total of 1,370 including proxies and in-person attendees. So many, in fact, that the proxies were not all counted before the meeting began and party officials updated the tallies as the night progressed. As hundreds of committee members filed into the 700-seat Kingsborough Community College theater, Democratic county boss Frank Seddio and newly-minted Democratic nominee for attorney general Letitia James sat in a dark corner off to the side. Seddio told Gothamist he didnt expect any surprises. Then he leaned over to gladhand a party officialwe should be good, Seddio said with a gruff smile. Moments later, James climbed the stage to warm up the crowd, railing against Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination and President Donald Trump in general. The meeting had the feel of an unruly pep rally, complete with signs and noisy protestors, the various factions of Brooklyns dominant political groups packed into venue. On the surface, control of the meeting appeared to be an oratorical tug of war between former state senator Martin Connor, who was leading the proceedings from the podium, and various challengers clumsily employing Roberts Rules of Order to challenge the chair. Beneath the surface, however, control of the county committee meeting had already been determined by how many county committee members had signed over their votes to faction leaderseffectively allowing those leaders to wield the weight of dozens or even hundreds of votes via these so-called proxies. In that way, despite the hours of uproar to follow, the battle for control was over before the meeting began. Shortly before the meeting was called to order, Seddio told Gothamist that the NKDs proxies were done improperly. New Kings sent out a proxy and theirs are invalid. They have two mistakes on them. Nevertheless, Seddio said that he had agreed to allow NKDs proxies to be tallied and considered valid. Were going to let them count for the purposes of the meeting, Seddio said. Ironically, just days before, it was Seddio who was accused of making a serious mistake on his own proxy letters, requesting committee members cede their votes to his control, while falsely claiming that certain local representatives had endorsed the move. Assemblyman Robert Carrolls name was used. It was bull," Carroll said. It was deceptive and Im not happy about it. The Daily News decried it in an editorial slamming the Kings of corruption. Seddio waved off the mailing controversy and bad press. The proxies were still being counted, but, he said with a little laugh, We have more than them. Hundreds more, as it turned out. As of 9:45 p.m., Seddio had 602 proxies, West held just 121, and eight other leaders held less than a hundred proxies collectively. That vote gap was crucial, as Seddios proxies gave him control of the nights most important decisions. Democratic county committee staff scanning in proxies (Frank Runyeon / Gothamist) When the slate of executive officers came up for a vote, Seddio cashed in his votes to support his candidates, overwhelming resistance from what appeared to be a majority of committee members physically in attendance. This is a sham! one woman yelled. Shame, shame, some chanted. Others jeered. Connor announced the results. All those standing, plus the proxies held by Mr. Seddio... he began, as he was interrupted by a chorus of boos. You dont even know the results yet. A reformer heckled him: You knew the results before we voted! Connor continued. ...Is 600 to 491. The slate is elected. Boos and cheers erupted. Recently-defeated state senate challenger Blake Morris turned to his supporters, saying, Lost by 109. Not bad. Its never been this close. Later that evening, three county-favored civil court judges were also nominated with no resistance from reformers: Anne Swern and Jill Epstein by their districts and Rupert Barry by the executive committee. Not one faces an opponent in the election. But the night was not without small victories for reformers. Carroll made an impassioned pitch for proxy voting reform, submitting two changes to the party rules committee to limit the ability of the party boss to garner hundreds of proxy votes before a county committee meeting. One added clarifying language explaining what signing over your vote means and another limits who a proxy vote can be ceded toonly to a member in that members Assembly District, as opposed to allowing a party boss to collect proxies from across the county, as Seddio did that night. Last night's crowd (Frank Runyeon / Gothamist) West was also invited up to address the committee from the podiuma first for the NKD leader. He used his remarks to say he had been working with the county committee to bring greater transparency and an improved process to the Brooklyn Democrats. On his list of things to fix, West casually noted that the executive committee had not been taking minutes of their meetings and that some executive committee officers did not even know that they held those positions. Democracy isnt bad, West said, tongue in cheek. Elections arent always the wrong thing to have. Curiously, party officials said they did not have the certified election results for who officially won the county committee seats at the time of the meeting, which means that they had no way to be sure that duly elected committee members were the ones voting. Its not uncommon for the certified results in low-vote races to declare a different winner than the unofficial election night results. The final results for this months primary election were only just approved by the New York City Board of Elections that afternoon, but a county party official on-site said they did not have a paper or electronic copy, so they used unofficial results instead. However, it appears that those who voted in the committee meeting can now check the certified election resultsif only to double-check that they should have been voting at all. Loading... Armenian FM meets Secretary General of the Council of Europe (video) On September 27, Armenian foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has met with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjrn Jagland in New York City. The Armenian FM is in NYC for the 73rd UN General Assembly. During the meeting Mnatsakanyan and Jagland spoke highly about the effective cooperation between Armenia and the Council of Europe and discussed several issues concerning Armenias involvement in the organization, the foreign ministry said. The sides addressed the possibilities of finding solutions to a number of issues facing the organization. The Armenian FM spoke about the latest domestic developments, priorities of the new government, including its efforts aimed at the protection of human rights, strengthening of democracy and combating corruption. Mnatsakanyan presented to Jagland the stance and priorities of the Armenian side in the NK conflict settlement process, attaching importance to the creation of an atmosphere contributing to peace for advancing the talks process, the full adherence to the ceasefire and refusal from aggressive rhetoric. UCOM keeps on supporting the 42 YEREVAN programming school Recognizing the One-Year Anniversary of the Ceasefire Declaration Between Armenia and Azerbaijan They should not be positioned near civilian communities neither in Armenia nor in Artsakh Humanitarian and human rights protection needed following the 2020 outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh 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 Google Ad 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 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 Ukrainian ferroalloy enterprises, representatives of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine, lawyers of Ilyashev & Partners are participating in the ferrosilicon manganese duty sunset review in the United States. The Ukrainian Association of Ferroalloy Producers told Interfax-Ukraine that Executive Director of the association Serhiy Kurdriavtsev and Head of International Trade Practice at Ilyashev & Partners Olena Omelchenko, representatives of the Zaporizhia and Nikopol ferroalloy plants, the trade protection department of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States. "Hearing is the important stage of the sunset review when the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) would have a chance of hearing the arguments of the sides and talk to witnesses. The Ukrainian team has thoroughly prepared for the process, it managed to present all arguments in the interests of Ukrainian producers," the association said. It is expected that if the positive determination is made Ukrainian producers would have a chance of supplying its products to the U.S. market on the market conditions. "The position is strong. Ukraine has a chance to win, but against the backdrop of rising duties in the United States regarding steel and aluminum imports, world trade wars and cases of protectionism in several countries, protecting the interests of Ukrainian ferrosilicon manganese producers remains a challenge," the association said. Ukraine in 2018 could increase exports of poultry by 7.4%, to 290,000 tonnes, the Union of Poultry Farmers of Ukraine has said. "A record-breaking amount of poultry meat was exported in 2017 270,000 tonnes. This indicator will reach 290,000 tonnes in 2018. Along with the increase in exports, there is a tendency to increase the import of poultry meat to Ukraine. In the past year, 116,000 tonnes was imported, and in the current year it is expected to reach 130,000 tonnes," Director General of the association Serhiy Karpenko said in the report of the association. According to him, in the course of 2017, 66,700 tonnes of poultry and meat products were exported to the EU and Ukraine was the third among all countries exporting to the EU countries. "The growth in industrial production of broiler meat by 3.3% or by 30,000 tonnes was seen in 2017. For the seven months ending July 2018, production in agricultural enterprises increased by 5.6%," Karpenko said. Consumption of eggs in 2017 was 247 units per person. In 2018, the association predicts an increase in the consumption of eggs to 254 pieces per person. Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has approved a plan of implementation of the public policy strategy on the population's healthy and active longevity until 2022. "The resolution is passed to implement the state policy strategy on population's healthy and active longevity until 2022, including provisions of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, EU, European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) and for the creation of favorable conditions for healthy ageing and active longevity, adaptation of public institutions to further demographic ageing and the development of a society of equal opportunities for people of any age," Ukraine's Social Policy Ministry said. Ukraine is among the 30 oldest countries in the world according to the proportion of people aged 60 and over. This figure was 21.8%, and the percentage of people aged 65 and over was 15.5% of the total number of population in 2015. Ukraine's demographic forecast notes people aged over 60 will account for 25% of the total population by the year of 2025, and people aged 65 - 18.4%. Same age strata will account for more than 26% and more than 20%, respectively, by the year 2030. Implementation of the action plan will help solving problems associated with population ageing. Such measures will facilitate protection of the elderly citizen's rights with the concentration of efforts in priority areas - improvement of the conditions for older citizens' self-realization and their participation in the society's development, promoting their health and well-being; and creating of the environment, which is favorable for active living. The Verkhovna Rada has asked the Ukrainian Constitutional Court to verify the constitutionality of presidential bill (No. 9037) adjusting the Constitution with a pledge of Ukraine's strategic course towards its membership in the European Union and NATO. "On September 27, the Ukrainian Constitutional Court received a constitutional inquiry from the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, which asked for verifying the compliance of the bill adjusting the Ukrainian constitution [with the pledge of the strategic course towards Ukraine's full membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization] with Articles 157 and 158 of the Ukrainian Constitution," the Constitutional Court said in a statement posted on its website on Friday. On September 20, the Verkhovna Rada directed to the Constitutional Court presidential bill (No. 9037) adjusting the Constitution with Ukraine's strategic course towards membership in the European Union and NATO. According to the procedure, the Verkhovna Rada can consider a bill modifying the Ukrainian Constitution only if the Constitutional Court confirms its compliance with Articles 157 and 158 of the fundamental law. Once the Constitutional Court speaks its mind, the parliament may pass the bill in the first reading with at least 226 votes. It may pass the bill as a whole at the next session with at least 300 votes, i.e. the constitutional majority. The procedure is established by the Ukrainian constitution. The bill vests the Verkhovna Rada with the power "to pursue the country's strategic course towards Ukraine's full membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Ukrainian president would be the guarantor of the implementation of the strategic course towards Ukraine's membership in the EU and NATO, while the government will ensure the implementation of the strategic course in those organizations. The presidential bill was registered in parliament on September 3. We've seen emotional support hens and dead sharks and ducks on leashes and ravenous raccoons all cram onto express trains in order to commute to work or whatever the Animal Farm equivalent is. Some of them were cute, some of them were memorable, and some of them were just weird as heck. But none of themand I mean NONE of themhad the integrity, the physical presence, and the audacity of Iggy, the big ass iguana spotted on the subway this week. (Scott Lynch/Gothamist) Photographer Scott Lynch ran into, nay, was graced with the good fortune to ride the same subway car as this noble beast on a C train Thursday evening. "I saw this 'iguana from Puerto Rico,'" he told us, "and my man straight-up plopped him on my lap! He was really heavy!" Just like Shakespeare wrote, heavy is the lap that holds the dope iguana! Look how sassy this big boy is: (Scott Lynch/Gothamist) If you're wondering whether pet iguanas are allowed on the subway, according to the MTA's terms of use, all animalswhether they are dogs, iguanas or dead sharksare technically allowed on the subway as long as they're "enclosed in a container and carried in a manner which would not annoy other passengers." So Iggy technically is breaking the rules there. Also, um, keeping any member of the family Iguanidaeincluding the green or common iguanaas a pet is outlawed in the city, so there's that. You probably won't be surprised to learn, even though I honestly was, how many straphangers skirt those laws in order to travel harmoniously with their beloved iguanas. Look at just some of the iguana subway sightings in recent years: The guy in front of me on the subway was talking on the phone and holding an iguana in the other. #NewYork Dibbuk Box Truther (@RokhlK) June 6, 2018 I saw a lady with a pet iguana on the subway today , Im done with nyc Alexia James (@alexia_james) July 11, 2018 Riding the subway with his pet iguana pic.twitter.com/bIvtt1UF78 Lauren Plaks (@lplaks) June 4, 2014 as a new yorker, few things surprise me but i just had a heart attack bc the girl next to me on the subway had a live iguana on her head Emily VanDerwerken (@rednavylime) April 13, 2017 A man just casually came onto the subway, transferred a snake from his backpack to his duffel bag, with an iguana on his neck, and everyone proceeded to mind their business.. New York is unbeatable Rose (@rosie_kayyy) July 24, 2018 did Jaden Smith steal a subway iguana!? Or did he lose his iguana on the subway?! or is this just a very popular iguana collar? @officialjaden please advise pic.twitter.com/9jGTL9tI9y Hannah Bacon (@HIBacon) August 8, 2018 NYC subway story for the ages: I was just smacked in the face with an iguana tail Samantha Stokes (@stokessamanthaj) June 24, 2017 Somewhere in the wilderness of human existence, Werner Herzog is smiling. State-run Oschadbank and Ukreximbank have put rights of claim under a loan agreement with Kyiv-based Gulliver shopping mall's mortgage up for sale through SETAM's OpenMarket system for UAH 18.177 billion. The lot includes a 1.14 ha plot of land on Kyiv's Sportyvna Square, a trading and office complex with a parking lot with a total area of 151,800 square meters, a 0.11 ha plot of land for construction of a new trading and office complex, and 100% of corporate rights in the borrower's charter capital, says an announcement posted on the trading platform. The auction is scheduled for October 16. Bids are accepted until October 15. The initial price does not include VAT. It also includes the remainder of the debt for a loan and will be reviewed by the date of the auction, although a possibility of cutting it is not foreseen. The term for conclusion of the contract and payment the lot value by the winner is 30 working days from the date of selecting the winner. According to the terms of the auction, the sellers may refuse to enter into an agreement with the winner of the auction if the latter has a negative business reputation or is associated with a borrower or guarantor. The owner of the Gulliver multifunctional complex is TRI O LLC. As reported, in January 2017, Kyiv's prosecutor office reported about the repeated arrest of the Gulliver multifunctional complex by the court in a lawsuit regarding the seizure of funds of Bank Mykhailivsky and bringing the bank to insolvency. On November 14, 2016, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko wrote on his Facebook page that Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv seized the property of Viktor Polischuk. However, in December 2016, Kyiv's court of appeals denied the affiliated of TRI O LLC with Bank Mykhailivsky or Ekosipan LLC (the key shareholder in the bank). TRI O LLC was founded in 1995. The key participants as of September 2018 were Mobile West LLC (40.6%, Kyiv), Budleigh Coast Limited (18%), Virgin Islands), Podemos (22%, London, Britain), Lavish Ventures Limited (9.2%, Virgin Islands) and Hetiber Finance Limited (10%, Cyprus). The ultimate beneficiary is Viacheslav Ihnatenko. Business concerned about growing number of 'look alike' products on market for alcoholic beverages The European Business Association (EBA) has said the growing number of so-called "look alike" products resembling famous alcohol brands has become more frequent and shows unfair competition. "The practice of blatantly copying foreign labels is becoming more widespread. The number of cases has almost doubled since last year. Businesses are more concerned about protecting their trademark rights, design and packaging, the EBA said. EBA specialists say counterfeit labeling may differ from the original by one or more letters and reproduce only the image of the original product where a similar font, color gamut or drink label title are used. EBA says Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee has acknowledged breaches of copyrights and unauthorized use of brand names and labels similar to the products of known companies. . The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on September 26, 2018 received an application where individual citizen of Ukraine Sergiy Tigipko is seeking to receive a permit to acquire over 50% shares in PrJSC Kuznya on Rybalsky Plant (Kyiv) indirectly via Avins Limited (Cyprus). "Now the application is being analyzed and checked if information is full and documents attached to it are enough," the committee told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine agency on Friday. "If the application is accepted, it will be considered in terms foreseen in Ukrainian legislation," the committee said. Earlier the TAS Group of Tigipko said that the group has reached a preliminary agreement on acquisition of PrJSC Kuznya on Rybalsky Plant. "After receiving a permit from the regulator, the sides plan to continue finalizing the deal," the press service of the group told Interfax-Ukraine. The cost of the deal and the term for finalizing it are not disclosed. Kuznya on Rybalsky is a famous shipyard on the Ukrainian market. The key shareholder in the plant privatized in 1995 is the non-diversified corporate investment fund Prime Assets Capital (earlier Petro Poroshenko fund, Kyiv). The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has extended the public service obligations (PSO) for the sale of natural gas for the needs of households and municipal heat supply companies at a reduced price until October 18. "We have extended the PSO until October 18," Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman's press secretary, Vasyl Riabchuk, told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday. According to him, the respective decision was made at a government meeting on Friday. As reported, Cabinet of Ministers resolution No. 187 of March 22, 2017 stipulated that the public service obligations for the sale of gas to the public and heat supply companies would be in effect until April 1, 2018, but later the government extended them until late May and then until the end of July, August and September . Ukraine as part of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund pledged to abandon the PSO and move to market prices, but in the summer and autumn of 2017 it refused to meet the obligation. At present, the issue of gas prices for households is the key to the resumption of financing from the IMF. The mechanism of state support for technological innovations in industry, the funds for the implementation of which in the amount of UAH 300 million were envisaged for the first time laid in the state budget of 2018, will start working by the end of this year, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said. "We will launch the mechanism of state support by the end of the year. I set this task to the National Committee for Industrial Development. The selection of projects will be approved by entrepreneurs, not officials. This will ensure transparency and quality, and we will also minimize the manifestations of any corruption risks in the allocation of funds. We will continue the work next year," the press office of the Cabinet of Ministers quoted Groysman as saying. At the same time, he stressed that now it is necessary to form a special commission that will determine the provision of budget funds. The National Committee for Industrial Development told Interfax-Ukraine that the commission would only begin to be formed so information on its composition would be provided later. Two Island-class patrol boats have been handed over to the Ukrainian Navy at the U.S. naval base in Baltimore, Maryland, in the presence of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Michael McAllister. "We aim at convincing the Kremlin of our determination to protect the Ukrainian coast, just like we are defending our land in Donbas, our sovereignty, freedom, and democracy. Solidarity, unity, and support will enable us to protect this thin red line from the aggressor not with bullets, but with our determination to act," Poroshenko said at the ceremony. "Peace enforcement is the most effective strategy against the Russian aggression," he said. Poroshenko said he was hopeful that the transfer of two patrol boats to Ukraine was just the beginning of cooperation between Kyiv and Washington in that area. Ukrainian Navy Commander Admiral Ihor Voronchenko and U. S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Michael McAllister signed the memorandum of transfer of USCGC Cushing (WPB-1321) and USCGC Drummond (WPB-1323) patrol boats to Ukraine. Island-class patrol boats were built for the U.S. Coast Guard between 1985 and 1992. A total of 49 patrol boats of the class were built. The U.S. Coast Guard began to replace them with new Sentinel-class patrol boats in 2014, yet 12 Island-class patrol boats remained in service. The United States is handing over decommissioned patrol boats of the Coast Guard to its allies. According to public information, the United States will have about 30 Island-class patrol boats left after it transfers two boats to Ukraine. The basic modification of Island-class patrol boats has a displacement of 168 tonnes, a length of 34 meters, a width of 6.4 meters, and a speed of 29.5 knots. They have a crew of 16, including two officers. Patrol boats are armed with a 25mm cannon and two machine guns. In addition, patrol boats are equipped with an AN/SPS-73 radar system and a 5.4-meter Zodiak Hurricane 540 inflatable craft. USCGC Cushing and USCGC Drummond were mothballed after their decommissioning by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2017. The latest dock maintenance was given to USCGC Cushing in 2014, and to USCGC Drummond in 2012. Ukrainian crews of the former U.S. patrol boats will now be trained. The Island-class vessels will later be deployed to Odesa. The media said the entire process might take up to 12 months. Ukraine may receive more boats of the class and a number of other necessary vessels from the United States in the future. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko particularly noted a significant contribution of the United States to the development of the Ukrainian Army during the visit to the U.S. Coast Guard "Baltimore" within the working visit to the United States of America, the presidential press-service has reported. "So far, we got over $1 billion in security assistance from the United States to support of the reforms of the Ukrainian national security and defense sector, support of the national security law and its implementation, which ensures interoperability of our army with that of USA and NATO," Poroshenko said. The head of state said, "We appreciate a recent decision by the U.S. Congress even to increase this assistance. This is very supportive to our military allocations that already exceeded 6% of GDP." According to him, this gesture of support has boosted defense cooperation with the United States and helped contain the growing Russian aggression. "And I would like to repeat once again today the best way to protect the free world is to protect Ukraine with new defensive systems, with robust support in reforms, as well as with new targeted sanctions and with persistent diplomatic pressure over Russia," the president said. Odesa's Kyivsky District Court has ordered the arrest without bail of suspects, three citizens of Georgia, in the murder attempt against activist Oleh Mykhaylyk, Sudova Vlada Ukrainy website has reported. "The court examined the motion of law-enforcement agencies and ordered the arrest of three citizens of Georgia for 60 days without bail," the website said. One of the suspects of the attack, Georgian citizen Tornike Gerasin, who was earlier rumored to be paralyzed (according to other reports, only his hand was paralyzed), was arrested for 60 days without bail, the Odesa-based Dumska website reported. Gerasina was put in pretrial confinement for 60 days and denied bail after the court ruling. Media reports said the two other suspects are Georgian citizens Lashi Gerasin, Tornike Gerasin's brother, who is also suspected of other crimes (theft) and Manuchar Varshanidze, who was in possession of a weapon that may have been used to shoot Mykhaylyk. As earlier reported, on September 22 unidentified persons attacked the activist, who head "The Strength of People" organization in Odesa. Mykhaylyk was hospitalized at the Evreiska Hospital (Jewish Hospital) in Odesa. Police have opened a criminal case under Article 15 and Article 115 of Ukraine's Criminal Code (premeditated murder). Investigators are seeking to determine who ordered the attack on Mykhaylyk. U.S. declaration of non-recognition of Crimea annexation by Russia to be put in Ukrainian president's office Poroshenko The U.S. declaration of non-recognition of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 will be put in the office of the president of Ukraine, the presidential press service has said. "My presence here in the U.S. and meeting in New York (meeting between the Ukrainian President and U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker), where we had a great honor to receive the U.S. declaration on Crimea signed by Secretary Pompeo. It will be put in the presidential office of Ukraine, I promise you," Poroshenko said at the U.S. Coast Guard "Baltimore" base. The document was made public by U.S. Department of State on behalf of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in July this year, and during the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, a copy was handed over to the head of the Ukrainian state. "This is an extremely important document," the president said. The president once again expressed his conviction that if leaders of the world continue to adhere to this position and support sanctions against Russia, Ukraine will be able to defeat the aggressor. "If we keep up the pressure, Crimea will become an unbearable burden for Moscow, and the aggression will lose any sense for Kremlin. Russia started to pay the price for its irresponsible behavior, for illegal annexation of Crimea, aggression in the east of my country. Sanctions are working and it is necessary to reinforce them," he noted. Poroshenko is also confident that upon returning of Ukrainian sovereignty to the Crimean peninsula, Russia will lose an opportunity to carry out aggression in other countries and destabilize the situation in the Black Sea region. "With the liberation of Crimea, Russia will be out of a launching pad to project its power over Syria, to threaten the NATO flank in the Black Sea, to undermine the U.S.-led non-proliferation regime by refurbishing Soviet nuclear facilities in Crimea," the president stressed. In order for the UN peacekeeping contingent to enter Donbas, we must first cut the border with Russia, leader of the Civil Position party Anatoliy Hrytsenko has said. "There should not be new equipment, weapons and fuel there. Unless the border is closed, the peacekeepers will not go there," Hrytsenko said on the air of TV Channel 4, the press service of the politician said on Thursday. He stressed that there are countries that can act as part of a peacekeeping mission to Donbas, but the issue of the border will be in the first place, because each country is guided by the fact how safe it is to send its soldiers. Hrytsenko drew attention to the fact that while Russia does not agree to this main requirement, therefore, the issue of the introduction of peacekeepers in Donbas is time-dependent. "Russia does not agree to this, but this is not just our demand. It will be the demand of any country that will come there as part of the UN mission," the leader of the Civil Position said. The press service of the Civil Position party says that Hrytsenko participated in the work of a non-public group that drafted a peace plan for the settlement of the conflict in Donbas. This document has not been made public yet, but sent to the leaders of Ukraine, the United States, France, Germany and Russia. On Thursday, as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's gut-wrenching testimony gave way to Brett Kavanaugh's sniveling prevarications, two fed-up New York City students began taping homemade fliers onto columns in busy subway platforms. The posters, born from a trending hashtag responding to President Donald Trump's recent victim-blaming, asked New Yorkers to share #WhyIDidntReport, either on paper or on Instagram. By Friday, hundreds of responses had flooded in, a physical and online manifestation of a city deeply horrified to learn or be reminded of how the country's most powerful leaders feel about women. The paper protest is the work of School of Visual Arts students Ha Jung Song and Bowook Yoon, who came up with the idea as part a class assignment. They say they've placed over 1,000 flyers across the city this week, making their way from Times Square to Williamsburg, and dozens of stations in between. From 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, they plan to hold a demonstration in Union Square, where New Yorkers will have the chance to share their unreported experiences on an oversized poster board and in the company of others. "People are so scared, and they really just want someone to listen to them, believe them, encourage them and support them," Song told Gothamist, between trips to Midtown subway stations. "Theyre not only sharing their experience, but also sharing their feelings and rage." In some ways, the project is reminiscent of the post-election Subway Therapy installation under Union Square, in which thousands of New Yorkers vented and mourned via post-it notes in the wake of Trump's narrow electoral college victory over Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes in an election that was ultimately tilted in Trump's favor by a multi-pronged Russian attack on American democracy. The "#WhyIDidntReport" subway project has also spawned a "crazy" response online, according to Song. She said she had hundreds of people DMing the project's Instagram account during yesterday's hearings, many of them clearly emotional and crying. Amid the on-and-offline disclosures, calls to the National Sexual Assault Hotline skyrocketed nearly 150 percent on Thursday compared with a normal weekday, according to anti-sexual violence organization RAINN. Others have confronted senators in elevators with their own tales of abuse, or called into news stations to voice their solidarity with Ford. "People are really scared," said Song, "but they want to not hide anymore." Russian-led forces have mounted 22 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas in the past 24 hours with no casualties reported, the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) has reported. "The Russian mercenaries opened fire on the positions of our troops 22 times, while the weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements were not used ... There have been no casualties reported among Ukrainian soldiers during hostilities," the JFO staff said on Facebook on Friday morning. Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire to attack the defenders of of Krymske, Novotoshkivske, Zolote, Troyitske, Novotroyitske, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Vodiane, Lebedynske, and Shyrokyne. According to Ukrainian intelligence, four Russian-led combatants have been killed and another eight injured. Moldova could eventually abolish the presidency, according to Moldovan Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu. "I think that the next parliament will continue to limit presidential powers. We should discuss a constitutional reform again for the sake of a final transition to the parliamentary form of government," Candu told the press in the parliament on Friday. "The conduct of President Igor Dodon is discrediting the presidency and putting other branches of the authorities, including the parliament and the government, in an awkward position," he said. Candu mentioned the appointment of two ministers earlier this week and said that the president's powers had to be suspended for the fourth time in order to do so. "I believe this is not the last time the outgoing parliament will have to do so. The parliament has more bills opposed by the president. Some bills have been adopted and submitted for promulgation. The new Code of Audio and Video Services, which contains anti-propaganda elements opposed by President Dodon, also needs to be submitted for promulgation. He [Dodon] thinks that we should not protect Moldova from propaganda, including the one of Russia. Do you expect President Dodon to approve this code?" Candu said. He predicted a similar situation with the constitutional amendment declaring "European integration as the strategic goal of Moldova." "If we manage to reach a compromise in parliament and approve these constitutional amendments, the president will try to block them, as well. It cannot go on like this forever: the president is acting against the interests of the country and is refusing to fulfill his duties," Candu said. The Constitutional Court decided this week to suspend the president's powers for the time necessary to appoint two ministers. Dodon twice refused to sign relevant executive orders, and the Constitutional Court vested the parliamentary speaker with the power to do so. Rock musician and public figure Svyatoslav Vakarchuk has called for attracting foreign judges to Ukraine, primarily to the management of economic affairs. Vakarchuk in his article for the Kyiv-based online edition of Ukrayinska Pravda published on Friday said the law in Ukraine has become a "cynical concept" that "people no longer take seriously." He said officials, top politicians and oligarchs have learned to circumvent it in their own interests, whereas the ordinary Ukrainians cannot achieve justice. "This situation is not merely painful, it is dangerous for the country. If we as a state want to survive and become healthy, there is only one way out - real changes. Justice should become the basic principle," Vakarchuk said. He said reform of the judicial system is the most important reform that can bring Ukraine more justice. Vakarchuk in his op-ed offers three specific steps, which should be done as soon as possible. First, it is necessary to carry out a full renovation of the judiciary, and the selection of judges "to entrust those who are more trusted by the society" - international experts, volunteers and social activists. Secondly, according to Vakarchuk, it is necessary to achieve the trust of Ukrainian and foreign business to the Ukrainian courts, because "without this, there will be no investments, no cheap loans, no innovations." "That's why we should seriously consider attracting authoritative foreign judges to conduct business in Ukraine, first of all, economic matters, especially appeals and cassations," he said. Thirdly, he said it is necessary to create conditions under which judges will be afraid to engage in corruption. "First, to update the composition of the court of cassation, it should receive full public confidence. If some first-instance judge will have a large number of cases returned after the cassation, this should be the basis for considering his/her actions by Ukraine's High Qualification Commission of Judges. If the review shows bias or the illegality of the judge's actions, the judge should immediately be dismissed. More than half of the citizens of Ukraine believe that the country needs to become a member of the European Union, considering the improvement of living standards and assistance in fighting corruption as the main advantages of joining the EU, according to a poll conducted by Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS). The majority of Ukrainians (52%) believe that Ukraine needs to become a member of the European Union. At the same time, about a third of respondents (34%) disagree with this and another 15% could not decide on their position, according to the survey data released at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday. At the same time, the survey results show that in Ukraine there are regional differences in relation to Ukrainians for membership in the EU: the western and central regions of the country (79% and 58%, respectively) most want to see Ukraine in the EU, while the southern and eastern regions of the country (58% and 57%, respectively) largely do not share the European integration aspirations of Ukrainians. Some 38% of Ukrainians consider raising the standard of living of people as one of the main advantages of membership in the EU, while assistance in fighting corruption is considered important by 27% of Ukrainians and free movement abroad - by 26% of Ukrainians, the poll says. The survey was conducted in all regions of Ukraine except for Crimea and the occupied territories of Donbas from August 16 to August 28, 2018 with 2,041 respondents interviewed. The margin of error is 2.3%. The second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) considers it inappropriate to move the site of negotiations of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) to settle the situation in Donbas from Minsk (Belarus) to a neutral country. "We hear [suggestions]: let's move from Minsk to a neutral country. I list these countries: Switzerland, Sweden, Finland ... Does anyone think that we can hold these meetings there? Or someone declares that they will register admission to the representatives of Donbas there What will it cost to hold meetings there? Do you know that some participants in the Minsk process pay travel costs to the capital of Belarus out of their own pocket?" Kuchma told reporters in Kyiv on Friday. He stressed that "we must think about the consequences" of the statements made. Kuchma also noted that Belarus' behavior on the international arena is understandable, because "Russia is putting pressure on it" and official Minsk cannot get rid of this pressure for objective reasons. Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova expects Russia to provide relevant and true information about the health of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who was convicted of terrorism in Russia and has been on hunger strike for more than four months. Denisova wrote on her Facebook page on Friday that she had received a letter from Chairman of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov. "The information provided by him [Fedotov] indicates that doctors from the Labytnangi hospital held a conference [on Sentsov's case] on September 12. They assessed the state of Oleh's health as stable. Another doctors' conference is expected to take place before October 3 to once again assess the condition of Oleh's health and [determine] a strategy for his further treatment," Denisova wrote. Sentsov is under medical surveillance due to his musculoskeletal disorders, she wrote. "He has been receiving a nutrient formula and daily intravenous injections since June 8," Denisova wrote. However, she questioned the authenticity of the information provided to her and the quality of Sentsov's medical checkup. "Unfortunately, besides this information, not a single medical document confirming [Sentsov's condition] has been given to me by the Russian Federation, even though I have been insisting on it for a long time now. There has been no official medical assessment issued by a council of doctors, either," she wrote. "I hope that Russia will send official medical documents detailing Oleh's true health status in the near future," Denisova wrote. In August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov, who was detained in Crimea in 2014, to 20 years in a high-security penitentiary for plotting a terrorist attack there. Sentsov went on hunger strike on May 14, 2018 and demanded that all Ukrainians held in Russia for political reasons be freed. Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said she considers pro-Russian forces, as well as incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his entourage, to be her main opponents in the upcoming presidential election. "Who will be my main opponent as a presidential candidate in the presidential election? First, of course, these are all the forces that will be put up by the Russia, the aggressor country," she said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday. "There is also a second enemy who today also destroys Ukraine. This is an entire corruption chain led by the incumbent president, who has already been destroying Ukraine for four-and-a-half years, robbing the country and setting tariffs on which they build their corrupt deals [...] This system will also be my enemy," the politician said. At the same time, when asked about her relations with the head of the Ukrainian Choice public movement, Viktor Medvedchuk, Tymoshenko said that she had never worked and would not ever work with Medvedchuk. The criminal case over the issuance of Hungarian passports to Ukrainian citizens in Berehove, Zakarpattia region, is being investigated under the article on high treason, Zakarpattia Regional Prosecutor's Office has told Interfax-Ukraine. "The information was included in the single register of pretrial investigations under Part 1, Article 111 of the Criminal Code (high treason). This is a preliminary legal qualification," the press service of the regional prosecutor's office reported on Friday. "The information was included in the single register of pretrial investigations after reports in the media that Ukrainian citizens committed actions aimed at harming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," reads the statement. Ukrainian media earlier reported information about the issuance of Hungarian passports to Ukrainian citizens at the Hungarian consulate in Berehove in Zakarpattia region. A video clip was published showing persons taking an oath calling Hungary their homeland, as well as pledging to serve the country. Media said Hungarian diplomats urged those gathered not to inform Ukrainian state agencies that they obtained Hungarian citizenship. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin discussed the issue with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in the United States on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly meeting. Klimkin said they discussed in detail what is happening at the Hungarian consulate in Berehove, but Szijjarto disagreed about violations committed by the Hungarian consul. Illegal armed groups fired at Ukrainian positions in the area of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) in Donbas 13 times on Friday, wounding two Ukrainian servicemen, the press center of the JFO headquarters has said on its Facebook page. "From 07.00 to 18.00, Russian occupation forces violated the ceasefire 13 times. At the same time, the enemy twice used weapons banned by the Minsk agreements [...] Two servicemen of the Joint Forces were injured in fighting today," the JFO HQ said. On Thursday, October 4, at 12.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled "The Stolen Elections in Tsebrykove Merged Community." Participants include head of the civil movement "For the whole of Odesa!" Andriy Sydorenko, human rights activist of the civil movement "For the whole of Odessa!" Neonila Tkachenko (8/5-A Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation. Details by phone: (096) 947 6568. On Monday, October 1, at 14.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled "Michel Tereschenko: I am Abdicating Powers of Hlukhiv Mayor to Launch Challenge against Existing System." Tereshchenko will tell about what is happening in Sumy region and the state, make public the names of officials, because of whom he is forced to abdicate the mayor's powers, will inform about threats to national security on the border with Russia and his nearest plans for the future (8/5-A Reitarska Street). Press registration by phone: (067) 59911 11. On Tuesday, October 2, at 10.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled "Autism: Break Stereotypes, Open your Heart to Unusual People," dedicated to the launch of the social project "Your unlimited world" by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Acino in Ukraine. Participants include child psychiatrist, PhD in medicine, head of the department of mental disorders of children and adolescents of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Social and Forensic Psychiatry and Narcology in Kyiv Ihor Martsenkovsky; founder of the "Child with the Future" Charity Fund for children with autism spectrum disorder Inna Serhiyenko; PhD in medicine, Regional Director of Acino in the CIS countries (Switzerland), Director General of Pharma Start LLC (Ukraine) Yevhen Zayika; General Director of Acino (Switzerland) Steffen Saltofte; Deputy of Ukraine, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, PhD in politics, Doctor of Laws Yuriy Myroshnychenko; Moderator: PhD in medicine, Director of the Department of Medical, Regulatory Affairs and Pharmaceutical Control of Acino in Ukraine and CIS countries, Alla Sorokoletova (8/5-A Reitarska Street). Press registration by phone: (050) 415-52-63 or at: pr_ua@acino.swiss. 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 Ukraine's 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. Forum 2016 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. For the news about KIEF, you can follow the forum's website and its official Facebook page. 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. www.forumkyiv.org/en Interfax-Ukraine is a media partner of the Kyiv International Economic Forum. U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani both attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York, amid a new phase of tension between the two countries following the unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA. No bilateral meetings took place and if anything, mutual recriminations got louder and if things didnt get worse, they did not get better. For the Iranian president, Trumps decision to walk away from the nuclear agreement not only destroyed several years of diplomatic hard efforts by Iran and other major players, but also shattered Rouhanis own political credentials at home and abroad. The success in nuclear diplomacy could hardly be conceivable without Rouhanis spectacular endeavor to hyperbolize its immediate life-changing effects in peoples eyes, winning over Khamenei with assurances about the deals substantiality and giving the Supreme Leader false hope about the deals transformational impact on U.S. Middle East policy in favor of Iran. At the same time, the deal could not have been closed without its portrayal to western counterparts as an unmatched solution for normalizing Iran and encouraging its leadership to abandon its expansionist, destabilizing foreign policy agenda. The West, Khamenei, and the Iranian people all misperceived the nuclear deal as being transformational in their own favor, but soon after it was signed, the ineffectiveness of the deal in delivering the promise of real rapid change became the common subject of complaint on all three sides. Rouhani used a key as the symbol of his presidential campaign in 2013, implying that negotiation over the nuclear issue is a magic master-key that could unlock political and cultural doors, even granting citizens equal rights. Obsessive focus on nuclear issues had at least two ramifications for him. First, from day one in office, he decided not to press hardliners on non-nuclear issues so as to gain their support or neutralize their sabotage efforts targeting his nuclear policy. Second, by taking for granted that a nuclear deal would be signed, Rouhani left all his eggs in one basket. Rouhanis government did not have any plan B for a scenario other than the success of the nuclear negotiations with magical consequences. Ironically, Trump and Khamenei have both expressed their discontent about the deal soon after it was signed and long before Trump became president. However, they provide alternative explanations when evaluating the source of todays crisis in Iran. Trump takes credit for the effects of withdrawing from the deal, reimposing previous sanctions, and adopting new sanctions. On the other hand, Khamenei plays down the role of sanctions in the deterioration of peoples living conditions and blames the governments mismanagement for the collapse of the Iranian currency and other shocking symptoms of the countrys economic malaise. One cannot understand Iran without recognizing that none of the countrys crises are new. Historically, the Islamic Republic has proven inept at solving any crisis. In principle, each crisis could only lose its urgency by creating another crisis, resulting in mounting multi-dimensional crises with little hope of finding a way out. The establishments determination to block reform efforts and silence democratic demands on the one hand, and intensifying militarization of the entire government on the other hand, atomize the society and de-politicize its citizens. Probing deeper into the layers of Iranian politics reveal strong resemblances between Iran and other states called post-totalitarian. At first glance one may find it quite ironic to hear about a strong similarity between Shiite fundamentalism and anti-religious authoritarian empires. However, the post-revolutionary Islamic government was conceived and consolidated by voluntarily following the examples of the neighboring tyrannies. Four decades later, there is a strong resemblance between Irans various faces and fundamental features of post-totalitarian systems in the former Communist bloc. Rather than noticing and analyzing the crisis Iran faces, the leaderships mindset is to deny, ignore, minimize or intentionally mis-formulate the nature of the crisis. As the crisis worsens, the regimes vision becomes delusional, driving it to tackle problems by creating greater ones. Crisis can only be born, grown, and multiplied, with no real remedy or end. Hampered and then sidelined by their own errors, the reformers initiatives fail, giving birth to a radical team which revives the governments interests in revolutionary aggression. Ordinary people feel betrayed by both revolution and reform, fatigued by the utopian promises and traumatic realities. As a result, the people endure more suffering and become more depoliticized as the best way for survival. The revolutionary militarys terror at home and asymmetric warfare abroad is ceaselessly expanding the boundaries of the crisis. Unable to understand the problematic aspects or fatal ramifications of its policies, the Islamic Republic refuses to realistically recognize any crisis as such, much less to set aside ideological ambitions by correcting failed policies while there is still time to act. The greater the crisis becomes, the more people tend to ask, When will the Islamic Republic collapse?, But Irans consistent record in acting as an authoritarian , pan-Islamic entity rather than a state based on its national interests prompts an even harder question: What kept Iranian revolutionary totalitarianism from falling so far? The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Radio Farda It was supposed to honor Iranians killed during the devastating Iran-Iraq war, but a billboard in the central Iranian city of Shiraz instead provoked mockery and was removed after it emerged that it featured not Iranian but Israeli soldiers. The mistake prompted the head of the city council in Shiraz to order an investigation into how images of the soldiers of Israel -- Iran's long-declared enemy -- made it onto the billboard. The billboard featured an altered image showing the backs of three male soldiers standing on a ridge looking out at the clouds. It was erected last week to mark the 38th anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 war that killed an estimated 500,000 Iranian and Iraqi soldiers, in addition to a similar number of civilians. Soon after it was erected, locals noticed that the soldiers on the billboard were wearing Israel military uniforms, prompting a wave of criticism and mockery on social media. It also emerged that a female soldier seen in the original was cut out of the altered image: Continue to read full article By RFE/RL The United States has clashed with China and Russia at the United Nations over their call for an easing of sanctions against North Korea. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a UN Security Council meeting on September 27 that recent "positive developments" in relations between North and South Korea -- combined with warmer U.S.-North Korean ties -- should lead to relief from some of the strict sanctions passed by the council last year to push Pyongyang into talks over its nuclear weapons program. Russia backed China's call to review the sanctions, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying they should not become a kind of "collective punishment" and arguing that it is time to send a positive signal to Pyongyang to encourage concessions. "Steps by the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] toward gradual disarmament should be followed by an easing of sanctions," Lavrov said. But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, backed by Western allies on the council, opposed the calls for easing, saying the sanctions should continue to be strictly enforced until North Korea actually takes concrete steps to abandon its nuclear weapons. Pompeo -- who will pay his third visit to Pyongyang next month -- voiced hope for the "dawn of a new day" on the Korean Peninsula. But he said it was the stiff UN sanctions which brought North Korea to the negotiating table in the first place, and there should be no let-up in pressure. "Enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize final, fully verified denuclearization," he said. "The members of this Council must set the example on that effort, and we must all hold each other accountable." While China and Russia claimed North Korea has been complying with the sanctions, Pompeo maintained they have been repeatedly violated and Pyongyang already has exceeded its annual cap on oil imports this year through secretive transfers of oil at sea. The United States has presented the council with what it says is evidence of transfers of refined petroleum products between ships at sea, and has also accused North Korea of illegally exporting coal to fund its weapons program. Washington has accused Russia of being involved in the illegal fuel transfers, but Russia and China teamed up this summer to block its move to bar further sales of oil to Pyongyang this year, saying they needed to study the U.S. allegations. Russia has also balked as U.S. attempts to further tighten sanctions, raising objections along with China last month when the United States proposed to add a Russian bank and North Korean bankers based in Moscow to a UN blacklist. Lavrov said it was "inappropriate and untimely" for the United States and its partners to "impose a course of tightening sanctions" when North Korea has "taken important steps" toward denuclearization. "It seems it would be logical to strengthen this momentum," said Lavrov, adding that any further tightening of sanctions could "bring extreme socioeconomic and humanitarian suffering." China is embroiled in a major trade dispute with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, but it has welcomed his outreach to North Korea. Both Russia and China have long pushed for Washington and Pyongyang to resolve their differences through diplomacy. "China firmly believes that pressure is not the end," Wang said. "Both implementing sanctions and promoting political settlement are equally important." North Korean representatives attended the security council session, but they did not ask to address the meeting. Pompeo met with his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, on September 26 and called the talks "very positive." Trump has heaped praise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, one of the world's most repressive autocrats, and this week claimed that the negotiations he launched with North Korea in June prevented a war. Trump met Kim in June in the first-ever summit between the two countries, which never signed a peace treaty ending the Korean war in the 1950s. But with no visible evidence since that meeting that North Korea has dismantled its nuclear weapons or facilities, many analysts doubt that North Korea has shifted more than rhetorically since agreeing to the talks. It already had refined its arsenal through six nuclear tests since 2006 and repeated ballistic missile launches before it agreed to stop testing during the negotiations. The United States is also hearing calls for step-by-step sanctions relief from ally South Korea, whose left-leaning President Moon Jae-in helped arrange Trump's diplomatic drive. That view is not shared by Japan, which is calling for the complete and verified disarming of North Korea as a condition for lifting any sanctions. Trump is seeking a second summit in the near future, which Pompeo will seek to arrange while in Pyongyang. Pompeo said that North Korea would enjoy a "much brighter future" if Kim fulfills promises to the United States to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile program. "But the path to peace and a brighter future is only through diplomacy and denuclearization," Pompeo said. With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs called on the parties to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to intensify negotiations. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) met separately and jointly with the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, and the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, between 25 and 27 September on the margins of the UN General Assembly. The Co-Chairs were joined in their meetings by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk. They also met with the OSCE Secretary General, UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, and a representative of the Italian OSCE Chairmanship. The Ministers continued negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Co-Chairs and the Ministers discussed the situation in the region and sought clarification with respect to several recent statements and incidents of concern. The Co-Chairs expressed deep regret over the continuing and unnecessary loss of life. They cautioned the Ministers about the dangers of escalation, called on the parties to engage constructively in a positive atmosphere, and to avoid inflammatory rhetoric. The Co-Chairs underscored that a comprehensive settlement will require compromises on all sides. In this context, the Ministers confirmed the importance of taking measures to intensify the negotiation process and to take additional steps to reduce tensions. The Ministers agreed to meet again before the end of the year. The Co-Chairs plan to visit the region in the near future and will then brief the OSCE Minsk Group and the Permanent Council on the status of negotiations, said in the press statement. 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. 28 Trend: Effective dynamics in all areas shows both the spirit and nature of Azerbaijan-Russia relations, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Sept. 27 at the official opening ceremony of the 9th Azerbaijan-Russia Interregional Forum. First of all, I would like to welcome the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, as well as the delegating accompanying him to Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev said. We are always very glad to see you. Today's participation of the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan in the Interregional Forum is evidence of the great importance we attach to this forum, he noted. This is the ninth forum, and there will be an anniversary next year. We are pleased that the first forum was held in Azerbaijan in 2010, giving an impetus to active inter-regional cooperation. And the fact that this hall, which seats 1,000 people, is full today shows that there is a great interest in this forum. Vladimir Vladimirovich and I meet quite regularly, Ilham Aliyev said. Not so long ago, in early September, I paid an official visit to the Russian Federation. We had very fruitful negotiations and a very thorough exchange of views on all the issues on our agenda. And the fact that less than a month later the President of Russia is visiting Azerbaijan attests to the level of relations exist between us. A total of 16 documents were signed during my visit, covering many areas of activity. They will predetermine the development of our relations for many years to come. I should also note that this is President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putins fourth visit to Azerbaijan in the last five years, the Azerbaijani president said. I also regularly visit Russia, which is also a clear testament to our partnership, to the friendly and good-neighborly relations between our countries. As for trade and economic relations, we see dynamic growth, and it is very impressive. There is a progressive trend: the turnover increased both last year and this year. Russia is number one partner on imports and number one partner on exports of non-oil products for Azerbaijan, he noted. We are also implementing projects related to mutual investments, and we see positive dynamics there too. There are very strong ties in the energy and oil and gas industry, he added. During my official visit to the Russian Federation, we signed an important document - an agreement between Rosneft and SOCAR on cooperation in the oil sector. LUKOIL has been successfully operating in Azerbaijan for more than 20 years and is an important investor for us. In the power engineering sector, our energy systems operate in parallel, Ilham Aliyev said. During my September visit, we discussed issues related to the construction of the second phase of the high-voltage power line, which would allow us the opportunity to enhance energy exchange and also to expand cooperation with third countries in this area. We cooperate very actively in the transport sector, he added. The North-South project we are implementing together is already yielding results. This year, compared to last year, we see a more than 100-fold increase in the transportation of goods along this corridor, and this is only the beginning. We expect this corridor to become one of the most important transport arteries of Eurasia which will bring between our countries even closer together and increase our transit potential. I would also like to note that the Azerbaijan national airline alone performs more than 50 flights to various cities of Russia every week, Ilham Aliyev said. If we add Russian air carriers, we will also see how extensively our people communicate with each other. In the tourism sector, we are seeing a significant increase in the number of Russian people visiting Azerbaijan. In less than nine months, about 700,000 Russians have visited Azerbaijan. I am sure that this figure will also grow in the future. There are very good prospects and cooperation in the banking sector, the Azerbaijani president added. Such a large Russian bank as VTB operates in Azerbaijan. In fact, Azerbaijan is the biggest foreign shareholder of this bank. Gazprombank has relatively recently financed a large industrial project worth more than $400 million in Azerbaijan. So these are all important elements of our cooperation. A relatively new area of cooperation is the automotive industry. KamAZ and Ural trucks are already being produced in Azerbaijan, he said. Hundreds of these trucks have already been produced. Agreement has also been reached on the production of GAZ vehicles in our country. We are seeing effective dynamics in all areas, and this shows both the spirit and nature of our relations. Of course, our relations are underpinned by historical ties, cultural relations, the closeness of our peoples, and, of course, we are working hard to further develop humanitarian ties. The next Baku humanitarian forum under the patronage of the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan will be held in Baku next month, he added. This international forum has already become the most important global platform for the discussion of issues of humanitarian nature, intercultural dialogue and interfaith relations. There are 341 Russian-language schools in Azerbaijan, two branches of leading Russian universities Moscow State University and the Sechenov Medical University, Ilham Aliyev said. We also interact very actively in the cultural sphere. We can talk a lot about Russian-Azerbaijani relations, but because of the format of today's forum, it is impossible to cover everything. But we aim for a further development of our relations. I also think that the opening of the Azerbaijan pavilion at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements planned for next year will be an important step in furthering our cooperation. This historic building used to be the Azerbaijani pavilion in the middle of the 20th century, and we are restoring it now, the Azerbaijani president noted. So we will be present there and demonstrate our achievements at such an important international exhibition platform. We also have very close relations with Russian regions. About 20 subjects of the Russian Federation have agreements with Azerbaijan. We are opening trade missions in the regions and Russian regions are doing the same in Azerbaijan. In other words, I am sure that inter-regional cooperation will organically complement the entire range of friendly and good-neighborly relations between our countries. I would like to thank President Vladimir Putin for visiting Azerbaijan today, Ilham Aliyev added. It is very valuable for us. We view this as a sign of friendship and as a sign of respect for our country. Of course, the fact that we are speaking to you emphasizes the importance of the work you are doing. I wish the forum success and further achievements for the benefit of the prosperity of our countries and peoples. Thank you. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Samir Ali - Trend: The persons involved in the terrorist attack on the ex-head of the Ganja Executive Power, and those who supported the terrorist attack, have been identified, Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov said Sept. 28. According to him, 77 persons have been brought to criminal responsibility until Sept. 28. "They were arrested by court decisions, and 11 are wanted. Two of those wanted have been detained and brought to the country. Whereabouts of some other criminals have been established, and measures are being taken to extradite them. Organizers and instigators of the attack are known. No one will get away from the responsibility." Garalov added. Earlier, the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan reported that as a result of urgent investigative actions and searches carried out by an investigative group of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service on the Ganja events, 61 people were charged, arrest was chosen as a preventive measure, special services eliminated four people who put up armed resistance, 13 people were put into the wanted list. Weapons, pistols, ammunition, grenades were seized during the operations in Ganja. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: Foreign Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon Gebran Bassil, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration of Togo Robert Dussey and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Grenada Peter David in New York Sept. 28. At the meetings the Ministers exchanged their views over the development of cooperation between the countries. In this regard, the sides discussed the ways to enhance economic, trade and humanitarian relations. During the meetings the sides also deliberated about the issues of cooperation within the international organizations and the agenda of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: A limited format session of the Council of CIS Heads of State has been held in Dushanbe, capital of the Republic of Tajikistan. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the session. President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The Azerbaijani and Tajik presidents posed together for photos. The heads of state attending the session then posed for a group photo. Addressing the event, Emomali Rahmon highlighted the work carried out by Tajikistan during its presidency of the CIS. He noted that thanks to the joint activities of the CIS member states, documents, which cover almost all areas of cooperation, were developed. Nearly 40 meetings were held during Tajikistans presidency, a number of issues, including the expansion of cooperation, fight against terrorism and extremism, drug trafficking, illegal migration and so on were broadly discussed. Fruitful cooperation was maintained in economic area, Emomali Rahmon said. Chairman of the Executive Committee and Executive Secretary of CIS Sergey Lebedev highlighted the issues on the agenda. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Peter Szijjarto on Sept. 27 in New York on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry said in a message Sept. 28. The ministers discussed bilateral cooperation, including the economic and trade relations and exchanged their views on regional energy and transport projects. During the meeting, in recognition of his contribution to the development of relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary, Mammadyarov was awarded the Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary. Presenting the award to his Azerbaijani counterpart, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto extended his gratitude to Mammadyarov for his valuable contribution to the development of bilateral relations and conveyed his belief in further development of bilateral ties, especially in economic and energy spheres. Mammadyarov, expressing his appreciation to Hungarian minister, valued the award as an encouragement for further strengthening of mutually beneficial cooperation between Azerbaijan and Hungary. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.28 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Naval Group, French industrial group is currently discussing with the Azerbaijani authorities to propose a version of its Offshore Patrol Vessel 90 (OPV 90), a sea-proven design adapted to the specific needs of the Naval Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Trend learned from the company. The OPV 90 offers a comprehensive and reliable capability to fulfill a large spectrum of civilian and military missions, including maritime traffic control, protection of offshore resources, search and rescue, fisheries and marine environments, humanitarian assistance and fight against illegal trafficking. L'Adroit, the first-of-class of Naval Group's OPV 90, has been in service with the French Navy since 2012, said the company. Thanks to her multi-mission capabilities and long range autonomy with an optimized crew of 38, the OPV 90 will ensure the Naval Forces of Azerbaijan an outstanding rapid response capability as well as an increased permanence at sea, said the Naval Group. The ships will be entirely built (from steel cutting to systems integration)I n Azerbaijan, in an Azerbaijani shipyard with Naval Group experts as counsels. It will allow the local industry to benefit from a comprehensive transfer of technology from Naval Group and to create economic and employment opportunities, said the company. Naval Group proposes a strategic partnership, offering the security and industrial autonomy that Azerbaijan requires and we are really looking forward to working together with the Naval Forces and the Azerbaijani industry. Therefore, we have complete trust in our capacity to transfer our technologies to Azerbaijani shipyards as well as in their capacity to successfully learn and grow from this program to make it a success story and provide the Naval Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan with new reliable and efficient ships adapted to their operational needs and the specificities of the Caspian Sea. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has issued a statement regarding an illegal visit of MEP (Member Of European Parliament) Eleni Theocharous on September 27 to Azerbaijans occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region. Eleni Theocharous, a MEP from the Republic of Cyprus, was included in the list of persons who are prohibited from entering Azerbaijan, and the Prosecutor Generals Office of Azerbaijan instituted criminal proceedings against her on the relevant articles of the Criminal Code, reads the statement. This person, who acts under the influence of Armenia and the Armenian lobby, demonstrates the position of justifying and encouraging occupation policy of the ruling circles of Armenia, the statement noted. 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. 28 By Vugar Imanov Trend: German scholar, who studied great Azerbaijani poet Nasimis creativity, Michael Hess, delivered a lecture titled "Nasimis Heritage in the Contemporary Context" as part of the Nasimi Festival of Poetry, Arts, and Spirituality at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku. The festival, dedicated to the work of Imadaddin Nasimi (1369-1417), one of the brilliant poets and thinkers of the East, has been organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and supported by Azerbaijans Ministry of Culture. The festival is being held in Azerbaijan for the first time from September 27 till September 30. The festival is 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 are being organized in various places in Baku, as well as in Shamakhi, the native city of the poet. Hess expressed gratitude to the Heydar Aliyev Foundation for the invitation to visit Baku and participation in the Festival. In his lecture, the German scholar stressed that Nasimis poetic heritage reflects the breadth and humanism of his views. Nature, the beauty of the world is the source that inspires the poet on his way to the knowledge of life and the Universe. It is impossible to appreciate the full value of Nasimis spiritual heritage for the modernity, the scholar said. Nasimi and his poetry, which is contemporary for that period, is distinguished by emotionality. Michael Hess was born in 1967 in Germanys Offenbach city. In 1987-1992 he studied at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the Frankfurt University. In 1993-1997 he entered the doctoral studies of Mainz University and under the leadership of well-known Turcologist Lars Johanson defended his doctoral thesis. Along with scientific research at the prestigious universities of Mainz, Berlin and Frankfurt, he began to teach the Azerbaijani language and lecture on Azerbaijani literature. In 2000-2004, he was invited by the German Research Association to work on the project of translation of diwan (collection of lyric poems) by Nasimi into the Turkish language. For this purpose, the scholar visits Baku, Istanbul and Konya to study Nasimi's manuscripts. In 2009 he published the book "Die Sprache des Menschengottes (Untersuchungen zu Imad ed-Din Nesimis (d. Ca. 1400) turkischem Divan". Afterwards, at the prestigious Free University of Berlin, he begins his scientific work on the development of programs for the symbolism of Islamic letters, in particular, on the basis of the philosophy of Hurufism. Nasimi was a follower of Hurufism (from the Arabic "khuruf" - letters) is one of the branches of Sufism). It is such a teaching that the Quran is interpreted through a system of letters. The creator of this branch was Fazlullah Naimi, teacher of Nasimi. The presented fundamental researches cause a great resonance in the scientific world, allow reading and re-studying ancient Arabic and Turkish manuscripts. During his scientific activity Hess conquered the hearts of millions of Azerbaijanis and showed to the whole world the greatness of Azerbaijans classical national literature through his research. In European countries the German scholar has repeatedly delivered speech on the creative heritage of the Azerbaijani classic poets - Qazi Burhaneddin (1344 -1398), Imadaddin Nasimi (1369-1417), Shah Ismail Khatai (1487-1524) and others. As a specialist in Azerbaijani literature, Michael Hess was invited to the Brill publishing house, where the third volume of the Islamic encyclopaedia was being prepared. The German scholar prepared the works entitled "Azerbaijan Literature" for the encyclopedia, which included articles about writers, namely, Abbasgulu aga Bakikhanov, Abdulla Shaig, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev, Ahmad Javad, Ali bey Huseynzade, Abbas Sahhat and others. But this is not a complete list because the work on the encyclopaedia is underway. Michael Hess also took part in working over various projects in Germany, in the creation of works on Azerbaijani literature, dictionaries and educational materials. The activity of Michael Hess on the propaganda of Azerbaijan is not limited to scientific activity in the field of literature. In October 2014, at the University of Oldenburg he delivered a lecture on the bloody events of January 20, 1990 in Baku, when Soviet troops entered the city to suppress the people's liberation movement for the independence of Azerbaijan. In November of the same year, he delivered speech on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the Free University of Berlin. 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. 28 By Jani Babayeva - Trend: Two carpets donated to the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum in Baku the Nakhchivan carpet dating back to the 17th century and the Haji Gaib carpet dating back to the 19th century, were showcased as part of the Nasimi Festival of Poetry, Arts, and Spirituality. The festival, dedicated to the work of Imadaddin Nasimi (1369-1417), one of the brilliant poets and thinkers of the East, is being held in Azerbaijan Sept. 27-30 under the organization of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and support of Azerbaijans Ministry of Culture. Two of the carpets were donated to the museum as part of the project Return of rare samples of Azerbaijani carpet art to the historical homeland. In her speech at the event, director of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, chairperson of the ICOM Azerbaijan National Committee, honored cultural worker Shirin Malikova noted that significant events in the field of culture and art have been recently held in Azerbaijan, and the Nasimi Festival of Poetry, Arts, and Spirituality under the organization of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and support of Azerbaijans Ministry of Culture is one of such events. As part of the festival, wonderful and interesting events are being held in the exhibition halls, museums, concert halls, creative centers, open-air venues, where guests from different countries also participate, she said. Malikova stressed that two new exhibits have been showcased as part of the festival in the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. The Nakhchivan carpet dating back to the 17th century was returned to Azerbaijan on the initiative of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. The large size of the carpet, the composition created with high professionalism and color harmony prove that the carpet was woven by special order in a large workshop. Malikova noted that this sample of art is the third exhibit donated by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation to the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. Earlier, the museum was gifted with Karabakhs Khatai carpet of the 17th century and embroidery dating back to the 18th century. Talking about the Haji Gaib carpet of Azerbaijans Guba district dating back to the 19th century, Malikova noted that Italian collector Mirco Cattai donated it to the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. The museum collection titled Fleecy carpets was enriched with six rare carpets including the above mentioned examples of art during 2018. Head of the Office of Azerbaijans Ministry of Culture Fikret Babayev in his speech noted that the return of cultural values of Azerbaijan to the country is important. The work in this direction is being actively carried out, and the collection of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum now includes unique and beautiful carpets dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Fikret Babayev noted that the Nasimi Festival of Poetry, Arts, and Spirituality is very important. As Italian collector Mirco Cattai stressed, he is very happy to donate the Haji Gaib carpet to the Azerbaijani museum. The collector also noted that he is happy to attend this event and he really likes the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. Further, the participants of the event were presented a musical program, which included performances of the Sound of Ages Ensemble of Early Music Instruments of the Azerbaijan National Conservatory conducted by Orhan Hashimov, as well as Mugam Souls music group featuring Gochag Askarov (Azerbaijan) and Pierre de Tregomain (France). Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: Russia intends to organize visits of Russian entrepreneurs to Azerbaijan in 2018-2019, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Oleg Ryazantsev said at the 9th Azerbaijan-Russia interregional foru in Baku. In order to facilitate the projects aimed at the creation of joint ventures and the development of exports to other countries, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, together with the Ministry of Energy of Russia and the Russian Export Center, is developing a schedule of business missions to Azerbaijan, the deputy minister said. Ryazantsev noted that first such mission is proposed to be organized on the eve of the meeting of the intergovernmental commission, which has been scheduled for November. Ryazantsev pointed to the successful cooperation between the two countries in transportation and agricultural engineering, pharmaceutics, shipbuilding, oil and gas industry and others. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Anvar Mammadov - Trend: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) plans to launch implementation of three projects in Azerbaijan by the end of November 2018, the Head of the Partnership and Liaison Office of FAO in Azerbaijan Melek Cakmak told Trend. The head of the office said the projects will be implemented within the framework of the FAO-Azerbaijan cooperation program signed in 2016 and scheduled for the period until the end of 2020. "In October, we plan to start implementing the program of development of sheep breeding and the creation of a value chain in this area. In addition, in the same month it is planned to start the implementation of the program of development of the livestock sector, by expanding knowledge in the field of artificial insemination and improving the feed base. In addition, we have proposed a project regarding potato seed production to Azerbaijan. Its implementation will also start, at the latest, until the end of November," Cakmak said. The head of the office noted that FAO is also engaged in the elaboration of several projects aimed at strengthening the sphere of agriculture in Azerbaijan. "We are currently elaborating several more projects. One of them is aimed at the development of hazelnut industry. Hazelnut is one of the main non-oil export goods of Azerbaijan, and we want to help the development of this sector, in particular, to increase the production of traditional varieties for Azerbaijan," she noted. "In addition, it is planned to implement two projects in rural areas aimed at the development of self-employment of women and youth, respectively. The project will enable women and young people to increase self-employment by expansion of knowledge and vocational education in agriculture. The project will cover the population engaged in agriculture or having received agricultural education, both special secondary and higher. This will increase the income of the population and diversify the sources of income," Cakmak said. Azerbaijan has been a member of FAO since 1995. The organization's office in the country has been operating since 2007. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Anvar Mammadov - Trend: The State Labor Protection Fund will be established in Azerbaijan, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Azerbaijan Sahil Babayev said Sept. 28. He was speaking at the ceremony of signing a memorandum of cooperation between the Ministry, the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA), the Compulsory Insurance Bureau and insurance companies. He noted that the State Fund will be established under the Ministry in order to carry out preventive measures in labor protection and to provide assistance in preparation of norms, standards and rules of labor protection. Our goal is to increase the penetration of compulsory insurance against occupational accidents, Babayev said. Unfortunately, despite that this type of insurance is compulsory, the level of its penetration is incomplete. Through the system of registration of employment contracts, we want to ensure that all employees are fully insured against accidents. At the same time, together with insurance companies, we are going to take measures to reduce the number of accidents at work. The State Fund will provide support for labor protection measures implemented in accordance with a unified state policy, ensure coordination of activity, support the implementation of preventive measures, preparation of norms, standards and rules for labor protection, train specialists, organize education on labor protection, promote compulsory insurance against occupational diseases and accidents at work. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_Mammadov Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at the invitation of President of India Ram Nath Kovind, will visit India on Sept. 30-Oct. 1, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry announced. The President of Uzbekistan will meet with leading Indian companies in the city of New Delhi to discuss building up bilateral relations in trade, economy and investments, including proposals for establishment of an Uzbek-Indian business council. During the visit, the delegation of Uzbekistan will also visit the ancient capital of India, the city of Agra, one of the world-famous sights of which is the majestic Taj Mahal mausoleum. The sides will adopt a joint statement, sign a package of agreements, documents between the regions and institutions of the two countries. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 28 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: The Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan has held a meeting with the Ambassador of Finland Maria Elina Liimala, who arrived in Ashgabat for presenting her credentials, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement. They discussed the possibility of exchange of business delegations to further enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation, as well as the issues of holding a joint business forum. The Turkmen side expressed commitment to the development of bilateral relations and noted the positive experience of cooperation in the political, trade, economic, humanitarian spheres, the message says. The parties agreed to intensify cooperation in the fields of trade and education. It was proposed to hold inter-ministerial consultations in 2019 in Ashgabat. Special attention was paid to the issues of cooperation within the European Union. Turkmenistan has intensified its interest in cooperation with the Scandinavian countries in recent years. In particular, the State Statistics Committee of the country has previously issued a message stating that the economic experience of Finland is of particular interest for Turkmenistan which is moving on to market relations. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will establish a joint venture, which will be engaged in railway container transportation to China, Uzbek media reported. The appropriate arrangements have been achieved during the visit of the Kazakh delegation to Tashkent. The enterprise will be established by the railway agencies of the two countries. The countries also agreed to extend the current tariff preferences for railway cargo transportation in 2019, as well as to open representative offices of the Uzbekistan Railways in Astana and Aktau. Earlier it was reported that Uzbekistan and China plan to sign a memorandum on cooperation in the railway transport sphere, which outlines parameters of joint projects and tariff policy. The total length of railways in Uzbekistan exceeds 7,000 kilometers. The share of railway transportation in the total volume of freight turnover is 52 percent. In recent years, 44 freight electric locomotives, 15 high-speed passenger electric locomotives and 10 passenger diesel locomotives have been purchased from China and Russia. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: The company SFI Management Group received in fiduciary management 84.6 percent of shares of JSC with foreign capital Ortachirchiq parranda (poultry farm in Tashkent region), Uzbek media reported. The poultry farm has become the third company to be transferred in fiduciary management to the SFI Management Group. It was earlier reported that founder and head of the Russian JSC USM Holding, Alisher Usmanov, an Uzbek-born Russian business magnate, attracted the SFI Management Group to manage the Uzbek Metallurgical Plant JSC. After an additional injection of $50 million, production at the plant was resumed. The salaries were increased, the plant started to use methods of corporate governance and financial management. This year the plant expects to produce 1.1 million tons of rolled metal. Compared to last year, production at the plant is expected to grow 3.5 times, and profits are expected to increase 3.3 times. Expected revenues in the Uzbek state budget will be over 500 billion soums. (8,079.28 soums = 1 USD on Sept. 28) Dashkasan, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Taleh Mursagulov - Trend: Armenia, jointly with international companies, continues illegal development of gold deposits in the occupied Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan, the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Azergold CJSC Ogtay Mammadov said during a media tour on Sept. 28. "We want the issue of illegal development of deposits in Kalbajar to find its solution on a legal basis within the framework of international norms. In this regard, the relevant information has been sent to the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan. Work is underway and the public will be informed soon," Mammadov said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Turkeys Tabanlioglu Architects is the concept developer of the largest urban development project in Uzbekistan the Tashkent City International Business Center (IBC), whereas the UKs Arup Group is author of the design and detailed planning, the directorate of the IBC told Trend on Sept. 28. According to the information, the technical task for participation in the selection to create the concept of the Tashkent City was sent to a number of architectural bureaus in 2017. Following the review of completed assignments, six main applicants were chosen: DP Architect (Singapore), Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (USA), Tabanlioglu Architects (Turkey), Global Architectural Development (Turkey), Sabri Pasayigit Design Office (Turkey) and Discover Invest (Uzbekistan). The president of the country was presented with various variations of the preliminary concept of the project. As a result, a project developed by Tabanlioglu Architects has been selected, the IBC noted. The directorate of the IBC noted that this option has been chosen because it was the least time-consuming, as it would be inappropriate to arrange a long-term construction project in the center of the capital. After the development of the initial concept, a contract has been signed with Arup Group (UK) to prepare the projects detailed planning. At this stage, Tabanlioglu Architects (Turkey), Turner Construction Company (USA), Arup Group (UK) and Meinhardt Group (Turkey) were also among the applicants. Work on the Tashkent City project has been going on for over a year. The implementation of the project is monitored personally by President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, as well as international experts in order to assess economic viability of the mega-project, its effectiveness, and transparency of the processes. Well-known companies from Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK are engaged in the implementation of a large-scale urban development project Tashkent City in the capital of Uzbekistan. The project is implemented exclusively at the expense of financial injections of domestic and foreign investors, as stipulated in the relevant resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers dated July 28, 2017. The urban planning documentation, architectural concept and engineering design are also developed at the expense of own funds of foreign and local investors, according to the same legal act. The whole project territory is divided into eight separate land plots tender lots, each of which has different stages of completion of work until the end of 2021 and individual investors. The Tashkent City IBC will include a 200-meters-high skyscraper (Japanese Nihon Sekkei, French Bureau Veritas and DP Architects of Singapore), which will have A+ class business centers and a five-star Ritz Carlton hotel; a European boulevard with elements of national architecture (Turkish Uzguven Mimarlik and Muhendis); the five-star twenty-story Hilton hotel and other facilities. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Investors of the biggest urban development project in Uzbekistan the Tashkent City International Business Center (IBC) are 12 companies, three of which are foreign, the directorate of the IBC told Trend on Sept. 28. According to the information, the foreign investors of the project are the German company Hyper Partners, the British Corso Solutions and the South Korean Bomi Engineering & Construction. Local investors of the Tashkent City are the Lotus Gaz Investment, the Universal Packing Masters (known as the Murad Buildings locally), the Akfa Dream World, the Premium Village, the Family Group, the Luxury Apartments and a number of financial institutions of the country. The directorate of the IBC reminded that the official presentation of the Tashkent City project was held on Dec. 9, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Tashkent and was attended by over 200 business representatives from Uzbekistan and from abroad, financial institutions, members of the diplomatic corps, domestic and international journalists. In total, in almost half a year, more than 200 meetings were held with domestic and foreign entrepreneurs. Those who were ready to undertake obligations to construct the buildings in the city center according to the design and detailed planning in a short four-year period have been shortlisted. The decision on the choice of investors was made by the Administrative Council, which includes the country's prime minister, the head of the city administration and a number of ministries and departments, Tashkent City project's representative said. All investors have been approved by the Administrative Council of the directorate of the IBC on a competitive basis. The directorate of the Tashkent City underlined that as of today, all construction schedules are observed by investors in the established order. Work on the Tashkent City project has been going on for over a year. The implementation of the project is monitored personally by President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, as well as international experts in order to assess economic viability of the mega-project, its effectiveness, and transparency of the processes. Well-known companies from Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK are engaged in the implementation of a large-scale urban development project Tashkent City in the capital of Uzbekistan. The project is implemented exclusively at the expense of financial injections of domestic and foreign investors, as stipulated in the relevant resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers dated July 28, 2017. The urban planning documentation, architectural concept and engineering design are also developed at the expense of own funds of foreign and local investors, according to the same legal act. The whole project territory is divided into eight separate land plots tender lots, each of which has different stages of completion of work until the end of 2021 and individual investors. The Tashkent City IBC will include a 200-meters-high skyscraper (Japanese Nihon Sekkei, French Bureau Veritas and DP Architects of Singapore), which will have A+ class business centers and a five-star Ritz Carlton hotel; a European boulevard with elements of national architecture (Turkish Uzguven Mimarlik and Muhendis); the five-star twenty-story Hilton hotel and other facilities. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Dashkasan, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Taleh Mursagulov Trend: The Azerbaijani closed joint stock company Azergold intends to produce 45,000 ounces of gold till the end of this year, Deputy Chairman of Azergolds Board Ogtay Mammadov told reporters on Sept. 28. Mammadov made the remarks during the media tour aimed at reviewing the work conducted at the Chovdar field. Since early 2018, 33,000 ounces of gold have been produced, he added. This figure is planned to be increased up to 45,000 ounces of gold till the end of 2018, which is 33 percent more than last year. Mammadov added that 93,000 ounces of gold have been extracted via Azergold so far. The Chovdar ore field is located in northern Dashkasan district, which includes special and complex gold fields. AzerGold CJSC started operating in July, 2016 and is engaged in studying, research, investigation, management of deposits of precious and non-ferrous metals, their production, processing and sale, and also application of new technologies in this sphere, improvement of material and technical base and implementation of other work related to development of this sphere. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.28 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: As much as 99 percent of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) route in Greece and Albania has been cleared, TAP AG consortium said in a message. Once built, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, said the message. TAP AG said that 97 percent of steel pipes have been welded and 89 percent of steel pipes are in the ground (backfilled). Around 72 percent of land in Greece and Albania is in the process of being reinstated. Around 650 olive trees are already moved to the storage area in Maledugno, Southern Italy, said the consortium. TAP worth 4.5 billion euros is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries. The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italys south. TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers). TAPs shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent). The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering allocation of 500 million euros loan for TAP project. Aside from EBRD, the European Investment Bank (EIB) will also discuss the allocation of 1.5 billion euros loan for TAP in February. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: Fourth-year Petroleum Engineering student of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Fardin Vatani became a witness of landmark milestone as he attended the launch of the telecommunication satellite Azerspace-2 into the orbit. The satellite was launched from the Guiana Space Centre, a French and European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana on the north Atlantic coast of South America. Azerspace-2 is the third satellite, which Azerbaijan has managed to put into orbit in the past five years. Its designed lifetime is more than 15 years. The satellite has enhanced capacity, coverage and service offerings to support growing demand in the region for Direct-to-Home (DTH), government and network services in Europe, Central and South Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Fardins participation in this remarkable event was arranged in the framework of cooperation between the Higher School and Azercosmos OJSC. Fardin Vatani who earned 700 points at the entrance exams to national educational institutions is a Presidential scholarship holder. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Huseyn Valiyev Trend: The Azerbaijani mobile communication operator Azerfon LLC (Nar trademark) has unveiled the new logo and slogan. The presentation of the new logo was held at the Four Seasons Hotel Baku on Sept. 28 and on this occasion the company organized a press conference for the media representatives. The company has renewed the logo to provide the visual style with innovation and dynamism inherent in the new slogan Because you deserve more. The logo preserves key elements of the Nar brand. Visually, the logo has not been changed except for the color that has become brighter and more attractive, which is associated with grains of ripe pomegranate. During the event, a new promotional video was also demonstrated. Last time Azerfon conducted rebranding in April 2015, by unveiling its new logo and slogan Let's develop together. The new style was developed by London-based branding and design agency Landor. Azerfon LLC has launched its activity on March 21, 2007.Covering 93 percent of the countrys territory, Azerfon provides more than 2 million subscribers with the high quality services. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @h_veliyev Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: On Sept. 26, the Huawei Azerbaijan Enterprise Day 2018 conference, a large-scale presentation event of Huawei, one of the world's most leading manufacturer of IT solutions, was held in the main hall of the Four Seasons hotel in Baku, in partnership with Gulfstream Distribution, one of the largest distributor of IT solutions in the Azerbaijani market and the General Partner of Abris in Azerbaijan, under the Together we win! motto. The event brought together over 200 guests, including leading experts of Huawei, representatives of partner companies, business circles, etc. The conference consisted of several sessions dedicated to the issues of public security, intelligent IT-solutions of the future, as well as to development and support of Huawei partners in Azerbaijan. The presentation also showcased the achievements and novelties of Huawei and information about the world's leading trends. The event presented the latest facial recognition, agile network and cloud data center solutions. Customers of the company's products shared their experience with the guests attending the event. At the end of the event, a lottery was held among the participants, where valuable prizes were drawn, including the main prize Huawei P20, one of the most technologically advanced smartphones in the world market! For more information, please call: +994 12 597 30 80 Huawei is one of the leading global provider of ICT solutions that aims to enrich people's lives through communication. Thanks to the innovative solutions of Huawei, focused on the needs of customers and developed partner network, the company has achieved good results in development of telecommunications networks, terminal solutions and cloud computing systems. Over 180,000 Huawei employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers by providing competitive solutions and services. One third of the world's population enjoys innovative Huawei products, solutions and services in more than 170 countries. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a privately held company wholly owned by its employees. The main activities include Consumer Business Group (smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.), Enterprise Business Group (telecommunications equipment for corporate customers who are not telecom operators) and Carrier Business Group, which works with mobile operators and produces equipment for wireless and fixed networks, telecommunications software, and provides services for operators. Gulfstream Distribution is the largest IT distributor and General Partner of Abris in Azerbaijan. The company successfully develops such distribution segments as computer and digital equipment, software for complex infrastructures and cloud security solutions. The reputation of the reliable, responsible and experienced partner, always fulfilling its obligations, has allowed Gulfstream to build strong relationships with many of the world's leading manufacturers. As a result, the company has 25 brands in its portfolio. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: Azerbaijani postal operator Azerpost LLC and Turkish General Directorate of Post and Telegraph Organization (PTT) will sign a mutual agreement for making money transfers, using the new system of urgent money transfers. The transactions to be conducted via a new money transfer system, as well as parcel delivery will be carried out at postal points operated by Azerpost and PTT, Azerpost LLC said in a message. Money transfers between Turkey and Azerbaijan are also carried out via international money transfer systems, namely, "Western Union", "Golden Crown", "Contact", "Universal Payment Transfer". Money transfers have been carried out between Turkey and Azerpost LLC through an online money transfer system since 2010. All types of international payment cards issued by Azerpost LLC are planned to be supported on the PTT e-commerce platform. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: The 24th Tashkent International Tourism Fair TITF 2018 Tourism on the Great Silk Road will be held at the Uzexpocenter National Exhibition Complex on Oct. 3-5, the State Committee for Tourism Development in the Republic of Uzbekistan announced. The fair has been held since 1995 with the official support of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The purpose of the event is to create an international platform for exchange of experience, establishment of dialogue and joint efforts to promote and develop the cultural, historical and natural heritage of the Silk Road. The main organizers of the event are the State Committee for Tourism Development and the National PR Center State Unitary Enterprise. National and international pavilions will be opened in the Uzexpocenter, presenting the City of Craftsmen project, stands of theaters and museums of the country, the ''Eastern Bazaar" festival of national dishes, Alley of Artists, a defile from leading and beginning designers and much more. TITF 2018 includes a number of international and local projects on tourism and culture with an emphasis on development of the business environment. During the exhibition, a series of presentations of tourism destinations of Uzbekistan and foreign countries will be held. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: On Nov. 19-21, the 1st International Investment Forum in the field of tourism will be held at the Uzexpocenter National Exhibition Complex in Tashkent, the State Committee for Tourism Development in the Republic of Uzbekistan announced. Along with local entrepreneurs, the Forum will be attended by representatives of international financial institutions, potential foreign investors, international organizations of the tourism sector, leading tourism companies, industry experts. The forum is held with the aim of expanding international cooperation in the tourism industry, attracting direct investment, promoting the country's tourism potential among potential investors. Administrations of the regions and the city of Tashkent attract consulting companies to prepare presentation, advertising and other materials about the investment potential of the regions, opportunities and prospects for implementation of relevant investment projects in the tourism sector. It is expected that final documents will be signed with the participants of the forum, including contracts for implementation of projects. The State Committee for Investment will discuss with potential investors conditions for implementation of projects, to choose the most effective and most acceptable schemes for their implementation. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov A pledging event on 8 November 2018 is expected to demonstrate the international community's solidarity with efforts to overcome the legacy of uranium mining in Central Asia. Kazinform reports citing ebrd.com. Donors will gather at the EBRD Headquarters in London to pledge further commitments to the Environmental Remediation Account for Central Asia (ERA), established in 2015 at the initiative of the European Commission and managed by the EBRD. To date the fund has received 17 million in contributions. The fund is operating in the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with whom framework agreements have been signed. Work has commenced with the procurement of project management experts. The ERA's goal is to assist these countries to remediate some of the most dangerous sites left by uranium production in the past. These have been identified in a Strategic Master Plan (SMP), jointly developed by key stakeholders. The SMP is publicly available on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency. A strong call for action was expressed last week at the IAEA General Conference in a side event hosted by the Coordination Group for Uranium Legacy Sites with the theme "The Time is Now - Remediating Central Asia's Uranium Legacy Sites". The urgent need to remediate uranium mining legacy sites in Central Asia will also be highlighted in the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York this week. The case for international support was made in a conference titled "People and Planet: Central Asia Calls for International Solidarity", hosted by the Kyrgyz First Deputy Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov, and attended by Neven Mimica, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Alan Rousso, EBRD Managing Director for External Relations and Partnerships, as well as by representatives of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Alan Rousso said: "The international community must support Central Asia in the task to protect its people and the environment from the threat posed by abandoned uranium mines. We are looking forward to welcoming many countries and organizations to London on 8 November, helping to close the funding gap to achieve remediation to good international standards." Central Asia served as an important source of uranium in the former Soviet Union. Uranium was mined for over 50 years and uranium ore was also imported from other countries for processing. A large amount of radioactively contaminated material was placed in mining waste dumps and tailing sites. Most of the mines were closed by 1995 but very little remediation was done prior to, or after, closure of the mining and milling operations. The amount of radioactively contaminated material accumulated in the region is a threat to the environment and to the health of the population. Many of the uranium legacy sites in Central Asia are concentrated along the tributaries of the Syr Darya River which runs through the densely populated Fergana Valley, the agricultural centre of the region which is shared by the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Dr. Mohammed Ahmed bin Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Ambassador to Kazakhstan, has attended the international conference and exhibition entitled "Kazakhstan Security Systems", along with a joint delegation of the Ministry of Interior and Defence of the United Arab Emirates, WAM reports. During the two-day conference, which started yesterday, the participants will exchange experiences and information on issues related to fighting terrorism, combating cybercrimes through preventive and defensive measures, and the use of security devices and advanced technologies. Local and international companies are offering their security products and solutions to protect governmental and non-governmental institutions from all types of crimes. On the sidelines of the conference, there will be sub-sessions on fighting cybercrime and crimes committed using unmanned aerial vehicles. The conference was attended by heads of security authorities of Kazakhstan, members of diplomatic missions and international organisations accredited to Kazakhstan, as well as a number of international and local security experts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: Over the past 10 years, about $ 250 billion of direct foreign investment has been attracted to various sectors of the economy of Kazakhstan, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev said when opening the work of the "High-level forum on advancing trade and investment facilitation for development: "A Eurasian perspective", "Kazinform" reported Sept. 28. He noted that improvement of the investment climate is a priority for the Republic of Kazakhstan. Last year, the inflow of direct foreign investment amounted to about $21 billion, and a quarter of this amount was allocated to the manufacturing industry. The prime minister also noted that about 50 percent of all foreign investments have been allocated to non-oil sectors. "The momentum has continued in the current year: for the first half of this year, the agreements have been reached on the implementation of 69 new projects with major investors, including ten multinational companies from China, Turkey, USA, UAE, UK and the EU countries", Sagintayev said. The prime minister informed the forum participants that such international companies as Toyota, Heidelberger, Alstom are already operating in Kazakhstan. "Our country ranks first in terms of the investment climate in Central Asia and more than 70 percent of investments in Central Asia fall to the share of Kazakhstan," Bakytzhan Sagintayev said. The head of the government noted that in order to improve the investment climate in Kazakhstan, the reforms are consistently carried out, the open dialogue and interaction with investors is provided, and the infrastructure for attracting investments is being improved. "I will cite just one figure - over the past four years, 52 reforms have been carried out in such areas as tax and customs spheres, state support for entrepreneurship. So, on average, 13 reforms have been implemented in one year," Bakytzhan Sagintayev said. The international "High-level forum on advancing trade and investment facilitation for development: "A Eurasian perspective" has started in Astana. This forum is held by Kazakhstan in partnership with the WTO group entitled as "Friends of Investment Facilitation for Development", which includes 17 developing and most developed WTO member countries, in particular Argentina, Brazil, China, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Nigeria and others. "Kazakhstan will play a host to the 12th WTO's ministerial conference to be held in June, 2020," Kazakhstan's Permanent Representative to WTO Zhanar Aitzhanova told journalists on the margins of the high-level forum underway in Astana, "Kazinform" reports. "It flows organically from the open trade investment policy the Head of State has been pursuing since gaining the country's independence," Zhanar Aitzhanova said. Holding the event is of great significance for Kazakhstan. It will be a landmark event. "First of all, in the sphere of international trade Kazakhstan will have an opportunity to take part in development of rules, regulation and in the very process of reforming the organization. We will tell about our economy, create opportunities for future investments for the purpose of economic diversification," she resumed. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: Some 19 memoranda worth about $1.7 billion have been signed at the International Investment and Tourism Forum "Ancient Turkestan New Opportunities", held in the city of Turkistan, the press service of the Governor of Turkestan region reported. In particular, the agreements have been signed between the Governorate of Turkistan and investors from Iran, Turkey, Czech Republic, Russia, UAE, Malaysia, Italy, Poland, China, The Governor of Turkistan Zhanseit Tuimebayev has signed a Memorandum with the Iranian company "Ardabil Petrochemical Co" for a total amount of $205 million.This agreement involves the construction of an Oncology center and a plant for the processing of petroleum products. In addition, an agreement has been signed with the Chinese company "Longyuan Power Group Corporation Limited", which intends to invest $ 648 million in the production of power plants and products. At the same time, the Green Land Alatau LLP and Russian investors intend to invest $ 180 million in the construction of the greenhouse complex. At the same time, during the forum, a Memorandum with the Chinese company Shanghai Lianfu New Energy Science & Technology Group on the construction of a plant for the production of electric buses on solar batteries in the amount of $340 million has been signed. Moreover, a Memorandum worth $100 million has been signed with the Turkish company "Dogus Insaat ve Ticaret", which intends to implement a number of projects in the field of infrastructure. In addition, the Iranian company "Faradid Meehan" plans to invest $5 million in the construction of a brick factory. Also, in the framework of the International Investment and Tourism Forum, a Memorandum in the amount of $100 million, has been signed with a Malaysian company for the implementation of major projects in the field of industry and infrastructure. At the same time, the representatives of the Turkish Corporation "Sallyr Bey Group" are ready to develop sheep breeding in the region and to build a commercial farm worth $ 15 million. In addition, the Chinese investors plan to invest $ 50 million in the construction of a solar power plant with a capacity of 50 megawatts, and the Czech organization "AGRAS zelatovice a.s" has expressed interest in the implementation of the project for the production of sorghum syrup. The cost of construction of this plant is estimated at $20 million. Also a Memorandum worth $17 million on the construction of a plant for the production of high-quality expanded clay with the joint Kazakh-Italian enterprise "Kazakhstan Project Preparation Fund " has been signed at the forum, and the domestic "VMS" company intends to invest $1.5 million in projects in the field of tourism in the Turkestan region. Following the forum, a Memorandum of cooperation on the construction of a plant for the production of vehicles worth $20 million has been signed with the "Chery Commercial Vehicle" company. In addition, the Chinese company "Huawei Technologies Kazakhstan" expressed its intention to establish cooperation on "Smart city" projects and to invest $ 10 million in these projects. At the same time, the Russian Eurasian Bank is ready to cooperate in the field of investment projects, and the "Al-Masood" company from the United Arab Emirates is investing in the development of the tourism industry. In the near future, the foreign companies will begin their work in the territory of the Turkestan city and the rest of the region, which in turn will raise to a new level the development of agriculture, infrastructure, tourism and light industry, as well as will contribute to the creation of new production facilities and jobs. "Ancient Turkestan - New Opportunities" investment and tourism forum has kicked off in the city of Turkestan. Attending the forum are over 250 delegates from European countries, Turkey, Russia, the Republic of Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan, "Kazinform" reports. In his opening speech governor of Turkestan region Zhanseit Tuimebayev detailed the investment attractiveness of the region. Last year, according to him, volume of attracted investments into the region totaled 482 billion making it the leader among other regions of the country in that respect. Governor Tuimebayev also pointed out that SMEs have been growing robustly in the region. The work is underway to create a special economic zone TURKISTAN in the region where potential investors will be granted land plots and tax privileges for 25 years. Zhenis Kassymbek, Minister for Investment and Development, Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, Minister of Culture and Sport, Chairman of Rixos Hotels Fettah Tamince, Chairman of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" Ablai Myrzakhmetov and many others are set to take the floor at the forum. As part of the forum authorities of Turkestan region are expected to sign agreements and memorandums with foreign companies and investors to unlock tourism and economic potential of the region. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: A bilateral meeting was held between Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Dushanbe on Sept. 28, the Kyrgyz national news agency Kabar reported. During the talks, the sides stressed the importance of the meeting. Our bilateral relations are developing steadily, President Putin said. All plans outlined at previous meetings and agreed upon by both sides are being fulfilled. In his turn, Jeenbekov emphasized that Kyrgyzstan always seeks to develop and strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries. We appreciate the all-round support of the Russian side and value our relations, he added. Russia is the main investor in the Kyrgyz economy. President Putin also stressed that 23 percent in Kyrgyzstans foreign trade relations account for Russia and the volume of the trade turnover between Kyrgyzstan and Russia increased by 34 percent in 2017, which is a very good indicator that should be developed in the future. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 28 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: The first international Heavy Caspian: Turkmenistan conference is scheduled to be held in the Pre-Caspian Avaza city on October 1-3, 2018, the organizer of the event - the international Heavy World company said in a statement. Within the framework of the event, it is planned to discuss the structure of logistics in the country, in particular, the capability of Turkmenbashi port to receive project cargos, the status of road and railway infrastructure, the experience of delivery of project cargos to Turkmenistan. Presentations will be made by representatives of the Turkmen Logistics Association, the Ministry of Railway Transport, the Ministry of Road Transport and a number of other ministries and departments of the country. The general sponsor of the conference is the local company 'Yuk ulag merkezi', specializing in transportation of non-standard (oversized) cargo and having experience of interaction with the CIS, Baltic and Persian Gulf countries. Turkmenistan is building about 1,700 large facilities worth more than $42 billion. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project is among the most important investment projects. The construction of the Turkmenbashi seaport has been completed, the construction of a gas chemical complex for the production of polyethylene and polypropylene, the installation of facilities at the country's largest gas field "Galkynysh" are nearing completion. In particular, a separate transport and logistics center (TLC) has been established within the new international Caspian port of Turkmenbashi, opened in May. The TLC is designed to provide services to consumers at the "industrial production transport trade" junction. It will include a warehouse complex with telecommunications and cargo processing equipment, information and technology support for the process of transportation and processing of goods. The container terminal has an average annual capacity of 400,000 TEU. The annual capacity of the port is 17-18 million tons. Together with the previously operating port, this figure will be 25-26 million tons. Turkmenistan borders with Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan on land, with Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran on sea. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: The next CIS summit will be held in Turkmenistans Ashgabat city on October 11, 2019, Russias RIA Novosti agency cited Sergey Lebedev, head of the CIS Executive Committee, as saying Sept. 28. "A decision was made to hold the next meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State on October 11, 2019 in Ashgabat upon the Turkmen sides proposal," he said, speaking at an expanded meeting of the Council of Heads of CIS member-states. Lebedev added that a decision on the chairmanship of Turkmenistan in the CIS in 2019 was made. He added that Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will be the co-chairs. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 Trend: The Senate of the Parliament of Uzbekistan approved the Law on Ratification of the Paris Agreement on Sept. 28, Uzbek media reported. Uzbekistan joined the Paris Agreement in April 2017. According to senators, the agreement will serve as a road map for UN member states, reducing emissions and strengthening resilience to climate change, to which countries are exposed regardless of borders. The Paris Agreement is a document adopted under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, regulating measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Currently, 170 countries have ratified the treaty, pledging to take measures to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: China and Uzbekistan are making unremitting efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region through joint fight "three forces of evil" (terrorism, separatism and extremism) and the continuous strengthening of military and military-technical cooperation, Uzbek media reported referring to Chinese Ambassador to Uzbekistan Jiang Yan. The ambassador spoke at a reception, marking the 69th anniversary of the founding of the "Celestial Empire". According to Yan, there is every reason to believe that as the reforms in the two countries advance, the Chinese-Uzbek relations will inevitably reach a new stage of development. "The current year is marked by the intensive development of Chinese-Uzbek relations. During the meeting between Chairman of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Qingdao, important agreements were reached on deepening bilateral relations. Thanks to the personal attention of the two heads of state and the joint efforts of both sides, the cooperation between China and Uzbekistan is reaching a higher level, and covers more and more spheres," the ambassador said. Yan noted that there is a noticeable rise in trade turnover and a stable growth of investments between the two countries. The humanitarian exchanges are becoming unprecedented - the number of Chinese tourists in Uzbekistan is breaking new record, many universities in China are beginning to teach the Uzbek language, the number of students in the Confucius Institutes in Tashkent and Samarkand reached 2,000. She also added that, at this new historic starting point, China will continue to strive for a comprehensive deepening of reforms, introducing a new concept for transforming the development model and optimizing the economic structure in order to implement better and faster progress. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Secretary General of Interpol Jurgen Stock in a message condemned recent terrorist attack in Ahvaz and voiced the organizations readiness for cooperation with the Iranian government in fighting terrorism, IRNA reports. He also condoled with Irans Police Commander Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari over deadly attack on military parade in the southwestern city. The message read that Interpol condemns such acts and is prepared to cooperate with Irans Police and government in fighting terrorism. Stock underlined that the organization considers itself committed to render help in the field so that perpetrators of the heinous act will be punished soon. Some 25 people, including women and children, were killed and 60 others injured during September 22 terror attack in Ahvaz which took place during a military parade held as part of the programs to mark the 38th anniversary of an eight-year imposed war against Iran. The self-proclaimed Saudi-affiliated Al-Ahwaz terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack. The Iranian and German foreign ministers discussed the 2015 nuclear deal known as the JCPOA on the sidelines of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York, IRNA reports. During the meeting, Heiko Maas and Mohammad Javad Zarif dealt with the JCPOA and US violation of the deal, EU and P4+1efforts to implement Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to ensure Irans benefits under the deal. Zarif arrived in New York on Sunday to the accompaniment of President Hassan Rouhani to attend the 73rd high-profile session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Earlier, Zarif held talks with foreign ministers of Group 4+1 as well as counterparts from other countries. He also participated in the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit and held talks with the P4+1 foreign ministers. Multilateral Meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) chaired by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was held in New York, IRNA reports. The meeting was also attended by the foreign ministers of Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Thailand and a number of other countries deputy ministers. Stressing the need for multilateralism, Zarif hoped that the meeting will lead to boosting cooperation among the member states. The Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) is an inter-governmental organization created on 18 June 2002 to promote Asian cooperation at a continental level and to help integrate separate regional organizations such as ASEAN, SAARC, the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Eurasian Economic Union. Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) dismantled a terrorist cell affiliated to the foreign powers in a border region in southeastern Iran on Friday, IRNA reports. The Quds Military Base in a statement declared that the ground forces of IRGC, using accurate intelligence data, identfied the terrorist cell affiliated to the global arrogance that were planning to attack border military posts from outside Iran. The cell was busted through an ambush by the forces in the vicinity of the border post 163 in Saravan region. As the result of the operation, four terrorists were killed and two more were injured. The rest of the terrorists managed to flee into the neighboring country. The statement also noted that there were no causalities among the IRIG forces. A number of weapons and military equipments of the terrorists were seized by the Iranian forces, the statement read. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend: Nikol Pashinyan has turned the rostrum of the UN into a tool of political terror, and the UN needs to give appraisal to this fact, Azerbaijani MP Hikmet Babaoglu told Trend. "Otherwise, any prime minister of an occupying country will be able to make delusional statements from this rostrum at any time. Pashinyan made every effort to justify the ethnic separatism and aggressive policy of Armenia," the MP noted. "Pashinyan forgets that there are four resolutions of the UN Security Council, the international organization from the rostrum of which he spoke, on the immediate liberation of the Azerbaijani lands occupied by the Armenian armed forces. The speech made by him contradicts both the UN Charter and the resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council," Babaoglu said. He added that the UN and the OSCE Minsk Group should give a legal appraisal to this speech. "If we look only at the particularly significant events that have taken place in Azerbaijan in recent days, pay attention to the successful military exercises of our army, the magnificent military parades, the latest achievements in the space industry, we will see that the successes of Azerbaijan are the reasons leading to such hysterical statements by the prime minister of the occupying country," the Azerbaijani MP said. Jordan is prepared to reopen its border with Syria once the technical details of such a move are worked out, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told Sputnik on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Sputnik reported. "In principle, we want to open borders. A technical committee is meeting right now to agree details that will allow us to open borders," Safadi said. The foreign minister stressed that Amman did not initiate the closure of the border. When the parties agree on technical details, they will move on to another step, Safadi added. Jordanian sources told Sputnik earlier this month that the Syria-Jordan technical committee held their first meeting on reopening the border on September 12. Jordan closed its border with Syria in 2015 after an array of militants, including the Islamic State terrorist group, seized large swathes of territory on the Syrian side. In July, Russian-backed Syrian government forces recaptured the Syrian territory near the Jordanian border in July, including the Nassib border crossing, which used to be one of the busiest checkpoints and main border crossings for Syrian exports to Jordan. Syria has been engulfed in an armed conflict since 2011. Syrian government forces are engaged in ongoing military operations to clear the country of terrorists. The Saudi Hawks, the Royal Saudi Air Force aerobatic team, will make their debut in China in November at the country's major airshow, according to a deal signed Friday, Pakistan Point News reports. The executive board of China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China) in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, inked the deal with Saudi air force to put on a joint aerobatic performance during the event, which will also involve Chinese and Pakistani air forces. The Saudi Hawks are equipped with seven Hawk MK 65A trainers. The team was established in 1998 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Saudi Arabia in 1999. It earned a Guinness world record for drawing the largest Saudi national emblem with smoke in the air. The team's display will have two sections: the first part will see the team's seven planes flying in close formation and end with their signature move of creating the Kingdom's emblem, and the second part will show pilots demonstrating difficult skills and maneuvers. A total of 43 countries and regions have confirmed their participation in this year's Airshow China. The event is expected to receive more than 130,000 visitors and nearly 200 military and political delegations from over 60 countries. Russia and China have signed a protocol on cooperation in the space rocket and engine manufacturing, as well as lunar exploration projects, the website of the Roscosmos corporation said on Friday, TASS reports. The space cooperation sub-commission of the Russia-China commission for preparations for regular meetings of heads of government met in session for the 19th time in Beijing on Friday. "The session ended with the signing of a protocol in which the two parties agreed to take further steps to seek rapprochement in implementing joint projects for the manufacture of space vehicles and rocket engines, exploring the Moon and deep space, remote sensing of the Earth, satellite navigation, creating a base of electronics components for the space industry, and low orbit mobile communication systems and space debris monitoring," the report runs. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday she agreed with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to aim for holding a four-way meeting in October to discuss the situation of the rebel-held Syrian region of Idlib, Reuters reports. We also talked about Idlib and we will talk in more depth tomorrow. We are in favor of there being a four way meeting between the Turkish president, the Russian President, the French president and me, Merkel said in a joint news conference with Erdogan in Berlin. The City of Canals is considering a ban on carrying alcohol in public after 7 p.m. in a bid to crack down on tourists partying in the streets, which locals find irksome, Sputnik reports. With over 20 million tourists visiting the city of Titian and Tiepolo, the city's 55,000 residents have to deal with a lot of trouble just going about their daily lives. Tourists partying deep into the night are only the latest problem to appear on the Venice City Council's radar. Now, they're considering levying fines for transporting alcohol "for consumption" in a public space after 7 in the evening without a "justified reason." Local police commander Marco Agostini told ANSA Thursday that the law was not designed to target shoppers taking alcohol home from their local supermarket, but rather, "someone who goes around drunk and has a bag with three bottles of beer inside." The Venetian edition of Milan's Corriere Della Sera newspaper called it "one of the strictest regulations in the entire north-east" of Italy, the BBC reported. The measure will be voted on next month. Other measures up for a vote include a ban on tourists lying or sitting in undesignated areas, part of an effort to channel visitors through particular city routes. In the last 70 years, Venice's population has shrunk to one-third of its 1951 count of 175,000, with locals being driven out by high rents and housing shortages inflated by the enormous volume of visitors to the city, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tourists stroll in downtown Venice, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016. Since 1951, Venice's population has steadily shrunk from 175,000 to some 55,000. Several factors are blamed, including high prices driven by a boom in tourism, the logistics of supplying a carless city, and the erosion of canal-side apartment buildings by lapping waters Since 2016, Venetians have staged a series of protests and civil disobedience actions designed to raise awareness about the plight of locals, including a banner drop on the famous Rialto Bridge and the erection of a giant suitcase representing their fear of being evicted from their town. In April, residents tore down turnstiles designed to keep tourists separate from locals. Protestor Marco Baravalle said, "It's not the mayor who owns the city. It's not the police or the tourists either," the Independent reported at the time. "Venice is losing 1,000 residents each year," Matteo Secchi, head of the association venessia.com, told the BBC during a 2016 protest. "We are turning into Pompeii, a town which people come to visit and say it's magnificent, but no-one lives there." Bret Love, co-founder and editor in chief of Green Global Travel, told Sputnik Friday that last year was the UN's Year of Sustainable Tourism, but it was "also the year that mass tourism finally reached its tipping point, particularly in European cities such as Venice and Barcelona." "When you look at the math, with 20 million tourists visiting a city of just 55,000 residents, it's a wonder Venice didn't start cracking down on unruly behavior sooner," he said. "Locals are finally getting fed up with the exploitative infestation that low-budget mass tourism represents," Love told Sputnik by email. "Cheap flights, cheap cruises and all-inclusive resorts have made summer holidays abroad accessible to almost everyone. These companies are getting rich in the process, but it's locals who are paying the price. Many are being priced out of their homes by Airbnb, can't afford the cost of living increases a rise in tourism often creates or simply have their way of life disrupted by irresponsible tourist behavior. In the process, these destinations are losing the soul of what made them so unique in the first place. " "At the same time, I believe we, as travelers, have an obligation to be more conscious of our impact on destinations, and how we spend our money is a big part of that," he said. Love urged travelers to use tour operators who employ local guides and have sustainability initiatives that benefit local communities. He also suggested travelers patronize local artisans and restaurants, not corporate-owned franchises. "Yes, government organizations need to enact more policies that stem the surge of overtourism. But we, as individuals, have to do our part if we want to ensure that popular places like Venice maintain their distinctive charm for generations to come." Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. President Donald Trump in New York, ahead of his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and profusely thanked him for his continued support, Israel News reports. Netanyahu was effusive in his praise of the U.S. president, remarking that he personally, and the State of Israel had much to be thankful for. Netanyahu initially thanked President Trump for his strong statement at the UNGA, against the corrupt terrorist regime in Iran. You back up your strong words with strong actions. And I think that the fact that you brought American sanctions to bear has cut the cash machine of Iran and its campaign of carnage and conquest of the Middle East. He added that Israelis and Arabs who lived in the Middle East were encouraged by such strong leadership. The prime minister also commented that Trump had always been supportive of Israel within the confines of the United Nations building. He said that nobody had backed Israel like Trump had and presumably that also included the U.S. Administrations indefatigable ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. The decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was also praised, with Netanyahu noting, Youve changed history, and youve touched our hearts. I think, and I say this objectively, that the American-Israeli alliance has never been stronger. Its stronger than ever before under your leadership. And I look forward to working with you and your team to advance our common interests security, prosperity and peace with Israels neighbors, and for the region. And we can do it with you, Netanyahu concluded. In addition to his meeting with Donald Trump, Netanyahu also held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Israels prime minister was also invited to participate in a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conference on anti-Semitism, which he declined. In published remarks, Netanyahu said that since 2009, UNESCO has passed 71 resolutions condemning Israel and only 2 resolutions condemning all other countries combined. Ministry of Communications director general Nati Cohen is due to meet with US telecoms giant Verizon in New York, Globes reports. Ministry of Communications director general Netanel (Nati) Cohen will try to interest overseas telecommunications companies in taking part in fifth generation cellular trials in Israel. Cohen will also try to introduce American investors into the Israeli telecommunications market. Cohen is accompanying Minister of Communications Ayoob Kara, who is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's entourage for his visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly. The ministry's idea is to try to restore interest in the Israeli telecommunications market on the part of international companies, which have refrained from investment in Israel in recent years. During his visit to New York, Cohen will reportedly meet with representatives of US telecoms giant Verizon and propose that the company should participate in 5G trials to be held at Bar Ilan University in conjunction with Israeli mobile carriers. Meetings will also be held with representatives of Lockheed Martin, with the aim of persuading the company to expand its investment in Israel. The idea is also to conduct trials in IoT (Internet of Things), and to take advantage of the fact that there are many technology companies in Israel in areas of interest to the US companies, and to bring them into the initiative as well. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will wrap up his participation in the United Nations General Assemblys high-level week on Friday, TASS reports. The key part of the program will be the top Russian diplomats address at the UN tribune. Lavrov is scheduled to give a news conference in the afternoon and hold a number of bilateral meetings, including with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. In his speech, Lavrov will focus on enhancing the UN central role in global affairs. The Foreign Ministry earlier said that the UN remains a unique platform for an equal dialogue aimed at developing decisions taking into account all viewpoints. Moscow stresses that any attempts to shatter the UN authority and legitimacy and erode or substitute its prerogatives are dangerous and could dismantle the entire system of international relations. Lavrov is expected to outline Russias stance on supporting the efforts on reforming the UN and peacekeeping efforts, and emphasize that the glorification of Nazism and rewriting history, most notably the outcome of World War II, is unacceptable. Russias top diplomat will also speak about the situation in Syria, the Korean Peninsula and non-proliferation. Over the past four days, Lavrov has held more than 20 meetings with heads of state and government and foreign ministers from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Lavrov met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. Lavrov also took part in a ministerial meeting of participants of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program, and addressed conferences on peacekeeping efforts and the UN Security Councils meetings devoted to countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the North Korean issue. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took part in a meeting of Foreign Ministers of the countries making up BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a report, TASS reports. "The ministers discussed the problems of peace and security maintenance, economic and financial stability, and sustainable development. They confirmed their countries intention to build up coordination at international floors on the basis of commitment to the principles of multilateralism and formation of a fairer and more equitable world order where the UN and international law would play the central role," the report said. Also, the sides considered further steps towards implementing the decision taken at the 10th summit of BRICS on July 25-27 in Johannesburg. The Brazilian Foreign Minister told the gathering about the plans for Brazils terms of rotating presidency in the association in 2019. The five ministers endorsed a communique at the end of the meeting. Arrangements for Russian President Vladimir Putins Uzbekistan visit are nearly finished, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, TASS reports. "Preparations for a visit to Uzbekistan are indeed nearly done. We will make an announcement on that," he said, without elaborating whether the visit was scheduled for October. Putin said at his meeting with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Chinas Qingdao in June that he planned to visit the country in the fall. Mirziyoyev elaborated that the visit was expected to take place in October 2018. Moldovan President Igor Dodon plans to make an official visit to Russia on October 31 - November 1, as he himself wrote on Facebook on Friday, TASS reports. "I have held a brief working meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the CIS summit in Dushanbe," he wrote. "We exchanged views on the current situation in Moldovan-Russian relations and emphasized the need to improve cooperation in various fields. We also agreed on the dates of the official visit," Dodon added. The Moldovan president seeks to improve strategic relations with Russia as he believes that otherwise his country has no future. Russian continues to maintain contact with Israel concerning the downing of the Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea, Special Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told on Friday, TASS reports. "Regular contacts are taking place," he said. "We are all interested in justifying our claims," Bogdanov stressed. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 28 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: A passenger bus rolled over in Turkey's Usak Province, Turkish media reported on Sept. 28. As a result of the accident, one was killed and 26 people were injured. According to media reports, all the victims are Turkish citizens and were taken to hospitals. Death toll may increase. Other details and causes of the accident are not reported. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Turkey, Russia, France and Germany plan to hold a meeting on Syria in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters upon his return from New York, where he participated in the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, TASS reports. "We will hold a four-party summit in Istanbul, which will involve Turkey, Russia, Germany and France. Preliminary talks on this issue have already taken place, now a date needs to be fixed," Erdogan said, as cited by the Haberturk TV channel. The Turkish leader also said that he had "thoroughly discussed the Syria issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov" on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. When speaking about prospects for resolving the situation in Syrias Idlib province based on the agreements Turkey and Russia had reached in Sochi, Erdogan said that the situation was developing in accordance with those agreements. "As many as 50,000 to 60,000 people have returned to their homes in the Idlib province, and it is a very good thing. I hope it will continue this way. If our joint efforts with Russia prove successful, then we will be able to start a reconstruction process in Syria," he added. As for a possible offensive on Idlib, which Ankara considers to be unacceptable, Erdogan noted that "Vladimir Putin has made some assurances in this regard." According to the Turkish president, it is not safe to say that there will be no offensive but "there are no such plans at the moment." Erdogan also said that he placed "particular importance on the withdrawal of heavy weapons belonging to radical groups" from Idlib. He said that "the heaviest burden is being carried by Turkish intelligence agencies" but "the work is going well.". The US military's F-35B joint strike fighter conducted its first-ever airstrike on Thursday, according to the US Marine Corps and three US defense officials, CNN reported. The strike took place in Afghanistan against a fixed Taliban target. The aircraft involved were the US Marine Corps' variant of the aircraft flying from the USS Essex amphibious assault ship. The Marines confirmed the strike in a statement: "During this mission the F-35B conducted an air strike in support of ground clearance operations, and the strike was deemed successful by the ground force commander." The F-35 stealth jet has been called the most expensive weapons system in history, and its development was beset by multiple delays before it was deemed combat ready. It is touted as the future of military aviation: a lethal and versatile aircraft that combines stealth capabilities, supersonic speed, extreme agility and state-of-the-art sensor fusion technology, according to Lockheed Martin, the plane's primary contractor. The F-35B is one of three variants of the F-35 aircraft and the only one with the ability to land vertically like a helicopter. It can also take off in a much shorter space than other fighter jets. The Marine Corps variant was the first to be designated combat ready. The F-35 has been a favorite of President Donald Trump, who has lauded the aircraft several times for being "invisible." The aircraft has reduced capability to be seen by adversary radars but is not invisible. To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry. Disclaimer Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. By Ko Hirano, KYODO NEWS - Sep 28, 2018 - 12:09 | All, World A flurry of diplomacy at this year's U.N. General Assembly session has put stalled denuclearization talks between the United States and North Korea back on track, with President Donald Trump announcing he will hold a second summit with its leader Kim Jong Un "in the not too distant future." U.N. member states have supported Washington's engagement with Pyongyang. But experts are concerned the two leaders holding a meeting without any prospect of achieving substantial progress on denuclearization would amount to a de facto U.S. recognition of North Korea as a nuclear state. In New York on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and agreed to visit Pyongyang in October to prepare for a second summit, an event South Korean President Moon Jae In said could occur by the end of the year. (Getty/Kyodo) Pompeo cancelled a planned trip to the North Korean capital in late August due to a lack of credible action by Pyongyang, despite Kim pledging to work toward "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit in June in Singapore. The renewed momentum came after Kim promised in a Sept. 18-19 meeting with Moon in Pyongyang to dismantle North Korea's key missile test site under the watch of international experts. Kim also voiced willingness to decommission the country's main nuclear complex if the United States takes "corresponding measures," which would likely include a declaration of a formal end to the Korean War and the easing of sanctions. Speaking in an interview on Tuesday with Fox News in New York, Moon said he, Kim and Trump have shared the broad understanding that they should make an end-of-war declaration at an early date, raising speculation that they may do so by the year-end as sought by the two divided Koreas. The 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning U.S.-led United Nations forces, including South Korea, are technically still at war with North Korea. North Korea wants an end-of-war declaration as a first step toward guaranteeing its security. But experts say Washington has compromised enough with Pyongyang when Trump suspended joint military exercises with South Korea after the Singapore summit. "Before we go down the path of the second summit, we need to have some clarity," said Evans Revere, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Are the North Koreans going to commit themselves to the denuclearization of the North? If they are, what is the timeframe for that? What are the specifics?" Besides, Kim's offer to dismantle the missile engine test site and launch pad in Tongchang-ri and the nuclear complex in Yongbyon was short of steps that U.S. policymakers have been pushing for, such as providing a full account of its nuclear weapons, related facilities and fissile materials, subject to verification by organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency. "While North Korea has stopped testing missiles and nuclear devices, they have NOT moved toward denuclearization," Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the Armed Services Committee, tweeted. "South Korea should not be played by Kim Jong Un." Although Trump showed confidence to "make a deal" with Kim, analysts say the president should not rush to set up a second summit with the North Korean leader and make an end-of-war declaration without Pyongyang taking complete, verifiable and irreversible steps toward denuclearization. To the North Koreans, according to Revere, the "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" means the end of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, the withdrawal of American troops from the peninsula and the removal of U.S. strategic assets that could be deployed in the event of a conflict. "Is the DPRK prepared to issue a declaration of the number of weapons it has, the amount of plutonium and enriched uranium?" Revere said, referring to North Korea by the acronym for its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "There are many things that we should be asking for in advance of (a Trump-Kim summit)," such as where its nuclear facilities are and how quickly they are prepared to allow the IAEA, other international organizations, the United States and others to come to North Korea to begin the process of dismantling them. Dismissing Pyongyang's demand for an end-of-war declaration without abandoning nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, Revere said, "Declaring an end to the Korean War in part undermines the rationale for the continued stationing of U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula." "That's something that North Korea wants, but it's not something that we should give them," he said. Given North Korea's track record of using denuclearization talks to extract aid and other concessions while covertly continuing development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, Bruce Klingner, the senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, said, "Don't lower your guard prematurely." "And that's a peace declaration or a peace treaty until we deal with the North Korean threat -- not only the nuclear but also the missile and the conventional force threat," Klingner said. "Prior to that, it would be premature to sign a peace declaration or a peace treaty." In a U.N. Security Council meeting on North Korea's denuclearization on Thursday, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said that while Tokyo backs diplomatic initiatives by Washington and Seoul over Pyongyang, "We are acutely aware that the IAEA's most recent report expressed 'grave concern' that North Korea continues its nuclear program." KYODO NEWS - Sep 28, 2018 - 14:47 | All, Urgent, World Japan's Air Self-Defense Force said Friday it has conducted a joint exercise with a U.S. B-52 bomber over the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan. The drill on Thursday with the U.S. Air Force, apparently conducted with China's aggressive posture in the South and East China seas in mind, also involved 16 Japanese fighter jets, according to the defense force. (A U.S. B-52 accompanied by two Japanese fighter jets) [Photo courtesy of ASDF) It is the first time the ASDF has announced a joint drill with a U.S. B-52 bomber over the East China Sea, where a group of small islands controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing that are a major source of tension between the two Asian countries, are situated. Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told a press conference on Friday that such efforts to "strengthen cooperation with the United States" will help demonstrate "Japan's will and high ability to contribute to the stabilization of the region". ASDF fighter jets conducted joint training with B-52 bombers in January over the East China Sea, and in July over the Sea of Japan. (Two Japanese F-15s fly alongside a U.S. B-52) [Courtesy of ASDF] U.S. Pacific Air Forces said the bomber that flew this week with the Japanese jets was from a base on the Pacific island of Guam. On Wednesday, U.S. defense officials said the country's military this week flew two nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over the South China Sea, where China and several Southeast Asian countries have overlapping territorial claims. China's Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang, speaking at a monthly press briefing in Beijing on Thursday, criticized the U.S. military's action as "provocative" and said that Beijing will continue to take "all necessary means" to protect its rights and interests. KYODO NEWS - Sep 28, 2018 - 18:50 | Urgent, All, Feature A district court rejected on Friday a plea to halt Shikoku Electric Power Co.'s plan to restart a reactor at the Ikata nuclear power plant in western Japan. The decision by the Oita District Court was in line with a high court ruling Tuesday, which accepted an appeal by the power company and gave the green light for the restart of the No. 3 unit at the plant in Ehime Prefecture. It was an about-face from a provisional injunction issued in December by a separate judge from the Hiroshima High Court that required the utility to suspend the reactor until the end of September. The temporary suspension order drew attention as it was the first case in which a Japanese high court banned operations at a nuclear plant since the 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi complex. Shikoku Electric is planning to restart the No. 3 reactor on Oct. 27. The focal point of whether to restart the reactor, which has been idle for maintenance since last October, was the power plant's resistance to volcanic eruptions. In handing down the ruling at the district court on Friday, Presiding Judge Shigenori Sato said, "It cannot be said that a catastrophic eruption of Mt. Aso while the reactor is in operation is imminent." A group of citizens in Oita Prefecture had also sought a provisional injunction, arguing that the power company underestimates the risk of pyroclastic flows reaching the plant if a big eruption occurs at the caldera of Mt. Aso, which is about 130 kilometers away. (Protesters in front of Oita District Court after handing down the ruling) The prefecture, located around 50 km from the town of Ikata is on the opposite shore of the Ikata plant. Shikoku Electric has claimed there is a "low possibility" of the volcano experiencing a large-scale eruption while the reactor is in operation. The company has already decided to decommission aging Nos. 1 and 2 reactors. The ruling by the Hiroshima High Court said that worries over a volcanic eruption damaging the plant are "groundless." Similar legal procedures to seek suspension of the No. 3 reactor have been taken at other courts in neighboring Kagawa and Yamaguchi prefectures. The Iwakuni branch of the Yamaguchi District Court is scheduled to hand down a decision by the end of next March. KYODO NEWS - Sep 28, 2018 - 20:55 | All, Japan The Japanese government decided Friday to boost financial aid for reconstruction work in areas recently hit by a powerful earthquake and typhoons, including subsidies to boost the tourism industry. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government will help accelerate the recovery of affected regional economies and improve disaster preparedness including language support for tourists from abroad. "We will make utmost efforts to firmly back up the disaster victims' steps toward rebuilding their daily lives," Abe said in a meeting of ministers involved in recovery work. More than 100 billion yen ($885 million) is estimated to be required for recovery from the Hokkaido quake on Sept. 6 and a trio of strong typhoons that battered wide areas of central and western Japan in August and September. The central government designated the damage in Hokkaido and the typhoon-hit areas as "extremely severe" and will provide 10 to 20 percent more subsidies to hard-hit municipalities than it usually does for smaller disasters, to assist with the repair of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and agricultural facilities. (Quake-hit Sapporo on Sept. 6) Abe said the government will launch a 24-hour call service in multiple languages and further promote provision of information to foreign visitors when transportation and public services are disrupted. It will help airports increase staff who speak Chinese and Korean, for instance. The decision comes after foreign tourists voiced concern about the limited availability of guidance in foreign languages at airports, train stations and other facilities at the time of the disasters. A total of 11.2 billion yen will be provided for steps to support Hokkaido's tourism industry after the magnitude-6.7 quake caused a drop in the number of tourists to the northern main island, one of the country's most popular travel destinations. From Oct. 1, the central government will shoulder between 50 to 70 percent of lodging costs within the limit of 20,000 yen for domestic travelers for up to three nights and 70 percent for foreign guests for up to five nights. The infrastructure subsidies will cover nine typhoon-affected municipalities in Niigata, Nagano, Osaka, Nara and Wakayama prefectures. (Typhoon-hit Osaka on Sept. 4) Among the three typhoons, Jebi left 13 people dead and took a toll on western Japan by causing the temporary closure of Kansai International Airport, the main international air gateway to the region. The Hokkaido quake killed 41 people and triggered a prefecture-wide blackout. The central government will also ease conditions for small and medium-sized companies in the hardest-hit town of Atsuma as well as neighboring Mukawa and Abira to borrow rebuilding funds. KYODO NEWS - Sep 28, 2018 - 08:00 | All, World U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Thursday for strictly enforcing U.N. sanctions on North Korea until it denuclearizes as Washington prepares for a second summit between President Donald Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong Un. "Enforcement of U.N. Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize the fully final, verified denuclearization," Pompeo said during a ministerial meeting of the 15-member council on North Korea. The top U.S. diplomat also said Washington continues to see "illegal imports of additional refined petroleum using ship-to-ship transfers." "We must all be accountable for cutting off North Korea's illegal coal exports which provide funds that go directly to its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programs," he said. "And we must be accountable too for curbing the number of North Korean laborers permitted within our borders." The appeal came after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley last week decried Russia for breaching global sanctions on North Korea in a "consistent and wide-ranging" fashion, a claim Moscow refuted. Pompeo touted Trump's international pressure campaign as having resulted in the first-ever summit between the United States and North Korea in June in Singapore, in which Kim committed to "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. While saying Washington continues to engage with Pyongyang to fulfill the commitments made in Singapore, Pompeo warned that if the North strays from the path of diplomacy and denuclearization, it will "inevitably lead to ever-increasing isolation and pressure." Still, Pompeo said the United States and North Korea are "well into a diplomatic process," with Trump directing him to visit North Korea next month to meet Kim and accelerate that process. On Wednesday, Trump said he will announce the timing and location of his next meeting with Kim, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, North Korea's ruling party, in the "very near future." Pompeo met North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho in New York on Wednesday. The U.S. diplomat said there remains "much work" to be done, though he called the meeting "very positive." During Thursday's Security Council meeting, Chinese and Russian foreign ministers pointed to the need to ease U.N. sanctions on North Korea at some point. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said there is a provision in the relevant council resolutions stating that the body can modify sanctions if Pyongyang complies. "China believes that the Security Council needs to consider invoking in due course this provision to encourage the DPRK and other relevant parties to move denuclearization further ahead," he said, referring to the North by its formal name -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Speaking in a similar vein, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said "any negotiation is a two-way street. Steps by the DPRK toward gradual disarmament should be followed by easing of sanctions." Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono supported strict enforcement of U.N. sanctions for now, saying, "It is our obligation to stop sanction evasion activities." On Sept. 10, the White House said Trump had received a request from Kim for a second meeting, and that the administration had begun the process of coordinating such an event. South Korean President Moon Jae In discussed the possible timing and location of a second U.S.-North Korea summit during a meeting with Trump on Monday in New York, and later told Fox News in an interview that it could happen before the end of the year. Speaking Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump hailed Kim's "courage" in taking steps toward denuclearization, but said "sanctions will stay in place until denuclearization occurs." In two days of summit talks with Moon in Pyongyang last week, Kim pledged to dismantle North Korea's main nuclear complex in the country's northwest if the United States takes unspecified reciprocal actions, as well as to permanently close the North's key missile test site in the presence of international experts. But he stopped short of meeting the U.S. demand for a full and honest declaration of his country's nuclear weapons program, including weapons and fissile materials, as a first concrete step toward denuclearization, or presenting a road map for that goal. KYODO NEWS - Sep 29, 2018 - 20:31 | World, All, Urgent The death toll from a magnitude 7.5 earthquake and subsequent tsunamis that hit central Indonesia's Sulawesi Island on Friday has risen to 384 with at least 29 people missing and 540 others injured, the country's disaster agency said Saturday. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a press conference that the tsunamis engulfed a broad area of the western part of the island, destroying several thousand structures in the coastal area. [Courtesy of National Disaster Mitigation Agency] He added that the death toll may increase further, saying the figures were only from the Central Sulawesi provincial capital of Palu, one of the two worst-affected areas. The government has begun full-fledged relief work. The military, national police, and search and rescue agency have dispatched personnel to search for missing people and support evacuees. According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, the damage caused by the tsunami waves was particularly significant in the coastal areas of Palu and Donggala. In Palu, a large bridge that was a symbol of the city was completely destroyed. People including hospital patients have fled outdoors amid the aftershocks. The quake struck at 6:02 p.m. Friday at a depth of only 10 kilometers, centered on land near the town of Donggala -- about 2,500 km northeast of capital Jakarta -- triggering tsunami waves up to 1.5 meters high in some areas. [Courtesy of National Disaster Mitigation Agency] According to the spokesman, blackouts were also ongoing with only two of the seven power stations serving Palu and its surrounding areas operating and many electricity poles down. Communications were also cut as some telecommunication towers were damaged. "We badly need a temporary hospital and medical support, such as beds, medicines, medical teams, blankets, etc.," Komang Adi Sujendra, director at the Central Sulawesi Regional Hospital, said earlier in a video posted on social media. He added that his medical team has had to work in blackout conditions in Palu. Palu resident Morits Kodongan told the Jakarta-based private television network Metro TV that residents are starting to see gasoline shortages. The Jakarta-based Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency confirmed that a tsunami occurred in the town of Mamuju in West Sulawesi, about 240 km away from the epicenter, while a 1.5-meter wave was recorded in Palu. Video footage showed the tsunamis arriving to the sound of people screaming, "Allahu Akbar (God is Great)." [Courtesy of National Disaster Mitigation Agency] The quake followed another with a magnitude of 6.1 that occurred at the same place three hours earlier. Collapsing homes caused by the first quake killed at least one person and injured 10 others, according to local authorities. Palu's Mutiara Sis al-Jufri Airport was temporarily closed for commercial flights after its air traffic control tower was damaged by the quake. On Saturday morning, only a helicopter could land to bring humanitarian assistance. Among the casualties was Anthonius Gunawan Agung, a 21-year-old air traffic controller at the airport who decided against leaving his post while a plane was taking off. While other personnel at the tower had escaped, he waited for the plane to take off, Air Navigation Indonesia spokesman Yohanes Harry Douglas said. "After the plane took off, he jumped from the tower's 4th floor, breaking both his legs," Yohanes added. Anthonius was rushed to a local hospital but subsequently died from complications resulting from his injuries. Indonesia sits in one of the most active seismic regions in the world, the Pacific Ring of Fire -- an area in which a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. The state continued to receive heavy rains, leading to marooning of shops and houses as well as cave-ins at several places. Happy Birthday Mouni Roy: Rajkummar Rao has a sweet birthday wish for his Made in China co star Mouni Roy made a promising debut in Hindi commercial cinema as a co star of Khiladi Akshay Kumar in the film Gold. The Television diva who garnered acclaims with Balazi Telifilms Nagin first and second franchise has some more worthy films where she will be a lead actress in her kitty. With her rigors efforts and remarkable talent, Mouni Roy stand firm in Bollywood and her fans are keyed up to watch her more in the films. The beautiful and hot actress turns 34 today and Twitter along awith Instagram wishes have been pouring in from her fan followings and celebrities. Mouni Roy is at present busy with the shoot of her next film Made in China. Mouni Roys co star in Made in China Rajkummar Rao took to his Twitter page to post a picture with Mouni from the sets and wished her on a special day. The Stree actor tweeted, "Happy birthday @Roymouni, alias Rukmini from our #MadeinChina. Wishing you joy and happiness in life. Have a great year ahead." The picture shows the desi avatars of both Mouni and Rajkummar and they captivate their fans. The actors who will be seen as husband and wife in the film are shooting for in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Here is a tweet- We wish the actress a lot success and peace in her life. Michael Lewis, the author of "Moneyball" and "The Big Short," wrote in an article in The Guardian published Thursday that Vice President Mike Pence's wife, Karen Pence, was less than pleased with President Donald Trump's victory in the moments after he won the 2016 election. Lewis wrote that after Trump won, the vice president tried to kiss his wife, who turned away and said: "You got what you wanted, Mike. Now leave me alone." Lewis' article centres on the problems Trump had with his transition team but contains behind-the-scenes stories from the election night. Lewis also said Trump sat staring at the TV in disbelief when he saw he'd won. Vice President Mike Pence tried to kiss his wife, Karen Pence, in the minutes after Donald Trump won the presidential election in November 2016, but she reportedly turned away from him and said: "You got what you wanted, Mike. Now leave me alone." Meanwhile, Karen Pence "wouldn't so much as say hello to Trump," Michael Lewis, the author of "Moneyball" and "The Big Short," wrote in a Guardian long read based on several interviews with Trump insiders and published Thursday. In an account of Trump's unexpected win and chaotic transition into the White House, Lewis wrote that after clinching Pennsylvania's electoral votes at 1:35 a.m. on November 9, thereby winning the election, Trump "just stared at the TV without saying anything, like a man with a pair of twos whose bluff has been called." Donald trump election night According to Lewis, Trump hadn't wanted a transition team and didn't want to pay for one. Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, had volunteered to lead a team, and after Christie told Trump it was a legal requirement to have a plan for the presidency, Trump agreed begrudgingly, Lewis wrote. But later, after Trump read a news article that the team had raised money to pay people on it, Trump called Christie and Steve Bannon, his campaign chief, to Trump Tower, Lewis wrote. Story continues According to Lewis, Trump yelled: "You're stealing my money! You're stealing my f---ing money! What the f--- is this?" Trump calmed down only when Bannon reminded him that if he didn't have a team, people might think he wasn't confident about winning, according to Lewis. The CBS broadcasting logo is seen outside the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, New York, U.S., July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton By Kenneth Li and Arjun Panchadar (Reuters) - CBS Corp is facing probes by both New York city and state officials tied to sexual assault and harassment accusations of its ex-chief executive Leslie Moonves, the company revealed in a regulatory filing on Friday evening. The disclosure of the probes comes just hours after the new CBS board of directors met for the first time in New York. The broadcast and media company received subpoenas from the New York County District Attorney's Office and the New York City Commission on Human Rights related to the allegations against Moonves, CBS News and cultural issues in the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing https://bit.ly/2OjogOY. The New York State Attorney General has also requested information about the allegations, CBS said. Moonves resigned from CBS in early September after two New Yorker magazine investigations revealed a dozen women who accused him of harassment or assault. "The Company may receive additional related regulatory and investigative inquiries from these and other entities in the future," CBS said in a regulatory filing. "The Company is cooperating with the ongoing investigation and related inquiries." CBS declined further comment. Shortly after the New Yorker's July report on Moonves, CBS hired two law firms, Covington & Burling and Debevoise & Plimpton, to investigate the claims. The investigation is ongoing. (Reporting by Kenneth Li in New York and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Clive McKeef) Tesla CEO Elon Musk faces a range of penalties from the civil charges the SEC revealed Thursday, according to a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Tesla CEO Elon Musk faces a range of penalties from the civil charges the SEC revealed Thursday if he is found guilty, according to a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. "He can face a number of penalties ... he can have fines imposed against him, he can effectively be barred for a period of time or permanently from serving as a principal officer or a director of a public company," former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt told CNBC's " Closing Bell " on Thursday. "That last element would of course strike a very severe blow to Tesla. (TSLA)" The SEC lawsuit alleges that Musk issued "false and misleading" statements and failed to properly notify regulators of material company events. Sources close to the company told CNBC the company was also expecting to be sued, although Tesla was not named as a defendant in the complaint. A criminal probe reportedly opened by the Justice Department earlier this month could lead to even more serious consequences for the outspoken founder if he is found guilty there, according to Pitt. Tesla said the DOJ requested documents last month regarding Musk's tweets about taking the company private. "It shouldn't be forgotten that there's a criminal investigation proceeding. If, in fact, criminal charges are brought and they are brought against Mr. Musk, he could face jail time as well as additional fines," Pitt added. Shares of the automaker fell about 11 percent in extended trading Thursday. The stock is roughly 30 percent below its 52-week high of $387.46. His tweet on Aug. 7 cost investors betting against Tesla about $1.3 billion, according to estimates from financial technology and analytics firm S3 Partners. If federal investigators find that Musk was intentionally trying to cost them money, he could face criminal charges, securities lawyers have said. Musk said in an Aug. 13 blog post that the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund was interested in financing Tesla, only to later shelve any plans to take the company private in a tweet on Aug. 24 . The reviews are coming in for Christine Blasey Fords Senate testimony on Donald Trumps favorite network, Fox News and they arent good for the Republican Party. Fox News panelists discussing Fords testimony during a break in the Senate hearing called her credible, and one anchor Chris Wallace said her recounting of an alleged sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was a disaster for the GOP. Kavanaugh denies the allegations. I think Dr. Ford is exceptionally credible, Fox News judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said. The sex-crimes prosecutor Judiciary Committee Republicans hired to question Ford, Rachel Mitchell, has been hampered by the format of the hearing, he said, which requires Mitchell to ask questions in five-minute blocks and alternate with Democratic senators. This was extremely emotional, extremely raw, and extremely credible, Wallace added. Anchor Bret Baier added that hearing from Ford directly is a totally different thing than merely reading her prepared testimony. Trump watched the hearing aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from the United Nations General Assembly, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She didnt say what channel he was watching, but Trumps made no secret of his preference for Fox. She also said Trump hasnt spoken with Kavanaugh in several days. While the president hasnt tweeted or otherwise publicly remarked on Fords remarks, his son Donald Trump Jr. mocked what Ford said is a fear of flying, a point Mitchell probed in her questioning. Donald Trump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr Im no psychology professor but it does seem weird to me that someone could have a selective fear of flying. Cant do it to testify but for vacation, well its not a problem at all.Trump Jr. also retweeted several conservatives who questioned or ridiculed Fords testimony. But Laura Ingraham, a conservative television and radio host, said on Twitter: Most anchors are saying the accuser is very credible. Your thoughts? Story continues And Ben Shapiro, another conservative personality who contributes to Fox News, noted Fords testimony that Kavanaughs laughter during the alleged assault is what she remembers best, indelible in the hippocampus. So thats brutal for Kavanaugh, obviously, Shapiro said on Twitter. Before Fords testimony, three Republican governors Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, John Kasich of Ohio and Larry Hogan of Maryland called for the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct a more thorough investigation of the accusations against Kavanaugh. The accusations brought against Judge Kavanaugh are sickening and deserve an independent investigation. There should be no vote in the Senate, Baker said on Twitter. President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that China supposedly respects him for his "very, very large brain." During the press briefing, he addressed wide-ranging issues including trade, North Korea and mounting allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanuagh. Trump also doubled down on his accusation that Beijing was looking to meddle in the U.S. congressional elections later this year, but did not offer any specific details. President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that China supposedly respects him for his "very, very large brain," during a news conference where he addressed wide-ranging issues including trade, North Korea and mounting allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanuagh. Trump also doubled down on his earlier accusations that Beijing was looking to meddle in the U.S. congressional elections later this year, but did not offer any specific details. He said China would like to see Trump lose an election because "they've never been challenged like this." "We have evidence," he said. "It'll come out, yeah, I can't tell you now, but it came it didn't come out of nowhere, that I can tell you. Now they've actually admitted that they're going after farmers, I mean, I think most of you can cover that." Trump earlier told a U.N. Security Council meeting on nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction that China was trying to interfere in the upcoming mid-term elections, without providing any evidence. China immediately rejected the accusation during the same meeting, according to reports. When pressed for details during the news conference, Trump called attention to the escalating trade tension between the two countries. "China now put on $250 billion, and they're paying 25 percent on that. They're paying billions and billions this has never happened to China, and I like China and I like Xi Jinping a lot," he said in response to a question posed to him by CNBC's Eamon Javers. Story continues "From what I hear, if you look at Mr. Pillsbury, the leading authority on China ... he was saying that China has total respect for Donald Trump and for Donald Trump's very, very large brain. He said, Donald Trump, they don't know what to do," Trump said. The president was likely referring to Michael Pillsbury, who is senior fellow and director for Chinese strategy at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. Pillsbury told Fox News last month that Beijing viewed Trump as a "superior" president out of the last five or six American leaders that dealt with China and that he was "so smart." "It's refreshing to see this level of respect for the United States, I haven't seen it in 40 years. Usually the Chinese look down on us as not being very bright," the China-watcher had told the network. Prior to taking questions from reporters on Wednesday, Trump also said that the trade relationship between China and the U.S. needed to be a "two-way street, and for 25 years, or longer, was not." The latest round of tariffs targeting U.S. and Chinese goods went into effect on Monday, raising the stakes in an escalating trade spat between the world's two largest economies. The Trump administration levied duties of 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese products that include furniture and appliances, with the rate set to increase to 25 percent by the end of the year. It was Washington's third tranche of China-focused levies and part of a strategy to pressure Beijing into changing trade practices that Trump has claimed hurt American companies. For its part, China said it would impose taxes on American imports worth about $60 billion. Beijing also hit out against the U.S. in a 71-page paper , accusing the U.S. of "trade bullyism practices" that have become "the greatest source of uncertainty and risk for the recovery of the global economy." CNBC's Nyshka Chandran and Reuters contributed to this report. More From CNBC LIMA, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Operations at Trevali Mining Corp's Santander zinc mine in Peru have fully resumed after a road blockade suspended delivery of supplies this week, the company said on Friday. A group of area residents had blocked ground transportation to the mine, alleging the company had failed to fulfill its commitments to the community, Trevali said earlier this week. But "delivery of supplies resumed over the past few days with full operations now back online and at nameplate levels," Steve Stakiw, Trevali's vice president of investor relations, said by email on Friday. Stakiw did not say how the problem was solved. The company, which previously called the blockade illegal, said it had complied with all of its contractual obligations to the community and was cooperating fully with authorities. Santander produced nearly 30,000 tonnes of zinc 2017. The company has said it expects the disruption to hurt its quarterly output and sales but would not change its annual production guidance. (Reporting By Teresa Cespedes, Writing By Mitra Taj; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) By David Lawder and Anthony Esposito WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The United States and Mexico are due to release the text of their trade agreement on Friday, increasing pressure on Canada to join its partners in revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement while Mexico's president-elect said he would insist on a trilateral pact. President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked him during a Thursday phone call "to intervene and call on the U.S. government to reach an agreement" with Canada. "We agreed to that." But Lopez Obrador, who takes office on Dec. 1, said the NAFTA language between Washington and Mexico City was now final. "We are not going to re-open the negotiation. That you can be sure of," Lopez Obrador told reporters in Mexico City. Even so, Lopez Obrador said "the negotiation is not closed" between the United States and Canada, and said he had received information that the Trump administration has made a new counterproposal to Ottawa. Queries to Canadian officials and the U.S. Trade Representative's office to verify the U.S. proposal were not immediately answered. Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo was scheduled to present the text of the Aug. 27 agreement, which aims to rebalance auto trade and modernize parts of NAFTA, to Mexico's Senate at 7 p.m. EDT, Mexican government and Senate sources said. Mexican Senator Ricardo Monreal said on Twitter the text would be released simultaneously in Mexico and the United States. A USTR spokesman declined comment on the timing. The text of the U.S.-Mexico deal needs to be published by late Sunday night - 60 days ahead of the Nov. 30 deadline for Trump and Mexico's outgoing president, Enrique Pena Nieto, to sign the deal before Lopez Obrador takes office on Dec. 1. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has argued that the United State would have to reopen negotiations with the new Mexican government if the deadline is missed, but Lopez Obrador's comments appear to call that into question. Canada's Liberal government says it does not feel bound by the latest NAFTA deadline, and it repeated on Friday that it would not bow to U.S. pressure to sign a quick deal. "We are in a very tough negotiation with the United States over NAFTA ... there is no deadline on this. As far as we are concerned we want a deal that is good for Canadians and that's the bottom line," Transport Minister Marc Garneau told reporters in Ottawa. Some U.S. Democratic lawmakers said on Thursday they could not support a NAFTA deal without Canada. "Canada is exceptionally important. I think it would be malpractice, both for economic and political reasons, not to have a major agreement with Canada," said Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the tax and trade Senate Finance Committee. President Donald Trump, a Republican who blames the 1994 NAFTA pact for the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, trumpeted the deal with Mexico as a win for Americans and threatened to close the door on Canada if it did not sign on by Sept. 30. Trump also floated slapping auto tariffs on Canada, which could sow disarray in supply chains, take the wind out of the sails of a resurgent Canadian economy and rattle investors already unnerved by an escalating U.S.-China trade war. AUTO TRADE The U.S.-Mexico text will flesh out an agreement in principle that aims to rebalance automotive trade between the two countries and update NAFTA with new chapters on digital trade and stronger labor and environmental standards. It is expected to conform to details previously released on auto rules requiring an increase in regional value content to 75 percent from 62.5 percent previously, with 40 percent to 45 percent coming from "high wage" areas, effectively the United States. Auto industry executives say it is unlikely those targets can be met if Canada is not part of the deal, given supply chains that crisscross NAFTA borders multiple times. Details also are expected on a side-letter that preserves the Trump administration's ability to impose global national security tariffs on imports of autos and auto parts, granting Mexico a quota for tariff-free exports to the United States that allows some expansion of production. And more light is likely to be shed on the enforcement of new labor standards and trade dispute settlement arrangements. The United States has said Mexico agreed to eliminate a system of settlement panels to arbitrate disputes over anti-dumping and anti-dumping tariffs. But a Mexican source close to the talks said the United States had in turn agreed to drop a demand for tariffs to protect U.S. seasonal produce growers. Mexico also secured an exemption from U.S. "global safeguard" tariffs such as those imposed in January on washing machines and solar panels, the source said. Mexican-made products were hit by those actions, which were aimed at protecting U.S. producers from import surges. The release of the trade deal text starts a months-long process for U.S. congressional approval that will require a lengthy analysis by the independent U.S. international Trade Commission and notification periods before an up-or-down vote. Lawmakers briefed by Lighthizer said he told them the earliest a vote could occur, either on a U.S.-Mexico deal or a trilateral deal including Canada, would be February or March 2019, after the U.S. Congress elected in November is sworn in. (Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Anthony Esposito in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez and Diego Ore in Mexico City and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Writing by David Lawder and Paul Simao; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler) Photo credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH From Popular Mechanics Over the summer, the biggest news on the Martian surface was the massive dust storm. Growing to eventually cover the entire planet, the storm presented a major challenge to NASA's ongoing exploration of Mars. A new look at the storm's events show NASA's Curiosity rover relying on an unexpected source: a tiny actuator which was able to keep it powered and functioning through the worst of the dust. Curiosity landed on Mars on August 6, 2012 and has been roaming the planet ever since. Alongside NASA's Opportunity rover, it is one of two artificial objects on Mars that are still transmitting data back to Earth. Around the size of a four door sedan, it has been successful in its goals: before the storm hit this year, it had discovered organic compounds containing carbon - a building block of life. However, the storm was rising quickly on the planet. On May 30, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), a satellite orbiting the planet, detected dust accumulating in the atmosphere near where the Opportunity rover was operating. On June 5, on the other side of the planet in the Gale Carter, Curiosity was detecting something similar: the dust storm was rapidly growing. A few days later on June 8, the solar-powered Opportunity rover would be knocked out of commission by the dust. NASA was clued into the new and changing conditions through an obscure part on Curiosity: a motor which, according to NASA's press release, "powers a lid to a funnel that takes in samples of powdered Martian rock dropped in by Curiosity's drill." Curiosity has a chemistry lab on board that it uses to remotely analyze powdered rock for NASA. And unlike Opportunity, Curiosity is powered by a plutonium generator unbothered by the dust. "All my charts showed the dust storm effect on the actuator because it's exposed; it's sitting out there on the rover deck," says Benito Prats, a Goddard electromechanical engineer in the press release. "All of a sudden, I saw the daytime temperature drop really quickly." Story continues The actuator was showing temperatures falling during the day and rising at night, each one outside of normal parameters. These are classic dust storm patterns, with the dust clouding the sun during the day and warming the surface at night. With a close eye on the surface temperatures, Prats was able to predict where the storm was going. Understanding the exact temperatures, combined with an historic knowledge of Martian storms, allowed him to make an estimate. "At sol 2125 (July 28), I noticed a linear trend," he says. "So I said OK, I can predict that sol 2180 (September 23) is going to be when we're going to get out of the dust storm and the temperature will return back to normal, though I later updated that to sol 2175 (September 18)." As it would turn out, Prats was right. Things started to settle around the 18th just as predicted. Martian dust storms are still a major unknown for scientists, who are unable to predict them with the same accuracy as they can the rest of Martian weather. Curiosity's on-the-ground data gave scientists like Prats a distinct edge. Sadly, Curiosity isn't out of the woods yet. Mars is a tough place to be, global dust storm or not. Curiosity is experiencing some sort of computer glitch at the moment. Until that problem gets sorted out, it won't be able to send any further data back home. Source: NASA ('You Might Also Like',) For Immediate Release Chicago, IL September 28, 2018 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Philip Morris PM, PayPal PYPL, Dominion Energy D, Texas Instruments TXN and PPG Industries PPG. Here are highlights from Thursdays Analyst Blog: Top Stock Reports for Philip Morris, PayPal and Dominion Energy The Zacks Research Daily presents the best research output of our analyst team. Today's Research Daily features new research reports on 16 major stocks, including Philip Morris, PayPal, and Dominion Energy. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today. Philip Morris shares have underperformed the Zacks Tobacco industry over the past six months (-19.3% vs. -13.9%). The Zacks analyst thinks the company has been gaining from solid revenues in the reduced risk products (RRPs) category. The company is making constant efforts to expand in this space. In fact, the top and the bottom lines grew year over year during the second quarter of 2018, courtesy of favorable cigarette pricing and solid RRPs performance, with the latter being bolstered by the success of iQOS. To sustain growth in this category, the company plans to invest close to $600 million in 2018. Further, the company continues to expect price hikes to aid maintaining margin growth. However, a persistent decline in cigarette volumes, stemming from consumers rising health consciousness and stringent government regulations on tobacco products, is a major headwind. These factors, which have been affecting the industry for a while, caused a 1.5% drop in Phillip Morris cigarette volumes during second quarter. Shares of PayPal have outperformed the Zacks Internet Software industry over the past year (+40.5% vs. +35.6%). PayPal continues to witness expanding customer base with the help of its robust Venmo, Choice and One Touch. Also, the companys tie-up with MasterCard is aiding the adoption rate of Venmo. Story continues The companys ongoing partnership with ShinhanCard remains positive for its presence in South Korea. Also, its extended partnership with Google and eBay will continue to strengthen its customer base further. This will keep adding strength to PayPals total payments volume. The Zacks analyst thinks an expanding product & services portfolio and global presence will continue to benefit the companys market share. However, exposure to foreign exchange and intensifying competition are major concerns. Buy rankedDominion Energys shares have gained +0.6% over the last three months, outperforming the Zacks Electric Power industry, which has lost -1.2% over the same period. Dominion Energys Cove Point Liquefaction project has started operations and is contributing as per expectations. The Zacks analyst thinks Dominion Energy is benefiting from its regulated growth projects and synergies from Questars acquisition. The companys expansion of electric transmission, natural gas facilities and midstream assets are strong positives. Its merger deal with SCANA received FERC Nod and is going to be immediately accretive to earnings of the company. However, any delay in ongoing capital projects could adversely impact profitability of the company. Reduction in solar investment tax credits and share dilution may affect its future results. The company and its gas units dependency upon third-party producers for natural gas supply increases risk. Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Texas Instruments and PPG Industries. 5 Medical Stocks to Buy Now Zacks names 5 companies poised to ride a medical breakthrough that is targeting cures for leukemia, AIDS, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, and other conditions. New products in this field are already generating substantial revenue and even more wondrous treatments are in the pipeline. Early investors could realize exceptional profits. Click here to see the 5 stocks >> Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. 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 Dominion Energy Inc. (D) : Free Stock Analysis Report PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Texas Instruments Incorporated (TXN) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has killed four militants on the Saravan border crossing close to Pakistan in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province. In a September 28 statement published by Iranian state media, the IRGC said "Iranian forces killed four terrorists and wounded two." "Other members of the terrorist group fled to the neighboring country," the statement said while adding that the group was linked to the "worlds arrogant power." Iranian officials often use the term to refer to the United States and its allies. Iranian security forces frequently clash with militants and drug traffickers in Sistan-Baluchistan. The province lies on a major smuggling route for Afghan opium and heroin. The IRGC warned that it will counter any attempt by terrorist groups funded by "foreign spy agencies" to create instability in the country. Iran has accused Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and also the United States of being behind last week's deadly attack on a military parade in the southwest of the country that killed 25, including members of the IRGC and civilians. Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and the U.S. have denied any involvement in the incident. The extremist group Islamic State (IS) as well as a separatist umbrella group calling itself the Ahvaz National Resistance have claimed responsibility for the attack. Based on reporting by IRNA and Reuters Fast-food workers and supporters organized by the Service Employees International Union protest outside of a McDonald's restaurant in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2018. MUST CREDIT: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows guided missile sites in Beirut during his address of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters on Thursday. A term hatched in 2000 redefined the time in which we live as the Anthropocene because of human-caused blight on Earths ecological systems. Nobel Prize winner Paul Jozef Crutzen, a Dutch atmospheric chemist, suggested the permanent human footprint on Earths geological and ecological systems has been so substantial that it pushed the planet out of the Holocene epoch and into the Anthropocene. The impending effects of this permanent damage can become paralyzing and depressing, said Colorado College anthropology professor Sarah Hautzinger. It is too late to avert major mass extinction at this point, Hautzinger said. Were going to have major climate refugees, and were going to have a lot of suffering and inequality. Most of the costs are being inflicted onto peoples who didnt cause the problem, in the sense of having lower carbon footprints. Yet Hautzinger said shes motivated to act and works with the hope that others will be, too. This year, shes focusing her personal and in-class research on the sociocultural implications of climate change. She said shes particularly interested in how individuals and communities have responded. We know what we should do or couldve done about climate change 30 years ago, but were not doing it, Hautzinger said. Many of the climate change scientists say that this has become more of a social problem. Hence the justification of needing more community dialogue and including anthropological approaches. She spent much of her career researching discrimination and violence against women in Brazil, then conducted long-term research with Colorado military members returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. On sabbatical last fall, she said, she was struck with a gut instinct to come home from Brazil and work on environmental research full time. She expected it to be a refreshing turn from previously heavy work. I sort of thought, Oh, thats all really heavy, Im going to turn the page. But theres a surprising amount in common when you think about how where we are right now might have more to do with violence and trauma than we realize. The process and results of human-caused climate change can be framed in many ways as emotional, psychological, community and social issues, Hautzinger said. What is ecology? Dont we also have to talk about an ecology of self? An ecology of social relationships, of family, etc.? What are the spiritual aspects? Knowing what we know about human-caused climate change and calling this period the Anthropocene, how does that shape our sense of being human and the value of humanity? Thats how it really becomes an anthropological question. Frequently developing coursework around topics that preoccupy her, Hautzinger said, two of her classes this year will tackle climate change issues. One class will go to Colorado Colleges Baca Campus, just south of Crestone. Students will have 24-hour home stays with people of different religious and spiritual traditions. Theyll interview their hosts about faith and climate change, taking inventory of diverse approaches and perspectives. The Crestone area is home to people who practice Zen Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinji Shumeikai and more. Over the years, Ive had more and more collaboration with the Crestone Spiritual Alliance, Hautzinger said. In part, in an effort to find sort of through lines and continuity across all of these really different traditions. I have looked for themes that brought it together. The one that has come to the floor again and again has been on ecology and environmental policies. She said she wants to ask these communities if spirituality serves as a resource for climate change action, mobilization, motivation, mitigation or even just being present with it. A lot of evolutionary anthropological work says that religion is a great example of behavior that is not adaptive, that does not serve any function, Hautzinger said. Others answer, No. If you look at what religion or spirituality can do, it can enjoin people to greater levels of self-discipline, mindfulness and awareness, sacrifice, mutual trust and cooperation on a community level. So in some ways, my research question has been, What difference does it make to have all of those different spiritual lineages next to one another in a place that is astonishingly beautiful in connection with wilderness and many forms of wildlife. What value added is there from the spiritual aspects? In 2017, the United Nations Climate Change Conference held the 23rd annual Conference of the Parties in Bonn, Germany. There, Fiji introduced the concept of the Talanoa Dialogue inclusive, participatory and transparent. She said shell facilitate facilitating Talanoa dialogue in her classes, employ them in her work with the Crestone community and use them in the Colorado Springs area to address issues such as those around the Martin Drake Power Plant. She said the Talanoa Dialogue at the conference made a clear difference, spurring inclusive, empathetic conversation. The COP sort of shifted out of the typical United Nations language, she said. Womens voices, indigenous voices and youth voices were heard in a way that they really hadnt been before. And people left so inspired especially in a time where people were extremely discouraged about even complying with the Paris Agreement, etc. There was a call to do things internationally, locally, regionally, etc. This dialogue brought about understanding, she said, leaving people feeling hopeful and better able to respond, or as she refers to it, response-able. Thats her vision for her research results, too. I want to fortify people to live with hope, vitality and acceptance without denial, but without being paralyzed or depressed, she said. Thats really different than anything Ive ever done before. It feels good because, when youre working on things like war and violence, its harder to have a clear mission. Brady Busby, a medically disabled military veteran with combat-related PTSD and a traumatic brain injury, doesnt stress when hes fly-fishing. Hes too busy. Im always doing something looking for fish, casting, mending, matching the right bug to what the fish are eating that day, the Colorado Springs resident says. The disturbing memories from serving in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars dont even cross his mind when hes working the line on a river or lake. Neither does his recovery from opiate addiction, nor his 19-year-old daughters death by suicide in March. I wouldnt be able to go through the things I am dealing with if I didnt have my faith and family first, but fly-fishing for me is a close second, he said. To help others understand how nature and outdoor activities, such as fly-fishing, can help heal suffering, and inspire those dealing with similar experiences, Busby has written a memoir, Healing Waters. He will hold a book signing from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at the downtown Hooked on Books, 10 E. Bijou St. Royalties from sales of the paperback version, which also is available on Amazon, and a Kindle edition, will benefit a memorial scholarship fund set up in remembrance of his daughter, Ashley Lynne Busby. The first scholarships will be awarded this year to a boy and girl from Liberty High School with passions for the fine arts and sciences, which were Ashleys favorite subjects. We intend to give this scholarship for the rest of our lives and beyond in her memory and to keep her story alive, Busby said. The book details Busbys childhood, the trials of the teenage years and his service with the 10th Special Forces from Fort Carson. As a military intelligence chief warrant officer, he did three tours in Afghanistan and three in Iraq, as well as serving in Germany, before being forced to retire at age 38 because of medical problems. The memoir underscores the challenges facing many military veterans while providing a redeeming story about love and family, one reviewer wrote. Busby now is a fly-fishing guide and ambassador for Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, which physically and emotionally rehabilitates disabled active-duty military and veterans through fly-fishing and related activities. While Busby said he had been thinking for years about writing about his experiences, Ashleys suicide prompted him to realize the goal. The book includes a thoughtful tribute to Ashley, who struggled for years with depression and anxiety after being sexually assaulted at age 16, Busby said. We had a full team of doctors, a psychologist and therapist, he said. She had multiple attempts and spent time in multiple facilities. She had a loving family. Nothing was good enough in those last moments. A Colorado Springs murder suspect known as Devious escaped custody in Pueblo County last April by squeezing through the sliding window between the back and front seats of a Colorado State Patrol car and driving away through a crowd of officers. One trooper had to dive out of the way of the stolen patrol car as William Camacho Jr. made his getaway, prosecutors said Thursday. Camacho crashed minutes later, capping a high-speed pursuit that began April 25 when he fired shots at a different state trooper on Interstate 25 in southern El Paso County. The trooper wasnt hit. The escape was detailed Thursday at an evidentiary hearing in 4th Judicial District Court. Camacho, 35, had just been detained and was alone in the back of the car with his hands cuffed behind his back, authorities said. A dashboard camera captured clear footage as Camacho moved his handcuffs from behind his back to his front by sliding them over his feet. Then he shimmied through a small security window between the front and back seats. You can see him kick off from the back seat, Colorado Bureau of Investigation detective Julie Petterson testified in describing how the 5-foot, 9-inch, 146-pound Camacho wriggled through the opening. The video wasnt shown in court. At the hearings conclusion, a judge ordered that Camacho face trial not only for the attempted murder on suspicion of firing on a state trooper, but for a double-shooting three days earlier in Colorado Springs that killed 21-year-old Brandie Preciado and partially blinded her boyfriend, identified in court as Juan Brown Boy Banda-Dozal. (He) is so strung out on black tar heroin that his mind is blown, witness Martika Medina told police of Camachos unpredictable behavior. Medina was with Preciado and Banda-Dozel when Camacho allegedly opened fire April 22 at the Canyon Ridge Mobile Home Park in the 5100 block of Airport Road, west of Powers Boulevard, but wasnt hit. In a videotaped interview with police, Medina described a chaotic scene as Camacho fired into a parked silver Jeep in which she and the other two were sitting. The shooter unleashed at least 19 rounds in two volleys of gunfire, hitting Dozal, the front seat passenger, in the face, and pumping six rounds into Preciado in the drivers seat. I dont know why he didnt kill me, Medina said through sobs under questioning by Colorado Springs police detective Derek Graham. She said Camacho pulled up unexpectedly in a white car that parked nearby. He approached the Jeep on foot and asked Banda-Dozal to help him commit a burglary elsewhere in the trailer park. When Banda-Dozal refused, saying he had kids to worry about, Camacho opened fire, Medina said. A bullet entered one of Banda-Dozals eyes before exiting his jawbone, police said. Police were unable to interview him about the shooting. He was sedated or otherwise unavailable when a detective made several attempts to interview him at the hospital. After several weeks in treatment, he was discharged and hasnt been located since, police said. Camachos attorneys pointed out that Banda-Dozal had a 9 mm pistol in his lap, suggesting the shooting was in self-defense, a claim police discount. Preciado suffered at least three shots to the chest that would be fatal, El Paso County Chief Deputy Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly told the court. As prosecutors displayed pictures of Preciados naked body in court, pocked with wounds, Camacho looked on stone-faced from the defense table, stroking his goatee. Among those who took the stand on Thursday was Pueblo Police Capt. Charlie Taylor, who was off-duty when he witnessed a white car driving recklessly southbound on Interstate 25 approaching Pueblo County. As Taylor and the other car passed a Colorado State Patrol trooper engaged in a traffic stop on the side of the interstate, Taylor said he saw the driver stick a gun out his window and fire several rounds at the trooper, missing him. Taylor used his cellphone to call for help, summoning officers from the Pueblo County Sheriffs Office and the Colorado State Patrol, as the white cars speed reached an estimated 120 mph. Camacho was initially arrested north of Pueblo West after crashing his car and trying to run away. Taylor, who helped tackle the running man, said officers involved in the chase were all happy we got the guy when the car in which Camacho had been placed suddenly lurched to life and sped in the direction of trooper David Rooks, who had to dive out of the way to avoid being injured. At the conclusion of the hearing, 4th Judicial District Judge Eric Bentley ordered Camacho to trial on multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder for allegedly shooting at the trooper on the side of I-25. The judge, however, dismissed attempted murder charges related to Rooks, saying that testimony was too thin to establish that Camacho meant to run him down. The hearing didnt resolve why Camacho allegedly fired at trooper as he passed him on the interstate. A passenger in Camachos car later told police that Camacho fired without warning. Afterward, he explained he was wanted for murder and that he was probably going to prison anyhow, the witness told police. Camacho, who was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the crimes, was ordered held without bond pending trial. He is expected to be arraigned Oct. 5. Rock Ledge Ranch caretakers are pleading with visitors to cease feeding the animals after a horse was diagnosed Thursday with a potentially fatal ailment from being repeatedly fed inappropriately. YOU ARE KILLING THEM, says an all-caps post on the ranchs Facebook page, which describes colic as a stomach ache that can kill a horse. Kava, a mustang, is expected to recover. But two horses have died of colic at the historic site, 3105 Gateway Road, in the past 15 years, said Andy Morris, its parks operations administrator. Dan, a Belgian draft horse, died about 15 years ago. At that time, I wasnt sure what killed it I mean, we knew it was colic, but what caused it, we didnt know, Morris said. Then Duke, another Belgian, died of colic three or four years ago. I really felt that it was from people feeding him, Morris said. Signs are posted across the ranch telling people not to feed the horses including one with a diagram of a horses intestinal tract but visitors continue to ignore them, Morris said. Apples have been spotted alongside the horses fence, where there arent apple trees. In some cases, visitors become rude or angry when theyre told not to feed the horses, Morris said. It is kind of hard when people tend to think they know more about our horses than we do, Morris said. I mean, Ive been living either directly or indirectly with horses for over 30 years. I like horses, but I dont treat them like theyre pets. I treat them like an animal that I respect. The people feeding the horses likely dont mean to hurt them, Morris acknowledged. What I would like the takeaway to be is for folks to be educated about how youre loving them to death if you do that, he said. The ranch was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, the citys website says. It allows visitors to explore the lifestyles and homes of the Pikes Peak Regions early inhabitants, and features a working blacksmith shop and a barn with four horses. Joe Barrera, Ph.D., is the former director of the Ethnic Studies Program at UCCS, and a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close This is a video of two morons (one towing a U-Haul trailer) on I-65 North in Indianapolis, Indiana deciding to turn their case of road rage into a little bumper car action. Some more info while I speculate if this is actual footage of Florida Man's move to Indiana: "I noticed the two in front of me start exchanging words. I thought to myself, this is gonna get interesting, so I whipped out my phone to start recording. I heard the guy pulling the trailer had tried to run the jeep off the road a 1/2 mile back." It's amazing how crazy some people are. I don't care if someone does try to run me off the road, I'm not going to fight them with my car, I'm just going to go home and take it out on my liver like a normal person. I'm kidding, I'm going to remember their license plate number, find out where they live, and set their house on fire one night. Remember: revenge, just like blood-of-my-enemies ice cream, is a dish best served cold (PROTIP: serve in a chilled skull for extra pizzazz). Keep going for the whole vertical video. Thanks to Jerry Y, who agrees it's not worth it. We're sorry, you encountered a page that doesn't exist. English Lithuanian The Extraordinary General Meeting of Telia Lietuva, AB (code 121215434, registered address: Lvovo str. 25, Vilnius, Lithuania) Shareholders will be held in a room on the 23rd floor of Telia Lietuva, AB headquarters, Lvovo str. 25, Vilnius, Lithuania, at 10.00 on 9 November 2018. Registration will take place from 9.00 till 9.40. The meeting is convened by the initiative of the Board and following the decision of the Board adopted on 27 September 2018. The General Meeting of Shareholders accounting day is 2 November 2018. Proposed Agenda: 1. Election of the Companys Board member. Shareholders who at the end of the General Meeting of Shareholders accounting day, i.e. 2 November 2018, are shareholders of the Company will have a right to participate and vote at the General Meeting of Shareholders personally or by proxy, or to be represented by the person with whom an agreement on the transfer of voting rights is concluded. A person attending the General Meeting of Shareholders and having a voting right must bring with him/her a persons identification document. A person who is not a shareholder must additionally produce a document confirming his/her right to vote at the General Meeting of Shareholders. Each shareholder shall have a right, in the manner established by law, to authorise another (natural or legal) person on his/her behalf to attend and vote at the General Meeting of Shareholders. At the General Meeting of Shareholders, an authorised person shall have the same rights as would be held by the shareholder or shareholders represented by him/her, unless the authorized person's rights are limited by the power of attorney or by law. The authorised person must provide a power of attorney certified in the manner established by law. A power of attorney issued in a foreign state must be translated into Lithuanian and legalised in the manner established by law. The Company does not establish special form of power of attorney. A shareholder or a person authorised by him/her shall have a right to vote in writing in advance by filling in the General Voting Ballot. Upon a shareholder's request, the Company, not later than 10 days before the General Meeting, shall send the General Voting Ballot by registered mail free of charge. A sample of the General Voting Ballot is also provided on the Companys website at www.telia.lt under the heading Investors. The General Voting Ballot, duly filled in and signed by the shareholder or a person, having a voting right, and the document confirming the voting right (if any) must be submitted to the Company in writing not later than on the last business day before the General Meeting of Shareholders by sending them by registered mail to Telia Lietuva, AB, Lvovo str. 25, LT-03501 Vilnius, Lithuania, or by submitting them to the Company on a business day (to the aforementioned address). The Company is not providing the possibility to attend and vote at the General Meeting of Shareholders through electronic means of communication. A shareholder shall have the right to authorize another person (natural or legal) to participate and vote in the General Meeting of Shareholders on the shareholders behalf through electronic communication means. No notarisation of such authorization is required. The power of attorney issued through electronic communication means must be confirmed by the shareholder with a safe electronic signature developed by safe signature equipment and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Company on the power of attorney issued through the means of electronic communication by e-mail Giedre.Kaminskaite-Salters@telia.lt not later than on the last business day before the General Meeting of Shareholders. The power of attorney and notification shall be issued in writing. The power of attorney and notification to the Company shall be signed with the electronic signature but not letters sent via e-mail. Each shareholder holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes shall have the right of proposing to supplement the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders. Draft decisions on the proposed issues shall be submitted together with the proposal or, if the decisions do not need to be approved, explanations on each proposed issue of the General Meeting of Shareholders shall be presented. A proposal to supplement the agenda must be presented in writing by sending it by registered mail to Telia Lietuva, AB, Lvovo str. 25, LT-03501 Vilnius, Lithuania, or by e-mail Giedre.Kaminskaite-Salters@telia.lt, or by submitting it to the Company on the business days (to the before mentioned address). The agenda will be supplemented if the proposal is received not later than 14 days before the General Meeting of Shareholders. Each shareholder holding shares that grant at least 1/20 of all votes shall have the right of proposing draft resolutions on the issues already included or to be included in the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders, to nominate additional candidates to the Board. The proposed draft decisions at any time before the General Meeting of Shareholders must be presented in writing by sending them by registered mail to Telia Lietuva, AB, Lvovo str. 25, LT-03501 Vilnius, Lithuania, or by e-mail Giedre.Kaminskaite-Salters@telia.lt, or by submitting it to the Company on a business day (to the aforementioned address). The shareholders shall also be entitled to propose draft resolutions on the agenda issues of the General Meeting of Shareholders in writing during the Meeting. The shareholders shall have the right to present questions related to issues on the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders to the Company in advance in writing, by providing the shareholder's (natural or legal persons) personal identification number, the natural persons consent to process personal data personal identification number, in a letter sent by registered mail. The Company undertakes to respond if the questions are received not later than 3 business days before the General Meeting of Shareholders. Generic responses shall be posted on the Companys website www.telia.lt under the heading Investors. The Company will not respond personally to the shareholder if the respective information is posted on the Company's website. The shareholders could get familiarised with the documents possessed by the Company related to the agenda of the Meeting, including draft resolutions, and other documents to be submitted to the General Meeting of Shareholders as well as get information regarding execution of the shareholders rights at the headquarters of Telia Lietuva, AB, Lvovo str. 25, Vilnius, Lithuania, or on the Companys website at www.telia.lt under the heading Investors. The total number of the Companys shares and the number of shares granting voting rights during the General Meeting of Shareholders is the same and amounts to 582,613,138. ISIN code of the Companys shares is LT0000123911. Additional information is provided by tel.: +370 5 236 7878 and on the web site www.telia.lt. Darius Dziaugys, Head of Investor Relations, tel. +370 5 236 7878, darius.dziaugys@telia.lt English Lithuanian Vilnius, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On 25 September 2018, the Board of the Bank of Lithuania discussed the results of the inspection of Medicinos Bankas UAB for the period from 31 March 2017 to 31 March 2018 carried out by the Supervision Service and decided that no sanctions are to be imposed for the deficiencies found during the inspection. The operational deficiencies are to be eliminated by 31 December 2018. On 25 September 2018, the Board of the Bank of Lithuania also discussed the results of the supervisory review and evaluation process (SREP) of Medicinos Bankas UAB. Having examined the SREP report, the Board of the Bank of Lithuania decided that Medicinos Bankas should meet the following minimum own funds requirements: total first-level capital adequacy ratio of 9.2 percent and total capital adequacy ratio of 12.7 percent. Dublin, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe Smart Farming Market: Focus on Solutions (Hardware Systems, Software, Services) and Applications (Precision Crop Farming, Livestock Monitoring and Management, Indoor Farming and Aquaculture) - Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Farm productivity across Europe has been significantly increasing since the last decade. With the exponential growth of population, subsequent rise in demand for food, shrinking agricultural lands, and depletion of finite natural resources, the need to enhance farm yield has become critical. The increase in urban population in developing countries, such as Poland and Czech Republic with the enhancement of quality of living due to high income levels, and the demand for fresh crop produce and animal protein are boosting the demand for crop production. Limited availability of natural resources such as fresh water and arable land along with slowing yield trends in several staple crops has prompted growers and companies in the farming sector to introduce innovative and advanced smart farming techniques in order to enhance farm profitability. Europe farming industry has witnessed numerous revolutions over decades starting from the domestication of livestock and crops to the organized use of crop rotation using new farming techniques. This was followed by the large-scale usage of fertilizers and pesticide and systematic breeding called as the green revolution. Finally, with the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in farming since the last decade, farming industry has been witnessing another revolutionary phase. The integration of sensing systems into farming equipment has led to the generation of large amounts of data, which provides farmers with valuable insights to promote yield growth when analyzed by the farm management software. The agricultural machinery is aided with precise movement in the field by the incorporation of navigation systems. The high market growth is expected to be driven by the need to apply site-specific farming and variable rate application of raw materials and resources as per the requirement of high crop yield. Besides this, the deployment of automation and control systems to steer the application of agricultural inputs has become crucial to augment the growth of the market. In emerging countries, growth is expected to be driven by rising awareness among the governments of different countries about the need to elevate farm produce while taking care of the environment. The Europe smart farming market has also been strongly motivated by the substantial support of the government in terms of investments, favorable initiatives, and trade policies. The smart farming market encompasses a wide array of solutions such as hardware systems, software, and services. Hardware systems involve a system that combines the equipment supported by the software solutions. Additionally, these hardware systems comprise automation and control systems, sensing and navigation systems, and indoor farming equipment, among others. Software solutions consist of software apps, tools, and cloud services that are provided by the companies on a subscription basis. The services include integration & deployment of farm equipment, maintenance & support, and other services such as consultancy and financial services. Smart farming systems have applications which cover most of the farming types including precision crop farming, livestock monitoring and management, indoor farming, aquaculture, and others (forestry, orchids, etc.). The major countries in the region that have significant share in the smart farming market are Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, and Czech Republic. Among all the countries, Germany generated the highest revenue in 2017. The strong growth in the Germany market was largely due to the high rate of adoption of technologies by the agricultural producers in the country. The extensive R&D activities that take place in the country and the urgent need to improve production from the decreasing number of farms, consolidation of farms, and increasing livestock herd sizes further contributed to the growth of the market in the country. However, during the forecast period, countries such as Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland, and Spain are projected to display the fastest market growth. These countries present immense scope for market development owing to the increasing urban population size, growing market penetration of internet in farm management, and favorable government investments. The competitive landscape for the smart farming market demonstrates a trend in which companies are adopting strategies such as product launch & development and business expansions & contracts. Thus, the established players in the market are focusing on product launches and developments to introduce new technologies or to develop the existing product portfolio. Deere and Co., Trimble Inc., Hexagon Agriculture, Topcon Positioning Systems, GEA Farm Technologies, Lely, Afimilk Ltd., DeLaval, Motorleaf, Infarm, Phillips Lighting, Osram Licht AG, 365FarmNet, and AKVA Group are some of the prominent players in the Europe smart farming market. The key players operating in this market have ramped up their product launch activities over the recent years in order to generate public awareness about their existing as well as new products and technologies and to compete with the competitors' product portfolios. This has been the most widely-adopted strategy by the players in this market. For instance, in July 2017, Allflex introduced an innovative cow monitoring and intelligence system called the SenseTime. In May 2017, Osram announced the launch of Oslon Square Hyper Red LED for better plant growth with improved emission characteristics, higher optical output, and impressive corrosion resistance. Earlier in December 2016, Ag Leader Technology enhanced its AgFiniti cloud-based platform with the announcement of an Application Program Interface (API) that allows third-party farm management information systems (FMIS) to transfer files. Key Topics Covered: Executive Summary 1 Market Dynamics 1.1 Market Drivers 1.1.1 Increasing Farm Consolidation 1.1.2 Growing Market Penetration of Information and Communication Technologies in Farming 1.1.3 Rising Need for Climate Smart Farming 1.1.4 Increasing Dairy Farm Size 1.2 Market Restraints 1.2.1 High Initial Investment 1.2.2 Lack of Awareness and Infrastructure in Emerging Economies 1.3 Market Opportunities 1.3.1 Increasing Market Opportunities in Developing Countries 1.3.2 Increased Cloud Security 1.3.3 Impact of 3D Printing on Farming 1.3.4 Securing the Agriculture Value Chain with Blockchain 1.3.5 Data Management with Big Data 2 Competitive Landscape 2.1 Key Market Developments and Strategies 2.1.1 New Product Launches and Development 2.1.2 Business Expansion and Contracts 2.1.3 Partnerships, Collaborations, and Joint Ventures 2.1.4 Mergers and Acquisitions 2.1.5 Others (Awards and Recognitions) 2.2 Market Share Analysis 2.2.1 Share Analysis of Leading Players in the Europe Precision Crop Farming Market 2.2.2 Share Analysis of Leading Players in Europe Livestock Monitoring and Management Market 3 Industry Analysis 3.1 Industry Attractiveness 3.1.1 Threat of New Entrants 3.1.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 3.1.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 3.1.4 Threat from Substitutes 3.1.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry 3.2 Agricultural Robots - Emerging Trend in Smart Farming Overview 3.2.1 Types of Agricultural Robots for Smart Farming 3.2.1.1 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)/Drones 3.2.1.2 Milking Robots 3.2.1.3 Harvesting and Picking Robots 3.2.1.4 Others 3.2.2 Applications of Agricultural Robots for Smart Farming 3.2.2.1 Crop Management 3.2.2.2 Dairy Farm Management 3.2.2.3 Soil Management 3.2.2.4 Irrigation Management 3.2.2.5 Others 3.2.3 Driverless Tractors - Upcoming Agricultural Robot Type 4 Europe Smart Farming Market (by Solution) 4.1 Assumptions and Limitations for Analysis and Forecast of the Europe Smart Farming Market 4.2 Market Overview 4.2.1 Hardware Systems 4.2.1.1 Automation and Control Systems 4.2.1.1.1 Displays/Yield Monitors 4.2.1.1.2 Flow and Application Rate Control Valves 4.2.1.1.3 Handheld Computers/Mobile Devices 4.2.1.1.4 Agricultural Cameras 4.2.1.1.5 Others 4.2.1.2 Sensing and Navigation Systems 4.2.1.2.1 Sensing Systems 4.2.1.2.2 GPS/GNSS Systems 4.2.1.2.3 Guidance and Steering Systems 4.2.1.2.4 RFID Tags and Readers 4.2.1.3 Indoor Farming Equipment 4.2.1.3.1 Climate Control Systems 4.2.1.3.2 LED Grow Lights 4.2.1.3.3 Others 4.2.1.4 Other Hardware Systems 4.2.2 Software 4.2.2.1 On-Cloud Delivery Model 4.2.2.2 On-Premise Delivery Model 4.2.3 Services 4.2.3.1 Integration and Deployment 4.2.3.2 Maintenance and Support 4.2.3.3 Other Services 5 Europe Smart Farming Market (by Application) 5.1 Precision Crop Farming 5.2 Livestock Monitoring and Management 5.3 Indoor Farming 5.4 Aquaculture 5.5 Others 6 Europe Smart Farming Market (by Country) 6.1 Germany 6.2 The U.K. 6.3 France 6.4 Italy 6.5 Spain 6.6 The Netherlands 6.7 Poland 6.8 Czech Republic 6.9 Rest-of-Europe 7 Company Profiles 7.1 AGCO Corporation 7.2 CNH Industrial 7.3 Deere and Company 7.4 Hexagon Agriculture 7.5 Topcon Positioning Systems 7.6 Trimble Inc. Livestock Monitoring and Management 7.7 Dairymaster 7.8 DeLaval 7.9 Fullwood Ltd. 7.10 Lely S.a.r.l Indoor Farming 7.11 Osram Licht AG 7.12 Philips Lighting 7.13 Evergreen Farm Oy Aquaculture 7.14 AKVA Group ASA 7.15 Integrated Information Systems S.A. 8 Research Scope and Methodology 8.1 Report Scope 8.2 Europe Smart Farming Market Research Methodology 9 Annexure A: List of Key Strategies and Developments (April 2015-April 2018) For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/8nd8gm/europe_smart?w=12 SHERMAN OAKS, CA, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE - Petroteq Energy Inc. ("Petroteq" or the "Company") (TSXV: PQE; OTC: PQEFF; FSE: A2DYWC), a fully integrated oil and gas company, today announced that management is scheduled to present at The MicroCap Conference in New York City. The conference is being held on October 1-2, 2018 at the JW Marriott Essex House. Event: The MicroCap Conference Date: Monday, October 1, 2018 Time: 9:00 am ET Location: Track 4 at JW Marriott Essex House 160 Central Park S, New York, NY Mr. David Sealock, Chief Executive Officer of Petroteq, will be presenting the corporate overview and discussing the Company's recent highlights. Petroteq was recently featured in The New York Times, in an article by Clifford Krauss, titled, A Plan to Unlock Billions of Barrels of Oil From Utah's Sands . Mr. Sealock will be available for one-on-one meetings with registered investors during the conference. The MicroCap Conference is an exclusive event dedicated to connecting small and micro-cap companies with high-level, institutional and retail investors. The MicroCap Conference will highlight the most attractive companies across various sectors. The MicroCap Conference will be bringing up to 150 companies in addition to expert panels and speakers to present to the audience. 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.energy and 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: the facility going into production; the production capacity being 1,000 bod; the Company increasing its acreage; and the Company successfully developing block chain technology for the oil and gas industry and the anticipated benefits of such technology, 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 Companys 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: including that Petroteqs extraction technology produces as expected, starting with 1,000/bod at its existing plant; the Company having the funds (through cash flow or financing) to fund the expansion of its plant as projected; 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 Companys 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. Petroteqs proprietary solvent based extraction technology is unproven to produce on a commercial basis 1,000/bpd. Commercial production of 1,000/bpd at its existing plant is unproven and expansion at the existing plant or a new larger plant is subject to financing, development and testing to prove it is achievable and commercial. Certain of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companys 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 Companys properties; since the Companys extraction technology is proprietary, not widely used in the industry, and has not been used in consistent commercial production, the Companys bitumen resources are classified as a contingent resource, because they are not currently considered to be commercially recoverable; full scale commercial production may engender public opposition; the Company cannot be certain that the bitumen resources will be economically producible and thus cannot be classified as proved or probable reserves in accordance with applicable securities laws; 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 Companys oil sands hydrocarbon extraction technology, and other proprietary technologies developed or licensed by the Company or its subsidiaries, 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 to maintain its mineral lease holdings; potential failure of the Companys 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 Companys 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. 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. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Torino Power Solutions Inc. (CSE: TPS) (Frankfurt: A143TE) (the Company or Torino), as part of its continuous technology development efforts, is pleased to announce that its engineers over the past month have further enhanced design features for manufacturing its Power Line Monitoring sensor system (PLM), reducing costs of production and improving reliability at the same time. Highlights: Engineers have developed a new thermal contact insulator that can be made of silicon cast, replacing the PTFE machined part used before. This will reduce the cost of production of this component by a factor of almost 20 times. The previous insulator was one of the more expensive components of the sensor; Software engineers have made significant changes to the PLM system database architecture and interoperability to improve integration with Internet of Things (IOT) platforms. Real-time power line temperature data produced by Torino sensors, used for dynamic line ratings, will be easier to access via the web, reducing the need for middle-ware. Torinos web-based data console, for utility asset managers, now updates 10 times faster. Furthermore, changes to the database architecture will allow for enhanced control of interrogators in the field; The Company has reduced cost of production to the sensor clamping mechanism by a factor of 10 times by moving to a die cast process. The Company also updates that it has been working with a U.K. based engineering firm that has existing business and projects in the Iraqi market. Torino was approached regarding its PLM temperature sensors and in the last few months, the UK engineering firm has introduced the PLM to three transmission operators in various regions of Iraq. Furthermore, the Company has been advised that its upcoming installation in Connecticut is expected to take place in October following the installation of a new power pole at the target site. Rav Mlait, CEO stated, Were excited with these significant strides in improving Torinos IOT sensor technology for utilities. This includes reducing the cost of production of key components. About TPS Torinos real-time Power Line Monitoring system for electrical power transmission and distribution (T&D) grids is seen as a critical component for the digital transformation of the electrician grid. T&D infrastructure is in urgent need of expansion and upgrading due to increasing population, growing loads (due to renewable energy sources like wind and solar) and aging equipment. Utilities globally are investing in new technology to improve grid performance and reduce cost for their customers. Torinos patented microwave cavity sensor technology delivers real time measurements that allow for closed loop Dynamic Line Rating leading to increased transmission capacity, improved grid resiliency, lower energy costs and bottleneck elimination. Torino PLM creates real-time situational awareness that will help prolong the life of powerline assets and help with the management of future distribution networks that are expected to host high concentrations of distributed energy resources which include distributed generation, renewable energy sources, local storage systems and flexible loads. Please visit www.torinopower.com for more information. We seek Safe Harbor. On behalf of the Board of Directors Rav Mlait CEO and Director Torino Power Solutions Inc. For further information, contact at info@torinopower.com The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company, such as final development of a commercial product(s), successful trial or pilot of company technologies, no assurance that commercial sales of any kind actually materialize; no assurance the Company will have sufficient funds to complete product development. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and the Companys plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information, including: (1) adverse market conditions; (2) risks regarding protection of proprietary technology; (3) the ability of the Company to complete financings; (4) the ability of the Company to develop and market its future product; and (5) risks regarding government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, the effect of adverse publicity, litigation, competition and other factors which may be identified from time to time in the Company's public announcements and filings. There is no assurance that the DTCR business will provide any benefit to the Company, and no assurance that any proposed new products will be built or proceed. There is no assurance that existing patent pending technologies licensed by the Company will receive patent status by regulatory authorities. The Company is not currently selling commercial DTCR systems. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. Hi jcochrane,Im glad you reached out, and Im happy to help. First of all, given that you studied for only a few weeks, 680 with a Q49 is a pretty awesome score. Since you scored a V34, I agree that you should primarily focus your efforts on verbal, with a little quant mixed in. If you can score 38+ on verbal and keep quant at a 49, you will score above 700. That being said, I recommend that you push your exam to a later date, so you have more than two weeks to study.Regarding how to improve your verbal score, try your best (despite using only free resources) to learn linearly, such that you can slowly build mastery of one GMAT topic prior to moving on to the next. For example, lets say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual Critical Reasoning topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each Critical Reasoning question type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.When practicing Reading Comprehension, you need to develop a reading strategy that is both efficient and thorough. Reading too fast and not understanding what you have read are equally as harmful as reading too slow and using up too much time. When attacking Reading Comprehension passages, you must have one clear goal in mind: to understand the context of what you are reading. However, you must do so efficiently, so you need to avoid getting bogged down in the details of each paragraph and instead focus on understanding the main point of each paragraph. That being said, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just read the intro and the conclusion and thereby comprehend the main idea of a paragraph. As you read a paragraph, consider how the context of the paragraph relates to previous paragraphs, so you can continue developing your overall understanding of the passage. Furthermore, as you practice Reading Comprehension, focus on the exact types of questions with which you struggle: Find the Main Idea, Inference, Authors Tone, etc. As with Critical Reasoning, analyze your incorrect Reading Comprehension answers to better determine why you tend to get a particular question type wrong, and then improve upon your weaknesses. You can perfect your reading strategy with a lot of practice, but keep in mind that GMAT Reading Comprehension passages are not meant to be easy to read. So, to better prepare yourself to tackle such passages, read magazines with similar content and style, such as the Economist, Scientific American, and Smithsonian.Sentence Correction is a bit of a different animal compared to Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. There are three aspects to getting correct answers to GMAT Sentence Correction questions: what you know, such as grammar rules, what you see, such as violations of grammar rules and the logic of sentence structure, and what you do, such as carefully considering each answer choice in the context of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. To drive up your Sentence Correction score, it is likely that you will have to work on all three of those aspects, and it is also likely that your Sentence Correction performance has not improved because you have not been working on all three of those aspects.Regarding what you know, first and foremost, you MUST know your grammar rules. Let's be clear, though: GMAT Sentence Correction is not really a test of knowledge of grammar rules. The reason for learning the grammar rules is so that you can determine what sentences convey and whether sentences are well-constructed. In fact, in many cases, incorrect answers to Sentence Correction questions are grammatically flawless. Thus, often your task is to use your knowledge of grammar rules to determine which answer choice creates the most logical sentence meaning and structure.This determination of whether sentences are well-constructed and logical is the second aspect of finding correct answers to Sentence Correction questions, what you see. Likely, the main reason that Sentence Correction has not "clicked" for you is that you have not put enough work into developing your skill in seeing what is going on in the various versions of the sentence that the answer choices create. To develop this skill, you probably have to slow way down. You won't develop this skill by spending under two minutes per question. For a while, anyway, you have to spend time with each question, maybe even ten or fifteen minutes on one question sometimes, analyzing every answer choice until you see the details that you have to see in order to choose the correct answer. As you go through the answer choices, consider the meaning conveyed by each version of the sentence. Does the meaning make sense? Even if you can tell what the version is SUPPOSED to convey, does the version really convey that meaning? Is there a verb to go with the subject? Do all pronouns clearly refer to nouns? By slowing way down and looking for these details, you learn to see what you have to see in order to clearly understand which answer to a Sentence Correction question is correct.There is only one correct answer to any Sentence Correction question, there are clear reasons why that choice is correct and the others are not, and those reasons are not that the correct version simply "sounds right." In fact, the correct version often sounds a little off at first. That correct answers may sound a little off is not surprising. If the correct answer were always the one that sounded right, then most people most of the time would get Sentence Correction questions correct, without really knowing why the wrong answers were wrong and the correct answers were correct. So, you have to go beyond choosing what "sounds right" and learn to clearly see the logical reasons why one choice is better than all of the others.As for the third aspect of getting Sentence Correction questions correct, what you do, the main thing you have to do is be very careful. You have to make sure that you are truly considering the structures of sentences and the meanings conveyed rather than allowing yourself to be tricked into choosing trap answers that sound right but don't convey meanings that make sense. You also have to make sure that you put some real energy into finding the correct answers. Finding the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question may take bouncing from choice to choice repeatedly until you start to see the differences between the choices that make all choices wrong except for one. Often, when you first look at the choices, only one or two seem obviously incorrect. It may take time for you to see what you have to see. Getting the right answers takes a certain work ethic. You have to be determined to see the differences and to figure out the precise reasons that one choice is correct.To improve what you do when you answer Sentence Correction questions, seek to become aware of how you are going about answering them. Are you being careful and looking for logic and details, or are you quickly eliminating choices that sound a little off, and then choosing the best of the rest? If you choose an incorrect answer, consider what you did that resulted in your arriving at that answer and what you could do differently in order to arrive at correct answers more consistently. Furthermore, see how many questions you can get correct in a row as you practice. If you break your streak by missing one, consider what you could have done differently to extend your streak.As with your Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension regimens, after learning a particular Sentence Correction topic, engage in focused practice with 30 questions or more that involve that topic. As your Sentence Correction skills improve, you will then want to practice with questions that test you on skills from multiple Sentence Correction topics.For quant, you can follow a similar, albeit a bit more streamlined, process (since you are looking to score a Q50+). For example, if you are reviewing Number Properties, be sure that you practice 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills.Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see and types that you would rather not see, and types of questions that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.Once again, I realize that you are only able to use free resources, so in addition to practicing quant and verbal questions here on GMAT Club, take advantage of some free or low-cost trials of paid resources.You also may find my article with more information regarding how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.Lastly, thanks for sharing your story. Sounds like you have really come a long way, and Im pulling for you!If you need any further advice, feel free to contact me directly.Lets do this!!_________________ 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 U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) says he has deep reservations about President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and will vote against him. The Hoosier Democrat, who faces a tough re-election bid, is seen as a key swing vote in the nomination fight. Read Joe's statement on the Kavanaugh nomination: pic.twitter.com/JvjTOKEDyF Senator Joe Donnelly (@SenDonnelly) September 28, 2018 Dr. Christine Blasey Ford says Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. And she testified Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the incident. Kavanaugh strenuously denies the allegation. And he accused Democrats of an orchestrated political hit as revenge for the Clintons. Republicans denied requests for an FBI investigation into the allegations. And Donnelly says because of that, he doesnt have enough information to vote for Kavanaugh. Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics Director Andrew Downs says thats not a surprise. There probably are a fair number of moderate Republicans who after what they saw yesterday and the accusations might have been a little unsure of whether they wanted to support Brett Kavanaugh as well," Downs says. "So, I think from an electoral standpoint, this was probably a pretty good decision for him. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said in a statement Thursday he plans to confirm him. "I believe Judge Kavanaugh was truthful under oath during [Thursday's] hearing, and I trust the statements of teh witnesses named by Dr. Ford who said under penalty of felony that they have no recollection of the alleged incident," Young said. "I remain convinced that Judge Kavanaugh is a man of integrity who will be an excellent addition to the Supreme Court." Republican challenger Mike Braun calls Donnellys decision a grave mistake. Over the past year, sexual assault has become a national conversation in light of the #MeToo movement and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearing. Kavanaugh is facing allegations of sexual assault from a California professor. Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday as the U.S. Senate prepared to vote on Kavanaughs nomination. Indiana Republican Attorney General Curtis Hill is also facing accusations that he groped four women earlier this year. An investigation into the allegations is ongoing. The Washington Post reports that the National Sexual Assault Hotline through the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network saw increased phone calls Thursday during Kavanaughs hearing. Hoosiers who have experienced sexual assault or harassment have access to a variety of local and statewide programs. Statewide: Monroe County: Indiana University: Ivy Tech University students have access to the Prevent Sexual Violence program. The Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault also has a list of resources organized by county. While the article did not dispute the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency that have determined Iran to be in compliance with the terms of the erstwhile seven-party agreement, it pointed instead to Tehrans more longstanding and arguably more important commitments with regard to international human rights conventions and universal standards of behavior in international relations. The editorial focused primarily upon the hostage-taking of Western nationals by Iranian security forces, and it noted that the wife of one such hostage, Princeton University graduate student Xiyue Wang, has sent six letters to Irans mission to the UN since 2016, only to have all inquiries ignored. The articles author, Eli Lake, suggests that this is indicative of an Iranian policy that was also on prominent display during Rouhanis address to the UN General Assembly, in which he spoke at length about the nuclear deal but declined to engage with the world community over issues of hostage taking, human rights abuses, or interference into the affairs of surrounding nations. But the Bloomberg piece did not limit its criticisms to Rouhani or to the Iranian regime more generally. Instead, it noted that while Rouhanis penchant for distraction was unsurprising, it was slightly more surprising that the Europeans would rather talk about the nuclear deal, too. Presently, more than half a dozen Western nationals are known to be in Iranian custody on the basis of unsubstantiated charges of espionage. And to Lake and other critics of European policy, the ongoing emphasis on the nuclear deal is seen as potentially being very detrimental to their cases. According to Reuters, British Prime Minister Theresa May held a private meeting with Rouhani on Tuesday against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly and later reported to the press that she had used the opportunity to lobby for the release of the Iranian-British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested just before returning home from a family visit with her then-two-year-old daughter more than two years ago. But it is unclear whether Mays entreaties to Rouhani would rise to the level of anything more than what the Lake editorial disregarded as boilerplate condemnations subordinated to dialogue over the nuclear deal. Regardless of the answer to this question, the British governments activity on behalf of its own detained citizen is certainly not representative of broader European policies regarding unlawful detentions and other Iranian human rights issues, especially considering that the United Kingdom is in the process of extricating itself from the European Union. Meanwhile, for its part, the EU has taken the unusual step of announcing its intention to establish a payment system that would facilitate transactions with the Islamic Republic while circumventing the US dollar and thus, in theory, evading US sanctions. Lake describes such measures as giving tacit permission to the Iranian regime for hostage-taking as well as other malign behaviors, as long as it doesnt resume full-scale enrichment of uranium. But for the US, such limited restraints on the regimes behavior are uniquely unsatisfactory. Accordingly, US President Donald Trump justified his withdrawal from the nuclear agreement largely on the basis of its failure to promote moderation in the Iranian government or to enforce limits on the regimes ballistic missile development, regional interference, and so on. This position was underscored on Tuesday when White House National Security Advisor John Bolton spoke at the United Against Nuclear Iran Summit. His remarks included a blanket warning to Irans murderous regime regarding the various behaviors that have been targeted for change by way of a pressure-based US policy. It is a policy for which the Trump administration has sought broader international support this week in the context of the UN General Assembly and a US-chaired meeting of the UN Security Council, which was formally focused on the Middle East and informally targeted the Iranian regime in particular. UPI quoted Bolton as addressing Iran via the UANI Summit and saying, Let my message today be clear: We are watching, and we will come after you. He did not elaborate upon the action that the US would take in the event of further Iranian misbehavior, but the Trump administration has repeatedly insisted that it is not pursuing regime change but is instead relying upon sanctions and other forms of pressure to force comprehensive changes in conduct. However, White House officials including the president have also expressed support for ongoing Iranian protests that some observers believe could transform into a new revolution, and Bolton himself is close to the leading advocates of this outcome and a major contributor to the current protest movement, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran. Crucially, the UPI report specified that Boltons list of warnings for the Iranian government included warning against harm to Western nationals, the very issue that the Bloomberg article considers European countries to be neglecting. But this is not to say that the Trump administration has remained above reproach in the minds of all critics of the Iranian regime and traditional Western policies toward it. In fact, The Hill published an article on Tuesday that criticized both the US and Europe for a mutual failure to focus on broader Iranian human rights issues. The article described those issues as the clerical regimes Achilles heel, insofar as they have gone a long way toward fueling the anti-government demonstrations that effectively began with a nationwide mass uprising in December and January. A lack of focus on Irans domestic human rights may be a particularly apt focus for criticism of US policy specifically in light of the Trump administrations apparent support for those protests and for the underlying Resistance movement. Nevertheless, in his article for The Hill, Alan Goldsmith expressed agreement that European countries have fallen shorter than the US when it comes to exerting pressure on appropriate areas of Iranian policy and conduct. He pointed out for instance, that unlike the US, the EU has not passed a single new sanction against Iranian individuals or entities since the signing of the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, and has all but ignored the widespread Iranian protests over the past several months. But the article cited these features of European policy to underscore that greater emphasis on human rights issues by the White House could be a powerful tool for leadership and consensus building in the area of multilateral Iran policy. Though our European allies disagree vehemently with us on the nuclear deal, Goldsmith wrote, they cannot defend their relative inaction in tackling Irans oppression of its own people. Of course, few critics of the Islamic Republic would advise that the US focus on such issues to the exclusion of those that it has already made a centerpiece of its pressure-based Iran strategy. But the White House and the US Congress have both taken significant actions in those other areas, with relatively little backing from their traditional allies. Another article in The Hill pointed to two new congressional actions that stand to make more of Irans regional proxy forces subject to sanctions, thereby addressing threats to Western security as well as avenues for Iran-backed human rights abuses against other peoples of the region. The article recommends that US policy in the region go hard against these militias. That advice is presumably extended to the nations of Europe as well, but in line with Goldsmiths arguments, such advice may ultimately be better received if it is put in the context of a shared commitment to the defense of universal human rights principles, without particular regard for other political considerations. Importers dont wish to risk the U.S. sanctions that are going into effect early in November, which will be imposed on any business transactions made with Iranian companies using the the SWIFT payment system. At a time when fuel prices for consumers are already at multiyear highs, India will be cut off from the source of about one-seventh of its oil imports. However, the European Unions foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, has presented a solution to this problem. On Tuesday, at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, with her Iranian counterpart by her side, she announced plans to set up a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) enabling EU states, China and Russia to continue trading with Iran under the scope of the 2015 deal, without being caught up by U.S. secondary sanctions. She added that in time, the mechanism could be extended to other countries. However, according to the International Trade Center, India had a bilateral deficit of about $8.5 billion with Iran in 2017. Therefore, Tehran would need to sell its oil on credit, even if an EU-style Special-Purpose Vehicle was set up. The EUs SPV is essentially short-term issue. Iran gets paid back when it receives goods from the other direction. But with India, switching the existing relationship into a different currency would necessitate economically strapped Iran extending ever-increasing amounts of credit. While there may well be ways around this, obeying the sanctions should be encouraged as the price needed to stop the Iranian Regime. As well, for years New Delhi and Tehran have been stumbling over plans to develop a new port at Chabahar close to Irans border with Pakistan. As China has shown with its own investments in Pakistan, giant infrastructure projects can be a good way of spending billions. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, that Irans oil tankers also are switching off their transponders and disappearing from satellite tracking systems, perhaps as way to continue shipping under the radar. Fuel prices may continue to rise. This is an issued that has weakened prospects for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in elections due next year. While India wants to promote the its services-led development model, they are dependent on importing crude from a sanctions-threatened country. Still, doing business with Iran not only risks sanctions by the US, but fuels Irans export of terrorism. Intelligence officials said, We do face a threat due of the existence of sleeper cells directed by Iran and/or Hezbollah within the US. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Irans special operations Quds Force, recently posted a controversial image to his Instagram account that shows him holding a walkie-talkie while the White House is engulfed in flames behind him. It is captioned, We will crush the USA under our feet. As long as it can maintain plausible deniability, the regime learned 35 years ago that selectively attacking U.S. targets can work in its favor, with the bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, committed by Iranian agents and possibly approved at the top levels of the Iranian government. The attack killed more than 300 people, but the US had no immediate evidence of state involvement, and ultimately chose to withdraw its forces from the city. Much of Irans future uses of terrorism were informed by this incident. But Irans involvement in the 1996 Khobar Towers attack, which killed 19 U.S. service members and injured nearly 500, damaged its relationship with other Gulf states, as well as its diplomatic standing around the world. As well, Irans relationship with European countries was threatened by the findings by a German court that Iranian agents were behind the 1992 assassination of Kurdish leaders in Berlin. So, Iran began using more furtive forms of terror sponsorship, and halted open support for terrorist groups. Still, Iran continues to be cited as the worlds leading sponsor of terrorism, due to its financial and logistical assistance to Hezbollah, Palestinian terrorist groups, and other organizations throughout the Middle East. Iran not likely support an overt attack against the US. However, if an attack that disguised Irans responsibility may be an attractive option. Research reveals that states may support terrorist attacks when: 1.) They are in a particularly adversarial relationship 2.) When they are weak relative to their adversary. The relationship between the U.S and Iran is more adversarial than ever, with the abandonment of the Iran nuclear deal and the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions. Since the end of 2017, the largest public protests against the Iranian regime have been raging in the country, with the sanctions only fueling this dissent. Iran is weaker than it has been in some time. The Iranian regime is in an increasingly dire situation. If it believes that the US is to blame, then it may be backed into becoming convinced that an attack against the US would outweigh the costs. A US retaliation would actually benefit the regime because the average Iranians focus would shift to external enemies. It is therefore concerning that Iran blamed the US for last weeks attack against its military parade and promised a swift response. - Actress Maja Salvador posted a cryptic message on social media - Some netizens claimed that it was her response to the issue involving her, Angelica, and Carlo - She expressed that she doesnt care about the opinion of other people PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Kapamilya actress Maja Salvador posted a message on social media that netizens described as her stand on the issue of Angelica Panganiban and Carlo Aquino before. KAMI learned that the promising actress was tagged as the third party behind the breakup of Angelica and Carlo several years ago. This was revealed during the guesting of the Exes Baggage stars in one of the Sunday episodes of Gandang Gabi Vice. Angelica claimed that she and Carlo broke up twice because of third party involving Maja. Although Carlo made it clear that he and his former long-time girlfriend already separated before he pursued Maja, other netizens still blame the former Wildflower star for CarGel breakup. In one of Majas Instagram posts, it appeared that she doesnt care about what other people would brand her. In the midst of reawakened past controversy involving her, Angelica, and Carlo, the actress hinted that she just sets aside the opinion and judgment of others. She wrote, Things I Sway: My Hips And Your Opinion. Maja has yet to release an official statement to defend her side on the allegations thrown against her. 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! However, her fans are already eager to support the actress as they posted some comments regarding the issue. Here are a few: Hi, Maja! Kagaya nga ng madalas mong sabihin sa mga interviews, hindi ka takot sa mga paninira sayo dahil kilala mo naman ang sarili mo at sapat na iyon para maging matatag ka Stay strong! Laging ikaw na lang ang pinag iinitan nila. Di mo kasalanan na may mainlove sayo at ikaw din ang magmahal. Unbothered. Indestructible. Slay it queen. Nobody can put a good woman down In a previous article by , Angelica gave further details on the third party issue between her and Carlo more than a decade ago. Maja, or Maja Ross Andres Salvador in real life, was born on October 5, 1988. She is a Filipina actress, dancer, and model who is dubbed as the Dance Princess of ABS-CBN. POPULAR: Read more news about Maja Salvador! 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 following is an American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia press release. The American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia (AmCham) is the leading business association in the country with more than 120 members from all business segments. Through advocacy efforts in various areas AmCham promotes a healthy business and investment environment in Armenia for all sectors of the economy its members represent. AmCham believes that sustainable businesses, which are closely connected to healthy economic, social and environmental systems, can create economic value and contribute to healthy ecosystems and strong communities. In this respect, AmCham welcomed the Governments announced commitment to promote responsible practices and international standards in the mining sector in Armenia. AmCham believes that responsible mining, based on ICMM, IFC, EBRD and other internationally recognized standards and frameworks, can be a viable part of the Armenian economy. As stated before, we believe that AmCham members like Lydian Armenia, which counts EBRD among its shareholders, already comply with these standards. Moreover, AmCham welcomes the protection of biodiversity and expects all member companies to comply with the law. While AmCham welcomes professional and impartial audits in the mining sector, the developments of the last few months have raised some concerns. While the head of the State Inspection of Environment and Mining claimed new ecological factors and publicly called to halt the project, the Minister of Environmental Protection refuted those findings. We consider it of utmost importance to ensure that such premature statements that are not based on sound scientific data do not send controversial messages to the market. AmCham also regrets that the roads to Amulsar remain blocked for more than three months and Lydian Armenia is deprived of its legal right to operate. While concerns around the industry are understandable, AmCham expects that these concerns be addressed through legal means and in a fair and professional manner. We also expect to see standards be applied equally and fairly to all players in the industry. As a business organization, AmCham looks forward to seeing a viable, responsible and sustainable mining sector in Armenia. In this regard a level playing field and the transparent, predictable and non-discriminatory application of the law are vital. Compton Colleges Transfer Fair and College Night on October 4 Will Bring More Than 30 Universities to Campus Compton Colleges annual Transfer Fair and College Night encourages students of all ages to plan for the next step in their educational journey by introducing them to a variety of colleges and universities. Representatives from more than 30 private and public colleges and universities will be at Compton College in the Tartar Quad on October 4 to share information about their respective programs with students. The free event is open to the public and offers attendees a great opportunity to network and learn about what the different colleges and universities offer students. This years event will kick off with the Transfer Fair from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Compton College students are encouraged to walk from table to table gathering information and meeting with college/university representatives, making it a one-stop-shop for students looking to transfer. From 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. in the Transfer Center (D-27), there will be a presentation about the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Transfer Guarantee program. In 2015, the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office established the guaranteed transfer agreement with the HBCUs. The agreement makes it easier for students to transfer from a California Community College to one of 37 participating HBCUs. In addition to guaranteed admission, the HBCU Transfer Guarantee program offers priority registration, priority consideration for housing, consideration for transfer scholarships for students with a 3.2 or higher GPA, and preadmission advising. Stud ents must complete the general education requirements for the University of California system or the California State University system and earn an associate degree (60 units) with a 2.5 or higher Grade Point Average (GPA) to be eligible for guaranteed admission with junior status to participating HBCUs. Students may also transfer with 30 or more California State or University of California transferable units and a 2.5 or higher GPA. While HBCUs were originally established to primarily serve the higher education needs of the black community, they are open to all students who wish to apply. According to a study by the University of Pennsylvanias Graduate School of Education, the proportion of Latino enrollment at HBCUs has increased in the last 30 years, especially in regions of the country where the Latino population is growing rapidly. For High School Students and Parents College Night will take place from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Compton College invites local high school students, as well as their parents, to campus to visit with the participating colleges and universities. This event is a collaborative effort to support high school students in their choice to pursue success in higher education and increase local college enrollment rates. Its never too early for high school seniors to begin thinking about college enrollment. Compton College staff will be on hand to discuss and answer questions about the application and registration process for summer and fall 2019. Participants will include representatives from University of California and California State University campuses, as well as member institutions from the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU). For more information, please contact Compton Colleges Transfer Center at 310-900-1600, Ext. 2764. About Compton College Compton College is the communitys education solution offering a full complement of transfer and degree courses, as well as career and technical education. Students may earn an associate degree or certificate, transfer to a four-year university or train for a career. Compton College is located at 1111 E. Artesia Boulevard, Compton, CA 90221. ADVERTISEMENT LACC Hosted Screening of Emmy Award-Winning Actress/Director Cady McClains Seeing is Believing: Women Direct On Monday, September 24, Los Angeles City College (LACC) hosted a screening of two-time Emmy Award winning actress and Emmy nominated director Cady McClains new documentary Seeing is Believing: Women Direct for students and members of Women in Media.. Directly following the screening was a panel discussion moderated by Tema Staig of Women in Media and featured Li Lu (There is a New World Somewhere), Julia Verdin (2 Jacks), and Skye Borgman (Abducted. In Plain Sight). Seeing Is Believing: Women Direct is a documentary film which emphasizes the opportunity for women to use their voice through media to change the social and political landscape and achieve full equality. Focusing on inspiring and uplifting young female storytellers through the mentorship and leadership of four diverse directors, Seeing is Believing: Women Direct opens the conversation up to ask What is the broader role of storytelling in our society and how can women use filmed media as a unique opportunity to catalyze progress? The film is additionally bolstered by important insights from male and female-identifying filmmakers to show how collaboration, rather than oppression, can incentivize all genders to connect to our shared human experience. Featuring Lesli Linka Glatter (EP/Director Homeland), Sarah Gavron (Director: Suffragette, Brick Lane), Li Lu (There is a New World Somewhere) and Naima Ramos-Chapman (Director HBOs Random Acts of Flyness).www.seeingisbelievingwomendirect.com ADVERTISEMENT Lost and Feared Stolen: $104 Million in Fresh Currency Bound for Liberia The alleged theft of shipping containers loaded with new Liberian currency would be comical if it were a movie but is heartbreaking to Liberian citizens struggling to get by in a poor country. It was also a reminder that the promises of new president George Weah to stamp out corruption are far from being fulfilled. The shipping containers held $104 million (U.S.) and had departed from Sweden where the currency is printed. Some say the money never arrived. Some say it arrived but was never recorded. ADVERTISEMENT Justice Minister Frank Musah Dean cleared the current administration. Initial findings indicate that the containers and bags of money allegedly arrived between November 2017, prior to the inauguration of the current government, and August 2018. Liberian Information Minister Nagabe suggested it was stolen while Finance Minister Samuel Tweh denied money was even missing. Im saying there is no missing money, Tweh insisted on local radio. No one is looking for billions of [Liberian] dollars. The reported theft of an astronomical amount of money has dominated talk radio, Facebook groups, social media and this week triggered a citizen protest under the banner Bring back our money! The humiliating scandal followed President Weah to the U.N. where he is attending the General Assembly. Still, he was able to hold bilateral talks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with an eye toward increasing the modest level of trade between the two countries. Whispers among the Weah administration that former president Ellen Sirleaf Johnson was guilty of something heated up tensions between the parties. A list of 15 persons of interest now bars Sirleafs son Charles, the deputy governor of the Central Bank in the current administration, from travel. In a media interview, Madam Sirleaf said she was angry and shocked by rumors of stolen funds which she dismissed as fabrications. Theres no missing container, no missing money, she declared. I am certain whatever my administration did was in accordance with the law and the constitution and no money is missing. ADVERTISEMENT The government must go back to the media and say that the investigation (by the Central Bank) is concluded and the evidence and facts are known, they must go back to the media and correct it. Man Sentenced to LWOP for Murder, Robbery of Elderly Woman in Montrose A 22-year-old man was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in the killing of a 67-year-old woman a year ago, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office announced. James Wesley Trotter, aka Man-Man of Long Beach, was found guilty on Aug. 15 of one count each of murder with a special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery; second-degree robbery; and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Devon T. White, 21, of Lynwood also was found guilty of the same charges. He was sentenced on Aug. 29 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. ADVERTISEMENT A third co-defendant, Tonaye Eunice James (dob 8/9/95) of Las Vegas, pleaded no contest on July 31 to one count of second-degree robbery and was sentenced on Sept. 5 to 12 years in state prison. Deputy District Attorneys David Ayvazian and Carmelia Mejia of the Hardcore Gang Division prosecuted the case. White and Trotter followed victim Hye Soon Oh from her business in Lynwood to her apartment complex in Montrose on Aug. 8, 2017, the prosecutors said. The victim was then gunned down and robbed at her apartment buildings parking garage, the prosecutor added. Case GA101707 was investigated by the Glendale Police Department. SCAQMD Refinery Committee Directs Development of Measure to Phase Out Toxic Chemical at Two Refineries The South Coast Air Quality Management Districts Refinery Committee recently directed agency staff to develop a regulation by May 2019 to better mitigate the risk from or possibly phase out the use of a highly toxic chemical used at two Southland refineries. The chemical, modified hydrofluoric acid (MHF), is used at just two refineries in the state, both in the South Bay: Torrance Refining Co., owned by PBF Energy, and Valeros Wilmington Refinery. The risk to public health from an accidental release of this chemical is too great to accept, said Clark E. Parker, Sr., Ph.D., chairman of SCAQMDs Refinery Committee. We are directing staff to develop a rule to better protect residents health in the event of an accident. ADVERTISEMENT The rule will include provisions for a phase-out of MHF. However, during the coming months, if the refineries and manufacturer of MHF provide more technical information on the chemical and show that enhanced mitigation measures will adequately reduce the risk to the public, the committee directed staff to consider a memorandum of understanding as an alternative to a regulation. Other committee members attending todays meeting were Vice Chairman and Highland Mayor Larry McCallon, Wildomar Mayor Ben Benoit, Rolling Hills Estates Mayor Pro Tem Judith Mitchell and Joseph Lyou, Ph.D. SCAQMD Chairman William A. Burke, Ed.D., participated as an ad hoc member. More than 600 refinery workers and residents were present for the 7-hour meeting at Wilmington Middle School. Todays event was the fourth Refinery Committee meeting in the South Bay conducted since April 2017 to examine MHF safety issues and gather public input on rule concepts. In response to the committees request for further information at the April committee meeting, several subject experts spoke at todays event: Kenneth W. Hudnut, Ph.D., a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena, reported on earthquake hazards from two major faults in the South Bay area; Ronald P. Koopman, Ph.D., a retired senior scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, discussed the 1986 Goldfish test of hydrofluoric acid (HF) dispersion at the Nevada Test Site, and similar tests; John B. Cornwall, an engineer and risk analysis expert on toxic releases with Quest Consultants Inc. of Norman, Okla., reported on past MHF field testing and time and resources needed for additional tests; and Michael Mastrangelo, program director of Institutional Preparedness at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, talked about the 1987 HF release from a refinery in Texas City, Texas, issues with specialized medical treatment and medicine needed for HF exposure, and the universitys work to plan for preparedness for accidental HF releases. In February 2015, an explosion at the former ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance resulted in a 40-ton piece of debris nearly striking a large vessel containing MHF. As a result of the accident, community concerns about refinery safety, new information about the safety of MHF, and frequent flaring at the refinery, the SCAQMDs Refinery Committee held a special hearing on the use of HF at refineries. Based on direction from the Refinery Committee, in April 2017 the SCAQMD started developing a proposed rule for the use of HF at refineries, known as Rule 1410, and since then staff has conducted numerous working group meetings composed of representatives from the refineries, community groups and other regulatory agencies. Rule 1410 would need to be adopted by SCAQMDs Governing Board at a public hearing. For more information on SCAQMDs Proposed Rule 1410, see http://www.aqmd.gov/home/rules-compliance/rules/proposed-rules/proposed-rule-1410. ADVERTISEMENT Torrance Refining Co. and Valero Wilmington Refinery use HF modified with an additive to reduce the hazard in the event of an accidental release. It is uncertain, however, how much the HF modifier reduces public health hazards if it is released. MHF is used in the PBF and Valero alkylation units as a catalyst to produce alkylate, a component of high-octane gasoline. All other refineries in the state use sulfuric acid in their alkylation units. Hydrofluoric acid is considered more hazardous than sulfuric acid because its ability to damage tissue to the bone. Unlike sulfuric acid, HF has a low boiling point and in the event of an accidental release, it can form a dense, ground-hugging cloud that could travel long distances potentially impacting nearby residents and schools. The SCAQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. School Girls Comes to the Kirk Douglas Theatre School Girls, or the African Mean Girls play, is here in Los Angeles at the Kirk Douglas Theatre for one last weekend until Sept. 30. The play centers around six high school girls in Ghana who want to compete in the Miss Ghana pageant of 1986. It is full of humor with the girls gushing over Bobby Brown and make over parties, but there is also a lot of depth and serious issues addressed. The main character, Paulina, is the queen of her school and she is certain that she will be Miss Ghana. That is, however, until a new girl, Ericka, comes into town from Ohio. Ericka has a nice, humble personality while Paulina is rude and mean to the other girls. Even though Ericka seems like a good choice for her inner-qualities, the only aspect that the pageant recruiters see is her skin. She is fair-skinned, while Paulina is brown-skinned. School Girls delves into colorism, the dangers of skin bleaching, and struggles on both ends of the spectrum. Even though this play is set in 1986, its timely and a conversation that were still having today. Whats so special about this play is every character has an arc and we get to see their journey. said MaameYaa Boafo, who plays Paulina. This play sends a message to love who you are, its thought provoking, and a play that is 100 percent women of color in all different shades being proud of who they are. Jocelyn Bioh, the playwright, set the play in the boarding school that her mom went to in Ghana. The story, however, was inspired by the 2011 Miss Ghana pageant where an American, biracial woman won and represented Ghana in the Miss Universe pageant. Bioh worked on writing the play for nearly two years and late last year it was performed for the first time at the MCC Theater in New York. It received great reviews and three 2018 Lucille Lortel Awards, including one for Outstanding Play. ADVERTISEMENT It was a wonderful experience because I didnt really know about the culture in Ghana, but you see that the relationship between girls is pretty much the same across different countries, said Marie Burgos, one of the audience members. The story is wonderful, the characters are great and your emotions really rise, I almost cried at one point. It was also great to see a twist of humor. Biohs goal was to create a story that people would relate to. Even though it is set in Ghana, colorism and the desire to look perfect spans across the world. Each character embodies a different personality. There are characters who are very bothered by their weight, skin or hair, and there are also characters who could care less and are focused on getting into college. Throughout the play, we get a glimpse of the girls thought process and in the end, it is about giving love and acceptance. I always hope that people relate to the characters in the show. That they see facets of themselves in each one of them and empathize with them, said Bioh. If someone comes to see the show and connects with an African girl in the 1980s Ghana, then hopefully theyll understand that were much more alike than different. School Girls will be returning to New York for an encore run at the MCC Theater in October but is here in Los Angeles for six more shows at the Kirk Douglas Theatre throughout the weekend. The final Los Angeles show will be Sept. 30 at 6:30 p.m. For tickets, visit www.centertheatregroup.org. The Criminalization of Poverty: Cash Bail for Non-Violent Misdemeanors Perpetuates Unequal Treatment Under the Law Kalief Browder, a teenager who spent three harrowing years in a New York City jail on charges that were eventually dropped, took his own life as a result of the trauma he suffered. Sandra Bland, an activist who spoke out against police brutality, died in a jail cell in Texas, arrested after a traffic stop for changing lanes without a signal. Jeffrey Pendleton, arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana possession, died after five days in a New Hampshire jail cell. ADVERTISEMENT Our nations racially-discriminatory cash bail system has left hundreds of non-violent misdemeanor suspects to die in jail while awaiting trial, simply because they are poor. A 2015 study identified more than 800 deaths in local jails and lockups; more than 75% of those in local jails have not been convicted, and 70% of those awaiting trial are detained for non-violent offenses. The unfair cash bail system destroys lives in other ways. Flozell Daniels Jr. CEO and president of Foundation for Louisiana, recently told the story of Nicole, a New Orleans mom who was arrested after forgetting to pay a ticket for failure to wear a seatbelt. She spent a month in Orleans Parish jail, separated from her children, losing her job and costing the taxpayers thousands of dollars. There are hundreds of parents, accused of non-violent misdemeanors like Nicole, in Louisiana alone; thousands across the nation. A report Daniels co-authored, From Bondage to Bail Bonds: Putting a Price on Freedom in New Orleans, found that the money bail system takes $6.4 million from New Orleans families each year 85 percent of it paid by Black people, many of whom are accused of non-violent misdemeanors. Daniels and his co-authors wrote: Money bail ensnares people in a system in which ones freedom hangs on the ability to pay and removes people who are important to their families and communities. The money paid to secure a persons freedom is not available for other essentials, thus over-burdening family and community support structures. Those who cant pay, or stay in jail even a few days before they can gather the money, are put at increased risk of losing their employment and housing and of being re-arrested than if they had not been detained. They are subject to the degradation, violence, and trauma Indeed, even when people purchase their freedom through a commercial bail bond they live in fear because the bondsman has the power to seize and surrender them at will. It doesnt have to be this way. Weeks ago, California became the first state to end cash bail. Washington, D.C., has a cashless bail system. ADVERTISEMENT Socially-conscious innovators are finding technology-based solutions to help people navigate the cash bail system. Jay-Z, who celebrated Fathers Day last year by posting bail for dads, has invested in Promise, an app provides clients with financial assistance with bail costs along with other services to get people out of jail. Another app, Help Bond Me, allows detainees to crowd-fund their bail. These efforts should be applauded, but we look forward to the day when they are no longer needed. Jailing non-violent misdemeanor suspects who cant afford bail doesnt make our communities safer; it just exacerbates inequality and burdens taxpayers. We need to live up to the American ideal of equality under the law for rich and poor alike, as enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Debtors prisons were abolished in 1833, but 185 years later the criminalization of poverty persists. Whos to Blame in Latest Ferry Disaster? Tanzanian President John Magufuli took action this week against a ferry captain and all of the crew as the number of bodies pulled from Lake Victoria in the latest maritime disaster topped 200. In an address last Friday, Magufuli told the nation that the captain left the ferrys steering in the hands of a person not trained for the job. The death toll has reached 223, but could go higher as more bodies are pulled out of the water. Initial reports put the blame on overcrowding, but an investigation will determine the exact cause, the Tanzanian leader said. Some reports said the boat had a capacity to carry 100 people, but was carrying an estimated 400 instead. ADVERTISEMENT In 2016, researchers with the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association studied the soaring number of fatalities on ferries and linked them to several causes. Overcrowding and overloading played a role in about a third of all accidents but they rarely caused accidents alone without the influence of other factors. In addition to overcrowding, they found, you have substandard vessels, a lack of training for emergency scenarios, as well as more systemic issues such as inadequate support and/or corruption in the regulatory process. These failures were highlighted by the 2014 sinking of the MV Sewol off the coast of South Korea, during which the captain and crew abandoned ship while hundreds of students remained aboard and perished. Efforts to monitor, let alone improve, ferry safety in the developing world are handicapped by incomplete recordkeeping and sparse non-existent media coverage of accidents by major international news outlets, the researchers found. The ferry in the latest disaster was about 650 feet from its destination when the rush of passengers to one side caused the boat to tip and capsize. Thursday is a market day on the island, and many passengers were traveling to market there. Across the board, the question continues to be, not how to develop solutions to worldwide safety problems, but how to make those solutions available to ferry operators and to passengers in the countries that need them the most, the ferry safety group summed up. ADVERTISEMENT Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa, straddling the borders of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov is urging Macedonians to boycott a popular vote on whether the country should change its name. He called changing the countrys name from the Republic of Macedonia to North Macedonia historical suicide. Ivanov spoke at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. He said, It is a censorship of the world and an auto-censorship of the collective conscience of Macedonian people. Ivanov has refused to support a deal reached between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Under the deal, the people of Macedonia will vote on whether to change the countrys name or not. The Associated Press reports that it is unclear if 50 percent of voters will take part in the referendum, which is required for the vote to be official. If voters do support the change, parliament will have to change Macedonias constitution. Ivanov has called the deal a clear violation of sovereignty. He criticized the vote saying: This referendum could lead us to become a subordinate state, dependent on another country. He added, We will become a state in name only, not in substance. Greece has said that the name Macedonia belongs only to its northern province of Macedonia. It says by using the name, the country of Macedonia can make a claim to the Greek province. Since Macedonia became independent in 1991, Greece has put pressure on it to change its name. Because of the Objections of Greece, Macedonia is known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the United Nations. Greece also has blocked Macedonia from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. Supporters of the name change say it will lead to NATO membership and permit the country to join the European Union after a set time period. Opponents consider the change a national humiliation. On Sunday, September 30, the people of Macedonia will vote on whether to change their name to North Macedonia. Im Mario Ritter. Mario Ritter adapted this story for VOA Learning English from VOA News and AP stories. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story censorship n. the act of examining books, movies, letters, and other materials in order to remove things that are considered offensive, immoral, or harmful to society referendum n. a vote in which the people of a country or state make a decision about a law that deals with a specific issue sovereignty n. a countrys independent authority and the right to govern itself humiliation n. to make someone feel ashamed or foolish We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says that while in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, on a working visit to attend a session of the CIS Council of Heads of State. he had a conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Pashinyan, in a Facebook post, writes that he will provide more details about the conversation after he returns to Yerevan. The Nobel Prize season begins on October 1 with the announcement of the prize for physiology or medicine. But one award will not be announced this year: the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy said in May it would not name a literature laureate this year, following accusations of sexual abuse and other wrongdoing by people connected to the academy. Anders Olsson, the Academys permanent secretary, said at the time that the group needed time to rebuild public trust before choosing the next laureate. The Swedish Academy will instead name two literature laureates in 2019. Members of Swedens cultural society have come together to create a replacement literature award this year. The group released the names of four possible winners of the so-called New Academy Prize. The winner will be announced on October 12. Scandal at the Academy The scandal that has hit the Swedish Academy involves photographer Jean-Claude Arnault. He is the husband of Swedish Academy member and writer Katarina Frostenson. At least 18 women have accused Arnault of rape or sexual assault. Some of the assaults are said to have happened at properties owned by the Swedish Academy. For many years, Arnault and Frostenson ran an organization in Stockholm that held readings and performances by well-known people, including past Nobel laureates. The Swedish Academy gave money to the organization. Arnaults rape trial in Stockholm ended last week. He is now waiting for the courts decision. He has repeatedly denied all the charges against him. Arnault has also been accused of leaking the names of literature prize winners before they were announced, including past laureates Bob Dylan and Harold Pinter. The academy operates a highly secretive selection process. Swedish Academy members found themselves unable to make a decision about Frostenson and Arnaults future with the academy. This led to strong fighting within the organization. Members insulted each other in media reports. Three of the 18 members resigned after the academys leadership decided to let Frostenson remain in her position. The academys permanent secretary then resigned in protest. Later, Frostenson also left the academy. A Difference Prize After the scandal, 100 of Swedish societys most important cultural members established the New Academy Prize. Unlike the Swedish Academy, the New Academys nomination process is not secretive. The New Academy asked Swedish librarians to nominate writers for the prize. The public then got to vote for the 47 nominees that the New Academy received. Three top vote winners plus one candidate chosen by literature experts made up the shortlist of four nominees. They are Britains Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami of Japan, Canadian Kim Thuy and Maryse Conde of Guadeloupe. The New Academy required that the shortlist have two women and two men. Gaiman wrote on Twitter that winning would not make me any happier than being on that list makes me. [embed] However, Murakami said he would not accept the prize. His name was removed from the list. Most in the literary world agree with the Swedish Academys decision to not name a laureate in 2018. Maria Schottenius, a Swedish literature critic, said, This is the best decision they could make. She added that the academy will have a chance to rebuild itself and be ready to award the prize next year. Nobel Prizes are awarded in science, medicine, literature and peacemaking. Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel provided money for their establishment after his death. This is the first time since 1949 that the literature award has been delayed. Japanese-born British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro won the prize last year. Im Susan Shand. Susan Shand wrote and adapted this story for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story laureate n. someone who has won an important prize or honor for achievement in an art or science assault - n a violent physical attack replacement - n. a person or thing that takes the place someone or something else scandal n. an occurrence in which people are shocked and upset because of behavior that is morally or legally wrong confidence n. a feeling or belief that someone or something is good or has the ability to succeed at something librarian - n. someone who works in a library Its only been a few months since the One Mix Yoga mini laptop hit the streets, but the folks at One Netbook are already getting ready to launch a 2nd-gen model. The upcoming One Mix 2 is expected to have the same 7 inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel touchscreen display as its predecessor, the same 360-degree hinge that lets you use the computer in notebook or tablet modes, and the same support for a pressure-sensitive pen. But the new model has a number of under-the-hood upgrades. Im not sure all of the specs have been finalized yet, but it looks like the One Mix 2 will be available with up to an Intel Core M3-8100Y processor, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of PCIe solid state storage. By comparison, the first-gen One Mix Yoga had an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of eMMC storage. When I tested the original I was impressed with the overall design, but underwhelmed by the tiny computers performance. The upgraded processor and storage should theoretically go a long way to address those concerns. The One Mix 2 is also expected to have a USB Type-C port for charging and data (the original used a micro USB port). Other features that remain largely unchanged include a USB 3.0 Type-A port, a micro HDMI port, and a microSD card slot, the 360-degree hinge, an optical mouse sensor instead of a touchpad, and support for 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity when using a digital pen. The One Mix 2 chassis has the same dimensions as the One Mix Yoga: 182mm x 110mm x 17mm (7.2 x 4.3 x 0.7). You may have noticed that I said the system supports up to an 8th-gen Core M3 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. The company is also planning to offer an entry-level model with a Core M3-7Y30 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. The company is also said to be working on a beta version with a Core i5-7Y54 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, but I dont expect that model to be sold through retail channels. Update: It looks like One Netbook will offer all three processor options for the retail model, so youll have a choice of Core i3-7Y30, Core i5-7Y54, and Core i3-8100Y processors. The One Mix 2 is also expected to have a fingerprint sensor which the original did not. And it may be available in a choice of silver or black color options. But One Netbook hasnt decided yet whether the computer will have a backlit keyboard like its predecessor the company is trying to cram as much as possible into this tiny computer without generating more heat than the fan can dissipate. A few videos showing off an early prototype have also been posted online: One Netbook hasnt announced the price or release date for the new model yet. But the original One Mix Yoga sold for about $460 at launch, and you can currently pick one up for: One Mix Yoga (1st-gen) pictures: Share this article: Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit Pocket Tumblr Pinterest LinkedIn Email Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Dushanbe today where the two are attending a session of the CIS Council of Heads of State. What follows is an unedited Armenian government press release on the meeting. Pleased with the continuity of bilateral interstate relations, Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the importance of economic cooperation. He noted that several Kazakh companies have already expressed interest in getting involved in the Armenian market with investment programs. Nikol Pashinyan expressed the conviction that the deepening of business ties will help boost trade turnover between the two countries. The Premier attached importance to the development of cooperation within the framework of integration associations, including the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Nikol Pashinyan considered it necessary to enhance the functionality of integration associations through constructive discussions on specific issues that will help find appropriate solutions. Noting that the bilateral trade turnover grew by nearly 60% last year, Nursultan Nazarbayev expressed conviction that this trend would be continued owing to the two governments joint efforts. He said that Kazakhstan is open for Armenian businesses and goods, adding that the sides enjoy good opportunities for developing multifaceted ties. Stressing that Armenian specialists have always shown themselves in the best way, the President of Kazakhstan made a point of experience sharing in different spheres of activity. Referring to Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, the Kazakh leader described them as quite complicated, and assured that his country stands for a peaceful settlement through negotiations. Nikol Pashinyan and Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed a broad range of issues on the Armenian-Kazakh cooperation agenda, including cooperation in the frame of integration unions. Societe Nouvelle Air Congo, a state-owned carrier, is in talks with Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd. to buy three new aircraft as it prepares to begin offering regional flights, a director said. The company, known as SN Air Congo, plans to acquire ARJ21s, Michael Gollo, head of quality, safety and security, said by phone yesterday in the Republic of Congos capital, Brazzaville. The planes will add to its existing fleet of three Xian Aircraft Industry Group MA60s, he said. SN Air Congo resumed domestic flights on Sept. 10, after halting flights earlier this year because of a lack of government funding. The new aircraft will be supplied to the carrier as part of an agreement reached between Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping earlier this month, Gollo said, without providing details. The airline plans to introduce flights to neighboring Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo as it increases its fleet, Gollo said, without providing a timeframe. It currently flies to 13 domestic destinations, including the port city of Pointe Noire. Fidel Doumou, Congos minister of transport and aviation, is in the Central African Republic to among other things discuss with the neighboring nations authorities plans for SN Air Congo to start plying the Bangui route, maritime transport on the Congo and Oubangui rivers and using the Pointe Noire port, according to Gollo. Bloomberg The Government Information Bureau (GCS) has triggered a public discussion due to the new way it addressed Chief Executive Chui Sai On in one of its Facebook posts. On September 19, the GCS released a statement on its official Facebook page, expressing Chuis thanks to all Macau residents and Macaus civil servants. On Gor [meaning older brother], on behalf of the MSAR, is issuing an open thank you letter to all Macau residents and all civil servants, the statements lead reads. Below the lead, three paragraphs referred to Chui as On Gor, instead of the typical formal language such as Chief Executive. Until press time, the post received 383 likes, 94 comments and was shared 113 times. The main discussion among the public targeted the proficiency of the bureau, along with some jokes about the meaning of the term On Gor, in particular, Gor [older brother]. In Chinese, when addressing non-biologically related people with the term Gor, it generally means that that person is in a higher position and should be respected and followed more than others. This week, director of GCS Chan Chi Ping responded to the controversy by saying that the bureau uses different expressions on different information platforms, and that such practice is intended to make it easier for the various audiences to receive information. Chan also believes that only a small number (less than 10) of users had different opinions on the term On Gor. He also noted that this was not the first time GCS used the term. JZ MGM held another seminar on national education titled The Development of the Greater Bay Area and the Opportunities for Macau on Wednesday. Dr. Guo Wanda, executive vice president of China Development Institute was invited as the keynote speaker to speak on both opportunities and challenges of the Greater Bay Area plan for Macau. According to a statement issued by the gaming operator, more than 300 MGM team members and teaching staff of local tertiary educational institutions attended the seminar. MGM has been hosting a series of seminars on national education since 2016, with topics ranging from the economic development of mainland China and Macau, Belt and Road Initiative, to Chinese traditions and culture. Teaching staff of three local tertiary educational institutions were also invited to attend the seminar. Hot pot street at broadway to kick off on Oct.1 Broadway Macau will turn Broadway Food Street into Hot Pot Street from October 1 to February 28, presenting 60 hot pot and clay pot selections. In addition to classic hot pots such as Braised Lamb Brisket Casserole at Lei Ka Choi, Broadway Macau also introduces 14 new hot pot and clay pot dishes at Chi Sasa Japanese Cuisine, at Katong Corner and at Fong Seng Lai Kei Restaurant. Last year, more than 7,000 casseroles of Braised Lamb Brisket Casserole at Lei Ka Choi were sold in six months, Broadway Macau notes in a statement. Chi Sasa Japanese Cuisine will present a Japanese hot pot experience including its Seafood and Wagyu Beef Hot Pot in Spicy Miso Fish Broth. Meanwhile, Fong Seng Lai Kei is famous for its traditional Shunde dishes. Thus bringing Assorted Seafood and Suckling Pig Hot Pot to welcome the autumn and winter seasons. Katong Corners chefs, meanwhile, have handpicked winter melon, ginseng, coconut and chicken, preparing Chicken with Ginseng and Coconut Casserole. The Identification Services Bureau (DSI), in collaboration with the Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ), has launched a simplified procedure to facilitate citizens to apply for the Macau Identity Card (BIR) for newborns, DSI informed in a statement. From yesterday, citizens are no longer required to show the Birth Registration Certificate issued by the Civil Registry Office to apply for newborns Resident Identity Card. This procedure is replaced by presenting the Birth Record Card, as long as the necessary requirements are met. The measure applies to all those who cumulatively meet the conditions of having been born in Macau; having one parent being a resident of Macau SAR and having declared their birth with the Macau SAR Identity Card; and the application being made within 90 days from the date of birth. For others who do not meet the conditions stated, the previous procedure still applies. RM The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 501 has requested that the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) submit documentation related to regulatory oversight conducted by the bureau into International Game Technology (IGT) Asia Macau, following reports of malpractice by its Illinois branch. IGT provides gaming equipment, including slot machines, to casino operators in the city since 2005. Thus, the firm falls under the regulatory supervision of DICJ. In a letter to DICJ director, Paulo Martins Chan, director of the union Jose Soto, noted that its ongoing research review of IGTs global gaming operations has found litigation cases including malpractice and erroneous jackpots. Chief Executive Chui Sai On, and current and former lawmakers, were copied in the letter dated September 24. Our review has identified numerous litigation cases involving IGT, including a proposed class action lawsuit filed by customers against IGT in the U.S. state of Illinois, Soto noted in the letter to which Macau Daily Times had access. As well as a lawsuit, IGT itself filed against an insurance agent in U.S. federal court wherein IGT details a series of erroneous jackpots totaling hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. IUOE Local 501 represents over 2,000 maintenance engineers and slot machine technicians in Las Vegas, Nevada. A tribunal investigation in the U.S. previously found that Northstar Lottery Group, co-formed by IGT, who manages the Illinois Lottery, cheated players and lottery vendors by misrepresenting the odds of winning scratch-off games. Illinois Lottery was reported to collect hundreds of millions of dollars from selling tickets to instant games in which it did not hand out all of the grand prizes. Since then, the firm has been criticized for failing to deliver the profits to the state which it had projected when it won the Illinois bid. Presently, the Illinois State Lottery Lawsuit is seeking class-action status, compensating players who were affected by Northstars fraudulent lottery scheme. IGT is also facing a lawsuit against Illinois National Insurance Co. for an alleged breach of contract. Thus, as part of the continuing contract negotiations between workers represented by Local 501 and IGT, Soto is requesting DICJ to submit documents related to the activities of IGT in the region. As part of our ongoing research efforts, we are submitting to you a records request for all publicly-available documentation related to all regulatory oversight conducted by the DICJ into IGT, including but not limited to suitability reviews, investigations, annual reports, standard disclosures, Soto stated. We ask that said request for documentation date back to May 2005 when IGT incorporated in Macau. We ask that you contact us and/or produce said information within 10 business days, the letter concluded. The Times contacted DICJ yet no reply was given by press time, while contacts provided by IGT Asia Macau online could not be reached. Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in several places in disputed Kashmir yesterday after Indian troops killed a young man, officials and residents said, and an Indian soldier and a rebel were killed in a separate gunbattle. Residents in Indian-controlled Kashmirs main city, Srinagar, said government forces shot and killed the young man during a raid early Thursday. The man worked as a shepherd and he was attending to his sheep when troops fired at him, they said. Police have yet to make a statement. The killing triggered protests and clashes as hundreds of people poured into streets at several places in downtown Srinagar calling for the end of Indian rule. They chanted slogans like Go India, go back and We want freedom as some of the residents barraged police and paramilitary soldiers with stones. Government troops fired tear gas and shotgun pellets to quell the protests while authorities restricted movement in old quarters of the city. Later thousands attended the mans burial. Elsewhere, Indias army said a soldier and a rebel were killed yesterday in a gunbattle in southern Qazigund area. Col. Rajesh Kalia, an army spokesman, said the troops raided a village in the area on a tip that some militants were hiding there, leading to exchange of gunfire. He said the operation was ongoing. Also on Thursday, at least two militants were trapped in a mosque after troops laid a siege around it in Panzan village, police said. As the siege continued, villagers tried to march toward mosque in solidarity with the rebels, leading to clashes between stone-throwing protesters and government forces who deployed tear smoke shells and pellets. No one was immediately reported injured in both the clashes. Most Kashmiris support the rebel cause of unifying the divided region either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. In recent years, mainly young Kashmiris have displayed open solidarity with rebels and sought to protect them by engaging troops in street clashes during military operations. Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown. AP Arights group says the Indonesian woman imprisoned for blasphemy after complaining about noise from a mosque is sharing a cramped cell with 16 other women and given terrible food. Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said the ethnic Chinese woman, Meiliana, was emotional but tough when he and other supporters visited her in prison in Medan this week. She was sobbing when talking to us, Harsono said yesterday in a statement about the visit. The cell is about 30 square meters. The food is terrible, he said. The case has highlighted how Indonesias blasphemy law has become a tool for Islamic hardliners to persecute followers of minority religions. Meiliana, who uses one name, was sentenced to 18 months in prison last month. She was charged in May, nearly two years after her comments sparked riots in Tanjung Balai, a Sumatran port town. Her husband and two sons feared for their safety and moved to Medan, said Gomar Gultom, secretary general of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia. He wrote on Facebook after visiting Meiliana that she was a great person who dared to voice something that has been buried in the hearts of many people, maybe even in the hearts of some rational-minded Muslim friends. Indonesias largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, has criticized the conviction and said the complaint wasnt blasphemous. A civil society group is raising funds for an appeal. Meilianas ordeal began in July 2016 when she asked if the volume of the loudspeakers at her neighborhood mosque could be lowered. Rumors spread in Tanjung Balai that she wanted to stop the five-times-a-day call to prayer. Days later mobs attacked her home and burned and ransacked at least 14 Buddhist temples. The police were busy dealing with the riots. But they also questioned Meiliana. She was not charged but needed to report to the police once a week for two years, said Harsono. But the case did not go away. Pressure from Islamists made the police hand over the case to the blasphemy law office. Since 147 people have been imprisoned under blasphemy or related laws since 2004, according to monitoring by Human Rights Watch. The number of cases has slowed since 2014 under President Joko Jokowi Widodos administration. Last year, former Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian, was imprisoned for two years after being found guilty of blasphemy for comments made during his re-election campaign. AP The wife of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was grilled by the anti-graft agency for nearly 13 hours over alleged theft and money laundering involving the 1MDB state investment fund. Rosmah Mansor arrived at 10 a.m. after being summoned for a second time since June 5 and left the agencys building at about 10:40 p.m. She smiled to reporters as she emerged from the building, escorted by her lawyers and police. I am OK, she said, but declined to comment further. It was unclear why Rosmah was questioned at this time. The chief of the anti-graft agency, Mohamad Shukri Abdull, said earlier this week that the agency had completed its probe of Rosmah and had submitted its investigation report to the attorney-generals office for further action. Her husband, Najib, has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of money laundering, corruption, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust over the scandal involving the 1MDB state fund and is to face trial next year. Rosmah, 66, is widely reviled for her opulent lifestyle and penchant for expensive jewelry and designer Birkin bags that led to her being compared with former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos and her extravagant collection of shoes. Police found hundreds of luxury handbags, jewelry and cash worth more than $266 million during raids on apartments linked to the family shortly after Najibs shocking electoral defeat in May. Seized were 567 handbags, 423 watches and 12,000 pieces of jewelry including 1,400 necklaces, 2,200 rings, 2,800 pairs of earrings and 14 tiaras. Najib has said the items were mostly gifts to his family. In a biography in 2013, Rosmah said it was common for a prime ministers wife to receive expensive jewelry and gifts. She also said she had earned millions of ringgit from her own music album, which wasnt released to the public but was bought by government ministers who were fans of her singing talent. Najib set up the 1MDB fund when he took power in 2009 but it accumulated billions in debts and is being investigated in the U.S. and several other countries. U.S. investigators say Najibs associates stole and laundered $4.5 billion from the fund from 2009 to 2014, some of which landed in Najibs bank account. They say $27.3 million was used to buy a rare diamond necklace for Rosmah. Public anger over the scandal eventually led to the ouster of Najibs long-ruling coalition in May 9 elections that ushered in the first change of power since Malaysias independence from Britain in 1957. New Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reopened investigations into 1MDB that were suppressed under Najibs rule. He has also banned the couple from leaving the country. Police have said investigations show that $972 million was transferred into Najibs bank accounts from three companies linked to 1MDB. Najib, 65, has accused Mahathirs government of seeking political vengeance against him and his family. AP Slovakian police arrested Thursday eight people in connection with the brutal murder of a local journalist who was shot dead at close range in his home in February while investigating the infiltration of the Italian mob into his home country. The news came from a Facebook post published early Thursday morning by the Slovakian police, which said only that officers apprehended suspects suspected of violent crime and that House searches and other procedural operations are currently underway. Later in the day, the Kuciak family lawyer, Daniel Lipsic, confirmed on his Facebook page that the arrests were made for the reporters murder. Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini posted on Facebook that Police have arrested the suspects in the murder of two innocent young people, adding that the ongoing investigation was a priority for his government. Jan Kuciak was an OCCRP-affiliated investigative journalist who at the time of his assassination was working on a joint investigation between the Slovakian news outlet Aktuality.sk and the OCCRP into the Italian Ndrangheta, one of the worlds most powerful and fearsome crime syndicates, and their growing presence in Slovakia. His final investigative work was published posthumously. Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, both 27, were murdered in their home in the village of Velka Maca, east of Bratislava, on the evening of February 21. Kuciak was the first journalist killed since the country gained its independence in 1993. Thousands took to the streets in March to show solidarity with the slain reporter and to protest what they perceived as a botched investigation of his murder. The protests sparked a political crisis in Slovakia that eventually led to the resignation of numerous top-level officials, including the prime minister, the interior minister, and the police chief. It appeared as if Slovakian police had little interest over the past seven months in solving the murders, sometimes displaying open hostility to those who sought justice. Pavla Holcova, an investigative reporter from OCCRP partner Czech Center for Investigative Reporting and a friend of Kuciaks, was invited in May to a friendly meeting by Slovakias National Crime Agency that quickly soured. Authorities temporarily seized her phone and kept her in an interrogation room for eight hours, seeming more interested in her activity after Kuciaks murder than in solving the crime. But after Thursdays arrest, police posted a photograph on their Facebook page of a cabinet filled with files they claimed were about the Kuciak case. The files, they said, represented endless hours of work and overtime at the expense of their families, adding that murders are solved within hours only in movies. I reiterate that the proper investigation of the murder case of Jan Kuciak and his fiance Martina Kusnirova was and still is my top priority as Interior Minister, Denise Sakova, the Interior Minister of Slovakia, said in a statement. Lipsic, the family lawyer, told the daily newspaper SME on Thursday he believed there is enough evidence to keep the suspects detained. He told Reuters in a text message that he had already been briefed by prosecutors. The arrests were made in the village of Kolarovo, in southern Slovakia, by the National Crime Agency (NAKA). Authorities have not identified any of the suspects but Slovak media identified a man named Tomas Sz. as one of the detainees. Serbian investigative reporters determined the mans name is Tomas Szabo and that he worked previously as a police investigator and received training as a private bodyguard at the European Security Academy, which Bellingcat reported last month also trained members of Ukrainian far-right organizations, including the Azov Battalion. His Facebook profile shows that between Kuciaks murder and Thursdays arrest, Szabo took trips to Serbia and Comoros, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa. He appears to be a lover of motorcycles and a martial artist. Another detainee is Szabos cousin. Zlatica Kusnirova, the mother of Martina, spoke to SME following the arrests. Im in shock, I have no further information, she said. I know it wont bring our children back to life, but I wish for justice to be served, she added. I hope the police will detain not only the executioners, but the ordering parties as well. Maldives President Yameen Abdul Gayoom is working on how to stay in power despite having conceded defeat in this weeks election, the opposition alliance said Wednesday. Joint opposition spokesman Ahmed Mahloof told The Associated Press that government officials say Yameen is planning to complain to the Maldives Election Commission about the conduct of the vote and pressure the commission to delay releasing the final results, due Sunday. Mahloof said Yameen is also trying to get police officers loyal to him to prepare intelligence reports saying the election was flawed. Its serious. After conceding the election he is trying to play dirty, Mahloof said of Yameen. Provisional results released Monday showed joint opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih decisively defeated Yameen with about 58 percent of the vote in Sundays election. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Hussain Shihab noted that Yameen had conceded the election in a speech Monday. He said Yameen accepted the results and pledged to ensure a smooth transition when his term ends Nov. 17. However, Shihab did not comment on whether Yameens stance has changed since then. The election outcome surprised many given opposition warnings that the voting could be rigged. The European Union didnt send election observers because the Maldives failed to meet conditions for monitoring, and few foreign media were allowed into the country to cover the vote. The U.S., which earlier threatened sanctions if the elections were not free and fair, urged calm while the election results were being finalized. Maldives became a multiparty democracy in 2008 after decades of autocratic rule. However, after Yameen became president in 2013 the country lost many of its democratic gains. He jailed almost all of his political opponents following allegedly flawed trials and forced some into exile. Yameen also consolidated power by exerting control over the courts, bureaucracy, police and the military. AP As a trade war heats up between the U.S. and China, military tensions are also rising. China on Tuesday refused a U.S. warship entry to Hong Kong next month, according to the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, and Beijings top naval officer canceled a high-level meeting with his U.S. counterpart after being recalled to China, according to Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman. The moves come as a worsening trade war prompts concern in Beijing over whether President Donald Trumps latest tariffs are part of a master plan to stop China from threatening American dominance of the Indo-Pacific. The Trump administration last week levied unprecedented penalties on a Chinese military procurement agency and its director for allegedly purchasing Russian combat aircraft, claiming a violation of U.S. sanctions. It all adds up, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, who teaches U.S.-China relations at Hong Kong Baptist University. It plays into the hands of the conservatives like Xi Jinping in Chinas leadership that Trumps real intent is to contain Chinas rise. Trumps latest assault came Wednesday when he accused China of trying to interfere in coming U.S. midterm elections in November. Trump said he had evidence, but didnt provide any. He also said he and Xi might no longer be friends. We do not and will not interfere in any countrys domestic affairs, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a session of the United Nations Security Council, through a translator. We refuse to accept any unwarranted accusations against China. The U.S. State Department said its sanctions on the Chinese militarys Equipment Development Department which oversees Chinas defense technology werent intended to undermine the military capabilities or combat readiness of any country, but rather to impose costs on Russia in response to alleged interference in the U.S. election process. Among Russias arms customers, only China has been targeted by American sanctions. The list of Chinese grievances against the Trump administration has mounted since the president unleashed his trade war, placing tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods. In China, they are debating how they can respond and there are hawks who say, We have to strike back, said Collin Koh Swee Lean, research fellow at Singapores S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. The countrys military actions this week are a way of showing displeasure without crossing the line into something more serious. China has employed similar messaging in the past. In 2016, Beijing denied a U.S. carrier strike groups request for a Hong Kong port visit during a period of heightened tension with the U.S. over the South China Sea. Washington has also adeptly deployed the tactic. To protest Chinas militarization of artificial structures it has created in the waters, the U.S. earlier this year disinvited the Chinese from participating in the 2018 Rim of the Pacific exercises drills held in the Pacific every two years that bring together the militaries of two dozen nations. China will likely continue finding ways to express its dissatisfaction, without derailing its attempts to resolve the trade war via conciliation. I expect this kind of thing will continue, said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore specializing in U.S.-China relations. Its what the Chinese do when they want to express anger over a particular issue. Beijing took umbrage in August, when U.S. senators pushed for sanctions against seven Chinese officials and two surveillance equipment manufacturers after reports that China is forcing as many as 1 million Muslims into re-education camps in its far western region of Xinjiang. On Monday, Chinas Defense Ministry issued a sharply worded statement expressing dissatisfaction after the U.S. approved the sale of a $330 million military equipment package to Taiwan. Taiwan has been an escalating point of tension between the U.S. and China since Trumps election. Before he took office, he tweeted about his protocol- breaking phone conversation with Tsai Ing-wen, the islands Beijing-skeptic president. He subsequently questioned the One-China policy, which has guided U.S.-China ties since the 1970s. The British warship HMS Albion sailed by the Chinese-occupied Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea earlier this month, adding to Chinas sense that countries were joining forces with the U.S. to stymie its expansion in the waters of which Beijing claims more than 80 percent said Koh. An international arbitration panel in the Hague ruled in 2016 that Chinas claims have no legal standing. Frances Defense Minister Florence Parly said at Junes Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore that French and British naval forces would sail together through certain areas in the South China Sea. The U.S. Navy routinely conducts freedom of so-called freedom of navigation operations to demonstrate its right to sail there. Japan this month held a submarine exercise in the South China Sea. It led Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang to caution that the relevant non- regional country should refrain from undermining peace and security.David Tweed and Jason Koutsoukis, Bloomberg Thousands of people lined the streets of Hanoi yesterday to pay their last respects to Vietnams late President Tran Dai Quang. Many were using smart phones to catch glimpses of his flag-draped coffin as it passed by on a truck-drawn artillery carriage. Quang died last week at age 61 with what a government doctor said was a rare viral illness. In a eulogy, Communist Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong said Quangs passing was a great loss to the country and praised his contributions to the nation. Trong said Quang, who was public security minister before becoming president, had helped to uncover and prevent many sabotage plots of the hostile and reactionary forces and other criminals. As president, Quang, along with other leaders, sped reforms to develop Vietnams socialist market-oriented economy and worked to heighten Vietnams international role, Trong said. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak- Yeon were among dignitaries who paid their respects as Quangs body lay in state at the National Funeral House. He was to be buried in his home village in northern Ninh Binh province later Thursday in accordance with his familys wish instead of the Mai Dich Cemetery in Hanoi where most of the high-ranking officials were buried. Quang became minister of public security in 2011 and was elected by the National Assembly as the nations president in 2016. Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh has been named acting president, the countrys first woman to hold that position. No date has been given for the election of a new president. O'Keefe and Kirk are making headlines and changing the nation's perspective on conservatism. The two shared their experiences and insight into the political and cultural battles that lie ahead. At this year's Gateway Eagle Council in St Louis, alongside longtime patriots such as General Michael Flynn, conservative Ralph Reed and economist Stephen Moore , a new generation of notable conservatives was also recognized, including controversial videographer James O'Keefe and Turning Points USA's Charlie Kirk. Turning Point USA now has chapters like this in over 1000 US colleges and universities James O'Keefe, Project Veritas - Truth in the Digital Age James O'Keefe teased about his soon to be released Project Veritas "Deep State Unmasked" investigation. He spoke about his in-depth undercover investigative effort in pursuit of DC's Deep State, through interviewing and exposing members of the US. government that do not feel bound by the 2016 election results. As O'Keefe said, "Such individuals have no use for the will of the people. They continue to pursue their own personal, political and ideological agendas, as a self-styled "resistance" seeking to bring down the Trump presidency from within." Watch here James O'Keefe's remarks made at Phyllis Schlafly's Gateway Eagle Council XLVII. O'Keefe's project covered a time period of six months. As O'Keefe, recounted: "We will put a face to the name of the people who had to be secretly recorded outside their federal buildings. We will be attacked by the media as unethically recording people without their permission. Undercover reporting is not unethical; however, the media believes privacy belongs to the government and therefore protects those in government who exhibit political views and actions the media agrees with." As O'Keefe said: "Some federal workers might even lose their jobs." It was announced on Wednesday, September 19, 2018, that the US Department of Justice would look into alleged misuse of government resources to advance personal interests, in response to a video from James OKeefes Project Veritas purporting to expose Deep State federal employees. Only time will tell whether the videos will lead to serious investigative work on behalf of the government. James O'Keefe has lived up to his promise. Less than a week after O'Keefe teased attendees at Eagle Council to watch for his release of Project Veritas videos outing Deep State individuals, as of Friday, September 21, there have been three released . The first video in the series, released Tuesday , September 18, showed career civil servant Stuart Karaffa of the State Department boasting of working for the Democratic Socialists of America while hes being paid by taxpayers. He explained his task is: Resist everything. Every level. In the second, two Deep State radicals confessed, Theres a lot of talk about how we can like, resist from inside. In the third video, comments by Natarajan Subramanian, a Government Accountability Office worker and self-described communist, were captured by OKeefes reporter. Natarajan said: If youre in [an] executive branch agency you can slow-ball things to a degree, that its like ineffective, and maybe you get in trouble, or maybe you get fired or resign or whatever, but you slowed [Trumps agenda] down for a certain period of time." Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA - Being Conservative in 2018 Candace Owens of Turning was scheduled to appear at Eagle Council, but she was unable to keep her commitment. Most of you have often seen and heard Charlie Kirk speaks often on TV. Having had his desire to enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point rejected, Kirk decided to delay college by six months. During this period, he started something from nothing at age 18. At age 24, Kirk saw his organization grow to over 1,000 chapters on college campuses. Only in America is this possible! Charlie to the Gateway Eagle Council audience of being invested in a cultural war and how politics is downstream from the cultural war. Students are told America is racist, because land was stolen from the Indians to benefit the white ruling class. In visiting college campuses, students aren't always opposed to what Charlie has to say, he told the attendees. In many cases, students haven't been exposed to the idea that America is a great country but were instead taught to express anger at their country. According to Charlie, when students are asked if they are proud to be American, only 18% respond positively, whereby the number was 54% when Obama was president. While liberals in the past used to listen and then politely declare their right to disagree, this no longer exists. A person must think a certain way because of their skin color. That a black person could ever be a conservative is perceived as a racial statement. As such liberals succeed in controlling people by dividing them into groups. Charlie Kirk spoke of President Trump as the first president who is being attacked for doing what he promised to do, such as dealing with China's trade imbalance, moving our embassy to Israel, and more funding for ICE. In visiting college campuses, Kirk emphasizes the following: America is the greatest country in the history of the world. It's a safer and better place because of a strong America. Our Constitution is the greatest political document ever written. It tells government what it cannot do for us. The Free Market system has made this nation thrive and prosper. Kirk spoke about the great divide that exists on colleges campuses: those thankful to live in America and those who are angry about America. Colleges are teaching a generation of students how to be angry. Many students at Harvard, Yale, and Berkley find nothing good about America. As far as victimhood, the Left loves victims. If you wear the badge of victimhood, you never run out of people to blame for your failure. It becomes a badge of honor, he said. Kirk also spoke about the rise of atheism on college campuses. The Communist Manifesto is the most read book, he said. Many students tell Kirk they don't believe in God, but, as Kirk said, "Without God, there would be no atheists." Kirk concluded with this statement: "The Left has taken over the public schools through the college level; if the Left get back its power, it will likewise go after home schooling." At that night's dinner named for Major General John K. (Jack) Singlaub, Charlie was presented an Eagle Award by John Hoft of Gateway Pundit and Ed Martin, President of Eagle Forum. Charlie Kirk, Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft and Ed Martin of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles The Gateway Eagle Council event was held in what the Marriott St. Louis Airport Hotel refers to as the "Grand Pavilion", but Eagle Council referred to it as the "Presidential Pavilion" because of the many presidential hopefuls it hosted there in 2015. Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit , one of the most influential conservative websites in US politics, joined Eagle Council XLVII, founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972, for this leading mid-America conservative conference. See here this years lineup of top American and European conservative leaders who provided amazing insight about issues facing this nation and in Europe. In Part 1 Thorner spotlighted three of the five notable speakers who spoke under the heading President Trump is Winning at the first scheduled Eagle Council event on Friday, September 14: Ralph Reed, Stephen Moore, and Sam Clovis. Bryan Caplan wrote this in his description of GMU blogger culture: Appealing to your identity is a reason to discount what you say, not a reason to pay extra attention. Bryan explains more, not easy for me to summarize but do read his full account. Let me instead try to state my own views: 1. If someone makes a claim new or foreign to you, and that person comes from a different background in some manner, you probably should up the amount of attention you give that claim because the person is from a different background. Your marginal need to learn from that person is probably above-average, noting of course this can be countermanded by other signals. That said, I recognize that our ability to learn from different others may be below average, given the possible absence of a common conceptual framework. Nonetheless, I say be ambitious in your learning! 2. If someone makes a claim you already disagree with, and that person comes from a different background in some manner, you should try to figure out why that person might see the matter differently. You should try harder, at the margin, precisely because the person is from a different background. Again, this follows from a mix of marginalism and Bayesian reasoning and ambition in learning. 3. When you hear a person from a different background, try not to get too caught up in the identity politics of it, either positively or negatively. Try to steer your thoughts to: People from this background in fact have a wide diversity of views on this topic. Still, I will try to learn from this persons different background. Try not to think: This is how group X feels about issue Y. 4. Ive already noted that you often learn more efficiently from people who come from similar backgrounds as yourself. Even putting language aside, I am more likely to have a fruitful career-enhancing dialogue with another nerdy economist than with a Mongolian sheep-herder. In this regard I worry when I hear an uncritical celebration of intellectual diversity for its own sake. To me it too often sounds like mere mood affiliation, subservient to political ends and devoid of cognitive content. But still, I do not wish to rebel against such sentiments too much. At the end of the day I am left with my intellectual ambition and I really do wish to go visit Mongolia, including for the sheep herders. And to the extent I am informed in some ways that maybe not all of my peers are, the intellectual ambition I am presenting here is a big reason why. I seek to encourage more such ambition, rather than to give people reasons for evading it. Professor Pietro Ghezzi, RM Phillips Chair in Experimental Medicine at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Credit: Brighton and Sussex Medical School Research at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) has found that websites by cosmetic surgery providers offer incomplete information to perspective patients. A study performed by Laura Manley, a fourth year medical student, and Professor Pietro Ghezzi, RM Phillips Chair in Experimental Medicine at BSMS, investigated the first 200 websites returned by a Google search on breast enlargement. In total, 74% of the results were the websites of cosmetic surgery providers followed by price comparison websites (6%). With many women under increasing pressure in regards to their body image, a growing number are choosing to undergo breast augmentation procedures. Figures from 2017 show that almost 300,000 and 28,000 surgeries were performed in the USA and in the UK respectively. Many women initially turn to the internet for information on the procedure, including the costs involved, possible side effects and which surgeon to use. Professor Ghezzi said: "This study found that cosmetic surgery providers' websites failed to provide complete information, "They offered adequate information on the procedure itself, mentioning five aspects of it on average, such as the anesthetic used, the location of the incision and the type of implant. "However, only a quarter of them reported the cost of the procedure or the fact that the procedure is not permanent. Only one in five disclosed the potential limitations of the final result of the implants." These websites were also poor in informing possible clients about the many potential complications of the procedure such as the risk of infections, ruptures and capsular contractures, with only one complication described on average. The complications least mentioned were the need for revision surgery or reoperation (one third of the websites analysed) or the risk of a particular type of lymphoma (one in ten websites). Professor Ghezzi added: "Incomplete information can be a cause for patients not being fully satisfied with the surgery, filing complaints or even resorting to litigation. The study highlights the need for plastic surgeons to develop guidelines for the information that is provided by websites on breast augmentation." Explore further Online information on vaccines and autism not always reliable, study shows More information: Lara Manley et al, The quality of online health information on breast augmentation, Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery (2018). Lara Manley et al, The quality of online health information on breast augmentation,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.bjps.2018.07.023 Standing just three matchboxes tall, a new device out of the University of Texas is expected to make surveillance of a mosquito species known for carrying deadly diseases quick and easy. Researchers created a tool with which users can crush a dead mosquito and add a mixture of chemicals to it. After a half-hour wait, the blend is poured into a small 3-D-printed box, where blue LED lights are cast onto it. If the blend glows green, the mosquito belongs to the Aedes aegypti species, which can carry the Zika virus, dengue, chikungunya or yellow fever, research associate Sanchita Bhadra and research educator Tim Riedel said. Symptoms of Zika, which has affected two people in Texas this year, include joint pain, red eyes, fever and an itchy rash, Texas Department of State Health Services officials said. This year's cases have been travel-related and occurred in Williamson and Collin counties, they said. Travis County had one Zika case last year and 18 in 2016, state health data show. Statewide, eight Zika cases were reported in 2015, 315 cases in 2016 and 55 cases in 2017. Right now, the UT researchers' device can only help identify which mosquitoes belong to the Aedes aegypti species and whether a mosquito has come into contact with Wolbachia, bacteria that can help reduce the spread of some diseases. But in the future, researchers want the device to be able to identify whether a mosquito is carrying specific diseases, such as Zika or West Nile virus. The device, which took two years to create, is meant to be friendly enough to be used by anyone, Riedel said. "Our goal has been always to have this device work in the field without needing too many steps," Bhadra said. The tool also helps make surveillance of mosquitoes a faster and cheaper experience, she said, so it is easier to anticipate a possible disease outbreak and help public health officials jump into action. "What surveillance allows us to do is basically figure out what is coming," Bhadra said. "We are hoping that our field system ... would allow surveillance to be done in a much more regular and widespread manner." Mosquitoes breed more in warmer months, said Department of State Health Services spokesman Chris Van Deusen. They like hanging out in standing water, which state health officials recommend you drain to avoid them. To prevent mosquito bites, Texans can use an insect repellent that contains DEET, wear long sleeves and pants when the sun is rising and setting, use air conditioning, and put screens on all doors and windows at home, state health officials said. 2018 Austin American-Statesman, Texas Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. New ovarian cancer research reveals how to better match patients with the right treatment. (L-R) Dr Olga Kondrashova and Professor Clare Scott led the research. Credit: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Australian scientists have revealed a better way to identify which patients should respond to powerful ovarian cancer drugs called PARP inhibitors (PARPi), resolving an important question in ovarian cancer care about why some patients respond to these drugs, while others do not. The findings add to a vital 'checklist' that helps to match ovarian cancer patients with the right therapy for their cancer. Being able to offer targeted treatment is crucial for patient survival rates which have seen little improvement over the past 30 years. The study, published today in Nature Communications, was led by Professor Clare Scott, Dr. Olga Kondrashova, Dr. Matthew Wakefield and Dr. Monique Topp from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute; in collaboration with Associate Professor Alexander Dobrovic from the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and LaTrobe University School of Medicine. Subtle yet significant differences Professor Scott said it was well documented that PARPi could only work when the cancer's DNA repair process wasn't functioning as it should. "For the past two decades, it was thought that ovarian cancer patients whose cancer's BRCA1 genes are 'silenced' - or methylatedhave faulty DNA repair and therefore were good candidates for PARPi treatment. "Yet the puzzling thing was we were unable to predict the patients for which the drugs would work," she said. Dr. Kondrashova said the 'Eureka moment' came when the researchers discovered subtle differences in some BRCA1 methylated cancers. These subtle yet significant epigenetic differences explained why some patients would respond to the drug, while others would not. "It was suddenly clear that all patients in the group could not be treated the same way. We discovered that some of the patients had what could be described as 'incomplete' BRCA1 methylation where not every gene copy was 'switched off'. "As it turns out, incomplete methylation isn't enough to cause faulty DNA repair in cancer cells which explains why PARPi isn't going to be effective for these patients," she said. "At the same time, those in the group who had 'complete' BRCA1 methylation in their cancer were responsive to PARPi confirming to us that the treatment should not be discounted," Dr. Kondrashova said. 'Snap shots' at key points Professor Scott said the findings were a result of quality data sets and sophisticated laboratory models called patient derived xenografts (PDX models). "PDX models are powerful because they mimic the complexity of human tumours at key stages as the cancer progresses. "Our models are developed with cancerous tissue donated by patients from the Royal Women's Hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter Mac at the time of their cancer diagnosis, or prior to and after treatment with PARPi" she said. "Like 'snap shots' in time, PDX models allow us to accurately track how each patient's cancer is changing or responding to treatment. The success of this approach shows that a long-term, detailed analysis is invaluable for providing better patient care," she said. No 'one size fits all' Professor Scott said understanding the various reasons for PARPi resistance was vital for developing better, more personalised patient care. "There is no 'one size fits all' approach for ovarian cancer care. We need to keep making these strides in understanding so we can better match patients with the right treatment for their cancer," she said. Explore further Targeting gene mutations to treat ovarian cancers Credit: CC0 Public Domain Children and teens who experience mental illness are at increased risk for adverse mental health and social outcomes as adults, a study by the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) at the University of Manitoba shows. Being diagnosed with a mental illness before the age of 18, the study found, increases the likelihood of adverse experiences in adulthood, including suicidal behaviour, not graduating from high school, requiring income assistance and being involved with the justice system. "Other childhood factors, such as income and family structure, explain some of the association between childhood mental illness and adult difficulties, but the risk remained strong even after adjusting for those factors," said the study's lead author, Dr. Mariette Chartier, assistant professor of community health sciences at the Max Rady College of Medicine in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. "Our findings indicate that childhood mental illness puts kids at significant risk for ongoing challenges later in life. When a child has an illness such as anxiety, depression or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it is likely to cloud their adult life. "This strongly highlights the need for mental illness prevention and improved mental health services for this age group." MCHP conducted the study, "Mental Illness Among Adult Manitobans, for Manitoba Health" to assist it in developing Manitoba's Mental Health and Addictions Strategy. Chartier's team used the Manitoba Population Research Data Repository, which is housed at MCHP and allows researchers to trace individuals' interactions with the health, social service, education and justice systems without the individuals being personally identified. The researchers focused on more than 60,000 Manitobans born between 1980/81 and 1984/85. They analyzed the de-identified data about these children as they grew into their 30s. More than 16 per cent of individuals in this cohort were diagnosed with a mental disorder during their childhood or teen years. Two-thirds of individuals diagnosed as children were still living with the same condition as adults. Manitobans who were hospitalized for attempted suicide before age 18 were three times more likely to die by suicide and six times more likely to be re-hospitalized for attempted suicide in adulthood. The study also took a "snapshot" of adult mental illness in Manitoba from 2010/11 to 2014/15, using a database of virtually all Manitobans. In this five-year period, about 28 per cent of adults were diagnosed with at least one of the mental illnesses examined in the study. The most prevalent illnesses were mood and anxiety disorders (a category that includes depression), diagnosed in 23 per cent of adults, and substance use disorders, diagnosed in six per cent of adults. The prevalence of mental illness has remained stable since MCHP's last five-year report in 2004. The suicide rate is also unchanged since the 2004 report. "The actual prevalence of mental disorders is undoubtedly higher," Chartier said. "The figure of 28 per cent only represents adults who were diagnosed by doctors or nurse practitioners. We don't have data for people who seek help from professionals such as psychologists and social workers. We also know that many people with mental disorders never seek treatment." In both rural and urban regions, the prevalence of mental illness increased as average neighbourhood income decreased. The same was true for the rate of suicide attempts. Compared to the general population, a higher rate of mental illness was found among adults living in personal care homes, those receiving income assistance, those living in social housing and those involved in the justice system, either as accused or victims. The study wasn't able to say which came first the illness or the life circumstances only that there is an association between being in these groups and mental illness. Rates of suicide and attempted suicide were also higher in these groups. The study's recommendations include: Increase mental health promotion, mental illness prevention and suicide prevention efforts Strengthen mental health services and improve access to them Develop the mental health skills and knowledge of the workforce, in health care and beyond Address health inequities Support mental health research Co-ordinate services among government departments, including health, social services, education and justice Explore further Signs of risky alcohol use often missed in Manitobans, study finds More information: Mariette Chartier et al. Mental Illness Among Adult Manitobans. Mariette Chartier et al. Mental Illness Among Adult Manitobans. umanitoba.ca/faculties/health_ c_Launch-mh2015.html (HealthDay)In a rare bipartisan move, both the House and Senate have reached a compromise on legislation to address the opioid epidemic. Containing a mix of law enforcement and public health measures, including one that aims to block deadly fentanyl from being imported through the mail and one that will allow more nurses to prescribe medication for opioid addiction, the bill is 653 pages long, The New York Times reported. Yet another part of the legislation could make it easier for Medicaid recipients to get inpatient care for substance abuse over the next five years, the newspaper said. But addiction experts say that while many of the measures will help incrementally, the investment still falls short of what is needed to stem the tide of opioid abuse. Nearly 50,000 Americans died in opioid-related deaths in 2017, The Times reported. Both chambers still need to vote on the compromise bill. The House could vote this week, before its members adjourn to hit the campaign trail, and the Senate could take it up next week. Explore further Administration sends states $1B in grants to battle opioids More information: The New York Times Article Copyright 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Credit: Peter Griffin/Public Domain A study published in Scientific Reports by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Brazil, in partnership with colleagues in the United States and Norway, shows that the lack of muscle stimulus results in a buildup of inadequately processed proteins in muscle cells and consequently leads to muscle weakness or wasting. This is a typical muscle dysfunction condition that affects the elderly or individuals suffering from sciatic nerve injury, something usually verified in bedridden patients or workers who spend long hours sitting. From tests with rats with induced sciatic nerve injurywhich, therefore, stopped receiving stimuliresearchers found that this buildup was caused by the impairment of autophagy, the cellular machinery responsible for identifying and removing damaged proteins and toxins. The analysis of a group of rats subjected to a regime of aerobic exercise training previous to the injury allowed the scientists to demonstrate that physical exercise can keep the autophagic system primed and facilitate its activity when necessary, as in the case of muscle dysfunction due to the lack of stimulus. "Daily exercise sensitizes the autophagic system, facilitating the elimination of proteins and organelles that aren't functional in the muscles. Removal of these dysfunctional components is very important; when they accumulate, they become toxic and contribute to muscle cell impairment and death," said Julio Cesar Batista Ferreira, a professor in the university's Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP) and principal investigator for the study. Ferreira offered an analogy to help explain muscle cell autophagy. "Imagine the muscles working in a similar manner to a refrigerator, which needs electricity to run. If this signal ceases because you pull the plug on the fridge or block the neurons that innervate the muscles, before long, you find that the food in the fridge and the proteins in the muscles will start to spoil at different speeds according to their composition," told the researcher, who was supported by the Sao Paulo Research FoundationFAPESP. "At this point, an early warning mechanism, present in cells but not yet in fridges, activates the autophagic system, which identifies, isolates and 'incinerates' the defective material, preventing propagation of the damage. However, if the muscle does not receive the right electric signal for long periods, the early warning mechanism stops working properly, and this contributes to cell collapse." Spoiled food in a broken fridge corresponds to proteins that instead of performing their proper function form toxic aggregates, which start killing cells. Autophagy can isolate these proteins and destroy them in lysosomes, intracellular organelles that degrade and recycle waste. "Without autophagy, a cascade effect occurs, leading to cell death," said Juliane Cruz Campos. Campos developed part of the study described in Scientific Reports during her Ph.D. research. First author of the article, she is currently engaged in postdoctoral research under Ferreira's supervision with a scholarship from FAPESP. Experimentmethod In the latest study, rats were submitted to sciatic nerve ligation surgery, creating an effect equivalent to that of sciatic nerve compression in humans. The pain it causes prevents the individual from using the affected leg, and eventually the muscles concerned weaken and atrophy. Before the surgical procedure, the rats were divided into two groups. One remained sedentary, and the other was given exercise training that consisted of running at 60% of maximum aerobic capacity for an hour a day, five days a week. After four weeks of exercise training, the surgery was performed, and the muscular dysfunction induced by sciatic nerve injury was found to be less aggressive in the aerobic exercise group than in the sedentary group. Functional and biochemical parameters in the affected muscles were also evaluated at that time. "The exercise training increased autophagic flux and hence reduced dysfunctional protein levels in the muscles of the animals. At the same time, the exercise improved the muscle tissue's contractility properties," said the FAPESP scholarship holder. "Exercise is a transient stress that leaves a memory in the organism, in this case via the autophagic system," Ferreira explained. "When the organism is subjected to other kinds of stress, it's better prepared to respond and combat the effects." Proof of concept The researchers performed two other experiments designed to investigate the link between exercise and autophagy more deeply. One experiment used mice in which the autophagy-related gene ATG7 was silenced in the skeletal muscle. ATG7 encodes a protein responsible for synthesizing a vesicle called the autophagosome that forms around dysfunctional organelles and transports them to the lysosome, where they are broken down and digested. This experiment validated the importance of autophagy in muscle biology because ATG7 knockout mice that had not been subjected to sciatic nerve ligation nevertheless displayed muscular dysfunction. In the other experiment, muscles from rats with sciatic nerve injury and control rats (without the injury) were treated with a drug called chloroquine, which inhibits autophagy by raising the lysosomal pH (alkalinity) and hence prevents the degradation of defective proteins. "The tests showed less muscle strength in the control animals treated with the drug than in the untreated group. Chloroquine had no effect on the muscles of rats with sciatic nerve injury, proving that the inhibition of autophagy is critical to muscular dysfunction caused by the lack of stimulus," Ferreira said. The researchers stress that their studies do not aim to find a treatment for sciatica, one of the most common types of pain. The idea is to use the experimental model in further research to understand the cellular processes involved in muscle dysfunction. This will facilitate the development of new drugs and nonpharmacological interventions capable of minimizing or reversing an increasingly serious problem in contemporary societies, namely, muscle weakness and atrophy due to a lack of movement, especially among the elderly. "If we can identify a molecule that selectively keeps the autophagic system on alert, in a similar manner to what happens during physical exercise, we may be able to develop a drug that can be given to people with muscle dysfunction due to a lack of stimulus, such as patients with immobilized limbs, people who are bedridden for long periods, and even patients with [degenerative] muscular diseases," Ferreira said. Explore further Resistance training enhances recycling capacity in muscles More information: Juliane C. Campos et al, Exercise prevents impaired autophagy and proteostasis in a model of neurogenic myopathy, Scientific Reports (2018). Journal information: Scientific Reports Juliane C. Campos et al, Exercise prevents impaired autophagy and proteostasis in a model of neurogenic myopathy,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-30365-1 Credit: CC0 Public Domain From fires to floods, older adults are disproportionately affected in disasters. In honor of National Preparedness Month, USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology experts offer age-friendly advice on how to better prepare for these life-threatening situations. 1. Caregivers: be proactive People serving as caregivers to adults with memory problems must prepare not only for the dangers of a disaster, but also be prepared so that their loved one does not go missing during the disaster. Donna Benton, a research associate professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School, says that caregivers must take extra steps so others can identify and communicate with these older adults. "Wearable items such as clothes and underwear need to have labels with names and emergency contacts," says Benton. "Registration with a national program like MedicAlert Safe Return is advised. Also, the family caregiver needs some ID on them at all times saying they are responsible for someone at home and contact information to a neighbor, family member or friend who knows about the care receiver's situation." Benton recommends discussing with your neighbors and local fire department, letting them know about the older adults in their neighborhood so they can act with care during an emergency. 2. Governments have more work to do Before Hurricane Katrina, emergency preparedness plans were scarce. Now, cities and states have been making plans and doing more to protect our most vulnerable citizens, according to Caroline Cicero, instructional assistant professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School. Los Angeles is a key example. The city's Purposeful Aging Initiative added Emergency Preparedness and Resilience as one of its active domains. Additionally, Los Angeles' Age-Friendly Action Plan spells out steps for preparations and reaching older Angelenos in emergencies. But, preparedness plans are still lacking. "Unfortunately, we now have confirmation that last year's hurricanes in Puerto Rico left thousands of older people dead," says Cicero. "Governments need to address the problem honestly so we can work to prevent such devastation in coming emergencies." Cicero advises residents to look out for their older and less mobile neighbors. Awareness is key. 3. Professionals have the powerand the responsibility Who better to assist older adults in disasters than professionals in the aging field? With proximity and knowledge, they can help plan and implement preparedness processes, according to Haley Gallo, a Ph.D. student at the USC Leonard Davis School. "It is imperative that social workers, case managers, gerontologists, and other aging service professionals in counties throughout the United States help older adults effectively prepare for a range of natural and man-made emergencies in an efficient and culturally appropriate way," writes Gallo, the lead author of a recent article on the topic. Gallo and colleagues also provide suggestions, including finding alternatives to "Stop, Drop, and Roll" during a fire if mobility is an issue and preparing individualized emergency kits with items like glasses and prescribed medications. Explore further Physicians and practices should prepare for emergencies NOTICE: TO BE CLEAR: WE HAVE OUTLINED UNDER OUR RECORD MAINTENANCE POLICY WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE A FAIR PROCESS FOR ALL. SIMPLY PUT: IF THE COURT SAW FIT TO EXPUNGE YOUR RECORD,SO WILL WE, FREE OF CHARGE. ARRESTS DO NOT IMPLY GUILT AND CRIMINAL CHARGES ARE MERELY ACCUSATIONS,EVERYONE IS PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW AND CONVICTED. FCRA DISCLAIMER: MUGSHOTS.COM DOES NOT PROVIDE CONSUMER REPORTS AND IS NOT A CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY. OUR DATABASE CANNOT BE USED TO MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT CONSUMER CREDIT, EMPLOYMENT, INSURANCE, TENANT SCREENING, OR ANY OTHER PURPOSES THAT WOULD REQUIRE FCRA COMPLIANCE. MUGSHOTS.COM PARTICIPATES IN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS WITH VARIOUS COMPANIES. WE MAY EARN A COMMISSION WHEN YOU CLICK ON OR MAKE PURCHASES VIA LINKS. MUGSHOTS.COM IS AN AGGREGATOR OF THE TODAYS CRIME NEWS. IN EACH FRONT-PAGE POST, THE HYPERLINK TO THE PRIMARY SOURCE IS SPECIFIED. 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MOST OF, IF NOT ALL MUGSHOT LAWS WERE CRAFTED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM FEES FOR REMOVAL OF ONLINE MUGSHOTS AND TO FURTHER PROTECT THE PRESS FROM THOSE VERY SAME "MUGSHOT LAWS".WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR REMOVAL OF ARREST INFORMATION AND/OR BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. MORE... Collin County, TX - Texas man was arrested on Wednesday after being caught allegedly committing sexual acts on a 3-year-old child that he was supposed to be babysitting. James De La Vega, 50, of Plano, was looking after three children for two women who had gone out on Tuesday night. When they returned home to a residence on Pagoda Drive in Anna they found the suspect performing a sex act on the girl, Dallas Morning News reported. Citing police chief Jeff Caponera, the newspaper said that De La Vega now faces a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Bail has not been set and he remains in the county jail. Law enforcement records showed the suspect had no previous criminal record in the region. CBS Dallas Fort Worth reported, also citing police chief Caponera, that the child's mother had gone out with a friend. De La Vega was identified as the father of the friend. The children had been left at the friend's home. Caponera declined to elaborate on what sexual act the suspect was caught performing on the victim, but said that it was quite honestly, disgusting. On Facebook, police wrote: While you were sleeping in the early morning hours, Anna officers responded to a report of a sexual assault of a child that had just occurred. Anna detectives worked in conjunction with investigators from the Collin County Child Advocacy Center and determined there was enough probable cause to arrest James De La Vega, a 50-year-old resident of Plano, for committing sexual acts on a three-year-old child. It continued: De La Vega was arrested and was taken to the Collin County jail. Another child sexual predator taken off our streets by the efforts of your Anna Texas Police Department. If he is convicted of the crime, De La Vega could face between 25 years to life in prison. The extended penalty, the Dallas Morning News reported, would be due to a Texas law that was passed in 2007 which boosted sentencing for those accused of sexual-assault on children. An investigation into the allegation is ongoing, spearheaded by the Anna police and the Collin County Child Advocacy Center. No additional names or ages have been made public. Macomb County, MI - A disturbing and graphic video appearing to show a hulking bodybuilder pummel his girlfriend surfaced Wednesday as the man remains jailed in Michigan after what attorneys are calling a roid rage attack. The footage, obtained by Fox2Detroit, shows 35-year-old Paul Bashi punching, kicking and throwing lit candles at 22-year-old Kristina Perry inside his rental home in Washington Township in late July. At one point in the video, his arm is covered in blood as he heaves a canister at Perry, who is pressed up against a wall and a couch. Time and time and time again this defendant beat her as she lay motionless on the ground, Assistant Macomb County Prosecutor Jordan Fields told a court Monday, according to the Macomb Daily. How she did not die, I have no idea. She should have died that day, judge. Bashi is currently in Macomb County Jail on a $5 million bond and is facing one count of assault with intent to murder and one count of controlled substance with intent to deliver/manufacture. Investigators that responded to the home after the attack were reported to have found cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy and a substance that contains human growth hormone. The defendant at that time was using great quantities of steroids preparing for a national body-building competition, his attorney, David Griem, said during the court hearing Monday, according to the Macomb Daily. I believe that what happened that day was something thats referred to as roid rage, short for steroid rage. County prosecutors say Perry was kicked more than 100 times and was stabbed repeatedly during the 40-minute assault. Bashi was arrested after neighbors found Perry on the homes front porch. Perry has recovered after being in a coma for days but then appeared this week at the hearing to ask for the charges against Bashi to be dropped. She told the judge she wanted the defendant out of jail, and told the judge that it was her fault this happened, Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith told Fox2Detroit. The judge handling the case reportedly referred the matter to Macomb County Community Corrections and asked the agency to investigate further. Smith though said defendants often put pressure on the victim to dismiss the charges. Our office handles about 2,500 domestic violence cases a year, he said in an interview with Fox2Detroit. Of those cases 60 percent of the victims either recant their story or dont show up to the court at all. If you see someone going through this and you think someone is going through this, even though they say they are not they are afraid to come forward, he added. You have got to step in and help. The Minister of Telecommunications will soon publish a draft Policy Direction for the assignment of high-demand spectrum, the ministry told MyBroadband. This draft Policy Direction is scheduled to be gazetted next week and will be open for comments. [Update: It has been gazetted.] After considering public comments, the minister will issue a final Policy Direction to ICASA which will enable them to start their processes for licensing. A spokesperson estimated that the legislative requirements will be met sometime in November, after which the spectrum licensing process may begin. The minister also aims to license outstanding 4G and digital dividend spectrum by March 2019. Director-general of the Department of Telecommunications Robert Nkuna said that when the assignment process kicks off, they plan to allocate spectrum in the 2.6GHz, 700MHz, and 800MHz frequency bands. It is worth noting that the 700MHz and 800MHz bands will only be available when South Africa completes its migration from analogue to digital TV broadcasting. The deadline for the migration is June 2019. Burying the hatchet ICASA and the ministry also recently announced that they settled a spectrum licensing matter which was before the court. The regulator issued an invitation to apply for certain frequency bands in 2016, ahead of the ministrys publication of its National ICT Policy White Paper and without waiting for a directive from Minister Siyabonga Cwele. Cwele took ICASA to court, and obtained an interdict preventing the regulator from licensing the spectrum until the case was resolved. The matter has now been withdrawn. The Minister of Telecommunications Siyabonga Cwele has invited the public to comment on the draft of the spectrum policy direction for ICASA. Cweles policy direction will instruct ICASA to issue an invitation to apply (ITA) for high-demand telecommunications radio frequency spectrum. This spectrum represents the capacity of a wireless network, such as those built by Vodacom and MTN. South Africas mobile networks have been pleading with ICASA for years to assign them more spectrum. Cwele will also direct ICASA to issue the necessary ITAs to license the wholesale open access network (WOAN). This includes the licence it needs to operate as a network provider, and the spectrum it needs to operate a wholesale cellular network. As per the hybrid model compromise reached between Cwele and network providers, the WOAN is to receive a portion of the available spectrum while the rest will be licensed to the industry. In exchange, any operator which receives a licence to use high-demand spectrum must buy some of the WOANs capacity to ensure that a minimum of 30% of the available capacity is spoken for. This is to ensure that the WOAN is sustainable, and that operators dont simply focus on building their own networks using their own spectrum. An additional requirement on those who receive spectrum is that they must open up their networks to the WOAN on a wholesale open access basis. CSIR spectrum requirement for the WOAN Cwele has also published an abridged version of the spectrum requirements report prepared by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Cweles policy direction, as it stands in draft, directs ICASA to consider the recommendations of the CSIR study. The key recommendations the CSIR made were as follows: Consider setting aside only a portion of spectrum for the WOAN, and the remaining to other licensees. Consider 20% of possible user population in 2020 as a baseline to ensure viability of WOAN that is 10.3 million users by 2020, requiring 40MHz of downlink spectrum. The following spectrum combinations should be set aside for the WOAN as a minimum. These satisfy the baseline user population, as well as provide enough capacity for high-end users: 2 25MHz in the 800 band (Band 20). 2 20MHz in the 2600 band, configured in frequency-division duplex (Band 7). 25MHz of the 2600 band, configured in time-division duplex (Band 38). Interested persons have until 8 November 2018 to provide written comments on the policy and policy direction. Now read: Ramaphosa told Telecommunications Minister to speed up 4G and 5G spectrum AMERICAN CANYON COMMUNITY CHURCH Worship at 10 a.m. Programs for children and youth during worship service. 2 Andrew Road, American Canyon. ARBOR ALLIANCE Join us Sundays at 5 p.m. Why 5 p.m. worship? It is a good time for busy people and young families. Kids church and nursery available. 721 Trancas St., Napa. thearborchurch.org; 530-304-4704. BEIT ABBA Messianic Jewish ministry of The Fathers House is held the first and third Friday of each month at 7 p.m. Child care provided for ages infant to 7 years old. 2557 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa. tfh.org/beitabba. CARMELITE MONASTERY Mass times: Sunday, 9 a.m.; Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. Confession Days for English and Spanish: Mondays and Fridays, 10 a.m.-noon; 3-5 p.m.; 8-9 p.m. First Saturdays: Confessions at 10 a.m. followed by Mass at 11 a.m. 944-2454. oakvillecarmelites.org. CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING Services are 9 and 10:30 a.m. with Teen Group at 10 and Youth Program at 10:30. Rev. Jay Lang's topic is "The Silence of Prayer." Saturday, Sept. 29, Paint and Cleanup Day, 8 a.m.-noon. Spanish Meditation Mondays 7- 8 p.m. Open Meditation Wednesdays 6:30- 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, Community Vision Day 9:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. Men's Spirit follows at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, Spiritual Cinema Night, 7 p.m. 1249 Coombs, 252-4847. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH Sunday service and Sunday school for youths up to age 20 at 10 a.m. The Wednesday evening service is at 7:30. Child care provided at all services. New hours for the Reading Room, located in our church building, open to the public weekdays except Wednesdays, 1-4 p.m. All current Christian Science literature, including the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the renowned Christian Science Monitor, are available to all to read or purchase; 2210 Second St., Napa; 255-5255; christiansciencenapa.com. CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, NAPA SECOND WARD Sacrament meeting is each Sunday at 10 a.m., followed by Sunday School at 11:15 and Priesthood and Relief Society at 12:10 p.m. Young mens and young womens programs are on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Corner of Trower Avenue and Dry Creek Road, Napa. 224-6496. CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM We will celebrate Sukkot on Friday, Sept. 28, 5 p.m. at Hagafen Cellars, 4160 Silverado Trail. Join us with Lulav and Etrog in the Sukka. Pot luck dinner to follow. Saturday, Sept. 29 join a joyful celebration of Simchat Torah at CBS, 5 p.m. Singing, dancing and pizza will be enjoyed. Space is still available for the L'Chaim Harvest wine tasting festival on Oct. 27. cbsnapa.org. 1455 Elm Street, Napa, 253-7305. CORNERSTONE MINISTRIES Sunday service is at 10:15 a.m. Spanish Church begins at 1:30 p.m. Sunday school and childcare are available at both services. Our midweek service is at 6:30 on Wednesday nights. There is childcare and childrens activities at this service. Middle school and high school study meets on Wednesday nights, as well, at 6:30 in the Youth Room. 3305 Linda Vista Ave., Napa; 252-2909. cmnv.org. COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH This week, our new pastor, the Rev. Jesse Larson, examines text from Luke 5:17-26, which reminds us, among other messages, to seek forgiveness. We ask for hearts that try new ways of loving others. We ask for renewed strength. Liturgist, Carla Yost, will assist. The Covenant Choir will delight us with harmony, and Ted Lassagne on grand piano will lead our favorite hymns. Oct. 7 at 4 p.m. will be our annual Blessing of the Animals. 255-9426. cpcnapa.org. CREEKSIDE COMMUNITY CHURCH Weekly worship service is Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Services and attire are casual with a blend of fellowship, music and teaching. Child care and childrens church offered during service. 1050 Hagen Road, Napa. CreeksideChurchNapa.org. 255-7266. CROSSWALK COMMUNITY CHURCH New service times are be 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. with children's programs available during the 10 a.m. service. Our new teaching series led by Dr. Peter R. Shaw, Senior Pastor is "Me. Free." You are invited to join Pastor Pete for Praxis -- Integrating deep faith into real life -- on Wednesdays at 11 a.m. and again at 6:30 p.m. Join us for service at 9:30 a.m. in the Courtyard. Childrens programs available during this time. 2590 First St., 226-1812, crosswalknapa.org. FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH We welcome you to come and experience First Christian Church. Our current sermon series "Decisions, Decisions Jumping into a New Season of Faith," will inspire you as you make the little and big decisions of life. Our Sunday service is at 10 a.m. and Kids Ministry has a great time planned for your kids (babies through 5th graders). Students@First for Middle and High Schoolers is at 6:30 p.m. 2659 First Street www.fccnapa.org FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Wesley Simmonds, our Youth Director, will be preaching and his sermon title is A New Kind of Love, with a scripture reference of John 4:4-42. We sing hymns at 9 a.m. worship and we have praise music at 10:30 a.m. worship. Childcare for newborn to age 4 is available each week. Our weekly Sunday School programs are: The Path Sunday School for kids at 10:30; The Friendship Class at 10; The Adult Bible Study at 10:30. 1333 Third St., 224-8693, fpcnapa.org, facebook.com/fpcnapa, look for us on Givelify. GRACE CHURCH OF NAPA VALLEY Worship service at 9 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. Adult Sunday school classes at 9 a.m. Childrens service at 9 and 10:40 a.m. Nursery and preschool care available. Junior high ministry meets Tuesday at 7 p.m.; high school meets Thursday at 7 p.m. at 3765 Solano Ave., Napa. 255-4033, GraceNapa.org. HIGHLANDS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP If youre a regular church attendee, never been or maybe its just been awhile, we invite you to come join us this Sunday and start the adventure with us at 10:30 a.m. Spanish speaking service on Sunday evenings at 6:30. Alcoholics Anonymous group meets weekly on Monday and Wednesdays from 6-7 p.m. 970 Petrified Forest Road, Calistoga. HILLSIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCH We meet at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. at 100 Anderson Road, Napa. 255-3036. hccnapa.com. HOLY FAMILY PARISH Holy Mass is celebrated at 9 a.m. on Sundays and in the traditional Tridentine Latin (Extraordinary) form of the Roman Rite, according to the 1962 Missal, at noon. Before Low Masses, there is a recitation of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary at 11:30 a.m. Confession is available after every Low Mass. Holy Family Parish is a Catholic mission-parish of St. Joan of Arc in Yountville. 1241 Niebaum Lane, Rutherford. 944-2461. HOLY GROUND CHRISTIAN CENTER Sunday worship begins at 10 a.m., and Bible study is Wednesday at 7 p.m. 3860 Broadway, Suite 111, American Canyon. 373-2015. LIVING VINE CHURCH We meet every Sunday morning at 10. 3305 Linda Vista Avenue, Napa. 226-5551. MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT VETERANS HOME OF CALIFORNIA, YOUNTVILLE Sunday worship service 10:15 a.m. Coffee fellowship one hour before service. Bible study on Wednesday at 1 p.m., Fellowship Room, with refreshments served; prayer meetings Thursday at 1 p.m. The memorial chapel is on the Veterans Home at Yountville campus on California Drive, across from the administration building. 944-4840. The public is welcome. MONT LA SALLE CHAPEL Roman Catholic liturgical services are open to all in this chapel of the De la Salle Christian Brothers at 4401 Redwood Road, Napa. Sunday Mass is celebrated at 11 a.m. NAPA COMMUNITY SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH Please join us on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. for Sabbath School and Connection Classes. Stay for the worship service at 11:15 a.m. Our Community Services is open on Tuesday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon at 2110 Seminary St., 252-8552, Napacomm.com, 1105 G St., Napa, 252-2444. NAPA METHODIST CHURCH We are a progressive church where ALL people are welcome. Sunday, Sept. 30 at 9:30 a.m., Sanctuary Worship hear Pastor Marylee Sheffer's "Grace, Memory, and Mathematical Hyperbole" based on Matthew 18:21-35 (Common English Bible) The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. At 11 a.m. Fusion Worship & Holy Communion, hear a Conversation about Joy with Keith Calara and Mimi Sheffer. 625 Randolph St., Napa, 253-1411. NAPA FRIENDS MEETING (QUAKERS) Sunday worship at 10 a.m. Silent meeting in the custom of Friends. Meet at the VOICES Youth Center, 780 Lincoln Ave., Napa. Enter at parking lot on left side of building, using door at end of wheelchair ramp. Quaker signs will be posted on Sunday mornings. We welcome visiting friends or those who are new to Quaker practice. Childrens program available with advance notice. nvquaker@gmail.com; 253-1505. NAPA VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH Join us Sundays at 9:30 a.m. for Bible Study for all ages, 10:30 a.m. for worship service and a fun, interactive and energetic childrens program for preschool through fifth grade. Nursery provided for all Sunday services. 2303 Trower Ave., Napa. napavalleybaptist.org; 252-2100. NAPA VALLEY BIBLE CHAPEL Bill Davis will continue a series on the book of Joshua in the 11 a.m. Bible hour on Sunday, Sept. 30. We start Sunday services by remembering the Lords death, burial and resurrection during a time of worship and thanksgiving at 9:30 a.m., followed by a fellowship and coffee time starting at 10:30 a.m. At 11 a.m., we enjoy a time of Bible teaching. On Wednesdays at 6 p.m., we meet for a brief Bible study and a time of prayer. 1559 Second St., Napa. napavalleybiblechapel.com. NAPA VALLEY COMMUNITY CHURCH Services are at 10 a.m. Who are the most important people who ever lived? Who changed the world more than anyone else? This Sunday we are going to open Gods Word to Romans 5 and look at two people who changed the world more than anyone else in history. Join us for this study. Childcare and Sunday school provided, and please stay and join us for a potluck right after the service. 4149 Linda Vista, Napa. NapaValleyChurch.org. NVCC is a ministry of the Christian Reformed Church. NAPA VALLEY LUTHERAN Sunday worship at 10 am. Includes Children's Time. Fellowship time follows. All are welcome. Church is located at Jefferson and Elm. 226-8166, napavalleylutheran.org . NAPA VALLEY UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS On Sept. 30, 9:30 a.m., Rev. Christian Schmidt will present Engaging Our History. Come be a part of talking about the history of what we now know as the Napa Valley Unitarian Universalists. 11 a.m. Our History Traditional service with Rev. Christian Schmidt and Sunday Service Assistant, Vicki Wolf. 1625 Salvador Ave. Napa, 226-9220. NEW LIFE TABERNACLE Sunday school at 10 a.m., followed by worship service at 11. Sunday evening service the first Sunday of every month. Bible study on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. 2625 First St., Napa. 255-1062; NewLifeNapa.com. ST. APOLLINARIS CATHOLIC CHURCH All masses are in English. Visitors are welcome. Sunday Mass times: 7:30, 9 and 10:30 a.m., noon, and 5:30 p.m., Saturday Evening (Vigil for Sunday) 4:30 p.m. Daily Mass Times: Monday-Friday: 7 and 8:45 a.m.; Saturday: 8:45 a.m . Confession: Saturdays: 3:30-4:15 p.m., Monday-Friday: 6:30-6:50 a.m., Monday-Saturday: 8:15-8:35 a.m. 3700 Lassen St., Napa. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST St. John the Baptist Church holds daily masses in English at 7:30 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. Weekend masses are Saturday at 5 p.m. (English) and 7 p.m. (Spanish) and Sunday 8 a.m. (Spanish), 10 a.m. (English), noon (Spanish), and 5 p.m. (English). Wednesday evening mass at 7 (Spanish). Corner of Caymus and Yajome streets in downtown Napa. ST. JOHNS LUTHERAN CHURCH Sunday services are at 8:30 and 10:15 a.m. The early service makes use of traditional Lutheran liturgy and hymns, with the singing led by the organ. The 10:15 service is more informal in style with the singing led by the band. Childrens church is offered during the 10:15 service for preschool through 4th grade. ST. MARYS EPISCOPAL CHURCH Worship on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. or Sundays at 8 a.m. or 10 a.m. (organ and choir). Childrens Chapel (Sunday school) is at 9:50 a.m. Sunday. Nursery care is provided during the 10 a.m. service. Coffee hour follows the worship services on Sunday. 1917 Third St., Napa. 255-0991; StMarysNapa.org. ST. STEPHENS ANGLICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH Sunday at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m., sung using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Refreshments and social time after the 10:30 service. 1250 Oakville Grade, Oakville. 944-8915; ststephensoakville.org. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH Mass times are Saturday at 4 p.m. (English), Sunday at 8 a.m. (English), 11 a.m. (English) and 1:30 p.m. (Spanish). Daily mass is at 9 a.m., except on the first Friday, which is at noon and in English. 2725 Elm St., Napa. 255-2949; stthomasaquinasnapa.com. SALVATION ARMY Join us for services Sundays at 10 a.m. 590 Franklin St., Napa. napasalarmy.org. THE FATHERS HOUSE Service times are Saturday at 6 p.m., and Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m. Child care and Kids Church are available (ages infant through sixth grade). Youth ministry Encounter meets every Wednesday night at 7. Celebrate Recovery meets on Monday nights at 6:30. 2557 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa. tfh.org. UNITY SPIRITUAL CENTER IN NAPA VALLEY Sunday, Sept. 30, 10 a.m. Unitys guest speaker this week is our own guest musician and congregant Ric Morgan. His message is entitled, Love And Fear. 11:40 a.m.- Forum- After a brief refreshment break, Ric will conduct a discussion group pertaining to his message. Sunday Service and Forum are held at the historic Grange Hall, 3275 Hagan Road (1 mile east of the Silverado Trail), Napa. Parking next to the building. Facebook.com/USCNV, UnitySpiritualCenterNapa.org, 255-6881. YOUNTVILLE COMMUNITY CHURCH This Sunday, Sept. 30, at 10 a.m. we will have our weekly service. Our message is titled: Love, Patience, & Suffering. The main church building is under repairs and we are meeting in our Sunday School classrooms on the North side of the church. Sunday School is at 9 a.m. for all ages. We have an adult Bible class, Youth Group (fifth - eight grades and high school students),and Children's classes "Jesus and Me", (Birth-Kindergarten) and first through fifth grades are offered. 6619 Yount Street, Yountville, 944-2179. Want to have your church included in Worship Notes? Need to update your congregations information? Contact editor Kelly Doren at kdoren@napanews.com or 256-2263. This is the second in a series of interviews of Napa City Council candidates for the Nov. 6 election. James Hinton has spent nearly all his life in Napa and warns that staying in his hometown is becoming harder for many of his townsfolk. The standard of living has consistently declined in my 44 years in the Napa Valley, and I dont see any signs of that stopping, said Hinton, one of six candidates for two City Council seats in the Nov. 6 election. Water and sewer rates continue to go up, health insurance rates are going up, rents and home prices continue to skyrocket, and wages are stagnant. Very few people are finding it possible to stay in town anymore, to live and work here. Helping more Napans avoid being priced out of their own city amid a steady climb in rents and home prices is one of the top priorities for Hinton, a Browns Valley resident making his first run at elected office in his hometown after campaigning for Congress in 2014 and the Napa County Board of Supervisors in 2016. Hinton, a former professional online poker player who has worked as a political and environmental consultant in recent years, is one of five challengers to the three-term incumbent Peter Mott, a council member since 2006. At least one challenger is assured of joining the council by winning the seat of Jim Krider, who was appointed in 2017 following the retirement of Juliana Inman and did not seek a full four-year term. A chronically tight supply of housing has pushed the vacancy level in Napa to a historically low 1 percent while allowing median home prices to rise past $600,000. With city leaders close to agreeing on a new general plan to guide development for 20 years or more, Hinton urged leaders to redraw their playbook to foster denser concentrations of smaller residential units, a step he said would better fit a community moving past large suburban homes. When I grew up in the Napa, there were a lot of families; now we have a lot more single parents, a lot more single people, people with three or four roommates in the house, he said in a Thursday interview. What I want to see are smaller 500-square-foot apartments; Napa has parks, it has a vibrant downtown and its got all kinds of things to do in town. I dont need three bedrooms and a two-car garage and half an acre. We need to focus on small-footprint, higher-density housing that can eliminate commutes. Even as surging tourism turns bed-tax revenue into an increasingly important part of Napas budget, Hinton advocated giving priority to expanded housing over hotel construction, although he expressed support for hotel projects so long as they include enough parking and robust environmental protections. As Napa cautiously opens the way toward dispensaries selling medicinal cannabis products, Hinton, one of the citys most vocal advocates for greater marijuana access, promised to push Napa to join other cities in welcoming the recreational cannabis outlets California voters legalized in 2016. Napa passed its dispensary ordinance in November 2017 and has cleared two of its seven applicants to begin sales, but no stores have yet opened. Breaking down lingering resistance to marijuana retailing in Napa is a matter of showing opponents how other cities successfully regulate the industry, according to Hinton, who favors zoning dispensaries similarly to bars and liquor stores. Theres plenty of models of success; (resistance) is an excuse people in the community keep using, and we need to keep educating them, said Hinton, who credits marijuana with relieving symptoms from psoriatic arthritis he said began afflicting him around 2004. Meanwhile, Hinton has joined his voice with others seeking to slow down or suspend planning of a four-story civic center on downtown First Street, where Napa plans to move both its city hall and its police station. Cost estimates for the project have run to about $121 million, including the expense of temporary office space for city workers during construction. Hinton called for terminating Napas contract with its development partner Plenary Group, then considering other possible sites for city headquarters with guidance from an advisory committee including residents, city staff and others. The community should be driving this discussion, or at least be at the table, he said of the process. While housing, marijuana and city construction have dominated much of the civic debate in recent months, Hinton also asked residents to also keep a sharp eye on protecting Napas two local water sources Lake Hennessey and Milliken Reservoir against the risks from encroaching vineyard development north of the city. Our county is allowing development above Milliken Reservoir and Lake Hennessey at an alarming rate, he said, adding he would join Councilmember Scott Sedgley and other local leaders to bolster watershed protection rules. (Hinton also endorsed Measure C, the oak woodland protection initiative that Napa County voters narrowly defeated in June.) Further setting himself apart from other City Council hopefuls, Hinton is calling for stricter oversight of fifth-generation small cell transmitters that wireless carriers hope to roll out for future high-speed Internet service. In addition, Hinton advocates replacing a 2 percent assessment on hotel stays, which the Napa County lodging industry charges itself for a tourism improvement district, which an equivalent increase in the 12 percent room tax that Napa and other cities could spend as they see fit. (Measures to boost the transient occupancy tax by 1 percent are on the ballot this November in the county and each of its five municipalities, with the surplus to be reserved for affordable housing efforts.) 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. Even the most bullish of President Donald Trump's supporters would have a tough time classifying his performance at the United Nations this week as a success. His Tuesday address to the U.N. General Assembly will be remembered for the mocking laughter that followed his claim that the Trump administration has, so far, "accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country." It didn't get much better the next day: Trump chaired a session of the U.N. Security Council on weapons of mass destruction and nonproliferation, hoping to gin up support for his administration's hard-line stance on the Iran nuclear deal. "This horrible, one-sided deal allowed Iran to continue its path toward a bomb and gave the regime a cash lifeline when they needed it the most," Trump complained. "They were in big, big trouble. They needed cash. We gave it to them." Instead, virtually every other member country took turns scolding the United States for its undermining of the nuclear deal with Tehran. Trump's withdrawal from the Iran deal and reimposition of sanctions on Iran was condemned by politicians ranging from the president of Peru to the vice president of the Ivory Coast to the foreign minister of Kazakhstan. Bolivian President Evo Morales launched the most scathing attack, citing decades of malign American interference in the Middle East and then lashing out at Trump for acts like separating migrant parents from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border. The United States, Morales said, "could not care less about human rights or justice." Trump could only thank Morales for his remarks. If America's allies were more polite, they seemed barely more impressed. British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted that the terms of the nuclear deal were "the best means of preventing Iran developing a nuclear weapon." "For many years, the scale and nature of Iran's nuclear program raised serious international concerns. The JCPOA was an important step forward in addressing these," May said, using the formal abbreviation for the agreement forged between Iran and world powers. "We still . . . retain the same objective in mind, namely preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and guaranteeing strict international control on the peaceful use of their nuclear program," said French President Emmanuel Macron. "The JCPOA is imperfect, but it is a decisive step in that exact direction." Meanwhile, European leaders announced plans to blunt the effects of U.S. sanctions on Iran, which will expand in November. It's unclear how effective these countermeasures may be, with the Trump administration threatening punitive action against any government or company found circumventing the sanctions. A host of prominent European firms have already decided that trade with Iran may not be worth the risk of legal battles with Washington. Trump's harsh rhetoric and unilateral decision-making have allowed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to play the role of the law-abiding victim, adhering to the terms of an agreement that the White House was recklessly casting aside. In remarks made before the General Assembly, Rouhani blasted the Trump administration's disregard for the sort of multilateral decision-making that defines international institutions like the United Nations. "Confronting multilateralism is not a sign of strength, rather it is a symptom of a weakness of intellect," Rouhani said. Directing her comments to Trump at the Security Council, May said, "Even the most powerful recognized that investing in collective rules-based restraint was the only effective way of addressing national security interests and avoiding unilateral recourse to force." Analysts warned of a dramatic "flipping of the script" at the United Nations. "The U.S. president finds himself deprived of leverage, while Rouhani is the one invoking the legitimacy and legality of the international system the United States built. This is no happy occurrence," wrote David Wade of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He added that "Trump has isolated the United States instead of isolating Iran." The White House may not be too bothered by all this. At a rambling press conference on Wednesday evening, Trump scoffed that "it doesn't matter what world leaders think on Iran." And many within the administration have no love for the United Nations and its processes, heavy on rhetoric but often light on action. Moreover, economic realities are squeezing what support Tehran now enjoys. This week, it emerged that India, a leading importer of Iranian oil, would likely comply with the sanctions on Iranian oil exports that will take effect in November. But Trump still lacks a genuine diplomatic strategy, whether on a new deal with Tehran or a host of other grievances. Critics say the president is far more preoccupied with his political image as a disrupter of the status quo than the actual work involved in reworking existing compacts to his advantage. "Most presidents would outline a plan to deal with Iran after the nuclear deal, or to transform NATO to cope with the threat from authoritarian states, or to resolve the trade war," wrote Thomas Wright, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "But Trump is not one for detail or course correction. In his world, there was a problem, so he did something quickly. And now it's solved. To say anything else is to suggest the unthinkable-that he is not a magician." On Iran, Trump is convinced that his approach will change the regime's behavior in the Middle East. But others worry about a deeper and more destabilizing backlash. "We have tried sanctions over the years," said Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom. "We tried isolation, and it only gave the most conservative forces in Iran more power." It's unlikely Trump will heed this message. By the time Wallstrom spoke, he had already left the room. Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York. The words new normal have been used so many times to describe Californias current experience with catastrophic wildfires that it cant be new anymore. Sadly, it is normal, but that word doesnt do justice for the Californians now living with grief over whats been lost or anxiety about whats coming around the corner. These Californians were foremost on the minds of legislators as we grappled with how to respond to devastating wildfires and how to prevent them from happening in the first place. One way or another, everyone feels the impact, including ratepayers being asked to help shoulder the costs of wildfires; people hundreds of miles away from the flames coping with worsened air quality; and others who compete for housing with those who have lost theirs. How we address intensifying wildfires is one of the most pressing issues before us. The legislators who served on the Wildfire Preparedness and Response Conference Committee produced Senate Bill 901, a landmark piece of legislation signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown this month. It will go a long way toward preventing future wildfires and protect utility ratepayers from unfairly bearing the costs of fires that do ignite and cause serious damage. We believe this new law will put ratepayers and victims first and embrace wildfire-prevention best practices. It also should relieve uncertainty for our investor-owned and public-owned utilities that had been facing the dire prospect of bankruptcy amid massive recovery costs. Make no mistake: if utilities go bankrupt, rates would spike, electricity would be unreliable, and electric-grid safety would be compromised. Under SB 901, utilities must implement comprehensive fire-prevention and mitigation plans. Landowners will have new incentives to manage their forested property, and there will be an expedited process to remove highly flammable dead and dying trees and chaparral. The California Public Utilities Commission will review utility wildfire costs and expenses to determine which costs investors and ratepayers should bear. The commission will be able to authorize an investor-owned utility to finance costs of catastrophic fire. Ratepayers will not pay for energy-company executive compensation and perks. As the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa put it in a recent editorial, We need to keep the lights on, and we need to make fire victims whole. [SB 901] helps ratepayers in the long run and fire victims in the short run. Its true that California has become far more vulnerable to wildfires than it was a few short years ago. Its also true that, with the governors signature, California is far more prepared to prevent, fight and recover from them. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins represents San Diego, Senator.Atkins@senate.ca.gov. Sen. Bill Dodd represents Napa and parts of five other counties, Senator.Dodd@senate.ca.gov. They wrote this commentary for CALmatters. Recently, a Catholic bishop in Pennsylvania acknowledged that 100 priests within his diocese had molested more than 1,000 children. Shortly thereafter, the bishop in San Jose said he would be looking into allegations that priests within his charge had sexually abused numerous children. From the Vatican, Pope Francis has summoned the presidents of the worlds bishops conferences to a February summit on preventing clergy sex abuse and protecting children, an issue that has become a growing global scandal. In her letter to the editor entitled Heres how to make a difference (Sept. 12), Margaret Forma of Napa writes C.S. Lewis teaches us that there are two ways to deal with problems---action or prayer. Pope Francis has told us Catholics to do penance and pray for Gods mercy for the horrific sin of priests abuse of children, but he neglected to provide suggestions for action. For those readers of the Napa Valley Register who may have overlooked the commentary The Real Housewives of Vatican City (Sept. 14), written by author and Napa resident Paul Moser, allow me to rewrite those paragraphs that I found very relevant to the issue of priest sexual abuse. If Church leaders and members are human, why have a church thats inhuman, one that makes inhuman demands? Why insist that clerics repress one of the most basic drives of our nature, one that finds expression in virtually every plant and animal on earth? What God-forsaken superstition, what esoteric lore could be so important that it speaks louder than the cries of masses of abused children down through the centuries? If celibacy among the clergy were done away with tomorrow, what would be the result? For one thing, priests and nuns would become experienced in matters of family life, and so more able to give meaningful counsel to Church members. And they wouldnt have to deal with repressed sexual drives oozing out from under their physiological floorboards, making a mess of their lives and those of others. As Mr. Moser so eloquently suggests, its time for the Vatican to allow priests and nuns to marry. Chuck Barber Napa On Saturday, Sept. 29 approximately 25 bicycle riders from Project Hero will be riding from the state Capitol in Sacramento to the veterans' facility in San Francisco, a trip of around 150 miles to bring awareness to PTSD and other injuries suffered by veterans and first responders. They will be spending the night at the American Legion Post 113 located at 1240 Pearl St. in Napa. Anyone wanting to welcome these heroes are invited to greet them at 4 p.m. at the dining hall. This is their first ride from the state Capitol but they want to make it an annual event. Hopefully, the Napa community will give a big welcome to these unsung heroes. Greg Anderson Adjutant, Sons of The American Legion, and former firefighter Like food and fashion trends, wines can fall into and out of favor seemingly overnight. Yet Rieslings are timeless. Say the word "Riesling," however, and most people think sweet wine. But a Riesling from Germany's Mosel and Rhine regions is a different story. These wines can be bone dry, refreshing the palate with an abundance of stone fruit notes, bracing acidity and steely minerality, finishing with a hint of petrol (a hallmark of local Rieslings). German white wines also tend to have a third less alcohol by volume, which makes them a perfect food friendly wine. Then there are the delicious dessert wines, the intensely concentrated Eiswein made from grapes harvested and pressed while frozen, and the decadently sweet Trockenbeerenauslese made from overripe raisiny grapes. Rieslings purity and the balance of fruit and acidity comes from vineyards planted on mineral-rich slate slopes rising dramatically from the rivers edge. The slate layers over millennia have morphed into vertical folds along the steep hillsides that enable the vines roots to penetrate as much as 50 feet down into the soft rock. I discovered the brilliance of Rieslings (and other German wines) on a seven-day cruise aboard the luxury ship AmaDante cruising along the Rhine and Mosel Rivers. I experienced the myth and magic of these mighty rivers, savoring along the way spectacular Rieslings and gewurztraminers from the German and Alsace wine region. The California-based Ama Waterways, specializing in river cruises, offers a smorgasbord of adventures. I selected the wine-themed Rhine & Mosel Splendors cruise to get a better grip on Riesling wines produced in the valleys of these rivers. The route charted by the 146-passenger ship journeyed along two of Europes most alluring rivers flanked by impressive hillside vineyards and majestic castles. The 549 kilometer-long Mosel (Moselle in French) begins in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace, France and flows northeast until it becomes the border between Germany and Luxembourg. The Mosel is joined by two small rivers, the Saar and Ruwer, in the ancient Roman town of Trier before it begins its serpentine flow towards Koblenz and merges into the 1,320 kilometer-long Rhine River. After two days on the Mosel and passing through many loops and hairpin bends, we merged into the Rhine (Rhein in German language). One of Europes most important waterways, the Rhine flows from Switzerland to the North Sea traversing six countries: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Our ship touched all of these, save Austria and the Netherlands. The ship docked daily with guided excursions planned at Bernkastel, Trier, Heidelberg, Cochem, Rudesheim, Ludwigshafen, Strasbourg and Riquewihr, towns and villages steeped in ancient Roman history. The highlight of the cruise arrived on day three in the form of a 65-kilometer stretch of the Rhine gorge (the popular name for the Rhine Valley). It was a heady experience sipping a refreshing Riesling on the breezy sun deck, passing by soaring castles and vineyards rising high from the riverbank, painstakingly planted by monks in the Middle Ages. Since this was a wine-themed cruise, there were four visits to local wine cellars, plus three on-board wine seminars on German and Alsatian wines conducted by New York-based wine educator Holly Howell. Germanys southwest area is a white wine region, with Riesling leading the pack, followed by gewurztraminer, muller-thurgau, silvaner, weissburgunder (pinot blanc), grauburgunder (pinot gris), and the only red wine spatburgunder (pinot noir). Of the 13 German wine producing regions, we visited or passed by seven of them - Ahr, Pflaz Baden, Mittelrhein, Rheinhessen, Nahe and Rheinghau (Rhine gorge). During the course of the cruise, there were daily (morning and afternoon) guided shore excursions, some of which included wine tastings ashore, to charming towns of Bernkastel on the Mosel River, Rudesheim on the Rhine and Strasbourg and Riquewhir in Alsace. In the cellar of Dr. Pauly Bergweiler in Bernkastel, we sampled deliciously dry and medium dry Rieslings finishing with an eiswein, grapes of which were picked in the chilling temperature of 7 degrees Celsius (44.4 degrees Fahrenheit). At Rudesheim, the capital of Rheingau, we viewed the well-manicured vineyards from high above in a cable chairlift. The quaint town is planted to more than 800 acres of vines, 80 percent of which is Riesling. Here, the wine tasting took us to 16th century Bassenheimer Hof cellar to savor Adolf Stolzer wines, where we tasted a flight of 2016 vintages that included a blend of Riesling and muller thurgau and a decadent eiswein. Arriving in the Alsace region, we tasted the freshness of Rieslings and gewurztraminers (a hallmark of Alsatian wines), its characteristic derived from the regions complex mosaic of some 13 distinct types of terroir and various soil compositions. In the historic cellar of Le Gruber in Strasbourg, we tasted wines of Gustave Lorentz, a winery dating to 1836 and dedicated to organic farming. A lineup of 2016 vintages of Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir was paired with cheeses and sausage; and the classic cake Kugelhopf served with an aromatic gewurztraminer. The fourth cellar visit took us to Riquewihr (population 1,500), a fairy-tale village cradled by the towering Vosges Mountains and home to two of Alsaces 51 Grand Cru vineyards Schoenenbourg and Sporen, wines of which we tasted at Maison Zimmers historic 1572 cellar: an aromatic 2015 Sporen gewurztraminer, a dry, minerally 2012 Schoenenbourg Riesling and a medium dry pinot gris made from 30-year old vines - all handcrafted by Regine Zimmer, whose family history dates to the 1840s. Back home Back home, I gathered a few local winemakers at our home in Paso Robles for a tasting of California Rieslings from Napa and the Central Coast alongside German and Alsatian wines. All the wines stood true to their profile with a balanced harmony of acidity and aromatics. The 2014 Dr. Thanisch Riesling from Mosel was bone dry with a hint of petrol, the Alsatians -- 2016 Lucien Albrecht and the 2012 Regine Zimmer had vibrant acidity and fragrant fruit. Among the Napa collection, Trefethens 2017 vintage from the Oak Knoll District was glowing with citrus flavors and the 2016 Bouchaine from Las Brisas Vineyard showed a perfect balance of floral notes and acidity. From Spring Mountain District a 2017 Galerie Terracea reflected a fruity profile. The 2016 Hagafen from Coombsville had a dash of spritz and was the one from Napa Valley that finished with a trace of petrol. From the cool coastal vineyards along Californias Central Coast, the Rieslings rang with bracing acidity compared to Napa. San Luis Obispo Countys cool Edna Valley and Cambria are noted for Riesling vineyards, a source for winemakers such as Xavier Phillips who crafts his small production of Franken Riesling under his Union Sacre label. From Edna Valley came a 2014 floral and citrusy version from Claiborne & Churchill, a winery known for Rieslings. There were a couple of off-dry Monterey County Rieslings in the lineup -- Tudors Nacina with 1.8 percent residual sugar and J.Lohrs lychee-scented version. Then there was Maidenstoen, a wine dancing with seductive citrus notes and fresh-cut flowers strung together with steely minerality. Mike Callahan (winemaker at Edna Valleys Chamisal Vineyards) is a Riesling fanatic and crafts only this one varietal (just under 500-case annual production) under his Maidenstoen label from site specific vineyards that he seeks out along the Central Coast. Callahan is among the handful of winemakers carrying the torch. Its a sad time for Rieslings, he lamented in our phone conversation. Some really cool sites are being pulled out and planted to pinot noir. But if winemakers like Callahan pursue their passion, the timeless Riesling could well be trending again soon. Lavrov, Shoygu discuss situation in Karabakh with French counterparts Armenia PM to send High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs to Russia on business trip Explosion takes place in mosque in Afghanistan, leaving 15 injured Armenia Parliament Deputy Speaker meets with Karabakh Security Council Secretary and parliamentarians Gunshots heard in computer game room in Yerevan RFE/RL Armenian Service: Iranian drivers complain that new Tatev-Aghavni road is narrow for trucks EU, UNDP launch Mayors for Economic Growth Program in Armenia Armenia Deputy PM: We support adoption of documents for further enhancement of defensibility of CIS countries Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin says COVID-19 vaccination does not present spiritual danger Armenia Deputy PM meets with representatives of Asian Development Bank Monument to officers of Russian helicopter downed in 2020 unveiled during ceremony in Armenia's Yeraskh Armenia Kotayk Province's general jurisdiction court has new judge Armenia ruling party MP appointed Ambassador to Spain NEWS.am daily digest: 12.11.21 Armenia Justice Ministry, UNDP to cooperate for constitutional reforms and in anti-corruption field Turkey, Qatar agree to strengthen military cooperation Armenia defense minister, India Ambassador discuss cooperation in defense sector Armenia has new Ambassador to Germany Armenia appellate court releases ex-MP from custody Armenia economy minister meets with Charge dAffaires of Georgia 12-year-old Armenian boy's 4 fingers cut, undergoes 10-hour surgery Armenia Deputy PM opposes Azerbaijani premier, says Karabakh conflict can't be resolved by force Dollar continues going down in Armenia Lithuania ambassador to parliament speaker: Relations with Armenia are priorities of our country Millions of Austrians not vaccinated against COVID-19 may be quarantined Georgian and Turkish border guards conducting joint military exercises in Javakhk Charles Michel thanks Turkey for prohibiting citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen from flying to Belarus Myanmar court sentences US journalist to 11 years in jail Armenia official: Azerbaijan continues to torpedo implementation of agreements reached Opposition MP to Armenia minister: Who will perform the duties of the mayor of Goris? Man in photo died from railway accident in Russia, there is suspicion that he was from Armenia's Armavir Province Armenia ex-deputy defense minister: Pashinyan is lying when he says there is no logic of corridor Video showing another act of vandalism of Azerbaijanis in Karabakh disseminated on social networks Armenia, Palestine FMs discuss Armenian heritage in Holy Land Azerbaijan says it is ready to sign with Armenia peace agreement recognizing territorial integrity Armenia official: We are building many roads in Syunik Province Karabakh state minister delivers lecture at Columbia University in New York Ukraine delegation to visit Armenia next week Armenia FM in Paris, meets with French Armenian figures (PHOTOS) Armenia to host Eurasian Intergovernmental Council session 80 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh Erdogan says 'Greece has turned into a U.S. military base' Sweden lifting entry ban for Armenia citizens fully vaccinated against Covid Russia peacekeepers escort more than 8,000 traveling vehicles in Karabakh in 1 year 1,309 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia 11 foreign nationals living illegally in Armenia are found in downtown Yerevan hotels Aram Yacoubian is on Varietys Hollywoods New Leaders of 2021 list Biden, Xi expected to hold virtual summit on November 15 Newspaper: Process of shaking up Armenia law enforcement system to begin Newspaper: Armenia cargo transportation increases FM to UNESCO head: Preventive steps against Azerbaijan destruction of Armenian heritage are simply imperative Armenia Security Council chief: No logic to using Goris-Kapan motorway Armenia Security Council secretary: Political decision is needed if agreement is reached on logic of unblocking roads FM: There are numerous cases of Azerbaijans deliberate destruction of Armenian cultural, religious heritage Armenia PM: Security is our most vulnerable place today Armenian Church Diocese in Russia supports Finnish MP who is charged with offending reps of sexual minorities Women of Artsakh organize meeting with Russian peacekeeping troops' commander US Senate Armed Services Committee to consider 3 key amendments, including cutting off aid to Azerbaijan Armen Sarkissian: I consider any encroachment on Armenia's borders inadmissible and unacceptable Russian analyst says deployment of border and customs checkpoints in Lachin not ruled out UN representatives provide humanitarian aid to immigrants on Polish border U.S. security advisor: Rivalry with China in Pacific need not lead to new Cold War UAE, Bahrain, Israel and US conducting maritime security exercise in Red Sea Opposition 'With Honor' faction MP: Ruling party is implementing Baku's policy in Armenia Armenia finance minister receives experts of Russian Financial Research Institute Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group NEWS.am daily digest: 11.11.21 Opposition 'With Honor' Alliance: We have a few questions for the Armenian premier Dollar drops somewhat in Armenia Deputy Mayor of Armenia's Goris Menua Hovsepyan voluntarily going to penitentiary institution to be arrested EU remains committed to promoting peaceful, prosperous South Caucasus Armenia MFA: Mirzoyan-Bayramov meeting held in Paris with participation of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Azerbaijan FM continues developing Zangezur corridor concept Court rules to arrest Deputy Mayor of Armenia's Goris Menua Hovsepyan Armenia government allocates over $1 mln to repair Yerevan-Meghri road and two more roads Flights to and from Yerevan and Kapan to be launched on January 20, 2022 Armenia Police: 33 citizens apprehended near government building Armenia Ombudsman: Perhaps Azerbaijan will be deprived of jurisdiction over the motorway after delimitation Armenia PM: Coronavirus situation is somewhat stable 'Armenia' Alliance: Azerbaijan is the one making decisions instead of Armenian PM, we will not put up with this Ambassador to PM Pashinyan: Italy is interested in implementing new investment programs with Armenia Three-year working plan for Armenia-Russia interparliamentary committee discussed during consultation Armenia's Meghri has new mayor Armenia Security Council secretary: Citizens may be able to travel on Goris-Kapan motorway for a toll Quarantine regime extended in Armenia until June 20, 2022 Erdogan sues Greek newspaper Armenia Security Council chief: We have rough idea of border with Azerbaijan Turkish defense company Baykar to soon test 2 new UAVs Arrested mayor of Armenias Goris re-elected by virtue of law Deputy police chief: Later it will be clear who from Armenia will carry out inspection at Goris-Kapan road European Parliament Friendship Group with Armenia is re-launched Ombudsman: Armenia top officials statements legitimize Azerbaijanis presence, actions (PHOTOS) Situation gets tense in front of Armenia government building Police do not allow Armenia opposition MPs to approach government building Armenia cassation court Civil and Administrative Chamber to be dissolved Armenia PM explains handing over part of Goris-Kapan road to Azerbaijan Ex-MP also dies in Yerevan shooting 1,482 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia 4 die in Yerevan shooting Armenia opposition staging protest outside government building Former ACLU president to discuss the need for robust free speech by Pete Rosenbery CARBONDALE, Ill. Nadine Strossen, noted author and former president of the American Civil Liberties Union, will discuss the importance of allowing robust free speech rather than censoring even hateful messages next week at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Strossen is one of the nations leading experts on constitutional and civil liberties law, and will emphasize that people do not have to choose between civil rights and civil liberties, or between equality and free speech. Her lecture and title of her 2018 book, HATE: Why We Should Resist It With Free Speech, Not Censorship is Oct. 3 at the SIU School of Law. Strossen served as the first woman national president of the ACLU for 17 years through 2008. The law schools Federalist Society, a registered student organization at the law school, is sponsoring the lecture, which is at 12:15 p.m. in the law school. The event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided, and the first 70 guests will receive a free copy of Strossens 2018 book. Media Advisory Reporters, photographers and camera crews are welcome to attend the lecture by Nadine Strossen at 12:15 p.m. in the SIU School of Law. Media availability with Strossen may be limited due to time constraints, but law school faculty and students will be available. For more information, contact Michele Mekel, director of external relations, at 618/453-8768. The importance of free speech Strossen is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law at New York Law School. In a note to readers about her book, Strossen said that robust free speech is essential for promoting equality and countering hatred while censorship undermines these goals. The books interrelated themes are equally important in the nations present political climate: Hate is a problem that undermines the safety, equality, dignity and well-being of too many individuals and groups, and must be resisted vigorously and effectively. While censoring hateful messages might be a common-sense strategy, history shows it is at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive. Robust free speech that includes demonstrations, counterprotests, education and advocacy has a solid track record of advancing the essential causes of equality, diversity, inclusivity and societal harmony. Offering a second opinion and commentary As with all SIU Federalist Society events there will be a second opinion presented. Steven J. Macias, interim associate dean for academic affairs at the law school, said that in offering a slightly different perspective, he hopes the audience comes away with a sense of the tensions inherent with the concept of free speech. The view that is popular among attorneys, judges and academics is that more speech is always the answer to hate speech, he said. Macias said he hopes to provide a complementary perspective that a well-regulated forum better ensures that all voices have an equal opportunity to be heard and that no voice is inadvertently silenced by a doctrinaire protection of hate speech. Recent example of censoring bad speech In an Aug. 8 opinion piece in the New York Daily News, Strossen argues the recent decision by Facebook, Apple, YouTube and later Twitter to ban controversial radio show host Alex Jones from their social media platforms did what few others could: Theyve turned Jones into a free speech martyr. Strossen pointed out decisions involving private companies are not a First Amendment issue because those free-speech protections do not apply to the private sector and private companies have their own First Amendment rights to decide what they publish. The concern, Strossen wrote, is that the same discretionary power used to ban Jones could also be used to ban others ideas, since hate speech is an entirely subjective term with no legal definition. Highly regarded author and media commentator Strossen has presented lectures on more than 500 campuses in the United States and several countries, and has more than 300 published works. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. The New York Times listed Strossens 1995 book Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Womens Rights as a Notable Book of 1995. Her co-authored 1995 book, Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties earned outstanding book recognition by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America. Strossen earned her law degree from Harvard Law School. She is a frequent speaker and media commentator and has appeared on news programs including 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, Today, Good Morning America; programs on CNN, C-SPAN, Fox, Al-Jazerra, and also programs in countries including Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. In addition, her opinion editorials have appeared in newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times and USA Today. I'm ready for my queen Margaret Josephs aka Classic Marge to save another season of RHONJ. Reply Thread Link Also, of all people, Vicki told Gina she had no moral compass?! Vicki you faked cancer for a casserole! Reply Parent Thread Link I don't like Gina very much, but that was so horrible. Vicki and Tamra believe in God, yet they're still horrible people. Reply Parent Thread Link They use god to feel better about themselves. That doesn't make them christians. Reply Parent Thread Link I thought Vicki's eyes were going to roll back into her head, lol. Reply Parent Thread Link Andy needs to just admit he NEEDS Bethenny to feel important. Like. Dude. We know. Carole can't defend herself. And to call her Trumpian. He needs to watch more HW if he thinks that's gonna work. Also I'm pissed about Porsha's pregnancy being taped since ain't a soul interested in her. Loving LeeAnne. D'Andra is throwing LeeAnne to the wolves to try and distract from her problems. Had someone try and say Brandi was 'sensitive' on Twitter. To who? She's never kind unless it benefits her personally. Reply Thread Link I cant wait for LeeAnne to come back and scalp Deandra. Andy is such trash - I know a lot of people hate carole and thats fine - but what she said is true - he is so far up Bs ass Reply Parent Thread Link I can't wait for the way D'Andra's about to lose her weave. She may need to borrow that 4 bucks back. She's throwing a temper tantrum about money she talked about. It's amazing how Cary came out unscathed since she's a major part of the problem. Andy is vile. I've said that for a decade. But calling her Trumpian was low, even for his tire treaded ass. He acts like Bethenny is just one of the cast. And not someone he begged for. I stopped fully watching MLDNY because she would show up randomly. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Andy calling Carole "Trumpian" was premeditated. He knew exactly what he was doing using that word. I can't stand D'Andra. I believe that she and LeAnne were fighting over who was more popular. D'Andra is an after thought. We're far more interested in her mother and her weird mask face. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link D'Andra is on the board for women for trump coalition in Texas. Leanne is the only Democrat. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I find it creepy that D'Andra is so obsessed with LeeAnne and her engagement/wedding. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Just watching OC and DAL from this week. Aside from Kelly, OC is a struggle to get through. Loving Dallas a lot tho Reply Thread Link Agreed! I dont care for Emily but Gina seems cool. Her ex is also hot AF lol Reply Parent Thread Link Idk if this has been posted or not but Ashley's husband Michael was charged with sexual assault after groping a camera man https://pagesix.com/2018/09/27/rhop-husband-michael-darby-charged-with-sexual-assault/ Reply Thread Link Damn! Maybe those grindr rumors were true ... yikes Reply Parent Thread Link This is what I came here for Reply Parent Thread Link and thomas ravenel was arrested for assault and battery iirc Reply Parent Thread Link yikes, bravo's legal/PR team must be doing overtime. Reply Parent Thread Link He faces up to 11 years for an ass grope?! Not saying what he did was right, not at all, but that is... excessive? Reply Parent Thread Link Andy is sf annoying Reply Thread Link Was Shannon on the show at the same time as Jim? OC is so boring. I'm so over the ladies esp Vicki and Tamra. Kelly is the only one keeping things interesting. Reply Thread Link I think it's based on comments Shannon made on Heather McDonald's podcast. Reply Parent Thread Link I've never listened to her podcast. What did she say? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I dont care what anyone says but the only show left watching on Bravo that is actually worth anyones time is Married To Medicine. Bravo treats it like shit and it deserves the world. Reply Thread Link Id say the lower tier HW franchises (in the way Bravo treats them) are still great (those being Potomac and Dallas). NY still brings it as does Pump. But OC, BH, and even ATL (for me at least) have all lost their luster Reply Parent Thread Link I LOVE Potomac and Dallas. I still watch OC and BH but they are quite boring. Don't watch any of the others. Reply Parent Thread Link THIS Reply Parent Thread Link His Mothers Day video is still my all time favorite Reply Parent Thread Link i was like, wow he sounds so much like Linda but then i looked and it is Linda! This makes me very happy Reply Parent Thread Link Teresa's hairline still boggles my mind. Her forehead is like, an inch and a half. Like how?! EDIT: More like an inch or less. Edited at 2018-09-28 10:54 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Carole is trumpian. her behavior at the reunion was disgusting and she can't take responsibility for anything I have said it before and I will say it again, it sucks Aviva was so crazy cuz I really do believe her about Carole as for Porsha, she's dumb as rocks but I actually think she'll make a good mom Reply Thread Link Agreed about Carole. Bethenny is no angel, but Carole acting like she never said a bad word about her all season is laughable. I'm glad she's gone. Reply Parent Thread Link I mean, she didn't tho? Carole was pretty much outright attacked by Bethenny from the start of the season, and I don't recall Carole ever retaliating or speaking negatively about Bethenny that wasn't in response to something she did or said to provoke it. Sometimes I feel like I watched an entirely different show after reading other people's takes on Carole vs Bethenny, yikes. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Carole never said that? I don't get how people still don't understand her point. She didn't start off the season with an issue with Bethenny, she naively thought things were okay and would work out between them, even when the women were telling her what Bethenny was saying about her she would just say "Bethenny wouldn't say that". It was only towards the end of the season when it became clear Bethenny wasn't willing to move on and got dirtier and dirtier that Carole started fighting fire with fire. Bethenny talked shit in her talking heads all season, Carole didn't until the end. Those are facts. How is anyone going to say she's wrong when that's exactly what we saw? I don't even like Carole much but jfc Reply Parent Thread Expand Link what remains is 100% ghost written #justiceforaviva Reply Parent Thread Expand Link OC is terrible and I don't know why I bother watching. Gretchen is so desperate for attention. And I was super uncomfortable with the way all the women were like, yelling at Gina over her divorce. They claimed they were just trying to give her advice and its like... ??? Screaming at her isn't going to help. And Vicki's comments are so dumb. I always forget how much more religious the US is. Reply Thread Link orange county is a hard right megachurch hotbed Reply Parent Thread Link so true. white trash with money. Reply Parent Thread Link I can't stand these 2 new women on OC. Reply Thread Link Would it be possible to kill LeeAnne 3 times? Reply Thread Link Carole needs to write a tell-all book and expose Andy and Bethenny of their lies. Reply Thread Link I want this book now! Reply Parent Thread Link you mean have a ghostwriter write a book Reply Parent Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link I honestly hate all white Africans as an African. Its visceral Reply Thread Link Isnt she miss Namibia on top of that? Reply Parent Thread Link Runner-up, according to ONTD Doesn't Read. Reply Parent Thread Link Is it their fault they were born and raised in Africa? Don't blame them for what the colonial oppressors did. You don't choose your ancestors. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link lmao this is a mood Reply Parent Thread Link me too! its my default till they prove themselves even then i sleep with one eye open. Reply Parent Thread Link You know all white Africans??? People are so ridiculous on here sometimes Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Same Reply Parent Thread Link lol at the pressed caucasian replies you got Reply Parent Thread Link Wow I cant think of a better use of that gif, bravo Reply Thread Link lmao this gif taking me back to the days of tumblr's lower gif size limit and cinemagraphs Reply Thread Link lol and your comment reminded me of piling my blog full of them/trying to make them myself within the confines of the format Reply Parent Thread Link and that stupid coloring omg... the layers Reply Parent Thread Link Its stupid, but I liked the challenge? And thinking of where to split them for gifsets? Unlike the 40kb limit for icons which make me wanna tear my hair out. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Oh god I do not miss those days at ALL. It was such a pain to deal with. Having to put a gif into a solid background so you could make it longer/up the quality. I look at my old gifs and I'm so embarrassed lmao Reply Parent Thread Link I havent uploaded a gif to tumblr in so long I forgot the hell it used to be. Reply Parent Thread Link I totally had to zoom in and read my Twitter headline, then do research to believe it wasnt tbh Reply Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link She really does look like her in that picture Reply Thread Link Southern Africa, Namibia to be exact... eeerm do people not know Namibia or what? Edited at 2018-09-28 10:34 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link Gurl, some people cant even locate South Africa on a map! Reply Parent Thread Link yes lol people are terrible about african countries all the time Reply Parent Thread Link My 9th grade World History teacher constantly gave us quizzes where hed give us a blank map of a continent and we had to label each country with its capital. Reply Parent Thread Link Lol mte. The fact the had to write "a country called Namibia" instead of just Namibia is killing me for some reason. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i don't think americans study geography in school tbh Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I am willing to bet most Americans cant even find the US on a map. Reply Parent Thread Link Ive been told America is horrible at geography, so in some cases, yes. I can label most of the states and Canadian provinces and I know continents and some countries, but they really didnt care to teach us much else. Reply Parent Thread Link Someactually, many Id guess think Namibia is as real as Wakanda. Reply Parent Thread Link I can name most African countries but couldn't tell you exactly where they are within Africa on a map. Same goes for Canada. I can label the rest of the world pretty well. Yes, I'm American. The only geography class I remember taking in grade school was US geography. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link people are shitty about knowing African countries. How many times have people in TV or film travelled to "Africa" Reply Parent Thread Link didn't donald trump call namibia "nambia"? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Pretty sure a lot of Americans will tell you Africa is a country lmao smh Reply Parent Thread Expand Link A significant portion of Americans think Africa is a country. They also think everyone in Africa live like the Massai people. Reply Parent Thread Link i came here to say this! the fact that they specified "a country called Namibia" in the tweet? like what??? Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah wtf! How do people not know the country where Shiloh jolie Pitt was born?! Its part of our cultural zeitgeist! Reply Parent Thread Link Girl there was an interviewer asking people on the street to identify countries on the map and people kept pointing at Africa. So no, not really Reply Parent Thread Link Nnnnnn love the gif choice. Reply Thread Link When the light hits her face *just* right, sure. In the red hair, the resemblance is gone Reply Thread Link Only that one picture. And all of them look like they were taken in 2004 on a Sanyo. Reply Thread Link Remember this October 3rd is on Wednesday so all of your asses better be in pink that day Reply Thread Link omg yes Reply Parent Thread Link About that gif, I once got a comment just like that from an American fratboy type guy, but it was: "How can you be French? You're Asian!". Reply Thread Link If you're from Namibia, why are you white? Reply Thread Link It's just that pic. In others she doesnt look like her at all. Reply Thread Link I think with the correct styling she definitely could look similar in a low-rent Dollar Tree bargain bin sort of way. Reply Parent Thread Link this is v. specific and i love it lmao Reply Parent Thread Link Chinas top refiner Sinopec is halving its oil imports from Iran as of September, bowing to pressure from the United States, which is seeking to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero with the sanctions returning in November, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting people familiar with the issue. Sinopec will reduce its imports from Iran to around 130,000 bpd, based on Reuters calculation on the prevailing supply contracts between the Chinese company and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). China has previously stated that it would not stop buying Iranian oil despite U.S. efforts to have the Iranian exports down to zero. But Beijing is also said to have agreed not to increase its oil purchases from Iran. Iran, for its part, is keen to keep its single biggest oil customerChinawhen U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports kick in. Analysts have so far assumed that China will keep buying Iranian oil and be pretty much the only certain meaningful customer of Iran, because the other major buyer, India, is even more hard-pressed by the United States to wind down purchases from Tehran. Sinopeclisted in Hong Kong, but more importantly, also in New Yorkis now facing direct pressure from the United States to curtail Iranian oil imports. According to one of Reuterss sources, U.S. officials visited Sinopec in Beijing in August and demanded steep reductions of oil imports from Iran. Related: OPEC Secretly Discusses 500,000 Bpd Production Boost This round is completely different from last time. Then it was more of a consultative tone, but this time its almost like an ultimatum, the source told Reuters. Last month, Chinese refiners and oil traders were said to have started to switch to using Iran-owned tankers for almost all their crude oil imports from Tehran, in order to keep Iranian oil flowing to China. But shipping and insurance sources told Reuters on Friday that Iran faces difficulties in insuring its own ships because western re-insurance firms are quitting their Iranian businesses. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Although gasoline demand has started to slow down the end of the summer driving season, U.S. gasoline prices are bucking the trend and sitting at their highest for this season since 2014, due to the oil price rally over the past weeks. According to AAA data, carried by Reuters, the national average U.S. gasoline price was $2.867 a gallon as of Wednesday, the highest seasonally since 2014, when oil prices started to crumble in the latter part of that year. Gas prices usually drop after the peak summer season, but this year prices at the pump have not fallen as fast as expected, AAA spokesperson Jeanette Casselano told Reuters. While prices inched down from last week heading into this week, they were 27 cents more expensive than this time last year, AAA said on Monday. Crude oil prices pushed past $70/bbl for three days last week, Casselano said on Monday. If they trend above this level for a sustained amount of time, we could see a trend reversal in pump prices meaning it may cost more to fill-up as we get closer to the end of the year. This week, following the lack of action by OPEC which didnt announce any plans for further boosting supply, WTI Crude prices have trended higher and broken above $72 a barrel. Just before the OPEC meeting this weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump blasted OPEC on Twitter, again, demanding that the cartel must get prices down now! This week, President Trump continued with his criticism of OPEC, telling the United Nations General Assembly: OPEC and OPEC nations, are, as usual, ripping off the rest of the world, and I dont like itWe want them to stop raising prices, we want them to start lowering prices, and they must contribute substantially to military protection from now on. We are not going to put up with it these horrible prices much longer. Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said on Monday that with the tighter oil market and OPECs inaction, gas prices may not see the typical decline we had been expecting as recently as the last two weeks as new concerns emerge about the tightrope balance some oil producing countries are hoping for- pushing supply down as global demand rises. Thats not going to be good news for motorists. The absence of a decline at the pump in the fall could be notable as voters head to the polls, DeHaan told Reuters. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Two Nigerian oil and gas industry unions today joined a general strike called by the Nigeria Labor Congress, which has placed fuel supply in the West African nation under threat, local media report. Yesterday, the oil industry was thought to be spared such action, after a spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) told Reuters that the local oil industry had not been affected by the industrial action, and leaders of the two main oil workers unions said there hadnt been any companies affected. On Wednesday, NNPC Group Managing Director Maikanti Baru appealed to motorists and other consumers of petroleum products across the country not to engage in panic buying of products over the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) planned industrial action. The nationwide strike in all sectors of Nigerias economy comes a few weeks after ExxonMobil warned at the beginning of this month that a six-week-long blockade of ExxonMobils offices and oil facilities in Nigeria by former workers protesting their dismissals threatens the normal production and exports of Nigerias flagship Qua Iboe crude grade. The NLC called for the industrial action, arguing that the federal government of Nigeria had refused to reconvene a meeting of the Tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee. Other union sources, however, said the committee had done its job and did not need reconvening but the government had not offered a minimum wage figure to the unions. Related: Is Trump Eyeing A Coup In Venezuela? In any case, there have been assurances from the oil workers union PENGASSAN that there will be no disruption in the operations of the oil industry. We will manage the protest technically; there is nowhere in the world where you will abruptly stop oil production. It is a process. So, even if our members are joining, which is to respect the directive from our principals, it is something that must be done systematically, PENGASSANs public relations officer told The Punch. Nigerias crude oil production jumped by 74,000 bpd from its July level to average 1.725 million bpd in August, according to OPECs secondary sources. Exports for October are expected to hit a four-month high at 1.73 million bpd, as grades come back online following pipeline outages during the summer months. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The latest step taken by the Trump administration in supporting the energy industry has been the relaxation of safety rule for offshore oil and gas production, put in place following the Deepwater Horizon disaster caused by BP in 2010, Reuters reports, citing a document its reporters had seen. The Deepwater Horizon platform exploded in April 2010, resulting in 11 casualties, many injured and the worst marine environmental disaster in the history of U.S. oil, with almost 5 million barrels leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. The disaster cost BP around US$65 billion in settlements and compensation. Afterwards, the Obama administration began a quest to tighten drilling rules offshore, which led to a series of new regulations that oil companies complained will only raise their costs but have no palpable impact on safety. Now, the Interior Department has revised the safety systems regulation put into place in 2016, which means that, for instance, a requirement that an independent third party needs to certify devices used in well-drilling, will no longer apply. Also, changes have been introduced in the requirements for oil and gas producers to notify the relevant government agencies about the start of production from a well and to report failures of their equipment. Echoing the main concerns voiced by the energy industry when the rules were introduced, the Interior Department said in the document seen by Reuters that, certain provisions in that (2016) rulemaking created potentially unduly burdensome requirements for oil and natural gas production operators on the Outer Continental Shelf, without meaningfully increasing safety of the workers or protection of the environment. Naturally, as much as the new changes have pleased the energy industry, they have angered environmentalists. Reuters quoted a Sierra Club official as saying the changes, which will probably be made public later today, are an example of this administrations shameless attempts to please corporate polluters, no matter the cost to workers safety, our health, or the environment. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: MANILA, Philippines Whether he is serious or not, President Rodrigo Duterte yet again surprised his critics by a sudden admission of the only sin he committed on the course of his presidency and that is extrajudicial killings. The President did not elaborate what he meant but he was directing his statement to Liberal Party president and opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan who, according to Duterte, presented himself as faultless. Siya [Pangilinan) pa yung presidente ng Liberal. Tignan mo, pati siya hindi manalo yan What are your sins? sabi ko nga sa military, anong kasalanan ko? Nagnakaw ba ako diyan ni piso? Sige daw. Did I prosecute somebody na ipinakulong ko? Ang kasalanan ko lang ang mga extrajudicial killing, the President said on Thursday, September 27, during the oath-taking of career government officials in Malacanang. President Duterte went on to criticize the International Criminal Court (ICC) for filing a complaint against him over thousands of drug-related deaths. But what right are you here to You are actually exercising functions which you are not supposed to do. It belongs to the government. At the very least, you are committing usurpation of authority, the President said referring to ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda who initiated the investigation on alleged extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. The President later justified that the killings were intended at fools but blamed most of the crimes to the so-called ninja cops or police scalawags indulge in corruption. I know that there are policemen that Ito yung mga ninja na ano. And they are the ones killing. Iyong hindi ka maka-remit sa kanila. Its an organized crime actually, President Duterte said. As expected, critics of the administration were quick to react to the Presidents statement. Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay called the attention of the ICC regarding Dutertes admission. Story continues Heres the President of the Republic of the Philippines, making a public admission of crimes under your jurisdiction. Please act ASAP. Thank you, he said. Meanwhile, United Nations special rapporteur on Extra-Judicial summary or arbitrary Executions Agnes Callamard who had received the strongest remarks from Duterte also tweeted that the Philippine president in his statement had just destroyed the rule of law. Marje Pelayo (with reports from Rosalie Coz) The post Serious or not? Duterte admits EJKs his only sin appeared first on UNTV News. Amazon, which has transformed the retail landscape, may be about to strike again. The e-commerce giant is reportedly thinking about significantly multiplying its checkout-free store concept Amazon Go, opening up to 3,000 new locations in the next three years, according to a report from Bloomberg citing people aware of the potential expansion. The move could give Amazon an even stronger foothold in the $750 billion grocery market, which it dramatically shook up when it purchased Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion. An Amazon spokesperson said the company doesn't "comment on rumors or speculation." Amazon Go's first location opened in Amazon's Seattle headquarters in 2016 and become open to the public in January of this year. Shoppers use their Amazon Go app to enter, and then instead of dealing with a cashier, cameras and sensors note what they buy. Their accounts are automatically charged for whatever products they carry out. The company currently has three Amazon Go locations in Seattle and one in Chicago. But now, the Bloomberg report says the expansion may be more extensive, with roughly 50 of those stores potentially welcoming customers next year, and hundreds more open for business by 2021. The original Seattle location offered a hodgepodge of cold drinks, sweets and lunch foods that could be quickly grabbed and taken out. The selection also included dinner meal kits, frozen foods and even a small selection of wines and beers. Depending on which store they visit, shoppers can find prepared meals for any time of the day, or grocery items including cheese, chocolates and bread. That food mix is more akin to what shoppers might find in convenience store chains like 7-Eleven. Still, the news of Amazon's potential plans seemed to briefly sour investors on larger grocery retailers like Kroger, which has the second largest share of the grocery market after Walmart and saw a slight dip in its stock price before trading ended for the day. Kroger shares rebounded after hours, with the share price up less than 1 percent to $28.90. 2018 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. (A) Empty and full pottery vessels from catacombs from Saqqara, Egypt (photo credit Sally Wasef), (B) mummified Sacred Ibis wrapped in cloth (photo credit Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), (C) a well-preserved example of an unwrapped Sacred Ibis mummy (the head and wings of the bird are clearly visible), and (D) a mummified Sacred Ibis dipped in resin. Credit: University of Queensland A University of Queensland researcher has uncovered how a French scientist and ibis researcher conducted the first test of evolution more than 50 years before Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species. UQ Centre for Policy Futures researcher Dr. Caitlin Curtis has found that the sacred ibis a cousin of the Australian 'bin chicken' became central to the history of evolution when several mummified birds were taken from Egypt to France in 1798. "The ibis mummies were taken by Napoleon's army to Paris, and played a surprising role in an early debate about evolution," Dr. Curtis said. "Two naturalists, Georges Cuvier and Jean-Baptist Lamarck, disagreed about the significance of the mummified Egyptian sacred ibises. "Cuvier took careful measurements and determined that no changes had happened when comparing the mummified birds against modern specimens. "He went on to conclude that this was proof that species could not change over time, opposing the emerging evolutionary ideas of Lamarck." But Lamarck disagreed, arguing not enough time had passed to see any differences, and that environmental conditions would also have had to change. "This was significant at a time when evolution was not yet an idea," Dr. Curtis said. "Cuvier was a prominent scientist who had a lot of voice and power within society, and he continued the debate through to Lamarck's deatheven criticising Lamarck's belief in evolution at his eulogy setting back the idea for decades." Dr. Curtis said it was a striking example of a powerful but incorrectscientist controlling the debate. "This story and the lessons from the sacred ibis are as relevant today as they were 200 years ago," she said. "Confirmation bias, where researchers' work is negatively affected by pre-existing biases and ideas, is still an issue within the scientific community. "This is a reminder that now, as much as ever, we need to be aware of confirmation bias, and the detrimental impact that dominant personalities can have on science." Explore further Behavior of parent organisms may influence genes passed on to next generation More information: Caitlin Curtis et al. The Sacred Ibis debate: The first test of evolution, PLOS Biology (2018). Journal information: PLoS Biology Caitlin Curtis et al. The Sacred Ibis debate: The first test of evolution,(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2005558 An artists impression of what an active galactic nucleus might look like at close quarters. The accretion disk produces the brilliant light in the centre. The broad-line region is just above the accretion disk and lost in the glare. Dust clouds are being driven upwards by the intense radiation. Credit: Peter Z. Harrington Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), believe clouds of dust, rather than twin black holes, can explain the features found in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The team publish their results today (14 June) in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Many large galaxies have an AGN, a small bright central region powered by matter spiralling into a supermassive black hole. When these black holes are vigorously swallowing matter, they are surrounded by hot, rapidly-moving gas known as the "broad-line region" (so-called because the spectral lines from this region are broadened by the rapid motion of the gas). The emission from this gas is one of the best sources of information about the mass of the central black hole and how it is growing. The nature of this gas is however poorly understood; in particular there is less emission than expected from gas moving at certain velocities. The breakdown of simple models has led some astrophysicists to think that many AGNs might have not one but two black holes in them. The new analysis is led by Martin Gaskell, a research associate in astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Rather than invoking two black holes, it explains much of the apparent complexity and variability of the emissions from the broad-line region as the results of small clouds of dust that can partially obscure the innermost regions of AGNs. Gaskell comments: "We've shown that a lot of mysterious properties of active galactic nuclei can be explained by these small dusty clouds causing changes in what we see." Co-author Peter Harrington, a UCSC graduate student who began work on the project as an undergraduate, explained that gas spiralling towards a galaxy's central black hole forms a flat "accretion disk", and the superheated gas in the accretion disk emits intense thermal radiation. Some of that light is "reprocessed" (absorbed and re-emitted) by hydrogen and other gases swirling above the accretion disk in the broad-line region. Above and beyond this is a region of dust. "Once the dust crosses a certain threshold it is subjected to the strong radiation from the accretion disk", said Harrington. The authors believe this radiation is so intense that it blows the dust away from the disk, resulting in a clumpy outflow of dust clouds starting at the outer edge of the broad-line region. The effect of the dust clouds on the light emitted is to make the light coming from behind them look fainter and redder, just as the earth's atmosphere makes the sun look fainter and redder at sunset. Gaskell and Harrington developed a computer code to model the effects of these dust clouds on observations of the broad-line region. The two scientists also show that by including dust clouds in their model, it can replicate many features of emission from the broad-line region that have long puzzled astrophysicists. Rather than the gas having a changing, asymmetrical distribution that is hard to explain, the gas is simply in a uniform, symmetric, turbulent disk around the black hole. The apparent asymmetries and changes are due to dust clouds passing in front of the broad-line region and making the regions behind them look fainter and redder. "We think it is a much more natural explanation of the asymmetries and changes than other more exotic theories, such as binary black holes, that have been invoked to explain them," Gaskell said. "Our explanation lets us retain the simplicity of the standard AGN model of matter spiralling onto a single black hole." Explore further One black hole or two? Dust clouds can explain puzzling features of active galactic nuclei More information: C Martin Gaskell et al. Partial dust obscuration in active galactic nuclei as a cause of broad-line profile and lag variability, and apparent accretion disc inhomogeneities, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2018). Journal information: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society C Martin Gaskell et al. Partial dust obscuration in active galactic nuclei as a cause of broad-line profile and lag variability, and apparent accretion disc inhomogeneities,(2018). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty848 The allegations against Frenchman Jean-Claude Arnault, seen leaving court in Stockholm during Monday's final trial hearing, prompted the Swedish Academy to postpone the Nobel Literature Prize in a scandal which has battered the academy's reputation An amputated 2018 Nobel season opens next week in Stockholm, without a Literature Prize for the first time in 70 years due to a #MeToo scandal. The Medicine Prize laureates will be revealed by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute on Monday, but many eyes will at the same time be turned to a Stockholm courthouse for the verdict against a Frenchman charged with rape who has close ties to the Swedish Academy. The Academy, which has awarded the prestigious literary distinction since the Nobels were first awarded in 1901, has been torn apart by an acrimonious dispute over how to manage its affiliation with Jean-Claude Arnault. In ruins, the Academy has decided to put off this year's Literature Prize until 2019 when it will award two prizesthe first postponement since William Faulkner's 1949 honour was awarded in 1950. At the centre of the scandal is 72-year-old Arnault, married to Academy member Katarina Frostenson and an influential figure on Stockholm's culture scene for decades. His cultural club Forum received Academy funding for years. Six of the Academy's 18 members, who are appointed for life, no longer actively participate in the institution's work due to the discord, adding to two others who had already stepped aside for other reasons. Without a quorum of 12 and unable to elect new membersand criticised for its conflicts of interest, culture of silence and internal rivalriesthe Academy has vowed to undertake massive reforms. Traditionally known for its integrity and discretion, the Academy's row has turned into a titillating public spectacle as members regularly exchange vicious blows via the media. The scandal has been "disastrous to (the Academy's) reputation," Swedish literary critic at daily Svenska Dagbladet Madelaine Levy told AFP. The Nobel Foundation, which manages the finances and the administration of the Nobel Prizes, hopes the Academy will pull itself together in time to award the prize again in 2019. "I think there is a chance ... but it is too early to judge," foundation director Lars Heikensten said. Others are not convinced, amid the widely-reported ongoing struggles in the Academy's reform work. "As things are now I wouldn't say I am certain," editor Hakan Bravinger of publisher Norstedts said. Peace Prize for Korea? Without the Literature Prize, this year's other high-profile Nobel is the Peace Prize, to be announced in Oslo on Friday, October 5. As always, the names of numerous potential winners are being tossed about in the run-up to next week's announcement, some less credible than others. It's a guessing game rendered more difficult by the fact that the identities of the candidatesthere are 329 this yearare generally kept secret. US President Donald Trump has been mentioned as a possibility for his efforts to bring peace to the Korean peninsula. But Dan Smith, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), said he believed it would be "inappropriate" to honour Trump after he withdrew the US from international agreements on the climate and Iran's nuclear programme. In addition, the only known Trump nomination submitted to the Nobel committee turned out to be a fake. What about South Korean President Moon Jae-in for his rapprochement efforts with North Korea? "Premature," said Smith, recalling the dashed hopes after Moon's predecessor Kim Dae-jung won the prize in 2000. Other names creating some buzz in the Norwegian capital are Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, who both campaign against sexual violence, as well as the World Food Programme, the UN refugee agency UNHCR, jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, organisations defending the media and Russian human rights champions. Between the Medicine Prize announcement on Monday and the Peace Prize next Friday will come the awards for physics on Tuesday and chemistry on Wednesday. The Economics Prize will wrap things up on Monday, October 8. This year, each Nobel comes with a nine million kronor ($1.01-million, 870,000-euro) prize sum, to be shared if several laureates are honoured in the same discipline. The laureates receive their prizes at formal banquets held in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10. Explore further Nobel chemistry prize to be announced in Stockholm 2018 AFP Credit: CC0 Public Domain Czech vets have ordered checks on pork meat imported from countries hit by the African swine fever as of October 2, the State Veterinary Administration said Friday. The checks concern pork from Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania where swine fever has been confirmed, it said on its website. "Considering the situation in Europe, we must protect domestic pig farms and the market from a potential spread of the infection," Agriculture Minister Miroslav Toman said in a statement. Earlier this week, EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan urged EU member states to prepare tougher measures to contain the spread of African swine fever after the latest outbreak in Belgium, which had decided to preemptively slaughter up to 4,000 domestic pigs. The African swine fever virus, which is endemic in parts of Africa and Asia, is not dangerous to humans but is fatal to pigs and wild boar. Czech vets have tested more than 100 samples for African swine fever this year but have not found the virus. The disease first appeared on Czech soil in June 2017, with the virus detected in more than 200 deceased, shot or caught wild boars in the east of the country. Explore further EU urges member states to toughen swine fever controls 2018 AFP According to the JRC, the global seafood consumption has more than doubled in the past 50 years, putting stress on the sustainability of fishing . Credit: AdobeStock, Alexander Raths The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission have examined the impact of seafood supply chains across national boundariesthe global seafood consumption footprint. The scientists from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) have examined the impact of seafood supply chains across national boundariesthe global seafood consumption footprint. Global seafood consumption has more than doubled in the past 50 years, putting stress on the sustainability of fishing Net importing nations must consider the sustainability of their trading partners' fishing practices, not just their domestic ones New analysis on international supply chains makes the case for international collaboration on long-term sustainability of all seafood production Taking into consideration both food that humans consume and seafood processed for feed production, seafood consumption in EU member states equals 27 kg per head. The highest consumption at EU level is observed in Portugal (61.5 kg per head) while outside the EU, the top consumers are Korea (78.5 kg per head) followed by Norway (66.6 kg per head). The global per head consumption is estimated at 22.3 kg. Global demand for seafood is growing Global seafood consumption has more than doubled in the past 50 years, to over 20 kg per capita per year in 2014. As demand for seafood rises, the sustainability of fish stock becomes an ever more pressing issue. Compared to other commodities, the share of globally produced seafood products that are traded internationally is very high and growing, mostly due to globalisation and the geographical discrepancy between aquaculture production happening mostly in Asia, and seafood demand mostly in Europe, North America and Asia. Given that many nations rely on imports to meet national demands, assessments of the sustainability of seafood need to consider both domestic production and net imports, and whether imported seafood comes from sustainable sources. Why measure global seafood consumption footprint? In a recent article "Global seafood consumption footprint", JRC scientists use a new methodology to examine the impact of seafood supply chains across national boundariesthe global seafood consumption footprint. This is the first ever measure of national footprints based on seafood consumption rather than production, broken down by sector to quantify the dependencies between capture fisheries and aquaculture through fishmeal production and trade by country. The seafood consumption footprint provides policy-makers with evidence to encourage international collaboration and promote policies to ensure long-term sustainability of all seafood production. What is our global seafood consumption footprint? According to calculations using baseline data from 2011, global demand for seafood destined for human consumption is 143.8 million tonnes per year, and the overall consumption footprint, which also includes other uses of seafood, is 154 million tonnes. China has by far the largest seafood consumption footprint (65 million tonnes), followed by the European Union (13 million tonnes), Japan (7.4 million tonnes), Indonesia (7.3 tonnes) and the United States (7.1 million tonnes). In terms of consumption footprint per capita, the Republic of Korea scored highest (78.5 kg per capita), followed by Norway (66.6 kg), Portugal (61.5 kg), Myanmar (59.9 kg), Malaysia (58.6 kg) and Japan (58 kg) China comes in seventh at 48.3 kg per capita. How to measure global seafood consumption footprint JRC scientists developed a model (Multi-Region Input-Output, MRIO) for the world seafood supply chain to investigate the impact of seafood consumption across national boundaries. The model explores the interactions between capture fisheries and aquaculture, fishmeal and trade at the global level, and accounts for trade flows and interdependencies between different countries along the international supply chain, linking the extraction of raw materials, inter-industry flow, trade and final consumption. Results from the model can provide policy-makers and consumers with information on the extent of reliance on producer nations for their seafood supplies. They can support the assessment on whether seafood sources are exploited in accordance with the applicable or desired sustainability standards and objectives. This information can help encourage international collaboration and promote policies to ensure long-term sustainability of all seafood production. EU policies to preserve fish stocks The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is a set of rules for managing European fishing fleets and for conserving fish stocks. Stocks may be renewable, but they are finite. Some of these fishing stocks, however, are being overfished. As a result, EU countries have taken action to ensure the European fishing industry is sustainable and does not threaten the fish population size and productivity over the long term. As a major fishing power, and the largest single market for fisheries products in the world, the EU also plays an important role in promoting better governance through a number of international organisations. This involves developing and implementing policy on fisheries management and more generally the Law of the Sea. More information: Jordi Guillen et al. Global seafood consumption footprint, Ambio (2018). Journal information: AMBIO Jordi Guillen et al. Global seafood consumption footprint,(2018). DOI: 10.1007/s13280-018-1060-9 Scientists warn that stocks of bigeye tunaa fatty and fast-swimming predatorcould crash within a decade or two Dozens of nations with commercial fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean will grapple next week with a new finding that bigeye tuna, the backbone of a billion dollar business, is severely depleted and overfished. Unless catch levels are sharply reduced, scientists warned, stocks of the fatty, fast-swimming predator could crash within a decade or two. Less iconic than Atlantic bluefin but more valuable as an industry, bigeye (Thunnus obesus)one of several so-called tropical tunasis prized for sashimi in Japan and canned for supermarket sales worldwide. It is not farmed. An internal report by 40-odd scientists working under the inter-governmental International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), finalised last week, shows that populations have fallen to less than 20 percent of their historic levels. Even more critical, the stock is barely half the size needed to support a "maximum sustainable yield"the largest catch that can be taken without compromising long-term stability of the species. Current harvests, overwhelmingly legal, are also more than 60 percent above levels that would give bigeye at least a fighting chance of recovering its numbers, the report said. "The stock is in the red with a very high level of certainty," said Paulus Tak, a senior officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts, and an official observer at the ICCAT meeting in November that will renew or revise current bigeye quotas. Indeed, 18,000 runs of three distinct computer models returned an unprecedented 99.5 percent degree of certitude. "Bottom line, there are simply too many boats in the water chasing too few fish," Tak told AFP. Less iconic than Atlantic bluefin but more valuable as an industry, bigeye (Thunnus obesus)one of several so-called tropical tunasis prized for sashimi in Japan and canned for supermarket sales worldwide Brink of collapse A preparatory meeting of ICCAT's technical body in Madrid next week will likely validate the new assessment and formulate policy recommendations, including catch limits, for governments to consider in November. Japan and the European Unionwhich together account for half the 80,000 and 77,000 tonnes caught, respectively, last year and in 2016will play a decisive role. "If they come to the table ready to hammer out a solution, they will be successful," said Tak. "But if they try to delay, or implement something that doesn't give bigeye a reasonable chance of recovery, it will continue to decline." That is what happened in 2015 after the previous head count, the first to show that the species was in trouble. Despite warnings then from in-house scientists, countries opted for catch levels that only gave the fish a coin's toss chance of recovering over a 10-year period. "Not only has the recovery not begun, the starting line has now been moved backwards so there is less time and more ground to cover," said Grantly Galland, a scientist at Pew's Global Tuna Conservation who took part in the ICCAT stock assessment. Some experts have calculated that cutting total catch to 50,000 tonnes per year would give bigeye a 70 percent probability of recovery by 2028. ICCAT, which struggles to balance commercial and conservation goals, has been here before. A decade ago, the industryled by Spain, France and Japanfished Atlantic eastern bluefin to the brink of collapse, triggering a motion at the UN body governing trade in endangered species to ban international trade outright. Classification of tuna species according to the IUCN and their worldwide sales. FADs and longliners The motion failed, but jolted the industry into lowering quotas and cracking down on illegal fishing. Stocks recovered fairly quickly. "This qualifies at ICCAT's biggest challenge since the bluefin crisis," said Tak. "It is obvious that urgent action will have to be taken." It would appear to be in the common interest of all bigeye fishing nations to protect the species, but proposals on the table favour some more than others. There are calls, for example, to rein in European vesselsmostly Spanishthat use enormous nets to scoop up hundreds of fish attracted by so-called FADs, or "fish aggregation devices". Traditional "one pole, one line" tuna fisheries in Portugal's Azores that have seen catches decline in five years from nearly 5,000 to 500 tonnes say these distant factory ships have indiscriminately harvested the juveniles that used to reach maturity in their waters. But curtailing these nets would give an advantage to Japanese and Taiwanese longliners, which trail fishing lines baited with hundreds, even thousands, of hooks. Currently, the global catch is roughly divided between the two. Also criticised is the legal practice of reflagging vessels from major fishing nations, especially Spain, to developing coastal countries that currently have no catch limit. This is the main reason the bigeye catch last year exceeded the allocated quotas by nearly 20 percent. 2018 AFP Credit: CC0 Public Domain There's a lot of buzz about distributed ledger technology, commonly known as "blockchain", being the future of financial and legal transactions, but it also has the potential to help tackle a far trickier problem climate change. That's what blockchain expert Dr. Philippa Ryan from UTS Law has been arguing this week at a special UN session in Geneva. More than 600 people representing 160 countries attended this year's International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Week. As part of this event, the United Nations was invited to hear a series of presentations about how standards are supporting innovation to address some of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Dr. Ryan presented on the possible uses of blockchain technology in sustainability and climate action. The session focused specifically on Goal 13 climate action. One of the challenges is to help developing countries meet their increasing demand for electricity without adopting high emission solutions. That's where blockchain comes in. Dr. Ryan says industrialised and developed countries are heavily dependent on high emission electricity production. "For example, disrupting Australia's way of producing electricity to reduce emissions is challenging because the incumbent industries, infrastructure, systems and processes are significant contributors to the economy." By contrast, in the developing world, demand for electricity is increasing but there is little or no existing infrastructure. Dr. Ryan says this presents the opportunity to adopt a cleaner more sustainable approach from the start. "Using solar panels, communities and villages can generate, store and use their own energy and the whole system can be managed securely using blockchain technology." The idea is to think small micro-transactive grids involve a limited number of participants with each dwelling or household producing solar powered energy which is bought and sold between the participants according to needs at different times. For it to work effectively, there must be trust in the system. "With no central controller or regulator of the system, everyone in the grid community must be able to trust the ledgers which record how much energy is generated, stored, bought and sold within and across the network." And that, says Dr. Ryan, is the beauty of blockchain. "The technology provides a transparent, auditable and automated market trading and clearing mechanism for the benefit of producers and consumers." It can also support communities where not everyone has a bank account. Settlement of debits and credits can take place at an agreed time according to the local accepted traditions or trade conventions. Dr. Ryan's presentation was well-received and prompted questions from the audience about the challenges and risks facing the implementation of blockchain technology. While complexity, cost and reputation have been the main obstacles to adoption, standards can help to address all three of these barriers. "At a time when global trust in government, banking, the media and other powerful institutions has slumped, blockchain can play a significant role in democratising new more trustworthy business networks. These new economic models can be exemplars for how blockchain technology might help achieve some of the SDGs." As well as the UN session, Dr. Ryan also addressed the ISO General Assembly with an update on the global work of the ISO Blockchain Technical Committee. She is co-author of Blockchain: Transforming your business and our world, which makes the case for how distributed ledger technology can help to solve 'wicked problems.' It devotes an entire chapter to climate change. Explore further World Bank says demand for blockchain bond tops expectations Postdoctoral researcher Jaemin Kim, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering Hong Yang and graduate student Pei-Chieh (Jack) Shih are part of a team that developed a new material that helps split water molecules for hydrogen fuel production. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer Breaking the bonds between oxygen and hydrogen in water could be a key to the creation of hydrogen in a sustainable manner, but finding an economically viable technique for this has proved difficult. Researchers report a new hydrogen-generating catalyst that clears many of the obstaclesabundance, stability in acid conditions and efficiency. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report on an electrocatalytic material made from mixing metal compounds with substance called perchloric acid. Electrolyzers use electricity to break water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. The most efficient of these devices use corrosive acids and electrode materials made of the metal compounds iridium oxide or ruthenium oxide. Iridium oxide is the more stable of the two, but iridium is one of the least abundant elements on Earth, so researchers are in search of an alternative material. "Much of the previous work was performed with electrolyzers made from just two elementsone metal and oxygen," said Hong Yang, a co-author and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Illinois. "In a recent study, we found if a compound has two metal elementsyttrium and rutheniumand oxygen, the rate of water-splitting reaction increased." Yao Qin, a co-author and former member of Yang's group, first experimented with the procedure for making this new material by using different acids and heating temperatures to increase the rate of the water-splitting reaction. The researchers found that when they used perchloric acid as a catalyst and let the mixture react under heat, the physical nature of the yttrium ruthenate product changed. "The material became more porous and also had a new crystalline structure, different from all the solid catalysts we made before," said Jaemin Kim, the lead author and a postdoctoral researcher. The new porous material the team developeda pyrochlore oxide of yttrium ruthenatecan split water molecules at a higher rate than the current industry standard. "Because of the increased activity it promotes, a porous structure is highly desirable when it comes electrocatalysts," Yang said. "These pores can be produced synthetically with nanometer-sized templates and substances for making ceramics; however, those can't hold up under the high-temperature conditions needed for making high-quality solid catalysts." Yang and his team looked at the structure of their new material with an electron microscope and found that it is four times more porous than the original yttrium ruthenate they developed in a previous study, and three times that of the iridium and ruthenium oxides used commercially. "It was surprising to find that the acid we chose as a catalyst for this reaction turned out to improve the structure of the material used for the electrodes," Yang said. "This realization was fortuitous and quite valuable for us." The next steps for the group are to fabricate a laboratory-scale device for further testing and to continue to improve the porous electrode stability in acidic environments, Yang said. "Stability of the electrodes in acid will always be a problem, but we feel that we have come up with something new and different when compared with other work in this area," Yang said. "This type of research will be quite impactful regarding hydrogen generation for sustainable energy in the future." Graduate student Pei-Chieh Shih, Zaid Al-Bardanand and Argonne National Laboratory researcher Cheng-Jun Sun also contributed to this research. Explore further A catalytic balancing act for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen More information: Jaemin Kim et al, A Porous Pyrochlore Y2 [Ru1.6 Y0.4 ]O7- Electrocatalyst for Enhanced Performance towards the Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Acidic Media, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2018). Journal information: Angewandte Chemie , Angewandte Chemie International Edition Jaemin Kim et al, A Porous Pyrochlore Y2 [Ru1.6 Y0.4 ]O7- Electrocatalyst for Enhanced Performance towards the Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Acidic Media,(2018). DOI: 10.1002/anie.201808825 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Increasing female representation in America's police forces can both increase reporting of violent crimes against women and decrease domestic violence, according to a new study from University of Virginia economics professor Amalia Miller. Miller and her co-author, Carmit Segal of the University of Zurich, studied the impact of female police officers from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, when police departments began hiring more women or, in some cases, were forced to hire more women after litigation and affirmative action policies. In that time period, the proportion of female officers in major U.S. police departments nearly tripled, from about 3.4 percent of officers to 10.1 percent. Miller's study shows that each percentage point increase in female officers in a particular district is associated with an equal percentage point increase in crime reporting by female assault victims in that district. They saw no association with the reporting or occurrence of crimes against men. "We found that female officers could make a very specific difference, particularly in violent crimes against women," Miller said. "That linear pattern would likely become less linear as more female officers are added, but it does show that going from a small number of female officers just 3 percent to a slightly larger number has a significant effect." For cases of domestic violence, the effect is even more pronounced. A 7.4 percentage increase in female officer representation correlated with a 13.6 percent increase in reports of domestic violence, and there was a significant reduction in intimate partner homicides in districts with more female officers. Incidences of repeated domestic violence the number of cases reported by one woman in a month also decreased, by about 10 percent after a 10 percent increase in female officers. Miller offered a few possible explanations. First, she said, having female officers on staff could help entire police departments take domestic violence crimes more seriously. At the time of the study mostly in the 1970s and 1980s and prior to the 1994 Violence Against Women Act many police manuals and training programs did not deal directly with domestic violence. "Domestic violence was often dismissed or not taken seriously as a crime," Miller said. "Many police departments saw it as a private matter in a household, not a law enforcement issue. It's possible that female officers were more likely to take those crimes seriously and intervene." Second, female victims could feel more comfortable reporting a crime whether domestic violence or another form of violence or sexual assault to a female officer, or even to departments that they know have female officers on staff. "Victims might worry about being judged or experience shame, especially when reporting sexual crimes," she said. "Talking about those crimes with a male officer, especially if the woman is being abused by a man, could be very difficult." Finally, adding more female officers could change the culture of individual police departments, Miller said. "It's possible that this indicates a cultural shift in some departments, where hiring female officers also influences the behavior of male officers, especially if female officers have risen through the ranks and gained more authority," she said. The research could also indicate the impact of increasing numbers of women in other male-dominated fields. Last year, Miller completed a study showing that increased female representation in corporate leadership significantly improves women's promotion rates across the board. A previous paper also focused on the impact of women on corporate boards. "I am interested in the impact of women working in non-traditional occupations," Miller said. "What is the impact of having more women in these traditionally male roles?" Gender dynamics aside, she said the study shows some positive effects of affirmative action policies. Miller studied both police departments that voluntarily hired women and departments that were forced to by affirmative action policies enacted at the time. The latter experienced the same uptick in reporting and reduction of crime. In fact, the effect was often more pronounced in departments forced to hire more women under affirmative action policies than in other departments. "Some economists believe that affirmative action quotas force inefficiency because they force organizations to hire in a way they otherwise would not," Miller said. "Affirmative action is no longer as important a tool in public policy, and it has been limited by the Supreme Court, but I do think it's important to note this particular benefit. Compelling departments to hire female officers did improve the quality of policing for female victims, and that's an important part of the story." Explore further Why stigma against victims of domestic violence persists in Indonesia More information: Amalia R Miller et al. Do Female Officers Improve Law Enforcement Quality? Effects on Crime Reporting and Domestic Violence, The Review of Economic Studies (2018). Amalia R Miller et al. Do Female Officers Improve Law Enforcement Quality? Effects on Crime Reporting and Domestic Violence,(2018). DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdy051 David A Matsa et al. Chipping away at the Glass Ceiling: Gender Spillovers in Corporate Leadership, American Economic Review (2011). DOI: 10.1257/aer.101.3.635 Journal information: American Economic Review A link between major political and social crises and mental health has been highlighted as part of research by a historian at the University of Sheffield that is seeking to increase our understanding of suicide. The study, led by Dr. Julie Gottlieb from the University's Department of History, reveals how there was a string of suicides triggered by fear of war as a result of the Munich Crisis of 1938, when whole populations were in a state of suspense and high anxiety, waiting to hear if they would be in war or peace. Britain, France, Italy and Germany signed the Munich Agreement on 30 September, 1938, which betrayed Czechoslovakia and gave in to Hitler's demands for the Sudetenland, with Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich with the promise of 'peace for our time'. The Sheffield study suggests the social impact of the crisis has been overlooked. However, there is clear evidence that almost everyone was absorbed and transfixed as it unfolded, and this was magnified by the media. The worry over war from the air, being fitted for gas masks, and facing mobilization and evacuation made this a 'People's Crisis' and not just a story of diplomatic intrigue. The crisis also caused and certainly exacerbated mental health conditions. The months from the crisis to the outbreak of war in September 1939 were a 'war of nerves', according to the research. The University of Sheffield study sheds light on how the depression and anxiety over the possibility of war was a factor in cases of suicide in Britain as well as in the rest of Western Europe. Examples uncovered by the research include: Fear that there might soon be another European war was the reason given at a Hammersmith (London) inquest for the suicide of John James Macdonald, a 42-year-old fitters' engineer, who gassed himself at his homehe had served in the Navy in 'mystery' ships during the Great War. A novelist, Mrs Marie Winch, aged 43, was found shot in her home in Maidstone. Her husband, Lieutenant Colonel A.B Winch said: "The September crisis has upset her and she was also obsessed by a fear that her small daughter was going to be taken away from her." A railwayman's suicide was "blamed on the European crisis. Harriet Edge, aged 63, was "depressed by the war and what might be coming" in the way of air raids. Edge's husband, a sheet metal worker, told the coroner that "she has been under medical care for nervous debility." A Bournemouth doctor killed himself because he had "been depressed since the crisis" and "his mind had been unbalanced owing to the possibility of war." The University of Sheffield study has uncovered many more examples of suicide cases where the coroner's verdict indicated the crisis, the international situation and/or war or fear as the provocation for these acts. The research has also identified that one of the recurrent suicide methods during the Munich Crisis was suicide by gas poisoning and even by gas mask. Dr. Julie Gottlieb said: "What has largely been forgotten about the Munich Crisis is that it was also a people's crisis. In Britain, the high pitch of emotions felt as a consequence of these world events led to 20,000-plus letters and telegrams sent to the Prime Minister the Twitter feed of their day. "Mass-Observation recorded the way the crisis was experienced by the man and woman on the street. The public hysteria displayed by the many who held Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain up as a 'Man of Peace' and a saviour was counterbalanced by a politics of regret and deep shame often experienced as physical and mental illness at the betrayal of the Czechs and collusion with the Nazi regime." The University of Sheffield study is also set to consider how other major national and international political events such as the Financial Crisis, the Migrant Crisis and Brexit affect people's mental health and wellbeing. Dr. Gottlieb added: "Brexit has been the subject of immense critique but what hasn't been analysed so far is to what extent this political move is having on people's health and wellbeing. As we move closer to Britain leaving the EU, I can't help but be struck by some parallels between Brexit and the Munich Crisis in terms of the emotional impact that it is appearing to have on people. "In the days following the EU Referendum, the immediate responses were more emotional than rational. Expansive emotional vocabulary was being used by the media and people up and down the country as shown when the Metro reported that David Cameron wept after his resignation speech. His aides revealed how it was very emotional, everyone was cryingmen and women, even the civil servants. And then David started crying." The study follows an international symposium on suicide and crisis, which was held at the University of Sheffield earlier this year. The two-day event brought together those working in medical humanities, history, sociology, and the cross disciplinary field of suicidology, as well as clinicians from around the world, to reflect on the correlations between national and personal crisis. Explore further Suicide: A public health crisis More information: For more information on Dr Gottlieb's research into suicide and crisis, including the international symposium held at the University of Sheffield, visit: For more information on Dr Gottlieb's research into suicide and crisis, including the international symposium held at the University of Sheffield, visit: suicidesocietyandcrisis.group.shef.ac.uk/ A common joke between politicians from Maryland and Virginia holds that all Maryland blue crabs actually come from Virginia, where saltier waters are hospitable to egg-bearing females. The retort: As soon as they can, they move to Maryland. But what if some Chesapeake Bay crabs actually come from Delaware or North Carolina? Scientists are using a crab virusakin to the common coldas well as computer models of ocean currents and genetic analysis of crustaceans from Massachusetts to Argentina to figure out just how much different populations of swimming crabs have in common. They're even using acoustic monitoring to track crab movements within and between estuaries in Florida, along the Mid-Atlantic coast and around Mexico. Aside from settling interstate rivalries, the data the researchers collect could help guide efforts to conserve the crustaceans. It's difficult to understand how harvesting pressures, disease or climate change could affect numbers of crabs, or any other creature, without knowing how migration patterns might allow a population to replenish itself, said Andy Kough, a research biologist at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. "You have to understand where animals are going in order to protect them," he said. Scientists' general understanding of the life cycle of Chesapeake Bay crabs is this: They are spawned in salty Virginia waters near the mouth of the bay, spend their earliest days floating in the Atlantic Ocean, and then begin migrating up the bay toward Maryland. It's during that larval stage that researchers can lose track of where crabs are going and where they are coming from, because their movement is dependent on weather, currents and tides. That makes it difficult for scientists to predict how robust populations of juvenile crabs in the Chesapeake might be in any given year, a critical forecast in setting annual rules for crab harvests in Maryland and Virginia. Researchers survey how many adult crabs hibernate burrowed in mud around the bay each winter to calculate estimates of how many spawning-age females might be present, but it's harder to guess how many of their offspring will end up in the estuary. The ongoing research by Kough, along with collaborators at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the University of Florida, could make that process easier or more precisenot to mention shed light on crab population movements across thousands of miles. The work is funded by about $960,000 in National Science Foundation grants. Kough is revealing just how far crabs could float using a variety of oceanographic models that cover the entire planet, and plugging in the potential paths of larval crabs up and down the Atlantic. It's "like video games with little baby larvae," he joked. Data from the acoustic sensors will be factored into the models to better calculate adult crabs' range. Another researcher, University of Florida associate professor Donald Behringer, is bringing expertise on crab behavior into the analysis. Other researchers are using genetic analysis to trace crabs' steps backward. The thought is that the greater genetic similarity far-flung groups of crabs share, the more likely it is that their populations are mixing with one another. "We know they have the potential to move large distances, but we don't know necessarily how connected the populations are," said Eric Schott, an associate research professor at UMCES and the study's primary investigator. "They are important fisheries where millions of crabs are harvested, but we don't always know where those crabs are coming from." Schott, UMCES assistant professor Louis Plough and colleagues have been pulling DNA samples from the legs of crabs up and down the Atlantic coast. They've received samples from off of Massachusetts, Cuba, Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Venezuela and Uruguay. They've also been searching the crabs for the presence of a virus known as CsRV1, an even more precise tool for measuring similarities or differences. Because the virus mutates more quickly than the crabs evolve themselves, it provides an even more detailed fingerprint of crab geography, Schott explained. The virus is not thought to be a threat to the crabs' survivalwhile it has been shown to kill crustaceans that are infected with it in a lab setting, it doesn't appear to kill many crabs in the wild. It does not infect humans. "The data suggests it's been part of the crab life history for millennia," Schott said. So far, the results have been mixed. Researchers have noticed a lot of diversity in the genetics of viruses in crabs collected from around various Caribbean islands, for example. They expected such results to be a sign that strains of the virus are distinct because populations aren't interacting. But in Anne Arundel County's Rhode River, their findings were more surprising. The researchers found unexpectedly wide genetic diversity among samples all collected from that waterwayeven crab samples collected over multiple years. It could be a sign that in any given year, crabs are migrating in from many different locations, Schott said. But it's too early to tell for sure. The research and analysis are expected to continue at least through next year. Explore further Canadian crabs with bad attitude threaten coastal ecosystem 2018 The Baltimore Sun Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A prime mystery. Credit: Robert Lessmann/shutterstock.com Over the past few days, the mathematics world has been abuzz over the news that Sir Michael Atiyah, the famous Fields Medalist and Abel Prize winner, claims to have solved the Riemann hypothesis. If his proof turns out to be correct, this would be one of the most important mathematical achievements in many years. In fact, this would be one of the biggest results in mathematics, comparable to the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem from 1994 and the proof of the Poincare Conjecture from 2002. Besides being one of the great unsolved problems in mathematics and therefore garnishing glory for the person who solves it, the Riemann hypothesis is one of the Clay Mathematics Institute's "Million Dollar Problems." A solution would certainly yield a pretty profitable haul: one million dollars. The Riemann hypothesis has to do with the distribution of the prime numbers, those integers that can be divided only by themselves and one, like 3, 5, 7, 11 and so on. We know from the Greeks that there are infinitely many primes. What we don't know is how they are distributed within the integers. The problem originated in estimating the so-called "prime pi" function, an equation to find the number of primes less than a given number. But its modern reformulation, by German mathematician Bernhard Riemann in 1858, has to do with the location of the zeros of what is now known as the Riemann zeta function. A visualization of the Riemann zeta function. Credit: Jan Homann/Wikimedia, CC BY The technical statement of the Riemann hypothesis is "the zeros of the Riemann zeta function which lie in the critical strip must lie on the critical line." Even understanding that statement involves graduate-level mathematics courses in complex analysis. Most mathematicians believe that the Riemann hypothesis is indeed true. Calculations so far have not yielded any misbehaving zeros that do not lie in the critical line. However, there are infinitely many of these zeros to check, and so a computer calculation will not verify all that much. Only an abstract proof will do. If, in fact, the Riemann hypothesis were not true, then mathematicians' current thinking about the distribution of the prime numbers would be way off, and we would need to seriously rethink the primes. The Riemann hypothesis has been examined for over a century and a half by some of the greatest names in mathematics and is not the sort of problem that an inexperienced math student can play around with in his or her spare time. Attempts at verifying it involve many very deep tools from complex analysis and are usually very serious ones done by some of the best names in mathematics. Atiyah gave a lecture in Germany on Sept. 25 in which he presented an outline of his approach to verify the Riemann hypothesis. This outline is often the first announcement of the solution but should not be taken that the problem has been solved far from it. For mathematicians like me, the "proof is in the pudding," and there are many steps that need to be taken before the community will pronounce Atiyah's solution as correct. First, he will have to circulate a manuscript detailing his solution. Then, there is the painstaking task of verifying his proof. This could take quite a lot of time, maybe months or even years. Is Atiyah's attempt at the Riemann hypothesis serious? Perhaps. His reputation is stellar, and he is certainly capable enough to pull it off. On the other hand, there have been several other serious attempts at this problem that did not pan out. At some point, Atiyah will need to circulate a manuscript that experts can check with a fine-tooth comb. Explore further A zero sum game This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Women are outnumbered by men nearly 2 to 1 in science, technology, engineering and math roles on TV, and a new study suggests that dramatic imbalance might be discouraging girls from pursing STEM careers. The numbers hardly improved between 2007 and 2017, according to the study, which was released this week and looked at more than 1,000 characters across television shows, movies and content on streaming platforms. The study, from the Lyda Hill Foundation and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, comes amid efforts by members of the tech industry and educators to increase the number of girls that go into STEM careers and empower those that have to move into leadership positions. In the tech industry in Chicago, for example, networks of women working to reduce barriers for their peers are growing, and more women are moving into positions of power. Still, women held roughly 22 percent of technology jobs in Chicago and nationally last year, according to data from Downers Grove-based trade association CompTIA. The lack of female representation in popular culture stands to threaten not just the future of the STEM industries but also efforts the industry and educators have made to encourage girls and women to enter the male-dominated fields, said Nicole Small, president of the Dallas-based Lyda Hill Foundation, which funded the study. "(Girls are) getting good messages from role models and teachers," she said. "But then they go out into the world, and whether it's what they're seeing on Instagram and YouTube, these messages are not being reinforced in the right ways. "We need to make sure that out of school time and outside of these specialty programs, these girls are getting messages that she can change the world if she wants to." If a girl sees a woman in a STEM career on TV, she can see herself in that role too, Small said. As part of the study, the researchers surveyed girls and young women in middle school, high school and college; 4 out of 5 respondents said seeing female characters in science and technology careers was important to them. Some characters in particular stood out as influences among the girls and women who intend to pursue a STEM career, including Dana Scully from "The X-Files," Meredith Grey from "Grey's Anatomy" and Amy Farrah Fowler from "The Big Bang Theory," according to the study. When Nancy Amato was in graduate school, "The X-Files" was a staple. Now Amato is set to become the first woman to head the computer science department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in January. Amato calls herself "an accidental computer scientist," having found the profession through a job offer after receiving her undergraduate degree in applied math and economics. But math was always her best subject, and she remembers the women she learned fromthe nun who taught her calculus in high school remains her favorite teacher. So was it the real-life role models or the women she saw on TV that encouraged her more toward her career path? "Probably both," she said. "It's hard to know really what influences you." As an educator, Amato sees movies as a learning tool. She ran the honors program at Texas A&M University and showed studentsmen and womenHidden Figures," the 2016 film about three trailblazing black female scientists at NASA. But charactersmale or femalein STEM fields rarely have leading roles, the study found. Over the last decade, the percentage of female lead characters who work in technical fields peaked in 2012 at less than 15 percent. White women were more likely to be featured as leads and portrayed as heroes than women of color. Hollywood is dealing with its own issues regarding female empowerment following the sexual abuse allegations that surfaced last year against film producer Harvey Weinstein. The #MeToo movement, spurred by the revelations, has upended careers and prompted institutional changes in schools, restaurants and businesses. Earlier this year, prominent actresses banded together to launch the Time's Up movement, meant to support working-class women dealing with the effects of inequality. Whether a push for more female characters in STEM fields comes from writers, producers or actors, it needs to start somewhere, and it needs to happen soon, said Terri Brax, co-founder of Women Tech Founders. Three years ago, when Brax and her team were preparing to launch their tech group, they reached out to young women as part of their research to learn why the lack of women in the startup industry was so pervasive. The answers they received highlighted stereotype after stereotype, she said. Young women were convinced that creativity and STEM couldn't go hand in hand, and they thought tech jobs meant sitting behind a computer all day, having no life and no interests, Brax said. The Lyda Hill study found that almost 43 percent of characters in STEM careers were shown sacrificing their personal life to work in the field, and more than 30 percent of films and episodes portray STEM professions as "not at all family-flexible." "These stereotypes, they knock you out before you're ever starting the idea of what it looks like to be a woman in STEM," Brax said. The problem is fixable, said Small, from the Lyda Hill Foundation. Kids are born scientists, exploring and curious. Their interests need to be stoked, and there are plenty of stories to tell about women in STEM to help girls connect the dots. "Girls can do anything too," she said. Explore further Study reveals patterns in STEM grades of girls versus boys 2018 Chicago Tribune Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Purdue University associate professor Julie Liu, at left, and doctoral student Sydney Hollingshead helped create a glue that could make medical procedures safer. Credit: Purdue University image/Erin Easterling More than 230 million invasive surgeries are performed worldwide each year and nearly all of those procedures create additional tissue damage from stitches and staples. Researchers at Purdue University are hoping to significantly decrease that damage with a new surgical adhesive technology. The Purdue team is working to solve one of the major challenges in the biomedical technology field most adhesives do not work well in moist environments because water interferes with the adhesion process. That means they cannot work inside the human body. Glue developed by the Purdue team uses a family of proteins and a modified amino acid to form a strong elastic bond between the soft tissues being joined. "We are taking a giant leap in health care research by creating something totally new," said Julie Liu, an associate professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering at Purdue, who led the research team. "There are currently no viable surgical glues that work inside the body." The Purdue researchers were inspired by natural glues that are created using the proteins produced by underwater organisms such as mussels and sandcastle worms. "This research presented a whole new set of challenges for me," Liu said. "Our team had to come up with ways to bond soft tissues within a wet environment that are non-toxic and biocompatible." Credit: Purdue University The Purdue glue has several advantages over sutures and staples, including reduced patient discomfort, lower risk of infection and less damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The technology aligns with Purdue's "giant leaps" celebration of the university's global advancements made in health, space, artificial intelligence and sustainability as part of Purdue's 150th anniversary. Those are the four themes of the yearlong celebration's Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues. "It is exciting to work on such innovative and impactful research as a student," said Sydney Hollingshead, a chemical engineering doctoral student, who assisted with the research. "We are going to help a lot of people by turning our engineering discoveries into medical advances." Liu also said that commercial glues sold as liquid bandages for cuts and scrapes do not work for surgeries because the chemical makeup of those glues is toxic when used inside the body. Explore further Researchers develop a toxin-free adhesive system inspired by underwater creatures Credit: CC0 Public Domain For decades, the search for life in outer space has focused on finding tiny microbes that would do little to satisfy a growing appetite for connection with beings that more closely resemble us. It's been the appetizer to the main course, a search for sophisticated creatures that truly deliver on the answer to one of humanity's central questions: Are we alone? Now, thanks to new interest in Congress for further scientific research, NASA is changing its focus to search for life advanced enough to, like us, create technology. The signs are called technosignatures, as compared with biosignatures, like in microbes, that show signs of life. Technosignatures come primarily as radio signals that allow scientists to infer the existence of technological life in the universe. A bill proposed in the U.S. House in April recommended that NASA receive $10 million to partner with private sector and philanthropic organizations to search for alien life. It wouldn't actually allocate the funds, and would still have to pass in the House and Senate, but it represents the first time in 25 years that the federal government has considered using funds to search for extraterrestrial life. The original program, called SETI, or the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, lost federal funding in 1993 after a year of research didn't turn up a "single green little fellow," said then U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan of Nevada. Unlike SETI, NASA argues that the search for technosignatures goes a step further, focusing on radio or laser emissions, not just communication signals. Our own radio and television broadcasts have been drifting into space, so we may be able to receive signals from other beings, the agency said. And signs of large structures or an atmosphere full of pollutantslike our owncould prove that there is a civilization like Earth's elsewhere in the universe. Whether NASA will find life outside our solar system is anyone's guess. Astronomer Frank Drake's Drake formula postulates that there could be 10,000 intelligent civilizations in the galaxy. Italian physicist Enrico Fermi's Fermi paradox asserts that if there was intelligent life out there, we would have met it already. But recent discoveries by the Kepler mission of multiple exoplanets, including some that have similarities with Earth, and the TESS mission, which recently launched a satellite that has already found two new exoplanets, have increased public interest in finding alien life. It'll have to be more an irregular radio signal to pass the test, though. NASA said that to answer the question of our place in the universe, it will need "unmistakable signs" of life. Explore further NASA is taking a new look at searching for life beyond Earth 2018 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Rosa in the Eastern Pacific Ocean on Sept. 28 at 4:55 a.m. EDT (855 UTC) and highest concentrations of water vapor (brown) and coldest cloud top temperatures were around the center. Credit: NASA/NRL When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Eastern Pacific Ocean, water vapor data provided information about the intensity of Hurricane Rosa. On Sept. 28, Rosa is a major hurricane, now a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. NASA's Aqua satellite passed Hurricane Rosa on Sept. 28 at 4:55 a.m. EDT (855 UTC) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument gathered water vapor content and temperature information. The MODIS image showed highest concentrations of water vapor and coldest cloud top temperatures were in a thick ring of storms around the 20 nautical mile-wide eye. MODIS data also showed coldest cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius) in those storms. Storms with cloud top temperatures that cold have the capability to produce heavy rainfall. Water vapor analysis of tropical cyclones tells forecasters how much potential a storm has to develop. Water vapor releases latent heat as it condenses into liquid. That liquid becomes clouds and thunderstorms that make up a tropical cyclone. Temperature is important when trying to understand how strong storms can be. The higher the cloud tops, the colder and the stronger they are. Twelve hours before the MODIS water vapor imagery, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided temperature data on the cloud tops on Sept. 27 at 4:41 p.m. EDT (2041 UTC). Coldest cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius) around the eye and confirmed the later MODIS data. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided temperature data on the cloud tops of Category 4 Hurricane Rosa on Sept. 27 at 4:41 p.m. EDT (2041 UTC). Coldest cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius) around the eye and confirmed the MODIS data. Credit: NASA/JPL, Heidar Thrastarson At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Rosa was located near latitude 16.9 degrees north and longitude 117.3 degrees west. That's 640 miles (1,030 km) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Rosa is moving toward the west near 7 mph (11 kph). A gradual turn toward the west-northwest and northwest is expected on Friday, followed by a turn toward the north Saturday night and a turn toward the north-northeast on Sunday. Maximum sustained winds are near 145 mph (230 kph) with higher gusts. Rosa is a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Little significant change in strength is forecast today, with gradual weakening anticipated by Saturday, and further weakening at a faster rate expected early next week. NHC said although Rosa is not near the coast, swells generated by Rosa will affect portions of the coasts of southwestern Mexico, the southern Baja California Peninsula, and southern California late this week and over the weekend. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. Explore further NASA looks at Hurricane Helene's water vapor concentration Credit: CC0 Public Domain Officials with the National Park Service in the U.S. have announced that NPS has plans to reestablish wolves on Isle Royalean island in Lake Superior. They also told reporters that some wolves have already been captured and brought to the island and have been released into the wild. Isle Royale National Park is a group of islands in a northwestern part of Lake Superiorthe island of Isle Royale is the largest by far. The entire island is a park, and because of that, it is mostly uninhabited by humans. Neither moose nor wolves are native to the island, but both made their way over from what is now Minnesota sometime around 1900 by walking over frozen portions of the lake. The arrival of the moose and wolf on the island caught the attention of researchers who began a study of the dynamic between the two back in 1958it has continued to this day, making the study the longest of its kind ever conducted. But the study has come nearly to a halt as the wolf population has dwindled to just twoone male and one female. Both are old, and the pair are not expected to reproduce. The population dwindled because of the lack of genetic diversity, which led to diseases that wiped them out. Meanwhile, the moose population has surged, causing overgrazing of parts of the island. After assessing the situation, NPS has decided that reintroducing wolves makes the most sense. Two wolves (one male and one female) have already been captured and released on the island. Both were caught on Grand Portage Reservation in northeastern Minnesotaa site close to where the original wolf wolves are believed to have migrated from. NPS plans to capture more from the same reservation and also some from Michigan. All told, NPS plans to relocate 20 to 30 wolves to the island over the course of the next few years. NPS officials noted that none of the wolves being relocated have experience in hunting and killing moose, but expect they will figure it out. They also noted that NPS will be part of the ongoing study of the predator-prey relationship for at least the next 20 years. Explore further Isle Royale wolf decline boosts moose More information: Classic wolf-moose study to be restarted on Isle Royale, Science 28 Sep 2018: Vol. 361, Issue 6409, pp. 1298-1299, science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6409/1298 Journal information: Science Classic wolf-moose study to be restarted on Isle Royale,28 Sep 2018: Vol. 361, Issue 6409, pp. 1298-1299, DOI: 10.1126/science.361.6409.1298 2018 Phys.org Dr. Zonghao Liu (left) and Prof. Yabing Qi (right) with the 5 cm 5 cm perovskite solar module that they developed in their lab at OIST. Credit: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Solar energy has long been considered the most sustainable option for replacing our dependence on fossil fuels, but technologies for converting solar energy into electricity must be both efficient and inexpensive. Scientists from the Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) believe they've found a winning formula in a new method to fabricate low-cost high-efficiency solar cells. Prof. Yabing Qi and his team from OIST in collaboration with Prof. Shengzhong Liu from Shaanxi Normal University, China, developed the cells using the materials and compounds that mimic the crystalline structure of the naturally occurring mineral perovskite. They describe their technique in a study published in the journal Nature Communications. In what Prof. Qi refers to as "the golden triangle," solar cell technologies need to fulfill three conditions to be worth commercializing: their conversion rate of sunlight into electricity must be high, they must be inexpensive to produce, and they must have a long lifespan. Today, most commercial solar cells are made from crystalline silicon, which has a relatively high efficiency of around 22%. Though silicon, the raw material for these solar cells, is abundant, processing it tends to be complex and shoots up the manufacturing costs, making the finished product expensive. Perovskite offers a more affordable solution, Prof. Qi says. Perovskite was first used to make solar cells in 2009 by Prof. Tsutomu Miyasaka's research team at Toin University of Yokohama, Japan, and since then it has been rapidly gaining importance. "Research on perovskite cells is very promising. In only nine years, the efficiency of these cells went from 3.8 % to 23.3%. Other technologies have taken over 30 years of research to reach the same level," explains Prof. Qi. The fabrication method he and his research team have developed produces perovskite solar cells with an efficiency comparable to crystalline silicon cells, but it is potentially much cheaper than making silicon solar cells. To make the new cells, the researchers coated transparent conductive substrates with perovskite films that absorb sunlight very efficiently. They used a gas-solid reaction-based technique in which the substrate is first coated with a layer of hydrogen lead triiodide incorporated with a small amount of chlorine ions and methylamine gas allowing them to reproducibly make large uniform panels, each consisting of multiple solar cells. In developing the method, the scientists realized that making the perovskite layer 1 micron thick increased the working life of the solar cell significantly. "The solar cells are almost unchanged after working for 800 hours," says Dr. Zonghao Liu, a postdoctoral scholar in Prof. Qi's research unit at OIST and the first author of the study. In addition, a thicker coating not only boosted the stability of the solar cells but also facilitated the fabrication processes, thereby lowering its production costs. "The thicker absorber layer ensures good reproducibility of solar cell fabrication, which is a key advantage for mass manufacturing in the realistic industrial-scale setting," says Dr. Liu. The big challenge Prof. Qi and his team now face is in increasing the size of their newly designed solar cell from the 0.1 mm2 sized prototype to large commercial-sized panels that can be several feet long. This is where the industry can help. "There exists a large gap between the findings in lab and reality, and the industry is not always ready to cover this entire gap by itself. So, the researchers need to take one more necessary step beyond their labs and meet the industry half-way," says Prof. Qi. To take that step, Prof. Qi and team received a generous grant from OIST's Technology Development and Innovation Center, under their Proof-of-Concept Program. With that funding, the team has built a working model of their new perovskite solar modules consisting of multiple solar cells on 5cm 5cm substrates, with an active area of 12 cm2- much bigger than their experimental prototype but smaller than what is required for commercial purposes. Although the process of upscaling has reduced the efficiency of the cells from 20% to 15%, the researchers are optimistic that they will be able to improve the way they work in the coming years and successfully commercialize their use. Explore further Bright future for solar cell technology More information: Zonghao Liu et al. Gas-solid reaction based over one-micrometer thick stable perovskite films for efficient solar cells and modules, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Zonghao Liu et al. Gas-solid reaction based over one-micrometer thick stable perovskite films for efficient solar cells and modules,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06317-8 A concept for space debris removal by bi-directional momentum ejection from a satellite. Credit: Kazunori Takahashi. The Earth is currently surrounded by debris launched into space over several decades. This space junk can collide with satellites, causing damage and creating more debris. To preserve a secure space environment, the active removal or de-orbiting of space debris is an emergent technological challenge. If remedial action is not taken in the near future, it will be difficult to sustain human space activities. To overcome this issue, several methods for the removal and de-orbiting of debris have been proposed so far. These are classified as either contact methods (e.g., robotic arm, tether net, electrodynamic tether) or contactless methods (e.g., laser, ion beam shepherd), with the contactless methods proving to be more secure. The ion beam shepherd contactless method uses a plasma beam ejected from the satellite to impart a force to the debris, thereby decelerating it so that it falls to a lower altitude, re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and burning up naturally. However, ejecting the plasma beam toward the debris accelerates the satellite in the opposite direction, which makes it difficult to maintain a consistent distance between debris and the satellite. To safely and effectively remove debris, two propulsion systems have to be mounted on the satellite to eject bi-directional plasma beams (Figure 1). This interferes with a satellite system integration requiring the reduction of a satellite's weight and size. Schematic of a magnetic nozzle rf plasma thruster (helicon plasma thruster) having two open source exits and photographs of the three operation modes in the laboratory test. Credit: Kazunori Takahashi. "If the debris removal can be performed by a single high-power propulsion system, it will be of significant use for future space activity," said Associate Professor Kazunori Takahashi from Tohoku University in Japan, who is leading research on new technology to remove space debris in collaboration with colleagues at the Australian National University. The Japanese and Australian research group has demonstrated that a helicon plasma thruster can yield the space debris removal operation using a single propulsion system (Figure 2). In the laboratory experiment, the bi-directional ejection of plasma plumes from the single plasma thruster was precisely controlled with a magnetic field and gas injection; then the decelerating force imparted to an object simulating debris was measured whilst maintaining the zero-net force to the thruster (and satellite). The system, having the single plasma thruster, can be operational in three operational modes: acceleration of the satellite; deceleration of the satellite; and debris removal. "The helicon plasma thruster is an electrodeless system, which allows it to undertake long operations performed at a high-power level." says Takahashi, "This discovery is considerably different to existing solutions and will make a substantial contribution to future sustainable human activity in space." More information: Kazunori Takahashi et al, Demonstrating a new technology for space debris removal using a bi-directional plasma thruster, Scientific Reports (2018). Journal information: Scientific Reports Kazunori Takahashi et al, Demonstrating a new technology for space debris removal using a bi-directional plasma thruster,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-32697-4 In July, strikes by Ryanair cockpit and cabin crew disrupted 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, affecting 100,000 travellers Ryanair braced Friday for what unions warn will be the biggest strike in the airline's historyalthough the carrier played down fears of disruption for travellers. The Dublin-based carrier said it would have to cancel nearly 250 flights amid walk-outs in Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. But the company insisted the vast majority of its 2,400 normally scheduled flights would be unaffected by "these unnecessary strikes". "We find this strike... unreasonable and somewhat out of sync with the progress we thought we were having," Ryanair COO Peter Bellew said in a conference call with journalists on Thursday. Ryanair said in a statement that the vast majority of its 2,400 flights on Friday "will be unaffected by these unnecessary strikes and will operate as scheduled". Affected customers received email and text message notifications on Tuesday to advise them of cancellations and options, Ryanair said. Trade unions have claimed that Friday's 24-hour stoppage will be the biggest strike in the Irish carrier's history. "By not cancelling enough flights for tomorrow's strike, Ryanair's irresponsible behaviour could create tensions and insecurity for all airport staff, Ryanair and the passengers concerned," the Belgian CNE union said in a statement. Ryanair staff have been seeking higher wages and an end to the practice whereby many have been working as independent contractors without the benefits of staff employees. The Dublin-based carrier said it would have to cancel nearly 250 flights amid walk-outs in Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain ahead of the strike Workers' rights Another key complaint of workers based in countries other than Ireland is the fact that Ryanair has been employing them under Irish legislation. Staff claim this creates huge insecurity for them, blocking their access to state benefits in their country. EU Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen said on Wednesday air crews should be employed under contracts from the country where they work. "Respecting EU law is not something over which workers should have to negotiate, nor is it something which can be done differently from country to country. I made this very clear to Mr O'Leary today," Thyssen said in a statement after a meeting between Ryanair's combative chief executive Michael O'Leary and EU officials. "The internal market is not a jungle; it has clear rules on fair labour mobility and worker protection. This is not an academic debate, but about concrete social rights of workers." At a press conference O'Leary called for the cancellation of the strike, threatening that he would shrink Ryanair's fleet at two Brussels airports if it went ahead. Last month, Ryanair pilots across Europe staged a coordinated 24-hour strike to push their demands for better pay and conditions, plunging tens of thousands of passengers into transport chaos at the peak of the busy summer season. In July, strikes by cockpit and cabin crew disrupted 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, affecting 100,000 travellers. This week, Ryanair signed deals with cabin crew unions in Italy to provide employment contracts under Italian law. The UK's Civil Aviation Authority has called on Ryanair to compensate passengers affected by the strikes. Explore further German cabin crew join Ryanair strike, nearly 250 flights cut 2018 AFP A Simon Fraser University study finds that steelhead trout have a remarkable life-cycle variation responding to temperature change and numbers of other salmon species, leading them to head to the ocean at either a year old or as larger standard-ruler-sized five year olds. Credit: Colin Bailey, SFU A Simon Fraser University study has found that steelhead trout have a remarkable life-cycle variation that responds to changes in temperature and numbers of other species of salmon. They may go to the ocean when they are only a year old and the size of a pinky finger, or when they are five years old and the size of a standard ruler. The study appears this week in the journal Ecosphere. Researchers found that the steelhead trout age of migration, as well as their size and numbers, is controlled by a combination of temperature, co-occurring salmon, and other factors. In years following large returns of pink salmon, steelhead migrated to sea at a younger age, and in some time periods, there were more young steelhead that were produced from the river system. "We think that energy-rich eggs from spawning pink salmon provide an important food source for young steelhead," says SFU biology Ph.D. student Colin Bailey, who is leading the project. SFU biology professor John Reynolds, a study co-author, also chairs the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), the federally-appointed independent committee that assesses the status of species of plants and animals across Canada. He notes: "Many populations of steelhead are struggling, so the insights gained into their population dynamics can be helpful for conservation." Bailey adds: "It's complicatedthese fish seem to be controlled by many different factors at different times. We looked back through time and asked the data: do weather, spawning pink salmon, and other factors affect the steelhead life cycle?" Next steps include examining how the survival of steelhead in the ocean is influenced by their size and age at entry to sea. This will allow researchers to determine If there are lasting effects of steelhead rearing conditions on their chance of returning to spawn. Bailey says the research results are made possible because of a remarkable long-term field program on the Keogh River on northern Vancouver Island. Explore further Steelhead trout population declines linked with poor survival of young fish in the ocean More information: Colin J. Bailey et al, The roles of extrinsic and intrinsic factors in the freshwater life-history dynamics of a migratory salmonid, Ecosphere (2018). Journal information: Ecosphere Colin J. Bailey et al, The roles of extrinsic and intrinsic factors in the freshwater life-history dynamics of a migratory salmonid,(2018). DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2397 Credit: CC0 Public Domain An ideal biorefinery would turn renewable crops into a variety of fuels and products with little waste. A significant challenge in realizing this vision is what to do with lignin, a fibrous and difficult-to-break-down material in the cell walls of plants that gives them their sturdiness. Lignin makes up about a quarter of plant biomass and is the most abundant source of renewable aromatics on Earth. Aromatics are materials with six carbon rings usually derived from petroleum that are the building blocks for a wide array from productsfrom plastics to pharmaceuticals. Despite its high energy density, researchers have struggled to find ways to realize lignin's value, but this naturally-occurring substance could, if harnessed, transform agricultural markets. Now, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) with partners at the Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) have shown that a recently-discovered variety of the substance, catechyl lignin (C-lignin), has attributes that could make it well-suited as the starting point for a range of bioproducts. Their findings have been published today in Science Advances. GLBRC researcher John Ralph, a UW-Madison professor of biochemistry and biological systems engineering, examined C-lignin's chief characteristics in collaboration with CBI's Richard Dixon, University of North Texas distinguished research professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, who found the substance in the seeds of an office cactus. Ralph's lab revealed a linear and homogeneous nature to the substance, uncommon traits for lignin. Through further examination, Yanding Li, a UW-Madison biological systems engineering graduate student in the Ralph lab, was able to determine that C-lignin, also found in the coating of vanilla seeds, represents an ideal lignin for a bioenergy refinery. The two groups discovered that the substance is made up of only one type of monomer, or lignin molecule, and each monomer is held together in the same way. Li and Ralph reasoned that it could therefore be refined into a single platform molecule, or a small array of such molecules, that can build a variety of products. Li also uncovered a particularly favorable trait: C-lignin doesn't lose its form when chemically pretreated. Lignin often contains several kinds of monomers and becomes malformed when processed, making it a difficult puzzle to solve for academic researchers and their industrial counterparts. Paper factories, for example, often burn it as fuel rather than attempt to convert lignin into commercial bioproducts. The sample that Li analyzed was comprised solely of C-lignin, promising because its uniformity allows for easier processing. "Biofuel refineries like to use a 'pure' compound rather than a mixture of several," says Li. "The less complicated our product is, the more value it has." Because C-lignin monomers are held together by only one kind of bond, called ether linkages, they can be cleaved cleanly into units with the right chemical treatment. These building blocks can then be transformed in different ways depending on the desired output. "The regular and linear nature of this lignin, combined with the relatively simple chemistry to depolymerize it, makes producing high yields of simple monomers fairly straightforward," says Ralph. When plants are refined into biofuels and bioproducts, the lignin first gets stripped away, leaving sugars to be converted into marketable materials. This pretreatment usually causes lignin to ball up into a tangled mess. C-lignin's structure, however, survives even the harshest pretreatment methods and doesn't get twisted. "Even the weakest of acid or alkali treatments destroys other lignin, but every time I checked the C-lignin after a reaction, it was almost entirely intact," says Li. "We can then create a good quality monomer in high yield for use as a platform chemical." Ralph and Li exposed C-lignin to hydrogenolysis, a technique for deconstructing lignin developed at UW-Madison in 1938 by chemistry pioneer Homer Adkins. The duo suspected hydrogenolysis would be able to cleave the ether bonds that hold C-lignin monomers together. In this case, the approach produced a simple pair of monomers in roughly 90 percent yield. Choosing the right catalyst could narrow it down to a single monomera striking result for a plant component oft-maligned for its obstinance. Isolating the genetic code that makes C-lignin so well-suited for production, the Ralph team and collaborators at CBI are working to insert such lignins into bioenergy crops that can be cultivated on a larger scale. The team now has a vital blueprint for making use of a large part of plants that is used to being shoveled into an incinerator. "Yanding took a step back and said, 'What more can we do with this?' " says Ralph. "The bigger thing was to realize a new paradigm, a new lignin ideotype, and a new way of thinking about the perfect lignin for a biorefinery." More information: "An "ideal lignin" facilitates full biomass utilization" Science Advances (2018). Journal information: Science Advances "An "ideal lignin" facilitates full biomass utilization"(2018). advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/9/eaau2968 Taiwan has resorted to the WTO agreement on safeguards in seeking to consultation with India on the latter's protective tariff on PV cells, according to Indian media. In order to protect the local PV industry, India previously levied two-year protective tariff on China- and Malaysia-made PV cells, at 25% prior to July 2019 before dropping to 20% in the first half and 15% in the second half of the second year. On strong opposition of local firms, the Indian government, though, suspended the tariff on Aug. 13. China has been India's PV power supplier, boasting 88.2% market share in 2017, followed by Malaysia with 5.89%. India has been the largest overseas outlet of China-made PV cells, absorbing 31% of the export of such products. The protective tariff may block India's objective raising its accumulated PV power capacity to 100 GW by 2022. Taiwan has been India's third largest PV supplier, exporting near US$100 million worth of PV power products in 2017, 2.23% of the total import. It has been a target of India's protective tariff on PV products, as it is not a developing country. Taiwan has reportedly started seeking consultation with the Indian government on the protective tariff, citing WTO agreement on safeguards, following Malaysia which took the step in late August. Taiwan's export to India consists mainly of high-tier PV cells, which will be affected significantly by the protective tariff, unlike Taiwan-made PV modules whose export to India is quite limited, due to their higher specifications and prices. Consultation on safeguard measures is meant for mutual understanding via exchange of opinions but doesn't belong to the WTO mechanism for resolution of disputes. EneryTrend notes that given relatively inferior quality of India-made PV products, the protective tariff will put a damper on the demand of the Indian market in the second half, as a result of which demand will reach only 8.5-9.6 GW for entire 2018. Reference: Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Education Reporter Mathew Burciaga is a Santa Maria Times reporter who covers education, agriculture and public safety. Prior to joining the Times, Mathew ran a 114-year-old community newspaper in Wyoming. He owns more than 40 pairs of crazy socks from across the globe. " " After Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Waterkeeper Alliance and Sound Rivers discovered a layer of coal ash more than an inch thick on the Neuse River from the Duke Energy H.F. Lee facility spill. Pete Harrison, Waterkeeper Alliance & Matt Starr, Upper Neuse Riverkeeper/Sound Rivers Shortly after Hurricane Matthew pounded North Carolina in October 2016, swelling the Neuse River to a level never seen before, Matthew Starr ventured out on the river to see some of the damage himself. It was almost otherworldly. "When the flood water receded, I was out on the boat, doing a patrol on one of the inactive ash ponds, and it really looked like a winter wonderland," says Starr, the Upper Neuse Riverkeeper for Sound Rivers, a nonprofit that monitors and protects the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River basins. "Here was this white, very fine ash up in the trees, on the water, on the trunks, on the leaves. It was just everywhere. If you just slightly bumped a tree, it would just rain down this very fine ash. "Fast forward two years later ... not a single shovel of ash has been removed." The ash Starr talks about is coal ash, an ecological can that the state and the whole country has been kicking down the road for decades. In 2014, more than 30,000 tons (27,215 metric tons) of coal ash spilled into the Dan River near Eden, North Carolina in something the locals came to call "The Heartbreak on the Dan." Brian Williams, the Virginia program manager for the Dan River Basin Association the 214-mile (344-kilometer) river that crosses the Virginia-North Carolina line eight times was one of the first on the scene. "The river ran gray for weeks after that," Williams says now. "People still ask me, 'Is it safe to go wading in the river?' ... I don't know. I can't say the same thing about it that I used to be able to." Advertisement What Is Coal Ash? Coal ash is just what you'd figure it to be: what's left over from burning coal. Though coal consumption has dropped dramatically in recent years it peaked in 2007, and the electric power sector used less coal in 2017 than in any year since 1983, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But power plants throughout the nation still use a staggering amount of it. About 717 million tons (650 million metric tons) of it were consumed in 2017, most used to produce electricity. (About 30 percent of the nation's energy still comes from coal.) And, of course, millions and millions of tons of coal ash are left over from when the U.S. was more coal-dependent. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that coal ash is one of the largest types of industrial waste produced in the United States. More than 130 million tons (117 million metric tons) of the stuff was generated in 2014 alone. Though there are some uses for the ash to strengthen things like wallboard and concrete, mainly most is discarded into dry landfills or wet ponds near the power plants where it was produced, as it has been for decades, and where it just sits. Until, that is, something happens. A flooding river or lake nearby. A dam break. And then catastrophe. "Almost every major river in the Southeast has at least one coal ash pond [nearby]," Rebecca Fry, the director of the Institute for Environmental Health Solutions at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said in an email. Rivers and streams near coal-burning plants are used to cool machinery and produce steam. But they also provide a way out for the ash if it's not disposed of properly. And the problem with coal ash getting loose in the environment is that it is, in a word, toxic. From Physicians for Social Responsibility: "[C]oal ash typically contains heavy metals including arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and selenium, as well as aluminum, antimony, barium, beryllium, boron, chlorine, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, thallium, vanadium, and zinc. If eaten, drunk or inhaled, these toxicants can cause cancer and nervous system impacts such as cognitive deficits, developmental delays and behavioral problems. They can also cause heart damage, lung disease, respiratory distress, kidney disease, reproductive problems, gastrointestinal illness, birth defects, and impaired bone growth in children." The worst coal ash spill ever came in December 2008, when a dike at a storage site at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Fuel Power Plant burst, releasing 5.4 million cubic yards of wet ash into the surrounding land in Roane County, Tennessee. The sludge covered some 300 acres (121 hectares), befouling land and waters and prompting a years-long cleanup. More than 30 workers charged with getting rid of the coal ash already have died, allegedly from long-term exposure to the toxins. At least 200 more are sick or dying. Lawsuits are pending. North Carolina has had a few spills. After the Dan River disaster, rains from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in September 2018, caused coal ash to spill into other North Carolina rivers. Though Duke Energy, the state's largest utility, says the damage from the Hurricane Florence spill is minimal, a statement released Sept. 28, 2018, by the Upper Neuse Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance disputes that claim. An analysis by Pace Analytical not only found levels of arsenic nearly 18 times higher than the North Carolina standard for drinking water supply and fish consumption, but it also found elevated levels of lead and other heavy metals in the water. "Are we going to see, 20 years from now, heavy metals in shellfish? Who knows? Probably. We just can't say right away," Williams says. "We can definitely say that concentrated heavy metals are not good in the environment." " " Duke Energy's Sutton Power Plant was flooded during Hurricane Florence in September 2018, triggering massive coal ash spills into the local waterways. Jo-Anne McArthur, Upper Neuse Riverkeeper Advertisement What Can Be Done? This is not a problem limited to the Southeast. According to the EPA, coal ash disposal (ash is also known as "coal combustion residuals," or CCR) "currently occurs at more than 310 active on-site landfills, averaging more than 120 acres (48 hectares) in size with an average depth of over 40 feet (12 meters), and at more than 735 active on-site surface impoundments, averaging more than 50 acres (20 hectares) in size with an average depth of 20 feet (6 meters)." Those are active sites. There are as many as 1,100 coal ash disposal sites around the country. Some of the ash is stored in pits where it is mixed with water, which helps to keep the dusty ash settled. Some is stored dry. Some of these sites are covered. Some of the pits are lined. Environmentalists note that, even when sites aren't flooded or retaining walls aren't compromised, the minerals in the ash still can seep into water tables to infect drinking water. "We know everything's not OK. Just sweeping this under the rug is not cutting it," Williams says. "What's going to fix this is good ideas and admitting, 'Yeah, this is a problem and we've got to figure out a solution." Utilities, fearful of the huge costs associated with cleaning up these sites, favor sealing off the landfills and the ponds that hold coal ash. Groups like EcoWatch are leery of that solution. "To stop legacy pollution from these sites," says the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, "coal ash must be removed from old, leaking impoundments and moved to dry, lined storage away from rivers and other waterways." Starr agrees. "This isn't without a fix. The fix is to excavate all of the coal ash. Once you remove all the coal ash ... the threat is removed. Excavating the coal ash, putting it away from our water resources and putting it into a lined landfill your kitchen garbage has more strict restrictions on it that's what you have to do. The fix is to remove it." A rule dictating stricter federal standards for coal ash disposal, passed in 2015 under the Obama administration, was eased earlier in 2018 by the Trump administration. But a U.S. Court of Appeals decision in August 2018, not only threatens to gut the Trump rollbacks but calls on the EPA to pass even tougher rules than called for during the Obama era. Disposal of all the coal residue is going to take years and years to pull off, all while plants across the country continue to produce it. That means coal ash will be a problem for everybody for the foreseeable future. "It's not about the coal. It's about the water," says Tiffany Haworth, the executive director of the Dan River Basin Association. "We can't do much about coal that was burned 50 years ago. We just have to suck it up and do the best we can with that. The bottom line is protection of the waterways that are essential to life." NOW THAT'S INTERESTING According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, burning a pound of coal produces enough energy to light 10 100-watt bulbs ... for about an hour. AFP The daughter of outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will run for vice president in elections next May, the government's official election monitor said Saturday.The Commission on Elections announced on its official Facebook page that Sara Duterte would be running for the post, replacing another candidate. Japan's unemployment rate fell while factory output rose for the first time in four months in August -- a sign the world's third-largest economy is on a path of gradual recovery. The jobless rate stood at 2.4 percent in August, down slightly from 2.5 percent the previous month, the internal affairs ministry said. The figure -- slightly lower than market expectations of 2.5 percent -- is the first improvement in two months after the rate hit a 26-year low of 2.2 percent in May. The jobs-to-applicants ratio is unchanged at its highest rate in 44 years, with 163 job offers going for every 100 job hunters, separate data from the labour ministry said. Japan has long struggled with a tight labour market, thanks to an ageing society, a perennially low birth rate and very low levels of immigration. Meanwhile, the country's factory output in August edged up 0.7 percent from the previous month, the first rise in four months, the trade and industry ministry said. The increase, however, was lower than market expectations of a 1.4 percent gain. The latest figures come after Japan and the United States agreed to kick-start bilateral trade negotiations, easing fears that President Donald Trump would zero in on the US ally for his next tariff offensive. "The rise in industrial production is chiefly due to recovery from dips due to heavy rains in western Japan in July," Hirotaka Yazawa, economist at Mizuho Research Institute, told AFP. "So far there is no negative impact from trade frictions, nor worries over the issues," he added, referring to the Trump-Abe agreement on trade talks. The ministry and analysts predict that factory output will keep rising in the next few months. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has said it expects to see trickle-down effects from positive corporate sector performances to the labour market that would eventually boost consumption, a key for its years-long battle with deflation. Chinas new world order unrealistic if built on belt and road alone, senior US diplomatic observer says It will not be realistic for China to build an alternative world order through its massive infrastructure investments overseas as other regional players do not want to take sides between Beijing and Washington, according to a senior US diplomatic observer. Miles Kahler, a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, said Chinas infrastructure strategy known as the Belt and Road Initiative had already received resistance from Malaysia, and there were concerns the Maldives may be next. Chinas flagship belt and road strategy was launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013 to boost infrastructure and trade links with more than 60 nations from Asia to Africa. Financing for projects is available through the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Many people see AIIB and the Belt and Road Initiative as part of the parallel economic system China is building. Im not sure if thats realistic or feasible, Kahler said on Thursday in a forum on global governance in Beijing. I dont think countries in the region want that. They all have their own interests and autonomy to defend. Key belt and road projects include the US$62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka, leased to state-owned Chinese companies. Opinion: Chinas belt and road cant meet Asias infrastructure needs alone But these projects are seen as Chinas attempt to extend its geopolitical influence, leaving financially poor nations indebted and inclined to seek Beijings favour, in a challenge to the US presence in the region. Developed nations such as Britain and France have not signed memorandums of understanding for belt and road projects, citing a lack of transparency. Malaysia has called for a review of the US$15 billion East Coast Rail Link high speed railway project, contracted to China Communications Construction. This weeks election victory of Ibrahim Mohamed Solih as president of the Maldives has also cast doubt on the project with China signed by his predecessor. Story continues Countries, especially medium-sized countries, of which there are many in Asia, are not interested in transferring from a US-dominated order to a China-dominated order, Kahler said. What they would like to see are competitive orders, not the kind of conflicts we see today. The US announced US$113 million in new investment for the Indo-Pacific region in July. Last week, the European Union also put forward its infrastructure and investment plan for Asia with an emphasis on sustainability. Kahler said Asian nations wanted competition among major players in the region, but did not want it to become too strong. I hope theres competition thats restrained, but if competition gets out of hand and becomes rivalry, it will become very damaging, he said. Why foreign students along belt and road are joining Chinas colleges He added that if China constructed an order in which it had rounded up a group of developing countries, it would be damaging for Chinas aspirations to become a rich, technologically advanced country. Because they are not going to get there by trade and investment with developing countries which are essentially providing natural resources and commodities to China. They have to somehow deal with the advanced industrialised countries for their own benefit [as well], he said. It will not be realistic for China to build an alternative world order through its massive infrastructure investments overseas as other regional players do not want to take side between Beijing and Washington, a senior US diplomatic observer said. This article Chinas new world order unrealistic if built on belt and road alone, senior US diplomatic observer says first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Disney is launching its first cruise out of New Orleans Disney has announced plans to drop anchor in New Orleans for the first time. In early 2020, Disney Cruise Line will set sail from NOLA for four to 14-night voyages to the Caribbean, Panama Canal and the Bahamas. Guests can choose to explore the city's famed French Quarter, sample its distinct cuisine and drop in on world+renowned jazz either before or after their cruise. Meanwhile, Disney also announced plans to return to Hawaii following a five-year hiatus, also in early 2020, departing from Vancouver, Canada. Itineraries departing from San Juan, Puerto Rico are also scheduled for early 2020 aboard the Disney Wonder, which will sail to the Southern Caribbean and Bahamas. The ship will then change course, dropping anchor in San Diego for sailings to Baja and the Mexican Riviera. Bookings for 2020 open October 4. "Guang" wins awards in China prior to Malaysian release The movie on autism will be releasing in Malaysian cinemas this November "Guang" director Quek Shio Chuan and actor Kyo Chen Chong Wei with their awards. 28 Sep Even before it opens in its home country, "Guang" is already making Malaysia proud on the international stage as it recently nabbed two big awards at the 13th Chinese Youth Generation Film Forum in Wu Han, China. "The award is definitely a great encouragement, my biggest wish is that this film can really touch the audience and arouse public attention to the issue of autism, this is the final appeal of my film," said Quek Shio Chuan in a statement. Quek took home the Best New Director award for his feature directorial debut, which took him two years to make based on his BMW Shorties 2011-winning short film of the same name and is inspired by his personal experience with his autistic brother, Quek Shio Gai. "Guang" was nominated for Best Film, Best New Director, Best New Cinematographer and Best New Actor for Kyo Chen Chong Wei and Ernest Chong Shun Yuan. Quek Shio Chuan accepting his Best New Director award for "Guang". Kyo nabbed the second accolade for the movie, winning the Best New Actor award for his portrayal as the autistic main character Wen Guang. "As a Chinese actor in Malaysia, it is fortunate to be in involved in a good production and make it to this international stage. But for most of us, we are lacking of opportunity and have to face the reality of life," said Kyo. "Therefore, as a Malaysian actor, I urge all the producers and film directors, I hope that your attention can be turned to us in Malaysia and have more cooperation in the future so that Malaysia film industry can be as powerful as China!" "Guang" was also previously selected to be part of two international film festivals, the 21st Shanghai International Film Festival and Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival 2018. Director Quek, in fact, had to rush from the latter festival in Japan to join Kyo at the youth film festival in China. "Guang" is hitting the big screens in Malaysia this 29 November. FILE PHOTO: Pyotr Verzilov, one of four intruders affiliated to Russia's Pussy Riot protest group who were jailed for 15 days for staging a pitch invasion during the football World Cup final and were detained again after their release on July 30, gives a double thumb-up outside a court building in Moscow, Russia July 31, 2018. BERLIN (Reuters) - Russian and German doctors treating anti-Kremlin activist Pyotr Verzilov agree that he was poisoned ahead of being taken ill two weeks ago, Verzilov said. He said it was likely Russian "special services" were behind the attack, which he believed had been meant to warn him off investigating the killing of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic. Verzilov, who runs an online news portal with close ties to punk protest group Pussy Riot, was flown to Germany for urgent treatment after falling ill two weeks ago in Moscow. "They agree that it was a specially projected poison," Verzilov told Reuters in an interview in a central Berlin flat. He said the doctors still had not identified the substance that had poisoned him. "We think that the whole idea of the attack in Africa, it being a kind of warning, is the most plausible position here." Ten days ago, doctors at Berlin's Charite hospital said he was suffering from anti-cholinergic syndrome, a condition in which the passage of certain neurotransmitters is blocked, the sudden onset of which was strongly indicative of poisoning. "It is highly probably that he was poisoned," said Kai-Uwe Eckardt, the doctor treating him. Verzilov had been working with the three reporters, affiliated with the TsUR online news outlet, who were ambushed and killed on July 30 as they investigated the activities of clandestine Russian private military contractors known as the Wagner Group. (Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Hugh Lawson) National University of Singapore and AI Singapore is partnering with Microsoft to boost AI capability in the region Microsoft has inked an agreement with National University of Singapore (NUS) and AI Singapore during the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit 2018 at NUS. The content of the agreement features the acknowledgment of the regional skills shortage in AI and how will both parties address it head-on, as reported by Channel News Asia. Microsoft is on board under a three-year-long initiative called Microsoft-AISG joint innovation program that seeks to up-skill professionals, managers, executives, and technicians (PMETs) with expertise in AI. We are thrilled to see how this cooperation can further improve our research productivity as well as boost our ability to develop and deliver better solutions to address the critical and complex issues that are relevant to Singapore, Asia and beyond with accelerated AI capabilities, said Professor Tan Eng Chye, president of the National University of Singapore. Also Read: SOLshare raises Series A from Singapores IIX Growth Fund, will energise rural Bangladesh with P2P solar grid The agreement covers three components of AI, which are AI immersion program, AI for real, and AI for research. Using the curriculum from the Microsoft professional program, PMETs will be equipped with the necessary skills needed in the industry. Microsoft program will also provide support for placing them into new jobs through the AI for real program. In the curriculum, both organisations will be in charge of workshops that comprise materials like AI for Earth and AI for Accessibility, which will also identify socially beneficial projects powered by AI. Kevin Wo, managing director of Microsoft Singapore, highlighted the importance of having the proper system of the workshops for them to be effective. Because the skills required for jobs in the AI economy are changing so rapidly, we need to ensure that our systems prepare, educate, train and retrain current and future workforce. Its important that we realise the potential of AI on the economy and society, said Wo. Story continues Not only preparing talents, NUS will also collaborate with Microsoft to leverage the Azure-hosted Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) combined with AI technology to extract and analyse knowledge embedded in the publications data. This is to benefit the researchers and to provide an open and heterogeneous graph containing scientific publication records, citation relationships between those publications, as well as authors, institutions, journals, conferences, and fields of study. Also Read: Institutions need to think deeper about what it means to be sustainable In the pipeline, the researchers from the NUS school of computing will use the MAG to conduct healthcare-related research it was revealed. Right now, sponsored by IDC Microsofts study confirmed that a culture of AI-based innovation and learning was a top priority for regional educators as well as for higher education business leaders in the Asia Pacific. which required an agile research capability. The study also shared that 93 per cent of Singapore respondents felt that jobs will be transformed in the next three years due to digital transformation, and 62 per cent of the jobs in the market today will take a different route to higher value roles or re-skilled to meet the needs of the digital age. = Photo by Victor Garcia on Unsplash The post National University of Singapore is partnering with Microsoft to boost AI capability in the region appeared first on e27. There is no cutoff date for Canada to join the US-Mexican deal meant to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico's president-elect said Friday as the text was submitted to legislators. "There is no fatal date, there is still time to reach a deal... to keep (NAFTA) trilateral," said President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on December 1. Lopez Obrador spoke as the US and Mexican Congresses were due to receive the final text of the two-way deal, moving it a big step closer to becoming reality. At the same time, the United States and Canada continued to spar over the terms of Canada's possible inclusion in what was originally a three-country deal. Lopez Obrador said he had spoken by phone Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who told him his government's talks with Washington were "difficult." "He said the negotiation was very difficult, that it might not be possible (to reach a three-way deal), but that they (Canada) had made a proposal," he told a press conference. He said he had been informed Friday that there was a counter-proposal from the United States. "That means the negotiations aren't over yet," he said. The leftist president-elect reiterated his insistence that Mexico prefers to keep NAFTA 2.0 a three-country deal. But he said he considered the substance of the US-Mexican deal to be final, and that Mexico did not want to renegotiate points that had already been agreed with Washington. Lopez Obrador, widely known as "AMLO," has been actively involved in the negotiations to update the trade agreement. US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a complete overhaul of NAFTA, which entered into force 25 years ago between the United States, Canada and Mexico. In August, after breaking away for two-way talks on their outstanding issues, the United States and Mexico announced they had reached a two-way deal. But talks to incorporate Canada have stumbled over issues including the protected Canadian dairy industry and a provision for settling trade disputes. "We're not getting along with their negotiators," Trump said Wednesday of Canada. "Canadians are tough negotiators, as we should be," Trudeau fired back. North Korean state media has cited upcoming joint Japanese and British military exercises as evidence Tokyo is preparing for re-invasion, presumably of the Korean peninsula. The 12-day exercises are expected to start on Sunday at the Ground Self-Defence Forces Camp Fuji, west of Tokyo, and will be the first time British ground units have taken part in manoeuvres on Japanese soil. The exercises will include troops being deployed from Chinook helicopters, reconnaissance drills and simulated artillery strikes. The British government has said the military collaboration is designed to strengthen the bilateral security relationship following port visits by two British warships the frigate HMS Sutherland and HMS Albion, an amphibious assault ship earlier this year. Both vessels took part in exercises with their Japanese counterparts, as well as monitoring ships in waters surrounding the Korean peninsula that were suspected of being involved in efforts to sidestep UN sanctions on the transfer of banned goods to North Korea by trans-shipping cargoes at sea. The state-run Minju Joson newspaper on Tuesday claimed the exercises demonstrated Japan was laying a foundation for legalising the overseas advance of the SDF by strengthening its military alliances with other countries. It is a crafty calculation of the Japanese reactionaries that military cooperation with forces of not only the US but also other countries is needed for Japan to join in any possible multinational military operations and play a considerable role in them, it said. Their fever for re-invasion has reached the highest. The reality foretells that if Japans reckless moves for conversion into a military giant and overseas expansion are overlooked, incredible disaster will be brought to Northeast Asia and the rest of the world. The US and Japan which colonised the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945 have long been a target of hostility in North Korean media. Britain has also been criticised since announcing it would be seeking a closer security relationship with Tokyo and backing Japans firm line on the question of North Koreas nuclear weapon and missile programmes. Story continues In April, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: Until North Korea matches its words with concrete actions, the UK will continue to work closely with partners and allies to keep up the pressure and strictly enforce existing sanctions, ensuring not only regional security but that of the UK as well. In late 2017, Pyongyangs Korean Central News Agency accused British defence minister at the time Michael Fallon of making a reckless remark by warning the nuclear dangers are intensifying from a reckless North Korea. Earlier this year, North Korea warned Britain it faces a miserable end if it joined annual drills carried out by the US and South Korea, as well as being one of the despicable burlesque of losers defeated by Pyongyangs forces in the 1950-53 Korean war. This article North Korea claims Japan wants to become military giant and is planning re-invasion 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: Troops from the RSAFs commands participating in a parade preview on 28 August. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman/Yahoo News Singapore) A full-time National Serviceman from the Republic of Singapore Air Force was found hanging from a rope in his office in Sembawang Air Base on Friday (28 September). In a media release, the Ministry of Defence said that the transport operator from 706 Squadron was found at 8.22am. The Singapore Police Force and the Singapore Civil Defence Force were alerted and the serviceman was pronounced dead on site at 8.31am by an SAF medical officer. Police are investigating the incident. The Ministry of Defence and the Singapore Armed Forces extend their deepest condolences to the family of the late serviceman, said the ministry, adding that the SAF is assisting the family in their time of grief. This is the second such death reported in a few months. On 28 July, an off-duty SAF regular serviceman was found hanging from a rope in his bunk in Nee Soon Camp. Other related stories SAF regular found dead at Nee Soon Camp More than 300 hawksbill turtles have hatched on beaches in Singapore this month and been released into the sea, authorities said Friday, in a boost for the critically endangered creatures. They hatched on three beaches across the tropical Southeast Asian country, according to the National Parks Board, which oversees parks and nature reserves. Over 100 turtles hatched on Sentosa Island, a popular tourist destination, according to the organisation that manages the island. After their nest was discovered in July, a barrier was erected around the site to protect it from monitor lizards and crabs It was the fourth time since 1996 that eggs of the critically endangered turtles have hatched on Sentosa. The other turtle nests were discovered at a beach on the east coast and on Satumu island south of the Singapore mainland, the parks board said. A total of 321 turtles hatched over a 10-day period from September 15. Hawksbills get their names from their narrow pointed beaks and are found throughout the world's tropical oceans, mainly around coral reefs. They are threatened by damage to their natural habitats from pollution and coastal developments, and are also targeted by poachers. Their body parts are used to make turtle soup and their shells are crushed into powder for use in jelly dessert. The Hawksbill shell is also used to make products like combs and ornamental hairpins. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the turtles as critically endangered. Passengers were forced to swim for their lives Friday when an airliner ditched into a lagoon after missing the runway on a remote Pacific island and began sinking. The Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 was attempting to land at Weno airport in Micronesia but ended up half submerged in Chuuk lagoon after the accident on Friday morning. Within minutes, locals scrambled a flotilla of small boats to pluck the 35 passengers and 12 crew from the water. The airline said the plane, which was involved in a collision with another aircraft earlier this year, had "landed short of the runway". Remarkably, it reported no serious injuries among those on the plane, which was making a scheduled stop on its way from the Micronesian capital Pohnpei to Port Moresby. "Air Niugini can confirm that all on board were able to safely evacuate the aircraft," the firm said in a brief statement. "The airline is making all efforts to ensure the safety and immediate needs of our passengers and crew." The airline did not detail what caused the accident, which occurred at about 9:30am (2330 GMT Thursday). But it said it had been informed that "the weather was very poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of incident". Passenger Bill Jaynes, editor of the Pohnpei-based Kaselehlie Press newspaper said he did not even realise there had been an accident until he saw water gushing into the fuselage. "It was surreal," he told Bible Baptist Radio Chuuk shortly after being discharged from hospital with a gash on his forehead. "I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water coming in. I thought 'this is not the way it's supposed to happen'." Jaynes praised the response of the locals. "They immediately starting coming out in boats. They were awesome and I was really impressed," he said. - Previous accident - A witness told the media the plane approached the airport "very low" before hitting the water. The runway, like others in the north Pacific, is relatively short at 1,831 metres (6,006 feet). It is surrounded on three sides by water. The Chuuk lagoon was a famous World War II battle site and dozens of Japanese vessels and planes are on the lagoon floor, now a tourist attraction for scuba divers. It is not the first time a plane has overshot the runway in Micronesia. In 2008, an Asia Pacific Airlines cargo Boeing 727 overran and ended up with its nose landing gear in the lagoon at the end of the Pohnpei airport runway. Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) said it was preparing to send investigators to Weno. "We're trying to arrange a team to go there but I cannot give you any more information because I simply don't have it," a spokesman told AFP. Air Niugini is Papua New Guinea's national airline and lists only one 737-800 among its fleet of 21 aircraft on its official website. According to registration details supplied by the airline, the plane was built in 2005 and had previously been owned by Air India Express and Mumbai-based Jet Airways. The AIC website details an incident involving the aircraft in May this year when a Hercules operated by a freight company clipped the 737's wing while taxiing, causing "significant damage". The website said the accident is still under investigation. In addition to its partnership with JD, Central Group is also mentioned in another story involving ride-hailing giant Grab JD Central to launch automated shop in Thailand Bangkok Post JD Central, a joint venture between Chinese e-commerce giant JD and Thai retail group Central Group, announced its plan to launch an automated retail store in Bangkok in 2019, as part of its effort to become the market leader for e-commerce in the country by 2020. According to a Bangkok Post report, the unmanned store will implement facial recognition technology, and that the company is currently considering the location for the store. It also plans to deploy autonomous warehouse robots to replace manpower and eventually cut overhead costs, but JD Central Chief Executive Vincent Yang said that the company still needs to get government approval to use robots and autonomous delivery vehicles. Grab reportedly in talks to sell Thai unit stake to Central Group The Star Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab is reportedly in talks to sell a decent-sized stake in its Thai business unit to retail giant Central Group. According to anonymous sources, the discussion has been going on for some time and the size is yet to be determined, The Star wrote. Grab had declined to comment on rumours and speculation while Central Group did not respond to request for comment. Also Read: I tried out JDVirtual for grocery shopping. Fun and convenient, but is it worth the price? English learning app Liulishuo raises US$72M via US IPO Dealstreet Asia Chinese AI-powered English language learning app Liulishuo, which is created and operated by LAIX Inc, raised US$71.9 million by offering 5.72 million American depositary shares (ADS) in its US initial public offering. In a Dealstreet Asia report, the IPO was considered lower than targeted as the company first filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to US$100 million. A Bloomberg report also in July had also forecasted the company to raise US$300 million. Story continues Liulishuo wants to use the funding to support R&D and tech development. Malaysia, Singapore to share waste management tech Daily Express Malaysia and Singapore have made an agreement to strengthen cooperation and idea exchange on innovative technology in waste management, including plastics and packaging waste, Daily Express reported. The agreement was announced by Malaysias minister of energy, science, technology, environment, and climate change Yeo Bee Yin in the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Committee on the Environment (MSJCE) meeting on Thursday. I am very much looking forward to learn from Zero Waste Singapore, whereby it challenges the old way of thinking about waste as something that has no value and to be thrown away. If we dont act now, the world is going to be full of waste since the global population will hit 10 billion people by 2050, the minister said. Image Credit: Sebastian Pichler on Unsplash The post Todays top tech news, Sept 28: JD plans automated shop in Thailand appeared first on e27. FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows burned down villages once inhabited by the Rohingya seen from the Myanmar military helicopters that carried the U.N. envoys to northern Rakhine state, Myanmar, May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Michelle Nichols/File Photo By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. Human Rights Council voted on Thursday to set up a body to prepare evidence of human rights abuses in Myanmar, including possible genocide, for any future prosecution. The 47-member Council voted by 35 votes to three, with seven abstentions, in favour of a resolution brought by the European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. China, the Philippines and Burundi voted against the move, whose backers said it was supported by more than 100 countries. Myanmar Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun said the resolution was based on the report of a U.N. fact-finding mission (FFM) that his government had categorically rejected, and which was unbalanced, one-sided and encouraged disunity of the country. "The draft resolution is based on serious but unverified accusations and recommendations of the FFM that could even endanger the national unity of the country," he said. He said the resolution's intrusive language and demands would not contribute to finding lasting resolutions to the delicate situation in Myanmar's Rakhine state. The resolution sets up a body to "collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011, and to prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings". The new agency is to work closely with any future prosecution brought by the ICC, which said earlier this month that it had jurisdiction over alleged deportations of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh. A year ago, government troops led a brutal crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state in response to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on 30 Myanmar police posts and a military base. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled the crackdown and most are now living in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. The FFM report said Myanmar's military had carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and called for commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing and five named generals to be prosecuted for the gravest crimes. Story continues In Thursday's resolution, the Council said there was enough information to warrant a competent court "to determine their liability for genocide". Chinese diplomat Chen Cheng told the Council that Beijing opposed the resolution because it was very likely to exacerbate the tensions. "This is in no one's interest," he said. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Jon Boyle/Mark Heinrich) World War I was sparked by the assassination of a prince in Sarajevo 1914 and ended with an armistice signed in a French forest in 1918. Here are 10 key moments in the conflict, which claimed the lives of some 10 million soldiers, brought down three empires and sowed the seeds of the communist revolution in Russia and World War II. - Crown prince assassinated - On June 28, 1914 the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie are visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Bosnia is at the time a province of the empire, a situation resented by some Bosnians and neighbouring Serbia. As the couple move through the city in a motorcade, nationalist Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip opens fire and both are killed. Austria-Hungary accuses Serbia of being responsible, setting off a chain of events that will in weeks lead the European powers into war, sucked in by a web of military alliances. - Wars declared - Austria declares war on Serbia on July 28, 1914 and attacks Belgrade. Two days later Serbia's ally and protector, Russia, orders a general mobilisation of its army to intimidate Austria. On August 1 Germany, ally of Austria, orders the same. France, allied with Russia, immediately follows. Germany declares war on Russia the same day. On August 3 it declares war on France and its troops invade Belgium. The next day, Britain -- allied with France and Russia -- declares war on Germany for violating the neutrality of Belgium. - Battle of the Marne - By early September 1914 German troops have advanced to just tens of kilometres (miles) outside Paris. The French government retreats southwest, to Bordeaux. On September 6, French and British troops launch a desperate counter attack along the Marne River, northeast of the capital. With the rail network around Paris in chaos, the military governor requisitions 700 taxis to bring 6,000 troops to the battlefront in the first military use of motorised transportation in history. The battle is ferocious, a foretaste of what is to come, but German forces are eventually forced to pull back. Casualties are high: nearly 100,000 are dead or missing on both sides and double this number injured. By November 17, the Western Front trench system stabilise, stretching from the North Sea to Switzerland, as both sides dig in for a war of attrition. The conflict drags on in a bloody stalemate until the German offensives of March 1918. - Gallipoli Campaign - On April 25, 1915 British and French troops land on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Dardanelles Strait in Germany-allied Ottoman Turkey. The Ottoman empire closed the straits at the start of the war, cutting off Russia from the Mediterranean. The Allied campaign, pressed by Winston Churchill, aims to push through the straits and beyond, to attack Germany and Austria from the east and establish a link with Russia. It is a catastrophe for the Allies, resulting in 180,000 deaths before they withdraw in January 1916. Australia and New Zealand lose more than 10,000 men but Gallipoli becomes for them a defining event, marking the first time these newly independent countries fight under their own flags. - Verdun, the longest battle - On February 25, 1916 German forces launch an offensive at Verdun, east of Paris, to "bleed France white" and force the country to the negotiating table. The German forces advance but are contained. By the time the fighting ends in December, the frontlines have barely changed despite staggering casualties. More than 300,000 men are killed altogether, each side losing more or less the same number, and hundreds of thousands more are wounded. Dragging on for more than 300 days, the Battle of Verdun is the longest of the war's Western Front. - Somme, the bloodiest - The 141-day Battle of the Somme is the bloodiest of the war, with more than a million casualties, including about 400,000 dead or missing. It opens on July 1, 1916 as Allied forces -- mainly British -- aim to relieve pressure on the French, who are on the rack in Verdun, by attacking the Germans hundreds of kilometres to the northwest, around the Somme river. The five-month battle is the deadliest in Britain's history, with 20,000 dead or missing in just the first hours, and 40,000 wounded. When it is over, the Allies have advanced only a few kilometres. - United States enters the war - In January 1917 Germany -- under pressure from a British sea blockade -- steps up a campaign of attacking British merchant vessels with U-boat submarines, aiming to throttle the island. It pushes the United States to enter the conflict, angered by the torpedoing of neutral ships in the Atlantic and vessels carrying US citizens. Washington declares war on Germany on April 6 and on June 26 the first US deployment arrives at the French port of Saint-Nazaire. By mid-1918 there are one million US troops in the conflict. By the war's end there will be two million and nearly 117,000 US soldiers will have died. - French soldiers mutiny - In mid-April 1917 the French army sends one million men into battle against the Germans at Chemin des Dames in Picardy. The German resistance is strong and by the start of May the French have been able to advance only a few hundred metres at the cost of casualties that reach around 100,000 in just a few weeks. French soldiers revolt, 30,000-40,000 taking part in various mutinies. A month into the disastrous offensive, General Philippe Petain steps in and brings it to a halt. The authorities are strict with the mutineers: 554 are sentenced to death and 49 executed. The episode is remembered in Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" (1957), only released in France in 1975. - Revolution in Russia - Between 1914 and 1917 Russia loses more than two million soldiers and officers on the Eastern Front where its poorly equipped forces are decimated. The conflict becomes highly unpopular. Rioting snowballs into revolution in March 1917 and forces the abdication of Nicholas II, Russia's last tsar. The new socialist-led government battles to impose control and does not envisage a withdrawal from the conflict. There is a second revolution a few months later and Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks seize power. Their first decision is to seek a way out of the war. By December 15, Lenin has concluded an armistice with Germany. The Brest-Litovsk treaty that follows in March is a disaster for Russia, ceding huge chunks of its western territories to Germany -- including Poland, the Baltic states and Finland -- and slashing its population by nearly a third. - Armistice - Hit hard by four major German offensives in early 1918, the Allies -- reinforced by US troops -- launch a broad counter-offensive on July 18, using tanks on a large scale to make the vital breakthrough which had eluded them for so long. Planned by French forces commander General Ferdinand Foch, it changes the course of the war, forcing a German retreat on all sides. Germany's allies begin to collapse: Bulgaria agrees an armistice by the end of September; Austria is defeated late October; and Turkey is forced to call a halt a few days later. Germany is in turmoil and Kaiser Wilhelm II is forced to abdicate on November 9. On November 11 a German delegation, meeting Foch in a secluded forest setting north of Paris, agrees to an armistice. Among the terms, Germany is to halt hostilities immediately and evacuate large areas it has occupied in less than a fortnight; it will surrender vast amounts of war materiel; all Allied prisoners of war are to be released. The deal is signed at 5:20 am. The ceasefire begins just hours later, at 11:00 am. World War I is over. In what may be his final role before retiring from acting, Robert Redford plays Forrest Tucker, a man who was never interested in retirement. Tuckers line of work consisted of robbing banks, occasionally getting caught, and then devising elaborate plans to escape. He was first arrested at the age of 15 for stealing a bicycle and went on to steal millions of dollars and to successfully escape from prison 18 times. The film is largely based on journalist David Granns profile of Tucker, which was published in the New Yorker under the same title in 2003. A year after the piece was published, Tucker died of natural causes in a Fort Worth prison. Advertisement While both the film and the profile tell the story of a charming escape artist who in a single year committed at least 60 robberies without using violence, the film diverges from the piece and reality on several points. The main difference between the two portrayals of Tuckers life is what they focus on. The movie is, unsurprisingly, more interested in Tuckers heists than in the time he spent in prison, even though Tucker spent most of his life behind bars. But it also changes some key details and invents many others, as even the movie admits, saying in an opening title card that this story is mostly true. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So whats straight from the bank robbers real story, and what is artistic license? We consulted the reporting of Grann and others to break it down below. Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford) As in the movie, the real-life Tucker was a man who was capable of robbing large sums of money without ever pulling the trigger. He saw his gun more as a prop and believed violence is the first sign of an amateur. Yet he always carried a gun during all of his operations and did threaten people with it. The movie, on the other hand, pushes the narrative of a charming and gentlemanly criminal to the extreme, and you never see him actually carrying a gun. He threatens bank managers and tellers with little more than a note and a smile, none of them ever recalls seeing a gun, and they all leave with a positive impression of the man. Regardless, both the movie and the profile agree on how gracious a criminal he was. According to the piece, even a juror who helped convict him once remarked, You got to hand it to the guyhes got style. This very line is used in the movie. Advertisement The real-life Tucker also physically resembled the Redford of the movie more than viewers might expect. Grann describes Tucker as a striking-looking man, with intense blue eyes, and he really was always impeccably dressed. The biggest difference might be that the real Tucker opted for less discreet suits, like an all-white ensemble with an ascot, which he would pull up to cover his face during a heist. As in the movie, he also wore, in his later years, a hearing aid that was actually a police scanner. Detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck) John Hunt played a more minor role in the piece and in Tuckers actual story. In reality, he was not a detective from Dallas but a sergeant with the Austin police. The movie provides him with a wife and two kids and several dramatic scenes that appear to be invented, such as a chance encounter between Hunt and Tucker in a diner restroom and another in which Tucker leaves Hunt a taunting (if characteristically friendly) note on a stolen $100 bill. One of the movies most memorable quotes, however, comes straight from the New Yorker article, in which Hunt tells Grann, They had more experience in robbery than we had catching them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jewel (Sissy Spacek) Though Sissy Spaceks character is based on Tuckers third wife, Jewell (spelled in real life with two Ls) Centers, her story and their relationship differs significantly from reality. The real Tucker and Centers did actually meet in the early 80s, but it happened at a private club called the Whale and Porpoise in Fort Lauderdale. She was not a farmer with a ranch straight out of a Western but an heiress to a modest moving-company fortune who looked, in her youth, a bit like Marilyn Monroe. While movie Jewel doesnt know for certain what Tucker does for a living, she does get some clues here and there, including finding a gun in his glove compartment. The real-life Jewell knew Tucker as Bob Callahan and thought he was a stockbroker. She told Grann that when investigators first told her Callahan was actually a bank robber, she didnt believe them. Tuckers children Tucker did have two children, a boy and girl, as the movie shows. But his daughters real name is Gaile Tucker, not Dorothy, the name of the daughter played in the movie by Elisabeth Moss. The children also have different mothers. In Granns New Yorker article, we only get the story of the boy, whose name is Richard Bellew Jr. His mother, Shirley Storz, is described as a blond woman who believed she was married to a songwriter by the name of Richard Bellew. They got married in 1951, but she annulled it two years later, shortly after he got arrested and sent to Alcatraz. Tuckers children didnt know about each other until they were much older. Escapes In the movie, Tucker hands Jewel a list detailing his prison escapes, just as the real Tucker did to the New Yorker reporter, and the viewer is then taken through a series of flashbacks. While the list in the movie counts up to 17, the real list actually tallied 19 escapes. In both cases, the last one is left blank, for his planned grand finale. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However fantastical the escapes may seem, they are largely true to life. Tuckers first escape, as a teenage boy, was simple: As his jailer got distracted while removing his chains, the boy ran away. His plans became more elaborate with time, going from sawing his cell bars with chisels and files to faking appendicitis so hed be rushed to the hospital, where he could more easily escape. After that it was Alcatraz, where he arrived in 1953, at the age of 33. There, he met Teddy Green, the man played in the movie by Danny Glover. The night before he was supposed to appear in court, he was transferred to a county jail, where he faked kidney pain and again managed to escape from the hospital. Advertisement Then he was placed in San Quentin, from which he mounted his most legendary escape. At the Bay Area prison, Tucker met John Waller, who is played in the movie by Tom Waits. The two escaped along with another inmate, William McGirk, in a boat Tucker built with wood scraps and tape, which, as in the movie, he painted with the words Rub-a-Dub-Dub. According to Grann, the boat was later placed in a prison museum. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Over-the-Hill Gang The three elderly bank robbers were indeed dubbed the Over-the-Hill Gang, though it is uncertain which of Tuckers friends actually belonged to the gang. It is true that he remained in touch with Teddy Green after Alcatraz and, as the movie shows, as Tucker went to visit his friend one day, the police waited for him there, and he believed his friend had ratted him out. As for Waller, there is no indication that the two men were in contact after their escape from San Quentin. The ending In the movie and in reality, the police did catch Tucker after they ambushed him at Teddy Greens house. As they chased him, he was shot three times. In real life, as in the movie, he stayed put until he was released a decade later, when he was 73. Real Tucker went back to Florida to live with his wife, who had waited for him, just as Jewel waits for him in the movie. And just as in the movie, he never did get used to having a normal, quiet, law-abiding life, and it wasnt long before he went back to his old ways. Serial killer millennials are back at it again. Their newest victim: divorce. According to a recent analysis by University of Maryland sociology professor Phillip Cohen, the overall divorce rate in the U.S. declined by 18 percent between 2008 and 2016. Even after controlling for factors such as age and other demographic shifts, Cohen still found an 8 percent decline in the divorce rate. That means that marriages today must be more stable than theyve been in the past, but why? Cohen chalks the shift mostly up to millennials, who seem to be doing marriage differently (i.e. more successfully) than their divorce-happy Boomer elders. However, while the increasing longevity of millennial marriages should be a bright spot in an otherwise dismal slate of statistics about a generation beleaguered by debt, the underlying factors causing the divorce rate to plummet paint another picture: One where a stable family life is becoming increasingly elusive for the poor and less educated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cohen writes that plunging divorce rates for millennials can partially be explained by the increasingly selective nature of marriage and the greater stability of the couples who persist through cohabitation and enter marital unions at high levels of economic interdependence. And he projects a future in which marriage is rarer, and more stable, than it was in the past, representing an increasingly central component of the structure of social inequality. Increasingly permissive attitudes towards living together and the decline of well-paying jobs that allow for financial stability means that couples who previously would have gotten married at a younger age put off that particular milestone until theyre more confident it wont end in divorce. Which sounds like a good thing. But the growing dearth of jobs that allow for financial independence without a college degree means that marriage is increasingly becoming a status achievement rather than something that everyone is doing. Advertisement Cohens study builds on similar recent data. According to a 2016 study by the Brookings Institute, the marriage gap can be explained by declining marriage rates among the least educated. In the past, marriage was largely a classless institution; now three-fourths of women in their early 40s with bachelors degrees are married while just over half of women with a high school degree or less are married at the same age. In the 1970s that difference was negligible. The widening of the marriage gap has a stark impact on the timing of childbirth as well: Less than 10 percent of women with college degrees are unmarried by the time they give birth, compared to more than six out of ten women with a high school degree. Advertisement Advertisement A recent Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data adds further color to the emerging image of a more stable, but more exclusive, family life. Among all stay-at-home moms and dads, Pew found, those who are home to care for family are more likely to have a college degree than stay-at-home parents who are home for other reasons, like being unable to find work. Stay-at-home parents who choose to do so for their family are also less likely to be in poverty, and are far more likely than those at home for other reasons to have a working spouse. Its not hard to imagine that those parents who are at home out of choice, rather than circumstance, would be more involved, because theyre not performing the exhausting task of looking for a job and are less distracted by the everyday mental toll that living in poverty exacts. Advertisement Advertisement The Pew analysis and the one performed by Cohen both point to a not-too-distant future in which family life that gives enough freedom to make choices like staying at home to care for children, or even just tying the knot, will be the province of those with college degrees and a financial stability that is increasingly out of reach for the average American. Building long-lasting relationships that make sustaining a family easier shouldnt be yet another privilege enjoyed only by the educated and the wealthy. But the data suggest were already well on our way to that reality. In her testimony on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford was highly credible. Thats not because she was certain of everything she said. Its because she wasnt. Ford resolved many doubts about her sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. Why didnt she tell her story until 2012? Because thats when, during a renovation, she had to explain to her husband why she wanted a second front door on their house. (As a result of the attack, she said she felt unsafe with only one exit.) Why had she talked only to congressional Democrats? Because her congresswoman was a Democrat. Why didnt Fords friend, Leland Keyser, recall being at the house party where the assault allegedly happened? Because Keyser wasnt in the room where it happened, so to her, the party was unmemorable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fords strongest asset was her trustworthiness. She earned it by not overselling her case. She was frank with the committee about fatigue, the passage of time, and other factors that impaired her recollection. And she was honest about what she didnt know. Ford said she couldnt be sure which of the two boysKavanaugh or his friend Mark Judgehad initially pushed her into the bedroom where the assault happened. Thats because the push came from behind. She said she didnt know who had paid for her polygraph or how that cost would ultimately be covered. When she was asked whether anyone had spoken to congressional staffers on her behalf, she said it was possible. If she didnt know something, she said she didnt know. Advertisement She also used external evidence, when it was available, to re-examine her recollections and clarify what was true. At several points, she checked written records or consulted her attorneys to sort out dates or details. Rather than guess, she offered to look things up. Where her memory was unclear, she pointed to checkable informationJudges employment dates at Safeway, her location in a Walgreens parking lot during phone callsto nail down where and when things happened. Advertisement Unlike Kavanaugh, who has repeatedly mischaracterized the statements of alleged witnessesFords story, he falsely told the committee, was refuted by the very people she says were there, including by a longtime friend of hersFord examined her own answers as she spoke and corrected them when she saw errors. At one point, after saying she hadnt spoken recently to people involved in the case, she corrected herself, noting that she had spoken to Keyser. At another point, after describing a trip in which she had come here, she stepped in to clarify that she meant Delaware, not Washington. Advertisement Advertisement Ford was frankfar more frank than Democrat senators have beenabout political considerations in her decision to come forward. She stated bluntly that Kavanaughs emergence as a likely Supreme Court nominee had driven her to act. She wasnt saying that she would make up such a story. She was saying that the cost to the country of having a predator on the Supreme Court had come to outweigh her fear of going public with a painful story she knew to be true. She even indicated that she had calculated, as she followed news of the nomination process, whether telling her story would be sufficiently likely to affect Kavanaughs confirmationand therefore worth the personal cost of speaking out. You can hold these political calculations against her. But her candor about them speaks well for her candor in general. Advertisement Advertisement In several exchanges during her testimony, Ford signaled that she was shifting from one level of confidence to another. She said she wasnt sure about the arrangement of her polygraph or the timing of her grandmothers funeral, but in the next breath she expressed absolute certainty that she had written every word of the statement used in the polygraph. She stipulated that her recollection of the general location of the house party was just an estimate, but in response to the next question, she answered firmly that she had consumed no alcohol before the party. Given the opportunity to endorse other allegations or insinuations against Kavanaugh, or to say something bad about him beyond the boundaries of what she had reported, she refused. When she was asked whether she knew of him committing sexual assaults at other parties, she replied with a firm no. And she gave the same answer when she was asked whether he had ever engaged in improper sexual behavior with her on any of the other occasions when she had been near him. Advertisement Advertisement All of which makes it striking that on the central questions, Ford was definitive. She remembered Kavanaugh and Judge being quite drunk. She remembered them going downstairs after the attack, bouncing off the walls and laughing. She was clear about which things she could only inferthe conversation downstairs while she was upstairs, for exampleand which things she had directly observed and would never forget. One of those things was the bed on the right side of the room. Another was her assailants identity. Sen. Richard Durbin asked Ford: With what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you? Ford replied: 100 percent.* I cant say with 100 percent certainty that Kavanaugh assaulted Ford. Nobody who wasnt in the room can be that certain. But when Ford says shes 100 percent certain about something, I take it very seriously. And thats because she so rarely says it. For an efficient cloud-journey plan to be designed, you must consider the transformation of your technology model as the journey evolves. It is always good to remember that the cloud focuses on high availability, reliability, and automation. Topics such as minimal infrastructure, lean teams, flexibility and fast access to cutting-edge technology are among the advantages offered by this technology. And how to know if companies should start this journey? To support the companies in this decision, the four phases that will be considered when starting a typical journey towards the construction of a truly sustainable information technology infrastructure in the public cloud will be presented. Phase 1 : Replicating Information Technology in the Cloud Initial cloud deployments focus on trying to replicate their on-premise infrastructure to a cloud platform. Understandably, many think that this is also the end of the process of an extremely familiar platform that is understood inside and out, but also solves one of its most pressing problems: capacity constraints. Companies can spend years in the first phase, simply expanding outward as demand for processing and storage increases. And because everything is so familiar, the DevOps model allows companies to remain as normal while maintaining the same level of productivity and efficiency they have always liked. But if a business stays at this early stage of its first cloud strategy, they may find that early successes will not be carried forward into the future. Phase 2 : Rebuilding and Automating Phase 2 should only be started when the company's financial management begins to ask difficult questions. Although the organization has reduced capital spending on hardware, cloud costs continue to spiral. The problem is that unlimited cloud scalability can cause unforeseen problems for cloud developers and systems engineers with no experience. Developers can make use of as many cloud provider services as they wish, but all are charged accordingly. Which means that many allocate many resources inefficiently or unnecessarily. The IT department initiates reengineering systems to align them with the various rules by which public cloud costs are calculated. For example, by creating users and groups, companies can control who is allowed to request public cloud resources. Immediately, systems become more efficient in terms of operations and costs. As their experience with cloud technologies deepens, developers also increase the level of automation used for their hosted systems. As an example, in a return to batch processing principles, virtual machines will run during off-hours to reduce operating costs. The Auto Scaling feature, for example, allows developers to limit the scale of features based on a predefined schedule, ensuring that resources are available according to predictable demand and released outside those hours so that the spend is aligned with the use. With redesigned systems for the cloud and automation run to streamline operations, the company's financial manager will be much happier when the accounts come back under control. Spending may still increase, but this rationalization process ensures that costs are better contained and fully justified. Phase 3: Containerization Although the costs are now under control, the hosted infrastructure is still relatively resource-intensive when it comes to management. At the end of phase 2, the applications still reside in virtual machines installed in a hypervisor, that is, it lies on top of the cloud layer. Many of these virtualized systems will be defined and forgotten, but this is to minimize the work involved in configuring them at the time of deployment. There is also the reality that large-scale configuration changes will be needed and the information technology team will need to do the work to ensure systems continue to function as expected. With applications, binaries and libraries, operating system, and a hypervisor installed on top of the host operating system, there are several levels that need to be managed. This is where phase 3 begins, with the goal of simplifying the application architecture, reducing overall management overhead and the use of cloud resources. By using a container engine installed directly on top of an operating system, developers can reengineer applications without the need for a hypervisor or virtual machine. The code is compiled and run on a container, containing nothing more than the dependencies required for the application. This offers several advantages: Container application is lighter, helping to reduce demands on server resources and running costs; The application becomes more portable, allowing it to be redistributed to another cloud service with minimal effort; Developers can focus entirely on building an application or service, without worrying about the operating system or other secondary factors that complicate the process; With fewer layers to manage, administrators and engineers are freed up to focus on other strategic projects. As a bonus, an additional reduction in demand on server resources also helps reduce costs even more, which means much less hassle for the company's financial management. With fewer layers to manage, administrators and engineers are freed to focus on other strategic company designs. Phase 4 : Serverless Computing At the end of phase 3, computing resources were intensively simplified, compressing applications and operating costs, and increasing code portability. Again, the temptation is to assume that the cloud migration process is complete, but there are still more improvements to be made. At this point, applications are embedded in stand-alone containers, but the platform on which they are built still consumes server resources within the cloud vendor's data center. In many cases, developers are running full virtual machines inside their containers. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the applications can be more streamlined, which, in turn, reduces the effort and cost of development. More importantly, by saving an operating system inside the container, the environment maintains the same overhead and administrative overhead. Initial efforts may provide a higher density of virtual machines, but including the operating system in one container does little to reduce maintenance complexity and overhead. The final stage of first cloud migration is to develop and deploy "serverless" applications. As the name implies, these applications are designed to reduce trust in servers and the cloud as much as possible. Rather than resorting to fully compiled virtual machines and applications, serverless applications are built using cloud libraries hosted on binaries and cloud-hosted cloud platforms provided by public cloud services. Simply put, serverless applications take the building blocks provided by various online services. Essentially, Phase 4 applications take advantage of "Function-as-a-Service" to reduce costs and overheads. These applications are still infinitely scalable, leveraging third-party resources when needed, but with minimal use of local resources. By connecting these services in this way, they further increase the speed of development and reduce the level of maintenance required to handle the updates of the services being used. Time to Evaluate Your Progress With the first trip to the cloud planned, it is much easier to assess where your company arrived. Many late adopters will still be around the first phase, which means they still have some way to go. Most companies have reached Phase 2, however, and are investigating how to better use the cloud infrastructure to improve their operations. Cloud computing is a fundamental shift in corporate information technology, and many are still learning to make the most of the benefits provided by the public cloud. The shortage of skills is aggravated by the accelerated pace of Cloud platform development. That's why companies are struggling to reach their goals on the journey to the cloud. Especially when the true cloud strategy continues to be misunderstood. Edited by Maurice Nagle When Thursdays Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh was over, it wasnt quite clear what had hit those of us whod been sitting in the room. The hearing room in Dirksen is tiny, and while the slammed binder and the escalating shouting of the nominee might have looked pretty dramatic on TV, inside the chamber, the effect was that of an out-of-control house party. Too loud, too scary, too close, too real. Like being locked inside something terrible with the music cranked up. Advertisement Anita Hill once told me that, in 1991, Clarence Thomas had race and she had only gender. But now, in 2018, Brett Kavanaugh had rage and Christine Blasey Ford had only gender. With the Senate Judiciary Committee moving on Friday to advance Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate without any further inquiry around Blasey Fords damning and plainly credible testimony that Kavanaugh had gleefully and drunkenly sexually assaulted her at a 1982 house party as his buddy Mark Judge watched, it appears as though his rage alone will have been enough to earn him life tenure on the highest court in the land. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The dynamic of Thursdays hearing was consistent: He had fury, and contempt, and seething threats that the republic would pay if he were thwarted. She had to functionally lie back and try not to infuriate anyone, as Republicans cowered behind the female prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, they had brought on to interrogate her. That was until it was Kavanaughs turn to speak, when they quickly jettisoned that paper-thin pretense of investigative independence and joined Kavanaugh to form a chorus of angry shouting men. They towered silently over Mitchell for the first half of the hearing, then summarily ignored her when she wasnt offering questions fast or furious enough to protect their nominee. Advertisement At least Anita Hill was insulted, demeaned, and discredited to her face. Ford was patronized, thanked, and told that she was very, very credible. Over and over she was told shed been given a safe space to tell her story; as if a safe space substitutes for reasoned process and investigation. She was given a safe space and then dismissed as though she were some character in a very sad French movie that had been very affecting indeed but had nothing to do with the great man and his destiny. After presenting an undeniable narrativeand one the nobody ever really attempted to specifically refuteshe was told that her credibility didnt count for anything because a man was bellowing and injured, that whatever had happened to her was not as important as his pain. And Senate Republicanshaving tucked Mitchell back into her naughty chairwere delighted to bellow and yelp of horrid injuries they too had sustained alongside their guy. Advertisement Of course, the purported wrong was the process. Again, the villain of the piece was Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had kept Fords July letter outlining one of Kavanaughs alleged crimes in confidence at her request until eventually forwarding it to the FBI for inquiry earlier this month. Dont be fooled, though: Feinstein would have been screamed at just as furiously had she come forward weeks or months earlier with Fords report, and another pretext for dismissing Ford and her witnesses would have been concocted. Advertisement At least Anita Hill was insulted, demeaned, and discredited to her face. As GOP rage gathered steam, we were told that this needed to be treated as a criminal proceedinginnocent until proven guiltyand the Republicans contended that there was no evidence of criminal conduct. But, of course there was evidence: compelling firsthand testimony and numerous supporting accounts. And of course, they refused to subpoena the key witness to the event, opting instead for the we take his word for it route of investigation by registered letter. The hearing, as expected, had been staged as a puppet show of credibility. And absent witnesses, or evidence, or any mechanism for fact finding, both sides could be called credible and Brett Kavanaugh could still be confirmed. On Friday, Sen. Jeff Flakeperhaps the Senates greatest profile in cowardice masquerading as couragesaid that he would cast the key vote to advance Kavanaughs nomination out of the committee. Despite the lack of anything resembling a meaningful investigation, which Ford and the other women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual violence have repeatedly requested, and the judge has repeatedly declined to request, it now appears Kavanaugh will be confirmed. His fate rests in the hands of Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Joe Manchin.* Given her mind-bending bravery and likely folk-hero status, one hopes that Ford will not now come to believe that her decision was made in vain. But it was impossible on Friday morning not to think of her own description of her reluctance to come forward out of fear that she would just be jumping in front of a train that was headed to where it was headed anyway. Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, he had rage and she had gender, and a job interview was recast as though it would result in a lifelong criminal conviction with a death sentence on the line for the man in the dock. Calling no witnesses and accepting no supporting testimony were a perfect way to ensure that he would be innocent of all charges. She had gender. They were sorry for her loss. Advertisement Brett Kavanaugh is never going to understand that women dont sort themselves into those upon which he bestows his munificence (clerks, girls in plaid skirts) and those he can shout at, and bully, like Feinstein and Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Feminism doesnt mean you get to pick which women you patronize and which you can insult. Brett Kavanaugh is also unlikely to understand that justice doesnt mean demanding your lifetime appointment because its your time. Advertisement Put aside whether any sane litigant can have any confidence in the justice system after the man who will be the decisive vote on the court made it manifestly clear that he believes half the country, and the media, and liberal dark money were all in on a conspiracy to take him out. Because of the Clintons. This wasnt ultimately a hearing about whether Kavanaugh deserved to be elevated to the high court. It was a blind partisan tantrum in which he dragged the judicial branch down to a place of ugliness and rancor from which it will not soon recover. Advertisement Others have detailed the incomplete answers, the fact that he wasnt questioned correctly about his calendar, the ways in which his claims that he had been exonerated by other witnesses were absolutely distorted, and the laughable claims about his well-documented and widely known drinking and his sensitive stomach. While Ford offered exacting answers, Kavanaugh repeated half-truths and conspiracy theories and sneered and slammed through a fog of rage. It was a perfect contrast not just to Fords conduct, but to that of Merrick Garland, who never said a word when the seat to which he was entitled was yanked away. Advertisement There were two distinct moods in the Kavanaugh hearing: Ford evoked undistilled sadness and vulnerability; Kavanaugh evoked raw fear that if he were ever crossed, he would lose control. Do. Not. Make. Him. Angry. is the new judicial temperament. It is the perfect metaphorical springboard to the highest court in the land, where he will say hes calling balls and strikes while he froths with contempt at those he believes coordinated against him: Be very afraid. This is what we will call justice now. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, one of the three closely watched Republicans in the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, announced Friday morning that he would support Kavanaugh. In a statement, Flake described Christine Blasey Fords testimony as compelling but met with a persuasive response from Judge Kavanaugh. He said that he doesnt have as much confidence as some of his colleagues about what either did or did not happen in the early 1980s. What I do know, the statement says, is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence. That is what binds us to the rule of law. While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senates advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the constitutions provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On his way to the Judiciary Committee meeting, rape survivors directly confronted Flake. Women confront Sen. Jeff Flake after he says he'll vote yes to Kavanuagh: Thats what youre telling all women in America, that they dont matter. They should just keep it to themselves because if they have told the truth youre just going to help that man to power anyway. pic.twitter.com/T7fSpyT69E CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2018 Flakes vote all but assures the Judiciary Committee will report out Kavanaughs nomination favorably on Friday, and the nomination will reach the full Senate on Saturday afternoon. This now, in all likelihood, comes down to Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, both of whom would have to join all Democrats in rejecting the nomination for Kavanaugh to go down. They both remain undecided, at least publicly. A woman who said she was inspired watching Christine Blasey Ford testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday has publicly accused a prominent Washington state legislator of raping her 11 years ago. Candace Faber, in a tweet sent out Thursday afternoon, alleged that moderate Republican Joe Fain, the minority floor leader of the state senate, assaulted in her in 2007 on the night she graduated from a masters program at Georgetown University. If its bad that Blasey Ford waited to raise this until Kavanaugh got to the highest levels of government, then maybe the rest of us shouldnt sit on our secrets just crossing our fingers that they wont come into more power. Candace Faber (@candacefaber) September 27, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So okay, lets do it. @senatorfain, you raped me the night I graduated from Georgetown in 2007. Then you had the audacity to ask me to support your campaign. Ive been terrified of running into you since moving home and seeing your name everywhere. Im done being silent. Candace Faber (@candacefaber) September 27, 2018 Fain has denied the allegation and called for an investigation, according to the Associated Press. Advertisement In a statement published late Thursday night on the west coast, Faber repeated that she was inspired by Dr. Fords courage but said the decision to name Fain felt like a decision I have been building up to for a long time. Faber claims she has spoken with people about her assault, and she has written about a sexual assault by an unnamed person. She said in her statement that she withheld his name even in private conversations. She wrote: Advertisement I hoped that I could help change the culture of sexual assault without needing to say his name. I no longer believe that to be the case. We cannot heal without accountability. Like Dr. Ford, I can no longer remain silent knowing that the man who raped me is in a position to influence the laws that govern my state and impact every woman who lives here. I do not believe that survivors have a civic duty to speak out. I believe that we have a civic duty to believe survivors. Advertisement In an earlier post published on Medium, Faber described walking back with a man to his hotel, after she had met him at the Capitol and the two had been drinking, dancing, and kissing. In her account, he pins her to the bed, pulling down her dress with enough force that the straps tore. She wrote that she tried to push him away with her foot. Advertisement I kicked you moaned and I realized you liked it better when I fought and I didnt want to give you that if I wasnt going to win anyway. I felt so tired my voice began to disappear whether you knew what you were doing or really thought I was just trying to make it sexy for you Ill never know Advertisement Advertisement In the essay, she says that after the man raped her, she contemplated going to a hospital but decided that the questions she would face would be too difficult. According to KUOW in Seattle, Faber had to leave a job in Seattle city government in 2017 because of a mental health breakdown. She told KUOW that her mental health issues stemmed from several traumas, including the rape. She told KUOW that she met Fain in 2007, when she was graduating from a Georgetown masters program in foreign service. She scheduled a tour of congressional buildings for her parents and found their way into a reception, where she met Fain. She invited him to a party after her graduation ceremony. Fabers parents and colleagues told KUOW that she told them about the rape. Her mother said she identified the assailant as Fain after Trumps election in 2016. According to the AP, a spokeswoman for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he believes this is a very serious allegation that unquestionably deserves a full investigation by law enforcement officials. The statute of limitations for serious sex crimes in Washington, D.C., is 15 years, according to the AP. Its almost like Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake didnt enjoy getting screamed at by sexual assault survivors. Thats what happened as he was cornered in a Senate office building elevator shortly after announcing that he would support Brett Kavanaughs nomination, citing a lack of corroborating evidence for Christine Blasey Fords allegations. Over the course of the next couple of hours in the committee hearing room, Flake sat glumly as one Democrat after another delegitimized Kavanaughs pending advancement: Not all stones had been unturned in trying to get to the bottom of what happened in 1982. Very few of them, really. If Kavanaugh made it to the Supreme Court before whatever other evidence that could be collected was collected, there would always be a shroud of illegitimacy hanging over him, and the country further ripped apart. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So Flake huddled with Judiciary Committee Democrats in the committee antechamber to cut a deal, emerging to say that he would not feel comfortable voting to confirm Kavanaugh on the Senate floor without an FBI investigation of Fords allegations, lasting no longer than one week. He did, however, agree to advance Kavanaughs nomination out of committee. Flake spoke like someone who had the numbers to block Kavanaughs confirmation, and sure enough, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said shortly after the hearing that she supported Flakes position. Mitch McConnell can count, and that left him with, at best, 49 votes. McConnell must not have seen it as a bluff, because a couple of hours after the hearing disbanded, an accord was struck. Advertisement The Senate Judiciary Committee will request that the administration instruct the FBI to conduct a supplemental FBI background investigation with respect to the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, a statement from Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley read. The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today. The Senate opened debate on the nomination on Friday, but McConnell, according to Flake, wont set up a vote to end debate while the week-long investigation is pending. Advertisement Most Republicans are surely furious at the additional delay, but they should direct that ire towards their leaders impulse to rush in the first place. If Grassley had just requested an FBI investigation early last week when Democrats requested it, it would have been completed by now and the nominees fate not conditional on a retiring Arizonans crisis of conscience. Advertisement It would be nice to believe that the FBI will either find corroborating evidence or wont, and that the Senate will coolly look at it, arrive at a reasonable consensus conclusion, vote 100-0 in whichever direction the evidence points them, and disband until after the midterms (or, preferably, forever). Advertisement Now lets chart a realistic course. The FBI updates the background file. Democrats claim either that the investigation was prematurely cut off by an artificial deadline or that the file contains explosive new evidence that calls for further investigation and hearings. Republican leaders say that theres still no corroboration and Judge Kavanaugh is a good church man, so eat it, and set up the vote. Democrats lose their minds and once again beg Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski not to support Kavanaugh and this outrageous process. After another week that feels like 100 years, were likely to end up right where we started. This post has been updated. Senate Republicans didnt want to talk early in the afternoon on Thursday, when they were on a break from Christine Blasey Fords riveting testimony. Majority Whip John Cornyn tersely told reporters to get out of his way as he walked through the Senate platform. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, who is known to offer reporters homespun quips for an hour if they can tolerate it, wouldnt comment. The best any Republican members of the Judiciary Committee could do was some version of Im continuing to watch the testimony. Advertisement The pursed lips were understandable: Fords flawless testimony was killing their Supreme Court nominee in real time. When she finished about an hour later, Sen. Lindsey Grahams televised meltdown over the Democratic ambush encapsulated the general feeling within the GOP. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About six hours later, though, after an irate stem-winder from Brett Kavanaugh that appeared to catch Judiciary Committee Democrats off guard, Republicans felt back on track. When Graham, who put on his own show of rage during the hearing, entered the GOP conferences 7:15 meeting to discuss it all, he was greeted with applause. And so, the most wrenching day Ive ever witnessed on Capitol Hill ended about the same way that it began: with Republican leaders confident that Kavanaugh will be confirmed, even if they dont have the votes just yet. Advertisement [Kavanaugh] made it clear that he was willing to stake his credibility, his reputation, and his family on a categorical denial, a convinced Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of the Republican leadership, told me afterwards. Theres still no corroborating evidence, Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 Republican, told reporters. This was among the GOP senators favorite talking points. Never mind that they themselves had blocked that corroborating evidencefrom subpoenaed witnesses or an outside investigationfrom being gathered. Republicans intentionally set up a he-said-she-said, and unsurprisingly they are going with their guy. Hes going to be confirmed, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch told me. And he should be. Advertisement I asked him if he had any doubts about Kavanaugh during Fords testimony. Advertisement No, he said. No, I think shes sincere. I didnt have any problem with that. I liked her. But shes just sincerely wrong. Democratic aides afterwards all agreed that Ford was as good as they could have imagined, but they differed on Kavanaughs performance. Some thought he came off as far too angry and unstable. But others observed it the way I did: Anger was his only shot, and he may have pulled it off. It was what he needed to do to galvanize Republicans behind him, positioning himself against a ruthless Democratic smear machine. As his observation about Democrats seeking revenge on behalf of the Clintonsstill cant believe he said thatshowed so clearly, hes a Republican operative at heart. He needed to make it impossible for any sitting Republican to abandon the base. Advertisement Advertisement So did he? It still comes down to Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Jeff Flake. The last of that trio is a member of the Judiciary Committee, but aside from the single minute he took during Kavanaughs testimony to make an observation about how there would always be doubt surrounding the nominees confirmation processno kidding, Jeffhe kept his comments to himself. Advertisement Murkowski and Collins were in witness protection all day, cooped up in the unmarked hideaways senators maintain in the Capitol building away from their formal offices. I failed to uncover either critical Republican senator during numerous strolls through the winding basement complex that I took throughout the day, but found Collins spokeswoman and asked if her boss would be coming through too. Advertisement You wish, was all she said. After the hearing, CNN reported that Collins, Murkowski, Flake, and conservative Democrat Joe Manchin were huddled together to talk it over. Politico reported, too, that Manchin, Collins, Murkowski, and Indiana Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly would be voting as a bloc, one way or another. That doesnt make much practical difference: If Republicans have the votes on their own, its always been a possibility that another Democrat or two will join them, but Democrats wont save the nomination if Murkowski and Collins vote no. Murkowski, leaving the Capitol, said that she wanted to go home, have dinner, and have a chance to think about all thats gone on today. Neither she nor Collins will have to make a decision until Saturday, when the first procedural vote is scheduled to go to the Senate floor. Flake, however, will have to make one by tomorrow morning when the committee meets to consider the nomination. Even if Flake sides with the Democrats, Kavanaugh could still get a floor vote, but a dramatic Flake vote against the nominee in committee could pave the way for another defector too. Kavanaughs performance, though, ensured that the entire Republican apparatus will be working Flake into the morning to keep him from doing that. And his history of resisting that pressure isnt so great. We are six weeks away from the midterms and sweet Lord, did polls look spiffy for Democrats in all sorts of races this week. With only an exception or twoseriously, just one or two exceptions!every poll this week of races for the House, Senate, and governorships showed Democrats just where they wanted to be. What could be the cause? Lets take a guess: The trend in many of these polls is women breaking overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates, just as President Donald Trumps support among Republican women is eroding. Is there something thats completely dominated the news for a couple of weeks that might erode Republicans position among women? It must be something But dont assume this is how it will all end. These polls were taken ahead of Thursdays hearing, an astonishing spectacle capable of blowing up American politics. We dont know where the pieces will land. Hundreds of protesters gathered on the Senate side of the Capitol on Thursday as the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, a woman who accused him of sexual assault. They arrived bearing signs and ponchos in the early morning and persisted well into the afternoon, undeterred by the days rain. They lay red daisies, white carnations, and roses on the steps of the Supreme Court in honor of Kavanaughs accusersFord, Julie Swetnick, and Deborah Ramirez. Several notes accompanied the flowersBelieve survivors, one read. Chants echoed in the halls of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where the hearing was being held. We believe Christine Ford, we believe Anita Hill, the crowd yelled. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many were there to protest Kavanaugh, but others were more motivated by a desire to show their support for Ford. Several said they were survivors of sexual assault themselves. Advertisement Im a survivor. It meant a lot to me to support [Ford], Laura OGrady said. We deserve the respect of being heard, though we arent having even that. OGrady said Fords case seemed even worse than that of Anita Hill, the woman who accused thenSupreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in 1991 of workplace sexual harassment. She also testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. For Anita Hill, [the committee] stopped the process and reopened the case with the FBI, OGrady explained. But then with Ford, they already made plans before she even spoke. They are ready to vote on Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Counter-protesters showed up as well, though they were significantly smaller in number. Ford doesnt have credibility. Why did she wait 30 years? Lourdes Washington, a professor from New Orleans, said. Washington stood outside the Dirksen Senate Office building with a few others who agreed Kavanaugh should be confirmed. Shes been waiting all these years. It happened 30 years ago but these people, they whine, and they cry. Advertisement Washington said she was also a survivor but doesnt understand why Ford has come out after decades. You move on, Washington said. I was raped when I was 13, but I put closure. I continued my education, Im happy. Most women felt that it was normal for Ford to have kept her silence. Advertisement I think that the fact that it happened 35 years ago [Ford] was 15 and it was early 80s, Abby Bolt of Baltimore said. So I understandit happened to many women. At the time, there wasnt much you can do. Speak up to whom? Some chose not to watch the hearing because they worried it would be too traumatizing. I read her statements on paper and I thought it should be much more powerful when she speaks out loud, said Susan Markham of Washington, D.C. I dont think I could have stood the woman prosecutor speaking to Dr. Ford. Regardless of the results, protesters said they were inspired by Fords decision to come forward. Im really proud of Dr. Ford, Luna Robledo said, and then addressed a statement at Ford. Thank you, you look amazing, and I believe you. Much like that adorable couple on the subway, weve been watching the Kavanaugh hearings all day. Collected Slate posts on Kavanaugh are here. Judge for one side: Brett Kavanaughs opening statement made it clear that he is absolutely furious at the Democratic Party. Theres no way this man can judge matters in a nonpartisan fashion, Mark Joseph Stern writes. Strange failure: Rachel Mitchells questions for Christine Blasey Ford seemed to be drawn from partisan talking points, Stern observes. Mitchell sounds more like a politician than a prosecutor, he writes. And Ford comes across as consistent, competent, and credible. Im laughing: What conservatives said about Fords testimony, and about Kavanaughs, compiled by Josh Voorhees. Why yearbooks matter: They show what kinds of things people like to believe about themselves, Heather Schwedel writes. Brett Kavanaughs senior page is a document of his own mythmaking. Keeping silent: Haley Swenson interviewed Heather Hlavka, a sociologist and criminologist, on the many cultural reasons why girls stay quiet about sexual assault. For fun: HAAA AH AH AH AH, AAAH AAAH, AH AH AH AH HAAA! Yesssss, Rebecca One of the key points of contention between Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee right now is whether a writer named Mark Judge should be called to testify about Brett Kavanaugh. Judge, a close friend of Kavanaughs during high school, is accused by Christine Blasey Ford of having been present in the room where Kavanaugh forced her down and attempted to rape her. Judge has said in brief written statements to the committee that he does not want to testify and does not recall the event described by Ford having taken place. If subpoenaed, though, Judge wouldnt simply be able to issue a blanket denial; hed be asked to respond to specific questions about the alleged assault and Kavanaughs high school conduct more broadly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, speaking at the Committees Friday meeting, said such a subpoena would be pointless because even if Judge were called to testify, hed plead the Fifth: It is not complicated what would happen if he were subpoenaed. If he came before this committee, any defense lawyer would tell Mr. Judge not to testify. Now I understand politically Democratic members of the Senate would very much like to see a man who has struggled with addiction most of his life pleading the Fifth. At that would make great theatrics. That would make a great political theatrics. It wouldnt help one iota in the search for the truth. This is strange for Cruz to acknowledge given that heand nearly every other Republicanare insistent that its been proven that no assault involving Kavanaugh and Judge ever took place, and beyond that that no party like the one Ford describes ever took place. If thats such an established fact, then how could Judge possibly put himself in legal jeopardy by stating as much at a hearing? What potentially incriminating statementwhether an admission of a criminal act or a perjurious denial thereofcould he possibly make about an event that absolutely, definitely never took place? Advertisement Advertisement Of course, what Cruz might realize is that one of Kavanaughs 1982 calendar entries does describe a party with Judge that fits Fords description and that a passage in one of Judges books about working at a supermarket in the summer of 1982 matches Fords description of seeing him some time after the assault at a Safeway. A college ex-girlfriend of Judges also recently told the New Yorker that he once told her hed been part of a group of boys that had sex with a drunk woman, though he apparently believed the sex was consensual. So there is, in fact, some reason to believe that Judge engaged in crude and possibly illegal sexual conduct while he was Kavanaughs close friend. And theres thus a hypothetical possibility that Judges testimonyin addition to possibly undermining Kavanaughs denial that he ever even heard of egregious sexual misconduct taking place when he was in high schoolcould implicate Judge in crimes. I still cant figure out why Ted Cruz would admit this, though! And in any case, a motion to subpoena Judge was voted down Friday morning on party lines. President Trump called Christine Blasey Ford a very fine woman and certainly a very credible witness on Friday, a day after Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her allegation of sexual assault. According to reporters at the White House, before the presidents meeting with Chiles president, Trump declined to weigh in on Senate vote on Kavanaughs confirmation, saying that senators must do what makes them comfortable and that he had no message for them. Advertisement The President also said he would rely on the advice of the Judiciary Committee as to whether to reopen an FBI background investigation into Kavanaugh . Im going to rely on all of the people, including Sen. Grassley, who is doing a very good job, Trump said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shortly before Trumps comments, the Senate Judiciary Committee had voted to advance Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate. Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, who had been considered one of the potential swing votes, called for a one-week delay on the final Senate vote to allow the FBI to investigate the sexual assault and misconduct allegations against Kavanaugha request that appears to have been agreed upon. According to a statement later released by Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committee will ask the Trump administration to order the FBI to conduct a supplemental background investigation. The investigation would be limited to a week and focus only on allegations that have already been made. Advertisement When reporters then asked about his thoughts on Fords testimony in the first half of Thursdays hearing, Trump called her a very fine woman and said her testimony was very compelling. But he added, I thought that Bretts testimony likewise was really something that I hadnt seen before. He continued: Incredible. It was an incredible moment in the history of our country. Trump continued to stand by Kavanaugh, as he has consistently since the allegations were made public. When a reporter asked him if he had considered replacing Kavanaugh, Trump said, not even a little bit. [ morphology ] 09.27.18 Lessons in Antifragility A s a kid I spent summers in the forest, crouching to stroke the turkey tail mushrooms that clung to dead trees like kaleidoscopes of stuck butterflies, each wing frozen mid-fan. Turkey tails grow a different psychedelic layer for every season. They divine the coming of rain. I wasnt fat as a girl, but nubbins of poor nutrition ossified under my skin. Lacquered cereal for breakfast, gluey white bread sandwiches for lunch and an apple, rarely eaten. Shake n Bake dinners, defrosted broccoli smuggled to the toilet in a napkin: an era of American life before we knew that if your grandmother doesn't recognize it as food, it's not. Correction: someone elses grandmother. My Grammy Bet made casseroles with Velveeta and Frenchs Fried Onion Strips. In college I was the only one of my friends who couldnt identify a fig. Freshman year: skinny. Antecedents: the first boy I loved, the time on the bus to see him, and sex. The turkey tail has a pore surface: a net of holes used not for breathing or eating, but for sex. They could have called it a spore surface, but they didnt. The boy kept my chemical exchanges brisk. Sophomore year: fat, after he moved on. I joined Crew but it wasnt enough. Four-thirty a.m. in a coating of frozen spandex, carrying a boat into water that was so cold it was gelatinous. Many calories died on the lake every morning but dining hall waffles paid retribution. The dining hall was a wonder. Any time after twelve you could get ice cream in a cake or waffle cone. I groped for filaments of connection, but like the turkey tail I had no interconnected community, only a humus of cliches that didnt helpgenerations of broken-hearted girls had leached them dry. I adapted alcohol as a primary decomposer to keep the growing nubbins in check. After graduation, I listened to NPR in the parking lot during lunch breaks at the medical records office. NPR made food sound exotic. It taught me that grandmothers were the canaries in the warrens of consumption these days. The turkey tail creates white rot in deadwood but pays back a new fan of color every season. Note that while the turkey tail feeds on death, it is not parasitic. A move to Minneapolis with no job and some savings: skinny in borrowed interview suits, saving calories for wine. Bright contrasts fissured my new personality. I was a living agate. Minneapolis with a new boyfriend and a job, sprouting vivid cocktail dresses. The boyfriend solidified into husband, a promotion, a budget unrestricted except by lack of time: my trunk increasing in girth, finds anchor in a shady dell of fixed rate mortgages. I quit my job to stay home with the baby. Browny maroon fringes spread along the carpetall stalky new growth and no blooms. In the mirror, leathery concentric circles. Chablis in the morning between diapers. Vomit, shit, and shards of glass are the detritus of many species of terrified mother. A casual observer diagnosed self-destruction, but I was merely one of a common subset, scrubbing the Monday floor in a patch of light. Silence when my husband came home, or a great deal of noise. Without infection the immune system will turn on itself. Crates of wine from the discount club proved less and less effective. Three dormant thin years. Fat is unthinkable for mothers of a certain ecology and neighborhood. Thinness is clean survival, refusing anything but the basement price deal from Age. I spread out to look for new sapwood when I lost two uncles to alcoholism. In managed forests, decay is tidied, turkey tails search for new fuel. Alcohol evolved into three AA meetings a week, coffee, and cigarettes. Swaths of time erased by Lysol before the baby came home from preschool. Cigarettes and coffee gave way to breath mints and coffee. My brown fringes tufted into white mycelium, a web of tiny filament. We see the phenomenon in post-traumatic growth. My daughters school lunches: a whole wheat cheese sandwich, a banana, and a cup of yogurt (only 10 grams of added sugar to get her to eat it). Its not perfect, but its not Capn Crunch. Youre too skinny, my mother says. Were video calling. She sits in my childhood backyard. Behind her I see new saplings tottering on gawky legs at the edge of the woods. These trees are new since I last visited, and I have a stupid thought: maybe the saplings evolved from the mushrooms. Are you listening, honey? I said, your grandmother wouldnt recognize you. I smile. Isnt that wonderful? Isnt that always the point? This piece originally appeared on the Conversation. In 1998, Google, formally incorporated in a garage in Menlo Park, California, began humbly providing search results from a server housed in Lego bricks. It had a straightforward goal: make the poorly indexed World Wide Web accessible to humans. Its success was based on an algorithm that analyzed the linking structure of the internet itself to evaluate what web pages are most reputable and useful. But founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page had a much more ambitious goal: They wanted to organize the worlds information. Advertisement Twenty years later, they have built a company going far beyond even that lofty goal, providing individuals and businesses alike with email, file sharing, web hosting, home automation, smartphones, and countless other services. The playful startup that began as a surveyor of the web has become an architect of reality, creating and defining what its billions of users find, see, know, or are even aware of. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Google controls more than 90 percent of the global search market, driving users and companies alike to design websites that appeal to the companys algorithms. If Google cant find a piece of information, that knowledge simply doesnt exist for Google users. If its not on Google, does it really exist at all? Advertisement Despite its billions of answered search queries, Google is not just an answer machine. Google monitors what responses people click on, assuming those are more relevant and of higher value and returning them more prominently in future searches on that topic. The company also monitors user activities on its email, business applications, and mobile operating systems, using that data as part of a feedback loop to give users more of what they like. All the data it collects is the real source of Googles dominance, making the companys services ever better at providing users what they want. Through autocomplete and the personalized filtering of search results, Google tries to anticipate your needs, sometimes before you even have them. As Googles former executive chairman Eric Schmidt once put it, I actually think most people dont want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next. Advertisement Despite its billions of answered search queries, Google is not just an answer machine. Twenty years from now, with two more decades of progress, Google will be even more accomplished, perhaps approaching a vision Brin expressed years ago: The perfect search engine would be like the mind of God. People are coming to rely on these tools, with their advanced artificial intelligencebased algorithms, not just to know things but to help them think. The search bar has already become a place people ask personal questions, a kind of confessional or stream of consciousness that is deeply revealing about who users are, what they believe, and what they want. In the future, Google will know you even more intimately, combining search results, browsing history, and location tracking with biophysical health data from wearables and other sources that could offer powerful insights into your state of mind. Advertisement Advertisement It is not far-fetched to imagine that, in the future, Google might know if an individual is depressed, or has cancer, before that user realizes it for herself. But even beyond that, Google may have the crucial role in an ever-tightening alignment between what you think your needs are and what Google tells you they are. Beyond its effects on individual people, Google is amassing power to influence societyperhaps invisibly. Fiction has a warning about what that might look like: In the movie Ex Machina, an entrepreneurial genius reveals how he assembled the raw material of billions of search queries into an artificial mind that is highly effective at manipulating humans based on what it learns about peoples behaviors and biases. Advertisement Advertisement But this situation isnt really fiction. As long ago as 2014, researchers at Facebook infamously demonstrated how easy it is to manipulate users with positive or negative posts in their news feeds. As people hand algorithms more power over their daily lives, will they notice how the machines are steering them? Whether or not Google ultimately exercises this power depends on its human leadersand on the digital society Google is so central to building. The company is investing heavily in machine intelligence, committing itself to a highly automated future where the mechanics and, perhaps, the true insights of the quest for knowledge become difficult or impossible for humans to understand. Google is gradually becoming an extension of individual and collective thought. It will get harder to recognize where people end and Google begins. People will become both empowered by and dependent on the technologywhich will be easy for anyone to access but hard for people to control. Advertisement Humans will need to find ways to collaborate withand direct the activities ofincreasingly sophisticated machine intelligence, rather than merely becoming users who blindly follow the leads of black boxes they no longer understand or control. Advertisement Based on our studies of the complex relationships between people and technology, a critical key to this new understanding of algorithms will be storytelling. The human brain is bad at understanding and processing datawhich is, of course, a machines core strength. To work together, a new human-machine relationship will have to depend on a uniquely human strengthstorytelling. People will work best with systems that can work through stories and explain their actions in ways humans can understand and modify. The more that people entrust computer-based systems with organizing culture and society, the more they should demand those systems function according to rules humans can comprehend. The day we stop being the primary authors of the story of humankind is the day it stops being a story about us. When I was in Israel two years ago, I met a group of Israeli high school students who participated in the Magshimim cybersecurity after-school training program. Those teenagers were so invested in helping to secure their nations computer infrastructure that I was both excited for their futures in the field and slightly concerned by how much responsibility they already felt they bore for their countrys cybersecurity. I experienced those same dueling sentiments recently when I spoke with several of the six undergraduate student interns from the University of Notre Dame who serve as sworn officers of the St. Joseph County Cyber Crimes Unit, which is located on campus: How wonderful that young people are so engaged in doing real computer-related law enforcement work! And how strangeand even perhaps slightly scarythat we give college students police badges and send them out (in the company of fully trained officers) to execute search warrants and collect digital evidence for real law enforcement investigations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Notre Dame is not the only university to partner with a local police department to provide students with hands-on digital-forensics experience, but it is the only such program that swears in its undergraduate interns as actual law enforcement officers, according to St. Joseph County Prosecuting Attorney Kenneth Cotter, who conducted the most recent swearing-in of six new interns on Sept. 7. The program is entering its third year and has expanded with the relocation of the Cyber Crimes Unit to the Notre Dame campus during the summer. Previously, the program was run from the county jail and admitted only three student interns. Were really taking a chance by giving college students essentially full police powers, Mitch Kajzer, the St. Joseph County cybercrimes director, said. But he emphasized that while the student interns are issued badges and help carry out warrants and criminal investigations, they are always closely supervised when they are out in the field. The students badges are kept in the Cyber Crimes Unit and are only used when they are out in the company of other, fully trained law enforcement officers. When students help execute search warrants, they wait until other officers have secured the site and then enter and help conduct the search for evidence. Advertisement How strangeand even perhaps slightly scarythat we give college students police badges and send them out to execute search warrants and collect digital evidence. As part of their internships, Notre Dame students scour social media accounts of people involved in investigations; run forensics programs on seized phones, tablets, and personal computers; help write search warrants for the collection of digital data; and aid in the execution of those warrants. For instance, new interns learn how to conduct research about suspects on the website Inteltechniques.com. For collecting evidence from digital devices, the interns are trained in the Magnet AXIOM forensics tool. They work on investigations that range from strictly digital incidents, such as online harassment and fraud cases, to a wide range of other crimes that involve digital evidence. For instance, in 2016 when the owner of a tanning salon was accused of recording videos of naked female customers during their spray tans, one of the Notre Dame interns was able to find the names of two unidentified victims by going through one of the salons business computers. Advertisement Advertisement They havent gone through the [police training] academy, and they also have to worry about their day job, being a student, so we wanted to be sure we werent giving them too much for them to be able to balance and that they were going to be properly vetted, Cotter said. Advertisement Student applicants undergo an extensive application and interview process, Kajzer said, but the vetting focuses more on enthusiasm and critical thinking than technical skills and ability. In fact, several of the student interns come from nontechnical departments, such as economics, political science, and film, and learn the digital-forensics skills needed for their work on the job, rather than in the classroom. For instance, Carolyn Kammeyer, a junior majoring in political science who joined the program this fall, has only just begun taking coding classes in Python this year as part of her minor in computing and digital technologies. Another new intern, Julia Gately, a sophomore economics major in the same computing and digital technologies minor, took Advanced Placement Computer Science in high school but only just began college courses in digital forensics and programming in the fall when she joined the program. Brooke Sabey, a sophomore film major with a CDT minor, said she was initially interested in the program because of her experience running a YouTube channel in high school and her knowledge of social media platforms, a common source of information and evidence in the interns investigative work. Advertisement The diversity of majors really helps, said Mike Chapple, the academic director of Notre Dames Master of Science in Business Analytics program and faculty adviser to the Cyber Crimes Unit interns. Usually the students have only taken one or two courses related to the work theyre doing, so were really looking for their passion and aptitude. The restthe digital forensics and computer programsthat we can teach them. Advertisement Advertisement Of course, students canand dolearn those skills without serving as sworn officers and going out into the field with police officers. But one thing that becomes clear from talking to the students themselves is how much that hands-on element of the internship experience means to them. Advertisement The opportunity to be a sworn law enforcement officer at 19 years old is unlike any other, Gately said. Its truly incredible. One of the things Im most looking forward to is when we get to go with the officers to the actual scene to carry out search warrants. Im really excited to be able to do that soon. Christina Casino, a senior economics major who has been part of the internship program since she was a sophomore, also said that was her favorite part of the programgetting to enter houses after they had been secured by other officers and actually search for and preview evidence. Its a lot of responsibility and you dont really realize that until youre going on warrants and youre able to write search warrants and get them signed yourself as a college student, Casino said. Advertisement Cotter, Kajzer, and Chapple extol the programs benefits for both students and the county investigators by providing students with greater responsibility and exposure to actual cybercrime investigations. But the real reason for giving students so much responsibility at such a young age, it seemed to me, was how much it meant to themand how seriously they took it. All of the students I spoke with in the internship program expressed interest in working in cybersecurity in the future, whether in law enforcement or private industry, and it seemed that giving them real badgesand real responsibilities in active criminal investigationswas at least partly to thank for that interest. Basia Pietrawska, vice president of consulting and analytics at CAP Index and a member of the ASIS Retail Asset Protection Community, explains how the COVID-19 pandemic affected retail crime in 2020 and 2021including an early spike in burglaries when stores were closed and an increase in aggravated assaults. ASIS members can join the conversation in the Retail Asset Protection Community online here: https://community.asisonline.org/retail 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 ... Friday protests organised by the For a Decent Slovakia initiative showed that light shall prevail over darkness. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The For a Decent Slovakia movement that emerged after the murders of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova in March resumed protests around the country this Friday, September 28. In Bratislava, an estimated 5,000 people attended the protest gathering in front of the national parliament. It is great that so many people came, one of the organisers, Peter Nagy, told The Slovak Spectator. First, the crowd of several thousands gathered at the SNP Square and then marched up Postova Street past the Presidential Palace and along Palisady Street up to the Castle Hill, where the gathering with speeches took place in front of the Slovak Parliament building. Protest organisers asked the protesters to bring light torches, candles, or turn on the lights on their mobile phones. With the protest taking place after sunset, the idea was to show that light prevails over darkness, as organiser Karolina Farska noted in her address to the crowd after the march. Things got worse, not better The main reason why the organisers believe Slovaks still need to protest against the current government is that there has been little progress in the investigation of the murder. This changed one day before the protests were scheduled to take place, when the police arrested eight people and charged three of them with premeditated murder. Police continued their activities on Friday before the protest, and are expected to share more details about their results next week. The organisers nevertheless insisted there were other reasons to protest too: the lack of clarity surrounding the elections of the Constitutional Court judges and the law on the selection of the new Police Corps president. Even though the government has been through half a year of ruling, we see no improvement, quite the contrary, the situation has deteriorated, the organisers stated. They listed the appointment of Denisa Sakova as the interior minister, the scandal surrounding the abduction of the Vietnamese citizen that unfolded over the summer, and the return of former Police Corps president, Tibor Gaspar, to the interior department as the advisor to Sakova among the issues they see as problematic. Along with the Bratislava protest, gatherings and marches also took place in Kosice and Banska Bystrica, where hundreds of people came to support the cause. Taking back the country The Kosice protest was attended by the mother of the murdered woman, Zlatica Kusnirova. "Slovakia is ours, we shall not let them steal it from us," Kusnirova told the crowd in Kosice. Former investigative journalist Zuzana Petkova, who closely collaborated with Jan Kuciak and who recently left journalism to lead the Stop Corruption foundation, was one of the speakers at the Bratislava protest. I do not want free lunches, I want to know the name of the person who ordered the murder, she told the crowd, and voiced more demands that the people in the crowd share: rule of law and a different political culture. In the past half-year, we have found that there are many more good and honest people than we thought, said journalist Martin M. Simecka while speaking to the crowd. The organisers concluded the gathering by calling on people to attend municipal elections, taking place on November 10. This country belongs to us, not to the mafia and corrupt politicians, organiser Juraj Seliga told the crowd. We are going to take it back. While routinely going through the Sirim database (which is used to list devices coming into Malaysia), we spotted the ZS600KL which is the code name for the ASUS ROG Phone. Announced earlier in June, our hands-on with it revealed it to be probably the best gaming phone yet not just because it features a 3D vapour-chamber cooling system, ultrasonic AirTriggers, a Snapdragon 845 processor clocking in at 2.96GHz and an AMOLED display running at a 90Hz refresh rate but also due to the various gaming accessories it comes with. Since it is listed in the Sirim database, this means we could see the ROG Phone coming to Malaysia sometime in October of 2018. The Sirim database listing doesn't reveal much else about the ROG Phone except the usual GSM information but it does seem to support 802.11ad WiFi (which is a faster protocol than 802.11ac), NFC and dual SIM cards. It looks like the distributors are the usual suspects of Dynamics Distribution and ECS ASTAR as well. No specific Malaysia release date or pricing details yet though, so stay tuned to TechNave.com for further updates. Heres a refresher of the ASUS ROG Phone tech specs and features in a list: Here's a first look at Saturday night's six chair challenge on The X Factor as Georgia Burgess sings for a spot at judges' houses. Saturday and Sunday night is another X Factor double bill as we move on from the auditions. Advertisements It's the six chair challenge where the acts in each category will perform one at a time with a hopefully killer song choice, singing for the judges and a live audience at Wembley. As always in the six chair challenge, it'll be each category's mentor that has ultimate power. They'll decide who to place in a seat, representing a spot at judges' houses. First up this weekend are the Girls with their mentor Simon Cowell. One of the acts singing is 20-year-old Georgia Burgess who is currently working in temporary recruitment in Birmingham Back at her audition, Georgia told the judges confidently: I want to win The X Factor. I'd like to think I could. I'll do my best." Advertisements For her audition song, Georgia belted out The Jackson 5's Who's Loving You for the judges. "Effortless, absolutely effortless," commented Robbie Robbie Williams "We get a lot of girls around your age that can sing but there's not really an identity but with you, you're absolutely incredible Georgia," Ayda Williams added. In this preview clip from Saturday's show, Georgia is ready to tackle the Six Chair Challenge after stunning the Judges in her audition, and aims to prove to Simon Cowell that she has to go to Judges' Houses! She sings Pharrell Williams' Happy in her bid to get a seat. Only those left sitting down at the very end of it all will be safe and in with a chance of making it through to The X Factor 2018 live shows. However, this year for the Six Chair Challenge each of the judges also has one Guaranteed Safe Seat to give away. If the judge likes an act enough, and they definitely want to see them at judges houses theyll press a golden X and give that act a Safe Seat. The judge can only press this for an act in their own category. Advertisements This means the act cannot be swapped out of their chair and theyll go straight through to judges houses. The X Factor airs Saturday at 8:35PM on ITV and continues Sunday at 8PM. Authorities arrest fugitive Office of Company Registrar staff Authorities have arrested the two deputy registrars of the Office of Company Registrar (OCR) who were on the run after they were exposed as enablers in the Rs 700 million fraud case. Tika R Pradhan is a senior political correspondent for the Post, covering politics, parliament, judiciary and social affairs. Pradhan joined the Post in 2016 after working at The Himalayan Times for more than a decade. Casino Royale operating without valid licence Casino Royale at the Hotel Yak and Yeti is the only gaming house still operating under a Supreme Court order without paying taxes and renewing its operating licence, as two other holdouts, Casino Venus at the Malla Hotel and Casino Rad at the Radisson Hotel, have paid their outstanding dues, Tourism Department officials said. Chief Minister Raut meets family of acid attack victims Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut visited the parents of acid attack victim Samjhana Kumari Das at their Rautahat home on Thursday and offered his condolence. Criminals without borders Openness in trade has created economic growth but also spread transnational crime 2013 brought disruptive politics, removing the status quo of CSV plus one, and in its place a coalition of DP, LSAP and the Greens, led by the unmistakable Xavier Bettel. If you'd like to watch our full interview click here: VIDEO: Election Special - Xavier Bettel - LongForm RTL Today's Lisa Burke interviews Prime Minister Xavier Bettel as part of our Election Special series. Sitting in the prime-ministerial office, a desk full of documents to sign, his eclectic collection of pop art on the walls and dotted around the tables, Bettel is a communications expert, but with it, a sincerity. Bettels political career started with a petition to Lydie Polfer (current mayor of Luxembourg city, who was also was mayor when he was a teenager) to ask for a playground. He got his wish. The power of politics to get things done was soaked up by the young Bettel. He settled on the Democratic Party because of its lack of association with church or unions. Economically more right wing, ethically more left wing; precisely what appealed to him. Over the last five years, Xavier Bettel and his government have pushed for change perhaps unthinkable under a CSV leadership: the separation of state and church; extensive parental leave for fathers; National Day which is now a civil celebration rather than a military and church parade; abortion rights for women. His hope is that CSV wont undo this work if they return to government, and says the DP could only work with them if they continue in same direction; not to turn clock back. I dont want to stand next to Luxembourg Perhaps the toughest part of his tenure was LuxLeaks. Bettel reflected quietly, recalling one politician saying "I dont want to stand next to Luxembourg. He feels they managed to turn this reputation around, and is proud of putting the country on map for what it can do; proud to be facing this election with good news for the economy and a different sense of purpose for the country. I feel well if my country feels well What does it take to be a leader? For Prime Minister Bettel it is the ability to listen, to take decisions, explain your decisions, and generally to like people. Carpe Diem "My father always told my mum, We will do that when I retire. He died a few weeks after he retired in 1999". Bettel was sworn in as a Depute in August 1999, aged 26. The elections were in the October, and his father died a few days before the elections. This is one of the reasons why Bettel cares so much about parental leave. He sees the huge value in family time, time that is never guaranteed to come back another day. The election interviews The video interviews are left in long-form, rather than short sound-bites, to get a better sense of the person, their sincerity to lead their parties and possibly Luxembourg. The focus is on getting to know the person behind the politics. These are not hard-core political interviews (yet). Many of the political websites here are not in English. For fairness, we have asked similar questions of all leaders. The interviews are being published in the same order as the parties appear on the voting lists. For more information on how the election process works in Luxembourg go to Knowledge Bites Election. Lisa Burke Privatisation in education: private schools dominate national education Two days after the federal parliament endorsed the Act on Compulsory and Free Education, Private and Boarding Schools Organisation Nepal (PABSON) slammed the provisions in the new law that increases the share of scholarship they must offer students. U23s beat Benfica B 2 - 0 in Southport tonight Friday, 28 September, 2018 Everton Under-23s beat Benfica B in the second of their Premier League International Cup competition games on Friday night. The Blues drew 2-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion in their first game just last week and this European encounter takes place at Merseyside Community Stadium in Southport, kick-off at 7 pm. The annual competition, which has been won by Porto in each of the last two campaigns, pits 12 of England's best Academy sides against 12 of the top development squads from across Europe. The 24 teams are then split into six groups of four, with the six group winners and best two runners-up advancing to the quarter-finals. Each team will face each other only once in the group phase, with all matches set to be played in England. The fourth side in Everton's Group D is Bayern Munich. On the night, two breakaway goals from the home side, scored before half-time, proved to be enough to secure the win for Everton. The goals came from Broadhead and Bowler to give Everton a commanding lead they did not give up. Everton U23s: Virginia, Charsley, Galloway, Feeney, Browning, Foulds, Bowler (90' Mampala), Markelo, Hornby (65' Evans), Adeniran, Broadhead (65' Sambou). Subs: Hilton, Lavery, Ouzounidis, Phillips. About these ads Mountain Shadows in Wayanad is just the place for a dreamy vacation Dr KC demands resignation of Education Minister Pokharel Senior orthopedic surgeon at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) Dr Govinda KC has demanded the resignation of Minister for Education, Science, and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokharel. Custody death of Ram Manohar Yadav: Family decries non-consented autopsy Police in Kathmandu sent the body of Ram Manohar Yadav for autopsy without seeking consent from the family, according to his brother Bishnu Yadav. EXCLUSIVE: Major changes have taken place behind the scenes of kids troupe Hi-5 with an Australian production office recently closing up shop. The series returned to Nine in 2016 with new cast members, Lachie Dearing, Courtney Clarke, Shay Clifford, Joe Kalou and Bailey Spalding. Filming took place in Malaysia, including with Live regional appearances, while scripting still took place in Australia. But filming of latest episodes in Malaysia was halted after one cast member departed for personal reasons, and is yet to resume. A production office in Sydney downsized a year ago to a co-working space but has now relocated to Singapore. Hi-5 general manager & executive director Jaenani Netra told TV Tonight, The plan is to resume next year with some significant changes to how we rollout our content. We are also working on a new animation series, working very closely with a formidable broadcaster. New broadcasters and emerging platforms are constantly engaging us to undertake various animated content for them. We are also planning to list the company in Singapore in the next few months, thus the strategic initiative to move to all to Singapore. It remains unclear if new episodes will be delivered to Nine or if the troupe will appear at Carols by Candlelight in December. Meanwhile a casting call has been issued for cast members for a stage tour while former members have secured upcoming projects including Joe Kalou performing in upcoming productions of In the Heights and Jesus Christ Superstar. Hi-5 remains a much-loved Nine brand, having previously been owned by CEO Hugh Marks as part of the Southern Star group and has helped to meet childrens quotas. Nine declined to comment. UK writer John Cunliffe, who created Postman Pat, has died aged 85. He died on September 20 in Northern England. Cunliffe started writing Postman Pat while teaching in Kendal in the 1970s. The first episode, Postman Pats Finding Day, was broadcast on September 16, 1981 and it has since appeared in more than 50 countries. After finding huge success with the Postman Pat series, Cunliffe went on to write, and star in, Rosie and Jim. He also recently released a childrens story. A new series of Postman Pat aired in 2016. Source: ABC Sydney Will & Grace fans will be getting a pop-up bar, Karens Martini Bar, mounted at LGBTQI venue The Imperial Erskineville. Martinis will be $9 each from Friday October 5 through to Sunday October 7. Krystal Kleer will be assuming the role of Karen from 4-7pm daily. Will & Grace will also be showing on large screens throughout the venue plus prizes and activations all weekend long. New episodes return to Stan on October 5. Boris Johnson has launched a blistering attack on Theresa May's Chequers plan, calling it "a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country" that will "cheat the electorate" if implemented. In an explosive article published ahead of the Conservative Party conference, the former foreign secretary urged the prime minister to "chuck Chequers" and adopt a "Super Canada"-style proposal instead after her plan was rejected by the EU last week. The intervention ratchets up the pressure on Mrs May. It drew praise from fellow Brexiteers, while Labour said it further exposed rifts within the Conservatives on Brexit. In a column for the Telegraph entitled "A better plan for Brexit", Mr Johnson says: "Overall, the Chequers proposals represent the intellectual error of believing that we can be half-in, half-out: that it is somehow safer and easier for large parts of our national life to remain governed by the EU even though we are no longer in the EU. "They are in that sense a democratic disaster. There is nothing safe or 'pragmatic' in being bound by rules over which we have no say, interpreted by a federalist court. "The Chequers proposals are the worst of both worlds. "They are a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country. "It is almost incredible that after two years this should be the opening bid of the British government." Mr Johnson sets out an alternative vision which he says would make Britain "rich, strong and free". He calls for a new withdrawal agreement stating that the Irish border question will be settled as part of the deal on the future economic arrangements. He says the implementation period should be used to negotiate and bring into force a Super Canada-type free-trade agreement, and says MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO - news) should not vote to hand over 40bn to the EU without any such agreement. Mr Johnson says London and Brussels would agree to close cooperation in areas such as defence, security and aviation. "This is the time to get it right," he says. Story continues "This is the approach that allows this country really to exploit the opportunities of Brexit, to diverge and legislate effectively for the new technologies and businesses in which the UK has such a lead. "This is an opportunity for the UK to become more dynamic and more successful, and we should not be shy of saying that - and we should recognise that it is exactly this potential our EU partners seek to constrain." But critics of a Canada-style deal, including Prime Minister Theresa May herself, say it would still mean customs checks between Northern Ireland and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , which could threaten the Good Friday Agreement. The EU also has reservations, arguing the integrity of its single market could be harmed if there are not proper checks in place. Mr Johnson's intervention comes two days before the start of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham where Brexit is expected to feature heavily. His fellow Brexiteers rallied around Mr Johnson's plan, with Tory MP Bernard Jenkin describing it as "unanswerable" and "powerful". Nadine Dorries, also a Conservative MP, called Mr Johnson "a man with a plan". And Jacob Rees-Mogg, who chairs the powerful Eurosceptic European Research Group, said the negotiations had been "badly conducted", as he likened the Chequers plan to Count Dracula, saying it "doesn't have much life in the sunlight". Not all were impressed though, with former Tory Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan mocking Mr Johnson. She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) tweeted: "I said Boris had to decide if he was a politician or a journalist - he's clearly made his decision but shame he didn't research the link between agreeing a solution that keeps the Irish border frictionless and the chances of agreeing withdrawal terms. Or does he just not care?" Shadow cabinet office minister Jon Trickett said Mr Johnson's plan revealed the Tories only had "internal warfare" left. Referring to Mr Johnson's column, Labour MP David Lammy tweeted: "Just when I had run out of bog roll." Lib Dem MP Layla Moran said Mr Johnson's comments were nothing more than a "half-baked sloppy rant". Sir Richard Branson called Brexit a "disaster" for the UK and Europe. The billionaire Virgin boss told Sky News: "I do personally think that entrepreneurs and business people know what this country needs more than Boris Johnson knows." He also backed a second referendum, as it is "quite likely that sense will finally prevail". House panel to probe Airbus purchase deal The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has decided to investigate the purchase of two wide-body aircraft by Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC). Aung San Suu Kyi with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June 2017 - REUTERS The Canadian parliament has voted unanimously to strip Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmas civilian leader, of her honorary citizenship after global criticism of her handling of the Rohingya crisis. Ottawa had awarded the symbolic honour, which does not afford Canadian rights or privileges, to the Nobel laureate in 2007 after she endured years of house arrest as a political prisoner. The vote in the House of Commons lower chamber means that she will no longer be a member of an elite group of only five other honorary Canadians, which includes Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, and the Dalai Lama. The decision, which must still be ratified by the Senate, comes one week after another unanimous vote by Canadian MPs to declare the Burmese military campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority a genocide. The Burmese army is accused of mass killings, rape and arson in a brutal crackdown last year which drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh, where they now live in cramped refugee camps. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt meets with members of the Rohingya community in Rakhine State Credit: Ye Aung Thu/AFP A spokesman for Chrystia Freeland, Canadas foreign minister, confirmed to the Globe and Mail that the government supported the motion to revoke Ms Suu Kyis citizenship in response to her continued failure to speak out against the genocide of the Rohingya, a crime being committed by the military with which she shares power. Ms Suu Kyi was previously called out by a searing United Nations investigation for failing to use her moral authority to prevent violence against the Rohingya minority. The investigation by three independent UN experts, which concludes that Burmas top generals should be tried for genocide, and the case referred to the International Criminal Court, was presented to the UNs Human Rights Council in Geneva last week. The rights body voted on Thursday to set up an independent panel to prepare criminal indictments over the atrocities committed in Burma. Saw for myself in Rakhine that real accountability for atrocities requires this new mechanism to secure the evidence. Burma has been a priority for us here at #UNGA so the decision by @UN_HRC today is great news. Step forward but much more to do. https://t.co/QEpHvhouWh Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) September 27, 2018 Thirty-five of the councils 47 members supported a text that mandates the panel to prepare "files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings... in national, regional or international courts or tribunals." Story continues Only three countries China, the Philippines and Burundi voted against the resolution. Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary, welcomed the decision as a step forward for establishing justice. Saw for myself in Rakhine that real accountability for atrocities requires this new mechanism to secure the evidence. Burma has been a priority for us her at #UNGA so the decision by @UN_HRC today is great news. Step forward but much more to do, he said on Twitter. The military has denied nearly all wrongdoing, justifying its crackdown as a legitimate means of rooting out Rohingya militants. China says 'no cause for panic' over U.S. ties, but won't be blackmailed By David Brunnstrom and Rodrigo Campos UNITED NATIONS/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Chinese government's top diplomat, Wang Yi, said on Friday there was "no cause for panic" over friction between Beijing and Washington, but warned that China would not be blackmailed or yield to pressure over trade. At a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump escalated tensions with Beijing by accusing it of seeking to meddle in the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections to stop him and his Republican Party from doing well because of his China trade policies. At the same meeting, Wang rejected the charge. "Protectionism will only hurt oneself, and unilateral moves will bring damage to all," Wang said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday. "Regarding trade frictions, China stands for a proper settlement based on rules and consensus through dialogue and consultation on an equal footing. China will not be blackmailed or yield to pressure." Trump, who accuses China of stealing U.S. intellectual property, limiting access to its own market and unfairly subsidizing state-owned industries, has escalated his trade war with China and U.S. tariffs on $200 billion (153.41 billion pounds) worth of Chinese goods kicked in on Monday, prompting Beijing to retaliate with additional tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. products. Wang earlier told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that concrete actions had to be taken to maintain relations between the United States and China. "The closer our engagement, the more closely entwined our interests, maybe various suspicions and even frictions may ensue," Wang said. "This is not surprising and it is also no cause for panic. What is important is how these differences should be viewed, evaluated and handled." Wang, who holds the twin titles of foreign minister and state councillor, dismissed any suggestion there was forced technology transfer from foreign firms in China and played down complaints by some U.S. firms about market conditions in China. Story continues "A small number of companies that are not so satisfied may speak up louder, but I dont think they represent the majority of the companies in the Chinese market," he said. Further cooperation between the United States and China was key in pursuing denuclearization of its ally North Korea, Wang said, while urging the creation of a peace mechanism and for the United States to give North Korea more incentives. "We believe it is ... right for the U.S. to make timely and positive responses so as to truly meet North Korea halfway," Wang said in his U.N. speech. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned members of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that they must "set the example" by enforcing sanctions on North Korea as China and Russia suggested the council consider easing the tough measures because progress had been made. Wang warned that scrapping the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which China and other powers are fighting to save after Trump pulled out of it in May, could lead to a regional arms race. He said China was fostering closer economic ties with Russia as the two economies were complimentary and Moscow and Beijing were also on the same page on international issues. "We want to build a new kind of relationship featuring non-confrontation, non-conflict and no targeting any third country, he said. Russia is our largest neighbour, and theres need for normal and friendly ties between neighbours. Certainly, the two economies are highly complementary. We need the Russian energy like oil and natural gas and they need Chinese processed goods ... and inexpensive Chinese goods. Wang said China had exercised "utmost restraint" in the South China Sea and seeks peaceful solutions to disputes there. He said Beijing's sovereignty over the South China Sea islands was "very clear" and that people there felt the need for enhanced defences given "heavy" U.S. military patrols, Wang said. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which about $3 trillion worth of trade passes every year. Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei also claim parts of the sea, which has oil and gas deposits and rich fishing grounds. Wang said that while Asia belonged to the people of Asia, China did not seek a closed continent or to create "a new order" or hegemony. "China will not, repeat, not repeat the old practice of a strong country seeking hegemony," Wang said. "I dont think China will become the United States and China will not challenge the United States, still less will China take the place of the United States." (Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Rodrigo Campos; writing by John Irish and Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool and Jonathan Oatis) CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian prosecutors are investigating the death of a monk who was from the monastery where a bishop was murdered in July, a case that has rattled the biggest church in the Middle East. Zenon al-Makari, 45, died while being rushed to hospital after suffering severe stomach pains. He had served as a confessional priest for one of two defrocked monks charged with the murder of the Bishop Epiphanius on July 29, fellow monks said. A Church spokesman said Zenon had suffered a "sudden health crisis" and prosecutors were investigating the cause of death. Zenon was one of six monks that Coptic Church authorities had relocated away from the Abu Makar (Saint Macarius) Monastery some 110 km (70 miles) northwest of Cairo, a month after the murder there, on Aug. 25. Monks at the al-Muhharaq Monastery in Assiut, where Zenon was transferred, said he had been distressed and declined to mix with other monks. He was on a list of witnesses scheduled to testify in the trial of the two former monks, which opened last week, according to a lawyer involved in the trial and a security source in Beheira province, where the hearing is taking place. The murder of Bishop Epiphanius had rocked the Church in a country where Christians make up an estimated 10 percent of the 96 million population. Pope Tawadros immediately ordered a freeze on accepting new monks, a ban on monks leaving monasteries without permission, and a ban on clergy using social media. Judicial sources said one of the monks accused of the killing, Wael Saad, known by his monastic name Isaiah al-Makari, had confessed during questioning to the murder. Egyptian media reported this week that Saad, at his first hearing, had denied killing Epiphanius and said he had confessed under pressure. In a statement last month, the prosecution said Saad had long had differences with his superiors, who had on one occasion investigated him for breaking monastery traditions. The second monk accused of involvement in the murder, Ramon Rasmi Mansour, threw himself from the monastery roof this month. He has been treated in a Cairo hospital where he has also been questioned, judicial sources told Reuters. (This version of the story corrects month of murder in paragraph 1, says Zenon was confessional priest for one of the charged monks, not two in paragraph 2.) (Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) The Lake Districts proximity to the Sellafield nuclear plant increases its appeal as a potential site. Photograph: Paul Byrne/Getty Images The National Trust and 18 other conservation groups have urged ministers to rule out burying nuclear waste below national parks as fears grow that the Lake District is being eyed as a potential site. In January, the government restarted its attempt to find a community willing to host such a facility after a previous search collapsed five years ago. Ministers have refused to exclude national parks from the process. The green groups argued putting a nuclear dump under a national park would threaten the 6bn spent by millions of visitors. We recognise that safe disposal of nuclear waste is one of the key challenges our society currently faces but this should not be used as an excuse to put at risk the huge range of benefits these areas deliver for society, the environment and the economy, the groups said in an open letter to the nuclear energy minister, Richard Harrington. The Lake District national park is seen as a potential location for the underground facility, given Cumbrias nuclear history and proximity to Sellafield, where most of the UKs nuclear waste is currently stored. The groups, which include the Woodland Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said Harrington risked undermining long-established protections afforded to national parks by comparing the prospect of a deep nuclear waste facility to a potash mine in North Yorkshire. Harrington cited the mine as an example of development within national parks, telling MPs this summer that the potash mine would leave very little blot on the landscape. Asked if he would exclude national parks as possible locations for a geological disposal facility for nuclear waste, Harrington said: I am not saying we should have them on national parks but it would be very wrong to exclude them at the moment in this big policy statement. Ministers have subsequently argued that we cannot afford to restrict the siting process and most of the facility will be underground, in letters to campaigners that have been seen by the Guardian. Story continues MPs on the business, energy and industrial strategy select committee concluded that national parks should not be excluded. Roy Payne, the executive director of GDF Watch, which is monitoring the siting process, said even if parks were not ruled out, the chance of the facility being built beneath one was close to zero, given local communities had the final say. A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spokesperson said: Legislation already ensures developments in national parks can only proceed in exceptional circumstances and must be appropriate and proportionate. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) India successfully defended the Asia Cup title in the most dramatic fashion, beating Bangladesh in a last-ball thriller on Friday. India was chasing a modest target of 223 at Dubai International Stadium, after winning the toss and inviting Bangladesh to bat first. Despite its batting prowess and wealth of experience, India almost failed to reach that target as the tension reached breaking point. It was left to a limping Kedar Jadhav to face the final ball with the scores level. He tried to flick it down to the fine leg boundary and failed to do so, but India got a single leg bye and did just enough. "I am really proud of the team. We played very good cricket throughout the series and this is reward for the hard work," captain Rohit Sharma said. "Let me not take away any credit from the Bangladesh team because they have been fantastic. They started really well and then bowled very well too." India won the tournament for the seventh time, having beaten Bangladesh in the 2016 final played as a Twenty20 format. Jadhav was forced to retired hurt with a hamstring injury, but came out again at the fall of the sixth wicket with India on 212-6 and finished unbeaten on 23. Kuldeep Yadav was the other unbeaten batsman, on five, as India reached 223-7 to win by three wickets. Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza felt his side should have cashed in after a good start, but was also proud of the way his side battled to defend a relatively low score. "After finally getting a good start, we should have scored a lot more. We had a lot of hope from our middle-order, but they failed to deliver this time," he said. "We bowled well, but we were never really in the match defending that total." None of the Indian batsmen reached 50, with Sharma leading with 48. Dinesh Karthik contributed 37 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored 36. The Bangladesh innings was built around a first one day international century by opener Liton Das, who struck and assured 121 featuring 12 fours and two sixes. Story continues He put on 120 runs for the first wicket with surprise opener Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who managed just 32 of them before being caught in the 21st over off Jadhav. After that, the Bangladesh innings faded. "I thought our spinners did very well in containing them and building the pressure to restrict them to 222," Sharma said. Jadhav finished with 2-41 in nine overs, while Yadav got a decent return of 3-45 from 10 overs. Sharp Indian fielding accounted for three run outs, including the dangerous No. 7 Soumya Sarkar for 33 just as he was looking set for a big score. Earlier, the fluent Das reached his 50 off 33 balls. He was then dropped on 52 by Yuzvendra Chahal when he miscued a sweep off Ravindra Jadeja, but was otherwise in control as he reached 100 from 87 balls. Das was finally stumped by Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Yadav. It ultimately proved to be the key breakthrough, as Bangladesh fell agonizingly short of its first Asia Cup win after reaching the final for the third time. ___ More AP sports: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports FILE PHOTO: Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro listens to the national anthem during a meeting with women in Porto Alegre, Brazil August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Diego Vara/File Photo SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, the front runner in next month's election, will not leave hospital on Friday as expected due to an infection, the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper reported on Thursday. Citing sources close to Bolsonaro, the paper said he caught a bacterial infection after a catheter was removed during his recovery from a near-fatal stabbing in the abdomen three weeks ago. Bolsonaro has held the lead for the Oct. 7 election despite being unable to campaign. But polls show leftist Workers Party candidate Fernando Haddad has surged to just six points behind Bolsonaro and would win an expected second-round run-off. Bolsonaro's campaign did not return calls. Spokespeople for Sao Paulo's Albert Einstein hospital did not immediately reply to requests for comment. The hospital's daily bulletin on Bolsonaro's condition issued in the afternoon said he was recovering well and had no fever or pain. Bolsonaro, 63, was stabbed by an assailant on Sept. 6 as he was carried aloft by supporters in a street rally. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Leslie Adler) FILE PHOTO - Minister of State for Foreign Affairs for the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, speaks at an event at Chatham House in London, Britain July 17, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall By John Irish UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official warned European powers on Tuesday that it was offering Iran a glimmer of hope by trying to keep trade flowing, but that ultimately they would fall behind the United States' tough approach on Tehran. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain swiftly backed U.S. President Donald Trump's decision in May to withdraw from a 2015 international accord with Iran that curbed Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for loosening economic sanctions. The Sunni Muslim-ruled states are at loggerheads with Shiite Iran, fighting a proxy war that has influenced conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told Reuters at the United Nations General Assembly he was concerned by the public differences between the remaining European signatories to the accord - France, Britain and Germany - and the United States. All of them agree that Iran's long-term nuclear activities should be curbed, its ballistic missile programme curbed and its regional influence reigned in. "The faster we can bridge those opinions the better," Gargash said. "The Iranians are counting on this and perhaps creating a wedge between Washington's approach and the European policy." U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani exchanged taunts at the annual gathering of world leaders on Tuesday with Trump vowing more sanctions against Tehran and Rouhani suggesting his American counterpart suffers from a "weakness of intellect." The European powers with China and Russia are desperately trying to salvage the nuclear deal and on Monday said they had agreed to set up a special payment mechanism to continue trade with Iran in an effort to skirt U.S. sanctions. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday the European efforts would not change the mind of companies that had already left Iran, but would try to provide some economic benefits to Tehran. Story continues "Unfortunately the current disagreement over approach is not helpful and it is giving Iran a sort of lifeline and hope that it can skirt the various concerns that everyone has about Iran," Gargash said. He said he believed that Trump's pressure policy that will see tougher sanctions restored on Nov. 5 would yield results and that within a year Iran could be at the negotiating table. (Reporting by John Irish; editing by Grant McCool) Storyful Police in Temple, Texas, say charges are pending against a woman who hurled a container of soup in the face of a manager inside a Mexican restaurant on Sunday, November 7.According to WFLA, the customer returned to the Sol de Jalisco restaurant to complain that the soup she had picked up was hot, and that the heat had melted the plastic lid. The woman began a verbal altercation with the manager before throwing the soup in the managers face, the Temple Police Department said.Deputy Chief Allen Teston on Tuesday said they do not condone this type of behavior and urged people who believe they have received poor service to remain civil until the problem is resolved, KWTX reported.The soup-throwing woman, who has yet to be identified, left before police officers arrived.The manager who was struck by the soup, Jannelle Broland, said in video posted to TikTok that the customer had verbally abused her on the phone prior to entering the restaurant. Broland said she had offered to help the woman, but said the customer never asked for replacement or a refund, and just wanted to complain.Broland said the soup was no longer hot when it hit her, but said spices in the soup made her eyes burn, and that she later had two nosebleeds. Credit: Sol de Jalisco via Storyful HELSINKI (AP) Former U.S. President Barack Obama is urging private businesses to engage more with governments when developing new products and services, particularly in the technology sector, to avoid problems like those challenging Facebook. Obama told business leaders Thursday in Helsinki, the Finnish capital, that "you cannot separate the business environment from the political and social environment." Obama was being interviewed by Niklas Zennstrom, the Swedish billionaire entrepreneur and co-founder of Skype. Obama says "too often" U.S. business leaders tend to avoid the government "as much as" they can. He says "that strategy can work for a time, but eventually as I think Facebook has now discovered you're going to have to engage." Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spoken before the U.S. Congress this year on privacy issues. See Also: Indian petro Minister arrives to discuss petro pipeline, gas import Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has arrived in the Capital on Friday to discuss on the construction of Amlekhgunj-Chitwan petroleum pipeline. Ahead of his 70th birthday celebrations in November, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are to tour Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria. On Thursday, Clarence House confirmed that the royal couple will begin their tour in The Gambia on 31 October to celebrate The Gambia's return into the Commonwealth in February this year. They will be welcomed to the country by the President of The Gambia, His Excellency Mr. Adama Barrow, at a ceremony in McCarthy Square in the Capital City of Banjul. This trip marks Prince Charles' first visit to The Gambia. Scott Furssedonn-Wood, Charles' deputy private secretary, said the couple were visiting the three countries at the request of the British Government. He added: "Their Royal Highnesses' visit will celebrate the UK's historic ties with these three Commonwealth nations, and also our dynamic contemporary partnerships with each of them in areas ranging from business to the arts, defence co-operation to medical research." He continued: "The tour will also highlight the people-to-people links between our countries and the invaluable contribution they make to our shared prosperity and security." prince-charles-with-camilla Prince Charles and Camilla will be going on tour During their tour, which will take place during the months of October and November, Charles and Camilla will visit the Medical Research Centre, which is a faculty of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The Prince will also visit the Gambian Armed Forces Training Centre, where troops are trained for their role with the United Nations - African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur. Meanwhile, Camilla will visit a school to meet young people aspiring to enter The Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition, which is the world's oldest schools' international writing competition, managed by The Royal Commonwealth Society since 1883. MORE: The Queen is planning a very lavish 70th birthday party for Prince Charles Story continues On 2 November, the royal couple will start their visit to Ghana, which in 1957 became the first majority-ruled African country to join the Commonwealth. The royals will be welcomed at Jubilee House by President Nana Akufo-Addo and the First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo. Other key events in the programme in Accra will include a State Banquet celebrating the ties between the UK and Ghana, attended by senior dignitaries in Ghana and prominent members of the British Ghanaian Diaspora as well as key figures from business, arts, culture and media. Loading the player... Then four days later, Prince Charles and Camilla will arrive in Abuja, Nigeria where they will be welcomed by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa. During their visit here, Their Royal Highnesses will undertake a series of engagements in Abuja and Lagos where they will have the opportunity to interact with a cross-section of Nigerians from Traditional Leaders to those in business, the arts, fashion, the armed forces and the charitable sector. Over the course of the tour, the royals will take part in commemorative events to acknowledge the sacrifice made by Gambian, Ghanaian and Nigerian soldiers during the First and Second World Wars, and in more recent times during international peacekeeping missions. Make sure you never miss a ROYAL story! Sign up to our newsletter to get all of our celebrity, royal and lifestyle news delivered directly to your inbox. A Grab motorbike helmet is displayed during Grab's fifth anniversary news conference in Singapore June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su Thomson Reuters By Chayut Setboonsarng BANGKOK (Reuters) - Singapore-based ride-hailing firm Grab is in talks to sell "a decent-sized stake" in its Thai business to Thailand's largest retailer, Central Group, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The talks are taking place as Grab faces intensifying competition from Indonesia's Go-Jek, which has plans for a $500 million investment to enter Thailand and other countries in the region. If the deal with Central Group goes ahead, it will expand Grab's existing tie-up with the retailer beyond food delivery to areas such as digital payment and e-commerce, the people said. "There's a natural synergy with Central," said one, citing Grab's current food delivery service from Central restaurants. Grab is interested in doing business with JD Central, a $500 million e-commerce joint venture that Central launched earlier this year with China's e-commerce giant JD.com, said the person, who declined to be identified as the matter was private. The size of the deal is yet to be determined, though discussions have been ongoing for some time, said the people. Grab, which counts Uber Technologies, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, Toyota Motor, and China's ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing among its backers, said it would not comment on "rumors and speculation". Central did not respond to a request for comment. "Aligning itself with the Central Group could help Grab get faster approvals in developing its ride-hailing and digital payments businesses," said Nattabhorn Juengsanguansit, Director at Asia Group Advisors, a government relations advisory. "The deal represents potential synergies for both sides, for example in lowering transportation costs for Central's food and e-commerce businesses," she added. Central Group, owned by the billionaire Chirathivat family, also manages shopping centers and hotels across Thailand. Story continues The deal could also help Grab navigate required new regulatory standards, said Jay Harriman, senior director at BowerGroupAsia. (Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kirsten Donovan) See Also: ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said the United States has failed to comply with the timescale agreed for the withdrawal of Kurdish YPG militia from northern Syrian city of Manbij, the Hurriyet newspaper reported on Friday. As agreed by the two NATO allies in June, Turkish and U.S. forces are now carrying out patrols in Manbij to clear the area of YPG, a group that Turkey views as a terrorist organisation linked to Kurdish militants on its own soil. But Erdogan said YPG forces remain in Manbij, and accused the United States of not holding to commitments under the roadmap agreed in June. "The United States certainly did not comply with the agreed calendar of the Manbij roadmap; YPG did not exit the area. The real owners of the region are not settled in yet," Erdogan was quoted as telling reporters following his recent visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly . "The United States did not keep their promise here." Turkey has been infuriated with Washington's support for the YPG militia and prior to the June agreement it had threatened to push on with a ground offensive against YPG in Manbij despite the U.S. troops stationed. Before the agreement with Washington, Turkey had carried out two cross-border operations against the YPG in Syria. Erdogan also said that Turkey was prioritising the disposal of heavy weaponry held by "radical" rebel forces in Idlib in northwest Syria, where Russian and Turkish troops trying to enforce a new demilitarised zone. "We attach great importance to the disposal of heavy weaponry of radical groups. The majority of burden is on our intelligence agency. The efforts are going well," Erdogan said. Under the plan, the rebels will be required to withdraw from Idlib by the middle of next month. (Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) The United Nations Human Rights Council voted to extend by one year an international probe of alleged war crimes committed in Yemen, despite strong opposition from Saudi Arabia and several of its allies. UN nations voted 21 to 8, with 18 abstentions, in favour of a resolution that renewed the UN-backed investigation for a year. Last month, investigators detailed evidence of possible war crimes committed in Yemen by both the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels supported by Iran. In that report, the team of UN-mandated investigators said all parties in Yemens bloody conflict had committed a substantial number of violations of international humanitarian law. Many of these violations may amount to war crimes, the report said, citing widespread arbitrary detention, rape, torture and the recruitment of children as young as eight to take part in hostilities. It said coalition air strikes had caused most of the documented civilian casualties, including strikes on residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings and medical facilities. 'Serious concerns' The report said there were serious concerns about the targeting process applied by the coalition, pointing out that in many cases there were no apparent military targets in the vicinity of the attacks. Covering the period from September 2014 through June 2018, the report did not address a series of deadly strikes during the summer that killed dozens of children in rebel-held areas and sparked international outrage. The coalition and the Yemeni government, which together are battling the Houthis, strongly criticised the probes initial report, arguing that it underplayed rebel violations and Irans role. The Arab group in the rights council had backed a rival text that called on Yemens national human rights commission to take charge of future investigations into the conflict. That proposal was a non-starter for many states, given a widespread lack of confidence in the Yemeni commission. Story continues The approved resolution, led by a group of European states and Canada, calls on investigators to deliver another report next September. In what may have been a consolation to the Arab group, the council passed a second Yemen resolution calling for support for the national commission, but its impact is largely meaningless as the international probe continues its work. Shameful Probe members said they needed more time for a full documentation of the range of violations in Yemens conflict, which has killed nearly 10,000 people since March 2015 and triggered what the UN has called the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Twenty-two million people in the country need aid, many of whom are at risk of famine. Riyadhs ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Abdulaziz Alwasil, said he voted no because the resolution did not address his legitimate concerns, notably about the lack of balance in the probes first report. The fact that it went to a vote underscored divisions on the issue within the 47-member rights council, which typically strives for consensus. Britains UN Ambassador Julian Braithwaite had said his government was particularly disappointed that consensus could not be reached with the Arab group, as happened when the probe was set up a year ago. It is clear that in many instances, alleged violations committed by all parties have not yet been fully documented, particularly those committed by the Houthis, Braithwaite told the council. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the vote sent a clear message that it stands with Yemeni civilians. States at the UN Human Rights Council stood firm today, in the face of shameful efforts by the Saudi-led coalition to quash a UN expert inquiry, HRWs Geneva director, John Fisher, said in a statement. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in March 2015 when President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled into exile as rebels closed in on his last stronghold. (FRANCE 24 with AFP) 88 Energy updated the market on its operations on the North Slope of Alaska on Friday, confirming that agreements had been executed for an additional 45,239 acres net to the company. The AIM-traded firm said that, via its wholly owned subsidiary Accumulate Energy Alaska, it entered into an agreement with Arctic Slope Regional Corporation to lease the hydrocarbon rights across 28,453 acres contiguous with the Western Fairway area of its current Project Icewine acreage. It said the ASRC lease terms were consistent with those recently awarded by the State of Alaska, post the December 2017 Licensing Round. Accumulate also entered into an agreement with Great Bear Petroleum to acquire a 69.1% working interest in 24,269 acres adjacent to, and north of, the Central Play Fairway at Project Icewine. Consideration for the leases was a cash payment of $0.21m, of which $0.17m would be directed to lease rentals due by 1 October. The two acquisitions increased 88 Energy's lease position by 45,239 net acres to 371,478 net acres across its three main project areas on the Central North Slope of Alaska. The agreement with ASRC in relation to the western leases is significant as they are partly covered by several prospects that are in our current conventional farm-out package, said managing director Dave Wall. We would like to thank ASRC for the opportunity to partner with them in this area. Additionally, the Central Fairway acquisition has delivered additional acres close to the road and pipeline that are considered prospective for both the HRZ and conventional plays. Gold exploration and development company Panthera Resources announced on Friday that the High Court of Rajasthan in Jodhpur has granted stay order protection over the entire 25 square kilometre prospecting licence application (PLA) area of the Bhukia joint venture. The AIM-traded firm said the court had admitted the writ petition filed by its joint venture partner Metal Mines India. It said the government of Rajasthan had been given four weeks to respond to the writ petition before subsequent hearings would determine the matter. The company said it was was recently advised by the government of Rajasthan that the PLA made on behalf of the joint venture by Metal Mines India had been rejected. It said the notification was in response to an order issued by the court on 22 January, where the court directed the government of Rajasthan to take a final decision on the pending PLA, preferably within three months from the date of the order, and gave the joint venture liberty to file with fresh cause of action, in case it was aggrieved by the decision of the government. The company said it immediately moved to exercise the legal recourse available to it, by filing a writ petition before the court, challenging the order of the government rejecting its main PLA. At a hearing on 26 September, the court admitted the writ petition, issued notice to the government of Rajasthan, and asked for a response within four weeks. The court also gave interim protection to the joint venture by ordering the government to restrain from dealing with the area comprised in the PLA, until further orders. This was the predicted outcome for the company and it provides excellent protection of Panthera's rights and allows the company several good options to advance the permit to its rightful grant, the Panthera board said in its statement. Panthera said the court heard the matter in detail, and found the grounds for rejection to be without merit as they questioned the validity of the sanctioned reconnaissance permit in favour of the joint venture, and the preferential rights accrued in favour of the company after it successfully completed reconnaissance work under the permit. The interim order was passed ex party, at the first effective hearing, with the board saying it reflected the strong case it had to protect its legal rights and to have the rejection order reversed. We are very pleased that the courts of India have again proved to be effective in protecting the company's rights to the Bhukia project, said managing director Geoff Stanley. This strong protection offers additional paths to resolve the permitting process with the government of Rajasthan, puts us in a strong negotiating position, and validates our rights. Stanley said the Bhukia project could represent one of the most significant undeveloped gold and copper deposits currently known, and despite the ongoing delays, Panthera remained confident of its rights and believed opportunity to advance such a high-quality project was within reach. I look forward to updating the market as further progress is achieved toward the goal of being able to grow the existing JORC 2012 resource of 1.74 million ounces by drill defining the larger exploration target, which currently stands at over 6.0 million ounces. Britons would vote 52% to 48% remain in the European Union if a new Brexit referendum were to take place, according to a poll of polls. Researchers have found that to get a majority remain outcome of the vote, the campaign would need to rely on people who did not vote last time to turn out. The results of the poll of polls was taken by calculating the average of the latest six surveys between 21 August and September 10. True, Remain enjoys a lead in the polls. But that lead remains a narrow one, and there is little sign of it growing, said senior research fellow at the National Centre for Social Research John Curtice to Reuters. It rests quite heavily on the preferences of those who did not vote two years ago, and who by two to one now say they would back Remain. Getting them to turn out to vote in any second ballot might yet prove a considerable challenge. The result comes at a time when the UK and the European Union are racing to secure a Brexit deal before the divorce date on March 2019. The possibilities of a no-deal scenario are increasing, with all the problems that would entail for travellers, foreign citizens, business and finance. Some companies are already stockpiling goods to avoid trade issues after Brexit and the government has released guidelines for citizens to follow to reduce the negative effects the divorce could have. The government are still backing Mays Chequers deal for Brexit even though it has been rejected by the EU and by Tory members On the other hand the Labour Party is open to a second public vote with the option of staying in the bloc, announced Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer this week. Tell us more You are seeing these quotes based on previous browsing related to sectors such as Ryanair has been forced to cancel 250 flights across Europe due to a new cabin crew strike on Friday affecting around 35,000 passengers. Unions claimed it was the biggest day of action yet against a series of complaints regarding workers' conditions at multiple bases across Europe. Ryanair called the strike "regrettable and unjustified" and apologised to customers. The airline complained to the European Commission, claiming its competitors were partly to blame for anti-competitive behaviour and "working against" Ryanair, impeding the negotiations with pilots and cabin crews. Cabin crews in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain stopped working on Friday, requesting staff be given contracts in the countries where they live so they can access social security benefits, rather than under Irish law. Ryanair chief, Michael OLeary, said: "Progress is being impeded by the interference of competitor airline pilots and cabin crew who are conspiring to call repeated and unnecessary strikes, which are disrupting Ryanairs customers, and damaging our business for the benefit of their legacy airline employers. "The majority of Ryanairs pilots and cabin crew do not support these strikes, and they have continued to work normally. We work hard to ensure that our people enjoy the best pay, terms and conditions of any low cost 737 airline in Europe." Ryanair this week signed deals with cabin crew unions in Italy to grant employment contracts under Italian law and agreed to arbitration with the union representing its German pilots. Ride hailing company Uber will have to pay $148m in a settlement over a data breach back in 2016 that exposed the data of 57m customers and drivers. At the time of the breach, Uber tried to hide it from regulators and paid the hackers behind the cyber attack $100,000 to delete the data they accessed from the Uber cloud. The US government and 50 states took legal action against the company for failing to disclose details of the data loss until a year after the incident. None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it, said Uber's boss Dara Khosrowshahi in September of 2017. Uber will also have to disclose how it operates, to prevent the same incident from happening again. It will also have to submit regular reports on security incidents to regulators. "This is one of the most egregious cases we've ever seen in terms of notification. A yearlong delay is just inexcusable," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in an interview with the Associated Press. "And we're not going to put up with companies, Uber or any other company, completely ignoring our laws that require notification of data breaches." The settlement payout will be divided among the states based on the number of drivers each has. Amlekhgunj-Motihari petroleum pipeline: IOC expresses concern over project progress Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has expressed its concern over the Amlekhgunj-Motihari petroleum pipeline project that has been stuck in limbo due to the delay in getting approval of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report. Italy's governing coalition threw down the gauntlet to Brussels on budget austerity, sending shares across the Continent lower. Unsurprisingly, Italian government debt fell back sharply following the announcement, although for the time being the risk of contagion appeared to be contained, with investors in Spanish or Portuguese sovereign debt apparently calm. Overnight, Italian officials announced a public deficit-to-GDP target of 2.4% for 2019, versus the between 1.6% to 2.0% target which Tria had argued for and the prior government's original target of 0.8%. According to some economists, that target marked a "significant deviation" from European Union rules, while others said it may foreshadow the imminent departure of the country's economy minister, Giovanni Tria, which had argued for restraint, although there were also reports to the contrary. By the end of trading, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was lower by 0.83% or 3.21 points at 383.17, alongside a drop of 1.52% or 188.86 points to 12,246.73 for the German Dax. But the focus was without the doubt the FTSE Mibtel, which had slumped 3.72% or 799.37 points to 20,711.70. In parallel, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Italian government note was 26 basis points higher to 3.15%, having hit an intra-session high of 3.26%, even as that on German bunds dropped by six points to 0.47% as investors sought out safe havens. Yields on similarly-dated Portuguese and Spanish debt on the other hand were little changed, at up by just one basis point to 1.88% and down by one point to 1.50%, respectively. According to one of Italy's deputy prime ministers, Matteo Salvini, "the markets will have to deal with it", ANSA reported, saying that the 2019 budget was a "step towards civilisation". Luigi di Maio, the head of the Five Star Movement, and the other deputy PM, sounded more conciliatory after having been the chief proponent of a higher deficit. Sector-wise, lenders' shares were getting pumeled, with the corresponding Stoxx 600 sector gauge having retreated 2.76% to 156.78. Italian banks' shares bore the brunt of investors' disappointment, with those of Banca Generali down by 7.17%, Banco Bpm retreating 9.43%, Bper Banca off by 8.34%, Intesa Sanpaolo down 8.% and Unicredit sliding 6.73%. Commenting on the market action, Professor Costas Milas at Liverpool University's Management School said there was scope for the "the Italian virus" to spread to other EU countries, especially France and Portugal due to the exposure of their banks to Italian government debt. In the case of France, lenders' exposure to private and public debt from Italy was a "quite high" 10.25%, followed by Portuguese lenders at 7.81%, Milas explained. Spanish banks' exposure was much lower, he said, at 4.65%, while British and Irish banks were well immunised to Italy, at 1.28% and 0.82%. Citi economists, who were betting on Italy going non-confrontational, said: "With rating agency decisions pending, we can't exclude that Italy might soon switch back into 'the worst-case scenario'." Acting as a backdrop, Eurozone CPI surprised to the downside. Eurostat reported that 'core' consumer prices in the single currency bloc fell from a 1.0% year-on-year pace in August to 0.9% (consensus: 1.1%). Italy's governing coalition threw down the gauntlet to Brussels on budget austerity on Thursday, opting for a 2019 government deficit target that some economists said marked a "significant deviation" from European Union rules, while others said it may foreshadow the imminent departure of the country's economy minister, Giovanni Tria, which had argued for restraint, although there were also reports to the contrary. Unsurprisingly, Italian government debt fell back sharply following the announcement, although for the time being the risk of contagion appeared to be contained, with investors in Spanish or Portuguese sovereign debt apparently calm. Overnight, Italian officials announced a public deficit-to-GDP target of 2.4% for 2019, versus the between 1.6% to 2.0% target which Tria had argued for and the prior government's original target of 0.8%. As of 1229 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 as trading lower by 0.82% or 3.15 points at 383.23, alongside a drop of 1.43% or 178.38 points to 12,256.05 for the German Dax. But the focus was without the doubt the FTSE Mibtel, which had slumped 4.09% or 879.67 points to 20,631.32. In parallel, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Italian government note was 33 basis points higher to 3.21%, having hit an intra-session high of 3.21%. Yields on similarly-dated Portuguese and Spanish debt on the other hand were little changed, at up by just one basis point to 1.88% and 1.51%, respectively. According to one of Italy's deputy prime ministers, Matteo Salvini, "the markets will have to deal with it", ANSA reported, saying that the 2019 budget was a "step towards civilisation". Luigi di Maio, the head of the Five Star Movement, and the other deputy PM, sounded more conciliatory after having been the chief proponent of a higher deficit. Sector-wise, lenders' shares were getting pumeled, with the corresponding Stoxx 600 sector gauge down by 3.67% to 155.31. Within that, Italian banks' shares were bearing the brunt of investors' disappointment, with those of Banca Generali down by 6.17%, Banco Bpm retreating 10.52%, Bper Banca off by 10.09%, Intesa Sanpaolo down 8.36% and Unicredit sliding 9.21%. Commenting on the market action, Professor Costas Milas at Liverpool University's Management School said there was scope for the "the Italian virus" to spread to other EU countries, especially France and Portugal due to the exposure of their banks to Italian government debt. In the case of France, lenders' exposure to private and public debt from Italy was a "quite high" 10.25%, followed by Portuguese lenders at 7.81%, Milas explained. Spanish banks' exposure was much lower, he said, at 4.65%, while British and Irish banks were well immunised to Italy, at 1.28% and 0.82%. Citi economists, who were betting on Italy going non-confrontational, said: "With rating agency decisions pending, we can't exclude that Italy might soon switch back into 'the worst-case scenario'." Acting as a backdrop, Eurozone CPI surprised to the downside. Eurostat reported that 'core' consumer prices in the single currency bloc fell from a 1.0% year-on-year pace in August to 0.9% (consensus: 1.1%). Millennium & Copthorne Hotels chief executive Jennifer Fox has agreed to step down after less than four months. Fox is a 30-year veteran of the industry, having joined in mid-June after a long spell with Sheraton and after senior executive roles in Australia, Hong Kong, the UK and Europe, the US, Canada and the Middle East. In a statement to the market on Friday, the FTSE 250 company said she and the board "mutually agreed" for her to step down on Thursday. Tan Kian Seng, the current group chief of staff and former interim group chief executive officer from February 2017 to Fox's appointment, will resume the position as interim CEO from Friday. Polymetal International has acquired the remaining 20% stake in Saum Mining Company, the licence holder for the Saum polymetallic deposit with resources of 435 Koz of gold equivalent at 9.7 g/t, it announced on Friday. The FTSE 250 company said the transaction brought its stake in the property to 100%. It explained that, following a successful exploration drilling campaign at the property in 2017-2018, it decided to consolidate its ownership in Saum. The total consideration for the remaining 20% stake comprised $7m paid to a private seller by issuing 834,055 new ordinary shares of the company, representing 0.18% of Polymetal's total increased share capital. Polymetal said the number of issued shares was determined by dividing $7m by $8.39, the spot price of ordinary shares of the company as at market close on 25 September in US dollars. The Saum licence covers an area of 34.2 square kilometres in Russia's Sverdlovsk region in the Ural Mountains, and is located 60 km from the town of Ivdel and about 240 km from Polymetal's Voro processing plant. It said the closest road was 15 km away, with the railway spur approximately 45 km. Mineralisation at Saum belonged to the classical VMS type. Thick near-surface tabular ore bodies ensured feasibility of open-pit mining at a relatively low stripping ratio, Polymetal said. Productive mineralisation remained open down-plunge along the strike. Saum's oxide ore was free-milling, and would be processed through the existing CIP plant at Voro. Sulfide ore was amenable to conventional flotation followed by cyanide leaching of flotation tails. The company said it planned to prepare an initial reserve estimate in the first quarter of 2019, with oxide ore mining activities expected to start in the second half of 2020. Our strategy at Voro is increasingly focused on extending the life of mine through nearby exploration targets, with the potential addition of a flotation circuit to the existing processing plant, said Polymetal group chief executive officer Vitaly Nesis. Saum fits this vision perfectly. High grades and good infrastructure will enable low capital intensity, low costs, and a quick route to free cash flow, which further strengthens the rationale for a flotation project at Voro. Randgold on Friday refuted reports from Congo's state miner Sokimo that a merger with Barrick will see a new partner in the Kibali joint venture in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The gold miner countered the claims from the state miner that a new partner would "assert its rights" in the Kibali joint venture between the two companies and AngloGold by stating that the merger would have no effect. Canadian miner Barrick Gold agreed to buy Randgold this week in an $18.3bn share deal that would see the creation of the worlds largest gold company by value and output. The initial statement from Sokimo stated that the merger represented an effort from foreign companies to impose themselves, without any prior discussion, in the countries from which the resources that make up their wealth are extracted. Kibali is one of Africas largest mines, and is 45% owned by Randgold, 45% by AngloGold and 10% by Sokimo. Randgold has been locked into a bitter dispute with Congolese authorities this year over a new mining code that raises taxes and removes a 10-year stability clause on mining firms existing deals with the government. Randgolds shares were up 3.61% at 5,450.00p at 1712 BST. Rio Tinto has signed a binding agreement for the sale of its interest in Indonesia's Grasberg mine. The Australian commodities giant will sell its entire interest in the Grasberg mine PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium, the nation's state-run mining company, for $3.5bn in cash. Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said: "This agreement is a significant step towards the sale of our interest in Grasberg and provides further evidence of our commitment to strengthening the portfolio by selling non-core assets and driving higher returns across the business. "We will continue to shape the portfolio, maintain a strong balance sheet and allocate capital to the highest value opportunities in order to ensure that Rio Tinto continues to deliver sector-leading returns to shareholders". Separately, PT Indonesia inked a deal with Freeport McMoRan in relation to the future ownership and operation of the Grasberg mine. Rio stated the transaction were subject to a number of conditions but, subject to these undefined conditions being met, completion of the transaction was expected to take place throughout the first half of 2019. Rio Tinto also revealed the proceeds of the sale would be used for "general corporate purposes". As of 1200 BST, Rio Tinto shares had dipped 0.48% to 3,859p. Banks, insurers and telecoms providers face an investigation into how they treat long-standing customers after Citizens Advice said that loyalty was costing consumers more than 4 billion a year. The charity has lodged a super-complaint with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after finding that households pay almost 900 a year too much on average across the mobile phone, broadband, insurance, savings, and mortgage markets. - The Times The UK's competition watchdog had found that the proposed tie-up between Sainsburys Asda could reduce competition in the UK grocer market as there are because nearly 500 areas across the country where the two supermarkets overlap. The Competition and Markets Authority has pinpointed 463 locations that raise potential concern following its initial investigation into the 15bn deal. - Telegraph Nearly two-thirds of businesses have yet to do any risk assessment of a no-deal outcome in the Brexit negotiations as Brexit fatigue sets in, the British Chambers of Commerce has found. With six months to go until the UK leaves the EU, the BCC said many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) were either awaiting more clarity before they act or are suffering from Brexit fatigue and have switched off from the process because they dont believe they will be affected. - Guardian Package holiday firm Tui shrugged off a long summer heatwave as it said full-year profits would rise by at least 10 per cent. It comes days after rival Thomas Cooks shares plunged 28 per cent after it warned profits would be lower this year as warmer weather meant holidaymakers delayed trips. - Daily Mail America and China have been urged to show restraint after their escalating trade war forced the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to downgrade forecasts for the next two years. America and China have been urged to show restraint after the escalating trade war forced the World Trade Organisation to downgrade its forecasts for the next two years. - The Times Energy watchdog Ofgem has opened investigations into four suppliers over their "poor handling of customer complaints" and warned that consumer satisfaction is still unacceptably low across the board. The regulator has launched a probe into First Utility, Ovo Energy, Utilita and ScottishPower over their customer complaints processes following its latest review of the sector. - Telegraph Scotlands auditor general has said Nicola Sturgeons government needs to be more open about its loans to private firms following a row about a bailout for a Glasgow-based shipbuilder. Caroline Gardner said the Scottish government needed to produce clear rules on how and when it would lend money to businesses, as well as publish clear accounts covering all public spending in Scotland. - Guardian The millionaire behind Amigo Loans has bought the Bestival and Camp Bestival music festivals, days after threatening to put them into administration. James Benamor, 41, lent the festivals 1.6 million last year, but issued administration notices in the High Court last week. - Daily Mail Elon Musk faces removal from Tesla after the Securities and Exchange Commission launched a fraud case against him last night. The SEC said that Mr Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, harmed investors and misled the market when he said last month that he had secured funding for a $70 billion buyout of the electric carmaker. - The Times One of the worlds richest men is planning to build three new properties on his Highland estate with an extra 37 bedrooms, because his familys visits are limited by lack of accommodation. The billionaire ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, hopes to add to the 30 bedrooms already at his disposal on Inverinate estate in Wester Ross. - Telegraph Jamie Olivers business empire slumped to a loss of nearly 20m last year, dragged down by a grim year at his restaurant chain which was forced to close a dozen outlets in February. The company said it had suffered from the ongoing challenges of the casual dining sector, which has resulted in a series of well-known restaurant chains, including Carluccios and Byron, closing outlets after over-enthusiastic expansion followed by significant increases in costs, particularly rent and labour. - Guardian Britain will finally say goodbye to the long hot summer of 2018 this weekend with temperatures set to plunge dramatically today. Forecasters say that the 24C (75F) enjoyed on a glorious sunny day in the south-east yesterday is unlikely to be repeated until next year. - Daily Mail The heads of Britains leading independent schools have urged universities to stop making unconditional offers to pupils amid mounting evidence that they are damaging performance in A levels. They say that too many pupils are taking their foot off the gas when they learn that they do not need to pass their A levels, or even finish their course, to get into university. They are then lumbered with poor grades for the rest of their careers. - The Times Food giant Heinz has bowed to the "will of the people" and decided against changing the name of its Salad Cream to Sandwich Cream. Fans of the condiment made their outrage known in June when parent company Kraft Heinz announced that it was considering a name change for the first time in 104 years. - Telegraph The prime minister of New Zealand has been met with thunderous applause at the UN for her speech espousing global cooperation and kindness from world leaders, in stark contrast to Donald Trumps portentous rejection of globalism earlier in the week. Jacinda Arderns national statement was viewed by many commentators as a direct rebuttal to the US presidents call for increased isolationism and national self-interest. - Guardian A plane has crash-landed in the ocean after overshooting a runway on the tiny island of Weno, north-west of Papua New Guinea. Local authorities confirmed the airliner - which was en route to Papua New Guinea from Micronesia - missed the runway and crashed into the water around 9.30am Friday local time. Miraculously, all 36 passengers and 11 crew members are alive, but plane was completely submerged and one passenger was injured. - Daily Mail London's FTSE 250 was even at 20,371.27 in afternoon trade on Friday. Tabletop gaming retailer Games Workshop staggered lower after ex-chairman Tom Kirby sold 20m worth of shares at a price 36.50 apiece, representing around 1.7% of the total. He will hang on to his remaining 4.8% stake for at least 180 more days. The AA continued its fall after having reported a drop in profits for the first half of the year on Wednesday, for which the roadside repairs organisation blamed a "pothole epidemic" along with extreme winter weather. Spire Healthcare dropped on a downgrade to 'sell' from Barclays, who noted that the company's shares remain expensive despite their recent poor performance. "We have been cautious for some time on the NHS business, but have clearly underestimated the magnitude of this impact and, going forward, we struggle to see how margins can improve meaningfully from here without a significant acceleration in the top line," said a note from the broker. The analysts also suggested that major shareholder Mediclininc should sell its almost 30% stake in Spire as such a move "could mitigate further risks to the Mediclinic business" and restore market confidence in its medium term outlook. Public sector outsourcer Serco soared as it made an unscheduled announcement confirming that trading is set to be stronger than previous guidance for revenues, profitability and cash flow with net debt set to end the year at a lower level too. Revenue guidance was lifted to around 2.8bn, up from previous guidance for 2.7-2.8bn, with underlying trading profits now expected to grow 30-40% year on year to 90-95m, up from the 80m indicated before. "Strong operating performance, together with transformation savings and other cost efficiencies, have resulted in trading in the first few months of the second half being better than we anticipated," Serco said. In response, Shore Capital reiterated its 'hold' rating of the company's shares. 888 Holdings recovered with strength after dropping the day before despite having reported a first half swing to profitability as revenues in the UK fell sharply due to a government clamp down on the sector. Car accessories and bikes retailer Halfords recovered too after Thursday trading saw the company's shares skid lower on the back of a management announced that up to 20m a year extra would be diverted to store improvement and integrating services to keep pace with changing consumer trends. The retailer also benefited after Citigroup reiterated their 'buy' rating for the company's shares. Finally, Tbilisi-headquartered TBC Bank jumped in afternoon trade after its subsidiary, JSC TBC Bank, on Thursday signed a loan agreement for 30m with the European Investment Bank. The FTSE 250 company said the five-year loan facility would primarily be used to finance small and medium size enterprises in Georgia. Market Movers FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,371.27 -0.01% FTSE 250 - Risers Serco Group (SRP) 100.50p 13.82% 888 Holdings (888) 201.00p 5.68% TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 1,686.00p 4.07% Halfords Group (HFD) 320.00p 3.16% BBA Aviation (BBA) 301.60p 2.94% Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 7,415.00p 2.77% Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 545.60p 2.44% Hochschild Mining (HOC) 160.80p 2.39% SSP Group (SSPG) 734.60p 2.26% On The Beach Group (OTB) 504.00p 2.23% FTSE 250 - Fallers AA (AA.) 95.32p -6.82% Games Workshop Group (GAW) 3,750.00p -5.06% Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 140.60p -4.68% Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 58.35p -4.66% Provident Financial (PFG) 597.24p -4.53% Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 1,326.00p -4.19% Investec (INVP) 539.00p -3.27% Sirius Minerals (SXX) 28.47p -3.09% Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,077.50p -2.84% Quilter (QLT) 136.28p -2.80% The FTSE 100 finished the week up 19.97 points at 7,510.20. Equity view Tritax Big Box on Friday said it had exchanged contracts to build a new logistics sorting centre in Merseyside for 68.7m. Millennium & Copthorne Hotels chief executive Jennifer Fox has agreed to step down after less than four months. Budget airline easyJet said it expected to deliver full year pre-tax profit of between 570m - 580m, in the upper half of previous guidance and despite the impact of strike action and air traffic restrictions across Europe. United Utilities said it had increased revenue in the first half of the year but statutory profits will take a hit from extra investment to cope with the long, hot summer. Safety, health and environmental technology group Halma said all its sectors delivered as-expected organic constant currency revenue and profit growth in the six months from April 1. Pensions administration specialist Equiniti said it had extended its contract with the Cabinet Office and buying out the government department's stake in a joint venture for 8m. TUI Group said its financial year was closing as expected with customer numbers increasing despite the heatwave in Northern Europe. United Utilities was set to update investors and analysts on some of the key themes of its business plan for the 2020-2025 regulatory period, AMP7, on Thursday, having submitted its plan for AMP7 on 3 September. Elementis on Wednesday said production at its US Chromium facility in North Carolina had been disrupted as a result of Hurricane Florence, although the impact on 2018 earnings would be modest. Closed-end investment fund Vietnam Enterprise Investments announced its reviewed interim results for the six months ended 30 June on Wednesday, with its net asset value per share falling 3.6% in dollar terms to $6.81, trailing the VN Index by 1.1% and reflecting volatile market conditions over the second quarter according to the board. Boohoo increased its guidance for annual revenue growth as the online fashion retailer reported first-half profit up by more than a fifth. Hornby said trading was on track to meet its expectations as the model train maker seeks to put a run of bad results behind it. Imperial Brands said its tobacco business was enjoying "much stronger" sales in the second half of the year and said it plans to launch its heat-not-burn tobacco product early in 2019. Close Brothers reported a good performance for the year ended 31 July in its preliminary results on Tuesday, with a 4% increase in adjusted operating profit to 278.6m. Polymetal has been classified as a leader in the diversified metals sector by independent environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and ratings firm Sustainalytics, the company announced on Tuesday. Glencore will buy back another $1bn of shares, it said on Tuesday as the commodities colossus approached the end of its previous $1bn share buyback. Drax confirmed on Monday that it is in talks with Spains Iberdrola about the potential acquisition of a UK portfolio of pumped storage, renewable hydro and gas-fired generation assets. The exploration arm of French energy giant Total has unearthed a major gas discovery at its Glendronach site among the West Shetland islands, also giving a boost to UK partners Ineos and SSE, which each own 20%. AstraZeneca announced positive results from the phase III DECLARE-TIMI 58 cardiovascular outcomes trial for Farxiga dapagliflozin, which it said was the broadest SGLT2 inhibitor cardiovascular outcome trial conducted to date. Great Portland Estates announced the appointment of Richard Mully as non-executive chairman on Monday, with effect from 1 February. Economic news In UK data Gfk Consumer Confidence missed expectations, falling to -9 from -7 in August, versus the -8 consensus estimate. Business confidence bounced back across Britain in September, following the nine-month low recorded in August, according to a survey from Lloyds Bank. Chancellor Philip Hammond said he will announce his autumn budget on 29 October, the first on a Monday for over half a decade. Even just half-hour delays at UK ports and the Irish border post-Brexit could lead to a wave of British firms going bankrupt, new research warned on Wednesday. The UK newspaper industry has called for tech giants to pay a licence fee to ensure that news media publishers are properly rewarded for their use of their content by companies such as Facebook or Google. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out a general election before the Brexit date in March 2019 saying its not in the national interest. Criminals have stolen a total of 503.4m in authorised and unauthorised fraud from UK bank customers in the first half of 2018. Large supermarkets and manufacturers are committing to reduce the annual 20bn food waste bill in half by 2030. Manufacturing orders have fallen to a four-month low, a survey from the Confederation of British Industry revealed on Monday. Theresa May will face pressure on Monday as Brexiters will urge the Prime Minister and her cabinet to ditch the Brexit Chequers plan after her meeting with EU leaders in Salzburg last week. International events Danish police cut off access to the island of Zeland, where the country's capital, Copenhagen, is located, as part of a major police operation. Italy's populist coalition government has agreed to target a deficit of 2.4% of gross domestic product for the next three years, with worries about the implications sending the country's stocks plummeting on Friday. The World Trade Organization have cut their forecast for global commerce for 2018 and 2019 on Thursday due to negative effects coming from the trade tensions between China and the US. Orders for goods made to last more than three year soared last month in the US, boosted by orders for civilian and military aircraft. The EU, China, Russia and Iran have set out a plan to dodge US sanctions against the Middle Eastern country and save the nuclear deal signed in 2015. China's vice commerce minister said trade talks with the US are complicated at the moment and accused the US of bullying China and holding a knife to its neck. Business confidence in Germany deteriorated less than expected in September, according to a survey released by the Ifo Institute on Monday. China has refused to continue trade negotiations with the US until President Donald Trump stops threatening further tariffs. Europe's single currency bounded higher in mid-afternoon trading on Monday, after European Central Bank chief, Mario Draghi, said that the stable outlook for headline consumer prices masked stronger underlying price pressures. Carmaker Volvo has halted its truck assembly lines in Iran over US sanctions that are preventing it from being paid, a company spokesman said on Monday. KMG presents aid to late journalists kin Kantipur Media Group (KMG) management, journalists and other staffers have extended financial assistance of Rs1.2 million to the family of late Kantipur journalist Yadav Thapaliya. Melamchi to supply water in two months Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) will miss its deadline of completing the project before Dashain festival as it needs two more months to finish pending work and start water supply to households in Kathmandu valley, a senior official said on Thursday. Ex-smokers antithesis of Englands 'dont quit cold turkey' Stoptober campaign Why would any rational government discourage and attack its nations most productive and effective stop smoking method? Although a September 20, 2018 Public Health England (PHE) "Stoptober" press release claims that cold turkey is the "least effective method," comments to a BBC news story reviewing the release overwhelmingly proclaim otherwise. A quitting method magnet, 86 of 216 comments to the September 20 BBC Health News article entitled "'Dont Go Cold Turkey' to quit smoking" indicate the stop smoking method successfully used. The winner? An eye-popping 77% (66 of 86) stopped smoking cold turkey (CT). Other methods mentioned include 7% who transferred to e-cigarettes, 7% who ingested replacement nicotine (NRT), 6% who engaged in nicotine weaning schemes, 1% who took Champix (Chantix in the U.S.), 1% who underwent acupuncture, and 1% who credited NHS Stop Smoking Services (NHS SSS). While totally unscientific, the BBC comments are fairly reflective of a growing body of real-world quitting method findings. A 2013 U.S. Gallup Poll found that more smokers successfully quit cold turkey than by all other methods combined. Among the runners-up, 6% ingested NRT, 2% took prescription pills, and 2% used cut-down methods. E-cigarettes were as yet too new to register. A 2006 Australian study examined patient smoking and quitting data of 1,000 family practice physicians. CT was the most effective method, doubling the success rate of nicotine gum, patch and inhaler quitters. As for productivity, CT accounted for a jaw-dropping 1,942 of the studys 2,207 ex-smokers (88 percent). Englands "least effective method"? Clearly PHE knows that effectiveness relates to real-world performance, while efficacy reflects randomized clinical trial outcomes. Is Public Health England intentionally lying to UK smokers, mistaken, does it not know the difference between effectiveness and efficacy, or is there some other explanation? PHE and NHS leadership would be well advised to stop listening to paid pharmaceutical industry consultants, and to all beholden to the consultant's profit-sharing PhD study empire. Instead, UK health officials should sleep on the effectiveness and productivity findings from the July 2018 PLoS One study entitled "Are electronic nicotine delivery systems helping cigarette smokers quit? Evidence from a prospective cohort study of U.S. adult smokers, 20152016." While the studys primary focus was obviously e-cigarette use, considering the totality of quitting method data from Table 7, not only did CT generate 5 times more ex-smokers than NRT and medication combined, it was three times as effective as NRT, and 2.6 times as effective as e-cigs. Making Sense of Diametrically Opposed Findings In 1973, prior to replacement nicotine, Websters defined cold turkey as "abrupt complete cessation of the use of an addictive drug either voluntarily or under medical supervision." Today, Merriam-Websters online definition is largely unchanged: "abrupt complete cessation of the use of an addictive drug." So, why does cold turkey demolish real-world competition yet flounder in clinical trials? The obvious answer? It was absent. Smokers wanting to quit CT dont join clinical trials dangling free NRT or medicine as study recruiting bait. The only competition between NRT and CT occurs out in the streets. The not so obvious answer? All evidence to date suggests that it is probably impossible to blind experienced quitters as to the onset of their withdrawal syndrome, as the more quitting attempts they make, the more expert they become at recognizing it. Thus, more than 200 "double-blind" placebo-controlled NRT, bupropion and varenicline studies were not blind as claimed. I submit that in each and every clinical trial, 3 to 4 times as many placebo group members could have correctly declared their randomized assignment as would have declared wrong, and that they could have done so within 24 to 48 hours of quitting (peak withdrawal). UK NRT experts have an alternative explanation. They contend that divergent clinical trial efficacy and observational study effectiveness outcomes are due to "confounding by indication," that smokers who struggle to quit seek replacement nicotine more often than those who do not. Reaching to explain the obvious, while likely a factor, its tiny in relation to what works and is producing and whats not. If anything, confounding by indication aids in explaining why outcomes from clinical trials dangling free nicotine bear zero resemblance to population-level quitting. And those suggesting otherwise have cost smokers dearly. After decades devoted to junk-cessation-science that was neither blind nor reflective of "your chances," a platoon of UK NRT advocates now watch as NHS Stop Smoking Services (SSS) flounders. The number of smokers setting program quitting dates has fallen for the sixth consecutive year, a 66% decline since 2011/12. The most common reason given for the gradual demise of whats likely earths most expensive government quitting program is the growing popularity of e-cigarettes. But thats atop 16 years of negative word of mouth associated with 12 of 13 program participants relapsing within a year (2012-13 data); a dismal 92% chemically validated program failure rate. England Drowning in Nicotine During 2017-2018, 93 percent of 274,021 NHS SSS quitters were strongly encouraged to use NRT, varenicline (Champix) or bupropion (Zyban), almost the exact opposite of the 2006 Australian Study where CT generated nearly all successful quitters. But how and why? According to his online curriculum vitae (CV), University College London Professor Robert West is the "Founder and Honorary Co-director of National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training: responsible for knowledge transfer and evaluation (this organisation was set up by the DH and has trained 16,000+ stop smoking advisors treating some 700,000 smokers per year)." West's CV also states that he is an "Advisor to English NHS Stop-Smoking Services: continued advice and free consultancxy to the services on a near daily basis with regard to configuration of services, type of behavioural support provided and medication options." While expressly denying accepting tobacco or e-cigarette industry money, Wests 2018 financial conflicts disclosure openly admits that: "RW has received travel funds and hospitality from, and undertaken research and consultancy for pharmaceutical companies that manufacture or research products aimed at helping smokers to stop. These products include nicotine replacement therapies, Champix (varenicline) and Zyban (bupropion). This has led to payments to him personally and to his institution." Stop Smoking Services first received national funding in April 2000. A conflicts disclosure appearing in a paper accepted in May 2000 read, "Robert West has received research and travel funding from, and undertaken consultancy for, manufacturers of nicotine replacement products and other pharmaceutical companies developing products for smoking cessation." Instead of studying, identifying and incorporating the keys to successful abrupt nicotine cessation into facilitator training and NHS SSS programs, in September 2017 West helped author a PHE report entitled "Models of delivery for stop smoking services." Doubling down on nicotine, it states: "[E]cigarettes can help smokers to quit, may be at least as effective as licensed medications and that an increasing number of people are choosing this option. Recommendation: Stop smoking services should offer an 'e-cigarette friendly approach. This involves being open to the use of e-cigarettes by those who wish to do so, providing behavioural support and offering stop smoking medications alongside an e-cigarette if chosen by the indvidual." Englands National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the UKs official public health gatekeeper and guardian of evidence-based guidance, advice and standards, including those for smoking cessation. In March 2018, NICE issued Guideline NG 92, "Evidence reviews for advice on e-cigarettes on general sale." It recommends that health practitioners explain to smokers interested in using e-cigs that although not licensed medicines, "many people have found them helpful to quit smoking cigarettes." Although not known whether Professor West helped advise or author NICE's e-cigarette policy change, his online CV states that he is a "Member of NICE Programme Development committees: helped produce guidance on brief advice, behyaviour change, stop-smoking services, and tobacco harm reduction." On April 26, 2018, University of Sidney Professor Simon Chapman responded to an April 25 British Medical Journal online debate entitled "Should we recommend e-cigarettes to help smokers quit?" "The English tobacco control/smoking cessation community is internationally regarded as utterly, hopelessly smitten with ecigs," Chapman wrote. "Its become almost cult-like." Professor Chapman noted that, "They have long framed smoking as something that needs to be somehow medicated or pharmacologically assisted, whether this be with NRT, prescribed medications, or now ecigarettes, when the awkward fact is that most ex-smokers have always (and still do) quit without any of these methods when they finally succeed." Citing a 2014 study co-authored by West, Chapman noted that, "The consensus on the 'success' of NRT outside of such professional assistance is now that it is actually lower than unassisted cessation. Eg: ('The use of NRT bought over the counter was associated with a lower odds of abstinence (odds ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.49-0.94')" Which brings us to PHEs Stoptober doorstep and its new "Personal Quit Plan" generator on its OneYou website (www.nhs.uk/oneyou/). As of today (09/28/18), all "personal" plans generated recommend using both e-cigarettes and NRT, with e-cigs getting top billing. This occurs regardless of the smoking and quitting history the smoker selects, including: (1) smoking the least number of cigarettes daily, (2) waiting the longest after waking before smoking, and (3) if never having previously attempted quitting. Also, as for quitting methods previously used, although the generator tells you to "Pick as many as you like," try claiming that your prior attempts included both "Willpower alone" and any other method. Big pharma must be smiling, as before its eyes willpower gets blamed for all prior defeats. The online Personal Quit Plan generator provides a visible sampling of how NHS SSS facilitators have been trained to coerce 93% of quitters (see Table 4.4) into betraying their natural quitting instincts. Try test driving the plan generator a second time using alternative personal data. You will need to delete your browsers cookies before doing so. What is Professor Wests involvement in PHEs Stoptober campaign? Again, according to the online CV available on 09/28/18 at http://www.rjwest.co.uk/, he is an "Advisor to Public Health England Communications Team: helped design and establish Stoptober campaign and overall communications strategy since 2008; regular input to communications policy, ongoing collaboration on development and implementation of digital interventions to promote and aid cessation (e.g. StopAdvisor)" Is PHEs Personal Quit Plan generator broken when it comes to either ignoring "willpower" attempts or forcing CT to accept blame for all prior relapses, or is such function purposeful? Funded by Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, Robert West is the creator of the "Smoking In England" website (http://www.smokinginengland.info/). There, whats glaring about his quitting method survey site is the total absence of Englands most popular and productive quitting method. Cold turkey is not listed as one of the 16 possible responses to the survey question, "Which, if any, of the following did you try to help you stop smoking during the most recent serious quit attempt?" (see pages 14, 18, 22 and sixty additional pages of quitting method questions). England's undefeated real-world quitting champ since invention of the cigarette-making machine 136 years ago, as evidenced by comments to the Stoptober BBC story, there's no equivocation among UK ex-smokers about identifying as cold turkey quitters. Why cant West do the same? Why should the vast majority being interviewed be forced to wade through a long list of named quitting methods before the humiliation of being compelled to select "other"? It's simple. Imagine a Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson sponsored survey (see "Grant Support") being forced to declare cold turkey Englands 2018 quitting champion. In pharma's mind, whats not asked and not known cant harm you. Nicotine addiction is a mental illness, a brain dopamine pathway wanting disorder. PHEs Personal Quit Plan generator plays and preys upon that disorder by urging all quitters to combine use of both vaped and replacement nicotine. Although the samples are small, Table 7 of the July 2018 PLoS One study provides data allowing UK smokers to compare cold turkeys effectiveness to all recommendations made by PHE's Personal Quit Plan generator: to vape nicotine while also using replacement nicotine. According to Table 7 data, cold turkey is nearly five times as effective as PHEs recommendation. While 56 of 129 cold turkey quitters were not smoking at follow-up (43.4%), only 5 of 54 who both used NRT and e-cigarettes had quit (9.2%). Even then, what percentage of the 9.2% remained slaves to nicotine? Being home is vastly more do-able and infinitely more wonderful than the daily grind of living from fix to fix. And the path toward permanently ending wanting, urges and craves for more nicotine is as simple as making and sticking to a personal commitment to never take another puff, dip, vape or chew. Baby steps, just here and now, these next few moments, yes you can! I, John R. Polito, am fully and solely responsible for the content of this article. Any factual error will be promptly corrected upon notice emailed to john@whyquit.com Discover Smart Turkey Knowledge is a Quitting Method Missing boy, 10, found dead in forest A ten-year-old missing boy was found dead in a forest at Shailung Rural Municipality-8 in Dolakha district on Wednesday. William Dalrymple in The Guardian: On 24 September 1599, while William Shakespeare was mulling over a draft of Hamlet in his house downriver from the Globe in Southwark, a mile to the north a motley group of Londoners were gathering in a half-timbered Tudor hall. The men had come together to petition the ageing Elizabeth I, then a bewigged and painted sexagenarian, to start up a company to venter in a voiage to ye Est Indies. The East India Company quickly grew into the worlds first and most powerful multinational corporation, and the one that, more than any other in history, would transform not just patterns of global trade but the globe itself. Before long a mere handful of businessmen from a distant island on the rim of Europe had made themselves masters of a subcontinent whose inhabitants numbered 50 to 60 million. They succeeded the mighty Mughalempire where even minor provincial nawabs and governors ruled over vast areas, larger in both size and population than the biggest countries of Europe, so reversing the balance of trade that from Roman times on had drained western bullion eastwards. Over the course of three and half centuries, a whole British colonial world was founded to exploit and administer these conquests, a world with its own peculiar argot, its own institutions, its idiosyncratic snobberies and social hierarchies, its own educational establishments and career paths an empire within an empire. When the British finally left India in 1947, nearly 350 years after the founding of the East India Company, that world dissolved overnight. Perhaps it is only possible now, more than 70 years later, in an age when the imperial British feel almost as distant a part of history as the imperial Romans, for this expatriate society to receive the particular attention that its idiosyncrasy deserves. More here. Programs help students with disabilities get the job skills they need local NC lawmakers obstruct Province 7 assembly meet over capital row Lawmakers of Nepali Congress obstructed the provincial parliament meeting of province 7 on Friday over declaring the provincial capital. Alexandra Boylan never backs down from a challenge. The filmmaker set out last year with a four-person crew to shoot a movie in Alamogordo. Not to mention she had a $5,000 budget. The result is the thriller At Your Own Risk. The film will be available for pre-order on iTunes today and released on Oct. 9. Boylan has had success with other films, yet with this one, she decided to self-distribute. This is the first time that were self-distributing, and we just kind of feel like self-distribution is the way of the future in film, she says. We dont need a distribution company. You own 70 percent, and iTunes gets 30 percent. We could at least earn some money. The film follows two career-driven women who are hired to test out a unique treasure hunt deep in the New Mexico desert. Their exciting adventure takes a drastic turn as friendship is tested and survival is pushed to the limit, and before long they realize that not everything is as it seems. Boylan says the film is a trailblazer, as its a female-driven story starring Boylan and Helenna Santos. It is directed by John K.D. Graham. Not only is this a female-led story, but its a female-helmed project, Boylan says. Our production team on this movie is 50/50 with myself and Helenna producing and starring in the film. The majority of this movie was shot with only our four-person team deep in the New Mexico desert. Its a fun ride full of twists and turns that will definitely keep you on your toes. Boylan and crew shot for seven days in Alamogordo. The entire shoot was on location. Its crazy to see what weve accomplished, she says. This is true independent filmmaking. Were presenting an awesome product that were all so proud of. The script was written by Boylans brother, Andrew. We had come up with a concept and were shooting our other film, Wish for Christmas, she says. We were super-busy and told Andrew about the idea. He wrote the script, and then we took it and began the plan for the self-distribution market. We went into this as a co-op with other creative outlets. Boylan says being able to shoot the film in New Mexico added to the film. Just being able to use the elements of New Mexico, she says. We had drones that were able to capture New Mexico. I just love New Mexico, and I was excited to utilize it and have the story take place outside. SEND ME YOUR TIPS: If you know of a movie filming in the state, or are curious about one, email film@ABQjournal.com. Follow me on Twitter @agomezART. Prev 1 of 4 Next The Borderlands Film Festival in Las Cruces is finding its niche in independent filmmaking. The inaugural festival will open on Tuesday, Oct. 2, and run through Sunday, Oct. 7. Were trying to make sure we grow a nice film community here, says Dave Witt, CEO and executive director of the festival. Our goal is to champion the great independent filmmaker. During the six-day run, the Borderland Film Festival will screen 85 films twice. During two of the days when programming isnt going on, each film will be screened again. We play all the films in those two days, he says. We wanted to do this because theres so much happening that we wanted to give an option for every visitor to have a chance to see the films. The festivals opening-night film is Charlies Christmas Wish, which will screen at 7, 7:30 and 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2 at Allen Theaters Telshor 12. It will be followed by a Q&A with attending cast and crew members, including writer-director Sue Ann Taylor and actors Lyndsey McKeon, Vernon Wells, Toni Hudson and Jay M. Brooks. The film tells the story of combat veteran John Frost, played by Aiden Turner, who has returned from Afghanistan with a horrible case of post-traumatic stress disorder, only to find that his family is completely wrapped up in Christmas preparations and doesnt have a lot of time for him. His only companion is a scruffy little dog, named Charlie, adopted by his son. At first Frost and Charlie dont get along, but after a series of incidents they begin warming up to each other. It isnt until a life-or-death situation occurs that Frost realizes the importance Charlie plays, not only in his own recovery, but that of his fellow vets as well. Witt says the festival is also celebrating women in film. With Charlies Christmas Wish, Witt says, the production is a prime example of the festival showcasing female-led or female-driven productions. The films that we were showing, 53 percent are female-directed or female-led, he says. To ensure that we got a lot of women filmmakers, we discounted the fee to submit a film. We wanted a good representation of these films, because other film festivals seem to shut them out. The festival aims to also showcase up-and-coming filmmakers. We want to grab the filmmakers before they get big and sell these filmmakers on returning or bringing their next project to the area, he says. Were trying to take care of the filmmakers throughout the festival. Witt says seven panels will be offered: 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4 Filming In The Borderlands Panel will join film commissioners Luis Gutierrez, Drew Mayer-Oaks and Jon Foley as they discuss how to film in the Borderlands and get your foot in the door in the film industry. Friday, October 5 At 4 p.m., the New Mexico Film and Rebate Seminar will have representatives of the New Mexico Film Office as they discuss all the different ways filmmakers can take advantage of the New Mexico Tax Credit. At 6 p.m, the Music Videos And Commercials Panel will have filmmaker Ryan Valdez, Cinematographer/Editor Patrick Lawler, Producer/Writer Scott Bell and Producer Derek Maher as they share their over 20 collective years of experience as producers of commercials, music videos, lifestyles photo spreads and feature films. Saturday, Oct. 6, at noon, the Women In Film Panel will have moderator Sam Toni Muir discus the role of women in the film industry with attending female filmmakers. At 2 p.m., the Acting In Film Master Class with Jack Betts, who will talk about his six decades as an actor, offering tips and tidbits to help any actor looking to break in to the industry. At 4 p.m., the Creature Effects Seminar will have Shawn Darling of Gryphons Egg Productions as he gives an up-close look at practical makeup effects, creature work, set construction and prop creation. At 5 p.m., the Rebel Without A Crew Panel will feature Alejandro Montoya Marin and his crew as they discuss the most difficult parts about getting started in the film industry, as well as their role in Robert Rogriguez Rebel Without A Crew television series. Witt says the biggest obstacle has been getting the community on board with the festival. Theyve embraced us and 30 sponsors have come on board, he says. The community is wonderful here in Las Cruces. Looking to become more of a year-round destination resort, Taos Ski Valley has embarked on plans to help build its reputation as more than just a ski area. Expanding the outdoor recreational offerings in and around the mountain gives the region more four-season options, said Taos Ski Valley CEO David Norden. It is part of our continued investment in the area. Improvements to the longtime favorite Williams Lake Trail are underway now and will wrap up next month. The improvements will transition the first 4,500 feet of the trail from an uninspiring utility road to a more enjoyable, wooded hiking trail experience. This free, 3.7-mile, intermediate trail is used year round and culminates at the picturesque lake bordered by stunning mountain vistas. The move also re-routes the beginning of the trail from Taos Ski Valley-owned land to U.S. Forest Service land, ensuring that this popular trail always stays open to the public and adheres to national standards. We wanted to build a single track trail that is really beautiful and in tune with nature, and much more esthetic and much easier to follow, Norden said. The Williams Lake Trail is a wonderful trail, very well traveled by people around New Mexico and even from out of state. It just made sense to create a simple and easy path for the start of the trail, he said. Its also the trail to Wheeler Peak, the states highest point. Prior to the trail relocation, it was very difficult to go from the hiker parking lot to the lake trail through the base area and the Kachina Peak area. You had to meander up through one or two private dirt roads. It was not a great experience for two reasons: one, you didnt know exactly where you were and, two, you were walking up a dirt road. While trail improvements will be completed soon, new trail signage is not expected to be up until some time next spring, he said. And coming some time next summer, new mountain biking trails will take shape. The first priority will be two beginner/intermediate trails. These flow trails will offer 6.5 miles of terrain, featuring berms, rollers and bridges. These trails will open to the public in late summer 2019. The biking trails and the newly improved Williams Lake hiking trail will give skiers and non-skiers alike terrific new on-mountain options, Norden said. The downhill bike trails, with grades of 6-8 percent, will start at the top of the Kachina Basin chairlift, and wind their way back and forth across the mountain face before ending back at the base of the chairlift. These flow trails are becoming more and more popular at ski resorts, he said. This gets us into the summer business as were trying to become more of a year-round destination. The plan in the future is to add additional, steeper trails more suited to advanced riders, but these first trails are great for families to try their hand at the sport. The work, all of which has been done with U.S. Forest Services approval, is part of Taos Ski Valleys ongoing $300 million renovation that has been transforming the resort, he said. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal In the early 1900s, it was considered very vogue for people to get together, form groups and write manifestos together. It was a very 20th-century thing to do, and people were doing it all over the world, said Christian Waguespack, the New Mexico Museum of Arts curator of 20th century art. New Mexico was no exception to the trend. A New Mexico Museum of Art exhibition featuring works from members of five artist collectives that dominated the states cultural scene during the first half of the 20th century will be on display starting this weekend and running until March. Waguespack described the survey as an example of the breadth and diversity of what was being created in New Mexico. You can see everything from the incorporation of European academic tradition in American art all the way to complete, non-objective abstraction all in one space and get an idea of how these people related to one another, to New Mexico, and how this one place was fertile enough to produce so many types of artistic expression and (how) they could co-exist. The groups, many of them existing concurrently, generally were each formed about one generation apart, according to Waguespack. The first and one of the best known is the Taos Society of Artists, whose founding members first visited the area in the late 19th century and officially formed in 1915. The exhibition ends with what was known as the Stieglitz Circle. Though not actually a formal collective, the group of modernist East Coast painters who both visited and settled permanently in the Land of Enchantment were associated with the New York gallery of Alfred Stieglitz, photographer and husband of Georgia OKeeffe. It disbanded, so to speak, when Stieglitz died in 1946. Before its end in 1927, the Taos Society of Artists 12 members were largely known for capturing local scenery, as well as Native American people and culture, in their paintings. According to Waguespack, American art was really starting to get legs when the group formed. Its members were examples of artists who had trained in Europe, but rejected European ideas about what artists were supposed to paint. He cited a quote in an essay by member Ernest Blumenschein, who said the Taos artists came to the West in search of stimulating subject. We were ennuied with the hackneyed subject matter of thousands of painters; windmills in a Dutch landscape; Brittany peasants with sabots; French roads lined with Normandy poplars; lady in negligee reclining on a sumptuous divan; lady gazing in mirror; lady powdering her nose; etc., etc, the quote reads. Also featured in the exhibit is Santa Fes Los Cincos Pintores. Its five members, arguably the most famous being Zozobra creator Will Shuster who came here in 1920 to heal from tuberculosis were all young guys who arrived in The City Different around the 1920s looking to do something new with their lives. Member Fremont Ellis had been an optometrist in El Paso before moving to Santa Fe in 1919 and painting landscapes, Waguespack said. They were really the Bohemians and the wild folks, he said, with artistic styles that varied among the members. I imagine they are the way the folks who are doing Meow Wolf now imagine themselves. The youngest, hippest crowd. The Rio Grande Painters group formed around the Great Depression as a vehicle to show modernist artwork in Santa Fe. Though Waguespack described this group as part of the eras American Regionalist Movement in which artists used modern art techniques to depict realistic looks at American culture he said its members didnt want to be thought of as sharing any one style or idea. Works by the Rio Grande Painters that are part of the museums show include pieces from James Stovall Morris, who depicted scenes like a procession of penance in Truchas and a 1938 surrealist-like oil painting of people husking corn. Waguespack also mentioned the abstract landscapes of Cady Wells, who used and was influenced by Japanese brush techniques. His work is a really cool combination of Asian brushwork with modern ideas of composition and space, he said. The most visually separate from the other collectives was the Transcendental Painting Group, formed in Taos in the late 1930s by Emil Bisttram and Raymond Jonson. But not all of the members lived in Taos. Jonson lived in Santa Fe and later taught at the University of New Mexico. They were the next generation of Taos artists, with an abstract, spiritual style. The idea was to find a subject matter past what you would see in the physical world, Waguespack said. In the show is Bisttrams large 1938 painting titled Rio Grande Valley. Astrological signs line the paintings outer edge. The only pieces that arent paintings or works on paper being exhibited in the show are a series of boxes that include note cards with koans riddles that Zen Buddhists use during meditation made by Transcendental Painting Group artist William Lumpkins. Lumpkins is also the only artist from any of these groups originally from New Mexico, growing up near Clayton. He became enamoured with Zen Buddhism, according to Waguespack, after a Buddhist traveler stayed on his familys ranch as a kid. Painters associated with the Stieglitz Circle, according to Waguespack, were particularly interested in creating modern art that was about the United States. And, for a lot of them, New Mexico and the West represented what was quintessentially American, he said, which seems kind of hokey and naive to us today, but for them most everybody was from the East or lived in the East and were working in New York, he said. OKeeffe always complained that you had these people like her husband Stieglitz, who wrote about creating the great American thing, but had never been west of the Hudson, and its true. They were really interested in coming West and exploring for something new. According to Waguespack, some of the artists in the show, like painter Marsden Hartley, only visited a few times. But others, like OKeeffe, and New York artists Rebecca James and Andrew Dasburg, came to New Mexico and stayed for the rest of their lives. Most of the artists used the landscape for inspiration, but Waguespack notes Dasburgs cubist interpretations of adobe buildings and Hartleys look at local subject matter, like pottery. James, he mentioned, was also known for picking up local techniques, such as Spanish Colonial reverse glass painting. The artist groups all formed for different reasons, Waguespack says. The Taos Society of Artists and the Rio Grande Painters were what he called practical organizations, designed to help their artists exhibit and sell. Los Cincos Pintores had a passion to bring art to everyday people, setting up exhibition spaces in hospitals, factories and even the local prison. The members of the Transcendental Painting Group, he said, were mostly interested in creating a group to jointly explore philosophical ideas. The scenes that the Taos Society artists were painting were considered the most modern at the time. As time went on, the painters who came out to New Mexico brought evolving styles. Waguespack said that while in todays art world, making radical art typically means creating something that incorporates a social message, in the days of New Mexicos art collectives, it was all about aesthetics or how you painted something. That could have been flattening a surface, or making a piece with a cubist technique. Or, using OKeeffe as an example, modernism meant looking at a desert and paring it down to three or four colors or lines. That was radical, Waguespack said. He pointed out that in the 20th century, Santa Fe established itself as a hub for contemporary artwork. When the Museum of Art opened in 1918, it was designed to show off that kind of art. And it never really stopped, he said. It just evolved to fit the time that we lived in. If you go WHAT: Good Company: Five Artist Communities in New Mexico WHEN: Opens Saturday, runs through March 10. WHERE: New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace COST: General admission is $12. New Mexico residents with ID pay $7 or receive free admission every first Sunday of the month, and from 5-7 p.m. the first Friday of every month from November-April. Admission is free for Museum Foundation members and children 16 and under. New Mexico residents ages 60 and older get free admission on Wednesdays. Nepal and UAE agree to revise labour pact The governments of Nepal and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have reached an agreement to revise the existing labour agreement so that both the nations would get maximum benefits. This year marks the 20th year of the start of Jenni Monets journalism career. But several years ago, around 2010, the award-winning reporter says she strongly considered leaving the profession. Working in commercial newsroom settings, the desire to tell urgent stories about indigenous communities felt like a lost cause. I got told no a lot, Monet, a citizen of Laguna Pueblo, said in a recent phone interview. Very rarely did I get a green light to cover stories from tribal communities. She described her decision to become an independent reporter as a deliberate career move toward telling stories not addressed by the established press or not being told fully. To tell the American story is to tell the indigenous narrative, she said. And that is often a second thought, if (thought of) at all. Monet, whose work has been featured by the PBS Newshour, Indian Country Today, Al Jazeera and the Center for Investigative Reporting, is scheduled to speak today at the Institute of American Indian Arts, covering topics including the Standing Rock protests, gender violence in Indian Country and the challenges that come with being an indigenous investigative reporter. She is also in town for a fundraising dinner for the Santa Fe Council of International Relations Journalism Under Fire summit that will take place in December, according to council executive director Sandy Campbell. The organization is co-hosting Monets talk tonight. Monet described visiting New Mexico as a homecoming of sorts. She was born in Albuquerque. Her mom was a registered nurse for the Indian Health Service, working mostly between Oklahoma and New Mexico. We grew up pretty much anywhere there was a tribal clinic, she said. I bounced around all over Indian Country. Her first reporting jobs were at Albuquerques KRQE and the stations Four Corners Bureau in Durango, Colo. Her early exposure to various tribal communities, she said, has proven relevant to the work she does today. It showed her from a young age that there are similarities among different parts of Indian Country, but also the real distinctions that really represent that Indian Country is not a monolith. Monet has been recognized for her work covering Standing Rock and the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, receiving several awards last year, including the Columbia Graduate School of Journalisms Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award and Journalist of the Year from the Newswomens Club of New York. During Standing Rock, for that moment in time, tribal communities had the worlds attention, she said. Everyday issues for Native communities, things like treaty rights that she said are often trivialized or deemed too complicated or complex for news consumers, were being discussed. Even though established news outlets eventually latched on to the story, that didnt mean there werent flaws with that coverage, Monet said. She described the news stories as often delayed, and displaying a lack of knowledge of Native issues and history. She said she used to be more optimistic that Americans understanding of indigenous issues would advance after Standing Rock. Now, I just hope we sustain that awareness, Monet added. Lets not let that needle go backward, because we cant afford that. Trespass charge acquittal In June, Monet was acquitted of a criminal trespassing charge after being arrested the year before while reporting at a DAPL protest camp. Despite showing her press credentials, she said, she was booked because she was viewed as looking like one of the protesters who were being rounded up. This is the climate were all grappling and dealing with today, she said She described the verdict in her case as a huge relief, as well as one that upholds the First Amendment and the right to report on marginalized communities. Really, at the end of the day, I had to prove my professionalism, and thats what rolled out of that courtroom, she said. Since January, and with support from organizations like Marquette Universitys OBrien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism and the Fund for Investigative Reporters and Editors, Monet has been gathering data and visiting tribal communities to investigate the higher rates of violence and murder experienced by Native women, girls and transgender people. Like many stories that stem from Indian Country, theyre not simple to unpack, she said of the issues involved. The coverage requires long-term work and an understanding of the data gaps that exist. What you get as a result may be very simplified versions of the story, she said. Many of the narratives about violence against indigenous women, Monet points out, are based on the activism surrounding the problem. My concern is that is where is the reporting will end and that will be a media consumers notion of what this movement, what this problem, what this public health crisis, is all about. A main reason Monet does talks like the one tonight in Santa Fe is to discuss the need for more indigenous journalists. She said journalistic representation is required as a way to keep Native people and their stories part of the mainstream conversation. Journalism, the power of legitimate storytelling, is a resource like anything else, she said. Its a tool. Monet emphasized the separation between journalism and advocacy, which she said is an important line to toe for reporters from marginalized communities. She said activism can be an important resource. But in her own reporting, she feels at times like she almost overcompensates to distinguish her role as a reporter. Theres a need for indigenous reporters who understand the dynamics and differences of their communities, Monet said. People who understand our indigenous communities, they dont need to be told or (have) that taught to them, she said. And I think thats what makes the need for indigenous journalists a priority. If you go WHAT: Journalist Jenni Monet to speak WHEN: 11 a.m. today WHERE: In the CLE Commons at the Institute of American Indian Arts, 83 Avan Nu Po Road, Santa Fe. A man is in critical condition after being hit by a car Thursday evening in northeast Albuquerque, according to police. Albuquerque police spokesman Daren DeAguero said officers are investigating the crash, which happened at Carlisle and Aztec NE. The pedestrian was transported to UNMH and is listed in critical condition, DeAguero said. Northbound Carlisle at Aztec is closed as this investigation is being conducted. The Rio Grande is again looking mighty puny where it crosses through Albuquerque as persistent drought continues to afflict the Southwest. Flows on Thursday afternoon were at 133 cubic feet per second, below the historical Sept. 27 average of 410 cubic feet per second. But water groups around the state have pulled together to keep it flowing, at least until the end of the water year. The rivers going to be pretty stable the way it is right now, said David Gensler, a hydrologist with the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. They have enough, I believe, to get through the end of October if need be. John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexicos Water Resources Program, said natural flows of the Rio Grande dried up in July, and the only reason its still flowing is due to water from the San Juan-Chama program, which allows for the transport of Colorado River Basin water to supplement the Rio Grande. Its a reminder of how important this project is for New Mexicos water supply, Fleck said. The Rio Grande is in dire straits throughout its run from Colorado through New Mexico, Fleck said. Levels at Embudo, in north-central New Mexico, have reached record lows this year. In south-central New Mexico, near Truth or Consequences, the Elephant Butte Reservoir is at just 3 percent capacity. Other rivers in the state are also struggling. The Animas River at Farmington, an area in exceptional drought, is just above 0 flow the lowest level in the area stations history. Eric Frey, sportfish program manager for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, said the agency investigated 18 fish die-offs this year. In a normal year, we typically investigate about 8 to 10 reports of fish kills/die-offs, Frey wrote in an email. Frey said this years die-offs due to low water levels have occurred in the Chama, Brazos, Mora and Pecos rivers as well as various lakes and ponds around the state. During a conference call Tuesday on drought conditions in New Mexico, Royce Fontenot, a senior hydrologist with the National Weather Service, said precipitation has helped ease some drought on the eastern side of the state since last month. But just .22 percent of the state is drought-free. The exceptional drought area in the northwest corner of the state showed a little growth, with over 15 percent of the state now in the worst class of drought. With most of the states reservoirs pushed to their limits to cover damage done by last winters dismal snowpack, another bad snow year would leave water users without a fallback next year, Gensler said. I was hoping we wouldnt be going into winter like this, but I think this is where were going to start winter, Fontenot said. Fontenot said theres a 65 to 70 percent chance of an El Nino weather pattern moving in during the coming months, which typically brings higher temperatures and more snow. But even if El Nino does arrive, it isnt certain which areas it will affect and how much precipitation itll bring. Its not a blanket term anymore, said Chris Romero, a snow survey hydrological technician with the U.S. Department of Agricultures Natural Resources Conservation Service in Albuquerque. We had an El Nino forecast here two years ago and it was great for about two months until the jet stream moved farther north and winter kind of turned off. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas on Thursday said he will help craft legislation asking state lawmakers to increase penalties for violations of the states Inspection of Public Records Act and the Open Meetings Act. I am calling for stronger penalties, and, quite frankly, to put teeth into the law once and for all, he said. I simply do not have the enforcement tools or the front-end fining ability I need to truly hold agencies accountable. Currently, if a citizen requests documents from a public agency and the agency does not respond, the citizen can sue in court and the agency can be held liable and is subject to fines. However, if an agency provides some documentation, but not all of the requested material, there is no penalty for being partially compliant, Balderas said. Agencies know how to slow their production and ultimately a citizen has to convince a district judge that slowed production is worthy of a penalty, but there is no strict statutory penalty for that slowed production or for purposely delaying the release of documentation, he said. Balderas pointed to a Court of Appeals ruling earlier this week regarding animal welfare activist Marcy Brittons 2009 IPRA request for documents related to the AGs Animal Cruelty Task Force, under then-Attorney General Gary King. Britton said the AGs Office at that time failed to turn over about 350 emails that should have been part of the initial IPRA response. In reversing an earlier ruling by a 2nd Judicial District Court judge who found that Britton was not entitled to statutory damages, the Court of Appeals found that public agencies can be ordered to pay fines for incomplete or inadequate responses. Balderas also pointed to a pattern of behavior concerning incomplete or delayed IPRA requests at the University of New Mexico. The Legislature has known about systemic loopholes in the law for years and they need to close those loopholes, he said. Taxpayers deserve greater accountability. Its absurd that taxpayers have to sue in a court of law and wait decades for accountability. Balderas also said he was calling on concerned citizens, watchdog organizations, lawmakers who champion open government and transparency, members of the press corps, and the Foundation for Open Government to get behind his effort to get the Legislature to finally address the issue. Are there any guiding principles that can make sense of the sensational news that now overwhelms the senses seemingly every hour? What is common to blaring headlines about the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings, an anti-Trump resistance buried deep in the permanent bureaucracy and the improper behavior by top officials of the Obama administration, FBI and Department of Justice? First, those in power never imagined Trump either could or should win the 2016 election. That reality emboldened federal employees to take risks and step over the line in efforts to ensure Trump would be humiliated at the polls. Officials assumed incoming President Hillary Clinton would overlook or reward their zealotry. FBI kingpins such as James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok broke the law or made a mockery of FBI ethical guidelines. They acted as if Clinton would or should have won the election. Had Clinton won, we would have absolutely no knowledge of any prior misconduct at the FBI, Department of Justice, National Security Agency or CIA under the Obama administration. Trump prompted all that hysteria by winning. Second, both the Democratic and Republican establishments, as well as the proverbial deep state bureaucracy, agreed Trump was so crude and uncouth he must not continue in office. The idea that any means necessary were justified by the noble ends of destroying Trump explains everything from the anonymous op-ed in the New York Times detailing formal White House resistance to Trumps governance, to Bob Woodwards latest unsourced expose of purported Trump chaos, to Robert Muellers investigation that was mandated to find Russian collusion and has ended up desperate to find any crimes that might prove Trump guilty of something. Third, had Trump simply failed, as predicted, there would be far less frenzy. His Democratic opponents and many in his own party would have quietly found ways to remove him. But instead, the economy is booming in a way previously unseen in the 21st century, with near-record-low unemployment and stock market highs. Domestic energy production is (at) record highs. Abroad, the furor has quietly subsided following Trumps decisions to cancel the Iran deal, to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, and to jawbone NATO members into delivering their promised financial contributions. Trump helped crush the Islamic State, beefed up the military and restored good relations with Israel and the moderate Arab world. The media consensus was because Trump was so crude, he was therefore incompetent. Instead, furor ensued over the general upswing under a supposedly incompetent president. Fourth, if Trump could not be removed by impeachment, a lawsuit citing the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, application of the 25th Amendment, indictment or forced resignation, then the only remaining mechanisms of aborting his presidency were either through the courts or by winning the midterm elections to facilitate impeachment and a trial in the Senate in 2019. That explains the growing hysteria in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and attempted delays in confirming lower-court justices, as well as the frenzy around the November midterms. Fifth, Trump did not follow the examples of John McCain and Mitt Romney by adhering to the usual Republican Marquess of Queensberry etiquette. Democrats had assumed Republicans were on the defensive against boilerplate charges of sexism, racism, homophobia and nativism. Republican functionaries in Congress and within the Washington bureaucracy and punditocracy had grown apologetic and complacent. Republican politicos had more or less accepted the fact that, while successful at the local and state level, Republicans couldnt win back the presidency and they should live with it and find ways to thrive nobly as the out party. In contrast, Trumps raison detre is to fight tooth and nail against a biased media, Democratic opponents, never-Trump Republicans and the proverbial deep state. Had he just taken their blows, remained stoic and not thrashed back, the national scene now would be mostly quiet. The days blaring headlines, of course, differ in details. But the common themes behind the headlines are Trump should never have been president, is an inexplicably successful ogre, and wont shut up and therefore must be forced to go away by any means necessary. republican candidate for N.M. attorney general, Managing Partner Hendricks Law On April 23, the state Supreme Court turned a blind eye when a state prosecutor presented illegally obtained evidence to a grand jury. The trial court dismissed the indictment as punishment for introducing illegally obtained evidence to the grand jury, but our Supreme Court reversed the trial courts decision. In short, the court ruled that a prosecutor can break the law. If this seems unbelievable, read Justice (Charles) Daniels opinion in New Mexico vs. Martinez (S-1-SC-35757). The court stated that a century of judicial precedents in New Mexico hold thata court may not overturn an otherwise lawful grand jury indictment because of trial inadmissibility or improprieties in the procurement of evidence that was considered by the grand jury. The court had an opportunity to demand that grand jury evidence be lawfully obtained; however, refused to do so. The Martinez case allows police and prosecutors to illegally obtain evidence and then use that unlawful evidence to obtain an indictment. Attorney General Hector Balderas defended prosecutors illegal actions. In fact, Balderas argued that illegal evidence should be admissible before a grand jury. Our states highest law enforcement officer argued it was proper for prosecutors to break the law. That scares me and should worry New Mexicans. In fact, the prosecutor in the Martinez case who obtained evidence illegally was appointed to replace the very judge who ruled that using illegally obtained evidence to secure an indictment was unfair. Once again, crime pays in N.M. as long as you are committing the crime for a good reason. At what point do New Mexicans say enough is enough and stop allowing those entrusted to uphold the law to break it? The American contract requires each of us to follow our laws. Another case in point is District Attorney Raul Torrezs refusal to move from the use of the grand jury, which serves as a rubber stamp for prosecutors on virtually all routine criminal matters, to preliminary hearings a fairer process where a defendant essentially receives a mini-trial before a judge. The preliminary hearing allows an accused to present evidence and keeps innocent people from facing a lengthy and costly jury trial that could destroy their career, financial security and reputation. Preliminary hearings allow judges to stop prosecutors from bringing cases that have no chance to succeed and keeps those cases from overburdening the judicial system and costing the taxpayer. Torrez and Balderas are opposed to using preliminary hearings. They do not want law enforcement who engage in illegal activity to get indictments to be held accountable. They would like to continue to overburden our judicial system with cases that will never reach a guilty verdict so they can justify artificially inflated budgets. With preliminary hearings, there will be fewer cases like the Victoria Martens case, a glaring example of an incompetent system. Several charges against various defendants in that case had to be dropped after a more detailed investigation. Prosecutors should not be allowed to use illegal evidence to exact punishment for a crime, no matter how politicized the crime. Otherwise, the wrong individuals get punished while the real perpetrator walks free. The Martens case is a prime example. I support law enforcement implicitly. However, a line must be drawn. We must make sure that bad actions are not disguised as right reason. As attorney general, I will hold law enforcement to the highest legal, moral, and ethical standard. First, I will use preliminary hearings and insist upon legally obtained evidence. Second, I will investigate and prosecute, when appropriate, law enforcement officers who violate the law. Qualified immunity cannot mean absolute immunity. Third, I will fire any OAG prosecutor who violates the law or the ethical standards. It is time New Mexicans demand better. That should be New Mexico True. WASHINGTON President Trump and his allies like to claim the real Russia collusion story involves Justice Department and FBI officials, investigators hired by Hillary Clintons campaign, and Russians who were feeding them information. After reviewing scores of documents and messages released by Trump supporters in Congress, I find that this GOP counternarrative doesnt add up. It doesnt undermine the credibility of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller or the guilty pleas and convictions he has racked up. And it doesnt discredit Muellers key witnesses. Yet the GOPs evidence does reveal some puzzling interconnections among major players in the Russia probe. The FBI and the Justice Department were sometimes conducting negotiations with the same people they were also investigating for possible wrongdoing. Contacts between private investigators and government officials were occasionally incestuous. The most intriguing example of overlapping relationships involves three key players who were represented by a peripatetic American lawyer named Adam Waldman. This unlikely trio includes: Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who once did business with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort; Christopher Steele, a British former MI6 officer who wrote the famous dossier alleging connections between Trump and Russia; and Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, which released Clinton campaign and other Democratic emails that U.S. intelligence agencies say were hacked by Russia. In April 2017, Waldman texted Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., with an update on all three: Hi. Steele: would like to get a bipartisan letter from the (Senate Intelligence) committee; Assange: I convinced him to make serious and important concessions and am discussing those w/ DOJ; Deripaska: willing to testify to congress but interested in state of play w/ Manafort. These efforts appear to have come to naught. Waldman is a character Hollywood couldnt invent. His clients have included Deripaska, Steele and Assange, but he has also represented movie-star Johnny Depp. Hes friendly with Warner a Marthas Vineyard neighbor but also with GOP grandee C. Boyden Gray, who was White House counsel for President George H.W. Bush. As a personal disclosure, I should note that Ive known Waldman since the 1990s. Waldman wouldnt talk for the record about his contacts, citing attorney-client privilege. But he doesnt challenge the accuracy of a series of texts and emails about his activities that have been published by columnist John Solomon in The Hill. The most intriguing chapter of this story may be Waldmans effort to negotiate a deal on behalf of Assange. At the same time the WikiLeaks founder was being investigated last year as a conduit for Russian-hacked documents attacking the Clinton campaign, he was also trying through Waldman to negotiate a secret risk mitigation deal with the Justice Department. Waldmans contacts with Assange began in mid-January 2017. On his way to meet Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, Waldman called Justice Department official Bruce Ohrs number in Washington and left a voicemail message describing what he was doing, according to a knowledgeable source who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive legal matters. Ohr later asked Waldman to contact other Justice officials, the source said. Sarah Isgur Flores, the DOJ director of public affairs, wouldnt comment. Assange offered through Waldman to help vet potential dangers in a cache of leaked CIA documents WikiLeaks was about to release under the rubric Vault 7. In exchange, Assange wanted some form of safe passage to leave the embassy. The mediation collapsed: On April 7, WikiLeaks revealed some especially sensitive details about CIA hacking, and Justice quickly ended its contacts. Deripaska offers a final example of how characters in the Russia tale sometimes appear to walk both sides of the street. In September 2015, Deripaska talked to the FBI about Russia issues, and in September 2016, he talked with the bureau about its nascent Trump-Russia investigation, according to the knowledgeable source. The 2016 meeting came just a month after Manafort then running Trumps campaign allegedly tried to send Deripaska a message, which Deripaskas lawyer says he never received. The oligarch now takes the same line about the Russia investigation as Trump and his defenders in Congress: Deripaska argued in a March 2018 op-ed that its all the work of a deep state conspiracy, centered on Fusion GPS, the company that hired Steele to compile his dossier on behalf of the Clinton campaign. The players in the Russia story are intertwined like the strands of a double helix. This might someday make a lively noir thriller for one of Waldmans Hollywood friends. But none of it affects the center line of Muellers investigation. That probe continues, as the evidence and convictions mount. Twitter: @IgnatiusPost. Email: davidignatius@washpost.com. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group. Voters across New Mexico and the U.S. are fed up with Washington, D.C., and the political class. Whether were progressive, conservative or something in between, many of us are convinced our elected officials are not representing us and have succumbed to the power of moneyed special interests, the allure of elite status, cable news green rooms, big-money fundraisers and power-brokering. Corruption and ethical failures are rife. Gridlock is persistent. Nefarious influences are not held to account. Politicians are more concerned with spouting poll-tested pablum than in doing their jobs. Guts, good ideas and independence are in desperately short supply. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., has become part of the problem. Originally from Missouri, he has lost whatever shred of any connection he had to New Mexico. Hes running as a cookie-cutter Democrat who represents our nations capital more than he does New Mexicans of any stripe. According to the transparency website OpenSecrets.org, over 67 percent of Heinrichs donations come from outside New Mexico. He raises almost as much in Washington, D.C. as he does from Albuquerque. Second to lawyers, Heinrichs biggest donors are lobbyists. Hes beholden to these groups to the tune of over $1 million Heinrich lives in Silver Spring, Md.; hes really a resident of the D.C. region now, so his wife works for a big D.C. public relations firm. Heinrichs weird campaign slogan even sounds like something a big D.C. PR firm would cook up: If we plan for what we can be, we wont lose who we already are. Its possible that rich folks in affluent enclaves back East know what this means, but do you? Its time for something different, a better alternative: Former Gov. Gary Johnson. Johnson served New Mexico for two terms as a governor and remains true to its core values. Johnson believes so strongly in representing New Mexico, rather than a bunch of Beltway lobbyists and lawyers, that he has injected $100,000 of his own money into his campaign. He wont be beholden to the special interests that Heinrich, and his donors, represent. And unlike Heinrich, hell be a true voice for New Mexicos socially tolerant, fiscally conservative voters. Heinrich doesnt want you to know it, but he opposes free trade, on which the livelihoods of so many New Mexicans depend and which helps keep prices lower for voters across the state. He voted against a key trade agreement with Pacific Rim nations Heinrich also postures as a pro-immigration voice, but he has never been as passionate a supporter of economically-beneficial immigration policies as Johnson. Heinrich toes the Senate leadership line, voting for fiscal liberalism In his first year in Congress, Heinrich sponsored $22,581,000 in earmarks according to OpenSecrets.org a staggeringly large sum given scandals associated with earmarking that immediately preceded his election. Heinrich, too, was late to the pro-marriage equality and pro-criminal justice reform, marijuana decriminalization parties only coming around to widely-held, modern, forward-looking positions after his political opponents staked them out. By contrast, Johnson led even when it was the politically hard thing to do. Johnson wont take marching orders from Beltway lawyers, lobbyists, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Mitch McConnell, or President Donald Trump. Hell be a true independent voice. Johnson is the true anti-establishment choice in this race. Hes the only candidate who will be truly accountable to New Mexicans. Our Western Values is a 501(c)(4) that advocates for Western-friendly policies and leadership at the state and national levels. An overwhelming majority of New Mexico voters 96 percent feel crime is a very or somewhat serious problem, according to a recent Journal Poll. Sadly, thats not surprising. Both violent and property crime were off the charts in New Mexico in 2017 at a time when the country as a whole was experiencing a drop in crime. Its time for candidates in the November general election particularly those running for governor, attorney general, state House seats, county commission and sheriff to tell voters what theyre going to do about it. New Mexico had the countrys highest per capita rate of property crime last year and the second-highest per capita rate of violent crime, according to the FBIs latest Crime in the United States report. Ditto for bleak rankings in 2016. And the statistics for Albuquerque are even more troubling. In 2017, violent crime murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault increased by 23 percent in 2017. The number of violent crimes jumped to 7,686, for a rate of 1,369 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, more than three times the national rate of 383 violent offenses per 100,000 residents. Property crimes burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft in Albuquerque were up 7 percent. There were 41,350 property crimes reported, 7,366 per 100,000 residents, also more than three times the national average. And over the summer, the National Insurance Crime Bureau reported Bernalillo County and surrounding counties were No. 1 in rates of stolen motor vehicles for the second year in a row. Second Judicial District Attorney Raul Torrez countered the FBI statistics with news that beginning in August of last year, crime experienced its first sustained decline in the past eight years, an average of 17 percent over 12 months. Torrezs statistics are encouraging, but we cant afford to just trust that our crime problem is simply going to go away. Because even with the improvements Torrez cites, crime remains unacceptably high, particularly in the metro area. There arent enough officers in the Albuquerque Police Department and other law enforcement agencies around the state. Courts, prosecutors and public defenders dont have the resources they need to deal with all the cases. And some of our state laws have gaping holes that allow criminals to either walk free or suffer only minimal consequences, encouraging a revolving door of justice. So when candidates ask for your vote, ask them what they intend to do about the crime problem. Ask if they support: Increasing funding for police, prosecutors, public defenders and the courts? Allowing retired police officers to return to work? Enhancing penalties for crimes involving firearms? Broadening the Three Strikes law so its usable? Removing the statute of limitations on second-degree murder so, say, someone who kills her spouse and buries him under a new driveway doesnt get a slap on the wrist because his body wasnt discovered for a few years? Allowing for a life sentence for intentional child abuse resulting in death, regardless of the childs age? Changing the law to begin addressing organized gangs who exploit the fact stealing $499 worth of merchandise is a misdemeanor? And what are their ideas on addressing the root causes of crime, drug use, poverty, etc.? Candidates on the Nov. 6 ballot need to provide specific, reasoned answers to New Mexico residents because we all need real relief from this crime wave and deserve to feel safe. And that will take more than downward crime trends. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal The Duke City is hoping to learn the tools that the Big Apple used to significantly lower its crime rate. City and criminal justice officials from both cities have made official visits to each other this year, and Albuquerques police and prosecutors are trying to mimic some of the practices that Americas largest city has used for years. New York City Police Commissioner James ONeill was the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerces main speaker at the chambers annual meeting on Thursday afternoon. And David OKeefe, the deputy chief of the trial division in Manhattan, was in a roundtable at the event and visited the recently launched Crime Strategies Unit the local District Attorneys Office is running. The unit is essentially a team of analysts and investigators who dig deep into criminal cases to try to find larger trends and networks of violent people. Crime drop in NYC ONeill started his law enforcement career as an officer in New York City in 1983. During the course of his career, he witnessed the city go from a violent place to one of the safest big cities in the world. In 1990, 2,245 homicides were committed in New York City, a rate of 30 per every 100,000 people. Last year, there were 292 homicides in New York City, a rate of 3.4 per every 100,000 people, he said. Albuquerques murder rate last year was about 13.4 for every 100,000 people. The level of crime were seeing in New York City, we havent seen this level since the early 1950s, ONeill said at the luncheon. New York has deployed several strategies that ONeill said he believes have helped reduce crime and improve community relations. In May 2015, the city restructured four police precincts so they were more aligned with neighborhoods. And they gave those precincts enough resources so officers spent one-third of their shifts not on patrol and instead went to community meetings and interacted with residents. ONeill said that program has since been expanded to other precincts, and its helped improve relations between police and community. In New York City, like in Albuquerque, that relationship deteriorated in 2014. New York City was dealing with the aftermath of the killing of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by police. Albuquerque also had a significant number of protests that year after the fatal shooting of homeless man James Boyd by two police officers. Every day, there were protests in New York City and across the nation, he said, which culminated with the assassination of two city police officers. This is why we had to change. I could not see our city, our nation, our cops having to go through that. For a young cop to be out there on those demonstration lines and to hear what was being said to us, it was a very difficult moment. ONeill also said its important to focus police enforcement on criminals who commit the most serious crimes, and not enforce low-level offenses against otherwise law-abiding people. If theres a guy walking home from work with a beer and you give him a criminal court summons, how does that affect crime? It doesnt, he said. It eats away at trust. Crime Strategies Unit District Attorney Raul Torrezs office recently launched a Crime Strategies Unit, the first of its kind in New Mexico. New York City and many of the other largest cities in the country have had similar programs for years. Prosecutors said the units can help reduce the total number of prosecutions but lead to more efficient cases against more dangerous suspects. Torrez said in an interview with Journal reporters and editors on Thursday that the unit is already finding success. He said that police recently arrested four suspects, each driving a stolen car, a fourth-degree felony. Such cases wouldnt normally get a large reaction from prosecutors. But after the Crime Strategies Unit examined the suspects arrest and property records, social media accounts and other data, the office learned that the group is part of much larger, unknown criminal network now believed to be connected to gun crimes, drug trafficking and possibly unsolved homicides. We didnt know what we were dealing with. But now we do, Torrez said. He said he soon hopes to announce a significant number of arrests as a result of that investigation. OKeefe said that in New York City, prosecutors have used similar data to reduce prosecutions but focus on dangerous offenders. In 2010, New York City prosecuted 105,000 criminal cases. This year, it will prosecute about 57,000 cases. But the citys crime rate has dropped in that time. In some ways, (CSU is) the central nervous system of our office, OKeefe said. Theres so much information in cases that come into the office that settles in folders. And you dont make connections between those cases, and you lose opportunities. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said the city has already started incorporating some ideas after working with NYPD. Its sort of an interesting and unlikely partnership, he said. When I ran for mayor, I had no idea we would have such good friends in the Big Apple. Nepal-China energy talks today Nepali and Chinese officials will brief each other about their respective energy sectors in an energy-secretary level meeting slated to be held in Kathmandu on Friday. WASHINGTON Moments after pivotal Sen. Jeff Flake announced he would vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the Arizona Republican was confronted with the consequences. Two tearful women cornered Flake as he got on an elevator Friday, pleading for him to reconsider his support for the appeals court judge whos been accused of sexual assault when he was a teenager. By the end of the day, Flake had, adding a condition to his promise to vote for Kavanaugh. Hed do so, Flake said, if the vote was delayed a week so the FBI could investigate credible allegations against the nominee. It wasnt clear that the raw, emotional elevator exchange changed Flakes his mind by itself. But its hard to forget. And Flake didnt deny it was one of the factors that made an impression. Look at me and tell me that it doesnt matter what happened to me, said 23-year-old Maria Gallagher. Ana Maria Archila pointed her finger at Flake while she appeared to keep the elevator door from closing. On Monday, I stood in front of your office, Archila, co-executive director of the nonprofit Center for Popular Democracy Action, told Flake. I told the story of my sexual assault. I told it because I recognized in Dr. Fords story that she is telling the truth. What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Flake said he had to go to a hearing. He was returning to the committee room where he and 20 colleagues had heard hours of testimony Thursday from Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who told them Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her decades ago. Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegation. Flake had lobbied Republican leaders to give Ford the chance to speak. He was viewed as a possible no vote on the panel and in the closely-divided Senate until his morning announcement Friday. That made the two women staking out his office angry, and they confronted him when he tried to leave for Fridays hearing. I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me. I didnt tell anyone, and youre telling all women that they dont matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them, Gallagher said. Thats what happened to me, and thats what you are telling all women in America, that they dont matter, she said through tears. She begged Flake to look her in the eye. Dont look away from me, she said. Flake, cornered in the elevator, shifted between looking at them and looking down. He said, Thank you, but didnt response to questions on whether he believed Fords testimony. Later in the day, Flake voted to advance Kavanaughs nomination from the committee to the full Senate, but only after announcing his condition. He said he had been speaking with Democrats to make sure we do due diligence here. Flake was later asked whether the elevator confrontation swayed him. I can say this whole process has affected all of us, he said. I cant pinpoint anything to say this is what caused me to come today to say lets postpone. He said it was remarkable the number of people who saw Ford and were emboldened to come out and say what had happened to them. Ive heard from close friends and I had no idea. Thats important. President Donald Trump later agreed to order the FBI to open a supplemental background investigation into Kavanaugh that would be completed in a week. The women do not identify themselves in the video, but Archilas group sent a press release following the confrontation confirming it was Archila speaking on camera. Gallagher confirmed via phone to The Associated Press that it was her, and she consented to the use of her name. The AP does not usually name people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly about the allegations, as these women have done. Speaking to the AP by phone after the confrontation, Gallagher said she didnt intend to tell Flake about her assault she had never told anyone before. But I saw him, and I got really angry, she said. She was in town as a volunteer with the liberal activist group Make the Road New York. Archila told the AP she was sexually assaulted when she was 5 years old by a teenager when she and her family lived in Colombia. She said she didnt tell anyone before this week. I had planned to just talk to him nicely, but once when I saw that he was voting for Kavanaugh my niceties went out the window, she said. What are you doing to our country? You are sending the wrong message youre saying that all of us who put our pain to the world to confront dont matter. After hearing about Flakes request, she said the sequence of events suggested their conversation helped move him. What it tells me is that telling our stories and showing up can actually change their minds, she said. ___ Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report. ___ For more coverage of Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination, visit https://apnews.com/tag/Kavanaughnomination PHOENIX More than a hundred demonstrators outraged by Sen. Jeff Flakes willingness to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gathered Friday outside his Arizona office, some wearing the white bonnets and crimson robes of women enslaved as surrogates in the dystopian novel and TV series, The Handmaids Tale. Protesters carried signs with slogans such as Flake is a Fake and Shame Shame. Others held umbrellas to deflect the rays of the desert sun Friday. They stopped briefly to listen to a radio broadcast of Flake suggesting that a confirmation vote by the full Senate be delayed for a week to let the FBI investigate sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, who has denied all such charges. Protester Lorraine Doman-Sheydayi said she was glad Flake called for an investigation, but I was looking for a different outcome. She said she thought Flakes call for the FBI probe showed we put enough pressure on him that he wanted to get out of the line of fire. Some demonstrators outside Flakes office said they decided to protest after becoming infuriated watching Thursdays televised hearing, which included lengthy testimony by Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has alleged he sexually assaulted her when they were both teenagers. I already was upset about it but didnt have the intensity or passion about it until yesterday, said Tara Woodson. Im upset a man who has a daughter wouldnt take more time to look into this accusation. Shortly after he announced that he would support Kavanaughs nomination Friday morning, the moderate Republican was confronted in an elevator by two women who tearfully implored him to change his mind. The stunning confrontation was captured by television cameras. Lisa Blackhorse, 54, said that footage was a tipping point for her and her 22-year-old son to join the protest. After huddling privately with his colleagues, Flake announced he would vote to advance Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate the allegations against the judge. On Friday, President Donald Trump directed the FBI to launch a supplemental investigation, which must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week. Flake, who has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, is retiring after his term ends early next year. Wiley Adams, a 71-year-old from Fountain Hills, held a sign saying he believes Ford and urged motorists to honk. He said he changed his party affiliation from Republican to independent after Trump won the presidency. Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic candidate for Flakes Senate seat representing Arizona, said in a Friday statement she was disappointed that the Judiciary Committee moved forward with a vote after yesterdays volatile hearing, and that a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the United States has become an ugly, partisan fight. Sinema said that Ford and all Americans deserve a full and thorough FBI investigation of the allegations before the full Senate issues a final confirmation vote. Her rival in the November election is Republican Martha McSally. ___ Associated Press writer Anita Snow contributed from Phoenix. A Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office sergeant was charged Friday with felony battery for allegedly kicking a suspect in the face and breaking a bone, which required hospitalization. Sgt. David Priemazon, 48, has been placed on administrative leave, the Sheriffs Office said earlier this week. The charge was expected, after Sheriff Manuel Gonzales said Wednesday that he had been told by the District Attorneys Office that a criminal complaint charging Priemazon with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm was going to be filed. The document was filed by the DAs Office in Metropolitan Court on Friday afternoon, according to court documents. The incident happened March 19 after deputies saw Christopher Lucero, 34, driving a car with a license plate that belonged to another car. A car chase ensued, before deputies used a pursuit intervention technique, and Lucero crashed near Coors and Gonzales SW, according to a criminal complaint filed against Lucero. Lucero ran from the scene of the crash and fell onto the road on Airport SW. The complaint against him said that deputies used softening techniques to get him into handcuffs. But the complaint against Priemazon says that the kick to Luceros face and the physical force was not for purposes of lawful arrest, search of confinement. He suffered a medial orbital wall fracture, according to the complaint. News reports of Luceros making his first appearance showed him in a neck brace and with a swollen face. Gonzales, in a news release earlier this week, said that the day after Luceros arrest, a deputy came forward to report Priemazon for excessive force. An internal affairs investigation was launched two days later, but once it became apparent that criminal charges could be filed, the case was turned over to New Mexico State Police, according to a Sheriffs Office news release. The warrant for Priemazons arrests says that he will have to post $500 cash-only bail. Michael Patrick, a spokesman for the District Attorneys Office, said that prosecutors have reached out to Priemazons attorney, and it is likely that Priemazon will be booked and released from jail if he turns himself in at a police substation. Priemazon will then make a felony first appearance, followed by a preliminary hearing, which hasnt been scheduled. Indias leading English business news channel, CNBC-TV18 hosted the Mutual Funds Awards at The St. Regis, Mumbai. The awards function was held with an aim to recognize the exemplary efforts by various entities and illuminate the numerous developments in the financial sector. The dignitaries and power-houses from the Mutual Funds sector graced the event, along with Mr. U. K. Sinha, Ex Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), who served as the chief guest of the evening. Completing 25 years of existence in India, Mutual Funds have evolved to become a powerful medium of wealth generation and a vigorous source of funds for economic expansion. The awards celebrated the success of this industry and the bodies responsible by honouring the winners across 21 categories. The selections were made by an illustrious jury panel comprising Mr. Sandeep Parekh, Managing Partner at Finsec law advisor, Mr. Shailesh Haribhakti, Managing Partner at Haribhakti & Co., Mr. K N Vaidyanathan, Chief Risk officer at Mahindra and Mahindra and Mr. Rajendra Chitale, Managing partner at Chitale & Associates & M.P Chitale & Co. Going beyond the NAV rankings, the tireless deliberations were conducted meticulously using an unbiased ranking process. The jury meet took place on 8th September at the CNBC-TV18 office with CRISIL as the knowledge partner where AMCs like IDFC, Kotak Mahindra and L&T emerged as big winners. The evening commenced with an opening address by Ms. Latha Venkatesh, Executive Editor, CNBC-TV18, who set the tone for the evening. It was then followed by an invigorating panel discussion hosted by Ms. Venkatesh, where luminaries like Mr. A Balasubramanian, CEO, Birla Sun Life AMC, Mr. Raamdeo Agrawal, Chairman, Motilal Oswal AMC, Mr. Sunil Subramaniam, CEO, Sundaram AMC and Mr. Nilesh Shah, Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra AMC shared a dialogue on the Way-forward of Mutual Fund Industry in the Light of Regulatory Revision by SEBI. Along with recognizing the industry honchos, the platform also hosted multiple TED Talk sessions byGautam Sinha Roy, Sr. VP Fund Manager, Motilal Oswal AMC, Pankaj Tibrewal, Fund Manager, Kotak Mahindra, and Sharad Singh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Invezta.com on topics varying from Long-term Investment Strategy, Tech Disruption from AMC Angle to FinTech Disruption. Speaking about the property, Latha Venkatesh, Executive Editor of CNBC-TV18 said, It fills me with great pride to say that yet another edition of the Mutual Funds Awards culminated on a highly-successful note. In our endeavours, we wish to become more than an awards property and delve into the sphere of educating and informing the audience about the dynamic financial sector; we envisioned the event to be as informative as it is rewarding. The event thoroughly celebrated the efforts of Mutual Fund CEOs, Fund managers and distributors among other industry members, in uplifting the economy of the nation. Below is the list of winners of the Mutual Funds Awards 2018: In a bid to give a fillip to the industry and an impetus to trade and industry, the Government is expected to announce a new industrial policy soon. The proposed policy will encompass the use of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and IoT, which will open new avenues for investments in India. Speaking at the 13th edition of Annapoorna World of Food India 2018, organised by FICCI in association with Koelnmesse GmBH, Rajiv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, said, The Food Processing Sector is one of the emerging sectors in our country. The Government of Indias policy regime and robust business environment have ensured that foreign capital keeps flowing into the country. The Government will relax FDI regulations to give a boost to the Food Processing Sector. While sharing his views via a video message, Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Commerce and Industry, Government of India, noted, India produces 600 million tonnes of agriculture and horticulture products. We are working on different areas like agriculture policies, export and import policies, and food parks to boost the growth of the industry. Annapoorna World of Food India 2018 is a great platform which gives an opportunity to connect with all the stakeholders and explore various possibilities of growth. LN Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of MSME, Government of Odisha, and Dr Satyanand, Commissioner, Horticulture, Government of Madhya Pradesh, also shared details on the trade and investment opportunities in their respective states and urged the industry to exploit the potential. The three-day event is being attended by buyers and sellers from 30 countries with 297 exhibitors showcasing the latest technologies and trends in the food and beverage industry and 7,000 scheduled B2B meetings are to be held. The special seminars during the event will focus on the emerging trends and investment opportunities in Indian Food Processing Sector. On 18 September 2016, four Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists attacked an Indian Army Garrison in the town of Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. Nineteen Indian soldiers were martyred in the Fidayeen attack. Eleven days later, the Indian Army carried out a series of deadly strikes across the Line of Control. This Counter Terrorist Operation is better known as the Surgical Strikes. Two years on, HISTORY TV18 is dedicating a special, updated anniversary edition of the ground-breaking documentary Special Operations: India Surgical Strikes at 7 pm and 9 pm on 28th September 2018, to mark the second anniversary of Indias retaliatory strikes on terrorist launch-pads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The Anniversary Special features actual images of Indias counter-terrorist military surveillance, reconnaissance and visuals of the surgical strikes. Some of the visuals in the documentary have never been seen before on television. The documentary brings to life the secret mission, with dramatic recreations, newly released images, and first-person accounts of the key decision makers in the government, military top brass and Indian Special Forces, leading the operation. The programme features some of the most respected names in Indias National Security Establishment. Mr. Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor to the Government of India; Mr. Manohar Parrikar, former Defence Minister; General Dalbir Singh former Chief of Army Staff; Lt. General DS Hooda, former Commander of the Northern Army. They reveal what actually happened behind the scenes and on the ground. The story of the mission is reconstructed blow by blow, based on the accounts of the operatives and Commanding Officer of the Indian Armys Special Forces, who led the counter terror strikes in PoK. The identities of the special forces operatives have been kept concealed for security reasons. Defence analyst and author, Nitin Gokhale also shares his views on thesurgical strikes. Speaking on this special dedication Mr. Avinash Kaul, COO-Network 18 & MD A+E Networks I TV18 said, "As a channel, HISTORY TV18 always brings to its audience documentaries that are ground-breaking and unique. Special Operations: India Surgical Strikes is a one-of its kind documentary on Indian television. With this special dedication, the channel celebrates the spirit of the martyrs who fought for the safety and pride of our country. Catch the anniversary special of the path-breaking documentary, Special Operations: India Surgical Strikes only on HISTORY TV18 at 7:00 pm & 9:00pm on 28th September Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has unveiled a new global brand identity the Essence of Toshiba, a restatement of its abiding purpose and values. The Essence of Toshiba replaces Toshibas previous Group Management Vision, Brand Statement and Brand Tagline. The Essence of Toshiba will be applied across all Toshiba Group companies and in all markets, as part of an initiative to harmonize and integrate the Groups diverse businesses and operations around the world. As a forward-looking and entrepreneurial Toshiba continues its business transformation, the restated corporate philosophy and new brand identity will provide a strong and consistent framework for all communication. A summation of core management values and the DNA that has shaped the company for 143 years, the Essence of Toshiba will guide Toshiba in building a sustainable future by focusing on business domains that support modern life and society, and creating value with reliable technologies. The Essence of Toshiba was introduced in-house throughout Toshibas global organization on July 1. From October 1, it will be deployed in all of the Groups activities, supported by a new visual identity. The scope of the rebranding will be revealed through a global advertising campaign, a refreshed digital and social strategy, along with a full set of branded communications materials and assets. Ichiro Hirata, Toshiba's Corporate Vice President and leader of the Brand Project Team, said, We believe these strategic moves will help us establish strong foundations for Toshibas future. Our updated brand identity reflects our ambition to contribute to a planet thats safer and cleaner, a society thats both sustainable and dynamic, a life as comfortable as it is exciting, setting us on a path to deliver answers that will bring on a brilliant new day. On September 28, Morden Chen, General Manager of Alibaba UC Ads, will reveal their short video ads platform at The MMA Forum being held at Taj Santa Cruz in Mumbai. This is an initiative by Alibaba UC Ads to start the revolution of short video ads in India and strive to become the largest one-stop content marketing platform. It is reported that UC Ads has maintained long-term co-operations with Amazon, Flipkart, PayTM Mall, Tokopedia, Lazada and other top e-commerce platforms in India and Indonesia. Other important partners include mobile phone brands, operators and FMCG brands, etc. UC Ads will launch a revolution of short video ads in the Indian market. "We've noticed that people in India were used to watching TV together with their families while more and more young people prefer to be with their phones and browse what they like, no longer confined to TV programs," Morden said. With the popularity of mobile devices and declining mobile internet service charges, people are more accustomed to diverse contents on their mobile phones and reading is becoming fragmented. Short video features short time and can be viewed on the move, which is getting more and more popular. Many short video platforms have emerged against this backdrop, with information consumption upgrading from pure image-text to image-text + video. He continued, People's attention span is reducing. According to a survey by Microsoft in 2015, after a habit of using mobile devices is developed, people's attention span dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds which is shorter than that of a goldfish. This calls for the digital content on mobile devices to be more refined with more selling points. For brands, the short video ads not only cater to the consumers new habit of favoring fragmented contents on the mobile phone over long videos but also coincide with the memory pattern of users in the mobile phone era. The short video ads are well received by mature markets, however, their potentials have been underestimated by brand marketers in India where mobile device ownership has skyrocketed. Tomorrow at the MMA Forum, Morden Chen will introduce the practices of marketers in mature markets. They replace the strategy of brand videos with mobile first strategies and determine the presentation of video ads based on the demand of mobile clients to make ads more suitable for the application scenarios of mobile devices. UC Ads offers a variety of short video ads solutions, including the pioneering splash video, in-feeds video and in-article video and has facilitated brand marketers to implement the mobile first strategy for short video marketing, rendering more opportunities to effectively reach users. Nepal secures $133m credit from World Bank The World Bank on Wednesday approved a $133 million credit to help Nepal construct and maintain safe, resilient and cost-effective bridges on its strategic roads network. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. Oli meets world leaders, attends high level segments at UN Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is currently participating in the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), held meetings with world leaders and engaged in high-level meetings on the margins of the UN gathering. Here are Aiken Standard's top 10 stories from the month of September, including highlights like Hurricane Florence, royal visits, and retail development. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster orders state offices, schools closed in Aiken County beginning Tuesday S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster has ordered the closure of state offices and public schools in 26 counties including Aiken County ahead of Hurric S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster has ordered the closure of state offices and public schools in 26 counties including Aiken County ahead of Hurricane Florence's landfall. Aiken woman charged with DUI in fatal collision on Augusta Road The South Carolina Department of Public Safety charged an Aiken woman Tuesday in connection to a fatal collision on Augusta Road in Warrenville. The South Carolina Department of Public Safety charged an Aiken woman Tuesday in connection to a fatal collision on Augusta Road in Warrenville. Body of missing Williston woman discovered in single-vehicle collision in Wagener The Aiken County Corner's Office announced Thursday afternoon the identity of the driver in the fatal single-vehicle wreck discovered in Wagen The Aiken County Corner's Office announced Thursday afternoon the identity of the driver in the fatal single-vehicle wreck discovered in Wagener on Thursday morning as a local woman who was reported missing more than a month ago. Aiken is preparing to receive evacuees as Hurricane Florence, now a Category 4 hurricane, approaches the Carolinas. +2 Man in custody after hours-long hostage situation in Aiken One man was in custody Friday night following a tense, nearly five-hour hostage situation along Jehossee Drive in Aiken. One man was in custody Friday night following a tense, nearly five-hour hostage situation along Jehossee Drive in Aiken. Southlawn Cemetery worker found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in Aiken The Aiken County Coroner's Office has identified the man whose body was found Monday afternoon in a building at the Southlawn Cemetery on Whis The Aiken County Coroner's Office has identified the man whose body was found Monday afternoon in a building at the Southlawn Cemetery on Whiskey Road in Aiken. Aiken man charged in violent assault involving guns Sunday in Windsor An Aiken County man was charged Sunday following a shooting incident at his Wren Road residence in Windsor, which involved his 49-year-old roommate. An Aiken County man was charged Sunday following a shooting incident at his Wren Road residence in Windsor, which involved his 49-year-old roommate. Hundreds more jobs expected at Plant Vogtle, spokesperson says Hundreds and hundreds more people could be hired at Plant Vogtle within the next year and a half, according to Michael McCracken, a Southern N Hundreds and hundreds more people could be hired at Plant Vogtle within the next year and a half, according to Michael McCracken, a Southern Nuclear communications coordinator. +3 Dark side of addiction: Local man offers personal window into heroin addiction in hopes of bringing awareness Many people may realize there is a huge problem with opiate addiction in America, and this includes Aiken County as the Aiken County Coroner's Many people may realize there is a huge problem with opiate addiction in America, and this includes Aiken County as the Aiken County Coroner's Office continues to see a high number of overdose deaths in the area. A 5-acre corner lot along Rutland Drive is slated to become a Northside retail hub. Intradco Global and Qatar Airways Cargo helped transport an eight-year-old black rhino from a San Diego Zoo to Tanzania as part of a breeding programme. The logistics project to move Eric was co-ordinated by Intradco Global on behalf of the Singita Grumeti Fund a non-profit organisation carrying out wildlife conservation and community development work in Tanzania. The bulk of Erics journey was completed using Qatar Airways Boeing 777 and Airbus 330 freighters, with the rhino travelling in a special pallet containing his feed and water. He was accompanied by a specialist team of four attendants, including a wildlife veterinarian and a veterinary technician and rhino habituation expert. The temperature on the aircraft was carefully controlled at all times to ensure the animal did not overheat or become stressed. The route halfway around the world took Eric from Los Angeles (LAX) to Liege (LGG) and on to Doha (DOH), where he was transferred to a second Qatar Airways Cargo aircraft for his onward journey to Entebbe (EBB). Upon touching down in Uganda, the rhino was carefully moved to a chartered AN-74 aircraft for the final flight leg to the Serengeti National Park. Intradco was required to source the aircraft at short notice when a Hercules contracted for the flight broke its windscreen, putting the whole project schedule in jeopardy. After spending his entire life at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Eric was selected to move to Tanzania to play a starring role in a breeding programme designed to help save the critically endangered species from extinction. Intradcos project manager Tom Lamb said: "To ensure his safety and minimise stress, Eric was given extensive training to familiarise him with the crate ahead of the flight. We also made sure his catering was top notch, with an array of treats including rhino biscuits, apples and watermelons to keep him fed, hydrated and happy throughout. He arrived looking fresh and ready for action and we wish him all the best in his new home. His new girlfriend is nine years his senior so hes definitely going to have his work cut out but he walked away with a confident swagger and were backing him to deliver. "It wouldnt be cargo aviation without a last minute drama, and when news of the Hercules damage reached us we were working around the clock to find a replacement aircraft for the final leg. Fortunately the AN-74 we sourced proved to be the perfect replacement. If successful, Eric will be pairing with a female called Laikipia who was transferred to the Serengeti from an animal park in the UK over a decade ago. Her male companion was killed in a fight with a bull elephant in 2009 before she could produce a calf, so the long search for a new partner began. Read more animal transportation news Click here for a free digital subscription ALEPPO, Syria The demonstrations calling for the departure of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad that have swept across opposition-held cities and towns in parts of northern Syria have managed to deliver an important message to the world: The Syrian revolution is far from over. The protests were called amid Russian and regime forces mobilizing their forces near Idlib while threatening to invade the city. In condemning these threats, demonstrators in Idlib have taken to the streets every Friday since the beginning of September. In a step that rolled back the clock to the early days of the revolution, demonstrators have shown that the banner of the revolution that began in 2011 is the only banner they will hold. For them, there is no room for the colors of extremist jihad. Residents in the opposition-held cities and towns of northern Syria in Idlib, the northern and western countryside of Aleppo and the northern countryside of Hama took part in mass demonstrations Sept. 28, reasserting the demands of the revolution and calling for the fate of detainees held by the regime to be made public. On Sept. 21, some one million protesters had taken to the streets in dozens of Free Syrian Army-controlled cities and towns in Idlib province, the northern and western countryside of Aleppo and the northern countryside of Hama. No constitution or reconstruction until Bashar has been overthrown, demonstrators chanted. Women, men, children and the elderly called for the overthrow of the regime, raising the banners and flags of the Syrian revolution. They declared that their movement was not a revolution of terrorists, while radical jihadists tried to counter them and raise their black banner to promote their cause. On Sept. 14, tens of thousands of demonstrators had marched in the north in opposition-held areas to denounce Russian and regime threats to invade Idlib. No alternative to overthrowing the regime, they chanted. The revolution, they proclaimed, is not over. No jihadist banners belonging to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Hizb ut-Tahrir or other Islamic factions were visible that day, only that of the Syrian revolution. On Sept. 7, members of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, had attacked a large demonstration in the city of Idlib in an attempt to stop demonstrators from raising the flag of the Syrian revolution and to instead hoist their own. Taher Sbai, who took part in the Sept. 7 demonstration, told Al-Monitor, I was amazed by how demonstrators stood hand in hand against the people who tried to raise the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham banners. I helped force Islamists take down their banners, and we kicked them out of the demonstration. We were hundreds chanting against extremist groups. We only wanted the revolution's banner. We wanted freedom and dignity. Moving forward, nothing will prevent us from demanding our freedom. Activists, regular civilians and coordinators of the Peaceful Popular Movement have all been behind the revival of peaceful demonstrations in Idlib and the surrounding opposition-held areas in the countryside of Aleppo and Hama. They have called on the people to express their demands openly, oppose a regime attack and reject Assad's government by refusing to surrender or accept reconciliation. Ibrahim al-Khateb, a reporter for Orient TV, told Al-Monitor, The presence of demonstrators from across Syria namely eastern Ghouta, south of Damascus, the areas surrounding the capital, Darayya, Daraa, Aleppo, the countryside of Homs, and Deir ez-Zor was remarkable. Idlib and the surrounding opposition-held areas have turned into a mini-Syria, harboring people from several provinces. These people were displaced by the regime, Russia and Iranian militias over the past years. Everyone is united behind slogans calling for the departure of the regime and denouncing the terrorism practiced by the regime and its allies. Demonstrators raised one flag, the Syrian revolution flag. The demonstrations were surprisingly massive after all these years. Ghada Bakir, an activist from Saraqib, in the Idlib countryside, who helped organize demonstrations there, told Al-Monitor, Popular protests are very necessary at this point. It is important to let the world know that there are still millions of free Syrians in Idlib who refuse to be classified as terrorists by the regime. We want to convey to the world a message that there are civilians in Idlib who are entitled to life and freedom. Demonstrators raised the flag of the Syrian revolution and rejected all other banners. Bakir continued, remarking, As we hope against hope, peaceful demonstrations will continue in and around Idlib. Millions of Syrians are calling on the international community to help them gain their freedom and dignity as they try to deliver messages to the world that a humanitarian disaster would ensue should the regime invade Idlib. Preparations are currently underway for protests on Sept. 28, to continue speaking out and with the hope of keeping a regime attack at bay. PM Oli addresses 73rd UNGA, informs about Nepals political transition Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the Constitution of Nepal consolidates democratic polity, embodies rights and freedoms. Addressing the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday, The new US special envoy for Syria diplomacy warned Thursday that the conflict could expand if theres no political settlement. James Jeffreys comments came just hours after a group of western and Arab countries opposed to Bashar al-Assad met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to press the world body to convene as quickly as possible a credible, inclusive panel tasked with drafting a new constitution so elections can be held. You have a real risk, if you do not get some kind of a political settlement, of a much larger conflict, a red-on-blue conflict as opposed to a conflict of military forces with local jihadis or local rebels, Jeffrey said. Why it matters: The accidental shootdown earlier this month of a Russian reconnaissance plane that killed 15 service members has focused international attention on the risks of military escalation as Syrian, Iranian, Russian, Israeli and US forces all fighting their own battles in the war-torn country. Jeffrey urged Moscow to convince the Iranians to leave the country to placate the Israelis and prevent an escalation of the seven-year war. Were not going to force the Iranians out of Syria, he said. We dont even think the Russians can force the Iranians out of Syria, because force implies force, military action This is all about political pressure. Pressure points: The State Departments new Syria team, headed up by Jeffrey and retired US Army Col. Joel Rayburn, wants UN-led talks in Geneva to move forward. Theyre also trying to convince Russia to stop Syrian regimes movement toward the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib, with threats of economic retribution. Brian Hook, the US special envoy for Iran, doubled down today by saying that the US would not fund reconstruction in Syria until Iran leaves. Whats next: In a joint statement Thursday, the foreign ministers of the so-called Syria small group made up of the United States, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom gave UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura until Oct. 31 to report back on his progress. A US expert told Al-Monitor that the statement was an explicit effort to put pressure on the UN envoy after he met with Turkish, Russian and Iranian officials earlier this week. Know more: Al-Monitors Khaled al-Khateb has the latest on the deal between Russia and Turkey to negotiate a buffer zone in Idlib. You can read our complete coverage of the negotiations over Idlib right here. - Jack Detsch Iran's heavy metal music scene has had many ups and downs since its inception some three decades ago. The musicians and fans in Iran face myriad challenges that might be inconceivable to metalheads fans or performers of metal music in most countries. Now, however, the times may be changing, as metal enthusiasts are hopeful that, in the future, they will be able to freely enjoy the music they love. Musicians started playing heavy metal in Iran in the late '80s and early '90s. Farshid Arabi is referred to as the father of Iranian heavy metal, and Homayoon Majdzadeh and Iranian Armenian Norik Misakian were pioneers of the genre. These musicians even managed to release licensed albums, albeit with much difficulty. From death metal bands in the holy city of Mashhad to black metal bands in Shiraz, local groups sprouted in different corners of the country. But all had to stay underground, excluding a few whose music did not include elements from racier subgenres of metal. A few of the groups successfully held concerts in the early 2000s, but things came to a halt in terms of public appearances until about a decade later. Three years ago, a handful of bands led by millennial metalheads managed to obtain permits from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance known locally as Ershad to stage metal concerts. One such band is Artamene, a five-member outfit from Tehran. "When our predecessors started out, they could maybe hold a single concert once every few years," Artamene lead guitarist Pedram Shitreh told Al-Monitor. "But what's happened in the past three years is that some bands went to Ershad and received a positive response. Artamene started out underground five years ago. Without being able to openly promote their music, the band held studio sessions for a few dozen friends. When they tried to go public, they were deterred by the prospect of heavy financial loss due to their inability to get sponsors. People around them discouraged them and said no audiences would turn up to watch them. They also had to deal with negative stereotypes of Satanism and violence attached to metal music in general. Finally, two years ago, Artamene staged their first concert in Azadi Tower, a major landmark in Tehran, and filled two-thirds of the venue. Like other Iranian metal bands, Artamene performs covers of more famous songs as well as original songs, but the road to the stage has by no means been easy. Pedram Shitreh explained that initially, the band couldn't even go to Ershad because their work was described as "satanic." He said, We were finally allowed to go on stage as long as we played instrumental songs and refrained from headbanging. Finally came the addition of vocals." Pouya Shitreh, Pedram's brother and Artamene's drummer, described the peculiar path to gaining Ershad's approval. "First you introduce band members and provide a history," he said, "then there is a musical and ethical screening, based on which the band will receive a grade and is categorized." There is no "metal" category, he said, and Artamene was categorized as a "rock" group. Bands are then directed to make detailed videos of their music and everything that will appear on stage. They are also required to provide original and translated song lyrics, with translations done by authorized translation centers. Should Ershad approve the band, the band is allowed to coordinate with venue managers. For the time being, Iranian metal bands are confined to smaller venues for crowds of less than 100 people, as well as Azadi Tower and Arikeh Iranian, which can hold 300 and 800 people, respectively. No metal bands have staged shows at bigger venues like the iconic Milad Tower and Interior Ministry Auditorium, which have a capacity of 2,000 and 3,000 people. Western musicians like German electronic band Schiller and French pianist Richard Clayderman have performed at those venues in recent months. Restrictions at concerts in Iran are still a far cry from international norms. At times, such restrictions run counter to the very foundations and liberating spirit of metal music. Concertgoers have to remain seated at all times and refrain from headbanging or making the horn sign. Concertgoers also avoid recording harsh and exuberant songs on their phones and posting them on social media. Performers, on the other hand, have to take care to not cross "red lines" in their lyrics, clothing and even lighting. Though this sounds restrictive, it is still progress from the days not too long ago when Iranians were arrested for having long hair or donning T-shirts with band logos. As Reza Khalilpour, Artamenes bassist, explained, they have a long way to go and must mind certain pitfalls. "The progress we have made is based on a mutual trusting relationship between the likes of us and the authorities," he told Al-Monitor. "One uncalculated step by a band can cause scrutiny and problems for all of us," he said. "On the other hand, audiences must understand and consider that they are going to a metal concert in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is not Los Angeles. Yes, I definitely want to go on stage and do a windmill [circular] headbang, but all of us must become united like the pop music bands before us did and take a step back to see what we can do to continue progressing, not to create more problems." At the moment, no live music of any genre is allowed since it is the holy Islamic month of Muharram. But having reached a stable lineup of five, including Ali Karimi on rhythm guitar and Soheil Avakh on vocals, Artamene aims to stage more concerts featuring harsh vocals something Ershad has not entirely approved and potentially release a licensed metal album in the foreseeable future. SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq Iraqi Kurdistan's parliamentary elections will be held on Sept. 30. Early voting for the peshmerga and other security services will start Sept. 28. The election was due to be held last November, but it was postponed by the parliament. The election will bring a new regional government in Kurdistan. In addition to the main two Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, several small parties including Gorran and Kurdistan Islamic Group are participating in the election. The small parties fear large-scale fraud by the current government, which is shared by the two parties. The Kurdistan Regional Government's election commission announced that six foreign nations will monitor the Kurdistan Regions parliamentary election through their consulates, but the opposition parties still do not trust the government to hold the election fairly. The mood is unusually subdued across the region and the start of campaigning was delayed by a week, as some political parties were trying to delay the vote. Campaigning kicked off on Sept. 11 and will continue until Sept. 28, but the shadow of concern over large-scale voter fraud, low turnout and armed conflicts has created a gloomy atmosphere among political parties and local citizens. Iraqi Kurds, who had enjoyed unprecedented autonomy for years, voted overwhelmingly for independence in the 2017 referendum. The referendum, which was opposed by Baghdad and Iraqs neighboring countries of Turkey and Iran as well as other Western powers, prompted military and economic retaliation from Iraqs central government in Baghdad. The Kurdistan Region's Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission, which supervises the vote, reported that 29 political blocs and 773 candidates, including 241 women, will compete over the 111-seat house. The population of voting age 3,085,461 Iraqi Kurds can vote in the general polls to elect members of parliament for their region, which gained self-rule in 1991. The two main parties, the PUK and KDP, are trying hard to maintain and enhance their power. We expect to become the second parliamentary bloc, and the second thing is that we expect to win more seats compared to the previous election, Farid Asasard a member of the PUKs leadership committee, told Al-Monitor. Asasard added that not all the Kurdish parties supported delaying the vote, but his party was in favor of it, partly due to the issue of holding the partys congress. It seems that some PUK leaders are afraid that they cannot achieve their goal. The PUK became third in the previous election, after the KDP and Gorran. Since the first Kurdistan region parliamentary election in 1992, electoral fraud and vote-rigging have been the main concern of pro-democracy activists and organizations and opposition parties. The KRG has failed to conduct fair and free elections ever since. However, in the recent Iraqi parliamentary election, electoral fraud became clearer as it largely changed the results, Kamal Chomani, non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for the Middle East Policy, told Al-Monitor. Since both the KDP and the PUK have their own armed forces known as the peshmerga, there are fears and concerns that they will use these forces to impose their power before and during the elections, including intimidating opposition parties if they reject the upcoming election results due to voter fraud. Electoral fraud is not only what is happening on election day, but rather before the election day as the KDP and PUK force the KDP and PUK militia forces, anti-terror forces, the security forces and the police forces to vote for them, threatening people with cutting their salaries if they do not vote for them, distributing cash and using clans and governmental and state institutions to their benefit, Chomani said. The leaders of two main parties reject the accusations. We are ready to accept defeat peacefully, as when we lost the previous election in 2013, Asasard said. In May election, after the main opposition parties of Gorran, the Kurdish Islamic Union, the Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ), and the Kurdistan Islamic Group announced they are rejecting the vote, an armed force loyal to PUK stormed the Gorran headquarters, where top officials of the four parties were meeting. Though Gorran has no organized militia, it does have many armed followers and can mobilize them quickly, as it did on the night of the attack. Some say Gorran has already set up a defense force in case of another attack. If the same electoral fraud and the vote rigging that happened in the Iraqi election happens in the Kurdistan election, I think conflicts will erupt as the opposition has already announced they will protect their votes by blood this time, Chomani said. The CDJ announced earlier this month that it would not participate in the election, indicating concerns and even proof of voter fraud by the two ruling parties. It also urged the other opposition parties to boycott the election, but its efforts were fruitless. We participated in the Iraqi parliamentary elections, but the two ruling parties committed wide voter fraud. Therefore, we by no means want to participate and legitimize a forged election, Bakhtiar Mahmud, a member in the CDJs leadership council, told Al-Monitor. Despite the CDJ boycott, some of its candidates did not obey their partys decision and started campaigning for themselves, after Barham Salih, the former president of the CDJ, decided to return to the ranks of the PUK, which later elected Salih as their formal candidate for the Iraqi presidency. This is the first time I am boycotting the election. Why should I go vote? said a female KRG employee who preferred to remain anonymous out of fear of possible retribution from authorities. The New Generation Movement is a newly founded political party in the Kurdistan region. It was founded by businessman Shaswar Abdulwahid in 2017 after heading the No for Now campaign against the Kurdistan independence referendum. The movement took part in the May parliamentary elections, winning four seats. Kazim Faruq, the New Generation Movements official spokesman and candidate, told Al-Monitor that their platform includes a strategic roadmap for the coming four years and another for the next 15. If a free and fair election is held in the Kurdistan region, and if voter turnout is high, we expect to win more than 30 seats, he added. Faruq alleged that the PUK and the KDP are trying to carry out wide-scale voter fraud at the central data entry center in Erbil and tamper with the results to suit their interests. He called on the election commission to prevent such dangerous plans that would bring more disaster and instability to the already fragile region. At the end of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speech at the UN General Assembly meeting Sept. 27, thousands of Gaza Strip residents went out to the streets to demonstrate against him. At one protest near the Hamas government offices, President Abbas does not represent us appeared on several signs and protesters burned his picture. The demonstrations were less spontaneous than they may have looked. For a long time, anger and frustration at Abbas have been common in Gaza as well as a sense that he has abandoned them. The Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank were less interested in the things Abbas said about President Donald Trumps peace plan than on Abbas threat to step up sanctions against Hamas. The curses and de-legitimization accorded to Abbas this last week from Hamas leaders made new records. The deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk, tweeted that for Abbas to be allowed to speak in the name of the Palestinians, he had to make big changes before leaving for the UN: halt his sanctions against Gaza, stop security coordination with Israel and unite the Palestinian people. As far as Hamas is concerned, Abbas represents only himself when he punishes half of the Palestinian people and collaborates with the enemy. This rhetoric rings warning bells in Israels security system. On Sept. 23, a delegation of Egyptian intelligence officers headed by Gen. Ahmed Abed Khalk arrived at the Gaza Strip. They left after only a day with a clear conclusion: A reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah cannot be reached at this point in time. The gist of the talks was transmitted to Palestinian Authority representatives. A Palestinian security source in the West Bank told Al-Monitor that Egypt will soon, perhaps even next week, make an official announcement that there is currently no chance of reaching understandings between Hamas and Fatah, and that the arrangement with Israel (for a long-term cease-fire and easing of the Gaza blockade) will not be completed. According to the source, the top Egyptian and Palestinian brass think that Hamas intends to escalate its confrontation with Israel. The heads of the movement, led by Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, have already promised the Gaza residents that the blockade on Gaza will be removed in the near future. The Palestinian source also explained that Egypt had hoped for an internal Palestinian reconciliation that would return Abbas and his security forces to the Strip, which would in turn strengthen security in Sinai and on the Gaza-Egypt border. But in light of the failure, Egypt intends to cancel the measures it has taken to ease the blockade at the onset of talks between Hamas and Fatah, such as the opening of the Rafah crossing. As far as Egypt was concerned, the lifting of restrictions was a temporary measure to help create a positive atmosphere. Now that everything had fallen apart, there is no justification for a continued lifting of restrictions. The Israeli side also understands that the Israel-Gaza border is likely to become even more problematic and IDF forces will be engaged even more than in the past. Israel knows that Hamas is already preparing the Gaza public for another round of fighting with the goal of bringing the blockade issue back to global attention. From Hamas point of view, the only means that has proven themselves are the fence protests and the release of incendiary kites and balloons into Israel. Recently, the Gaza envelope residents have discerned a new threat against them from the Strip: balloons carrying hand grenades. Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories head Kamil Abu Rukun sent a clear message to Gaza residents Sept. 21: Do not participate in the planned demonstrations. Rukun also warned them that Hamas is planning naval provocations and clarified, If naval terror acts continue, we will restrict the fishing area to three miles. Do not cooperate with Hamas. An Israeli Civil Administration source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that Hamas is preparing for another round of violence because it feels that there is no other way to give the Gazan public the sense that someone is doing something for them. According to the source, a continuation of the status quo with no end in sight to the decade-long Gaza blockade will lead to the loss of Palestinians' hope and create a palpable threat on the Hamas regime. Its leaders are clearly hearing the criticisms against them inside the Strip, he said. I talked to Strip residents this past week, some of them acquaintances from the years I worked in Gaza. They spoke openly for the first time about how the people are sick and tired of the Hamas regime and noted that they are hoping it will fall. According to the residents, the mental block of fear has been smashed: Many of them are no longer afraid to express criticism of the movements leaders who brought catastrophe on Gaza. The past year was very difficult for Hamas, mainly due to the sanctions inflicted by Abbas on the Strip. A report by the International Monetary Fund that was made public on Sept. 17 expressed the destructive results of the sanctions. If IMF forecasts for the continuing decline come true, Gaza will collapse and so will the Hamas regime. According to the report, the unemployment rate in the Strip is above 50% and among young people it reaches beyond 70%. The writers of the report noted that if the Strip does not receive immediate assistance, the Gaza economy could fall apart any day now. Gaza's economy is on the verge of collapse, Abbas threatened Hamas in his UN speech and Egypt is expected to announce the failure of its reconciliation attempts and cancellation of its easements to the Gaza Strip in the near future. All this led the heads of Israels security systems to one obvious conclusion: A widespread armed conflict with Hamas in Gaza is only a matter of time. It was reported Sept. 21 that the IDF will beef up its presence opposite the Strip and that the next few weeks will see an intensification of mass border confrontations by day and by night. The IDF has discerned a new pattern of behavior on the border: Hamas encouragement of Palestinian protests under cover of darkness. According to the IDF, there is a pattern of munitions and grenades hurled toward Israel and attempts to infiltrate Israel from the fence. We have returned to the exact same spot we were in three months ago, but this time there is no plan in the offing that provides a bit of hope for an arrangement, an Israeli security source noted on condition of anonymity. Now we are reaching the moment of truth. It seems likely that this time, Israel will be forced to make a historic decision after years of delay: Either resign itself to counting round after round of war games planned by Hamas to save its regime, or take action to bring it down. Pedestrians on Beiruts Hamra Street slow at the sound of something being battered. As they get closer, they find that the sound is coming from a Syrian ice cream parlor called Fasatoq wa Bunuduq "Pistachio and Nut" in Arabic where traditional Damascus ice cream is pounded with a huge hammer. Behind the counter, Butros pounds the milky ice cream in an icy metal container while in front of the store Hassan urges a group of Iraqi passers-by to taste the Damascene sweets, nuts or pistachio-covered ice cream, just like the ones found in the legendary Bakdash ice cream parlor in the old city of Damascus. Over the past year, many Syrian confectioneries with colorful windows and sellers out front have sprung up like mushrooms in the Hamra neighborhood. It started with a few peddlers who fled the war in Syria for Lebanon making a living in Beirut by selling nuts. One of them was Elias Khoury, who eventually set up his small open-air stand by the wall of a parking lot on Hamra Street. Khourys journey from Syria to Lebanon was far from happy. When the war in Syria broke out, he sold his grocery shop and decided to go to Brazil, where his brother lived. He used up all the money he had for the trip, but stayed there less than a year. I was unable to cope with the conditions in Brazil and came to Beirut, he said. I did not imagine myself being a peddler at this age in Beirut. I do not have any plans for the next phase; I think I will just keep selling nuts and candy here. So he is now a permanent fixture on the street, his goods divided into sealed nylon bags. Sometimes, he opens one of them and offers potential customers some nuts to taste in the hope that they will buy a bag. You have to be generous in the catering business, agreed the owner as he offered barazek, traditional Syrian sesame cookies, to passersby. Like many of the people interviewed, he refused to give his name to Al-Monitor. There is a variety of consumer behavior in this business. Europeans purchase small quantities as gifts, while Arabs buy large quantities. The Lebanese buy in small quantities but often, and Syrians who are unable to go to Syria enter our shop just to feel like being in Damascus, said Hassan, the salesman at Pistachio and Nut. I was a banker with a masters degree in business administration. Now I am selling confectionery, Hassan told Al-Monitor. My competency in English helped me get this job as it allows me to serve foreign people. Hassan said he needed to stay in Beirut for a few more years so that he can save enough money to pay his military service allowance. He's confident because Pistachio and Nuts is doing well. Then he hopes to get back home to Damascus, [All of us] just want to go back to our country. Not all the Damascene confectioneries are as confident about the future of the business. The salesman at Ayamek ya Sham "Best Days of Damascus" in Arabic mused, We brought these stores to Beirut. They are competing with local nuts stores and roasted coffee bean shops." Then he abruptly stopped talking. All the Syrians working in Best Days of Damascus declined to give an interview and apologized for not being able to discuss their current situation or reveal further information. The Syrian workers in the Taybat al Sham ("Damascus Tastes") also refused to be interviewed. Indeed, most of the Syrians on the Hamra street are reluctant to talk to a journalist, let alone give their full name, the date they entered Lebanon or when they first started the business, fearing to draw attention that may bring legal problems or a public reaction among the Lebanese who think the Syrians are robbing them of jobs. George Ghali, the executive director of Act for Human Rights in Lebanon, told Al-Monitor, All Syrians regardless of their legal status in Lebanon are subject to the same conditions of employment for foreigners, because Lebanon does not recognize them as refugees. Ghali believes that there is a feeling of resentment among the Lebanese because they think the Syrian newcomers, who operate in a legal gray area, ignore the laws, while the Lebanese have to abide by them. Many Lebanese perceive that the complicated situation created by the humanitarian crisis in Syria, the legal gaps and lack of law enforcement make it relatively easier for Syrians evade the law. But others say the idea that the Syrians have an easier time or that they pose a threat to Lebanese business is untrue. Wissam Al-Halabi, a lawyer specialized in civil and commercial law, told Al-Monitor that like any foreigners working in Lebanon, Syrians are obliged to receive prior authorization from the Lebanese Ministry of Labor to open the shop and then they must obtain a work permit. The procedure is not difficult, said Halabi. The offenders may face provisions, which may lead to the closure of shops, and sometimes to detention as well as to the confiscation of the property. Lebanese patron Jana brushed aside claims of unfair competition, emphasizing the uniqueness of the nature of the business. "Since there are no similar Lebanese shops to compete with these Syrian shops, how could these stores pose a threat to the interests of the Lebanese, especially as they foster the oriental identity of Beirut? she told Al-Monitor. Her Syrian friend Tala added, Damascene works; mosaics, motif fabrics, confectionery and so many other traditional practices related to heritage could be shared and presented to all of Beirut's visitors, by both Syrian and Lebanese descendants. The antique shops in Damascus are suffering now. It would be a good idea if Syrian heritage could be promoted in Lebanon, since people can't visit Syria these days. Mohamad, another salesman in Hamra, who followed in his grandfather steps to selling Syrian sweets, is not very optimistic about the future of the Damascene sweet business. Sitting in front of his store, he expressed disillusionment over the swiftly multiplying shops. I regret leaving Germany and coming to Lebanon. Sales have decreased after many sweet and nut shops popped up in Hamra. No Israeli prime minister has made such abundant, flagrant and public use of intelligence coups scored by Mossad and Military Intelligence as Benjamin Netanyahu has. He followed his viral Iranian nuclear files performance of April 30, using a simulated backdrop of file cabinets to reveal Mossads success in removing an Iranian nuclear archive from Tehran to Tel Aviv, with an appearance before the UN General Assembly on Sept. 27. As expected, it was another chapter in Netanyahus harsh indictment of the Islamic Republic. Netanyahu proved, once again, that he is an oratorical genius and an audiovisual wizard when he held up photographs and maps of what he described as a secret Iranian nuclear facility in Tehran and three long-range missile bases that Iran maintains, courtesy of Hezbollah, adjacent to Beiruts international airport. Netanyahu was undeterred by a US intelligence source who told Reuters that the prime minister's comments were somewhat misleading. We have known about this facility for some time, and its full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminum tubes for centrifuges, the source said. That US media sidelined his speech in favor of the dramatic Senate confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh did not terribly upset Netanyahu. The Israeli leader took the podium in New York, but his target audience was almost 6,000 miles away, watching television at prime time in Israel. Netanyahu's aides' success in moving his scheduled speech forward, to the ideal hour of 8:00 p.m. Israel time, the start of the evening news, provided him with the effect he sought to create. It was further affirmation of his standing as Israels supreme leader and a display of the noose he is tightening around the neck of the Iranian regime, enthusiastically cheered on by the White House. The original plan called for this reveal to be a gimmick pulled off during Netanyahus next election campaign, the coup de grace against his enemies in his quest for re-election. In June, Netanyahu had planned to call early elections for sometime in early October 2018, a week or two after his General Assembly appearance. Had this plan materialized, the speech would have achieved the standing of his appearance in March 2015 before a joint session of Congress in Washington to warn about the impending nuclear deal with Iran, two weeks prior to elections later that month. This did not happen. Netanyahu is currently considering calling early elections for February or March 2019. By then, the effect of his UN speech will have dissipated. He will need a new one. Netanyahu has assembled a long line of impressive victories in recent months in his war against Iran. Had it not been for the downing of a Russian reconnaissance plane on Sept. 17 by Syrian air defenses, for which Russia blamed Israel despite Israeli denials, it could have been the culmination of Netanyahus achievements. A senior military source told Al-Monitor that significant success has resulted from a plan presented two years ago by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and approved by the Israeli Security Cabinet, to prevent Irans entrenchment in Syria and to stop Syria from turning into a second Lebanon. The IDF is convinced that Iran had planned to deploy some 100,000 troops in Syria by the end of 2018, along with air and naval bases and intelligence and missile facilities. In addition, the Iranians were turning Hezbollahs arsenal of rockets and missiles into precision weapons capable in a future war of effectively crippling the IDFs capacity (mostly that of its air force and intelligence). It seems at the moment that this scenario has not for the most part materialized. Declarations by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah notwithstanding, the group is estimated to have very few precision missiles capable of reaching Israel, and only some 10,000 Shiite militiamen are deployed in Syria, but nowhere near the border with Israel. Its really too bad that the Russian Ilyushin went down in Syria amid all this. Israels defense agencies had initially gone along, more or less, with the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, but in recent months, this approach has been replaced by a sense of euphoria given the results of the US withdrawal from the deal and the renewed sanctions Washington imposed on Tehran. Israeli intelligence has identified an existential sense of doom in Iran and a vicious leadership battle pitting conservatives led by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani against President Hassan Rouhani and his people. The latter, more moderate camp believes its time to pack up fomenting the revolution throughout the Middle East and to instead save Iran's economy. Hezbollah as well, according to Israeli defense sources, is in trouble, with a major budget deficit and internal unrest. All of the above has infused Israel with the sense that victory is near and possible. This is a dangerous sentiment. For many in Israel, it is reminiscent of the euphoric, power drunk and arrogant climate on the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In addition, Netanyahus frequent use of Israeli intelligence data, of Mossads achievements and of other secret material is generating unease. This feeling persists even though Netanyahu coordinated with the IDF on the presentation at the United Nations. After the speech, the military issued additional photos to buttress Netanyahus claims. The prime minister is leading a pincer movement against Iran, a defense source told Al-Monitor, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Netanyahus speech links the Iranian nuclear program to its entrenchment in Syria. Everything leads to the same place, to one goal, to one revolution. This has become clearly visible now and explains the link between rockets and missiles in Syria and Lebanon, missiles and rockets in Yemen, and Iranian centrifuges in Tehran. Mossad chief Yossi Cohen is fully on board for Netanyahus public diplomacy campaign against Iran. The latest series of Mossad achievements has turned Cohen into one of the most familiar and admired intelligence figures in the world. An articulate and charismatic speaker with a mastery of several languages, Cohen provides Netanyahu with a significant boost. He meets often with diplomats and officials in Europe and Asia to illustrate the scope of the Iranian threat. His abilities in this regard are almost as good as Netanyahus. Were it not for the law that imposes a three-year chilling period on Cohen before he can go into politics after leaving office, he could be marked as a potential successor to the prime minister. In January, Dilek Ozcelik, a 27-year-old lymphoma patient, passed away. Ozcelik had made the news in 2013 when she asked for help from Erdogan Bayraktar, who was then Turkey's minister of environment and urban planning. Ozcelik refused the roll of cash Bayraktar handed to her. I am not a beggar, she said. She needed access to medicines that weren't available in Turkey. Since then, the Turkish government has repeatedly talked about grandiose plans to launch national medicine projects. Yet, with a growing, aging population, the need for lifesaving medicines also has increased. The data about availability and accessibility of prescription medications shows a problem that has snowballed during the past decade. For example, in 2015 alone, 1,700 pharmacies nationwide closed. Among 25,000 pharmacies, 13,000 are expected to go bankrupt at any time. From 2005 to 2015, the Turkish Pharmacists Union recorded 572 instances in which the Health Ministry called for a drop in drug prices. This dim picture has only gotten worse with the weakening Turkish lira. In the past couple of months, an increasing number of patients have struggled to get their medication, resorting to creative methods. Not a day passes without a call on social media for help obtaining a needed prescription medication. Most of the time, patients are so desperate they are willing to pay whatever they can to save their loved ones. Even some pharmacists themselves have tried this method to assist their patients. Just like Ozcelik, many patients suffer due to the scarcity of anti-cancer drugs in Turkey. And since those drugs require prescriptions in Turkey, it's not as simple as buying them over the counter abroad and bringing them back to Turkey. Al-Monitor spoke with doctors, pharmacists and patients to evaluate the current situation. All medical experts fear that the shortages are going to get worse, and soon. Semih Gungor, former chair of the Istanbul chapter of the Turkish Pharmacists Association, noted that economic challenges threaten to overwhelm the medical industry. All the pharmacists Al-Monitor spoke with explained that most of the active ingredients in medicines are imported, and no substitutes are produced in Turkey. The import rate is based on euros and the conversion rate was fixed at around 2.6 Turkish liras. Now, 1 euro equals 7.6 liras. With such a large gap, neither companies that import medications, nor the ones that import the essential chemicals to produce the medicine domestically, can operate. A pharmacist of 10 years from Ankara who works across from a state-run hospital said, I'll simply explain how rigid and counterproductive the regulations on pharmacies are in Turkey from my own experience. Lets assume I'm selling a pill for $11 and I bought it from the depot for $10. Whenever the government wishes, it can and it has dictate that [pharmacies] lower the price, lets say to $8 per unit. Now I am selling [each pill] for a $2 dollar loss. If I purchase goods worth $40,000 and sell them for $30,000, I not only have a net loss of $10,000, but I've also paid taxes on the purchase of $40,000. Ilfan Erdem, a pharmacist in Gebze for more than 30 years, emphasized that neither individual pharmacies nor pharmaceutical cooperatives are responsible for the growing drug shortages. She and others concurred that currently the most dire shortages of prescription medications are in cancer treatments, eye drops and other optometry-related drugs, and medicine for hypertension, diabetes and chronic lung diseases. The knot in this issue is the government, particularly the Social Security Institution (SGK), which conducts almost all medical procurement agreements, including pharmaceuticals. Another pharmacist who has worked in Istanbul for more than 25 years told Al-Monitor, The SGK pays for more than 85% of all prescription drug costs in Turkey. Considering the growing demand and rising prices, the SGK has a major struggle to keep the prices down. The prices they would like are no longer acceptable for several categories of medicine, or active ingredients in these meds. Therefore, their agreements collapse so, no more imports. Once we are out of stock in the country, shortages start. Similar problems are seen with imported medical equipment as well, due to the SGK's inability to get the prices it prefers. For example, Hurriyet reported Sept. 25 that bionic ear implant operations for minors have been halted simply because the SGK can't import more of the implants. Erdem explained that her pharmacy receives calls from all around Turkey from families of patients desperately asking for certain medications, simply trying their luck. Another pharmacist from Ankara explained, If a patient has a prescription for a three-month supply of a medication that is on low supply, we explain the situation and give them a month's supply so that we can spread the medicine to more patients. And we hope that the next month, this crisis will be resolved. The Turkish Pharmacists Association also has the ability to independently import certain rare medications for patients. However, the bureaucratic process is slow and most of the time requires hefty payments directly from the patients. When patients realize they can no longer find their pills in any pharmacy in Turkey, acquiring them from abroad is a race against time and sometimes a gambit with legal hurdles. One medical doctor who works at a state hospital confirmed the observations of several patients. "We are asked to work with the bare minimum: cheaper X-ray machines, limited local anesthetics, even these plastic gloves we wear, and we have to count them. So each day is worse than the day before because the government is counting every penny to cut the costs, but the quality of the services drops as both staff and patients suffer. So what can we expect in the coming weeks? Further shortages of imported medications and more pharmacists declaring bankruptcy and shutting down their stores, while an underground economy thrives that promises to deliver prescription medications. They are called cantaci and they are an open secret in Turkey. They particularly operate online and near hospitals, and they can provide unregulated medications to those who are able to pay exorbitant fees. Leyla Ozturk, the mother of a 14-year-old cancer patient in Ankara, told Al-Monitor, I sold my wedding gold for my sons cancer treatment. Now we get the pills from cantaci. I don't know if they are counterfeit, or how accurate the dosage is. I know I may be paying such high prices for substandard pills, but it is either this or nothing. The Turkish government is once more failing to protect the most vulnerable sectors of society. The government refuses to accept the reality of shortages until the SGK agrees to a strong price hike, one can only expect the situation in the medical field to deteriorate rather quickly. The United Nations is trying to stop another 10 million more Yemenis from becoming dependent on aid by the end of the year, the intergovernmental organizations top humanitarian official in Yemen told Al-Monitor. Just weeks after the Iran-backed Houthi rebels failed to appear for UN-backed talks in early September, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen Lise Grande said that fewer ships are coming into the country than at virtually any stage of the war. More than 8 million Yemenis depend on UN aid to survive, Grande said. Thats even as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates promised to open routes out of the embattled port city of Hodeidah, the entry point for three-quarters of Yemens aid, and agreed to evacuate sick Yemenis who cant be treated in the war-ravaged country. The 10 million additional people who depend on the market for food are the real issue, Grande said in a Skype interview from Sanaa, where the UN mission is based. If shippers dont berth at northern ports, these people arent able to buy the food they need. Its painfully clear that shippers just dont have the confidence to enter northern Yemen where they are desperately needed. Grande credited the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels with significantly reducing the time needed to clear commercial ships at Yemens ports since last year. But she said the ongoing fighting has made it difficult for shippers to secure credit. It has also raised insurance costs and caused security risks that prohibit many ships from coming in. The UN concerns come as coalition backers huddled at the UN General Assembly. UAE Deputy Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said this week that military pressure on Hodeidah would be key to reviving the stalled talks. Grande worries that an outbreak of cholera could once again threaten to make a fragile humanitarian situation even more challenging. One of our biggest worries is cholera. Hodeidah was an epicenter of last years outbreak, Grande said. Cholera is present everywhere this year as well, but humanitarians have done absolutely everything possible to prevent, prepare and respond to the disease. Despite the failure of last months talks, UN envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths has kept hopes alive in Washington even as the country faces the worst blight of starvation since World War II. On Friday, Griffiths announced a plan to restart the talks that includes the reopening of Sanaas airport and the exchanges of prisoners. He certainly is not declaring mission defeat, a former US official told Al-Monitor. The State Department sees the nixed talks as disappointing but not fatal, the source added. The missed opportunity comes as Congress attempts to apply more pressure on the Donald Trump administration to end US support for the Saudi-led air war in Yemen, including the refueling of coalition fighter jets. UN officials say the fight over Hodeidah threatens to disrupt cholera vaccinations and food supplies across the country. Last week, the US administration sent top officials from the State Department, the Joint Staff, the Defense Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to Capitol Hill for a legally mandated Senate briefing. The briefers were taken aback by the intensity and depth of lawmakers questions, a former Barack Obama administration official told Al-Monitor. The briefing came after the State Department approved continued US support for the Saudi-led Arab coalition. But opponents of the war also scored a victory, as the State Department acknowledged that the coalition had failed to institute proper reforms to reduce civilian casualties, despite making an effort. We continue to press the need for additional actions to reduce civilian casualty incidents, said the report, signed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Recent civilian casualty incidents indicate insufficient implementation of reforms and targeting practices. Investigations have not yielded accountability measures. Policy debates over the Yemen campaign appear to be extending into the Trump administration. The Wall Street Journal reported today that some State Department officials pushed the US administration to curtail the Pentagons refueling of Saudi and UAE jets after an Aug. 9 airstrike on a school bus that killed 40 children. The Saudi-led coalition also could face oversight from the UNs Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen, which saw its mandate reauthorized at the General Assembly this week. Only a few months after a $15 million gift to the school, the University of Alabama today announced plans for Hewson Hall, an addition to the Culverhouse College of Business. The $60 million, 108,000-square-foot building will be built adjacent to Mary Hewell Alston Hall, centered around a three-story atrium. It will include 22 classrooms, 50 team rooms, a student success center, conference rooms and other features. Announced in July, Marillyn A. Hewson, chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. gave $15 million to the Culverhouse College of Business. Hewson earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's in economics at Alabama. Her husband James is also a graduate of the university, earning a bachelor's degree in communications. A campaign committee headed by Birmingham businessman C.T. Fitzpatrick will lead the effort to raise an additional $15 million needed in charitable contributions for the project. "This university and this city were a launching pad for our careers careers that have blessed us with the resources to reach out and to give back to others," Marillyn Hewson said. "We wanted to find a way to ensure that the next generation is well-equipped and well-positioned with the skills to get good jobs, establish strong careers, and seize the exciting opportunities that life will offer." The building will feature planned specialty classrooms, including boardroom-style areas with high-tech teaching walls for students to learn in spaces equivalent to the ones they will be working in as professionals. For more information on the project, click here. Birmingham City Schools are investigating an incident where officials say Oxmoor Valley Elementary School students were reportedly held on a school bus after school dismissed Thursday afternoon. "Birmingham City Schools administration received notification of an incident that occurred on a bus carrying Oxmoor Valley students this afternoon after school dismissal. The administration launched an immediate investigation into the incident and will take appropriate action, pending investigation findings," Birmingham City Schools spokesperson Adrienne Mitchell said in a statement. Mitchell told AL.com in an email that school officials were told students were held on a bus, but school officials were not able to confirm additional details. "In the interim, district administrators will be reaching out to parents of students on the bus. Birmingham City Schools considers student safety and security its highest priority, and the district is fully committed to taking the necessary steps to protect students and staff," the statement continued. Further details about the incident were not immediately available. Protesters shut Dhangadhi over plan to shift state capital People in Dhangadhi, the temporary capital of Province 7, enforced a banda in the town on Thursday to protest the proposal of shifting the provincial capital to Godawari. Two bodies found Tuesday in a wooded area off of Rex Lake Road in Leeds have been positively identified as the remains of the husband and wife owners of an Irondale motel. Irondale police on Friday said the Jefferson County Coroner's Office made the identification through medical record comparisons. Authorities believe 77-year-old Ching Kao and his wife, 76-year-old Siumei Kao were brutally murdered on Sunday, Sept. 16. A family member reported them missing on Friday, Sept. 21 and their bodies were recovered on Tuesday after Irondale investigators received the information from suspect Steven Richard Mulkey as to where he dumped them. The remains were found about 40 yards off a curvy road off of Rex Lake Road. They had been left just over a ridge. Irondale police responded that Friday to the Siesta Motel on a welfare check of the husband and wife who owned the business and lived there. Irondale police responded Friday to the Siesta Motel at 2510 Crestwood Boulevard on a welfare check of the husband and wife who own the business and live there. Atkinson said one of the couple's daughters became concerned when she had not spoken with them. The couple had owned the motel since at least 2005, but the business has been closed since January for code violations and the victims were the only people living there. Once at the hotel, police found the couple gone. Atkinson said the safe was missing from the office and there was blood in the surrounding areas. At least one dog had been left behind in the office, in which there appeared to have been some kind of disturbance. A review of surveillance footage showed the couple being beaten. The video showed the blunt-force trauma attack, which police said was brutal. "It does show them attacked in the office of the motel,'' Police Chief Ken Atkinson said of the video. Irondale police on Saturday night identified Mulkey as a person of interest in a couple's disappearance but didn't immediately say who was missing. Mulkey was living at the nearby USA Econo Lodge in Birmingham and the victims' vehicle was recovered by investigators there. Mulkey had worked as a handyman for the couple at their motel. U.S. Marshal Marty Keely said Mulkey was arrested at the Hometown Inn in Staunton, Virginia on Monday by the U.S. Marshals Capitol Area Fugitive Task Force. Information provided by the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force led to the arrest. Mulkey is charged in Alabama with capital murder of two or more victims. A no-bond order has been issued against him. He remains in Virginia awaiting extradition. Court records show Mulkey pleaded guilty in December 2013 to a charge of third-degree robbery. He was originally charged with first-degree robbery but pleaded to a reduced charge. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with 30 months to serve followed by five years of probation. Mulkey was sent to Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, which is responsible for providing comprehensive psychiatric evaluation/treatment to the criminally committed. The court ordered that Mulkey continue his mental health treatments once he was released from the facility. In 2014, according records, Mulkey's probation officer reported that mental health officers notified him to say that Mulkey had failed to show up for his "injections" and appointments. The nature of his mental illness and treatment was not detailed in court records. In that probation report, authorities noted that Mulkey at the time was a suspect in two theft cases. One case involved a vehicle theft and the other was the theft of a television from people with whom he was living. His attorney at the time noted Mulkey had an "extensive mental health history." In August 2014, Mulkey's probation was revoked and he was ordered to serve the remainder of his sentence. He received credit for 509 days spent in the county jail and the judge ordered that once back in prison, he be given the opportunity to earn his GED. In 2016, Mulkey pleaded guilty to a theft of property charge. He received a 45-month sentence in that case. It wasn't immediately clear when he was released or how long he has been living in Alabama. A Hale County judge on Friday ruled there was enough evidence against the suspect in a deadly boating crash to send the case to the grand jury. District Judge Tim Evans bound over the charges against 29-year-old Richard Latham Jr. of Tuscaloosa. He is charged in the Fourth of July boating crash that killed two people and injured five others. Authorities said his blood alcohol content registered at .234. The legal limit is .08. Richard "Ricky" Glover, 46, of Akron, and Destiny Graben, 23, of Northport died after two boats collided about four miles south of the Moundville boat landing. Glover and Graben were passengers on separate boats when the accident occurred. Neither was wearing a life vest, according to authorities. Destiny Graben and Ricky Glover Trooper Freddie Ingram has said Latham was driving a ski boat under the influence of alcohol. He was the operator of the boat in which Graben was a passenger. Glover was a passenger on a bass boat. There was a total of eight people on the two boats, which left two other people seriously injured. Three others suffered minor injuries and were transported to a nearby hospital, according to Sgt. Walter Lacey with Alabama Law Enforcement Agency's Marine Patrol Unit The accident occurred Wednesday around 6 p.m. when two boats collided on the Black Warrior River. In mid-July authorities issued warrants against Latham for two counts of reckless murder. Several days later, additional charges of first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment were added. Hale County District Attorney Michael Jackson on Friday said the cases will presented to the county's next grand jury session. A murder case was sent to a grand jury yesterday, more than seven months after the victim was shot to death and then set on fire. Rejuar Akeil Key, 37, is charged with intentional murder in the February slaying of Monty Lewayne Davis. Following a preliminary hearing Thursday morning, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Laura Petro bound the case over to a grand jury for possible indictment. Det. Roger Morris with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office testified during the hearing. He said Davis' burning body was discovered February 24, around 11:30 p.m. off Mulga Loop Road. A couple driving by had spotted the flames, and called 911. When Morris went to Davis' home to speak with family members, Morris said Davis' sister gave him the names of three men Davis was with earlier that day. One of the names the victim's sister provided was a nickname for Key. Morris tracked down the other two men named, and interviewed them. One of the men said he was at Key's home in the 2200 block of Eufaula Avenue on February 24, and saw the two men arguing about four bags of marijuana that Key claimed Davis stole. Davis denied the accusation, and Key played surveillance video he had from inside the house. The witness told Morris the video didn't show Davis stealing anything, but he and Key continued to argue and their altercation spilled onto the front porch. The witness said Key pulled a gun and told Davis, "You don't think I'll kill you," before shooting 29-year-old Davis in the head. The woman who was with the witness said she also saw the argument, and tried to get Davis to leave the house to diffuse the situation. She told Key she would repay the cost of the stolen drugs. As they were trying to leave with Davis, the woman told Morris that's when Key shot Davis in the head. Another man who claimed to be with Davis on the day of the shooting said Davis called him that morning and asked for a ride, so he could "holler at his people." The man and his friend picked Davis off and dropped him off at Key's Eufaula Avenue home. The man and his friend stayed in the car, while Davis walked into the home. He told Morris that they heard a loud argument inside the house, but believed it was some sort of family dispute, so they drove off. The sheriff's office conducted a search warrant within a week after the shooting, Morris said, and found a pistol inside. That gun has been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for comparison to a projectile taken from Davis' body. Key was charged with Davis' death in the summer, and is out of jail on a $100,000 bond. Deputy District Attorneys Kylie Jernigan and Dain Stewart are prosecuting the case; Jeff Dummier is representing Key. A shootout in the parking lot of an east Birmingham convenience store left one man with serious injuries. The shooting happened just after 12:30 p.m. at Grant's Citgo on Center Point Parkway. Birmingham police said a dispute between two men left to shots exchanged. At least 18 shots were fired. Evidence technicians have marked multiple shell casings just outside the front door, as well as blood spots on the outer rim of the lot closer to Center Point Parkway. One male was taken to St. Vincent's East by private vehicle.His injuries initially said to be life-threatening but police later upgraded his condition. A vehicle was also hit by the gunfire. No arrests have been announced. Alabama's Anniston Army Depot will be busier this winter after the Army recalls 10,000 pieces of military equipment from overseas for one of the biggest refurbishing projects in years, a top general said this week. Weapons are only part of the gear being recycled, Lt. Gen. Ed Daly said, but "the weapons will go to Anniston." Daly told reporters at Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal that the project beginning in November is the largest equipment move since 2012 in the Southwest Asia region including Afghanistan and Iraq. The scope of the project demonstrates the "global influence and impact" of the Army Materiel Command based at Redstone, he said. Daly is deputy commanding general of the command. Most of the equipment is support gear such as generators and communications platforms, Army briefers said. "We didn't decide what equipment we wanted to bring back," Daly said. "The leadership in the field did." Daly said the gear has accumulated in storage facilities over time and is requiring troops to spend unnecessary time guarding and taking care of it. Pulling it out "means nothing" in terms of the Army's commitment to the region, he said. "We're not stepping back in that sense," Daly said. "We're going to take that equipment and we're going to modernize it; we're going to overhaul it," Daly said. "So whoever gets that ... no matter where they are in the world will get the most updated, modernized pieces of equipment." "This is a bigger move than we've seen in the last year or two," Daly said. "This 10,000 pieces in terms of numbers doesn't seem like much, but it really shows a commitment." Asked about the $675 billion fiscal year 2019 budget for the Pentagon, Daly thanked Congress for what will be a $160 billion increase over two years. "We truly appreciate the passing of the Omnibus (spending bill), but here's the key point, "Daly said. "We need continued predictable and consistent funding. We need a re-look at the Budget Control Act ... the sequestration. What we really need is relief from the Budget Control Act." The Budget Control Act of 2011 put caps on military spending for 10 years ending in 2021. The amount was estimated at $1 trillion over the period. Daly said he feels "very, very comfortable that Congress understands our needs." Thursday's announcement that Blue Origin, officially, will be producing rocket engines at a new Cummings Research Park facility in Huntsville sparked a celebration. But not only for the city's victory in landing another coveted high-tech, high-paying project. Blue Origin is merely the latest in what's been a string of industrial development wins for Huntsville. "We have communities all the time call us and try to find out how we do things and they want to emulate what Huntsville does," said Shane Davis, director of urban and economic development for the city of Huntsville. As the Rocket City rocks on, Davis updated the city council on previous headline-grabbing economic development announcements as well as recapping the financial agreements the council approved more than a year ago when Blue Origin agreed to come to Huntsville - pending the landing of the contract with United Launch Alliance that was announced Thursday. Davis focused on three developments that are either under construction or in site preparation to build. The most advanced project is Aerojet Rocketdyne, which is building its own rocket engine facility in North Huntsville Industrial Park. Davis said that construction on the $27 million plant is at about 70 completion and that the company will be moving in to the building in early 2019. It's ultimately expected to create about 700 jobs. Aerojet is also relocating its headquarters to Cummings Research Park. While Blue Origin will be building the giant main engines for ULA' s Vulcan rocket - engines comparable in size to the legendary Apollo Saturn V rocket - Aerojet will be providing the engines for the second stage of the Vulcan. "When that rocket goes up, there will be a lot of Huntsville going up with that rocket," Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said. "That's a special thing for us and a special thing for our community." Documenting that launch, in some form or fashion, will be Facebook - the social media giant that announced earlier this year that it would build a $750 million data center near Aerojet in North Huntsville Industrial Park. That project will bring about 100 jobs in the first phase and Davis told the council that Facebook is interested in purchasing more land adjacent to the campus it already bought. "They are very interested in that," Davis said. "We fully expect this project to expand after this initial construction." Mass grading at the site is about 95 percent complete, Davis said, and the project is "moving very rapidly." Facebook is expected to be operating at the data center in 2020. The crown jewel for Huntsville, of course, is the $1.6 billion Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA facility. A first-of-its-kind project in the U.S. as two Japanese automakers come together on one campus, it's expected to produce 4,000 direct jobs and as many as 10,000 jobs altogether. Grading on about 1,400 of the 2,600-acre campus is ongoing and will take the rest of the year to complete, Davis said. The plant is expected to begin producing Toyota Corollas and a yet-to-be-identified Mazda vehicle by 2021. "We're looking at $2.5 billion in investment alone in these three projects," Davis told the council. "You start to add Blue origin to that, you're at $2.8 billion investment. We're looking at 6,000 jobs coming with these four projects." For now, though, they are nothing more than giant construction sites and Blue Origin will soon join that group. Soon, though, the money will begin flowing, Davis told the council. "We have good times ahead," Davis said. "We just have to be patient and let these projects get in place, let the jobs get going and help our economy, which helps our bottom line." A judge has ordered the city of Huntsville to turn over some records in the case of William Darby, a police officer charged with murder of a mentally ill man. Madison County Circuit Judge Donna Pate ordered the city to give prosecutors audio and video recordings of statements made during a police review board hearing. However, Pate's ruling did not include records related to Darby's statements, which is at the heart of what the district attorney's office is trying to obtain. The judge said she will rule later whether the city has to hand over copies of Darby's statements. The ruling comes after the Madison County district attorney's office asked Circuit Judge Donna Pate to force the city to comply with a subpoena. In response to the prosecutors' motion, the city had asked Pate to quash the subpoena. The judge held a hearing today to hear arguments from prosecutors, the defense and the city. Darby didn't attend today's hearing. All of the lawyers declined to comment afterward. Madison County Chief Trial Attorney Tim Gann told the judge he's never before been denied review board records from the city. "This is the first time we've had this issue," Gann said. The records in question are audio and video recordings of the police review board hearing at which the department cleared Darby of wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of 49-year-old Jeffrey Parker. The arguments at today's hearing mainly were about which evidence is admissible in court versus which evidence is discoverable. Discoverable evidence has to be provided to prosecutors and defense attorneys. Admissible evidence is what can be used at trial. Discoverable evidence isn't necessarily admissible. The review board Darby and two other officers testified at the review board hearing. Each signed Huntsville police documents acknowledging that they would either testify or potentially be fired, court records show. The documents also said any testimony in the review board hearing couldn't be used against them in court. The review board records, the city argued, don't have to be turned over to prosecutors because of Supreme Court rulings that say police officers and other public employees have the right to be free from testifying against themselves. Darby's defense attorney Robert Tuten said his client had been stripped of his rights and forced to give statements to the police. Prosecutors argued that even if Darby's statement isn't admissible because of his rights against self-incrimination, the records are still discoverable. Prosecutors have said in court records that Huntsville has to turn over the records because the defense -- which is being funded by the city using taxpayer money -- asked for them. Prosecutors are required to turn over to the defense any records that include "statements made by the defendant to any law enforcement officer, official or employee," according to the rules that govern court procedure in Alabama. In a motion filed in August, the defense asked that those and other records be turned over as part of the discovery process. The city has turned over to prosecutors other records related to the case. The district attorney's office received from Huntsville police the criminal investigation file, which includes body camera video and other evidence. The records of the review board hearing are not included in the criminal investigation file. As is customary, Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard and his chief deputy prosecutor attended the review board hearing along with the police department brass, representatives from the city attorney's office and members of the citizen review board. However, the decision whether Darby followed policy was left to three police captains, who cleared the 25-year-old officer of wrongdoing. Months after the review board hearing, a Madison County grand jury indicted Darby in the April 3 killing of Parker. The day of the shooting, Parker called police, and said he was suicidal and had a gun. At the scene on Deramus Avenue, officers briefly spoke with Parker, and Darby ordered him to drop the gun. When Parker did not comply, Darby fatally shot him, the police department said. The case has set up a duel between Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and the district attorney. Battle recently accused Broussard's office of "playing politics" in the case. The judge has issued a gag order that applies only to the parties of the case -- prosecutors, law enforcement and the defense. Chief Trial Attorney Tim Gann and Assistant DA Tim Douthit are prosecuting. Since Darby went from cleared by the department to indicted by a grand jury, the public has heard competing narratives. Battle and Police Chief Mark McMurray say Officer William Darby did nothing wrong and isn't a murderer. On the other hand, Broussard was "gravely concerned" about Darby's actions and took the case to a grand jury. At least 12 of the 18 grand jurors agreed with the DA and issued an indictment for murder. The city has refused to release body camera videos of the shooting to the public. The late Alabama Senator Howell Heflin was known for many things. The former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court was one of the last of a generation of conservative Democrats, opposing abortion and gun control. During the Iran Contra investigation, he drew national attention for saying Oliver North's secretary Fawn Hall smuggled secret documents out of the White House in her underwear, charges she vehemently denied. He sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the 1991 confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, famously asking law professor Anita Hill if her sexual harassment allegations against Thomas were because she was a "scorned woman." Heflin's role in the Thomas' hearings resulted in him being spoofed on "Saturday Night Live," where he was played by Chris Farley, complete with exaggerated Southern accent. Then there's the time Heflin pulled a pair of women's underwear out of his pocket. Heflin was first elected to the Senate in 1979, serving until 1997. Three years before he left the Senate, Heflin was dining with some reporters in the Senate cafeteria when he reached in his pocket for a handkerchief. Instead of a handkerchief, however, Howell pulled out a pair of his wife's underwear. He later sent out a press release to explain the gaffe. STATEMENT OF SEN. HOWELL HEFLIN HANDKERCHIEF JULY 19, 1994 I mistakenly picked up a pair of my wife's white panties and put them in my pocket while I was rushing out the door to go to work. Rather than take a chance on being embarrassed again, I'm going to start buying colored handkerchiefs. Washington Post national political correspondent Karen Tumulty unearthed the press release during a 2009 office move and tweeted out an image of Heflin's statement. Packing up things to take to new office. Another keeper: best congressional press release ever. pic.twitter.com/Jz0HDFAzNz Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) November 23, 2015 Heflin, who was known for his sense of humor, later said the underwear incident was something he would never forget. "Pulling out those panties in front of two television people, that was most embarrassing," Heflin said. Heflin died March 29, 2005 at age 83. His wife, Elizabeth Ann Heflin, died in 2014. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals today turned down former House Speaker Mike Hubbard's request for a rehearing on felony ethics charges upheld previously by the court. The decision means Hubbard's next option is an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court. Hubbard has 14 days to file a petition asking the Supreme Court to consider the case. The Court of Criminal Appeals did not release an opinion today associated with its decision turn down Hubbard's request for a rehearing. In August, the court had issued a 160-page opinion upholding 11 of 12 felony ethics convictions against Hubbard, charges involving the use of his public office for personal gain. A Lee County jury convicted Hubbard in 2016 and Circuit Judge Jacob Walker sentenced him to four years in prison. Hubbard has remained out on bond pending the appeal. Prosecutors had asked the Court of Criminal Appeals for a rehearing on the one charge overturned by the court. Today's decision also means that request is denied, Criminal Appeals Court Clerk Scott Mitchell said. Hubbard was one of Alabama's most powerful politicians when a special grand jury in Lee County indicted him in October 2014 after a lengthy investigation. He remained speaker until the conviction automatically removed him from office. Hubbard was convicted for receiving money from companies and business executives who employed lobbyists. The money came through consulting contracts in business investments. He was convicted of using his state office and lobbying for a business owner who was paying him a consulting contract. Hubbard has maintained his innocence, saying the transactions were legal. The Alabama Republican Party said Friday that U.S. Sen. Doug Jones', D-Ala., intention to vote against confirming Brett Kavanaugh "betrays our state." Jones indicated Thursday night that he would not vote to confirm Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing what he believed was Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's credible testimony that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when he was a high school student. Alabama's junior senator also suggested that the Senate Judiciary Committee's decision not to subpoena Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge, whom Ford said witnessed the incident, and the committee's failure to receive all relevant documents on Kavanaugh impacted his decision. "His no vote betrays our state and his actions highlight his disingenuous promise to represent the majority of Alabamians. After siding against Alabamians and President Trump, Sen. Jones is now firmly in the Schumer/Feinstein/Warren/Sanders column," the party said in a statement. "After his repeated no votes, Sen. Jones is now a full-fledged member of the 'Never Trump' resistance. Alabama will not forget his betrayal. Senator Doug Jones' days in the United States Senate are numbered." Of the four cabinet-level nomination votes taken by Jones since he was seated in January, the senator has voted to confirm three of President Trump's nominees. The Alabama Republican Party suggested that it believes Ford "suffered a traumatic event in her youth" but that Kavanaugh did not sexually assault her. "Anyone who experiences an assault should be taken seriously. All avenues should be exhausted to help a victim and to find the truth pertinent to each individual situation. It is clear Dr. Ford suffered from a traumatic event in her youth, and like Judge Kavanaugh's daughter, we should pray for her to receive strength, peace and healing," the party said. "Nevertheless, there was no case made that Brett Kavanaugh was involved in her incident. Actually, the opposite happened as witnesses she named refuted her story and Kavanaugh convincingly denies it." Province 7 named Sudurpashchim, Godawari capital The Province 7 has been named as Sudurpashchim and fixed Godawari of Kailali as its capital on Friday amidst protest from local leaders led by main opposition Nepali Congress (NC). The Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department are facing a formal discrimination complaint alleging the agencies did not meet their legal duties to respond to a reported outbreak of hookworm in Lowndes County. The complaint, filed for the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise by environmental group Earthjustice, alleges that the health departments discriminated against the largely African-American community by not acting on the outbreak. "For decades, the black residents of rural Lowndes County, Alabama have suffered disproportionately from inadequate access to basic sanitation," the group said in the complaint. "The inadequate and failing sewage treatment systems release raw sewage, which contaminates local water bodies, pools in back yards, and exposes residents to diseases such as the recent nineteen confirmed cases of hookworm in the county." Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama's state health officer and head of the ADPH, said the department had not received the complaint in advance so could not address all the specifics of the allegations, but that the department has been very active in monitoring the possibilities of an outbreak that could occur with unsanitary wastewater conditions that exist in some parts of the Black Belt. Harris, who was named state health officer in February, said that the department has conducted door-to-door surveys and collaborated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to try to determine the scope of the problem. "It's one of our top issues actually and we feel like we are dedicating a lot of time to that," Harris said. Hookworm is an intestinal parasite that lives in the intestines of warm-blooded host animals and people. The eggs are disbursed through feces, and newly hatched worms enter a new host through contact with bare skin. According to the CDC, the parasites were common throughout the Southeast until the early 20th century, but became much rarer due to improved sanitary conditions. The complaint also alleges that the ADPH downplayed the risk of hookworm and informed residents that there were no cases of hookworm in the area. A peer-reviewed study published by researchers at Baylor University's College of Medicine found that more than 34 percent of Lowndes County residents tested positive for one species of hookworm. The state health department disputed that study, saying the researchers had "used an experimental technology that was not FDA-approved in order to determine whether hookworm genetic material could be identified in stool specimens," and that those results could not be duplicated using "benchmark confirmatory testing procedure." The plaintiffs say the researchers used "the most sensitive and up-to-date methods to detect parasitic worms." Harris said focusing too much on one study could be a distraction when there are obvious health issues relating to sewage disposal in Lowndes County. "Whether this one study was valid or not is almost beside the point," Harris said. "There are clear problems with the wastewater infrastructure and that needs to be addressed. "Whether we found hookworms or didn't, it wouldn't change the fact that that [infrastructure] needs to be addressed." Sewage issues Lowndes County suffers from a number of sewage issues, as much of the county is too rural to connect to municipal sewer lines, while the heavy, clay-laden soil makes many septic systems ineffective and those that work more expensive to install. As a result, many residents resort to "straight pipe" disposal of wastewater, in which the house's sewage and wastewater is pumped through a PVC pipe onto the ground near the house. Such practices result in offensive odors and public health concerns. Straight pipe sewage disposal is illegal, but the plaintiffs say only black residents are being punished for such violations. Harris said the ADPH has worked extensively with U.S. Rep Terri Sewell, U.S. Sen. Doug Jones and others in a "wastewater consortium," a group looking to brainstorm solutions to the wastewater issues in Lowndes County and other parts of the Black Belt. "We're looking at ways to try to introduce novel wastewater treatment solutions, or other ways to improve infrastructure that deals with wastewater in these areas," Harris said. Catherine Flowers, founder of the ACRE, said the sewage problems of Lowndes County are another vestige of racial oppression for black residents. "It is a terrible injustice that a region that has borne a tremendous burden of systemic racial oppression from the times of cotton plantations to the civil rights era when black people were locked out of voting has to live with the degradation of unsanitary or nonexistent sewer systems," Flowers said in a news release. "We are hoping this complaint helps make a difference in the lives of African Americans who deserve the same rights to water and decent health as everyone else." The complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars recipients of federal funding from discriminating on the basis or race, color or national origin. Harris said the department will respond to the issues raised in the complaint. "We certainly look forward to working with HHS or anyone else in making sure that we answer everything appropriately," Harris said. *UPDATED at 1:40 p.m. to include response from the Alabama Department of Public Health. Alabama Representative Terri Sewell is blasting Senate Judiciary proceedings over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a series of tweets, Sewell, D-Birmingham, praised Dr. Christine Blasey Ford for her testimony yesterday in which she identified Kavanaugh as the man she believed sexually assaulted her at a party in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh denies the charges. Sewell also called for an FBI investigation into Ford and two other women's allegations against Kavanaugh and faulted the GOP's handling of the testimony. "This is not an investigation. This is a hearing managed by a panel of white Republican men," Sewell tweeted. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on the nomination today, setting up a full Senate vote early next week. Thank you Dr. Ford for bravely sharing your truth. In today's #KavanaughHearings you shared what its like to be a survivor, you let us know the lifelong impact that sexual assault has on victims, you spoke up and Americans listened. Thank you. Rep. Terri A. Sewell (@RepTerriSewell) September 27, 2018 Republicans keep mentioning evidence and corroboration. If they want evidence and corroboration, a good start would be an actual investigation by the FBI. #KavanaughHearing Rep. Terri A. Sewell (@RepTerriSewell) September 27, 2018 Boys will be boys is not going to cut it anymore. Not for #SCOTUS, not on our college campuses, and not in Congress. If lawmakers don't understand that it's #timesup for sexual harassment and assault, then they can get out of the way. A #PinkWave is coming. Rep. Terri A. Sewell (@RepTerriSewell) September 26, 2018 An AMBER alert has been issued for a 7-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl from Florida, officials said Thursday night. The children are 7-year-old Brian Mejias and 6-year-old Gabriela Mejias. Both children are white or Hispanic, Florida officials said. Brian was last seen wearing a red shirt and blue jean shorts. Brian has short hair that's parted to the left. He is also missing teeth on the top right side of his mouth. He has a scar below his hairline on the right side of his forehead. Gabriela was last seen wearing a pink dress. She has long, dark hair that goes past her waist. She has dimples and dimples, and all her teeth are crowned except the front four. Gabriela Mejias The children were last seen in the area of the 900 block of Ohio Avenue North in Live Oak, Florida. Authorities said the children may be traveling west to Texas from Florida in a black Toyota Camry with Texas tags. The Camry has dark tinted windows and is possibly being driven by a male named Rochie. This vehicle is possibly travelling in a caravan of three vehicles. One of the other vehicles is a grey, Chevy Tahoe or Suburban with lightly tinted windows and a Texas license plate. The other possible vehicle is a beige Chevy Tahoe or Suburban with no tinted windows. The vehicle could be driven by a male named Melecio and occupied by a female named Alexia. There are possibly 13 subjects in total plus the two children. They may be travelling west toward Texas or Madison, Florida. About 50 members of the progressive group Indivisible marched outside the Birmingham offices of Alabama's U.S. senators on Friday to urge U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., to vote against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. Some protesters also spoke out about their experiences of being sexually assaulted, a day after the woman accusing Kavanaugh of such behavior, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, recounted her allegations before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kavanaugh was adamant in his denial of the alleged incident, which took place at a high school party in Maryland in the 1980s. "Sen. Shelby, vote no," the Indivisible members chanted outside the senator's offices on 5th Avenue North. "We believe her, vote no." The protesters also applauded Shelby's counterpart, Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, who indicated Thursday night that he would vote against Kavanaugh's nomination after wrestling with the decision for months. "Sen. Jones, thank you," they said. "Not one man's ambition is worth more than the soul of a single girl who will be born in the next 30 years," one of the Indivisible members said in between chants. "Every woman must take a stand, they must take a side. Side 1: You're telling my daughter, every little girl in Sunday school, in Kindergarten and every little girl born into the next generation that she has value, she has autonomy, and she is worthy of dignity and respect. And Side 2: You're telling the same girls to keep their mouths shut, to take it, that one man is worth more than their bodies and souls combined, and it doesn't matter anyway because their bodies and souls are worthless to begin with." Carole Griffin, who led the chanters as they walked around the offices, said she hoped that those who told their stories of being sexually abused would fuel people to vote in November. "This is not about sex, this is about power, and that power is used against the powerless," she said. "This is about taking our power back." Shea Rives, one of the organizers of the rally, said Kavanaugh came off as not credible during his testimony at Thursday's hearing. "There are so many things he was dishonest about," Rives said, citing Kavanaugh lacking specifics when asked how many beers are too many to consume. "To me, that goes to his credibility." Ten days after Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump in June, Birmingham's Indivisible chapter protested Trump's pick amid concerns that the Supreme Court would roll back abortion rights and loosen gun restrictions. Rives said Kavanaugh's demeanor during Thursday's hearing, in which the Supreme Court nominee shouted and answered some Democratic senators' questions by posing the same questions to them, makes him unqualified, along with the judge's contention that his nomination is being derailed by the Clintons over his role in the impeachment of Bill Clinton. "I don't deny that Supreme Court justices probably have political opinions, but part of the judicial temperament is separating those opinions from their professionalism," Rives said. A Decatur doctor was convicted Friday on three counts of harassment involving female patients. The Decatur Municipal Court sentenced Dr. Michael Dick to a $500 fine and 30 days in jail on each count. Dick denies all allegations. After he was found guilty on one charge, he entered guilty pleas on the other two counts with the stipulation that he would appeal the case in Morgan County Circuit Court. He will remain out of jail while the convictions are on appeal. Dick, a physician at Alabama Medicine and Rheumatology in Decatur, was arrested in January after former patients filed warrants against him for harassment related to incidents they said happened while he was treating them at his practice. In the case in which Dick was convicted, a former patient, Ashley Newcom, said Dick touched her face inappropriately and told her she was beautiful. One of the other women who had filed a warrant against him, Cheree Jordan, told AL.com in May that Dick kissed her on the mouth while she was in the exam room seeing him for arthritis-related problems. Jordan told AL.com that when she went to Dick's practice for treatment, she didn't know that another woman had filed a police report about Dick's behavior a month earlier. Dick was arrested in 2011 on harassment related to his treatment of a female patient, but the charge was later dropped. Dick is being sued by multiple women for sexual misconduct and harassment. Their attorney, Eric Artrip, said 10 women are currently part of the lawsuit. Dick continued to practice medicine after his arrest for harassment and has denied all accusations of inappropriate behavior. "Dr. Michael Dick has been and remains under investigation by the Board, and we have been in communication with law enforcement throughout that process," said Wilson Hunter, general counsel for the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, which oversees investigating physician behavior. The Board is the public agency that makes recommendations to the Medical Licensure Commission to revoke or suspend a doctor's license to practice. "Today's convictions permit the Board to act, if it chooses to, without compromising the criminal investigation," Hunter said. "We expect to be able to present our own findings to the Board at its next meeting." If the Board files a complaint, it will go in Dick's publicly-available record on the Board's website. Hunter said the Board relies on patients to report inappropriate behavior by doctors. "When a doctor violates the trust that every patient has a right to expect, we want to hear about it," he said. "We are dependent on patients speaking up to prosecute these cases. Alabama law provides immunity from retaliation if a patient complains against a doctor for violating that trust relationship, and the Board can and does make every effort to protect patients in such cases." President Donald Trump has agreed to give the FBI one week to investigate Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The move comes after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate but with a caveat from Republican Jeff Flake that he'd like to see a "limited" probe conducted. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced the probe in a tweet. Statement from President @realDonaldTrump: Ive ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaughs file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week. Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) September 28, 2018 Trump's tweet follows a contentious hearing in which college professor Christine Blasey Ford told senators Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school. Kavanaugh denies the claims. On Friday, he responded to this latest investigation. "Throughout this process, I've been interviewed by the FBI, I've done a number of 'background' calls directly with the Senate, and yesterday, I answered questions under oath about every topic the senators and their counsel asked me," Kavanaugh said. "I've done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate." Flake called for the additional investigation but asked that it be limited to one week and only related to Ford's claims. Two other women have made allegations about Kavanaugh but have not testified before the committee. "The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today," the judicial committee said in a statement. Several other swing Senators, including Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, backed Flake's efforts. U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., indicated in a Thursday night tweet that he will vote against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, partly citing the "credible" testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her more than three decades ago. Since Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump in July, Jones said he would take a "deep dive" on Kavanaugh's record before deciding on whether to confirm his nomination. Before the sexual assault allegations surfaced earlier this month, Jones had called for a pause on the nomination until the Senate Judiciary Committee could access Kavanaugh's records from his tenure working in the White House under President George W. Bush. In his tweet, Jones suggested that the lack of records as well as the decision by the Republican-led Judiciary Committee not to compel Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge -- whom Ford said was a witness to the incident -- to testify before the committee also impacted his decision to vote no on Kavanaugh. The senator also said Ford was "courageous" for coming forward with the allegations. "What message will we send to our daughters & sons, let alone sexual assault victims? The message I will send is this--I vote no," Jones tweeted. I have called for: Complete disclosure of all documents Subpoena Mark Judge Postpone the vote Dr. Ford was credible & courageous. What message will we send to our daughters & sons, let alone sexual assault victims? The message I will send is thisI vote no. #RightSideofHistory Doug Jones (@DougJones) September 28, 2018 Richard Shelby, Alabama's senior Republican senator, said both Ford and Kavanaugh delivered "credible" testimony during Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing looking into Ford's allegations of sexual assault against the U.S. Supreme Court nominee, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said in a statement to AL.com. The hearing featured emotional testimony from both Ford and Kavanaugh, who was defiant in his denial of the allegations. Ford alleges that when Kavanaugh was a student at a Maryland prep school in the 1980s, he groped her and covered her mouth as he pinned her to a bed during a party. "I know this was a difficult day for Dr. Ford, Judge Kavanaugh, and their families. I appreciate [Senate Judiciary Committee] Chairman Grassley giving both sides a fair chance to be heard," Shelby said. "I watched the hearing today. I thought that Dr. Ford was credible, but I thought that Judge Kavanaugh came on very strong and was also very credible." Shelby met with Kavanaugh in late July, when Alabama's senior senator said he would back the judge's nomination. "After speaking with Judge Brett Kavanaugh, I am confident that he is principled, intelligent, and a steadfast supporter of the rule of law. He is highly qualified for this role and exhibits strong, conservative values and an unwavering commitment to our Constitution. I have no doubt that Judge Kavanaugh will uphold the principles on which our nation was founded," Shelby said at the time. "Confirming Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most important things we will do during this Congress. I look forward to supporting his nomination to serve on our nation's highest court, and I urge my colleagues to do the same." Chikesia Clemons, the African-American woman who was arrested at a Saraland Waffle-House in April, was granted a new trial earlier this week after an appeal. Judge Rick Stout set the new date of the trial to Dec. 3 in his Wednesday filing, according to court documents. The new trial was granted in Circuit Court after Clemons and her attorney Marcus Foxx appealed the original verdict. Clemons was found guilty of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct during a trial in Saraland Municipal Court in July. She will face a jury at her new trial in Dec. The arrest came to light after a video of her being allegedly manhandled by Saraland police officers inside a Waffle House surfaced and went viral on social media. Clemons is seen being wrestled to the floor by three police officers in what protesters and black right's activists labeled as police brutality. Rev. Al Sharpton, a nationwide black right's leader, came to Mobile to raise funds for her legal defense, while a prominent civil rights leader was hired from Florida to take on her case. In the lead up to the court date, unrelated charges of harassment were dropped against her after the alleged victim in that case failed to appear in court. As part of the months-long protest against how Clemons was arrested, a petition containing more than 50,000 signatures was delivered to Saraland's district attorney June 19 asking that the charges against her be dropped. At the conclusion of the original trial, Judge Mark Erwin said that Clemons was found guilty because the facts of the case met the legal definitions required to find a person guilty, and had nothing to do with the high level of emotion that had played out in the weeks and months before. The National Sexual Assault Hotline saw a 147 percent increase in calls during Thursday's Senate hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, or RAINN, the anti-sexual violence organization that administers the hotline, said it is not uncommon for calls to increase when sexual assault issues are in the media. RAINN's free, confidential online chat service also experienced "unprecedented" wait times on Thursday, The Hill reported. On Thursday, professor Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her as a young teenager in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh denies the allegations, as well as those by two other accusers who did not testify at the Senate hearing. We estimate that today the National Sexual Assault Hotline saw a 147% increase above normal volume. https://t.co/sVpTuIEffA RAINN (@RAINN) September 28, 2018 We are experiencing unprecedented wait times for our online chat. If you are able, we encourage you to call 800.656.HOPE (4673) or reach out via chat tomorrow. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. RAINN (@RAINN) September 27, 2018 Hearing about sexual violence in the media and online can be very difficult for survivors and their loved ones. Remember to take care of yourself during these times. Below is a thread of resources: RAINN (@RAINN) September 24, 2018 Before the Kavanaugh hearings, RAINN said the allegations often empower others to reach out for help. "Sexual assault is a crime, and every allegation should be thoroughly investigated. The allegations made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford are very serious. The Senate Judiciary Committee has a responsibility to hear from both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford before voting on his nomination," the organization said in a press release. "History tells us that hearing allegations such as these often leads others to reach out for help. Free, confidential support is available 24/7 through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE and RAINN.org." Baldwin County Probate Judge Tim Russell, in a news release, said the date change was decided upon by District Attorney Robert Wilters with consultation from the Alabama Secretary of State's Office. No further details were given. Fairhope voters were scheduled to vote, during a special election estimated to cost $15,000, on a referendum to switch the city's form of government from mayor-council to council-manager. But a host of voters, including city officials, have said they are confused about whether a change would require the city council -- currently elected at-large -- would have to change to include three district members. A special election on Tuesday to determine the future of Fairhope's city government was rescheduled Friday to the November 6 general election. At a candidates' forum on Tuesday, some argued that voters may be fully aware that a change to council-manager form would lead to district council members. The Alabama Attorney General's Office, also this week, released an opinion confirming that a new council-manager form of government has to consist of district council members if the change is authorized through a citizens' petition. The non-profit group, Fresh Start Fairhope, gathered over 800 signatures and submitted them to election officials in early July. The special election was set for Tuesday because of a language spelled out in state law that required the special election date be set "not later than 90 days," from the time the petition was submitted. Senior leader of ruling party blasts government Senior leader of Nepal Communist Party Madhav Kumar Nepal has expressed displeasure at the government headed by his own party. For the second time in six weeks, the Alabama Supreme Court has rejected a request by Roy Moore to move a lawsuit filed against him in Montgomery County to his home county of Etowah. The Supreme Court on Friday echoed its Aug. 17 ruling that the suit brought by Leigh Corfman - who alleged that Moore touched her in a sexual way when she was 14 and he was 32 - should remain in Montgomery. The high court issued its ruling Friday, giving no opinion on the case. Moore had asked the court for a rehearing following its August ruling. The trial judge denied Moore's motion in April. Corfman filed a defamation lawsuit in January against Moore. Moore has since filed a counter lawsuit. Moore described the Supreme Court's ruling in August as "ridiculous." Moore had asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit because it was not filed in the proper venue -- arguing that it rightfully should have been filed in Etowah County, where Corfman said the encounter with Moore occurred. Moore's attorneys also said that the case should be moved to Etowah County for the convenience of the parties involved, saying that both the plaintiff and defendant reside in Etowah County. The response from Corfman's attorneys on the venue issue were that Moore wanted the case moved to Etowah County because it would be a "home forum." And that of the nine people named or involved in the lawsuit, all but three live closer to Montgomery than the Etowah County seat of Gadsden. Those three, Corfman said, are Corfman, Moore and Corfman's mother, who did not mind traveling to Montgomery. And Corfman argued that Moore's attorneys, in a December lawsuit filed in a failed attempt to have the election results certified, was filed in Montgomery County. In that lawsuit, Moore's attorneys described Corfman as making "false and malicious attacks." As the University of South Alabama noose scandal continues into a fourth day, new details about the perpetrator have emerged. Known as the confederate-cowboy on social media, Reagan Barr, who was suspended from the Mobile-based school Thursday, is responsible for a series of homophobic, racist, and xenophobic slurs, according to his social media presence and other students. After becoming embroiled in a heated and ideological argument with classmates Wednesday, he then admitted to hanging two nooses from a tree the night before. He was filmed admitting to the act and saying it was because Halloween was close. After the nooses were discovered Tuesday night, allegedly the remnants of a sheet banner that had hung there the night before, USA President Tony Waldrop released a press release explaining to students what had occurred. By the next day, Barr had confessed and was escorted off campus. After being suspended and banned from being on school property, Barr, 22, who is studying botany, then wrote on social media that he was autistic and would be seeking therapy for his issues. He also asked fellow students that had recently added him as a friend on Facebook to pray for him so he could "get some sanity back." However, the autism admission has created a rift among students, with some saying that attacks on him are unwarranted and ableist. Known as the confederate-cowboy on social media, Reagan Barr, who was suspended from the Mobile-based school Thursday, is responsible for a series of homophobic, racist, and xenophobic slurs, according to his social media presence and other students. "That night he posted on Facebook saying that he has aspergers, autism, and that he doesn't understand sociability," said Jared Lisenby, a 27-year-old student of philosophy and classics, who witnessed Barr admitting to hanging the nooses and saying other insensitive things. "It was on those posts where people said stuff like 'how dare they post about this kid being disabled.' He has since removed his Facebook. He deleted it Thursday night." "And the PD on campus painted him in a much better light than they should have." Lisenby, who told AL.com that most of the students he knew were afraid to speak publicly on the issue, said the Chief of Campus Police Zeke Aull's portrayal of Barr during an interview seemed sympathetic. Aull told reporters that Barr cried after being made aware of how the two nooses could upset the African-American community and that he wasn't really aware of what he was doing. "No one really believes he didn't know what he was doing," said Lisenby. Screenshots collected from various social media accounts belonging to Barr suggest that rather than making a racist faux-pas by hanging the nooses, he has made significant racist comments in the past. In one post on the social media platform Swifly, Barr refered to African-American people as "porch gorillas" and used the hashtag "#ni**ered." On his confederate-cowboy profile he said that the South is the greatest place to live and if "you keep toppling our monuments & keep ripping down flags, you WILL get killed." He goes on: "Muslims, atheists, Satanists, fa**ots, illegal immigrants & communists are not welcome in America." Screenshots of Barr's Tinder online dating profile, he writes that he is a "hardcore Christian" and will not tolerate "drama or gold-digging." In a post of offensive pictures of people from different countries, he wrote "let's trigger some more retards." He also writes that Islam should be eradicated and supports the confederacy. However, screenshots collected from various social media accounts belonging to Barr suggest that rather than making a racist faux-pas by hanging the nooses, he appears to be a committed racist. After Barr left the room where students witnessed him admitting to hanging the nooses, professors began to come in and ask what had happened. "Then many of them told brief stories about having him in their class where he was being racist, homophobic, or disruptive," said Lisenby. "As more and more people came in and heard the story more and more had stories of him being like this." While students spoke to by AL.com have called for Barr to be expelled from the school, Lisenby stopped short of that by saying it wasn't his moral judgment to make. "I think it's important for him to learn that no matter how anonymous his actions are there are consequences. We have a very warm community and if he doesn't want to be part of it then he doesn't need to go here." The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is pursuing a discrimination complaint against shipbuilder Austal USA, despite a courtroom defeat last year and a claim the case has been settled. The EEOC filed suit last this week in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. However, the case goes back to the 2015 dismissal of an employee named in court documents as Jimmy A. Cooper. After being fired in January of that year, he filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC in early March. According to claims and documents presented in court records, the EEOC soon notified Austal of the complaint. After becoming employed by Austal as a warehouse worker in 2007, Cooper had been diagnosed with diabetes, the severity of which required him to miss work at times to receive treatment. By the time of his firing he'd been promoted to the position of logistics associate. The principal allegation was that Austal's point system for attendance had improperly counted absences related to medical treatment, thus unfairly penalizing him for his disability. Austal vigorously disputed that, filing a timeline of events in which it represented that Cooper had been given generous leave on numerous occasions related to medical issues. Austal maintained that it had properly excused all medical absences and that Cooper had racked up additional unrelated absences, for which he was dismissed. However, that wasn't the point of the battle that raged from April 2015 through October 2017. According to court filings, on April 29, 2015, the EEOC handed Austal a Request For Information. It wanted to know how many people had been fired under the same policy in the six-month period from July 2014 through January 2015. For each firing (a number later revealed to be 89), it wanted documentation on every absence leading up to the dismissal and all medical records on the employees involved, including whether they had a medical disability. In mid-May 2015, Austal notified the EEOC that it thought the party was over: "In conjunction with a Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act ("LHWCA") settlement approved by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), the Charging Party [Cooper]entered into an Agreement and General Release wherein he released all claims against Austal effective May 7, 2015." Without offering any position on the settlement, the EEOC pursued its request. Austal cried foul, arguing that any such investigation was required to be relevant to the initial case under investigation. "Here the Charge is no longer appropriately under investigation," wrote an attorney for Austal, "as the Charging Party, in exchange for sufficient consideration, has released all claims against Austal; this the RFI is not procedurally relevant." Erika LaCour, director of the Mobile EEOC office, responded by restating the EEOC's intent to pursue the matter: "Please consider yourself on notice by this letter that the Commission has elected to expand its investigation of the above referenced charge to determine if Respondent's employment patterns or practices discriminated against disabled individuals as a class. The decision to expand the Commission's investigation is based in part on evidence obtained during the investigation regarding the Respondent's attendance policy." Further exchanges of icy pleasantries followed. In June 2015 Austal concluded that "that it is largely unable to provide any meaningful response due to the RFI's vagueness, ambiguity and overbreadth." This didn't sit well and in late 2015 the EEOC subpoenaed the information. Austal declined to comply and that standoff lasted until May 23, 2017, when the EEOC's regional office in Birmingham finally took it to court, requesting an Order to Show Cause. Basically the EEOC wanted Austal to be called on the carpet. The company would be compelled to convince a judge that the subpoena should be junked, or else to cough up the requested documents. It didn't go the EEOC's way. In August 2017, Magistrate Judge P. Bradley Murray issued a "report and recommendations" that included an extensive recap of the battle so far. He said the EEOC had failed to show that the information it wanted was relevant to Cooper's case, and he recommended the subpoena be quashed. Murray's recap shows he was aware of the settlement claim, but he didn't cite it as a reason for his conclusion. Instead he grounded his decision in regulations and precedent on EEOC action, which he said held that EEOC couldn't do what it seemed to want to do the way it wanted to do it. "Indeed, if, as is apparent in this case, the EEOC desires to conduct a broader pattern-or-practice investigation, it is empowered to file a Commissioner's charge," Murray wrote. "What it cannot do is use Cooper's charge as a backdoor means to obtain information that is more appropriately available through other administrative vehicles." Further, Murray said that "this Court must reject the notion that because Austal's alleged individual act of discrimination against Cooper 'might' be part of a pattern or practice of discrimination, the EEOC is entitled to the information requested by subpoena." The EEOC filed an objection, but in October 2017 District Judge William H. Steele accepted Murray's recommendation and quashed the subpoena. He did, however, reject Austal's motion that the EEOC should pay its attorneys' fees. There it sat, for nearly a year. The new EEOC suit, filed Sept. 24, mentions that Cooper filed a discrimination complaint "more than thirty days prior to the institution of this lawsuit." It says that in July the EEOC invited Austal to "join with the Commission in informal methods of conciliation to endeavor to eliminate the unlawful employment practices and provide appropriate relief." This didn't pan out. The suit lays out the narrative of an employee struggling with a worsening medical condition, compounded by increased physical stress that followed a promotion. It asks for relief including back pay and other compensation, and for Austal to change its policies. It seeks a jury trial. It doesn't include (at least not yet) a broader request for information from Austal. It also doesn't bring up the issue of whether Cooper signed a settlement. As of Friday, a response from Austal wasn't shown in the court record. Marsha Rucker, an EEOC attorney involved in the case, said the agency had no comment at this time. Austal provided the following statement: "Austal is committed to its diversity and affirmative action efforts to recruit and retain individuals with disabilities in its workforce. Austal denies the allegations in the lawsuit filed by the EEOC and will defend this matter accordingly." (Note: This story was updated with a statement from Austal after an initial request for comment was declined.) Tuscaloosa police say man reported missing from Tuscaloosa has been found in Guin, Alabama and is in the care of his daughter. The man, 83-year-old Harris Junior Wallace, was reported missing after he was last seen by his wife around 9 a.m. today. He was last seen wearing a red shirt and khaki pants. Police said Wallace has been diagnosed with dementia. Police said Wallace was driving a black 2008 Ford F-150 with Alabama tag 3987AM2. Family members believed he could be driving to his childhood home in Guin. Authorities found him there. He will be transported back to Tuscaloosa by his daughter, police said. The popular Morocco-Spain route comes with danger, as authorities carry out raids and the navy fires on migrant boats. Tangier, Morocco Nestled in Tangiers backstreets, Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral rises above the fracas of heated market trading as Archbishop Santiago Agrelo Martinez leads an impassioned service. Most of his congregation are sub-Saharan Africans planning to reach Europe. As the service ends, Martinez is surrounded by worshippers pleading for assistance with medical bills or employment. Others simply ask for a prayer for friends who recently attempted the crossing to Spain but have since disappeared. Our desire is that emigrants have a family unit through the church to which they can always go, as if it was their own home, Martinez tells Al Jazeera. The most difficult thing is to see them humiliated every day, begging in the street, suffering in fear and not knowing when that hell will end, he says. I cannot help feeling their situation as mine. In this house, we somehow take care of everything for them: food, clothing, body hygiene, physical and mental health, housing, the schooling of children, the development of personal skills and assisting them with getting jobs in small companies in Tangier. For the first time since the refugee crisis began in 2015, the Morocco to Spain route has become the most popular path for asylum seekers attempting to reach Europes shores. If I stay in Mali there is no work, no future and no security. I want to go to Europe to work, I'm happy to do all the jobs that Europeans don't want to do; I just want to be safe. Alhassane Keita, 42-year-old Mali migrant Up until September 10 this year, a total of 34,994 people made the perilous journey, dwarfing numbers for the Libya-Italy and Turkey-Greece routes with 20,210 and 20,827 respectively. This figure is also already treble that of 2017. According to some reports, Moroccan authorities believe 50,000 migrants are currently based in Tangier and its surrounding area. The Morocco route is not without its own specific danger. Earlier this month, Amnesty International blasted Moroccan authorities for a shocking crackdown on sub-Saharans. Since the end of July, the Moroccan police together with the Royal Gendarmerie and the Auxiliary Forces carried out major raids on the neighbourhoods where refugees and migrants live in several cities, with particular intensity in the northern provinces of Tangier, Nador and Tetuan, which neighbour the Spanish borders, said the rights group. This shocking crackdown on migrants and refugees in Morocco is both cruel and unlawful. It represents a worrying backslide for a government that in 2013 introduced new asylum and migration policy commitments to bring Morocco into compliance with international standards, said Heba Morayef, Amnesty Internationals Middle East and North Africa Director. An estimated 5,000 people were swept up in the raids since July, piled on to buses and abandoned in remote areas close to the Algerian border or in the south of the country, according to the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH). The group monitored the number of buses that left from Tangier, Tetuan and Nador and calculated an estimate for the number of people seized. New arrivals sleep rough on Tangier boulevard [Joe Wallen/Al Jazeera] And those who end up attempting the journey to Spain are also put at risk at sea. On Tuesday, a Moroccan woman was killed and three other people were left wounded one critically after the countrys navy opened fire at a speedboat carrying migrants. The Moroccan interior ministry said in a statement that a naval unit operating in the Mediterranean was forced to fire on the boat because its Spanish driver refused to obey orders. On Wednesday, Alarmphone, a network of activist and migrant groups providing a 24-hour hotline for refugees in distress at sea, said it had assisted eight boats in distress coming from Morocco, one of which was returned to the north African country. The majority of Martinezs congregation live in the adjacent kasbah area of the city. Alhassane Keita, 42, has called it home since he fled Mali in early 2013 when fighters advanced to within 20km of his city Mopti. If I stay in Mali there is no work, no future and no security, Keita tells Al Jazeera. I want to go to Europe to work, Im happy to do all the jobs that Europeans dont want to do; I just want to be safe. Alhassane Keita says he does not have a future in Mali and is willing to do low-paid work in Europe as long as he is safe [Joe Wallen/Al Jazeera] Asylum seekers take advantage of lax housing regulations in the kasbah, living cheaply, crammed into decrepit homes. There are so many sub-Saharan refugees and migrants in the area that Moroccans have begun referring to it as Petit Dakar. Another kasbah resident, 16-year-old Mohammed Jallo, fled Sierra Leone when he was just 13. His parents were murdered in a revenge killing linked to the countrys bloody civil war. He had worked for three years on a Chinese-run construction site in rural Algeria before coming to Tangier. I came through the desert to get to Algeria, he recalled. The journey is not easy and many people die I saw people die with my own eyes. Sometimes we walked for 90 or 100 hours at a time with only a couple of hours break each night. The traffickers will just leave you in the desert if you cannot keep walking, with no food and water. Libya is too dangerous these days. It is at war so we are coming to Morocco instead. Mohammed Jallo, 16, fled Sierra Leone seeking safety at the age of 13 after his parents were killed [Joe Wallen/Al Jazeera] An Al Jazeera report in January 2018 documented that migrants and refugees were still being sold as slaves in open markets in Libya, despite international condemnation. Others continued to be held against their will by armed groups until their families paid ransom money. Further migrants had avoided entering Libya after hearing news reports that NGOs were stopping rescue operations off its coast due to security fears, and as the Libyan coastguard was allegedly leaving asylum seekers to die at sea. Italys recent decision to refuse entry for both rescue boats and merchant ships carrying refugees and migrants leaving Libya also had an effect. Ahmed, not his real name, is a Tangier local and smuggler and agreed to speak to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity. He said that he sends over two small boats a week each carrying 62 people and charges between $900 and $1,150 per person meaning that he can earn up to $500,000 a month. Migrants and refugees often meet in the newly set up cafes, such as this one for Senegalese arrivals in Tangiers old town [Joe Wallen/Al Jazeera] Using sub-Saharan middlemen, he seeks out refugees and migrants who meet in the recently established Senegalese or Eritrean community cafes. Once a fee is agreed, the asylum seekers are transported to forests near remote beaches from where they set sail in the middle of the night. When asked whether he is concerned about the Moroccan police, he laughed and explained that he pays off certain officers to ensure safe passage for his boats. In 2015, Morocco introduced year-long renewable residency permits, allowing migrants to move to Morocco and work legally while saving up to travel to Europe. In addition, after the 33 years of exclusion from the African Union ended, Moroccos King Mohammed VI introduced 90-day visa-free travel on arrival to many sub-Saharan nationals. For Malick Diallo, 20, these policies enabled him to fly directly to the country from Senegal and save up the money needed to attempt several crossings by working as a labourer in Tangier. Back at Our Lady Cathedral, as news filters through that 400 asylum seekers, attempting to reach Spain from Morocco, have had to be rescued in just one weekend, a young Liberian man, Daniel, implores Santiago Agrelo Martinez to pray with him. The Almighty has told me it is time to make the journey to Europe, he says. Pray with me that I am one of the lucky ones. A landmark peace deal which for two decades allowed Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurdish region to be an island of stability in an otherwise turbulent Middle East is unravelling today. In 1998, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) reached a power-sharing agreement after nearly four years of civil war. Now 20 years later, the KDP is on its way to renege on its obligations and exclude the PUK from the next Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The outcome of these renewed tensions between the KDP and the PUK will be determined by the upcoming parliamentary elections in the KRG. If the KDP wins the majority of votes on September 30 and decides to sideline the PUK, the region might witness another wave of instability or even a violent conflict. Personalised power and armed militias On September 17, 1998, Jalal Talabani, leader of the PUK, and Masoud Barzani, head of the KDP, came together in Washington, DC, to sign a US-brokered agreement to end hostilities. Under the provisions of the deal, the two were to share political power and revenue, while the US was to provide military protection for the Iraqi Kurdish region as a whole. Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called the agreement a new and hopeful chapter. While the deal indeed provided hope and stability for the millions of Kurds living in northern Iraq, it failed to bring unity. Barzani and Talabani treated the power-sharing agreement as just that there was no attempt at integration or unification. With the help of the revenue that started flowing in through the UN-sponsored oil-for-food programme, the two built their own clientelistic networks, rendering the institutions of the KRG completely divided between the two parties. Essentially, the KDP-PUK agreement helped create a highly corrupt system of cronyism where the two parties divided virtually all of the oil-rich regions resources among themselves while putting their sons, daughters and extended families in senior government positions. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the deal extended to central Iraqi institutions, which the Kurds could now participate in. Thus Talabani was allocated the largely symbolic position of president of Iraq (reserved for an ethnic Kurd), while Barzani took the presidency of the KRG. More importantly, the two Kurdish leaders kept their armed militias, the Peshmerga, separate, making no effort to establish a unified armed force. The war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group further strengthened these militias thanks to the unconditional military support of the US-led coalition. The necessary and immediate goal of defeating ISIL meant overlooking the danger that could arise from arming irregular armed groups. So while the KDP and PUK fought with AK47s in the 1990s, today they have a myriad of heavy weaponry available, including tanks and German-made anti-tank Milan missiles. While we, Kurds, are surely thankful for the weapons, which helped save us from ISIL, we wouldve been more appreciative if the US had used the existential threat to the KDP-PUK rule as an opportunity to pressure them into unifying the Kurdish militias. The problem with personalised power both political and military is that its stability depends on one person; when that person is gone, a power vacuum and instability ensue. And this is what is happening in Kurdistan right now. Talabani died in October last year and his former deputy, Nawshirwan Mustafa, passed away five months earlier. Now the weakened PUK is practically run by Talabanis widow and his sons, including most notably Bafel Talabani, who heads a well-trained and equipped armed group which is loyal only to him and his party. PUK has not named a new official leader yet. Meanwhile, KDPs leader, Barzani, remains alive and well at 72, leading the strongest armed force in Kurdistan. And he has his eye on PUK-controlled areas. On September 23, just a week before the vote, he paid a rare visit to Sulaymaniyah, the capital of the PUK, and told a cheering crowd, Whoever agrees with us, we would agree and share a home with them. But those who are against this doctrine and goal, its difficult for them and us to be united and share a home. Escalating rhetoric and threats While Barzani opted for innuendos at the Sulaymaniyah rally, this election season has seen a rhetorical war break out between his camp and the PUK. Treason is one word that has been doing the rounds in press statements by both sides. Barzani has said that Kurdish unity has already been destroyed by what some PUK leaders, including its top commander, Bafel Talabani, did a year ago when they helped Iraqi forces and Iran-backed Shia militias take the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from the Kurds in the wake of the independence referendum. The PUK, on the other hand, has accused the KDP of monopolising power. Such harsh rhetoric may sound like regular political vitriol used to rally voters during the election campaign season, but in the Iraqi Kurdish region, these are real threats. In such a conservative and highly militarised society, no matter the circumstances, KDP and PUK have never accused each other of treason after they concluded peace. To me, this rhetoric is an eerie reminder of the civil war. Today we have a dangerous situation in which one party feels stronger and more popular and therefore more entitled to rule the whole region while the other lacks leadership and leverage to negotiate. The KDP has already taken steps to curb its rivals power. Having declared the peace treaty dead, Barzanis party is refusing to back PUKs candidate Barham Salih for the Iraqi presidency and has nominated its own candidate, Fuad Hussein. It is in this tense atmosphere that Kurds will be going to the polls on Sunday. The 111 parliamentary seats will be contested by 21 parties, but none is expected to win 51 percent of votes to form a government on its own. Instead, the KDP may choose to forge an alliance with some of the new parties such as Gorran (Change Movement, established by former PUK members) and the New Generation Movement (founded by Shaswar Abdulwahid, a Kurdish Donald Trump-like real estate developer). In Iraqs May election these two opposition parties, which draw support from areas under PUK jurisdiction, got half as many seats in the Iraqi parliament as the PUK. If these results repeat in the September 30 vote, would the PUK accept electoral defeat or a new political reality in which it no longer holds power? PUK leaders have made it clear that the answer is a categorical no. Even if we win only one seat, we are the PUK. We are armed. Nobody can disarm us, warned senior PUK leader Mullah Bakhtyar in a recent interview with the Kurdish Rudaw channel. The situation is so dangerous that even the Americans are worried. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has had three phone calls with KDP leaders over the past month and a half to discuss Iraqs government formation including the position of the presidency. While PUK has been historically close to Iran, its candidate Salih, who was educated in the West, seems acceptable to the US. While no one wants to see another Kurdish civil conflict break out in a region still recovering from the devastation of the war with ISIL, there are no guarantees that hostilities will not erupt after the elections. We are undoubtedly entering a new era of politics in Iraqi Kurdistan, marked by the demise of the two-decade-long power-sharing agreement between the PUK and the KDP. In this sense, the September 30 election will be the first real litmus test for Kurdish democracy and its capacity to resolve political conflicts peacefully. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. How Talabanis continued absence from the political scene and the PUKs decline may rock the peace in Iraqi Kurdistan. Worship places shun rules on donations Guidelines on religious offerings have yet to be implemented two years after the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation issued them. Accusing someone of witchcraft is now a crime in India Two thousand people accused of sorcery most of them women have been killed in rural India since the year 2000. In his memoir Surendra Kumar Sinha, who now lives in Canada, details the circumstances that led to his resignation. Bangladeshs former chief justice was forced to resign last November after the head of the countrys military intelligence agency threatened him at the behest of the government, according to a sensational new autobiography. In the controversial book, A Broken Dream: Rule of Law, Human Rights & Democracy, Surendra Kumar Sinha says the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) told him to resign otherwise a businessman, held in DGFIs secret custody for over two months, would suffer serious consequences. The book details the background to his recent exit from Bangladesh and includes claims of government interference in judicial decision-making as well as false imprisonment. {articleGUID} Justice Sinha writes that he feared DGFI might not only kill the businessman Aniruddha Roy, someone he knew well, but also members of my family. I realised that it was nothing, but systematic and organised state terrorism and their treatment was so cruel that it could be compared with none other than the Gestapo force of Hitler, he writes in the book. Dozens of people, including opposition activists, have been picked up and disappeared since the Awami League party led by Sheikh Hasina came to power in 2009. The former chief justice, who now lives in Canada, told Al Jazeera that the DGFI was acting directly under the instructions of prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. The DGFI chief clearly said to me, Whatever I am telling you is the version of the prime minister. There is nothing between us.' He said that Hasina wanted him to resign after he refused her personal request in July 2017 to uphold a law, which sought to give parliament the power to sack judges. The former chief justice claimed that the prime minister was enraged and could not tolerate it because she wanted the courts to be used as instruments to serve the governments purpose. He denied there was any basis to corruption allegations made against him which the government claim is the actual reason he left the country and resigned. It was only after I gave a judgment against the government that they discovered I am corrupt, he says. If the chief justice cannot get justice in Bangladesh, how can any other citizen get justice in the hands of this government, he told Al Jazeera. Based on wild imagination s The prime ministers office and DGFI have failed to respond to the allegations despite repeated attempts by Al Jazeera to contact them via phone calls and emails. The countrys top legal officer, however, told Al Jazeera that the book was not based on facts. Justice Sinha accuses Hasina of pressing him to rule in favour of the government [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters] Justice SK Sinha has written the book basing on his wild imagination, not on facts. There is no need to take this book seriously, Mahbubey Alam, the Attorney General, told Al Jazeera. The countrys judiciary is in an excellent shape, said Bangladeshs top legal officer. He denied pressing Justice Sinha to rule in favour of the government. The judiciary of Bangladesh works independently. There was no pressure on SK Sinha. It was his own misconduct that forced other judges to decide not to sit with him on the same bench. SK Sinha, however, didnt say much about his own misconduct in the book, did he? Anisul Huq, the law minister, refused to speak on the issue, saying You will get to know about it next week when I speak to the press. The conflict begins Sinha was appointed Bangladeshs chief justice in January 2015, becoming the first Hindu to take up the highest judicial post in the majority Muslim country. He presided over the Supreme Court when it upheld the controversial executions of five leaders of the Islamist party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, convicted of international crimes committed in 1971 during the countrys independence war. The conflict which led to justice Sinhas forced retirement started in 2016 when the government became concerned about how the courts would respond to a legal challenge to a new law the 16th amendment to the constitution. The new bill had given members of parliament the power to sack judges, taking the responsibility away from the judiciary. {articleGUID} In his memoir, A Broken Dream, justice Sinha wrote that he was told by one of three High Court judges ruling on the laws constitutionality that a military intelligence DGFI officer had met him in his chamber and pressured him to deliver the judgment in favour of the government. However, a majority of the judges ruled the law illegal and the government appealed to the appellate division presided by justice Sinha. On October 1, 2017, the day before the appeal ruling was due, Sinha says he was invited to a late night meeting where the president, the law minister, the Attorney General and the Prime Minister Hasina repeatedly pressed him to rule in favour of the government. The prime minister appeared to me blind for retaining power and her only object was how to control the Supreme Court for coming to power in the next election, Sinha states in his book. Her approach was unethical and unconstitutional. Speaking to Al Jazeera, the former chief justice said that, if the law was passed it would have meant that judges would be scared that they would be removed if they were to give rulings against the government or politicians. On the following day justice Sinha dismissed the governments appeal unanimously. Vociferous criticism The written copy of the judgment published one month later at the beginning of August 2017 triggered vociferous criticism from the government and its supporters. Quamrul Islam, the food minister, demanded that the chief justice step down within a month, otherwise lawyers would launch a vigorous movement next month to remove him. Islam accused Sinha of siding with the anti-liberation forces, referring to those who fought against Bangladesh during the independence war. {articleGUID} Government ministers and supporters also took exception to a comment in the judgment which stated that No nation no country is made of or by one person, claiming that it was a negative reference to Sheikh Mujib, the father of the prime minister and the countrys independence leader, known by many as the father of the nation. The prime minister said in parliament that the chief justice has raised questions about the role of the father of the nation and the countrys independence. DGFI intimidation According to Sinhas book, a DGFI officer first contacted him in Japan last September telling him he should not return to the country and I must go to Australia or Canada for the time being until they decided about my next course of action. Sinha refused and returned to Bangladesh. On October 1, a senior judge told Sinha that the countrys president had met up with him and other judges and disclosed to them some [corruption] allegations against me, which were serious, and the president directed them not to sit with me in court. Justice Sinha denied that there was any substance to the allegations. What are the allegations? So long as I delivered judgments that went in the governments favour I was a good person. It is only later after I gave the judgment against the government, that they discover I am corrupt, he told Al Jazeera. {articleGUID} According to Sinha, the head of DGFI, Major General Mohammad Saiful Abedin met him the next day in his court chambers, and said that the judgement had made the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party happy. The BNP was so happy that they distributed sweets among themselves. They exchanged text messages that they were coming to power soon, he wrote in the book. He told the chief justice that he should go on holiday for four months. Khaleda Zia, the BNP leader, remains in jail after she was convicted in a corruption case in February. Opposition leaders say the opposition leader is a victim of political vendetta ahead of the parliamentary elections slated to be held the end of this year. When justice Sinha returned to his house that day, the former chief justice says he found security had been beefed up around his house. He told Al Jazeera, I was kept under house arrest for 15 days. I was not allowed to speak to anyone. My officials were transferred, and everything was done under the direction of the DGFI. The end game In mid-October, Sinha decided he had no option but to leave the country. He states in his book that in the early hours of November 10, 2017, while staying in Australia and about to travel to Canada, a DGFI officer, Colonel Md Nazimuddoulah came to his house and told him that the businessman Aniruddha Roy had been freed. He then told me that he was kept at an undisclosed location and if I resigned it could lead to Aniruddhas release, Sinha writes. {articleGUID} He says that he told the officer that he would not resign until he had spoken to his wife and was sure that Roy had been taken home. After a few minutes, they gave the phone to his wife. She was also wailing and making entreaties to me to tender my resignation in exchange for the life of her husband. Sinha then spoke to Roy who said: Sir, I am on the stairs of my house. The former chief justice says he then signed the resignation letter. The present government is the biggest beneficiary of my impartial pronouncements, Sinha concludes in his book. But he goes onto say that he was however rewarded by being called a corrupt chief justice and then they used the media to assassinate my character. I have been humiliated at the hands of DGFI who treated me as less than an ordinary citizen only because I did not allow the Supreme Court to become subservient to the government. Shahidul Alam remains locked in Dhaka jail for more than 50 days as calls for his release reach United Nations summit. As anger over the incarceration of renowned Bangladeshi photographer and activist Shahidul Alam continues to grow in and outside the South Asian country, his wife said the detention cant break his spirit. Alam has languished in a jail in the capital Dhaka for more than 50 days in a case filed under the stringent Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act for spreading propaganda and false information against the government. His spirits remain high. He jogs and exercises and reads books more rapidly than I can supply them, his wife Rahnuma Ahmed told Al Jazeera on Friday after visiting her 63-year-old husband in prison. He was arrested on August 5 shortly after he talked to Al Jazeera and did a Facebook Live broadcast amid massive anti-government student protests that gripped the country. The protests, he said, were the result of pent-up anger at corruption and an unelected government clinging on by brute force. Alams family and lawyer have alleged he was tortured in custody. {articleGUID} The constant pain in his gums persists and chewing is difficult. He did not suffer from any such problems before being picked up, Ahmed said. On September 11, a court rejected his bail application, saying a citizen cannot comment or upload any Facebook post on free and fair elections, only a politician can do that, according to his lawyer Sara Hossain. Why is a citizen being deprived of his liberty so arbitrarily? Hossain told Al Jazeera, adding the court made manifestly partisan and irrelevant observations. Hossain is likely to request that Alam be released on bail from a higher court on October 1. On September 5, the government of Bangladesh challenged a court order to provide Alam better facilities in prison. The court is yet to rule on the governments petition. Protest at the UN Meanwhile, dozens of activists joined Alams family and friends at a demonstration outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed the ongoing General Assembly meeting on Thursday. Endorsed by various rights groups and journalist associations, the protesters included activist Kerry Kennedy, actor and activist Sharon Stone, academic and feminist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Alams niece Sofia Karim. The slide towards autocracy [in Bangladesh] is deeply saddening, Karim said, calling the country a paranoid and repressive state. Shahidul Alam has been wrongfully detained, and I proudly stand with those who are calling for his immediate and unconditional release, said Kennedy in her address. Bangladesh should comply with its international human rights obligations and free Alam today, she said. Wasfia Nazreen, celebrated mountaineer and Alams friend, called him a living legend who taught all his life to see the light in our country, even during the darkest hours. He has always come from a place of integrity and sacrificed himself for all of us by speaking truth to power. For that, he is being wrongly imprisoned, she said. Crackdown on dissent Hasinas government since her Awami League party came to power in 2009 has been marked by allegations of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and secret detentions of members of the political opposition and anti-government activists. If convicted, Alam faces 14 years in jail a provision of the law Amnesty International called draconian. Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said the law was a blow to freedom of speech. Last month, dozens of civil society groups, including Transparency International Bangladesh, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement condemning the blatant violation of Alams right to freedom of expression and called for his immediate and unconditional release. A change.org petition launched by Amnesty for his release was signed by more than 15,000 of his supporters. Last year, at least 25 journalists and hundreds of bloggers and Facebook users were prosecuted under the ICT Act after their online content was deemed defamatory or blasphemous. Canadian MPs vote unanimously to revoke symbolic honour from Myanmar leader over her handling of Rohingya crisis. The parliament of Canada has unanimously voted to strip Myanmars leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary citizenship over her handling of the Rohingya crisis. Thursdays vote came a week after Canadian MPs approved a motion recognising the crimes committed against the Rohingya as genocide. Aung San Suu Kyi received the honour from Ottawa in 2007, when she was a democracy advocate under long house arrest. But the Myanmar leader has been under fire for her failure to condemn the military campaign that has driven more than 700,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh in what the UN human rights chief called a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. Canadian parliaments decision to revoke the symbolic honour was due to a persistent refusal to denounce the Rohingya genocide, said Adam Austen, spokesman for Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland. We will continue to support the Rohingya by providing humanitarian assistance, imposing sanctions against Myanmars generals and demanding that those responsible be held accountable before a competent international body, said Austen. MP Gabriel Ste Marie, who proposed the motion, told reporters he thought the vote was a great symbol. Member of Parliament Salma Zahid called Aung San Suu Kyis unwillingness to take any moral leadership inexcusable, and deeply disappointing. Parliament just unanimously agreed to revoke the honorary Canadian citizenship of Myanmars Aung San Suu Kyi. Her unwillingness to take any moral leadership for the genocide of the Rohingya in her country is inexcusable, and deeply disappointing. Salma Zahid (@SalmaZahid15) September 27, 2018 Rights organisations have accused Myanmar military of committing extrajudicial killings, gang rape and arson during their bloody campaign launched in August last year after army posts came under attack from Rohingya fighters. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya now live in cramped refugee camps in Bangladesh, fearful of returning home despite a repatriation deal. Andrew Leslie, Minister Freelands parliamentary secretary, said the machinery of government will chew over the details of what specifically is required to implement the motion. Only five other individuals have ever been given honorary citizenship in Canada, including the Dalai Lama, Malala Yousafzai and Nelson Mandela. Almost 1.8 million voters registered to decide whether the former Yugoslav Macedonia will change its name. On Sunday, almost 1.8 million voters in former Yugoslav Macedonia will decide whether to change the countrys name to Northern Macedonia. The proposal stems from an agreement last June the Prespes Agreement with the Greek government aiming to normalise relations between the two countries. Athens and Skopje have been at odds since the fall of Yugoslavia when its six republics declared independence, the southernmost calling itself the Republic of Macedonia. Greece objects on the grounds that this implies territorial claims on its northern region of Macedonia. In return for adding the qualifier Northern to its name, Greece will lift its standing veto on its neighbours membership in the European Union and NATO. The question put to voters is: Are you in favour of NATO and EU membership, and accepting the name agreement between the Republic of Macedonia and Greece? Polls will open at 7am (05:00 GMT) and close at 7pm (17:00 GMT). 1. Which way is the referendum likely to go? Opinion polls show that a large block of voters supports the Prespes Agreement a survey on August 8 showed 41.5 percent in favour and 31.5 percent against the name change. An August 29 survey showed 57 percent in favour, and 38 percent against. But the crucial question is: How many will vote? To be constitutionally valid, the referendum requires a majority of 50 percent plus one from a turnout of 50 percent of eligible voters plus one. The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party has increasingly encouraged people to boycott the vote rather than voting No so as not to put the party on the wrong side of history should the Yes vote have the majority and taking into account that it is easier to persuade people to do nothing than something active. A survey released this month suggests that this tactic may be working. By its count, only 58 percent of voters will cast ballots on Sunday. Even though that doesnt invalidate the result, it reduces the yes vote to 40.9 percent not enough to win, and below the 41.5 percent of yes voters polled in July. In comments made to Al Jazeera earlier this week, Chris Deliso, an American journalist based in Skopje since 2002, is even less optimistic. The perception that a legitimate no vote exists is false, as the Boycott movement has repeatedly emphasised. This is because the referendum is meant to be valid only with a 51 percent turnout, meaning that whoever opposes the deal but votes no is actually bolstering the turnout and legitimizing the process, he said. In the end, there is only a yes vote and a boycott Thus, the two scenarios that would embarrass the government would be either a very low turnout, or a massive discrepancy between the Yes and No campaign. At the moment, it appears realistic that at least 40 percent will turn out, Deliso added. Another benchmark to compare these polls is the fact that on September 8, 1991, shortly after independence, 72 percent of citizens voted yes in a referendum on the question: Do you support a sovereign and independent state of Macedonia, with the right to enter into a future union with the other sovereign states of Yugoslavia? 2. What are the main arguments for and against? The strongest argument for a Yes vote is clearly that it removes Greeces veto on the countrys path to European Union and NATO membership. Those who favour joining the European Union (83 percent) and NATO (77 percent) are roughly double the number polling in favour of the Prespes Agreement. Some object to the very fact of a referendum, pointing out that no other former Yugoslav republic had to undergo this process. Others object to the qualifier Northern, saying that it changes their identity. According to the agreement, their passports will henceforth list their nationality as Macedonian citizen of the Republic of Northern Macedonia. When talks with Greece began in January, UN special envoy Matthew Nimetz handed the two sides a list of five suggested names: Republika Nova Makedonija (Republic of New Macedonia), Republika Gorna Makedonija (Republic of Upper Macedonia), Republika Severna Makedonija (Republic of Northern Macedonia), Republika Vardarska Makedonija (Republic of Vardarska Macedonia) and Republika Makedonija (Skopje). Greece was prepared to accept any of the first four. The government in Skopje selected Republic of Northern Macedonia as the least objectionable. Some voters also object to the stipulations of Article 7, whereby: The official language and other attributes of [former Yugoslav Macedonia] are not related to the ancient Hellenic civilisation, history, culture and heritage [of Greece]. This means that those who self-identify as ethnic Macedonians abjure all claim to Greeces Hellenistic heritage the empire of Alexander the Great and its aftermath which is a component of the Greek sense of nationhood. These cultural distinctions were included on Greeces insistence, to sweeten the pill of sharing Macedonian identity with their Slav neighbours, something most Greeks still object to. They want it made clear that non-Greek Macedonians are so named by virtue of shared geography, not ethnicity or heritage. Despite the fact that the agreement officially only addresses the issue of the countrys name, it is the separate issue of identity that could sink it. This is underscored by the fact that ethnic Albanians, who comprise one-third of the population of former Yugoslav Macedonia, support the agreement to the tune of 88 percent. Unaffected by the identity issue, they simply want the country to press ahead with EU and NATO membership. 3. What are NATO and the EU saying? Both blocs are strongly encouraging the Yes vote. I sense a real political will to move on with your countrys Euro-Atlantic integration, said European Council President Donald Tusk when he visited Skopje in April. The Sofia Declaration, which the EU signed in May, lends unequivocal support for the European perspective of the Western Balkans. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, in a joint statement with Tusk after the Prespes Agreement was signed, said: We hope this unique opportunity to re-launch the wider W Balkan regions European and Euro-Atlantic integration will not be wasted. This agreement sets an example to others on how to consolidate peace and stability across the region. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Defence Secretary James Mattis, NATOs Stoltenberg and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz, who currently holds the EUs rotating presidency, all visited Skopje this month to support the Yes vote. 4. Why is this referendum important to the EU and NATO? European Union expansion stalled after the addition of Croatia in 2013 and was reversed with the 2016 Brexit vote which saw the United Kingdom decide to leave the EU. The Western Balkans have languished in a slow accession process for over a decade. NATO enlargement has remained alive with the accession of Montenegro last year, but it has faced Russian military incursions in larger aspiring members Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014). These have appeared to define the alliances limits and the limits of American hegemony. Both institutions appear to want to keep alive the momentum of expansion and integration as a way of reaffirming the Euro-Atlantic post-war order. 5. Yugoslavia fell apart in 1991. Why is the issue being decided now? Athens and Skopje failed to find a solution in the 1990s because Greece did not want to accept a name that included the word Macedonia. In 1995, after four years of failed diplomacy, the two sides settled for an Interim Accord whereby Greece recognised its northern neighbour as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). In the mid-2000s, Greece signalled its willingness to compromise on a composite name that included the word Macedonia, but the nationalist government of the VMRO-DPMNE under Premier Nikola Gruevski in Skopje ruled this out. It went a step further than its predecessors and laid claim to ancient Macedonian heritage in addition to the Macedonian name, putting up giant bronze statues of Alexander the Great and his father Philip in the capital. The Gruevski government fell from power in December 2016 and Zoran Zaevs Social Democrats formed a government on May 31, 2017. They immediately sent Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov to Athens to signal readiness to re-open talks with Greece. 6. If former Yugoslav Macedonia says yes, will Greece ratify the deal? Greece is contractually obliged to ratify the agreement if its neighbour ratifies it and passes a number of constitutional amendments in parliament. 7. If there is a No vote, what will happen? This referendum is consultative, so its result is not binding. The Zaev government has suggested that it may try to ratify the agreement in parliament. It holds a majority of 68 in the 120-seat chamber, so it would need to attract 12 votes from the opposition to form a two-thirds majority. Alternatively, it could declare a general election to increase its parliamentary majority, which could be a gamble. Its a bit odd that the government has taken such efforts in terms of public-relations outreach and visits of high-profile dignitaries to bolster support for the referendum, since theyve already said the voting is just consultative, said Deliso. Its rather paradoxical that on the one hand the government is keen to get public approval and turnout, but on the other states it will proceed in parliament regardless of how the people vote. Chinas dinosaur replica makers worry about trade war with US The dinosaur replica business in Zigong is worried by the tariffs imposed by the US. For the first time since 2017 Saudi-led blockade, representatives of six GCC states, Egypt and Jordan meet in New York. Qatars Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has declared that the Gulf crisis remains at a stalemate, adding that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is currently in a paralysis. Sheikh Mohammed spoke to reporters on Friday, following a US-backed meeting between foreign ministers of the six member states of the GCC, Egypt and Jordan in New York. Sheikh Mohammed said that unless the issue of the Saudi Arabia-led blockade is addressed first, a regional alliance envisioned by the United States would not be effective. This gathering is important. But we need to address the challenges among these countries, in order to prove the credibility of the alliance, he said speaking in Arabic and English. Today, the GCC is suffering from a sort of complete paralysis, he said, adding that despite US President Donald Trumps efforts, blockading countries have not responded positively. Fridays meeting took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly and was the first gathering of its kind since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar on June 5, 2017. The blockading quartet accuses Qatar of having close ties to regional rival Iran and harbouring terrorism allegations Doha strongly denies. Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from New York, said the move was quite significant since it was the first time all parties met face to face over the issue. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spearheaded the talks. The idea behind this meeting is that the Americans are trying to build some sort of regional alliance, an Arab NATO, to contain what the US sees as Irans growing influence in the region, Ahelbarra said. Among things discussed were the strengthening of military ties, as well as economic and diplomatic relations. Pompeo said earlier this year during a visit to Saudi Arabia that Gulf unity is necessary and we need to achieve it. Productive meeting In a separate interview with Al Jazeera, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani praised the US for leading the meeting. Saudi Arabias Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said at the UN General Assembly earlier this week the blockading nations could wait decades for Doha to meet their controversial list of demands. When asked for Qatars response to the remarks, Sheikh Mohammed replied: We have to address the challenges in our region first. A year from now, no one will know what the future of the countries will be Qatar can also wait forever, he added. Diplomacy means communication and engagement, and this is Qatar. At his press conference, Sheikh Mohammed backed the idea of a coalition based on clear-cut strategies and a road map to ensure a solid implementation of the initiative. Sheikh Mohammed noted for the initiative to succeed, there must be certain criteria in place, and a solution to the ongoing GCC crisis. This includes an end to the illegal procedures imposed on the Qatari people. We were frank and open. We dont need an initiative that will die soon. We want a strong, solid, sustainable one, he said. Qatars foreign minister went on to thank US President Donald Trump on his efforts to resolve the crisis. The US reaffirmed its commitment to a united GCC, they want a GCC to operate together and more effectively, he said. Middle East conundrum Ahelbarra noted the challenges facing the United States, which wants the parties to agree on a number of regional issues including the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. How can you bring together all of these people when they defer on every regional conflict, Ahelbarra said. Unless you have all the parties agree, I dont see how the Americans can build a regional alliance to contain all the problems in the region, he said. The US State Department said the ministers agreed on the need to confront threats from Iran and had productive discussions on setting up what is to be known as the Middle East Strategic Alliance to promote security and stability in the region. The GCC is a political and economic alliance of six countries in the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Before the crisis, citizens of the GCC enjoyed a great deal of freedom of movement between the six member states, but that ended with the blockade. With close tribal ties, over generations thousands of intermarriages have been celebrated between Qataris and other GCC nationals, and those families are no longer able to see each other. At a joint press conference, Erdogan and Merkel both stress the need for stronger ties but admit deep differences. Germany, Turkey, Russia and France will hold a meeting on the situation in Syrias war-torn Idlib province in October. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday she discussed the plan in a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and they had agreed on the four-way talks. The chancellors comments came amid a rare official visit by Erdogan to Germany with a busy agenda ranging from the war in Syria to the arrest of German citizens and Turkeys currency crisis in the European Union candidate country. Berlin and Ankara, at odds over a variety of issues for years, recently toned down their rhetoric, signalling a new phase in diplomatic ties. Speaking at a press conference after their meeting, Merkel and Erdogan stressed the importance of maintaining and enhancing Turkey-Germany relations. While Merkel said she believed the countries have a common strategic interest in good relations, on questions of how a democratic, free and open society looks, there are also deep differences. Erdogan said he wanted to advance a win-win scenario, but added that Germany should respect Turkeys judicial system. Jailed Germans Merkel said she pushed for the release of Germans imprisoned in Turkey during the talks with Erdogan. The detention of what Germany says are 35 of their citizens for what it considers political reasons has been one of the deepest irritants to relations between the two countries. Reporting from Berlin, Al Jazeeras Jonah Hull said a meeting with Erdogan is not something Merkel would have wanted a year ago. Turkey is in an economic crisis, thats something Germany is very worried about, he said. And there are other issues the migration crisis, Syria as well that would really benefit from better relations between the two. So she had to grit her teeth a little bit. Barin Kayaoglu, an assistant professor at the American University of Iraq, said Erdogans desire to improve relations with Germany was tied to deteriorating relations between Turkey and the United States. The past summer has been very tough on Ankaras relations with the US, he told Al Jazeera, adding that the problems had negatively affected the Turkish economy. My reading of it is that Ankara is hoping to use its relations with the German-led EU to perhaps ease the meltdown that the Turkish lira suffered last summer and the continuing risks that face the Turkish economy. Merkel and Erdogan are set to continue talks on Saturday. IMF gives Argentina $57bn emergency loan The loan comes with stringent conditions, including a commitment to a zero deficit for 2019. Indias Supreme Court says barring women aged 10 to 50 from entering Sabarimala Ayyappa temple was unconstitutional. New Delhi Indias Supreme Court has overturned a decades-old ban by religious authorities that forbid women from entering one of the holiest Hindu temples in the country. The Sabarimala Ayyappa temple was one of the few temples in India that barred women aged between 10 and 50 from entering. Religion cannot be a cover to deny women the right to worship to treat women as children of lesser God is to blink at constitutional morality, Justice DY Chandrachud said on Friday while reading the judgment. An estimated one million Hindu pilgrims travel to the Sabarimala temple in the southern state of Kerala annually. The ban on female devotees was being upheld by the Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the famous Sabarimala Ayyappa temple. The ban, defended by the government and conservative Hindu bodies, came under legal scrutiny in 2016 after the Young Lawyers Association filed a petition seeking entry for all women. Congratulations to all of us Indians .. we have all walked away from darkness of shame into light of equality!! Bow to judges who made us aware of rights of half of India!! Women Of All Ages Can Enter Sabarimala Temple, Says Top Court, Ending Ban https://t.co/TCkjWellBy via @ndtv Avik Saha (@aviksahaindia) September 28, 2018 Womens rights lawyer Flavia Agnes said spaces have to be created for judicial intervention, but warned that determining what is the core or essential practices of religions was riddled with complexities. Todays ruling can affect other similar strictures like Christian women cannot become priests. All these things can now be challenged, Agnes told Al Jazeera. It will be interesting to watch how the courts proceed from here for those practices whether they hold this as discrimination or freedom to practise your religion. Sabarimala Ayyappa temples website explains that since Lord Ayyappa was Nithya Brahmachari or celibate women in the 10-50 age group are not allowed to enter. Such women who try to enter Sabarimala will be prevented by authorities, the website reads. The head of the temple had said earlier he would consider allowing women to enter if there was a machine to check if they were menstruating. In the ruling, Justice Chandrachud criticised this diktat, saying: The ban says presence of women deviates from celibacy. This is placing the burden of mens celibacy on women. It stigmatises them, stereotypes them. Menstruation is rarely discussed openly in India and menstrual blood is considered impure by many communities. Across cities and towns, menstruating girls and women are not allowed to prepare food, enter a temple or touch an idol. Reaction to the decision Justice Indu Malhotra, the lone dissenting judge on the 5-judges bench at the top court, said she did not agree with the majority ruling on the ban. What constitutes essential religious practice is for the religious community to decide, not for the court notions of rationality cannot be brought into religion, said Malhotra. A balance needs to be struck between religious beliefs and the cherished principles of non-discrimination and equality laid down by constitution. Conservative Hindu groups have reacted, saying they will challenge the decision of the top court. We are going for a review petition by the first week of October. The Deitys concept was not taken into consideration, said Rahul Easwar, president of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena (Ayyappa Religious Army), that claims to protect the interests of the Lord Ayyappa. The Deity has rights which were not mentioned here. So a conglomerate of Hindu groups will appeal against this decision. 1. Yes. Losing daily service to Houston could be just the first in a series of service cutbacks. 2. Yes. Being less competitive with Austin and D-FW will hurt the airport in the long run. 3. No. The airport has seen strong passenger numbers. Good marketing can keep it going. 4. No. The airport is still pursuing other service, including a Denver route. Its still a solid asset. 5. Unsure. Its hard to say without knowing future airline and travel industry trends. Vote View Results Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has dismissed Israeli claims that Tehran has a secret atomic warehouse. In a tweet on Friday, Zarif derided as an arts and crafts show the allegation made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly on Thursday. Displaying maps and a photo of an outwardly innocent-looking compound, Netanyahu said Iran had been keeping 300 tonnes of nuclear equipment and material in a property near its capital. He argued this showed Iran still sought to obtain nuclear weapons, despite its 2015 agreement with world powers to curb its programme in exchange for a loosening of sanctions. Denouncing Netanyahus claim, Zarif said: No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program. No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program including an *actual atomic arsenal*. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors. Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 27, 2018 He told Israel it was time to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons programme to international inspectors. Israel is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal but has never publicly acknowledged it. The only purpose of this is to undercut the reality that Israel is the biggest threat to the region, Zarif was quoted as saying by the state-run IRNA news agency. Bahram Qassemi, spokesperson for Irans foreign ministry, also dismissed Netanyahus claims as ridiculous and baseless, according to ISNA news agency. Qassemi noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had certified Irans nuclear programme as peaceful 12 times in the past three years. Netanyahus comments in New York come four months after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord, arguing it did too little to rein in Tehrans nuclear ambitions and triggering the resumption of US economic sanctions on Iran. An outspoken opponent of the deal, Netanyahu has previously made allegations about Irans nuclear activities that are difficult or impossible to verify, including presenting a cartoon bomb to the General Assembly in 2012 warning of how close Tehran was to producing a nuclear device. In April, Netanyahu presented what he said was evidence of a large secret archive of documents related to Irans clandestine nuclear weapons programme at a different site in Tehran. He said Israeli agents removed vast amounts of documents from that site. At the time, Iran said the documents were fake. Two public relation officials in Shiraz reportedly fired after altered image was put up to commemorate Iran-Iraq war. An Iranian mayor apologised for a billboard in his city that mistakenly featured Israeli soldiers while attempting to mark the Iran-Iraq war. The billboard, which was installed in Shiraz, showed three male soldiers standing on a rocky outcrop next to a quote from a Persian epic poem, conservative online news agency Tasnim reported on Friday. But the shot was actually a digitally altered picture of Israeli soldiers; a female soldier from the original photo had been cropped out. The banner was pulled down from the southwestern city on Wednesday night and the mayor issued an apology the next day. PR director of Shiraz municipality arrested over billboard photoshoped with a pic of Israeli soldiers to commemorate 'Holy Defense Week,' i.e. #Iran-Iraq War pic.twitter.com/nK6pOo2rbC Sobhan Hassanvand (@Hassanvand) September 28, 2018 This mistake of putting up such a despicable banner during the Sacred Defence Week is unforgivable, Mayor Heydar Eskandarpour was quoted as saying. Iran commonly refers to the brutal eight-year war with Iraq as the sacred defence. In recent days, the country has been marking the start of the conflict that began on September 22, 1980. An estimated 680,000 people died during the war. In addition to apologising to Shirazs pious and noble people, I ask the authorities to investigate the roots of this suspicious act and promptly report to the people, the mayor said. Two public relation officials at the municipality were later fired on Thursday night, according to Fars news agency. There were also reports that arrests were made in connection to the controversy, but Al Jazeera could not independently confirm the news. Iranian social media was abuzz with heated reactions to the controversy. M16 guns, straps, clothes, helmets: all clearly belong to Zionists. The best I can say is that you did something idiotic, wrote a Twitter user identified as @mhrezaa. Another Iranian user @masoudasadi67 also called for the swift punishment of those who committed such a heinous act. More than 40 people rescued from Air Niugini plane that landed in lagoon short of the runway in Micronesia. A flotilla of small boats has rescued more than 40 people from an Air Niugini plane that crashed into a lagoon in the South Pacific nation of Micronesia. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft hit the water short of the runway while landing at Chuuk Island on Friday morning, according to officials and the airline. Pictures and video posted on social media showed locals scrambling on small boats to rescue the passengers and crew as the water covered most of the aircrafts fuselage. The airline said the plane, which was making a scheduled stop on its way from the Micronesian capital Pohnpei to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, had landed short of the runway. It added there were no serious injuries. Air Niugini can confirm that all on board were able to safely evacuate the aircraft, the firm said in a brief statement. The aircraft had 35 passengers and 12 crew members onboard, all of whom were able to safely evacuate the aircraft. The airline is making all efforts to ensure the safety and immediate needs of our passengers and crew. Jimmy Emilio, general manager of Chuuk Airport in Weno, Micronesia, told Reuters news agency the cause of the accident was unclear. We dont really know what happened people were rescued by boats. Only the plane is sinking right now, he said. I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in, passenger Bill Jaynes said in a video posted by the Pacific Daily News website. I thought, well, this is not like the way its supposed to happen, he said. Water was waist-deep in the cabin before rescuers arrived, he said. A spokesperson for Papua New Guineas Accident Investigation Commission said investigators would fly to the scene as soon as possible to piece together what happened. Air Niugini is the national airline of Papua New Guinea and has operated since 1973. The fleet includes Boeing 767 and 737 jets for international routes, according to the airline, as well as Fokker F-100 aircraft, Q400 and Dash 8 aircraft for challenging local terrain. As scandals rock his papacy, the Vatican says the pontiff is cracking down for the good of the church. Pope Francis defrocked a Chilean priest who was at the centre of a global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy. A statement issued by the Vatican on Friday said Father Fernando Karadima, 88, was reduced to the lay state by the pope, a move it called exceptional and done for the good of the Church. Karadima sexually abused teenage boys over many years and now lived in a home for the elderly in the Chilean capital, Santiago. He was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 and ordered to live a life of prayer and penitence, but was not defrocked at the time, the final years of the reign of former Pope Benedict. That meant he was still a priest, although he could not minister in public. Karadima, who has always denied any wrongdoing, escaped civilian justice because of the statute of limitations in the country. {articleGUID} Seven Chilean bishops have resigned since June after an investigation into an alleged cover-up of Karadimas crimes, some of them former proteges of Karadima, who prepared them for the priesthood as young men in Santiagos upscale, conservative El Bosque neighbourhood. Three Chilean men who said they were abused by Karadima accused one, Juan Barros, the former bishop of Osorno, of having witnessed the abuse. During a trip to Chile in January, the pope said he had no proof against Barros, believed he was innocent, and that accusations against him were slander until proven otherwise. But days after returning to Rome, the pope, citing new information, sent sexual abuse investigator Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta to Chile to speak to victims, witnesses and other Church members. Grave negligence Scicluna produced a 2,300-page report, accusing Chiles bishops of grave negligence in investigating the allegations and said evidence of sex crimes had been destroyed. In April, Francis, who is also grappling with sexual abuse crises in the United States, Germany and Australia, held four days of meetings in Rome with the three victims Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo. I have a knot in my stomach. I never thought I would see this day, Cruz said in a tweet, thanking the pope. He [Karadima] is a criminal who has ruined so many peoples lives with his abuse. I hope thousands of survivors feel a bit of the relief I feel today. Following the meeting with the victims, Francis summoned all of Chiles 34 bishops to Rome in May and they offered their resignations en masse. Francis has so far accepted seven, and appointed apostolic administrators to run their dioceses. Nations vote 21 to eight in favour of extending probe despite opposition from Saudi Arabia and Yemen itself. The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted to extend an international probe of alleged war crimes committed in Yemen overriding objections from Saudi Arabia and Yemen itself. Nations voted 21 to 8, with 18 abstentions, in favour of the resolution on Friday. Supporters of the resolution, including Canada and the European Union, argued that an expert group mandated by the council last year still had work to do, but opponents said it would exacerbate the crisis and increase regional instability. In a report last month, experts detailed evidence of possible war crimes committed in Yemen by the Saudi-backed coalition and Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The report added that coalition air strikes caused most of the documented civilian casualties and voiced serious concerns about the targeting process. The Yemeni government, which has accused investigators of bias, announced on Thursday that it was ending cooperation with the mission. The government refuses to extend the missions mandate because its findings, outlined in the report, did not meet the standards of professionalism and impartiality or the basic principles of the United Nations, said a statement carried by the state-run Saba news agency. It accused the UN group of turning a blind eye to the violations of the Houthi rebels, who the government has been battling since 2014. The Saudi-led coalition has also dismissed as inaccurate and non-neutral the UN experts August 28 report. Last week, Human Rights Watch accused Saudi Arabia of mounting a campaign to discredit and undermine a UN investigation into abuses by all of Yemens warring parties, calling it yet another blatant attempt to avoid scrutiny of the coalitions own actions in Yemen. Despite intense Saudi pressure, UN Human Rights Council renews UN investigation of the ongoing war crimes in Yemen, including Saudi-led bombing and blockading of civilians. Vote is 21 in favor, 8 against, 18 abstain, rejecting Saudi effort to buy its way out of scrutiny. pic.twitter.com/MrZYquzXPl Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) September 28, 2018 The UN said there have been nearly 10,000 confirmed deaths in the conflict since the coalition intervened in 2015 when the Saudi-led alliance entered the war to bolster Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The conflict has triggered what the UN describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, with three-quarters of the population or 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid. Activists call for prosecution as Philippines president apparently admits to responsibility for killings in drugs war. Critics of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte have called for his prosecution after remarks in which he appeared to take responsibility for extrajudicial killings in the country. During a speech at the presidential palace on Thursday, Duterte said: What are my sins? Did I steal money? Even just one peso? Did I prosecute somebody I sent to jail? My only sin is extrajudicial killings. President Duterte is currently facing two charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC). In August, activists and families of eight victims of the Philippines war on drugs called for the presidents indictment over thousands of extrajudicial killings during his crackdown on drugs. On Friday, opposition Senator Rizza Hontiveros said Dutertes verbal admission will serve as solid evidence in the peoples quest for justice. It will serve to contribute in moving forward national and international efforts to exact accountability from the president and his cohort, said Hontiveros. Meanwhile, Dutertes spokesperson Harry Roque attempted to backtrack from the comments. You know the president. He wasnt serious, Roque told local radio station DZRH on Friday. Thats the president being himself, being playful, highlighting the point that he isnt corrupt. In his Thursday speech, Duterte also said there was no evidence to implicate him in the killings. Four thousand deaths. When? Where? How? What did I use? Nothing, he said. In February, an opposition senator Antonio Trillanes said the death toll in the governments war on drugs had surpassed 20,000 since President Duterte came to office in 2016. In a speech before the Philippine Senate, Trillanes said the Duterte administrations own report shows 3,967 drug personalities have been killed after allegedly resisting arrest during police operations between July 1, 2016, and November 27, 2017. Grotesque cruelty Rights groups said the comments should serve as evidence in the ICC probe into Dutertes role in the deaths. This apparent admission by the President himself highlights the urgent need for international investigations, Minar Pimple, a senior director at Amnesty International, said in a statement. This playful comment is a grotesque cruelty at best, and a damning indictment of his governments murderous campaign at worst. In a statement, Human Rights Watch Asia director Brad Adams said: This admission should erase any doubt about the culpability of the President. Duterte unilaterally withdrew from the ICCs founding treaty in March, saying it skirted due process and the presumption of his innocence, and sought to portray him as a ruthless and heartless violator of human rights. On Tuesday, a senator critical of Dutertes war on drugs was arrested in a move which was condemned as persecution of the governments opponents. The main airport, closed for two years due to civil war, could get commercial access, Martin Griffiths tells Al Jazeera. The UN special envoy to Yemen has said that he is looking forward to announcing the reopening of Sanaa airport next week to commercial access two years after the devastating war forced its closure. In an exclusive interview, Martin Griffiths told Al Jazeera late on Thursday he was also working on resuming Yemen talks [between the warring sides] within weeks in Europe. UN-brokered talks between the Houthi rebels and exiled Yemeni government, which is militarily backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, was stalled earlier this month after the Shia rebels could not make it to the venue in the Swiss city of Geneva. {articleGUID} I dont think we can allow it to be delayed until over the horizon because the problem with that is that people lose the narrative of peace and once you lose the opportunity to talk about the settlement, the narrative of war becomes dominant, he said. Thats what we must try to get away from. He also said he wanted to make announcements about how we can get prisoners released, [from] both sides. We made a lot of progress since Geneva and I want to work with the central bank of Yemen and their counterparts in Sanaa on payment of salaries which is crucial, by the way, for the humanitarian issues, he said. The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday there very well could be famine in remote areas of Yemen, underscoring the bleak humanitarian situation in the country. The UN food agency has warned that Yemen, the poorest nation in the Middle East, is on the brink of a full-blown famine, with 18 million of its 29 million population food insecure. Failed talks At the Geneva peace talks aimed at ending the three-year war, only representatives of the exiled Yemeni government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi turned up, as the Houthis insisted their plane to Geneva be allowed to evacuate dozens of injured people to neighbouring Oman. Al Jazeeras Bernard Smith, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti, said the reopening of the Sanaa airport the countrys main international airport was one of UNs priorities because of the need for evacuations. There are thousands and thousands of people who need life-saving medical treatment overseas. Yemens health ministry estimates that between 25,000 and 30,000 people a day are dying because they cannot leave the country via Sanaa airport, he said. Even as Griffiths pushes for peace talks, Yemens exiled government says it will not cooperate with the UN human rights mission, which has been investigating into suspected war crimes during more than three years of conflict. It accused the UN of bias, saying the investigators have turned a blind eye to violations by Houthi rebels. Last month, in a report the panel accused both government forces and Houthi rebels of violations but said that coalition air strikes had caused most of the documented civilian casualties and voiced serious concerns about the targeting process. Access to hygiene products has been made possible as Rohingya women in Kutupalong refugee camp produce pads and panties. Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh In the worlds largest refugee camp, dozens of Rohingya women work diligently, their small factory a hub of activity; theyre making sanitary pads and womens underwear to be distributed to Rohingya refugee women like them. The one-room factory near Kutupalong refugee camp is buzzing, the quiet chatter of conversation barely discernible over whirring sewing machines set up in rows. Workers crouch on the floor, drawing patterns with white chalk on black fabric stretched down the middle of the room. Others cut fabric, sew and iron sanitary napkins. Its very much needed for the women, Hasina Begum, the factorys supervisor told Al Jazeera, referring to the washable and reusable napkins. If they do not use them and rely instead on dirty cloths, they will fall sick. The 40-year-old, who is from Coxs Bazar, said before the production, Rohingya women were afflicted with a number of diseases including leukorrhea, gonorrhoea and other vaginal infections. We are distributing these products to women and also instructing them on how to use them, she said. Working in Coxs Bazar Kutupalong camps population has swelled to more than 650,000 since August 2017, which marked the beginning of the mass exodus of Rohingya refugees fleeing a bloody campaign led by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state. While several initiatives have been set up in the camp offering men and women vocational training in carpentry, soap-making and electrical appliance repair, only registered refugees who arrived in previous influxes are able to work. According to the UN refugee agency, only 34,000 out of 1.1 million Rohingya are registered as refugees in Coxs Bazar. The more recently displaced Rohingya are not. Hafsina Begum no relation to Hasina is a registered refugee. She was born in the camp after her parents fled their village of Fukira Bazar in Rakhine in 1999, and has been working in the factory for five years since she was 15. Her family is now dependent on her income, which she says has earned her a degree of financial independence. Before coming to the factory, I was not skilled in professional work, she told Al Jazeera. Now I have learned how to tailor. I can sew anything. Before that, we used simple cloths that were not comfortable, she said. But these sanitary napkins we make feel much better. On average, the women produce 6,000 sanitary napkins and 3,000 panties a month [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera] The factory is part of a project under the Technical Assistance Inc., funded by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and established in 2011. According to the supervisor, UNHCR sets the production target, while supplies and raw material are provided by TAI. On average, we make more than 6,000 sanitary napkins and up to 3,000 panties per month, Hasina said. Theres the physical benefit, and for the women who make the products, financial benefits too, she added. The products, along with antiseptic cream and bathing and laundry soap the latter two also produced by Rohingya workers in adjacent factories are distributed to more than 4,000 Rohingya women including the workers between the ages of 13 and 49 every six months. The latest distribution to 4,296 women was in June, Hasina said. We had a surplus of production, so we hope that the products will also be given to some of the unregistered Rohingya women in the camp. Criteria for employment Hasina said interest in this income-generating project among women trained in sewing and tailoring was beyond expectations, far in excess of the 40 positions available in the factory. We formed groups and gave them all a chance to work by following a rotating schedule, she said. Every three or four months, the working group was replaced by another so that everyone interested received the opportunity to work. According to a TAI official, the women working in the factory all underwent a six-month training course before starting. He added all the women selected are extremely vulnerable individuals. This includes adolescent girls from the age of 15 until the age 35 and single mothers, widows, divorcees, girls who have elderly parents or large families that need supporting, the official explained. He added unmarried girls need to have the approval of their parents, but there was no requirement that the workers have completed their schooling. A similar programme has also been set up in the Nayapara refugee camp, which is located in the other sub-district of Teknaf. Financial support Hafsinas average output target is 600 sanitary napkins and 300 panties a month. The work gives me some financial support, she said. I can give money to my parents. And when I need to, I can use my own earning. This is the benefit of working. For each sanitary napkin and undergarment, the workers make TK15 each, or $0.18. The monthly income for a worker is between TK2,500 and TK3,00 ($30 to $35). The higher the output, the more they earn. With the latest swell of Rohingya refugees in the camp, workers earned between TK5,000 to TK7,000 ($58 to $82), Hasina said. It depends on the target. The factory offers another advantage for the working women, who use the space for socialising and constructive interactions. These women live in tiny one-room shacks, Hasina the supervisor said. When they come here, it is like a respite for them and lessens the financial strain on their families. As for her, Hasina said the work was rewarding in bridging the gap closer between the local women in Coxs Bazar and the Rohingya. My role is an example of positive engagement with the Rohingya, where we teach them how to better their lives in the camp, she said. A dramatic last-minute demand by Republican Senator Jeff Flake on Friday prompted President Donald Trump to order an FBI investigation into his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over sexual misconduct allegations that have riveted the country and imperilled his confirmation chances. With tempers flaring on both sides, the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee approved Kavanaughs nomination and sent it to the full Senate over Democratic opposition, with Flake providing the decisive vote. But Flake, who is retiring from the Senate in January, cast his vote only after asking the panel to request that the Trump administration pursue an FBI probe of the explosive allegations against Kavanaugh and delay a final Senate confirmation vote for up to a week to let the investigation run its course. Trump granted the request, saying the probe must be limited in scope and completed in less one week. The drama unfolded the day after a jarring and emotional hearing into sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh that gripped the country, with Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor, accusing him of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh denied the accusation. This countrys being ripped apart here, Flake, with a pained look on his face, told his fellow senators. I think we can have a short pause, Flake added. We ought to do what we can to make sure that we do all due diligence with a nomination this important, Flake added. After Trumps order, Kavanaugh said he would continue to cooperate, but reiterated that he has done everything they [the committee] have requested. Throughout this process, Ive been interviewed by the FBI, Ive done a number of background calls directly with the Senate, and yesterday [Thursday], I answered questions under oath about every topic the Senators and their counsel asked of me, he said in a statement issued by the White House. A lawyer for Ford welcomed the new investigation, but said limits should not be imposed. A thorough FBI investigation is critical to developing all the relevant facts, Fords lawyer Debra Katz said in a statement. No artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed on this investigation. Drama just before vote The committee moved to advance the nomination 11-10 on party lines, with Trumps fellow Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no. All Ive said to Senator Flake is I would advocate for the position he took but I dont control that, said Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the committee. {articleGUID} Just before the scheduled vote in the Judiciary Committee, Flake left the committee room to talk to some Democrats, adding new turmoil to the proceedings. During the delay, senators and aides could be seen in the committee room having hushed conversations. Earlier in the day Flake, who had previously raised concerns about the allegations against Kavanaugh, said Ford gave compelling testimony but Kavanaugh provided a persuasive response. Soon after Flake made his announcement that he would vote for Kavanaugh in the committee, the senator was confronted in an elevator while on his way to the committee meeting by sexual assault survivors. Thats what youre telling all women in America that they dont matter, they should just keep it to themselves, one of the protesters shouted at Flake in an exchange aired by CNN. I need to go to my hearing. Ive issued my statement, Flake said. The full Senate must confirm Supreme Court appointments. Unclear if Republicans have votes to confirm {articleGUID} It remained unclear if Republicans have the votes to confirm Kavanaugh on the Senate floor. Republicans hold a slim Senate 51-49 majority, making the votes of two other so-far undecided Republican moderates crucial: Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. Both senators said they supported Flakes move, as did moderate Democrats Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp, who have not yet announced how they will vote on Kavanaugh. Grassley said he found Thursdays testimony from both Ford and Kavanaugh credible, but added, Theres simply no reason to deny Judge Kavanaugh a seat on the Supreme Court on the basis of evidence presented to us. The timing of the panels session gave committee members little time to review Thursdays emotional testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford, who accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were high school students in 1982. Kavanaugh forcefully denied the accusations and accused Democrats of a calculated and orchestrated political hit. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committees senior Democrat, called Kavanaughs remarks unseemly for a judicial nominee. This was someone who was aggressive and belligerent. I have never seen someone who wants to be elevated to the highest court in the country behave in that manner. In stark contrast, the person who testified yesterday and demonstrated a balanced temperament was Dr Ford, Feinstein said. Another Democrat, Amy Klobuchar, noted that Grassley had thanked Ford for her bravery but nevertheless failed to back any further investigation. Where is the bravery in this room? Klobuchar asked. Politicise the Supreme Court The controversy comes just weeks ahead of the November 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to seize control of Congress from the Republicans. {articleGUID} If confirmed, Kavanaugh would consolidate conservative control of the nations highest court and advance Trumps broad effort to shift the American judiciary to the right. Democrats said Kavanaughs confirmation could taint the Supreme Court, which prides itself on staying above the political fray. Voting to advance and ultimately confirm Judge Kavanaugh while he is under this dark cloud of suspicion will forever change the Senate and our nations high court. It will politicise the US Supreme Court, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said. The American Bar Association, which earlier endorsed Kavanaugh, and the dean of Yale Law School, which Kavanaugh attended, had also called for an FBI probe. The committee Republicans also voted down a Democratic motion seeking to subpoena Mark Judge, a Kavanaugh friend who Ford said witnessed the assault. Judge told the committee in a written statement he does not recall any such incident. Senator Joe Donnelly, a moderate Democrat who last year voted for Trumps previous Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, announced he would vote against Kavanaugh. Two other key moderate Democrats who voted for Gorsuch, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin, have not announced how they will vote. {articleGUID} Kavanaugh could be the deciding vote on contentious legal issues if he is confirmed to the nine-member court, with disputes involving abortion, immigration, gay rights, voting rights and transgender troops possibly heading to the court soon. The court begins its next term on Monday, down one justice after the retirement of conservative Anthony Kennedy effective in July. Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace Kennedy. Ford testified on Thursday she was 100 percent certain Kavanaugh assaulted her. Kavanaugh called himself the victim of grotesque and obvious character assassination. Attention to the hearing moved far beyond the world of Washington politics. Ford has emerged in the eyes of many American women as a compelling figure in the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in three women in the United States experience some form of sexual violence in their lives. About 63 percent of sexual assaults in the US are not reported to the police. More than 90 percent of sexual assault survivors on US college campuses do not report the incident. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed fears on Friday that his country was seeking to overtake the United States as the pre-eminent world power, saying Beijing wants global harmony. Pointing to recent works of US scholars who say China is stepping up efforts for hegemony, Wang said: I want to tell you very clearly that this is a serious strategic misjudgment. It is a misguided anticipation that will be extremely detrimental to US interests and the future of the United States, Wang told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, where he was attending the UN General Assembly. Wang also said there was no cause for panic over friction between Beijing and Washington and that we can overcome current difficulties. At a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump accused Beijing of seeking to meddle in the November 6 congressional elections in the US, in what he described as a bid to stop him and his Republican Party from doing well because of his trade stance. Wang said concrete actions must be taken to maintain relations between China and the US and that history will remember those who took the lead in the mist. China and the US are embroiled in a trade war, sparked by Trumps accusations that China has long sought to steal US intellectual property, limit access to its own market and unfairly subsidise state-owned companies. South China Sea dominance Wang also said China is fostering closer economic ties with Russia as the two economies are on the same page on international issues. He declared that further cooperation with China was key in pursuing the denuclearisation of its ally North Korea. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned members of the UN Security Council on Thursday they must set the example by enforcing sanctions on North Korea, as China and Russia suggested the council consider easing the tough measures. Wang noted China has exercised utmost restraint in the South China Sea and seeks peaceful solutions over disputed territory. He said Beijing has sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and people there feel the need for enhanced defences given heavy US military patrols. China, which says its intentions are peaceful, claims most of the South China Sea, through which about $3 trillion worth of trade passes every year. Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei also claim parts of the sea, which has vast oil and gas deposits and rich fishing grounds. In the last two years, China has been accused of expanding its military facilities on disputed islands. Chief of UNs food agency raises alert over Yemens hunger crisis at the UN General Assembly as famine fears loom. New York The World Food Programme (WFP) has said there very well could be famine in remote areas of Yemen where the UNs food agency does not have access, painting a bleak picture of the hunger crisis gripping the country. Yemen is a disaster and I dont see any light at the end of the tunnel right now, WFPs Executive Director David Beasley told reporters at a closed briefing during the UN General Assembly in New York City on Thursday. The WFP has warned that Yemen is on the brink of a full-blown famine, with 18 million of its 29 million population food insecure, 8.4 million severely so. The countrys civil war further worsened in the wake of Saudi-led military intervention in 2015, which has ravaged the countrys economy and caused the Yemeni riyal to collapse, depreciating 180 percent. The cost of food has increased by 35 percent in the last 12 months and if trends continue the riyal will reach an exchange rate of 1,000 to the US dollar, putting 12 million at risk of starvation, UN officials have warned. Yemen is undeniably the worlds worst humanitarian crisis by far, said Beasley. The three-and-a-half-year-long civil war has ravaged the countrys economy [Khaled Abdullah/Reuters] Access into the country, controlled by the Saudi-led coalition, has substantially improved in the past year, but denial of access within Yemen remains the major obstacle to fighting hunger and disease, especially in areas controlled by Houthis, he added. If we dont have access then we cant monitor [and] draw necessary conclusions. We have to assume the worst. An Associated Press investigation found that some families in the northern, Houthi-controlled area of Aslam were found eating leaves to survive after the distribution of food aid was manipulated by local authorities. Blockade The situation is especially critical in and around the port of Hodeidah, where the Saudi-led alliance is advancing to take the port city, which has been under Houthi control since late 2014. Civilians there are the most vulnerable in the country, according to the UN. Beasley said the agency has received assurances from all parties to the conflict in Hodeidah that the lifeline port will remain open at all costs, but that the WFP is making alternative arrangements in case it should close. About 70-80 percent of the countrys food and medical supplies arrive onto its docks. He also accused Houthi rebel forces of breaking every human principle imaginable, including impeding the delivery of food supplies and using weapons at UN warehouse facilities. The statements mark a shift in tone for Beasley, who last year assailed Saudi Arabia for its blockade of Yemen and especially Hodeidah port, telling Reuters news agency that the Kingdom should pay 100 percent of the burden of humanitarian relief. The change mirrors a meeting on Monday where UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Lise Grande told agency heads, member states and NGOs that it is a grim but wholly unshakable fact that we are losing the battle to prevent famine in Yemen. Grande and other humanitarian officials then thanked those donating towards the crisis, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the leading members of the military alliance which UN experts have said may be responsible for war crimes. Air attacks by the Saudi-led coalition have hit markets, hospitals, homes and funerals and are the cause for most direct civilian casualties in the war, according to a recent report. In response to the meetings dire updates on hunger and poverty, Yemen Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani, UAE Minister for State Reem Al-Hashimi and Saudi Ambassador to the UN Abdullah al-Mouallimi in turn called for more condemnation of Houthi rebels from the UN and the international community. We must always remember that the catastrophe was saved due to the generosity of the donors, said al-Mouallimi. I dont know any war in the world where the war was conducted with such a strong humanitarian dimension. Yemen response More than half of the $1.97bn raised for the UNs Yemen response has been donated by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Contributions by those countries allies including Kuwait, the US and UK, mean that 80 percent of the funds are provided by the military coalition and its backers. During the UN meetings, Yemens government officials appeared to be more occupied with participating in anti-Iran meetings and opposing Iran publicly rather than generating solutions to Yemens economic collapse and the intensification of the humanitarian crisis, said Samaa Al-Hamdani, Yemen analyst and visiting fellow at Georgetown University. Al-Hamdani said the weeks discussions saw no serious decision to move from hostilities to negotiation, minimal action on stopping the battle for Hodeidah, and no mention of the Yemeni governments need to return to liberated areas. This determination to keep the war is alarming since civilian life is not respected in this conflict. The Islands capital was inundated after a torrential storm on Saturday. Devastation caused by heavy rain in Port Louis. [Reuters] A day of mourning has been declared in the Indian Ocean holiday island of Mauritius after at least 10 people were killed as the capital Port Louis was hit by torrential rain on Saturday. It is thought that many of the victims drowned as water poured into underpasses and underground car parks. Reports suggest that more than 150mm of rain fell in just an hour and a half. This compares with an average rainfall total for the entire month of 221mm. Prime Minister Navin Rangoolam placed the blame on climate change, but residents have complained about the lack of any warning in advance of the deluge. The island is no stranger to torrential rain, experiencing occasional tropical cyclones. Neighbouring Reunion, 214km to the west, holds the record for most rainfall in 24 hours, at over 1,800mm. The forecast is for mainly dry weather to return to the island. Given her background in psychology, it is not surprising that during yesterday's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Ford should tell us that the laughter of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge is indelible in her hippocampus. Nor is it unusual that it took the New Republic only a few minutes to publish a characteristically biased and irresponsible article on the subject. The most powerful moment thus far of Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee came when she was asked by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy to describe her strongest memory from the night that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her. Her answer was both moving and horrifying. "Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter," Ford says, her voice cracking. "The uproarious laughter between the two. They're having fun at my expense." "You've never forgotten them laughing at you," Leahy says. "They were laughing with each other," Ford replies. "And you were the object of the laughter?" Leahy asks. "I was underneath one of them, while the two laughed," Ford says. The exchange underscored how the alleged assault was both traumatizing and humiliating. It also girded Ford's credibility, which Republicans have gone to great length to attack, showing the extent to which the incident is imprinted on her memory. Strictly speaking, Ford's claim that "indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter" is nonsense. And while one would like to be charitable, believing that Ford is simply in error, in view of what seems to be her deliberately heavy breathing and sorrowful manner and tone, we must, I think, conclude that she is being disingenuous: trying to sway everyone via "her expertise." She is acting, perhaps, on the advice of her cynical lawyers, including Democratic activist Debra Katz. Anyway, whatever may be her motivation and intent, let us be clear: Ford's claim is ipso facto absurd. Nor should one need medical training (which Ford doesn't have) or a background in philosophy to recognize that. For what does it mean to believe that laughter is thus indelible? Does one have actual access in the implied manner to the hippocampus? Of course not! Ford's claim is rather like saying, "I have discussed the matter with my lungs, and we agree that I should give up smoking." To be sure, Ford may indeed have been almost raped some thirty-six years ago. She may also have a firm recollection, whether accurate or no, that two men laughed during the course of that evil. But however all that may be, it won't do for her to talk of laughter being indelible in her hippocampus, if by that she means it's an indisputable fact and the rest of us are to think Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge are guilty on account of her "expert recollection." As with perception itself, so with the memory it reflects: it is common to unwittingly believe things because they suit one's interests, selectively interpreting both the past and the present to that egoistic end. This is true whether one is an "expert" or not. It would be the grossest naivete, then, to believe that Ford, because of her training, is not prone to the general human errors, biases, and delusions. After all, it seems that what she is doing is putting her "expertise" to a rather manipulative end. In any case, contra Shepard, "the exchange" manifestly did not underscore "how the alleged assault was both traumatizing and humiliating." Nor did it gird "Ford's credibility, showing the extent to which the incident is imprinted on her memory." From an epistemic point of view, all we really know is what Ford has alleged. We do not know whether she is right, nor do we even know she is sincere. I am not saying she is not right or not sincere: for all I know, she is. My point concerns the vital distinction between what we know and what we merely believe. It is important to understand that such a metaphysical assertion as Ford's admits of no justification, and therefore is not to be taken seriously. Christopher DeGroot is a columnist at Taki's Magazine and senior contributing editor of New English Review. Follow him at @CEGrotius. Image Courtesy of Wikimedia. Fake Rape Victims Are More Fun than Real Ones To grasp why members of the American left come out to rant and root for their favorite fake victims like Colin Kaepernik and Christine Blasey Ford while they ignore real victims like Juanita Broaddrick, we will introduce two new concepts: narcissistic authoritarianism and its ethical strategy, the fake victim-rescuer delusional system. In the last century, science and technology conferred astonishing and ubiquitous material improvements to life around the world and especially in America. The dizzying ascendance of wealth and material privilege set the stage for a fundamental shift in consciousness from morality and law (which infuse compassion and justice into the daily struggle for survival) to consciousness oriented around narcissistic gratification. In this paradigm, the struggle for survival is over, and the goal of ethical consciousness is to feel good about oneself. This vast transition arose when scientific advancement, mass affluence, and material comfort afforded shortcuts around historic American righteous authority articulated in our biblical and constitutional heritage. Moral absolutes became the refuge of simpletons, and maintaining a constitutional republic more bother than it's worth. Modern American consciousness, as a whole, has shifted from social control based on historic righteous authority to social control based on modern narcissistic authoritarianism. One way of conceptualizing the difference between the conservative right-wing mindset and the progressive left-wing mindset is that the left has more completely abandoned traditional righteous authority, allowing narcissistic authoritarianism to more completely fill the religious and moral vacuum for the left. Narcissistic authoritarianism relies on a fallacious victimology regarding race, sex, and sexuality, as a primary means of considering oneself good and virtuous. This psychology is narcissistic because it is a closed self-referential belief system devoid of absolute, universal, or unchanging truth about human worth. It is authoritarian because narcissism is inherently tyrannical. There is no escape from or appeasement of this tyranny in the pursuit of imaginary glories of self-image. But the greatest impact of the shift from adherence to traditional righteous authority to modern narcissistic authoritarianism is that in the former, virtue derives from actual self-sacrifice and good deeds, whereas in the latter, virtue derives from displaying concern for supposed victims and the louder, the better without having to do any real service for anybody. That is so much easier and more fun. Although narcissistic authoritarianism rejects traditional morality, the ego still needs to organize the world in categories of good and evil. In the absence of religiously based schemata of virtue and sin by which the ego can consider itself good, a new system of judgment and ethical differentiation developed, primarily among the left wing. It can be termed the fake victim-rescuer delusional system. In this psychological system, virtue lies in advocating for and rescuing accredited victims. This ethical system, which to a great degree has replaced traditional morality in left-wing psychology, is a defense mechanism that answers the question, "How do I feel good about myself without the bother of doing anything practical for the actually downtrodden?" The ego's answer is, "Why go to the trouble of actual service to real victims when it feels better to rant, rave, curse, and scream about fake ones?" Because the psychological payoff of the fake victim-rescuer delusion is not to actually protect or help anybody, but rather to enable the delusional rescuer to feel good, fake victims work much better than real ones. Victims who have experienced actual pain, oppression, and suffering might dampen one's spirits. Narcissism is authoritarian by nature because it works in service of the ego, whose job is to be a self-serving tyrant, while protecting the ego from making sacrifices. Psychologically, such sacrifices require sincere introspection. Introspection is by nature quiet. Those providing real help to real victims tend to be quiet because they are subsumed in the work. Those reveling in rescuing fake victims tend to be noisy and histrionic and to direct attention to themselves. Consider these victim-rescuers. Their activism, purportedly in support of the "victim" Christine Blasey Ford, is pure spectacle characterized by noise, execrable manners, and mob (rather than individual) action. Nowhere is Dr. Ford to be seen. However, these intrepid rescuers made sure their own video selfies were seen by millions. Christine Blasey Ford is already one of the most ideologically useful and emotionally gratifying fake victims in American history. Her victimization sideshow has provided such service to the narcissistic authoritarianism of the left wing that the Democrats should strike a Fake Victim Medal of Honor. If you had a fifteen-year-old daughter and learned that she went to an unsupervised party, drank herself stupid, and was momentarily pinned to a bed before getting free and sneaking home, would your first thought be to call the police? She may have had a harrowing experience while in the 9th grade, but if such an event did occur, it was a frightening life lesson, one that apparently Dr. Ford failed to learn. She is reported to have continued as a heavy drinking, hard partying surfer girl for years, before becoming a professional victimology scripturalist. She first unpacked her victimhood in marital therapy, which is a propitious moment for elaborating upon one's grievances. Beyond the historical significance of helping the rageful left destroy the most qualified nominee to the Supreme Court since Antonin Scalia, the ongoing value of fake victims for the left is that they are much more fun to advocate for than the real ones. Having worked in a crime victim's assistance program with rape-survivors, I can attest that the difference between "victims" like Blasey Ford and the real ones is striking. Real rape victims tend to come from lower-income, lower-educational level backgrounds. Often their lower socioeconomic status makes them more vulnerable to victimization. The rape of a teenager or adult does not tend to submerge for years. It has an immediate, often devastating effect on the person's life and behavior. Psychologically disabled people are often difficult to help. They often make self-defeating choices and set up conditions of re-victimization to expiate their shame. Psychotherapy for a sexually victimized person is an exquisitely delicate process of supporting the recovery dynamics of the mind. It is truly "leading from behind." Acquaintance rape victims tend to come from the same culture and political belief system of the rapist. They are not driven by a political agenda, like the cadre of hard-left lawyers Blasey Ford has around her. Juanita Broaddrick was honored to meet with the politician who subsequently raped her. Clinton preyed on women who worked for him and trusted him. It is often said that fake victims do terrible damage to the credibility of real victims. But the damage goes deeper than undermining credibility. The fake victim-rescuer delusional system, which amounts to little more than rage and self-directed virtue-signaling, excuses the left wing from providing or supporting the actual difficult, compassionate, and patient service that may help real crime victims. Image: Plum Leaves via Flickr. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have a dream. My dream is that one day the United States will elect a president who dares to explain to the American people that, on controversial questions, the Supreme Court is a political and not a legal institution; and that justices practice their politics by pretending to "interpret" and apply the law and the Constitution. In a nutshell, this explains what is going on with the vicious and vile leftist Democrat character assassination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. "Political" here does not refer to Republicans versus Democrats, or the desire of Trump-haters to stick it to the president. This article uses "political" to describe the struggle over "who gets what when and how." In a self-governing republic, the "how" consists of decisions by elected representatives. The Kavanaugh fight is really a fight between those who believe in the Framers' republic and those who want to destroy that republic. To paraphrase the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia, he frequently told political combatants: "If you want policies not mandated or prohibited by the United States Constitution, don't ask judges to impose what you want but, instead, persuade your fellow citizens." What are today's leftists to do if they can't persuade their fellow citizens to buy their nostrums? What if these leftists are like the communists once described by Justice William O. Douglas as "miserable merchants of unwanted ideas" they cannot sell? Here is why death penalty opponents, consistently unable to convert the death penalty-supporting majority of voters, repeatedly run to the Supreme Court to get their way: unaccountable judges are the last best hope of democracy's losers. Once upon a time, a very old Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. famously stated: [A]bout 75 years ago I learned that I was not God. And so, when the people ... want to do something I can't find anything in the Constitution expressly forbidding them to do, I say, whether I like it or not, "G-------, let 'em do it." Judge Kavanaugh has been subjected to what Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell called (4'04") a "despicable" Democrat smear campaign because today's "miserable merchants of unwanted ideas" are terrified that Kavanaugh is honest and will be faithful to the Constitution they have abhorred dating back to Woodrow Wilson. That these "miserable merchants" despise the Constitution and all who faithfully apply it has been abundantly demonstrated by the refusal of the left to accept the constitutionally mandated result of the 2016 election. Leftists prefer justices such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who, not long ago, expressed disdain for the very Constitution she took not one, but two oaths to apply faithfully (Equal Justice, p. 196). (Unlike in the days of my youth, today, "leftist" and "Democrat" are synonyms.) Justice Scalia complained repeatedly about what has been described as the "Constitutionalization" of political issues by judges who "abridge[] the people's right to govern themselves" by removing these issues from the realm of political debate and legislative action without a shred of Constitutional justification." As Scalia powerfully explained: The virtue of a democratic system with a First Amendment is that it readily enables the people, over time, to be persuaded that what they took for granted is not so, and to change their laws accordingly. That system is destroyed if the smug assurances of each age are removed from the democratic process and written into the Constitution. So to counterbalance the Court's criticism of our ancestors, let me say a word in their praise: They left us free to change. The same cannot be said of this most illiberal Court[.] Leftists have declared war on decency, the American people, their way of life, their right to self-government (Equal Justice, p. 195), and their Constitution. If a president who is not a corrupt criminal darling of the left is constitutionally elected, why, then, let's just attempt a coup d'etat. If a judge with a sterling reputation and impeccable credentials is nominated to the Supreme Court, why, then, let's destroy him with vicious character assassination. * * * No one can complain that President Trump is not one of the most courageous leaders in our history. But I do suggest that if the beloved country in which most Americans were raised is to survive in recognizable form, the president simply has not done enough. It is time to explain why the survival of the United States as a free and self-governing country is at stake. That means, to start, that it is time to explain that the United States Supreme Court has been transmogrified by the left from a legitimate legal institution into an illegitimate political institution. It is time to give concrete examples, such as rewarding the most depraved individuals in our midst with a judicially invented not-in-the-Constitution right to commit additional violence with no punishment. That is not a mistake. Contrary to the widespread expectation that those with the worst records deserve the most punishment, dishonest justices have given a constitutional door prize to the most depraved to commit more depravity without any punishment at all. That is but one example. There are many more. Pro-criminal leftists fear that a Justice Kavanaugh will honestly apply the Constitution and not participate in judicially ramming unpopular leftist policies down the throats of an unwilling American people. That is what this fight is really all about. Given recent events, a re-run of the character assassinations of Judge Robert H. Bork and Justice Clarence Thomas, it is time to explain to the American people, as only President Trump can, that the 2018 election is a contest between good and evil. Majority leader McConnell was restrained in calling anti-Constitution Democrats "despicable." Anyone who thinks the mere leveling of a scurrilous charge is proof of its truth is genuinely evil. The existence of due process, freedom, the right of self-government, and public safety are at stake. Only the president can command an audience large enough to make a difference. Again and again, dishonest judges have lied about the Constitution (Equal Justice, pp. 197, 265-275) in order to impose unwanted leftist policies on an averse electorate. If Judge Kavanaugh does not become Justice Kavanaugh, we can all say goodbye to honest Constitutional self-government and hello to fascism. Leftists have tried every dirty trick in the book first, to prevent and second, to nullify the results of an election in which our promise-keeping president made the appointment of honest judges, committed to the Constitution, a central feature of his campaign. Lester Jackson is author of numerous articles about capital punishment, the Supreme Court, and American politics. His recent book is Equal Justice for Victims: A Blueprint for the Rightful Restoration of Capital Punishment. Reviews are here, here, here. But being in favor of military spending doesn't mean being in favor of wasteful military spending. When the Pentagon engages in bad behavior, such as the infamous $400 hammers of the 1980s, it's actually cheating people in uniform. Our men and women in uniform need all the tools we can give them. It is the expected exchange from us to those who are willing to give that last full measure of devotion to preserve our nation. It's refreshing whenever Congress learns from the past and tries to control a potentially wasteful long-term military contract. The agreement in question intends to move all of the Pentagon's data everything from weapon systems information to subcontractor phone numbers to the cloud. Right now, all that information is stored on hard drives. The idea to use cloud computing makes perfect sense. The plan itself does not. The Defense Department wants to give a sole-source single cloud provider a long-term contract worth up to $10 billion. "We are looking for an industry partner who will learn with us and help us find the best ways to bring foundational commercial capabilities to our warfighters," the Pentagon's chief information officer says. Note the singular "an industry partner," not "industry partners." That potential partner appears to be Amazon Web Services (AWS). It's so clear, in fact, that when details of the agreement came out this year, a potential rival bidder told Vanity Fair's May Jeong: "Everybody immediately knew that it was for Amazon." The "request for proposals" (RFP) includes provisions tailored for Amazon. There is potentially far more at stake than the usual waste of taxpayer dollars. Why not consider using multiple providers, as many private companies do and, parenthetically, as the law generally requires? Possibly because somebody in the chain of command wants to reward Amazon assuredly because Amazon will reward him, because that is how crony capitalism's perpetual cycle of professional back-scratching works. Lawmakers are recognizing the problem. Members of the House and Senate recently sent important language to the Defense Department explaining that it won't get any funding for cloud computing until it explains its appropriations process. They're demanding transparency and a detailed description of how the decision-makers in the Pentagon choose their cloud provider. Sensibly, they also want "an assessment of potential threats and security vulnerabilities of the proposed cloud computing strategy, and plans to mitigate such risks." Those risks are both internal and external. There's an ominous internal threat rising from within Amazon's cadre of rank-and-file employees. This past June, employees hinted at a brewing revolt at the World's Richest Company, complaining to company founder Jeff Bezos that they don't want Amazon to fulfill a government contract for facial recognition products because they disagree with the Trump administration's immigration policies. "In the face of this immoral U.S. policy, and the U.S.'s increasingly inhumane treatment of refugees and immigrants beyond this specific policy, we are deeply concerned that Amazon is implicated, providing infrastructure and services that enable ICE and DHS," their letter said. Stronger statements exist hinting at a nascent Fifth Column within the core of Amazon. "We learn from history, and we understand how IBM's systems were employed in the 1940s to help Hitler," Amazon's employees wrote. "IBM did not take responsibility then, and by the time their role was understood, it was too late. We will not let that happen again. The time to act is now." Instructive to the DOD is the ominous demand from Amazon's hands and heart (as opposed to the "head," Bezos) that Amazon remove Palantir from Amazon Web Services. Palantir is Peter Thiel's big data firm that utilizes Amazon's cloud services to fulfill multi-billion-dollar contracts with ICE and Law Enforcement. "Our company should not be in the surveillance business," the letter reads. "We should not be in the policing business; we should not be in the business of supporting those who monitor and oppress marginalized populations." Substitute "military" for "policing" and "whose mission is to" for "who monitor and" in that sentence, and the potential for disaster a single-source cloud contract presents becomes obvious and terrifying. What happens if the employees at a single cloud provider with a demonstrated philosophical bent toward disdain of the law and hatred for law enforcement take the law into their own hands and act subversively when they don't approve of the military's plans for national defense? It would be better not to have to ask that question. The military has a genuine opportunity to help the country while helping itself. By splitting up this DOD cloud contract, it could drive innovation and experimentation in the cloud computing space. As David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, told The Washington Times, "[t]his contract could be big enough, actually, that vendors could shape what they propose to meet the [Defense Department's] needs." None of that will happen unless Congress makes it happen. The country is fortunate that lawmakers are taking steps to improve the DoD's cloud plan. Let's see whether the Pentagon is willing to respond. Let's also pray that the fate of our military men and women is not in the hands of a crony capitalist's employees, who may have signaled their willingness to sabotage our national security based upon their personal beliefs. Yesterday, Blasey Ford said she cannot remember incidents from the past few months but is sure that Kavanaugh attacked her 36 years ago. Dems and others praised Christine Blasey Ford for reporting and testifying about her claimed Kavanaugh assault incident, but the truth is that her story is not credible, and she lied that Kavanaugh attacked her. She was used by the Dems to defeat Kavanaugh and Trump. She doesn't know, or refused to say, how she got from the swimming pool to the party house and how she got home. She was too young to drive, so someone had to drive her, and the identity of the driver is important. The driver would testify how she looked if she had been attacked, and what she said, but she refused to say who drove. She cannot remember if she gave her therapy notes to the Washington Post two weeks ago. There was no testimony as to whether she knew Kavanaugh and Mark Judge before this alleged attack, nor any testimony to describe what Kavanaugh and Judge looked like. She said she knew that Kavanaugh and Judge would be at the party but gave no testimony as to how she knew them and how she knew they would be at the "gathering." She couldn't answer if she paid for the polygraph, and her attorneys had to answer that they paid for the polygraph. She hired the attorney, Katz, recommended by Senator Feinstein. Instead of reporting the allegation to the entire Judiciary Committee, Feinstein referred her to an activist Dem attorney. She says she told her therapist in 2012, during couples' therapy, that Kavanaugh attacked her, but the therapist notes do not have Kavanaugh's name. She was in couples' therapy because of home remodeling issues between her and her husband: she wanted two front doors because of her claustrophobia. This is the impetus to make her report the attack in 2012? Couples' therapy for home-remodeling? Ford does have some serious issues, which were not adequately probed during testimony. She complained about flying to D.C. to testify because of fear of flying, yet she flew to Maryland in August to meet with Feinstein and interview attorneys and has flown to Hawaii, Costa Rica, and other places. She said she did not know that the Judiciary Committee had offered to travel to California to interview her. This was on the news for a week, and her attorneys knew about the offer. She said he saw Judge six to eight weeks after the incident at the Safeway where he worked when she went shopping with her mother. But she didn't tell her mother that he was one of the boys who had attacked her, and she joked that she had entered the store through a different door from the one her mother used because she didn't want to enter through the same door. She did not tell her parents about the incident until August 2018, even though she was interviewing attorneys and meeting with Feinstein. The Senate Judiciary Dems had no real questions for Kavanaugh. They kept saying the FBI should investigate. Maybe if Feinstein had notified Senator Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, on July 30, the committee could have referred the matter to the FBI. It was a contest among the Dems as to who had the silliest questions. Sheldon Whitehouse asked about the high school yearbook and was made to look more foolish than he is. Patrick Leahy was incoherent. Feinstein had nothing to say except that she didn't leak the July 30 letter. Richard Blumenthal, who lied about serving in Vietnam, kept repeating that the FBI could have asked Mark Judge when he worked at the Safeway to help Ford remember the date of the incident. Blumenthal may be the dumbest senator. He asked Kavanaugh if he knew the legal principle of "falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus" Latin for false in one thing, false in everything. Blumenthal is too stupid and arrogant to realize that this means that because he lied about serving in Vietnam, he lies about everything. The Dems were reduced to asking how much beer Kavanaugh drank as a teenager, and if he drank so much that he could not remember what he did. This is the only way they can reconcile Kavanaugh's clean record: Kavanaugh was too drunk to remember that he attacked Ford. The bottom line is that Ford has problems. She may have been attacked by someone, as suggested by Kavanaugh, but she was not attacked by Kavanaugh. The Democrats know this, but they used Ford to destroy Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh showed resilience and courage, like Trump. Kavanaugh was real and honest, unlike Ford. Finally, the Republicans on the committee, led by Senator Graham, got tired of the lies by the Democrats and stood up to defend Kavanaugh. Senator Grassley responded forcefully to the Dems who kept whining about an FBI investigation. Grassley pointed out that the Dems hid the July 30 letter, preventing the committee from investigating the accusation until after the confirmation hearings. Senator Graham summed it up perfectly: Feinstein and the Dems leaked the July 30 letter after the confirmation to delay the confirmation vote until after the November elections. Dems will use #MeToo to get you, too In the circus that was the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, we saw a woman with multiple degrees who is proud to know so very little about so much and who can't remember even recent things. I think that had I taken a polygraph test on the day after my grandmother's funeral, I would remember it. But not "Chrissy" she is an empty abyss, down which all memories of any importance disappear. She can't remember "when" or "where," but she is 100% sure that it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her. (Let's stop calling being groped "rape." It may be sexual assault, but it is not rape. To call it so cheapens the suffering of countless woman who throughout history were real victims of rape.) The glasses were a nice touch, oversized to make her look childish, complementary to the tiny, childlike voice and the studied immaturity. She tried so hard to cry, but the tears just wouldn't come (at least not like Kavanaugh probably because his were real). It was also genius to have her continually call Supreme Court nominee Judge Kavanaugh "Brett." It dispensed with his many achievements as well as making him seem like a close friend who betrayed her in the most heinous of ways. Taking up six minutes of the first ten allotted Republican minutes to correct a letter she herself wrote was also brilliant. This Ford was prone to stalling. Oh, and poor Christine, so afraid to fly, yet forced to traipse the globe on jets. And now for her supporters and champions: they are the vanguard of the Democratic Party, including a woman who had a Chinese spy working for her for twenty years; a man who lied about serving in Vietnam; a guy who readily admits that at 17, he committed the very same crime they collectively were accusing Kavanaugh of (and who has a make-believe friend named T-Bone); a woman who began her political career by having an affair with Willie Brown; and a woman who, echoing rape apologists of the past, thinks men should "shut up" and take it. Coincidentally, Blasey Ford's attorney's office once represented fellow accuser Julie Swetnick, of the now discredited gang-rape allegations, in a sexual harassment case she had against a former employer. Small world, isn't it? These are the people who would sit in judgment of the rest of us. Democrats are willing to surrender all pretense of morality in order to get what they want and they do it with smiles on their faces and no concern for how much it costs anyone personally or the nation nationally. It's just that simple. Watch them for any amount of time, and you will feel as dirty as they claim Kavanaugh is, as they believe we are. In the world they want us to live in, that they themselves refuse to live in, an accusation is supposed to be enough to ruin a man, a family, a reputation, and a career. Truth is unimportant. In fact, truth is an impediment, something to be ignored in service of the greater good, which is their good. But Kavanaugh, he wouldn't take his destruction in stride like the good deplorable he is. He fought back and splendidly, with admirable eloquence and compassion. He demanded the presumption of innocence, which in the Democrats' world is afforded only to other Democrats. It was rousing. It was dramatic. It was poignant. It was also a disaster for the Democrats' dream of railroading an honorable man, guilty of nothing, who merely and nobly wants to serve this nation, and perhaps return it to the course set by the actual words written down in our Constitution, our founding document. Select Republicans fought back as well. Most notable was Senator Graham, who had his "Have you no shame?" moment. It wasn't exactly Spartacus, but it was something to see and revel in. The Democrats did themselves no favor by continually asking Kavanaugh to insist on an FBI investigation, apparently unaware that the entire country knows that it would mean another delay. Citizens also know that an investigation easily could have been completed in the time between when Feinstein received the letter and when, after it was leaked to destroy Ford's anonymity, she released it to the committee. Americans are not stupid; they know that Democrats want a delay until after the midterms, when, if they take the Senate, the Kavanaugh nomination can be killed and the seat held open until after the 2020 presidential election. Ah, the leaking of the letter. Ford said only her attorneys and Feinstein had it. But who leaked it? Feinstein said, "It was not me." She said, "It was not my staff." Then, being the Democrat that she is, she suggested that perhaps Ford leaked it herself. She threw the poor "rape" victim under the bus just as any Democrat would do to you or me were any of us to get in his way. Woe to anyone who tries to separate the Democrats from power and the wealth that comes with it. "Due process is the foundation of the American way of law," Kavanaugh said. It's too bad the Democrats believe that it applies only to them. We had better pay attention, because we could easily be next. William L. Gensert can be found on Twitter at @williamlgensert. That didn't stop some anonymous hackers who accessed a House computer system to rewrite the Wikipedia pages of several senators by adding their home addresses and phone numbers. " Doxing " is "the Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting private or identifiable information about an individual or organization." It is dangerous and, in most cases, illegal. Salt Lake Tribune: The posts were taken down quickly but tweets about their information continued to boomerang on the internet. Hatch, who is the Senate president pro tempore and third in line for the presidency, alerted Capitol Police, which provides a 24-hour security detail for him. An automatic Twitter bot called Congress Edits, which tracks changes to Wikipedia from internet addresses on Capitol Hill, first posted about the changes to the website, including screen grabs of the personal details. Posting such information is called "doxing" and can be a crime. The postings on Wikipedia happened as both Hatch and Lee were participating in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and allegations of sexual misconduct by Christine Blasey Ford. A spokeswoman for the Capitol Police said the agency does not comment on ongoing investigations. Also targeted was Senator Lindsey Graham. Aside from raising questions about internet security for members of Congress, this is extraordinarily dangerous, considering the widespread and credible threats against the health and safety of Republican politicians. This puts not only the members at risk, but also their families. It would be shocking if harassment of this kind hadn't already become commonplace. If I were a Republican politician in Washington, I would arm myself at all times and teach my wife and kids to shoot. The atmosphere of hate and hysteria against the right is only growing, and with the liberal media justifying the harassment and assaults, it's only a matter of time before a tragedy occurs. Jihad and the Zoroastrians Islamist jihadists have advanced by invading country after country with the sword of Islam. The invasion of Iran was only the start of the tenacious scourge of Islam. Slaughtering people by the hundreds of thousands left the remainder of Iranians little choice but to convert to the creed of this cult of violence. Millions converted to Islam at the point of the sword, and a few hundred thousand brave souls circled the wagon, so to speak, and held firm to their creed of light the Zoroastrian faith. For centuries, the Zoroastrians paid heavily in all manner under the rule of converted Muslims; many were forced to leave for other lands such as India, while still others were driven out of their habitat to marginal parts within Iran. Those who moved to India are called Parsees, an exclusive minority in India who are revered and respected. They don't ask for handouts; they give to charity. They don't ask for jobs; they provide jobs to millions. They came to India as refugees. They lived in harmony with their hosts as sugar dissolves in milk. They educated themselves, created wealth, supported their own community, and helped others as well. Now contrast them with Muslims. They came as looters and plunderers. They ruled us for centuries, during which they oppressed other religions with brute force. They were always in conflict with their hosts, cutting off the hand that fed them! They detested any other kind of education, barring reading the Quran. Yet, all along, many Iranians revered the religion of their ancestors and resented the Arab-imposed creed. Nonetheless, the virus of Islam had taken deep root. As a result, a compromise evolved. The overwhelming majority of Iranians, who had become some sort of generic Muslims, parted company with the original line of the Sunni caliphate and adopted Shiism. The tragic history of Shiism appealed to Iranians, who felt great affinity, consciously or unconsciously, with the tragic suffering of the Imamate line at the hands of mainstream Sunni Muslims. Switching allegiance from one sect of the cult of death to another did little more than provide a venting opportunity to victimized Iranians. They could not find it within themselves to get rid of the Islamic virus while it offered them a degree of relief, enabling them to vilify mainstream Sunnis for inflicting them with the Islamic disease in the first place. Fourteen hundred years of suffering is far too long for any people, although the Jews hold the record for that misfortune. The Jews have at long last returned to their homeland even though they are still encircled by vicious Arab Islamists who would like nothing better than to drown every one of them in the sea, as Islamists forced our Zoroastrian people out of the country and the remaining few to the edges of an inhospitable desert. My motherland, the present Iran, the cradle of civilization, the land of Cyrus the Great the original author of the great Human Rights Charter was ravaged by Muslim killers. The upstanding Iranian people who lived by the Great Zoroaster's triad of Goodly Thoughts, Goodly Speech, and Goodly Deeds stood no chance against Muslim beasts, the savages of Arabia who had been promised by Muhammad: if you kill, or you get killed, either way, you will be admitted to Allah's gloriously lush paradise for eternity in compensation. This pie-in-the-sky paradise of Allah, Muhammad intimated, includes, among other things, rivers of milk and honey as well as 72 virgins for every male. The present mullahcracy in Iran takes the form of a pyramid. The mullahs at the top have skimmed and continue to skim inordinate amounts of national income. Although their job supposedly is to preach peace and brotherly love, in most cases, they don't and they can't, simply because the life manual of Islam, the Quran, is filled with hatred and violence that shapes Muslims' thoughts and deeds. Hence, both mullahs and imams become the principal agent of terror and believe their cause to be the cause of Allah. This misanthropic result is the outcome of Islam. They are the result of adherence to the Islamic creed, precisely as codified in scripture. Kavanaugh and Graham used political jiu-jitsu on the Judiciary Committee Dems It was gratifying to see that Judge Kavanaugh and Senator Lindsey Graham followed the strategy I recommended yesterday morning in "It's jiu-jitsu time on the Kavanaugh accusations." The two salient points I made were that Judge Kavanaugh and his family are the real victims here and that the Democrats needed to be called out for their callous brutality toward innocents, especially the Kavanaugh children. Judge Kavanaugh seems to have surprised many observers and shocked the Committee's Democrats with his emotional testimony on the impact on his children of seeing their father portrayed as a horrendous brute. I was not in the least surprised that he switched from the posture he and his wife took in their interview with Martha MacCallum on September 24, that of sadness, demonstrating their status as the real victims, to a position of righteous anger. It was a natural progression, as well as a strategically obvious move to make. I take him at his word that he composed the opening statement he offered the night before. He certainly spoke it with passion and sincerity that would be difficult for even the finest actors to perform, and impossible for a highly controlled, church-going, enemy-forgiving (and praying for!) Catholic choirboy to fake. A couple of hours after Judge Kavanaugh's emotional statement, Senator Lindsey Graham delivered the knockout punch, denouncing his former "friends" on the committee for their duplicitous handling of the July 30 letter to Senator Feinstein, victimizing both Professor Blasey Ford (and her family) and Judge Kavanaugh (and his family). If you missed his use of his five minutes to question Judge Kavanaugh, watch it below. It was a historic moment, one that will be mentioned in Senator Graham's obituary and cited by historians of our era's politics: Yesterday, I called for someone other than Judge Kavanaugh to shame the Democrats in the same manner that Joseph Welch, counsel to the United States Army, shamed Senator Joe McCarthy in 1954. That is precisely what Senator Graham did. Jeffrey Lord called it Senator Graham's "Joseph Welch moment." I claim no credit for guiding either the senator or the judge. They acted out of sincere conviction and emotion and sensed the same turning point that I did. I am proud to share this understanding with them and to have had my GMTA moment. Thanks Amb. @nikkihaley. Whether as a diplomat, as a politician, as a freedom loving and caring woman, you have proven to be a firm voice, a constant ally. Millions of Venezuelans, in and out of our beleaguered country, THANK YOU! https://t.co/67A6hxgIjA Thrilled is an understatement; hog-wild is more like it. Nicaraguans and Cuban-Americans were thrilled, too. What an amazing irony this is. For decades, nitpickers, even on the Venezuelan side, have criticized American officials, such as then-secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who have spoke out on the Venezuelan hellhole, saying they were engaging in "megaphone" diplomacy, and sniffing that it was unhelpful. Well, here's some megaphone diplomacy, and it's being received by Venezuelans in the same way the great Ronald Reagan's speech on the Evil Empire was received by the prisoners within the walls of the Gulag, as Natan Sharansky wrote of: With unrestrained joy. Someone is finally listening to them. Someone is finally there on the ramparts with them, cheering them and giving them encouragement they're lapping up like a thirsty man in the desert. And she looks like Lady Liberty. No wonder they are shedding tears of joy. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu dropped a bombshell revelation during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly. He revealed, for the first time, the existence of a secret Iranian warehouse in Tehran that, at one time, contained 33 pounds of nuclear material. The warehouse was just blocks from an "atomic archive" storage facility, where Israeli intelligence carried out a daring raid to obtain thousands of documents last April. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu showed an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow and pointed to what he said was a previously secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material. He argued this showed Iran still sought to obtain nuclear weapons, despite its 2015 agreement with world powers to curb its program in exchange for loosening of sanctions. Netanyahu spoke 4-1/2 months after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord, arguing it did too little to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions and triggering the resumption of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran. Netanyahu said the site contained some 15 kg (33 pounds) of radioactive material that has since been moved, and called on the U.N. atomic agency to inspect the location immediately with Geiger counters. "I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran's secret nuclear program," Netanyahu said. The world will laugh at Netanyahu's claims, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to Fars News. "The world will only laugh loudly at this type of false, meaningless and unnecessary speech and false shows," Qassemi said. Some anonymous U.S. officials downplayed Netanyahu's revelations: A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is aware of the facility Netanyahu announced and described it as a "warehouse" used to store "records and archives" from Iran's nuclear program. A second U.S. intelligence official called Netanyahu's comments "somewhat misleading. First, we have known about this facility for some time, and it's full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminum tubes for centrifuges, and second, so far as anyone knows, there is nothing in it that would allow Iran to break out of the JCPOA any faster than it otherwise could." Which nation's intelligence agency has a better track record of discovering Iranian intent? Israel or the U.S.? "So far as anyone knows" is a revealing answer, given how wrong the CIA has been over the years about the Iranian bomb program. One could draw some interesting parallels between Netanyahu sounding the alarm about Iran and Winston Churchill's unheeded warnings of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. The reaction in both cases was similar: people putting their heads in the sand rather than confronting the truth. Our E.U. partners in the nuclear deal will not reimpose sanctions on Iran and are actively working to undermine the reimposition of U.S. sanctions this week. They are far too busy trying to protect the billions of dollars in contracts European firms signed with Tehran to try to stop Tehran now. Meanwhile, a warehouse full of documents in a quiet section of Tehran sits waiting to be used once again to help Iran build an atomic weapon. Here was the exchange on the Senate floor just yesterday, and Fox News has a video here : As Sen. Lindsey Graham unexpectedly elevated himself to statesman during the last of the Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein dropped herself to bottom of the barrel as a political hack. Her performance, from start to finish, was a disgrace. It was so bad, so loathsome, even to the left, that it's hard to think it won't cost her her Senate seat, where she is in a tight race this November. "Only at an 11th hour, on the eve of Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation vote, did the ranking member refer the allegations to the FBI. And then the allegations were leaked to the press. That's where Dr. Ford was mistreated. This is a shameful way to treat our witness, who insisted on confidentiality, and Judge Kavanaugh, who has had to address these allegations in the midst of a media circus." Feinstein responded to Grassley's criticism when she began her opening remarks, saying, "Yes, I did receive a letter from Dr. Ford ... the next day, I called Dr. Ford, we spoke on the phone, she reiterated that she wanted this held confidential. And I held it confidential, up to a point where the witness was willing to come forward." Here's a rundown of how bad she was: 1. Feinstein got a letter from a constituent alleging sexual harassment by Judge Brett Kavanaugh during his high school years. She sat on it for 60 days, only to bring it up after hearings were concluded, obviously for some political bang, following the news that Kavanaugh would likely be confirmed without incident. 2. Asked about it at the time, Feinstein said she had questions about whether it was 'truthful.' That was her argument and stayed her argument, until Ford became politically useful. 3. Then Feinstein, or someone on her staff obviously leaked the letter to the press, following Feinstein's promises of confidentiality to the writer, effectively outing her, and forcing her to come forward as a named witness whether she liked it or not. That backed the witness, Christine Blasey Ford into a corner, forcing her to come forward with her allegations in testimony under oath, which, given the perjury trap it was for her, were quite vague. Ford herself said she believed she was betrayed and outed by someone on Feinstein's staff. 4. That was obvious enough when Feinstein was instrumental in getting Ford a leftwing lawyer to do the media grandstanding. 5. After that, Feinstein was confronted about her political opportunism by Sen. Ted Cruz, and tried to brush the whole thing off, begging his question about how the letter was leaked by saying reporters were the problem, not leakage. Pressed by another senator, she said she asked their staff and they said no as if Feinstein, who employed an utterly untrustworthy Chinese spy on that same staff for 20 years should just take their word for it. Sneaky leakers would never lie, now, would they? It's bad stuff, political manipulation of the worst sort, and both sides have been right to call her out on it. Her denials are pathetic, failing to address any of the issues at hand, whether of legislative duties, leaks, or admitting blame. She's obviously put political gain ahead of doing her job, and she stands now as an unfit member of the Senate. Couple it with her employment of that Chinese spy for 20 years and her defense of the Steele dossier, and an ugly Jurassic partisan hack picture emerges. Even people on the left can see it. I've always been content voting for Feinstein, or at least held my nose and voted for her, given the crazed lefty alternatives we have seen on the California ballots. But this may be the end of it. Feinstein is being challenged by a crazed far leftist of the worst Sacramento-swamp stripe, leaving virtually no good alternatives for voters at midterms. Although many Republicans are flocking to that crazy rival of hers on the ballot, Kevin de Leon, it looks like write-in time for many normals. This woman has got to go. Post-Kavanaugh, Democrats will reap the whirlwind The hearing yesterday was a shameful exercise in abuse, unspeakable abuse by Democrats, of both Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh. Blasey Ford did show up and testify, her two Democrat activist lawyers, Debra Katz and Michael Bromwich, by her side. She was not credible, but we should all feel sorry for her. She is fifty-two years old but seemed childlike. She speaks in a child's voice, which rose in pitch at the end of every sentence as though she is unsure about the validity of her own words. She was at times cheerful and giddy, which was off-putting, given the reason she was there: to shatter a fine man's life's work. She has traveled the world but had told the committee she was afraid to fly. So she is not an honest person. But she is clearly damaged, and those lawyers and whoever recruited them should be indicted for cruelty to an unstable person. Her lawyers and Dianne Feinstein have abused her horribly and used her as their tool to ruin Kavanaugh. The Democrats on the Judiciary Committee revealed their inner selves yesterday, and it was an ugly, ugly picture. Every one of them attacked, demeaned, and verbally assaulted Judge Kavanaugh. Not one of them was civil or respectful to this man, who has led a life of high achievement, service, grace, and class. Booker, Harris, Durbin, Blumenthal, et al. are thugs. They are bullies in search of power with no regard for the truth or decency. No one should ever again vote for any of them. Every one of them has permanently stained their committee and the confirmation process. They have also forever destroyed their own legacies. Their performances today are what each of them will be remembered for. Ford's original letter to Feinstein is so badly written that it is hard to believe it was drafted by an educated person. Dr. Ford did not know the word "exculpatory" but has a Ph.D. Ford seemed as though she was in a dissociative state. She was reciting a studied script, blanks and all, as though she had been hypnotized. She had no reasonable explanation for why each of the witnesses she named denies ever being at such a party. She did not address the fact that one of them, her girlfriend, made a statement under oath that she had never met Kavanaugh and remembered no such gathering. The Democrats in the room badgered Kavanaugh relentlessly but ignored the fact that there is still no corroborating evidence, no witnesses, no proof that the incident ever happened. There is only this sad woman's distant, incomplete, and flawed memory. The Democrats don't care. All they care about is keeping that seat vacant. When asked who paid for her polygraph and who was paying her lawyers, Ford said she did not know. She said she thought there were some GoFundMe pages, but she had no idea how to manage them. She said she did not know that Sen. Grassley had offered to come to California to interview her. Her head must have been in the sand. Most likely, her lawyers wanted the spectacle we saw. They have been certain they could force Kavanaugh to withdraw. They badly misjudged the man they have tried to destroy. Kavanaugh rightly eviscerated them. It was his testimony that was truly heart-wrenching. It is likely that the millions of those who watched cried more than the judge did. That any of this happened is the historical low point in American politics and make no mistake: this was all about politics, not Kavanaugh. If there was any doubt before, there is no longer: the American left today is malevolent. The Democratic Party has demonstrated for all to see just how soulless it has become. The Democrats on the committee disgraced themselves. The two youngsters, Harris and Booker (neither of them will ever be president), are callow, shallow, rude, and power-mad. We have seen what they are made of: pure narcissism. What we saw today was the judiciary committee Democrats mercilessly abusing Kavanaugh, again, having already abused Blasey Ford into a stupor. Kavanaugh was justifiably enraged and fought hard against his abusers. He did a magnificent job. So did Sen. Graham in defense of Kavanaugh. Any senator who votes against Kavanaugh now is betraying his own inability to see the truth when it is sitting right in front of him. Any senator who votes against this man now is signaling his approval of wholesale character assassination for sordid political purposes. The Democrats in the Senate might consider that. A no vote is a vote for more of the horrific circus we saw today. Redeem yourselves, Democrats. Vote to confirm this good man. You might notice something different here. As we continue our evolution, our data and market news is now available through the Fastmarkets platform and a trial of this website is no longer available. Our new delivery solution allows you to access the prices and news that matters most to you in a way that delivers value, quality and a unique, fully customizable view for you. We are working hard to develop an experience that allows you to test drive building your view of our data and news on the new platform. In the meantime, learn more about us through any of the options below. For over thirty years a five story rickety wooden structure with long undulating staircases and haphazardly protruding balconies have been standing atop a hillock in the middle of Wapiti Valley, near the town of Cody, in the US state of Wyoming, not far from the Yellowstone National Park. The house was a labor of love, built single-handedly by an eccentric engineer named Francis Lee Smith. Smith spent twelve years building the log house using timber salvaged from a wildfire on the nearby Rattlesnake Mountain. After the fire damaged trees on the mountain slope, the half-burnt timber became free picking for anyone who could help clear the mountain. Using a few extra hands for help, Smith carted them down to the valley and started building his dream cabin. Photo credit: richardrealty.com Smith, who hails from Cody, took up residence in the house along with his wife and two kids as soon as the first floor was complete, but he never stopped construction. Night after night, Smith worked on his house by the light of a single bulb, until his crazy infatuation with the house tore apart his marriage and eventually took his life. The house wasnt even remotely cozy. There was no running water, or plumbing or electricity, except that provided by a small generator. A wood burning stove on the bottom floor was the only source of heat. The stove was also used to cook meals. The family dining table was a large tree stump, with smaller stumps around it as chairs. During winter, the entire family would sleep in sleeping bags on the floor huddled around the houses only source of heatthe stove. During summer, Mr. Smith would sleep on a hammock, and sometimes his children would sleep in a separate oversized doghouse-like cabin on the front porch. Plenty of wild animals made the mansion their home when the family was still living. Raccoons, skunks, wild cats, owls and many other creatures took refuge in the structure or below the flooring. After a few years his wife had enough of this hobo-like living and divorced Smith. She took the kids and moved to another town. The kids continued to visit their father and occasionally spent nights in the house. With his family gone, a dejected Smith threw himself into the construction of the house, building addition after addition without blueprints or a plan. The chaotic building of the house is reminiscent of Sarah Winchesters famous house in San Jose, California, which the widow of the gun magnate built for 38 years. In 1992, Smith lost his life to his obsession when he fell from a balcony while working on the house and died from his injuries. His body wasnt discovered until two days later. Since his death, the mansion has been sitting empty and abandoned. Exposed to the elements, the wooden structure has slowly started to rot and decay. Vandals have also caused some damage. For some years now, Smiths daughter Sunny Larsen has been trying to raise money for its rehabilitation. Early this month, the house was put up for sale at the asking price of $750,000. Photo credit: Alan Rogers Photo credit: Alan Rogers Photo credit: richardrealty.com Photo credit: Alan Rogers Photo credit: Alan Rogers Sunny Larsen, daughter of Francis Lee Smith and the current owner of the Smith Mansion. Photo credit: Alan Rogers Photo credit: richardrealty.com Photo credit: richardrealty.com Photo credit: richardrealty.com Photo credit: richardrealty.com Photo credit: richardrealty.com Photo credit: richardrealty.com Photo credit: richardrealty.com Photo credit: richardrealty.com In short: Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai flew to Washington to face lawmakers over concerns stemming from the companys ambitions in China, as well allegations of Google Search bias. The 46-year-old said hes planning to meet with both Republican and Democratic politicians by the end of the week, confirming he came to the capitol to answer a broad range of questions. The development comes shortly following significant and (for some issues) bipartisan pressure from stateside legislators who have been requesting an audience with Googles leadership for months. Background: Several weeks back, Google found itself blasted by a number of top lawmakers after refusing to send one of its top executives to an election security hearing organized by the United States Senate Intelligence Committee. The Senators at the committee didnt mince words when they voiced their displeasure about that development on several occasions during the happening, having even gone as far as to leave an empty chair for the company between Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Over the last several months, Google declined to renew its government contract for Project Maven, a controversial initiative pursued in collaboration with Pentagon that sought (and still seeks) to weaponize AI. While that move was prompted by employee activism, Google found itself criticized for the decision, especially as it continues to collaborate with Huawei and ZTE on various Android fronts, which some lawmakers claimed was a concerning pattern of behavior given how both of those Chinese firms were repeatedly labeled as national security threats by the intelligence community. Coupled with the fact that Alphabets subsidiary is presently working on a censored version of its Google Search engine for China, code-named Project Dragonfly, Capitol Hill is now demanding answers on how the company is rationalizing that strategy, especially given the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing. Advertisement Impact: Whatever Mr. Pichai says to lawmakers this week, its unlikely Congress will press the issues any further until the November mid-terms are over, at least in an official capacity. The upcoming elections are yet another reason why Google is presently facing massive scrutiny, with the company being pressured to do whatever it can to ensure foreign actors dont abuse its online service to sow discord among the American public or try to influence the outcome of the political race in any other manner. In Short: If youve been looking to get the Pixel Launcher with Google Assistant on the search bar, well, youre in luck, as you can now sideload it. This Pixel Launcher was taken from the Android Studio emulator it seems, and it will come pre-installed on the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL handsets. This port was discovered by paphonb, a member of the Lawnchair Launcher team, and the developer of the Rootless Pixel 2 Launcher. It is worth noting that you can sideload this launcher on your device, but only if your device is running Android Oreo or Android Pie, but keep in mind that you wont be able to do it on the Pixel 2 or the Pixel 2 XL as the launcher packages will conflict. Weve also tried to install it on the Xiaomi Mi 5 (which is running Oreo), and succeeded, but couldnt get it to work, as it kept on crashing. Background: Weve seen reports of a Pixel Launcher with a Google Assistant shortcut in the search bar earlier, and it was expected to arrive to the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. Not long ago, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL renders surfaced, showing off that very search bar on the home screen, and now you can get that functionality on your device without a problem. Googles Pixel Launcher has been available for quite some time now, and Google keeps on adding to its functionality. A while back, the company has decided to move the search bar right above the navigation bar, so that the search bar is easily accessible even if youre holding your device with one hand. Impact: If you dont use Google Assistant, installing this APK doesnt make much sense, as that is the only notable change that you will see in the launcher, no new functionality has been added, at least it seems like that at first. Googles Pixel Launcher is not one of the most customizable launchers out there, or anything of the sort, but its clean and functional, and thats why quite a few people are sticking with it. Advertisement Download Pixel Launcher with Google Assistant on Search Bar Samsung has been rumored to announce a new mid-range series under its Galaxy line of smartphones with a number of reports surfacing lately indicating its possible launch in the coming weeks. The Galaxy P series was previously expected to go official with a pair of smartphones the Galaxy P30 and the Galaxy P30 Plus. While a series of reports have suggested some of their vital details, a new report claims that the alleged Galaxy P series doesnt exist at all and all the its details that have leaked so far are mere speculations. This piece of information was shared by a known industry insider who goes by the name Ice Universe on Twitter. However, it is believed that the previously leaked information isnt entirely untrue as the two aforementioned smartphones may possibly end up launching under an existing Galaxy series. In response to Ice Universes tweet, a Twitter user mentioned that the rumored Galaxy P-series smartphones will be a part of Samsungs Galaxy A series at launch that caters to the upper mid-range segment of the market. The South Korean company has recently been quite aggressive with its mid-range series by launching a record number of Galaxy A-branded smartphones this year, with the latest one being the Galaxy A7 (2018) that features a triple-camera setup. Given this change in Samsungs marketing strategy, the possibility of the Galaxy P-series handsets launching under the existing lineup cannot be ruled out. Having said that, this could again prove to be a baseless speculation as the information hasnt been shared by a credible source, nor has Samsung intervened to clarify the situation as of now. Based on the particulars leaked during the past few weeks, the Samsung Galaxy P30 and the Galaxy P30 Plus will sport IPS LCD panels, which is a step down from the AMOLED displays found on most high-end smartphones from the brand. An in-display fingerprint scanning system was also suggested for the two devices, although, an industry insider recently claimed otherwise. In addition to these, both the phones will ship with either 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage along with 6GB of RAM. They are expected to debut in China in the coming weeks and will later roll out to other international markets where low and mid-range segments witness maximum traction. Advertisement Yep, it will be Galaxy A Max Jambor (@MaxJmb) September 28, 2018 In short: As many as 67% of smartphone users say that they use their phone while on the toilet while the remaining users seem unwilling to admit the behavior, according to a recent phone behavior survey conducted by Salt Lake City-based Reviews.org. Thats by comparison to just 7-percent of the 200 surveyed users who claim they use their device in the shower and a majority of users who claim to not drunk text their ex. Meanwhile, at least one 55-year-old from New Jersey also claimed to always use their handset during sex and an average of 44.5-percent who search for adult content split 58-percent to 34-percent for men and women, respectively. Background: Setting aside the more questionable behaviors covered, what the new survey really seems to highlight is smartphone addiction in both younger and older demographics. The fact that users tend to become addicted to the technology isnt necessarily new and the addiction has even been formally classified as tied to an anxiety disorder called nomophobia since 2014. Moreover, its been known for some time that age differences dont immediately equate to more or fewer issues with that in a general sense. While this more recent study does touch on that, in addition to gaps between genders in phone usage, it also highlights how the behavior gap between the oldest and youngest users isnt as wide as might be assumed. For example, the majority of users between the ages of 18 and 24-years-old join users over the age of 54 in believing that they are somewhat addicted to their smartphones. They also place importance on not looking at their devices while on a date, despite checking their devices up to 160 times per day. Bearing that in mind, the addiction is definitely still there. Those same users surprisingly also agree that children in middle school are old enough to have a smartphone of their own. Conversely, just under half of all users surveyed do admit to looking at their devices while on a date. As many as 91-percent feel uneasy if they leave their handset at home despite that only just above 76-percent claim to be addicted. More than half of all users also admit to checking their phone while driving or texting others who are in the same room. Advertisement Impact: The results of the survey arent necessarily universal since the sample size and apparent limitation to users in the US need to be accounted for. In spite of that fact, it does seem to strengthen the results of previous studies highlighting the addiction. Research similar to this is actually behind a recent shift from many technology companies that are now focusing on helping users monitor and self-limit their use of mobile devices, rather than encouraging additional use. In fact, Google has gone so far as to bake some features aimed at solving addiction right into its recently Android 9 Pie as part of a digital wellbeing initiative. So it is actually important that studies and surveys like this one continue to be done in order to find the best ways to address the issue. As useful as smartphones can be, too much of anything is not good. By Damali Mukhaye. The Belgium government has given teachers across the country over Shs 100 billion for improvement of the quality of secondary teacher education and strengthening the professional competencies of teacher trainers. The money which has been handed over to the ministry of education officials ahead of the World Teachers day seeks to improve infrastructural development, ICT development and tutoring component in five colleges. The Resident Representative Christelle Jocquet says after receiving reports that female and male students where sharing dormitories, which had increased pregnancy cases, they plan to use part of the money to separate dormitories, construct laboratories and class rooms to create a conducive environment. The targeted colleges are in the districts of Mubende, Kaliro, Muni and Kabale. MadridCNI director Felix Sanz Roldan has admitted that Spains intelligence service fell short of the mark in their attempt to stop Catalonias independence referendum on October 1 last year. At a panel discussion held at Coca-Colas Journalism Day in Madrid, the spy chief admitted that they could have done a better job. He went on to say that he saw many long faces the day after the vote, once they realised that the ballot boxes had been delivered to the polling stations and only police violence managed to have an effect on the vote. Nevertheless, Roldan stressed that the Spanish government at the time led by PM Mariano Rajoy informed him that the intelligence gathered ahead of the vote and on the day of the referendum had proved useful. In the months leading up to the referendum PM Rajoy had reiterated time and again that the vote would never be held and Spains judicial machinery took action to seize the ballot boxes and the rest of the material needed for the vote to take place. On the day of the ballot, the referendums IT systems were disrupted, but the poll went ahead anyway, despite action by the police. Even though Spains law enforcement officers seized ballot slips and notices addressed to the citizens who had been randomly called to man the polling stations, the states apparatus failed to locate any of the ballot boxes ahead of the vote. Members of the public had taken it upon themselves to hide them and ensure that they were delivered to polling stations on the day. In June, Dubai Airports Engineering projects (DAEP), announced ambitious plans for Al Maktoum International to become a 'cosmic super-port' handling hypersonic and space aircraft in the future, as part of its Dubai 10X initiative. Working in partnership with Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, the goal of the project is to become the premier hub for future travel by becoming an aerotropolis and then a cosmotropolis with the regions first spaceport and launch site. In particular, this super-port will need to incorporate the latest and most advanced technology not just in its space launch development, but also to achieve its vision of integrating the infrastructure at Al Maktoum International Airport to accommodate any current and future mode of transportation, combining car and rail access with the potential future high-speed hyperloop. Airport technology is already advancing at an incredible rate, with Airport Solutions Dubai taking place as a standalone event on 8 October 2018 and also returning as a feature at the Dubai Airshow 2019, focusing on disruptors to the industry including biometrics, AI, blockchain, robotics, IoT and big data. The Airport Solutions Dubai conference will bring together leading experts to discuss these technologies in more detail and provide the industry with the knowledge to create the airports of the future. The 2018 conference will focus on the future of airports in the Middle East, including plans for the regions airports to handle 30 million additional passengers with the advent of Expo 2020. The UAE Space Agency signed a letter of intent with NASA that covers cooperation in the peaceful exploration of outer space and the UAEs recently launched astronaut program. In addition, the first Emirati astronaut is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station in April 2019. With its aim of the UAE becoming one of the top countries in the aerospace field by 2021, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre is working towards the Emirates Mars Mission with a goal of the Hope Spacecraft arriving in Mars atmosphere that same year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the UAE. A model of the Hope Spacecraft was unveiled at the Dubai Airshow 2017 and has been described as an anchor project for space and science sector in the UAE. Aerospace is an industry with massive potential for the future, says Michele van Akelijen, Managing Director of show organisers Tarsus F&E LLC Middle East. With the technological advancements and pace of change in the last few decades, it is realistic to expect to see space travel and tourism within a generation. The Dubai Airshow has always been at the forefront of the industry and the addition of both the Space Pavilion and Conference and Airport Solutions Conference in 2017 was well received. We are looking forward to the return of these features and seeing the new developments taking the industry forward. The Space Conference and Pavilion and Airport Solutions Dubai will be among many features at the Dubai Airshow 2019, which will also include Smart Manufacturing, Cargo Connect and Global Air Traffic Management (GATM). For more information or to book your space. By Abubaker Kirunda. The Forum for Democratic Change Vice president Salaamu Musumba says the former party president Mugisha Muntu cannot mange to lead Uganda as a president. Gen Muntu early this week announced that he had quit FDC to form another party he would be naming before the end of the year. Gen Muntu cited internal wrangles and lack of proper structures as the reasons for his quit. However, Salaamu Musumba says the failure by Gen Muntu to unite the few members in FDC party as one of the top leaders makes him incompetent to become a president of this nation with millions of people. She says the party and would however remain strong even when Muntu has left it. Related Stories.. Muntu forms new party after quitting FDC Former FDC President Rtd Gen Muntu quits Party Ends item. There are two main market entry options available for foreign investors looking to expand into Indonesia: a Limited Liability Company and a Representative Office. A Limited Liability Company is known as Perseroan Terbatas or PT. Under a PT, shareholder liability is limited to the extent of the capital agreed to be contributed by the shareholders. Indonesian law divides PT into two classes: (1) Local Company and PDMN Company and; (2) Penanaman Modal Asing (PT PMA), where up to 100 percent overseas ownership is permitted. As an alternative to establishing a Limited Liability Company or investing in an existing PMDN or PMA Company, foreign investors are permitted to open a Representative Office in Indonesia. In this article we discuss the salient features of a Representative Office. There are three main types of Representative Office in Indonesia: A Representative Office under the control of the Department of Trade A Representative Office under the control of the Department of Public Works, and A Representative Office of a Foreign Oil and Gas Company A representative office licensed by the Department of Trade is the most common form of representative office. However, the range of activities that may be conducted by such a representative office is quite narrow. In particular, it may not undertake trading activities, own production facilities or undertake operational business activities and, therefore, cannot accept orders, participate in tenders, sign contracts or engage in the import, export or distribution of goods. The types of activities that may be conducted by such a representative office include marketing and promotional activities and information gathering for the foreign parent company. Bourbon Behind the Scenes Step Behind the Scenes at a Top Bourbon Distillery in Kentucky The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. The US is a bourbon-loving country with many of our favorite distilleries located in the state of Kentucky (even though bourbon doesnt technically need to be made in the Blue Gras State). Fans flock from all over the world to visit the likes of Makers Mark, Wild Turkey, Jim Beam, and Woodford Reserve to take tours and sample the delicious, sweet, corn-based spirit native to the US. Its an industry steeped in history, longevity and tradition. But, its also a growing category with new distilleries popping up every week. One of the newest, most exciting bourbon distilleries is Rabbit Hole. Louisvilles fifth distillery opened its doors to the public in August. But, the story of how it came to be is as complicated as the spirit itself. Rabbit Hole is a labor of love, says founder Kaveh Zamanian. Like most great stories, this one started with a girl. I fell in love with my wife, Heather, who is from Kentucky and followed her to Bourbon Country. In the process, I also discovered and fell in love with Bourbon. Thats when Zamanian decided to build a distillery. Deciding to build a distillery was a little like deciding to build an ark: people think you're nuts and, in the early stages, want nothing to do with it. Rabbit Hole What Sets Rabbit Hole Apart Rabbit Holes approach to making whisky is a deliberate blend of the modern and traditional. We have a healthy respect for the traditions of Kentucky, says Zamanian. Making the best whisky doesn't mean tearing down hundreds of years of experience and starting from scratch. But, it does require a willingness to look ahead and experiment. We are partial to malted grains and like unique recipes. The results are a range of whisky expressions that reward those who really care about unique expressions of Bourbon and American Whisky. Rabbit Hole bourbon is unique because its a recipe they developed, they dont source any of their bourbons. A lot of the bourbon out there is coming from a handful of major distilleries, there is a lot of monotony in a bottle, but our bourbon is singular no one else has our mash bill, Another big thing that sets Rabbit Hole apart is the fact that they use Kelvin Cooperage barrels to age their whiskies. We use natural oak burning fires to toast and then char their barrels which results in a product that is a little bit more expensive, but worth it in the liquid, he says. Their bourbon also goes into the barrel at 110 proof versus 120 proof which actually yields less whisky. But we do that because it increases the flavor. Lastly, their secondary grains are malted malted grains pack more flavor within the grain. Its more expensive but worth it in the end. Zamanian and his crew dont believe in taking shortcuts, or sacrificing quantity over quality. For us, no step is unimportant. Rabbit Hole Distilling Innovations Working in a distillery means innovating every single day. This includes the manipulation of variables to bring out a little of one thing or a little less of another. But, Rabbit Hole is doing some big things as well. We have four types of Bourbon in production, he says. Our signature Bourbon uses four grains instead of three, which rounds out the flavor profile and makes the whole experience of drinking a lot smoother. He believes that a great bourbon can be enjoyed neat or mixed into a cocktail. They also have a whisky that is finished in 30-year-old PX sherry casks. PX is from dried grapes with a lot of concentrated sweetness and oxidizes as it ages, says Zamanian. The result is a densely sweet nectar. Using PX barrels to finish Bourbon adds a fruitiness and just a hint of sweetness just a hint that forms a core at the center of the whisky that is unforgettable. It is meant to settle on the back palate and lingers longer than the other flavors. Rabbit Hole makes several variations of Bourbon, including three that are currently aging. It's really exciting, but it is the nature of this business that new products take years to get to market, he says. Already in stores, we have a straight, four-grain Bourbon, a Bourbon finished in PX Sherry barrels, a Rye and a Gin finished in Kentucky Rye Barrels that is getting a lot of attention. Rabbit Hole RELATED: Best High-Roller Bourbon Bottles An Immersive Experience One of the best aspects of Rabbit Hole is that visitors to the distillery get to see the whole process from start to finish. It's a totally immersive experience and transparent process, says Zamanian. To a degree, all Bourbon is made the same way. If it weren't, it wouldn't be Bourbon, However, subtle touches differentiate Rabbit Holes whiskies. For example, corn in our Bourbon mash bills is complemented with typically a variety of malted grains. From grain selection to distillation and then aging and bottling, they are obsessed with quality. They control the temperature of the fermentation, slowing it down a little to capture more of the flavor components from the grains. Our still is a 24-inch copper and brass column still made by Vendome, which is both the best still maker in the world and located only a few blocks from our distillery, says Zamanian. Rabbit Holes barrels are not only charred but also toasted, a process that is time-consuming and more involved but brings out caramel and vanilla notes. Most importantly, we have a team approach to making bourbon, he says. Rabbit Hole doesnt even have a master distiller as they approach the whisky-making process as a team effort. Rabbit Hole The Good Versus The Bad Zamanian believes that there are no bad Bourbons there are just good Bourbons and better Bourbons. A better Bourbon is complex and has character. He adds, Flavors and aromas dont blend together but instead open up and transform, taking you on a sensory experience, taking us down memory lane A brown sugar note might remind someone of their grandmother's cookies. A light trace of apple can bring up a Thanksgiving pie. To really enjoy good Bourbon, people need to let those associations flow. Thats why Zamanian doesnt subscribe to the belief that you need to speak with the vocabulary of critics. If you get a waffle and syrup, great. A great Bourbon makes those associations vivid, without ever overwhelming them. Rabbit Hole Trust Your Senses Zamanian believes you need to your senses and be patient so you could cultivate and train your palate. In time, youll be amazed how your taste buds will evolve, says Zamanian. We are in the midst of a bourbon and American whisky renaissance, there are great new makers, genuine brands with unique expressions, try them all and discover the range and beauty of Bourbon. Above all, remember that whisky is not a solitary activity. It's not about sitting in a silent room really working to identify clove on the nose. It's about friends and family and good times. That's why we make Rabbit Hole. Celebration with others. Rabbit Hole Cocktails Related Products Rabbit Hole Straight Bourbon $36.99 - $58.04 at Drizly.com Rabbit Hole Sherry Cask $76.99 at Totalwine.com Rabbit Hole Rye Whiskey $49.99 at Theliquourbarn.com Rabbit Hole Rye Barrel Finished Gin $33.99 at Totalwine.com You Might Also Dig AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. To find out more, please read our complete terms of use. Khoury was supported by partner Andrew Lumsden and lawyers Magan Goh, Madeleine Kulakauskas, Jaclyn Riley-Smith, and Tahnee De Souza. Jason Henchman, a managing director of Neuberger Berman Australia, said that the trust has been well received by Australian investors looking for a global and diversified source of income. Neuberger Berman sought to raise a minimum of $150m in the IPO. We appreciate the role played by Fadi and his financial investor group team at Corrs in guiding all stakeholders through a successful process, Equity Trustees Harvey Kalman said. Kalman, the executive general manager of corporate trustee services and head of global fund services at the financial and fiduciary services firm said that the transaction was the perfect opportunity for firm to demonstrate its collaborative approach and specialist capability in launching a listed trust product. The area is experiencing a rejuvenation of interest in the market, he said. Speculation is rife that a new international legal powerhouse could be on the cards. Australasian Lawyer understands that merger talks are underway between international firm Ince & Co and UK publicly-listed firm Gordon Dadds. No timescale has been set for partner and shareholder votes but if a combination goes ahead it would have significant benefits for both sides with Ince & Co able to leverage the financial weight of the LSE-listed firm and Gordon Dadds expanding its network. Hi SabLee and thank you very much for creating the thread! That's very helpful, as I am preparing my application for the 461 visa and I would be very greateful for some advice, please. Situation: I arrived in Australia in April 2018 on a Working Holiday visa to join my Kiwi partner (he's been in Australia since 9 years on the SCV 444 visa). We meet overseas 3 years ago and have officially been together since 13 months (we have flight tickets, correspondence and gifts to prove it). We have been living together since 7 months and we registered our de facto partnership. Questions: Living together: Since we registered our relationship, I understand this waives the requirement to have been living for 12 months together, correct? We have numerous documents sent to our common address (our joint bank statements, drivers licence, utility bills in both names, car registration), but my name is not on the lease (it's quite difficult to add it). In your experience, is this enough evidence that we're living together? Police checks: should I provide them now of wait until the Case Officer asks for the document? Do I provide police certificate for both myself (applicant) and my Kiwi partner? Health Insurance: I took a one year health insurance for my WH visa (until 04/19) - is it ok to send this one? Or do I have to provide a health insurance certificate for the next year with my application? Or wait until the Case Officer asks for it? Health exams: I understand I have to wait to organise my health exams until it's requested by my Case Officer, correct? Language test: do I have to undergo an English exam? I would really appreciate your help, thank you! So, instead of letting the repo man do his job, he did something desperate: he tried to drive away with the truck, even though it was already on the hook of the tow truck.Video of the incident is available at the bottom of the page, courtesy of Inside Edition Huffington Post says that the man has been identified as Yohanys Lopez, of Homestead. His is the white Ford F-250 pickup, which you can see in the video already placed on the hook.According to the publication, Lopez told the repo man he had to get a few things from the car before It was taken away. Instead, he got in the cabin and at the wheel and did his best to drive off.The result is a strange and visually thrilling tug of war, where the pickup tries to pull free from the tow truck. In doing so, Lopez actually manages to put the truck with all 4 wheels on the ground, lifting the tow truck with its front wheels in the air.The victory is a short-lived one, though. The driver of the tow truck brings the car back down, and the Ford with the rear wheels in the air. Because Lopez had no intention of giving up, he eventually managed to pry the Ford off the hook of the tow truck, but he also did serious damaged the car.Lopez was arrested minutes after the incident and charged with criminal mischief and grand theft.Things like this happen that just dont happen all the time and definitely not to that extreme, Rigo Herrera, who co-owns Specialized Towing, said of the incident. That was a first - never seen one of my trucks go up the air like that. This is how Stephanie Avakian, co-director of the Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC) enforcement division commenced the press conference through which on Thursday the watchdog announced it is taking Tesla CEO Elon Musk to court.Simply put, the SEC is accusing Musk of having committed securities fraud while tweeting on August 7 Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.Avakian said Musks statements were false and misleading because they lacked any basis and fact, a reality Musk himself somewhat admitted to in a later post. On August 13, he told the world how he left from an earlier meeting with representatives of the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund with the impression - but no proof - that it was just a matter of getting the process moving.Because Musks initial tweet had an effect on the Tesla stock -prices jumped by nearly 9 percent - the SEC stepped in to investigate.Now that the investigation is over and justice is to be served in court, the SEC is asking judges to kill Elon Musk as a credible public company figure.Among the things the SEC requests, Avakian mentioned an injunction preventing the billionaire from engaging in similar behavior in the future, civil penalties and disgorgement of any ill-gotten gains.But most importantly, the SEC wants the court to bar Elon Musk from serving as officer or director of a public company.All of the above are usual measures taken against those committing securities fraud.In a statement released to CNBC , Musk denied any wrongdoing and said he has always had the best interests of Tesla in mind.This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed. I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way." Bell Helicopter demonstrated its unmanned Hybrid Drive Train Research Aircraft (HYDRA) at the first Tech Demo edition of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Center of Excellence in Alma, Quebec, this week. According to the company, HYDRA uses distributed propulsion technology and a circular wing to sustain wing-borne flight at reduced power consumption, while increasing its speed and range over a traditional multi-rotor aircraft. The demonstration flight lasted for 40 minutes and ran through automated maneuvers including takeoff, conversion into wing-borne flight, conversion into hover mode and landing. Bell hopes the research done with HYDRA will eventually allow the company to develop passenger transports and large unmanned aircraft that use distributed propulsion technology. HYDRA has already proved to be a great teacher, the company said. Our team has discovered the unexpected stability of a circular wing in flight and certain control laws that allow aircraft stability in VTOL mode, airplane mode, during transition and even in the event of a system failure. HYDRA is also being used to study new hybrid propulsion technologies such as electric and fluid dynamic power systems. The first crash of an F-35B has been reported in South Carolina but early reports say the pilot safely ejected. Circumstances of the crash have not been released but its the first operational loss of the fifth-generation fighter. One other F-35 has been written off by fire damage to internal components in 2016 but that aircrafts pilot was able to make an emergency landing. Fridays accident occurred near the Marine air training base at Beaufort, South Carolina. The Marine version of the aircraft includes a downward facing ducted fan that allows for short takeoffs and vertical landings. The crash came a day after the type was used in its first combat sortie. The aircraft launched from the amphibious assault ship USS Essex and did an airstrike on a stationary Taliban target in Afghanistan. The Marines released the video below after the successful mission. Seven men have been arrested in the Netherlands by Dutch police, on suspicion that they were "plotting a large-scale extremist attack," the Associated Press reports. The details: The arrest was the culmination of a "months-long investigation," the AP reports. The event is believed to have been foiled; prosecutors say the men planned to attack an event site with assault rifles and bomb vests, and set off a car bomb in another location, per the AP. A Marion County judge ordered Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb's office to turn over emails between then-Gov. Mike Pence and President-elect Donald Trump regarding the retaining of jobs in Indianapolis after an announced move to Mexico by Carrier Corp, per the Indianapolis Star. The details: After the 2016 election, Trump and Pence negotiated a huge tax incentive for Carrier to keep the plant open for 10 years and employ 1,100 workers at the Indianapolis plant. In the ruling, the court gave Holcomb 30 days to hand over the documents to the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, which filed for the Carrier documents in December 2016. Macedonians will head to the polls this Sunday to vote on the historic Prespa agreement that could end a 27-year diplomatic impasse with Greece, which has refused to recognize the country's name since it declared independence in 1991. The agreement could also set the Balkan country on a long-desired path to NATO and EU accession. Why it matters: For Balkan countries seeking NATO and EU membership, Macedonias success would signal that the door is open. By lighting a pathway to Euro-Atlantic integration, Washington and Brussels could also leverage a yes vote to promote democracy and stability in the region, while signaling to the Kremlin that its continued meddling wont be tolerated. Either way, the referendum's outcome will have significant geopolitical implications for Europe and the U.S. Under the agreement, the Republic of Macedonia would be renamed the Northern Republic of Macedonia. Here are the key players and whats at stake: For: Greek Prime Minister Tsipras and Macedonian Prime Minister Zaev lead support for their countries, with backing from the U.S., EU and NATO. Notably, President Trump has also lent his support, as did Secretary Mattis on a recent visit to the country. Greek Prime Minister Tsipras and Macedonian Prime Minister Zaev lead support for their countries, with backing from the U.S., EU and NATO. Notably, President Trump has also lent his support, as did Secretary Mattis on a recent visit to the country. Against: Unsurprisingly, Moscow opposes any prospects for NATO enlargement. The vote follows accusations from the U.S., the EU and others that Russia has taken active measure to undermine the referendum. This summer, Athens expelled two Russian officials for fomenting opposition to the agreement. Factions in both Greece and Macedonia, including Macedonia's nationalist party, also oppose any compromise and pledge to boycott the vote. What to watch: A minimum of 50% of the electorate must go to the polls for the vote to be valid. If the referendum passes, Macedonia will need to embark on a series of steps to pave the way for NATO membership, including adoption by its parliament of the contentious constitutional change, and parliamentary ratification by Athens. If the agreement falls apart, so too will Macedonias Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Jonathan Katz is a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States. President Trump chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, leading a more or less restrained discussion of non-proliferation issues. He delivered prepared remarks focused on touting his diplomatic outreach to North Korea and expanding the case against Iran that he had made in his General Assembly remarks. The 14 other members then spoke, with even Kuwait arguing in favor of the Iran deal. Why it matters: Historically, such a forum allows a U.S. president to put a difficult issue on the international agenda and push other countries toward progress, however uncomfortable the decisions involved. The meeting Trump led did little to advance solutions to national security challenges, other than underscore U.S. isolation on Iran (despite valiant efforts from President Macron of France to highlight areas of agreement). The background: This was only the third time a U.S. president has personally chaired a UNSC meeting. In 2009, President Obama used the opportunity to secure the resolution that launched the Nuclear Security Summit process and strengthened international resolve around sanctions on Iran and North Korea. In 2014, Obama returned to the Council to win unanimous support for a resolution that included specific steps to prevent the flow of foreign fighters to terrorist groups, including ISIS. Behind the scenes: The fractured policy process within the Trump administration contributed to the outcome. After they announced the meeting would focus on Iran, U.S. allies pushed back and it became clear that the invitation of an Iranian representative would be called for, setting up an ugly confrontation. It was only then that the topic was expanded (and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley thrown under the bus), leaving no time for real diplomacy to find a meaningful outcome that the Security Council could endorse. The bottom line: Given the scar tissue around Trump's Iran deal withdrawal, he probably could not have chaired a productive session on nuclear arms control. But he passed up the chance to champion another issue perhaps peace and security initiatives that would have bolstered his counternarcotics meeting earlier in the week and only received a talking to from the delegates around the table. Jarrett Blanc is a senior fellow in the Geoeconomics and Strategy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Three developments this week together tell a story of the present and future of U.S. nuclear power. Driving the news: A federal appellate court yesterday upheld New York's zero emissions credits (ZEC) program that subsidizes nuclear plants. The unanimous decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said the program is not preempted by federal electricity law. It's the second appellate decision this month upholding states' authority to subsidize nuclear plants, following the Sept. 13 Seventh Circuit ruling in favor of Illinois' ZEC program. Why it matters: The decisions bolster efforts in several states to prop up nuclear plants facing severe market pressures. They're a win for advocates who fear that a wave of plant closures will be a huge step backward for the decarbonization the country's power mix. And environmentalists also welcome them as a blessing for states' powers to bolster renewables. The big picture: The New York decision arrived a day after owners of a badly over-budget project to build two big reactors in Georgia struck an 11th-hour deal to keep construction going. However, that action was at most a limited win for the troubled nuclear industry. The Southern Company-led project is the only new commercial nuclear plant under construction in the U.S., and there aren't others on the horizon. What's next: A new report says the path forward for new U.S. nuclear development lies with development and commercial deployment of small "microreactors" under 10 megawatts. A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck northern Indonesia on Friday, northeast of the town of Donggala on the island of Sulawesi. The strongest quake was followed by a damaging tsunami in Palu, the provincial capital with a population of about 335,000. The details: The earthquake has been followed by numerous strong aftershocks that are also capable of causing significant damage. Early reports from the region suggest widespread damage to homes, along with tsunami-related damage in Palu. Videos posted to Twitter showed onlookers watching as giant waves crashed ashore. According to Reuters, the tsunami reached six meters, or about 18 feet, in height. At least 384 have been reported dead, with hundreds more injured or missing. "The situation is chaotic, people are running on the streets and buildings collapsed," Dwikorita Karnawati, who heads Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency, told Reuters. "There is a ship washed ashore." Tsunamis are caused by the sudden displacement of the sea floor during a powerful quake, which can displace large amounts of water and send it sloshing toward shore, building in height as it approaches shallower depths. The backdrop: Indonesia sits along the so-called "ring of fire" in the Pacific, making it vulnerable to earthquakes and other geological hazards. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. Editors note: This article has been updated to include more information on the tsunami height and death toll. Every 15 minutes, a baby is born dependent on opioids. In Baltimore, doctors at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital say babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome a set of conditions caused by withdrawal from exposure to drugs now account for 25% of the hospitals admissions. Why it matters: Nationally, the number of babies born with the syndrome has increased by over 400 percent since 2004. For Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, the community must first recognize addiction as a disease to address the larger trend of the opioid epidemic. But as drug-related deaths continue to increase, the future remains uncertain. Editor's note: This post has been corrected to show that babies are born with opioid dependence, not addiction. By Sara Israfilbayova Azerbaijani insurers expect growth in the countrys insurance market by 40 percent by the end of the year. Mustafa Abbasbeyli, chairman of the Azerbaijan Insurers Association, said at an event on the signing of a memorandum between the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population, the Financial Market Supervision Authority (FIMSA), the Compulsory Insurance Bureau and insurance companies. The insurance market of Azerbaijan shows stable growth every year. Every year the market showed a growth of 10 percent, but this year shows a growth of 30 percent. This is evident in the eight months of 2018. Therefore, we expect that by the end of the year the insurance market of Azerbaijan will reach the figure of 750 million manats ($441.18 million), which means a 40 percent increase, said Abbasbeyli. The head of the Association stressed that the main task facing the insurance market of Azerbaijan today is to achieve proportional growth of all insurance types. To date, some insurance types in the country are growing quite actively, but other types of staying on a stable level. We want to achieve a proportional growth of all types of insurance. In particular, our plans include an increase in compulsory insurance against accidents at work from the current 40 million manats ($23.53 million) to 100 million manats ($58.52 million), which means 150 percent growth for this type of insurance, Abbasbeyli said. Insurance against work accidents Moreover, Azerbaijan will strengthen supervision on insurance against occupational accidents, according to the memorandum of cooperation signed at the meeting by Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, FIMSA, the Compulsory Insurance Bureau, as well as insurance companies Ateshgah Life, PASHA Life and Qala Life. Presently, the penetration rate of insurance against industrial accidents is 35 percent, said FIMSA's CEO Ibrahim Alishov. "Considering that, out of 3.3 million employees, 1.6 million are insured, as a result of the integration of information systems, penetration of this type of insurance, as well as fees, will significantly increase," he said. The chief executive also added that fees for this type of insurance in 2017 amounted to 33.2 million manats with payments of 4.3 million manat, and in the 1H018, these figures amounted to 21.3 million and 1.7 million respectively. Currently, 21 insurance companies are implementing their activities in Azerbaijan. First top 5 of general insurance companies in January-June 2018 is as follows: AzerInsurance (34.91 million manats-$20.53 million), Ateshgah (19.69 million manats-$11.58 million), Mega Insurance (15.23 million manats-$8.96 million), AtaInsurance (10.35 million manats-$6.09 million). In general, these eight companies had 343.58 million manats ($202.1 million) or 86.7 percent of all premiums of insurers for the reporting period. Among the insurance companies in the first half of 2018, PASHA Life Insurance also made the largest payments, reimbursements of which amounted to 31.65 million manats ($18.61 million) or 26.5 percent of all payments of insurers. PASHA Insurance became the leader in terms of payments in other types of insurance (25.46 million manats-$15 million). Among the five leading insurance companies in terms of the volume of refunds made in this segment, following the results of the reporting period also included: Ateshgah (9.66 million manats-$5.68 million), AzerInsurance (7.85 million manats-$4.62 million), AXA-Mbask (4.69 million manats-$2.76 million) and AzInsurance (4.17 million manats-$2.45 million). In general, these 8 companies paid 102.68 million manats ($60.4 million) or 86.1 percent of all payments of insurers for the reporting period. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Azerbaijani postal operator Azerpost LLC and Turkish General Directorate of Post and Telegraph Organization (PTT) will sign a mutual agreement for making money transfers, using the new system of urgent money transfers. The transactions to be conducted via a new money transfer system, as well as parcel delivery will be carried out at postal points operated by Azerpost and PTT, Azerpost LLC said in a message. Money transfers between Turkey and Azerbaijan are also carried out via international money transfer systems, namely, "Western Union", "Golden Crown", "Contact", "Universal Payment Transfer". Money transfers have been carried out between Turkey and Azerpost LLC through an online money transfer system since 2010. All types of international payment cards issued by Azerpost LLC are planned to be supported on the PTT e-commerce platform. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova Information on the spread of tuberculosis in Azerbaijan is unfounded, said the Health Ministry commenting on the rumors of this virus across the country. Information on the spread in the Yasamal and Nasimi districts of Baku, as well as in the regions of the country of this disease, is unfounded. Every year, hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents in Yasamal and Nasimi districts, as well as in the regions, undergo preventive examination, the Ministry reported. Permanent anti-tuberculosis measures are being held in the country and in Baku, according to the Ministry. The individual and mass diagnostics of tuberculin is carried out annually in kindergartens, schools and universities, located on the site of institutions for providing medical care, for the early detection of the disease. There is no and cannot be tuberculosis epidemic in the country, the Ministry reported, adding that corresponding departments of the Ministry and the Baku city Main Health Office keep under constant control the implementation of anti-tuberculosis activities. In 2017 the primary incidence rate of tuberculosis in Baku was 4-5 times lower than in other post-Soviet countries. The country started to combat tuberculosis in 1995, while implementing a strategy in the countrys prisons, supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The law On Combating Tuberculosis was adopted in Azerbaijan in 2000. The country has also approved a plan of action on anti-tuberculosis measures for 2016-2020, which aims to prevent the spread of the disease and to reduce the number of tuberculosis-related deaths, as well as to strengthen logistics of tuberculosis treatment centers, to improve the supply of patients with medications, and to raise public awareness of the disease. The treatment of tuberculosis patients is being carried out at the states expense, regardless of the stage of the disease. By Rashid Shirinov The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have called on the parties to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to intensify negotiations. They made the remarks in a statement issued on September 27, following their separate and joint meetings with the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in New York on the margins of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly. Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, also joined the meetings. The ministers continued negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The co-chairs and the ministers discussed the situation in the region and sought clarification with respect to several recent statements and incidents of concern. The co-chairs expressed deep regret over the continuing and unnecessary loss of life, the statement reads. They also cautioned the ministers about the dangers of escalation, called on the parties to engage constructively in a positive atmosphere, and to avoid inflammatory rhetoric. The co-chairs underscored that a comprehensive settlement will require compromises on all sides. In this context, the ministers reaffirmed the importance of measures to enhance the negotiation process and to take additional measures to reduce tensions. The ministers agreed to meet again before the end of the year, the statement says. The co-chairs also noted that they plan to visit the region in the near future and will then brief the OSCE Minsk Group and the Permanent Council on the status of negotiations. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijans territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry issued a statement in connection with the illegal visit of European Parliament member Eleni Theocharous to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh on September 27. Member of the European Parliament from the Republic of Cyprus Eleni Theocharous was included in the list of persons banned from entering the territory of our country, and the General Prosecutors Office of Azerbaijan initiated a criminal case against her under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code. This person, acting under the influence of Armenia and the Armenian lobby, demonstrates the position of justifying the aggressive policy of the ruling circles of Armenia and encouraging their occupation policy, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend. Earlier, the spokesman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Hikmat Hajiyev, said that the number of illegal visits to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan has significantly decreased. He noted that such visits have decreased after Azerbaijan launched its undesirable persons list, and has taken measures related to the issue. Names of any individuals paying unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia are included in the Foreign Ministrys list of undesirable persons. The ministry and diplomatic missions pay special attention to the illegal activity in the occupied areas of the country. Baku has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats of illegality of visits to its territories that are occupied by Armenia, calling them contradictory to international law. The work is constantly carried out to prevent such illegal actions. 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. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova This year marks 10 years of joint cooperation between Azerbaijani and French archeologists. An exhibition dedicated to the results of joint research of archeologists of both countries is planned to be held in Baku with the support of the Embassy of France in Azerbaijan, Presidium of Azerbaijan's National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography and Azerbaijan National Art Museum. The Institute for Archeology and Ethnography stressed that rare findings of great importance for world archaeologists have been discovered during the 10 years of joint archaeological excavations, Azertac reported. Archaeologists of the two countries are currently choosing the rare finds for the exhibition. French archeologists include professor of French National Research Center Bertil Lionnet, professor of the Department of Eastern Archeology of the university Lumiere Lyon 2 Michel Kazanova, and Nicolas Gailhard of French National Research Center, who is a specialist in modern archaeological research technologies. Prof. Kazanova said that for 10 years, French archeologists, along with their Azerbaijani counterparts, conducted archaeological excavations involving multidissiplinary research in accordance with the requirements of modern science in different regions of Azerbaijan. Material and cultural examples of neolithic, chalcolithic, primary, middle and last bronze, early Iron and antique periods were presented to the world's leading laboratories for a variety of analyzes. At the same time, some cultural and cultural samples were restored by French experts. "According to the agreement signed between the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography and the university Lumiere Lyon 2 in March 2017, some of the material-cultural samples revealed during joint international archaeological investigations in the southern regions of Azerbaijan, was sent to France for work. All the findings have been returned to Azerbaijan and delivered to the scientific fund of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography. It should be noted that in accordance with the agreement signed between the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography and the university Lumiere Lyon 2 in March 2017, the same theme exhibition, which reflects the results of joint cooperation of Azerbaijani and French archeologists, is planned to be held in Paris and Tbilisi in the future. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov had meetings with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania Linas Linkevicius in New York on the margins of the UN GA 73rd session, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry told Trend. The sides had broad exchange of views over the bilateral cooperative relations and discussed the issues of mutual interest of the agenda of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend In accordance with the intergovernmental agreement between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Belarus, the new batch of 301-mm operational-tactical missile systems Polonez was delivered to Azerbaijan, the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan said in a message on Sept. 27. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova A new tourism brand of Azerbaijan will be presented in London, head of the public relations department of the State Agency for Tourism Kenan Guluzade said on September 27. A presentation of a new tourism brand of Azerbaijan, developed on the basis of a strategic roadmap, will be held on October 18, he told Trend. Guluzade noted that the presentation would be first organized in Baku. He underlined that the tourism brand of Azerbaijan has been developed by one of the largest world companies. After the tourism brand of Azerbaijan is presented to the public in October, its international presentation will take place at the international tourism exhibition in London in November, the spokesman said. Presently, Azerbaijan is engaged in the efforts to diversify the non-oil economy, and tourism industry is one of the promising sectors to contribute to the achievement of this ambitious goal. The government carries out comprehensive activities to support the flow of foreign visitors. Azerbaijan has great potential for tourism development. Nature, climate, historical monuments, cuisine, rich culture of the Azerbaijani people lay foundation for the development of many areas of tourism. Today the country is on the rise and continues to move forward. The tourists mainly visit the most popular destinations Baku, Sheki, Gabala, Guba etc. As for the tourism infrastructure, currently there are hundreds accommodation facilities operating in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is among the fastest-growing destinations for tourists. In January-June 2018, 1.3 million foreigners and stateless persons from 189 countries visited Azerbaijan, which is 10.2 percent more than in the same period of 2017. Some 30.5 percent of the visitors accounted for citizens of Russia, 21.1 percent - Georgia, 11.1 percent - Iran, 10.8 percent - Turkey, 3.6 percent - the UAE, 2.1 percent - Iraq, 2 percent - Ukraine, 18.7 percent - citizens of other countries, 0.1 percent - stateless persons, according to Azerbaijans State Statistics Committee. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Foreign Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon Gebran Bassil, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration of Togo Robert Dussey and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Grenada Peter David in New York Sept. 28. At the meetings the Ministers exchanged their views over the development of cooperation between the countries. In this regard, the sides discussed the ways to enhance economic, trade and humanitarian relations. During the meetings the sides also deliberated about the issues of cooperation within the international organizations and the agenda of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend An expanded session of the Council of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States has been held in Dushanbe, capital of the Republic of Tajikistan. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the session. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Peter Szijjarto on Sept. 27 in New York on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry said in a message Sept. 28. The ministers discussed bilateral cooperation, including the economic and trade relations and exchanged their views on regional energy and transport projects. During the meeting, in recognition of his contribution to the development of relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary, Mammadyarov was awarded the Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary. Presenting the award to his Azerbaijani counterpart, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto extended his gratitude to Mammadyarov for his valuable contribution to the development of bilateral relations and conveyed his belief in further development of bilateral ties, especially in economic and energy spheres. Mammadyarov, expressing his appreciation to Hungarian minister, valued the award as an encouragement for further strengthening of mutually beneficial cooperation between Azerbaijan and Hungary. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR has plans to build a methanol plant in Russia. Director General of SOCAR Polymer Farid Jafarov made the remarks on the sidelines of the 9th Azerbaijan-Russian Interregional Forum. Negotiations are underway with a Russian company on the construction of a methanol plant in Russia. This is a large-scale production. Our company plans to scale up the experience of SOCAR Polymer, Jafarov noted. He added that the project could be profitable and competitive due to the attractive price for gas in Russia. It is assumed that the production will use Russian raw materials. In turn, Executive Chairman of SOCAR Trading Adnan Ahmadzade noted that the company is negotiating the extension of the purchase of Russian oil from the Korchagin field for transportation through Baku-Ceyhan to international markets. Russian oil has been supplied via the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline from the Korchagin field for five years. About 2 million tons are supplied every year. Now the contract is ending, we are negotiating to extend it, said Ahmadzade. Further, he went on to say that Azerbaijan plans to export 1.5 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2019. He also mentioned that presently negotiations are underway with a Russian company on the possibility of building a methanol plant in Russia. SOCAR pumped 1.5 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2017 compared to 1.3 million tons in 2016. The Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,147 kilometers long. The length of its Azerbaijani section is 231 kilometers and Russian section is 916 kilometers long. The pipeline was filled with oil in October 1996, according to SOCAR. Its highest capacity stands at 105,000 barrels a day. In 2018, SOCAR plans to pump about 1.5 million tons of oil, produced at onshore and offshore fields of Azerbaijan, via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline. SOCAR is a wholly state-owned national oil company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and natural gas from onshore and offshore fields in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea. The company includes three production associations, one oil refining and gas processing enterprise, an oil flotilla, a deep-water base plant, two trusts, one institute, and 23 structures. SOCAR established joint companies (including Georgia and Turkey), alliances, operating in various sectors of oil and gas spheres. It has representative offices in Georgia, the U.S., Turkey, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Great Britain, Iran, Germany, Ukraine, Belgium and Canada. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Russia may reach $ 18 billion by the end of the year, Russian Trade Representative in Kazakhstan Alexander Yakovlev said on the sidelines of the 26th Kazakhstan international conference Oil and gas - KIOGE 2018, Kazinform reported. Russia annually invests more than $ 1 billion into the economy of Kazakhstan. More than 100 investment projects of Russian companies are being implemented or are being prepared for the implementation on the territory of Kazakhstan, therefore, the trade turnover between our countries is also growing. If last year it reached $ 16 billion, then by the end of 2018, according to our forecasts, this figure will be $ 18 billion, that is, the expected growth is $ 2 billion. We expect that by the end of 2020 the trade turnover between our countries will be $ 24-24.5 billion, the trade representative said. Kazakhstan's projects in Kazakhstan today, so the trade turnover between our countries is growing. If last year it reached $ 16 billion, then by the end of 2018, according to our forecasts, this figure will be $ 18 billion, that is, the expected growth of $ 2 billion. We expect that by the end of 2020 the trade turnover between our countries will be $ 24-24.5 billion, "the trade representative said on the sidelines of the 26th Kazakhstan international conference" Oil and gas - KIOGE 2018 ". In the structure of Russian-Kazakh trade turnover, including in the oil and gas industry, the leading place is occupied by computer-technical equipment with high added value - about 22 percent. From its part, Kazakh companies actively invest in the Russian economy, Yakovlev stressed. By the end of 2017, Kazakh companies sent more than $600 million to the Russian economy. The growth compared to 2016 was more than 60 percent. In particular, Kazakh companies are actively investing in construction and agriculture. And for seven months of this year, Russian exports to Kazakhstan grew by about 8 percent, and Kazakhstan's to Russia - by more than 12 percent, he said. Russian companies are focusing their attention on the sphere of machine building and the agro-industrial complex. Speaking of engineering, it is the assembly of Lada cars in Ust-Kamenogorsk and the Rostselmash project in Kokshetau. Together with the Kazakh partners, the Russian enterprise launched the assembly of harvesters at the Vektor plant, the trade representative recalled. He went on to say that more than 2,000 Russian companies visit Kazakhstan every year. "Only the Russian export center represents 35 companies. Today, 33,000 joint ventures with foreign capital operate in the Kazakh market, of which 6,000 are already working and 10,000 are registered Russian companies, he said. Speaking about the perspectives of Kazakh-Russian economic cooperation, the trade representative noted that Russian companies have a special interest in active cooperation in the field of machinery and nuclear equipment. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The National Bank of Kazakhstan assesses the situation in Tsesnabank as stable, Chairman of the National Bank Daniyar Akishev said at a press conference, Capital reported Sept. 27. The bank complies with all prudential regulations, he said. However, recently, the bank has faced an unplanned outflow of funds from the accounts of the population and enterprises, so the regulator decided to support the second-tier bank, he added. "The National Bank, in these conditions as well as taking into account the entry into force of the Basel III requirements, has provided support to the bank in the amount of 150 billion tenge on various terms," Akishev said. Akishev stated that in the situation with Tsesnabank, its shareholders have made every effort to stabilize the work of the financial institution. The bank has already been recapitalized and a new management with experience in solution of crisis situations has been appointed. Tsesnabank is conducting a deal to sell a significant share of the portfolio of agricultural loans in the amount of 450 billion tenge to the Fund of Problem Loans, Akishev added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva Uzbekistan and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) discussed the current state and prospects for cooperation. A meeting with the delegation of the EBRD was held at the Uzbek Finance Ministry on September 27. It was emphasized that cooperation between Uzbekistan and the EBRD is developing. In particular, on March 16, 2017 and August 1, 2018, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev received President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Suma Chakrabarti. He noted with satisfaction the high pace of mutually beneficial cooperation between Uzbekistan and the EBRD. As a result of this high-level dialogue, the banks office resumed its activities in Tashkent in November 2017. Currently, it is planned to create branches in the regions of Uzbekistan. Over the past period, the bank has allocated more than $ 190 million of credit lines to finance projects aimed at developing entrepreneurship in the country. At the same time, EBRD experts actively participated in the development of new procedures aimed at increasing the efficiency of preparing and implementing investment projects in Uzbekistan with the participation of foreign financial institutions. The memorandum on cooperation and the agreement on the implementation of the project of technical assistance in the field of nature protection were signed between Uzbekistan and the EBRD. During the meeting, the parties discussed issues of further development of cooperation. In particular, in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), issues of strengthening the legislative framework, introducing public-private partnership mechanisms and developing a roadmap for research aimed at adapting to the national legislation of Uzbekistan were discussed. They also exchanged views on improving the mechanisms of public-private partnership. The EBRD is the largest institutional investor in Central Asia, with close to 11.6 billion euros ($12.3 billion) committed to projects in a variety of sectors, from infrastructure to agriculture, with a focus on private sector development. It has successful experience of bringing innovation to Uzbekistans pharmaceutical sector through direct and indirect lending and a number of consultancy projects, which helped companies improve operational and financial management and obtain ISO 9001 and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificates. The bank has to date invested 897 million euros in Uzbekistan. Its current portfolio of projects in the country is 76 million euros. The EBRD aims to identify potential new projects in areas set out in a memorandum of understanding signed with the government authorities in March 2017. The EBRDs work in the country will focus in the short term on advice and financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, a trade finance programme to support cross-border trade and cooperation, and measures to improve the investment climate and competitiveness of the Uzbek economy, including through attracting foreign direct investment that will result in the transfer of technology and know-how. Currently, the bank together with the involved ministries and departments of Uzbekistan is in the process of development a draft of the EBRD country program for Uzbekistan, which will further expand the bank's interaction with the Central Asian nation. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at the invitation of President of India Ram Nath Kovind, will visit India on Sept. 30-Oct. 1, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry announced. The President of Uzbekistan will meet with leading Indian companies in the city of New Delhi to discuss building up bilateral relations in trade, economy and investments, including proposals for establishment of an Uzbek-Indian business council. During the visit, the delegation of Uzbekistan will also visit the ancient capital of India, the city of Agra, one of the world-famous sights of which is the majestic Taj Mahal mausoleum. The sides will adopt a joint statement, sign a package of agreements, documents between the regions and institutions of the two countries. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend On Nov. 19-21, the 1st International Investment Forum in the field of tourism will be held at the Uzexpocenter National Exhibition Complex in Tashkent, the State Committee for Tourism Development in the Republic of Uzbekistan announced. Along with local entrepreneurs, the Forum will be attended by representatives of international financial institutions, potential foreign investors, international organizations of the tourism sector, leading tourism companies, industry experts. The forum is held with the aim of expanding international cooperation in the tourism industry, attracting direct investment, promoting the country's tourism potential among potential investors. Administrations of the regions and the city of Tashkent attract consulting companies to prepare presentation, advertising and other materials about the investment potential of the regions, opportunities and prospects for implementation of relevant investment projects in the tourism sector. It is expected that final documents will be signed with the participants of the forum, including contracts for implementation of projects. The State Committee for Investment will discuss with potential investors conditions for implementation of projects, to choose the most effective and most acceptable schemes for their implementation. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Naila Huseynli Number of events were held in a connection with the World Tourism Day by the State Tourism Agency, on 27 September. State Agency told Azertag that tourists, who came to Azerbaijan for the first time, were warmly welcomed at the airport. At the border checkpoint, every tourist arriving in the country was treated with national sweets. In addition, Baku City Tour buses, which made trips to tourist destinations in Baku during the day, offered a discount of 50 percent in fare. The Yanardag and Ateshgah Temple state reserves were operating free of charge. Along with the exhibition of national art samples and demonstration of master classes in the Fountain Square, a live concert was also held in the evening. Exhibition of artists will last for four days. The next big event to be organized by the State Tourism Agency will take place at the Baku Congress Center. Thus, the National Tourism Summit will be held on October 18. The presentation of the new national tourism brand of Azerbaijan will be held within the framework of the summit. Since 1980, World Tourism Day is commemorated each year on September 27. Its purpose is to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Thursday, September 27, 2018 The Mississippi Supreme Court imposed reciprocal disbarment based on a Louisiana order sanctioning an attorney for misconduct as both a judge and lawyer. The Supreme Court of Louisiana, which has exclusive original jurisdiction in judicial disciplinary proceedings, found that the charges filed by the Commission were substantiated by clear and convincing evidence. Id. at 752. That court issued a forty-five page opinion, with an unpublished appendix, detailing its findings of Hughess judicial misconduct and her unprofessional conduct as an attorney and judicial candidate. Id. at 746-91. Because the record evinced an extraordinary pattern of misconduct, the Louisiana court concluded, Judge Hughes has demonstrated a blatant and incorrigible inability to conform to the rules imposed on any aspect of her career be it notary, attorney, candidate, or judge. Id. at 790. The court found that, in Hughess capacity as a practicing attorney, she repeatedly had taken money from clients and had failed to perform the services for which she had been retained, and then she refused to refund the fees. Id. at 785. Out of the nine charges involving Hughess failure to account to former clients and/or to refund unearned fees, the court singled out several incidents for discussion as particularly representative of Hughess misconduct. Id. at 775 n.16. One of the matters involved accepting a fee to represent the son of Lana Turner on a second-degree murder charge. The Supreme Court of Louisiana found that these and numerous similar charges involving Hughess refusal to refund unearned fees or to account to clients had been established by clear and convincing evidence. Id. at 775 n.16. Sanction In imposing the sanction of permanent disbarment upon Hughes, the Supreme Court of Louisiana explicitly or implicitly considered all nine criteria utilized by this Court to determine an appropriate sanction for attorney misconduct. Hughes did not respond to the Mississippi Bars motion for reciprocal discipline, and thus she has presented no mitigating factors for our consideration. No extraordinary circumstances compel, justify, or support variance from the sanction of disbarment imposed by the Supreme Court of Louisiana. Rather, the facts ascertained by the Supreme Court of Louisiana and the discipline imposed by that court after careful consideration of Hughess conduct under the Rules of Professional Conduct fully support this Courts imposition of the sanction of disbarment. Therefore, based on the record before us, the Mississippi Rules of Discipline, and our case law, this Court finds that Yvonne L. Hughes shall be disbarred. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/09/the-mississippi-supreme-court-imposed-reciprocal-disbarment-based-on-a-louisiana-order-the-supreme-court-of-louisiana-which.html WASHINGTON - From the moment he began speaking Thursday, Judge Brett Kavanaugh launched into partisan attack mode. In a remarkable turnabout from the confirmation hearings earlier this month in which he presented himself as the model of neutrality, Kavanaugh fumed that the sexual assault allegations brought against him in recent days had been a "calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election." He called it "revenge on behalf of the Clintons" and pointed to "millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups." Kavanaugh's statements marked an extraordinary moment in the history of Supreme Court confirmation battles. Not only was a potential justice on the highest court raging against one of the country's two major political parties, but he was also leveling a serious allegation - that the process itself was being manipulated. In her testimony, his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, stressed that, despite having sent her allegations to two Democrats in Congress, she viewed herself as nonpartisan. "I am nobody's pawn," she said. But over the course of Thursday's hearing, partisan tensions repeatedly boiled over as Republicans echoed Kavanaugh's claim that the Democrats had engineered the process to ensure his demise in the final weeks before the midterm elections. At issue was whether the Democrats, who had first received Ford's allegations in an early July letter that she sent to her local congresswoman, had purposefully waited to make them public until after the initial confirmation hearings were over and the Senate was preparing to vote. Republican senators repeated that claim throughout the day, most notably in an impassioned speech by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who called the proceedings an "unethical sham" and boomed that any Republican who voted against Kavanaugh was "legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics." Democratic senators said they had not released the allegations initially because Ford had asked to keep them confidential. But Democrats were not able to explain Thursday how the information eventually leaked out - a development that ultimately compelled Ford to come forward. "Dr. Blasey Ford asked that her information be kept confidential, and it was," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I only referred her letter to the FBI after it was leaked and reporters were knocking on her door. I don't know who leaked the information, but it wasn't my office." Under questioning during the hearing from Rachel Mitchell, an Arizona sex-crimes prosecutor hired by the Republicans, Ford acknowledged that she had contacted two Democratic lawmakers with her allegations. She said that she made her initial contact upon learning that Kavanaugh was on the shortlist of possible picks but before he was nominated, and that she had intended to remain anonymous. While it has become common for senators to engage in partisan jousting over judicial nominations, Kavanaugh took an unusual path for a nominee in tying himself so closely with President Donald Trump and the GOP. By turns seething and scornful, Kavanaugh seemed to adopt Trump's assertion Wednesday that the attacks against him were a "con job." In fighting back so forcefully, Kavanaugh also adopted the president's oft-stated belief in hitting back 100 times harder against attackers. Soon after the hearing ended, Trump issued a tweet praising Kavanaugh's testimony as "powerful, honest, and riveting." Trump borrowed a line from Kavanaugh, who cited the constitutional role of the Senate during the hearing to say that Democrats had "replaced advise and consent with search and destroy." Said Trump in his tweet: "Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist." Casting aside the norms of decorum that have traditionally characterized such Senate hearings - norms that Kavanaugh had largely adhered to during his earlier appearances - the nominee appeared unconstrained as he expressed clear hostility toward Democratic members. "Since my nomination in July, there's been a frenzy on the left to come up with something, anything, to block my nomination," Kavanaugh said. Democrats, he said, want to "blow me up and take me down." He lashed out at the Democrats for their behavior at his prior appearance, likening their treatment of him to Democrats' successful effort decades earlier to defeat the nomination of conservative Judge Robert Bork. "The behavior of several of the Democratic members of this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment," he said. "But at least it was just a good old-fashioned attempt at Borking." When Feinstein complained that the FBI wasn't interviewing witnesses and providing the committee with facts, Kavanaugh interjected: "You're interviewing me. You're - you're doing it, senator. I'm sorry to interrupt." Feinstein then asked him whether allegations by two other women - who didn't testify Thursday - "are wrong." Asked about an allegation by another accuser, Julie Swetnick, who said Kavanaugh engaged in sexual misconduct at parties, Kavanaugh said her allegation was a "a joke. That is a farce." "Would you like to say more about it?" Feinstein asked. "No," Kavanaugh responded. When Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked whether he had suffered memory loss from drinking, Kavanaugh denied it and then challenged her, saying "You're asking about blackout. I don't know, have you?" She ignored his query, and he later apologized. Kavanaugh also responded to questions from Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse about his drinking by telling the Rhode Island senator, "I like beer." When Whitehouse said Kavanaugh was ducking his question, Kavanaugh interjected: "Do you like beer, senator, or not?" Kavanaugh's testimony could raise questions about his temperament and whether, if he is confirmed, he can ever be seen as a neutral figure on the Supreme Court. Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor and expert on ethics, said Kavanaugh's responses to Democratic questioners were "ill advised." "We can only assume that he's doing this for an audience of one, who may be watching," Gillers said, referring to Trump. Gillers said Kavanaugh was "exhibiting the very uncontrolled anger that others have described as a problem he has when drunk, but he's not drunk. He's squandering the sympathy some of his opening statement encouraged. Or he just doesn't know how to handle cross-examination and no one prepared him." Analysts said that while the hearing was always expected to be partisan, Thursday's testimony marked a remarkable devolution from which the Senate will struggle to recover. "What we saw all afternoon from both Judge Kavanaugh and senators in the majority was an effort to portray this whole episode as a nefarious plot," said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas. "People can disagree about whether they find that claim plausible, but for the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the country, it's a sad moment - and a very bad look." WASHINGTON - The American Bar Association called on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday evening to halt the confirmation vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, saying it should not move forward until an FBI investigation into the sexual assault allegations against him can be completed. "The basic principles that underscore the Senate's constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI," ABA President Robert Carlson wrote in a letter to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee's ranking Democrat. The ABA letter, which is unlikely to sway Republicans, said that an appointment to the Supreme Court "is simply too important to rush to a vote. Deciding to proceed without conducting an additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senate's reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court," Carlson wrote in the letter, obtained by The Washington Post. The ABA, with 400,000 members, is the legal profession's largest organization. Kavanaugh and his supporters have bragged about its favorable rating of the nominee, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., describing the imprimatur as the "gold standard." This group was not the only institution Kavanaugh has cited to issue such a plea. The dean of Yale Law School on Friday called for further investigation into the accusations before moving ahead with his confirmation, a call that came less than a day after Kavanaugh highlighted his time there. "I got into Yale Law School," Kavanaugh had testified Thursday. "That's the number one law school in the country. I had no connections there. I got there by busting my tail in college." On Friday, Heather Gerken, the dean of that law school, echoed the ABA's letter in a statement issued through the university. "I join the American Bar Association in calling for an additional investigation into allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh," Gerken said. "Proceeding with the confirmation process without further investigation is not in the best interest of the Court or our profession." Kavanaugh has also highlighted his time at Georgetown Preparatory School, which bills itself as the country's only Jesuit boarding school. In an editorial on Thursday, America magazine, a Jesuit publication, called for Kavanaugh's nomination to be withdrawn. "Evaluating the credibility of these competing accounts is a question about which people of good will can and do disagree," the editorial stated. "The editors of this review have no special insight into who is telling the truth. . . . But even if the credibility of the allegation has not been established beyond a reasonable doubt and even if further investigation is warranted to determine its validity or clear Judge Kavanaugh's name, we recognize that this nomination is no longer in the best interests of the country." Meanwhile, Harvard Law School scholar Alan Dershowitz, often lauded by President Trump for his criticisms of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, was among those calling for an FBI inquiry into the allegations. "Maybe we can get closer to the truth, although that is not certain," Dershowitz wrote in a Fox News opinion piece. "But right now there are too many unanswered question[s] to bring the confirmation of Kavanaugh" to "a vote of the Judiciary Committee as scheduled on Friday, much less to a vote of the full Senate." He continued by saying that it is "possible that one of them is deliberately lying. Right now, there is no way of knowing for certain, which is why the FBI needs to talk to the judge's accusers and others." During Thursday's tumultuous hearing, in which Christine Blasey Ford testified that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982, Kavanaugh referred to his good standing with the ABA multiple times as he angrily denied Ford's allegations. "For 12 years, everyone who has appeared before me on the D.C. Circuit has praised my judicial temperament. That's why I have well unanimous, well-qualified rating from the American Bar Association," Kavanaugh testified. As part of its review of Kavanaugh's qualifications, the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary found that Kavanaugh "enjoys an excellent reputation for integrity and is a person of outstanding character," contributing to its unanimous "well-qualified" rating. Kavanaugh and Graham together alluded to the ABA investigation at least three times Thursday. Democrats on the committee, meanwhile, complained bitterly about the majority's unwillingness to have an FBI investigation and accused Republicans of rushing the confirmation. Kavanaugh avoided answering when asked by Democrats whether he would ask for an FBI investigation into Ford's allegations himself. In her opening statement Thursday, Ford testified that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her and covered her mouth at a summer gathering when they were teenagers. In his, Kavanaugh cast himself as a victim of a "calculated and orchestrated political hit," fueled by "pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election." An outside prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell of Maricopa County, Arizona, led much of the inquiry, peppering Kavanaugh with questions about his high school drinking habits and asking Ford about the lingering psychological trauma she claims Kavanaugh's actions caused. Mitchell, a registered Republican, stood in for the all-male GOP senators on the committee, who did not question Ford. When it was Kavanaugh's turn, Democrats zeroed in on Kavanaugh's high school behavior at Georgetown Prep, just outside Washington, asking him about how much beer he typically drank during parties and to describe cryptic yearbook messages, which some have surmised contain sexual innuendos. Committee Republicans announced Thursday evening that the committee would go ahead with a vote on Kavanaugh's nomination Friday, with a final confirmation vote expected Tuesday. In calling for the FBI investigation into Ford's claims before any such vote could happen, Carlson urged the Senate to "remain an institution that will reliably follow the law and not politics." --- Video Embed Code Video: Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27, and adamantly denied Christine Blasey Ford's allegation of sexual assault.(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) Embed code: WASHINGTON - The FBI was again thrust to the center of the day's biggest political controversy Friday when Republican Senate leaders agreed to allow the bureau to conduct a limited, additional background check of Brett Kavanaugh, whose nomination to the Supreme Court hangs in the balance over allegations of sexual misconduct. President Donald Trump said in a statement that he had ordered the bureau to "conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh's file" and added that the update "must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week." The probe is considered a part of Kavanaugh's background check because the allegations are from Kavanaugh's teenage years and the activity does not involve any federal crimes, officials said. That is important because, unlike in a criminal investigation, additional work had to be requested by the White House, which is allowed to impose parameters on the scope, officials said. From the probe of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server to the examination of Trump's presidential campaign, the FBI has grown accustomed in recent months to conducting investigations that are viewed through sharply partisan lenses. The case of Kavanaugh, though, presents significant challenges. The allegations against the Supreme Court nominee are decades old, and his accusers say their memories - sometimes of dates and locations - are hazy. A background check is not like a criminal investigation; investigators would not use tools such as grand juries, subpoenas and search warrants, meaning potential witnesses could simply decline to be interviewed. The FBI will ultimately report its findings - which, in Kavanaugh's case, will probably be mostly reports of interviews - to the White House. The bureau will not conclude whether the accusers are believable or not, or tell the White House whether it should withdraw Kavanaugh's nomination. "They're not going to crack the case," said Ron Hosko, a former assistant FBI director. "The best they can hope to do is find the facts, relay the statements of the witnesses that presumably would be later tested if Congress chose to do so and the president greenlighted it." That is not to say an FBI investigation will not yield new information. Witnesses who have provided only brief statements to Congress might be more willing to cooperate with law enforcement. Mark Judge, for example, who is accused of having been in the room when Kavanaugh is alleged to have assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when both were in high school, is willing to answer the bureau's questions, his attorney said Friday. Judge and others will have a strong incentive to tell the truth. Lying to the FBI is a federal crime. FBI agents are also trained specifically to investigate such matters. Their detailed inquiries will probably reveal answers to questions in a way that partisan congressional hearings cannot. Once the White House gives Congress the FBI's report, lawmakers might decide to hold a hearing or change their vote. If investigators uncover evidence that Kavanaugh lied to lawmakers during hearings or on his background-check forms, that could spark a criminal investigation in which law enforcement could use the full extent of its legal powers. "Investigations are surprising," said Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney, Drug Enforcement Administration head and FBI official. "I spent most of my life doing them. They take strange turns." The scope of what the FBI will investigate was not immediately clear. Three women have leveled various allegations against Kavanaugh, all of which he denies. The Senate Judiciary Committee, in a news release indicating it had requested that the administration order a supplemental background investigation, said the probe would be limited to "current credible allegations against the nominee" and that it would be completed "no later than one week from today." Only Ford, who claims that Kavanaugh assaulted her more than three decades ago at a party in suburban Maryland, has testified before Congress. Another woman, Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaugh's at Yale University, told New Yorker magazine that Kavanaugh exposed his penis to her when both were in their first year at the school. Another, Julie Swetnick, said in a declaration that Kavanaugh was physically abusive toward girls in high school and present at a house party in 1982 where she says she was the victim of a "gang" rape. Debra Katz, one of Ford's attorneys, said that her client welcomed the FBI investigation, adding that no "artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed" on it. Democrats have for nearly two weeks been calling on the bureau to look into the allegations against Kavanaugh and repeatedly pressed the nominee to support that demand at a hearing Thursday where Ford testified. Until Friday, though, Republicans and the White House had largely resisted those calls. They argued that Kavanaugh, a sitting federal judge, had been background-checked many times and asserted that an FBI investigation would not produce a conclusion on the truth of the allegations he faces. For their part, the FBI and Justice Department had previously noted their role was not to "make any judgment about the credibility or significance of any allegation" but rather "to provide information for the use of the decision makers." When Ford's allegations first emerged, the bureau sent them to the White House as an update to Kavanaugh's background-check file. Officials had been waiting for a request from the White House before doing more work. On Friday, just moments before a Senate Judiciary Committee vote to determine whether Kavanaugh's nomination could proceed to the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., declared it "would be proper" to postpone the floor vote for "up to, but not more than, one week" so the FBI could conduct an investigation. He said that investigation should be limited "to the current allegations that are there." The statement came amid growing calls, including from the American Bar Association, for senators to slow down and let the FBI go to work. Flake's call was soon endorsed by two others considered swing votes on the nomination - Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., - and then the Republican leadership. Trump said he would defer to them. "They have to do what they think is right," Trump said. Flake still voted to move Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor, though it remains unclear now when the chamber might vote on it. Some current and former law enforcement officials said they were skeptical an FBI investigation would quell the controversy and worried that it would simply provide for more controversy surrounding the bureau. "I would love to know the truth, and maybe the truth would set us all free," Hosko said, "but it may not be knowable right now." - - - The Washington Post's Anne Gearan, Seung Min Kim and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: Republicans and Democrats are pitted against each other over the idea of reopening the FBI background investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh.(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) Embed code: Friday, September 28, 2018 NOLA.com (Sep. 27, 2018): Louisiana's 'admitting privileges' abortion law upheld, by The Associated Press: A panel for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a Louisiana law requiring that abortion providers have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals does not violate the constitutional right to abortion. The 2-1 ruling from the 5th Circuit panel notes Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, but the majority found Louisiana's law does not impose the same "substantial burden" on women as the Texas law that the Supreme Court struck down in 2016. The ruling reversed a Baton Rouge-based federal judge's ruling in the case and ordered the lawsuit by opponents of the law dismissed. "Almost all Texas hospitals required that for a doctor to maintain privileges there, he or she had to admit a minimum number of patients annually," Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote in the opinion joined by Judge Edith Brown Clement. "Few Louisiana hospitals made that demand." The law's immediate effects are unclear as to the three abortion clinics that court records indicate operate in Louisiana -- in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport. Opponents of the law have argued it would make it very difficult or impossible for many to obtain abortion care in Louisiana, saying the law could result in one or two clinic closures and, eventually, a loss of access to abortion by 70 percent of individuals seeking abortion care in Louisiana. Judge Smith rejected that argument. His opinion didn't attack the district judge's decision that the law's benefits were minimal. Instead, he wrote that the 2017 ruling, by Judge John deGravelles, exaggerated the burden on women seeking an abortion. He found no evidence that any Louisiana clinics will close because of the law, stating that there is only one doctor at one clinic who currently is unable to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. If he stops performing the procedure, Smith wrote, it would affect "at most, only 30 percent of women, and even then, not substantially." The dissenting judge, Patrick Higginbotham, took his colleagues to task, saying they retried the case after the district judge had given full consideration to the facts. "At the outset," he wrote, "I fail to see how a statute with no medical benefit that is likely to restrict access to abortion can be considered anything but 'undue." https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/reproductive_rights/2018/09/louisianas-admitting-privileges-abortion-law-upheld.html Click through the slideshow to see September 2018 restaurant inspection reports from Beaumont eateries. The nation's highest-ranking health official boasted in a speech Thursday that President Donald Trump saved the Affordable Care Act. No, that's not a typo. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told health-care professionals at an event in Nashville, Tennessee, that Trump deserves credit for the stabilization of the ACA markets. "The President who was supposedly trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act has proven better at managing it than the President who wrote the law," Azar said. But any casual observer of politics knows Trump was not "supposedly" trying to kill the ACA - he's been overtly calling for its demise. At a recent rally the president told supporters, "we've done a number on Obamacare." Trump has brought up efforts to repeal the ACA and chip away at its core in every campaign-style speech he's made in the past two months. Open enrollment for health coverage on the ACA exchanges begins Nov. 1, and Azar used his speech to officially announce that for the first time since the law was enacted, premiums on average are projected to drop for the popular "silver" plans, mid-range plans with moderate premiums and slightly higher out of pocket costs. "Insurers have proposed to cut premiums for these benchmark plans by two percent nationally. Meanwhile, the number of federal exchange insurers will grow for the first time since 2015," he said. "Let me repeat that: Under President Trump, premiums are dropping and choices are returning," he added. But health-care wonks argue the markets are stabilizing now for different reasons. In fact, experts say premiums would likely be going down much more this year if not for the White House casting uncertainty on the ACA's future. In early August, Brookings Institute's Matt Fielder released an analysis concluding that if Trump and congressional Republicans had allowed the ACA to remain intact, average nationwide premiums for those buying ACA plans would have fallen 4.3 percent next year. "Because the experience would be so good this year if policy was stable, the difference between a 4.3 percent decline and what actually happens in 2019 ... we might end up in the single digits [in terms of premium prices falling], but [premiums] are much higher than they could have been," Fielder said then. Larry Levitt, senior vice president of health reform for the independent Kaiser Family Foundation, made a similar point on Twitter Thursday, adding that premium rates for ACA plans are going down next year because insurers are correcting for raising them too high this year before: "Here's some important context for the Trump administration's announcement that ACA benchmark premiums will drop next year. Insurers in the exchange are quite profitable right now because they overshot so much in their premium increases for this year," Levitt posted. Azar ticked off all the changes the administration has made to the ACA - such as ending "cost-sharing reduction" payments to insurers; allowing states to set up reinsurance programs; allowing businesses to create health association plans and individuals to enroll in short-term duration plans, both of which are cheaper but do not include many consumer benefits required by the ACA. He also chastised "defenders of the Affordable Care Act" for saying that Congress eliminating the individual mandate penalty was a "life or death issue for American issues" "These architects of the ACA could not have been more wrong," Azar said. "At the same time we're removing the tax and expanding choices, the market is stabilizing and improving. All the experts, the defenders of the ACA, told us that more choices and more freedom would hurt your access to care. They used that as a reason to wield more control over your healthcare." But those experts, like Fielder and Levitt, caution that the sum of the Trump administration changes to Obamacare could keep healthy, young people off the exchanges in 2019, leaving insurers with a pool of sicker Americans, which could mean they'll pay out more than they take in and raise rates again for 2020 to compensate for their loss. Azar also used his speech to dismiss Democrats who have called for a shift to a nationwide "Medicare for all" program that would operate either as a public option or universal health care. Once an idea reserved only for the most progressive wing of the party, "Medicare for all" has gained traction among even more mainstream Democrats this campaign cycle, "It sounds like a nice idea. Medicare is a proud achievement of American healthcare. It provides financial security and quality care for nearly 60 million Americans. Why not just offer it to everybody?" Azar said. "Well, when we were young, our parents taught us a good lesson: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That's no less true in healthcare than it is anywhere else." Republicans have pivoted to attacking Democrats on "Medicare for all" as Democrats have spent this campaign cycle criticizing them on the destruction of the ACA. Azar took up a popular GOP line that shifting the entire country to a Medicare-style program would not only be a huge financial burden for the nation, but would divert resources from seniors. But advocates for the proposed plan say that the government-run program would have more generous benefits with less out-of-pocket costs for patients and reduce paperwork for providers so they can focus on the care. Azar wasn't the only high-ranking Trump administration official to tout its health-care policies Thursday. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma defended the agency's push for states to add work requirements to their Medicaid programs. "Community engagement requirements are not some subversive attempt to just kick people off of Medicaid," she said during a speech to "Instead, their aim is to put beneficiaries in control with the right incentives to live healthier independent lives." Verma spoke directly about Arkansas, the first state to implement work and community engagement as a requisite for receiving Medicaid benefits. She celebrated that 1,000 low-income beneficiaries had found work since the new requirements went into effect in July. "This is earned success. It is not granted by government, but realized through sweat, toil and initiative," she said. But Verma did not mention in her speech the 4,300 Arkansans who were kicked off of Medicaid this month for failure to meet the requirements, or adequately report them. Members of the tiny congregation where William Winters Leverett had bowed his head since 2015 would later say he was "very childlike, very trusting of others." A co-worker at the Fresh Market store in Connecticut where the 27-year-old worked as an assistant manager would recall he was "kind of a weird dude." The state of Connecticut knew him as a registered sex offender. Buried under all those labels, Leverett - lean and lanky, shaggy-haired, blue eyes behind his glasses - also allegedly knew he was something else: a killer. He finally confessed last week when he walked into the home of his pastors, Michael and Colette Trazinski, and told his story. "You know what you have to do," Michael Trazinski told him, according to the Hartford Courant. That night, Leverett, and three other members of his church pushed into the police headquarters in Simsbury, a small town west of Hartford. "I'm here to turn myself in for the murder on Iron Horse Boulevard almost 4 years ago," he told investigators, according to a police affidavit. Leverett talked for hours, tying together a brutal whodunit that had confounded the small New England town for years. On Monday, Leverett was arraigned on one count of murder, MassLive reported. He pleaded not guilty and is currently being held on a $2 million bond. His attorney could not be immediately located. Family members would later say Melissa Millan was "a loving mother, a devoted daughter, a witty and compassionate sister." Her co-workers at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., where she was a senior vice president, would recall her " tremendous leadership qualities" and "business acumen." She was a divorced mother of two, an avid runner who competed in triathlons. On Nov. 20, 2014, a cold New England night, Millan changed into running gear - a bright pink jacket with reflective straps, leopard print running pants, pink sneakers and a headlamp, according to the police report - and started pounding down a running trail weaving through Simsbury around 7:30 p.m. The "Greenway" was a strip of pavement running parallel along Iron Horse Boulevard, separated from the street by a low wooden fence and lit at intervals with streetlamps. Millan huffed down the empty trail, her legs carrying her one mile, then two, occasionally entering the sudden glow from a passing car's headlights. That same night, Leverett arrived home to an empty house. Leverett was already a known criminal. According to the Courant, in 2009 he had been arrested in Colorado on a sexual assault of a child charge. He pleaded guilty and avoided jail time. But he still had to register as a sex offender, and on that night in November in Connecticut, he returned home from a sex offender group therapy meeting in Hartford. Back in Simsbury, everyone was gone. He was lonely. Even the family dog was gone, he would later tell police. Compelled to talk to someone, anyone, Leverett decided to go for a walk on the Greenway, hoping to find a stranger to chat with. He allegedly had a lot on his mind, he would later say. Months earlier, Leverett had met a girl named Kerri. The two became friends. But Leverett worried that if the woman learned he was a sex offender, she would reject him, according to the affidavit. He was embarrassed and scared, he told police. "If I just killed somebody it would make all that go away and I wouldn't have to explain myself," Leverett thought, he told authorities. He drove to the Greenway, parked and walked the trail. No one was out. It was cold. Back in his car, he was about to pull onto Iron Horse Boulevard when a woman - pink top, headlamp - crossed into his headlights. Leverett "immediately was attracted to her," investigators noted in their report. He told police he was "getting mentally aroused." Leverett swung his car onto the road. His plan was to park ahead and hopefully cross paths with the jogger, he told police. But his thoughts allegedly soured on the quick drive. "I can't have her," he thought, he said. "She's way out of my league." He was angry. The anger "escalated rapidly," he said. "I went into a frenzy." He had a knife in the car. He allegedly decided to attack her. Jogging down the dark trail, Millan stopped when she came across the tall young man blocking her way. Leverett thrust the knife blade into her chest, puncturing her lung and nicking her heart. Millan pushed him, freeing the knife from her body but forcing her back over the trail's low fence. She collapsed into the street. "Oh my God, what have I done?" Leverett then thought, recalling his mind-set to police in his confession last week. For investigators in Simsbury in 2018, closing the 2014 case with a confession alone wasn't enough. As the police report noted, Leverett did recall details of the crime only the perpetrator could know. But physical evidence was an issue. Where was the knife? Leverett said he tossed it out his car window on the night of the murder. Days later he fetched it and put it in a trash compactor at his work. The bloody clothes he was wearing? Leverett told investigators he washed his pants and shirt on the night of the stabbing, then dropped them at a Good Will donation box. Police thought they had the necessary corroborating evidence when Leverett said that after killing the jogger, he wrote out two confessions. But when police examined the letters, the handwritten notes only mentioned "a serious crime" - nothing about a murder or even Simsbury. But what about the gloves? Leverett said he had been wearing gloves when he killed Millan. At first, he told police he had tossed them as well. But then he remembered. That night he had actually thrown the gloves up into the rafters of a barn on his family's property. They were bloody, he wanted to keep them out of sight. But one of the gloves flopped back down - he put it in the trash. The other glove "fell into a crevasse behind a cabinet and he could not reach it." The house had new owners, but the glove could still be there. The barn was still standing when police went looking with new property owner's permission on Sept. 20. They spotted the glove stuck between two walls. Leverett identified it as the one he was wearing in 2014, and blood on the item matched Millan's DNA - giving police the link they needed. ROCKVILLE, Md. - Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, has called for a "full investigation" into allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford 36 years ago, when both were teenagers. But neither Maryland State Police, who report to Hogan, nor police in Montgomery County, the Washington, D.C., suburb where the assault allegedly occurred, are likely to launch such a probe. Here's why: 1. Hogan's spokeswoman said last week that the governor "has never used the state police to pursue investigations at his personal whim. That is a very dangerous and slippery slope." So while numerous Democratic state lawmakers have asked Hogan to initiate an investigation within Maryland, he is not planning to do so. Instead, he is calling for an unspecified independent investigator, who would presumably report back to federal officials. Maryland State Police say its policy is to investigate allegations only when a criminal complaint is filed, which Ford has not done. If a complaint of that nature was filed, the state police would turn it over to Montgomery County police. 2. Montgomery County police, too, note that no accuser of Kavanaugh's has come forward to request a police investigation. And even if an accuser went to the local department, the statute of limitations for pursuing the crimes as described in Thursday's dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing appears to have long since passed. The most serious crime that authorities could pursue, given the sworn testimony provided by Ford, would be attempted rape. But that was considered a misdemeanor crime in Maryland in 1982, which would be the relevant legal application. As a misdemeanor, it carried a one-year statute of limitations, meaning charges would have had to have been filed within a year after an incident, according to John McCarthy, Montgomery County's longtime chief prosecutor; Lisae Jordan, the executive director and counsel for the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault; and other longtime Maryland attorneys interviewed in recent days. The Maryland legislature changed the law in 1996, making attempted rape a felony and removing the statute of limitations, according to McCarthy and Jordan. "But we'd have to apply the law as it existed at the time of the allegations," McCarthy said. Other possible charges, such as second-degree assault, remain misdemeanor offenses in Maryland, subject to a one-year statute of limitations, McCarthy said. "Based on all the allegations I've seen so far, there are a number of legal barriers to criminal prosecutions," Jordan said. Ford has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her more than three decades ago during a summer in the early 1980s, when they were high school students in suburban Maryland. She alleges that Kavanaugh and a friend corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County. While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said in Washington on Thursday, he put his hand over her mouth. Kavanaugh has consistently and categorically denied the allegations. He and his supporters also have pointed to what amounts to legal weaknesses of the claims, including a lack of corroboration from others. Pursuing a criminal case in the matter would confront challenges beyond the issue of whether the time frame in which to pursue a case has passed. Among the other challenges: Kavanaugh's age at the time. Any investigation and prosecution might have to be done under the rules of juvenile proceedings. "This would be an extremely difficult case to put together after all this time," said Louis Leibowitz, a longtime criminal defense attorney in Montgomery County. Before such legal questions, though, an investigation would have to be initiated. Police in Montgomery County conduct "victim-based" sexual assault investigations, meaning they generally do not launch them until a victim speaks to investigators and says he or she wants a criminal case to be pursued. Jordan said that approach is proper. "Launching this kind of investigation without input and cooperation from victims is looking at it from the wrong direction," she said. "You're risking re-traumatizing them again. It would be an even worse idea in cases like this, where detectives would know they'd have very serious legal issues to overcome. What would be the benefit?" "I don't think it's appropriate to conduct a criminal investigation of a reported sexual assault from 35 years ago without the survivor supporting the investigation," she added. "Law enforcement has learned a great deal over the years about the best practices for sexual assault investigations," said Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, who also serves as president of the nationwide Major Cities Chiefs Association. Approaching victims who have not stepped forward and have not indicated they want to speak with investigators, can be extremely jarring to them. "You just can't do that," Manger said. "It's morally wrong." His department has been asked repeatedly over the past week about why it hasn't launched an investigation. The agency earlier released a carefully worded answer, which was still in effect Thursday evening and speaks to a "victim-centered" approach: "At this time, the Montgomery County Police Department has not received a request by any alleged victim nor a victim's attorney to initiate a police report or a criminal investigation regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The department recognizes that victims of sexual assault may not want to involve law enforcement and/or initiate a criminal investigation, and we respect that position. The department, however, stands prepared to assist anyone who reports being the victim of a sexual assault." Jordan said she has heard from rape victim advocates in recent days asking about a possible criminal investigation. She shared an email she had written to them, which in part discussed the legal challenges. While attempted rape is a felony under current law, the email states, "this was not always the case. Prior to 1996, attempts were also misdemeanors and subject to a one-year statute of limitations. "Maryland laws on sex crimes have evolved significantly since the early 1980s," Jordan added in an interview. "In 1982, there was little awareness of the impact of sexual violence, assaults that did not involve vaginal intercourse were not even considered sex crimes, and many viewed sexual assaults by acquaintances as inconsequential. It's astounding that any woman ever reported rape." Scarborough Leader The Oak Hill Players are performing the musical 'Honk!', their first live performance since the COVID-19 pandemic. ASCs should anticipate growth in hospital-owned insurance plans and retail medicine, according to Regent Surgical Health CEO Chris Bishop. Mr. Bishop explained the trends in a recent post: 1. Hospitals as insurers. In the past five years, many major health systems have been investing in, creating and acquiring insurance plans, according to Mr. Bishop. He expects to see an increasing prevalence of health systems becoming payers. He has also seen health systems assuming shared risk with payers, with a focus on improving value. This trend will make it important for ASC leaders to understand payers, and particularly health system-owned ones. ASCs considering a hospital partner will need to consider how many lives the hospital's insurance plan covers and weigh potential conflicts. "In the past, we didn't factor that into our decision tree when we were selecting hospital partners to join us as partners in our centers," Mr. Bishop said. "Now you have to be thoughtful about which health system you ask to invest because while you may invite one health system that brings covered lives that you couldn't currently treat, you could stand to lose another contracted health system's covered lives." 2. Retail medicine. The transition toward health savings accounts and high-deductible plans drove patients to demand care in the most cost-effective setting. Moreover, employer-owned health plans at companies like Apple, Amazon and Walmart incentivize employees to seek surgical care in lower cost, higher quality settings. Providers must now view patients as "discerning consumers who will shop around," according to Mr. Bishop. "That was rare five years ago, but now that a patient could pay as much as $10,000 of their deductible, cost is a greater consideration. If a routine colonoscopy costs $3,000 at the hospital but just $1,000 at a surgery center, that's an easy choice," Mr. Bishop said. The following hospitals announced or completed plans in the last two weeks to expand, upgrade or renovate their facilities. 1. UPMC presents architects, plans for $2 billion, 3-hospital project Pittsburgh-based UPMC has selected architecture firms and revealed design plans for its $2 billion investment to build three digitally centered specialty hospitals. 2. OhioHealth to invest $275M in campus upgrades Columbus-based OhioHealth plans to invest up to $275 million to improve several of its facilities in the state. 3. Dignity Health to build 345-bed tower as part of campus makeover Los Angeles-based Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center plans to build a 345-bed patient tower as part of a $215 million campus upgrade. 4. Virginia Hospital Center's expansion hits snag The Arlington County Board voted unanimously to defer consideration of Arlington-based Virginia Hospital Center's proposed construction, which calls for a seven-story outpatient pavilion, six-story parking garage and new inpatient facilities. The new vote will take place in December 2018. 5. Intermountain launches 'transformation center' Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare opened a 12,000-square-foot "transformation center" on Intermountain Medical Center's campus in Murray, Utah. 6. Denver Health breaks ground on $157M one-stop shop outpatient center Denver Health began construction on its $157 million outpatient center, which will become a "one-stop shop" for patients. More hospitals are recognizing the benefits of tapping an on-site physician adviser to help improve revenue cycle processes in an increasingly challenging financial landscape. In 2006, about 10 to 20 percent of hospitals had an on-site physician adviser, according to Ralph Wuebker, MD, CMO of physician advisory services for Optum360. Today, he estimates about 70 to 80 percent of hospitals have an on-site physician adviser to help with medical necessity reviews, coding and length-of-stay goals. During a Sept. 21 session at Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference in Chicago, Dr. Wuebker shared three tips for maximizing the benefits of an on-site physician adviser. 1. Outline a physician adviser's top priorities. Most on-site physician advisers are hired and told, "Go out and do good," said Dr. Wuebker. However, hospitals need to define what "good" means. "If everything is a priority, nothing is," he said. "Pick two or three items you want the physician to focus on. If you don't give them guidance, it'll be a mess." 2. Think through who the adviser will report to. Hospitals often assume physician advisers should report to the hospital's CMO or case manager, but Dr. Wuebker said physicians should give this more thought. Who advisers report to will affect their mentality and what they focus on, he said. 3. Discuss the Two-Midnight Rule. As the Two-Midnight Rule can be interpreted many ways, Dr. Wuebker said it is important a hospital's compliance or clinical team sits down with their physician adviser to discuss the regulations and establish what protocols they need to ensure compliance. Many hospitals believe a length of stay of less than two midnights is the biggest audit risk, but the larger risk area is inpatient lengths of stay ranging from two to three days, according to Dr. Wuebker. "If you're striving for zero one-midnight inpatient cases, I think you're missing out on a lot of dollars," he said. More articles on finance: What Utah man's $80k out-of-state ER bill reveals about negotiating hospital charges Texas hospital secures $2.9M subsidy to stay afloat RCM tip of the day: Use propensity to pay analytics Here are six revenue cycle management tips from experts, published by Becker's Hospital Review after Sept. 7. 1. Lyman Sornberger, president and CEO of consulting firm Lyman Health Care Solutions, said there are various best practices hospitals can use to maximize insurance collections. He recommended that hospitals "capture insurance coverage at the benefit level" and "invest in pre-service validation with the patient and insurance for high-end service." 2. Jay Garmon, product manager of patient responsibility at Waystar, said hospitals should establish programs to help patients pay their medical expenses. He gave the example of consistently offering cost estimates to patients before procedures, so they can financially plan for their out-of-pocket costs and seek financial assistance if needed. 3. Jonathan Wiik, author of Healthcare Revolution: The Patient is the New Payer and principal for healthcare strategy at TransUnion Healthcare, said hospitals should use technology to evaluate propensity to pay. "The key is to use this solution as early as possible in the account lifecycle, preferably on day one, to collect more, earlier and for less. Providers can streamline their collections process by using [propensity to pay] analytics to accurately classify accounts into the optimal payment workflow based on the patient's unique financial situation," he told Becker's. 4. Paul Shorrosh, founder and CEO of AccuReg Software, said standardizing and automating front-end processes, such as registration, helps eliminate revenue cycle errors. "Front-end automation technology provides patient access teams with the ability to detect and resolve financial risks" and patients with information and a better experience, he told Becker's. "It simplifies and standardizes complex processes, reduces payment risks and reduces the high cost of time-consuming manual processes in both the front and back-end of the [revenue] cycle." 5. Paul Brient, CEO of PatientKeeper, said it's important that healthcare executives cultivate an atmosphere that fosters collaboration with physicians toward hospital goals. "If a physician sees a hospital giving them time back in their day by streamlining their workflow, that's a step in the right direction," Mr. Brient told Becker's. "If a physician feels they can practice medicine in the way they were trained, rather than conform to what the hospital EHR requires, that's another step in the right direction." 6. David Shelton, CEO of PatientMatters, said hospitals should consider a patient's traits when establishing a payment plan. Establishing payment plans that include current credit information, payment history for financial obligations, residual income and other unique patient statistics should all be considered in the billing process, he said. More articles on healthcare finance: NYC Health + Hospitals seeks $40.1M from UnitedHealthcare for alleged wrongful claim denials OSG Billing Services acquires 2 businesses HCA gifts $500K to American Red Cross for Hurricane Florence relief Cleveland Clinic would invest $250 million in Vero Beach, Fla.-based Indian River Medical Center over the next 10 years if it takes over the hospital, according to TCPalm. In addition to the investment, Cleveland Clinic agreed to assume $102 million in liabilities as part of its proposed takeover of the county-owned hospital. Cleveland Clinic also agreed not to sell the hospital for 10 years, to maintain key services and to retain all of the hospital's 1,700 employees, according to the report. The boards that oversee Indian River Medical Center are slated to vote on the deal Oct. 3. If approved, the transaction is expected to close in early 2019, and the hospital's name would be changed to Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, according to TCPalm. More articles on healthcare finance: Temple University Health System's finances improve as Epic install costs shrink CHS could face cash crunch after $262M settlement, Moody's warns BPCI Advanced launches Oct. 1: 7 things to know about the bundled payment model Cleveland Clinic is working with Oracle to implement a cloud-based healthcare software platform at its U.S. and London locations. The platform, which includes applications for enterprise resource planning and supply chain management, will allow Cleveland Clinic to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to help it optimize core business processes and reduce supply chain risk. Using the platform, Cleveland Clinic aims to cut costs by gaining greater financial forecasting accuracy, automated supply and demand planning and real-time insights. "Our work with Oracle's cloud technologies is a testament to our commitment to evolving our IT and finance platform, positioning us to support anticipated growth both domestically and internationally. Moving to the cloud will be critical in meeting these goals," said William Peacock III, Cleveland Clinic chief of operations. Cleveland Clinic expects to implement Oracle's platform at Cleveland Clinic London in 2019 and its domestic locations in 2020. More articles on healthcare finance: NYC Health + Hospitals seeks $40.1M from UnitedHealthcare for alleged wrongful claim denials OSG Billing Services acquires 2 businesses HCA gifts $500K to American Red Cross for Hurricane Florence relief The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review an appeals court ruling that HHS improperly altered its methods for calculating Medicare payments in 2012, according to a Law360 report. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case after HHS sought review of a July 2017 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The appeals court ruled that HHS must conduct notice-and-comment rulemaking before instructing Medicare administrative contractors on disproportionate share hospital payments, which reimburse hospitals for care delivered to indigent patients. Hospitals challenged the federal government's decision based on interpretation of a rule to include Part C enrollees with Part A enrollees when calculating DSH payments. They said the changes resulted in lower payments to hospitals and was done without notice-and-comment rulemaking. HHS called on the U.S. Supreme Court to take another look at the appeals court decision because the agency contends it "creates a circuit split by holding that notice-and-comment procedures apply to interpretive rules." More articles on healthcare finance: NYC Health + Hospitals seeks $40.1M from UnitedHealthcare for alleged wrongful claim denials OSG Billing Services acquires 2 businesses HCA gifts $500K to American Red Cross for Hurricane Florence relief The American Hospital Association and its affiliate, the Institute for Diversity and Health Equity, launched a program aimed at closing gaps in health equity, the organization said Sept. 26. "The 2018-19 program is a pilot to help us strengthen our understanding of how to build a meaningful national community of practice for healthcare organizations that supports the cultivation of strong, sustainable partnerships through local health equity interventions," Jay Bhatt, DO, AHA senior vice president and CMO, said in a prepared statement. The program, Hospital Community Cooperative, is supported by the Aetna Foundation. The program tasks 10 AHA hospital teams with addressing health equity and public health issues within their communities. The teams are composed of AHA members and the community. The yearlong program launched Sept. 26 and runs through next year. More articles on leadership: 4 ways leaders can resolve cross-departmental conflicts VA secretary denies 'inappropriate influence' at his agency UPMC CEO Jeffrey Romoff on what makes system unique Anthem will sell individual health plans in some Ohio counties after the health insurer exited several ACA exchanges last year, according to the Dayton Daily News. Anthem will sell health insurance policies in 25 Ohio counties, according to Ohio Department of Insurance filings. In a statement to the Dayton Daily News, Anthem said it "remains committed to making healthcare coverage more simple, affordable and accessible for all consumers and will continue to advocate for solutions that will stabilize the individual market." Anthem added it assesses the market each year and "participates where the company believes there is sufficient stability." Last year, several insurers ditched their ACA individual plan businesses, leaving 42 counties in Ohio with only one insurer to choose from. Next year, preliminary filings show 16 counties will have one insurer. More articles on payers: Aetna to sell Medicare Part D business to WellCare: 6 notes BCBS of Michigan to pay members up to $550 for healthcare shopping 18% of Americans OK with payers using their DNA to determine policies Hospitals are closely watching UnitedHealth Group's health services arm Optum as it steadily expands its physician workforce to shield itself from competitors and hospitals. Here are four recent updates concerning the company, reported by Becker's since July 30: 1. Optum, VC firms invest $33M in AI company IDx, a developer of artificial intelligence-based diagnostic tools, secured $33 million in its most recent financing round, led by venture capital firm 8VC with participation from Optum's venture arm Optum Ventures, venture capital firm Alpha Edison and Northridge, Calif.-based Heritage Provider Network. 2. Optum co-creator named COO of Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan venture The healthcare venture launched by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase picked a former Comcast and Optum executive to be its COO. The venture, led by CEO Atul Gawande, MD, selected Jack Stoddard to fill the position beginning Sept. 4. 3. Ohio Medicaid terminates contracts with Optum, CVS Caremark Ohio's Department of Medicaid immediately canceled the contracts it has with two pharmacy benefit managers CVS Caremark and Optum Rx over pricing practices that cost the state tens of millions of dollars. 4. Atlantic Health System partners with Optum's urgent care business on 11 centers Morristown, N.J.-based Atlantic Health System is partnering with Optum's MedExpress to coordinate care with 11 of the company's urgent care centers in northern New Jersey, the organizations said June 28. More articles on payers: Physicians say BCBS of Georgia has denied hundreds of patients' ER claims: 'This puts patients in a terrible position' UnitedHealth buys pharmacy company Genoa Healthcare for $2.5B Is Oregon's Medicaid reform plan working? 4 things to know Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia's discretionary emergency room policy is landing hundreds of patients with denied claims after the insurer decided their care could be performed outside the ER, according to physicians who testified during a Sept. 27 hearing. BCBS' policy, which was instituted about a year ago in an effort to curb unwarranted costs for individual policyholders, is being challenged in federal court, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Physicians said some of the claims denied included care for a woman with a history of lung blood clots who experienced calf pain and a shortness of breath a few weeks after undergoing surgery. Ultimately, physicians found she did not have a blood clot. In addition, a 59-year-old man who fell and had a large laceration in his scalp did not receive coverage for his visit. "This puts patients in a terrible position where they're asked to diagnose themselves before they go," said Frank McDonald, MD, the president of the Medical Association of Georgia. "Someone is going to make the wrong choice and someone is going to die." John Rogers, MD, the president-elect of the American College of Emergency Physicians, described the policy as "based on fear and intimidation and requiring patients to balance the risks to their health versus their financial health." In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Anthem said it decides which ER visits to cover based on the standard of what a prudent layperson would think is an emergency visit. Patients can appeal any denials, and there are several exceptions to the policy. "Anthem has made, and will continue to make, enhancements to ED Review to help consumers receive the right care at the right place and time," the insurer told the publication. More articles on payers: Is Oregon's Medicaid reform plan working? 4 things to know Anthem dips toes back in Ohio's ACA exchange after big exit Aetna to sell Medicare Part D business to WellCare: 6 notes In a deal valued at $2.5 billion, UnitedHealth Group purchased pharmacy company Genoa Healthcare from a private equity group, according to Bloomberg. The largest insurer in the U.S. reportedly outbid other companies interested in Genoa, including Walgreens Boots Alliance, which disclosed its interest in buying the pharmacy company in August. Genoa Healthcare, which has a team of more than 250 psychiatrists nurse practitioners, runs more than 425 pharmacies in behavioral health centers across 46 states. The pharmacy company will be integrated into UnitedHealth's pharmacy benefit group OptumRx to improve behavioral health for patients. UnitedHealth purchased Genoa from Advent International, which bought an 80 percent stake in the pharmacy company in 2015. More articles on payer issues: Anthem dips toes back in Ohio's ACA exchange after big exit Aetna to sell Medicare Part D business to WellCare: 6 notes BCBS of Michigan to pay members up to $550 for healthcare shopping A suspended nurse at Madison, Wis.-based UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital has been charged with 19 counts related to abuse in the neonatal intensive care unit, WMTV reports. Four things to know: 1. The nurse, 43-year-old Christopher Kaphaem, appeared in court Sept. 27. The 19 charges include two counts of child neglect, eight counts of intentional child abuse and nine counts of patient abuse causing great bodily harm to several infants born at Meriter from March 2017 to February 2018. The judge set a signature bond for Mr. Kaphaem of $500 per case and ordered that he have no contact with the victims, their families or Meriter hospital. 2. Ten infants suffered abuse, according to the criminal complaint. The babies had injuries including bruising, a broken arm, a skull fracture and permanent scarring from improperly inserted IVs. The first abuse case happened April 12, 2017, and the most recent abuse was identified Feb. 7. 3. The Wisconsin Board of Nursing issued an interim order to suspend the nurse's license March 19 until a final decision is issued by the board. UnityPoint Health-Meriter disabled the nurse's badge access and suspended him in February. 4. The nurse is not admitting any wrongdoing and agreed not to engage in professional nursing pending the investigation, according to the interim order issued March 19. The Special Registration for Telemedicine Clarification Act, which is included in Congress' opioid package, would allow physicians to remotely prescribe drugs used to treat opioid addiction, The Hill reports. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., said the move would make it easier to fight the epidemic. "This will give the opportunity for physicians, through telemedicine, to actually prescribe controlled substances such as what we use in medication-assisted treatment," he said at an event on telehealth hosted by The Hill. The legislation lifts the requirement that physicians must first establish an in-person relationship before using telemedicine to treat opioid addiction. By allowing physicians to offer MAT via telemedicine, patients in underserved or rural areas would have access to additional treatment options. However, Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., told The Hill that access to broadband must be expanded so that patients have strong enough internet connectivity for telemedicine. Broadband can be used in rural areas not only to promote "healthcare they need and deserve, but for economic development also," Ms. Matsui said. Mercy Health, a 23-hospital system based in Cincinnati, has launched a student loan repayment program to attract and retain nurses in hard-to-fill roles, according to WVXU. Due to tough competition for nurses and an increase in voluntary turnover, Mercy Health typically has between 1,500 and 2,000 openings for nursing positions. "We've seen voluntary turnover of almost 18 percent," Allan Calonge, Mercy Health's human resources vice president, told WVXU. "That's quite a bit higher than it has been historically." Officials hope the new student loan repayment program will help address the problem. Mercy will make monthly contributions toward outstanding student loan debt for nurses who qualify. The system will contribute up to $20,000 to each nurse's loans, according to WLWT. "Talented nurses are vital to ensuring the health and well-being of our patients," Mr. Calonge told WLWT. "Our new student loan repayment program is a win-win for us and our nurses." More articles on workforce: How Hurricane Irma forced Florida hospitals to beef up work policies 5 stories on healthcare organizations hiring Four spine surgeons share advice on avoiding missteps early on in one's career. Ask Spine Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to spine surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting spine care. We invite all spine surgeon and specialist responses. Next week's question: What advice do you have for spine surgeons who want to get involved in device/technique development? Please send responses to Anuja Vaidya at avaidya@beckershealthcare.com by Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 5 p.m. CST. Question: What are some of the common missteps spine surgeons make early in their career, and how can they be avoided? Rob D. Dickerman, DO, PhD. Director of Neurosurgery at Presbyterian Hospital of Plano (Texas) and Director of Spine Surgery at Medical Center Frisco (Texas): Use experienced attorneys for medical contracts before signing and committing to any program, company or affiliation. Tripe check references on third-party entities that are in place to help your practice, like billing and coding practices. Utilize experts in their respected fields to allow you to be a physician only. I also highly recommend using financial advisers early on in your career to help manage medical school debt and to protect your practice. Brian R. Gantwerker, MD. Founder of the Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: Common errors I have seen can be broken down into three categories: assumptions, expectations and resistance. Assumptions are [having] thoughts [that by] showing up to a practice, you will automatically have patients and work. The unfortunate thing about employed positions is it misleads the new surgeon that work will be a turn-key situation. It is a unicorn and does not exist. Expectations are notions about your current and future situation that are simply not true. One cannot expect everyone will welcome you, that all your cases will go brilliantly and that your colleagues will accept you. Let go of that thought early because it is awfully close to dangerous hubris. Resistance is refusing to accept that change will come. This can be true for both early and mid-career surgeons. We must be ready to accept change not just in practice, but also to consider new technologies. Sometimes this technology can be things like stand-alone interbody fusion devices, interlaminar stabilization devices or spinal cord stimulation. Richard Kube, MD. Founder and CEO of Prairie Spine & Pain Institute (Peoria, Ill.): I have often heard the statistic that 50 percent of spine surgeons change jobs in their first two years out of training. I am one of those doctors myself. I do not believe that there is enough time spent truly examining a prospective employment relationship. It is serious, much like a marriage. There is often an assumption that there will be change within a group, or that there will be compromise with new ideas being brought forward. While this can happen to some degree, always remember that the tail cannot wag the dog. You cannot expect to change a culture, or at least realize you will likely grow frustrated prior to making a significant change occur, if at all. If there are significant differences in ideology, move on to the next opportunity. There are a lot of jobs out there. Find one that suits your goals, intentions and desires as related to patient care, work ethic, business ethic, etcetera. Ask critical questions. You need to know who these people are. Time up front will save even greater time and money on the back end. Payam Farjoodi, MD. Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at Spine Health Center at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center (Fountain Valley, Calif.): I think the best advice I received is always believe the patient. When they have a complaint, no matter how strange it seems, make sure you do a thorough workup and evaluation. Do not discount what the patient is telling you, even if there are confounding factors. At the 2018 North American Spine Society Annual Meeting, Jeffrey C. Wang, MD, was named president of the organization for 20182019. Dr. Wang is the co-director of the USC Spine Center at Keck Medicine of USC and a professor of orthopaedic surgery and neurosurgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC in Los Angeles. Here are Dr. Wang's thoughts on the evolution of the spine field and where NASS is headed. Question: What is your vision for NASS in 2019? What initiatives will you focus on and what should members expect? Dr. Jeffrey C. Wang: I have two major goals: one is to re-invent the annual meeting, and the other is to impact the direction of NASS over the next year. The meeting is currently an event with education, research and awards, but I think people in the spine realm, whether you are a surgeon or non-surgeon, make it a focal point of their year. It's a networking event, a place to meet with friends, fellows and colleagues. It is also a business meeting between surgeons and device companies. It's a great meeting, but I'd like to see the educational aspect of it improved. NASS is a multidisciplinary organization, and although the annual meeting is a great gathering point, some members would like to see more defined surgical content while others would like more nonsurgical content. NASS has always been multidisciplinary and in trying to appease everyone by mixing the content, it hasn't quite met the needs of either group. Q: What changes are you planning for the 2019 meeting in Chicago? JW: I have huge changes planned for the meeting next year. We are going to have the most cutting-edge topics, complex and contemporary surgical novel technologies, difficult patient scenarios and hands-on surgical technique courses, making the surgical educational content unparalleled. I have commitments from leading spine surgeons nationally and internationally to help make the meeting more contemporary. If you are a surgeon, which comprises the majority of our membership, then I think you will find the meeting is impacted for the better. It has grown and evolved, and it will be the best surgical meeting in the world. But we aren't ignoring the nonoperative physicians and specialists. I have two surgeons who are program chairs and three program chairs who are nonoperative. There is going to be content at the meeting for everyone. I think by actively providing specific content and not forcing a mix of operative and nonoperative content, we will meet the needs of all our membership. It won't be completely divided though there will still be opportunities to mix content when appropriate. Q: What types of educational opportunities are you expanding? JW: We are going to have more hands-on cadaver courses and workshops that will allow people to learn the latest techniques. We are going to have didactic sessions on complex surgical techniques that will help make surgeons better. We will broadcast large surgeries on the cadaver in live sessions. It's not just isolated to the cadaver lab or lecture hall. You can use the cadaver-based lectures to supplement the workshops. There will be other things we can do for hands-on workshops as well for nonoperative physicians. Q: Where do you see NASS growing under your leadership? JW: I want to see the international activities of NASS grow. There is a large percentage of new membership growing internationally. If we are going to meet the needs of those members, we have to consider their unique situations. We are doing around 10 to 12 educational events in the U.S. each year but are doing more than 70 internationally. International is a huge part of our educational mission. In the U.S., we take for granted that there are board certifications and standardized educations for surgeons and interventionalists. A lot of countries around the world are looking to NASS for setting guidelines for treatment and evidence on new technology. Many of those other countries are also looking for us to distinguish their specialists. We aren't a certifying body, but we can grant distinctions like we do in the U.S. if they go through educational events. Domestically, I want to continue to be an advocate for all spine providers. We have to have a voice for spine practitioners and collaborate with all societies to drive initiatives in the appropriate way, so patients will get the appropriate care. We also need to educate members on what NASS does and the opportunities to become more involved in the organization. Q: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for spine surgeons to grow their practice in the coming years? How does that differ between surgeons who are just starting their careers versus those who are nearing retirement? JW: The most significant advances in spine medicine, whether operative or nonoperative, are going to be collaborations with societies and industry in the appropriate manner. We have gone through an evolution on our point of collaboration with industry, but we know collaboration can lead to innovation, as long as it's done appropriately. We also can't forget about young surgeons. Those of us who have been in spine for years can look back on it from experience, but it's important for young surgeons to understand what appropriate relationships are and cultivate them to become the next leaders. It's important to understand how to disclose those relationships and be transparent, and that there isn't a stigma attached to it. A lot of physicians don't want to deal with disclosures, but there won't be innovation in technology without input from clinicians. Engineers don't know how an implant goes into the patient or how surgeons need to modify it for use. The practitioner can give insight on their experiences and work with companies to develop future technology. We also need to make sure future leaders know the landscape of business and politics, as well as how to lead people. We need to do a better job of that in the future. We have leadership development sessions to give surgeons the tools they need to lead a team. We have to identify and cultivate our young surgeons and include them in the leadership of our organization. An award winning Co Down cheese-maker has invested 30,000 to open a shop in Belfast City Centre. Mike Thomson, who runs Mike's Fancy Cheese in Newtownards, has secured a unit on Little Donegall Street, near the old Belfast Telegraph building, which will become his company's first cheese outlet in the city. The shop is due to open at the end of October and will employ two staff members, bringing the total number of employees at the firm to five. Mr Thomson is responsible for the creation of Northern Ireland's first raw milk cheese. The unpasteurised 'Young Buck' blue cheese is sold in fromageries throughout Europe, including Berlin, Paris, Lyon and Lille. The company was set up in 2013 after Mr Thomson raised 80,000 from crowd funding to get the business up and running. He said the idea to make cheese came to him during his time working at a local cafe in Belfast. "I used to work in Arcadia, a deli on the Lisburn Road, and people kept coming in and asking for local cheese and we would offer them choices from the Republic or from England." Mr Thomson studied at the School of Artisan Food in Nottinghamshire for a year to learn the crucial skills required to produce something worthy of the best cheese boards. "I thought there was a real gap in the market, so I'd go to England, learn how to make cheese and then go back to Northern Ireland. So I decided to enrol in the School of Artisan Food in England and then spent time working in delis over there, learning the trade," he said. The stock at Mike's Fancy Cheese shop will vary. "We only make one kind of cheese, the Young Buck, which will be sold from the shop along with cheeses shipped in from the Republic and from England. "Our focus is on Irish raw milk cheese but we also travel to different fairs around the country and bring cheese back with us, which will be sold in the new shop. "It is a very low-key and casual operation." Although Mr Thomson said it will be a small operation, the shop will also house a sourdough bread concession and the public will be able to enjoy cheese boards on site. "It won't be a deli as such, but is a space where we will sell cheese and hope that people will meet each other whilst they are waiting in line and get talking. "There will be a guy selling sourdough bread as a sort of concession and there will be a few tables and chairs about for people, but we won't be serving hot food, it will be cheese boards and cold meat platters, that kind of thing." The opening of the shop will come around the same time as the firm's fifth birthday. "We have been going for five years in November and we are happy to be opening the shop in Belfast, to sell more cheese locally." A senior economist at Ulster University has claimed Brexit is not the biggest problem facing the local economy. Speaking at an event in Londonderry yesterday organised by the Irish League of Credit Unions, Esmond Birnie said Northern Ireland's economy was slowing down well before the EU referendum in June 2016. He said: "In fact, for at least a century the NI (sic) economy including here in the north west has had a fundamental competitiveness weakness, so Brexit is not our biggest problem." However, the economist accepted that many uncertainties still surrounded the UK's withdrawal from the EU next March. "Challenges lie ahead but critically important is how businesses and policy makers choose to respond to those challenges," he said. "If they respond appropriately post-Brexit, Northern Ireland in, say, 2030 could even be better off than it would otherwise have been." However, he said the reverse could also be true. Dr Birnie said we have lagged far behind the Republic and the rest of the UK in terms of economic growth, something he claimed was driven by "a deeply rooted competitiveness problem". Recalling the significant cluster of world exporting businesses in the north west, he said: "They went and were never entirely replaced. "So the Northern Ireland economy and by implication society, face big structural difficulties which long pre-date the June 2016 Brexit vote. "Even if one accepts the UK Treasury's long run economic analysis - that the cost of Brexit will leave NI's GDP about 8-10% below what it would otherwise have been in about 2030, the implications of the competitiveness shortfall dwarfs that. "For example, in 2016 in each hour worked the average worker in France, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden produced about one-half to two-thirds more than his/her counterpart in NI. "That is, this really big loss of output and far exceeds any (negative) Brexit impact." He claimed that Brexit could result in economic inactivity being reduced, if the outside pool of labour is reduced. Dr Birnie added that moving away from a system of farm subsidies could actually be an advantage. He suggested that the push to do things differently could benefit the region in the long run. "There could be a trade off between what is good for us in the short term and what would be advantageous in the longer term," he claimed. Jobs in Northern Ireland increased by almost 17,000 in September 2017 compared to the previous year, a new study has revealed. The total number of employee jobs was 756,365 in September 2017, representing an increase of 16,750 from September 2016, according to the latest Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES). The 2.3% increase in jobs was driven mainly by growth in the service industry, which was responsible for 11,477 jobs - 69% of the increase. The data also shows that jobs have increased in the other three of four headline industries here. The largest proportional growth was experienced in the construction industry with a 4.7% increase corresponding to 1,557 jobs. Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs increased by 2,928 and the 'other' industry, which includes agriculture, forestry and fishing; mining and quarrying; electricity, gas, Stem and air conditioning supply; and water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities, also saw an increase of 789 jobs over the year. The proportion of jobs in each of the four industries has remained relatively unchanged from 2016. In addition to this, the survey of 30,000 businesses estimated the number of public and private sector jobs at 202,227 and 554,138, respectively. Employee jobs in the public sector increased for the first time since 2013, by 1.3%. The Business Register and Employment Survey indicated that the growth was due to a rise of 2,909 female part-time jobs. However, female full-time jobs dropped by 889 over the same period. All district council areas saw a rise in employee jobs except for Antrim and Newtownabbey, where a decrease of 0.7% was observed over the year. Belfast saw the largest increase in the number of employee jobs of all council areas, growing by 5,631 jobs. In contrast, Fermanagh and Omagh saw the largest proportional increase at 2,106 jobs. Despite these changes within council areas the proportion of employee jobs across the 11 district council areas remains relatively unchanged between 2016 and 2017. Belfast has the highest proportion of employee jobs at 224,149, followed by Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon area with 76,247 jobs. Ards and North Down council area has the lowest number of employee jobs (39,306), and Causeway Coast & Glens has the second lowest number, with 41,797. The Department for the Economy said: "It should be noted that district council area (DCA) changes in employee jobs over the year can be affected by the relocation of jobs within Northern Ireland. "In some DCAs this can have a significant impact." Newry software giant First Derivatives has said it plans to create another 1,000 new jobs in the next three years Newry software giant First Derivatives has said it plans to create another 1,000 new jobs in the next three years. The major expansion to the company's 2,400 workforce was announced by chief executive Brian Conlon during a keynote speech at yesterday's inaugural Innovation Nation event in Newry. First Derivatives produces software used in the financial service sector, but has expanded its reach into a variety of sectors including regulatory technology, retail, pharma and the space industry. Speaking after the event, Donal Keane who is senior vice president of vendor services at the firm, said the announcement reflects the rapid expansion of the company, with annual growth averaging 31% over the past three years. He said First Derivatives had already recruited 200 people over the summer period. Head-quartered in Newry, the company has offices in Belfast, Dublin, London and New York. The software firm is currently bursting at the seams with staff in Newry, with a new modern building set to be opened in the city centre next week. Mr Keane said the 1,000 jobs would be created all across First Derivatives' global operation, but that most would be on the island of Ireland. "In terms of the skill-sets we're looking for, it includes the typical STEM graduates, but we're also looking at marketing graduates, those with legal backgrounds and accountancy. It's a very wide spectrum of skills we're looking for. "All of those recruits will be coming to Newry during the training period for between three months and a year," he said. "These new jobs are for graduate, experienced and senior level. Our graduate level is typically in the low to mid 20,000 and that rises based on experience. "We have a strong pipeline of work, so this is really based on the confidence we have in our business as we move forward in the next three years. "The numbers are reflective of what we have been doing. "We have just taken in 200 graduates over the last four months. "This is in line with our business expansion over the past few years." Last year First Derivatives moved into the Weaving Works on Belfast's Ormeau Avenue, an office capable of housing 320 people. A new office in Newry's Market Square is now next on the agenda, with the finishing touches being placed on it this week. Mr Keane said: "It's something we're proud of. We're going to bring a lot of life back to the centre of Newry. There's over 200 seats in that facility, so we will be moving some of our new graduates and hires into that building." A man due to give evidence to the Contaminated Blood Inquiry said he left "traumatised" after being told some crucial medical records have been destroyed A man due to give evidence to the Contaminated Blood Inquiry said he left "traumatised" after being told some crucial medical records have been destroyed. Nigel Hamilton and his twin brother Simon (58) both suffer from haemophilia and contracted Hepatitis C after receiving infected blood transfusions. Mr Hamilton was infected when he was 14, after an eye operation, but wasn't informed he had Hepatitis until he was in his 30s. Ahead of giving evidence at the inquiry in London he asked the Belfast Health Trust for his records. But he received a letter to say his childhood records had been destroyed. "It made me feel very angry and traumatised," he said. "As a witness, it's very important that I'm able to give corroborative, historical evidence." He said the documents were the most important of all as they cover the specific period during which he was infected. "They told me they cannot find on the file anything regarding my childhood," he said. "I know I was contaminated when I was 14. A consultant showed me the records in the late 1990s when I was around 36 and confirmed it happened during my eye operation. "She could even tell me the batch number I was infected with. I felt they were rather flippant with me at the time and wouldn't say why they waited so long to tell me." The Belfast Health Trust said yesterday: "We apologise for any distress this has caused Mr Hamilton. "We understand that there was some confusion about what records were available and we are currently compiling records for him." It added: "A member of Belfast Trust staff has spoken to Mr Hamilton to apologise for the confusion and will contact him directly to provide him with his record." Mr Hamilton responded: "I told them I didn't want an apology, just my records and to make sure a letter like this didn't go out to anyone else. "What if it had been someone who had requested the medical records of their deceased? How would that impact them? "I want to know why my childhood records were destroyed as well, it's extremely distressing." Over 2,400 people died after receiving contaminated transfusions in the 1970s and 1980s that were infected with Hepatitis C and HIV. Along with hundreds of other victims around the UK still suffering from ill health, the brothers are intending to submit evidence to the London inquiry. Mr Hamilton was diagnosed with cancer in December but is now recovering well after a liver transplant in February. His twin Simon is chair of Haemophilia NI and contracted Hepatitis C from a transfusion he received after a car accident. Although he recovered from this, he lives with liver cirrhosis and must be tested every six months in case he develops cancer. MLA Jim Wells said DUP councillors were right not to support "militant" LGBT campaigners in a bid to light Ards town hall in the colours of Pride. He was speaking after a DUP councillor defied his party in voting in favour of a motion to light up Ards Town Hall in the colours of Pride. A DUP amendment to the motion removed reference to the LGBT community and instead making it a general equality motion. MLA Jim Wells had the party whip withdrawn after questioning the DUP leadership and does not speak on behalf of the party. Expressing his sadness at the change to the motion, DUP councillor Tom Smith said it was a "missed opportunity" to reach out to the LGBT community. Read More Mr Wells said Councillor Smith should be referred to the party's disciplinary processes for not following the party line. He said the councillors were right to act in opposing the original Alliance motion. He told the BBC Nolan show: "The party has been consistent, we do not support the illuminating of our buildings in support of militant campaigning groups... very extreme groups... groups that don't even represent the majority of the LGBT community. "They are campaigning for fundamental changes to the way that we in Northern Ireland live in our legislation. "It's a very clear political campaign that North Down and Ards council was asked to support. It was nothing to do with the rights of LGBT people generally. "They have no right to impose their views on the majority of the people in Northern Ireland." Just because Jim Wells doesn't agree with their position does not mean they are militant. However, John O'Doherty director of the Rainbow Project cautioned about the language used around the debate. He said he believed Tom Smith's actions and his powerful speech in the council chamber in favour of the town hall being illuminated in the Pride colours were in line with Arlene Foster comments at Pink New events. "Which you would assume would be the most up to date position for the DUP in relation to these matters," he said. "We have heard little from DUP members on their position on LGBT support. We have heard of their opposition to same-sex marriage which is a valid political position to take. "I think there will be more like Tom Smith come out and show their support for the LGBT community and that they are an equal part of our community." He added: "Homophobia is a reality in our society. And it is incumbent for our elected representatives to send a message to end this scourge and show LGBT people they are celebrated and part of our community. [Lighting up a building] would not have been a huge step but it was move forward. "We have to reflect on the realities for LGBT people. Thirty years ago it was illegal to be gay in Northern Ireland. So LGBT people are facing a very different reality to heterosexual people. "Just because Jim Wells doesn't agree with their position does not mean they are militant." The DUP did not respond to a request for comment. The DUP and Sinn Fein have clashed over warnings that a no-deal Brexit could lead to electricity blackouts in Northern Ireland. A single electricity market operates across Northern Ireland and the Republic. Government officials have warned of risks of price increases and supply shortages, the BBC reported. Technical papers being drawn up by the UK include worst-case scenarios in the case of a no-deal Brexit next March. They do not necessarily represent the likely outcome. Sinn Fein MLA Mairtin O Muilleoir said: "This is just the latest example of the catastrophic impact which the Brexit agenda risks imposing on the entire island of Ireland." Mr O Muilleoir said costs could rise by as much as 34%. "That is the kind of collateral damage that the Brexiteers in the Tory Party, aided and abetted by the DUP, are prepared to force upon the people of the North. "It again reinforces the absolute necessity of ensuring the referendum vote in the North is respected by securing special status for us to remain." The DUP North Antrim MP Ian Paisley dismissed the warning. He tweeted: "Fake news. Don't forget planes falling out of the sky, food shortage, mass unemployment and pestilence." An all-island Single Electricity Market operates across Northern Ireland and the Republic and is designed to help keep down costs for consumers. While it is part of a UK-Ireland arrangement formed in 2007 it is underpinned by both countries having ties to the European Union's Internal Energy Market (IEM). Officials, it has been reported, believe the best way to maintain a constant supply is for the UK to remain part of the IEM. However, they believe a no-deal Brexit would be a risk to electricity supply leaving Northern Ireland "insecure and isolated". In a worst case scenario, bills could soar by 34%, there would be multiple blackouts and government would be forced to intervene, the BBC reported. Reoffending rates in Northern Ireland rose to their highest level in six years in 2015/16 - with nearly a fifth of criminals committing further offences within one year Reoffending rates in Northern Ireland rose to their highest level in six years in 2015/16 - with nearly a fifth of criminals committing further offences within one year. Figures released by the Department of Justice also show that nearly two-thirds of offenders had previous convictions, ranging between one and as many as 583. The annual bulletin released by the DoJ provides information on the one-year reoffending rate for offenders who received a non-custodial sentence at court (such as a fine or community service); a diversionary sentence (such as an informed warning or caution), or who were released from custody in 2015/16. New figures also reveal that the proportion of young reoffenders rose from 20% at the age of 10 to over 30% for 16-year-olds. Youth reoffending has remained at a consistent level since 2011, with the rate of adults reoffending only fluctuating slightly from the same year. Ulster Unionist justice spokesman Doug Beattie MLA described the figures as "deeply concerning". "There's been an awful lot of time, effort, money and strategies put into cutting reoffending," he said. "I think the Probation Board punches well above its weight in trying to help with it, but if we're still failing there is something seriously wrong. "We need to address it as a matter of urgency. "Prison sentences are there to help and for people to be rehabilitated. If people are leaving prison and reoffending then that's an issue." At 40.8%, those with a custodial sentence have the highest reoffending rate, followed by non-custodial sentence with community supervision (34.7%), non-custodial sentence without supervision (18.1%) and, finally, diversionary sentences (16.4%). "If people who received non-custodial sentences are reoffending, then that's clearly an issue as well," Mr Beattie added. "We've long said as a party of law and order that a custodial sentence should be something that although is a last course of action that when it's called upon, should be something that someone should not want to repeat. "That doesn't mean punishment in prison, because the custodial sentence is the punishment, but the reality is that people need to understand that prison is something that isn't nice and that they don't want." The PSNI said: "It can take time to break a cycle of reoffending in what can be very chaotic lifestyles of offenders, with issues such as addictions, mental health and other contributing factors. "This requires collaborative working across a range of sectors and departments including health, education and the Community Voluntary Sector. "Through our Reducing Offending Units the PSNI proactively focuses on offenders at greatest risk of reoffending, challenging their offending whilst developing strategies to break the cycle of their behaviour. "Reducing Offending in Partnership is a Northern Ireland-wide approach to managing priority or prolific offenders, those who can have the greatest negative impact on the safety of communities." A DUP councillor who backed a proposal to light up Ards town hall in rainbow colours to mark Pride has expressed his sadness after it was shot down by his party. Tom Smith said it was a "missed opportunity" to reach out to the LGBT community. The Donaghadee and Bangor East councillor had already defied his DUP colleagues when the plan was raised in committee, and was prepared to do so again when the matter came before a full meeting of Ards and North Down Borough Council on Wednesday night. But the plan fell apart when the DUP proposed an amendment that removed plans for the lighting up of the town hall and any individual reference to the LGBT community, instead making it a general equality motion. That amendment was carried, with 20 members voting for it and 16 against. Mr Smith opposed his own party's amendment. Only 18 of the 40 councillors are DUP, but the support of one UUP, one TUV and an independent member meant the amendment passed. Afterwards, Mr Smith said the proposal was about "reaching out" to other sections of the community. "I believe that this was a missed opportunity to reach out to another section of people in our borough - a group of people, many of whom have been marginalised, threatened, abused and discriminated against," he stated. "While lighting up a building would have been a small step, it would have been a symbolic one - one that I hope would have sent a positive message of support out across our borough." Expand Expand Previous Next Close DUP councillor Tom Smith Party leader Arlene Foster PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp DUP councillor Tom Smith Mr Smith spoke passionately about the issue at Wednesday night's council meeting, saying it wasn't political but about "doing what is right, about showing compassion and kindness to other human beings". "It's about treating other people the same way we would like to be treated; with respect, with dignity and with acceptance," he said. "I think it's worth remembering that just over 30 years ago it was basically illegal to be gay in this country. "Of course society has moved on, but still, for many LGBT people, intolerance and bigotry are a day to day reality. That is something we must all continue to confront and condemn. "Tonight is part of the challenge to do just that. "It's about shaping a society where everyone feels accepted, it's about building a borough where everyone believes they are valued and it's about creating a community that everyone, including our LGBT friends, can call home." It's not known if Mr Smith will face any disciplinary action. The DUP has declined to comment on the matter. The stance taken by Ards and North Down members comes three months after party leader Arlene Foster made headlines by attending a PinkNews event at Stormont. She told the LGBT community that she looked on them "as my neighbours or my fellow citizens" and didn't "define anyone on the basis of their religion, race or sexuality". Last month, there was controversy when DUP members of Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council used a procedural mechanism known as a call-in to stop the Pride flag being flown on council premises. However, the DUP panel on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council in Mrs Foster's own constituency didn't object to lighting up Enniskillen Castle pink last month. The Sinn Fein motion on behalf of the Rainbow Project was organised to "demonstrate inclusivity, acceptance and welcoming to the local LGBT community". Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Trump Eyeing Coup In Venezuela? LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 443824 09-28-2018 03:32 PM Post: #1 Trump Eyeing Coup In Venezuela? Advertisement he Trump administration and some others in the U.S. government have sent some not-so-subtle hints lately that they are open to a military invasion of Venezuela to oust President Nicolas Maduro. Its a regime that frankly could be toppled very quickly by the military, if the military decides to do that, President Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. The words seem to offer some encouragement for a coup, which may not come as a surprise because the New York Times published an investigation in early September that found that the Trump administration met secretly with Venezuelan military officers over the last year to discuss an overthrow of Maduro. Venezuela is in tatters and there have been previous signs that Maduros grip is tenuous, including the renegade helicopter pilot earlier this year and the bizarre scene in which drones exploded during a military parade in August near Maduro. In other words, the threat of a coup has been rising for some time. https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/South-A...zuela.html Make Venezuela great again.he Trump administration and some others in the U.S. government have sent some not-so-subtle hints lately that they are open to a military invasion of Venezuela to oust President Nicolas Maduro.Its a regime that frankly could be toppled very quickly by the military, if the military decides to do that, President Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.The words seem to offer some encouragement for a coup, which may not come as a surprise because the New York Times published an investigation in early September that found that the Trump administration met secretly with Venezuelan military officers over the last year to discuss an overthrow of Maduro.Venezuela is in tatters and there have been previous signs that Maduros grip is tenuous, including the renegade helicopter pilot earlier this year and the bizarre scene in which drones exploded during a military parade in August near Maduro.In other words, the threat of a coup has been rising for some time. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 443824 09-28-2018 03:34 PM Post: #2 RE: Trump Eyeing Coup In Venezuela? US ambassador calls for Maduro ouster with megaphone diplomacy. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, on Thursday joined Venezuelan protesters outside the world body headquarters and called for the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro. Haley's embrace of demonstrators was highly unusual for a diplomat from a major power at the staid United Nations and came a day after President Donald Trump hinted at military options against Maduro's leftist government. "We are going to fight for Venezuela and we are going to continue doing it until Maduro is gone!" Haley shouted from a megaphone. "We need your voices to be loud and I will tell you, the US voice is going to be loud," she said. https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-ambassador...58053.html Anybody else thinks she is a hottie?US ambassador calls for Maduro ouster with megaphone diplomacy.United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, on Thursday joined Venezuelan protesters outside the world body headquarters and called for the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro.Haley's embrace of demonstrators was highly unusual for a diplomat from a major power at the staid United Nations and came a day after President Donald Trump hinted at military options against Maduro's leftist government."We are going to fight for Venezuela and we are going to continue doing it until Maduro is gone!" Haley shouted from a megaphone."We need your voices to be loud and I will tell you, the US voice is going to be loud," she said. The mark left on her neck from the bite Lexi McMullan (7) who was bitten by a large spider in her home A Co Antrim mother has spoken of her shock after her young daughter was bitten by a large spider. Emma McMullan from Newtownabbey was stunned to find the creature on her daughter's neck just before she headed off for school on Wednesday morning. The bite left a large red mark on young Lexi's neck but luckily the seven-year-old didn't require hospital treatment. "Her wee brother asked me if there was a spider on Lexi's neck and when I looked around I saw it crawling on her. It ran all over her face and down her neck," Emma explained. "At this stage Lexi started to panic and the spider ran down her back and fell on the floor. Her neck was all itchy, sore and swollen and I put some cream on it. I have drawn a circle around the mark in case it gets bigger and she needs to see the GP," Emma added. While shaken, Lexi was still able to go to school although Emma said the ordeal has left her daughter terrified. "She was up until 4.30 this morning, petrified and freaking out about spiders in her bedroom," she said. "She kept screaming and thinking that they were crawling all over her and was checking around the room with a torch. "I felt so sorry for her because she even had blankets and towels covering her bedroom door to keep any out." Emma says the spider is still under a glass in the living room because nobody wants to touch it. "We're scared of it escaping again. I have been going around the house with lemon spray because apparently that keeps them out," she added. At the weekend, broadcaster Stephen Nolan suffered a similar fate when he came face to face with another creepy-crawly. The BBC NI presenter took to Twitter to ask fans for advice after he was bitten and broke out in red itchy spots. He posted a photo of the bite to his 211,000 followers on Sunday and was advised to have the bite examined by a medical professional. However, insect expert Dr Archie Murchie from the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast says the chances of being bitten by a spider are small. "You do get bites from domestic spiders but you would have to be incredibly unlucky," he said. "In general they shouldn't cause any damage and are quite hard-pushed to pierce the skin. "Anyone who does suffer a bite should make sure the area is well washed and put some antiseptic cream on the affected area." Dr Murchie explained that house spider numbers have been on the rise over recent weeks as it is peak mating season for the eight-legged creatures. While female spiders tend to spin their webs on door and window frames, Dr Murchie said it's the males who come inside our homes to track down a prospective partner. "Going into autumn is when the males tend to move around quite noticeably, having been living under the skirting boards and units for the rest of the year." Dr Murchie said spiders are incredibly important natural pest controllers and should not be killed. "Spiders are actively providing a service in your house by feeding on other small insects that may otherwise end up in your cupboards," he explained. "We are always keen that people aren't scared of spiders and would encourage them to look after these creatures. "If people don't like them, instead of killing them they should place a glass jar on top of them and a card underneath before placing them back outside." Andrea Leadsom MP (centre) with, from left, John Mulgrew, Editor, Ulster Business; Sarah Little, Independent News & Media, and Michael Neill and Julian Yarr of A&L Goodbody Belfast, event hosts It is time for the EU to "come to the table and start taking our Chequers proposals very seriously" the Leader of the House of Commons told Northern Ireland business chiefs last night. Andrea Leadsom was in Belfast where she gave a bullish speech at the Ulster Business Top 100 dinner, to promote the Prime Minister's Brexit plan. Mrs Leadsom restated the Government's commitment to no hardening of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and its determination to not have any customs border between NI and the rest of the UK. "I am fully aware of your concerns as business leaders in relation to Brexit, particularly in relation to the border," she told her audience at the Ulster Museum. "I know the success of many of your businesses, and your day-to-day lives, relies on frictionless trade and travel across the border. Let me assure you that we don't want this arrangement to change when we leave the EU. "As the Prime Minister made clear on Friday, we will do everything in our power to avoid a hard border - in a deal or no-deal scenario - and we won't accept any form of customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK "A customs border would mean Northern Ireland would effectively remain in the Customs Union and parts of the Single Market, permanently separated economically from the rest of the UK by a border down the Irish Sea. "The Prime Minister and Parliament have unanimously rejected this." Mrs Leadsom's visit came as leaked Government papers suggested that Northern Ireland risks electricity blackouts and huge energy price rises if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. Asked how firms could be reassured that those risks were being effectively managed, Mrs Leadsom told the Belfast Telegraph: "The Government is fully committed to getting a Brexit that enables businesses to carry on trading with each other, citizens to have certainty, protects Northern Ireland from a hard border, and that works for all of the people of the United Kingdom - but also for our friends and neighbours in the EU. "That is the Government's focus, and the Chequers proposal I do believe will enable us to deliver on both the promises following he referendum - and also all of the EU's red lines. "It's for the EU now to really come to the table and start taking our proposals very seriously." Introducing Mrs Leadsom, Michael Neill, of event sponsors A&L Goodbody, said the business community needed greater clarity on Brexit and on political issues - notably the 'Irish backstop', the absence of Stormont, the need for effective administration in the Executive's absence; and on billions in investment which he said was "stuck in the system" as a consequence. Earlier in the day, Mrs Leadsom visited the border, and toured MJM Marine in Newry. She described the cruise ship outfitters as "a fantastic, globally successful business". "MJM, as a big exporter around the world, are concerned about tariffs, no tariff barriers, access to global talent - all of which are very much on the Government's radar. We are fully committed to getting a good deal as we leave the EU," she said. She also called on NI's political leaders to restore devolution. "Our priority continues to be a fully functioning and inclusive devolved government back up and running as soon as possible. "But it's also right that in this interim period the UK Government helps to ensure good governance so that public services continue to be delivered and the interests of Northern Ireland can be protected." The taxpayer subsidised the cost of legal firearms licensing in Northern Ireland by more than 250,000 last year, a watchdog has said. The bill was close to 1m over the last three years but there was no clear plan to achieve full cost recovery from applicants in the foreseeable future, comptroller and auditor general Kieran Donnelly added. The PSNI is responsible for managing the firearms licensing regime in Northern Ireland, with day-to-day decisions administered by Chief Constable George Hamilton through the force's Firearms and Explosives Branch (FEB). Mr Donnelly said: "The introduction of online applications for firearms licences has lessons for all public bodies as they seek innovation in how they deliver services. "It is not enough to innovate: they must be able to demonstrate improved service delivery to stakeholders and citizens." The Audit Office said full cost recovery should be achieved for the service provided. It costs 1.6m annually yet recovers only 1.3m in fees from applicants. The Audit Office said: "In effect, there is a public subsidy for firearms licensing (267,000 in 2017-18). There is no clear plan to achieve full cost recovery in the foreseeable future." Stormont Assembly Member John Dallat said in the last three years the public purse has subsidised the FEB of the PSNI by 880,000. He said this is money that would be better channelled into services like health and education. The SDLP MLA added: "With over 57,000 firearm holders, as well as a number of dealers, target clubs and clay clubs, it seems reasonable that a full recovery of costs is not unreasonable and should be achieved as quickly as possible. "In other words, gun licensing should be self-financing." Mr Donnelly said there had been significant backlogs in applications. In February there were 2,485 applications waiting for processing to commence, which had been received on or after December 15, 2017. The backlog was largely cleared by July. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation contended that delays have led to situations where licence holders who had submitted applications found themselves outside the law as their licence expired. The Chief Constable can and does exercise his lawful discretion to suspend recovery of firearms and has introduced a "holding letter" for applicants in this situation. The PSNI views this as entirely legal and a pragmatic solution to the benefit of licence-holders, the Audit Office said. Head of the police FEB Nichola Murphy accepted three recommendations contained within the report. She added: "Work is ongoing within the Firearms and Explosives Branch to address the two recommendations on performance reporting and on assessing the benefits of the online application process. "The third recommendation on full cost recovery will require further consideration and discussion with a range of key stakeholders." A man has been charged with a number of drug offences A man has been charged with a number of offences including possession of Class A controlled drugs, possession with intent to supply Class A controlled drugs and possession of criminal property. The 48-year-old was arrested by the Paramilitary Crime Task Force. The charges are in connection with the search of a house in the Monkstown area of Newtownabbey in February. The man is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates' Court on Thursday, October 25. As is usual procedure, all charges will be reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service. The Police Service of Northern Ireland, HM Revenue & Customs and the National Crime Agency have 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. Conservative MPs (left to right) Anna Soubry, Huw Merriman and Nicky Morgan urging reform of abortion laws (David Young/PA) A Conservative MP has urged the Prime Minister to get on and act to reform abortion law in Northern Ireland as a party colleague branded the current regime barbaric, cruel and callous. Huw Merriman said it was the right time for Theresa Mays government to let Westminster vote on the restrictive laws on terminations in the region. Fellow Tory MP Anna Soubry echoed the call as she branded the near blanket ban on abortion as unacceptable in the modern age. She said: In Northern Ireland I think your laws are cruel, I think they are callous and they dont work anyway because we know that 900 women every year are coming over to England and Wales to terminate their pregnancies and I think thats appalling, I think thats barbaric. I think a woman in Northern Ireland should have exactly the same rights as any other women in the United Kingdom. Ms Soubry and Mr Merriman were in Belfast on Friday along with former Government minister and fellow Conservative MP Nicky Morgan to urge reform on the abortion issue. I would say to the Prime Minister that this has got to be the right time to get on and act and actually reform and modernise and really help people in a terrible situation, said Mr Merriman. On their visit to Belfast, the trio of MPs held meetings with midwives, doctors, politicians and lawyers challenging the current regime in the courts. Expand Close Ms Soubry and Ms Morgan were in Belfast on Friday to urge reform on the abortion issue (Lauren Hurley/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ms Soubry and Ms Morgan were in Belfast on Friday to urge reform on the abortion issue (Lauren Hurley/PA) The visit came on the same day that senior figures in Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the Ulster Unionists and the Alliance Party issued a joint statement urging reform. Abortions in Northern Ireland are illegal in all but exceptional medical and mental health circumstances. The Government has resisted calls to step in to legislate for reform in the wake of a recent Supreme Court judgment that found the current legal framework incompatible with human rights laws. In June, a majority of Supreme Court judges said the ban on terminations in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality needed radical reconsideration. Mr Merriman and Ms Soubry both rejected any suggestion the Government was reluctant to push for reform due to its confidence and supply deal with the Democratic Unionists, who oppose changes to the abortion law in Northern Ireland. I would regard the DUP MPs as colleagues and friends of mine, they work incredibly hard, but abortion has always been a conscious vote in Westminster, said Mr Merriman. So therefore it should have nothing to do with supply and demand or government pressure this is a free vote and the powers rest with Westminster. Ms Soubry added: I dont think the relationship with the DUP is actually a factor in it. This is a free vote and the powers rest with WestminsterHuw Merriman MP Earlier this month, the Women and Equalities Committee at Westminster announced an inquiry will examine whether the Government has a responsibility to reform abortion laws in the region or whether the contentious issue should only be one for devolved ministers to determine. Next month, a private members bill will be tabled at Westminster aiming to remove sections of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act that make abortion a criminal offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The 1967 Abortion Act in England and Wales provided for exemptions to the 1861 Act, enabling legal abortions. Ms Soubry said: Women and girls in Northern Ireland are not second-class citizens. They deserve access to free, safe and legal abortion services without having to travel to other parts of the UK. Our government must prioritise their rights and there is now significant support in Westminster for reform. We will continue to push for it to ensure that long and overdue change happens. Expand Close Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, UUP MLA Doug Beattie and Alliance Party leader Naomi Long also issued a joint call for the law in the region to be radically reconsidered (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, UUP MLA Doug Beattie and Alliance Party leader Naomi Long also issued a joint call for the law in the region to be radically reconsidered (Niall Carson/PA) The visit was jointly hosted by pro-choice advocates Amnesty International UK and the Family Planning Association as part of a series of events with Westminster political parties. Anti-abortion activists in Northern Ireland are opposed to calls for the UK government to intervene on the issue, insisting the matter should only be determined by locally elected politicians. Ms Soubry added: Its ultimately the people of Northern Ireland who are affected by the restrictive abortion law there, which is why were in Belfast today, to listen first hand to the women, midwives and doctors who find themselves harmed and compromised by the near-total ban on abortion. Mr Merriman said while his preference would be for Stormont to deliberate on the issue, women should not have to wait until the current powersharing impasse is resolved. On Friday, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, UUP MLA Doug Beattie and Alliance Party leader Naomi Long also issued a joint call for the law in the region to be radically reconsidered. They stated: Northern Ireland has been without government since January 2017, we are concerned about the harm being caused to women living under the existing Victorian era legislation which makes abortion illegal in almost every circumstance. Karen Bradley has been urged to do more to restore an assembly in Stormont, where powersharing collapsed last year (Victoria Jones/PA) Northern Ireland's 90 MLAs have been told their pay will be cut. At the start of the month Secretary of State Karen Bradley informed the House of Commons salaries will be cut in line with the December 2017 report by former top civil servant Sir Trevor Reaney. His report recommended a staged reduction in pay with a further review in a year's time should power-sharing remain in stasis. On Friday Karen Bradley wrote to each of the MLAs informing them of the first stage 15% cut or 7,500. In the coming months the reduction will be brought to 27.5% or over 13,000 in total. Travel allowances will also be cut. This was in recognition of the work done in constituencies and does not affect MLA staff. Northern Ireland has been without government since January 2017 after Sinn Fein pulled down the institutions. The Secretary of State said: My absolute priority, and the priority of the UK Government, is to restore devolved government at the earliest opportunity. I recognise that MLAs still carry out important work, but it cant be right that they continue to receive their full salary until the Executive and the Assembly are restored. I am acting today in line with the powers voted for by Parliament to cut their pay until the Executive is restored. This will be followed by legislation to give clarity to the Northern Ireland Civil Service for the decisions they can make, and my focus on establishing talks between the parties. I am confident that the plan I set out in Parliament provides the right framework to work with the parties to restore an Executive so that important decisions for the people of Northern Ireland can be made by locally elected politicians." A clear divide has opened up in Sinn Fein over how to respond to Mairia Cahill's abuse claims after Irish presidential candidate Liadh Ni Riada diverged from the line set by deputy leader Michelle O'Neill. Ms Ni Riada said she believes Ms Cahill's story of being abused and subjected to an IRA 'kangaroo court' in which she was forced to confront her attacker. Read More "I do, of course (believe her). And I have absolutely sympathy for Mairia. I think, look, with Mairia Cahill no amount of apologies will ever go far enough because you can never undo that past," she said. It marks a shift from the attitude taken by Mrs O'Neill, who said such questions were not for her. "I don't think that that's an issue for me," Mrs O'Neill said. In 2010 Ms Cahill told officers she had been sexually abused by a republican - who was acquitted of rape and IRA membership and denies all wrongdoing - on a number of occasions from 1997 to 1998. Read More In the wake of a Police Ombudsman report into how police handled the allegation, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said she "unreservedly apologised" for the lack of procedures in place for mandatory reporting of abuse at the time. However, this was overshadowed by Mrs O'Neill's comments on a BBC programme where she insisted it was "not for me to say" whether Ms Cahill's version of events stood up. Ms Ni Riada faced the same question yesterday and spoke about the need for structures to be in place to help abuse victims. Read More "You probably never get over that kind of thing. But you have to try and ensure that people get through in the best way possible," she commented. Asked if Mrs O'Neill's response had added to Ms Cahill's hurt, she replied: "No, I don't think so. Like I said, any apology that anybody does will never, ever undo it. "It will never go far enough so I can only wish her the very best in the future and hope that she gets through this." A patient about to be discharged from a Belfast hospital has been found dead. It's understood the incident happened at the Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital on Thursday. The Belfast Health Trust said it has opened an investigation into the "tragic circumstances "of the death. In a statement, it said: "It is with deep sadness that we confirm that a patient died in tragic circumstances yesterday at the Royal Victoria Hospital. A full investigation is underway and we are doing everything to support those involved at this very difficult time." A sudden influx of Romanians to a Co Antrim town has seen tensions with the local community rising rapidly in recent weeks, politicians have warned. A Ballymena DUP MLA has claimed there are fears events could spiral out of control if paramilitaries decide to step in. Paul Frew said he was aware of a 30-strong local group putting up posters in the town on Monday night. He said pressing issues must be tackled before the powder keg situation blows up. "The mood on the ground is worrying and tension is really rising," Mr Frew said. "This is one of the biggest single issues I have had to deal with since I became a public representative and scores of my constituents have contacted me with their concerns in the past month. "The trigger point for all of this has been the regular bus service into Ballymena on Saturday evenings, where a bus company brings Romanian people and packages one way and the other. It represents the visual manifestation of this problem." A Facebook group called Concerned Residents of Ballymena, which has 2,600 members, provides a platform for people to air their grievances over the current situation. No site monitors were available for comment. But despite the backlash on social media and subsequent fears that "things will bubble over in the wrong direction", Mr Frew has urged angry natives to desist from vigilante behaviour. "I have to stress that no one should be taking the law into their own hands," the DUP MLA said. "That will bring people into jeopardy. People will get hurt and end up in misery over the head of it. "But I see a very real vacuum of fear and ignorance and concern out there, from working class people like myself to lecturers at universities. They're all coming to me and saying the influx of migrants can't continue, this can't be managed." One primary school has turned away 26 foreign national children this week. And some people have linked the migrant issue to a spike in reported crime in Ballymena over the last six months. Two multi-agency meetings - comprising the Education Authority, PSNI, Mid and East Antrim Council, Northern Health Trust and Housing Executive - have taken place this week. But Mr Frew, who was also present, said the Jobs and Benefits Office, private landlords and recruitment companies "who must be part of this conversation were missing from those meetings". "People are concerned with human trafficking, cars not being taxed or insured, rising crime and migrants going to the toilet in public places, namely parks where there's young people," he said. "One primary school principal told me that 26 foreign national children have been turned away since Monday. This is the situation on the ground. This is what we need to address." TUV leader Jim Allister, who also attended the meetings, confirmed there are real fears in the town about the developing situation. "I'm concerned that matters could escalate," he said. "The police told us that in the past six months from April there was an increase of 19% in reported crime in Ballymena. "It's very important the proper law enforcement agencies demonstrate they are in control and on top of any developing situation because I'd be fearful that the paramilitaries would see this as an opportunity to assert themselves." A Mid and East Antrim Borough Council spokeswoman said a multi-agency meeting was held with a number of political representatives in order to discuss community concerns. "It was agreed that a fact sheet with information from each agency addressing any concerns would be circulated with political leaders by Friday in order to ensure that the community were advised of the relevant facts and to dispel any mistruths," she said. The PSNI confirmed that from April 1 to September 21 there had been a 19% increase in crime in the Ballymena area, which amounts to 299 incidents. Superintendent Darrin Jones said: "Police are part of a multi-agency approach to address community concerns in the Ballymena area. Everyone who lives, works or visits Ballymena, or any town or city in Northern Ireland, has the right to be treated fairly and with dignity. "Where there are reports or evidence of criminality from any part of the community we will thoroughly investigate and I would encourage anyone who witnesses a crime or has information about criminal activity to contact us on the non-emergency number 101." Lunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. 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Anna Soubry, Huw Merriman and Nicky Morgan will meet with women, midwives and doctors, as well as local political parties and legal professionals challenging the law through the courts. They will also hear from people directly impacted by the near-total abortion ban, so they can take their stories and experiences back to Westminster where they will argue for change. MPs are set to vote on abortion laws in Northern Ireland next month. Labour MP Diana Johnson will introduce a 10-minute rule bill that will seek to decriminalise abortion. Calls for Northern Ireland's abortion laws to be reformed have intensified after a referendum in the Republic in May resoundingly backed liberalising legislation south of the border. Downing Street has previously said abortion law is a devolved issue. However the absence of a power-sharing Assembly at Stormont has placed pressure on Westminster to act. But Prime Minister Theresa May's allies in the DUP, on whom she relies for her Commons majority, are staunchly opposed to relaxing abortion laws. Yesterday, Ms Soubry said women and girls in Northern Ireland "are not second-class citizens and deserve access to free, safe and legal abortion services without having to travel to other parts of the UK". She added: "It's ultimately the people of Northern Ireland who are affected by the restrictive abortion law there, which is why we're in Belfast to listen first hand to the women, midwives and doctors who find themselves harmed and compromised by the near-total ban on abortion. "Our government must prioritise their rights and there is now significant support in Westminster for reform. We will continue to push for it to ensure that long and overdue change happens." It is estimated that 28 women travel from here to England for terminations every week. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, UUP MLA Doug Beattie and Alliance leader Naomi Long have issued a joint call for the law here to be radically reconsidered. They stated they "are concerned about the harm being caused to women living under the existing Victorian-era legislation which makes abortion illegal in almost every circumstance". Damage caused during a suspected arson attack at the Beresford Court apartment block in Coleraine in the early hours of yesterday where 12 people were evacuated Residents evacuated from an apartment block targeted in a suspected arson attack have said they could have been burned to death. The blaze, described as "serious" by the Fire Service, broke out at the 18-flat block in Beresford Court in Coleraine in the early hours of yesterday morning. A dozen people had to leave their homes including pensioners, a young couple and several single people. Most of the residents have been able to return home, but the Housing Executive has been working with a small number to secure emergency accommodation. One couple who were able to return to their home said they are frightened. The man, who did not want to be named, said: "It was very scary here and everyone was in a bit of a panic at the start - there was smoke everywhere and it was hard to see or breath. "If there had been a gas supply to these flats we would have been blown to bits, but if the smoke alarms hadn't alerted us we could still have died. "There are a couple of elderly pensioners living on the ground floor and I helped get them out, but to be honest this isn't a safe place to live at the best of times. "Most nights we are too afraid to go to sleep until the early hours of the morning." Around 30 fire fighters attended the blaze. Fire service group commander Tom Morrow praised the efforts of the crews that tackled the blaze. "Just after 2am the Fire Service was called to what was initially a very serious fire," he said. "The local crews did tremendous work in suppressing the fire and keeping it contained to the individual apartment itself whilst escorting a total of 12 residents out of the apartments at the same time. "As part of our procedures, we have a partnership agreement with the Red Cross where we see the need and in this case there was need. "A number of residents were not able to go back into their premises so the Red Cross assisted those who were put out of their homes until the Housing Executive could find them alternative accommodation." Mr Morrow explained that the construction of the premises is designed to maintain the fire within the apartment itself. "The entrance to the flat was open which allowed the smoke to penetrate throughout the building," he added. "It was the smoke alarm that raised the alarm to nearby residents that there was a fire and it was the smoke alarm that initially allowed residents to begin evacuating the premises." A Housing Executive spokeswoman said the flats at Beresford Court were privately owned, but it was working to provide temporary accommodation. "Housing Executive staff were on site early this morning to provide advice and assistance to the residents," she said. "We have been working closely throughout the morning with other agencies to ensure that support is available for anyone who requires it." Ryanair customers have suffered cancellations and disruption because of strikes (Peter Byrne/PA) Frustrated passengers were grounded on Friday after striking staff forced Ryanair to cancel around 250 flights, potentially affecting tens of thousands of customers across Europe. A dispute over pay and conditions between the budget airline and staff in six European countries will see them walk out for 24 hours. Ryanair had cancelled 150 flights due to an unnecessary strike in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy. On Thursday the airline said pilots in Germany would also be going on strike, with up to 100 flights shelved as a result. Danielle Breckenridge was hoping to be able to make it to her fathers wedding in eastern Europe with her baby daughter. The 29-year-old, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, said she first learned their flight from Luton had been cancelled at 4.50am 10 minutes before she was due to leave. The wedding party of 17 had been due to fly to Lithuania on Friday morning for the wedding across the border in Poland the following day. She and five others have now been booked on to a flight to Warsaw from Stansted, but there was no guarantee that the remaining guests, including the ring bearer, would be able to travel in time. imagine missing your dads wedding because someone told you 10 minutes before you were supposed to leave to get your transfer that its not happeningRyanair passenger Danielle Breckenridge The bridesmaid said: The only thing I can say is imagine missing your dads wedding because someone told you 10 minutes before you were supposed to leave to get your transfer that its not happening. There are no words to describe that. Ms Breckenridge said the six replacement flights had been booked as a result of her father speaking to Ryanairs chief executive. She added: Weve been trying to do this ourselves, trying to think how to get there ourselves. No representative (from Ryanair) has helped as at all. Other people due to fly on Friday expressed their frustration on Twitter. One user claimed to have been left on the runway with no explanation or apology, while another called the companys response absolutely disgraceful. Expand Close Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary said strikes by pilots were necessary to keep air fares down (Jonathan Brady/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary said strikes by pilots were necessary to keep air fares down (Jonathan Brady/PA) Ryanairs chief operations officer, Peter Bellew, said the action was deeply regrettable. It is deeply disappointing that some of our customers and our people in Germany tomorrow will have their flights disrupted by an unnecessary strike called at short notice, he said. The strikes are the latest in a series of walkouts by staff at Europes largest low-cost airline. On September 12, dozens of flights were cancelled in Germany after pilots and flight attendants refused to work for 24 hours. In August, several days of strikes involving staff in Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands saw hundreds of flights cancelled. Earlier this month, Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary said strikes by pilots were necessary to keep air fares down. He insisted that industrial disputes with the airlines staff have caused minimal disruption as he pledged not to roll over. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe was forced to defend the Governments housing plan after he was confronted by a resident in Dublin during a press conference. Geoffrey Fox, who has lived in the same social housing flat in Smithfield for sixteen years, asked the minister to force his government to do more for the homeless and children in the area. You can go home and lie in your bed and have your dinner, these people cant, theyre sleeping in doorways, its not fair, theyre human beings, he said. Expand Close Paschal Donohoe with prominent Together for Yes campaigner Deirdre Duffy (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Paschal Donohoe with prominent Together for Yes campaigner Deirdre Duffy (Brian Lawless/PA) Me and my son and wife live in a flat, with two little bedrooms, we need a house, Im in it 16 years, and Ive been told I have to wait another three years before I get something. Look at all the derelict buildings look around this area, with leaks, and water, its desperate. Build houses for people who need them, theres too many children in flats. Mr Donohoe said the Government was committed to building more social housing but did not respond when asked repeatedly for a promise by Mr Fox. We know that, were going ahead and trying to build council housing, weve starting building them, and well build even more. We know we need good homes for peoplePaschal Donohoe We know we need good homes for people. Its happening at the moment, were doing a lot of work to change the derelict buildings into more homes. We want to do more, were striving for people to have good accommodation, a safe home. The minister was in Smithfield to announce that Deirdre Duffy would join him on the partys general election ticket in Dublin Central. Ms Duffy, who recently served as campaign manager for the Together for Yes campaign, is a barrister and was added to the constituency ticket on Thursday at a meeting of Fine Gaels executive council. When asked if she was comfortable joining Fine Gael given the number of members who opposed repealing the Eighth Amendment, she said that change would not come from an echo chamber. This was the party that put in place a really successful process to have a national conversation into what was a really divisive topic, she said. I wanted to go somewhere where I could achieve change and be effective, theres no point me going into an echo chamber because you have to have those conversations and find a common purpose and a common ground. The Dublin central constituency has been highlighted as a battleground for Fine Gael with some claiming the party were lucky to keep the seat at the last election. I would not be putting my name forward on the ballot if I didnt think I could win and that we could bring in two seats, she added. Mairia Cahill has claimed Sinn Fein covered up her allegations against one of its members (Brian Lawless/PA) A senior Sinn Fein TD has said that he absolutely believes Mairia Cahill was a victim of abuse, and says the party leadership agrees. Eoin OBroins remarks came after vice president Michelle ONeill was asked twice in an interview last week if she believed Ms Cahills account of the alleged abuse she said she suffered by an alleged IRA member and her claims of a cover-up by the Republican movement. The party leader for Northern Ireland declined to state clearly whether she believed Ms Cahill, and was heavily criticised for her answer by political opponents. In Dublin on Friday Mr OBroin said he felt the media had made more of the story than necessary, and Ms ONeill believed Ms Cahills claims. I absolutely believe Mairia Cahill was a victim of abuse and Ive never said anything different. I have to say, I think (Sinn Fein president) Mary Lou (McDonald)s unreserved apology was important and I echo it here today, he said. Ive read the full interview and when you read the full interview I dont think theres a difference between Michelle and Mary Lou. The party absolutely believe and accept that Mairia Cahill is a victim of abuseEoin OBroin I dont think Michelle would disagree with either of our statements, I think some people in the media are making more of the interview than thats in it, the party absolutely believe and accept that Mairia Cahill is a victim of abuse. Earlier this month, Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire delivered a scathing critique into police failings, and also noted that Sinn Fein did not act when Ms Cahill originally made her allegations to senior party figures in 1997, instead waiting for three years to suspend her alleged attacker. The Sinn Fein leader unreservedly apologised to Ms Cahill in the wake of the probe. She said Sinn Fein now had robust procedures in place for mandatory reporting of abuse allegations and that she regretted that such procedures were not in place at the time Ms Cahill made her allegations. But Ms Cahill, an SDLP councillor, criticised Ms McDonalds statement, saying she did not go far enough. Ms Cahill has claimed Sinn Fein covered up her allegations against one of its members. Ms Cahill, a great-niece of prominent Belfast republican Joe Cahill, claimed she was sexually abused as a 16-year-old by alleged IRA member Martin Morris. Mr Morris, who denied all wrongdoing, was later acquitted of rape when the case against him collapsed. Ms Cahill had alleged the republican movements response to her claims was to subject her to an IRA interrogation. She also accused Sinn Fein of engaging in a cover-up and waging a campaign to question her integrity ever since she waived her right to anonymity. A former special adviser to Arlene Foster when she was First Minister was the subject of two complaints alleging he was fraudulently using the RHI scheme. At one stage Stephen Brimstone was being investigated by police after an anonymous complainant alleged he was "using the pellet boiler to heat his mansion house at the taxpayer's expense". Mr Brimstone gave evidence to the RHI Inquiry yesterday, and the independent panel heard how he initially applied to the lucrative scheme in August 2015 when he was an adviser to a DUP junior minister. Read More An RHI boiler was installed to heat both a large shed and his home, replacing an old heating system. The inquiry heard that in May 2016 the anonymous complainant alleged that Mr Brimstone was involved in a "total fraud", and that he was using the boiler on the non-domestic scheme to heat his home in breach of regulations. The complainant told RHI administrator Ofgem: "The shed is no more agricultural than he is." Inquiry barrister Joseph Aiken suggested that the complainant would not be on Mr Brimstone's "Christmas card list". Mr Brimstone said they "can't have been a regular visitor" to his home. At that time Ofgem suspended Mr Brimstone's payments while it carried out an audit. The audit report found "no evidence" that the building in which the boiler was situated was being used "as a workshop or for animal pens", as had been claimed in the application form for the scheme. The shed had the "appearance of a large domestic garage" and was "located in the grounds of a house". Read More Inside was a tractor, shelving, fence posts and tools but also children's toys, and the auditor noted that there was "no sign of animals having been there". But it found that Mr Brimstone had complied with the scheme's rules - although the basis for his application to the non-domestic scheme was "weak". Ofgem wrote to Mr Brimstone and, after he provided information to it about issues raised in the auditor's report, it accepted that his installation was compliant. Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin said it was of "some concern" that an audit found "no evidence" the shed was being used as described in Mr Brimstone's application, and yet the investigation concluded the installation was compliant with the scheme. A second anonymous complaint about the same boiler was made in October 2016 and passed in a note to TUV Assembly Member Jim Allister. The inquiry said Mr Allister regarded it as his "public duty" to pass on the allegations, and the PSNI, NI Audit Office, the Department for the Economy and Ofgem were notified at that time. Mr Brimstone said he became aware of the first complaint in October 2016, but only heard about the second one this week. It is not clear if the two complaints were made by the same person, the inquiry was told. In late 2016 Mr Brimstone left his role as an adviser to the then First Minister Mrs Foster, though he told the panel the complaints had nothing to do with his resignation, adding that by then he had a letter from Ofgem confirming that his installation was compliant. In January 2017 Mr Brimstone was named by Mr Allister in the Assembly as someone who was involved in a "rip-off" of the RHI scheme. The following morning the Belfast Telegraph ran the allegations on the front page under the headline 'Former DUP aide ripped off RHI', and in late January 2017 the Irish News revealed Mr Brimstone's installation had been the subject of a police investigation. When asked by Inquiry barrister Joseph Aiken if the police involvement had "come as a shock to him" Mr Brimstone replied: "Absolutely." Ofgem informed the PSNI that Mr Brimstone's installation was "legitimate" and the PSNI found that "no crime had been committed". It said subsidies were not available for boilers that generate "heat solely for the use of one domestic premises", but "mixed uses" were eligible under the rules - for example, "between one domestic premises and another premises" - and Mr Brimstone fell under that category. Ofgem concluded that even if Mr Brimstone had allowed another farmer to keep sheep in his shed for just one day, it would still be considered acceptable under the scheme's rules. Inquiry panellist Dame Una O'Brien said that "seems a long way" from what had been intended when the scheme was first drawn up. She said that anyone in Northern Ireland could claim they were self-employed and worked in their garage for two or three days a year to qualify for the scheme. Former DUP leader Peter Robinson said he told Jonathan Bell not to agree to requests from party special advisers to remove Arlene Foster's name from Stormont's records on the Renewable Heat Incentive. In his witness statement to the RHI Inquiry, Mr Robinson said that Mr Bell had twice raised fears - once in a conversation in Parliament Buildings and later in a constituency office. He said Mr Bell told him that he had been trying to close the cash-for-ash scheme, but had been "hampered by special advisers that he believed were acting for the First Minister" and whom he suspected had a financial interest in keeping the scheme open. Read More The then Department of Trade, Enterprise and Investment (Deti) minister told Mr Robinson he had been advised by a senior departmental official of an attempt "to expunge First Minister Arlene Foster's name from some aspects of the department's RHI documentation". Mr Robinson said Mr Bell claimed "the erasures were being sought by his special adviser" Timothy Cairns "on request from other special advisers". The former DUP leader continued: "He asked for advice and I strongly counselled him that in no circumstances should he tamper with official documentation or allow anyone else to do so. "That, he indicated, was the position he had adopted with the official." It was Mr Robinson who had appointed Mr Bell as Enterprise Minister and the pair were regarded as good friends. The inquiry has heard evidence that when Mr Robinson stepped down as DUP leader in late 2015, Mr Bell felt vulnerable in the party. Mr Robinson revealed that Mr Bell told him that he was being "marginalised and alienated" by the DUP leadership. Given the wide range of "areas of dispute" Mr Bell raised and "what appeared to be his deteriorating relationship with the party", the former DUP leader suggested he have a "clear-the-air meeting with Arlene". Read More Mr Robinson couldn't recall the precise date of his first meeting with Mr Bell. He said he "took no written notes of the conversation and rely entirely on a fading recollection for this account". The Deti Minister discussed his concerns with his former party leader a second time. They met in Mr Robinson's Saintfield office in March 2016, according to the witness statement. Mr Bell told Mr Robinson about "another party issue which was causing him deep concern". He then "repeated his remarks about the visit from a senior official relating to the removing of references to the First Minister Mrs Foster from RHI documentation". Mr Bell claimed he had been trying to close the scheme but "was being hampered from doing so by special advisers that he believed were acting for the First Minister". Mr Robinson continued: "It was his view that a special adviser or special advisers must have had a pecuniary interest in the scheme being kept open". Read More He said Mr Bell told him that he had a "heated argument" with Mrs Foster at Stormont about a range of issues, including RHI. "I can recall him referring to it as a stand-up row," Mr Robinson said. "The Deti Minister indicated that he had discussed all the RHI issues with his permanent secretary who, he said, shared his concerns." Mr Robinson said Mr Bell was upset about "a party decision he believed would impact upon his electoral prospects" in the imminent Assembly election. He said he intended to "publicly air a number of the issues" but the former DUP leader advised that if he did so it would have "an adverse impact on his political future in the DUP". Mr Robinson said that public quarrelling would have harmed both Mr Bell and the party in the election and suggested he speak to the DUP's director of elections, Nigel Dodds. Read More "I sought to encourage him to resolve the other matters directly with the party leader rather than making any public statement," Mr Robinson said. The former DUP leader said that at the time of his conversations with Mr Bell "there was no awareness that there may have been an incentive to produce heat for profit from the scheme". He added: "Nor at this time was there any estimation of the overspend of the RHI scheme. I first heard of these issues some months later at the same time as the general public through media reports." Mr Robinson said he had never been lobbied by anyone to vary or delay any element of RHI. He said "no risks, flaws, anomalies, loopholes or other issues" were brought to his attention and he was never alerted to whistleblowing on RHI. He did not "promote, encourage or assist any third party to be accredited under the scheme". Read More Mr Robinson said he first learned there may "have been an incentive to produce heat for profit from the scheme" through media reports after he left office. "I have not, to my knowledge, any connection to a person or body receiving payment under the scheme or benefiting commercially from it in any other way," he stated. Mr Robinson insisted there was no "DUP 'party position'" on RHI. On the issue of Spads, he said there was "a very clear line of authority" when he was First Minister: "Advisers advise, ministers decide." The role of his Spad Timothy Johnston was "to gather information and advise me if there were difficulties on any aspect of their departmental programmes". He continued: "It would have then been my function to deal with any problems that had arisen. No difficulty with the RHI scheme was reported to me." The former DUP leader said he had "no record or recollection" of RHI ever being raised with him by constituents or members of the public. "No scheme applicant, company or organisation in the renewable heating or biomass industry or supply chain ever communicated me on this matter," he added. Mr Robinson has not been called to appear before the RHI Inquiry. In his written statement, he said he had no other "spontaneous recall" of his conversations with Mr Bell on RHI. But he added: "If there are matters that have been drawn to the attention of the inquiry that would serve to prompt a recollection I would, of course, want to be helpful." The DUP's most powerful unelected official has claimed a top civil servant - who said the party wanted to deflect or discredit any RHI references linked to the then Spad - was under "significant mental/emotional strain" at the time. In his witness statement to the inquiry, Timothy Johnston rejected the claim by Dr Andrew McCormick, who was the permanent secretary at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti). Mr Johnston, who is appearing before the inquiry today, denied attempting to delay RHI cost controls and said he had no detailed knowledge of the scheme. Read More In his evidence, Dr McCormick claimed the DUP was "very concerned to deflect or discredit any possible reference to Timothy Johnston" and "acquiesced with the necessity" of naming another special adviser, Dr Andrew Crawford, as the instigator of the cost control delay. Challenging the senior civil servant's allegation, Mr Johnston said: "Dr McCormick was felt to be under very significant mental/ emotional strain at the time and required significant support. "I therefore understand the context of Dr McCormick's evidence but I do not accept there was any attempt to deflect away from me, but rather to establish the truth of what had taken place." Mr Johnston was special adviser to DUP First Minister Arlene Foster at the time the cash-for-ash scandal broke. He is now the party's chief executive. He denied it had agreed to the naming of fellow Spad Dr Crawford. The inquiry has heard that Dr Crawford leaked confidential RHI documents to relatives. Read More Mr Johnston described him as "a valued colleague who sought to do his best to make the mandatory system work in difficult circumstances". He added: "In all my dealings with him he acted honourably and beyond reproach." On his alleged role in delaying RHI cost controls, Mr Johnston said: "I had no involvement in the decision-making processes on the introduction of cost controls in 2015. "I was unaware of the detail of any discussions, meetings, communications and final decisions on cost controls at the time." He continued: "At no time did I seek to influence or encourage Timothy Cairns (a former special adviser at the Stormont department in charge of the scheme), or anyone else, to delay, soften or reduce cost controls. "I was not in possession of any detailed knowledge about the scheme, its financing or operation at that time and had no reason to be so." Read More Mr Johnston denied he was at the top of the DUP's special adviser hierarchy at Stormont or that Spads ran the show. No minister "was expected, required or in my experience would have tolerated taking direction from an adviser", he stated. Mr Johnston said it was his "general recollection" that both Mrs Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness wanted a slight delay to RHI's closure. "I recall in this period that Sinn Fein were extremely concerned by the negative public reaction to the intention to close announcement and, as tended to be the case, they were concerned by the reaction of the SDLP and the opposition of all the other Assembly parties to the announcement and the manner of its timing." Read More Mr Johnston said "the vast bulk" of meetings between the First Minister and Deputy First Minister on how to resolve difficult political issues were rarely documented. "Sinn Fein in particular were keen to exclude officials from meetings. Sometimes that was appropriate, but on many other occasions it was not," he added. Mr Johnston admitted that a speech Mrs Foster gave to the Assembly on her role in RHI to empty benches in the chamber in December 2016 was a major mistake. "I do now consider, with the benefit of hindsight, that making the speech to the House after the deputy First Minister had withdrawn his consent and other parties boycotted the chamber to have been a political error," he said. Asked about the disparity in text message communication presented to the inquiry between him and another former Spad, Richard Bullick, Mr Johnston said he had not removed or deleted any text messages, or any other documents for that matter. He said: "I purchased software to recover text messages as my phone automatically deleted messages after 30 days. "I was unaware it was possible to recover messages until alerted to the fact by Mr Bullick." Profile of Johnston Timothy Johnston is a former special adviser to three First Ministers: Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster. Last year the DUP appointed him chief executive officer of the party a newly created senior post. He has long been regarded as the most powerful official in the DUP and keeps strict discipline among its members. Mr Johnston was made DUP director of policy aged 24 at a time when most of the senior positions in the party were held by middle-aged men. A year later he became DUP communications director. A former accountant, he began his political life in the Ulster Unionist Party, joining the DUP in 2002. RHI Inquiry chairman Sir Patrick Coghlin yesterday accused former DUP 'Spad' Stephen Brimstone of giving a "highly misleading" answer when questioned by BBC NI's Stephen Nolan over the failed scheme. Mr Brimstone, a former special advisor to then first minister Arlene Foster, was quizzed about a "heated meeting" between Ms Foster and Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell. He was asked if he had been a witness to a confrontation in February 2016 between the two DUP ministers about the RHI. Read More Mr Bell previously told the Inquiry he argued "as passionately as I could" for the RHI's closure during the meeting, but Mrs Foster was "highly agitated and angry". And the DUP leader told the inquiry on Tuesday that Mr Bell "stood with his chest pushed out and was shouting". Mr Bell has told the Inquiry that Mr Brimstone was present, and when asked about the argument yesterday Mr Brimstone replied he remembered an "angry" meeting. But he stated it was not about the RHI and was instead about a trade mission to Canada Mr Bell had just returned from. However, in his answer to the BBC in December 2016, Mr Brimstone had said he "did not witness any such exchange" between the two former ministers. Sir Patrick said the answer given to the BBC was "highly misleading if what you say now is true". The chairman said he found "great difficulty" in understanding why Mr Brimstone couldn't answer a "very important" question "properly". Mr Brimstone said he didn't feel the BBC "needed to know about any other matters that were being discussed at that meeting" and insists he answered the question "accurately". "Why not just answer it fully?" Sir Patrick asked. He said he felt if he had said more, it would have "opened up a whole load of other questions". Read More The BBC's Nolan Show had also asked Mr Brimstone if anyone in his family had benefited from the RHI scheme. The Inquiry heard Mr Brimstone had drafted an answer saying that he benefited and his installation was compliant with the scheme's rules, and he passed that to the senior DUP Spad Timothy Johnston with the note: "Let me know if you are content." Sir Patrick asked if Mr Brimstone's responses were being "carefully monitored" by Mr Johnston. "You wanted to make sure that Timothy Johnston was content with your answers which were to be given to the BBC," the Inquiry chair said. "In making him content you were answering this question in an untransparent way, in a limited way." Mr Brimstone said at that state he was under "no obligation" to anyone as he had left his special adviser position and the DUP. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 9 Vote(s) - 1.89 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 11 Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 464973 09-28-2018 06:12 PM Post: #1 Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? Advertisement I would love to serve on the local draft board! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 443824 09-28-2018 06:14 PM Post: #2 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? Just join in, it is free you know. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 464973 09-28-2018 06:23 PM Post: #3 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:14 PM) Just join in, it is free you know. I'm 62. I'm sure they'd let me serve on draft board. I am a vet. I'm 62. I'm sure they'd let me serve on draft board. I am a vet. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 463915 09-28-2018 06:41 PM Post: #4 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:12 PM) I would love to serve on the local draft board! You couldn't even shut a damn door to stop a damn draught You couldn't even shut a damn door to stop a damn draught LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 443824 09-28-2018 06:42 PM Post: #5 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:23 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:14 PM) Just join in, it is free you know. I'm 62. I'm sure they'd let me serve on draft board. I am a vet. They put you on a desk. They put you on a desk. Tacoavenger Avenger of Tacos User ID: 462976 09-28-2018 06:49 PM Posts: 4,275 Post: #6 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:12 PM) I would love to serve on the local draft board! Why are you so willing to throw people into a meatgrinder of pointless interventionalism? Why are you so willing to throw people into a meatgrinder of pointless interventionalism? LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 464973 09-28-2018 06:53 PM Post: #7 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? Tacoavenger Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:49 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:12 PM) I would love to serve on the local draft board! Why are you so willing to throw people into a meatgrinder of pointless interventionalism? Only the most qualified. Only the most qualified. Archangel Michael User ID: 441975 09-28-2018 06:56 PM Posts: 14,103 Post: #8 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? Any fighting with Iran the US will be only a proxy for Israel. Let the Israeli's fight their own wars. And use their own money to do it with. f*#k your draft board and the kids you'd kill. Baby killer. I say that as a vet. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460895 09-28-2018 06:58 PM Post: #9 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? Israel will take care of them. Tacoavenger Avenger of Tacos User ID: 462976 09-28-2018 06:58 PM Posts: 4,275 Post: #10 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:53 PM) Tacoavenger Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:49 PM) Why are you so willing to throw people into a meatgrinder of pointless interventionalism? Only the most qualified. That's a completely BS copout, Involuntary service is akin to slavery That's a completely BS copout,Involuntary service is akin to slavery LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460895 09-28-2018 06:59 PM Post: #11 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:58 PM) Israel will take care of them. And God. King James Bible And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: And God.King James BibleAnd I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Tacoavenger Avenger of Tacos User ID: 462976 09-28-2018 06:59 PM Posts: 4,275 Post: #12 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? Archangel Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:56 PM) Any fighting with Iran the US will be only a proxy for Israel. Let the Israeli's fight their own wars. And use their own money to do it with. f*#k your draft board and the kids you'd kill. Baby killer. I say that as a vet. Exactly, well put brother Exactly, well put brother LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 464981 09-28-2018 07:02 PM Post: #13 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? I'd never fight for a rogue gov't period. Now if the country was invaded, id fight for friends and family.. but that's a different topic/ scenario imo Lakeofmarch ~Piper at the Gates of Dawn User ID: 462069 09-28-2018 07:07 PM Posts: 18,810 Post: #14 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? That war is going to break Murka. And I will dance upon the results. terebess.u/english/tao/wu.html - NS "Snow Crash",CC "Eagle's Gift" - secretsun.blogspot.com Son Calenda/Fudo Myoo - Axte Incal, Axtuce Mun - het-report.nl http://www.sirbacon.org/dick.htm absolutoracle.com -NO8DO- The Great Tao is universal like a flood. How can it be turned?terebess.u/english/tao/wu.html - NS "Snow Crash",CC "Eagle's Gift" - secretsun.blogspot.comSon Calenda/Fudo Myoo - Axte Incal, Axtuce Mun - het-report.nlabsolutoracle.com-NO8DO- LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 443824 09-28-2018 07:09 PM Post: #15 RE: Bring back the Draft to fight Iran? LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:59 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-28-2018 06:58 PM) Israel will take care of them. And God. King James Bible And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: The god of Israel is the same as the god of Iran. Devide and conquer. The god of Israel is the same as the god of Iran. Devide and conquer. Advertisement The DUP's chief executive has said that Sammy Wilson was "appalled" at the lack of preparation Jonathan Bell did for one Stormont meeting. In his witness statement to the RHI Inquiry, Timothy Johnston said Mr Bell was a junior minister in the Office of First Minister and deputy First Minister at the time. Read More He said he had told former First Minister Peter Robinson that he didn't think Mr Bell was "a suitable candidate" to be appointed Minister of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Industry (Deti). He claimed that fellow special adviser Richard Bullick shared that assessment. "Mr Bell's approach to reading, questioning, and engagement was known to me to be very poor during his time as a junior minister in Stormont Castle. I have no first-hand knowledge of his work pattern when he moved to Deti but I suspect it did not change," Mr Johnston said. He claimed he "never found Mr Bell to be interested in detail". He said it was a matter for the inquiry, but he believed the former Deti Minister's "lack of attention to detail and engagement more generally must have had an adverse impact in respect of the RHI scheme". Read More Mr Johnston said Mr Bell "reminded all those to whom he came into contact with that HE was a minister". He said he didn't consider anyone other than Peter Robinson "would have been in a position to instruct or make a demand of Mr Bell". He described the working relationship between Mr Bell and his Deti spad Timothy Cairns as a "fractious" one marred by a lack of mutual trust. Following a heated argument between the two men in London, Mr Johnston said: "Party officers were appalled at the behaviour of both men, but took the firm view that they were not in a position to be able to make a determination as to who was to blame, or indeed that it was appropriate to do so." Read More He said that at a meeting with Mr Robinson to discuss his behaviour, Mr Bell "was displaying the characteristics of someone who struggled to contain aggression when confronted with issues about his temper". He claimed Mr Bell had once allegedly "shouted loudly, and was claimed to have acted in an intimidatory manner, towards a previous adviser to him, Ms Emma Little-Pengelly". Mr Johnston said he now believed it was "a mistake for Mr Cairns and Mr Bell to continue to work together". With hindsight, he said he thought it was "a mistake to not have instigated a more formal process within the party" and also potentially Deti to look into Mr Bell's alleged behaviour. Recalling a stormy encounter between Mrs Foster and the Deti Minister at Stormont, Mr Johnston claimed: "There was a very aggressive period of shouting by Mr Bell at the First Minister but things did calm down eventually. I recall intervening on several occasions to try to calm the atmosphere." The Duke of Rothesay is to present campaign medals to soldiers who have recently returned from Iraq during a visit to Fort George. The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS), have completed a six-month operational tour of Iraq, based at Al-Asad Air Base in western Al-Anbar province. Their two key responsibilities were to provide the main security force for the near 4,000-strong coalition camp and to provide training and mentoring for Iraqi security forces, preparing them to lead security operations against Islamic State. The training company taught their Iraqi partners in a range of areas, from security procedures, basic infantry tactics, life-saving first aid and communications to advanced weapon skills and basic improvised explosive device awareness. Charles, who is Royal Colonel of 3 SCOTS, will present campaign medals and attend a reception at their base at Fort George near Inverness on Friday. During their tour, 3 SCOTS worked alongside other nations, gaining experience manning security positions and honing their skills as a quick reaction force. The soldiers also used their tour to raise money for the Army Benevolent Fund, hosted a successful Highland Games and took part in various runs and activities hosted by other nations. Derek Hatton was kicked out of the Labour Party more than 30 years ago (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Hard-left former politician Derek Hatton has rejoined the Labour Party 33 years after he was booted out by then-leader Neil Kinnock. Mr Hatton, former deputy leader of Liverpools City Council, was expelled for belonging to a left-wing militant faction. He caused national outcry in the 1980s by setting an illegal budget and was denounced at the 1985 for sending redundancy notices by taxi to thousands of council workers. He and other members of Trotskyite group known as the Militant Tendency were widely blamed for making the party unelectable during Mr Kinnocks tenure. The 70-year-old has said he was inspired by Jeremy Corbyns leadership to reapply for membership. Now Im a Labour party member I believe nothing should take our eye off the ball of securing a Labour government under CorbynDerek Hatton Writing in the Liverpool Echo, he said he spent much of the last 33 years at odds with the Labour leadership, particular at Tony Blairs decision to invade Iraq. However, he said he had remained committed to the party throughout the period and that the recent Labour conference had prompted him to rejoin. He wrote: In all my time I have never witnessed such passion, such energy and such powerful socialist leadership. And strangely that power is despite a kinder, gentler form of politics. Many people, myself included, probably never thought we would witness an unswerving socialist like Jeremy Corbyn at the helm. He stands there with a set of policies clearly aimed at benefiting the vast majority of people in this country and a strategy which will not be dictated to, or influenced by, the five billionaires who own 90% of the countrys media. He added: Now Im a Labour party member I believe nothing should take our eye off the ball of securing a Labour government under Corbyn. The Liverpool Echo reported that despite returning to the party, Mr Hatton has no plans to run for public office. Aberdeenshire Council is the first administration in Scotland to back plans for a so-called Peoples vote (Jonathan Brady/PA) Aberdeenshire Council is the first in Scotland to vote for holding a referendum on the final Brexit deal, including an option for the UK to remain in the EU. A majority of SNP councillors banded together with some Liberal Democrat, Green, independent and Labour members to defeat the ruling Tory administration. The council voted by 33 to 26 in favour of a motion by Green councillor Martin Ford to back a so-called Peoples vote. Aberdeenshire council becomes first Scottish authority to back a further Brexit referendum. https://t.co/zYW70KHhK1 European Movement in Scotland (@euromovescot) September 28, 2018 Now, the Scottish Conservatives have accused the SNP of betrayal after some nationalists backed the move for a vote on the Brexit deal terms. The symbolic council decision the first of its kind in Scotland puts the SNP councillors who voted in favour at odds with their party position on a Peoples vote. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she will not stand in the way of a Peoples vote but has not backed the campaign, raising concerns over the possibility of Scotland again voting to remain but the UK as a whole voting to leave. However, Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell told MSPs he has had very constructive talks with the Peoples vote campaigner Hugo Dixon. So this occurred -@Aberdeenshire Tory councillors vote against a further referendum on #Brexit arguing they are standing for the democracy. They lose the vote to establish the view of @Aberdeenshire council and then proceed to dissent en masse from the democratic outcome. Logic? Alison Evison (@AlisonEvison) September 27, 2018 Tory MP David Duguid, who represents the Aberdeenshire constituency of Banff and Buchan, said he was astonished some SNP councillors representing fishing communities backed the Peoples vote. He said: The British people including those here in Banff and Buchan voted to leave the EU. People voted to leave for a number of different reasons. But in coastal communities like those across Banff and Buchan, many people just wanted out of the Common Fisheries Policy. Failure to respect the outcome of the vote would be an utter betrayal of our fishermen and a travesty for democracy in this country. The question for Nicola Sturgeon is does she agree with her SNP councillors in Aberdeenshire and is she also willing to disregard the views of our fishermen? An SNP amendment backing the Peoples Vote as well as remaining in the single market and customs union and highlighting predicted negative consequences of Brexit for the region was defeated. Aberdeenshire Councillors debated Brexit and a 2nd referendum at the end of our meeting yesterday. I took the chance to land a few home truths - Tories should be more worried about them being useless winners than in so-called 'bad losers' #brexitshambles https://t.co/gcSHJ95B9F Richard Thomson MP (@RThomsonMP) September 28, 2018 The councils SNP group leader councillor Richard Thomson accused the Tories of recklessly ignoring the predictions of Brexit damage to Aberdeenshire. When jobs are lost, the Tories will be to blame. When exports of Scottish seafood face lengthy delays at the border, the Tories will be to blame, he said. When our fishing fleet is sold out as part of a Brexit trade-off, the Tories will be to blame. Meanwhile, well leave the Tories to act as cheerleaders for Theresa Mays botched negotiations as they ignore the will of people in Aberdeenshire and across Scotland who voted to remain in the EU. Boris Johnson has set out his alternative plan for Brexit. Here are some key elements of the proposals laid out in an article for the Daily Telegraph. A failure of government Mr Johnson said a pretty invertebrate performance in the Brexit negotiations had seen a collective failure of government that had ended with the Chequers plan. He is calling for Theresa May to chuck her Brexit proposals, renegotiate the arrangements for Britains withdrawal from the EU and go to Brussels with his plan for the future relationship. Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa May speaking in Downing Street in the aftermath of the Salzburg summit (Jack Taylor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa May speaking in Downing Street in the aftermath of the Salzburg summit (Jack Taylor/PA) What does Mr Johnson say is wrong with Chequers? The plan agreed by Cabinet including Mr Johnson before his resignation as foreign secretary will result in enforced vassalage of Britain to the EU, he said. UK firms will be exposed to EU regulations, which could be designed to disadvantage them. Free trade deals will be made doubly difficult due to Britain not having control over regulations for good and agri-foods, he said. The EU will also be able to enforce tariffs at Britains borders, while Parliament would have to give up control of an entire corpus of laws to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). My plan for a better Brexit https://t.co/NULjm7WxJ0 Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 27, 2018 What is he suggesting? Mr Johnson has proposed a model for a free trade deal he calls SuperCanada, with all the benefits of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Under a new withdrawal agreement the UK and EU will have until 2020 to sign off the deal. What is Canadas arrangement with the EU? CETA is the most extensive signed by the EU with an external country to date. It allows Canada to access the European market on improved terms while not being a member, so it does not have to pay into the EU budget, follow ECJ laws or adopt freedom of movement. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) Under CETA, nearly all tariffs are being eliminated on imports and exports between the countries, while there are increased opportunities for companies to do business and workers to move between the territories. This is supported by closer cooperation on regulation and intellectual property. It has not done away with border controls. What is the super bit? Mr Johnson says cooperation between the UK and EU would be closer on areas such as defence, security and aviation. There would also be extensive provisions on services, which make up the majority of the UK economy. This would be based on, but go further than, the CETA model. Why is this not already the plan? Critics including the Prime Minister say a CETA-style deal would still result in customs checks between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which could jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement. The EU has said that without proper checks an open border would harm the integrity of the single market. Expand Close Boris Johnson has urged Theresa May to chuck the Chequers plan (Leon Neal/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Boris Johnson has urged Theresa May to chuck the Chequers plan (Leon Neal/PA) How does SuperCanada get around that? Mr Johnson says UK and EU regulatory bodies would ensure conformity of standards in the spirit of trust and common sense because we all want high standards. These would use Mutual Recognition Agreements to marry up UK and EU regulations. It will get around the issue of the hard border in Ireland by using technology. A man who died following a collision between a cherry-picker and a bus has been named by police. The crash happened in Balkerach Street, in Doune, near Stirling, at around 10.25am on Thursday. Expand Close Michael McArthur (Police Scotland) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michael McArthur (Police Scotland) Michael McArthur, 26, who was in the cherry-picker bucket, suffered serious injuries and died at the scene. Mr McArthur was from Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, Police Scotland said. Inspector Andrew Thomson, of Forth Valleys road policing unit, said: Our thoughts and sympathies are with Mr McArthurs family and we are conducting a thorough investigation to establish exactly what happened during this incident. Police are seeking information to help trace Derek Mackay (David Cheskin/PA) Police are appealing for information to help find a man considered to be a risk to the public. Derek Mackay, 32, from Invergordon in Easter Ross, failed to attend court and is now deemed unlawfully at large, Police Scotland said. He is described as 5ft 8ins, with a medium build, short brown hair and a local accent. Officers believe he may also travel throughout the Highlands. Expand Close Derek Mackay (Police Scotland) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Derek Mackay (Police Scotland) Detective Inspector Scott MacDonald, said: We want to trace Derek Mackay as quickly as possible and Id be interested to hear from anyone who has information. I would like to reassure people that considerable and extensive efforts are being put into locating him. I would ask people not approach Mr Mackay if you believe you have seen him. Instead please call Police Scotland as soon as you can. Police Scotland can be contacted on the 101 number. The home of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury (Jonathan Brady/PA) A third Russian accomplice alleged to have helped plan the Salisbury nerve agent attack is believed to have been identified by police. The man, from Russias military intelligence service the GRU, is reported to have visited Salisbury ahead of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, according to The Daily Telegraph. The paper said the suspect was likely to have fed back details including the layout of the cul-de-sac where Mr Skripal lived and which door he used to enter and leave. The Press Association has confirmed that the investigation is looking at several suspects, with a senior Government source stating that there are at least two. An exact number has not been confirmed but the source said there were multiple suspects being investigated. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: We will not be discussing any further details in what remains a live investigation. UK authorities believe two Russians, using the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, smeared the highly toxic Novichok chemical on a door handle at the Wiltshire home of former GRU officer Mr Skripal on March 4. Expand Close Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov (Metropolitan Police/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Alexander Petrov, left, and Ruslan Boshirov (Metropolitan Police/PA) The attack left Mr Skripal and his daughter critically ill, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, who was later exposed to the same nerve agent, died in July. On Wednesday, the investigative group Bellingcat identified one of the suspects as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga a highly decorated GRU officer. Bellingcat said it had identified Chepiga, who travelled to the UK with a passport issued in the assumed name of Ruslan Boshirov, by trawling through online records from Russian military academies. Chepigas former commanding officer Alexander Borzhko confirmed that Chepiga fought in Chechnya and received the Hero of Russia medal. But President Vladimir Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could find no information about such a person receiving the award. Expand Close Ruslan Boshirovs passport photo from 2009 (Bellingcat/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ruslan Boshirovs passport photo from 2009 (Bellingcat/PA) The Government has declined to comment officially on the report, although it has previously said the two suspects wanted for the attack on the Skripals were GRU officers. Bellingcat is reportedly close to identifying the second suspect. The Kremlin says it expects Britain to say what it knows about the identity of the two suspects so that Russian officials can launch an investigation. Mr Peskov said that the allegations made by the British-based investigative group cannot serve as a basis for such an inquiry. We cant have media as our vis-a-vis in such a sensitive case, he said. Such materials should only come from competent sources. From the very start, Russia has offered to conduct a joint investigation, but faced British refusals. MFA spox #Zakharova on #Salisbury poisoning: As London neither has political will to cooperate nor courage to present their convincing evidence, tabloid leaks remain the only way to keep the story afloat. pic.twitter.com/aI8J35uGbn Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) September 27, 2018 Meanwhile, the Government dismissed allegations that Russian security services infiltrated the British Embassy in Moscow to obtain visas for the suspected poisoners. A Home Office spokeswoman said: We reject these claims entirely. Applications of this type would be decided by a visa officer in the UK and not in the British Embassy in Moscow. Jenny McDonagh has been jailed for five and a half years (Kirsty OConnor/PA) A fraudster who went on a spending spree using money stolen from a Grenfell Tower victim fund and the NHS has been jailed for five and a half years. Photos of former finance manager at Kensington and Chelsea Council Jenny McDonagh, 39, captured her lavish lifestyle of dining in high-end restaurants, buying expensive clothes and heading on nights out using stolen money. She stole 62,000 that was meant for victims of the fire and a further 35,000 while previously working for the NHS. Expand Close Jenny McDonagh withdrawing cash from an ATM at Charing Cross station (CCTV/CPS/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jenny McDonagh withdrawing cash from an ATM at Charing Cross station (CCTV/CPS/PA) Selfies of her posing in an expensive dress from Hobbs and boarding a Thames Clipper boat heading on a night out, as well as pictures of her in restaurant Burger and Lobster, were released after her trial. She also gambled 32,000 of the Grenfell money, losing 16,000. McDonagh, from Abbey Wood, south-east London, also paid for trips to Dubai, Los Angeles, Iceland and Paris using money that was meant to pay for accommodation and other essentials needed by those who lost their homes in the Grenfell Tower fire last year. The scale of your dishonesty in this fraud beggars beliefJudge Robin Johnson Speaking at her sentencing at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday, Judge Robin Johnson said: You knew exactly what these funds were for and the importance of them for the residents. The scale of your dishonesty in this fraud beggars belief. I do not know your current financial position but I very much hope the funds can be recovered from you. McDonagh used her job with the council to get hold of pre-paid credit cards that should have been given to survivors of the fire. One of those cards, which was in the name of the vice chairman of survivor campaign group Grenfell United, Edward Daffarn, was topped up 17 times and more than 50,000 passed through the account. The judge added: It must have been particularly abhorrent for Mr Daffarn to find out his name had been used by you in order to achieve your goal. Expand Close A photograph taken from Jenny McDonaghs phone showing the former finance manager at a restaurant where an illegitimate credit card was used to pay for a meal (CPS/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A photograph taken from Jenny McDonaghs phone showing the former finance manager at a restaurant where an illegitimate credit card was used to pay for a meal (CPS/PA) McDonagh stole the 35,000 from the NHS while working for the Kent-based Midway NHS Foundation, using what prosecutor Ben Holt described as a bogus company to transfer herself funds. Detective Superintendent Matt Bonner said in a statement after the trial: McDonagh is a serial fraudster with no compunction for who she targets. Expand Close Jenny McDonaghs house in Abbey Wood, south-east London (Jack Hardy/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jenny McDonaghs house in Abbey Wood, south-east London (Jack Hardy/PA) She knew she was taking precious funds intended for those who survived the Grenfell Tower tragedy, people who have already been through the most traumatic experience imaginable without then being caught up in McDonaghs deception. The Grenfell Tower fire killed 72 people on June 14 last year. The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced Brett Kavanaughs nomination for the US Supreme Court after informally agreeing to a one-week investigation into sexual assault allegations made against him. It is unclear whether Republican leaders, who have pushed for fast confirmation of Mr Kavanaugh, would back the request made by senator Jeff Flake for further investigation. President Donald Trump, who has accused the Democrats of obstruction and opposed the FBI investigating the allegations against his nominee, said he would let the Senate handle that. The vote came a day after Mr Kavanaugh and an accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, gave evidence in an emotional hearing. Expand Close Christine Blasey Ford gives evidence before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christine Blasey Ford gives evidence before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/AP) Mr Kavanaugh angrily denied the allegations that he assaulted Ms Ford while they were both in high school, while she said she was 100% certain he was her attacker. Mr Flake, a key moderate Republican, was at the centre of the drama and uncertainty. In the morning, he announced that he would support Mr Kavanaughs nomination. Shortly after, he was confronted in a lift by two women who, through tears, implored him to change his mind. The confrontation was captured by television cameras. After speaking privately with his colleagues, Mr Flake announced he would vote to advance Mr Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate the allegations against the judge. Democrats have been calling for such an investigation, though Republicans and the White House have insisted it is unnecessary. The committee vote was 11-10 along party lines. Mr Flake said that after discussing the matter with fellow senators, he felt it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week. Let it now be a matter of record that victim culture is in fact the petulance of white men closing ranks to protect their jobs/status & insist on the continued oppression of women so they can thrive. #Kavanaughvote tells a devastating truth we can no longer pretend not to hear. Sophie Walker (@SophieRunning) September 28, 2018 That increases the pressure on a handful of colleagues who have not yet said whether they back Mr Kavanaugh. These are Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. With a 51-49 majority, Senate Republicans have little margin for error, especially given the fact that several Democrats facing tough re-election prospects this autumn announced their opposition to Mr Kavanaugh on Friday. Senators, make no mistake. If you vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, you are sending this message and perverting the Supreme Court: -Women & survivors dont matter -Impartiality doesnt matter -Integrity & honesty dont matter#StopKavanaugh Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) September 28, 2018 Senators Bill Nelson of Florida, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Jon Tester of Montana all said they would vote no. During Thursdays hearing, Democrats repeatedly peppered Mr Kavanaugh with questions about whether he would support an FBI investigation. He said he would back whatever the committee decided to do. The FBI conducts background checks for federal nominees, but the agency does not make judgments on the credibility or significance of allegations. It compiles information about the nominees past and provides its findings to the White House, which passes it along to the committee. Republicans say reopening the FBI investigation is unnecessary because committee members have had the opportunity to question both Mr Kavanaugh and Ms Ford and other potential witnesses have submitted sworn statements. If the FBI does reopen the background investigation, agents could interview accusers and witnesses and gather additional evidence or details that could help corroborate or disprove the allegations. Democrats have been particularly focused on getting more information from Mark Judge, a high school friend of Mr Kavanaugh who Ms Ford said was also in the room during her alleged assault. In her evidence, Ms Ford said Mr Kavanaugh and Mr Judges laughter during the incident has stuck with her nearly four decades later. Mr Judge has said he will co-operate with any law enforcement agency that investigates confidentially. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 2 Vote(s) - 3 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 464497 09-28-2018 07:42 PM Posts: 5,423 Post: #1 Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina Advertisement A U.S.Marine Corps F-35B, FILE PHOTO / Reuters A F-35B has crashed in South Carolina, just five miles outside the Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), local authorities have confirmed. The pilot reportedly survived. Beaufort County Sheriffs Office said that the crash occurred around 11:45 am local time, in the Grays Hill area. Emergency crews are responding to the incident. The pilot safely ejected and is being evaluated for injuries, the authorities said. The location of the crash was pinpointed to the northwestern tip of the island archipelago that hosts the Beaufort MCAS. Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is on the southern end, about 15 miles away. The Beaufort MCAS is home to five squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and one F-35B squadron. It was not initially known which type of plane was involved in the crash. The military later confirmed to ABC news that it was a F-35B, however. https://www.rt.com/usa/439860-military-p...-beaufort/ It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... Marine F-35 jet crashes in South CarolinaA U.S.Marine Corps F-35B, FILE PHOTO / ReutersA F-35B has crashed in South Carolina, just five miles outside the Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), local authorities have confirmed. The pilot reportedly survived.Beaufort County Sheriffs Office said that the crash occurred around 11:45 am local time, in the Grays Hill area. Emergency crews are responding to the incident.The pilot safely ejected and is being evaluated for injuries, the authorities said.The location of the crash was pinpointed to the northwestern tip of the island archipelago that hosts the Beaufort MCAS. Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is on the southern end, about 15 miles away.The Beaufort MCAS is home to five squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and one F-35B squadron. It was not initially known which type of plane was involved in the crash. The military later confirmed to ABC news that it was a F-35B, however. (This post was last modified: 09-28-2018 07:45 PM by ALADIN .) ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 464497 09-28-2018 09:41 PM Posts: 5,423 Post: #2 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina Video filmed at the crash site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvaIWdB2LlE https://theaviationist.com/2018/09/28/us...ot-ejects/ USMC F-35B Lightning Crashes Near MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina: Pilot Ejects.Video filmed at the crash site: It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... (This post was last modified: 09-28-2018 09:44 PM by ALADIN .) Super Dooper lop guest User ID: 464931 09-28-2018 10:00 PM Post: #3 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina I just had a response to my US FOIA request for mishap reports involving aircraft..They said they have no records...The above says they do.... Lunatic z Registered User User ID: 465019 09-28-2018 11:43 PM Posts: 594 Post: #4 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina bad day in the office when you trash $ 100.000.000 ++ of equipment LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 465030 09-29-2018 12:08 AM Post: #5 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina Never try to bank a brick. Bao2 Banned User ID: 422170 09-29-2018 12:13 AM Posts: 12,562 Post: #6 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina Buy some real planes from the rusians for fucks sake What pile of crap.Buy some real planes from the rusians for fucks sake Archangel Michael User ID: 441975 09-29-2018 12:16 AM Posts: 14,103 Post: #7 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina There's a plane that won't be dropping bombs on little brown people. Uppity Me Registered User User ID: 449159 09-29-2018 12:23 AM Posts: 37,940 Post: #8 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina Pilot might be a rookie or in training Quote: Les pauvres n'ont-ils des Euros ? Alors laissez les pauvres 'sh*t' dans les rues Lunatic z Registered User User ID: 465019 09-29-2018 12:46 AM Posts: 594 Post: #9 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina Uppity Me Wrote: (09-29-2018 12:23 AM) Pilot might be a rookie or in training not a rookie on a new plane that expensive , must be a tech glitch or a bird not a rookie on a new plane that expensive , must be a tech glitch or a bird CaramelVodka Registered User User ID: 463260 09-29-2018 01:06 AM Posts: 1,176 Post: #10 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina Bump Super Door SOD lop guest User ID: 464931 09-29-2018 02:30 AM Post: #11 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina There are many incidents of this kind one must ponder how many are not has the official explanation tries to may us believe? LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 458753 09-29-2018 02:35 AM Post: #12 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina Dropped his cigarette and took his eyes off the horizon LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 465050 09-29-2018 03:10 AM Post: #13 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina Uppity Me Wrote: (09-29-2018 12:23 AM) Pilot might be a rookie or in training Or the F-35 is the worst aircraft ever made. Or the F-35 is the worst aircraft ever made. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 449367 09-29-2018 03:14 AM Post: #14 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina LoP Guest Wrote: (09-29-2018 12:08 AM) Never try to bank a brick. with tiny little wings. how good do you think the turning radius would be on that shitbox? have to be nearly as good as a 1960s mirage III, yeh? with tiny little wings.how good do you think the turning radius would be on that shitbox? have to be nearly as good as a 1960s mirage III, yeh? ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 464497 09-29-2018 03:18 AM Posts: 5,423 Post: #15 RE: Marine F-35 jet crashes in South Carolina LoP Guest Wrote: (09-29-2018 03:10 AM) Uppity Me Wrote: (09-29-2018 12:23 AM) Pilot might be a rookie or in training Or the F-35 is the worst aircraft ever made. na - its equal : the day before was a first combat mission of a F35B ; then a crash (another F35B) http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-67015.html na - its equalthe day before was a first combat mission of a F35B ; then a crash (another F35B) It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... (This post was last modified: 09-29-2018 03:18 AM by ALADIN .) Advertisement A former Vatican ambassador has challenged the Holy See to say what it knows about a scandal surrounding a disgraced American ex-cardinal and accused Pope Francis of mounting a campaign of subtle slander against him. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano penned a new missive a month after his initial 11-page document sent shockwaves through the Catholic Church. It was uploaded to a document-sharing site. The archbishop denounced the official Vatican silence about his claims and accused Francis of mounting a campaign of subtle slander by referring indirectly to him as Satan in recent homilies. Expand Close Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been accused of sexual misconduct (Patrick Semansky/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been accused of sexual misconduct (Patrick Semansky/AP) The cleric urged the current head of the Vatican bishops office to speak out, saying he has all the documentation needed to prove years of cover-up by the Vatican about alleged sexual misconduct by ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick. How can one avoid concluding that the reason they do not provide the documentation is that they know it confirms my evidence? the archbishop wrote. The popes unwillingness to respond to my charges and his deafness to the appeals by the faithful for accountability are hardly consistent with his calls for transparency and bridge building. The archbishop threw Francis papacy into turmoil last month when he accused Francis of rehabilitating ex-cardinal McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI. He accused more than two dozen current and former Vatican officials, as well as a host of US bishops and papal advisers, of being part of the cover-up and called for Francis to resign over the scandal. Francis removed Mr McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a US church investigation determined an allegation he fondled a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible. After news broke of the investigation, several former seminarians and priests came forward to report that they, too, had been abused or harassed by Mr McCarrick as adults. The scandal has led to a crisis in confidence in both the US and Vatican hierarchy, since Mr McCarricks penchant for seminarians was apparently an open secret in some US and Vatican church circles. In his first denunciation, published on August 26, the archbishop initially claimed Benedict had imposed sanctions against Mr McCarrick prohibiting him from exercising public ministry, travelling or lecturing on behalf of the church. Expand Close The archbishop claimed Pope Benedict had imposed sanctions against now ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick (Ben Birchall/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The archbishop claimed Pope Benedict had imposed sanctions against now ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick (Ben Birchall/PA) He has changed his account, however, since the historic record is rife with evidence Mr McCarrick lived his ministry free from any real constraints, and it is unclear what type of sanctions were ever imposed. But the crux of the archbishops claim was that he told Francis of the sanctions against Mr McCarrick on June 23 2013, and that the pope effectively rehabilitated Mr McCarrick and made him a trusted adviser. Francis has refused to directly respond to the archbishops claims, though the Vatican is expected to release some clarifications soon. Francis, however, has referred to the issue indirectly in his morning homilies, speaking of the silence of Jesus before the great accuser, seemingly comparing his own silence to that of Christ and the archbishops accusations to the work of Satan. Rather than directly responding, the archbishop complained, Francis put in place a subtle slander against me, slander being an offence he has often compared to the gravity of murder. But the purpose of any secret, including the pontifical secret, is to protect the church from her enemies, not to cover up and become complicit in crimes committed by some of her membersArchbishop Carlo Maria Vigano Indeed, he did it repeatedly, in the context of the celebration of the most Holy Sacrament, the Eucharist, where he runs no risk of being challenged by journalists. Francis refused to take questions about the accusations during his in-flight news conference returning from the Baltics on Tuesday. The archbishop acknowledged he has violated the pontifical secret, the rule of confidentiality that governs much of the inner workings of the Catholic Church. Certainly, some of the facts that I was to reveal were covered by the pontifical secret that I had promised to observe and that I had faithfully observed from the beginning of my service to the Holy See, the achbishop wrote. But the purpose of any secret, including the pontifical secret, is to protect the church from her enemies, not to cover up and become complicit in crimes committed by some of her members. Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP) The US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh produced hours of fiery, emotional testimony. Both Mr Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of sexual assault when they were high school students, appeared before senators on Thursday. Mr Kavanaugh denied the accusation. Here are some of the key takeaways from the extraordinary hearing: What did Ms Ford say? Ms Ford gave a soft-spoken and steady account about what she said happened three decades ago in a bedroom at a small gathering of friends. She said she came forward not for political reasons, but because it was her civic duty. She described in detail how an inebriated Mr Kavanaugh and another teenager, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Mr Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her. Expand Close Christine Blasey Ford becomes emotional during the hearing (Andrew Harnik/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christine Blasey Ford becomes emotional during the hearing (Andrew Harnik/AP) She said he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams, and testified: I believed he was going to rape me. The 51-year-old mother of two said the incident was seared into her mind through trauma, while admitting there were some gaps in her memory around the attack. Ms Ford, a California psychology professor making her first public remarks about the incident, choked up occasionally as she described the alleged attack. Democratic senators questioned her directly, but the 11 Republican members on the committee instead chose to have a female sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona question her. Asked how certain she was that Mr Kavanaugh was her attacker, she declared: 100%. What did Mr Kavanaugh say? Mr Kavanaugh ditched his prepared remarks and instead issued a blistering statement declaring the confirmation process a national disgrace. He strongly denied Ms Fords allegation, but said he believed she had been the victim of a sexual assault. The father of two daughters said one of his girls said they should pray for the woman accusing him. Expand Close Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) Thats a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old, he said, choking up. Mr Kavanaughs scorched-earth strategy gave president Donald Trump what he wanted: a nominee willing to fight back aggressively and yield no ground to Democrats. Echoing Ms Ford, he said he was 100% certain he did not commit the assault. At times, Mr Kavanaughs frustrations boiled over. When Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar asked if he had ever drunk so much he blacked out, he snapped: Have you?. He later apologised. Moments after the hearing finished, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. Expand Close Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questions Christine Blasey Ford (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questions Christine Blasey Ford (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) What happened to the prosecutor? Republicans appointed prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to question Ms Ford, and she led off the questioning of Mr Kavanaugh. Then she quickly faded away. After Ms Mitchell asked Mr Kavanaugh several detailed questions about Ms Fords allegations, the GOP senators took matters into their own hands. Senator Lindsey Graham led the way with a scorching denunciation of Democrats for raising the allegations against Mr Kavanaugh in the final days of the confirmation process. From there, each GOP senator handled his own questions, while Ms Mitchell sat silently nearby. Hours earlier, Ms Mitchell opened her questioning of Ms Ford by expressing sympathy for the professor, who said she was terrified to testify. I just wanted to let you know, Im very sorry. Thats not right, Ms Mitchell said. Expand Close Senator Orrin Hatch speaks to the media after the hearing (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Senator Orrin Hatch speaks to the media after the hearing (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) What happens next? Republicans quickly expressed their determination to move forward. After huddling in the Capitol, senators said the Judiciary Committee would hold a Friday morning vote on whether to recommend Mr Kavanaugh for confirmation. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, a long-time committee member, said he thinks Mr Kavanaugh will get confirmed by a party-line vote. Republicans margin for error in the full Senate is slim. If all Democrats oppose the nomination, just two GOP senators would sink Mr Kavanaughs confirmation if they were to oppose him as well. Multiple Republican politicians have not said which way they will vote, including two women with reputations as moderates who have been willing to buck their party Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Mr Graham cautioned them against voting no. To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, youre legitimising the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics, he said. Last week I was asked to launch a new collection of academic essays. It was the hardest job I had ever taken on, if the point was to sell copies of the book. (stock picture) Last week I was asked to launch a new collection of academic essays. It was the hardest job I had ever taken on, if the point was to sell copies of the book. The Contested Identities Of Ulster Catholics (Palgrave, edited by Paul Burgess) costs a penny short of a hundred pounds, so there was no queue at all for it. Academic publishers are only concerned to sell to libraries, but this book has a relevance that would make it valuable reading for our politicians and commentators. In my launch speech I said that the biggest change on the political scene in Northern Ireland in my eventful lifetime is that the Union has become dependent on support from the Catholic community. This has to be understood and engaged with by anyone interested in preserving the Union or dispensing with it. Some people have not caught onto this yet. Theresa May has. In a conversation she was reported to have had with Jacob Rees-Mogg last year, she is said to have expressed a fear that the "moderate nationalists" - her phrase - would react to a hard Brexit by opting for a united Ireland. More recently, Newsnight reported that the Secretary of State - who should perhaps read this book, too, and a few others I could suggest - had decided not to call an election to the Assembly because a nationalist majority would leave her with no argument against a border poll. On the other hand we have David Trimble and others arguing that the fear of a growing demand for a united Ireland is being whipped up by Sinn Fein and that it has no substance. Unionism, it strikes me, is being uncommonly blithe about the changing context, having arguably overreacted in the past when it thought that the IRA was a real threat to the integrity of the UK, an estimation of the clout of republicans which was shared only by republicans themselves. So the people who panicked in the past say there is no need to panic now, though the circumstances are radically different. But it is good they are not panicking. It's not so good that they are not noticing the breadth of change. The first big change is that the unionist majority has gone. The proportionate rise in the Catholic population that was the bogey of much unionism throughout the history of Northern Ireland has arrived. John Coakley, a contributor to the book, tells us it is expected that the 2021 census will reflect a Catholic majority. This means that the Protestant Ulster that Ian Paisley senior sought to defend has gone. The argument that the Union must be preserved to prevent Protestant Ulster being absorbed into its Romish neighbour is obsolete. An ex-argument. So one of the traditional props of the Union, the call to arms in defence of the faith, is now only of historic interest. There can be no Union now other than one endorsed cross-community. Yet there is a sectarian assumption at work there too, that identity matters more to Protestants than it does to Catholics. Indeed, Anthony McIntyre alludes to this as a reality in his chapter where he says that unionists are much more concerned to defend the Union than nationalists are to get rid of it. The implication is that unionists preserve the Union out of love for it, a passionate sense that their identity relies on it. Catholics are different - they are more concerned about what side their bread is buttered on. But this diagnosis is tested by Brexit. We may be discovering, through this experiment, aspects of the character of the northern Catholic community that we hadn't weighed up before, like a possible preference among many - enough to make a difference - for mending relations in the North over uniting the island into a single jurisdiction. Who of us doesn't feel more at home in Ballymena than in Ballinasloe? But that is not the only question. A conjunction of phenomena has emerged like a startling planetary alignment. Catholic Ireland is being dissolved. Even if there still was a Protestant majority, and if Paisley was at his thunderous best, he could no longer claim that the Republic is a Catholic state being manipulated by the Papacy. In fact, the idea is so laughable that some among us may need reminded that this was a powerful conviction in play during the Troubles period. At the same time as we have a loosening of the grip of the Church over Irish Catholics, appalled by abuse scandals and entering into the general European trend towards secularisation, we have a counter force in the North in the form of the DUP, determined to resist same-sex marriage and abortion law reform. So, at a time when we might have seen chauvinistic rages settle down, we have a new dividing line. And this has led to disaffection with devolution in the North among Catholics and nationalists. We can trace the collapse of Stormont to the RHI scandal and the denial of a standalone Irish Language Act, but if we look to why so many people don't seem to care if it comes back or not, among Catholics and nationalists, distaste for the DUP and a lack of enthusiasm for restoring to it the power to block social reform is, I think, primary. I suspect even Sinn Fein has been taken by surprise by this. So forces are in play that were not in play during the Troubles: the demographic shift, secularisation North and South, and an aversion to the social conservatism of the DUP. And Brexit. Which might turn out fine. Many serious unionists are confident that the Catholic community can be relied on, in sufficient numbers, to endorse the Union - though never calling themselves unionists - so we'll put Stormont back up and either make a new bigger deal to secure it, or hobble on to the next breakdown. But crucially, if the Protestant majority was the prop that secured the Union for a century, cross-community support is the only prop that can sustain it further, and that means that the de facto unionists in the Catholic community have to be kept onside. Recognising that Catholic community support from now on must be a cornerstone of the Union, or there will be no Union, requires an appeal to the northern Catholic sense of identity in a future that may not include a British economy that is stronger than an Irish one. Who can say our butter won't be on the other side of the piece in a decade from now anyway? The Contested Identities Of Ulster Catholics, edited by Paul Burgess, is published by Palgrave, 99.99 Srinagar residents carry the body of Mohammad Salim who was killed by security forces, Sept. 27, 2018. Shops and businesses remained closed Friday in Indian Kashmir after separatists ordered a shutdown to protest the recent killing of five people, including three militants, days ahead of scheduled local elections. Militants fighting against Indian rule in the region claimed by both India and Pakistan are opposed to the elections and have warned people to not participate. Posters released by Hizbul Mujihideen (HM), the largest rebel group in the region, warned candidates in north Kashmir to desist from voting when polls open for elections on Oct. 8 to 16. Special police officers have been asked to resign their posts or face consequences, according to police sources who did not want to be identified. Special police are not employed by the force but are brought in to aid in anti-terror operations. An outbreak of insurgency on the Indian side has claimed more than 70,000 lives since the late 1980s. Authorities beefed up security across the disputed region and barred Friday prayers at the Grand Mosque in Srinagar to prevent anti-India protests. Separatists were detained in their homes to prevent them from leading protests, officials said. Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh described as historic the elections to be held for the first time in almost 13 years in Kashmir, saying the vote will go a long way toward re-establishing grassroots democracy. Unprecedented security arrangements have been made, officials said. In addition to the existing strength of forces, over 20,000 personnel would be deployed for poll duties, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Inspector Gen. Ravideep Sahi told BenarNews. The security forces are well prepared to deal with any situation and I request people need not panic but to exercise their right to vote. CRPF is maintaining a close synergy with Jammu and Kashmir police and other security agencies, Sahi added. Bhartiya Janta Party district president Mohammed Rafiq Wani (right) and another party leader flash victory signs after filing nomination petitions in Anantnag district, Sept 28, 2018. (Sheikh Mashooq/BenarNews) Officials are concerned because militants have threatened acid attacks on candidates who take part in the elections, terming the vote a ploy by India to mislead the world community. At least 772 candidates filed their nomination petitions as of Friday, the last day to submit such paperwork, election officials said. The state authorities last week said additional paramilitary forces would be deployed and announced an incentive of one month additional salary to employees performing election duties. The state has unprecedented security arrangements and every candidate can be provided with security, Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, the states top government official, said last week. Village administration elections were last held in 2011 while civic body (town) elections were held in 2005. While the civic elections will be early next month, the village administration polls will be held in nine phases between Nov. 17 and Dec. 11. Previous elections could not be held because of violence plaguing Kashmir. Boycott The main regional parties Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference will boycott the election, citing alleged attempts by the Indian government to tamper with the statute, which guarantees special status to the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir. The parties asked the federal government to state its stand on the sensitive issue and take effective steps to protect it. Fresh violence broke out Thursday after two civilians were killed during two separate anti-militancy operations by security forces. Dozens of anti-India protesters were injured in clashes with security forces following the killings. As authorities struggled to maintain order, unidentified men torched at least eight village administration houses, mostly in militancy-infested southern Kashmir in the past 10 days, officials said. Meanwhile, a special police officer posted as a security guard at a local legislators residence in Srinagar left with nine service rifles, police said Friday An alert has been sounded and manhunt launched to track him down. He may have decamped with rifles to join militants, said a senior police officer who asked to remain anonymous. Royal Malaysian Police escort Nik Muhamad Zaini Nik Hassan and Ismadi Md Nor, who pleaded guilty at the Kuala Lumpur High Court to planning a terror attack in the southern state of Johor, Sept. 28, 2018. The Kuala Lumpur High Court on Friday sentenced two suspected members of a terror cell linked to Islamic State (IS) to three years in prison for planning a terror attack last year in the southern state of Johor. Judge Azman Abdullah sentenced Nik Muhamad Zaini Nik Hassan, 37, and Ismadi Md Nor, 30, after both pleaded guilty to planning an attack on the Free Mason building near Lido beach in the city of Johor Bahru, between Dec. 11 and Jan. 31, 2017. Azman advised the men to repent and be thankful they were arrested before the attack was committed because they could have faced death sentences. Dont blame anyone but yourselves. Think positively that God loves you, as he has spared you the gallows for not being caught with firearms, he said. Azman then ruled they be credited for time served since their arrest on Feb. 27. During interrogation, both said they planned the attack in response to what they claimed were atrocities by the Western world against IS. They also asserted that the building was a symbol of anti-Islamic sentiments. The men were charged in March along with Mohammad Zaki Ibrahim, 49, who allegedly had IS video clips on his mobile phone and tablet and could face seven years in prison, if found guilty. The three were part of a six-member terrorist cell arrested by Malaysian counter-terror officials in raids in February and March, Police Inspector General Mohamad Fuzi Harun said at the time. Defense lawyer Sukhaimi Mashud pleaded for a minimum sentence as his clients had merely planned the attack, but it never took place, and no weapons were found after they were arrested. Deputy Public Prosecutor Noor Syazwani Mohamad Sobry, on the other hand, asked for a deterrent sentence that took into account the seriousness of the offense and what he said was a rising rate of violence in the country. Alleged mastermind still at large Meanwhile, the alleged mastermind of the plot, whom Malaysian officials have identified as Awae Wae-Eya, has not been captured. Awae, 37, is a Thai national and former member of a southern Thailand separatist movement. In April, Thai military officials in the Deep South released Awae from custody, saying they had determined he had no ties to IS or other militants and had no criminal record. Malaysian police are also looking for three additional suspects linked to Awae and thought to have fled Malaysia. The others are identified as Mumaham Faizal Muhamad Hanafi, 29; his father Muhamad Hanafi Yah, 51; and Nor Farkhan Mohd Isa, 31. Malaysia, home to about 32 million people, including 19.5 million Muslims, is one of the most developed economies in Southeast Asia. Authorities report that they have foiled at least nine IS-related bomb plots since 2013 including one that targeted the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur in August 2017. A June 2016 grenade attack that injured eight people at a nightclub in Puchong, near the capital Kuala Lumpur, was the first terrorist act on Malaysian soil claimed by IS. Thousands of Filipinos demonstrate in Manila to criticize President Rodrigo Duterte and mark the anniversary of Ferdinand Marcos declaration of martial law, Sept. 21, 2018. The United Nations and the Human Rights Watch led international calls Friday to hold President Rodrigo Duterte accountable for appearing to admit that extrajudicial killings took place in his administrations war on drugs that has left thousands dead during the past two years. UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard, who has been denied an official investigation into the killings, said the admission destroyed any semblance of rule law in the Southeast Asian country. Callamard described Dutertes statement seemingly admitting his fault as extraordinary. Translation: my only sin is imposing unthinkable sufferings on 1000s of vulnerable families, emboldening corrupt policing, destroying rule of law, Callamard said via Twitter, responding to Dutertes statement. Duterte on Thursday openly acknowledged for the first time that extrajudicial killings had occurred in his governments sweeping anti-drug war, which according to the police has left some 4,500 drug addicts and dealers dead after fighting it out with the police. Rights groups, however, have placed the figure at more than 12,000, a figure that Duterte has said was bloated and exaggerated. In a rambling speech before government employees at the presidential palace on Thursday, Duterte said that he had challenged the military to remove him if they were unsatisfied with his leadership. I asked the military, what is my sin? Did I persecute somebody and throw him in jail? Duterte said in Filipino, the national language. My only sin is the extrajudicial killings. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque on Friday attempted to dismiss Dutertes public confession as a joke. You know the president, he was not being serious, Roque told BenarNews. Nonetheless, the admission would likely be used by rights groups to support two murder complaints they have placed against Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands. Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said Dutertes confession would likely be taken seriously by the ICC, emphasizing that what the president made was a public confession that fell under its jurisdiction. The ICC should consider that as a formal and public admission of guilt on the part of the president. Thats how simple it is, he told reporters. New York-based Human Rights Watch director Brad Adams said Dutertes admission should prod the ICC to speed up its consideration of the cases against the Philippine leader. This admission should erase any doubt about the culpability of the president, Adams said in statement. Documentation by various groups, such as Human Rights Watch, as well as credible media reports, have pointed to a systematic, relentless and violent campaign targeting mostly poor drug users, including many who were mistakenly killed, some of them children, he said. Opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros said in a statement Friday that Duterte's "admission" could also be used as evidence against him in local courts investigating human rights violations under his war on drugs. Sooner or later, President Duterte will have to pay the wages of his sin of extrajudicial killings, she said. Jeoffrey Maitem in Cotabato City contributed to this report. Rescuers carry provisions and digging equipment in the northern town of Itogon after a mountainside collapsed and trapped miners, Sept. 15, 2018. Rescuers have recovered more bodies from two storm-induced landslides in the central and northern Philippines during the past few days, bringing the death toll to almost 150 since powerful Typhoon Mangkhut slammed into the country two weeks ago, officials said Friday. Dozens of people are still missing and are also believed dead, in the northern mountainous region of Itogon and in the quarry site in Naga City in central Cebu province, officials said. Baltazar Tribunalo, provincial disaster management chief, said that at least 64 people have been recovered and 19 others are missing, and believed dead, after a side of a mountain collapsed onto an impoverished community in Naga. Our rescuers could no longer detect any signs of life. The team from Manila also told us from ground zero there are no more signs of life, he said. The firm blamed for the tragedy assured families of the victims they are helping and cooperating with the government in the retrieval operations. Chito Maniago, a spokesman for the Apo Land and Quarry Corp., which had concessions on the site said the firm was not shirking responsibility and was working with rescuers to recover the victims. Last month, the Philippine environment departments mines and geosciences bureau inspected the area and found cracks in the slopes in the Naga quarry site. But the APO firm said they had not begun quarry operations at the site that collapsed. In the mountainous northern town of Itogon, where a side of the ridge slammed onto an old mining community, rescuers have pulled out 78 bodies so far, officials said. About 30 remained missing, according to towns police chief, Senior Inspector Heherson Zambale. The two landslides occurred last week after Typhoon Mangkhut unleashed heavy rains and barreled through the nation with winds of 170 kph (105 mph) and gusts of 260 kph (160 mph). The energy committee of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry wants the government to look at the possibility of subsidizing power rates like in some countries to reduce electricity costs. PCCI chairman of energy and infrastructure committee Jose Alejandro said during an energy forum that power costs in the country had not been going down. We still have a big challenge in our hands. With all the efforts that have been going on, power cost is not going down even by 10 percent when our competitors (are) 30 to 50 percent lower than us. That is the challenge we have, Alejandro said. The Philippines ranks second highest in terms of residential power rates and third highest in average power rates in the Asia Pacific. In the end, we have to think of how to subsidize our power costs. No way can we run away from the word subsidy. We all know... our competitors are subsidized, Alejandro said. The PCCI official said other countries subsidized their power rates to remain globally competitive and attract investors. They subsidize because they want foreign direct investments to come in their country and they are succeeding. Their GNP (gross national product) is going up, their per capita is going up and if their per capita goes up, theyre slowly raising power costs, he said. He said there were no new investments and existing investors were not expanding.We have to avoid running away from the issue of subsidizing power costs. I cannot see how our cabinet secretaries are going to UK, promoting investments and we all know our power costs is not competitive. What kind of investments are going to come here? he said. Alejandro said the Philippines must attract more manufacturing companies to invest in the Philippines. Were trying very hard to bring down the cost... but the sum total is, its not enough to bring us to a competitive level, he said. Alejandro said a more transparent and real competition in the power industry would reduce the cost. He said the government should also focus on smart grid programs so that the distribution of power, later on, could be done more scientifically. Alejandro said the government must also look at off-grid or missionary areas because thats where markets are going to be created. If we can come up with a program to bring down costs, business will grow in that area. Population that is coming in the urban areas will go there, he said. Check out the top stories from BGSU and beyond in our newscast and online edition of our newspaper every Wednesday. You can also view past papers by clicking the e-edition header above. by A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the myth of unchurched Christians. Unfortunately the reality is that there are a good number of professing Christians who either shy away from church membership or avoid church attendance altogether. The problem of professing Christians who neglect church involvement is sadly not a myth. There are a number of excuses that such professing believers give for their lack of church involvement. Here are three that Ive heard: Ive been hurt by a previous church (or church leader). Sadly, this reason is often grounded in reality. Many people have been emotionally torn up by the actions of other people. Churches are full of sinnershopefully, redeemed sinners, but sinners nonetheless. It should come as no surprise that sinners sin, and although all sin is ultimately against God, human sin often has harmful consequences in the lives of people who have been sinned against. But someones sin against you is not a good excuse for you to sin against God by ignoring his plan for this dispensation which is for his people to identify with a local church. The church is full of hypocrites. Yes, local churches contain people who live hypocritically. To some extent, every person that acknowledges the lordship of Christ but continues to sin is acting hypocritically. This was a problem in the first century, and it remains a problem in the twenty-first as well. As long as believers possess a sin nature, they will sin against their Lord and Savior, and such sin runs contrary to their profession. However, this isnt a good reason for avoiding the church, for few things could be more hypocritical than professing to love Christ while refusing to identify with his people in a local expression of the body of Christ. I can worship God better on my own. Some professing believers speak of being churchfree or satellite Christians. They feel that because they can approach God directly through Christ, they do not need to be connected to a local church. In fact, some profess that their relationship with God has actually improved by walking away from the church. But if Gods plan for this age involves his people assembling together for worship, fellowship, and mutual accountability, then it doesnt ultimately matter how one feels. The quality of ones worship is not completely separate from affections or feelings, but feelings cannot override commands. One cannot worship God better by ignoring his instructions and the model that is pretty clearly laid out in the NT. Sometimes these three excuses are used together, as if one could build a cumulative case for why he or she doesnt need to be connected to a local church body. Ive provided only the simplest replies to these excuses. Here are a few NT passages so-called unchurched Christians must wrestle with if they wish to continue excusing their lack of local church involvement: Acts 16:5: So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. 1 Corinthians 5:2, 45, and 1213: Shouldnt you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked person from among you. >1 Timothy 3:1415: Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in Gods household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. >Hebrews 10:2425: And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one anotherand all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 13:7, 17, and 24: Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Greet all your leaders and all the Lords people. See also Acts 15:41; 1 Cor 1:2; 1 Cor 4:17; 1 Cor 7:17; 2 Cor 8:124; Gal 1:2; 1 Tim 5:17; >Titus 1:59; Jas 5:14; and 1 Pet 5:14 among others. Photo credit: Unsplash/JohnyVino Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, the truth about kids and the COVID-19 vaccine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices The Department of Labor and Employment has expressed concern over a report on the increasing number of illegal foreign workers in the country. Whether it is true or not, the only thing we are certain is that there are only around 115,000 foreign workers with Alien Employment Permit issued by DOLE regional directors, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement on Thursday. He said the agency has issued Alien Employment Permit to over 115,000 foreigners since 2015. Citing the latest data from the Bureau of Local Employment, there are 115,652 foreign nationals who were issued with AEP, 51,980 of whom are Chinese, while 12,177 are Japanese and 11,780 are Koreans, for a three-year period from 2015 to 2017.Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has claimed there are around 400,000 foreigners working in Metro Manila alone. Bello noted that they are not the only permit-issuing agency that allows foreign nationals to work in the country. Other agencies that issue working permit to foreign workers include the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for geoscience and mining industry; the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) for the practice of regulated professions; the Department of Justice for nationalized or partially nationalized industries; and the Bureau of Immigration, for the pre-arranged employment visa or 9G. For Immediate Release, September 28, 2018 Contact: Ryan Shannon, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 283-5474 x 407, rshannon@biologicaldiversity.org Bethany Cotton, WildEarth Guardians, (406) 414-7227, bcotton@wildearthguardians.org Erik Molvar, Western Watersheds Project, (307) 399-7910, emolvar@westernwatersheds.org Talasi Brooks, Advocates for the West, (208) 342-7024 x 208, tbrooks@advocateswest.org Judge Upholds Endangered Species Act Protections for Gunnison Sage Grouse Rare Bird Threatened by Drilling, Sprawl, Livestock Grazing in Utah, Colorado GUNNISON, Colo. A federal judge on Thursday rejected efforts to remove Endangered Species Act protection from the Gunnison sage grouse, upholding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services determination that the species warranted protection under the Act. The Gunnison sage grouse an imperiled bird in Colorado and Utah known for its elaborate courtship rituals was protected as a threatened species with 1.4 million acres of designated critical habitat in 2014. With only a small fraction of its historic range remaining, the bird is in danger of disappearing because of sprawl development, oil and gas drilling, grazing and climate change. Were relieved that desperately needed protection for these unique birds will stand, said Ryan Shannon, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Now its time for federal wildlife officials to focus on recovering this critically imperiled species. We need quick action or the West will lose these birds forever. The Center for Biological Diversity, Dr. Clait Braun, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians had intervened in the lawsuit to defend the Gunnison sage grouse against attacks from the states of Utah and Colorado; San Juan County, Utah; the Board of County Commissioners of the County of Gunnison, Colo.; and the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association. The Gunnison sage grouse is limited to a small area of southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. Because of a history of habitat loss and fragmentation, a mere seven isolated populations remain, with a total population of fewer than 3,000 birds. All seven populations are in decline. Gunnison sage grouse numbers are tanking as their habitat is destroyed, and the science clearly shows that the species is endangered, said Talasi Brooks, a staff attorney at Advocates of the West. But were glad that the Gunnison sage grouse will remain protected. Hopefully the species can recover. Sadly, the numbers dont look good for the Gunnison sage grouse with only 723 males counted in 2018, said noted Gunnison sage grouse biologist Clait Braun. That translates to about 2,892 total Gunnison sage grouse left in the entire world. Hopefully the judges decision means that we can protect this small remaining population. The court clearly recognized that with seven declining and isolated populations, and local conservation efforts incapable of eliminating the clear and well-documented threats to the Gunnison sage grouses survival, the specter of extinction remains a very real and troubling possibility today, said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist and executive director of Western Watersheds Project. The court found no scientific merit in the notion that existing state and local conservation efforts are enough to save and recover this bird. Todays decision gives the magnificent Gunnison sage grouse a fighting chance to survive and ultimately recover, said Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. We hope that Utah and Colorado will now spend their time and considerable resources working to safeguard this imperiled dancing bird instead of fighting against our best tool to prevent extinction. Western Watersheds Project and the Center for Biological Diversity were represented by Center attorneys. WildEarth Guardians and Dr. Braun were represented by attorneys at Advocates for the West. For Immediate Release, September 28, 2018 Contact: Steve Jones, (415) 305-3866, sjones@biologicaldiversity.org Trump Administration Rolls Back Offshore Drilling Safety Regulations Relaxed Safety Rules Adopted as Oil Leasing Proposed for All U.S. Oceans WASHINGTON The Trump administration today relaxed offshore drilling safety rules adopted after the deadly BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, the countrys worst environmental disaster. Todays regulatory rollback comes as the administration is pushing to expand offshore oil drilling into every U.S. ocean and holding the biggest offshore drilling auctions in U.S. history. Its madness to expand dangerous offshore drilling while making it even less safe. This reckless administration is risking catastrophic oil spills along every U.S. coastline, said Miyoko Sakashita, ocean program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. By willfully ignoring Deepwater Horizons lessons, Trump is displaying disdain for even modest environmental protections. The new rule removes the requirement for third-party inspections of offshore-drilling safety equipment and the requirement that operators notify regulators about oil production being shut down and restarted, among other changes. Todays rule change is the first in a package of offshore drilling safety rules that the administration is proposing to rescind or weaken. The Department of the Interiors Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has also proposed major changes to the Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control Rule, which was a direct response to one of the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. That 2010 explosion killed 11 rig workers and caused more than 210 million gallons of oil to flow uncontrolled into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months. Deepwater Horizon killed thousands of marine mammals and birds and cost the Gulf Coast billions of dollars. Why would this administration seek to inflict that same kind of damage on other coastal communities? It boggles the mind, Sakashita said. We need to phase out offshore oil drilling, not make it drastically more pervasive and dangerous. Aside from contributing billions of pesos to the Charity Fund, Small Town Lottery operations have given jobs and decent lives to 310,863 people all over the country, reported Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Alexander Balutan on Friday. Of 310,863 jobs, 13,611 are organic STL employees, 22,950 are sales supervisors, and 274,302 are sales agents, Balutan said. When it comes to regions, assistant general manager for Branch Operations Sector Remeliza Gabuyo confirmed that Northern and Central Luzon have generated the highest number of jobs with 147,261. It was followed by Southern Tagalog and Bicol Region with 88,745 jobs, Visayas with 43,464 jobs, Mindanao with 20,552 jobs, and National Capital Region with 10,841 jobs, Gabuyo said. Instead of tolerating jueteng, let us support and strengthen STL. STL has provided legal jobs for people who were used to illegal numbers game. They are the ones who cannot even pass the nitty-gritties of job fairs due to age, lack of education, and physical disability. We have saved them from vicesexample drugsand from being exploited by criminals. STL is giving them and their families a decent life, Balutan said. The established and existing STL corporations provide regular medical missions and educational assistance to their towns and municipalities, apart from providing economic activity to the province.At present, Balutan said that PCSO has 85 operational Authorized STL Agents nationwide, with 18 more approved ASAs for the first semester of 2018 and six terminated ASAs for violations of the STL Implementing Rules and Regulations. STL is a regular game by PCSO authorized by the national government through Section 1 of Republic Act 1169. ASAs are corporations or cooperatives duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or with the Cooperative Development Authority, respectively, that applied, been duly qualified and expressly authorized by the PCSO to conduct STL in a particular area. The whole gross sales of PCSO from its lottery products such as Lotto, Sweepstakes and STL, 55 percent of which goes to Prize Fund, 15 percent goes to Operating Fund and the remaining 30 percent goes to Charity Fund. Reciba en su email: noticias de ultima hora, analisis tecnicos o el cierre de mercado Email no valido Nombre requerido Recibira las informaciones mas relevantes del dia en tiempo real Que informacion desea recibir? Noticias de Ultima hora Boletin Cierre de Mercado Boletin analisis tecnico Boletin Fundsnews Debe seleccionar un tipo de boletin Acepto la Politica de privacidad Debe aceptar la politica de privacidad Responsable EMPRESAS DEL GRUPO WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Finalidad La remision de informacion, novedades y promociones Establecimiento o mantenimiento de Relaciones Comerciales. Legitimacion Consentimiento del interesado. Interes legitimo en el desarrollo de la relacion comercial Destinatario Empresas del Grupo WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Derechos Acceso, rectificacion, supresion, limitacion, oposicion y portabilidad Informacion adicional Politica de Privacidad de nuestra pagina Web + INFORMACION PR Newswire JANESVILLE, Wis., Sept. 28, 2018 JANESVILLE, Wis., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackhawk Community Credit Union (BHCCU) today announced a $30 million investment initiative to revitalize downtown Janesville into an ecosystem for innovation over the next several years. Since 2011, BHCCU has grown from $320 million in assets with six branches to over $600 million in assets, 50,000 members and 12 branches from Stoughton to Janesville to Kenosha. "Blackhawk Community Credit Union is committed to the families who live and work here and have for generations," said Sherri Stumpf, CEO of BHCCU, chair of Forward Janesville, finance chair for United Way and co-chair of ARISE Now, a public-private partnership that is committed to revitalizing downtown Janesville. "When General Motors closed its Janesville auto manufacturing plant in 2009, many thought the city would spiral downward," said Stumpf. "However, job skills training and education was provided through the state of Wisconsin and the Rock County Job Center to those not retiring or transferring with GM. BHCCU made loans to people in the community to start businesses and to bridge families through the recession. The people of Janesville are resilient. We believe the city is a model for how other American cities can revitalize. This is a turnaround story that started with the oldest running GM plant built in 1919 and our commitment beyond a centennial celebration as we place the same cornerstone on this project in 2019." "While the Great Recession had quite an impact, nearly every economic indicator for the Janesville-Beloit metropolitan statistical area is stronger today than it was a decade ago," said James Otterstein, Rock County Economic Development Agency. The average annual unemployment and industrial vacancy rates are hovering at 20-25 year lows, less than four percent and five percent, respectively. Local sales tax collections are 32 percent higher than a decade ago and property values have enjoyed annual average gains of five percent during each of the last five years. Overall the area's GDP is up nearly 30 percent from 2008 and four percent from 2016. These GDP gains grabbed the attention of the Milken Institute, which named Janesville-Beloit the 25th best performing small city in 2017. BHCCU has signed an intent to purchase 2.5 acres on the eastern bank of the Rock River in what will be called the SOCO (south of Court Street) district at 37 South Water Street. The 10,000 square-foot Legacy Center that will house historical artifacts from the credit union's founding members will be a part of the larger 130,000 square-foot, four-story headquarters that will be home to 200 employees. Preliminary forecasts estimate that the annual economic impact of the new Legacy Center could add up to $250,000 toward area tourism which recorded $244.7 million from visitors in 2017. The initiative will include a new branch of the credit union, restaurants, a health and fitness center, and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater MBA classes, the 10,000 square-foot Lea McGuire Conference Center, named after the first and second presidents of the credit union, Glenn Lea and Patrick McGuire. Additional space is anticipated to include: law offices; retail; daycare; and 12 condominiums. "For 53 years the credit union has made investing in our community its mission," said Glenn Lea, BHCCU's Director Emeritus. "I am proud that Blackhawk Community Credit Union's investment in this project will continue our original mission and make an impact on future generations." BHCCU, with its Legacy Center, is building exhibits of historic precedence with memorabilia that span the centennial of the plant, including the first model-year Chevrolet Superior off the Janesville assembly line in 1923. Gary Mawhinney, retired Wisconsin National Guard and former GM plant employee who rose to supervision before retiring in 1995, researched the car's location from Wisconsin to Ohio and Oklahoma. He bought, restored and donated the car to the Rock County Historical Society who will loan it to the Legacy Center. "I didn't want to miss the opportunity to own the first model-year car because my work at the plant was a significant part of my life," Mawhinney said. "The pace at GM was challenging. We worked 55 hours, six days a week. We produced 1,000 cars and 200 trucks a day and we were number one in quality for trucks." Opening in 1919, the GM facility covered 4.8 million square feet. In the 1970's, during the plant's prime, it employed approximately 7,000 people. Gary Nelson worked at the plant for 31 years and his father for 42 years. Nelson recalls it as the first time a company offered the ability to withdraw money from a paycheck to put toward savings. "It was the only way to save, buy a home to raise a family, own a car and put children through college. My son is now an engineer at J.M. Grimstad after graduating from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. My daughter graduated nursing school and works as an MRI technologist for Mercy Health in Janesville," said Nelson. "Other U.S. cities have been less fortunate than Janesville. Our families hold a deep connection to each other. It is remarkable. The good relationships between plant management and hourly workers caught people by surprise. Grandparents, fathers, mother, sons, daughters and siblings dedicated their lives to making great automobiles. The Legacy Center project honors that history," said Brad Dutcher, UAW international vice president. BHCCU's groundbreaking is anticipated for late fall 2019, with completion in 2021. Ken Kueng has worked 26 years for the national construction firm J.P. Cullen that built the original plant in 1919, hired several GM engineers when the plant closed, and is slated to build BHCCU's headquarters, Legacy Center and conference center. "When it was time to build a new headquarters for the credit union, I saw the possibility for Janesville to become a more vibrant community. This area is soon to be a model for other cities and a catalyst for continued development that will make our members proud. This is all part of BHCCU's strategic plan of growth over the next 20-30 years and until the space is needed, we will offset project costs by leasing space to the community to help pay for this investment over time," said Stumpf. About Blackhawk Community Credit Union (BHCCU) Blackhawk Community Credit Union has over $600 million in assets and over 50,000 members. Membership is open to those working or living in Rock, Dane, Jefferson, Walworth, Green, Kenosha, Racine, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties of Wisconsin and Winnebago, Boone, McHenry and Lake Counties of Illinois. Products and services include savings, checking, certificates and credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and home equity loans. Investment services are also available. Contact:Kellee Johnson, 312-751-3959, [email protected] for BHCCU View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blackhawk-community-credit-union-announces-expanded-revitalization-of-downtown-janesville-wisconsin-that-serves-as-a-model-for-us-cities-300721120.html SOURCE Blackhawk Community Credit Union Canada NewsWire TORONTO, Sept. 27, 2018 TORONTO, Sept. 27, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - The Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPAs) was started in 2009 and after 10 years has become the badge of honour in the Canadian publishing industry for excellence in online content. In a world of fake content, ad farms, social media and the latest app the COPAs provides that aura of authenticity. The COPAs is a national celebration for all the outstanding publishing professionals in Canada and the finalists for the 2018 Awards were posted on the COPA web site Click here to see the finalists. Some of the more notable entries this include one in the Academic division written by Cory Morrison a student from Sheridan College who lives with autism and his article - "The journey of autism services" is a finalist in the Best Article category. Another one this year were entries from a bilingual Chinese culture magazine Fete Chinoise that is finalist in the Best Niche Website and Best investigative Article in the Consumer division. The goal of the COPAs is to be inclusive to all forms of media and in its 10th year it is still expanding its footprint. This year's 10th Anniversary COPA Party will be held at the historic Eglinton Grand in Toronto on Wednesday November 14, 2018 and will be broadcast live on Twitter at this hashtag #COPAwards. The event also includes a State of Digital Seminar and will look at the next generation of ad sales models for the publishing industry. SOURCE Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA) GAM Holding AG / GAM Holding AG announces changes to the Group Management Board . Processed and transmitted by West Corporation. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. 28 September 2018 Press Release GAM Holding AG announces changes to the Group Management Board Today GAM Holding AG ("GAM") announces changes to the composition of its Group Management Board (GMB). The GMB has been expanded to now include the role of Group Head of Investments. Matthew Beesley, who joined GAM in March 2017, will take up this position on the GMB, following the customary regulatory approval process. Matthew has been instrumental in implementing the Group's strategy to evolve its investments business from a regional and segregated investment team structure into an effective and cohesive globally consistent investment management platform. This better positions the firm to adapt to global regulatory change, increases operational efficiency and, importantly, aligns the business to the needs of our clients. Natalie Baylis, who joined GAM and the GMB as Group Head of Compliance in June 2018, has decided to step down from her role for personal reasons and will leave GAM at the end of October 2018. David Kemp, who was previously General Counsel, Asset and Wealth Management at Schroders and has extensive industry and regulatory experience, will join GAM on 1 October 2018 as interim Group Head of Compliance reporting to Group CEO, Alexander Friedman. David will work closely with Rachel Wheeler, previously General Counsel at Aviva Investors, who took up her position as Group General Counsel and member of the GMB on 3 September 2018. Group CEO, Alexander Friedman, said: "I am delighted to welcome both Matthew and Rachel to the Group Management Board. Since joining GAM in 2017, Matthew has been integral in strengthening and centralising our investment team support, and his appointment to the GMB underscores the importance of implementing our investments strategy. Rachel has now taken up her role as Group General Counsel bringing significant industry and corporate governance experience to the firm and already her deep knowledge and expertise is having a great impact. "We will be sad to see Natalie go and we all wish her the best for the future. I am pleased that we have been able to ensure a smooth transition at this important time, with David joining to lead our global compliance function as we continue to enhance our control and support capabilities." ENDS Notes to Editors Brief Biographical Details Matthew Beesley, Group Head of InvestmentsPrior to joining GAM in March 2017, Matthew was Head of Global Equities at Henderson Global Investors for five years. Matt's previous experience includes a number of portfolio manager roles at Trinity Street Asset Management, JP Morgan Asset Management and Mercury Asset Management/Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. Matthew holds a BA (Hons) degree in politics and modern history from the University of Manchester and is a CFA charterholder. Rachel Wheeler, Group General Counsel Prior to joining in 2018, Rachel was General Counsel at Aviva Investors for four years and at USS Investment Management Limited for more than two years. Rachel was previously head of legal, international asset management at BNY Mellon for six years. She started her career in 1994 at Simmons & Simmons, where she qualified as a solicitor. Rachel holds a postgraduate diploma in law and legal practice from the College of Law, Guildford and a BA in history from the University of Wales. Rachel chairs the Investment Association Legal Committee and is an advisory board member for the Institutional Investor Legal Forum and the Institutional Investor Governance and Legal Symposium. David Kemp, Interim Group Head of Compliance David has been General Counsel, Asset & Wealth Management at Schroders since 2012 having previously held a number of senior positions in investment banks. He began his career as a solicitor with a leading City law firm. David holds a post-graduate diploma in law and legal practice course from the College of Law, Guildford, a master's degree in Business Finance from Brunel University and a BA (Hons) from King's College, University of London. David has a wide range of regulatory, compliance and legal leadership experience including with respect to global derivative regulatory compliance; analysis, advice and implementation of regulatory change in connection with AIFMD, UCITS V, MiFID II; analysis and submission of regulated entity licence applications; and internal control procedures for client and counterparty onboarding and product governance. For further information please contact: Visit us at: www.gam.com Follow us on: Twitter and LinkedIn About GAM GAM is one of the world's leading independent, pure-play asset managers. The company provides active investment solutions and products for institutions, financial intermediaries and private investors. The core investment business is complemented by private labelling services, which include management company and other support services to third-party asset managers. GAM employs over 900 people in 14 countries with investment centres in London, Cambridge, Zurich, Hong Kong, New York, Milan and Lugano. The investment managers are supported by an extensive global distribution network. Headquartered in Zurich, GAM is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and is a component of the Swiss Market Index Mid (SMIM) with the symbol 'GAM'. The Group has assets under management of CHF 163.8 billion (USD 165.0 billion) as at 30 June 2018. Disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements This press release by GAM Holding AG ('the Company') includes forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's intentions, beliefs or current expectations and projections about the Company's future results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, performance, prospects, strategies, opportunities and the industry in which it operates. Forward-looking statements involve all matters that are not historical facts. The Company has tried to identify those forward-looking statements by using words such as 'may', 'will', 'would', 'should', 'expect', 'intend', 'estimate', 'anticipate', 'project', 'believe', 'seek', 'plan', 'predict', 'continue' and similar expressions. Such statements are made on the basis of assumptions and expectations which, although the Company believes them to be reasonable at this time, may prove to be erroneous. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, performance, prospects or opportunities, as well as those of the markets it serves or intends to serve, to differ materially from those expressed in, or suggested by, these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause those differences include, but are not limited to: changing business or other market conditions, legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments, general economic conditions, and the Company's ability to respond to trends in the financial services industry. Additional factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update of, or revisions to, any forward-looking statements in this press release and any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based, except as required by applicable law or regulation. Legacy carrier Philippine Airlines has signed an agreement with the Armed Forces of the Philippines to give travel privileges to all AFP military personnel in the form of discounted domestic economy or business class tickets. The travel privilege, according to PAL corporate communications division head and spokesperson Ma. Cielo Villaluna is 20 percent off the base fare of a ticket along with the corresponding free baggage allowance. The other salient privileges include priority during check-in and boarding and acknowledgment during the flight. Villaluna said AFP personnel may book their flights at any PAL ticket office in the country or through the PAL reservations hotlines. To avail of the discount, she said, the officers are required to present a valid AFP ID and a travel order for rest and recreation signed by an authorized signatory. AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. signed the agreement on behalf of the Armed Forces during signing ceremonies at the PAL head office in Pasay City.In welcoming the new accord, PAL acknowledged the contribution of the men and women of the Armed Forces in bringing peace and development to the country. The airlines cited the AFPs heroic role in security operations in Mindanao where soldiers continue to risk and sacrifice their lives. PAL has renewed with vigor the grant of said travel benefits to our countrys heroes as a way of providing assistance to them as they travel throughout the country, said PAL executive vice president/ treasurer and chief administrative Officer Stewart Lim. Also present during the signing ceremony were AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel Brig. Gen. Erickson Gloria and AFP Morale and Welfare Division Chief Lt. Col. Ma. Noel Tolentino. Signatories of the agreement on the PAL side were Lim, PAL senior vice president for operations Ismael Augusto Gozon and PAL SVP for legal Siegfred Mison. Canada NewsWire TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 Tic Tac and Canadian designer, Tiffany Pratt, create an interactive art installation using new Tic Tac Gum pieces TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 /CNW/ - Tic Tac has launched a new line of gum just in time for National Gum Chewing Day on Sunday, September 30th! Tic Tac GUM available in delicious minty and fruity flavours delivers a burst of freshness with its sweet, crunchy shell on the outside and refreshing, long-lasting flavour on the inside. Featuring the iconic Tic Tac shape and size that has made the brand famous around the world, Tic Tac GUM allows you to choose the number of pieces of gum you want for the optimal flavour experience. And, with its unmistakable portable pack design, it's easy to share with others. "What's unique about Tic Tac GUM is its versatility," said Cheryl Kamran, Senior Brand Manager, Tic Tac Canada. "Both of its minty and fruity flavours offer a refreshing taste, perfect if you're looking to freshen your breath or you just simply want a flavourful piece of gum. The size of the gum pieces, combined with the iconic pack design, lets you customize the flavour intensity every time you chew just by the number of pieces you pop in your mouth." To launch the gum in Canada, Tic Tac has partnered with Canadian designer /creator Tiffany Pratt and local artist Frances Hahn to create a larger-than-life, 6ft by 6ft interactive art installation using only Tic Tac GUM pieces. Over the weekend, the installation will tour Toronto looking for fans to help recreate one of Hahn's unique gum-inspired paintings. "I'm so thrilled to be partnering with Tic Tac GUM to create such a memorable and interactive art piece," said Pratt. "I'm all about bringing vibrant, bold and fun ideas to everything I do and using Tic Tac GUM pieces couldn't be more playful." Tic Tac GUM is available nationally in most grocery and convenience stores and comes in three flavours: Freshmint, Watermelon and Spearmint. For more information on Tic Tac, please visit www.tictaccanada.com. Facebook: @tictaccanadaInstagram: @tictaccanada ABOUT THE TIC TAC BRAND AND FERRERO The Tic Tac brand was launched in 1969 by the Italian confectionery manufacturer Ferrero and has been a leading mint brand for over 40 years. Ferrero was established in 1946 in Alba, Italy, and the company has since grown to become one of the world's largest confectionary companies with a vast global portfolio of brands including Nutella, Ferrero Rocher and Kinder. For more information about Ferrero Canada Ltd., please visit www.ferrero.ca. SOURCE Tic Tac Canada At least three armed men shot dead the lawyer of slain suspected drug lord Melvin Boyet Odicta Sr. Reports said lawyer Edeljulio Romero, whom police said was listed as a high-value target in the High-Value Level 3 among drug personalities, was shot on the back of his head around 1 p.m. on Friday while he was eating at a carinderia in Barangay Culasi, Roxas City. Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, director of Police Regional Office 6, said that his office had immediately launched a hot pursuit operation against the suspects who remain unidentified. We are already conducting an investigation on this incident to identify and arrest those responsible, he said. Romero served as the lawyer of Odicta until the alleged drug lord and his wife Merriam were gunned down by unidentified men on Aug. 29, 2016, shortly after they disembarked from a ship at the Caticlan port in Malay town in Aklan.The lawyer was among those who were at the Caticlan port to fetch the Odicta couple. The killing of the Odicta couple has remained unsolved. A member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Iloilo, Romero, along with his wife, were waiting to board on a roll-on, roll-off vessel bound for Manila when the shooting occurred. We enjoin possible eyewitnesses to share information that may help in the ongoing investigation. We assure the victims family that a thorough investigation is underway to arrest those responsible, Bulalacao said. in 13 years Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua on Thursday night said the Philippines and China are preparing for President Xi Jinpings state visit to the country by end of the year. The plan is that he will come to the Philippines for a state visit but the specific date and month have not been finalized yet so were in close coordination with the Filipino side to prepare for the most likely state visit, he told reporters in Makati City. Xi was invited to the Philippines by President Rodrigo R. Duterte when they first met in October 2016. Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano earlier said the two sides are eyeing the month of November for the trip after a mutually accepted draft agreement on the joint exploration in South China Sea is signed. The agreement, however, was stalled after the scheduled official visit of State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sept. 16 was canceled due to a typhoon that battered the Philippines. Cayetano said the two sides talks on this partnership are on track. Meanwhile, Zhao said Beijing and Manila have not come to an agreement on the planned joint exploration in the South China Sea but both parties are seriously considering its possibility. I think both sides have realized that it would be our common interest to explore the possibility of joint exploration, which will be neutrally acceptable, he said. But first and foremost, we must maintain stability and peace in the South China Sea, he said. During his speech at the reception of the 69th Founding Anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China in Makati Shangri-La, Zhao cited the sustained betterment and growth of relations between the two countries since Duterte assumed the presidency. Over the past two years, a series of dialogue and consultation mechanisms have been revived in areas such as foreign affairs, defense, energy, economy and trade, agriculture, fisheries, science, and technology, he said. There have been also increasing interactions and exchanges between local governments, media agencies, universities, think tanks and cultural institutions. In the meantime, China and the Philippines have maintained good communication and coordination on international affairs, he added. In tourism, he reported that the Philippines already received more than 760,000 Chinese tourists in the first seven months of 2018, achieving a 40 percent year-on-year increase and about 50 percent of the targeted arrivals by end of the year. We have every reason to expect more than 1.5 million Chinese tourists to visit the Philippines this year and generate a revenue of more than P32 billion, the envoy said. The two countries continue to work closely to combat illicit drugs, terrorism, and cyber-crimes, he said. During his short conversation with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana at the reception, Zhao lauded China and the Philippines military-to-military relationship which already turned into a new phase. First, I expressed my appreciation for his participation in our National Day celebration, the envoy told reporters when asked what was discussed during his chat with the Defense chief. We have resumed our mutual trust and confidence. I hope with the efforts by both sides, (we) will further strengthen our mutual confidence and further strengthen military-to-military cooperation, he added. Zhao also made the assurance that China will be its good neighbor, sincere friend, and trusted partner, despite continuing unresolved maritime dispute over the South China Sea. China will continue to be the Philippines good neighbor, sincere friend, and trusted partner. China stands ready to join hands with the Philippines to make the fresh Golden Age of China-Philippines relations brighter and richer than ever before, he said.What we have done showcases that our two countries have the sincerity, wisdom, and capability to properly manage the differences and focus on cooperation, in the purpose of turning the South China Sea into a sea of peace, friendship and prosperity, he added Zhao also extolled the gains and sustained development in various aspects of the Beijing-Manila bilateral relations. We should remember 2018 as a year of witnessing a sustained betterment and growth of China-Philippines relations. Under the strategic guidance of our two leaders, China-Philippines relations are moving along the fast track and gearing up for a faster and stronger development, the Chinese envoy said, citing recent high-level exchanges, including the meeting of President Xi Jinping and President Rodrigo Duterte for five times on bilateral or multilateral occasions. He also recalled the successful visits to the Philippines by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and former Vice Premier Wang Yang in 2017 and the visit two weeks ago of Vice Chairman Ji Bingxuan of National Peoples Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. According to Zhao, the improved bilateral cooperation also resulted to improvement in the area of commerce where Chinas trade volume reached $50 billion, which made China the Philippines No. 1 trading partner and import origin, and the fourth largest export market. Last year, he noted, the newly added investment from China reached $ 53.84 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 67%. For the first five months in 2018, China has made another investment of $165 million in the Philippines, projecting a record-high growth rate this year. The Chinese diplomat also said Beijing attaches great importance to synergizing the Belt and Road Initiative and AmBisyon Natin 2040 as well as Build, Build, Build Plan of the Philippines. Considerable progress has been made in this regard. Funded by Chinas grants or soft loans, the drug-rehab centers, two bridges over Pasig River and Chico River Pump Irrigation Project already broke ground. The two sides are pushing forward more major infrastructure projects such as New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam, Subic-Clark Railway, Philippine National Railways South Long Haul and the Safe Philippines, with a total volume surpassing US$ 7 billion, he said. Zhao also said that since President Duterte took office, China has provided all in all RMB 1.284 billion of grants to the Philippines. For the first seven months in 2018, the Philippines has received more than 760,000 Chinese tourists, achieving a 40% year-on-year increase. We have every reason to expect more than 1.5 million Chinese tourists to visit the Philippines this year and generate a revenue of more than 32 billion pesos, he added. Please always stay assured of Chinas commitment to help improve livelihood, reduce poverty, assist the needy and realize sustainable development in the Philippines, he said. Zhao also pointed out that the China-Philippines relations also contributed to regional stability. When counter-terrorism campaign started in Marawi, China lost no time in delivering a batch of military assistance to the Philippines. Our two countries have been working closely to combat illicit drugs, terrorism, and cyber-crimes, he said, adding that our concerted efforts, the situation in the South China Sea has been defined by sustaining stability. Our two countries initiated such dialogue mechanisms as the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) and Joint Coast Guard Committee (JCGC), and explored practical cooperation in such areas as fisheries, maritime affairs, joint search and rescue, marine scientific research and environmental protection, the Chinese envoy said. READ: China leader sets 1st state visit to The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has axed deputy director general for administration Ismael Fajardo Jr. for his alleged involvement in the smuggling of P6.8 billion worth of shabu. Derrick Carreon, chief of the PDEA public information office, confirmed Fajardos relief Thursday, saying the order had come down on Sept. 13. Carreon said Fajardo attended a hearing Thursday at the House of Representatives about the P6.8-billion shipment of shabu. Right now, director Fajardo is in a hearing in his personal capacity [for] having certain knowledge on the case. He is not there to speak for PDEA, he said. Fajardo was a former PDEA chief for the National Capital Region. During Thursdays House hearing, PDEA chief Aaron Aquino said he had relieved Fajardo and ordered a lifestyle check on him for his suspected involvement in the smuggling of shabu. On Aug. 11, PDEA agents seized four magnetic lifters in a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite. Aquino said the empty magnetic lifters could have contained a ton of shabu worth P6.8 billion that had already made its way to the streets. He said K9 dogs detected the traces of shabu, but Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena maintained the absence of illegal drugs. At Thursdays joint hearing of the committees on dangerous drugs and good government, resigned intelligence officer Jimmy Guban of the Bureau of Customs was cited for contempt for failing to give truthful statements before the panel. The committees, headed by Representatives Robert Ace Barbers of Surigano del Norte and Jesus Romualdo of Camiguin, said Guban will be held at the House of Representatives after he has served his time in the Senate, where he was detained for disrespecting the senators. Guban earlier said he and Fajardo have known each other for a long time, as they were classmates at the Philippine College of Criminology and worked together in drug bust operations. The former BoC intelligence officer has been implicated in the smuggling of a shabu shipment after he admitted to receiving money from dismissed policeman Eduardo Acierto. Acierto allegedly directed Guban to find a consignee for the shabu shipment. Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop, member of the House dangerous drugs committee, moved to cite Guban in contempt for not telling the truth in his testimony. Barbers said his panel decided to hold Guban in contempt Guban for being disrespectful to members of the committees and for failing to answer questions properly.Because of your non-cooperation in these two committees, having uttered conflicting statements, we will ask you to stay in the room prepared by the House of Representatives for resource persons who are cited in contempt after your extended stay in the Senate, Barbers told Guban. Barbers said Guban was inconsistent in his answers just like he was at the Senate investigation held earlier. Earlier, the Senate Blue Ribbon committee cited Guban in contempt for failing to give truthful statements during the panels own investigation into the shabu smuggling incident. If the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee releases Mr. Guban, he will have an extended stay in the confines of the House of Representatives and he will enjoy as well the contempt being issued by these committees, Barbers added. Blue Ribbon committee chairman Senator Richard J. Gordon on Thursday called on the Bureau of Customs to fortify its arsenal as the war on drug smuggling has entered a new level. Gordons committee resumed its investigation into the P4.3 billion worth of shabu from two magnetic lifters inside an abandoned container van at the Manila International Container Port and the suspected P6.8 billion of shabu removed from four similar lifters in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite. The senator said they were able to establish that the empty magnetic lifters delivered to the CRS Compound warehouse in Cavite contained illegal drugs. Gordon also said the war on drugs has taken a different tone, not only here but throughout the whole world. He said illegal drugs now entered the country through heavy equipment, which is more sophisticated. We are fighting a new war and we have to have new weapons, he said. Gordon came to the conclusion that the lifters in Cavite contained shabu after the warehouse caretaker testified that the seven Chinese, including the two who rented the property, stayed locked inside the warehouse for four hours before leaving on board a black Rav 4 that they parked inside. The caretaker said he was asked to turn on the lights after the lifters had been placed inside the warehouse before he was instructed to close the door of the warehouse and leave. As he was closing the door he saw one of the Chinese men holding a grinder approached one of the lifters. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has lifted the suspension on most quarry operations, but maintained the ban in Cebus Naga City. After a thorough review, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said they decided to allow mining firms in La Union, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Pampanga, Zambales, Batangas, Rizal, Camarines Sur, Misamis Oriental, Iligan City, and Davao City to resume operations. There are no communities around quarry sites who will be affected in case of a landslide, he said. Still, he prohibited the quarrying in Naga City that included the operations of Apo Land Quarry Corp. Ninety percent of quarry sites nationwide will resume operations, provided that these areas are one kilometer away from the communities that can potentially be affected, he said. On Sept. 20, a huge landslide in Naga City buried houses in barangays Tinaan and Naalad after days of heavy rains. The death toll rose to 65 with 21 people still missing and 18 injured. Cimatu said experts from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau have been deployed to the landslide area to inspect the condition of the quarry site. He reiterated quarrying activities in the area would remain suspended until further assessment. The quarry site operated first before a community was built. He said he got a phone call from Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez who warned that the quarrying suspension could trigger the prices of construction materials to go up. President Rodrigo Duterte earlier declared a state of calamity in the countrys four northern Luzon regions to speed up relief and rehabilitation efforts in the provinces struck by Typhoon Ompong (Manghkut). Under the Proclamation No. 593 signed by Duterte on Tuesday, the President placed the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and the Cordillera Administrative Region in a state of calamity in the wake of the onslaught of Ompong.All departments and other concerned government agencies are hereby directed to implement and execute rescue, recovery, relief, and rehabilitation work in accordance with pertinent operational plans and directives, Duterte said in his proclamation, which was released to public on Thursday. All departments and other concerned government agencies are also hereby directed to coordinate with, and provide or augment the basic services and facilities of affected Local Government Units, he added. The President also tasked the law enforcement agencies, with support from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to undertake necessary measures to ensure peace and order in affected areas. Under a declaration of state of calamity, price ceilings on basic necessities and prime commodities are imposed, no-interest loans are granted to the most affected section of the population, and calamity funds are appropriated. The estimated agricultural damage due to Typhoon Ompong has reached P26.77 billion nationwide, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Commission reported on Thursday. The damaged areas were in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4-A, 5, 6, and the Cordillera Administrative Region, the agency said. Ompong affected about 171,932 farmers in CAR alone, it added. Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol has identified desiltation, the process of removing silt from water bodies, as a priority for rehabilitating the affected areas. He said desiltation will protect food production in Luzon from further floods caused by overflowing rivers. Desilting Luzons major rivers must be among the rehabilitations priorities, he said in a meeting with Luzon governors in Metro Manila this week. Flooding from the overflow of silted rivers was one of several concerns the governors raised before Pinol during their meeting. Pinol cited the need to desilt the countrys longest waterway, the Cagayan River in northern Luzon. Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 148 Judge Andres Soriano on Friday deferred ruling on the government prosecutors plea to issue an arrest and hold departure order against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. The judge also ordered state prosecutors and the camp of Trillanes to submit evidence and set a hearing for 9 a.m. on Oct. 5. Without necessarily reopening the case or giving due course to the prosecutions motion, Soriano said, the parties are given a chance to present evidence on: * Whether or not Trillanes filed the requisite application for amnesty under Proclamation 75 before he was granted amnesty in 2011, and Whether or not there was an admission of guilt on his part at the time he applied for and was granted amnesty. In 2011, the court dismissed the case against Trillanes and the other Magdalo soldiers in connection with the Oakwood Mutiny by virtue of the amnesty given by the previous administration. But the prosecution panel argued that Proclamation 572 signed by President Rodrigo Duterte recently, voids the courts order of dismissal issued seven years ago. Duterte said Trillanes had failed to present the necessary requirements in the application of the amnesty for the Oakwood Mutiny, the Marine standoff and the Manila Peninsula siege. On Tuesday, Makati RTC Branch 150 Judge Elmo Alameda granted the motion filed by Department of Justice in connection with the rebellion case against Trillanes and other Magdalo soldiers over the Manila Peninsula siege in 2007.Alameda said the Sept. 7, 2011 dismissal of the case can be considered void with no legal and binding effect considering the issuance of Proclamation 572. Trillanes posted P200,000 bail. State prosecutors earlier asked Soriano and Alameda to order Trillanes arrest and prevent him from leaving the country, saying the nullification of his amnesty meant that the case against the senator related to the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege and 2011 Oakwood Mutiny must be pursued. The military man-turned politician is also facing a separate coup detat case at the Branch 148 for leading the 2003 mutiny at the Oakwood Premier hotel, also in Makati City. Trillanes, a former Navy lieutenant, was among those who led the mutiny in Oakwood Premiere Hotel in Makati City on July 27, 2003 and the Manila Peninsula siege on Nov. 29, 2007. After seeking refuge in his Senate office for three weeks, Trillanes will be going home to his family on Saturday, after Makati RTC Branch 150 deferred the decision on issuing an arrest warrant against him. Its a big relief not only for me but more importantly for the whole justice system and the democratic institution that was upheld by one Judge Soriano that despite all the pressures, he stood for what is the right and just procedure, Trillanes said, saying this freed him to go home. Trillanes said he opted to stay in the Senate to spare his family the trauma of his current ordeal. So this order of deferral issued by Judge Andres is a light in the whole darkness happening in our country today. You can just admire people of courage and integrity. Today, it was just personified by Judge Soriano. Now along those lines, Im thankful to all the people who supported and prayed for me. That was a big thing so that what is right and the goodness prevailed in all this mess, Trillanes said. Cong Dadong home. Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (second from left) leads the ceremony in front of this monument marking the 108th birth anniversary of her father, President Diosdado Macapagal, at the DM Museum-Library in his hometown of Lubao, in Pampanga. PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte still enjoys the support of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Friday. This developed as House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo rallied support for the Chief Executive, who has revealed a supposed Red October plot to overthrow him. The President shouldnt worry. In our own assessment he has the overwhelming support of the vast majority of the AFP, Lacson said. The President has been president for two years, lets support him and give him a chance, Arroyo added to reporters on the sidelines of the 108th birth anniversary of her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal.After the controversy over the withdrawal of the amnesty to Senator Antonio Trillanes broke out, Duterte called on the military to support Trillanes if they believed in him. Duterte also accused some soldiers of conniving with Trillanes and some of his critics to unseat him. Earlier this week, Arroyo said the public should believe the Presidents reports of an alleged ouster plot since he has access to good information. Going from my experience as President, the President usually has access to information that not all of us have access to, so if [Duterte] believes that there is a threat, he is working from good information. So, we should believe whatever [he says], Arroyo said. Earlier, AFP Chief of Staff Delfin Lorenzana repeated the militarys commitment to the rule of law and to protect a duly-constituted government. We understand his frustration since he showered the military with double salaries, double help, Lacson said. But he should understand that he cannot have the 100-percent support of the military, said Lacson, who served as chief of police under President Joseph Estrada.But Lacson also admitted that some soldiers were still supporting Trillanes, a former captain of the Philippine Navy. We cannot avoid that, that some of them support his cause, said Lacson referring to Trillanes who led at least two military uprisings to unseat then-President Arroyo. However, Lacson also pointed out that the military should stay out of politics. The Armed Forces should be apolitical. They shouldnt collaborate with political groups. After all, they only have one commander-in-chief, Lacson said. Trillanes is facing rebellion charges before the Makati RTC Branch 150 and coup detat before the Makati RTC Branch 148. The embattled senator has been out on bail after Makati RTC Judge Elmo Alameda of Branch 150 issued a warrant of arrest against him. After posting bail, Trillanes returned to the Senate where he has been holed up since the President voided his amnesty. In ruling against Trillanes, Alameda said the senator did not file an application for a grant of amnesty or admit to the crimes he had committed. But Trillanes said he had complied with all the requirements, and that the President had been hell-bent on sending him to jail, being his fiercest critic. YOGYAKARTAShe was once the face of abused maids in Hong Kongimprisoned, starved and beaten so badly she lost control of her bodily functions. But four years after her horrific ordeal made global headlines, Indonesian Erwiana Sulistyaningsih is a university graduate and fighting for the rights of domestic helpers in the southern Chinese city and beyond. Erwiana completed a degree in economics this monththe culmination of a dream that brought her to Hong Kong in 2013 before her life was turned upside down. Before I went to Hong Kong, I had been dreaming I could make enough money to study, the 27-year-old told AFP from her home in Indonesias cultural capital Yogyakarta. After the incident, I thought I might have to give up on that dream. Erwianas employer Law Wan-tung was jailed after pictures of her extensive injuries went viral in 2014. Widespread media coverage of Erwianas torture had one unexpected benefitshe was offered scholarships to study. Im happy but its bittersweet because even though I graduated university there are still many migrant workers who are persecuted and treated badly, she said. She chose economics partly to understand why so many people in this world have to migrate for work. People should be able to live peacefully in their own country without having to work abroad unprotected, she said. Erwiana plans to take that message to demonstrations outside the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Bali next month.She now works on behalf of migrant workers, including pushing for the release of former Filipino maid Mary Jane Veloso who is on death row in Indonesia for drug smuggling. Most domestic workers in Hong Kong are from poor communities in Indonesia and the Philippines and are vulnerable to abuse by employers and employment agencies. Migrants from both countries have also suffered injuryor worsein the Middle East and other parts of the world. In February, the death of a Filipino maid in Kuwait, whose body was found this year stuffed in a freezer, sparked outrage in the Philippines. Also this year, Indonesian domestic helper Adelina Sau died in hospital after being rescued from her employers house in Malaysias Penang state, with wounds covering her body. Her boss was charged with murder. It is these stories that prompted Erwiana to fight for workers rights, and never give up on herself even when she doubted her chances. I never imagined Id be here-I almost gave up, she said. I was so sick, I was a failed migrant worker and my injuries were all over the media. But because my family and fellow migrant worker friends gave me strength, I finally had the spirit to rise again. When I read the column written by a colleague, Rigoberto Tiglao, that the leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Jose Ma. Sison, and his wife, Julieta Sison, received P2.4 million from the Commission on Human Rights now headed by a raving yellowtard, Jose Chito Gascon, the first thing that entered my mind is to ask, what human rights violations Joma and his fossilized followers are talking about? This I asked because whatever this noisy group says of the alleged abuses committed during the martial law years of the Marcos administration has now become stale and even paradoxical to their claim as victims of human rights violations. This writer has yet to verify that one claimant who in fact voluntarily surrendered to avoid detention filed a claim and allegedly received P1 million as compensation without the CHR knowing the claimant is a resident of Ayala Alabang and own two condominium units at Serendra, BGC. Let us admit it, compensation is a form of payment. Once they opted to receive compensation to restitute the misdeed, logically they should desist from making a holler of what happened to them. All their accusations are now moot. They are precluded from filing a case against the party that caused them injury, suffering, anxiety or delusion. The amount received by Sison and his mulcting gang is an out-of-court settlement made by the Noynoy Aquino government to substitute Marcos to pay them using the taxpayers money to appease them for political consideration. Even if the settlement was initiated by the government to pin the blame on Marcos without the benefit of being charged or much more convicted, their acceptance of the payment should have served to prevent them from marching, parading, propagandizing through the media or vandalizing the streets to collaterally accuse the Duterte government of human rights violations. This group of political desperados must know that Marcos was never charged for any human rights violation, except in the US where these anti-imperialist imbeciles sought their assistance for the realization of their misplaced objective. For the record, then Commission on Human Rights chairman Aurora P. Navarrete-Recina issued on March 4, 1997 a certification that there is no formal complaint as of date filed with this Commission against former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and members of his family. That certification debunked altogether the claim of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (of widespread human rights violations during the period of martial law. Moreover, the certification could not have been influenced because that was issued during the Ramos administration, one of those who spearheaded the coup to oust Marcos. What is ironic and noticeable about this Task Force Detainees is the same group that shouted to high heavens calling for the prosecution of President Duterte before the International Criminal Court. To begin with, many of those claimants were not detained, but out-and-out mercenaries. TDFP claims that between 1977 up to 1986, a total of 21,893 warrantless arrests were made, 2,658 cases of extrajudicial executions and 791 disappearances. Those figures alone indicate obvious discrepancy. These claimants not only refused to accept the decision of the Supreme Court but are most vociferous and persistent in claiming compensation. Not one of them ever presented their release paper as evidence to justify their demand for compensation, which is supposed to be issued and signed by the then chief of the Philippine Constabulary and martial law administrator, Fidel Ramos.Rather, they merely submitted their self-serving affidavits claiming they were detained and tortured during the martial law period. Neither did these cabal of leftists that have metamorphosed to become mulcting mercenaries present their amnesty paper. Obviously, that would expose them as being not wholly innocent of the charge that caused them their incarceration. Maybe the safekeeping of the records of persons granted amnesty should be with the Armed Forces, PNP or Department of Justice, as Senator Antonio Trillanes would now insist. Nonetheless, nobody failed to take note that all persons whether as detainee or who were released after serving sentence are to be given a copy of their order. This is different from amnesty. A release paper does not say anything about the person freed from detention, but simply state that the detainee has been released by the arresting agency and cannot be rearrested unless he violates the condition for his release, and that when the person was released, he was in good physical condition. Whether the person was released after serving sentence, pardoned or granted amnesty, just the same he has to have with him the paper. It is prospectivelike inquiring whether he is qualified to receive compensation or to run for public office. If the person was granted amnesty, there is no legal impediment, much that it is absolute. Being prospective, it only guarantees that they have already been legally released, yet many of the claimants failed to submit their release paper because they treat the document as retrospective, and are fearful that it would expose them as not wholly innocent of the reason why they were was detained. The grant of amnesty presupposes that whatever offense they committed is legally erased, they being in the category of political offenses. Just the same, every detainee who was released from detention during that period was issued a release paper. Likewise, their claim of having been arrested and detained without a warrant is pure nonsense. They somehow participated in the commission of rebellion and subversion that warranted the declaration of the national emergency. This means that according to Senator Enrile, those who were arrested were not wholly innocent. While nobody could fathom their degree of participation, what is important is they participated in that bloody enterprise, one way or the other, directly or indirectly. Moreover, for whatever they say about martial law, it was upheld by the Supreme Court. Martial law simply expedited the process of arrest but never did it legalize and condone abuses, torture or extrajudicial execution as they now claim. The problem, however, with the arbitrary classification made by the TFDP is it rejected altogether the validity of the Arrest, Search and Seizure Order (ASSO) later known as the Presidential Detention Order (PDO) despite being upheld by the Supreme Court. The refusal to recognize the validity of martial law was precisely done to justify their claim and to lend credibility to their propaganda. Irish technology company, Baker Securities and Networks (BSN), have announced 20 new jobs over the next two years. The posts will be mostly in technology roles with some marketing and support positions in their headquarters in Dublin. BSN also launched the Google Jamboard which is the world's first whiteboard in the cloud and is aimed at the educational and corporate sector. Robert Baker, Founder and CEO of BSN, said: Due in part to the successful working with Google and the introduction of new products, services and technology solutions, the company is expanding its workforce in Ireland to enable it to grow its business, from 30 staff, to a total workforce of over 50. BSN has the experience and knowledge to ensure that our clients IT Systems are designed, implemented and managed to deliver maximum benefit to their organisation. Our core competence centres on our ability to provide a flexible, reliable and honest service to our clients with our dedicated and motivated staff focused on the correct IT and business solution, Robert added. The firm was Googles first technology partner in Ireland, and provides Google For Education services and is the only Jamboard re-seller in Ireland. The Google Jamboard uses touch-screen technology on a 55-inch screen which can be linked to any mobile device (tablet, smartphone, iPad) via Bluetooth and a free App, in the classroom or around the world via the internet. Users can draw, annotate, import and scribble on images and Google Docs, search the web, communicate with colleagues via Hangouts, and its all saved in the cloud. Users can also sketch out plans in real time with colleagues from across the globe via other Jamboards or the mobile and tablet apps. It also uses handwriting recognition to transfer handwriting to text if required. Padraig Hoare Airlines could feel cashflow and liquidity pressures in the event of a no-deal Brexit, credit rating firm Moodys has said. A Moodys report said a no-deal Brexit would be credit negative for European airlines as they stand to lose a lot of the rights enabling them access to other countries via EU regulations. The airlines most exposed to a no-deal Brexit include Ryanair, British Airways, EasyJet, Thomas Cook, TUI and Virgin Atlantic, the report said. Despite the outlook on a no-deal Brexit, Moodys said its central view is that the UK and the EU will reach a deal. Author of the report, Moodys senior credit officer Jeanine Arnold said: It could compound an airlines ability to increase yields, raise load factors and generate cost efficiencies in what is still a competitive market environment in Europe. Ultimately it could lead to cashflow and liquidity pressures. However, the strong liquidity of Ryanair, British Airways and EasyJet should enable them to weather the financial impact of a no-deal Brexit, even if flights are disrupted for an extended period, the report said. Norwegian Air Shuttle is less exposed to the risks Moodys has identified, but its very weak liquidity leaves it more sensitive to flight disruption or macroeconomic factors, it said. Moodys said if risks materialise, financial implications could be severe in the short term, but modest in the long term. Even in a no-deal scenario, agreements are imperative as the airline industry lacks fallback legislation comparable to World Trade Organisation rules, it said. Geoff Percival Spains Bankinter has refused to give any indication over whether it intends to enter the Irish mortgage market, as has been speculated. The banking group has become the first overseas entrant to Irelands retail banking market since the economic crisis through its acquisition of Spanish counterpart EVO Banco, for an undisclosed sum. The deal gives Bankinter full ownership of the Irish-based consumer finance business Avantcard. Bankinter is on a drive to expand its consumer finance business internationally and Ireland will be its first market outside Spain and Portugal. It said it will use Avantcard to expand in the digital banking area. The deal is centred on two businesses that the bank considers strategic digital banking and consumer finance and on different geographies, it said. Avantcard bought out MBNAs Irish credit card business in 2012. It has had a busy year, launching its offer of personalised loan rates for customers in May, a month after reaching agreement to buy Tesco Banks Irish portfolio of credit card customers. Avantcard has about 151,000 customers here and 66m in personal loans. It offers credit cards through insurance brokerage Chill.ie and An Post the latter relationship opening speculation about a move into mortgages. Bankinters strategic rationale is to grow its international exposure, with consumer finance its preferred route. It could also, potentially, provide it with a route into the mortgage market in the longer-term, given its existing agreement with An Post for consumer lending and An Posts intention to seek a partner to enter the mortgage market, said Davy. Traders in Cork city took to the streets this evening as part of 'Feel Good Friday' to showcase the best of what they have to offer. The Sample Our Street event took place in the Victorian Quarter of the city for an hour from 5.30pm and gave people have the opportunity to tase some of the treats on offer from proprietors. Campaigners from communities around Dublin are lodging official objections to the city's new bus plan today. The Bus Connects project would redraw the capital's bus network - with Dublin Bus claiming it will substantially reduce journey times. But opponents say it will leave many communities without a bus service. Today marks the deadline for public submissions on the plan. Activists from across Dublin are handing in petitions opposing it at the National Transport Authority headquarters this lunchtime. Campaigner Ciaran Heaphey said the new plan is bad for commuters. "If take these so-called spine routes from the city centre out to the far side of the northside and you have to get off and get a new feeder bus into various estates - we don't see how that's going to work. "It might work on paper but in reality, we don't think it is. "If you take people with special needs or older people who use these buses, it's not an adequate form of public transport for them to be using." Digital Desk Cash worth 3,750 and 216,000 cigarettes have been seized by Revenue Officers in Cork and Dublin this week. A man in his 50s was stopped and searched as part of routine profiling in Ringaskiddy Port on Wednesday. The Polish man was due to travel to Roscoff in France and the cash was found hidden in a holdall with the assistance of Revenue detector dog Marley. Revenue Officers seized the cash suspecting it to be the proceeds of crime or intended for the use in criminal activity. At Cork District Court yesterday, Judge Olan Kelleher granted a three-month detention order to allow Revenue to investigate further. Revenue Officers at Dublin Port seized 216,000 cigarettes today with a retail value of more than 112,000. The Marlboro branded cigarettes represented a loss to the Exchequer of approximately 97,000 and were discovered when officers examined freight which had arrived from Singapore. Investigations are ongoing. Meanwhile, today at Ennis District Court, Revenue Officers were granted a three-month cash detention order after $15,000 in cash was seized by Revenue at Shannon Airport yesterday. As part of routine profiling, the woman, who is a UK national in her 30s, was stopped and searched after she arrived at the airport. The cash was found her luggage after she had travelled from Sao Paulo in Brazil. The woman was questioned and investigations are ongoing. Digital Desk Gardai in Macroom Co, Cork are seeking the public's assistance in locating 13-year-old Julian Reed who is missing since Wednesday. He was last seen in Coachford, Co Cork. Dutertes admission that his only sin is the extrajudicial killings plaguing the country has enormous significance. Its not true of course that EJKs is his only sin. Contrary to what the President claims, he has had people arrested illegally like Senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes. There is a lot of corruption in his government. And for sure, the admission is not a joke; he is actually flaunting his impunity. His words are to be taken literally. He means them. It is consistent with previous statements about the collateral damage of his war against illegal drugs. His statement is also an admission against interest and can be absolutely used against him in the case of crimes against humanity that will most likely be filed with the International Criminal Court soon and, after his term, in the hundreds of murder cases filed against him in the Philippines. Every lawyer knows that admissions against interest have the strongest probative value. Rise Up for Life and for Rights, an ecumenical group that assists and consolidates victims of the war on drugs, recently filed a communication and complaint with the ICC. Two cases included in the complaint are typical of the crimes against humanity that is being perpetrated in our midst, that of Bernabe Sabangan and Salvador Locasia Jr. As narrated by the victims next of kin, which we reproduce in this article, Bernabe Sabangan dabbled in the drug trade as a small-time courier because of poverty. For a few months, when money was tight, he became arunner for the bigger pushers, delivering at most P200 ($4) worth of shabu at a time. He did not use drugs, says his sister, and quit the business entirely when Duterte came to power. He was afraid for his life, said Mariel Sabangan. Bernabe surrendered to authorities by coming clean to his barangay captain. He was not put on any rehabilitation program because he wasnt a user. But police later went after him, claiming, he kept at the business. In May 2017, while he was watching late-night television with his friend Arnold Vitales, police swarmed into his house. His sisters family, who had just retired for the night, was roused by shouting from downstairs no more than five minutes after. Armed men then barged into their bedroom and forced them out of the house. Passing by the living room, Mariel saw Bernabe lying prone, handcuffed. Arnold was sitting on a chair, crying and pleading with the police. Many armed men surrounded them, with their guns trained on the two. All other people inside the shared house were ushered out, leaving the two men with the police. When Mariel was outside the house, she heard gunshots, in short succession. Arnolds elder sister, Angelica, then came around looking for her brother. None of them were allowed into the house or given information. For about 30 minutes, the police kept their place and were observed playing ball outside the house. It was around 11:30 pm when officials from the barangay and investigators came to the scene. Two bodies, wrapped in bloodied blankets, were taken out and sent to the hospital. Bernabe and Arnold were declared dead on arrival. A funeral company processed the two bodies, with prior arrangements for discounts courtesy of the vice mayors office. When Mariel returned home, their television set, watches, two cellphones and other personal belongings, as well as the motorcycle of her husband were missing.The incident was reported by the police and portrayed in the media as a buy-bust operation conducted by joint elements of the Quezon City Police District and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. The district police chief announced that the two were on a drug watchlist. Sachets of shabu, two handguns, and an improvised shotgun were allegedly found at the scene. The case of Salvador Locasia Jr. was allegedly on the barangay drug list of Bagong Silangan, Quezon City, but this was not confirmed. Bongbong, as he was fondly called, used to be a small-time peddler and runner, when he needed the money for his family. Eventually, he settled into a stable, though not as lucrative, job as sidecar driver. On a busy weeknight in August 2016, barely a month after President Duterte had taken oath, he was killed by four policemen near a neighborhood wake. Witnesses claimed that after a known police asset came by, four policemen arrived and directed everyone keeping vigil at the wake, except for Bongbong, to run away. Police then turned off the lights thereabouts, including those around the casket. They dragged Bongbong away to a dark place. The witnesses then heard gunshots, and saw Bongongs bloody body on the ground. The police reported it as a buy-bust operation, complete with coordination forms and marked money. Bongbong, on his own, had fought back against a team of 20 police operatives, for about P200 worth of shabu, the police claimed. Bongbongs mother Irma Locasia tried to raise funds for her sons wake and funeral. After relaying the situation to a local barangay official, the official remarked,[oh, for your son who is an addict?]. Irma denies that her son ever used drugs. Martin Luther King once said: That The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. An unidentified author also points out: Justice will not fail, though wickedness appears strong, and has on its side the armies and thrones of power, the riches and the glory of the world, and though poor men crouch down in despair. Justice will not fail and perish out from the world of men, nor will what is really wrong and contrary to Gods real law of justice continually endure. Sabangan and Locasia, and their families, will get the justice that the Lord promises. Dutertes admission about EJKs is a breakthrough and brings them and this country closer to that day. Homeless charities are calling on the government to clear up the confusion surrounding the latest homelessness figures. The Housing Minister has confirmed that over 1,600 people have been removed from the list so far this year. Update 9.15am: The former Secretary General at the Department of Finance during the bailout believes another recession is inevitable. John Moran said that Ireland is an exposed economy that is very open to international change. However, he sid a huge difference over the past ten years has been that investment from the likes of vulture funds does not need to be protected by the taxpayer, meaning we are not as exposed. Mr Moran believes the reason vulture funds are making all these profits is that the country is poorly structured. He said: "We are going to go into a downturn again there is no doubt about that; the world economy will go down and Ireland is an exposed economy. "All of the investment that has come in as part of the recovery is now exposed directly to those loses - it doesn't need to be protected by us. "That's a huge risk change for us as a nation, the taxpayers will not have to protect the so-called investment fund." Meanwhile, Two-thirds of Irish people feel banks should provide mental health support to financially distressed clients The survey from SilverCloud Health comes as the country marks the 10th anniversary of the bank guarantee. Patricia Burnett had her home repossessed in the years following the bailout. She said the banks are still looking for money from her but she'll never pay them back. She said: "The reason for that is they took my home back - they had the property. I know I get slack for that but I am not paying it. "The stress it put us under back then...I ended up in hospital the year after we lost our house for a full month, and that was tough. "That made me realise my life was worth more than a mortgage." 'Lessons have not been learned' 10 years after bank guarantee Earlier: It is ten years to the day since the Bank Guarantee. The decision by the Fianna Fail-led government ended up costing the state 64bn. It involved a blanket guarantee of loans and deposits in six banks including Anglo Irish Bank. Sinn Fein Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said some lessons have not been learned since the last property crash. "Today we see that commercial property is overheating - the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council have advised the committees of the Oireachtas about that. "We know that's very much driven by tax incentives that have been brought in by this Government and previous governments." A review of Ireland's migration policy has found that a new permit system should be brought in for some workers. If introduced, it would allow people from outside the European Economic Area work here temporarily. By Tom Tuite A teenage boy will go on trial in October accused of false imprisonment and sexually assaulting a girl who alleged he touched her after she refused to perform a lewd act on him. The boy, aged 17, is accused of false imprisonment and sexual assault of a then 15-year-old girl as she was walking home, in Tallaght in Dublin two years ago, the Dublin Childrens Court heard. Today when Judge John OConnor received confirmation about witness availability, he ordered that the trial would take place next month. Garda Kieran Kilcoyne said the main prosecution witness will be the now 17-year-old complainant. The teenage boy told gardai he was socially awkward and shy, and that he used sexual jokes but he denied the girl's claims, the court heard. In an outline of the prosecution evidence, for the purpose of deciding the teens trial venue, Garda Kilcoyne said it was alleged it happened in a public place when the girl was walking home from a friends house, a distance of about 1.5km, at about 8.50pm. She was almost back on her own road when she noticed the accused and another younger looking boy. The girl, who was interviewed by child specialist gardai, alleges the accused, who was known to her, called her name and she replied, What?. It was alleged the boy, then aged 15, then asked her, Can you give me head? and she replied No and she continued walking but he followed her. He asked her again but she kept saying no, it was claimed. The girl told gardai the teenager then grabbed her from behind and put his hands on either side of her waist, hard enough that she could not move. Garda Kilcoyne said the girl maintained that when he let go she managed to walk on but he followed and moved in front of her. It was alleged he was facing her and holding her by the shoulders and breast area, which prevented her from walking forward and he said, Give me a hug. Garda Kilcoyne said it was alleged the girl managed to get him off her by walking backwards but he grabbed her waist. He was still holding her when the younger looking boy with him spoke up and said, Fuck, that is like rape but the accused, laughing, replied, No, the court was told. The accused kept holding her by the waist when she tried to walk on but she managed to pull away from him. The younger boy asked him to move away from her but the court heard the accused allegedly told him, Wait, Im getting something. The girl got away and reached her house at 9.40pm and told her mother who reported it to the gardai that night. Garda Kilcoyne said the incident has made the girl feel sick when she goes out the house. When the youth was interviewed, he told gardai he was socially awkward and had been shy in school but he thought she was his friend. He told gardai he made sexual jokes a lot but he never meant to scare her or make her think it was sexual harassment. He also denied touching her breast. Judge OConnor said it was a serious case but he accepted jurisdiction for it to stay in the Childrens Court instead of sending it to the Circuit Court which has tougher sentencing powers. Defence counsel Morgan Shelley told court his client was pleading not guilty. The youth remains on bail pending his trial. The court heard he was taking part in an educational course and wanted to go on to university. He had been accompanied to earlier hearings by his parents but they did not have to attend the proceedings today when the hearing date was set. He has been warned that he cannot have any contact with the complainant or witnesses. Facebook has suffered a security breach affecting nearly 50 million users. The company said hackers exploited the View As feature on the service. Facebook has apologised, insisting it is taking the breach "incredibly seriously". In a post on the social network's news site, Facebook vice president of product management Guy Rosen said: "On the afternoon of Tuesday September 25, our engineering team discovered a security issue affecting almost 50 million accounts. "We're taking this incredibly seriously and wanted to let everyone know what's happened and the immediate action we've taken to protect people's security. "Our investigation is still in its early stages. But it's clear that attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook's code that impacted 'View As', a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. "This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people's accounts. "Access tokens are the equivalent of digital keys that keep people logged in to Facebook so they don't need to re-enter their password every time they use the app." If you've been logged out of your account and asked to sign back in, its because we've discovered a security issue and are taking immediate action to protect people on Facebook. Learn more https://t.co/XLcHGYFBu2 Meta (@Meta) September 28, 2018 It was unclear whether any Irish users had been hit. Mr Rosen outlined the action Facebook had taken since the discovery, including fixing the issue and reporting it to law enforcement. He said: "We have reset the access tokens of the almost 50 million accounts we know were affected to protect their security. "We're also taking the precautionary step of resetting access tokens for another 40 million accounts that have been subject to a 'View As' look-up in the last year. As a result, around 90 million people will now have to log back in to Facebook, or any of their apps that use Facebook Login. After they have logged back in, people will get a notification at the top of their News Feed explaining what happened. "Third, we're temporarily turning off the 'View As' feature while we conduct a thorough security review." PA & Digital Desk Despite a doomsday scenario being painted by critics of the Duterte administration, no less than former president and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo insists that China, should assume a big role in fostering cooperation in the disputed South China Sea or West Philippine Sea. In a speech during China-Asean Mayors Forum in Nanning City in Guangxi province recently, Arroyo said she believes China should view itself as the Big Uncle to many nephews in the family. She said both uncles and nephews have responsibilities to work for harmony and the common good of the family. Apart from the Philippines, China shares the waters in that area with Asean countries Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam. While prodding China to assume a bigger role, Arroyo, however was critical of the Belt and Road Initiative saying it lacks feasibility studies to enable countries to better understand how they can contribute in creating the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative was set up by China in 2014 as it sealed its position as a key player in global trade. The initiative was envisioned to greatly increase trade between and among the countries, as well as make logistics and trade more affordable in the region. The Pan-Beibu Gulf is an intersection of economic activity in south China, southwest China and Asean, as well as an important marine traffic hub connecting China with Asean countries. Putting the necessary infrastructure in place, Arroyo, an economist, said that to this end, Asean countries can jointly seek technical and engineering manpower to prepare these feasibility studies designed for project proposals as the One Belt, One Road initiative can explore the inclusion of cities in terms of cross-border cooperation. This, Arroyo said, would mean forging partnerships between cities that are near each other to connect the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road as bonds across the sea can be formed between and among our coastal communities. Arroyo also lauded Chinas BRI citing its impact on neighboring countries like the Philippines.According to Arroyo, Chinas BRI could never have come at a more opportune time than today when China has finally emerged from four decades of breathtaking growth to become the worlds second-largest economy, projecting President Xi Jinpings vision to totally modernize and propel itself in the next decade or so when China will surely become the worlds No. 1 economy. Assessing Chinas success in the last four decades, Arroyo cited five key factors which propelled China to where it is now, starting with its long-term vision backed by long-term planning, its strong will to implement that vision, followed by its embracing of technology through adaptation and innovation. The fourth and fifth keys to Chinas success, Arroyo said, are its recognition of the value of infrastructure and its tremendous ability to access, harness and employ capital. Arroyo said that while many countries lacked resources, especially capital and access to technology, China has so much resources that other countries are benefitting from the trickle-down effect, although she pointed out that the immediate obstacle facing these countries is not the absence of willing capital but the lack of feasibility studies. It is imperative, therefore, that Asean countries harness the technical and engineering manpower and expertise available in the region to prepare the feasibility studies for project proposals. * * * I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to lawyer Dennis Manalo and his partner, Gemma Andrea Javier, for the successful handling of the cyber libel case filed against me and my editor and publisher from my former paper, resulting to our acquittal. This actually was the third of the five cases resulting from an article I wrote in 2017. The other two are still pending with the Office of the Prosecutor, awaiting resolution soon. But with my lawyers effective handling of my defense, I am optimistic they would also end up with favorable results. Powerful earthquakes have jolted the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and triggered a tsunami that an official said swept away houses in at least two cities. Indonesia had declared a tsunami warning on Friday after the strongest quake, which registered magnitude 7.5, but lifted it about half an hour later. It was followed by numerous strong aftershocks including one of magnitude 6.7. Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a live TV interview that the tsunami hit Palu, which is the capital of central Sulawesi province, and a smaller city, Donggala. Indonesia geophysics agency says Sulawesi quake caused a tsunami. This video is doing the rounds. We believe it is real. pic.twitter.com/7xDzzRuj5v David Lipson (@davidlipson) September 28, 2018 He said houses were swept away and families were reported missing. Communications to the area were disrupted. "The cut to telecommunications and darkness are hampering efforts to obtain information," he said. "All national potential will be deployed, and tomorrow morning we will deploy Hercules and helicopters to provide assistance in tsunami-affected areas." Indonesian TV showed a smartphone video of a powerful wave hitting Palu with people screaming and running in fear. Palu's airport halted operations for 24 hours due to earthquake damage, according to AirNav, which oversees airline traffic in Indonesia. Central Sulawesi was hit earlier on Friday by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake that based on preliminary information killed one person, injured 10 and damaged dozens of houses. "All the things in my house were swaying and the quake left a small crack on my wall," Donggala resident Mohammad Fikri said by telephone. PA & Digital Desk Chinese-based investor Hong Se International has snapped up its second Richmond property in as many weeks. Hong Se paid $9.92 million under the hammer for the Get Wines Direct outlet at 157-161 Burnley Street, beating four other bidders, including Peregrine Projects Joe Chahin and developer Joel Freeman. Just two weeks ago, Hong Se paid $14.81 million for the Adairs outlet on Bridge Road, reflecting a super-sharp yield of 2.09 per cent. The Get Wines Direct yield was a comparatively generous 2.8 per cent. The 1381 sq m warehouse returns $280,000 a year. Inside the Get Wines Direct warehouse which fetched $9.92 million. Credit:Angela Wylie Spectators at the well-attended auction, handled by CBRE agents Julian White, David Minty and Chao Zhang, with CVAs John Nockles and Ian Angelico, spread wide across Murphy Street, giving auctioneer Paul Tzamalis plenty of exercise. Erratic, reckless, unconventional, brilliant - adjectives all used to describe Tesla founder Elon Musk. There may soon be another to add to the list - unemployed. Sure Musk is a businessman who doesnt draw between the lines when it comes to running his $US54 billion empire, but US regulators now allege that he operates so far outside those lines that he should be banned from governing the company he created. The SEC said Musk came up with the price in attempt to impress his girlfriend, rapper Grimes. Credit:AP Horrified as many will be at that prospect, there is a decent argument that it would be in the best interests of shareholders if Tesla were "de-Musked". Musks achievements in creating an electric car company place him near the top of the ranks of the great entrepreneurs and disruptors of our time and a technology ambassador par excellence. But as the freezing winter hit, the gas supplies ran short. Chinese media reported on schools in Hebei province where children developed frostbite in the classroom. Behind the lion is Beijing Huaneng Thermal Power Plant. The plant shut down the citys last coal-fired power generation units early in 2017, but due to a shortage of natural gas during the 2017-2018 heating season, it was asked to restart the units. Credit:Sanghee Liu Beijing's massive Huaneng Thermal Power Plant was hurriedly switched back onto coal in December to reduce the demand on natural gas in the city. The coal power at the plant had been shut off with much fanfare months earlier, as Beijing was declared China's first coal-free city. As another winter approaches, the Chinese government doesn't want a repeat of last winter's village backlash against the clean energy policy. And it is determined to reduce the use of coal - city residents demand blue skies. So imported gas has been stockpiled by China at an unprecedented rate. Securing gas supplies has become such a priority that China is forecast to overtake Japan as the world's largest importer of LNG by 2019. Chinas LNG imports in the first eight months of 2018 leapt 47.8 per cent, to 32.63 million tonnes, already outstripping Japan. The impact in Australia, the world's second biggest LNG exporter, is that LNG is forecast to overtake the coal used in steel production to become our second biggest export, earning $42.4 billion, this year. The growing trade gives Australia's economy an important stake in China's changing energy needs - polluting thermal coal power plants are being phased out in China's planned economy, as gas is relentlessly phased in. Australia's gas production will expand further this year as three new LNG projects are completed. The projects include Woodside's Pluto and Wheatstone projects in Western Australia and the expansion of Santos's Gladstone LNG and the Australia Pacific LNG projects in Queensland. Shell's floating LNG mega-ship Prelude, anchored off the coast of Western Australia is also nearing gas production. This was almost certainly what China's top US trade negotiator, vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen, had in mind this week as he described the "great potential" to increase LNG trade with Australia at the expense of the United States. Langdong villager Wang, 73, is heating his food on a gas stove. Credit:Sanghee Liu China had been the second-biggest buyer of American LNG until June, when the brewing trade war saw Chinese purchases plummet, according to energy research firm Wood Mackenzie. Last week, American LNG was stung with a 10 per cent Chinese tariff. "With the tariff on the US, Australian LNG will probably be the most important for spot volumes," says Wood Mackenzie's senior gas consultant in Beijing, Wen Wang. She says "there isn't enough LNG in the Asia Pacific region to meet China's demand" for spot volumes - gas that is bought to meet immediate needs and outside of long-term contracts. A new LNG terminal in the port of Tianjin opened in February to accept shipments from the Australia Pacific LNG project in Gladstone in Queensland. Sinopec has a 25 per cent stake in the Queensland project, and built the Tianjin terminal and storage facility with the capacity to supply 10 million households in the Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin and Shandong areas. Loading Australia's industry department reported in June that trade negotiations between the Trump administration and China as a threat to Australian gas export growth - China put a deal on the table that would offer long-term LNG supply contracts to American companies to reduce the infamous trade deficit. Trump rejected the deal, and called a trade war instead. Australia supplied 45 per cent of China's LNG last year. But there are other competitors. A Russian gas pipeline is due to be completed at the end of 2019. At China's premier business conference, the Boao Forum, this year, Russia's Gazprom boasted of its plans to be the biggest supplier of gas to Asia. The world's biggest LNG supplier, Qatar, this month signed a contract doubling the volumes it will sell to PetroChina in a 20-year deal. The need to secure LNG may also be a motivation behind China's Belt and Road Initiative moving into the Pacific. Papua New Guinea - being showered with BRI financing from Beijing - has a massive $19 billion ExxonMobil gas project which has contracts to deliver LNG by ship from Port Moresby to two major Chinese energy companies, Sinopec and PetroChina. "The Chinese are talking to all LNG projects that have been proposed. Price is still the most important factor when they talk to new people," says Wen. In Landong village, Mr Zhang complains the price of gas has risen 35 cents a cubic metre since last year. The government offers a gas subsidy of 137 cubic metres a year for each family. Bur Mr Zhang says it isn't enough to provide the same heat as the old coal stove that warmed the floor and multiple rooms for a family with a baby and two elderly grandparents with ailments. Greenpeace gobal air pollution analyst Lauri Myllyvirta says China's latest target to reduce PM2.5 pollution by another 5 per cent compared with last winter is "very ambitious". "The biggest question on both household coal bans and industry measures is enforcement... the pressure on local governments to enforce was tremendous last winter because of the high level air quality target that had to be met," he says. This led to the winter gas surge taking industry by surprise. According to Wen, Chinese gas companies are better prepared to avoid gas shortages this winter. "Last year the shortages were down to provincial governments over-achieving quotas for converting households from coal to gas," she says. A villager in Langdong in the Tongzhou district of eastern Beijing trying to catch construction material. Langdong is one of 106 villages in Tongzhou that underwent coal-to-gas transformation in 2017. Credit:Sanghee Liu "There are new policies from the provincial governments that say supply needs to be in place before homes are converted. The target is less aggressive ... This year the quota for switching is 2 million." Still, China's LNG terminals will need to work at 120 per cent capacity to meet the "very ambitious demand for LNG" as the heating season kicks in. Gas supply to China will increase after 2020, when the Russian gas pipeline is completed, and more LNG terminals are built, she says. By then, the price may also ease for villagers. Carpenters are building a new house in Landong in the traditional peak-roof style. It will have gas piped into the rooms, so the walls and ceiling will remain free from the tell-tale black stains of coal fire that also seeped into so many villagers' lungs. The ACT is far more heavily reliant on government health funding compared to the rest of the country, a new report has revealed. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's recently released report, Health expenditure Australia 201617, showed that national health spending grew more in 201617 than at any time in the past 5 years. The report found government funding, both state and federal, was the driver of this growth. Both Commonwealth and local government funding of the ACT Health system is on the rise, recovering from a drop in funds four years ago. The exhibition Waterways is a reflection of five Canberra artists' experiences of water, fleeting moments of nature, seaside architecture, travel and separation. Victoria Cotton, Sharon Peoples, Prue Power, Rozalie Sherwood and Steve Tomlin examine waterways through the different media of paint, ink, stitch and textiles. The locations range from Canberra waterways, including Lake Burley Griffin, to the South Coast and the English seaside. The exhibition is on until November 6 at The Link at Ginninderry, 90 Stockdill Drive, Holt, ACT. The official opening is on Saturday, September 29 at 2pm. On at M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith, until October 14 are four new exhibitions: Silk on the Road by Jeffree Skewes; Testamur, a Canberra Art Workshop Tutored Workshop Exhibition; Edible Plants in Art by The Watercolour Group; and Composition No. 10 by Andres Caycedo. Coming up is M16s Sunset Soiree, its annual fundraising dinner with special guest National Gallery of Australia director Nick Mitzevich. It's on at Burbury Terrace, 7th floor, Burbury Hotel, 1 Burbury Close, Barton. Bring or wear your artiest flowers. Tickets are $150 a head of which $75 is a tax deduction. Receipts will be mailed to a nominated email address. Tickets: eventbrite.com.au/e/m16s-sunset-soiree-dinner-with-special-guest-nga-director-nick-mitzevich-tickets-49795745415. More information: Jas Hugonnet on 6295 9438 or email director@m16artspace.com. Hotel show GERMANE, a solo show by Clare McShanag, is on at the Park Hyatt Canberra until January 28, 2019. McShanag seeks inspiration from life and movement, capturing the dynamic moments and the colour of life, producing photos that are a mixture of the surreal and abstract. In April 2017 she participated in an international exhibition in Germany celebrating the 500th anniversary of Luther. Her first solo exhibition, The Character of Life, was held at the Solo Lounge in New York. She has also had a solo exhibition at the Black Eye Gallery in Sydney. Film with a Canberra link The new Australian film Jirga, currently screening, was shot in under a month in the mountains of Jalalabad, Afghanistan. It features a Canberra rabab player on the soundtrack. Farman Khan of Spence has been in Australia, and Canberra, for five years. The woman who quit the role as the new boss of Canberra Hospital within days of her appointment reportedly never quit her former job in the Northern Territory, as mystery around her departure remains. Janet Anderson was appointed chief executive of the Canberra Health Services on September 3, but quit just days later, citing personal reasons. Janet Anderson had previously been announced as the new chief executive of Canberra Hospital and Health Services, but later declined to take up the role. Michael De'Ath is director-general of ACT Health. Credit:Finbar O'Mallon The NT News reported that Ms Anderson is now back working in her old job in the Northern Territory and, according to the department, she never quit. Do you know more? Contact daniella.white@fairfaxmedia.com.au confidentially Born in Halle near Leipzig as the fourth of five children to Dr Herman Loofs, a non-practicing German lawyer, and his wife Gertrude Wissowa, the granddaughter of Georg Wissowa, the great German classicist, Helmut's life commenced without suggestion that soldiering was in store. Educated at the Thomas Gymnasium Leipzig where Bach served as Kantor, he took Latin and Greek, and preferred Art over Mathematics. He said only of Bach's choral pieces that a premature saturation left him with an appetite for other music. As to soldiering he had little say, living through the bombing of Leipzig and drafted into the anti-aircraft units charged with stopping the inevitable. Helmut Loofs-Wissowa Sent to the Eastern Front in early 1945 aged 17, he later quipped: "The front came much quicker to us than we got to it, which saved on marching". The front swept by, and he recounted how his band of 10 became two when the main players decided the youngest were surplus to requirements. He freely confessed to being hopeless at politics, acknowledging this as an early example. He and his companion made it to the American Zone, eating petrol-soaked bread the Russians had thought to leave behind. Relief at stumbling into the arms of his mother was short lived; picked up by American MPs he was returned eastwards and the journey was required to be made a second time. Emergency services have had a busy night dealing with a spate of car fires across the ACT, but the incidents are not believed to be linked. Police are investigating three of the four fires, which happened in a period of just over 12 hours, starting on Thursday afternoon. No one was injured in any of the incidents. The first blaze happened on the Monaro Highway near the Johnson Drive exit at Tuggeranong, about 2.06pm on Thursday. An Emergency Services Agency spokeswoman said she did not have details of the incident, but an ACT Policing spokesman said officers attended and an investigation was underway. At 7.18pm, a car caught fire after a two-vehicle crash on Canberra Avenue, near the Canberra Outlet Centre. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and police were not required at the scene, according to the ACT Policing spokesman. It hasnt been a happy couple of years for a Canberra clan. On Friday Isaac Struss told a Federal Court examination that he was a simple carpenter from Canberra, who sold his construction business which he ran with his cousin Tristan Waters to Waters mother in 2016 because it was all too stressful for the tradesman. However, corporate records show that exactly one month later his aunt Anna Waters was declared bankrupt and she promptly left the country leaving behind a trail of debts. Carpenter Isaac Struss leaving the Federal Court. On 26 May 2016, the day after Mrs Waters was declared bankrupt, her son Tristan left the country. In April 2017 Australian Federal Police seized 1280 kilograms of cocaine, the second largest in Australian history. In January Tristan Waters, 35, was arrested in Serbia in relation to the estimated $1.5 billion drug haul. Heather Dorrough was one of an exceptional group of women who, in a quest for excellence, raised the status of what had previously been regarded as craft to the status of fine art, reshaping the history of art in Australia. Artist Heather Dorrough with some of her works at Robin Gibson Gallery, Paddington, 1981. Credit:Fairfax Born in London in 1933 she was the eldest of Cyril and Grace Blake-Smiths three daughters. She studied drawing, painting and print making at the Eastbourne School of Art before winning a scholarship to Londons Royal College of Art, where she studied interior design under Sir Hugh Casson, designer of the 1951 Festival of Britain. She won both a silver medal and a travelling scholarship to the Scandinavian countries before returning to London to work with Sir Hugh Casson on the interiors of several university buildings and the new Canberra ocean liner. Dorrough had an insatiable sense of inquiry and after three years in London decided to expand her experience by working in New York where she worked with the firm Harrison and Abramovitz who were designing New Yorks new Lincoln Centre. She found New York crowded and de-humanised and after a brief return to England, in 1961 she set sail for Australia. It was a country she instantly related to and she began to work with the architectural firm McConnell, Smith and Johnson as perhaps the first university-accredited interior designer in Australia. Four days later, Holdom suffocated her two-year-old daughter Khandalyce, stuffing the remains of her body in a suitcase that he dumped by the side of a remote highway in South Australia, 1200 kilometres from where her mother was killed and dumped. Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC told the court two pieces of dishwashing cloths were found inside the toddlers mouth, while duct tape was wrapped around her head as well as a disposable nappy and towel. Loading A police fact sheet tendered to the court said there was a sexual motive in the murder of the toddler and that the offender was at least attempting to, or planning to, sexually assault [her] at the time of her death. It said the crown could not forensically prove the extent to which the sexual assault was completed due to the deteriorated state of the remains when found. Ms Pearce-Stevensons remains were discovered in the Belanglo State Forest in 2010, but were not linked to those of the toddler until 2015, when the suitcase containing the two-year-olds remains was discovered. The court heard Holdom and Ms Pearce-Stevenson had been in a short-term relationship in the period leading up to her murder, living together in the ACT. On the day of her murder, both Ms Pearce-Stevensons and Holdoms mobile phones were traced travelling from the ACT to the Belanglo forest. A memorial to Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter Khandalyce Pearce at the roadside, near Wynarka, South Australia, where Khandalyce's body was found. Credit:Kate Geraghty On Friday Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC told the court Holdom then travelled back to the ACT from the bushland area alone and collected the child, under the ruse he was returning her to her paternal grandmother in South Australia. Instead he suffocated the toddler, "probably" in a motel room in the NSW town of Narrandera, near Wagga Wagga, using duct tape, dishwashing cloths and a towel from the hotel. "Both murders fall within the worst case and can aptly be described as atrocious, detestable, hateful, gravely reprehensible and extremely wicked," he said. Loading Mr Tedeschi told the court Ms Pearce-Stevensons murder was motivated by many factors, including to gain access to her young daughter Khandalyce, in whom [he] had already expressed a sexual interest, and financial gain, by gaining accessed to the young mothers welfare benefits and her financial accounts. Holdom used a mobile phone to create "false indications" to her family that she and Khandalyce were alive, and took advantage of personal papers to steal more than $70,000 from Ms Pearce-Stevenson's accounts, he said. Ms Pearce-Stevensons mother lodged a missing persons report for the 20-year-old in 2009 but after false contact made by Holdom, using Karlie's phone the missing person's report was dropped and she was no longer listed as such. Mr Tedeschi argued that the level of Holdoms culpability was so extreme that community interest, community protections and deterrence each should be met with the imposition a of a life sentence. The prosecution acknowledged evidence that Holdom had suffered serious and ongoing abuse as a child, but argued that it did not discount the seriousness of the crimes. In a victim impact statement read to the court on his behalf by Kellie Lilly (Ms Pearce-Stevenson's aunt), the father and grandfather of the two victims, Bruce Pearce, said the hate he has felt since their murder was "all consuming". "I have never hated anyone the way that I hate you," the statement, directed at Holdom, said. "The thoughts of what the girls went through, the anger I feel turns to physical pain ... it hurts to breathe. I would like to see the death penalty for you, but even that would not be enough." Holdom sat emotionless in the dock with his arms crossed, wearing prison greens and a bandage on his left hand, as the statements were read. A further emotionally charged statement from Ms Pearce-Stevensons stepfather Scott Povey was also read to the court on his behalf. Daniel Holdom. Mr Povey was married to Ms Pearce-Stevensons mother Colleen Povey, who died from breast cancer in 2012. In his statement, he told the court of the four last painful years of Mrs Poveys life, in which she was battling cancer and wondering why her daughter had lost touch. This was not the Karlie that we knew, he said. Loading As she neared her last breath in 2012, Mrs Povey uttered six final words: A Sydney strip club regular has been jailed after a 30-hour bender ended in a former DJ being senselessly shot and left for dead in a luxury hotel suite. Hasan Fazlilar has been jailed for a minimum of 19 years and six months. Credit:AAP Hasan Fazlilar, 32, was sentenced on Friday for murdering Central Coast man Donovan Mileham, who died in 2015 after a bullet fired into his leg passed through his bowel and struck a vital vein. NSW Supreme Court Justice Natalie Adams said the "senseless killing" stemmed from Mr Mileham's killer finding a phone contact listing for "police crime" and thinking it meant the victim was a police informant. Police pursuits in NSW have spiked by more than 37 per cent since 2014, an analysis of NSW Police data shows. The new revelation shines further light on the vexed issue of police pursuits, which came into the spotlight after Gai Vieira was left in a coma when a police officer's pursuit of another driver in Cronulla went horribly wrong. Gai Vieira was seriously injured in a crash with a police car in Cronulla on September 5. On Thursday, the 40-year-old senior constable was charged with dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm over the pursuit that left Mrs Vieira with broken bones, punctured lungs and head trauma. The officer was allegedly travelling at 124km/h in a 70km/h zone without flashing lights or sirens when the police vehicle and Mrs Vieira's Mercedes collided. A former Queensland parliamentary speaker has fired an extraordinary broadside at the states corruption watchdog for overstepping its mandate in assessing a complaint made against the Premier by Katters Australian Party. The Crime and Corruption Commission investigated a complaint against Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, and members of the LNP, by KAP Queensland leader Robbie Katter over the removal of extra taxpayer-funded staff from his party. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk insists her remarks were "the argy-bargy of Parliament". Credit:AAP/Dan Peled Before the deal was ripped up Ms Palaszczuk, speaking during question time, said she wanted members of KAP to publicly condemn Senator Anning's comments. "I can say that I will be reviewing that arrangement [for extra staff] as well," she said. The fate of a Queensland man accused of coaxing and then helping his wife kill herself so he could use her life insurance money to build a religious commune is in the hands of a jury. Graham Robert Morant, 69, is on trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court for allegedly aiding and counselling Jennifer Morant to take her own life in 2014. The accused Graham Morant arrives at the Brisbane Supreme Court. Credit:AAP The jury retired to deliberate on Friday. He was the sole beneficiary to her three life insurance policies totalling a combined $1.4 million when she committed suicide in November that year. A guard fired from Queenslands largest prison for falling asleep on the job multiple times and carrying out unauthorised strip searches of prisoners has failed in his bid to be reinstated. Frederick Ball was sacked from Woodford Correctional Centre on January 19, 2017, after an internal investigation found occasions where he fell asleep when he was supposed to be observing prisoners. File photo: A prison guard who was fired for allegedly falling asleep multiple times on the job will not be reinstated, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission has ruled. Credit:Greg Henderson Photography In an application to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission for reinstatement, it was revealed the guard had received several warnings and sanctions after officers and prisoners made a string of complaints. Mr Ball denied allegations prisoners were banging on glass due to him being asleep and that when they ran away he would drop off to sleep again. Thirty-two partygoers were arrested with drugs at a rave in the Docklands overnight prompting warnings from police about public safety this long weekend. Police are disappointed with the number of drug arrests at a rave overnight. About 7000 revellers flocked to Etihad Stadium overnight for the smalltown at B3 event. Police and the dog squad conducted 72 searches and made 32 arrests with quantities of ecstasy, ketamine, cannabis, cocaine and LSD seized. Of those arrested, four were charged, including two who had traffickable amounts of cocaine, two were formally cautioned and 26 were referred to a drug diversion program. Two men tried to run away when sniffer dogs approached them but they were quickly chased down. Gang Crime Squad officers have charged a man associated with the Comancheros bikie gang after seizing guns and drugs from a Joondanna home on Thursday. One of the weapons seized. Credit:WA Police. Police searched a house in Powell Street where they allegedly found a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a sawn-off shotgun, a replica pistol, bullets, cocaine and steroids. A 27-year-old Joondanna man appeared at Perth Magistrates Court on Friday accused of nine weapons and drug-related offences and was remanded in custody, to reappear on October 1. Witnesses appearing before an ACT parliamentary inquiry into proposed changes to sexual consent laws are divided on whether the current legislation equips juries with enough information to determine whether someone is guilty of rape. Greens crossbencher Caroline Le Couteur wants to introduce an affirmative consent model in the ACT that would define consent as "free and voluntary agreement" and require the accused to prove they knew or were "satisfied on reasonable grounds" that consent was freely given. The current legislation doesn't explicitly define consent but includes a list of factors that nullify it, such as threats of violence, intoxication or cases of mistaken identity. Loading Youth Coalition ACT policy and development officer Kieran Chowdry told the inquiry on Friday the changes were needed to make understanding consent easier for juries. Australia's revolving door of prime ministers has been blamed for the stagnation in talks between the ACT and Commonwealth governments over whether police will have to answer to the territory's new anti-corruption commission. Legislation to create the commission is expected to be introduced into the ACT Legislative Assembly next month, so it can begin cracking down on corruption in mid-2019. Workforce capability and governance deputy director-general Meredith Whitten with ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr at the final hearing into the proposed integrity commission on Friday. Credit:Jamila Toderas The bill gives the integrity commissioner the power to investigate potentially corrupt behaviour from police, but the clause will be delayed by a year to give the territory government time to negotiate with the Commonwealth over the inclusion. The ACT's self-government act prevents the territory making laws about the Australian Federal Police, or amending Commonwealth legislation without its agreement. The document she circulated to the board contained excerpts from an email Milne had sent her on May 8. They were devastating ammunition. The first excerpts appeared in Fairfax papers on Wednesday morning, with the full text surfacing on Friday. "They fricken hate her, Milnes email read. [Alberici] keeps sticking it to them with a clear bias against them. We clear her as ok. We r tarred with her brush. I just think it's simple. Get rid of her. My view is we need to save the corporation not Emma. There is no g'tee they will lose the next election [sic]." More revelations followed. Headlines in The Daily Telegraph revealed Guthrie's dossier had also accused Milne of suggesting in June that the ABC needed to shoot Probyn, who had deeply angered Turnbull with several reports (including one that suggested the Super Saturday byelections were deliberately timed by the government to torpedo Labors national conference). As the week wore on, former staff director Matt Peacock surfaced, alleging that Milne had intervened in person with staff at triple j, when the broadcasters youth radio station had decided to move its Hottest 100 countdown away from its traditional spot on Australia Day, in deference to the concerns of young listeners and the Indigenous community. According to Peacock, Milne had suggested to staff that Turnbull would go ballistic if the change went ahead. Staff protests mounted, with some talk of a possible walkout. Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, acting seemingly under pressure from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, ordered a formal inquiry by his department into the chaos. Several former chairs of the ABC began to speak out, among them David Hill, Jim Spigelman and Maurice Newman, stressing that intervention in staff matters was not the role of the board or the chair, who instead should be focused on setting the strategic goals for the organisation, establishing operating principles and protecting the independence of the ABC against political pressure from the government of the day. Meanwhile, both Turnbull and Milne denied calling for anyones sacking, with Milne disputing the use of terminology such as shooting in relation to Probyn. But the damage had been done. By Thursday morning, Milne had gone as chair. Former ABC chairman Justin Milne resigned on Thursday. Credit:AAP The public agony of the board did not end there. Remaining board members (of whom only one, Peter Lewis, has any background in media) remain in a parlous position as staff and others began asking why they had not challenged Milne themselves on the revelations in Guthries dossier. The full text of Guthrie's submission to the board shows how toxic the relationship between Guthrie and Milne was becoming by the time of the mid-June row over Probyn. She says he shouted at her and berated her for jeopardising the broadcaster's future. When he got off the phone, she wrote, she was "shaky and upset ... I refused to back down and believed it was totally inappropriate that I needed to defend the independence of the ABC against interference by the chair of the ABC as a potential quid pro quo for funding for Jetstream. I told him that there was no sense that the government would give us that funding and he then yelled and accused me of calling him a liar". People close to the process said Guthrie was offered the opportunity to formally complain about Milnes conduct but did not take it up. The dossier is a detailed rebuttal of the board's internal criticisms of Guthrie. It rejects claims that she was not transparent with her travel, that she was too frequently overseas. It reveals alarm over a $71 million loss for the 2017-18 year, with a $20 million loss projected for the 2019-20 year. Guthrie says she warned the board about the impact of the government freezing the ABC's indexation in the last budget. Loading The dossier also reveals disputes at the board level over the since-axed Tonightly show, where the word "c---" was used to describe a Conservative Party candidate. Milne said existing guidelines that permitted the use of the word in that context did not pass the "reasonable person" test. Cuttingly, Guthrie told the board "Mr Milne can't be convinced that 'reasonable person' doesn't mean everyone he knows". None of this detail was to be known until Fairfax revealed it on Saturday, but what was unfolding in public was just as gripping. In a week that surely has been one of the sorriest in the national broadcasters history, one striking aspect was how quickly the narratives and counter-narratives shifted around the key figures. On Monday morning, Milne was being hailed in some parts of the ABC as a hero. It was no secret that Guthrie had lost the support of many in the ABCs news and current affairs. She was said by many not to get the core values of public broadcasting. We never saw her in the newsroom, we never felt any sense that she was engaged with what we did, we never got any sense that she understood how important to the staff and the public and Australia the ABC journalism was, claimed one senior insider. Others talked about how she seemed to lack passion for what they saw as the ABCs key mission. On Twitter, Four Corners executive producer Sally Neighbour hailed the ousting of Guthrie as an excellent decision. Veteran broadcasters Phillip Adams in Sydney and Jon Faine in Melbourne also held forth, Faine describing Guthries tenure as an astonishing fail" and Adams lashing her for being charmless and for perceived absenteeism. She just wasnt around the place, Adams claimed. We gathered in darkness while she read from an autocue and read the latest epistle from on high. There was talk of her supposedly too-frequent trips to Singapore, where she has both family and business interests. (Her husband is based there, and she sits on the board of Singaporean telco StarHub). Guthrie had told the board on Friday that Milne had approved her four business trips to Singapore. But then her opponents found other ammunition. There was plenty, such as the startlingly frank interview Guthrie gave to The Australian Financial Reviews BOSS magazine recently. There she confessed that in returning to Australia (where she was keen for her youngest daughter to finish school), her first wish had been to cement a career as a non-executive director. Scoring the ABC gig when those positions had not come up, she said, was "incredible luck around the timing. Others revived talk of her infamous attempt to boost flagging staff morale with the so-called Larry" cards featuring a Wiggles-like character in bright yellow, whose image colleagues could send each other on cards congratulating one another on how well they were fulfilling ABC values. It was a cross between primary school and some sort of Google nonsense, says one source. Everyone started laughing their heads off. I think that's when she really lost everyone." By Tuesday, however, the flaying of Guthrie had abruptly changed direction when Milnes emails started to leak. Suddenly the ousted MD was being painted as the champion whod stood between the board and the possible axing of Alberici and Probyn. Now Milne was the villain. As one source put it, there were cheers going up when it was first announced she was going. But this stuff from the chairman was far worse. Guthries supporters started fighting back. She had done the hard yards at the ABC, they insisted. She had done the job that previous board chairman Jim Spigelman had hired her to do: taking on long established vested interests inside the organisation, breaking down sclerotic silos, organising internal ABC management around content clusters rather than the old, trench-warfare divide between TV and radio, and slashing the back office to free up spending for new initiatives. Loading Those who were for more change inside the organisation - who felt she was right to try to draw fresh, younger audiences to the organisation, who applauded her initiatives such as the new ABC Life content stream, and the drive towards more content designed specifically for digital platforms - worried that with Gurthries departure the momentum behind those changes would flag. But towards the end of the week, the narrative was see-sawing yet again. Some began vigorously disputing Guthrie's emergence as a supposed hero protecting her high-profile journalists. It's total bullshit [ that she was their saviour], one senior insider claimed. She may well have been better than Justin in terms of standing up to the government. But she didnt seriously champion those people [Alberici and Probyn]. According to some very senior sources inside the organisation, Guthrie herself was seriously considering Albericis fate after the journalist had deeply angered the government with two articles in February one a news story (which did contain some errors) and the other an opinion piece. The pieces questioned whether the governments much touted corporate tax cuts would deliver the benefits both Turnbull and then treasurer Scott Morrison were claiming for them. Loading These sources suggest that editorial director Alan Sunderland was the one who impressed upon Guthrie that firing Alberici would be inappropriate. ABC head of news Gaven Morris is also said to have pushed back against Milne in defence of Probyn. Sources described Milne acting as a kind of shadow managing director, reaching around Guthrie to try and pressure senior staff directly. Milne sent a message, via Andrew Maiden, a communications consultant working to the board, that Albericis opinion piece (which the journalist was in the process of revising) should not be republished in any form because it would antagonise the government. According to this source, Morris insisted that the piece would be republished, after the ABC had gone through its internal editorial assessment processes. Alberici herself (who is currently overseas at a conference in Italy) is said to believe she had little real support from any of the key players inside the organisation. A key meeting about her fate was held in February. Far from resigning, as some in the room seemed to be expecting, Alberici and her lawyer instead insisted that her opinion piece be republished, though she agreed to changes to make it less opinionated. In the end, the piece was republished on February 28. At the top was an editors note, which Alberici and her lawyer had pushed for. It read: This analysis has been revised and updated by our chief economics correspondent. Passages that could be interpreted as opinion have been removed. Our editorial processes have been reviewed. Emma Alberici is the ABCs chief economics correspondent and is a respected and senior Australian journalist." Throughout this period, Guthrie is said never to have reached out to Alberici, despite the fact that the pair had been seen to be friendly in the past, and despite the managing directors reputation for promoting and supporting women inside the ABC. It was a marked contrast from the scene several months before, when Guthrie and Alberici had turned up in a taxi together to attend a fund-raising party in support of same-sex marriage hosted at the Redfern home of PR guru Sue Cato. Guthrie was introduced to some of the other women there by Alberici, the pair both sporting badges in support of same-sex marriage. The amity was good while it lasted. Nevertheless, Guthrie's dossier for the board insists she was the one holding the line against Milne "on numerous occasions" and that she had insisted "we can't fire journalists including Andrew Probyn and Emma Alberici because the government of the day complains about their reporting". Lying beneath the optics of the Alberici affair is a much deeper problem: the misunderstanding of their respective roles by both Milne and Guthrie. You had a managing director who wanted to be the chair, and a chair who wanted to be the managing director, was how one former senior journalist put it this week. Loading According to well-placed sources, Milne saw it as part of his role to intervene in newsroom matters, while Guthrie was often seen as aloof from staff, and hopeless at the public advocacy that ABC staff had come to expect from their managing directors. She suffered from comparisons with her smooth as silk predecessor, Mark Scott, who had been a consummate diplomat during his two terms in the job. There were complaints that she was reluctant to appear on the ABCs own radio shows, fearful of being roughed up by the likes of Jon Faine. She was urged to overcome such reluctance: You cant say the ABC has to hold to account the most powerful people in the country if you dont allow yourself to be open to the same scrutiny. She complained internally about Media Watch, not understanding why it should, from time to time, have the freedom to criticise ABC programs. She was absent from a key Senate estimates hearing, and appeared to shrink from the key role of advocacy in Canberra. Her predecessor Scott made it a rule to do the rounds in Canberra in the company of his successive board chairmen, so that the two most senior people representing the organisation would as far as possible present a united front. This was not the case with Milne and Guthrie. Milne in particular was constantly pushing Jetstream, which he conceived as a 10-year project to deliver the ABC a digital platform that would ultimately enable it to move away from dependency on the broadcast spectrum. Guthrie, however, believed there was little chance of getting the funds anyway given the indexation freeze that had been imposed on the ABC in the last budget. Her priorities lay with more immediate attempts to broaden ABC audience and product. Four weeks ago, the tensions between Guthrie and the board came to a head. The board provided Guthrie with a very serious letter specifying a range of issues in relation to her leadership, Milne said. He has declined to go into detail, citing the need to avoid being damaging and create litigation. Former ABC boss Michelle Guthrie warned the public broadcaster's board that firing her would be retribution for raising explosive allegations of misconduct and political interference by chairman Justin Milne. Fresh details from a controversial 11-page dossier also show the new acting ABC chairwoman Kirstin Ferguson knew months ago of Ms Guthries huge frustration with Mr Milnes interventions in editorial matters. In revelations that will raise fresh questions over the embattled directors, Ms Guthrie said she told Dr Ferguson via an email in May: I cant do this anymore. In the dossier, Ms Guthrie recounted a phone call with Mr Milne in June during which he continued to yell at me and berate me. Credit:AAP In the document - which Ms Guthrie prepared and distributed to the seven-member board in a last-ditch bid to keep her job - the former ABC boss repeatedly told directors the ABC could not be seen to bow to political pressure from the Coalition government. It's difficult to work out the degree of Australia's growing inequality in income and wealth, because a lot of high-wealth, high-income people disguise it. But, in the past week or so, a couple of publications showed that inequality is higher than recognised officially. High-wealth, high-income people hide or misreport their wealth and income to the main governmental data and revenue-collection agencies: the Taxation Office, the Bureau of Statistics, the Reserve Bank and so on. Overall wealth is increasing faster than debt. But the wealthy are getting wealthier and the poor relatively poorer. Credit:Gabriele Charotte If you use Tax Office data to measure the percentage of total income received (I won't say earned) by the top 10 per cent or top 1 per cent, you get a distorted figure on the lower side of reality. Former ABC chairman Justin Milne was so enraged by an episode of an ABC TV show that labelled a conservative political candidate a c--- that he demanded editorial policies be changed. In an 11-page document presented to the board, former managing director Michelle Guthrie details an email from Mr Milne about the decision by the now-cancelled comedy show Tonightly to use the offensive term to describe Australian Conservatives candidate Kevin Bailey. Kevin Bailey poster altered on Tonightly with Tom Ballard skit. Credit:ABC Comedy According to the document, Mr Milne told his managing director not one person thinks this is OK - including Labor politicians who think we are crazy. Mr Milne resigned from the ABC on Thursday after it was revealed he had encouraged Ms Guthrie to sack reporters the government did not like, including ABC chief economics correspondent Emma Alberici and political editor Andrew Probyn. How easy is it for the rich and powerful to buy favourable treatment from our politicians? Honest answer: we just dont know. What we do know is that weve become increasing distrustful of our pollies and doubtful of their honesty. Illustration: Simon Letch Credit: Polling conducted this year by Griffith University and Transparency International Australia found that 85 per cent of respondents believe at least some federal Members of Parliament are corrupt. This is up 9 points just since 2016. It includes 18 per cent who believe most or all federal politicians are corrupt. Loading Fully 62 per cent of respondents believe officials or politicians use their positions to benefit themselves or their family, while 56 per cent believe officials or politicians favour businesses and individuals in return for political donations or support. A decade ago a platform and language like this would have been laughed, or more likely groaned off the stage of any mainstream party, let alone one neck and neck with the government in the polls. Received political wisdom and historical precedent say this is not the behaviour of a party that can win modern Britain. But Corbyn declared this the new common sense. And his opponents are openly wondering if he's right. The Corbyn description of what is going on [in Britain] resonates with millions of people, a Conservative select committee chairman, Robert Halfon, wrote on the ConservativeHome website after the conference. Deep social and economic problems remain. We are stuck in the political rhetoric of the past, rather than providing a proper Tory vision for the future They are speaking to the problems faced by many. We too often speak only for the few. He lamented the lack of a conservatism that answers these things. Conservative minister Liz Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury described Labour's message as a serious threat. Watching a Labour video that highlighted social justice denied, infrastructure decaying and the job market slumping, released by the party at the end of the conference, Truss said it does capture the heart of where we need to be as a party. It didn't take long, of course, for the Conservatives to decide on their attack lines. Such questions as How will you pay for it? are as effective as ever. Some pundits believe last year's election was Corbyn's high-water mark, and as much due to Theresa May's failings as his own appeal. Critics deride Labour's new direction as mere left populism, the kind that occasionally wins power in Europe and quickly finds it cannot deliver what it promised (Syriza in Greece, which vowed to defy Brussels then found itself administering eurozone austerity, is a frequently-cited example). Jeremy Corbyn at Labour's annual conference in Liverpool. Credit:Bloomberg And the party is emerging from a dire summer where it was, for long months, entirely incapable of dealing with accusations of antisemitism within Labour and its supporters. Privately, senior party figures are resigned to these kind of headlines continuing. Corbyn has a long history of fighting for the Palestinian cause and that has left him exposed: there is plenty of material that can be used to paint him in a bad light being patiently hoarded by his opponents. But there was a palpable sense of the possible in Liverpool, despite a distracting spat over Labour's message on Brexit. It is a party itching to go back for another electoral fight much like its leader, who performs much better in campaign mode than in Westminster. The party's confidence comes in a large part from its size. Labour is now the biggest political party in Western Europe, with about 550,000 members. That's not just more than the Conservatives, it's almost twice as many as all the rest of the UK's party memberships put together. In Australian terms it's 10 times the ALP membership total (and going in the opposite direction). It's also more than the combined membership of all eight AFL teams that qualified for the 2018 finals. Former Australian Labour Party national president Jenny McAllister, who was in Liverpool last week, was impressed. I'm struck most by the growth in membership," McAllister said (it's her third visit since 2010, her first as an Australian senator). The scale is quite remarkable you can't underestimate how valuable it is to approach an election with a support base of this size. Many of the people she met around the Liverpool docks, where the conference was held, were at their first party conference and were pretty new to politics. They'd taken a decision that it was finally time to get involved. McAllister doesn't put the membership surge down to a Corbyn personality cult; she believes it comes from a deeper well. It seems as though the years of austerity and Brexit have seen a lot of ordinary people engage with politics in a way they haven't for a long time, she said. Navendu Mishra, 29, is one of those people. He's an organiser from Momentum, the activist group founded to support Corbyn's takeover of Labour (which included turfing out some of the people who've been running the party for decades). And as of this week he's on the party's national executive committee. Our long-term goal is for the Labour party to be transformed in a more socialist direction and I think it's getting there, he says. A few years ago the conference hall was empty", he says. "There's a lot more buzz around now". But he admits the surge in membership brings problems. In a party with more than half a million members you're going to have a broad range of views, he says. It is a challenge trying to include them all, trying to make sure everyone has a say on policy, trying to make sure we get good representatives. McAllister also noticed this. There are now a whole lot of new people in the party, and they all have expectations about how the party ought to work, and what it ought to focus on, she said. But, she added, overall this is a good problem to have. Mishra denies that the influx of young socialists means centrists don't have a role in Labour any more. He says Labour now gives everyone a platform and a voice. There will be some elements within Labour who find this difficult, but democracy is a wonderful thing. Tom Watson might have something to say about that. He's the party's deputy leader, elected at the same time as Corbyn, but he's widely considered a leftover from the unreconstructed party. For reasons never quite explained he didn't have a slot for a speech from the main stage this year, having to content himself with cameo appearances in small rooms at fringe events. Corbyn's allies seem to be waiting for a chance to replace him politely. And he was not the only Labour MP with a surprisingly low profile at their own conference. Corbyn's biggest problem may still be his own parliamentary party. Though Labour is shaded by the Tories in the disunity stakes there are deep divides still not least over Brexit, which many of its voters wanted, which most of its many members hate, and which its leadership wishes to be as vague as possible about. But for now Labour is patting itself on the back for a conference well done. It just goes to show. In 2015 then-PM David Cameron got an email from a constituent, warning him not to be too obviously happy about Corbyn's promotion to opposition leader. Loading Please, please keep dignity, and not triumphalism during the first PMQs (prime minister's questions in Parliament) today with Jeremy Corbyn, the email said. The email writer, Judith, was worried that if Cameron tore Corbyn apart too easily he'd be replaced by his deputy Tom Watson, "more dangerous in the long run. Sensible, sober, polite answers to Mr Corbyn, Judith advised Cameron. Let him create his own party disunity. A flotilla of small boats rescued all 47 passengers and crew from an Air Niugini flight travelling from the Federated States of Micronesia to Papua New Guinea after it landed in water on Friday morning. Air Niugini flight 73 was stopping over at Weno Airport in Chuuk, Micronesia, on its way from Pohnpei to Port Moresby, when the incident occurred. "It was supposed to land but instead of landing it was 150 yards [135 metres] short and she went down," Jimmy Emilio, general manager of Chuuk Airport at Weno in Micronesia, told Reuters by telephone. Latest News Last sub-2% rate goes as ANZ hikes again Second big hike in three weeks at major lender "Significant concern" for Premier as housing affordability crisis looms ABS stats show approvals drop off, with politicians warned of impact down the track The banks and associations have reacted to the release of the Royal Commission interim report. Released Friday afternoon (28 September), the interim report followed six rounds of public hearings in the Royal Commission into banking misconduct. Commissioner Kenneth Hayne handed the report over to the governor-general on Friday morning and this was then released to the public around 2.30pm. The Australian Banking Association (ABA) called it a day of shame for Australias banks. In a statement the group said, There are no excuses for the behaviour that has been exposed by the Royal Commission. Banks accept responsibility for their failures and right now they are working day and night to make things right for their customers. We will fix these problems and make them right without delay, to earn back the trust of the Australian public. We will build a banking industry which acts with integrity and is once again respected by our customers and the Australian community. The industry will respond to the specific findings in the Interim Report through a submission in the coming weeks. "A critical moment for the industry ANZ was the first to respond to the report. The major lender was questioned during the Royal Commission hearings over the use of the HEM benchmark and admitted to at least 20 events of misconduct or conduct falling below community standards and expectations in relation to home lending and residential mortgages. ANZ chief executive officer Shayne Elliott commented after the release saying, This is a critical moment for the industry, our bank and our people to continue the urgent work required to fix the significant failures highlighted by the Commission. We accept responsibility and we are determined to improve. ANZ is taking action to fast-track changes leadership, strategic, systems, people and cultural. We will make the investments required to build a bank worthy of the trust and respect of our customers and the community. While this work is well underway, there is more to do and todays report clearly sets out the damage we can do when we fail our customers. We will analyse the report in detail and respond directly to the Commissioner. We will also continue to engage constructively through the remainder of the process. Confronting and rightly critical Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) also said it would provide a more comprehensive response once it had read the report in its entirety. In the meantime, Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Matt Comyn said, The Royal Commissions Interim Report released today is confronting and rightly critical of our industry and our bank. We have seen too many examples of unacceptable behaviour and unacceptable customer outcomes. The Commission has highlighted the need for significant changes, particularly to systems, processes and culture. I am committed to making sure that we learn from the failures detailed in this report to fix what went wrong and put things right for our customers. "We know we still have more work to do Westpac said it would be responding with a submission to the Royal Commission. CEO Brian Hartzer said, This report marks a significant step in the Royal Commission process. Were reviewing it carefully and are focused on learning from the mistakes of the past and preventing them from happening again. The Royal Commission has identified many examples of misconduct across the industry. I apologise to any customers who have been impacted by mistakes that we have made. While weve introduced a number of reforms, including to our remuneration structures, our approaches to dealing with customer issues and removing grandfathered commissions attributable to BT products, we know we still have more work to do. We will own them and fix them NAB CEO Andrew Thorburn said he has read the summary and will review the report over the weekend. He added, I would like to thank the Commissioner for his thoroughness and diligence. For us at NAB, where we have made mistakes or done the wrong thing, we will own them and fix them. It is difficult to face the statement of profits before people, but this is exactly what we need to confront. Banking was built on putting people first and earning the trust of customers. We must return to these principles once again, rather than continuing to be short term managers. "We know we have to do more" Acting CEO at AMP also responded to the report. The bank received a lot of grilling during the hearings. Mike Wilkins said, "Since April, under the direction of new leadership, AMP has reset our business to accelerate positive changes in culture, governance, regulatory reporting and performance. "AMP is focused on ensuring that adherence to the law, meeting community expectations and the best interests of our customers are fundamental to our culture and governance. We are also committed to ensuring that our ongoing engagement with ASIC and other regulators is forthright and honest. "We are accelerating remediation to ensure affected customers are appropriately compensated as quickly as possible. "We know we have more to do and we are committed to doing it." The report is extensive and the AMP Board and management are carefully reviewing it in line with the Commissions processes. Latest News Last sub-2% rate goes as ANZ hikes again Second big hike in three weeks at major lender "Significant concern" for Premier as housing affordability crisis looms ABS stats show approvals drop off, with politicians warned of impact down the track The treasurer has held a press conference in Melbourne today, just ahead of the release of the Royal Commission interim report. During his speech he called the report "frank and scathing" and thanked the commissioner for his work. He said the Royal Commission was announced last year because "the culture, conduct and the compliance of the secotr is well below the standard the Australian people expect and deserve". He also said, "Almost every piece of conduct identified and criticised in this report can be conducted directly to some monetary benefit from engaging in the conduct." What the report says The report gathered four kinds of issues in the space. The first was the confusion over roles and responsibilties, the second was over customer needs, the third was over 'unsuitable' lending and the fourth was processing errors. It poses a number of questions to be discussed in a later round of public hearings, including on broker roles, conflicted remuneration and the role of ASIC. The report discusses how borrowers should be made aware of remuneration, as well as how brokers deal as intermediaries between the customer and the banks. The report says, "very often, the relationship between broker and wouldbe borrower will either be obscure or a relationship in which the broker owes the borrower no duty larger than not to negotiate an unsuitable loan". As expected, the report also discusses the use of the HEM benchmark. The report on this matter says the benchmark "can lead only to the conclusion that in many of those cases the broker has not taken any effective steps to inquire into, or verify, the expense information supplied by the borrower". The report adds, "there is no doubt that in the eyes of at least some lenders, the brokers task is to sell that lenders products", before going on to remuneration. About remuneration the report says, "What is plain, however, is that value- and volume-based remuneration for intermediaries in the home loan industry has been an important contributor to misconduct and conduct falling short of community standards and expectations and poor customer outcomes.... And both CBA and ASIC rightly identified the consequences of value-based remuneration of brokers." You can find the full report here. This report follows six rounds of public hearings, amounting to 59 hearings in total, led by Commissioner Kenneth Hayne. The Royal Commission has said the report will only focus on the first four rounds of hearings, which were: consumer lending, financial advice, loans to small and medium enterprises and experiences with financial services entities in regional and remote communities. Some of the issues raised in the first round of hearings which are expected to be mentioned in the report include the banks' lending standards, broker remuneration and conflicts of interest. The final report is expected in February 2019 and follows a seventh round of hearings, commencing on 19 November. This round will focus on policy questions arising from the six rounds of hearings. The final report will detail questions and recommendations following this final round. Aussie Home Loans was one of the first to respond and has said it welcomed the release of the interim report for the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. Aussie CEO James Symond said, We are in the process of reviewing the report in detail. We will provide a formal response to the Royal Commission, which will continue to advocate for our industry, our brokers, and the important service they provide for Australian home buyers, owners and investors. The Aussie team will continue to work closely with the Combined Industry Forum, Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), regulators and the Federal Government to ensure all factors are considered before any action is taken that could harm competition in home lending and impact the positive customer outcomes we know our industry delivers." War is mens business, Hector says in the Iliad. Pat Barker begs to differ. The British novelist has made war her subject, winning the 1995 Booker Prize for Ghost Road, the final novel of her remarkable World War I trilogy, Regeneration. In her new novel, The Silence of the Girls, she takes on the foundational war story of the Western canon, giving voice to the muted women of Homers Iliad. Its a rich premise, since in the Iliad (if not the Odyssey) Homers women remain underrealised static as statues, waiting patiently upon their plinths to ... 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 British authorities are on the verge of banning from their territories all branches of Lebanon-based Hezbollah that the government-led by Theresa May has labeled as a disgusting group. The decision, endorsed by Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, will be unveiled next week, London-based The New Arab reports. So far, only the armed wing of the powerful Shia movement is banned in the country but with the upcoming decision, all branches and aligned movements will also be prohibited. The move will also target the annual pro-Palestine Al-Quds Day March rally in central London, where the yellow banner of Hezbollah is frequently seen, the Qatar-endorsed media says. UK has not put the organization on its black list but London has criticized the Iran-backed movement for its dangerous actions across the world and mainly its involvement in the Syrian conflict on the side of President Bashar al-Assad. The ban move is upheld by Jewish activists and pro-Israel groups also opposed to Irans influence in the Middle East region. Hezbollah has fought numerous wars with Israel including the devastating conflict of 2006. Israel and the Arab League believe the group sponsors terror groups in the region. Pundits believe the decision to ban the movement outright is a way for the UK to put pressure on Iran, which has imprisoned a British-Iranian mother, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The woman working for Thomson Reuters Foundation charity has been detained on espionage charges that London says are fabricated. says it will recall 1.4 million US cars to replace front passenger air bag inflators. The company says the recall, which covers and Acura vehicles, is part of an attempt to get ahead of a government mandated schedule of recalls on the Japanese-made air bags. says owners of the vehicles should schedule the free repair at authorized dealerships as soon as possible. ALSO READ: Honda Cars India to step up auto parts export to counter falling rupee The Honda recalls are the fourth part of a five-phase plan announced by the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration in May of 2016. Honda says it is ahead of schedule with more than 77 per cent of existing recalls repaired. The inflators have resulted in the largest series of auto recalls in US history, covering 37 million vehicles and about 50 million inflators. The government is monitoring the situation of debt-ridden and would take appropriate action to ensure that there is no undue impact on the financial system, Economic Affairs Secretary S C Garg said Friday. Debt defaults by certain group entities of diversified has triggered fears of liquidity crisis in the financial markets and the RBI has been taking steps to improve the overall cash situation. Amid persisting concerns in the markets, the Finance Ministry Friday held a meeting with key shareholders of -- LIC, and -- to discuss the current situation. Stating that the government is monitoring the situation of IL&FS, Garg said it is a large company within the infrastructure space and there is a lot of connection with the government departments as it has executed a lot of PPP (Public Private Partnership) projects. "Therefore it is an important, significant entity. The government would take appropriate measures to see that there is no undue impact on what happens in IL&FS. Government will ensure there is no undue impact on the system that this institution causes," he said. The meeting, chaired by Garg, is believed to have discussed ways to sort out issues related to IL&FS so that contagion does not impact other sectors of the economy. LIC Chairman V K Sharma, Chairman Rajnish Kumar and MD Pallav Mohapatra attended the meeting. In Mumbai, the Reserve Bank also met various shareholders of IL&FS. About the IL&FS issue, Sharma said all options are open without giving specific details as to what the largest shareholder is going to do to save the company. The annual general meeting is going to take place on Saturday and more details would emerge after it, Sharma said in the national capital. The LIC chief expressed confidence that over Rs 600 billion worth assets can be recovered by IL&FS while trying to work out solution for the remaining Rs 300 billion. IL&FS, where LIC is the largest shareholder with 25.34 per cent stake, has a debt burden of over Rs 900 billion. Japan's Orix Corporation has 23.54 per cent stake in the company. Other shareholders include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (12.5 per cent stake), IL&FS Employees Welfare Trust (12 per cent), HDFC (9.02 per cent), (7.67 per cent) and (6.42 per cent). These are the shareholding figures at the end of March. Earlier this week, defaulted on interest payment and fixed deposits. This was fourth in the series of defaults by the group entity. On Friday, LIC Mutual Fund said that IL&FS Securities Services has cleared its dues worth Rs 3 billion. IL&FS -- credited for building the longest tunnel in the country (Chenani-Nashri tunnel in J&K) -- is sitting on a debt pile of over Rs 900 billion. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday fired the head of the military in southern Basra province who is accused of the death of 18 demonstrators killed early this month amid ongoing popular protests against the government over poor public services. Lieutenant-General Jamil al-Shammari has been demoted to the post of rector of Iraqs Defense University for Military Studies, according to a statement of the Prime Ministers office. Abadi had to sack the Lieutenant-General who has been subject to public criticism for his handling of protests in the province, which have been demanding better public services and a clampdown on corruption. Eighteen demonstrators were killed early this month as the protests continue. The removal, Turkish state-run news agency reports, came hours before the Iraqi parliament was scheduled to vote on whether or not to dismiss the commander. Also on Wednesday, the agency notes, MPs called for the dismissal of three ministers in al-Abadis government. Basra, the heart of Iraqs oil crescent, has been since early July the epicenter of the deadly demonstrations, which have also engulfed central provinces. This week, Facebook lost an executive who, in a better and different world, might one day have taken the helm of the social networking giant. On Monday, Kevin Systrom, as well as his longtime partner, Mike Krieger, the founders of Instagram, quit Facebook. While seemingly out of the blue, it was a long time coming. The reason? Their unhappiness over increasingly aggressive meddling by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, about how Instagram was run. ALSO READ: After Whatsapp, Instagram founders quit amid tensions with Zuckerberg This might seem like business ... That is what planning for housing affordability looks like in most Australian capital cities: innovative projects take years to develop and never get scaled up into a system. Who can we learn from? In July, the lead author returned to three cities comparable to Melbourne that she visited in 2015 Vancouver, Portland and Toronto to re-interview key housing actors and review investment and policy changes ... 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 The following is the chronology of events leading to the Supreme Court Friday refusing to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists by the Maharashtra Police in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case, and declining to appoint a SIT to probe their arrest. It also extended their house arrest for 4 weeks. *Dec 31, 2017: Elgar Parishad a conference held in Shaniwar Wada near Pune to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon-Bhima. *Jan 1, 2018: One person killed in caste violence between two groups near Sanaswadi, adjacent to Koregaon-Bhima leading to the statewide Dalit agitation. *Jun 6: Pune police arrests prominent Dalit activist Sudhir Dhawale, Nagpur University head of English department Shoma Sen, activist Mahesh Raut and Kerala native Rona Wilson, who is associated with committee for release of political prisoners, in the case. *Aug 28: Maharashtra Police arrests Telugu poet Varavara Rao from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha from Delhi. -Petition filed in Delhi HC on behalf of Navlakha challenging his arrest. -Delhi HC directs Navlakha, arrested for alleged Maoist links, not be taken away from the capital till it hears the matter next day. -Punjab and Haryana HC Court stays transit remand of Bharadwaj. *Aug 29: Maha Police gives in Delhi HC translated documents including FIR to Navlakha's counsel. -Historian Romila Thapar and four activists move SC against the arrest of five rights activists seeking their immediate release and SIT probe. -SC directs all activists be kept under house arrest till September 6. *Aug 30: Delhi HC not to proceed with hearing of the plea against Navlakha's arrest till further orders from SC. *Sep 5: Maha govt claims in SC that activists were not arrested for their dissenting views but due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned CPI(Maoist). *Sep 6: SC extends activists house arrest till Sep 12. *Sep 12: SC extends their house arrest till Sep 17. *Sep 17: SC further extends their house arrest till Sep 19 saying it will examine whether there is material supporting their arrest in the case. *Sep 19: SC again extends house arrest of activists for a day saying it will look into their arrest with a 'hawks eye'. *Sep 20: SC reserves verdict on the pleas. *Sep 28: SC, in a 2:1 verdict, refuses to interfere with the arrests and declined to appoint a SIT. The on Friday described the Supreme Court's verdict to open the gates of the in to women of all ages as "progressive" and said that there could be no discrimination to worship on the basis of gender. "There can be no discrimination to worship on the basis of gender or otherwise. A welcome and progressive move towards gender equality by in Sabarimala. As society evolves, so should our religious beliefs and laws," leader Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted. His remarks came soon after the delivered its verdict saying that it was violative of women's fundamental rights and constitutional guarantees. In a majority 4:1 judgment, the top court also read down the provision of laws that protected the prohibition and said it could not be covered under practices essential and integral to religious practice. When I was a student of art history, the textbooks offered a simple, tidy and wrong story of painting after 1945. The first years after World War II were taught as a clean baton pass from Picasso to Pollock: The New York School led the way; Europe got a brief and sometimes sneering look; and begrudging attention was paid to the avant-gardes of just a few rich non-Western nations (the Concretists of Brazil, the Gutai artists of Japan). Slowly, too slowly, museums are now taking up the task of rewriting the history of art since 1945 as more than just a triumph of American ... Prime Minister is among 48 world leaders who have endorsed a collective statement issued by UN chief Antonio Guterres reaffirming their continued personal commitment to support efforts to combat sexual exploitation across the UN system and to make zero tolerance of such cases a reality. UN peacekeeping missions are facing allegations of in African countries. In 2017, Guterres had launched a campaign to prevent and end sexual exploitation by UN personnel. In the same year, the UN Secretary General made a startling admission that "sexual exploitation and abuse is a problem of the entire United Nations". "Majority of the cases of sexual exploitation and abuse are done by the civilian organisations of the UN," he had said. The world leaders, including Modi, US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May, and 21 UN entities voiced their commitment to work together in partnership with the Secretary General to implement his strategy to strengthen a system-wide approach across all UN bodies and all categories of personnel military, police, and civilian. "We underscore the crucial role of this partnership in the achievement of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse. Together, we reaffirm our commitment to make zero tolerance of sexual exploitation and abuse a reality. This is an urgent and moral imperative, as well as an operational necessity to ensure the effectiveness and credibility of the around the world," the leaders and the entities said in their endorsement of the collective statement. They said they recognize the need for the consistent and coordinated implementation of policies and approaches to prevent the occurrence of such cases across the UN system and the ongoing need to ensure accountability for perpetrators. "We strongly encourage the efforts of the Secretary-General in confronting unequal power relationships and gender roles through meaningful organisational culture change," the leaders, who are the members of the Circle of Leadership on the Prevention of and Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Operations, said. They also recognised the shared responsibility of the UN and its member states to protect victims and whistle-blowers and take appropriate action against perpetrators, commending nations who have contributed to the Trust Fund in Support of Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, and those that are signatories to the Voluntary Compact on Preventing and Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. The leaders and entities welcomed the steps taken by the UN to enhance the institutional response by actively following up on reports and cases, saying they are convinced that the highest standards of conduct require training, capacity-building, awareness-raising, vetting and the appropriate enforcement of laws. "We pledge to continue our efforts to elevate the rights and dignity of victims and expand opportunities and modalities for them to report sexual exploitation and abuse and advocate for their own needs. In this regard, we also reaffirm the importance of the role of the Victims' Rights Advocate," they said. The leaders called for further strengthening of an integrated response to victim assistance across the UN system, together with member states and civil society. The other leaders who endorsed the UN chief's campaign include Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau, Brazil President Michel Temer, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, Japanese premier Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron. Russian President will be on a two-day visit here beginning October 4 to hold the annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a focus on further boosting bilateral ties and deliberate on a range regional and global issues including US sanctions on the import of Iranian crude oil. The announcement of the Russian leader's visit was announced by the "President of the Russian Federation Vladimir V Putin will pay an official visit to New Delhi from October 4-5 for the 19th annual bilateral summit," it said. Besides a host of other issues, the two leaders are likely to review bilateral defence cooperation in the wake of the US sanctions against Russian defence majors, sources said. It is not yet clear whether the two countries will sign an agreement sealing the during Putin's visit. Both sides have almost concluded negotiations on the Rs 400 billion deal under which Russia will supply a batch of the missile system to India. There have been indications by New Delhi that it will go ahead with the deal notwithstanding the US sanctions. "India has maintained its sovereignty as regards to its relationship with countries. We shall maintain it in all earnestness," Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told PTI recently when asked whether the US sanctions will hit India's defence ties with Russia. Russia has been one of India's key suppliers of arms and ammunition. The sources said Modi and Putin will also deliberate on the impact of US sanctions on the import of crude oil from Iran. Besides holding talks with Modi, the Russian leader will also have a meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind as well as other official engagements, the MEA said. The last annual summit was held on June 1, 2017, during the visit of the prime minister to Russia. In May, Modi had travelled Russian coastal city of Sochi for an informal summit with Putin during which they discussed a range of crucial issues. Sources said Modi and Putin will explore ways to further deepen cooperation between the two countries in a number of sectors including trade, investment, connectivity, energy, space and tourism. They said the two leaders will also deliberate on a host of regional and global issues including the impact of US sanctions on the import of crude oil from Iran. (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.) Women activists Friday hailed the Supreme Court judgement allowing women into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala, but expressed concern over its acceptance at the ground level by people. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. Chhavi Methi, a women rights activist welcomed the judgement, but said its acceptance remains to be seen. "I am doubtful the temple authorities would take it in the right spirit. Women would accept it but its implementation might pose a problem," she said. Another women rights activist Vani Subramaniam said the decision is an extension of various pro-equality judgements taken by the Supreme Court, but she too expressed concern over the community's reaction to it. "Question remains to be seen how it is accepted in the community and by the people at the ground level," she aid. Mariam Dhawale, General Secretary of the The All India Democratic Women's Association, called it another step that would help in bringing equality. "We welcome the judgement. Women have a constitutional right to be able to visit the temple and whoever wishes must be allowed to visit it," she said. Melania Trump will visit Ghana, Kenya, Egypt and Malawi next month in her first solo trip abroad as US First Lady, White House correspondents reported on Wednesday. There are many programs across the United States that are doing great things for children, and I believe we can replicate many of these programs overseas, Mrs. Trump said. She is working closely with USAID ahead of the trip. According to her communications director Stephanie Grisham, Mrs. Trumps trip will be a diplomatic and humanitarian visit, which will include stops focusing on health care, education, conservation and tourism. The first lady is also expected to learn more about the United States role in providing assistance to help countries become self-sufficient. Her trip will focus on maternal and infant care in hospitals, education for children, the deep culture and history woven into each African country, and how the United States is supporting each country on its journey to self-reliance. It is not clear how long her trip will last. Stephanie Grisham has not disclosed details of her itinerary yet but did say it would take place during the first week of October. Since launching her Be Best campaign in May, Mrs. Trump has had the opportunity to meet with children all over the world, promoting successful organizations and programs that share her goal. Any solution to the issue must address India's concerns about the nuclear proliferation linkages in its neighbourhood, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said, in a veiled reference to In her address to the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Foreign Ministers' Meeting here Thursday, Swaraj said India has been consistently supporting the efforts to bring about peace and stability in the "We have been consistently supportive of efforts to bring about peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula," she said in the meeting held on the margins of the 73rd session of the "We believe that any solution to the issue of must address concerns about the proliferation linkages with India's neighbourhood," Swaraj said, in an apparent reference to which has close defence ties with Since the 1970s, and have cooperated extensively on the development of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons technologies, according to defence analysts and media reports. She said the world today was characterised by chronic armed-conflicts in different parts of the world, especially in West Asia. These conflicts are of intra-state nature with the proliferation of non-state actors and terrorist networks with global reach, she added. Conflicts in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen pose security challenges for the region and for global peace, Swaraj said while expressing deep concern with continuing tensions on the border between Gaza Strip and Israel. Swaraj said India had recently considerably increased to USD 5 million, its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). "India firmly believes that the dialogue and country-led processes are the only viable options to effectively address the issues in that region," she added. looks forward to visiting India to reflect on the "amazingly positive" trajectory in India-US relationship, a top Trump Administration official said Friday. Prime Minister has invited Trump to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations next year. "President Trump does look forward to visiting India again to reflect on what has been an amazingly positive trajectory in our relationship," Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asia Region Alice Wells told PTI here in response to a question on when would the be able to make a visit to India. Wells added that she does not have further details as to when the President's trip to India will take place. "I love India, give my regards to my friend PM (Narendra) Modi," Trump had told External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday as they exchanged pleasantries during a high-level event on counter-narcotics. Modi has met Trump at least twice in the past year the first during a bilateral visit to Washington and then once on the margins of a summit in Manila. India's Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister is in Nepal to hold talks on the modality of construction of a petroleum pipeline from Amlekhgunj to Chitwan and the import of petrol and gas to the land-locked Himalayan nation. Nepal is seeking extension of three pipelines natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and oil (petrol, diesel and kerosene) up to Chitwan, the Kathmandu Post reported. The Indian petroleum minister and his team will hold discussions on the under-construction petroleum and gas pipelines, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) spokesperson Birendra Goit was quoted as saying by the daily. Pradhan, who arrived here on Friday, will hold discussions with various authorities involved in the construction of the pipeline. The meetings will discuss issues regarding the modality of construction of petroleum pipeline from Amlekhgunj to Chitwan and the import of petrol and gas, the daily said. In 2015, the two governments had signed an agreement to lay a 69-km oil pipeline from Motihari in India to Amlekhganj. Nepal is now seeking extension of the natural gas and LPG pipelines along the same route. India is currently building the oil pipeline between Motihari and Amlekhgunj. So far, a 17 km stretch of the 36.2-km section of the pipeline, which lies on the Nepal side, has been over, according to the NOC. Nepal's fuel imports have rocketed in recent years. Last fiscal year, the demand for cooking gas surged 18 per cent to 370,560 tonnes, according to the NOC. The gas pipeline will result in savings of around Rs 2 billion annually for Nepal by eliminating tanker trucks. Diesel and cooking gas accounted for 80 percent of the total fuel import bill of Rs 170 billion last fiscal, the daily said. During the recent visit by Nepal Commerce Minister Matrika Prasad Yadav, India agreed to build a gas pipeline to Nepal. The two countries had agreed to discuss the modality of construction at the joint working group meeting. The Kerala government is aiming at generating 500,000 jobs in the tourism sector in the next three years, even as the industry is coming out from a loss of Rs 5 billion it met due to the heavy floods in August this year, according to officials. "Responsible tourism will be the key to the ambitious government plan of giving 500,000 more people jobs by 2021," said Kerala Tourism Secretary Rani George, while addressing the industry in the ongoing Kerala Travel Mart. 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 Thousands of Ethiopians and Eritreans had flocked to Meskel Square in Addis Ababa on Wednesday to commemorate the Meskel festival, also known as the Finding of the True Cross on which Jesus was crucified. Ethiopians from across the country and visitors from around the world carried yellow daises, wooden crosses and wax candles as the pile of wood burned down to the pavement. The colorful and elaborate ceremony was attended by President Mulatu Teshome and deputy mayor of the capital, Takele Uma. Priests and students dressed in long white religious robes and head gears sang spiritual songs prior to the celebration. The Meskel festival is about 1,600 years old, but it wasnt always celebrated this grandly. During the 1970s and 80s, when Ethiopia was ruled by a Marxist military junta called the Derg, religion took a backseat to politics and the giant bonfire was banned from Meskel Square. During that time, Ethiopians suspected of supporting the resistance were often killed up to 500,000 people reportedly died during the Red Terror. The feast celebrates the finding of the True Cross in the early fourth century by St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, and corresponds to the Feast of the Holy Cross in the West. As the only country on earth to celebrate Meskel, Ethiopia is petitioning UNESCO to register its annual celebration in Addis Ababa as a cultural heritage experience. About 2,000 centres have been set up across Chhattisgarh to facilitate farmers to sell their produce at the minimum support price (MSP). Chhattisgarh, which is among a few states in the country paying MSP to farmers, will start procurement on November 1. The procurement is crucial this year as the state is likely to go to the polls later in the month. The BJP-led government is desperately seeking farmers support to form the government for the fourth consecutive term. It had announced a bonus of Rs 300 per quintal for the paddy the farmers would be selling to it. About 1.3 ... With instances of recruiters hiring students by reaching out directly or through other channels in the past, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have decided to take a stand against the pratice this year. Ahead of the final placement process, the All IITs' Placement Committee (AIPC) in its meeting on Friday has decided to insist recruiters hire only through the placement offices. "There have been instances where recruiters come and hire through informal ways or by contacting students directly. We do not want that. We want to communicate to the recruiters that all ... Rana Kapoor, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) at Yes Bank, reiterated his commitment to the bank and its stakeholders on Friday. In a series of tweets, Kapoor said his YES Bank shares were invaluable. He said he would never sell his shares, even after he demits office as the private lenders MD and CEO. I will bequeath my YES Bank promoter shares to my three daughters and subsequently to their children, with a request in my will stating not to sell a single share, as diamonds are forever, he said. Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank ... In a series of tweets on Friday, YES Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Rana Kapoor said he remained fully committed to the interests of the bank and its stakeholders, even as the bank was going through a leadership transition. He said he would never sell the shares of the bank even after he would demit office as its chief. "Diamonds are Forever: My Promoter shares of @YESBANK are invaluable to me." He would leave his promoter shares in the bank to his three daughters and subsequently to their children, he said. ALSO READ: YES Bank denies any ... Canada on Thursday shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism that talks to modernize NAFTA were moving too slowly and made clear it had to keep negotiating as long as there was a chance of success. The prospects for a quick deal to update the North American Free Trade Agreement appeared to dim on Wednesday after Trump blasted Canada's stance and threatened to impose tariffs on cars imported from Canada. "The Americans are finding that the negotiations are tough because Canadians are tough negotiators, as we should be," Trudeau told reporters on the ... China's Sinopec Corp is halving loadings of crude oil from Iran this month, as the state refiner comes under intense pressure from Washington to comply with a US ban on Iranian oil from November, said people with knowledge of the matter. The sources did not specify volumes, but based on the prevailing supply contract between the top Chinese refiner and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), its loadings would be reduced to about 130,000 barrels per day (bpd). This would be 20 percent of China's average daily imports from Iran in 2017, dealing a blow to Tehran, which has ... South African Airways chief executive Vuyani Jarana said the debt-plagued airline is making steady progress to achieve profitability at the end of the 2021 financial year. The embattled state-owned airline improves its revenue as it is set to receive government bailouts of R13 billion over the next two years. The airline reported a loss of $398 million in the year ended in March; more than double what it had budgeted, and received a government bailout last year to avoid a default on debt. The airline faces challenges such as a jump in fuel prices, Chief Executive Officer Vuyani Jarana said in an interview. On revenue were quite happy, but other aspects are more difficult, he said in an interview. The management is considering a sale of the airlines catering unit, Air Chefs, and outsourcing or selling SAA Cargo. The South African main opposition party, DA, last week, said that selling of assets will not save the state-run carrier. The opposition said it was not surprised by media reports that the airline was contemplating selling off assets as a result of the mounting debt the airline faces. The carrier, under the rule of former President Jacob Zuma, was plagued with ill governance and financial mismanagement. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed fears Friday that his country was seeking to overtake the United States as the pre-eminent world power amid fast-deteriorating relations with President Speaking to an influential US think tank, Wang took a steadfastly conciliatory tone, pledging to work with the United States to resolve disputes and denying that China was stealing technology. "Some American friends have proceeded from the Western theory of realism," he said, believing that "in the past several hundred years, strong countries are bound to seek hegemony, and their conclusion is that China is about to seek hegemony and even challenge or displace US leadership." "I want to tell you very clearly that this is a serious strategic misjudgment," Wang told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, where he was attending the UN General Assembly. "It is a misguided anticipation that will be extremely detrimental to US interests and the future of the United States," he said. "Regrettably, this self-imagined suspicion is spreading and it has also been amplified," he said, warning that it could "even lead to new suspicions and make it even more difficult to address specific issues." After Trump forged an initial bonhomie with Chinese President Xi Jinping, relations have rapidly plummeted. Trump with characteristic bluntness this week said that he may no longer consider Xi a friend. The United States has imposed $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods and Trump has gone so far as alleging that China is interfering in midterm US elections in hopes of defeating his Republican Party due to his tough trade stance. Wang flatly denied a key American charge -- that China is stealing technology from US and other foreign businesses. "This is simply not true. We hope that such untrue allegations will stop," he said. US officials say China seizes the technology more indirectly by requiring foreign companies to ally with local firms to enter the world's most populous market, with the partners then seizing the know-how for themselves. Wang insisted that the process of business partnerships was "open and transparent". In the summer of 2016 we met at the Sewanee Writers Conference in Tennessee. As poets with physical disabilities, we immediately found much in common and quickly became friends. In the months that followed, we talked and wrote frequently to each other about our lives, our bodies and our experiences of being in the world. As our friendship evolved, it naturally gave rise to work; we began writing together first, a set of essays in conversation, which were published last year, and eventually a book titled In the Field Between Us, a collaborative collection of poems. Those poems, ... Russia and signed a memorandum of understanding on implementing a project to build an underwater gas pipeline from Iran to and India, the Russian Energy Ministry said in a statement Thursday. "The memorandum provides for the identification of authorized organisations through which the project will be supported, including during the development of a feasibility study, identification of the resource base, configuration and route of the gas pipeline," the statement said, Xinhua reported. Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky and Pakistan's Ministry of Energy Additional Secretary Sher Afgan Khan signed the document in Moscow. Now Russia will have to inform Iran and India about the signing, after which it expects to sign a similar document with India, Yanovsky said in the statement. The project was frozen in 2013 due to the imposition of sanctions against Iran, but its revival started in 2017. In November 2017, Russia and Iran signed a memorandum that envisaged Russian support for gas supplies from Iran to India. In March, a Russian-Iranian working group on the implementation of the project had its first meeting. According to Yanovsky, Russia and were holding consultations on another project of building the 1,100 kilometer North-South Gas Pipeline (NSGP) between Pakistan's Karachi and Lahore to transport 12.3 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The implementation of an agreement signed in October last year between Russia and Pakistan on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies "can become a promising direction of cooperation," he said. The governments of the two countries were also considering signing an agreement on Russian oil products supplies to Pakistan, Yanovsky said. In addition, Russian electric power industry has shown interest in the Pakistani market, he said. Ryanair is bracing on Friday for another strike by staff as walkouts in six European countries, mainly cabin crew, force flight cancellations that will disrupt the plans of more than 40,000 travellers. Europe's largest low-cost carrier has faced a string of strikes since it recognised trade unions for the first time in December, damaging bookings and forcing it to consider cutting short-term growth plans if labour unrest continues. Cabin crews in Germany, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, as well as pilots in Germany, served Ryanair strike notices of the ... whole-heartedly backed Brett Kavanaugh, whose Supreme Court nomination will be put to an initial vote Friday, after a dramatic Senate hearing that saw him furiously fight back against sexual assault allegations dating back decades ago. America watched transfixed as the gripping day-long hearing opened with Christine Blasey Ford, 51, recounting to a packed room the harrowing details of what she said was an attempted rape by Kavanaugh 36 years ago. In a passionate defense, the 53-year-old conservative judge insisted before the Senate Judiciary Committee that it never happened, accused Democrats of destroying his reputation and condemned his confirmation battle as a "national disgrace" and a "circus." "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him," the president tweeted just minutes after the close of the hearing. "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," Trump said. "Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct and resist. The Senate must vote!" Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump would get his wish, with the Judiciary Committee - which has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats - set to vote on its recommendation Friday before the nomination goes to the full Senate, where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 edge. "We're going to vote in the morning and we're going to move forward," McConnell told journalists. The allegations against Kavanaugh by Blasey Ford, a psychology professor in California, have threatened to derail Trump's bid to tilt the nation's highest court to the right for years to come. They come against a backdrop of the #MeToo movement and the hearing included sharp exchanges between Republicans and Democrats mirroring the atmosphere of bitter political partisanship in Washington. "I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation by Dr Ford," Kavanaugh said in an opening statement during which his voice shook with anger, repeatedly fighting back tears. "I've never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever," he said. "I am innocent of this charge." Earlier, during four hours of testimony, Blasey Ford said she was "100 percent" certain that Kavanaugh was her assailant and it was "absolutely not" a case of mistaken identity. "I am here today not because I want to be," Blasey Ford said as she recounted the alleged assault at a high school party at a suburban Maryland home. "I am terrified," she said, her voice often quavering. "I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me. The benchmark indices ended marginally lower on Friday, weighed down by automobile and information technology (IT) stocks. The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 36,227, down 97 points, while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 10,930, down 47 points. In sectoral indices, the Nifty IT index settled 1.1 per cent lower due to a fall in the shares of Infibeam Avenues which crashed 71 per cent to end at Rs 57.90. The Nifty Auto Index, too, fell 2.3 per cent driven by fall in Hero MotoCorp, Apollo Tyres and Mahindra & Mahindra. Among individual stocks, YES Bank stock fell 9.7 per ... 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 The recent sharp correction in the stock prices of financial stocks should be used as an opportunity to buy for the long term, says Christopher Wood, managing director and equity strategist at CLSA in his weekly note to investors, GREED & fear. There have been some fun and games in Indias financial stocks over the past week partly driven by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announcements, and partly driven by the market discounting higher wholesale funding costs for non-bank financial companies. 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 Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat on Friday supported the decision of the Supreme Court, directing political parties to advertise the criminal records of the candidates contesting elections on their ticket. In an interview to ANI, Rawat said that the entire idea is to give voters an informed choice, as they should be well aware of the people they are electing as their representatives. "The idea is to give voters an informed choice. People should know about the candidates they are choosing. The commission is mulling over the implementation of the direction passed by the Supreme Court. As soon as it will be ready we will bring it to the public domain," the CEC said. Speaking further on the recent direction of the apex court to retain the publicity gained by the Election Commission, when it was headed by TN Seshan, in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh polls, Rawat said the poll body will "live up to the expectation of the court." In the wake of the forthcoming general elections in 2019, the CEO's of all the 24 states not going to polls will meet in Delhi on October 4 and 5 to attend a two-day conference ahead of the preparations to be made for the Lok Sabha polls. The apex court on Tuesday refused to disqualify candidates facing criminal charges from contesting elections and asked the Parliament to enact a law instead. A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, while hearing a batch of petitions seeking disqualification of candidates with criminal cases pending against them from contesting polls, said that the Parliament must ensure that people with serious criminal charges do not enter politics. The apex court further said that candidates and political leaders with criminal cases pending against them have to inform their respective political parties about their criminal records. It also asked the political parties to display the criminal records of its leaders on their websites. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has hit back at Congress president Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court refused to grant relief to the five activists detained in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon case. Quoting an earlier tweet by Gandhi on the case, Shah said on Friday that there is only one place for idiocy and it is called the Congress. "Support 'Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang', Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working. Welcome to Rahul Gandhi's Congress," his tweet read. Shah trained guns at Rahul over his tweet about Bhima-Koregaon case dated August 28, which read: "There is only place for one NGO in India and it's called the RSS. Shut down all other NGOs. Jail all activists and shoot those that complain. Welcome to the new India." The BJP president continued his tirade against the Congress party in a series of tweets and stated that those who stooped down to the level of politicising an issue of security have been exposed by the Supreme Court decision today. He asked the Congress to clears its stand on the "critical issue of Urban Naxalism." Amit Shah further stated that India is a vibrant democracy with a healthy culture of debate, discussion and dissent. "However, plotting against the country with the intent to harm our citizens is not one of these. Those who politicised this issue need to apologise," read his tweet. Shah's retort comes in the wake of the top court's verdict extending the house arrest of the detained activists and turning down their demand for a Special Investigating Team (SIT) probe in the case. The five activists- Vara Vara Rao, Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Gautam Navlakha- were detained by Maharashtra Police on August 28. The action by the police led to widespread criticism of the government by the Opposition parties. Many Congress leaders, including Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid and RS Surjewala sought a thorough probe into the matter. The case pertains to violence that erupted at a gathering to mark the 200th anniversary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle. A youth died and several others, including 10 policemen, were injured in the incident which took place in January this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) King Mohammed VI has called for more African efforts to promote womens participation in development and decision-making in order to make the most of their ever-growing role as entrepreneurs and business leaders in the continent. In a message addressed to participants in the 2nd Women in Africa Initiative Summit, convened Thursday in Marrakech, the Sovereign stressed the importance of this event which aims to promote competent and talented women leaders in Africa and to highlight the role played by women in stimulating comprehensive development on the continent. Despite the significant improvement in womens conditions in Africa, it must be admitted that there is still a long way to go, said the Monarch in his message read out by royal advisor Abdellatif Menouni. The government, the private sector and civil society all have a crucial part to play in consolidating the leading role of women as key drivers of development, said the Monarch, noting that no country, economy, business or society can tackle todays challenges, nor ensure optimal use of its resources and energies, without the full involvement of women. This question tops the concerns of African countries, explained King Mohammed VI, affirming that within the African Union, there is a principled, undying commitment to gender equality, an objective which should be achieved by 2025. Given the injustice African women are still suffering from on the ground, we are all duty-bound to work to promote womens roles and make African women a central element in national plans for social and economic development, thereby strengthening their leading role in society, said the Moroccan Sovereign. He stressed the need for more efforts to ensure that women especially those from disadvantaged background can benefit from innovative financing mechanisms and to facilitate their access to safe, sustainable technology. King Mohammed VI also called for setting up platforms for consultation on womens empowerment at the local and national levels, using a participatory approach. Islam emphasizes equality between men and women since it considers women as shaqaaqu arrijaal, meaning the sisters or allies of men in terms of judgments (ahkaam), he said, affirming that the universal values of humankind and international charters also provide for gender equality, without any discrimination. For several years now, I have been taking measures to ensure gender equality in Morocco, underlined the Sovereign, saying this is not just a fundamental human right but also a requirement as per the law and a necessity for the achievement of socio-economic development. He recalled in this regard the 2011, which establishes the principle of equality between women and men, the royal initiatives launched to promote womens entrepreneurial skills, the reform of the Family Code & of the Penal Code protecting women against violence as well as the Award for Excellence set up to encourage and reward womens outstanding contributions. Morocco is ready to share its experience with African sister nations, said King Mohammed VI, deeming any obstacle to the empowerment of women as a stumbling block impeding the continents development. African women should not pay the price for the many structural challenges facing our continent. (). They should be frontline players in building resilient societies that can adapt to change and to new developments, said the Moroccan Sovereign. They should also be able to harness their tremendous potential for the emergence of a strong, united Africa that confidently and resolutely moves forward in its quest for a better future, underlined the Monarch. To create awareness and sensitize farmers about environmental hazards of burning post-harvest agricultural residue, agrochemical company Parijat industries in association with department of agriculture conducted farmer training in the villages of Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh. The special focus of the campaign was to create awareness among farmers about proper management of crops residue and the ill effects of stubble burning after harvesting. "Crop residue burning is one of the major issues of concern not only for agriculture but for the society as a whole. This cannot be dealt in isolation and technologies alone are not enough to address this challenge until there is awareness in society. Several efforts are being by government to provide various residue management implements on subsidy to the farmers. I appeal to the farmers to follow and spread the message" Said Ramcharit Chaudhaury ADO Agriculture. He also urged farmers to adopt straw management technologies and sensitized the participants about the straw management and need of creating awareness among masses. During the event representatives from Parijat also trained farmers on responsible use of Crop Protection products and importance of usage of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) at the time of spraying. Parijat has also distributed pocket size safety handbook to farmers. Parijat has published special pocket size safety handbooks as a ready reference for safe use of pesticides by farmers in 9 important Indian languages such as Bangla, English, Gujrati, Hindi, Kannad, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and these are being widely distributed for free to farmers across the country. Keeping with its commitment and vision on responsible use of crop protection products, continuous and multi-pronged programs regarding safe and correct use of pesticides are being conducting by Parijat in different parts of the country. Parijat industries, a leading India Pvt Ltd., is an agro-chemical manufacturing company with its manufacturing base at Ambala, Haryana and having presence in India over 16 states and exports, spanning over 70 countries. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Petitioners who had filed for an independent investigation into the arrest of five activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence, said on Friday that they took the matter to the Supreme Court (SC) to highlight the misuse of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). "Our intention was to draw the attention of the judiciary to what we believe is a case of gross misuse of the state's powers under draconian laws like the UAPA. Our history as a republic shows that, if left unchecked, such misuse causes grave injustices and endangers the civil liberties of all Indians," a statement from the five petitioners read. Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Maharashtra government for the arrest of the activists, the petitioners stated that instances of misuse of power by government officials "to harass those who do not conform to the politics of their current masters" was also a form of terrorism. "Those arrested on August 28 have been accused of being implicated in acts of terrorism. However, we believe that there are two kinds of terrorism both of which create fear and undermine the foundations of our democracy. The violent acts of those described as terrorists, who plant bombs, instigate people to be violent, engineer riots and deliberately spread fear through their acts; and the illegal or unjustified acts of state functionaries who, instead of pursuing the actual perpetrators of violence, misuse their powers to harass those who do not conform to the politics of their current masters," the statement read. The petitioners further stated that a genuine democracy respects "the constitutional and legal rights of every citizen, including the right to hold opinions different from - or even in opposition to - those of the government of the day," adding that "the arrests of August 28 point to a continuing attempt to erode these rights." "Our petition was essentially an appeal to the Supreme Court to check this erosion of rights and protect the liberty and dignity of human rights activists," the petitioners said in the statement. While stating that the SC's judgment protected the activist's rights for a further four weeks and gave them the liberty to seek remedy from appropriate courts, the petitioners hailed Justice DY Chandrachud's dissenting ruling, which doubted the police's ability to conduct a free, fair and impartial investigation. The Supreme Court had, earlier today, turned down the request of the petitioners to set up a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to probe into the Bhima Koregaon violence case and extended the house arrest of the five activists for four more weeks. The five petitioners are historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala. The five activists, namely poet Vara Vara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj, activists Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, and Gautam Navlakha, have been under house arrest since August 29 for their alleged involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon violence. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A GoFundMe campaign set up for Christine Ford, the woman who has accused President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, saw a surge in donations as she delivered an emotional testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Around 10,371 people raised USD 473,622 in the last nine days. Before the testimony, the total amount raised was approximately USD 175,000, CNN quoted a GoFundMe campaign spokeswoman as saying. The organisers, who had initially set an original target of USD 150,000, said that all the additional funds will "cover travel costs as well as security" for Ford, while the initial amount of USD 150,000 will be directed solely for security to her family. In the testimony, Ford, a pyschology professor at Palo Alto University in California, had alleged that she was 100 per cent certain that Kavanaugh had assaulted her during a party when the two were in a high school back in the 1980s. Ford had stated in the Senate that Kavanaugh, in an inebriated state in 1982, had allegedly attacked her and tried to undress her at a gathering of teenagers in Maryland, when he was 17-year-old and she 15. In his prepared testimony, Kavanaugh had "unequivocally and categorically" denied the allegations levelled against him, as well as "other false and uncorroborated accusations" by his other accusers. "Sexual assault is horrific. It is morally wrong. It is illegal. It is contrary to my religious faith. And it contradicts the core promise of this nation that all people are created equal and entitled to be treated with dignity and respect," Kavanaugh responded. On July 10, Trump picked Kavanaugh as his nominee for the US Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee will likely cast their votes on Friday to decide whether to elevate Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. If given the approval, the 53-year-old judge will replace long-serving conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement at the age of 81 on June 27 this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Karnataka's curative petition against Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in connection with the Disproportionate Assets (DA) case against her, seeking reconsideration of the Supreme Court judgment of 2017. A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Madan B Lokur turned down the petition which sought the recovery of Rs 100 crore fine imposed on the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister by the trial court and also upheld by the top court. Karnataka, in its curative petition, termed the judgment as an "error on the face of the record" which calls for a reconsideration. On February 14, 2017, the apex court held Sasikala, Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi guilty of abetment in the DA case and convicted them to undergo four-year imprisonment. However, the bench said the appeal has come to an end in connection with the involvement of Jayalalitha. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea challenging the constitutional validity of the Triple Talaq Ordinance and asserted that it is only for the government to decide. The petitioner had argued that the Triple Talaq Ordinance is in violation of Articles 14, 15, 20, 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India. "The ordinance is arbitrary and unnecessarily bringing a draconian, illogical, unreasonable and vague legislation through the route of the ordinance. It shows a lack of respect for parliament and the people whose faith lies in India's secular constitution," the petition read. Alleging an abuse of power of ordinance, the petitioner further stated, "Promulgating an ordinance on a matter which is under discussion in the parliament with modification is clearly an abuse of ordinance power by the executive and playing foul over the legislature. The ordinance promulgated by the central government in relation to Triple Divorce is full of inherent and apparent contradictions, illegalities, irregularities and abuse of power of ordinance." However, dismissing the petition today, the Delhi High Court clearly stated that once the Supreme Court has deemed an act as unconstitutional, it is for the government to decide. The Union Cabinet on September 19 had approved an ordinance or an executive order on the Triple Talaq bill, thus making it a criminal act. The Prime Minister Modi led-government approved the ordinance after it could not be tabled in the Rajya Sabha due to lack of consensus last month during the monsoon session of the Parliament, even as the Union Cabinet had approved an amendment to the Bill. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dunya Maumoon, the daughter of former Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, urged the newly-elected government to release her father on the medical ground. Dunya tweeted, "Good to see you today Bappa @maumoonagayoom & my brother @afarismaumoon. I urge the Home Minister @AzleenAhmed to comply with the recommendation of the medical board and move my father home immediately! #Fatherofthenation." Gayoom is lodged in Maafushi prison and his health has been deteriorating. The 83-year-old was convicted and sentenced for 19 years in June. The trial was widely seen as a part of a plan of former President Abdulla Yameen to tighten his grip on power ahead of presidential elections on September 24. Yameen, however, lost the elections to the opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Election Commission of India (ECI) is working on a reform proposal aimed at pushing for a cap on election-related expenses by political parties in the country. "We are examining the demands by a majority of parties to put a cap on expenditure of political parties during elections in All-Party Meeting called by the Election Commission in August. The draft of the reform proposal will be sent to the Law Ministry very soon," a senior official told ANI. The development comes a month after major parties, barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pressed for a ceiling on election expenditure incurred by political parties at the all-party meeting called by the Election Commission. "It was one of our demands to the Election Commission. Off late, the country has witnessed some parties especially the BJP, spending enormous sum of money in the electioneering, we find it extravagant and scandalous. We welcome this step of the Commission," said Vivek Tankha of Congress. The political parties in the all-party meeting had urged the poll-body to put a ceiling on political parties' expenditure to ensure a level playing field in elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has directed all the Deputy Commissioners to immediately release any pending compensations to farmers, who suffered losses during the 2017 floods in the state. While chairing a meeting to finalise the modalities for the early release of compensation to the people affected by the recent floods, Singh ordered that an ex-gratia payment of Rs 4 lakh each should be immediately released to the five families whose members had lost their lives in the incessant rains, read a statement. The Chief Minister was informed that five people lost their lives in the state - two in Tarn Taran and one each in Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Moga. Meanwhile, expressing concern at the delay in the disbursement of 2017 compensation by the Deputy Commissioners, despite having received the money from the Revenue Department, Singh directed the Financial Commissioner Revenue to seek an explanation from them. Singh also asked his Chief Principal Secretary to get detailed instructions regarding the criteria and norms for assessment and release of compensation re-circulated to all the field officers in order to ensure timely payments. In the meeting, he was informed that a detailed memorandum for seeking financial assistance from the Centre will be prepared after compilation of the data of the damage caused to crops, property and livestock. The Chief Minister said that compensation for the complete loss of crop, which was earlier fixed at Rs 8000 per acre, should be paid at the enhanced rates of Rs 12,000 per acre. According to the spokesperson, as per rules, compensation of Rs 12,000 per acre will be paid for crop loses ranging between 76 percent to 100 percent; Rs 5400 per acre for losses between 33 to 75 percent; and Rs 2000 per acre for 26 to 32 percent. A compensation of Rs. 95,100 will be paid for full/severely damaged houses, and Rs 5200 for partially damaged ones. In case of loss of livestock (buffalo/cow) the compensation will range between Rs 30,000 to Rs. 90,000, and for goat, sheep and pig it is fixed at Rs 3000. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who chaired the 30th Goods and Services Tax (GST) council meeting on Friday, approved creation of a seven-member Group of Ministers (GoM) to review the cess proposal for rehabilitation of Kerala flood victims. Addressing reporters after the meeting, Jaitley said that the GoM will have representatives of the North-East, hill and coastal states. "We are making a seven-member group of ministers which will discuss the Kerala cess proposal. This committee will have members of North East, hill and coastal states. The committee members will be announced soon. We will make recommendations within the next few weeks," he said. The special cess, if implemented, will help in raising additional resources to meet the reconstruction cost in the state of Kerala which recently suffered its worst deluge in almost a century. The floods claimed lives of more than 400 people and caused damage to the tune of nearly Rs. 20,000 crore. Jaitley added, "Bihar imposed additional Value Added Tax (VAT) in 2015-16 when tax reduced due to the prohibition of alcohol. Taxation inflated by 27 per cent as compared to the previous year. Bihar was benefited from this aberration." The Finance Minister also reviewed the revenue position of the north-eastern states and said that there was no shortfall. "Detailed presentation took place about revenue position. It had been decided earlier that GST council secretary will visit revenue deficit states and analyse it. It was found that there was no revenue shortfall in consuming north-eastern states." Responding to a question on whether petroleum would be brought under the ambit of GST, Jaitley said the issue was not discussed during the meeting. Fuel prices in the country have been witnessing a steep rise since the past few weeks. While the Opposition has repeatedly blamed the union government for not doing enough to keep a check on prices, the central government has maintained that global crude oil prices and other international factors are causing a hike in prices of petroleum products. Last week, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said that petrol and diesel commodities should come under GST category. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Accusing India of creating an obstacle in regional cooperation, Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Mehmood Shah Qureshi has said that "the attitude of one country is blocking the progress of SAARC". His remarks came after attending the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Informal Council of Foreign Ministers meeting, which was held on Thursday on the sideline of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj also attended the meeting but left early with her Afghanistani counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani. "If we want to gain something from this forum, we've to move forward. The way to move forward is to decide the next meeting.... I've no hesitation to say that the attitude of one country is blocking the progress of SAARC, connectivity and prosperity of this region and defying the spirit of SAARC. One country is not letting SAARC function," Qureshi told reporters after the meeting. He further said that he did not get a chance to talk to Swaraj as he she left midway. "There were no talks between us. She (EAM) left midway, maybe she wasn't feeling well. I listened to her statement. She talked about regional cooperation. How is regional cooperation possible, when everybody is ready to sit and talk and you're blocking that?" he said. Qureshi also said that a meeting is functional only when people sit together and talk, adding, "If there is no talk then there is no hope for functionality". His statements came after India called off the proposed meeting between Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of UNGA. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Georgia Ranked 7th in Economic Freedom Index By Tea Mariamidze Georgia is at the 7th position among 162 countries in the Index of Economic Freedom 2018. The information was released by the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Ekaterine Mikabadze at the presentation initiated by the New Economic School Georgia.We have gradual improvement in rankings during the recent years. We have advanced in the position this year as well and are among the countries with the freest economies, she stated.In 2016 Georgia shared 7-9 positions with the Republic of Australia and the Republic of Mauritius, while in 2017 the country held the 9th position.According to the Deputy Minister, Georgias changing position from the ninth position to the seventh is the reflection of the reforms that are being held in Georgia.These reforms will continue and reflect the ratings of the following years. In this respect, I will highlight one of the main components of the Index which is the size of the government, in which we will obviously see improvement next year, one of the initiatives of our Government is the reduction of the size of the Government, she said.Mikabadze noted that Georgias improved raking is an important message for investors and the international community indicated the quality of economic freedom in the country.There are five main directions in which we have significant achievements, including achievements in terms of regulations, where there is a sharp improvement. There is still ground for further improvements and, I think, this will undoubtedly reflect on the ratings of the following years, she underlined.Annual summarizing ranking the Index of Economic Freedom is prepared by the Canadian Fraser Institute in cooperation with independent economic researchers and educational institutions from over 100 countries worldwide.The Index of Economic Freedom is the largest ranking survey which evaluates countries according to the five key areas: government size; property protection and court; sustainable monetary policy; freedom of international trade; regulations for credits, employment, and business.2018 Index of Economic Freedom ranks the countries as follows:1. Hong Kong;2. Singapore;3. New Zealand;4. Switzerland;5. Ireland;6. US;7. Georgia;8. The Republic of Mauritius;9. United Kingdom;10. Australia. Acting Prime Minister Ishwor Pokhrel and visiting Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, on Friday held a meeting on the issue of progress in the extension of petroleum pipelines between the two countries. During the meeting, that took place at the Defence Ministry, Singha Durbar, the Indian Minister informed the acting Prime Minister that the Indian government was ready to expedite works relating the pipeline extension from Motihari of India to Amlekhgunj of Nepal via Raxaul border, adding that works would be started after sorting out some technical issues. Following their talks, Pokhrel said the trees cutting issue for the pipeline extension project was also discussed with the Indian minister Pradhan. Besides, the two exchanged views on the matter of completing the construction of Hetauda Polytechnic Institute supported by the Indian government soon. Pradhan also met Nepal's Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa. Thapa said the Indian Minister's visit to Nepal would help soon complete the under-construction projects relating to Nepal-India petroleum supply. On the occasion, the Home Minister expressed his hope to get more support from India in the days to come as well. Pradhan described the under-construction bilateral petroleum products-related projects beneficial for both countries. India's Ambassador for Nepal, Manjeev Singh Puri, was also present on the occasion. Pradhan arrived in Kathmandu on Friday morning for a two-day visit at the Invitation of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Minister, Matrika Yadav. Upon arrival at Tribhhuvan International Airport, he was received by Joint- Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Nawaraj Dhakal and Indian Ambassador for Nepal, Manjeev Singh Puri. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a meeting between Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad and his counterpart from Uzbekistan, Shuhrat Sadikov, the former assured that India will help Uzbekistan in setting up technology parks, regarding which a pre-agreement was signed with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). Prasad further said that India will provide all possible technical support from the Indian side in the digital growth of Uzbekistan. Subsequently, in the presence of both the ministers, two Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were signed. An agreement was signed between Informatics Centre (NIC), India and e-Government System development centre of the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of Uzbekistan for strengthening e-Governance cooperation. A Declaration of Intent was also inked between Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), India and Tashkent University of Information Technologies, Uzbekistan for cooperation in the area of capacity building in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. The Uzbek side appreciated India's achievement under the Digital India programme and expressed interest for cooperation in the area of IT-ITeS trade promotion, e-Governance, HRD and Capacity building, Telemedicine. Further, the Uzbek side showed a keen interest in techno-park cooperation. The meeting was also aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the ICT sector. The signing of the agreements comes two days ahead of Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's two-day maiden state visit to India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hours after senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Tariq Anwar announced his decision to quit the party, senior NCP leader Praful Patel expressed disappointment over his resignation. Reacting to the issue, former Civil Aviation minister Patel tweeted on Friday: "It is a sad day for us that our senior colleague (Tariq Anwar) has decided to quit Lok Sabha & also NCP. It's very surprising because he has based his decision on an interview by Sharad Pawar to news channel wherein facts are very clear on Rafale." Anwar on Friday resigned from the NCP and as party's Member of Parliament from Katihar constituency in Bihar, in protest against the party leadership Pawar's support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversial Rafale deal. Anwar, who was a close associate of Pawar, was apparently hurt by Pawar's stance on the issue and had expected a strong stand by the party leadership demanding investigation into the deal. Besides being "hurt", Anwar had termed Pawar's statement as "unfortunate". He "disagreed" with the leadership's stand saying, "After mulling over the whole issue, I decided to quit the party as well as Parliament member. I am going to Delhi and will discuss the issue with others." Anwar's resignation came following Pawar's reported statement to a Marathi television channel recently that "people do not have doubts" over Modi's intention. This statement was widely propagated by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) including party president Amit Shah, stressing on the point that the party has support in the Opposition also over the deal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of upcoming municipal and panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has said that the Central Government will provide all possible support to the state to ensure smooth conduct of elections. "These local body elections will have a historical significance in many aspects as it will re-establish the long overdue grassroots level democracy in Jammu and Kashmir," a statement from the MHA said. The financial powers of the panchayats will also be enhanced 10 times from Rs 10,000 to Rs one lakh. Similarly, the financial powers of block councils are being enhanced from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh, the statement read. These elections will also pave the way for making available nearly Rs. 4,335 crores of 14th Finance Commission Central granted to the duly constituted local bodies of Jammu and Kashmir. The functions and functionaries of all the 29 subjects transferred to panchayats under the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution of India will also be transferred to the panchayats of Jammu and Kashmir. "The Central and State Government funds will further supplement "own funds" of the Panchayats under various schemes such as MGNERGA, PMAY, ICDS, Mid-Day meal etc," the MHA said. In addition to the selection of eligible beneficiaries for various schemes, panchayats will also be involved in the implementations of key schemes such as Health Mission, Samagraha Siksha, and Mission for development of Horticulture, ATMA, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) etc. On an average, every panchayat will now get around Rs. 50-80 Lakhs per year at its disposal for implementation of such schemes. To further strengthen the panchayats, additional posts are being sanctioned for Accountant, Data Entry Operator, Block Panchayat Inspector etc. The Leh and Kargil Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDC and KAHDC) have been strengthened and empowered to become the most autonomous councils in the country to address various issues being faced by people living in the remote areas of Ladakh region. The LAHDC and KAHDC have been given more powers to levy and collect local taxes. Control has been given over the functioning of various departments as well as the Government employees working for the subjects that are transferred to them. All such properties like public buildings, public roads constructed by LAHDC and KAHDC shall now belong to the council. Funds allocated to these councils from the State Budget can now be carried forward for the next year. The Panchayats in Kargil and Leh will also follow the directions of these councils. Chief Executive Councillor will also be the Chairman of all Tourism Development Authorities. These Councils will also have a Deputy Chairman for better functioning. Considering the crucial role being played by the Special Police Officers in anti-militancy operations, the Ministry of External Affairs (MHA) has enhanced their honorarium from existing Rs 6,000 per month to 9,000 on completion of five years and Rs 12,000 on completion of 15 years. The MHA has also approved a scheme of Rs 5.5 Lakh financial assistance to nearly 5,764 West Pakistan Refugees settled in Jammu and Kashmir. Amounts due to the eligible beneficiaries will be transferred in their bank accounts. The State Government has designated Divisional Commissioner Jammu as the nodal officer for effective and speedy disbursement of the amount to all eligible beneficiaries. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hours after the Supreme Court announced its verdict allowing entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple in Kerala, politicians across party lines welcomed the historic judgement, saying that the right to pray should not be discriminated against them. A five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said banning women's entry into the temple is gender discrimination and violates the rights of Hindu women. The ruling came after a petition argued that the practice violated gender equality. When ANI spoke to ministers, members of Parliament and leaders from various political parties, they all welcomed the verdict. Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, termed the judgment as wonderful. She said, "It opens up and brings the way forward for Hinduism to become even more inclusive and not a property of one caste or one sex. A woman is considered a 'Devi' (goddess), so how can you prevent Devi from entering a temple? It is a very good judgment." Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy echoed similar sentiments saying, "I fully welcome this judgment of the Supreme Court. I have been vocal about it in the last few months. The gender equality cannot be differentiated on the basis of women's physique or any other aspect. So, the court has done the right thing. I congratulate the Supreme Court for doing justice to the women of the country." Welcoming the verdict, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge too said, "I welcome this judgment. Women everywhere should be allowed to visit temples and should be respected. This is a good thing." Congress leader Renuka Choudhary hailed the verdict saying, "We have a right to go and worship wherever we want. I congratulate the CJI (Dipak Misra) for taking this stand." Communist Party of India (CPI) Member of Parliament D Raja asserted, "It is an important decision. The people are hailing it as a historic judgment. It recognises the right to pray as one of the fundamental rights of citizens. And such a right should not be discriminated against women." Women of menstruating age were barred from entering the Sabarimala temple by its officials, who had argued that the temple deity, Lord Ayyappa, had taken a vow of celibacy. Allowing women of all ages to enter the holy site, the apex court said that no physiological and biological factor can be given legitimacy if it doesn't pass the test of conditionality. The top court said that devotees of Lord Ayyappa are Hindus and do not constitute a separate religious denomination, while adding that restrictions put by Sabarimala temple cannot be held as essential religious practice. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid tight security, former American boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson landed in Mumbai in the wee hours of Friday on his maiden visit to India. Accompanied by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's personal bodyguard Shera, Tyson received a heroic welcome from his desi fans, who gathered at the Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport to welcome the boxing legend. "I feel happy to see Mike Tyson in person. He is my idol," said one fan. Tyson has arrived in India to inaugurate the Kumite 1 League at the National Club of India in Worli. The first global team Mixed Martial Arts league will start on Saturday with India and United Arab Emirates (UAE) match. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan met acting Nepal Prime Minister Ishwor Pokharel here on Friday. The two leaders discussed various bilateral issues and ways to further enhance the age-old India-Nepal friendship. Pradhan is on a two-day visit to the Himalayan nation. He was received by Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri today. Pradhan held bilateral talks with the Nepal's Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supply Matrika Prasad Yadav in the afternoon. Earlier the union minister met Nepal's Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa. During his visit, he will meet Nepal's Education Minister Girirajmani Pokhrael and would also pay a courtesy call to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari. In the evening, the minister will offer his prayers at the famous Pashupatinath temple. On Saturday, Pradhan will visit Janakpur and offer his prayers at the famous Janaki temple. He is also slated to visit the identified site for proposed Skill Development Center in Dhanushadham. Before returning to New Delhi, Pradhan will pay a visit to Amelkhganj to see the progress of Motihari-Amelkhganj oil pipeline. The 69-kilometre long pipeline will ensure a smooth, cost-effective and environment-friendly supply of petroleum products to the Himalayan nation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The NITI Aayog and the United Nations in India on Friday signed the Sustainable Development Framework for 2018-2022. In a press release, NITI Aayog said the agreement is a reflection of the commitment and efforts made by India towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. The Government of India-United Nations Sustainable Development Framework (UNSDF) for 2018-2022 was signed by the CEO of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant and United Nations Resident Coordinator in India, Yuri Afanasiev, at a special signing ceremony presided over by Vice Chairperson, NITI Aayog, Dr. Rajiv Kumar. Members of NITI Aayog and heads of UN agencies in India were present on this occasion. Speaking on the occasion, Rajiv Kumar said that 2018-2022 will be a crucial phase in India's development story since the year 2022 marks 75 years of India's Independence. "In this backdrop, partnership instruments such as the UNSDF assume even more significance to accelerate the pace towards building a New India by 2022, an India that is free of poverty and equal for all," he said. The UNSDF outlines the development cooperation strategy between the Government of India and the United Nations Country Team in India, in support of the achievement of India's key national development priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UNSDF focus areas include poverty and urbanisation; health, water, and sanitation; education; nutrition and food security; climate change, clean energy, and disaster resilience; skilling, entrepreneurship, and job creation; and gender equality and youth development. Across outcome areas, the UN will support the Government of India on south-south cooperation, in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs. The total planned budget outlay for the implementation of the UNSDF 2018-2022 is approximately Rs 11000 crore, of which 47 per cent is planned to be mobilised through the course of implementation from multiple sources, including the private sector and the government. Amitabh Kant highlighted the need to promote innovation in meeting India's development challenges and bringing on board the power of social entrepreneurs and the private sector to act on scale. UN Resident Coordinator, Yuri Afanasiev, said: "The United Nations in India is committed to provide full support to the Government of India's development priorities, ensuring that the UNSDF outcomes are achieved. The solutions we find together can catalyze action across the global south- just as solutions from elsewhere in the world will be adapted to India. He added that together, the India-UN team will ensure that poor, vulnerable, and marginalized communities participate in and benefit from the country's robust growth trajectory. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Accusing the Narendra Modi government of compromising security and betraying the interest over the last four and a half years, the Congress Party on Friday posed 10 questions to the government. Reading out the questions in a press conference, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked, "Why has Prime Minister Narendra Modi betrayed India's soldiers by denying them One Rank, One Pension (OROP)? Why has Modi government endangered our security? Has the Modi government risked the security and safety of India, as there has been a 500 per cent increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan since May 2014? Why did this government invite the rogue Inter-Service Intelligence to investigate the Pathankot terror attack on March 27, 2016, which, on returning back to Pakistan, claimed that India had killed its own soldiers? What is the sinister motive behind slashing India's Defence Budget?" Further alleging the government of weakening the defence preparedness of the country's armed forces, Surjewala asked "Why is the government systematically weakening the defence preparedness of our Armed Forces? Why after Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence's report saying that Army's 68 per cent weapons have become old and the government is also not providing funds for construction of roads near China border, was General BC Khanduri removed as head of this committee? Why did Prime Minister Modi remain silent on Doklam standoff by China? Why is the government involved in 'Operation Cover-Up' in the Rafale Scam? Why did the government play havoc with India's internal security by allowing Naxalism to raise its head and create internal disturbances?" Congress also claimed that eight surgical strikes were conducted in the period between 2000 and 2016, and raised objections over the alleged politicisation of the issue. Surjewala said, "Conducting strategic surgical strikes with utmost precision and effective penetration at different times in the last two decades has been characteristic of the grit and determination of our Forces. We are proud that our forces have successfully conducted multiple surgical strikes over the last two decades, particularly between the year 2000 and 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 59 people were arrested when police descended over a crowd who were rallying near the Supreme Court of the United States in solidarity with the sexual assault victim Christine Blasey Ford. Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both teenagers, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the allegations on Thursday. USA Today quoted the U.S. Capitol police as saying that 57 of the protesters were arrested for "unlawful demonstration activities'' and another two in the same location were arrested for crossing a police line. The Women's March co-founder, Tamika Mallory was quoted as saying, "Foes of Kavanaugh wanted to make sure our voices are heard and our concerns are raised. And to make sure senators understand that while they may still vote to confirm him, we will not forget when it comes to the midterms and beyond." Slogans of "Believe Women" or "I Believe" were chanted on the streets of Washington by the protestors who stood in solidarity with the victim. The supporters also raised the slogans "No means no, Kavanaugh has got to go." Some protestors sported black t-shirts with 'Women for Kavanaugh" written on it, and others wore black and red shirts that read "Believe Women." Many of the supporters held up the signs reading, "I believe survivors. No on Kavanaugh," or wore buttons, "Confirm Kavanaugh" while others had black tape across their mouths that read, "Believe women." Earlier this month, Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in California, had alleged that Kavanaugh had assaulted her during a party in the 1980s when they were both in high school. She had accused Kavanaugh of groping her and attempting to remove her clothes. Kavanaugh, however, denied all the allegations during the testimony, saying that his reputation and that of his family has been "totally and permanently destroyed". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Meetings of General Assembly of the United Nations By Vladimer Napetvaridze On 26 September, New York hosted meetings of the General Assembly of the United Nations, which was attended by the Foreign Ministers of the EU and the NATO Member States.According to the Foreign Minister of Georgia, David Zalkaliani, this assembly indicated clearly that Georgia is a strategic ally of the US. and provides yet another proof of Georgias successful integration process with NATO.It is the first when Georgia, Macedonia, and Ukraine to participate in such a meeting. Such meetings are usually involving the member states and Georgia has been invited for the first time. This indicates to Georgias successful integration process with the NATO and EU, Zalkaliani Stated.The Secretary the Department of State Mike Pompeo, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini were among those who spoke before the participants of the meeting.According to the statement posted on the web-page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Zalkaliani had the opportunity to talk to the Secretary of the Department of State. Mike Pompeo gave a high appraisal to the Georgian Prime Ministers visit to the US and expressed his readiness to further contribute to the strengthening of the strategic partnership between the two countries.Georgia and Ukraine have are both post-Soviet states, with the occupied territories by Russia. In 2014, Ukraine and Georgia signed an Association Agreement (AA) with the EU (came into force in 2016), thus committing to the path to European integration. The agreement was an important milestone since, despite the Russian pressure not to sign the document, both states decided to officially define their European path by signing the Association Agreement. Nowadays Russia uses all its leverages to hinder the EU integration process for these countries, among them are cultural, religious, historical, economic aspects. Thus, it is very important to accelerate the integration process, but on the other hand, in order to become the EU member states, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova must take reforms in several directions that take time.A few weeks ago, at the economic forum held in Poland, Latvian Foreign Minister spoke about the issue of Georgia's accession to the European Union: "Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia have chosen the European path. They are trying to join the EU and the EU should respond to their aspirations. The EU should recognize the prospects of membership of these countries and announce a deadline for their membership, Latvian minister said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at Jodhpur Airport on Friday morning to participate in the Unified Commanders' Conference. The Prime Minister was received by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Air Force Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa and Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba at the airport. Prime Minister Modi was accorded 'guard of honour' at the Jodhpur airport. Prime Minister Modi laid a wreath and signed the visitor's book at Konark War Memorial. Defence Minister Sitaraman, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre, Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and commanders of all three wings of Indian forces will participate in the conference. Before the conference, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated a three-day Army exhibition 'Parakram Parv' at Jodhpur Military Station, showcasing the might of the Indian Army and its contribution in nation building. Konark Corps is organizing this exhibition on Indian Army's Combat Capability on the occasion of the second anniversary of surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday paid tribute to Shaheed Bhagat Singh on his 111th birth anniversary. The Prime Minister took to his official Twitter handle and said that Bhagat Singh's valour motivates millions of Indians across generations. "Shaheed Bhagat Singh's valour motivates millions of Indians across generations. I bow to this proud son of India on his Jayanti and join my fellow citizens in remembering his heroic deeds that contributed to India's freedom," he wrote. Bhagat Singh was born in Banga village of Faisalabad district (previously called Lyallpur) now in Pakistan's Punjab province in 1907. The revolutionary freedom fighter was a charismatic Indian socialist revolutionary whose two acts of dramatic violence against the British in India and execution at the age of 23 made him a folk hero of the Indian independence movement. Bhagat Singh, who was hanged in the Lahore jail along with Shivaram Hari Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar on March 23, 1931, left a strong impact during his lifetime. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, met the United Nations Secretary-General and his P-5 counterparts from the Security Council over breakfast here, where he placed emphasis on the need for working together for addressing global challenges. According to Heather Nauert, the Spokesperson of the US Department of State, Pompeo, during the meeting, pushed for the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran as a pressure tactic to "change its malign behaviour, which continues to threaten regional and global stability". Furthermore, Pompeo rallied for the need to implement UN Security Council resolutions for achieving complete denuclearisation of North Korea while extending support for a UN-led political process to end the Syrian conflict, which is in line with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254. He also urged the attendees of the breakfast meeting to support the UN-led political processes in Libya and Yemen, according to Nauert. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday cornered Prime Minister Narendra Modi over various issue. Continuing his tirade against the Prime Minister on Rafale, Rahul slammed the former for looting exchequers money through various Central scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojna (PMJAY) - Ayushman Bharat. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Rahul accused Prime Minister of providing Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence a deal worth Rs 1, 30, 000 crore. He further alleged that yearly the government spends only Rs 40 per person under the PMJAY - Ayushman Bharat scheme -- whereas the scheme has provision of Rs 5 lakh per family per year. "When does the country's chokidar say 'Khul ja sim sim'? When Anil Ambani gets Rs 1, 30, 000 crore in the Rafale deal. When Rs 2000 crore was sanctioned for 50 crore Indians under Ayushan Bharat - PMJAY - whereas the yearly expenses per person under the Rs 5 lakh health insurance scheme is Rs 40. Wow Modi Ji, the news is your promotion." The Rafale controversy has heated up in recent weeks, with the opposition targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government over irregularities in the pricing of each jet in their deal. The controversy took a new turn after former French President Francois Hollande stated on September 22 that Reliance Defence was nominated by the Indian government to partner with Dassault Aviation for the deal. The deal, which included 36 ready-to-fly Rafale jets, was signed by Prime Minister Modi and then-French President Hollande in 2016 after the original deal, signed by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for 18 ready-to-fly jets and another 108 - to be manufactured in India - was scrapped. The PMJAY Ayushman Bharat scheme, launched on September 23, provides a yearly medical cover of Rs 5 lakh per family to around 10 crore families below the poverty line. It was announced by the Prime Minster during his Independence Day speech last month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, will pay a two-day official visit to New Delhi from October 4-5 for the 19th India-Russia annual bilateral summit. During the visit, President Putin will hold official talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will also have a meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind, as well as other official engagements, a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs read. The last annual summit was held during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Russia on June 1 last year. Russia has been a longstanding and time-tested partner for India. The development of India-Russia relations has been a key pillar of India's foreign policy. Since the signing of "Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership" in October 2000 (during the visit of President Putin to India), India-Russia ties have acquired a qualitatively new character with enhanced levels of cooperation in almost all areas of the bilateral relationship including political, security, trade and economy, defence, science and technology, and culture. Under the strategic partnership, several institutionalised dialogue mechanisms operate at both political and official levels to ensure regular interaction and follow up on cooperation activities. During the visit of the Russian President to India in December 2010, the strategic partnership was elevated to the level of a "special and privileged strategic partnership." In May, Prime Minister Modi had visited Sochi for a one-day informal summit with President Putin, where the two leaders discussed a variety of bilateral issues extensively. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to cast their votes as scheduled for Friday on whether to elevate President Donald Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh currently serves as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, whose promotion had been put on hold after a series of sexual assault allegations slapped on him, the CNN reported. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who alleged Kavanaugh of sexual assault, stated in the Senate that he, in an inebriated state in 1982, attacked her and tried to undress her at a gathering of teenagers in Maryland, when he was 17-year-old and she 15. In his prepared testimony, Kavanaugh had "unequivocally and categorically" denied the allegations levelled against him, as well as "other false and uncorroborated accusations" by his other accusers. "Sexual assault is horrific. It is morally wrong. It is illegal. It is contrary to my religious faith. And it contradicts the core promise of this nation that all people are created equal and entitled to be treated with dignity and respect," Kavanaugh, who is a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, responded. On July 10, US President Donald Trump picked up Kavanaugh as his nominee for the US Supreme Court. If given the approval, the 53-year-old judge will replace long-serving conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement at the age of 81 on June 27 this year. Reportedly, other candidates who were nominated by Trump for this post are fellow federal appellate judges Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge and Amy Coney Barrett. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nation is proud of brave military power that is determined and devoted to the safety of the motherland, wrote Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the visitor's book on Friday at Jodhpur's Konark War Memorial. The Prime Minister, who arrived in Jodhpur earlier in the day, inspected a tri-services guard of honour at the Air Force Station on arrival. He later inaugurated three-day army exhibition, Parakram Parv, to mark the second anniversary of surgical strikes, which were carried out against terror camps across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Prime Minister's message, written in the Gujarati language, added, "My warm regards to the brave hearts who perform supreme sacrifice and are symbols of inspiration for every generation." The three-day event, organised by Konark Corps, is aimed at showcasing the might of the Indian Army and its contribution in nation building. Parakram Parv will be celebrated till September 30. Later in the day, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to attend the Unified Commanders' Conference, which will also see the participation of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre, Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and commanders of all three wings of Indian forces. Sitharaman and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje also paid their tributes to the martyrs at the Konark War Memorial. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It is time for students to put their thinking caps on as the annual Sweden-India Nobel Memorial Quiz 2018 commences in Mumbai on 29th September 2018 and will be held in across seven cities. Launched in 2008, this much awaited annual quiz has grown exponentially over the years and is a unique medium to test student's knowledge on the Nobel Prize, Nobel Laureates and their achievements along with Sweden, its people, culture, Swedish innovations and inventions. Organized by the Embassy of Sweden in collaboration with leading Swedish companies in India and other partners as well as the Consulate General of Sweden in Mumbai, it forms part of the Sweden India Nobel Memorial programme. The quiz is open to all Indian students currently enrolled at a college/university in India. Students are required to form teams of 3 members, all from the same institution. Each team must comprise at least one male and one female student, unless the institution is gender-restricted. The winning team from each city will qualify for the grand finale to be held in Delhi on 1stNovember 2018. The prize for National quiz champions will be an all-expenses paid trip to Sweden. The awardees will get to visit the headquarters of the partnering companies, Swedish universities and the Nobel Museum. All participants will be provided thecertificates. Besides, there will exciting prizes for audience as well. This year the Sweden India Nobel Memorial Quiz puts an extra emphasis on increasing the female participation. As an attempt to bridge the gap, the quiz rules for participation has been revised to encourage more equal participation. Ambassador Klas Molin said, "We are thrilled to once again reach out to young talent across India through our flagship event, 'Sweden India Nobel Memorial Quiz'. We are making an extra push to encourage even more female participation." The quiz will be hosted by quiz masters Seema Chari and Kunal Savarkar of Xpressminds. Partners in the Sweden India Nobel Memorial programme 2018: ABB, Air India, Atlas Copco, Ericsson, IKEA, Oriflame, SAAB, Sandvik, Scania, SEB, Swedish Energy Agency, Tetra Pak, Volvo Group, Sweden and Swedish Chamber of Commerce India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There are a number of terror launch pads and camps across the India-Pakistan International Boundary (IB), with some of them just 5 to 7 kilometers away from the IB, informed the Border Security Force Directorate General KK Sharma on Friday. "There are many training camps, launching pads along the borders and hundreds of terrorists get trained. It is their (Pakistan) state policy to push terrorists. (Former military ruler of Pakistan) Zia-ul-Haq had started the policy of thousand cuts," said Sharma who is superannuating on September 30. Asserting that India has always retaliated to terror attacks from Pakistan, causing manifold damage, he underscored that India would continue to do so in future also. "We have given tough and befitting replies, causing manifold damage. We will do it again. We will see that in near future we do something," he said. The revelations by the BSF chief have come on the second anniversary of the surgical strike, which India carried out on terror launch pads across the Line of Control. Responding to the recent killing of a BSF jawan near the IB, he said, "It is an International Boundary. If something happens on IB it is not necessary we give an answer on IB. We have reserved our right of retaliation and time." Saluting the bravery of Indian soldiers, he said, "It is a must for us to stand on duty close to the IB, we have to see that infiltration from Pakistan does not take place. An Indian soldier knows that he can be sniped yet it is his bravery and also a compulsion to stand for his duty." On September 19, the body of a jawan, identified as Head Constable Narender Singh, was found with multiple bullet injuries on his upper body including the neck. The trooper was a part of the patrolling unit, which went ahead of the fence for clearing elephant grass when Pakistani rangers started shooting at them. Following the incident, India called off the meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, which was scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. India said that the true face of Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan has been revealed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 'Bharatatma Ashok Singhal Vedic Puruskar' was conferred at a ceremony in New Delhi which was attended by Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev as the chief guest. The award ceremony, was aimed at promoting Vedic education across India, and to appreciate the efforts of all those working in this direction. While addressing the ceremony, Baba Ramdev highlighted the importance of the Vedas and said, "The entire universe is governed by the laws of the Vedas. Vedas aren't about the mantras uttered during religious rituals, hence they shouldn't be associated with any specific religion or faith. The Vedas are much older than the religion itself because the concept of religion in our country came some 3000 years ago but prior to that entire world was governed by laws of Vedas." Ramdev further stated that Patanjali Yogpeeth is constantly making efforts in the promotion of the Vedas and its teachings. Around 500 students are getting educated at its gurukul. When asked about his struggle against black money, he said that wealth should never be in the hands of evil men. He stressed that the Vedas are the very foundation of our ancient religion and even the opening lines of the Yajurveda claim that a country should not be governed by evil men. Ramdev also conferred the 'Bharatatma Ashok Singhal Vedik Puruskar' in memory of late Ashok Singhal, the former international president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The objective behind convening the award ceremony was to promote Vedic education across India and recognize excellence in this area. Sadguru Nijanand Maharaj Ved Vidhyalaya in Alindi Maharashtra was given the award of best Vedic school, Pankaj Kumar Sharma from Neemuch, MP was named the best student. The jury chose Shridhar Adi of Varanasi for the best teacher award and gave a cash prize of Rs. 7 lakh. Pankaj Sharma from Neemach, Madhya Pradesh, was given the best student award and received a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh. While 81-year-old Vinayak Badal was awarded lifetime achievement award for reviving the education of 'Shatpath Brahmin' - which was on the verge of extinction. "Our selection is entirely merit based. A special committee was set up to shortlist the candidates/names from the entries that we received. The objective of these awards is to promote Vedic education across India and recognize the efforts of all those working in this direction," said Singhal Foundation's trustee, Salil Singhal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Miami judge on Thursday dismissed a Federal Election Commission lawsuit against former congressman David Rivera alleging that he secretly and illegally financed a ringer candidates campaign in a Democratic primary six years ago in order to damage his likely opponent. Judge Marcia Cooke tossed out the 2017 complaint, which stemmed from six-year-old allegations first documented in the Miami Herald that Rivera funneled at least $70,000 in campaign money to a novice political candidate running against then-challenger Joe Garcia. Garcia ultimately won the primary and general elections in Floridas 26th congressional district, and the candidate who received the undisclosed money, Justin Lamar Sternad, later pleaded guilty to breaking election laws. A political operative and former girlfriend of Riveras also pleaded guilty to her role in the scheme and said she acted as a go-between for Rivera and Sternad, who accepted tens of thousands of dollars in hush-hush advertising and political services that he listed on campaign finance forms as self-loans. But Rivera has always denied any wrongdoing, and was not charged by the U.S. Attorneys office. After the statute of limitations ran out, the FEC filed a civil action against Rivera, arguing that hed broken campaign finance laws prohibiting secret donations. The elections watchdog was pursuing nearly $500,000 in fines, but Rivera argued that if anyone broke election law in the alleged scheme, it was Sternad. Click here to read the rest. The United States and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have a consensus to address the territorial disputes on the South China Sea, US Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan said on Thursday. Speaking to reporters following the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the sidelines of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Sullivan said, "I have met with a number of - bilaterally with a number of ASEAN countries during my week here at UNGA. I would say that there is consensus, a commitment by ASEAN and the United States to the rule of law, the Law of the Sea treaty, that should govern these claims, disputed claims to the South China Sea, and not unilateral actions by one country to develop features in the South China Sea and, even worse, to militarise them." "I think there was unanimity among the members in the room that there are, everyone acknowledges, disputed claims in the South China Sea. What every one of those member-countries and the United States is looking for is the resolution of those claims not unilaterally by one country but under the norms of international law," he added. Sullivan further said that Washington wishes for a peaceful resolution of all the disputes in the region. "During our meeting, I highlighted the US commitment to upholding international law, including the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. And our opposition to what the Chinese Government has done in the South China Sea is not because we think we are making a determination that China does or does not have a claim to a particular feature of the South China Sea. We want international law to be followed and for there to be a peaceful process, not a unilateral decision by one country, to resolve those claims, which involve a number of different countries - Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia," he said. The South China Sea is one of the most contested regions in the China, the Philippines, and Vietnam, among several others, have overlapping territorial claims on the sea. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States Secretary of Department of State, Michael R. Pompeo hosted the foreign ministers of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at the GCC+2 Ministerial meeting. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the ongoing 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session. Spokesperson Heather Nauert said that Pompeo emphasised the importance of defeating ISIS and other terrorist groups, bringing peace and stability to Syria and Yemen, ensuring a thriving and inclusive Iraq, and stopping Iran's malign activity in the region. He also thanked the foreign ministers for their partnership with the United States. All the participants at the GCC+2 Ministerial meeting agreed on the need to confront threats from Iran directed at the region and the United States. Terming the meeting productive, Nauert asserted that the parties discussed establishing a Middle East Strategic Alliance, anchored by a united GCC, to advance prosperity, security, and stability in the region. Nauert further said that Pompeo is looking forward to continuing these discussions over the upcoming weeks and months. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will arrive in India on Sunday to commence his two-day maiden state visit to the country. President Mirziyoyev, accompanied by his spouse, will pay a visit to Agra on September 30. On October 1, he will be accorded a ceremonial guard of honour at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, after which he will visit Raj Ghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi, a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs read. During his visit, President Mirziyoyev is slated to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi for delegation-level talks at the Hyderabad House. He will also meet President Ram Nath Kovind and attend a presidential banquet. Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the Uzbek President. Relations between India and Uzbekistan have traditionally been close and cordial. Since 2011, the two countries have elevated their relations to the level of 'strategic partnership' encompassing cooperation in a wide spectrum of areas including political, economic, education, health, human resource development, defence, counter-terrorism, science and technology, culture and tourism. "Exchange of frequent high-level visits on both sides has served to cement bilateral ties. Both India and Uzbekistan have also been closely working together as members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The visit Uzbekistan President will provide an opportunity to discuss bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest and reinforce the strategic partnership which exists between the two countries," the statement added. In June, Prime Minister Modi had met President Mirziyoyev on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China's Qingdao. Two months later, Swaraj held bilateral discussions with the Uzbek President during her visit to the Central Asian country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre on Friday announced the appointment of India's current Ambassador to Myanmar, Vikram Misri, as the next Ambassador of India to the People's Republic of China. Misri is a career diplomat from the 1989 batch of the Indian Foreign Service, and has served in various capacities at the Headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi, in the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi and in various Indian Missions abroad in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. Misri will be replacing Gautam Bambawale, who was India's Ambassador to China until now. Bambawale held charge of the position of Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs from December 2009 to July 2014. In the position, Bambawale was responsible for relations with Japan, China and South Korea amongst other countries. He has also served as India's Ambassador to Bhutan and as the High Commissioner of India to Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) founder is being replaced by the organization's former spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson. The organization states that the decision has been made owing to Assange's detention in isolation. In its official tweet, announced that Assange appointed Hrafnsson as Editor-in-Chief after six months of effective incommunicado detention. He will remain the publisher. Assange has taken refuge in London's Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges, TechCrunch reported. Six months ago, the Ecuadorian government took actions that isolated Assange, including cutting off his internet access and restricting visitors. Headline indices of the Australia market closed higher on Friday, 28 September 2018, as investors chased for value buying in recently battered stocks, thanks to the overnight rally on Wall Street, with shares in materials, energy, and banks and financial issues being notable gainers. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 26.35 points, or 0.43%, at 6,207.56 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was 26.18 points, or 0.42%, higher at 6,325.51 points. Shares of materials and resources companies were mostly higher, with BHP up 0.4%, while South32 Ltd firmed 0.8%. Shares of banks and financial players were higher, as banks shrugged off the interim report of a high-profile inquiry into the country's financial industry. Commonwealth Bank was up 1.9% to A$71.41, while Westpac rose 1.2% to A$27.93 after announcing it was setting aside $235 million to compensate customers overcharged for financial services. CURRENCY: Australian Dollar declined against greenback and other major currencies on Friday, as widening yield differentials and strains in emerging markets took their toll. The Aussie was buying 72.18 US cents, from 72.26 US cents on Thursday. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The 12th edition of the Festival of Hope will celebrate 70 years of Swiss-India friendship, says founder Shalini Vig Wadhwa. The event, to be held on October 14 at the Siri Fort Auditorium here, will also celebrate the spirit and courage of cancer survivors, with 80 musicians performing live and a fashion show. It will leverage the platform of art, fashion and music to create and spread awareness to prevent and detect early stages of cancer. The Foundation is supported by achievers from all walks of life, bringing together 'Leaders of Hope' who actively contribute by volunteering their time, money, and skills to make a difference, said a statement. With a fundraiser for Kerala Flood relief and cancer affected children, this year the Foundation is supported by the world-famous Swiss Wind Orchestra Landwehr of Fribourg. "This year's theme will celebrate the 70 years of Swiss-India friendship. To commemorate the same, the Foundation has collaborated with the famous Swiss Wind Orchestra Landwehr of Fribourg. Around 80 musicians will perform on stage. "A grand fashion show by 'The Royals of India' is also a part of this show, bringing together the heritage of both the countries. Eminent people will be seen walking the ramp for the Royals," said Wadhwa. It will be attended by Maharani Radhika Raje Gaekwad of Baroda, Mukut Rajya Lakshmi of Jaisalmer, Raja Syed Muzaffar Ali, Rani Meera Ali, Rajkumari Syeda Sama Ali, Kanwarani Kamini Singh of Seohara, Rajkumari Chandini Singh of Seohara and Nawab Kazim Ali Khan of Rampur. "The funds raised through the endeavour supports the cost of treatment for the underprivileged, in addition to motivate them and their families to fight this battle with courage," added Wadhwa. --IANS nv/rb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday resumed its rescue operation on the fourth day and airlifted 26 people from Himachal Pradesh's snow-marooned Lahaul Valley. They were stranded for nearly a week in Chotta Dara near the Kunzum Pass area. The total number of people rescued since September 24 rose to over 1,350, including over 30 foreigners. Most of them were stranded at various locations in the Himalayas for the past six days with heavy snowfall in the region triggering massive landslides that snapped road links in the Lahaul-Spiti district since September 22. Snow clearing operation have been in full swing by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to restore the road link between the Baralacha Pass and district headquarters Keylong. It was estimated that a large number of tourists and truckers were stranded near the Baralacha Pass. Another large group was reported to be stuck in Suraj Tal Lake and Zingzing Bar areas along Keylong-Leh road. Two light utility helicopters Cheetah were additionally deployed on Thursday along with the three IAF choppers, including MI-17, to speed up the rescue in Lahaul. State Tribal Development Minister Ram Lal Markanda said the task of rescuing 200-300 people stranded in the Saruchu and Darcha by air was being carried out on war footing. In order to know the whereabouts of those trapped near the Chandratal Lake, a team of rescuers led by Additional District Magistrate Vikram Singh Negi reached the lake area after 16 hours of trek on Thursday, Markanda said. At least 45 tourists and others stranded in the Chandratal Lake were transported to safer places, besides 13 tourists were airlifted. Early snowfall in the higher reaches, cloudburst and heavy rains devastated large parts of the state from September 22 to 24. Heavy snowfall on the Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft) has cut off the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys affecting a large number of tourists and hampering water and electricity supply. Weather conditions improved on Thursday. --IANS vg/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three private kindergartens in China have been accused by parents of serving their children rotten and black worm-infested food. According to the South China Morning Post on Thursday, the controversy came to light on September 19 when parents accused staff at the Tongxin Kindergarten in Wuhu, Anhui province, of serving their children rice infested with black worms for their lunch and using out-of-date vinegar. Market regulation officials investigated the matter and identified a number of food safety violations at Dedebei Kindergarten and Mingzhu Kindergarten in the region. The three schools were operated by the same company. As a result of the investigations, the directors of the Tongxin and Dedebei schools were detained, along with an employee responsible for food production. One father told reporters that his three-year-old son began feeling unwell just three days after starting at the Dedebei Kindergarten. "He began complaining of stomach aches in the morning," said the man, identified only by his surname, Xi. "At first I thought he was making excuses not to go to school. But now that I think back, it must have been the spoilt lunches he'd had." A check-up revealed the boy was suffering from a mild stomach infection, for which he was being treated, the newspaper reported. Xi said that he and other parents had joined together to talk to the authorities about their proposals for school cafeteria reforms. "We just want to provide our children with a good school environment. We don't want to pull our son out of school -- he was only just getting to know his classmates," he said. "But we are also afraid that the government's monitoring will be short-lived and might stop once the outrage over this issue blows over." The Vice-Mayor of Wuhu, Chen Shaoguang, said that an inquiry was underway within the local government and that eight officials were being investigated. The Anhui bureau said that inspections would be carried out in schools across the province during the National Day holidays, which start on Monday. According to authorities, local schools and kindergartens will be serving lunches provided by an external supplier till the matter gets resolved. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R 27 September 2018 Delaware North has announced a photo contest to share visitors' experiences at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, where the company operates visitor services. Visitors can participate by sharing an original photo via Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #UnlimitedSequoia and tagging the @VisitSekiParks account. They are also encouraged to elaborate on their visit to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks -- why they visited, what they loved or a favorite memory from their trip. Alternatively, participants can upload their photo to the Visit Sequoia Web site. The contest launched Sept. 20 and runs through Nov. 1. At the conclusion, one winner will be chosen to receive a three-night stay at the Delaware North-operated Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia National Park and a new Nikon camera valued at $1,000. For more information see the news release below. The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the in-laws of an air hostess who fell to her death from the terrace of her home here. Justice Mukta Gupta rejected the bail plea R.S. Singhvi and his wife Sushma. The court order came after observing Delhi Police's statement that the Singhvi couple had extended support to their son in harassing Anissia. "From the documents placed on record, particularly the supplementary statement of the father of Anissia, the WhatsApp messages and email to counsel, the continuous course of harassment and torture to the deceased is evident," the court said. "Further, as noted from the supplementary statement of the father of the deceased, there was clear demand of Rs 10 lakh. Hence this court does not find it to be a fit case to grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioners." Anissia Batra's husband Mayank Singhvi was arrested on July 16. On July 23, Justice Gupta granted interim protection to Mayank Singhvi till August 2. Batra's family has alleged that it was a case of murder even as the police registered a suicide case on July 15. The victim fell off the terrace of her home in Panchsheel Park in south Delhi on July 13. The FIR said the woman was assaulted ever since her marriage in February 2016. --IANS akk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amnesty International on Friday condemned an admission by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte that extrajudicial killings have occurred during his term in office. Duterte acknowledged for the first time on Thursday the killings during his administration's war on drugs campaign in which over 4,800 suspected drug users and dealers have been killed, calling them "my only sin", reports Efe news. Amnesty International said in a statement that "this apparent admission by the President himself highlights the urgent need for international investigations into the thousands of killings and other human rights violations committed in the name of the government's war on drugs". The President's spokesperson Harry Roque said on Friday that Duterte was being "playful" and his comments "should not be taken literally". The International Court of Justice is currently examining two criminal complaints against the Philippine president. The so-called "war on drugs" started on July 1, 2016, the day Duterte took office, and authorised the police to freely shoot any suspect resisting arrest. According to official data from the Anti-Drug Agency of the Philippines, a total of 4,854 suspects have been killed in police raids and 155,193 others arrested in a total of 108,058 anti-drug operations throughout the country. Human rights organisations have put the death toll from Duterte's anti-narcotic crackdown at 15,000. Duterte was accused in the past of using death squads during his time as Mayor of the southern city of Davao in the Mindanao region where he served for seven non-consecutive terms totalling over 22 years. In his speech on Thursday night, the President said that the anti-drug trafficking operations will continue until his presidential term concludes in 2020. --IANS ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jolted by the sudden exit from the party and the Lok Sabha of its founder member Tariq Anwar, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday called the decision "unfortunate" but said it did signify the "end of NCP". "Our President Sharad Pawar indirectly gave a clean chit to PM (Narendra Modi) on the Rafale deal. The PM is completely involved in the deal. The opposition is demanding a JPC to probe it. I am upset with his statements," Anwar said after his resignation. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel said: "It is his decision but the issue on which he quit is wrong. Leaders come and go. It (resignation) is an irresponsible step, but it doesn't mean NCP is finished. "He should have first called up Pawar and clarified his views. Merely levelling allegations is not proper. He has taken the step without consulting any leader or the party," Patel said. However, he said the party would try to speak with Anwar but the resignation from the Lok Sabha was a different issue. "We are surprised but sad at the same time. We want to clarify that Anwar who was with the party since its birth and was a founder... you have left suddenly and in this fashion without any discussion with the leadership. It is not correct," Patel said. Without naming Anwar, NCP MP Supriya Sule termed it as "disappointing" that people had not heard what her father Pawar spoke in the interview to a Marathi TV news channel News18-Lokmat, aired on September 26. "Pawar raised three questions: 1. What is the justification for a 300 percent price increase from Rs 526 crore to Rs 1,670 crore which potentially could be a significant loss to the exchequer, 2. if such doubts have been raised and the government is so confident, then why are they shying from setting up a JPC, and 3. when the BJP raised both price and specification issues during Bofors allegations, then whey are they hiding behind artificial justification of secrecy of agreements vis-a-vis both commercial price and offset agreements," said Sule. Earlier in the day, Anwar, 67, quit from the party and his Lok Sabha seat, stunning political circles, He along with Pawar and the late P. A. Sangma had broken away from the Congress to launch the NCP in 1999 in Mumbai. One of the closest confidants of Pawar, Anwar, who hails from Bihar, has been a member of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha for nearly four decades. --IANS qn/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Various commemoration events were organised on Friday in the areas falling under the Indian Army's Western Command on the second anniversary of the surgical strikes across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said here. "The second anniversary of the strikes are being held on September 28-30. Several events have been planned at the Hisar military station to commemorate the strikes and to showcase the gallant action of the Indian Army. This includes showcasing of weapons and equipment, live demonstration on the might of mechanised forces of the Army, motivational movie on the life of soldiers on the LOC and visit to war memorial by schoolchildren," the spokesman said. More events will be held on Saturday and Sunday. After 18 Indian soldiers were martyred in an attack by Pakistan-backed terrorists in Uri in 2016, the Indian Army had retaliated by carrying out punitive strikes in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and killed terrorists on September 28-29, 2016. --IANS js/tsb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked for early repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. In her speech at the UN General Assembly General Debate here on Thursday, Hasina regretted the fact that repatriation had not started in a permanent and sustainable manner, reports Xinhua news agency. "Myanmar is one of our neighbours. From the outset, we have been trying to find a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis through bilateral consultations," she said. "So far, three bilateral arrangements have been concluded between Bangladesh and Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation. Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingya, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back. "The Rohingya crisis has had its origin in Myanmar. As such, its solution has to be found in Myanmar... We want an early, peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis," the Prime Minister added. The Rohingya in Bangladesh are living in an uncertain situation, she said. Bangladesh has made arrangements for their food, clothing, health care, child care and security to the best of its ability. Many countries and organisations, including the UN and the Commonwealth, have shown solidarity with the Rohingya and extended support and assistance for them. Bangladesh has started working on a new housing facility for the refugees. "So long the Rohingya are not able to return home, they should, as a temporary arrangement, be able to live in a good and healthy condition," she said. Hasina called upon international organisations to work with her country in the relocation of the Rohingya to the new facility. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 720,000 Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority living in mostly Myanmar's Rakhine state, have fled to Bangladesh since violence broke out in August 2017. They joined another 200,000 Rohingya who earlier fled into adjacent Bangladesh, said the UNHCR. --IANS ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bank employees under the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) will go on a two-day strike early next year, said a top leader of the union on Friday. The bank employees under the banner of AIBEA will join the two-day strike on January 8-9, 2019 according to a decision taken at The National Convention of Workers held in Delhi on Friday, C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA said. The National Convention of Workers was called by 10 central trade unions and it decided to adopt various protest programmes against the central government's labour policies. One of the programmes is the two-day general strike in January. --IANS vj/pgh/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Benfica's match against Chaves in northern Portugal ended in a 2-2 draw, putting the teams lead in Portugal's Primeira Liga at risk. Including this match, Benfica now has 14 points, only one point more than Sporting Braga and two more than Porto, which could easily snatch the lead from Benfica if they win their matches this week, reports Efe. In a match that started over an hour late due to rain on Thursday, Rafa opened the scoring in the 3rd minute by finishing off a cross-shot of Argentinian Franco Cervi. Benfica was able to maintain the lead until the 76th minute, when Armenian Ghazaryan's shot slipped into the bottom corner of the goal. Raga then shot a tiebreaker for Benfica in the 85th minute thanks to a pass from Ruben Dias. After the goal, Benfica, led by manager Rui Vitoria, suffered the loss of a player due ar red card for the Argentinean Conti. Ghazaryan then scored another equalizer for Chaves during extra time. The tie allowed Chaves to climb to eighth place with seven points. --IANS gau/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday paid rich tributes to Bhagat Singh on his 111th birth anniversary and said his life and sacrifices for the nation still inspired millions. In a message, Adityanath said that Bhagat Singh's name had been etched in golden letters in the history of India's freedom movement. The Chief Minister also pointed out that the birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh provided an opportunity to the people to reiterate their commitment to make the state and the country developed and prosperous. --IANS md/ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Veteran comedian Bill Cosby's Hollywood Walk of Fame star got vandalised following his imprisonment over drugging and sexually assaulting a woman. According to tmz.com, the star was ruined earlier this week when a US court sentenced him to jail and labelled him as a "sexually violent predator". The star now reads words like "serial rapist" and "MeToo" on it. Still, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has decided not to remove Cosby's star even after he was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison. Cosby was sentenced on Tuesday by a court in Norristown, Pennsylvania for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004. The 81-year-old's "sexually violent predator" label implies that he must undergo counselling for life and appear on the sex offenders' registry. --IANS sim/rb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Friday accused the BJP of "hatching a conspiracy" to create differences between it and the NCP in the wake of a row over its chief Sharad Pawar's remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image has been unscathed in the Rafale deal issue. Responding to a question on Pawar's remarks, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Mallikarjuna Kharge had spoken to Pawar in length on the issue." "Pawarji has clearly said that convey from my side that all these things are false and baseless. Pawarji has said that it was a conspiracy by the BJP to create differences between the two parties," Surjewala said. Pawar in an interview to a Marathi news channel New18-Lokmat, aired on Wednesday, said, "There is no doubt in public minds about Modi's intentions in the Rafale deal, that's what I feel." However, Pawar made it clear that there should be a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the Rafale deal in depth to unravel the truth before the public, a demand Congress and a few other parties have put forward. In the wake of Pawar's remarks, one of the party's founding leaders, Tariq Anwar quit the party and the Lok Sabha expressing disagreement with him. "I have resigned from the NCP as well as the membership of Lok Sabha because I totally disagree with Sharad Pawar's statement in support of Modi on Rafale deal," Anwar said. The Congress leader further said that Pawar has said three things. "First, Pawarji has said that the government should explain how the prices of the Rafale aircraft went up thrice. And the answer on this needs to be given by the Prime Minister." He also said that the NCP was in support of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe. At the time of the Bofors controversy, the BJP had demanded a JPC and the Congress had conceded it, Pawar is said to have told Kharge. Pawar's remarks in the interview were welcomed by BJP chief Amit Shah who praised him for "placing national interests above party politics". --IANS aks/vsc/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian subsidiary of Italian company Bonfiglioli Riduttori making gearboxes, gearmotors and drive systems, on Friday announced the commissioning of its new plant near Chennai. Bonfiglioli is a worldwide leader in manufacturing gearboxes, gearmotors and drive systems. In a statement here, the Indian company Bonfiglioli Transmissions said the new plant at Thirumudivakkam near here has a production capacity of 75,000 units per annum to serve customers in off-highway, construction, mining, agriculture and material handling applications. The total investment for the new plant is Rs 50 crore and with additional capacity the total capacity goes up to 125,000 units per annum, an official told IANS. "India is a key country for Bonfiglioli, and the good results up to now show we were right when we started the business here in Chennai. This expansion in India is part of the company's global investment strategy in production and assembly facilities," Sonia Bonfiglioli, Chairman of Bonfiglioli Group, was quoted as saying in the statement. She also said the company will be investing in the Internet of Things and machine learning. Last year, the company clocked a turnover of Rs 733.2 crore. --IANS vj/pgh/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China will hold the fifth World Internet Conference (WIC) in its river town of Wuzhen in November, officials said on Friday. Liu Liehong, Deputy Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, made the announcement at a press conference of the State Council Information Office, Xinhua news agency reported. This year's WIC will be held in China's Zhejiang province under the theme of "creating a digital world for mutual trust and collective governance -- towards a community with a shared future in cyberspace". Several guests from governments, international organizations, companies, technology communities and non-governmental organizations have been invited at the conference, scheduled to run from November 7-9, Liu said. "It will further enhance the establishment of an Internet development outlook characterized by mutual trust and collective governance among countries worldwide," he said. The conference will advocate exchanges, mutual learning, cooperation and sharing in the digital fields and push for peace and development of the global cyberspace. Liu said that a total of 19 sub-forums are scheduled, revolving around five themes of "innovation-driven development", "universal security", "openness and inclusiveness", "in pursuit of a better life" and "common prosperity". The sub-forums will cover topics such as artificial intelligence, 5G and the digital Silk Road. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Music mogul Simon Cowell has agreed to donate over $326,000 to help close a dog meat farm in South Korea. The "America's Got Talent" judge, 58, has agreed to donate the amount to Humane Society International (HSI), a charity that addresses animal issues worldwide, reports people.com. HSI tweeted about Cowell's donation on Friday. They say his money will save over 200 dogs and puppies from a South Korean dog farm that breeds the animals for human consumption. The charity plans to go there next week to pick up the canines, after which they will send the dogs to various countries including the US, Canada, UK, and the Netherlands for recovery and adoption. "Simon's generous donation means the world to us, and provides a huge boost to our appeal to close this horrendous dog meat farm," HSI UK Executive Director Claire Bass said in a statement. --IANS rb/ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five Maoist guerrillas were arrested in Jharkhand's Chatra district on Friday, police said. Chatra Superintendent of Police Akhilesh B. Bariyar said the arrested men belonged to the Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC). "We have seized Maoist literature and mobile phones from the Maoists." He told the media that police surprised the rebels when they were holding a meeting near Delho village. Two Maoists who tried to escape were arrested first and then three others were taken into custody. --IANS ns/mr (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the standing crops, especially paddy, being damaged in several parts of the state due to 3-4 days of rain in the past week, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday assured farmers that a special 'girdawri' (revenue assessment) would be conducted to assess the damage to their crops caused by the rains. Khattar assured the farmers that adequate compensation would be paid to them. "They need not worry on this account," Khattar said after visiting the agricultural fields of a farmer in Karnal district, around 120 km from here, on Friday. The rainfall from September 22 to 25 damaged paddy and other seasonal crops in many parts of Haryana. Strong winds in some parts flattened the standing crops which was almost ready for harvesting. --IANS js/pgh/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected a plea challenging the ordinance which prescribes up to three years' jail and or fine for a man who divorces his wife through Triple Talaq or instant divorce. A bench of Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao said that Triple Talaq has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and now it was upto the government to decide the issue. The court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Shahid Azad. "The ordinance is arbitrary and unnecessary bringing a draconian, illogical, unreasonable and vague legislation through the route of ordinance shows a lack of respect for parliament and the people whose faith lies in India's secular constitution," the plea said. The advocate said that the ordinance is a coloured legislation which does not achieve its objects rather it is a remedy which is in itself a disease and creates more confusion. The Union Cabinet cleared the ordinance last week and it was promulgated by the President. --IANS akk/ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Thursday extended former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's interim protection from arrest in the INX Media case till January 15. The court was hearing Chidambaram's anticipatory bail petition, seeking protection from arrest by the (ED) and the (CBI) in the case. On July 25, the court had granted him interim protection, which was later extended to November 29. The ED and the are probing how Chidambaram's son Karti managed to get clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). Karti was arrested on February 28 by the for allegedly taking money to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media in 2007 when his father was the Union Finance Minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Later, Karti was granted bail. Karti's chartered accountant S. Bhaskararaman was arrested in the case by the ED and he too was later granted bail. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit China in October, the media reported on Friday. It will be Khan's first visit to China after assuming the office. The dates of his visit and meeting schedule with Chinese officials is being finalised, the News International reported. It said that Khan will be accompanied by a high-level delegation and will be discussing the China Pakistan Economic Corridor project with the Chinese leadership besides exchanging views on economic cooperation. The Pakistani delegation will also participate in a conference in China, the report said. Khan in his post-election address on July 25 had vowed to strengthen and improve Pakistan's relationship with neighbouring countries, including China. "We will strengthen and improve our relations with China. We want to work towards success of the CPEC. We also want to send teams to learn poverty alleviation from China," he had said. --IANS soni/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bollywood actor Vinay Pathak on Friday said the incidents of sexual harassment of female actors are very unfortunate and should not mar a woman's talent. He said this here while reacting to the ongoing controversy surrounding actress Tanushree Dutta's claim of sexual harassment. Tanushree, who had first made the allegation against veteran actor Nana Patekar in 2008, put the spotlight once again on her unsavoury experience of working with the actor in the film "Horn 'Ok' Pleassss", through a recent interview. "I do not know them personally and cannot comment on him or her. But I think it is very unfortunate, absolutely wrong and it's not done. I think if it happens with women who are very integral part of our industry, is very unfortunate," Pathak told IANS on the sidelines of the grand finale of the Digital Storytelling workshop led by Amy Hill from a California-based NGO, StoryCenter. The actor also noted it is not everybody who indulges in such acts, and said he stands against any sort of violence. "Women in the film industry are brave for the very fact that they face such things and still they achieve and accomplish so much," he said. "An incident like this should not mar the talent of a brave woman. I think everybody including the production house, the directors and actors all should oppose it," said Pathak, who was in the city as part of a judge's panel that included actor Churni Ganguly and film-maker Anindita Sarbadicari. Twenty four two-minute short films created by youth leaders from India and Bangladesh were screened at the event on Friday. A film entitled "Eggs" by Sanjukta Sarkar, that dealt with silent discrimination between girls and boys emerged as the best film. Sudeshna Roy, filmmaker and member of the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child, said "the conversation on gender-based violence had started long back and it will go on". --IANS bnd/mgr/pgh/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Friday signed two loan agreements with Japan for construction of a Metro project in Kolkata and a high-speed rail project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, said an official. As per the agreements, the Japan International Cooperation Agency would provide a loan worth Rs 5,591 crore for construction of Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project and another worth Rs 1,619 crore for Kolkata East-West Metro project. "This further consolidates and strengthens the strategic and global partnership between India and Japan," an official statement said. --IANS vv/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and now a strong contender for the President's post in FIDE, the world chess body, did not seek the support of All India Chess Federation (AICF) even as a formality. The AICF is the Indian government recognised national body for chess. Similarly, the third contender for the FIDE President's post British chess Grand Master (GM) Nigel Short too did not seek AICF's support. The FIDE Presidential elections slated early next month is a three-horse race with Dvorkovich, Short and Georgios Makropoulos contesting with their teams. "I did not, as the representative of India is on the ticket of Mr. Makropoulos," Dvorkovich told IANS when queried about approaching AICF for support. Responding to the question Short told IANS: "No. I did not meet any official of AICF. I thought it will be a waste of time as D.V.Sundar is part of the Makropoulos team. But many Indian chess Grand Masters are hoping that I would win." Sundar, Vice President, AICF is in the fray for the post of FIDE General Secretary as a part of Makropoulos team. The present FIDE Deputy President Makropoulos is contesting for the FIDE President's post. "Sundar will be voting on behalf of AICF at the FIDE elections," an AICF official had told IANS preferring anonymity. Curiously, Dvorkovich and Short are promising the National Chess Federations that they would bring in transparency in FIDE operations, attract big corporate sponsors. They also said the FIDE under their regime would financially support the National Chess Federations and not the other way around as it is now. Meanwhile Israeli chess Grand Master Boris Gelfand recently has expressed his support for Dvorkovich and the later thanked him for the support. Gelfand is the first player with world fame to have extended his support to Dvorkovich's candidature. Gelfand in a detailed message posted on Dvorkovich's election campaign website wished the Russian and also the English GM Nigel Short another FIDE Presidential candidate success in their endeavour. "Let us hope that an experienced organizer Arkady Dvorkovich and a great chess player Nigel Short will win the elections and succeed in changing the world of chess for the better," Gelfand said. Gelfand said Dvorkovich has organised 10 super tournaments and managed to find energetic people to actively promote chess across Russia. According to Gelfand, the arrival of Dvorkovich has marked the rise of Russian chess. Gelfand said: "It seems to me that taking an opinion poll among chess players would now give an approximately 95:5 result in Dvorkovich's favor in terms of percentage correlation." "Nevertheless, elections are known to be decided by delegates casting their votes, and I do not know whether the opinion of professional chess players does or does not matter to them," Gelfand said and added that he would vote for Dvorkovich. Incidentally when queried by IANS whether under their regime chess players of certain standing would be given the right to vote in FIDE elections both Dvorkovich and Short avoided a direct answer. "Chess officials have to respect chess players and consult with them on all the important decisions to be made by FIDE," Dvorkovich said. Short said: "As for voting rights for players, there are much more important issues that need to be addressed first. But under our management, players will be there in more number of committees that deal with issues concerning them." --IANS vj/gau/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran's Foreign Ministry on Friday dismissed claims made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Tehran's nuclear programme as "false and fabricated". "After the US and Israel's failure to play out anti-Iran scenarios, these farcical claims and shows by the Prime Minister of the occupying regime (of Israel) were not unexpected," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said. Netanyahu on Thursday showed a photo during his speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), accusing Iran of having a "secret atomic warehouse" for nuclear weapons programme. "Although the allegations made by Netanyahu were part of a new show too worthless to deserve a response, Iran strongly denounces them," Qasemi said following Netanyahu's address at the UNGA. "Israel and the US sought to represent an unpleasant image of Iran at this year's UN General Assembly meeting, but they failed to do so," he was quoted as saying by the Foreign Ministry on its website. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also lashed out at Netanyahu for his "baseless" claims, saying Tel Aviv was in no position to level such accusations against Tehran. "Netanyahu must explain how Israel, as the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East region, can put itself in a position to level such brazen accusations against a country whose (nuclear) programme has been repeatedly declared peaceful by the International Atomic Energy Agency," Zarif told IRNA news agency. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actress Jodie Sweetin has come out in the open about her own sexual assault experience amid American professor Christine Blasey Ford's testimony. On Thursday, in light of Ford's emotional testimony at a Supreme Court hearing, Sweetin spoke out in support about her own experience, via Instagram. Wearing a camouflage jacket with the words "What doesn't kill you f***s you up mentally" written on the back, Sweetin explained to her social media followers why she supports and identifies with Ford, reports people.com. "I stand with her. I am her. I was the girl who never reported because I blamed myself. I was the woman who never reported because I didn't want to go through the pain and ridicule. "What we saw today is about a much bigger issue of survivors of sexual assault being persecuted, judged and re-traumatised when they do come forward. We are told that if it were "real," we would have reported it at the time. Often when we were merely children or young girls," the "Fuller House" actress wrote. Giving examples of what young girls have to endure if they do speak out, Sweetin, a mother of two daughters -- Zoie Laurel May, 10, and Beatrix Carlin, 8 -- came to a simple conclusion: "It was easier to stay quiet." She added: "As we grew older and it happened again, we had been trained to remain silent. We had learned the lesson that no one will believe us. That even if someone does, it holds no consequence. We had watched other women come forward, only to be told 'there were no witnesses, so it's your word against his', knowing that 'his' story is always more believed than 'hers'." She finished her post by encouraging others not to be dismissive of the courageous survivors, like Ford, who have spoken up and shared their stories. Sweetin also promised her followers that she would take action moving forward. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday where he strongly denied Ford's claim that he sexually assaulted her in high school. --IANS nv/rb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's nominee to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat, on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee defiantly, forcefully and emotionally denied the accusations of sexual assault levelled at him by Christine Blasey Ford, calling them "a national disgrace." "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace," he said in his opening statement before the committee, adding that "The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process, but you have replaced 'advice and consent' with 'search and destroy'", Efe reported. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has a Republican majority - just like the overall Senate - is tasked with approving or not Kavanaugh's nomination. At times breaking down in tears and pausing in delivering his statement, Kavanaugh told the committee that "My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional allegations," but he vowed that he would never withdraw or quit. The statement by the judge, who came to the Capitol holding his wife's hand, came after Ford appeared before the committee earlier on Thursday, confirming for lawmakers that she was "100 per cent" certain that it was a drunken Kavanaugh who had sexually assaulted her at a house party in 1982 when they were both teens. He said that he was not questioning Ford's claim that she had been sexually assaulted by someone, but he declared that he did not do so. The Senate hearing - broadcast live by major television news networks - riveted many Americans and comes amid increasing pressure to postpone a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh's nomination. Earlier, before the committee, Ford had described taking and passing a polygraph test regarding her accusation. "I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me," Ford said in her opening statement at the hearing on her accusation. "I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school," she told lawmakers. Ford said that she had "agonized" for months since she learned about Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, but ultimately she said "I thought it was my civic duty to relay the information I had about Kavanaugh's conduct so that those considering his potential nomination would know about the assault." One of three women who have publicly accused the judge of sexual misconduct, Ford insisted that she is a "fiercely independent" person and nobody's "pawn," and asserted that she felt it was incumbent upon her to tell her story about what occurred at the house party in the summer of 1982, when both she and Kavanaugh were teenagers. The hearing scheduled for Thursday by the Republicans - who are in the majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee - was set to hear testimony from both Ford and Kavanaugh on her allegation, but the GOP members have not moved to allow calling more witnesses who might be able to corroborate or refute either of their stories, including Mark Judge, Kavanaugh's close high school friend who Ford says was present in the same room during the attack. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The members of the Orissa High Court Bar Association on Friday decided to continue their cease-work protest over alleged police excesses till next Wednesday, even though the Supreme Court asked them to resume work. Orissa High Court Bar Association Secretary Satyabrat Mohanty said a decision regarding the ongoing strike will be taken on October 3. "The order to withdraw the strike was issued without hearing our views. We have respect for the Supreme Court order and we will discuss the matter with all members at the next governing body meeting," Mohanty told reporters. Earlier in the day, the agitating lawyers, intensifying their strike locked up the main gate of the Orissa High Court. They also barred the judges from entering its premises. The lawyers also burnt the effigy of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra for his directive to the lawyers to resume work. The lawyers are on cease-work strike since August 30 demanding action against the police personnel involved in the attack on an advocate in Cuttack on August 28. Two constables have been suspended in connection with the attack on the lawyer. The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the lawyers to end the strike and join their duty in order to help people get access to justice. The apex court also directed the Odisha Director General of Police to transfer the investigation to Crime Branch Inspector General of Police. --IANS cd/pgh/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Setting up dealer networks in major fishing coastal towns, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M) is hoping to sell 500 marine/boat engines this fiscal, said a senior company official. He also said the company hopes to get good orders from the Tamil Nadu fishing community for its engines in Rameswaram under the Central government's deep-sea fishing programme. Launching a range of boat engines and marine gensets here under the brand Sea Hawk, Sachin Nijhawan, Business Head, Powerol Business said: "We now have engines ranging from 15 hp to 400 hp to straddle a wide segment of business needs." Presently the market is catered majorly by Chinese makers but this is expected to reverse as M&M has set up dealer and service networks, he said. Nijhawan said larger engines will be needed once riverine transport becomes big in the country. Powerol is the diesel gensets/engines division of M&M catering to varied sectors and marine sector is the new being added to its portfolio. For starters, the company is looking at government aided projects. According to M. Senthilkumaran, General Manger-Industrial Applications, about 16 boats are being built in Cochin Shipyard for the fishermen in Rameswaram. "As some boat owners have opted for our 180 hp engines. We expect there will be more demand as the market is largely driven by word-of-mouth," Senthilkumaran said. He said the market for bigger engines is from replacement as boat owners fit a new engine after three years. "About 500 new boats are made every year," he added. Last year M&M sold about 150 engines, both small and big, and the target for the current year is about 500 engines. --IANS vj/mag/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's verdict to open the gates of the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala to women of all ages, saying that temples cannot be run like clubs. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court ruled that preventing women in the 10-50 age group from visiting the temple was violative of their fundamental rights and constitutional guarantees. "It is ridiculous that God is for one and not for the other. He has to be for all. After all, it is a temple not a Gymkhana Club, which dictates on who can enter and who cannot," the Minister told the media here. "Some people have turned temples into clubs. This judgment is to turn those clubs back to temples," she added. --IANS vn/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Merely taking photographs of 'Bharatmata' while at the same time discriminating on the basis of religion, region or language does not make one a patriot, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu said here on Friday. "Patriotism does not mean only taking Bharatmata's photograph and forgetting others, ill-treating others. You have to treat everybody with respect, with love, with affection. Then only you are a nationalist. "If you discriminate people on the basis of religion or region or language, you are not a nationalist," Naidu told students while speaking at a convocation ceremony at the National Institute of Technology. "That is the specialty of India. Irrespective of caste, creed, sex, religion and region, India is one. One nation, one people, one country, that feeling should be there among all of you. That is patriotism," Naidu added. --IANS maya/mag/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday attended a Combined Commanders' conference here to commemorate the second anniversary of the cross-Line of Control (LoC) "surgical strikes" carried out against militant launch pads in Pakistan. The Prime Minister was accorded guard of honour upon his arrival at the Jodhpur airport. He also visited the Konark War Memorial where he laid a wreath and signed the visitors book. He is slated to inaugurate an army exhibition, "Parakarm Parv", at the city's military station, marking the second anniversary of the surgical strikes. The Indian Army conducted surgical strikes (on the intervening night of September 28-29, 2016) which had strategic ramifications and were aimed to "dissuade inimical adversary from adopting the path of violence and to ensure an environment of peace for the nation". The government has decided to observe the attacks as "Parakram Parv", commemorating the valour and sacrifice of the armed forces, on the anniversary. A three-day main event from Friday to Sunday will be organised at the India Gate lawns in New Delhi besides similar events at 53 locations in 51 cities across the country to "highlight the valour of the Indian Armed Forces in general and special forces in particular". --IANS rak/ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a conference on Saturday which will be attended by Vice Chancellors and Directors of over 350 higher institutions, the government said on Friday. The organisers of the 'Conference on Academic Leadership on for Resurgence' are the Indira Gandhi national Open University (IGNOU) and the Research for Resurgence Foundation -- a sister-concern of the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal. "The theme of the conference is to deliberate on the challenges facing the Indian system and to work out a plan for a paradigm shift both in terms of achieving academic outcomes and also in regulation of education," a statement from the Ministry of Human Resource Development said. The conference will be addressed by Modi and Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar and his Junior Minister Satya Pal Singh. "This conference is in continuation of the efforts being made by the Ministry for evolving an action plan for transformation of the higher education sector. The first among this was held in Delhi during Vice-Chancellors' Conference from July 26 to 28," the statement added. --IANS vn/ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Davey Cashin, founding members of Irish music band The Kilkennys, which is set to perform in India, says that the music palette of the audience in India is very cosmopolitan which also makes them welcoming to new genres. "India is a beautiful country and we realise that every time we come to this country the music palette of the audience here is very cosmopolitan which also makes them welcoming to new genres. Irish folk music although is very unusual for their taste, is well received by the music lovers here as they are open to embracing different kinds of music. And so we love to keep coming back to India for its diversity," Cashin told IANS over an email. Cashin plays a huge list of traditional Irish instruments to the sound of The Kilkennys, including banjo, mandolin, guitar and Irish whistles. The band is performing in association with Jameson, a blended Irish whiskey produced by the Irish Distillers subsidiary of Pernod Ricard. Their Delhi performance will take place at the Raasta Delhi in Green Park followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru on Saturday and Sunday respectively. "We are extremely excited about our performance. It will be our second tour in India and we were humbled by the reactions we've got from the audiences on our previous tour which is one of the reasons that bring us back to India. "This tour only gets bigger and better and we are grateful to Jameson for giving us this opportunity. We have a great show in store and will be playing some of our best Irish music in these cities," said Cashin. Talking about Indian music scene, he said: "India is a music universe full of icons and shooting stars. We have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to listen to music from some of the veterans. We look forward to a great tour with Jameson Irish Whiskey." --IANS nv/dc/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Various Muslim socio-religious and political organisations came together on a common platform here on Friday night to demand the central government to withdraw the ordinance on triple talaq as it is unconstitutional. Muslim groups representing various sects urged the government to ensure that the religious and cultural rights and freedom guaranteed to Muslims by the Constitution are implemented in letter and spirit and not tampered in any manner. A resolution passed at the public meeting organised by the United Muslim Forum (MUF), an umbrella group of different Muslim organisations, condemned the ordinance issued last week, criminalizing triple talaq. It said the piece of legislation was enacted through backdoor. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Jamaat-e-Islami's president of Telangana and Odisha unit Hamid Mohammed Khan, MUF president Raheemuddin Ansari and leaders of various organisations addressed the public meeting at MIM headquarters Darussalam. "The present government seems to be conspiring to take away the religious identity of Muslims. When it failed to get the triple talaq Bill passed in the Parliament, the government has chosen to get an ordinance promulgated in an undemocratic manner," the resolution said.A It hoped that better sense would prevail and the government would reconsider its decision. Asauddin Owaisi, in his speech, demanded that Muslims should be allowed to practice their religion as the Constitution of India has given them this right. Referring to Supreme Court judgements on Articles 377 and 497, the MP said Muslims also want to live with freedom to practice their religion. "When homosexuals have been given choice and married men and women also given freedom to indulge in adultery without the fear of being punished by law, why are Muslims being denied freedom to practice their religion,a he asked. Owaisi described the ordinance as anti-women and said this would lead to high rate of desertion of women by their husbands. He also voiced the apprehension that many Muslim youths would be jailed. The MP said the Supreme Court in its judgment set aside triple talaq but did not term it unconstitutional. "When the Supreme Court made it clear that if a husband gives triple talaq, marriage will not dissolve then for what crime you are sending him to jail for three years under this ordinance," he asked. He reiterated that the ordinance is an attempt by the Modi government to divert people's attention from Rafale scam, rising prices of petrol and diesel and failure to provide jobs. Owaisi said if the government was really concerned about the welfare of women, it should make a legislation for 24 lakh women including 22 lakh non-Muslims who were married but abandoned by their husbands. --IANS ms/ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Flick through a story of thwarted desires, of love and its loss, of losing and finding oneself, and of falling and learning to rise; read the story of a man whose dead wife's messages come to him though another woman; read a story around an arranged marriage, where the the twenty-year-old bride-to-be discovers that she has no say in the matter and decides to carve out the unlikeliest of silver linings; and know of an unusual tale, set in the last years of the British Raj, about being torn between two worlds. The IANS bookshelf has interesting reads of love and romance to offer this weekend. 1. Book: Tides Don't Cross; Author: Simar Malhotra; Publisher: Rupa; Price: Rs 250; Pages: 252 A vapid marriage. A whiz-bang romance. An unfulfilled dream. An insatiable ambition. Sparks fly immediately when Rukmani -- fierce and assertive in the best and worst possible ways -- meets the gentle Ayaan in the magical city of Paris. Meanwhile, back in India, her reticent sister, Mrinalini struggles to cope with the void of a loveless marriage and an early pregnancy. "Tides Don't Cross" follows these extremely interesting characters as their lives cross in surprising ways. Mrinalini, Ayaan, and Rukmani wade through choppy tides, unaware of their common destiny. Deeply touching, this is an unforgettable story of thwarted desires, of love and its loss, of losing and finding oneself, and of falling and learning to rise. 2. Book: A Change of Heart; Author: Sonali Dev; Publisher: Harper Collins; Price: Rs 299; Pages:326 Dr. Nikhil Joshi was working in a Mumbai slum when his wife Jen discovered a black market organ transplant ring. Before she could expose the truth, she was killed. Two years after the tragedy, Nikhil becomes a cruise ship doctor, who spends his days treating seasickness and sunburn and his nights in a boozy haze. On one of those blurry evenings on deck, he meets a woman who makes a startling claim that she received Jen's heart in a transplant and has a message for him. He wants to discount Jess Koirala's story as absurd, but there is something about her reckless desperation that resonates despite his doubts. Jess has spent years working her way out of a nightmarish life in Calcutta and into a respectable Bollywood dance troupe. Now she faces losing the one thing that matters -- her young son, Joy. She needs to uncover the secrets, Jen risked everything for; but the unforeseen bond that results between her and Nikhil is both a lifeline and a perilous complication. 3. Book: The Rule Breakers; Author: Preeti Shenoy; Publisher: Westland; Price: Rs 350; Pages: 321 There are two kinds of people in this world -- those who follow the rules and those who do not think twice about breaking them. Studious, smart and sincere, Veda harbours big dreams for the future. But her parents arrange a marriage for her, and the twenty-year-old discovers that she has no say in the matter. Forced to leave behind an idyllic life in the hill town of Joshimath -- filled with conversations and pleasurable times with her siblings, and her best friend, the handsome Suraj -- she puts aside her ambitions and moves into a flat in Pune with an indifferent husband and a mother-in-law from hell. Though brought up to be quiet and obedient, Veda chafes at the meaninglessness of her existence and struggles to cope with the unexpected loneliness she is engulfed in. Then, amidst the dark clouds of stagnation and despondency, Veda carves out the unlikeliest of silver linings. How does she do this? By breaking the rules? Or by following them? In this emotional roller-coaster of a novel, Shenoy yet again treads bold new ground. 4. Book: Kitty's War; Author: Daman Singh; Publisher: Tranquebar; Price: Rs 350; Pages: 243 "And just like that, the war came to Pipli junction." It is December 1941. Japan has just bombed Pearl Harbor. After a series of victories in Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore, the Japanese are closing in on India. And the British colony must meet the demands of the war outside its borders, even as the Independence movement gathers steam within. That's when Katherine Riddle comes home to Pipli with bruised dreams and a broken heart. Fed on gossip fuelled by rumours, the little railway colony is on edge. Nobody is immune -- not even her stoic father, Terrence. Nor the always placid Ayah. And especially not the tongue-tied Indian assistant stationmaster. Set in the last years of the British Raj, this is an unusual novel about being torn between two worlds. --IANS mg/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dozens of passengers were forced to swim for their lives on Friday after their plane missed a runway and landed in a sea lagoon on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 aircraft carrying 47 people -- 35 passengers and 12 crew members -- plunged into the water after it "landed short of the runway" at the international airport on Weno, the main island of Chuuk state in Micronesia on Friday, according to a statement by Air Niugini, the national carrier of Papua New Guinea. Emergency teams and fishing boats in the area rushed to rescue people aboard the partially submerged airplane, according to a video that has gone viral. No casualties were reported, CNN reported. The aircraft was flying from the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, stopping at Micronesia's Weno island on the way. The atoll nation of Micronesia, with 600 islands, is home to 1.5 lakh. The plane proceeded normally until final approach when the weather conditions suddenly deteriorated and it began raining hard, reports said. An investigation was launched into the incident. Passenger Bill Jaynes told reporters that the incident had been "surreal". "I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in. I thought, well, this is not like the way it's supposed to happen." Jaynes said people on the plane were in water up to their waists and used the emergency exit to escape. Photographs and video footage online showed small fishing boats surrounding the semi-submerged plane, ferrying passengers to safety. The airline said it had received reports that "the weather was very poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of incident". --IANS soni/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab's Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) Randhir Singh Uppal was booked on the charge of rape following a complaint by a 26-year-old married woman studying law in Amritsar, police said on Friday. Uppal, posted in the Crime Branch, has denied the allegation. The woman, who is the mother of a six-year-old child, alleged that Uppal raped her twice at gunpoint in recent months. He was also booked for criminal intimidation and stalking under the Indian Penal Code as well as the Arms Act at the Amritsar Cantonment police station. Following her complaint on September 18, Punjab Police had initiated a probe by Inspector General of Police (Crime and Women) Vibhu Raj, who had recommended registration of a case against Uppal after the investigation. The woman gave a statement to the IG that Uppal raped her twice at gunpoint by intimidating her, Amritsar's Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Lakhbir Singh said on Friday. The woman alleged that Uppal, who was known to her mother, stalked her on phone and forced her into sexual relations. She submitted audio and video clips to substantiate her allegations. --IANS js/tsb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India from October 4-5 during the course of which he will hold an annual bilateral summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was announced on Friday. "Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay an official visit to New Delhi on October 4-5 for the 19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. "During the visit, President Putin will hold official talks with the Prime Minister Modi... He will also have a meeting with the President (Ram Nath Kovind), as well as other official engagements," it stated. Russia is one of only two countries with which India holds annual bilateral summits, the other being Japan. The India-Russia bilateral relationship was elevated to Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership in 2010. Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Moscow for the 23rd India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Technical and Economic Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) meeting which also prepared the groundwork for Putin's upcoming visit. During that meeting, India and Russia decided to increase the target of two-way investments to $50 billion by 2025 since the earlier target of $30 billion has already been crossed. Speculation is also rife about whether a missile deal that New Delhi has been negotiating with Moscow will be finalised during Putin's visit. With US President Donald Trump's administration's law -- Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) -- coming into effect in January, 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. It is a matter of concern for India as it is a major defence partner of Russia. The most controversial issue is India's purchase of four S-400 air defence missile systems from Russia at a cost of more that Rs 40,000 crore. Following the first ever India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held in New Delhi on September 6, a senior US State Department official said that there will be no blanket waiver for the S-400 deal. The last India-Russia annual bilateral summit was held on June 1, 2017, during the visit of Modi to Russia. --IANS ab/ksk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The air defences of the Saudi-led coalition on Thursday intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthi rebels toward Yemen's southern port city of Aden, a security official told Xinhua. "The Houthis aimed at targeting the main headquarters of the Saudi-led coalition forces with a ballistic missile, but the attack was aborted," the local security source said on condition of anonymity, Xinhua reported. The missile attack, which targeted the coalition's headquarters based in Aden's district of Buraigah, caused no casualties among the Saudi-led coalition forces. Aden's district of Buraigah has key military bases of the Saudi-led coalition and the United Arab Emirates fighting the Houthis in Yemen. Residents told Xinhua that "loud explosions were heard near the coalition's headquarters." Yemen's Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani confirmed the incident on his official Twitter account, saying "the coalition's air defences shot down a missile over Aden." But according to local media, the Saudi-led coalition downed two ballistic missiles. In July, the Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for targeting the coalition's main camp in Aden with drones, threatening that "there will be no safe place for coalition leaders or gatherings in Yemen." The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to roll back the Shiite Houthi rebels and support the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Since September 2014, the rebels have seized control over much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, and forced Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia. The war has so far killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced 3 million others, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Friday opened the gates of the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala dedicated to Lord Ayyappa to the women in the age group of 10-50, saying it was violative of their fundamental rights and constitutional guarantees. In a majority 4:1 judgment, the top court also read down the provision of Kerala laws that protected the prohibition and said it could not be covered under practices essential and integral to religious practice. Justice Indu Malhotra, the only woman judge in the five-judges bench, gave a dissenting judgment. Chief Justice Dipak Misra reading out the judgment, also on behalf of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, said that subversion of women's rights under the garb of physiological phenomenon cannot be allowed. "All devotees are equal and there cannot be any discrimination on the basis of gender," Misra said. Justice Rohinton F. Nariman in a separate but concurring judgment said that people of all faiths visit the temples -- worshipers are not of separate denomination. "Religion cannot become a cover to exclude and deny women their right to worship," Justice D.Y. Chandrachud also said in a separate but concurring judgment. Holding that the Sabarimala temple is not a denominational temple peculiar to any sect, the court said that the Ayyappa temple belongs to Hindus and does not constitute a separate entity. The apex court also read down the provision of Kerala laws that protected the practice of prohibiting the entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 years. Justice Indu Malhotra said: "What constitutes essential practices of religion is to be decided by worshippers and it is not for the judiciary to adjudicate. "It is not for courts to decide if such practices should be struck down. Rationality cannot be used to judge faith. All followers must be allowed to follow their own faith as per their own beliefs in a secular polity. --IANS pk-gt/in/hs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The historic Supreme Court judgment which on Friday allowed women of all ages to enter Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala in Kerala, has left the temple tantris (priests) and those associated with it by tradition disappointed. They plan to file a review petition against the verdict that came after 12 years of legal battle and nearly a month ahead of the annual pilgrimage that starts in November. Expressing disappointment, temple tantri (chief priest) K. Rajeevaru said: "While I will respect the court's directive, I wish tradition and culture is allowed to continue. "The Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) will decide on the appeal challenging today's decision, only after a discussion." On whether the temple will allow women from all age groups to come for the annual pilgrimage when it opens for the two-month long season in November, he said he did not know "how it would be managed this time". "As of now, what I can say is at present there are no facilities that are there and now the TDB will have to do the needful," Rajeevaru added. Until now according to the rule of the temple located on a hilltop in Pathanamthitta district, about 130 km from the state capital, has remained closed to women in the age group of 10 to 50 years. State Minister for Devasoms (a watchdog body of temples which oversees the functioning of all the Devasom Boards in Kerala), K.Surendran said: "This has been a long standing legal battle both in the Kerala High Court and now Supreme Court." "The state government has nothing to do as it is the TDB which has to see that the directive is followed," the senior leader from Communist Party of India-Marxist party said. Over the years, the Left government has always been for opening the temple doors to all women. TDB President A. Padmakumar said that they were now duty-bound to see that the directive of the apex court is put into practice. "We will now speak with the state government to see what needs to be done. The long legal battle is over now," said Padmakumar. Spokesperson of the Pandalam Royal Family, which has an integral role in the affairs of the Sabarimala temple, Sasikumar Varma said the palace was disappointed with the verdict All the jewels of the temple is stored in the Pandalam Palace. "Just by a verdict, the century old traditions of Sabarimala has been changed and that's very sad. Every religious place has its own traditions and culture that is practiced for its own reasons," said the palace spokesperson. "If you look, devotees enter mosque with their footwear, but it does not happen in temples. Just like that, Sabarimala temple has its own traditions -- one of which is that all pilgrims who come to the temple undergo a 41 day penance, and that should not be forgotten," said Varma. Meanwhile, Rahul Eashwaran, a family member of the Sabarimala tantri, said that they were deeply saddened by the verdict and would file a review petition. "Various Hindu organisations will now get together and conduct special prayer sessions. We have time till October 16 to file a review petition which would be done after discussing with all. "This is not a balanced judgement and Article 25 of the Constitution has been overlooked," said Eashwaran. P. Geetha, a teacher by profession and a popular face in TV debates batting for gender equality, said that she welcomed the judgement. "It's understandable that people like Eashwaran oppose this and it's quite natural. The verdict is welcome and now all those women who wish to visit the temple can do so now," said Geetha. Although she added that she did not expect the coming season from November to see a big flow of women devotees, as all along till now they were told that it was out of bound for women. --IANS sg/in/vsc/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A shutdown called by separatists affected life across the Kashmir Valley on Friday with heavy security deployed here and other vulnerable places. The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a separatist conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, called for the shutdown against the killing of a civilian in Srinagar on Thursday. Authorities have taken Muhammad Yasin Malik into preventive custody and lodged him in the Kothibagh police station in Srinagar. Shops, public transport, other businesses and educational institutions remained closed in most parts of Srinagar city and other district headquarters. Private transport and some three wheelers were, however, seen moving. Attendance in government offices, banks and post offices was also affected due to the non-availability of public transport. No untoward incident was reported from anywhere so far. --IANS sq/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Ishaan Khatter, who is close to his brother and actor Shahid Kapoor, says he discusses his professional choices with him. "In the past I have shared with my brother and mother about the work that I am going to do. I think if you are close to somebody, you tend to share something that is so important to you and films are a very important part of my life," Ishaan said in a statement to IANS. "And because he is part of the same industry, it is much easier for him to understand. He doesn't demand that I share everything with him or my mother. But I like to share things with my mother and brother," he added. Ishaan made his film debut with Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's "Beyond The Clouds", but "Dhadak" marked Ishaan's entry in Bollywood. An adaptation of Marathi hit "Sairat", "Dhadak" marked the much-awaited Bollywood foray of Janhvi Kapoor. It will find its way on the Indian small screen on Sunday on Zee Cinema. On his love for dance, he said: "Actually my mother was the first dancer in our family and she is the most accomplished of us all as a dancer. I don't think I was even conscious that my brother was a dancer when I started dancing, I was very young." "I definitely share dance with him. We are very passionate about dance and he is the more experienced dancer. He has been a mentor and he has taught me dance a lot of different techniques. So he definitely is my teacher and mentor," he added. If not and actor, what would you be? "I would either be a dancer or do something else related to cinema in the creative department or I would just be an explorer," he said. --IANS sug/rb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shaun Micallef came to India to shoot his show "Stairway To Heaven", and says he stumbled upon some important life lessons during his stay in the country. "I found out that it is about the journey rather than the destination... That is the important thing. I have been pre-occupied finding some sort of answer whereas the point is to live it," Micallef told IANS in a recorded response. Micallef, who hails from Australia, travelled to India, exploring Hinduism and asking religious questions for the show, which is aired on Sony BBC Earth. "One of the really interesting things that I left the country with was that the final picture will be apparent once it is done." Talking about coming to India, the writer-comedian-actor said: "There were no pre-conceptions. Everything was a revelation. One of the interesting places that we visited was where population was equally divided between the voice of the Muslims and the Hindus. "And everyone got on very well together. I was surprised. The communities seemed at ease with each other. This is a larger lesson in life." --IANS sug/rb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj carefully avoided any interaction with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) meeting of ministers, walking out after issuing a call to end the eco-system of terrorism. After India had called off talks between the two ministers, the focus was on the Saarc meeting here on Thursday which put them in close proximity and Sushma Swaraj took no chances. She delivered her speech with the warning, "terrorism remains the single largest threat to peace and stability in our region, and indeed in the world", and left the meeting at the Hotel Westin Grand before Qureshi's speech. The Saarc event was billed as an "Informal Council of Ministers Meeting". Qureshi later took a nasty swipe at Sushma Swaraj telling the Pakistani media that maybe she was feeling unwell, according to Samaa TV. However, the Indian Minister, who has been keeping a gruelling schedule this week, went on to have her scheduled meetings with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Walid al Muallem. Before the Saarc event, she had spoken at the meetings of the IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) and BRICS (Brazil Russia, India, China and South Africa). In her address to the Saarc meeting, Sushma Swaraj did not name Pakistan while talking of "scourge of terrorism". "An environment of peace and security is essential for regional cooperation to progress and achieve economic development and prosperity of our people. The number of threats and incidents that endanger South Asia's are on the rise. "It is necessary that we eliminate the scourge of terrorism in all its forms,A without any discrimination, and end the ecosystem of its support," she said. Most of her speech, though, was about a positive outlook for Saarc. "We attach highest priority to the development and prosperity of our region, under our 'Neighbourhood First' policy." Sushma Swaraj mentioned several successful projects like the South Asia satellite, the Saarc Disaster Management Centre, the South Asian University, extending India's Knowledge Network and the Saarc agreements on motor vehicle and railways. "To realise our immense potential for trade, it is imperative that the further trade liberalization under South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta) and operationalisation of Saarc Agreement on Trade in Services (Satis) are done at the earliest." Qureshi, however, accused India of blocking Saarc progress and said Sushma Swaraj "spoke about regional cooperation, but how will such mutual cooperation come about if the countries in the region are ready to sit down and you are creating a barrier to these talks", according to Samaa. India initially agreed last week to recently-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan's request for holding talks between Sushma Swaraj and Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting. However, New Delhi cancelled the talks a day later after three Indian police personnel were killed in Kashmir and Pakistan issued a stamp honouring a terrorist leader. Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said while announcing the cancellation of the talks that Pakistan's "the evil agenda" had been exposed and the "true face of the new Prime Minister of Pakistan has been revealed to the world". Initial overtures by Indian Prime Minister Modi for peace talks and developing friendly ties were sabotaged by Pakistani military-backed terrrorists. With the latest effort for resuming talks meeting a similar fate, Sushma Swaraj apparently did not want to chance even an informal greeting at the Saarc meeting. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians and followed on Twitter at @arulouis) --IANS al/soni/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a jolt to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), one of its founding leaders, Tariq Anwar, on Friday quit the party and the Lok Sabha expressing disagreement with party chief Sharad Pawar who he said gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal. "I have resigned from the NCP as well as the membership of Lok Sabha because I totally disagree with Sharad Pawar's statement in support of Modi on Rafale deal," he told the media here. "The Prime Minister is fully involved in the Rafale deal," said Anwar, a party General Secretary, reacting to Pawar's television interview in which he said he did not think people doubt Modi's intentions on a personal level. Jolted by his move, the party said the decision was "unfortunate" while Pawar's daughter and party MP Supriya Sule said the NCP chief's comments on the Prime Minister and the Rafale deal have been misunderstood as he has actually demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the deal. Anwar, 67, who was expelled from the Congress in 1999 along with Pawar and P.A. Sangma after they questioned the foreign origins of Sonia Gandhi, said he personally respected and honoured Pawar but felt his statement in support of Modi was unfortunate. "I do not agree with his statement and have resigned from the party and membership of Parliament," the MP from Katihar said. Anwar told IANS that he was forced to take this decision to prove his moral stand in "I am telling people one thing and cannot take another stand," he said. Anwar's resignation brings down the NCP's strength in the Lok Sabha to six. Anwar, who has been a Lok Sabha member several times and in the Rajya Sabha once, said he will talk to his supporters before taking a move to join any party. Reacting to his resignation, NCP General Secretary Praful Patel said Anwar's decision was sudden and unfortunate and felt it was not correct on his part to have exited in this manner without any discussion with the leadership. He said he has noted that Anwar was angry over some remarks made by Pawar on the Rafale deal. "We are surprised but sad at the same time. We want to clarify that Anwar who was with the part since its birth and was a founder... you have left suddenly and in this fashion without any discussion with the leadership, it is not correct," he said. Pawar's statement in an interview to a television channel was welcomed by BJP chief Amit Shah who praised him for "placing national interests above party politics". Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, Sule said it was "disappointing" that the issues raised by Pawar in the interview regarding the Rafale fighter jet deal were ignored. "It's disappointing that people have not heard Pawar ... where he has clearly raised three questions: 1) what is the justification for a 300 percent price increase from Rs 526 crore to Rs 1,670 crore which potentially could be a significant loss to the exchequer?," said Sule, a Lok Sabha member and a daughter of Pawar. "2) If such doubts have been raised and the government is so confident, then why are they shying from setting up a JPC? 3) When the BJP raised both price and specification issues during the Bofors allegations, then why are they hiding behind artificial justification of secrecy of agreements vis-a-vis both commercial price and offset agreements." --IANS ik-spk-vsc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have identified three novel genetic variants associated with chronic back pain that may help point toward avenues for the eventual development of new therapies. The study, published in the journal PLOS Genetics, links the risk for back pain with variants in genes controlling skeletal development, among other pathways. "Chronic back pain is linked to changes in mood, and the role of the central nervous system in the transition from acute to chronic back pain is well-recognised," said the co-author Pradeep Suri from the University of Washington. "However, the top two genetic variants we identified suggest causes implicating the peripheral structures, such as the spine," Suri added. For the study, the research team involved 158,000 adults of European ancestry, including over 29,000 individuals with chronic back pain, looking for gene variants that were associated with the presence of back pain. The strongest association was with a variant in the SOX5 gene, which is a transcription factor involved in virtually all phases of embryonic development. Inactivation of SOX5 has previously been linked to defects in cartilage and skeleton formation in mice, supporting the hypothesis that the variant discovered in this study may contribute to chronic back pain through its influence on some aspect of skeletal development. The association of the SOX5 variant with chronic back pain was replicated in another group of over 280,000 individuals, including over 50,000 individuals with chronic back pain. A second gene, previously associated with intervertebral disc herniation, was also linked to back pain, as was a third gene that plays a role in spinal cord development, possibly implicating pain sensation or mood in the risk for back pain. "The results of our genome-wide association study point to multiple pathways that may influence risk for chronic back pain," Suri said. "We expect that further large-scale genetic studies will reveal the importance of both peripheral and central contributors to the complex experience of chronic back pain," Suri noted. --IANS vc/ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on getting the United Nations environmental award. "Through this honour, the Prime Minister's relentless efforts to make earth safe for generations to come have not only been acknowledged on an international level but also also appreciated," he said. Modi was awarded the 'Champions of the Earth Award', UN's highest environmental honour, along with five other individuals and organisations, for his leadership of the International Solar Alliance and pledge to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022. Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron were chosen under the 'policy leadership' category. Adityanath said that protection and conservation of nature were an integral part of India's traditions and culture and that Modi was getting this award for his tireless efforts. "It was Modi's efforts that the United Nations unanimously decided to observe June 21 as International Yoga Day," the Chief Minister said. --IANS md/tsb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Labour Minister Swamy Prasad Maurya on Friday lashed out at Congress President Rahul Gandhi for attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and called him a "mad man who doesn't deserve to lead India's oldest political party". "Rahul Gandhi has been continuously calling the Prime Minister a thief. Look at the decency of Modi that he is not (even) responding," said Maurya, who switched sides from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2017 Assembly elections. "It is a matter of great shame that the Congress leader is mouthing such (abusive) language for the country's Prime Minister," the Minister told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mainpuri. He said that "this childish behaviour did not behove of the Congress chief", adding that the opposition party should be worried since this will invite public ire. Maurya said that the "immature behaviour" of Gandhi was for all to see as he had embraced Modi in the Lok Sabha and also gave statements that even a child would not. The Minister also said that the vicious Congress campaign on the Rafale deal will not cut into BJP victory prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. --IANS md/tsb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The American military's F-35B joint strike fighter jet has conducted its first-ever airstrike, according to the US Marine Corps. The strike took place in Afghanistan on Thursday against a fixed Taliban target, CNN reported. The aircraft involved were the US Marine Corps' variant of the planes flying from the USS Essex amphibious assault ship. The Marines confirmed the strike in a statement: "During this mission the F-35B conducted an air strike in support of ground clearance operations, and the strike was deemed successful by the ground force commander." The F-35 stealth jet has been called the most expensive weapons system in history and its development was beset by multiple delays before it was deemed combat ready. It is touted as the future of military aviation: a lethal and versatile aircraft that combines stealth capabilities, supersonic speed, extreme agility and state-of-the-art sensor fusion technology, according to Lockheed Martin, the plane's primary contractor. The F-35B is one of three variants of the F-35 aircraft and the only one with the ability to land vertically like a helicopter. It can also take off in a much shorter space than other fighter jets. The F-35 has been a favourite of President Donald Trump, who has lauded the aircraft several times for being "invisible". The aircraft has reduced capability to be seen by adversary radars but is not invisible. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote later on Friday on President Donald Trump's embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The vote follows a dramatic testimony on Thursday by Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of sexual assault while both were teenagers. Ford described the alleged 1982 attack in detail saying it had "drastically" affected her life. However, Kavanaugh denied assaulting her or anyone. Trump has urged the full Senate to approve his nominee in a vote expected next week. Republicans currently have a majority of 51-49, but the outcome is far from certain with a number of senators on both sides undecided, CNN reported. After the committee votes, the current plan is to hold a procedural vote on the Senate floor on Saturday and hold the final vote later, the reports said. "I think he was incredibly powerful and very clear," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of Kavanaugh during an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America". She said that Ford was mistaken about her attacker and said Kavanaugh has "been unequivocal since Day One that this did not take place by him". Asked whether Trump had the votes to confirm Kavanaugh, Sanders said: "I certainly hope so, and I certainly think so. We have to move forward in this process. Judge Kavanaugh deserves a vote." The Thursday hearing brought an outpouring of support for Ford, a university professor, from the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault. "I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school." She alleged Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge had locked her in a bedroom during a small gathering at a house in a Washington suburb in the summer of 1982, when she was 15 and Brett Kavanaugh was 17. Ford said Kavanaugh had tried to remove her clothing, pinned her to a bed and groped her. Both men were "drunkenly laughing". Reacting to Ford's allegations, Kavanaugh said that he would not be "intimidated" into withdrawing from the process. He was accused by several other women of sexual assault. However, Trump repeatedly defended the judge's character, saying he was "one of the highest quality people" he had ever met. Thousands of protesters against Kavanaugh's nomination took to the streets and 59 people were arrested near the Supreme Court in Washington. --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will arrive here on Sunday on a two-day visit, the External Affairs Ministry said on Friday. He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation in what will be his first visit to India since assuming office in 2016. Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold restricted and delegation-level talks on October 1, a Ministry statement said. The two leaders had met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Qingdao, China, in June and also at last year's SCO Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, when India was made a full member of the Eurasian inter-governmental organisation. President Ram Nath Kovind will host a banquet for his Uzbek counterpart. Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also call on him. Stating that relations between India and Uzbekistan have traditionally been close and cordial, the statement said: "Since 2011, the two countries have elevated their relations to the level of strategic partnership encompassing cooperation in a wide spectrum of areas including political, economic, education, health, human resource development, defence, counter-terrorism, science and technology, culture and tourism." It added that Mirziyoyev's visit will provide an opportunity to discuss bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest and reinforce the strategic partnership between India and Uzbekistan. Earlier this week, senior Uzbek officials said the Central Asian nation wants to further elevate its ties with India and take bilateral trade to $1 billion within two years. Briefing the media here, Uzbek Ambassador to India Farhod Arziev said that during the visit, a meeting of the Uzbek-Indian Business Forum will be held. Ilhomjom Nematov, Ambassador of Special Assignments and Special Envoy of the President of Uzbekistan, said that both countries are trying to take bilateral trade from the current level of around $350 million to $1 billion by 2020. Arziev said that the two countries were working on more transport corridors to boost trade after India joined the Ashgabat Agreement, which seeks to establish an international transport and transit corridor between Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. --IANS ab/ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Reporting from the frontlines of the war against polio and drawing on detailed interviews with key players, Thomas Abraham has chronicled "the mind-boggling story" of the polio campaign in "Polio: The Odyssey of Eradication". He has asserted that the World Health Organisation (WHO) underestimated the spread of the poliovirus, and according to his findings, it is unlikely that the world can be polio-free before 2021. "The WHO clearly underestimated how difficult the task of eradication would be. When the campaign was launched in 1988, it was generally thought that the job could be completed by 2000, or at the latest by 2005. But a variety of factors, including problems with the vaccine, the difficulties that poorer countries face in carrying out repeated vaccination campaigns, as well as the problems posed by conflicts, have all contributed to the problem. It is now unlikely that the world can be declared polio-free before 2021 at the earliest," Bengaluru-based Abraham, who was formerly Associate Professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong, teaching health and science journalism, told IANS in an email interview. He acknowledged that the polio eradication campaign has achieved "significant gains", and pointed out that the number of polio cases across the world "have come down from around 350,000 cases in 1988 spread over 125 countries to around 100 last year," mainly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, Abraham said, polio is caused by "a mutated form of the virus that the polio vaccine is based on". Abraham, who has worked with WHO in Geneva, said that the delay in Pakistan is partly due to "the security situation in that country". "From about 2012, the Pakistan Taliban had begun to target and assassinate polio vaccinators, as part of its larger war against the Pakistan government and against Western countries in general (polio eradication was perceived as a Western-funded and run campaign); polio vaccinators were regularly assassinated in Karachi, as well as in the frontier areas of Pakistan. "The Taliban told people that polio vaccinators were spies for the United States and should not be allowed into their areas. The use by the CIA of a fake NGO to conduct vaccination campaigns (though not for polio) in Abbotabad, to try and identify where Bin Laden was living, also did not help the polio campaign, since the Taliban used this to justify their argument that all vaccinators were in fact spies," Abraham said. He said that in Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban did not pose the same set of risks to the polio campaigners, but access to children in these areas was often difficult, and many were missed during vaccination campaigns, allowing polio to survive. "The movement of people between Pakistan and Afghanistan allowed the polio virus to travel between these two countries and persist," he said. Another factor that has allowed polio to re-appear and even spread, according to Abraham, is, in certain situations, "the virus that the oral polio vaccine contains". "The oral polio vaccine contains a weakened form of the poliovirus, that in normal circumstances provides protection against the disease, without causing paralysis. But in places where polio immunisation campaigns are not carried out regularly, this vaccine virus can re-acquire disease-causing properties, and cause paralysis. This is what we are seeing in the Congo and elsewhere today," he explained. In the strictly Indian context, Abraham mentions in the book that the period between 2005 and 2011 was the polio eradication campaign's most difficult years. "Polio had been controlled in most parts of India by around 2005, except for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where poor implementation of the programme by state governments led to persistent outbreaks. In Uttar Pradesh, there was also an issue with the Muslim communities in many parts of western Uttar Pradesh refusing vaccination, often due to suspicion of the state government's motivation. "There were rumours that these drops would cause children to become sterile, and the fact that polio vaccinators were often the same health staff who provided family planning, helped to increase these fears. Once both these governments focussed on polio, the disease gradually disappeared," said Abraham, who was also a foreign correspondent for The Hindu for over a decade. He also said that funding will increasingly become a problem, as it costs roughly $1 billion a year to run the polio campaign. "Polio: The Odyssey of Eradication", published by Context, an imprint of Westland publications, released on September 17 in India and is priced at Rs 699. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in ) --IANS ss/vm/sac (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka Youth Congress workers on Friday held a protest in front of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's residence by performing "mundan" to express their displeasure over "pro-capitalists approach of the BJP-led NDA government". Youth Congress activists said educated youth of Karnataka could have secured "significant employment opportunities" at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) "if the Defence Ministry would have included a clause of manufacturing the Rafale aircraft in India" in association with the HAL. "Agitated youth activists from Karnataka gathered near the residence of Defence Minister since they demanded a clarification on the issue of losing employment opportunities in deal where private companies and big capitalists were favoured without considering the welfare of educated youth of Karnataka state," a statement said. They said the NDA government was "completely in favour of capitalists due to its crony capitalism". Sitharaman had converted the Defence Ministry into "a puppet institution" which is "dancing to the tunes of big capitalists" without any concern for the defence establishment of the country along with national security, they said. "The secrecy with which Rafale Deal has been conceptualised is nothing less than organised loot and a complete ignorance of national security," reads the statement. --IANS spk/pgh/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Since recent history is now divided between what came before or after Google, 20 years old now, this story just about makes the cut as it dates back to early 1998. George Fernandes had just been appointed the surprise defence minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayees cabinet, to much scepticism. How was a trade union maverick in crumpled kurta-pyjama and chappals going to run Indias most formal, spit-and-polish ministry? Mr Fernandes surprised us by how quickly he found his way around. The first challenge he encountered was breaking the vicious circle, or rather circles within ... general secretary Friday said he had resigned from the party and Parliament following party chief Sharad Pawar's "defence" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Making the announcement in his constituency, Anwar said he was resigning from all posts in the party, of which he was a founding member, and also giving up his membership of Parliament. Anwar told reporters he was "hurt" by Pawar's interview to a Marathi news channel this week where he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intentions on the Rafale fighter jet aircraft deal were not wrong. The party later came out with a clarification, saying it did not amount to a clean chit to the prime minister. Anwar, a former union minister, has been backing the Congress demand for a JPC probe into the deal and has also sought a white paper on the issue. "No decision has been taken so far about my future political move. I will be deciding that after consulting my supporters," he said. Reacting to the development, Congress MLC Prem Chand Mishra described Anwar as a "fine leader". "We shall be eagerly looking at his next political move," he said. In New Delhi, senior party leader and Rajya Sabha MP D P Tripathi confirmed the development. A former president of Congress' Bihar unit, Anwar formed the in the 1990s along with Pawar and the late P A Sangma, opposing Sonia Gandhi taking over as AICC president on grounds of her foreign origin. The party thereafter allied with the Congress at the level and also in Maharashtra. As many as 10 have decided to call a two-day countrywide general from January 8 to protest the BJP government's "anti-people and anti-worker policies", AITUC General Secretary Amarjeet Kaur said. The decision for the was announced at the Convention of Workers in New Delhi on Friday, which was attended by workers affiliated to all major barring the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. The express serious concern over the "deteriorating" economy due to the Centre's "pro-corporate, anti-national, anti-people and anti-worker policies", All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) General Secretary Amarjeet Kaur said. ALSO READ: Centre proposes amendment in labour law to recognise central trade unions She also appealed to members of all trade unions to oppose the BJP in the next year. "To weaken the working class and the labour movement in the country, the Narendra Modi government has adopted policies which ultimately hurt the common man. The government's policies are pro-capitalist. We have to ensure the BJP's defeat in 2019 general elections," Kaur said. Echoing similar sentiments, Indian Trade Union Congress (INTUC) President Sanjeeva Reddy alleged that the Central government not only refused to respond to the just and genuine demands of the of the working class, but has suppressing the rights of workers, employees and trade unions. As many as 100 parliamentarians from all over the country have contributed Rs 43.66 crore from the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) fund for relief and rehabilitation works in flood-hit Kerala, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said Friday. The MPLADS has provision for parliamentarians to contribute funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction works in the areas affected by severe calamity, the ministry said in a statement. Once the heavy rain and flood situation of Kerala in August 2018 was declared by Ministry of Home Affairs as severe in nature, an appeal to all Members of Parliament (MPs) was issued on August 24, 2018 by Minister of Statistics Programme Implementation D V Sadananda Gowda to contribute from their MPLADS fund for rehabilitation works in affected areas of Kerala. As per guideline of the MPLAD Scheme, an MP can contribute up to 1 crore from their MPLADS fund for rehabilitation works in affected areas. Till now, 100 MPs from across India have contributed a total amount of Rs 43.66 crore for this purpose, it said. As much as Rs 29.82 crore has been contributed by 56 Rajya Sabha members and Rs 13.84 crore by 44 Lok Sabha MPs. As many 30 parliamentarians have contributed 1 crore which is the maximum that an MP can contribute while 12 MPs have contributed Rs 50 lakh or more and 12 MPs have contributed Rs 25 lakh. Remaining MPs have contributed between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. Six MPs of Kerala have contributed their MPLADS funds for rehabilitation works. As many as 14 MPs of Uttar Pradesh, 11 MPs of Maharashtra, 9MPs of Bihar, 7 MPs of Gujarat, 4 MPs each of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana,Punjaband Rajasthan, 3 MPs each of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradeshand Tamilnadu, 2 MPs each of Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal; 1 MP each of Chandigarh, Dadar& Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura have contributed for the rehabilitation works. As per new guidelines, the rehabilitation works under MPLADS can be approved by Chief Secretary, Kerala in the flood affected areas / districts. The State Nodal Department overseeing the MPLAD scheme would maintain Report on work list, amount spent, etc. A separate Bank Account has been already opened by Government of Kerala to receive this amount, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A gunfight broke out near the central Nigeria city of Jos killing 11 people and sparking outbreaks of violence across the city, an army spokesman said Friday. The violence started late Thursday evening on the outskirts of Jos, army spokesman Major Umar Adam told AFP. "Eleven are confirmed dead and several others injured, I can't say how many," Adam said. "Today (Friday) some youths blocked the road along Rukuba and attacked passers-by," Adam said, addomg that "many people were injured". "The situation now is relatively calm. Patrols have been intensified to ensure there is no breakdown of law and order," he added. Adam said that while there had been no arrests, the attacks may be linked to unrest in the area earlier in the week. Jos, the Plateau state capital of about one million people, is nestled in the hills of central Nigeria and has frequently been the scene of violence. Plateau state lies in Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt that separates the predominantly Muslim north from the largely Christian south. It has long been a hotbed of ethnic, sectarian and religious tensions between indigenous farming communities and nomadic cattle herders. Tensions typically boil over into tit-for-tat violence over access to land and resources, and the struggle for political control. The Plateau state government on Friday announced a dusk to dawn curfew in Jos. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thirteen Bangladeshi nationals, including five children, were arrested Friday in a village near here, police said. Acting on a tip-off, the police nabbed them on Monday from Jatora village in the district, Senior Superintendent of Police Babloo Kumar said, adding they were living in the village for the last two years. They were three men, five women and five children. While 12 immigrants were living without an identity proof, one had a bogus Aadhaar card bearing address of Jatora village, the SSP said. According to Kumar, station house officers of all police stations have been instructed to intensify the search against illegal migrants. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two over-ground workers (OGWs) of the Hizbul Mujahideen were arrested from Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district Friday, a police spokesman said. The arrested persons were identified as Danish Ahmad Lone and Raja Ilyas Makroo, he said. "Acting on a credible input, police arrested two OGWs of proscribed terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen," the spokesman said. "Incriminating material and huge amount of cash were seized from them," he said. The spokesman said Danish Lone is the brother of an active militant Adnan Lone. Police have registered a case. "Preliminary investigation suggests that the duo were planning to carry out terror attacks in the area," he said. In another incident, police on a tip-off arrested Irshad Ahmad Malla and seized incriminating material linked to terror outfits, he said. Police have registered a case against him. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lelectricite est devenue, de nos jours, un besoin dune importance majeure, et cela, dans tous les domaines dactivite. Que ce soit dans les maisons ou [] The Delhi Police has arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly killing two men in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district last year, police said Friday. The accused, Guddu, was wanted in the case registered in Uchchain (Bharatpur) and staying in south Delhi's Chhatarpur area for the last one year. The police learnt on Thursday that he would come to RK Puram to meet his brother. He was arrested there, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Devender Arya. A loaded country made pistol and two live cartridges were recovered from him, Arya said. "During interrogation, Guddu disclosed he belongs to a village in Rajasthan's Bharatpur. He had a property dispute with two men - Ramveer and Chandru. On July 15, 2017, he shot both the victims after a quarrel erupted between them and then he fled the spot. Thereafter, he moved to Chhatarpur with his family," the officer added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Gujarat High Court Friday dismissed a plea filed by Adani Gas challenging the bidding process for the supply of PNG and CNG in three areas of Ahmedabad district. In the bidding process, which was carried out by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) in 2016, Adani Gas lost to state-run Gujarat Gas Limited to supply PNG and CNG in Sanand, Bavla and Dholka areas of the district. In June 2016, Adani Gas approached the Gujarat High Court over this loss. A bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi Friday dismissed Adani Gas's objection plea against the bidding process. Before the PNGRB Act came into force in 2006, the Gujarat government gave Adani Gas permission to supply gas in Ahmedabad district with a condition that the permission was subject to any act that came into force in the future. As per regulation 18 of the PNGRB Act, a company needs to take PNGRB's authorisation to carry out work in an area for which the firm does not have permission from the Central government. In 2013, as per Regulation 18 of the PNGRB Act, Adani approached PNGRB seeking permission to build gas supply infrastructure in entire Ahmedabad district. However, while granting permission, the PNGR Board excluded Sanand, Bavla and Dholka areas of the district. Later the regulator invited bids for these three areas in 2016, with Gujarat Gas emerging victorious while the Adani firm lost. Following this loss, Adani Gas approached the Gujarat High Court and challenged the bidding process as well as the PNGR Board's decision to exclude these three areas -- Sanand, Bavla and Dholka while giving permission to it for the rest of the district in 2013. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Cabinet may approve India's Agriculture Export Policy in the next few days, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said Friday. Stable trade policy regime, reforms in the APMC Act, streamlining of Mandi fee and liberalisation of land leasing norms are some of the key recommendations of the draft agriculture export policy, which seeks to double the shipment to over USD 60 billion by 2022. "We have already come out with Agriculture Export Policy, which should be approved by the Cabinet in the next few days because inter-ministerial consultation, which takes some time, is already in advanced stage and once we do that there can be huge opportunities," Prabhu said while addressing a Ficci event. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last month a new agriculture export policy will be unveiled soon to boost farm income as the government is on track to achieve the target of doubling farmers' income by 2022. Prabhu said the thrust now is to promote India's exports and to identify opportunities not only in large markets but in areas where there are immediate opportunities. The commerce ministry had come out with the draft agriculture export policy earlier this year. The draft policy has pitched for greater involvement of states, improvement in infrastructure and logistics, and promotion of R&D activities for new product development for the upcoming markets. The 'National Agriculture Export Policy' is formulated in line with the vision to double the farmers' income and increase the share of agricultural exports from present about USD 30 billion to over USD 60 billion by 2022. It also aims to boost high value and value added agricultural exports, focusing on perishables; to provide an institutional mechanism for tackling market access barriers and deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues; and to become one of the top 10 exporting countries of agricultural products and strive to double India's share in world agri exports. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Hansraj Ahir Friday said the Supreme Court verdict in the Koregaon-Bhima case has vindicated the action of Pune police and the investigation against the five rights activists was on the right track. The Minister of State for Home said the action of the Maharashtra police was right and he had said so in the past also after their arrest. "This (the arrest) was done not to take revenge against anybody or keeping in mind what happened in Bhima Koregaon", he told PTI. "Investigation went on upto six months. After that some evidence surfaced that these people, while staying in cities, were instigating people...there was also proof and action was taken", the Minister said. This was proved by the Supreme Court verdict Friday and it was clear that the police investigation was on the right track, Ahir said. "The Court has accepted the position of the Maharashtra police", he said. The Minister also said that naxalism was "coming to an end" in rural areas. But naxals had infiltrated the tribal population, and with the help of some people in cities, may have been attempting to spread Maoist ideology in urban areas. Their designs had not succeeded. "Naxalism is a threat to democracy. We have to save democracy and the country. Maharashtra police has done the right thing, has not done it (the arrests) with a feeling of revenge", he said. "It's the government's responsibility to protect democracy, in addition to national security", he said. The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists by the Maharashtra Police in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint a SIT to probe their arrest. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. The bench extended by four weeks the house arrest of the activists. The five activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- are under arrest at their homes since August 29. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Air passengers from the city are set get a seamless connectivity to at least six new global destinations in the US, Europe and the UK starting next month, an airport official said. Besides, America's third largest carrier United Airlines will be offering the US-bound passengers from the city more seats as it plans to deploy a bigger aircraft as part of the airline's winter schedule in India. Airlines' winter schedule in the country begins from the last Saturday of October and goes on till last Friday of March every year. "In addition to Air Italy and Uzbekistan Airways, which are entering in Mumbai market for the first time, national carrier Air India and private jetliners Jet Airways and GoAir will be launching new flights to international destinations from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport from October onwards," the airport official said. While Air Italy will operate five times-a-week non-stop service to Mumbai from Milan with an Airbus A330-200 aircraft from October 31, Uzbekistan Airways will have three direct flights in a week between capital city Tashkent and Mumbai with an Airbus A 320 from October 30, the official said. Air India, which is the only Indian carrier flying directly to the US, will commence its direct flight services from Mumbai to the German city Frankfurt and New York's JFK Airport from October 1 and October 4, respectively, the official added. Mumbai will also get direct connectivity to Phuket in Thailand and Male in Maldives with budget carrier set to fly to these destinations from October 12 and October 14. In addition, Naresh Goyal-controlled full service carrier Jet Airways will be connecting Mumbai with Manchester in the UK with five-times a week flight services starting November 4. A wide-body A330-200 aircraft, having 254 seats, would be deployed to cater to the Manchester route, which would be the airline's 21st international destination and fifth non-stop service to and from the UK. At the same time, United Airlines will operate its latest higher seating capacity aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, between Mumbai and New York/Newark route from October 1, replacing the 777-200ER, which is currently being operated on the route. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Friday urged Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Kenichi Yokoyama to expeditiously clear the state's loan proposals to ensure early implementation of development projects worth Rs 3,127 crore. The projects include 24X7 surface water supply system for Jalandhar and Patiala, besides conservation of historical monuments and buildings across the state. At a meeting here, the chief minister apprised Yokoyama that Punjab was facing acute scarcity of potable water, especially in the four major cities of Patiala, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana. Amarinder said the state government had prepared a comprehensive plan to shift these cities from tubewell water to canal water to provide the people with quality drinking water. Making a detailed presentation, Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board CEO Ajoy Sharma said the total cost of the proposed surface water supply system was Rs 700 crore in Patiala and Rs 1,227 crore in Jalandhar. He said the Local Government department would soon get a feasibility report prepared, through a technical consultant of international repute, in consultation with the representatives of ADB. The department would then work out the modalities for bidding for the project, a Punjab government statement quoted him as saying. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Human rights watchdog Amnesty International India Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's order to allow entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala, terming it a "laudable step" towards gender equality. In a landmark verdict that gave a boost to gender equality, the Supreme Court Friday threw open the doors of Sabarimala Temple in Kerala to girls and women of all age groups by lifting the ban on the entry of those between the age of 10 and 50, holding this centuries-old Hindu religious practice is illegal and unconstitutional. "The judgment is a welcome recognition of women's right to equal treatment. It questions age-old beliefs that exclude women based on notions of inferiority, patriarchy and ideologies of chastity and purity," Amnesty India Programmes Director Asmita Basu said in a statement. She further said traditional, cultural and religious norms have long been used to justify violations against women, asserting that practices that perpetuate the subjugation of women and harmful gender stereotypes must be ended. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rima Das, director and producer of 'Village Rockstars' which is India's official entry for the 2019 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language film category, will receive an additional Rs 50 lakh from the Assam government as announced by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal Friday, a government release said. The state government had earlier granted Rs 50 lakh to Das. Now a total amount of Rs one crore will be provided to the filmmaker, said a government release here. Das had called on the chief minister and expressed her happiness over the selection of 'Village Rockstars' as India's official entry to the Oscars and thanked the Assam government and its people for the ''tremendous support'' to her. Sonowal extended his best wishes to the filmmaker for the ''incredible success'' of her film and hoped that it would be able to win the Oscars in Best Foreign Language film category apart from highlighting the state's quintessential splendour in front of the global audience. Rima had on Thursday sought help from the government to promote her film for the award as at least Rs three crore is needed to campaign at the Oscars and to ensure that it makes it to the final nomination. Das said 'Village Rockstars' has travelled to 80 film festivals and has won 44 awards so far. It was screened in Toronto, Berlin, Cannes and Venice festivals. The film will be released pan India though PVR today with the premiere show held here last night. 'Village Rockstars' is the story about a poor girl aspiring to be a rockstar iand s set in her own village at Chayagaon near here. It has won four national awards, including the 'Swarna Kamal' for the best film. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russia's foreign minister trashed accusations of Russian meddling abroad as "baseless" and used the podium at the UN's biggest event to tear into US policies in Iran, Syria and Venezuela. He later declared that US-Russian relations "are bad and probably at their all-time low." In a rapid-fire, unforgiving speech Friday, pounded away at "self-serving" unilateral moves by US President Donald Trump, and assailed crippling Western sanctions against as "political blackmail." Lavrov deflected accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, a nerve agent attack in Britain and other meddling abroad despite mounting evidence of a broad, coordinated influence campaign. He criticized "baseless accusations of interference in the internal affairs of certain countries" and turned it around against the West, accusing unnamed forces of "overt endeavours to undermine democratically elected governments," in an apparent reference to US and EU support for Russia's neighbours and the Syrian opposition. Lavrov defended the where holds veto power on the Security Council as the only legitimate place to resolve issues and disputes. At a news conference later, he said US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held "quite constructive" meetings in Germany and Finland, but those responsible for implementing the agreements that were reached "are in no hurry to do that." Lavrov also cited the absence of any US- talks on important issues including counter-terrorism, cyber-security, strategic stability and major arms control agreements. "The time for the negotiations is ripe, or I would say overripe," he said. "The dialogue right now is in limbo." In his speech, Lavrov was particularly angry over US and EU sanctions over Russia's actions abroad, saying, "We see the desire of several Western nations to preserve their self-proclaimed status as world leaders ... and do not hesitate to use any methods including political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force." He defended the 2015 deal aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program, and said "we will do everything possible" to preserve it. Lavrov called Trump's decision to pull out of the deal part of a dangerous trend of unilateral measures that risk damaging the post-World War II world order. Lavrov lobbied for strengthening the instead of the go-it-alone doctrine that Trump laid out in his General Assembly speech earlier this week, slamming the U.N.'s central tenet of multilateralism from inside its halls. Russia is framing itself as a counterweight to U.S. power around the world, and Lavrov has been maneuvering in talks at the UN this week to shape the future of Syria, influence nonproliferation negotiations with North Korea and bolster Venezuela's embattled president. Lavrov met Friday with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem at the U.N. Russia is rebuilding trade and military ties with Syria as it looks to a postwar future. While tensions linger over the last rebel stronghold of Idlib, Russia is determined to keep Syria solidly anchored in its sphere of influence over the long term, as a foothold in the Middle East and as a warning to the U.S. and its allies against future interference. Russia's relations with the US are at a post-Cold War low, and many Russian policies are directly aimed at countering American influence. While Russian President Vladimir Putin skipped this year's U.N. gathering, Lavrov has made sure Russia's voice was heard, holding more than 20 meetings with world leaders and top diplomats this week. Among them: the presidents of Venezuela, Iran and Turkey, the chiefs of NATO, the U.N. and EU, and North Korea's foreign minister. Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra's (M&M) luxury electric vehicles brand Automobili Pininfarina Friday entered into a technical partnership with Croatia-based Rimac for battery, drivetrain expertise and hardware. As part of the pact, Rimac will supply high performance EV powertrain and battery technology for Automobili Pininfarina PF0 hypercar. "I am delighted to welcome Rimac as an important technology partner, and together we will ensure Automobili Pininfarina delivers on its promise to develop a range of beautiful, technically advanced, zero emissions, luxury cars befitting the Pininfarina brand," M&M Managing Director Pawan Goenka said in a statement. Commenting on the deal, Rimac Automobili Founder Mate Rimac said that by combining Rimac values technology, innovation and performance with the heritage, history and Italian design of Automobili Pininfarina makes a perfect synergy for an exciting new hypercar the PF0. "This partnership is a big milestone for both companies and we are looking forward to bringing this incredible machine to life together," he added. As Munich-based Automobili Pininfarina begins the countdown to deliver a luxury electric hypercar in 2020, it has strengthened its management team by appointing Christian Jung as Chief Technology Officer. It has also brought in Peter Tutzer as PF0 Senior Technical Advisor. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unidentified miscreants abducted a bank manager while he was returning home from office in Sheikhpura district, the police said on Friday. Jaivardhan (30) is posted as manager at a branch of the Bihar Kshetriya Grameen Bank in Kasaar village. The incident happened when he was returning home by his motorcycle at Mohanpur Baawan Khandha in Nalanda district from the bank's branch Thursday, Superintendent of Police Daya Shankar said. The bank manager used to commute the distance daily. The police are trying to rescue the bank manager, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh's 111th birth anniversary was observed at the Lahore High Court in Pakistan on Friday. The Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation held a ceremony in the Democratic Hall of the high court. Several lawyers gathered to mark Singh's birth anniversary and paid rich tributes to one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement. The gathering also passed two resolutions -- one seeking an apology from the British Queen to the people of the Indian subcontinent for hanging Singh, and the other, for issuing a commemorative coin and postage stamp in his memory. Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation chairman Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi said the Pakistan government should include the story of Singh in school curricula and award him the country's highest civilian award for his gallantry. Early this month, Lahore High Court Justice Shahid Jamil Khanon, on a petition of the foundation, ordered the Lahore deputy commissioner to decide on the pending matter of renaming the Shadman Chowk roundabout here after Bhagat Singh. Qureshi said the foundation has also requested the authorities to install Singh's statue at the place where he was hanged to inspire the people of Pakistan and the world. Singh, aged 23, was hanged along with his two comrades -- Rajguru and Sukhdev -- by the British rulers on March 23, 1931 in the erstwhile Lahore Jail, which stood at the spot where the roundabout was later built. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Punjab government organised a state level function to commemorate the 111th birth anniversary of legendary martyr Bhagat Singh at his native village Khatkar Kalan in the district on Friday. "The head of every Indian bows before the pious land of village Khatkar Kalan which gave birth to such great martyrs", said the Forests, Social Justice and Minorities Minister, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot. While paying floral tributes to the great martyrs who sacrificed their lives to attain freedom for the country, the minister gave a clarion call to all sections of the society, especially the youth, to come forward to start concerted efforts to materialise the dreams of the freedom fighters. Meanwhile, answering a query to the media persons, the minister said that in inquiry into the distribution of SC scholarships during the SAD-BJP rule, "misappropriation amounting to Rs 400 crore had surfaced" and the Congress government was committed to recover each and every penny of the amount from the errant educational institutions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP's Punjab unit Friday announced a state-wide agitation from October 2 against the Amarinder Singh government and accused it of failing on all fronts. There has been no development in Punjab and the law and order situation has deteriorated under the Congress government, state BJP president Shwait Malik alleged. "We will start an agitation with the slogan Congress Gaddi Chodo from October 2 against the Congress regime which has failed on all fronts. The agitation will start from Jalandhar," he told reporters here. Malik claimed that development works have witnessed a setback since the Congress came to power in Punjab. "The funds which were released during the previous SAD-BJP regime have been returned unspent. "This government is by the people, but it is certainly not for the people. It is only serving Congress workers and leaders," the Punjab BJP chief said. He alleged that the Congress government in Punjab has just been making excuses of inheriting an empty exchequer ever since it came to power in March 2017. The government had no intention to work for the welfare of the people, the BJP leader alleged, adding that there is no governance in the state. "The administration is run by the bureaucracy and the chief minister is completely missing. He (Amarinder Singh) neither goes to office nor meets people," he said. Malik, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, accused the Punjab government of failing to honour its poll promises. "Whatever promises the Congress had made before the (assembly) elections continue to remain unfulfilled. Farmers who were expecting a complete debt waiver are feeling cheated. "Youths are not getting jobs. Where is the Rs 50,000 Shagun scheme which was promised? Industry was promised power at Rs 5 per unit. But now the state's industry was being forced to pay Rs 10 per unit," he said. Malik also charged the state government with trying to vitiate the atmosphere under the garb of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents in order to divert attention from its "failures". "We demand that the real culprits involved in the sacrilege incidents, whichever party they belong to, must be arrested," he said. Taking on the state government on the issue of law and order, Malik alleged that the situation has deteriorated under the present dispensation. "At least four robbery incidents have been reported alone in Amritsar district in the past few days and police have failed to nab any of the accused," he said. The BJP leader demanded from the state government to take action against anti-social elements that are trying to disturb peace, harmony and brotherhood in the state. Malik also said his party's state unit had held its executive committee meeting here. In view of Lok Sabha elections next year, a campaign committee has been formed, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Tanushree Dutta has finally found support in her Bollywood colleagues with many of them admiring her for her courage, two days after she alleged that Nana Patekar harassed her on the sets of a film in 2008. In a recent TV interview, Dutta had said Patekar misbehaved with her on the sets of "Horn Ok Pleasss" 10 years ago. The actor also alleged that Patekar had the tacit support of the film's makers. In a lengthy Twitter post, journalist Janice Sequeira narrated her account of the incident, provoking many from the Hindi film industry to react to Tanushree's allegations. "This thread is very telling. @janiceseq85 was there at the time of the incident being debated today," Farhan Akhtar wrote late Thursday along side Sequeira's account of the incident. "Even when #TanushreeDutta had career concerns to keep quiet 10 years ago she did not and her story hasn't changed now. Her courage should be admired, not her intention questioned," he added. "Agreed... The world needs to #BelieveSurviviors," Priyanka Chopra commented on Farhan's post Friday. Parineeti Chopra said, "I agree too. Survivors are survivors because they have dealt with something horrible and come out on the other side. So believe them, respect them." Sonam K Ahuja said it was important for the industry to come together to support the victims and encourage them. "Many of my co-workers,female and male have been harassed and bullied, but it's their story to tell. If we don't encourage their voices and instead vilify and question them, how will victims ever become survivors? Let them speak up! Stand up with them," she tweeted. Konkona Sen Sharma tweeted, "We all know the reality of the power imbalance that exists in the workplace. Let us encourage these voices instead of shaming them so that others may have the strength to come forward." Sharing Sequeira's post director Anurag Kashyap said people should stop questioning the victim. "This should stop the questioning of intention of Tanushree Datta because there is a witness account of what happened and @janiceseq85 is as credible as the come... This should stop the speculation about the intention of the survivor," he wrote. Richa Chadha praised Dutta for being courageous enough to open up about the harassment she faced during her time in the films. "It hurts to be #TanushreeDutta. To be alone, questioned. No woman wants publicity that opens the floodgates of trolling and insensitivity.What happened to her on set was intimidation. Her only fault was she didn't back down-takes a special courage to be #TanushreeDutta" she wrote. Twinkle Khanna said a healthy working environment is a fundamental right. "Please read this thread before judging or shaming #TanushreeDutta a working environment without harassment and intimidation is a fundamental right and by speaking up this brave woman helps pave the way towards that very goal for all of us," she wrote. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta said he was proud of Tanushree but was "cynical" about the results. "Will this also die a natural death with no formal complaint, no proper investigation and no punitive action against the predator if he is found guilty? Honestly, I am cynical about the outcome. These offenders go scot free because our outrage is short-lived. #TanushreeDutta "We must stop asking 'what did you about it then' and start asking 'what can we do about it now'. It's now or never," he wrote. Actor Kunal Kapoor said, "Whether it's a man or a woman, just because someone is good at their work or charitable, doesn't mean they aren't capable of harassment." Stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, however, evaded a direct answer when asked about Dutta's claim. "My name is not Tanushree and my name is not Nana Patekar," Bachchan said when asked to react to Dutta's recent TV interview. Aamir said it would be unfair on his part to comment on the controversy without knowing the "veracity" or the "details" of the matter. "I don't think I can comment on it... But whenever something like this does happens it is really a sad thing. Now whether such thing has happened it is for people to investigate it," he said. Salman dodged the question saying he was not aware about the incident. "I am not aware of this dear let me know, let me understand what is happening. We will see. What is going on as I am not aware of what you are talking," he said. Taking a sly dig at Bachchan, writer Varun Grover tweeted, "Neither I am #TanushreeDutta nor #NanaPatekar but even a cursory knowledge of gender-based power-dynamics and ugliness of male behaviour in this world should inform us that she's telling the truth. Telling your stories is the way things will change. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britain's Boris Johnson on Friday unveiled his vision for Brexit as he urged Prime Minister Theresa May to pursue a "Super Canada" trade deal, sparking renewed infighting among ruling Conservatives ahead of their annual party conference. The former foreign secretary, who resigned from the government in July over the issue, described May's current proposals for the future relationship with the EU as a "moral and intellectual humiliation". Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Johnson outlined a six-point alternative plan, that would scrap a backstop agreement struck with the European Union last December on the contentious Irish border. He argued that adopting technology and making customs checks away from the frontier would prevent a return to a hard border -- a sticking point in negotiations and a key factor in May's proposal. The ardent Brexiteer called for Britain and the EU instead to negotiate a free trade agreement -- dubbed "Super Canada" -- mirroring the deal the bloc signed with Ottawa in 2016. It removed the vast majority of customs duties on exports crossing the Atlantic. He conceded that negotiating such an agreement, which would aim for mutual recognition of standards to keep goods moving and also include services, may require extending any Brexit transition period beyond 2020. "This is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and (to) do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit," Johnson wrote in the 4,500-word article. "We have the chance to get it right, and I am afraid that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail." His intervention ahead of the Conservative Party conference -- where he will address a fringe event on Tuesday -- prompted immediate Tory division. "Shame he didn't research the link between agreeing a solution that keeps the Irish border frictionless and the chances of agreeing withdrawal terms," former cabinet minister Nicky Morgan wrote on Twitter. "Or does he just not care?" In contrast, eurosceptic MP Bernard Jenkin called the plan "powerful" while Brexiteer colleague Nadine Dorries called Johnson "a man with a plan". The blueprint will increase pressure on embattled leader May as her divided party's gathering starts Sunday under the shadow of Brexit. She has proposed Britain follow EU rules in trade in goods after Brexit, to protect manufacturing supply lines and avoid the hard border between Northern Ireland, a British province, and EU member Ireland. The plan, forged in July at May's country retreat Chequers, has faced strong opposition in her Conservative party and criticism in Brussels, but she has repeatedly vowed to stick with it. Johnson reiterated Friday the proposal was a "democratic disaster" that would "cheat the electorate" and leave Britain "half in, half out" of Europe. Britain is set to leave the EU next March, with both sides agreeing that a provisional divorce deal, comprising assurances on the Irish border among other things, must be reached by mid-November. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The members of the BRICS grouping should speak with a stronger voice and not be divided among themselves on the critical issue of achieving the long-pending UN Security Council reform, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said. Addressing the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting here on Thursday, held on the margins of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, Swaraj said the five-member grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was started a decade ago to change the status quo in international organisations and correct distortions in multilateralism. A decade later, the call for multilateralism cannot and should not be for reinforcing this status quo but rather to change it, she said. "At a broader level, we need to develop greater understanding and convergence on issues of mutual concern in the coming years, if BRICS has to emerge stronger," Swaraj said. Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for "reformed multilateralism", Swaraj said the most significant unfinished agenda was the reform of the UN Security Council. "The discussions on the UNSC reform cannot be an exercise in perpetuity, while the legitimacy and credibility of the Security Council continues to get eroded. We, in BRICS should speak with a stronger voice rather than be divided amongst ourselves on this critical area of international governance," she said. With BRICS leaders giving a robust mandate on counter terrorism, Swaraj said there was a call for a BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy for joint-action with a focus on money laundering, terrorist-finance, cyberspace and de-radicalisation. "Dismantling terrorist outfits' support infrastructure would be the first step. Terror groups such as Lashkar e-Taiba, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Jaish e Muhammad, Taliban, and Haqqani Network are organised entities that thrive on State support," she said. Swaraj also urged that the BRICS nations must join hands to make United Nations' counter-terrorism mechanism efficient in listing terrorists and their outfits. "Implementation of FATF (Financial Action Task Force) standards, across all jurisdictions, will strengthen international efforts in addressing terrorism," she said. The meeting was attended by Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Aloysio Nunes Ferreira Filho, Russin Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu. Swaraj said while BRICS had taken several impressive strides in the last decade, there was still a need to further consolidate the bloc among the five nations and take it forward. She termed the establishment of the BRICS Credit Rating Agency as among the several unfinished agenda of the grouping. "We must continue to work together to fight unilateralism. BRICS countries have been contributing positively to global stability and growth. With strong continuing growth and demand, most of future consumer-demands will emanate from the emerging economies," she said. On strengthening people-to-people exchanges among the nations of the bloc, she said India hoped to hold the BRICS workshop on film technology and development. She also suggested that BRICS and India could explore possibilities of a joint cooperation in peacekeeping training at the Centre for UN Peacekeeping in New Delhi. "Peace building process, involving institutions and capacity building, should be nationally owned and rooted to ground realities while eliciting the participation of all relevant stakeholders," she said. On South-South Cooperation, she said, there was a need to work together to reflect BRICS' position in the international discourse, and ensure "we do not get drawn into the North-South template and accounting". Describing Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication as major challenges in today's world, Swaraj said the 2030 Agenda, with its overarching goal of poverty eradication and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals "is a matter of commitment for us to our people. Our aim is to achieve our development priorities in a sustainable manner by harnessing renewable energy and efficient use of resources". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Friday visited the house of slain party MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao in the agency area of the district and consoled his family members. Naidu arrived here this morning by a special flight and left for Paderu by a helicopter to meet the family members of Araku MLA Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma, who were gunned by Maoists at Lippitiputta village when they went to take part in a "grama darsini" (village visit) programme on September 23. Expressing his anguish over the incident, Naidu said there was no place for violence in democracy. He consoled the two sons of Rao and promised to help family members on all fronts. The chief minister said the government would provide a Group One job to one of Rao's sons and a plot for constructing a house in Visakhapatnam besides financial help of Rs five lakh each to all the four members of his family on behalf of the party. He also said the government will provide financial support of Rs one crore to the family. Naidu said Rao always strove hard for the development of agency areas. He would also visit the house of Soma in Arakuto to console his family members. Security was stepped up in the agency area in view of the chief minister's visit. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chemists across the country observed a day-long strike called by the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) to protest the Centre's move to regularise online pharmacies. Opposing the government's decision, the AIOCD stated that e-pharmacy poses a threat to their business and could lead to drug abuse. "Repeated appeals have been made by the AIOCD to the authorities and the departments concerned. The seriousness of the issue is evident through numerous cases of illegal online sale of medicines by so called e-pharmacies and online portals," Organising Secretary of AIOCD Sandeep Nangia said. "If the appeals do not get a positive response from the government, we will not have any other option than to call for a nationwide indefinite agitation," said Nangia, who is also the president of the Retail Distributors Chemists Association (RDCA). AIOCD members alleged that e-pharmacies would encourage irrational usage of medicines and sale of spurious drugs. "The government should crackdown on online sale of medicines as it raises the risk of drug abuse. At present, online pharmacy business is going on illegally and the government is not taking any action against it. Hence, we have no alternative than to go on a strike to protect the health of the public," AIOCD General Secretary Rajiv Singhal said. He, however, said AIOCD had asked some chemist shops near hospitals and clinics to stay open so that people do not face inconvenience. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China on Friday celebrated the 2,569th birthday of Confucius, the ancient educator and philosopher regarded as an icon of traditional Chinese culture. For thousands of years, Confucius' teachings and philosophy have greatly impacted people around the world and are still present in today's society. After decades of neglect, the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), which initially condemned him as feudal, began projecting him as an icon of ancient Chinese culture. Annual commemorations of Confucius' birth started in 478 BC, the year after his death. There are currently about 1,300 Confucius temples worldwide, many of which hold ceremonies on the anniversary of his birth. A ceremony was held in eastern China's Shandong Province on Friday to mark the 2,569th birthday of Confucius. The ceremony, held in the city of Qufu, Confucius' hometown, welcomed government officials, UNESCO officials, scholars, students and descendants of Confucius. More than 1,400 students and residents recited classic quotes from Lunyu, or the Analects, a collection of ideas and sayings from the Chinese philosopher, while ceremonial dances were performed at the Confucius Temple. Confucius (551-479 BC) founded Confucianism, a school of thought that deeply influenced later generations. He was also the first Chinese person to set up private schools and enrol students from all walks of life. He is believed to have been born on September 28. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed fears Friday that his country was seeking to overtake the United States as the pre-eminent world power, saying Beijing wants global harmony. Pointing to recent works of US scholars who say China is stepping up efforts for hegemony, Wang said: "I want to tell you very clearly that this is a serious strategic misjudgment." "It is a misguided anticipation that will be extremely detrimental to US interests and the future of the United States," Wang told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, where he was attending the UN General Assembly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China, which tightly controls the Internet, will hold the fifth World Internet Conference (WIC) in November which is expected to be attended by delegates from several countries and international organisations. The conference, scheduled to run from November 7-9, will be held in the river town of Wuzhen, eastern China's Zhejiang Province, Deputy Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, Liu Liehong said on Friday. This year's WIC is themed "creating a digital world for mutual trust and collective governance -- toward a community with a shared future in cyberspace", he told the media here. China tightly controls the internet with firewalls banning any content it deems politically and administratively challenging to the one-party state ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC). Global internet and social media outfits like Twitter, Facebook and Google are all banned in China. The conference has invited guests from governments, international organisations, companies, technology communities and non-governmental organisations, Liu said. "It will further enhance the establishment of an Internet development outlook characterised by mutual trust and collective governance among countries worldwide," Liu said. The conference will advocate exchanges, mutual learning, cooperation and sharing in the digital fields and push for peace and development of the global cyberspace, he added. A total of 19 sub-forums are scheduled, revolving around five themes of "innovation-driven development," "universal security," "openness and inclusiveness," "in pursuit of a better life" and "common prosperity." The sub-forums will cover topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and the digital Silk Road, according to Liu. Guests will contribute their views on how to create a peaceful, secure, open and cooperative cyberspace, as well as how to set up a multilateral, democratic and transparent global Internet governance system, state-run Xinhua agency reported. World Internet Development Report 2018 and China Internet Development Report 2018 will be released to showcase the latest academic research results in the Internet sector at home and abroad. The event is co-hosted by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the People's Government of Zhejiang Province. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An 18-year-old man was allegedly strangled to death with a cycle tube by some unidentified person here, police said Friday. Amit Yadav, a class 12 student and son of an employee of Banaras Hindu University, was found dead this morning at Sir Gobardhan area here, the police said. His neck was strangled with a cycle tube, they said. The body has been sent for post-mortem and a probe launched into the case, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Finance ministers of six states Friday decided to organise a chief ministers' conclave next month to evolve a consensus on financial issues concerning states across the country, the Delhi government said in a statement. It said the decision was taken at a meeting of a Group of Finance Ministers. The finance ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Kerala attended the meeting, while Karnataka FM joined it on video conferencing. The Puducherry chief minister and the Punjab finance minister participated via teleconferencing. According to the statement, West Bengal has also agreed to the proposal of chief ministers' conclave. "We discussed the discriminatory Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the 15th Finance Commission and other financial issues concerning federalism," the statement quoted Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as saying. Sisodia said the group of finance ministers also held preliminary discussions on GST revenue collection and futuristic revenue collections. "All these issues will form the agenda for the chief ministers' conclave and all CMs of India will be invited to this event," the deputy chief minister said. The focus will be on the "discriminatory" ToRs of the current Finance Commission, he said. The statement said the chief ministers' conclave will be organised in Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Commerce Minister said Friday a committee has been set up to identify unnecessary and unproductive that can be scrapped to push economic activities. The minister also said that although India has made significant progress in ease of doing business but it still has a long way to go. There is a need for scrapping unnecessary and unproductive which are coming in the way of India's capacity to become a $10 trillion economy, he said while addressing the annual session of PHD Chambers here. "A standing committee, chaired by the secretary in the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), has been set up to identify that may be scrapped," he said. The minister urged the industry chambers to identify such regulations at the earliest. Talking about promoting start-ups, he said venture capitals (VCs) should invest more in start-ups as they give maximum returns on investments. He said the government is taking several steps to remove bottlenecks for the growth of budding entrepreneurs in the country. "Start-ups can give maxmium returns on investments because the growth will be higher because they start from a low base. Therefore, it has huge potential to grow and therefore VCs will be benefited," he added. The minister said they would organise a meeting of regulators, start-ups and VCs in Goa in November to discuss issues of entrepreneurs. "We are trying to find out all the impediments to promote start-ups," he added. On January 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a slew of incentives to boost start-up businesses, offering them a tax holiday, inspector raj-free regime and capital gains tax exemption as part of the start-up action plan. A over 2,700-km cycle rally to New Delhi aimed at promoting the spirit of adventure and awareness was flagged off at the Madras Regimental Centre (MRC) in Wellington in nearby Nilgiris district Friday. The rally, held to commemorate Infantry Day on October 27, comprises 10 cyclists led by Captain Shubham Singh and would also undertake an awareness campaign on joining the Indian Army, Swachh Bharat and women empowerment, it said. Inaugurated by Brigadier SK Sangwan, Commandant MRC, the rally, under the aegis of Infantry Directorate, Army headquarters, would cover a distance of 2,741 km from Wellington to New Delhi over a period of 30 days, a press release said. The team would traverse through seven states and visit important places en route such as Mysuru, Bengaluru, Belgaum, Kolhapur, Satara, Pune, Mumbai, Surat, Vadodara, Udaipur, Ajmer and Jaipur, the release said. Such rallies are regularly undertaken by the Army in order to increase awareness in the areas and to project positive image of the Armed Forces to the general public. In addition, the rally is aimed at instilling a sense of adventure, camaraderie and espirit-de-corps amongst the participants, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have walked out of a hearing on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Kamala Harris of California, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island left after the GOP chairman set a vote on the nomination for 1:30 p.m. Friday. That was approved by a committee vote. Democrats say Republicans are rushing the confirmation. Republicans have blocked Democratic efforts to subpoena a high school friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh who's been described as a witness to an alleged assault involving Kavanaugh about three decades ago. The Senate Judiciary Committee's vote to subpoena Mark Judge has been defeated in a party-line vote, with all 11 Republicans on the panel voting against the motion and all 10 Democrats voting for it. Democrats say Judge has never been interviewed by the FBI or questioned by a member of the committee, and that committee has a responsibility to subpoena Judge before it votes on whether to recommend Kavanaugh to the full Senate. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. The committee chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, has read a statement from Judge that says he doesn't recall the events described by Kavanaugh's accuser and "never saw Brett act" in the way that he's accused of. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Outgoing BSF DG K K Sharma Friday said the border guarding force is deploying "foolproof" smart technology tools to plug vulnerable gaps along India's borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh to check infiltration by illegal migrants, criminals and terrorists. The Border Security Force (BSF) chief said they had been successful in "containing" the influx of Rohingya Muslims into India, after they fled Myanmar in large numbers. "We have successfully contained the influx of Rohingya into India. I am happy to say that we have not allowed Rohingya into India," Sharma told reporters here. "Also, we are deploying smart and foolproof technology solutions to plug gaps along the two borders that we guard." While the first such "smart fence" pilot project was inaugurated by Home Minister Rajnath Singh along the Indo-Pak border in Jammu sometime ago, a similar project along the India-Bangladesh border in Assam's Dhubri is expected to be launched by the end of this year. Asked to comment on his recent statement that West Bengal was "slightly friendly" to the Rohingya people and had set up special camps for about 70 such families, the DG said, "It was a statement of fact." "I will not like to say anything more as I don't want to create any fresh controversy," the BSF Director General (DG) added. He also said he has "nothing to hide" when he was asked about his presence at an event of the RSS-backed organisation Seema Jagran Manch in Kolkata early this year. "They (the organisation) are doing civic action in the border areas. If any NGO seeks our help or seeks information as to what we do on border, we inform them. I did it openly in uniform and I was not hiding. I told them what we do and we did it in public view," Sharma said. "Is there a ban on it?" he asked. He added that incidents of illegal migrants crossing over to India from the land border has gone down to a large extent. "It is not easy at all. We dominate the borders," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dissent is a symbol of "vibrant democracy" and the voices in opposition cannot be "muzzled" by persecuting those who take up unpopular causes, Justice D Y Chandrachud of the Supreme Court said Friday in his dissenting judgement in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case. Justice Chandrachud, writing a separate minority verdict in which he disagreed with the views of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar, said that individuals asserting causes which might be unpopular to the echelons of power were entitled to the freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution. He made it clear, however, that when expression of dissent enters the "prohibited field" of incitement to violence or subversion of a democratically elected government by recourse to unlawful means, the dissent "ceases to be a mere expression of opinion". The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists by the Maharashtra Police in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint a SIT to probe their arrest. Observing that a special investigating team (SIT) must be appointed to conduct probe in the case, Justice Chandrachud said that court acts as a "watchdog" to ensure impartial and fair investigation as it was crucial for preservation of rule of law and liberty. Terming as "serious" the allegations levelled by the Pune Police that arrested the accused were plotting to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Justice Chandrachud said this aspect required "responsible attention" and it cannot be "bandied" about by the police officers in media briefings. "Dissent is a symbol of a vibrant democracy. Voices in opposition cannot be muzzled by persecuting those who take up unpopular causes. Where, however, the expression of dissent enters upon the prohibited field of an incitement to violence or the subversion of a democratically elected government by recourse to unlawful means, the dissent ceases to be a mere expression of opinion," he said in his 43-page verdict. He further said, "Unlawful activities which violate the law have to be dealt with in accordance with it". He noted that purpose of directions given by him in the verdict was to ensure that basic entitlement of every citizen, facing allegations of criminal wrongdoing, was that the investigative process should be fair. "This is an integral component of the guarantee against arbitrariness under Article 14 (equality before law) and of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21. If this court were not to stand by the principles which we have formulated, we may witness a soulful requiem to liberty," he said. Justice Chandrachud observed that there cannot be any doubt that deprivation of human rights seriously impinges upon dignity of individual for which even compensation may not constitute an adequate recompense. "The role of the Court involves particularly sensitive balances when the state seeks to curb freedom to investigate perceived breaches involving offences against the state," he said. He also said that court has to be vigilant in exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 32 to ensure that "liberty is not sacrificed at the altar of conjectures". Justice Chandrachud strongly deprecated the conduct of Pune Police in utilising electronic media to cast aspersions on those under investigation and observed that this fortified the need for an investigation which was fair. He referred to media statements by the Joint Commissioner of Police and the Additional Director General of Police and said they had cast aspersions in media against persons whose conduct was still under investigation and in "disregard of proceedings pending before a judicial forum". He said: "It is the duty and obligation of this court to ensure that the administration of criminal justice is not derailed". "The manner in which the Joint Commissioner of Police and the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Maharashtra have selectively disclosed purported details of the investigation to the media and on television channels casts a cloud on the impartiality of the investigative process," he said. He termed as "disconcerting" the behaviour of the Joint Commissioner of Police in holding a press conference hours after conclusion of hearing before the apex court and proclaiming that police had more than sufficient evidence against arrested individual - Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha. Justice Chandrachud noted that use of electronic media by investigating arm of the state to "influence public opinion" during pendency of probe subverts fairness of investigation as police was not "adjudicators nor do they pronounce upon guilt". He said the move by petitioners in the case to initiate proceedings under Article 32 before it was "not motivated by extraneous reasons". Justice Chandrachud dealt with the allegations levelled by the police that the five arrested accused were found to be working for and to be an active member of "banned terrorist organisation" the Communist Party of India (Maoist). "I find that the allegation that each of the five individuals arrested on August 28, 2018 is found to be engaged in activities of the nature set out in paragraph 26 of the counter affidavit (extracted above) is taking liberties with the truth," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The DMK Friday moved the Madras High Court seeking a direction for granting permission for its proposed state-wide public meetings on October 3 and 4 to highlight alleged corruption in the AIADMK government, after police turned down their requests. DMK organising secretary R S Bharathi, in his petition, submitted that police officials had rejected the applications filed by all respective district and town secretaries seeking permission for holding the meetings across the state in the notified places seeking adequate police protection. He contended that all the applications were rejected citing "unsustainable and untenable" identical reasons. The petitioner further said there should have been common instructions to reject the requests. Hence, he sought a direction to the police to permit the party to conduct the public meetings as per the notification issued by the DMK headquarters. Earlier, senior counsel P Wilson made a mention before Justice R Mahadevan for urgent hearing of the matter. The judge directed the counsel to file the petition and serve papers to the counsel on the government side so that it can be taken up for hearing. Wilson submitted that the DMK, the main opposition party with 88 MLAs in the state assembly, had taken a decision to organise the meetings throughout the state under the title "Commission-Collection Corruption" against the AIADMK government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized exotic birds smuggled into India from Bangladesh at Kolkata airport, according to an official statement. Acting on intelligence, the officials intercepted a consignment at air cargo, Kolkata airport, which was to be transported to Hyderabad Thursday, it said. The consignment, containing 38 exotic birds badly cramped in four narrow cages, was off loaded from the flight, the DRI said in the statement. On inspection, the live exotic birds were identified as Java Sparrow, Star Finches, Golden Finches, Cockatiel and Aracari, it said. All the birds have been handed over to Kolkata Zoo authority for safe custody. "All these birds are of foreign origin," the DRI said. Aracari is mostly found in South American continent and is a kind of Toucan, while the Finches and Cockatiel are Australian in origin. The Java Sparrow as the name suggests is Indonesian in origin. "All these birds appear to have been illegally imported into India without declaration or through illicit routes making their import into India liable to confiscation," the probe agency said. In another case, the DRI in a joint operation with Tripura Police conducted a search operation Thursday at two separate locations under Sonamura and Kalamcherra police stations of Sepahijala district of Tripura and recovered 1,400 Kg of cannabis stored in plastic vats hidden underground. The operation ran into almost 20 hours and heavy earth movers had to be used in the operation. The plastic vats containing high quality cannabis were hidden about 10 to 12 feet under the earth in the hilly tracts of the area, and large plots of open land had to be dug up for the detection and recovery, the DRI said. The market value of the seized cannabis is Rs 1.5 crore, it said. "Organized cultivation and harvesting of ganja for commercial purpose in Tripura is seen to be a new trend and DRI is closely monitoring the development in the Eastern sector in partnership with Tripura Police and other enforcement agencies and paramilitary forces," the agency said. It has been observed that cultivation of ganja is taking place in the hilly tracts and jungles of Tripura under the thick foliage of rubber plantations, the agency said. Often business persons obtain lease of land and government sanction for cultivation of rubber plants and misuse bank loans by concentrating more on cultivation of ganja contrary to the government approval and to what bank loans were intended for, the DRI said. This is the fourth successful operation with Tripura Police in the last eight weeks where ganja has been seized. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) will provide free travelling facility to the elderly in its buses on the occasion of Senior Citizens Day on October 1, a spokesperson of the public transporter said. A senior citizen have to produce statuary documents to avail the facility, he said. The documents include passport, school certificate, driving license, pension book, radiological report, birth certificate, PAN card or Aadhaar card to the bus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice President Venkaiah Naidu Friday said that "English mind" is an illness, and not the language, and stated the country should be proud of its rich eritage. Naidu's statement came in the backdrop of certain comments attributed to him. Some section of the media had quoted Naidu as saying "English is an illness left behind by the British" during a Hindi Day event held in New Delhi early this month. "Somewhere I was speaking about protecting and encouraging the mother tongue and some section of the media wrote that I said English is (an) illness, I did not say nglish is (an) illness. "English is not (an) illness, but English mind is (an) illness which we have inherited from the Britishers," he said. Naidu said addressing the fourth convocation of the National Institute of Technology Goa (NIT Goa) here. "Britishers have left but they have created an inferiority complex. They have given the thought that Britishers are great, foreigners are great and we are nothing. "We must come out of this mentality. We must feel proud of our heritage, our past and our great leaders of this country," the vice president added. Naidu recalled that India never attacked any country, but it was "ruined" by invaders. "They (invaders) ruled us, they ruined us. Not only they ruined us economically, they ruined us mentally also. Some of the people are suffering from that disease," he said. The vice president insisted that Indians must get back to its roots. "Wherever you go please do not forget your obligation towards the society and the nation. If you make contribution to the part of the society with the sense of responsibility you will always be remembered," he advised the graduating students. Naidu also advised them to preserve India's culture and respect nature. "Preserving culture is important. Respecting nature is also very important. Share and care is the core of Indian philosophy and we should preserve that philosophy. Let us give up the colonial mindset. Naidu said as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha he has implemented "small" changes in the Upper House. "Let us give up the colonial minds. I have done some small-small changes in the Rajya Sabha. When any minister wanted to lay paper on the table they used to say 'I beg to table'. I said begging whom. I said we should say 'I submit a paper or lay on the table'. "We say good morning, good afternoon, good evening. I have no problem. We say good morning or good afternoon even if it is good or bad. The way is to say 'namaskar'. Namaskar is our 'sanskar' (values). The very gesture of 'namaskar' comes from heart," he said. Naidu said members of a family should try to converse in their mother tongue. "Remember your mother and father who gave you birth. Remember your native place. Remember your mother tongue. "We have beautiful languages. We should always respect them. Try to converse within the family, society in mother tongue," he added. The vice president said there is nothing wrong in learning English or any other foreign language. "You can learn as many languages as you want. You can learn Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, there is nothing wrong. We should discuss and debate in our mother tongue. "I have allowed 22 languages, including Konkani (a prominent language of Goa) in the Rajya Sabha," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The European Union says it's offering an extra 40 million euros (USD 46 million) to the UN Palestinian refugee agency to help educate children and provide health care in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The EU move announced Friday is intended to help fill a USD 217 million budget short-fall left after the United States effectively ended its USD 350 million contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The deficit led to the elimination of 113 jobs and 584 staff positions being converted to part-time. UNWRA's Gaza employees went on strike Monday to protest pay cuts and dismissals. The agency serves millions of Palestinians who fled or were forced from homes in the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, and their descendants. Israel accuses UNWRA of perpetuating the refugee crisis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The family of a British teenager who died from an allergic reaction to a sandwich called Friday for a change in the law on food labelling, as an inquest into her death ended. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, who suffered from numerous allergies, went into cardiac arrest on a 2016 flight from London to Nice after eating a baguette containing sesame seeds from sandwich chain Pret A Manger. There was no allergen information on the packaging or the store's food display cabinet, but this is not required by British law. A coroner concluded the teen had been "reassured by that" and said he would advise the government on whether food labelling regulations should be tightened. Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, the victim's father, said the inquest "should serve as a watershed moment to make meaningful change to save lives". "If Pret A Manger were following the law, then the law was playing Russian Roulette with our daughter's life," he said in a family statement. "It's clear that the food labelling laws as they stand today are not fit for purpose and it is now time to change the law." Natasha Ednan-Laperouse had the fatal reaction aboard a British Airways plane in July 2016 after buying the baguette, which had sesame seeds inside its dough, from a Pret outlet at London Heathrow airport. At the time, the company relied on stickers on food display units highlighting that allergy information was available by asking staff or visiting its website. During the hearing it emerged the chain had received a "specific warning" the previous year about the dangers of not signposting the allergen after multiple sesame-related incidents. "Overall I am left with the impression that Pret had not addressed the fact that monitoring food allergy in a business selling more than 200 million items a year was something to be taken very seriously indeed," Cummings said. Clive Schlee, chief executive of the chain which has more than 500 stores including in Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai and several US cities, said it was "deeply sorry for Natasha's death". "All of us at Pret want to see meaningful change come from this tragedy. We will make sure that it does," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Women who receive fewer daylight hours during late pregnancy may have a greater risk of developing depression once their babies are born, a study led by an Indian-origin scientist has found. The results, published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, are consistent with what is known about the relationship between exposure to natural light and depression among adults in the general population. The findings by Deepika Goyal of San Jose State University in the US and her colleagues could lead clinicians to encourage at-risk women to increase their exposure to natural daylight and vitamin D. Researchers analysed available information from 293 women who participated in one of two randomised controlled clinical trials about sleep before and after pregnancy. The participants were all first-time mothers from the US state of California. Data included the amount of daylight during the final trimester of their pregnancy, along with information about known risk factors such as a history of depression, the woman's age, her socioeconomic status and how much she slept. Overall, the participants had a 30 per cent risk of depression. The analysis suggested that the number of daylight hours a woman was exposed to during her final month of pregnancy and just after birth had a major influence on the likelihood that she developed depressive symptoms. The lowest risk for depression (26 per cent) occurred among women whose final trimester coincided with seasons with longer daylight hours. Depression scores were highest (35 per cent) among women whose final trimester coincided with "short" days and the symptoms continued to be more severe following the birth of their babies in this group of women. In the northern hemisphere, this time-frame refers to the months of August to the first four days of November (late summer to early autumn). "Among first-time mothers, the length of day in the third trimester, specifically day lengths that are shortening compared to day lengths that are short, long or lengthening, were associated with concurrent depressive symptom severity," Goyal said. The findings by Goyal and her colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco suggest that using light treatment in the late third trimester when seasonal day length is shortening could minimise postpartum depressive symptoms in high-risk mothers during the first three months of their children's lives. Goyal said that women with a history of mental health problems and those who are already experiencing depressive symptoms in the third trimester might further benefit from being outdoors when possible, or using devices such as light boxes that provide light therapy. "Women should be encouraged to get frequent exposure to daylight throughout their pregnancies to enhance their vitamin D levels and to suppress the hormone melatonin," said Goyal. "Daily walks during daylight hours may be more effective in improving mood than walking inside a shopping mall or using a treadmill in a gym. "Likewise, early morning or late evening walks may be relaxing but would be less effective in increasing vitamin D exposure or suppressing melatonin," said Goyal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Friday denied anticipatory bail to the in-laws of a flight attendant, who had allegedly committed suicide in the national capital in July. Justice Mukta Gupta dismissed the anticipatory bail pleas of the woman's parents-in-law, noting that from the documents on record, including the supplementary statement of the victim's father, WhatsApp messages and email, the continuous course of harassment and torture to her was evident. The court's order came on the pleas by Sushma Singhvi and R S Singhvi, parents of Mayank Singhvi, who was in judicial custody in the death case of his wife Anissia Batra (39). The high court said the victim's email to her lawyer narrated the participation and support extended by her in-laws to their son in the harassment. "Further as noted from the supplementary statement of the father of the deceased there was clear demand of Rs 10 lakh. Hence this court does not find it to be fit case to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioners (in-laws)," the judge said. A trial court had on July 20 refused to grant protection from arrest to Mayank's parents after the lawyer for the woman's parents submitted that the allegations against them were serious. Anissia, who was working with a German airline, had allegedly jumped from the terrace of her house in Panchsheel Park in South Delhi on July 13 and Mayank had taken her to a nearby hospital, where she was declared brought dead by doctors. Her family has alleged that her husband used to physically abuse her and often demand money. The family has claimed before the trial court that it was not a suicide, but murder. On the other hand, Mayank's parents sought anticipatory bail claiming they had no role in the matter and any dispute between their son and daughter-in-law was their internal matter. Mayank, who was married to Anissia for over two years, was arrested on July 16. Before jumping off the terrace, she had sent a message to her husband that she would kill herself, police had said earlier. The husband, a software engineer in Gurgaon, had told the police that they had regular fights due to "compatibility issues". They had an argument on the day of the incident as well, following which she jumped from the terrace, police had said. The victim's family had also given a complaint to police on June 27 saying that if anything happens to their daughter, Mayank would be responsible, police had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pune Police chief K Venkatesham Friday expressed happiness over the Supreme Court judgement on the arrest of five activists for alleged Maoist links and said they will continue to "professionally" investigate the case. The apex court Friday refused to interfere with their arrest and declined to appoint a special investigation team (SIT) to probe their arrest. After multi-city raids, the Pune Police had arrested five rights activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- in August. They were arrested on August 28 in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave -- 'Elgaar Parishad' -- held on December 31 last year that, the police said, had later triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village near here. Venkatesham said they are happy with the apex court judgement. "I congratulate the investigation officer and his team for carrying out the professional investigation which was recognised by the Supreme Court today and we will continue to investigate the case in a professional way," said the police commissioner. He said after four weeks, the Pune Police will seek the custody of the accused (who will remain under house arrest for four more weeks) but in the meantime the investigation in the case will go on. Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shivaji Bodkhe said the investigation carried out in the case so far was within the framework of law and conducted in a professional manner. "I am happy that today the court recognised the investigation and evidences collected by the investigating officer," Bodkhe said. The Pune Police have been maintaining that right from searching the premises of the five activists and collecting the evidence, everything was videographed. The SC verdict said arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist) organisation. It disagreed with the PIL by historian Romila Thapar and others seeking the immediate release of the activists. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An entrepreneur by profession, Jay Patel never thought that he would be acting one day. Patel says he became an actor by "accident" and he never contemplated it as he was happy in his work space. "It was very accidental. I was hanging out with my friends Tigmanshu Dhulia and Rahul Mittra in Gujarat seven or eight years ago when he was shooting for 'Sahib Biwi aur Gangster' and during that time I just told him that I want to be part of a film. "It was like every Indian kid who has watched a lot of movies and wishes to be a part of them. I just said in a casual way and was not serious," Patel told PTI in an interview. The budding actor will be seen in Tigmanshu Dhulia's next "Milan Talkies" and alongside Sanjay Dutt in thriller "Torbaaz". He is also part of remake of 2010 Telugu hit "Prasthanam" where he is playing a hardcore politician. He says that out of nowhere Dhulia called him up, saying he has a role for him in one of his films. "I was in New York and one day he called me and said 'Jay you got to come down to Mumbai and I have a role for you'. I told him no because I was just kidding. I told him that I'm a business guy and that I enjoy my entrepreneurship. But he convinced me," Patel adds. He plays an NRI producer in "Milan Talkies", which also features Ali Fazal, Sanjay Mishra and Ashutosh Rana. The actor soon found his second project, "Torbaaz" alongside Dutt, and he says it was a learning experience for him. "It was an awesome experience because it was the first time for me and he (Dutt) really taught me so many things. He treated me like a younger brother. He has got a a lot of experience and knows so much about the film industry. He was amazing and it was a really nice experience to share screen space with him." Patel said Dutt gave him a pep talk when he was starting the project. "He (Dutt) has made a lot of mistakes in his life and got through really rough times. He told me whatever mistakes he made, no one should repeat them. The other thing he said was 'Whatever challenges may come, one should always fight them'." Patel, however, insists that he will not be getting into full-time acting as his ultimate goal is to produce films. "I don't think I'm going do more movies because my motive is not to act. I just want to understand how the industry works because at the end of the day I'm a businessman and so I will produce films. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Here are todays biggest stories. Trump went off on French president during face-to-face meeting US President Donald Trump was ranting and venting on trade to French President Emmanuel Macron during their bilateral meeting Monday evening, according to a senior diplomatic source. Trump says China is interfering in midterm elections President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that China is working to interfere in Novembers midterm elections with the aim of damaging him politically. Rape of seven-year-old in South African restaurant sparks outrage over sexual violence A seven-year-old girl was raped in the restroom of a popular family restaurant, a South African police spokesman told CNN. Google grilled over Project Dragonfly at Senate hearing on data privacy But thats about all a Google executive was willing to divulge Wednesday about the codenamed plan, which has been widely reported to be a search product the company is developing for China one that would need to comply with government censorship. What will Versace look like under Michael Kors? Written by Samantha Tse, CNN Samantha Tse is an experienced fashion writer and editor. Her work has been published in several international publications including T Magazine, Womens Wear Daily, CNN Style, Allure and Disegno. Seal attacks kayaker with octopus Well, that was a slap in the face. Scientists may have uncovered an entire new whale species Scientists believe a fossil found at a landfill in California belongs to an extinct species of whale that lived between 4 and 7 million years ago. Adultery no longer a crime in India Indias top court has ruled adultery is no longer a criminal offence. The Supreme Court overturned a 158-year-old law which said any man who had sex with a married woman, without the permission of her husband, was guilty of the criminal act of adultery. Kavanaugh accuser: Attack altered my life The first of three woman to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct has said the assault drastically altered her life. Prof Christine Blasey Fords written testimony describes how the alleged incident between her and the judge has had a lasting impact on her. Trump: US not getting along with Canada Donald Trump has said he turned down a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, putting a damper on high hopes for trade renegotiations. Mr Trumps comments were made as Nafta talks continue to drag on. I must be honest with you, were not getting along at all with their negotiators, he said at a United Nations news conference in New York. Pussy Riots Verzilov poisoned by Russia Pussy Riot member Pyotr Verzilov, who is believed to have been poisoned, has laid the blame squarely on Russias intelligence services. The poisoning was carried out so professionally that no other conclusion is possible, the activist said. He fell ill after a court hearing, losing his sight and ability to speak. Trump Repeats Lie That Women Who Accused Him Of Sexual Misconduct Were Paid A Lot In a rare solo news conference with reporters after a third woman came out on Wednesday to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, President Donald Trump repeated the lie that the women who accused the president himself of misconduct were paid to do so. Michael Avenatti Is Thoroughly Enjoying Living Rent-Free In Trumps Head Michael Avenatti said he is thoroughly enjoying living rent-free in Donald Trumps head after the president attacked him as a lowlife on Tuesday. For Donald Trump to call me a lowlife, he knows nothing about me, knows nothing about the last 20 years of my practice, Avenatti told MSNBCs Ari Melber. Spooky Skull-Like Death Comet To Zip Past Earth Just After Halloween Theres a different kind of Halloween sequel in the works, and its coming soon to the skies near Earth. A skull-like asteroid that passed Earth in October 2015 is coming back for another visit in early November. Officially named 2015 TB145, the asteroid has been called The Great Pumpkin by NASA because of its Halloween flyby three years ago. Childish Gambino Postpones Tour After Suffering Foot Injury NEW YORK (AP) Childish Gambino is postponing his tour to recover after he injured his foot. Live Nation says the performers This Is America Tour will resume on Dec. 2 in Nashville, Tennessee. The tour promoter says tickets for the rescheduled shows will be honored at the new dates. Colbert Just Hit Trump With A Bonkers New 2020 Campaign Slogan Stephen Colbert thinks one thing came out of President Donald Trump s wild Wednesday news conference. Trump, he said, may have accidentally come up with his new 2020 campaign slogan. The president attacked the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, claiming they were all paid to do so. Facebook allows advertisers to target you based on your shadow profile So, youve restricted the information advertisers can see on your Facebook profile, but youre still getting served near-perfect ads? It could be down to your shadow profile. At some stage you mightve given your phone number to Facebook for two-factor authentication, or a friend may have given your email away in the contact importer, in an attempt to find friends on the platform. The blood boy clinic is coming to NYC so rich people can live forever The way Dr. Jesse Karmazin sees it, New York City needs some fresh blood. Its been over a year since we last heard from the physician behind Ambrosia LLC, the company hoping to reverse aging by pumping adults with the blood plasma of the young, but dont think for a second that Karmazins been sitting still. Yes, the LG V40 really has five cameras Its official: LGs upcoming flagship smartphone, the LG V40, has three cameras on the back and two on the front. Though the official announcement of the phone is due Oct. 3, the company revealed some details about the phone including photos and a video on its Korean website. 5 wildest moments from Trumps press conference President Donald Trump gave a rare press conference on Wednesday, and it was bonkers? After a day filled with meetings at the United Nations General Assembly, Trump talked to reporters for over an hour, facing questions on everything from trade policy to his embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. India and Nepal have agreed to explore the possibilities of lying pipelines for supply of liquified petroleum gas and natural gas to fertilizer plants and industries in the land-locked Himalayan nation, India's Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Friday. Pradhan arrived here on Friday on a two-day visit and held discussions with various authorities and other dignitries. "Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) will work together on these projects," Pradhan told reporters after the conclusion of a bilateral meeting with Nepal's Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supply Matrika Prasad Yadav. During the meeting both the leaders comprehensively reviewed the bilateral energy cooperation and agreed to complete pipeline work from Motihari in India (Bihar) to Amlekhgunj in Nepal at the earliest. In 2015, the two governments had signed an agreement to lay a 69-km Motihari-Amlekhganj. Nepal is now seeking extension of the natural gas and LPG pipelines along the same route. India is currently building the oil pipeline between Motihari and Amlekhgunj that will ensure smooth, cost-effective and environment-friendly supply of petroleum products to Nepal. So far, a 17-km stretch of the 36.2-km section of the pipeline, which lies on the Nepal side, has been over, according to the NOC. The gas pipeline will result in savings of around Rs2 billion annually for Nepal by eliminating tanker trucks. Diesel and cooking gas accounted for 80 percent of the total fuel import bill of Rs 170 billion last fiscal, the Kathmandu Post reported. Earlier, Pradhan called on Nepal's acting Prime Minister Ishwor Pokharel and discussed progress of the petroleum products pipeline and other oil and gas projects being carried out by India. He also met Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and discussed bilateral issues. Pradhan also met Nepal's Minister for Education, Science and Technology Girirajmani Pokhrael and discussed areas of cooperation in Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. He also paid a courtesy call to President Bidya Devi Bhandari. The Minister visited famous Hindu shrine Pashupatinath and offered prayers in the evening. On Saturday, he will visit Janakpur and worship at the historic Janaki temple. "He will also visit the site identified for proposed Skill Development Centre in Dhanushadham," Indian embassy sources said. Before wrapping up his visit, Pradhan is scheduled to visit Amlekhganj to see the progress made in the Motihari-Amlekhganj oil pipeline project. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Ministry of Electronics and IT Friday signed an agreement with Uzbekistan's Tashkent University to collaborate in the IT sector. "A declaration of intent was signed between the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) and Tashkent University today for deepening our cooperation in the field of capacity building in the field of information technology," Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. The agreement was signed at a meeting between Meity Official led by Prasad and Uzbek delegation led by IT Minister of Uzbekistan Shuhrat Sadikov. IT services arm of government, NIC signed agreement with Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications Uzbekistan for greater cooperation in the field of eGovernance. "India also agreed for extending technical support and consultancy services of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) for setting up a Techno-Park in Uzbekistan," Prasad said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Indian-origin Singaporeans, named among nine nominated members of parliament, aim to expand their social and labour work during their tenure in the House. The nine were selected from 48 members nominated by the public because of their community services. They will serve half of the parliament's five-year term. Abbas Ali Mohamed Irshad, 29, has been involved in social activities since his student days. He hopes to encourage the youth to get involved in and honour the values and efforts of Singapore's leaders. "Our founding fathers have put in a lot of effort building what we have. We cannot take peace, prosperity and progress for granted," Irshad was quoted by Tabla!, a Friday weekly on the Indian society in Singapore. The Tamil-speaking leader feels political apathy is an issue facing the youth of Singapore. He wants to address issues like job mismatch and rising costs of living. Irshad will represent various communities youth, Indians, Muslims, Tamils and Singaporeans at large - in parliament, reported Tabla! Unionist Arasu Duraisamy, 50, advocates re-skilling workers. "I fully understand the need for our workers to be trained [to] keep up with the changes in the industry," said the general secretary of Singapore Port Workers' Union. He has served the union for 25 years and plans to gather feedback from sections of labour movement in Singapore. "We can do more do educate and raise awareness about how tripartism at the sectoral and middle-management levels can be a valuable one," said Arasu. President Halimah Yacob presented the instruments of appointment to the nine nominated members of parliament during a ceremony Thursday. The members will be sworn-in next week. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An inquiry has been initiated into the breach of a part of the wall of the Mutha Right-bank Canal, Maharashtra Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Girish Mahajan said Friday. The wall breach, which happened Thursday afternoon, had inundated nearby areas and affected over 200 families living in the slums near Dandekar Bridge, Pune Municipal Corporation officials had said. The canal carries water from the Khadakwasla Dam near Pune to Indapur and Daund tehsils and also to some parts of the city. Mahajan Friday said that the inquiry committee would be headed by T N Munde, chief engineer, water resources, and would submit its report in two to three days. Mahajan said Irrigation department officials had told him that rats and other rodents possibly weakened the wall's foundation by burrowing beneath it. The minister added that encroachments along the canal were also affecting the safety of the structure. "We will have to take stringent steps to remove the encroachments along the canal. The Pune Municipal Corporation should help in removing them," he said, adding that there were plans to take the canal underground. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The true test of a robust democracy is the independence of its media, Indian Newspaper Society (INS) president Akila Urankar said Friday, expressing concern over the rising cases of violence against journalists across the country. Speaking at the 79th Annual General Meeting of the INS, Urankar urged the central government to sternly deal with those involved in attacks on media and provide protection to journalists to ensure free and fair reporting. At the same time, she said India's "vibrant media" remains the most free in South Asia. "However, of late there has been an increase in the number of attacks and murders of journalists, besides defamation cases against media have also gathered momentum as well," said the president of INS, an apex organisation of the print media industry. "I call upon the government to sternly deal with such situations and ensure security and protection to the press and thereby ensure free and fair reporting," she said. Urankar said as president of the INS she has taken up a range of issues such as tender advertisements, updating of readership profile, FDI in digital media companies and Print Media Advertisement Policy with the government. She said the print industry in India continued its growth story, despite its decline in other developed economies, with increasing circulation and readership making the largest market globally. This development, she said, is seen primarily in more vernacular consumption than for the English language with publishers focusing specially on local needs. However, she pointed out that in the year gone by, the profit margins of newspapers across the country have eroded due to declining growth of advertising revenues, stiff competition from other media, a steep increase in the cost of newsprint and introduction of GST at five per cent on the advertising revenues of the print industry. "The print industry is facing headwinds with increasing newsprint prices which is because of the increasing raw material cost and China imposing a ban on import of paper waste, in its campaign against environmental pollution and hence has become a net importer. Publishers have seen a spike of 40 to 50 per cent and scarcity and price increase poses a major challenge to the industry," she said. Stressing on the urgent need for innovation and transitioning to the needs of the younger generations to continue staying relevant, Urankar said that the Society has taken up the matter where the government had done away with the need for publishing tender notices in newspapers and replaced it with mandatory e-publishing of advertisements on Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP). "Vide an Advisory dated June 14, 2018, it has been stated that the administrative ministries/departments are free to decide on the advertisement of the tender notices in newspapers based on the merit of the case, and the earlier Advisory issued by BOC stand withdrawn," she said. She also said that the matter of interim hike in DAVP advertisement rates has been taken up with the ministry of Information and Broadcasting and it has been impressed upon that with sharp escalation in input costs, a rate hike is "justified." "I am pleased to inform that a New Rate Structure Committee has been formed and the recommendations and award should follow in the coming months. The Society has voiced its concerns to the Ministry of I & B in respect of the provisions in the Print Media Advertising Policy of the Government of India 2016 regarding furnishing ABC/RNI certificates for 45,000 copies and above is not reasonable," she said. She also appealed to the government to do away with constituting the wage board mechanism for determination of wages for journalists and non-journalists employees in newspaper establishments, as it goes against the very grain of free markets. There is no rationale for persisting with such boards for print media, she said. "There is no other industry which is governed by wage boards set up by the government. It must be left to the management of the individual establishments," she said. She also noted that the National Green Tribunal in a recent judgement upheld that tax on advertising cannot be levied. Jayant Mammen Mathew, Executive Editor of Malayala Manorama, was elected as the president of the INS at the general body meeting of the organisation for the year 2018-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran has detained a member of the Shiraz city council for supporting two Iranians of the minority Bahai faith and expressing concern over their arrest, state agency IRNA reported Friday. "Mehdi Hajati, a member of this council, was arrested Thursday evening for supporting two people of the outlawed cult of Bahaism," IRNA quoted council presiding board member Ghasem Moghimi as saying. Hajati, a reformist, had tweeted on Tuesday that "for the past 10 days, I did whatever I could to release the two Bahai friends that were arrested but failed". "Our generation is tasked to not back down in reforming judicial processes and other things that endanger social justice," he wrote, also using a Persian hashtag that translating into English as "fair trial". His twitter account, @MehdiHajati was suspended hours after his arrest. Bahram Parsayi, a lawmaker from Shiraz, came to Hajati's defence on Thursday. "Defending the civil rights of citizens should not be equated with supporting a cult," semi-official agency ISNA quoted him as saying. Parsayi also vowed to pursue the case through the judicial and security authorities. Iran allows religious freedom for several minorities but targets the Bahai faith, which believes in unity among religions and equality between men and women. The Bahai faith considers Bahaullah, an Iranian born in 1817, to be the latest prophet sent by God, in contrast with Islamic orthodoxy. Bahais have been targets of persecution and discrimination in Iran since the emergence of the faith in the second half of the 19th century, well before the 1979 Islamic revolution. The Islamic republic regards Bahais as "heretics" and suspects many of espionage for Israel, where the community has a centre in the northern city of Haifa. The Bahai faith has an estimated seven million followers worldwide, including some 300,000 Iran where the community says they are barred from pursuing higher education and holding government jobs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Iranian mayor has apologised for a billboard which mistakenly featured Israeli soldiers although it was meant to mark the Iran-Iraq war, the online conservative agency Tasnim reported Friday. "The billboard was installed in Shiraz showing three male soldiers standing on a rocky outcrop" next to a quote from an epic Persian poem, Tasnim wrote. But the shot was actually a photoshopped picture of Israel Defense Forces, according to Tasnim, with a female soldier from the original picture having been cropped out. The banner was pulled down from the southwestern city Wednesday night and the mayor issued an apology the next day. "This mistake of putting up such a despicable banner during the sacred defence week is unforgivable," Tasnim quoted mayor Heydar Eskandarpour as saying. Iran commonly refers to the brutal eight-year war with Iraq as "the sacred defence". In recent days, the country has been marking the start of the conflict which began on September 22, 1980. An estimated 680,000 people died. "In addition to apologising to Shiraz's pious and noble people, I ask the authorities to investigate the roots of this suspicious act and promptly report to the people," the mayor added. Two public relation officials at the municipality were later fired on Thursday night, according to conservative agency Fars. Iranian social media was abuzz with heated reactions to the controversy. "M16 guns, straps, clothes, helmets: all clearly belong to Zionists. The best I can say is that you did something idiotic," wrote a Twitter user identified as @mhrezaa. Another Iranian user @masoudasadi67 also called for the swift punishment of "those who committed such a heinous act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian Youth Congress activists from Karnataka got their heads tonsured Friday in a protest against the "Rafale scam" near the residence of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here. Sitharaman is a Rajya Sabha MP from the southern state. "At least 15 IYC activists were here to get their heads tonsured but thousands others will do so in Karnataka," said IYC vice president Srinivas BV. "Our protest will continue till Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes out in open gives reply on the 'Rafale scam'," he said. The protesters raising slogans tried to march towards her residence but were stopped by the police on Safadarjung Road. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka Women and Child Development Minister Jayamala Friday termed as "historic" the Supreme Court verdict on entry of women into the Lord Ayyappa Temple and said women have now got justice. The actress-turned-politician had created a storm some years ago by claiming that she had in her prime youth entered the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and touched the idol of the presiding deity. "There is no happier moment in my life other than this. I thank the women community, Supreme Court judges and God today...I also thank Ambedkar who wrote our Constitution," Jayamala told reporters. She said she had expected such a judgement and credited the country's legal system and Constitution for it. "Women have got justice today. This is a historic moment," the minister added. The revelation by Jayamala in June 2006 had kicked up a storm, as women in the 10-50 age group were barred from entering the temple. In 2010, the Crime Branch of Kerala Police had charge sheeted her along with others stating that they were involved in a deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings under Section 295 of Indian Penal Code. Responding to a question on the earlier incident, Jayamala said, "That day also I had faith and belief in God and our Judiciary, and that faith and belief has come true today." Asked about the opposing voices to the judgement, she said "God will protect." The Supreme Court paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Judicial review of religious practices should not be done as courts cannot impose their morality or rationality on the form of worship of a deity, Justice Indu Malhotra said in her lone dissenting verdict in the historic Sabarimala Temple case. While the four male judges, part of the five-judge bench, were in the favour of allowing women of all ages to enter the temple, Justice Malhotra refused to interfere with the centuries-old practice of banning women of age group of 10 to 50 years in the shrine. She said all forms of exclusion would not tantamount to "untouchability" and the restriction on women within a certain age-band, is based upon the historical origin and the beliefs and practices of the temple. She said the analogy sought to be drawn by comparing the rights of Dalits with reference to entry to temples and women is "wholly misconceived and unsustainable" and held that the limited restriction on women's entry during the notified age group does not fall within the purview of Article 17 (abolition of untouchability) of the Constitution. The judge observed that the issues raised in the case have far-reaching ramifications and implications, not only for the Sabarimala Temple but for all places of worship of various religions in the country which have their own beliefs, practices and customs and may be considered to be exclusionary in nature. "In a secular polity, issues which are matters of deep religious faith and sentiment, must not ordinarily be interfered with by courts," Justice Malhotra said. She said the right to equality claimed by the petitioners under Article 14 conflicts with the rights of the worshippers of this shrine which is also a fundamental right guaranteed by Articles 25 and 26. "It would compel the court to undertake judicial review under Article 14 to delineate the rationality of the religious beliefs or practices, which would be outside the ken of the courts. It is not for the courts to determine which of these practices of a faith are to be struck down, except if they are pernicious, oppressive, or a social evil, like Sati," she said. Justice Malhotra said the equality doctrine enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution does not override the fundamental right guaranteed by Article 25 to every individual to freely profess, practice and propagate their faith, in accordance with the tenets of their religion. The manifestation of the deity at the Sabarimala Temple is in the form of a 'Naishtik Brahmachari', who practices strict penance and the severest form of celibacy. The court said the respondents, including Travancore Dewaswom Board, Chief Thanthri and Raja of Pandalam, have made out a plausible case that the practice of restricting entry of women of certain age group is an essential religious practice of the devotees of Lord Ayyappa at the temple being followed since time immemorial. The bench was dealing with a PIL filed in 2006 by Indian Young Lawyers Association seeking to ensure entry of women devotees between the age group of 10 to 50 at the Lord Ayappa Temple at Sabarimala. However, Justice Malhotra said the petitioners do not claim to be devotees of the temple and permitting PILs in religious matters would open floodgates to interlopers to question religious beliefs and practices, even if the petitioner is not a believer of a particular religion or a worshipper of a shrine. The right to gender equality to offer worship to Lord Ayyappa is protected by permitting women of all ages, to visit temples where he has not manifested himself in the form of a 'Naishtik Brahmachari', and there is no similar restriction in those temples, she said. "Judicial review of religious practices ought not to be undertaken, as the court cannot impose its morality or rationality with respect to the form of worship of a deity. Doing so would negate the freedom to practice one's religion according to one's faith and beliefs. It would amount to rationalising religion, faith and beliefs, which is outside the ken of courts," she said. The judge added that constitutional morality requires the harmonisation or balancing of all such rights to ensure that the religious beliefs of none are obliterated or undermined. The judge said the worshippers of Lord Ayyappa at the Sabarimala Temple together constitute a religious denomination, or sect thereof, as the case maybe, follow a common faith, and have common beliefs and practices. "The practices include the observance by the Ayyappans of the 41-day 'Vratham', which includes observing abstinence and seclusion from the women-folk, including one's spouse, daughter or other relatives. This pilgrimage includes bathing in the holy River Pampa and ascending the 18 sacred steps leading to the sanctum sanctorum. "The restriction on women between the ages of 10 to 50 years from entering the temple has to be understood in this context," she said. On the issue of untouchability, the judge said the right asserted by Dalits was in pursuance of right against systematic social exclusion and for social acceptance per se. "In the case of temple entry, social reform preceded the statutory reform, and not the other way about. The social reform was spearheaded by great religious as well as national leaders like Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi. The reforms were based upon societal morality, much before Constitutional Morality came into place," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Kenyan woman who was last week arrested for shooting dead her former husband in Texas, US, claims she never intended to kill. Marie Kendale Kimani, 35, is said to have shot 40-year-old Jonathan Tumbo, also Kenyan, at her house in Rhome, Texas following a confrontation. After the shooing, she reportedly made a distress call to the police who found the deceased inside the master bedroom closet. In her statement to the police, Kimani said that Tumbo entered the closet and asked her to follow him. Thats when Tumbo placed his hand around her throat and produced a gun. She told the police that she managed to wrestle the gun from Tumbo and accidentally shot him in the chest. Kimani stated the firearm discharged, striking the male on the left side of the chest. (Kimani) told deputies she did not mean to kill him, said a police statement. However, detectives said Kimanis account is not consistent with evidence gathered. Subsequent follow-up investigation by investigators and related evidence was not consistent with Kimanis account of physical altercation, added the police. The accused is currently in police custody at the Wise County Jail as she tries to raise bond. Court records show Kimani filed for divorce from Tumbo in June, and their divorce was finalised in August 24. They had been married since April of 2009. A wildlife guide from Madhya Pradesh, a restaurant from Nepal and a nature tour operator from Netherlands were some of the winners at the fifth edition of TOFTigers Wildlife Awards here Thursday evening. Organised by TOFTigers, in association with Sanctuary Nature Foundation, the ceremony saw awards distributed in eight categories including "Lodge Naturalist", "Wildlife and Tourism Initiative", and "Up and Coming Excellence in Nature Award". Ramkali Dhurway from Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh won the "Billy Arjan Singh Memorial Award for Wildlife Guide" and Jatayu vulture restaurant from Nepal, which is famous for preserving vultures by providing them safe food, was given the "Wildlife Tourism Related Community Initiative" award. With the theme of "Inclusive Conservation - People and Wildlife", the awards aim to highlight and reward individuals, businesses, service providers and community enterprises who have been leading the way in wilderness destinations in the Indian subcontinent, the organisers said. "Today is the Unite Nations World Tourism Day, so it is a very appropriate occasion to celebrate the best of the best in nature tourism and how it is helping to sustain the protection and conservation of precious wildlife and wilderness across the sub-continent," Sir Dominic Asquith, British High Commissioner to India said during the event. The award ceremony was attended by noted environmental activist Bittu Sahgal and wildlife expert Raghu Chundawat among others. Chundawat also launched his wildlife report titled 'The Value of Wildlife Tourism in Ranthambore Tiger Reserve'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gained the support of a key Republican senator Friday, virtually ensuring his nomination will advance to the full Senate a day after he adamantly denied the high-school-years sexual assault of a woman who testified she was "100 per cent" he was guilty. The vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee was set for 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley announced as the panel gaveled to order. Emotions running high, several Democratic senators walked out for a time in protest. Moments before the panel convened, Arizona Sen Jeff Flake of Arizona, a member of the committee, announced he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh. He said the judge was entitled to the "presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence." "While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senate's advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the Constitution's provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well," Flake said. "I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh." The maneuvering followed an emotional day of testimony from both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford that exposed divisions over justice, fairness and who should be believed. Coming weeks before the midterm elections, it ensured the debate would play into the fight for control of Congress. As lawmakers wrangled over process, protesters swarmed Capitol Hill. Two women cornered Flake in an elevator and, through tears, implored him to change his mind. Attention turned to a handful of undecided moderates in both parties, most notably Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, two Republicans who have been willing to buck party leaders before. Neither has said whether she would vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Democrats running in tough re-election races this fall also faced pressure over their decisions. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, who is faces a difficult contest in a swing state, announced he was voting against Kavanaugh, as did Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, who is seeking re-election in a state President Donald Trump won handily in 2016. "The allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh are disturbing and credible," Donnelly said in a statement. "In the interest of getting as much information as possible, I believe the allegations should be investigated by the FBI." Democrats are also pushing to subpoena Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh who Ford testified was a witness to the alleged assault. Judge has said he does not recall the incident, and a Democratic motion to subpoena him was blocked by Republicans in a vote. Several Democrats, including Kamala Harris of California and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, walked out of the hearing room. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said it was as if Judge had "effectively nailed a do not disturb sign, and apparently the Republicans on this committee are satisfied." Leahy said it's not that Democrats are trying to delay the nomination ahead of the congressional elections as Republicans contend. "This is about doing our job," he said. Meanwhile, there were signs that Thursday's remarkable testimony before the panel in which Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ford recounted the moment in which she says he attacked her had registered negatively with two organizations whose support Kavanaugh had earlier received. The American Bar Association, which previously gave Kavanaugh its highest rating of "well qualified," asked the Senate committee and the full Senate to delay their votes until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims something President Donald Trump has refused to order. Grassley, too, has refused. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that Friday, telling reporters that Kavanaugh has already "been through six separate background investigations by the FBI." Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and "should be withdrawn." "If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a woman's report of an assault," the "America" editors wrote. "Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country." Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Roman Catholic faith and his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgetown Prep school in Maryland. Meanwhile, former President George W. Bush has been advocating for Kavanaugh with wavering senators in recent days, according to a person familiar with Bush's outreach who wasn't authorized to speak publicly. The White House said it was also engaging with wavering GOP senators, but provided few details. Flake's decision has been among the most watched, and he had told reporters it was "a tough call" as he left the Capitol late Thursday. The Arizonan had been holed up with other key senators Collins, Murkowski, and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia after the daylong hearing in Collins' hide-away office on the third floor in the Capitol. At the private meeting of GOP senators late Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led a round of applause for Grassley as well as Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina senator's dramatic defense of Kavanaugh at the hearing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Launching a blistering attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, BJP president Amit Shah claimed on Friday that he denied one-and-a-half crore Delhi'ites the benefits of the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme fearing it would enhance Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity. Inaugurating the Karol Bagh district office of the BJP, Shah also targeted the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over its pet project 'Mohalla Clinics'. "They (AAP government) excused from implementing (health insurance scheme) Ayushman Bharat saying Mohalla Clinics can take care of health needs of people. I want to ask Kejriwal if cancer treatment and heart transplant can be done there. He himself should get treatment from Mohalla Clinics to know their realities," Shah said. The BJP president charged the Kejriwal government with blocking development of Delhi on "political" grounds. "The Government of India sent them reminder after reminder but they did not implement Ayushman? Bharat. Kejriwal feared it will enhance Modi's popularity," he said. Shah called upon party workers to go to people and tell them how the Kejriwal government deprived them of Ayushman Bharat scheme's benefits. "People will set the account right in 2019, Kejriwal-ji. You should not blame EVMs (electronic voting machines) then," he said. Claiming that Kejriwal's support base among Delhi'ites has "declined", the BJP chief said it was now "nothing" since the party stormed to power by a massive victory in the 2015 assembly election. Shah also attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Kejriwal, saying they felt pain on issues such as implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and action against Maoists in the country. "They are pained when we take action to expel illegal immigrants and against Naxal and Maoist elements. But we are pained when anti-India slogans are raised in the country," he said. Shah asserted that the BJP would ensure after the 2019 parliamentary election that "every single" illegal immigrant is expelled from the country. The BJP chief appealed to party leaders and workers to ensure that the party retains all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's verdict allowing entry of women of all ages at the Sabarimala temple and said the "historic" judgement was the culmination of a long-drawn legal battle. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. It was for the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) to implement the verdict and to ensure protection to the women visiting the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa, the minister said. The LDF government has favoured the entry of women into the Ayyappa temple. The state government's stand is not just for the Sabarimala temple, but in all places of worship no discrimination should be shown to women, Surendran said. Temple Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru said though the verdict was "disappointing", but they accepted it. "I respect the court verdict. It is very difficult to arrange special facilities for women in the present context.. The Board has to make arrangements...," he said. Travancore Devaswom Board President A Padmakumar told reporters that the Board accepted the court's verdict. When asked if the board was happy with the judgement, he said this was not a question of whether the TDB is happy or disappointed. "We are bound to implement it and we will implement the same," Padmakumar said. "With regard to facilities that has to be made ensured for women devotees," he said, adding that the board will take necessary steps after consulting with the state government. Meanwhile, Board member K P Sankara Das said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has taken a stand and it is not possible for the TDB to take a different view. Shashi Kumar Varma, Pandalam Royal family member said the verdict was "painful" for the family. "Every temple has its own tradition and ritual practices and the same has now changed with a court verdict," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday assured the farmers that "special girdawri" would be conducted to assess the damage to their crops caused by the recent incessant rains. He also assured that adequate compensation would be paid to them. "They need not worry on this account," the chief minister said after visiting the field of a farmer to inspect the loss caused to his paddy crop in Karnal district. Speaking to reporters in Assandh later, Khattar said that his government was committed to protecting the interests of farmers. "It remains our priority. The farmers would be compensated adequately for the losses to their kharif crops," he said. Opposition parties have demanded adequate compensation to the affected farmers for their damaged crops. INLD has demanded "special girdwari" (revenue survey to assess damage to crops) and adequate compensation to the affected farmers. Senior INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala has demanded a compensation of minimum Rs 25,000 for farmers whose crops were damaged during heavy rains. He asked the government to immediately order a survey to assess the damage caused to paddy and other crops in the state. To reduce the farmers' misery, the least the government can do is to waive the interest on their loans and defer all kinds of recoveries for the next one year, Chautala told reporters here Friday. Earlier, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda demanded the state government give a special package to farmers whose crops were damaged due to heavy rains in the last few days. Hooda had earlier said paddy, bajra and cotton crops were damaged due to heavy rains which lashed the state between September 22-24. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists by Maharashtra Police in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint a SIT for probe into their arrest. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. Justice A M Khanwilkar read out the verdict for himself and the CJI, while Justice D Y Chandrachud said he was unable to agree with view of the two judges. Justice Chandrachud said arrest of the five accused was an attempt by state to muzzle dissent. The majority verdict said the protection of house arrest shall remain in force for four weeks to enable the accused to seek appropriate legal remedy at appropriate legal forum. The CJI said arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoists) organisation. Justice Khanwilkar said accused persons cannot choose which investigating agency should probe the case and this was not a case of arrest merely because of difference in political views. The majority verdict disagreed with the PIL by historian Romila Thapar and others seeking the immediate release of five rights activist, with liberty to the accused to seek remedy in appropriate court. Justice Khanwilkar said the protection of house arrest shall remain in force for four weeks to enable the accused to seek legal remedy. He refrained from commenting on the case saying it may prejudice case of accused and prosecution. Justice Chandrachud said liberty cherished by the Constitution would have no meaning if persecution of the five activists is allowed without proper investigation. He said the petition was genuine and lashes out at Maharashtra police for press meet, distribution of letters to media. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The liberty and dignity of the five human rights activists arrested by the Maharashtra Police have "for the time being not been jeopardised" and the Supreme Court has protected them, the petitioners said after the apex court's verdict in the case. They also said that their stand found "vindication" in the dissenting opinion expressed by Justice D Y Chandrachud. The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of the five rights activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe their arrest. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea filed by noted historian Romila Thapar and others, seeking the immediate release of the activists. The petitioners "are pleased to note that at least the liberty and dignity of the human rights activists has for the time being not been jeopardized and the Supreme Court has protected the same", Thapar read out from the joint statement. In the statement, the five petitioners -- Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala -- said Friday's judgement provided protection to the activists for a further period of four weeks and has given them the liberty to seek remedy from the appropriate courts. "Our stand in this case finds vindication in the dissenting opinion of Justice Chandrachud who has categorically held that liberty cannot be sacrificed at the altar of conjecture and that the police had been taking liberties with the truth and besmirching the reputation of the activists by doing a media trial. "Under such circumstances, the police's ability to conduct a free, fair and impartial investigation is in serious doubt, as has been held by Justice D Y Chandrachud," the petitioners said. Lawyer Vrinda Grover said Justice Chandrachud's dissenting judgement clearly shows that a "fractured verdict" has been delivered. "What we asked for was a better investigation and nothing else. After reading the judgement it is clear that it is a fractured verdict. The dissenting judgement says that we made a strong case for SIT probe. Majority judgement also says that liberty has to be restored," Grover told reporters. The bench also extended by four weeks the house arrest of the activists. The five activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- have been under arrest at their homes since August 29. Grover added that it is too early to discuss further action and will deliberate with our clients. Thapar said the plea was filed in the Supreme Court because "we felt the freedom we have in democracy are being slowly taken away from us". "Any democratic institution cannot take law into its hands. It has to go through a certain way," she said. Prabhat Pattnaik said the apex court taking cognisance of the case is of great significance to them. "I consider that historic. If the SC thought they (activist) were Maoists, why were they given four weeks. Within the SC, there were also reservations," Pattnaik said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A court in West Bengal on Friday sentenced four persons to life imprisonment in connection with one of the worst hooch tragedies that left 172 people dead in 2011. Additional district and sessions judge Partha Sarathi Chakraborty of South 24 Parganas district also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them. If they fail to pay the fine, the convict would have to undergo an additional imprisonment for six months. The court on Thursday had found Noor Islam Fakir alias Khora Badshah, the prime accused, and three others -- Dukhi Laskar, Khairul Laskar and Nazmul alias Kola Laskar -- guilty in the case. The court had acquitted six others for lack of evidence. In the worst hooch tragedy in the state, 172 people died in December 2011 at Sangrampur in South 24 Parganas district after consuming toxic liquor. After the quantum of punishment was pronounced, prime accused Khora Badshah expressed no emotion, but the other three broke down. They later told reporters that they would move the high court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Friday alleged that activists of the NC and the PDP were trying to derail civic polls in Jammu and Kashmir like the terrorists and were threatening independent candidates. In a scathing attack on the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which have announced boycott of the polls, Madhav alleged that the two "dynasty-run parties" were against grassroots democracy in the state. He, however, praised the Congress for contesting the polls. "Terrorists and over ground workers are involved in derailing and destabilizing polls. The same is being done by the activists of NC and PDP. We have reports that in several places in Kashmir Valley, the activists of these outfits (NC and PDP) are threatening candidates who are going to file nominations as independents," Madav told reporters here. The BJP has complained to the administration and the police alleging that NC and PDP activists were threatening candidates who were filing nominations as Independents in urban local body polls in Kashmir. Madhav said "police have assured us that wherever there are complaints, action has been started". He claimed that while the "top leadership (of NC and PDP) ran away from contesting polls", some of their members were filing nominations as independents. "They are undertaking proxy nominations in these polls. We still welcome them," he said. He said that during his two-day visit to Kashmir Valley, he has seen that despite "threats and attempts to create fear psychosis, a good number of nominations have been filed by the locals". "People want the democratic set up at the grassroots level. We appeal to the people of Kashmir Valley that they should stand with those who want installation of grassroots democracy in Kashmir Valley by voting in large numbers," he said. He said the BJP is trying to encourage all in Kashmir Valley to participate in large number in polls in the Valley. "We are encouraging all in Kashmir valley to contest polls and we want that there should be peaceful and good elections," he added. The BJP leader said that the party has fielded maximum candidates from among the locals with only a few from Kashmiri migrants. "99.9 per cent of candidates, who have filed their nominations on BJP ticket, are locals in Kashmir Valley. Most of our candidates in Kashmir Valley for these polls are locals with some migrants also contesting these polls where migrant population wards are there," he said. Madhav said the outcome of the polls is not important for the party as "our success is that BJP is welcomed in Kashmir Valley as locals are contesting these elections on BJP tickets in places like Anantnag, Shopian and Pulwama. "It shows that there is a good support for the BJP in Kashmir Valley as well," he added. He said people will teach the NC and the PDP "a lesson" for their decision to boycott the polls. Asked about implementation of 73rd and 74th amendments, which gave Constitutional status to panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies respectively, he said that funds for empowerment of panchayats did not come to the state because these amendments were not put in place. "We tried to ensure that they are put in place by convincing our coalition partner during last three years of government in the state but it did not happen. We could not do so because of our coalition partner. That is why we chose to move out of the government," he said, referring to the PDP with which the BJP had snapped ties in June this year. He said that BJP candidates are fighting in all the municipal wards of Srinagar. "It shows the will-power of our candidates. The two big parties of Kashmir valley- NC and PDP have been making all types of attempts to foil these polls by giving poll boycott calls.... "They do not want that the young leadership to emerge from the villages of Kashmir Valley and that the local people in villages and towns run their own government at grassroots level. They are against grassroots democracy," he added. "The poll boycott parties do not have any interest in Jammu, Ladakh and parts of north Kashmir in Kashmir Valley, but only in the demands of terrorists and succumbing to the demands of terrorists and that is their politics," he alleged. The BJP is taking part in these polls with courage and confidence, he said. "We are happy that the Congress is contesting elections because we thought they will also join the two Kashmir centric parties in boycotting polls. They have taken the right decision to contest the elections. We praise them for that," Madhav said. "The interest of Jammu and Kashmir is inseparable from the interest of India. and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking the country in the right direction. We hope that the country will progress and so will Jammu and Kashmir," he said. Urban local bodies elections will be held in four phases from October 8. Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in nine-phases beginning November 17. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after former Bihar Road Construction Minister Illiyas Hussain was sentenced for four years of rigorous imprisonment in bitumen scam, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi Friday demanded institution of disproportionate assets case against the RJD MLA for allegedly amassing assets beyond his known sources of income. "Normally, a disproportionate assets (DA) case is lodged against the accused in such cases but DA was not lodged against Illiyas Hussain in the case...I would appeal CBI to lodge a DA case against Hussain. I would make a formal request to the CBI in my individual capacity as I was one of the petitioners in PIL filed in Patna High Court seeking CBI probe into the bitumen scam case," Modi told reporters here. Notably, a special CBI court had on Thursday convicted and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for four years. Hussain's then private secretary Mohd Sahabuddin Beig to four years of rigorous imprisonment in the case. The court slapped a fine of Rs four lakh on the duo. While a transporter Janardan Prasad Agarwal was sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs six lakh. The case related to the embezzlement of around Rs 18.75 lakh through misappropriation of 375 metric tonnes of bitumen. Modi- who was among the first leaders to raise the bitumen scam and approached the Patna high court for CBI probe- described in details about the modus operandi of the accused persons in bitumen scam. Citing the figures as how and why Bihar roads earned bad name due to potholes, Modi said that 44,650 MT bitumen were purchased for constructing 84 km of new roads in 1990-91 in the state apart from road widening work of 138 km and repairing work for 2000 km. RJD was in power in Bihar continously from 1990 to 2005. But the quantum of bitumen rose to more than double at 94,000 MT in the year 1995-96 whereas only 6 km new roads were constructed while road widening work was nil and repairing work was carried out for 1300 km of roads in the state. Though he demanded expulsion of Hussain from RJD,Dy CM said that he does not expect RJD chief, who is himself a convicted man in many fodder scam cases, would expel Hussain from the party. Hussain, who is considered as very close to Prasad, has now also landed in Ranchi jail, he added. There is a long list of RJD leaders who are in jail such as Md Shahabuddin, Raj Ballabh Yadav etc., Modi said while asserting that many more in Prasad's family too would land in jail in various other corruption cases. More than three dozens of properties belonging to Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti have already been seized by the agencies, Modi, the finance minister, said and added that Tejashwi and Rabri Devi have been charge sheeted in a corruption case. Asked whether he (Modi) thinks that both Tejashwi and Rabri would go to jail, Modi replied in affirmative saying that there are plenty of strong evidences against them which are sufficient to prove their conviction and sentencing which could be both jail and fine or fine alone. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Moments after pivotal Senator Jeff Flake announced his support for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the Arizona Republican was confronted with the consequences. Two women cornered Flake as he got on an elevator Friday, pleading for him to reconsider his support for the appeals court judge who's been accused of sexual assault when he was a teenager. The raw, emotional moment was caught on television, capturing the charged atmosphere in the Capitol as a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court hangs in the balance. "Look at me and tell me that it doesn't matter what happened to me," said 23-year-old Maria Gallagher. Flake and his colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee had heard hours of testimony Thursday from Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who told them Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her decades ago. Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegation. Flake had lobbied Republican leaders to give Ford the chance to speak. He was viewed as a possible "no" vote, until the Friday announcement. But the Capitol confrontation may have made an impact. Flake, at a committee hearing Friday afternoon, asked for a week delay in the Senate's consideration of Kavanaugh so the FBI to investigate. Gallagher said in a tweet that she felt relieved that Flake seemed to have heard her. "We absolutely need an FBI investigation for him and all Senators to vote NO," she tweeted. Flake was on his way to the morning hearing when the two women, both affiliated with advocacy groups, told him they were sexual assault survivors. "On Monday, I stood in front of your office," Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of the nonprofit Center for Popular Democracy Action, told Flake. "I told the story of my sexual assault. I told it because I recognized in Dr Ford's story that she is telling the truth. What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court." Archila, 39, appeared to block Flake from closing the elevator door. Then Gallagher said: "I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me. I didn't tell anyone, and you're telling all women that they don't matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them." "That's what happened to me, and that's what you are telling all women in America, that they don't matter," she said through tears. She begged Flake to look her in the eye. "Don't look away from me," she said. Flake, cornered in the elevator, shifted between looking at them and looking down. He said, "Thank you," but didn't response to questions on whether he believed Ford's testimony. When a reporter asked whether he wanted to respond to the women's questions, he said no. "I need to go to the hearing. I just issued a statement. I'll be saying more as well," he said. The elevator doors closed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Samajwadi Party is planning to contest 24 seats in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, according to its leaders. In a statement issued here, a party spokesperson said, "SP national president Akhilesh Yadav will be in Madhya Pradesh on a two-day visit. On September 29, he will address a public meeting at Shahdol. On the 30th, he will address a public meeting in Balaghat." SP's national secretary Rajendra Chaudhary said, "Akhilesh Yadav has already held a number of programmes in the recent past in Bhopal, Satna, Rewa, Khajuraho, Panna, Sidhi, Shahdil. Hence, the Samajwadi Party is ready to go into the assembly election in Madhya Pradesh with full strength. It will contest around two dozen assembly constituencies in the state." The party organisation has expanded in Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, Chaudhary claimed. Chaudhary said, "In the past 15 years of the BJP rule in MP, youngsters have been pushed to the brink of unemployment. The condition of farmers is bad, and they are deprived of irrigation facilities and minimum support price for their crops. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Forest department Friday said that five elephants, including four from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, have been deployed in Maharashtra's Yavatmal to trap a tigress that has reportedly killed 13 people in the last few months. A Forest department official Friday said that the five elephants, including one from Tadoba National Park in Maharashtra, were stationed at Sawarkheda in Ralegoan here to trap the tigress and her two cubs who are moving about in the Ralegaon-Kelapur forest belt of the district. A state Forest department release informed that the plan was to trap the tigress and the cubs after tranquilising them. It said that, besides the five elephants, two veterinarians, 25 experts from the special Tiger Protection Force, 24 police personnel, 22 forest department employees among others had also been deployed for the purpose. Over 200 personnel are camping in Sawarkheda area to trap the tigress and the cubs, the official added. An official said that 75 camera traps have been set up to monitor the movement of the big cats. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's refusal to interfere with the probe by the state police against five Left-wing activists in connection with violence in Koregaon- Bhima in December last year. Fadnavis said the decision of the top court proved that there was no conspiracy behind action by the state police against Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha. The five are under arrest at their respective homes since August 29. Fadnavis was reacting soon after the Supreme Court declined to appoint an SIT to probe the arrest of the five activists by the Pune police. The court said the arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist) organisation. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. "The Supreme Court has vindicated the state of the government and the Pune police. The court has no doubt over the material evidence submitted," the chief minister told reporters here. "A conspiracy against the nation has been unearthed by the police," he said on the arrest of the five activists. According to the Supreme Court order, the government will go to the "appropriate forum" in the case, he said. Fadnavis also defended the state police for addressing a press conference after the arrest, which had been come in for criticism. "A lot of things were said against the police after the arrest and an atmosphere was created by pseudo, so-called neo-liberals in the media that the arrests have been made without evidence. The police had to say that the arrests were not motivated but backed by real and powerful evidence," he said. "We will look into the fine print of the order regarding the police press conference. The press conference is not important but the real issue of conspiracy against the nation is. If holding the press conference was wrong, we will improve it," he said. Fadnavis said political parties should not support the arrested persons for political reasons after the SC verdict, "otherwise the political parties will stand exposed." Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on August 28 from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi. The majority verdict by the Supreme Court said the protection of house arrest of the activists will remain in force for four more weeks to enable the accused to seek appropriate legal remedy at appropriate legal forum. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NCP general secretary Munaf Hakim Friday said he had quit the primary membership of the party and claimed it was "difficult" to defend its image after Sharad Pawar "supported" Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale fighter jet issue. Pawar, speaking to a television channel Wednesday, said that people "do not have doubts" over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intentions (in the Rafale deal). "I don't think people have doubts about Modi's intentions personally," Pawar had told the channel. Hakim, a former chairman of the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, told PTI Friday that he was following another party colleague, Lok Sabha MP Tariq Anwar, by resigning and added that more NCP workers might follow suit. "Sharad Pawar has never supported fundamental forces. How can he say Narendra Modi is not guilty in the Rafale case in the minds of the public? A JPC probe has not yet been set up," Hakim said. "Tariq Anwar is one of the founder members of the party. He was not consulted while making an important stand of the party public (on Rafale). In such a case, it is difficult to defend the party's image after Pawar saheb supported Modi in the Rafale case," Hakim stated. Anwar Friday said he had resigned from the party and Parliament (Katihar Lok Sabha seat) following party chief Sharad Pawar's "defence" of Modi on the Rafale deal. Earlier, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik Thursday said that media reports over Pawar's statement were "confusing and misleading". "He (Pawar) has not made any statement defending Modi nor has he given any clean chit (in the Rafale deal matter)," the NCP leader had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thane police Friday said that it had arrested two RTO officials from Maharashtra's Beed district in connection with a vehicle racket that reportedly runs into several crore rupees. Thane police had, in August, unearthed the racket which involved the sale of defective cars to customers with the help of fake sale and manufacturing certificates. Police, at the time, had arrested Navi Mumbai-resident Sachin Sonawane, who allegedly used to purchase cars with some defects from Mumbai-based car dealers and sell them to unsuspecting buyers by sprucing them up. A Beed RTO agent, Sayyed Shakir, was also arrested for allegedly preparing fake sale certificates and manufacturing certificates of the cars and getting them registered there, police had said in August. Addressing a press conference Friday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Deepak Deoraj said that Beed RTO Inspectors Rajendra Nikam and Nilesh Nilesh Bhagure were arrested on September 25. He said that Nikam and Bhagure had facilitated the registration of such vehicles at the Beed RTO. Deoraj said that the value of the 34 cars seized so far in connection with the racket was Rs 2.24 crore, adding that the state exchequer had lost Rs 31.77 lakh in sales tax as well. The racket possibly extends to states like Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh and a probe was on in this regard, Deoraj said. A case has been registered in this connection at Narpoli police station in Bhiwandi in the district, an official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Railway Police has arrested a man for allegedly stabbing and robbing a 45-year-old principal in a train in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, police said. Three armed men attacked Rayal Abraham on a Delhi-Saharanpur passenger train between Kandhla and Shamli railway stations on Wednesday. The robbers stabbed him and looted cash worth Rs 4,000, a police official said. Arif was arrested on Thursday and police are searching for the remaining accused, Station House Officer (SHO) Rakesh Kumar said. Abraham, who was going to Shamli town from Delhi, belongs to Kerala and is a college principal at Chhaprauli town in Baghpat district, the officer said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 37-year-old tailor was bludgeoned to death with stones in northwest Delhi's Swaroop Nagar allegedly by a man who suspected him of having an affair with his wife, the police said on Friday. The incident took place on Thursday night, they said. The deceased was identified as Manak Chander. He worked at a shop in Swaroop Nagar. Police said the accused, Amarnath, who lived in the same locality, suspected Chander of having an illicit relationship with his wife. The woman was quite unhappy with her marriage. She shared a strained relationship with Amarnath, who, she alleged, used to torture her and even stopped giving her money for household expenses, a police officer said. Fed up of his constant torture, the woman left Amarnath's house a few days ago and started living with Chander, he added. Enraged, Amarnath went to question Chander and allegedly attacked him with stones outside his residence. Chander was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead, the police officer said. A case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by the victim's sister and Amarnath has been arrested, the police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Normal life was partially hit for the second day on Friday in the state, particularly in the valley districts, due to a 48-hour general strike by students' bodies demanding unconditional release of students and teachers of Manipur University, official sources said. Fifteen teachers and students of Manipur University were arrested by police on September 21 following a complaint by newly-appointed Acting Vice Chancellor K Yugindro Singh. Singh had alleged he was "gheraoed" by some students and teachers for assuming the charge of VC of the central university. The strike is not being supported by tribal students' bodies and life in the hill districts remained normal, the sources said. Tight security has been put in place and CRPF personnel have been deployed at Singjamei, in the vicinity of the Manipur University campus at Canchipur, Palace Compound and Keisampat areas in Greater Imphal area, officials said. State forces too remained vigilant to prevent any untoward incident and enforce the prohibitory orders under section 144 (prohibition of gathering of more than four persons) of CrPC in Imphal West. Attendance in offices improved remarkably on the second day of the agitation as the concerned authorities and the state chief secretary J Suresh Babu had issued orders that strong "disciplinary action" would be taken against those failing to show up. As a result, staff also reported in educational institutions but classes were not held. Traffic movement on roads was also better compared to the bandh's first day. Public transport, however, stayed off the roads. Inter-district and inter-state transport was affected. Many fuel stations opened with protection from security personnel at Uripok, Moirangkhom and Yumnam Leikai localities. The major markets of Paona and Thangal remained closed, with only a few women vendors selling vegetables. People were seen rushing to purchase essentials in the evening. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Friday to rebuild strained relations after a two-year crisis despite remaining differences on civil rights and other issues. Erdogan was visiting the top EU economy, home to three million people of Turkish descent, in what German media have described as a charm offensive. Turkey is suffering economic turbulence aggravated by US sanctions stemming from a row with US President Donald Trump. The three-day state visit is being held under tight security as thousands were due to protest against the Turkish leader under the banner "Erdogan Not Welcome". Merkel and Erdogan stressed the need to rebuild traditional ties that hit a historic low after a 2016 failed coup and subsequent crackdown in Turkey. The two NATO allies agreed to jointly discuss the Syria crisis in a meeting next month with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron of France, Merkel said at a joint press conference. But the gulf between them remained apparent on issues from press freedom to the fate of German or dual citizens being held behind bars in Turkey, and on whether Germany should extradite Erdogan's declared foes. Merkel, under pressure at home for giving Erdogan the red-carpet treatment, said there was "on both sides a joint strategic interest in good relations" despite "deep differences... especially in questions about a democratic, open society". But she stressed that continued dialogue was the best way to overcome those differences. She also vowed to keep pushing for the release of five German citizens still being held in Turkey. At the height of the crisis, Berlin had urged its citizens and companies to stay away from Turkey and pulled out its troops from NATO bases. However, relations have thawed somewhat since Turkey in February released prominent German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel. Trump in August raised tariffs on Turkish aluminium and steel, in retaliation for the detention of an American pastor on terrorism charges in Turkey. On Turkey's economic woes, Merkel said that "Germany has an interest in an economically stable Turkey" with GDP growth. Erdogan, who at the height of the diplomatic crisis had accused Berlin of "Nazi-like practices", also struck a conciliatory tone, pointing to "win-win" business projects on the horizon. On the question of open trade, he said, without mentioning Trump, that "we are of the same opinion as Germany" and that protectionism "spells a great danger for global security". However, he said Germany was doing too little to deal with thousands of Kurdish militants on its soil. He complained that Germany was refusing to extradite followers of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he blames for the coup attempt. Merkel said Germany regards the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) as a banned militant organisation but was not convinced it should treat the Gulen movement the same way. Ahead of Erdogan's arrival, Turkey handed Germany a list of 69 people it wants extradited, among them alleged PKK and far-left activists and Gulen followers. Also on the list was journalist Can Dundar, who has lived in Germany since 2016. He is evading a jail sentence for his Cumhuriyet newspaper's reporting on alleged secret Turkish arms deliveries to Islamist rebels in Syria. Dundar dropped plans to attend Friday's press conference, claiming Erdogan had threatened to boycott it. Dundar said he did not want to "be the news" and spark a new diplomatic crisis. But Erdogan charged that Dundar "is an agent, he is a person who has disclosed state secrets". "No country would allow state secrets to be disclosed," he added. "It is our natural right to want the extradition of a guilty individual." Mass protests were planned against Erdogan Friday, with demonstrations also expected Saturday when he opens a mosque in the city of Cologne. More than 4,000 police were deployed across central Berlin, where helicopters buzzed in the sky and snipers guarded the roof of the Adlon Hotel where Erdogan was staying. German Green party politician Cem Ozdemir, who has Turkish roots, said Erdogan should have been received with less pomp, perhaps for a working-level visit. He told AFP that, even though a rapprochement was good news, those Turkish citizens "who wish for democracy and human rights... do not deserve to be abandoned by us". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Teach For America recruits outstanding graduates to teach in high-need public schools. Emory is ranked #3 nationally among medium-sized schools contributing the greatest number of graduating seniors to the 2018 Teach For America corps. Emory University has been ranked among the top universities of its size contributing the greatest number of graduating seniors to the 2018 Teach For America corps. Emory is ranked #3 nationally among medium-sized schools, with 28 graduates joining Teach for America this year. Teach For America recruits outstanding graduates to commit to teach in high-need public schools. The more than 3,600 individuals joining Teach for America this year will impact 51 regions across 36 states and the District of Columbia. They represent more than 680 colleges and universities. Teach For Americas 2018 corps is among the most diverse in its history. More than half of incoming corps members identify as people of color; 45 percent come from low-income backgrounds; and 1 in 3 are the first in their family to graduate college. Emory has also been recognized as a top producer nationally of students and recent alumni who receive U.S. Fulbright awards and who volunteer for the Peace Corps. Emory had 11 students or recent alumni (who applied as students) receive Fulbright awards to teach or conduct research abroad for 2017-2018, according to the Chronicle of Higher Educations list of Top Producers of Fulbright U.S. Scholars and Students. For 2018-2019, 14 Emory young alumni and graduate students received Fulbright awards to conduct research or serve as English teaching assistants around the world. Twenty-two recent Emory graduates volunteered for the Peace Corps, and Emory is ranked No. 11 nationally among medium-sized colleges and universities on the Peace Corps Top Colleges 2018 list. The Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) of Mumbai Police's Crime Branch arrested a 32-year-old man and seized over one kilogram of mephedrone worth Rs 20.10 lakh, police said Friday. Sabir Hanif Khan, hailing from Jogeshwari (east),was arrested from Andheri by the ANC's Bandra unit in a trap laid near a BMC school Thursday, said Shivdeep Lande, Deputy Commissioner of Police (ANC). Khan, who was carrying a bag, was behaving suspiciously following which he was searched and 1.005 kg mephedrone, worth Rs 20.10 lakh, was seized from him, Lande said. Khan is among the biggest distributors in Mumbai of mephedrone (a synthetic stimulant drug of the amphetamine and cathinone classes), Lande informed. More than 20 drug peddlers were working under Khan in the city's western suburbs, he said. A case had been registered under the The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and further probe was underway, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nine common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) associated with leather industries in Tamil Nadu will be modernised soon, CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute Director B Chandrasekaran has said. There are about 18 CETPs located in leather industry corridors across the country and 13 are associated with nearly 600 tanneries in the southern state, he said. "Nine of the 13 plants in Tamil Nadu have been selected to receive about Rs 300 crore from the Central government in the first phase," Chandrasekaran told PTI. Most of them are about 10-15 years old and needed modernisation, he said adding work on the remaining plants would be completed by 2020. Speaking on the sidelines of 76th CSIR Foundation Day here Thursday, he said the modernisation measures were aimed at making the leather sector sustainable, not only in environmental terms, but also to make them economically viable. Five other CETPs are located in Kolkata, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir. The initiative is part of the Commerce Ministry's Indian Footwear, Leather and Accessories Development Programme. He said an amount of Rs 782 crore has been allocated for the programme for a three-year period from 2017. CLRI will offer technical assistance to the centre on the project, while State pollution control boards would ensure smooth functioning. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former US president Barack Obama warned Friday against rising nationalism as he painted a grim picture of American and global on a visit to Denmark. "I'm concerned enough about the international and American trends that I thought it was important to offer my views," he told entrepreneurs and students in the Danish central city of Kolding. "When you start seeing our driven completely free of facts, when you start seeing a debate that is driven solely on racial or nationalistic impulses, when you start seeing a rejection of science and expertise and logic in .. we are beyond the sort of politics that will continue our best traditions," he added. Relatively discreet since leaving the White House on January 20, 2017, the 44th President of the United States carefully avoided any direct reference to his successor Donald Trump. "Maybe we got more jolt and more change than we expected in the US," Obama said, drawing laughter from the crowd. He expressed concern over a lack of citizen engagement in public life and underlined the importance in the United States, Europe, and in other countries "to affirm the ideals of our constitution." Referring to the right-wing populist Law and Justice Party (PiS)'s arrival in power in Poland and the fiercely anti-immigration government in Hungary, Obama said: "there is a shift that has implications for all of Europe." "When a population is passive and ill-informed and not paying attention, that's when there is the greatest danger. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday the third such meeting since he assumed the prime ministerial office in August -- and discussed with him "security and regional stability situation", according to media reports. Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar was also present during the meeting. A statement by the Prime Minister's Office said that "security and regional stability situation" were discussed in the meeting, Dawn newspaper reported. The interactions between the military head and newly elected premier have been frequent over the last one month. The Army chief's maiden call on Khan took place on August 27, in which both had "expressed resolve to bring enduring peace and stability in the country while also continuing efforts for regional peace. Khan visited to the Army's General Headquarters on August 30 for a briefing on matters pertaining to national security. The briefing which reportedly went on for more than seven hours covered security environment, threat spectrum and response, counterterrorism operations, the situation in Karachi and the Khushal Balochistan programme. The Chief of Army Staff then called on the PM on September 3, ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Joseph Dunford's visit to Islamabad. The elected prime minister, in an unprecedented move in recent times, was also invited to the annual Defence Day ceremony at the military headquarters on September 6, where the Army Chief has always been the main speaker. In his speech at the ceremony, the Prime Minister had rejected the perception of civil-military imbalance in the country as a myth and said both sides were united to make the country great once again. The following week on September 12, Khan visited the headquarters of the ISI where he was received by Gen Bajwa and Gen Mukhtar, and given a detailed briefing on "various strategic, intelligence and national security matters". According to a statement by Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry, the army chief and the ISI head had given an eight-hour-long briefing to the prime minister and the cabinet members who accompanied him. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan continues to support the Taliban and there has been no change in its policy despite the formation of the new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, a top Afghan leader has said. Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said at the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday that for the peace and the talks to get serious, a few things are required. He said that there was a need to pursuade those who support the Taliban. "One is that those who are supporting Taliban need to be persuaded and convinced or persuaded that they should stop support. And one country is key to that, which is Pakistan," Abdullah said in response to a question. He pointed out that even after the formation of the new government in Pakistan the "real change has not taken place as far as their policy" towards Taliban is concerned. "In the past they have made promises that they will bring the reconcilable Taliban to the negotiating table and put pressure on others. We have seen none in that sense. But still we are hopeful," he said. Abdullah, however, said that Afghanistan will continue to engage with Pakistan hoping that Islamabad will understand that such groups won't serve any country's interest. "With Pakistan, we will continue our engagement with them with the hope that they will be convinced that these groups, the groups which are using ideology, but at the same time terror tactics and violence and killing civilians, will not serve any country's interests," he said. "If there is one lesson in the past three decades, that is that these groups have their own agendas. At the end of the day, they will pursue their own agenda rather than the agendas of the countries or country which has helped them," Abdullah said. He stated that India was for a stable and peaceful Afghanistan. "India has been supporting Afghanistan in the past seventeen years and also when we were in the resistance against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. They were on the side of the resistance or official government of Afghanistan," Abdullah said. "They have continued with the same policy. And their offer to us is that you tell us your needs, we will see in the realm of our possibilities that how we can help, because stability in Afghanistan is in their interest, not insecurity in our country," added the top Afghan leader. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Patna High Court on Friday initiated contempt proceedings against the chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) for deliberately not implementing its orders. Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh ordered the contempt proceedings against BSEB chairman Anand Kishore, an IAS officer, on a petition filed by a school in Vaishali district challenging the Board's order dated April 12, 2017 cancelling the school's affiliation. The authorities of the Sri Ram Chandra Senior Secondary School came up with a grievance that despite quashing of the order of cancellation of affiliation by the court, the school is not being treated as affiliated to the Board. "Quashing of the order of cancellation of affiliation has natural consequence of restoration of the affiliation. If this simple thing, the Chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board is not able to understand, then either he is thoroughly incompetent to hold the position, which he is holding, or he is deliberately attempting to overreach the order of this Court," the order said. "Let suo motu contempt proceeding be initiated against Shri Anand Kishore, Chairman, Bihar School Examination Board, by registering a separate Miscellaneous Judicial Jurisdiction case," it said. The matter was posted for hearing on October 8. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj emphasised to countries that an environment of peace and security in is essential for cooperation and economic development, but Pakistan accused India of obstructing the region's progress and prosperity. Swaraj's statement on Thursday came at a meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation on the sidelines of the ongoing General Assembly session in New York. The grouping includes India, Pakistan and six other regional countries. It was established in December 1985 with an aim to promote the welfare of the peoples of "An environment of peace and security is essential for regional cooperation to progress and achieve economic development and prosperity of our people," Swaraj said at the Ministers Meeting. She said the number of incidents endangering are on the rise and remains the single-largest threat to peace and stability in the geopolitical region, and the world. "It is necessary that we eliminate the scourge of in all its forms, without any discrimination, and end the ecosystem of its support," she said according to sources. Swaraj left the SAARC meeting early. Shortly after her statement, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters that Pakistan wants to see SAARC become result-oriented. "We have to decide the next step. I have no hesitation in saying that in the way of SAARC's progress and in the way of the region's connectivity and prosperity, there is only one obstruction and one attitude. The attitude of one nation is making the spirit of SAARC and the spirit of the founding fathers of SAARC unfulfilled," he said, without naming India. Asked if he had talks with Swaraj at the meeting, Qureshi denied. "She left the meeting mid-way, may be she was not feeling well," he said. He said Swaraj talked about regional cooperation, but "my question is how will regional cooperation be possible when the regional nations are ready to sit together and you are the obstruction in that dialogue and discussion." Qureshi said a majority of the members present in the meeting understands the significance of SAARC. "They want to move on. I cant speak for them but I can deduce from their body language, disappointment; because if you do not move on and if you do not sit and convene meetings how do you move on," he said. He cited other regional groupings such as ASEAN and the EU and said "look at this (SAARC) atmosphere" ALSO READ: SAARC Development Fund forays into infra financing with AIIB support He called Swaraj's statement at the meeting "very vague". He said "you said the next summit will not happen until there is conducive environment. How do you define what conducive environment is? It can vary from country to country." Qureshi's remarks came days after New Delhi cancelled a proposed meeting between foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in New York. India cited attacks by Islamabad-backed groups in Jammu and Kashmir and stamps released by Pakistan glorifying Kashmiri terrorists as reasons for cancellation of the proposed talks. SAARC member-states have previously said they view the strained relations between India and Pakistan as one of the reasons for the little progress achieved by the geopolitical grouping in recent years. Nepal And Sri Lanka have expressed interest in reviving the summit postponed in 2016 after New Delhi pulled out over Islamabad's unrelenting support to terrorist activities in India and after Pakistan-based terrorists attack an Indian Army base in Uri. Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan had also joined India in boycotting the summit. SAARC summits are usually held biennially. The member-state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the association. The last in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nigeria's air force says one of its pilots has died after an accident between two aircraft rehearsing for the West African nation's 58th Independence Day celebrations. Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola says the pilot died after "successfully" ejecting from one of the F-7Ni aircraft during the rehearsals Friday morning in the capital, Abuja. He does not give further details of the accident or its cause. Nigeria's Independence Day is on Monday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress Friday hoped that the Maharashtra Police will conduct investigations in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case as per the law and not according to the "whims and fancies" of the BJP. The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of the five rights activists in connection with the case and declined to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe their arrest. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea filed by noted historian Romila Thapar and others, seeking the immediate release of the activists. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the apex court has decided that police will conduct the investigations in the case and no one can be held guilty before conviction in a court. "We hope that any person who is found in any clandestine activity against the Indian state would be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law rather than according to the whims and fancies of (BJP chief) Amit Shah who has already seen the writing on the wall in the five election-bound states," he told reporters. Polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are scheduled this year. Therefore, "frustrated and scared", Shah, fearing defeat in these poll-bound states, is prone to making intemperate remarks, and the Congress rejects them," he told reporters. Shah, attacking the Congress for its alleged support to Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements, has said "there is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress". The BJP chief's response came after the Supreme Court judgment. The Congress leader said, "I do not think the law or the Constitution permits anyone to be held guilty without the verdict of a court". Shah has been a "Tarhipaar" (externed) and has been in jail. "He should know what that is - it is only on conviction that anybody is found guilty," he said. On the BJP demanding an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his support to "urban naxals", Surjewala said, "Let (prime minister) Narendra Modi and Shah first apologise to the nation for inviting dreaded Pakistani ISI to our Pathankot Air Base." "Let Shah apologise for reposing confidence in the ISI which is the benefactor, protector and harbinger and exporter of terrorism from Pakistan to India. Why was he having confidence in them? "Let Shah and Modi apologise to people of India for thanking Pakistan and separatists after they formed a PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir," he said. The Congress leader also asked Shah and the prime minister to apologise for members of the BJP's IT Cell in Madhya Pradesh, who were allegedly found spying on the Indian Army. "Will you apologise Shri Amit Shah? Will you apologise Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji? We challenge you," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Puducherry Minister Friday lavished wholesome praise on Lt Governor Kiran Bedi for her performance, in contrast to the persistent attack on her by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and the ruling Congress over her style of functioning. Springing a surprise at a government function in which Bedi was the chief guest, Welfare Minister M Kandasamy lauded her efforts and said all should cooperate with her in improving the lot of the people of the union territory. "Bedi has been dedicating herself in ensuring that Puducherry emerged as a cleanest Union Territory. Files placed before her for approval had been cleared fast whether they are related to free rice scheme or garments for the poor," he said. Bedi, a former IPS officer, has been at loggerheads with the government on various issues and Narayanasamy and the Congress have accused her of delaying clearance to welfare schemes, bypassing the elected government and criticised her weekly field visits. Congress and its ally DMK had even demanded Bedi's recall while Narayansamy in May this year sought her resignation after the Centre gave its approval to waiver of crop loans taken from cooperative societies "overruling" her objections. Presiding over a seminar on "Poshan Abhiyan", which aims to bridge the nutrition gap and reduce stunting of children, Kandasamy also hailed Bedi's initiatives in desilting tanks and water bodies. Bedi, speaking on the occasion, said, "Puducherry is a strong welfare-oriented Union Territory and anganwadi workers are the biggest strength." The Department of Women and Child Development, which organised the seminar, spends annually around Rs 480 crore for various welfare projects and payment of monthly assistance to the aged people accounted for a big chunk of the expenditure involving disbursement of Rs 325 crore. "This is a large investment in a small Union Territory," she said, asking the personnel of the anganwadi centres to function with a feeling of 'sisterhood and neighbourliness. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu today made a strong case for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Bangladesh, saying it would boost trade in the South Asia region. "With Bangladesh we already proposed that we should try to sign a comprehensive economic partnership agreement and now we are going to start working on that and Bangladesh and India will actually take it forward," Prabhu said at a conference. The CEPA is a free-trade agreement under which two trading partners eliminate basic customs duties on maximum number of goods traded between them. Besides, both sides liberalise norms to promote trade in services and investments. Prabhu, who returned from his trip to Bangladesh on Friday, said India has also proposed a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with Sri Lanka and is trying to push trade with African countries, terming it far below potential. The Commerce Ministry earlier this week said that considering the vision of Bangladesh to become a middle income country by 2021 and a developed country by 2041, both ministers agreed that a CEPA covering goods, services and investment would provide a sound basis for substantial enhancement of trade and commercial partnership. The minister said both countries have agreed to upgrade trade logistics for seamless movement of cargo. Elaborating on his trip to Bangladesh, Prabhu said he has proposed development of Sunderbans, mangrove forests lying between the two countries, as global tourist destination. "We have decided to upgrade the logistics on either side so that movement of cargo will happen. There are certain issues. At one point the cargo had been held up for a long time so we have decided that from October 15 we will provide a one-time push and clear this backlog," Prabhu said. The minister said he had invited the Bangladesh commerce minister and senior officials next month to identify the opportunities of investment from India to Bangladesh. He said India was willing to invest into R&D for value addition to jute, a natural fibre crop produced by both India and Bangladesh, as it has immense job creation potential for the garment industries of the two neighbours. India is willing to invest into R&D. We have almost USD 8 billion credit line with Bangladesh. We can use part of that for making this happen and we can actually promote this. He said, India would be willing to engage with its South Asian neighbours to reap the advantages emanating from similar agro-climatic conditions, topography and crop cultivation. "On October 8, we will have a major meeting with West Africa. We have already done that with Southern Africa and East Africa, later in November-December we will do Northern Africa. "India's exports to Africa is only 8 per cent. Can you imagine, with a population as big as India, with 54 countries in the African Union, our exports to Africa is only 8 per cent so we are trying to push that," Prabhu said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab AIG (crime) Randhir Singh Uppal has been booked for allegedly raping a law student, a senior police official said Friday. Based on a complaint lodged by the woman on September 18, Inspector General (crime and women) Vibhu Raj has been asked to probe the allegations levelled by the victim against Uppal. The assistant inspector general of police (AIG), however, refuted the allegations, terming them as baseless. A case under Sections 376c (sexual intercourse by person in authority), 354D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 498 (Enticing or taking away or detaining with criminal intent a married woman) of the IPC and sections 25, 54, 59 under the Arms Act was registered against Uppal, the official said. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Lakhbir Singh said according to the statement of the 26-year-old victim, she was allegedly raped twice on gunpoint by the accused. "The case has been registered at Cantonment police station and further investigations are underway," he said. The student had filed her complaint on September 18 before the commissioner of police, Amritsar. In her complaint, she alleged that AIG Uppal posted in Chandigarh had been calling her repeatedly for the last three months and forcing her to keep sexual relations with him, Lakhbir Singh said. Notably, the complainant is married and is a mother of a six-year-old child. She claimed that the AIG was known to her mother, the official said. After receiving the complaint, the commissioner of police forwarded it to the Punjab Police Headquarters at Chandigarh for further investigation. Later, a senior woman police officer of IG rank was asked to investigate the complaint. The student, who had also accused the AIG of criminal intimidation, submitted some video clips to the police against Uppal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi Friday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence and come clean on the Rafale fighter plane deal. Gandhi was addressing a public meeting at Baikunthpur near Rewa before wrapping up his two-day visit to the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. "Now, I throw a challenge to Narendra Modiji. Answer these questions. The French president who signed Rafale deal with you is saying that you helped Anil Ambani to get the deal," he said. He then asked, "Why did you facilitate the deal for a company indebted with Rs 45,000 crore? Why did you buy a fighter aircraft for Rs 1600 crore which cost Rs 526 crore?" Gandhi said Modi gives a lot of speeches and added, "Spare some time to answer these questions. Give your clarification." He asked the prime minister to "tell the public that you are a 'chowikidar' (watchman) and I have not indulged in theft."He went on to add, "You (PM) won't answer these queries as you have helped your friend Anil Ambani bag Rs 30,000 crore deal and the country knows that Narendra Modi speaks lies one after another on the stage. And Narendra Modiji's intention is not clear."Ambani has already rejected Rahul Gandhi's allegations and emphasised that the government had no role in the Rafale- manufacturer French company Dassault picking up his company as a local partner. He had written to Gandhi on December 12, 2017, refuting allegations of his Reliance Group lacking experience to get the Rafale fighter jet deal. Ambani had written that Reliance Defence has the largest shipyard in the private sector at Pipavav in Gujarat and is currently building five Naval Offshore Patrol Vessels (NOPVs) for the Indian Navy and 14 Fast Patrol Vessels for the Indian Coast Guard. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu Friday called for revamping higher education to bring it in tune with the contemporary needs and said the "undesirable trend" of lakhs of engineering students graduating in India without basic employable skills must stop. He said education is not only for employment, but also meant to empower students and help them become global citizens. The vice president said the country faces numerous challenges and they have to be combated in a concerted manner to build a "New and Resurgent India". Naidu was addressing the fourth convocation ceremony of the National Institute of Technology Goa (NIT Goa). Goa Governor Mridula Sinha was also present on the occasion. "You are on the threshold of a new life. As you step out into the bigger world, take an oath to work for the good of the society and the country. "Education is not only for employment. It is meant to empower, enlighten, widen the perspective of the students and develop them into global citizens," the vice president said. "Here, I would like to emphasise upon the urgent need to revamp our higher education in tune with contemporary requirements. "We simply cannot continue to have lakhs of engineering students graduating without basic employable skills every year. This undesirable trend has to be stopped," he added. Naidu said educational courses must be designed to meet the needs of industries. "Our universities need to overhaul the syllabi and the teaching methodologies to make the courses relevant to the needs of the industries. "I also feel that engineering students should be made to work as interns for some weeks every year to enable them gain firsthand experience," Naidu added. He said the country can be proud of accomplishments made in the past seven decades in various fields, including agriculture, industry, information technology and atomic energy, but a lot still remains to be done. "Although our achievements have been quite impressive during the past seven decades in various fields, including agriculture, industry, health, atomic energy, defence research and information technology, among others, we have miles to go. "We need to improve the quality of life of the millions of Indians, and the role of scientists and engineers is very important in overcoming various challenges," he said. The vice president said that climate change and global warming are two of the biggest challenges the world is facing today and all nations have to step up their efforts to protect the environment and reduce carbon footprint. "I have always maintained that man should not tamper with nature, but co-exist in harmony with nature for a greener, life-enhancing future," Naidu said. "Please remember that from times immemorial, Indians believed in worshipping nature and its bounty. Therefore, always uphold our culture and protect nature for a better future," he said while addressing the students. Naidu listed the challenges being faced by the country. "Poverty, illiteracy, diseases, farmers' distress and social evils like atrocities on women and weaker sections, child labour, terrorism, communalism and corruption have to be eradicated to build a New and Resurgent India. "I expect the youth of the country to be in the forefront of this noble mission," he said. He asked the students to come up with innovative and cost-effective solutions, especially in areas such as healthcare and education. "As engineers, it is important for you to take a closer look at the collective needs of the populace and come up with innovative, cost-effective solutions, especially in areas such as healthcare and education. "I would also like the engineering professionals to assume greater responsibility in creating safe, secure, healthy, productive and sustainable life for the countrymen," Naidu added. The vice president said "for India to become the third largest and a 10 trillion dollar economy by 2030, we have to surmount many barriers and achieve faster growth". Naidu said India is the fastest-growing economy and its Gross Domestic Product is expected to grow at 7.3 per cent next year. "With improvement in the ease of doing business rankings, India has become an attractive destination for FDIs, while the World Bank had stated that private investments are expected to grow by 8.8 per cent in FY 2018-19," he said. Naidu praised the infotech industry and also the government's 'Skill India' programme. "The IT sector continues to be a leading employer even as India remained the third largest hub for technology startups," he said. "With India poised to become a high middle-income country by 2030, there will be lot of opportunities for the youth in different sectors. "The need of the hour is to impart skills to the youngsters to enable them find gainful employment or become self-employed. The government's 'Skill India' programme is a step in that direction," the vice president noted. He said knowledge of technology combined with ethics and values can ensure transparency and prevent social evils like corruption and gender discrimination. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The wife of a beef lynching victim in Ramgarh district Friday received Rs 5 lakh compensation from the district judge Vidhan Chandra Chaudhary, official sources said. Chaudhary handed over a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to Marium Khatoon, wife of the victim Alimuddin Ansari, in presence of senior officials of district administration. Alimuddin Ansari was lynched by a mob in Ramgarh town for allegedly carrying beef on his vehicle on June 30, 2017. As many as 11 persons have been convicted in the case with life imprisonment. A Division bench of the Jharkhand high court granted bail to 10 of the 11 convicts. SK Shukla, additional public prosecuter who appeared in the court during the hearing, said that prosecution had urged the court for the victim's compensation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ryanair cancelled scores of European flights on Friday as unions staged what they warned could be the biggest strike in the airline's history. The Dublin-based carrier has played down fears of widespread disruption but confirmed it would cancel about 250 flights. "Today, over 2,150 Ryanair flights (90 per cent of our schedule) will operate as normal carrying 400,000 customers across Europe," the airline said in statement. Walk-outs by cabin crew took place in Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. In some countries, pilots' unions also took action. At Charleroi Airport in Belgium, around 20 strikers unfurled a strike banner at the terminal and four of 12 scheduled services were cancelled. "Some cabin crew staff earn 2,000 euros, and you have a colleague who does exactly the same work, who only earns 1,000 euros, and with 1,000 euros in Belgium, it is impossible to live," said Yves Lambot of the CNE union in Belgium. Tensions ran high at Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands where some passengers had already passed though security when a flight to London was cancelled with just half-an-hour until take-off. The Dutch union VNV said it was seeking to take legal action to prevent Ryanair from bringing pilots in from abroad to replace striking Dutch crews. At Porto airport, where Ryanair has its main base in Portugal, about 10 people queued up Friday morning in front of the airline's counter to find alternatives to cancelled flights. "The company has provided a bus. It's not that comfortable. Instead of 50 minutes, the trip will take five hours. But at least I will arrive today," one traveller told Portugal's SIC television. Affected customers received email and text message notifications on Tuesday to advise them of cancellations and options, Ryanair said. Trade unions hope that Friday's 24-hour stoppage will be the biggest strike in the Irish carrier's history. Ryanair staff have been seeking higher wages and an end to the practice whereby many have been working as independent contractors without the benefits of staff employees. A key complaint of workers based in countries other than Ireland is the fact that Ryanair has been employing them under Irish legislation. Staff claim this creates huge insecurity for them, blocking their access to state benefits in their country. EU Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen said on Wednesday air crew should be employed under contracts from the country where they work. "Respecting EU law is not something over which workers should have to negotiate, nor is it something which can be done differently from country to country. I made this very clear to Mr O'Leary today," Thyssen said in a statement after a meeting between Ryanair's combative chief executive Michael O'Leary and EU officials. At a press conference the same day, O'Leary called for cancellation of the strike, threatening that he would shrink Ryanair's fleet at two Brussels airports if it went ahead. Last month, Ryanair pilots across Europe staged a coordinated 24-hour stoppage to push their demands for better pay and conditions, plunging tens of thousands of passengers into transport chaos at the peak of the busy summer season. In July, strikes by cockpit and cabin crew disrupted 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, affecting 100,000 travellers. This week, Ryanair signed deals with cabin crew unions in Italy to provide employment contracts under Italian law. The UK's Civil Aviation Authority has called on Ryanair to compensate passengers affected by the strikes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ryanair braced Friday for what unions warn will be the biggest strike in the airline's history -- although the carrier played down fears of disruption for travellers. The Dublin-based carrier said it would have to cancel nearly 250 flights amid walk-outs in Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. But the company insisted the vast majority of its 2,400 normally scheduled flights would be unaffected by "these unnecessary strikes". "We find this strike... unreasonable and somewhat out of sync with the progress we thought we were having," Ryanair COO Peter Bellew said in a conference call with journalists on Thursday. Ryanair said in a statement that the vast majority of its 2,400 flights on Friday "will be unaffected by these unnecessary strikes and will operate as scheduled". Affected customers received email and text message notifications on Tuesday to advise them of cancellations and options, Ryanair said. Trade unions have claimed that Friday's 24-hour stoppage will be the biggest strike in the Irish carrier's history. "By not cancelling enough flights for tomorrow's strike, Ryanair's irresponsible behaviour could create tensions and insecurity for all airport staff, Ryanair and the passengers concerned," the Belgian CNE union said in a statement. Ryanair staff have been seeking higher wages and an end to the practice whereby many have been working as independent contractors without the benefits of staff employees. Another key complaint of workers based in countries other than Ireland is the fact that Ryanair has been employing them under Irish legislation. Staff claim this creates huge insecurity for them, blocking their access to state benefits in their country. EU Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen said on Wednesday air crews should be employed under contracts from the country where they work. "Respecting EU law is not something over which workers should have to negotiate, nor is it something which can be done differently from country to country. I made this very clear to Mr O'Leary today," Thyssen said in a statement after a meeting between Ryanair's combative chief executive Michael O'Leary and EU officials. "The internal market is not a jungle; it has clear rules on fair labour mobility and worker protection. This is not an academic debate, but about concrete social rights of workers." At a press conference O'Leary called for the cancellation of the strike, threatening that he would shrink Ryanair's fleet at two Brussels airports if it went ahead. Last month, Ryanair pilots across Europe staged a coordinated 24-hour strike to push their demands for better pay and conditions, plunging tens of thousands of passengers into transport chaos at the peak of the busy summer season. In July, strikes by cockpit and cabin crew disrupted 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, affecting 100,000 travellers. This week, Ryanair signed deals with cabin crew unions in Italy to provide employment contracts under Italian law. The UK's Civil Aviation Authority has called on Ryanair to compensate passengers affected by the strikes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Southern Railway Friday said its employees have contributed Rs 4.7 crore to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the natural calamities that struck the country recently. This is in addition to the Rs 1.08 crore given by Thiruvananthapuram railway division and the Rs 43 lakh by the Palakkad division towards the Kerala Chief Minister's Relief Fund, a press release said here Friday. The recent floods killed over 400 people in Kerala while heavy rains caused flashfloods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh and surrounding states killing over 25 people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Flagging the issue of cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, India on Friday said the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has "suffered" because of "one nation" that continues to give problems. Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh, during his address at the annual session of the PHD Chamber of Commerce here, also asserted that a "greater engagement" with China is happening, as one cannot stay in a "state of perpetual enmity or seeming enmity". "The SAARC has suffered because of one nation, and that nation continues to give problems... You cannot indulge in terror against countries with whom you want to take the grouping forward," he said in a veiled reference to Pakistan. "Therefore, the SAARC has suffered despite the secretariat being there, and all the mechanisms existing. Because of this one nation, with whom a couple of other nations cannot get together. Therefore, it will take a little time to even out, to look at it," Singh said. The SAARC is the regional intergovernmental organisation and geopolitical union of nations in South Asia. Its member states include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. On Thursday, in a veiled attack on Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New York told a meeting of the SAARC foreign ministers that the scourge of terrorism remains the single largest threat to peace and stability in the South Asian region and it is necessary to eliminate the ecosystem of its support. India had boycotted the 2016 SAARC summit citing Islamabad's unrelenting support to terrorist activities in India and after Pakistan-based terrorists attacked an Indian Army base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir. Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan had also joined India in boycotting the summit. Union minister Singh made his address during a session on 'India's strategic approach towards neighbouring countries: challenges and way forward". He said, BIMSTEC, on the other hand is "thriving" and getting better, getting more attention, because there is no such problem there. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation of seven nations of South Asia and South East Asia. Its member states are -- Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan. On relationship with China, he said, India has "consciously taken a decision that China needs to be engaged, you cannot stay in a state of perpetual enmity, or seeming enmity". "Therefore, a greater engagement has taken place in manners that were not thought of earlier. So, who would have thought of the unofficial summit at Wuhan, where the Chinese President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sat together without any agenda, taking things forward from there," he said. The minister said India's economic engagement with China has "increased" and similarly, China's engagement with India has increased. "And, that is the way forward, where you can have people-to-people contacts, better understanding, and can have economics dictating how relations will pan out in the future," he said. On the land boundary with China, Singh said, its a "complex issue" for many reasons. "There is history to it, egos to it, many things to it. That needs to be settled when the atmosphere can be made conducive, and that is what is being attempted with the greater engagement with China," he said. The minister earlier in his speech also highlighted the nature of ties India now enjoys with other neighbours, including Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, Sri Lanks and Bangladesh. With Bhutan India has "excellent relationships", strategic and otherwise, he said. "Relationships with Myanmar were slightly wavering at a particular period of time where we toed a particular line, propogated by people who did not know Myanmar... Today, it firmly believes its best friend is India," Singh said. On ASEAN ties, he said, "We are firmly plugged into various calculations for ASEAN. We have a much deeper understanding of them and they have a much deeper understanding of us. Ten heads of states from ASEAN attended the Republic Day celebrations in India." "Our resolve to break the barriers and reach out in manners, which were not feasible earlier," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cloud-enabled software firm Salesforce will wait for India's draft data protection bill to take a final shape, in order to firm up its strategy on aspects like data localisation, and will abide by the rules, a top India executive of the company has said. "In any country in which we are doing work, we would definitely...look at supporting what the government is looking at, and we will figure out areas, ways and means to comply with that," Sunil Jose, Senior Vice President and Country Leader, at Salesforce India told PTI here. A case in point is the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR (European Union's data privacy law), where the company has ensured that it is compliant with the framework. "The amount to work we have got done in that part of the world is huge, and we are pretty much compliant with all the work which is being asked from our end," Jose said on the sidelines of the company's annual user conference 'Dreamforce'. In India, the issue of data localisation has exposed a deep divide amongst the industry players -- many prominent US trade bodies whose members include tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft are reportedly opposing government's plans to mandate storing of data, locally. While Paytm has been in favour of storing and processing critical data like payments within India, Google's stance has been to allow free flow of data. As such, India's draft personal data protection bill recognises privacy as a fundamental right, and proposes "explicit consent" for processing sensitive personal information like religious or political belief, sexual orientation and biometric information. The draft bill, for which the government is seeking public suggestions by September 30, also proposes to restrict and impose conditions on the cross-border transfer of personal data. "I think there is a huge debate...we would like to see where it gets settled and then work our way forward...," Jose added. He noted that governments all over are taking long and considered approach on data protection rules, and engaging industry proactively in discussions. "Any government that put together any bill will definitely give service providers enough time to work on their strategy," he noted. He said that enterprise business focus meant that Salesforce will not get directly be impacted by personal data protection rules per se, but added that the data localisation aspects will require the firm to calibrate its strategy "at some point". "We will have to do some work around it, for sure. So we need to know where it (the bill) lands up and when final decisions are taken by the government. And then we put our strategy together," he added. Salesforce currently has datacentres in Japan and Australia. Terming India's efforts to safeguard privacy as "a step in the right direction" in the backdrop of massive data consumption spurred by low-cost devices and affordable tariffs, Jose said that rules, while important, will not address every outstanding issue. "I wouldn't think that the bill will take care of everything. It is about organisations...like all of us who need to work though that in a systematic manner...as to what we do with the data and be open and transparent about it," Jose added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Retired Supreme Court Judge N Santosh Hegde welcomed the apex court judgement Friday paving the way for entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala. "I fully agree with the judgement. All through...for decades...women were discriminated as another human being. God is the same for both man and woman," the former Solicitor General of India told PTI. "Their biological differences cannot be a ground for the purpose of refusing entry into the temple. I think Supreme Court recently has been giving some very positive and good decisions. This is a also very good one. I fully agree with it," the former Karnataka Lokayukta added. The five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. The CJI said the practice of exclusion of women of 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as essential religious practice and Kerala law denies rights to women on ground of physiological reasons. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Friday allowed entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala. The five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said banning entry of women to Kerala's Sabrimala temple is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. It said religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. While Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud concurred with the CJI and Justice A M Khanwilkar, Justice Indu Malhotra gave a dissenting verdict. The court pronounced its verdict on a clutch of pleas challenging the ban on entry of women of menstrual age in Kerala's Sabrimala temple and said law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. The bench passed four sets of separate judgements. The CJI said devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination and patriarchal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. He said the devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not constitute a separate denomination. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's refusal to interfere with the probe by the state police against five Left-wing activists in connection with violence in Koregaon- Bhima in December last year. Fadnavis said the decision of the top court proved that there was "no crushing of dissent" or any "conspiracy" behind the action by the state police against Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha. The five are under arrest at their respective homes since August 29. "This is a victory for the Pune police which collected forensic and collaborative evidence. We will move appropriate courts and take custody of the arrested persons," Fadnavis said. He was reacting soon after the Supreme Court declined to appoint an SIT to probe the arrest of the five activists by the Pune police. The court said the arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist) organisation. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. "The Supreme Court has vindicated the state of the government and the Pune police. The court has no doubt over the material evidence submitted," the chief minister told reporters here. He said the arrested people had "links" with banned naxal groups and that the police had not acted with any ulterior motive. "A conspiracy against the nation has been unearthed by the police," Fadnavis said. According to the Supreme Court order, the government will go to the appropriate court in the case, he said and expressed confidence that they will be brought to book for their role in conspiracy against the nation. "There is enough material that they were planning internal disturbances. We are confident that appropriate courts will grant us their custody," the chief minister said. "Urban naxals were also plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Fadnavis said. He also defended the state police for addressing a press conference after the arrest, which had come in for criticism. "A lot of things were said against the police after the arrest and an atmosphere was created by pseudo, so-called neo-liberals in the media that the arrests have been made without evidence. The police had to say that the arrests were not motivated but backed by real and powerful evidence," he said. "We will look into the fine print of the order regarding the police press conference. The press conference is not important but the real issue of conspiracy against the nation is. If holding the press conference was wrong, we will improve it," he said. Fadnavis said political parties should not support the arrested persons for political reasons after the SC verdict, "otherwise the political parties will stand exposed." Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on August 28 from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi. The majority verdict by the Supreme Court said the protection of house arrest of the activists will remain in force for four more weeks to enable the accused to seek appropriate legal remedy at appropriate legal forum. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court Friday lifted a ban that prevented women and girls between the age of 10 and 50 from entering the famous Sabarimala temple in Kerala, holding this centuries-old Hindu religious practice is illegal and unconstitutional. Women activists hailed the judgement that paved the way for entry of female devotees of all ages as a victory for gender equality while Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said it would make Hinduism even more inclusive. The temple barred women of a "menstruating age"-- defined as between the ages of 10 and 50--from entering. The Chief Justice Dipak Misra-headed Constitution bench in a 4-1 verdict held that the existing ban is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. "Restrictions put by Sabarimala temple can't be held as essential religious practice," said Justice Misra, adding religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. While Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud concurred with the CJI and Justice A M Khanwilkar, Justice Indu Malhotra gave a dissenting verdict. Justice Malhotra was of the view that it is not for courts to determine which religious practices are to be struck down except in issues of social evil like 'Sati'. Sabarimala is a prominent Hindu temple which attracts tens of millions of pilgrims every year. The hill top shrine remains open only for a little over four months in a year and the approach is through a forested area that involves an arduous 5-km trek from the Pampa river base camp.. Describing the verdict as "unfortunate", Rahul Easwar, the president of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena, said the organisation would file a review petition against the judgement. Easwar, grandson of a former Sabarimala priest the late Kandararu Maheswararu, said, "We will defintely go ahead with the fight. Until October 16, the Sabarimala temple is closed. So, we have time." Kerala Religious Trusts Minister Kadakampally Surendran described the verdict as "historic", while the shrine's head priest Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru said though the verdict was "disappointing", the management accepted it. Kerala's Left Front government had favoured the entry of women of all age groups into the temple. The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which administers the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa, said it was bound to implement the judgement. Mariam Dhawale, General Secretary of the The All India Democratic Women's Association, called the verdict another step that would help in bringing equality. The court passed four sets of separate judgements on a clutch of pleas challenging ban on the entry of women of menstrual age in Sabrimala saying law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. The CJI said devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination and patriarchal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. He said devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not constitute a separate denomination. The CJI said practice of exclusion of women of 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as essential religious practice and the temple rule denies rights to women on grounds of physiological reasons. Justice Nariman said the Sabarimala temple custom barring women of 10-50 age is not backed by Article 25 and 26 of the Constitution. He said the custom of barring women is violative of Article 25 (Clause 1) and Rule 3(b) of Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (authorisation of entry) Rules, 1965 is liable to be struck down. Justice Chandrachud said religion cannot be used as cover to deny rights of worship to women and it is also against human dignity. He said prohibition on women is due to non-religious reasons and it is a grim shadow of discrimination going on for centuries. Devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not form separate religious denominations, Justice Chandrachud said and added that any custom or religious practice if violates dignity of women by denying them entry due to her physiology is unconstitutional. He said the popular notion about morality can be offensive to dignity of others and exclusion of women because she menstruates is utterly unconstitutional. Justice Chandrachud held that exclusion of women is violative of right to liberty, dignity and equality and said banning women of a particular age group is not essential practice of religion. In her dissenting verdict, Justice Malhotra said issues which have deep religious connotation should not be tinkered with to maintain secular atmosphere in the country. She said right to equality conflicts with right to worship of devotees of Lord Ayyappa. She said the issue in this case not limited to Sabarimala only. It will have far reaching implications for other places of worships. Justice Malhotra said notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion and India has diverse religious practices and constitutional morality would allow anyone to profess a religion they believe. She said equality doctrine cannot override fundamental right to worship under Article 25. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union minister Hansraj Ahir welcomed Friday the Supreme Court's decision not to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists by the Maharashtra Police, saying it was appropriate and vindicated the action of police. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused Friday the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists and declined to appoint a SIT to probe their arrest. The Maharashtra Police had arrested the activists on August 28 in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave -- 'Elgaar Parishad' -- held on December 31 last year that had allegedly triggered violence later at Koregaon-Bhima village in the state. Ahir, the minister of state for Home, speaking to reporters in Maharashtra's Chandrapur said, "We welcome the SC verdict today even we were of the opinion that the police's action against the activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima case was appropriate." "Investigation went on upto six months. After that some evidence surfaced that these people, while staying in cities, were instigating people...there was also proof and action was taken," the minister told PTI. This was proved by the Supreme Court verdict Friday and it was clear the police investigation was on the right track, Ahir said, adding the court has accepted the position of the Maharashtra Police. The minister said naxalism was "coming to an end" in rural areas. But Naxals had infiltrated the tribal population and may have been attempting to spread Maoist ideology in urban areas with the help of some people. Their designs had not succeeded, he said. "Naxalism is a threat to democracy. We have to save the country. The Maharashtra Police has done the right thing," he said. He said it was the government's responsibility to protect democracy in addition to national security. The five activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- were put under house arrest on August 29 following an apex court order on the plea by historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala against the police action. The court said Friday the accused will remain in house arrest for four more weeks during which they are at liberty to avail legal remedies in appropriate court which can consider the case on merits. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court judgement Friday refusing to grant relief to the five arrested rights activist in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case gave a graphic description of their activities and the earlier cases against them for their alleged links with outlaws, including naxals and maoists. Three of the five accused persons were prosecuted in the past for offences filed under the Sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Arms Act, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in a number of cases. They were however absolved of all the charges in most of the cases filed against them. The apex court dealt with the arrest of Gautam Navalakha, a Human Rights activist and New Delhi-based journalist; Sudha Bharadwaj, an IIT graduate who is also an advocate and national green secretary of PUCL; Varavara Rao (79), a Hyderabad-based poet and a political worker; Arun Ferreira, a Mumbai-based lawyer and Human Rights activist and Vernon Gonsalves, a Mumbai-based writer. Prior to the present case, Ferreira was accused in 11 cases and got acquittal in all of them. Gonsalves had 18 cases, as per the majority judgment penned by Justice A M Khanwilkar on behalf of himself and Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and he got acquitted in 17 of them. An appeal is pending in one case. As per the minority judgment written by D Y Chandrachud, however, there were 19 cases filed against Gonsalves earlier and he was acquitted in 17 of them. An appeal is pending in one case where Gonsalves stands convicted, while an application for discharge is pending before the Gujarat High Court in the other case, Justice Chandrachud noted. Regarding 79-year-old Hyderabad-based poet and political worker Varavara Rao, the majority judgement noted that there were 25 criminal cases registered against him and he got acquitted in all of them. In Justice Chandrachud's judgement, however, the number is 20. The Maharashtra police had arrested these five activists on August 28 in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave -- 'Elgaar Parishad' -- held on December 31 last year that had allegedly triggered violence later at Koregaon-Bhima village in the state. The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea for their immediate release, saying "it is not a case of arrest because of mere dissenting views or difference in political ideology". Besides them, Pune police had on June 6 arrested five persons, including Nagpur resident Surendra Gadling, Delhi resident Rona Wilson, Mumbai resident Sudhir Dhawale, Nagpur resident Shoma Sen and Nagpur and Gadchiroli resident Mahesh Raut. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea for immediate release of the five rights activists, held in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case for alleged Naxal links, saying "it is not a case of arrest because of mere dissenting views or difference in political ideology". An apex court bench, by a majority verdict of 2:1, also refused to appoint an SIT to probe their arrest, in a shot in the arm for the Maharashtra Police which has maintained that the action against the activists was based on cogent material and evidence. The court said the accused will remain in house arrest for four more weeks during which they are at liberty to avail legal remedies in appropriate court which can consider the case on merits. The verdict came as a huge setback to activists who came out in support of the accused with various allegations against the investigators, as the top court held that the "accused cannot ask for changing the investigating agency or to do investigation in a particular manner including for court-monitored investigation." The three-judge bench refused to interfere with the arrest of the five rights activists and said further proceedings against them would be decided on the merits of the case without being influenced by the observations of the apex court. It also said that this is not the stage where the "efficacy of the material or its sufficiency" can be evaluated nor it is possible to enquire whether it is genuine or fabricated as it would cause prejudice to the parties, adding they can opt for discharge at an appropriate stage if there is no evidence against them. The Maharashtra police had arrested the activists on August 28 in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave -- 'Elgaar Parishad' -- held on December 31 last year that had allegedly triggered violence later at Koregaon-Bhima village in the state. The five activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- were put under house arrest on August 29 following an apex court order on the plea by historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala against the police action. "We are of considered opinion that it is not a case of arrest because of mere dissenting views expressed or difference in the political ideology of the named accused, but concerning their link with the members of the banned organisation and its activities," the majority verdict of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar said. Justice D Y Chandrachud, who wrote a separate dissenting judgement, said dissent is symbol of a vibrant democracy. "Individuals who assert causes which may be unpopular to the echelons of power are yet entitled to the freedoms which are guaranteed by the Constitution. Dissent is a symbol of a vibrant democracy. Voices in opposition cannot be muzzled by persecuting those who take up unpopular causes," the judge said. Refraining from dealing with the issues raised by the accused, Justice Khanwilkar, writing the majority judgement for himself and the CJI, said any observation made by this court may cause "serious prejudice" to them who are not before this court resulting in "serious miscarriage" of justice. "We may hasten to mention that we have perused the Registers containing relevant documents and the Case Diary produced by the State of Maharashtra. But we have avoided to dilate on the factual position emerging therefrom, lest any prejudice is caused to any accused or the prosecution, in any manner," it said. "The said proceedings shall be decided on its own merits uninfluenced by any observation made in this judgment, which is limited to the reliefs claimed in the writ petition to transfer the investigation to an independent Investigating Agency and/or Court monitored investigation. Investigating Officer is free to proceed against the concerned accused as per law," the court said. Justice Khanwilkar said except pointing out some circumstances to question the manner of arrest of the five accused, no specific material facts and particulars are found in the petition about the alleged mala fide exercise of power by the investigating officer. He said a vague and unsubstantiated assertion was not enough and the plea of the petitioners of lack of evidence against the accused has been seriously disputed by the investigating agency. "They can avail such remedies as may be permissible in law before the jurisdictional courts at different stages during the investigation as well as the trial of the offence under investigation. "During the investigation, when they would be produced before the court for obtaining remand by the police or for grant of bail, they can also opt for remedy of discharge at the appropriate stage or quashing of criminal case if there is no legal evidence, whatsoever, to indicate their complicity in the subject crime," it said. It agreed with the argument of the State that the prayer for changing the Investigating Agency cannot be dealt with lightly and the court must exercise that power with circumspection. "As a result, we have no hesitation in taking a view that the writ petition at the instance of the next friend of the accused for transfer of investigation to independent Investigating Agency or for Court monitored investigation cannot be countenanced as public interest litigation," it said. Rejecting a plea for release of five activists held in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case for alleged Naxal links, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to order a special probe into their arrest, saying it was not a case of "more dissenting views or difference in political ideology". The 2:1 majority verdict of an apex court bench was hailed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as a "victory" for the state police, which had arrested the five activists after a nationwide raid a month ago. The BJP used the opportunity to slam the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi, alleging they stand exposed for supporting "urban naxals plotting to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi". The Congress hoped the police will conduct investigations as per the law and not according to the "whims and fancies" of the BJP. The petitioners, who had sought the Supreme Court's intervention in seeking immediate release of the five activists, said their stand found "vindication" in the dissenting opinion expressed by Justice D Y Chandrachud, who said dissent is symbol of a vibrant democracy. "Individuals who assert causes which may be unpopular to the echelons of power are yet entitled to the freedoms which are guaranteed by the Constitution. Dissent is a symbol of a vibrant democracy. Voices in opposition cannot be muzzled by persecuting those who take up unpopular causes," the judge said in his separate dissenting judgement. Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar, however, said in their majority verdict, "We are of considered opinion that it is not a case of arrest because of mere dissenting views expressed or difference in the political ideology of the named accused, but concerning their link with the members of the banned organisation and its activities." The court ruled the accused will remain in house arrest for four more weeks during which they are at liberty to avail legal remedies in appropriate court which can consider the case on merits. A large number of activists had come out in support of the accused and had levelled various allegations against the investigators. Refusing to appoint an Special Investigation Team to probe the arrests, the top court held that the "accused cannot ask for changing the investigating agency or to do investigation in a particular manner including for court-monitored investigation." The Maharashtra Police has maintained that its action was based on cogent evidence. Refusing to interfere with the arrests, the court said further proceedings against the accused would be decided on the merits of the case without being influenced by the observations of the apex court. It also said that this is not the stage where the "efficacy of the material or its sufficiency" can be evaluated nor it is possible to enquire whether it is genuine or fabricated as it would cause prejudice to the parties, adding they can opt for discharge at an appropriate stage if there is no evidence against them. The Maharashtra police had arrested the activists on August 28 in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave -- 'Elgaar Parishad' -- held on December 31, 2017 that allegedly triggered violence later at Koregaon-Bhima village. The five activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- were put under house arrest on August 29 following an apex court order on the plea by historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala against the police action. Pune Police chief K Venkatesham said they will continue to "professionally" investigate the case. Fadnavis said the court decision proved there was "no crushing of dissent" or any "conspiracy" behind the action by the state police. "This is a victory for the Pune police which collected forensic and collaborative evidence. We will move appropriate courts and take custody of the arrested persons," Fadnavis said. He said the arrested people had "links" with banned naxal groups and that the police had not acted with any ulterior motive. Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on August 28 from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi. Justice Khanwilkar, writing the majority judgement for himself and the CJI, said any observation made by this court may cause "serious prejudice" to them who are not before this court resulting in "serious miscarriage" of justice. "We may hasten to mention that we have perused the registers containing relevant documents and the case diary produced by the State of Maharashtra. But we have avoided to dilate on the factual position emerging therefrom, lest any prejudice is caused to any accused or the prosecution, in any manner," he said. The judge said except pointing out some circumstances to question the manner of arrest, no specific material facts and particulars are found in the petition about the alleged mala fide exercise of power by the investigating officer. He said a vague and unsubstantiated assertion was not enough and the plea of the petitioners of lack of evidence against the accused has been seriously disputed by the investigating agency. The court agreed with the state's argument that the plea to change the investigating agency cannot be dealt with lightly and it must exercise that power with circumspection. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court has restrained the lawyers of the Orissa High Court and subordinate courts from going on strike and asked them to resume work to ensure litigants do not face any impediment in access to justice. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra issued the direction after a litigant, arrested for allegedly making derogatory remarks against the famous Konark temple in the state, moved the apex court seeking regular bail as the lawyers of the Orissa High Court were on strike since August 29 on account of a "rift" between members of the bar association and police. The Delhi-based petitioner had got interim bail in the matter from a metropolitan court here and moved the apex court for regular bail. The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, extended the interim relief granted to the petitioner -- Abhijit Iyer Mitra -- till October 5 so that he can moved the Orissa High Court. The apex court said,"We restrain the Orissa High Court Bar Association and other connected associations from going on strike and (direct them) to resume the court work so that no impediment is caused in the right of access to justice of any litigant and likes of the petitioner can file appropriate application before the High Court to protect their liberty and agitate their grievances." The apex court directed the Director General of Police of the state that investigation into the case, which was the cause of the rift between police and the lawyers, be transferred to the Inspector General of Police (Crime Branch) who shall himself probe the matter with the assistance of the Superintendent of Police. "If the petitioner seeks any kind of police assistance for the purpose of security, the same shall be duly considered by the concerned Inspector General of Police. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre Friday questioned the Supreme Court for its reported remark terming as "murderers" some Manipur Police personnel, chargesheeted in alleged fake encounter cases, saying it has "completely shaken" the morale of armed forces and securitymen operating in insurgency-hit areas. The government told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that they supported the applications filed by some Manipur Police personnel seeking recusal of the bench from hearing the Manipur fake encounters cases in which the CBI's special investigation team (SIT) is carrying out a probe. The petitioners, however, challenged the government's contention, saying this was an attempt to "overawe" the court, which should not recuse from hearing the matter. The court, which is hearing a PIL seeking a probe into as many as 1,528 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur, had on July 14 last year constituted an SIT of the CBI and ordered lodging of FIRs and investigating them. Besides the policemen, over 300 army personnel have also approached the top court challenging registration of FIRs against them for operations in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) is in force. "I have instructions from the Union of India that we are supporting these petitions (seeking recusal of bench). So far as armed forces in Manipur are concerned, they are having difficult time fighting insurgency," Attorney General (AG) K K Venugopal told the bench. The AG also questioned the prosecution of personnel from the armed forces and the police for conducting operations in the areas where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is in force, saying "they cannot understand why they are asked to face the prosecution". He said the reported remarks by the bench that "murderers" were walking freely has "shaken" the morale of armed forces and police personnel as they were sacrificing their lives but facing the prospect of being awarded death penalty for the alleged offence of murder. The bench, however, said the oral remarks by the bench during the hearing on July 30 was not "designed or directed" against any individual as it happened during the discussion in the court with the CBI Director. Justice Lalit said that on July 30, they were asking the CBI Director, who was then present in the court, about the status of the case. The court was informed that till then, 14 persons were chargesheeted for the alleged offences of murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence by the SIT. "We will make it clear and we will pass an order today that whatever had happened was in the course of discussion (with the CBI Director). It was not intended against any individual," the bench said. Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for petitioners, told the court that persons who were chargesheeted had a "genuine apprehension" that they would not get a fair trial and impartial justice due to the remarks by the bench. "This affects morale of Army and police personnel," he said, adding "this is our submission that this bench should not hear this case". Rohatgi, while making it clear that nobody was saying that court was "biased", said these persons, having been chargesheeted for the offence of murder, were facing the charge of life or death. The bench after hearing the submissions reserved its order on the application seeking its recusal from hearing the matter. During the arguments, Venugopal said personnel from armed forces and police were "sacrificing their lives" in the insurgency hit areas and after the reported remarks by the bench, "they do not know what will happen to them". He said after this remark by the highest court of the land, it would be very difficult for the trial judge to go against the observations of the apex court. "Even if you clarify this, will they ever be able to get rid of this thought from their mind. They are not saying that this matter should not be heard. But some other bench should hear this," Venugopal said. To this, the bench observed, "The CBI is investigating. No court is going to interfere with the investigation. We are just monitoring it. Is it your submission that some other bench should monitor the investigation?" The bench also said it has not been stated that the CBI was not investigating these cases properly. "Morale of entire armed forces in insurgency hit area under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is shaken," the Attorney General said, adding that even before the trial in the alleged encounter cases have started, the police personnel were termed as "murderers". "It is justified that you leave it to other bench to monitor this. Life of people is involved," he said. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, who is representing the petitioners in the main case related to alleged fake encounters in Manipur by Army, Assam Rifles and state police, said the bench should not recuse from hearing the matter as it had not said that these accused were murderers. "It (seeking recusal) is an attempt to overawe the court," he said, adding that these applications should be dismissed with cost. An advocate, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the main matter, also opposed the plea seeking recusal of the bench. Rohatgi, however, said, "Anybody can make a mistake. The court can also make a mistake. In section 377 (apex court's verdict on gay sex) and adultery case, the mistakes made earlier by this court has been corrected by this court". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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Following is the chronology of events in which the Supreme Court Friday paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala: *1990: S Mahendran files plea in Kerala High Court seeking ban on women's entry to temple. *Apr 5, 1991: Kerala HC upholds age-old restriction on women of a certain age-group entering the temple. *Aug 4, 2006: Indian Young Lawyers Association files plea in SC seeking to ensure entry of female devotees between the age group of 10 to 50 at the Lord Ayappa Temple at Sabarimala. *Nov 2007: LDF government of Kerala files affidavit supporting PIL questioning ban on women's entry. *Jan 11, 2016: Two-judge bench of SC questions practice banning entry of women at the temple. *Feb 6: Congress led UDF government takes U-turn, tells SC it is duty bound to "protect the right to practice the religion of these devotees". *Apr 11: SC says gender justice endangered by ban on women. *Apr 13: SC says tradition can't justify ban on women's entry. *Apr 21: Hind Navotthana Pratishtan and Narayanashrama Tapovanam files plea in SC supporting entry of women. *Nov 7: LDF government files fresh affidavit in SC saying it favoured the entry of women of all age groups. *Oct 13, 2017: SC refers the case to constitution bench. *Oct 27: Plea filed in SC for gender-equal bench to hear the case. *Jul 17, 2018: Five-judge constitution bench starts hearing the matter. *Jul 19: SC says women have fundamental right to enter the temple and questioned the rationale behind the age group. *Jul 24: SC made it clear that the ban on entry of women would be tested on "constitutional ethos". *Jul 25: Nair Service Society tells SC the celibate nature of Sabarimala temple's presiding deity Lord Ayyappa is protected by the Constitution. *Jul 26: SC observes it can't remain oblivious to ban on entry of women as they were barred on "physiological ground" of menstruation. *Jul 31: SC says constitutional scheme prohibiting exclusion has "some value" in a "vibrant democracy". *Aug 1: SC reserves verdict. *Sep 28: SC, in 4:1 verdict, allows entry of women in Sabrimala temple, says banning females' entry into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two senior lawyers, appointed by the Supreme Court as amicus curiae to assist it in deciding the sensitive issue of ban on entry of women of a particular age group in Kerala's Sabarimala temple, took diametrically opposite stands. Noted senior lawyer Raju Ramachandran took a progressive modern view and supported the PIL of Indian Young Lawyers Association, saying that women have "universal and legal right" to enter into the temple, which is a public shrine. "It is the freedom of conscience and the right to practise and profess their religion which is recognized under Article 25 of the Constitution of India... encompasses the liberty of belief, faith and worship, pithily declared as a constitutional vision in the Preamble to the Constitution of India," Ramachandran had submitted before the five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. However, another senior lawyer K Ramamoorthy, assisting the bench as an amicus curiae, had a different take over the controversial issue. He maintained that in all prominent Hindu temples in India there had been some religious practices based on beliefs which are essential part of the Hindu religion as considered by people for a long time. Batting for preservation of centuries-old practice banning women of certain age group, Rammoorthy had said that the devotees of Ayyappa form a separate religious denomination and hence protected under the fundamental rights governing religious freedom. The repression of women under the garb of "physiological factors" cannot be legitimised and patriarchy in religion cannot "trump over" devotion, the Supreme Court ruled Friday as it threw open the closed gates of the historic Sabarimala temple for women of all age groups. The historic verdict, which would add force to clamour for equality for women of other religions, extensively dealt with Article 25 (1) which was referred to by the Temple Board and the devotees in support of the practice of barring entry of girls and women between the menstrual age of 10 and 50 years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court's verdict allowing entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple, was "disappointing", but the shrine board will accept it, Sabarimala head priest Kandararu Rajeevarau said. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said banning entry of women to Kerala's Sabarimala temple is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. Travancore Devaswom Board President A Padmakumar told PTI that the Supreme Court's verdict will be studied in detail and further course of action will be decided after that. Padmakumar said the board had informed the court that they wanted to continue with the existing ritual practices, but now they have no other option but to implement the verdict The board, he said, will take steps to execute the apex court directive. It will study the judgement seriously, he said. Rahul Easwar, President of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena, said they were going for a review petition. Easwar is the grandson of late Sabarimala priest Kandararu Maheswararu, who died in May this year. The court pronounced its verdict on a clutch of pleas challenging the ban on entry of women of menstrual age in Kerala's Sabarimala temple and said law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. The Supreme Court's refusal to interfere in the arrest of five rights activists is "unfortunate and unexpected", a family member of P Varavara Rao, who is under house arrest here for his alleged links with Maoists, said Friday. Varavara Rao, a Left leaning writer, was arrested from the city last month, while activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Farreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested in New Delhi. The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere in the arrest of five rights activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint a SIT for probe into their arrest. The court also refused the plea seeking immediate release of the activists. "This is unfortunate and unexpected because the way the whole proceedings went on and the way the judges reacted, we were hoping that the case will be quashed... "Because the falseness of the concocted evidence has come out openly in the court. Despite our hopes and expectations today's 2:1 judgment refused to intervene," N Venugopal Rao, a nephew of Varavara Rao told PTI. Though the court refused to intervene, it was a relief that it extended the house arrest by four weeks, he said. Speaking to reporters, Varavara Rao's wife Hemalatha said, "We did not expect this judgment. We, me and Varavara Rao sincerely thank the lawyers for taking up our case. Following the arguments in the court, we assumed that the case will be quashed." Varavara Rao was arrested on August 28 by the Pune Police. He is under house arrest since August 30 as per the Supreme Court's order. Venugopal Rao said they will move either the Bombay High Court or the Hyderabad High Court seeking quashing the case against Rao and others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) has slapped a total penalty of Rs 7 million on Uttar Pradesh-based Regency Hospital as well as its two promoters for fraudulent trading in the company's shares. In two separate orders issued on Friday, imposed fine of Rs 1.5 million on Regency Hospital, and Rs 2.5 million each on Managing Director Atul Kapoor and Whole Time Director Rashmi Kapoor. They were found violating norms pertaining to fraudulent and unfair trade practices. Both are also promoters of the firm. Additionally, Rs 500,000 was imposed on Regency for failing to disclose to the exchange about information received from its promoters regarding their pledged securities. The watchdog examined the movement of the scrip during the period from April to September 2011. Subsequently, it was found that the firm and the directors along with other connected entities executed synchronised trades, reversal trades and self-trades among themselves, resulting in artificial volumes. "Notice employed and induced the services of the connected entities to trade among themselves to show an appearance of volume in the market by also executing structured, synchronised, reversal and self-trades to show artificial volume. "This was also coupled with the impact on traded prices by executing first trades for the day so as to set the price for trading day, contributing the price rise in the scrip,"the regulator said. The notices are Regency Hospital and the two directors. Seven Palestinians, including two boys aged 12 and 14, were killed in clashes with Israeli forces along the Gaza border, the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled strip said. Nasser Mosabih, 12, was shot in the head in clashes along the frontier east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza Friday, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP, on what was one of the bloodiest days since protests began on March 30. Fourteen-year-old Mohammed al-Houm, was shot dead "by live ammunition from the (Israeli) occupation forces" east of Al-Bureij in central Gaza, Qudra said. Five adult men were also killed in widespread clashes along the border, with a further 210 people hospitalised, the spokesman added. The Israeli army said some 20,000 "rioters" had gathered at multiple sites along the border. It said the protestors hurled "grenades and explosive devices in several different locations". It said troops were firing "in accordance with standard operating procedures." The army declined to comment on the reported deaths. Palestinians have been protesting at least weekly along the Gaza border since March. At least 194 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in that time, the majority during border protests. Smaller numbers have been hit by airstrikes or tank fire. One Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper. The protests are demanding the right of Palestinian refugees to be allowed to homes their families fled from in the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel and which are now in Israel. Israel says any such mass return would mean the end of it as a Jewish state and accuses Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas of orchestrating the protests. Friday's protests were bigger than those in recent weeks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP president Amit Shah Friday accused Congress chief Rahul Gandhi of standing with "urban naxals conspiring to kill" Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and asked him if he has lost his mental balance after losing public support. "There is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress," the BJP chief said, and asserted that the Congress stands "exposed" with the order of the apex court, which refused to interfere with the arrests of five activists in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case. Shah, who asked the Congress to clear its stand on the critical issue of urban naxalism, posted a barrage of tweets and later issued a statement on an issue he believes would fit in his party's campaign on the plank of national security. The BJP also held a press conference in which its spokesperson Sambit Patra projected the apex court ruling as a vindication of his party's stand and defeat of the Congress. "Rahul Gandhi sometimes stands with illegal infiltrators on the issue of NRC and sometimes with those in the JNU who raise slogans against India. Now he has stood with urban naxals conspiring to kill the prime minister. Has he lost his balance too after losing public support?" Shah said. The court order has "exposed" the Congress, Gandhi, other opposition parties and so called intellectuals who have politicised the issue of national security, he said, adding that they should apologise to the country. Shah also took a dig at the Congress over its "patriotism", saying Gandhi used the "khoon ki dalali" barb at the government following the Army's surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in 2016 and his mother and the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi cried over deaths of terrorists. He was apparently referring to the controversy following the encounter killing of some terrorists in Batla house in 2008, as a Congress leader had allegedly claimed that Sonia Gandhi had cried looking at images of the encounter. "There is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress. Support 'Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang' (break India gang), Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working. Welcome to Rahul Gandhi's Congress," Shah said. India is a vibrant democracy with a healthy culture of debate, discussion and dissent, he said, adding that "plotting against the country with the intent to harm its citizens is not one of these". Those who politicised this issue need to apologise, he said. The BJP president also tagged an August 28 tweet of Rahul Gandhi in which he had said that there is place for only one NGO in India, and it's called the RSS. "Shut down all other NGOs. Jail all activists and shoot those that complain. Welcome to the new India," he had said following the arrests of five activists by Maharashtra police. The Congress is concerned about human rights of naxals and infiltrators but not about the countrymen, Shah alleged. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, Friday refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists and also declined to appoint a special investigation team (SIT) to probe their arrest. Patra told a press conference that it was a "historic" day with India and its interests and security emerging victorious in the order. Citing comments of Gandhi and other Congress leaders against the BJP and the Narendra Modi government following arrests of the activists, he alleged Gandhi stood with them "shamelessly" to promote his political interests. "This is defeat of the Congress. Rahul Gandhi should hang his head in shame," Patra said. "Our country and national security mean nothing for Rahul Gandhi, and the only thing important for him is his political agenda... Why don't you stand with India and why do you stand with anti-India forces?" he asked Rahul. Patra said some of these activists were arrested earlier as well for their alleged links with banned outfits. The Congress wants to remove the prime minister, and it does not matter to it whether Pakistan does it or Maoists do it, he alleged and sought Gandhi's apology. In a reference to "Shaurya Diwas" to be celebrated by the BJP tomorrow to observe the second anniversary of the surgical strikes carried out by the Army in PoK, he said while his party would tell soldiers that it is with them in their fight, the Congress would say it is with Maoists and Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. The BJP has been attacking the Congress over its leader Navjot Singh Sidhu hugging Bajwa during his trip to Pakistan to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan as Pakistan Prime Minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There has been a significant progress in the relation between India and China this year and both the countries should work together to make the world a better place, Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui said here Friday. He was speaking at a programme in the Chinese Embassy here to mark the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. "This year we have seen significant progress in China-India relations. The Wuhan Summit this year, opened a new chapter in our relations. Both sides have been working very hard to translate Wuhan Consensus into action," Luo said. He said, "Both the countries should work together to make the world a better place. It is important to implement the consensus of leaders and transmit their personal friendship down to the people." In his address, Luo noted that since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the country has made tremendous progress both in economic and social development. "This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Chinese reform and opening up, which started in 1978 We have lifted over 700 million people out of poverty over the past 40 years, he said. He said China is expected to spend trillions in goods import and overseas investments, which will offer great market opportunities for all countries in the world, including India. Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh was a guest at the event. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Friday inaugurated the Space Centre and Innovation Hub at the Nagaland Science Centre here. It is being set up by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Nagaland in collaboration with the National Council of Science Museum, Government of India. Rio said the centre has the potential to provide a strong foundation for young students and intellectuals. The chief minister expressed hope that it would produce many innovators. "In Nagaland, we need to support students with a scientific bent of mind and give them opportunities to hone their skills so that they can come up with solutions that can help solve problems that we face as a society," he said. Besides students and the scientific community, the centre would also attract tourists and visitors, Rio said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A three-day exhibition showcasing the Defence forces' arms and ammunitions and models of assets was inaugurated here Friday as part of the nation-wide commemoration of the second anniversary of the Army's surgical strikes across the Line of Control. Naval Officer-in-Charge of Tamil Nadu and Puduchery Alok Bhatnagar inaugurated the exhibition, where the public can also view a fresh video clip of the surgical strikes released by the centre Thursday, a defence official said. The clip, which was made using overhead footage from unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs and thermal imaging, shows a terror launch pad being destroyed. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced last week that various events will be held from September 28 to 30 to commemorate the valour of soldiers. Exhibits on the weaponry of the defence forces and models, including that of ships, among others are on display at the event being held at a Kendriya Vidyalaya here. On September 29, 2016, the Army carried out surgical strikes on seven terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in retaliation to an attack on its base in Uri earlier that month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Friday the Parakram Parv exhibition at the military station here to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes carried out by the Army across the Line of Control. In the visitors' book at the Konark War Memorial here, Modi wrote that the country is proud of its armed forces which are committed to the defence of the motherland. Writing in Gujarati, he paid homage to martyrs who made the "ultimate sacrifice", saying they will be a source of inspiration for generations. He took a tour of the exhibition showcasing the combat capabilities of the Indian Army. Modi was accompanied by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. On September 29, 2016, the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on seven terrorist launchpads across the LoC in retaliation to an attack on its base in Uri earlier that month. The Army had said its special forces inflicted "significant casualties" on terrorists waiting there to cross into Indian territory. The defence minister had announced last week that various events will be held from September 28 to 30 to commemorate the valour of soldiers. After taking a round of the exhibition, Modi and Sitharaman proceeded to attend the Combined Commanders' Conference scheduled at the Jodhpur Indian Air Force station. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On the eve of the second anniversary of the surgical strikes, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Friday terrorists launch pads were destroyed after the exercise and those wanting to spread terror were adequately punished. The government is celebrating Parakram Parv from September 28-30 to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes the forces had carried out on terror launch pads in 2016. "We showed for the cowardly act of killing (that) India shall not sit and watch the whole thing. We proved to them (terrorists) that it (their acts) shall not go unpunished. "It is all out in the open now (that) all terrorists launch pads were cleared off and those who were wanting to spread terror were adequately punished," Sitharaman said at an event organised at the India Gate Lawns to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes. The minister said the government was celebrating the Parakram Parv through which people could see the valour of the armed forces and remember them. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Friday the "Parakram Parv" exhibition at a military station. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Government Friday constituted a seven-member ministerial panel headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi to examine modalities for revenue mobilisation in case of natural calamities and disasters. The panel would submit its report to the GST Council by October 31, an official release said. Earlier in the day, the GST Council -- chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley -- decided to set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to examine the legality of imposing a new tax on certain goods to raise resources for natural calamity-hit states like Kerala. Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac and Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal are part of the group. Other members of the GoM are Odisha Finance & Excise Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera, Maharashtra Finance & Excise Minister Sudhir Murgantiwar and Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prakash Pant. "Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has approved the constitution of a Group of Ministers today to examine the issue regarding 'Modalities for Revenue Mobilisation in case of Natural Calamities and Disasters'," the release said. To help tide over the losses suffered due to recent floods, Kerala had sought the GST Council's opinion on allowing imposition of higher taxes on goods within the state. The panel would look into five issues flagged by the Council, including whether the new tax should be levied only in the state concerned or should it be an all-India levy, and that should it be on specified luxury or sin goods only. Besides, the grouping would look at whether National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF)/ State Disaster Response Fund (SRF) mechanism is sufficient to deal with calamities as well as define circumstances where the 'calamity tax' can be imposed. Other issues such as the legal aspect of imposition of such a tax within the GST would also be looked at. Briefing reporters after the Council meeting, Jaitley said the GST law states that a special rate of tax can be imposed after permission of GST Council. Isaac said the GST law provides that the Council can impose a tax for a temporary period in the GST framework to help states in terms of exigencies. "We have not thought out the details, therefore GoM will look into it. An additional 1 per cent tax on some commodities was discussed," Isaac said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nationalist Congress Party's founding member Tariq Anwar Friday quit the party and announced he is giving up his Lok Sabha membership, saying he left aggrieved by the party's national president Sharad Pawar's "clean chit" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal. Amid speculation about the veteran Bihar leader's next move ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress said Anwar was "welcome" to return to the party from where he started his political career. Anwar was the Bihar Congress president in the 1980s and had represented his current parliamentary constituency Katihar as a Congress MP for times, before he joined hands with Pawar and deceased Meghalaya leader P A Sangma to form the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999. The NCP later allied with the Congress and Anwar served as a Union minister in the UPA-II government. The announcement, made by Anwar in his parliamentary constituency, is seen as a politically significant development for possible alignments in Bihar, where Congress, NCP and RJD have been part of the 'grand alliance or Mahagathbandhan' against the BJP and its allies. The Mahagathbandhan camp leaders lauded Anwar's decision, with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) urging Pawar to review his stand on the issue. The JD(U), headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and an ally of the BJP, termed Anwar's move opportunistic and aimed at "greener pastures". Anwar's Katihar constituency has a large number of Muslim voters and any indication towards his party or party leaders being sympathetic towards the BJP or Modi government could be politically incorrect, party leaders said. Notwithdtanding the Modi wave, Anwar had managed to win 2014 Parliamentary poll from Katihar as the NCP had fought at that time in alliance with the RJD and the Congress. In a statement after making the announcement before journalists in Katihar, 67-year-old Anwar said he was resigning from the posts of the NCP's national general secretary and as its leader in the Lok Sabha, besides giving up the party's primary membership and vacating his parliamentary seat. Anwar's move came a day after media reports quoted Pawar having told a Marathi channel that he did not think people had doubts over the prime minister's intentions in the Rafale fighter plane deal. Pawars reported statement was lauded by BJP chief Amit Shah who asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take a cue from his ally and place national interests above party The Congress and other opposition parties have been targetting Modi and the NDA government over the Rafale deal alleging corruption and crony capitalism. The government has denied the charges. An NCP spokesperson, however, issued a clarification terming the media reports quoting Pawar as "misleading and confusing" and claimed the party chief has had not given a clean chit to Modi. Anwar, however, said in his statement he was aggrieved by Pawar's statement since Modi has been given a clean chit over his intention despite the prime minister having not cared to prove himself clean in the Rafale deal. Anwar alleged the prime minister is fully involved in the Rafale deal and it was also substantiated by former French President Francois Hollande, referring to his reported remarks about France being left with no option in Dassault selecting Reliance Defence as an offset partner as part of the multi-billion dollar deal. The Bihar leader said he completely disagreed with Pawar's version, which he said has shattered the faith of countrymen in the Opposition. Lauding Anwar's step, senior Congress leader Prem Chand Mishra said his party would be keenly watching his next political move and if he chooses to return to the party (Congress), he would be most welcome. In New Delhi, senior NCP leader and Rajya Sabha MP D P Tripathi confirmed that Anwar has quit the party. RJD spokesman and MLA Bhai Virendra said his party welcomes the bold stand taken by Anwar. "We urge Sharad Pawar, who is a senior and widely respected leader, to review his stand on the issue," he said. JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, however, said Pawar had only aligned himself with the popular sentiment in the country. Calling it an act of opportunism, Prasad said Anwar has quit his party shortly ahead of Lok Sabha polls and, perhaps, he will find "greener pastures". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Markets across Odisha on Friday wore a deserted look as most of the business establishments remained closed in response to a one-day bandh call given by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). The CAIT has been protesting the decision of the Union Cabinet to allow 51 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. It was also against the US retail giant Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart for $16 billion. Around 20 lakh trading establishments downed shutters in the state in support of the CAIT call, said president of Odisha Byabasayee Sangh, Sudhakar Panda. He said almost all shops remained closed. The Malgodown in Cuttack and all godowns in the state remained closed for the day. During the bandh, there will be no loading and unloading of consumer goods. We have urged the central government to reconsider its decision," Panda said. He said the Centre will be responsible if the traders intensify their agitation in the future. Odisha'a Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Minister S N Patro, however, said that the bandh will have no impact on consumers and there will be no escalation in prices as there is enough stock of essential items for 15-20 days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tripura has exported its first consignment of locally made brooms to Bangladesh through Agartala-Akhaura International Check Post (ICP), near here, an official said Friday. The neighbouring country recently relaxed port restrictions on the import of nine new items from Tripura, including processed broom sticks made of Arjun flowers (Thysanolaena maxima). "The first consignment of broomsticks, weighing 13.5 MT, was exported to Bangladesh on Thursday. It was shipped from Pabiacherra in North Tripura district to Chittagong Trade Link, a Bangladesh-based trading concern," Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) officer and Agartala-Akhaura ICP manager Debashish Nandi told PTI. The shipment, worth USD 6,000, was flagged off by Assistant High Commissioner of Bangladesh Md. Shakhawat Hussain and Tripura Chamber of Commerce (TCCI) president ML Debnath, the ICP manager said. Earlier this week, Director of Industries and Commerce Sandeep Rathore issued a statement to notify the introduction of nine new items to the list of exports to Bangladesh. The new commodities include rubber latex, bamboo-based products, broomstick flowers, soyabean seeds, spare parts of CNG-run vehicles, dry fish and maize among other items. The state had been exporting 21 commodities to the neighbouring country before restrictions were lifted on these nine new items. Welcoming the Bangladesh government's decision, Deputy Director of Industries and Commerce Swapan Mitra, who is also in charge of the foreign trade division, said the move would boost the economy of the state. Debnath, on the other hand, expressed concern over the high customs duty imposed on the commodities. "We are happy that new items are being dispatched to Bangladesh, but the high rate of customs duty imposed on the goods remains a matter of concern," the TCCI president said. The levy will automatically increase product prices in the market, thus reducing their demand among people, he said. "No customs duty is levied on products imported from Bangladesh, but for commodities exported to the neighbouring country, Tripura will have to bear 35-45 per cent customs duty. Trade balance needs to be established along the Tripura-Bangladesh border," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump ordered a new FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against his Supreme Court pick Friday, as the Senate delayed a vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to make way for the probe. After a dramatic day-long hearing at which a university professor accused Kavanaugh of pinning her down and assaulting her at a party in the 1980s, the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier Friday approved his nomination in a preliminary vote along party lines. But committee chair Chuck Grassley then bowed to intense pressure from inside and outside Congress and announced he was asking Trump to order the new background review that "must be completed no later than one week from today." Trump, who repeatedly blasted Democratic opposition to Kavanaugh as a political "con-job," agreed. "I've ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh's file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week," the president said in a statement. Trump's order and the decision to put off a final vote came after a key Republican senator, Jeff Flake, threatened to break ranks with his party because of the clouds hanging over Kavanaugh's head. At least three women have now accused the 53-year-old conservative judge of sexual misconduct while drunk, as a high school and later a university student. Democrats have repeatedly demanded those charges be assessed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine if he is suitable for the lifetime high court appointment. Flake's stunning 11th-hour move played out on national television amid heated partisan debate and raucous protests in the halls of the Capital, where one woman cornered the Arizona senator in an elevator demanding he oppose Kavanaugh, citing her own experience with sexual assault. "This country's being ripped apart," said Flake. "And we have to ensure that we do due diligence here." His move earned the endorsement of another Republican seen as wavering on the nomination, Lisa Murkowski. With the Republicans holding a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate, that placed pressure on Trump to order the FBI probe. Republicans see Kavanaugh as pivotal to their gaining control of the nine-member Supreme Court bench. Trump nominated him to replace Anthony Kennedy, who for years was a swing vote between four conservative and four liberal justices. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump Friday reaffirmed support to his embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and asked the senators to confirm him, after a gripping Senate hearing in which the judge dismissed the allegations of sexual assault made by a clinical psychology professor as a "calculated and orchestrated political hit". Americans were glued to their television sets Thursday as the historic hearing opened with an emotionally chocked Christine Blasey Ford, 51, recounting the 36 years old incident which "drastically altered her life". Asserting that she felt it was her "civic duty" to share her story, Ford said at the age of 15 she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh in 1982 at a party. Both of them were in high school in suburban Maryland at that time. A furious Kavanaugh, 53, denied the allegations in a passionate defence. "I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation by Dr Ford. I have never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever. I am innocent of this charge," he said, repeatedly fighting back tears. "This whole two week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fuelled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked abut judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons," an aggressive Kavanaugh said in a tirade directed at Democrats. Within moments of the proceedings concluding, Trump wholeheartedly backed Kavanaugh, saying, "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting." "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him...Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote," Trump tweeted. The Senate judiciary committee, which has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, is set to vote on Kavanaugh's recommendation late Friday before the nomination goes to the full Senate comprising 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats. The full Senate is expected to start the debate on the nomination on Saturday and a final vote on his confirmation is expected next week. Ford's allegations of sexual assault was supported by the Democrats. In his testimony to the Senate Committee, Kavanaugh blasted the Democrats for destroying his good name. "I have to say that I fear for the future. Last time I was here, I told this committee that a federal judge must be independent, not swayed by public or political pressure," he told the lawmakers. "I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process. You have tried hard. You have given it your all. No one can question your effort, but your coordinated and well-funded effort to destroy my good name and to destroy my family will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out," he said. "You may defeat me in the final vote, but you'll never get me to quit. Never. I'm here today to tell the truth," he said. "After I have been in the public arena for 26 years without even a hint -- a whiff -- of an allegation like this. And when my nomination to the Supreme Court was just about to be voted on...I am called 'evil' by a Democratic member of this committee...This onslaught of last-minute allegations does not ring true," Kavanaugh said. Earlier, to a question posed by Senator Dianne Feinstein whether Kavanaugh was the boy who attacked her, Ford responded, "The same way I'm sure I'm talking to you right now..." "Absolutely not," Ford said when Feinstein followed up with another question: "So what you're telling us is this could not be a case of mistaken identity?"As Ford was giving her testimony, Kavanaugh's protesters were standing silent outside the hearing room, clogging halls and elevators. Ford said she had kept the episode a closely-guarded secret, except for sharing it with her husband and few of her friends, till the time it started appearing in the press that Kavanaugh was going to be nominated as a Supreme Court Judge. In early July 2018, Ford said, she saw press reports of Kavanaugh shortlisted for potential Supreme Court nominees. "I thought it was my civic duty to relay the information I had about Mr Kavanaugh's conduct so that those considering his potential nomination would know about the assault," she said. Giving details of the incident, Ford, who was seemingly on the verge of tears, said it happened one evening at a common friends place in Chevy Chase area where they had gathered. "When I got to the small gathering, people were drinking beer in a small living room on the first floor of the house. I drank one beer that evening. Brett and Mark (Judge) were visibly drunk," Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in San Francisco, said. Ford said she was accosted by Kavanaugh and his friend Mark. They thrust her into an upstairs bedroom at the house and locked the door. "I was pushed onto the bed and Brett (Kavanaugh) got on top of me. He began running his hands over my body and grinding his hips into me...Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes...I believed he was going to rape me," she said. "I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming...I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me," Ford alleged. Ford said she was finally able to escape and rushed out of the house with an "enormous sense of relief" that the duo did not follow her. "For a very long time, I was too afraid and ashamed to tell anyone the details," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Typhoon Trami continues to wreak havoc across Japan after making landfall on its main island of Honshu on Sunday evening. Meteorological agency officials are urging people to expect extremely strong winds, storm surges and torrential rain and to stay indoors. So far, the typhoon has injured over 100 people, left one person dead and two others missing. The Meteorological Agency said that at 4 AM, Typhoon Trami was moving northeast at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour. The storm has a central atmospheric pressure of 970 hectopascals and is packing winds of up to 126 kilometers per hour near its center. The maximum wind speed is 180 kilometers per hour. In the Kanto-Koshinetsu region on Japan's main island, the storm packed record-strength winds. It also could trigger storm surges along the Pacific coast. Weather officials are warning of coastal flooding. The Kanto-Koshinetsu region and parts of Tohoku region are in the storm zone. At midnight, wind gusts topped 164 kilometers per hour in western Tokyo's Hachioji City. Tokyo Electric Power Company says more than 510,000 homes are without power in the Kanto-Koshinetsu region. In Tottori prefecture, one man has died and one person has been reported missing. In Miyazaki prefecture, another man is missing. He's believed to have fallen into an irrigation ditch. Authorities have issued evacuation orders for more than 180,000 people in parts of central and western Japan and also the northern island of Hokkaido. Many transportation networks are down. Airlines have already canceled more than 210 domestic flights on Monday. Operators are asking passengers to check their websites for the latest information as some future flights have already been cancelled. US President Donald Trump came out in support of his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and asked the senators to confirm him for the apex court, after a gripping eight-hour-long Senate hearing that saw the Judge passionately fighting back allegations of sexual assault made by a clinical psychology professor. Americans were glued to their television sets Thursday as the historic hearing opened with an emotionally chocked Christine Blasey Ford, 51, recounting the 36 years old incident which "drastically altered her life". Asserting that she felt it was her "civic duty" to share her story, Ford said at the age of 15 she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh in 1982 at a party. Both of them were in high school in suburban Maryland at that time. A furious Kavanaugh, 53, denied the allegations in a passionate defence. "I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation by Dr Ford. I have never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever. I am innocent of this charge," he blasted, repeatedly fighting back tears. Within moments of the proceedings concluding, Trump wholeheartedly backed Kavanaugh, saying, "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting." "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him...Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote," Trump tweeted. The Senate judiciary committee, which has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, is set to vote on Kavanaugh's recommendation late Friday before the nomination goes to the full Senate comprising 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats. The full Senate is expected to start the debate on the nomination on Saturday and a final vote on his confirmation is expected next week. Ford's allegations of sexual assault was supported by the Democrats. In his testimony to the Senate Committee, Kavanaugh blasted the Democrats for destroying his good name. "I have to say that I fear for the future. Last time I was here, I told this committee that a federal judge must be independent, not swayed by public or political pressure," he told the lawmakers. "I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process. You have tried hard. You have given it your all. No one can question your effort, but your coordinated and well-funded effort to destroy my good name and to destroy my family will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out," Kavanaugh said addressing the Democrats. "You may defeat me in the final vote, but you'll never get me to quit. Never. I'm here today to tell the truth," he said. "After I have been in the public arena for 26 years without even a hint -- a whiff -- of an allegation like this. And when my nomination to the Supreme Court was just about to be voted on...I am called 'evil' by a Democratic member of this committee...This onslaught of last-minute allegations does not ring true," Kavanaugh said. Earlier, to a question posed by Senator Dianne Feinstein whether Kavanaugh was the boy who attacked her, Ford responded, "The same way I'm sure I'm talking to you right now..." "Absolutely not," Ford said when Feinstein followed up with another question: "So what you're telling us is this could not be a case of mistaken identity?"As Ford was giving her testimony, Kavanaugh's protesters were standing silent outside the hearing room, clogging halls and elevators. Their mouths were taped shut with "Believe survivors" and "Believe women" inscribed on the tape. Similar messages are written on their raised palms, "I believe...We believe."Ford said she had kept the episode a closely-guarded secret, except for sharing it with her husband and few of her friends, till the time it started appearing in the press that Kavanaugh was going to be nominated as a Supreme Court Judge. In early July 2018, Ford said, she saw press reports of Kavanaugh shortlisted for potential Supreme Court nominees. "I thought it was my civic duty to relay the information I had about Mr Kavanaugh's conduct so that those considering his potential nomination would know about the assault," she said. Giving details of the incident, Ford, who was seemingly on the verge of tears, said it happened one evening at a common friends place in Chevy Chase area where they had gathered. "When I got to the small gathering, people were drinking beer in a small living room on the first floor of the house. I drank one beer that evening. Brett and Mark (Judge) were visibly drunk," Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in San Francisco, said. Ford said she was accosted by Kavanaugh and his friend Mark. They thrust her into an upstairs bedroom at the house and locked the door. "I was pushed onto the bed and Brett (Kavanaugh) got on top of me. He began running his hands over my body and grinding his hips into me...Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes...I believed he was going to rape me," she said. "I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming...I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me," Ford alleged. Ford said she was finally able to escape and rushed out of the house with an "enormous sense of relief" that the duo did not follow her. "For a very long time, I was too afraid and ashamed to tell anyone the details," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The two-day Parakram Parv to celebrate the second anniversary of surgical strikes carried by the Indian army across the Line of Control (LOC) started here on Friday. Brigadier Ajay Mishra, Black Cat Division, inugurated the exhibition organised by the Army here at West Point school to celebrate the second anniversary of the surgical strikes that was carried out on September 29, 2016 by the Indian Army on terror pads across LOC. Equipments like 105 mm field guns of artillery, small arms equipments of infantry, engineering items, mountaineering gadgets, medical equipment for treatments of sick and injured during operation etc. have been put on show for the visitors. Screening of movie on surgical strikes, motivational lecture and career counseling, information kiosks and band display are other attractions of the exhibition. Speaking at the inaugural function, Brigadier Ajay Mishra said that it was a great moment to celebrate the anniversary of surgical strikes, as Parakram Parv in the beautiful state of Sikkim. He said that the main idea behind the programme was to showcase their achievements and to remember the troops who have made ultimate sacrifice with their lives for the sake of the nation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Investment proposals worth Rs 74,000 crore have been received by the Uttarakhand government and memorandum of understanding (MoUs) to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore signed with firms ahead of an investors' summit to be held here next month, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said Friday. Attributing the huge volume of investments coming to the state to a sustained campaign conductedby his government to generate interest among entrepreneurs, the chief minister said it was much more than what was initially expected. "MoUs worth Rs 40,000 crore only were expected initially but the road shows held by the state government in the run up to the forthcoming investors' summit elicited a great response from entrepreneurs. The result is that tillnow investment proposals worth Rs 74,000 crore in the state have been received and MoUs to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore have been signed," Rawat said at a programme to unveil nine policies prepared by different departments to boost investments in the state. "Destination Uttarakhand: Investors Summit 2018", to be held here on October 7-8, will herald the beginning of a new era for the state in terms of investments, he said. Describing the development of hill areas as the priority of the state government, he said investments in solar energy, food processing, herbal, organic, Ayush and tourism sectors in which entrepreneurs have shown great interest will primarilybenefit the people of hill areas. The nine policies unveiled Friday to encourage investments includeMega Industrial Investment & Employment Promotion Policy 2018, Uttarakhand Solar Energy Policy, Uttarakhand Ayush Policy 2018, Biotechnology Policy 2018-23, Power Generation from Pirul and other types of Biomass Policy-2018, Uttarakhand Aroma Policy 2018, for establishment of Optical Fiber and Mobile Tower Guidelines Policy, Uttarakhand Electric Vehicle Manufacturing E.V. Usage Promotion and Related Services Infrastructure Policy 2018 and Uttarakhand Tourism Policy 2018. Local people will be given projects up to 5 MW on priority as per Uttarakhand Solar Energy policy. Power Generation from Pirul and other types of Biomass Policy-2018 will be important for the livelihood of people of hill areas, Rawat said. The chief minister said the policies were formulated incorporating suggestions made by entrepreneurs and business leaders at the road shows and after an in-depth study of the investment promotion policies of other states. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United Nations Human Rights Council voted to extend an international probe of alleged war crimes committed in Yemen despite strong opposition from Saudi Arabia and several of its allies. Nations voted 21 to 8, with 18 abstentions, in favour of a resolution that renewed the UN-backed investigation for a year. Last month, investigators detailed evidence of possible war crimes committed in Yemen by both the Saudi-led coalition and the Huthi rebels supported by Iran. The coalition and the Yemeni government, which together are battling the Huthis, strongly criticised the probe's initial report, arguing that it underplayed rebel violations and Iran's role. The Arab group in the rights council had backed a rival text that called on Yemen's national human rights commission to take charge of future investigations of the conflict. That proposal was a non-starter for many states, given a widespread lack of confidence in the Yemeni commission. The approved resolution led by a group of European states and Canada calls on investigators to deliver another report next September. Probe members had said they needed more time to fully document the range of violations committed in Yemen's conflict, which has killed nearly 10,000 people since March 2015 and triggered what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Riyadh's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Abdulaziz Alwasil, said he voted no because the resolution did not address his "legitimate concerns", notably about the "lack of balance" in the probe's first report. The fact that it went to a vote underscored divisions on the issue within the 47-member rights council, which typically strives for consensus on major texts. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the vote "sent a clear message that it stands with Yemeni civilians". "States at the UN Human Rights Council stood firm today, in the face of shameful efforts by the Saudi-led coalition to quash a UN expert inquiry," HRW's Geneva director, John Fisher, said in a statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP president Amit Shah Friday said those raising slogans against India at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) would find themselves behind bars under the party's government, and slammed the Congress and the AAP for opposing action being taken against Maoists. Citing recent arrests of five rights activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case for their alleged links with the Maoists, Shah said that such elements wanted to "break the country". "The BJP government recently caught those who were plotting to spread poison among castes, murders and an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to kill him. The Congress, Mamata Banerjee (of Trinamool Congress), (AAP leader Arvind) Kejriwal, (TDP chief) Chandrababu Naidu, all of them, started crying hoarse and questioned the arrests citing human rights and freedom of expression," he said at a party event in Naraina here. "I want to ask you if strict action should not be taken against Naxals and Maoists," Shah told the crowd. The Maharashtra government brought all the evidence and facts before the Supreme Court which ruled on Friday that they should be kept under "house arrest", he said. The Supreme Court rejected a plea for immediate release of the five rights activists, held in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case for alleged Naxal links, saying "it is not a case of arrest because of mere dissenting views or difference in political ideology". The BJP chief alleged that slogans against India are raised in JNU and when action is taken against such elements, the Congress and Kejriwal are "pained". "Whether it's Congress or AAP, I want them to listen to me that no matter what they do, those raising such slogans will have there place behind bars under the BJP government. We will not spare them," he said. Shah also asserted that the BJP would ensure that "every single" illegal immigrant is identified and expelled from the country after the 2019 parliamentary election. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The tourism industry in Kerala has showed its strong character post the devastating floods and the manner of its revival is astounding, Union Tourism Minister Alphons Kannanthanam said Friday. "I give emphasis on Kerala tourism's ability to recoup after a severe natural calamity as an epitome wherever I go. We bounced back defeating all never-seen-before challenges. It gives the positive sign that tourism has regained its vigour post the floods," he said. At least 493 people lost their lives in the rains and floods during the South West monsoon in Kerala. Kannanthanam made this observation while inaugurating exhibition stalls and pavilions at the tenth edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) at Willingdon Island here. He also inaugurated the pavilion of Responsible Tourism put up by Kerala's Department of Tourism. Later, he went around various stalls and pavilions. The four-day KTM, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday, has focus on the Malabar as a core theme. KTM-2018 features 1,600 buyers, one-third of them from 66 foreign countries. The mart provides a platform to world-class buyers and sellers to interact and promote businesses, giving a fresh impetus to Kerala's tourism industry that generates an annual turnover of Rs 34,000 crore and provides employment to 25 lakh people. The mart, with 325 sellers in 400 stalls, has 1,635 buyers who are top functionaries of firms in the tourism industry within the country and outside. The number of foreign buyers is 545, and they come from 66 countries, including USA, Russia, Japan, China, Australia and Britain. As for the domestic buyers, their number stands at 1,090. Buyers and sellers meet will go on all the three days. On Sunday, the public will be allowed free entry, while the KTM business meets at the Willingdon Island are only for delegates who need to register in advance. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US is looking at up to 10 per cent growth in the number of visitors from India in 2018 as it undertakes a slew of initiatives to promote the country as a preferred destination, a top official of Brand USA said Friday. In 2017, US witnessed 1.29 million visitors from India, positioning India at number 11 slot in terms of visitor arrivals. "We aspire for up to 10 per cent increase in visitations for 2018 from India," Brand USA President and CEO Christopher L Thompson told PTI. The sustained rise in tourist arrivals from India has been made possible through a range of focused initiatives by Brand USA, he added. Thompson was speaking on the sidelines of conclusion of seventh annual India Travel Mission organised by Brand USA, that saw participation from 42 US tourism organisations with 64 delegates. "India is very important to us. There is a natural affinity between two nations..., it is now 11th market in number of visitors and is number 6 in terms of spend at USD 15 billion," Thompson said. Established by the Travel Promotion Act of 2009, Brand USA is the nation's first public-private partnership to promote the US as a premier travel destination and to communicate the country's visa and entry policies. When asked about the steps the organisation is taking to promote US as a preferred destination here, Thompson said, "Apart from connecting with our trade partners we are also connecting directly with consumers through digital and social platforms." Brand USA is also focusing on major tier II cities for extending its reach in India, he added. "Looking ahead, we are confident in continuing the momentum of welcoming more Indian visitors to the USA," Thompson said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States, Japan and Australia are cooperating on a domestic internet cable proposal for Papua New Guinea as an alternative to an offer by Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant that the United States regards as a cybersecurity threat, a US diplomat said Friday. The Australian government blocked Huawei in August from rolling out Australia's 5G network due to security issues and has concerns about the company's involvement in the telecommunication infrastructure of its nearest neighbor, Papua New Guinea. The US charge d'affaires to Australia, James Carouso, said the three Pacific defense allies were negotiating with the impoverished South Pacific island nation of 8 million people, mostly subsistence farmers, on its internet contract. "We're working on a counter offer," Carouso told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "These are negotiations that are going on. Absolutely up to the PNG government at the end of the day." Papua New Guinea minister Justin Tkatchenko said his government was willing to work with Australia on the internet network if it offered a better deal than Huawei, The Australian newspaper reported Friday. "I know Australia is against Huawei in many situations, thinking they are going to spy on everybody and take all their information," Tkatchenko told the newspaper. "But we will work with Australia, with China, with Huawei, in that regard to get the best possible outcome for our people and for communications domestically as well." Tkatchenko could not be contacted on Friday for comment. Australia proposed the funding for the 5,457-kilometre internet network that will provide undersea cabling to connect 14 provincial centres as the first investment of a new trilateral infrastructure fund established this year to counter growing Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region, the newspaper said. The Huawei option would involve a USD 198 million loan from China's Eximbank, the newspaper said. Australia agreed in June to pay most of the USD 101 million price tag for an undersea internet cable from a Sydney broadband hub to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The new Papua New Guinea domestic network would link into that cable. Australia stepped into that project after the Solomons' government signed a contract with Huawei in 2017 to build the cable. The Solomons consequently scrapped the Huawei deal. Several governments have been scrutinizing Huawei over its links to the Chinese government. The private Chinese company started by a former People's Liberation Army major in 1987 suffered a setback in the US market in 2012 when a congressional report said it was a security risk and warned phone companies not to buy its equipment. Shenzhen-based Huawei, the world's largest telecommunications equipment supplier, had also been banned from bidding for contracts for Australia's broadband network in 2011. The US House Intelligence Committee previously found that Huawei was tied to the Chinese government and had failed to provide responsive and detailed answers about that relationship and about its US operations. Huawei denied being financed to undertake research and development for the Chinese military, but the committee said it had received internal Huawei documents showing the company provided special network services to an entity alleged to be an elite cyber-warfare unit within the People's Liberation Army. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Philippine military said Friday its joint defense and security activities with U.S. forces, including annual combat exercises, will increase next year in a show of the treaty allies' continuing robust relations. Top US and Philippine military officials agreed to increase the number of joint security activities next year to 281 in areas that include counterterrorism, maritime security and humanitarian aid. There are 261 such joint activities this year, military spokesman Col. Noel Detoyato said. Philippine military chief Gen Carlito Galvez and Adm. Philip Davidson, the US Indo-Pacific commander, led an annual meeting of the allied forces at the military headquarters in metropolitan Manila on Thursday. President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to end many of the military's combat drills with the U.S. military and the presence of American troops in the southern Philippines when he took office in 2016, while working to revive strained ties with China. Duterte said he wanted joint combat drills with the U.S. stopped because they may offend China, where he has sought infrastructure funds and trade and investment. The US military presence in the south and joint drills, however, have continued. About 150 to 200 American troops are providing non-combat assistance to Filipino troops battling Muslim militants. China has expressed concern in the past over joint military exercises near the South China Sea, where it's been locked in territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan for decades. "It's a bilateral issue between the Philippines and US," Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said in Manila when asked to comment on the increased Philippine-US military activities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States shut its consulate in the protest-hit southern Iraqi city of Basra, blaming "indirect fire" by Iran-backed forces and warning its rival of retaliation for any damage. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Friday ordered that all but emergency staff leave Basra, with consular duties to be taken over by the embassy in Baghdad. Basra has been rocked by weeks of demonstrations by Iraqis protesting unemployment and government inefficiency in the oil-rich south. Pompeo, who has made rolling back Iranian influence in the region a top priority, blamed militias linked to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards for "indirect fire" -- which usually means rockets or artillery -- against the US consulate. "I have advised the government of Iran that the United States will hold Iran directly responsible for any harm to Americans or to our diplomatic facilities in Iraq or elsewhere and whether perpetrated by Iranian forces directly or by associated proxy militias," he said in a statement while in New York to attend the UN General Assembly. "I have made clear that Iran should understand that the United States will respond promptly and appropriately to any such attacks," he added. Ruled by Shiite clerics, Iran has a strong influence in Iraq, especially in the country's Shiite-majority south. Iran's consulate itself was earlier burned down during the protests, although no one was injured and Tehran quickly opened a new mission. Iran's foreign ministry earlier called US allegations of fomenting violence in Basra "astonishing, provocative and irresponsible." Speaking at the General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also dismissed the US criticism of involvement in its neighbor, questioning why Washington itself was involved in a country so far away. Earlier this month three mortar rounds also hit the fortified Green Zone area in Baghdad, home to the US embassy, without causing injuries and with the perpetrators unclear. Diplomatic security is a key priority for the United States and Pompeo, who as a congressman went on the offensive against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton over a deadly attack on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Uttarakhand High Court asked the Centre to strictly implement the ban on pornographic websites, taking cognisance of reports that a girl was gangraped in a Dehradun school by her fellow students after they watched porn clips. Issuing a slew of directives to implement the ban Thursday, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Manoj Tiwari said, "Unlimited access to these pornographic sites is required to be blocked/curbed to avoid an adverse influence on the impressionable minds of children." According to reports, the four students had told the police during investigation that they had watched porn on the Internet before allegedly raping the girl who is a student of Class 10. The court directed Internet service providers to strictly obey a notification issued by the Centre three years ago for a ban on porn sites. It also asked them to block publication or transmission of obscene material in any electronic form, transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act or conduct and also publishing or transmitting material depicting children in sexually explicit act or conduct forthwith. Internet service license holders violating this direction will lose their licence as per Section 25 of the Information Technology Act 2000, the high court said. "The Ministry of Communication and IT, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India has issued a Notification on 31.07.2015 which was circulated to all the Internet Service License Holders, as per the list contained therein. "The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DELTy) has requested Department of Telecommunications to notify intermediary for disablement of the URLs under the provision of Information Technology Act, 2000, as the contents posted on these websites infringe morality, decency," the high court said in its order. Keeping in mind the gravity of the offence and to curb such incidents, the court directed all the Internet Service Licence Holders to strictly obey the notification. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will arrive in India on Sunday on his maiden state visit to the country, during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to boost bilateral strategic partnership. Mirziyoyev, who will be accompanied by his spouse and a high-level delegation on the two-day trip, will pay a visit to Agra on September 30, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday. On Monday, he will be given an official welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan after which he will visit Raj Ghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi. Mirziyoyev will then meet Prime Minister Modi and will hold restricted and delegation level talks at the Hyderabad House. During the visit, the Uzbek president will also meet President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. "Visit of the president of Uzbekistan will provide an opportunity to discuss bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest and reinforce the strategic partnership which exists between India and Uzbekistan," the Ministry of External Affairs said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The 'Bharat Bandh' against the Walmart-Flipkart deal evoked a good response in Madhya Pradesh Friday, barring Indore. Retail and wholesale markets wore a deserted look in large parts of Madhya Pradesh as traders, businessmen and chemists downed the shutters of their shops to protest against Walmart's acquisition of home-grown retail major Flipkart and FDI in retail sector. The bandh call by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) evoked a near total response in Bhopal, Gwalior and Jabalpur. Roadside teashops and eateries remained open and did brisk business at some places. Petrol pumps, schools and educational institutions also remained open. "We from bottom of our hearts thank 20 lakh traders and businessmen in Madhya Pradesh who have supported the bandh which evoked a near total response across the state barring Indore," CAIT Vice President Radhyashayam Maheshwari told PTI. "A big thanks to the consumers who wholeheartedly supported it. The bandh was not for a political or religious cause but for the well being of traders, businessmen and customers. "It was against foreign economic imperialism. If we allow them to enter our country, lives of crores of people will perish and they would be rendered jobless," he added. He said their 'Vyapari Kranti Rath' which was flagged off from New Delhi on September 15 will be reaching Bhopal on September 30. It will pass through 28 states and return to Delhi on December 15 where a huge rally will be organised the next day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Yes Bank's founder and Rana Kapoor, who has been asked by the RBI to quit the post by January, said Friday that he will not sell his shares in the even after demitting office. Kapoor holds 10.66 per cent shares in the "In this leadership transition at @YESBANK, I continue to remain fully committed to the interests of the and all its stakeholders. I will be fully guided by the Board of Directors of and the Reserve Bank of India," he said in a tweet. In another tweet, Kapoor said, "I will never ever sell my @YESBANK shares" even after demitting office as managing director and of the bank. along with his brother-in-law Ashok Kapur had founded the bank in 2004. The RBI recently asked to quit the post by January next year. The bank's board, however, has sought more time from the RBI till September for a suitable successor. Kapoor futher said: "I will eventually bequeath my @YESBANK Promoter shares to my 3 daughters and subsequently to their children, with a request in my Will stating not to sell a single share, as Diamonds are Forever!!". Shares of the closed at Rs 183.90, down 9.50 per cent on the (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 BSF Friday vowed strong retaliatory action against Pakistan, saying it was witnessing a "more aggressive stance" of the opponent along the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir after Imran Khan became prime minister. Outgoing BSF Director General (DG) K K Sharma told reporters that his troops were waiting for the right time to strike back against the enemy in retaliation to the recent killing of their jawan along the IB in the state. Sharma, who demits office on September 30, also admitted that Head Constable Narender Singh was killed in an "action of the Border Action Team (BAT)" of Pakistan. The jawan was shot three times on his chest, dragged to the other side of the fence, his feet were tied and throat slit, the DG said. "There was no mutilation of the body," he said. The Border Security Force (BSF) chief said the gun and ammunition of the jawan, who went ahead of the fence in Jammu's Ramgarh sector along with seven other personnel, was taken away. "This incident is a first of its kind because generally on the IB you don't have a BAT action. This was a BAT action...It is an unfortunate incident," the DG told reporters here. He added that some counter-action has already been taken along the Line of Control (LoC) and more is in store. "We have taken sufficient action across the LoC to avenge the death of our soldier. We also reserve our right to retaliate at an appropriate time and place of our choosing," Sharma said. "The moment this incident took place we noticed that the other side simply vanished. They were no where in sight. "They also got their villages vacated thinking we will hit them. So, even if we had retaliated, it would not have been of any use at that time," he said, adding "we have reserved the right". Sharma said the BSF has given a befitting reply and caused more damage on the Pakistan side than ever before. "The BSF has given a very tough and befitting reply and caused much more damage on the other side in the past. We will do the same again. "In this case, it was very important for us to retrieve the body first and then think of something else. We will see in the near future, we will do something," he said. Sharma said it is expected that the BAT's actions can now also happen along the IB and hence, BSF personnel in forward locations have been asked to remain alert from this point of view. The DG was subsequently asked if there has been any change in the security situation along the border after Imran Khan took over as the prime minister of Pakistan. "There has been no change on the border and this incident has taken place after Imran Khan took over as the PM. Such action never took place on the IB. "We are seeing a more aggressive stance of the opponent on the border than in the past. This incident is an act of aggression," the DG said at the BSF headquarters here. He reiterated that "many training camps" and launching pads of terrorists were active along the IB where hundreds of militants are present and are wanting to infiltrate into India. "It is Pakistan's state policy to help and push terrorists into India. This is part of the Zia-ul-Haq (former Pakistan president) doctrine to make India bleed by thousand cuts," he said. The DG said there has been no successful infiltration bid from along the IB this year and whatever has happened has taken place from the LoC which is under the army's operational control. He added that the Pakistani side, in anticipation of a 'surgical strike' like retaliation from India is still alert and they have got cleared about 5 km of area from the IB on their side. When asked if the force has seen Chinese troops along with Pak Rangers on this border, the DG replied in the negative, saying he has knowledge of Chinese PLA troops manning the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) assets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Punjab and Haryana High Court Friday issued notice to Punjab DGP, SSP Amritsar (Rural) and other officers on a petition, seeking an SIT probe into an incident in which a woman was allegedly paraded by police atop a jeep. The single-judge bench of Justice Daya Chaudhary has fixed November 2 as the next date of hearing in the case. "The court issued notice of motion to Director General of Police, SSP Amritsar (Rural), DSP rank officer who was leading the team, SHO of Kathunangal police station," said Harchand Singh Batth, the counsel for petitioner Balwant Singh. Jaswinder Kaur (35) had claimed Wednesday that the police forced her to sit atop a jeep and paraded her through her village in Amritsar district when they failed to arrest her father-in-law Balwant Singh. A village CCTV footage purportedly showed the woman lying on top of the vehicle and then falling off when it took a sharp turn. Kaur had alleged that a team of the police's Bureau of Investigation (BOI) raided her house in Shahzada village in Majitha constituency -- around 20 km from Amritsar -- to arrest her father-in-law in connection with some case. The police had however, denied the woman's charge, saying she had attacked a police team. Batth said the petitioner has demanded setting up of a special investigation team, headed by an IPS officer, to probe the entire incident. Balwant Singh sought protection for the family, the counsel said. The petitioner also requested the court that an attempt to murder case be filed against the police team which raided his house, he said. Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh had rejected the charges and said the matter would be investigated to find out the truth. AIG (Crime) Tejinder Singh Maur had said the woman was never wanted by the police. "The police team raided the house to arrest Balwant, but he was not found at home. The situation took an ugly turn when some family members of the accused attacked the police team and smashed the windshield of the vehicle," he had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A woman has accused a Washington state lawmaker of raping her 11 years ago, saying she was inspired to speak out as she watched the televised allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The lawmaker denied the claim. In a tweet Thursday afternoon, Candace Faber said Republican state Sen. Joe Fain sexually assaulted her in 2007 the night she graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "I'm done being silent," she wrote. Fain said he "absolutely" denies the allegation and called for an investigation. In a text message to The Associated Press, he said: "Any allegation of this serious nature deserves to be heard and investigated for all parties involved. I invite and will cooperate with any inquiry." Fain, a moderate Republican from the Seattle suburb of Auburn, is the minority floor leader of the Washington state Senate. Faber explained later in a statement that she was inspired by Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were teenagers. Kavanaugh fiercely denied Ford's claims. "Like Dr. Ford, I can no longer remain silent knowing that the man who raped me is in a position to influence the laws that govern my state and impact every woman who lives here," Faber wrote. A spokeswoman for Gov. Jay Inslee said he "believes this is a very serious allegation that unquestionably deserves a full investigation by law enforcement officials." Faber, 35, in June published an online essay accusing an unnamed Washington state lawmaker of assaulting her in 2007. She wrote that they met "at the Capitol" after she graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., spent the night dancing and kissing, and that both "drank too much." She wrote in the essay she walked the man back to his hotel, went to his room and that he pinned her to a bed and pulled down her dress. She wrote that she told him to stop and put her foot on his head to push him away. After the man raped her, she wrote, she asked him for a kiss goodbye before leaving the room. In her essay, she rejected that the kiss request was "not how girls act when they've been raped." She wrote that she later called a friend, wondering if she should go to a hospital. Faber said in her statement Thursday said she did not make the man's name public earlier because she thought she "could change the culture of sexual assault without needing to say his name" but no longer believes that to be the case. The AP does not typically name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Faber chose to identify herself. She declined a request to be interviewed and did not respond when asked by email whether she had filed a police report. The statute of limitations for most serious sex crimes in Washington, D.C., is 15 years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The repression of women under the garb of "physiological factors" cannot be legitimised and patriarchy in religion cannot "trump over" devotion, the Supreme Court ruled Friday as it threw open the closed gates of the historic Sabarimala temple for women of all age groups. Penning his last verdict of a five-judge constitution bench, Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who would demit office on October 2, rejected the vehement submissions of the Travancore Devaswom Board, which runs the temple, and ruled that the devotees of Lord Ayyappa are "exclusively Hindus" and do not constitute a "separate religious denomination". The historic verdict, which would add force to clamour for equality for women of other religions, extensively dealt with Article 25 (1) which was referred to by the Temple Board and the devotees in support of the practice of barring entry of girls and women between the menstrual age of 10 and 50 years. Sabarimala is a prominent Hindu temple which attracts tens of millions of pilgrims every year. The hill-top shrine remains open only for a little over four months in a year and the approach is through a forested area that involves an arduous 5-km trek from the Pampa river base camp. In a landmark verdict, the apex court Friday lifted a ban that prevented such girls and women from entering the famous Sabarimala temple in Kerala, holding this centuries-old Hindu religious practice as illegal and unconstitutional. The CJI, who wrote 95 page-verdict for himself and Justice A M Khanwilkar, said that on the ground of public order, morality and health, women cannot be barred from practising and professing the faith. Observing that historically women have been treated with inequality, the majority verdict said "in the theatre of life, it seems, man has put the autograph and there is no space for a woman even to put her signature." "There is inequality on the path of approach to understand the divinity. The attribute of devotion to divinity cannot be subjected to the rigidity and stereotypes of gender," the CJI said. The views of Justice Misra were shared by Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud. The CJI rejected the plea that the Temple Board was protected under Article 26 (freedom to manage religious affairs) as the devotees formed a separate religious denomination. "There is no identified group called Ayyappans. Every Hindu devotee can go to the temple. We have also been apprised that there are other temples for Lord Ayyappa and there is no such prohibition. Therefore, there is no identified sect. "Accordingly, we hold, without any hesitation, that Sabarimala temple is a public religious endowment and there are no exclusive identified followers of the cult," the court said. The CJI said that Article 25(1) would become a "dead letter" if women are excluded from practising their right to worship and set aside the Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965. "The right to practise religion under Article 25(1) is equally available to both men and women of all age groups professing the same religion," Justice Misra said. "The impugned Rule 3(b) of the 1965 Rules, framed under the 1965 Act, that stipulates exclusion of entity of women of the age group of 10 to 50 years, is a clear violation of the right of Hindu women to practise their religious beliefs 93 which, in consequence, makes their fundamental right of religion under Article 25(1) a dead letter," Justice Misra added. The CJI dealt with the aspect of morality which can be used for putting restrictions under Article 25 (1) and said it cannot be viewed with a "narrow lens" to confine the definition of morality exclude an individual or a section from practising religion. "The notions of public order, morality and health cannot be used as colourable device to restrict the freedom to freely practise religion and discriminate against women of the age group of 10 to 50 years by denying them their legal right to enter and offer their prayers at the Sabarimala temple," Justice Misra said. The CJI said that the practice of excluding women of the age group of 10 to 50 years "cannot be regarded as an essential part of religion" and hence cannot be protected. The fundamental right of Freedom to Practice Religion is a gender-neutral right and has nothing to do with the physiological factors like menstruation in the present case, the verdict said. "Women of any age group have as much a right as men to visit and enter a temple in order to freely practise a religion as guaranteed under Article 25(1). "The denial of this right to women significantly denudes them of their right to worship," Justice Misra said. The court noted that the Kerala government had taken contrary stands at different times. In 2007, the then LDF government favoured the entry of all women inside the shrine. But in February 2016, the then UDF government took a u-turn and supported the Temple Board. This stand was again changed in November 2016, by the current LDF government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Friday paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala. The five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. It said religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. While Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud concurred with the CJI and Justice A M Khanwilkar, Justice Indu Malhotra gave a dissenting verdict. The court pronounced its verdict on a clutch of pleas challenging ban on the entry of women of menstrual age in Kerala's Sabrimala temple saying law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. The bench passed four set of separate judgements. The CJI said devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination and patriarchal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. He said devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not constitute a separate denomination. The CJI said practice of exclusion of women of 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as essential religious practice and Kerala law denies rights to women on ground of physiological reasons. Justice Nariman said the Sabarimala temple custom barring women of 10-50 age is not backed by Article 25 and 26 of the Constitution. Custom of barring women is violative of Article 25 (Clause 1) and Rule 3(b) of Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (authorisation of entry) Rules, 1965 is struck down by Justice Nariman. Justice Chandrachud said religion cannot be used as cover to deny rights of worship to women and it is also against human dignity. He said prohibition on women is due to non-religious reasons and it is a grim shadow of discrimination going on for centuries. Devotees of lord Ayyappa do not form separate religious denominations, Justice Chandrachud said and added that any custom or religious practice if violates dignity of women by denying them entry due to her physiology is unconstitutional. He said the popular notion about morality can be offensive to dignity of others and exclusion of women because she menstruates is utterly unconstitutional. Justice Chandrachud held that exclusion of women is violative of right to liberty, dignity and equality. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BEIJING (Reuters) - China's manufacturing sector likely resumed its slowdown in September after taking a pause in August, with exporters facing growing strains from increasingly hostile trade ties with the United States, a Reuters poll showed. The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) is expected to have slipped to 51.2 in September from 51.3 in August, according to the median forecast of 23 economists in a Reuters poll. The 50-mark divides expansion from contraction on a monthly basis.As U.S. tariffs threaten to put more pressure on China's already slowing economy, ... By Sonam Rai and Vibhuti Sharma(Reuters) - Shares of Tesla Inc plunged up to 13 percent on Friday as investors worried about the future of Chairman and Chief Executive Elon Musk at the electric carmaker after U.S. securities regulators accused him of fraud.The 47-year-old billionaire entrepreneur has been directly involved in almost every detail of Tesla's product design and technology strategy, and is credited as the driving force behind the loss-making company's ability to raise capital. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday accused Musk of tweeting false and ... By Sonam Rai and Vibhuti Sharma(Reuters) - Shares of Tesla Inc dived 13 percent in early trading on Friday as Wall Street worried a lawsuit from U.S. regulators could force Chief Executive Elon Musk to step down and make it difficult for the loss-making carmaker to raise more capital.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday accused Musk of fraud and sought to remove him from his role saying he made a series of "false and misleading" tweets about potentially taking the company private.At least five research firms said Musk might have to resign following the lawsuit.Some analysts ... A US judge on Thursday ordered Goldman Sachs Group Inc , JPMorgan Chase & Co and four other large banks to face an antitrust lawsuit by investors who said they conspired to stifle competition in the nearly $2 trillion stock lending market. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla in Manhattan rejected the banks' arguments that the investors, led by several pension funds, made implausible allegations and sued too late, and that the defendants' activity was reasonable. The plaintiffs accused units of Goldman, JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp , Credit Suisse Group AG , ... DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair has been hit by strikes across Europe as it struggles in negotiations with some trade unions, forcing it to cancel flights and hurting some of its bookings.Cabin crews in Germany, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, as well as pilots in Germany, staged a 24-hour walkout on Friday.Ryanair operates from 86 bases in 37 countries and carried 130 million passengers last year, making it Europe's largest single-brand by that measure.Below are a list of the strikes that have taken place since union negotiations began. Sept 28:A staff walkout, mainly by ... While many high-tech wearable devices have tried to embrace good looks and great features, many of todays smartwatches sacrifice form for function every time. They can be aggressively large (especially for small wrists) and dont retain any of the class or refined chic of a regular timepiece. While they often come with impressive features that merit their chunkiness, some of us just want the helpful tech things like GPS directions, appointment reminders and fitness tracking without compromising our professional, fashion-forward look or personal ... Recognised as one of the top five unicorn start-ups in India, OYO Rooms is an undisputed "the next generation hotel chain". The brain behind this five-year-old start-up is Ritesh Agarwal, the 24-year-old entrepreneur whose net worth shot up to Rs 2,600 crore after his company announced the latest funding of $800 million from its investors on Tuesday. The icing on the cake is the recently released Barclays Hurun India Rich List 2018, which featured Ritesh as the 'youngest self-made entrepreneur'. Under its 'young and rich' category, the report says: "Youngest self-made entrepreneur under 40 is Ritesh Agarwal, 24, of OYO Rooms with a net worth of Rs 2600 crore." The wealthiest in the list is Divyank Turakhia (36) of Media.net. The average wealth of self-made entrepreneurs under 40 is Rs 4,400 crore. Shradha Agarwal (33) of Outcome Health is the only self-made women under 40. In total, 21 women under the age of 40 were featured in the Barclays Hurun India Rich List 2018. OYO Rooms is also among the 'creme de la creme' of the 25 most sought-after start-ups in India, a recent LinkedIn survey revealed after OYO announced that it had raised $800 million from Japanese tech fund, Softbank Vision Fund, for a valuation of $5 billion. The company also received an additional commitment of $200 million, taking the total funding to $1 billion. "In the last 12 months, we have increased our footprint to five countries -- India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, and more recently in the UK. With this additional funding, we plan to rapidly scale our business in these countries, while continuing to invest further in technology and talent," OYO founder and chief executive Ritesh Agarwal said after the latest round of funding. OYO is already India's largest hotel network with more than 100,000 rooms in 350 cities, as opposed to Marriott's 23,000 and Taj Hotel's 17,000. Close to turning profitable, OYO Rooms has over 10,000 asset partners spread across five countries, including India, China, Malaysia, Nepal and the UK. The traders' body CAIT (Confederation of All India Traders) has received widespread support from several states on its call to organise a nationwide Bharat Bandh against the US retail giant Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart for $16 billion. The umbrella body of traders organised a dharna at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Friday. CAIT is also protesting against foreign direct investment in retail, and "continuous sealing" of shops in Delhi. The traders' body said many employees working in these shops are on the verge of "starvation". The RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch has also joined CAIT in its protest. Besides, the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists is also organising a nationwide strike to protest the Centre government's approval for the online sale of medicines. Earlier in a statement, CAIT said all major areas of Delhi, including Connaught Place, Chawri Bazar, Chandni Chowk, Bhagirath Place, Sadar Bazar, Karol Bagh, South Extension, Lajpat Nagar, etc, will remain closed to protest the government's approval of the Flipkart's merger with the US behemoth, and sealing of shops in Delhi. Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of CAIT, said: "The Delhi traders are suffering due to the sealing of shops, and the monitoring committee is sealing shops as per its own wishes, disregarding the provisions of MCD Act." He said the move has affected trade in Delhi, and rendered many people jobless. Khandelwal said the government should bring an ordinance to provide relief to traders from sealing with an amnesty scheme. "The sealed shops should be de-sealed immediately," he said. The body is also expected to submit a memorandum to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri and Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal for demanding immediate promulgation of an ordinance. Meanwhile, the druggists' association said they could resort to an indefinite strike if their demands are not met. "The AIOCD has already observed two Bharat Bandhs earlier," Sandeep Nangia, the Organising Secretary of AIOCD and the chief of the Retail Distributors Chemists Association, told PTI. "If the appeal does not get a positive response from the government, we will not have any other option than to call for a nationwide indefinite agitation," he said. Reports suggest the strike got full response across Punjab and Bihar, and parts of Maharashtra. "We are participating in the nationwide protest on September 28 on the issue of e-pharmacies," Maharashtra Registered Pharmacist Association President Kailash Tandale told the Asian Age. He added that however, many shops will remain "open in various areas so that the strike does not inconvenience the common people." The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare plans to regulate regular online sale of drugs by e-pharmacies through a set of draft rules. The draft says anyone selling drugs online will have to register with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation and will also have to obtain a trader's licence. The rules also bar them from selling psychotropic drugs, narcotics and tranquilisers. Edited by Manoj Sharma The beleaguered Tata Power Company's (TPC) subsidiary Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (CGPL), which runs the Mundra 4000 megawatt ultra mega power project (UMPP) in Gujarat, got a relief as the company has refinanced its outstanding loans worth Rs 5500 crore. Tata Power on Friday said the company has completed refinancing of the outstanding ECB loans amounting to $770 million, through a mix of INR-denominated debt instruments and equity funding from the proceeds of divestment of non-core assets of the company. The refinancing of USD loans of CGPL will help in rescheduling the cash requirements, as well as reducing the effective interest cost apart from reducing foreign exchange related volatility for CGPL. Now, CGPL is facing a cash flow burden resulting from the continuing losses due to the under-recoveries in the Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project. CGPL had a net loss of Rs 1,719 crore in the last financial year and an operating income of Rs 6,112 crore in FY17 and Rs 5,908 crore in FY16, but net losses were Rs.849 crore and Rs.999 crore respectively. In 2006, Tata Power had won the bid for the UMPP quoting Rs 2.26 per unit of electricity, banking on low cost imported coal from Indonesia. In 2012, the Indonesian Government decided to benchmark export of coal from that country to international prevailing coal prices, making the Mundra project unviable. The decision also affected viability of a similar power plant of Adani at Mundra. Tata Power spent nearly Rs 18,000 crore to construct the 4150 MW plant, including Rs 6,200 crore as equity and the rest as loans, mainly from Asian Development Bank (ADB) and IFC. The interest burden on Mundra started from 2013 onwards and annually, the company has to pay over Rs 1,000 crore as interest. "We have been looking at various options to improve viability of Mundra UMPP as this is one more step in the same direction as it reduces interest cost burden and cash flow burden on CGPL," said Praveer Sinha, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Power. In March, Tata Power had sold its shares in group companies Tata Communications and Panatone Finvest to Tata Sons and its affiliates for Rs 2150 crore as part of divesting non-core assets. Adani, Tata Power and Essar had approached the authorities for a relief, but the Supreme Court had in April 2017 ruled out a tariff hike for such projects, won based on tariff war. Then the power developers offered the Gujarat government and the power purchasing discoms to sell a 51 per cent stake in the stressed projects for just one rupee. However, this has not worked out. Sources say currently a high-powered committee (HPC) appointed by the State government has suggested a fuel pass-through with a cap which can be revised after five years based on coal price movement, thus revising the tariff structure of the power purchase agreements (PPAs). The State Government is yet to take a final decision. The total state GST revenue in the first five months of 2018-19 saw a deficit of 13 per cent as against 16 per cent in 2017-18. This was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a press briefing after the 30th GST Council meeting in Delhi. Jaitley said that almost all states have shown improvement in the revenue collection in the past one year and have seen their deficit coming down. As many as 6 states have shown a surplus collection. These include five states from North East and Andhra Pradesh. Mizoram has witnessed a 50 per cent revenue surplus while Andhra has seen 1 per cent revenue surplus. Of the states which have witnessed deficit in GST revenue collection, seven states -- Telangana (2 per cent), Maharashtra (4per cent), UP and Tamil Nadu (5 per cent each), Assam (6 per cent), West Bengal (7 per cent) and Rajasthan (12 per cent) -- have seen a deficit lower than the national average. States like Gujarat (14 per cent), Haryana (15 per cent), Meghalaya (14 per cent), MP (16 per cent), Jharkhand, Kerala and Tripura (17 per cent each) and Delhi (19 per cent) have a deficit more than the national average but less than 20 per cent deficit, which was witnessed by 10 states. Uttarakhand, Himachal, Punjab and Pudducherry have seen over 35 per cent deficit in GST collection. The deficit has been calculated based on 14 per cent annual revenue growth over the past two years with 2015-16 revenue as base. To find the reasons for deficit, Revenue Secretary was sent to six states showing large revenue deficit. Sources said one of the reasons for some of the states showing large revenue deficit is their overdependence on certain state specific taxes which have now been subsumed in the GST. For example, in case of Punjab, 20 per cent of its 2015-16 revenue came from Agriculture Purchase tax and Infrastructure development tax. This got subsumed in GST and hence the wide difference in GST collection. In Pudducherry, for example, they were over-reliant on central sales tax. While the average contribution of CST to state tax collection was 8 per cent, in case of Pudducherry it was 27 per cent. A finance ministry source said that these states would have to come out with ways to narrow the deficit because for the first five year the central government would compensate for the deficit but after the fifth year they are on their own. Meanwhile on the subject of the calamity cess, the GST Council has decided to constitute a group of minister to look into the issue. The Supreme Court ruling that private companies can no longer use Aadhaar data has sent the sector into a tizzy. What is still unclear is whether the 12-digit biometric number can be voluntarily extended by cardholders for registration and authentication purposes. So the telecom department will reportedly meet the relevant authorities soon to figure this out. "We will have meetings with Aadhaar authorities, with TSPs (telecom service providers) and with the law ministry to ensure that we are in complete compliance with the Supreme Court," Aruna Sundararajan, secretary of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), told reporters yesterday. According to The Economic Times, she further pointed out that Aadhaar-based verification had been a convenience. "So now, on a voluntary basis, if people want to use Aadhaar, can they or not? We will probably have to seek advice on this also," she added. The Aadhaar-issuing body, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), too, said that it would hold inter-ministerial meetings involving the finance and telecom departments to discuss issues arising out of Wednesday's Supreme Court order. According to industry sources, all telecom operators had moved near-completely to e-Know Your Customer system to verify customers using Aadhaar - instead of the older system of physical verification - and it will be very challenging to acquire new customers in absence of the system. The daily added that telecom operators will be sending their concerns regarding the judgement to the government in three weeks and seek directions on the future course. Telcos claim that that the Supreme Court's latest Aadhaar judgement will not only send their customer acquisition costs shooting up but also increase processing time for new subscribers, which may lead to delays in getting phone connections. With Aadhaar, the cost was pegged at about Rs 30 per new subscriber. But with verification going back to old ways, the telcos will have to send agents to every household - possibly making multiple trips - so the cost is expected to jump to Rs 250-300. "We along with our lawyers are reviewing the order to obtain a clear understanding of it. Once this is done, we will arrive at an industry consensus on Aadhaar and submit our views to DoT," Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents all major telcos, told the daily. "This will probably take two or three weeks." Telcos are also grappling with the issue of eKYC. While the verdict says Aadhaar is not mandatory, an earlier DoT directive said eKYC was compulsory, which required the finger prints and Aadhaar number of the customer. According to operators, if they now need to move back to the old paper-based KYC method, they will need a directive from DoT to stop eKYC. However, Sundararajan yesterday said that given the convenience of the Aadhaar-backed system, the department would see if "something" can be done to "get this convenience (back) because some form of digital identity is useful for eKYC". Telecom operators are also confused about the Supreme Court's directive that authentication records obtained via Aadhaar that are already with them should not be stored beyond six months. "We need clarity on what documents need to be destroyed. We store the KYC details which have the subscriber's address and identity proof. Lately, they are linked to Aadhaar for easier verification. But now does this mean we have to destroy just the Aadhaar number or the documents linked to it?" posed a senior executive in one of the large telcos, adding that clarification is also needed on the methods that can be used to destroy the data. According to Sundararajan, the telecom department will be meetings with the telecom service providers "to ensure that the apex court ruling of destroying customer data within six months is duly followed". While everything is still up in the air, telcos also worry about subscribers asking to delink their Aadhaar number with the mobile numbers in the days ahead. 28 Sep 2018, 6:09 PM Paytm raises $300 million from Berkshire Hathaway One97 Communications Ltd, the parent company of Paytm, has raised $300 million from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., according to regulatory documents, as reported by Mint. This will be Berkshire Hathaway's first investment in the country's startup ecosystem. This is being considered a boost for India's startup industry. GST Council meet: National cess to help calamity-hit states on agenda The Goods and Services Tax Council will reportedly consider an additional cess for a limited period of time when it meets on Friday. Funds raised from the cess are meant to be utilised for rehabilitation works going on states ravaged by natural calamities in the past few months. Earlier this month, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac had met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, demanding a 10 per cent cess on State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) on all commodities consumed in the state. The proceeds were to be utilised for rebuilding the flood-ravaged state. India's IMPS rated best payments service in the world India's real-time money transfer platform IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) has been rated the best global payments innovation by US-based research firm FIS (Fidelity National Information Services). In its fifth annual Flavors of Fast report, FIS identified 40 active real-time payment programs around the world. IMPS was adjudged the best fin-tech innovation, beating payment services from countries like US and China. IMPS took home the highest 5 rating for the second year in a row Walmart to invest Rs 180 crore for farmer support Walmart Foundation on Thursday announced that it will invest about Rs 180 crore ($25 million) to improve farmers' livelihoods in the country over the next five years. Separately, Walmart India is also planning to grow its direct sourcing from farmers to 25 percent of produce sold in its Best Price cash and carry stores over the same period, to accelerate market access improvements and cut transportation costs for producers India will replace Japan to become the world's 3rd biggest economy by 2030 India will overtake Japan to become the world's third-biggest economy by 2030, according to a recent report by the HSBC Holdings Plc, which conducted a study of total 75 nations to understand global growth. China will clinch the top spot from the United States to become the world's largest economy at $26 trillion, way higher than the $14.1 trillion economy it is today, the study found. Solar-powered Cochin International Airport wins UN environment award Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), the first fully solar-powered airport in the world, has won the UN environment award for Entrepreneurial Vision. The first greenfield airport to be built under public private partnership got the award for using sustainable energy. Today, the capacity of CIAL is 29.5 megawatts of solar energy, providing 120,000 units of power every day US regulator sues Musk for fraud, seeks to remove him from Tesla The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday accused Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk of fraud and sought to remove him from his role in charge of the electric car company, saying he made a series of "false and misleading" tweets about potentially taking Tesla private last month. According to Reuters, the Department of Justice, which has the authority to press criminal charges, has also questioned the company about Musk's tweets, the company said this month. Tesla shares tumbled 12 percent in after-hours trading. Banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today stopped Bandhan Bank from opening new branches as it was not able to bring down the shareholding of Non Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) to 40 per cent as required under RBI's licensing condition. The central bank has also ordered freezing of Bandhan Bank CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh's salary over failure to stick to shareholding rules. The promoter stake in Bandhan Bank is currently at around 82.28 per cent. "General permission to open new branches stands withdrawn and the Bank can open branches with prior approval of RBI and the remuneration of the MD & CEO of the Bank stands frozen at the existing level, till further notice," Bandhan Bank said in a regulatory filing. "The Bank is taking necessary steps to comply with the licensing condition to bring down the shareholding of NOFHC in the Bank to 40 per cent and shall continue to engage with RBI in this behalf," it added. The Kolkata-headquartered Bandhan Bank was incorporated on December 23, 2014 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bandhan Financial Holdings Limited. Leader of the Opposition, Micheal Martin, T.D., was guest of honour today at the annual American Chamber of Commerce Ireland (AmCham) Cork Business Lunch in the Maryborough Hotel, Douglas. Over 350 guests from US multinationals and other leading Cork businesses attended the event. Those in attendance heard how Corks business relationship with the US continues to thrive. There are now more than 32,000 people working at over 150 multinational companies across a range of sectors from med-tech, to pharma, gaming and cyber-security. Pfizer celebrates its 45th anniversary here this year. Since then, the region has become home to 7 out of 10 of the worlds top ten pharma companies. Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin stressed that a dynamic international sector is one of the key pillars of Irelands success in the past but it will be just as important in the future. Speaking today, Martin said, "By any objective measure this is a deeply challenging moment not just for Ireland but also for Europe and the wider world. While there has been a strong economic recovery from the great recession there enormous economic threats and these are accompanied by a dramatic political turmoil which is challenging the fundamental principles of liberal democracy and international cooperation. We all need to work together to ensure that the progress made so far between our two great countries continues." AmCham President, Barry OSullivan added, "We have never seen the competition for US business investment from other regions of the world as intense as it is today. It is essential that we constantly benchmark our competitiveness against the countries that currently compete with us; our international competitiveness ranking and our falling global university rankings need serious attention. Uncertain timescales and delays in planning decisions for key projects do us no favours. From solving the Housing Crisis to roll out of our National Broadband Plan, these are all things largely within our control - getting things done is supposed to be part and parcel of our global reputation." The are American Chamber advocating for: The Dunkettle InterChange which all going as expected, will be completed by 2021 Upgrading the N28 route to Ringaskiddy, an essential piece of infrastructure for member companies. The upgraded M20 Cork-Limerick route which the Chamber say is critical to connect and unlock further economic activity across the South and Mid-West regions between Cork and Limerick Source: www.businessworld.ie Ryanair is bracing on Friday for another strike by staff as walkouts in six European countries, mainly cabin crew, force flight cancellations that will disrupt the plans of more than 40,000 travelers. Europe's largest low-cost carrier has faced a string of strikes since it recognized trade unions for the first time in December, damaging bookings and forcing it to consider cutting short-term growth plans if labor unrest continues. Cabin crews in Germany, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, as well as pilots in Germany, served Ryanair strike notices of the 24-hour walkout, stepping up pressure in talks over pay and conditions. Ryanair initially canceled 150 flights due to what it said was an unnecessary strike by a "tiny minority of cabin crew." The carrier said on Thursday it expected up to 100 more to be canceled after German pilots said they would join the protest. The cancellations account for around 10% of its 2,400 scheduled flights on Friday. The action in some of Ryanair's largest markets will be its second biggest one-day strike after some 55,000 customers were affected in August when pilots in five European countries walked out at the height of the summer holiday season. The Irish airline says it has made significant progress in recent weeks in negotiations, including reaching collective labor agreements with staff in Ireland, Britain, Italy and Germany. "These strikes show that, despite its recent rhetoric, Ryanair has a long way to go before it enjoys sustainable industrial relations," Gabriel Mocho Rodriguez, civil aviation secretary at the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), said in a statement. "You cannot claim negotiations are going well when workers in six countries on your network decide to take simultaneous strike action," he added. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie Three Enterprise Ireland backed companies yesterday announced significant new contract wins with Scottish partners and expansion in the UK market during Enterprise Irelands trade mission to Scotland this week. Led by Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD, the two-day trade mission to Scotland hoped to support Irish companies to consolidate and sustain exports to the UK. The trade mission which is the largest trade mission undertaken by Enterprise Ireland to the UK since the Brexit vote, aims to deepen existing relations and grow market opportunities between Ireland and Scotland, particularly within construction, agritech, financial services and off-shore wind sectors. Enterprise Ireland brought 56 Irish companies to participate in trade discussions. Speaking yesterday, Irish Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys said, "I welcome todays new business and expansion announcements which reflect the strong partnership opportunities for Irish and Scottish business. As Brexit negotiations progress, uncertainties remain for both Scottish and Irish companies and this has reinforced the need for us to strengthen our dialogue and interaction at company and Government level." She added, "Throughout the mission, we are engaging with senior officials and decision makers to further strengthen ties between our two countries." Source: www.businessworld.ie A plane has crash-landed in the Pacific Ocean after overshooting a runway on the tiny island of Weno, north-west of Papua New Guinea. A passenger aircraft has come down in a lagoon off Chuuk International Airport in Micronesia after it overshot the runway, say airport officials. No serious injuries were reported at the time of the crash landing. "The plane crashed in the lagoon, about 160 yards away from the runway", Chuuk airport manager Jimmy Emilio told the BBC. Air Niugini is PNG's national carrier which services domestic network and global routes across Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Videos posted to social media show rescue boats attending the scene, helping passengers and crew get off the half-submerged wreckage to safety. The accident happened at 9:30 a.m. on Friday when Air Niugini Flight 73 was flying from Pohnpei to Chuuk Airport on Weno island, where it was scheduled to make a stop before continuing on to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. "The plane crashed and in around five minutes the rescuers were there, they were ordinary people, because there are plenty of boats around the shore". "Then I went back to my workplace and somebody told me, and I looked from the rooftop and the plane was starting to go underwater", he told Guardian Australia. Initial reports indicate the flight was arriving and landed in the water. news, latest-news Sophie Boyson was told the pain she felt in her pelvis was in her head so many times that she started to believe it. She suffered significant pain associated with her period as a 16 year old and was told by her GP there was no physical cause for it and instead sent to a psychologist. It was not until two years later, when she filled out a questionnaire given to all the girls at her Canberra school, that she finally felt like someone was listening. Canberra nurse and researcher Melissa Parker, who was looking for a way to stop women with endometriosis suffering in silence, developed the survey and called Ms Boyson after reading her results. That changed the course of Ms Boyson's life, who for the first time felt validated, leading to her diagnosis with endometriosis and ongoing treatment. After more than a decade of research Ms Parker has developed a simplified version of the self-assessment tool that Ms Boyson filled out while a schoolgirl. The Period ImPact and Pain Assessment self-screening tool will be rolled out across Canberra and the country to help more women get treatment sooner. It is a five question self-assessment survey for teenagers and women. "We know early diagnoses reduces the impact long term," Ms Parker said. "The common things is they are told it's all in their head. "That's pretty soul destroying if you know that something is not right and you feel very unwell. "Then when it impacts on your job or school, going out with friends, it has a huge impact. Endometriosis is a really tricky condition to diagnose. Its signs and symptoms not only vary from person to person but the problems can range from severe pelvic pain through to no symptoms." Now in her early thirties, a mum and working in a demanding job, Ms Boyson often thinks about what her life would have been like if she had not have crossed paths with Ms Parker. "Her phone-call gave me a little bit of power back, a little bit of hope," Ms Boyson said. Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said the tool would be rolled out in in Canberra schools, the ACT Health website and walk-in-centres next year to make it easier for women to self-assess and to empower them to seek an early diagnosis. Im really proud that we have led the way here in the ACT with the development of this important new self-assessment tool, which is a testament to our health and medical research capabilities," she said. Indeed [the tool] is already in demand from other health services and governments who realise its potential and are keen to offer better health services for women who potentially have this condition. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/f5b3be47-7ee6-4047-b043-b6d965f04d7a/r0_306_6000_3696_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, federal-politics Australian universities are becoming unsafe for young men due to the risk of false accusations of sexual assault, sex therapist Bettina Arndt told a right-wing conference in Brisbane on Friday. Ms Arndt was speaking at LibertyFest, described as a two-day conference of "genuinely dangerous and disruptive ideas" organised by LibertyWorks, an organisation which advocates for a drastic reduction in government control. Ms Arndt has attracted student protests during her appearances at universities during her "Fake Rape Crisis" tour, which was in response to the Human Rights Commission's report on sexual assaults on campus. The report revealed up to one in five students were sexually harassed at university. Speaking to an audience of about 120 in Brisbane, Ms Arndt disputed the report's findings, arguing it showed there were very few sexual assaults on campus. Ms Arndt said she believed universities were increasingly becoming unsafe places for young men - rather than women - because they risked false accusations. "They can be accused by women who are suffering from regret sex or women who are feeling bad because they ended up having sex with the wrong person," she said. "Or annoyed that he didn't want to take it any further - she thought it was the start of something wonderful and it turned out to be just sex. "Or embarrassed because they were too drunk to know what they were doing." Ms Arndt argued a deliberate part of the feminist campaign since its early days was about demonising male sexuality and reigning in "any sign of normal, lusty sexual drive in men". She said women's responsibility was encouraged in other aspects of life. "Think about women who get drunk and get behind the wheel of a car and kill a pedestrian - she's expected to be responsible for that, she's culpable for that action," Ms Arndt said. "Where's the logic in not regarding women in any way responsible if they get drunk and make stupid decisions, exposing themselves to sexual harm. "Now I'm not victim blaming, of course the man must be held responsible if he ... deliberately takes advantage of a drunk woman, but we don't hold back from talking about risky behaviour when it comes to other crimes." Ms Arndt criticised the idea of "enthusiastic consent", being investigated by the New South Wales Law Reform Commission. "'Can I kiss you? Can I touch your breast? Can I keep touching your breast?' Unless you get 'yes' every inch of the way, you can be accused of rape," she said. "That means most of us are having illegal sex most of the time." Ms Arndt recalled a television program she guest-produced in the 1990s to provide a different perspective on the "no means no" campaign. "I had no problem getting women who would talk about the fact that they didn't convey no clearly, they deliberately got totally pissed so that they could get carried away and not have to make a decision about whether they wanted to go to bed with a man on a particular occasion. It was much easier to just let things happen," she said. "Or they talked about playing games and saying 'no' initially, wanting him to push through that resistance, wanting him to seduce them." The LibertyFest conference was also due to hear from speakers including Queensland chief entrepreneur Steve Baxter, Liberal Senator James Paterson, LNP Senator Amanda Stoker, federal LNP MP George Christensen, ousted One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts and unsuccessful LNP Brisbane City Council candidate Sean Jacobs. Following an earlier speech by LibertyWorks general manager Justin Campbell, one woman in the audience thanked him for his presentation, which included jokes and a slide show, including an image of him with former prime minister Kevin Rudd when he was "red pilled" and voted Labor. Thank you for proving why, women like myself and many of the other women in this room want men around in power because youre better at jokes than we are, she said. Mr Campbell said the left was not funny "any more". "The left take themselves incredibly seriously," he said. "They take offence to everything. We've become a victimhood culture. "...There's another term, 'offence archaeologist', even if people can't find something to be offended about in anything you've actually said, they'll go back years to find it." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/f999d33a-181a-4ce3-b31e-4f05a7baadb6/r0_522_4032_2800_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg However, US sanctions on Iran, which kick in from 4 November, can significantly reduce Iran's ability to export oil. "We defend many of these nations for nothing and then they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices". Ben Luckock, who is the co-head of oil trading at fellow merchant Trafigura also said that crude oil prices could hike up to $90 per barrel by Christmas and $100 by the start of New Year as the markets tighten. If Iranian supply turns out tighter than anticipated and prices rise further, a formal production increase from OPEC and allies next year may still be possible and will be discussed at a meeting on December 6-7, the two sources said. The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a build of 2.903 million barrels in the us crude oil inventories for the week ending September 21. 'Economic war'Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday criticised Washington in his speech to the UN General Assembly, saying the USA had waged "economic war" against Iran. He called on other nations not to rely on OPEC, lamenting the dependence Germany has on Russian Federation. The most-active December Brent crude futures contract LCOv1 settled up 59 cents at $81.38 a barrel, below the session high of $81.90 but still within sight of Tuesday's four-year high of $82.55. OPEC has little spare capacity. Meanwhile, Iranian oil tankers are starting to disappear from global satellite tracking systems as the implementation date for the next round of sanctions approaches. When asked about possibility of buying oil for the United States instead of traditional partner Iran, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that 'can't comment on media reports.' But he added that, 'we are engaged in talks with all countries.' He also said that India has explained its concerns to the US. The so-called "OPEC+" group, which includes the likes of Russia, Oman and Kazakhstan, met at the weekend to discuss a possible increase in crude output, but the upshot of the gathering was that the group was in no rush to do so. However, oil prices rising is nothing new in the face of the global market. "Perhaps on this path, we will sustain certain pressures, but certainly, the United States will not reach its objective", said Rouhani. To counter the recent falling supply from Iran, OPEC and other oil producers are considering to raise the output of crude oil by 500,000 bpd. Iran's national oil company, National Iranian Oil Company, also subsidises the freight costs for crude oil delivery and offers extended payment terms to buyers. 'Inquilab Zindabad'--meaning long live the revolution, is one of the prominent slogans during the independence movement which was popularised by Bhagat Singh. Among all the freedom fighter's Singh stands out as one of the most influential revolutionaries during the freedom movement, who gave up his life at a young age for the country's freedom. The actions of Bhagat Singh was not only limited to free the country from the hands of the British rule but also enlighten people through his ideology. One of the most inspiring quotes from the Sandhu Jat-Bhagat Singh said, ''It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while the ideas survived.'' Today is the birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, September 28, who had left a legacy during Indian Independence movement. Bhagat Singh died at an age of 23, prompting the youth in India to persist fighting for independence. Bhagat Singh is a true inspiration to youngsters across the country till today. On his birthday, let's familiarize ourselves with some of the unknown facts of Bhagat Singh. 20 Interesting Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Mahatma Gandhi 1. Bhagat Singh was born on September 28, 1907, in Banga village, Jaranwala Tehsil in the Lyallpur district of the Punjab Province of British India belongs to a Sikh family. 2. Influenced by European revolutionary movements at an early age, Bhagat Singh was involved in various revolutionary activities to fight against the British Raj. 3. In 1923, Bhagat Singh joined the National College in Lahore, which was started by Lala Lajpat Rai, where he also participated in extra-curricular activities such as the dramatics society. 4. When Bhagat Singh's parents tried to persuade him for marriage for him, he said that if he married in slave India ''my bride shall only be death.'' This made him to join Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. 5. He was the chief leader of Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), which was later named as Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). 6. Seeking revenge for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev planned to kill the Superintendent of Police James Scott in Lahore. However, they murdered a British police officer, John Saunders in a case of mistaken identity. 7. Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt made a plot to bomb the Central Legislative Assembly. He and his accomplice threw two bombs and pamphlets inside the Central Legislative Assembly and shouted slogans "Inquilab Zindabad!" 8. After the bombarding, Singh was arrested and imprisoned. He underwent a 116 day fast in jail demanding equal political rights for both British and Indian political prisoners. 9. During the time of Bhagat Singh's trial, this legendary freedom fighter used the occasion to propagate the importance of independence rather than defending his actions. 10. Singh wanted to die so that his death would inspire the youth of India which in turn would unite them to fight against the British Empire. 11. While in prison, Singh and two others had written a letter to Lord Irwin, wherein they asked to be treated as prisoners of war and consequently to be executed by firing squad and not by hanging. 12. Bhagat Singh walked through the gallows with a smile and his last words while hanging is "Down with British imperialism." 13. Singh with his comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death in the Lahore conspiracy case and ordered to be hanged on March 24, 1931. The schedule was moved forward by 11 hours and the three were hanged on March 23, 1931, at 7:30 pm in Lahore jail. Independence Day: Top 5 Freedom Fighters Who Pursued Their Higher Studies Abroad British Council, the United Kingdom's international organisation established with an aim to increase the cultural and educational opportunities, and educational opportunities is going to offer 500 scholarships to Indian students as a part of an academic exchange. This scholarship can be availed by Indian students at 44 universities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. British Council Indian Director, Alan Gemmell Obe, said that over 100 women from India have availed scholarship to pursue an education in the UK universities out of which six belong to the north east India. He also added that there has been a decent growth rate in the visa application by Indian students. Can UK Retain Its Position As The Best Destination For International Students? Alan Gemmell Obe said British Council will be having an agreement with North Eastern Council (NEC) next month regarding training teachers in the English language in the region. The Council is also planning a conclave in Delhi with the education ministers of the north east region. The intention behind the conclave is to discuss the issues related to the education sector. The British Council's focus is only on English teaching in the government schools and has trained over one million teachers in India in the last ten years. This year 2018 marks as 70 years of the British Council in India. According to the British Council, it awarded fully-funded scholarships to 100 Indian women to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects at UK's premier, higher education institutions. Top 7 Free Online Courses From The British Council What is IAS Exam? Indian Administrative Service (IAS) was formerly known as the Imperial Civil Service (ICS) is the Civil Services Examination and one of the toughest competitive exams in India. It is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for the recruitment of officers for the All India Administrative Civil Service. Founded: 1858 (as Imperial Civil Service) January 26, 1950 (as Indian Administrative Service) The Indian Administrative Service is the premier administrative civil service of the Government of India. Hierarchy-wise, IAS is the highest administrative post among the 24 services like IPS, IFS etc. Popularly known as the IAS exam, officially it is called as Civil Services Examination (CSE), which is conducted every year by the central recruiting agency, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). IAS is the permanent bureaucracy in India and forms a part of the executive branch. It is one of the three All India Services, its cadre can be employed by both the Union Government, the State Governments and public-sector undertakings. Indian Administrative Service (IAS) has been termed as one of the prestigious services among the 24 government services like IPS, IFS (Foreign), IFS (Forest), IP & TAFS, IAAS, IRS, IDAS, CMSE, IRTS, IRAS, IRPS, ITS, CAPF-AF to name a few. All these examinations are conducted by UPSC in the form of Civil Services Examination (CSE) for selecting the appropriate candidates for the jobs. Every year lakhs of candidates appear for this examination, testing their lucks and hard work to get through one of these prestigious posts. It is important to mention that any officer selected into the IAS can be employed by Union government, state governments and/or public-sector undertakings and gets exposure in numerous job roles like the collector, head of public sector units, commissioner, chief secretary, cabinet secretary to name a few. When on deputation outside India, the IAS officer can be engaged in inter-governmental organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the United Nations (UN), or its agencies and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to name a few. It is very important for aspirants to know and understand the requirements of the examination such as the UPSC IAS syllabus, pattern, eligibility criteria, application procedure and other such significant details before kick-starting the registrations. IAS Exam Highlights Annually, the UPSC conducts the Civil Services Examination (CSE) to shortlist the candidates for more than 20 services, such as IAS, IPS and IFS. On average, more than eight lakh candidates register for the IAS exam and around five lakh candidates appear for the examination. The selection of the candidates will be made through the preliminary exam, main examination and an interview/personality test. This year-long selection process will begin in the month of June and conclude in April. The final merit list for the CSE will be released in May. Exam Civil Services Examination Exam level National Organising body Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Exam type Pen and paper-based (offline) Number of services 24 Number of attempts 6 attempts Number of Vacancies Approximately 720 Admit card online Expected registrations More than 8 lakh The Union Public Service Commission has released the UPSC IAS Prelims Result 2021 on October 29, 2021 in online mode. UPSC aspirants who had appeared for UPSC Prelims 2021 on October 10 , 2021 can check the UPSC Result 2021 on the official UPSC website - upsc.gov.in. Shortlisted candidates' roll numbers along with their names are provided in the UPSC Prelims Result 2021 PDF. Here's the direct link to UPSC IAS 2021 Result as published by the UPSC. Download UPSC IAS Prelims Result 2021 Direct Link Around 10 lakh people had registered for the UPSC Prelims Exam 2021 for a total of 712 vacancies under various departments of Govt. of India. To qualify, candidates need to meet the UPSC IAS Prelims Cut Off 2021 to proceed to the next stage - UPSC IAS Main 2021. The UPSC IAS Main Admit Card 2021 will be released in the last week of December (Tentative). The UPSC Prelims 2021 qualified candidates must note their candidature is provisional. In accordance with the Rules of the Examination, all of them have to apply again in the Detailed Application Form-I (DAF-I) for the Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2021. The dates and important instructions for filling up the DAF-I and its submission will be announced in due course on the website of the Commission. The UPSC has postponed the IAS Preliminary Exam 2021 scheduled on June 27 due to the ongoing lockdown and the second wave of Novel Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. The Commission has decided to conduct the IAS Preliminary Exam 2021 on October 10th. The official notice reads, "Due to the prevailing conditions caused by the Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19), the Union Public Service Commission has deferred the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2021, which was scheduled to be held on 27th June, 2021. Now, this Examination will be held on 10th October, 2021." Big news for Civil Services aspirants! The Central Government has decided not to grant an extra attempt to Civil Services' aspirants, who could not appear for the Preliminary exam held in October last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said, "This is not the exam where you prepare at the last minutes. People prepare for years together." The SC bench comprises of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari said, "We appreciate your stand." IAS Prelims 2021 COVID-19 Guidelines The UPSC has released the important instructions for candidates while appearing for IAS Preliminary 2021 examination amid Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The sources suggest that the Commission is likely to continue the same guidelines to appear for the exam. Candidates should wear a face mask or cover, carry their own hand sanitiser and following the social distancing norms at the exam centre. Aspirants can download UPSC IAS Prelims 2021 (COVID-19) exam guidelines here. Civil Services Prelims 2021 Exam Date The UPSC will be conducting the IAS Prelims 2021 exam in pen and paper mode on June 27. Candidates should note that the UPSC Civil Services 2021 exam date is based on the calendar issued in August. UPSC IAS Notification 2021 The UPSC has released the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2021 notification on March 4, 2021. Candidates who are aiming for the All India Services along with other services can apply online between March 4 and 24, 2021. The CSE notification was released for a total of 712 vacancies which include 22 vacancies for persons with benchmark disability category. Aspirants are advised to check the official notification for all the details. Click here to download UPSC IAS notification 2021 UPSC IAS Exam 2021 Important Dates The Civil Services Examination (CSE) notification was released on March 4, 2021. Candidates can apply online until March 24, 2021. The preliminary exam will be held on June 27 and Main exam in the month of September. Civil Services Examination (CSE) notification March 4, 2021 IAS online application form March 4 to 24, 2021 IAS Preliminary admit card 2nd week of May IAS Prelims exam date June 27, 2021 IAS Preliminary result August 2021 IAS Main exam date January 07, 2022 (5 days) IAS Main exam result March / April 2022 IAS personality test/ interview May 2022 IAS final result June 2022 IAS 2021 Number Of Vacancies (tentative) The total number of vacancies announced in the official notification is approximately 712, out of which 22 vacancies are reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disability Category. Aspirants should note that the list was prepared based on the previous year. The vacancies will be updated after the official notification. Total number of vacancies 796 (including 22 reserved vacancies) Total reserved vacancies 22 Blindness and low vision 5 Deaf and hard of hearing 6 Locomotor disability 6 Multiple disabilities 5 Candidates have to note that the final number of vacancies may change after getting the firm number of vacancies from the Cadre Controlling Authorities. IAS Application Form 2021 The UPSC has activated the IAS application form 2021 window on March 4. Interested candidates who meet all the eligibility conditions set by the Commission can register for IAS exam until March 24, 2021. Aspirants need to complete the application form of IAS with great attention. A single mistake in IAS application form 2021 would lead aspirants to wait for one more year. Hence, we suggest candidates refer our UPSC online application form 2021 page for detailed steps. IAS Online Application Form 2021 Steps Visit the official site of UPSC www.upsc.gov.in Go to ''Apply Online'' tab. Click on ''Online Application for Various Examinations'' Find the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination Start IAS registration with Part-I. Fill-up the personal details, educational qualification and address. Pay the prescribed application fee (Rs 100) Choose the exam centre Upload the photo, sign and photo identity card. Accept the declaration. Check the complete details and submit. Take a printout of IAS application form for future reference. UPSC IAS Main Exam Dates 2021 (Tentative) The UPSC will release the Civil Services Main Exam dates on its official website. Aspirants who have passed with flying colours in Preliminary Exam are only eligible to appear for the Main Examination. The Commission conducts the Main Examination for a total of five days in the month of September. Candidates are advised to explore the Civil Services Main Exam dates 2021. Date Forenoon Session (9.00 AM to 12.00 Noon) Afternoon Session (2.00 PM to 5.00 PM) January 07, 2022 (Friday) Paper-I Essay No Paper January 08, 2022 (Saturday) Paper-II General StudiesI Paper-III General StudiesII January 09, 2022 (Sunday) Paper-IV General StudiesIII Paper-V General StudiesIV January 15, 2022 (Saturday) PaperA Indian Language PaperB English January 16, 2022 (Sunday) PaperVI Optional Paper-I PaperVII Optional Paper-II Being an IAS Officer An IAS officer is given administrative command of an entire district as a District Collector. IAS officers also represent the Government of India at the international level in bilateral and multilateral negotiations. Given below is the detailed scenario like eligibility criteria, roles & responsibilities, etc. for the upcoming Civil Services Examination 2020: Wooden explained to the pope that she wanted to ask questions that the pope didn't answer on the flight from Ireland. "Consequently, one of the most important obligations incumbent on all of us who have social, political, educational and religious responsibilities has to do precisely with how we can keep building bonds", he said, adding that while small, the Catholic Church can make its contribution. The pope also posthumously recognised an eighth bishop who "had expressed the desire to be reconciled with the Apostolic See" before he died a year ago, it said. "They are outraged by sexual and economic scandals that do not meet with clear condemnation, by our unpreparedness to really appreciate the lives and sensibilities of the young, and simply by the passive role we assign them", he told Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox young people in the Kaarli Lutheran Church in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. "I will not repeat them, but even if it was only one single priest to abuse a young girl or young boy this is monstrous because that man was chosen by God to bring that child to heaven". "They are scandalized by incongruity, they are scandalized by corruption, and as part of this corruption ... sexual abuse". But it is not true that the church has done nothing "to clean up", Pope Francis told reporters. Accusations of clergy sexual abuse have decreased, according to church statistics and an investigative report by a grand jury in Pennsylvania, which said that the "bulk" of the accusations in the state occurred before the early 2000s. "You also covered them up at home: When the uncle raped the niece, when the father raped his children". "It is how people thought in the last century", Francis continued. To understand what happened in the past, he said, one must remember how abuse was handled then. "An historic event must be interpreted with the hermeneutics of that time, not with the hermeneutics of today". "China is honest about wanting to improve our relations with the Vatican and we have taken steps to achieve this", the ministry's spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing. But he said he ultimately will name bishops after a period of "dialogue" with Beijing. As a result, the church in China split in two - with some swearing allegiance exclusively to the pope and worshiping in underground churches, and others practicing in churches that had direct state approval. Taiwan said on Thursday its relationship with the Vatican is stable, although it will closely watch what it described as "suppression" by China following a landmark deal between Beijing and the Vatican on the appointment of bishops on the mainland. The agreement regularizes the status of seven bishops who had been appointed by Beijing over the years without papal consent, and sets out a process of dialogue going forward to name new ones. While acknowledging the suffering of some underground faithful in China, Francis pointed to what he considered a good sign that the church is beginning to unify. However, he said, people should remember that for centuries the kings of Spain and Portugal nominated the bishops of Latin America, and the Austro-Hungarian emperors did the same in their territory. "As the world watches China increasingly tightening control over religious practices, Taiwan trusts that the Holy See has made appropriate arrangements to ensure that Catholic adherents in China will receive due protection and not be subject to repression", it said. a real me Famous for producing smartphones with a focus on cost-effectiveness, it currently has only one high-performance cell, which... At his press conference on Wednesday, Trump quoted Michael Pillsbury is the Director of the Center on Chinese Strategy, Hudson Institute, who was on cable news talking about negotiations between China and the U.S. China denies the claim. Trump made the claim at the U.N. Wednesday but didn't offer any specifics. He said he can't disclose the evidence, but that it will come out, adding that his allegation did not come "out of nowhere". Trump was broadly criticised after he appeared to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the U.S. intelligence community on the subject when they met in Helsinki, Finland, in July. But coming in the wake of Trump's proclamation that Americans "reject the ideology of globalism", Wang's speech sounded a note of rebuttal from a competing power. The ad had been in accordance with United States law that allows the cooperation of foreign and U.S. media, Geng told the briefing in Beijing. Wang asked. "China's answer is clear-cut". It should not be forgotten that Macron's commitments to Netanyahu and Trump remain strong. He also mentioned Chinese government-led influence operations meant to bolster China's long-term influence in key countries, including the United States. The state planner said the commitment was part of larger plans to restructure the economy. China, among other countries, has a long history of using ads in newspapers, including in The Washington Post, to get across messages that it would have trouble persuading professional journalists to print. And gesturing at China's influence in one of the worldwide community's most pressing issues, he encouraged North Korea - which counts China as its traditional ally and main trading partner - to keep going in "the right direction toward denuclearization". The US and Canada are under pressure to reach a deal by September 30. "From its continued hacking of our defence secrets to its focus on collecting vast repositories of personal and personality-identifying information to better enable espionage activities, China exploits our transparency and open society,"Coats said in remarks at The Citadel, a military college in SC". Hard-liners in the ruling Communist Party have been eager to highlight the increasingly harsh rhetoric from Trump and his aides as evidence that the United States is seeking to punish China. "I need to point out that China has all along followed the principle of non interference in other country's domestic affairs". A senior Trump administration official said China uses political, economic, commercial, military and information tools to influence US public opinion and promote the interests of the Chinese government and Communist Party. The military spat and election accusation have worsened a relationship already poisoned by the Sino-U.S. trade war. Although U.S. intelligence has pinpointed China as a potential election-meddling threat, they have not reported concrete examples of meddling. China has accused the Trump administration of bullying. The Trump administration levied duties of 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese products that include furniture and appliances, with the rate set to increase to 25 percent by the end of the year. The latest round of hikes came Monday. U.S. officials have not immediately responded to requests for comment after Mr Trump's claims. The new duties would add to tariffs the United States has already imposed on $50bn in Chinese goods as part of that dispute, as well as tariffs that China levied on $50bn in U.S. goods in retaliation. "We advise the United States to stop this unceasing criticism and slander of China", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. The US congressional mid-terms are due to be held on 6 November. As a longtime ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russia wants Western aid for financing postwar reconstruction while also maintaining its upper hand in discussions about the country's political future. Something that will no doubt please Russian President Vladimir Putin. Looking on is U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May (C) and French President Emmanuel Macron voiced support for 2015 Iran nuclear deal, in their speeches. "If at all, the world is far worse than 15 years ago". Bangladesh exports fall 11% YoY in July-Aug 2018 28 September 2018 Bangladesh's cement industry recorded an export revenue of US$1.85m during July-Aug 2018 compared to US$2.07m of the corresponding year-ago period, according to the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau. This equates to a fall of 10.6 per cent YoY in exports. The export figure also includes a minor amount of salt, stone and related products. Currently, the country is reportedly exporting cement to India, Myanmar, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka. Published under Pakistan cement producers record falling sales 28 September 2018 Pakistans Fecto Cement Ltd has announced a 42 per cent YoY fall in profit for the FY18 ended 30 June, declining to PKR441m (US$3.56m) from PKR760m. Net sales of the company decreased 4.5 per cent to PKR4.9bn, compared with PKR5.13bn from the year-ago period. The company has a cement production capacity of 0.819Mta from its facility in Sangjani, Punjab. Elsewhere, Pioneer Cement Ltd has recorded a 44 per cent YoY drop in earnings to PKR1.64bn for the FY18. Net sales were down five per cent to PKR10.12bn, largely due to a discontinuation of clinker sales to Fauji Cement Co Ltd and lower retention prices. Meanwhile, the company is continuing the construction of its 8000tpd plant in Chenki, Khushab district, to meet the planned completion date in FY19. Published under The suspects were planning to attack a large event with hand grenades, automatic weapons and explosives belts, according to prosecutors. The national prosecutor's office said in a statement that heavily armed police arrested the men in the towns of Arnhem, about 100 kilometres south of Amsterdam, and Weert in the southern Netherlands close to the borders of Germany and Belgium. Prosecutors say the man at the centre of the group is a 34-year-old of Iraqi origin, who was convicted in 2017 for trying to travel to fight for the Islamic State group. Prosecutors say the attackers, aged between 21 and 34, planned to detonate a vehicle bomb at another location. The suspects, who investigators said were in possession of small arms when they were detained, are expected to appear in court in Rotterdam on Friday. Prosecutors said the suspects ranged in age from 21 to 34. Surveillance was stepped up this month as the suspects searched for grenades, raw materials for the auto bomb and weapons including the Kalashnikov guns. Three of the seven suspects had previously been detained after trying to join foreign militants overseas. The investigation was speeded up this month as there were fears that the suspects were at an advanced stage in their preparations. "But they were quite far in their preparations". Earlier this month a jihadist was shot after stabbing two American tourists in Amsterdam. Dutch police said on Thursday they had foiled a major terrorist attack with the arrest of seven alleged extremists in multiple raids across the country. Despite the "extremist" attack last month and this "foiled" plot, the Dutch authorities have not raised the terror threat posed to the public. The office did not raise the level following the arrests. President Donald Trump addresses the United Nations Security Council during the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China of seeking to meddle in the November 6 US congressional elections, saying Beijing did not want his Republican Party to do well because of his stance on trade. "If (Trump) thinks that he and Xi are no longer friends, then there could be a whole different level of deterioration in the US-China relationship far beyond trade", Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism China Newsletter, told AFP. The two sides have engaged in a fast-escalating trade war, having both implemented tariffs on more than US$250 billion worth of goods. In a blunt attack on China, the USA president told the council that China wanted to see him suffer an elections setback because of his hard line on trade. "But beside that, we learned that they are trying to meddle in our election". He also said China was interfering in the US midterm elections, but offered no details about the claim except to say that Beijing opposes his trade policy. However, Trump's comments Wednesday seem to confirm that China is actively interfering now. China's foreign minister shrugged when he heard Trump's statement via translation at the Security Council. Beijing has responded by targeting US goods headed to China. Vice President Mike Pence is expected to elaborate on the alleged Chinese interference in remarks to be delivered next week at the Hoover Institution in California. "We need to build together a long-term strategy to manage the crisis that can not be reduced to a policy of sanctions and containment of Iran", said Mr Macron. The Trump administration on Tuesday slapped financial sanctions on four members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's inner circle, including his wife and the nation's vice president, on allegations of corruption. With the midterms less than two months away, United States intelligence officials have said they are not seeing the intensity of the Russian intervention registered in 2016. Each imposed tariff increases on the other's goods on Monday and Beijing accused the Trump administration of bullying. National Security Adviser John Bolton in August issued similar warnings about China's activities, while also criticising Russia, North Korea, and Iran. According to a senior administration official, what Trump considers election interference includes Chinese retaliatory tariffs against Midwest farmers, intimidation of journalists and academics, and funding for state-controlled news outlets. "China is actually placing propaganda ads in the Des Moines Register and other papers, made to look like news". At no point on Wednesday did the president make similar pronouncements about Russian Federation, which the USA intelligence community long ago accused of engaging in a coordinated influence campaign to boost Mr. Trump's chances of being elected in 2016. On Tuesday, Trump had extended "special thanks" to Xi for support of US efforts to get North Korea to commit to denuclearization. "I like two-state solution", Mr Trump said in his most clear endorsement of the plan as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump says the heads of states and delegates in the audience "weren't laughing at me". He said there had been reports of "threatening calls from embassy officials" and attempts to "intimidate scholars and journalists". "For the first time, the USA president was asking other members not to adhere to a resolution of the very same Security Council over which he was presiding", quipped Rouhani. The news angered Twitter users after POTUS blasted some African countries as "sh*holes"! She said that she was looking forward to taking with her the message of her signature initiative, "Be Best", which she set up with the goal of focusing on children's well-being, as well as social media use and opioid abuse. "October 1 will mark the first day of my solo visit to four handsome and very different countries in Africa", the Associated Press (AP) reported Melania Trump as saying. First Lady Margaret Kenyatta and US First Lady Melania Trump converse during the official visit by President Uhuru Kenyatta and the First Lady to the White House in Washington DC, USA. Majority of American citizens criticised Melania, with many accusing her of preaching water and drinking wine, citing the forceful separation of children from parents seeking asylum in America. The next day, Trump tweeted that was "not the language used" by him, but admitted his words were "tough". However, Trump changed his tune before hosting Tuesday morning's meeting of the UN Security Council, telling journalists that Africa is one of the most attractive places on earth. He received huge backlash after he was reported to have described Africa as a shithole. She did not say how long her visit would take. There was no mention of POTUS' "tough" language during today's reception. US First Lady Melania Trump has confirmed that she will visit to Kenya early next month. During the reception, Mrs Trump personally acknowledged her counterparts from the countries that she will be visiting in Africa-the First Ladies from Kenya, Ghana and Malawi, all of who were present. "Each of us hails from a country with its own unique challenges, but I know in my heart we are united by our commitment to raising the next generation to be happy, healthy and morally responsible adults", she added. Regardless of Trump's hurtful words, we applaud Melania for embarking on this trip - all by herself! Americans love their coffee. In fact, the average American consumes around 2.1 coffee drinks per day, which translates to about 767 drinks or 6,132 ounces of delicious coffee per year. But which city has the most coffee drinkers? And which residents are shelling out the most money for a cup of joe? Weve got the low down on the best and worst coffee spots around the nation. New York is the No. 1 city for coffee lovers New York is, far and wide, the best city for coffee drinkers. According to a 2018 study done by Wallet Hub, which measured Americas best and worst coffee cities using 14 key metrics, no place compares to The Big Apple. New York City has the most coffee shops, coffee houses, cafes, and pretty much any coffee-related store imaginable than any other city in the nation. It doesnt come as a big surprise, since were talking about nine million coffee-craving people living on one 22-square-mile island. After all, there needs to be enough coffee to go around. Another fun fact: New York City has the most donut shops per capita, which is important to note, since most people would agree that coffee tastes better with donuts. However, New York City was beat out by a few other cities in various categories, according to Wallet Hubs findings. Tulsa, Oklahoma sells the cheapest coffee This doesnt come as a surprise, since the cost of living in the Midwest is generally less expensive than on either coast. In Tulsa, the average price for a bag of coffee is just $3.38. That could just be the store-bought brand (the brand was not specified in the survey), but it will still get you plenty of cups of joe for one insanely low price especially compared to Hawaii and Ohio. Honolulu, Hawaii and Columbus, Ohio are the most expensive places to purchase coffee If youre living in Honolulu or Columbus, you get the short end of the stick when it comes to coffee prices. The average price for a pack of coffee in both of these cities is a staggering $8.16 more than double Tulsas cost. It makes sense for Hawaii, since things that need to be imported are more expensive but we cant figure out why Columbus has such high prices. Santa Ana, California has more adult coffee drinkers than any other city If youre new to Santa Ana, try striking up a conversation with your new neighbors about the coffee scene; it will likely give them plenty to talk about. Santa Ana has the most adult coffee drinkers per capita in the country. Detroit, Michigan has the fewest coffee drinkers. Portland, Oregon has the most coffee and tea manufacturers per capita If youre looking to try a few different caffeinated beverages, look no further than Portland, Oregon. The city has more coffee and tea manufacturers than anywhere else, so youll certainly find something you love. You can even take coffee and tea tours to experience several different types in the same day. Americans spend billions of dollars on coffee each year America has no shortage of coffee drinkers, and the industrys worth shows it. U.S. residents spent more than $74 billion on coffee in 2015. But while the U.S. consumer drinks thousands of ounces of coffee each year, none of it is made here in the U.S. Its mostly imported from South America, Africa, and Asia. You can safely drink up to four cups of coffee per day If youre worried you drink too much coffee, it might help to know how much is too much. Mayo Clinic suggests four cups of coffee per day, or 400 milligrams of caffeine per day, is a safe amount to drink. Anything more than that, and your heart may work a bit harder than it wants to. But the average American only consumes about half of that amount, so you probably have some flexibility in your personal coffee addiction. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Pueblo West man finds rare black-footed ferret in garage An endangered black-footed ferret weasels Pueblo West man, state parks and wildlife officers and humane society into teaming up for a rescue. NEW YORK (AP) Thanksgiving is Jonatan Mitchell's favorite holiday, usually spent with his wife co-hosting up to 20 loved ones. Hed been looking forward to the gathering this year after calling it off in 2020 due to the pandemic, but one of the most pressing issues of the times got in the An Italian priest was kidnapped last week in southwest Niger, Africa. Fr. Pier Luigi Maccalli, 57, was kidnapped by eight unknown armed men Monday night in his parish of Bamoanga, some 125km from the capital Niamey. According to World Watch Monitor, local sources have reported that the armed men rode in on motorbikes, entering the parish around 9 pm. Reportedly, the priest was first attacked in his bedroom and then taken along with a priest from India and two nuns. The nuns and the other priest, however, managed to escape during the attack and are safe. No group has taken responsibility for the attack and kidnapping yet, but security sources are reporting that the assailants may be taking the hostage to Kogega, a forest that serves as a base alongside the Niger-Burkina border. Recently Burkina, a neighboring country, has been subject to several attacks by jihadist militiamen in which has incited a military response which included an air raid in the region. Father Maccalli is from the Crem diocese in Italy and is a member of the Society of African Missions (SAM). Maccalli is the first Catholic priest to be kidnapped in Niger but, according to World Watch Monitor, he is the third Westerner to be taken by armed men in recent years. Diara Banyoura the mayor of Makalondi, which also includes Bamoanga village, told World Watch Monitor that the abduction of the priest has been incredibly difficult for the residents of Makalondi. The Mayor visited the village on Tuesday morning and recalled the atmosphere was very somber. He said, There was a feeling of sorrow among them. Dozens gathered in silence. Others can hardly hide their emotions. They shed tears as they tried to express their emotions, saying: How can this happen to someone who has been always giving a helping hand to people in need? Diara Banyoura a member of parliament in Niger, said some of his fellow MPs were concerned about the kidnapping of the priest and the long-term effects the kidnapping could have, including causing Catholic missionaries to leave the country. He said they all agree that what happened is really deplorable, and if the foreign missionaries leave many projects run by the Catholic Church in the region and elsewhere would be forced to close. Banyoura said the departure of Catholic missionaries would be a disaster for the population, which reportedly relies heavily on their projects. If the population is abandoned alone, this may create other issues, he said. Banyoura said he implored God to preserve the life of the Italian missionary and appealed on the government to do whatever possible in order to obtain his release. Photo courtesy: Grant Whitty/Unsplash Pastor Andrew Brunson may be released from Turkey next month at a hearing, according to reports. Brunson is under arrest and spent two years in a Turkish prison. It wasnt until more than a year into his imprisonment that authorities finally charged him with Christianization. According to Breitbart.com, the formal charge is terrorism and espionage. He could face up to 35 years in custody in Turkey. Brunsons daughter, Jacqueline Furnari, spoke at this year's Values Voter Summit in Washington, saying God is in control of the situation. There have been times I have not been happy with God's plan in this situation, she said. I've really come to realize God is in complete control and He has a plan and this is all for his glory. He is worth everything that my family has gone through." She says her father was held with 22 people in a cell meant for eight people. She says he now has anxiety and depression. She says her father has been able to write letters to her, saying he is trusting in God. I've seen that message come through in my dad's letters as well as he started to transform and submit to God and say, 'God, my life is yours. Whatever you do with me let it honor you, let it declare your name and your goodness to people. During the summit, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the U.S. is working for Brunsons release. We are sparing no effort to return Pastor Brunson to the United States he has been wrongly held, and his proper place is to be able to return here to once again practice his faith in our great nation, Pompeo said. Know this, President Trump will never forget about our own. Photo courtesy: Chuttersnap/Unsplash Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment If you've been a Christian for a while, then you've been told, encouraged, and even begged to read your Bible regularly, preferably every day. But you may not have been told why. Here are four reasons to read your Bible regularly. 1. Reading the Bible Draws You Closer to God. God reveals Himself to us in many ways, including the world around us. As Paul wrote, God's "invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made" (Romans 1:20, ESV). But the primary way that God reveals Himself to us is through the Bible. The Old Testament shows us that God created us in His image, loves us, and, even though we rebelled and continue to rebel against Him, wants us to be reconciled to Him. Time and time again in the Old Testament, God demonstrates that he is patient with us and faithful in keeping His many promises to us. The New Testament tells the story of Jesus and the early days of the Christian church. At the beginning and end of his gospel, the disciple John explains why the New Testament was written. He describes Jesus as the Word of God, who "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14, ESV). John and the other New Testament writers recorded some of what Jesus said and did so that, in reading it, "you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31, ESV). The more you read the Bible, the better you get to know God. The better you know God, the more you want to communicate with Him and follow Him. 2. The Bible Is the Perfect Handbook for Daily Living. David describes God's Word as "a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105, ESV). Whatever path you're on, the Bible can show you the right steps to take. It's the perfect how-to guide for living, for reasons that include: Wisdom: The Bible is loaded with wisdom. Solomon, who prayed for wisdom and used it to lead Israel, provides a wealth of sage advice in several Old Testament books. The Gospels records the teachings of Jesus, whom even critics consider a teacher without equal. The Bible is loaded with wisdom. Solomon, who prayed for wisdom and used it to lead Israel, provides a wealth of sage advice in several Old Testament books. The Gospels records the teachings of Jesus, whom even critics consider a teacher without equal. Commandments: The Old Testament includes the Law, much of which is commandments on living a life that is pleasing to God. Many of Jesus's parables gave a fresh perspective on these commandments to counter false interpretations that had arisen over time. The Old Testament includes the Law, much of which is commandments on living a life that is pleasing to God. Many of Jesus's parables gave a fresh perspective on these commandments to counter false interpretations that had arisen over time. Rationale: In addition to providing sound rules for living, the Bible explains why God gave us these rules. In addition to providing sound rules for living, the Bible explains why God gave us these rules. Consequences: Why should you follow God's instructions? The Bible is loaded with stories of people who did or didn't and the consequences of their actions. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul writes that the entire Bible "is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV). Speaking of being equipped for good work... 3. Reading the Bible Regularly Improves Your Behavior. Regular Bible reading improves your behavior. In fact, scripture engagement or the frequency with which you read your Bible is a more reliable prediction of moral behavior than traditional measures of spirituality, such as church attendance and prayer. This revelation comes from research conducted by Arnold Cole, Ed.D. and Pamela Caudill Ovwigho, who lead the Center for Bible Engagement and have conducted online surveys of over 100,000 people. Their statistical analyses reveal that, controlling for other factors such as age, gender, church attendance, and prayer Christians who read the Bible four or more days a week have lower odds of abusing alcohol, having sex outside of marriage, viewing pornography, and gambling. Significantly lower odds. Here are the findings: Getting drunk: 57% lower odds Having extramarital sex: 68% lower odds Viewing porn: 61% lower odds Gambling: 74% lower odds Reading your Bible more often not only makes you less likely to engage in risky behavior but also increases the likelihood that you will share your faith and disciple others. Christians who read their Bibles at least four days a week are more than two times (230%) more likely to share their faith and disciple others than Christians who read their Bibles less frequently. 4. The Bible Encourages and Strengthens You. When you are stressed out, struggling, down, frustrated, discouraged, angry, or suffering, you probably aren't terribly interested in learning more about God, getting advice on what to do, or improving your behavior. You want comfort. Reassurance. Strength. Peace. Hope. Whatever you need, and whenever you need it, the Bible provides it. Sometimes called "God's love letter to us", the Bible reminds us throughout that God created us in His image and loves us deeply, even when we wander or run away from Him. No Surprises Here The fact that reading the Bible regularly can have such a positive impact on us shouldn't surprise us. After all, God's Word is described as "living and active" and sharp enough to "divid[e] soul and spirit, joints and marrow" (Hebrews 4:12, NIV). James says that "the implanted word" can "save your souls" (James 1:21, NIV), and God says in Isaiah that His Word "will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11, NIV). The Bible is a very good gift from a very good God. Chris Bolinger is the author of Daily Strength for Men, available in November from BroadStreet Publishing. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment I want you to meet some brave Christian leaders pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. When thinking of the golden age of the Church, many of us hearken back to the book of Acts, when Peter and John stood up to the religious authorities, who told them to be silent about Jesus the risen Messiah. "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God," they answered, "you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." Then they prayed for boldness, and the Church exploded across much of the ancient world. But there's a golden age for the church going on right nowwith the same kind of courage, persecution, and Spirit-empowered growth. Where is it? In communist China. World missions historians tell us that when all the foreign missionaries were kicked out of Mao's China a few years after the Second World War, there were probably no more than 3 million believers in Jesus Christ in the whole, vast nation. But today, seven decades later, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life counts 67 million Christians of all kinds35 million independent Protestants, 23 million Protestants in government-sanctioned churches, and 9 million Catholics. Other estimates go even higher. Whatever the true number is, it's almost as many as there are members of the Communist Party! Maybe that's why the government is cracking down on Christians. According to Christianity Today and other news outlets, Under President Xi Jinping, China's government has been tightening its grip on religious affairs. In February, regulations aimed at religious groups have brought increased pressure on churches to be "Chinese" culturally and to submit to the authority of the Communist Party. Churches are being told to burn their crosses and replace them with Chinese flags and to display slogans praising the Communist Party. Some are being forced to join the government-sanctioned churches and permit video surveillance of their services. Meanwhile, in Jiangxi province, authorities have forced at least 40 churches to display banners forbidding foreigners from preaching and anyone under 18 from attending. In August, they even published new rules stating, "Party members who have religious belief should have strengthened thought education." In the spirit of Peter and John, a group of at least 250 Chinese pastors has publicly signed a joint statement opposing the new regulations. In the statement they declare that Jesus is Lord of all, offering eternal life to anyone who will repent and believe in Him. But they also say, in a challenge to the Chinese communists, "God hates all attempts to suppress human souls and all acts of persecution against the Christian church, and he will condemn and judge them with righteous judgment." Then, like Peter and John, they pledge obedience not to the earthly authorities but to King Jesus, no matter what. "We declare that in matters of external conduct, churches are willing to accept lawful oversight by civil administration or other government departments as other social organizations do. But under no circumstances will we lead our churches to join a religious organization controlled by the government, to register with the religious administration department, or to accept any kind of affiliation." They close their incredible joint statement with the bracing yet sobering words, "For the sake of the gospel, we are prepared to bear all losseseven the loss of our freedom and our lives." Friends, is it any wonder that the church in China has grown, and continues to grow? What we're seeing before our eyes is the golden age of the church in China. How can we not pray for these wonderful brothers and sisters? And more than that, how can we not emulate their costly faithfulness in our own little corner of God's world? Resources 116 Chinese Pastors Sign Joint Statement on the New Religious Regulations China Partnership | September 2, 2018 China Bans Zion, Beijing's Biggest House Church World Watch Monitor | Christianity Today | September 10, 2018 China Mulls Major Restrictions on Online Ministries Christianity Today Staff | September 11, 2018 Red Tape: China Wants to Constrict Christian Activities with 26 New Rules Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra | Christianity Today | October 3, 2016 Originally posted at Breakpoint. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment I do not like attorney Michael Avenatti. His first claim to fame was as the lawyer of a porn star who allegedly slept with Donald Trump. His latest claim to fame is as the lawyer of a woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of being involved in multiple gang rapes. Personally, I find Avenatti's style distasteful and his morals offensive. But there is something that tempers my attitude towards him, namely, the recognition of grace. In short, I remember that God had mercy on me in 1971 when I was an idiot and a jerk, a heavy drug-using 16-year-old who, to my shame, even stole money from my own father. And He had mercy on me during those previous two years of intense folly (from the ages of 14-16), not allowing me to destroy myself with my abusive and reckless lifestyle. I did not deserve a drop of God's mercy or favor (nor, in fact, do any of us). Yet it was when we were rebels, when we were disobedient, that Jesus died for us. As Paul wrote, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). That means that Jesus died for Michael Avenatti too. (Feel free to fill in the name of anyone you don't like, be it the president or your next door neighbor). And that means that he can receive mercy, just as I did, and just as millions of others have. This does not mean that we approve of someone's wrong choices or sinful conduct. It does not mean that we look the other way when we believe something is wrong or unfair. It does not mean that we tolerate evil (wherever we see it). It does not mean we do not speak out or that we do not stand for justice. But it does mean that we temper our attitude towards others. That we don't parade around so self-righteously. That our greatest hope is for someone's redemption rather than their condemnation. And for those of us who seek to live God-fearing, God-pleasing lives, we should remember that we receive mercy from heaven every single day. Without that, all of us would stand guilty in the Lord's sight. In another of his letters, Paul counseled followers of Jesus "to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people" (Titus 3:2; chew on those words for a while before you post your next comment on social media). Why should we conduct ourselves in this way? Paul continues, "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:1-7). In other words, think back to what jerks used to be before Jesus saved us. That will help us be more gracious to others. Paul himself had a sordid history, reminding his young disciple Timothy that "formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life" (1 Timothy 1:13-16). So, rather than curse those who rankle us and offend us, let's pray for them. One of them might become the apostle Paul of our generation. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment It has been more than a year since Burmese authorities began a brutal campaign terrorizing, sexually assaulting, and killing mainly Rohingya Muslims, leaving burned villages and corpses in their wake; more than a year since more than 700,000 fled across the border to Bangladesh. Despised for being both ethnically and religiously different, Rohingya Muslims are considered by Burma's military and many of the majority Buddhist population as outsiders illegally residing in the country with the goal of spreading Islam across the land. What is even more alarming is that this kind of violent campaign had happened before, most recently in October 2016. Then, too, Burma's military launched attacks against Rohingya Muslims and others. Their stated reason? That small groups of Rohingya insurgents, in both instances, attacked and killed Burmese security forces in retribution for increased harassment and discrimination. In so doing, the insurgents handed the government, the military, and some nonstate actors justificationin the name of combatting terrorismto exterminate and forcibly evict Rohingya Muslims from Burma. A new report from the State Department revealed that the military's campaign against Rohingya Muslims was planned well in advance, using the insurgent attacks as justification. In fact, the military had intensified its crackdown in the months leading up to the attacks. The report states "the recent violence in northern Rakhine State was extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents." While the State Department did not label the abuses against Rohingya Muslims as genocide or crimes against humanity despite robust supporting evidence, the United States and the international community nevertheless must swiftly seek justice against the perpetrators under the appropriate international instruments. A recently released UN-commissioned report concluded that Burma's top military leaders should be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, noting circumstances suggesting their "genocidal intent." We should not be surprised. Burma's military and security forcesand even nonstate actorshave perpetrated these and similar abuses against several religious and ethnic minority communities in Burma for decades. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and many of the ethnic groups in Burma have long felt the military's wrath and society's disdain. In the case of Rohingya Muslims, there is no denying that they have been targeted, at least in part, because of their faith. Earlier this year, a delegation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), where we serve as Commissioners, spoke with Rohingya refugees now residing in Bangladesh. They described how Burma's government and others often interfered with Ramadan and Eid festivals; locked and burned down madrassas and mosques; desecrated and burned Qur'ans; prevented burials according to Muslim tradition; and targeted imams for detention, torture, and killings. Last November, a USCIRF delegation met with Burma's government, including the Minister of Religious Affairs and Culture, religious leaders, interfaith youth groups, and civil society and to advocate for the religious freedom of Rohingya and other Muslims, Christians, and all religious and ethnic communities. In USCIRF's 2018 Annual Report, we recommended that the State Department should redesignate Burma as a "country of particular concern," or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) for its systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom against Rohingya Muslims and others. This designation should have been made by the end of August, and USCIRF urges the State Department to make CPC designations as soon as possible. The United States must continue to impose targeted sanctions on specific abusers, through IRFA and the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, as the Treasury Department did in August 2018 and December 2017. Such sanctions include visa bans and asset freezes. It is imperative that the United States make human rights in Burma a priority not just in its bilateral relations, but also as part of its overall foreign policy strategy. The White House National Security Strategy prioritized religious freedom and protecting religious minorities, a policy exemplified by the first-ever Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom held by the State Department in July 2018. The administration and Congress now must work together to respond strongly and to reinforce U.S. foreign policy priorities in Burma. Burma's government can no longer deny the abuses perpetrated by the military and nonstate actors. The world can no longer stand by with only words and no action. Our collective conscience can no longer accept these violations of human rights. Do we still need the Ten Commandments? Is all the Bible relevant to a Christian worldview? One well-known pastor recently suggested it isn't. But I beg to differ. What's the only passage in Scripture personally written down by God? If you answered "the Ten Commandments," you're right on the money. Exodus tells us that God audibly spoke these laws at Mount Sinai and inscribed them on tablets of stone with His own finger. Of course, that's not the only reason the Ten Commandments have a central place in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Christians have long understood them to be the clearest expression of God's eternal moral character. Not to mention, they played an instrumental role in shaping Western civilization, including forming the foundation of our legal system and our understanding of justice. It's why Moses and those tablets can be found at the apex of the U.S. Supreme Court. Recently in Relevant Magazine, Georgia pastor Andy Stanley argued that we shouldn't build monuments to the Ten Commandments in churches or courthouses because these rules are "from the old covenant." The article was a follow-up, in a sense, to something that Pastor Stanley said back in May when he advised his congregation to "unhitch" their faith from the Old Testament. In this latest article, Stanley writes that "Jesus' death and resurrection signaled the end" of God's old covenant with Israel and its regulations, "including the big ten." Now, Stanley argues, Jesus' "new commandment" to "love one another," which is found in John 13:34, should replace the Ten Commandments. If Christians obey the new commandment, he says, we "are not required to obey any of the commandments found in the first part of [our] Bibles." I think Stanley is wrong on this, very wrong in fact. But to be clear, it's not personal. I've appreciated much of his ministry over the years. I'm not trying to single him out. I've heard many evangelicals suggest, in one way or another at various levels of theological sophistication, that the Old Testament just isn't relevant to us any longer because all of that was done away with by Christ. This is a tragic misreading of the Scriptures. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his listeners, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets...but to fulfill them." And in Matthew 22, He says the commands to "love the Lord your God" and "love your neighbor as yourself"quoting from Leviticus and Deuteronomysummarize, not replace, the law and prophets. In other words, Christ's command that we love one another isn't an alternative to the Ten Commandments. It restates them in simpler terms. The moral principles expressed in the Ten Commandments didn't come into existence at Sinai. They're part of God's eternal character which He built into the very fabric of reality itself. Even more, Jesus relied on the Old Testament throughout His ministry and in His teaching, especially when making the moral case for something. The reason, from a Christian worldview, is clear: Whether we're talking about the moral principles expressed in the Ten Commandments which Christ perfectly kept or the ceremonial regulations of Leviticus which foreshadowed our perfect High Priest, all of the Old Testament is relevant to Christianity. Jesus affirmed the God of the Old Testament is our God still, that the Creator of the world and the giver of the law is our loving Father who is both just and the justifier of the ungodly. And who promised to write His law a second timenot on tablets of stone, but as Hebrews says, on our hearts and minds. So with all respect to Pastor Stanley, if we're going to "unhitch our faith" from anything at all, it should be the notion that any part of Scripture is irrelevant to us. And speaking of the relevance of Scripture, I'm thrilled that this month we're offering my friend, Dr. Bruce Ashford's book, "Letter to an American Christian." He demonstrates how the Scripture has ultimate relevance, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, in dealing with what it means to be a citizen. So come to BreakPoint.org for this featured resource. This article was originally published on Breakpoint and is re-published here with permission Evangelicals march through Jerusalem in show of support for Israel Thousands of flag-waving evangelical Christians from dozens of countries marched in Jerusalem on Thursday as part of annual religious celebrations that are also a show of support for Israel. Many evangelicals see Israel's existence as a fulfilment of biblical prophesy, and a pilgrimage to the holy city is auspicious at this time with the Jewish Sukkot festival taking place from Sept. 23 to Sept. 30 as well as Christianity's Feast of the Tabernacles. Thursday's parade was festooned with Israeli flags, as well as those of the native countries of the marchers, many of whom also wore their traditional national garb. Israeli police said more than 7,000 people took part in the march which the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, a main organiser of the event, described as an "expression (of) our solidarity with Israel". U.S. President Donald Trump's evangelical base, as well as conservative American Jewish voters, helped persuade him to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year - a move that infuriated Palestinians who want it for their own future state. Writing by Dan Williams. Editing by Patrick Johnston Prime Minister to thank Christians for their contribution to society The Prime Minister will thank churches and Christian organisations for their contribution to society in a church service on Sunday. Theresa May is due to speak at the Conservative party conference annual church service at Gas Street Church in Birmingham. One of the organisations being singled out for praise is Home for Good, which works with churches to find homes for children in need of fostering and adoption. Theresa May, who is a Christian, will thank churches and Christian organisations for their ongoing work to 'find solutions to some of society's most intractable challenges'. She will say, 'I want to express my thanks to all those who contribute so much to our country through their work in local churches and Christian organisations. 'Across the United Kingdom, people motivated by their Christian faith are giving up their time to serve their communities, to support vulnerable people, and to find solutions to some of society's most intractable challenges. 'Nothing demonstrates that better than Home for Good's inspiring work to provide loving homes to children through fostering and adoption.' Ahead of Sunday's service, Home for Good warned that the number of children entering the care system rose by 3% between March 2016 and and March 2017 to over 72,000. At present, the number of children waiting for adoption in England outweighs the number of families looking to adopt by almost 3 to 1, with 1,115 children currently waiting to be placed with a home compared to only 412 families. During the three-day Conservative party conference next week, Home for Good will give MPs a special key as a reminder of the part they can play in helping more children find a loving home. Home for Good founder and adoptive father Dr Krish Kandiah will use the church service on Sunday to invite conference delegates to consider opening up their homes to children in need of fostering or adoption. He explained the idea behind the gift of the key: 'A friend who was unable to live with his family said the moment he knew that he was loved and trusted by the family caring for him, was when they gave him a front door key to their home. That little key was a poignant picture of welcome and acceptance.' Theresa May brushes off Archbishop of Canterbury's welfare criticisms Theresa May has dismissed comments by the Archbishop of Canterbury criticising the Government's welfare policy. May, who is in New York for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, told reporters she and the Church leader 'will sometimes disagree on things'. Archbishop Justin Welby has been critical of aspects of the current welfare system, including Universal Credit which he said had 'left too many people worse off' and put them at increased risk of hunger and debt. He said earlier this month: 'When universal credit comes into a local area the number of people going to food banks goes up. What is clear is if they cannot get it right they need to stop rolling it out.' Just days earlier, he had complained that the UK economy 'has not worked as it should' for decades, with 'many parts of the country receiving less than their fair share'. His recommendations included increasing the minimum wage and the number of bank holidays. Asked about her view of the Archbishop's comments, the Prime Minister defended the Government's record on the economy and welfare. She said the focus needed to be on ensuring job creation as she remarked that she also wanted 'a country that works for everyone'. 'The employment figures we see are very important because work is the best route out of poverty,' she said. 'Having systems to encourage people to work, ensuring those jobs are created, is important.' TV presenter Richard Madeley says Christians should believe the whole Bible He doesn't believe in God and doesn't go to church but TV presenter Richard Madeley has a message for the Church of England: either believe all of the Bible or don't believe it all. Writing in The Express, he waded into the recent debate over God's gender, saying that it was an example of 'post-modern editing' to believe God is a woman when the Bible consistently refers to God in male terms. He suggested that cherry-picking truths from the Bible would only fuel the further decline of the Church of England. 'Christianity has to offer a set of eternal, non-negotiable truths, a check-list of certainties. That's how religions survive,' he said. 'The moment you start parsing them, they begin to wither. And the C of E has been obsessively gnawing away at its own entrails since the 1960s; an institutional example of self-harming.' GET YOUR FREE 2019 WYCLIFFE CALENDAR HERE Referencing a recent survey that found the vast majority of British Christians continue to see God as male, he continued: 'Well they would, wouldn't they? The Bible refers to God as "He" throughout both the Old and New Testaments. 'Jesus Himself referred to "my father", and on the eve of his death taught his disciples the Lord's Prayer which begins with the words: "Our Father, who art in Heaven..."' Some corners of the Church of England have suggested that it embrace more female language when speaking about God. Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek, claimed some people could feel 'alienated' if they came to church and only heard God being referred to as a man. 'I don't want young girls or boys to hear us constantly referring to God as He,' she said. GET YOUR FREE 2019 WYCLIFFE CALENDAR HERE Madeley rubbished the suggestion, arguing that if the Bible has been wrong about God's gender, then the Church would have to question where it has been wrong about other teachings too. He said: 'So Jesus was wrong about God's gender. So are the scriptures. But if the Bible is wrong about that, what else might it be wrong about? The virgin birth? The miracles? Christ's resurrection? Everything? You either believe in something or you don't.' 'When it comes to faith, you can't pick and choose, buffeted and blown by the winds of ceaselessly-changing social convention and emerging science. 'I don't happen to believe in God, or that Jesus was the Son if God, or that He was born of immaculate conception. 'But if I was a Christian surely I'd have to? Isn't that the deal? Otherwise... well, what's the point?' But his scathing put down didn't end there as he went on to attack the Archbishop of Canterbury over his recent criticisms of Amazon and the Government's handling of the economy. GET YOUR FREE 2019 WYCLIFFE CALENDAR HERE Archbishop Justin Welby came under fire for criticising Amazon over zero-hour contracts only for it to later emerge that parts of the Church of England are hiring on the same basis and that the Church is an investor in the online shopping giant. Madeley wrote: 'Meanwhile the Archbishop of Cant - sorry, Canterbury - Justin Welby, parrots Labour's checklist of economic policies to the TUC, piously berating Amazon and the zero-hours gig economy. 'Oops! Turns out the C of E invests massively in Amazon and routinely hires staff on, er, zero-hours contracts. Did I say "piously"? Make that "hypocritically". 'Hmm. Hypocrites don't get a good press in the Bible. Maybe that's something else that needs a bit of post-modern editing, too.' The Presidio Trust board decided Thursday to allow four teams to submit comprehensive proposals to transform the 30-acre Fort Scott in San Francisco into a socially conscious enclave an effort estimated to cost the developers at least $200 million. Three of the finalists proposed developments dedicated to significant environmental and/or social challenges of our time, as required by the Trust. They include efforts dedicated to climate change, artificial intelligence and the impact of rapidly changing technology, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The fourth proposal came from WeWork, a for-profit company that creates shared work spaces. The proposal to create the Epicenter for Climate Solutions would develop the site into a command center to implement solutions to climate change, to be a global gathering place for what the project calls climate solutioneers. The plan is sponsored by the California Clean Energy Fund and the EPIC Institute, headed by Thomas Dinwoodie, a founder of Sunpower Corp. The World Economic Forum, which hosts the high-profile Davos summit each year in Switzerland, proposes to study the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The project would convert the former fort into a center committed to bending the curve of technology for the benefit of all. That could include looking at the impact of 3D-printed artificial hearts in the health industry and how such a world-altering innovation would be made available across the income gap, said Murat Sonmez, managing director of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The project would not be a think tank, Sonmez said, but rather a do tank. The third proposal is called OpenAI, which is sponsored by Tesla founder Elon Musk and venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman. The effort would create a research and advocacy center focused on the potential and challenges of artificial intelligence. The site would be developed to include a laboratory, recreation area, housing for visiting researchers and scholars. The WeWork proposal envisions a mixed-use campus that could potentially accommodate the other proposals as well as nonprofits and private companies, something Presidio Board President John Keker supported. Im really hoping theres going to be some collaboration in some way, he said. Fort Scott is in the northwest corner of the Presidio, situated along the Pacific coast and originally built to defend the Golden Gate. The site includes former barracks buildings, a parade ground and idle stockade and a small officers club from 1921, engulfed in overgrown vegetation. Any organization chosen to develop their project would have to rehabilitate 22 historic structures and upgrade utilities, roads and other aspects of facilities that have sat idle for decades. While other areas of the Presidio are rented at market rate, Fort Scott, which is in a more remote location, has long been identified as a site for a mission-driven organization. The Presidio Trust board is expected to select a proposal in late March. Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker A Texas Children's Hospital doctor has received a $300,000 grant from Hyundai Motor America. Dr. Monica Gramatges was awarded a Hyundai Hope Scholar Grant on Sept. 25. She joins 38 medical researchers receiving a total $14.1 million in grants to support pediatric cancer therapy and research. DRIVEN: MD Anderson doctor receives Hyundai grant for cancer research "Our goal at Hope On Wheels is to provide (pediatric cancer) doctors with the grant funds they need to perform their lifesaving work," said Scott Fink, chairman of the Hyundai Hope On Wheels Board of Directors. Gramatges' grant is part of the more than $2.8 million in grants Hope On Wheels has awarded Texas Children's, part of the organization's $145 million total in lifetime giving, according to the news September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, according to the news release. release. Voters in west Houston's hotly contested Congressional race say taking away protections for pre-existing medical conditions -- or even just appearing to do so -- could spell doom for a candidate, a new survey finds. A poll of 562 voters in the district represented by Republican John Culberson found that 46 percent were less likely to vote for him because of his staunch support of efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. A major piece of the health care law known as Obamacare is that health insurers must cover people with pre-existing medical conditions at the same rate as those without. Eliminating that protection was considered a major concern for 61 percent of those polled. The poll of voters in the district last week was conducted by Public Policy Polling and sponsored by a left-leaning advocacy group called Protect Our Care. Culberson is being challenged by Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, a Democrat, who has aired campaign ads hammering the incumbent to trying to dismantle the health care law. One Fletcher claim is that Culberson wanted to allow insurers to charge people over 50 five times more for coverage than younger customers. Politifact, a national watchdog group that checks politicians for accuracy, ranked her claim "half-true." While Culberson did, in fact, back a failed Republican-led replacement law last year that would have allowed insurers to charge older customers five time more than younger ones, the existing law allows insurance companies to charge three times more -- something Fletcher did not mention in her ad, Politifact said. Culberson has accused Fletcher of misleading voters in her claims that he favored removing protections for people with pre-existing conditions. He has contended there are other ways to cover those with chronic medical needs. RELATED: Fletcher and Culberson go on the attack in Houston congressional race Under the GOP plan that he supported, people who maintained "continuous coverage" - that is, with no insurance gaps for more than 63 days - could not be charged more for a pre-existing condition. Those with gaps could not be denied coverage, either, but could face premium hikes of 30 percent for one year. Still, many health care policy watchers have said the continuous coverage threshold would lead to more people losing insurance coverage and then being priced out if they tried to return. The latest polling serves as yet another reminder of how important health care is to voters this year. The Public Policy Polling survey showed that 65 percent thought health care was either the most important or very important issue in the election. Similarly, a Texas Medical Center's national consumer survey released earlier this month found that more than 6 in 10 say they are likely to only vote for candidates in November who promise health care fixes. RELATED: Health care angst fuels Texas Democrats in congressional races And a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, also released this month, found that 75 percent of Americans consider it "very important" that pre-existing condition protections remain intact, with 4 in 10 "very worried" that they or a family member will lose coverage if the protections are overturned in court. A federal lawsuit, filed in Fort Worth in February by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and joined by 19 other states, seeks to declare the ACA declared unconstitutional. The White House in June signaled its support of the lawsuit and the unraveling of the pre-existing condition protections. That lawsuit is pending with many expecting it will wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Public Policy Polling survey found that 62 percent of voters -- including half of those who identified as Republicans -- opposed the lawsuit. In addition, 45 percent said they are less likely to vote for Culberson because of his silence on the litigation. A private equity backer said it plans to buy out Houston-based American Midstream Partners and take the pipeline firm private. An affiliate of Boston-based private equity firm ArcLight Capital would acquire the remaining units of American Midstream that it doesn't already own at a value of $6.10 per unit, which is a 6 percent premium from its closing price Thursday afternoon. However, the firm traded at $14 a unit at the beginning of the year. Carolyn Van Houten /Carolyn Van Houten Texas lost two drilling rigs over the last week, both in the high-producing Permian Basin oil field of West Texas. The new report by oilfield service company Baker Hughes showed that Texas lost two rigs to fall to 529, with the Permian losing two to end at 486 active drilling rigs for the week ending Sept. 28. BRIDGEPORT A local teen being sought for last years death of a young man found naked and fatally shot in the stairwell of a city housing project was arrested in Florida. Jahmari Wack Cooper, 18, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force in Riviera Beach, Fla., as he got out of a car. Police said Cooper is the suspect in the fatal shooting death of Jeri Kollack on Oct. 11, 2017, at the Greene Homes housing complex here. Cooper was charged with felony murder, murder, and first-degree robbery. Police said Kollock was forced to strip naked, robbed of his jewelry and then shot seven times as he tried to get away. For 45 minutes, a bleeding Kollock dragged himself up a stairway to a door where he cried for help. He died just before 5 p.m. Oct. 11 on a back stairwell outside Building 1 of the Charles Greene Homes housing project. The U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force was asked to assist in locating Cooper in November, according to police. In March, the U.S. Marshals Service offered a cash award of up to $2,500 for information leading to his arrest. Police said on Sept. 26, they received information that led them to believe Cooper might have fled to the West Palm Beach area in Florida. The U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force was able to track Cooper to an apartment complex in Riviera Beach where he was taken into custody as he left a vehicle. He was arrested without incident, they said. During a search of the apartment unit Cooper was allegedly staying in at the complex, police said a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found along with a New Jersey drivers license under the name Mark White. We are very pleased to have Mr. Cooper in custody. He was an extremely violent individual and now he is off the streets due in part to the publics assistance, said Brian Taylor, U.S. Marshal for the District of Connecticut. Cooper is currently being held in state custody in Florida awaiting additional drug and possible gun charges pending extradition to Connecticut. BRIDGEPORT Connecticut continues to follow a downward trend in overall number of crimes, recently released FBI data show. The numbers, however, also show that murders in the state jumped 36 percent, from 77 to 105 from 2016 to 2017; Hartford had an increase of 15 homicides and Bridgeport reported 11 more than the previous year. Numbers should not divert our attention from the fact that even one homicide in our city is too many. We can always do better and Bridgeport will always be a work in progress, said Bridgeport police spokesman Av Harris. Smaller numbers, like an increase of three murders in New Britain and an increase of two each in Norwalk and Stratford, also contributed to pushing the total number up. There are also various areas including Torrington, Vernon, Bristol and Manchester, which each saw an increase by one homicide from 2016 to 2017. But there were also declines in homicide totals for some places including New Haven, which saw a drop of six killings from 2016 to 2017; and East Hartford, which saw three fewer murders between the two years. Several areas saw a decrease of one in the overall number of killings. There were 18 homicides in Bridgeport in 2015, and that dropped dramatically to 10 homicides in 2016, Harris said. Obviously that number increased significantly in 2017, but the sustained, proactive crime prevention strategy we have put in place with community policing plus cooperation with our federal partners and community organizations we expect will show the 2017 numbers to be an anomaly. The Federal Bureau of Investigation released its annual Crime in Connecticut report earlier this week with data based on monthly reports of crime activity provided to the Uniform Crime Reporting program at the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. The 435-page report can be found at bit.ly/FBIreport2017. Contrary to the data provided by the FBI that numbered the citys murders at 21, Bridgeport police confirmed 23 homicides in 2017. So far in 2018, killings in the city have declined considerably, with Bridgeport police having confirmed seven homicides. Detectives are still investigating a suspicious death in the city in August, which police said was potentially a homicide. Looking at the FBI data from 2008 to 2017, offenses in Connecticut including murder, rape, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, larceny and motor vehicle theft have declined over the years. In 2016, there were 73,078 offenses reported in the state, a 1 percent decline from the number of offenses in 2015. And in 2017, there were 71,883 offenses reported statewide, a 2 percent decrease from 2016. Crime down statewide FBI yearly stats show steady decline in most categories TOWN / CITY Population VIOLENT CRIME Murder* Rape Robbery Assault PROPERTY CRIME Burglary Larceny Motor vehicle theft Arson Ansonia 18,647 22 6 3 13 353 21 283 49 1 Bridgeport 146,110 1,315 21 77 565 652 3,416 548 2,152 716 14 Derby 12,586 42 1 2 16 23 306 35 238 33 1 Easton 7,570 10 3 6 1 Fairfield 61,402 23 2 9 12 915 110 703 102 Milford 54,265 24 1 18 5 967 92 809 66 3 Monroe 19,682 10 2 4 4 151 20 111 20 Orange 13,904 7 1 4 2 362 19 326 17 1 Seymour 16,555 12 2 4 6 127 25 92 10 Shelton 41,625 28 3 7 18 396 81 259 56 1 Stratford 52,263 89 2 10 50 27 1,117 137 826 154 3 Trumbull 36,265 55 12 27 16 848 83 708 57 1 Westport 28,079 5 2 1 2 298 29 233 36 Hartford 122,891 1,343 29 45 465 804 4,907 738 3,490 679 87 New Haven 129,953 1,100 7 52 378 663 5,211 840 3,728 643 32 Stamford 130,189 292 30 91 171 1,986 241 1,488 257 5 Source: FBI | * And manslaughter See More Collapse The total number of certain reported crime robberies and aggravated assaults, for instance have slightly fluctuated, with some dropping and others increasing over several years. Despite data showing overall crime in Connecticut has been on the decline for years, the public might not see it that way, according to John DeCarlo, an associate professor of criminal justice at University of New Haven and a former Branford police chief. Information about crimes, trends and arrests spread across social media and news sites like wildfire, which, DeCarlo said, might lead the public to believe crime is on the rise. I think it has affected the way we perceive the amount of crime, even in light of the fact that crime (in Connecticut) is down, DeCarlo said. Not all towns and cities have fallen in line with the overall downward trend. In Bridgeport, despite the citys population decrease of nearly 2,000 residents between 2016 and 2017, the data showed violent crimes murder, non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault increased from 1,115 in 2016 to 1,315 in 2017. Moving out from Bridgeport, some towns and cities have seen a slight increase in violent crime: Stratford went from 67 reported violent crimes in 2016 to 89 in 2017, Trumbull went from 42 to 55, and Derby went from 39 to 42. Shelton had 28 incidents of violent crime in both years. Milford had 34 incidents in 2016, which dropped to 24 in 2017. We dont hesitate, we dont drag our feet in deploying different alternative methods when it comes to policing crimes, said Milford police spokesman, Officer Mike DeVito. We don't subject it just to violent crimes. We have the same methodology for all crimes. Throughout Connecticut, from 2016 to 2017, the number of reported burglaries dropped from 10,087 to 8,893. And arson numbers went down from 409 in 2016 to 331 in 2017. There were also declines in aggravated assaults, burglaries and larcenies between the two years. Though the overall downward trend can be attributed to a variety of different factors, DeCarlo said, the way police and communities work together to prevent crimes has been a huge factor in the overall decline. With community policing, the public and the police work on preventing crime before it happens, rather than handle it after it happens, DeCarlo said. Harris said fighting crime goes beyond policing. It is also critical to stabilize families, provide a good education, access to health care and nutrition, mentoring and economic empowerment and opportunity through legitimate and not illicit means, he said. NEWTOWN A Norwalk man accused of following a female around town and to her home admitted to investigators that he had followed other women in the past, police said Friday. Newtown police charged Francesco Gurnari, 20, of Norwalk, with stalking and breach of peace when he turned himself in on an active warrant for his arrest. The charges stem from an earlier incident ... where the suspect followed a female in his vehicle and on foot to several businesses in town and continued to follow her to her residence, Lt. Aaron Bahamonde said. The suspect and victim were unknown to each other. The female Gurnari followed called police and gave a description of him and his car, giving police what they needed to track him down. Gurnari admitted to police that he had been following the victim and had followed other (women) in the past, Bahamonde said, adding, This individual is of great concern and danger to the public. Gurnari was released on a $10,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 10. This is the second time this month the Norwalk man has been arrested. On Sept. 14, Monroe police arrested and charged Gurnari after an incident where he allegedly exposed himself and masturbated in front of a female victim who was pumping gas at a local gas station, Newtown police said. Court records show he was charged with second-degree breach of peace and public indecency, both misdemeanor offenses. He was released on a $1,000 bail and is expected in court on Oct. 22 to enter pleas for those charges. Friends of the Flag Foundation President Marieda Kilgore is firm in her belief that if you dont recognize what brought you to your current place, then youre doomed to forget. She and the other members of the Friends of the Flag Foundation board are determined not to forget Texas rich history and the struggles of the Texian men and women who fought for independence from Mexico. To this end, they are changing up how they celebrate, educate and bring awareness to Texas path to independence. Since the The Lone Star Monument and Historical Flag Park first opened on April 21, 2011, each year a flag-raising ceremony has taken place on April 21 to commemorate the Battle of San Jacinto, the final battle for Texas Independence. On that date, 13 flags that been associated with Texas are changed out in a grand ceremony at the Flag Park that is located adjacent to the Central Library in Conroe. Military veterans, dignitaries and elected officials and those with tremendous service to the community have been selected at flag raisers for the once-a-year ceremony since 2011. However, what we discovered were conflicts with other organizations who we wanted to partner with like the Sons of the Texas Revolution, said Larry Foerster, FOTFF board member and chairman of the Montgomery County Historical Commission. Often the Sons of the Texas Revolution re-enactors were involved in the Battle of San Jacinto ceremony on April 21 and it was difficult for them to do both ceremonies. And as the Spirit of Texas bank developed, the bank formed its own April 21 ceremony on the bank grounds. And earlier this year, the April 21 ceremony was canceled due to the weather. Friends of the Flag Foundation Sacred Soils Ceremony The Friends of the Flag Foundation is hosting a Sacred Soils Ceremony on Oct. 2 at 5:30 p.m. at the Lone Star Monument and Texas Flag Park. This is the date that the Texas Revolution began with the "COME AND TAKE IT" battle of Gonzales. In addition to the flag raising ceremony with decorated military veterans raising the flags, there will be a "SACRED SOILS OF THE TEXAS REVOLUTION" ceremony. This ceremony will involve placing 15 soils from the 13 battle sites and the gravesite soils of Sam Houston and Charles B. Stewart into a time capsule at the Flag Park. Visit www.texasflagpark.com for more information. See More Collapse So as a board, the Friends of the Flag Foundation decided to try something different. We decided, rather than look at the end of the battle for independence, why dont we highlight the start of the battle, Foerster said. The road to Texas independence began on Oct. 2, 1835 when Texian settlers and Mexican troops clashed at Gonzales, Texas when Lt. Francisco Castaneda attempted to repossess a cannon from the columnists. As a symbol of defiance, the Texans had fashioned a flag containing the phrase come and take it along with a black star and an image of the cannon that they had received four years earlier from Mexican officials. This was the same message that was sent to the Mexican government when they told the Texans to return the cannon; lack of compliance with the initial demands led to the failed attempt by the Mexican military to forcefully take back the cannon. It will help people recognize when and why this all got started, Foerster said in reference to the fight for Texas independence. The flag-raising ceremony begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2. However, Foerster advises those attending to arrive by 5:30 p.m. Distinguished military veterans will be raising the 13 flags on Tuesday. Among them is a great-great-great nephew of soldier who fought at the Alamo, according to Kilgore. Then we thought, weve got all these flags that are representing these battles, why not get soils from each of those battle sites and put in a time capsule to help people recognize where the battles were, Foerster said. The board reached out to state Rep. Will Metcalf, R- Conroes, office and his staff was able to get Foerster in touch with the Alamo Trust. A representative with the Alamo Trust sent a soil sample to the FOTFF along with a letter verifying that the soil they sent us is from a portion of the Alamo where Davy Crockett died. Board member Jim Walker who frequently travels to other Texas historic sites along with other board members collected soil samples at other battleground sites and historic locations. The soil samples represented come from: The Battle of Gonzales - Oct. 2, 1835 The Battle of Goliad - Oct. 10, 1835 The Siege of Bexar - Oct. 27 through Dec. 9, 1835 The Battle of Concepcion - Oct. 28, 1835 The Battle of Lipantitlan - Nov. 4, 1835 The Grass Fight - Nov. 26, 1935 The Battle of San Patricio - Feb. 27, 1836 The Battle of Agua Dulce Creek - March 1, 1836 Washington-on-the-Brazos - March 2, 1836 Battle of the Alamo - March 6, 1836 Battle of Refugio - March 12-15, 1836 Battle of Coleto Creek - March 18, 1836 Goliad Massacre - March 27, 1836 Battle of San Jacinto - April 21, 1836 Gravesite of Sam Houston in Huntsville - March 2, 1793 to July 26, 1863 Gravesite of Charles B. Stewart in Montgomery (designer of the Texas state flag) - Feb. 6, 1806 to July 1, 1885 All of these soil samples will be placed in a time capsule donated by Jeff Cashner with Cashner Funeral Home in Conroe. The capsule will be buried and dedicated on the site of the Flag Park on Tuesday. A plaque titled Sacred Soils of The Texas Revolution will be dedicated and placed atop or beside the site of the time capsule. Its our vision to open the capsule on Oct. 2, 2035, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Gonzales, Foerster said. He sees this ceremony as the kick off leading up to the 200th anniversary of Texas battle for independence in 17 years. Because the Texas flag and story of the Texas Revolution is so recognizable throughout the world, he expects thousands to flock to Texas to visit sites like Washington-on-the-Brazos, the San Jacinto Battleground in Deer Park and Sam Houstons grave in Huntsville. And Montgomery County birthplace of the Texas flag happens to be in the center of all of those and have some direct connections to the Texas Revolution. Two Montgomery County residents, Charles B. Stewart and Jesse Grimes, defiantly signed the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836 many settlers from what would soon become Montgomery County voluntarily participated in the numerous battles for Texas independence in 1835 and 1836, including two sons of Montgomery County Jonathan Lindley and Albert Calvin Grimes who fought and died at the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. Stewart, who resided in Montgomery, went on to become in Texas early government and is recognized as the designer of the Lone Star Flag which the county is recognized for today. Proclamations from the Montgomery County Commissioners Court, the Conroe City Council and elected officials will also be read during the ceremony. For more information about the Flag Park, visit www.texasflagpark.com. To contact the FOTFF email FOTFF@yahoo.com. Paraguay fully supports Moroccos territorial integrity and its sovereignty over the Sahara, said on Thursday in New York the Foreign Minister of this Latin American country, Luis Alberto Castiglion. Paraguay supports Morocco and will continue to support it, said Castiglioni in NY following his talks with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. Relations between Asuncion and Rabat are gaining momentum and we are working to make them even better, said Paraguays top diplomat who is planning to visit the North African Kingdom. We will work to further strengthen our political relations and bolster our economic and trade ties, he added. Last May, Paraguays MPs unanimously adopted a resolution backing Moroccos autonomy plan for the Sahara, welcoming the serious and credible efforts made by Morocco in a bid to find a political solution to the long-lasting regional dispute affecting the Arab Maghreb Union. The 34th annual Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Houston Airshow will continue a tradition of thundering aerial displays on Oct. 20-21 at Ellington Airport. With the U.S. Navy Blue Angels headlining this year, the show also is a celebration of vintage wartime aircraft. The CAF has become a Houston family tradition, CAF director Bill Roach said. Commander Eric C. Doyle, a League City native, will command the 130-member squadron as well as pilot a jet for the Blue Angels, the Navys flight demonstration squadron and flying aerobatic team. For the first time, CAF will welcome Thats All, Brother, a C-47 aircraft that transported paratroopers during the D-Day invasion in Europe 74 years ago. Also featured will be the F-16 Viper, a single-engine supersonic aircraft. Making its return is the Tora, Tora, Tora! presentation that re-enactsthe bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Houston-based Phillips 66 Aerostars aerobatic demonstration team will take flight, as well as a jet-engine-equipped 1920s-era Taperwing Waco biplane, the Jack Links Screamin Sasquatch Jet Waco. Other performers will include Sean D. Tucker with Team Oracle, La Porte resident Deborah Rihn-Harvey, one of the top-ranked competitors in the nation. The U.S. Coast Guard will demonstrate search-and-rescue exercises. On the ground, the public can view a variety of aircraft. Military veterans who will be on hand to sign autographs. The heart of the CAF, said Roach, is to pay tribute to those who served in aviation during World War II . More than 90,000 visitors are expected this year, and to Roach, those attendance numbers speak to the publics continuing support. Our love of aviation and appreciation is reflected by the support of our show volunteers, fans, sponsors and other who have made our show successful, he said. The airport is at 11900 Old Galveston Road. For ticket and parking information, visit www.wingsoverhouston.com or call 888-4-FLYSHOW. Eunice is the name of the Louisiana town where Drake Leonards grew up and where his culinary story begins. He pays tribute to those beginning chapters with Eunice, his new restaurant that opens in Houston Oct. 1. Halfway between Houston and New Orleans, Eunice is smack dab in Acadiana where local foods and foodways are held dear. Those flavors Gulf seafood, fowl, meat and local produce will be celebrated at Eunice where Leonards will serve as chef and operating partner. Houstonians who visit New Orleans will most likely be familiar with the restaurants where Leonards worked including Restaurant August and Luke. His resume also includes work at Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud, and two years living and working in Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland and England. Those international influences, too, might find their way onto the menu which will feature dishes such as Gulf fish crudos and ceviches; New Orleans-style gumbo; jumbo Gulf shrimp and grits; slow-roasted cochon de lait; and a full raw bar with selections from Louisiana and Texas. HOUSTON'S BEST: See Alison Cook's 2018 Top 100 restaurants list Expect a restaurant with sophisticated design from Gin Braverman of Gin Design Group. The 7,000-square-foot restaurant is anchored by a 24-seat, U-shape bar and adjacent oyster station. The light-filled dining room (20-foot-high walls of windows) has been decorated in whitewashed shiplap, linen lanterns, tufted fabrics and handmade furniture in Texas and provincial Louisiana style. Eunice comes to Houston as one of the newest brands in the New Orleans-based BRG Hospitality portfolio which includes August, Domenica, Shaya, Borgne, Luke, Johnny Sanchez, Domenica Pizza and Willa Jean. Those restaurants were originally part of the Besh Restaurant Group which was rebranded after New Orleans chef John Besh was embroiled in controversy in 2017. Eunice is currently in a soft opening period with an abbreviated menu. The full menu of lunch and dinner will be available Oct. 1. Lunch and dinner will be served Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday dinner from 3 to 10 p.m.; Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and dinner from 4 to 9 p.m. Happy hour will be available daily from 3 to 6 p.m. with 75 cent oysters, half-priced snacks, draft beer, specialty cocktails and house wines by the glass. Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture. After operating for a decade in Hedwig Village, Jonathan's the Rub is set to take a giant step forward in the Houston with a grand new restaurant set to open Oct. 4 at 12505 Memorial. The Memorial Green restaurant will open with many of the dishes that have earned Jonathan's a loyal following. But owner Jonathan Levine promises new flavors, inspired by his travels, particularly to Oaxaca and Mexico City. Example: Garlic and cumin pork tenderloin with poblano cream charred corn maque choux. But fear not, Jonathan's loyalists: the lusty Italian dishes, steaks and chops, char-grilled burgers and "New Houston" fare make the list. As does a new wine selection from sommelier Shepard Ross and a cocktail menu from Houston bartender Linda Salinas. The Jonathan's brand remains very much a family affair with paterfamilias Jonathan working with his children Sam and Jessica. Jessica will serve as general manager of the new Memorial Green location while Sam will oversee the original restaurant, 9061 Gaylord. The new opening comes four years after Jonathan Levine pulled out of his plans to open a second Jonathan's at 963 Bunker Hill in MetroNational's "treehouse" building. That space later became Liberty Kitchen at the Treehouse. Jonathan's fans will have every reason to be wowed by the new 4,700-square-foot restaurant, designed by Gensler with 20-foot ceilings and an open kitchen. It is a much larger and more airy operation than the original location. THE BISCUIT PROJECT: Our food editor's quest for perfect biscuits But Levine said that the restaurant will remain as intimate as the existing Jonathan's which prides itself on customer service. "Being a family-owned restaurant, hospitality has taken on more of a role than you may see or feel in other corporate restaurants. We take it to heart and our mission, our job, our love is to make everyone feel loved and comfortable," Levine said. "We did that at the original restaurant and will do that here as well." Jonathan's the Rub will open for dinner at 4 p.m. on Oct. 4; 12505 Memorial, Suite 140, 713-808-9291 Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture. School safety and students social and emotional well-being are prominent issues in a special election to fill a Friendswood ISD school board seat in which an interim trustee is vying against a psychiatrist who says he wants to introduce a new voice. The Nov. 6 special election, which results after Matt Robinson stepped down from the Position 2 to run as a Republican candidate for a Texas Board of Education position, pits interim trustee Denise Ruiz against Dakota Carter. Early voting runs Oct. 22 through Nov. 2 at three sites. We have power to better meet the needs of our students each day through our character education and support systems that are in place, said Ruiz, 56, a 25-year Friendswood resident who served as a FISD trustee between 2006 and 2010. In our ever-changing world, we as a district strive to ensure the needs of every child are being met. Carter, 30, a psychiatrist at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, said his experience as a mental health professional can bring an essential voice to issues related to students psychological needs. Carter said that after Hurricane Harveys devastation and the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School, he organized a series of free workshops and counseling services for students and families in Friendswood. After Santa Fe happened, we realized tragedy can occur in our own backyard, said Carter, who moved to Friendswood two years ago. I have met with our community after tragedies like Harvey and Santa Fe and continue to see, treat and solve problems for children and students in our district every day, many times until late hours because of the need in our community. Carter, who is gay, decried comments on social media that claim he is promoting an LGBT agenda. An Aug. 29 comment from Robinson posted on the Friendswood Republican Women Facebook page says, Dakota Carter wants to promote the LGBT agenda in our Friendswood schools. Attempts to reach Robinson, who is running against Democrat Elizabeth Markowitz for the District 7 position on the state board, were unsuccessful. Ruiz said that such comments on social media are not reflective of her campaign or personal opinion. Said Carter: My campaign, which has nothing to do with gay issues I just happen to be gay had been focused on kids and the issues of my patients, and the narrative that has been put out there because no one can attack my credentials or my experience or what I do in the community, is attack about something called an LGBT agenda from people Ive never met. Over the summer and in the wake of the shooting in Santa Fe, Friendswood ISD expanded its discussions on campus safety. In addition to hiring safety monitors for each campus, the district formed committees made up of parents, teachers and students and organized town hall meetings. Early voting for Nov. 6 special election FISD Annex (former junior high), 402 Laurel Drive, Friendswood: Oct. 22-26, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 27, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Oct. 28, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Oct. 29-Nov. 2, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Friendswood City Hall, 910 S. Friendswood Drive, Friendswood: Oct. 22-26, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 27, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Oct. 28, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Oct. 29-Nov. 2, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Galveston Justice Center, 600 59th St., Galveston in the second floor conference room: Oct. 22-26, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 27: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Oct. 28, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Oct. 29-Nov. 2, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Early voting mailing address: (Applications for ballot by mail must be received no later than Oct. 26. Galveston County Clerk's Office, Attn. Election Division, P.O. Box 17253, Galveston, TX, 77552-7253; Dwight.sullivan@co.galveston.tx.us See More Collapse Ruiz and Carter both said that the district must remain vigilant to keep students safe. The district has been proactive in evaluating, reinforcing and activating all safety measures and changes needed to keep students and staff safe, said Ruiz, who is vice president of Ruiz Cash & Carry, a family owned restaurant supply business in Houston. I feel it is important to consistently examine our facilities and programs in place, and I fully support the additional steps taken to ensure everyone's safety. Carter would like to see the district do more. With the families I have seen, and even a few teachers, there is a concern that the ways in which we identify and handle these students is challenging and unclear, he said. While physical barriers and protections are vital, and I support having (Friendswood police) and others on campus, we should try to stop these tragedies before someone walks onto campus. Both candidates also said the district must keep teachers salaries competitive, which Ruiz said is critical in maintaining and drawing exemplary teachers for our students. Said Carter, While we do have to focus on finances, our schools successes rest on our students and these educators. The district recently approved a 2 percent salary increase for its employees. State funding and cuts to public education remain a challenge to districts across Texas. Ruiz said that cuts statewide have a significant impact on what districts can and cannot do for students, especially in light of Hurricane Harveys impact. With Hurricane Harvey and our property values decreasing, we are waiting to see what the Legislature does in the coming session, Ruiz said. In this years budget, each budget director/principal looked for ways to make cuts across the board with a goal of keeping the deficit at a minimum and programs intact. Carter said he is concerned that with more state funding cuts for schools, the burden will fall to the local community. Business leadership on the board, he said, is essential. We also must make hard decisions on local programs and initiatives while we keep FISD competitive. Therefore having an innovative, creative business leader on the board will be vital to maintain our success in a financially responsible way. Ruiz, who served a total of five years as a trustee between 2006 and 2010 and has three children who graduated from Friendswood ISD, cites her history with the community and district as a leader and volunteer. As a current board member, she said, I feel I am very familiar with the issues that are facing the district at this time. Giving back was instilled in me at an early age, this district and this city are near and dear to my heart and I'm honored to serve this community and our kids. Carter, who is married with one child, said, Being a board member is more than living here, showing up or volunteering, it is being an active member of our community who interacts with students and families every day who also has the knowledge, education, experience, and expertise to implement new ideas and go to work for FISD. The last day to register to vote in the Nov. 6 general election is Oct. 9. yorozco@hcnonline.com In less than five years, the area at Grand Parkway and Partnership Way in Katy off Interstate 10 could be filled with eager students rushing to get to classes from three different educational institutions. As part of a collaborative effort to make it easier for students to achieve their academic goals, specifically in engineering and nursing; and for the Houston Community College to tap into the growing population that the Katy Independent School District and surrounding districts have experienced, the college system is moving its existing Katy campus to be closer in proximity to the future site of the University of Houston at Katy campus. Houston Community College Chancellor Dr. Cesar Maldonado said that while the college system has not selected a piece of property, the board of trustees on Sept. 5 approved the concept of moving the college systems existing facility at Foxlake to the Grand Parkway area where the UH-Katy facility construction is underway and scheduled for completion in fall 2019. We got a good partnership with the University of Houston and they shared with us what they were doing in that area, Maldonado said. It was advantageous to HCC, to UH and primarily to the students in terms of tuition if they could rely on HCC to provide the first two years of a four-year degree. From that was born the concept of us being the first two years of the degree. MOST BEAUTIFUL HIGH SCHOOLS: Several Houston area schools make list of top 25 Dr. Zachary Hodges, president of the HCC Northwest Campus, said the next step is to get board approval to buy the land. We do not know how much or exactly where it will be, Hodges said. We want to consider all options for the best value. The campus will offer freshman and sophomore courses a student needs to transfer into UH Katy. Courses such as engineering, computer science, business, education and general studies. The engineering courses in partnership with the Cullen College of Engineering will be especially popular with the energy companies located in Houston, Hodges said. We have a tremendous need for engineers and HCC, UH will be providing them. The UH -Katy campus when it opens will be a massive 80,000 -square foot building that will house the UH College of Nursing as well as the UH College of Engineering. FAST GROWTH DISTRICTS: What Houston school districts grew the most in 2017 But Houston Community College is not the only college system making the move. Dr. David Cockrum, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Houston-Victoria, said the UH-V Katy campus, currently leasing space at 2002 Grand Parkway will move to the UH-Katy building in the fall, where it plans to grow its student population from 800 or more to about 4,000. The college will offer master of business administration degree, master in education and a counseling program, he said. The school also offers an array of other courses that fall into the arts and sciences schools. Dr. Jay Neal, Associate Vice President and Chief Operating for University of Houston at Katy, Associate Professor said HCC Katy and UH have a cooperative agreement that allows for the use of each others facilities as practical, resulting in optimization of limited classroom space. UH will only be offering upper level course work in Katy, relying on its community college partners to offer the course curriculum, Neal said. This arrangement offers a tremendous cost saving to students. The partnership between institutions, said Maldonado, is a way to bring down the barriers. What we are doing from a student success perspective is were bringing down the barriers, he said. The proximity of our facilities is really an advantage but what really makes this a unique partnership is that our faculty will be talking to UHs faculty and they will be working together to make sure that our curriculum aligns. And they make sure that the students take as many transfer courses with them when they move to UH. Hodges said the four-year degree - two years at HCC and two years at UH - will be available for under $25,000. Maldonado estimates the campus will see a growth of about 2,000 new students annually by 2022 and over 5,000 new students by 2030. A SECOND CHANCE: Katy ISD offers high school dropouts a path to better futures Our hope is to be close enough to the University of Houston and to be a virtual street crossing away from UH, so we can leverage that and help students succeed, Maldonado said. The cost is very important, too. The Katy campus is 78 percent minority students; 36 percent Hispanic, 23 percent African American, 22 percent White and 19 percent Asian. The existing facility has an estimated worth of $14 million, he said, adding that the plan to recommend to the board that it be declared a surplus, so it be used to fund the new facility in Katy. The University of Houston at Katy campus will offer a traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the UH College of Nursing will be offering, Neal said, adding that this is the first time the college offers this degree. UH Katy will be the home for this program, he said. UH Cullen College of Engineering will offer three undergraduate programs, including computer engineering, construction engineering, system engineering and five graduate programs, including petroleum engineering, environmental engineering, power systems, corrosion and subsea engineering. Zoes Kitchen general manager Eric Rizzo had goosebumps when he saw the Lake Houston areas response to his restaurants grand opening on Thursday. During the lunch rush on Sept. 28, a line of area residents stretched far outside of the doors as guests waited for their turn to try the Mediterranean eatery. Honestly, I had goosebumps this is amazing, Rizzo said. This is exactly why I took this store. Popular items at Zoes includes the chicken kabob, which includes two chicken skewers, the Italian flatbread sandwiches and an assortment of salads. We specialize in Italian, Greek and we also have American-based items, such as chicken salad sandwiches and turkey stacks. Its kind of an array of different food, he said. The new Kingwood restaurant, located at 4505 Kingwood Drive, Ste. 100, Kingwood, is the first Zoes in the Lake Houston area. It is also the companys 18th expansion in the Greater Houston area. Redneck sushi dish to debut at Rusty Buckle next month A new barbecue joint is headed to New Caney. Owner Allen Rhoden said he is planning to open the Rusty Buckle BBQ Company at 22664 Community Drive, New Caney, by the middle of October. The restaurant is located on the opposite side of the freeway from the Valley Ranch Town Center, near the Wells Fargo bank. Rhoden said the menu will feature classic Texas barbecue staples, such as brisket, pulled pork and ribs, in conjunction with his own specialty dishes. Rusty Buckles specialty dishes include Redneck sushi a meal that includes breakfast sausage, shrimp and cheese wrapped in bacon and smoked. In addition his restaurant will also feature the dirty mac and cheese, which is smoked with brisket, he said. Other items include bacon wrapped ribs and beef ribs. The restaurant will include 45 indoor seats with additional options outdoors. His food is popular with barbecue aficionados, he said. Ive had a great response from people who eat at the top 50 restaurants, Rhoden said. New look at Kingwoods Neighborhood Walmart Walmart Neighborhood Market in Kingwood reopened its doors with a new look on Sept. 21. The grocery stores renovations included updated signage, an expanded pharmacy department and a redone grocery department. It is located at 2165 Northpark Drive, Kingwood. New Caney ISD substitute teacher Kenneth Morphus was arrested on Thursday for possession of child pornography in Kingwood. Deputies from Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Hermans Office conducted an investigation into the online trafficking of child pornography. Learn what some of the oldest people who have ever lived have credited their longevity to in the slideshow above... Whenever an old-timer makes it to 100 years of living, everyone wants to know how the person got that far. Sometimes the answers aren't so obvious. Earlier this year 117-year-old Nabi Tajima died peacefully in her sleep and she was known as the world's oldest living person for a short time before her death in April. She credited her 117 years to "eating delicious things and sleeping well." MAN'S BEST FRIEND: Service dogs get red carpet treatment at Bush Intercontinental Because of the nature of the title, being the oldest living person in the world doesn't always last very long. It's an honor that few will ever see and fewer will hold for very long. She was only the world's oldest person from Sept. 2017 until April 2018. Richard Overton, 112, is the oldest man in America at the moment and the oldest living U.S. military veteran. The World War II vet has become a celebrity of sorts in his native Austin, known for his easy-going demeanor and sage advice. Overton has told reporters in that he sometimes smokes up to 18 cigars a day and his favorite foods are catfish, gravy, and mac & cheese. SCHOOL NEWS: Humana pledges $15 million to UH new medical school That's obviously not congruous with what general wisdom has told us. Smoking and eating bad has been proven to kill people. And most of the people who have lived to be 100 years or older have never mentioned denying themselves any sorts of pleasure, food or otherwise. A recent article on the A Place for Mom website dove into the mystery of longevity. Ignoring basic dietary advice and staying active topped the list of things centenarians said kept them on the planet longer than most. In Nov. 2017 Texan Elizabeth Sullivan died at the age of 106 years old. Her claim to fame was being the centenarian who credited plenty of daily Dr Pepper with fueling her longevity. HOUSTON ART: New Houston mural honors downtown's 'Produce Row' roots "Every doctor that sees me says they'll kill you, but they die and I don't," Sullivan told a CBS affiliate around her 104th birthday. "So there must be a mistake somewhere." So the only conclusion some can come to is that these are the lucky ones among us, ordained to smoke like chimneys and eat every meal like it's their last while some of us keel over at 45 from a heart attack and years of exercise. Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think. 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 | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's teary testimony drew mixed reactions from social media on Thursday. Some called the emotion evidence of the judge's "victimhood" after he was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women ahead of his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, while others considered it a carefully orchestrated act designed to garner pity. Kavanaugh opened his statement with loud, impassioned invocations of his victimhood, sternly rebuking the Democrats and referring to the confirmation process as "a national disgrace" intended to "search and destroy." "I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process," he said. " ... You'll never get me to quit. Never." ALSO: Voice shaking, Ford accuses Kavanaugh of assaulting her Kavanaugh went on to say the allegations were fueled by "pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election" and referred to them as "revenge on behalf of the Clintons." Many on social media honed in on his partisan-tinged language, citing it as evidence that he is unfit for the Supreme Court.hom "There goes the idea of the Supreme Court being neutral .. Kavanaugh showing his true political operative colors by attacking the Dems," tweeted Olga Lautman. Others found the blatant assaults on Democrats entirely founded. "They do not care about families. They do not care about democracy. They do not care about truth," wrote Charlie Kirk. "They care about power." Twitter commentators especially homed into Kavanaugh's emotional presentation. The judge spent the better half of his testimony choked by tears, occasionally pausing to collect himself. "If Brett Kavanaugh were a woman, they'd be calling this performance 'hysterical,'" tweeted @goldengateblond. Some said the teary testimony seemed contrived. "Clearly Kavanaugh has taken the note from the GOP to be less wooden and more passionate," tweeted comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell. Trump supporter tells MSNBC reporter: 'Groping is no big deal' Bell warned that Kavanaugh was "doing something many men do. He is mistaking anger for passion." "Anger," he continued, "is not a good look here." Hordes of tweeters, nonetheless, were moved by the emotional outbursts, as were some members of the hearing audience, who visibly wiped away tears as Kavanaugh spoke. Click here for updating coverage of the Kavanaugh hearing. Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com. Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. The Spring Klein Chamber of Commerce has chosen Brooks Williams to lead the organization. Williams, from Klein, said he wanted to obtain feedback from members on priorities to help focus the chambers priorities. I hope what I bring is a fresh perspective on what young entrepreneurs, young businesses and the next generation leaders in business need and want from chambers, he said. Williams said he has been a independent executive consultant with Leaders at Heart since 2012. He takes over the organization after its previous president, Myeshi Briley, stepped down in June. After businesses in the area were affected by flooding from Hurricane Harvey, the chamber began recovery efforts for both businesses and residents by collecting donations and reaching out to community organizations. While many businesses took months to reopen and some are still recovering, Williams said he plans to ask for more feedback to be able better to serve members. Id like to have a better focus on what were doing rather than casting a wide net to try to catch everything. I would love for our mission to be for our businesses to see substantial growth that we can quantify and we as a chamber can actually produce a figure for them that says being a member of our chamber can give this return on investment, he said. Having a stronger social media presence and providing methodology and training to members are also goals Williams said he wanted to pursue. mayra.cruz@chron.com The United States is considering imposing sanctions on Algeria if it buys Russian arms, the U.S. ambassador in Algiers told a local news outlet. The move against Algeria is part of measures taken under a law called Countering Americas adversaries through sanctions act (CAATSA), adopted last year, he said. The same law imposes sanctions on any party that engages in transactions with Russian defense or intelligence. Such sanctions can take the form of financial exclusion, a ban of dollar transactions as well as import and export bans. The U.S. diplomat said talks are ongoing to push Algeria to reduce Russian arms acquisitions. China was hit by CAATSA this month for engaging in transactions for purchasing Russian fighter jets. Chinas Equipment Development Department (EDD) (formerly known as the General Armaments Department/GAD) and its director were hit by the sanctions for engaging in transactions with Russias Rosoboronexport for the delivery to China of Su-35 combat aircraft in 2017 and equipment for S-400 surface-to-air missile systems in 2018. Submitted The City of Tomball is inviting runners to race and walk in honor of breast cancer awareness and uphold the memory of a Tomball Police Department dispatcher. The 6th annual Paces4Pink is a 5K run and one-mile walk designed to raise awareness for breast cancer while honoring Sherine Amanollahi, a Tomball PD dispatcher who died of breast cancer in 2012, according to the registration page for the event. Proceeds from Paces4Pink will go to Tomagwa Healthcare Ministries, a nonprofit medical facility aiding low-income, uninsured families in need of health care. In order to aid Moore Elementary School with damage costs and material losses due to Hurricane Harvey, the Laura Bush Foundation for Americane Libraries donated $75,000, according to a Cy-Fair ISD press release. The grant is a part of the second round of the organizations 2017 Disaster Relief Initiative, which is giving 38 schools in Texas money in order to recover from damage done by Hurricane Harvey, according to officials with the Foundation for American Libraries. During the first round of donations, the foundation gave out $850,000 to 17 libraries, with the second round aiming to increase the total amount to $2 million, states the CFISD press release. As a former librarian, I know school libraries are important to improving student achievement, and with the second round of grants from the 2017 Disaster Relief Initiative, these schools can start on the path to full recovery, Laura Bush said in a CFISD press release. Anne Wicks, director of education reform at George W. Bush Institute, said the money will be used for educational materials. Schools use funds from the Laura Bush Foundation to purchase new print books, audio-books, e-books, or magazines, serial or e-magazine subscriptions, she said in an email. Each school submitted an application detailing their needs and the needs of the students they serve. All advisory members read and evaluated each application. The school librarians, principals and other school officials were then interviewed by a member of the Advisory Committee. Kim Katz, Moore Elementary School librarian, said the grant is much appreciated. It was overwhelming and we were very excited when we found out we got the grant, she said. We did a lot of reordering last year but werent really able to put them out on the shelves because things were coming in all year long. Now that I see what holes I have, we have this and were able to get the books were missing, new titles, new nonfiction to go along with curriculum needs for the teachers as well as new interests for the kids. This is the third grant awarded to Moore Elementary School, which was severely damaged during Hurricane Harvey to the point of closing for the 2017-2018 school year. Past grants include a total of $50,000 from the American Association of School Librarians and $5,000 from the American Association of University Women. chevall.pryce@chron.com Pinwheels for Peace at Golbow Elementary celebrated International Day of Peace or Whirled Peace on Sept. 20. Beginning at 8:30 a.m., the entire school took part in the annual celebration. School officials invited families and community members to join students for the special event in the back field of the school. Students planted their pinwheels to display on a large peace symbol painted in the grass. Art teacher Kathryn Morris coordinated the annual event. Assistant Principal Jeff Carrus estimates it was close to 800 pinwheels. Parent Veronica Ladybrat Sturges said, I had an awesome time. The program and meeting other parents were the highlight of my morning. Thanks Golbow staff and students. Speeches of three of the fifth-graders who spoke about the meaning of peace follow. Joseph Saladin (President of Student Council): Good morning Golbow students! Today we are here to talk about peace. When I think about peace, it reminds me of a time of no fighting or violence. This is something all schools should try to reach. If everyone of us can stop fighting and work on being more peaceful, we can focus on the importance of learning. Many people think peace in our world is impossible but if we just start with peace in our schools than one day we can have true world peace. Taylor Young (Vice President of Student Council): What does peace mean to me? Today Im gonna show you what peace means to me. Peace means to me that everyone has happiness. When I think of peace I see happy and excited people. Peace also means to me, freedom because it makes me think of free people where we are free and happy. We should enjoy peace cause it may not happen everyday. Kevin Richardson: Hi Golbow I will talk about what I think peace means to me. Peace is when you have space and calm. People may say give me peace and that means to give them calm. Some people have peace by separating themselves from other people. You can give each other peace by stopping bullying and teasing. That is what I think peace means. Representatives of a statewide, faith-based nonprofit met with Katy and Cinco Ranch residents and community leaders to share their Hurricane Harvey experiences and what they learned from the disaster. Texas Impact conducted the Sept. 18 dialogue group in Cinco Ranch. Texas Impact plans a Sept. 27 meeting at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston and an Oct. 16 meeting at Temple Sinai in west Houston. Visit www.texasimpact.org for more information. It was great to be able to come together with different faith-based groups that are working here in the Katy area, said Chris Harris, Katy City Councilman at-large, who talked about flood-mitigation efforts his city is taking. It was good to hear about different perspectives and challenges, he added. Moving forward together, we can coordinate responses and give recommendations to state or local officials on how to address future disasters and current recovery efforts. Lower income residents who lack insurance and are dependent upon government and faith-based resources are identified as people who could fall through the cracks. Those are the people we definitely need to look at and help, he said. Faith-based organizations can rally troops and go forward in the political process, he added. Wendy Duncan, assistant vice president of the Willow Fork Drainage District board, said, Its important that we remain steadfast in our efforts to recover from Harvey. It will make us stronger in the future so that we can withstand these storms moving slower and bringing more rain. Government is supposed to work for people. Duncan said she loves the Talanoa meetings because it allows her to learn individual stories. Its important for me as a community leader to know whats going on in the community and to remain in touch so I can continue meeting needs where Im able to. From the group sharing, people learned what worked well after Harvey that might be used in other communities to help them recover more quickly, Duncan said. The Talanoa dialogue focused on three questions: Where are we? Where do we want to go? and How do we get there? Bee Moorhead, director of the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy, said the information will be incorporated in a report about the faith-based response to the hurricane. The center is the research and education partner of Texas Impact. Its not just a recitation of a communitys participation on Harvey. Its more forward looking. What can we learn? Are there indicators for ways to maximize the value of the communitys gifts and talents in the future? In talking about lessons that are durable and transferrable, Moorhead said the report would be delivered to officials at the local and state levels. I know the Legislature will talk a lot about disaster response when it meets in January. Hopefully, this is an important piece of the puzzle. I dont think anyone thinks this discussion will yield one magic bullet to make a community more resilient in the future. Its important wisdom from the community that can help policymakers as they investigate options. Moorhead said the information also will be shared through international portals about climate change. Its clear weather patterns are changing and we have to be prepared. Its an increasing part of global conversation by people all over the world and some in the United States already are experiencing impacts from the changing weather patterns. She hastened to add that she doesnt blame climate change for causing Hurricane Florence which just hit the Carolinas. Changing weather patterns made it more intense and more catastrophic than it would have been, she said. Theres not black and white. Its all about being prepared for scenarios that are not necessarily predictable. The United States is not immune to catastrophic weather events. Moorhead has participated in Talanoa dialogues before. What struck her about the Cinco Ranch meeting was how raw peoples emotions are and how willing they were to share them in a small group setting. One person who talked through tears about life being on hold after Harvey received support from other group members, some of whom also cried. While local governments are pursuing infrastructure upgrades as a result of Harvey and the flooding it brought, Moorhead said she thought the relationships developed between neighbors and people who didnt know each other before Harvey may be more important. Research shows that a communitys resilience to disasters has less to do with the hardiness of infrastructures and more to do with the robustness of connections and relationships community members have with each other, she said. Being an interconnected community is a plus in the recovery efforts, agreed Duncan. Were volunteers. We invest in each others families. We know our neighbors, the parents of our childrens friends. We are connected. We volunteer in schools. We have relationships established. Were a community of great faith. We have a lot of churches in our community. The interconnectedness and faith-based response allowed our community to recover more quickly, said Duncan. At the same time, she acknowledged that there is no one way for people to recover from an incident of this magnitude and that everyone is in a different situation. For people who didnt flood, theyve gone on, said Duncan. There still are a lot of people hurting in our community and needing help. The community will soon have a chance to to support parents with hospitalized premature infants at a road rally benefiting the Caidens Hope Foundation just before Halloween on Oct. 27. People will gather in downtown Conroe for the inaugural rally at 10:15 a.m. and leave the parking lot at 11:45 a.m. to hit the road on a quest for a destination that participants will discover through finding hidden clues across Montgomery County and across some surrounding county lines. We give them directions and clues and they have to find where the party is, Caidens Hope Founder Wayne Keller said. Its a rather unique challenge to try to follow all the directions, take pictures and get to the final destination-- which of course is a secret. He anticipates participants will be able to reach the final destination around 5 p.m. in the afternoon, which will include an after party featuring live music from a local country music artist. The music artists identity is also being kept a secret to avoid revealing the final destination. The after party that could run until about 9 p.m. at night will also include barbecue and a silent auction with multiple items, such as autographed guitars, even one signed by the King of Country, George Strait. Participants who accumulate the most points will be awarded prizes. Some of those prizes that will be handed out are two domestic Southwest Airlines tickets, a dinner cruise on the Southern Empress, $500 from H-E-B, among other gift cards and prizes. But participants who are challenged on the quest will have the option of opening a field envelope that will reveal where to go, although, those who do will forego the chance to win a prize. Anyone who is interested in participating in the event can register online for $75. The cost is $100 on the day of the event. Keller was motivated to start the foundation the rally will benefit after a family-friend and surivor, Caiden, was born two months earlier than expected at only 3.5 pounds, diagnosed with a rare CHARGE syndrome that prompted multiple health issues, given two months to live, transferred 70 miles away from home for care at hospitals Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Los Angeles for two month before he was stable enough to go home. He hopes to have the event twice a year to raise about $5,000-$8,000 for Caidens Hope to help support parents with a premature infant hospitalized in the NICU. Each year, Keller said about 400,000 premature infants are born in the United States alone. As parents enjoy the excitement of gender reveal parties and planning for a nine-month pregnancy, he said for some the infant arrives suddenly two or three months sooner than expected. Often times, the infant is in critical condition requiring medical care to survive and the families must pay for unplanned expenses, such as fuel to commute to the hospital, meals and more. When that happens, mom and dad, their lives are just upside down, Keller said. Yesterday they were all excited and wondering what color are they going to paint the nursery and today they are wondering if their baby is going to live. Its that quick, its that sudden, and its that severe. We try to help take away some of the expenses that they would have never thought of. Since starting the nonprofit foundation in The Woodlands in 2010, Keller said Caidens Hope has been able to assist at least 550 families nationwide, including about 40 in the Houston Metropolitan area and Montgomery County. He said 92 cents of every dollar goes to the family with most donations to the families being $100 gift cards. Caidens Hope has assisted some as much as with $1,000 and on average helps each individual with $200-$300 depending on the circumstances. On at least one occasion, the funds helped fly a father from New York to Ohio where his hospital-admitted premature infant was unexpectedly born while the mother was visiting family to celebrate her baby shower out-of-state. Being a small charity we are at the mercy of the public, Keller said. If we dont raise any money we cant give any out. If we have it, we give it away. To register for the event or to learn more, visit caidenshope.org. mellsworth@hcnonline.com The Metropolitan UMC was filled to capacity with love, memories and hope for the future at the churchs 133rd anniversary homecoming on Sept. 16. The theme for the celebration was A Call to Serve the Present Age, according to longtime church member Linda Ford. And their guest minister for the day - Dominique Nichols - is a prime example of someone who is living those words in his daily life. Nichols was a part of Metropolitan UMC as a small boy and participated in every activity that was available to the youth population, Ford said. Currently he is a minister of the gospel, an English teacher at Westside High School in Macon, mentor, Teacher of the Year 2017-18 for Bibb County School District and Runner-Up for Teacher of the Year for the state of Georgia. Mayor Toby Powell attended the celebration and proclaimed Sept. 16, 2018 Dominique Nichols Day in Conroe. Nichols described the experience as an honor to preach at the church where he was baptized. The experience was also brought full circle and doubled by the proclamation presented by the mayor, and tripled by the presence of his close and extended family, some of whom he had not seen in years. He encouraged us to use our gifts to make the world a better place, and reminded us through his message to rely on God, the One who is able to keep us from falling, and who is able to present us faultless before the presence of His glory, Ford said. It stirred our emotions, nourished our souls and inspired us to answer the call to service of others. The euphoria lingers to this present day. The program was also filled with special music, solos by Maniya Scott and Bishop Marshall Harris, a poem written and recited by Ashley Montez, church memories by Uriah Barnaby III. A special presentation also recognized community members Mary (Babylee) Sneed, Henry Calyen, Lee Roy and Gail Johnson, Carlton Todd and Caroline Warren for their unselfish service to the community. Each received a certificate and a special display remains in the church foyer listing many of their accomplishments and describing why each of them were chosen to be recognized. Sneed has worked with three generations of children in the Conroe area teaching them dance and drill team. She has also organized talent shows for Black History Month and as fundraisers to raise money to help others. The Johnsons have done extensive work to benefit the communitys homeless population as well as supported Harvey victims, prepared and delivered meals for the elderly and collected and distributed filled backpacks to area children. Calyen, is a military veteran, who retired from the U.S. Postal service. He volunteers at the Montgomery County Food Bank, mentors Conroe High School students and supports the Wounded Veterans programs at Lone Star College among many other activities. Warren is a member of Rising Star Baptist Church of Conroe. In addition to being a mother and grandmother she has devoted her personal time to helping others. Even though she works in the healthcare field as her occupation, she can often be found going the extra mile for others outside her normal job duties. Todd is Assistant Principal at Cryar Intermediate in Conroe ISD. He is being recognized for his contributions to the success of our most valuable assets, our children, according to Ford. In addition to his responsibilities as principal he is founder of the male mentoring organization Boyz 2 Men which is active at his school with subgroups planted in several school districts in the greater Houston area. The church is at 105 S. Fifth Street in Conroe. Call 936-756-6142 for more information on Metropolitan United Methodist Church. More than 160 students and their benefactors joined the University of Houston at Sugar Land for the 17th Annual Scholarship Banquet. The event, held at the Safari Texas Ranch in Richmond, celebrated the academic accomplishments of 145 students who are studying nursing, technology, social work, education and other areas. This year, students received scholarships from 17 donors and foundations. The event was underwritten by the Fred and Mabel R. Parks Foundation. Stephen Morgan, reporter for Fox 26-TV, served as emcee. We are so proud of our students and we are thankful to our sponsors and donors, said Jay Neal, associate vice president, academic affairs and chief operating officer of UH Sugar Land. Your support in higher education provides the fuel that drives us forward. Sugar Land residents Drs. Kulvinder and Nomita Bajwa spoke about the need to support students in the local area. Nurses are the first to take a step forward to help, Kulvinder Bajwa said. He and his wife have created an endowed scholarship for the UH College of Nursing. Their passion for nursing encouraged one of their colleagues to do the same. Dr. Kulvinder Bajwa is a bariatric surgeon with Memorial Hermann Sugar Land. He is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve serving as the 5th Brigade Commander under the 94th Division in Ft. Lee, Virginia. He served two tours of duty in Iraq, one in Afghanistan and one in Honduras. Dr. Nomita Bajwa is a doctor of pharmacy with a special interest in health promotion and literacy in school age children. She has raised thousands of dollars in health grants for the Fort Bend County area, all with the goal of bringing cutting-edge, evidence-based health information and education to the community. Shes currently the CEO of Wellness Geeks Consultants. Among the attendees were Dean Bob McPherson of the UH College of Education, Dean Anthony Ambler of the UH College of Technology and Dean Kathryn Tart of the UH College of Nursing. The scholarship donors included: The UH Fort Bend Alumni Association Marjorie Akers Hilty Gurasich Scholarship The Michel Miller Memorial Scholarship The Paula M. Short Nursing Scholarship The Mayor Joe Zimmerman Scholarship The Hamill Foundation Scholarship The Rubin Sztajer Holocaust Survivor Scholarship The Good Samaritan Foundation The Gulf Coast Medical Foundation The Hazel H. Montgomery Family Trust Nursing Scholarship The John S. Dunn Foundation The Vivian L. Smith Foundation The Fred and Mabel Parks Foundation Scholarships The George Foundation Nursing Scholarships The George Foundation Scholarships Investigators with Harris County Precinct 1 Constable's Office have narrowed down one at least possible suspect involved a rash of bike thefts over the last several months in the Midtown area, according to Precinct 1 spokesman Kevin Quinn. RELATED: Copper wire stealing suspect caught on camera in Montgomery County Around 30 of those bike thefts occurred last weekend at the Metro Midtown apartment complex in the 2300 block of Bagby Street, Quinn said. Another 35 were reported over the previous four months in the area, he said. He said some of the bikes have been located at pawn shops. The suspect also used a similar method of operation in the first 35 bike thefts, but police aren't ready to rule out other suspects. "At this point, we don't have any further clarity on that," Quinn said. Multiple residents have posted about the thefts in a Facebook group, "Stolen Bike Search Houston." In surveillance images one person posted on Sept. 10, a man with a goatee and a backpack can be seen stealing a bike from inside a garage. RELATED: Man shot with prostitute in truck during attempted robbery, police say In another earlier post on August 6, a man with a goatee was seen riding away with a bike near Capital and Live Oak. The Precinct 1 Constable's Office is asking bike theft victims to report the crimes to 713-755-5200. Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message. 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 store clerk accused of possessing illegal gambling equipment is on the run, wanted in connection with a month-long undercover operation north of Houston. Jason Dao, 24, is accused of helping run an illegal gambling parlor inside a business in the 9400 block of North Houston Rosslyn Road. He is currently wanted by law enforcement, according to the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office. COURT DOCUMENTS: Houston firefighter accused of raping childhood friend after night at bar Roberta Davis, 42, was arrested earlier this week in connection with the same case after the constable's office's investigation, according to court documents. Deputies received complaints from the public about the illegal parlor in early August, court documents show. An undercover deputy entered the parlor and played a series of video games later that month and again in mid-September. The deputy won $60 during his August trip and $25 on his second trip, according to an affidavit. Authorities were able to secure arrest warrants for both Davis and Dao shortly after the investigation. Davis was arrested and has already bonded out while Dao is still on the run. During a search warrant raid at the business Wednesday, deputies seized nearly 50 illegal gambling devices and more than $5,000 in illicit gambling revenue, according to the constable's office. More Information Suspect sought after illegal Houston-area gambling room raid See More Collapse Both suspects are facing up to a year in jail on a class-A misdemeanor possession of gambling equipment charge. Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com Authorities released the identity Thursday of a man accused of shooting at a constable deputy earlier this month. Juan Jesus Guerrero, 21, is wanted on a first-degree felony aggravated assault on a peace officer charge for the Sept. 15 incident. According to surveillance and dashcam video, the driver of a gold Buick sedan later identified by deputies as Guerrero allegedly made an improper turn near Texas Highway 6 and the Katy Freeway. GAMBLING BUST: Suspect sought after illegal parlor bust in north Harris County When a Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office deputy attempted to pull the vehicle over, the driver refused to stop and sped off reaching speeds of up to 90 mph and ran a red light, according to the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office. During the pursuit, the suspect lost control of his vehicle, struck a minivan then hit the glass door of a business in the 5300 block of Texas Highway 6. The driver got out of the car and fired several times towards the deputy, who was not hit. He then dropped the gun and was able to flee the scene. ARREST: Firefighter accused of raping childhood friend Deputies recovered a gun at the scene that was determined stolen. "Anyone who shoots at a peace officer has no conscience and is willing to kill. We need to get this suspect behind bars as soon as possible before he hurts someone else," Harris County Precinct 5 Constable Ted Heap said. "Thank God our deputy is OK." Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 832-927-6746 or Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477). Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com A terrified Ford and a furious Kavanaugh each had their day in the glare of a high-profile hearing. Photo: Getty Images In one of the more remarkable days in recent Senate history, the Judiciary Committee held what was in effect two hearings. The first was to hear Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. And the second was to hear Kavanaughs response to her and to other recent allegations of criminal misconduct. In the first hearing, Ford, by virtually all accounts, made a strong and credible impression with her account of being assaulted by Kavanaugh during high school. Fearing what it would look like for eleven Republican men to interrogate Ford, chairman Chuck Grassley brought in Rachel Mitchell, a local prosecutor from Arizona with experience dealing with victims of sexual assault, to do all the questioning on their behalf. The strange, herky-jerky procedure chosen by Grassley the Democrats alternated 5-minute questions with Mitchell did little to challenge Fords credibility. When Ford left the room, Kavanaughs confirmation looked shakier than ever. Maybe that was what Kavanaugh anticipated, because his opening statement to the Committee (prepared earlier, with a few added flourishes) was really, really over-the-top: an angry, wounded screed dismissing all the allegations against him as a last-minute smears, pure and simple, as revenge for the Clintons, as grotesque and obvious character assassination, and as the product of a frenzy to come up with something anything, no matter how far-fetched or odious that will block a vote on my nomination. He shouted and cried, and took the demeanor of his opening statement into the rest of the hearing, yelling at the Democratic senators who tried to question him. While the questioning of Kavanaugh by Mitchell picked at this or that detail of his story, Democrats primarily concerned themselves with efforts to get him to recommend an FBI investigation of Fords and others allegations. Kavanaugh kept turning this question back on them by saying it was up to the committee to investigate. Republicans began the session by letting Mitchell question the judge in response to which he mostly commented on some of the weaker points of Fords testimony. But then there was a turning point in which Kavanaughs screed was exceeded by Lindsey Graham: After Graham took Kavanaughs own claim of a partisan hit job up a few notches, other committee Republicans joined in on the fun, pushing aside poor Rachel Mitchell, who sat there silently (though she was presumably still on the clock). Again and again and again they made the hearing about the ambushing of Kavanaugh by Dianne Feinsteins failure to release Fords original letter detailing her allegations until Fords name had gone public and she agreed to testify (which Feinstein has consistently attributed to an effort to maintain Fords confidentiality). John Cornyn compared Committee Democrats treatment of Kavanaugh to Joe McCarthys tactics. Clearly briefed by staff never to criticize Ford, these senators (and Kavanaugh himself) described her as a co-victim of the Democratic conspiracy. By the end of the days long, painful session, Democrats were mostly talking about the FBI investigation that never happened and Republicans were talking about an earlier release of Fords correspondence by Feinstein that never happened, either. Anyone wanting to doubt Kavanaughs side of the story, and thus his fitness to serve on the Supreme Court, was given abundant grounds to do so by Ford. And anyone wanting Kavanaugh to declare ideological holy war on his tormenters got all they wanted as well. That included one very important viewer down the street from the Capitol: Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2018 It says a lot that Kavanaugh may have saved his bacon by delivering a more articulate and literate version of a Trump tweet. Republican senators are getting together tonight, and you can imagine that the war drums will be beaten in an effort to get everybody on board. The most visibly wavering of Judiciary Committee Republicans was Jeff Flake, who didnt speak until the end of the hearing and expressed sympathy for both Ford and Kavanaugh: .@JeffFlake to Brett Kavanaugh: "I'm sorry for what's happened to you and your family as I'm sorry for what's happened to [Dr. Ford's]. And this is not a good process, but it's all we've got." https://t.co/lAYkRldzCK pic.twitter.com/t0GyeRSaQS Fox News (@FoxNews) September 27, 2018 That ambiguous note was an appropriate capstone to this strange day. The Judiciary Committee is currently scheduled to vote tomorrow morning, and will probably send the confirmation to the floor even if Flake (who is retiring from the Senate this year) denies Kavanaugh a majority. At that point, all eyes will be on Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. Todays events will make the cross-pressures on these two pro-choice women incredibly intense. But their fellow Republicans really wanted to repeal Obamacare last year, too. They said no. Houston police shot and killed a man who allegedly abducted his ex-girlfriend in west Houston and shot her multiple times Friday morning, authorities said. Officers arrived at the man's apartment at 2525 Winrock around 12:25 a.m., after the ex-girlfriends cousin called and said shed seen her on FaceTime with a gun to her head, according to Executive Assistant Chief Matt Slinkard, of the Houston Police Department. The woman who called police suspected her cousins ex-boyfriend. Police officers saw the mans car in the parking lot, and as they went to find him, heard a womans screams, Slinkard said. The officers entered the apartment, and the man immediately fired several rounds at officers, causing them to take cover, Slinkard said. An officer saw the man shoot the female victim, and police again entered the apartment. The man picked up a knife and wouldnt listen to commands to drop it, Slinkard said. One sergeant and two officers then fired at the man, hitting him. He died at the scene. The woman was taken to the hospital with five gunshot wounds, Slinkard said. She's expected to survive. Slinkard described the scene as a violent one that could have ended badly for a number of people. "This was a dangerous situation for all," he said. "Were very happy that no other citizens or officers were injured in this." The sergeant and two officers will be on administrative duty while an investigation is underway. A brief, handwritten note left for Christine Blasey Ford in the Senate Judiciary Committee room ahead of her testimony Thursday caused some to speculate about its author and potential double meaning. The words, "Good luck, Dr. Ford," could be seen written on Senate stationery placed on the witness table in a photo released by the media Wednesday afternoon. An article and subsequent tweet by ABC News initially attributed the note to Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) after an aide allegedly told a reporter that it was penned by the senator. ALSO: Kavanaugh confronts new allegations while GOP presses nomination Grassley's staffers later followed up with ABC News after photos of the note were posted to social media, and corrected the news organization, saying the note was not written by Grassley. Since that time, no one else has stepped forward to claim authorship of the note. Before Grassley's staffers sent out a correction, however, supporters of Ford took the note to be an intimidating one, given the interactions between the two before Wednesday. Last week, Ford asked for more time to decide on whether she'd testify on her allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, which Grassley granted. The senator then notably complained about the deadline extension on Twitter, writing, "Five times now we hv granted extension for Dr Ford to decide if she wants to proceed w her desire stated one wk ago that she wants to tell senate her story Dr Ford if u changed ur mind say so so we can move on I want to hear ur testimony. Come to us or we to u." On Wednesday, as new accusations against Kavanaugh came out, Grassley affirmed that the testimony by Ford would continue Thursday as scheduled. ALSO: Trump says his past accusers influence thinking on Kavanaugh Others took the scrawled sentence to be a note of support for Ford, who will be facing intensive questioning over an alleged sexual assault that took place when she and Kavanaugh were teenagers in the early 1980s. In her allegations, Ford stated that during a party, Kavanaugh laid on top of her and tried to undress her, while pressing his hand over her mouth, before another teen, Mark Judge, apparently jumped on them both and allowed Ford a chance to flee the house where the incident took place. Whatever the intent of the letter was may remain a mystery, however, whether it be encouraging or intimidating: The note was later removed. Read Dianne de Guzman's latest stories and send her news tips at ddeguzman@sfchronicle.com. Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. Shenandoah City Council on Wednesday presented updates from a meeting with The Woodlands Township Board of Directors after weeks of discussion with residents on the viability and public opinion of the road. But some residents of Shenandoah again expressed their opposition to a Research Forest Drive underpass at Grogans Mill Road. I just feel like when the residents and citizens of Shenandoah speak, that it would be nice to have the backing of somebody, said resident Julia Hepburn, adding that the underpass might lower property value around Grogans Mill Road. According to the information from the Texas Department of Transportation and presented to the Township, the intersection sees more than 62,000 drivers a day that number is projected to grow to more than 78,000 by 2022. At rush hour, Mayor Ritch Wheeler added, delays can be 85 seconds long, or more. The point of this is that theyre trying to make this intersection as residential-friendly as possible, Wheeler said. So our residents are gaining something out of this and are impacted as little as possible. Houston-based engineering firm BGE proposed eight options for improvement to the intersection, including the $24 million underpass, a traffic circle, an overpass or a grade separation of Grogans Mill by 2022 in an effort to bring delays down to less than 20 seconds. The intersection has been classified by TxDOT as the worst in The Woodlands and the second worst in Montgomery County in terms of congestion. Important to note, Wheeler said, is that the city of Shenandoah will not contribute financially to the project the underpass, should it materialize, will be funded in part by Montgomery County Precinct 3 and completely by the road utility district, the Houston-Galveston Area Council and TxDOT. This is the RUDs money, the RUD is sponsoring this, Wheeler said. They get to pick where they spend it and one of the other options was an overpass on Grogans Mill. Wheeler and council member Ron Raymaker stressed that the underpass was made possible by a unanimous vote from the then-sitting city council on the 2016 Houston-Galveston Area Council South County Mobility Plan which included widening Grogans Mill Road between Woodlands Parkway and Sawdust Road and between Research Forest Drive and Vision Park Boulevard. I cannot believe that we voted for the South County Mobility Study and approved it on a 5-0 vote, Wheeler said. Included in the study which was approved by then-council member Jean Teague and supported by then-mayor Garry Watts, both now outspoken opponents of the project was a proposition to reduce congestion at Research Forest/ Tamina Road and I-45. In the short term, the intersection could be improved by lengthening the eastbound turn lane onto I-45 southbound to hold more cars and adding a dedicated U-turn lane going northbound by the end of 2019, said Bleyl Engineerings David Wind. The topic of flooding and how to mitigate storm drainage run off from storms like Hurricane Harvey and the 2016 Tax Day and Memorial Day floods has been a focus of the Houston region and also in The Woodlands Township. During the Wednesday meeting of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors meeting, board member Bruce Rieser who is the chairman of the townships Storm Drainage Task Force issued a seven-point call to action to county leaders, municipal utility district officials and others involved in water issues and flood mitigation. Ive got seven recommendations that I think that we should implement, starting withI call on (Montgomery County) Judge (Craig) Doyal and (Harris County) Judge (Ed) Emmett should immediately get together and convene what I call a drainage summit meeting, Rieser began. To discuss how they can cooperate on projects of drainage mitigation projects, common design standards and drainage management in the Spring Creek basin. Rieser said he finds it absolutely ridiculous that there are two different design standards on either side of Spring Creek, one standard for Harris County and a different standard for Montgomery County. Flood water doesnt really discriminate between counties, he added. We really need to start getting serious about some of these issues. And we just dont seem to be yet. Rieser also said he is calling on the WJPA to organize what he termed as a master MUD meeting, including Harris-Montgomery Counties MUD 386, to develop a plan for cooperation and cost-sharing among all 11 MUDs serving The Woodlands. The next itemMUD elections should be held on an unified election day. People should get better sight as to who is serving on our MUD boards and they should get more involved in who they are putting on these boards, Rieser continued. MUD meetings should be live-streamed and recorded for future reference. Rieser said township President Don Norrell has been gracious enough offer the use of the township board room to all MUDs so they can utilize it and the video recording capabilities the room has. This would be at no charge, Rieser noted. Riesers Flood Mitigation Mandate During the Wednesday, Sept. 26, meeting of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors meeting, Director Bruce Rieser issued a seven-part call to action for local and regional officials. * Hold a drainage summit with Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal * The Woodlands Joint Powers Agency hosts a "master MUD" meeting with all 11 MUDs serving The Woodlands * Shift MUD board elections to November when more voters are likely to participate * Live stream and also video record all MUD meetings so the public can view them if they cannot attend * Mandate any MUD elections for possible bonds be held in November so more voters are likely to participate * Shift leadership of The Woodlands Storm Drainage Task Force to the San Jacinto River Authority * Passage of state legislation that enacts state-wide uniform housing and building standards and also mandating a flood control district in every county that has a certain population. See More Collapse No. 5, all (MUD) bonds should be voted for on a uniform election day preferrably in November, he said. We should not be passing bond issues at low-turnout elections when nobody is in town. A sixth recommendation Rieser made was to shift the leadership of the Storm Drainage Task Force from The Woodlands Township and to another regional entity, such as the the SJRA, which was recently instructed to add flood drainage authority to its duties, he said. We have taken it a long way, The Woodlands Township will still participate. I think it is time for these entities, that are specifically charged (with flood mitigation). It is their job, it is in their enabling legislation and it is time for them to step up to the plate, Rieser said. Shifting to the state level of governance, Rieser called for state-wide legislation that would create a state-wide design and development standard across the whole of Texas, rather than having differing standards in various counties and regions. (The state) Should mandate a flood control district for any county above a certain population, he added. It is time for us to have a flood control district in Montgomery County. Rieser began his presentation Wednesday night by giving an update on the Sept. 25 meeting of the task force, highlighting what happened in the monthly meeting before offering his seven-part mandate. One of the most encouraging things I heard was that the Montgomery County MUDs are starting to work collectively, Rieser said, describing some of the actions that have been taken in recent months. I challenged them to start thinking them about drainage in exactly the same way. If they can get together and talk about items that they can actually share responsibility for across the district, this is certainaly a prime example of something that should be done the same way. Rieser said local MUDs and the San Jacinto River Authority are the primary entities tasked with flood issues and drainage, noting that MUDs can set tax and water rates as well as issue bonds things that The Woodlands Township cannot do and has no power over. There has been a lot of talk in the last months about the townships role in the drainage process. I think it is important to remind everyone that the MUDs and the SJRA, who have been charged with drainage issues in Montgomery County, he added. The fact is, drainage is an issue that is broader than one MUD, and I think it is only appropriate that were treat it that way. The flood and storm drainage task force has made a lot of progress and now has 37 members, Rieser said. Jill Bouillon from the Bayou Land Conservancy is the latest representative to join the task force, which meets on a monthly basis. Rieser also took some time to address criticism from township residents and former elected officials, such as Mike Bass, who have called for more proactive approaches from the township in regard to flooding and drainage issues. During a meeting in August, Bass told the board members they should be ashamed of themselves for not including more funding in the 2019 budget for flooding mitigation and called for a $5 million allocation instead of the $110,000 alloted. Those claims and comments irritated many members of the board, especially Rieser and Chairmain Gordy Bunch. During Wednesdays meeting, Rieser said the township has spent money on new high water rescue equipment for the fire department, is investing millions of dollars in new microwave communications towers that would help if a future event like Hurricane Harvey happens again, gave tax relief to affected homeowners, and added that township officials have lobbied federal and state officials for funds to help with flooding issues. Weve had some public comments to the effect that the township should be doing more, Rieser said. Well, I just want to remind everyone, the township is doing things. Primarily, after Harvey, the township was primarily the one who faced most of the resident groups throughout the district and took the heat for something we really didnt cause or have a hand in. Rieser said compared to the local MUDs, the township is much more open and transparent. Were very public, we out here streaming live, our meetings are recorded. The MUDs dont operate that way. I can see the frustration level, Riser added. I think the township is stepping up and trying to do the right thing. Lawyers for the Danske Bank trader who blew the whistle on what is fast becoming one of Europe's biggest money laundering scandals are asking authorities in Denmark and Estonia to provide protection after the man was identified by name in news reports. Howard Wilkinson was cited without his knowledge or consent by Estonian media, according to a Sept. 26 letter sent to Danish and Estonian prosecutors and ministries of justice by Stephen Kohn, of the Washington D.C.-based law firm Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto. "There may be people who want to seek either revenge or send a message that others that may have information on this scandal should keep their mouths shut and that's dangerous," Kohn said in a phone interview. "It's now an obligation of the governments of Denmark and Estonia to ensure protection." Two hundred billion euros ($235 billion) flowed through a tiny Estonian unit of Danske's between 2007 and 2015, with much of that deemed suspicious transactions, according to an internal investigation Danske released last week. That's almost nine times the size of Estonia's economy. Danske is now facing investigations in at least four countries and fury at home, where lawmakers and the central bank have said its actions have put Denmark's reputation at risk. Chief Executive Officer Thomas Borgen resigned last week after the report's release, as Danske struggles to restore confidence. The bank also has reported a number of employees to the police. Kohn suggested Danske Bank may be behind the leak, and in the letter to authorities he asked they ensure that Wilkinson isn't subject to "retaliation, violations of his rights to privacy and/or his fundamental human rights." Kohn's firm has also represented Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS banker who exposed how the Swiss lender helped Americans evade taxes and received in 2012 what was at the time the largest largest federal whistle-blower award for an individual. In a written comment, Danske Bank spokesman Kenni Leth declined to comment on Wilkinson, saying the bank doesn't "comment on individual staff matters." Leth said the bank takes "our responsibilities in respect of whistle-blowers very seriously. This entails ensuring their full and complete anonymity and protecting their rights as we are under obligation to do in accordance with applicable legislation. As such, we find the statements made by the law firm mentioned to be unfounded. We have no further comments." Kohn said the publication of Wilkinson's name wrongly shifts focus to his client, with whom he's been working for four years. "There was no reason to release the name, because his whistle-blowing was verified," Kohn said. "Nothing" in the Danske report, which referred to a whistle-blower, "undermined his credibility or raised an issue as to the veracity of his concerns. So why make him the issue? Why ever release his name?" Wilkinson's outing "is clearly done in retaliation and it sets him up," Kohn said. GINOWAN, Japan - It's election time on the Japanese island of Okinawa, and - as always - the presence of U.S. military bases is center stage. "Give the children of Okinawa back their blue sky," the leading candidate for the governor's job, Denny Tamaki, told an election rally this week, vowing to significantly reduce the presence of U.S. troops if he wins. "We will regain peace for the people of Okinawa." This semitropical island is home to around 19,000 U.S. Marines as well as the largest U.S. Air Force base in the Asia-Pacific. The sprawling installations, the Pentagon says, are vital not only for the defense of Japan but also for keeping the peace and projecting American power through the entire region. But local resentment has been bubbling for decades. The American military is the main election issue, polls show. And Tamaki is the narrow favorite to become Okinawa's new governor in Sunday's vote. That outcome would create another headache for the U.S. military and more stress in the U.S. alliance with Japan. The Pentagon calls the alliance the "cornerstone of stability" in the Indo-Pacific region. But President Donald Trump again asked at the U.N. General Assembly this week in New York if Japan, a country with a large trade surplus with the United States, was contributing enough to its own defense. The hot topic is Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which is surrounded by housing in the ever-expanding city of Ginowan. There is a two-decades-old plan to relocate the base to a more remote site at Henoko in the north of the island, and move nearly half of the marines to other bases in Guam, Hawaii and Australia. But Tamaki says that's not good enough. Like previous Gov. Takeshi Onaga, who died in office last month, he opposes the expansion of the base in Henoko and wants a more sweeping redistribution of U.S. forces to other parts of Japan. U.S. bases take up nearly one-fifth of the land on Okinawa, twice the size of Guam but with more than 10 times the population, at 1.85 million people. Okinawa is home to roughly half the U.S. military forces in Japan. Tamaki's conservative opponent, Atsushi Sakima, is backed by Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. He says the base relocation should go ahead, freeing up a large swathe of prime land for development. But he also wants immediate measures to reduce the noise of low-flying aircraft, and reduce the risks of crashes or pieces of equipment falling to the ground in residential areas. Sakima doesn't directly mention the bases at his rallies. Instead, with LDP politicians at his side, he dangles the prospect of government subsidies and investment if Okinawa accedes to Tokyo's wishes over the bases. "At this important juncture, we have to move from confrontation to communication," he said. Business interests appear to be backing him, especially in the construction industry. At Tamaki's rallies, supporters are generally older, many of them retired. Behind their views are deeper cultural, historical sentiments. It includes a feeling that this island - once the independent kingdom of Ryukyu and traded with both Japan and China - bears an unfair share of the burden of the U.S. military presence in Japan. Ethnically different from the people who live on the main islands of Japan, the people of Okinawa have long felt looked down upon. Taxi driver Seiji Hanashiro, 70, grew up on tales of 1945 Battle of Okinawa, when his hastily conscripted teenage elder brother died. Tens of thousands of Okinawan civilians died in the 82-day battle that saw much of the island razed. "I really hate war," he said, adding that he didn't much like Japan or the United States either. "We don't want bombs or guns. We want trade." High school teacher Erika Tamayose, 41, complained of "discrimination" by Tokyo, but also disagreed with the idea that the bases make her safer. Like many people on Okinawa, her views are shaped by pacifism. "I grew up in the Cold War, and we were always told that because of the bases, Soviet missiles were directed toward Okinawa," she said. "Now it could be North Korean missiles. I want Japan to be peaceful, and solve its problems diplomatically." After World War II, the U.S. military continued to rule Okinawa until 1972, two decades after returning the rest of Japan to self-rule. Okinawa played a vital role during the Vietnam War - the troops flooding through the island brought money but the fact that Japanese courts couldn't touch them if they broke the law, also caused resentment. Over the years several incidents fueled outrage, notably the rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three Marines in 1995. In 2004, a helicopter crashed into a university building, which still bears the scars of the blades and burn marks as a reminder. Last December, a window fell out of a helicopter and into the playground of an elementary school. Today, those children rush into shelters every time they hear an aircraft approaching at play time. But there is no doubting the strategic value of the U.S. military bases in Okinawa. Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, who commands U.S. Marine Corps Forces Japan, stands in front of a map to show how the island is perfectly positioned "smack in the middle" of a massive naval environment that is home to much of the world's population and economic activity. It provides a "credible, lethal military force" to back diplomacy, he says, reassuring allies, and ensuring the freedom of the seas. It is there to respond to threats ranging from China to North Korea, and to humanitarian needs from super typhoons in the Philippines to earthquakes in Japan. Tokyo pays around 190 billion yen ($1.67 billion) a year toward the cost of keeping U.S. troops in Japan, but some critics say it could do more to promote the benefits of the U.S.-Japan alliance. The two main local papers in Okinawa, meanwhile, are both vehemently anti-base and never miss an opportunity to fuel indignation. More than 90,000 signatures have been collected to petition for a referendum on the presence of U.S. bases. Ironically, Tamaki is son of an Okinawan waitress and an American Marine, who left the island before he was born and he never met. Although he speaks little English, he has faith in its democracy to listen to his entreaties, and the will of the people of Okinawa. "The democracy of my father's country can't refuse what its son is saying," he told a rally. But experts are less sure. The government of Japan says it has the constitutional right to decide on national security, and is determined to push ahead with the replacement base plan anyway. Professor Masa'aki Gabe at Ryukyu University says Japan is so dependent on the United States for its defense that it will find it hard to change its mind over the Okinawan bases, while Washington is also too wedded to the "status quo" in Asia to radically rethink its deployments. At Okinawa International University, professor Hiromori Maedomari agrees. "In Okinawa, that means the will of the people has not been respected," he said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel clashed with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over a Turkish journalist whose presence threatened to disrupt his visit to Berlin, underscoring deep differences standing in the way of improved relations. At a joint news conference against the backdrop of anti-Erdogan protests in the German capital, the two leaders differed over democratic standards, press freedom and the rule of law. The split threatened to derail an attempt at reconciliation by Erdogan, who is under pressure from U.S. sanctions and Turkey's economic woes. The case of Turkish journalist Can Dundar cast a shadow over Friday's meeting amid media reports that Erdogan threatened to cancel the press conference if the reporter attended. A former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper who now lives in Germany, Dundar spent three months in jail for reporting on Turkish arms shipments to Syria. Freed pending trial in February 2016, he was subsequently sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison. Dundar said in a video on his Twitter account that he'd decided not to attend after learning of Erdogan's threat to boycott. Merkel addressed the case, telling reporters "I can confirm" that she and Erdogan disagree over it. "This person has been convicted. He's a spy. He has revealed state secrets," Erdogan said. It's Turkey's "most natural right" to request his extradition, he said. Rule-of-law issues, including Merkel's demand to free German citizens imprisoned in Turkey, dominated the media appearance, which at one point was disrupted by a protester who was hauled out by security. Issues about regional cooperation on Syria and Turkey's economy took second billing. "On the one hand, there's a shared strategic interest in good relations," but there also are "profound differences" on what constitutes "a free, democratic, open society," Merkel said. The chancellor, whose country is Turkey's biggest economic partner, offered expanded economic cooperation, with a dormant German-Turkish commission to hold its first meeting and Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, a Merkel confidant, set to head a delegation to Turkey in October. The two leaders also agreed to try hold a meeting on the war in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron this fall. Merkel and Erdogan are attempting to ease tension a year after Erdogan accused German officials of using Nazi methods. It was meant to signal a turnaround from Turkish-EU hostility over the past year and a contrast to Erdogan's brief encounter in New York with Donald Trump, a NATO ally he has accused of waging "economic warfare" against Turkey. Erdogan will be honored Friday evening with a state dinner in Berlin hosted by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, which has been boycotted by several opposition leaders. Merkel also doesn't plan to attend. On Saturday, after breakfast with Merkel in Berlin, Erdogan will attend a mosque opening in Cologne, a sign of mutual ties symbolized by 2.8 million residents of Turkish descent in Germany and the presence of almost 7,000 German companies in Turkey. WASHINGTON - Lawmakers and President Donald Trump only recently settled on a package to fund most of the government through December, which the president is expected to sign this morning. But funding for the Department of Energy for the next 12 months - almost a record in Washington - has already been agreed to by boosting funds for the agency. Earlier this month, Congress sent the White House a spending package that boosts funding for the Department of Energy by $974 million to a total of $35.5 billion. That uptick for one of the federal government's biggest backers of scientific research amounts to another bipartisan rejection of deep budget cuts called for by President Trump around efforts to develop alternative energy production seen as central to addressing climate change. Despite the discrepancy, Trump signed the department's budget into law late last week. Since Trump took office, the head of the White House's Office of Budget and Management, fiscal hawk Mick Mulvaney, sent budget proposals to Congress that attempted to shift responsibility for developing new energy technologies away from the federal government and toward the private sector. "It's an ideologically based view that the marketplace will undertake whatever investments needed in innovation and that there there's no need for a large government role here," said Joseph Hezir, former chief finance officer at the Energy Department under Barack Obama and now principal at the Energy Futures Initiative. But as it has done in years past, both Republicans and Democrats rejected the Trump administration's suggestions for reining in spending on research across the country at national laboratories - often found in lawmakers in charge of doling out cash to states and districts. Trump's budget shop, for example, proposed slashing funding for the department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy down to $696 million, a 66 percent cut from the 2017 budget. Congress instead increased funding for that office, known for research into solar and wind energy, to $2.38 billion. Even more drastically, the White House wanted to eliminate the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Well liked by members of both parties in Congress, that technology incubator backs projects too risky for private investors. Congress bumped its budget up to $366 million. Congress made its intentions clear with APRA-E in a report on the bill. The administration "shall not use any appropriated funds to plan or execute the termination of ARPA-E," it read. Even Energy Secretary Rick Perry praised ARPA-E as "a good return on investment for the American taxpayers' dollars" during a hearing of a House Appropriations subcommittee in March. Going forward, the worry among alternative energy advocates is not the whims of Congress but the vagaries of the economy. When economic growth slows and tax revenues fall, appropriators will look to tighten belts, and the Energy Department "is not going to be immune to that downward pressure that's going to affect pretty much everything across government," Hezir said. Despite its popularity, ARPA-E does not receive as much money as intended when it was originally conceived during the George W. Bush administration when the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recommended an eventual annual budget of $1 billion. "It's doing great work at $300 million," said Ellen Williams, a University of Maryland professor who ran ARPA-E between 2014 and 2017. "It could work even better at $1 billion." But in the current political climate, Williams added she is "just grateful that it is continuing to get funding at a substantial level." Owning the libs will come at a high cost. Photo: Tom Williams/Getty Images In his opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 4, Brett Kavanaugh said that a good judge must be an umpire a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy. In his opening statement to that same committee Thursday afternoon, Kavanaugh declared himself the victim of a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons, and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups. By deploying that latter argument, Brett Kavanaugh probably won himself a seat on the Supreme Court but also, cost John Robertss majority something just as precious. Over the past ten years, the Roberts court cleared the way for unlimited corporate spending in American elections; vetoed an Arizona law that attempted to limit the influence of such spending by providing candidates with public funds; gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965; legalized most forms of political bribery; immunized prosecutors who withhold exculpatory evidence from legal accountability; restricted the capacity of consumers and workers to sue corporations that abuse them; hobbled public-sector unions; and invented an individual right to possess firearms (among many other achievements). Which is to say: Even as Barack Obama occupied the White House, the conservative movement made steady progress on implementing key pieces of its agenda (and came within one vote of nullifying the signature piece of Barack Obamas) thanks to the judicial activism of five, unelected male judges. Whats more, many of those agenda items had the secondary effect of improving the Republican Partys electoral prospects: By weakening labor unions, limiting federal enforcement of voting rights, and sanctioning unlimited corporate spending on elections, the conservative justices bolstered the GOP at the ballot box. And Democratic voters thanked them for it! Before Anthony Kennedys landmark decision on gay marriage, Democrats already expressed a higher opinion of the Supreme Court than their Republican counterparts; afterward, blue Americas approval of the Supremes shot up into the stratosphere. As Sean McElwee has noted: Democrats were more likely to approve of the court than Republicans by an average of a 14 point margin from 2010 to 2014. This gap increased only to a 32-point margin in 2016 (the chart excludes dont knows), even while the court decided cases like Trinity Lutheran, in which the court required the government to subsidize churches. Illustration: Sean McElwee/CCES Photo: Sean McElwee/CCES The Democratic electorates sunny view of the Court was surely shaped by many factors, among them the prominence of the Warren Courts civil rights decisions in American history books, and Anthony Kennedys occasional heresies on highly salient issues of social liberalism. Nevertheless, it is impossible to understand how Democratic voters could have voiced approval for what was, in the aggregate, the most conservative decade of Supreme Court jurisprudence in modern American history without stipulating that they genuinely believed in the justices good faith. Try as they might, the more radical wing of the progressive base couldnt persuade ordinary Democrats to see the court as a partisan, anti-democratic policy-making body whose power must be questioned and contested. With Kavanaugh on the court, the radicals will. Already, Democratic operatives are discussing the role that calls for Kavanaughs impeachment will play in the 2020 primary. The formation of a (potentially) anti-Roe majority was always likely to increase the salience of the Supreme Court to the Democratic base. But the formation of an anti-Roe majority secured by the confirmation of an alleged sex criminal and self-professed enemy of the Clintons who spent his final confirmation hearing openly disrespecting Democratic senators and telling bald-faced lies will mobilize Democrats against Robertss majority in an unprecedented (and wholly avoidable) way. From one angle (and only one angle) then, Senate Republicans will be doing progressives a favor by confirming Kavanaugh. Were President Trump to withdraw Kavanaugh today and replace him with a less incendiary far-right justice it is overwhelmingly likely that said justice would win confirmation before the next Senate is sworn in. And a conservative majority that didnt include a justice as divisive as Kavanaugh would be one far more capable of handing down radically reactionary decisions without facing political blowback. By all accounts, John Roberts is deeply protective of his courts legitimacy which is to say, the public perception that its authority is just. Many informed observers have speculated that it was this very protectiveness that prevented Roberts from voting to strike down the Affordable Care Act with his four conservative colleagues. To the extent that Roberts believes himself to be constrained by public opinion, putting Kavanaugh on the court instead of a Gorsuch clone could actually substantively hamper the conservative project. And if doesnt if the new conservative majority continues its steady march toward Neo-Lochernism then Kavanaughs confirmation will increase the likelihood of a direct confrontation between a Democratic Congress and the Supreme Court at some point in the medium-term future. There is little sign that the Republican Party is capable of fundamentally reforming itself. Its plutocratic donor class has a firm grip on its fiscal agenda, while its nationalist (and increasingly authoritarian) primary electorate has veto power over its racial politics. Further, the structure of the American government all but ensures that the party of revanchist, rural whites will retain a significant base of regional support, even if its brand of politics ceases to be competitive in national elections (as current demographic trends suggest that it will) a fact that will further hinder the partys capacity for ideological adaptation. Given this reality, there is a good chance that the GOPs primary source of federal power in the coming decades (or, at least, during significant portions of the coming decades) will be its vestigial claim to the judiciary. And that claim will be much less valuable if Democratic voters come to see judges as mere legislators in robes. After all, it only takes 51 Senate votes to end the legislative filibuster and then simple majorities in both Houses (and a presidents signature) to pack the court, or else, radically reform its structure. If the Supreme Court is seen as a team of neutral umpires, such reforms will remain beyond the pale; if theyre seen as a partisan policymaking body, such reforms could become unavoidable. All of which is to say: The conservative movement may win the battle over Brett Kavanaugh; but if so, they will give progressives a leg up in the war for Americas future. TORONTO - Days before a provincial election in Quebec, a center-right party promising to slash immigration and to kick out all immigrants who fail tests of "values" and the French language is in a dead heat with the incumbent Liberals who have governed the province for most of the past 15 years. The Coalition Avenir Quebec, a party led by businessman Francois Legault, is tied with premier Philippe Couillard's Liberals, with each party supported by 30 percent of decided voters, according to a poll by Ipsos for La Presse and Global News. That makes it likely the Oct. 1 election will produce a minority government. This year's contest will be the first in nearly six decades where the "national question" - whether French-speaking Quebec should separate from the rest of Canada - is not a campaign issue. But those bitter independence battles have morphed into acrimonious fights over immigration and perceived threats to Quebec's francophone identity. "Young Quebecers are less attuned to independence, so the old nationalist discourse on sovereignty is not as strong," said Chedly Belkhodja, a professor at Concordia University's School of Community and Public Affairs in Montreal. "The big questions now are about identity and what Quebec will look like." The hot-button topic of immigration emerged as a significant issue two weeks into the election campaign when Legault - then the clear front-runner - detailed his immigration platform. Legault plans to cut immigration by 20 percent. He has also pledged to administer French language tests and "Quebec values" tests to all immigrants within three years of arriving in the province. Those who flunk would be expelled. "The risk is that our grandchildren won't speak French," Legault said. "Quebec, in North America, surrounded by hundreds of millions of Anglophones, will always be vulnerable." Couillard, whose Liberals plan to raise the immigration quota to 60,000 people per year, told Legault during one debate that his tests were making people "afraid" of him. Immigration, Couillard claimed, had become the "ballot question." Experts say that many of Legault's fears about threats to the French language are unsupported and that ejecting immigrants from the province is unconstitutional on its face. By law, all children, including those of immigrants, attend schools where the language of instruction is French. And according to a 2017 Statistics Canada report, over 80 percent of immigrants reported being able to hold a conversation in French. Still, Legault is making the calculation that this policy will appeal to voters outside of the province's big cosmopolitan cities, where people might be "insecure about their identity as Quebecers," said Linda Cardinal, a social sciences professor at the University of Ottawa. Though Quebec's current immigration quota is 50,000, the province selects approximately 30,000 economic migrants. Ottawa is responsible for selecting the rest, mostly refugees or those applying for family reunification. Under a Canada-Quebec accord on immigration, the federal government provides Quebec with funding - much more than other provinces get - to support the integration of newcomers. A report released last year from the Institut de Quebec, a public policy think tank, called for an increase in the number of immigrants admitted to the province to help address the severe labor shortages resulting from Quebec's low birthrate and graying population. Many municipalities and businesses have also said that they want more immigration, not less. A number of businesses have actively hired some of the "irregular" border-crossers from the United States who have been arriving in Canada on foot since 2016 to fill the shortages. "When politicians play with these things, they have to be really careful," Cardinal said, pointing out that the Coalition Avenir Quebec has seen its polling numbers decline as the immigration debate has intensified. This would not be the first time that an appeal to identity politics has backfired during a provincial election campaign. In 2014, the ruling Parti Quebecois failed to pass a "Charter of Values," which would have banned the wearing or display of "conspicuous" religious symbols, such as turbans and hijabs, in the public service, though thousands of crosses were "grandfathered" in. It lost the election to the Liberals who opposed the charter. But then the Liberals waded into similar territory when they passed a law banning face coverings for those receiving public services in 2017. (Legault's party said the law didn't go far enough). In the spring of 2016, the Liberals announced plans to hold consultations on systemic racism in Quebec, a proposal that became more urgent in the wake of a shooting at a mosque in a town outside of Quebec City that killed six worshipers and injured dozens more earlier that year. But after the province's opposition parties complained and Liberal lawmakers blamed the consultation for a by-election loss in a traditional Liberal stronghold in 2017, the government scrapped the inquiry. U.S. Senators should take the time they need to be "comfortable" with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump said Friday, adding that he found accuser Christine Blasey Ford "credible." Trump said he will defer to Senate Republicans to decide how to respond to what he called the "delay" in a final vote on Kavanaugh on the Senate floor, but he reiterated his support for his nominee. The president spoke in the Oval Office shortly after Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he will condition a final "yes" vote on a new FBI investigation into sexual assault and misconduct claims against Kavanaugh. Flake said that investigation should last no more than a week. "I'm going to let the Senate handle that," Trump said when asked about the development. "They'll make their decisions." Meeting with visiting Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, Trump was calm and measured despite the unexpected detour on the path to Kavanaugh's confirmation, which the White House had hoped to conclude before the start of the next Supreme Court term on Monday. "I have no message" to senators about the potential delay, Trump said in response to reporters' questions. "They have to do what they think is right. There is no message whatsoever. They have to do what they think is right. They have to be comfortable with themselves, and I'm sure that's what they want." Trump said he was "not even a little bit" considering a replacement for Kavanaugh. But he said that Ford, who testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that Kavanaugh had pinned her to a bed and attempted to rape her when she was 15, was "very compelling." "Certainly she was a very credible witness. She was very good in many respects," Trump said. "And I think that, I don't know if this is going to continue onward, or if we're going to get a vote." Trump added that he was still catching up to developments. He also praised Kavanaugh's testimony Thursday as "really something that I hadn't seen before. Incredible. It was an incredible moment in the history of our country." "I think it will work out very well for the country. I just want it to work out well for the country," Trump said. "If that happens, I'm happy." Trump praised committee Chairman Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, who had presided, tight-lipped, as Flake told senators he would vote to advance Kavanaugh to the floor but wanted the further inquiry before he could vote to confirm him. "I'm going to rely on all the people, including Senator Grassley, who is doing a very good job," Trump said. "That is going to be a decision they are going to make, and I suspect they'll be making some decision soon whether to take a vote or do whatever else they want to do. I will be totally reliant on what Senator Grassley and the group decides to do." WHITEHALL The 75-year-old man missing from Washington County has been found alive, the State Police said at 6:45 p.m. Friday. Troopers put out a call for help earlier in the day as they launched a widespread search for the man, who they said has Alzheimer's. Meet the new, sensitive GOP. Photo: Tom Williams/AFP/Getty Images Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, the Senate testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh. Going into the Brett Kavanaugh hearing, critics questioned the choice of Republicans to cede many of their questions to Rachel Mitchell, a veteran sex crimes prosecutor. Was the hearing fair? The hearing was a travesty, at once tragic, corrupt, and hateful. The decision of the 11 Republican men on the committee to delegate their questioning to a prosecutor Mitch McConnell called a female assistant wasnt even the most outrageous aspect of the proceedings. It says much about the hearing as a whole that while Mitchell did the mens dirty work failing to pursue any evidence that might corroborate Christine Blasey Fords narrative (e.g., a conspicuous entry in Kavanaughs Summer of 82 calendar) she too was in the end was belittled for the failing of being a woman. Banished to her seat at the childrens table soon after Kavanaugh started to testify, she sat in humiliated silence while Lindsey Graham and his bros took over the questioning to beat up on Ford in absentia once her testimony had ended. The ways in which this shitshow was not fair are many. A fair hearing would have called witnesses, and not just Mark Judge, to testify under oath about the incidents ostensibly being adjudicated, so that their unvetted public statements could be subject to cross-examination. A fair hearing would not have subjected a sexual-assault victim to a sex-crimes prosecutor while shielding the accused from equal scrutiny. A fair hearing would not have allowed men, from the doddering, filibustering chairman Chuck Grassley to Kavanaugh himself, to interrupt, condescend to, and talk over the questioners, particularly women on the committee. A fair hearing might also have been abetted by a coordinated line of inquiry from the Democrats, who often repeated each others questions (netting the identical answers) instead of collaborating on a comprehensive strategy that would advance the unraveling of Kavanaughs dishonest defense. Indeed, the Democratic men would have been well advised as some had suggested to turn over most of the questioning to Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris, experienced prosecutors who in their allotted five minutes each drew blood and forced Kavanaugh to bare his teeth in contempt of their gender. But alas, Democratic men will also be men. Each needed his moment center stage. So instances of Kavanaughs lying, including those not directly related to Fords testimony, both in real time and in the past, went largely unmentioned and unaddressed. The Democrats also failed to debunk Kavanaughs repeated misrepresentation that Fords friend Leland Keyser had rebutted her account of what happened that summer night in 1982. Jill Abramson, the co-author (with Jane Mayer) of Strange Justice, the definitive account of the Clarence ThomasAnita Hill debacle, had it right when she wrote on the eve of this hearing that it had a predetermined outcome. Like the 1991 template, in which the showily pious Republican senator John Danforth served as a beard for his peers cynicism, the 2018 replay had the window dressing of its own moralistic Hamlet, Jeff Flake. Donald Trumps views are notoriously influenced by how things look on TV. With the country watching, how did Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford do? By many accounts, even Trump was somewhat disarmed by Fords testimony at least enough so to worry, with good reason, that she might impress most of those watching (if not his own base) as credible, courageous, and deeply moving. He was worried as well because in his view Kavanaughs pre-hearing prime-time appearance on Fox News had been a flop. He didnt like his nominees PR strategy of presenting himself as a choirboy. The Kavanaugh that emerged at the hearing understandably was much more to Trumps liking he dropped the Mr. Nice Guy pose and let his full Trump roar. He emerged as a bully, a screamer, a conspiracy theorist, a rabid partisan, and a guilt-free purveyor of falsehoods big and small (including about instantly Google-able definitions of sexual terms he used in his high-school yearbook). For all his self-congratulation about the many (good-looking) women he has appointed clerks, he also behaved like an unalloyed misogynist. In his Fox News interview, he had revealed his contempt for women subtly by stepping in to man-answer a question the interviewer posed to his wife. In the hearing, he did just what Trump would do: accusing a woman who dared question him (Klobuchar) of the accusation she had raised about him (drinking to excess). If anything, he out-Trumped Trump in one area: While Trump is a teetotaler, Kavanaugh has the personality of a raging, self-pitying, out-of-control drunk. (He seems to think drinking doesnt count as long as its beer.) As he tried to shut Klobuchar down with his bullying and bellowing, it was all too easy to visualize him pushing his hand on the teenage Fords mouth to stop her from screaming for help during an attempted rape. It was hardly a surprise that Kavanaugh said he didnt deign to watch Fords testimony. Trump didnt think John McCain was a hero, but he was thrilled by Kavanaugh. No wonder. Kavanaugh stood up to Ford and his other accusers as Trump has to the nearly two dozen women (we know about) who have accused him of sexual assault. In light of a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist pre-hearing poll showing that a majority (54 percent) of Republicans believe that Kavanaugh should be on the court even if its true that he assaulted women, he is the ideal Supreme Court justice for the party of Trump. We should not forget, however, that this misogynist culture ruled the GOP well before Trump came along: Grassley, Orrin Hatch, and Lindsey Graham, among so many others, were there first. Whether in the Senate chamber or out in America, what has this hearing changed, and what has it not? About the only positive change to come out of this hearing and I am being facetious is that we now know that Republican men have been carefully schooled on how to profess respect for female victims of sexual assault. They have become expert at intoning that they care about rape victims because they are speaking as the father of daughters as if those of us who are the fathers of sons, or those men who arent fathers at all, neednt give a damn about women who are abused by men. These senators behavior at the hearing amply demonstrated that they dont mean a word of the flowery sentiments some strategist has forced them to memorize. As committee chairman, Grassley set the tone. You got what you wanted Id think youd be satisfied, he snapped at Klobuchar as if she were a maidservant after she thwarted his attempt to bulldoze her. Out in the hallway during a break, Lindsey Graham praised Ford by calling her a nice lady; Hatchs term of choice was attractive. The guiding principle of the hearing, subscribed to by all of these Republican senators, was that men are the victims most worthy of our sympathy in sexual assaults, not women. The grievance of white male victimization by women, by minorities, by elites is Trumpism at its ugliest core. More than a quarter-century later, it feels as if very little has changed since Clarence Thomas was elevated to the court, #MeToo notwithstanding. Had Ford not been white and from the professional class you have to wonder whether the Republican men on the committee would have completely dropped their patently phony pretense of concern for her welfare and stabbed her in the front instead of the back. What will follow now is a national tsunami of rage much as there was after the sliming of Anita Hill. And the aggrieved will not just be those suburban women politicos keep pigeon-holing, but most women, and more and more men. We have to hope that this rage will sweep more women into office as it did in 1992, the so-called Year of the Woman. And sweep some women out, too, including Susan Collins, whose tired act repeated, feckless expressions of being concerned about Trumpian horrors while doing nothing about them should be punished by Maines voters when shes up for reelection in 2020. What an awful day. My colleague at Veep, the showrunner David Mandel, is a master of finding dark humor in Washington horrors, but he reflected my mood, and I imagine that of many, when he said after these hearings that its starting to seem like it was an accident that the country worked as long as it did. As I write, theres a faint hope Kavanaugh will not make it to the Court. Theres a less faint hope that the GOP will lose control of at least one chamber of Congress in November. But even if those battles are won, the fact remains that America has a major political party more dedicated than ever to stripping women of power by any ruthless means it can. Google Maps Around two dozen students from a Tomball church school were inflicted with a mysterious rash while in a corn maze Friday afternoon, according to officials with the Rosehill Fire Department. EMS responded to Salem Lutheran School just before 4 p.m. Friday after reports that seven students had broken out in hives after exiting a local corn maze, according to Lee Sulecki with the Rosehill Fire Department. Houston police have arrested a woman almost a year after investigators said she injured a 6-month-old girl while baby-sitting in Greater Greenspoint, leading to her death. Sylvia Ann Taylor, 50, is accused of causing head trauma to the baby, Kyrie Trishell, on Nov. 2. She was charged with injury to a child, a felony, on Sept. 13 and is being held in jail on $100,000 bond. The babys mother, Kimberly Randle, said shed hired Taylor to baby-sit Kyrie and 2-year-old Vontre Jr. while she was at work. Randle said she got a voicemail from Taylor around 11:45 a.m. that day from a neighbors phone number. In the message, Taylor said, something is wrong with your baby, Randle told investigators. Randle called Taylor back, who said she thought the baby wasnt breathing. When police arrived at the baby's mother's house in the 800 block of Seminar, the baby had burn marks on both sides of her cheeks and appeared to have suffered cardiac arrest, an investigator said in charging documents. She was taken to the hospital, where she died. In two interviews with police last year, Taylor offered varying stories of the morning, according to court documents. SENTENCED: Man gets 26 years for scarring toddler with scalding bath water Taylor maintained in the first interview that she propped the baby in the living room to watch TV. She gave Kyrie a bath around 11 a.m. and noticed she was falling asleep, she said. As she dried the baby off with a towel, a piece of skin peeled off on both cheeks, she said in the interview. Taylor told investigators that she went to check on Vontre Jr. in a different room and returned to where shed placed Kyrie on her mothers bed. She said Kyrie didnt appear to be breathing, and she performed CPR for several minutes. Taylor then went to a neighbor to borrow a cell phone and call Randle, she said. In a second interview, Taylor told police that the day before the baby died, Kyrie fell on the floor from a short stack of pillows. She said the morning of the death, the baby also fell off the couch and onto the living room floor. Taylor said that the baby kept crying, and she shook her to keep her quiet, according to court documents. Taylor said the baby stopped responding around 11:47 a.m. The neighbor who let Taylor borrow his phone said that Taylor at first didn't make it seem like there was an emergency. He and Taylor went to the master bedroom and saw the baby on the bed. Taylor said she didnt know CPR, so the neighbor did CPR while the baby was ice cold, not breathing and appeared that she had been dead for some time, he told police. HORRIFYING: Texas man yells 'Jesus is coming' before stabbing toddler Medical examiners said that Kyrie had brain swelling and had suffered blunt force trauma to the head, investigators reported in court documents. She was also bruised below the skin on the back of her neck and inside her throat. Detectives interviewed Taylor a third time almost 10 months later. She said that Kyrie fell from her mothers bed while she was changing her diaper, around 8:30 a.m. She went to get diapers in the living room and came back to find the baby on the floor, Taylor told police. Taylor said she freaked out because she had never been around a dead person before and didnt know what to do, court documents show. She said she also dropped the baby on the kitchen floor earlier that morning while trying to get the 2-year-old some food. Kyries head hit the floor, but Taylor didnt see any injuries, she said. Taylor told investigators that I might have gotten angry but I did not hit her with anything, and she repeated several times I did not throw her. She said she was angry the baby wouldnt stop crying. HARRIS COUNTY: Toddler struck by hit-and-run driver The babysitter then admitted that she probably hit her head on the sink while giving Kyrie a bath, and that she might have gotten mad and shoved her back in the sink, according to court documents. She told investigators, that shes not saying Im not at fault for the baby dying, but why did it have to happen to me that day. Authorities said the baby died from soft tissue hemorrhaging on the inside of her scalp, and that her injuries came from impact with a solid object or surface, according to court documents. She also could have fallen asleep and died while giving a bath, however. Taylor did inflict injuries on the left and right side of Kyrie's cheeks after she died, police said in the documents. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences has not yet ruled on a cause and manner of the child's death. Houston ISDs top administrator responsible for overseeing transportation acknowledged this week that multiple mistakes under his leadership have contributed to widespread busing issues in the district, causing thousands of students to miss class time and arrive home later than expected during the first month of school. In an hour-long interview, HISD Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby said the districts poorly executed overhaul of its transportation routing system has been afflicted by cascading errors in recent months, ranging from ineffective planning to poor communication to technological glitches. Busby, who oversees several departments that employ about 7,000 people, pledged a back-to-basics approach to rectifying lingering busing complaints. Last week, he replaced the districts general manager of transportation with an 11-year veteran of HISD who started his district employment as a bus driver. This didnt get lost in the shuffle, said Busby, the districts second-highest paid employee at $221,000 per year. I just wasnt manning the ship as the chief operating officer. HISD officials overhauled the districts transportation map this summer, seeking to untangle a complex web of routes and reduce the amount of time spent on buses by many students. As part of the change, they established a hub system for magnet students, requiring them to travel to one of 46 pick-up and drop-off points across the district. Many magnet students previously were picked up closer to their homes. The district since has added two more hubs. The rollout of the new system, however, faltered from the first day of school in late August. Countless parents complained that children often arrived late to school, some students were not assigned bus routes, drivers were confused about their assignments and district staffers had few answers when contacted through a call center. On HoustonChronicle.com: HISD bus woes continue despite changes The full extent of the issue is not known HISDs new GPS tracking system for buses is not yet operational, meaning electronically tracked on-time data is not available but hundreds of parents and guardians swamped social media sites to express anger with the district. Busby said transportation leaders expected glitches during the first week of the rollout, but as issues persisted throughout the first month of classes, the full scope of gaffes came into view. So far, Busby said he has identified several miscues and shortcomings under his guidance: HISD officials had not been reliably tracking which students were eligible to ride buses. HISD officials told Transfinder, the company responsible for electronically engineering the new route map, that about 30,000 students were eligible to ride buses. In fact, about 47,000 students in HISD are bus-eligible. As a result, Transfinder maps dramatically underestimated demand for routes and included no routes in swaths of the city, particularly on the northeast and south sides. District leaders did not catch the oversight until weeks after Transfinder had generated route maps based on the 30,000-student estimate and families were notified about their pick-up and drop-off times in early August. Houston ISD trustees, families, principals and other stakeholders were not adequately consulted or notified about the changes, giving them virtually no opportunity to offer feedback. Many parents and guardians learned about the transportation overhaul weeks before the start of school. Busby said he should have told the HISD community about proposed changes in January and organized feedback meetings over a six-month period. The districts transportation team chose to roll out three major changes at one time: Transfinder, the new routing software; Zonar, the GPS bus monitoring system; and ZPass, an ID-card system that tracks when students enter and exit buses. Traditionally, districts will phase-in those three systems over the course of years, Busby said. None of the three systems were fully operational and reliable to start HISDs school year. Many HISD staffers in the districts routing and scheduling department, as well as then-Transportation Services General Manager Timothy Brown, are relatively new to the district, creating a dearth of institutional knowledge. As a result, employees did not notice red flags that could have triggered a faster response to the route mapping issues. The missteps resulted in children such as Verladyne Williamss 16-year-old son, Skylar, who travels from Houstons west side to Sterling High Schools aviation magnet program on the citys southeast side, spending up to five hours on a bus in a single day. Im realistic enough to know that if my kid goes to school 25 miles away, its going to take an hour. Even an hour and a half is reasonable, Williams said. But by the time he gets home, hes exhausted, hes hungry and hes still got two hours of homework to do. Related: HISD cuts magnet bus stops to shorten student commutes Busby, who has drawn plaudits for his management of HISDs facilities following Hurricane Harvey and the districts nearly $2-billion bond program, said he took responsibility for the errors. I look at this from a personal perspective: we are letting kids down, Busby said. If theyre getting to school late, theyre missing breakfast, which is a meal that some of them dont even get, period. So from that perspective, I took a pause and we made some leadership changes. The major change came when Busby removed Brown from his position and named John Wilcots IV, formerly a senior transportation manager, as the districts interim general manager of transportation services. Brown, who joined HISD in June 2017 from a private sector job at General Electic Power, now works in the districts logistics department. HISD officials declined to provide his role or title, calling it a personnel matter. Busby said he expects Wilcots will shift from a software approach to a common-sense approach. Wilcots said transportation officials continue to tweak the new routing map, often in consultation with bus drivers. He noted district leaders this week have met with transportation managers from Cy-Fair ISD, widely regarded for running a well-oiled busing system, and former HISD general manager of transportation Bonnie Russell, who spent 11 years in her role before retiring in 2010. We have gone back to pen and paper, to what are you, as a bus driver, seeing on this route, Wilcots said. The routing will constantly be evolving. My goal, as part of my leadership, is to make sure that, whatever the changes, they are not drastic and they will be communicated to the campuses, to the parents and to the community. Wilcots and multiple HISD officials also met Wednesday with about a dozen parents who repeatedly have contacted the district to express their anger about early pick-up times, long bus rides and late drop-off times. They included Laura Sanchez, whose 14-year-old son Alex has cerebral palsy and travels about 18 miles to T.H. Rogers School for its specialized Preparing Students for Independence program. Sanchez said Alex sometimes spends more than three hours each way on a bus, causing him to miss class in the morning and his 5 oclock medication in the early evening. If its like that for a student with special needs, I cant even imagine the magnet students, Sanchez said. It breaks my heart. It bothers me. It upsets me. Its like they have no compassion for these kids. Thats how I feel. Busby said HISD officials will continue to address concerns from parents such as Sanchez. The district, however, does not plan to ditch its magnet hub system or dramatically overhaul routes again, choosing instead to refine the current model in the coming weeks. Busby said the district, which has run about 850 to 900 routes in recent weeks, marked a month-long low of 57 late routes earlier this week. Its within our sight, Busby said. We have made headway on common-sense things. jacob.carpenter@chron.com A Harris County jury found a 38-year-old Houston man guilty of felony murder on Friday for causing a crash that left a 6-year-old boy dead just minutes after a hit-and-run that killed a homeless veteran on a Sunday afternoon in 2015. The verdict, after about three hours of deliberation, means Blaine Boudreax could face life in prison for killing a 6-year-old boy and a 61-year-old homeless military veteran as the punishment phase of the trial continues next week. Blaine Boudreaux is accused of causing four wrecks, two of which were fatal, on the afternoon of April 26, 2015. That man, in the space of 15 minutes, wiped out two human beings, said Sean Teare, chief of the district attorneys vehicular crimes unit, as he pointed to Boudreaux, who did not react to the verdict. Read more: A day of wrecks - Timeline Defense lawyers for Boudreaux tried to argue that the prosecutors did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Boudreaux was committing a hit- and-run when he ran a stoplight and caused the wreck that killed 6-year-old Joshua Medrano. Its devastating that the Medrano family has had to go though this pain, said attorney Matt Deluca, who is defending Boudreaux with attorney Billy Skinner. Im not asking you to discount their pain. Im just asking you to consider what Mr. Boudreaux is charged with here today. This is not a felony murder case. Investigators said he first rear-ended a mother and her daughter on Fannin near the Texas Medical Center about 3 p.m. and was given a traffic ticket by a Houston police officer. About an hour later, he rear-ended a man in a smart car at Weslayan and Westpark. Within 20 minutes of that, Boudreaux allegedly caused two more crashes, both of which were fatal. He is accused of driving his black Dodge Ram pickup to Spur 5, near the University of Houston, where he ran over 61-year-old homeless military veteran Leonard Batiste. Read more: Trial of man accused of two fatal wrecks in one day opens Fleeing that crash, prosecutors said, Boudreaux ran a stoplight at Lockwood and Interstate 10, colliding with a Honda Civic and killing Medrano. Boudreaux told police he was going 55 mph while witnesses estimated that he was going 60 mph, double the speed limit on that road. He was arrested for intoxication manslaughter, accused of driving while under the influence of prescription medication. There was little testimony about intoxication. Instead, prosecutors sought a conviction on felony murder, alleging that Boudreaux killed someone while committing the felony of failure to stop and render aid, or hit and run. This defendant killed Joshua Medrano because he was fleeing a horrible wreck that he had just caused, prosecutor Lynn Nguyen said in closing arguments. He had just left his license plate at Spur 5 where he killed Leonard Batiste. Boudreaux now faces the possibility of life in prison. Punishment for an intoxication manslaughter conviction would have been capped at 20 years in prison. The trial, in state District Judge Robert Johnsons court, began Monday. brian.rogers@chron.com Twitter.com/brianjrogers Kavanaugh and Bush in 2006. Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images With Brett Kavanaughs confirmation vote just days away, a big-name supporter of the embattled judge has been making calls to senators who havent yet decided if theyll vote for him. George W. Bush, the Washington Post reports, has reached out in recent days to Republican senators Susan Collins, Jeff Flake, and Lisa Murkowski, along with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. The group of four is seen as the key to Kavanaughs confirmation; without their votes, he will fail to land a seat on the Supreme Court. The Post suggests that Bush has entered the fray, at least in part, because these undecided senators are less likely to be swayed by President Trump, who hasnt made very good friends with any of them. And while that may be whats driving Bushs most recent attempt to win support for Kavanaugh, its not the whole reason hes involved. Bush and Kavanaugh go way back. In 2000, the judge worked for Bush during the Florida recount. In 2003, he nominated Kavanaugh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. That nomination was held up for three years, during which time Kavanaugh served as White House Staff Secretary. In the summer of 2006, Kavanaugh finally made it onto the court. When President Trump tapped Kavanaugh to join the Supreme Court in July, Bush came out in full support. He is a fine husband, father, and friend and a man of the highest integrity. He will make a superb Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Bush said. Two months later, after the judge was accused of attempted rape, Bush reaffirmed his support. Rep. Beto O'Rourke has more than a fighting chance versus Sen. Ted Cruz in the upcoming Senate race thanks to an energized Democratic base, a new statistical model shows. According to FiveThirtyEight chief Nate Silver, while Cruz is narrowly ahead in the polls, O'Rourke has good fundamentals going for him, namely better fundraising and a strong generic congressional ballot indicating a "blue national environment." "Our model thinks that Texas 'should' be a competitive race and believes the close polling there is no fluke," wrote Silver. To arrive at their conclusion, FiveThirtyEight's statistical model examined factors that traditionally give candidates an edge over their opponents, what Silver calls "fundamentals." For example, the fact that Cruz is an incumbent gives him a bump. Likewise, Texas' history of Republican-leaning voters also gives Cruz a boost in the model. STRATEGY: Texas GOP looks to ride out 'blue wave,' with help from straight-ticket voters But O'Rourke has other fundamentals that help his chances in the race, too. A generic congressional ballot (a poll asking people which party they would generally support in an any given election) shows Democrats leading by an average of 8.4 percentage point something pundits and pollsters regularly refer to as the "blue wave." Additionally, O'Rourke's sizable lead in fundraising over Cruz, a $9.6 million difference by the latest count, also makes Cruz's innate advantages less threatening. That being said, fundamentals are no crystal ball. According to Silver, they don't really forecast a race as much as they help explain why a contest is a nail-biter. "...the fundamentals help explain why it isn't necessarily a surprise that the polling shows a close race in Texas or that O'Rourke has gradually been gaining ground," Silver concluded. "At the moment, Cruz leads in our adjusted polling average by 3.8 percentage points; adding in the fundamentals pushes the forecasted margin to 3.3 points, a close race." YEAR OF THE WOMAN? How Texas women can gain political clout in 2018 after a 20-year slump Fernando Ramirez covers Texas news and politics. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93 AUSTIN Viewers can watch Republican Gov. Greg Abbott debate Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez on television or online. The pairs only scheduled debate begins Friday at 7 p.m. and will last one hour. It will air in San Antonio on KSAT-TV (ABC) and KVDA-TV (Telemundo). In Houston, it will air on on KPRC-TV (NBC) and KTMD-TV (Telemundo), according to a release by Nexstar Media Group Inc. The debate will also be livestreamed online. President Donald Trump on Friday signed legislation giving NASA temporary funding life as Congress continues to hash out the details of the space agency's budget for the coming fiscal year. His signature on the continuing resolution which will last until Friday, Dec. 7 came just two days before funding for NASA and other federal programs was scheduled to expire at midnight on Sunday. (A continuing resolution temporarily funds government agencies for a short amount of time, when necessary.) With Trump's signature, the feds have averted a government shutdown, at least for now. Funding for some programs such as the military, education and health was extended until Sept. 30, 2019. Others, like NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, was extended until December. Megan Powers, spokeswoman for NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., told Politico that all planned programs will continue operations under the resolution for now. Powers could not immediately be reached for comment by the Houston Chronicle on Friday. Trump's $19.9 billion proposed budget for the next fiscal year tasks NASA with launching an uncrewed Orion flight by 2021, followed by a launch of Americans around the moon in 2023. It also would set aside $504.2 million in the coming year to begin working on the foundation on a $2.7 billion Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway basically a mini-space station orbiting the moon where astronauts could live and work. It also would transition operations on the International Space Station to commercial companies by 2025, meaning the orbiting laboratory would stop receiving federal funding. This plan, however, has received a lot of backlash from Congress members, who have sponsored measures to extend the space station's life and funding levels to 2030. In a Wednesday news release, U.S. House of Representatives officials said Congress has approved 75 percent of all funding ahead of the fiscal year's end on Sept. 30 "a critical step in returning to the regular federal funding process, and an achievement that has not occurred in over two decades." Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. President Donald Trump has not finalized plans to come to Texas to campaign for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in October, but one of his sons is coming to the Lone Star State to chip in. Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to attend a rally in Wichita Falls at 3:15 p.m. on Oct. 3 with Cruz and former Fox News Channel personality Kimberly Guilfoyle. Later Trump Jr. will travel to Conroe for a second event with Cruz starting at 8:30 p.m. Trump Jr. has been touring the nation with a stark message to Republicans about his fathers agenda being in jeopardy if Republicans lose big during the midterm elections. In Montana earlier this week, the Helena Independent Record reported that Trump Jr. said if Democrats win the majority in the House and Senate, nothing gets done in D.C. because obstructionist Democrats You have to realize that Donald Trump is on the ticket in six weeks, Trump Jr. said in a state where Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, is facing a stiff challenge from Republican Matt Rosendale. Trump Jr. has also made stops in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Dakota and Louisiana recently. Cruz has repeatedly told supporters at rallies that while he and President Trump have had their ups and downs, he welcomes the Trump family support in Texas. The events with Trump Jr. come just a week after Ivanka Trump, the presidents daughter, was in Houston for a tour of NASA with Cruz, among others. The Wichita Falls event with Trump Jr. is planned for Wichita Falls MPEC, 1000 5th St., Wichita Falls. At 8:30 p.m., Cruz and Trump Jr. will be at The Lone Star - San Jacinto Room, 9055 Airport Rd., Conroe. President Trump meanwhile has already declared he will campaign with Cruz sometime in October. Trump has said he is looking for the biggest stadium in Texas because he expects such a large event. To attend either event, visit https://www.tedcruz.org/ A Sunday debate between U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke has been postponed. Because of committee meetings and votes related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the Cruz campaign notified debate organizers that Cruz will remain in Washington, D.C. and will not be able to attend Sunday's debate at the University of Houston. ON THE TRAIL: Where Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke will be campaigning this weekend The University of Houston, Univision and ABC-13 in Houston all said they are working with the campaigns to reschedule the event. FIRST DEBATE: In this knife fight, Cruz drew more blood Cruz and O'Rourke debated Sept. 21 in Dallas and are scheduled to debate again on Oct. 16 in San Antonio in a television studio. Jeremy.Wallace@chron.com Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, September 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill. Photo: Melina Mara/Getty Images Yesterday was a spectacle I hope we do not have to experience again. We watched two human beings, Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh, exposed in the rawest possible fashion to the entire world, over the gravest of accusations, with no definitive evidence apart from personal testimony to draw on, 36 years after an alleged crime took place. It was a grotesque political drama, in which everyone lost. Both Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh have been traumatized and ill-served by the process. At the all-day Senate hearing, there was no real sifting of evidence about her allegation that he sexually assaulted her, because nothing but memories were on the table. (We still dont even know when or where the alleged attack happened.) Other witnesses were not called to testify, which they obviously should have been, if only to say (as they all have) that they had no memory of the event. So we were left to judge the credibility of two individuals, who both said they were 100 percent certain. Christine Blasey Ford was not just credible, her account of her assault and trauma was deeply affecting. She was understandably anxious in such a setting, but kept her shit together, made her case poignantly and calmly her moments of humor, her need for caffeine, her hair framing her glasses like wisteria were all thoroughly human. In her dignity and restraint and precision, she helped me and Im sure many others better understand what sexual trauma is. I do not believe she was making anything up. She has no reason to; she tried to avoid this; she wanted to keep this private; but she wanted, as a civic duty, to pass this along to the relevant authorities. I still dont understand why Senator Feinstein didnt immediately forward her letter to the FBI, whose job it is to do a background check on Kavanaugh, while keeping strict confidentiality in the process. Such a referral need not have outed Ford. It could have allowed for a proper investigation, and an airing of all this in a private session. I understand Republican suspicions of the way this turned out. But once this all had happened, it should still have been perfectly reasonable to have a full FBI investigation, followed by a private hearing for senators to assess the facts of her allegation. The Republicans have no answer to why they wont do that, and neither did Kavanaugh. Thats a huge mark against them, it seems to me. Just a week is all we would need. And if Kavanaugh is as innocent as he claims, an FBI inquiry would surely help him clear his name. Besides, theres no rush, no mandatory deadline. The current Senate will be the same through next January. Im not sure we would learn anything new from an FBI process that we dont know already, but more scrutiny is never a bad thing. Maybe something would turn up. Which brings me to Kavanaughs testimony, which was spellbinding in a different way. He behaved, it seemed to me, exactly as an innocent man would behave if accused of a crime in his teenage years especially a crime that was unveiled by his political opponents at the very last moment. It was one that he could not possibly refute (no one can prove a negative) and it catalyzed a media frenzy multiple gang rapes! that continues to get more extreme every day. Theres a reason we have statutes of limitation. When alleged crimes happened decades ago, proof is very hard, and allegations much easier. And when the alleged perpetrator was also a minor, were in a very weird and difficult place. As the afternoon went on, I found my mood swinging back to Kavanaughs defense. At first, I was shocked by what seemed to me to be his shouting and belligerence. But then he drew me in. Of course he was angry. Wouldnt you be if you were innocent or had no idea where this allegation suddenly came from? He wasnt being accused of sexual harassment, or sexual abuse as an adult in a way he could have refuted or challenged. His long-lost teenage years as a hard-drinking jock were now under the microscope. Even his yearbook was being dissected. Stupid cruelties and brags from teenage boys were now being used to define his character, dismiss his record as a judge, his sterling references, his respected scholarship, his devoted family, his relationship with women in every capacity. He had to fend off new accusations, ever more grave and ever more vague. And there were times, it seems to me, that he simply couldnt win. If he hadnt hired and mentored many women, it would be proof he was a misogynist and rapist. But the fact that he did hire and mentor many of them was also proof he was a misogynist and a rapist, who only picked the pretty ones. If he hadnt shown anger, he would have been obviously inhuman. When he did express rage well, that was a disqualifying temperament for a judge. It didnt help that the Democrats made no pretense of having an open mind, or that any glimpse at mainstream media let alone media Twitter revealed that it had already picked a side. This was, for the major papers, especially the New York Times, a righteous battle against another white straight male, and the smug, snarky virtue-signaling on Twitter was in overdrive. Even Kavanaughs choking-up was mocked just another contemptible bro-crier. And so when Lindsey Graham suddenly unloaded on the Democrats, I felt a wave of euphoria. Yes, I said to myself. Go get em, Butters! When Senator Blumenthal got all self-righteous about a single lie destroying someones credibility, I actually LOL-ed. Then I remembered all those op-eds and essays that decided to judge one moment in one mans teens as somehow deeply revealing about white privilege, toxic masculinity, white supremacy, toxic homosociality, bro culture, alcoholism, patriarchy you name it, Kavanaugh was suddenly its foul epitome. He was an instant symbol of all the groups of people the left now hates, by virtue of their race or gender or orientation. And maybe he is. But did any of that necessarily make him guilty of anything, except by association? At lunchtime, I thought he should withdraw. Ford was unforgettable, dispositive. But then the afternoon had me drifting back toward the Republicans. I doubt I am alone in this, just as I doubt my liberal friends understand how deeply theyve alienated so many with their reflexive prejudices. By dinnertime, I felt like Id vote for him, if I were a senator because I found the Democrats so nauseatingly priggish. Then I remembered I was against the Kavanaugh nomination for other reasons entirely: especially because of his deference to presidential power when we face a president who would dearly like to blow a giant hole in the rule of law. And since I couldnt in good faith choose between Ford and Kavanaugh about something that allegedly happened 36 years ago, I simply decided to put this accusation in a box. Ill make a judgment on what I can know, not on what I cannot possibly judge. But I will say this. To the extent that the hearing went beyond the specifics of Fords allegations and sought to humiliate and discredit Kavanaugh for who he was as a teenager nearly four decades ago (a dynamic that was quite pronounced in some Democratic questioning of the nominee), it was deeply concerning. When public life means the ransacking of peoples private lives even when they were in high school, we are circling a deeply illiberal drain. A civilized society observes a distinction between public and private, and this distinction is integral to individual freedom. Such a distinction was anathema in old-school monarchies when the king could arbitrarily arrest, jail, or execute you at will, for private behavior or thoughts. These lines are also blurred in authoritarian regimes, where the power of the government knows few limits in monitoring a persons home or private affairs or correspondence or tax returns or texts. These boundaries definitionally cant exist in theocracies, where the state is interested as much in punishing and exposing sin, as in preventing crime. The Iranian and Saudi governments like the early modern monarchies seek not only to control your body, but also to look into your soul. They know that everyone has a dark side, and this dark side can be exposed in order to destroy people. All you need is an accusation. The Founders were obsessed with this. They realized how precious privacy is, how it protects you not just from the government but from your neighbors and your peers. They carved out a private space that was sacrosanct and a public space which insisted on a strict presumption of innocence, until a speedy and fair trial. Whether you were a good husband or son or wife or daughter, whether you had a temper, or could be cruel, or had various sexual fantasies, whether you were a believer, or a sinner: this kind of thing was rendered off-limits in the public world. The family, the home, and the bedroom were, yes, safe places. If everything were fair game in public life, the logic ran, none of us would survive. And it is the distinguishing mark of specifically totalitarian societies that this safety is eradicated altogether by design. There, the private is always emphatically public, everything is political, and ideology trumps love, family, friendship or any refuge from the glare of the party and its public. Spies are everywhere, monitoring the slightest of offenses. Friends betray you, as do lovers. Family members denounce their own mothers and fathers and siblings and sons and daughters. The cause, which is usually a permanently revolutionary one, always matters more than any individuals possible innocence. You are, in fact, always guilty before being proven innocent. You always have to prove a negative. And no offense at any point in your life is ever forgotten or off the table. Perhaps gay people are particularly sensitive to this danger, because our private lives have long been the target of moral absolutists, and we have learned to be vigilant about moral or sex panics. For much of history, a mere accusation could destroy a gay persons life or career, and this power to expose private behavior for political purposes is immense. Im not equating an accusation of attempted rape in the distant past with sodomy. I am noting a more general accusatory dynamic that surrounded Fords specific allegation. This is particularly dangerous when there are no editors or gatekeepers in the media to prevent any accusation about someones private life being aired, when economic incentives online favor outrageous charges, and when journalists have begun to see themselves as vanguards of a cultural revolution, rather than skeptics of everything. And for what its worth, Im not sure we have any idea how the politics of this will play out. Both political parties may be pursuing pyrrhic victories. If the GOP manages to muscle Kavanaugh onto the court, it may galvanize the Democratic base to such an extent it will create a blue tsunami in November. It could poison the Republican brand for women even more than it is already. But if this nomination falters, Kavanaugh will be a clarion call for Republicans to turn out. It could help them in November. And if Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett as a replacement in the lame duck session of the Senate, another attempt at character assassination will be a very risky option for the Democrats, as would be attacks on Barretts religious faith. So on the substance of the Courts future, it seems to me that the Democrats have ensured this past week that if Kavanaugh is confirmed, they will have created an embittered foe in the Thomas mold. And if they end up with Barrett, they will have have someone on the Court more certain to strike down Roe than Kavanaugh. See you next Friday. Nearly a month after a police report surfaced on his 1998 arrest for driving while intoxicated, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Beto ORourke fielded a follow-up question during his Sept. 21 debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Gromer Jeffers of the Dallas Morning News said to ORourke: You have addressed your 1998 DWI arrest numerous times during your public career. But not this question: As the Houston Chronicle pointed out recently, a witness said in that accident that you tried to leave the scene of the accident. Did you? And should voters be concerned about this incident? ORourke replied: I did not try to leave the scene of the accident though driving drunk, which I did, is a terrible mistake for which there is no excuse or justification or defense and I will not try to provide one. I can only tell you that I was able to have a second chance in my life. Readers asked us if ORourke tried to leave the scene of his accident and arrest. Houston Chronicle news story cites police report The Chronicle, in an Aug. 30, 2018, news story, said a police report shows that the incident was a more serious threat to public safety than previously reported. According to the police report, ORourke was driving drunk at what a witness called a high rate of speed in a 75 mph zone on Interstate 10 about a mile east of the New Mexico border. He lost control and hit a truck, sending his car careening across the center median. The story said that the witness, described as stopping at the scene, later told police that ORourke had tried to leave the scene: ORourke then attempted to leave the scene but was stopped by the same motorist he had just passed. The unidentified motorist then turned on his overhead lights to warn oncoming traffic and to try to get the defendant (ORourke) to stop, the report says. The story says that ORourke recorded a 0.136 and 0.134 on police breathalyzers, above a blood-alcohol level of 0.10, the state legal limit at the time. He was arrested at the scene, the story said, and charged with DWI, but completed a court-approved diversion program and had the charges dismissed, post-arrest developments we confirmed for a previous fact-check confirming the September 1998 arrest and a previous one, when ORourke was a college student, for getting past a fence to enter the University of Texas at El Paso campus in the wee hours. Police agency confirms reports authenticity By email, we asked the Anthony Police Department to review the 12-page partially-redacted police report posted next to the Chronicle story. In response, a department officer, Linda Hartt-Goggin, said the posted report appears to be a true redacted copy of the original report. Hartt-Goggin said by phone she couldnt find the departments report on the accident itself. She speculated that it was lost when a room was flooded. According to APD Investigator Richard Carreras report, filed three days after the accident, ORourke said after his 3 a.m. arrest that hed been driving to Los Alamos in New Mexico. The officers report says that he met at the scene with a witness who Carrera referred to as the reporter and his partner, the driver of the American Medical ambulance. By phone, Hartt-Goggin told us the ambulance company serves private clients out of Las Cruces, NM. The report says that when the officer engaged ORourke in conversation, he wasnt understandable due to slurred speech. The report says the officer asked ORourke to step out of the vehicle and upon doing so the defendant almost fell to the floor, the report says. Separately, the Austin American-Statesman asked the Texas Department of Public Safety for agency reports on file about the incident. M.L. Calcote said in a September 2018 letter sent by email that the agency didnt have responsive records. ORourke stands by debate statement We asked ORourkes campaign about the witness telling Carrera that ORourke tried to leave the accident scene. By email, Chris Evans said ORourke stands by what he said at the debate about not trying to leave. Evans noted that the police report shows he was arrested for a DWI, not for leaving or attempting to leave the scene. Our ruling ORourke said he didnt try to leave the scene of his 1998 DWI accident and arrest. Records indicate ORourke was arrested at the scene and wasnt charged with trying to flee. But the September 1998 Anthony Police Department report on the incident says a witness said ORourke tried to leave the scene before police arrived and the witness kept him from doing so. We rate this claim Mostly False: The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Anita Hill chastised the Senate Judiciary Committee for wanting to rush its vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and it wasn't the only thing she had to say Friday during her hour-long remarks at the Grace Hopper Celebration in Houston. "What I saw was them more concerned about their processes and their structure and their schedule than the human element of what was going on and what happened," she said. Hill, a noted lawyer, professor and a survivor of her own Senate Judicial Committee hearing during the Clarence Thomas confirmation fight 27 years ago, shared quite a few thoughts to a packed audience of women technologists. She received standing ovations and boisterous applause at the Marriott Marquis. She praised Christine Blasey Ford, who testified Thursday that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were teenagers, for being open about her nerves and unease in reliving this trauma in front of U.S. senators. RELATED: GOP agrees to FBI probe of Kavanaugh, delaying Senate vote She noted that Blasey Ford remained relatively calm while Kavanaugh expressed anger and then shed a few tears. "The power that he had and the license that he had," Hill said, "that, today, we still don't allow women either to be emotional and to cry or to be angry." A lot has changed since 1991 when Hill testified before an all-white-male committee about how then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Thomas had sexually harassed her when she worked under his supervision. An entire generation has since gone through gender studies courses, she said, and journalists are more sensitive to the hearing's dynamics. The #MeToo movement, most recently, has shed light on sexual harassment, assault and violence. It has brought people together and created a community. "I think the public understanding is going to definitely be elevated to what you might have seen and read in 1991," Hill said. Still, on Friday morning, Hill said she assumed Kavanaugh would be confirmed, just as Thomas now sits on the Supreme Court. RELATED: 'Me Too' the 'end of the beginning' of a movement The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate. GOP leaders also agreed to ask for an FBI investigation as long as it wraps up by Friday. The full Senate vote could happen after then. "He will be confirmed," Hill said, "and it will take the Supreme Court in a very, very conservative direction that will impact the work of diversity inclusion that all of us are doing." With little hope that legislators will fill the void, Hill called upon businesses to step up and create a workplace that's safe and enables employees to thrive and enjoy their jobs. "Corporations must understand that the value comes from their workers," Hill said. "Nothing that happens, to contribute to the increase in their net value or the money that CEOs get, happens without workers." The Grace Hopper Celebration, an annual gathering of women in technology, provided an apt forum. Last year, more than 18,000 people representing 1,300 organizations 722 from corporate America attended. Many in the audience noted the serendipitous timing of Hill's presentation. "I feel empowered," said Apoorva Govind, a software engineer in San Francisco, after hearing Hill's remarks. "I don't feel as hopeless as after yesterday's news." Nikole Phillips, a data analytics professional in Austin, had registered for Hill's session well before the recent news cycle. She remembers watching her testimony as a teenager and recalled how Hill kept pushing forward despite the "venom and attacks." "I always admired the fact that she carried herself with such grace, dignity and class," she said. Phillips enjoyed being in a room of women equally enthralled by Hill, the youngest of 13 children from a farm in rural Oklahoma. Hill received her law degree from Yale Law School in 1980. She began her career in private practice in Washington, D.C., and she worked at the U.S. Education Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 1989, Hill became the first African-American to be tenured at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. After her testimony in 1991, and Thomas being named to the U.S. Supreme Court, Hill is often credited for helping spur the "year of the woman." There was a surge in the number of women elected as U.S. senators in 1992. Hill joined the law firm Cohen Milstein in 2011. As counsel and a member of the firm's Civil Rights & Employment Practice Group, she advises on class-action workplace discrimination cases. RELATED: Thousands of women celebrate their role in tech at Houston gathering Phillips said she was inspired by how Hill used her experience with the law, sexual harassment and Senate testimony to help the next generation even if there is still work to be done. "Then and now, we still see the same thing," Phillips said. "It's saddening but, at the same time, it shows us what we still need to do to press forward." Hill ended her conversation with a question on how members of the audience would respond if Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Would they throw up their hands and give up? "That's a natural response," Hill said. "I had a choice to make 27 years ago. And I can tell you I wanted to do nothing more than to retreat back to my normal life, leave all of that behind and say nasty things about the U.S. Senate." She admitted to saying nasty things about the Senate but she did not retreat. "You have a choice," she told the audience. "You may not have a choice about what they do, but you do have a choice about what you do." International migration accounted for 82 per cent of population growth between April 1 and July 1 International migration to Canada reached record levels in second quarter of 2018 International migration to Canada reached record levels in second quarter of 2018 International migration accounted for 82 per cent of population growth between April 1 and July 1 International migration to Canada reached record levels in second quarter of 2018 International migration accounted for 82 per cent of population growth between April 1 and July 1 International migration to Canada reached record levels in second quarter of 2018 International migration accounted for 82 per cent of population growth between April 1 and July 1 Stephen Smith Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A International migration to Canada reached an unprecedented level between April 1 and July 1, 2018, driving an overall population increase that was the second largest recorded for a three-month period since 1971. Canadas population grew by 168,687 in the second quarter of 2018, of which 82 per cent, or 138,978, was attributed to international migration. Statistics Canada says this level of international migration was never before seen for any quarter. International migratory increase was the main driver of Canadas population growth during the second quarter of 2018 both nationally and at the provincial level, Statistics Canada says. International migratory increase is calculated by adding the number of immigrants, returning emigrants and net non-permanent residents arriving in Canada and then subtracting net temporary emigration and emigrants departing Canada. At the national level, Canada welcomed 87,661 new immigrants during the quarter, the second most for a three-month period since the study period began in 1971. The number of non-permanent residents increased by 60,446 during the quarter, which Statistics Canada said was significantly higher than those observed in recent years. It attributed the increase primarily to a rise in the number of work permit holders, followed by study permit holders and refugee claimants. This unprecedented level of international migration for a quarter helped offset what Statistics Canada said was a record number of deaths for a three-month period (67,997). Overall, Canadas estimated natural population increase (births minus deaths) of 29,709 was the third lowest for a second quarter. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick actually experienced a natural decrease in population (more deaths than births), which was off-set by the number of international migrants who arrived in the provinces. Statistics Canada said international migratory increase was the main driver of population growth in most Canadian provinces and the Yukon Territory between April 1 and July 1. Other than Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Statistics Canada said international migratory increase either peaked or has rarely been this high in the remaining provinces and the Yukon Territory. Quebec experienced a gain of 19,506 non-permanent residents, the most ever recorded over a three-month period. Ontario and British Columbia also recorded unprecedented increases in the number of non-permanent residents for a second quarter (28,329 and 8,189). Under its Multi-Year Levels Immigration Plan, Canada is expecting to welcome nearly one million new immigrants between 2018 and 2020. Under the plan, 310,000 new permanent residents will settle in Canada in 2018. This target will be increased to 330,000 newcomers in 2019, with a further 340,000 to settle in 2020. To find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs, fill out a free assessment. 2018 CICNews All Rights Reserved Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, September 27, 2018. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images Forget about the sexual-assault charge for a moment. Suppose another Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, say had appeared before the Senate and delivered a snarling, unhinged partisan rant, like Brett Kavanaugh did on Thursday. Suppose Kagan had charged The behavior of several of the Republican members of this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment, and then proceeded to accuse Republicans, without any evidence, of having concocted an elaborate partisan plot. At that moment, that justices confirmation would at minimum face severe peril, and probably be completely dead. Bear in mind that the central theme of every judicial confirmation has been a promise in one form or another to apply the law dispassionately, to call balls and strikes. Candidates who had a political background, like Kagan or Kavanaugh, faced stricter scrutiny and traditionally had to make more fulsome assurances that they had put politics behind them for good. Yet the display that ought to have been a disqualification somehow became a qualification. After his prospects suffered apparently fatal damage by Christine Blasey Fords highly credible charge of attempted rape, Kavanaughs show of raw partisan animosity thrilled his patrons. Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him, exulted President Trump. This was why he nominated him from the beginning, Kellyanne Conway told Gabriel Sherman. Fox & Friends triumphantly and accurately praised Kavanaughs very Trumpian speech. The Fox & Friends crew is extremely excited about Kavanaugh's "very Trumpian" speech. pic.twitter.com/r5xtVvJLE2 Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) September 28, 2018 But it was not just the Trumpiest wings of the party that delighted in their prospective Trumpy justice. Kavanaugh delighted even some of the most Trump-skeptical members of the conservative movement. This column by David French, a generally anti-Trump conservative, explains how Kavanaugh rallied even #NeverTrump conservatives by activating their raw partisan resentment. When Brett Kavanaugh spoke with great emotion not just about the sexual-assault allegations against him but also the broader character attacks made against him by Democrats, he voiced the emotion of honorable conservatives across the nation, argues French. His column is an anthropologically valuable document of the psychological mechanisms that hold the movement together. It is a simple fact that time and again good conservative men and women have been subjected to horrific smears for the sin of disagreement, he argued. This was the moment when a member of the establishment, the person who is supposed to sit quietly, respond mildly, and understand the pain of their opponents without voicing their own anguish, to absorb anger without showing anger, finally said enough. It was Kavanaughs very willingness to chuck aside the entire convention of judicial dispassion, and present himself as an enraged partisan standing shoulder to shoulder with every conservative who has been called something mean by a snotty college student, that convinced his party to close ranks behind him. By deftly channeling their shared grievances against the left, Kavanaugh gave conservatives a way to overlook all the facts that had troubled them before: The curious gap in his calendar of 1982, which appeared to show a gathering that lined up with Fords own account. (Read Philip Bumps excavation of this key unexplored detail.) Or the many implausible explanations Kavanaugh gave of his yearbook, which he might have truthfully explained as caddish youthful boasts, but instead explained away with his implausible choirboy cover story. It was all ignored because he was a Republican under siege from the left. Kavanaughs speech was truly Trumpian, in a way that revealed how Trump tapped so deeply into the conservative soul. He dispensed with any pretense of law as a neutral value. Everything was reduced to power and motive. He invoked his own work to impeach Bill Clinton (on a sprawling investigation that began as a probe of an old land deal), and managed not to find any case for self-reflection in this episode at all. Instead he mentioned it to show that Democrats were vile liars bent on destroying their prey. And the notion that Democrats have hatched secret plots to undermine the legitimate government as revenge for the Clintons a central theme of Trumps rhetoric formed the spine of Kavanaughs case. Perhaps the most chilling line in Kavanaughs speech was, what goes around, comes around. He did not say it with any evident sadness, nor did he renounce it as a value. Here was a man apparently threatening revenge on his political enemies, and asking for a lifetime appointment with supreme power of judicial review with which to do it. Kavanaughs promise to conservatives vis-a-vis the law is Trumps promise vis-a-vis the presidency: he will protect us against them. A vote for Kavanaugh is a vote to Trumpify the Supreme Court. On Thursday, American eyes were fixated on a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Christine Blasey Ford gave a heartfelt accounting of what she recalled as an attempted sexual assault in the summer of 1982. Judge Brett Kavanaugh defended himself from her charges, attacking not his accuser but the political forces allied against him, in a presentation intermittently angry and tearful. Both witnesses struck me as credibly relaying their recollections. But people are generally bad at reading the reactions of others, and I have enough knowledge about the shakiness of memories, including traumatic memories, to have less than full confidence that we can ever know what did or didnt happen that summer in Bethesda, Maryland. I do, however, have confidence in three things. First, the proceedings are unlikely to change peoples minds. As New York University psychologist Jonathan Haidt described in his 2012 book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion, most people make intuitive, emotional decisions and reason backward to support their presuppositions. An NPR/PBS/Marist poll conducted last Saturday through Monday showed that almost two-thirds of Americans had an opinion about whether Fords allegations were truea remarkably high proportion. Ones political affiliation was overwhelmingly associated with ones view of the facts: 92 percent of Republicans expressing an opinion believed Kavanaugh, and 88 percent of Democrats believed Ford. During the testimony itself, my social-media feedwith a healthy dispersion of opinions across the political spectrumalmost universally suggested a similar level of confident interpretations, replete with confirmation bias. Second, the senators on both sides of the circus-like proceedings are behaving in nakedly political fashion. The farcical nature of the Judiciary Committee proceedings hardly began with Fords allegation but stretched through the earlier hearings on Kavanaughs confirmation, when hundreds of leftist hecklers disrupted the committees business. It was shortly after Kavanaughs nomination that Senator Cory Booker announced that those supporting his appointment were complicit in evil. And it was during those earlier hearings that Senator Booker buffoonishly compared himself with Kirk Douglass Spartacus character in purporting to defy Senate rules by releasing already-cleared, anodyne emails from Kavanaughs days in the Bush White House. That said, nobody in the Senate comes off looking worse in my estimation than Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who sat on Fords complaint for more than six weeks before turning it over to the FBI on the eve of a scheduled committee vote. The GOPs chosen special interlocutor, sexual-assault prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, generally treated Ford with kid gloves, but she clearly established the role that the Judiciary Committees senior Democrat played in setting up Ford with attorneys and holding the allegation until the eleventh hour. Anyone remotely concerned with fair play and the sensitivities of a sympathetic witness is bound to understand Senator Lindsey Grahams fierce disapprobation, even if minority Democrats remain understandably piqued by the Republican majoritys refusal to act on President Obamas last nominee for the same Court. Third, beyond the #MeToo sensitivities to male sexual misbehaviorfrom boorish and inappropriate to predatory and criminalthe intense divisions on display are a function of the oversize importance of the Supreme Court in modern American politics. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist Papers #78, famously dubbed the judiciary the least dangerous branch, noting that the judiciary may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment. In the early years of the republic, justices often stepped down from the Court; James Madison had trouble even filling a Supreme Court vacancy during his presidency. (Thomas Jeffersons former attorney general Levi Lincoln and future president John Quincy Adams each turned the appointment down after Senate confirmation.) But today, the Supreme Court stands as the ultimate arbiter of many of our most divisive political disputesfrom abortion to same-sex marriage to race-based affirmative action to spending in political campaigns to gun regulations. Republicans and Democrats significantly differ on how they interpret the Constitution and when they think that it should be invoked to override legislative majorities. The power of the Court and the lifetime tenures given justices in the Constitution make the stakes among the highest in the political sphere. So, neither Dr. Ford nor Judge Kavanaugh has been treated with appropriate dignity and respect. And neither partys legislative leaders are interested in truth; its power with which theyre concerned. But with Congress having long since abdicated its constitutional role to both the judiciary and the executive branch, the federal governments neutered legislators have little left to do but preen for the cameras. The nominee and his accuser are but pawns in that big game, and our constitutional republic suffers. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images As the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Senate floor, it seems that Democrats and left-wing pundits may very well (thanks to Arizona Senator Jeff Flake) get what theyve been asking for: an investigation by the FBI into the accusations of sexual assault against the nominee. But recent history casts doubt on whether a finding in Kavanaughs favor would make a difference in the minds of Democrats who decidedlong before there was any mention of the allegationthat Kavanaugh was unfit to serve on the Supreme Court. Yesterday, Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Kamala Harris of California explicitly said that they believed the accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, and the rest of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee made pretty clear that they did, too. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made clear within minutes of Kavanaughs nomination in July that the Democrats would oppose him. So what would an FBI investigation change? An FBI finding in Kavanaughs favor will not open Senate Democrats up to his ideas on originalism and Chevron deference. Yet, the Judiciary Committee Democrats insist that the cloud could be lifted, if only Kavanaugh joined them in calling for an FBI investigation. And theyve talked Senator Flake into believing them. However, Senate Democrats would almost surely ignore or dismiss any exculpatory conclusions drawn by the FBI. We know this because it has happened before. When then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas sat before the same committee, accused of sexual harassment, then-Senator Joe Biden told the world what he thought about the FBIs report of its investigation into Thomas: The next person who refers to an FBI report as being worth anything obviously doesnt understand anything. FBI explicitly does not, in this case or any other case, reach a conclusion, period. Period . . . They say, he said, she said and they said, period . . . So when people wave an FBI report before you, understand they do notthey do not, they do notreach conclusions. They do not make, as my friend points out more accurately, they do not make recommendations. But thats not the only time that the Left has shown indifference to the conclusions of investigations undertaken by the Department of Justice, when those findings conflict with its political agenda. Last night, I attended a panel discussion at a pop-up Museum of Broken Windows in Manhattan. During the discussion, one of the panelists pointed to the decision not to charge then-officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, as indicative of the systemic bias and injustice that activists must mobilize to fight. Among progressive police critics, Ferguson continues to be a rallying cry and symbol of unjustified police violencethough the Department of Justice cleared Wilson of any wrongdoing the following year. Indeed, the DOJ (led then by Attorney General Eric Holder) concluded in an extensive report that [t]he physical evidence establishes that Wilson shot Brown . . . while Wilson sat in his police SUV, struggling with Brown for control of Wilsons gun, and that [t]here [were] no credible witness accounts that state that Brown was clearly attempting to surrender when Wilson shot him. Yet cries of Hands up, dont shoot, Browns apocryphal last words, are still heard at police protests. Why, then, should Kavanaugh, Flake, or anyone else, believe that an FBI investigation into the accusations made against him would do any good with Democratic senators? It didnt help Clarence Thomas. It hasnt stopped people from pointing to Michael Brown as a victim of racially biased brutality. And when it comes to the fate of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, whose mind would it change? Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The Next American City, by Mick Cornett with Jayson White (Penguin Group, 272 pp., $27.00) In the era of Donald Trump, competent traditional Republicans, such as former mayor of Oklahoma City Mick Cornett, have often been lamentable casualties of political war. Cornett, who served four terms, was a rare Republican big-city mayor, and one of a series of high-caliber Republican leaders in Oklahoma City who helped propel it from a backwater town in the middle of nowhere to an emerging American metropolis. He was a transformative Republican mayor in the mold of Rudy Giuliani of New York, Steve Goldsmith of Indianapolis, and others. After leaving city hall, Cornett ran for governor. Its always hard for the mayor of a states biggest city to get elected to higher office: Goldsmith lost in his gubernatorial bid, and no mayor of New York City has been elected to anything else in more than a century. But a Republican with metropolitan sensibilities nowadays faces an even steeper climb. Cornett won a plurality in a three-way primary, but under Oklahomas system was forced into a runoff, where he was defeated by political neophyte and businessman Kevin Stitt, who accused Cornett of being a Never-Trumper. Cornetts other post-mayoral project is a happier story. His new book, The Next American City, uses his experience to make a case for the big promise of midsized metros. Midsize may be a misnomer; metro areas of more than 1 million people (including Oklahoma City), which constitute the majority of this books case studies, are usually classified as large metros. Cornetts intent in the use of the term midsized is to contrast these cities with giant, elite coastal metros like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Cornetts thesis is that Americans will be drawn to less-populated yet vigorous urban areas as the nations population continues to grow and as housing prices in elite cities become prohibitive. These less glamorous cities have been transforming themselves to become more attractive options for residents and businesses. The Next American City charts Oklahoma Citys transformation, offers examples of similar turnarounds in other cities, and describes Cornetts personal journey from sportscaster to mayor. One of Cornetts major policy innovations was MAPS, or Metropolitan Area Projects. Oklahomas municipalities rely on sales taxes for revenue. On three occasions, the city used a referendum to approve temporary sales-tax increases to finance capital campaigns for specific improvement projects. The higher sales taxes came with clear sunset provisions, and the city used a pay-as-you-go method for the improvements, rather than issuing bonds against the anticipated proceeds. Doing things this way made projects slower to finish but also reduced financial risk, keeping the city clear of any debt. The city also appointed a citizens advisory commission to review all spending and provide an additional layer of public input and oversight. While many other cities struggled with debt and an inability to raise funds for infrastructure, Oklahoma City, with its MAPS approach, could invest in capital assets like schools, parks, sidewalks, and a convention center, without endangering its financial future. Cornetts approach offers a promising template for investing in public infrastructure. Cornett also describes innovative projects from other cities, designed by leaders from both parties. This bipartisan group includes Republican Richard Berry in Albuquerque, who hired homeless people to work on city projects while connecting them with social services at the same time, and Louisvilles Democratic mayor Greg Fischer, who started a campaign to make his city Americas most compassionate. Many of the cities that Cornett discussesDes Moines, Sacramento, Charlestonare doing well or making progress. Some, like Nashville or Austin, are already boomtowns, but others, especially in the Rust Belt, are struggling. Nevertheless, Cornett makes an effective case that mid-size cities can, at least in some cases, dramatically improve their national profile and join the ranks of Americas desirable places. Photo: tobynabors/iStock Democratic New York attorney general nominee Letitia James who is widely expected to win election in November ran on the promise to be a legal backstop against President Donald Trump. She argued that if Trump were to pardon himself or associates convicted of federal crimes, that she, as attorney general, could then charge them again in New York under state law, safeguard(ing) against President Trumps attacks on the rule of law in our country. But, if the U.S. Senate confirms President Trumps nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, that might be impossible. The Supreme Court will hear a case in the upcoming term that could bar New York from prosecuting crimes that already have been tried at the federal level. This issue was raised most recently by Natasha Bertrand, a staff writer at The Atlantic, and its previously been written about by Fordham University Law Professor Jed Shugerman in Slate, among others. The case is Gamble v. United States, and the issue at hand, as SCOTUSblog writes, is whether the Supreme Court should overrule the separate sovereigns exception to the double jeopardy clause. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids double jeopardy keeping individuals from being prosecuted more than once for the same crime. But a Supreme Court ruling more than a century ago provided an exception known as separate sovereigns that allows state and federal courts to prosecute for the same crime, since the systems are sovereign and different. The case being heard by the court, Gamble, arose from an Alabama man who was tried in both state and federal court for the same instance of being caught with an illegal handgun. The case seems far away from the White House, but its possible that the Courts ruling could be broad reaching even to Trump. But even if the Supreme Court overturns the separate sovereigns exception precedent, the circumstances in which that would determine New Yorks ability to prosecute Trump or his associates for potential crimes uncovered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller may not arise. First, Trump would have to issue a pardon to individuals who have been convicted or pleaded guilty in cases arising from the investigation, such as Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former lawyer Michael Cohen. If Trump issued pardons, New York law as it stands wouldnt let the attorney general prosecute right away. There may be a federal exception to double jeopardy, but its illegal in New York, too. So the state would need to pass a law to change that, letting state prosecutors take up crimes that have already been tried federally. Theres no chance the Republican-controlled state Senate would do such a thing. But Democrats may win a state Senate majority in November and consider the legislation. The Assemblys Democratic majority signalled support of such a move to City & State in August, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Barbara Underwood and James are all in favor. Depending on if and when Kavanaugh is confirmed, he may be one of the nine justices deciding Gamble. Without Kavanaugh, the liberal and conservative wings of the court are split evenly, four to four. If the justices voted on party lines, Kavanaughs seat would make the difference between a five to four majority overturning the precedent and a tie. Ties cannot overturn previous rulings and so the separate sovereigns doctrine would be effectively upheld. Though Kavanaugh declined to answer hypothetical questions regarding presidential pardons, he has a relatively expansive view of presidential power and many observers believe that Trump favors him for this very reason. Kavanaugh is also a career Republican lawyer who worked in the George W. Bush administration. He also is a consistently conservative jurist and he has offered fulsome praise of Trump. Whether or not a Justice Kavanaugh would vote to overrule the separate sovereigns exception, some observers dont think he should be involved in a case that could so directly involve the president who nominated him and that he should recuse himself from the case. (T)here is no way Kavanaugh should be confirmed while he may be the deciding vote on a case directly impacting double jeopardy law and the Trump investigation, Shugerman wrote. The office of the current New York attorney general, Underwood, declined to comment on the Gamble case, but the likely next attorney general is keeping her eye on it. This case represents a significant threshold issue to confronting corruption in D.C. and ensuring state attorneys general have the tools to bring anyone who breaks the law to justice even if they are friends with the president, James said in a statement emailed to City & State. While this case might not directly deal with the Mueller probe, it underscores why states rights are so important, and why we must close New Yorks double-jeopardy loophole as quickly as possible." Even if the court were to rule on Gamble in a way that expanded the double jeopardy clause, the New York Attorney General could still sue Trump or his associates in other ways, such as bringing a case on the emoluments clause, which bars the president from accepting gifts from foreign officials. By some legal interpretations, an attorney general would not even need to commit double jeopardy to prosecute individuals like Manafort or Cohen following a pardon. To put it simply, they have each been accused of committing so many different crimes that New York could go after the ones that were left out of their plea deals. So, no matter what happens in Washington, they may still be truth to what James told Yahoo News in August: The president of the United States has to worry about three things; Mueller, Cohen, and Tish James. The Big Lottery Fund, the UKs largest funder of charities, will change its name in the new year to the National Lottery Community Fund. The fund distributes 40 per cent of the good cause money raised by the National Lottery, which last year involved giving 508.5m to 11,000 projects. However its funding has fallen in the last two years, prompting it to cut 130m from future budgets. The name change will take effect from 30 January next year. The fund will also launch a rebrand at the same point. The fund said the change would make it clearer what the organisation is and does, and will do more to support the National Lottery brand. Dawn Austwick, chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund, said: Groups and charities use our funding, be it 500 or 500,000, to bring people together, make good things happen and help their communities to thrive. We want to make sure that as many people as possible understand who we are, what we do, and how National Lottery funding could help them make a difference in their community. Thats why were looking forward to starting 2019 when we will also be celebrating The National Lotterys 25th Birthday as The National Lottery Community Fund. For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here. Aid charity Sightsavers warned that a significant increase in the regulatory burden has affected funding, fundraising, and partnership working, in its annual report. The charitys annual report and accounts for the year to December 2017, published recently on its website, show that its income rose by 19.7m to 321.7m. The rise was down to an increase in gifts in kind of the drug Mectizan, which treats river blindness. Pharmaceutical company Merck donated 222m of the drug, compared to 190.5m the previous year. In a section of the annual report labelled Challenges in 2017 the charity wrote that it was concerned about an assertive media environment although this had so far had no impact on donations. It also said it was concerned about a significant increase in the regulatory burden over the course of the year. A new governance code was introduced, and DfID introduced a mandatory suppliers code, the charity said. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of this is the requirement to ensure that all suppliers and all partners are also compliant, which will make coalition working more expensive. We are also concerned that an unintended consequence of this is to make it harder to work with smaller, less well-resourced partners. There is new leadership at the Charity Commission and as yet we do not know the full details of the additional regulations that will be implemented as a result of the current safeguarding summits. Regulations have also had a significant impact in fundraising. We have spent a great deal of time this year preparing for the new GDPR, and our Swedish fundraising efforts have been affected by regulatory restrictions on the amount that can be invested. Political changes and upheavals caused delays to DFIDs decision-making processes and thus delays in contract awards. Irish Aid funding was also delayed. Key statistics Total income 321.7m, up from 302m the previous year. Of this, 222m was gifts in kind of river blindness drug Mectizan, and 26m was gifts in kind of trachoma drug Zithromax. Expenditure 321.7m, including 19.3m on raising funds Reserves 11.2m, including 1.2m designated funds. Full time equivalent staff 516, up from 476 the previous year. Highest salary 129,500, for chief executive Caroline Harper. For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here. Should Thursdays hearing be viewed as a trial for Brett Kavanaugh, nominee to the Supreme Court, or an extremely public job interview, as Republican and Democratic talking points laid out, respectively, according to a report by The New York Times? Does it reveal the corruption of Democrats, seeking by any means possible to disparage President Trumps pick? Is Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault, a pawn? The pundits on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC staked out their expected positions, as the day became a distillation of how deeply entangled their interests are with the politics they cover. It was a good showa few, actually. Cable viewersmany of whom have likely made up their minds on Kavanaugh during the past two weeks of saturation coveragewere able to choose their own adventure. By the estimation of MSNBC, whose hosts and analysts hew closely to the Democratic line, the days events were just the latest example of the moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party. And the GOP attempts to rush a vote on Kavanaugh last Friday, before even hearing Fords testimony, was a craven attempt to pack the nations highest court with far-right judgesa move that fit squarely in with their overall corruption of justice. Anything short of Kavanaughs withdrawal and Trumps defeat in a televised address would be a disappointment. Time may not be on their side, but is the truth on their side? Stephanie Ruhle, anchor of MSNBC Live, asked in the hour before Fords remarks. And if the truth is on their side, should time matter? RELATED: In Christine Blasey Fords opening statement this morning, she had an important message for reporters Its hard to imagine what in Fords testimony could have satisfied the standard set at the opposite end of the cable news spectrum, Fox News. The Trump favorite, Fox & Friends, dismissed her accusation as a case of mistaken identity. A preview panel discussion, featuring Brit Hume, Bret Baier, and Chris Wallace, among others, not only arguedwronglythat Fords allegations would have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt but also implied that her story was part of a witch-hunting alliance between Democrats and the media. Nobody gets out of this in good shape, Hume huffed. After Ford gave her opening remarks and began answering questions from the committee, the talking heads on Fox News questioned the severity of her cross-examination. The main topic here is the effectiveness of this questioning, host Martha MacCallum said. Its really hard to say whether any of this has landed any dent at all in her credibility. These opposing viewpointsMSNBC and Foxare not equidistant from the mythical center of political media. But CNN, the middle child of cable news, attempted to claim that ground by focusing on the Republican whip count. The truth of the matter is that theres a lot in Washington that happens where the cake is already baked and its just Kabuki theater, host Jake Tapper said. Were all just pretending that we dont know the outcome. But this time was different. We really dont know the outcome here. In other words: break out the popcorn and keep watching! Sign up for CJR 's daily email Its hard to pinpoint exactly how any of these philosophies helped viewers understand anything. As Kavanaugh made his own remarks on Thursday afternoon, at times shouting into the microphone of the Senate chambers, reports began trickling in that President Trump was pleased with his nominees hard-edged testimony. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee closed ranks around the KavanaughSenator Lindsey Graham, commiserating, said, This is hell. On that, he might be right. But to find out what happens next, youll have to tune in tomorrow. RELATED: NYT and The New Yorker were attacked for recent scoops Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today David Uberti is a writer in New York. He was previously a media reporter for Gizmodo Media Group and a staff writer for CJR. Follow him on Twitter @DavidUberti. Better than the average Joe. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Joe Donnelly is a pro-life Democrat waging an uphill battle for reelection in deep red Indiana this fall. Last year, he voted to confirm Neil Gorsuchs nomination to the Supreme Court. This year, he will vote to reject Brett Kavanaughs. The allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh are disturbing and credible, the Indiana senator said in a statement. In the interest of getting as much information as possible, I believe the allegations should be investigated by the FBI. Unfortunately, despite having the time and opportunity to do so, Senator McConnell has refused to allow that FBI investigation While I would gladly welcome the opportunity to work with President Trump on a new nominee for this critically important position, if Judge Kavanaughs nomination comes before the full Senate for a vote under these circumstances, I will oppose it. On Thursday morning, Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both in high school, in sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. That afternoon, Kavanaugh testified to his innocence of that charge while telling a series of demonstrable falsehoods during a bizarre and bitterly partisan confirmation hearing. Shortly after Donnellys announcement, Montana senator John Tester joined him in official opposition. Tester is also in a tight race for reelection in his red state this fall, although he is generally regarded to be in a somewhat safer position than Donnelly. Meanwhile, Joe Manchin who currently has a much more comfortable polling lead than any of his colleagues from deep-red states remains undecided. North Dakota senator Heidi Heitkamp, who is the single-most vulnerable red-state Democrat on the ballot this fall but also, a staunchly pro-choice politician has yet to announce her voting intention. Last night, there were reports that Manchin, Donnelly, Murkowski, and Collins were all undecided, but intended to vote together, as a bloc. On Friday morning, Manchins office said that those reports were untrue. Unless youre a web geek, you might not be that familiar with Google AMP. Short for Accelerated Mobile Pages, its a webpage standard developed by Google to speed up load-time on mobile devices by stripping out a lot of the bits (including a lot of advertising gimmicks) that tend to clog things up. At first blush, it sounds like a great idea. But media companies have complained that Google controls the standard, which feeds into their larger concern about how much influence the web giant has, especially over digital advertising. Among other things, the AMP standard restricts what types of ads a media company can include on their mobile pages, and how they can be implemented. Given all that, there was muted relief when Google said earlier this month that it is moving AMP to an open governance model, meaning it will theoretically no longer be in sole control of how the project works. The company said it wants to bring a wider variety of voices into the project, meaning input from media partners who will become members of a technical steering committee and working groups devoted to the various aspects of the standard. ICYMI: Zuckerbergs death grip on Instagram Despite this apparent attempt at outreach, some scoffed at the move, calling it cosmetic. AMP has always been open source, which means that theoretically anyone can contribute to the standard, the way they can with Linux or any other open-source project. But realistically, Google, as AMPs maintainer or project lead, has always been in control of what gets accepted and what doesntand it has likely made some of those decisions in its own corporate interests. The main reason AMP is getting an open governance model is because it increases AMPs value as a monopoly-enforcing tool for Google. It brings criticism inside, out of the eye of the public, while Googles product teams continue their anti-competitive use of AMP unhindered. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Baldur Bjarnason @[email protected] (@fakebaldur) September 19, 2018 Even AMPs open source status was seen as a competitive play with Facebooks Instant Articles format, rolled out to certain media partners in 2015. While many developers and media executives said the open source nature made AMP somewhat better than having to buy into a completely Facebook-controlled ecosystem with Instant Articles, some were nervous about how much control Google had over the outcome. A number of anonymous programmers wrote an open letter to Google complaining that AMP was a kind of Trojan horse, designed to look like an open project but ultimately aimed at consolidating Googles hegemony over the web, and that the search giant was essentially trying to create its own custom version of HTML, the display language that powers the web. It seemed perverse to some that Google was the one promoting AMP as the cure to all of the webs slow-loading problems, when a big part of that problem was a result of ads from Googles own advertising networks, like DoubleClick. It didnt help when the company started to give AMP pages priority placement in the Google carousel of recommended search results in 2016. Googles Vice President of News, Richard Gingras, made sure to note that Google was giving preference to faster-loading pages, and AMP pages just happened to be the fastest (not surprising, since in most cases they were hosted on Googles servers). This reinforced the idea that AMP was something publishers had to do if they wanted to show up high in Googles results, even if running AMP pages didnt translate into higher revenues. In effect, it seemed like a threat: Nice website you got there, hate to see it get bad traffic. I don't think you can build a thing entirely closed at one company, intended to exert influence over the broader ecosystem, and then call it an open standard or project. AMP is not "part of the open web", no matter what Google says.https://t.co/r3hDjhH3G7 getify (@getify) September 19, 2018 Over time, many publishers adopted the standard, to benefit from Google traffic. So why is Google now moving to an open governance model? The company says it wants to broaden the level of outside participation, which could be an admission that not enough outlets were signing up to help (although Google says 700 people have made changes). But it could also be a sign the company has lost interest in controlling AMP, now that Instant Articles seems to have fallen by the wayside. Facebook is no longer devoting much to it in the way of resources, and most of the original partners have stopped using it, according to a survey earlier this year by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia. AMP basically won, so theres less at stake for Google. One programmer who works for a major media outlet, and has been involved with AMP from the beginning, says open governance wont change the most important aspect of the standard, which is that Google gets to decide which version of mobile pages will get higher placement in its results. In my opinion this change is largely irrelevant, the programmer said, because Google decides what version of the standard gets cached by their system and funnelled on to search pages which means they will always be able to exercise control over the standard. Sure, you can commit changes and close pull requests, but if Google decides not to support the change youve made, you might as well not have bothered. ICYMI: The New Yorker drops a Kavanaugh bombshell 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. The last community in the way of Hurricane Florences floodwaters as they slowly flow to the sea got some good news Wednesday the predictions arent as dire as they once were. Officials originally expected flooding in the worst areas of Georgetown County to be from 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 meters). But the latest forecast lowered that estimate to 2 to 4 feet (0.6 to 1.2 meters), according to the countys Facebook page. Twelve days after the once-fierce hurricane arrived on the coast, and more than a week after it blew north and dissipated, rivers swollen by its relentless rains are still flooding homes and businesses in their paths as they make their way to the sea. The death toll from the storm is still adding up. North Carolina officials blamed the death of a 67-year-old man who fractured his neck cleaning up storm debris Sept. 18 in Craven County on the storm. Florence has killed at least 47 people 36 in North Carolina; nine in South Carolina; and two in Virginia. The newest predictions from South Carolina officials moved back the peak of the flooding from Thursday to Friday in Georgetown County, where the most swollen waterways the Waccamaw and Pee Dee rivers meet three other rivers on their way to the Atlantic Ocean. The forecasts could change again, officials warned, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster joined the call for residents to not let their guard down. We are still in full battle mode in Georgetown County, McMaster said at a Wednesday news conference. The slow-moving disaster has allowed forecasters to pinpoint exactly who will flood. There have been few rescues or surprises in South Carolina just black, reeking water slowly seeping in and even more slowly receding. Its kind of playing out exactly like we forecast, said Conway Fire Chief Le Hendrick, who sent firefighters to houses that had never flooded more than a week ago to warn them water was coming. Those same homes were flooded when firefighters surveyed them Monday and Tuesday. There appeared to be good news in Conway too. The Waccamaw River, which flows through the city of 23,000, has spent nearly a day at just over 21.1 feet (6.4 meters), some 6 inches (15 centimeters) under the predicted crest. That could avert potential environmental and transportation problems. The river water was still just inches below a coal ash pond at a closed power plant in Conway, according to the state-owned utility Santee Cooper. The floodwater from the river also had not made it over a temporary barrier hastily built on U.S. Highway 501, the main link to Myrtle Beach. Water is touching the barrier of sand and plastic called the Lifeline, but is still well below the top of it, according to the state Department of Transportation. Preliminary estimates show about 2,000 homes have been damaged by flooding in South Carolina, with half of them suffering major damage or being destroyed, said state Emergency Management Division Director Kim Stenson, adding those numbers are far from final with flooding still occurring that could affect hundreds or thousands of additional homes. A lot of the country thinks that Florence came and went. But unfortunately, a lot of that water it takes weeks to process down, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Brock Long said. Long visited South Carolina on Wednesday and said the agency has already had 4,000 people register and paid $500,000 in claims in the state. In North Carolina, residents in Lumberton sued CSX Corp. saying the railroad company refused to give permission to build a temporary sandbag berm under a bridge until an emergency order from the governor at the last minute. The lawsuit said the underpass also created a gap in a levee that made flooding worse during Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and cited a report in May where the state called for a floodgate. CSX issued a statement that it doesnt comment on pending litigation, but noted the extraordinary storm devastated Lumberton and other communities with its flooding. Also in Robeson County, Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said his deputies with help from National Guard high-clearance trucks rescued 400 animals which included dogs, cats, horses, peacocks, chickens, quail and potbellied pig from a flooded property after some were seen stranded on a rooftop in the Orrum community. About 300 more animals were found dead on the property over the weekend, Sealey said. Authorities were meeting with prosecutors Wednesday to see if the people responsible for the animals should face charges. (Associated Press writers Jonathan Drew, Gary D. Robertson and Alex Derosier in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.) Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Federal safety officials blame two Air Canada pilots for coming within 10 to 20 feet of crashing their jetliner into a plane on the ground last year in San Francisco. The Air Canada pilots were apparently confused because one of two parallel runways was closed and dark before the late-night incident. The crew was seconds from landing their Airbus A320 jet on a taxiway where other planes loaded with passengers were waiting to take off. We could not have gotten literally or figuratively any closer to having a major disaster, said the safety boards vice chairman, Bruce Landsberg, during a hearing Tuesday in Washington. Underscoring the severity of the incident, the NTSBs top aviation-safety staffer, John DeLisi, said it was the first time the board considered a major investigation for an event in which there were no injuries or damaged planes. The board said the Air Canada crew mistook the taxiway for a runway because they didnt adequately review a warning to all pilots about one of the runways being closed for construction. The board cited other mistakes and crew fatigue as contributing factors. Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said the airline would review the safety boards recommendations and has already taken steps to improve training and procedures. The two pilots are being held out of service, he said. The safety board recommended the development of technology to warn pilots and air traffic controllers when a landing plane appears to be aimed at a taxiway instead of a runway. It also said the Federal Aviation Administration should consider better lighting and markings to warn pilots about closed runways. The cockpit voice recorder might have helped investigators better understand how the near-accident unfolded. However, the recording was taped over because the NTSB wasnt notified of the incident for nearly two days. When we learned of a passenger airliner almost touching down on a taxiway occupied by four other airliners, we elected to launch a full investigation, DeLisi said. The July 2017 incident occurred just before midnight it felt like 3 a.m. to the pilots, who had taken off from Toronto. The safety board recommended that Canada strengthen rules to prevent pilot fatigue. The safety boards chairman, Robert Sumwalt, urged the FAA and Canadian officials to adopt the recommendations so that we do not have to relearn the lessons of this incident at a far greater cost. The Air Canada crew was cleared to land on 28R, to the right of the closed runway, 28L . According to a preliminary NTSB report , the pilots thought the lighted runway was 28L not theirs. Despite visual cues such as different lighting on taxiways, they aimed their jet to land to the right of 28R, on a parallel taxiway where the other planes were waiting to take off. According to the NTSB, the pilots told investigators that they didnt see planes on the taxiway, but that something did not look right. A United Airlines pilot in one of the planes warned air traffic controllers about the onrushing Air Canada jet, and pilots on a Philippine Airlines jet switched on their landing lights in an apparent warning maneuver. The Air Canada pilots abandoned the landing and pulled their plane up just in time to avoid catastrophe. An NTSB staff member said Tuesday that they calculated the plane flew 10 feet to 20 feet above the first of the four waiting jetliners, then circled and returned for a safe landing. Both pilots of the Airbus A320, which was arriving from Toronto, were experienced. The captain, who was flying the plane, had more than 20,000 hours of flying time, and the co-pilot had about 10,000 hours. In May, federal officials blamed pilot error for three other close calls in the previous 16 months at the San Francisco airport. Pilots say that the airport, with parallel runways close to each other, requires special attention during landings. The Air Canada incident led the FAA to issue new rules for the airport covering nighttime landings when one of the runways is closed and better late-night control-tower staffing. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has accused DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, a chain of shoe stores with headquarters in Columbus, of discriminating against a former assistant manager at a location in Warrensville Heights because she is black. A lawsuit filed in federal court in Columbus Wednesday says the woman, who worked as an assistant manager at a DSW location on Richmond Road from August 2014 until her firing in July 2016, was subject to unequal treatment. It says non-black employees were also accused of similar problems at work but they were not similarly disciplined. Part of the woman's job was to recruit and hire employees, and the lawsuit says DSW concluded there were too many black people who worked at the Warrensville Heights store. The company suggested that she "engage in recruiting and hiring practices that would result in a workforce made up of fewer black workers," the lawsuit states. While she worked there, she received performance evaluations that said she met the company's expectations of her. However, store officials told the woman that an incident on July 3, 2016 warranted discipline. The company did not suspend her or remove her as assistant manager, but instead fired her 17 days later, the suit states. The company "replaced her with a person outside her protected class." When asked for clarification, EEOC senior trial attorney Melanie Peterson would only say the woman's replacement was "not black." The former assistant manager filed an EEOC complaint, and the EEOC sent a letter to DSW in December that said it found reasonable cause to believe the company had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bars employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The EEOC invited DSW to informally settle the complaint, but DSW chose not to do so, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks an unnamed amount in backpay and damages for the woman, as well as an injunction to prevent future race discrimination. DSW spokeswoman Margaret Standing said in an email that the company does not comment on ongoing legal matters. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A federal judge on Thursday suppressed evidence that authorities said showed that a child rapist downloaded child pornography after his release from prison. U.S. District Judge John Adams' decision means that the U.S. Attorney's Office cannot use evidence collected from a cellphone, a computer hard drive and a micro SD card in a trial for Kent man Donald Neff. The Ohio Internet Crimes Against Task Force said all three devices had images of child pornography, which formed the basis for federal charges Neff faces. Neff, 51, is awaiting trial in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. He has two convictions for sex crimes against children. Adams, whose courthouse is in Akron, wrote in an order that authorities found the files as a result of a visit Neff received from Ohio Adult Parole Authority officers Everett Rogers and Sarah Rannebarger in March 2017. They testified at a hearing in June that they decided to search Neff's cellphone because Neff acted nervous and stuttered when the officers asked about his phone. Neff later admitted that he had other electronic devices at a friend's home, and authorities seized and searched those as well. The problem, Adams wrote, is that neither the parole officers nor their supervisor mentioned Neff's behavior as the basis to search his cellphone in their written reports. In fact, the parole authority didn't provide any documentation referencing Neff's behavior until Neff's lawyer Christos Georgalis asked to suppress the evidence, according to the judge. In normal circumstances, the officers' suspicions and a nervous reaction would provide enough reasonable suspicion for an officer to conduct a search, the judge wrote. But "given that Neff's behavior was the exclusive basis for searching his phone, it defies logic that there is no mention of that behavior in any report produced contemporaneously with the search," Adams wrote. The judge also wrote that Neff's statements in March 2017 did not give the parole officers reasonable suspicion to search his other devices, so that evidence must also be suppressed. "It is not without some reluctance that the Court finds that the parole officer's description of Neff's conduct during the home visit lacks credibility," Adams wrote. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined comment. Neff was sentenced to two years in prison in 1990 for committing sexual battery on a 12-year-old boy. A judge sentenced Neff to 15 years in prison in 2000 for raping two boys. He was released from prison in September 2015. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian McDonough wrote in a court filing that Neff admitted to authorities in multiple interviews in 2017 that he downloaded child pornography. Neff said he viewed the files at his home and later deleted them, the prosecutor wrote. Neff also admitted in a formal parole violation hearing that he viewed child pornography. Adams' order said the U.S. Attorney's Office suggested that Neff's admission at the parole violation hearing meant police would have inevitably found the child porn files. Adams rejected that argument. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Friday's crime and courts comments section. LAGRANGE TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A woman died Thursday and a man was hospitalized after a motorcycle crash in Lorain County, according to the State Highway Patrol. Jeffrey Phan, 68, of Elyria, was driving a 2015 Yamaha FJR about 3:20 p.m. Thursday northbound on State Route 301 south of Whitney Road when he went off the right side of the road into a ditch and struck a culvert, the State Highway Patrol said. Phan and his passenger, Nanette Phan, 68, of Elyria, were thrown off the motorcycle. Nanette Phan was pronounced dead at the scene, the State Highway Patrol said. Jeffrey Phan suffered critical injuries and was flown by helicopter to MetroHealth Hospital. The State Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. Investigators do not suspect alcohol or drug use to be involved. To comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comment section. CHARDON, Ohio -- A fire late Thursday night caused extensive damage to an auto body and collision business. Firefighters were still battling hot spots at Chardon Square Auto and Body Collision at 537 Water St. early Friday morning and they expected to remain at the site throughout the night, Chardon Chief Larry Gaspar said. The fire was reported at about 10:20 p.m. when a police officer on patrol spotted heavy smoke coming from the building, Gaspar said. When firefighters arrived, they tried to go inside but were forced back by heavy flames, he said. Thirteen departments responded to the two-alarm fire. Gaspar said the building had a wooden-pitched roof built over a flat roof. The pitched roof collapsed on the flat roof, making it difficult to reach flames in-between. "We're having a hard time getting water into that area to completely extinguish the fire," Gaspar said. Firefighters also were concerned about flammable liquids inside the building, Gaspar said. There were no reports of injuries. Gaspar said the cause of the fire was unknown but the Ohio Fire Marshal's Office and the Geauga County Fire Investigation Unit will investigate. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Thursday's crime and courts comments section. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 32-year-old man was kidnapped outside a Cleveland bar, stripped naked, pistol-whipped and driven to an abandoned home where he was shot twice in the head, police say. The incident happened about 11:40 p.m. Thursday. The man told police he walked outside Cheers bar on East 93rd Street in the city's Union-Miles neighborhood. No arrests have been made in the case. Two men walked up to him outside the bar and one put a gun to the lower part of his back, according to police reports. The gunman forced the 32-year-old man the front part of his Chevy Malibu, wedged between the driver and the gunman, according to police reports. The gunman repeatedly pistol-whipped the man in the head as they drove him to an abandoned home on East 65th Street near Bessemer Avenue, according to police reports. The duo forced the man to strip naked and forced him out of the car, according to police reports. They forced him into the backyard of an abandoned home and ordered him to the ground. The two men then demanded that he "give it up," according to police reports. The gunman hit the man several times while he was lying on his stomach. He fired two shots, hitting the man twice in the back of the head, according to police reports. The man eventually ran naked toward East 79th Street. Officers found him naked and bleeding from his head. An ambulance took him to University Hospitals, where he was treated for the gunshot wounds. To comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comment section. WASHINGTON, D. C. - Emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on whether Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a girl in high school didn't sway U.S. Sen. Rob Portman's conviction that Kavanaugh should be confirmed. The only Ohioans who will get a vote on whether Kavanaugh should get a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court said their minds were not changed after they listened to a long day of testimony from Kavanaugh and the California psychology professor who accused him of grabbing her at a party, throwing her on a bed, and trying to remove her clothes. Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said he decided to vote against Kavanaugh before Christine Blasey Ford's allegations were publicized. He released a statement Thursday that called her testimony courageous and "inspiring." "I am very grateful to her for coming forward to tell her story, even in the face of deep personal cost," Brown's statement said. "She was moving, heartfelt. While I had already decided not to support Judge Kavanaugh based on his history of siding with corporations and Wall Street over workers, Dr. Ford's testimony today was a powerful moment for our country." Portman - a longtime friend of Kavanaugh's who introduced him before the Judiciary Committee - reiterated his belief that Kavanaugh should be confirmed. The Ohio Republican's statement said he listened carefully to testimony from both witnesses. "I believe allegations of sexual assault should be taken very seriously, and Dr. Ford deserved the opportunity to tell her story and be heard," said the statement from Portman. "I believe my job is to assess the facts that we have before us, and that's very difficult when no corroboration exists regarding this allegation." While I had already decided not to support Judge Kavanaugh based on his history of siding with corporations and Wall Street over workers, Dr. Fords testimony today was a powerful moment for our country. -SB Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) September 27, 2018 Portman's statement stressed Kavanaugh's adamant denial of the claims, and the fact that the three other people whom Ford said were at the house where the assault occurred had "no recollection of this event or this party." He also noted that Kavanaugh was thoroughly vetted by the FBI "on six different occasions, and no such allegation ever surfaced." Portman found it particularly salient that a lifelong friend of Ford's named Leland Keyser submitted testimony that said she was never at a party with Kavanaugh and didn't know him. He noted that "in America, there is a presumption of innocence when there is no evidence to corroborate a charge." "Dozens of men and women who knew Brett Kavanaugh in high school have attested to his good character," Portman's statement said. "This includes 65 women who knew him at that time who wrote a letter saying the Brett Kavanaugh they knew treated women with decency and respect." "I have known Judge Kavanaugh for more than 15 years, I know his wife Ashley, and I know his family," Portman's statement continued. "The Brett Kavanaugh I know is a man of integrity and humility. He also has the right qualifications and experience to serve on the Supreme Court. In fact, the American Bar Association has given him their highest rating, unanimously. I support his confirmation." WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is directing the FBI to launch a supplemental investigation into his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Trump says in a statement that the updated investigation, which comes in response to sexual misconduct allegations, "must be limited in scope" and "completed in less than one week." The decision marks a reversal for the administration, which had argued that Kavanaugh had already been vetted. Kavanaugh has adamantly denied the allegations. Senate Republican leaders agreed Friday to delay a final vote on Kavanaugh to allow time for an investigation by the FBI at the request of Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake. Kavanaugh says in a statement released by the White House that he "will continue to cooperate" after senators asked President Donald Trump to open a supplemental background investigation of the embattled Supreme Court nominee. Kavanaugh says he's been interviewed by the FBI during his confirmation process and conducted "background" calls with the Senate. He says he answered questions under oath Thursday "about every topic the Senators and their counsel asked me." Kavanaugh says, "I've done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate." President Donald Trump says he found Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school, "a very credible witness." Trump told reporters Friday at the White House that he thought Ford's testimony Thursday to the Senate Judiciary Committee "was very compelling" and that "she looks like a very fine woman, very fine woman." But Trump also says he though Kavanaugh's adamant denial "really something that I hadn't seen before. It was incredible." Trump called it "an incredible moment I think in the history of our country." The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Friday to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor -- but Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said the full Senate vote should be delayed for a week. Change Trump can believe in? Photo: David McNew/Getty Images Last month, the Trump administration released a report that predicted global temperatures will be four degrees higher by the end of this century, assuming current trends persist. World leaders have pledged to keep global temperatures from rising even two degrees (Celsius) above pre-industrial levels, with the understanding that warming beyond that could prove catastrophic. The last time the Earth was as warm as the White House expects it to be in 2100, its oceans were hundreds of feet higher. Which is to say: The Trump administration ostensibly, officially expects that, absent radical action to reduce carbon emissions, within the next 80 years, much of Manhattan and Miami will sink into the sea; many of worlds coral reefs will be irreversibly destroyed by acidifying oceans; vast regions of the Earth will lose their primary sources of water; and a variety of extreme weather events will dramatically increase in frequency. And the White House believes that this fact is an argument for loosening restrictions on carbon emissions. The report that disclosed the administrations forecast for global warming was not a memo detailing president Trumps intention to reenter the Paris Climate Accord, or to appoint Naomi Klein as his new EPA director. It was an environmental-impact statement justifying his decision to repeal previously scheduled, federal fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles built after 2020 a deregulatory measure that will add 8 billion additional tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by the end of this century, according to the governments own estimates. As the Washington Post revealed Friday, the administration uses its four-degree warming estimate to argue that eliminating 8 billion tons worth of emissions wont be enough to change the climate outlook, by itself, so the federal government shouldnt bother. After all, the entire world would need to make enormous cuts in emissions to avert catastrophic warming and that would require substantial increases in technology innovation and adoption compared to todays levels and would require the economy and the vehicle fleet to move away from the use of fossil fuels, which is not currently technologically feasible or economically feasible. This argument is deplorable in its nihilism. But its core assumption is also patently absurd. The administrations analysis is premised on the notion that there is no relationship between what the United States does with regard to climate regulation, and what the rest of the worlds countries do. Which is totally bogus: Not only can the U.S. lead by example, it also has the power to coerce other countries into emulating the carbon standards we set for ourselves. As Trump is fond of pointing out in other contexts, America is the greatest economic and military power in the world, and has enormous leverage over foreign governments. Earlier this year, the White House forced European companies to suddenly suspend their business with Iran for no coherent reason simply by threatening to deny such firms access to the U.S. banking system. If the Trump administration decided to make reducing carbon emissions the No. 1 objective of its foreign policy which is just about the only rational priority, if it genuinely believes that failure to reduce emissions will drown Americas coastal cities then it could ensure that our nations carbon regulations would be adopted by others (and thus, would have multiplier effects). Of course, its far from clear what the Trump administration genuinely believes. By all appearances, Donald Trump thinks climate change is quite possibly a Chinese hoax, while some of the administrations evangelicals appear to welcome it as a sign of the eschatons hastening. The climate change is real but inevitable so lets just live for the moment line was the work of some poor National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) bureaucrats tasked with inventing a rational argument for a policy rooted in avarice and spite. That said, if one assumes that the entire leadership of the Republican Party has concluded that human civilization will not survive Barron Trump, then their governing agenda starts to make a lot more sense. Exacerbating inequality and subordinating the commons to short-term profit maximization isnt in the enlightened medium-term interests of the GOP donor class but in the medium-term, well all (apparently) be dead! MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Reckless operation, Old Oak Boulevard: A Polaris Career Center security guard ran to a police cruiser at 11 a.m. Sept. 5 after a car struck an administrator who was directing traffic. The administrator told the officer that the driver of a car that he had directed to stop honked at him. He then tried to tell the driver that she would have to wait her turn. The driver, however, increased the car's radio volume as he walked toward her. The woman then drove forward and struck him in the leg. She drove around the victim, went off the asphalt parking lot and onto the lawn. She next drove in between trees and over the sidewalk, hopping the curb to get onto the street. The administrator took several photos with his cell phone. He said he was not injured and did not need medical attention. The administrator gave a description of the driver to the officer, who ran the license plate and found that the car's owner was a mother of a student. The administrator told the officer that he did not want to press charges, but that he did not want her to enter school property again. The officer tried calling her several times and left voice messages for her. In the last voice message, he said she was no longer permitted on school grounds and would receive a reckless operation citation in the mail. Theft, Smith Road: Police went to Gabe's at 5:28 p.m. Sept. 22 for a shoplifting incident. A woman tried walking out of the store with $334 worth of items without paying for them. The suspect said she stole the merchandise because she had just lost her job and her children needed winter clothes. She was cited and also told not to return to any of Gabe's stores or she would be charged with trespassing. Fraud, Sprague Road: On Sept. 20, a resident noticed that someone had made unauthorized purchases on his debit card. They totaled $177. He contacted his credit union and learned that there were five more fraudulent purchases that had not yet been posted to his account. He told the the company that he was not responsible for the money. He was told his account would be reimbursed within 30 days. Drunken driving, Old Pleasant Valley Road: Police responded to a car crash at 10:24 p.m. Sept. 17. The victim said she was stopped at a traffic signal when the car behind hers struck her car. She got out of her car and approached the other driver, who said the crash was his fault. Police spoke to the suspect, who had slurred speech and showed other signs of inebriation. He was unable to complete field sobriety tests. He was arrested. Warrant, Bagley Road: An officer stopped a truck at 8 a.m. Sept. 20 for being overweight on a no-truck route. The driver told the officer that there was a warrant for him in Cleveland Heights. He was arrested when the officer confirmed the suspect's warrant. Speeding, Bagley Road: A car in front of a cruiser at 1:04 a.m. Sept. 16 was going 45 mph in a 25 mph zone. The officer stopped it. The driver said he was unaware of the speed limit. He said he was coming home from a birthday party. The officer detected signs of inebriation. The driver told the officer that he had had two beers. He failed field sobriety tests and measured a .113 blood-alcohol content level. He was arrested and also cited with drunken driving. Lost property, Southland Drive: The owner of a truck reported that someone had removed its license plate between Sept. 13-15. He said he noticed the missing plate after parking at Giant Eagle. Theft, Smith Road: On Sept. 10, Gabe's loss prevention officer saw a woman take items and place them in her purse. She then walked to the store's doors and tried leaving without paying for them. She was stopped. The items were worth $82. She was told she could not return to any Gabe's stores again. Unsurprisingly, partisan jockeying for electoral advantage is on the rise in Ohio given the importance for both Republicans and Democrats of the Nov. 6 midterm elections. That's why appearances and timing also matter for partisan officeholders whose actions could bear on the outcome of the elections. So a recent civil subpoena served on Cuyahoga County by the office of Ohio Auditor David Yost -- the Republican candidate for state attorney general -- that seeks emails from County Executive Armond Budish, a Democrat running for re-election Nov. 6, should raise eyebrows. The timing and goals of this subpoena require a fuller explanation from Yost. The auditor's subpoena, revealed via an open records request by cleveland.com reporter Courtney Astolfi, seeks emails sent or received by Budish relating to overtime and bonuses paid to a county employee. The payments are the apparent target of a Yost audit that's been ongoing for a while. County officials say all emails relative to the issue were already turned over to Cuyahoga County prosecutors -- and they are understandably nonplussed by this indication that Yost may be preparing to release the audit soon in what could constitute a pre-election "audit surprise" for Cuyahoga County voters. Unlike Missouri, which prohibits issuance of audits within 30 days of an election, Ohio allows audits to be released up to 14 days before a primary or general election, per a policy Yost's office issued in 2011. That means an audit could be released this year as close to the election as Oct. 23 -- 13 days after early voting starts. Yost, of Columbus, faces Greater Cleveland's Steven Dettelbach, a Democrat and former U.S. attorney for Northern Ohio, on the Nov. 6 ballot. The release of an audit close to that election that is critical of Democratic county officeholders in the state's most heavily populated Democratic county could -- in theory -- depress turnout, hurting Dettelbach in his home county and benefiting Yost in the attorney general's race. Astolfi reported that Yost's subpoena requests emails that Budish sent or received from January 2017 through mid-July 2017 relating to compensation and benefits for James Hay, Cuyahoga County's deputy chief information officer. Budish, in a statement, said he believes Yost's office is trying to determine whether Budish personally authorized a $15,000 bonus for Hay. "We informed the auditor's staff that I was not involved," Budish said in his statement. The county's Internal Auditing Department and the county prosecutor's office had previously determined that Budish's administration improperly awarded some bonuses and perquisites. The auditor's civil subpoena is unrelated to a criminal investigation of Cuyahoga County's Information Technology Department, Astolfi reported. Audits like this typically take months, when auditors work with those being audited to compile the most accurate picture possible of the books. During this process, the auditors regularly ask for and receive documents from the agency or entity being audited. Yost's office told Astolfi it has used subpoenas regularly but was unable to provide prior examples. That serves to compound suspicions that politics could be at play in the timing of the subpoena in this audit. A Yost spokesman said only that the auditor's office takes "steps that are necessary to complete an audit. Sometimes that includes issuing subpoenas." The route being taken by Yost's office isn't necessarily out of line. But to many Ohioans, whatever distinctions there may be between "request" and "subpoena," the word "subpoena" likely suggests courtrooms, not green eyeshades and ledgers. Early voting begins on Oct. 10. Ohio law doesn't restrict the election-related timing of the release of audits. But in Missouri, for example, it's the policy of that state's auditor "to not release [audit] findings in a time frame that may alter the results of an election," as the Daily Journal of Missouri put it recently. Missouri has determined that period as 30 days prior to an election. Ohio needs to do the same -- not because Yost necessarily is in the wrong in this case -- but because appearances can bolster, or undermine, public confidence in government processes. And until such a policy is in place, Yost should refrain from issuing the results of his Cuyahoga County audit so close to the Nov. 6 elections that it could be interpreted as an October surprise designed to influence the outcome of that polling. Editor's note: This editorial was corrected at 1:10 p.m. to include references to Ohio's current policy on release of audits that bars such release less than 14 days prior to a primary or general election. About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization. Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication. * Email general questions about our editorial board or comments on this editorial to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com. * Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the "Follow" option at the top of the comments, & look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com. Fifty million peoples data was breached in a Facebook hack this week. Photo: Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images Fifty million Facebook users had their data breached in a recent attack, the New York Times reports. Facebook discovered the breach earlier in the week and forced 90 millions users to log out of their accounts as a safety precaution. (If you were made to log out of your account on Friday morning, now you know why.) Facebook said it did not know the origin or identity of the attackers, nor had it fully assessed the scope of the attack, the Times also reported. The company is in the beginning stages of its investigation. On a conference call Friday afternoon, Mark Zuckerberg told reporters the company patched the issue on Thursday night. The vulnerability was in Facebooks view as feature, Guy Rosen, Facebooks vice-president of product management, explained. (A safety feature that lets you see what your account looks like to certain people.) Rosen described the attack as being on a fairly large scale. (The 90 million figure is the 50 million whose data was impacted plus an additional 40 million who used the feature and were logged out for an added protection but were not affected.) Facebook hasnt yet found that the hackers were able to access any profiles or private messages, but noted the attackers did try to access the platforms API. Rosen said the company stared the investigation on September 16 after it noticed a spike in users, and that it notified law enforcement, including the FBI, on September 26. Credit card information and passwords were not accessed. We face constant attacks from people who want to take over accounts or steal information, Zuckerberg said. We need to do more to prevent this from happening in the first place. Its been dark days at Facebook for months in the wake of the 2016 election. The Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed over 80 million users. (Though a recent study found 25 percent of Facebook users were using the platform more following the scandal.) The company has been leaning heavily on Instagram, a social platform owned by Facebook, to bolster its bruised reputation a strategy that insiders say is what ultimately drove Instagrams founders to resign from the company earlier this week. Toss up on which CEO is having a worse week. Mark Zuckerberg or Teslas Elon Musk who, as of yesterday, is being sued by the SEC for fraud. Big, lucrative tech companies have a responsibility to consider and address societal issues like homelessness, Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins told CNBC on Thursday. "In this part of the world, affordable housing, homelessness, hunger these are all issues that companies in Silicon Valley have to care about," the CEO said in an exclusive interview with "Mad Money" host . In March, Cisco announced its contribution to the homeless crisis: the company pledged to give $50 million to public-private initiative Destination: Home to battle homelessness in Santa Clara County, which has the third-highest rate of chronic homelessness in the United States. "It just doesn't feel like that should be occurring anywhere, much less in a wealthy county where we've seen so much prosperity," Robbins told Cramer. "We're just trying to do our part." "[Salesforce.com CEO] Marc Benioff's doing a lot of work up here in San Francisco, so we're actually trying to [come] together and drive some regional alignment around these efforts," Robbins added. Cisco, a massive networking company that deals in cloud computing, security and the internet of things, is also nearing the end of its transition from a hardware supplier to a catch-all digital giant. In Cisco's immediate focus is cybersecurity, around which the company has made several key acquisitions in the past few years. Robbins specifically highlighted the ongoing shift from standard firewall protection to securing data via "identity and the cloud." "For the past decade, [our customers have] built networks and they've built security architectures based on a premise that traffic begins at the edge, perhaps at the branch, and terminates in their data center," the CEO said. "Today, what's really happening is all the traffic still begins at the edge, but it's terminating in 100 different places, and this is the multi-cloud story," he continued. "So it's terminating in Microsoft, it's terminating in Amazon, Google, IBM. It's terminating in all the [software-as-a-service] providers like Salesforce here today. And what that means is there's not a central ingress-egress point to actually apply security anymore." And, like with many tech companies, the issue of tariffs is lingering in the backdrop for Cisco. But the Trump administration's latest wave of duties isn't the primary concern, Robbins told Cramer. "We know how to deal with it and we've had conversations with the administration, we've been optimizing the supply chain and we've applied some price increases where we had to," he said. "I think my bigger concern is what do these trade skirmishes or the uncertainty that's going on, at what point does that flow through to the global macro environment? And that's the bigger fear for us and that's what we don't want to see." Shares of Cisco closed lower on Wednesday, down 0.17 percent at $48.33. The stock rose slightly in after-hours trading. President Donald Trump's claim that he rejected a meeting on trade with Canada struck CNBC's as surprising given the country's history of allyship with the U.S. "I'm kind of stunned that President Trump could take on Canada, going totally ad hominem and totally hostile to our nation's largest trading partner," the "Mad Money" host said on Thursday. "I found myself thinking, 'This is no longer the art of the deal; it's the art of destruction.'" Trump made his remarks at a Wednesday press conference during the week of the United Nations General Assembly, a week centered around international relations and policymaking. A spokeswoman for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later said that "no meeting was requested" by the United States. To Cramer's surprise, however, the stock market which in recent weeks has buckled on any news of escalating trade disputes seemed to brush off the barbs. "It didn't even register. Today's positive stock action calls into question the whole narrative that these trade disputes are going to derail the entire economy," the "Mad Money" host said, doubling down on earlier comments. Cramer's chief concern was how critical Canada has been to the U.S. economy. Having withstood two world wars and a series of conflicts by the United States' side, Canada is a key trading partner to 36 states not to mention its participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement, a trilateral pact now being renegotiated by the Trump administration. "I'm not saying that we can't live without Canada," the "Mad Money" host said. "I am saying that trying to unravel and unwind our economy from trade with Canada would be like a logistical nightmare." Given the almost nonexistent trade barriers between the two countries, industries that rely on Canada as an "extension" of the U.S. economy could therefore get hurt if trade with our northern neighbor breaks down, Cramer explained. "Our auto industry is the prime pain point in the system. American automakers have always operated as though Canada and the United States are interchangeable," he said. "No wonder the stocks of Ford and GM hit 52-week lows today." But stocks rose Wednesday despite the tensions, suggesting to Cramer that what plagued the market for much of 2018 namely tariffs and rate hikes was being set aside in favor of positive drivers like strong employment and earnings growth. "I'm frantically trying to figure out what it all means," the "Mad Money" host said. "Maybe not enough investors took the president's press conference seriously. On the other hand, maybe the economy's just so darn strong that even a Canadian trade meltdown isn't enough to phase [us]. It's an open question, but today's action suggests that we actually might end up liking the answer." Stocks rose in Thursday's trading session, with the major averages all finishing the day higher. On Wednesday, sources told CNBC that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer plans to issue the text of a trade deal with just the U.S. and Mexico on Friday that includes the option of allowing Canada to join at a later date. With reporting from CNBC's Ylan Mui and Tucker Higgins. Sen. Kamala Harris pressed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday about why he called a sexual assault accusation against him a "political hit" when another man President Donald Trump chose for the highest U.S. court faced no such claims. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the appeals judge angrily denied college professor Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that he assaulted her when they were in high school in 1982. Earlier in the day, Ford emotionally recounted the alleged encounter. She repeatedly said she had no political agenda but felt a "civic duty" to come forward. Asked later about his claim of a political smear, Kavanaugh said he did not think Ford herself had political motivations, but alleged Democrats used her claim for their own purposes. Harris, D-Calif., pressed Kavanaugh about why Justice Neil Gorsuch whom the Senate narrowly confirmed last year never faced an assault accusation despite a similar background. "I did a rough kind of analysis of similarities. You both attended Georgetown Prep, you both attended very prestigious law schools, you both clerked for Justice [Anthony] Kennedy, you were both circuit judges, you were both nominated to the Supreme Court, you were both questioned about your record," Harris said. "The only difference is you have been accused of sexual assault. How do you reconcile your statement about a conspiracy against you with the treatment of someone who was before this body not very long ago?" Kavanaugh argued that he "explained that in [his] opening statement." He pointed to calendars he provided from the summer of 1982, when the alleged assault happened, and statements from potential witnesses who said they did not remember the incident happening. It would not be a Trump press conference without mention of North Korea. And, in a wide-ranging encounter, lasting well over an hour, he said he thought the Yemen conflict was "getting better"; announced: "I love the Kurds!", and said he thought Iran's leaders would soon be begging him to make a deal. Some estimates put the number of radical fighters at about 10,000. He also hailed Turkey for averting an offensive in Idlib by negotiating a deal with Russian Federation. CGTN's Nathan King filed this report from the United Nations headquarters in NY. "I think he's a friend of mine, he may not be a friend of mine anymore", Trump said. "That was not laughing at me". Trump opened Tuesday's speech by boasting about an American economy that he says is "booming like never before". China has also expressed anger after the U.S. approved the sale of spare parts for F-16 fighter planes and other military aircraft worth up to $330m to self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory. His boast elicited laughter from the audience. Tough sanctions are due to kick in against Tehran in November, and Mr Trump warned there would be "severe consequences" for any nation that defied them. He's also threatening to place tariffs on cars imported from Canada as trade talks between the two neighbours drag on. On September 18, Trump sent a tweet alleging that China had "openly stated" it was trying to interfere in USA elections by targeting Trump's voter base-farmers, ranchers, and industrial workers-with its retaliatory tariffs. Seven-Year-Old Delivers Jaw-Dropping Rendition of the National Anthem The team also called Malea Emma's performance one of the best in the stadium's history. Before singing to Sunday's crowd, she practiced - singing to a lamp. Canada was left out when the United States and Mexico reached an agreement last month to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement. Flags of US and China are placed for a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing, China, June 30, 2017. Of course, Trump's bragging comment went down a treat on Twitter, leaving many dumbfounded by the president's incredible boast. Reuters/Jason LeeChina's President Xi Jinping speaks to media in front U.S. and Chinese national flags during a joint news conference with U.S. President Barack Obama (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Addressing the UN Security Council this afternoon, Mr Trump said Beijing was meddling in the upcoming vote because America is "winning on every level" in the trade war between the two countries. In July at a summit in Helsinki, Trump accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials and the United States president describes investigations into the interference as a political witch hunt. It didn't come out of nowhere. BEIJING-By claiming without offering proof that China is interfering in the USA midterm elections, President Trump not only escalated bilateral tensions, but he also helped bolster China's narrative that his real aim is to keep the country down, analysts said Thursday. A senior Trump administration official said China uses political, economic, commercial, military and information tools to influence USA public opinion and promote the interests of the Chinese government and Communist Party. According to a simulation study conducted by the European Central Bank (ECB) on Wednesday, the USA would suffer the most economically if it starts a global trade war while China would emerge better-off, despite retaliation, Reuters reports. Trump says during a news conference in NY that Canada has treated the United States "very badly" during the trade talks. And he's touting the deal he signed with South Korea earlier this week. Throughout his time in office, Trump has repeatedly downplayed Russia's attempts to interfere in the 2016 election, which United States intelligence assessments say was meant to benefit him. People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. An Air Niugini plane crashed in a lagoon off the Federal States of Micronesia after missing the runway while attempting to land. The Papua New Guinea airline said Friday that its Boeing 737-800 aircraft, P2-PXE, landed short of the runway at Chuuk International Airport. It added that each of the plane's 35 passengers and 12 crew members had been safely evacuated. The aircraft had been en route to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. "The incident occurred at 10:10am FSM local time (7:10 p.m. ET on Thursday)," the airline said in a statement on Facebook. "Air Niugini has been informed that the weather was very poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of incident." Video of the incident's aftermath soon surfaced on social media. Tweet The airline said it is now sending help to the island state and is contacting officials, passenger representatives and the crew's families. "Air Niugini is now positioning assistance to Chuuk for our passengers and crew," the airline said. "We are also in touch with the embassies, passenger representatives, stakeholders and families of the crew." "We thank everyone in Chuuk for the assistance provided today," it added. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, crew and their families at this time." It said in a follow-up statement that the airline's management will fly out to Chuuk to provide assistance, including a company doctor. Passengers of the downed flight will be able to complete their trip to Port Moresby and hotel accommodation will be provided for others, the airline said. AMD shares were dropping sharply Friday after its main competitor reassured investors about its ability to make enough chips to meet demand. Intel's interim CEO, Bob Swan, said the chipmaker has enough supply to meet its full-year revenue outlook in a letter posted on the company's website. Advanced Micro Devices shares closed down 5.2 percent Friday, while Intel's stock rose 3.1 percent. Last week Jefferies told its clients that AMD could triple its market share due to Intel's chip shortage issues. Earlier this month, J.P. Morgan said that Intel isn't making enough processor chips to meet demand and that will be a problem for PC sales this holiday quarter. The firm estimated the Intel processor and chipset shortage would hurt fourth-quarter PC shipments by 5 to 7 percent. WATCH: Ford is using bionic suits to help employees work safer Below is the transcript of an interview with SAP CEO Bill McDermott. The interview will play out in CNBC's latest episode of Managing Asia on 28 September 2018, 5.30PM SG/HK (in APAC) and 11.00PM BST time (in EMEA). If you choose to use anything, please attribute to CNBC and Christine Tan. Christine Tan: So Bill, your partnership with Alibaba started two years ago. How significant is this latest deal with Alibaba? Bill McDermott: Massive. Couple reasons for that. One is, we have moved SAP to the cloud. Fundamentally, the cloud is the best way to scale in technology and China is our second home. This is a massively important market to us and AliCloud gives us the infrastructure as a service to put the best, most modern, ERP system in the world on top to serve customers. So they can serve their customers and create an immense value. Christine Tan: Is there a value you can give me to the deal? How much do you think it's worth? Billions? Bill McDermott: Well I think the most important value I can put on it, is what will it do for the customers, their customers, and ultimately, the China dream. If you really think about our technology, today, a nine trillion US dollar equivalent value is running on the SAP platform in China. So, we have lots of large state-owned enterprises running SAP, lots of substantial brands running SAP, but with Alibaba and their leadership in small-medium sized enterprises, we can take our brand into the mid-sized company and the small company so they too can be a big company. You know, Christine, I've never met a small company yet that wanted to stay small. What a chance! Get on the SAP journey, through the AliCloud, and be big. It's exciting. Christine Tan: So, it could essentially mean billions of dollars for you, this latest deal? Bill McDermott: Absolutely. We don't do things if they're gonna be small. And I spent, you know, the whole day, really thinking about the possibilities with Jack Ma and Daniel Zhang, and we just see enormous possibilities. Christine Tan: Well you're here in China. This is a big market for you, just how fast do you see China growing for you in terms of business software? Bill McDermott: We're in a market here that is growing fast already. So our core business is growing in steep triple digits in the cloud. Now, if you add the AliCloud onto that and think about the reach that that can give us, and how quickly we can move into new markets and new relationships and new friendships built on trust, it's no telling. Maybe we grow a thousand percent a year. Why not? And beyond. That's what's possible in China. And the China dream is alive because we are going to quintuple the number of partners that we have in China in the next couple of years. We're going to double our workforce. We've already pledged to increase our revenues 10 times in China in the next few years, so this is an outstanding market and we have an executives here that are very smart, we have people in the public sector - very smart, very dilligent about what they do, and we think that we have a brand here that can really play. Christine Tan: These numbers that you talk about are huge. Could China be your number 1 market one day? Bill McDermott: It will be. It's hard to imagine it not being. I think it could easily happen coterminous with the China 2025 plan. So if I think about the China 2025 plan, what I really like about it is, not only is China interested in growing, but they're also interested in improving the human condition. Whether that's the environmental condition, the social condition, the economic condition. There are many many things that will need advanced software. There are many industries that will be reinvented, manufacturing will be reinvented. Retail has already been reinvented and it's going to continue to change. Healthcare, personalized healthcare. And SAP has the software to be in the front of all of those breakthrough changes, and we intend to be. Christine Tan: There are concerns these day, especially coming from the US about Chinese tech giants posing a security threat, a security risk. Is this something you're worried about? Bill McDermott: Not at all. In fact, one of the things I just did with Daniel, the CEO, a great friend and a really smart businessman, is we went through their process for security, intellectual property rights, and how those are protected and they have a really world class procedure. They have probably the best process I've seen for actually digitally validating IP rights, and processing things in a highly secure fashion. In fact, their error rates are the best. Their credit risks are the best because they track every step in the process digitally. So they're really a fine company. Christine Tan: So now you've tied up with Alibaba in the enterprise space. So what's next? CRM? Bill McDermott: Well, that's a really good idea. Christine Tan: You've thought about it? Bill McDermott: Oh absolutely. I think the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a key component, of the hyperscale motion in the cloud. And that's the essence of this partnership. But we intend to reinvent CRM. Today, the CRM business is thought of as: I take care of my contacts, my forecasts, my pipelines, I'm out to sell stuff, I'm out to get the money, that is today's CRM system. And that's what today's CRM market leaders think about. We think very differently. We think about the seven and a half billion consumers that are out there, that are mobile, that are social, that are on the move, that expect a personalized experience no matter where they are geographically located in any one time, in any one corner of the world. So yes, could Alibaba, for example in China, team up with SAP to deal more with the front-end demand system, whilst at the same time dealing with the back-end of supply? Absolutely. And I'm encouraged by what I saw today and I think that's likely to happen. Christine Tan: When is it likely to happen? How soon? Bill McDermott: For us, it could happen as soon as they're ready. Christine Tan: These days you're expanding into China at a time when there's an escalating trade war between the US and China. President Trump has just slapped tariffs on some 200 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports. China has retaliated in return. Are you worried that this is something that could hurt your business here in China? Bill McDermott: CEOs are very accustomed to these political challenges. Real serious issues that real serious public sector leaders, I'm sure are working day and night to solve. We understand that and we understand that the leaders of countries should always do what's in their people's best interest and business has for many years learned to work around these dislocations when they take place. So we've already worked around the possibility of this going on for a protracted amount of time... Christine Tan: When you say protracted, how long? Bill McDermott: It's not for me to predict. But I wouldn't necessarily predict today that it's going to be over quickly. This could take some time. And if it does take some time, we have a lot of customers that are counting on us to help them augment their supply chains, build products in certain countries at the most efficient price possible so they can achieve their shareholder value objectives while still satisfying their customers. We call this the digital boardroom where literally, you can have a purview of everything that's going on in your business, from the supply chain all the way through the manner in which you're caring for your customer in real-time. And I have entire countries now, presidents and prime ministers of countries, that are working with us, using this format. So what's interesting about our business is, the more challenging things are sometimes, the better we do, because they need software to overcome the challenge. And similarly, when economies are downtrodden a little bit, they're going to need software to take cost out of the equation. So we have a very resilient business for that reason. Christine Tan: In terms of impact, how much do you think this trade war could hurt the cloud and software industry? Bill McDermott: Well I don't think it's going to hurt the cloud and software industry very much. I think the issue is, would it inhibit the growth ambitions of customers that the cloud and software industry serve. And some are going to have more difficulty because they're more commodity offerings. If you have a commodity offering in technology, and the market goes down, you'll be hit harder. If you have a high value offering, with the software itself, is the solution to bail you out of the difficult situation, or to capitalize on a big market opportunity, we tend to see SAP do very well in tough as well as high-growth periods. So we're not concerned. The global economy right now is very strong, I mean I have lots of friends that are CEOs and everybody's talking about the strength of the global economy. Whether you're in America, you're in Europe or you're in Asia, everyone's talking about a strong global economy and I'm very confident that over time, the two world superpowers and the largest economies in the world will come to the table and find common interests and that's what business people want. Everyone wants the economy to continue to prosper and move forward. Christine Tan: You're here in Hangzhou, obviously you've had discussions with Alibaba's Jack Ma and Daniel Zhang. Has trade become a big discussion topic for you? When you guys come together? What are the conversations like? Bill McDermott: Well the conversation with Jack and I is just what it was with you. Governments are going to do what governments are going do. And business has to do what business has to do to work around that. And I think that both are working in good faith. We understand that. But in the mean time, we have to run our businesses and our businesses have to succeed. And you can't use excuses when you're in business, you know, the reality is you're paid to find ways to get around short-term challenges and that's really what we talked about. And then we got into the context of our partnership and how we can create a bigger pie. You see, in business, we always talk about how can we get a bigger pie and have more people share in the joy of a bigger pie, and that's how CEOs think. And that was what we were talking about. Christine Tan: As the world leader in back-office enterprise software, you're now making a big push into CRM. And you've launched C/4HANA in June. It's only been a couple of months. What's the response like so far? Bill McDermott: It's been enormous. The reality is, everybody understands the power of integration. The idea that you can connect seamlessly with your consumer and you can truly manage that consumer relationship whether a company has a direct salesforce, a call center, they use wholesalers to sell their products, they have a primary retail channel, somebody is on the mobile and doing direct to consumer purchasing. All of those channels are best served when they are, first of all, adhering to the rules and regulations of the global economy like protecting the privacy rights of the consumer and all those channels, which we were the first company to be certified as a GDPR leader. And then, now we have a transaction, we need to know the history of that customer, their likes, their social likes, their preferences, the things that they've done with us historically, their likely needs based on what they've done already. So you have smart people caring for that customer relationship and all the information is in realtime. And that's why the breathtaking HANA data platform from SAP has changed everything. Because HANA can look at all these sources, understand the data, read the data without moving it, which is a tremendous security benefit not to mention a speed benefit, and then transact the sale. Ultimately, anywhere the consumer is in the world, because geospacially, HANA knows what's going on, then you fulfill. That is the holy grail of the end-to-end customer relationship. What will that do? I think it will totally disrupt the status quo, and I live to disrupt the status quo. Christine Tan: You've got a lot of catching up to do, because there's Salesforce, which is the number 1 CRM player, well ahead of you in terms of market share, do you think you now have what it takes to overtake Salesforce to be number 1 in the CRM space? Bill McDermott: I love being the underdog. And you know there was once a time when Salesforce was the underdog in the space you remember? And they had a better idea. And the better idea won. And the reason we're going to be number 1 is because we've got a better idea and the better idea always has to win. And the thing I love about customers is that they're so smart. And the other thing about intelligent customers, is that they're always supported by an intelligent eco-system. So once the customers start swinging enmass to SAP, the eco-system then moves with them. And then what happens is, the old idea is stranded on a deserted island and the party left them. Look out, here we come. Christine Tan: You're very ambitious, but there are some analysts out there who feel that C/4HANA, your CRM, was a little bit late, still yet to prove itself in a very tough market, not to mention there's this whole issue of the cost of migration and whether you might have to offer C/4HANA free just to take in, just to bring in the numbers. How do you respond to these issues? What are you doing to speed up adoption and migration? Bill McDermott: Well a few things. One is, we're not trying to replace the status quo. We're leapfrogging and going into a whole new category. So we don't have to see another company lose for us to win. We're redefining the category, that's what's fun about what we're doing. So on the contrary of us having to give away to actually be heard, the opposite is true. The one that has the commodity and is charging too much for it, is the one that's going to get tremendous price pressure. The one that has the better idea, is innovating business models and creating massive business value that can be measured, is the one that can afford to take a piece of the value they create in earnest and customers are happy to sign on. So just the opposite is going to happen. The pressure is going to be put on the incumbent leader where the price could be a little bit too high, and the value could be a little bit too low. And that's why the better idea always wins. Christine Tan: So you think C/4HANA is your secret weapon? In the CRM space? Bill McDermott: It's probably not much of a secret if we're talking about it on TV. But I think yeah, it's the secret weapon. Christine Tan: You're 57 years old. you're the first American CEO to head SAP, you're heading some 94,000 employees. How would you describe your leadership and your management style? Bill McDermott: Humble. You have to really stay humble and not forget where you came from. You know I started out in that corner store at 16 years old as a teenage entrepreneur and I worked for great companies like Xerox and worked my way up the ladder and dealt with very large organizations at scale. And the one thing I learned is that every relationship matters, every person matters, and you win hearts and minds and you win the crowd -- one relationship, one conversation at a time. So, be humble. And then, be hungry. We have a vision to help the world run better and improve people's lives. It's a bold vision. And at the same time, we have tremendous revenue goals for the company. But they're only relevant if we're helping the world. Are we reinventing industries? Are we improving people's lives? Are we doing good things when we do well? For example yesterday, I was at a little school in China that has an autistic student base, it's called Stars and Rain and I was with the kids on the playground and we were going through projects that they were doing, and we have an autism-at-work focus at SAP and we're now doing that in 12 countries and you know, you have to have a heart. So, it's humble, it's hungry and it's ever-determined to keep changing. Christine Tan: I want to get a little bit personal. Because a couple of years ago, you lost your left eye in an accident. But that didn't stop you from getting back on your feet and doing your job. How exactly do you recover from something like that? And what lessons have you learnt along the way? Bill McDermott: Well, first of all, I never had a single moment where I was not intending to be back in the action. That never entered my mind. And the other thing, you know, about these kinds of setbacks, it's like compared to so many other people, who have gone through so many things that's so much worse than that, I'm the luckiest guy I know. And the way I look at it, you know, a lot of people think it's a tough break, you know, but you know eyesight and seeing is not just about vision and what you can see. It's how you feel. How you make other people feel. And I've entered into conversations with people now and maybe this imperfection of having withstood something like this, makes you more approachable. Because every person in the world has some kind of thunder bolt that hit them, some kind of setback, some kind of disappointment. And somehow, I became a figure that receives lots of letters, lots of calls, lots of conversations that would have never taken place. So I think that God has a plan for everybody, he certainly has a plan for me, and I'm living the dream because I get to give a little piece of what I learned to anybody who wants it. Christine Tan: Do you think you've become a better leader as a result? Bill McDermott: Without a doubt. Without a doubt, because I see things now that I didn't see. I could look at a forest and I knew there was a stream with a snow-capped mountain on the other side but I could see a lot of trees. Now I see the snow-capped mountain with the running stream first and I look right past the trees. Christine Tan: Co-founder Hasso Plattner founded SAP some 46 years ago, still sits as chairman. How influential has he been helping you drive the company's strategy? Bill McDermott: Hasso's a giant. You know when you think about Hasso Plattner, you're talking Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, I mean these are legends. He's a legend. I stand on the shoulders of a giant. I really mean that. He's a great friend. He supported me 17 years ago when I got hired at the company. He trusted me to be his co-CEO in 2010, his sole CEO in 2014, I would call Hasso and Bill genuinely good, good friends. Why? Because we trust each other. Not because we always agree, not because we were born of the same style, but because we have trust and it's the ultimate human currency. And Hasso has been extremely influential. HANA is basically Hasso's invention and he has done so many great things for SAP when you think about R3 being the ERP standard for the world and the reinvention of that and supporting us in the move to the cloud and all the other bold changes that we made, we could have never done it without Hasso. Christine Tan: Do you talk to Hasso often? Bill McDermott: I do! Christine Tan: What do you guys talk about? Bill McDermott: Well we talk about the business mostly. But he's just a fun guy you know. I'll give you an example, you know, when I was hurt, the guy who called me the most was Hasso and the guy that was the most empathetic was Hasso. So, we can go to that dimension of the relationship, or we can go into the strategy, what I'm discussing with you here today. Or we can have a technology problem in the company and I really like getting his critical thinking and his wisdom because he knows things that I don't know. In fact, he knows things that nobody else knows and I want to hear that. And I want to activate that so we can drive change. Because the most important thing is, that we win. And Hasso is a catalyst for helping us win. It's been a great friendship. Christine Tan: You know these days, your adoption and innovation cycles are happening so quickly. How much time do you spend instilling that sense of urgency within SAP so it doesn't get left behind? Bill McDermott: Daily. You know the most important thing a leader can do with a successful company is beat back the complacency disease on a daily basis. Christine Tan: You think SAP is complacent? Bill McDermott: I think any company, including SAP, can become complacent. Success is an anesthetic. You know, it gets people a little laid back. We can relax now, we made it. No you can't, because if you decide to sit back, somebody's going to take your lunch away from you. So you constantly have to be moving forward. That doesn't mean you can't celebrate. We celebrate the victories. We formalize the best recognition awards in the company. We have the Hasso Platner founder award for the great innovators. We do a lot of things to celebrate. What we try to keep in our culture, is the celebrations brief, because there's work to do and if you need a rest, take a vacation. But when we're working, we're going. And fortunately, I love to run. And most of the people I know in this company... Christine Tan: Can your people keep up with you? Are you demanding? Bill McDermott: I am demanding. But I'm fair. You know, and I'll be the first one to say, you know, if I'm pushing too hard, give me a better idea, or you can give me some critique on what I'm not doing well. Because no one's perfect and of course I have my off days too and make some dumb decisions and someone should tell me, that looks dumb, give me a better deal than that, let's do that. So I try to keep it really real, highly collaborative and very on-the-move. Christine Tan: You wrote this book, Winner's Dream. Whether it's buying your own deli, working at Xerox, or SAP, are you always relentless in pursuing that dream of yours? Have you always been that way? Bill McDermott: Yeah. I mean I think I've always been a person that worked hard. You know I like work. You know before I bought the deli at 16, I had three part-time jobs. I talk about that in the book. When I went through college and sold the deli, I went into Xerox corporation New York City and I knocked on cold doors for a living at 21. I worked my way up in the company and was very proud to be a division president at Xerox, it was an honor to be a corporate officer there. That was a big thing then. So how did you get that? You got that by going back to the office to get ready for the next day, when everybody else was going home. You know none of it comes easy and I never wanted it to come easy. And I think I'm really the lucky one that it didn't come easy because all the fights, all the things that you've done to get better and keep getting better, that just makes you who you are. Christine Tan: Any advice you can give others on how to come out winning? Bill McDermott: Yeah be you. I mean the greatest gift that we all get in our lives is the ability to be ourselves. And when you're yourself, and you're comfortable in your own skin, just being you and being the best you that you can be, you're a winner. The people that lose are the people that aren't on the right side of doing good and doing the right thing, having high moral character and integrity and living by a high standard, or the people that are just trying to be something they're not. So they're never quite comfortable, they're in an act, they're in a play, but it's not theirs and they're not very good at being somebody else. I figure I'll just be me, everyone else is taken you know? Christine Tan: And finally, what's your ultimate dream for SAP under your tenure as CEO? Bill McDermott: I would love SAP not only to be regarded as the world's greatest business software company and market leader. But also a company that has a tremendous character. Like it's just a great company. The people there, they just care. They are just so committed to the customer. And as much as, you know, we want it to get big, I think the most important thing, is to act like it's small. And keep it personal, run it like it's a start-up in the sense of personal interaction and relationships. That's what I'd love to see. Christine Tan: Bill thank you so much for talking to me. Bill McDermott: Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Christine. ENDS For more information contact Clarence Chen, Communications Manager APAC, CNBC International D: +65 6326 1123 M: +65 9852 8630 E: Clarence.Chen@cnbc.com About CNBC: CNBC is the leading global broadcaster of live business and financial news and information, reporting directly from the major financial markets around the globe with regional headquarters Singapore, Abu Dhabi, London and New York. The TV channel is available in more than 410 million homes worldwide. CNBC.com is the preeminent financial news source on the web, featuring an unprecedented amount of video, real-time market analysis, web-exclusive live video and analytical financial tools. CNBC is a division of NBCUniversal. For more information, visit www.cnbc.com. About Managing Asia: Managing Asia is the Asia Pacific region's ground-breaking interview programme featuring CEOs, entrepreneurs and other business leaders. Showtimes Asia (SIN/HK) Friday 17:30 Saturday 10:00, 19:00 Sunday 04:00, 06:00, 08:00, 18:00 Australia (SYD) Saturday 19:00, 22:00 Sunday 01:00, 03:00, 06:00, 09:00, 16:00, 18:00, 20:00 Monday 00:00 Europe (CET) Saturday 00:00, 03:00, 07:00, 16:00, 19:00 Sunday 02:00, 04:00, 06:00, 10:00, 15:00, 18:00 The third quarter is wrapping up, September is coming to a close, and CNBC's can finally breathe. "The third quarter's in the bag and it's been a good one best in five years. Even September was good, and historically, that tends to be a rough month," the "Mad Money" host said on Friday. "In fact, the market's been so robust that you have to think long and hard about stocks that have lagged behind here." The two that stood out to Cramer were Tesla and Facebook, both of which dropped on Friday on "self-inflicted wounds," he said. At Tesla, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged CEO Elon Musk with fraud, sending shares of the automaker into a nosedive. On the other side of the tech arena, Facebook's stock plunged nearly 3 percent on news that the social media colossus discovered a "security issue" that spread to nearly 50 million user accounts. But barring those two instances, Cramer was pleased with how the quarter turned out. With that in mind, he turned to his weekly game plan, which includes a market-critical report on Friday: Monday: Stitch Fix Online shopping service Stitch Fix, a new Cramer-fave, will report earnings on Monday. The company is already profitable and rapidly growing its revenues, so Cramer expected a good result. "One look at their website tells you exactly how powerful this story is," he said. "Stitch Fix has that rare ability to convert users of the service into buyers of the stock like Tesla, except it's making money." While shares of Stitch Fix have fallen in the last several weeks on worries about competition from Amazon, Cramer saw the decline as an opportunity. "You have my blessing to buy some Stitch Fix both before and after the quarter," he told investors. Tuesday: PepsiCo, Paychex PepsiCo: Snack and beverage giant PepsiCo's Tuesday earnings report will be a "bittersweet moment" for Cramer as longtime CEO Indra Nooyi prepares to step down from her post the following day. "Indra reinvented the company, transforming it from a carbonated soda and salty snacks business into a more diversified operation with many healthy offerings. I've come to respect her not only for her business acumen, but, perhaps more important, for her leadership role as an executive focused on doing good works worldwide," the "Mad Money" host said. "Indra was well ahead of the curve on important issues like diversity, equality and sustainability," he continued. "I'm hoping she stays on as a highly visible role model for everybody, especially billions of women, around the globe." As for the actual report, Cramer expected a good quarter that would send the stock higher, but warned that "the sector remains extremely out of favor" on Wall Street. Paychex: The Federal Reserve's latest interest rate hike is "basically free money" for payroll processors like Paychex, but this quarter, the old-line administrative giant may have run into a problem, Cramer said. "The competition among companies that advise on business services like retirement savings one of their smaller divisions has gotten very fierce," he said ahead of the company's Tuesday earnings report. "More important, we know that Square, the ambitious point-of-sale kingpin that we like so much, has decided to get into the payroll processing business itself. Square's a big-time disruptor and they're all about small- and medium-sized business, which is very much Paychex's wheelhouse," Cramer continued. "Call me conflicted." Wednesday: Lennar Corp. On Wednesday, investors will get an update on what Cramer called "one of the most despised sectors in the market: housing." While the Fed's rate hikes may benefit the financial sector, they tend to hurt housing stocks because they signal mortgage rates could rise, so Cramer was worried about homebuilder Lennar's earnings report on Wednesday. "What can I say? I've rarely ever seen the housing stocks go up during this phase of the Fed tightening cycle regardless of how well the companies are actually doing," he said. "I say you've got to be careful with Lennar." Thursday: Constellation Brands, Costco Wholesale Constellation Brands: The alcohol distributor will report on Thursday, and Cramer expects Wall Street to create some conflict even if the quarter is strong. "If you want to see what happens when a visionary company tries to deal with a skeptical analyst community, then watch how one trades," he said. "I expect Constellation's beer sales we're talking Modelo and Corona are better than the rest of the industry, but that still might not be enough to boost the stock." Cramer referenced Constellation's investment in cannabis producer Canopy Growth, which some investors interpreted as Constellation's leaders having a lack of confidence in their core business. "Without a re-acceleration of both wine and beer sales, I bet the stock would get punished. If that happens, I would want to be a buyer of Constellation's stock," he said. "Why? Well, [besides] the fact that it [has] great management, I think the weed strategy makes a ton of sense." Costco: Retailer Costco will report its quarterly results after Thursday's closing bell, and Cramer expects "numbers that are superior to most of the industry." "The stock's up 26 percent for the year, so it is priced for perfection, but that's precisely what Costco's been giving us," he said. "One new wrinkle, though: worries about tariffs and whether Costco eats the new costs rather than passes them on to club members. They could be enough of an overhang to mute the terrific numbers I'm anticipating." Friday: Non-farm payroll report On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department will release its non-farm payroll report, which Cramer has long dubbed an extremely critical piece of data when it comes to the welfare of the stock market. This time, however, "things are tricky" with the jobs report, he said: if it's weaker than expected, concerns will arise that the Fed is raising rates in an already-cooling economy. If it's stronger than anticipated, there will be calls for more rate hikes. "It's the most worrisome part of every tightening cycle," the "Mad Money" host said. "I think the Fed's doing a great job and I think we're going to get a Goldilocks number, one that's strong enough to refute the slowdown story but weak enough in terms of higher wages to withstand the inflation narrative." Final thoughts All things considered, Friday's report will really be the make-or-break number for the market next week, Cramer said. "As we enter the first week of the fourth quarter, Friday's labor report is by far the most important number, and if it doesn't come in just right like it's been for ages then you've got to be ready for a bit of a sell-off, because after this strong quarter, we might as well be set up for one," he told investors. WATCH: Cramer's game plan for the first week of Q4 The pan-European STOXX 600 closed 0.74 percent lower, with the majority of the region's sectors slipping into negative territory. Italy's FTSE MIB index tumbled more than 3.7 percent after Rome agreed to set a higher than expected budget deficit target that could put it on a collision course with Brussels. European markets were hit hard on Friday, as investors reacted to political turmoil in Europe and overseas. Looking at sectors across the region, banks were worst performers on Friday, down around 2.6 percent with a number of Italian banks dropping to the bottom of the STOXX 600. Lenders including Unicredit, Banco BPM and Intesa Sanpaolo all fell more than 7 percent. Italy's government set a budget deficit target at 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over the course of 2019 to 2021. This came following media reports on the same day which suggested that Italy's populist administration were pressing the country's finance minister to resign if he didn't deliver the pledges made during the campaign. A spokesperson for the finance minister however told CNBC the rumors were "fake news." Looking at individual stocks, Saab soared more than 8 percent after news emerged that Boeing had secured a $9.2 billion to build Air Force's next trainer aircraft and it was partnering with the Swedish manufacturer to do it. Sticking with strong gainers, shares of Dutch semiconductor company ASM International shot up by over 2.6 percent after Bloomberg reported that Chinese firm TCL was mulling a bid for its remaining stake in its listed Asian affiliate. Meanwhile, RSA Insurance published a trading update Friday, stating that it had seen a "strong" third quarter in its international businesses, however it's U.K. and London market business issued an underwriting loss, which they said was "disappointing" and had negatively impacted overall results. Shares slumped toward the bottom of the benchmark, dropping over 9 percent. Ryanair expected to see staff members strike across six countries in Europe on Friday. Shares of the airline closed under pressure. Stateside, the Dow and S&P 500 bounced back to trade slightly higher on Friday, boosted by gains in energy and healthcare companies. WASHINGTON The Pentagon's largest weapons supplier just cut a deal with the Defense Department for the next batch of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters a program with an initial acquisition cost of $406.5 billion. The latest contract for 141 of Lockheed Martin's F-35's will come at a price tag of $11.5 billion, the lowest in the history of the weapons program. Of the 141 aircraft, 91 will be used by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps and the remaining 50 will be used by international program partners and customers. The Air Force, which is buying the lion's share of jets, will spend $89.2 million for their F-35A's. Meanwhile, the Marine Corps and Navy will spend $115.5 million and $107.7 million on their F-35B and F-35C aircraft, respectively. In the prior contract, the Air Force's jet was priced at $94.3 million, the Marine Corps jet at $122.4 million, and the Navy $121.2 million. "Driving down cost is critical to the success of this program," said Vice Admiral Mat Winter, the executive officer for the F-35 program, in a statement. "This agreement for the next lot of F-35s represents a fair deal for the U.S. government, our international partnership and industry. We remain focused on aggressively reducing F-35 cost and delivering best value." The F-35, a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, has become one of the most challenged programs in the history of the Department of Defense. The laundry list of setbacks includes faulty ejection seats, software delays and helmet-display issues. Even before Thursday's explosive Senate hearing, polls showed a majority of Americans had already turned against President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But when it comes to matters before the Senate, popular opinion doesn't count. By design, the founders gave states with small populations the same weight as big states in the deliberative body. Proportional representation was left to the House. On Thursday, Kavanaugh's nomination was the subject of nearly nine hours of dramatic, emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were high school students in Maryland in 1982. If you haven't visited a college campus, secondhand store or seen "Crazy Rich Asians," in which one of the central characters possesses a Jamba Juice freebie card, you may not have heard: Thrift is cool. In hospitality, that spirit has worked its way from Airbnb mania to spinoff hotel brands and independent properties that promise the travel equivalent of fast fashion. "Cheap chic is in," said Chekitan Dev, a professor of marketing at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the author of "Hospitality Branding." "The cheap chic hotel brand trend is in line with tiny houses and other minimalist lifestyle trends that are sweeping the country." Read more from the NYTimes: Rome, through the eyes of Flavius Josephus China's women-only subway cars, where men rush in The struggling artist at 86 Among new hotel introductions heeding the thrifty hip movement, InterContinental Hotels Group just launched Avid, a new brand featuring well-equipped gyms, Chobani yogurt and Kind granola in the breakfast buffets, and rates from $80. The stylish London-based Hoxton hotels made their American debut this month with the Hoxton, Williamsburg in New York, with three restaurants, a rooftop lounge and bed linens from the Brooklyn label Dusen Dusen in $159 rooms. The style-focused consortium Design Hotels recently introduced a "luxe for less" collection with rooms under 200 euros, or about $233. Bargains, of course, are relative to markets and perceptions. The hotel analytics firm STR identifies the average daily rate (known as A.D.R.) at hotels in the top 25 markets in the country over the past year as $130. That averages out places like New York, where annual A.D.R. is $240, along with Detroit at $104. The democratizing-design trend dovetails with the rise of millennial travelers. "At an early stage of their travel cycle, millennials have less money to spend and are extremely value conscious," Prof. Dev said. "They will pay only for those items that give them pleasure, so boring design, bad technology and unnecessary amenities are out and thoughtful and minimal design, fast and free technology and useful amenities are in." But they're not the only ones driving the trend, according to Richard Born, a principal at BD Hotels, which anticipated downsized rooms with its first Pod Hotel in New York in 2007. The five Pod Hotels in New York and Washington, D.C., draw travelers of all ages who tend to share an interest in style. "It's about price, but it's not just about price," Mr. Born said. "It's about price, style, design and experience." Unscripted Durham Source: Unscripted Durham Thrifty Brands Challenged by Airbnb, major hotel groups have been expanding their vertical portfolios downward on the price scale and introducing more updated affordable brands. In addition to Avid, newcomers include Moxy Hotels from Marriott, which embraces a party spirit. At the new Moxy Chicago Downtown, for example, the front desk is a bar, and rooms that look into other rooms across a courtyard come with message boards to communicate things like "Meet me in the lobby" to the voyeur across the way (rooms from $170). The Dream Hotel Group introduced the playful Unscripted brand with its first Unscripted Durham in Durham, N.C., in a former 1960s-vintage motel with a rooftop pool and bar (from $129). It plans future openings in Belize and Mexico. In Israel, Brown Hotels spun off the free-spirited the Dave Son of a Brown in Tel Aviv, which recently hosted a tattoo artist pop-up shop (from $125). In Japan, Hoshino Resorts launched Omo earlier this year with minimalist design (from about $45). Source: Hotel Eleven Austin Tiny Rooms Aiming to attract diverse travelers, some hotels offer a few tiny rooms at substantial savings. Among 14 rooms, Hotel Eleven in Austin, Tex., offers two 230-square-foot "crashpads" starting at $159. "When people come to Austin, they don't really want to spend time in their hotel rooms," said Mark Vornberg, the hotel's co-owner and architect. "The crashpad was developed as a place to sleep. It still has to have a great bed and a great shower, but it doesn't need a living room. The city is your living room." When the 612-room Moxy Times Square opened in New York last year, it introduced 19 crash pad rooms for $99 each (others from $149). The 120 square-foot crash pads can only be ordered from the menu of the rooftop bar, Magic Hour, after 11 p.m. "Our team anticipated that many of our rooftop patrons would like to 'take the elevator home,' keep the party going and crash downstairs," wrote Mitchell Hochbert, the president of Lightstone, which developed the hotel, in an email. A hotel with a luxe-to-less price range may also better serve groups like wedding parties, where budgets can vary. The East Austin Hotel, opening in November with a courtyard pool, restaurant and rooftop bar, will house 75 rooms, including 13 "cabins," or rooms with double beds and shared bathrooms on a single floor, starting at $99. The highest-end poolside suites start at $299. "It's all in one facility because the person that travels in a cabin this year may in fact want a poolside cabana next time," said Jeff Trigger, the founder and president of La Corsha Hospitality Group, which owns the East Austin. "The people that are going to stay in our place want that eclectic style. They're not coming to be in an environment where everybody is the same." Phoenix Hotel, San Francisco Bargains by Design Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. Andrew Harnik | Bloomberg | Getty Images A lawyer for Mark Judge, the high school buddy of embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, told CNBC that Judge "will answer any and all questions posed to him" by the FBI about serious sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh. The cooperation offer came after several senators asked for Kavanaugh's final confirmation vote to be delayed until the FBI has a chance to investigate claims that he tried to rape a 15-year-old girl when he was 17 at a gathering in the early 1980s while Judge was present. President Donald Trump within hours of that said, "I've ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh's file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week." Before Trump's order, Judge's lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, told CNBC in an email, "If the FBI or any law enforcement agency requests Mr. Judge's cooperation, he will answer any and all questions posed to him." Kavanaugh, in a statement released from the White House, said, "Throughout this process, I've been interviewed by the FBI, I've done a number of 'background' calls directly with the Senate, and yesterday, I answered questions under oath about every topic the Senators and their counsel asked me. I've done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate." Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee for days have blasted the Republican majority for not issuing a subpoena to Judge to testify at that committee this past Thursday. At that explosive hearing, Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist, testified that Kavanaugh had attacked her during a gathering in a private home with several high school students about 36 years ago. Kavanaugh vehemently denied her allegations, and accused Democrats of engaging in a conspiracy to thwart his elevation to the high court. Judge was the only other person who Ford has said was in the room during the alleged attack, which would have occurred when he and Kavanaugh were students at Georgetown Prep, an all-boys Jesuit high school in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. But Ford alleged that other people were present at the party itself. Later on Friday, a lawyer for Patrick J. Smyth, another of Kavanaugh's classmates alleged to have been at the gathering, said his client "is happy to cooperate fully with this FBI investigation." Ford testified that both Judge and Kavanaugh were extremely drunk and laughing as Kavanaugh grinded his body against hers on a bed, and tried to take off her clothes. She testified that the attack only ended after Judge jumped on the bed, sending them tumbling off of it. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee repeatedly called for an FBI investigation that would question Judge and other people who Ford has said were at the house that day. But Kavanaugh refused under questioning by Democrats to call for an FBI probe. And until Friday, Republicans on the committee had likewise refused to request that the bureau reopen its background investigation of Kavanaugh. Judge, who has admitted to abusing alcohol in high school, has said he has no memory of the incident described by Ford. Author Mark G. Judge featured on Encounter Books webpage Source: www.encounterbooks.com And, "I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes," Judge said in a letter to the Judiciary Committee on Thursday. He also told the committee that "I do not want to comment about these events publicly." "As a recovering alcoholic and a cancer survivor, I have struggled with depression and anxiety," his letter said. "As a result, I avoid public speaking." On Friday, Judge sent the Judiciary Committee a letter strongly denying claims by another accuser, Julie Swetnick. Swetnick has said that during house parties in the early 1980s, she saw Judge and Kavanaugh spike punch with grain alcohol or drugs to lower the inhibitions of girls so they then could be gang raped. Swetnick had also said she saw Judge and Kavanaugh waiting in lines of boys to take their "turn" with girls who had become "inebriated and disoriented" at such parties. Judge denied knowing Swetnick, which he noted was submitted "under penalty of felony." He also said, "I will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that is assigned to confidentially investigate these allegations." LifePoint Health could pay out nearly $120 million to four of its top executives after private equity firm Apollo Global Management closes its acquisition later this year, according to a new securities filing. Chairman and CEO Bill Carpenter III stands to get more than half of that money, $69.7 million, according to a proxy statement filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He announced earlier this week plans to retire once the Tennessee-based for-profit hospital completes the deal. David Dill, the president and COO of LifePoint, will become the new CEO. He is also listed to receive more than $25.3 million. LifePoint is a health-care provider that operates mostly in rural communities. Given the size of the company a $2.5 billion market cap the compensation is a little on the high side, Brian Tanquilut, health-care services equity researcher at Jefferies, told CNBC. However, Tanquilut said shareholders are expected to receive a "pretty decent premium" when the deal is expected to close later this year, so "if you're a shareholder you'd probably vote for it." LifePoint shareholders will receive $65 per share in cash for each share of LifePoint common stock, a premium of about 36 percent over LifePoint's closing price on July 20, 2018, the last trading day prior to the announcement. The deal values LifePoint at about $5.6 billion, which includes $2.9 billion of debt and other interests. LifePoint's severance plan has a "double-trigger" that provides golden parachutes for its top four executives if there's a so-called change in control as in the case of the acquisition, the company said. To receive the maximum severance, the executive will also have to leave the company, generally in good standing, within 18 months after the deal closes. Shareholders will get a nonbinding vote on the compensation package, which the board is recommending for approval. LifePoint didn't return a request for comment. U.S. health-care companies have been criticized for paying their executives sky-high salaries and other benefits as many Americans struggle to pay their medical bills due to high health-care costs. That includes the nonprofit sector. According to a study in the Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, salary increases for nonprofit hospital CEOs outpaced those for surgeons and other health-care workers by 93 percent over a 10-year period. The deal brings together LifePoint and Apollo's RCCH HealthCare Partners, two hospital companies that operate mainly in the rural United States. Meanwhile, Democrats questioned Ford on their own. Christine Blasey Ford's claims has not been conducted. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, Mitchell's current boss, doesn't share those concerns. Mitchell is the sex crimes Division Chief for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the accusation. But Westerhausen, a Democrat, said Mitchell's political affiliation would have no influence on Thursday's hearing. Others said they believed Kavanaugh had been assaulted, but that it had likely been by someone else and that she had simply mistaken their identity. In an interview with Frontline magazine in 2011, she was asked about some of the "common misconceptions" about sexual crimes against children, according to The Guardian. Mitchell said she had been drawn to prosecuting sex crimes after a stint working as a law clerk for an attorney on a case involving a youth choir director. Hirono also said Kavanaugh had been "credibly accused" but then lashed out at Republicans for "prejudging" Ford in advance of hearing her testimony. "The committee meeting is going to go ahead because I don't feel we should disadvantage Dr. Ford anymore than she's already been disadvantaged in the sense of people wondering if the hearing was going to be last week or this week or whatever else". "I've taken this additional step to have questions asked by expert staff counsel to establish the most fair and respectful treatment of the witnesses possible". Others HuffPost spoke to had a less charitable explanation for his decision. Happy Death Day 2U: Horror sequel gets Valentine's Day release date When a masked killer suddenly takes her life in a brutal attack, she once again magically wakes up in Carter's dorm room unharmed. In the sequel, Tree will discover that dying over and over was surprisingly easier than the dangers that lie ahead. And isn't that what the Democrats said they wanted in the first place, the opportunity for Ford to tell her story so that the public could judge her credibility? Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told reporters. "[A senator] will do something that you guys will run 24/7, and inadvertently somebody will do something that's insensitive", he told reporters Monday. In 2003, she was honored as Outstanding Arizona Sexual Assault Prosecutor of the Year by Terry Goddard (Arizona's state attorney general at the time) and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano-a centrist Democrat who was reelected governor of Arizona in 2006 and went on to become secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama. She'll be in the pivotal role of representing the 11 Republican - and male - members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who selected Mitchell in part to avoid the appearance of an all-male GOP bloc scrutinizing Ford's allegations. The Associated Press reports that Mitchell in 2014 prosecuted the case of a former church volunteer in Scottsdale, Ariz. who molested children he supervised as a church babysitter and camp counselor over a period of seven years. She is the deputy county attorney for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and chief of the Special Victims Division, two positions from which she is now on leave, Grassley said. I recognize that testifying publicly about sexual assault allegations may be hard for Dr. Ford, so I have offered her the opportunity to testify in any of four possible venues: (1) a public hearing; (2) a private hearing; (3) a public staff interview; or (4) a private staff interview. Another of Ford's lawyers, Michael Bromwich, complained: 'This is not a criminal trial for which the involvement of an experienced sex crimes prosecutor would be appropriate. "Grassley has stated that they are trying to depoliticize this; they are trying to get to the truth", he said. Farmers hand pick sweet corn on in Olathe, Colorado. Helen H. Richardson | The Denver Post | Getty Images With the existing farm bill set to expire after Sunday and no deal reached by a joint House and Senate conference committee, it's likely the legislation will be taken up by a lame-duck session of Congress after the November midterm elections. Yet the looming expiration has more immediate ramifications for 39 so-called orphan programs because they have authorization or funding tied to the 2014 Farm Bill. They include a government-funded trade promotion program utilized by various U.S. agricultural sectors, including some targeted with retaliatory tariffs by China and others. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who chairs the House-Senate farm bill conference committee, said in a statement Friday that the focus is "on getting a conference agreement on the farm bill as soon as possible to minimize the impact." "Time is getting short," said Kevin Skunes, a corn and soybean grower from North Dakota and president of the National Corn Growers Association. "If the bill expires, some funding for our export program called 'Foreign Market Development' will be impacted." Another program that doesn't have baseline funding after Sept. 30 is for organic agriculture. Also at risk are certain bioenergy and rural business development programs as well as a program to assist military veteran farmers. In all, the affected programs had estimated mandatory spending amounting to about $2.8 billion during the five-year farm bill, according to a Congressional Research Service report issued in May. "While this total may be a relatively small fraction of total farm bill spending (0.6 percent of the $489 billion five-year total projection), the effect may be particularly important to specific farm bill titles and to the programs' beneficiaries," the report said. Regardless, the USDA's big-ticket programs such as crop insurance as well as nutrition programs would still continue on after the current farm bill expires Sunday. Both chambers of Congress passed a farm bill in June but major differences between the bills have led to delays in finalizing an agreement. Faith activists hold signs during a news conference with faith leaders to 'urge lawmakers to reject proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the Farm Bill' on Monday, May 7, 2018. Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty Images For one, the Senate's $428 billion farm bill didn't have stricter work rule requirements for food stamp recipients, or people participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The White House and conservatives in the House has pushed for the SNAP changes, but Democrats oppose tougher work rules for the government's food assistance program. Farm subsidy reform, meantime, is another sticking point in reaching a compromise along with policy on land conservation programs. The House version of the farm bill eliminates the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), which is utilized by forest and farm landowners. CSP is the nation's largest conservation program with more than 70 million acres enrolled in the program, according to the USDA. 'Big Four' meeting Agriculture committee leaders from both the House and Senate met Wednesday and issued a joint statement afterward reporting they had made "progress toward an agreement." The so-called Big Four Agriculture Committee Chairmen Roberts, and Rep. K. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, and ranking members Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn. didn't meet in person Thursday and nothing was planned for Friday, according to congressional sources. Even with orphan programs at risk, agriculture committee leaders are hopeful a solution will be found. "Provisions in both House and Senate farm bills would address funding uncertainty for several programs going forward," Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Roberts said in a statement Friday. The Kansas Republican added, "It is expected that this situation will be similar to previous experiences, including during 2012 and 2008." The farm bill is usually renewed every five years, and the lion's share of the bill's funding is devoted to programs such as food stamps. There's been a history of the legislative delays with previous farm bills. Sometimes the bills have lapsed for a month or more and led to temporary extensions. Even if Congress votes for an extension of the current farm bill, however, agricultural executives say it won't replace funding gaps for the government's Foreign Market Development (FMD), or trade promotion program. "Foreign Market Development is one of 39 programs that are below $50 million per year that won't be funded without a new farm bill," said Steve Mercer, a spokesman for U.S. Wheat Associates, a trade group that markets American wheat to international buyers. Still, some lawmakers have suggested that the third leg of the USDA's massive emergency relief plan for farmers impacted by retaliatory tariffs could be used to cushion any FMD funding gaps. The emergency plan includes $6 billion in initial relief, including $200 million specifically for an Agricultural Trade Promotion Program. But that trade-related aid isn't scheduled to be allocated to participants until early 2019. Organizations such as U.S. Wheat Associates receive funds from the $34.5 million FMD program to help develop, maintain and grow export markets. Other groups that receive trade promotion funding under the FMD program include the U.S. Meat Export Federation, U.S. Grains Council, American Hardwood Export Council and American Soybean Association. "It's kind of a double whammy when you look at it," said Mercer, explaining that the industry is facing an approaching funding gap on top of the retaliatory tariffs imposed by two large importers China and Mexico. According to Mercer, China essentially stopped purchasing U.S. wheat imports in March and Mexico slowed imports of the commodity. "If we don't have this cornerstone funding program to limit those losses, we're really getting handicapped to get our exports back on track," he said. But with midterms elections less than 40 days away and potential for political risk, there's a growing recognition that Congress will wait despite missing the Sept. 30 deadline. "The mood in Washington is the real deadline is maybe not until December," said Andrew Walmsley, director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation, a trade group for agricultural producers. If Congress fails to agree on a new farm bill in December, though, Warmsley said the situation could get "daunting" and create uncertainty for the industry since it would essentially mean restarting the whole process for a new bill in 2019 with a new Congress. Moreover, if Congress punts the farm bill into 2019 without an extension it could have a major impact on dairy farmers and also result in some programs reverting back to what's known as "permanent law," or rate structures based on legislation from the 1940s. "I put my money where my mouth is," says Gates, who added that she's watching the debate around the law and collecting relevant data. Gates established Pivotal Ventures in 2015 to gather and analyze data related to improving gender and ethnic diversity and in key sectors such as technology, media and venture capital. Pivotal Ventures also acts as a Limited Partner, investing in venture capital firms that prioritize backing diverse founders. The California law which would apply to publicly-traded companies with principal executive offices in the state would require a company to appoint at least one woman to its board of directors by 2019 and for boards of more than five to include at least two women by 2021. It was passed by the state Senate 23-9 and the Assembly 41-26 last month. Now it just needs Governor Jerry Brown's signature, which could happen as soon as Sunday night. More data is needed to determine if a California bill mandating gender equity on corporate boards is the right way to create meaningful results, said Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in an interview earlier this week with Squawk Box Anchor Becky Quick. At the 3,000 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., 84 percent of corporate board members are male, according to data collected by 2020 Women on Boards, which advocates for increasing the percentage of women on U.S. company boards to at least 20 percent by 2020. In that same group, 17 percent did not have one female director, according to research firm Equilar. That includes 86 companies in California. "Sometimes quotas make sense for a time, to get things going," said Gates. "One of the countries that has the most number of women parliamentarians is Rwanda. It's because President Kagame came in and said, 'We will have at least 40 percent of women parliamentarians.' They are way over that now." Advocacy groups behind the bill believe government-mandated quotes are the only way to go because change thusfar without them has been painfully slow. "Women have been knocking on the doors of corporate board rooms for years here in California, we had a resolution five years ago to urge corporations to listen to the drumbeat of the issue, but that doesn't work," said Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, a corporate partner of the National Association of Women Business Owners owners, California, which co-sponsored the bill. Berkhemer-Credaire is also the chief executive officer at 2020 Women On Boards. "Nothing works because the system is so entrenched," she said. "It is a historic decision not just in the state but in the influence it would have in the country." Gates said that while she remains unsure of whether quotas are the way to create real progress in the U.S., "I know we need to do something to accelerate women in business." Video by Mary Stevens. Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube! Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey and Larry Page need to grow up, says Scott Galloway. To weather the ongoing public backlash against big tech, the NYU professor thinks the CEOs of Tesla, Twitter, Alphabet and other major tech companies need to get their act together. "These individuals in the tech industry, in my view, are not acting like men, they're acting like children," says Galloway, a successful serial entrepreneur and marketing guru who is a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. Galloway has founded multiple companies, including New York City-based L2 Inc., a 150-employee business intelligence firm that sold to research company Gartner for an undisclosed amount in 2017. He's also served on the boards of companies such as Eddie Bauer, Urban Outfitters and The New York Times Company. One big problem, according to Galloway, is that these tech CEOs had previously received so much adulation from the media, customers and investors alike hailing them as genius innovators. At a certain point, he says, it's easy to get caught up in the praise and believe your own hype to the point that you think the rules no longer apply to you. "In our society, we no longer worship at the altar of kindness and character, we worship at the altar of innovators and billionaires," Galloway tells CNBC Make It. "And our new heroes are people like Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey or Larry Page from Google. But, I would argue that they're not acting like adults and they're not acting like men." He adds: "If you're successful, you'll find it's really easy to begin to believe how just f------ awesome you are. Real men realize that nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems [and] success and greatness is accomplished in the agency of others." Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has been the subject of a string of negative headlines in recent months, from reportedly poor conditions for Tesla factory workers to a defamation lawsuit after Musk called a British rescue diver a "pedo guy." Musk was also criticized for drinking whiskey and smoking marijuana during a podcast interview. Now, the SEC has slapped Musk with fraud charges alleging Musk issued "false and misleading" statements when he tweeted in August that he'd secured financing to take Tesla private before later walking back those claims. On Thursday, Musk called the SEC's charges "unjustified." Galloway's advice to Musk is to "put down the blunt." Twitter and Google, along with other internet giants like Facebook, have faced quite a bit of criticism in recent years over issues like user privacy, online harassment, and data breaches to name a few. Twitter CEO Dorsey recently endured a congressional grilling on Capitol Hill over topics such as Russian election meddling and claims of political bias by Twitter. Meanwhile, Page (who co-founded Google and now serves as CEO of parent company Alphabet) avoided testifying before Congress on many of those same issues, and he has instead sent Google CEO Sundar Pichai to meet with lawmakers. Galloway criticized Page and Google for not sending a representative to testify in front of Congress sooner. "Respect for institutions, humility this is what makes a man," Galloway tells CNBC Make It. Galloway thinks these tech CEOs need to hold themselves more accountable for the issues that have led to the public backlash against executives like Musk and companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook. It's more important than ever for prominent business leaders to act like adults and check their egos at the door, Galloway says. "Show up on time, put on a tie, be kind, do not throw your weight around." Don't Miss: Self-made millionaire: 3 things you need to do to be successful, happy and wealthy by age 30 Elon Musk: Starting SpaceX and Tesla were 'the dumbest things to do' Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube! OPEC producers and President Donald Trump are both embracing a "show me" attitude to energy market uncertainty, analysts told CNBC on Friday, as traders speculate about the possibility of $100 a barrel before year-end. "The market and certainly the U.S. president is saying to OPEC and Saudi Arabia: 'Show me the barrels,'" Herman Wang, OPEC specialist at S&P Global Platts, told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Friday. "And Saudi Arabia and OPEC have kind of turned around and said: 'Well, show me the demand,'" he added. Earlier this week, Trump urged OPEC to ramp up production levels to prevent further price rises ahead of the mid-term elections in November. Trump's calls for the Middle-East dominated cartel to raise global production levels comes as the U.S. prepares to impose targeted crude sanctions against Iran in around five weeks' time. Further to this, Washington is also asking buyers of Iranian oil to slash imports to zero to force Tehran to negotiate a new nuclear agreement. OPEC and non-OPEC producers were initially expected to be reluctant to immediately respond to heightened pressure from the Trump administration, but Saudi Arabia is now expected to quietly add additional barrels of oil to the market over the next couple of months. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein speaks at the Compliance Week 13th Annual Conference in Washington, May 21, 2018. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has agreed to speak privately with lawmakers following reports he'd discussed secretly recording President Donald Trump. A person familiar with the situation says Rosenstein agreed to the meeting during a call Thursday evening with the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. GOP Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, tweeted Friday that Republican leaders agreed to ask Rosenstein for a private meeting and said lawmakers would subpoena Rosenstein if he refused to answer questions. But the person familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, says Rosenstein had agreed to the meeting before that tweet. Trump is to meet next week with Rosenstein, who's overseeing the special counsel investigation into Russian election-meddling. Walgreens Boots Alliance said Friday it has agreed to pay a $34.5 million fine to settle an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC was investigating whether the drugstore chain's former chief executive and former chief financial officer failed to provide adequate warning about the risks associated with Walgreens' planned merger with Alliance Boots. The SEC said former CEO Greg Wasson and then-CFO Wade Miquelon acted "negligently" when giving financial forecasts in June, October and December 2013 and March 2014 during earnings calls. Wasson and Miquelon were ordered to pay a $160,000 fine. In settling, Walgreens and the executives neither admitted nor denied the allegations. When Walgreens announced a two-step merger with Alliance Boots in June 2012, it projected the new company would generate $9 billion to $9.5 billion in combined adjusted operating income in the 2016 fiscal year. However, the SEC alleged that after completion of the first step of the merger, Walgreens' internal forecasts showed the company was at a "significantly" greater risk of missing those estimates. Yet the two executives publicly reaffirmed the forecasts, the SEC alleged. By November 2013, Walgreens had realized that an unanticipated increase in price of generic drugs would put further pressure on Walgreens' "already lagging" pharmacy business, the SEC said. The company lowered its fiscal 2016 forecast on Dec. 13. Since management was aware of the risk prior to December 2013, Walgreens' disclosures "failed to adequately disclose the increase in the risk," the agency said. Then in 2014, Walgreens decided its 2016 operating income goal was "no longer reasonably attainable." It withdrew those goals on its June 24 earnings call and told investors it would soon provide a new set of goals. On Aug. 6, Walgreens gave a new earnings per share estimate that translated to an adjusted operating income of $7.2 billion for fiscal year 2016, a 20 percent decline from its initial estimate. Shares fell 14.3 percent when Walgreens announced the new financial targets, according to the SEC. "Over multiple reporting periods, senior Walgreens executives misled investors about the company's public financial goal," Stephanie Avakian, co-director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in a statement. "The penalty assessed against Walgreens is intended to punish and deter such conduct, which deprived investors of information necessary to make fully informed investment decisions." Walgreens in 2012 took a 45 percent stake in Alliance Boots for $6.7 billion with the option to later buy the remaining 55 percent. It closed the complete transaction at the end of 2014. Wasson started as Walgreens' CEO in 2009 and left in 2015 when the merger with Alliance Boots closed and current CEO Stefano Pessina took the helm of the combined company. Miquelon served as Walgreens' CFO from 2008 and departed in August 2014. Read the full filing here. Savji Dholakia, the owner of Hare Krishna Exporters has done it again. The Surat-based diamond merchant has gifted three Mercedes-Benz GLS SUVs worth Rs 3 crore to senior three staffers who completed 25 years at the company. The luxury SUVs were gifted to employees at a ceremony in Surat. The on-road price of a Mercedes-Benz GLS 350d SUV in Surat is currently around Rs 1 crore. Nilesh Jada (40), Mukesh Chandpara (38) and Mahesh Chandpara (43), who had joined the company in their early teens and now look after key departments of management, cleaving and manufacturer, respectively received the gifts. The car keys were handed over to them by Madhya Pradesh governor and former Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel. The Gujarat-based businessman had earlier gifted Datsun redi-GO cars to more than 1200 employees. "These three had joined us when they were just around 13 or or 15 years old. They started with learning to cut diamonds and polish it and now they are not only experts but most senior and one of the most trusted people of our company," Dholakia told TOI. Hare Krishna Exporters employs more than 5500 people. The company makes a annual turnover of Rs 6,000 crore. Savjibhai Dholakia, known as Savjikaka in Surat and Saurashtra, hails from Dudhala village in Amreli district. Dholakia came to Surat in 1977 on a state transport bus with just Rs 12.5 with him as ticket fare before he built over Rs 6,000 crore diamond business. The SEC's complaint of fraud against Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a "road map to criminal charges," said Jim Stewart, on of The New York Times reporters behind an explosive interview with the billionaire tech executive. "[The complaint] says over and over again. It talks about the [short sellers] and the implied motive that he wanted to punish the shorts, which would be a manipulation," Stewart, also a CNBC contributor, told "Squawk on the Street" on Friday. "It doesn't matter in a SEC case what his motive is. That goes only to criminal intent, where the bar is higher. And it seems to me they put that warning in, saying you know, 'You think this is bad, well look where this could go.'" The SEC sued Musk on Thursday in connection with an Aug. 7 tweet about taking the company private. The complaint alleges Musk made "false and misleading" statements and seeks, among other remedies, to remove Musk as CEO of Tesla and bar him from running a public company in the future. Tesla said earlier this month that the Department of Justice was also looking into the Aug. 7 tweet. A DOJ criminal case would likely pause the SEC's civil case, Stewart said. A guilty verdict in a criminal case could mean jail time for Musk. CNBC reported earlier Friday that Musk pulled the plug on an SEC settlement at the last minute. "If the settlement deal really was that we're going to kind of slap you on the wrist and you have to step down as chairman for two years, that is a great deal," Stewart said. "I cannot fathom why they would have walked away from that." Senate Republicans have agreed to delay a vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation for one week to allow for an FBI probe into allegations of sexual misconduct against the judge, according to a statement issued by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday. The committee requested that the White House "instruct the FBI to conduct a supplemental FBI background investigation with respect to" Kavanaugh's nomination, the statement said. The president agreed in short order. In a tweet posted by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday afternoon, the president said had ordered a supplemental investigation that would be "limited in scope and completed in less than one week." Read more: Trump orders the FBI to conduct supplemental investigation The delay means that a floor vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation, which had been expected for Tuesday, could now happen three days later. Senators will move forward with a procedural vote expected Saturday. In a statement released by the White House Friday afternoon, Kavanaugh said he would "continue to cooperate." Sarah Sanders tweet Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas; Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and a number of other Republicans huddled in McConnell's office Friday afternoon to discuss how to proceed on the confirmation following a call from a number of key senators to delay the vote. The president, who has stood by his nominee amid a turbulent confirmation process roiled by accusations of sexual abuse, said Friday that he would be "totally reliant" on Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Sen. Jeff Flake will support Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, securing a critical vote for his confirmation, but only with strings attached. Flake released a statement backing Kavanaugh only hours after harrowing testimony about a sexual assault accusation against the appeals court judge. Then, in a dramatic twist a short time later, the Arizona Republican called on the Senate GOP to delay a floor vote on Kavanaugh for no more than a week while the FBI investigates the claim. He still voted in favor of Kavanaugh as the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced his nomination in an 11-10 party-line vote. Nothing currently guarantees that the Senate will delay the vote or that the FBI will open a probe. At least one Republican colleague, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, quickly joined Flake in calling for an investigation. However, they will need more senators to join them to force Republican leaders' hand in delaying a vote. Flake's shift followed conversations with Democratic colleagues on Friday afternoon during a tense Judiciary Committee meeting. It also came after a confrontation in the morning during which two women who said they were sexually assaulted tearfully criticized Flake's support of Kavanaugh as the senator silently looked at the ground. On Thursday, college professor Christine Blasey Ford emotionally accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were high school students in the early 1980s. The judge angrily denied the allegation later in the day. Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) questions Judge Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee | Getty Images Flake's statement of support gave a major boon to Kavanaugh, as it left only two Republican senators who have not supported the judge. "Yesterday, we heard compelling testimony from Dr. Ford, as well as a persuasive response from Judge Kavanaugh," Flake said in a statement Friday. "I wish that I could express the confidence that some of my colleagues have conveyed about what either did or did not happen in the early 1980s, but I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty." He continued: "What I do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence. That is what binds us to the rule of law. While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senate's advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the constitution's provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well. I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh." Check out the companies making headlines before the bell: BlackBerry The communications software maker reported adjusted quarterly profit of 4 cents per share, compared to a consensus estimate of a penny a share, with revenue also beating forecasts. Lowe's The home improvement retailer's stock was upgraded to "buy" from "hold" at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, which sees the potential for earnings acceleration in general and especially in relation to rival Home Depot. Vail Resorts The resort operator lost $2.07 per share for its latest quarter, less than the $2.24 per share that analysts were expecting. Revenue, however, came in below Street forecasts. Vail said its just-completed fiscal year suffered from historically poor winter conditions, but that it has momentum going forward thanks to strong season pass sales. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged fraud, with the commission seeking to remove him from his job. Musk was accused of making false and misleading statements about potentially taking Tesla private. In a statement, Musk called the action "unjustified" and the automaker's board said it had full confidence in him. Volkswagen Volkswagen will announce the firing of Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, perhaps as soon as today, according to sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal. Stadler has been in jail in connection with the automaker's emissions cheating scandal. Boeing Boeing won a $9.2 billion contract to build new trainer jets for the Air Force. The contract is one of the largest awarded by the Pentagon over the past few years. Eli Lilly Lilly's new migraine drug Emgality won Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Emgality is the latest entry in a new class of treatments for migraine headaches, with prior approvals coming for one treatment from Novartis and Amgen and another from Teva Pharmaceutical. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, UBS The banks will have to face a lawsuit charging that the banks tried to limit competition in the $2 trillion stock lending market. The banks had tried to block the suit from going forward, but a judge ruled against their claim that their actions were reasonable. J.C. Penney The retailer's Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Davis is resigning to pursue a new opportunity, after less than a year and a half on the job. The retailer's senior vice president of finance, Jerry Murray, will assume the CFO role on an interim basis. Pfizer Pfizer's once-a-day oral lung cancer drug won FDA approval, after having been granted priority review earlier this year. Progress Software The company reported adjusted quarterly profit of 60 cents per share, 2 cents a share above estimates. Revenue came in below Wall Street forecasts, however, and the business software maker said it was disappointed with its revenue outlook for the year. WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic Group These and other advertising stocks may be under pressure today, after The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors have opened a probe into media buying practices in the advertising industry. Trade Desk RBC raised its price target for the provider of programmatic advertising technology by 35 percent to $170, citing the strength of the company's new product line. The stock has more than Chief architect of the new $2.26 billion Transbay Transit Center, Fred Clarke, far left, leads a press tour through the Grand Hall of the project in downtown San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018. The facility opens to the public next week. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group via Getty Images) SAN FRANCISCO Even as they sought to assure the public that the cracked steel beam found Tuesday in the new Transbay Transit Center was an isolated incident, San Francisco officials acknowledged discovering a second compromised beam near the first one. The revelation added to the city's embarrassment and increased concerns about the safety of a $2.2 billion transit hub that had to be closed a mere 45 days after its unveiling and at a time when San Francisco is trying to display its finest wares. An estimated 170,000 visitors are in town for the yearly mega-convention hosted by cloud-computing giant Salesforce, whose name is attached to the transit center and the recently opened 1,070-foot building next to it. "The timing couldn't have been worse,'' said Josh Brown, who lives in the city and is attending the convention. "If you're visiting and you're like, 'Let's go check out the new Transbay terminal, the Salesforce area,' Oh, sorry, you can't. It's going to collapse.''" Beyond the poorly timed civic black eye, there's the more serious matter of the safety implications of detecting faulty beams on the third floor of a structure built over more than three city blocks on seismically active terrain. Mark Zabaneh, executive director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, issued repeated assurances during a Wednesday news conference that the problem with the beams is limited to the east portion of the three-section facility, on the side over Fremont Street. Nonetheless, the hub will be closed at least until late next week while engineers work to develop a repair plan. "We will expand our investigation to make sure the transit center is sound and safe,'' Zabaneh said. "We have no reason to believe at this point whatsoever that this situation exists anywhere but on Fremont Street.'' The reasons for the defective beams one with a crack across its full width of 2 feet, the other one with less extensive damage have yet to be determined, Zabaneh said. He mentioned issues of fabrication, welding, installation and design as possible culprits. Engineers plan to review the terminal's design and determine whether those beams can support the roof and the public park above it. In the meantime, they will shore up the area of concern to relieve the load while seeking a permanent solution. "At this point in time, we don't know what the cause of the crack is; we know the building is safe,'' Zabaneh said. The transit center, envisioned as a "Grand Central Station of the West,'' has been beset by complications that included an $800 million cost overrun and extensive construction delays. A month into its Aug. 12 opening, the half-mile walkway around the rooftop park started to crumble. In addition, the neighboring Millennium Tower has sunk 18 inches and tilted to the northwest since its debut in 2009, which its developers have blamed on groundwater pumping at the Transbay terminal's construction site. Riders are now being diverted to the old Temporary Transbay Terminal a few blocks away. Waiting for a bus home to Oakland after his work shift at nearby BlackRock, Joseph Cobbina said he was "shocked'' and "saddened'' when he heard the new hub would shut down for a while. Sarah Larone, an auditor who works in Oakland, said the transit center's problems don't reflect well on her home city of San Francisco. "It's just a shame that it's new and it's already falling apart,'' Larone said. "I guess it happens, issues with buildings and windows and whatnot. At least the buses are still running. That would be upsetting if they didn't.'' President Donald Trump said Friday he will rely on Senate leaders to determine whether or not to have the FBI investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. "I will be totally reliant on what [Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck] Grassley and the group decides to do," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "They have to do what they think is right. They have to be comfortable with themselves." Trump's made his remarks alongside Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, who was meeting with the U.S. president to discuss a range of issues, including security and efforts to secure democracy in Venezuela. The comments to reporters came shortly after Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., called for the bureau to spend up to one week looking into Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s. Ford testifed before the Senate committee that an intoxicated Kavanaugh, with participation from his friend Mark Judge, held her down, covered her mouth and tried to undress her when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegation, and defiantly told the committee "I've never sexually assaulted anyone." A week-long FBI probe into Ford's allegation would likely push back a full Senate vote to confirm Kavanaugh, which was expected to take place next week. Despite Flake's request, which could further shake up a nomination process that had already been rescheduled numerous times, the 21-member committee voted to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate floor. Flake's vote is critical for Republicans, who hold a razor-thin 51-vote majority in the Senate. A number of moderate GOP senators, including Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins of Maine, have yet to announce whether they will support Kavanaugh. Trump also commented for the first time on Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee a day earlier. "I thought her testimony was very compelling and she looks like a very fine woman," Trump said of Ford. "Certainly she was a very credible witness, very good in many respects." This is breaking news. Please check back for updates. President Donald Trump gestures during the Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration in the East Room of the White House on September 17, 2018 in Washington, DC. President Trump hosted the event to celebrate the heritage month with Hispanic leaders. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a spending bill that will avert a government shutdown despite previously calling the measure "ridiculous" because it did not include funding for a wall along the southern border. There had been some doubts about whether the president would sign the bill, raising the specter that funding for the government would lapse as early as Monday. But Trump tamped down on concerns from top Republicans in recent weeks, pledging that he would "keep the government open." In a statement announcing that he signed the bill, the president said he "secured additional funding for border security" and claimed $1.6 billion would go toward building the border barrier. Trump also again made the unsubstantiated claim that Democrats "want drugs and crime to pour into our country." "America is being respected again and our people are being protected again. I am pleased to have signed this bill into law," Trump said. Trump had blasted the spending package, which will fund the departments of Defense, Labor and Health and Human Services for a year, because it did not include the money he wanted for his proposed border wall. The White House has asked for up to $25 billion in funding. In July, the president brushed off the prospect of a shutdown. "If we don't get border security after many, many years of talk within the United States, I would have no problem doing a shutdown," Trump said at a news conference at the time. The president appeared to double down on his pledge to obtain border wall spending as recently as late September. "I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms," Trump wrote in a Sept. 20 post on Twitter. Trump tweet The insistence earned pushback from Republican congressional leaders who worried a shutdown could hurt the party with just over a month left to go before November's hotly contested midterm elections, when the GOP will face down challenges to its control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. "I'm confident he will sign it," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Wednesday. "This funds our military, this funds opioids, this does a lot of the things that we all want to accomplish together, and we've had very good conversations with the president." On Thursday, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney also weighed in, telling CNBC that the president would table border wall funding until after the midterms. "We've decided to have that discussion after the election," Mulvaney said on "Squawk Box." CNBC's Eamon Javers and Matthew Belvedere contributed to this report. Update: Senate Republicans on Friday afternoon agreed to delay a vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation for one week to allow for an FBI probe into allegations of sexual misconduct against the judge. Republicans have heard enough. Just a day after hearing extraordinary, emotionally charged testimony from Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accuses President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee of sexual assault, the Senate GOP is moving forward with the judge's confirmation process. The first key vote on his nomination was lined up for Friday morning, but was rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET. If things went as Senate Republican leadership and Trump planned, Kavanaugh, who is also accused of sexual misconduct by two other women, was on track to be confirmed by the middle of next week. But now the final vote is up in the air after Senate Republicans agreed to delay it again to allow for the FBI to probe Ford's claims. The judge denies all of the allegations. Kavanaugh's nomination was considered on the ropes as late as Thursday afternoon. Ford's harrowing, quiet testimony was widely seen as credible and potentially devastating for Republicans eager to get the 53-year-old Kavanaugh to a lifetime appointment on the top court. His confirmation would potentially establish a conservative majority on the bench that could last for generations. Kavanaugh changed the calculus, however, when he delivered a fiery, emotional opening statement and subsequently dueled with Democratic senators. His performance earned rave reviews on the right, particularly from the president. "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting," Trump wrote on Twitter. Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST Bazaar Corporate Radar Bazaar Corporate Radar is your window into the minds of top CEOs, Boardrooms, global economists, fund managers and sector analysts. If it?s making news, you?ll find it on Bazaar Corporate Radar. Kerala, struggling to get back on its feet in the wake of the massive damage wrought by the worst floods in nearly a century, continues to scramble for financial assistance. Earlier this month, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, demanding a 10% cess on State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) on all commodities consumed in the state, the proceeds of which would go into rebuilding itself. Today, the GST Council decided to set up a seven-member Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into Kerala's demand for imposing an additional cess over GST, IANS reported. To be sure, Issac had not called for a nationwide cess to cover financial requirements in case of a natural calamity, but since there is no provision for a state-specific cess in the GST Act, the Council has to think along pan-India lines. Briefing reporters after the 30th meeting of the GST Council, the Finance Minister (FM) said that the GoM would comprise members from the North Eastern, hill and coastal states, which are most vulnerable to natural calamities, apart from senior union ministers. He added that the panel would evaluate all possibilities and present its recommendations in the next few weeks. Thereafter, another meeting of the GST Council will be called. Jaitley explained that a provision to have earmarked funds for natural calamities on state as well as national level already exists in the form of State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Relief Fund (FDRF), which have nothing to do with taxes. The GoM would consider if this existing mechanism sufficiently addressed the issue or if more needed to be done. According to him, although the GST Council members had different views on the concept of such a calamity cess, all states agreed that something must be done to address the devastating Kerala floods and similar calamities in future. "One view expressed in the Council was 'Must the entire burden be borne by the people of the state suffering from natural calamities?' There was a counterview that this defies the one-nation, one-tax principle," said Jaitley, adding that members also questioned whether any such levy should be "confined only to some luxury and sin products" or on all products. The Council reportedly also discussed whether the cess should be imposed in the case of all natural calamities or if there should be a distinction. "For example, if one or two districts of a state are affected, should there be a levy in that case?" Jaitley posed. The FM also made it clear that it was important to have a mature view on the issue, deploying the best legal methodologies while keeping constitutional provisions in mind, instead of acting in haste. This is vital since any development along Kerala's proposal is bound to set precedence. The Kerala government previously sent a detailed memorandum seeking a Rs 4,700 crore as compensation for the damage caused by the rains. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and requested him to expedite the process of giving financial assistance. In the meantime, Kerala is staring at a long road to normalcy. Despite the worries expressed by many market watchers, the troubles at Infrastructure Leasing & Finance Ltd (IL&FS) are unlikely to spill over and create a financial crisis for the country, as the Lehman collapse did for the global financial systems. Yes IL&FS is deep in trouble and, along with its numerous subsidies, has a debt burden of Rs 1 lakh crore and lacks the cash to service. Yes, few people saw it coming - and its lenders could be in major trouble if it defaults on all its liabilities. And sure, it could cause a ripple effect and a panic attack in the debt markets in the short run. But unlike Lehman, the government has already indicated that IL&FS is not going to be allowed to collapse. The rescue plan is already in place and its shareholders like LIC and SBI are ready to give it enough money to meet its repayment obligations. However, the IL&FS case should be a wakeup call for the government precisely for the reason that it reached a stage of collapse without anyone spotting the problem early on. Unlike the case of banks, where the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had spotted the problems early on, and where it had prodded them to recognise the bad debts and clean up balance sheets, the IL&FS case shows the gaps that exist in our financial systems especially asset liability mismatches or the credit risk in the NBFC space even now, which need to be plugged quickly. Technically, IL&FS is not a government company. It however acts like one, and with big shareholding from LIC, SBI and HDFC, and staffed with plenty of bureaucrats and former bureaucrats, it behaves pretty much like a government company. The fact that it enjoyed the status of a systematically important institution as per the RBI, but this particular regulator does not have full visibility of the entity. The problem is in the peculiar nature of IL&FS. First, as earlier pointed out, it is supposed to be a private company, which acts like a quasi-government arm because it lends to the infrastructure sector and has a lot of big government companies and banks as shareholders. More importantly, it is both a lending institution as well as an execution company. It has bid, won and taken on projects under various subsidiaries, and which in turn have raised debt financing both from the parent as well as from the market. The subsidiaries were needed to be created because the government regulations mandate that each concession based infrastructure project needs a separate entity because loans are taken specific to that entity and project. With IL&FS taking on so many projects, it became a highly opaque structure with the government as a partner in most of its projects, which gave many the feeling of comfort that the risks were underwritten by the government. And it had a management team, which successfully hid the rising crisis and tried to bury it under the carpet until it could no longer do so. In fact, Ravi Parathasarathy who created it and led it for three decades, resigned suddenly a few months before the defaults by both the parent and its subsidiaries started. The RBI had visibility of its bank loans etc, but did not have enough idea about the rest of its borrowing from insurance companies or the corporate debt it had raised. The auditors failed to catch the coming troubles at IL&FS and so did the credit rating agencies. How did that happen? One reason perhaps was the shareholding and the projects and the dozens of subsidiaries that made things even more complicated for rating agencies as well as auditors, though they should have been more vigilant given the problems that all infrastructure companies are facing. To be fair to the credit rating agencies, they had flagged off a warning, though inexplicably, perhaps lulled by the blue chip projects, its partners, and its quasi-government nature, they failed to downgrade the debt early enough until the defaults actually started. Equally, it is pretty scary that shareholders such as SBI, HDFC and LIC could not examine its books more closely and that the board and the CFO did not raise any red flags. It is particularly shocking because the man at the top - Ravi Parathasarathy - came from a blue chip banking background and had been dealing with finances of various risks his whole life. What are the lessons going forward? One is of course that it makes little sense to have an NBFC, which also is in the business of actually executing infrastructure projects. A pure lending agency would have probably been monitored more closely by the RBI. Equally, execution agencies about to get into cash flow trouble are far easier to spot because they are also not raising debt as a lending NBFC. Another point is that the government does need to figure out why so many infrastructure projects run into cash flow and other financial problems (which in turn creates problems for their lenders). This is a bigger problem because infrastructure is a long gestation business, while finances raised are for shorter tenures thus causing asset liability and cash flow mismatches. Finally, it might make best sense to slowly wind up the IL&FS business after selling off its debt and paying of its asset instead of letting it exist with a rap on the knuckles. Types of obituaries The Missourian publishes two types of obituaries family obituaries and life stories. A family obituary is the version submitted by a funeral home or family. Please see the submission form for details on cost and deadlines. Family obituaries A life story is a closer look at a person's life and involves a reporter contacting family and friends. Life stories are based on newsworthiness and consent of the family. Life stories. Boris Johnson: My vision for a better Brexit B Ex-Foreign Secretary denounces moral and intellectual humiliation of Chequers Daily Mail Prominent Tories rally behind pivotal plan Daily Telegraph but DUP allies reject vague Canada proposals Daily Mail Eurocrats vow that a deal will be done The Sun Police prepared for potential disorder sparked by food shortages The Scotsman ritain should seek the same freedoms and opportunities in its relations with the EU as any other independent and democratic country. That means the right to make our own laws, in the interests of our own economy; the right to control our own trade policy; and the right to represent ourselves again in those international forums where we have increasingly been vacating our place for the EU. There is nothing extreme about such an ambition. It is the international norm. Of course we should not forget the reality that we have been EU members for 45 years, and that we are a spiritually and historically European country. The PM is right to say that Britains relationship with the EU does not have to be distant, and that it will be sui generis. But it must be one of legal equals. That is why the heart of the new relationship should not be Chequers, but a free trade agreement at least as deep as the one the EU has recently concluded with Canada. Daily Telegraph Comment: Tory unity on Brexit could yet see off Labour Philip Collins, The Times We need to take back control from Whitehall Simon Jenkins, The Guardian >Today: Peter Lilley in Comment: The Prime Minister a modern-day Queen Canute >Yesterday: David Shiels in Comment: Brexit, Northern Ireland, and borders. Why the DUP may yet break ranks with May and force a general election Conservatives divide on how to win votes and beat Labour Writing for the Conservative Home website, Mr Halfon, the former skills minister, said: The problem for Conservatives is that the Corbyn description of what is going on resonates with millions of people. Failing railways. Increased homelessness on our streets. Families struggling despite working every day. Our infrastructure under strain and potholes across our roads. High streets closing as traditional shopping is swooped up by Amazon on the internet. Crime and antisocial behaviour on the rise. They are speaking to the problems faced by many. We too often speak only for the few. In stark contrast, Mr Gyimah warned that the Tories cant out-Corbyn Corbyn, and if we try, we risk offering a pale imitation that leaves people yearning for the real thing. In an article for The House magazine Mr Gyimah calls for a true renaissance of the right. The Times Howard says May might be forced out by the spring, Letwin prepared to lead grey suit delegation to Downing Street The Sun Gyimah mounts thinly veiled attack on Johnson Daily Mail Street urges the Government to end austerity The Sun Civil war erupts as MPs turn on May before conference Daily Express Government tried to hide how rarely minister visited the North The Guardian Jenrick to meet motorists groups over fuel levy The Sun Comment: May needs to sack the Chancellor and install a Cabinet of radicals Fraser Nelson, Daily Telegraph Look beyond May and all things are possible Iain Martin, The Times >Today: ToryDiary: Our survey. Eight out of ten Party members say that May should go either now or before the next election. as Hammond and Hancock clash on immigration Slick private firms luring staff away from the NHS Daily Mail MPs attack plans to close A&E overnight Daily Express Philip Hammond was called a stubby pencilled accountant in a clash in Cabinet with another senior minister over immigration. The PMs top table met on Monday to discuss a post-Brexit immigration system. During it, the Chancellor called for flexibility in the new rules being drawn up by the Home Office to allow bosses to fill vacancies with low skilled migrants from abroad. Mr Hammond went on to cite a restaurant in his Surrey constituency that cant hire enough staff to wait all the tables to back his argument. But he was immediately challenged by new Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who is 23 years the Chancellors junior. Tory rising star Mr Hancock told the 62 year-old Treasury chief that his restaurant should offer higher wages to entice more Brits to do the job instead. The Sun >Yesterday: Jade Smith: The Mighty Redcar my town, let down by the Labour Party Jacob Rees-Mogg: Its time the mighty British state put families first The tax and benefits system does not help families. It pushes marriage towards being a luxury for the better-off because single-person benefits are more generous. Indeed, it makes commitment less likely as families that would naturally form do not because of the high cost. Also, it encourages a lack of openness with the Department of Work and Pensions because couples have a strong incentive not to admit that they are co-habiting. In turn, this causes people to drift apart because of their need to maintain a veneer of credibility with the Welfare System. Some may suggest that people are reluctant nowadays to make family commitments because of the potential financial consequences, but in past centuries they have. This is where the Tory Governments role ought to change from being harmful to the family to being supportive. Daily Mail MP to accuse Prime Minister of failing families at conference Daily Mail Comment: No-fault divorces undermine marriage Julia Hartley-Brewer, The Sun Ministers 1) Williamson to overhaul military pensions Ministers 2) Hunt blames Putin for Salisbury Gavin Williamson is to fix harsh forces pension rules that stop troops killed from passing on money to their loved ones, The Sun can reveal. It means the wives or husbands of personnel who die in service will automatically get their lump sum, even if someone else had previously been nominated to receive it. And after stepping in to help dying RAF mum Samantha McConnell pass on her cash to her kids, the changes could be unveiled by the Defence Secretary within weeks. The Sun understands that the permanent changes to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 are designed to avoid bitter rows over who the money goes to if the deceased has married but not updated their paperwork. A death in service lump sum is the entire pension multiplied by four. But at the moment it does not automatically go to spouses if someone else had been previously nominated to receive it before the marriage. The Sun Jeremy Hunt pointed the finger of blame at Vladimir Putin over the Salisbury nerve agent attack today. The Foreign Secretary revealed he had a frank meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in New York diplomatic code for a blazing row. He told Sky News that while Britain had been careful to only assign specific blame where it is proven, Putin had to accept responsibility for the Kremlins activity. Britain has identified the two Russian spies to blame for the novichok attack on Sergei Skripal, which left innocent British civilian Dawn Sturgess dead. Theresa May named Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov as the assassins earlier this month both of which were thought to be aliases. Secret documents and photographs last night unmasked Boshirov as highly-decorated spy Anatoliy Chepiga are pure nonsense. Daily Mail Foreign Secretary warns Brussels not to underestimate the Prime Minister The Sun and warns rebels that she has steel in her heart Daily Express Ministers 3) Bradley retains the Prime Ministers confidence The Prime Minister has insisted the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley has been doing an excellent job. Theresa May said that what matters is the job that Karen has been doing following an admission from Mrs Bradley that she had difficulty understanding certain aspects of Northern Ireland. In an interview with The House magazine in Westminster earlier this month, Karen Bradley had said: I didnt understand things like when elections are fought, for example, in Northern Ireland people who are nationalists dont vote for unionist parties and vice versa. So, the parties fight for election within their own community. The comments came as Mrs Bradley gave a keynote speech to the Northern Ireland Bureau in Washington DC, where she stressed the UK governments wholehearted belief in devolution. News Letter >Yesterday: Henry Hills Red, White, and Blue column: McCluskey suggests that Unite may support Labour standing in Northern Ireland Morgan wants limits on pollsters selling their data Pollsters should be banned from flogging lucrative data to hedge funds before its made public, furious MPs claim. Tory MP Nicky Morgan said damning evidence from the EU Referendum suggested the Citys watchdog should be put in charge of the sector. The former Cabinet Minister now chair of the Treasury Select Committee said it appeared hedge funds made a small fortune from being given information by pollsters before exit polls were published on Referendum night. Some gained from a stunning rise in the Pound sparked by inaccurate claims Remain would win. Others benefited from more accurate information that Leave had won allowing them to short the Pound before others. Damian Lyons Lowe head of Survation is thought to have sold a private poll predicting Leave to multiple clients In a letter to the British Polling Council, Nicky Morgan said pollsters shouldnt be allowed to sell data to any private clients before its made public. The Sun Renters abandoning Tories, new poll suggests The Sun as she joins delegation of Tory MPs to Ulster Corbyn tells Barnier he would tear up Mays departure deal Three Conservative MPs who back abortion reform in Northern Ireland will be in Belfast today to hear experiences of women impacted by the Provinces restrictive laws. During a day of meetings, Anna Soubry, Huw Merriman and Nicky Morgan will also speak with midwives, doctors, politicians and lawyers challenging the current regime in the courts. The visit comes on the same day that senior figures in Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the Ulster Unionists and the Alliance Party issued a joint statement urging reform. Abortions in Northern Ireland are illegal in all but exceptional medical and mental health circumstances. The government has resisted calls to step in to legislate for reform in the wake of a recent Supreme Court judgment that found the current legal framework incompatible with human rights laws. In June, a majority of Supreme Court judges said the ban on terminations in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality needed radical reconsideration. News Letter Jeremy Corbyn urged Michel Barnier to stop a no deal Brexit in Brussels on Thursday but told the EUs chief negotiator that Labour would vote down any agreement that did not respect its six tests in Westminster. The threat to bring down the Government and trigger a general election comes just days before the Conservative Party Conference, where Theresa May will face Brexiteers after her hard-won Chequers plan was dismissed by the EU at a disastrous summit in Salzburg. On Wednesday Barry Gardiner, the shadow trade secretary, said that Labour was ready to bend its Brexit red lines but Mr Corbyn signalled he would still insist on the six tests being met. After meeting Mr Barnier, Mr Corbyn said: He was interested to know what our views were and the six tests we have laid down by which will the British government to account. Daily Telegraph Talks spark fresh no-deal fears The Guardian Most UK companies have yet to begin Brexit preparations FT Comment: Theres no point negotiating with the EU Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph Hatton, who helped run Liverpools Militant council in the 1980s, rejoins Labour Official who said Watson had been corrupted by Jewish donors is re-admitted too Daily Telegraph Sturgeon hints at tourism tax deal to get budget through Derek Hatton one of the most well known and divisive figures in Liverpool politics is back in the Labour Party, almost 33 years after he was expelled. The former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council was kicked out of Labour by then leader Neil Kinnock and the partys ruling committee for belonging to the left-wing Militant faction. But the ECHO can today exclusively reveal that he has once again been allowed to join Labour as a member and says he is excited to be back. Mr Hatton, now 70, said it was the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn that made him re-apply for membership but insisted that he has no plans to run for public office. The news will be met with mixed reactions across Liverpool and the country as Mr Hattons time as the most influential member of the council in the 1980s was one riddled with controversy. Liverpool Echo Nicola Sturgeon has raised the prospect of allowing councils to charge a tourist tax to get her upcoming Budget passed at Holyrood. The First Minister told MSPs that the levy was not currently Scottish Government policy but we will continue to consider these matters as approach our Budget this year. She dropped the hint after being challenged at First Ministers Questions over support for the scheme from Adam McVey, the SNP leader of Edinburgh City Council. Her intervention came the day after Fiona Hyslop, the Culture Minister, insisted the Scottish Government did not back a tourist tax and had no plans to allow one. But Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, told Ms Sturgeon the tax could generate at least 11 million in the capital after leaked documents showed the council is preparing to make 28 million of cuts. Daily Telegraph SNP under fire over 126m of taxpayer cash to prop up private firms The Scotsman Scottish Government ordered to be more transparent on loans to business The Guardian News in Brief: Joe Carlebach was the Leader of the Conservative Group on Hammersmith and Fulham Council. Much has been said recently of the appalling loss of life on the streets of London due to knife crime, with over one hundred lives lost in the year to date. In February and March this year we even had the shocking statistic that murders on the streets of our capital exceeded those of New York. The figures speak for themselves and there can be no doubt that serious crime in London is out of control with the running total; murders now over 100 and a further three lives lost just this weekend.These are truly shocking figures and speak directly to the abject failure of those whose responsibility it is to address this crisis. However it is my view that the problem is much deeper and more significant. So called minor crime is according to the published statistics under control in London. Crimes such as burglary, auto theft, mugging we are told are at acceptable levels (can crime ever be at an acceptable level?). As is ever the case, there are statistics and then there is the truth. It is my belief that a significant amount of minor crime goes unreported. I now frequently come across Londoners who have grown weary of the failure of our authorities to do anything when an issue is reported be it anti-social behaviour, bike theft or burglary. Whats the point, they say. Not worth claiming on the insurance as we will lose our no claims (our policy is expensive enough already!); the Police will not attend and so the chances of actually catching the culprits is almost non existent. As an aside, the Met is so short of detectives it is having to resort to all sorts of incentives to tempt people into the role which is apparently having only limited success. To exemplify this chronic situation I will share with readers a case I was involved in last week. Out walking my dog I came across a gentleman (I will call him Jacques) standing on a street in central London next to his car which had been broken into. His cases had been stolen. He was from Belgium here for business and it was his first visit to London and the UK. Given his distress I could not walk by and I offered to help. The bags had all his suits for his coming meetings as well as critical medical supplies to enable him to manage a long term critical condition. As he was unaware of which number to call, I dialled 101 on his behalf as we both felt that the crime did not merit a 999 call. Having struggled through the un-user friendly automated system I was informed by a recording that the only way to report a crime was now via the Mets website. No person to speak to and no opportunity for the Police to attend the crime scene and therefore zero chance of any investigation leading to an arrest and a successful prosecution. We were both shocked. I started to wonder how on earth anyone who does not have access to the internet would be able to report a crime, remembering that many of the crimes which were previously reported via 101 whilst not life threatening can often have a life changing impact on the victim. A vulnerable isolated elderly person whose home is burgled or vandalised. A tourist who is mugged or a visiting business person who suffers a theft. This change has seemingly been slipped in quietly with many Londoners completely unaware. To make matters worse the option of going down to a local police station is also now significantly diminished as the Mayor of London and his Deputy Mayor for Policing have closed large numbers of them. I want to make clear at this point that these comments are not directed at the rank and file within the Met. They are overwhelmingly the thin blue line that save us from chaos, men and women who regularly put themselves in harms way to protect all of us often without regard for their own safety.The issue at hand is the political leadership or lack of it in dealing with the serious crime epidemic that currently blights our capital. The situation is spiralling out of control and action is long overdue to tackle this insidious problem. It disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable. It is a clear disincentive for our highly lucrative London tourist industry and it is a significant detractor to Londons hard-earned reputation of being open for business as a world class financial and commercial centre. It is simply not good enough to blame others, look for scapegoats or blame funding cuts. Clear action is needed now. London needs (deserves) an innovative plan to reassure all that action is and will be taken. Maybe it is time for a directly elected Police and Crime Commissioner in London as exists in the rest of the country. At least then we might see some dedicated focus on this issue and a reversal of the current deteriorating situation. In the short term if the current incumbents of City Hall can not get a grip of the situation then they need to step aside and let others take over who can. The lives and well being of Londoners literally depend on it. Postscript For those wondering what happened to Jacques and his belongings the story has a happy ending. I spotted on a local web site that some suitcases had been abandoned locally where it appears the thieves had dumped them. A good Samaritan had taken them home photographed them and put them up on the web site in an effort to find their owner. I forwarded the picture of the cases to Jacques and he confirmed they were his. I put the two parties together and Jacques retrieved his bags almost intact, medical supplies and all. At least one business visitor will have something positive today about his experience in London. In the current circumstances I regret it will be very much the exception. Fiona Bruce is MP for Congleton. As September turns to October, we all begin to dust off our umbrellas. Our unusually dry British summer is turning to autumn and the onset of cold, wet drizzle is inevitable. The umbrella means something different in Hong Kong. It brings back memories of the fateful events of 28 September 2014, when tear gas rained down on Hong Kongs peaceful democracy activists. Today we mark the fourth anniversary of the Umbrella Movement, an unprecedented 79-day protest in the heart of Hong Kong. Although hundreds of thousands of people would meet for the annual July 1st march to mark the anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong, never had so many gathered for such a long period of time. The protest carried a clear message: the people of Hong Kong believe in democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, and do not want to see them compromised. Sadly, the largest sustained pro-democracy protest since handover did not generate the change which its young protagonists sought. In fact, since 2014 the situation in Hong Kong has deteriorated dramatically: young activists have been imprisoned, legally elected legislators have been disqualified from holding or contesting office, a political party faces being banned outright, booksellers have been abducted, freedom of expression in the press and academia has been eroded, and judges have complained of mainland Chinese interference in Hong Kongs robust and independent judiciary. In the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices most recent report on Hong Kong Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, raised concern about the continued pressure put on the rights and freedoms that were guaranteed in the handover agreement. He said that that recent developments give cause for concern about respect for rights and freedoms and contribute to a reduction of political plurality in Hong Kong. His report was right to make it clear that the Conservative Party and the government both still stand with the people of Hong Kong. When the British Government, led by a Conservative prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, negotiated the handover agreement with China, we did so on the basis that it would protect the judicial independence and basic freedoms in the city. This was a priority for two reasons: first because it was the desire of the majority of Hong Kongers that their human rights and robust rule of law were protected; but also, because Hong Kongs rule of law and human rights protections allows the city to be Chinas international financial hub, indicating clearly in this case that British interests align with our clear human rights commitments. Sometimes it seems that China policy faces a tension between human rights and business interests. On one side, you have human rights activists, who say we must make a stand against the imprisonment of human rights lawyers, forced organ harvesting, or the fact that thousands of Muslims have been arbitrarily held in detention camps. On the other side there is the business lobby, pragmatic and seeking that golden ticket: access to Chinese markets. But whatever the divisions between the business and human rights lobbies on China, when it comes to Hong Kong, these two groups should be on the same team. When the Sino-British Joint Declaration was written, it was designed to both protect the freedoms of the local population and ensure that Hong Kong remained a viable international financial hub. Unlike what may be the position in other areas in the region, significantly mainland China, in Hong Kong there is robust rule of law for commercial transactions, intellectual property rights are well protected, and there is the freedom of information, movement and capital vital for any financial hub. Hong Kongs institutions provide the necessary safeguards for this. The independent judiciary mean that businesses know there will be fair play; the semi-democratic legislative council, although far from perfect, has provided a measure of political accountability; and the human rights safeguards makes it an attractive place for expats to live. These are the key ingredients for international investment, and so the desires of human rights protections for Hong Kongs local population dovetail nicely with our business interests (and those of Hong Kong) and point to one course of action: that the Government do all they can to protect the integrity of one-country, two-systems. Hong Kong has a separate seat at the World Trade Organisation, and has not faced tariffs from the Trump government in the US-China trade war because of its unique system. British, American, and Chinese interests in the region are tied to the fate of one-country, two-systems, and we must not let them be undermined. The Government recognises this, and the Foreign Secretary said in his recent report that: I believe that One Country, Two Systems continues to be the best arrangement for Hong Kongs long-term stability and prosperity, and for the citys reputation as a global financial centre and leading advocate of free trade. I want to invite you to join me to continue this conversation at this years Conservative Party Conference. The Conservative Party Human Rights Commission have the great privilege of hosting three of the leaders of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong at a fringe meeting, on Sunday 30 September from 12.45-2pm in Hall 11A. Martin Lee, the grandfather of Hong Kongs democracy movement; Benny Tai, one of Hong Kongs leading pro-democracy academics; and Nathan Law, one of the student leaders who has been disqualified from Hong Kongs legislature and jailed, after being elected at the age of 23 as the citys youngest legislator, are all flying in to share their concerns about the situation and their hopes for a free Hong Kong. It is not only in our interests to care, but the Sino-British Joint Declaration means that we are legally signed up to make sure that Hong Kongs rights and freedoms are protected for fifty years after the handover. I hope you will join me in being part of the growing Conservative Party movement committed to the future of Hong Kong. Lord Lilley is a former Secretary of State for Trade & Industy and for Social Security. King Canute gets an unfairly bad press. And so perhaps does Theresa May. Poor Canute is often represented enthroned on a beach, vainly commanding the tide to go out as the sea washes around his ankles. In fact, he was a wise monarch showing his nobles that the power of earthly kings is trivial compared to that of God. They should not demand of him the impossible. Maybe the Prime Minister has been doing something similar. Deliberately or instinctively, she has shown both the EU and our Parliament the limits of what is achievable. Various modern-day nobles tried to convince her that she could by our mere motion (as Royal proclamations put it) abate the level of opposition to whatever they wanted. The CBI barons believed she could roll back the tide of Brexit to keep Britain in the Customs Union and the Single Market. The civil service knights claimed she could even reverse the tide of opposition the other side of the channel to cherry picking bits of the Single Market. Her courtiers in the European Research Group wanted her to defy the swirling waters in Parliament, and go straight for a Canada or WTO option. Michel Barnier urged her to make the Irish Sea a moat between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. And her loyal Opposition now, pointing to the incoming possibility of no deal, suggest we reverse the EU referendum result entirely. In effect, like King Canute, she has progressively shown each of them the limits of what she can achieve. And by eliminating the impossible, she has revealed what is possible. The Chequers plan went a long way towards remaining in the EU Single Market for goods and creating a sort of customs union, with the UK continuing to levy the EUs external tariff on goods destined for Europe. Her advisers probably hoped that if the Cabinet swallowed this they would subsequently accept a full customs union. But as a result she lost three key ministers. Others stayed only to prevent further concessions. So she had demonstrated to the EU and her civil servants that the British cabinet could go no further in that direction. She then offered the Chequers proposals to the EU leaders at Salzburg. But the arrogant rebuff she received demonstrated to Remain-supporting MPs that there was no hope of some hybrid solution keeping us half in and half out of the EU. The European Research Group had prematurely pressed her to go straight for a free trade agreement on World Trade Organisation terms. She took the view that Parliament would not wear those options unless and until more ambitious forms of relationship with the EU had been explored. Some close parliamentary votes on a customs union suggests she was right. By first showing what is not possible, the Prime Minister let the tide of support for that solution ebb away. The other reason for her Chequers plan was the EUs insistence that a conventional free trade deal would apply only to Great Britain which would mean creating a customs border down the Irish Sea. The Prime Minister firmly rejected that. But Barnier believed she could be pressured to change her mind. So she adopted a back-bench amendment to the Customs Bill which ruled out any customs border in the Irish Sea. It was passed unanimously. So she has demonstrated to the EU that the whole British parliament rejects that proposal. As a result, Barnier suggested that the proposed border between Great Britain and Ireland could be made invisible, using technical and administrative procedures to avoid checks at ports. He thereby re-opened the question: why not use these procedures to create an invisible border between Northern Ireland and the Republic? If so, the option of a Canada-style deal for the whole UK comes back on the table. Failing that, the only option is trading with the EU on World Trade Organisation terms, as we already do with the rest of the world. Die-hard Remainers portrayed no deal as a catastrophe in the hope of reversing the referendum. The Prime Minister calmly responded by publishing notes on how government, industry and the electorate could prepare for it. Suddenly it all sounds less frightening. There wont be shortages of medicines or delays for anything entering the UK. The most recent batch of notices scarcely made headlines. Nothing comparable to the 40 billion we would save! In short, Queen Canute arrives at her Party conference having patiently shown what is impossible, and let opposition to the remaining possibilities ebb away. She has demonstrated: that the cabinet would not roll back Brexit beyond Chequers; that the EU leaders rejected Chequers without proposing an alternative; that Parliament will not accept a border down the Irish Sea; that the EU believes invisible borders are possible; that a Canada-style deal can therefore now come back on the table; failing which, WTO terms are less frightening and we save 40 billion. Iain Dale is an LBC presenter, a commentator with CNN and the author/editor of over 30 books. There are few things in politics nowadays which make me shake my head in disbelief, but it happened on Wednesday afternoon when my producer showed me a Sky News Breaking News report alleging that Theresa May had said that a Canada Plus deal would be worse than No Deal. No, I thought, they must have got that wrong. No-one in their right mind would say that, I said. I know they say of Sky News that theyre never wrong for long (grossly unfairly IMHO), but it turns out they got it spot on. What on earth was she thinking? Shes now boxed herself into a corner which will be very difficult to escape from. She has also needlessly antagonised those who are promoting a Canada Plus-type arrangement. Why would you do that when your position is already precarious enough? Its a question I struggle to find the answer to. I made a very big mistake on Tuesday night. I tweeted that the following morning I would be interviewing Ruth Davidson about her new book Yes She Can for an hour, and would anyone like to suggest questions I might ask her? Wisdom of crowds and all that I really ought to have known better. It didnt take long or the Cybernats to swarm by and spew their bile out. They really must be rather frightened of Davidson, given how aggressive they were. I was ordered to ask her questions about so-called Dark Money and some Conservative councillor who had been accused of sexual misconductand God knows what else they were worrying their tiny heads about. Virtually everything was very parochial to Scotland, and would have been of little interest to most of my UK-wide audience So I ignored their kind advice. Many of them were also sexist, gratuitously insulting and clearly sitting in their bedrooms indulging in onanistic activity. Still, at least it reminded me why Cybernat rhymes with Twat. A couple of mentions of events tgar Im chairing at the conference. If youre a party member, come to the main conference hall at 4.30pm on Sunday afternoon when Ill be chairing a Challenge the Chairman session. Ill interview Brandon Lewis for20 to 25 minutes, then for the rest of the hour itll be your chance (assuming youre a party member) to ask him any question you like. And then on Monday at 4.15 Ill be compering an In Conversation with Dominic Raab. Thats taking place in the IEA Think Tent. And if you see me mooching around the conference, dont be scared to come and say hello. I dont bite. Unless youre a Remainer. Joke. Text from a friend on Wednesday evening: Im on a train from Liverpool. Seumas Milne just slid into the carriage & he has to be the most entitled wassock Ive encountered for a while. Thats what a posh education buys you. Im making the final edits to my annual list of the Top 100 People on the Right. Except this year Im changing it a little. Im renaming it the Top 100 People on the Conservative Right. Im also allowing Conservative-minded commentators to be included. So I am most certainly not including anyone on the so-called Alt-Right. And UKIP has now become a quasi-Islamophobic sect so their few representatives are out too. Cue howls of abuse in the comment. And if you think Tommy Robinson should ever be included in a list like this, can I suggest that youre on the wrong site? Talking of UKIP, I see William Dartmouth, one of their MEPs, has resigned for the party, citing Gerard Battens apparent determination to change the party from a Brexit-promoting organisation into one whose primary mission is to counter Islam. Im told hes not the only senior party member to have quit in recent times. I know various others who are considering doing the same. One can but hope that Nigel Farage will be one of them. I certainly wouldnt bet against it. 09/28/2018 Photo (c) Fitzer - Getty Images Atmos Energy workers found as many as 28 gas leaks in a single residential neighborhood in Dallas. The leaks potentially caused two small, separate house fires that residents reported, the company said in an email to Texas regulators. Atmos assured Texas regulators it was sending workers to monitor the surrounding area for potential leaks and promised to make repairs as needed. Twelve hours later, a house in the neighborhood exploded off its tracks, killing 12-year-old Linda Michellita Rogers. It took another three days for Atmos to evacuate the neighborhoods 2,800 residents. The deadly explosion back in February is part of a disturbing pattern in Texas. Following the girl's death, officials and residents who pressed Atmos Energy for answers were told that it will take years to replace aging pipes. The company also refused to disclose where aging pipes are located in the city. A new analysis by the Dallas Morning News shows that over two dozen homes along Atmos path of pipelines have exploded in north and central Texas since 2006, leading to 9 deaths and 22 injuries. Atmos Energy is one of the largest natural gas providers in the United States and is headquartered in Dallas, where it has taken a particularly lax approach to pipeline safety. High risk for explosion The federal government, since the 1970s, has warned that natural gas pipelines made from steel and cast iron pose an unacceptably high risk for explosion. Twenty states subsequently passed laws forcing natural gas operators to replace cast iron pipes. But such laws dont exist in Texas -- the only state where Atmos has yet to replace its cast iron pipes. As of last year, 500 miles of cast iron pipes remain. Atmos Energy also admitted last year that a third of its pipes in Texas were installed before 1940. Atmos has repeatedly been cited in Texas for failing to protect its pipes from corrosion, failing to replace old parts, stalling on evacuations or taking other steps to keep residents out of harms way. Yet the company has also refused to admit fault in any of the explosions along its network of pipelines, according to government records reviewed by the News. Consumers who suspect a gas leak are normally advised to leave the area immediately and call 911. But following that protocol didnt help affected people in Texas. On December 31 last year, one man called 911 to report a suspected gas leak in his home in Irving, a suburb of Dallas. Crews began repairing the leak and investigating the rest of the neighborhood. They told neighbor Magdalene Tijerina that it wasnt necessary to evacuate. Early the next morning, she awoke to see her ceiling on fire and fled with her family. They escaped the explosion unharmed. Atmos was fined $16,000 by the state. The company defended its safety record in statements to the News. But as the paper notes, Atmos is also raising its rates next year. Documents obtained by the paper show that Atmos is trying to recover $600,000 that its insurer is charging annually due to the previous explosions. The global variable frequency drive (VFD) market is slated to experience healthy growth over the coming years. These drives are emerging as an integral part of several machine markets globally both small- and large-scale. They are used in applications ranging from small devices to large compressors. VFDs are power conversion devices that are available as ac drives, dc drives, and servo drives. Board members of the small village of Enosburg Falls, Vt., approved the purchase of a new VFD for well pump of villages water department. This step is likely to cut down the annual electric bill of the department by $2,000. On the other end of the scale, VFDs are an imperative part of the technology behind the longest single-flight pipe conveyor of the world. It is estimated electric motors in industrial applications consume approximately one-fourth of the worlds electrical energy. When these motors are incorporated with VFDs in centrifugal load service, their efficiency increases. With technological advancements in power electronics technology, VFD cost and size have decreased, while performance has improved. The EU has proposed to revise its goal under the Energy Efficiency Directive from target of 20% by 2020 to 30% target by 2030. This includes incentives to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to monitor efficiency levels in new capacities for energy generation and undergo energy audits. This is likely to boost the incorporation of VFDs in conveyors, electric fans, industrial pumps, and HVAC, among others. VFD advantages Globally, VFDs are used across several end-use sectors, including infrastructure, industrial, power generation, and oil and gas. Growing concerns regarding energy efficiency worldwide coupled with rising awareness about benefits of these drives are boosting their adoption across these sectors. For instance, as per a recent announcement by Simark Controls Ltd., they received a follow-up order of $849,937 ($1.1 million Canadian) for integrated VFDs from an existing customer in the Alberta oil sands. In the oil & gas sector, these drives help in reducing installation and operating costs, optimizing pump operations, improving pump uptimes, and boosting oil production. Six primary benefits of VFDs are: 1. Keeps starting current in control: A VFD has the capability of starting the motor at zero voltage and frequency, which keeps a check on motor winding flexing and heat generation. This helps in extending the motor life. 2. Reduces power line disturbances: Any voltage sag caused in the power line can adversely affect voltage sensitive devices such as proximity switches, sensors, and computers. Using VFDs eliminates voltage sag. 3. Demands lower power on start: Power required to start an ac motor across the line is substantially greater than with a VFD. When industrial customers start these motors during peak hours of electrical consumption, they are likely to be charged with surge prices. However, with VFD demanding lower starting power, the issue can be addressed. 4. Helps in controlling operating speed and acceleration: Applications such as bottling lines that include easy-to-tip product significantly benefit from a gradual increase in power. This allows conveyer belts to smoothly rev up rather than an abrupt jerk to full power. They also allow speed to be remotely adjusted by a controller. Control is speed and acceleration is a big bonus to industries in a production process. 5. Limits and adjusts torque: The drive is capable of limiting and adjusting the amount of torque so the ac motor never surpasses this limit. This protects machinery from damage and protects the process or product. 6. Saves energy and cost: A VFD regulating a pump motor that usually runs less than full speed can cut down energy consumption over a motor running at constant speed for the same period. In addition, it eliminates the need for mechanical drive components, which also helps reduce overall costs. Competition from substitutes Several VFD substitutes are available on the market. Soft-starter drives are one of the biggest and are. useful in limiting inrush current associated with electric motor startup. They lower the initial voltage and ramp up until desired speed is attained. Soft-starter advantages include easy set-up and theyre cheaper compared to VFDs. Theyre also designed to extend motor life. VFDs do not perform as needed in no flow or near-zero flow conditions and may not be well-suited for specialist applications. In these cases, instantaneous high-speed response is required. These drives are acknowledged for the ability to deliver higher frequency source power during startup, which is beneficial if control is sought after the desired speed is attained. Demand trends for VFDs A report by Grand View Research indicates the global VFD market size will reach an estimated $33.10 billion by 2025. Growing emphasis from government organizations to reduce energy consumption to achieve a net zero energy goal is one of the key trends contributing to the growth of the market. Rapid technological advancements along with proliferation of connected devices in commercial, household, and industrial sectors are anticipated to bolster the demand for VFDs. Energy efficiency is needed to not only meet burgeoning power requirements, but curtail greenhouse emissions. On a global scale, energy efficiency can reduce greenhouse emissions by around 40%. This increased focus on augmenting energy efficiency is poised to increase VFD adoption. In 2016, total investments in energy efficiency were valued at $231 billion. In this, investments in appliances, lighting, and HVAC and control amounted to $13.94 billion, $27.42 billion, and $22.86 billion, respectively. With surging energy consumption and its unit rate, operational engineers in several process sectors are trending toward VFDs for productivity, optimum operation, and improved energy efficiency of machines. This also is projected to stir up the demand for VFDs across applications such as automotive, HVAC, and elevators. Asia Pacific is slightly ahead of other regions in revenue generated through sales of VFDs thanks to rapidly improving economic conditions in countries such as India and China. Governments and other organizations in these countries are pouring hefty funds into energy efficient devices. Latin America also is expected to be a promising region because of stringent regulations and law enforcement for the use of energy efficient devices. Developed regions such as North America and Europe also are likely to witness healthy growth over the coming years. Aishwarya Vijay is a content creation executive at Grand View Research. Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media, mhoske@cfemedia.com. KEYWORDS: VFDs, energy efficiency Variable frequency drives (VFDs) can help even small organizations realize energy savings. Cost and size of VFDs have decreased; performance has improved. Other benefits of VFDs include less line disturbances, less maintenance, and longer motor life. CONSIDER THIS Next steps might include an assessment to see where new VFD technologies could help. Online extra Author bio: Aishwarya Vijay is a content creation executive at Grand View Research, with more than two years of experience in business writing. She has written several guest blogs and has a keen eye for technological advancements and breakthroughs in different sectors. Honda seems to be first to the sale-party this festive season. The car manufacturer has unveiled deals and benefits of up to Rs 1,50,000 on their cars. The Great Honda Fest which started on September 1, will go on till November 7. The Fest also offers a fully paid trip to London and Paris to lucky Honda car buyers. The company will choose 68 winners during the sale-period. Honda won't be offering any deal on it newest fleet-member Amaze. The car starts at a price of Rs 5,80,500. On the contrary, Honda increased the price of the new Amaze by Rs 31,000 during the first week of August. The company had launched the car at an introductory price for the first 20,000 units. The new Honda Jazz, however, is getting benefits of up to Rs 55,000 during the sale period. The company recently refreshed the Honda Jazz with new interior features. But the car still maintains exteriors identical to the previous version. Honda City, one of Honda's best-selling cars, is also getting an exchange bonus of Rs 30,000 and insurance at Re 1. Honda WR-V is also available with an exchange bonus of Rs 20,000 and insurance at Re 1. Honda's entry-level hatchback, Brio doesn't get any exchange bonus but the company is offering insurance at Re 1. Honda BR-V, the Hyundai Creta and Renault Duster rival, will get benefits of up to Rs 1,00,000. Honda CR-V will get benefits of up to Rs 1,50,000. However, the company is rumoured to unveil the next version of the car in October. The discount may only be valid on the outgoing model. Costa Cruises, AISM (the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association) and the Costa Crociere Foundation announced that following a study, guests with disabilities will be able to participate in group shore excursions, at no extra cost, with accessibility verified by AISM, according to a statement. The new tours, "Adagio Tours," will be available for booking from January 1, 2019 for Mediterranean cruises on the Costa Diadema. With the cooperation of AISM and the contribution of our Foundation, we have tackled the subject of accessible tourism in a responsible way, with the aim of making significant changes to people's lives. This project, which is a real innovation in the world of cruises, is an important step forward towards including people with disabilities and ensuring that there are no more differences and that everyone can share the same experiences when on vacation. I hope our initiative can be extended to the whole sector in future," said Neil Palomba, president of Costa Cruises, adding he hopes to roll out the new tours fleetwide. At every port of call, at least one group excursion will be offered that is accessible to everyone, including guests with impaired mobility, and this is available at no extra cost, Costa said. Ports included are Genoa, Marseilles, Barcelona, Palermo, Rome, Palma de Mallorca and Cagliari. " The tours have been curated by 15 women with multiple sclerosis, who were trained and selected by AISM thanks to the "WAT! Women Accessibility Tourism program funded by the Costa Crociere Foundation. These women - some with no permanent job, others who are students, recent graduates or part-time workers, are all passionate about travel and tourism, Costa said, and they attended a specific 160-hour training course on land and onboard Costa ships. Following this training, starting with a few excursions already included in the Costa's program, they contributed to planning the tours, testing them first hand and taking into consideration every detail relating to accessibility, route mapping, tourism experiences, making the most of local attractions. T "AISM has been about people, rights and research for 50 years. Our aim of achieving a world free of multiple sclerosis also means ensuring full inclusion and the opportunity for everyone to live their life beyond multiple sclerosis. This is why the priorities in our Agenda for 2020 include access to stable employment and the right to inclusion, which also means accessible tourism. AISM is working to achieve change with a real impact on people's lives. The social value of our actions, as an Association, lies in achieving changes that benefit everyone with a mobility impairment and everyone in the community with similar problems. Change has to be contagious and applied to civil society as a whole," said Mario Alberto Battaglia, President of AISM. With 11 LNG-fueled ships on order, Carnival Corporation has the largest orderbook of green ships in the cruise industry. Later this year, the company's German brand, AIDA Cruises, will make history when the new 183,900-ton AIDAnova becomes the first cruise ship in the world to be powered by LNG while both at sea and in port. "AIDAnova is also significantly more efficient," said Arnold Donald, CEO, on the company's third quarter earnings call. "In fact, she is over 20% more unit cost efficient and over 35% more fuel efficient than the AIDA fleet average, which bodes well for returns in the future," he said. "The AIDAnova makes history as the world's first cruise ship ever to be powered in port and at sea by [LNG], which is yet another of our many efforts to further environmental stewardship. During the quarter, we completed contracts for two more next generation ships powered by LNG both for our Princess brands to be delivered in 2023 and 2025, bringing the total number of ships on order fully powered by LNG to 11." Orders for LNG ships cover the AIDA, Princess, Costa, P&O and Carnival brands. "Clearly with less capacity in China going forward it creates an easier environment to operate in," said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation, speaking on the company's third quarter earnings call. With competitors making adjustments or exiting the market entirely, Carnival remains committed to China with Costa Crociere, as the Italian brand will debut its new purpose-built Costa Venezia in Shanghai next summer. "So as we look ahead to next year, we have less capacity in the first half of the year, more capacity in the second half of the year," Donald continued. "But China continues to be accretive for us. We continue with the same policy we had all along that as long as overall is accretive, we will have ships there if they are not accretive we move them out and right now is still relatively small part of our total. But its doing well because it is accretive." David Bernstein, CFO and chief accounting officer, noted that the company's overall net ticket yield increase was also driven in part by positive gains in the Chinese cruise market. "So, we have seen some favorable trends in the last two quarters, and as a result of all the things we've been doing with the travel distributors and all the changes we've been making in China. So, we feel very good about the market and its direction," Bernstein said. Donald noted that China would eventually become a significant fly-cruise market, while the domestic market was still on track to become a key cruise market. "And we are still very proud of our relationship with CSSC (China State Shipbuilding Corporation) as we move towards ultimately putting our joint venture into the market and sailing ships," Donald said, noting the two newbuilds the company will introduce in China in 2023 and 2024 for a yet-to-be named domestic brand in partnership with CSSC. Columbus Cruise Center Bremerhaven has announced a record 2018 cruise season, with 111 calls and 230,000 cruise guests. Among the highlights was a fleet reunion, with all four ships from Phoenix Reisen in port on the same day. "On 111 occasions, vessels were moored, provisions loaded, suitcases unloaded and sorted for collection at our baggage reclaim in the terminal," the port said, in a statement. "Most voyages left from Bremerhaven for destinations in the Baltic, Great Britain or Norway. This was also reflected in the numbers of suitcases we handled, with our ground floor sometimes looking like a sea of luggage. We always made sure that passengers could pick up their baggage quickly before setting off home happily." The port also introduced new parking packages for cruise passengers, with the option of pre-booking or using the port's luggage collection service directly from the vehicle. For 2019, the port's motto will be "easy arrival, great departure," according to a statement, with the city expecting another record and 260,000 cruise passengers on 120 calls. Auction of movable-immovable properties owned by Ishaq Dar: NAB ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has moved the accountability court for the auction of movable and immovable properties owned by Ishaq Dar since the former finance minister is absconding in the reference related to his assets beyond means. NAB special prosecutor Imran Shafique filed an application before accountability court Judge Mohammad Bashir, seeking the appointment of a receiver and the issuance of orders for the sale of Mr Dars movable and immovable properties since the ex-minister has fled abroad. Following the filing of the reference against Mr Dar in the accountability court last September, NAB seized all of Mr Dars movable and immovable assets. These included a house in Gulberg III, Lahore; three plots in the Al-Falah Housing Society, Lahore; six acres of land in Islamabad; a two-kanal plot in the Parliamentarians Enclave, Islamabad; a plot in the Senate Cooperative Housing Society, Islamabad; another plot measuring two kanals and nine marlas in Islamabad; and six vehicles. NAB alleges that Mr Dar acquired in his name and/or in the names of his dependants assets worth Rs831.7 million, which is disproportionate to the known sources of his income. The prosecutor raised before the court the matter under Section 88 (attachment of property of person absconding), sub-sections 2 & 3 of the Criminal Procedures Code. He requested the court that a receiver be appointed who would receive and deposit in the governments treasury the revenue collected from the properties. NABs reference accuses Mr Dar of amassing assets beyond his known sources of income. In the supplementary reference, NAB named president of the National Bank of Pakistan Saeed Ahmed, along with two other accused persons Naeem Mahmood and one of Mr Dars employees since 1991, Syed Mansoor Raza Rizvi regarding their alleged involvement in aiding and abetting the former finance minister for a 91-time increase in his assets within a short span of time. In the application, Mr Shafique stated that the former finance minister was summoned to face trial but he fled abroad without the courts permission. He added that Mr Dar had been summoned again while warrants of arrest were also issued to ensure attendance, but to no avail. When there were no prospects of his arrest in the case, Mr Shafique said, the court issued a proclamation under Section 87 (proclamation for person absconding) of the CrPC ordering him to appear before the court, with more than 30 days being given, but he did not appear. Later, he said, the court declared him a proclaimed offender. In the application, Mr Shafique stated that more than six months had passed but the accused had consciously and intentionally disappeared. The accused pretended his ailment but he is taking active part to perform his duty pursuits, he stated. Dar has failed to appear and justify his inability based on valid grounds. The application stated that some of the properties had already been attached by the court on Nov 2, 2017; however, some of the properties were beyond the jurisdiction of the court and therefore the orders of attachment, appointment of receiver and collection of rent/revenue from the properties ought to be ordered after getting a sanction order from the respective sessions judge of the district concerned. The NAB prosecutor requested the court that a proper order be issued through which a district officer (revenue) may be ordered to appoint a receiver. He added that the revenue thus collected should be deposited in the government treasury, or the revenue officer should be ordered to make appropriate arrangements for the sale of the properties. The counsel for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif during the trial proceedings of the Al-Azizia reference raised objections over the testimony of the last prosecution witness, Mehboob Alam, the investigation officer (IO) in the case. The defence counsel maintained that the IO was neither the scribe nor the executor of the documents he submitted as evidence against Mr Sharif. Moreover, the evidence produced in the Al-Azizia reference was contradictory to the law of evidence, he said, terming the documents inadmissible evidence. WASHINGTON Democrats breathed a little easier Friday after Republicans agreed to Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flakes demand for a week-long delay in Senate confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, giving the FBI time to investigate allegations of sexual abuse. But the breathing room in the Democrats months-long effort to defeat Kavanaugh may be short lived. An FBI probe that proves inconclusive could give Senate Republican leaders space to push forward on Kavanaughs confirmation. Without an FBI-uncovered smoking gun, Republicans could argue they bent over backward to permit testimony from Kavanaughs main accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, as well as ordering up the investigation Democrats demanded one that GOP senators had previously rejected as unnecessary. But short-lived or not, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Judiciary Committee member who questioned both Ford and Kavanaugh at Thursdays epic hearing, said Friday that the FBI probe may be the last and best chance to get at the truth. Im dealing with this one day at a time, Blumenthal said after the committee voted 11-10 along party lines to pass the Kavanaugh nomination to the Senate floor with the understanding that a confirmation vote would be delayed a week. That gives the FBI time to investigate allegations from Ford and two other women, including former Yale classmate and ex-Shelton resident Deborah Ramirez, that Kavanaugh was sexually abusive. Coming Investigation The test will be whether the investigation is real and penetrating and complete, said Blumenthal. I have some hope and perhaps confidence that the FBI will consider its professional integrity on line and wont settle for a half-baked investigation. Im not going to speculate on what happens if the FBI fails. Since allegations by Ford and the two other women surfaced earlier this month, Blumenthal and other Democrats have been calling for a delay in a confirmation vote for the 53-year-old conservative D.C. appeals court judge until an FBI probe takes place. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, had insisted that an FBI probe was unnecessary because agents do little more than take witness statements, which committee staffers had essentially done already. In often-belligerent testimony Thursday, Kavanaugh himself said hed been subjected to numerous FBI background checks as a Supreme Court nominee, an appeals court nominee, and before that a staffer in the White House of George W. Bush. And, he added, none of the potential witnesses named by Ford could corroborate her account of having been at a gathering in 1982 where Kavanaugh allegedly groped her and stifled her screams. He cited Leland Keyser, a close friend of Ford at the time, as stating that she does not remember such a gathering and has never met Kavanaugh. But Keyser said in an interview with the Washington Post that while she doesnt remember the incident, she believes Fords account. Flake reconsiders The surprise switch by Flake, at the Judiciary Committee came hours after he was reported to be voting yes in the committee to approve the Kavanaugh nomination and pass it to the Senate floor. Blumenthal and other Democrats had been looking at Flake as a possible defector because of his moderate record, his decision not to seek re-election this year, and his frequent public battles with President Trump. On Friday, Flake encountered a distraught woman in a Senate office elevator a moment captured by TV cameras that soon went viral. Judiciary members including Blumenthal gathered at a committee meeting that appeared to be little more than a formality aimed at passing along the Kavanaugh nomination with a favorable recommendation. Instead, it broke down into spectacle of senators appearing at the dais, exiting, and then reappearing again as negotiations ensued backstage. With the committee divided 11-10 in favor of the GOP minority, Republicans had little choice but to acquiesce in Flakes demand for a week-long delay in a Senate floor vote to give the FBI time to investigate the allegations. Senator Flake has made very clear and I appreciate it that he wants to know more, Blumenthal told reporters after the meeting adjourned. And he believes this delay is the responsible step to take. Kavanaughs fate could well be in the hands of four undecided senators whose votes could tip the balance either way Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. Later on Friday, President Donald Trump himself authorized such an investigation. And the White House released a statement from Kavanaugh pledging that he would go along with the decision to delay confirmation. At the dramatic Thursday hearing, Kavanaugh said, I answered questions under oath about every topic the Senators and their counsel asked me. Ive done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate. An unusually subdued Trump told reporters at the White House that while he continues to have faith in Kavanaugh, he too would go along with the delay and the probe. Im going to let the Senate handle that, he said. Theyll make their decisions. Asked whether he was considering a replacement should Kavanaugh falter, Trump replied: Not even a little bit. dan@hearstdc.com BRIDGEPORT After months of discussion, a vote this week confirmed Bridgeport Hospital will move forward with the acquisition of Milford Hospital. Yale New Haven Health, Bridgeport Hospital and Milford Hospitals boards of trustees voted to pursue the integration of the two hospitals, according to a statement released Friday. Milford Hospital serves more than 50,000 patients in the Greater New Haven area and Fairfield County annually. Bridgeport Hospital, a part of Yale New Haven Health, admits more than 20,000 patients and nearly 300,000 outpatient treatments annually, serving Fairfield and New Haven counties. In the statement, officials said that as the process moves forward in the months ahead, Milford Hospital will continue to operate as a separate organization. Under the plan, current Milford Hospital employees, including those represented by labor unions, would become employees of Bridgeport Hospital. Bridgeport Hospital has agreed to recognize all existing labor relationships. In June, Milford Hospital President Joseph Pelaccia submitted his resignation, citing personal reasons. Around that time, the two hospitals issued a statement saying a merger was possible. These are challenging times for community-based hospitals in Connecticut and throughout the country, said Mark Toney, chief restructuring officer of Milford Hospital. In working with Yale New Haven Health and Bridgeport Hospital, we believe that Milford Hospital can now develop a sustainable model for the future. Back in 2014, in the face of significant financial challenges, Milford Hospital built a relationship with Yale New Haven Hospital and Bridgeport Hospital. But the need for a broader relationship between the hospitals quickly became apparent when Milford Hospitals financial performance continued to struggle. While [Milford] Hospital has faced significant and mounting financial challenges, we are optimistic that by working together, we can address those issues directly and work toward providing improved access to high quality care, delivered in the most efficient manner possible, said Marna P. Borgstrom, chief executive officer of Yale New Haven Health. By working together, we are confident that we can deliver a bright future for Milford Hospital in the years ahead, even as the current health care environment challenges all providers, said Bridgeport Hospital president and CEO William M. Jennings. When Justice Brett Kavanaugh mentioned his alma mater, Yale Law School, the room booed. About 80 students packed into the student lounge at Yale Laws Sterling Building in New Haven Thursday afternoon to watch the historic U.S. Senate hearing that will likely decide whether Kavanaugh is appointed to the Supreme Court. Students in classrooms and dorms throughout the campus, like the rest of the country, spent the day glued to screens watching the hearing. Sitting on the floor, squeezing on couches and leaning against the walls, the students listened intently to the testimony. A few students left the room to cry in the hallway. Miranda Coombes, an undergraduate student, sat cross legged on the floor, watching Kavanaugh defend himself. She allows his allegations date back decades, but she said she sees some of her classmates behavior in the details that his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, described in painful detail earlier in the day . There are so many different Brett Kavanaughs at places like Yale that often promote prestige and power and give platforms to these very privileged people, she said. Kavanaugh graduated from the Law School in 1990. One of the women accusing him of sexual misconduct, Deborah Ramirez was a Shelton native and his classmate at Yale. Nishanth Krishnan, a sophomore, followed the news of the hearing on his phone. He said the days hearings reminded him of those involving Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill in 1991. Clarence Thomas, the (Supreme Court) nominee in question at the time, was also a Yale alumni who was in almost an identical situation, he said. Its almost parallel to what happened in the 1990s. People want previous wrongs to perhaps be righted. At the law school, many students showed their support for victims of sexual violence. A number wore I believe Christine Blasey Ford buttons on their clothing. One t-shirt declared I believed Anita Hill and I believe Christine too. Signs in the lounge and down the Law School hallways also voiced their support for Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school. Boys will be accountable for their actions read one handwritten poster board. We want a full, fair and neutral investigation said another. Printed fliers saying Yale Law Students Demand Better dotted the building. Some at Yale Law, birthplace of the Federalist Society that encouraged conservative legal thinking, do support Kavanaughs appointment, however. One student told Hearst Connecticut Media that he and a handful of other students he knows back the conservative justice even as the number of sexual assault allegations against him grows. The student felt too nervous about pushback from his peers, however, to identify himself. Across the street from the law school, Robert Jett lay on his stomach on the quad and watched the hearing on his laptop. He was surprised by Kavanaughs display of emotion. Its really, really confusing, said the Yale junior. I wouldnt have imagined it going like this... I expected Kavanaugh to be really strong on this, and not to say that crying isnt strong, but this just isnt going in the way I anticipated it going. Less than 24 hours before, several hundred undergraduates had filled this green to shout their opposition to Kavanaugh. Coombes was one of the student organizers of the protest. Nothing gets done if it isnt a continual movement, she said. Were about changing campus culture. On Monday, more than 300 Yale Law students and faculty staged a sit-in against Kavanaugh. More than 100 also carried the protest to Washington D.C. that day. Fifty Yale Law professors penned a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Sept. 21, urging it not to rush the appointment and take serious the allegations of sexual assault. Not part of the letter was Yale Law Professor Akhil Reed Amar, who wrote a New York Times Op-ed supporting Kavanaughs appointment in July. I just find it really interesting how historical things at institutions really repeat themselves, said Courtney Nunley, a Yale sophomore. You see these patterns of institutions protecting their own. Afghanistan's chief executive said he's seen no change in Pakistan's policies toward the Taliban since Prime Minister Imran Khan came to power last month, though he emphasized the two countries are working together and he hopes to see a shift. "Real change has not taken place as far as their policies towards the Taliban," Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Wednesday, adding that Pakistan continues to have "significant" influence over the Taliban. Capitalizing on Khan's election to get Pakistan to step up its fight against militant groups and end support to the Taliban has been a key objective for both Afghanistan and the U.S. While Pakistan serves as a key supply route for U.S. forces operating in Afghanistan, American officials have repeatedly accused officials in Islamabad -- particularly in the intelligence services -- of supporting militant groups that undermine the war effort. Pakistan has allegedly long maintained ties with the Taliban as a way to target Indian interests and prevent the Afghan government from getting too close to arch-rival India. Afghanistan's government has struggled to convince the Taliban to join in peace talks and, with long-delayed parliamentary and district elections barely three weeks away, there are fears the vote could be delayed or derailed further by continuing violence. Pulling off the elections will be "challenging," Abdullah conceded at the CFR event and, earlier, during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly. "While we pursue peace efforts and deal with security and governance challenges," Abdullah said in his U.N. speech, "we need to make sure that, given our circumstances, the electoral process is trustworthy and that the electorate can agree to a fairly credible and legitimate outcome." Taliban militants who control or contest about half of the war-ravaged country have vowed to discredit the elections. The group and Islamic State militants have targeted several voter registration centers in the past few months, killing and injuring more than a hundred people. In April, an attack on a voting center in the Afghan capital Kabul killed nearly 60 people. More than 9 million Afghans have registered to vote for both elections, according to the country's Independent Election Commission. But almost one-third of the country's 7,000 polling centers will remain shut due to insecurity, Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N.'s top envoy in Afghanistan, said in a Sept. 17 briefing to the Security Council. The country is also expected to hold a separate presidential election by April next year, which is likely to be even more difficult. A fraudulent result in the 2014 presidential election nearly sparked a civil war before a U.S.-brokered power-sharing deal between the two top candidates allowed the formation of a coalition government. If presidential elections are postponed, "there would be an immediate legitimacy crisis that could bring people into streets and cause all kinds of political problems," said Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. WASHINGTON - Nineteen House members say that, come January, they will not vote for any speaker candidate who does not agree to support a package of rules changes that could dramatically change how the chamber operates. The 10 Democrats and nine Republicans making the pledge belong to the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of centrist lawmakers who have sought to bridge partisan divides, and they say they will stick together and use their leverage to demand that the next speaker - whether it's Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., or someone else - endorse their reform proposals. "We just want to see more progress being made," said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., one of the 19 who are going public Thursday. "I think everybody at their core knows that the way the rules are written need to change. They're very archaic. They're very antiquated. They don't lend themselves to consensus-building and compromise. They don't lend themselves to progress." The proposed reforms, first rolled out by the Problem Solvers in July, run the gamut from opening up the amendment process to making it easier for bipartisan bill to get floor consideration to curbing the ability of a small group of rebellious lawmakers to force out a speaker. One proposal would force committees to deliver bills with more than 290 co-sponsors to the floor; another would require a three-fifths majority to pass any bill considered under a closed amendment process. What the reforms have in common is that they would chip away at the power of the House majority party leadership, which has gained clout over the years at the expense of not the minority, but also committee chairmen and rank-and-file members. Compelling a potential future speaker to relinquish some of that power could be a tough sell absent the kind of hardball tactics the Problem Solvers say that they are willing to employ. Rep. Tom Reed , R-N.Y., a co-chairman of the caucus, said that whether Republicans or Democrats are in control next year, they will likely have only a narrow majority, giving a small group of lawmakers leverage to demand reforms in exchange for their votes. "Congress is broken and my colleagues understand this - which is why we are gaining more and more interest and support every day," he said. A House speaker will be elected at the beginning of the next Congress in January by a majority of those present and voting - usually 218 in the 435-member House. A small group holding out for reforms could keep a candidate from meeting that threshold unless he or she submits to their demands. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., the other co-chairman, said the Problem Solvers' proposals would make it easier to vote on "bipartisan ideas for the good of the American people" and pave the way for "common-sense legislation on everything from infrastructure to immigration." Many of the lawmakers are in tough reelection battles ahead of November's midterms and might not return to Congress next year to vote on the next speaker, but they say that the demand for a better-functioning House runs deeper than the Problem Solvers Caucus. Republican moderates have griped for years about the hard-line tactics of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which included threatening to depose former House speaker John A. Boehner. More recently, members of both parties have complained about an increasingly choreographed floor process that has made it harder for members to get bill brought up and amendments voted on. Another one of the 19, Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., acknowledged some irony in the fact that it might take a small group of centrists holding a speaker race hostage to get the reforms they are seeking. "But it's for a good cause, not for some right-wing or left-wing ideology," he said. "There is a huge desire by the rank and file to get together and get stuff done," Schrader added. "That means we've got to frankly work together on the floor, make sure that the speaker is the speaker of the whole House and not held hostage by a minority of folks like the Freedom Caucus or whoever. ... I think the American people would be better served at the end of the day." Besides Gottheimer and Schrader, the Democrats making the pledge are Reps. Jim Costa of California; Tom O'Halleran of Arizona; Tom Suozzi of New York; Salud Carbajal of California; Dan Lipinski of Illinois: Stephanie Murphy of Florida; Vincente Gonzalez of Texas; and Darren Soto of Florida. The Republicans joining them are Reed, Fitzpatrick, Fred Upton of Michigan; Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania; John Katko of New York; Carlos Curbelo of Florida; Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin; Mike Coffman of Colorado; and Leonard Lance and New Jersey. As a Senate candidate in Virginia, Republican Corey Stewart promised to run "the most vicious, ruthless" campaign, a pledge he has largely kept with a steady stream of caustic social media postings aimed at his opponent, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine. But with fewer than 40 days before the Nov. 6 election, with money scarce, his poll numbers low and little support among the GOP establishment, Stewart is struggling to reboot. Aiming to blunt his bombastic image, he is now blaming the abrasive campaign he has run for more than year on bad advice from a top consultant he recently fired. At a debate Wednesday, Stewart presented himself as a pragmatic leader able to bridge differences to get things done in Prince William County, where he chairs the board of supervisors. But Stewart didn't seem able to resist his caustic ways, implying without evidence during the debate that Kaine has been accused of sexual harassment. "Who is the real Corey Stewart?" Mark Rozelle, a George Mason University professor who was on debate panel, asked Stewart. Stewart responded with another attack on Kaine. No matter the answer, Stewart is trying any way he can to gain ground on Kaine, who leads by nearly 20 points in most polls. After outraising Stewart $19.3 million to $1.3 million, Kaine has an advertising budget and logistics operation that have dwarfed the Republican's bare-bones campaign. Stewart said his firing last month of Noel Fritsch - a political consultant who also worked on his unsuccessful 2017 bid for governor - was an effort to steer his campaign away from an angry tone that alienated potential supporters as it curried favor from the extreme right, including white supremacists such as Paul Nehlen. Since then, Stewart has woven into his speeches sober topics such as the gross domestic product and unemployment rates. At a Richmond forum before a predominantly black audience last Wednesday, Stewart didn't mention his previous pledges to preserve Confederate monuments, his past associations with white nationalists or his decision to attack the Rev. Al Sharpton last month as a "race hustler." The audience had warmly greeted Kaine just an hour before. Stewart told the group that his staff questioned his decision to attend. "My advisers were like, 'Never go into a forum unless it's a friendly forum, unless you're absolutely certain people are going to be with you,' " he said. "And I think that that's the problem in America. I think it's the problem in Washington. I think that we have two sides that aren't talking to one another." Earlier in the week, Stewart appeared before environmentalists at a Fairfax County forum that also featured Kaine. The audience nodded in agreement as Kaine argued for cultivating green energy jobs and making it harder to win federal approval for oil and natural gas pipelines. Stewart, who has called the idea of man-made climate change "a hoax" and told the audience that he didn't believe humans caused global warming, prefaced his remarks with an appeal for more bipartisan discussion. "So far, we're just yelling," he said, of national politics. Then he argued that flooding in Virginia's coastal communities is a function of sinking land - not rising sea levels - an assertion that prompted sarcastic laughs from the crowd. Still, Eric Seibold, 44, was impressed that Stewart even showed up. "To come into a lion's den like this?" he said. "I've got to give him at least a little respect." Yet even as he tries to moderate his message, Stewart repeatedly drifts toward the inflammatory approach that helped him win his party's nomination in June, warning about the menace of Latino gangs or ridiculing the allegations of sexual assault facing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as "a bunch of crap." Stewart fired Fritsch, whom he has paid $52,000 since early 2017, after the consultant tweeted, under Stewart's name, that a Michigan Democrat who is Muslim is an "ISIS commie." Stewart's constituents in Prince William County include a large Muslim population. "I was having people come up to me saying: `Your tweets and Facebook posts are angry,' " Stewart said. "I didn't like what the campaign looked like, and it was in my name. And so we made that change and so you're seeing the real guy now." He said Fritsch also encouraged him to forge a relationship with Nehlen, the one-time Wisconsin congressional candidate whom Stewart praised as "one of my personal heroes" in a video made in January 2017, before Nehlen's anti-Semitic views made him an outcast within the Republican Party. Fritsch, who briefly worked for Nehlen, was "out of touch with my voice," Stewart said. But Fritsch, in a telephone interview, characterized Stewart's campaign as "dysfunctional" and called Stewart "erratic." "He's untethered from the claims he had to being a hard-line conservative and warrior for freedom of speech," Fritsch said, accusing Stewart of being lax with fundraising. "He's moderating." With time running out, Stewart is caught between the need to appeal to moderate voters while remaining provocative enough to capture free media attention that helps him reach potential supporters he doesn't have funds to court otherwise, political analysts say. Stewart's dilemma is shared by Republicans in swing districts and states across the country as they navigate a polarized electorate in midterm elections where President Trump's unpopularity could give Democrats control of at least the House, analysts say. "Trying to define yourself, much less redefine yourself, is a real challenge when President Trump dominates the news cycle virtually every minute of every day," said Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political-science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. For Stewart, that problem is particularly acute, Farnsworth said. Stewart rose to prominence last year when he almost won the GOP nod for governor by championing Confederate monuments, railing against illegal immigrants, raffling off an assault weapon and attacking moderate Republicans for failing to fully back Trump. In the Senate race, he has shown unyielding support for Trump, boasting that his hard-line approach to illegal immigration in Prince William made him "Trump before Trump was Trump." "If Corey Stewart had presented himself as a more conventional Republican when he first entered statewide politics, he probably wouldn't have been noticed in the way he has as a more aggressive figure," Farnsworth said. "But getting known doesn't mean getting elected statewide. Those are two very different things." Stewart said the image he now wants to cast - "conservative, strong and stern" - can appeal to more moderate voters. At times, that has meant avoiding the kinds of controversies he once sought. This month, Stewart backed out of speaking at a Washington rally to support Trump after learning that several other scheduled speakers harbored white nationalist views. One - YouTuber Vincent James Foxx - has argued that the Trump administration should not hire African-Americans. "During the primary and the gubernatorial primary, we weren't as careful as we should have been with regard to the people who we were associating with," Stewart said. "I'm going to take responsibility for everything that happens in my campaign. The buck stops here. But it really angered me because I was getting in trouble for stuff that members of my campaign were doing." But it's hard for voters to know which Corey Stewart is authentic and which is manufactured, said Quentin Kidd, director of Christopher Newport University's Wason Center for Public Policy. Although he fired Fritsch, Stewart has not severed ties with Rick Shaftan, another adviser, who in his social media posts has called majority-black cities "s---holes" while bemoaning that the South lost the Civil War. "It doesn't say anything that voters should feel comfortable with," Kidd said. "I don't know how a moderated Corey Stewart would make amends for all of the things that the Corey Stewart that you and I know has said and done." Govt to launch operation against tax defaulters next week: Fawad Chaudhry 28 September, 2018 Related News Imran Khan distributed loan cheques under Kamyab Jawan Programme PTI govt to face all challenges coming its way: Imran khan More on this View All Top 2021 Accessories We Know You Will Love Types of Casino Payment Methods Tips for Taking Incredible iPhone Travel Photos Best Poker Hands ever played on a Casino Are Slot Developers Important for players? Hand Wash and Toiletries in Pakistan And the Role of DUPAS in Reshaping the Industry Ways that Players Used to Take Advantage of Slot Sites ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Thursday decided to launch an operation against the tax defaulters next week. Next week a big operation will be launched against 100 big defaulters of the Federal Board of Revenue, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told reporters at a briefing along with Minister for Energy Umar Ayub after a meeting of the federal cabinet. Things destroyed during the past 30 years could not be corrected within 30 days, however the things are moving in the right direction and the government is committed to protect the poor and force the wealthy to pay taxes, he said. The cabinet also decided to devise a comprehensive policy on Afghan refugees before next extension of their stay in Pakistan in June next year. Out of 2.5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, two million are registered and 0.5 million are so far unregistered. As many as 879,198 Afghan refugees have citizen cards of Afghanistan but reside in Pakistan and 13,94,000 have refugee cards, the minister said. Fawad said the issues related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) were being looked into and Mansoor Hussain Siddiqui has been appointed director general of the newly formed Financial Monitoring Unit. The cabinet also decided that tax exemptions for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) would be retained till year 2023. Fawad said the prime minister directed all the ministers to promote meritocracy and not give recommendations or receive recommendations from others. The prime minister also directed to increase the use of information technology to save precious resources and move towards the paperless governance. Fawad said the prime minister told the cabinet that a vibrant tourism policy would be introduced and beaches, coastal areas and northern parts of the country would be the main focus of the development of tourism sites. The cabinet also decided to further strengthen the Right to Information Act in order to bring transparency in governance and ensure citizens right to know. The minister said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) RTI law was strong enough and there was need to strengthen the federal law as well. Fawad said the cabinet gave approval for appointment of Justice (r) Abdul Rauf as chairman of the Wage Board Award which would finalize the award within 120 days to fulfill longstanding demand of the journalist community. He said that an Islamabad-like anti-encroachment drive will also be launched in Karachi to clear the state land. Karachi Port Trust and Pakistan Railways land was the prime target of the encroachers, he said. Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Energy Umer Ayub said total debt of Pakistan increased from Rs 15,000 billion in 2013 to Rs 29,000 billion in 2018. The previous government left the energy sector in crisis and the circular debt rose to Rs 640 billion, he added. He said the transmission system did not have the capacity to carry more than 19,000 megawatt of electricity and many areas faced load shedding and low voltage in the summers. The PML-N government set up power projects, he said, but did not make investment in upgradation of the transmission and distribution system and also did not arrange for the working capital for the energy projects set up by it. Fawad said the distribution companies failed to recover 29 percent of the bills and an amount of Rs 220 billion was pending because of delay in tariff adjustment. When the oil prices fell in the international market, the benefit of fuel adjustment was not passed on to the industry and revision of tariff structure was delayed. Net hydel profit of provinces was also not declared by the last government for one and a half years, he claimed. The last government left an accumulated financial burden of Rs 1,200 billion for the new government, including circular debt and subsidies for tubewells among others. The circular debt in gas sector has risen to Rs 150 billion, he added. Umer said the government would take steps to reduce line losses, end power theft, recover unpaid bills and tackle the crises in the energy sector head by decreasing the inefficiencies. To a question, he said the government could not change agreements with the independent power producers unilaterally as the companies could go to the international court of arbitration just like it happened in the past. Umer said the government had to present the mini-budget to offset the expenditure that was not reflected in the budget estimates. He said policy of the government was to avoid putting burden on the working and labour classes and protect the small-scale industry. Replying to a question, Fawad said the committee constituted regarding electronic media advertisements was meant to check the content and it had nothing to do with the release of the advertisements. He said that regarding issue of advertisements, he had sought proposals from the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) and the Council of Newspaper Editors (CPNE) and that a policy in this regard would be finalized after receiving their input. Fawad said the governments in the past ruined national institutions like Radio Pakistan, PTV, PIA and the Pakistan Steel Mills by inducting their cronies. He said in the past a person driving a taxi in New York was appointed director general of the Radio Pakistan and a former minister got his wife appointed as an anchor in PTV at a hefty package. He said he had proposed to the prime minister that leader of the opposition should not be appointed chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). He said the PAC would hold audit of the projects of the tenure of the PML-N and if Shehbaz Sharif occupied that post, it would become a futile exercise. To a question, he said that the prime minister had issued directives to the Punjab chief minister to remove the bureaucrats responsible for the Model Town carnage from important posts. Moreover, he had called for filing appeal against the Lahore High Court verdict in the Pakistan Awami Tehrik petition. Before the start of the briefing, the minister said there was good news for the nation as Saudi Arabia had signed three agreements of grants with Pakistan. He said the agreements were continuation of the prime ministers visit to the Kingdom as the Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman had called for swift implementation of pledges. Watching Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in the last weeks of his administration, youd never get the impression that state government is in any financial trouble. For there the governor was last week, presiding again over the state Bond Commission and authorizing another $500 million of borrowing for various projects, none of them urgent they included bicycle paths and playgrounds many of them expensive ones in Hartford, whose long-term bonded debt of more than $500 million was assumed by state government a few months ago at the governors direction. Meanwhile, the unfunded liability of state governments pension accounts, estimated at as much as $80 billion, is a big issue in the election campaign for governor. So is the inadequacy of the states transportation infrastructure fund. Indeed, even as the Bond Commission met last week, a research organization reported that 300 Connecticut bridges are structurally deficient. So why all the borrowing for projects less important than bridge maintenance? As with last years 10-year extension of the master state employee union contract, which guarantees compensation and forbids layoffs, the governor and the Democratic majority in the General Assembly are using up state governments cash and credit to tie the hands of their successors, especially if their successors are Republicans not allied with Democratic special interests. Last week the governor said state government this year has borrowed $209 million to loan or give to 109 companies in the name of economic development, whereby the companies promised to add 9,500 jobs and retain 23,000 more. The governor meant this as a boast and yet it signified that 70 percent of the jobs financed by the state this year were already here. Thats not economic development. Its ransom. The governor says that when his term expires hell leave Connecticut in better shape than it was in when he took office eight years ago. But the projected budget deficit he will leave his successor will be bigger than the one left to him, so in January Connecticut will be not just a mess but one whose state employees are the only ones fully insulated against it. Political correctness tops education Most of New Havens high school students never master math or English before being graduated, but it is hard to exceed them for self-righteousness. Last week hundreds walked out of classes and marched to a church near the citys green where an illegal immigrant is holed up against deportation. The students protested the deportation order and the school system legitimized their walkout, classifying it as a field trip. For safety, the school system arranged buses for the students to ride downtown, but most chose to walk, first on sidewalks and then in the streets so they could block traffic. There is no penalty for walking out of school in New Haven, nor for blocking traffic, at least not if the objective is politically correct. For New Haven is a sanctuary city and its schools and streets are happy to be used for political correctness. Of course the students wouldnt want to schedule their protests on weekends, on their own time, since the fun is to get out of classes, to convert truancy to what can be called a learning experience without having to make the effort of learning. New Havens students may be learning most of all that school administrators have no backbone and no respect for the public that supposes itself to be paying for education, not political indoctrination. Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Connecticut. Well water testing is a must if you live in a home with a well. Unlike municipal water, which has been tested and filtered of dangerous substances, there's no one watching that well water but you! So, letting it slide can be unsafefor you and your house. So whether you own a home with well water or are considering buying one, here's what you need to know about how to test well water and make sure it's safe. How many homes have well water, anyway? The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 13 million Americans get their drinking water from a private well, a structure drilled into the earth that draws up groundwater to use for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, watering plants, and more. Because that water is coming right out of the ground, there is always a chance that it could be carrying harmful chemicals, bacteria, and more. That's where well water testing comes in, says Eric Roy, a chemist and founder of water filtration firm Hydroviv from Washington, DC. He splits tests into two types: Base-level testing: This test is often required by lenders before they'll sign off on a mortgage, and it typically looks for things in the water that are tied to damage of the home's infrastructure. For example, a bank-mandated test may bring to light issues of "hardness," or chemicals that can damage the home's pipes and plumbing. However, this test typically doesn't address any safety issues for bathing or drinking. Higher-level testing: This test is the one homeowners should invest in, Roy suggests. It looks at things that are harmful to humans, such as arsenic levels or volatile organic compounds, which are organic chemicals that can make you sick if you ingest them. People tend to assume that any basic water test will look for every possible issue that's out there, but that's not the case. "Water testing only tests for things that you are looking for," Roy says. "For example, if you're just doing basic testing, you'll never find lead, even if it's a giant problem in your water." How is well water testing done? Don't count on a regular home inspector to screen well water in addition to checking out a home you hope to buy. "Water testing is almost never part of a basic home inspection," Roy warns. David Henrich, president of the National Groundwater Association Board and vice president of Bergerson-Caldwell, a water well contracting firm in Minnesota, suggests hiring a specialized water inspector to do the test. This professional will visit the home and collect samples directly from the taps. In addition to examining the samples for signs of a dirty well, such as cloudy water, low water flow, and taste or odor problems, he'll also take the water to a lab that will measure the amount of bacteria, nitrates, and other contaminants in the well. A list of certified contractors can be found on the NGWA website. If you want to save some cash, you can perform the test yourself, Henrich says. Many community health departments offer low-cost laboratory testing. They will provide information on how to collect the sample and where to take the collected water for testing. To find a certified lab in your area, call the EPA's Private Well Owner Hotline at 855-420-9355 or visit the agency website. How much does well water testing cost? The costs vary greatly depending on what qualities you are looking to screen for and what the water labs charge around the country, but there are some general rules. If you have a professional come out to collect samples and test for bacteria, arsenic, and nitrates, Henrich says, the bill will likely sit around $250. If you collect the samples yourself and take them to a lab to test for those same three issues, the price will likely be closer to $175. Each bill is subject to higher costs if you or your water collection professional decide to test for additional parameters such as lead or perfluorocarbons, a groundwater contaminant known to be problematic in some areas of the country. What are some common well water problems? If you've hired a professional to test your water, he should sit down with you to review the lab test results and make sense of all the numbers. You'll want to pay particular attention to levels of bacteria and leadthere are no "safe" levels of these materialsand nitrates. "Nitrates are particularly concerning for infants and small children," Henrich explains. "While harmless in small amounts, high levels can impact both humans and animals." The maximum contaminant limit for nitrates issued by the EPA is 10 parts per million. Can well water issues be fixed? The good news is that most well water issues can be fixed, and don't end up breaking the deal when it comes to a home purchase, Henrich says. "Most issues can be remedied by water treatment to deliver the water quality a homeowner might be looking for," he notes. "If there are any structural issues with the well, typically that can be remedied in an affordable fashion, too." Even lead in well water can be remedied, but costs depend on where the contaminant is coming from. Lead often comes from older pipes. But the exact source should be determined by a professional water treatment company. You can call a water treatment company to get an estimate for fixing the issue. Buyers who find this problem in a home they hope to purchase can also ask that this cost be covered by the seller. If the seller refuses, it might be a reason to walk away from the home. Should municipal water be tested, too? Of course, if the home is on municipal water rather than a well, there's no well to test. But it's still worth making sure the water is safe. The municipality is beholden to municipal water standards dictated by the EPA, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, legislation passed by Congress in 1974 that requires the EPA to set contaminant levels to drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur. You can also check local water quality in the EPA's required Consumer Confidence Reports. The post Well Water Testing, Explained: Do You Know What You're Drinking? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. PM to remove police-district officials in Model Town case from their present postings LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed removal of police and district administration officials named in the June 2014 Model Town case from their present postings. As many as 125 police officers and district administration officers were named as accused in a private complaint filed by the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) before an anti-terrorism court. Many of them were re-shuffled by the former Shahbaz Sharif government. The prime minister contacted Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar by phone on Thursday and directed him to remove the accused officials from their current postings, asserting that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had promised in its election campaign to ensure justice to the victims of Model Town shooting. Among the accused were former Lahore DCO Capt (retired) Muhammad Usman, former DIG (Operations) Rana Jabbar, former SPs Tariq Aziz and Abdul Raheem Shirazi. Capt Usman is currently serving as Punjab Food Authority DG, Tariq Aziz as SSP (Discipline), Lahore; Abdul Raheem Shirazi as SP CIA, while Rana Jabbar has gone abroad to attend a training course. The prime minister had earlier in the day phoned PAT Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri in the wake of the Lahore High Court judgment and promised justice in the case. Later, he contacted the chief minister and asked him to remove all accused officials who are currently serving in Punjab. Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry says the prime minister also assured the PAT chief that the PTI government would support his partys strategy in the Model Town tragedy. Earlier on Thursday, PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri addressed a press conference and called the LHCs rejection of revision appeals slaughter of justice. Dr Qadri relied heavily on the dissenting note of Justice Qasim Khan and tried to build his case against the verdict. The PAT had approached the LHC against anti-terrorist court (ATC) denial to summon 12 bureaucrats and parliamentarians in the case.By refusing to even summon them, the ATC made a mockery of justice while the LHC has only taken a cue from the same ATC, as put by the dissenting judge that the ATC took the line of argument by the defence rather than the victim party rather than taking an independent view of the case. If that is going to be the case, the law of abetment should be removed from the law books. The PAT never said that the former chief minister or the home secretary or the inspector general of police themselves shot at the protesters. The PAT case is that all this happened under their nose and they allowed it to happen. The planners are never visible on the scene and share the responsibility. The PAT only wanted them to be called and quizzed, nothing more. If they are found innocent, they would naturally be set free. By refusing to call them, the courts have set them free of even being questioned for an incident, which cost 14 human lives and left over 100 injured. As a $3 billion unit of one of the most admired companies in the world, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties covers Connecticut, Rhode Island and Westchester County, NY., with the strength of a multinational conglomerate. For seven consecutive years, Berkshire Hathaway has earned a spot in Hearst Connecticut Media Groups Top Workplaces awards as a large employer. For 2018, the Wallingford-based unit of Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has earned the No. 1 position in the size category. The Berkshire Hathaway residential real estate division closed 10,000 transactions in this past year alone. But money isnt everything. Buffet said in his 2014 biennial memo that the companys top priority, trumping everything else, including profits is that all of us zealously guard Berkshires reputation. Every decision made throughout our company is done so around a set of core values from authenticity, integrity to service, said Candace Adams, the regional president. We are entrenched in preserving our culture and our employees have a sense of pride belonging to this organization. Innovation is at the core of the firms continual success as a workplace, with new technology tools, for example, leading to consistent praise by employees. Agents reported that they appreciate their companys flexibility, family atmosphere and a culture that encourages personal growth, balance and out-of-the-box thinking. They also appreciate Berkshires technology that handles lead generation, marketing and transaction processing. We are constantly researching technologies and new platforms for our clients, Adams said. Very important that we meet the needs of clients through technology and communication. Its second to relationships, caring and follow through. The Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island region has 55 offices in all, 15 in Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties. Berkshire has fared well in the Hearst Top Workplaces awards, with a previous first-place win. Berkshire agent Shannon Drury, 39, of South Norwalk, became a real estate agent in 2004 with Prudential, later acquired by Berkshires real estate arm in 2013. Now a part of the three-person team Maher-Drury and Associates, Drury said agents have a sense of pride working under the Berkshire brand. There is a quality of agent that comes in here, and theres a definite respect in the community and also the brokerage community for the Berkshire brand, Drury said. Because agents who work for Berkshire arent actually employees, but rather independent contractors with flexible schedules, some might argue the company has an advantage when it comes to measuring workplace satisfaction. But, Drury said, while her schedule is certainly flexible, it doesnt mean she works any less than a regular 9-to-5 gig. In fact, she said, she often puts in 60 to 80 hours each week. AT A GLANCE: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties Locations in Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties: 15 Headquarters: Wallingford Sector: Real estate Employees in three-county area: 730 CEO: Candace Adams Perk: Summer Fridays. Employees get to leave at 3 p.m. on Fridays throughout the summer. See More Collapse Youre always working. Nights, weekends, holidays. You have to be ready to answer your clients immediately whether youre on vacation or not, she said. As an agent, Drury said, it is even more critical to have most up-to-date tools to do her job and do it well. There are so many systems in place for us but its seamless. We can be out there in the field and manage our transactions which allows us to really focus on our clients and customer service, she said. Our culture is authentic, transparent, Adams said. The culture we have recognizes the value of doing the right thing, every time. The value of carrying out in a professional way and well-serving our clients in a diligent way. Agents feel secure in working for a company that values that. Celeste Lugo, 27, of Norwalk, joined the team just after obtaining her real estate license in January 2018. Berkshire offered a certain confidence and professionalism. When I came to that first office meeting the atmosphere, the culture, everything I was sold. I wanted to be a part of it all, Lugo said. At the end of the day, we are there for each other professionally and personally, Adams said. We will always be here. We will never go away. And we are one of the very few companies who can say that. For three-quarters of a century, they have been on a mission to build better lives. Today, Norwalk-based Family & Childrens Agency has become one of the largest change-makers in Fairfield County, servicing the needs of over 11,000 people across the life cycles. Once again earning accolades in the Hearst Connecticut Media Groups annual Top Workplaces awards, Family & Childrens Agency has snagged the No. 1 spot in the midsize category for 2018. The agency also won the top honor in 2014 and 2016. The nonprofit human service organization is headed up by Rob Cashel, the president and CEO, who has been in the industry for more than three decades. Without the capability to routinely hand out generous bonuses and pay increases, he and other nonprofit managers often look for other ways to keep the wheels turning. The most obvious answer: focusing employees on the companys mission and culture. The agency specializes in adoption, foster care, counseling, parenting programs, after-school programs, homeless adults, recovery programs and home care. We have a very transparent culture ... We have full staff meetings three or four times a year where senior management informs the rest of the workplace whats going on across the company. In general, people feel comfortable coming to a leader with any challenges because the executive team is very much involved throughout, said Averi Dudek, director of human resources. Employees gain meaning and intrinsic satisfaction working directly with people in need, of course, but beyond that, many of things that make Family & Childrens Agency workers happy arent much different from those in other companies. That would include holiday parties, half-day Fridays from the Fourth of July through Labor Day and the opportunity to climb the ladder. Cashel said the agency is able to remain competitive by investing in each of its 250 employees. The agency has regular evaluations and staff meetings where supervisors work with staffers, devising individualized growth and training plans. For example, the agency expanded its leadership team from 25 to 36 people, to include some up-and-coming leaders who dont direct programs. The thinking is that this is really a place that people who are looking to advance and assume more responsibility and it fit in line with a philosophical shift we made a few years ago to really not have a top-heavy senior group but to develop that next level down and the next level down. The agency receives about 65 percent of its budget from public sources, mainly the state of Connecticut; another 20 percent from fees for services; and 15 percent from fundraising. C ashel is known for engaging employees at all levels of the organization through hosting lunches with new hires, offering intimate 90 minute open forums five to 10 times each year and involving the entire agency in the strategic planning process every three years. At a Glance Family & Children's Agency Locations in Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties: Four Headquarters: Norwalk Sector: Social Services Employees: 250 CEO: Robert Cashel Perk: Half-day Fridays from the Fourth of July through Labor Day See More Collapse For these reasons, the agency also earned the Clued-in Senior Management award this year, part of Top Workplaces. Rob feels that its ve ry im portant to formally meet everyone at the agency and talk about their experiences here, how theyre doing and what we can improve on. Its empowering for our employees. We want to know what our employees feel is important to do their jobs, Dudek said. Chrissy Cacace, 35, of Norwalk, has been with Family & Childrens Agency for five and a half years serving as the director of program development. I am able to work with a phenomenal group of supportive colleagues in a role that keeps me growing as a professional, Cacace said. It is an organization that truly cares about not only making positive changes in the lives of the clients we work with but also supporting its staff in the challenging work we do. I read about a 73-year-old scientist crisscrossing the globe, studying rocks as she tries to disprove the gospel that a meteor hitting Mexico caused the mass extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Nothing easy about that quest. Keeping employees happy and productive thats easy, right? Just listen, show respect and dont be too bossy. Well, if it were that easy, we wouldnt need the Top Workplaces awards. But we do, and the winners 50 companies in many industries with operations in Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties are some of the best employers in Connecticut. Talking with some of the winners and editing stories about others for this special awards section, Ive seen a picture emerging of the art and science that goes into making an excellent workplace. Employees want, and this group delivers, teamwork and technology, clearly, along with another T-word, a hard-to-describe virtue we can call temperament. Just about everyone talks about teamwork as a way to bring out the best ideas, the boldest efforts. How to make that happen? At winning companies, its both formal and informal and theres no single, magic formula. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties, our first-place winner in the large employer category, relies on seamless technology with lots of bells and whistles to keep its agents working together and at their most productive, but the company a unit of the global holding company headed by Warren Buffett considers its highest priority to be maintaining its reputation. That, too, can take many forms, but its related to the temperament of leaders in the company. Shout if you must, but steady, fair and even-tempered gets results. I hear that a lot, talking with folks like Olivier Bojarski at Thinklogical in Milford, a maker of ultra-secure computer integration systems. Mission plays a strong role for employees at Family & Childrens Agency, our top winner in the midsize category, but they still need teamwork, technology and the right temperament. And who knew collecting bills could be so much fun? At Eastern Account System, our top winner in the small employers category, you hear laughter and you see smiles, one employee told us. Maybe youre reading this thinking, hey, my company is nowhere near as good an employer as the ones in these articles. If so, drop off a copy on the boss desk maybe while he or she isnt around. If you think your employer should be on the list, click on www.hearst.com/topworkplaces and get a head start on nominating for 2019. Seven years after two Pennsylvania credit unions detected suspicious account activity that led federal investigators to uncover a $69 million tax refund scheme, justice finally caught up with one of the leaders of the national fraud ring last week. U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone in Erie, Pa. sentenced Doherty Kushimo, 56, of Providence, R.I. to eight years in federal prison on Sept. 18. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identify theft. He was ordered to pay $335,725 in restitution. Kushimo was sentenced in Erie because in 2012 the $302 million Widget Financial Federal Credit Union reported to the FBI that there were accounts opened by a person living outside of Pennsylvania and that each account application contained stolen identify information, including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and telephone numbers. Federal investigators determined Kushimo opened some of those accounts. NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger and other senior staff members will meet today with Mark Calabria, chief economist for Vice President Mike Pence. The meeting will be focused on housing finance reform and credit unions regulatory burden. NAFCU has previously shared its core principles for housing financial reformthat should be included in any final reform measures with lawmakers and officials in the Trump administration. Throughout last year and this year, NAFCU has engaged with key lawmakers and agency officials including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Counselor Craig Phillips, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt, and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to achieve credit unions housing finance priorities. In June, Berger sent a letter to Mnuchin in response to President Donald Trumps recent proposal, Reform the Federal Role in Mortgage Financing, which was outlined in the administrations broader agency reorganization plan. Westinghouse stuns Windber in District 5-8 Class AA championship Windber's season came to a close at the hands of Westinghouse in the District 5-8 Class AA championship. Saudi Arabia signed three grant agreements with Pakistan ISLAMABAD: The government of Saudi Arabia has signed three grant agreements with Pakistan to finance three road infrastructure and energy projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). These agreements have been inked in line with the understanding reached during Prime Minister Imran Khans recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told a press conference on Thursday. The agreements were signed by the Saudi envoy and the officials of Pakistans finance ministry. The first step has been taken as three grant agreements have been signed. This is a very positive step and bodes well for relations between the two countries, the minister added. Giving a briefing about the federal cabinets meeting held earlier in the day, he said that a high-level Saudi delegation would arrive in Pakistan on Sunday for materialising the deal between Islamabad and Riyadh. More agreements would be inked next week between a high-level Saudi delegation and Pakistani officials, Mr Chaudhry said. The accords will be related to Reko Diqs gold and copper mines and the oil refinery at Gwadar Port, and the delegation would comprise the Saudi investment team, minister for petroleum and minister for energy. During the prime ministers recent visit, Saudi Arabian leaders including Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman were eager to fanalise the deal within days despite the fact that such deals require months for materialising, the minister said. It may be mentioned that since the prime ministers visit to Saudi Arabia, the opposition has been asking the government to unveil the pledges made by Riyadh regarding mega investment and monetary assistance to Pakistan. The information minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had issued directives that a comprehensive policy be designed for Afghan refugees living in Pakistan till June 2019. He said 2.5 million Afghan refugees were residing in Pakistan of whom 2m were registered and the remaining ones were undocumented. There are only two ways to go about this issue: either we let things remain the way they are, or [do something about it]. There are 879,198 Afghan refugees living in Pakistan who have citizen cards issued by their country; 1,394,000 who have POR (refugee) cards; and 500,000 who are undocumented, he said. Afghan refugees have been given an extension for their stay in Pakistan till June for the renewal of their accreditation cards and the prime minister wants to see a comprehensive policy drafted before the next extension, the minister said. He said that the cabinet had decided to take action against 100 big tax defaulters. The government will be launching a major operation soon against 100 major FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) defaulters. The first stage of reforms in the FBR has been completed and details in this regard will be provided by Finance Minister Asad Umer next week, Mr Chaudhry said. To overcome the prevailing financial crisis in the country, he said, the government had set up the Financial Action Task Force and appointed Mansoor Hussain Siddiqui the director general of the financial monitoring unit at the State Bank. Earlier the post was non-existing in the department. He said former Justice Abdul Rauf had been appointed the new chairman of the Wage Board to decide within 120 days the matter of low and untimely-paid wages of journalists. Mr Fawad said that the government believed that the right to information was part of its policy as only with the right to information and transparency journalists would have easy access to information. The cabinet, he said, also declared that an anti-encroachment drive would be launched in Karachi to reclaim large swathes of land belonging to the Karachi Port Trust and the Pakistan Railways. We are heading towards Karachi after getting vacated 6,000 kanals of state land in Islamabad, he added. The minister said that the federally and provincially-administered tribal areas, which were previously being run under independent systems outside the jurisdiction of Pakistani laws, would continue to enjoy tax amnesty for five years. This means that these regions will continue to enjoy the use of non-custom paid cars up to June 30, 2023. Similarly, residents (of the tribal areas) will be exempted from paying sales and withholding tax, he added. Mr Chaudhry said that all ministries had been instructed to not only stop making selective appointments, but also to desist from forwarding their recommendations for candidates for other ministries. He said that the prime minister had urged members of his cabinet to move towards more technologically-savvy practices and adopt e-communication practices, instead of wasting paper for printing agendas and budgets. All ministries have been instructed to go paperless in our effort to become an e-government, he said. He said that the IT ministry had been tasked with implementing the governments initiative and it would give a presentation in two weeks on this. US Dollar, EUR/USD Talking Points: - Its looking like a strong finish to Q3 for the US Dollar, as the currency has jumped right-back into the 95-95.53 zone after a bullish two-day run. Despite the fact that this move took place after the third FOMC rate hike of the year, in a meeting in which the bank made the hawkish tilt of removing the word accommodative regarding monetary policy, this topside push in the US Dollar appears to be more-related to Europe than FOMC monetary policy, and this highlights two of the more interesting themes as we turn the page into Q4 next week. - The ECB is set to begin tapering bond purchases in October, and the current stress thats starting to show around Italy appears to be taking place at an inopportune time for the bank. Italian yields have jumped after the Italian government proposed a budget with a 2.4% deficit thats likely to be rejected by Brussels. The question remains as to how hard Brussels might be able to push back, and what could happen from there. The ruling coalition in Italy doesnt look ready to soon back down, and this could create a stand-off scenario that could keep both the Euro, and the US Dollar on the move as we move into the final quarter of 2018. - DailyFX Forecasts on a variety of currencies such as the US Dollar or the Euro are available from the DailyFX Trading Guides page. If youre looking to improve your trading approach, check out Traits of Successful Traders. And if youre looking for an introductory primer to the Forex market, check out our New to FX Guide. Do you want to see how retail traders are currently trading the US Dollar? Check out our IG Client Sentiment Indicator. Euro Bears Persist into Q3 Close Its been a busy end to Q3 so far, and perhaps thats fitting for a quarter thats been marked by fits and starts of risk aversion around a number of themes. At this stage, were seeing fresh fears enter European markets around Italy, and this was the same driver of the April-May sell-off. In April, we saw fear from the inference of a newly-elected Italian coalition that ran largely on a nationalist ticket that could, potentially, put the ECB and the European Commission in a difficult spot. Those fears took a step back in June and that calm around Italy largely held through Q3; until yesterday, that is. EUR/USD Four-Hour Price Chart: Up the Stairs, and Down the Elevator as Q3 Close Nears Chart prepared by James Stanley Taking a step back to put this move into context of the past quarter of activity, this weeks price action in EUR/USD is putting in a bearish engulfing pattern on the weekly chart, and this pattern is often approached with aims of continuation, as this indicates that sellers grasped control of the market during that period to push down to fresh lows. After testing above the 1.1800 handle around this weeks FOMC rate decision, the pair is how hard-charging into the 1.15s. EUR/USD Weekly Price Chart: Bearish Engulfing Builds as Italian Risk Takes Center-Stage Chart prepared by James Stanley The big question, as is usually the case with panic, is whether this can continue. This will likely be determined by a political driver thats still unfolding in front of our eyes but, it appears as though Italian politicians have a number of reasons to continue pushing the friction. They were largely elected on a pro-growth ticket, and this is something that could be complicated by the push from Brussels around demands for austerity in the Italian budget. Italian Economy Minister Giovanni Tria was looking for a budget deficit of 1.6%. The Italian government has proposed a budget with a deficit of 2.4% for the next three years. This will likely be rejected by the European Commission in October which then opens the door for additional debates and even more friction. In the mean-time, questions will also emanate around what rating agencies might do in response to this push away from austerity, and this sets the stage for what could become a contentions Q4 in the Euro-Zone. There is some additional context of note here: The ECB is set to begin tapering bond purchases as we trade into next month, and weve started to see growing spreads between European sovereigns and this, of course, has hit Italy. This puts the Italian economy in a more challenging spot with ECB stress tests around-the-corner, and we had previously heard rumors of the potential resignation of Economy Minister Tria; and that certainly would not help matters in the short-term as it would be yet another dose of uncertainty added to the equation. In EUR/USD, that theme of strength that showed from mid-August (and held well into September) is now in question after two really bad days saw prices push down to that key support level of 1.1530. EUR/USD Daily Price Chart: A Quarter of Consolidation, 1.1530 Support Chart prepared by James Stanley European Stocks Falls as Risk-Aversion Re-Appears Coming into September, we looked at a bearish setup in the DAX as prices began to test the under-side of a long-term trend-line. That weakness held through the first week of the month, but this was soon followed by a pullback to the same resistance zone that we had looked at previously. After grinding at that level for a week, including a resistance test again there yesterday, bears have taken over in the closing hours of Q3 to push prices-lower. DAX Daily Price Chart: Resistance Grind Keeps Door Open for Bears to Take Control Chart prepared by James Stanley This now continues the three-month pattern of lower-lows and lower-highs in the index, and the focus for Q4 will be on whether that weakness can continue, and whether we push back-down for a re-test of the March lows. DAX Daily Price Chart Chart prepared by James Stanley Nikkei Sets Fresh 27-Year High Its not all doom-and-gloom in equity land. The Nikkei continued its bullish breakout to run up to fresh 27-year highs. Its been a remarkable showing in the index after spending most of the summer with resistance at a key area. That key area was the 50% marker of the 28-year move, and as we looked at coming into September this level helped to build an ascending triangle formation, which will often be approached in a bullish fashion. Each resistance inflection appeared to bring a waning response until, eventually, bears could hold resistance no more. Nikkei Daily Price Chart: Ascending Triangle Breaks Out, Fresh 27-Year Highs Chart prepared by James Stanley US Dollar Comes into Q4 With a Number of Questions As of a few days ago, all signs appeared set for a re-emergence of the US Dollars bearish trend that dominated the currencys price action in 2018. Last week even produced a downside breakout to a fresh low, combined with a continuation of resistance at prior support as bears continued to push a series of lower-lows and lower-highs. But a really strong two day showing has brought that into question, and prices are now right back into that area of 95.00-95.53 that held resistance and then support for the bulk of Q3. US Dollar Daily Price Chart: Closing a Busy Q3 With a Strong Two-Day Burst Chart prepared by James Stanley Given longer-term charts, wed likely want to await some clarity here after whats been a contentious four months of grind. Junes spinning top led into Julys Doji and then an Inverted Hammer in August. So far this month, we have another Doji. And while one indecision formation can be workable, and in some cases two consecutive indecision signals could be used; four consecutive months of indecisive price action highlights that longer-term trends are not currently at work. A bullish break above the 96.47 level could open the door to up-side, while a reversion to weakness and a break below the June low at 93.20 could re-open the door to strategies of bearish continuation. Until then, matters remain dicey. US Dollar Monthly Price Chart: Working on Fourth Consecutive Month of Indecision Chart prepared by James Stanley To read more: Are you looking for longer-term analysis on the U.S. Dollar? Our DailyFX Forecasts for Q3 have a section for each major currency, and we also offer a plethora of resources on USD-pairs such as EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, AUD/USD. Traders can also stay up with near-term positioning via our IG Client Sentiment Indicator. Forex Trading Resources DailyFX offers a plethora of tools, indicators and resources to help traders. For those looking for trading ideas, our IG Client Sentiment shows the positioning of retail traders with actual live trades and positions. Our trading guides bring our DailyFX Quarterly Forecasts and our Top Trading Opportunities; and our real-time news feed has intra-day interactions from the DailyFX team. And if youre looking for real-time analysis, our DailyFX Webinars offer numerous sessions each week in which you can see how and why were looking at what were looking at. If youre looking for educational information, our New to FX guide is there to help new(er) traders while our Traits of Successful Traders research is built to help sharpen the skill set by focusing on risk and trade management. --- Written by James Stanley, Strategist for DailyFX.com Contact and follow James on Twitter: @JStanleyFX WEST CALN A Lancaster woman who was allegedly driving impaired was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence after becoming involved in a crash, according to police. West Caln police said a 53-year-old female from Lancaster was taken into custody for suspicion of DUI without incidents. The incident occurred on Sept.13 after officers responded to a two-vehicle crash in the 300 block of West Kings Highway. The following are from West Caln police reports: Drugs: A 53-year-old male from Coatesville was arrested via summons for violations of the controlled substance, drug, device, and Cosmetic Act (Act 64) for alleged possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and related offenses. The incident occurred during a vehicle stop on Sept. 14 for equipment violations. Drugs: A 28-year-old male from Narvon, Pennsylvania was taken into custody for violations of the controlled substance, drug, device, and Cosmetic Act (Act 64) for alleged possession of marijuana, prescription medications, and a firearm and related offenses. The incident occurred during a vehicle stop for a registration violation on Sept. 3 in the 3400 block of Compass Road. Drugs: A 34-year-old male from Ronks, Pennsylvania was taken into custody for violations of the controlled substance, drug, device, and Cosmetic Act (Act 64) for alleged possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. The incident occurred during a vehicle stop for equipment violations on Sept. 1 in the 100 block of Coffroath Road. Drugs: A 25-year-old male from Coatesville was arrested via summons for violations of the controlled substance, drug, device, and Cosmetic Act (Act 64) for alleged possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. The incident occurred during a vehicle stop on Aug. 30 for inspection and emissions violations. Warrant: A 36-year-old male from Coatesville was taken into custody for outstanding warrants without incident. The incident occurred on Sept.13 in the 100 block of North Bonsall Road after an officer received information that a wanted subject was staying at the residence. Warrant: A 37-year-old male from Coatesville was taken into custody for outstanding warrants without incident. The incident occurred on Sept. 12 in the 1400 block of Blackhorse Hill Road after officers received information that a wanted subject was on location. Warrant: A 30-year-old male from Coatesville was taken into custody for outstanding warrants without incident. The incident occurred during a pedestrian stop on Sept. 7 on the 800 block of West Kings Highway after an officer recognized the male as having an outstanding warrant. Warrant: A 55-year-old female from Coatesville was taken into custody for outstanding warrants without incident. The incident occurred during a vehicle stop on Sept. 5 in the 400 block of West Kings Highway after an officer received a wanted person notification from his in car terminal. For me, nothing more poignantly underlines the cruelties and indignities of growing older than the ten-yearly reunions of my age-group at the Cambridge college where I studied history in the mid-Seventies. I attended the latest last weekend. I always look forward to the MacCurdy dinner, established and handsomely endowed by a Canadian psychopathologist who was a fellow of Corpus Christi in the early part of the last century. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where I studied history in the mid-Seventies His idea couldnt have been more benevolent to offer old friends and contemporaries the chance to meet up once every decade and compare notes on life over a magnificent black-tie feast, accompanied by fabulous wines. Alas, a century on, Dr John MacCurdys bequest has run dry, along with his spectacular cellar. Only his name and the occasion, now presumably subsidised by the college, live on. But though the number of dinner courses this year was down from six to five (yes, I know its tough but thats austerity Britain for you!), and the wines were more slurpable than sublime, its still an impressive spread. It ought to be the cheeriest of evenings. Melancholy So why is it that I headed back to London with feelings of profound melancholy and regret over the remorseless passage of time? My murderous hangover may have explained a part of it, but not all. Youll get some idea of what I mean if youve followed the Up series of TV documentaries (7-Up, 14-Up, 21-Up etc). These are the ground-breaking programmes that began in 1964, interviewing 14 British children from different backgrounds and catching up with them at seven-yearly intervals ever since. The MacCurdy dinner is much like that, giving us guests a regular snapshot of the point our contemporaries have reached in life and prompting reflections on what has become of the dreams and aspirations of our youth. Work commitments forced me to refuse my invitations to the first two dinners for which I was eligible, when I was in my mid-30s and mid-40s. But a friend who went to both tells me that at the first, members of our intake were proudly showing each other photographs of their babies or talking about their impending weddings (or both) while at the second, the conversation turned mostly on the miseries of going through divorce. I went to the third, however, a decade ago when we were all in our mid-50s. Indeed, I wrote about it on this page and re-reading that column now, I see that in 2007 (all right, you pedants, it was 11 years ago, not ten) I was already grumbling about my hearing and struggle to put names to the faces of people I knew like brothers in the Seventies. All I can say is that this year it was 100 times worse. Not just the names, but the faces of those Id known so well had disappeared entirely from my memory, with most not ringing even the faintest bell. The one cold comfort I drew was that many of my fellow sixtysomethings were suffering from the same affliction. During pre-dinner drinks I saw dozens fumbling, like me, for spectacles and leaning over to examine the names on the lapel badges of long-forgotten bosom buddies. For me, an added torture this year was that theyd allocated me an attic room for the night behind the battlements of New Court (new in the sense that it was built as recently as 1827; Old Court dates from the 14th century). It was at the very top of six vertiginous flights of stairs, which held no terrors for me when I used to bound up them as an undergraduate or even a decade ago, when I was still moderately fit but now presented a challenge as daunting as Mount Everest. This meant taking extra care not to leave in the room anything I might need later, to spare myself the lung-bursting ordeal of another climb. Throng As for our pre-dinner conversation, it seemed to focus on our various health scares or the joys of retirement (many of the public sector dignitaries among the guests seemed to have been drawing their handsome pensions for years). But it was the dinner itself that brought the worst home. Until Saturday night, I simply didnt realise how much my sense of hearing had deteriorated over the previous 11 years. As for our pre-dinner conversation, it seemed to focus on our various health scares or the joys of retirement At that 2007 dinner, as I noted at the time, I kept having to ask people to repeat themselves. But I always caught their drift in the end. This year, eating in that high-ceilinged hall among a couple of hundred 64- to 66-year-olds most speaking at the tops of their voices to make themselves heard I could catch barely one word in ten of what my neighbours were saying. For reasons best known to the college authorities, Id been given the hugely unexpected honour of a place at High Table, alongside fellows of the college and the most eminent members of my intake. So there I sat feeling a failure as a lonely mere Mister among a throng of lords, knights, judges, doctors and professors expected to make grown-up conversation, but quite unable to make out even the subject under discussion. To make matters worse, next to me was one of the most respected historians in the country a quietly spoken font of fascinating knowledge and riveting anecdotes, now approaching 80 at whose feet I had sat, in awe of his brilliance, when he was my director of studies. But all I could hear of his conversation was the occasional disjointed word or phrase: Sea scout . . . handbags . . . Churchill . . . red paint . . . Christopher Marlowe . . . medieval silver . . . Michael Foot . . . Rostropovich . . . Mark Thatcher At one point, I thought I caught the name of a minor royal. Thinking there might be an item for a gossip column in it, my ears pricked up. But it was no good. Whatever he was telling me was lost in the roar of conversation all around me. Now, theres a limit to the number of times you can ask one of your intellectual idols to repeat something, without driving him mad. So after a bit, I just nodded sagely when I sensed he was imparting wisdom and chuckled appreciatively when I reckoned he was telling a joke. Intrigued I hope to God I was laughing in the right places, or he must think me a complete moron. But then, come to think of it, that would be nothing new. Lets just say I was never his star pupil. But where was I? Ah, yes, the point of this column, before I got carried away, was to highlight this weeks research into another aspect of ageing the way older people are more likely than the young to stray from the point in conversation. In newspaper columns, too, you might add. Somebody told me that our college benefactor gave his name to a valve in the neck of a giraffe The reason for this, say researchers at Edinburgh University, lies in a combination of two factors: the older we get, the larger the store of knowledge we accumulate; but at the same time, we become less able to stop ourselves sharing it. It strikes me that this is a finding which might have intrigued Dr MacCurdy, who apart from being a psychopathologist and pioneering psychoanalyst had a deep interest in physiology and the structural workings of the brain. Which reminds me. Somebody told me that apart from that ten-yearly dinner, our college benefactor gave his name to a valve in the neck of a giraffe. He had wondered why they didnt pass out with the rush of blood down their necks to their brains when they stooped to drink. So he postulated the existence of a special valve and, bingo!, giraffe dissectors discovered he was right. Indeed, I have long stored up the MacCurdy valve as a brilliant answer for when I appear on the BBCs Pointless (always assuming giraffe body-parts comes up). But when I Googled it, I couldnt find any mention of the damn thing. And when I asked that distinguished historian if my memory served me aright, I couldnt for the life of me make out his answer. But Im rambling again, and youll have to forgive me. Put it down to my advancing years. How did CubeSats evolve from a dumb idea to interplanetary capable missions in just 15 years? Unlike large, expensive spacecraft that rely on proven technology, CubeSats have the flexibility to be riskier and try things that aren't guaranteed to work. This has allowed the industry to learn from mistakes and evolve new technologies quickly. This is important for agencies like NASA that seek space hardware with a high technology readiness level, or TRL a metric that assesses the maturity level of a particular technology. NASA supports the CubeSat industry through programs like ELaNA (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites), which helps CubeSat providers find free rides to orbit as secondary rocket payloads. To date, ELaNA has helped 18 groups of CubeSats get to space (including The Planetary Society's LightSail 1). Another NASA program, SIMPLEx, funds CubeSats to fly on planetary exploration missions. The agency's current SIMPLEx solicitation is looking for SmallSats which could include CubeSats to fly on the upcoming Lucy and Psyche missions. It didn't take long after CubeSats first launched in 2003 for some people to see they could be used in deep space. Robert Staehle, who is now the assistant instruments division manager for advanced concepts at NASA's Jet Propulsion laboratory, attended a Nov. 2010 workshop called GAINSTAM (Government and Industry Nano-Satellite Technology and Mission) in Huntington Beach, California. The Boeing-sponsored event hoped to raise awareness of the potential for small spacecraft. At GAINSTAM, Staehle said he listened to a presentation by Tomas Svitek, the founder of Stellar Exploration, Inc., on The Planetary Society's LightSail 1 mission. At that point, the spacecraft had passed its critical design review. LightSail was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of solar sailing for small spacecraft. Its key technology was the ability to package a 32-square-meter Mylar sail, deployment motor and sail booms into a 10-by-10-by-30-centimeter spacecraft and still have room to spare for batteries, avionics, and cameras. Staehle, who had also taken notice of early JPL efforts to miniaturize spacecraft components, was intrigued. He knew propulsion was a key technology holding CubeSats back from a broader range of usages. Might solar sailing be a key piece of the puzzle? "I thought, if I scale up what [Svitek] is doing by a little bit, I can get more out of it a few kilometers per second, per year, maybe," recalled Staehle, referring to the change in velocity gained by solar sailing. "I thought, I bet you can do interplanetary. Staehle assembled a team of experts and came up with a reference design for a solar sailing, 6-unit CubeSat measuring 30-by-20-by-10 centimeters. It was just double the size of the diminutive LightSail 1 spacecraft, yet it would be capable of conducting an interplanetary mission. He pitched the idea to Puig-Suari, the CubeSat co-inventor. "I said, 'We can do this in 6U,' and Jordi's jaw dropped," Staehle said. "He said, 'You're right, we can do this." The group prepared an abstract for a presentation to be delivered at an upcoming SmallSat conference. They figured it was an easy sell, but to their surprise, the abstract was rejected. Just two days later, Staehle said, NASA put out a call for proposals for NIAC, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program. NIAC provides seed funding to help mature next-generation technology projects. It was the first NIAC call in years, so the competition was fierce. But Staehle's team turned their SmallSat abstract into a proposal, submitted it for a NIAC grant, and won $100,000 to study CubeSats for interplanetary missions. The team concluded their work with a final report in 2012. Two Planetary Society staff members co-authored the report: Bruce Betts, who is now the Planetary Society's chief scientist, and Louis Friedman, the executive director emeritus. For many newly married couples, a honeymoon is a time to relax in luxury, sip bubbles by the pool or take in a gorgeous sunset of a delicious meal. But if travel is your passion, then one destination will never be enough as Australian duo Caleb and Teneale Rybalka have revealed. The pair will embark on an epic honeymoon in 60 countries within 500 days - which roughly equates to a year and a half of sightseeing. 'Originally, the plan was for three months over the European summer... [but] then Caleb kept finding things that he would like to do,' Ms Rybalka told FEMAIL. So three months turned into six, then 12, and now a staggering 18. 'Oktoberfest in September was added, then Christmas in New York, then winter and the Northern lights in Alaska, Anzac Day in Gallipoli, the Ashes in England.' Australian couple Teneale and Caleb Rybalka are taking a 500-day honeymoon (pictured together) The pair said when they told friend and family of their plans they were told 'they were crazy' By the time the pair finished brainstorming, their itinerary was packed with destinations to see the sights of the world's most interesting places. 'When we started telling our friends and family we heard it all. Some of the best reactions were "Youre crazy!", "How you can afford that?", "That's awesome, so lucky, will you survive?" and "Can I come with you?"' She said. The globe-trotting twosome got engaged in January 2017 and took a year and a few months to wedding-plan and finalise details for their trip. 'Day one of this epic honeymoon we splurged and booked ourselves business class tickets to Hong Kong,' Ms Rybalka said The pair married in March, and in August set off on their legendary trip. And while they will be away from home for a year-and-a-half, the duo only took a 23-kilogram bag each that contained everything they would need. 'Day one of this epic honeymoon we splurged and booked ourselves business class tickets to Hong Kong,' Ms Rybalka said. 'The direct service from Adelaide was a plus and I'm pretty sure hubby was snoring before the first glass of champagne could be poured.' By the time the pair finished brainstorming, their itinerary was packed with destinations to see the sights of the world's most interesting places How we came to a 500-day honeymoon is 100 per cent Caleb's fault'.'Hes my travel agent, so I left it to him,' Ms Rybalka said The pair have implemented a rule of 'tent poles' in their planning process, one that allows them to lock in countries on specific dates The couple are retail travel agents who met through work and, as to be expected, bonded over a mutual love of adventure. 'How we came to a 500-day honeymoon is 100 per cent Caleb's fault. Hes my travel agent, so I left it to him,' she said. 'Everything he suggested, I wanted to do and more. So we would trade off. '"You want to go to the Ashes? Fine, then I want this six-star cruise from the Canary Islands to Barcelona."' 'It got to the stage where as long as the dates worked, the answer was always yes.' 'We have purposely left gaps unplanned and by no means do we have something scheduled every day,' Ms Rybalka said So far the Rybalkas have taken in the sights of Hong Kong, Cambodia and Vietnam, Ireland and visited the Scottish Highlands Places the pair will visit during their trip: Oktoberfest in Germany, Transylvania tour, Israel and Jordan tour An all-inclusive in Cyprus Cruise from Italy to Cuba Catamaran sailing around Cuba, the Bahamas and Martinique Eastern Caribbean cruise New York for Christmas Western Caribbean cruise for New Year's Eve Six week USA roadtrip Alaska for the Northern Lights One month trans-Canada train trip Luxury cruise Canary Islands and Barcelona Turkey including an Gallipoli visit on Anzac Day Egypt 30 day Silk Road tour in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Kygrzistan and Tajikistan Greek Island sailing Croatia Islands sailing Ashes in England Cruise to Iceland and Greenland Advertisement Part of the beauty of the pair's adventure is they've allowed themselves time to explore each place they visit. Ms Rybalka explained how implementing a rule of 'tent poles' in the planning process helped by allowing them to lock in countries on specific dates to determine where they needed 'We have purposely left gaps unplanned and by no means do we have something scheduled every day,' she said. And it also helped them spread the cost more effectively. The pair paid off 60 per cent of their trip before they left over 18 months because they booked as soon as things became available which gave them access to early bird discounts and guaranteed flight availability. The newlyweds are only a few months into their trip, however, it's not all been plain sailing. While in Hong Kong, the first country the duo visited, Mr Rybalka developed influenza A, bronchitis and viral pneumonia and needed to be hospitalised. The experience was a testing time, Ms Rybalka recalled and would see them have to cancel a much-anticipated trip to China. A flexible approach to their plans meant they could adjust their itinerary to suit - and spend a few extra days exploring another equally exotic locale. Mr Rybalka developed influenza A, bronchitis and viral pneumonia while visiting Hong Kong and needed to be hospitalised While the thought of travelling for 18-months is a daunting prospect for any newly married couple, Ms Rybalka said the pair are taking advantage of the fact they have the luxury of time So far the Rybalkas have taken in the sights of Hong Kong, including a visit to Disneyland, Cambodia, Vietnam and Ireland. Next up the couple will hike through the Scottish Highlands, take in the Nordic lights in January and drive through the United States in February. While the thought of travelling for 18-months is a daunting prospect for any newly married couple, Ms Rybalka said the pair are taking advantage of the fact they have the luxury of time. 'We want to start a family once we get home, so we are ticking off as many things as possible,' she concluded. Like any good adventurers, the pair is blogging about their incredible journey, and offer visitors tips, and a stunning selection of photos, on each country they visit. A former City worker has revealed how she blamed her stressful job for rapid weight loss that was actually a symptom of bowel cancer. Azmina Verjee was aged 25 and working for a financial services firm in the City when she first began to experience severe stomach pains, exhaustion and a lack of appetite. She also saw her weight plummet to just 4st 7lbs in a matter of weeks. She initially attributed the symptoms to Crohn's, an inflammatory bowel disease she was diagnosed with in childhood, and the effects of working long hours in an international firm. However tests carried out in November 2000 revealed she had high grade dysplasia inside the lining of the bowel, a serious pre-cancerous condition. Worrying: Azmina Verjee was aged 25 and working for a financial services firm in the City when she first began to experience severe stomach pains, exhaustion and a lack of appetite. She also saw her weight plummet to just 4st 7lbs in a matter of weeks, as pictured above The City worker initially attributed the symptoms to Crohn's and the effects of working long hours in an international firm. However tests revealed pre-cancerous cells in her bowel. Azmina took the decision to have it removed and be be fitted with an ileostomy bag, pictured Azmina now works for Macmillan Cancer Support, where she looks after cancer patients and their loved ones. She is based at North Middlesex University Hospital, north London, pictured Having lost her grandmother to bowel cancer, Azmina took the decision to undergo radical preventative surgery to remove her bowel rectum and anus and be fitted with an ileostomy bag. She now works for Macmillan Cancer Support, where she looks after cancer patients and their loved ones. Miss Verjee, who lives in London with her fiance Mark, recalled how she first began to experience the symptoms at the age of 25. 'I definitely noticed I wasnt feeling well, but my boss at work also told me I was looking "painfully" thin,' Azmina said. 'My weight had gone down to 30kg [4st 7lbs] quite fast and I had become skin and bone. When youre really not feeling well you dont have a choice but to go to go for tests you cant carry on and have to do something about it.' Miss Verjee, who lives in London with her fiance Mark, was diagnosed with Crohn's, an inflammatory bowel disease she was diagnosed with in childhood, pictured Results showed Azmina had high grade dysplasia and the consultant informed her it was 'only a matter of time' before the cells in her colon became cancerous. She quickly decided she would have the bowel removed. 'As soon as I knew that it was a case of when I got cancer, not if Id get cancer, my mind was made up to have surgery,' Azmina continued. There was no way I was going to live with a ticking timebomb inside my bowel, especially not a potentially deadly timebomb. To me, the decision to have surgery was a no-brainer Azmina Verjee 'There was no way I was going to live with a ticking timebomb inside my bowel, especially not a potentially deadly timebomb. To me, the decision to have surgery was a no-brainer.' In April 2001, Azmina went under the knife to have a panproctocolectomy, in which her colon, rectum and anus were removed. The then finance worker insisted being fitted with an ileostomy bag was 'no big deal' as she had already experienced a temporary one with her Crohn's disease. Azmina, who jokingly refers to the bag as her 'bag for life', continued: 'In many ways, having an ileostomy bag hasnt impacted my life. 'Theres nothing I cant do with an ileostomy bag that I could have done without. Ive had the most amazing career, Ive travelled the world and I have a really lovely life. Miss Verjee recalled how she first began to experience the symptoms at the age of 25. Pictured, Azmina before the rapid weight loss that eventually led to her diagnosis 'Even after all these years, every morning I still wake up feeling grateful to the NHS and all the healthcare professionals who looked after me.' It was this positive experience that spurred Azmina into looking for a job with the NHS. 'Working for the NHS is my way of giving something back and saying thank you everyday,' she added. Now Azmina works as a Macmillan Cancer Information and Support Specialist at North Middlesex University Hospital, north London, where she helps patients and their families by ensuring they have access to the right information and support. She explained: 'Cancer creates so much uncertainty and so small things like knowing whats going to happen next and when, can really help you and your family to cope and to plan. Azmina and Mark, who survived kidney cancer, are now looking forward to tying the knot in June next year. Pictured, Azmina at a Macmillan Cancer Support Coffee Morning 'Cancer doesnt just cause changes inside your body, it can change your emotions, your relationships, how things are at home and even your financial circumstances, especially if you need to stop working during your treatment. I totally get that.' Azmina and Mark, who survived kidney cancer, are now looking forward to tying the knot in June next year. For patients facing their own diagnosis, Azmina urged: 'Macmillan has dedicated Information and Support Centres in lots of hospitals so theres probably one in your local hospital too go and have a look.' THE SYMPTOMS OF BOWEL CANCER, WHICH DEVELOPS FROM POLYPS IN THE COLON AND RECTUM Bowel, or colorectal, cancer affects the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and rectum. Such tumours usually develop from pre-cancerous growths, called polyps. Symptoms include: Bleeding from the bottom Blood in stools A change in bowel habits lasting at least three weeks Unexplained weight loss Extreme, unexplained tiredness Abdominal pain Most cases have no clear cause, however, people are more at risk if they: Are over 50 Have a family history of the condition Have a personal history of polyps in their bowel Suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohn's disease Lead an unhealthy lifestyle Treatment usually involves surgery, and chemo- and radiotherapy. More than nine out of 10 people with stage one bowel cancer survive five years or more after their diagnosis. This drops significantly if it is diagnosed in later stages. According to Bowel Cancer UK figures, more than 41,200 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year in the UK. It affects around 40 per 100,000 adults per year in the US, according to the National Cancer Institute. Advertisement Azminas post is funded by M&S, headline partner of Macmillan Cancer Supports Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning which takes place on Friday 28th September. For more information visit www.macmillan.org.uk/coffee A photographer has shared some of the insights he has gained over the 40 years he has spent documenting the lives of the Royal Family. Arthur Edwards, who first photographed the royals in 1977, reflected on the 'tactile' and loving relationship between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and revealed how he witnessed the breakdown in Charles and Diana's marriage. Speaking to Yahoo News' series The Royal Box, London-based Edwards told how Harry has become more 'aloof' since meeting his wife as he more fully embraces his role as a senior statesman. Finally he shared how their affectionate relationship hinted at years of future happiness to come. Arthur Edwards, who first photographed the royals in 1977, reflected on the 'tactile' and loving relationship between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, pictured together earlier this month How Harry has become 'aloof' since meeting Meghan... Edwards said: 'I can see a massive change. He's become more aloof. He always had a great relationship with the media. He would always engage in some way... [but] that's all completely stopped now. 'He's matured into a senior statesman of the royal family now. Maybe he's the time for jostling with Ussain Bolt, or hugging the Jamaican Prime Minister... That's maybe it's time to stop that now.' The photographer recalled an incident on the recent royal tour to Ireland when he visited Croke Park, the Dublin home of hurling, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Edwards continued: '[Harry] was given the hurley to hit the ball and he declined... There would have been a time when he would of hit that ball out of the park, Harry. 'Now he's married he's very very protective of Meghan. I think he's changed a bit. But he's still Harry and he's still lovely.' London-based Edwards, pictured, told Yahoo News how Harry has become more 'aloof' since meeting his wife as he more fully embraces his role as a senior statesman The photographer recalled an incident on the recent royal tour to Ireland when he visited Croke Park, the Dublin home of hurling, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, pictured. He said Prince Harry wouldn't hit a ball with a hurley, whereas once he would have done Harry and Meghan's 'tactile' relationship... 'I've covered a few romances in the royal family and I've never seen a couple more tactile than them,' Edwards said. 'They never stop holding hands.' The photographer noted how they are comfortable demonstrating their love even in the most high-profile settings. 'Even when she was walking to church on Christmas day, she [Meghan] was arm in arm with him, she wouldn't let him go,' Edwards said. However the prince is just as attentive to his new wife. Edwards continued: 'He's [Harry's] always aware where she is, that she's always kept informed... whispering in her ear if she's a bit hesitant about what to do next. The photographer noted how they are comfortable demonstrating their love even in the most high-profile settings, including their outing to Sandringham on Christmas Day, pictured 'He is very loved-up and he's very much prepared to show it to everybody: this is the woman I love and this is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.' While some skeptics have questioned whether the love will go the distance, there is no doubt in Edwards' mind. 'They've not been married long but it looks like it's going to last,' he added. Their tactile relationship is all the more remarkable when compared to that of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, or Prince Charles and Princess Diana, who he only recalls seeing hand-in-hand on one occasion. Harry's want to start a family... Edwards said that most royals are 'pretty good with children' but there is no doubt Prince Harry is a cut above. 'He will not leave a child until he gets that child to smile,' Edwards said. 'He's amazing.' Edwards pointed out that while he enjoys a close relationship with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, he will be looking forward to have children of his own. 'I would be pretty sure that both him and Meghan are planning to have a family pretty quickly,' he added. 'It won't be too long before that happens.' An emerging designer has accused Moschino of using her creation as inspiration for its most recent catwalk collection. Edda Gimnes, who is based in London, shared a number of side-by-side pictures of her work along with images from the Italian brand's Spring/Summer 2019 show in Milan, which appeared to show similarities between the looks. She claims she had a meeting with an employee from the brand last November, during which she showed off all her work, including her 'original sketchbooks and ideas'. Posting on social media, Edda - who graduated from the London College of Fashion - says she believes Moschino has 'unquestionably used' her Spring/Summer 2016 and 2017 collections 'as inspiration without granting me any credit'. Moschino has denied the allegations, saying that trompe-lil - the technique used by designers to create optical illusions - 'has been a long-standing motif embedded in the Moschino DNA.' Emerging designer Edda Gimnes, who is based in London, has accused Moschino of using her creations in its most recent catwalk collection. Pictured is a design from her SS17 collection Edda said she believes Moschino has 'unquestionably used' her Spring/Summer 2016 and 2017 collections 'as inspiration without granting me any credit'. Pictured is Bella Hadid wearing one of Moschino's looks in Milan last week The spokesperson added that creative designer Jeremy Scott's eponymous brand 'also depicted sketches and doodles in collections far pre-dating this one.' Nevertheless, many have been quick to take Edda's side after seeing the similarity between the two collections. Following the Moschino show last week, the young designer wrote: 'Today I woke up extremely disappointed and to a full inbox of people who know my work and saw yesterdays Moschino collection. 'I understand we are in an industry that carries inspiration from each other and as it is said, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Edda claims she had a meeting with an employee from the brand last November, during which she showed off all her work. Pictured is a look from her SS16 collection The London-based designer has argued that particular looks from the Moschino collection were strikingly similar to her designs. Pictured is Kendall Jenner during the Moschino show in Milan last week 'But it is disheartening to see, after having a meeting with someone from Moschino in New York in November last year. showing this person absolutely ALL My work and My original sketchbooks and ideas.' Edda continued: 'Seeing the Moschino show yesterday makes me so sad and I feel so hurt that someone has, the way it looks to me,unquestionably used my SS16 and SS17 collections as inspiration without granting me any credit. 'Have a look at the pictures from their show yesterday and make up your own minds!!' Edda posted a number of her own designs (above), alongside looks from the Moschino catwalk show last week Moschino has denied the allegations. Pictured is model Kaia Gerber walking the Spring/Summer 2019 show in Milan last week The designer later shared another post in which she thanked her followers for their support. 'I want to express my gratitude to all those who have supported me in social media. For this, I am both overwhelmed and humble,' she said. 'For the time being, I will not waste my time nor my energy on this matter. Instead, I will continue to work as passionately and hard as never before and aim even higher - the best is yet to come.' In a statement, Moschino said: 'Trompe-lil has been a long-standing motif embedded in the Moschino DNA. Edda asked her followers to 'make up their own minds' about whether Moschino had been inspired by her creations (above) Moschino said creative designer Jeremy Scotts eponymous collection has 'depicted sketches and doodles in collections far pre-dating this one'. Pictured is model Vittoria Ceretti in the Moschino show Jeremy Scott hit back at the accusations, sharing previous campaign imagery from Moschino on his Instagram story The designer posted several snaps of previous pieces by Moschino, akin to ones seen on the latest runway 'Jeremy Scotts eponymous line has also depicted sketches and doodles in collections far pre-dating this one. 'He continues to pay homage to Franco Moschino and was inspired by the conceptualisation of a designers ideas coming to life on the runway in "incomplete forms" ranging from the sketching and design process to the tailoring, pinning, and bolts of fabric choices draped on model forms. 'This collection was Jeremys love letter to fashion and it his and the brands greatest wish that it inspires future generations of young creatives to colour our world with their dreams too.' Jeremy also addressed the allegations in a series of Instagram Stories posts, explaining: 'Normally I do not address gossip or questions about my inspirations, but I feel I need to defend myself against untrue accusations regarding my latest Moschino collection.' He also shared several images from Moschino's previous collections that are akin to the pieces on the most recent runway. When Melania Trump donned a black shirtdress to the United Nations General Assembly this week, she sparked a conspiracy theory that she wore the solemn shade in solidarity with sexual assault survivors. From her 'I really don't care, do u' jacket to her pussy-bow blouse, there is a long-running belief that the first lady uses fashion to make subtle political statements despite her ongoing support for her husband, President Donald Trump. The collared midi dress that Melania, 48, wore to watch her husband speak at the UN headquarters in New York City on Tuesday had people taking to Twitter to speculate that her ensemble was an indication of her support for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and the #BelieveSurvivors movement. Theory: Melania Trump donned a black dress to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, and some speculate she wore the solemn shade to show support for sexual assault survivors For real? There is a long-running conspiracy theory that Melania uses fashion to make subtle political statements Ford accused Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school, and on Monday the day before Melania's appearance at the UN supporters wore black while participating in a walk-out launched by the #TimesUp movement. Democrat Sen. Kamala Harris and actresses Kerry Washington, Allison Janney, and Debra Messing were among those who donned black on the day of the walk-out. The next morning, people questioned if Melania's black dress at the UN was her own show of solidarity for sexual assault survivors. 'Is Melania wearing black in solidarity today?' a woman named Rachel tweeted. 'Melania's wearing black - is this her moment to stand with sexual assault victims?' Martine Addison asked. 'Not quite as obvious as her "I don't care" jacket, but of all the colors to wear at this time...' Speculation: People took to Twitter to question whether Melania was wearing black to show her support for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and the #BelieveSurvivors movement 'Was wondering same thing, spotted it right away. Sure Trump has no clue. lol,' someone named Jody responded. 'Huh is it strange that @FLOTUS is wearing all black? Could she be showing some support for @womensmarch and #DrChristineBlaseyFord #NoKavanaugh #wearblack #WeBelieveSurvivors #WeBelieveHer #BlueWave,' another Twitter user asked. Meanwhile, Mark Wilson tweeted that he found it 'interesting' that Melania dressed in all black during her visit to the UN. 'Did anyone notice Melania trolling drumpf? She's wearing black like the walk out #WeBelieveHer did,' someone else added. Despite the speculation, it's not uncommon for Melania to wear black or monochromatic outfits for that matter. Coincidence? The day before Melania's appearance at the UN, Ford's supporters wore black while participating in a walk-out launched by the #TimesUp movement She's donned numerous black dresses throughout Trump's presidency, and during last year's visit to the UN headquarters, she opted for a black button-down shirt, which she wore under a gray Calvin Klein suit. Following Ford's accusation, a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, came forward on Sunday and claimed the judge exposed himself to her and thrust his penis in her face when they were at a college party at Yale. On Wednesday, it was revealed that Julie Swetnick made a sworn declaration that she was gang-raped at a high school party attended by Kavanaugh. She alleges that Kavanaugh and his friends would spike 'punch' with grain alcohol or drugs to 'cause girls to lose their inhibitions and their ability to say 'No.'' Kavanaugh has denied all three accusations, and Trump has fervently defended him. Melania, meanwhile, hasn't commented on any of the sexual misconduct accusations against the judge. However, in Omarosa Newman-Manigault's latest book, Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House, she claims Melania's controversial fashion choices are made to intentionally embarrassed her husband. According to the fired White House aide, the first lady uses her style to 'punish' Trump, and the statement jacket she wore to the border was just her latest act of rebellion. Accuser: Ford (pictured testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday) accused Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school Allegations: Deborah Ramirez (left) and Julie Swetnick (right) have also accused the judge of sexual misconduct Denial: Kavanaugh has denied all three accusations, and President Donald Trump has fervently defended him In June, DailyMail.com first reported that Melania had worn a now-infamous $39 Zara jacket emblazoned with the words, 'I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?' as she departed to visit children separated from their families in Texas. While the first lady's spokesperson denied there was a hidden meaning behind her choice of outerwear that day, Omarosa claims Melania deliberately wore the jacket to 'hurt' the president. Omarosa alleges that Melania's 'style rebellions' have been 'intentionally misleading,' since Trump's presidential campaign and throughout his presidency. 'As a student of fashion and keenly image-conscious woman, she knows that everyone of her style choices will be scrutinized and debated,' she explains in her book. 'Why did she wear a Gucci 'pussy bow' pink blouse to the presidential debate immediately after the Access Hollywood bombshell? 'Did she purposefully wear a Hillary Clinton-esque white pantsuit to Trump's first State of the Union address? 'Did she mean to come off as out of touch and tone-dead by wearing snakeskin stiletto heels to hurricane-ravaged Texas? 'The messages behind her style choices aren't always clear, but they are never accidental. Sex expert Pamela Supple believes climaxing is achievable for every woman Historically, female orgasms and the idea of women enjoying sex for pleasure's sake have been awkward, taboo subjects often given a wide birth in social conversation. Even in recent years, a slew of studies have uncovered the reality that more than 50 per cent of females have never had a full orgasm. But sex and relationship expert Pamela Supple believes climaxing is achievable for every woman, provided they follow some golden ground rules. Speaking to FEMAIL, the Sydney-based intimate adviser shared her advice on becoming more in tune with your body and exactly how to orgasm in less than five minutes. When it comes to sexual climax, Ms Supple acknowledged how personal it is for every person (stock image) When it comes to sexual climax, Ms Supple acknowledged how personal it is for every person. 'It's something that is extremely individual to everyone - some people can easily have an orgasm after anywhere between two and five minutes of stimulation, while others find it a deeply problematic sensation to achieve,' she said. Orgasms are unique to every person and can trigger a range of different reactions like muscle tensing and funny faces which can bring out insecurities for certain people. 'These involuntary responses can make you very self-conscious and self-aware, so it really comes down to letting go and overcoming that which can be immensely difficult for some,' she said. 'You need to give your body and mind permission to have pleasure.' Ms Supple explained that orgasms can remain elusive for women who are out of touch with how their body works. 'Some people explore and come to understand their sexuality from childhood, so they know exactly what sensation and intensity of touch they enjoy. 'Others are less tuned in and nowadays, people have a lot on their minds which can be tough to switch off. 'I hate saying it because it's become such a cliche, but it's all about mindfulness and saying I'm here for a specific reason: pleasure.' Orgasms can remain elusive for women who are out of touch with how their body works Ms Supple encouraged women to let go and 'allow the body to experience every sensation', and suggested trying a vibrator alone to begin with if that seems less daunting than discussing with a partner. 'A lot of women don't have a problem reaching orgasm by themselves because they've created their own safe space,' she explained. Ms Supple suggested trying The Womanizer, a vibrator recently endorsed by UK songstress Lily Allen who said it enabled her to orgasm in less than five minutes. 'It comes in different sizes and the little one is fantastic, particularly for travelling - the intensity also suits everyone. 'The prototype comes with a suction and air-blowing function, as well as degrees of speed which you can work through making it ideal for any sexual preference,' she said. The Womanizer was recently endorsed by UK songstress Lily Allen (shown here on her Instagram stories) Ms Supple finished by urging women to enjoy every aspect of sex and not to fixate on reaching orgasm as a necessary outcome. 'A lot is being said these days about speaking up and telling your partner if you're not having an orgasm, but sex is beautiful in itself it doesn't need to culminate in an orgasm every time,' she said. 'If you want to have an orgasm, of course you should open the conversation to find different ways of doing this, but my advice is always to enjoy the journey more than the destination. 'Sex is about getting to know your body intimately and becoming mindful about it - clear your head and enjoy the moments leading up to orgasm,' she advised. A 31-year-old American woman living in Bali has been left fighting for her life in hospital following a shock brain tumour diagnosis. Kristen Dineen - who moved from California to Indonesia on a working visa five years ago - started experiencing excruciating headaches and she was feeling unwell with what she thought was a sinus infection. After beating melanoma in her early 20s, the financial worker of a Balinese fashion label was hit with another devastating blow. Following a CT scan on September 19, doctors found she had five new masses on her brain, with the biggest measuring 5cm in diameter. And now she's faced with hefty medical bills and a costly flight home because her travel insurance won't cover her expenses due to her medical history. Her Australian best friend Sarah Holman, 30, has rallied behind Kristen to help her raise $170,000 for a medivac flight to fly her home after she was deemed unsafe to travel on a commercial plane. American woman Kristen Dineen (pictured) living in Bali has been left fighting for her life in hospital after she was diagnosed with brain tumours Australian friend Sarah Holman (left) has rallied behind Kristen to help her raise $170,000 for a medivac flight home to the US after she was deemed unsafe to travel on a commercial plane 'Due to the pressure this tumour is placing on her brain, the risks of flying on a commercial flight are potentially fatal for her,' Sarah told Daily Mail Australia. About two months ago, friends started noticing something different about Kristen. 'Kristen wasn't feeling 100 per cent. She was not her usual outgoing self,' Sarah said. 'She had some hip pain and just assumed it was from training at the gym, she's quite an active person. But more recently in the last week before the diagnosis, she started getting overwhelming headaches. The painkillers weren't shifting her headaches. 'She initially had a sinus infection and was given a round of antibiotics. The infection cleared up but not the headaches so just by chance, the doctors suggested giving her a CT Scan. And she was very lucky when they did.' Following the scan, doctors found five masses on her brain. On Saturday, Kristen was airlifted to a hospital in Singapore where she remains in ICU for further treatment under the care of a renowned brain surgeon. 'Kristen has been surrounded by friends this whole time. Her father arrived a couple of days ago and he has been a huge comfort for her,' Sarah said. 'She is definitely in higher spirits now. She's currently on steroids and it's helping her a little. But even though she's steroids, she was out of breath and she didn't even make it far when she went for a walk with a friend the other day. 'Based on the neurosurgeons we've spoken to from around the world, every person has outlined the potential severity of the situation. 'Due to battling and beating cancer, if you have any sort of cancer throughout your body, for this to have potentially travelled to the brain - it's very alarming.' The 31-year-old started experiencing excruciating headaches and she was feeling unwell with what she thought was a sinus infection On Saturday, Kristen was airlifted to a hospital in Singapore where she remains in ICU for further treatment under the care of a renowned brain surgeon Family and friends have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money in a desperate effort to fly her home, with more $150,000 already raised. 'For any person facing a serious diagnosis, being in Bali is not a place to tackle this,' Sarah told Daily Mail Australia. 'Our goal now is to get Kristen home. She's been on bed rest but we're hopeful that she will fly home in the next few days. We're raising as much money as we can and once she arrives in the States, she will be faced with huge medical costs. 'Kristen is relieved that doctors detected the tumours early but she's super anxious to get home to get really stuck into this situation. 'It's been a whirlwind but once she hits home soil, she'll start to deal with it and then come to terms with it - and we'll all be there to support her. 'She truly is a one of a kind.' Sarah explained that safest option to get her friend back to the US is via a medivac or air ambulance due to the medical staff on-board and lower flying altitude - but that will set her back $170,000. 'After consultation with specialists around the world - the safest immediate plan is to get Kristen home and with a sense of urgency,' she said. Sarah - who has known Kristen for four years - explained that the only option to get her friend back to the US safely is via a medivac or air ambulance Now Kristen has been faced with hefty medical bills and a costly flight home because her travel insurance won't cover her expenses due to her medical history 'Unfortunately the large tumour on the right side of Kristen's brain is impeding this, and we have been offered advice that Kristin in unable to fly on a commercial airline to the States and will need to be sent via a medivac or air ambulance. 'Kristen is going to give this one a hell of a fight for her life, removing the large tumour and commencing what likely will be an intense and invasive treatment plan - we just need to get her from a to b for that to happen. 'Any donated funds will go directly to Kristen's immediate journey home to the States, and ongoing medical costs. 'Due to the pressure this tumour is placing on her brain, the risks of flying on a commercial flight are potentially fatal. 'The response from around the globe has been overwhelming and we cannot thank you all enough. We do need more support - and we are asking for all of your assistance. 'Every penny is needed - help us continue this miracle operation and make the seemingly impossible happen. We're seeking any donation big or small. Please help us get our girl home.' To make a donation, please visit the GoFundMe page. Advertisement Dozens of students from the University of Sydney braved the early spring breeze this month to strip off in the name of a good cause. A group of trainee vets shed their clothes to pose nude for a charity calendar in aid of New South Wales' drought-stricken farmers, as the agriculture industry continues to struggle with this years' ruinous lack of winter rainfall. Students from the veterinary science course joined together in solidarity and nudity to raise funds for the annual Buy for Bales appeal weeks after the warmest, driest July in 20 years. Students from the University of Sydney braved the early spring breeze this month to strip off in the name of a good cause The students looked relaxed as they posed with adorable newborn lambs in the stunning landscape The group of more than 60 volunteer models wore nothing save mid-rise cowboy boots and mahogany brown hats This year's calendar was shot by award winning Sydney-based photographer Marilu Garozzo, and comes in the wake of Australia's most intense drought in a almost a century. Ms Garozzo cleverly hid her subjects' modesty with strategically placed dogs, pigs, sheep and other farm animals. The group of more than 60 volunteer models wore nothing save mid-rise cowboy boots and mahogany brown hats. The artistic images are in aid of New South Wales' drought-afflicted farmers This year's calendar was shot by award winning Sydney-based nude photographer Marilu Garozzo Ms Garozzo cleverly hid her subjects modesty with strategically placed dogs, pigs, sheep and other farm animals Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, calendar coordinator and fourth year veterinary student Molly Greentree said the farming appeal was a cause 'close to their hearts'. 'What we study as a lot to do with farming so we know first-hand the seriousness of drought and how it can impact our farmers,' she said. Ms Greentree said the huge turnout of volunteers for the shoot was testament to the passion felt at the University for drought relief. The University hope to generate funds of $10,000 for the appeal, which will go towards the delivery of hay and other essential items. Diamonds might be a girls' best friend, but for the modern Australian woman, pristine fake tan comes a close second. Thanks to a wealth of internet advice on expert application, we've come a long way since the days of streaky tanning wipes and patchy knees. But it seems there may still be something to learn when it comes to achieving a flawless, faux glow. Australian fashion and beauty influencer Elle Ferguson recently shared a genius hack which ensures a beautifully even bottle tan that could be mistaken for the real deal. Speaking to Whimn, Cosmopolitan's 'Woman of the Year for Social Media Fashion' shared the little known step she ritually follows during every false tanning session - and the best part is, it won't cost you a cent. Social media influencer Elle Ferguson (pictured) shared a genius hack for ensuring flawless fake tan application While we are all familiar with the importance of exfoliating and moisturising, Ms Ferguson takes things a step further by rinsing her body in ice cold water before applying her liquid gold. 'It closesyour skin so when you apply tan, it doesn't sit in your pores it glides on smoothly for an even coat and gives you a golden glow,' she told Whimn. Ms Ferguson is regarded as an expert in the fake tanning industry, with the self-proclaimed 'digital entrepreneur' launching her eponymous beauty brand, Elle Effect, earlier this year. Ms Ferguson rinses her body in ice cold water after exfoliating but before applying fake tan Elle Effect is a lightweight, buildable tanning mousse that costs $39.99 Elle Effect is a lightweight, buildable tanning mousse retailing at $39.99 that promises 'the perfect golden glow in just one application'. The brand's official website likens one application of Elle Effect mousse to 'a day at Bondi Beach', while two layers will leave you looking like you've been lounging by a pool in Los Angeles. Ms Ferguson, who boasts 646,000 followers on Instagram, is also known for her sartorially chic presence on social media. Princess Eugenie excitedly revealed that she is full of 'pre-wedding vibes' as she shared a stunning throwback snap on social media. The royal, who will tie the knot with Jack Brooksbank next month, posted a photo from a 2016 magazine shoot on Instagram with the caption: '#tbt to some serious daydreaming going on here. Pre-wedding vibes!' The image shows the bride-to-be dressed in a beautiful embellished lace gown by Alberta Ferretti and with her hair swept back into a classic 'do, sparking speculation as to whether she might plump for a similar look for her big day. Princess Eugenie excitedly revealed that she is full of 'pre-wedding vibes' as she shared a stunning throwback snap on social media. The royal will marry Jack Brooksbank, pictured together in June, at Windsor Castle on 12 October Despite the widespread speculation Eugenie, 28, is determined to keep the name of her wedding dress designer under wraps ahead of the ceremony at Windsor Castle on 12 October. She told British Vogue: 'I'm not telling anyone who is making it, but I can say it is a British based designer,' and added: 'As soon as we announced the wedding, I knew the designer, and the look, straight away.' While it means Italian designer Ferretti is likely out of the running, the choice of photo suggests Eugenie could be drawing on the Harper's Bazaar shoot for her own wedding day look. The black and white photo, one of a series shot by Alex Bramall, shows Eugenie gazing wistfully out of a window. Followers were quick to praise the 'beautiful' and 'gorgeous' princess in the Instagram snap - and pass on their well-wishes for her big day Her hair is styled in large curls at the back of her head and her light touch of make-up works to accentuate her natural beauty. While the dress can only be glimpsed in the photo, full-length shots reveal it to be a beautiful blush pink floor-length gown with delicate lace and embroidered floral detailing. The stand-out accessory in the shot is undoubtedly the large diamond Bvulgari earrings adorning her ears. Followers were quick to praise the 'beautiful' and 'gorgeous' princess - and pass on their well-wishes for her big day. Princess Eugenie, pictured in July, has kept her wedding dress designer under wraps but revealed it will be a UK-based designer. Fans are excited to see the bride on her big day One wrote: 'You are stunning! I hope to be able to watch your wedding.' Another added: 'Beautiful! Best wishes for many years of health and happiness...the things that matter most!' Following the lead of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Eugenie and Jack have also invited members of the public to share in their wedding, with 1,200 expected to gather to soak up the atmosphere in the grounds of Windsor Castle. The newlyweds will also embark on a carriage procession through the streets of Windsor, although the route is significantly shorter than Harry and Meghan's. The lavish celebration, which will be hosted by Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, means there has been plenty of planning going on behind the scenes. International partnerships provide the means for countries to participate in the exploration of space without having to create expensive, enabling infrastructure from the ground up. They can leverage the space capabilities of other nations while providing unique contributions to the benefit of their own industry and scientific base. This is the opposite of a zero-sum, competitive mentality of international relations; a rising rocket lifts all spacecraft, if you will. The European Space Agencys very existence relies on this model. Its BepiColombo missionas you will read in this issueincludes contributions from 13 European member states, the United States, and Japan. This coalition of nations is deeply invested in the success of the mission, spreading out the cost and also the political support. The United States recognized the value of international engagement in its space program from the beginning. NASAs charter directs it to pursue a program of international cooperation and cooperation by the United States with other nations and groups of nations. This is often cited as one of the most practical benefits of the space program in the United States and has been used to great effect in the past for both human and robotic space projects. Cassini, with its major contributions from ESA, Italy, and others, survived the budget axe in the early 1990s in part due to the existence of international partnerships. The Shuttle-Mir program and then the International Space Station brought together former Cold War adversaries, creating an ongoing line of communication and cooperation even as formal relationships between Russia and the U.S. have strained. Now, lunar exploration is being positioned as an opportunity to cooperatively engage a large number of nations. Australias nascent space program will find itself with a plethora of partnership opportunities and not only with established programs like those of NASA, ESA, and Japan. Many other countries are developing productive space programs. China has ambitious goals to return samples from the Moon and Mars and has issued an open call to nations around the world to participate in its planned space station. India is also making great strides with its probes to the Moon and Mars. The United Arab Emirates plans to launch its own robotic mission to Mars in 2020, which could begin a new program of ongoing exploration as well. There is also the unknown, alluring opportunity for exploration and profit promised by the private space sector. Countries can work with non-state international partners, as Luxembourg has demonstrated by investing in a number of companies to position itself as a future leader in space resources. The benefits of strategic research and development, scientific discovery, and the strong relationships formed through the cooperative exploration of space are likely why so many countries have decided that space is a worthy cause for national investment. The feminist blogger behind a controversial billboard defining 'woman' as 'adult human female' was blasted by viewers when she insisted trans women do not fit the criteria on This Morning. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, 44, made headlines this week with her poster, which bore the definition of a woman 'adult human female.' It was erected in Liverpool to coincide with the Labour Party conference but was removed when Dr Adrian Harrop, 31, who is not transgender, complained to billboard company Primesight that it would serve to make transgender women feel unsafe. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, 44, made headlines this week with her poster, which bore the definition of a woman 'adult human female.' She faced widespread criticism when she defended the billboard, and her views, in a debate on This Morning today, pictured Viewers accused Kellie-Jay of being transphobic and blasted her views as 'hateful and nasty'. Others shared their support for transgender activist India Willoughby in their tweets Kellie-Jay faced widespread criticism when she appeared on This Morning to defend the billboard, and her views, in a debate with transgender activist India Willoughby, who transitioned three years ago. One Twitter user wrote: 'Kelly is vile what gives her the right to judge anymore and tell anyone who there should live as. Transgender go through enough without vile people like that airing what they think is right.' Another added: 'Kelly on #ThisMorning is literally disgusting. How dare you attack the transgender community like that. Everyone deserves to be who they want to be. Vile woman.' Speaking to India, Kellie-Jay insisted she did not considered trans women to be women and argued they should 'live as men instead'. Kellie-Jay was behind this controversial billboard defining 'woman' as 'adult human female' which was erected in Liverpool to coincide with the Labour Party conference. It was removed when Dr Adrian Harrop, 31, complained it would make transgender women feel unsafe Dozens of women spoke out against Kellie-Jay, making clear she did not speak for them or feminists. Others urged her 'not to spread a message of hatred' She said: 'I really don't think you can change sex in any meaningful way. Every cell in the human body has the DNA code as to what sex you are. India obviously looks like a woman but I don't see India as a woman.' Kellie-Jay argued that transgender women being legally recognised as women impeaches the rights and freedom of people born female. She said: 'We seem to be losing the word woman... I just thought the essence of this debate, and what we're losing, is the word 'woman' to mean adult human female. 'When you decide that men can come into women's space... It's no longer women's space.' Kellie-Jay told transgender activist India Willoughby, left, who transitioned three years ago, that she did not consider her to be a woman Kellie-Jay claimed she had received support in the wake of the billboard furore but the vast majority of tweets on the debate were negative towards her and her views Presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford supported India as she tried to explain that she transitioned because she was a woman born in the wrong body. 'I have something called gender dysphoria,' she said. 'The only way I could feel normal was transitioning... I'm living as me.' But Kellie-Jay hit back saying: 'I'm saying men cannot be women.' Kellie-Jay, who is part of the pressure group Standing for Women, said the criticism she had faced in the wake of the billboard was 'absurd'. When pushed on whether she was transphobic, she responded: 'I don't know what transphobia means... The fact that it's deemed transphobic absolutely highlights the absurdity of what's going on.' She added she had received 'enormous' support for the campaign in the aftermath of the billboard furore. Advertisement These adorable pictures show a baby boom at a firehouse - after nine of its firefighters welcomed babies in the space of a year. Rescuers at Revere Fire Department in Massachusetts posed with their bundles of joy for a heartwarming snap organized by the men's wives. The women, who call themselves the 'fire wives', took the pictures when they read about another fire department in Oklahoma which welcomed seven babies in 15 months. Adorable: Nine firemen from the Revere Fire Department in Massachusetts posed with their newborn babies They realised that their firefighters had produced nine babies in one year - three boys and six girls - easily beating the Glenpool Fire Department. Lieutenant Kevin Doherty, 35, who posed with his four-month old son Declan Stephen, said he and his team were rounded up by their wives last Sunday. He said: 'We give our wives all the credit for the photo shoot. They did all the logistics and the planning and we men just had to show up. 'They had an email chain and they snapped the pictures. The photographs were adorable.' Doherty said that his wife, Halley, 31, was one of the key organizers and that she and the other wives squeezed the babies into onesies and put red bows in the girls' hair. Cute: The wives of the firemen decided to stage the pictures after they saw a firehouse in Oklahoma do a similar shoot Amazing: In the picture, the men are holding the nine infants who are all wearing blue onesies to match their dads The men wore their firefighter turnout pants and thick boots and held their babies in front of a fire truck. In another sweet snap, they turned their backs to the camera and lifted the babies over their heads. Doherty said that the kids will grow up together in the firehouse - like many of their fathers did. He said: 'Most of us grew up together and we're all starting families at the same time. 'We don't just work together, we live together. All our wives are friends - that's why they hopped on the email chain to organize the pictures. 'I'm a second generation firefighter. My father, my uncle, my brother and my cousin are all firefighters. I grew up in a firehouse and I'm looking forward to my son growing up in a firehouse too.' The Royal Collection Trust has unveiled the official commemorative china to mark Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank's upcoming nuptials. The second daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York will marry her long-term love Jack Brooksbank on October 12th at Windsor Castle. The range features the couple's initials - with the 'E' for Eugenie featured beneath the Princess' coronet - and an ivy pattern in a nod to the home they share, Ivy Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace. It's priced from 20 for a coaster up to 39 for a commemorative tankard. Scroll down for video The Royal Collection Trust have released the first pictures of the commemorative china celebrating Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank's upcoming nuptials It includes individual mugs decorated with a 'E' and a 'J', and a teacup emblazoned with the couples monogram - their initials entwined. The pieces are decorated with garlands of ivy, symbolising Eugenie and Jacks home Ivy Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace, woven with a pattern of English wild bluebells, forget-me-nots and the white rose of York. Each item in the range is made in Stoke-on-Trent using methods and techniques that have remained unchanged for more than 250 years. Royal fans can celebrate the forthcoming wedding of the second daughter of Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson and Jack (both seen), with an official range of commemorative china From the development of initial designs and creation of individual moulds, to the hand-finishing with 22-carat gold and manufacture of the special packaging, the production process encompasses the skills of more than 50 individuals from several factories at the heart of the English potteries. On sale from Friday, all profits from the china will go to the Royal Collection Trust, a charity responsible for the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, which comprises everything from the royal art collection to the official residences of the Queen. The wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank is due to take place on 12 October 2018 at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle - the very same venue where Eugenie's cousin Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in May. Royal Collection Trust handout photo of a miniature teacup and saucer, 25, from the official range of commemorative china to mark the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Mr Jack Brooksbank Royal Collection Trust handout photo of a tankard, 39, from the official range of commemorative china to mark the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Mr Jack Brooksbank Royal Collection Trust handout photo of the front and back of a coaster, 20, from the official range of commemorative china to mark the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Mr Jack Brooksbank With barely a fortnight to go before her big day, royal watchers are eager to see who the bride has chosen to design her gown. Despite the widespread speculation Eugenie is determined to keep the name of her wedding dress designer under wraps ahead of the ceremon. She previously told British Vogue: 'I'm not telling anyone who is making it, but I can say it is a British based designer,' and added: 'As soon as we announced the wedding, I knew the designer, and the look, straight away.' Royal Collection Trust handout photo of a pillbox, 29, from the official range of commemorative china to mark the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Mr Jack Brooksbank Royal Collection Trust handout photo of a miniature teacup and saucer, 25, from the official range of commemorative china to mark the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Mr Jack Brooksbank Buckingham Palace previously announced that Eugenie and Jack have invited 1,200 members of the public into the castle grounds on their big day to share in the celebrations, and will be embarking on a carriage procession around Windsor - just as Meghan and Harry did before them. The newlyweds will travel down Castle Hill, onto the High Street and Park Street before returning to Windsor Castle via Cambridge Gate on the Long Walk. All roads along the route will be closed to traffic from 00.01am 12 October and are expected to re-open around mid-afternoon once the procession is completed, although a precise timing has not been released. Residents and businesses in the immediate area of the procession route have been written to in the last few days with further details of what to expect and how to prepare. He is the grandson of the Duke of Kent and the brother of jet-setting model Lady Amelia Windsor, but it appears Lord Downpatrick prefers a rather more low-key existence. Edward, godson of Princess Diana, admitted he would happily skip a sun-soaked summer holiday with his parents, the Earl and Countess of St Adnrews, in favour of a solo trekking expedition or trip to Scotland. 'There is something more rewarding about it,' he told Tatler about travelling alone. 'Often you end up talking with strange things like a stream or a bird or marmot.' Despite feeling most at home in the wilderness, far away from the trendy haunts favoured by many young royals, the 29-year-old conceded it is still quite cool' being born into the royal family. Lord Downpatrick is the grandson of the Duke of Kent and the brother of jet-setting model Lady Amelia, pictured together, but he most enjoys living in the rugged Scottish Highlands Edward, informally known as Eddy, is the eldest child of George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, who is heir to the dukedom of Kent. His grandfather is the Queen's first cousin Edward, the Duke of Kent. He is close to his younger sisters, Lady Marina Windsor, 25, and Lady Amelia Windsor, 23, a socialite with a successful modelling career. The budding fashion designer, who founded his own label, FIDIR, last year, also enjoys a good relationship with his distant cousin Princess Beatrice, 30. Lord Downpatrick, 29, admitted it was still 'quite cool' being born into the Royal Family. Pictured, Edward with his sister Lady Marina at an event in 2014 In the interview with Tatler, Lord Downpatrick admitted he had not always realised that he would be treated differently because of his title and position in life. He said: 'Only with age - and with a degree of cynicism - can you possibly tell that some people treat you differently because you haven't got a Mr in front of your names.' The budding fashion designer added on being born into the royal family: 'It's complete luck that it happens to be you but it's quite cool that it has.' Edward, informally known as Eddy, is the eldest child of George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, who is heir to the dukedom of Kent. Pictured with his parents and sisters Amelia (centre) and Marina (right) on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour in 2001 Lord Downpatrick, a graduate of Oxford, spends most of his time in London but enjoys escaping to explore inhospitable landscapes. Recently he has been ski-climbing in Norway, and hiking in British Columbia and Austria. Now he has his sights on finding a more permanent base in Scotland, with a fixer-upper farmhouse and physical shop top of his wishlist. He added: 'Despite the horizontal rain and gloom, as I've grown up I've appreciated the Highlands more and more, and that's just where I really long to be.' Former 'Peru Two' drug mule gave birth to twin boys Raphael and Rio in May. And the new mother looked to be reveling in her role as a parent as she shared a selfie with the youngsters to her Instagram account, which boasts over 20,000 followers. Michaella, 24, posted a picture as she posed with her young sons on her lap, captioning it simply with the word 'Blessed'. Having shot to notoriety when she was arrested for drug smuggling in Peru in 2013, Michaella looked worlds away from her jail days, in the peaceful post. Scroll down for video Former 'Peru Two' drug mule Michaella, 24, posted a picture as she posed with her young sons Raphael and Rio on her lap on Friday, captioning it simply with the word 'Blessed' Sporting her blonde hair in a sleek blow dry, she wore a sweater emblazoned with the Authentic logo, over-the-knee boots and checked leggings. Injecting a splash of colour with a bold red lip, her little boys were seen nestling on her lap, clad in matching nude pinstripe dungarees and t-shirts. This came just a few weeks after she posted another picture of the boys as she celebrated her sister Samantha McCollum's wedding at Hillgrove Hotel, Monaghan. And followers flocked to her post, which received over 1,500 likes, praising her appreciation of being a parent. This came just a few weeks after she posted another picture of the boys as she celebrated her sister Samantha McCollum's wedding at Hillgrove Hotel, Monaghan Having shot to notoriety when she was arrested for drug smuggling in Peru in 2013, Michaella looked worlds away from her jail days, in her recent chic posts One follower wrote: 'Wonderful scene - you really must be so proud! Yes blessed is the word. Sometimes we have to experience hardships & humility to really understand what matters in life. And its not the latest iPhone or BMW. Its loving unconditionally, & being loved in return. Enjoy these moments they are to be treasured for all time. Best personal wishes.' Earlier in the morning Michaella had taken to her Instagram stories to bemoan a sleepless night, writing: 'Raphael will be up in two hours why can't I sleep?'. Michaella, who shot to notoriety in 2013 when she and her friend Melissa Reid were arrested in Lima for smuggling drugs and dubbed the Peru Two in the press, recently revealed that her newborns are boys. She has never revealed who the father of the twins is, but has posted snaps on Instagram with a mystery man - thought to be her boyfriend - omitting his face from the pictures. And followers flocked to her post, which received over 1,500 likes, praising her appreciation of being a parent Reid and McCollum met in Ibiza in 2013 where they were employed by a drug-dealing gang. They were sentenced to spend six years and eight months inside a grim jail in Lima, after they were caught at the airport trying to smuggle 1.5M worth of cocaine. However, they were released after serving three years, with Michaella returning to Northern Ireland in June 2016. Since her release from prison, Michaella has become something of a public figure, attending events and escaping the chilly British weather on a string of sun-kissed holidays last summer. Earlier in the morning Michaella had taken to her Instagram stories to bemoan a sleepless night, writing: 'Raphael will be up in two hours why can't I sleep?' By contrast her former accomplice Melissa Reid, landed a charity job at Citizens Advice after she was released from jail in South America in June 2016. Michaella was also reportedly offered 250,000 for a tell-all book deal detailing her criminal exploits and time behind bars in Lima, although no details of the publication have been released. On confirming her pregnancy earlier this year, her agent said: Michaella is looking forward to her journey into motherhood. 'Couple this with the excitement of her book release and 2018 is set to be an amazing year for Michaella.' It seems toilet humor never ceases to amuse no matter how old you get - unless of course you are unlucky enough to be the butt of the bathroom joke. But one group of women is embracing their most embarrassing bathroom tales as part of a hilarious new campaign that aims to put end to the idea that ladies shouldn't discuss their pooping habits - and flush away the illusion that females don't poop at all. In a series of entertaining videos made by bathroom fragrance company Poo-Pourri, one woman admitted to actually pooping in her mother-in-law's bed, while another explained the moment she lost her bowel movements in an elevator of her office building. Hilarious: During a campaign about women pooping, a female named Maryann (pictured) detailed how she 'sharted' in her boyfriend's mom's bed while sick Unfortunate: Luckily, she was dating a man who was willing to hide the sheets with her so the mom would never find out about the incident Funny: Maryann's story and others are part of Poo-Pourri's newest campaign to break the stereotype about women pooping Poo-Pourri, a brand which first made headlines five years ago when it debuted a viral video entitled 'Girls Don't Poop' viral video, shared the side-splittingly funny confessionals as part of its latest campaign, #GirlsDoPoop, which puts an incredibly honest and frank spin on the idea of women going number two. The first lady to take her place on the porcelain throne and share her best bathroom story is Maryann, who at the time of her toilet tale was dating her now-husband, got invited to attend a Thanksgiving dinner with him at his family home in Connecticut. 'I wake up at 3am with terrible stomach pain,' Maryann said about her trip to visiting the family during her campaign video. 'I try really quick to make a fecal escape plan.' After Maryann does her business in one of two bathrooms in her then-boyfriend's family home, she heads back up to bed believing her stomach pain is done. Her mother-in-law offered to let her take a nap in her own bed that next morning because Maryann was still feeling sick and it would be closer to the bathroom. 'I'm dozing in and out of sleep...I just let out a fart,' she described during the video. 'It was not a fart. Oh no. I sharted in her bed.' Maryann than hilariously describes how she and her significant other worked together to hide the sheets so the mother-in-law would never know she accidentally pooped the bed while sick. 'I'm just saying, if a guy helps you hide your sharted sheets, you should marry him,' Maryann said at the end of her shocking tale. Other women besides Maryann also shared their own poop stories in quick two-minute videos. Leah, who works as a cater waiter for what she described as 'posh' events, explained one gathering she worked that had a number of Secret Service agents in attendance. Bonding: One woman who worked as a cater waiter detailed how she had to quickly go to the bathroom during a high-profiled event because she had to poop Time to go: Another woman named Kelly detailed how Mexican food got the best of her one day during work, and she pooped her pants on the way to the bathroom Horrifying: Caroline was attempting to leave the home of the family she nannied when she was unable to stop her bowel movements Since she previously worked a late night, Leah decided to get the biggest cup of coffee possible to make it through her next shift with the company. 'I am feeling super awake, but I realized I am also super gassy,' Leah admitted. To prevent any incident from occurring while serving people salad, the woman decided to discard her tray and make a beeline towards the bathroom. But she quickly realizes that her behavior encouraged a Secret Service agent to follow her. 'It's a massacre and I know the entire time I'm going this poor Secret Service member is listening to the entire thing,' Leah hilariously said about the moment in the bathroom stall. Once Leah came in contact with the member while leaving the stall, all she could say was 'thank you for your service' before quickly heading back to work to serve the rest of the food. The funny stories only continue as a woman named Kelly detailed how Mexican food in New York City did her dirty while she was on her way to her 'secret pooping' bathroom in her office building. While in the elevator heading up to the floor where she could poop, Kelly recalled feeling like she was going to 's**t her pants' as she descended up. And that's exactly what happened. 'I usually give myself enough time but that day I underestimated the power of the beans,' Kelly revealed. Once she made it to the bathroom, she was able to dispose of her soiled underwear before heading to a drugstore commando to buy another pair. In another campaign video, a woman named Caroline revealed a particularly horrifying story of when she pooped herself while driving. Shocking: In another hilarious video, a woman details an incident where she pooped in a mixing bowl to avoid going number two in front of the man she slept with the previous night Not strong enough: The final campaign video talks about how a woman named Brittany pooped in her stairwell at her apartment building because she couldn't make it 'While I'm driving I remember thinking "what does a person sitting in her own s*** listen to?"' Caroline asked. The incident happened after Caroline consumed a smoothie that had a double helping of chia seeds. While attempting to escape the home of her nannying gig, bad things happened and Caroline ended up pooping her pants. In another relatable story, a woman named Hannah details how she didn't want to poop in the home of a man she had spent the night with because of the idea that females never should have bowel movements. While the man was in the shower, Hannah suddenly felt like she immediately needed to poop but does not want to do it while he was also in the bathroom. So instead she decided to poop into a mixing bowl. Hannah then never heard from the man again after he left the apartment. The final story for Poo-Pourri's campaign detailed when a woman named Brittany returned from a trip with her then-boyfriend and decided to get an iced coffee at the airport. While in a cab, she admitted to her boyfriend that she might 'crap her pants' because of how intensely she had to poop. 'With all of my core strength, I am holding my buttcheeks together,' Brittany said. She ended up pooping her pants while walking up the stairs to her apartment to the horror of her neighbors. Poo-Pourri, which sells odor-eliminating products for instances of going number two, shared these six women's hilariously horrifying poop stories in an appeal to end the stigma about females talking about their bowel movements. Millions now take cannabidiol oil, or CBD oil, to reduce anxiety, boost sleep and relieve joint pain. Extensive scientific research has proven the health supplement, sold on the high street, offers several potential health benefits. But much confusion still surrounds CBD, which comes from the cannabis plant, writes Dr Sarah Brewer, a GP and nutritionist. It is important not to confuse legal CBD oil with forms of cannabis oil, which contain the psychoactive compound THC and is illegal. Here, Dr Brewer, of Healthspan, answers eight questions about the supplement, including whether it could help tackle your pain, if its safe and how it works. CBD supplements are legal and don't contain any of the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is what makes cannabis illegal WHAT ACTUALLY IS CBD OIL? CBD, or cannabidiol, is a natural extract from the hemp plant. Because it's oil soluble, it's often mixed with hemp, coconut or olive oil to enhance its absorption. This CBD plus oil mixture is known as CBD oil. As CBD comes from cannabis there is a common assumption that CBD oil makes you 'high' but this is not the case. That's because it's extracted from non-marijuana strains of the cannabis plant known as hemp. The marijuana plant and the hemp plant are both from the 'cannabis' family, but the latter does not contain sufficient amounts of an ingredient known as tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. THC is the ingredient in cannabis that has 'psychoactive' effects and it's particularly prevalent in the marijuana cannabis plant. Hemp cannabis, on the other hand, does not contain enough THC to cause these 'psychoactive' effects. WHAT IS CBD OIL AND IS IT LEGAL IN THE UK? Government advisers made it legal to buy CBD supplements in 2016 CBD oil is a legal cannabinoid that can be sold in the UK. CBD contains less than 0.2 per cent of the psychoactive substance THC. Although the oil has been thought to have some medicinal properties, including relieving inflammation, pain and anxiety, there is no conclusive science. Suppliers in England and Wales have to obtain a licence to sell CBD as a medicine. Manufacturers are able to avoid the strict regulation by selling it as a food supplement - ignoring the lengthy process of gaining a medicinal licence. CBD products comes in many forms, the most popular being an oil - which users spray under their tongue - or gel tablets which melt slowly in the mouth. Government advisers at the MHRA found that CBD has a restoring, correcting or modifying effect on humans. Cannabis oil, which is different to CBD oil because it contains THC - the compound that gives users a 'high' - is illegal under UK laws. Billy Caldwell, from Castlederg, Northern Ireland, made headlines last April when he became the first Briton to be prescribed it on the NHS. Cannabis oil, which reportedly has no side effects, influences the release and uptake of feel good chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin. Advertisement IS IT LEGAL? Yes. Because CBD does not contain the psychoactive ingredient THC, it is entirely legal to buy and take CBD supplements in the UK. And because CBD is a legal ingredient, it is not tested for in drug tests used to detect illegal drugs. Suppliers have to obtain a licence to sell it as a medicine. But manufacturers are able to avoid regulation by selling it as a food supplement - ignoring the lengthy process of gaining a medicinal licence. However, cannabis oil, which contains THC - the compound that gives users a 'high' - is illegal under UK laws. Home Secretary Sajid Javid's announcement in July that medicinal cannabis will be available on prescription from this autumn opened the door for oils to be given the green light if approved by the drug regulator. Sativex, a mouth spray which contains THC and CBD, is already approved for use in the UK by the MHRA as a treatment for multiple sclerosis. IS IT ADDICTIVE? No, CBD is not addictive. An addiction to marijuana can develop as a severe form of 'marijuana use disorder', which affects an estimated 30 per cent of marijuana users. This develops out of a person's dependence on the psychoactive effects of THC the ingredient in the marijuana plant which causes a high and results in withdrawal symptoms. CBD oil can be bought as a herbal food supplement and the World Health Organization has confirmed it is not possible for it to be abused or to cause any harm to people's health CBD comes from an entirely different plant the hemp plant that contains only trace amounts of THC which are not enough to cause a high. Instead, CBD works by enhancing the effects of other brain chemicals such as serotonin and anandamide. It does not activate the receptors that make marijuana psychoactive and addictive. In fact, the effects of cannabidiol are opposite to those of THC and can actually block some of the psychoactive effects of THC, which is why CBD is added to medical forms of marijuana prescribed to treat certain disorders. IS CBD OIL SAFE? CBD oil is recognised as safe and well-tolerated in healthy people, with few side effects. A World Health Organization report has confirmed it does not have any potential for abuse or to cause harm, and it is therefore not classed as a controlled substance. The Cannabis Trades Association UK recommends that CBD should not be sold to anyone under the age of 18. I THOUGHT CANNABIS WAS BAD FOR YOUR BRAIN? The mood-altering part of cannabis that you smoke or eat the THC not only makes you feel 'high' but can produce hallucinations, can cause tolerance (so you need more and more to produce the same effects) and withdrawal symptoms. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, there is mounting evidence linking long-term use of marijuana with serious mental illness, such as depression, and doubles the risk of developing a psychosis such as schizophrenia, especially in those who start using it in their teens. In contrast, CBD is not psychoactive nor addictive. In fact, it actually blocks the effects of THC within the brain, protects brain cells from damage and is increasingly used as an herbal supplement to reduce anxiety and stress and to promote general well-being. HOW DOES CBD WORK? CBD does this by tapping into your body's own endocannabinoid system. This is made up of communication chemicals in the brain, the millions of cannabinoid receptors with which these interact, and the enzymes that synthesise and break them down. WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR WHEN BUYING CBD OIL? The Cannabis Trades Association UK (CTA UK), a body created to ensure legal and ethical CBD trading standards in the UK, works closely with various Government health safety organisations to comply with EU and UK legislation and regulations. Only selected companies that meet exceptionally high quality standards are allowed to carry its seal of approval. It's important to choose a supplier who provides certification of analysis showing actual CBD and THC levels of purity for each batch produced sometimes known as a 'testing' report and making sure the company is a member of the Cannabis Trade Association. It's also important not to buy products that claim to use 'whole plant extract' as this is misleading. Instead, you need to compare the actual levels of CBD in milligrams (mg) in the product. On the packaging of products, the norm is to see the amount of CBD displayed as a percentage. Products with this labelling allow you to see exactly how much CBD you're taking. If you don't know exactly how many milligrams of CBD is in your capsule then it might be difficult to dose effectively. Find a product that displays the amount per dose (be it a capsule, gummy, oil dropper or spray) in milligrams. Source: Dr Sarah Brewer Advertisement The cannabinoids you make yourself, such as anandamide, pass messages between the brain, nervous system and immune system to help balance key body functions that range from mood, sleep, appetite and memory, through to coordinating the production of hormones, growth and development. The endocannabinoid system is also involved in regulating inflammation, pain perception and immune responses. CBD interacts with some of your cannabinoid receptors but not others. It also interacts with many other, non-endocannabinoid signalling systems and has been described as a 'multi-target' supplement that damps down inflammation as well as having beneficial effects on mood, sleep and pain perception all without causing the high or withdrawal effects associated with marijuana strains of cannabis. THE LANDMARK CASE OF BILLY CALDWELL THAT PROMPTED THE GOVERNMENT TO CHANGE ITS STANCE ON MEDICINAL CANNABIS Billy Caldwell's mother Charlotte (pictured together) had seven bottles of cannabis oil confiscated at Heathrow Airport customs, prompting a row over cannabis oil Cannabis oil was thrust into the limelight when epileptic boy Billy Caldwell's mother had seven bottles confiscated at Heathrow Airport customs. The 12-year-old sparked a row over the medicinal status of the oil, prompting the Home Office to step in and grant his mother Charlotte an emergency licence for his product that was calming his seizures, which contained THC. Billy's bottles were confiscated on June 11 after she brought them in from Toronto. On the back of the cases of Billy and fellow epileptic boy Alfie Dingley, six, Home Secretary Sajid Javid called for a review into medicinal cannabis. In a major shift of policy, he announced in July that some products containing the drug would be available on prescription in the UK from the autumn. And earlier this week it was revealed cannabis-based products for medicinal use will only be available for specialist doctors - not GPs - to prescribe legally. Officials have yet to confirm which medicines may be prescribed, but said they must be regulated as a medicinal product. Advertisement FROM HEAD TO TOE, THE EVIDENCE ON CBD OIL Epilepsy An estimated 30 per cent of people with epilepsy are resistant to drug treatment, and the search for new and improved treatments has recently focused on cannabinoids. A pure CBD product (Epidiolex) has undergone successful clinical trials and an application submitted for a drug license in the US, based on clinical data involving 1,500 patients. It is being launched in the US this Autumn and should become available on prescription in the UK by mid-2019 if approved by the European Medicines Agency early next year. In a three-month study involving 137 children and young adults with certain forms of epilepsy, for example, almost half experienced a reduction in seizure frequency with CBD. Cancer Medical marijuana (THC plus CBD) has been used clinically to treat chronic pain in terminal cancer that has not responded to opiate analgesics. There are also anecdotal tales of CBD having beneficial effects against cancer. Cell studies suggest CBD can reduce the proliferation of cancer cells (prostate, liver and breast) in the laboratory, but this has not yet been tested in human clinical trials published in peer-reviewed journals. Cancer should only ever be treated under the supervision of an experienced oncology team. If you have cancer and wish to take cannabidiol products, you should discuss this with your medical team first to ensure CBD will not interact with any of the prescribed medicines you are taking. THE SIX-YEAR-OLD BOY WHO WAS ALSO ALLOWED CANNABIS OIL TO TREAT HIS EPILEPSY AFTER HOME OFFICE'S INITIAL REFUSAL Another British boy with epilepsy was given cannabis oil treatment which clast month after a landmark Home Office ruling. Alfie Dingley, six, suffers from a rare form of the disease that can cause up to 30 seizures a day. His mother Hannah Deacon, of Kenilworth, Warwickshire, begged the Home Office to let her treat her son with marijuana but they refused. But the youngster last month became the second UK epilepsy sufferer to be allowed cannabis treatment after Home Secretary Sajid Javid's intervention. Ms Deacon wept with joy during an interview on ITV News when she was told the Government granted a licence for Alfie to receive cannabis oil. Alfie Dingley, six, suffers from a rare form of the disease that can cause up to 30 seizures a day. His mother Hannah Deacon, of Kenilworth, Warwickshire, begged the Home Office to let her treat her son with marijuana but they refused Advertisement Anxiety CBD can reduce muscle tension, restlessness and fatigue, while improving concentration and anxiety. A study involving people with social anxiety who had not previously received any treatments compared the effects of taking either CBD (600 mg) or placebo 90 minutes before undergoing a simulated public speaking test. These results were then compared against a healthy control group of volunteers, who were tested without any medication. Pre-treatment with CBD significantly reduced anxiety, muddled thoughts, social discomfort and anticipatory anxiety compared with placebo. As a result, those taking cannabidiol extracts performed as well as the healthy controls who did not have generalised social anxiety. However, taking too high a dose increased anxiety, so start with a low level and slowly increase. CBD is also a promising treatment for panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Inflammation and pain CBD oil is highly effective for treating many types of pain, including headache, joint pain, endometriosis pain and neuropathic pain (due to nerve damage). CBD creams, salves and ointments are equally effective for pain relief when applied directly to painful muscles and joints. I find that taking CBD at night helps me wake up without muscle or joint aches or pains. CBD not only reduces the level of pain signals reaching the brain but alters the way you respond to them, changing your reaction to pain and helping you feel and cope much better. It also has an anti-inflammatory effect. A 2012 review in the Journal of Experimental Medicine concluded that CBD oil is an effective treatment for adults suffering with chronic pain and, significantly, there are no reported side effects. Stopping smoking Cannabidiol has been used to support smoking cessation. A study of smokers found those who used cannabidiol while they were trying to quit smoke around 40 per cent fewer cigarettes than people not using the oil A study involving 24 smokers who wished to quit found that using cannabidiol reduced the number of cigarettes smoked by around 40 per cent, compared with no change in those using placebo. Parkinson's disease A study involving people with Parkinson's disease found that taking cannabidiol (300mg per day) for 6 weeks significantly improved quality of life compared with a lower dose (75mg CBD per day) or placebo. However, some research suggests that high doses of cannabidiol might make muscle symptoms worse in people with Parkinson's. These high doses should only be used under medical supervision. Skin Cannabidiol has antibiotic and antioxidant actions, and products containing CBD have beneficial effects on the skin, improving conditions such as acne. HOW CBD OIL HAS REVOLUTIONISED MY SLEEP: DR SARAH BREWER I started taking a CBD oil capsule at night three months ago, and have never slept so deeply or woken feeling so refreshed. I didn't consider myself a bad sleeper before, as a trusty cup of chamomile tea usually sees me off within minutes of lights out. But adding in a CBD capsule was a complete revelation. Within five minutes of taking a super-strength capsule, my eyes feel heavy and I'm ready to nod off. When reviewing the literature, I realised this was because I was spending more time in REM sleep. When you sleep, you cycle through five different stages of sleep. Initially, you quickly pass through the lighter Stage 1 and Stage 2 phases of sleep to spend around 70 to 100 minutes in the deeper, restorative, Stage 3 and Stage 4 sleep. Your sleep then lightens and you spend a short period of around 10 minutes in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in which your eyes are constantly on the move. This cycle repeats four to six times throughout the night, but as morning approaches you spend more and more time up to one hour in REM sleep. The psychoactive marijuana form of cannabis, which includes THC, also robs you of REM sleep. Alcohol and marijuana both temporarily increase the ability to sleep (literally a drug-like effect) and get you into deep sleep, but suppress REM sleep so you wake early and feel unrefreshed. CBD oil has the opposite effect to marijuana, and improves sleep patterns to help restore REM sleep. Some people experience vivid dreams when taking CBD but I sleep so heavily that I rarely recall my dreams. I can't promise it will suit you, but if you are not sleeping well it's certainly worth a try. Source: Dr Sarah Brewer Advertisement WHAT'S THE RECOMMENDED DOSE? Products typically supply 6mg to 25mg CBD per serving. For general well-being, the recommended dose is 10mg to 30mg per day as a food supplement. Higher doses are used for particular conditions, but as a food supplement, doses should not exceed 200mg per day. For optimal results, you should take CBD at regular intervals throughout the day for example, by dividing your total daily dose into three or four smaller doses taken every four hours. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR CBD OIL TO WORK? It depends on the delivery method you choose. Capsules typically have a slower release from 20 minutes to an hour to produce the desired outcome, while oral sprays and liquid drops of CBD which are held in the mouth to boost absorption directly into the circulation work more quickly you may notice a relaxing effect within just a few minutes. CBD oil capsules which contain additional olive oil will aid the absorption of CBD into the body. HOW LONG DOES CBD STAY IN YOUR SYSTEM? The effects of CBD last for around three to five hours. After this, the dose will have fallen below levels that produce noticeable benefits, although it will take up to two days for all the CBD to disappear from the body. BE CAREFUL IF YOU'RE ALREADY TAKING MEDICATION If you have a health condition or are taking any prescribed or over-the-counter medicines including benzodiazepines and anti-depressants always check with your doctor or a pharmacist for possible drug supplement interactions before taking CBD. This is because CBD interacts with enzymes involved in metabolising some medicines, and may result in increased drug levels that could cause side effects. If the Patient Information Leaflet that comes with your medication says to avoid grapefruit juice, for instance, then do not take CBD as the same type of interaction can affect circulating blood levels of your medicine. If the leaflet does not mention grapefruit juice you should still check with your doctor before taking CBD. A third of NHS trusts regularly break the law by failing to pay non-NHS invoices on time, an investigation has revealed. Not a single trust included in the data made all its payments to suppliers on time last year, and 44 of them paid more than half of their invoices late. One paid only five per cent of bills on time, while the value of another trust's overdue payments came to more than 404 million. And combined, all 137 trusts racked up 7.9 billion which they failed to pay within the 30-day time limit during 2017-18. At some hospitals, patient safety was put at risk when suppliers refused to deliver any more goods because the NHS wasn't paying up. Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent (pictured) is run by the Medway NHS Foundation Trust which only paid five per cent of its bills from suppliers within 30 days during 2017-18 The Medway NHS Foundation Trust in Kent was the worst performing, managing to pay only five per cent of its invoices on time. It was followed by Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, Norfolk, which paid 89 per cent of invoices late, and East Kent Hospitals and York Teaching Hospital, with 88 per cent. Meanwhile, the most expensive offender by a huge margin was the Royal Free Hospital in London, whose late payments were worth 404,546,000. Next were Cambridge University Hospitals with 311.6 million and Northumbria Healthcare with 223 million, according to Freedom of Information requests by the Health Service Journal. The late payments have been branded 'outrageous' but some trusts said they couldn't pay their bills because there isn't enough money from the government. Suppliers have the right to charge eight per cent interest on unpaid invoices but told the Health Service Journal they won't because of the value of NHS contracts. The Department of Health and Social Care said it 'does not endorse' late payments. But in December 2016 it was revealed the department would refuse to bail out NHS trusts failing to pay their bills because so many were relying on the loans. WHICH NHS TRUSTS PAID THE FEWEST INVOICES ON TIME? Medway Foundation Trust (95% late) Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn (89%) East Kent Hospitals (88%) York Teaching Hospital (88%) Western Sussex Hospitals (87%) The Rotherham (86%) Derby Teaching Hospitals (86%) Barnsley Hospital (85%) Barking, Havering and Redbridge (84%) Harrogate and District (84%) Advertisement WHICH NHS TRUSTS RACKED UP THE MOST IN LATE PAYMENTS? Royal Free London (404.6m) Cambridge University (311.7m) Northumbria Healthcare (223m) UCL Hospitals (212.7m) University Hospitals of Leicester (209.7m) East Kent Hospitals (192.1m) St George's University (187.5m) Heart of England (170.9m) Guy's and St Thomas' (164.2m) Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (164m) Advertisement Now, hospital trusts may be delaying their payments to manage their cash flows they have to pay less money to the government if there is more money in their accounts. Medway NHS, which paid the fewest invoices on time last year, said it has improved and now pays around 44 per cent of its non-NHS invoices on time. A spokesperson told the HSJ: 'We appreciate that we still have some way to go in ensuring our creditors are paid quickly and arent inconvenienced by late payments. 'The senior members of the finance team speak directly to suppliers to address any specific delays on their accounts that require intervention.' Four of the other slowest payers East Kent Hospitals, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Croydon Health Services and South Tees Hospitals all said they were not given enough government cash to pay their bills. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'Trusts are responsible for managing their finances to deliver the best possible services to patients. 'We are working with NHS Improvement who closely monitor performance of payments and lend support to individual trusts who are in difficulty.' Black NHS doctors are paid on average almost 10,000 less a year than white ones, figures have revealed. And black nurses and midwives earn an average of nearly 2,300 less because of a race pay gap which has been branded 'appalling' and 'enormous'. Data showing the salaries of 750,000 NHS staff have shown black people in all roles across the health service are being paid less than their white counterparts. The gap, branded an 'unacceptable barrier', exists for people working as hospital porters all the way up to neurosurgeons and amount to 'discrimination'. The figures come just a week after one of the country's most senior doctors called the NHS 'subconsciously racist' for making it hard for ethnic minority medics to be promoted. Black people have lower average salaries across all areas of the NHS, figures have revealed, but the gaps are biggest for doctors who earn, on average, around 9,500 less than their white counterparts Figures from NHS Digital this week showed black female doctors earn an average of 9,612 less than white women, while the gap for men is 9,492. The data looked at the salaries of workers who identify themselves as black, African, Caribbean or black British, The Guardian reported. Black women can expect to earn 2,700 less than white women if they work as a nurse or midwife, while men in the same jobs are paid 1,872 less if they're black. Across all of the approximately 300 jobs available in the NHS, black men earn an average of 7,272 less than the average male pay - and 5,796 less than their white peers. And the gap for women is smaller but still amounts to an average of 2,172 lower than the average for all female workers - and 1,980 less than their white peers. HOW MUCH IS THE DIFFERENCE IN PAY FOR THE AVERAGE NHS WORKER? WOMEN (monthly/yearly salary, on average) AVERAGE: 2,423 = 29,076 Asian: 2,637 = 31,644 Black: 2,242 = 26,904 Multiple ethnic groups: 2,408 = 28,896 White: 2,407 = 28,884 Other ethnic group: 2,590 = 31,080 Unknown: 2,491 = 29,892 MEN (monthly/yearly salary, on average) AVERAGE: 3,157 = 37,884 Asian: 3,764 = 45,168 Black: 2,551 = 30,612 Multiple ethnic groups: 3,144 = 37,728 White: 3,034 = 36,408 Other ethnic group: 3,690 = 44,280 Unknown: 3,369 = 40,428 Advertisement 'BME doctors make up more than a third of the medical workforce and play a vital role, day in day out, delivering care to patients across the country,' Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association told The Guardian. 'Yet these figures confirm that they, alongside wider NHS staff, continue to face unacceptable barriers, penalties and discrimination in the health service.' The figures released by NHS Digital are the biggest available breakdown of how pay differs across people of different ethnicities. The official body only gave a detailed breakdown for the pay of doctors, nurses and midwives. Dame Donna Kinnair, the acting chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing said: 'As a black woman who spent a career in NHS nursing, nobody feels stronger about this than me. 'For the first time these figures show the shocking scale of the challenge we face to ensure BAME staff are represented at every level of our healthcare system. 'The enormous pay gaps highlighted here reflect the appalling lack of diversity at senior levels in the NHS. 'BAME staff make up 25 per cent of NHS workforce, yet this dwindles to just seven per cent of senior managers. This lack of diversity means the NHS leadership fails to reflect the population it serves.' The damning figures come just a week after Dr Nagpaul, BMA chairman, said the NHS was 'subconsciously racist' and doesn't promote enough ethnic minority doctors. Dr Nagpaul, born to Indian parents in Kenya, told The Telegraph last week: 'At every stage in my career I have prepared and worked much harder than I would have needed to in order to secure positions. 'I've just accepted that. Sadly there is little doubt there is still a lack of equality in terms of staff in the NHS. That's of detriment to the population.' The NHS employs 100,000 doctors, of which figures show around a third are from black or minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds. The husband of the health worker who caught monkeypox at work had to wait 12 hours for an ambulance even though he was told he needed urgent attention. The 50-year-old builder, from Fleetwood in Lancashire, was told by health officials to stay inside, in case he had the virus. They reportedly even threatened the builder who is convinced he caught the killer virus from his wife with arrest if he went outside. He had been suffering from flu-like symptoms and had broken out in spots a tell-tale sign of the tropical disease and is now being kept in hospital. And the couple's daughter said her father is 'convinced he has it' after her mother caught the infection while treating a patient at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. Concerns about the virus spreading began after two people travelling from Nigeria became the UK's first ever cases of monkeypox within four days of one another. A mother-of-two from Fleetwood, Lancashire, is thought to have caught the possibly fatal virus while changing bedding at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. The previous two victims caught the virus in Nigeria before travelling to the UK The third case the first to be caught in the UK is now being treated in isolation at a specialist unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. Public Health England today told MailOnline anyone who hasn't been contacted by officials already should not be concerned. The Government agency said it is monitoring people who may be at risk every day, however it did not say how many people this was. But friends of the third monkeypox victim's husband fear they may have caught it, after they had socialised with him before he broke out in a rash. She is now believed to have passed it to her husband, who has been taken to the Royal Liverpool Hospital for tests. The unnamed man was said to be 'terrified' when told he needed urgent medical help, but was reportedly left waiting 12 hours until 10.30pm for an ambulance to arrive. NHS England said the call for an ambulance was only received at 7.54pm and one arrived at 10.26pm a two-and-a-half hour wait. He was also told to stay at home alone while he waited, with health officials 'threatening him with arrest' if he left the house, The Sun reported. His daughter, who was out of the country when her mother caught the virus and has been told she is not at risk, told The Mirror: 'Dad is convinced he has it. 'My mum is in a bit of pain and covered in spots. I'd like to see her but she is in quarantine and they told me she could be in for two to five weeks or even more.' The 40-year-old healthcare assistant the third person to catch monkeypox said the gloves she was given at work were too small and left her skin exposed. Monkeypox spreads by physical contact or from coughs and sneezes and humans can catch it from wild monkeys, uncooked meat or other infected people. A hospital worker who became the third person in the UK to be struck down with deadly monkeypox has blamed 'pathetically small' NHS gloves for failing to protect her. (Stock photo) WHAT IS MONKEYPOX? Monkeypox often caught through handling monkeys is a rare viral disease that kills around 10 per cent of people it strikes, according to figures. The virus responsible for the disease is found mainly in the tropical areas of west and central Africa. Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958, with the first reported human case in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970. Human cases were recorded for the first time in the US in 2003 and the UK in September 2018. It resides in wild animals but humans can catch it through direct contact with animals, such as handling monkeys, or eating inadequately cooked meat. The virus can enter the body through broken skin, the respiratory tract, or the eyes, nose or mouth. It can pass between humans via droplets in the air, and by touching the skin of an infected individual, or touching objects contaminated by them. Symptoms usually appear within five and 21 days of infection. These include a fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, chills and fatigue. The most obvious symptom is a rash, which usually appears on the face before spreading to other parts of the body. This then forms skin lesions that scab and fall off. Monkeypox is usually mild, with most patients recovering within a few weeks without treatment. Yet, the disease can often prove fatal. There are no specific treatments or vaccines available for monkeypox infection, according to the World Health Organization. Advertisement 'Mum thinks the gloves should cover your arms when you are dealing with cases like this,' the daughter added. An unnamed friend of the husband, who had been socialising in pubs near his Fleetwood home before falling ill, told the Sun: 'Everyone is worried they could be next. 'He's been so unwell he took some time off work. Hopefully his mates are not at risk.' He is currently at the Royal Liverpool Hospital for tests. The woman's colleagues at the hospital in Blackpool are thought to have been given the smallpox vaccine, which protects against the monkeypox virus. The 40-year-old said: 'The gloves were too short to cover my arms and left my skin exposed while changing the bed. I think that's how I got infected.' The healthcare assistant, who has not been identified, developed flu-like symptoms after working at the hospital, where one of the previous victims had been. Public Health England has already ordered smallpox vaccines to give to health workers treating infected patients. It said it will give the vaccine to people who had the 'highest exposure' - those who have had the closest, sustained contact to the monkeypox patients, even though viruses can spread if people spend just minutes around someone who is infected. The mother-of-two also said: 'They told us we weren't at risk but that's obviously nonsense. I'm terrified about what may happen to me and my family.' The previous two victims caught the virus in Nigeria before travelling to the UK. Further information about their condition has not been released but officials yesterday confirmed they are both still in isolation at different hospitals. Public Health England (PHE) warned patients remain infectious for up to three weeks - until the rash has scabbed over and the scabs have dropped off. It is thought nurses and doctors are wearing respirator masks, eye protection and disposable gowns, gloves and shoe covers to provide care. PHE repeatedly claimed the risk of infection was low and staff, patients and visitors were safe. However, it admitted the third case was 'not wholly unexpected'. It comes after PHE issued an urgent monkeypox warning in the wake of the first two cases, warning it could be spread through bedding. In guidance aimed at doctors and nurses, the Government agency urged them to avoid touching suspected cases with their hands and to always wear gloves. PHE said the health worker was following standard guidance because the patient they were treating had not been confirmed to have monkeypox. Commenting on the third case the healthcare assistant Dr Nick Phin, deputy director of the National Infection Service at PHE, said: 'This healthcare worker cared for the patient before a diagnosis of monkeypox was made. 'We have been actively monitoring contacts for 21 days after exposure to detect anyone presenting with an illness so that they can be assessed quickly. 'It is therefore not wholly unexpected that a case has been identified. 'This person has been isolated and we are taking a highly precautionary approach to ensure that all contacts are traced.' Andy Welch, medical director of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, added: 'We are currently treating a patient who has been diagnosed with monkeypox. 'The patient is in isolation and being cared for by specialist and highly trained staff who are experienced in dealing with a variety of infectious diseases. Monkeypox - often caught through handling monkeys - is a rare viral disease that kills around 10 per cent of people it strikes, according to figures (stock) A 40-year-old mother-of-two, from Fleetwood, Lancashire, is thought to have caught the possibly fatal virus while changing bedding at Blackpool Victoria Hospital (above, file photo) 'There is no risk to other patients and visitors and we have robust procedures in place to ensure our patients and staff are protected. In order to maintain patient confidentiality we will not release any further information.' DIDN'T THEY WARN IT COULD BE SPREAD THROUGH BEDDING? Health chiefs issued an urgent monkeypox warning earlier this month telling doctors and nurses to avoid touching suspected cases with their bare hands. Public Health England (PHE) gave out the official guidance after the second patient was struck down with the killer virus in the UK. Officials revealed monkeypox can be spread through contact with clothing or linen, such as bedding or towels, used by an infected person. They said medics must wear gloves when touching patients who could be infected and practise good hand hygiene because the disease can spread between people via a rash which develops into skin lesions which later scab and fall off. PHE released the guidance in a document called 'Monkeypox: information for primary care'. Advertisement William Thirtle, from Newcastle, was being treated at the RVI for a problem with his eyesight. The 53-year-old labourer said: 'You aren't going to want to come in to here when all you hear on the news is about this deadly and contagious disease that's here. 'I know that the woman concerned is in isolation, but who has she been in contact with? 'She contracted it because she is a nurse - so how do you know her patients she treated before she was diagnosed haven't contracted it.' He added: 'It's worrying because these are vulnerable people. It's just awful. I am diabetic, but am here today for a problem with my eyesight. 'I wasn't sure about coming, but I thought I'd rather come and risk it than lose my eyesight. 'I have to come back here in two weeks, but if things haven't died down by then I might have to go elsewhere.' PHE said it was following up with close contacts of the new patient to provide advice and monitor their health. The medical professional is now being treated by doctors in the specialist unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle (pictured) The viral disease was recorded for the first time in the UK on September 7 in a Nigerian national staying at a naval base in Cornwall. The patient was transferred to the expert infectious disease unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London the following day. WHAT IS THE PROTOCOL AT BLACKPOOL VICTORIA HOSPITAL? A practice nurse whose colleague contracted monkeypox from a patient said the hospital have specific procedures for dealing with sufferers of infectious disease. The nurse, who wished to remain anonymous, said a patient with an infectious disease would usually be moved to a separate ward in Blackpool Victoria Hospital to be isolated. The nurse said: 'Usual procedure with a patient you believe doesn't have an infectious disease, you would give them some water or coffee without wearing any gloves. 'In the case [of someone who has an infection], that person would be on [a separate ward] to prevent the infection. They would be in a side room, isolated with double doors so when you open one, the one behind you closes and locks. That would be usual for an infected patient. 'When we know or there is a query of an infectious disease the person goes to that separate ward.' 'It is a small ward with only around eight side rooms. In case we can't do that, the patient gets transferred to another ward with a side room. 'The patient would have a trolley which tells [the nurse] whether they have an infection. The nurse would wear a different apron to other nurses, it is yellow [if they have been infected].' The nurse said staff within the hospital have spoken about their concerns this morning [Sep 27] after reading about the case in the media. He added: 'People have spoken about it [within the hospital]. For the policies of the hospital we are very concentrated and focused on being careful. ' Advertisement A second person was then confirmed to have been struck down with the virus on September 11. The unidentified patient first went to Blackpool Victoria Hospital with symptoms, before they tested positive for monkeypox. They were then sent for treatment at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, a specialist centre. Officials believe both the first two patients caught the virus, often spread through handling monkeys and proves fatal in 10 per cent of cases, in Nigeria before flying to England. Nigeria was hit hard by a virulent outbreak of monkeypox last September, with 89 people infected and six deaths recorded in March. The country had not previously reported a case of the disease since 1978. The most recent government figures, released last year, estimate there are 190,000 people that were born in Nigeria who currently live in the UK. Monkeypox is a rare viral infection that was first discovered in monkeys in 1958. While similar to smallpox, it is not as deadly. The first case in a human was discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, and since cases have been reported in central and west African countries. Initial symptoms include fever, headache and chills. As the illness develops large welts can appear over the face and body. Monkeypox resides in wild animals but humans can catch it through direct contact with animals, such as handling monkeys, or eating inadequately cooked meat. It can pass between humans via droplets in the air, and by touching the skin of an infected individual, or touching objects contaminated by them. Most people who contract the disease recover within a few weeks, but in up to 10 per cent of cases it is fatal. The virus was recorded for the first time in the UK on Friday, September 7 in a Nigerian national staying in Cornwall, who is now being treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London (pictured) It comes after an eminent virologist earlier this month told MailOnline monkeypox infects 10 per cent of people who come into contact with sufferers. Professor Earl Brown, at the University of Ottawa, said hospital staff treating the patient at are particularly at risk of catching the deadly virus. Thirty-seven people were confirmed to have been struck down by monkeypox in an outbreak in the US in 2003. It was the first time the disease, which had been confirmed in five states, had been reported in humans outside of Africa. Monkeypox was two years ago named as one of 37 viruses that pose a potential threat to populations around the world. University of Edinburgh listed the virus among MERS and two strains of Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever responsible for a brutal pandemic in 2014. Pregnant women should be told about the risks of placenta complications after a C-section, leading doctors have urged. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) guidelines warned it was vital to diagnose placenta praevia and placenta accreta early. Both conditions - which have affected Kim Kardashian and Amanda Holden - can cause heavy bleeding towards the end of pregnancy, or during or after birth. The RCOG is calling for more scans and specialist care to reduce any risks and for doctors to discuss the safest way to give birth with expectant mothers under new guidelines. Placenta complications are on the rise and are set to continue to increase as more women opt for caesareans, use IVF or have children older, the RCOG said. TV personality Kim Kardashian, who is married to Kanye West, discovered she was suffering from placenta accreta after giving birth to her daughter North West in 2013. This can cause severe bleeding. Kim is pictured at the Costume Institute Gala in New York in May this year The new guidelines recommend that women must be informed of this risk when discussing the benefits and risks of a caesarean birth. Reality TV star Kim K, married to the rapper Kanye West, discovered she was suffering from placenta accreta after giving birth to her daughter North West in 2013. Placenta accreta is a rare but serious condition that occurs when the placenta attaches itself too deeply into the wall of the uterus. It may then remain attached after birth, leading to severe bleeding. And Britain's Got Talent judge Holden nearly died after losing several pints of blood due to placenta praevia-accreta while having her youngest daughter Hollie in 2012. Praevia-accreta occurs when the placenta lies in the lower part of the womb and partially, or completely, covers the uterus. The disorders often occur as a result of C-sections and IVF causing scars to form in the uterus. They are also more common in women over 35. Future pregnancies are then more likely to implant in the scar, leading to a greater risk of complications. Placenta abnormalities are checked for during a woman's 20-week scan. In nine out of 10 cases, a low-lying placenta - placenta praevia - resolves itself by the follow-up scan. They are confirmed via a transvaginal ultrasound, which is safe for the both the woman and her baby. If it is detected, a woman will have the opportunity to discuss her birthing options with her healthcare professional. A caesarean is usually the safest way to give birth, but this will depend on her individual circumstances. Ultrasound scans are also 95 per cent accurate in spotting placenta accreta, which occurs in between one in 300 and one in 2,000 pregnancies. If it spotted before birth, a specialist obstetrician will discuss all the birthing options and the extra care that will be needed. It may be planned for a woman to give birth early, between 35 and 37 weeks of pregnancy, depending on individual circumstances. A third condition, known as vasa praevia, occurs when blood vessels from the baby to the placenta pass near to the cervix and can tear during labour or when a woman's waters break. This is very dangerous as the blood lost comes from the baby. Risk factors for vasa praevia include a low-lying placenta, a multiple pregnancy, or if the placenta or umbilical cord develops in an unusual way. It may be possible to diagnose with ultrasound imaging at the 20-week scan. If confirmed, a woman should be offered a planned caesarean at around 34-36 weeks. If suspected during labour or when a woman's waters break, an emergency caesarean is usually recommended. Dr Geeta Kumar, chair of the RCOG patient information committee, said: 'It is important for women to be aware of these complications of the placenta, but they should be reassured that these are very rare and specialist care is available. 'Early diagnosis is key to reduce harms associated with placenta praevia and accreta to ensure the safest possible outcome for mother and baby.' Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden nearly died after losing several pints of blood due to placenta praevia-accreta while having her youngest daughter Hollie in 2012. Amanda is pictured at the Pride of Britain awards in London last year WHAT COMPLICATIONS DID KIM KARDASHIAN SUFFER DURING HER PREGNANCIES? While pregnant with her eldest daughter North West in 2012-to-2013, Kim Kardashian developed pre-eclampsia. This affects around one in 20 pregnancies and reduces the flow of blood through the placenta. As a result, a baby does not get the nutrients and oxygen it needs to develop properly. To prevent complications that would affect both her and her unborn child, the then 32-year-old Kim was induced six weeks early. Immediately afterwards, doctors discovered she was suffering from the life-threatening condition placenta accreta. This occurs when the placenta attaches itself too deeply into the wall of the uterus. It may then remain attached after birth, leading to severe bleeding. Writing in a blog, she said: 'My doctor had to stick his entire arm in me and detach the placenta with his hand, scraping it away from my uterus with his fingernails. 'They say this is what some women died from as a result of childbirth back in the day, without proper care.' After giving birth, Kim was forced to have two surgeries to remove scar tissue so she could conceive again. Advertisement Professor Eric Jauniaux, lead author of the guidelines and consultant obstetrician and senior lecturer at University College London, said: 'We hope this updated guidance will support healthcare professionals during discussions with women and their partners who may be considering assisted reproduction, particularly IVF, or an elective caesarean birth. 'These are both risk factors that can increase risk of developing these serious complications of the placenta. 'Guidelines should also help clinicians diagnose these potential complications early, and to discuss with women the safest possible ways to give birth and the advantages and disadvantages associated with each approach to ensure the best possible outcomes and to ensure personalised care.' The placenta is an organ that attaches to the lining of a woman's uterus during pregnancy. It passes oxygen and nutrients from a woman's blood to her unborn baby. Waste products from the baby, such as carbon dioxide, pass through the umbilical cord to the placenta for the woman to dispose of. The placenta also produces hormones that help a baby to develop. In addition, the organ acts as a barrier against most bacteria, but not viruses. If heavy bleeding occurs after delivery, it can prevent blood from clotting normally. This can lead to life-threatening lung and kidney failure. A blood transfusion and hysterectomy may be required. Amanda Holden was 40 when she gave birth to her youngest daughter Hollie Rose Hughes on 23 January 2012. Following severe vaginal bleeding, she spent three days in a critical condition in an intensive care unit. A close friend told the Daily Mail: 'Amanda nearly died. It was a life-threatening situation. There was a huge loss of blood.' Figures released in November revealed more C-sections occurred in the UK last year than since records began in the 1980s. Doctors used a laser to remove electrical wire that had knotted in an 18-year-old's bladder after he shoved it up his urethra to arouse himself. The unnamed teenager, from Uttar Pradesh in India, was in pain and struggled to urinate - but did not confess to urologists the reason behind his agony. Quick-thinking medics delved into his medical history and found it wasn't his first time putting strange objects into his urethra, the case report revealed. As such, they assumed he had placed another object into his urethra and conducted scans, which showed an electrical wire tangled in his bladder. Urologists, who were forced to use a laser to break the wire up into smaller pieces to pull out of his urethra, did not reveal how long it was. Medics conducted scans, which showed an electrical wire tangled in the 18-year-old's bladder (a radiograph shows the knotted wire in his bladder) The bizarre tale, revealed in a prestigious medical journal, did not explain what other objects the man had placed in his urethra in the past. Writing in the BMJ Case Reports, medics in Lucknow said the man used the wire for 'eroticism' for his sexual desire. They added: 'It was managed by endoscopic removal following fragmentation of wire under local anaesthesia using holmium laser.' The teenager sought medical help after he found it painful to urinate and had pain in his bladder region. Upon questioning, it was revealed the pain had started after he placed the electric wire in his urethra for sexual gratification. X-rays conducted by the team at King George's Medical University showed a coiled electric wire in his bladder. Urologists, who were forced to use a laser to break the wire up into smaller pieces to pull out of his urethra, did not reveal how long it was MAN NEEDED SHOWER HEAD REMOVED FROM HIS RECTUM The strange case comes after a man needed a shower head removed from his body, after it had been pushed six inches into his rectum, it was reported in May. The 26-year-old man told doctors that he fell on the hand held shower head while in the shower, according to a BMJ case study. However, the doctors, from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in New Delhi, say in the report that they felt 'high suspicion' that the object was actually put there for 'auto-erotic purposes'. The man went to hospital having detached the shower head along with some of the piping, after discovering he couldn't remove it at home. Advertisement It is thought the wire reached his bladder because of the contractions whenever he tried to urinate, curling it up and pushing it deeper. Urologists, led by Dr Ajay Aggarwal, claimed the boy had no psychiatric illness as an evaluation proved 'unremarkable'. Surgeons first tried to pull the wire back out of his urethra through a cystoscopy - a procedure to look inside the bladder using a thin camera - but were unable to because it knotted in his bladder. The team resorted to breaking down the electrical wire by shining a powerful laser at it, attached onto a thin wire pushed down his urethra. Holmium lasers, such as the one used in this procedure, are a weapon of choice for urologists tackling enlarged prostates. But the new case proves the laser is also an 'efficient and powerful tool' for breaking down materials and removing them endoscopically. The operation proved to be a success and the teenager was discharged 24 hours after the procedure. It is not the first time MailOnline has reported on bizarre objects that have been removed from a patient's bladder. In March, an unnamed man in his 30s, from Taiwan, had an eight-inch sex toy pulled out after pushing it into his penis. He was admitted to hospital in south-western Taiwan having spent more than two days with the plastic object lodged inside him. American teenagers experimenting with weed aren't just smoking it any more - they're also eating and vaping the drug, a new study reveals. Marijuana and vaping have surpassed cigarettes as the favorite way to 'smoke' for young people. As cannabis has become legal in more states, it has become a bigger business, expanding into products like tasty edibles and flavorless e-liquids that make marijuana more appealing and easier to hide for teenagers. These approachable forms may even draw young people to the drug at even earlier ages, endangering their brain development, experts worry. University of Southern California researchers found that of the 34 percent of California (USC) teens that had used marijuana, two-thirds had tried it in multiple forms. Two thirds of American teenagers that use marijuana are using candies (pictured), baked edibles, drinks and sweet vape flavors that experts worry encourage them to start younger 'Marijuana has gone mainstream,' says lead study author Dr Adam Leventhal, a preventive medicine and psychology professor at USC. As it has been normalized, 'there's been a shift in teens' perception. Legalization and commercialization of cannabis are fostering the perception that this drug is not harmful,' he adds. It's easy to imagine a PSA about smoking marijuana: a high school student examines a joint before a friend helps him light it. He takes a first drag and is instantly thrown into a coughing fit, grasping his chest and squeezing his watering eyes shut. It doesn't look like the drug is doing him much good. Now, imagine instead a chocolate brownie that looks like any other. Experts worry that marijuana products like sweet edibles will make teenagers take up cannabis earlier, believing the drug as harmless as baked goods look. Nationwide, about a quarter of high school seniors reported using marijuana in 2017, a slight increase from 2016-use. About four million teenagers overall across the US say they have vaped cannabis. The latest research, published in JAMA Network Open, examines how the wealth of ways to get a 'high' are changing teenage habits. The USC researchers surveyed nearly 3,200 tenth grade students in and around Los Angeles about whether they had ever smoked, vaped, eaten or drunk cannabis. Unsurprisingly rates of sophomore cannabis use were somewhat higher in California, where the drug has been legal for medical use since 1996 and for adults' recreational use since the start of this year. There, a third of tenth-graders said they had used cannabis, compared to a quarter of students two years ahead in school across the rest of the country. Smoking cannabis remains the most popular way to use it, but 61.7 percent said they had tried multiple forms. A small but not insignificant contingent of the students had never smoked weed - but had eaten it. Nearly eight percent of the students said they had only ever had edibles. 'A key question is whether a new pool of teens who've traditionally been at lower risk for smoking marijuana have been drawn to using the drug in these alternative non-smoked forms,' says Dr Levanthal. His research was based on surveys distributed to teens in 2015 - three years before the 2018 legalization of recreational cannabis in the state. It remains to be seen if that edible marijuana contingent of teens has grown since - but the number of older friends, parents and relatives with access to the the drug in all its forms certainly has since Dr Leventhal's survey went out. Less than 60 percent of children in the US got the flu shot last year, down by 1.1 percent from the year before, the US Surgeon General warned yesterday. That falls far below the 80 percent vaccination rate that the government urges could give children, who are especially susceptible to the flu, so-called herd immunity. Last flu season was the deadliest in 40 years, killing 80,000 people, including 180 children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that as much as two thirds of those children would have lived - if they had gotten vaccinated. On Thursday, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams urged Americans to get their shots, and especially to get kids over six months old vaccinated as this year's flu season begins. Last year, 180 children died of flu, and the Surgeon General warned on Thursday that these deaths were largely preventable - if vaccination rates hadn't been 20% short Every year, the flu makes its way around the world. Every year, health officials plead with the public to get vaccinated. And every year, some fraction of the population fails to do so. Consistently, these people make up the majority of the death toll when the final tally is made. Granted, the flu shot is not a guarantee that you won't get the virus. In fact, last year's was far from it; the shot was about 40 percent effective overall, and only 25 percent effective against the dominant A (H3N2) strain. The vaccine is actually more effective in children than it is in any other population, however. And their immunity is the foundation of 'herd immunity,' according to Mayo Clinic pediatrician and vaccine expert Dr Robert Jacobson. 'It turns out that school-age children are the people that start the flu outbreaks in the community,' he says. 'Frankly, vaccinating school-age children will drastically reduce the disease burden, because this is herd immunity and [effectively] vaccinates those who are too young or too elderly for the shot to work, or who have immunodeficiencies.' This is why the surgeon general called vaccination a 'social responsibility.' And of course, it protects the children themselves, for whom the flu can more easily become more severe. Last year, the majority of those that died were not vaccinated. Dr Jacobson says that 100 percent of the population over six month old should be vaccinated against the virus, and that doctors, nurses and public health officials need to make some simple changes to undo misconceptions that stand in the way of vaccination. He says there are four key reasons that families fail to get the flu shot: they don't realize it's (strongly) doctor-recommended, they are not reminded year-round to get it, the shot isn't offered in enough workplaces and schools, and because doctors too often require an appointment and full exam before they will give the shot. 'We're not taking advantage of these things that we know would improve delivery,' says Dr Jacobson. 'Until we do something dramatic, we're going to continue to have this lack of improvement and slips' in vaccination rates, he adds. Parents have additional arguments or concerns about vaccinating their children. 'The first "concern" that I hear is that their kids don't get the flu, their family is naturally immune to it,' says Dr Jacobson. 'That's a misconception.' He says that these family members may have never been diagnosed with the flu due to the relative efficiency of simply ruling out other illnesses compared to the high monetary cost of administering a flu test (and doctors would likely prescribe the same bed rest and fluids as they do for many other viral illnesses). 'Others think the vaccine makes them' - or their children - 'sick, which is a very common misconception,' says Dr Jacobson, citing a study of 'hundreds of veterans' conducted in Minnesota which he says thoroughly debunked that myth. In the experiment, a small fraction of participants said that they got sick after the shot, and that it was the worst illness they'd had in their life. They all reported the same symptoms, but not all of them had gotten the real shot. Participants who got a placebo felt just as bad, and the only difference was that the ones who had real shots were slightly red around the injection shot. 'In their minds, everything that happened to them in the next week is due to the vaccine, and that's because it's the only thing out of the ordinary that they did that week,' says Dr Jacobson. 'It's been demonstrated over and over again.' There is nothing to lose from getting the shot, and thousands of lives to be saved. 'Our recommendation is that every child and every adult gets vaccinated every year,' says Dr Jacobson. Whole Foods has recalled a range of tortilla chips over 'undeclared milk' after a packaging error led to other snacks being mixed into the same bag. The chips, 365 Everyday Value White Corn Tortilla Chips, were sold across the United States and Canada. But the company has issued an immediate recall after a customer got in touch, saying their pack contained other snacks, not just tortilla chips. On further inspection, investigators found the rogue extra snacks contain dairy. Customers with 365 Everyday Value White Corn Tortilla Chips dated best before Jan 24-25, 2019 are eligible for a full refund of $2.99 Since dairy is one of the eight food groups responsible for the most allergic reactions in the US and Canada, manufacturers are required to specify even traces of the stuff. Though the packaging already warns readers that it was 'produced in a facility that processes milk', that is not strong enough to warn customers of a significant risk of contamination. 'People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume this product,' the FDA said, announcing the voluntary recall this week. The 20-ounce bags have best-by dates of January 24 or January 25, 2019. They feature the UPC code 9948247145. Anyone who purchased a pack is eligible for a full refund of $2.99. UNDER THE WIRE by Paul Conroy (Quercus 9.99, 336 pp) UNDER THE WIRE by Paul Conroy (Quercus 9.99, 336 pp) On February 22, 2012, the Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin was killed, together with the French photographer, Remi Ochlik, when the building where they were sheltering from conflict in the Syrian city of Homs was shelled by the Syrian Army. Colvins colleague, the photographer Paul Conroy, was also badly injured in the attack. Under The Wire is Conroys unforgettable account of how he and Colvin made their way into Homs to report on the horrors unleashed there by the deliberate bombing of civilian targets. The pair had formed a close friendship inspired by a love of sailing, whisky and black humour. His account of their work in Syria, telling the world of the tragedy of Homs and his eventual escape, is a gripping depiction of courage amid the carnage. PAUL O'GRADY'S COUNTRY LIFE by Paul OGrady (Corgi 8.99, 352 pp) PAUL O'GRADY'S COUNTRY LIFE by Paul OGrady (Corgi 8.99, 352 pp) Catching an escaped pig, driving a cow out of the kitchen, dealing with killer sheep its all part of rural living... Best thing I ever did, moving down here. Paul OGrady is a self-described city rat turned country mouse and, I believe, all the better for it. As a child growing up in Birkenhead, he had a taste of country life on his uncles farm in Ireland, so later, when his friend and manager, Murphy, rang to say hed found the perfect rural retreat in Kent, Paul bought it, sight unseen. This endearing and funny book describes the perils and pleasures of country living, with anecdotes about aggressive geese and psychotic cows and recipes for everything from herbal remedies to cheese scones. PATIENT H69 by Vanessa Potter (Bloomsbury 9.99, 272 pp) PATIENT H69 by Vanessa Potter (Bloomsbury 9.99, 272 pp) In the autumn of 2012, everything in Vanessa Potters life seemed fine. She was happily married, with two young children and a busy career as a media producer. But one morning, she awoke to find everything dark and hazy as though she were wearing a pair of sunglasses. By the following morning, 90 per cent of her sight had gone. But after endless medical tests, there was still no answer to the question: What is wrong with me? A week later, her sight began slowly to return though with the colour disturbingly drained from everything she saw. It turned out that she was suffering from Devics disease, an extremely rare autoimmune disorder. Her vivid and inspiring memoir describes how her experience moved her life in a new direction, and explores the science behind her condition. ... are you reading now? Max Hastingss Vietnam. I was longing to read it as I had heard from American historians that he was researching it like a man possessed: it was part of his youth as a young war correspondent flying in Huey helicopters over the rice paddies. Thank goodness it really is the great work of history we had all expected. Hastings takes the story back to the disastrous French determination to seize back their Indochinese colony at the end of World War II. The British, French and Dutch colonies in Asia had been humiliated by the Japanese conquest of their territories. This provoked a new sense of nationalism and every foreign occupation of Indochina was resisted, first by the Viet Minh, and later by its successor, the Viet Cong. U.S. politicians and commanders were no more clear-sighted and equally inflexible. And the greatest victims were, of course, the Vietnamese crushed in the middle. Historian Antony Beevor (pictured) revealed that he's currently reading Max Hastingss Vietnam. He also shared the book that he would take to a desert island ... would you take to a desert island? Whatever I chose on Desert Island Discs, I now know I should have gone entirely for high-quality comfort reading. Having suddenly remembered how I cowered under the bedclothes in a South Atlantic winter nearly 30 years ago listening to Pride And Prejudice, I finally realise it would also be the perfect escape from the boredom of a Pacific atoll. The joy of Lady Catherine de Bourghs crashing tumbrilisms being turned against her, of Wickhams perfidy uncovered and the gradual revelation that Darcy is a good sort after all never ceases to revive ones faith in human nature. ... gave you the reading bug? C. S. Foresters The Happy Return. Not only did I return to it happily for early teenage comfort reading, but I attempted to work through the whole of Hornblowers career from start to finish. I am not sure I would have been gripped at that age by the Jack Aubrey novels of Patrick OBrian. They would have been a bit too sophisticated for me then, and they never appealed to me quite as much later because Aubrey was so confident. What I liked about Horatio Hornblower as a character was his self-doubt and surprising weaknesses, such as his seasickness and social unease. I have always been grateful for the pleasure it triggered. ... left you cold? Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights. I hated the place, I hated the shouting and over-the-top emotions, in fact, I felt no sympathy for any of the characters. I also hated the bleak and windswept countryside, which was even worse than Thomas Hardys Egdon Heath, and that really is saying something. All in all, the book struck me as tragi-porn, and the product of an obsessive and very unhappy mind, which is perhaps no surprise when reading of the Brontes family life. Antony Beevor will be discussing Arnhem: The Battle For The Bridges, 1944, at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on October 6. Want to know which car is the best to pull (a caravan) in? According to an expert panel, it's a Volvo. The Swedish brand's XC60 SUV - which already has a mantle full of 2018 trophies, including the UK and World Car of the Years awards - has now been named Towcar of the Year for 2019 by Caravan and Motorhome Club after rigorous tests proved it has unparalleled hauling credentials. The Scandinavian manufacturer - which is owned by a Chinese firm Geely - dominated the honours list at this year's caravaning Oscars. Of eight categories in total, the XC60 won two gongs as well as the outright prize. Best puller: The Volvo XC60 has been named Towcar of the Year 2019 by the Caravan and Motorhome Club, which has over 1m UK members These are the motoring awards caravanners eagerly wait for every year - and it's the 36th edition of the industry's major towing honours. In total 35 vehicles were put through their paces at the Millbrook Proving Ground near Bedford in what is undoubtedly the most painstaking towcar test on the planet. Each car was subjected to assessments by three separate departments - technical, driving and one called 'caravanability' - in what is unquestionably the most painstaking of tow car reviews. Once the technical team had checked each model for space and features, the cars were handed to the caravanability judges who wanted to see they could all swallow all the necessary - but bulky - essentials for a camping trip into the boot. This group of eagle-eyed inspectors also took measurements of the towbar height, both when the car was without caravan and then with one hitched, to check it matched the information provided in the owner's handbook. Those who failed to adhere to the manual's stats were docked points. Finally the 35 vehicles were put through a demanding performance review. With each car connected to a caravan, they were timed against the clock to measure acceleration and braking before heading out onto the same Alpine route circuit that was being used by Mercedes last week to test their 2.5million F1-inspired Project One hypercar. Each of the 35 vehicles reviewed were taken on Millbrook Proving Ground Alpine Route in Bedfordshire to determine which best for handling. The VW Amorak (pictured) was awarded the honour of best pick-up towcar by the organisation With a caravan in tow and a restricted top speed of 55mph - 162mph shy of the Mercedes hypercar's top speed - the analysis team scored each model based on how well it coped on twisting roads. Other real-world assessments were also made, including a hill start on a 17 per cent incline and downhill brake test with a 26 per cent drop. Judges then took each car and caravan onto the high-speed bowl to understand how stable they remained at speeds in excess of 70mph - just to make sure. In an unprecedented move for the awards this year, categories were split into caravan weight categories rather than price of vehicle. This is so that passionate campers could find out which vehicle is best for their own mobile homes. Caravan and Motorhome Club Towcar of the Year 2019 winners Caravan Weight Under 1100kg Volkswagen Polo SEL 1.0 TSI 115PS DSG Caravan Weight 1100kg - 1350kg Peugeot 3008 Allure BlueHDi 180 EAT8 Caravan Weight 1350kg - 1500kg Volvo XC40 D4 AWD First Edition Caravan Weight 1500kg - 1700kg Volvo XC60 D5 PowerPulse AWD R-Design Caravan Weight over 1700kg Volkswagen Touareg R-Line Tech 3.0 V6 TDI SCR 4MOTION 286PS Tiptronic Pick-Up Volkswagen Amarok Highline 3.0 V6 TDI 4MOTION 258PS Auto Best Family Towcar - Volvo XC60 D5 PowerPulse AWD R-Design Best Large Family Towcar SKODA Kodiaq Edition 2.0TDI 190PS 4x4 DSG Caravan and Motorhome Club Towcar of the Year 2019 Volvo XC60 D5 PowerPulse AWD R-Design The winners. From left to right: VE Polo, Peugeot 3008, Volvo XC40, Skoda Kodiaq, VW Amorak, VE Touareg, Volvo XC60 It was the 45,000 Volvo XC60 D5 PowerPulse AWD R-Design that came out on top, acing every test and proving the most accomplished puller on the market to date. Weight class winners were bookended by Volkswagen models, with the Polo 1.0-litre petrol taking the flyweight-caravan towing trophy and the Touareg V6 diesel the prime motor for hauling the heaviest of mobile homes. Grenville Chamberlain, Caravan and Motorhome Club chairman, said: 'We are committed to driving forward positive change within the motoring industry and to providing our one million members with relevant information for them to use as they make their next towcar purchase. 'Our congratulations go to all the winners.' Legal & General rarely reveals its voting intentions on major corporate events. Indeed, L&G Investment Management (LGIM) was among the last to vote on predator Melroses 8billion bid for engineer GKN and is widely credited with providing the shares needed for victory. It is a big blow to Unilevers plan to unify its share quotation in Rotterdam that Legal & General has come out against it. Rocked: Unilever boss Paul Polman's plan to unify the firm's share quotation in Rotterdam has been dealt a blow after major shareholder Legal & General came out against it The head of corporate governance at LGIM, Sacha Sadan, says the decision to go early is the result of significant client enquiries. In other words, many investors, including pension funds which would be excluded by mandates from holding shares outside the FTSE 100, dont want to lose Britains third-largest company from the index. There is now almost a full house of UK based long funds including Aviva, M&G Investments, Columbia Threadneedle and Lindsell Train publicly opposing the scheme. One of the few hold-outs is Aberdeen Standard Life, although some of its leading lights are thought to be sceptical. It is more than a little odd that with the battle raging in the UK, and private investors increasingly engaged, that the critical figure in the whole process, chief executive Paul Polman, has been absent from the City. Chairman Marijn Dekkers and the finance director have been doing the talking and singularly failed to impress. Polman has been on the fringes of the United Nations in New York tweeting about almost everything from climate change to poverty in Africa, leaving behind what is the most defining vote in Unilevers history. Polman supports a laudatory social governance agenda but his absence might remind critics of other executives, such as former BP chief executive Tony Hayward, who was yachting on the Solent while oil from the Deepwater Horizon was pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. Unilever says it has had intense engagement with big battalion investors. The dialogue has been hugely unpersuasive for UK funds. Just to add to the muddle there has been a woeful failure to properly and simply address the voting rights of private investors holding their shares on platforms such as Hargreaves Landsdown. That makes a mockery of shareholder democracy. Italian job The populist Italian government headed by Giuseppe Conte could have reason to be grateful to Theresa May and Brexit. Brussels has its hands full making life as difficult as possible for one state leaving the EU without battling with another. Italys new budget, which plans for a deficit of 2.4 per cent of output, might not look a problem. It falls within the 3 per cent deficit guidance for the eurozone. The difficulty is that populist politics have won out over the determination in Brussels that Italy place itself on a path which brings down the deficit year by year. Italys debt-to-GDP ratio, at 130 per cent, is at emergency levels, and the argument that it doesnt matter, because Italian citizens dont mind holding government debt, is wearing thin. Italy also has been the biggest recipient of short-term monetary assistance from the European Central Bank, much to the chagrin of German paymasters. The Italian budget settlement, greeted as a great victory for the Right-wing Five Star Movement, is a threat to Brussels-imposed austerity. By the standards of the euro crisis, the surge in bond yields may not look that desperate. But at 3.23 per cent the yield on ten-year Italian bonds signals trouble. It was enough to send yields on Spanish and Portuguese bonds higher and knock down the euro. The austerity imposed on Greece, and which has produced a backlash in the UK, is politically out of fashion. Within the eurozone, the forces of monetary and fiscal discipline, driven by Frankfurt, are coming up against increasingly noisy anti-establishment forces and the markets are jittery. Circle line Enthusiasm for shares in peer-to-peer online lender Funding Circle quickly faded when it made its debut on the London Stock Exchange. Nevertheless it raised some 440million of new money, much of which it intends to use in extending its reach in North America. Britain is the favoured location for financial technology start-ups, and the LSE is looking to Funding Circle to blaze the trail for more floats. As likely, they will be snapped up by Silicon Valley giants or established banks seeking to enhance lacklustre digital skills. Pity. It has been an eventful six months in the supermarket industry, as the sectors' second and third biggest players proposed a 14billion merger, and the market leader Tesco - launched a new discount chain, Jack's. Earlier this week, Sainsbury's and Asda were in focus after the watchdog flagged 463 locations that raised competition concerns. This brought rise to fears that the supermarkets may have to sell off a large number of stores to rivals before the mega-merger is given the go-ahead and also raised questions over the watchdog's methodology. But Tesco will be back in the spotlight early next week as analysts, investors and the media trawl through the retailer's half-year results and quiz the firm on Jack's. Tesco has opened two branches of Jack's where it strives to have 'the cheapest prices in town' Its first two Jack's stores, in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, and Immingham, north-east Lincolnshire, opened less than a fortnight ago, but markets will be eager to ascertain how these shops are trading so far. Graham Spooner, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, said: 'There has much speculation regarding the group's plans for its new discount outlet, Jack's, and how many stores it will close or convert.' Tesco shares were relatively unmoved when the new strategy was unveiled, perhaps because the supermarket said it only has plans at present for 10-15 Jack's stores. It's a modest number that seems unlikely to make a dent in fast growing discounters Aldi and Lidl. The discounting duo have eaten away at the 'Big Four' grocers - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - and now dominate a 13 per cent share of the overall market. Still, Tesco boss Dave Lewis, may yet have something up his sleeve. Could Jack's, which boasts 8 out 10 products made in the UK and 'the cheapest prices in town', become Tesco's silver bullet if conditions in the sector get even tougher? City analysts also expect Tesco to report an 11th consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales growth. Consensus estimates suggest that, for the first half of the financial year, same store sales will have advanced 3.3 per cent in the UK and Ireland. David McCarthy, an analyst at HSBC, said the results will have been boosted the unusually warm weather over the summer, which have helped supermarkets. Jack's stocks a heavily curated range - just 2,600 items, while some Tesco's have ten times that He said: 'We expect slightly better half one sales than consensus for the UK like-for-like. 'Consensus is implying a second-quarter slowdown in sales, whereas we believe that total sales will prove to be better - helped by the strong summer.' Tesco may also have had a leg up from cash-and-carry operator Booker, which it recently snapped up in a 3.7billion deal. Spooner added: 'Tesco has had 10 consecutive quarters of rising sales and the performance of Booker has been encouraging. 'Fierce price competition and promotions are likely to remain a squeeze on margins for some time; however, the revised strategy is helping move the group and the share price, which hit a four-year high in August, in the right direction.' 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 Unilevers plan to scrap its British legal headquarters has been dealt a serious blow as Legal & General Investment Management its sixth largest shareholder said it would vote against the move. L&G, the UKs biggest asset management firm, is just one in a string of shareholders claiming they will vote against the relocation to Rotterdam. Fellow fund managers Columbia Threadneedle, Lindsell Train, Aviva Investors and M&G have also expressed concerns. Unilever's plan to move its operations to the Netherlands has provoked controversy Unilever, which produces dozens of households name brands, such as Marmite, PG Tips and Dove soap needs the owners of 75 per cent of shares listed in London to back the move. It currently has a duel Anglo-Dutch structure but wants to cut its ties with London and base itself solely in the Netherlands. Legal and General argued that, despite being a shareholder in Unilever for 25 years and being heavily engaged in the relocation, the firm has not made a compelling case. Its director of corporate governance Sacha Sadan said: We do not believe Unilever has made a compelling case for many PLC shareholders to support the recommendation in favour of Dutch incorporation. Therefore, we intend to vote against Unilevers proposed resolution. Unilever makes a number of household names including Marmite, Dove and Flora The knock-back comes as thousands of ordinary shareholders are being denied full voting rights in what is expected to be a knife-edge decision on October 25. In theory, the opinion of an ordinary investor counts for as much as that of an institution such as a pension fund with billions of pounds of stock. But many savers with cash in Unilever hold their shares in so-called nominee accounts through brokers, rather than owning them outright. That makes it difficult for them to vote individually and instead the investment platforms must vote for them as a whole. Unilever has said that giant brokers such as Hargreaves Lansdown will only count as a single shareholder when the votes are counted, even though they look after the stakes of huge numbers of people through nominee accounts. Hargreaves alone has 20,000 Unilever investors on its books enough to swing the vote but this will be ignored when the tally is counted. Gavin Oldham, chairman of fellow broker The Share Centre, has written to Business Secretary Greg Clark to complain about Unilever's treatment of ordinary investors. The Italian stock market has suffered its worst day for two years as investors baulked at the governments plans to ramp up spending and borrow more money. The Milan exchange dropped 4.3 per cent as shareholders launched a selling frenzy over fears the nation will lumber into an economic crisis by racking up huge debts. Italys anti-establishment ruling coalition was recently elected on pledges of a big spending boost, and has now announced it plans to run a budget deficit of 2.4 per cent in 2019. The Milan exchange dropped 4.3 per cent as shareholders launched a selling frenzy over fears the nation will lumber into an economic crisis by racking up huge debts That is a major increase on this years deficit target of 1.6 per cent and has sparked fears the country is preparing to live far beyond its means. The price of government bonds fell sharply, pushing up official borrowing costs, with investors fretting Italy could default on its debt in future. Banks were also hit hard with Unicredit, Italys only globally important lender, dropping 8.4 per cent seeing 2.3billion wiped off its value. It sets the stage for a clash with Brussels over whether the country is breaking European Union rules. Ripples from the sell-off spread out across Europe. A major downturn in Italy would reignite fears over the future of the euro and could trigger a crisis across the bloc. Troubled German lender Deutsche Bank fell 4 per cent in Frankfurt, with investors concerned over its central role in the European economy. French lenders have many customers in Italy and would suffer from a wave of defaults, which saw Credit Agricole drop 4.8 per cent while BNP Paribas was down 4.1 per cent. Professor Costas Milas, at Liverpool Universitys Management School, said: The Italian virus has the potential to spread rapidly in other EU countries, and in particular to France and Portugal because of bank exposure to Italian debt. He added that data from the Bank of International Settlements suggests that Italy accounts for as much as 10.3 per cent of French banks exposure to debt around the world, while Portuguese banks have a 7.8 per cent exposure to Italian debt. Even British lenders were ruffled, despite having very little money in Italy, with the nations debt accounting for just 0.8 per cent of assets. Silvia DallAngelo, senior economist at Hermes Investment Management, said: This is a serious situation. A woman has been buried in Nebraska with British military honors for her secret work cracking the Nazi's Enigma code during World War II. Jean Briggs Watters died on September 15 at the age of 92. She was buried on Monday at the Omaha National Ceremony next to her husband of 72 years, John Watters, who died in June at the age of 101. Watters, who was British, enlisted in the Women's Royal Naval Service when she was 18 and worked on a top secret Enigma codebreaking team tasked with cracking German communication codes throughout the war. Watters was among about 10,000 people, mostly women, who took part in secret program led by Alan Turing, who was the subject of the 2014 Oscar-winning film The Imitation Game. Jean Briggs Watters, pictured on the right with her husband, secretly worked for the British military as a Nazi Enigma codebreaker Watters was buried with British military honors in a ceremony on Monday. Pictured is her coffin draped with the Union flag She operated an electro-mechanical machine known as a bombe, to decipher signals the German armed forces sent out from its Enigma encryption machines. The program at Bletchley Park saved lives and helped bring an end to the war. Watters' family said she kept the secret for 30 years, until it was declassified in 1975. Her son, Peter Watters, told the Daily Express that his father, who served in the war as a a US Army Air Corps pilot, was stunned when he found out what she really did. Peter said Watts had always told friends and family that she was a military driver. 'When she told my father he was stunned,' Peter said. He said, "We've had six kids together, we've traveled the world together - you could have told me!"' Watters met her husband in the war and they married soon after. The couple retired to the US in 1969. Her son Robin Watters (pictured) said his mom kept the military secret for three decades Peter added: 'She had it beaten into her that her wartime codebreaking work was a secret never to be told. She knew lives could be lost if she made a mistake. She recalled one girl who worked alongside her on the Nazi codes who would talk a little too much when she'd had a few drinks. One day the girl was just gone - nobody knew what happened to her.' Even after the information was declassified, Peter said his mother was hesitant to talk about exactly what she did. 'She rarely spoke of her codebreaking work during the war,' he said. 'She'd had it beaten into her for so long that she couldn't talk about it, that even after it was declassified in 1975 she was still reluctant to discuss it. When she did, she spoke most about the pressure she'd been under to keep her secret.' Her son, Robin, added: 'She was fully aware of the gravity of what she was doing. It was haunting to her, what might happen if she made a mistake.' During her funeral service on Monday, British Royal Navy officers gave her a final salute as a bagpiper played Amazing Grace Watters, who had five sons and one daughter, received a medal and a citation from former British prime minister Gordon Brown for her work during the war. Her name is also etched in a commemorative brick at Bletchley Park. 'She had a seriousness, and a sense of duty,' Robin said. 'She was a really special lady. But she was tough. She did the hard things.' During her funeral service on Monday, British Royal Navy officers gave her a final salute as a bagpiper played Amazing Grace. The Union flag was draped over her coffin during her funeral, according to the Omaha World-Herald. 'It was a touching tribute from the homeland she loved,' Peter said. Sofia and Shakeel Khan, of Bolton, decided to terminate her pregnancy due to birth defects. But after the injection she still felt the baby kicking. Midwives didn't believe her, but soon after she gave birth to a baby who only survived for an hour A grieving mother has re-lived the harrowing moment she went into hospital for a termination but instead gave birth to a live, crying, baby who died in her arms. Sofia Khan, 35, had been reassured by doctors that the injection to terminate her pregnancy was 100 per cent effective. But hours later, in a shocking and unique case, she gave birth to a living baby who survived for just one hour. The devastated mother, from Bolton, had made the decision to terminate her pregnancy late on because of congenital birth defects. But during her labour, she became convinced that her baby was moving and kicking but was told by midwives she was imagining it all. A coroner has now instructed UK guidelines to be changed as a direct result of the tragedy. Mrs Khan said: 'It was a difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy and I was swamped with guilt and doubt, but we were told our baby was very disabled and was unlikely to survive. 'After the injection to terminate him, I kept on feeling him move, but the midwife told me it was impossible. I even convinced myself I was imagining it. 'When I gave birth, and I heard him cry, I was in shock. Everyone went into panic. I held him in my arms and I kissed him and told him how much I loved him. They named the baby Mohammed Rehman (feet pictured) and he was given a full funeral 'I can't help thinking that he was born alive because he wanted one cuddle with his mummy. He wanted me to see his face. 'I've been racked with grief and heartbreak since, wondering whether I made the right decision, wondering whether anything else could have been done. 'I think his birth and death were so much more traumatic because I just wasn't prepared for it nobody was. 'I can't help thinking that he was born alive because he wanted one cuddle with his mummy. He wanted me to see his face. Sofia Khan 'Nobody had listened to me when I said I felt him kicking. Nobody believed me. 'And so the shock and the loss I felt were so much more powerful and I don't think that will ever leave me. I think about my little boy every day. 'I hope in future that midwives will listen to mothers. A mother's instinct is so powerful. 'I am glad, despite the heartbreak, that I could spend that time with him. 'And I am pleased too that in future guidelines will be changed to make parents aware. My little boy has made a difference and it will be his lasting legacy.' Mrs Khan says there is a part of her that thinks baby Mohammed (pictured) wanted to meet her - if only for an hour Sofia and her husband Shakeel were thrilled when she fell pregnant with their second son late last year. They already have a son, Mustafa, who is 18-months-old. But a scan at 20 weeks showed the baby was suffering with spina bifida. Sofia says: 'I was devastated. I kept thinking that we would manage and that he could have surgery to help him.' But more tests showed that the baby also had no knee joints and had fluid around his brain. His spina bifida was the worst case consultants had come across and Sofia was told he was unlikely even to survive the pregnancy. She said: 'We were heartbroken, but we made the decision to terminate. We felt it was best for the baby but even so I had moments of doubt and guilt.' At 25 weeks Mrs Khan had an injection into the umbilical cord at St Mary's hospital, Manchester. A coroner has now asked that UK guidelines be changed as a direct result of the traged. Pictured: The Khans hold Mohammed's tiny hand before his death She says: 'The doctors did two scans which confirmed there was no heartbeat. It was a relief to know his suffering was over but heart-breaking that he was gone.' She then was transferred to her local hospital in Bolton to give birth to the foetus. She says: 'My sister in law and my husband took turns to be with me. And as I waited, I felt the baby kick. I told the midwife but she said it was impossible. I asked her to put the monitor on to be sure but she said there was no need.' Ten hours later, she gave birth and was stunned to hear the baby crying. She says: 'I thought I was going mad. I thought I was hearing the cry because that's what I wanted my baby to be alive. Baby Mohammed is buried near the Khans' home in Bolton 'The midwife went into shock, she was screaming for help, she ran with the baby into the corridor. 'They brought him back and said: 'What do you want us to do?' and I didn't know what they meant. I held him and cuddled him and told him how much I loved him. 'he was such a fighter. He had a huge hole in his spine and he was very disabled, and yet he hung on to life for an hour. 'I can't help thinking that he was determined to have one cuddle with his mummy.' The baby, Mohammed Rehman, was given a full funeral and is buried near the Khans' home in Bolton. Mrs Khan said: 'I am still grieving. I think of him every day. But I have my older son to keep me strong and he makes me smile. The Khans have another son, Mustafa, who is 18-months-old. 'I am glad that new guidelines are being drawn up as a result of this. And I hope also in future that midwives will learn to listen to mothers. A maternal instinct is very powerful.' An inquest into Mohammed Rehman's death was held in July. Sofia's doctor told assistant coroner Simon Nelson: 'I was extremely shocked to hear what had happened ... I was stunned as the procedure had gone exactly how we like the procedure to go, very smoothly.' He added that new guidance has now been drawn up following Mohammed's death which includes listening for a heartbeat for longer. Miss Grundy, who delivered Mohammed, said he had come quickly and described how she was trying to prepare the room, not expecting the baby to be born alive. She then was transferred to her local hospital in Bolton to give birth to the foetus She added that after Mohammed was born crying and moving she quickly prepared the area for a live birth and called for assistance. Mrs Khan then held Mohammed until he died. Mr Nelson recorded a conclusion of death by natural causes. He stated that Mohammed's death was due to extreme prematurity brought about by compassionate termination of pregnancy, with a secondary cause of congenital malformations. Mr Nelson praised Mrs Khan's strength and dignity throughout the proceedings and said: 'This has been one of the most sensitive of inquests I have ever had to preside over in 20 years.' The baby, Mohammed Rehman, was given a full funeral and is buried near the Khans' home in Bolton Neonatal consultant Dr Dinakar Seshadri, who had been called in after Mohammed was born said, in view of the serious difficulties the baby had, his parents had been correct to opt for termination. 'At the time it was a brave decision and I believe it was the right decision they took,' he told the coroner. Mr Nelson has also decided to write to the Department for Health and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in order to share the new guidance drawn up at St Mary's Hospital. His other vile quotes include 'Jews run this world by proxy' and 'Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively' In 2012, Dr Mohamad said that he was 'glad to be labelled anti-Semitic' because Jews have the same 'cruelty and hard-heartedness' as Nazis The prime minister of Malaysia is being feted on a tour of Britain despite the fact that he is a self-confessed anti-Semite who has railed against 'hook-nosed' Jews, MailOnline can reveal. Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, 93, who was elected as prime minister for a second time in May, has visited Imperial College London and given a speech at Oxford University. In 2012, Dr Mohamad said that he was 'glad to be labelled anti-Semitic' because Jews have the same 'cruelty and hard-heartedness' as Nazis. His other vile quotes include 'Jews run this world by proxy' and 'Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively'. Malaysia's Prime Minister Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, is being feted on a tour of Britain despite the fact that he is a self-confessed anti-Semite who has railed against 'hook-nosed' Jews Dr Mohamad, elected as prime minister for a second time in May, has visited Imperial College London and given a speech at Oxford University At a conference in 2010, he said: 'Even after their massacre by the Nazis in Germany, [Jews] survived to be a source of even greater problems to the world.' The Malaysian PM writes an active blog, in English and in Malaysian, on which he has written views on the Middle East and Jewish people. The anti-Semite's whistle-stop tour of Britain kicked off on Monday with a visit to Imperial College, where he was welcomed by the Provost, Professor Ian Walmsley, and Vice President Professor Maggie Dallman. The firebrand was then treated to a presentation by two fourth-year engineering students who showed off inventions such as a chess robot and skin for androids. At no point was the Malaysian leader apparently confronted about his multiple inflammatory comments about Jews. He then made his way to Oxford, where he gave a speech entitled 'The Challenge of Good Governance in the Muslim World' at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Next week, the controversial leader is due to return to Britain to give a speech at the distinguished think tank Chatham House. A spokesman for the organisation said: 'Chatham House provides a neutral convening environment. Attendance of a speaker does not imply endorsement. 'A key condition of anyone speaking here is that speakers must participate in open Q&A. 'As such, a speaker's expressed views can be subjected to rigorous scrutiny and held to account in an on-the-record forum where media are also invited to ask questions.' In 2012, Dr Mohamad (pictured at Bloomberg's Global Business Forum) said he was 'glad to be labelled anti-Semitic' because Jews have the same 'cruelty and hard-heartedness' as Nazis Gideon Falter, chairman of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: 'It is utterly appalling that at a time when antisemitism is so raw, a man who is proud to be an antisemite is being courted. 'It is equally unforgivable that he was invited to tour our most prominent educational institutions and share his opinions with students. 'Those who have extended the red carpet treatment to this abhorrent racist and self-confessed antisemite must apologise. 'We are looking into whether universities may have breached their own codes on racist speakers.' Imperial College London and the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies did not respond to requests for comment. Nonagenarian Dr Mohamad served as Malaysia's prime minister between 1981 and 2003, and was re-elected for another term this year. The son of a schoolmaster qualified as a doctor before turning to politics in 1964. His anti-Semitism was evident from the start. In 1970, he wrote: 'The Jews are not only hooked-nosed but understand money instinctively. 'Jewish stinginess and financial wizardry gained them the economic control of Europe and provoked anti-Semitism which waxed and waned throughout Europe through the ages.' In 1984, he cancelled a visit by the New York Philharmonic orchestra because it was intending to play music by a Jewish composer. Two years later, he accused 'Zionists' and Jews of trying to subvert Malaysia through allegedly Jewish-controlled media, before banning the Asia Wall Street Journal, claiming it was 'Jewish owned'. His anti-Semitism first came to international attention when he gave a major speech attacking Jews days before he retired as prime minister in 2003. Dr Mohamed's UK tour began on Monday with a visit to Imperial College, where he was met by the Provost, Professor Ian Walmsley, and Vice President Professor Maggie Dallman 'The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million,' he said. 'But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.' He later retired from public life but continued to make anti-Semitic comments. At a 2010 conference, he said: 'Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had been confined in ghettos and periodically massacred. 'But they still remained and still thrived and held whole governments to ransom. 'Even after their massacre by the Nazis in Germany, they survived to be a source of even greater problems to the world.' The Malaysian grandee made a surprise announcement in January that he would seek re-election despite his age. In one of the biggest political upsets to rock the country in recent times, he won with a narrow majority with his coalition seizing 122 seats out of a total 222. Rose McGowan has apologized for claiming Asia Argento had been receiving nude pictures from former child actor, Jimmy Bennett, since he was just 12 years old. Earlier this week Argento, 43, spoke exclusively to DailyMail TV to tell how McGowans false allegations had destroyed their friendship, ruined her life and left her reputation in tatters. McGowan, 45, spoke out in the wake of Bennetts allegation that Argento had sexually assaulted him in a California hotel room when he was 17 and she was 37. But in a dramatic about face, McGowan has admitted: On 27 August I released a statement about Asia Argento, which I now realized contained a number of facts that were not correct. Rose McGowan says she was sorry for claiming Asia Argento had been receiving nude pictures from Jimmy Bennett since he was 12 years old Responding to Rose McGowan's apology,Asia Argento (pictured) told DailyMail.com: 'The shame of falsely being labeled a pedophile has caused unbearable distress' The most serious of these was that I said that the unsolicited nude text messages Asia received from Jimmy Bennett had been sent since Jimmy was 12 years old. In fact, I had misunderstood the messages that Asia exchanged with my partner Rain Dove, which made clear that Jimmy had sent Asia inappropriate text messages only after they met up again when he was 17 She went onto say, I deeply regret not correcting my mistake sooner and apologize to Asia for not doing so. But if she hopes that her apology will bring to an end her feud with Argento she will be disappointed. In a statement shared exclusively with DailyMail.com Argento has responded, Although I appreciate the apology and the retraction, the shame of falsely being labeled a pedophile has caused unbearable distress. The consequences have led to me losing my job on X-factor Italy as well as other work opportunities and has had an unspeakable impact on my two young children. ROSE MCGOWAN'S APOLOGY Advertisement Jimmy Bennett (left) first wrote a letter to Asia Argento (right), threatening to make public a sexual encounter between them that took place in California when he was 17 and she was 37. The legal age of consent is 18 in California. Giving his first TV interview to an Italian television station, Jimmy Bennett (pictured) was ridiculed for claiming he was sexually assaulted by a woman Argento dated Anthony Bourdain for two years before his suicide in June - an event that plunged her into an abyss of grief and from which she is still struggling to recover. McGowans treachery cut all the deeper, she told DailyMail TV, because it came at her darkest hour. Now, reacting to McGowans apology, she continued, Ive endured all of this headache while still mourning the loss of my beloved partner Anthony Bourdain. It has almost destroyed me. I needed to take legal action because I want my name cleared. I still dont understand why Rose couldnt have done the right thing and retracted earlier when she knew she was just repeating the lies of her partner Rain Dove. Last week Dove, 28, retracted her statements but McGowan doubled down on her own, riding out the deadline laid down by Argento after which she vowed to take legal action. Rain Dove (left), 28 retracted her statements last week but Rose McGowan (right) refused to admit she was mistaken until today Now Argento is viewing McGowans apology as too little too late. Argento said, The matter is far from over. I am currently seeking advice over criminal proceedings against Rain Dove for deception for financial gain. Earlier this week Argento broke her silence to DailyMail TV to speak of her rift from McGowan, the fellow MeToo activist whom she once considered a 'sister'. And she also revealed she was told by McGowan's partner Rain Dove that Anthony Bourdain died with a prostitute after injecting heroin through his neck - and was presented with what Dove told her were her lover's ashes. The actress spoke of her ordeal of being accused of driving him to suicide by cheating on him, revealing that they had an open relationship. She described her horror at being accused of sexually assaulting Bennett when he was 17, repeating in the interview that she was the victim, that Bennett jumped on her and that she 'froze'. Argento also shared text messages with McGowan and with Dove which she said backed her astonishing tale. In the texts Dove tells her the prostitute was wearing a hijab, that someone had obtained Bourdain's toxicology report, and that he had hanged himself because he did not want it to be known he had overdosed. None of those claims were true. Asia Argento, photographed with Anthony Bourdain, said she lost her job on X Factor Italy and other work opportunities because of McGowan's claims And Argento addressed personally and emotionally the allegations of sexual assault made against her by former child actor Bennett, 22, who worked with the Italian actress and director when he was just nine. She broke down in tears as she told DailyMailTV: 'I was the one who was assaulted. It was painful.' The revelation in August that Argento had sex with Bennett and then agreed to pay him $380,000 four years later hit the actress and the MeToo movement like a bomb going off. Argento initially denied they had had sex. When texts leaked two days later that showed her saying 'he jumped me', Argento said through an attorney that she was the victim, not Bennett. A week later, McGowan released a lengthy statement saying that her partner Dove had told her that Argento had slept with Bennett. 'Rain also shared that Asia had stated that she'd been receiving unsolicited nudes of Jimmy since he had been 12. Asia mentioned in these texts that she didn't take any action on those images,' McGowan initially claimed. Asia Argento said she still plans to push for criminal proceedings against Dove for deception for financial gain Argento attacked those claims and told DailyMail TV: 'This has destroyed my life. These lies have destroyed my life.' Last October Argento was among the first alleged Weinstein victims to speak up and be named in a New Yorker article that started a swell that built to what Argento calls the 'MeToo tsunami.' People who had never heard of the Italian - who has won numerous awards in her native country including a David di Donatello, the Italian equivalent of an Oscar - were suddenly talking about her and the fact that she was dating beloved celebrity chef and CNN host, Anthony Bourdain, only added to the luster of her global celebrity. Asia Argento said the false claims by Rose McGowan had destroyed their friendship and ruined her life Bennett was among those watching Argento's growing fame. One month after the New Yorker article Bennett wrote to Argento, who played the role of his mother in the 2004 movie The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. In his letter he threatened to make public a sexual encounter between them that took place in California when he was 17 and she was 37. The legal age of consent is 18 in California. Argento told told DailyMail TV: 'I had to go to a therapist. When me and Anthony were together we told each other everything and I told him also about this experience that happened in 2013. 'I was the one who was assaulted [so getting the letter] was painful. ' Daniel Acker, 49, was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday after being convicted 18 years ago for the murder of his girlfriend, Marquetta George A man convicted of kidnapping a woman in 2000 and choking her to death while he was driving was executed in Texas on Thursday, after the US Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal by his lawyers who argued the death was an accident. Daniel Acker, 46, was put to death by lethal injection at the state's death chamber in Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. About three hours before the execution, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal to spare his life, without elaborating on its decision. His lawyers argued that the woman had died after jumping out of the moving vehicle and that the man had been convicted due to faulty forensic evidence. Acker made no final statement, the department said. The execution was the 18th this year in the United States and the 10th in Texas, which has put more prisoners to death than any state since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Acker was convicted of murdering Marquetta George in 2000. The two had lived together and got into an argument because Acker believed George was seeing another man. At one point, Acker forced George into his pickup truck and drove off with her, court records showed. Acker (pictured center with family) was accused of strangling George to death while he drove, but has always claimed his partner died after jumping out of his moving car George's body was found on the side of a road a few miles away from their home. Her heart and lungs were lacerated, and the bones in her face were broken. She had a shattered skull and injuries to her neck that forensic witnesses for the state testified were consistent with strangulation, the records showed. Lawyers for Acker said in their filing their client had been planning to confront the man with whom he accused George of having an affair and that she jumped from the truck moving at high speed because she did not want to face him. Acker turned himself in for his girlfriend's abduction 'shortly after the accident' his lawyers said 'The state's case was based on the now-discredited strangling-while-driving hypothesis, a virtually impossible feat,' they said. 'Mr. Acker has taken full responsibility for the victim's abduction and has expressed remorse for that act from the day he turned himself in, shortly after the accident,' they said. Texas said in its filing that Acker was duly convicted and a jury rightly concluded George's death was due to strangulation, blunt-force injury, or a combination of the two. 'Acker produces no new evidence showing he did not commit the crime but continues to assert that George's death resulted from her leap from the vehicle - a theory rejected by the jury at the time of trial,' Texas said. Sen. Brian Joyce (pictured), who was awaiting trial on federal corruption charges, has been found dead in his home Former Massachusetts state Sen. Brian Joyce, who was awaiting trial on federal corruption charges, has been found dead in his home. Joyce, 56, was found dead by his wife Mary in their Westport home on Thursday, according to a statement from the Bristol District Attorney's office. 'Foul play is not suspected in the death at this time,' said Attorney's office spokesman Gregg Miliote. Miliote said the state's chief medical examiner will conduct an autopsy in the coming days, and the investigation is 'active and ongoing.' Joyce was arrested last December and charged with accepting up to $1 million in bribes and kickbacks for helping companies and then laundering the money through his law office, disguising it as legal fees. Then-acting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said Joyce had violated his duty to his constituents 'by accepting bribes and kickbacks in exchange for his official action.' The married father-of-five pleaded not guilty and was free on $250,000 bond. Police raided Joyce's law offices in Canton, Mass., back in February 2016 (pictured) in connection with the corruption trial He pleaded not guilty and was free on $250,000 bond last December A trial date had not been set. A Democrat, Joyce left the Senate after not seeking re-election in 2016. He was first elected in 1998 and served as assistant majority leader. After he left politics, he moved to Westport, Massachusetts, from Milton. WCVB-TV reported that Joyce had been involved in a car crash on Wednesday, but it was unclear if that was related to his death. Goods could be whisked through underground pipes with Elon Musk-style electromagnet technology in a scheme unveiled by British designers and backed by Ocado. Magway, which will run under the embankment by the side of the hard shoulder of motorways, will give retailers a quick and cheap way to move goods between distribution and fulfillment centres, and could be up and running in as little as three years. Parcels and groceries are moved on carriages along a magnetic track, which propels them forward at just under 40mph when activated by an electric charge. The system is set up with two tunnels next to each other each going in opposite directions and can move around 12million carriages a week. Magway transports goods including groceries and small parcels on carriages moving along a magnetic track. Pictured is a still from an animated video showing a carriage moving along a track When electricity starts running through the track, this pushes the carriages forward at just under 40mph. The electromagnet technology is similar to that proposed by Elon Musk for his hyperloop Magway is similar to the hyperloop technology proposed by Elon Musk, which also uses tubes and electromagnets. However, Magway does not operate in a vacuum and will be used for transporting goods, not humans. A prototype will be revealed next month, and designers hope to roll the technology out across the UK, and then the rest of the world. If a further stage of fundraising is successful, the first 56-mile section of pipe between Milton Keynes and Park Royal in London could be up and running within three years, according to commercial director Phill Davies. 'This is a game changer for e-commerce and logistics. It is UK innovation at its best,' he told MailOnline. 'We want to set this up across the whole of Britain and then after that, the world.' Mr Davies hopes to pitch the technology to companies who need to move large numbers of small to medium-sized items from warehouses to distribution centres near to consumers. It uses pipes similar to those used by utility companies, which can be buried into the ground or raised just above land level. Crucially, the technology should be cheaper, quicker and more environmentally friendly than moving goods by road. 'All the technology is in the track, so the carriages do not have a motor, battery or driver,' explained Mr Davies. 'We can control each of the carriages individually and know exactly where it is along the route. 'By keeping them close together we can move up to 12 million of these carriages every week. They run through similar pipes to current utilities, which is reflected in installation costs of less than 1m per km. The Magway tunnels could run under the embankment by the side of the hard shoulder and help cut down on congestion The system is set with two tunnels next to each other sending goods in opposite directions Magway uses pipes similar to those used by utility companies, which can be buried into the ground or raised just above land level The Magway system uses electromagnet technology similar to that developed by Elon Musk (pictured in California on September 17) What is Elon Musk's hyperloop and how does it work? Hyperloop is a proposed method of travel that would transport people at roughly 700mph between distant locations. Magway is inspired by several of its features. The system was unveiled by Elon Musk in 2013, who at the time said it could take passengers the 380 miles (610km) from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes - half the time it takes a plane. Sketches of a hyperloop test track in Europe, which could allow passengers to travel from Amsterdam to Frankfurt in as little as 50 minutes It is essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum. For safety reasons, Hyperloop tunnels need escape hatches in case of fire. The tube is suspended off the ground to protect against weather and earthquakes. There are now a number of firms vying to bring the technology to life, including Elon Musk himself, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, and Virgin Hyperloop One. Advertisement Mr Davies believes the system could handle the vast majority of products sold by major online retailers. 'We can address the entire online grocery market, which we're at the forefront of at the UK,' he said. 'The system could handle 90 percent of the general merchandise coming out of Amazon, ASOS and John Lewis. The rest, like bikes and flat-screen TVs, is too large to fit in the pipe.' Magway won funding from an Innovate UK Emerging & Enabling Technologies award with a consortium that includes Ocado and Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation, which manages the largest regeneration site in Europe. It is currently in another fundraising stage and will open its 40-foot prototype track in Wembley next month. The developers hope to extend the technology across the UK (as shown in this graphic) before taking on the rest of the world A married Colombian woman was caught cheating when her Uber driver husband came to pick up her and her lover after they requested a taxi on Tuesday. The cheating wife, identified only as Yeimi, and her lover, Jesus Berrios, were in need of a taxi after their latest rendezvous at a motel. Before accepting the Uber application's assigned driver, the lovebirds confirmed the man pictured in the ride sharing application, Leonardo, was not anyone they knew. So they went ahead, clicked and awaited Leonardo's arrival. A married woman in Colombia was caught with her lover outside a motel when her husband was the driver that showed up instead of the pictured driver on the Uber app According to El Espectador, they were in for a shock when the vehicle finally arrived at the lovers' location in the Caribbean coast city of Santa Marta. Instead of greeting Leonardo, Yeimi was greeted by her husband. Yeimi was not aware that her husband, who has not been named in reports, was friends with Leonardo. Witnesses told the Colombian newspaper Yeimi and her lover ran away from the scene. Another person claimed the surprised husband questioned his wife's infidelity outside the hotel. A former US police officer who allegedly shot dead an unarmed Australian woman in her pyjamas is set to face trial on murder charges. Mohamed Noor will appear in court next April charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Ms Damond, 40, was killed as she approached Mr Noor's police car in 2017, with the police officer reaching over his partner and firing the fatal bullet. Mohamed Noor (pictured) will appear in court next April charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond Mr Noor's (centre) legal team (left and right) appeared in court on Thursday to appeal the scheduled court date, but their attempts to have the case thrown out were rejected The former police officer's legal team appeared in court on Thursday to appeal the scheduled court date, but their attempts to have the case thrown out were rejected. Mr Noor's attorneys argued that his actions were reasonable, but the prosecution disagreed, saying his actions were reckless. District Court Judge Kathryn Quaintance ruled there was probable cause to charge Noor with one county of murder in the third degree and manslaughter in the second. 'What was in the defendants mind at the time of the incident can only be inferred at this point,' she said in court, StarTribune reported. 'There is, however, sufficient evidence from which the state could argue that Mr Noor fired without knowing what or who was outside the police cruiser,' she said, according to AAP. She added: 'Defendant either saw and fired at what he believed was a person, or he fired into the darkness at an unknown target.' Justine Ruszczyk Damond (pictured) was killed as she approached Mr Noor's police car in 2017, with the police officer reaching over his partner and firing the fatal bullet 'Under either scenario, the jury could find that his act was dangerous to human beings and was performed without regard for human life,' Judge Quaintance said. On the night of July 15, 2017, Ms Damond allegedly called police at around midnight to report a possible sexual assault in an alleyway behind her Minneapolis home. When Mr Noor's police car later responded to the call-out, it's understood Damond left her home and approached the car, after which she was fatally shot in the stomach. Mr Noor's partner Matthew Harrity told investigators the pair became 'spooked' after they heard a voice and thump on the back of their car, 9News reported. The prosecution said Mr Noor's (pictured) actions on the night reflected a pattern of behaviour that dated back to his hiring Harrity said he feared for his life and drew his gun, but it was Mr Noor who allegedly fired at Damond, striking her in the stomach. After the shooting, Mr Noor was fired from the police department in March. His dismissal was appealed by the police union but is still pending until the outcome of the trial. Although Mr Noor's lawyers sought to have his previous psychological reports quashed, Judge Quaintance declined to withhold the records, StarTribune reported. The prosecution argued the shooting was the product of a 'depraved mind, regardless of human life' consistent with a man they say was unfit to be an officer. They said Mr Noor's actions on the night reflected a pattern of behaviour that dated back to his hiring, when a psychological assessment allegedly revealed red flags. Mr Noor's lawyers argued that the results could provide an incomplete picture of the former police officer, but Judge Quaintance ruled there was no legal precedent for sealing the records. A trial date has been set for April 1 in Minneapolis. Two tradesmen have shared dramatic footage of the moment a man pulled a gun out of his jacket and pointed it at them as they sat in their work car on a suburban street. The unsuspecting men were sitting in their work vehicle while parked on the side of a road in Perth's eastern suburbs on Wednesday morning. CCTV footage captured the pedestrian walking towards the vehicle before calmly pulling out a firearm. CCTV footage revealed a pedestrian walking towards the vehicle before he pulled out a firearm 'Once the man was close to the car he pulled a firearm from under his jacket and pointed it at the two men,' a police spokesperson told PerthNow. The pair immediately drove away from the scene before notifying police. Police have released vision and stills of a man they want to speak to in relation to the incident. The man is man is described as around 40 years old, dark-skinned, of a slim build and 170cm tall. He was last seen wearing a black jacket with a white stripe, dark shorts and sneakers. The gun-toting man is described as around 40 years old, dark-skinned, of a slim build and 170cm tall A vegan bikini model's social media account has the potential to reach more people than the RSPCA and various political parties combined and she's hell-bent on using it to put a stop to the live export industry. Sheridyn Smith from New South Wales has more than 4 million followers on Facebook as well as 600,000 on Instagram, and in April this year she uploaded a picture to both social media platforms, urging people to speak out against the controversial industry. 'What animals are routinely forced to endure on live export ships is not only cruel it's illegal,' she wrote. Scroll down for video A Vegan bikini model's social media account has the potential to reach more people than the RSPCA and she's hell-bent on using it to put a stop to the live export industry Speaking to The Weekly Times this week, Ms Smith said that her intent had always been to help those that are suffering. 'I wanted to use whatever voice I had, and use my platform, to help those who don't have a voice,' she said. Ms Fisher appeared in a PETA vegetarianism campaign in 2012 and last month released a book called 'Plant Based Life' about vegan living. Jim Gall from communications strategy firm Redhanded said that one person with a strong social media following could make all the difference. 'If we really want to change the sentiment we need to approach a Hugh Jackman, or Nicole Kidman or Keith Urban, someone who has a huge following,' he said. 'What animals are forced to endure on live export ships is not only cruel - it's illegal,' Ms Smith wrote in a Facebook post to her 4 million followers Communications strategy firm Redhanded said that one person with a strong social media following could make all the difference to the campaign against the live export trade RSPCA Australia has around 9,000 Instagram followers and 280,000 Facebook fans, while the Australian Greens have just over 260,000 followers on Facebook. New figures from Redhanded show that Australia is dominating the discussion of live exports worldwide, with the vast majority against the industry. According to their statistics, 44.6 per cent of online reaction and 60.9 per cent of social media commentary is not in favour of the industry. Ms Fisher appeared in a PETA vegetarianism campaign in 2012 and last month released a book called 'Plant Based Life' about vegan living Mr Gall is also a sheep farmer and he stressed that it was time to end the trade, adding that it was harming Australia's 'clean, green' food reputation. In April, footage emerged showing hundreds of Australian sheep cramped together and dying in squalid conditions aboard a ship headed for the Middle East. More than 1,300 sheep allegedly died during the journey thanks to an intense heatwave in the Persian Gulf, and crew members were seen tossing sheep carcasses from the ship. The navigation officer told Nine Network's 60 Minutes program that crew fainted while the sheep, unable to leave the boat, were essentially being 'put in an oven'. In April, footage emerged showing hundreds of Australian sheep cramped together and dying in squalid conditions aboard a ship headed for the Middle East Brexiteers today hailed Boris Johnson's furious attack on Theresa May's Chequers plan - as she faces a make or break party conference where she will come under pressure to ditch it. The ex foreign secretary savaged the plan as a 'moral and intellectual humiliation' and unveiled his own six-point proposal for a 'super-Canada' style free trade deal. Leading Eurosceptics lined up to heap praise on his 4,500-word Brexit manifesto, published in his weekly newspaper column, and urged the PM to adopt his vision. Former Brexit minister Steve Baker - who quit along with Mr Johnson in anger at the Chequers plan - said it is a 'brilliant, pivotal' intervention. He told MailOnline: 'Conservatives have spent too long negotiating amongst ourselves. Now, as we approach conference, we have a clear choice - hopeless failure with Chequers, or a hopeful future of renewal with the plan Boris has set out. 'It's time to commit to practical management of the border with Ireland and go forward with an advanced Free Trade Agreement.' Tory MP Marcus Fysh said, 'absolutely right Boris Johnson - this is the way forward', and Conservative MP Nadine Dorries said he was a 'man with a plan'. But other Tories tore into Mr Johnson over the remarks - saying his article suggests that he 'does not care' about the impact on people's lives. Mr Johnson's outspoken attack comes as Tory MPs warned their party has 'lost its way' and must adopt more radical policies. The ex foreign secretary (pictured today on a run in Oxfordshire) savaged the plan as a 'moral and intellectual humiliation' and unveiled he own six-point proposal for a 'super-Canada' style free trade deal instead Theresa May (pictured earlier this week) will deliver a keynote speech at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham next week Former Brexit minister Boris Johnson praised Boris Johnson's intervention saying it is a pivotal contribution to the debate Tory MP for Yeovil Marcus Fysh said Boris Johnson's six-point plan for a 'super Canada' Brexit deal is the right way forward for Britain The timing of the intervention sets the scene for a fraught Tory conference in Birmingham and will be seen in Downing Street as an act of gross disloyalty. A senior Tory source said last night: 'We always knew Boris was going to be as unhelpful as possible to the PM this week. That is what he does.' Leading Tory Remainer Nicky Morgan blasted Mr Johnson's column, writing: 'I said Boris had to decide if he was a politician or a journalist - hes clearly made his decision but shame he didnt research the link between agreeing a solution that keeps the Irish border frictionless and the chances of agreeing withdrawal terms. 'Or does he just not care?' Mrs May is facing huge pressure as she faces Conservative activists and MPs at the annual conference amid a major Tory revolt over her Brexit plans. Amid the bruising Tory civil war on Brexit, the PM is also facing a clamour from her own MPs to unveil more radical policies to stave off the threat from Jeremy Corbyn. Universities Minister Sam Gyimah, said the Tories 'veer between talking business down, ignoring voters' concerns', adding: 'So we need to find our way, and quickly.' And Treasury Minister Liz Truss told an event with the Reform Scotland think-tank 'we need to be talking about how people's lives are getting better'. In his column, Mr Johnson calls for the first time for Mrs May to tear up the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, which was finally signed in December last year after months of painful negotiation. He says the UK 'stumbled and collapsed' into the Northern Ireland backstop agreement, which he says is incompatible with his vision. Mr Johnson said the Northern Ireland problem could be dealt with by checks carried out away from the border. But the idea was explicitly rejected by the Tories governing partners in the DUP yesterday. And former Home Secretary Amber Rudd warned that 40 MPs would vote against it making it impossible to get through parliament. Boris Johnson (seen here speaking to the media while leaving his Oxfordshire home earlier this month) has been highly critical of Theresa May's Brexit plans Last night, Mr Johnson set out his Canada-style Brexit blueprint which he said would 'fulfil the instruction of the people'. He claimed his alternative six-point 'SuperCanada' plan would make Britain 'rich, strong and free'. He called on Mrs May to negotiate the deal during a 21-month transition period which will follow Brexit on March 29. She should rip up her backstop plan for Northern Ireland, he said, arguing that technology should be used to avoid a hard border in Ireland. He said: 'This is an opportunity for the UK to become more dynamic and more successful, and we should not be shy of saying that and we should recognise that it is exactly this potential our EU partners seek to constrain.' His call follows reports that some members of the Cabinet are moving towards a Canada-style agreement as an alternative to a 'No Deal' scenario. Theresa May (right) had a difficult time in Salzburg last week as EU leaders (left) brutally rejected her Chequers plan In his 4,500 word essay, Mr Johnson argues for a change in position following a rejection of Mrs May's Chequers plan by European leaders. In the 'A Better Plan for Brexit' text, he writes: 'This is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit. Ex Cabinet Minister Prito Patel urges May to get more radical A former Cabinet minister has urged Theresa May to get more radical on the eve of a crunch Tory Party conference this week. Priti Patel urged the PM to cut taxes and red tape on business, saying a clear Conservative vision was needed to tackle Jeremy Corbyns hard-Left agenda. Her intervention will be seen as part of a move by a disaffected Tory MPs to pile pressure on Mrs May to do more to boost business. Miss Patel told The House magazine Gone are the days of flagship policies giving millions the chance to own their own home, start their own business, become share owners, and offer choice in public services. 'Now we are showcasing taxes on coffee cups. Ex education minister Robert Halfon also piled in and said the Government needs to come up with a vision which attracts working class voters. He said: The Corbyn description of what is going on resonates with millions of people. Deep social and economic problems remain. 'We are stuck in the political rhetoric of the past, rather than providing a proper Tory vision for the future.' Advertisement 'We have the chance to get it right, and I am afraid that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail.' Though he does not directly attack Mrs May, the timing of his call to change position will inevitably drive speculation of a leadership challenge before January. In a veiled criticism, he also describes the decision to call a general election last year as a 'serious strategic mistake'. Turning on the negotiating team, he adds that there has been a 'collapse of will' by ministers and civil servants to deliver on the Referendum result. He denounces the 'pretty invertebrate performance' of the British negotiating team, led by Olly Robbins, who Mrs May appointed. Their 'supine position' on Brexit has given the EU the upper hand while the UK has 'stumbled and collapsed' into the Northern Irish backstop plan which could effectively lead to the province's annexation by the EU. Mr Johnson will attend a fringe event at the conference in Birmingham on Tuesday which is likely to overshadow preparations for Mrs May's own speech on Wednesday. Other fringe events by prominent Brexiteers will also call on Mrs May to 'chuck Chequers', including Jacob Rees-Mogg, who heads the Eurosceptic backbench European Research Group. Mrs May will face a further threat from the backbench MP who will accuse her of 'doing nothing to support' traditional families in a major intervention at Conservative conference. Mr Rees-Mogg will tell party activists that successive governments including the current one have undermined marriage with perverse welfare and tax policies. His comments will be seen as a pitch to the Tory right and the start of positioning for a future leadership contest after he led calls to 'chuck Chequers'. The Prime Minister's proposed deal sets out a 'common rulebook' for goods, which may make it more difficult to negotiate free trade deals around the world. Brexiteers including Mr Johnson believe a Canada-style deal would leave Britain free to negotiate its own deals elsewhere. They say it is the only model that could win the backing of Parliament. Both Labour and Eurosceptic Tory MPs have said they will vote against any Brexit deal based on Chequers. Mrs May's Chequers plan was also rejected by the leaders of the other 27 EU members when they met in Salzburg last week. Mr Johnson criticises the 'backstop' arrangement for Northern Ireland, which would place a border in the Irish Sea if no alternative arrangement for the province can be agreed. He concludes that as Britain approaches 'the moment of truth' in the Brexit process: 'We must decide who we are whether we really believe in the importance of our democratic institutions.' EU leaders have said that if substantial progress towards a deal is made at their October meeting, an extra meeting will be held in November to thrash out the details. A top university, where a student died last year after taking ecstasy, has been slammed for giving detailed advice on how to take drugs 'safely'. The guide on the official University of Sheffield website tells students who take drugs with a needle not to 'inject alone' and gives a step-by-step guide on how to take specific substances. Joana Burns, 22, died in June last year after taking MDMA a crystallised form of ecstasy during a club night out at the university's student union. The online guide gives instructions about crushing the MDMA, 'dabbing the end of your finger into the powder' and how long to wait before 'considering redosing'. The guide on the official University of Sheffield website tells students who take drugs with a needle not to 'inject alone' Further details are provided for taking ecstasy pills, along with advice about quantities and further doses. It also suggests splitting pills into smaller amounts, drinking plenty of water, not mixing different drugs and to avoid taking substances on consecutive days. Another page states, 'if you are injecting drugs, never inject alone', and to take drugs 'with friends'. The information is predominantly on the 'drug harm reduction' page of the Students' Union section of the website. It can be reached by a link on the university website. Students at the university have criticised the move. Final-year Spanish student Sab Jones said: 'How can they write 'if you are injecting drugs, never inject alone'? It's like an oxymoron. 'That is basically saying, 'it's dangerous, but do it with a friend'. It means not only putting yourself at risk, but someone close to you also at risk. I'm ashamed that this policy is real and on their website.' Drama student Bliss Hunter added: 'I think it's a bizarre thing to tell students it's dangerous and it advocates taking drugs which is completely wrong. Joana Burns, 22, died in June last year after taking MDMA during a club night out at the university's student union 'The student union should be looking at protecting students and deterring them away from the drug scene, not encouraging them to take them. We've seen rises in cases of deaths by party drugs and these seem to be the case in university students. 'The university needs to offer support and advice to students who are tempted by drugs, and should be highlighting the negative effects the drugs may have.' The information on the university's website stresses that possession, use and supply of drugs is illegal and the university has a 'zero tolerance policy' towards drugs. A university spokesman said: 'The university and its students' union does not condone substance misuse in any shape or form. 'We do, however, understand some students may try drugs during their time at university. 'With this in mind, we think it is important to ensure that, while we cannot condone this, if a student does choose to take drugs, they are as informed as possible.' The university has faced scrutiny over the death of Miss Burns, who didn't normally take drugs but was experimenting as part of a 'final fling' to celebrate the end of her third-year exams. She was a maths student at Sheffield Hallam University, but was visiting the Sheffield union. She had created two home-made 'MDMA bombs' by splitting the 7 powder into two cigarette wrappers. She started fitting in the early hours and died in hospital. Young Catholics have revealed the reasons why they are fed up with their church. Feeling alone, unheard and dealing with policies against the LGBTQI community has seen younger Australians leave the faith. 'I am not able to share any critical thoughts on the Church (even if I just want to help) and I feel like my voice is less heard because I am a woman,' one Catholic said. 'Nobody listens because they think young people don't know anything,' another said. See video below Christianity is still the number one religion at 52.1 per cent in Australia, according to the 2011 and 2016 census. However it is dropping in popularity Other followers said there were 'inbuilt bias and stereotypes against the LGBTQI community', and that there church was overly 'judgemental' and did not understand 'modern struggles'. Christianity is still the number one religion at 52.1 per cent in Australia, according to the 2011 and 2016 census. However it is dropping in popularity, with a 2.6 per cent fall in the same time. The 'no religion' option came in at second, with 48 per cent, in the 2016 census. The falling number of international Catholic youths is the theme for the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican throughout October. Bishops and chosen representatives from around the world will be travelling to the 'Holy City' to advise the Pope on the problem. The General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be discussing the falling rate of Catholic youth interested in the church The 2017 Australian Catholics Bishops Conference concluded that young people are facing a rising level of 'secularisation and materialism'. 'Social media and mainstream media influences often conflict with the teachings of the faith,' it said. 'In addition, the Church's teachings seem increasingly irrelevant to contemporary forms of relationships and do not support an individualistic way of working and living, so that the importance of religion has greatly decreased in many people's lives.' The Catholic Church has been facing increased controversy, especially relating to child sex abuse. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2017 investigated the misconduct of individuals within the church. The Catholic Church committed to end the cover-up of child sexual abuse but rejected the notion to break the seal of confession after the commission's recommendation. Catholicism is thriving in some places but in other parts of the world it is beginning to drop The findings may have a telling impact on future Catholicism statistics and Sebastian Duhau, the Australian and New Zealand youth representative for the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, believes that it is time that these issues were dealt with a harder stance. 'I think we need to move into an age where the church needs to be more transparent and open its doors to society regarding any sort of criminal act,' Mr Duhau said. 'I want a church that is more open and adheres to the same type of regulations that the rest of society follows in regards to child protection laws and other protocols in place to stop things like this [child sex offences] happening in the future. Australian and New Zealand representative, Auditor of the Synod, Sebastian Duhau 'We need to learn from the past and use that as a catalyst to make steps towards the right direction. 'We cannot deal with it the same way it has been in the past and proper justice needs to be served as it would in regular society.' XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops runs from the 3rd to the 28th October 2018. Donna Pence (pictured) had part of her ear missing, damage to her toes and burn marks on the left side of her body after she was sent to be embalmed by a funeral home An Ohio woman's body was chewed on by rats and burned when it was sent away for embalming, her furious family say. Donna Pence died of lung cancer in July, and her family hired Lafferty Funeral Home to take care of her body and arrange a service for her funeral. Unable to afford her burial immediately, they made a down payment to Lafferty that would cover embalming, a funeral and graveside service - but were left reconsidering their choice when they saw Pence after she was embalmed. Son Tommy Clark-Harp told FOX 19 his mother was presented to the family about 11 days after her death with a chunk missing from her left ear lobe, burns on her left leg, and skin missing from her pinky toe. 'She was a mess' Clark-Harp said. 'The ear definitely looks like something chewed it off, it looks like teeth marks.' Pence's family have said they believe an animal could be responsible for her missing flesh. Pence's son, Tommy Clark-Harp, says he believes a rat was responsible for some of her injuries, noting the chew marks left behind on his mother's ear (left) and pinky toe (right) Pence's family have said they do not believe she was embalmed properly (pictured is her hand) 'I honestly think it might have been a rat,' said Clark-Harp. 'She also had a bite mark on the neck. It reminded me of when I was a child, I had a gerbil, and it bit me, and that's the same type of bite that was there and the ear and then the toe.' The woman who embalmed her body says it was much less sinister. Chrissa Shelly, who embalmed the body at a third-party facility hired by Lafferty, said during the process, she had tugged multiple times on the woman's ear to ensure the embalming fluid was being absorbed properly. Shelly told police at one point she had pulled the lobe off, and suggested it may have been a result of Pence's chemotherapy treatment. The distraught family have also alleged burn marks were left on the left side of her body (pictured) Lafferty has apologized, 'fixed' Pence's wounds and knocked the remaining owing total off the family's balance. The funeral home has also offered a half-price tombstone, but Price's family are not satisfied. They have filed a police report, and the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors is conducting an inquiry. 'I want justice for my mother,' Clark-Harp said. 'You have a heart and you have love and compassion for someone, you just don't treat them like garbage.' The banking royal commission is set to slam the deplorable behaviour of Australia's financial giants after hearing evidence that they charged dead people $1million and slugged customers with fees only to provide no service. Former High Court judge Kenneth Hayne is due to deliver an interim report on Friday, following six months of hearings from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. The royal commission heard in April how Commonwealth Bank advisers charged dead clients for financial advice, in one case doing so for a decade. Australia's biggest home lender made a $9.23billion net cash profit for 2018. Scroll down for video Commissioner Kenneth Hayne is due to deliver the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry's interim report on Friday Commonwealth Bank planners were not reported to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and were let off with warnings, the $75million inquiry heard. Less than a fortnight later, the royal commission was told that wealth manager AMP had charged fees without delivering any service, and had misled the corporate watchdog, ASIC. This scandal led to the resignation of AMP chairwoman Catherine Brenner and its chief executive, Craig Meller. AMP's group executive of wealth solutions and chief customer officer, Paul Sainsbury, this month told the royal commission AMP had charged more than 3,100 customers about $922,000 in extra life insurance premiums despite being told the member had died. Mr Hayne's interim report is expected to focus on ensuring banks are lending money responsibly, with Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove to see it before Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The royal commission heard how Commonwealth Bank charged dead clients for advice, in one case for a decade (Marianne Perkovic, CBA's executive general manager of private pictured) Commonwealth Bank planners were not reported to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and were let off with warnings, the $75million inquiry heard The financial services industry is bracing for a scathing review of its practices, although it is unclear how far Mr Hayne will go in Friday's interim report or if the biggest hits will come in February's final document. University of Sydney Business School Associate Professor Shumi Akhtar, an expert on corporate governance, said the royal commission highlighted the need for new laws to safeguard retirement savings. Associate Professor Shumi Akhtar said new laws were needed to protect savings 'The inquiry has revealed how widespread financial crime has been in the banking and superannuation industry for so long,' she said. 'It also shows how inefficient our financial institutions have been and continue to be without the government taking any legitimate steps to resolve the issues. 'Excessive fees damage retirement savings dramatically over time once compounding interest is taken into account.' Banking analysts expect Mr Hayne will apply a rigorous interpretation of responsible lending standards, which will make it harder to get a home loan and restrict practices that have led to banks lending too much money. Banks will have to do more to verify customers' income and their actual living expenses, rather than relying on the widespread use of benchmark expenditure measures. Mr Hayne is expected to recommend, either in his interim or final report, that major financial institutions be prosecuted for charging customers fees for no service. AMP's chairwoman Catherine Brenner (right) and its chief executive Craig Meller (left) resigned following revelations fees were charged for no service and ASIC was misled AMP could be in Royal Commissioner Kenneth Hayne's sights on Friday with a scathing review expected of financial sector practices The regulators might be criticised for their handling of misconduct, but it might also be recommended that they be granted enhanced powers. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds for customers charged fees for advice they did not receive and expects compensation across the industry to top $1billion. But ASIC's action was limited to court-enforceable undertakings, bans and imposing licence conditions until it launched civil proceedings this month against the National Australia Bank's superannuation trustees. Royal Commissioner Kenneth Hayne is delivering his interim findings today Barristers assisting the royal commission have recommended AMP face criminal charges for lying to and misleading ASIC over the fees issue, but the wealth manager disagreed. It is not clear if Mr Hayne's interim report will detail findings about individual case studies, including recommendations for prosecutions, or focus solely on policy issues arising from the first four of six rounds of public hearings. It will cover consumer lending, financial advice, loans to small businesses and issues affecting farmers and indigenous Australians, but not the most recent hearings on superannuation and insurance. After handing down the interim report, Mr Hayne will shift his focus from past misconduct to what should be done in response to the issues raised. The $75million inquiry has received more than 9300 public submissions, and has held public hearings since March. A teenage tradeswoman has described the chilling moment she discovered human bones while digging a backyard pool. Monica Smith and her co-workers did not realise that they were uncovering the remains of a murdered woman in Perth on Wednesday. 'We found a bone, and what we thought was just an animal so we were just, whatever, we'll just put it to the side - and then we dug up a few more bones and we actually found the bottom of the spine,' she told 9 News. 'It didn't quite kick in, I was just: 'Oh, there's bones, this is quite weird, I've never seen this before. There was clothes,' Ms Smith said. 'But I think afterwards you come to the realisation it's an actual person, you know -this is quite confronting.' Contractors discovered the body of murdered Perth woman Ah Bee Mack in her own backyard Police confirmed the remains were of murdered mother Ah Bee Mack, 56, who was killed by her son Brent Donald Mack in 2008 and buried in her own backyard in Perth's northern suburb of Mount Hawthorne. Police had previously searched the property in 2010, digging up concrete pavers, but did not dig deep enough to find the bones which were reportedly 2m below ground. Police at the scene in Mount Hawthorne on Wednesday. Forensics and pathologists attended Police would not comment on their previous search as forensics and homicide detectives combed the scene on Thursday. Ah Bee Mack was last seen alive in 2008 but was not reported missing until 2010 because her son had pretended she was still alive. Ah Bee Mack was killed by her son for money. He then told relatives she was alive but living in a different suburb as he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her bank accounts At Mack's Supreme Court trial, Justice John McKechnie said the 'dishonest and devious' son had killed his mother for money. The trial heard Mack had told relatives his murdered mother was still alive and living in another suburb, while he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her bank accounts, ABC News reported. At the trial, Mack claimed his mother had taken her own life in the shower, and while still alive had asked him not to tell anyone. He said he left her under running water for a week then buried her body at Lake Gwelup. Mack was jailed for life with a 20-year minimum sentence and will not be eligible for parole until 2030. Millions of taxpayer dollars are being funnelled to far-left university professors for research on politically correct issues every year. In 2018 the Australian Research Council has handed out a new wave of grants worth over $3.6million for academics to publish papers on subjects such as white privilege. Lecturers researching transgender history and gender diversity in the workplace are being given more than $300,000 each. University of Western Australia's Rob Cover (pictured) has been given more than $120,000 to write about a perceived lack of diversity in film and television University of Western Sydney professor Tania Fefolja says her research on gender and sexuality diversity in school curriculums will be used as a resource to better train teachers In the most recent round of payouts by the government-funded Australian Research Council (ARC), North Sydney's Australian Catholic University was given $282,662.60 to research the history of famous transgender Australians. The program's principal supervisor, Noah Riseman, says his research will 'inform current debates about transgender rights, healthcare provision and social inclusion'. The money comes from the ARC's Discovery Projects grant scheme, which has given out a total of about $225million for research projects this year. Despite being allocated more than a quarter of a million dollars to conduct and present the research, Mr Riseman's final product will be behind a paywall. Taking to social media, he said only the first 50 downloads would be free. Everyone else will have to pay $58 to view the work. Noah Riseman has been given nearly $300,000 to study the history of transgender Australians In August, Monash University was given more than $1million to launch research into diversity in leadership roles. The 'rethinking diversity and inclusion practices in leadership roles' project was allocated $1,022,645 in funding. The program's brief says a lack of diversity in leadership positions leads to 'organisational and social vulnerabilities'. 'This project aims to study the lack of racial and gender diversity in management and leadership roles.' Other researchers given massive amounts of money include University of Western Australia's (UWA) Rob Cover, who received more than $120,000 in November to research gender diversity in film and television. UWA previously made headlines for its stance on sexuality and gender issues, issuing a questionnaire to white, male students in 2017 so they could 'understand why they are privileged'. The checklist detailed ways in which males were perceived to have advantages over females in careers, sexuality and personal safety, among other issues. GRANTS APPROVED THIS YEAR $1,022,645 - Monash University: Rethinking diversity and inclusion practices in leadership roles $222,754 - Deakin University: Women's NGOs and gender sensitive policy change in Iran $447,748 - University of Tasmania: Religious diversity in Australia: strategies to maintain social cohesion $270,278 - University of Technology Sydney: Leadership diversity through relational intersectionality in Australia $282,662 - Australian Catholic University: Transgender Australians: the history of an identity $120,763 - The University of Western Australia: Representation of gender and sexual diversity in Australian film and television $313,076 - Western Sydney University: Gender and sexuality diversity in schools: Parental experiences $716,301 - The University of Western Australia: Understanding and promoting the social and emotional wellbeing and mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQ young people $216,272 - The University of Adelaide: In the frame: Analysing Liberal and Labor government gender equality policy Advertisement University of Western Australia students were handed this 29-point 'male privilege checklist' during diversity workshops on orientation week in 2017 Gender in the workplace is another contentious issue, with University of Technology Sydney Professor Carl Rhodes heading a team funded to research the cause. He says his work will be used to develop a new theory on diversity among leadership in the workplace, and a way the leadership can be 'leveraged' through practice and education. His research has been funded for more than $270,000. In a paper published for his university, Professor Rhodes says cultural politics is an example of 'white male privilege in a democracy fast turning to tyranny'. He believes his research is necessary, as 'whiteness and masculinity dominate top leadership'. Carl Rhodes (pictured) from the University of Technology Sydney was given more than $270,000 for a study into 'leadership diversity through relational intersectionality in Australia' Likewise, Mr Cover, who says his work focuses on the implications of media cultures for minorities, will investigate why more women aren't involved in the production of Australian films. 'The project expects to generate new knowledge by providing the first comprehensive account of Australian media production's contribution to sexual minority representation,' the program briefing reads. Another exorbitant payout from the ARC has been allocated to Western Sydney University (WSU). Researchers from WSU have been funded $313,076 to conduct a study on gender and sexuality diversity in schools. Western Sydney University professors Tania Ferfolja and Jacqueline Ullman say the money will go towards research on parents' perspectives on the inclusion of gender and sexuality education in school curriculum. The project briefing states the research will be used as a resource to train teachers. Sajid Javid is due to impose a full ban on the terrorist group Hezbollah. The Home Secretarys decision to proscribe the Iran-backed militants will be welcomed by Britains Jewish community. Hezbollahs military wing has been proscribed here since 2008 but a legal loophole means its political wing is not. This has allowed anti-Israel protesters to openly and legally fly the Lebanese groups flag on Britains streets. The Islamist organisation, whose green and gold flag features a dagger and an assault rifle, is accused of conducting terrorist attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets. The Cabinet ministers decision to implement a full ban on Hezbollah, understood to be announced imminently, will draw a stark line between the Tories and Labour. Sajid Javid (pictured), Britain's home secretary, is due to impose a full ban on the terrorist group Hezbollah Jeremy Corbyn has faced repeated questions about his links with figures from Hezbollah, who he described as friends during an infamous meeting in Parliament in 2009. A survey found four in ten Jewish people in Britain would seriously consider emigrating if he became prime minister. Well-placed sources dismissed speculation that Mr Javid would make the announcement in his keynote speech at the annual Tory party conference in Birmingham next Tuesday. But the Home Secretary a staunch ally of the Jewish community is understood to have committed to decisive action. He has seized on Home Office assessments which say Hezbollah is committed to armed resistance to the state of Israel and aims to seize all Palestinian territories and Jerusalem from Israel. Sajid Javid pictured arriving at 10 Downing Street in central London for a cabinet meeting to discuss 'no deal' Brexit preparations on September 13 The appraisal added that its military wing supports terrorism in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. Mr Javid is believed to have received strong backing for his decision to outlaw Hezbollah as an illegal terrorist organisation from Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Mr Hunt has called the group an outrageous, disgusting organisation. Gideon Falter, of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: Following years of discussion with three successive Home Secretaries on this issue, we are delighted that Sajid Javid has decided to close this loophole and protect the British public. Hezbollah is already considered a terror group by the US, Canada, Israel and the Arab League. A Home Office spokesman declined to comment. Florida beachgoers were stunned when they watched a rattlesnake appear in the surf and struggle onto the sand. Rhonda Saunders was at the beach with her daughters Tuesday when she and others watched the snake struggling to keep its head above the water. She shared photos of the incident on social media with the caption: 'Rattlesnake on the beach. 'If the alligators and sharks haven't stopped me, ya'll think a dinky little diamondback will keep me out of the water?' Rhonda Saunders snapped photos of the snake while on a Florida beach Tuesday Witnesses said it was a diamondback rattlesnake. Wildlife officials have not confirmed The venomous reptile emerged while stunned locals watched She also told the Pensacola News Journal the snake seemed to be 'exhausted' and weak. Saunders said a crowd gathered to watch as the snake fought its way to shore. She said they felt sorry for it, but she had not intentions of helping it. Witnesses said it was a diamondback rattlesnake. Wildlife officials have not confirmed what type of snake it was. Saunders (above) said a crowd gathered to watch as the snake fought its way to shore The News Journal reported that animal control arrived on scene and used a net to help the snake from the water into a carrier. The snake didn't fight back. 'An animal control officer scooped him up with a long-handled net, and dropped him into a carrier,' Saunders told the newspaper. Saunders added that there was 'not much fight left' in the snake. A Fox News pundit who called Brett Kavanaugh's accusers 'lying skanks' and then told Christine Blasey Ford to stop opening her legs has been fired. During Ford's testimony on Thursday with the Senate Judiciary Committee, Fox News contributor Kevin Jackson repeatedly attacked Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of attempted rape at a high school house party decades ago. 'Wow, Christine Ford looks rode hard and put up wet, as we say in the country. Just peeked into this FARCE,' Jackson tweeted, adding the hashtag #ConfirmKavanaughNow'. In a follow-up tweet, Jackson called Ford and two other women accusing the Supreme Court nominee of sexual misconduct 'lying skanks'. Fox News announced in a statement on Thursday that Kevin Jackson was fired Kevin Jackson was fired as a contributor for Fox News after a series of tweets attacking Christine Blasey Ford In another tweet, Jackson called the three women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault or misconduct 'lying skanks' Jackson tweeted that Ford's 'academic problems came from her promiscuity' and told her to close her legs. Ford is pictured during Thursday's senate hearing 'Feminists are their own worst enemies, and enemy of women. Also, they want men to NEVER be believed. I'm not succumbing,' he posted. 'TO HELL with the notion that women must be believed no matter what. Lying skanks is what these 3 women are, and we ALL know more'. In another post, the radio host tweeted that Ford's 'academic problems came from her promiscuity'. 'Dang girl, stop opening your legs and OPEN A BOOK,' Jackson wrote. Hours after Jackson's tweets, Fox News released a statement saying he was fired. 'Kevin Jackson has been terminated as a contributor. His comments on today's hearings were reprehensible and do not reflect the values of Fox News,' a spokesperson said. Jackson has made no mention of his firing, and continued tweeting comments about Ford and liberal women in general. 'Leftist women are skanky for the most part. More will be sued and made to pay for their lies,' one tweet read. (left to right) Christine Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick have all accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct; he has flatly denied all the charges He also called liberal women 'skanky for the most part' and said they will pay for their lies Jackson repeatedly attacked Ford during her testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday 'Democrats always thank COWARDS for their "courage". Christine Blasey Ford is no hero,' he wrote. Ford and Kavanaugh testified in front of the senate committee on Thursday after she came forward with claims that he allegedly tried to rape her during a high school house party in the early 1980s when she was 15 years old. Kavanaugh would have been 17 at the time. Ford testified on Thursday that Kavanaugh, who was nominated by president Donald Trump for the Supreme Court, pinned her down to a bed and tried to remove her clothes. She said when she screamed, he covered her mouth with his hand. Kavanaugh denied the allegations, telling the senate committee: 'They're not accurate as to me. I've never done this. Never. I'm 100 percent certain, senator. I swear to God.' Jackson also accused Ford of lying about her claims that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens She's no hero: One of Jackson's tweets called Ford a 'coward' and said she's not a hero Jackson, who was fired over his tweets, also tweeted that Brett Kavanaugh is the victim Christine Blasey Ford (left) is pictured during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. She accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh )right) of sexual assault Ford is one of three women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault or misconduct. Deborah Ramirez told the New Yorker in an interview published over the weekend that Kavanaugh allegedly exposed himself to her during a drinking game in college. The third accuser, Julie Swetnick, came forward on Wednesday saying she saw Kavanaugh at parties where women were allegedly gang raped, verbally abused and inappropriately touched. She claimed she saw Kavanaugh standing in line outside a bedroom during one party where 'numerous boys' were waiting for their 'turn' with a girl inside the room. Swetnick said the alleged incident happened when Kavanaugh was at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s. Graduates with 2.2 degrees who train to become history, RE, music and design and technology teachers will receive bursaries for the first time. The Department for Education yesterday revealed an extension of its financial incentive scheme to help attract the best and brightest into classrooms. But education experts said it was being forced to lower its sights due to problems attracting applicants to the profession amid a recruitment crisis. The scheme was announced as new UCAS figures showed a drop in teacher training applicants this year. There were 45,390 by September 17, compared to 46,190 at the same point last year, a 1.7 per cent decline. From next year, trainees in history with a 2.2 or higher will get a 12,000 bursary. This year, only students with a first-class degree received 9,000 and those with a 2.1 were given 4,000. Trainee teachers with 2.2 degrees can get government bursaries of up to 12,000 from next year as part of a recruitment drive to more history, RE, music and design specialists into the profession For design and technology trainees with a 2.2 or higher, a 12,000 bursary is also on offer. Currently only those with a first-class degree received 12,000 and trainees with 2.1s got 9,000. In RE and music, a 9,000 bursary will be available for trainees with 2.1s or higher. This year trainees in these subjects with first-class degrees received 9,000 and those with a 2.1 got 4,000. The changes will come into effect for those starting initial teacher training in 2019-20. Bursaries in physics, languages, chemistry, biology, computing, geography and classics remain at 26,000 tax-free for trainees with a 2.2 or higher. School Standards Minister, Nick Gibb, said: Im confident that these packages, along with the work we are doing to tackle workload and support teachers in the early years of their career, will help to underline this governments determination to support the teaching sector and ensure it remains a rewarding and fulfilling career. But Professor Alan Smithers, of the Centre for Education and Employment Studies at Buckingham University, said: The government is rowing back on its aim of attracting those with good degrees into teaching through generous bursaries. Recruitment difficulties mean they have been extended to those with just 2.2s. Its concerning because it highlights once more the sheer difficulty in getting high quality teachers. When the Queen needs a bit of a royal respite from all that waving, she can always break out her secret weapon a waving machine. Given to her by mischievous Australian students, Princess Anne said the monarch loved it, adding: They gave her a stuffed glove on a wooden lever. You could tweak the end of the lever and this hand went to and fro. They thought it was cheeky but Her Majesty was thrilled. Scroll down for video The Queen breaks out her secret waving machine whenever her arm gets a little tired of waving itself The revelation comes in the royal bestseller Queen Of The World by Mail writer Robert Hardman. It turns out that the Queen is not alone in having a contingency plan. The book tells how the crew of the Royal Yacht Britannia found an ingenious way to get around a similar issue. When it navigated an inland waterway, large crowds would appear on the banks and wave. The crew had jobs to do, and couldnt afford to wave back for too long. So, to avoid giving offence, the officers organised waving parties to do the job. Proving Britannia really did rule the waves, crewman Albert Dixie Deane, said: It was exhausting to wave all the way through, but they didnt want to upset the locals, so we had a party whose job was just to wave. Mr Hardman also tells how the British ambassador in Moscow had to stop the Queens car from being used for a glamour shoot. One of the Queens Rolls-Royces was sent ahead to the Russian capital prior to a state visit. Embassy staff arranged for it to be shown in a local Rolls-Royce dealer, until ambassador Sir Brian Fall,received a complaint from the royal chauffeur. Sir Brian said: He was wondering if the ambassador could help sweep the scantily-clad girls off the bonnet. They were trying to put Miss Moscow on the front! Queen Of The World is published by Century and costs 25. The mother of a woman who died after jumping out of their car on the way home from a wedding has been cited with DUI, while the woman's death was declared accidental. Meighan Cordie, 27, disappeared on August 18 on the way home from a wedding in rural Dayton, Oregon. Her body, hidden at the bottom of the steep slope, wasn't discovered until some joggers spotted it off the roadway four days later on August 23, Yamhill County District Attorney Brad Berry said at a news conference, according to Koin 6. Scroll down for video Meighan Cordie, 27, disappeared on August 18 on the way home from a wedding in rural Dayton, Oregon, and was found dead four days later by hikers Cordie (right), with a woman described in the comments as her mom, Jennifer Weathers, and Cordie's toddler-aged daughter Cordie's mother, Jennifer Weathers, 50, is not being charged in Cordie's death, but she was cited for driving while intoxicated and reckless endangerment The guardrail is cordoned off as investigators probe the scene Cordie did not wander off from the scene, but died instantly when she exited her mother's moving car, hit her head on a guard rail and slid down an embankment, a prosecutor said Thursday. Cordie's mother, Jennifer Weathers, 50, is not being charged in Cordie's death, but she was cited for driving while intoxicated and reckless endangerment. Weathers has a court appearance next week. The announcement provides the first public accounting of a bizarre disappearance that continued to baffle investigators even after Cordie's body was found. Search crews scoured the rural area of agricultural fields for days, believing that Cordie had left her mother's car in anger during a fight on the way home from the wedding and walked into the dark alone without shoes or her cellphone. But when found, Cordie's body showed signs of blunt force trauma. An autopsy subsequently revealed she had suffered an aortic separation, likely after her back hit the guard rail, and also had head trauma, Berry said. The Oregon Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death accidental. On Thursday, Berry described a complicated investigation that pieced together clues from the scene - including Cordie's hair found in the guard rail - cellphone records, lie detector tests and interviews with Cordie's three-and-a-half-year-old daughter who was in the car and witnessed the incident. Authorities said Cordie died instantly when she exited her mother's moving car, hit her head on a guard rail and slid down an embankment Cordie's body, hidden at the bottom of the steep slope, wasn't discovered until some joggers spotted it off the roadway four days after the incident, on August 23 The missing poster that was shared during the multiple-day search for Cordie Cordie's boyfriend overheard her fighting with her mother in a cellphone call that provided a narrow timeframe for the death, Berry said. And a clump of Cordie's mother's hair was found in the car, Berry said, indicating a violent altercation. Investigators concluded the death was tragic, but was not a crime, he said. 'Every crime consists of elements,' Berry said of the decision not to charge Cordie's mother. 'We can prove elements of certain crimes (but) we just can't prove all of the elements of a single crime. Clearly leaving her daughter there, if we're talking right versus wrong, it's hard for me to fathom that somebody would do that - but it doesn't mean that I've got a crime.' Berry said Cordie and her mother had a 'difficult' relationship and began arguing as they left the wedding. The mother was intoxicated and wanted to stay longer, but Cordie wanted to get home because her young daughter was getting tired. Cordie got out of the car once, only to be coaxed back in by her mother. Cordie's body was found nine miles away from where the wedding was held Cordie then called her boyfriend and asked him to come get her. Then, the evidence shows, Cordie opened the car door and either fell or intentionally jumped from the moving car, Berry said. Cordie's young daughter told police her mother was in the backseat at the time. The mother has not cooperated with authorities since taking an initial polygraph test and it's unclear if she realized her daughter had been killed, Berry said. The results of the test were inconclusive, he said. She told investigators that she had looked for her daughter in the dark and then went home. Cordie's mother has a court appearance next week on her DUI citation. A man who spent his entire life living with undiagnosed schizophrenia will spend at least three years in jail after beating his mother to death with a hammer while she slept. Nathan Connors pleaded guilty to manslaughter after his 55-year-old mother, Lynda Connors, was discovered dead in her Sylvania home by her eldest son in May 2017. The plea was based on his undiagnosed mental illness and a substantial impairment that impacted his decision making. Nathan Connors (pictured) pleaded guilty to manslaughter after his 55-year-old mother, Lynda Connors, was discovered dead in her Sylvania home by her eldest son in May 2017 Barrister Sophia Beckett said despite an indication since at least 2011 that he was unwell, he'd never been physically violent or shown displays of violent tendencies in the past, the Canberra Times reported. 'It was a very loving relationship and he appreciated she was his main support, his only support, at the time,' Beckett said. In the lead-up to the attack the court heard he had been reading the Bible daily. He had also been punching walls and hearing voices in his head, which allegedly told him 'unidentified people would come and take his mother's soul.' Forensic psychiatrist Dr Andrew Ellis said Connors believed 'if this occurred her soul would be trapped and she could never get to heaven.' In the lead up to the attack, in which Connors took a hammer to his mother while she was sleeping, the court heard he had been reading the Bible daily and struggling with voices in his head He alleges Connor believed he was doing the better thing for his mother, and couldn't stand knowing his mother's fate if she'd had her soul taken. 'He believed the voice was a communication from God and part of his purpose as a prophet,' the psychiatrist said. 'He had been observing his mother at night to see if her soul was intact'. Justice Robert Allan Hulme on Friday sentenced Connors to a total of five years and eight months in jail with a non-parole period of three years. He will be eligible for release in mid-May 2020. At the sentencing, Justice Hulme said upon his release the 29-year-old would be returning to the community without the best support he had experienced in his life - his mother. David Tronnes (pictured) has been indicted on a murder charge after allegedly killing his wife and lying to police about how she had died Police slammed a man charged with his wife's murder for 'fake crying' and his 'hogwash' account of how the 39-year-old died in newly released interview recordings. David Tonnes, 50, was indicted on a first degree murder charge after he called police to his Orlando home in April, claiming he had found his wife of only a year, Shanti Cooper-Tronnes, dead in a half-full bathtub. During his interview with police, he suggested his wife slipped and fell while trying to get in the bath - though an autopsy showed she had died of strangulation and blunt-force trauma to the head. When police arrived, they found the bathtub and Cooper-Tronnes' body were both dry. Detective Teresa Sprague is heard in an audio recording, obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, telling Tronnes his story did not match any of the evidence at the scene. Scroll down for video Tronnes told investigators he'd found his wife dead in a half-full bathtub, and hypothesized she'd fallen while getting in. But police say Shanti Cooper-Tronnes was dry - as was the bath - when they arrived minutes later 'Common sense would tell you if you pull a woman soaking wet out of a tub at 3 o'clock and call the police within six minutes, that everything will be soaking wet when police arrive within three minutes of that,' she said. 'That's common sense.' Tronnes, who later told detectives he 'didn't have the information' they were looking for, chose to play dumb. 'So how did everything dry out?' he asked. 'That's our question,' the officer responded. The avid renovator met his wife on Match.com in 2013, and moved his life to Florida to be with her just months later. Cooper-Tronnes had an eight-year-old son from a prior relationship. Tronnes married her a year ago, and told investigators they were in the process of renovating their home. Tronnes said the pair had been renovating their home, and had been married for a year after meeting on Match.com in 2013 Cooper-Tronnes was found dead in her home (pictured), which she and Tronnes had been renovating While Tronnes painted his marriage as happy and full of love, police were not having a bar of it. Sprague, who had called his account of events leading up to Cooper-Tronne's death 'hogwash', said the accused had failed to portray any emotion expected of a man who had tragically lost his beloved wife. 'You've fake cried for about seven or eight hours today,' she said. 'Not one tear came out of your eyes - not one. 'You have fake cried over this woman's death since we made contact with you There is not a lick of remorse for what you did to this woman.' Tronnes was charged on August 29, and is being held without bond at the Orange County Jail. A city in rural Australia is attempting to go 'porn free' - and it's not the first time residents have tried to stamp out X-rated material. Toowoomba, in south-eastern Queensland, will hold its third annual rally on October 16 which will see men from all over the city pledge not to watch pornography. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Letitia Shelton from the citys anti-porn campaign City Women said that there is an avalanche of information proving the dangers pornography poses to communities. Letitia Shelton (pictured) from the citys anti-porn campaign City Women said that there is an avalanche of information proving the dangers pornography poses to communities Toowoomba (pictured, Toowoomba City Hall) will hold its third annual rally on October 16 which will see men from all over the city pledge not to watch pornography Theres so much research out there now that porn fuels domestic violence, child-on-child sexual assault, grooms paedophiles and even links to human trafficking, she said. The City Women campaign began two years ago, when the first rally was held in Toowoomba, and Ms Shelton said that support for the campaign is now in the thousands. Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio (pictured) is the rally host and Ms Shelton said he was very passionate on the issue Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio is the rally host and Ms Shelton said he was very passionate on the issue, noting that it is not just women backing the campaign. City Women is also attempting to tackle pornography for the younger generation, who Ms Shelton said are at greater risk. Were working with school principals, talking to them about how we can bring better education into schools locally, and also how we can help parents, she said. The Toowoomba rally has prompted similar events up and down the country, with the Gold Coast, Kingaroy, Illawarra and even Melbourne expressing an interest. Ms Shelton said that she had received a huge number of messages in support of the campaign from all sorts of different groups, from feminists to Muslims. Theres so much research out there now that porn fuels domestic violence, child-on-child sexual assault, grooms paedophiles and even links to human trafficking, Ms Shelton said The City Women campaign began two years ago, when the first rally was held in Toowoomba (pictured), and Ms Shelton said support for the campaign is now in the thousands And, according to the Catholic Leader, even former French president Francois Hollande had been in touch with City Women to find out more. I think the president was just fed up with the destruction that porn is doing, and saw there was a mayor in another city doing something, Ms Shelton told reporters. City Women has been working closely with the local council and churches, which are also expected to discuss dangers of pornography during next months rally. Were not out to ban porn thats the impossible task, Ms Shelton concluded. Its more about raising awareness and creating a conversation. Advertisement A passenger on board the plane which crash-landed near Papua New Guinea today has praised the 'awesome' response of the locals who jumped into their boats and pulled people from the jet as it sank into the ocean. Authorities confirmed the airliner - which was en route to Papua New Guinea from Micronesia - missed the runway and crashed into the water off the tiny island of Weno, north-west of Papua New Guinea, around 9.30am Friday local time. Without hesitation, men and women who witnessed the crash from the shore rowed out in a flotilla of small fishing boats towards the plane. Scroll down for video People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane crash by locals in a flotilla of small boats in the waters of Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia They managed to rescue all 35 passengers and 12 crew members, who were waste-deep in water by the time they arrived. Some had begun to swim for their lives while others were standing on the wings of the rapidly-sinking jet. At least one passenger was injured. Bill Jaynes, an American journalist based in Pohnpei who was on board the Boeing 737-800, said: 'I was really impressed with the locals who immediately started coming out in boats. 'One would have thought they would have been afraid to approach a plane that has just crashed. They were awesome and I was really impressed with their whole response.' In this photo provided by U.S. Navy, U.S. Navy Sailors from Underwater Construction Team (UCT) 2 assist local authorities in shuttling the passengers and crew of Air Niugini flight to shore Bill Jaynes, managing editor of the Kaselehlie Press in Micronesia, explains his experience as a passenger on a plane that crashed in the waters off Chuuk Island Jaynes, told Nine News he had been in waist-deep water on the plane. 'I thought we landed hard, until I looked over to the side of the plane and saw a hole the water was coming in,' he said. 'I thought this is not the way it's supposed to happen.' In the footage, he points to a cut in his forehead and says he's just happy to be alive. 'I called my wife and she cried - I asked her why as I'm talking to her. 'Fortunately my injury is just a head injury- there were some pretty severe ones but no deaths.' Witness Matthew Colson, who lives in Chuuk and runs a radio station, told Pacific Daily News after visiting a local hospital that people were being treated for broken legs and at least one person had a broken arm. Eight people remain in hospital, reports The Guam Daily Post. One is on a ventilator and others suffering fractures. There were 47 people on board the flight when it crash-landed in the water, but everyone has miraculously survived Chuuk State (also known as Truk) is one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia, with 50,000 inhabitants on 120 square kilometres (46 square miles). Chuuk Lagoon is where most people live and Weno Island in the Lagoon, which is where the plane crashed, functions as state capital and is Micronesia's biggest city Colson explained that locals had been gathered at a market on Friday morning near the airport. As soon as the plane hit the water, he said, they sprung into action. 'They're people that come here to go to work or go to the store or bring fish to the market to sell, and they just jumped in their boats and started helping,' Colson said. With help U.S. Navy Seabees who were in Chuuk for a construction project, locals used their small fishing boats to shuttle people from the plane to shore. Authorities then closed the roads to allow passengers to get to the hospital, Colson said. An Air Niugini plane has crash-landed in the ocean after it overshot a Micronesian runway by about 150metres Melba Aisek, general manager of the Truk Stop Hotel and Chuuk resident, told Pacific Daily News: 'We can see the plane from our dock. 'So, from the dock, I could see there were plenty of boats heading that way. We ourselves, Truk Stop, sent out our dive boat to assist, but returned as there was already a good crowd of people already helping transport folks to the (runway). '(It is) very lucky that this happened during the day and (they) got good help from passersby.' Anthony Blake, a medic based in Fiji and the Pacific, also praised the 'awesome community response' by locals and agencies on Twitter. As the plane began submerging, locals made their way to the wreck on small boats to rescue the 47 people on board The passenger plane was flying from Micronesia's Pohnpei to Chuuk Airport, where it was scheduled to make a stop before continuing on to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. Chuuk Airport manager Jimmy Emilio told local media outlets the Air Niugini plane missed the runway by about 160 metres. Witnesses report that the plane was flying 'very low' before it crashed. Air Niugini, which the national airline of Papua New Guinea, said in a statement: 'Air Niugini is now positioning assistance to Chuuk for our passengers and crew. Locals rushed out to the scene of the crash on small boats to help rescue passengers, who escaped the aircraft and were standing on the wings 'We are also in touch with the embassies, passenger representatives, stakeholders and families of the crew. We thank everyone in Chuuk for the assistance provided today,' the airline said in their statement. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, crew and their families at this time.' The runway, like others in the north Pacific, is relatively short at 1,831 metres (6,006 feet). It is surrounded on three sides by water. The Chuuk lagoon was a famous World War II battle site and dozens of Japanese vessels and planes are on the lagoon floor, now a tourist attraction for scuba divers. It is not the first time a plane has overshot the runway in Micronesia. In 2008, an Asia Pacific Airlines cargo Boeing 727 overran and ended up with its nose landing gear in the lagoon at the end of the Pohnpei airport runway. The cause of the crash (pictured) is currently unknown, with local authorities preparing a full investigation into the accident Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) said it was preparing to send investigators to Weno. 'We're trying to arrange a team to go there but I cannot give you any more information because I simply don't have it,' a spokesman told AFP. Air Niugini is Papua New Guinea's national airline and lists only one 737-800 among its fleet of 21 aircraft on its official website. According to registration details supplied by the airline, the plane was built in 2005 and had previously been owned by Air India Express and Mumbai-based Jet Airways. The AIC website details an incident involving the aircraft in May this year when a Hercules operated by a freight company clipped the 737's wing while taxiing, causing 'significant damage'. Footage uploaded to social media shows locals on small boats going to the wreckage to rescue passengers Plane landings on water with few serious injuries are rare, but in January 2009 pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles successfully landed a US Airways aicraft in the Hudson River. The plane had run into a flock of geese just northeast of New York City's LaGuardia Airport and lost all engine power, forcing the emergency landing. All 155 people aboard were rescued by nearby boats. It's currently unclear what caused the crash. In their statement Air Niugini said they have been told 'the weather was very poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of incident'. Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission are preparing a team to investigate the site of the accident. Micronesia is an independent island Pacific archipelago north of Australia and east of the Philippines, with a population of around 100,000. An angry passenger demanding a free ride allegedly caused a bus driver to crash into a set of traffic lights. The crash occurred on Prospect Road at Fitzroy in Adelaide's north at around 6.30pm on Thursday night. Police allege the driver was distracted by a passenger, who refused to pay his fare and allegedly threw coins at her face. The driver of this bus (pictured) crashed into traffic lights in Adelaide on Thursday night. No one was injured Nobody was injured during the incident. Extensive damage was caused to the bus, including a smashed windscreen. A South Australia Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia that investigations are continuing into the incident. Police have ruled out any fault by the driver. The crash occurred on Prospect Road in Fitzroy in the city's north Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn will marry this weekend, just days after learning they would not longer face the possibility of being cross-examined by their alleged attacker The wrongly-accused California couple at the center of the so-called Gone Girl rape and kidnapping is due to get married this weekend. Matthew Muller, 41, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2017 after pleading guilty to breaking into the Vallejo, California, home of Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, both 33, while they were sleeping in 2015. Prosecutors said that Muller, a disbarred Harvard University-trained lawyer, tied the couple up, drugged them and then kidnapped and raped Huskins during a two-day ordeal. Police initially believed the kidnapping was so elaborate and bizarre that they dismissed it as a real life 'Gone Girl' hoax plotted by the two victims, Huskins and Quinn. Muller, who is now seeking to have his conviction vacated, had been cleared to represent himself, meaning that he would have the opportunity to cross-examine Huskins his alleged rape victim and Quinn on the witness stand during a preliminary hearing. But, on Monday, Mueller agreed to be represented by a public defender instead and the hearing was postponed until October 22, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Huskins posted this Facebook message after the couple heard that alleged attacked Matthew Muller would be represented by a public defender in a hearing to vacate his conviction The couple also learned that Muller's hearing was postponed until October 22 Police initially believed the March 2015 kidnapping was so elaborate and bizarre that they dismissed it as a real life 'Gone Girl' hoax plotted by victims Huskins and Quinn Matthew Muller, 41, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2017 after pleading guilty to breaking into the Huskins and Quinn's Vallejo, California home in 2015 'We can leave all this alone for a little bit and enjoy a fabulous wedding weekend!' Huskins wrote on Facebook Monday. 'Thank you all again for the thoughts, prayers and support! It made an incredible difference! No matter what, when it comes, we are ready.' Huskins and Quinn are due to marry on Saturday. When Huskins first went missing in March 2015, police deployed 40 officers in the hopes of securing her return, and after she was found, publicly claimed her ordeal had been a hoax, along the lines of the film Gone Girl. She filed a defamation claim and won, resulting in a damages payout and a private apology from police, but has continued to struggle in her fight for justice against her alleged captor. Matthew Muller spoke out for the first time in a prison interview with NBC to claim he is not guilty in the 2015 Gone Girl kidnapping case he pleaded guilty to in 2017 Huskins and her fiance, Aaron Quinn, were subpoenaed on Wednesday to testify at a preliminary hearing, during which the pair may be cross-examined by Muller, as he does not have any legal counsel acting on his behalf. Upon finding out that they stood the possibility of being cross-examined by Muller, Huskins wrote on Facebook on September 19, 'I honestly dont even have words to describe what we are feeling.' The soon-to-be bride said the couple were in need of support as the trial approached, but would not let what could be an incredibly traumatic experience affect their big day. 'We welcome any and all thoughts, prayers and support. We surely will need it as we enter this next battle,' she wrote. 'But we will be ready to celebrate on our wedding day!' Prosecutors have alleged Muller used a remote-controlled drone to spy on his victims before breaking into their home, blindfolding and tying them up in March 2015. He made them drink a sleep-inducing liquid before playing a pre-recorded message that made it seem as if there was more than one kidnapper. Authorities said Muller then put Huskins in the trunk of car and drove to California's South Lake Tahoe where he held her hostage for two days and allegedly raped her twice while demanding a $15,000 ransom from her boyfriend. Muller was given the 40 year sentence as part of a deal for pleading guilty to the kidnapping charge in federal court. He has since claimed he is not guilty, and will be fighting the charges of raping Huskins and assaulting Quinn in court. When explaining why he initially pleaded guilty, Muller told NBC he had fallen into severe depression while being held at a Sacramento jail and didn't care what happened to him. He added he had wanted to help the couple in some way by taking the deal. Muller has denied he had planned the timing of the court case to cause Huskins and Quinn more pain. 'I did not control the timing on this. To suggest somehow Ive plotted to make this happen right before they got married is ridiculous,' he said. A young school girl has shared a photo of a CCTV camera in her school's female toilets, which officials claims is for student's safety. The student from Jubilee Christian College in Atherton, Queensland, took a picture of the camera in the corner of the female toilets before sharing her concerns with the school. The school did not respond to the student's concerns after speaking with the girl's guardian, according to The Courier Mail. A young school girl (pictured) has shared a photo of a CCTV camera in her school's female toilets which had been installed three years ago The guardian said they could only imagine the outrage from parents if this were a public toilet, however as a private and independent school the Christian College is not overseen by the Department of Education. Instead the school is a member of Independent Schools Queensland and Christian Colleges Australia with ISQ executive officer Mark Spencer telling The Courier Mail each school has a high level of autonomy. 'Many Christian schools, and indeed schools more generally, have installed CCTV monitoring for the safety of students and security of property,' he said. Meanwhile the school's board of directors made a public statement regarding the use of the cameras, defending the decision as 'invaluable'. Meanwhile the school's board of directors made a public statement regarding the use of the cameras, defending the decision as 'invaluable' 'Our cameras in the amenities block are positioned to view the hand basins and walkways only, and do not provide any view of the activities in the cubicles,' the board's Floyd Risser said. Only the principal, vice principal and the business manager have access to the recorded footage, which doesn't pick up sound. It was also revealed the cameras had first been installed in 2015 with the school claiming they had no received any complaints in the past. Despite the school's independence Queensland's Attorney General Yvette D'Ath announced that the Queensland Law Reform Commission would focus on the laws around 'civil surveillance'. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Jubilee Christian College for comment. AFL bad boy Dane Swan has been fined and had his licence suspended after being caught drinking driving in Melbourne. The former Collingwood star was reportedly seen being pulled over on Williams Road in Malvern at 11.30am on Friday, hours after he appeared on The Footy Show. Police said a 34-year-old Prahran man was taken to a local station where he was breath-tested and blew a blood alcohol reading of 0.054. AFL bad boy Dane Swan was fined and had his licence suspended after being caught drinking driving in Melbourne He was fined $484 on the spot, had his licence immediately suspended for three months and must have an alcohol interlock device fitted to his car. Witnesses told 3AW they saw Swan with police and his car by the side of the road. Tough new drink-driving laws that began in Victoria on April 30 automatically cancel and suspend the licence of even a first time offender. They must complete a Drink Driver Behaviour Change Program, and must have the interlock device fitted for at least six months, according to VicRoads. The colourful midfielder played 258 games for the Magpies in 2003-16, booting 211 goals and winning the 2011 Brownlow Medal. He also finished runner-up in the 2017 series of Channel Ten's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. Swan (right) was fined $484 on the spot, had his licence immediately suspended for three months and must have an alcohol interlock device fitted to his car Georgia May Gibson was last month charged with posting a video of a nude romp between her and Swan online without his consent The five-time All Australian will need a lift to watch his old team play in the AFL Grand Final on Saturday. Swan's new scandal comes weeks after he was embroiled in an alleged 'revenge porn' attack by a 20-year-old former lover. Georgia May Gibson was last month charged with posting a video of a nude romp between the pair online without his consent. The footy star reported the six-second video to police, and stressed it was shot 'a long time ago' and was 'not a sex tape'. An unruly seal which shocked a kayaker by throwing an octopus in his face was trying to stun its prey before eating it, scientists have revealed. The surprising incident was captured on a GoPro camera off the coast of Kaikoura, on New Zealand's South Island. Kyle Mulinder was paddling when the seal burst out of the water, launched into the air and whipped the octopus directly into his face. The seal was trying to stun the octopus and mistook Mr Mulinder for a rock, according to scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand. The group of content creators were out testing a new GoPro model off the coast of the South Island when Kyle Mulinder (pictured) was caught up in a battle between a seal and octopus 'Seals will often try and get their prey out of the water and above the surface to gain the upper hand in a tussle,' NIWA posted on Facebook. 'Once out of the water they will try flinging them about to stun them. 'At that point it is normal for a seal to try to fling the octopus against a hard object to tear the octopus apart. So to the seal, the kayaker seemed like a reasonable enough object.' Mr Muliner said he was sitting in the middle of the ocean when the seal suddenly emerged. 'I was like ''Mate, what just happened?''' he said. 'I was like "Mate, what just happened?"' The double-whammy was captured on a GoPro off the coast of Kaikoura, New Zealand 'It was weird because it happened so fast but I could feel all the hard parts of the octopus on my face like ''dum dum dum''.' He winced and screamed as his peers erupted into laughter. Although the octopus put up a good fight, Mr Mulinder said the seal came out on top. Four men have been charged over the horrific torture and death of two kangaroos. Police found harrowing footage of two incidents of animal cruelty, thought to have occurred in Western Australia between Saturday 19 May and Saturday 16 June, while searching a man's phone during an unrelated investigation. Joondalup detectives initially charged three men as a result of their investigation into the deaths of two kangaroos. Police will allege the helpless marsupials were beaten, stabbed, shot, spat on and set alight before being killed. Scroll down for video Four men have been charged in relation to a horrific video showing a group of men beating kangaroos to death, which was discovered by police According to police, one kangaroo was burnt, shot with a firearm, spat on and kicked while being held by one of the men. The same kangaroo was then punched numerous times by a man wearing knuckle dusters, police will allege. It is further alleged the men were involved in the torture of another kangaroo that was stabbed with a knife over 20 times before being kicked in the head. A 22-year-old man from Bullsbrook, a 28-year-old man from Aveley and a 26-year-old Woodvale man were charged with animal cruelty offences and possession of items to inflict cruelty. The video shows two incidents of animal cruelty, thought to have occurred in Western Australia on Saturday 19 May and Saturday 16 June Joondalup Detectives also charged a fourth man in relation to their investigation into the torture. In addition, they allege he also tortured an adult chicken on 31 March, by placing it on a fire fuelled by accelerant. A small explosive device was detonated causing injury to the chicken. 'It's graphic, it's disturbing, it's cowardly. In my 17 years of policing it's one of the most disturbing things I've seen hands down,' Senior Constable Paul Giuffre told 9News. The footage was released by officers just days after a man in South Australia filmed himself laughing while running down up to 10 emus in a truck on a country road. All four men appear before the Joondalup Magistrates Court on 28 September 2018. A Mississippi convict who allegedly set a cheerleader ablaze after he had sex with her admitted that he wiped out their text thread after her death. Quinton Tellis, 29, said he deleted messages exchanged with Jessica Chambers, 19, days after she was horrifically murdered December 6, 2014, FBI Special Agent Dustin Blount told the jury Thursday on day three of the suspect's retrial. Tellis reportedly admitted that he had an intimate relationship with Chambers - but said he did not have sex with her the day she was killed. Prosecutors, however, believe Tellis doused Chambers in gasoline and lit her on fire shortly after the two romped in the passenger's seat of her car. Blount further said that Tellis admitted to driving around with the victim hours before her death. The jury was pictured Thursday standing at the scene where the teen was found dead inside her vehicle just weeks before Christmas four years ago. Scroll down for videos Quinton Tellis, 29, (left) is pictured in Mississippi court Wednesday. He is accused of killing 19-year-old Jessica Chambers (right) by setting her on fire in 2014 Tellis is seen center during a court field trip on the third day of his retrial on Thursday. Tellis admitted he had a sexual relationship with Chambers and deleted their text thread after she was murdered in December 2014 Tellis, fourth from right, walks towards his former residence during a court field trip on Thursday People gather before testimony at the scene where Chambers was burned alive The spot where Chambers was burned alive in her car is seen during the third day of the retrial of Tellis on Thursday Prosecutors believe evidence will show Tellis killed Chambers by setting her on fire, but defense attorneys said they cant prove it and that another man killed her. A total of ten emergency responders said during testimony that they heard Chambers speak of a man named 'Eric' or 'Derek' who attacked her that day. Tellis is currently being retried on capital murder charges, after jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict last year. Opening statements began Tuesday. The trial is expected to last through the end of the week. Jurors were selected Monday in Starkville more than 120 miles away because of pretrial publicity. Father of the victim, Ben Chambers, breaks down during testimony in the retrial of Quinton Tellis in Batesville, Mississippi on Wednesday Jurors heard testimony from Jessica's mother, Lisa Chambers (seen left on the witness stand), who talked about the teen's final days Jessica's best friend, Lakesha Meyer, testified about meeting Tellis for the first time, just a few days before the deadly attack Dr. Carolyn Higdon, a speech language pathology expert, told the court that based on Jessica's injuries, the woman would have been unable to utter the names 'Eric' or 'Derrick' Tellis faces another murder indictment in the 2015 stabbing death of another woman in Monroe, Louisiana. Hes already pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of her debit card. The defendant is currently serving a prison sentence in Mississippi on an unrelated burglary charge. Prosecutors say cellphone locations, video, DNA on a keychain and Tellis statements link him to Chambers death. A new witness may testify she picked up Tellis that night near where Chambers was burned. 'Once you hear all the evidence the state offers, youre going to have plenty of evidence to convict him of capital murder,' Panola County Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale told jurors. The defense emphasized that multiple emergency workers heard the dying Chambers say someone named 'Eric' attacked her, calling the prosecutions evidence 'speculation' or 'unreliable.' Defense attorney Darla Palmer urged jurors to disregard evidence about cellphone locations that she said cant prove Tellis and Chambers were in exactly the same place. Deputy Prosecutor Jay Hale holds up a picture of Jessica Chambers in court Tuesday Defense attorney Darla Palmeron gives an opening statement during Day 1 of the retrial Tellis' first trial in 2017 ended in a hung jury because the panel could not reach a verdict 'This evidence is always going to show, its always going to say Eric did it, no matter what the state does to diminish that, and we would ask that you find Quinton not guilty.' Hale said investigators had interviewed many people named Eric or Derek but ruled all of them out. He said that after the inquiry reached a dead end, investigators re-examined Tellis who had been an early suspect. Hale said investigators focused on him after he changed his story and admitted he had been with Chambers later on the Saturday of her death. 'Quinton Tellis had not been truthful to investigators,' Hale said. On the first day of testimony, the jury heard from Jessica's mother, Lisa Chambers, who described in detail the last few days in her daughter's life, reported WREG. Next up on the stand was Jessica's best friend Lakesha Meyer, who recounted how she first met Tellis a few days before Chamber's death, and how she introduced the man as just a friend. Jessica suffered burns to 98 per cent of her body and later died from her injuries After a break, Dr. Carolyn Higdon, a speech language pathology expert, took the witness stand, telling the court that based on her analysis of autopsy photos showing extensive damage to the victim's mouth, larynx and lungs, and her conversations with Chambers' doctor, the young woman would have been unable to utter the names 'Eric' or 'Derrick.' That testimony could help undercut a key defense argument that multiple EMTs heard a dying Chambers say someone named 'Eric' attacked her. Defense attorneys urged jurors to trust that testimony a foundation of their arguments in the first trial. Tellis has always insisted that he is innocent, telling police in the interrogation room, even after being threatened with the death penalty if it went to trial: 'I told the truth. I didn't kill Jessica. It ain't even in my heart to kill nobody.' His family claim that the police are simply looking for someone to blame in the case, which has become a highly charged racial issue after Tellis, who is black, was arrested for the death of the pretty, white cheerleader. Chambers told her mother, Lisa, she was going out to get something to eat at around 5.15pm, on December 6, 2014. Speaking to the producers of the new docu-series 'Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers,' which premiered September 15 on Oxygen, Lisa said she called Jessica while she was out to see what time she would be home. Tellis (left) also faces another murder indictment in Louisiana, where he is accused in the torture death of Meing-Chen Hsiao (right), a 34-year-old Taiwanese graduate student 'I called her and she said ill be home in a little while Momma, but I love you. 'I told her I loved her too. She said, 'See you in a little bit.' 'That's the last I heard from her.' Chambers later stumbled out of the woods near her hometown of Courtland, Mississippi, after she and her car were set on fire. The last time Lisa Chambers saw Jessica alive was at the hospital. Her daughter had suffered burns to 98 per cent of her body and was barely clinging on to life. The volunteer firefighters and first responders who found Jessica were shocked at the state of her injuries, with one describing her as resembling a 'zombie.' He said that one of his fellow firefighters had asked her who had done this to her. 'She said "Eric did this." We were all kinda stunned. During the investigation, police interviewed several people called Eric or Derek, but none were charged. After Tellis was arrested, prosecutors told the court last year that Jessica may have been trying to say another name but her throat and mouth were so badly burned that it only appeared to sound like 'Eric' or 'Derek.' Prosecutor John Champion said during the first trial that Tellis thought he suffocated Chambers while they were having sex before he drove her car to a back road. Prosecutors also showed a number of text messages, which appeared to show Tellis, who was from the same neighborhood as the victim and attended her high school years earlier, pestering Jessica for sex. After he believed he'd choked her to death, Champion said that Tellis ran to his sister's house nearby, jumped in his sisters' car, stopped to pick up gasoline from a shed at his house and torched Chambers' car and her. Tellis also faces another murder indictment in Louisiana, where he is accused in the torture death of Meing-Chen Hsiao, a 34-year-old Taiwanese graduate student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Tellis will not return to Louisiana to face the charges or an indictment until the conclusion of his case in Mississippi because of the extradition agreement. Former CEO of Pinnacle Airlines was fatally shot in in downtown Memphis, Tennessee on Thursday night The former CEO of Pinnacle Airlines has been shot and killed in Tennessee. Father-of-three Philip Trenary, 64, who also served as the CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, was gunned down in a shooting that happened around 8pm Thursday. The shooting took place in the 500 block of South Front Street in an area of high-end apartments in downtown Memphis. He was walking alone across the street from Memphis Farmers Market when he was shot. Police says the gunman sped away from the scene after shooting Trenary in the middle of the street. Cops have described the suspect as a black male with dreadlocks, wearing a blue shirt and driving a white four-door Ford F150. The investigation is ongoing and police and trying to determine the motive. 'It is still unknown whether if this was a robbery, a personal vendetta, or a random act of violence,' Memphis Police Lt. Karen Rudolph told The Commercial Appeal on Friday. The shooting took place in the 500 block of South Front Street in downtown Memphis A horrific scene from the shooting is shown in this Thursday photo in downtown Memphis Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said he is 'shocked at the senseless loss tonight of Phil Trenary, a leader in our community' Trenary is pictured right next to Kathryn Marquart, is a senior majoring in professional pilot with a minor in aviation management at Oklahoma State University Senator Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., talks with Philip Trenary, (L) president and former CEO of Pinnacle Airlines on August 6, 2009 Video courtesy WREG Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland confirmed Trenary's death. Strickland tells The Commercial Appeal: 'My thoughts are with his family and Chamber colleagues.' He also said on Twitter: 'Like many of you, I'm shocked at the senseless loss tonight of Phil Trenary, a leader in our community. 'More than anything in these hours, my thoughts are with his family and Chamber colleagues. Police are looking for a Ford F-150 pickup truck, similar to the one above, that the gunman was said to be driving 'I'm in close contact with MPD, which is leading a thorough investigation.' The Commercial Appeal reports that Trenary - a father-of-three - founded Lone Star Airlines in Oklahoma in 1984. He came to Memphis in 1997 to run a regional airline that morphed into Pinnacle. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam was among those to pay their respects to the family. He tweeted: 'Our hearts are broken with the news of the loss of Phil Trenary. Phil has been a wonderful friend to Crissy and me and a great advocate for Memphis. Our hearts go out to his family and his associates and the Memphis community.' Tennessee Rep. Antonio Parkinson said he spoke to Trenary just 24 hours before his death: He also wrote on Twitter: 'Sometimes you have those friends that you have fought with, learned from and gained a mutual respect and love for. 'We talked yesterday, we planned to hang out and you were coming to the Block Party this weekend. Now you're gone. Praying for the Trenary family.' A man has been charged with killing a twin ten-month-old baby three years after the child died. Karlos Stephens died at Rotorua Hospital in New Zealand in November 2014, and police believed the baby's 'severe' injuries were not accidental. The case was reopened this month, and a 59-year-old man has since been charged with Karlos's murder. Karlos Stephens died at Rotorua Hospital in New Zealand in November 2014, and police believed the baby's 'severe' injuries were not accidental The man appeared in Rotorua District Court on Friday afternoon and was remanded without plea until October, the New Zealand Herald reported. His lawyer Louis Te Kani argued successfully for interim name suppression, saying there were 'issues about his safety' while citing 'emotive issues about killing a baby', Stuff reported. Detective Senior Sergeant Lindsay Pilbrow said the baby sustained 'significant' head injuries. Karlos and his twin brother were living with their extended family when he died, and the caregivers were likely not at home when his injuries were believed to be sustained, according to police. Mr Pilbrow said the explanation provided by the adults living in the house as to how Karlos suffered his injuries was 'vague'. Karlos and his twin brother were living with extended family before he died at Rotorua Hospital (pictured) 'There's a lack of explanation from a small number of specific people who had care of these young children around the events of the weekend, the night before, and how this young baby could have received these injuries,' he said. 'We've never been totally happy with the version of events we've been given. 'Baby Karlos isn't here now to speak for himself.' A 'hypersexual' serial rapist who is one of the most dangerous sex offenders in Australia has escaped from prison and is now on the run. The offender escaped Darwin Correctional Centre at Holtze in the Northern Territory at around 9pm last night after he removed his electronic monitoring device. He was being held in a low security cottage, but was not a serving prisoner. He escaped Darwin Correctional Centre at Holtze in the Northern Territory at around 9pm last night after he removed his electronic monitoring device He had been detained under the serious sex offenders act as he was deemed a danger to the community. Members of the public have been advised not to approach the escaped man as he has been described as 'hypersexual'. It was pointed out that he relies on large doses of anti-psychotic and anti-libidinal medication to control his sex drive. Not only that, but he has a string of security violations while on supervision at Holte. In the past, the sex offender sneaked his girlfriend into the open security cottages for an overnight stay. He is described as a 39-year-old Aboriginal male of slim build and 160cm tall. He has scarring on his face, shoulders, and chest. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh appeared in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday to testify against allegations of sexual assault. And late night talk show hosts found their evening monologues in the emotional, lengthy hearing, questioning why a female lawyer brought in to question accuser Dr Christine Blasey Ford disappeared early into the questioning, and pondering whether the SCOTUS nominee was really aiming for a beer sponsorship. Jimmy Kimmel likened the lawyer - who he says was brought in to soften the optics of 11 white men questioning a woman about sexual assault - to Roseanne after she disappeared early into Kavanaugh's testimony. Rachel Mitchell questioned Ford instead of the republican senators, and was expected to help with the questioning of Kavanaugh too, but senators stopped handing over their five minutes of allocated time once he took the stand. Scroll down for video Jimmy Kimmel kicked off Thursday's late night TV viewing with a monologue mocking Kavanagh's appearance at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Kavanaugh was 'loud, angry and tearful' he said, before launching into a bit about the nominee's beer consumption 'She did ask a couple questions but then all of a sudden, she disappeared, like Roseanne,' said Kimmel. 'The Conners went on without her. 'Why they decided to give her the hook, we don't know.' Kimmel said Ford was an 'exceptionally believable witness', and Kavanaugh was 'loud, angry and tearful'. Kimmel also joked that a female lawyer brought in to help the Republicans disappeared soon after Kavanaugh's hearing began While the comedian appeared unimpressed with the nominee's testimony, Kimmel said he was even less pleased with Kavanaugh's description if his beer consumption as a teenager. A montage of moments the nominee discussed beer in his 45-minute testimony played, showing Kavanaugh keep a straight face as he referenced drinking beer in his youth. 'I drank beer with my friends. Sometimes I had too many beers. I liked beer. I still like beer. I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out. Drinking beer, which I gladly do, if every American who drinks beer, every American who drank beer in high school -- we drank beer,' it began. 'We drank beer. I liked beer. Still like beer. We drank beer. Too many beers, too many beers. We drank beer. We drank beer. I like beer. I like beer. We drank beer. We liked beer. You ever played quarters?' At the end of the clip, a Becks beer was superimposed onto his hand, which had gone for a bottle of water in real life. Kimmel, Fallon and Colbert were all briefly complimentary to Dr Christine Blasey, who also testified on Thursday, accusing Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when the pair were teenagers Jimmy Fallon used his monologue to suggest a list of possible replacements for Kavanaugh. 'Judge Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women and many Republicans are still defending him,' he said. 'Americans were like, "Here's an idea -- just pick a different judge".' 'There's thousands of judges. Anyone! What is Judge Judy up to? Let's get Judge Judy in there. Judge Joe Brown. Simon Cowell. 'I don't care who it is.' Jimmy Fallon suggested in a nation full of judges, they find a replacement for Kavanaugh. He suggested Judge Judy, Simon Cowell and Judge Joe Brown The late-night comic also remarked on the President's whereabouts during the lengthy hearing, which was held in the Dirksen Building in Washington DC. Trump was forced to watch the hearing from his plane, Air Force One, as he returned from New York, where he had been addressing the United Nations General Assembly. 'Trump said he was clearing his schedule to watch on TV, then realized his schedule already said "Watch TV all day",' Fallon joked. 'Actually, Trump watched the hearing while flying on Air Force One. You could tell it wasn't going well, 'cause mid-way through, Trump tried stepping outside to get some air.' Fallon joked Trump had not differed from his usual schedule when he announced he would watch Kavanaugh's hearing on television Colbert's monologue was the most serious of the night, with the comic noting Kavanaugh had alternate definitions to at least two terms. When one senator asked if the SCOTUS hopeful had ever passed out from drinking, he responded: Passed out would be no. Ive gone to sleep, but Ive never blacked out. Yes, yes. I mean, after all, isn't one man's blackout is another man's street nap, Colbert joked. Later, when he was asked about a yearbook entry that described boofing a term defined on the internet as the practice of ingesting alcohol through ones anus, he told the committee: that refers to flatulence, we were 16. Colbert joked that what most people would say is 'passing out' is a mere 'street nap' for Kavanaugh, who told the committee he had never blacked out while drinking Well, the quote in the yearbook was "Have you boofed yet?", Colbert told his audience. So if you believe Kavanaugh, he was saying to his friends, "Hey, you're a teenager-- have you gotten around to farting yet? Man, you gotta try it!" I'm sure that now as a responsible adult, Kavanaugh restricts himself to a single boof of wine with dinner. While Colbert was able to make light of some elements of the day, he concluded on a final, serious note. Perhaps the Kavanaugh quote that sticks with me is his passionate condemnation of the hearing and its repercussions, he said. '"You sowed the wind for decades to come I fear that the whole country will reap the whirlwind". You really need a better weatherman because, brother, this is the whirlwind. And the wind was sown when Donald Trump had 19 credible allegations of sexual assault against him, bragged about sexual assault on tape, and your Republican allies on that committee said, "Yeah, but we want our guy on the supreme court. And that's you, Brett. That doesn't mean you're guilty, but please, save your indignation that finally someone is taking one woman's accusation of sexual assault seriously. James Wilkie, a 47-year-old father of five remains in hospital after being run down by his own car in a botched attempted robbery A man remains in hospital after being run over by his own car as he tried to stop a botched robbery. James Wilkie, a 47-year-old father of five, was run over by his own Jeep Cherokee after hearing the sound of an engine start out the front of his home in Sunbury, Victoria at 4am on Tuesday. He attempted to stop a man from driving away, but was dragged under the car and run over as the thief escaped. Mr Wilkie's wife, Holly, told 9News the robber needed to 'go and find a job and get your own fancy car, stop stealing other people's', after the attack. He sustained serious injuries after the incident, including five broken ribs, a fractured femur and leg wounds. Mrs Wilkie said 'he was screaming in pain' during the ordeal. His treatment is continuing in hospital. The car was later spotted multiple times before it was involved in an accident when it side-swiped an oncoming vehicle in Woodend, north-west of Melbourne. It was found dumped in Macedon three hours later. The offender is still at large, and is described as being in his mid to late 20s, of solid build and dark hair. Police are urging anybody with information to come forward and contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Mr Wilkie's wife, Holly, said the robber needed to 'go and find a job and get your own fancy car, stop stealing other people's', after the attack Two watches, a cigarette case and lighter owned by notorious East End gangsters the Kray twins are to be auctioned. Reggie and Ronnie Kray carved out an crime empire through their gang the Firm in the 1950s and 60s and were both given life prison sentences for murder in 1969. The items, going to auction as a single lot from an anonymous seller, were handed out to others by Reggie Kray while he was an inmate at Wayland Prison in Norfolk. Reggie Kray had spent time in several prisons before being released from Wayland Prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000. The lot includes Reggie Kray's gold and silver wristwatch which was given to him by his wife Roberta (shown right) Reggie and Ronnie Kray (pictured in 1965) carved out an crime empire through their gang the Firm in the 1950s and 60s and were both given life prison sentences for murder in 1969 He died eight weeks later from cancer, aged 66. The lot includes Reggie Kray's gold and silver wristwatch which was given to him by his wife Roberta, and a wristwatch, cigarette case and lighter belonging to Ronnie Kray. Ronnie Kray was 61 when he died of a heart attack in 1995, having never been released. The items, in their original prison sealed bags, come with original prison application forms dated 1999 requesting permission for them to be handed out. Ronnie Kray's items, handed out by his brother after his death, also come with a handwritten note by Governor Walker. It reads: 'Received an application from inmate R. Kray asking for permission to hand over his late brother's [Ronnie Kray's] items.' The auction lot also include a cigarette case and lighter belonging to Ronnie Kray, as well as a Sekonda watch (pictured) Steven Collins, of auctioneers Cheffins, said Kray memorabilia 'only rarely comes to the market'. He added: 'Whatever your views on the Krays and their criminal careers these items are an almost unique opportunity to buy a part of London's most infamous history.' He said Reggie Kray's watch is in the style of a Rolex Oyster Datejust with a jubilee bracelet, but is made of steel, and Ronnie Kray's watch is an inexpensive Sekonda. 'This is unsurprising as I can't imagine either of them would have owned or wore anything of value whilst in prison,' he said. 'It is difficult to put a value on this lot as it could either only make a few hundred pounds or it could sell for thousands to a collector. 'The addition of the original sealed bags and prisoners' application form and the handwritten note from Governor Walker helps to add to desirability and makes the items a pretty rare and sought after collectors piece.' The items will be auctioned at Cheffins in Cambridge on October 18 and have an estimate of 200 to 400. Celeste T. Christian, 21, is being held without bail on attempted murder charges Police say a Chicago mother tried to drown her three-year-old son after posting on social media that the child was dead. Celeste T. Christian, 21, is being held without bail on attempted murder charges and her son is in hospital. The boy remains in critical condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center after the incident on Sunday, the Chicago Tribune reports. Chicago Police say the boy's father dropped him off at Christian's home on the 1700 block of East 79th Street on Sunday. Investigators say she told them she noticed the boy wet himself. She told them she put him in a bath and left him alone for about 10 minutes to check on her two-year-old daughter Chicago police say the boy's father dropped him off at Christian's home on the 1700 block of East 79th Street on Sunday Investigators say she told them she noticed the boy wet himself. She told them she put him in a bath and left him alone for about 10 minutes to check on her two-year-old daughter. When the woman heard splashing, she rushed back to the bathroom and found her young son 'limp' in the water. She added that his legs were stiff and foam was running from his nose and mouth. She called 911 and explained that she did not know CPR. The boy was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center. Police say the hospital where the boy was taken received a call from Gift of Hope, an organ and tissue donor organization, asking if he was there yet. The call was made an hour before his arrival at the hospital. Gift of Hope spokeswoman Shauna Schuda said that hospitals normally contact the organization about potential donors, but did not elaborate on who told them about the boy. After speaking with the boy's father, police learned that Christian had posted on social media that her son had died and that she was making funeral plans. The boy was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center and is in critical condition He claimed that his sister had taken screenshots of the posts, and police arrested and charged the 21-year-old mother. State child welfare officials are investigating the incident as well. According to Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokesman Neil Skene, Christian was looked into on Monday for 'torture, inadequate supervision and substantial risk of physical injury or environment injurious to health and welfare.' Three prior investigations have been conducted on Christian, all coming from domestic violence involving a man. Those were done in August and October 2016 and in December 2017. 'She was indicated in all three investigations for posing a risk of harm to her children, but in none of the cases was there a finding of actual physical harm to a child,' Skene added. The two-year-old girl is in the care of an aunt but DCFS plans to take custody of both children. A Sydney strip club regular who shot a man and left him for dead in a luxury hotel room after a 30-hour bender will spend the next 20 years behind bars. Hasan Fazlilar, 32, was sentenced to 26 years jail with a non-parole period of 19 years and six months for the 'senseless' killing of Central Coast man Donovan Mileham. New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Natalie Adams said Mr Mileham's death was a case of mistaken identity, which stemmed from the killer thinking he was a police informant. Hasan Fazlilar, 32 (pictured), was sentenced to 26 years jail with a non-parole period of 19 years and six months for the 'senseless' killing of Central Coast man Donovan Mileham Fazlilar and Mileham were partying at the infamous Kings Cross strip club and brothel, Love Machine (pictured), before going back to the Fraser Suites. Justice Adams said Fazlilar was an extreme drug user who had consumed a cocktail of crystal meth, cocaine and whisky on the night he partied with Mr Mileham. The pair were partying at the infamous Kings Cross strip club and brothel, Love Machine, with its co-owner Elias Dimarelis, before going back to the Fraser Suites. The court heard Fazlilar then became paranoid about Mr Mileham after he found a contact in the man's phone called 'police crime'. Thinking Mr Mileham was associated with the police, Fazlilar beat him over the head with a pistol, before shooting him in the leg, as he lay there whimpering. After the shooting, Fazlilar and eyewitness Elias Dimarelis apparently left Mr Mileham in the luxury suite. When the 44-year-old's body was eventually found by hotel staff, it's understood it had been there for 38 hours. NSW Supreme Court Justice Natalie Adams said Donovan Mileham's (pictured) death was a case of mistaken identity, which stemmed from the killer thinking he was a police informant Justice Adams said she believes Mr Mileham, who was found in a foetal position on a couch, could have survived if he had been given immediate medical attention. The court also heard that the fatal bullet fired into his leg had passed through his bowel and struck a vital vein. Despite the mountain of evidence that linked Fazlilar to the crime scene, he continually denied being at the hotel, pleaded not guilty at trial and plans to appeal. Regardless, fingerprints, CCTV, the victim's blood on his shoe, and Dimarelis' evidence in court all linked Fazlilar with the murder. When the verdict was handed down on Friday, some of Mr Mileham's family were present in the courtroom, including his brothers Dustin Mileham and Danie Sims. As they entered the courtroom, the brothers carried portraits of their older brother. 'My brother was a good man, a normal bloke like us ... and then he met that psychopath,' Mr Mileham's brother told AAP outside court. With the time Fazlilar has already served in jail, after been sentenced, he'll be eligible for parole in May 2035. Thousands of passengers across Europe have been left stranded after Ryanair cancelled around 250 flights today due to strikes by staff. A dispute over pay and conditions between the budget airline and staff in six European countries saw them walk out for 24 hours, affecting 35,000 flyers. Among those affected was Danielle Breckenridge, who was hoping to be able to make it to her father's wedding in eastern Europe with her baby daughter. The 29-year-old, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, said she first learned their flight from Luton had been cancelled at 4.50am - 10 minutes before she was due to leave. Passengers from England wait in front of closed Ryanair after being stranded at Weeze airport near the German-Dutch border today A Ryanair worker takes part in a protest inside the departure hall during a strike by Ryanair workers of several European countries Ryanair customers vented their fury on social media, with many given less than 24 hours' notice of their flight cancellation A dispute over pay and conditions between the budget airline and staff in six European countries will see them walk out for 24 hours The wedding party of 17 had been due to fly to Lithuania on Friday morning for the wedding across the border in Poland the following day. She and five others have now been booked on to a flight to Warsaw from Stansted, but there was no guarantee that the remaining guests, including the ring bearer, would be able to travel in time. The bridesmaid said: 'The only thing I can say is imagine missing your dad's wedding because someone told you 10 minutes before you were supposed to leave to get your transfer that it's not happening. 'There are no words to describe that.' Ms Breckenridge said the six replacement flights had been booked as a result of her father speaking to Ryanair's chief executive. She added: 'We've been trying to do this ourselves, trying to think how to get there ourselves. No representative (from Ryanair) has helped as at all.' Other people due to fly on Friday expressed their frustration on Twitter. One user claimed to have been left on the runway with 'no explanation or apology', while another called the company's response 'absolutely disgraceful'. Ryanair had cancelled 150 flights due to an 'unnecessary' strike in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy. On Thursday the airline said pilots in Germany would also be going on strike, with up to 100 flights shelved as a result. Ryanair customers queue at a customer service desk in Valencia, Spain, as passengers were greeted to the news that hundreds of flights have been cancelled Stranded passengers of low-cost air carrier Ryanair take a selfie as they queue for hotel vouchers or new tickets Passengers watch representatives of Ryanair airlines employees protest at Brussels Charleroi Airport in Gosselies, Belgium Ryanair said those affected would be entitled to a full refund or offered seats on alternative flights, but said it would be rejecting any compensation claims as the strikes are deemed 'extraordinary circumstances'. Ryanair's chief operations officer Peter Bellew said the action was 'deeply regrettable'. 'It is deeply disappointing that some of our customers and our people in Germany tomorrow will have their flights disrupted by an unnecessary strike called at short notice,' he said. The strikes are the latest in a series of walkouts by staff at Europe's largest low-cost airline. On September 12 dozens of flights were cancelled in Germany after pilots and flight attendants refused to work for 24 hours. In August several days of strikes involving staff in Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands saw hundreds of flights cancelled. Earlier this month Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said strikes by pilots were necessary to keep air fares down. He insisted industrial disputes with the airline's staff have caused 'minimal disruption' as he pledged not to 'roll over'. Today's strikes (pictured) are the latest in a series of walkouts by staff at Europe's largest low-cost airline An Oklahoma mother and her 11-year-old daughter mysteriously vanished two weeks ago, and police are asking the public for assistance in locating them. The Los Angeles Police Department said Amanda Kay Key, 40, and her daughter, Haley Marie Vilven, were last spotted on September 15 near Union Station in the city. Police said the mother is white with brown hair and brown eyes and 5'7" and weighs 160 pounds. The child also has brown hair and eyes, is 4'10" and weighs 100lbs. It's unclear what Key and the child were wearing. Los Angeles police said Amanda Kay Key, 40, and her daughter, Haley Marie Vilven, 14, have gone missing The mother has reportedly been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Anyone with further information on their whereabouts is asked to contact the Los Angeles Police Department's Missing Persons Unit. The unit can be reached at 213-996-1800. Anonymous tips may also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS. An Indian immigrant Uber driver has pleaded guilty to sexual assault after locking a woman in his Uber when he was supposed to be dropping her home. Satveer Singh, 25, only let the young victim escape his car after she gave him her mobile number, which he proceeded to contact her on the very next day. Text message evidence provided in court shows him writing: 'hi, how was you last night. I hope everything is good,' followed by another text three hours later reading 'I think you forget about me'. An Indian immigrant Uber driver pleaded guilty to sexual assault after locking a woman in his Uber when he was supposed to be dropping her home (stock image) Text message evidence provided in court shows him writing: 'hi, how was you last night. I hope everything is good,' followed by another text three hours later reading 'I think you forget about me' Singh had his student visa cancelled after he was charged for the assault, and has spent the last year in custody. 300 of those days were spent on Christmas Island in immigration detention, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported. The court heard the attack took place after the 20-year-old victim got in the Uber after a night drinking in Surfers Paradise, on the Gold Coast in September of 2017. Judge David Kent said the young woman 'was vulnerable, alone and alcohol effected and the circumstances between the two of you created a position of trust.' He said Singh breached the position of trust he had with the victim. Crown prosecutor Michael Connelly said Singh parked in a bay near her house and forced himself on her, locking the car doors. Satveer Singh, 25, only let the young victim escape his car after she gave him her mobile number, of which he proceeded to contact her on the very next day (stock image) She was allegedly initially confused by the contact, and kept telling him he shouldn't have been doing what he was doing, and continued to ask him what he was doing throughout the ordeal. He bit her lip hard enough to cause bruising. The court heard Singh proceeding to lift her dress and sexually assault her. CCTV footage of the car park prove his car was stopped in the bay for 27 minutes. The court heard when the young woman was finally permitted to leave the car, she sat on the ground and cried. When confronted by a security guard, Mr Connelly said the guard recalls her 'rocking and sobbing at the same time. She made the complaint and said 'I have been raped'.' Judge Kent sentenced Singh to a three year good behaviour bond, citing the time he'd spent in immigration detention and custody as longer than what he would have been sentenced to. Oxford University students have accused bosses of 'treating us like kids' after limiting overnight stays for guests to twice a month to cut out noisy parties and curb loud sex. Several colleges require requests a month in advance and Hertford College are clear that students will breach their tenancy without 'written permission' for stays. And guest numbers are also limited to one per room to avoid raucous behaviour or banned completely. Away from halls Oxford students have enjoyed one of their 'wildest' years in history with a series of debauched events. Dons have already vowed to shut down the notorious Piers Gaveston Society orgy-filled summer party where drunken students allegedly whipped virgins during live sex shows and got high in a 'drugs tent'. Partying at Oxford (pictured) has become a controversial issue after a series of out of control events hit the headlines and some colleges are now limiting guests But students have complained that in contrast there is too little freedom in their own rooms. One student told The Sun: 'This shows just how hopelessly out of touch the colleges are. It's like they were written in the 17th Century, when sex was illegal outside of marriage.' Another said: 'If they want us to act maturely, they could start by giving us responsibility instead of treating us like kids. 'Perhaps that's why Oxford students go so mad at parties, as they're forced to repress it.' Oxford colleges have strict rules about guests and are known to enforce them. Students at St Hugh's College must 'seek advance permission from the Dean' - while Brazenose says that visitors are only permitted approximately once a week. St John's says that guests are only permitted if there is an email in advance and visits cannot be frequent. Magdalen College has an outright ban and guests need a separate room costing 90 per night. Oxford says policies vary from college to college but they need to know who is inside halls at all times A university spokesman said: 'Colleges need to know how many are on the premises. This is a basic safety requirement in case of fire or other emergency. 'Every individual college has this responsibility and each has a policy to ensure they meet it.' Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has incorrectly stated multiple times that he was legally allowed to consume beer as a prep school senior in Maryland. Kavanaugh's drinking has come under intense scrutiny after California professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford alleged that a heavily intoxicated Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were both teenagers at a Maryland house party during the summer of 1982. The legal drinking age in that state was raised to 21 on July 1, 1982, before Kavanaugh turned 18 on February 12, 1983. Kavanaugh, who incorrectly made the claim in testimony on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, has denied Ford's assault accusations, as well as those of more recent accusers, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnik. The Senate Judiciary Committee will conduct the first procedural vote on Kavanaugh's nomination on Friday at 1.30pm ET. Scroll down for video Brett Kavanaugh has repeatedly said that he was legally allowed to consume beer as a prep school senior in Maryland, but he turned 18 after the legal drinking age was raised to 21; Kavanaugh is pictured here while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC on Friday The Senate Judiciary Comittee's vote formalizes the committee's recommendation whether Kavanaugh should be appointed to the Supreme Court, before the full Senate vote, to come later. The motion to commence with the final steps in the nomination confirmation process rather than wait for an FBI investigation into the claims brought forward by Ford, Ramirez and Swetnik passed by a vote of 11-8. Ford and Kavanaugh both testified on Thursday before the committee related to his alleged sexual assault of her, while she said Mark Judge was in the room. Renate Dolphin, who signed a letter in support of US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, has learned there was a running joke 'about hooking up with her' in his high school yearbook; Kavanaugh's personal page in the yearbook is shown here with 'Renate Alumnius' Dr. Christine Blasey Ford (left) has stated repeatedly that Kavanaugh (right) pinned her to a bed and covered her mouth with such force that she feared he might accidentally kill her, as he tried to remove her clothing while his friend watched, during a party in high school; Kavanaugh has denied that claim Ford has stated repeatedly that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and covered her mouth with such force that she feared he might accidentally kill her, as he tried to remove her clothing while his friend watched, during a party in high school. Ford conducted herself with decorum and maintained a professional demeanor throughout her testimony. Kavanaugh became emotional, visibly crying and often raising his voice. He repeatedly talked over senators as they asked him questions. On multiple occasions he responded to direct questions by asking questions back at the senators. Last week, a second sexual misconduct allegation came to light against Kavanaugh by Deborah Ramirez. Ramirez stated that the nominee exposed himself to her, putting his penis near her face and ultimately forcing her to touch it without her consent during his freshman year at Yale University, at some time in the 1983-84 academic year, as reported by the New Yorker. Additional sexual assault and misconduct allegation came to light against Kavanaugh by Julie Swetnik (left) and Deborah Ramirez (right), respectively And on Wednesday, Julie Swetnik alleged in a sworn statement that she saw Kavanaugh at multiple house parties in the Washington, DC area between 1981-83, where she witnessed him and Judge engaging in conduct that included the 'fondling and grabbing of girls without their consent.' Swetnik also implied that Kavanaugh may have participated in multiple 'gang rapes' by 'running a train' on women at these parties. Swetnik said that Kavanaugh was present at a party where such an incident happened to her, personally, in approximately 1982. Kavanaugh has denied each of these allegations. On Wednesday, Swetnik alleged in a sworn statement that she saw Kavanaugh at multiple house parties in the Washington, DC area between 1981-83, where she witnessed him and Judge engaging in conduct that included the 'fondling and grabbing of girls without their consent' Swetnik also implied that Kavanaugh may have participated in multiple 'gang rapes' by 'running a train' on women at these parties Swetnik said that Kavanaugh was present at a party where 'a "gang" or "train rape"' happened to her, personally, in approximately 1982 At least two other allegations were brought to the committee, Senator Lindsay Graham said on Friday. One was anonymous, and the other, Graham said, was 'not true.' Renate Dolphin, one of 65 women who signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh learned this week that there was a running joke that seemed to imply he had 'hooked up' with her in his high school yearbook. Renate Dolphin, one of 65 women who signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh, learned this week of multiple 'Renate Alumnius' references in Kavanaugh's senior yearbook. Renate Dolphin, one of 65 women who signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh learned this week that there was a running joke that seemed to imply he had 'hooked up' with her in his high school yearbook; Dolphin is shown here in a photo from her 1983 senior yearbook 'I cant begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way. I will have no further comment,' Dolphin said; Dolphin is pictured here in a recent, undated photo Dolphin attended an all-girls high school near Georgetown Preparatory School, the all-boys high school Kavanaugh attended in North Bethesda, Maryland. 'I learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago. I dont know what "Renate Alumnus" actually means,' Dolphin said in a statement to the New York Times. 'I cant begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way. I will have no further comment.' Kavanaugh denies the 'Renate Alumnius' refers to anything overtly sexual. 'Judge Kavanaugh and Ms. Dolphin attended one high school event together and shared a brief kiss good night following that event,' Kavanaughs lawyer Alexandra Walsh, told the Times. 'They had no other such encounter.' Dolphin however, refutes that account, telling the Times through her lawyer: 'I think Brett must have me confused with someone else, because I never kissed him.' Kavanaugh was one of 13 graduating seniors who referred to Dolphin in some way in their Georgetown Prep senior yearbook. Four of those men have released a statement explaining the 'Renate Alumnus' references away as 'intended to allude to innocent dates or dance partners and were generally known within the community of people involved for over 35 years,' stating that the comments were 'never controversial.' However, Dolphin said she only just learned of the quotes throughout the senior yearbook, on her peers' personal pages. The references shed light into the mindset of a high school and soon-to-be-college-aged Kavanaugh, during the times when he is now accused of committing sexual assault and misconduct, which he denies. Several members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and other senators have called for an FBI investigation into the claims against Kavanaugh. When asked if Kavanaugh would support such an investigation, Kavanaugh did not give a straight answer on Thursday, instead saying he would do whatever the committee wanted. A royal commission has slammed the major banks for being so greedy they charged the dead and lied to customers. Former High Court judge Kenneth Hayne has savaged the conduct of Australia's financial institutions, after hearing of how customers, dead and alive, had been cheated of their life savings. 'Too often, the answer seems to be greed the pursuit of short-term profit at the expense of basic standards of honesty,' he said in an interim report released on Friday afternoon. 'How else is charging continuing advice fees to the dead to be explained?' Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party which initially opposed the royal commission, described the report as a 'frank and scathing assessment' of Australia's financial services culture. Scroll down for video Former High Court judge Kenneth Hayne has savaged the conduct of Australia's financial institutions, after hearing of how customers, dead and alive, had been cheated The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry heard in April heard how Commonwealth Bank advisers charged dead clients for financial advice, in one case doing so for a decade. Commonwealth Bank planners were not reported to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and were let off with warnings, the $75million inquiry heard. Australia's biggest home lender made a $9.23billion net cash profit for 2018. Less than a fortnight later, the royal commission was told that wealth manager AMP had charged fees without delivering any service, and had misled the corporate watchdog, ASIC. This scandal led to the resignation of AMP chairwoman Catherine Brenner and its chief executive, Craig Meller, who was on an $8.3million package. The royal commission heard how Commonwealth Bank charged dead clients for advice, in one case for a decade (Marianne Perkovic, CBA's executive general manager of private pictured) AMP's chairwoman Catherine Brenner (right) and its chief executive Craig Meller (left) resigned following revelations fees were charged for no service and ASIC was misled AMP's group executive of wealth solutions and chief customer officer, Paul Sainsbury, this month told the royal commission AMP had charged more than 3,100 customers about $922,000 in extra life insurance premiums despite being told the member had died. Mr Hayne's interim report also criticised the corporate regulator ASIC and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which covers the banks, for being too weak. 'When misconduct was revealed, it either went unpunished or the consequences did not meet the seriousness of what had been done,' he said. Commonwealth Bank planners were not reported to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and were let off with warnings, the $75million inquiry heard Mr Hayne's interim report also criticised the corporate regulator ASIC and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which covers the banks, for being too weak 'The conduct regulator, ASIC, rarely went to court to seek public denunciation of and punishment for misconduct. The prudential regulator, APRA, never went to court.' He also slammed the bonus systems that encouraged bank staff to sell unsuitable products. 'Banks searched for their 'share of the customer's wallet',' he said. 'From the executive suite to the front line, staff were measured and rewarded by reference to profit and sales.' Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party which initially opposed the royal commission said it was a 'frank and scathing assessment' of the finance industry Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said banks and other financial institutions had 'put profits before people'. He said it was clear bad behaviour had permeated the culture of the big banks, with misconduct going largely unpunished. Associate Professor Shumi Akhtar said new laws were needed to protect savings 'This interim report is a frank and scathing assessment of the culture, conduct and compliance of our financial system,' Mr Frydenberg told reporters in Melbourne. 'Australians expect and deserve better.' University of Sydney Business School Associate Professor Shumi Akhtar, an expert on corporate governance, said the royal commission highlighted the need for new laws to safeguard retirement savings. 'The inquiry has revealed how widespread financial crime has been in the banking and superannuation industry for so long,' she said. 'It also shows how inefficient our financial institutions have been and continue to be without the government taking any legitimate steps to resolve the issues. 'Excessive fees damage retirement savings dramatically over time once compounding interest is taken into account.' The $75million inquiry has received more than 9300 public submissions, and has held public hearings since March. A final report is being delivered in February unless Mr Hayne, a Queen's Counsel, requests a time extension from the government. A Soviet officer credited with preventing nuclear Armageddon 35 years ago has been posthumously awarded for 'saving the world'. The actions of Stanislav Petrov in 1983 likely averted an all-out nuclear war between the United States and Russia. Petrov was monitoring radar in Moscow when it showed that America had launched nuclear bombs at Russia, but as Petrov correctly suspected the attack to be false, he decided not to retaliate. Stanislav Petrov, who died in May last year aged 77, was honoured with the Future of Life Award to 'celebrate that today is not the 35th anniversary of WWIII' This week, Petrov was honored with the Future of Life Award at the Museum of Mathematics in New York, to 'celebrate that today is not the 35th anniversary of World War III'. His daughter Elena, who only learned about her late father's heroism more than 15 years later, in 1998, accepted the $50,000 award on his behalf. Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said: 'It is hard to imagine anything more devastating for humanity than all-out nuclear war between Russia and the United States. 'Yet this might have occurred by accident on September 26 1983, were it not for the wise decisions of Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov. 'For this, he deserves humanity's profound gratitude. Let us resolve to work together to realize a world free from fear of nuclear weapons, remembering the courageous judgement of Stanislav Petrov.' Stanislav Petrov, a former Soviet lieutenant colonel credited with averting a nuclear Armageddon during the Cold War, passed away aged 77 in May 2017 Petrov was in charge of monitoring Russian radar on the night of September 26, 1983, when it showed America had launched five nukes - calling for an immediate response (file image) Petrov's actions and the nuclear near-miss went completely unacknowledged until military documents were declassified in 1998, bringing his heroism to light. Even his wife, who died in 1997, was unaware that her husband had helped to avoid what almost certainly would have escalated into World War Three. Speaking about the night in question - September 26, 1983 - the former lieutenant colonel told the Associated Press that the decision was '50/50'. He said he witnessed growing panic among his subordinates as warning sirens went off and how his 'legs went limp'. From the moment the first alarm sounded, Petrov had just 15 minutes to decide whether or not to report the launch, and Russia had 30 minutes to decide whether or not to respond. Russia was genuinely fearful of a surprise attack by America at the time, after its military shot down a passenger plane flying to South Korea from the U.S., suspecting it of spying. The United States, after a series of provocative military maneuvers, was preparing for a major NATO exercise, called Able Archer, which simulated preparations for a nuclear attack. But Petrov (pictured in 2013 collecting the Dresden Prize) correctly identified the reading as a fake, and it was later confirmed to be nothing more than sunlight reflecting off some clouds Had Petrov reported the warning as genuine, it could have prompted his commanders to launch retaliatory strikes against America - leading to World War Three (file image) But figuring that America would have launched far more than five missiles in the case of an actual attack, Petrov reported that the alarm was a dud. His decision was backed by more-reliable ground radar systems, which had failed to detect anything, but he recalled being far from certain when he made his report. It turned out that his assumptions were correct, but rather than being rewarded, his actions were covered up by superiors, likely embarrassed by the failure of their early warning systems. Accolades would only come years later after blogger Karl Schumacher convinced Petrov to travel to Germany with him, where his story could be told. In the next several years Petrov was honored with an award from the Association of World Citizens which said: 'To the man who averted nuclear war.' Petrov was later given the German Media Prize, previously handed to Mandela and the Dalai Lama, and the Dresden Peace Prize, which is awarded for avoiding conflict. Perhaps fittingly for a man whose greatest accomplishment went unnoticed for decades, Petrov passed away quietly May, 2017 in a small town near Moscow. His death only became known to the wider world several months later, when Schumacher called on September 7 to wish him a happy birthday, and was told he had died. A stubborn crocodile is on the move to a licensed farm after it was finally flushed out of a sewage pond this week. Dubbed 'crapodile', the 2.1m saltwater specimen was carefully removed by wildlife officers from the Port Douglas Wastewater Treatment Plant in Far North Queensland. The crafty croc had previously eluded capture for six months, with the treatment plant next to Dickson Inlet, a known habitat for crocodiles. A rogue crocodile was finally caught this week at a Port Douglas sewage plant - it had avoided capture since March The crocodile on its way to a licensed farm after it was removed by wildlife officers this week from a sewage plant in Port Douglas A DES spokeswoman confirmed wildlife officers had taken the aquatic reptile to a specialised holding facility. 'It will be transported to a licensed crocodile farm,' she said. Douglas Shire Mayor Julie Leu was relieved the crocodile was in new living surroundings, with local workers at ease now that the predator has been moved on. 'Council held some concerns about the crocodile's presence in the plant's overflow pond,' she said. 'We are thankful for the rangers' efforts to trap the animal.' The department has also discussed fencing options with the local council to prevent future unwanted guests calling the pond home. Earlier this year, Port Douglas man Clayton Grey was urged by police to quickly make his way inside after a 3m crocodile was spotted just metres from his front door. Eventually the crocodile moved on, finding a storm water drain which led to neighbouring Ferndale Lake, an area in Port Douglas' Warri Park. A 20-year-old Aboriginal activist has pleaded guilty to the assault of a police officer and resisting arrest after stealing a curry from 7-Eleven. Leilani Clarke, from Townsville, allegedly kneed a police officer in the testicles having just been caught stealing a chicken curry from a 7-Eleven store in Marrickville, Sydney, with two male accomplices. The incident is said to have occurred on June 26 just after midnight, with police describing Clarke's behaviour as 'highly erratic and unpredictable'. Leilani Clarke (pictured), originally from Townsville, allegedly kneed a police officer in the testicles having just been caught shoplifting a chicken curry from a 7-Eleven store Clarke and one of the males, Phillip, went into the store while the other male, Max, waited outside, according to court documents obtained by news.com.au, Clarke is understood to have put a Butter Chicken Curry meal worth $7 in her bag as Phillip stuffed a Big Bite hotdog down his jeans. Police said that when shopkeeper Ketankumar Khush Chaudhar approached the pair, Phillip and Max assaulted him before leaving the shop with Clarke. Mr Chaudhar had activated his security alarm and was reviewing his CCTV footage with police less than 10 minutes after the incident when Clark and the two males allegedly walked back past the shop. According to court documents, Clarke and one of the males, Phillip, went into the store while the other male, Max, waited outside the 7-Eleven store (pictured) Clarke is understood to have put a Butter Chicken Curry meal worth $7 in her bag as Phillip stuffed a Big Bite hotdog down his jeans It was then that police reportedly arrested Phillip and Max for assault and gave Clarke a caution for shoplifting. According to the court papers, police believed Clarke was under the influence of alcohol and as they searched her for anything she could use to harm herself or others, she began flailing her arms and they handcuffed her. Clarke allegedly screamed abuse at the officers numerous times and then 'coughed and spit up some phlegm in the mouth before spitting forward in the direction of Police'. As one male police officer attempted to remove a scarf from around her neck, Clarke 'lifted her right knee suddenly into the victim's groin causing intense pain in his testicles'. Clarke allegedly screamed abuse at the officers numerous times and then 'coughed and spit up some phlegm in the mouth before spitting forward in the direction of Police' As one male police officer attempted to remove a scarf from around her neck, Clarke 'lifted her right knee suddenly into the victim's groin causing intense pain in his testicles' Clarke was then taken to Newtown Police Station and 'entered into a time out for 'intoxicationdue to her continuing aggressive behaviour and highly intoxicated state she was not offered an interview'. The 20-year-old reportedly pleaded guilty to assaulting an officer in the execution of duty and resisting arrest in the execution of duty. She was given a 12-month bond at Newtown Local Court yesterday. In June this year, Clarke spat at another police officer and assaulted a paramedic who had been trying to take her to hospital. She is said to have screamed: 'F**k you white dogs. I'm smart not dumb. I got three more degrees than you'll ever have.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Newtown Court House for further information. President Donald Trump said Friday that he found the testimony by a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh decades ago to be 'very compelling,' but declared that he has given no consideration to the idea of nominating someone else. 'Not even a little bit,' Trump said. Hours later he was ordering the FBI to probe Christine Blasey Ford's allegations as part of a deal to salvage any chance of Senate confirmation next week. Republicans requested the investigation after holdout Sen. Jeff Flake demanded it. The president told reporters that Ford 'was a very credible witness' but also that Kavanaugh's own testimony on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee was 'an incredible moment.' Reiterating his support for Kavanaugh, Trump said, 'I think it will work out very well for the country.' The president also expressed confidence in the confirmation process as an 11th-hour demand from a key Republican senator again threatened to derail the timeline for a Senate vote. 'I'm going to let the Senate handle that, they'll make their decisions and they've been doing a good job and very professional,' he said. 'I'm sure it will all be very good.' President Donald Trump said during a meeting with Chilean president Sebastian Pinera in the Oval Office that he hasn't given any thought to replacing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, even though he found his sexual-abuse accuser Christine Ford 'credible' Ford (left) claims that during a drunken high school party in 1982, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and groped her while trying to take off her clothes, ultimately putting his hand over her mouth to muffle her cries for help; Kavanaugh says it never happened and Ford has presented no corroborating evidence Trump said he was 'just hearing' about comments from Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who called for a delay in the Senate vote for up to a week for more investigation. Ultimately senators asked for a week-long FBI probe to resolve the sexual abuse allegations, and Trump agreed. 'Ive ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaughs file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week,' he said in a statement. Trump missed hardly a moment of Thursday's hearing, relying on DVRs to keep up on the hearing from his private office on Air Force One as he traveled from New York to Washington, and continuing to monitor it back at the White House, where Ford's voice echoed from TVs around the building. Within moments of the eight-hour proceedings concluding, Trump tweeted his approval of Kavanaugh's performance and called on the Senate to move swiftly to a vote. 'His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting,' Trump said. 'Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!' Ford's tearful recounting of allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school led Trump to express sympathy for Kavanaugh and his family for having to listen to the testimony, according to two Republicans close to the White House but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations. They added that Trump expressed some frustration at the process - and the staff work that led Kavanaugh to this point. President Trump said he would go along with Senate Republicans' call for a new FBI probe of Ford's claims, punting the ball to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell After seeing Ford's powerful testimony, White House aides and allies expressed concern that Kavanaugh, whose nomination already seemed to be teetering, would have difficulty to deliver a strong enough showing to match hers. White House officials believe Kavanaugh's passionate denials of Ford's claims, including the judge's tearful description of the impact the accusations had on his family, met the challenge. A White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly said the West Wing saw the judge's opening statement as 'game changing' and said Trump appeared to react positively. Trump told associates after the hearing that he liked Kavanaugh's fighting attitude and was critical of Democrats who he sees as politicizing the process, said a person familiar with his thinking who was not authorized to disclose private conversations. He was happy with Republicans on the committee, though he was not impressed with the questioning from an outside female prosecutor. While he acknowledges the vote will be close, he currently thinks they will get there. Actress Alyssa Milano was caught filming parts of the hearing of Dr Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh yesterday, breaking the rules of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Footage shows Milano filming as Kavanaugh gave his testimony, and a security guard walking up to her from behind and ordering her to stop. While non-flash photography is allowed, only accredited members of the press are permitted to record video in the Committee hearing room. Despite this, Milano could be seen filming during the hearing, and also posted several videos from it on her Twitter account. Breaking the rules: Actress Alyssa Milano had to be told by a security guard to stop filming the hearing as only accredited journalists may record video in the Committee hearing room Milano, a leading voice in the #MeToo movement, tweeted throughout yesterday's Supreme Court confirmation hearing. 'The @GOP were worried about the optics of a group of men questioning Dr. Ford about sexual assault. They should have been worried about the optics of a group of men with a lack of humanity not questioning Dr. Ford about sexual assault,' she wrote. She also took to Twitter to ask Republican Senators Jeff Flake and Ted Cruz to 'not to give up your time and humanity by relinquishing your questioning to counsel. 'Show Dr. Ford respect and decency by asking her any questions you may have. Look her in the eye. Allow yourself to feel something.' The Charmed actress also posted a video of Kavanaugh's emotional defence, captioning it: 'I will say this...if a woman were to yell, interrupt and cry while being questioned, people would call her unhinged or say she had a melt down.' Support: Milano, seen sitting behind Kavanaugh during his testimony, attended the hearing to show support for Dr Christine Blasey Ford as she testified Milano, a leading voice in the #MeToo movement, tweeted throughout yesterday's Supreme Court confirmation hearing Milano, who was invited as guest of California senator Dianne Feinstein, said she traveled from Los Angeles 'to show support for Doctor [Christine Blasey] Ford, to stand in solidarity with other women, other survivors that have been through similar experiences.' 'I think the most beautiful thing that's come out of the last two years is really understanding that women are here for each other. To be part of that is very special,' Milano told AFP. 'I think it will be very difficult for all of us,' said Milano, who has been active in anti-Kavanaugh protests. 'I think that we all know that this is hard for her, this is not something she's really choosing to do but something that she feels that she has to do.' Speaking in the packed hearing room shortly before Blasey Ford began to testify, Milano acknowledged it was likely a terrifying moment for the California psychology professor. 'I'm terrified for her sitting here, so I completely understand. It's very intimidating,' said Milano. Principal Aqueelha James was recorded mocking a child who claimed she was sexually abused A high school principal has been recorded ridiculing a student who reported a sexual assault. Aqueelha James can be heard on tape mocking the child in front of colleagues at Roosevelt High School in Washington DC. James was placed on paid leave Thursday. The pupil had approached James in June 2017 to report that she'd been sexually assaulted in the school bathroom when a male student forced her into a stall, kissed her and put his hand up her dress. She said he left a hickey on her neck. The child and her mother met with the headteacher in her office in July 2017, where James was initially sympathetic and supportive. 'I'm here to support and be of assistance. I don't like the idea that your daughter has been assaulted sexually. It is a crime,' James told the pair in audio obtained by The Washington Post. But after the parent and her daughter left the room, James was recorded mocking the girl's clothes and saying she planned to 'embarrass her a**' by casting doubt on her credibility with police. 'I'm sick and tired of her and her mom,' James said in the recording, made by the girl's mother on her cellphone. 'This is a bunch of bulls***.' 'This . . . is going to compromise her,' James said on the recording. 'So I'm going to call MPD, I'm going to have a long, drawn-out email just so that I can embarrass her.' The parent had left the phone in the office unintentionally when she went to console her daughter outside, it's claimed. That audio is now evidence in a lawsuit against the principal and the D.C. government seeking at least $5million in damages. James was recorded ridiculing the pupil in her office at Roosevelt High School in Washington, DC D.C. Public Schools said on Wednesday that an internal investigation had been launched. James earns $147,000 annually and is on paid administrative leave In a statement, it said: 'DCPS does not tolerate sexual misconduct or harassment in our schools. We take the safety and security of all of our students seriously, and while we cannot discuss the specifics of personnel matters, when the issue at Roosevelt was brought to our attention we launched an investigation and took action.' Mayor Muriel Bowser said that after reviewing the audio, 'the matter will be reviewed further'. D.C. Council member Brandon T. Todd added: 'It is incumbent upon our principals to treat all claims of sexual assault or any form of violence in school with the utmost seriousness and respect. 'Principal James' actions have considerably undermined the trust that is required between a Principal and their school community, and it remains to be seen if that trust can be restored.' James earns $147,000 annually and is on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues. She had been principal at the school since 2016. A 'third man' was probably sent to Salisbury to scope out Sergei Skripal's home ahead of the devastating novichok attack, it emerged today. MI5 and MI6 are believed to have identified the Russian spy sent as a scout ahead of the first ever nerve agent attack on British soil in March. The suspect then returned to Moscow to brief Ruslan Boshirov - now unmasked as Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga - and Alexander Petrov. They later flew to the UK carrying enough novichok to wipe out 4,000 people stashed in a James Bond-style perfume bottle then sprayed on Skripal's suburban front door. Britain's security services and police identified the suspects earlier this month and they now believe they know the name of this mysterious 'third man', according to the Daily Telegraph. The investigators who have outed Ruslan Boshirov, left, and Alexander Petrov, right, as Army officers today claimed Russia manipulated the British visa system to get them into the UK in March The real identity of one of the two assassins, named by police as Ruslan Boshirov, is reportedly Colonel Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga. He is said to appear in this photo (circled) with a group of fellow military graduates in Chechnya Chepiga's life and official documents are marked 'top secret' but have been leaked to journalists It is yet another twist in the extraordinary spy battle between Britain and Russia. Yesterday Russian secret services were accused of influencing staff inside the British embassy to secure visas for the two men they sent to kill Skripal. Investigators say they have evidence the Kremlin 'manipulated people' working for the UK's consulate in Moscow to ensure their assassins were handed UK business visas for their Salisbury murder mission. Roman Dobrokhotov, one of those working for Bellingcat, said that even basic searches show the men masquerading as sport nutritionists have 'no business history' in Russia. He said: 'Our theory is that Russian security services obtained some access to the British embassy. 'It's not just manipulation in that they changed their documents somewhere, it is direct influence that Russian security services had on those people who were participating in this scheme of making visas.' Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov entered Britain unchallenged in March carrying enough novichok to kill 4,000 people in a perfume bottle before fleeing the country 55 hours later having smeared it on Skripal's front door. Last night suspect Boshirov was outed as Anatoly Chepiga, a colonel in Putin's feared special forces army who the President personally made a 'Hero of Russia' for missions in Chechnya and Ukraine. The Kremlin said it was looking into the reports. 'Many people look alike, but I cannot tell you who this citizen who was pointed out in this investigation is,' spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Residents of Chepiga's home town in Russia's far east have since told Russian media they suspected he worked for the secret services because not even his family were told where he was posted. Petrov is believed to be a GRU Army captain travelling under his first name but on an alias surname and passport handed to him by Kremlin spymasters two years ago. Mr Dobrokhotov said of Chepiga: 'He went to Britain with a business visa and that is very difficult to make. 'You have to have a lot of papers proving that you really have business and he didn't have any business. 'Our theory is that Russian security services obtained some access to the British embassy and the next part of our investigation will be directed at this topic; how Russian security services managed to manipulate the British embassy to make their agents get to British ground.' A Home Office spokesman said: 'We reject these claims entirely. Applications of this type would be decided by a visa officer in the UK and not in the British Embassy in Moscow.' The British Embassy is Russia is a grand tower block building on the banks of the River Moskva But visa applications are initially handled at one of five external centres, including this one in Moscow. The Home Office insists the application would be handled in the UK President Putin (pictured meeting Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev) denied the would-be assassins were working for the Russian government Experts believe Colonel Chepiga may have known Skripal and personally wanted to kill him because of the GRU's entrenched hatred of traitors. Moscow has tried to smear the compelling evidence and said top secret documents and photographs unmasking the men were 'pure nonsense'. The Russian Embassy in London also suggested that British-based Bellingcat, whose investigators found the men by examining military records, leaked resident databases and passport files, is actually sponsored by MI6. Putin gave 39-year-old Chepiga, who had served in Chechnya and Ukraine with the Spetsnaz batallion, Russia's highest bravery honour in 2014 under his real name - suggesting that the President may know him personally. Timeline: The rise of Putin's 'Hero of Russia' who fluffed Salisbury murder mission May 5, 1979: Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga is born Nikolaevka close to Russia's border with China, 5,000 miles from Moscow. 1997: 18-year-old is signed up to join Russia's Army in its far-eastern headquarters and graduates with honours four years later. 2001: Chepiga joins the Spetsnatz Brigade - Russia's feared secret service Army often compared to the SAS three years before Sergei Skripal's arrest for treason. 2001-2008: He spends three long periods fighting in Chechnya and handed 20 medals 2009: Chepiga's transition to GRU spy begins when he is handed the alias Ruslan Boshirov and the documents to back it up. 2014: Putin makes Chepiga a 'Hero of Russia' - the country's highest award - for an unnamed mission referred to in records as 'peacekeeping' 2016: Chepiga travels abroad for the first time as Boshirov, under the guise as a businessman with Salisbury partner Petrov and the pair criss-cross Europe. 2018: The men turn up on Salisbury to kill Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia by smearing Novichok on his front door. But they bungle the operation and flee back to Russia. Advertisement But foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova branded the revelations a 'series of fibs' and state-sponsored press including Pravda have claimed the document leak is part of a western conspiracy cooked up by 'traitors'. Ms Zakharova said that Britain has 'no evidence and that is why they continue the information campaign the goal of which is distract attention from the key question: what did really happen in Salisbury?'. But yesterday Defence Secretary tweeted a link to the Bellingcat research and said it showed the 'true identity of one of the Salisbury suspects' - only to delete it seconds later. Moscow pointed this out as proof Britain is not sure - and retired FSB major-general Alexander Mikhailov - a former spokesman for the FSB secret service - said: 'It is pure nonsense. How could secret documents happen to be publicly accessible? He said: ' I can draw a dozen such pictures with Theresa May photograph. 'And, seriously, these days the British media with the help from traitors will blow lots of smoke'. Meanwhile, pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP) pointed to alleged mistakes in the Bellingcat claims. Citing a serving but anonymous Russian military source, the newspaper said the photograph of Chepiga 'really looks like' a picture of the young Boshirov. But researchers claim the 'first mistake' is in claiming that Chepiga graduated from military college in the Russian Far East are four years. 'It just can't be true, the course was years long at that time,, and he had to graduate in 2002. 'And it is strange why he went to study at 18 what was he up to for a full year, when he finished his school at 17?' Chepiga's name features on a memorial wall at the school under the Gold Star honour list. After graduating from the school with honours in 2001 Online investigations group Bellingcat published what it says is the real identity of Ruslan Boshirov (left), a suspect in the Salisbury poising plot. The group say he is actually Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga (pictured right) Ruslan Boshirov when he appeared on Russian-state TV with fellow suspect Alexander Petrov to claim they only visited Salisbury to see the famous cathedral spire Picture released by Bellingcat of Ruslan Boshirov's passport photo from 2009 with 'do not reveal information' stamped on it. The group claim he is is actually Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga The source claimed that British-based researchers in Bellingcat claimed Chepiga's address from 2003 to 2005 was in the city of Khabarovsk and the same as army unit known as the 14th GRU brigade. Mystery of Defence Secretary's deleted tweet: Gavin Williamson hails revelation of Salisbury suspect's 'true identity'... then hastily removes post Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson last night confirmed that the Salisbury assassin was a Russian colonel - only to delete his tweet seconds later. Mr Williamson has not commented on. his confirmation He briefly confirmed the story on social media and wrote: 'The true identity of one of the Salisbury suspects has been revealed to be a Russian Colonel. I want to thank all the people who are working so tirelessly on this case.' But withing a minute it was gone. The Ministry of Defence said Mr Williamson's social media profile was personal and it did not know why the tweet was deleted. Scotland Yard declined to comment. Advertisement 'But this is not true. This army unit at that time was based in Ussuriysk 670 km away from Khabarovsk', he said. He was also reported to have attended the Military-Diplomatic Academy of Defence Ministry known in the secret services as the 'music academy'. Here, it is claimed, he got his second identity as Boshirov. 'Next time Chepiga's name comes out in December 2014 when he got his Hero of Russia award for performing some peacekeeping mission,' said KP. 'According to the researchers, the 14th brigade - where Chepiga was still listed for some reason - was spotted near Ukrainian border at the end of 2014.' The Kremlin was branded shameful last night for claiming Chepiga and his unknown accomplice, who used the alias Alexander Petrov, were holidaymakers. Boris Johnson tweeted: 'Utterly predictable news that GRU is behind Skripal atrocity.' The former foreign secretary added: 'What have you got to say, Putin?' The two Russian agents were charged over the poisonings by the Crown Prosecution Service earlier this month. But they later appeared on Russian TV to insist they were visiting Salisbury for its cathedral. As the bungled attack that left one dead and three seriously ill took another twist: It emerged that Chepiga fought for a feared Spetsnaz unit for 17 years and worked undercover for at least nine. Salisbury assassin is colonel in Putin's brutal special forces army the Spetsnaz Brigade Spetsnaz have a terrifying reputation, built in recent years while conducting seek-and-destroy missions. In modern times many have become jihadi hunters tracing and murdering extremists who committed atrocities against Russian troops in Syria and Chechnya (pictured). There were reports Spetsnaz were behind the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine because a GRU officer was linked to the 'procurement and transport' of the weapons used. Their elite soldiers are trained fight on ground, in the air and even under water. The feared batallions is based in a headquarters nicknamed The Aquarium on an airbase near Moscow and is very large, deploying six times as many agents in foreign countries as the SVR. These are typically embedded in Russian embassies as military attaches and work on recruiting foreign double agents as well as monitoring military installations and new weapons systems. In 1997 it was estimated to have 25,000 Spetsnaz soldiers under its command. Their legend has trickled down through the agency, with many desk-bound agents claiming to have a special-forces background even if they do not. Many agents do have a military background, though, such as Sergei Skripal, who was recruited after serving in the Soviet army and ended up passing secrets to MI6. There is also a large signals intelligence branch (like our GCHQ) with about 130 satellites orbiting the Earth and a corresponding branch that analyses the resulting visual images. There are also specialist sub-departments for sophisticated cyber warfare, which recruit from Russia's top universities. Advertisement Sources said the soldier's high rank the same as his intended victim, Colonel Sergei Skripal suggested the attack was sanctioned at the highest level. Did Salisbury hitman have a personal vendetta against Skripal? Would-be assassin 'may have poisoned ex-spy for being disloyal to the GRU' Experts believe Colonel Chepiga may have known Skripal and personally wanted to kill him because of the GRU's entrenched hatred of traitors. Both men were highly decorated veterans of Russia's wars and followed similar paths to the higher echelons of Russia's military secret services. The GRU was betrayed by Mr Skripal before he was jailed and sent to the UK in a spy swap. He and his daughter were poisoned in March in Salisbury. GRU recruits are shown videos of traitors being burned alive as part of their training to instill an entrenched hatred of them. It is possible that Chepiga was handpicked for the job - or even volunteered - to ensure Skripal received the 'ultimate punishment'. Chepiga was made an elite special forces soldier in 2001 - three years before Skripal's arrest for treason - so it is possible the men may have men. Advertisement Senior politicians queued up to accuse the Russians of being 'seriously dishonest' and lying about their complicity. The identity of Chepiga was uncovered by investigative organisation Bellingcat, best known for its insight into the fighting in Ukraine. It found that Chepiga has won more than 20 awards and a Hero of the Russian Federation medal during his illustrious military career. Born in the isolated village of Nikolayevka, on the Russian-Chinese border in 1979, he is married with a teenage son. In 2001 he graduated from the Far-Eastern Military Command Academy before being deployed to Chechnya three times. Its website states: 'Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Russian Federation by order of the president of the Russian Federation.' His name appears under a gold star honour list on a monument to academy alumni at a base near the Chinese border. The medals are normally awarded by the president personally, and are given only to a handful of people each year. Unlike most recipients there is little public information about Chepiga's life and official documents are marked 'top secret'. The secretive nature of the award, combined with its timing in 2014, suggests it was for actions in Ukraine. His Spetsnaz unit was pictured on the eastern Ukraine border. Investigators also found documents that trace Chepiga's movements around Russia and Europe. He pops up at a remote military unit and in Moscow where he is likely to have studied at the Military Diplomatic Academy, or 'GRU Conservatory'. The GRU was betrayed by Mr Skripal before he was jailed and sent to the UK in a spy swap. He and his daughter were poisoned in March in Salisbury. Chepiga and Petrov are also accused of murdering Dawn Sturgess, who was inadvertently poisoned when she discovered a perfume bottle filled with the deadly novichok nerve agent used on the Skripals. Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: 'It is confirmation of what we have known for a long time that Russia is serially dishonest in its foreign affairs and has again lied about its complicity. 'These guys are amateurs. Their cover couldn't even survive investigation by newspapers.' The Russian embassy in London made no comment This undated image is alleged to show Chepiga (circled) posing with fellow members of the Russian military The dark star of Russia's elite special forces school: Colonel who signed up at 18, was honoured at gaudy memorial to military and then sent to kill Skripal The highly-decorated spy blamed for the Salisbury poisonings was a veteran of Russia's elite special forces and had trained at one of the country's top military academies, it emerged last night. The man behind the alias of Boshirov was unmasked by the investigative website as Colonel Chepiga - a GRU intelligence officer bestowed with Russia's highest state award. His military career began at the age of 18 when he enrolled in a top military school just 25 miles from his tiny home village of Nikolaevka, near the Russia-China border. Col Chepiga studied at the Far Eastern Military Command Academy in Blagoveschensk, an elite training ground for 'Spetsnaz' special forces officers. His name features on a memorial wall at the school under the Gold Star honour list. After graduating from the school with honours in 2001, he was assigned to Russia's 14th Spetsnaz Brigade, based in the far-eastern city of Khabarovsk. Dawn Sturgess (left) died after spraying Novichok on her wrists thinking it was a perfume. Her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, (right) fell critically ill but recovered Spetsnaz units are responsible for highly-secretive missions and are equivalent to the British SAS. Under the command of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, his brigade played a vital role in the second Chechen war and was also spotted near the Ukrainian border in late 2014. The information was revealed by investigative website Bellingcat, which had conducted a painstaking investigation into his background. It said that his unit had deployed three times to Chechnya, where Russia was carrying out what it called a 'counter-terrorist operation'. The website of a state-run military volunteer organisation claims that Col Chepiga received more than 20 military awards and decorations in the course of his service. And his former military school proudly boasts on its website that he was bestowed his homeland's highest honour, Hero of the Russian Federation, in 2014. The award is often presented by Vladimir Putin himself. This map shows the progress of the spies' assassination plot, as police managed to piece together using CCTV The two men chose a hotel in east London, 127 miles from Salisbury, despite heading to the city twice in three days While the achievements of his fellow award-winners are detailed extensively, Col Chepiga's simply says it was awarded 'by decree from the Russian president'. Bellingcat speculated that he could have been given the award for operations in Eastern Ukraine where Russia's military was secretly operating in 2014. Senior Russian military officials have since said that so-called 'little green men' soldiers wearing uniforms with no insignia were in fact members of Russia's Spetsnaz deployed secretly to Ukraine. The Bellingcat website also found an undated photograph of graduates from the Far Eastern Military Command Academy on assignment in Chechnya. It pointed out that the man on the far right looks strikingly similar to the man named as Boshirov by the Metropolitan Police although it said it could not prove conclusively it was the same person. They came across the photograph after sources said the school was a likely place for a Russian military officer with a specialism in Western European operations to have trained. CCTV image issued by the Metropolitan Police of Russian nationals Ruslan Boshirov (left) and Alexander Petrov (right) in Salisbury at around 1pm on March 4 Sergei Skripal (right) and his daughter Yulia eating at a restaurant. Both were critically ill after the Novichok attack in Salisbury After further digging, they came across the mysterious Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga. Address databases link him to the Military Unit 20662 code for the 14th Spetsnaz Brigade. The logo of the brigade is a black bat with a yellow parachute behind it. It was formed in the 1960s and has been under the command of the GRU for much of its history. According to Yuri Shvets, a former KGB agent, GRU officers were referred to as 'boots' tough but unsophisticated. Once a member of the GRU, it is believed to be exceptionally difficult to leave. And those who do so to join foreign agencies are punished savagely. Viktor Suvorov, a GRU officer who defected to Britain in 1978, said new recruits were shown a video of a traitor from the agency being burned alive in a furnace as a warning. The GRU has become adept as using so-called 'non-linear warfare', which uses a combination of covert special forces operations, spying, cyber attacks and internet trolls to destabilise enemy nations. It started as an intelligence-gathering agency for Trotsky's Bolshevik Red Army, and Lenin insisted it remain separate from the other intelligence organisations. Today it still sits apart from the SVR, the external spying service, and the domestic FSB (the equivalents of Britain's MI6 and MI5), which were created when the notorious KGB was split in 1991. How will the West react to proof Putin lied? Commentary by Owen Matthews THIS sensational revelation the seniority of the would-be assassin and the official state support for the mission shows that the Skripal hit must have been ordered at the very highest levels of the Russian state. The evidence that Vladimir Putin personally ordered the attack grows stronger every day. Indeed, by presiding over one of the most farcically inept cover-ups in memory when the two Russians caught on CCTV here claimed to have been tourists visiting Salisbury cathedral Putin has condemned himself out of his own mouth. Days after British police released dozens of security camera images of the pair on their way from Moscow to Salisbury, Putin appeared on Russian television to defend them as 'innocent Russian citizens about whom we know nothing'. His fingerprints were all over the operation. The following afternoon, 'Petrov' and 'Boshirov' themselves appeared to air a cock-and-bull story about being turned back from their mission to see Salisbury by slush two days in a row. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed the two suspects were just civilians and not members of the GRU Before the denials by Putin and by the suspects themselves, it might have been possible to argue plausibly that the botched assassination attempt was some kind of rogue operation by Russia's secret services. But Putin's personal defence of the suspects and the inept cover-up job by the state-controlled media constitute strong, if wholly unintended, proof of the Kremlin's deep complicity. And now the Bellingcat revelations have added incontrovertible layers of detail to the emerging picture of a top-level GRU assassination squad operating on UK soil. Using mostly open-source data, Bellingcat's researchers first unearthed details of the passports the suspects used to enter the UK, published by British police. Petrov and Boshirov's passport numbers, it turned out, varied by just a single digit and were issued by a Moscow office used exclusively for officials' travel documents. Even more suspiciously, Boshirov's passport file was stamped 'Do not reveal information'. Then, yesterday, came the clincher. By trawling through the records of GRU academy graduation classes, Bellingcat matched the photos of 'Boshirov' to the real-life Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga. Once they had a name, details of Colonel Chepiga's secret service popped up all over the internet, in online posts by veterans' groups and even written in letters of gold on a stone monument to the decorated graduates of one of the GRU's secret intelligence academies. Chepiga served in Chechnya with the Spetznaz, the elite forces of the Federal Security Service, where by some reports he received 20 awards and decorations. In short, Putin has been caught out telling analogue lies in a digital world. Counter-terrorism police released images of two suspects in connection with the Salisbury attack and named them as Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov (circled right) Bellingcat became famous for its painstaking investigation into the downing of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing over Eastern Ukraine in July 2014, collecting photos from social media and intelligence data showing the hour-by-hour progress of the Buk missile system which downed the plane, from a military base inside Russia into Eastern Ukraine and back again. Russia's vehement denials of involvement were shown to be false. Now, with Bellingcat's dozens of detailed revelations about the true identity of one of the would-be Skripal assassins, another of the Kremlin's brazen lies has been carefully picked apart. Perhaps the most terrifying part of the whole tragic story of the Skripal poisoning, which resulted in the death of an innocent British bystander, is the shocking combination of the Kremlin's deadly intent and utter incompetence. Instead of quietly disposing of a 'traitor', Chepiga and his as-yet-unnamed accomplice succeeded in contaminating parts of Salisbury, murdering an innocent woman, and revealing themselves to the whole world as bungling idiots. Attempting extra-judicial execution on British soil is bad enough. But to spread deadly nerve agent around a cathedral city is irresponsible bungling on an epic scale. The question now, of course, is what the response of the West will be to this damning revelation. Will Theresa May call for renewed sanctions? Will America ratchet up their rhetoric? We shall have to wait and see in the coming days. What is clear is that the Kremlin and its henchmen have been revealed for what they are not just a bunch murderous liars, but terrible at both. The brutal Russian husband who chopped off his wife's hands with an axe faces up to ten years in jail after being declared mentally sane and fit to stand trial. Dmitry Grachyov, 27, feared his wife Margarita was cheating on him and wanted revenge, he told a court. Margarita today expressed relief that a court, after five hearings finally deprived Grachyov of his parental rights - which means he will never see his two young children again or play any role in their upbringing. Dmitry Grachyov (above) appeared in court yesterday when he told how he wanted to take revenge on his wife for 'being unfaithful' Margarita (left) has been learning how to live with her new right hand. Margarita and Dmitry (right) before the attack In December last year, he forced the 26-year-old mother-of-two into his car and drove her to a forest where he tied her up, forced her to kneel, and then severed her wrists with an axe. Since then the woman has been hailed as an 'inspiration' in Russia after seeking to overcome her husband's appalling medieval torture. Her left hand was sewn back on by surgeons, and she now has a 'robot' right arm which she is learning to use. Prosecutors also announced that he is to be charged with threatening his wife with murder, as well as kidnapping her, and causing her serious harm. If convicted he could face up to ten years in jail. Earlier, there were reports he would face lesser charges with a maximum of three years behind bars. Margarita and her two sons have received unprecedented support from the local community Margarita wants to get back to normal as soon as possible. She is pictured playing guitar with her bionic hand Margarita is now trying to rebuild her life for both her and her two sons Margarita is now learning to use her prosthetic arm. She said it's difficult to take out some daily tasks such as picking up an apple The move follows psychiatric tests which found he was fit to stand trial. In the closed-session court in Serpukhov, he told the judge from an iron cage that he was a 'loving father'. But he claimed that for a month before he dismembered his wife he was 'unable to think of anything else than the fact that she was unfaithful'. He earlier confessed to chopping off her hands. She was not in court but previously denied cheating on him, while admitting seeking a divorce because of his unreasonable behaviour. Olga Rusiyan, Margarita's lawyer, said her client was 'happy' that Grachyov - accused of threatening her in messages from his detention cell - had been deprived of his parental rights. Margarita's case shocked the world at the end of last year when the atrocious acts of her husband were revealed Grachyova (left) confessed to carrying out the medieval-style attack because he suspected Margarita (right) had cheated on him 'The rights of her children have been protected,' she said. Margarita has revealed how her husband was 'totally calm' when he axed her hands. 'Unfortunately, I felt all the pain very much. 'I was dreaming that I would faint. 'I kept thinking all the time, why am I not fainting? 'When he raised his axe, I just closed my eyes, I didn't look at it(when my hands were chopped off).' She had earlier hit out at judges for refusing to strip her husband of his parental rights. Her sons were 'proud' of her bionic arm, she said. 'Mum you are like a robot,' they like to repeat. 'People on streets often turn their heads. Margarita still faces new surgery on her left hand which she cannot use properly 'Sometimes they come to wish me well. 'Recently a man came and said: 'Please can I shake your hand, you are an incredibly strong woman.' 'Of course it helps me a lot to hear things like this. She said: 'I play bowling even though it's not like with health hands. 'I can't lift a real full size ball. 'My prosthetic hand is too fragile. 'I still struggle with buttons and laces, but I had a tremendous victory over a zip. 'I am learning to write with a pen. 'It's hard as pens are too thin to hold, so they keep sliding out. But I am stubborn, I'll keep trying. 'I want to be back to normal life and do something good and useful as soon as possible.' She still faces new surgery on her left hand which she cannot use properly. She thanked people from all over Russia who raised money to help her. 'I want to say thank you, again and again to them all,' she said. 'If I didn't have this money my life would have been completely different. ' Italy's populist government has vowed to eradicate poverty after putting forward budget proposals that would commit the country to a public spending splurge. Deputy Prime Ministers Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini unveiled plans on Thursday night that include a guaranteed basic income for Italy's poor combined with swingeing tax cuts. However, the plans could see Italy add as much as 100billion of debt to its already towering 2trillion pile over the next three years, setting up a fight with the EU. Italian deputy prime ministers Matteo Salvini (pictured) and Luigi di Maio put forward budget proposals on Thursday night that they said would 'eradicate poverty' but cause debt to spiral The government has proposed to set a budget deficit of 2.4 per cent of GDP in 2019, 2020 and 2021, which does meet a key European target of less than 3 per cent. But European leaders have also demanded that all countries with large debts inside the Eurozone work to reduce their liabilities, rather than increase them. Italy's debt, which currently amounts to 130 per cent of GDP, is already the largest in the Eurozone with the exception of Greece. The plans need to be approved by parliament next month before going to the EU for approval after that. 'We're satisfied, this is the budget of change,' joint deputy prime ministers Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Miao said in a statement. On Friday Di Maio added that he is 'not seeking conflict' with the EU or Italy's creditors as a prolonged period of negotiations loomed. Di Maio also denied that Italy's debt will increase, saying that he expects the economy to rebound as public spending increases. Pierre Moscovici, who runs the European Commission's economic and finance portfolio, subsequently warned that the budget appears to violate EU rules, but took a markedly measured tone in his response. 'It is a budget which appears to be beyond the limits of our shared rules,' he said. 'If you allow public debt to increase you create a situation that becomes unstable as soon as the economic context worsens.' The proposals emerged after Di Maio and Salvini secured a last-minute victory over the country's more cautious finance minister, Giovanni Tria. Mr Tria, a university professor with no political affiliation, was seen as a moderating force within government, and will now face questions over his effectiveness. The plans put Italy on a collision course with the EU, which has demanded that Eurozone countries with high debt burdens - such as Italy - work to reduce that pile Reports emerged on Friday morning that he wanted to quit over the proposals, but was persuaded to stay by President Sergio Mattarella for the sake of stability. Mr Tria's plans would have set the deficit at 1.6 per cent. The figure touted by the previous centre-left government was just 0.8 per cent. There were cheers from flag-waving members of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement outside the prime minister's offices in Rome on Thursday, as their leader Di Maio left the cabinet meeting, shouting: 'We did it!' 'Today is a historic day! Today Italy changes! For the first time the state is on the people's side. For the first time it is not taking away, but giving,' Di Maio said in a message on Facebook. He had previously threatened to vote against the budget unless funds were found for projects promised in March elections, including the movement's flagship pledge for a basic income of 780 euros for the unemployed and those on low wages. There were 10 billion euros ($11.5 billion) earmarked for the income in the budget, which 'for the first time in the history of this country will eradicate poverty', he said. Salvini said the budget would lower taxes by 15 percent for over one million Italian workers and free up around 400,000 jobs for the young by enabling people to retire. All would be paid for without imposing a VAT hike on long-suffering Italians, he said. Di Maio had repeatedly railed against the EU's budgetary restrictions, initially insisting it could do no harm to go over the 3 per cent threshold set by Brussels. 'We'll explain to the markets that there are so many investments we can do with this 2.4 percent that we'll be able to make the economy grow as we wish,' the populist leader said. Italy's draft budget must be submitted to the European Commission by October 15 and 'a protracted period of negotiation between Italy and the Commission seems likely,' Allen said. The big spending may unnerve investors and drive up the spread between the German and Italian bond yields, which rose above 300 points in May amid concerns over a eurosceptic government taking power. The higher the yield, the more expensive it is for the state to borrow money, reducing its financial margins for manoeuvre. The situation is made more complicated by a lacklustre growth forecast: just 1.0 percent in 2019 according to the Bank of Italy and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and 1.1 percent according to the European Commission. A businessman has told today how he and his girlfriend were thrown onto the ground and handcuffed by police following a dispute over a trolley full of bottled water at Tesco. Dramatic footage shows Nasir Hussain and his girlfriend Mahira Hussain being arrested after clashing with superstore staff when they got to the checkout. Customers watched in alarm as the man and his wife were wrestled to the floor at a Tesco's in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, before being hauled away. Mr Hussain said his healthy-living girlfriend, a maths teacher at a local school, drinks two litres of mineral water a day. Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Hussain: 'The manager at the Tesco in Rochdale said buying too much water was unfair to other customers. The couple, Nasir Hussain (pictured) and Mahira Hussain, both of Oldham, were charged with assault following the incident, according to Greater Manchester Police 'Mahira is known for drinking a lot of water. She has least two litre bottles a day and we've never had a problem buying it from other Tesco stores. Recalling the 'nightmare' which resulted in him spending seven hours in a police cell, he added: 'As I was at the checkout, a lot of the bottles have been scanned and I'm about to pay when the manager came up and said 'you can't buy this many. It's not fair on other customers'. 'I said I'd never had an issue before in Oldham and didn't understand why it was an issue and then she called security. 'I was not being aggressive, I was just being normal. Mahira started filming and the security guard was saying it was private property which I was not aware of. 'I saw there was a police officer and I thought 'forget security - there's a person who will be fair'. I called him over and he said, 'have you told him to leave?' Customers watched in alarm as the man and his partner were allegedly wrestled to the floor at a Tesco superstore in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, before being arrested. The couple were charged with assault following the incident, according to Greater Manchester Police 'Straight away I got this sinking feeling. I felt the police officer came with an agenda and he didn't listen to me. 'He had an issue with Mahira recording. The reason she was recording it was because I just had a feeling and I was worried about how I'd be portrayed. 'I just wanted him to listen. I felt like I was being unjustly treated. There's no sign saying how many bottles of water you can take or not take. 'The police officer was talking about recording in a private place and I said that's fine we can go outside. A security guard steps in and asks them to stop filming, saying it is forbidden on private property 'I turned around to walk out the store. I said 'all I want to do is have a conversation'. He grabbed my arm and I was against the wall.' The couple, both of Oldham, were charged with assault following the incident, according to Greater Manchester Police. Greater Manchester Police say they have since received a complaint to their Professional Standards Branch following the incident. Mr Hussain added: 'I spent six hours in A&E getting checked and I've a bruise on my head. I've been feeling depressed, not feeling like seeing anyone. 'My body is in pain - in my head, on my calf and between my shoulders from being shoved about. 'They told me the police officer was injured but haven't said anything about what I've done. I don't know if I threw a punch or raised a hand to block him. I was in shock. I'm not sure how many there were in total. 'After that I was crowded around by lots of officers. They got me to the ground. I can't see Mahira, I can just hear her screaming. That was the hardest thing. 'I felt very helpless. Having her in distress and him going for her like that. It's an absolute disgrace. 'We were then led out in handcuffs and I could hear customers saying 'why are you manhandling her?' 'Members of the public were trying to record but the Tesco staff were blocking them. 'We're private people and to have this video shared on social media with people saying we must have done something wrong, we must have robbed the place. It's horrible. 'We were taken in separate police cars to Bury police station and we were told by the duty manager that we'd be able to have our say. 'I felt aggrieved, hurt and anxious and kept trying to explain to them what had happened. 'I was in a cell for four or five hours and they were saying a solicitor would come and speak to us. 'The solicitor came and said we would be out in half an hour, they were charging us and were not going to interview us. 'It was about 3am when we were allowed out. I can't function. I've not been into work since.' Mr Hussain said he has filed a complaint with the police and is planning to contact the IOPC. Ms Hussain said: 'I can't believe this has happened.' A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: 'Two people have been charged with assaulting a police officer. 'Nasir Hussain and Mahira Hussain both of Oldham, have been charged with assault of a constable and have been bailed to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on Tuesday 30 October 2018. 'Around 7pm on Tuesday 25 September, while responding to another incident at Tesco on Silk Street, Rochdale, an officer was alerted to a disturbance in the store. 'The officer spoke to both parties involved before asking a man to leave. The officer was assaulted and suffered injuries to his face.' India's top court on Friday revoked a ban on women entering a famous Hindu temple following a decades-long legal battle, ruling that patriarchy cannot be allowed to trump faith. The decision is the latest by the Supreme Court in recent weeks to reflect a more liberal outlook in the largely conservative and traditional society of 1.25 billion people. Women in India have been intensifying campaigns in recent years to be allowed to enter Hindu temples and other religious sites. The Supreme Court in India has overturned a rule that forbade the majority of women from entering one of the holiest temples for Hindus The ruling comes as the Supreme Court also ruled on Thursday that adultery is no longer a crime, declaring a colonial-era law that punished the offence with jail time unconstitutional and discriminatory against women. Earlier this month on September 6, the Supreme Court also scrapped a ban on gay sex dating back to 1861. The Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala - the subject of Friday's ruling and considered one of the holiest for Hindus - has traditionally barred all women of menstruating age, between 10 and 50. The temple's rule emanated from the still widely held belief in India that menstruating women are impure. In rural pockets of the country, many women are still made to sleep and eat separately during menstruation. The custom in the temple in the southern state of Kerala was challenged by a clutch of petitioners who argued that women cannot be denied the constitutional right to worship. 'To treat women as children of a lesser god is to blink at the constitution itself,' said Justice D. Y. Chandrachud, part of the five-judge bench that gave a majority verdict on Friday. Hindu devotees often flock to the Sabarimala temple (pictured) during the Maravilakku festival Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said banning the entry of a large section of women was discriminatory and violated their rights. 'Prohibiting women (from entering the temple) violates the right of a woman to worship and practise religion,' he said. While most Hindu temples don't allow women to enter when they are menstruating, the temple, commonly known as Sabarimala, was one of a few that did not allow any woman of menstruating age. Indu Malhotra, the only woman judge on the bench, dissented with the majority verdict, saying courts must not interfere with issues concerning 'deep religious sentiments'. The case made headlines last month when a regional newspaper editor blamed devastating floods in Kerala on women wanting to enter Sabarimala. Millions of devotees visit the temple every year to seek the blessings of Lord Ayyappa, the presiding deity who is believed to be celibate. The decision is the latest by the Supreme Court (pictured) in recent weeks to reflect a more liberal outlook According to the temple website, pilgrims have to observe celibacy for 41 days before entering the shrine. Some worshippers take an arduous forest route to reach the hilltop temple, located some 1,200 metres (4,000 feet) above sea level. Friday's verdict was welcomed by India's Women and Child Development minister Maneka Gandhi and other prominent women's rights activists. 'It opens up the way forward for Hinduism to become even more inclusive and not a property of one caste or one sex,' Gandhi said. The Chief Justice of India said that banning the entry of a large sector of women was discriminatory In 2016, hundreds of women campaigned in Maharashtra state to successfully end a ban on women entering the Shani Shingnapur temple. Women were also prevented from entering Mumbai's Haji Ali Dargah mausoleum until the high court scrapped the rule in 2016. Rahul Easwar, one of the main activists who backed the Sabarimala ban, said he would appeal to the Supreme Court for a review before the temple reopens next month. The revered shrine only opens for certain auspicious days each year. 'We will go ahead with the fight as it (the verdict) affects the very core and belief of temple systems,' Easwar told reporters. 'Deities have certain rights and their rights should be protected,' he said. Earlier this month the Supreme Court scrapped a ban on gay sex dating back to 1861, and on Thursday it said adultery would cease to be a crime. Council manager Jenny McDonagh who stole 62,000 from a fund for Grenfell survivors has been jailed for five and half years A council finance manager who stole 62,000 from a fund for Grenfell Tower survivors has been jailed for five and half years. In the aftermath of the tower block disaster, Jenny McDonagh was recruited by Kensington and Chelsea council to help survivors rebuild their lives. But just days after starting the job, she started stealing from credit cards which had been loaded with money to help displaced residents. McDonagh used the cash to pay for holidays to Dubai, Los Angeles, New York and Iceland. She also treated herself to designer haircuts, Marks & Spencers and Anne Summers lingerie, meals in fancy restaurants and lost 16,000 by gambling on the internet. Jailing McDonagh at Isleworth Crown Court today, Judge Robyn Johnson said her actions beggared belief. One of the former residents of the tower block - whose card she used during her spending spree - branded the crimes 'beyond contempt'. She took selfies on a Thames Clipper boat on her way to a night out (left) and wearing a 99 green dress from Hobbs which she bought with the stolen money (right) CCTV from Charing Cross showed her withdrawing cash to put into her personal account She took money using pre-paid credit cards intended for five victims of the fire The judge told her: 'I have to sentence many cases that have come to be known as Grenfell frauds, your offending is unique in my experience.' The judge continued: 'As the Finance Manager at the Grenfell Team with Royal Borough Council of Kensington and Chelsea you knew exactly what these funds were for and the importance of them for the intended recipients, namely the victims of the fire. 'Bearing that in mind the scale of your dishonest in these frauds beggars belief. Members of the public, indeed the nation, were shocked by this dreadful event. 'The fact that you, a person who had been given the task of assisting in the aftermath, sought to enrich yourself is the more shocking in the light of outpouring of grief and sympathy that followed the disaster. McDonagh wept and mouthed 'I love you, I am sorry, I will be ok' to her husband, Thomas, in the public gallery as she was led down to the cells. The judge also criticised her for putting NHS finances under strain after she also admitted defrauding the NHS trust where she was a financial officer of more than 35,000. Photos from McDonaghs phone showed a trip to a Burger & Lobster restaurant where one of the illegitimate credit cards was used to pay for a meal McDonagh, pictured with her husband Thomas, who is standing by her despite her actions. She mouthed 'I love you, I'm sorry' to him as she was led down to the cells this morning The judge said: 'It is a well known fact that the NHS, funded by the taxpayer, is fully stretched to meet the ever increasing demands on its resources. 'In my judgement it is an aggravating feature that your dishonesty placed additional strain on the Medways NHS Foundation Trust's budget.' McDonagh, 39, was arrested at the start of August and then released. Despite this, she continued to steal money from the Grenfell fund. The accountant pleaded guilty to two offences of fraud, one of theft and another of money laundering at Westminster Magistrates Court. Yesterday she pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position while working at Medway NHS Foundation Trust from January to May 2016 before the fatal fire last June. She took photos from meals she bought in Selfridges and Burger and Lobster as she spent the money which was meant for those made homeless by the fire She showed little emotion in the dock as survivor Edward Daffarn said her actions were 'beyond contempt' The vice-chairman of Grenfell Unite community group told the court on Thursday: 'It is a reopening of wounds that they are desperately trying to heal. 'The fact that this individual stole money that was meant to assist vulnerable members of our community to fund lavish holidays and to finance a gambling habit is truly beyond contempt. 'On a personal level it disgusts and sickens me that a fraud against our community has been perpetrated by someone who was employed by the local authority. 'Instead of showing empathy to the victims of the fire this individual saw our predicament merely as a chance for personal financial profit. 'The actions of a few criminals paints our community in a negative light and deflects away from the real issues that we need to deal with.' Grenfell survivor Edward Daffarn branded her crimes 'beyond contempt' After she admitted the crimes, a spokesman for the campaign group Justice4Grenfell said: 'Some people don't have any scruples. It is appalling that people take advantage of a situation in which vulnerable people were waiting to be housed. This money could have been used for that purpose. 'The case also raises questions of scrutiny at the council. We are surprised that she was allowed to do this when she should have been properly monitored.' A total of 72 died and scores were left homeless by the Grenfell fire last summer Astonishingly, McDonagh managed to secure a job as a finance officer at a mental health charity after leaving the council in disgrace. Prosecutor Robert Simpson previously told the court: 'She's someone who seems unable to stop herself. She is a serial fraudster who lives beyond her means and gambles.' Around 50,000 of the cash she stole was put on a credit card which was set up by accident for survivor Mr Daffarn. When he asked the council to put money directly into his bank account, McDonagh kept the cash card for herself. McDonagh, of Abbey Wood in south-east London, also stole money put aside for Fadumo Ahmed, Sacha Salaabi and Christos Fairbairn, the court heard. Donald Trump Jr brought his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle along to speak in support of a Republican congressional candidate on Thursday. The President's son and his partner attended a fundraiser for businessman Danny Tarkanian, Republican candidate for Nevada Congressional District 3, in Las Vegas. Their appearance came in the wake of a flurry of tweets from Trump Jr, wherein he showed support for Brett Kavanaugh and attacked Dr Christine Blasey Ford during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Scroll down for video Look of love: Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. at a reception in honor of Danny Tarkanian in Las Vegas, Nevada The couple both spoke in support of Tarkanian at the Las Vegas fundraiser The couple kissed in front of the crowd at the fundraiser in Vegas Trump Jr tweeted his support for Kavanaugh, saying: 'Its nice to see a conservative man fight for his honor' He accused the Democrats of 'not having honor or shame' and praised Kavanaugh and his family. He wrote: 'I love Kavanaughs tone. Its nice to see a conservative man fight for his honor and his family against a 35 year old claim with ZERO evidence and lots of holes that amounts to nothing more than a political hit job by the Dems. Others in the GOP should take notice!' Trump Jr also lashed out at Dr Ford in the wake of her emotional testimony before the committee. He mocked Dr Ford's fear of flying, and accused her of not conquering it in order to testify. This saw a number of persons respond, and point out that Dr Ford had told the committee under oath that she had flown to Washington DC for the hearing. Blue for the reds: The former Fox News host addressed the crowd at the event Trump Jr is seen above taking the mic at the event in Vegas Thursday The couple posed with Danny Tarkanian and his wife Amy Tarkanian He mocked Dr Ford's fear of flying, and accused her of not conquering it in order to testify. his tweet was met with criticism Christine Blasey Ford testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington Thursday Taking the stage in Las Vegas last night, Don Jr told the crowd they needed to vote for Tarkanian because 'all the winning that you are not sick of' is on the ballot in November. 'We can't be complacent,' Trump Jr. said according to the Nevada Independent. 'Donald Trump is on the ticket in six weeks because all of the winning that you are not sick of, never will be sick of, is on the ballot. 'Donald Trump, those policies are on the ballot.' His girlfriend, former Fox News host Kimberly, also spoke during the fundraiser, and accused the Democrats of trying to 'keep putting money back in the swamp.' A mile-long bridge in south-eastChina was destroyed in a controlled explosion today to make way for the construction of a taller, wider overpass. The busy Ji'an Ganjiang Bridge stretches over the Gan River in Jiangxi province and could no longer meet the traffic demands of the growing population. Local authorities approved plans to bring down the 23-year-old bridge after recent years of repairs and improvements failed to improve the structure's safety, according to reports. A 5,000-foot bridge in south-east China's Jiangxi province was destroyed in a controlled explosion today to make way for the construction of a taller, wider overpass Workers attached several tonnes of explosives on the bridge's four main columns and 61 piers The busy Ji'an Ganjiang Bridge stretches over the Gan River in Jiangxi province and could no longer meet the traffic demands of the growing population The multi-lane motorway was demolished at 10:18am local time as hundreds of residents watched on. Workers attached several tonnes of explosives on the bridge's four main columns and 61 piers. Video footage filmed by witnesses show the massive motorway - spanning 1,577 metres (5,173 feet) across the river - being reduced into a cloud of smoke and debris. Following a large bang, the structure disappeared in seconds into the waters of the Gan River. The multi-lane motorway was demolished at 10:18am local time as residents watched on Years of repairs and improvement works failed to eliminate the damage to the bridge Following a large bang, the structure disappeared in seconds into the waters of the Gan River Construction for the Ji'an Ganjiang Bridge began in September 1993 and opened to traffic in December 1995. However, the structure has suffered permanent damage due to abuse Construction for the Ji'an Ganjiang Bridge began in September 1993 and opened to traffic in December 1995. However, an increasing number of overweight vehicles crossing the bridge, among other factors, has been causing permanent damage to the structure, according to People's Daily. Years of repairs and improvement works failed to eliminate the damage to the bridge, which has been listed as 'dangerous' in a structural evaluation. The new bridge will span 7,253 feet and will have six lanes and non-motorised access Work on the new motorway will begin in January and is expected to open to traffic in June 2021 Plans to rebuild the bridge has been approved by the Centre for Urban Planning and Construction Committee last November. The new bridge will span 2,211 metres (7,253 feet) and will have six lanes and non-motorised access. Work on the new project will begin in January next year after the rubble has been cleared from the waters. The overpass is expected to open to traffic in June 2021. Advertisement Shocking footage shows how endangered sharks are being systematically impaled by baited hooks in order to protect tourists visiting Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Thousands of the fish are being deliberately killed on giant baited hooks at Australia's landmark attraction in an attempt at protecting swimmers described by critics as 'cruel, outdated and ineffective'. At least 10,400 sharks have been caught this way since 2001 in Queensland alone, most of which were harmless to humans, say animal-welfare campaigners. They released the heartbreaking toll as they prepared to sue the state government and reef officials to halt the slaughter. Pictures taken at Radical Bay, Magnetic Island show a dead scalloped hammerhead shark floating next to a drumline having been snared by its hook A close-up picture shows the brutality of the killing as the enormous fish hook can be seen to have pierced the creature's thick skin BBC Springwatch host Chris Packham has hit out at the practice, saying holidaymakes would be 'horrified' if they knew it was happening. 'Seeing images of beautiful and endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks dead with huge hooks through their heads is highly distressing,' Packham said. 'Holidaymakers would be horrified to know that endangered species of sharks are falling victim to lethal, baited drumlines or traps used in the area to cull sharks,' said a spokeswoman for Humane Society International. More than 200,000 British visitors flock to see the world's largest coral reef off the Queensland coast every year, drawn to the resorts by its golden beaches and swimming and surfing. But most are unaware that sharks are being killed to keep the waters clear of them. The activists are fighting to end shark culling on the 173 deadly drumlines in the World Heritage-listed reef. Drumlines are lightweight drums anchored to the seabed with a floating rope attached to it with killer hooks laced with bait to lure sea creatures. And tens of thousands of other fish, rays, turtles and dolphins are also being killed when they are accidentally caught, according to the activists. The measures have been put in place by the Queensland local government to protect the thousands of tourists who flock to the region to see the Great Barrier Reef each year A worker lays drumline buoys which are used to lure sharks and kill them in the area around the region's most popular bays The drumline buoys, pictured floating on the water, have warnings emblazoned on them which tell swimmers not to get too close A hammerhead shark tangled up in the ropes underneath a drumline buoy off the coast of Queensland after being hooked on one of the deadly lines Campaigners argue that the sharks are no danger to the humans near the shore as they rarely ever venture that close inland Packham said: 'Lethal drumlines not only fail to protect people but cause serious harm and death to animals across the reef, the vast majority of whom are completely harmless to humans. 'I hope this footage compels the Queensland government to sit up and take action to better protect the delicate reef ecosystem and the many animals who inhabit it.' Scalloped hammerheads are Red-listed as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Any sharks caught that don't die are shot dead. The activists believe sharks are unfairly demonised as attacks on humans are rare, and the film Jaws has hampered conservation efforts. The local government defends itself by saying the baiting and hooking are needed to minimise the threat of attacks on people. The court battle begins in January. TV presenter Chris Packham has spoken out against the practice, saying tourists would be appalled if they knew what measures were being put in place to protect them Activists are attempting to get the 173 deadly drumlines in the World Heritage-listed reef which have been used to kill the sharks outlawed Statistics show at least 10,400 sharks have been caught this way since 2001 being brutally snared on fishhooks after being drawn in by bait attached to the drumlines Duerte Xavier is pictured arriving for his trial at Kingston Crown Court A bearded gay man tricked four straight men into sex by posing as a woman on Tinder and other dating apps, a court has heard. Duerte Xavier, 33, told victims he would meet for sex in parks or his flat if they wore a blindfold throughout their encounter, it is alleged. One man claims he only realised he was having sex with a man when he lifted the blindfold out of curiosity, then slapped Xavier and phoned the police. Another claimed Xavier sounded 'feminine' when they arranged to meet in a park, before the pair had sex. The alleged victim who called police told Kingston Crown Court he matched a 'good looking' woman call Anna on dating app Lovoo who promised sex if he wore a blindfold. They met at Xavier's flat in Wandsworth, south west London, where the man put on a blindfold before Xavier emerged and they had sex, the court heard. Describing how he felt 'p****d off' when he took off the mask the man said: 'I saw this man with a beard. 'My reaction was I slapped this man in his face once or twice and I said 'why didn't you tell me the truth?'' Jurors were told Xavier matched the man on the Lovoo app, before the pair exchanged more messages on WhatsApp. Another victim placed advertisements on Craiglist where Xavier struck up a 'sexual' conversation and pushed things towards a meeting at his flat. Xavier refused to send pictures, would not show his face on video call and put on a voice to sound like a 'Spanish lady'. When the man arrived at the house, the door was left ajar and he made his way upstairs, where he was assaulted. Xavier told the victim that he was home alone and his a husband was away on holiday. He said: 'I got to their house and the door was left on latch, it was dark in there. 'A voice, the same one I had heard on the phone, called me upstairs. 'As I made my way up the staircase it became darker and darker. When the victim was upstairs, Xavier attempted to cover his face so that he would not be able to see him. Xavier (pictured) denies six counts of 'causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent' with four separate men He said: 'I think they tried to put a pillow case over my face, which I took off. Xavier proceeded to undo the victim's trousers to perform a 'sex act' on him. The man said: 'With everything that was happening in the dark I was disorientated - it was a shock. 'I became suspicious and asked if they were a man, then they stopped and I pushed them away. Xavier tried to make the victim stay by saying 'come on baby' but the man pulled out his phone and saw the outline of a tall man with short hair. He said: 'I felt violated, it was shocking.' Xavier, whose profile included pictures of a woman, allegedly said: 'Hi there, hope you well. 'I'm recently single and just looking for a bit of fun. Be my obedient toy. WhatsApp and take it from there.' But despite the alleged victim fleeing after realising he was with a man, Xavier continued to pester him for sex sending him 'sad emojis.' Another victim said he was tricked into having sex in a park after falling for a fake profile and believing he was a woman. When prosecutor Timothy Forster asked about Xavier's voice, the man told the jury: 'To me it did sound feminine. It sounded of Asian origin as well.' The man added he was told to go to a specific place in a park and put on a blindfold and wait. The man said: 'I think originally she was saying about it was not practical to do it here, but I kind of insisted a bit and managed to change her mind over to doing it.' He admitted he had no reason to believe it was 'anything else' but straight sex. Afterwards he added: 'It was her telling me about keeping the blindfold on, standing where I was because then she was going to go and leave the vicinity before I did. 'It was different, I have not experienced anything like that before.' The court heard that Xavier messaged the man after asking him to rate the experience from 'one to ten', adding: 'I can do better.' Xavier, 33, told victims he would meet for sex in parks or his flat if they wore a blindfold throughout their encounter, heard Kingston Crown Court (pictured) Jurors heard how one message sent to Xaiver showed a screenshot image of his fake profile. It was joined with a message reading 'I am going to the police to report that' and 'I got your address'. Xavier then showed regret and replied to the man by replying 'sorry, we both made a mistake'. The court heard how during another exchange, Xavier sent a different man photos of a woman with her legs open. The man wrote in a text message: 'Good luck "Anna" you are probably a guy or a man, this seems like a trap. Xavier replied with 'I'm a guy, a full on man, I'm not a transexual, I just really like role play.' Xavier was arrested on April 5 2018. Defending, Helen Butcher said the alleged victim knew he was meeting a man and described the situation as 'role play.' Xavier denies six counts of 'causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent' with four separate men. The trial continues. A mother who lost her childhood memories due to a brain injury she suffered in a motorway crash later killed herself after running up debts ahead of Christmas, an inquest has heard. Stacey Coulthard, of Meir, near Stoke-on-Trent, sustained a terrible brain injury aged 20 when she was a passenger in a car involved in a crash. Her inquest heard that, despite her injuries, she 'battled through' and became a mother of three and worked at a care home. But tragedy struck a second time when an injury at work left her needing time off and she fell into debt in the build up to Christmas. The 38-year-old was found dead at her home on December 9 last year and a coroner has now concluded she took her own life. Stacey Coulthard tragically took her own life despite having 'battled through' for 18 years following a car accident which meant she lost her childhood memories North Staffordshire Coroner's Court heard Ms Coulthard had seemed in good spirits the night of her death and visited a friend before walking home with her son Kain, StokeOnTrentLive reported. But after her son went to bed upstairs, Ms Coulthard sent worrying texts to her mother and was later found dead by her son when he came downstairs. A post-mortem examination confirmed she had died from aspyhxia due to strangulation, with the alcohol she had consumed that night being a contributory factor. Speaking about the effect on her life of the car crash, her mother Carol Thompson told the inquest: 'She lost all her childhood memories. She never got them back.' But she said her daughter had always 'battled through, no matter what' and had been determined to keep on working. She had never previously expressed suicidal thoughts, although she was on medication and had received counselling, the coroner was told. The inquest heard she was injured at work, which left her with shoulder and neck pains and in need of surgery. An coroner at North Staffordshire Coroner's Court (pictured) returned a suicide verdict She had to take time off to recover from the operation and this led to problems in accessing housing benefit and paying her council rent. Stoke-on-Trent City Council had been working with Ms Coulthard to help her manage her 200 rent arrears and she was in no danger of being evicted. But there had been some 'confusion' over her entitlement to housing benefit when she was off sick. North Staffordshire assistant coroner David James said said: 'She was a very caring daughter and very caring mother, who clearly had an extremely able and talented young life, only hampered by matters that were beyond her control.' For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See samaritans.org for details. The Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican on Friday dismissed a letter from the American Bar Association's president saying he should stop the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation process until the FBI can undertake and complete a new background check. Association president Robert Carlson requested the delay in a letter sent to Chairman Charles Grassley and ranking committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein on Thursday evening, following a day of testimony by Christine Blasey Ford who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her 36 years ago, and by Kavanaugh who denied it. Fairness and adherence to the U.S. Constitution, he wrote, 'require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI.' Grassley was unimpressed, painting the letter as one man's opinion. Carlson, he said during a hearing, 'doesn't represent the hundreds of thousands of lawyers in the United States. It isn't at all clear that the ABA president has the authority to speak for the organization on this matter.' Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley dismissed a letter from the president of the American Bar Association, who argued that the committee should pause the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court until the FBI can thoroughly investigate aso-far uncorroborated sexual abuse accusation that dates back 36 years The ABA letter was signed by the legal trade group's president and shows no indication that the membership or any organization committee green-lighted it Christine Ford claims Kavanaugh assaulted her at a 1982 high school party, and Kavanaugh has flatly denied it, but Democrats want the FBI to slow the confirmation process so the FBI can probe the charges The letter, he added, makes no reference to a consultation with the ABA's Judicial Qualification Committee. 'The ABA president's opinion doesn't alter the fact that Judge Kavanaugh received a "very well qualified" rating from the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary,' Grassley said, noting that the organization awarded him its highest rating. 'The standing committee,' he noted, 'did not join this letter.' White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pushed back Friday morning, telling reporters that Kavanaugh has already 'been through six separate background investigations by the FBI.' The ABA designated Kavanaugh as 'well qualified' following his Supreme Court nomination, its highest rating. The Senate owes Kavanaugh and Ford 'nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI,' the ABA's president wrote to Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary (pictured Friday on ABC) told reporters that Kavanaugh has already undergone six separate background checks Kavanaugh testified Thursday to the Senate Judiciary Committee, denying an allegation of sexual assault when he was in high school. Ford reiterated her accusation during the emotionally charged day. ABA President Robert Carlson signed the letter but didn't consult with the ABA committee that speaks on judicial nominees Sanders stressed Trump's support for Kavanaugh and said he wanted to see a vote. She said Trump thought Kavanaugh's testimony was 'powerful, it was riveting and it was honest.' The ideological split on the ABA's recommendation was writ large Thursday night on Twitter. Former Obama White House aide Patrick Cunnane tweeted that it was 'awkward' for Trump since the ABA was 'invoked repeatedly today to bolster Kavanaugh.' Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson wrote that '[i]f the American Bar Association doesnt understand the difference between criminal charges vs. accusations & the respective process involved, one could wonder if paying dues to them would be a detrimental affiliation.' Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge chosen by President Donald Trump, said he was the victim of 'grotesque and obvious character assassination' orchestrated by Senate Democrats. The Judiciary Committee, on which Republicans hold an 11-10 majority, was to meet on Friday morning and several senators said they expected it to vote then. The full Senate, controlled 51-49 by Trump's fellow Republicans, could vote within days. Partisans from both sides, including an Obama White House veteran and a Trump campaign aide, weighed in on the ABA's demand Trump nominated Kavanaugh to cement conservative control of the Supreme Court as disputes over abortion rights, immigration, gay rights, voting rights and transgender troops could head toward the justices soon. Ford's allegation emerged last week and has been followed by others. Some Democrats have called on Kavanaugh to withdraw in light of the allegations and have said an FBI investigation is needed before any Senate confirmation vote. 'Each appointment to our nations Highest Court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote,' Carlson wrote. 'Deciding to proceed without conducting an additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senates reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court,' he added. A McDonald's worker was shamed today after jet washing the pavement around a homeless man in front of horrified customers. The man in a high-viz jacket was seen spraying feet from the victim lying in a sleeping bag in the car park of a Northampton restaurant. McDonald's has apologised for the incident that emerged on Snapchat today and admitted worker should have waited until he was gone. Witnesses believed that the worker was spray-washing the ground so close to the homeless man he got wet. Vicki said on social media: 'The McDonald's worker makes me feel sick. Spraying a homeless man with a jet wash, poor man'. This is the extraordinary moment a McDonald's worker jetwashed the area around a homeless man in Northampton Maureen Scannell wrote: "What gives people the right to treat homeless people so badly - it's disgusting'. She added: 'The police need to crack down on this homeless people are vulnerable. Shocking behaviour'. Enid Williams couldn't believe her eyes and said: 'Apologise, McDonald's should be made to feed that poor homeless man every day. Without any doubt. Sack that Pathetic excuse of an Employee'. The incident happened at the Sixfields branch near Northampton Town's stadium. MailOnline understands that the homeless man was asked to move and when he refused the restaurant worker just sprayed the area around him. A McDonald's spokesman said: 'We apologise for the incident in question. Having looked into it we understand that no one was sprayed during the cleaning, however we appreciate that more consideration needs to be shown in the future. We have spoken to the team to ensure this doesnt happen again'. Advertisement Hundreds of headteachers have marched on Downing Street to demand extra cash for schools. Organisers claimed more than 2,000 heads from England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the protest, double the number they had expected. They gathered in Parliament Square before converging on Downing Street, where a delegation delivered a letter to Chancellor Phillip Hammond protesting over what they claim are 'unsustainable' funding cuts and demanding ministers do not take them for 'fools'. The protest was organised by Worth Less?, which describes itself as a grassroots campaign for more money to tackle issues such as overcrowded classrooms, staff recruitment and retention, and poor working conditions. Headteachers from across England and Wales gather at Parliament Square in London to march on Downing Street today The campaign aims to tackle issues such as the problem of low staff retention and poor working conditions Headteachers from Somerset hold signs at Parliament Square today as they march to demand extra cash for schools (From left) Headteachers Sharon Waldron from Stonham Aspal Primary School in Suffolk, Andrew Lund from Appleby Grammar in Cumbria, Emma Wilkes from Oakfield Academy in Somerset, Anthony Markham from Herne Junior School in Hampshire, Jonathan Digby from Sir Harry Smith Community College in Peterborough and Adrian Carver from Downs View School in Brighton, stand outside 10 Downing Street in London, as they deliver a letter to demand extra cash for schools Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), said: 'It's a fantastic turnout and although it's supported by the unions, it's not arranged by them. This is an organic experience of school-leader frustration and anger.' Rob Kelsall, one of the organisers, said: 'We are seeing schools - both maintained and academies - that are seeing their funds depleted, dipping into their reserves, and having to send out begging letters to parents. 'This is not through choice, this is because there is no alternative.' Clem Coady, the headteacher of Stoneraise School in Carlisle, who is making a 600-mile trip to attend the protest, told Sky News: 'I felt as a headteacher I had to come down and support this grassroots campaign. 'Headteachers from all over the country have come together to demonstrate the power of feeling and the anger within the profession at the Government's stance of simply not listening and not supporting this generation of pupils. Christine deGraft-Hanson, headteacher of Garston Manor School in Hertfordshire, holds a placard at Parliament Square today Helen Longton-Howorth, headteacher of Carden Primary School in Brighton, holds a placard at Parliament Square today Total school spending per pupil fell around 8 per cent in real terms in England between 2009/10 and 2017/18 'And if we don't come together to support this generation of pupils, who is? Part of the letter given to No 10 by headteachers Since November 2017, the Government reduced the planned 3billion cuts to school budgets by 1.3billion and introduced a new National Funding Formula. Sadly, however, the fundamental issues noted above remain unaltered. In short, we lack the two fundamental things to do our jobs properly: adequate funding and enough teachers to go round. The Government's unshakable yet misleading mantra that schools are receiving 'more money than ever before' and that there are 'more teachers being recruited than ever' is a source of major concern and frustration to reasonably minded and highly professional headteachers. On the ground, we are experiencing an entirely different situation. Currently, these are the facts: Since 2010 school budgets have been slashed by 8 per cent in real terms Since 2010, 537,885 more pupils have joined state schools Schools face an unparalleled recruitment and retention crisis which the Education Policy Institute describes as 'severe' An overall lack of funding has meant that the new National Funding Formula has not been implemented in a meaningful way. Under this formula, the vast majority of previously very low funded schools have not received the improvements that they were promised because any increases to their budgets have been capped at 3 per cent. At the same time, all schools have been repeatedly hit by cuts to educational grants and significant increases to our cost base in areas such as employers' NI contributions and the Apprenticeship Levy. Advertisement 'We've got parents, we've got governors, we've got headteachers and teachers, but we haven't got any politicians standing up and backing our claims that funding is not meeting the needs in the classroom. 'We've cut everything that we can cut, and we've done all the shavings and slicings that we can. Nick Gibb has been wheeled out this morning from the Government, and has said more funding, 42.5billion. 'But then if that is so, then why is there 5,000+ less teachers, 2,000 and something less teaching assistants, 2,000 less support staff? Because his argument doesn't stack up. There's over 500,000 more pupils in our system. We're paying for more with less money. 'We need this Government to stand up for this generation of children and we're bringing this argument straight to the Government, because if they're not going to do it, we certainly will shout our mouths off and we won't stop until the Government funds our schools properly.' Adrian Carver, executive headteacher at the Downs View Special School in Brighton, was one of the six headteachers who delivered a letter to 11 Downing Street to request more funding for schools. He said: 'What's important about the campaign is that it's about fair funding for all schools. The principle is, whether it's a primary school, secondary school or special school, that there is appropriate funding to provide a core, effective education.' John Snell, headteacher at Welton Primary School in North East Somerset, the constituency of MP Jacob Rees-Moggs, said headteachers were running schools on a 'shoe string'. He said Mr Rees-Mogg often speaks positively of schools in the area but believes the 'agenda set by the government doesn't match'. He said: 'We've taken on so much more now. We have, quite rightly, taken on mental health issues in young people and we want our children to thrive in the world ahead and yet, with diminishing resources of social care we, as schools, are picking up the tab. 'With other public services, with the NHS, you see more beds in the corridors, with the police, there's less police on the streets and so on, but with schools, we just carry on.' Julie Kelly, headteacher of West Meon C of E Primary School in Hampshire, said that the Government needed to address its funding policies for education. The campaign Worth Less? calls for more money to tackle issues such as overcrowded classrooms and staff recruitment The number of secondary schools in England running at a loss had nearly trebled in four years, figures revealed this year Ms Longton-Howorth holds a sign as headteachers from across England and Wales prepare to march on Downing Street today She said: 'The fairer funding, what they were talking about today, Hampshire is second to bottom for the amount per pupil, so we're at about 5,000 when people at the top are getting 8,000 for their pupils. Number of secondary schools running at a loss has nearly trebled Earlier this year, figures from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) revealed the number of secondary schools in England running at a loss had nearly trebled. The study, published in March, said the number of council-run secondary schools in deficit dropped from 14.3 per cent in 2010/11 to 8.8 per cent in 2013/14, but between 2013/14 and 2016/17, the number in deficit nearly trebled to 26.1 per cent. In July, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said total school spending per pupil fell around 8 per cent in real terms in England between 2009/10 and 2017/18. In response, the Government said it was spending record amounts on schools. A Department for Education spokesman said: 'There is more money going into schools than ever before, rising to a record 43.5billion by 2020 - 50 per cent more in real terms per pupil than in 2000. 'Every school attracts more funding per pupil through the National Funding Formula, high needs funding has risen to over 6billion this year, and the 3.5 per cent pay rise we announced for classroom teachers on the main pay range is backed by 508million Government funding.' Advertisement 'I'm sorry but my school's children don't deserve to have 3,000 less spent on them. They [the Government] need to look again at this fairer funding.' Sarah Hewitt-Charlton, headteacher of the Anderton Park school in Birmingham, said: 'We have to, by law, teach children about democracy, to teach children to speak up or speak out if things aren't well or something isn't fair. What's happening now is not fair, it's not equal. 'I've got over 700 children in my school, which means 1,500 parents, and I'm a school in Birmingham and Birmingham has over 400 schools. I'm not just here for me, I'm here for education in its wider sense.' Headteachers also expressed concern about the lack of funding for school repairs. Emily Proffitt, headteacher at Tittensor First School in Staffordshire, told the Press Association that her school 'can't afford' to repair the floor of a classroom, which is an asbestos risk, as the cost is 'in the thousands'. The only steps the school has been able to take is to cover the hole with furniture, she added. She said: 'We're balancing all the time all these different issues but actually, that's a minor case compared to some schools, who have got windows falling out.' Ms Proffitt also said she has had to reduce staffing due to a lack of funding, including a teaching assistant who previously gave one-to-one support to a pupil. Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has voiced support for the protest. She said: 'This unprecedented action by headteachers is a clear sign of the desperate struggle they now face to provide a decent education while balancing the books.' Two teenage girls who tried to smuggle cannabis into jail for an inmate have both gone free after it emerged one is now pregnant. Close friends Chantelle Revie and Shelby Parkinson, both 19, were arrested after being seen giving Daniel Hives goodbye hugs whilst sneaking the drugs into his tracksuit bottoms. The pair had been visiting 22-year old Hives after he was held for an undisclosed offence at Category B Forest Bank prison in Salford, Greater Manchester. Both Chantelle Revie, left, and Shelby Parkinson, right, hugged each other in the dock as they escaped with a six months jail suspended for two years after a judge said they should have been brought to court sooner Revie - who was Hives girlfriend - was responsible for handing him the drugs whilst Parkinsons job was to make sure the package was secure and in place by patting his bottom. Guards saw the switch being made on CCTV and recovered 14 separate wraps of cannabis. The prison value of the drugs would be 1,350. At Manchester Crown Court, Revie, of Bamber Bridge, Preston who is now pregnant with an unborn baby and Parkinson of nearby Ribbleton both faced jail after they pleaded guilty to bringing a prohibited article into a prison. Daniel Hives pictured with Chantelle Revie. She became pregnant with after she was released under investigation. After becoming pregnant, she then received a postal requisition almost a year after the offence But both hugged each other in the dock as they escaped with a six months jail suspended for two years after a judge said they should have been brought to court sooner. Hives has been freed since the incident on July 9 last year when the girls were just 18. Revie's baby is due in March next year. Prosecutor Simon Barrett said: Chantelle was the girlfriend of the inmate and she was responsible for taking the drugs into prison. Shelby Parkinson became aware of it and assisted with concealing the item in the waistband. The incident took place on Sunday 9 July last year at around 2pm. The two defendants went to see a prisoner at HMP Forest Bank, the prisoner was Daniel Hives. They were in the visiting area and appeared to staff to be nervous so they were watched on CCTV. The two defendants went to see a prisoner at HMP Forest Bank, the prisoner was Daniel Hives. They were in the visiting area and appeared to staff to be nervous so they were watched on CCTV The prisoner stood up and Chantelle went to hug him and can clearly be seen to place her hand on the waistband of his tracksuit bottoms. Shelby also hugged him to make sure that the article was securely placed there. The item was recovered from his waistband after staff saw the incident on CCTV. 14 separate wraps of cannabis were found in the package. The value of drugs in the prison would be 1350. Both gave no comment interviews when questioned by police. In mitigation defence lawyer Duncan Phillips said Revie was 14 weeks pregnant and her baby was due in March of next year. She became pregnant after she was released under investigation. After becoming pregnant, she then received a postal requisition almost a year after the offence. She was 18 at the time of this offence and is 19 years of age now. Daniel Hives, left, pictured with girlfriend Chantelle Revie, right. Hives has been freed since the incident on July 9 last year when the girls were just 18 Sentencing Judge Martin Walsh told them: This is not a case where there was a suggestion of undue pressure. You knew full well what you were doing. I am now faced with two defendants who were 18 at the time of the offence, one of them is now pregnant. There has been an unacceptable and inordinate delay in bringing these proceedings to justice. Anyone who traffics drugs into prison contributes to a situation that causes disruption in our institutions. Smuggling drugs into prison often leads to outbreaks of violence. You were 18 at the time of committing these offences. You are of previous good character. I want to make it crystal clear that had you been sentenced by me in a reasonable period of time, each of you would have gone straight to custody. Each of you were aware of the part you were playing in this trafficking. But there has been an inexplicable delay in these matters being brought to court. It is only because of the inordinate delay of these matters being brought to court that I feel I can suspend the custody. I want to make it clear to each of you that you have been very fortunate today. Ordinarily, you would have been going to custody but an exceptional case has been adopted in this matter. Revie was also ordered to undertake 30 days of rehabilitation activity and Parkinson will complete 160 hours of unpaid work. Aaron Ali, 40, used his mobility scooter as a 'battering ram' to knock over two women A disabled man who used his mobility scooter as a 'battering ram' to knock over two elderly women on the pavement is facing jail. Aaron Ali, 40, reversed over Doris Collins, 88, and Joan Benjafield, 90, while they were out shopping in Welling, South East London. The two pensioners were waiting at a bus stop outside a shop on June 14 this year when they were run over by Ali. Ms Collins and Ms Benjafield were waiting to get on a number 96 bus when the ramp came down and Ali rode off on his scooter. CCTV footage played in court shows him ride pass the two women then suddenly stop before reversing into Ms Benjafield, sending her flying onto the pavement. He then rolls forward slightly before reversing into Ms Collins, knocking her over on top of Ms Benjafied. Ms Collins suffered some cuts to her knee while Ms Benjafield was left with bruises to her calf and ribs. He was convicted of the other two charges today after a two day trial at Southwark Crown Court. Ali was also accused of punching 72-year-old Michael Gibson in another random attack in nearby Woolwich on January 2 but was cleared of that charge. Dressed in a grey prison uniform and sitting in a mobility scooter in the dock, he showed no emotion as his sentencing hearing was adjourned. The judge, Ms Recorder Emma Goodall said: 'Mr Ali, you have been convicted of two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. 'By adjourning, I give you no indication as to the ultimate outcome but it passes the custody threshold by some distance. A custodial sentence is almost inevitable.' Prosecutor James Dean had told how Ali used his chair 'as a battering ram' against the two old ladies. 'He is seen to reverse,' he said. The two pensioners were waiting at a bus stop outside a shop in South East London in June 'He hits the old lady nearest the curb (Ms Benjafield). She hits the ground. (Mr Ali) stops and goes forward a short distance. Believe it or not he reverses again.' Mr Gibson was shopping with his son and daughter in Woolwich when he saw Ali coming towards him in his electric wheelchair. He told the court: 'He was about two yards away when I saw him. It was somebody in a wheelchair so obviously I moved out of the way.' Ali was also accused of punching 72-year-old Michael Gibson (above) in another random attack - but was cleared of that charge Mr Gibson said he took a step to the left to avoid Ali but was then hit in the face. He said: 'The blow was upwards, I knew it was a punch because I felt it. Next thing I remember is my son and daughter coming up to me. 'After I was punched I was down for about 10 to 20 seconds.' Mr Gibson got up and said he saw Ali making his way down the road before turning the corner. He ran after Ali and caught up with him. I said to him 'what'd you do that for?" He said Ali kept looking ahead and refused to answer him. 'He was in a wheelchair so I left it at that,' said Mr Gibson. Mr Gibson said he lit a cigarette after the incident and part of his front tooth came off. 'I've only got three teeth so I did not need to lose another one,' he added. Former psychiatric nurse Ali claimed he suffered a 'diabetic crash' before he allegedly rammed two elderly women with his mobility scooter. Ali, who qualified as a nurse in 2001, claimed he was left disabled for life after he was attacked by a patient while working at Shaftesbury House in Ealing, West London. Ali denied attacking Mr Gibson and claimed the pensioner assaulted him whilst running at him 'with a trolley.' Ali, of Thamesmead, denied three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of common assault. He is expected to be sentenced in November. SNP's David Linden and Drew Hendry (pictured circled left and right, respectively) told health workers they were double jabbed and did not need to be swabbed after landing in Gibraltar, according to a witness. The pair, whose vaccine QR codes apparently stopped working, were 'rude' towards staff and warned they will 'get them into trouble' with Governor of Gibraltar David Steel (inset left) when urged to take a test. Under current regulations, anyone arriving in Gibraltar (inset) is required to take a test in a booth outside the airport and provide proof of any vaccinations. However, after initially refusing, the pair eventually took the tests before leaving with Ministry of Defence staff, it is reported. The duo, alongside Labour's Charlotte Nichols (right), were accused of drinking heavily before arriving in the British Overseas Territory with the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme - with one apparently having to be taken out of the airport in a wheelchair. But Ms Nichols, who said she had fewer than five drinks, blamed her medication after she was said to be too incapacitated to attend the welcome party on arrival. She has since returned home two days early. Advertisement Never-before-seen photos of the Arab Revolt have come to light to reveal Lawrence of Arabia had help from a plucky band of British troops as well as the native tribesmen. War hero T.E Lawrence famously led local guerrilla forces across the desert in World War One by dressing as an Arab to build a rapport with them. The photos feature in a new book which sheds new light on Lawrence's achievements in the Middle East. Never-before-seen photos of the Arab Revolt have come to light to reveal Lawrence of Arabia had help from a plucky band of British troops as well as the native tribesmen. The photos feature in a new book which sheds new light on Lawrence's achievements in the Middle East called: Masters of Mayhem, Lawrence of Arabia and the British Military Mission to the Hejaz War hero T.E Lawrence famously led local guerrilla forces across the desert in World War One by dressing as an Arab to build a rapport with them.The photos had been tucked away in the private photo albums of the descendants of soldiers who fought alongside Lawrence during the campaign (pictured: 1) Bond, 2) James Brown, 3) Tommy Lowe, 4) Gilman, 5) Jackson)) Bedouin sheik on horse in the desert clutches his rifle as fascinating never before seen photos of the Arab Revolt reveal Lawrence of Arabia actually had help from a plucky band of British troops as well as the Arab tribesmen As well as fighting alongside Arabs, Lawrence was also supported by his own countrymen who followed his lead in adopting traditional native headdress. The photos had been tucked away in the private photo albums of the descendants of soldiers who fought alongside Lawrence during the campaign. One historic photo shows Lawrence and his driver sitting in a Rolls Royce in Marjeh Square in Damascus after it was captured in October 1918. One historic photo shows Lawrence and his driver sitting in a Rolls Royce in Marjeh Square in Damascus after it was captured in October 1918 As well as fighting alongside Arabs, Lawrence was also supported by his own countrymen who followed his lead in adopting traditional native headdress. The officers of Operation Hedgehog - the British attack on the Hejaz railway - seated from left: Ramsey, Gilman, Joyce, Lony and the back from left: Greenhill, Young, Flannel Feet and Bamford with Grisenthwaite sat front Another documents the dramatic moment a water tower and windmill pump are blown up in the desert. The troops can be seen training with huge mountain guns and changing the tyres of their Rolls Royce armoured cars. There are snaps of the top secret 'X Flight', a small group of planes used by Lawrence and his company to carry out missions including bombing Turkish railway lines, cutting off supply routes and telegraph wires. And photos of the future King of Iraq Emir Faisal's army who fought alongside Lawrence during the campaign. In it he describes Lawrence as the 'pioneer of unconventional tactics' who was not daunted by the superior numbers of the enemy, instead using his strengths to out-manoeuvre his targets And photos of the future King of Iraq Emir Faisal's army who fought alongside Lawrence during the campaign. Lawrence was a British intelligence officer in Cairo at the time of the Arab Revolt against German-supporting Turkey in June 1916 One historic photo shows Lawrence and his driver sitting in a Rolls Royce in Marjeh Square in Damascus after it was captured in October 1918 Lawrence was a British intelligence officer in Cairo at the time of the Arab Revolt against German-supporting Turkey in June 1916. He led the revolt to victory and a sweep across the desert to Damascus that re-wrote the map of the Middle East. Military historian James Stejskal has published the images in his new book 'Masters of Mayhem'. In it he describes Lawrence as the 'pioneer of unconventional tactics' who was not daunted by the superior numbers of the enemy, instead using his strengths to out-manoeuvre his targets. He led the revolt to victory and a sweep across the desert to Damascus that re-wrote the map of the Middle East. Military historian James Stejskal has published the images in his new book 'Masters of Mayhem' Another black and white image documents the dramatic moment a water tower and windmill pump are blown up in the desert The photos had been tucked away in the private photo albums of the descendants of soldiers who fought alongside Lawrence during the campaign From expertly crafted custom armoured cars to the formation of elite, close knit fighting forces, his strategies were adopted by future special forces including the SAS. Mr Stejskal, 64, said: 'The unseen photos have come from the descendants whose fathers or grandfathers fought alongside Lawrence. 'They had been tucked away in personal photo albums and not seen before. 'Lawrence was an anomaly - an amateur officer who eschewed British military traditions and discipline and who loathed its seemingly mindless adherence to rules, regulations and conventions. From expertly crafted custom armoured cars to the formation of elite, close knit fighting forces, his strategies were adopted by future special forces including the SAS There are snaps of the top secret 'X Flight', a small group of planes used by Lawrence and his company to carry out missions including bombing Turkish railway lines, cutting off supply routes and telegraph wires The troops can be seen training with huge mountain guns and changing the tyres of their Rolls Royce armoured cars 'He was instrumental in the evolution of how the Allies fought the Turks where there was a distinct change from foolishly attacking large formations with minimal numbers to implementing modern dynamic warfare with modern planes, trains and automobiles. 'The origins of British special forces operations are often traced back to World War Two but in reality we should trace them back much further than that. 'Both special forces operations and what Lord Mountbatten called combined operations had their origins in the British operations of the Arab Revolt.' A Windrush descendant and former adviser to David Cameron has been selected to run as the Tory Party's next candidate for London Mayor. Shaun Bailey beat off the competition to get the shot at City Hall on a promise that he will focus on cracking down on gangs and crime. But he faces a stiff battle to beat Labour's Sadiq Khan after it emerged that the Tories have 15,000 members in London, a city home to more than eight million. The Tory politician, who used to advise Mr Cameron on youth and crime before reportedly being pushed out by the then PM's Old Etonian clique, has vowed to take a 'zero-tolerance approach' to the knife crime epidemic gripping the capital. Mr Bailey said he is delighted with being selected - and that tackling crime and the housing crisis are his top priorities. Shaun Bailey (pictured near City Hall in London) beat off the competition to get the shot at City Hall on a promise that he will focus on cracking down on gangs and crime He said: 'Local government is important work and our city is facing real challenges. 'Violent crime is up. Gang crime is up. Knife crime is up. Our transport system faces a 1billion hole in its operating budget. 'New homes are not being built fast enough. After two and a half years of Sadiq Khan, it is clear we cannot afford more of the same.' But he faces a tough challenge to snatch City Hall off Mr Khan in 2020 as London is a strong Labour-supporting city. And the Conservatives today admitted they only have around 15,000 members in the capital. They said that 7,321 Tory members voted in the London Mayoralty selection race at a turnout of 47.8 per cent - meaning the party has 15,316 members who are eligible to vote. Anyone who has been a member of the Tory Party for three months or more can vote. Senior Conservative figures rushed to congratulate Mr Bailey on his selection. Theresa May tweeted: 'Congratulations to Shaun Bailey, the new candidate for Mayor of London. 'A passionate and dedicated campaigner, he truly gets what London needs to thrive. 'He has the ideas and the energy to deliver. I look forward to joining him on the campaign trail soon.' Mr Bailey defeated rivals Andrew Boff and Joy Morrissey for the nomination to stand in 2020 after a vote by party supporters in the capital. Theresa May (pictured in New York on Wednesday) is hoping that Shaun Bailey will be able to snatch back City Hall for the Tories after they lost the powerful post to Labour two years ago Mr Bailey, who is a London Assembly member, is pledging a 'zero tolerance' approach to crime and vows to put 1,000 extra police officers on London's streets if he wins the mayoralty. His first major political speech following his selection will be at the Conservative conference in Birmingham early next week. Mr Bailey's family moved to London as part of the Windrush Generation and he was raised by his mother in North Kensington. For many years, Mr Bailey was a youth worker in Ladbroke Grove and entered politics through charity work. Tory chairman Brandon Lewis welcomed Mr Bailey's appointment, saying: 'I'm delighted Shaun Bailey has been elected as our candidate. 'He is passionate about London and has the ideas London needs to continue to be the best capital city in the world. 'London is being let down by Sadiq Khan, who keeps breaking the promises he made to Londoners on crime, housing and transport. I know Shaun will hold him to account and outline his positive vision for London.' A former Vatican ambassador has challenged the Holy See to say what it knows about a scandal surrounding a disgraced American ex-cardinal and accused Pope Francis of mounting a campaign of 'subtle slander' against him. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano penned a new missive, a month after his initial 11-page document sent shockwaves through the Catholic Church. It was uploaded to a document-sharing site. In the document the archbishop denounced the official Vatican silence about his claims and accused Francis of mounting a campaign of 'subtle slander' by referring indirectly to him as Satan in recent homilies. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano (pictured) challenged the Holy See to hand over information The cleric urged the current head of the Vatican bishops office to speak out, saying he has all the documentation needed to prove years of cover-up by the Vatican about alleged sexual misconduct by ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick. 'How can one avoid concluding that the reason they do not provide the documentation is that they know it confirms my evidence?' the archbishop wrote. 'The pope's unwillingness to respond to my charges and his deafness to the appeals by the faithful for accountability are hardly consistent with his calls for transparency and bridge building.' The archbishop threw Francis' papacy into turmoil last month when he accused Francis of rehabilitating ex-cardinal McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI. He accused more than two dozen current and former Vatican officials, as well as a host of US bishops and papal advisers, of being part of the cover-up and called for Francis to resign over the scandal. Francis removed Mr McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a US church investigation determined an allegation he fondled a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible. Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick (pictured) has been accused of sexual misconduct After news broke of the investigation, several former seminarians and priests came forward to report that they, too, had been abused or harassed by Mr McCarrick as adults. The scandal has led to a crisis in confidence in both the US and Vatican hierarchy, since Mr McCarrick's penchant for seminarians was apparently an open secret in some US and Vatican church circles. In his first denunciation, published on August 26, the archbishop initially claimed Benedict had imposed sanctions against Mr McCarrick prohibiting him from exercising public ministry, travelling or lecturing on behalf of the church. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano threw Francis' (pictured) papacy into turmoil last month when he accused Francis of rehabilitating ex-cardinal McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI He has changed his account, however, since the historic record is rife with evidence Mr McCarrick lived his ministry free from any real constraints, and it is unclear what type of sanctions were ever imposed. But the crux of the archbishop's claim was that he told Francis of the sanctions against Mr McCarrick on June 23 2013, and that the pope effectively rehabilitated Mr McCarrick and made him a trusted adviser. Francis has refused to directly respond to the archbishop's claims, though the Vatican is expected to release some 'clarifications' soon. Francis, however, has referred to the issue indirectly in his morning homilies, speaking of the silence of Jesus before the 'great accuser', seemingly comparing his own silence to that of Christ and the archbishop's accusations to the work of Satan. Rather than directly responding, the archbishop complained, Francis 'put in place a subtle slander against me, slander being an offence he has often compared to the gravity of murder. 'Indeed, he did it repeatedly, in the context of the celebration of the most Holy Sacrament, the Eucharist, where he runs no risk of being challenged by journalists.' The archbishop claimed Pope Benedict (pictured) had imposed sanctions against now ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick Francis refused to take questions about the accusations during his in-flight news conference returning from the Baltics on Tuesday. The archbishop acknowledged he has violated the pontifical secret, the rule of confidentiality that governs much of the inner workings of the Catholic Church. 'Certainly, some of the facts that I was to reveal were covered by the pontifical secret that I had promised to observe and that I had faithfully observed from the beginning of my service to the Holy See,' the achbishop wrote. 'But the purpose of any secret, including the pontifical secret, is to protect the church from her enemies, not to cover up and become complicit in crimes committed by some of her members.' A gay kindergarten teacher in east China is suing his former school after being fired, in what his lawyer called a landmark case to test China's protection of minority groups. The teacher was dismissed in August from a school in the coastal city of Qingdao after he posted on social media about an LGBT event he planned to attend, his lawyer Tang Xiangqian told Reuters. Tang said his client was told by the school principal that parents may not want a gay man teaching their children. A gay kindergarten teacher in east China is suing his former school after being fired, in what his lawyer called a landmark case to test China's protection of minority groups (file photo) Chinese activists have organised rallies to press for greater protections for the LGBT community - and same-sex marriage - to be included in a civil code set to be passed in 2020 The teacher declined to comment or be identified when contacted by Reuters. After decades of prudent rule by China's Communist Party, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are now openly tackling bureaucracy, legal uncertainty and entrenched social norms to assert their place in society. The teacher was asked to leave without sufficient severance or payment for his 10 per cent stake in the school, Tang said. 'The main reason we filed this case is not just as a labour dispute but to make the gay community more visible to a wider group of people. To let more people realise that they can easily be victims of discrimination,' Tang said. Chinese labour laws lack specific sections on LGBT issues, but there are broad provisions against discrimination that can be used by minority groups to protect their rights, Tang said. Chinese labour laws lack specific sections on LGBT issues, but there are broad provisions against discrimination that can be used by minority groups to protect their rights A court in Qingdao accepted the teacher's case on Thursday. Tang said, as far as he was aware, it is the first case in China of a gay teacher taking a school to court after being fired over sexual orientation. The teacher is seeking a court order that he be rehired and paid compensation for his financial losses, according to a copy of the court filing seen by Reuters. The name of the school and the court were redacted in the court filing. Tang declined to give the names of the court and the school because he said it might affect the case. Chinese activists have organised rallies to press for greater protections for the LGBT community - and same-sex marriage - to be included in a civil code set to be passed in 2020. Despite thriving gay scenes in many of China's big cities and growing awareness of LGBT issues, the community has battled against Confucian values and government censorship. A Syrian man accused of plotting a chemical attack on Israel and recruiting extremist terrorists to ISIS has been arrested in Berlin. Hooded SEK (Special Deployment Commando) officers armed with assault rifles stormed a restaurant last Thursday and wrestled the man to the ground, while riot police secured the road with submachine guns. The 21-year-old was originally wanted for an assault that took place on April 14 in the Wittenau area of Berlin. Armed officers and riot police with submachine guns arrived at the restaurant on the well-known Sonnenallee in Berlin's Neukolln district The Syrian is said to have arrived some time ago with a fake passport from Libya, and intelligence services bugged his phone to obtain information The man and accomplices are alleged to have seriously injured a man who owed the suspect 4000 euros, kicking him in the head and holding a knife to his neck, reported Bild. Police finally tracked him down in a restaurant on the popular Sonnenallee in the district of Neukolln at around 6pm last Thursday. He remains in custody. 'The man was wanted by warrant for dangerous assault and coercion,' a police spokesman said. 'He is a great danger.' A large contingent of armed officers, including riot police and the Special Deployment Commando, arrested the 21-year-old Syrian man in Berlin last Thursday However according to the German website Bild, the assault is only half the story and the Syrian is also alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in Israel with chemical weapons. In addition, he is said to have recruited fighters for an Islamist jihad ('Holy War'). According to BILD information, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's Federal Intelligence Service received evidence some months ago from a foreign partner service regarding the man. According to the German website Bild, the Syrian is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in Israel with chemical weapons The information was passed on to the Berlin security authorities, who intercepted the suspect's phones. The Syrian is said to have arrived some time ago with a fake passport from Libya. A house search did not produce any clear evidence. Martin Steltner, spokesman for the prosecutor, told Bild: 'We can neither confirm nor deny information on the preliminary investigation.' The Berlin arrest comes days after two people were arrested in Copenhagen and charged with conspiracy to supply drones to ISIS with drones, which are increasing used by the terror group to carry out attacks in Iraq and Syria. The two were arrested after Danish police and intelligence services carried out raids, the police said in a statement, without releasing their names. A tourist who claims she was served a banana carved into the shape of a penis at a Sydney cafe has described her treatment as 'sexist' and 'disgraceful'. Brazilian backpacker Isa Nascimento ordered an acai bowl at the Sejuiced cafe in Bondi on Thursday. When the meal arrived it was garnished with a phallic-shaped banana, rather than the standard topping of fresh fruits and nuts. Posting to Facebook, she claimed a group of Australians seated next to them in the cafe were given a 'normal' acai bowl. A tourist who claims she was served a banana (pictured) at a Sydney cafe that had been deliberately carved into the shape of a penis has described her treatment as 'sexist' and 'disgraceful' Brazilian backpacker Isa Nascimento ordered an acai bowl at the Sejuiced cafe in Bondi on Thursday - but found hers was garnished with the phallic-shaped fruit Ms Nascimento's friend Bruna Lira told Be: 'Brazilian women fight to not be stereotyped - I cannot believe in 2018 we need to ask men for respect' The waiter then reportedly asked the woman where she was from and laughed as he served her the unusually-shaped meal. Ms Nascimento's friend Bruna Lira told a Brazilian news site about the dining ordeal. 'Brazilian women fight to not be stereotyped - I cannot believe in 2018 we need to ask men for respect,' she said. 'She was embarrassed and disgusted - she left the place immediately and threw the acai in the bin.' Commenters on Facebook slammed the cafe for the meal's appearance. One user said: 'Disgusting!!! Unacceptable behaviour from employees with two girlfriends where they have put a banana with the shape of a PENIS on top of the acai'. Another said: 'Sad story for a woman to go for an acai and instead suffer disgusting behaviour.' More than 100 people have complained to the cafe since the backpacker uploaded the photos on Thursday More than 100 people have complained to the cafe since the backpacker uploaded the photos on to social media Thursday. Sejuiced, which is in the Bondi Beach Pavilion, bills itself as 'the culmination of ten years of fresh and exciting menus and ideas' and has four branches in New South Wales. Daily Mail Australia have contacted the cafe, who have yet to respond to the accusations, for comment. Ms Nascimento's experience comes after a Newcastle cafe sparked a fierce debate in April over their gourmet vegemite on toast offering. Rodrigo Duterte told politicians that 'my only sin is the extrajudicial killings' in an apparent admission that he is behind a wave of violence against drug users in the Philippines Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has apparently confessed to being behind a campaign of killings against drug dealers and users that has seen thousands slain in the last two years. Duterte, who is known for giving rambling and expletive-laden speeches, was laying into his foes at home and abroad when he made the remark late on Thursday. 'What is my fault,' he asked government ministers and watching TV cameras. 'Did I steal even one peso? My only sin is the extrajudicial killings.' While it widely suspected that Duterte has been personally overseeing a programme of killings against drug users and dealers after vowing to protect police who opened fire, he has always officially denied involvement. His critics immediately pounced on the remark, saying it amounts to a confession and called on the International Criminal Court - which is already investigating him over the murders - to act. Meanwhile government officials scrambled to downplay the remark, saying that Duterte was 'not serious' and was 'only being playful'. Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde, whose officers have been accused of orchestrating the killings, also sought to downplay the President's remarks. 'He said that out of frustration,' Albayalde said in remarks reported by Rappler. He added: 'There was no order given to us whatsoever to kill, even suspects.' The Philippine National Police estimate that 4,500 users and dealers have been killed during the country's war on drugs, but insist that all the killings have been legitimate. Police say that 4,500 people have been killed during the two-year-old war on drugs, but rights groups estimate the true figure to be north of 12,000 (pictured, people demonstrate against the brutal crackdown in Manila this week) However, human rights groups believe that total is somewhere north of 12,000, when adjusted to include killings by mercenaries and hitmen. There are currently two cases filed against Duterte at the ICC, one of which was brought by a former police officer and a hitman who say they were ordered to kill on his behalf while he was mayor of Davao City, on the southern island of Mindanao. A second case was filed in August by eight families who say their relatives were killed on Duterte's orders,accusing him of 'crimes against humanity'. After the court announced it was investigating him back in March, he withdrew the Philippines from the treaty which created it in protest. The brutal drugs crackdown began almost as soon as Duterte became President in 2016 and has continued ever since, stopping only briefly last year after three teenagers were mistakenly killed, prompting protests. Duterte has pledged 'upon my honour' that the campaign will not stop until he leaves office in 2022. Crowdfunding campaigns in support of Dr Christine Blasey Ford and her family has raised more than half a million dollars, it has been revealed today. One campaign, set up by friends of Dr Ford, saw donations shoot up by $190,000 after she mentioned it during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. The $683,609 raised aim to help Dr Ford with costs incurred in the wake of her going public with the allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980s. Support: More than $680,000 has been raised to help Dr Ford and her family cover costs of having to flee their home and hire security after she went public with her allegations Since Dr Ford came forward with her claims, the family have been forced to flee their home and have been threatened with violence and death, prompting them to hire security. During her opening statement, Dr Ford, a university psychology professor now living in California, spoke of the shocking abuse she and her family have suffered. 'My greatest fears have been realized and the reality has been far worse than what I expected. My family and I have been the target of constant harassment and death threats. I have been called the most vile and hateful names imaginable. 'These messages, while far fewer than the expressions of support, have been terrifying to receive and have rocked me to my core. People have posted my personal information on the internet. This has resulted in additional emails, calls, and threats. 'My family and I were forced to move out of our home. Since September 16, my family and I have been living in various secure locales, with guards. Apart from the assault itself, these last couple of weeks have been the hardest of my life.' Speaking up: Dr Ford, pictured left in high school, claims Brett Kavanaugh, pictured right in high school, sexually assaulted her at a party in 1982 Two stories: Dr Ford spoke about her ordeal in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, after which Kavanaugh defended himself and claimed he was innocent Dr Ford later acknowledged the fundraiser during questioning, when she was asked how she would pay for the cost of a polygraph test and other expenses related to her testimony. Dr Ford told Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell: 'I'm aware that there's been several GoFundMe sites'. This saw one of the GoFundMe campaigns receive more than $190,000, prompting it to stop accepting donations upon reaching $473,622. Those running the campaign, who were been forced to remove their names from the GoFundMe site after receiving death threats, clarify on the website that 'donations will go towards security and other expenses determined by the family.' Another campaign set up by Heidi Feldman, a law professor at Georgetown University raised $209,987 for Dr Ford - who also uses Dr Blasey professionally - before it was closed. Prof. Feldman states on the GoFundMe site that 'if we raise more than Dr. Blasey needs, extra funds will go to women's organizations and/or into an account to cover similar costs incurred in comparable situations.' A model and Instagram influencer was fatally shot by unknown gunmen as she drove through the Iraqi capital on Thursday morning. Tara Fares, 22, suffered 'three fatal bullet wounds' at the wheel of her Porsche convertible while driving through Baghdad's central Camp Sarah district. Her death has sent ripples through social media, where she had been building her own personal brand having amassed almost three million followers on Instagram. Tara's instagram says her interests are style, beauty and travel. She also had a YouTube channel, where she uploaded makeup tutorials and video blogs The former 2015 beauty queen suffered three bullet wounds just before 6am local time The former beauty queen was taken to Baghdad's Sheik Zaid hospital at 5.45am local time. She lived in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and was said to rarely visit Baghdad. Her death was confirmed by the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, which announced an investigation has been opened, Kurdistan 24 reported. It comes not long after two other women involved in the beauty industry were reported murdered in Iraq. Rafeef al-Yaseri, who owned the 'Barbie' beauty centre, and Rasha al-Hassan, a beauty expert, died in mysterious circumstances at their homes in August. Tara Fares (pictured) murder comes just days after that of Suad al-ali, an Iraqi human rights activist who was also shot in her car in the southern city of Basra Gunned down for 'simply enjoying & loving life like other pretty girls': Tara's death has sent shock waves through social media, with tributes flooding in on Twitter and Instagram On Wednesday, a human rights activist was shot dead as she got into her car in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where violent anti-government protests have taken place in recent weeks. Suad al-ali, head of an organisation called al-Weed al-Alaiami For Human Rights, had supported the protests. An unidentified man opened fire at Suad al-Ali, killing her and reportedly wounding her husband. Tara had made her name on Instagram, where she had built a huge fan-base and personal brand, specialising in fashion and beauty. 'Anyone who finds excuses for those who kill a girl just because she had decided to live like most other girls on the planet is an accomplice to her murder,' wrote Ahmad al-Basheer, an exiled Iraqi satirist But she had also won praise for her commentary on the reality of daily life in Iraq, where conservative attitudes towards women and fixed gender roles persist. Following the announcement, fans began posting tributes on social media, with many hailing her bravery and openness on the issue of women's rights. Tara, whose posts on the site feature tattoos, different hair colours and adventurous clothes, was a victim of her fame and targeted because of her lifestyle, Twitter users wrote. 'I am beyond disappointed and hurt after hearing about another tragic loss in Iraq. 'Tara Fares, a model and social media influencer was gunned down in broad daylight in #Baghdad,' one said. 'A young Iraq model was simply enjoying & loving life like other pretty girls. 'Unfortunately she got shooted (sic) & killed by few militants. I am truly heart broken & saddened by such a tragic news,' another wrote. 'This Thursday it was Tara... Next Thursday, who will it be?' a third tweeted. 'Anyone who finds excuses for those who kill a girl just because she had decided to live like most other girls on the planet is an accomplice to her murder,' wrote Ahmad al-Basheer, an Iraqi satirist who lives in exile in Jordan after having faced death threats. A schoolboy who stopped and asked to help carry a pensioners shopping bag has won the hearts of thousands. The unnamed boy was on his way home from school when another parent, Emma Cope, 28 from Kingstanding, West Midlands, saw him approach and help the elderly man. She was so moved by the touching moment that she took a photograph and posted it on Facebook to show off the boy's kindness. She also praised his parents and said that they 'should be proud' - with thousands of people agreeing with her online. Facebook user Emma Cope posted this photo of a young schoolboy carrying a disabled elderly man's shopping in Kingstanding, Birmingham Emma shared how the schoolboy, despite carrying a heavy backpack of his own, volunteered to carry the elderly man's shopping. The act was made even more touching as Emma said the boy didn't seem to know the pensioner. The two could be seen walking side by side down the road in a heartwarming scene. Emma admitted that she was moved by the boy's kindly actions and shared the conversation she overheard between them. The boy asked the pensioner: 'Excuse me, do you need some help with your bag?' And the surprised but delighted elderly man answered: 'Oh yes please.' Emma said they made their way down the road afterwards, with the boy slowing his speed to keep stride with the crutch-bearing man. Emma said she was stunned by the photo and had to take a photo of the young boy helping the disabled pensioner get home Emma told Mail Online: 'I couldn't believe it. I just had to take a photo. 'The parents of this young man should be so proud as you have obviously brought up a polite and caring young lad.' She added that the pensioner is regularly seen walking down that particular road, but it was the first time she'd ever seen the schoolboy. The touching deed triggered a wave of reaction on social media, with thousands of people giving the schoolboy praise and congratulating his parents for raising him to treat the elderly with respect. Thousands of people responded to the photo, heaping praise on the young schoolboy for showing respect and helping the frail pensioner Mike Smith wrote on Facebook: 'Some kids are brought up correctly and some are dragged up. Well done young man. Your parents are doing a great job.' Georgia Pierce commented: 'Omg this is the cutest thing. Exactly how my kids will be raised.' Bernadette Beglin-Mace added: 'Respect to this little fella for showing respect to his elders.' The photo has had 33 thousand reactions on Facebook, with another 16 thousands shares and more than three thousand comments. A lot of people said that the young boy should be an example to other youngsters and praised his parents for raising him in the right way Several people praised the young man's parents and held him up as an example of how young people should show respect to their elders. Amanda Louise said: 'This should be the norm. Sadly it's not and when it happens they are painted as a superhero. All kids should be taught respect and kindness. 'This kid's parent or parents are clearly raising him right!' Nathan Bridge added: 'About time we see a story about the generosity of young people. Shows that not all youngsters are that bad despite everything we read and hear on the news. 'Well done kid, your family and friends should be proud of you'. Annabella Smith said: 'Honestly to read this and know somewhere out there, there are parents teaching their children (in my eye and own opinion) the correct way to treat elderly people and how to respect them honestly melts my heart!! Only wish more parents would teach their children this rather than them mess around and disrespect their elders!!' A parcel containing 20kg of cocaine has been found floating in the sea by kayakers. Police were called to Trial Bay on the northern New South Wales coastline after it was spotted by members of the public on Wednesday morning. Officers retrieved the package from the water and handed the finding to the Australian Federal Police where investigations have commenced. Scroll down for video A parcel containing 20kg of cocaine has been found floating in the sea at Trial Bay, northern New South Wales, months after 600kg of the narcotic was seized on the same coastline NSW Police Superintendent Paul Fehon praised the kayakers for notifying police. 'A find like this is a concern to police, and we are thankful we were able to seize it before it caused harm within our community,' Supt Fehon said. 'While we believe this could be an isolated find, I urge any member of the community who locates anything suspicious on the beach or in the water to contact local police immediately.' Police believe the finding could be connected to an earlier - and ongoing - case where 600kg of the narcotic was seized by authorities. A 36-year-old man and a 53-year-old man were arrested in connection to the July seizure, after a surveillance team helped intercept a small craft approximately 40 nautical miles east of Byron Bay. The two men were charged with possession of a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. A 36-year-old man and a 53-year-old man were arrested in connection to the July seizure, after a surveillance team helped intercept a small craft approximately 40 nautical miles east of Byron Bay (pictured) Police are now requesting assistance from members of the public in their investigations. AFP Detective Superintendent Andrew Donoghoe said any information could be valuable to police. 'Any further information we can get from the public may help us establish how this parcel came ended up at Trail Bay. If anyone saw something suspicious or out of the ordinary in that area, please report it. It could be valuable information to police,' Det. Supt Donoghoe said. David Dimbleby's replacement as the host of Question Time will be decided following a series of pilot shows shot in front of live studio audience. BBC bosses have lined up a shortlist - believed to be mostly female - to replace the TV veteran when he steps down from the show he has hosted for the past 25 years on December 13. Among those on the list are believed to be Mishal Husain, Emily Maitlis and Kirsty Wark. Emily Maitlis and Kirsty Wark, pictured, are among presenters being considered to replace David Dimbleby as host of Question Time Victoria Derbyshire and Mishal Husain are also thought to be on the BBC's shortlist One man on Twitter suggested George Galloway and Nigel Farage should be given the gig According to The Guardian, Nick Robinson is believed to be the only male candidate on the shortlist. Insiders said BBC staff have dubbed the project 'Question Time Idol'. The pilot shows, while featuring a live audience and have some politicians on the panel, will not be broadcast to the public. The first of the pilots is expected to be filmed in the coming days. The idea is to make the pilot as realistic as possible to give each candidate the opportunity to show how they would cope during a live broadcast. An insider said: 'The BBC has tried to keep the pilots confidential, but thats difficult when they will have an audience. Its all become very secretive. But there is pressure to get it right. Whoever steps into David Dimblebys shoes knows they are big shoes to fill.' BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson, pictured, is believed to be the only man on the list David Dimbleby, pictured, is stepping down from Question Time after 25 years in the hot seat Kirsty Wark has been installed as favourite to replace David Dimbleby by Ladbrokes ITV News presenter Julie Etchingham is also believed to be among the presenters on the shortlist. Emma Barnett and Victoria Derbyshire are also under consideration. David Dimbleby said: 'At the end of the year I will have been chairing Question Time for a quarter of a century and I have decided that this is the right moment to leave. 'It has been a privilege to work for a programme which brings voters face to face with those in power. I am grateful to the production teams and to the BBC who have made this possible. 'It has been exhilarating following the twists and turns of British politics from John Major in 1994, through the Blair and Brown years to Cameron and May. I am not giving up broadcasting. 'Instead, after years in the studio, I now plan to return to my first love: reporting.' During his BBC career Dimbleby presented political programmes such as Panorama and chaired many debates including the Party Leaders debates in the run up to General Elections since 2010. He has been the BBCs anchorman for all General Elections since 1979 and presented the broadcasters coverage of the first referendum in Europe, a role he repeated in 2016 for the BBCs coverage of the EU Referendum. Pub chef Darren Cubin has apologised for puncturing two pub customers' tyres in a row over their main courses A pub chef slashed the tyres of a couple's car after they complained about their mushroom stroganoff and steak and ale pie. Darren Cubin, 41, stuck his kitchen knife into two tyres of Toni Miller and David Fryer's Ford Fiesta after a row at The Farmer's Arms in Lowick, near Ulverston, Cumbria. South Cumbria Magistrates' Court heard Cubin became angry after the visitors to the Lake District complained about their main meal and, despite agreeing to pay for drinks and starters, refused to pay for the mains. As they walked to the car park Cubin rushed out of the kitchen and stuck his knife in their tyres to stop them leaving. On Wednesday, Cubin - who has since left the pub - admitted causing 200 of criminal damage to the Fiesta and possessing a knife in a public place. The married father, of Spark Bridge, Cumbria, avoided jail with a six-month prison sentence, suspended for a year. District Judge Gerald Chalk also ordered Cubin to pay 200 compensation to Ms Miller and carry out 90 hours unpaid work in the community. A chef from this pub in Cumbria slashed a customer's tyres after a row over their main meals Mr Cubin represented himself in court and said he had walked away from the job. He said: 'I just think I had a meltdown, it's not in my nature to flip like that.' Accountant Ms Miller and partner David Fryer, from Northamptonshire, were visiting the Lakes for the first time and had dropped into the Farmer's Arms for dinner. Prosecutor Peter Kelly explained in court that Ms Miller and her partner were dissatisfied with their meals and complained to the staff. Cubin came out of the kitchen to take the food away. The couple had said they were happy to pay for their starters and drinks, but not the mains and handed over the money. During the disagreement a member of staff said the police were being called and the couple left the pub for the car park. Mr Kelly told the court: 'The defendant came out of the kitchen and deflated the couple's tyres by putting a kitchen knife in the tyres.' Ms Miller said: 'We were astonished and disgusted by the whole incident. 'I think the sentence is about right, although it is concerning that the incident involved a knife. 'It was our first visit to the Lake District and it was a very upsetting end to it. 'We would consider coming back, we don't expect that is the normal service in the Lakes.' Star Pubs and Bars Group said they were 'horrified' and 'extremely disappointed' by the incident. A businessman has been banned from his 3.8million family home in Kensington for breaking his wife's mobile phone during a blazing row. Company director Gregory Arthur Mihalcheon, 52, ended up being prosecuted when his estranged wife Andreia rang the police over the argument on July 26. She told officers he grabbed her phone and threw it against the wall, damaging the 15 case. He was charged with causing criminal damage to the phone case and the couple were told it would go to court. Company director Gregory Arthur Mihalcheon, 52 (pictured centre outside court yesterday) has been banned from his 3.8m Kensington home because he threw his estranged wife's mobile phone at a wall during a row and damaged the 15 case They are currently in the middle of a divorce, which involves a dispute over the ownership of a car, and Mihalcheon moving into the exclusive The Chilterns development in Marylebone. But yesterday at Hendon Magistrates Court the prosecution agreed to drop the case in exchange for an indefinite restraining order. His wife Andreia (pictured yesterday) told officers he grabbed her phone and threw it against the wall, damaging the 15 case Mihalcheon is now prohibited from contacting Mrs Michaeleon, the mother of their son, 15 and daughter, 10, except via solicitors, social workers, civil mediators and the Family Court. This is includes not entering the South Kensington home they shared or any of the houses on the same street. The court heard Mihalcheon was sleeping alone in the basement of the family home shortly before a row began at 7.20am on July 26. His wife told police: 'He yanked the phone out of my hand and it was so violent I was shocked. 'He threw the phone across the room into the wall by the fireplace and the phone fell into the fireplace,' the court heard. 'The Crown would say that behaviour is harassment,' said prosecutor Kate Seal. 'The Crown Prosecution Service will offer no evidence, but a restraining order is applied for.' Pushing for a ban on Mihalcheon entering the street where his former home is located, she added: 'This complainant would feel far more assured.' Mihalcheon hired QC David Spens to defend him and insisted he did not intend to damage the phone case or was reckless, insisting he was acting in self-defence. Mihalcheon is prohibited from entering the South Kensington home, above, that they shared or any of the houses on the same street A council was today branded 'outrageous' for banning primary school children from a local Remembrance Day parade in November for health and safety reasons. Bridgend Town Council in South Wales has this year ruled that children under 11 - including the Girl Guides, Scouts and Cadets - will be turned away from the parade. Youth leaders and locals claim the council said new safety rules were introduced due to 'health and safety and issues' that arose last year over 'inclement weather'. Girl Guides, Scouts and Cadets take part in the Remembrance Day parade in Bridgend in 2016 Children take part in the Remembrance Day parade in the South Wales town in November 2016 A letter shared between Girl Guide leaders said: 'It has been explained to me that due to health and safety and issues that arose last year that only children of secondary school age from all volunteer organisations will be allowed to parade on the Sunday from now on. 'All organisations have agreed with this and it has been passed by the Town Council. 'I explained my concerns but the decision has been made and I have been told basically that if younger girls turn up they will not be allowed to parade due to safety reasons. Terry Pickett, 58, an former Army vehicle technician who served in the 1st The Queens Dragoon Guards, pictured in front of the Bridgend war memorial in South Wales 'I know some units may be unhappy with this arrangement, I know I felt the same when I heard about this initially however, having had this conversation this morning I do see the point of the safety of all attending coming first. Letter shared between Girl Guide leaders 'It has been explained to me that due to health and safety and issues that arose last year that only children of secondary school age from all volunteer organisations will be allowed to parade on the Sunday from now on. 'All organisations have agreed with this and it has been passed by the Town Council. 'I explained my concerns but the decision has been made and I have been told basically that if younger girls turn up they will not be allowed to parade due to safety reasons. 'I know some units may be unhappy with this arrangement, I know I felt the same when I heard about this initially however, having had this conversation this morning I do see the point of the safety of all attending coming first. 'Please can it be noted that it will be no good just units turning up as I know for a fact they will not be allowed to parade and this will just lead to disappointment for those attending.' Advertisement 'Please can it be noted that it will be no good just units turning up as I know for a fact they will not be allowed to parade and this will just lead to disappointment for those attending.' However, the 'awful and surprising decision' to end the tradition has been branded 'disgraceful' by some veterans. Terry Pickett, 58, from Bridgend, an ex-army vehicle technician who served in the 1st The Queens Dragoon Guards, said: 'The actions of the town council are completely unacceptable, they should take pride in involving everyone. 'Their pitiful excuse is health and safety reasons, i.e. the length of the service and the weather. To be honest the same could be said for the elderly. 'The excuse is frankly a cop-out and is wrong. Today's children should honour the fallen as it's completely disrespectful. 'Preventing the children from taking part will clearly be a decision that is likely to cause ill feeling on a day where we remember our fallen. 'Many of them would have had great grandparents that were affected by terrible world wars and they are being prevented from honouring them. Frankly it's a complete outrage.' Cub Scout and Brownie units have also expressed concerns after the town council informed them of the decision. Mr Pickett (right), during his time in the Army, said the move was 'completely unacceptable' One concerned parent of a Brownie, who attends one of the local units, said it was 'absurd'. How this year is the 100th anniversary of the Great War's end The 100th anniversary of the first two-minute silence will take place all over the UK at 11am on Armistice Day, November 11. Armistice Day takes place on the anniversary of the First World War ending in 1918, while Remembrance Sunday honours British soldiers fallen in all conflicts. The two-minute silence takes place at 11am, to represent the guns of Europe going silent on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month. The silence was first proposed in May 1919 by Australian journalist, Edward George Honey, before being adopted by King George V. Advertisement The Bridgend commemorations are organised by the town's Royal British Legion branch on behalf of the council and are usually attended by up to 600 people. They usually consist of a parade with veterans, Scouts, Air Cadets and bands and a memorial service at the town's cenotaph in Bridgend Square. It is understood under the new rules, under 11s will be asked to attend a Saturday 'family' service. In a post on Facebook, the Bridgend Royal British Legion, said: 'Unfortunately given the weather experienced last year, the length of the service and the numbers attending, it was decided that children of a primary school age would form part of the family service on the Saturday beforehand. 'Plans are commencing regarding the family service of which children of primary school age will be able to take part in a service that is more suitable to this age group. The family service went very well last year and we are hoping to build on this for this year's service.' Bridgend Town Council did not respond to a request for comment. Marijuana is now allowed in Los Angeles International Airport but even passengers 21 and over who are legally carrying it may face prosecution if trying to take it on a plane. LAX shared the new rule on their website but warned possession of the drug is still a federal crime. As the Transport Security Committee stays in line with federal law, it means anyone trying to get past TSA at the airport could have to answer to Police no matter what quantity they have on them. Marijuana is now allowed at LAX but passengers may face prosecution if trying to take it on a plane due to TSA following federal law Under Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, 57 per cent of voters legalized marijuana in November 2016 and someone carrying no more than 28.5g (about an ounce), or 8g in concentrated form would be fine. A written policy posted by airport police says small amounts of weed may now be brought into one of the world's busiest airports. For those who are caught carrying even a small amount of pot, TSA agents won't confiscate it but police will be called in to deal with it. TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said Thursday to Associated Press: 'TSA's focus is on terrorism and security threats to the aircraft and its passengers. TSA is required to notify local law enforcement but their focus remains on 'terrorism and security threats to the aircraft and its passengers' 'Whether or not the passenger is allowed to travel with marijuana is up to law enforcement's discretion.' Airport Officer Alicia Hernandez added that if the amount is within the legal boundaries, they will be let go 'because there is no crime'. But it may not be worth trying to carry cannabis out of state. With laws varying across the country it could result in a lot of time being consumed at airports with rules possibly causing confusion. Flylax.com warned last January that travelers should check the laws of the states in which they plan to travel. Flylax.com warned that travelers should check the laws of the states they plan to travel TSA won't confiscate the weed and California law means Los Angeles cops would let go anyone carrying no more than 28.5g or 8g in concentrated form 'The first thing the TSA is going to do is if they find something that is illegal for federal purposes is they're going to refer it to local law enforcement,' Douglas Kidd, executive director of the National Association of Airline Passengers said. 'Now local law enforcement may say, "We're not going to do anything." But still, the delay could cause you to miss your flight.' Recreational sales of cannabis became legal in January this year but San Diego International Airport has no policy for it, said spokesman Jonathan Heller. Colorado was one of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012 but it is still illegal to bring it into Denver International Airport due to air travel being governed by federal authorities. 'If it's a small amount the TSA and the Denver Police Department will ask that person to dispose of it and if that person is willing to do that they move through,' Airport spokeswoman Emily Williams said. Rachele Johnson, 26, a counselor at Michigan's state-run, court-mandated substance abuse treatment center, was sentenced to probation and required to register as a sex offender for having sex with two inmates A female counsellor at a drug treatment center in Michigan has been sentenced to probation but no jail time after she admitted to having sex with two inmates living at the facility. As part of her sentence, which was announced on Tuesday, 26-year-old Rachele Johnson will spend the next five years on probation, and will be required to register as a sex offender and enter a therapy program. Johnson previously pleaded guilty to counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, misconduct in office and furnishing a cellphone to a prisoner, reported Lansing State Journal. In exchange for her pleas, the prosecution agreed to drop additional counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, harboring escapees and providing contraband in prison. Johnson, who was an employee of the Michigan Department of Corrections, worked the graveyard shift as a counselor at the House of Commons, which is a court-mandated substance abuse treatment center operated by the state. According to prosecutors, Johnson had sex with two men who were in custody at the facility. Johnson, who was an employee of the Michigan Department of Corrections, worked the graveyard shift as a counselor at the House of Commons (pictured) Both men insisted that they were not victims, and there was no evidence that Johnson used her position of authority to pressure them into having sex with her, as the presiding judge pointed out during the womans sentencing hearing. One of the men testified at a preliminary hearing that Johnson gave him and others cellphones and allowed them to leave the addiction treatment center to buy alcohol. The man told the court that he and Johnson would go into a room used for storing property where there were no surveillance cameras. He also revealed that on one occasion, the counselor used a bogus medical appointment as an excuse to get him out of the facility and spend time with him outside. A two-year-old boy found dangling by his neck from a window grille has been saved by a heroic passer-by in south China. Video of the incident in Zhuhai city on Thursday shows the toddler hanging in mid-air with his head wedged between the metal bars outside of his home on the third floor. It was not clear where the boy's parents were at the time of the incident. Realising that the little boy could slip through the grille at any moment, a brave 41-year-old man transformed into a real-life superhero and started a dramatic rescue. A quick-thinking man scrambles up three-storeys along the building's water pipes and air-conditioning units to reach the trapped boy who was left dangling outside of his flat in China Su Tianwang, 41, an employee at the nearby State Tobacco Monopoly Administration office, heard the commotion and was shocked to see the two-year-old dangling in mid-air The child was seen trying to pull himself up but failed, leaving him swaying dangerously from side to side nearly 10 metres (33 feet) above the ground at about 11:20am. Concerned onlookers quickly grabbed a large blanket and situated it below the child in case he fell while emergency services were alerted. Su Tianwang, an employee at the nearby State Tobacco Monopoly Administration office, heard the commotion and was shocked to see the two-year-old dangling in mid-air. The child tries to pull himself up but failed, leaving him swaying dangerously in mid-air Su held the child up between the grilles to relieve the pressure off his neck for nearly 20 minutes before emergency crews on scene were able to get to the boy's home The quick-thinking man immediately scrambled up three-storeys along the building's water pipes and air-conditioning units to reach the trapped boy. 'Hero! Hero!' relieved resides were heard cheering as the man made it to the tot. Su held him up between the grilles to relieve the pressure off his neck for nearly 20 minutes before emergency crews on scene were able to get inside the boy's home. Firefighters then expanded the metal bars with hydraulic tools and lifted the boy back to safety inside, where his mother was waiting. Rescuers then tied safety ropes around Su's waist, allowing him to rappel back onto the ground. Firefighters then expanded the metal bars with hydraulic tools and lifted the boy back to safety Hero Su Tianwang (centre) told Zhuhai Evening News that 'didn't think too much' at the time of the rescue and only wanted to 'save a life'. He was later given a Good Samaritan award He told Zhuhai Evening News that 'didn't think too much' at the time of the rescue and only wanted to 'save a life'. It was revealed that Su has been a member of the Red Cross aquatic emergency rescue volunteer service team for more than 10 years. Following the incident, the Doumen Public Security Bureau presented him with a Good Samaritan award for his heroic act. Anthony Aiello, 90, of San Jose, is suspected of murdering his stepdaughter Karen Navarra, 67, according to the San Jose Police Department. He is being held without bail in the Santa Clara County Jail A 90-year-old man from California has been arrested in connection with the killing of his 67-year-old stepdaughter. Officers discovered Karen Navarra's battered body on September 13 while conducting a welfare check at her home in San Jose. She had not shown up to work the previous week and colleagues had become concerned, according to police. Her death was not declared a homicide until after an autopsy was performed where it was revealed Navarra died from blunt-force trauma, according to San Jose police Officer Gina Tepoorten. 'The motive and circumstances surrounding the homicide are still under investigation,' Tepoorten said. Detectives eventually identified Navarra's stepfather, Anthony Aiello, as a suspect in her killing according to the Mercury News. Aiello was arrested more than a week after San Jose police officers responded to a welfare check in the 1000 block of Terra Noble Way, pictured, and found Navarra unresponsive Aiello was arrested in San Jose on Tuesday and booked into Santa Clara County Jail on murder charges. Navarra's death is the city's 20th murder of the year. Anyone with information about the killing can contact Detective Sgt. Mike Montonye or Detective Brian Meeker at 408-277-5283 or svcrimestoppers.org. A police search has been launched for a missing skydiving instructor who got separated from his student midjump and without a parachute. The Skydive New England instructor, identified by wardens as 41-year-old Brett Bickford of Rochester, New Hampshire, headed out with a student for a tandem jump - where the two share one parachute - on Thursday. The two launched their skydive around 2pm in Lebanon, Maine. But when the male student reached the ground, he found himself alone and his instructor nowhere in sight. Officials say Bickford was an experienced skydiver and is presumed dead, according to News Center Maine. Skydive New England instructor Brett Bickford, 41, went missing during a tandem jump at 2pm on Thursday where he somehow detached from his student without a parachute. Skydive New England in Lebanon, Maine pictured above A massive search launched by Maine game wardens, state police, and forestry officials scoured the area for more than six hours before halting it around 8.30pm Thursday Main State Police announced Thursday afternoon that a search was launched for the missing skydiving instructor The instructor likely detached about a mile from the ground, according to Main Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland. The student immediately alerted Maine State Police after safely landing, concerned that he was the only one with the parachute in the landing. McCausland added that the instructor didn't have a backup parachute. Investigators are scratching their heads to put together how the two got separated. Officials say Bickford, 41 and of New Hampshire, was an experienced skydiving instructor. Skydive New England image above Cops say Bickford detached from the student about a mile from the ground, but without a parachute and he is presumed to be dead. A Skydive New England photo showing a tandem jump above A Skydive New England spokesperson in a release said the freefall was 'uneventful' and that the only incident was that the instructor went missing. A massive search launched by Maine game wardens, state police, and forestry officials who scoured the area for more than six hours before halting it around 8.30pm Thursday, according to WGME. The search for Bickford resumed Friday morning with K-9 officers, drones with heat-sensing capabilities, Maine State Police and Maine Warden Service's planes, and the Maine Forest Service's helicopter. According to News Center Maine, Skydive New England has experienced several incidents over the past couple of years with skydivers getting injured and one person dying in 2002. A spokesperson clarified that the incidents are small in comparison to the 20,000 skydives the company completes a season. Hillary Clinton is in and Les Moonves is out at CBS. Just two weeks after the longtime chairman and CEO was forced to step down amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, Clinton made her acting debut for the network on the premiere episode of the Murphy Brown reboot. Clinton filmed a spot in which she applied to be Brown's secretary, the title character played by her longtime friend and very generous donor Candice Bergen. In the role, Clinton got to make light of her previous post as secretary of state, something she will likely not be doing next week when she is back on CBS for a cameo in the Madame Secretary premiere alongside Colin Powell and Madeline Albright. Scroll down for video Hollywood Hil: Hillary Clinton appeared as herself on Murphy Brown for the premiere episode on Thursday (above), joking about her emails and former post as secretary of state Over it: The new season of Murphy Brown drew largely mixed and negative notices ahead of its premiere on Thursday Clinton made her big entrance on Thursday night's episode in a fire-engine red pantsuit and large sapphire earrings. She also seemed to be wearing a wig, with her hair noticeably shorter than it has been over the past few months. 'Your reputation proceeds you, but I want you to know Im not afraid of hard work, Im qualified, and Im ready on day one,' Clinton tells the title character while interviewing to be her secretary. She also informs her potential boss that she has 'some experience with emails.' In the episode, Brown and her staff are trying to find a way to get back into the press briefings after they received the boot. 'For four years I was the secretary of a very large organization,' explains Clinton. And she then closes it all out by exclaiming 'it takes a village.' The new season of Murphy Brown drew largely mixed and negative notices ahead of its premiere on Thursday. For most critics, it was the material that brought the show down, especially its very strong anti-Trump tone. It was even present in the title of the first episode - Fake News. Bergen herself has made no secret of her feelings towards the man, calling him a douche last year while revealing the two went on a blind date in college. The Emmy-winning actress was 18 at the time, and said President Trump had called her dorm to ask her if he could take her out for dinner. 'He was wearing a burgundy three piece suit, with burgundy patent leather boots, and he was in a burgundy limousine,' she explained of his monotone look of the night, which was evidently the most memorable part of the evening. Colin's coalition: Clinton will also be making an appearance on Madame Secretary when it premieres next week alongside Colin Powell and Madeline Albright (above) Hilly's girl: The premiere of the 13-episode reboot was called Fake News, in an obvious nod to President Trump, who went on a blind date with Bergen in the 1960s (Bergen supporting Clinton in 1999 above) When host Andy Cohen then asked if there was any chemistry or a kiss on the date, Bergen deadpanned: 'No, I was home very early.' He followed that up by inquiring if Bergen found the future commander-in-chief alluring or a douche, to which she responded: 'He was a good looking guy and a douche.' President Trump was the first to reveal that he had once dated Bergen, sharing the story back in 2015 and making it seem as though the two shared more than one single evening together 50 years ago. Bergen, the daughter of a model and famous ventriloquist, attended Penn for two years before being forced to leave because she was failing an art and an opera class. She was named both Homecoming Queen and Miss University in those two years however, proving herself to be one of the most socially adept students on campus. Bergen did some modelling after college before getting into acting, with her big break coming in the 1969 film 'Carnal Knowledge' alongside Jack Nicholson. She earned an Oscar nomination a decade later for her work in 'Starting Over.' She was married to French director Louis Malle from 1980 to 1995 and the two have a daughter Chloe who is an editor at 'Vogue.' Her current husband of 17 years, Marshall Rose, is a philanthropist and real estate developer. She is most famous however for Murphy Brown, and despite the negative reviews her performance is again being lauded by most critics. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a moment out of his first official visit to Germany on Friday to lay a wreath at a memorial for victims of war and dictatorship. With his own premiership sliding steadily further towards autocracy in recent years, the solemn photos of Erdogan at Berlin's Neue Wache monument are sure to raise a few eyebrows among his critics. The President has himself been described as a modern dictator and his state visit to London in May this year sparked protests from a number of human-rights groups. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lays down a wreath at the Neue Wache (New Guardhouse) memorial for the victims of war and dictatorship on September 28 This visit to Germany, which is home to more than 3 million people with Turkish roots, is equally contentious. About 10,000 people were expected to demonstrate against Erdogan in the capital, and more protests are expected Saturday in Cologne where the Turkish president wraps up his visit, officially opening a new mosque built by a group with ties to Turkey. Indeed upon his arrival in Germany yesterday it didn't take Erdogan long to cause the first scandal. As he and his wife Emine, 63, climbed out of their government aircraft and into a black state sedan, Erdogan stretched out four of his right hand fingers with his thumb on the palm - an Islamist greeting. A protester takes part in a demonstration organised by a group calling itself 'Erdogan Not Welcome' during the visit of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Berlin German website Bild called it: 'A provocation - against Western values and democracy.' Erdogan, who became President in 2014, is viewed with suspicion across the political spectrum in Germany, and many opposition politicians were staying away from a state banquet hosted Friday evening by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Tensions have mounted between the two countries in recent years, dating back to 2016 when Berlin criticised Erdogan's authoritarian crackdown on opponents in the wake of a failed coup. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of mutual strategic interests when she met her Turkish counterpart on Friday. Turkey is key to the European Union's strategy of stemming the flow of refugees and migrants from the region, and for its part, Turkey is reliant on economic cooperation from Germany and other European nations. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in Germany for an official state visit in Berlin and Cologne from 27 to 29 September Erdogan, who became President in 2014, is viewed with suspicion across the political spectrum in Germany. Many feel he is well on his way to becoming a modern-day dictator in Turkey Accordingly, both leaders stressed the importance of the two NATO allies working together as they sought to improve acrimonious relations. Yet, neither leader conceded much ground on the topics closest to home. For example, the two nations have clashed over Turkey's jailing of German journalists and a German parliament resolution labeling the early-20th century killing of Armenians in Turkey as genocide. A protester is removed from the joint press conference held by the Turkish and German leaders in Berlin 'I think this visit is significant because we can only clear up differences by talking to each other,' Merkel said Turkey vehemently denies that the massacre was genocide and insists it was part of the violence during World War I. The rhetoric escalated to the point where Erdogan called Germany's mainstream parties 'enemies of Turkey' and accused German officials of acting like Nazis, prompting Merkel to condemn the Turkish president's words. When asked at the press conference whether he had apologized for the Nazi comment, Erdogan pointedly ignored the question. Instead he doubled down on his demand for closer cooperation from Germany against groups Turkey considers terrorist organisations, including Kurdish rebels and people with alleged links to a failed 2016 coup in Turkey. Erdogan alleged that thousands of Kurdish militants and hundreds of people with suspected links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who accuses of orchestrating the coup attempt, are living in Germany. German soldiers from the Guard Battalion carry a wreath prior to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attending the wreath laying ceremony 'It is no secret to anyone that there have been deep differences in our relationship in recent years, and that there still are,' Merkel said 'With the mutual trust we have for each other, I believe the handing over of (suspects) would make our work easier,' Erdogan said, adding that their return 'is important from a security point of view for the peace and welfare of our countries.' Merkel noted that Germany considers the PKK Kurdish rebel group a terrorist organisation and prosecutes its members, and said that authorities take Erdogan's information on Gulen seriously 'but we need more material - what we have is not enough for a similar status to the PKK.' She also criticised the Turkish prosecution of journalists and others, detaining some for months without charges. 'It is no secret to anyone that there have been deep differences in our relationship in recent years, and that there still are,' she said. 'That largely has to do with questions of the rule of law, with questions of press freedom.' Erdogan said he has no right to criticise the German judiciary and Germany has no right to criticise the Turkish judicial system. Merkel said she and Erdogan talked about bilateral economic cooperation, and stressed 'Germany has an interest in an economically stable Turkey.' About 10,000 people were expected to demonstrate against Erdogan in the capital, and more protests are expected Saturday in Cologne where the Turkish president wraps up his visit 'There is, on the one hand, a common strategic interest in good relations, and on Germany's part too an interest in developing these relations,' she said. 'But on the other hand, on all questions of how a democratic, free and open society looks, there are also deep misunderstandings - not misunderstandings, differences.' 'I think this visit is significant because we can only clear up differences by talking to each other,' she said. Before the news conference, exiled Turkish journalist Can Dundar, the former editor of Turkey's opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, said he had decided not to attend and ask a question of the president after learning Erdogan was considering canceling if he were present. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, shake hands after a joint press conference in Berlin Asked about Dundar, who was convicted in 2016 of revealing state secrets after his newspaper published photographs suggesting that Turkey's intelligence agency was involved in sending weapons to Syrian rebels, Erdogan called him a 'convicted spy' who should be extradited. Merkel said she didn't want to discuss specifics, but that it was 'no secret' that Turkey and Germany differed in the case of Dundar, who fled to Germany in 2016. As the leaders talked, another Turkish journalist who lives in Germany, identified by the dpa news agency as Ertugrul Yigit, stood up wearing a T-shirt with the slogan 'Freedom for Journalists in Turkey' and was quickly removed by guards. Pope Francis has defrocked the Chilean priest at the center of the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, in a decision the Vatican has said 'is for the good of the church'. Francis has invoked his 'supreme' authority to stiffen a sentence originally handed down by a Vatican court in 2011. In a statement Friday, the Vatican said Francis had laicized the 88-year-old Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was originally sanctioned to live a lifetime of 'penance and prayer' for having sexually abused minors in the upscale Santiago parish he ran, a sentence the clergy consider to be the equivalent of a death sentence. Fernando Karadima (pictured) had previously been summoned to court to testify in a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Santiago The 'penance and prayer' sanction has been the Vatican's punishment of choice for elderly priests convicted of raping and molesting children. It has long been criticised by victims as being too soft and essentially an all-expenses-paid retirement. The Vatican didn't say what new evidence, if any, prompted Francis to re-evaluate Karadima's sanction. It said Francis made the 'exceptional decision' for the good of the church, and cited the church canon that lays out the pope's 'supreme, full, immediate and universal power' to serve the church. The decree takes effect immediately and Karadima was informed accordingly. The decision is a 'get-tough approach' to sex abuse after a series of missteps by Francis, as well as accusations by a former Vatican ambassador that Francis had rehabilitated a now-disgraced former American cardinal early on in his papacy. While the move will be welcomed by Chilean victims as overdue, the decision could spark a religious debate for those who see it as a second punishment for the same crime. Francis' conservative critics might also bristle at another display of raw papal power from the Argentine Jesuit. However, pollsters have cited the Karadima scandal, which first erupted in 2009, as the tipping point in the Chilean church's progressive loss of credibility among ordinary Chileans. Pope Francis (pictured) has defrocked the Chilean priest at the centre of the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of Karadima's abuse who has been a key driver in pushing for justice for victims and an overhaul of the Chilean hierarchy, thanked Francis for taking action against Karadima. 'I never thought I'd see this day,' Cruz tweeted. 'I hope many survivors feel a bit of relief today.' Francis had also sparked a crisis in his papacy earlier this year when he strongly defended one of Karadima's proteges, Bishop Juan Barros, against accusations that he had witnessed Karadima's abuse and ignored it. Pope Francis defrocked Fernando Karadima (pictured), who has been at the centre of the global sex abuse scandal Francis had claimed that the accusations against Barros were 'calumny' and politically motivated, and he defended his 2015 decision to appoint Barros bishop of a small Chilean diocese, over the objections of the faithful and many in the Chilean hierarchy. After realising that something was amiss, Francis ordered a Vatican investigation that uncovered decades of abuse and cover-ups by the Chilean church's leadership. Francis apologised to the victims and set about making amends, including getting every active bishop in Chile to offer to resign. To date, he has accepted seven of the more than 30 resignations offered, including that of Barros. It was the second time in a month that Francis has laicized a Chilean priest, after five years in which the Vatican appeared to favor less drastic sentences. On September 15, the archdiocese of Santiago announced that Francis had defrocked the Rev. Christian Precht, citing the Latin terminology - 'ex officio et pro bono Ecclesiae' - on his own authority and for the good of the church. Francis has said he has 'zero tolerance' for abuse, but his record has been shoddy and the Barros fiasco made clear that, at least until he changed course this spring, he was more willing to believe his clerical friends and advisers than victims. Advertisement Supercar drivers are flouting the law by removing their registration plates because they spoil the look of their sleek vehicles. Dozens of wealthy owners living in the most exclusive areas of London have dispensed with plates on their Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Registration plates on the front and rear of vehicles is mandatory in the UK and a failure to display them can lead to a fine. Owners of high performance cars have been flouting traffic laws about showing their number plates on the front of their vehicle such as this Ferrari 488 parked in Mayfair This driver is trying to stay within the spirit of the law by putting their number plate on the dashboard This Lamborghini Aventador also appeared not to be showing a number plate on the front This Lamborghini Aventador Roadster, pictured, costs from 288,000 following its launch earlier this year Despite being a flagrant breach of the law, owners have been spotted brazenly driving their 200,000 supercars without plates. The offending cars are regularly seen parading through the streets in Mayfair, Chelsea and Westminster. One witness said: It seems to be one rule for them and one rule for us and the police appear to be turning a blind eye to it. If an ordinary car decided to dispense with plates youd be stopped within minutes but in London there are Ferraris and Lamborghinis without plates which drive through the streets with impunity. Apparently the owners take off the registration plates because they are clunky and ugly and ruin their suave, superrich image. This green Lamborghini Aventador also appears not to be showing a number plate on the front of the vehicle Although this car does have its number plate shown at the rear of the vehicle despite having none at the front This Lamborghini Huracan, is parked on a junction on double yellow lines and does not appear to have a front number plate He said: Its all about image so in order to display their cars in the best light rich posers are simply taking the plates off. Its against the law yet no-one seems to be pulling them over to remind them of this. The Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said all cars registered after October 1 1938 must display a front and rear number plate and confirmed it was an offence not to display one. A spokesman added that it was the responsibility of the police to ensure this law was enforced. The Met Police declined to comment over why there were so many cars on London streets without plates. A spokeswoman for the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said: Driving without a registration plate is illegal. If drivers are spotted without them by police they will stopped and appropriate action taken. All cars registered since October 1, 1938 are supposed to show a number plate at the front and back of the vehicle Two female protesters, and alleged rape victims, trapped Sen. Jeff Flake in an elevator and berated him after he announced he was voting to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanugh. Flake gave Kavanaugh's nomination a major boost from the Judiciary Committee after the holdout Republican senator announced his support Friday morning following a day of harrowing testimony from Christine Blasey Ford who claims he sexually assaulted her. Shortly after the announcement, Flake was walking into an elevator when two women confronted him on his decision. The dramatic moment is indicative of the chaos and high tensions surrounding this confirmation hearing, which has sparked days of protests, angry confrontations by other victims, including a rape survivor running after Sen. Lindey Graham, and walk-outs on both sides of the aisle. During Flake's showdown, the senator was attempting to take the elevator when the women stood in the doorway, preventing the doors from closing. Both woman revealed that they were survivors of sexual abuse, and accused Flake of silencing rape victims by announcing his support for Kavanaugh. One of the women shouted, through tears: 'Don't look away from me! Look at me and tell me that it doesn't matter what happens to me.' This is the dramatic moment that two female protesters, and alleged rape victims, trapped Sen. Jeff Flake in an elevator Flake was stuck in the elevator for around five minutes after the protesters blocked the elevator doors 'I was sexually assaulted and no one believed me,' she continued. 'You're telling all women they don't matter. That they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happen to them, that you are going to ignore them. 'That's what you're telling all women in America. 'You're telling me that my assault doesn't matter. 'That's what you're telling me when you vote for him.' A second protester, Ana Maria Archila - co-Executive Director of the Center for Popular Democracy and the Center of Popular Democracy Action - told the senator that she recognized her own experience of sexual assault in Dr Ford's story and knew that 'she is telling the truth.' 'On Monday, I stood in front of your office,' she told Flake. 'I told the story of my sexual assault. I told it because I recognized in Dr. Ford's story that she is telling the truth.' Flake was walking into an elevator when two women ran up to him and stood blocking the doors Telling him they were rape victims themselves, one of the women shouted, through tears: 'Don't look away from me! Look at me and tell me that it doesn't matter what happens to me' 'I need to go to the hearing,' he responded. The confrontation went on for five minutes before Flake was finally able to close the elevator doors and escape Flake gave Kavanaugh's nomination a major boost from the Judiciary Committee after the holdout Republican senator announced his support Friday morning 'What you are doing it allowing someone who violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable!' she told him. 'You have children in your family - think about them. I cannot imagine that for the next 50 years they will have to have someone in the Supreme Court accused of violating a young girl. When asked by the press who had caught up with the confrontation if Flake would respond to the protesters, he simply said 'No, I need to go to the hearing. I just made a statement.' The confrontation went on for five minutes before Flake was finally able to close the elevator doors and escape. The development came after Flake announced: 'I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.' He issued the definitive statement after leaving both sides guessing with his vague speech at Thursday's tense hearing. 'You needed to go to the cops. Go to the cops,' Swirling and others accused Graham of telling a rape survivor. Graham is pictured Thursday during Kavanaugh's testimony Activist Robyn Swirling said she told Senator Lindsey Graham she is the victim of sexual assault and he told her she 'needed to go to the cops' Swirling confronted Graham during a break in the testimonies of Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford 'After hearing more than 30 hours of testimony from Judge Kavanaugh earlier this month, I was prepared to support his nomination based on his view of the law and his record as a judge. In fact, I commented at the time that had he been nominated in another era, he would have likely received 90+ votes,' Flake said. 'When Dr. Ford's allegations against Judge Kavanaugh surfaced two weeks ago, I insisted that she be allowed to testify before the committee moved to a vote. Yesterday, we heard compelling testimony from Dr. Ford, as well as a persuasive response from Judge Kavanaugh. I wish that I could express the confidence that some of my colleagues have conveyed about what either did or did not happen in the early 1980s, but I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty. 'What I do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence. That is what binds us to the rule of law. While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senate's advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the constitution's provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well.' But later on Friday, Flake - who appeared shaken by the confrontation - asked for a delay for an investigation into the claims. Meanwhile, protesters both for and against Kavanaugh have been demonstrating outside the court and all over the country for days. On Friday, a group of protesters had to be escorted out of the Senate hearing after furious demonstrators poured into two Senate office buildings Friday shouting 'Shame!' Police arrested a number of protesters in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Then at noon, more than a hundred protesters gathered in front of the Supreme Court ahead of a press conference by Women's March. They were joined by several Democratic senators who addressed the crowd. 'We will not be bullied,' Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., told the demonstrators. And last night, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was chased down a hallway by a rape victim who he then encouraged to report her story to the police. Activist Robyn Swirling said she approached Graham in the lobby of the Capitol basement after he criticized Ford for not remembering the exact date she was allegedly assaulted by Kavanaugh. Swirling, wearing a 'Trust Women' t-shirt, told the South Carolina senator that she was raped 13 years ago and doesn't remember the date, but that doesn't make her less credible. 'So would you believe me?' she asked Graham. She said he told her: 'I'm sorry', but then made an inconsiderate remark as he scurried into the elevator. Activists protest Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh outside the Supreme Court while Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, testified on Thursday Demonstrators against US Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh protests at the Hart US Senate office building in Washington, DC, on September 27 Demonstrators hold up placards against US Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh on September 27 Activists protesting Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh get arrested outside the Supreme Court 'You needed to go to the cops. Go to the cops,' he said in video posted by CNN. Swirling said Graham's comment to her was 'cruel, dismissive and insensitive'. 'If Graham had paused to talk with me, instead of rushing into the elevator, I'd have told him the cops can't do anything about it now, but that doesn't make it any less true and doesn't make me any less credible,' she tweeted. Swirling, who founded the anti-sexual harassment organization Works in Progress, said she stopped by the hearing to confront Graham and other senators and to urge them 'to care about the experiences of sexual assault survivors and to believe us'. Before his encounter with Swirling, Graham told reporters that Ford's testimony was not convincing and her 'hiring a lawyer and taking a polygraph makes me more suspicious'. The chaos continued today when four Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee walked out of the hearing in protest after Republicans decided to schedule a 'time certain' vote for 1.30pm. 'I strongly object. This is just totally ridiculous. What a railroad job. My answer is no, no, no!' Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) yelled out shortly before leaving the room with Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) walked out of the room, 'We did not coordinate walking out. You know we feel this in here,' Hirono said pointing to her hear Republican senators say the Judiciary Committee voted for Brett Kavanaugh's (pictured in court yesterday) nomination to the Supreme Court Friday The panel is expected to approve Kavanaugh's confirmation on Friday given the support of Flake. But bizarrely, when it came to closing statements of sorts, every senator on the committee spoke except Flake who was skipped over. When Sen. Mike Crapo asked him if he wanted to talk, 'Flake held up his hand and shook his head no, then got up and left,' Buzzfeed reported. His announcement came one day after both Kavanaugh and Ford delivered emotional testimonies yesterday. Kavanaugh issued his own tearful and emotional denial, then attacked panel Democrats of being part of a conspiracy to bring his nomination down. Within minutes of the conclusion of the riveting Senate hearing, Republicans announced that the Judiciary Committee would meet Friday morning for a vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation. Kavanaugh is expected to clear a committee roll call. But even if he doesn't, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will start turning the Senate's wheels with a procedural floor vote as early as Saturday. Key holdouts huddled in the Capitol on Thursday evening, including SusanCollins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jeff Flake of Arizona. A single mother was threatened with being reported to social services because she was late paying her kid's 13 dinner money. A letter sent to the mother said failing to settle the bill or provide a packed lunch instead would be seen as a 'child protection concern'. The mother, who asked not to be named, said the letter from Denbighshire council's school meals service was 'outrageous' and 'criminalised poverty'. The self-employed parent, who shares the cost with her ex-partner, said although payment of the bill was late this time, they always cleared their debt. The parent's child is a student at Twm o'r Nant School (pictured) in Denbigh, north Wales. School meals in Denbighshire cost 2.20 per day The mother said: 'I was seriously shocked to receive the letter and what angered me most was the tone of it. 'It could've been worded very differently without the threat to report me to social services. It's like criminalising poverty. Fair enough, we owed the money. 'The dinner bill has to be coordinated between two separated parents and it can be difficult keeping track, but we always pay it. 'There are many people in financial difficulty in Denbighshire. I am on a low income myself, but my children are not entitled to free school meals.' The parent's child is a student at Twm o'r Nant School in Denbigh, north Wales. School meals in Denbighshire cost 2.20 per day. Once a parent's bill reaches 20, the council's policy is that children will not be given a meal until the debt is paid in full, although a basic sandwich will be provided. For a child to qualify for free school dinners, parents or guardians must be in receipt of certain benefits. The letter sent to the parent read: 'Should you fail to pay for your childs meals or provide them with a packed lunch, this will be highlighted as a child protection concern. 'An instant referral will be made to Denbighshire's Social ServicesChildrens team, who will then carry out an investigation into the circumstances around the lack of provision of food.' The parent added: 'Working poverty is a big issue in our area. What is also shocking is that if you don't pay the bill, your child would only be given a basic sandwich and then they get stigmatised. 'The parent's financial status is not the child's fault. 'I'm really low-waged and there are lots of parents in the same situation, you only have to look at how many working families are turning to food banks, but to be threatened to be reported to social services when you're only trying your best is absolutely outrageous.' A spokesperson for Denbighshire Council said: 'The welfare of our pupils is paramount and it is imperative that they either receive a school meal or a packed lunch. 'Parents or guardians who are in arrears with their school meals, receive an initial letter outlining the amount of the debt and offers parents a variety of ways to pay including a payment plan, if they are struggling financially. 'They are also given the opportunity to provide their child with a packed lunch until the arrears are met. 'If they fail to pay on this occasion, they receive a second and final letter, reminding them about the outstanding amount. 'Most parents pay upon receipt of the first letter. Our aim is to avoid escalation of debt problems within families that may already be struggling. 'The letters have been in our Debt Policy since 2016 and were reviewed with head teachers and school business managers.' Theresa May is facing a massive blow to her authority as a poll out today finds that 80 per cent of Tory members want her gone before the next election. Meanwhile, another survey found that 60 per cent of global investors do not think a Brexit deal will be done by the November deadline. The two surveys heap yet more pressure on the beleaguered PM on the eve of her party conference as tensions rage in her party over her Brexit plans. While Boris Johnson launched a fresh excoriating attack on her Chequers Brexit plan, which he savaged as a'moral and intellectual humiliation' in his weekly column. The Prime Minister is facing a massive Tory revolt at home over her under-fire Brexit blueprint while EU leaders have poured scorn on it abroad. She is in a race against time to get a deal done by November - seen as the latest date when a deal can be done and ratified in time for Britain's departure next March. Theresa May is facing a massive blow to her authority as a poll out today finds that 80 per cent of Tory activists want her gone before the next election. Another poll found that 60 per cent of global investors do not think a deal will be done by the November deadline. Mrs May has repeatedly insisted that she is in her job for the long haul and will fight the next election. But her election campaign last summer was branded by Tories the worst in the party's history, and many MPs fear they will lose their seats if she leads the party when the nation next goes to the polls. Tories select Windrush descendant Shaun Bailey as their London Mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey (pictured near City Hall in London) beat off the competition to get the shot at City Hall on a promise that he will focus on cracking down on gangs and crime A Windrush descendant and former adviser to David Cameron has been selected to run as the Tory Party's next candidate for London Mayor. Shaun Bailey beat off the competition to get the shot at City Hall on a promise that he will focus on cracking down on gangs and crime. But he faces a stiff battle to beat Labour's Sadiq Khan after it emerged that the Tories have 15,000 members in London, a city home to more than eight million. The Tory politician, who used to advise Mr Cameron on youth and crime before reportedly being pushed out by the then PM's Old Etonian clique, has vowed to take a 'zero-tolerance approach' to the knife crime epidemic gripping the capital. Mr Bailey said he is delighted with being selected - and that tackling crime and the housing crisis are his top priorities. He said: 'Local government is important work and our city is facing real challenges. 'Violent crime is up. Gang crime is up. Knife crime is up. Our transport system faces a 1billion hole in its operating budget. 'New homes are not being built fast enough. After two and a half years of Sadiq Khan, it is clear we cannot afford more of the same.' Advertisement The Tory website ConHome has found that the vast majority of activists want Mrs May gone from the top job by the time they have to fight the next election. The survey found that 35 per cent of those surveyed think she should quit as Tory leader now, and 45 per cent say she should go before the nation goes to the polls again in 2022. And in a fresh blow today, a poll by Reuters found that most of the 54 wealth managers and chief investment officers they surveyed think the deadline will be missed. Mrs May has insisted that her Chequers plan is the only credible proposal on the table, but minsters are stepping up preparations for a no deal Brexit if talks fail. Yet the Reuters poll of leading business figures laid bare their gloomy views on the prospect of Britain getting a deal thrashed out in time. Some 60 per cent said they did not expect Britain and the European Union to agree a post-Brexit trading agreement by November. Nuno Teixeira, head of cross asset investments at Natixis Investment Managers International, said Tory in-fighting have left investors worried about Brexit. He said: 'Mrs May is facing strong internal opposition from a large number of Conservative MPs. 'This reduces her room of maneuver, and we see a serious risk of early elections in the UK.' While a survey by pollsters Ipsos MORI found that only a third of the British public agree that Mrs May has the what it takes to be a good Prime Minister down from 55 per cent when she first took office in July 2016. Mr Johnson - who quit as Foreign Secretary in fury at the Chequers plan - savaged the proposals in a 4,500 word essay today. He warned that the Chequers proposal would effectively betray the Brexit vote, and he set out his Canada-style Brexit blueprint which he said would 'fulfill the instruction of the people'. He claimed his alternative six-point 'SuperCanada' plan would make Britain 'rich, strong and free'. Boris Johnson (pictured today outside his home in Oxfordshire) launched a fresh excoriating attack on Theresa May's Chequers Brexit plan, which he savaged as a 'moral and intellectual humiliation' in his weekly column The Prime Minister (pictured in New York on Wednesday) is facing a massive Tory revolt at home over her under-fire Brexit blueprint while EU leaders have poured scorn on it abroad He called on Mrs May to negotiate the deal during a 21-month transition period which will follow Brexit on March 29. She should rip up her backstop plan for Northern Ireland, he said, arguing that technology should be used to avoid a hard border in Ireland. He said: 'This is an opportunity for the UK to become more dynamic and more successful, and we should not be shy of saying that and we should recognise that it is exactly this potential our EU partners seek to constrain.' In the 'A Better Plan for Brexit' text, he writes: 'This is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit. 'We have the chance to get it right, and I am afraid that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail.' Barack Obama seemingly took a swipe at Donald Trump as he delivered a speech in Denmark warning against nationalism. In an apparent reference to his successor, the former US president said he was worried about the rise of nationalistic views and rejection of 'science, expertise and logic' in politics. He said: 'I'm concerned enough about the international and American trends that I thought it was important to offer my views.' 'When you start seeing our politics driven completely free of facts, when you start seeing a debate that is driven solely on racial or nationalistic impulses, when you start seeing a rejection of science and expertise and logic in politics... we are beyond the sort of politics that will continue our best traditions,' he added. Barack Obama gave off a smirk as he waved at fans outside the University of Southern Denmark The Democrat slammed the rise of nationalism and 'rejection of science and expertise in politics' Among those in the audience at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) campus in Kolding was Princess Marie of Denmark. The Danish royal was pictured smiling and shaking hands with officials as she made her way to her seat. The 44th President of the United States carefully avoided any direct reference to his successor Donald Trump. 'Maybe we got more jolt and more change than we expected in the US,' Obama said, drawing laughter from the crowd. He expressed concern over a lack of citizen engagement in public life and underlined the importance in the United States, Europe, and in other countries 'to affirm the ideals of our constitution.' Princess Marie of Denmark was among those in the audience in the municipality of Kolding The Danish royal was pictured smiling and shaking hands with officials as she made her way inside Referring to the right-wing populist Law and Justice Party (PiS)'s arrival in power in Poland and the fiercely anti-immigration government in Hungary, Obama said: 'there is a shift that has implications for all of Europe.' 'When a population is passive and ill-informed and not paying attention, that's when there is the greatest danger.' His Friday in Denmark follows speeches in Olso Wednesday and Helsinki on Thursday. A Nordic tour! On Thursday Obama, attended the Nordic Business Forum business seminar in Helsinki, Finland On Wednesday the former president was speaking in Norway at the Oslo Business Forum In Oslo he addressed business leaders with a wide-ranging talk, outlining the need for a higher global focus on the environment, greater diversity in business, and backed using technology to solve global problems. 'The single highest priority that I see globally at this point is the issue of environmental sustainability,' he said, adding that the 2015 Paris Agreement's global climate targets were 'a first step in the right direction. But only the first step.' In Finland on Thursday Obama told urging private businesses to engage more with governments when developing new products and services, particularly in the technology sector, to avoid problems like those challenging Facebook. He told business leaders that 'you cannot separate the business environment from the political and social environment.' Obama was being interviewed by Niklas Zennstrom, the Swedish billionaire entrepreneur and co-founder of Skype. Obama says 'too often' U.S. business leaders tend to avoid the government 'as much as' they can. He says 'that strategy can work for a time, but eventually - as I think Facebook has now discovered - you're going to have to engage.' This is the shocking moment a 13-year-old boy is hit by a tram after he ran in front of it and amazingly survived. The startling scene was recorded by a security camera on the vehicle at the Carnival shopping centre in the city of Yekaterinburg in central Russia's Sverdlovsk Oblast region. In the video, the tram can be seen making its way down the track next to a busy road as a young boy, reportedly 13 years old, begins jogging towards it. The young boy (right) runs across the grass and towards the tracks as the tram approaches him and seems to be distracted by the red tram on the far side The youngster who can be seen on the right hand side of the video seems distracted by a tram travelling in the other direction. As he jogs closer to the tracks he fails to spot the tram coming towards him and the camera shakes as the teenager is hit. The tram crashes into the youngster who disappears beneath it before the female tram driver Olga Zaystseva, 54, can bring the vehicle to a halt. Two other worried pedestrians can be seen running towards the boy as the tram approaches and knocks him down. Local media report that onlookers found the teenager crying under the tram and he was rushed to a local hospital. The youngster, thought to be 13, is struck by the tram and quickly disappears beneath it before the driver can bring it to a halt Worries pedestrians (left) try to run towards the teenager (right) and stop him from going under the tram but can't make it in time He is said to have suffered an open cranial-cerebral injury, frontal bone fracture and facial lacerations. An investigation into the case has begun. Netizen 'Semyon Altov' said: 'A friend of mine got caught under a bus when he was a kid, then his mum rushed into the hospital and slapped him with a clothes hanger to punish him.' Another one, 'nuco', added: 'There was a great underground passage by this shopping centre, this boy could have easily used it.' The shocking moment six men tried to kidnap their neighbor in broad daylight has been captured on camera. Police in the port city of Manta in Ecuador arrested the men Thursday, more than a month after the attempted kidnapping of the businessman on August 8. A security camera shows a young woman walking in the middle of a street in the town of Jocay as a white pickup struck comes to a sudden stop. The unnamed business owner sees the men get out the vehicle and he starts running. Four masked men set off on a wild foot chase with their guns aimed in the victim's direction. A business owner (circled) in Ecuador runs away when he notices a group of armed men inside a pickup truck during a kidnapping attempt in August. He managed to escape On Thursday, Ecuadoran law enforcement agents arrested a group of kidnappers who had extorted and a threatened a local business owner (circled) in August One of the kidnappers then retreats to the truck, jumps into the driver's seat and slowly backs up as three of his associates manhandle the business owner. But the victim puts up a fight as two of the kidnappers struggle to toss him into the pickup truck's flatbed. The businessman is then able to flee before the men sped away. The business owner (circled) in Ecuador miraculously escapes from the six armed men Three of the six men accused in the failed kidnapping of a local Ecuadoran business man in August are pictured above Ecuador's Interior Ministry shows some of the evidence that was found during an early Thursday morning raid that broke up a ring of six men wanted for an attempted kidnapping Ecuadoran police officers captured six men on Thursday that were wanted for the failed August attempted kidnapping of a local businessman. Here is one of the suspects According to El Diario Maniataba, Paco Delgago, a prosecutor with the Manta prosecution's office, the six men had conspired to extort $100,000 from the business owner in exchange for not killing him and injuring any of his family members. 'As the merchant never responded to the extortion calls, the neighbors formed an organization to try to kidnap him, but the victim managed to escape in a struggle,' Delgado said. According to investigation reports presented to El Comercio, the kidnappers had previously fired shots and the man's home and attempted to mug him before the August incident. On Thursday morning, authorities raided seven homes, seizing cellphones, tablets and a cache of weapons and arrested the gang. The names of the suspects are to revealed during a Friday press conference. A woman was tortured in a Bahrain prison as punishment for a relative telling British MP's about the Gulf state's human rights abuses, it is claimed. Hajer Hassan, 50, was subjected to the brutal reprisal in Isa Town prison five days after a parliamentary debate on the mistreatment of political prisoners in the country. She was singled out for a severe beating because her son-in-law, Sayed Alwadaei, had briefed a group of MPs about what was happening in Bahrain before the debate started. Mrs Hassan was rushed to hospital with bruises to her hands and back following the attack, and her blood sugar level had also dropped to a dangerous level. Hajer Hassan (left) smiles at a school ceremony with her son Sayed Nazar. 50-year-old Hajer was singled out for a severe beating because her son-in-law, Sayed Alwadaei, had briefed a group of MPs about what was happening in Bahrain Mr Alwadaei said the debate on September 11 was attended by two representatives from the Bahrain embassy who heard politicians discuss his testimony. It led to a group of 14 MPs, from all parties, writing to the Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt this week to complain that Bahrain, an ally of Britain, was trying to stop its critics testifying to the UK parliament. Tory MP Peter Bottomley said: 'If one of our allies responds to a debate in the House of Commons by mistreating the relatives of someone who has informed it, that is a direct challenge to the strength of the UK-Bahrain relationship. That people providing information to MPs should have their families treated in this way is unacceptable'. In the letter, which was also sent to the Speaker and Leader of the House, the MP's mocked the 'extraordinary statement' released by the Bahraini authorities which claimed Mrs Hassan had beaten herself up. Sayed Alwadaei (pictured) had briefed a group of MPs, attending a debate on September 11, which was also attended by two members of the Bahrain embassy They said the Bahraini account of what happened had continued: 'The inmate had intended to get together with other inmates and tried to hurt herself by hitting her body and lying on the floor'. To this the MPs said: 'This stretches credulity'. Detailed in the letter, seen by the MailOnline, the MPs also said: The assault suffered by Mr Alwadaeis mother-in-law was the culmination of a series of reprisals apparently stemming from Mr Alwadaeis engagement with MPs. Prior to the incident she had been banned from participating in Ashura rites a religious holiday commemorated predominately by Shia Muslims and refused access to religious Ashura books; prevented from making family phone calls; and had scheduled family visits arbitrarily cancelled. A group of 14 MPs from all parties wrote to Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt (pictured) this week to complain that Bahrain was trying to stop its critics testifying to UK parliament A recent report by the UN Secretary-General also detailed the 'ongoing pattern of reprisals and intimidation' faced by human rights defenders in Bahrain, and held up Mr Alwadaei's relatives as an example. The family were caught up in the wave of crackdowns which erupted when the Arab Spring swept through Bahrain in 2011, following similar uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. At one point more than 100,000 pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets, and many, including Mr Alwadaei, were thrown in jail. Tory MP Peter Bottomley (pictured) said the incident was a direct challenge to the strength of the UK-Bahrain relationship When he was freed in December 2011 after being incarcerated for six months Mr Alwadaei fled to the UK, where he was granted asylum by the Home Office. As well as his mother-in-law, Mr Alwadaei's cousin and brother-in-law are also in jail, all accused on charges of planting a fake bomb, which human rights campaigners say were 'trumped up'. Mr Alwadaei admitted it was hard knowing that his family could be beaten up because of his campaign, but said that would not stop him speaking out. Liberal Democrat member Ed Davey (pictured) had also signed the letter He said today: 'It does worry me but at the same time I do believe their misery will not end if we didn't speak out. 'Hajer is afraid what might happen and what they could do to her. The last time she called was two days ago, and my wife was in tears. 'She said that even though she was having a miserable time she wanted me to speak out. 'The last thing she said to my wife which made her cry was: 'Forgive me, in case anything happens'. She was asking for forgiveness for anything bad she did as a mother, in case anything happened to her'. Last week it emerged that millions of pounds of British taxpayers money is being spent in secret on projects which have included help for Bahraini prison staff and security personnel. Lord Scriven claimed that Bahrain uses the existence of UK support to give it a 'cloak of respectability to undermine human rights, a cloak of respectability for murder and torture.' Dan Dolan, head of policy for Reprieve, the human rights charity, said: 'Hajer Hasan's beating, so soon after her case was raised in Parliament, should shame the British Government into action. The UK should not stand by while Bahrain uses violence and intimidation to stop human rights activists speaking to MPs. 'While the UK has been spending millions of pounds on security assistance to Bahrain the country's human rights situation has drastically deteriorated. This funding should be frozen until we can be sure it will not enable abuses such as torture and the death penalty'. The outside prosecutor who was hired by Senate Republicans to question Supreme Court nominee Brett Ford and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford has said she would not charge Kavanaugh if it were a criminal complaint in her jurisdiction. Rachel Mitchell, the veteran sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona, delivered her opinion at an overnight meeting with all 51 Republican senators on Capitol Hill after Thursday's blockbuster hearing, multiple outlets reported. 'Mitchell spelled it out and was clear with senators that she could not take this anywhere near a courtroom,' one source told Fox News. Based on the evidence and information presented, Mitchell said she believed that there was not enough to criminally charge Kavanaugh - and likely not even enough to seek a search warrant. Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell (above) reportedly told all 51 Republican senators in a late-night meeting that there was not enough evidence to criminally charge Kavanaugh Mitchell questioned Ford (left) and Kavanaugh (right) in Thursday's hearing, but the prosecutor's performance was called a 'political disaster' by one GOP operative Ford was widely praised for her compelling and convincing testimony in Thursday's hearing, but the fact that she can't name the date and location of the alleged offence makes the claim difficult to prosecute, experts say. Ford alleged that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her in 1982, when they were both in high school, at a gathering in suburban Maryland, where there is no statute of limitations on violent felonies. As well, the three witnesses whom Ford claims were present at the house have denied all knowledge of her claims under penalty of purjury - not to mention Kavanaugh's forceful and often emotional denial in testimony, which stunned observers coming from the normally mild-mannered federal judge. Mitchell's legal opinion may have helped sway key Judiciary Committee Republican Jeff Flake, who had been on the fence but on Friday morning said he was ready to vote to recommend Kavnauagh's nomination to the full Senate. Flake said Kavanaugh was entitled to the 'presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence.' 'While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senate's advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the Constitution's provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well,' Flake said. 'I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.' Republican Senator Jeff Flake (above) said on Friday morning that he planned to vote for Kavanaugh, after appearing to be on the fence earlier in the process Although committee vote to recommend is not necessary in order for him to be confirmed, it is highly favorable to his prospects. The committee recommendation vote was expected to pass on Friday, and the full Senate vote on confirmation could take place as soon as Tuesday. Despite her reported help in assuaging Republican senators who may be on the fence, Mitchell's performance in the hearing was panned by pundits on both sides of the aisle. The prosecutor's questions to Ford were viewed by many as meandering and picayune. During Kavanaugh's testimony, Mitchell was yanked from the process after two rounds of questions, after Republican senators clearly felt frustrated that she didn't appear to be helping Kavanaugh's defense. Mitchell's questions in the hearing were viewed by many as meandering and picayune 'Every GOP campaign strategist and Hill staffer wishes they had the button to open the trap door under Rachel Mitchells chair,' former Republican campaign operative Steve Schmidt tweeted during the hearing on Thursday. 'What a total and complete Political disaster for Republicans.' Democrats have also blasted the decision to bring in Mitchell, with one aide to Senator Dianne Feinstein telling DailyMail.com prior to the hearing that her presence would 'create a trial-like atmosphere'. Mitchell, a Republican, has been a prosecutor since 1993, and leads Maricopa County's Special Victims Division, where she oversees the prosecution of sexual offenses, child sex abuse and computer crimes against children in Arizona's most populous county. Following Thursday's hearing, President Donald Trump stood by his nominee. 'Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him,' Trump wrote in a tweet. 'His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!' A 440lbs sign which fell two metres from a betting shop and crushed and killed a young lawyer was found to have been 'dangerously insecure for a long period of time'. Jacob Marx, 27, had been living and working in London for four months before he was hit by the sign, which was covering a William Hill bookmakers on Camden Road, north London, in 2013. The lawyer, from New Zealand, suffered a broken neck and fractured skull after he was hit just before 5pm on January 28. He died about an hour after being struck by the 'dangerously insecure' sign, Blackfriars Crown Court heard today. Jacob Marx, 27, was hit by the 440lbs sign, which was covering a William Hill bookmakers on Camden Road, north London, in 2013. Here, he is pictured with his girlfriend Natalie Chung William Hill Organisation Ltd have denied breaching health and safety duties in the case, which was brought by the borough of Camden. Opening the prosecution case, James Ageros QC told jurors: 'The sign was insecurely fixed on to a wooden subframe, and parts of the subframe were insecurely fixed to each other. 'The sign had been dangerously insecure for a long period of time and could equally have fallen on any other passerby, customer or indeed employee. 'Mr Marx was spectacularly unlucky to be in just the wrong place at just the wrong time.' A court had heard that the sign was 'dangerously insecure' and had been for a while when it fell and hit Jacob, who died an hour after being struck The bookmaker had enlisted various subcontractors to carry out the fittings, with work starting on the sign in 2006, jurors heard. Mr Ageros added: 'William Hill had the overriding and overall duty that what was done on its behalf was safe and did not present a risk to the public.' William Hill Organisation Ltd has been charged with one count of failing to ensure the safety of non-employees and one count of failing to ensure the safety of employees, both contrary to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. William Hill Organisation Ltd has been charged with one count of failing to ensure the safety of non-employees and one count of failing to ensure the safety of employees - though the company pleaded not guilty to the charges The company has pleaded not guilty to the charges. At the time, several people lifted the hoarding off him but by the time paramedics arrive he went into cardiac arrest. He was later pronounced dead at University College Hospital. Jacob was originally from Gisbourne, east New Zealand, where he was a lawyer having graduated from the University of Auckland. Jacob had only been living and working in London for four months before he was hit by the sign He had been in the UK with his girlfriend Natalie Chung since September 2012. Jacob's brother David said after his death: 'Jacob was a wonderful person, a special part of our family, and a much-loved friend and partner. 'Losing him so quickly and so far away is very hard for us to come to terms with. We thank everyone for the love and kind support we've received as we try to grapple with what has happened.' A card left at the scene of his death, dedicated to 'Jacko' and placed beside bunches of flowers and a New Zealand flag, is believed to have been left by his girlfriend. A message said: 'This is not how it was supposed to go. 'We had so many good plans and so many good memories. I promise never to forget you.' Staff at the law firm where he had been working in New Zealand, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, said all his colleagues had been stunned by the tragedy. One of the directors, Richard Blackburn, said: 'Jacob was a bright young lawyer who worked hard, produced excellent quality work and made lots of friends at our firm. 'Jacob left on good terms in 2010 to transfer to our Sydney office. He kept in touch, and we expected to see him again.' An Ohio high school teacher allegedly admitted to her former father-in-law that she had sex with a 17-year-old male student, according to a police report. Laura V. Bucy, 32, drove to the man's home in Doylestown on August 2 and made a slew of 'incoherent statements' while asking for forgiveness. The man's son told police that Bucy is his ex-wife. The Akron resident was then said to have 'stated that she had slept with one of her students,' before leaving north on Interstate 71 in Cuyahoga County, the Twinsburg Bulletin reports. Laura V. Bucy, 32, was arrested on charges of sexual battery, a third-degree felony and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, a fifth-degree felony She then 'parked her vehicle in the middle of the road and walked away from it', according to a police report. Bucy was found by an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper who found her walking barefoot next to an SUV. The SUV had stopped traffic in the right two lanes in an effort to stop traffic. The woman was taken to the Southwest Hospital in Middleburg Heights for an evaluation. She was arrested on September 22 and arraigned on Monday in Stow Municipal Court on charges of sexual battery, a third-degree felony and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, a fifth-degree felony. The Akron, Ohio, resident admitted to her ex-father-in-law that she had sexual contact with a 17-year-old student while a teacher at Twinsburg High School Bucy is scheduled for a preliminary hearing before Judge Kim Hoover at 9.30am on October 4. She was released on bond on Monday. Twinsburg police met with Bucy on September 11 after making contact with her ex-husband on September 6. A teacher at Twinsburg High School since August 2017, Bucy told police that she met the teen student when she was overwhelmed by personal matters. Twinsburg police met with Bucy on September 11 where she shared that she only had sex with the teen one time She shared that she had a 'sexual relationship with a student' and 'exchanged compromising photographs' with the boy. The teacher said that the teen would help clean her classroom and that is where the relationship blossomed. Bucy was said to have allowed the student to 'vape' in her office and would even purchase 'vaping' juice for the student. She shared that the boy came to her classroom, one day in either February or March, and the two had sex. Sex was said to have only occurred once. Police spoke with the boy while his parents were present on September 11. He corroborated the facts but said that the sexual contact had happened before Christmas. Bucy is scheduled for a preliminary hearing before Judge Kim Hoover at 9.30am on October 4 He shared that he had been cleaning in the pantry when the teacher came up behind him and started kissing him, progressing to sexual intercourse. An arrest warrant was issued for the woman on September 12 after she left a 'secured facility' that she was to remain in for two weeks. She had been told police 'would be in contact' on September 11. Bucy is said to have traveled to Arizona to visit her father, who alerted authorities on September 15 and said that he was making 'every effort' to get his daughter to return. Bucy turned herself into authorities on September 22. Superintendent Kathryn Powers informed Bucy that she was to work from home on September 6 because she had failed to show to work since August 21, according to the educator's file. She was notified that she would need to take a fitness-for-duty examination before she could go back to work, on September 7. On September 12, Powers informed Buxy that she was on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation 'a serious matter involving alleged misconduct on school property.' Prior to working at Twinsburg, Bucy worked at the Ravenna, Akron and Strongsville school districts. A top cop has spoken out strongly against banning officers from speeding in cases such as police chases, amid a nationwide debate on the issue. Mick Fuller, the NSW Police Commissioner, has warned restricting police speeding would have negative consequences. 'If you're at home alone and someone's breaking into your house and you call triple-0, you don't care about policy, you don't care about red tape, you want the police to get there quickly and safely to protect you,' Mr Fuller told The Daily Telegraph. NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller (pictured) has spoken out strongly against banning officers from police chases Gai Vieria, 68, was left in a coma after a highway patrol car (pictured) collided with her vehicle on September 5 A senior constable has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm following the crash 'You can ban the pursuit. You can stop us from urgent duties if that's the community's view and that's the politicians' view then that's OK but there are consequences Criminals will be green-lighted.' According to Mr Fuller, NSW Police are now considering new technology which would allow officers to remotely shut down car engines during a police chase. Mr Fuller said that technology is still developing but officers were keeping a close eye on it. The debate on police speeding was sparked on Thursday when a Queensland police officer was left fighting for his life. He sustained a critical head wound and internal injuries when he was struck by an allegedly stolen car. Police were pursuing the allegedly stolen sedan on Brisbane Road in the Ipswich suburb of Booval, west of Brisbane, at about 5am on Thursday morning. Horse trainer Bert Vieria joined the call for a ban on police speeding after his wife was left in a coma (pictured: Mrs Vieria with her grandson) Also on Thursday, a 22-year-old man smashed into a tree and died in Tweed Heeds, far north New South Wales. He had earlier been pursued by police but the chase was terminated, with officers later finding the wreck of his vehicle. Horse trainer Bert Vieria has also joined the call for a ban on police speeding after his wife Gai, 68, was left in a coma following a collision with a police vehicle in Sydney's south earlier this month. A senior constable has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm following that incident. A man likely murdered his short-term girlfriend to sexually assault her two-year-old daughter, shocking court details have revealed. Daniel James Holdom, 43, murdered 20-year-old mother, Karlie Pearce-Stevenson, and her daughter, Khandalyce Pearce, in December 2008. The pair, whose bodies were dumped 1200km apart, were not identified until 2015. A suppression order was lifted at the New South Wales Supreme Court on Friday and the sickening details of Holdom's brutal crimes can now be uncovered, the Daily Telegraph reported. Khandalyce Pearce (pictured), two, was likely sexually assaulted by Daniel James Holdom when she was horrifically murdered in 2008, a court has heard Daniel James Holdom (pictured), 43, horrifically murdered his short-term girlfriend 20-year-old mother Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter Khandalyce Pearce four days apart in December 2008 On a highway in South Australia in 2015, Khandalyce's skeleton was found in a suitcase (pictured) with cloths stuffed in her mouth On a highway in South Australia in 2015, Khandalyce's skeleton was found in a suitcase with dishcloths stuffed in her mouth. The toddler was wrapped in a bloodstained towel, and her skull was covered with a nappy that had been secured with duct tape. A suggestive notebook of Holdom's was later sourced by police. Among a list of children's names were the words 'consent', 'rape' and 'forced'. Khandalyce was on the list, with 'rape' written next to her name. Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC said it was 'highly likely' Khandalyce was still alive when she was gagged and taped for Holdom to sexually assault her, according to The Daily Telegraph. Ms Pearce-Stevenson (pictured), who was found in the Belanglo State Forest in 2010, became known as the 'Angel of Belanglo' as her unidentified body was found wearing a T-shirt with the word 'angelic' on it 'The exact circumstances of Khandalyce's death remain unknown but there can be no doubt her last moments must have been horrific,' he said. 'Karlie's murder was motivated by a number of factors which include in order to gain access to her young daughter Khandalyce, in whom the offender already expressed sexual interest.' Ms Pearce-Stevenson, who was found in the Belanglo State Forest, NSW, in 2010, became known as the 'Angel of Belanglo' as her unidentified body was found wearing a T-shirt with the word 'angelic' on it. The 20-year-old was only identified five years later when her daughter was found in the suitcase. Holdom, who pleaded guilty to the charges one week before his murder trial was due to start in July, was forced to face the victim's family at an emotional sentencing hearing on Friday. Three victim impact statements were tendered in court from Ms Pearce-Stevenson's father, stepfather and grandmother. Holdom (pictured), who has pleaded guilty, was forced to face the victim's family at an emotional sentencing hearing at the NSW Supreme Court on Friday 'I would like to see the death penalty for you but even that would not be enough,' Khandalyce's (pictured) grandfather wrote in an emotional victim impact statement 'I wake from nightmares with the fear that you will get away with what you've done,' Karlie's birth father, Bruce Pearce, said in a statement read by her aunt, Kellie Lilly. 'The one question that I want you to answer for me is a simple one - Why? 'I would like to see the death penalty for you but even that would not be enough.' Ms Pearce-Stevenson's mother, Colleen Povey, was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 and died in February 2012. 'Her very last distinguishable sentence... Is Karlie and Khandles here yet?,' Karlie's stepfather, Scott Povey, said in his statement. 'I was holding her hand when she died and I knew that Karlie was not coming.' Mr Povey apologised for the years he spent annoyed about his step-daughters lack of contact. Crown proescutor Mr Tedeschi said two life sentences should be imposed on Holdom. Holdom is due to be sentenced on November 9 before Justice Robert Allan Hulme. An Illinois homeowner has been forced to remove a Halloween decoration from her front yard that appeared to depict a black man being lynched from a tree. Toya Griffin, 37, was on the phone with her 15-year-old daughter Wednesday when she says the teen noticed the visual in Lansing, Illinois. 'My daughter suddenly said, "Oh, my god," and tried to explain what she saw,' Griffin, told Yahoo Lifestyle. Scroll down for video Toya Griffin, 37, was on the phone with her 15-year-old daughter Wednesday when she says the teen noticed the visual in Lansing, Illinois Griffin called the Lansing Police Department but the officer said it appeared to be for a Halloween display The teen, who is a sophomore at Thornton Fractional South High School, told her mother that she saw a black mannequin with his hands and ankles tied. The figure was hanging in a tree near the sidewalk. Griffin instructed her daughter to snap a photo and take down the address for the home. The pair noted that the house was decorated for Halloween. The concerned mother called the Lansing Police Department and an officer was dispatched to the scene. Returning Griffin's call, however, the officer said that 'he doesn't see anything wrong with it'. A group of angry neighbors confronted the police and the homeowner, who said that there was a Jason mask on the mannequin that was stolen Griffin's sister then went to the tree and a group of irate neighbors gathered at the scene, filming a Facebook Live video. 'The owner came outside, and my sister asked her, 'Do you see anything wrong with this?'' Griffin added. 'She refused to take it down and said, 'I have friends who are black.'' Arriving at the scene a second time, police learned that there was allegedly a Jason mask on the mannequin before 'somebody stole it'. 'Once the mask was removed, all that remained on the head was a plain black plastic bag,' the police said in a statement on Wednesday. 'It was verified with several neighbors that the mannequin originally had on a Halloween mask. The Halloween decoration has since been taken down.' 'It was verified with several neighbors that the mannequin originally had on a Halloween mask. The Halloween decoration has since been taken down,' the police said in a statement Thornton Fractional High School District 215 sent an email to parents, calling the visual 'disturbing' and offering counseling services to students who were traumatized by the image. Griffin's daughter is still upset with the images and asserts that 'she'll be taking a different route.' 'It took three phone calls, a crowd of neighbors, and a Facebook Live video before this was removed,' Griffin added. 'The police are supposed to represent the best interests of the community which consists largely of African-Americans whose ancestors have a history of being lynched. Slavery and racism affect people every day.' Los Angeles law enforcement are on the hunt for a woman who repeatedly stomped on a convenience store clerk and a man who shot him several times with a BB gun, putting him in hospital. The incident took place in broad daylight Wednesday when the woman brazenly walked into the outlet at a Hollywood gas station around 5pm and left without paying for a 12-pack of beer. Surveillance footage shows the employee run out and return with the alcohol but he didn't expect what happened next. Law enforcement is on the hunt for two women and one man after a violent theft incident in Hollywood Wednesday afternoon Moments later the angry woman who wore spectacles and a mustard yellow hooded top returned to the Arco mini-mart on Western and Melrose accompanied by a man wearing a backpack. The group can be seen arguing but when the male pulls out a gun, the shopkeeper puts his hand up to motion not to shoot. 'He [the alleged shooter] told him not to fight a woman,'' Fox11 reports an anonymous witness said. 'He pulled out the BB gun and shot him.' The suspects robbed an Arco mini-mart of a 12-pack of beer in the middle of the afternoon A store clerk chased the thieves into the street to retrieve the box of alcohol They returned to the Western and Melrose store shouting while a man wearing a backpack produced a BB gun and started shooting The worker had his shirt torn and was stomped on several times as someone tried to pull the woman off The male shot the clerk four times, once in the head according to LAPD Captain David Kowalski The woman didn't leave without grabbing a pack of Heineken after the big fight Video shows the woman grappling before stomping on his body, a least one time on his skull. He overcomes her at one point but the gunman returns with the weapon pointed in the clerk's direction, leaving the injured employee lying in the aisles near the far end of the store with a torn shirt. 'The male shoots the clerk four times, one in the head,' LAPD Captain David Kowalski said. Another man who was also in frame outside the store - can be seen pulling the woman off the clerk. It is not clear whether he knew any of the people involved. Despite the scuffle, the woman goes back to the refrigerator and retrieves another 12-pack of hops this time selecting Heineken instead of the Pacifico she originally took. The Arco store is located on a busy intersection in Los Angeles, California It was sealed off as law enforcement investigated the matter Wednesday evening She takes another moment to shout at the worker. The clerk, a man in his 30s, was found 'conscious and breathing' after law enforcement was called to the store, according to Los Angeles Police Department Officer Tony Im. He was places on a gurney and sustained 'lacerations and abrasions'. KTLA reports law enforcement is looking for two women and one man, all African-Americans in their 20s. LAPD are asking anyone who may have information about the suspects to come forward anonymously. A knifeman has gone on a brutal stabbing rampage through a German town - leaving three people injured. One of the victims was said to have received 'life-threatening injuries' in the attack in Ravensburg, Baden-Wurttemberg, although the condition of the other two victims has not yet been revealed. Paramedics responded to injured people in several places around the town centre as the knifeman ran through the streets reportedly armed with a 'kitchen knife'. The attacker is said to be a 19-year-old Afghan asylum seeker and was arrested by police not far from the scene. A terrifying video of the suspected attacker during his rampage was posted online. In the clip he walks up behind a pedestrian and waves the knife at the back of his head and as he turns around waved the blade in his face. Police have now reportedly cordoned off the main square in Ravensburg and arrested the suspect Police and ambulances parked at the scene as the area was cordoned off following the knife rampage During the stabbing frenzy, which took place at around 4pm in the small market town, pedestrians fled into shops as they scrambled to get out of the attacker's way. One of the victims was said to have been a man eating at a local restaurant with his family who tried to fight off the attacker with a chair. Local website Schwaebische.de said he suffered cuts to his back and arm during the struggle. The attacker was said to have run up to the family and 'fumbled wildly with his knife', and then 'kept pointing at the clock and yelling'. Eyewitnesses were said to have seen the victim stand up and grab a chair to try and protect his family from the attacker. Police later confirmed the suspect has been arrested and the area around the town's main square has been cordoned off as they deal with the wounded. Bus passengers were warned to avoid the Marienplatz square area as traffic was redirected. Blood-soaked bandages and clothes were left on the floor after the attack in Marienplatz One of the victims was said to have used a chair to defend himself and his family from the attacker who was said to be 'yelling' and 'pointing at the clock' The town of Ravensburg has a population of 50,393 and is located in the Baden-Wurttemberg district Konstanz Police tweeted: 'At Marienplatz in Ravensburg a police operation is taking place. A culprit has injured three people there with a knife. The attacker was arrested. Updates to follow.' They later said: 'Three people seriously injured. The crime scene was closed off and we ask the population to observe the barriers.' The Lord Mayor of Ravensburg, Daniel Rapp, came face to face with the blood-soaked attacker as he ran into the street. Mr Rapp, who is a members of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat CDU party, said he was confronted with the suspected attacker who then threatened his with a knife. The knifeman was videoed walking up to an unsuspecting member of the public and waving a huge kitchen knife in his face The suspected attacker walks up to a man in the street and brandishes a knife, repeatedly pointing it at his back before moving the blade near his face when he turns round He told German Press Agency: 'I happened to be nearby. Then suddenly the culprit was right in front of me with the blood-covered knife and threatened me. 'I told him to put the knife on the floor.' He added that when he told the man to drop the knife he did. Mr Rapp also described the attacker as a 'young, rather slender man'. German police believe it was just one attacker and said that although they are still investigating the possible motive for the rampage, there is no indication at present of any terrorist background. One of the victims is said to be in a critical condition. According to a police spokesman, the suspected attacker was caught after the attack on the Marienplatz area of the city in Baden-Wurttemberg. One of the injured was found around 50 meters away from the other two victims. It is unclear whether he was attacked there or if he ran away injured after being attacked in the same place as the other two victims, German media reports. One of the attacks in Marienplatz square was near a busy bus stop near many shops and cafes with people sitting outside Neither age nor home town of the suspect and the injured victims are known at this stage. A video taken after the scene showed blood-covered bandages, medical equipment and clothes strewn across the pavement near a bus stop. Puddles of blood were also seen under a chair outside a cafe where diners had been sitting just before the attack. Police cars and ambulances parked around the cordoned off area in the middle of the busy shopping street. Ravensburg is in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg and is a small town of around 50,000 residents which traces its history back to 11th century. It's a popular destination for tourists wishing to see the preserved medieval buildings in its historic centre. The Lord Mayor of Ravensburg, Dr Daniel Rapp, came face to face with the blood-soaked attacker as he ran up him in the street and threatened him with a blade Retiring rugby league star Bill Slater is set for a dramatic finish to his NRL career as he reveals the turmoil which has gripped his family in recent weeks. Despite all the attention over his shoulder charge, the Melbourne Storm fullback has told of the impact his Dad's recent health scare had on him in the lead-up to Sunday's NRL grand final. Slater was forced to miss a crunch match to rush to his father Ron's bedside after he was placed in an induced coma after struggling to breathe while chopping down trees at home. Retiring rugby league star Billy Slater (pictured left with wife Nicole) has opened up about the tumultuous moments that shaped his career as he prepares for his final NRL game on Sunday Slater (right) was forced to miss a crunch match to rush to his father Ron's (left) bedside three weeks ago Ron later claimed he was lucky to have survived the recent ordeal. Slater's father said he has since given up cigarettes, having been a smoker for 50 years, but Slater described the close-call as a 'difficult time' for his family. Slater said: 'Thankfully he's doing much better. 'He was in hospital for a bit, but he's back home and everything is looking good.' The distance involved in the fullback's desperate trip home to Queensland to be with his ailing father has been another issue for Slater and his family. His wife Nicole told The Courier-Mail they had originally considered moving back to Queensland - where the father-of-two grew up and began his youth career. The distance involved in the fullback's desperate trip home to Queensland to be with his ailing father has been another issue for Slater and his family - but the retiring NRL star has made a home in Queensland as he sets up his own thoroughbred horse breeding ground His wife Nicole told The Courier-Mail they had originally considered moving back to Queensland - where the father-of-two grew up and began his youth career (pictured second from left) As he prepares to hang up his boots with a Grand Final swansong on Sunday, though, Slater is making sure he is ready to face the challenges that plague so many retiring sportsmen. The Storm star, who considered a career as a jockey when he was 16, is currently building a breeding ground for racehorses on a vast plot in Victoria where he can pursue his childhood dreams. Slater and his wife, who met through their shared love of horse racing, have set up a company called Slater Thoroughbreds and plan on devoting the rest of their lives to the pursuit. The retiring footy star said: 'I'm not just dipping my toe in - I am passionate about the industry and I want to breed the best possible horses.' The reporter who broke the story about the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh said that the news was not leaked to him by Dianne Feinstein's office - as she launched a new defense of her handling of Christine Ford's accusation of the Supreme Court nominee. Ryan Grim, the D.C. bureau chief for The Intercept, was the first to report in September on the existence of a confidential letter written by Ford that accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party in the early 1980s. The story said there was 'tension' inside the Democratic membership over the handling of the letter. Grim said late Thursday that the letter was not leaked to him by Feinstein or anyone in her office, as many have speculated. 'Feinstein's staff did not leak the letter to The Intercept,' said Grim in a Twitter post. 'Nor did she or her staff leak the existence of the letter to The Intercept. After our story, she turned it over to the FBI, which placed it in his background file, which meant that it became widely available and soon after it was leaked to CNN,' he added. Grim's story, which ran on Sept. 12, reported that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee 'have privately requested to view a Brett Kavanaugh-related document' held by Feinstein. The story noted that Feinstein had rejected the requests. New denial: Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, added a new denial of leaking the existence of Christine Blasey Ford's accusations Denial: In an unusual move, Intercept reporter Ryan Grim said Feinstein and her staff were not the source for his story revealing the existence of the accusations Outed: Christine Blasey Ford testified to senators that she never wanted the allegations she was leveling against Brett Kavanaugh, but her name became sufficiently widely known that reporters approached her at her home and her office Grim cited 'multiple sources familiar with the situation,' suggesting that the leaks could have come from Democrats who had learned about the letter and were unhappy with Feinstein's refusal to release it. By the time his report was published, a wide circle of people were aware of the allegations. They included not just Eshoo, Feinstein and their respective staffs but - on the account of Ford to senators on Thursday - the high-profile Washington D.C. attorneys she had retained; friends she had spoken to in California; a polygrapher; and, although Ford contacted the newspaper anonymously, a reporter from the Washington Post. Ford had also interviewed other attorneys although she did not say if she told those she rejected what the allegations were. Grim's article did not describe any direct content from the letter. It says sources 'provided different accounts of the contents' and that it likely described 'an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school.' The article also did not identify Ford, and described the letter's author as someone 'affiliated with Stanford University.' Ford teaches at Stanford University. But Ford's identity managed to get out to several reporters, including a journalist from BuzzFeed who Ford claims showed up at her home and office in Palo Alto, prompting her and her family to go into hiding. On September 16, Ford decided to go public in an interview with the Washington Post, to whom she had anonymously reported the allegations early in July and whom she had remained in touch with through the encrypted app WhatsApp. Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been dogged by allegations that she leaked the letter to the media earlier this month in order to stall Kavanaugh's confirmation vote. Feinstein and Rep. Amy Eshoo (D-CA) were the only two members of congress who received a letter from Ford accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault in July, according to Ford's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. But Feinstein denied the leak came from her office and renewed her defense on Friday. 'Let me be clear, I did not hide Dr. Ford's allegation. I did not leak her story,' said Feinstein during the hearing Thursday. 'She asked me to hold it confidential and I kept it confidential as she asked.' On Friday she repeated that denial in a written statement added to the Senate Judiciary Committee's record. Circle of trust: Russell Ford, Christine Ford's husband, had long known of her allegations And Chris Coons, another Democratic senator, said he was convinced that Feinstein and her staff did not leak it and first learned about it from the Intercept story. Corey Booker, also a Democrat, echoed that account. Feinstein suggested that the story may have been leaked to the press by Ford's friends. A spokesperson for Eshoo did not respond to questions about whether the leak came from Eshoo's office. Ford told congress on Thursday that she kept details of her alleged sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh a closely-guarded secret for 36 years and still has no idea who leaked her confidential letter about it to the media two weeks ago. While just two Democrats in congress have access to the letter, Ford shared the allegations with numerous people between July and September 2018. This included friends in California who she told about Kavanaugh in early July. She also had off the record conversations with a Washington Post reporter through the WhatsApp texting application. The app shows users' phone numbers, which can be used to find the person's address from public records. Ford also interviewed a number of lawyers between late July and early August, before settling on her current legal team. Her attorneys hired a private polygraph operator to assess her story. Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she initially sent the letter to Eshoo on July 6, a few days before Kavanaugh's nomination. The letter was the first time Ford says she told anyone other than her husband and therapist that Kavanaugh was the man who allegedly sexually assaulted her in high school in the early 1980s. Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that she wrote the letter on her own without any input from outside advisors or attorneys. Ford said she also sent a tip about Kavanaugh to the Washington Post on July 6, but did not hear back at the time. She sent a second tip on July 10, and started talking to a Washington Post reporter off the record over WhatsApp. 'I did not use my name, but I provided the names of Brett Kavanaugh and [Kavanaugh's high school friend] Mark Judge,' said Ford in her testimony on Thursday. 'I stated that Mr. Kavanaugh had assaulted me in the 1980s in Maryland. This was an extremely hard thing for me to do, but I felt I couldn't not do it.' Ford said she finally opened up about Kavanaugh's role to a 'couple of close friends on the beach in California' in conversations 'over the next two days.' Eshoo's office contacted Ford in response to her letter on July 9, after Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court. Ford met with Eshoo's staff on July 18 and 20, she says, and told them she was afraid to go public with the accusations. She said Eshoo's staff advised writing a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ford said Eshoo's staff eventually passed a copy of the letter to Feinstein's office on July 30 with the request that it be 'kept confidential.' 'My understanding is that Representative Eshoo's office delivered a copy of my letter to Senator Feinstein's office on July 30, 2018,' said Ford. 'The letter included my name, but requested that the letter be kept confidential.' HOW CHRISTINE FORD'S SECRET CAME OUT - AFTER SHE ASKED FOR CONFIDENTIALITY JULY 6: Christine Ford sends a letter to Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) alleging that she was sexually assaulted in high school by Brett Kavanaugh, a leading contender to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Anthony Kennedy. Ford also sends a text about the incident to the Washington Post. The assault allegedly took place in the early 1980s, when Ford was 15 and Kavanaugh was 17. JULY 6 to JULY 8: Christine Ford tells 'beach friends' in California for the first time that she was assaulted by Kavanaugh and asks for advice on whether to go public. JULY 9: President Donald Trump nominates Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. After the announcement, a staffer in Rep. Eshoo's office calls Ford to discuss her allegations against Kavanaugh. JULY 10: Ford contacts the Washington Post for the second time, and gets a response. She starts having conversations with a reporter at the paper off the record via WhatsApp. The app is encrypted, meaning its contents cannot be access by a third party. To use it, Ford's phone number would be known to the Washington Post. JULY 18: Ford meets with Rep. Eshoo's staff. JULY 20: Ford meets with Rep. Eshoo and discusses her fears about going public with the allegations. Ford is assured that the issue will be kept confidential. Rep. Eshoo suggests sending a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee which will vote on Kavanaugh's nomination. JULY 30: Rep. Eshoo hand-delivers Ford's letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office, including a request from Ford that the letter be kept confidential. JULY 30-AUG 7: Ford interviews a number of attorneys and hires a lawyer during this period of time. Feinstein's office recommends some potential attorneys to Ford. The one she hires - Debra Katz, of Katz, Marshall & Banks - was one of Feinstein's recommendations. EARLY AUGUST: Kavanaugh has private meetings with Republican Senators to discuss his nomination. AUG. 7: Ford and Sen. Feinstein discuss her allegations over the phone. Ford also takes and passes a privately-administered polygraph test that was arranged by her lawyer. MID-AUGUST: Kavanaugh meets privately with Democratic Senators, including Sen. Feinstein, to discuss his nomination. AUG. 30: Feinstein writes to Ford promising that she will not share her letter without Ford's consent. SEPT. 2: Kavanaugh's first public confirmation hearing is held by the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is widely expected to be confirmed at a vote scheduled for Sept. 17. SEPT. 12: The Intercept reports that Feinstein's office has refused to show other Democratic Senators a letter that describes an incident between Kavanaugh and a girl when they were in high school. SEPT. 12: Feinstein turns over a redacted version of the letter to the FBI. The FBI adds the letter to Kavanaugh's background check file, making it accessible to all Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. SEPT. 13: Feinstein releases a statement saying: 'I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities.' SEPT. 14: CNN reports that the letter describes a sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh. SEPT. 16: Ford gives an on-the-record interview to the Washington Post. She says she was pressured to go public after 'multiple reporters' showed up at her home and workplace. She did not say when they were there or what outlets they were from. Advertisement Feinstein wrote to Ford a month later on Aug. 31 promising not to disclose the information without Ford's consent. 'In a letter on August 31, 2018, Senator Feinstein wrote that she would not share the letter without my consent,' said Ford. 'I greatly appreciated this commitment. All sexual assault victims should be able to decide for themselves whether their private experience is made public.' Less than two weeks later, on Sept. 12, The Intercept reported on the existence of the letter and the assault accusations against Kavanaugh although the initial reports did not include Ford's name. That day, Feinstein turned over the letter to the FBI. Ford told the Senate on Thursday that she still does not know who leaked the letter, indicating that she did not give approval for Feinstein or Eshoo to release it. Republicans seized on Feinstein's delay in turning the letter over to the FBI on Thursday, while Democrats continued to call for FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh a move that Republicans claim is a political tactic to stall the confirmation vote. 'The ranking member [Feinstein] took no action,' said Grassley. 'The letter wasn't shared with me or colleagues or my staff. These allegations could have been investigated in a way that maintained the confidentiality that Dr. Ford requested.' First recipient: Anna Eshoo, the Democratic congresswoman in whose district Christine Ford lives, was who she wrote to first Kavanaugh also criticized Feinstein's delay in a heated exchange with Sen. Dick Durbin, who pressed the judge on whether he believes there should be an FBI investigation. 'This thing was held when it could have been presented in the ordinary way,' said Kavanaugh. 'It could have been held and handled confidentially.' Kavanaugh testified that he was never asked questions about the allegations during closed-door hearings and private meetings with Feinstein, and said he wasn't aware of the claims until they were leaked to the press. Although Feinstein waited until Sept. 12 to turn over the letter to the FBI, Ford said Feinstein's office privately advised her on potential attorneys to hire. After the news broke, Ford said she was hounded by reporters and feared that her name would be released publicly without her consent. 'Once the press started reporting on the existence of the letter I had sent to Senator Feinstein, I faced mounting pressure,' said Ford. 'Reporters appeared at my home and at my job demanding information about this letter, including in the presence of my graduate students.' She agreed to an interview with the Washington Post, which she had first contacted in July, which was published on Sept. 16. That interview was the first time Ford spoke publicly and in detail about the alleged attack, which she said she had kept largely to herself for decades and only shared with her husband in 2012. Ford said in the summer of 1982, when she was 15, she attended a small house party with four boys and one other girl. Ford said Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, who were 17 at the time, were also at the party and appeared to have been drinking heavily beforehand. Ford claimed she went upstairs to use the bathroom when she was grabbed from behind and shoved onto a bed in a nearby bedroom. She said Kavanaugh and Judge locked the door, and Kavanaugh proceeded to climb on top of Ford and tried to remove her clothing. Kavanaugh also allegedly put his hand over Ford's mouth so she could not scream. Ford said she remembered the boys laughing a noise, she said on Thursday, that has been seared into her memory for 36 years. She also said they turned up the volume on music in the room so that she could not scream for help from the other partygoers downstairs. Ford said she managed to escape after Judge jumped on top of Kavanaugh and the boys toppled off of her. She said she ran to the bathroom and locked the door until she heard the boys go back downstairs. At that point, she said she ran out of the house and went home, but still does not remember how she got back from the party. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations, and other sexual assault accusations from two other women. The three named witnesses who Ford said attended the party have said they don't remember the gathering or anything similar taking place. A $3 billion project to modernize the Hoover Dam and bring it into the 21st century has been announced by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. A new pump station and 20-mile pipeline would be built downstream to regulate flow through electric generators. Water would then be pumped back to the top of the dam, creating electricity and thereby turning the dam into a source of renewable energy. In effect, the 726-feet high dam would serve as a huge battery and be able to provide electricity during times of peak demand. Los Angeles is looking into whether it should spend an estimated $3 billion on a massive underground pumped hydropower storage system This storage system would effectively turn the Hoover Dam into a giant battery to store power Generators take in water from Lake Mead. The water is funneled through spinning turbines to create electricity. Then the water is released to flow down stream. The LADWP estimates the dam is operating at 20% of its potential, partly to prevent too much water flowing through it at once and flooding areas downstream. Once the new project is complete, it could increase the dam's productivity by up to 45%. The dam provides power to three states and water to more than 20 million people, producing enough power to support more than a million homes. The proposed plan would use wind and solar power to pump water from below Hoover Dam back upstream, depositing water into Lake Mead to be released again at a future time The idea is to use the stored water to both offset renewable energy fluctuations, and supplement the grid during peak electrical demand Proponents of the Hoover Dam battery concept say it would be an environmentally friendly way to generate more electricity without using fossil fuels Los Angeles received the bulk of the power generated with 55% heading to California. 25 percent goes to Nevada and then 20 percent to Arizona customers. 'It's one of the simplest technologies: pump water up hill when there's too much energy and let it run down hill when there's not enough energy,' said David Wright, general manager of the Department of Water and Power which have already implemented a plan that works on a smaller scale in Castaic, California. 'This isn't something we're looking at lightly. This is something that has been thought about and now it's, let's look at the engineering, let's look at the feasibility,' Wright said to CBS News. There are many who are concerned about the possible impacts on the environment and tourism, despite the obvious green benefits. The project calls for nearly 20 miles of new underground pipes to run from below the dam back into Lake Mead Although the Hoover Dam's hydropower is distributed across Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada, it actually provides only a small slice of the overall energy consumed in the West The new pipeline would see a wind- and solar-powered pump station built 20 miles downstream. Water would be pumped back up to Lake Mead through underground pipes and sent back down during periods of higher demand. The project would change the landscape and some are worried that if the water is drawn from the river in certain areas without proper studies, it could result in a change of water depth affecting marine life. There is the also the possibility of a reduced flow downstream. One early feasibility study has concluded that there would be very little effect on the environment and the surrounding communities. The Hoover Dam was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression involving thousands of workers. 100 people were killed during its construction The project still needs to be approved by the Bureau of Reclamation which It requires an environmental impact study along with a debate over how the cost will be divided between all of the energy users. The National Park Service will also have a say and be able to review the plans for any scientific, environmental, and aesthetic impact on the downstream area. The Hoover Dam has long been considered one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century. Built during the Great Depression, the proposal to turn the Hoover Dam into a source of renewable energy has been met with a mix of excitement and concern but the $3 billion plan would bring the power plant into the 21st century. Boris Johnson tonight piled yet more pressure on Theresa May's under-fire Brexit plans - warning it would be a 'disaster' for Britain' and a 'triumph' for Brussels. He followed up on his 4,500-word essay savaging the Chequers proposal and printed this morning with a tour of the television studios this evening putting the boot into the plans. The former Foreign Secretary said Chequers would leave the UK bound by EU rules with no seat at the table - leaving the UK 'a vassal state - a colony'. He said it would mean that for all Britain's 'power and might' the country would have effectively handed over its affairs to Brussels. And he refused to rule out a leadership challenge against the beleaguered Prime Minister. His blistering attacks on the Brexit blueprint on the eve of what is set to be an explosive Tory Party conference is designed to inflict maximum damage on the plan. Mrs May is facing a Tory revolt at home over her Brexit plan while abroad EU leaders have been scathing about it and demanded major changes. She has repeatedly stuck to her line that Chequers remains the only credible proposal on the table - but ministers are stepping up no deal plans amid fears the talks will fail. Boris Johnson (pictured on Sky News today) followed up on his excoriating attack on Chequers in the Daily Telegraph with a series of sit down interviews with broadcasters in which he tore into Theresa May's Brexit proposal The ex foreign secretary (pictured today on a run in Oxfordshire) savaged the Chequers plan in an interview - warning it would be a 'disaster' for Britain' and a 'triumph' for Brussels Theresa May (pictured earlier this week) is facing a massive wave of pressure from her Tory backbenchers to ditch her Brexit plan. She will come face to face with Conservative activists this week for what is set to be an explosive party conference In an explosive interview with Sky News tonight, Mr Johnson said that Chequers would leave the UK tied to the EU's market and customs rules. He added: 'That means basically that we have failed in our duty to the people to take back control. 'Indeed, we've lost control because we no longer have anyone around the table in Brussels. And that's a disaster. 'So what I'm trying to do today is to get the Prime Minister and the government back to that focus on a big, optimistic, generous free trade deal.' Blow May as polls reveal activists want her out by the next election Theresa May is facing a massive blow to her authority as a poll out today finds that 80 per cent of Tory activists want her gone before the next election. Theresa May is facing a massive blow to her authority as a poll out today finds that 80 per cent of Tory members want her gone before the next election. Meanwhile, another survey found that 60 per cent of global investors do not think a Brexit deal will be done by the November deadline. They heap yet more pressure on the beleaguered PM on the eve of her party conference as tensions rage in her party over her Brexit plans. The Prime Minister is facing a massive Tory revolt at home over her under-fire Brexit blueprint while EU leaders have poured scorn on it abroad. She is in a race against time to get a deal done by November - seen as the latest date when a deal can be done and ratified in time for Britain's departure next March. Mrs May has repeatedly insisted that she is in her job for the long haul and will fight the next election. But her election campaign last summer was branded by Tories the worst in the party's history, and many MPs fear they will lose their seats if she leads the party when the nation next goes to the polls. The Tory website ConHome has found that the vast majority of activists want Mrs May gone from the top job by the time they have to fight the next election. The survey found that 35 per cent of those surveyed think she should quit as Tory leader now, and 45 per cent say she should go before the nation goes to the polls again in 2022. And in a fresh blow today, a poll by Reuters found that most of the 54 wealth managers and chief investment officers they surveyed think the deadline will be missed. Advertisement He said that while Brussels is publicly scornful of the PM's plan, he believes they could sign up to it as it is such a good deal for them. Mr Johnson, who quit the Cabinet earlier this year in fury at Chequers, said: 'My anxiety is that, you know, yes it's true, formally speaking, that the EU has rejected Chequers. 'And they will, because it breaks up their idea of the unity of the four freedoms and the coherence of the single market and all that but be careful, because actually it's a great deal for them. 'And I just want to make clear because I don't think people quite get this the Chequers deal, were it to be agreed with the EU, would be a political triumph for Brussels. 'Because what it would show is that the United Kingdom, for all its power and might, for all the two trillion pound economy that we have, the fifth biggest economy in the world, that when it came to it, we were unable to reclaim economic and so those.' In a separate interview with ITN, he said: 'The Chequers proposals would be absolutely disastrous for this country, for how we're seen abroad. 'The point about the Chequers proposals mean the UK become a vassal state - a colony. 'We are the first country in the history of this continent to accept foreign rule from Brussels but have no one around the table. 'Politically and economically unacceptable.' And in a chat with BBC News he said Mrs May is 'remarkable' - but refused to rule out challenging her for the leadership. He said: 'The Prime Minister will go on, as she as she said to us herself, and as she said to the country, she's a remarkable person, she will go on for as long as she feels it necessary. 'But the most important thing for me is to avert what I think would be a political and economic disaster for this country which is to agree to come out of the EU but still to be run by the EU, what is the point of that, what will we have done? 'And I think there is still time for her to change course.' His sit-down interviews came hours after his lengthy attack on Chequers in his weekly Daily Telegraph column hit news stands. He used the piece of brand Chequers a 'moral and intellectual humiliation' and unveil his own six-point proposal for a 'super-Canada' style free trade deal. He called for the first time for Mrs May to tear up the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, which was finally signed in December last year after months of painful negotiation. Former Brexit minister Boris Johnson praised Boris Johnson's intervention saying it is a pivotal contribution to the debate Tory MP for Yeovil Marcus Fysh said Boris Johnson's six-point plan for a 'super Canada' Brexit deal is the right way forward for Britain He said the UK 'stumbled and collapsed' into the Northern Ireland backstop agreement, which he says is incompatible with his vision. Mr Johnson said the Northern Ireland problem could be dealt with by checks carried out away from the border. He set out his Canada-style Brexit blueprint which he said would 'fulfil the instruction of the people'. He claimed his alternative six-point 'SuperCanada' plan would make Britain 'rich, strong and free'. Ex Cabinet Minister Prito Patel urges May to get more radical A former Cabinet minister has urged Theresa May to get more radical on the eve of a crunch Tory Party conference this week. Priti Patel urged the PM to cut taxes and red tape on business, saying a 'clear Conservative vision' was needed to tackle Jeremy Corbyn's hard-Left agenda. Her intervention will be seen as part of a move by a disaffected Tory MPs to pile pressure on Mrs May to do more to boost business. Miss Patel told The House magazine 'Gone are the days of flagship policies giving millions the chance to own their own home, start their own business, become share owners, and offer choice in public services. 'Now we are showcasing taxes on coffee cups.' Ex education minister Robert Halfon also piled in and said the Government needs to come up with a vision which attracts working class voters. He said: 'The Corbyn description of what is going on resonates with millions of people. 'Deep social and economic problems remain. 'We are stuck in the political rhetoric of the past, rather than providing a proper Tory vision for the future.' Advertisement He called on Mrs May to negotiate the deal during a 21-month transition period which will follow Brexit on March 29. She should rip up her backstop plan for Northern Ireland, he said, arguing that technology should be used to avoid a hard border in Ireland. He said: 'This is an opportunity for the UK to become more dynamic and more successful, and we should not be shy of saying that and we should recognise that it is exactly this potential our EU partners seek to constrain.' His call follows reports that some members of the Cabinet are moving towards a Canada-style agreement as an alternative to a 'No Deal' scenario. The essay argues for a change in position following a rejection of Mrs May's Chequers plan by European leaders. In the 'A Better Plan for Brexit' text, he writes: 'This is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit. 'We have the chance to get it right, and I am afraid that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail.' In a veiled criticism, he also describes the decision to call a general election last year as a 'serious strategic mistake'. Turning on the negotiating team, he adds that there has been a 'collapse of will' by ministers and civil servants to deliver on the Referendum result. He denounced the 'pretty invertebrate performance' of the British negotiating team, led by Olly Robbins, who Mrs May appointed. Their 'supine position' on Brexit has given the EU the upper hand while the UK has 'stumbled and collapsed' into the Northern Irish backstop plan which could effectively lead to the province's annexation by the EU. Mr Johnson will attend a fringe event at the conference in Birmingham on Tuesday which is likely to overshadow preparations for Mrs May's own speech on Wednesday. Leading Eurosceptics lined up to heap praise on his 4,500-word Brexit manifesto. Former Brexit minister Steve Baker - who quit along with Mr Johnson in anger at the Chequers plan - said it is a 'brilliant, pivotal' intervention. He told MailOnline: 'Conservatives have spent too long negotiating amongst ourselves. Theresa May (right) had a difficult time in Salzburg last week as EU leaders (left) brutally rejected her Chequers plan 'Now, as we approach conference, we have a clear choice - hopeless failure with Chequers, or a hopeful future of renewal with the plan Boris has set out. 'It's time to commit to practical management of the border with Ireland and go forward with an advanced Free Trade Agreement.' Tory MP Marcus Fysh said, 'absolutely right Boris Johnson - this is the way forward', and Conservative MP Nadine Dorries said he was a 'man with a plan'. But other Tories tore into Mr Johnson over the remarks - saying his article suggests that he 'does not care' about the impact on people's lives. Leading Tory Remainer Nicky Morgan blasted Mr Johnson's column, writing: 'I said Boris had to decide if he was a politician or a journalist - he's clearly made his decision but shame he didn't research the link between agreeing a solution that keeps the Irish border frictionless and the chances of agreeing withdrawal terms. 'Or does he just not care?' Mrs May is facing huge pressure as she faces Conservative activists and MPs at the annual conference amid a major Tory revolt over her Brexit plans. A forensic expert testified in Mississippi on Friday that she could not rule out that Quinton Tellis' DNA was present on a set of keys belonging to murder victim Jessica Chambers. Kathryn Rogers, who works at Scales Biological Laboratory in Brandon, told the court on the fourth day of Tellis' capital murder retrial that tests performed on the victim's keys revealed that the defendant's DNA could not be excluded. Approximately 99.7 per cent of the male population can be excluded from that DNA profile found on the keys. Scroll down for video A forensic expert testified in Mississippi on Friday that she could not rule out that Quinton Tellis' (he is pictured in court Friday, left) DNA was present on Jessica Chambers' keys Tellis is accused of setting Chambers and her car on fire after having sex with her in the passenger seat Tellis is seen center during a court field trip on the third day of his retrial on Thursday. Tellis admitted he had a sexual relationship with Chambers and deleted their text thread after she was murdered in December 2014 'His [Tellis'] Y chromosome markers are seen in that DNA profile,' Rogers said from the stand. 'He cannot be excluded does not mean his DNA was definitely on the keys, he just can't be ruled out as a possible contributor.' The woman's keys were discovered in a ditch two days after the attack. Members of the jury also got to hear from Thelma Taylor, whose husband was once characterized as the 'mysterious figure' seen at the scene of the crime on December 6, 2014, reported WREG. Thelma explained to the court that her husband, Willie Taylor, is a truck driver who is currently on his way to South Carolina. Thelma recounted the events from more than three years ago, saying that on the night of Chambers' killing, she heard there was a helicopter in Courtland, not far from her daughter's home. Concerned for her child's safety, Thelma said she asked her husband to drive to Courtland and find out what had happened there. He made his way to Courtland in her white GMC Yukon and found out there was no helicopter there. On his way back, Willie Taylor stopped by the location where Jessica Chambers stumbled out of the woods with burns all over her body, but sheriff's deputies quickly ordered him to leave. According to Thelma, her husband headed to the crime scene because he was being nosy. When he returned home, he told his wife he did not really see anything. On Thursday, FBI agent Dustin Blount testified that Tellis told him he and the 19-year-old Chambers had sex together in the passenger seat of her Kia Rio with the seat in a reclined position, but not on the day she died. The passenger seat in the burned car was found in that position. Prosecutors believe Tellis doused Chambers in gasoline and lit her on fire shortly after the two had the sexual encounter in the car. Blount further said that Tellis admitted to driving around with the victim hours before her death. The jury was pictured Thursday standing at the scene where the teen was found dead inside her vehicle just weeks before Christmas four years ago. Tellis, fourth from right, walks towards his former residence during a court field trip on Thursday People gather before testimony at the scene where Chambers was burned alive The spot where Chambers was burned alive in her car is seen during the third day of the retrial of Tellis on Thursday Prosecutors believe evidence will show Tellis killed Chambers by setting her on fire, but defense attorneys said they cant prove it and that another man killed her. A total of ten emergency responders said during testimony that they heard Chambers speak of a man named 'Eric' or 'Derek' who attacked her that day. Tellis is currently being retried on capital murder charges, after jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict last year. Opening statements began Tuesday. The trial is expected to last through the end of the week. Jurors were selected Monday in Starkville more than 120 miles away because of pretrial publicity. Father of the victim, Ben Chambers, breaks down during testimony in the retrial of Quinton Tellis in Batesville, Mississippi on Wednesday Jurors heard testimony from Jessica's mother, Lisa Chambers (seen left on the witness stand), who talked about the teen's final days Jessica's best friend, Lakesha Meyer, testified about meeting Tellis for the first time, just a few days before the deadly attack Dr. Carolyn Higdon, a speech language pathology expert, told the court that based on Jessica's injuries, the woman would have been unable to utter the names 'Eric' or 'Derrick' Tellis faces another murder indictment in the 2015 stabbing death of another woman in Monroe, Louisiana. Hes already pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of her debit card. The defendant is currently serving a prison sentence in Mississippi on an unrelated burglary charge. Prosecutors say cellphone locations, video, DNA on a keychain and Tellis statements link him to Chambers death. A new witness may testify she picked up Tellis that night near where Chambers was burned. 'Once you hear all the evidence the state offers, youre going to have plenty of evidence to convict him of capital murder,' Panola County Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale told jurors. The defense emphasized that multiple emergency workers heard the dying Chambers say someone named 'Eric' attacked her, calling the prosecutions evidence 'speculation' or 'unreliable.' Defense attorney Darla Palmer urged jurors to disregard evidence about cellphone locations that she said cant prove Tellis and Chambers were in exactly the same place. Deputy Prosecutor Jay Hale holds up a picture of Jessica Chambers in court Tuesday Defense attorney Darla Palmeron gives an opening statement during Day 1 of the retrial Tellis' first trial in 2017 ended in a hung jury because the panel could not reach a verdict 'This evidence is always going to show, its always going to say Eric did it, no matter what the state does to diminish that, and we would ask that you find Quinton not guilty.' Hale said investigators had interviewed many people named Eric or Derek but ruled all of them out. He said that after the inquiry reached a dead end, investigators re-examined Tellis who had been an early suspect. Hale said investigators focused on him after he changed his story and admitted he had been with Chambers later on the Saturday of her death. 'Quinton Tellis had not been truthful to investigators,' Hale said. On the first day of testimony, the jury heard from Jessica's mother, Lisa Chambers, who described in detail the last few days in her daughter's life, reported WREG. Next up on the stand was Jessica's best friend Lakesha Meyer, who recounted how she first met Tellis a few days before Chamber's death, and how she introduced the man as just a friend. Jessica suffered burns to 98 per cent of her body and later died from her injuries After a break, Dr. Carolyn Higdon, a speech language pathology expert, took the witness stand, telling the court that based on her analysis of autopsy photos showing extensive damage to the victim's mouth, larynx and lungs, and her conversations with Chambers' doctor, the young woman would have been unable to utter the names 'Eric' or 'Derrick.' That testimony could help undercut a key defense argument that multiple EMTs heard a dying Chambers say someone named 'Eric' attacked her. Defense attorneys urged jurors to trust that testimony a foundation of their arguments in the first trial. Tellis has always insisted that he is innocent, telling police in the interrogation room, even after being threatened with the death penalty if it went to trial: 'I told the truth. I didn't kill Jessica. It ain't even in my heart to kill nobody.' His family claim that the police are simply looking for someone to blame in the case, which has become a highly charged racial issue after Tellis, who is black, was arrested for the death of the pretty, white cheerleader. Chambers told her mother, Lisa, she was going out to get something to eat at around 5.15pm, on December 6, 2014. Speaking to the producers of the new docu-series 'Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers,' which premiered September 15 on Oxygen, Lisa said she called Jessica while she was out to see what time she would be home. Tellis (left) also faces another murder indictment in Louisiana, where he is accused in the torture death of Meing-Chen Hsiao (right), a 34-year-old Taiwanese graduate student 'I called her and she said ill be home in a little while Momma, but I love you. 'I told her I loved her too. She said, 'See you in a little bit.' 'That's the last I heard from her.' Chambers later stumbled out of the woods near her hometown of Courtland, Mississippi, after she and her car were set on fire. The last time Lisa Chambers saw Jessica alive was at the hospital. Her daughter had suffered burns to 98 per cent of her body and was barely clinging on to life. The volunteer firefighters and first responders who found Jessica were shocked at the state of her injuries, with one describing her as resembling a 'zombie.' He said that one of his fellow firefighters had asked her who had done this to her. 'She said "Eric did this." We were all kinda stunned. During the investigation, police interviewed several people called Eric or Derek, but none were charged. After Tellis was arrested, prosecutors told the court last year that Jessica may have been trying to say another name but her throat and mouth were so badly burned that it only appeared to sound like 'Eric' or 'Derek.' Prosecutor John Champion said during the first trial that Tellis thought he suffocated Chambers while they were having sex before he drove her car to a back road. Prosecutors also showed a number of text messages, which appeared to show Tellis, who was from the same neighborhood as the victim and attended her high school years earlier, pestering Jessica for sex. After he believed he'd choked her to death, Champion said that Tellis ran to his sister's house nearby, jumped in his sisters' car, stopped to pick up gasoline from a shed at his house and torched Chambers' car and her. Tellis also faces another murder indictment in Louisiana, where he is accused in the torture death of Meing-Chen Hsiao, a 34-year-old Taiwanese graduate student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Tellis will not return to Louisiana to face the charges or an indictment until the conclusion of his case in Mississippi because of the extradition agreement. A woman who pretended she was pregnant - then staged her own abduction on the day she was supposed to give birth before claiming a gang had cut the baby from her womb, has apologized and asked for forgiveness. Antonela Milena Padilla, 37, used a cushion to fool her boyfriend, Victor, into believing she was pregnant in a bid to convince him not to leave her. 'It was false. I made it all up and I did it because of love, because of the fear of losing him,' she told El Heraldo on Thursday, her face obscured in the footage. 'I feared he would not stay with me. That's why I did it and I own up to that big error.' Scroll down for video Antonela Milena Padilla told El Heraldo that she faked her pregnancy because she was in love with her new boyfriend, who made her feel loved for the first time since 2014 Padilla (center) was taken to the hospital by her family, after they grew increasingly concerned for her health. She says she regrets faking her pregnancy Padilla, who already has a son, 13, and daughter, 14, from a previous relationship, became romantically involved with Victor in December 2017. She said she felt loved for the first time since her 2014 separation from the father of her two children and drew up, what she thought would be the perfect plan, to keep Victor by her side. 'I told him one day in January that I was pregnant and he innocently believed me,' Padilla recalled. As the months went by she increased the size of her belly by filling the cushion with rags, and printed off an ultrasound scan from the internet to show to family and friends, according to reports. Padilla claimed she started to gain weight during the staged pregnancy and Victor, who was excited at the prospect of being a first-time dad, would even exclaim, 'babe, the baby girl is moving'. 'It sincerely was a psychological pregnancy, and when it's like that, your belly grows, you sense movements,' Padilla recalled. 'I experienced nausea, the urge to vomit, dizziness. I had cravings. At times I wanted to eat bream [fish] and he would buy it for me. It was all psychological.' Incredibly, her boyfriend never suspected anything was wrong and as the day of the birth neared, became increasingly excited at being a father for the first time. But the elaborate scam spectacularly unraveled Saturday, the day she was due to give birth by C-section at a local hospital. Padilla, from Barranquilla, northern Colombia, initially claimed she was kidnapped and drugged. She told El Heraldo she had agreed to meet up with Victor at 11am and left an hour earlier at the Plaza del Sol where she was to pick up $500,000 pesos [$169] to buy a few item she needed to get for Mariangel, the imaginary child's chosen name. As she was on her way to the town of Hipodromo, the 'soon-to-be-mother-of three' said she was indeed mugged. 'A dark skinned man approaches me. He told me, 'stay normal, keep walking normal and go inside the car'. When I get near the red car, the guy pushes me and I went inside,' Padilla explained. 'They then started to drive me in circles and dropped me off at the Cordialidad Bridge.' Padilla wandered around trying to figure out the next chapter in her outrageous story. At one point she borrowed money from a stranger and boarded a bus to visit an old co-worker and spent a few hours there until she left at about 7pm local time. Padilla found another stranger that would assist her with bus fare to make it to a nearby church. She broke down in tears as she figured 'what to say, what to do'. Almost 12 hours had already passed between the time she had left her home to meet Victor before calling her boyfriend and frantically begging him to rescue her. Victor, who would arrive with his brother and another friend, repeatedly asked about the baby before she claimed that an organ trafficking gang had cut the baby from her belly in order to sell the baby's body parts. Padilla's boyfriend called police declaring what had just happened to his girlfriend. 'He insisted that I needed to go to the hospital, but I told him no. I didn't want to go because I knew what was coming,' she revealed. 'At the moment I decided not to tell the truth due to fear,' she added. Worried about her health, her family took her against her will to the local Nino Jesus de Soledad hospital, where shocked medics called police, who launched a massive operation to track down the alleged kidnappers. But officers quickly began to doubt the woman's story, especially after a hospital evaluation found she had suffered no knife injuries consistent with a 'back street caesarean'. A further blood test found she had never been pregnant, and found no traces of any sedatives in her body. 'They discovered there wasn't a pregnancy,' Padilla said. The house in Barranquilla, northern Colombia, which Ms Padilla shared with her boyfriend Victor's mother told Colombia's Al Dia newspaper that the woman continued to insist she had been pregnant. She said: 'They did the tests, and she still tried to convince them she had been expecting. But the gynaecologist confirmed she had never been pregnant.' She added that her son never went with her for her pre-natal check-ups and preferred to wait for her at the entrance to the hospital. She said: 'We never suspected anything because although her belly was small, some pregnant women don't have big bellies so we didn't think anything was strange. 'I have to speak with my son so he can tell me what was going on. He has had various relationships but never had children. There is no need, no reason for her to do this.' Police commander Mariano Cotero Coy said yesterday that an investigation had been launched and Padilla had been called to provide a declaration. He said she could be charged with wasting public resources. He said: 'In the hospital, we see people lying down in queues, from 5am waiting for an appointment, and this lady feigning her pregnancy meant that she was attended to before others who really needed it.' The couple has now split but she says she wants him back. 'He's hurt,' Padilla said. 'This is necessary for the wounds to heal, to be able to turn the page. 'He told me, 'disconnect yourself from everything. I want you to recuperate so that you can be the Antonela from before. You made an error and you hit me where it hurts the most. I want you to give me space so that I can heal.' A Democratic senator on Friday brandished a 1982 calendar that Brett Kavanaugh provided to establish his innocence arguing may in fact reveal the Supreme nominee attended a gathering that bolsters accuser Christine Ford's sexual assault allegation. Kavanaugh provided the calendar to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which then released it before Thursday's blockbuster hearing. While it initially drew some ridicule for its entries marked 'BEACH WEEK' and showed him being grounded, the nominee used the document to forcefully argue he was out of town for many of the weekends when the alleged assault could have possibly occurred. He the assault, which he denies, couldn't have happened during the week because he and his friends had jobs. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse spoke Friday about Brett Kavanaugh's calendar entry which he said showed a meeting for beers 'Skis' that included two people identified by accuser Christine Ford But on Friday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island held up a blowup of the calendar and noted that a Thursday July 1, 1982 entry contained the names of three people Ford said were present during the small gathering where she alleges Kavanaugh tried to force himself on her and covered her mouth in an upstairs bedroom. That was the calendar date Kavanaugh was questioned about by a Republican-hired prosecutor who was not heard from again after the exchange in Thursday's televised hearing. Ford testified that Kavanaugh, his friend Mark Judge, and P.J. Smyth all were present during the alleged assault. Judge and Smyth have said in statements they don't recall any party like the one Ford is referring to. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh vigorously denied sexual assault allegations Christine Blasey Ford reacts as she speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., September 27, 2018 The July 1, 1982 entry says 'Go to Timmy's for Skis' and mentions 'Judge, Tom, PJ, Bernie, and Squi.' Whitehouse said the calendar cried out for investigation by the FBI. 'Let me have one example of where investigation might help. Here's Kavanaugh's calendar,' he said, holding up a blowup of the month as well as the July 1 date. 'Dr. Ford said that Kavanaugh and Judge and P.J. and at least one other boy were all at a house. Well, we know [Brett] Kavanaugh was there because it's his schedule. And here's Judge, and here's P.J. Here are all those three named boys and others at a house together just as she said,' Whitehouse continued. 'She said Kavanaugh and judge were drunk. And that she had a beer. Skis is brewskies beer. They were drinking, just as she said. Now, I will concede that the two girls aren't mentioned. But spot me this. If you had just sexually assaulted one of the two girls, would you add the girls' names to your calendar? I doubt it.' Sen. Charles Grasslely said it was 'the wrong gathering,' because a total of seven boys attended, not four as Ford initially stated He continued: 'This may may be powerful corroborating evidence that the assault happened. That it happened that day. And that it happened in that place. But with no FBI investigation, we can't tell. ... It's the least thing a sexual assault victim is entitled to when she comes forward. The FBI could interview all the attendees, not just to obtain simple denials but to cross check and see if the stories add up. The FBI could see if the house matches the locality and description Dr. Ford gave. The FBI could inquire after and pursue other corroborating or exculpatory evidence. It's what they do,' Whitehouse said. During Thursday's hearing prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questioned Kavanaugh about the entry about the party. Kavanaugh furnished his calendars and argued they showed he was out of town most weekends when the alleged assault occurred A July 1 entry mention's 'Judge, Tom, PJ, Bernie, Squi' 'Anybody who has done any serious investigation knows you don't stop just with witness statements of interested parties,' said Whitehouse, a former prosecutor 'The entry says, and I quote, go to Timmys for skis with Judge, Tom, P.J. Bernie and ... Squi? she said, as the Washington Post reported. 'Squi. Its a nickname,' Kavanaugh responded. 'To what does this refer, and to whom?' Mitchell asked. 'It looks like we went over to Timmys. You want to know their last names, too? Im happy to do it,' Kavanaugh said. 'If you could just identify: Is Judge Mark Judge?' Mitchell responded. 'It is. Its Tim Gaudette, Mark Judge, Tom Kaine, P.J. Smyth, Bernie McCarthy, Chris Garrett,' Kavanaugh said. Kavanaugh denies committing the alleged assault or anything like it in high school or any other time. Judge and Smyth were the people identified by Ford as being at the party where she alleges she was attacked. She amended her comment Thursday to say there may have been a few other people. Ford also said under questioning that she went out with a person who appears to be Squi, though she didn't say his name at that time. '"He was somebody that, I will use the phrase I went out with, " Ford said. I wouldnt say date. I would say went out with for a few months. That was how we termed it at the time. Ford described the person she dated as her connection to Kavanaugh. Panel chair Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa was armed with a response to Whitehouse's statement about the calendar. He said it showed there were at least seven boys at the party. 'I think I should try to clarify about the calendar that senator Whitehouse put up there. The entry has six boys listed for July 1st, 1982,' says Grassley. 'It says go to Timmy's house for skis with judge, Tom, P.J., Bernie, and Squi. Dr. Ford said there were four boys there, the calendar entry lists six plus Kavanaugh. That's seven. That's the wrong gathering,' Grassley said. Following a last-minute compromise prompted by Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, the FBI may get a one week period to investigate Ford's allegations. They now have a list of people that could be interviewed and a possible date and location to try to investigate the allegations. Whitehouse used the calendar issue to call for more investigation. 'Anybody who has done any serious investigation knows you don't stop just with witness statements of interested parties. You run down corroborating and impeaching evidence. You check and cross check. You ask and go back again. You do the basic blocking and tackling of investigation,' he said. 'You cannot tell me Ms. Ford's allegations weren't credible,' Whitehouse continued. 'They were credible enough to get her before the Senate. And yet she was not given the most basic decent thing that a witness or victim could be given after they come forward. Sincere or thorough investigation. Closing out the background investigation without investigating new credible allegations, not any of three allegations, all from women demonstrably in Kavanaugh's social circle,' he added. A policeman who drunkenly groped women in a nightclub after just four months in the job will not face criminal charges. Barney Heaton, 26, was on a night out with colleagues when he 'touched several women on their bottom' and made a 'pincer-like grab' at one woman's crotch. The 'visibly distressed' female pushed him away, a disciplinary hearing heard. Barney Heaton, 26, had been on a night out with colleagues at The Cuban bar in Canterbury on November 24 last year (pictured) His horrified colleagues from Kent Police reported him 'losing all control' at The Cuban bar in Canterbury on November 24 last year. One colleague confronted him and told him his behaviour was 'unacceptable' but he persisted, the hearing was told. An investigation was launched after they reported his behaviour to officials at Kent Police College in Maidstone the following day. He denied any inappropriate behaviour, claiming his peers made up the allegations because of 'bad feeling' between them. And he will not face criminal prosecution because there was insufficient evidence to proceed, police said. A Kent Police spokesman said: 'Police carried out a full and thorough investigation into alleged sexual offences committed at a bar in Canterbury on Friday November 24, 2017, including a review of all available CCTV footage and talking to witnesses. 'However, as no victims could be identified there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal investigation.' PC Heaton, who joined the force in July 2017 and was still studying at police college and on probation at the time, resigned before his disciplinary hearing took place. He did not attend the hearing today, at which it was concluded that his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct. The panel said he would have been fired from his job had he not already resigned. Delivering the decision, chairman William Hansen said: 'We find that ex-police constable Heaton has clearly breached standards of professional behaviour. 'He has lost all self control in a public place, and this undermines public confidence in the police service. 'We would have dismissed Mr Heaton, if he had still been a member of the force.' Kent Police College in Maidstone where Heaton was studying at the time of the incident Edward Pleeth, prosecuting at the force's HQ in Maidstone, said: 'A number of students had arranged to spend a social evening out in Canterbury. 'The group had been for a meal and had consumed alcohol at various places. 'They described PC Heaton as becoming increasingly intoxicated, and his behaviour becoming increasingly concerning. 'The officers reported seeing PC Heaton behave in an inappropriate manner to both males and females, including touching several women on their bottom.' Mr Pleeth added: 'This culminated in an incident in which PC Heaton was seen to reach around to the front of a female and make a pincer-like grab at her crotch, causing her distress.' Mr Hansen said the evidence against Heaton was 'overwhelming' and rejected the suggestion the allegations were made up over 'classroom' tensions. His behaviour fell 'well below' expected standards and this was misconduct of the 'utmost seriousness', he said. A New York con man who duped unsuspecting women out of thousands of dollars, has taken a plea deal of up to nine years behind bars. Mauricio Palomino, 45, admitted to stealing more than $80,000 from Staci Krell, Allison Goodman, Debra D'Aquino and Dina D'Angelo from 2012 to 2014. On Friday the thief told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ann Scherzer that it took him a minute to accept the plea deal that lawyer, David Touger, arranged for him. Mauricio Palomino, 45, has been sentenced to three to nine years in prison for seven counts of grand larceny on two indictments The thief told the court it took him a minute to accept the plea deal that lawyer, David Touger, arranged for him He admitted to stealing more than $80,000 from Staci Krell (right), Allison Goodman, Debra D'Aquino and Dina D'Angelo (left) from 2012 to 2014 'Obviously, him being Jewish and me being Italian, we argue a lot,' Palomino said in court, according to the New York Post. 'But we have come to a conclusion on what's best for all parties.' Palomino pleaded guilty to seven counts of grand larceny on two indictments. He was given three to nine years in prison. The Manhattan resident admitted that he used his girlfriends' credit cards. He also was said to have taken cash loans from his lovers, but failed to pay them back. The Manhattan resident admitted that he used his girlfriends' credit cards He also was said to have taken cash loans from his lovers, but failed to pay them back 'When each victim caught on to his scheme, the personal or business relationship would end, and the defendant would quickly become involved with the next victim,' said prosecutor Margot Gendreau. Ex-girlfriend Chrissy Oakes had been posting bail for Palomino and supporting him up until last year, when he was involved in another scam. Ex-girlfriend Chrissy Oakes had been posting bail for Palomino and supporting him up until last year, when he was involved in another scam Palomino falsely claimed to be a licensed contractor and presented himself as a CEO of Palomino and Associates. The company was to supposedly specialize in high-end residential business renovations. A man is said to have paid $300,000 for the con artist to renovate his apartment in Greenwich Village, but that never happened. Palomino is said to have spent thousands on travel, fine dining and luxury shopping sprees, according to court documents. Wellington Rodriguez Pena, 24, organised a team of drug mules to smuggle more than 1million worth of cocaine from the Carribean to the UK in their suitcases An international crime kingpin has been jailed for nine-and-a-half years after he was convicted of running a cocaine-smuggling empire. Wellington Rodriguez Pena, 24, organised a team of drug mules to smuggle more than 1million worth of cocaine from the Caribbean to the UK in their suitcases. Pena, who was living in Wolverhampton, organised two trips which aimed to bring 14kg of cocaine into the UK. The Dutchman was rumbled by authorities after CCTV footage showed him booking flights from a tiny island of the coast of Venezuela under a fake name in Coventry. He had visited the travel agent for two consecutive days and was filmed wearing a distinctive red leather jacket and red shoes. National Crime Agency (NCA) officers found images of him wearing the same outfit on his social media pages. In October 2016, he had booked return flights to Aruba under the fake names. Esteban Berenguer Buhigas, aged 57, and his wife, Ana Maria Perez Davila, aged 36, both from Barcelona in Spain, were arrested on their return to Manchester Airport on November 1, 2016 after Border Force officers seized 10kg of cocaine concealed within false sides of their suitcases. CCTV footage from October 19, 2016 shows Pena entering a travel agents in Coventry wearing a distincive red jacket and shoes Through images posted on his social media page, National Crime Agency staff were able to identify Pena through the clothing The pair were subsequently jailed for six years and four years respectively. On March 26, 2017, Rafeal Canovas Simo, aged 53, from Majorca, attempted to smuggle 4kg of cocaine into Heathrow Airport. Evidence showed that Rodriguez Pena also arranged his travel and had sent him money prior to the smuggling attempt. Canovas Simo was sentenced to seven years and five months in prison. Rodriguez Pena was arrested by police officers as he attempted to board an outbound flight at Gatwick Airport on February 17, 2018. He pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to two counts of importing class A drugs. Cocaine was wrapped into suitcases and was smuggled into the UK NCA Operations Manager, John Hughes, said: 'Those behind the supply of class A drugs are directly responsible for both fuelling violent crime and gang activity, and exploiting others to carry out their crimes. 'We work closely with our Border Force colleagues to target those who attempt to undermine the security of UK border by smuggling illegal drugs, subsequently endangering the public for their own financial gain.' Liz Versi, Director Border Force North said: 'This was a substantial quantity of cocaine which our officers have prevented from reaching the UK's streets where it could have done so much harm. 'Working with our colleagues at the National Crime Agency (NCA) we are determined to do all we can to stop drug traffickers.' A Florida mother is concerned for her newborn's health after the child was breastfed by another mother as a result of a nurse mix-up hours after she gave birth. Joii Brown, of Orange Park, says her newborn son Roman Phillips was taken from her at Orange Park Medical Center to be circumcised on Thursday, a surgery that usually takes 30 minutes. She became concerned when the baby wasn't returned for an hour and a half. Scroll down for video Concerned Florida mother Joii Brown says her newborn Roman Phillips was breast-fed by the wrong mother on Thursday due to a nurse mix-up at Orange Park Medical Center Brown says nurses took her baby to be circumcised on Thursday, a surgery that takes about 30 minutes, but she became concerned when he was gone for an hour and a half Nurses later returned the child and confessed to the mix up saying they neglected to check the baby's identification bracelet Then a nurse came to her and said they had accidentally given him to the wrong mother to be breastfed without consulting his identification wristband. 'I was really scared. It was shocking,' Brown said to News4Jax. The other mother had breast-fed her son for two minutes before he was taken away. 'These two nurses walked in and they said that they took my child in another girl's room and they mistakenly thought that was her child and not mine and she ended up breastfeeding him for two minutes,' she said. 'I know everybody makes mistakes, but this is something I feel like is more than just a mistake because, just looking at a wristband, thats something really minor. All you had to do was look at the wristband and see that isnt her child,' she added. Orange Park Medical Center released a statement saying: 'Of course the hospital will do everything we can to follow the familys wishes and support the family.' Now Brown is concerned about any illnesses that her child might have caught by consuming another mother's breast milk. As of Thursday evening the child was fine The nurse mix up took place at Orange Park Medical Center in Orange Park, Florida But now Brown is worried that her child could fall sick as a result of the mix-up. The hospital immediately ran tests upon her son following the switch and he was doing fine as of Thursday evening. 'My main concern is that it could have been something other than breast milk. And that (it) could happen to anybodys child,' she said. She added that the hospital did not identify whether the woman who breastfed her child took any medications due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). And doctor's told the worried mother that they wont be sure if the boy catches any illness from the breast milk until he's older as well. Brown says her family is speaking with lawyers for the incident. A plague of huge mosquitoes has descended on North Carolina, spawned from the floodwaters left behind by Hurricane Florence. With the oversized shaggy-legged gallinippers, as they are colorfully known, swarming the flood-ravaged state, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper on Wednesday pledged $4 million to fight the infestation. 'A bad science fiction movie,' as resident Robert Phillips described the mosquito invasion to the Fayetteville Observer. 'They were inundating me, and one landed on me. It was like a small blackbird. I told my wife, 'Gosh, look at the size of this thing.' I told her that I guess I'm going to have to use a shotgun on these things if they get any bigger.' Gallinippers like the one seen in the above file photo are swarming North Carolina. Homes surrounded by floodwater are seen in this aerial photograph taken above New Bern, North Carolina last week. The flooding has spawned a plague of mosquitoes Gallinippers, or Psorophora ciliata as they are properly known, have a wingspan of up to 3/8 inches. They are known for their painful bite and aggressive nature towards humans, but despite their annoying nature they do not pose a major health hazard. The gallinipper lays its eggs on moist or low-lying ground, but the eggs don't hatch until they are covered in water - meaning a flooding event can spur a massive wave of the huge mosquitoes. As well, there are dozens of more common species of mosquitoes in North Carolina, all of which thrive in wet conditions. Two weeks after Florence dumped eight trillion gallons of water on the state, causing rivers to swell far above flood stage well inland, more than two dozen counties are feeling the ill effects of the mosquito plague. 'To help local communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, I've directed state funds for mosquito control efforts to protect people who live in hard-hit areas,' Governor Cooper said in a statement announcing the funding to fight mosquitoes. Gallinippers, or Psorophora ciliata as they are properly known, have a wingspan of up to 3/8 inches. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper pledged $4 million to fight the infestation The money will be directed toward counties currently under a major disaster declaration, including: Bladen, Beaufort, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Harnett, Hoke, Hyde, Johnston, Jones, Lee, Lenoir, Moore, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Pitt, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Wayne, and Wilson. Most mosquitoes that emerge after flooding do not transmit human diseases, but they still pose a public health problem by hindering recovery efforts and discouraging outdoor activity. Although rare, the most commonly reported mosquito-borne illnesses that can be acquired in North Carolina are LaCrosse encephalitis, West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis. Nearly 70 percent of mosquito-borne infections reported in the state in 2017 were acquired during travel outside the continental U.S. Movie fans are sharing a sigh of relief after a car crashed into the fence of the iconic house where 80s flick 'The Outsiders' was filmed, but thankfully did not damage the home. A 16-year-old without a license was allegedly driving too fast when he crashed into the fence in front of the famous home in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Thursday at 2.40pm. The house itself was not touched in the crash however its fence was damaged. The vehicle, a 1993 Chevrolet Corsica, was completely crushed in the crash. A 16-year-old boy driving without a license crashed into the fence of the iconic home where the 80s flick 'The Outsiders' was filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Thursday afternoon The sudden crash was filmed on the home's security camera, showing the red 1993 Chevrolet Corsica speeding and crashing into the home's fencing, spraying dirt and grass with it. The home itself was unharmed in the crash The teen was ticketed following the crash for driving too fast and for not having a license or insurance. No one was hurt in the incident. Cops say he was speeding as he made a left turn then crashed, according to Tulsa World. 'The vehicle was traveling too fast and lost control crashing into the fence on the southeast corner of the intersection,' Tulsa Police said in a news release. 'Fortunately, the fence and the embankment stopped the forward momentum of the vehicle keeping it from crashing into the house at 731 N. St. Louis Avenue. The only damage was to the fence. The car was totaled,' the release added. Following the crash the home sustained damage to its fence, pictured above The house is pictured above during a scene of the movie 'The Outsiders' 'The Outsiders' was a famous 1983 mystery drama, cast members pictured above. From left, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez and Patrick Swayze A glimpse of the home can be seen in the background of this scene from 'The Outsiders' The famous home was purchased by hip hop artist Daniel O'Connor to restore the home and transform it into a museum. It served as the set for the 1983 mystery featuring Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, and Patrick Swayze. A Facebook page for 'The Outsiders' home shared video of the violent crash that was caught on a security camera. 'Ugh. A sixteen year old kid with no license or insurance crashed into The Outsiders house antique fence. Hopefully, we can get it fixed and restored to its former glory. Thankfully no one was hurt,' the group wrote. The video shows the teen lose control of the red car that speeds over the street and sidewalk until it smashes into the fence and comes to a jolting halt, spraying dirt and grass as it crashes. Brussels has warned it will hit back at UK nationals living on the continent if Britain imposes stricter immigration controls on Europeans post Brexit. Theresa May's Cabinet this week agreed a 'global' post-Brexit immigration system with no preferential treatment for EU nationals. But Guy Verhofstadt, the EU Parliament's chief negotiator, has warned that any fresh restrictions placed on Europeans in the UK would apply vice versa. In a letter to Home Secretary Sajid Javid, he also warned the EU will oppose any attempt to give EU workers different settlement rights according to their nationality and skills. The letter highlights the gulf which still exists between leaders in Brussels and the UK as Mrs May scrambles to try to get a Brexit deal done by November. It comes after Mrs May's senior team agreed that the immigration system should be changed after the UK leaves the bloc should not discriminate against nationals from the Commonwealth or elsewhere. Guy Verhofstadt (pictured at the EU Parliament on Wednesday) the EU Parliament's chief negotiator, has warned that any fresh restrictions placed on Europeans in the UK would apply vice versa There will also be tough curbs on access for low-skilled workers designed to bring down overall inflows towards the government's 100,000 a year maximum target. The new plans are expected to be highlighted at the Tory Party conference in Birmingham this week. In his letter to Mr Javid, obtained by The Guardian, Mr Verhofstadt, wrote: 'We know this matter was discussed in cabinet on Monday and that it will be the subject of a further white paper to be issued shortly. 'We await to see the details of that white paper on what will be an important element of a future EU-UK association agreement. 'The [European parliament's Brexit steering group's] initial thinking on this was that while we would be open to a variety of different mobility arrangements, it would be difficult for the parliament to agree to arrangements that were discriminatory in terms of nationality or type of employment. In a letter to Home Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured leaving Monday's CXabinet meeting in Downing Street) Guy Verhofstadt also warned the EU will oppose any attempt to give EU workers different settlement rights according to their nationality and skills 'It was also our strong view that whatever was finally agreed with respect to EU citizens wishing to move to the UK would apply reciprocally to UK citizens moving to the EU 26.' And he hammered home the point on Twitter - tweeting a link to a report on the letter. He added: 'We should be breaking down walls, not building them. Enhancing rights, freedoms & opportunities for our young people instead of limiting them. 'A discriminatory post-Brexit immigration policy for EU citizens would be reciprocated & we would all lose.' Neal Hovelmeier, who made the announcement about his sexuality last week A gay teacher has resigned from a top private school in Zimbabwe after coming out to his students - sparking death threats. Neal Hovelmeier, who taught for 15 years at St John's College's sixth form in Harare, made the announcement about his sexuality last week. Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe and former president Robert Mugabe once branded gay people 'worse than pigs and dogs' and 'wayward'. Mr Hovelmeier had hoped to tackle homophobic attitudes at the school. But the deputy head was forced out of his job after receiving torrents of abuse and death threats. An online petition was set up to support him on Thursday and has already attracted more than 1,500 signatures. It reads: 'Let's get Mr Hov back where he belongs and as a Zimbabwean community make the change that desperately needs to happen. #weacceptyou'. Mr Hovelmeier taught for 15 years at St John's College's sixth form in Harare (pictured) Mr Hovelmeier had been encouraged to come out as gay by the school authorities after they learned a local newspaper was planning publish the fact. In a letter sent to parents on Thursday, Mr Hovelmeier said he understood that the news 'has caused grievous and deep concern to a section of our community.' He added that he respected people with strong views based on custom, tradition and religion. Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe once branded gay people 'worse than pigs and dogs' and 'wayward' But he said he had 'no idea of the force of anger and resentment such a declaration would make'. He revealed in the two-page letter: 'I have been in receipt of death threats as well as threats of physical danger to myself and my pets. 'For my own sense of integrity, I will not submit myself to a sham trial or investigation. 'It is for this reason, and with a very heavy heart, that I have come to realise that my current position as deputy headmaster is now untenable and I hereby tender my resignation with immediate effect'. A US F-35 pilot was forced to eject midair after the $100million fighter jet crashed in South Carolina. The aircraft was completely destroyed in the crash during a training exercise Friday, officials said. The crash appears to be the first of its kind for the troubled F-35 program, marking an unfortunate moment for the most expensive plane in history. Speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement, a defense official told AFP that the Marine Corps F-35 had crashed outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. A US F-35 pilot was forced to eject midair after the $100million fighter jet crashed in South Carolina The aircraft was completely destroyed in the crash during a training exercise Friday, officials said, leaving a smoking wreck 'It's a total loss,' the official said. The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said the crash was reported about 11:45 a.m. Friday near the Grays Hill community. The pilot is being checked for injuries. No one on the ground was hurt. A military official says the plane is a Marine F-35B fighter jet, capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings, on a routine training mission. The crash comes just one day after the US military first used the F-35, which has been beset with delays and cost overruns, in combat. Multiple Marine Corps F-35s struck Taliban targets in Afghanistan. Launched in the early 1990s, the F-35 program is considered the most expensive weapons system in US history, with an estimated cost of some $400 billion and a goal to produce 2,500 aircraft in the coming years. The aircraft was completely destroyed in the crash during a training exercise Friday. Pictured; an F-35B Lightning II launches from the flight deck of the USS Essex amphibious assault ship on September 22, 2018 The F-35 was billed as a fighter jet that could do almost everything the U.S. military desired, serving the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy and even Britain's Royal Air Force and Royal Navy all in one aircraft design. F-35 FACT SHEET Role: Stealth multirole fighter First flight: December 15, 2006 Unit cost (not including engine): F-35A - $98million F-35B - $104million F-35C - $116million Number built: 115 (as of November 2014) Length: 15.67m Wingspan: 10.7m Height: 4.33m Max speed (F-35A): 1,930kph Advertisement It was supposed to replace and improve upon and aging aircraft types with widely different missions, and marketed as a cost-effective, powerful multi-role fighter airplane significantly better than anything potential adversaries could build in the next two decades. But it turned out to be none of those things. The program fell nearly a decade behind schedule, and failed to meet many of its original design requirements. The unit cost per airplane, above $100 million, is roughly twice what was promised early on. Even after President Trump lambasted the cost of the program in February 2017, the price per plane dropped just $7 million less than 7 percent. In 2013, a study by the RAND Corporation found that it would have been cheaper if the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy had simply designed and developed separate and more specialized aircraft to meet their specific operational requirements. In January 2015, mock combat testing pitted the F-35 against an F-16, one of the fighters it is slated to replace. The F-35A was flown 'clean' with empty weapon bays and without any drag-inducing and heavy externally mounted weapons or fuel tanks. The F-16D, a heavier and somewhat less capable training version of the mainstay F-16C, was further encumbered with two 370-gallon external wing-mounted fuel tanks. In spite of its significant advantages, the F-35A's test pilot noted that the F-35A was less maneuverable and markedly inferior to the F-16D in a visual-range dogfight. The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said the crash was reported about 11:45 a.m. Friday near the Grays Hill community, outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina (pictured) One key reason the F-35 doesn't possess the world-beating air-to-air prowess promised, is that it was designed first and foremost to be a stealthy airplane. This requirement has taken precedence over maneuverability, and likely above its overall air-to-air lethality. The Pentagon and especially the Air Force seem to be relying almost exclusively on the F-35's stealth capabilities to succeed at its missions. Like the F-117 and F-22, the F-35's stealth capability greatly reduces, but does not eliminate, its radar cross-section, the signal that radar receivers see bouncing back off an airplane. The plane looks smaller on radar perhaps like a bird rather than a plane but is not invisible. The F-35 is designed to be stealthy primarily in the X-band, the radar frequency range most commonly used for targeting in air-to-air combat. THE F-35 LET DOWN The unit cost per airplane, above $100 million, is roughly twice what was promised early on. Even after President Trump lambasted the cost of the program in February, the price per plane dropped just $7 million less than 7 percent. The F-35 is designed to be stealthy primarily in the X-band, the radar frequency range most commonly used for targeting in air-to-air combat. In other radar frequencies, the F-35 is not so stealthy, making it vulnerable to being tracked and shot down using current and even obsolete weapons. It is not able to successful carry out missions that entail air-to-air combat and ground targets. F-35A's test pilot noted that the F-35A was less maneuverable and markedly inferior to the F-16D in a visual-range dogfight. Advertisement In other radar frequencies, the F-35 is not so stealthy, making it vulnerable to being tracked and shot down. One can also use an aircraft's infrared emissions, which are created by friction-generated heat as it flies through the air, along with its hot engines. Several nations, particularly the Russians, have excellent passive infrared search and tracking systems, that can locate and target enemy aircraft with great precision sometimes using lasers to measure exact distances, but without needing radar. It's also very common in air-to-air battles for opposing planes to come close enough that their pilots can see each other. The F-35 is as visible as any other aircraft its size. Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon say the F-35's superiority over its rivals lies in its ability to remain undetected, giving it 'first look, first shot, first kill.' Hugh Harkins, a highly respected author on military combat aircraft, called that claim 'a marketing and publicity gimmick' in his book on Russia's Sukhoi Su-35S, a potential opponent of the F-35. He also wrote, 'In real terms an aircraft in the class of the F-35 cannot compete with the Su-35S for out and out performance such as speed, climb, altitude, and maneuverability.' Other critics have been even harsher. Pierre Sprey, a cofounding member of the so-called 'fighter mafia' at the Pentagon and a co-designer of the F-16, calls the F-35 an 'inherently a terrible airplane' that is the product of 'an exceptionally dumb piece of Air Force PR spin.' State Duma adopts bill on transfer of seized bribery funds to Pension Fund RIA Novosti, Sergey Kuznetsov 15:00 27/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 27 (RAPSI) The State Duma has passed in the third and final reading a bill on transfer of money seized from corrupt officials to the Pension Fund of Russia for payment of non-contributory pension. The bill amends the Budget Code of Russia. According to the Federal Treasury, a rough amount of funds is about 1.8 billion rubles ($27 million), MP Andrey Isayev said during the bills discussion. However, it is impossible to predict and announce an exact amount of monetary assets to be seized, the lawmaker added. In addition to the forfeiture of bribery funds to the Pension Fund, the bills sponsors proposed to renew its budget by sales of assets seized from corruptors. The document is expected to take effect on January 1, 2019. William Hoehn testified that he was 'elated' when he thought his girlfriend had given birth on the day she killed their eight-month-pregnant neighbor and ripped the fetus from her body. The suspect was in court Thursday after being accused of conspiracy to murder 22-year-old Savanna Greywind in Fargo, North Dakota last year. 'It wasn't a wail, it wasn't like a cry or nothing,' Fox News reports he said about hearing a child when he came home in August 2017. 'It was a distinct baby sound. I remember feeling elated and I thought, "Oh my god, she had the baby when I was at work".' He said his then-partner Brooke Crews told him she didn't know what had come over her and couldn't explain the situation when he returned that afternoon. Defendant William Hoehn, 33, says he was elated when he came home and heard cries of a baby in August 2017 Savanna Greywind (left and right) was eight months pregnant and living next door to Crews and Hoehn when she was murdered in Fargo, North Dakota He said he asked who was lying on the bathroom floor surrounded by watery blood Crews (left) said that she and Hoehn (right) hid Greywind's body in a closet, which police walked right by as they were searching the couple's apartment He says his expression dropped when he noticed his gruesome surroundings. Crews revealed it was the woman who lived next door when he asked who was lying on the bathroom floor surrounded by watery blood. Hoehn, 33, suggested the victim was unrecognizable as he told the prosecutor: 'She said, "This is Savanna".' He added that Greywind had lips like 'she had had a piece of blue candy' and pale skin, Inforum.com reports. The defendant alleges his ex-girlfriend told him 'I went and got her' as he questioned her further and when he asked whether she had been lying about being pregnant herself, he says she touched her stomach and replied, 'I think so'. Hoehn claims the whole thing was a shock to him and he wasn't even sure if anyone was there when he entered. 'I imagine I said, "Honey, I'm home",' he said on the stand, adding that things changed when he heard panic in her voice as she said: 'Will ... Will, I need you.' William Hoehn enters the courtroom on Wednesday during his trial on a charge of conspiring to murder Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, whose baby was cut from her womb Hoehn's ex-girlfriend Brooke Crews testified that he pressured her to get a baby and has already pleaded guilty to murdering Greywind Inmate Jennifer Robinson is in the same jail as Brooke Crews and said Crews confessed to her she strangled Greywind and cut the baby out within a matter of minutes Cass County prosecutor Leah Viste pointed out conflicting stories that Hoehn told police after he and Crews were arrested The same day inmate Jennifer Robinson told jurors he was not involved. Crews, testified earlier that she cut the baby girl from Greywind and then Hoehn tied a rope around Greywind's neck after he arrived at the scene. Hoehn denied it. However, Robinson, who's incarcerated in the same New England prison as Crews, claimed Crews confessed to her she 'choked Savanna with a rope, drug her into the bathroom,' and cut her baby out of her womb within a matter of minutes. Crews denied that claim but the judge denied a motion by prosecutors to exclude Robinson's testimony. Cass County prosecutor Leah Viste pointed out conflicting stories that Hoehn told police after he and Crews were arrested. Hoehn acknowledged that, but when Viste suggested that Hoehn and Crews would do anything for each other, Hoehn said there were 'boundaries'. Greywind (above) was eight months pregnant Judge Tom Olson denied a defense motion for a mistrial at the end of Hoehn's testimony. Hoehn said his former girlfriend is responsible and that her claim he put a rope around the victim's neck is wrong. He testified Thursday that the rope was around Greywind's neck when he entered the bathroom of their apartment. When Hoehn's attorney asked him whether Greywind was breathing, Hoehn said he didn't think so. Hoehn earlier pleaded guilty to helping Crews cover up the crime. Crying and sniffling throughout her testimony Tuesday, Crews told the court that she lied to Hoehn saying she was pregnant in order to save their relationship, which she described as as rocky, violent and fueled by booze and drugs. After a breakup in December 2016, Crews went so far as to email him a phony positive pregnancy test and sonogram photo. In early August, Hoehn told Crews he didn't believe she was pregnant and said she needed 'to produce a baby.' Crews said she believed this was 'an ultimatum.' 'I took that to mean I better have a baby, no matter how it happened,' Crews said. This undated evidence photo shows a rope in connection with the killing last year Greywind's boyfriend Ashston Matheny is seen with their daughter Haisley Jo, who survived the ordeal of being cut from the womb and is being raised by him now Greywind lived next door to the couple, and Crews said that Hoehn remarked on how pregnant she was - a remark Crews said she interpreted as a signal that they should take Greywind's baby. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy, Dr. Victor Froloff, testified Monday that he isn't sure whether Greywind died from blood loss or strangulation. Crews pleaded guilty to murder and is serving life in prison without parole. She said she has no agreement with prosecutors for a lesser sentence in exchange for testifying. Hoehn has pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping the baby and providing false information to law enforcement, but has denied he was part of the plot to kill Greywind. The baby, a girl named Haisley Jo, is healthy and being raised by Greywind's boyfriend. Pictured are the two men found dead in Manchester city centre - with one falling from a hotel and the other found in a room in 'murder-suicide'. Thomas Noakes, 29, from Eccles, Salford, was found in a first-floor room at the Britannia Hotel on Wednesday. The body of the man who fell from the sixth floor window of the hotel building at 5.30am was identified as 21-year-old Hayden Fitzpatrick. The family of Mr Noakes paid tribute to him and said he was 'the life and soul of the party.' Scroll down for video Pictured: Thomas Noakes, 29, from Eccles, Salford, was found dead in a first-floor room at the Britannia Hotel in Manchester city centre on Wednesday Hayden Fitzpatrick, who fell from the sixth floor window of the hotel building at 5.30am They said: 'He was a much loved son, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, cousin and friend. 'It is with great difficulty that his friends and family have to say goodbye to someone who touched so many lives, and was loved by everyone he met. 'He will be missed so much but never forgotten for the fun, loving and caring person that he was.' Police were called after Mr Fitzpatrick fell from the hotel prompting police to launch an investigation and close off surrounding roads. Detectives found the man at the back of the hotel, before then discovering Mr Noakes inside a room causing forensics to search for clues. A police outside the Britannia Hotel in Manchester this morning after a man fell to his death Forensics officers outside the Britannia Hotel in Manchester carry out investigations The death of Mr Noakes, a customer service manager at the Swinton Group in Manchester, is being treated as a murder. Detectives and are not looking for anyone else in connection with the investigation. Photographs show shards of glass across the road where the body was discovered, as curtains flapped from a window above which is thought to have been smashed. Witnesses told of a large police presence around the hotel, with officers telling members of the public to avoid the area. Police were called this morning after reports a man had fallen from the building in Manchester Hotel guest James Milner, from Hull, East Yorkshire was staying at the Britannia for the night following a Rugby League awards dinner. When he returned to the hotel he saw the roads were taped off, but the fifth floor, on which he was staying, had not been at that stage. He told Mirror Online: 'The roads were all taped off and full of police outside when I arrived back and the hotel was checking for proof of residency at the door to get in. 'This morning I left my room and the lift area was all taped off, the window was wide open and the curtains blowing and there was an iPhone on the floor with headphones plugged in. I gave my details to the police and that's all I saw.' The open window on the hotel's seventh storey is circled today after a man fell to his death Officers investigating the incident found another man who was pronounced dead at the scene Twitter user Dan (@Whammertime2) posted a picture of a police tent erected at the scene, saying: 'Looks like some poor soul has jumped out of the Britannia Hotel.' Detective Inspector Andy Butterworth, of Greater Manchester Police said: 'This is a complex incident that has sadly led to the death of two men. My thoughts and sympathies are with the friends and family of the men. 'Although the investigation remains in its early stages and we are keeping an open mind into the full circumstances, we are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with this incident. A police tent was erected after the incident outside the Britannia Hotel in Manchester 'I would appeal to anyone who might have seen something, or those with information that might help this investigation, to please get in touch with police.' A spokesman for Britannia Hotels said: 'Our thoughts and condolences are with the families concerned and we are liaising with police and providing assistance to them during their investigation.' The Grade ll-listed Britannia Hotel, which has 363 bedrooms and dates back to the late 19th century, is known for its cast iron staircase and huge chandelier. The building was originally construction in 1868 as a cotton warehouse, before it was bought by Britannia Hotels in 1979 and turned into a hotel. The man fell from the Britannia Hotel in Manchester city centre, which is pictured today Anyone with information should call police on 101 quoting reference number 261 of 26/09/18, or the charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111 For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See samaritans.org for details. A Yale classmate of Brett Kavanaugh's claims the Supreme Court nominee lied about his drinking habits in college during his Thursday hearing. 'I like beer, I still like beer,' Kavanaugh testified under oath in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone.' But Lynne Brookes tells ABC News that she recalls his drinking habits as much more extreme than what Kavanaugh conveyed during his hearing. Brookes, a registered Republican in Pennsylvania, said she was in the 'exact same social circles' as the embroiled judge while they both attended Yale and he 'mischaracterized himself' when describing his drinking habits Thursday. 'From something I witnessed personally,' Brookes said. 'I find it very hard to imagine that he never blacked out or had memory problems.' Scroll down for video Lynne Brookes says she was in the 'same social circles' as Kavanaugh at Yale and he drank in excess The Supreme Court nominee claimed under oath on Thursday that he never drank in excess or blacked out During Dr Christine Blasey Ford's portion of the hearing, she explained how she feared for her life when a 'visibly drunk' Kavanaugh sexually attacked her at a high school party when she was 15. Brookes noted she is a registered Republican - not part of left wing conspiracy - said Kavanaugh 'mischaracterized himself' under oath during his hearing Following her testimony, Kavanaugh denied ever sexually assaulting Ford but repeatedly evaded questions about his drinking in high school and college. When asked by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar whether he had ever drank so much that he lost memory, Kavanaugh deflected, saying: 'No, I remember what happened. And I think you've probably had beers, Senator.' Brookes told CNN that she and other Yale colleges were 'extremely disappointed' at the way Kavanaugh 'evaded' his excessive drinking questions. She further added that Kavanaugh misrepresented students' ability to balance school work and social life at Yale. 'He was trying to portray that it's one or the other, and at Yale there are many people for which it was both,' she said. 'I played two sports. I got good grades. I went to Wharton. And I drank in excess many nights with Brett Kavanaugh.' 'When he would drink, he would get obnoxious,' she added. Brookes recalled her most specific memory of Kavanaugh - when he was pledging to a fraternity. 'Brett was getting tapped in and he was incredibly drunk, in a ridiculous outfit and had to come up to me and sing a silly song,' she said. 'He was so incredibly drunk. I find it not plausible at all that he remembers everything he did that night.' Dr Christine Blasey Ford testified that a 'visibly drunk' Kavanaugh sexually attacked her at a high school party when she was 15. Kavanaugh denies all claims However, Brookes, who was roommates with another Kavanaugh accuser Deborah Ramirez, said she never felt unsafe around the judge nor did she witness any of the sexual abuse claims made against him. Though Kavanaugh did admit at one point that he may have 'had too many' beers on occasion, he denied 'blacking out' and vehemently denies the sexual abuse. 'There were a lot of emails and a lot of texts flying around about how he was lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee,' Brookes said of messages sent between her and her Yale colleagues as the hearing went on. 'I'm not part of some left wing conspiracy,' she said, adding that she is registered Republican. 'This is about the integrity of the Supreme Court,' she said. 'I know that Brett mischaracterized himself, and it's incredibly disappointing that despite that this man could be elevated to the Supreme Court.' Former CEO of Pinnacle Airlines was fatally shot in in downtown Memphis, Tennessee on Thursday night Police officers ended up chasing a stolen white Ford F-150 truck at speeds of up to 100mph through the streets of Memphis on Friday morning in connection with the murder of Greater Memphis Chamber leader 64-year-old Phil Trenary who was shot and killed on Thursday night. The vehicle matched the description of the one driven by the suspect wanted for the fatal shooting of the Greater Memphis Chamber leader. At the moment there is no known motive and the senseless killing appears to be random. The former CEO of Pinnacle Airlines was shot and killed in downtown Memphis around 8pm Thursday. Police say the gunman sped away from the scene after shooting Trenary in the middle of the street. Such a vehicle was spotted in South Memphis on Friday morning which is why police decided to pursue it in a high-speed chase until it crashed after the driver lost control. Police officers ended up chasing a stolen white Ford F-150 truck at speeds of up to 100mph through the streets of Memphis on Friday morning The impact was so severe that the truck was torn in half, with its rear half burned down to its frame. A gray car and an SUV were also wrecked. The truck was later found to be stolen., Police then took two people into custody, both of whom are male. Lt. Karen Rudolph told reporters that although the truck matched the description from the fatal shooting, it's not clear at this stage if the occupants were involved in the killing. The chase occurred on Friday morning at about 11am before the vehicle crashed at Krayer and McLemore in South Memphis, s near LeMoyne-Owen College. After the crash of the pickup there was chaos on the streets as emergency services arrived The chase occurred on Friday morning at about 11am before the vehicle crashed at Krayer and McLemore in South Memphis, s near LeMoyne-Owen College After the crash, the scene was chaotic as police cars and ambulances arrived on the scene. Emergency workers loaded a young man into an ambulance. Police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph says officers saw the truck on Friday and tried to perform a traffic stop, but the driver refused. Rudolph said officers determined the truck had been stolen. They pursued the truck, which crashed into two other vehicles. The chase was caught on police dashcam as officers pursued the suspect's vehicle Trenary was killed Thursday night around 8 p.m. in a shooting on South Front Street in Downtown Memphis. He is one of the most well-known people to die by homicide in the city's recent history. The shooting took place in the 500 block of South Front Street in an area of high-end apartments in downtown Memphis. The father-of-three was walking alone across the street from Memphis Farmers Market when he was shot. Cops described the suspect as a black male with dreadlocks, wearing a blue shirt and driving a white four-door Ford F150. The investigation is ongoing and police and trying to determine the motive. 'It is still unknown whether if this was a robbery, a personal vendetta, or a random act of violence,' Memphis Police Lt. Karen Rudolph told The Commercial Appeal on Friday. The shooting took place in the 500 block of South Front Street in downtown Memphis A horrific scene from the shooting is shown in this Thursday photo in downtown Memphis Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said he is 'shocked at the senseless loss tonight of Phil Trenary, a leader in our community' Trenary is pictured right next to Kathryn Marquart, is a senior majoring in professional pilot with a minor in aviation management at Oklahoma State University Senator Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., talks with Philip Trenary, (L) president and former CEO of Pinnacle Airlines on August 6, 2009 Video courtesy WREG Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland confirmed Trenary's death. Strickland tells The Commercial Appeal: 'My thoughts are with his family and Chamber colleagues.' He also said on Twitter: 'Like many of you, I'm shocked at the senseless loss tonight of Phil Trenary, a leader in our community. 'More than anything in these hours, my thoughts are with his family and Chamber colleagues. Police were keeping a lookout a Ford F-150 pickup truck that the gunman was said to be driving when one refused to stop for cops. A high speed chase then resulted 'I'm in close contact with MPD, which is leading a thorough investigation.' The Commercial Appeal reports that Trenary - a father-of-three - founded Lone Star Airlines in Oklahoma in 1984. He came to Memphis in 1997 to run a regional airline that morphed into Pinnacle. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam was among those to pay their respects to the family. He tweeted: 'Our hearts are broken with the news of the loss of Phil Trenary. Phil has been a wonderful friend to Crissy and me and a great advocate for Memphis. Our hearts go out to his family and his associates and the Memphis community.' Tennessee Rep. Antonio Parkinson said he spoke to Trenary just 24 hours before his death: He also wrote on Twitter: 'Sometimes you have those friends that you have fought with, learned from and gained a mutual respect and love for. 'We talked yesterday, we planned to hang out and you were coming to the Block Party this weekend. Now you're gone. Praying for the Trenary family.' Residents of a Mexican Pacific coast city have found an unusual way to deter the country's escalating crime. Twice this week, locals in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta have taken matters into their own hands when it comes to dealing with thieves. Authorities were surprised when they were called to help naked, beaten men tied to lampposts in six different sectors who had to be freed by police. The local prosecutor's office confirmed that the incidents occurred and opened an investigation, but would not say how many people were involved. Residents in Puerto Vallarta, located on Mexico's Pacific Coast, have taken policing into their own hands by tying up suspected thieves on to street lampposts DailyMail.com reached out to Puerto Vallarta's prosecutor's office for comment. On Friday, local media outlets reported that a total of 10 men were tied naked to posts. The first four tied men were found between late Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning while the rest were discovered late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning. One of the men in questioned had the letter "R'' marked on his head, which could refer to a 'rat', Spanish for 'thief' but also 'snitch'. Another man tied to a lamppost had the word 'rata' [rat] inscribed into his head. Puerto Vallarta is located in the state of Jalisco, which is the home of the Jalisco drug cartel. Mexico saw almost 16,000 people murdered in the first six months of 2018, the highest number since records began in 1997 and an increase of 17 per cent on 2017. According to the National Public Security System, Jalisco has seen a 42 percent spike in homicides during the first trimester of 2018. The government has tallied 1,637 robberies through the first eight months of 2018, up from 2,295 incidents reported in 2017. Cartels sometimes round up common criminals to brandish their own image as protectors of the community. Two teenage boys were among six Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli forces along the Gaza border, a spokesman in the Hamas-controlled strip said Nasser Mosabih, 12, was shot in the head in clashes along the frontier east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Mohammed al-Houm, 14, was shot dead by 'live ammunation from Israeli occupation forces' east of Al-Bureij in central Gaza, the spokesman added, on what has been the bloodiest day since protests began on March 30. A Palestinian protester holds onto a barbed-wire during clashes along the Israeli border fence, east of Gaza City Palestinian protesters are seen near burning tyres during clashes along the Israeli border fence, east of Gaza City Four adult men were among the deceased, while a further 210 people were hospitalised in the clashes along the border. The Israeli army said 20,000 'rioters' were responsible for trouble along numerous sites on the border. Protesters threw 'grenades and explosive devices in several different locations', according to Israeli sources. It said troops were firing 'in accordance with standard operating procedures.' The army declined to comment on the reported deaths. At least 193 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since March, when heavy protests begun along the border. A Palestinian protester hurls stones at Israeli troops during a protest Smaller numbers have been hit by airstrikes or tank fire. One Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper. The protests are demanding the right of Palestinian refugees to be allowed to homes their families fled from in the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel and which are now in Israel. Israel says any such mass return would mean the end of it as a Jewish state and accuses Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas of orchestrating the protests. Friday's protests were bigger than those in recent weeks. Professor Steve Joordens unintentionally played porn as he was teaching a psychology course at the University of Toronto Monday One Psychology professor delivered a masterful lesson on the Freudian slip after he accidentally played hardcore porn in a packed lecture room of 500 students. Professor Steve Joordens of the University of Toronto's Scarborough Campus started his 9am course entitled Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Psychology by connecting his computer to the projector, without realizing he had pornography playing on his laptop. Then the graphic video played on the big screen in front of the classroom for all the students to see and hear. After the video began to play in front of his students, they erupted in shock and laughter. Some students can be seen leaving as the video plays for at least 10 seconds. The professor was mortified as he scrambled to turn off the video. The University of Toronto's Scarborough Campus professor didn't realize the porn was playing on his computer when he connected to the projector during his 9am class on Monday Students filmed the chaos of the classroom on SnapChat and posted it online on Reddit where it has been shared hundreds of times. The school said it was offering support to anyone who was disturbed by the video. The caption in the viral video says: 'First psychology class...wtf...prof was watching porn before this...' 'When I saw the [pornographic] video, I was surprised. I was not expecting that especially this early in the morning I found the whole situation funny and he made a lot of people laugh,' a freshman studying Philosophy who recorded the original video told the campus paper The Varsity. Pupils laughed in shock and some walked out as the graphic video played during the Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Psychology Joordens has apologized for the incident saying: 'I want to be clear that what happened was completely unintentional and I feel absolutely terrible about it' 'Everyone makes mistakes so I cant blame him. I hope nothing bad happens in the future and this can just be a thing to laugh about, I hope his job isnt affected or anything in his personal life either,' the student added. Professor Joordens since released a statement to the campus paper apologizing for his mistake. 'With respect to the event that happened prior to my class on Monday the 24th, I want to be clear that what happened was completely unintentional and I feel absolutely terrible about it,' he said. 'I have apologized to my class and now I want to move on. Thanks to my students, colleagues and my amazing family for their support and understanding,' he added. 'We cant discuss personnel matters. But, we are aware of the situation and are encouraging students who are feeling unsettled to speak with staff at the Health & Wellness Centre,' spokesman Don Campbell said. Joordens has been teaching at UTSC since 1995 and has won numerous teaching awards. A man who authorities have been trying to hunt down for more than a year is the newest person on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, after he fled to escape prosecution for attempting to rape a woman when he broke into her home, according to cops. Greg Alyn Carlson, 47, left California after being released on bail in September 2017 for the incident in July that year. It followed charges of burglary, assault with intent to commit rape, and assault with a deadly weapon. Greg Alyn Carlson, 47, left California after being released on bail in September 2017 for the incident in July that year Bobbi Flores told ABC: 'I'm starting to freak out again...I don't even want to see his face actually' Since posting the $1million bond and stealing a gun in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, law enforcement says he took off in a rental car with a lot of money and has since been seen in Hoover, Alabama as well as Jacksonville and Daytona Beach Florida. Both spotted locations were in November last year and now the FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to them catching him. The 5ft 11in white man with graying hair has used the aliases Greg A. Carlson and Greg Alym Carlson and weighs approximately 170 pounds. A neighbor of the Los Angeles victim was shocked to learn the dangerous man is still on the run. Now the FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to them catching him 'I'm starting to freak out again ... I don't even want to see his face actually,' Bobbi Flores told ABC7. Carlson is from Washington DC but has lived in the Santa Monica and Redondo Beach neighborhoods of Greater Los Angeles. During the incident that got him arrested he seemingly waited for the victim to come home. She fought back, even though he was armed. 'She kicked him and ran straight to her sliding glass door and screamed fire,' the neighbor said. Carlson's victim 'kicked him and ran straight to her sliding glass door and screamed fire' when he attempted to rape her while armed in LA last July Now the FBI believes he could be behind a number of sexual assaults in LA. He's thought to be using a white four-door 2017 Hyundai Accent rental car with South Carolina plates NKI-770. Law enforcement has been on the verge of catching him before and embarked on a high-speed chase in Alabama November 22 which police ended because it posed a danger to the public. It's not clear whether he had a job or how he managed to obtain so much money but authorities received information suggesting he used to work as an actor. Anyone with more information is urged to call the LAPD Robbery Homicide division on (213) 486-6910. An extreme Islamist group banned in more than a dozen countries is using British children as young as 13 to peddle books supporting suicide bombing and jihad. Hizb ut-Tahrir, which wants to establish an Islamic state with Sharia law, has been holding a series of roadshows across the country. An undercover reporter who attended a number of the meetings was sold books suggesting suicide strikes are acceptable, and others saying jihad was compulsory to spread the message of Islam. The group allowed a 13-year-old to sell pamphlets comparing Westerners to animals over their filthy promiscuity and urging followers to shun British culture. The reporter also saw children as young as ten bowing their heads in prayer and reading from the Koran at meetings despite Hizb ut-Tahrirs claim only over-16s can engage in its work. The group allowed a 13-year-old to sell pamphlets comparing Westerners to animals Last night the Governments new anti-extremism tsar Sara Khan told of her fears that the Islamist extremists were recruiting children and students to help spread supremacist ideology. Terrorism experts also called on the Government to ban the group for radicalising children and spreading the ideology of Islamic State into the heart of England. The Daily Mail investigation also found: A member boasted of having active recruiters at universities including Oxford, University College London and the School of Oriental and African Studies despite the group being banned from speaking on campuses; A separate Hizb ut-Tahrir speaker said we need to try to change homosexuals; Devotees are warned that women will be punished for leaving home uncovered; Followers, who believe jihad should be waged against Israel, back Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for saying it how it is amid the partys anti-Semitism crisis. Two serving prime ministers have tried to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. But despite being outlawed in Pakistan, Russia and most Arab countries, it remains legal here. The undercover reporter attended several of the groups events in the past five months in locations ranging from East London to Bradford and Rochdale. Terrorism experts called on the Government to ban the group for radicalising children They were sold five extremist booklets for 2 by a boy of around 13 running a stall at the Fairweather Event Hall in Bradford. One, entitled Stand For Islam, contained a verse discussing suicide bombing and criticising the West for focusing on the acts. But the passage went on to justify the attacks, saying: Whilst Islam is categorical in the prohibition of committing suicide and taking innocent life, this does not entail that Islam expects Muslims to accept the occupation of their lands and the desecration of their beliefs, values and dignity. Another book being peddled was called Democracy is a System of Kufr a derogatory term for non-believers. It said: It is obligatory on the Muslims to completely discard democracy. It is filth. The book goes on to disparage homosexuality before claiming that sex with all animals is increasing in the West. At the same event, a child of similar age was pulled before a crowd of around 30 and read from the Koran. Founder hailed 7/7 gang HIZB ut-Tahrir, which means party of liberation, was established in Jerusalem in 1953 with the aim of turning countries with a majority Muslim population into an Islamic state. In the West it urges followers to follow the word of the Koran literally, but claims not to wish to overthrow the Government or commit violence in nations such as Britain. The UK branch was founded in 1986 with the help of Omar Bakri Muhammad, later known as the Tottenham Ayatollah, who called the London 7/7 bombers the fantastic four. He was later expelled. Asif Hanif and Omar Sharif, considered Britains first suicide bombers after a 2003 attack in Tel Aviv, are said to have contact with the group. Last year the National Union of Students banned Hizb ut-Tahrir from university campuses, saying it sought to threaten, demonise and attack the lives of students. Advertisement Later Hizb ut-Tahrir follower Dr Mohammed Zahid, who has lectured at Newcastle and Durham universities, described the groups continuing influence on campuses despite being no-platformed by the National Union of Students. Dr Zahid said: We are active on campuses, just not as much as we used to be. Just a few years ago we had a number of brothers at the University of Manchester. Any political party, to survive, you need recruitment we have brothers on the UCL campus, SOAS, Oxford, theyre there. Hizb ut-Tahrir wants to establish an Islamic state stretching from north Africa to the Philippines and has produced articles promoting martyrdom in Israel. When our reporter asked one member, Mazhar Khan, about the anti-Semitism row in the Labour Party, he defended Jeremy Corbyn. He said: When you say it how it is people just dont like it. And hes the only one saying it as it is. Thats why even his own party is turning against him. Sara Khan, who leads the Governments newly created Commission for Countering Extremism, told of her concern over the Mails findings last night. She said: Hizb ut-Tahrir are Islamist extremists who have been actively recruiting young people and spreading their supremacist ideology for decades. It is concerning that, despite their no-platforming by the NUS, they are still very much active on campus but also in communities, recruiting children and students. Non-violent extremism threatens the rights of others. I am undertaking a wide-ranging study into all forms of extremism to help us all do more to counter extremism. Security and terrorism experts called for action to stop Hizb ut-Tahrir brainwashing youngsters. Professor Anthony Glees, of the University of Buckingham, said: They are radicalising children who should know nothing of the awful world which Islamic extremism promotes. It is as if we are imparting the ideology of the so-called Islamic State into the heart of England. Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Yahya Nisbet said the group did not wish to overthrow British democracy. He added: Any suggestion that Hizb ut-Tahrir encourages any form of violence against ordinary British citizens is a baseless lie. Of the claims children were involved in selling books, he said: Young people are welcome to participate in our public events however, it is not our policy to permit this kind of administrative work. I will be bringing this to the attention of those responsible. Mr Khan said he did not recognise the views attributed to him, but a spokesman for the group added: Hizb ut-Tahrirs view on the illegal occupation of Palestine by Zionists is well documented. Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has pleaded with Aung San Suu Kyi to pardon two journalists jailed in Myanmar, saying the Nobel laureate held the key to their release. She use her address at a UN event in New York to beg the de facto Myanmar leader to pardon Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who are accused of breaching Myanmar's state secrets law under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act while reporting on the massacre of Rohingya Muslims. The two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar were imprisoned for seven years earlier this month, sparking international outrage. Earlier this month Suu Kyi defended the jailing hitting back at global criticism of a trial widely seen as an attempt to muzzle the free press and the Myanmar government's involvement in ethnic cleansing. International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney speaks during a conference called Press Behind Bars: Undermining Justice and Democracy Barrister Amal Clooney pleaded with Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to realse two Reuters journalists held by her government During the speech at the UN event in New York to make the case the men should be pardoned Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler alongside Mrs Clooney. She added that massacres were not 'official secrets' and so journalists should not be prosecuted for reporting on the Rohingya killings Today the British-Lebanese human rights lawyer told an event dedicated to press freedom at the United Nations General Assembly, that Suu Kyi knows what is is like to be a political prisoner, having spent time held at the same prison and should free both men. She said: 'The government can, if it wants to, end it today. She knows that mass murder is not a state secret and that exposing it doesn't turn a journalist into a spy. 'She holds the key, the key to their liberty, the key to reuniting them with their young children, the key to freedom of the press. 'The key to truth and accountability, and the key to a more democratic and prosperous Myanmar. History will judge her on her response. 'Aung Sang Suu Kyi knows better than anyone what it is like to be a political prisoner in Myanmar. 'She has slept in a cell at the prison where Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo now sleep.' Suu Kyi, once garlanded as a global rights champion, has come under intense pressure to use her moral authority inside Myanmar to press for a presidential pardon for the reporters. Amal Clooney, top centre, speaking during a conference today in New York The debate was held in the General Assembly of the United Nations at United Nations Headquarters in New York Family members of Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam (bottom centre) are also seen during the meeting on press freedom Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi (left) has defended the imprisonment of two journalist who reported on the Rohingya massacre and (right) Mrs Clooney makes the case for her client's release at the UN in New York today Mr Clooney added that the reporters' wives wrote 'a really heartfelt letter' to the government about a week ago pleading for a pardon, not because their husbands had done anything wrong, but because it would allow them to be released from prison. The reporters pleaded not guilty and have been detained since December. Kyaw Soe Oo has a three-year-old daughter. Last month, Wa Lone's wife gave birth to their first child, a girl, whom Mrs Clooney said Wa Lone has not yet met. Mrs Clooney said the audience that when she was a student at St Hugh's College, Oxford, the Nobel peace laureate, who studied at the same college 30 years earlier, had been a hero to me'. Army-led 'clearance operations' drove 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, carrying with them widespread accounts of atrocities including rape, murder and arson by Myanmar police and troops. Mr Clooney told the audience that the jailed reporters' wives wrote 'a really heartfelt letter' to the Myanmar government about a week ago pleading for a pardon One of the jailed men's wives gave birth to their first child, a daughter, whom Mrs Clooney said he has not yet met due to his prison sentence Mrs Clooney said: 'Aung Sang Suu Kyi knows better than anyone what it is like to be a political prisoner in Myanmar. She has slept in a cell at the prison where Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo now sleep' The case, which sparked an international outcry, was seen as an attempt to muzzle reporting on last year's crackdown by Myanmar's security forces on the Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine state. A UN mandated fact-finding mission said Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with 'genocidal intent' and called for top generals to be prosecuted. The reporters say they were set up while exposing the extrajudicial killing of ten Rohingya Muslims in a Rakhine village last year. 'This case is about much more than two innocent men,' Clooney told Reuters after the event. Amal Clooney added that 'this case is about much more than two innocent men', after her address A UN fact-finding mission said Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with 'genocidal intent' The case, which sparked an international outcry, was seen as an attempt to muzzle reporting on last year's crackdown by Myanmar's security forces on the Muslim Rohingya population Mrs Clooney announced in March that she would join the legal team representing the two jailed journalists At one point she sat and checked her phone mid morning The busy mother of two just celebrated her four year wedding anniversary 'If you care about press freedom you care about this case ... Without a free press you cannot have democracy because you don't know how to judge what your government's doing.' Mrs Clooney, wife of Hollywood actor George, announced in March that she would join the legal team representing the two jailed journalists. She added that said Myanmar's President Win Myint would make the decision to issue a pardon in consultation with Suu Kyi. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said a record 262 journalists were jailed worldwide in 2017, with Turkey, China, and Egypt responsible for imprisoning 134 of those journalists. She wore a chic wool coat when she arrived at the UN, despite the balmy New York temperatures Russian government supports bill on online communication with court bailiffs RIA Novosti, Igor Zarembo 13:50 28/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 28 (RAPSI) Russian government has supported a bill granting citizens an option to communicate with court bailiffs online, the statement of the State Duma reads. According to the bill, any information, obtained during court ruling enforcement proceedings, will be available to all involved parties in the form of digital documents placed at the special website for state services. Authors of the bill note that while using the website, a person may receive notifications from bailiffs and see the so-called court debt. The bill instead makes all relevant information visible, so not only a debtor would be aware of the debt, but also a creditor would be able to see the measures taken by a bailiff. Also, it would be possible to appeal actions or inactivity of a court bailiff at the same website, the bill reads. Advertisement Landing a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier at sea is one of the biggest challenges a pilot can face. But when Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray landed the Lightning F-35B on HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time, he made it look almost effortless. For not only was his vertical landing aided by a vast array of high technology in the world's most advanced stealth fighter jet, he had also practised it several thousand times on a simulator beforehand. Speaking aboard the carrier off the east coast of America, where the aircraft is beginning flight trials, he said: 'I was immensely proud. I couldn't find the words so I punched the air several times. I had to pinch myself coming around the corner to land.' The Daily Mail watched as US jets flown by UK test pilots took off from the 3.1billion carrier and returned to land. The first F-35 Lightning fighter jets landing and taking off from the largest British warship the new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth Commander Nathan Gray lands on board the HMS Queen Elizabeth, making history to be the first to land the stealth jet on a battleship Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray making the first ever F-35B Lightning II jet vertical landing on the UK's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth Two F-35B Lightning II jet preparing to make the first ever vertical landings on the UK's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth HMS Queen Elizabeth will be on global operations from 2021 with British F-35s. Pictured: The F35B Lightning II jet about to make one of the first ever vertical landings on HMS Queen Elizabeth The supersonic stealth jet which can reach speeds of Mach 1.6 (1,217mph) has the ability to evade enemy air defences with the lowest possible radar signature. It has a lift fan behind the cockpit that gives it short take-off and vertical landing capabilities, working in tandem with rotating jet thrusters at the rear. Cdr Gray, 41, from Stoke-on-Trent, who has test flown warplanes around the world, said of the jet: 'The F35 is a quantum leap it's the world beater. 'Anybody who wants to face off with us should be very, very nervous and should think twice.' Two of the UK's new F-35B Lightning II jet preparing to make the first ever vertical landings on the UK's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth An aerial shot of an F-35B Lightning II jet on the flight deck after successfully taking off from the carrier A F-35B Lightning II jet preparing to make one of the first ever vertical landings on the UK's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth HMS Queen Elizabeth out at sea following the landing. Cdre Andrew Betton added: 'The Queen Elizabeth Class carriers have been specifically designed and built to operate the F-35 Lightning, offering an immensely flexible and potent combination to deliver military effect around the world' Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray looks pensive after making the landing. Commander UK Carrier Strike Group, Cdre Andrew Betton added: 'Conducting these trials is a critical and exciting step on this journey and I applaud the many thousands of civilian and military personnel who have played a part in bringing the strategic ambition to reality' Commander Nathan Gray was followed by Squadron Leader Andy Edgell, RAF, both test pilots landing on the HMS Queen Elizabeth deck He flew the first F-35B from Pax River, a US naval station southeast of Washington DC, on Tuesday. The flight to the HMS Queen Elizabeth, which is purpose-built to work with the jet, took 20 minutes. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: 'The largest warship in British history is joining forces with the most advanced fighter jets on the planet. 'The historic first landing on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth is a monumental moment in our country's proud military history.' More than 500 take-offs and touch-downs are set to take place during the next 11 weeks in a range of weather conditions. HMS Queen Elizabeth will be on global operations from 2021 with both US and British F-35s. Commanding Officer, Capt Jerry Kyd, who was also the captain of HMS Ark Royal when the last Harrier took off from a carrier, said: 'I am quite emotional to be here in HMS Queen Elizabeth seeing the return of fixed wing aviation, having been the captain of the aircraft carrier which launched the last Harrier at sea nearly eight years ago. US Marine Corps F35B crashed in South Carolina on same day as HMS Queen Elizabeth landing A fighter jet set to be used by the RAF has been destroyed in a crash just three months after the Ministry of Defence took delivery of the same 120million plane. The F-35B jet went down near a military base in South Carolina, US as photographs from the scene show a thick cloud of smoke enveloping the area. Britain has already committed to buying 138 of the planes and now investigations will be carried out to see if the crash was caused by human error or mechanical failure. The Ministry of Defence has said it will not be grounding any planes for the time being - but that could change following the investigation. The planes have been brought over to the UK from the US over the last few months and the Royal Air Force now has a stock of 15. The first four, which cost 120million each, landed in United Kingdom in June and are now based at RAF Marham in Norfolk. Even more are set to arrive over the coming months, with the majority of the planes being manufactured in the US by aviation giant Lockheed Martin. Today the Marine Corps are busy investigating what caused one of the planes to go down during a training exercise at 11.45am local time today. Advertisement Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray making the first ever F-35B Lightning II jet take off from the UK's new aircraft carrier Thumbs up: Commander Nathan Gray RN, gives the thumbs up after making the first ever F-35B Lightning II jet vertical landing on board HMS Queen Elizabeth Lift off: F-35B Lightning II fighter jets successfully landed on board HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time, laying the foundations for the next 50 years of fixed wing aviation in support Observers from the bridge of HMS Queen Elizabeth watching Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray making the historic landing The first F-35 Lightning fighter jets landing and taking off from HMS Queen Elizabeth II 'The regeneration of big deck carriers able to operate globally, as we are proving here on this deployment, is a major step forward for the United Kingdom's defence and our ability to match the increasing pace of our adversaries. 'The first touch-downs of these impressive stealth jets shows how the United Kingdom will continue to be world leaders at sea for generations to come.' Commander UK Carrier Strike Group, Cdre Andrew Betton added: 'The Queen Elizabeth Class carriers have been specifically designed and built to operate the F-35 Lightning, offering an immensely flexible and potent combination to deliver military effect around the world. 'Conducting these trials is a critical and exciting step on this journey and I applaud the many thousands of civilian and military personnel who have played a part in bringing the strategic ambition to reality.' Commander Gray said: 'I was immensely proud. I couldn't find the words so I punched the air several times. I had to pinch myself coming around the corner to land' Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray looks on after making the first ever jet vertical landing Royal Air Force Sqn Ldr Andy Edgell after making the second ever F-35B Lightning II jet vertical landing on the UK's new aircraft carrier Chancellor Philip Hammond is under growing pressure to slash air passenger duty Chancellor Philip Hammond is under growing pressure to slash air passenger duty in his autumn budget as British holidaymakers continue to pay the highest levels in Europe. An audit of air duties and fees shows a short-haul flight from the UK incurs around twice as much tax as one from Germany and Italy, three times as much as from France, and more than four times as much as from Austria. More than 20 MPs including 13 Tories and all ten from the DUP have written to Mr Hammond urging him to cut air passenger duty (APD) by at least 50 per cent in the autumn budget on October 29. They say that with Britain hoping to boost trade after leaving the EU, the high rate makes no economic or political sense. The letters signatories include former Cabinet ministers Priti Patel and Grant Shapps and is backed by the trade body Airlines UK and the campaign group A Fair Tax on Flying. It said APD damages trade and business and makes leisure travel more expensive, both for visitors to the UK and UK families taking their hard-earned annual holidays. APD for those flying from UK airports costs 13 per adult for short-haul economy class flights and 78 for long-haul flights. This compares with just over 5 for a short-haul flight from a French airport, rising to around 12.60 for a long-haul flight, according to an analysis by A Fair Tax on Flying. Piper: Scott Methven has played for the Queen since 2015 It is a tradition that dates back 175 years to her great great grandmother, Queen Victoria. Every weekday since she came to the throne in 1952, the Queen has started her day to the sound of a lone piper playing beneath her bedroom window. Members of the Royal Household can practically set their watches by the pipes, which start at precisely 9am and last for exactly 15 minutes. But for the past five weeks the sound of silence has hung in the cool highland air at Balmoral, the Queens Scottish residence. For the Piper to the Sovereign, Pipe Major Scott Methven of the 5 Scots Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, has sadly had to relinquish his duties unexpectedly for family reasons. The Queen was very understanding and compassionate and agreed that Scott should stop his duties immediately, said a Balmoral source. She totally understood his position and told him not to worry. Pipe Major Methven, who became only the 15th piper to hold the post when he was appointed in 2015, left straight away. And while the Queen wouldnt have had it any other way, the downside is that for the first time since 1843 (aside from four years during the Second World War), the monarch has no official bagpipe player. Unfortunately because it happened so unexpectedly no replacement was available, so there has been no piping for the past five weeks, the source explained. Its really strange because everyone is just so used to it and for the first few days it was really weird not to hear the sound. Balmoral: Five weeks without a bagpiper giving the 9am alarm call for 15 minutes People can hear the pipes around the estate. It creates a really lovely, evocative atmosphere and sets you up for the day. For the Queen, who hears the noise most days, it must seem very odd. She often has her breakfast and reads the papers while the piper is playing. It is just part of her normal day and I expect she looks forward to getting a new one but she totally understood Scotts position. He is incredibly highly regarded by the Royal Household and the Royal Family. The position of Piper to the Sovereign was established after Queen Victoria discovered that the Marquess of Breadalbane had his own personal piper. Predecessors: Alexander MacDonald, left, (1945-1966) and Andrew Pitkeathly (1966-1973) Traditionally, the post is held by a serving non-commissioned officer and Pipe Major from a Scottish or Irish Regiment. Of the 15 pipers, 11 have been in the present Queens reign, including Alexander MacDonald, who served from 1945 to 1966, and his successor Andrew Pitkeathly, who served until 1973. The pipers principal duty is to play under the Queens window when she is at Buckingham Palace, Windsor, Holyroodhouse or Balmoral, but he also co-ordinates Army pipers who play after state banquets and escorts the Queen to the audiences she has throughout the day. A new piper is now hurriedly being lined up and will, it is hoped, start when the Queen returns to London after her holiday in Scotland. Pipers are personally interviewed by the monarch to see if their personalities will match, as the two interact so regularly. It is said her piper travels with her even more than her husband. Most remain tight-lipped about their posts but Gordon Webster, who held the title in the 1990s, once said: Because the Queen doesnt like you repeating the same tunes every day I had about 700 stored in my head. And Max Stewart, who has also piped for the Queen, said: At Balmoral you have got to try to not repeat a tune the whole trip which is quite an achievement. A fighter jet set to be used by the RAF has been destroyed in a crash just three months after the Ministry of Defence took delivery of the same 120million plane. The F-35B jet went down near a military base in South Carolina, US as photographs from the scene show a thick cloud of smoke enveloping the area. Britain has already committed to buying 138 of the planes and now investigations will be carried out to see if the crash was caused by human error or mechanical failure. The Ministry of Defence has said it will not be grounding any planes for the time being - but that could change following the investigation. A US F-35 pilot was forced to eject midair after the $100million fighter jet crashed in South Carolina (pictured; the smoking aftermath of the crash) A thick cloud of smoke enveloped the area around the crash site close to a military base in South Carolina The planes have been brought over to the UK from the US over the last few months and the Royal Air Force now has a stock of 15. The first four, which cost 120million each, landed in United Kingdom in June and are now based at RAF Marham in Norfolk. Even more are set to arrive over the coming months, with the majority of the planes being manufactured in the US by aviation giant Lockheed Martin. Key facts about the F-35B jet Powerplant: one Pratt & Whitney F135 turbofan rated at 40,000lb st with afterburning and 40,500lb st for vertical take-off Length: 51ft 2.5in Height: 14ft 3.5in Wingspan: 35ft Wing area: 460sqft Maximum take-off weight: around 60,000lb Maximum speed: Mach 1.6 Combat radius: on internal fuel more than 450nm Maximum altitude: 50,000ft Armament: typically two AAMs and two bombs carried internally, with optional 25mm gun pod and underwing pylons enabling stores carriage up to 15,000lb Advertisement The planes had made the 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic from a US Marine Corps base in South Carolina - close to where the crash took place. Today the Marine Corps are busy investigating what caused one of the planes to go down during a training exercise at 11.45am local time today. A spokesman said: 'Marines from MCAS Beaufort are working with local authorities currently conducting standard mishap operations to secure the crash site and ensure the safety of all personnel in the surrounding area.' The pilot was able to safely eject before impact and no civilians were hurt. Speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement, a defense official told AFP that the Marine Corps F-35B had crashed outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. 'It's a total loss,' the official said. There were no civilian injuries in the crash. The crash comes just one day after the US military first used the F-35B, which has been beset with delays and cost overruns, in combat. Multiple Marine Corps F-35Bs struck Taliban targets in Afghanistan. It also comes on the same day one of the jets landed on the HMS Queen Elizabeth for the very first time. The jets will be jointly operated by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy and will operate from land and sea, including off the decks of the new 3.1 billion Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers. The UK has committed to buying 138 of the US planes - which will be flown by both RAF and Royal Navy pilots. They are capable of a short take-off and landing and this will allow it to operate from the new 'Queen Elizabeth' class aircraft carriers and the vessels of allied nations. On top of this the jet is able to find and hit targets all by itself. Sensors of the jets are also able to take down information and pass it onto other aircraft or combat systems. The jets flew over from US Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina to Norfolk in August The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said the crash was reported about 11:45 a.m. Friday near the Grays Hill community, outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina (pictured) The multimillion-pound supersonic aircraft will make up the recently reformed historic 617 'Dambusters' squadron which is set to declare initial operational capability from land by the end of the year. They are named 'jump jets', aptly named due to their vertical landing mechanism, but when they first arrived in the UK they did not use the high-tech landing feature. Britain currently has 15 F-35Bs - the short take-off and vertical landing variant of the jets - and has pledged to purchase 138 in total from American Aviation giant Lockheed Martin. Initial estimates put the cost of the planes between 77million to 100million, although The Times claims they are expected to cost a staggering 150million each. It is believed the true cost of the plane has been bumped up to cover 'extra' costs such as software upgrades and spare parts. There are also concerns the 'stealth' F-35B are unable to transmit data to British ships and older jet without revealing its position. The plane's software system is vulnerable to cyber attack and cannot be tested independently by the UK. Downing Street rounded on Boris Johnson last night following his latest attack on Theresa Mays Chequers plan. Insiders accused the former foreign secretary of putting jobs and national unity at risk. In a 4,600-word article, he had claimed the Chequers proposals were a moral and intellectual humiliation that would cheat the electorate. And in a series of interviews, he refused four times to rule out challenging Mrs May for the Tory leadership. Asked if was seeking to depose her, Mr Johnson replied: My job is to speak up for what I believe in and the vision that Ive set out today and I believe in it very, very sincerely and Im going to keep going for as long as it takes. Boris Johnson seen jogging near his Oxfordshire home. The former Home Secretary is due to attend Conservative Party Spring Coherence, which starts on Sunday Tories select Windrush descendant Shaun Bailey as their London Mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey (pictured near City Hall in London) beat off the competition to get the shot at City Hall on a promise that he will focus on cracking down on gangs and crime A Windrush descendant and former adviser to David Cameron has been selected to run as the Tory Party's next candidate for London Mayor. Shaun Bailey beat off the competition to get the shot at City Hall on a promise that he will focus on cracking down on gangs and crime. But he faces a stiff battle to beat Labour's Sadiq Khan after it emerged that the Tories have 15,000 members in London, a city home to more than eight million. The Tory politician, who used to advise Mr Cameron on youth and crime before reportedly being pushed out by the then PM's Old Etonian clique, has vowed to take a 'zero-tolerance approach' to the knife crime epidemic gripping the capital. Mr Bailey said he is delighted with being selected - and that tackling crime and the housing crisis are his top priorities. He said: 'Local government is important work and our city is facing real challenges. 'Violent crime is up. Gang crime is up. Knife crime is up. Our transport system faces a 1billion hole in its operating budget. 'New homes are not being built fast enough. After two and a half years of Sadiq Khan, it is clear we cannot afford more of the same.' Advertisement Asked again if he could rule out a challenge, he added: The Prime Minister will go on, as she has said to us herself, and as she said to the country. Shes a remarkable person, she will go on for as long as she feels it necessary. He also refused to say whether he would join hardline Eurosceptics in voting down Chequers if it came to the Commons. The row came as: Mr Johnsons former deputy Sir Alan Duncan said Tory MPs would never allow him to be PM; Mrs May tried to wrest the agenda back to domestic issues with new policies on housing and immigration; Mr Johnson accused critics of confected indignation over his claim that women in burkas look like bank robbers; Ex-PM Sir John Major launched a thinly-veiled attack on Mr Johnsons Brexit solution; Mr Johnson said it was a very moot point whether the PMs plan was worse than staying in the EU; A poll of Tory activists found eight out of ten want Mrs May to quit before the next election; No 10 braced itself for Mr Johnson giving a rival leaders speech at the Birmingham gathering. Mr Johnsons incendiary intervention reignited the Tories Brexit wars, which are now certain to overshadow this weeks conference. He called on Mrs May to tear up the EU withdrawal agreement, which was signed last December following months of painstaking negotiations, and pursue a super-Canada trade deal. He said this would allow the UK to drop its obligation to ensure frictionless trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic, with technology ensuring there was no return to a hard border. Mr Johnson, who was one of the leaders of the Vote Leave campaign, said he felt a responsibility to ensure the referendum result was delivered in full. A source pointed out however that the former foreign secretary was a member of the Cabinet that signed up to the December agreement, and had praised the PM for doing so. In a pointed reference to Mr Johnsons article, Sir John Major told an anti-Brexit meeting in South Shields last night: The trade deal that was being talked about in a prominent newspaper column, which is the obne with Canada, actually took seven years and it was a pretty puny deal. Boris Johnson may challenge her for Tory leadership after refusing to rule it out four times Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris said Mr Johnsons proposals were not workable and not negotiable. And Foreign Office minister Sir Alan described Mr Johnsons intervention as self-indulgent. He added: He knows his so-called plan wont work it is just unhelpful, destructive grandstanding. He is not acting in the national interest, just his own selfish interest. People wont stand for it any more. The Prime Minister needs full support, not more carping. Sir Alan said Tory MPs would never allow Mr Johnson to become PM. He thinks he can be Britains Trump, he said. It aint gonna fly. He had enormous electoral appeal but sadly hes spent it. He risks bringing everything down. Former home secretary Amber Rudd said it was a fantasy to believe a Canada-style trade deal would ever be approved by parliament. Miss Rudd said: Boriss intervention fails to consider the parliamentary maths. A Canada-style deal would not get through the House of Commons. But former minister Priti Patel said Mr Johnson had set out a viable plan that showed how we can take back control of our country. A former Labour minister last night urged voters to back the Tories, saying Jeremy Corbyn is the biggest threat Britain has faced for a generation. Digby Jones, who served as trade minister under Gordon Brown, will use a speech to the Conservative Party conference tomorrow to warn the Tories to stop obsessing about Brexit and focus their fire on Labour. In an interview with the Daily Mail, the prominent Eurosceptic also encouraged party activists to back Theresa Mays Chequers deal and downplayed the dangers of adopting a common rule book for trade with the EU. Lord Digby Jones, a former Labour minister, urged voters to back the Tories and not Corbyn The former CBI chief delivered a withering rebuke to Boris Johnson, whose campaign to Chuck Chequers is set to overshadow the conference. He said: My message to Boris is: just for once, put your country ahead of your personal ambitions and get behind the Prime Minister. Boris is making a play for the Prime Ministers job. I dont mind that, but I do mind it when hes gambling my country to do it. Lord Jones, who was made a peer by Mr Brown, said Mr Corbyns virulent anti-business stance had persuaded him to back the Tories. I was a Labour minister but I am encouraging people now to vote Conservative, he said. We are in danger of ignoring the biggest threat Britain has faced for a generation. It isnt Brexit the biggest threat is a Corbyn government. He and the people around him deep in their soul, in their DNA hate business, they hate wealth creation, they do not like democratic capitalism. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (C), next to Labour's Brexit pointman Keir Starmer (L), gives a press conference after the meeting with senior EU officials in Brussels Lord Jones urged Mrs May not to make any more concessions to the arrogant, autocratic EU. The Remain camp and the Establishment and the divisions in the Government have meant that we the country keep going back and giving [EU chief negotiator Michel] Barnier more. He hasnt had to do any negotiation hes just constantly had to say no and hes watched the Remain camp and the Establishment ruin our country, frankly. Enough is enough. Despite his criticism, Lord Jones believes Chequers provides the basis for a reasonable exit deal. He is also relaxed about the idea of a common rule book for goods, arguing it is what Britains manufacturing sector needs. Dont obsess over the ideology, he said. Think about the practical application. A North Dakota man has been transferred to an out-of-state prison as he serves a life sentence for conspiring to kidnap a baby that his girlfriend had cut from their neighbor's body. A spokeswoman for the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed Monday that William Hoehn was transferred to an undisclosed prison 'for protective management purposes.' Hoehn was sentenced in October to life with the possibility of parole. He was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2017 death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind, who was eight months' pregnant. His former girlfriend Brooke Crews admitted that she sliced Greywind's baby from her womb and is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. Police found the baby alive in the couple's apartment. Greywind's body was found in the Red River. Hoehn had pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to commit kidnapping and lying to police about what happened to Savanna Greywind, who was found dead in Fargo, North Dakota last year. William Hoehn, 33, was found not guilty on Friday of conspiring to commit murder Savanna Greywind (left and right) was eight months pregnant and living next door to Crews and Hoehn when she was murdered in Fargo, North Dakota Hoehn was facing a maximum of 20 years in prison for kidnapping the baby, but a judge determined he was a 'dangerous offender' and he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Hoehn's ex-girlfriend Brooke Crews is currently serving life in prison for murdering Greywind and then cutting her baby out of her womb. Hoehn testified on Thursday that he thought Crews had given birth to their baby when he came home in August 2007 and heard the sound of a newborn crying. 'It wasn't a wail, it wasn't like a cry or nothing,' Fox News reports he said about hearing a child when he came home in August 2017. 'It was a distinct baby sound. I remember feeling elated and I thought, "Oh my god, she had the baby when I was at work".' He said his then-partner told him she didn't know what had come over her and she couldn't explain the situation. Hoehn had previously pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to commit kidnapping and lying to police Crews (left) was sentenced to life in prison for killing Savanna Greywind and cutting her baby out of her womb. Crews was in a relationship with Hoehn (right) at the time Hoehn, 33, said his expression dropped when he noticed the gruesome surroundings and saw Greywind, their nextdoor neighbor, dead on the floor. He added that Greywind had lips like 'she had had a piece of blue candy' and pale skin, Inforum.com reports. Hoehn said as he questioned Crews on what happened, she told him that she had 'went and got' Greywind. Hoehn told the courtroom that when he asked his then-girlfriend if she had lied about being pregnant, she said: 'I think so'. Hoehn's ex-girlfriend Brooke Crews testified that he pressured her to get a baby and has already pleaded guilty to murdering Greywind Inmate Jennifer Robinson is in the same jail as Brooke Crews and said Crews confessed to her she strangled Greywind and cut the baby out within a matter of minutes Inmate Jennifer Robinson also testified on Thursday and told jurors Hoehn was not involved in the murder. Crews testified earlier that she cut the baby girl from Greywind and then Hoehn tied a rope around Greywind's neck after he arrived home. He denied that's what happened, and Robinson, who is incarcerated at the same New England prison as Crews, corroborated his story. According to Robinson, Crews confessed to her that she 'choked Savanna with a rope, drug her into the bathroom,' and cut her baby out of her womb within a matter of minutes. Crews denied that claim but the judge denied a motion by prosecutors to exclude Robinson's testimony. Greywind (above) was eight months pregnant Cass County prosecutor Leah Viste pointed out conflicting stories that Hoehn told police after he and Crews were arrested. Hoehn acknowledged that, but when Viste suggested that Hoehn and Crews would do anything for each other, Hoehn said there were 'boundaries'. Judge Tom Olson denied a defense motion for a mistrial at the end of Hoehn's testimony. Hoehn said his former girlfriend is responsible and that her claim he put a rope around the victim's neck is wrong. He testified on Thursday that the rope was around Greywind's neck when he entered the bathroom of their apartment. When Hoehn's attorney asked him whether Greywind was breathing, Hoehn said he didn't think so. Hoehn earlier pleaded guilty to helping Crews cover up the crime. Crying and sniffling throughout her testimony on Tuesday, Crews told the court that she lied to Hoehn saying she was pregnant in order to save their relationship, which she described as rocky, violent and fueled by booze and drugs. After a breakup in December 2016, Crews went so far as to email him a phony positive pregnancy test and sonogram photo. In early August, Hoehn told Crews he didn't believe she was pregnant and said she needed 'to produce a baby.' Crews said she believed this was 'an ultimatum'. 'I took that to mean I better have a baby, no matter how it happened,' Crews said. This undated evidence photo shows a rope in connection with the killing last year Greywind's boyfriend Ashston Matheny is seen with their daughter Haisley Jo, who survived the ordeal of being cut from the womb and is being raised by him now Greywind lived next door to the couple, and Crews said that Hoehn remarked on how pregnant she was - a remark Crews said she interpreted as a signal that they should take Greywind's baby. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy, Dr. Victor Froloff, testified on Monday that he isn't sure whether Greywind died from blood loss or strangulation. The baby, a girl named Haisley Jo, is healthy and being raised by Greywind's boyfriend. Patrick Shurod Campbell (pictured) pleaded guilty to an animal cruelty charge A man who admitted biting his dog to establish dominance over the animal will avoid jail time even though he pleaded guilty to the offense. Patrick Shurod Campbell, 27, pleaded guilty Friday to an animal cruelty charge and was sentenced to four years probation by a Palm Beach county, Florida, judge. Campbell was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and was barred from possessing animals of any kind' or 'living with anyone with animals on property'. To enforce the animal bans, Campbell is subject to random inspections of his Lake Worth residence by Animal Care and Control agents. Campbell's roommates told police they saw him beating the dog (pictured) a number of times He was arrested in May after police responded to a 911 call about someone 'abusing a dog' in an apartment that he shared with roommates. Officers found the dog, a Husky called Dmitri, 2, inside a closet in Campbells room, where blood was smeared on the carpet and a recliner. The animal was shaking and had a bloody ear, according to police. Asked how Dimitri was injured, Campbell replied: 'I bit him to establish dominance', according to a police report. Campbell then told police that he sought to discipline the dog after the animal 'destroyed several items inside the apartment'. In addition to biting 'Dimitri in the right ear very hard to establish dominance,' Campbell admitted punching the dog in the face. One of Campbells roommates told police that he saw Campbell beating the dog on several occasions, leaving the animal on its back, with his paws up and crying. A second roommate said he heard the dog crying in pain while Campbell hit the animal and screamed: 'You little b***h'. Upon Campbells arrest, Dimitri was seized by animal control officials. The police report (pictured) states that Campbell also punched the animal in the face Campbell will be required to perform 300 hours of community service as part of his plea deal. His supervision could be terminated after two years if he does not violate any terms of his probation. On the night of his arrest, neighbors reportedly heard 'slamming noises' coming from the apartment at about 1am. Deputies say Campbell admitted to biting the dog on the ear after they found a 'red-like substance' on the animal's ear. Animal Care and Control took Dimitri from the apartment. Campbell's apartment complex (pictured) where police responded to an animal cruelty call Neighbor Katelin Conover told CBS 12 back in May: 'Its terrifying. Its really sad.. 'I think its awful. Maybe he deserves a bite on the ear himself for it.' 'I would never think such thing, you know. It is surprising,' said Gerlain Belizaire, another neighbor. Campbells neighbors said they found it hard to believe that a dog owner would bite a dog on the ear, leaving a bloody gash. 'When you take in an animal into your home, thats your family,' Conover said. 'Youre gonna bite your kid on the ear? Are you gonna do that? Its the same thing to me. I cant imagine why anyone would ever do that to an anima.' Maddox, six, disappeared on Saturday and his body was found on Thursday. The child had autism and limited verbal skills Hours after learning his six-year-old son was dead, the father of an autistic boy has spoken out about his devastation at not being able to save the boy. Ian Ritch says he was walking with his son Maddox in Rankin Lake Park on Saturday afternoon, when the boy took off running. He says he was not able to catch up to him, and after looking himself, went to the park ranger for help. Maddox's body was found at 1pm on Thursday off of Marietta Street/Old Dallas Highway in Gastonia. Ritch said in his lengthy statement, shared to Facebook, he 'loved that lil boy, he was my best lil buddy'. He went on to say Maddox was his only child, and he would never have another one, before launching into a retelling of the devastating week from his point of view. 'I wasn't so worried about him when all this started on Saturday because I expected to find him right off,' he said. 'Over time I got more and more scared and worried. Once Sunday morning came that's when it starts me thinking I had something to worry about. 'Now today I found out I'm not a dad anymore. I had big plans with my son. I wanted us to go fishing play ball go camping. 'I wanted to be his heroe [sic]. I wanted him to say I was more than Superman or Batman to him. I wanted people to ask him who his heroe [sic] is and him say my daddy. 'Now I'm no heroe [sic], I couldn't save him or protect him at all. I would give anything to go back and save him.' Maddox had been at a park in North Carolina with his father, Ian Ritch (left), when he ran off Ritch reported his son missing to a park ranger, who called police. The father, who says he is a 'broken man' and will never have another child, has been criticized for a perceived lack of emotion during the investigation Gastonia Police Chief Robert Helton fought back tears as he announced officials believed they found Maddox. 'Our community's heartbroken. This is not the end that we hoped for,' Helton said. 'I've lost a lot of sleep this week worrying about Maddox.' Gastonia Fire Chief Phil Welch said the body was found in a creek, slightly more than a mile east of Rankin Lake Park, by a searcher who was walking down the middle of the creek as his partners stood on the bank. He said the area had been searched previously by drones, all-terrain vehicles and foot patrols, but the boy was not found until a crew of 15 searchers returned to the creek and discovered the body. 'There is no sense of accomplishment here today,' Welch said. 'There is grieving down at our command post.' FBI agent Jason Kaplan, also fighting tears, said the investigation into what happened to Maddox will continue. He said the water wasn't more than 3 feet deep at the spot where the body was found, adding that it's too early to say whether foul play was involved. Kaplan said: 'The chief and I saw Maddox, and it is absolutely amazing that he was found. It was extremely difficult to see him even when we were standing right next to him.' Neither he nor the other officials would provide additional details regarding the body being found, including how long the body had been in the creek. The family who live closest to where he was found said the spot is swampy and full of tall grass and thick brush. A local church used their sign to call its parishioners to pray for the lost boy before his body was discovered Ritch has been criticized during the investigation for showing a lack of emotion as he initially reported his son missing or spoke with reporters days after police began to search. In an interview with WSOC-TV, Rankin Lake Park employee Ray Foxx said Ritch's seemed out of breath, but not concerned, after Maddox went missing on Saturday. 'He didnt act like a concerned parent, like I would act, or any concerned parent would act,' he said. Ritch said at a press conference with police and FBI agents on Wednesday that he could not catch up with his son after letting him get about 25-30 feet in front of him on a footpath, for which he said he feels guilt. He said he couldn't run because of a neuropathy in his foot, and when he finally did run, he could not catch up to his son. Ritch said he knows hes a potential target for investigators, but says he has done his best to be cooperative. I mean, I know Im the number one suspect when it starts. Thats plain and simple, Ritch told CBS News, adding that he has cooperated with investigators. Everything that theyve asked for, Ive given them right off the bat. Rankin Lake Park worker Ray Foxx (left) left said six-year-old Maddox Ritch's father, Ian (right) did not look like a 'concerned parent' when he came to him saying his son has gone missing Hundreds of investigators, analysts and others joined in the search for the boy in about 250 acres of the park area before he was found in a creek, slightly more than a mile east of Rankin Lake Park Ritch appeared to address suspicions surrounding his involvement in his statement, referring to people who 'don't believe anything I have said'. 'While a lot of people don't believe anything I have said in the past believe this,' he wrote. Police are yet to confirm if they believe Maddox's death is suspicious, or if they are still investigating Ritch 'From this moment on for the rest of my life I will live with the guilt of not being there to save my son. The most important person in my life. 'So when everyone else gets to go back to their normal lives remember that I will never be the same man again. I will now and forever be a broken man until I take my last breath.' Ritch said he wished he was spiritual so he could be sure when he died he would be reunited with his son, and asked for 'some time to try to pull myself back together'. He advised other parents to 'hug their children tighter, and please don't make my mistake and let them get too far away from you'. 'Do everything you can with your children because I wont get the chance to do anything with mine,' he wrote. 'Now to Maddox I just want to say I love u lil buddy. Please be waiting for me when my time comes because I promise I'm gonna do everything I can to be with you rooster!!!!!' Harold Early, a local registered sex offender, told Fox 46 late on Thursday afternoon it was his tip that led search crews to the boy's body. 'Probation and the US Marshals came over to the house and was checking around. I gave them a tip, I asked if they had looked down in the holes and the pipe,' he said. Early is listed as a registered sex offender in Gaston County. The entry on the registry was convicted in 2012 in connection to three separate incidents beginning in 1980. He is currently on probation. A horror head-on collision has killed two women and a set of unborn twins and left two men in a critical condition, marking a tragic beginning to the October long weekend. The 17-year-old L-Plate driver and her 23-year-old rear passenger, who was heavily pregnant with twins, died at the scene after their hatchback collided with a car travelling north on a New South Wales highway. The Nissan was travelling north on Northern Road in Orchard Hills in Sydney's west when it collided with a Mazda travelling in the opposite direction at 7.40pm on Friday. One of the males involved in the crash was moved to Westmead Hospital and is believed to be in an induced coma from a traumatic head injury, Emergency services attempted to revive the driver and her rear passenger but both women and the unborn babies died at the scene. The 25-year-old male front passenger, was rushed to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition. The 29-year-old driver of the Mazda was trapped for a short time and moved to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition with leg injuries, he is also under police guard. It is believed the male driver sped over the median strip and ploughed in to the Nissan, Nine has reported. Police are now investigating whether the man was speeding before the tragic accident. A witness to the accident, Jarrad Sherlock said he noticed the Mazda driving erratically before is crashed in to the Nissan. 'He came flying past me in the left hand lane, going about 100 kilometres in a 60 km/h roadworks zone,' he said. Emergency services attempted to revive the driver and her heavily-pregnant passenger but both women and the unborn child died at the scene Both the green and black hatchbacks were beyond recognition when police and paramedics arrived at the horror scene 'There were so many cars on the road and he was ducking and weaving between cars. I said to my girlfriend "what is this guy doing, he is going to crash",' he told the Daily Telegraph. Just moments later the car veered on to the other side of the road and crashed in to the Nissan. 'I jumped out and ran over and tried to see if anyone was alive. Another guy ran to the Nissan and I went to the Mazda. 'He was alive but unconscious. I ran to the other car, I saw a lady in the back seat but she had already passed away.' Both the green and black hatchbacks were beyond recognition when police and paramedics arrived at the horror scene. Debris from the crash was strewn across both lanes of the major motorway in Orchard Hills. Two other vehicles were hit in the crash but the occupants in each car came out unscathed. A crime scene has been established on the stretch of highway and an investigation is underway to what caused the accident. Police are calling for any witness' to the accident to step forward. A crime scene has been established on the stretch of highway and an investigation is underway to what caused the accident Nagaon (Assam), Sep 28 : Two arms dealer were arrested by security personnel in Assams Nagaon district on Thursday night. Security personnel had recovered illegal arms and ammunition in possession from them. Based on intelligence report, Nagaon district police and army had jointly launched operation at the Nagaon bypass road area and arrested duo. A top police official said that, the persons were stayed at a roadside dhaba and tried to sell illegal arms. The arrested persons were identified as Saidul Islam and Sarjahan Ali and security personnel had recovered a point 22 pistol, a magazine and five rounds live ammunition. Paul Davis, retail fraud director at Lloyds Banking Group, told Money Mail criminals can mimic messages A fraud chief at Britains biggest bank has admitted scam texts are now so sophisticated even he sometimes cannot tell if they are genuine. Paul Davis, retail fraud director at Lloyds Banking Group, told Money Mail criminals can mimic the exact format of messages which appear as though they are sent from a banks number using a technique called spoofing. With fake banking texts now so difficult to spot, Mr Davis said customers should be taught how to respond to them to avoid being lured into a scam. He added: Its the new dont talk to strangers. 'We teach children how to cross the road and we also need to teach everyone how to be aware of and stay safe from scams. Its the new basic life safety advice we all need to know. Mr Davis said the key to avoiding falling for scams was to treat all messages with caution. Its about what you say when you reply, he said. Dont ever give out your bank details and never give more than a simple answer like yes or no. The context of messages could be crucial, he explained. For example, when shopping online, if a customer is texted at the same time to confirm they intended to make this exact purchase, it is more likely to be genuine. But if a person receives a text out of the blue saying they have made a payment and can they confirm the purchase, it is more likely to be a scam. Mr Davis accepted it was hard to know what messages to trust because even genuine ones can appear suspicious if they come from a variety of numbers. If in doubt, dont reply and ring the number on the back of your card, he said. Criminals can mimic the exact format of messages which appear as though they are sent from a banks number using a technique called spoofing Customers were also warned never to click on links in texts or open email attachments claiming to be from the bank, as this could download malware which can spy on their phone or computer to find out their password. The Daily Mail is campaigning for fairer treatment for customers who fall prey to so-called authorised push payment fraud sophisticated scams where victims are tricked into transferring money. In the first six months of this year alone, around 145million was lost to this crime of which only 31million was refunded. There is currently no obligation on banks to reimburse customers who authorise payment in this type of fraud and many say the victim is to blame for allowing the transaction to go through. But consumer campaigners argue most scams are now so sophisticated even the savviest customers can fall for them. Mr Davis said Lloyds examined each case on an individual basis and often refunded victims as a gesture of goodwill. He said: The key to stopping this type of fraud is working together. Theres a shared responsibility. The bank needs to do things to protect its customers but the victim also needs to take steps to protect themselves. He added: Helping keep our customers money safe is our priority and we fully support Money Mails campaign. Yesterday, new rules were announced proposing greater protection for scam victims, in a victory for the Mails campaign. The guidelines say banks must flash up warnings if a customer is making a questionable transfer and should carry out greater checks to ensure they are paying who they think they are. Banks should also delay payments if they are concerned they may be fraudulent and refund vulnerable victims, such as those who have been recently bereaved even if the bank was not at fault. But there was no agreement on who should bankroll the cost of refunds for victims and some campaigners criticised the code for not going far enough. The voluntary agreement between most banks and consumer groups follows an eight-month consultation by a steering group appointed by the Payment Systems Regulator, following a super-complaint by consumer group Which? President Trump has ordered the FBI to conduct a limited supplemental investigation into sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, but questions remain about the scope of the probe and whether it will look into additional assault claims from two women that emerged this week. Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans agreed to the investigation after a last-minute demand by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) forced the committees hand on Friday. Both the White House and the Senate Judiciary Committee stressed that the investigation would be limited, and must be completed by next Friday. President Trump has ordered the FBI to conduct a limited supplemental investigation into sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh (pictured Thursday) Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans agreed to the investigation after a last-minute demand by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) (center on Friday) forced the committees hand on Friday Trump is pictured in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday. He has ordered an FBI investigation The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today, said the Senate Judiciary Committee in a statement. The investigation, which follows a prior FBI background check into Kavanaugh, will look into allegations from Christine Ford that he sexually assaulted her during a party in high school. It is unclear whether the FBI will also examine claims from two other accusers Kavanaughs Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez and a former Maryland resident named Julie Swetnick. Ramirez has accused Kavanaugh of putting his genitals near her face while she was intoxicated on the floor at a college dorm party. Swetnick, who is being represented by Stormy Danielss attorney Michael Avenatti, claims she witnessed Kavanaugh and his high school friend Mark Judge drugging girls drinks and participating in group-rape attacks at parties. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations. A spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee did not immediately respond to requests to clarify the term current, credible allegations. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) also declined to comment when asked by DailyMail.com. Flake who forced the committee to agree to the investigation after telling Republican colleagues that it is the only way he will vote for Kavanaughs confirmation suggested to NPR on Friday that the decision of which allegations to investigate will be left to the FBI. The investigation, which follows a prior FBI background check into Kavanaugh, will look into allegations from Christine Ford (pictured Thursday) that he sexually assaulted her during a party in high school It is unclear whether the FBI will also examine claims from two other accusers Kavanaughs Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez (right) and a former Maryland resident named Julie Swetnick (left) We'll leave that to the FBI. I am assuming that the Ford [allegations] are there, and maybe Ramirez. But Avenatti, I dont know but thats their call. The FBI investigation would be a supplemental to the previous background check it conducted on Kavanaugh as it does for all Supreme Court nominees. The background investigation has been based out of the FBI Washington office. The FBI will not conduct a criminal investigation because the charges against Kavanaugh do not relate to any federal crimes. Because of this, the bureau will not make a determination on Kavanaughs guilt or innocence. The FBI will submit a report to the White House and the Senate Judiciary Committee when the examination is complete. The scope of the investigation which will look into claims dating back 36 years is unusual for an FBI background check. Typically the bureau focuses on recent events from the past decade of the nominees life, or documented criminal or legal charges against the individual. However, the probe could turn up individuals who are able to corroborate the claims from Ford, Ramirez or Swetnick. So far, the witnesses named by the accusers have said they dont remember the incidents taking place. Mark Judge (seen earlier this week), a high school classmate of Kavanaughs who Ford claims was in the room while she was sexually assaulted, has agreed to cooperate with the FBI The FBI will also be able to talk to potential witnesses who have not spoken directly to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mark Judge, a high school classmate of Kavanaughs who Ford claims was in the room while she was sexually assaulted, has agreed to cooperate with the FBI. Judge has previously declined to testify to the committee but submitted a sworn statement saying he does not remember any incident like the one described by Ford. Two other witnesses who Ford claims were at the party, P.J. Smythe and Leland Keyser, could also be interviewed by the FBI. Both Smythe and Keyser have said in statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee that they do not recall the event described by Ford. Although the FBI will have just a week to investigate the allegations, this timeframe is not out of step with prior similar investigations. During Clarence Thomass confirmation hearings in 1991, the FBI took three days to investigate sexual harassment allegations levelled against him by law professor Anita Hill. Thomas was ultimately confirmed to the Supreme Court. Hyperloop is a proposed method of travel that would transport people at roughly 700mph between distant locations. Magway is inspired by several of its features. The system was unveiled by Elon Musk in 2013, who at the time said it could take passengers the 380 miles (610km) from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes - half the time it takes a plane. Sketches of a hyperloop test track in Europe, which could allow passengers to travel from Amsterdam to Frankfurt in as little as 50 minutes It is essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum. For safety reasons, Hyperloop tunnels need escape hatches in case of fire. The tube is suspended off the ground to protect against weather and earthquakes. There are now a number of firms vying to bring the technology to life, including Elon Musk himself, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, and Virgin Hyperloop One. A large, very strong typhoon is set to rip through mainland Japan over the weekend, bringing violent winds and torrential rain. The 'unstoppable' Super Typhoon Trami, which is rated category 2 by Tropical Storm Risk, with category 5 the highest, has destructive winds gusting at speeds as high as 134 mph (216kmh). It is the latest storm to threaten Japan in a year filled with more than the usual number of disasters, including punishing heat, heavy rains and landslides. Less than a month ago, a typhoon flooded Kansai International airport near Osaka, leaving thousands of tourists stranded. Scroll down for video A large, very strong typhoon (pictured) is set to rip through mainland Japan over the weekend, bringing violent winds and torrential rain WHAT IS TRAMI? Trami is the latest storm to threaten Japan in a year filled with more than the usual number of disasters, including punishing heat, heavy rains and landslides. The 'unstoppable' Super Typhoon Trami, which is rated category 2 by Tropical Storm Risk, with category 5 the highest, has destructive winds gusting as high as 134 mph (216kmh). It is about 186 miles (300km) southeast of Miyako island, with winds gusting as high as 134 mph (216kmh). Though the Japanese capital of Tokyo is set for heavy rain, current predictions show it avoiding a direct hit. After dumping torrential rain on the outlying islands, the typhoon is forecast to pick up speed and approach western Japan on Sunday, remaining very strong as it barrels over the mainland. Advertisement Trami is currently about 186 miles (300km) southeast of Miyako island. Although the Japanese capital of Tokyo is set for heavy rain, current predictions show it avoiding a direct hit. 'As it is forecast to go across Japan at a high speed, we are urging people to be vigilant' in the days ahead, Sakiko Nishioka from the meteorological agency told AFP. 'Please be on high alert against violent winds, high waves and heavy rainfall,' the agency said in a statement. After dumping torrential rain on the outlying islands, the typhoon is forecast to pick up speed and approach western Japan on Sunday, remaining very strong as it barrels over the mainland. Images from the International Space Station posted on Twitter by astronaut Alexander Gerst on Tuesday showed Trami's enormous eye which he said was 'as if somebody pulled the planet's gigantic plug'. 'Staring down the eye of yet another fierce storm... Trami is unstoppable and heading for Japan and Taiwan. Be safe down there!' he wrote. Churning north across Okinawa on Saturday, Trami is then predicted to rake across the islands of Kyushu and the main island of Honshu on Sunday, a path similar to that taken by typhoon Jebi early in September The 'unstoppable' Super Typhoon Trami, which is rated category 2 by Tropical Storm Risk, with category 5 the highest, has destructive winds gusting at speeds as high as 134 mph (216kmh) Japan's main two airlines JAL and ANA have already started to cancel some domestic flights, scrapping more than 100 between them to the islands. If the forecast holds, it will be the latest in a series of extreme natural events to strike Japan. Jebi, the most powerful storm to hit Japan in 25 years, brought some of the highest tides since a 1961 typhoon and flooded Kansai airport near Osaka, taking it out of service for days. Images from the International Space Station posted on Twitter by astronaut Alexander Gerst on Tuesday showed Trami's enormous eye which he said was 'as if somebody pulled the planet's gigantic plug' 'Staring down the eye of yet another fierce storm... Super Typhoon Trami is unstoppable and heading for Japan and Taiwan. Be safe down there!' Mr Gerst wrote Trami (pictured) is about 186 miles southeast of Miyako island, with winds gusting as high as 134 mph. If the forecast holds, it will be the latest in a series of natural events to strike Japan Seventeen people died in the storm, whose high winds sent trees crashing to the ground and cars scudding across parking lots. Even for a nation accustomed to disasters, this year has been hard for Japan, starting with a volcanic eruption in January that rained rocks down on a ski resort, killing one. July brought record-breaking heat that killed at least 80 people and sent over 20,000 to hospital for treatment, along with torrential rains in western Japan that set off floods and landslides, killing more than 200. Just two days after Jebi hit in September, the northernmost main island of Hokkaido was rocked by an earthquake that set off landslides, knocked out power throughout the island and killed at least 44 people. White paint with a newly-invented polymer coating can be used as a cheap form of air conditioning, scientists believe. Researchers at Columbia University in New York believe the new product can reflect 96 per cent or more of the sun's light and radiate heat to the atmosphere. Buildings coated in the material - described as 'one of the whitest whites yet seen' - would be 5F cooler in tropical environments such as Bangladesh and as much as 11F cooler in arid ones such as Arizona. The new product can be 'applied like paint on rooftops, buildings, water tanks, vehicles, even spacecraft', researchers said. White paint with a newly-invented polymer coating - seen here in an artist's rendering on a surface near the Empire State Building in New York - can be used as a cheap form of air conditioning, scientists believe How does the white substance work? The newly-developed polymer can be smeared on surfaces in the same way as paint. The coating can act as a 'spontaneous air cooler' and turns white when it is applied to surfaces. It reflects 96 per cent of the Sun's light, far more than regular white paint. The heat is radiated to the cooler atmosphere and the surface becomes less warm than the surrounding buildings. Advertisement The cheap form of air conditioning could reduce emissions in countries such as the U.S. where 17 per cent of electricity consumption goes to cooling buildings, The Times reported. It has been hailed as a major breakthrough following a summer of soaring temperatures. White paint has long been used to keep buildings cool in hot countries but regular paints absorb too much of the sun's light, researchers said. Tiny air voids in the polymer scatter the sunlight and turn it white, similar to how colourless water becomes white when it turns into snow, experts said. 'Polymers and solvents are already used in paints, and the Columbia Engineering method essentially replaces the pigments in white paint with air voids that reflect all wavelengths of sunlight, from UV to infrared,' scientists said. Claes-Goran Granqvist of Uppsala University said: 'Nature offers many ways for heating and cooling, some of which are extremely well known and widely studied and others that are poorly known. 'Radiative cooling - by using the sky as a heat sink--belongs to the latter group, and its potential has been strangely overlooked by materials scientists until a few years ago.' The newly-developed polymer reflects sunlight and emits heat to attain significantly cooler temperatures than typical building materials. Pictured: a diagram of the new material's effect, with the darkest blue at 57F and the brightest yellow at 108F A diagram shows how the material works, reflecting 96 per cent of the sun's light and Yuan Yang, another co-author, said: 'Now is a critical time to develop promising solutions for sustainable humanity. 'This year, we witnessed heat waves and record-breaking temperatures in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. 'It is essential that we find solutions to this climate challenge, and we are very excited to be working on this new technology that addresses it.' The scientists also added dyes to their newly-created polymer to allow for different colours when the product is applied to buildings. Nanfang Yu, one of the researchers, said: 'Achieving a superior balance between colour and cooling performance over current paints is one of the most important aspects of our work. 'For exterior coatings, the choice of colour is often subjective, and paint manufacturers have been trying to make coloured coatings, like those for roofs, for decades. 'Cremnitz white or lead twhite was the choice of great masters, including Rembrandt and Lucian Freud. 'We have now demonstrated that white is in fact the most achievable color.' The study, whose lead author was Jyotirmoy Mandal, has been published in the journal Science. Vegetarian steaks and chicken produced by a 3D printer are on the menu in Barcelona thanks to the efforts of an Italian scientist - but he admits more work is needed to make them look tasty on the plate. Giuseppe Scionti, a researcher from Milan, has developed the meat-free food using protein powder from rice or peas and components of seaweed. Using CAD software Mr Scionti designed a programme to turn the food products, which are inserted into a machine using a syringe, into a long micro-filament which is then shaped into a steak. The product, which begins life as a 'straw-coloured paste', is said to have a similar texture to genuine steaks and is designed to combat the environmental effect of meat production. A piece of real chicken (left) and the 3D-printed chicken, which Italian scientist Giuseppe Scionti has described as a 'fibrous plant-based' meat substitute Using CAD software Mr Scionti designed a programme to turn the food products, which are inserted into a machine using a syringe, into a micro-filament which is then shaped into a steak HOW DOES THE FAKE MEAT COMPARE TO REAL CUTS? Mr Scionti's vege-meats look like real cuts but are said to taste like mushroom. The scientist's 3D-printed steak apparently has a similar texture to genuine steak (file photo below). It has been compared to tofu although it is said to be 'more fibrous than soft'. One chef said the meat substitute cooks 'really well' without burning or sticking to the pan. She said of the steak: 'What's this supposed to replace? Chicken?' Mr Scionti admits that more work is needed to make the meats look tasty on a plate. Advertisement The machine can produce almost a quarter of a pound of raw vegetarian steak in 30 to 50 minutes. Mr Scionti has also developed a chicken substitute, using the 3D printer to create what he calls a 'fibrous plant-based chicken'. The Italian researcher developed his 3D printing machine at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. Mr Scionti said he had already approached restaurant owners about selling his vegetarian food to customers. He said chefs were 'interested in something that looks like a steak but tastes like a mushroom'. The scientist told MailOnline: 'We ate them with multiple journalists, and they thought that the plant-based prototypes possessed a animal meat-like texture. 'The taste of the first prototypes is good, but it does't mimic the taste of animal meat, yet. 'However, that does not worry me, because the technologies to imitate the taste of animal meat have already been developed in the last years, while the main challenge for me was to obtain the animal meat-like consistency and texture, which was not invented yet. Pictured: One of the raw steaks printed by Mr Scionti's invention. The Barcelona-based scientist said the steak needed more work to look like a regular item on a restaurant menu Mr Scionti has also developed a chicken substitute, using the 3D printer to create what he calls a 'fibrous plant-based chicken' (pictured bottom, with a piece of real chicken top) 'There is a great demand for hamburgers in the US, but in the Mediterranean area we usually prefer to eat a piece of actual fibrous meat, and not just products derived from minced meat.' The ingredients were 'all natural, plant-based, non-GMO, and approved for food use anywhere in the world,' he said. He said he was aiming to reach the point where he could produce almost a quarter of a pound of plant-based meat in five to 10 minutes at a cost of less than 50 cents. Mr Scionti said: We are getting closer to reaching Churchill's prediction in 1931, who said that "we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium".' The objective was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, which represent 14.5 per cent of the total greenhouse emissions caused by man, he said. He said the steak needed more work to look like a regular item on a restaurant menu. 'Its appearance can be improved with an investment of time and new prototypes, since this aspect is very important from the consumer's point of view,' he told Spanish newspaper El Pais. He said the cost and time it currently takes to produce the steaks' would fall when he started making them on a larger scale. A cook at the university said: 'They cook really well. They don't burn or stick to the pan.' The Italian researcher developed his 3D printing machine (pictured) to make vegetarian chicken and steak at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain A lake in northern Alaska is so full of methane that it hisses and bubbles on the surface and scientists can set the air above it on fire. Methane in the Esieh Lake is spitting out from below a layer of permafrost and spilling into the air amid rising temperatures in the Arctic, experts believe. Katey Walter Anthony, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has warned that the thawing of permafrost beneath lakes could accelerate climate change. In a video filmed on the frozen Alaskan lake, she lights a flame above the lake which bursts into spectacular flash of fire thanks to the methane escaping from below. As permafrost thaws, lakes appear in the ground which can release ancient underground stores of methane, the Independent reported. Examination of the lake showed that its level dipped where there were clusters of gas bubbles, at one point reaching as far as 50 feet below ground. In the video Ms Walter Anthony lights a flame while a colleague punches a hole in the frozen lake, releasing gases and creating a bright orange burst of fire. Methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere and can be found in animal waste, landfills, coal mines and leaking natural gas pipes. Some 1.5 trillion tons of carbon are also believed to be stored in permafrost, more than double the amount found in the atmosphere. Ms Walter Anthony has described the process, saying: 'If you open the freezer door, you thaw permafrost soil that's been frozen for a long time, and the organic matter in it is decomposed by microbe.' Katey Walter Anthony, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, reveals the vast stores of methane bubbling underneath the frozen lake as she and a colleague punch a hole in the lake before lighting a flame With methane spitting out from under the lake the spark bursts into a spectacular flame on the Alaskan lake. As permafrost thaws, lakes appear in the ground which can release ancient underground stores of methane The methane released into the atmosphere adds to global warming, which in turn leads to faster thawing of the permafrost, she said. She has previously said: 'It's called a positive feedback cycle. The more warming, the more permafrost thaws along lake margins, the more greenhouse gas gets released, contributing to further warming. 'We're interested in whether or not permafrost thaw is accelerating and how much methane will be released as a result.' The lake activity could potentially double the release from terrestrial landscapes by the 2050s, researchers say. Ms Walter Anthony said:'When the lakes form, they flash-thaw these permafrost areas. 'Instead of centimeters of thaw, which is common for terrestrial environments, we've seen 49 feet of thaw beneath newly formed lakes in Goldstream Valley within the past 60 years. 'You can't stop the release of carbon from these lakes once they form. We cannot get around this source of warming.' Examination of the lake showed that its level dipped where there were clusters of gas bubbles, at one point reaching as far as 50 feet below ground The number of people who are killed while taking selfies in dangerous locations is on the rise, according to a new report. An average of 43 people per year have died while taking selfies since 2011, with drowning and falls among the biggest killers. The study shows that men account for seven in ten of these fatalities, while millennial daredevils - those aged 20-29 - make up almost half of selfie deaths. Scientists suggest 'no selfie' zones should be established across the globe to curtail the epidemic of accidental deaths. A number of popular tourist spots in India have already implemented selfie bans this year following a string of recent fatalities. The number of people who are killed while taking selfies in dangerous locations is on the rise, according to a new report. An average of 43 people per year have died while taking selfies since 2011, with drowning and falls among the biggest killers (stock image) SELFIE-RELATED DEATHS The selfie craze began in earnest in 2014, which has been dubbed the 'year of the selfie', sparking a number of tragic photo-related deaths. A US woman died in a highway accident that year just seconds after uploading a selfie of herself enjoying Pharrell Williams' hit Happy on her car stereo. Oscar Otero Aguilar, a young Mexican man, accidentally killed himself as he posed for a 'selfie' with a gun to his head. But the trend has continued beyond 2014. A 24-year old Thai woman was hit and killed by a train in February while attempting to take a picture of herself and her friend on a Bangkok rail track. In June British woman Louise Benson, 37, and her partner Michael Kearns, 33, fell 30 metres to their deaths after toppling off a beach wall in Ericeira, Portugal. Advertisement Study lead author Dr Agam Bansal, from the India Institute of Medical Sciences, said: 'Selfies are themselves not harmful, but the human behaviour that accompanies selfies is dangerous. 'Individuals need to be educated regarding certain risky behaviours and risky places where selfies should not be taken. 'No selfie zones' should be declared across many areas, especially near water bodies, mountain peaks, and over tall buildings, to decrease the incidence of selfie-related deaths.' Researchers conducted the largest ever review of fatalities caused by posing for self-shot photographs. They analysed newspaper clippings from English-speaking nations from across the world, noting the gender, age and cause of death of each victim. In total, the team documented some 259 selfie-linked deaths worldwide between October 2011 and November 2017. Drowning (70), being struck by a vehicle (51) or suffering a fall (48) were the most common causes of death. Meanwhile eight involved 'animals', 16 electrocution and 11 firearms. Men were found to be more likely than women to die while taking a selfie - with 73 per cent of victims being male. And while the researchers, writing in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, acknowledge that selfies are an important form of 'self expression', they say deaths are rising 'exponentially'. The study shows that men account for seven in ten of these fatalities, while millennial daredevils - those aged 20-29 - make up almost half of selfie deaths (stock image) Dr Bansal added: 'Although our study has enlisted the largest number of selfie deaths and incidents to date, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many cases are not reported.' Almost half of all selfie deaths occurred in 2029 year age group followed by 36 per cent of deaths in 1019 year age group. The highest number of deaths has been reported in India with the state of Goa bringing in official 'no selfie' zones in June this year followed by Russia, the USA, and Pakistan. The research team called for better reporting of 'selfie' related mishaps. They said: 'Selfies are never reported as an official cause of death. 'It is believed that selfie deaths are underreported and the true problem needs to be addressed.' In June this year British woman Louise Benson, 37, and her partner Michael Kearns, 33, fell 30 metres to their deaths after toppling off a beach wall in Ericeira, Portugal. The study has also been welcomed by a leading UK surgeon. Christopher Inglefield, medical director of the London Bridge Plastic Surgery and Aesthetic Clinic, said: 'This research reinforces the huge upsurge in selfie culture in the last decade. 'And while we should never criticise those who snap safely, the trend does raise some important questions. 'My message would be to love yourself, not your selfie.' A hacker claimed he would take down Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page in a live broadcast before appearing to pull out of the audacious plan. Taiwanese hacker Chang Chi-yuan told his 27,000 followers he would target the Facebook founder's own account this Sunday. But on Friday afternoon he said he would instead demand money from Facebook in return for flagging up the glitch to Facebook, saying he had not expected the world's media to pick up on his plans. Chang describes himself as a 'bug bounty-hunter' who claims to have exposed flaws in a series of high-profile companies' security systems, Bloomberg reports. Taiwanese hacker Chang Chi-yuan - a self-described 'bug bounty hunter' told his 27,000 followers he would target Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's (pictured) own account In the post he said: 'Broadcasting the deletion of Facebook founder Zuck's account. Scheduled to go live'. Later he wrote in a comment: 'I am canceling my live feed. I have reported the bug to Facebook and I will show proof when i get bounty from Facebook.' Some commenters had criticised his plans, with one saying: 'Listen man, if you really have a bug that can take over Zuck's page, I don't recommended you do it. 'You can just inform them about that bug and you will get rewarded for this.' Another said: 'Its really sad to prove your strength by hurting others.' Chang has more than 27,000 followers on Facebook while Zuckerberg, who founded the website in 2004, has more than 118 million. The Taiwanese social media celebrity has previously said: 'I don't want to be a proper hacker, and I don't even want to be a hacker at all. 'I'm just bored and try to dabble so that I can earn some money.' He claims to have targeted the software of major corporations including Apple and Elon Musk's Tesla. In another incident he was reportedly sued by a bus company after saying he had bought a ticket for one New Taiwanese dollar (three U.S. cents). In 2013 a Palestinian hacker wrote a post on Zuckerberg's public Facebook wall in what he said was an effort to reveal a weakness in the site's security. Chang has more than 27,000 followers on Facebook while Zuckerberg, who founded the website in 2004, has more than 118 million. Chang claims to have exposed flaws in a series of high-profile companies' security systems But Facebook said it was not a bug and denied him any reward for reporting a glitch in the website. Zuckerberg has previously been targeted on other social media platforms by hacking group OurMine which claimed to have changed his biography on Pinterest. The group OurMine briefly altered the Facebook CEO's tagline to read: 'Don't worry, we are just testing your security'. In 2016 the group also claimed it had gained access to the password and phone number associated with his Twitter account. Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world's biggest shipping group, has said one its cargo vessels has successfully passed through the Russian Arctic on a one-off trial journey as a result of melting sea ice. Palle Laursen, Maersk's chief technical officer, said 'the trial allowed us to gain exceptional operational experience'. Mr Laursen adding the Venta Maersk and all systems aboard performed well in the unfamiliar environment. Scroll down for video Danish firm Maersk announced it has sent a new ship loaded with a reinforced hull and a capacity of 3,600 containers into the polar sea for the first time. The container Vessel, dubbed Venta Maersk, will travel between St Petersburg and Vladivostok over the top of Russia The world's largest shipping company is trialling a 'shortcut' trade route through the Arctic as global warming thaws open the infamous Northeast Passage. Mr Laursen said the ship arrived in St Petersburg on Friday, after leaving Russia's Pacific port city of Vladivostok on August 22. The vessel passed through the Bering Strait on September 6. The Northern Sea Route could be a shorter route for journeys from East Asia to Europe than the Northwest Passage over Canada because it will likely be free of ice sooner due to climate change. Janina von Spalding, spokeswoman for Maersk, said its new ice class container vessel would embark on a trial journey in the Arctic route over Russia next month. Pictured is the firm's Munkebo Maersk container ship on the River Thames in 2015 The container vessel, dubbed Venta Maersk, will traveled between the cities of St Petersburg and Vladivostok over the top of Russia. Experts say it could reduce the most commonly used East Asia-Europe route via the Suez Canal from 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometres) to 8,000 miles (12,800 kilometres), cutting transit time by 10-15 days. Typically vessels taking this icy route have required an ice-breaker escort, but rising global temperatures are making the passage easier to traverse. It was first navigated by Finnish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiold in 1879. Industry experts believe Maersk's trip could mark tipping point for shipping and the Arctic. Malte Humpert, founder and senior fellow of the Arctic Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, told NPR: 'It's not a major, dramatic shift, it's just a kind of sequential development. 'The ice is melting and more things are becoming possible in the Arctic, and with that, of course ... comes enhanced risk for the environment.' Janina von Spalding, spokesperson for Maersk, said its new ice class container vessel would embark on a trial journey in the Arctic route over Russia next month. It left Russia's Pacific port city of Vladivostok around September 1 with a cargo of frozen fish and sail to St. Petersburg where it will arrive by the end of the month. 'In today's fast-paced world, companies that want to lead must innovate,' Ms von Spalding said. Melting ice in the Central Arctic Stefan Hendricks/Alfred Wegener/PA) The trial 'will offer us a unique opportunity to gain operational experience in a new area and to test vessel systems, crew capabilities and the functionality of the shore based support setup,' she added. 'I think it is important to underline that this is a one-off trial designed to explore an unknown route for container shipping and to collect scientific data - and not the launch of a new product,' she said. The Northern Sea Route could be a shorter route for journeys from East Asia to Europe than the Northwest Passage over Canada. This is because it will likely be free of ice sooner due to climate change. The transit route was coordinated with Russian authorities after careful evaluation of ice conditions. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NORTHEAST PASSAGE The Northeast Passage was first proposed as a trade route as early as the 11th Century. Russian sailors hoped the route could provide a quick way to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but few got very far. It wasn't until 1878-79 that Finnish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiold made the first complete passage of the Northeast Passage. The Arctic route is laced with thick sea ice, even in the summer months, making it a treacherous place to sail even today. Even the largest of container ships need a reinforced hull to break through the region's ice, and most must be led by specialised ice-breaker vessels. But experts suggest that the effects of global warming could soften the route and make it easier for ships to pass through. Advertisement Ice breaker assistance will be at hand throughout the route, the Copenhagen-based group said. 'Currently, we do not see the Northern Sea Route as a commercial alternative to our existing network which is defined by our customers' demand, trading patterns and population centers,' von Spalding added. The Northeast Passage was first proposed as a trade route as early as the 11th Century. The trial 'will offer us a unique opportunity to gain operational experience in a new area and to test vessel systems, crew capabilities and the functionality of the shore based support setup,' according to Maersk (file photo) VENTA MAERSK SPECS Maiden voyage: September 2018 Length: 200m (650ft) Width: 36m (118 ft) Carries: 3,600 containers Built by: Maersk Designed for: Cargo journeys through ice sheets Advertisement Russian sailors hoped the route could open up a quick way to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but few got very far. It wasn't until 1878-79 that Finnish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiold made the first complete passage of the Northeast Passage. The Arctic route is laced with thick sea ice, even in the summer months, making it a treacherous place to sail even today. Even the largest of container ships need a reinforced hull to break through the region's ice, and most must be led by specialised ice-breaker vessels. But experts suggest that the effects of global warming could soften the route and make it easier for ships to pass through. Kathmandu, Nepal: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli met with Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres in New York on Friday. During the bilateral meeting discussion were held on ranges of issues including the assistance between Nepal and the UN. According to the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the UN Secretary-General Guterres reiterated the pledge to continue UN assistance to Nepal for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). China is planning to bring its second space lab back to Earth in July 2019 in a 'controlled deorbit', the country's space agency has revealed. It comes just six months after the country's first space lab, named Tiangong-1, made international news when it infamously plummeted out of orbit in an uncontrolled descent. It fell into the South Pacific Ocean in April, mostly burning up in the atmosphere before it reached the ocean. Scroll down for video China's second experimental space station has dropped its orbit, sparking fears it could come crashing back to Earth. Tiangong-2 (artist's impression) was observed plummeting around 60 miles (95 km) toward the surface of the planet, remaining there for ten days 'Tiangong-2 has fulfilled its mission during the two-year time, and all the loads are now in good condition,' said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, according to state media. 'It will be in orbit until July 2019, and then will be controlled to deorbit.' In 2016, two astronauts spent a month inside Tiangong-2 as part of China's longest-ever crewed space mission. According to state media, they conducted experiments related to medicine, physics and biology. Tiangong-2 is the second Chinese experimental space station. It was launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket on 15 September 2016. The 34 ft (10.4 m) long, 14 ft (4.2 m) wide station weighs 19,000 lb (8,600 kg), and is being used for 'testing systems and processes for mid-term space stays and refuelling,' according to the Chinese State. It is conducting experiments ahead of a Chinese space station planned for 2022. The Tiangong-2 spacecraft was recently observed plummeting around 60 miles (95 km) toward the surface of the planet. It has since returned to its normal orbital height, sparking speculation that China may be preparing to decommission the vessel in the near future. China will be hoping to avoid an embarrassing repeat of the events of April, when the nation's out-of-control Tiangong-1 space station returned to Earth with a bang. China launched its second experimental space station in September 2016. The successful launch (pictured) was seen as a sign of the growing sophistication of the country's military-backed space program, which also intends to send a mission to Mars in the coming years Tiangong-1 was launched in September 2011 and spent at least five years in operation before it 'ceased functioning' in March 2016, according to the Chinese space agency officials. It was not revealed why it had suddenly stopped working. The Tiangong program (Tiangong means 'Heavenly Palace' in English) is intended as the initial steps towards China's ultimate space goal: launching a permanent space station around 2022. But a space station is just one part of the Chinese government's wide-ranging ambitions when it comes to its space program. In August, Beijing unveiled the rover it was planning to send to explore the 'dark side' of the moon later in 2018, while the launch of the country's first Mars probe is planned for 2020. 'Our overall goal is that, by around 2030, China will be among the major space powers of the world,' Wu Yanhua, deputy chief of China's national space agency, told reporters in 2016. China's out of control Tiangong-1 space station smashed into Earth at 17,000mph off the coast of Tahiti on April 2, 2018, and mostly disintegrated as it hit the planet's atmosphere Tiangong-1 spiralled out of control, with little certainty possible about when and where it might land. China's controlled thrust tests, lowering and raising the satellite on command, hint at a desire to bring the station down at a time and place of their choosing. While it is unclear exactly when they plan to do so, an area known as the 'satellite graveyard' seems a likely location for touch down. This is a region of the South Pacific Ocean commonly used by Russian and US space agencies to dump debris. To track the satellite's orbital path above the Earth in realtime, visit Satview. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT CHINA'S TIANGONG-2 SPACE STATION? Tiangong-2 is the second Chinese experimental space station. It was launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket on 15 September 2016. The module is being used for 'testing systems and processes for mid-term space stays and refuelling,' according to the Chinese State. This is being achieved via the crewed Shenzhou-11 and uncrewed Tianzhou-1 cargo missions. Tiangong-2 is the second Chinese experimental space station (artist's impression). It was launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket on 15 September 2016 Tiangong-2 also houses experiments in medicine and various space-related technologies. The lab is equipped with 14 instruments, including the worlds most accurate time piece, according to reports in Chinese state media. The Cold Atomic Clock in Space developed by researchers in Shanghai can easily be lifted by two people and would fit comfortably in the boot of a car, The South China Post reported at the time of its launch. Polar, a gamma-ray burst detector developed by an international team of experts, stopped working on April 1, 2017 due to a power failure. However, it did manage to gather data during its six months of operations, with the results due to be published in 2018. The vessel has a crew size of two, with 30 days of life support resources. In October 2017, Chinese astronauts spent a 30-day stay on the station - China's longest stay in space. It is 34 ft (10.4 m) long, 14 ft (4.2 m) in diameter and has a mass of 19,000 lb (8,600 kg). It is conducting experiments ahead of a Chinese space station planned for 2022. Advertisement Tiangong-2 is the second Chinese experimental space station. It was launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket on 15 September 2016. It is 34 ft (10.4 m) long, 14 ft (4.2 m) in diameter and has a mass of 19,000 lb (8,600 kg). The module is being used for 'testing systems and processes for mid-term space stays and refuelling,' according to the Chinese State. It is conducting experiments ahead of a Chinese space station planned for 2022. In October 2017, Chinese astronauts spent a 30-day stay on the station - China's longest stay in space. China's out of control Tiangong-1 space station smashed into Earth at 17,000 mph (27,358 kph) off the coast of Tahiti on April 2, 2018, and mostly disintegrated as it hit the planet's atmosphere. China's defunct Tiangong 1 space station hurtled towards Earth and re-entered the atmosphere before touching down. It is pictured here in an undated radar image The demise of the nine-ton space station had been the subject of scientific speculation for months amid fears large chunks of it could come down near population centres. Experts had been unable to predict where the installation, which is roughly the size of a school bus, would come down but in the end it re-entered the earth's atmosphere over the South Pacific. The craft re-entered the atmosphere around 8.15am Beijing time (12.15am GMT) and the 'vast majority' of it had burnt up upon re-entry, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said at the time. Authorities said any debris from the space station would be carrying hydrazine - a high toxic rocket fuel - and warned people to refrain from touching it or inhaling its fumes. U.S. investigators failed in a recent courtroom effort to force Facebook to wiretap voice calls over its Messenger app in a closely watched test case, according to two people briefed on the sealed ruling. Members of a joint federal and state task force probing the international criminal gang MS-13 had tried in August to hold Facebook in contempt of court for failing to carry out a wiretap order, Reuters reported last month. Arguments were heard in a sealed proceeding in a U.S. District Court in Fresno, California weeks before 16 suspected gang members were indicted there, but the judge ruled in Facebook's favor, the sources said. Scroll down for video U.S. investigators failed in a recent courtroom effort to force Facebook to wiretap voice calls over its Messenger app in a closely watched test case. The details of his reasoning were not available. The government's request had alarmed technology executives and privacy advocates. Officials in the United States and other Western countries are stepping up attempts to ban or limit strong encryption and expand their wiretapping capabilities. An affidavit by an FBI agent filed publicly in the Fresno criminal proceedings said that at the time of the arrests, law enforcement could not monitor any Messenger calls. Telecommunications companies are required to give police access to calls under federal law, but many apps that rely solely on internet infrastructure are exempt. Facebook contended Messenger was covered by that exemption. The public court filings showed the government was intercepting all ordinary phone calls and Messenger texts between the accused gang members. The FBI affidavit cited three Messenger calls that investigators were unable to hear. The participants in those calls are now in jail pending trial. Neither prosecutors nor Facebook would answer questions about the Fresno U.S. Attorney's office attempt to hold Facebook in contempt or about the underlying wiretap request, including why the matter was dismissed. The judge heard oral arguments on the contempt motion on Aug. 14. Facebook and a Department of Justice spokeswoman declined to comment. FBI agent Ryan Yetter, in the affidavit dated Aug. 30, wrote 'currently, there is no practical method available by which law enforcement can monitor' calls on Messenger. The affidavit was filed in support of a criminal complaint against members of MS-13, which is active in the United States and Central America. Facebook is arguing in court that Messenger voice calls are encrypted end-to-end, meaning that only the two parties have access to the conversation MS-13 also known as Mara Salvatrucha is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s. The gang's activities later spread to many parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America. U.S. President Donald Trump frequently uses the gang to symbolize what he faults as lax U.S. immigration policy. Most of the 16 gang suspects were arrested by Aug. 30, and the indictment was issued on Sep. 13. Including charges by California state, more than two dozen people were accused of murder and other crimes. More information about the government's court tussle with Facebook may come to light through lawyers for the 16 defendants. Mark Broughton, an attorney for one of the defendants, Denis Barrera-Palma, said he would soon start receiving the government's evidence. If the prosecutors' application to wiretap Facebook Messenger voice calls is not included, Broughton said he would ask for it. 'I would be interested in seeing, or trying to get an order unsealing that information to properly represent my client,' Broughton said. WHAT IS MS-13? President Donald Trump said in May that he 'is committed to protecting communities from the violent animals of MS-13'. MS-13 is a transnational gang that has committed horrendous acts of violence across America. The gangs motto is mata, viola, controla which means kill, rape, control'. There are more than 10,000 MS-13 members in the US and more than 30,000 worldwide. The gang (file image) has become a prime target of President Donald Trump's administration MS-13 leaders in the US often communicate and take orders from gang leaders in El Salvador. Long Island communities have been strongly impacted by the violence and suffering spread by MS-13. Police suspect the gang was involved in at least 25 killings on Long Island between 2016 and 2018. President Trump believes loopholes need to be eliminated to combat MS-13: Transnational gangs such as MS-13 take advantage of our porous borders and seek to use our current immigration system to their advantage. MS-13 has sought to use the influx of unaccompanied alien children entering the US for recruitment. Source: White House Advertisement Barrera-Palma faces federal counts of assault with a deadly weapon and drug conspiracy, and California charges of murder conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to the federal counts and has not yet entered a plea in state court. The still-private filings in the skirmish with Facebook might explain why federal officials picked Messenger's voice calls as a target. One matter judges weigh in wiretap matters is how much of a burden it would be for the company to help. In contrast to Facebook's WhatsApp messaging app and a separate part of Messenger called secret conversations, Facebook plays a small technical role facilitating Messenger voice calls, making interception possible with some effort. Nevertheless, Facebook maintained it could not be ordered to alter its software or hack its user in order to help the FBI. Apple made a similar argument in refusing to break into a terrorist's iPhone in 2016. Advertisement Looming out of the turquoise blue a whale shark measuring around 26 feet long silently swam towards me. I wasn't sure how I would feel meeting the world's largest fish - especially growing up with a fear of the sea - but I felt completely at ease as the gentle giant glided alongside me with its spotted skin shimmering in the sun. Earlier that day I'd asked Richard Somerset, a territory director for the diver training organisation Padi, to sum up the whale shark in three words, and I could now see how his reply - 'big, mysterious and beautiful' - fits the bill perfectly. MailOnline Travel's Sadie Whitelocks attended a diving festival on the island of Dhidhoofinolhu in the Maldives where she had a close encounter with a whale shark Sadie's home during the watery festival - the Lux South Ari Atoll resort. Whale sharks are seen in the waters here all year round I was diving with Somerset and a crew from Padi, including the firm's CEO, Dr Drew Richardson, during an underwater festival in the Maldives, which has been running for the past ten years out at the luxury Lux resort on the southern island of Dhidhoofinolhu. This year it was run in collaboration with Padi. During the week-long event, I'd learned how little we know about the whale shark and how the species is currently listed as 'endangered' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (Icun), due to human threat. Abdul Basith Mohamed, a project co-ordinator at the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme, told us how 54 per cent of whale sharks sport human-related injuries with many of them hit by fishing boats or by tourist vessels. In some parts of the world, the large fish - which can grow up to 40 feet long - is also illegally hunted for its meat with the fins sold to restaurants in Asia for highly prized shark fin soup. The whale shark is currently listed as 'endangered' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. They are sometimes injured by boats and many are illegally hunted. This is the whale shark that Sadie encountered Sea-ing the sights: Sadie during one of the excursions during the underwater festival Whale shark tourism is booming in the Maldives. Above, a diver next to the whale shark Sadie spotted WHALE SHARK FACTS Whale sharks are the largest fish on the planet. They are in no way related to whales. Although they are sharks, they are very docile and pose no real threats to humans. The giant fish can reach up to 46 feet in length. Whale sharks can weigh up to 12 tons. That's 24,000 pounds or nearly 11,000 kilos. The fish are filter feeders and sieve plankton through their gills for much of their nourishment. They also sieve squid, krill, and small fish. Whale sharks have about 3,000 tiny teeth (less than 6mm long) but they don't use those teeth to eat. They aren't the fastest swimmers, reaching speeds no higher than 5kph (3mph). They swim by moving their bodies from side to side, unlike other sharks like the great white, which just use their tails to swim. Source: goodnature.nathab.com Advertisement In the past, the oil from the liver was used to waterproof boats and it was sold to shoe polish manufacturers. Now, thanks to organisations such as Padi and the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme, efforts are being made to save the whale shark from extinction and enforce restrictions around tourism. On the day I swam with the whale shark, there were ten of us snorkelling in the water but marine scientist Clara Canovas Perez told me that sometimes there can be up to 200 swimmers in one spot, all clamouring to see one of the planet's most fascinating and elusive creatures. Whale shark tourism is booming in the Maldives and the Lux South Ari Atoll resort is located in prime whale shark territory with sightings of young males occurring all year round. Apparently in 2013, whale shark tourism attracted around 76,000 visitors over a 12-month period in this area alone and brought in $4million (3million). Divers are dwarfed by a giant whale shark as it swims above them in the turquoise waters. This image was taken during Sadie's trip Mexico, Belize, the Galapagos Islands and Indonesia are other spots where whale sharks are frequently encountered (stock image) Whale sharks are frequently seen close to the water's surface as they come up from the deep to regulate their body temperature so they're easy prey for tourists (stock image) Mexico, Belize, the Galapagos Islands and Indonesia are other locations where whale sharks are frequently encountered. Many people in the Maldives are now lobbying for a limit on the number of tourist boats out in an area at any one time. The South Ari atoll was listed as a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in 2009, encompassing a coral reef habitat of 42 square kilometres (16 square miles) but regulating the number of tourists appears to be a difficult task. The day we ventured out to track whale sharks on the coast, I spotted more than a dozen boats bobbing around, with speedboats zipping around larger liveaboards. 'It's not a good experience for the whale shark or the tourists when there are too many people out there,' Dr Richardson told me later that day over dinner. 'There's been footage captured of some people riding the whale sharks and grabbing their dorsal fins. It's pretty horrific!' Whale sharks are frequently seen close to the water's surface as they come up from the deep to regulate their body temperature so they're easy prey for tourists. They might have 3,000 tiny teeth, but these giant creatures aren't up for a fight and they prefer feeding on plankton and small fish rather than nipping back at pesky humans. 'Big, mysterious and beautiful' are definitely words I would use to describe the whale shark, with 'defenceless' being an adjective I would add to the mix. It's an incredible experience seeing these creatures up close but as the scientists I spoke to point out, treating them with respect and giving them room to breathe makes these underwater encounters all the more magical. Advertisement The cheapest destination for a cultural break has been revealed - and it's Budapest that's the best value for money. A study looked at the prices in 18 cities for visiting cultural attractions such as museums, art galleries, a heritage landmark, a dance performance, an opera and a classical concert. New York was rated as the most expensive city for culture with London also faring badly - despite the fact most museums and art galleries are free to visit. New research has revealed that Budapest is the best value for money when it comes to visiting cultural attractions on a city break. Pictured is the Hungarian National Museum The research was carried out by Post Office Travel Money as part of its annual 'cost of culture report'. In Budapest, researchers found it would cost a total of just 59.70 to visit the Hungarian National Gallery, the Hungarian National Museum, Matthias Church, an opera at the Erkel Theatre, a ballet at the Mupa Festival Theatre and a classical concert at the National Concert Hall. This is over 46 per cent less than a year ago, mainly due to a big fall in the cost of a classical concert ticket from 70 a year ago to 13.30 this autumn. The second cheapest cultural city is Polish capital Warsaw (down 1.7 per cent to 92.36) and Prague (up six per cent to 99.20) is third cheapest, making it a clean sweep for Eastern Europe at the top of the table. A table produced by Post Office Travel Money, which shows the breakdown of costs for visiting different cultural attractions The overall prices in all three Eastern capitals were less than a third those in Madrid, the most expensive European city surveyed at 330.21. Prices in another Spanish city, Barcelona (223.27), were over 100 lower than in Madrid and 29 per cent down on last autumn. Other cities where prices fell included Brussels (164.66, down 22.3 per cent); Amsterdam (237.45, down 7.3 per cent); London (266.80, down 5.5 per cent); Stockholm (158.18, down 5.2 per cent) and Paris (281.34, down 2.1 per cent). Dublin, emerges as cheapest in the Eurozone as it costs 138.4 to visit its six cultural highlights. Some of the cheapest places to go for culture. The table shows that several of the most famous museums in Europe are free These were less than half the price of those researched in three of Europe's most celebrated cultural cities - Paris (281.34), Milan (283.16) and Vienna (283.53). New York was again the most expensive city surveyed. At 365.69, its six cultural attractions cost a third more than in London. However, an opera ticket to see Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera (154.79) costs less than a visit to La Scala in Milan (La Finta Giadiniera, 184.55) and ballet is cheaper in New York than in Moscow, Madrid or Vienna. In sharp contrast to the lower ticket prices found in many top cultural capitals, there were big increases in others, notably Moscow. The high cost of a Bolshoi Ballet ticket at the Bolshoi's Historic Stage accounts for this increase 132.22 this October compared with half that amount (65) last year. A table showing some of the most expensive cultural experiences. The most costly is watching an opera at La Scala Opera House in Milan The most expensive city to visit for culture is New York. Pictured is the most expensive art gallery on the list to enter, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Big Apple Andrew Brown, spokesperson for Post Office Travel Money, said: 'While every city we surveyed boasts world-class cultural attractions, the prices fluctuate from year to year. 'It is worth doing your homework and checking what performances are scheduled for the dates of your visit before booking a city break as the cost can vary dramatically depending on the venue, orchestra and ballet or opera company. That is exactly what we found in Moscow and several other cities this year. 'The cost will also vary depending on individual tastes in culture. Opera lovers are likely to pay more than people who want to see an orchestral work and that cost can be very significant in cities boasting the most famous opera houses. 'By contrast, art lovers will find that many of Europe's leading heritage sites are free to visit. So are some of the world's top museums and galleries like London's British Museum and National Gallery. 'Culture vultures can also save a lot of money if they know the ropes. Afternoon ballet and opera performances often cost less than evening ones and galleries across Europe are free on specific days of the month or cheaper if visited late in the day.' Traditionally, airport lounges have been touted as havens of luxury and tranquillity for those rich enough to afford business class tickets. But U.S pilot and author of the best-selling Cockpit Confidential, Patrick Smith, has complained that they are currently in a crisis. They are, he says, increasingly not places 'to escape the noise and bustle of the terminal', but are in fact often 'jam-packed' with noise levels 'off the charts' thanks to babies and toddlers. U.S pilot and author of the best-selling Cockpit Confidential, Patrick Smith, has complained airport lounges are currently in a crisis. File image of lounge used He made his observations in a blog post titled 'The Airport Lounge Crisis' in which he states the strict rules he would apply for access to lounges and picks out the best and worst lounges he's experienced. But first he laments a decline in airport lounge standards. He writes: 'I've always thought the airport lounge was supposed to be an exclusive sort of place where premium class passengers could escape the noise and bustle of the terminal. 'This is increasingly not the case. 'The main issue is overcrowding. Lounges are often so jam-packed that customers are forced to stand. I've seen lines going literally out the door. Noise levels, meanwhile, are off the charts, often because the property is overloaded with babies and toddlers. 'And here comes the waitstaff with their carts. They're flinging dishes into the bin, rapid-fire, and it's BANG, CLANG, SMASH, BANG, SMASH, CLANG. 'What was intended to be a place of comfort and relaxation has become a cross between a day-care center and a cafeteria.' He adds: 'I remember the first time I stepped into the Cathay Pacific business lounge in Hong Kong, and how, not knowing better, I was literally nervous. Mr Smith wrote on his blog post: 'What was intended to be a place of comfort and relaxation has become a cross between a day-care center and a cafeteria' (stock image) 'I had this idea that I was underdressed that everyone inside would look like James Bond, and that I'd be seen as an interloper and asked to leave. 'Instead, here was a room overflowing with the same people you'd see in any shopping mall, most of them younger than me, in cargo shorts and ball caps, wolfing down beer and noodles. 'This is by no means across the board, of course. It's hit or miss, depending on the airport, the airline, and the time of day. The trend, though, isn't a good one.' The cause, he says, is twofold. He continues: 'More people are flying than ever before, in all classes, and/or with whatever mileage or frequent flyer status gets you in. On top of that, a growing number of passengers are using third-party perks to gain entry. Having an American Express platinum card, for example.' Mr Smith's rules for lounge access would be, he says: 1. For first and business class passengers only. No third-party (Amex, etc.) entry unless capacity is below 75 per cent. 2. One guest per passenger. 3. No guests for third-party customers. 4. No children under four years-old. Period, no exceptions. His favourite lounge, he says, is the Emirates lounge in Dubai. And his least favourite the Turkish Airlines business class lounge at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport. Though this airport is closing soon. Advertisement No wonder they call it the Queen of the Skies - it brought air travel to the mass market, has two decks and has the highest cruising speed of any current airliner (mach 0.855/650mph). The Boeing 747 has definitely cemented its place in aviation history - and these incredible pictures show the beginning of its story as it celebrates the 50th anniversary of its launch this weekend. They show the very first model to roll off the production line, the first commercial flight and, comically, how it was too big for some hangars. The origins of the aircraft date to the early 1960s when Boeing's then chief Bill Allen was approached by Juan Trippe, head of now-defunct Pan Am Airlines, to build a bigger plane to address the growing problem of airport crowding. Boeing originally considered a fully double-decked aircraft, but the companies were concerned that it would be difficult to evacuate it in case of an emergency, opting instead for a twin-aisle 'wide body' design with an upper forward deck. The massive jet required the construction of the enormous 747 assembly plant in Everett, Washington, the world's largest building by volume. Since it rolled off the production line on September 30, 1968, more than 1,500 747s have been delivered, and 500 are still in service. Now 50 years on, the 747 is being phased out of service in favour of the Boeing 777, which is believed to be more cost effective for airlines. Scroll down for a memory lane fly-past. Boeing president Bill Allen and the CEO of the former Pan Am airline Juan Trippe (right) celebrate the launch of the Boeing 747 'jumbo jet' in 1968. The longtime friends finalised a deal on selling the aircraft to Pan Am with a handshake while on a fishing trip After the first Boeing 747 rolled off the production line at the Boeing plant in Washington state, all of the company's employees gathered on the tarmac to celebrate their achievement May 1970: The arrival of the first Boeing 747 at London's Heathrow Airport Richard A. Pickett, Denver passenger sales manager for Continental Airlines, checks reading material aboard CAL's Denver-based Boeing 747 jumbo jet with stewardess Elaine Williams in 1971 First class passengers in a BOAC Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet are served lunch A steward and stewardess serving first-class passengers with drinks and refreshments on board a Boeing 747 The world's largest commercial jetliner, the Boeing 747, takes off for the first time in Everett, Washington, in 1969 A US pilot and a navigating officer sitting into a Boeing 747's cockpit in 1969 The first Pan American Airline's Boeing 747 arrives at Tokyo International Airport on March 11, 1970 The vast size of the 747 is readily apparent in this picture at the Boeing plant of one parked next to its ancestor, the Boeing 707-321B The Boeing 747 was so much bigger than other planes of the time that they often were unable to fully fit into hangars, as this comical image shows This picture shows a 747 on the tarmac in January 1970 in New York ahead of the model's first commercial flight. In the foreground are the flight crew and some of the cabin crew that made the historic journey Pictured is the first ever Boeing 747 made soaring through the skies in January 1970 An air hostess serves passengers from a 20 inch-wide aisle running the length of a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747's economy section Passengers relaxing on board a new Pan American World Airways Boeing 747 Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC, holding up a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background at London's Heathrow Airport in March 1969 The world's largest jetliner, the Boeing 747 is rolled out for public view in September 1969 as excited crowds gather around to inspect it A Boeing 747 landing on the runway at sunset with Windsor Castle in the distance behind Photographers and staff gathered on the tarmac to greet the first ever 747 to touch down on British soil - at London's Heathrow Airport The 747 was known not just known for its technological achievements but also for its glamour. With a lounge, cocktail service and sometimes even a piano, it held the promise of an elegant, relaxing travel experience The first class cabin of a 747 Pan Am jet featuring a flight attendant pouring champagne for passengers. Over 1,500 747s have been built Pilots sit in the cockpit and discuss the flight plan during the opening of the first Paris to New York air link on a Boeing 747 Both Pan Am and Air France Boeing 747s line up around a terminal at Paris Orly Airport in April 1970 One of Britain's top holiday hotspots - Cornwall - is getting overcrowded during peak months because of a massive Airbnb boom, the county's tourist board has revealed. The staggering increase in Airbnb properties in Cornwall apparently played a major part in the county's overcrowding issues over the summer - gridlocked roads, crowded beaches and packed car parks. Visit Cornwall said that while there were just 17 Airbnb properties around the county in January 2016, there were 6,300 last January and about 9,000 in August. Cornwall, one of Britain's tourist hotspots, is getting overcrowded during peak months because of a massive boom in Airbnb. Above, heavy traffic on the Tamar Bridge between Cornwall and Devon And boss Malcolm Bell said a combination of glorious sunshine and balmy temperatures in June and July and an increase in the number of people trying to cash in by putting their home on sites such as Airbnb or Home Away, was to blame for record numbers of visitors. Mr Bell, the chief executive officer of Visit Cornwall, told reporters that he believes the Duchy was so close to full capacity during the month of August that it would not have taken much more to tip the scales. Mr Bell said Cornwall needs and wants tourists to come and stay and spend their money here. He believes local residents understand and accept that tourism is the lifeblood of the Cornish economy and a 'necessary evil'. But extra visitors year on year, partly due to the Airbnb phenomenon, could have a 'detrimental effect' on the whole tourism sector because there 'comes a point when too many people is too much and Cornwall's infrastructure and permanent population can no longer cope'. Large crowds gather on Gyllyngvase beach to watch The Red Arrows perform a display as part of Falmouth Week in Cornwall He continued: 'The weather has certainly been a factor in attracting more people down. The fact the A30 is open also means many people who live in Exeter or Tiverton can be down in Cornwall for the weekend or the day in less than 90 minutes without the roadworks at Temple. 'But Airbnb has definitely added an extra 15 per cent in visitor numbers this year which means in August we were close to being full. 'Their contribution to the economy in May, June and July and September is much welcome but if we have 15 per cent more people year on year in August the scenes we've seen with car parks being full and locals and visitors not being able to get anywhere because they're stuck in traffic will happen more and more often. 'The last thing we want is for local people to become increasingly annoyed and frustrated with tourists. We want visitors to have the best experience possible and if they don't then they won't come back.' Mr Bell said the perfect scenario is for visitors to come to Cornwall all year round not all at once - or at least over a staggered holiday period in the summer months. Cornwall basked in rare glorious sunshine for six weeks this summer. But the attractiveness of Cornwall also led to scenes of beaches covered with beach towels and windbreaks. Meanwhile clogged up roads and slow moving traffic along the A30 and A38 became the norm and car parking spaces were at a premium. In one instance, Pedn Vounder beach, which is barely accessible at the best of times, apparently was in such demand that an entire village became a no-go zone. Pedn Vounder beach (pictured above), which is barely accessible at the best of times, was in such demand that an entire village nearby became a no-go zone Visitors were said to have flocked to the place to the point of saturation with the village of Treen, perched above, coming to a stand still on several occasions this summer. To keep tourist levels at a manageable amount, Mr Bell believes there is one easy fix. 'We had 180,000 visitors a day in Cornwall in August with an extra 20,000 on top of that thanks to Airbnb. If you think there are only 500,000 people living in Cornwall, we can see how we were so close to being at full capacity. 'There is a fine balance between having tourists enjoy themselves and spending their money in local shops and having them and local people being annoyed, visitors not coming back and the impact too many people has on the environment. 'There is one solution. Stagger the school holidays like they do in Germany. That way you extend the holiday season for nine weeks instead of six which is good for businesses and you ease the pressure.' Visit Cornwall said it is not against Airbnb altogether but is campaigning to see the tech giant work with tourism bodies so all Airbnb 'for rent properties' in Cornwall and beyond comply with the same rules and regulations B&B and hotels have to adhere to, are registered with the local authority and pay fines for no compliance. San Francisco-based Airbnb claims that it provides a useful service by helping visitors find affordable temporary lodging while enabling homeowners to supplement their income. A spokesperson for Airbnb told MailOnline Travel: 'As the travel industry grows, Airbnb helps spread tourism benefits beyond hotels to local families, their communities, and local businesses. 'Guests using Airbnb accounted for just 5.8 per cent of the visitors to Cornwall last year, and the typical host on Airbnb is sharing their home for fewer than three nights per month. Hosts and guests using Airbnb boosted the South West economy by 295 million last year alone.' This summer's skies were the busiest on record for the UK, according to air traffic control service Nats. It said that just over 736,800 commercial aircraft flew in UK airspace over the course of June, July and August, - 5,683 more than the previous record set last year and marking six consecutive years of growth since traffic levels fell following the global financial crisis. It's hard to picture that number of aircraft, but Nats has created a fascinating animation that helps. Nats has created an animation that visualises 24 hours of flights over London on August 7 this year. This is a still from the animation The video shows planes flying over London across a 24-hour period on August 7. The computer-generated animation was created by using real radar data from that day. You can see each of the London airports in turn and then at the end everything plays, including over-flights (those not landing in London) and private pilots operating outside of controlled airspace (the white-ish/grey tracks). In total around 5,000 flights are shown. Nats' record-breaking summer was mirrored by high traffic levels across Europe, but with markedly better delay performance in the UK, it said. Nats' computer-generated animation was created by using real radar data. Around 5,000 flights are shown in total Overall, for the year to the end of August, Nats handled just under a quarter of all air traffic in Europe, but contributed just 2.6 per cent to total delays, with the average delay per flight less than a third of the European-wide level. Juliet Kennedy, Nats Operations Director, said: 'It has been an incredibly busy summer, and our teams have done a fantastic job safely managing what have been unprecedented levels of air traffic. 'It's been particularly pleasing to have done so without seeing the severity of capacity issues that have existed elsewhere in Europe.' 'Our investment in new technology, together with changes that were made to some of the airspace over the south east of England in 2016, has helped keep us ahead of demand, but that won't be the case for long as traffic continues to grow. 'As an industry we are already planning for the next stage.' She knows how to makes a style statement on the red carpet and at fashion parties. And Iskra Lawrence dazzled as she stepped out for the Isabel Marant x L'Oreal launch party in the City of Love during Paris Fashion Week on Thursday. The model, 28, was sure to set pulses racing as she showed off a generous glimpse at her cleavage in a sparkling silver blazer. Wow! Iskra Lawrence set pulses racing as she showed off her cleavage in a silver blazer while attending a party in Paris Pairing her outfit with sleek PAIGE DENIM coated pants, while she boosted her statuesque figure with a pair of black heels which had pom-pom detailing across the front. Iskra's blonde locks were slicked back over her ears, before her hair then tumbled over her shoulders in a sleek, straight style. She accentuated her plump pout with a generous slick of dark red lipstick, while also wearing mascara and eyeliner to make her blue eyes pop. The model added an extra touch of glitter to her ensemble with a pair of dangling silver earrings, while she kept her personal items in a small clutch bag. Stunning: Iskra's blonde locks were slicked back over her ears, before her hair then tumbled over her shoulders in a sleek, straight style Chic: Pairing her outfit with sleek blue leggings, while she boosted her statuesque figure with a pair of black heels which had pom-pom detailing across the front Striking: She accentuated her plump pout with a generous slick of dark red lipstick, while also wearing mascara and eyeliner to make her blue eyes pop Thylane Blondeau, who was named 'the most beautiful girl in the world' at the age of four, also made an appearance at the event. The French model, 17, looked stylish in a sequinned co-ord shirt and trousers, which she paired with black peep-toe wedges. She wore her hair in a tight ponytail, and accessorised with a number of piercings to add a dazzling touch to her ensemble. Out and about: Thylane Blondeau, who was named 'the most beautiful girl in the world' at the age of four, also made an appearance at the event Dazzling: The French model, 17, looked stylish in a sequinned co-ord shirt and trousers, which she paired with black peep-toe wedges Glamorous: American model Devon Windsor looked elegant in a white lace two-piece suit Relaxed: Model Liya Kebede kept things casual in denim jeans, cowboy boots and a white shirt Last week, Iskra told Femail that she hopes to see all kinds of beauties being celebrated at this year's Fashion Week. She said: I want it to be a celebration of all women and a celebration of empowerment'. 'Fashion is a statement. Every time you get dressed in the morning you decide who you want to be and how you want to feel, and I think that New York Fashion Week is a celebration of that. 'I love that it ties together so many other things as well including music and culture. I really enjoy coming to Fashion Week and seeing everyone who worked so hard get this time to just shine.' Finishing touches: The model added an extra touch of glitter to her ensemble with a pair of dangling silver earrings, while she kept her personal items in a small clutch bag Time for change: Last week, Iskra told Femail that she hopes to see all kinds of beauties being celebrated at this year's Fashion Week Posing up a storm: Valery Kaufman, Iris van Berne and Madison Headrick looked incredible as they struck a number of poses at the events Sartorial prowess: Kyra Santoro and Larsen Thompson looked stylish in their respective light and dark outfits She is one of the most talked about models of Paris Fashion Week. And Bella Hadid was every inch the leading lady at the Naked Heart France Gala Dinner for Paris Fashion Week, in France on Thursday. The brunette bombshell, 21, exhibited her enviable supermodel physique in her strapless pink fishtail gown which clung to her sensational figure. Everyone is talking! Bella Hadid displayed her envy-inducing figure in a strapless hot pink fishtail gown at Naked Heart France Gala Dinner for Paris Fashion Week on Thursday Cut straight across the bust, all eyes were well and truly on Bella's ample cleavage in the tight bodice of her floor-length number. Fitted around her middle, the hot pink dress went out from the waist downwards and neat pleats were sewn into the design to command attention. The catwalk queen brought her runway tricks to her party image as she accessorised with dangling statement earrings. Leonardo Di Caprio's ex Toni Garrn oozed sophistication in her one-shoulder silver gown which perfectly hung on her slender figure. Looking fantastic! The brunette bombshell, 21, exhibited her enviable supermodel physique in her strapless pink fishtail gown which clung to her sensational figure Saucy! Cut straight across the bust, all eyes were well and truly on Bella's ample cleavage in the tight bodice of her floor-length number Hot stuff: Fitted around her middle, the hot pink dress went out from the waist downwards and neat pleats were sewn into the design to command attention Perky: Bella also showed off her perky posterior as she strutted her stuff The blonde bombshell added trendy tasseled earrings in the same shade of silver to complement the decorative neckline of the dress. It's been a busy few weeks for the supermodel who has been storming red carpets across the globe to showcase the hottest fashion trends for this year. While she has been jetting all over the world, Bella has been making the most of her time by attending A-list parties and exploring the cities. Model behaviour! Bella was delighted to be joined by the glamorous Natasha Poly inside the swanky soiree with the star-studded guestlist Fashionable foot forward: Bella and Natasha looked cosy as they enjoyed the evening's festivities together Stylish: Natasha, Elena Perminova and Bella looked incredible when they posed for pictures on the red carpet Shimmer in silver: Leonardo Di Caprio's ex Toni Garrn oozed sophistication in her one-shoulder silver gown which perfectly hung on her slender figure How to accessorise: The blonde bombshell added trendy tasseled earrings in the same shade of silver to complement the decorative neckline of the dress The model has been happier than ever since rekindling the flames of her romance with The Weeknd following the demise of his relationship with Selena Gomez. The Starboy crooner had started romancing the Wolves hitmaker, leaving runway beauty Bella heartbroken. Selena returned to the arms of her former flame Justin Bieber but their romance wasn't meant to last. Sorry hitmaker Justin is rumoured to have married his fiancee Hayley Baldwin and the couple were recently spotted holidaying in the UK. Leggy lady! Soo Joo Park showcased her legs in the pleated split of her pink dress and she twirled around in her heels Abs-olutely fantastic! Sara Sampaio flaunted her toned tummy when she stepped out in her sequinned crop top and trendy flares Busy lady! Earlier in the evening, Bella was wearing a transparent raincoat over her torn jeans at the white off show during the Paris Fashion Week In 2009 Nepal had 121 tigers; in 2018, there were 235. The Himalayan nation is the first to reach the goal of doubling the population of the endangered species by 2022. Kathmandu (AsiaNews/Agencies) The number of tigers doubled in Nepal thanks to the support of the Leonardo Di Caprio Foundation, a philanthropic organisation founded and chaired by the famous Hollywood star who is committed to animal and environmental protection. The information was announced as Nepal celebrated National Conservation Day on 23 September. According to official data, the Himalayan nation had 121 tigers in 2009. This year, that number stood at 235. For the World Wildlife Federation, this is very significant in terms of saving the endangered species. For Nepal, it means that it could be the first country in the world to double its tiger population since it adopted TX2, with the aim of doubling tiger numbers in the wild by 2022, a target set in 2010. The survey to count the number of tigers was conducted with the help of camera traps in the transboundary Terai Arc Landscape along the border with India. The Leonardo Di Caprio foundation funded the conservation programme in the Bardia National Park. Upon hearing the news, the actor wrote on Instagram: Nepal has been a leader in efforts to double tigers within its own borders and serves as a model for conservation for all of Asia and the world. I am proud of my foundations partnership with WWF to support Nepal and local communities in doubling the population of wild tigers. His fans reacted with elation, some hoping that other Hollywood celebrities might follow suit. BRUSSELS The Belgian defence ministry will sue Google for not complying with its requests to blur satellite images of sensitive military sites, a ministry spokeswoman said on Friday. Citing national security, the ministry said it had requested that sites such as air bases and nuclear power stations be obscured on Googles satellite mapping service. The Ministry of Defence will sue Google, the spokeswoman said, without giving further details. Google has complied with similar requests from other governments over concerns its geomapping and granular street-level views could compromise security. Watch out for the new battle of Waterloo! The Duchess of Wellington and Lord Waldegrave, Provost of Eton College, have found themselves embroiled in a High Court action. They are being sued by the owners of a cottage in Hampshire who claim they are being blocked in their bid to develop their freehold property which they appear to have bought in 2015. The cottage owners won planning consent in January for a two-storey extension to their 500,000 home, Yew Tree Cottage, in Stratfield Turgis, on the Duke of Wellingtons resettled estate. However, they were surprised when they were unable to go ahead because of a restrictive covenant affecting the property. Lord Waldegrave (pictured with Lady Waldergrave) has found himself embroiled in High Court action The couple, Neil and Delia Gilbert, have now gone to the court saying permission has been unreasonably withheld by the trustees, who include former Tory Cabinet minister Waldegrave and the Duchess of Wellington, to go ahead with their scheme. The cottage is affected by a legal clause made in 1976 banning all future owners from building works at the house, without the trustees consent. A similar clause bans the occupiers from killing, damaging or maiming any game at the property as well. Aerial photograph of Stratfield Saye. It has been the home to the Dukes of Wellington since 1817 Duchess of Wellington, riginally known as HRH Princess Antonia, greets Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (centre), and Prince Charles ahead of the The Duke of Wellington's Waterloo banquet at Apsley House. The Gilberts are also seeking a declaration that the covenant only stops them from erecting a new building and not from putting up an extension to the existing cottage. A mother of five, the Duchess of Wellington was originally known as HRH Princess Antonia of Prussia before marrying Charles Wellesley, the 9th Duke of Wellington, and taking his name. She was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to social housing for her work as President of the Guinness Trust. Shes the BBCs most highly paid female star, but even Strictly Come Dancings Claudia Winkleman has her off days.Im having a mid-life crisis right now and have been looking of ways to stay young, jokes Winkleman, 46, who receives up to 500,000 from the Corporation. So I decided to go a bit mad and have an ombre hair-do and get the tips of my hair bleached. It was either that or get a tattoo. Prim Poldark beauty gives a glimpse of her Wilde side Poldark beauty Gabriella Wilde, who plays snooty Caroline Penvenen in the BBC drama, wants to remind fans of her racier side. Poldark beauty Gabriella Wilde, who plays snooty Caroline Penvenen in the BBC drama, wants to remind fans of her racier side. Right, as Caroline Penvenen in Poldark The 29-year-old took a break from filming the fifth and final series in Cornwall this week to post a snap of herself online. Looking a far cry from her prim alter-ego, the mother of two lets down her long blonde locks as she sizzles in a strapless plum-coloured PVC dress. Juggling multiple personas seems to come naturally to Ms Wilde. Her real name is Gabriella Zanna Vanessa Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, but she changed it when she became an actress, adopting her new moniker in tribute to Oscar Wilde. Midwife stars' little one-der Smiles all round for Call The Midwife star Helen George and her co-star actor boyfriend Jack Ashton as they celebrated their daughter Wren Ivys first birthday this week. It was especially poignant as the 34-year-old actress revealed last year that, while pregnant, she developed a painful liver condition called ICP (intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy). She looked in good spirits as she cradled the tot while Jack, 35, sported a pink pig hat. 0-1 in the blink of an eye. Wren, youre a wonder, she said. Smiles all round for Call The Midwife star Helen George and her co-star actor boyfriend Jack Ashton as they celebrated their daughter Wren Ivys first birthday this week Sir Ian McKellen is hoping his camp TV comedy, Vicious, about two acid-tongued septuagenarians, will be given a new lease of life, even after it was cancelled after two series. I was rather upset when they cancelled Vicious, says Sir Ian, whose co-star was Sir Derek Jacobi. I hear we became a cult which we were both very happy about as its not every day one becomes a cult is it? Could it become a film? I think so. I know people would love it so, who knows? Its in the lap of the gods, dear boy. Samantha Camerons fashionista sister, Emily Sheffield, is having trouble convincing people that the cast she has worn on her foot since injuring her Achilles tendon is not an expensive new item of clothing. At a catwalk show at London Fashion Week, I heard her tell a friend: I keep being photographed and Im like, guys, its not a fashion accessory. Theatre dame proves very unCo-operative Actress Dame Janet Suzman has taken umbrage that the Co-op wants to set up shop in North Londons leafy Belsize Park. Go away, Co-op, find a nice High Street or some other lonely corner where you could serve a purpose, and leave Belsize alone, she says. Suzman, 79, who lives in Hampstead, adds: There are only two villages left in the Hampstead area and Belsize is one of them. How utterly depressing to have a large conglomerate branch thunder its way into a close interdependent little community and think that is a co-operative thing to do. What a rubbish way to find your profits on the back of the ruination of others. And all the unnecessary booze theyll stock. What for? . . . Drinking? CopyKate Lottie gets a puppy like Mossie's Anything you can do . . . Kate Mosss half-sister, Lottie, is already following in her high heels by becoming a model. Now the 20-year-old is taking inspiration from her again, by picking up a papillon puppy. Lottie, who shares a father, Peter, with Kate, posted a picture of her four-legged friend, above, online. Welcome to the family, Lulu, she wrote. Kate, 44, bought her pooch last year. Im having to rethink everything, she said. You cant walk a dog in a heel. You look ridiculous. Inspiration: Kate with pooch and half-sister Lottie She has spent the last few days in the Bahamas on a luxury working holiday. But on Thursday, Roxy Jacenko, 38, bid goodbye to the Caribbean paradise. Taking to Instagram, the Sweaty Betty PR founder shared a final snap of herself relaxing in a bikini on one the glorious beaches on the tropical Island. Scroll down to video Bye, bye Bahamas! Roxy Jacenko slips into a bikini to enjoy one last dip at the beach during her final day in the Caribbean 'Final day with inner circle experience,' the entrepreneurial blonde captioned the photograph, geo-tagging the island's Four Season's resort. Roxy also thanked the The Bridal Circle for her time on the Island paradise. This week, the business-minded blonde has been combining work with plenty of leisure time, sharing a slew of her usual envy-inducing selfies. The Bahamas, baby! Roxy showed off her ripped figure in a Dolce & Gabbana bikini on Wednesday while enjoying some time on the beach near her hotel On Wednesday, the Sydney PR queen slipped her trim physique into a stylish Dolce & Gabbana swimsuit to soak up the sun on one of the Island's pristine beaches. Clearly in her element, the mother-of-two excitedly jumped for joy on the sand. Roxy's black and white striped floral bikini showed off her gym-honed figure and accentuated her golden tan. Business trip: The PR powerhouse has been in the Bahamas for the last few days networking with other industry professionals at the fifth annual The Inner Circle Experience The blonde powerhouse has been in the Bahamas for the last few days, networking with other industry professionals at the fifth annual Inner Circle Experience. Before that she had a quick stop over in Los Angeles to meet with retail partners for her daughter Pixie Curtis's brand, Pixie Bows. Named after her seven-year-old, Roxy has already expressed that she wants to take the children's accessories brand global in the next couple of years. Diamonds are forever: Roxy was dripping in jewels as she attended a dinner in the Bahamas on Tuesday A retail expert recently told Daily Mail Australia that the brand could be worth $21 million by the time Pixie reaches 18. Roxy, who owns four business, Sweaty Betty PR, Ministry of Talent, The Social Union, and Pixies Bows, has been focused on expanding her businesses. Last month, the business dynamo PR girls know that her much sought after agency, Sweaty Betty PR, would be hiring new staff. A listing on her company website states that candidates must be 'confident and efficient' with a 'hunger to succeed.' Roxy stated while candidates only require '1-2 years experience' in public relations, they must have their own contacts in media and hospitality. She recently rang in her 33rd birthday with a glitzy night out to celebrate her new age. And Jess Wright displayed her style savvy ways as she attended the Impulse Body Mist launch in London's SoHo district on Thursday evening. The former TOWIE star stunned in a checked monochrome mini skirt, which put her gym-honed legs on full display. Legs for days: Jess Wright displayed her style savvy ways as she attended the Impulse Body Mist launch in London 's SoHo district on Thursday evening Reality star Jess continued her trendy appearance as she wore white pointed ankle boots by Pretty Little Thing on her feet, and maintained her black and white colour scheme with a clingy long-sleeve top. The TV personality complemented her look with a chain-strap handbag by Gucci, and added a touch of pazzazz to her look with a rose gold watch. Keeping all things glamour, the brunette bombshell curled her tresses into loose waves, and dusted her trademark heavy make-up look on her face. Posing up a storm: The former TOWIE star stunned in a checked monochrome mini skirt, which put her gym-honed legs on full display Turning heads: Reality star Jess continued her trendy appearance as she wore white pointed ankle boots by Pretty Little Thing on her feet Designed to ensure women are ready to boss the day spritz by spritz, the new Impulse Body Mists include fragrances Burnt Marshmallow + Leather Jacket, Purple Petals + Smoky Sky and Tropical Beach + Espresso and new Limited Editions including Melted Candy + Unicorn Dust and Mermaid Waves + Peachy Paradise. Always appearing to be the picture of confidence with her straight-talking, no-nonsense style, Jess has previously admitted she was plagued by body insecurities throughout her time in the limelight. Speaking in an exclusive interview with MailOnline, she discussed how she is finally happy in her own skin after sticking to a seven-week fitness regime - and how conquering self-doubt has made her determined to find love. All in the details: The TV personality complemented her look with a chain-strap handbag, and added a touch of pazzazz to her look with a rose gold watch Striking: Keeping all things glamour, the brunette bombshell curled her tresses into loose waves, and dusted her trademark heavy make-up look on her face Describing her fitness journey, she explained: 'I needed to do it for my own self confidence and own self loving. 'How can you expect someone to love you when you don't love yourself? There was definitely a time in my life when I was lacking in that area. Whereas now I feel like I am completely in control of myself and where I am.' 'I am in a happy place. I'm dating a lot at the moment and while I'm not necessarily looking for love, if it comes around then great', she added. Fitness plan: Only recently, speaking in an exclusive interview with MailOnline, she discussed how she is finally happy in her own skin after sticking to a seven-week fitness regime He's been acting since he was 10 years old, but Damon Herriman's latest role could be what catapults him to international stardom. The Australian actor, 48, will play cult leader Charles Manson in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Damon said that getting into the mind of a convicted killer was an 'upsetting' process. 'It was upsetting having to research it': Actor Damon Herriman (pictured) has spoken about playing killer Charles Manson in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time in Hollywood 'Mentally, it was certainly incredibly upsetting researching what happened', he said. Damon added that his portrayal of Manson wasn't focused on the 'horrific' crimes he committed but instead 'the characterisation of the guy'. He added: 'Playing a real person is a challenging thing, especially someone as well known as him, and you want people that are watching to forget they are watching an actor. It was one of the hardest things I have done.' Psychopath: Charles Manson is pictured arriving at court in Los Angeles in December 1969 Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is set against the backdrop of the 'New Hollywood' movement in the late '60s. The film's protagonist, fading TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), lives next door to actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles. Sharon was murdered in August 1969 by members of the Manson Family cult under the instructions of Charles Manson. True crime: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is set against the backdrop of the 'New Hollywood' movement in the late '60s. It also stars Margot Robbie (pictured) as actress Sharon Tate, who was one of the victims of the Mason Family's killing spree Her friends - Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski - were also killed in the home invasion, which was carried out by Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Charles 'Tex' Watson. An 18-year-old, Steven Parent, who was visiting the property's caretaker at the time was also murdered. Sharon, who was a rising star in Hollywood in the late '60s, was eight-and-a-half-months pregnant with her first child when she was killed. Storyline: The film's protagonist, fading TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), lives next door to Sharon Tate in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles. Pictured with co-star Brad Pitt (left) She was married to film director Roman Polanski, who was not at the 10050 Cielo Drive property when the murders took place as he was in Europe working on a film. Charles Manson was sentenced to death for the murders. This was later reduced to life in 1972 when the state Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. Manson died in prison in November 2017 of a heart attack. The things she has to do for her career. Millie Bobby Brown got into character as Eleven in Stranger Things as she crawled out of the waves in Malibu, Ca, during a season 3 shoot on Thursday. The sopping wet 14-year-old stood in the chilly Pacific wearing a black shirt with a yellow geometric pattern and black baggy pants. That doesn't look like fun: Millie Bobby Brown got sopping wet when she filmed a scene for season 3 of Netflix's sci-fi drama Stranger Things on the beach in Malibu on Thursday If she'd had shoes, she had lost them in the ocean as she walked barefoot on the shore, dripping all the way. Millie was joined by her co-star Aimee Mullins, who plays her character's mom, Terry Ives, and a stunt double among others. Before the soaking: The 14-year-old, who plays Eleven in the sci-fi drama, stood on the beach wearing a black shirt with a yellow geometric pattern and black baggy pants Making a splash: The young star struggled to get out of the chilly Pacific Ocean as she filmed the scene Wet and wild: Millie was completely soaked as she knelt in the ocean Struggling to stand up: It looked like Millie was finally finding her feet The science fiction drama is set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s. Its young cast - Finn Wolfhard, 15, Gaten Mattarazzo, 16, Caleb McLaughlin, 16, and Millie - battle deeply strange beings that live in the Upside Down, a parallel universe. Created by the Duffer Brothers, Matt and Ross, the entire first season bowed on Netflix in one binge-worth chunk on July 15, 2016. Crawling out: The sci-fi drama is set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s Tough job: The teenager was forced to crawl on her hands and knees Dipping her toes in the water: If she'd had shoes, Millie had lost them in the ocean as she walked barefoot on the shore, dripping all the way Following its success, the second season was released on October 27, 2017. The third season began production in April and will consist of eight episodes that are expected to be released in mid-2019. The Duffer Brothers have said that Stranger Things is likely to end after its fourth or fifth season. She doesn't look happy: Millie appeared to be screaming as she made her way up the beach She stayed dry: Aimee Mullins, who plays Eleven's mother in the series, was also spotted on the beach in Malibu Ferne McCann took a break from being a doting mum for a night out in Cheshire. And the former TOWIE star, 28, was sure to turn heads when she stepped out to celebrate the launch of her collaboration with Beauty Cutie on Thursday night. Stepping out in a white crop top which had a deep plunging neckline, she went braless to show off a generous glimpse of her cleavage. Stylish: Ferne McCann turned heads in a white crop top as she stepped out for party to celebrate her beauty line collaboration on Thursday Ferne proved she has fully regained her post-pregnancy physique as she also flaunted her enviable abs in the ensemble. The reality star slipped her legs into a pair of form-fitting dark pink leggings, which then flared out to cover her footwear. The mother-of-one styled her blonde locks into a sleek, straight style with a side parting, and wore a glamorous palette of make-up to highlight her pretty features. Wow! Her attire had a deep plunging neckline, she went braless to show off a generous glimpse of her cleavage Ferne has been letting her hair down in recent weeks including a fun-filled trip to the city of love and a night out in Manchester with pals. The reality star is the devoted single mother to her daughter Sunday who she welcomed into the world 10 months ago. Ferne shares her baby with jailbird ex Arthur Collins who was handed a 20-year prison sentence for a London nightclub acid attack in April last year. Ferne spoke to OK! magazine about the day-to-day dilemmas she faces without the baby's father around. Stunning: The reality star slipped her legs into a pair of form-fitting dark pink leggings, which then flared out to cover her footwear She said: 'While I was pregnant, I knew I was going to be a single mum, but it didn't hit me until I actually had Sunday... 'That was tough to deal with - realising I really was totally on my own. I don't have another person to confer with. I don't have another person to discuss my day-to-day decisions with - like choosing what food she has. It's tough.' The star moved back in with her own mother within just four months of moving into her own home last year. After welcoming her baby, she now shares her own Brentwood home with just Sunday and is adjusting to life as a single parent. After welcoming the baby, she now shares her own Brentwood home with just Sunday and has adjusted to life as a single parent. She was spotted making her first fashion week appearance in over a year on Wednesday. And it seems like Lindsay Lohan couldn't get enough of her sartorial homecoming as she headed back out in the City of Light on Thursday. This time the 32-year-old actress painted Paris noir in little dress that highlighted her slender stems. I'm back: it seems like Lindsay Lohan couldn't get enough of her sartorial homecoming as she headed back out in the City of Light on Thursday The sable halter frock fell to about the middle of her thighs and shiny cumberbun around her waist. A long black coat was draped around her shoulders and she added a pair of heeled black booties. One red tress crept out from underneath a sparkling hat, while the rest were pulled into a loose bun in back. Highlights: This time the 32-year-old actress painted Paris noir in little dress that highlighted her slender stems All smiles: The sable halter frock fell to about the middle of her thighs and shiny cumberbun around her waist Rosy: One red tress crept out from underneath a sparkling hat, while the rest were pulled into a loose bun in back Party on lady: Inside the bash she took off her coat to reveal her slender arms Boogie time: The star also danced as her pals looked on She painted her lips a soft pink that helped to highlight her rosy cheeks that featured a light blush. A black purse with a gold chain dangled in one hand, peeking out from underneath her coat. Lindsay's brother Dakota was once again out with his sister, donning a black jacket over a paisley black-and-white shirt. Looking good: Lindsay's brother Dakota was once again out with his sister, donning a black jacket over a paisley black-and-white shirt Cool guy: The 22-year-old model followed his sister's lead, keeping things on the dark side, including a pair of slender slacks The 22-year-old model followed his sister's lead, keeping things on the dark side, including a pair of slender slacks. He added a pair of shiny boots and left his own red tresses uncovered as he followed his sibling around Paris. The IMG-signed model has posed for Vogue China, Vogue Italia and Interview magazine and began walking runways when he was just nine-years-old. Strike a pose: The Mean Girls actress worked her angles at the White Coffee Party at the club The Key later that night Dare to bare: The beauty flashed a tantalizing amount of sideboob in her revealing dress Pucker up: The Parent Trap blew a flirty kiss at the camera inside the nightclub Meanwhile, Lindsay has been hard at work this year on her Lohan Beach House resort. The new venture came after she proceeded to slam sexual assault accusers in a recent interview with The Times earlier this year. She faced backlash after claiming many of them are simply speaking out for 'attention'. Ready for her close-up: She framed her features with a sweep of bronzer and nude lipstick Having a whale of a time: She seemed to be in great spirits as she gave a passer-by a high-five Former child star Mary-Kate Olsen-Sarkozy flashed a big smile while she and her horse Fatum competed in a jumping competition at The American Gold Cup in upstate New York on Thursday. The 32-year-old Daytime Emmy nominee dressed her 5ft2in, jockey-sized figure in classic preppy equestrian attire - tan jodhpurs, black riding boots, and a black sweater over a white polo shirt. 'I was six when I first fell in love and it was with a pony named 4x4,' Mary-Kate once revealed in her HITS rider profile. Easy rider: Former child star Mary-Kate Olsen-Sarkozy flashed a big smile while she and her horse Fatum competed in a jumping competition at The American Gold Cup in upstate New York on Thursday '[Horseriding] allows me to exist in another world and it allows me to practice being accepting, patient, disciplined, compassionate, competitive, and all of those other emotions that are very important to have in your everyday life. Horses teach you a lot about yourself.' The diminutive designer added: 'One of The Row's first blazers was inspired by one of my first show jumping coats.' Likely cheering her on from the crowd gathered at Old Salem Farm was Olsen's 49-year-old husband Olivier Sarkozy, with whom she'll celebrate three years of marriage on November 27. Preppy equestrian attire: The 32-year-old Daytime Emmy nominee dressed her 5ft2in, jockey-sized figure in tan jodhpurs, black riding boots, and a black sweater over a white polo shirt Mary-Kate revealed in her HITS rider profile: 'I was six when I first fell in love and it was with a pony named 4x4. [Horseriding] allows me to exist in another world...One of The Row's first blazers was inspired by one of my first show jumping coats' Celebrating third wedding anniversary on November 27! Likely cheering her on from the crowd gathered at Old Salem Farm was Olsen's 49-year-old husband Olivier Sarkozy, who's the head of Further Global Capital Management (pictured April 19) The Further Global Capital Management head is the half-brother of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and he has two children - Julien, 16; and Margo, 15 - with his first wife Charlotte. The Cali-born New Yorker has also described her business partnership with her fraternal twin sister Ashley (who's two minutes older) as a 'marriage.' 'We have had ups and downs,' the avid cigarette smoker admitted to WSJ Magazine last month. 'We have had ups and downs': The Cali-born New Yorker has also described her business partnership with her fraternal twin sister Ashley - who's two minutes older - as a 'marriage' (pictured on May 7) FW/18 men's and SS/19 women's collections: The Full House alums' first-ever line of The Row menswear (L) is due to hit stores in October 'I think the clothes speak for themselves, and so to put a face or a name with the product doesn't ever feel right. I don't know if it's because of the way we grew up - we just don't like talking about ourselves or talking about what we're doing. It's not really our approach.' The twin tycoons - who run The Row and Elizabeth & James - have expertly managed to amass a combined $300M fortune since they collectively played Michelle Tanner on ABC sitcom Full House (1987-1995). Mary-Kate and Ashley's first-ever line of The Row menswear is due to hit stores in October. As any busy mother knows that family holidays aren't always relaxing. But on Friday, mother-of-two Megan Gale, 43, made sure to put some time aside for herself after arriving in Fiji for a vacation with partner Shaun Hampson and their two young children. Taking to Instagram, the radiant brunette beauty shared a sizzling bikini selfie as she soaked up the sun. Scroll down for video 'Priority number one was enjoying the glorious Fiji heat': Mother-of-two Megan Gale sizzles as she slips her incredible figure in a skimpy bikini during family getaway Flaunting her slender physique, Megan wore a lemon printed two-piece by Amore & Sorvete. In an accompanying caption, she explained how she is usually in busy mode at the beginning of a vacation. 'When I arrive at a holiday location my first priority is normally to unpack the kids suitcases, settle them in and then sort myself and get organised,' she explained. Vacation time! Megan has travelled to Fiji with her partner Shaun Hampson and their two young children However, after a long Melbourne winter, Megan said she was eager to lap up the tropical heat. 'But this time, after a frosty Melbourne winter, priority number one was getting into the togs and enjoying the glorious Fiji HEAT!!!!' she wrote. The getaway comes after Megan celebrated her daughter's first birthday earlier this week. 'One year with you': The getaway comes after Megan celebrated her daughter's first birthday earlier this week. The model posted a throwback snap of her cradling daughter Rosie May Dee Hampson after she gave birth to the adorable tot in September last year The model posted a throwback snap of her cradling daughter Rosie May Dee Hampson after she gave birth to the adorable tot in September last year. In the snap, she beamed with joy and looked radiant after labour. Megan wrote in the caption: 'One year with you. Hard to believe exactly a year ago we were arriving at the hospital to give birth to this little cherub. Reflecting: She wrote in the caption, 'One year with you. Hard to believe exactly a year ago we were arriving at the hospital to give birth to this little cherub'. Pictured, fiance Shaun Hampson 'Such an amazing day, wonderful birth and incredible experience. We love you Rosie girl,' she added. Megan and her former AFL star fiance Shaun, 30, are also parents to four-year-old son River. Megan has been in a reflective mood ahead of Rosie's milestone first birthday. Throwback time! Megan has been in a reflective mood ahead of Rosie's milestone first birthday. She recently shared a throwback photo (above) of her baby bump while pregnant with her first daughter She recently shared a throwback photo of her baby bump while pregnant with her baby girl. Taking to Instagram to post a picture of herself in 'full bloom', she recalled what it was like in the weeks leading up to giving birth. 'This is me in full bloom exactly one year ago today, 36 weeks pregnant and two weeks away from birthing my sweet little Rosie,' Megan captioned the photo. 'Wearing one of Shaun's old shirts and my Victoria's Secret PJ bottoms (the only Vic Secrets item I was ever going to feel comfortable wearing late in my third trimester, if I'm honest!)' she added. She was left embarrassed after she prematurely revealed the results of last year's final, which saw Sophie Faldo crowned as the winner. And Great British Bake Off star Prue Leith has admitted she felt like an 'idiot' over the infamous Twitter blunder in scenes set to air on the Jonathan Ross Show on Saturday. The 78-year-old was joined by host Noel Fielding and fellow judge Paul Hollywood, 52, who revealed he's taken some 'flack' over claims he's been giving his signature handshake out too frequently on the latest series of the baking show. Embarrassed: Great British Bake Off star Prue Leith has admitted she felt like an 'idiot' over the infamous Twitter blunder in scenes set to air on the Jonathan Ross Show on Saturday The results for the 2017 final, which saw 7.7 million viewers tune in, was prematurely revealed in a Twitter gaffe by chef Prue, who quickly deleted her too-early congratulatory tweet after the mistake had been made. She blamed her mistake on the time difference as she was in Bhutan at the time, which is five hours ahead of the UK. The mortified star apologised to loyal GBBO fans, admitting: 'I f***** up'. During the interview on the late-night talk show, she confessed: 'I dont think Im ever going to live that down for as long as I live.' Hitting back: The 78-year-old was joined by fellow judge Paul Hollywood, 52, who revealed he's taken some 'flack' over claims he's been giving his signature handshake out too frequently Last year's edition: Prue was left embarrassed after she prematurely revealed the results of the 2017 final, which saw Sophie Faldo (pictured above) crowned as the winner 'I was in Bhutan and we hadnt had any internet connection for about three days. I was having a siesta, I was in bed', the South African native explained. Sharing more details about the mishap, she continued: 'I suddenly saw that I had a message saying, "Dont forget to congratulate the winner after 10.30." So I looked at my watch and thought, "Ah its after 10.30" so I immediately tweeted it and 89 seconds later, my PA who is no fool had deleted it but by then two people had retweeted it.' 'Im an idiot, but there we are. There was about 11 hours difference. I was in such a panic when I realised what Id done, I couldnt make my phone work so I couldnt delete it myself so I had to ring my secretary and when I got through to her she said shed already deleted it. It was horrible. Everybody went on to tell me Id ruined it.' Candid: During the interview on the late-night talk show, she confessed: 'I dont think Im ever going to live that down for as long as I live' (pictured with Paul and Noel Fielding) Speaking out: 'I was in Bhutan and we hadnt had any internet connection for about three days. I was having a siesta, I was in bed', the South African native explained (pictured with comedian Mo Gilligan) Poking fun at the gaffe, new father Noel, 45, chimed in: 'Im going to give away the winner this year to make Prue feel better!' Meanwhile, Paul has been branded too 'liberal' by viewers as he has given out more of his signature handshakes on the current season than any other edition. Speaking on the coveted sign of approval, the celebrity chef said: 'Ive taken a bit of flack over that. The handshake came from when they looked very professional and they almost cross that line from being amateur to professional.' He also touched where his trademark handshake originated from: 'It started in series two, I just shook someones hand and said, "Well done." And every year the standard has got better and better and better and this year has been phenomenal. Some of the flavours they are bringing out. Rahul [Mandals] stuff has been incredible.' Too generous? Meanwhile, Paul has been branded too 'liberal' by viewers as he has given out more of his signature handshakes on the current season than any other edition Candid: Speaking on the coveted sign of approval, the celebrity chef said viewers can expect to see a decrease in how often he gives out his handshakes in future episodes Insisting there will be a decrease in how often he gives them out in future episodes, Paul revealed: 'You will see it happen [in a few weeks] the handshakes almost stop. Because what Ive done is Ive realised they are all moving up in standard so Ive got to move my barrier up so thats exactly what I do, I raise the bar and then no one gets over the top of it.' Aside from his hosting stint on the show, comedian Noel opened up about fatherhood, after welcoming his first child Dali with long-term partner Lliana Bird in April. The Never Mind the Buzzcocks star gushed over his daughter's appearance: 'I dont know how that happened, look at my pointy visage. She is very beautiful and she blows my mind about a hundred times a day.' Admitting that the role as come with some challenges, Noel continued: 'Its a new level of tiredness that Ive never experienced. Ive done a lot of all nighters in my life. In a way Ive been in training for this moment all my life.' The Jonathan Ross Show airs on Saturday at 10.05pm on ITV. New father: Aside from his hosting stint on the show, comedian Noel, 45, opened up about fatherhood, after welcoming his first child Dali with long-term partner Lliana Bird in April FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Fifty-Four Days and Counting: Demands to Release Shahidul Alam Gather Force at the UNGA (September 27, 2018 a New York) Demonstrators gathered outside the UN General Assembly on September 27 to call for freedom of the press and protection of journalists in Bangladesh. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch joined family and friends of Shahidul Alam to demand his release, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed addressed the UN General Assembly. The protest was endorsed by human rights groups and journalist associations, rights activist Kerry Kennedy, actress/activist Sharon Stone, and attended by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, among others. Alam, an internationally renowned Bangladeshi photographer, photojournalist and activist, has been in police custody since August 5, following an interview on Al Jazeera in which he claimed that the broader context of ongoing student protests was pent-up anger at government corruption and misuse of power. The 63-year-old Alam says he has been beaten in custody, and his health has deteriorated in prison. His bail hearing has been postponed repeatedly, dragging out the judiciary process in a war of attrition. aThe world has a good image of Bangladesh because of its response to the Rohingya crisis. The detention of Shahidul is tarnishing that image.a said Alamas cousin, Salma Ahmed. Ahead of elections in December, a culture of fear is building up in Bangladesh as activists, opposition, and academia are being rounded up. At the demonstration, Columbia University professor Gayatri Spivak pointed out, aWhat is really important for the state is that if one silences the creative artists and intellectuals, then the conscience of the state is killed because its the role of the creatives artists and intellectuals to make constructive criticism so that the state can be a real democracy.a aShahidul is a living legend who taught throughout his life how to see the light of our country, even during her darkest hours. He has always come from a place of integrity and sacrificed himself for all of us by speaking truth to power, and for that he is being wrongly imprisoned.a , said Wasfia Nazreen, National Geographic Explorer and Bangladeshas only Seven Summiteer. The protestors denounced the imprisonment of Alam, journalists, and student protesters in Bangladesh. Kerry Kennedy, human rights activist and daughter of Senator Bobby Kennedy, made a strong statement, aShahidul Alam is wrongfully detained, and I proudly stand with those who are calling for his immediate and unconditional release. Bangladesh should comply with its international human rights obligations and free Shahidul Alam today.a Alamas imprisonment and the passage of a new Digital Security Bill point to a disturbing trend toward suppressing freedom of press and speech. Amnesty Internationals South Asia Campaigner, Saad Hammadi, said "Given how the authorities have arbitrarily arrested hundreds of people in the past six years under the ICT Act, there are serious concerns that the new Act will be used against people who speak out.a The legislation awould violate constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press, and would create extensive legal dangers for journalists in the normal course of carrying out their professional activities.a said Steven Butler, the Asia Program Coordinator of CPJ. aHis detention is an attempt to intimidate and silence voices of dissent in Bangladesh,a said Julie TrAbault, Director of the Artists at Risk Connection at PEN America. aAs a photographer, Alam documents the truth; his work and his voice matter now more than ever.a South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Meenakshi Ganguly said, aThe government has accused Shahidul Alam of afalse propagandaa but he was doing what he has always done: speak up for human rights. The PM says the government has no intention of gagging anyone but denying him and others the right to liberty and free speech undermines that claim.a The call for Alamas release was earlier supported by 12 Nobel Laureates and international figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Amartya Sen, and Dr. Yunus. Several British MPs with Bangladeshi roots have come out in support of Alam, including Tulip Siddiq, the PMas niece. Protestors demanded the unconditional release of Alam, and for all charges to be dropped against him and others held in similar circumstances. Photo Credit: Salim Hasbini Contact: Shamima Khan (shamimajkhan[at] gmail.com; +12028177070) See video with the eminent scholar Gayatri Spivak speaking up in defence of Shaidul Alam https://www.facebook.com/nafrin/videos/10157654928138942/ source: Free Shahidul Alam He has his own foundation committed to environmental causes around the globe. And on Wednesday, Leonardo DiCaprio posted to social media promoting a plant-based alternative to meat. The Titanic star, 43, is an investor in the company Beyond Meat and on Twitter and Instagram he touted their meatless Beyond Burger. Green: He has his own foundation committed to environmental causes. And on Wednesday, Leonardo DiCaprio posted to social media promoting a plant-based alternative to meat DiCaprio shared an image showing how the Beyond Burger compares to a traditional quarter pound hamburger in terms of its impact on the environment. The graphic claimed that the meatless product requires 99 percent less water and 93 percent less land to produce. Its production results in 90 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions, the company claims, and uses 46 percent less energy. In his tweet, the actor wrote: 'Proud to be an investor in the #futureofprotein' and included a link to the Beyond Meat website. Promotion: DiCaprio, 43, is an investor in the company Beyond Meat and touted their meatless Beyond Burger, sharing an image showing how it compares to a traditional quarter pound hamburger in terms of its impact on the environment The Revenant Oscar winner became an investor in the private LA-based company in late 2017. In a press release at the time, DiCaprio explained why he decided to come on board as an advocate for Beyond Meat and its products. 'Livestock production is a major contributor to carbon emissions. Shifting from animal meat to the plant-based meats developed by Beyond Meat is one of the most powerful measures someone can take to reduce their impact on our climate,' he said. He went on: 'The company's ability to create appealing, healthy meat directly from plants will go a long way in helping every day consumers take action on climate change.' Advocate: The Revenant Oscar winner believes that a shift to plant-based meat is 'one of the most powerful measures someone can take to reduce their impact on our climate' Cause: Earlier this month, he hosted the annual fundraising gala for his foundation that's focused on environmental causes. He's pictured at the gala with Mark Ruffalo and Jane Goodall Earlier this month, DiCaprio was joined by a host of celebrities at his annual star-studded fundraising gala for his foundation. The evening held at Jackson Park Ranch, a sustainable vineyard, in Santa Rosa, California, raised millions of dollars for the nonprofit and included guests such as Naomi Campbell, Sophia Loren, Ed Norton and Mark Ruffalo as well as Jane Goodall. Meanwhile, DiCaprio is also busy with his day job. He's currently filming Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood with Brad Pitt in Los Angeles. She is the name on everyone's lips this Paris Fashion Week. And Kaia Gerber didn't disappoint when she nailed two different looks at the Isabel Marant Show, in the city of love on Thursday. Cindy Crawford's lookalike daughter, 17, looked stylish when she hit the catwalk in her Eighties-inspired jacket with quilting sleeves and a denim collar. Runway queen! Kaia Gerber hit the catwalk in TWO outfits as she modeled Eighties-inspired jacket before slipping into sparkling sweater at Isabel Marant Show for PFW on Thursday The statuesque model tread the runway in her knee-high denim boots which perfectly matched her high-waisted shorts. Never shying away from changing up her look, Kaia then dazzled in an oversized sweater which was embellished with hundreds of glistening sequins. While the American born beauty pulled off two outfits on the runway, she kept her make-up minimal and she wore her brunette tresses in a straight style. Glamorous: Never shying away from changing up her look, Kaia then dazzled in an oversized sweater which was embellished with hundreds of glistening sequins Stand out: Cindy Crawford's lookalike daughter, 17, looked stylish when she hit the catwalk in her Eighties-inspired jacket with quilting sleeves and a denim collar Joining forces with Kendall Jenner as well as Bella and Gigi Hadid, the model has ensured she was the talk of the fashion sphere. Kaia has been ruling the runways from Milan to Paris, putting on a fashionable parade where ever she goes. The rising star has been supported by her Nineties pin-up and supermodel mum Cindy while she took charge of the limelight on the catwalk. Keeping it simple: While the American born beauty pulled off two outfits on the runway, she kept her make-up minimal and she wore her brunette tresses in a straight style Made for walking: The brunette wore knee-high stiletto boots in ivory white to stand out from her sparkling sweater Amazing time: Kaia was every inch the leading lady as she led the way for the other models on the star-studded catwalk Having a wealth of modelling experience under her belt including gracing the cover of VOGUE Paris in recent weeks, Kaia didn't shy away from the spotlight. A particular highlight on her runway experience so far must be treading the eye-opening waterfall catwalk with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop. The Saint Laurent show was attended by British modelling queen Kate Moss and Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan. Making history: Kaia has been ruling the runways from Milan to Paris, putting on a fashionable parade where ever she goes It looks like Ali Oetjen may have finally found her 'Mr Perfect' on The Bachelorette. Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Sydney builder Charlie Newling is an early favourite to win the show after being featured prominently in previews for the upcoming season. 'How am I not going to fall in love with this guy?' 32-year-old Ali said in a recent trailer that showed her meeting Charlie for the first time. Meet Ali Oetjen's 'Mr Perfect'! The latest Bachelorette contestant has been identified as handsome Sydney builder Charlie Newling (pictured) The trailer showed Charlie stepping out of a black limousine and walking up Ali, who looked stunning in a red evening dress. 'I'm here to find somebody, I'm here to find love,' he said. 'I want the house with the white picket fence, I want the kids and I want to settle down.' Meanwhile, an on-screen graphic illustrated Ali mentally 'ticking off' her desired attributes in a partner as he spoke. 'So much for taking things slow... Charlie seems perfect for me!' she said. 'I'm here to find somebody, I'm here to find love': Charlie is an early favourite to win the show after being featured prominently in previews for the upcoming season That didn't take long! Charlie was first identified on The Bachelor and Bachelorette Spoiler Forums this week, within days of his teaser trailer airing A possible finalist? 'How am I not going to fall in love with this guy?' 32-year-old Ali said in a recent Bachelorette trailer that showed her meeting Charlie for the first time Before appearing on the Network Ten dating show, Charlie travelled through Asia and then spent nine months living and working in Dubai. He returned to Australia in September 2017 and began working as a structures foreman in Sydney. Charlie was first identified on The Bachelor and Bachelorette Spoiler Forums this week, within days of his teaser trailer airing. His Instagram is currently set to private and he no longer appears to be active on any other social media platforms. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Network Ten for comment. Ready to settle down? Before appearing on the Network Ten dating show, Charlie travelled through Asia and then spent nine months living and working in Dubai Going to ground: Charlie's Instagram is currently set to private and he no longer appears to be active on any other social media platforms Protein on the menu? It appears that Charlie's friends are equally as buff as he is On his CouchSurfing profile, Charlie previously described himself as an 'easygoing, fun, energetic guy'. 'I love a good laugh, intelligent conversation and really enjoy fitness and the gym,' he added. 'I can cook, clean and everything in between. 'Very social and really get a buzz out of meeting new people and making friends.' The Bachelorette debuts at 7:30pm on Wednesday, October 10 on Network Ten Coming soon! The Bachelorette debuts at 7:30pm on Wednesday, October 10 on Network Ten. Pictured: Ali Oetjen She is one of Hollywood's most popular and acclaimed actresses. And Cate Blanchett has surprisingly revealed she goes to her own children for career advice, telling Who magazine on Thursday she 'seeks their opinions all the time'. The two-time Oscar winner, 49, shares four kids - Dashiell, 16, Roman, 14, Ignatius, 10, and Edith, four - with her theatre director husband Andrew Upton. 'I ask them, "Is this something you want to go and see?"' Cate Blanchett (pictured) has revealed she asks her children for advice before taking on film roles 'I seek their opinions all the time. Particularly with a film like [The House with a Clock in Its Walls], you want to know, "Is this something you want to go and see?"' she said. Cate added that she consulted her children because it is important to consider whether a film will reach its intended audience. Her eldest son, Dashiell, is 16 and she has apparently learnt a lot from him. Family: The two-time Oscar winner, 49, shares four children - Dashiell, 16, Roman, 14, Ignatius, 10, and Edith, four - with her theatre director husband Andrew Upton. Pictured in January 2017 'When I was sent the script, I said to him, "They're going to get Eli Roth to direct this. Isn't he the guy that does all the horror?" And he goes, "Oh my god. You put Eli Roth on an Amblin film? That's combustible",' she revealed. According to Cate, Dashiell told her she should do the film and so she agreed. It comes after the Elizabeth star revealed on The Jonathan Ross show earlier this month that her children think she's 'really uncool and embarrassing'. 'They think I'm uncool': It comes after the Elizabeth star revealed her children think she's 'really uncool and embarrassing'. Pictured with her son Ignatius on September 23, 2018 in Milan, Italy She said: 'They do and they don't [watch my films.] My son gave me some great career advice a few years ago. He said, "Mum, when are you going to make a blockbuster?" 'I said, "I was in Lord of the Rings!" And he said, "Yeah for about 30 seconds." So it didn't really count. I had no brownie points with my children!' The House with a Clock in Its Walls stars Cate as Florence Zimmerman, a witch who befriends her neighbour Jonathan (Jack Black), who is on a quest with an orphan named Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) to locate a clock with doomsday powers. Their exes are dating each other. But Robert Pattinson and Mia Goth set their personal lives to the side as they attended the premiere of High Life at the 66th San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. It was revealed by MailOnline earlier this week that Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf is dating Robert's ex FKA twigs after splitting from Mia, who put on a brave face while attending the 66th San Sebastian Film Festival on Thursday. Awkward! Robert Pattinson and Mia Goth set their personal lives to the side as they attended the premiere of High Life at the 66th San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain Despite the not-so-flattering circumstance, Pattinson didn't seem to let the situation concerning his ex's new relationship affect the night of his premiere. And it shows in the photos, as the actor smiles and laughs while celebrating the release of his new film. The co-stars shared the spotlight as they stood right next to each other while posing with Juliette Binoche and Agata Buzek. Pattinson and Goth wrapped their arms around their lower backs as they took a group shot with their co-stars. Sharing the spotlight! The co-stars shared the spotlight as they stood right next to each other while posing with Juliette Binoche and Agata Buzek Matters of the heart: It was revealed by MailOnline earlier this week that Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf is dating Robert's ex FKA twigs after splitting from his long-term girlfriend Mia, who put on a brave face while attending the 66th San Sebastian Film Festival on Thursday The Twilight actor cut a dapper figure in his navy blue suit and button-down white shirt for the occasion. While he's famously known for his signature hairstyle, Pattinson opted for a more sophisticated look which effortlessly complimented his smart-wear ensemble. Pattinson appeared to be in good spirits while posing for photos alongside his co-stars Juliette, 54, and Scarlett Lindsey. He's arrived: Pattinson sported a dapper style at the premiere of High Life in Spain FKA who? Pattinson seemed to be in good spirits throughout the night as he mingled with his co-stars Pattinson crouched down to lift young Lindsey off her feet, before continuing to converse with Binoche. Attending the premiere of his latest film is just one of few appearances the British star has made following the revelation that his ex-fiance is dating fellow actor Shia. Meanwhile, earlier this month, Pattinson had gushed on how much he'd been wanting to work with his High Life director Claire Denis. Still able to crack a smile: The Twilight star didn't seem bothered by the news of FKA Twigs' romance with fellow actor Shia Labeouf Bracing himself for the storm? Pattinson pulled an interesting facial expression as he made his arrival to the premiere Aww: The actor approached his young co-star on the red carpet According to Deadline, the collaboration between the two only came about because the English actor took it in his own hands to get in contact with the influential French filmmaker. 'I'd been pursuing Claire for ages,' Pattinson admitted. 'We met in LA, and I just really liked her in the meeting. [But] it was just one of those really long processesI think it was four years later or something when we did the movie, and it's probably been an eight-year process [in all].' What a sight: Pattinson is seen having an endearing moment with the little girl She has been notoriously unlucky with men, despite fronting the summer's hottest show Love Island. But Caroline Flack looked happy at The AllBright Club, in London on Thursday after her ex fiance Andrew Brady was spotted moving his things back into her home. The presenter, 38, put on a raunchy display in her zebra print mini dress as she posed with Farrah Storr at the launch of the author's book The Discomfort Zone. She's happier than ever! Caroline Flack posed in a zebra print mini dress with Farrah Storr on Thursday after ex fiance Andrew Brady was spotted moving his things BACK into her home It was no surprise the blonde showed no signs of heartache after her former flame was spotted moving back into her home in recent weeks. Already getting ready for the cooler season ahead, Caroline cut a trendy figure in her chunky heeled platform boots. The outspoken personality wore her shoulder-length golden locks in soft crimped curls and she beamed while posing for photographs. Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Farrah penned the secrets to transform fears into manageable chunks in The Discomfort Zone. On the prowl: The presenter, 38, put on a raunchy display in her zebra print mini dress as she posed with Farrah Storr at the launch of the author's book The Discomfort Zone Caroline was overjoyed at the glitzy event which comes days after exclusive pictures obtained by MailOnline showed Andrew moving back into her home. Earlier in September, the Love Island personality also showed off her huge engagement ring while she slipped into a bikini for a recent Instagram snap. Revealing the snap had been taken in the summer, she simply penned in the caption: 'Same hair I had when I was 12... TBT.' Caroline confirmed her romance was back on track with Andrew after she called it quits on their whirlwind engagement earlier this summer. Flaunt it! Caroline was overjoyed at the glitzy event which comes days after exclusive pictures obtained by MailOnline showed Andrew moving back into her home According to The Mirror, she introduced him as her 'boyfriend' at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in recent weeks. It is unclear whether or not the pair have rekindled their engagement or they are just dating at present. Caroline reportedly told the publication: 'We have a great time together. I'm really good at the moment and he's amazing. We have a lot of fun and this has been a fun night.' Onlookers said Caroline was without her engagement ring for the red carpet event and introduced Andrew as her 'boyfriend' rather than 'fiance.' MailOnline contacted representatives for Caroline and Andrew for further comment. Some-ring to tell us? Earlier in September, the Love Island personality also showed off her huge engagement ring while she slipped into a bikini for a recent Instagram snap The pair initially split in March after just a month of romance amid claims Andrew was unfaithful and fears he was using the presenter for her fame. Soon reconciling, Caroline even had her initials tattooed on her inner wrist just weeks after the duo had met. Following a whirlwind two-month romance, the pair then became engaged in April and they broke the news on their respective Instagram accounts. However, the showbiz couple broke things off again and Caroline announced their second break-up in a statement on social media. Thursday was date night for Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey and his wife of six years, Camila Alves, who attended the 17th annual Samsung Charity Gala together at New York's Manhattan Center. Backstage, the 48-year-old Texan and the Brazilian 36-year-old posed with rapper Pitbull and presenter Ryan Seacrest at the benefit involving his Just Keep Livin' Foundation and her online community, Women of Today. The Wild Turkey brand ambassador looked dapper as ever in a three-piece grey suit over an open white button-up and oxblood Oxfords selected by groomer Jillian Halouska. Date night! Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey and his wife of six years, Camila Alves, attended the 17th annual Samsung Charity Gala at Manhattan Center on Thursday Backstage: The 48-year-old Texan and the Brazilian 36-year-old posed with rapper Pitbull (2-R) and presenter Ryan Seacrest (R) at the benefit involving his Just Keep Livin' Foundation and her online community, Women of Today The model-turned-mompreneur nearly suffered a wardrobe malfunction on the red carpet in her dangerously plunging white gown. Camila - who learned English at 15 - paired her daring dress with sparkly nude pumps and a golden purse selected by stylist Mimi Cuttrell. Hairstylist Jillian Halouska coiffed Alves' ponytail while make-up artist Michael Ashton brought out her big brows and drop earrings. Earlier that day, the former housekeeper wore a similarly roomy white ensemble with platform sneakers as she emerged from the Greenwich Hotel in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood. No necktie: The Wild Turkey brand ambassador looked dapper as ever in a three-piece grey suit over an open white button-up and oxblood Oxfords selected by groomer Jillian Halouska Amply charmed: The model-turned-mompreneur nearly suffered a wardrobe malfunction on the red carpet in her dangerously plunging white gown Double-stick tape: Camila - who learned English at 15 - paired her daring dress with sparkly nude pumps and a golden purse selected by stylist Mimi Cuttrell Glam: Hairstylist Jillian Halouska coiffed Alves' ponytail while make-up artist Michael Ashton brought out her big brows and drop earrings Out and about: Earlier that day, the former housekeeper wore a similarly roomy white ensemble with platform sneakers as she emerged from the Greenwich Hotel in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood Matthew and Camila - who first met at Hollywood hotspot Hyde way back in 2006 - are the proud parents of daughter Vida, 8; son Livingston, 5; and son Levi, 10. 'We mix the "alright, alright, alright" into the discipline,' McConaughey told Today on September 12, dropping his Dazed & Confused catchphrase. 'The main thing is that my wife and I, Camila, we have a similar moral bottom line. And as you learn, if you have kids, every day they get older, you realize how much more its really DNA.' The human trafficking activist added: 'We can nudge them and shepherd them, et cetera et cetera, but they are who they are, and right now, I'm just happy to say we have three healthy ones and they're very much individuals.' 'I'm just happy to say we have three healthy ones and they're very much individuals': Matthew and Camila - who first met at Hollywood hotspot Hyde way back in 2006 - are the proud parents of daughter Vida, 8; son Livingston, 5; and son Levi, 10 Finally hits UK theaters December 7! McConaughey currently plays factory worker-turned-drug dealer Richard Wershe Sr. in Yann Demange's eighties-set crime drama White Boy Rick Hey girl! The Yummy Spoonfuls founder frequently shares kid-friendly recipes on morning talk shows such as Rachael Ray Show (pictured Wednesday) The Dark Tower actor currently plays factory worker-turned-drug dealer Richard Wershe Sr. in Yann Demange's eighties-set crime drama White Boy Rick, which finally hits UK theaters December 7. Meanwhile, the Yummy Spoonfuls founder - who boasts 332K social media followers - frequently shares kid-friendly recipes on morning talk shows such as Rachael Ray Show. It was also date night for 43-year-old Seacrest and his 26-year-old girlfriend - Wilhelmina model and chef Shayna Taylor - whom he rekindled his on/off romance with last year. Mustard skirt suit: It was also date night for 43-year-old Seacrest and his 26-year-old girlfriend, Wilhelmina model and chef Shayna Taylor Cocktail hour: Three-time Grammy winner Rob Thomas and his model wife Marisol Maldonado glammed up to promote their non-profit, Sidewalk Angels, ahead of their 20th wedding anniversary on October 2 LBD: Golden Globe winner Mariska Hargitay brought along her husband of 14 years, Peter Hermann, whom she met on the set of the NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Three-time Grammy winner Rob Thomas and his model wife Marisol Maldonado glammed up to promote their non-profit, Sidewalk Angels, ahead of their 20th wedding anniversary on October 2. Golden Globe winner Mariska Hargitay brought along her husband of 14 years, Peter Hermann, whom she met on the set of the NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Baby Buggy founder Jessica Seinfeld donned a Chinese-inspired sequinned dress at the event without her famous husband of 18 years, Jerry, or their three teenage children. Chinoiserie: Baby Buggy founder Jessica Seinfeld donned a Chinese-inspired sequinned dress at the event without her famous husband of 18 years, Jerry, or their three teenage children Twinning: Both Olympic bobsledder/hurdler Lolo Jones (L) and Lollipop Theater activist Monique Coleman (R) opted for cocktail dresses featuring voluminous kimono-style sleeves Roll up! Fitz and The Tantrums singers Noelle Scaggs (3-L) and Michael Fitzpatrick (3-R) performed at the Samsung soiree with their Los Angeles indie-pop, neo-soul bandmates Mystery woman: FUBU CEO and Shark Tank investor Daymond John donned a plum blazer with a black suit alongside his date wearing a black halter gown Both Olympic bobsledder/hurdler Lolo Jones and Lollipop Theater activist Monique Coleman opted for cocktail dresses featuring voluminous kimono-style sleeves. Fitz and The Tantrums singers Noelle Scaggs and Michael Fitzpatrick performed at the Samsung soiree with their Los Angeles indie-pop, neo-soul bandmates. FUBU CEO and Shark Tank investor Daymond John donned a plum blazer with a black suit alongside his date wearing a black halter gown. The Wife (15) Verdict: Glenn Close on stupendous form Rating: Black 47 (15) Verdict: Flawed but powerful Rating: Winston Churchill once said that his greatest achievement was to persuade his wife, Clementine, to marry him. Ive always thought that Churchill can be excused almost anything, so Ill acquit him from the generalisation that men who say that about themselves are usually engaging in rather icky false humility. American novelist Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) is just such a man. The love of my life without this woman I am nothing, he declares, of his wife Joan (Glenn Close), when his friends and relatives gather to toast the announcement of his Nobel Prize for Literature. Gripping: Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce in The Wife He goes on to echo the Churchill line, and everyone smiles dutifully, recognising it for what it is, a great man generously tossing his loyal spouse a platitude. But this film, adapted by Jane Anderson from a 2003 Meg Wolitzer novel, explores the extent to which Joe, whether knowingly or not, was speaking the truth. Maybe, without the support and sacrifices of his wife, he would have been nothing. Or at any rate a much lesser something. This is one of those films, rather like Andrew Haighs 45 Years (2015) in which Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling played the long-married couple, which holds up a mirror to all those of us with marriages of, lets say, 25 years or more. It can sometimes be a little unsettling what you see. The story, set mostly in 1992, moves from Connecticut to Stockholm, where Joe is to receive his Nobel Prize from the King of Sweden. But there are quite a few flashbacks, too. Some whisk us all the way back to 1958 when Joe and Joan first met. He was her narcissistic but charismatic creative writing professor, married with children. She was his pretty star pupil, who would sometimes babysit. By the Sixties, which we also see in flashback, Joan (nicely played by Closes daughter, Annie Starke) has become his second wife and is already allowing her writing career to be subsumed by his, on the basis that a talkative, male, Jewish novelist in the mould of Philip Roth or Saul Bellow is likely to be much more marketable than a self-effacing woman. These occasional voyages back in time (with Harry Lloyd as the young Joe) are helpful in a narrative sense, but also count as unwelcome distractions from the dynamic between the older Joe and Joan, or more accurately between Pryce and Close. He overacts by about 10 per cent, but then its a role that calls for a big performance, and besides, Pryce over-doing it is more watchable than many actors getting it spot-on. Close, though, is absolutely mesmerising. In a way, she plays two characters simultaneously. One is Mrs Joseph Castleman, the wife of the title, who is used to being sidelined, belittled, patronised, and watching with a beatific smile while the world hauls her husband onto a pedestal. The other is Joan, quietly racked with resentment at the way he lives his life, at his serial infidelities, at his pomposity, at his self-absorption. They are accompanied to Stockholm by their son, David (Max Irons), who has writing ambitions of his own but has never received the encouragement of his self-obsessed and potentially jealous father, who seems more concerned with whether David smokes or not. Also on the plane is a journalist, Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater), who is intent on writing Joes unauthorised biography. At first he seems like a creep, a borderline stalker. Our instinct as the audience is to want to protect Joan, and even Joe, from Bones sly insinuations about their marriage. Please dont paint me as a victim, I am much more interesting than that, Joan tells him. But gradually we see that maybe hes right, maybe there is more to their relationship than meets the eye. All the simmering emotions reach boiling point in Stockholm, where Joe, whose libido is in better shape than his heart, flirts outrageously with the attractive young photographer assigned to follow him. Then comes the ceremony, where he is anointed as a master of words, a master at portraying the human condition in all its complexities. The irony is that he barely recognises his own condition. The Wife is a deeply intelligent film about power, love and delusion in a long-term relationship, and Swedish director Bjorn Runge keeps it moving forward very adeptly, but the story has a theatricality about it that doesnt always translate successfully to the silver screen. I imagine it would work better on stage. That said, the camera enables Close, who can express so much with her eyes alone, to give one of the performances of her already-glittering career. She has had six Academy Award nominations but has yet to win. Could this be seventh time lucky? The terrible Irish potato famine of the 1840s is not just the tragic backdrop to Black 47, a story of cruelty and revenge, but facilitates it, rather as the U.S. Civil War does in countless Westerns. The title refers to the colour of the benighted land and to the worst year of the famine, 1847, by the end of which one in four of the population was either dead or fled. Our muscular hero, Feeney (James Frecheville), is a soldier from Connemara who returns home from serving with the British Army in Afghanistan to find that the emerald isle he left is now blackened with blight and the charred ruins of torched cottages. The villains of the piece are the British, and Lance Dalys film some of which is scripted in Gaelic allows none of them even the smallest redeeming feature. A little like Jennifer Kents forthcoming film The Nightingale, which is set in Australia around the same time, the Brits are a one-dimensional bunch of tyrants, bullies, sadists and racists, summed up by Jim Broadbents aristocratic landowner, who sneers that there are those who look forward to the day when a Celtic Irishman is as rare in Ireland as a Red Indian in Manhattan. James Frecheville in Black 47 In his long absence, Feeneys mother has died of starvation and his brother has been hanged. Soon, The Great Hunger will also claim his sister and her children, while another brother, or possibly a nephew (its not entirely clear), will be shot for resisting the nasty bailiffs. So Feeney embarks on a deadly mission of vengeance, slaughtering everyone he holds responsible in a variety of ingeniously twisted ways. Once the British realise who theyre dealing with, they engage a former Army colleague of Feeneys, played by Hugo Weaving, to hunt him down. Completing the posse are a floppy-haired officer (Freddie Fox), a local conscript (Barry Keoghan), and a sly tracker (Stephen Rea). Really, this film is a classic revenge Western in all but its setting, reminiscent of True Grit or The Outlaw Josey Wales, but with undertones of Ken Loachs The Wind That Shakes The Barley. Some slightly dodgy painted scenery suggests that either there wasnt much of a budget, or someone actually chose to evoke the landscape in an arty, picture-book way. Whichever it was, its distracting. But if you can overlook that, and the way in which the peasantry are all tragically noble and their oppressors all mercilessly cruel, then this is a powerful and poignant film. There havent been many, if any, features about the Irish potato famine. It was smart to do it as a revenge Western. Sonia Kruger has revealed that a younger colleague once called her 'toots' in a professional context. She made the confession during a debate on Friday's Today Extra with co-host David Campbell and guests Prue MacSween and Andrew Bucklow. The panel was debating whether it was suitable to use terms of endearment such as 'babe', 'chicks' and 'girls' in 2018. That's hardly professional! Sonia Kruger (right) revealed during a debate on Today Extra on Friday that a younger colleague once called her by a very unusual term of endearment Andrew said that he didn't see a problem with it, adding that he has been called 'babe' by female colleagues in the past. 'I don't see an issue with it - but it is a bit creepy when your older boss says it to a group of girls. That is where it gets a bit dodgy,' he said. When such terms are exchanged between people on the same professional level it wasn't an issue, he concluded. Sonia, 53, then replied: 'I get what you're saying, but I have had a younger colleague call me "toots", which was a little bit, um...' At that point, her co-host David pretended to shiver and said: 'Oh, it is cold in here!' Afterwards, Prue joked that she would be grateful to be called 'toots' and suggested that the term should return to mainstream use. Bizarre: Sonia revealed, 'I have had a younger colleague call me "toots", which was a little bit, um...' Pictured with her co-host David Campbell (left) in Melbourne on April 23, 2017 The Today Extra debate followed allegations that the professional relationship between former ABC chairman Justin Milne and former managing director Michelle Guthrie broke down because of the way he would refer to her and other women. Mr Milne is alleged to have referred to Ms Guthrie, the ABC's first female managing director, as 'the missus' while other staff were present, Fairfax reported. A media executive has also claimed he called female staffers 'babes' and 'chicks'. He has a reputation as the 'bad boy' of fashion. But Jordan Barrett was on his best behaviour on Thursday as he enjoyed front row seats at Paris Fashion Week with newly-married model Emily Ratajkowski. Posing for the cameras at the Paco Rabanne show, the 22-year-old Australian looked every inch the modern heartthrob in a baggy jumpsuit. Scroll down to video Friends in high places! Jordan Barrett (right) smouldered on the front row at Paris Fashion Week on Thursday alongside midriff-baring model Emily Ratajkowski (left) The genetically-blessed pair were the epitome of cool as they posed for photographs before the women's catwalk presentation. Jordan swapped his typically dapper look for a more grungy style by wearing a chic jumpsuit, which he paired with a gold chain and bracelet. Emily, who became a global sensation after posing topless in the Blurred Lines music video in 2013, also cut a stylish figure in a cropped T-shirt and loose-fitting pants. Fashion superstars! Jordan swapped his typically dapper look for a more grungy style by wearing a chic jumpsuit, which he paired with a gold chain and bracelet The brunette flashed her toned midriff in the fashion-forward ensemble while draping her arm over Jordan's shoulders. She styled her hair in glossy waves and enhanced her flawless complexion with a dewy foundation, dark eye makeup and lip gloss. Jordan also attended the Naked Heart France Gala Dinner in Paris that same evening. Stunner: Emily, who became a global sensation after posing topless in the Blurred Lines music video in 2013, also cut a stylish figure in a cropped T-shirt and loose-fitting pants Jordan's trip to Paris comes after he spoke about the gender pay gap in the modelling industry. He told The Courier Mail: 'It is kind of one of the only industries where women are paid more than men.' However, he wasn't concerned because models' pay reflects the fact women's fashion is a much more profitable industry. Man about town! Jordan also attended the Naked Heart France Gala Dinner in Paris that same evening 'Sales in men's and women's products are completely different, it is obvious and fair that women make more money in modelling,' he explained. 'It is basically a women's industry. More women buy makeup, hair products and clothing than men. It is just simply that,' he said. Meanwhile, Jordan is believed to be currently single. His friend Emily married Sebastian Bear-McClard earlier this year. Justin Hartley opened up about the time he had a gun pulled on him Wednesday. The 41-year-old actor, while on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, said the incident occurred during his college years in his native Illinois when he did some friends a favor as they departed on their honeymoon, by agreeing to dog-sit their white German Shepherd for them. 'I had a dog at the time,' he recalled. 'It was this little beagle. I was like, "Yeah, bring the dog in. No problem."' Scroll below for video Scary memory: Justin Hartley, 41, said on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon Wednesday that a person once pulled a gun on him while he was in her backyard looking for a stray dog The Knoxville, Illinois native said he erroneously left a window open as he dog-sit, enabling the pooch to flee the premises. Harley, who plays Kevin Pearson on the hit NBC series This Is Us, told Fallon that his friends considered the dog like a child, causing him to embark on an extended journey to find the canine. 'I spent two days tracking this dog down. I lost like 15 pounds, I was running around,' Hartley told Fallon. 'They called me like three or four times a day to check on their dog, and I always had an excuse. I was pretending to be the dog. 'I was making noises,' he said. 'They were like, "He sounds weird." I was like, "He went on a long walk. He's exhausted."' Way back when: The Knoxville, Illinois native said the incident occurred during his college years Gone awry: What started as a favor to friends wound up in a life-threatening scenario, the actor said The actor, who's also been seen on shows such as The Young and the Restless, Mistresses and Revenge, was able to track down the pooch, but not without a brush with danger. 'I found him on the other side of Carbondale in this woman's backyard. I went into her backyard, and I cornered the dog. The dog was kind of spooked.' He said the homeowner came out 'with a cordless phone with an antenna and a gun,' at which point he clarified things before the situation escalated any further. Signature role: The actor is best known for his role as Kevin Pearson on NBC's This Is Us Insult to injury: The actor said he 'break in through the window that he had opened' when he returned home from the adventure Veteran actor: Kevin has also been seen on shows such as The Young and the Restless, Mistresses and Revenge 'I was like, 'Ma'am,' ... I was like, "That's a dog" and explained.' The adventure wasn't over, according to Hartley, as in his haste, he'd locked himself out of him own home in seeking the missing dog, and says he had to 'break in through the window that he had opened.' Hartley can be seen on This Is Us, Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC. Karl Stefanovic and Jasmine Yarbrough could perhaps be considering adoption. During a segment with AdoptTogether ambassador Curtis Stone on Friday's Today show, the TV host revealed his fiancee is a passionate supporter of the process. The 44-year-old, who underwent a vasectomy while married to his ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn, already has three children: Jackson, 19, Ava, 13, and River, 11. Are they considering adoption? Karl Stefanovic (left) hinted at possible family plans with Jasmine Yarbrough (right, with Karl in April) during a segment on the Today show on Friday Celebrity chef Curtis Stone appeared on Today to promote the crowdfunding website AdoptTogether, ahead of World Adoption Day on November 9. AdoptTogether helps families raise funds to cover the high costs of adoption. During the interview, Karl revealed that his 34-year-old fiancee is a longtime supporter of AdoptTogether. Telling remark: Curtis Stone (right) appeared on Today to promote the crowdfunding website AdoptTogether, ahead of World Adoption Day on November 9. During the interview, Karl (left) revealed that his 34-year-old fiancee is a longtime supporter of AdoptTogether 'My partner's involved in this, been involved in this for many years as well. I met Hank [Fortener, AdoptTogether's founder] when I was in LA and to break down these barriers is so important,' Karl said. Karl also revealed he had previously spoken 'at length' with Hugh Jackman's wife Deborra-lee Furness about the adoption process. Hugh and Deborra-lee share two adopted children: Oscar, 18, and Ava, 13. Revealing: 'My partner's involved in this, been involved in this for many years as well. I met Hank [Fortener, AdoptTogether's founder] when I was in LA and to break down these barriers is so important,' Karl said. Pictured: Karl and Jasmine on November 15, 2017 in Sydney In an unconfirmed report last month, Woman's Day alleged that Karl and Jasmine had 'talked about having children' together. 'Jasmine really wants to be a mum, so we all expect Karl will be a dad again,' a source said. 'I don't think they're going to rush into it, but it's a given that it will happen.' The same magazine previously claimed the Channel Nine star had undergone a vasectomy reversal in Los Angeles last year. Planning a family? In an unconfirmed report last month, Woman's Day alleged that Karl and Jasmine had 'talked about having children' together. The same magazine previously claimed the Channel Nine star had undergone a vasectomy reversal in Los Angeles last year According to the Vasectomy Reversal Center of America, getting pregnant after a vasectomy reversal is usually a six to 12 month process. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Karl's management for comment. Karl and Jasmine will marry in December at the One&Only Palmilla Resort in the seaside town of San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. Pub baron Justin Hemmes was recently spotted bidding on a $6.5 million home in Sydney's eastern suburb of Bellevue Hill with his 28-year-old ex and mother of his two children, Kate Fowler. But despite being unsuccessful at that auction, Justin already has a second Sydney property away from his $90 million waterfront Vaucluse estate. The 45-year-old is believed to have purchased a secluded waterfront property, accessible only by boat, in Sydney's Pittwater back in May 2016. Scroll down for video Not bad for $3 million? Pub baron Justin Hemmes's secluded waterfront house in Sydney's Pittwater revealed ...after insisting he'll continue living with the mother of his children Kate Fowler at his $90m estate following split Justin 'secured' the Pittwater retreat from former owner Laurence Eastwood - one of Australia's most distinguished production designers, Property Observer claimed. The three bedroom luxury home, is nestled on the edge of a remote part of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Its location in the northern coastal suburbs of Sydney would surely prove convenient for Justin, after purchasing nearby venue The Newport Arms in 2015. A remote hideaway: Justin is believed to have purchased this secluded waterfront property, accessible only by boat, in Sydney's Pittwater back in May 2016 Peace and quiet: The three bedroom luxury home, which is nestled on the edge of a remote part of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, was reportedly looking at fetching '$3 million' Locals have have told Daily Mail Australia that they haven't seen the tycoon there 'in a while' now - but it's often obvious when he's retreated up from the city. 'It's a remote and tranquil area so when there's a seaplane landing it's hard not to notice,' one local joked. Describing the house, rumoured to be worth around $3 million, Belle Property Avalon wrote online: 'A multi-sustainability award winner, its cutting edge design takes full advantage of its magical views...' 'Incorporating sweeping indoor and outdoor living, a whole floor master plus boat shed and jetty for the boat.' The house also boasts a vast floating roof and huge stainless steel box gutters that feed rainwater into a 50,000-litre tank. 'It's a remote and tranquil area so when there's a seaplane landing it's hard not to notice,' one local joked to Daily Mail Australia after stating they believe they're often used by Justin 'A multi-sustainability award winner, its cutting edge design takes full advantage of its magical views...,' Belle Property Avalon wrote online while describing the house Justin confirmed the news he had split with model Kate to the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year, telling the publication they now share a 'platonic' relationship. 'At the beginning of 2018, Kate and I decided our friendship and respect for family life would become the focus of our relationship,' he said. 'We love our children dearly and for now continue to live together happily in our family home.' 'Kate and I decided our friendship and respect for family life would become the focus of our relationship,' Justin said in July, confirming his split from the model (pictured) The family home is known as The Hermitage, Justin's heritage-listed harbour front Vaucluse mansion worth as much as '$90 million'. According to Justin, the estate has 'interconnected' wings, which allows them to have individual living quarters in the massive home. The couple have two daughters together, Alexa, two, and Saachi, one. Following the pair's break-up, Justin treated himself to a $40 million Bombardier Challenger private jet to celebrate his 45th birthday. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Justin's rep for comment. Kris Smith and his pregnant girlfriend Sarah Boulazeris have spent the month celebrating their babymoon in Mykonos and London. And the genetically-blessed pair certainly had that holiday glow as they landed back in Sydney on Thursday. The loved-up couple are set to welcome their first child together in December. They've got that holiday glow! Kris Smith, 40, and his pregnant girlfriend Sarah Boulazeris, 27, landed back in Sydney on Thursday after celebrating their babymoon in Mykonos and London Kris, 40, sported a black Rolling Stones T-shirt and sweatpants, which he teamed with white sneakers and a cap. Appearing in high spirits, he beamed broadly as he wheeled his luggage out of the airport terminal. Sarah, 27, who is 28-weeks-pregnant with her first child, also appeared well-rested and content. Post-vacation: Kris sported a black Rolling Stones T-shirt and sweatpants, which he teamed with white sneakers and a cap The brunette covered her baby bump in a white tank top, black harem-style pants, and accessorised with white sneakers and a black LA cap. The pair looked to have bought a few tax-free items at Sydney Airport, with Kris carrying a medium-sized shopper bag. Kris and Sarah have spent the majority of September in Mykonos, Greece and London, celebrating their babymoon. Mother-to-be: Sarah covered her baby bump in a white tank top, black harem-style pants, and accessorised with white sneakers and a black cap 'Beyond excited for our babymoon!' Kris and Sarah flew first class to Mykonos, Greece ahead of birth of their first child in December Taking to Instagram earlier this month, Kris shared an image of the couple lounging on luxurious reclining airplane seats while travelling on Qatar Airways. Kris showed off his muscular frame in a blue dress shirt and black jeans, while Sarah kept it casual in a black sweater and pants. 'We're beyond excited for our babymoon to Mykonos,' the British star wrote, 'thank you to everyone who made this possible for us!' Mile fry club: Wearing a comfortable grey top, the fresh-faced brunette enjoyed a gourmet meal on board To document their epic voyage, Kris posted several pictures including one of Sarah enjoying a slap-up morning feed. Wearing a comfortable grey top, the fresh-faced brunette is seen tucking in, while Kris captioned the shot: 'Romantic breakfast at 40,000 feet.' The loved-up couple are set to welcome their first child together in December. Kris already shares son Ethan, eight, with ex-girlfriend Dannii Minogue, 46. Nina Agdal channeled her inner flower child Thursday night in New York. The model, 26, stepped out in the Big Apple with long flowing blonde hair and a floral-themed frock. Her pretty dress featured purple and white flowers with green leaves on a black background and was cinched at the waist with a brown leather belt. Hippie chic: Nina Agdal channeled her inner flower child Thursday night in New York. The model, 26, stepped out with long flowing blonde hair and a floral-themed frock The Danish-born beauty went bare-legged in a pair of black suede ankle boots. She kept her makeup light with black mascara on her lashes, blusher on her cheeks and glossy dark pink lip color. Nina had a black purse slung over one shoulder on a long strap and carried her smart phone in her hand. Model looks: The Danish-born beauty went bare-legged in a pair of black suede ankle boots Out in the Big Apple: Nina had a black purse slung over one shoulder on a long strap and carried her smart phone in her hand Earlier this week, Nina, who once dated Leonardo DiCaprio, put on a glamorous show as she attended Metropolitan Opera Opening Night at Lincoln Center with current beau Jack Brinkley Cook. She flaunted her cleavage in a classic black velvet gown that she paired with matching stilettos and a glossy clutch. Her hair was styled with a center parting and corkscrew curls for a fun vibe. Jack, 23, the son of supermodel Christie Brinkley, looked dapper in a tuxedo and black tie. The couple first met at Montauk's Surf Lodge in New York just two months following her May 2017 split from Oscar winner Leo. Date: Earlier this week, Nina, who once dated Leonardo DiCaprio, put on a glamorous show as she attended Metropolitan Opera Opening Night with current beau Jack Brinkley Cook Glam: She flaunted her cleavage in a classic black velvet gown that she paired with matching stilettos. Her hair was styled with a center parting and corkscrew curls for a fun vibe The fell in love soon after James Trethewie was given the boot from The Bachelorette by Sophie Monk. But on Friday the financial adviser confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that he and his girlfriend Alice Summers have gone their separate ways. The duo have not been pictured together on Instagram since May and unfollowed one another on the social media app. EXCLUSIVE 'There were aspects that weren't really compatible together': The Bachelorette's James Trethewie CONFIRMS he's split with girlfriend Alice Summers after the pair unfollow each other on Instagram 'We broke up about three to four months ago... I don't think many people know, I'm not the kind of guy to go out there making a big public announcement,' James said. 'I guess we both realised as we started to getting to know each other and merging our lives more, how different our personalities were and there were aspects that weren't really compatible together,' the Manly native explained. 'In the end we both felt it was best to go our separate ways. We're still amicable and remain good friends.' Despite calling it quits, James had nothing but praise for his former partner. 'Alice is such an amazing person and we started out dating not knowing each other and had some awesome months together,' he added. 'Alice was also really supportive whilst I went through some difficult months post-show, especially tearing my LCL (lateral collateral ligament) in half and being couch bound in a knee-brace for months.' He continued: 'I've got nothing but love and respect for Alice, she's an incredibly special woman, unfortunately it didn't work out but that's okay and we've both got some really happy memories there.' For her part, Alice added: 'We separated a few months ago on very amicable terms. We are still in touch as friends, but the relationship had run its course.' It's over! Despite the pair calling it quits, James had nothing but praise for his former partner and said he'd cherish the memories together even if it wasn't meant to be The separation leaves the door open for newly single James to join Bachelor in Paradise or the next season of The Bachelor as the leading man. However, James laughed off suggestions he could return to the franchise, admitting it's something he hasn't yet thought about. The fan favourite was infamously eliminated from The Bachelorette after a pie chart in challenge revealed that he and Sophie weren't compatible. Heartbroken: James was a fan favourite on The Bachelorette but was given the boot by Sophie Monk (left) But James wasn't heartbroken for long and soon struck up a romance with blonde beauty Alice. The couple first revealed they were dating in January this year, with the reality star joking at the time that he was glad he had found someone 'more accustomed to a pie chart than I am'. 'Shes such a caring and beautiful person inside and out, so lovely, and were both really happy together,' James previously told Daily Mail Australia. While the couple made a string of smitten appearances on the social scene and posed happily for photos, no images have surfaced for a while. Splitsville: May 10 marked the last couple selfie on Alice's Instagram account The pair last hit the headlines in March when NW magazine reported James and Alice reportedly getting into a 'massive fight' at a Sydney bar. 'Alice was p***ed off, and when one girl asked how things between she and James were going, she huffed "Awful!"' the source was alleged to have told NW. 'They had a massive fight in front of everyone!' Since then, only a handful of images have emerged on social media - with the last on James' account being April 28. Meanwhile, May 10 marked the last couple's selfie on Alice's account. The Bachelor's Brooke Blurton has been nothing but open about her heartbreaking past after her mother committed suicide when she was 11. And it appears her brother Troy, who appeared on the Network Ten dating show on Thursday, is equally as honest - and inspirational - about his own personal struggles. The Perth native has repeatedly documented his past issues with drug addiction on Instagram, revealing he turned to exercise to stay on the straight and narrow. 'From drug addict to back in the gym': The Bachelor star Brooke Blurton's brother Troy reveals his inspiring transformation ...after they both overcame heartbreaking childhood Sharing his incredible transformation in September 2017, Troy wrote online: 'So after being drugged f***ed and drinking everyday for a year or so (could be more I'm not exactly sure), decided to clean up my act. Gave up the drugs over a year ago now.' He continued: 'Still drink but only weekends. Decided to start training again and be a bit more healthy. 'Still got a long way to go before I reach my goals and what I want but yeah just glad I'm trying to get my life back on track.' Another transformation post from Troy read: 'From drug addict to back in the gym and training cleaned my act up and never felt better.' 'So after being drugged f***ed and drinking everyday for a year or so (could be more I'm not exactly sure) - decided to clean up my act. Gave up the drugs over a year ago now,' Troy wrote online in September 2017 United and happy: Brooke's muscle-clad younger brother Troy appeared on Thursday's episode of the show as he met Nick Cummins with her friend Tess and 'father figure' Peter In February 2018, both Brooke and Troy appeared on SBS' Noongar Dandjoo program discussing their struggles after their mother died. Brooke admitted: 'Growing up was pretty complicated. [There was] a lot of drug and alcohol violence in my childhood and I had an older sister who suffered from schizophrenia.' Her brother Troy told the program: 'Brooke was definitely someone I had to run to when I had problems. 'I went through quite a bit of depression when I was on drugs, drinking a lot, wasn't really in the right place.' Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Troy for comment. 'I went through quite a bit of depression when I was on drugs, drinking a lot, wasn't really in the right place,' Troy previously admitted before turning his life around The Bachelor viewers got a glimpse into Brooke Blurton's tight-knit family life during her hometown visit on Thursday's episode of the Network Ten show. And ahead of introducing Nick 'Honey Badger' Cummins to the people that mean the most to her, Brooke touched upon her tragic past in a piece to camera, speaking about her mother's devastating suicide when she was just 11-years-old. During her difficult upbringing, Brooke admitted she was 'sort of like a mother figure' to younger brother Troy as the pair grew up in foster care. She played Erica Kane on the hit soap All My Children for 41 years and at 71, Susan Lucci still looks incredibly youthful. And proof of that fact came in February this year when the actress was photographed on a beach wearing a strapless coral-red swimsuit. As the pictures quickly spread around the globe, people marvelled at her youthful visage and trim, taught figure. 'I was shocked': All My Children star Susan Lucci (pictured), 71, revealed her reaction to those incredible beach swimsuit pictures on Today Extra on Friday On Friday, Susan appeared on Australia's Today Extra and spoke of her reaction to the overwhelmingly positive response she received. 'I was so shocked' [at the positive response],' the brunette beauty told hosts David Campbell and Sonia Kruger. 'But they were such nice pictures.' Grateful: 'I was so shocked' [at the positive response],' the brunette beauty told hosts David Campbell and Sonia Kruger. 'But they were such nice pictures' She added, laughing: 'They [the public] said really nice things. And I thought, "Let me find these paparazzi and thank them!"' Susan was nominated for an Emmy 19 times before finally winning one of the gongs in the Best Actress category in 1999 for her portrayal of Erica Kane. She recently revealed she hits the gym six times a week to maintain her remarkable figure. Susan added: 'They [the public] said really nice things [about the red bikini shots]. 'And I thought, "Let me find these paparazzi and thank them!"' Workout regimen: Susan recently revealed that she hits the gym six times a week to maintain her remarkable figure Susan told Women's Health: 'I try to take one day off, because you're supposed to take a day off. But I'll always do something, because I find my body craves it.' The brunette beauty said she works out 'first thing' in the morning, as it is a positive start to her day. 'Because then I know, no matter what happens for the rest of the day, I've done something good for myself,' she told the magazine. Early bird: The brunette beauty, pictured here on All My Children, said she works out 'first thing' in the morning, as it is a positive start to her day She took a lengthy hiatus from the spotlight to focus on her mental health following a suicide attempt in late June. But Married At First Sight's Tracey Jewel is back, with the reality TV star recently filming a new ABC series and recording a radio advert for Perth's Brain Wellness Spa. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Friday, the 35-year-old said that she is using her public platform to spread awareness around mental health issues. 'I'm doing mental health initiatives': Married At First Sight's Tracey Jewel is back in the spotlight to spread awareness around mental health issues 'I'm doing mental health initiatives, such as ABC's new show Let's Talk Now, and TV and radio ads for the Brain Wellness Spa in Perth,' she said. The mother-of-one shared a photo from the set of Let's Talk Now on Friday, billing it as 'an amazing new show for women' in an Instagram post. In the image, one of the show's hosts can be seen holding up copies of Tracey's self-help books, Don't Mess With The Goddess and This Goddess Means Business. Back on TV! The 35-year-old has been interviewed for a new ABC talk show and has also recorded some TV and radio adverts to promote Perth's Brain Wellness Spa Tracey is currently working on her next book, telling Daily Mail Australia that it will be released 'early next year'. In late June, Tracey was left 'stranded' in Berlin without money for a flight home after splitting with her boyfriend Patrick Kedemos while they were travelling through Europe. In a moment of desperation, the mother-of-one tried to kill herself by overdosing on medication. Hell: At the end of June, Tracey was left 'stranded' in Berlin without money for a flight home after splitting with her boyfriend Patrick Kedemos (right) during a European holiday from hell Thankfully, she is doing much better after spending time in a mental health facility in Perth last month. Earlier this year, Tracey became one of the most talked-about women in Australia when she was involved in a love triangle on Married At First Sight. She was paired with Dean Wells on the 'social experiment', but was left blindsided when he had an 'affair' with fellow contestant Davina Rankin. In the months after the show aired, Tracey emerged as one of the series' most controversial and divisive contestants. Tragic: In a moment of desperation, the mother-of-one tried to kill herself by 'overdosing' on medication in a hotel room Tracey later claimed she suffered from PTSD following the show, and that social media trolls and negative press left her broke and unemployed. 'Everyone's cancelled their contracts with me. Any way I had of earning an income has disappeared,' she told Who magazine in August. She's now living back with her parents and has applied to study a post-graduate certificate in marketing to get her once-thriving career back on track. Angela Bassett and husband Courtney B. Vance attended Los Angeles Philharmonic's opening night concert and gala on Thursday. The 60-year-old actress wowed in a white pantsuit, while Vance, 58, looked dapper i grey threads. The couple were joined at the event by Don Johnson and wife Kelley Phleger. Date night: Angela Bassett and husband Courtney B. Vance attended Los Angeles Philharmonic's opening night concert and gala on Thursday Bassett teamed her angelic ensemble with silver heels and turquoise earrings. The American Horror Story star wore her hair in natural curls, while her glam included a nude lip and lengthy false eyelashes. She carried her belongings in a white clutch adorned with metallic accents. Wonder in white: The 60-year-old actress wowed in a pantsuit and silver heels Accessorized: Bassett teamed her angelic ensemble with turquoise earrings The Los Angeles Philharmonic celebrated its 100th season opener at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Thursday night. Don Johnson, best known for his role in Miami Vice, arrived wearing a fitted blue suit. Meanwhile, his wife, Kelley Phleger looked chic in a sleeveless, patterned frock and strappy heels. Parents off duty: Don Johnson and wife Kelley Phleger also attended the late night soiree at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles She's 61 and she still regularly hits up the gym for a workout. And on Thursday Melanie Griffith showed off her incredible figure as she headed to a fitness session in Beverly Hills in a crop top and leggings. The actress flashed her toned midriff and arms in her choice of ensemble. Looking fabulous: Melanie Griffith, 61, showed off her incredible figure as she headed to a fitness session in Beverly Hills in a crop top and leggings on Thursday The mom of three stepped out in purple and black trainers and carried a black shoulder purse. Her blonde hair was styled up in a messy bun and she sported gold-framed sunglasses. Last month, the Hollywood star revealed she has finally finished treatment to remove skin cancer from her nose. Fighting fit: The actress flashed her toned midriff and arms in her choice of ensemble. Her blonde hair was styled up in a messy bun and she sported gold-framed sunglasses On August 25, she posted a selfie to Instagram showing a close-up of her face. She's wearing spectacles and is makeup-free and there's a Band-Aid over the bridge of her nose. In the caption, Melanie wrote: 'Bandaged again after having dermabrasion, the final step to fix the now removed basil cell skin cancer.' 'If any of you have it, get it fixed,' she advised her social media followers. 'If you lay in the sun, are exposed to lots of sun, be CAREFUL. Use sun screen. Get checked out by your Dermatolgist. If you dont have one, get one, or go to your nearest clinic and ask to be tested for it.' On the mend: In August, Melanie shared this selfie to Instagram explaining that she has finally finished treatment to remove skin cancer from her nose Melanie is mom to Fifty Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson, 28, whom she shares with ex-husband Dan Johnson. She also shares daughter Stella, 22, with ex-husband Antonio Banderas and son Alexander Bauer, 33, with her other ex-husband Steven Bauer. Melanie, the daughter of Hitchcock star Tippi Hedren, is most famous for the films Working Girl, Pacific Heights, The Bonfire Of the Vanities and Mulholland Falls. She was pictured filming her 'wedding' for the sixth season of Married At First Sight on Wednesday. Heidi Latcham, 37, said 'I do' with a handsome suitor during an idyllic beach ceremony in Byron Bay, New South Wales. However it appears the curly-haired blonde was always destined for fame, having landed a job as an MTV presenter in 2005, prior to her stints as a radio host, promotions girl and one-time beauty therapist. She's been busy! New MAFS bride Heidi Latcham, 37, revealed as a former beauty therapist turned promotions girl and radio star... so did she prioritise her career over love? Before getting behind the microphone, Heidi worked as a one-time beauty therapist. Born and bred in Queensland's Sunshine Coast, Heidi ensured her clients had the best-arched eyebrows. It wasn't until January 2005 that the then-brunette landed her 'dream job' as a presenter for pay-TV music channel MTV. The former beauty technician, who had never stepped in front of a TV camera, beat more than 10,000 applicants for the coveted gig. However in an interview with the Sunshine Coast Daily in January 2005, Heidi revealed that she wasn't nervous ahead of the audition. Destined for fame: Following a gig with MTV in 2005, Heidi landed a role as a radio presenter for the Sunshine Coast's Hot 91.1, before joining Brady Ellis [pictured] on Townsville's Star 106.3 in May 2017 'I'm such a show-off really and it didn't worry me at all doing that first audition in front of the camera,' she told the publication. Following her gig with MTV, Heidi landed a role as a radio presenter for the Sunshine Coast's Hot 91.1, before joining Brady Ellis on Townsville's Star 106.3 in May 2017. And now it seems Heidi has ended her hosting duties on Star 106.3's breakfast program in order to accommodate the MAFS filming schedule. In between her radio gigs, it appeared Heidi had sparked an interest in health and nutrition, having signed onto a course at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in 2013. On Wednesday, Heidi was spotted saying 'I do' during an idyllic beach ceremony in Byron Bay, New South Wales, for the sixth season of Married At First Sight. First look: It seems Heidi has ended her hosting duties on Star 106.3's breakfast program in order to accommodate the MAFS filming schedule. On Wednesday, the 37-year-old was spotted saying 'I do' with a groom, believed to be named Michael In exclusive pictures obtained by Daily Mail Australia, Heidi couldn't wipe the smile off her face after meeting her tall, handsome suitor at the altar. Heidi looked radiant in a strapless, knee-length dress with a long veil train, and walked purposefully despite wearing high heels on the sand. The tall groom, who is believed to be named Michael, wore a suave black suit with a skinny tie and appeared to be joined by two groomsmen, who offered emotional support. Married At First Sight first launched in Australia in 2015. Back then, the show featured just four couples and had only six episodes. Since then, it has become one of the most popular programs on Australian TV - with season five featuring 11 couples and 32 episodes. Despite the show failing to create many long-lasting relationships, the consistent controversies have resulted in sky-high ratings for Channel Nine. Over two million people watched the MAFS season five finale earlier this year. She shares two young sons Rocket, three, and Racer, one, with actor husband Sam Worthington. And this week Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) was spotted carrying adorable Racer on hip as she ran errands. Dressed down in black trackpants and a plain black top, the former model was snapped heading from her car into a Whole Foods market in Santa Monica,California on Tuesday. Mum duties! Lara Bingle (pictured) dresses down in comfortable all-black attire as she takes toddler son Racer to grocery store in Los Angeles The Australian native sported an outfit ideal for a busy mum, pairing her casual ensemble with practical white trainers. With her son by her side, Lara shielded her eyes from California's rays with a pair of sunglasses and stayed expressionless as she strolled. Racer looked content during the outing, alternating between using his hands to point in the air and cling to his mother's body. Keeping casual: Lara dressed down in black trackpants and a plain black top, an outfit she paired with trainers and sunglasses The sighting comes just several months after the notoriously private Lara spoke candidly about her husband Sam and praised his parenting skills. In an interview with Sunday Life magazine in July, Lara admitted Sam's parenting style has her impressed. 'Parenting is challenging. You need a lot of patience and I'd say Sam is definitely more patient than me,' Lara gushed. 'He's just a really good dad and absolutely obsessed with the boys, so nothing comes between them not work or anything else. And that, for me, is the most attractive thing about him.' Too cute! Racer clinged to his mother during the outing Doting mother: The sighting comes just several months after Lara spoke candidly about her husband Sam and praised his parenting skills Lara, who married Sam in 2014, also opened up about the romantic surprise Sam planned for her 30th birthday last year. The Avatar actor organised for the kids to be looked after while he took Lara away on a mysterious romantic getaway. With Lara in the dark as to where they were headed, the couple travelled to Iceland's Blue Lagoon, then ticked off music gigs in Dublin, Brussels, London and Toronto. 'Each night I'd go to bed in one country then wake up and open a new present which would be a T-shirt of the band I was going to see that night,' Lara explained to Sunday Life. 'You need a lot of patience and I'd say Sam is definitely more patient than me,' In an interview with Sunday Life in July, Lara admitted parenting was 'challenging' and praised her husband 'He's just a really good dad' In the interview, Lara said the Avatar star's parenting style has her impressed She's the Canadian-born model and best-selling author who relocated to Australia in 1996. And on Thursday, Tara Moss stripped down to a small charcoal bikini as she enjoyed a dip during a holiday to her Canadian hometown of Victoria. The 44-year-old paraded her slender figure on social media, sharing a picture of herself in the flattering two-piece. Beach babe! Model and author Tara Moss, 44, flaunts her slender figure in a charcoal bikini as she returns to her hometown in Canada for a holiday Tara's cleavage-baring top showed off her ample assets, while the cheeky ruffled bikini bottoms sat low around her svelte waist and hips. 'To all my Australian friends who were worried about sending me into Canadian weather, its okay, I am coping,' she playfully captioned the picture. While it's currently Autumn in Canada, the brunette was clearly happy to soak up the sunshine. 'Life feels so different': The media personality also used a similar picture to highlight her recent physical struggles over the past four months The media personality also used a similar picture to highlight her recent physical struggles over the past four months. Tara become hospital-bound with an injury in May, and appears to be on a long journey to recovery. 'Life feels so different,' she captioned a before-and-after comparison which featured a picture of her on the left with a walking stick back in May. What happened? Tara become hospital-bound with an injury in May, and appears to be on a long journey to recovery A former model, Tara has gone on to publish 11 books and last year fronted ABC anti-bullying series Cyberhate. Tara married poet and philosophy professor Berndt Sellheim in 2009, and the couple welcomed a daughter Sapphira Jane Sellheim-Moss in 2011. The family of three live on a Blackheath acreage in the Blue Mountains purchased for $585,000 in 2009. Arnold Schwarzenegger ran into a familiar foe while visiting Italy. The bodybuilding icon-turned-action hero, 71, shared a clip on Instagram Stories Thursday as he visited the Matchless London store in Milan, Italy, which sells luxe leather goods. The ex-California governor was trying on jackets when he encountered a massive replica statue of the T-1000, his mechanical nemesis from Terminator film series. Scroll below for video Hasta la vista: Arnold Schwarzenegger, 71, shared a clip on Instagram Stories Thursday as he encountered a replica statue of the T-1000 at the Matchless London store in Milan, Italy 'I'm right now in Matchless store, right here in Milan,' he said. 'There's all kinds of action going on, I've been trying on 15 jackets, I think I found the right one - but guess who is my partner here!' He then panned the camera onto a steel replica of his cinematic rival, who he most famously clashed with in 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. On Wednesday, Arnold took to Twitter with a side-by-side shot of his co-star in the Terminator series, Linda Hamilton. 'Happy birthday to my dear friend Linda Hamilton,' he said. 'One of my favorite co-stars, a true bada**, and a wonderful human being. I'm pumped to be back together again.' Funnyman: Arnold joked, 'I've been trying on 15 jackets, I think I found the right one - but guess who is my partner here!' Rival: The destructive machine was a relentless enemy of Arnold's Terminator in the film series Hamilton, 62, will reprise her role as Sarah Connor for the sixth film in the Terminator anthology, which is directed by Deadpool filmmaker Tim Miller, with the original director of The Terminator and Terminator 2, James Cameron, executive producing. The movie, which co-stars Mackenzie Davis, Diego Boneta, Gabriel Luna and Natalia Reyes, is slated for be release next year. Earlier this month, Arnold was linked to another one of his hit action franchises, Predator - when Shane Black, the director of the reboot, The Predator, revealed that Schwarzenegger passed on reprising his role of Major Alan 'Dutch' Schaefer in the film unless he was a focal point. Black, speaking with Yahoo Movies UK, said 'there were a couple of ideas to include' the action legend in the new film, but studio execs wanted 'something a bit fresh, that didn't rely on solely on Arnold's reemergence.' 'They were open to the idea to the notion of having him in, in a smaller role,' Black said, noting that he while he was OK with the idea, he was 'embarrassed' having to ask the A-lister to accept a reduced role. Arnold said, according to Black, "Well, if I was featured more, yeah, but what you're suggesting is that you're creating this new thing and just using me to bless it." Black said he was not surprised when the leading man said thanks, but no thanks. 'He said: "Look, I wish you luck, but that's too small a role for me.'" She's the Swedish-Australian reality star and Playboy model who made headlines for her shocking plastic surgery transformation. And now Josie Capllonch has made another bombshell revelation, this time by admitting to having benefited from wealthy benefactors in the past. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, the 31-year-old confessed: 'I have had rich sugar daddies in the past. What hot girl hasn't?' 'I live a good life and girls just hate on me': Reality star Josie Capllonch (pictured) admitted to having 'rich sugar daddies in the past' in an interview with Daily Mail Australia The jet-setting personal trainer continued: 'I live a good life and girls just hate on me and I've accepted it and live with it now.' Josie first graced screens back in 2012 as a fresh-faced brunette on Channel 7's Please Marry My Boy. She reemerged in August of this year as a busty blonde bombshell on Love Island Sweden, following a drastic $50,000 plastic surgery makeover. 'I have had rich sugar daddies in the past,' revealed the 31-year-old. 'What hot girl hasn't?' Famous: The Swedish-Australian stunner is known for her reality TV appearances and X-rated spread in Playboy Sweden 'I look nothing like I used to and people love to hate on it,' Josie told Daily Mail Australia earlier this month. The star's plastic fantastic transformation consisted of two boob jobs, a nose job, Botox, fillers in her cheeks, lips, and jawline, and even a Brazilian butt lift to plump up her pert derriere. 'For the Brazilian butt lift, they transferred fat from my stomach, back, and inner thighs to my booty,' she explained. 'I look nothing like I used to and people love to hate on it!' Josie first graced screens back in 2012 as a fresh-faced brunette on Channel 7's Please Marry My Boy (pictured) Makeover: She reemerged in August of this year as a busty blonde bombshell on Love Island Sweden (pictured), following a drastic $50,000 plastic surgery makeover While the life only set her back $5,000, Josie admits her two breast augmentations cost $10,000 each, her nose job was $18,000, and that her fillers and Botox total over $4,000 a year. Instead of being satisfied with her new look, the stunning star says she is planning to go back under the knife for a third boob job, a second nose job, and eyelid surgery. Before and after:: Josie's makeover consisted of two boob jobs, a nose job, Botox, fillers in her cheeks, lips, and jawline, and even a Brazilian butt lift to plump up her derriere Expensive: While the butt lift only set her back $5,000, Josie admits her two boob jobs cost $10,000 each, her nose job was $18,000, and that her fillers and Botox total $4,000 a year Outside of reality television, Josie has also posed in Playboy Sweden and appeared on Naked News. She now works as a personal trainer and is based between Sydney and Los Angeles. The globetrotting bombshell has a love of travel, with her Instagram account documenting her lavish trips to the UK, Spain, and Sweden. She's not done yet! Instead of being satisfied with her new look, the stunning star says she is planning to go back under the knife for a third boob job, a second nose job, and eyelid surgery Despite being unlucky in love on reality television, Josie hasn't ruled out another on-screen romance in the future. 'I've tried everything to find love and failed, so I'd definitely give reality TV another shot,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'I think people who go on TV to find love are open minded and a little bit crazy, just like me,' she continued. 'I can't do normal, boring people!' Lauren Goodger is reportedly in talks to land a role on Celebrity First Dates, two months after her romance with jailbird Joey Morrisson came to a crashing halt. According to The Sun, the 32-year-old reality star is eager to join the cast for a special edition of the show, which sees romantic hopefuls meet and dine at the Paternoster Chop House under the watchful eye of Fred Sirieix. A source told the newspaper: 'Lauren would love to take part in Celebrity First Dates. She loves to watch the show and thinks it could be really good fun. Plus she might meet her perfect man so its a win-win situation.' Show: Lauren Goodger is reportedly in talks to land a role on reality show Celebrity First Dates However, a Channel 4 spokesperson has revealed to MailOnline that filming has already taken place for the latest edition of Celebrity First Dates and Lauren isn't among the lineup. 'The line-up of celebrities will be announced in the next few weeks,' said the spokesperson. 'Lauren is not one of the celebrities and will not be featured.' The celebrity edition of the Channel 4 show, which benefits Stand Up To Cancer, has already such stars as Scarlett Moffatt, Jorgie Porter and Jessica Wright in the past. And while Lauren has missed out on joining the cast for this year's instalment, speculation remains that she may be in the lineup for future editions. The ex: The report comes two months after her romance with jailbird Joey Morrisson ended Continued search: She is said to be a fan of the show and would love to meet the perfect man MailOnline has contacted representative for Lauren Goodger for comment. Reports of Lauren potentially joining the dating show come after the former TOWIE star took to Twitter to reveal that she doesn't plan on getting pregnant until she's 'fully prepared' and with 'someone she loves'. The reality star, who recently split from her jailbird beau Joey, added that if she was to have children by herself, she would have already. She wrote on the micro-blogging site: 'Also can just say.. Id never plan to have a baby by myself .. by now I prob would of had a few babies if that was the case! 'I will have a baby when I am fully prepared and with someone I love ..Ive just come out of a relationship please dont talk rubbish.' [sic] Lauren later took to Instagram to share a sultry snap of herself looking very busty, with the caption: 'When you dont want to go outside' Clearing the air: Lauren recently took to Twitter to air her grievances over people suggesting that she was going to have a baby alone, without being in a relationship Honest: The 32-year-old former TOWIE star recently revealed that she doesn't plan on getting pregnant until she's 'fully prepared' and with 'someone she loves' Lauren's defiant response came a week after she admitted she was planning a baby with her former flame, as she opened up about her heartbreak at the end of their two-year relationship in her Now! magazine column. The star confirmed that she and Joey had gone their separate ways after she had discovered he had been contacting other women during their relationship. She said: 'I stuck with him and tried to help him get to the end of his sentence and he's treated me like this. You really think you know someone and realise it was all a lie. Revealing her dreams of starting a family with Joey had been shattered, the brunette beauty said: 'I deserve a lot better than that. I think what hurt me most is that we were planning a baby. 'To be honest I had my suspicions, so I'm just glad I've found out now as it would have been even worse if he'd be out (of jail) and living with me.' Joey reportedly sent explicit photos to other women while he was in a relationship with Lauren. Baby dream: Lauren's defiant response came after she admitted she was planning a baby with her former flame, as she opened up about her heartbreak at the end of their two-year romance Upset: She said of Joey, 'I stuck with him and tried to help him get to the end of his sentence and he's treated me like this. You really think you know someone and realise it was all a lie' One woman who reportedly spoke with Joey told The Sun: 'Joey loved to boast about Lauren. He told us me he was single but their relationship helped make him famous. Joey is well known in his area but he loved the idea of people outside of London knowing his name. He wants to be famous and to have a lifestyle where people are wanting to take pictures of him.' They added: 'He thinks everyone knows his name. The girls he's chatting to, it's like they're fans, he gets a real kick out of it. He says some girls love it, like they can't get enough of him being in prison.' Taking to social media, Goodger claimed she wasted money while waiting for his release and branded him a 'control freak'. She wrote on Twitter: 'Just feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders!!!! 2 years waited loyal and faithful and wasted soooo much money!! Incarceration: Lauren dated Joey for over a year having 'met' him when she picked up the phone at his sister's house while he was calling from prison 'Now I am about to live my life with all I've missed out on!!!! I've been hurt but nothing or no one will take away my sparkle.' She later penned on Instagram: 'It's going to be my time now.. I've learned lessons! I've grown! I've changed over the years and I promise to never let myself down again! 'Just a big heart that loved 2 much! But it's ok because what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Here's to my time I promise that I'm make the most of it (sic).' Lauren dated Joey for over a year having 'met' him when she picked up the phone at his sister's house while he was calling from prison. After much back and forth over their status, which flitted from Lauren ending things to her insisting they will have a baby when he leaves prison, they were finally united in May when he was released from HMP Highpoint South prison. MailOnline previously contacted Lauren's representatives for comment. Back and forth: After much back and forth over their status, Lauren and Joey finally united in May when he was released from HMP Highpoint South prison EastEnders' Mick Carter's latest storyline has sparked complaints to media watchdog Ofcom, after he was accused of being a paedophile, according to the Daily Star. Fans had expressed their outrage on social media over the plot which saw the pub landlord - played by Danny Dyer - accused by a fellow prisoner. Mick has been wrongfully imprisoned after being accused of shooting Stuart Highway, and despite many protests is yet to clear his name. Shocking: EastEnders' Mick Carter's latest storyline has sparked complaints to media watchdog Ofcom, after he was accused of being a paedophile, according to the Daily Star An Ofcom spokesperson told the publication: 'I can confirm we have received six complaints about the Mick Carter/Stuart Highway storyline.' MailOnline has contacted a representative for Ofcom for further comment. A representative for EastEnders declined to comment. The shocking plot saw Mick accused of paedophilia by a fellow inmate, after fears rose that he may be released after hiring a new lawyer. Tense: Viewers were left outraged by the shocking scenes which saw a fellow inmate accuse Mick of the sick act, as his time in prison continues to be a living hell Fraser - the prisoner in question - cornered Mick in his cell before accusing him of sickening acts. He said: 'Stuart, he's a legend in here. Says he tracked you down, had you cornered like the rat that you are. He was going to destroy you and you stopped him, didn't you?' 'He's lying,' Mick insisted - but Fraser failed to believe him, adding: 'You're one of them - a vile, twisted little n****.' Later in the show Fraser made his views against Mick extremely public, shouting out loud: 'We've got a n**** on the ward - a dirty little n****.' Tough time: Fans have even seen the pub landlord - played by Danny Dyer - beaten up in harrowing scenes Too much! Viewers have also been left outraged by the storyline, and took to Twitter to proclaim that they couldn't bear to watch it play out on screen Mick's life has been a living hell since he was locked up for shooting Stuart Highway - of whom the culprit is yet to be revealed. He was even beaten up by a fellow prisoner in harrowing scenes, as villainous Stuart continues to be painted as the innocent victim. Viewers have also been left outraged by the storyline, and took to Twitter to proclaim that they couldn't bear to watch it play out on screen. One tweeted: 'Can't deal with what they're doing to Mick make it stop make it stop it's uncomfortable TV man.' Another wrote: 'I feel like something is gonna happen to Mick in jail, this could be his exit, as he is starting his own reality show?' EastEnders continues on Friday 28th September at 8pm on BBC One. Australians have always had to wait several weeks to watch a new film after it is released in the US. Although it is a frustrating process for cinema-goers, there is method to the madness. Stephen Basil-Jones, executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Australia, New Zealand and Northern Asia, explained to News.com.au that there are several reasons behind the delay. So THAT'S why! Movie boss reveals the real reasons Australians have to wait several weeks to watch a film after its release in the US. Pictured: Movie still of A Star Is Born (with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper) Holiday timing is a factor that greatly impacts of the Australian release of a film, particularly for family films from Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks productions. 'If you've got family film like a Pixar film you've just got to think when families are available to go and see it. It's very difficult to release a film like that outside of holidays and do the business you want to do,' he said. For this reason, new release movies Small Foot and The House with a Clock in Its Walls have been scheduled for release during school holidays. Season: Holiday timing is a factor that greatly impacts of the Australian release of a film, particularly for family films from Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks production. Pictured: Movie still of Johnny English Strikes Again Another example of this is the summer school holiday releases of Ralph Breaks the Internet, Bumblebee and Mary Poppins Returns. Talent availability is another aspect that affects when a film is released in Australia. According to the film boss, some territories like Australia or Asia are willing to wait weeks or months for the movie stars to tour the market. Star power: Talent availability is another aspect that affects when a film is in released Australia. According to the film boss, some territories like Australia or Asia are willing to wait weeks or months for the movie's stars to tour the market. Pictured: Movie still of Venom Pictured: The Sony Pictures executive said, 'A country like Australia might wait and say, "no, we'll wait for a couple of weeks so we can get some stars to tour here". Pictured: Venom star Ed Hardy at the Los Angeles premiere 'A country like Australia might wait and say, "no, we'll wait for a couple of weeks so we can get some stars to tour here," he said. Stephen also noted that it's important for a film to have an opportunity to be seen by audiences - without competition from a highly anticipated movie or a similar release date. 'Giving them that clear window of opportunity and not competing against a similar film is very important because you don't want to cannibalise the same audience.' He told the publication Sony Pictures get intel on the commercial success of other production houses and their films to find out what's rating well and what audiences are liking. She soared to fame nearly two decades ago with her saucy modelling. And Kelly Brook was up to her old tricks once more as she stripped off for a smouldering new shoot while posing in just her bikini bottoms with her hands protecting her modesty before then sporting a sexy black one-piece. The 38-year-old Piranha 3D star looked incredible in the snaps as she showed off her veteran modelling skills in the stunning images for her official 2019 Kelly Brook calendar, which is on sale at all good retailers and Danilo.com. Hot stuff: Kelly Brook was up to her old tricks once more as she stripped off for a smouldering new shoot while posing totally nude with her hands protecting her modesty before then sporting a sexy black one-piece Kelly could not resist displaying her figure for her eager fans as she stripped down to barely anything to show off her eye-popping assets. Aside from the topless shot, Kelly also sported a black one-piece with a strappy front to draw attention to her famous curves. Her brunette tresses tumbled over her shoulders while her make-up was perfectly applied to enhance and exhibit her natural beauty. She accessorised with a pair of large gold hoop earrings yet left the rest of her look neutral - to ensure her body and striking good looks did the talking. Saucy: The 38-year-old Piranha 3D star looked incredible in the snaps as she showed off her veteran modelling skills in the stunning snaps for her official 2019 Kelly Brook calendar, which is on sale at all good retailers and Danilo.com Kelly's calendar shoot comes after she recently sparked engagement rumours with her partner, Jeremy Parisi, after flashing a diamond band on her ring finger as they toured Europe on a romantic break. The model beamed as she strolled through the airport terminal with the personal trainer, 32, before fuelling further speculation a wedding was on the cards as she posted a cryptic snap on Instagram. Kelly, who has been dating the Italian model since 2015, showed off her glittering diamond band as she clutched her straw sunhat. Wedding bells? Kelly's calendar shoot comes after she recently sparked engagement rumours with her partner, Jeremy Parisi, after flashing a diamond band on her ring finger as they toured Europe on a romantic break While she has continued with her modelling, Kelly has changed her party lifestyle into a homely life and discovered her love of gardening. Kelly recently told The Sunday Mirror: 'My lifestyle has changed so much in the past couple of years... 'For the longest time I was incredibly social, attending fashion shows and red carpet events, even owning a nightclub at one point, but now Im enjoying a quieter life away from the spotlight... 'Since settling in the countryside these days Im more likely tending to my veg patch and looking after the wildlife in my garden than going out.' She's been partying up a storm at a slew of different fashion shows. And Sara Sampaio was showing off her amazing toned abs on Thursday night as she attended the Naked Heart France Gala Dinner for Paris Fashion Week. The 27-year-old Portuguese model looked incredible in a beaded bandeau and matching jacket combo as she arrived for the bash in the heart of the French capital. Living it up: Sara Sampaio was showing off her amazing toned abs on Thursday night as she attended the Naked Heart France Gala Dinner for Paris Fashion Week Sara made a bold statement as she arrived for the fashion event in the chic ensemble, sporting the nude bandeau top covered in an array of silver beaded detailing. The fashion star teamed the crop top with a matching fringed jacket covered with the intricate design, along with high-waisted white flared trousers. Sara's heels could barely be seen under the long trousers as she danced around inside the bash, and also had her paddle ready as she prepared to donate to the gala's auction. The star also had pretty vintage-style earrings to match the ensemble, and two rings from Colette Jewellery. Chic: Sara made a bold statement as she arrived for the fashion event in the chic ensemble, sporting the nude bandeau top covered in an array of silver beaded detailing Amazing: The fashion star teamed the top with a matching fringed jacket and high-waisted white trousers as she arrived for the event in the French capital Beaming: Sara was partying up a storm at the fashion launch as she accessorised her look with a gold box clutch bag and white pointed-toe heels Oozing glamour, Sara had her glossy brunette tresses in a curled side-swept look, and highlighted her flawless complexion with defined brows and a statement red lip. The beauty has had a long list of achievements include walking for Victoria's Secret, fulfilling a Giorgio Armani beauty ambassador role and working for Calzedonia. A-list stars have descended on Paris for the fashionable occasion including Nineties supermodel Cindy Crawford who is present to support her daughter Kaia Gerber. Energetic: She put on a playful display as she danced up a storm inside the gala. It was the latest event in the star-studded Paris Fashion Week showcase Prepared: Sara also had her paddle at the ready so she could donate to the auctions at the gala dinner Away from the catwalk, Sara admitted she avoids beauty products as she focuses on replenishing and restoring the moisture in her skin. She told GLAMOUR magazine in June: 'When I'm off-duty and don't have to work, I try not to use any products on my hair or my skin. 'I just focus on replenishing the moisture and restoring radiance. I'm all about hydration and trying to get as much of that as I possibly can. 'I love going on holiday as the sun always makes my hair a little lighter.' Transformed: Away from the catwalk, Sara admitted she avoids beauty products as she focuses on replenishing and restoring the moisture in her skin She recently returned from a sun-soaked trip to Ibiza, where she posed for a plethora of sultry snapshots before sharing them with her fans on social media. And Demi Rose continued to command attention on Thursday night, when she stepped out in head-turning style debuting a curly new hairstyle and displaying her curves in a figure-hugging dress for a visit to London restaurant Madison. The 23-year-old's outing with pals came hours after she took to Instagram to share gushing posts dedicated to her DJ boyfriend Chris Martinez, as they celebrated one year of being together. Out: Demi Rose was spotted enjoying a night out at Madison restaurant in London on Thursday For her night out, the Birmingham native showed off her hourglass curves in a yellow minidress, which she teamed with a black-and-white embellished leather jacket and towering strappy heels. With her glossy brunette tresses falling beyond her shoulders in voluminous curls, she highlighted her beauty with dusting of dewy makeup, while a pair of pendant necklaces and gold hoop earrings served as her main accessories. The busty bombshell visited Madison rooftop as the venue prepares to host its Broken Shaker Miami style pop-up for London Cocktail Week. Hours before stepping out with her pals, Demi took to Instagram to mark the one-year anniversary of her relationship with handsome beau Chris, uploading a broad selection of snaps of the pair together throughout their romance. Making waves: The beauty debuted a curly new hairstyle as she stepped out with her friends Mellow yellow: The Birmingham native showed off her hourglass curves in a yellow minidress Jacket: Demi, 23, teamed her frock of choice with a black-and-white embellished leather jacket Dewy makeup: The curvaceous model highlighted her beauty with a dusting of dewy makeup Friends: She was joined by a pair of equally glamorous pals as she strolled the capital's streets Captioning the shots, she gushed: 'Happy 1st Anniversary to my bestest friend, my lover @themartinezbros... Every moment spent with you is a pleasure and you never fail to make me laugh the hardest and smile the most. Im so lucky to have found you. I love you.' New York native Chris, who DJs alongside his brother Paul Martinez as one half of the Martinez Brothers, also dedicated a post to his girlfriend on the picture-sharing all, as he uploaded a snap of himself kissing her on the cheek. He wrote: 'Happy 1 year anniversary baby! @demirosemawby... not enough words here to tell you how much you changed my life, so Ill keep telling you everyday. I love you! #rideordie.' Standing tall: The brunette beauty stood tall in a pair of towering strappy heels on her night out World of curls: Her lustrous brunette tresses fell beyond her shoulders in voluminous curls Glittering: A pair of pendant necklaces and gold hoop earrings served as her main accessories Jovial mood: Demi Rose appeared to be in a decidedly jovial mood as she enjoyed her night out Girls talk: The model and her pals chatted away as they made their way to the popular eatery Demi, who returned to the UK earlier this month, recently revealed that a move to Los Angeles could be in the works due to her desire to make it as an actress. Speaking to The Sun, she disclosed: 'Movies have always been a passion of mine since I went to stage school. But another ambition is to become a Bond Girl, as I love the style and glamour of those films'. Kylie Jenner lookalike Demi was first propelled into the spotlight when she was linked to the reality star's ex, rapper Tyga, after they split. The star has since gained a huge following on Instagram and she is known to display her incredible curves in a number of risque ensembles. Spotlight: Kylie Jenner lookalike Demi was first propelled into the spotlight when she was linked to the reality star's ex, rapper Tyga, after they split Big following: She has gained a huge following on Instagram and she is known to display her incredible curves in a number of risque ensembles Anniversary: Demi's outing came hours after she took to Instagram to share gushing posts dedicated to her DJ boyfriend Chris Martinez, as they celebrated one year of being together So of course she was more than happy to divulge the secrets to her sensationally curvy figure in a recent exclusive chat with MailOnline. In September, Demi revealed: 'I try to keep as healthy as I can. With travelling, it's hard to work out, I travel across the world but try to keep my routine. 'Everyone says I'm the healthiest person they know. The fattiest thing I will ever eat is nuts and peanut butter. 'My figure just gains weight so fast. Any bad thing I eat my body isn't used to it and just puts on the weight. That means no birthday cake! 'All I've eaten today is nuts. I've managed to eat a whole pot. I feel guilty as there's a lot of fat in the nuts. That's my treat! So I'm happy!' Gushing: Captioning the shots, the Birmingham native gushed, 'Happy 1st Anniversary to my bestest friend, my lover... Every moment spent with you is a pleasure...' Chanelle Hayes has defended herself from social media trolls she was slammed for posting a naked snap alongside one of her baby son Frankie on Instagram. The former Big Brother star, 30, slammed the 'boring Betty's' who criticised the snap that was meant to be a joke, in response to a comment from her boyfriend Ryan Oates who was also rushing to her defence. Chanelle's post saw the beauty share a throwback naked snap from her magazine modelling days, alongside one of her one-year-old son Frankie doing the same pose. Brutal: Chanelle Hayes has defended herself from vile social media trolls she was slammed for posting a naked snap alongside one of her baby son Frankie on Instagram She captioned the snap: 'Passing down knowledge from generation to generation. Taught this lad everything he knows #likemamalikeson #model #baby #parenting #throwbackthursday.' Luckily plenty of her followers saw the funny side of the snaps, rushing to comment how much it had made them laugh. One wrote: 'This is brilliant! You're still stunning now as well don't forget that.' A second wrote: 'This has just made me howl!!!' while a third added: 'best post ever, love it.' Funny: Many fans of the Big Brother star saw the humour in her post, with one writing that it was 'hilarious' But some of Chanelle's fans didn't see the funny side, with one posting: 'Seriously? So inappropriate.' But her ex-boyfriend Ryan Parents - with whom she co-parents her eight-year-old son Frankie - rushed to defend the beauty writing: 'Such a funny comparison! It's irritating me that some people on here are saying this is an inappropriate photo! 'It's funny and harmless. Some people need to get a life @chanellejhayes don't they and stop writing such rubbish!' Chanelle then replied in agreement: 'I know right?! To be fair most people appreciate our hilarious banter just a couple of boring Betty's.' Brutal: But after one comment branded the snap 'inappropriate', Chanelle's ex Ryan Oates rushed to her defence, as she branded the trolls 'boring Betty's' Chanelle's saucy snap came after she made a surprise revelation about a 'rude' encounter with Celebrity Juice panellist Fearne Cotton. Speaking in Instagram Q and A the reality star said: 'Went to thank her after appearing on Celeb Juice and she looked me up and down then walked off without a word.' The star appeared as a guest panellist on the ITV2 show in 2009 on Holly's team and later as a guest on the cover story section in 2011. She made her return to the catwalk for Paris Fashion Week after taking a hiatus. And Kendall Jenner made a low-key exit from her hotel in the French capital on Friday morning, having walked for the Off-White show the night before. The television personality, 22, opted for comfort in a lavender knitted co-ord which sheathed over her trim frame. Camera shy: Kendall Jenner made a low-key exit from her hotel in the French capital on Friday morning, having walked for the Off-White show the night before Kendall went braless in the oversized sparkly jumper, while the matching flared trousers covered her tremendous pins. She paired the look with white trainers and shielded her eyes from the cameras with black Matrix-style shades. Styling her jet black hair in a sleek straight centre-parting, the Keeping Up With The Kardashian's star showcased her natural beauty with a minimal make-up look. Cosy: The television personality, 22, opted for comfort in a lavender knitted co-ord which sheathed over her trim frame Model of the moment: Kendall went braless in the oversized sparkly jumper, while the matching flared trousers covered her tremendous pins 90s-inspired: She paired the look with white trainers and shielded her eyes from the cameras with black Matrix-style shades Trendy: Styling her jet black hair in a sleek straight centre-parting, the Keeping Up With The Kardashian's star showcased her natural beauty with a minimal make-up look Kendall came over camera shy as she left her hotel and headed into her chauffeur-driven car. The model didn't walk in any shows during New York Fashion Week, which wrapped up earlier this month but did walk in London and Milan. Kendall has said in the past that she's very choosy about which runway shows she wants to appear in, and that she's unlikely to spend Fashion Month walking on dozens of catwalks. Low-key figure: Kendall came over camera shy as she left her hotel and headed into her chauffeur-driven car Amazing: The same-coloured ensemble gave the illusion of a jumpsuit with a 70s feel as she exited her hotel Quiet: The stunning fashion beauty made a sensational exit as she headed to the latest fashion event Quirky chic: The sparkly ensemble commanded much attention against her incredibly slender frame In an interview, Kendall told Love Magazine she was once 'on the verge of a mental breakdown' and detailed her approach to scheduling fashion shows. 'Since the beginning we've been super selective about what shows I would do,' she told the publication in August. 'I was never one of those girls who would do like 30 shows a season or whatever the f**k those girls do. More power to 'em. But I had a million jobs, not only catwalks but everything else. 'The whole combination was very overwhelming and I started to freak out a little bit and needed to take a step back.' During New York Fashion Week, Kendall ended up flying to Paris, France before shows had wrapped up. She landed a week ago in the French capital, where she had model work booked, a source close to the model told DailyMail.com. Prior to that, she was seen at a Harper's Bazaar soiree on September 7 at the Plaza Hotel, and on the next day, attended the Longchamp show in New York City. Back to her best: The American beauty made her return to the catwalk for Paris Fashion Week after taking a hiatus Home turf: The reality TV star landed back at LAX on Friday Plane clothes: Kendall wore a familiar outfit for the international flight He recently celebrated his 43rd birthday with special card from his three-week-old child. And Declan Donnelly and his wife Ali Astall couldn't contain their pride and happiness as they doted on their newborn daughter Isla outside their London home on Friday. The I'm A Celebrity host, 43, and the Australian talent manager, 40, were all-smiles as they got read for a family outing together. Proud parents: Declan Donnelly and his wife Ali Astall couldn't contain their pride and happiness as they doted on their newborn daughter Isla outside their London home on Friday Dec looked every inch the doting dad as he carried Isla in her baby carrier, which was adorned with colourful toys. The Saturday Night Takeaway host cut a casual figure for the afternoon outing in a double denim ensemble of dark jeans and a lighter coloured shirt. Dec looked happier than ever as he carried the newborn and tucked his sunglasses into his shirt. Content: The I'm A Celebrity host, 43, and the Australian talent manager, 40, were all-smiles as they got read for a family outing together Sweet: Dec looked every inch the doting dad as he carried Isla in her baby carrier, which was adorned with colourful toys Doting father: The Saturday Night Takeaway host cut a casual figure for the afternoon outing in a double denim ensemble of dark jeans and a lighter coloured shirt Meanwhile, Ali looked equally content as she smiled and watched her family in front of her. The Australian talent manager also cut a casual figure as she showed off her incredible post-baby body in a pair of blue skinny jeans, a grey jumper and white trainers. She accessorised her look with a grey patterned tote bag, white trainers and silver jewellery. All-smiles: Dec looked happier than ever as he carried the newborn and tucked his sunglasses into his shirt Just as happy: Meanwhile, Ali looked equally content as she smiled and watched her family in front of her Ali styled her blonde locks into a high ponytail, with the front strands left loose, as she added a slick of make-up. Just earlier this week, Dec celebrated his 43rd birthday and was paid a visit by his best friend, as well as co-presenter, Ant McPartlin. The Geordie entertainer also revealed he had received a birthday card from his three-week-old daughter on Twitter that day, writing: 'Ive had the loveliest of birthdays. I got a card from my 3 week old daughter, shes very advanced. 'Although her handwriting looks suspiciously like that of the dog (I suspect he wrote it really) Anyhoo, thank you all for the lovely birthday messsges, youre bloody great D xx.' Chic: The Australian talent manager also cut a casual figure as she showed off her incredible post-baby body in a pair of blue skinny jeans, a grey jumper and white trainers Yummy mummy: She accessorised her look with a grey patterned tote bag, white trainers and silver jewellery Ant and Dec's official Twitter page confirmed Isla's birth earlier this month with a sweet snap their newborn daughter delicately holding her proud dad's hand. An accompanying caption read: 'Ali and I are thrilled to announce the arrival of our baby girl, Isla Elizabeth Anne, who was born just after 9 o'clock this morning. Mother and daughter both doing well, Dad is head over heels! D x' Dec confirmed he and Ali were to become parents in March with a sweet message shared on Twitter. Casual: Ali styled her blonde locks into a high ponytail, with the front strands left loose, as she added a slick of make-up Addressing pregnancy rumours at the time, the television host said: 'Just wanted to say thank you for all the lovely messages. Addressing pregnancy rumours at the time, the television host said: 'Just wanted to say thank you for all the lovely messages. 'The news has sneaked out a little earlier than we had hoped but Ali and I are delighted to be expecting our first child. Thanks for the love, we really appreciate it.' Dec and Ali tied the knot in a stunning ceremony in his Newcastle hometown back in 2015 - just one year after the pair struck up a romance and moved in together. Celebrations: Just earlier this week, Dec celebrated his 43rd birthday and was paid a visit by his best friend, as well as co-presenter, Ant McPartlin, he also got a card from Isla He has been known to embody his characters and endure major body transformations for his movie roles. And Christian Bale has pulled it off once again as he was seen looking fit and trim on the set of his new film Ford V Ferrari on Thursday. The 44-year old had to lose about 40lbs he gained for his previous role playing former US Vice President Dick Cheney in Backseat. Body transformation: Christian Bale, 44, looked fit and trim on the set of New movie Ford v. Ferrari in Los Angeles on Thursday (left). The British star has lose the 40lbs he gained last last year to play former Vice-President Dick Cheney in Backseat The Welsh star looked like a fraction of himself compared to a photograph taken late last year, dressed in black cargo shorts, a blue t-shirt and dark sneakers. His face looks noticeably more sculpted and taut while on the set at an abandoned airport. What's equally noticeable was that smile that he wore on his face as he enjoyed a break from filming. Svelte: His face looks noticeably more sculpted and taut while on the set at an abandoned airport Bale has famously lost and gained large amounts of weight for a number of roles over his illustrious career. But with this latest weight gain for Backseat he decided to get the assistance of an expert. 'I had never before gone to a doctor or a nutritionist about gaining or losing weight for my roles,' he told Star2.com. 'But eventually that caught up with me. So, finally for Backseat, I decided that maybe somebody knows better than I do; so I went to somebody and they managed to get me up a good 40lbs. 'It's never healthy to put on that amount of weight in a short amount of time, but I did it in the healthiest manner,' he explained. Asked about how he packed on the pounds to play Cheney last year he smiled: 'I've just been eating a lot of pies,' as reported by the Independent. Packing on the pounds: Bale famously reached 228lbs for his part in 2013's American Hustle Gaunt: Bale dropped down to a reported 121 lbs. to play Trent Reznik in 2004's The Machinist Bale also famously reached 228lbs for his part in 2013's American Hustle co-starring Amy Adams. He looked absolutely gaunt when he lost over 70lbs to drop to 121 lbs. to play Trent Reznik in 2004's The Machinist. Then within six months of that role, he packed on the muscle to get to 190lbs for 2005's Batman Begins. In his latest film, Ford v. Ferrari, Bale plays a mechanic alongside co-stars Matt Damon, Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe. It is expected to hit theaters in the US June 28, 2019. Buff: The star packed on the muscle to get to 190 lbs. for 2005's Batman Begins She is the stunning niece of the late Princess Diana. And Lady Kitty Spencer will visit Australia next month as part of Channel Seven's annual Telethon in Perth. The 27-year-old model and philanthropist took to Instagram on Friday, to announce to her legions of fans that she will be in Western Australia for the charity event on October 21. Scroll down for video Another royal visit! Princess Diana's niece Lady Kitty Spencer announces she's heading to Australia next month for Seven's annual Telethon... as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex head Down Under for the Invictus Games In the photo, the young royal was all smiles cuddling up to the organisation's new mascot, Fat Cat. 'There's a new kitty in town! Fat Cat is the adorable mascot for @telethon7, the television fundraiser helping sick children across the globe,' she wrote in the post. 'In October, I'll be joining him in Perth, Western Australia for this extraordinary 26-hour live television charity event,' she said. 'There's a new kitty in town!' The 27-year-old took to Instagram, on Friday, to announce to her legions of fans that she will be in Western Australia for the charity event on October 21 'Thank you to Stage and Screen Australia for flying me to Perth to help change the lives of children #telethon7,' the blonde beauty added. Lady Kitty will also host a tea party for the occasion, which will be held at the Parmelia Hilton. The telethon is celebrating 51 years of raising money for sick children, raising $268 million so far. Just like her aunt: The model and philanthropist is the niece of the late Princess Diana (pictured) Her visit to Perth will also coincide with her cousin Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Australian tour. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be in Sydney for the Invictus Games from October 17-27. They have a busy schedule with visits across east coast, as well as short trips to Fiji and Tonga. She turns 26 on Monday. And the birthday celebrations started early for Chantel Jeffries as she was pictured out on Thursday night leaving Poppy nightclub in Los Angeles. The 25-year-old model and DJ was all smiles as she left the bash wearing a skimpy zip-up tube top and snakeskin pants. Party girl: Chantel Jeffries showed off her toned figure as she enjoyed a night out in LA on Thursday night Chantel showed off her toned torso in the skimpy top accessorized with silver hoop earrings. Adding to her look was a chain handle glittery purse. Chantel became a household name after dating Justin Bieber in 2014. The brunette beauty was with the pop icon when he was arrested for drunken drag-racing in Miami. Birthday girl: Chantel turns 26 on Monday but got the party started early as she enjoyed a bash at Poppy nightclub Nowadays Chantel is DJ and is signed with Universal Music Group label 10:22 pm helmed by Celine Joshua. She released three singles this year - she serves as the producer for the tracks. Her first single Wait, features guest vocals from Migos' Offset and Vory; her other two songs are Both Sides and Better. Earlier this year Joshua said of the star: 'I'm thrilled that Chantel has chosen 10:22 pm as her home where we will work to develop new commercial and creative opportunities for our artists and content creators to advance their careers and reach new fans around the world. 'From the moment I met Chantel, I knew she was a creative force with a unique ear for music, and I'm honored that she's the first artist to sign to my new label.' Claim to fame: Known for once dating Justin Bieber nowadays Chantel is DJ and is signed with Universal Music Group label 10:22 pm helmed by Celine Joshua Jemima Kirke has revealed in a tweet that she was raped at a young age. The 33-year-old actress - best known for working with Lena Dunham on the HBO show Girls - made the statement to support Dr Christine Blasey Ford as she relayed her alleged sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday. The star began her heartbreaking note: 'OK, f*** it. When I was 22 I was raped by my drug dealer. After I kindly asked him to leave (I didn't want to make him angry), I dragged myself to the hospital.' Her story: Jemima Kirke has revealed in a tweet that she was raped at a young age; seen on September 20 in NYC at the Saks Fearless Women Speaker Series The tweet: The star began her heartbreaking note: 'OK, f*** it. When I was 22 I was raped by my drug dealer. After I kindly asked him to leave (I didn't want to make him angry), I dragged myself to the hospital' The British born star added, 'After the various STD tests, the doctor said sympathetically, "You gotta start looking after yourself." I believed what he meant was, "This could have been prevented if you weren't hanging out with a drug dealer.' 'It would seem that the responsibility was on me and for this reason I didn't tell anyone and I didn't report it,' she said. 'I was ashamed because I believed that what had happened to me was a result of having very little self-worth, that this was what happens to drug addicts.' Follow up: But she said it was very 'wrong' to feel the rape was in any way her fault. 'My rape had nothing to do with my choices. Drug dealers don't rape people any more than a family man does. 'The rehab counselors didn't correct that belief' But she said it was very 'wrong' to feel the rape was in any way her fault. 'My rape had nothing to do with my choices. Drug dealers don't rape people any more than a family man does. 'The rehab counselors didn't correct that belief. 'My own mother didn't correct it. F*** anyone who meant well but told me to look at this "as a sign" that I needed help. 'It is likely that my daughter will one day be sexually assaulted. I can't prevent that. She can't prevent that. But no matter what the circumstances, it won't be her fault.' She has two children - Rafella, aged seven, and Memphis, aged five - with estranged husband Michael Mosberg. The past: Here the star is seen in NYC in 2010; she was 22-years-old when the rape happened When a follower said she was brave, she said she didn't feel it. 'Who said I was being brave, Sarah?' Kirke replied. 'I don't think anyone is trying to be self-congratulatory here, Sarah. Being "brave" really isn't the point. 'For me, it's an effort to be supportive and to lead the younger generation by example in hopes that they won't accept rape as anything but a crime against them.' Her big show: The star with Zosia Mamet, Lena Dunham and Allison Williams in Girls (2012) Before she made the statement she had sent out a note of support for Dr Ford. On Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee was sorting through the allegations Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted Dr Ford when they were both teenagers in the early 1980s. Ford told the committee she is '100 percent' certain it was Kavanaugh who attacked her at a party in 1982. She also said she believed he was going to rape her. 'I'm hugely grateful to this woman today,' she noted. She noted that she understood why women don't always report their sexual assaults. In the past week Padma Lakshmi and Busy Philipps have both revealed they had been raped at a young age. They wanted to make a point that women who are raped are often afraid to report it. She leads a decidedly busy life, raising 15-month-old twins, Ella and Alexander, with her husband George Clooney, while working as a human rights lawyer. And Amal Clooney was spotted attending to her professional duties on Friday morning, as she made her way to the United Nations to attend the Committee to Protect Journalists event in New York City. The 40-year-old beauty looked typically chic in a stylish red dress, which hugged her enviably slender frame, as she prepared to make an appearance as a featured panellist at the event, held to discuss press freedom and imprisoned journalists. Stepping out: Amal Clooney was spotted making her way to the United Nations to attend the Committee to Protect Journalists event in New York City on Friday morning Standing tall in a pair of vertiginous nude heels, the mother-of-two carried a camel coat, which perfectly complemented her taupe handbag. With her raven locks falling beyond her shoulders in voluminous waves, she highlighted her natural beauty with a rich palette of makeup, while glittering drop earrings further illuminated her flawless ensemble. Over the past few days, Amal who welcomed twins Alexander and Ella with Hollywood star George in June 2017 has been busy with meetings at the UN. Chic: The 40-year-old looked typically chic in a stylish red dress, which hugged her enviably slender frame, as she prepared to make an appearance as a featured panellist at the event All in the details: Standing tall in a pair of vertiginous nude heels, the mother-of-two carried a camel coat, which perfectly complemented her taupe handbag Busy life: She leads a decidedly busy life, raising 15-month-old twins, Ella and Alexander, with her husband George Clooney, while working as a human rights lawyer She previously told Vogue how her romance with George, 56, came about after she attended a party at his house on Lake Como, Italy. After, the pair exchanged emails, with George taking on the guise of his dog Einstein, pretending he was in need of legal rescue. She said: 'I was 35 when I met him. It wasnt obvious that it was going to happen for me. And I wasnt willing or excited about the idea of getting married or having a family in the absence of that. Upbeat mood: The human rights lawyer appeared to be in an upbeat mood as she stepped out Talk: The United Nations event was held to discuss press freedom and imprisoned journalists George had previously said that they went on a safari with friends and he took a photo of some giraffes that had come up to a smiling Amal - and in that moment, he had an epiphany that he should propose. Amal also told Vogue that their 10-month-old twins Ella and Alexander have already said their first words and climb in bed with the couple both between six and 8am. (Amal won't take calls before then). She said coyly: 'Weve had some "Mamas" and "Dadas." George was very careful to ensure that "Mama" was the first word.' She noted that their routine is easier now than when they were first born as the bed was full of 'weird cushions and pillows and machines,' at that time. Meant to be: She previously told Vogue how her romance with George, 56, came about after she attended a party at his house on Lake Como, Italy Sweet: After, the pair exchanged emails, with George taking on the guise of his dog Einstein, pretending he was in need of legal rescue Candid: She said: 'I was 35 when I met him. It wasnt obvious that it was going to happen for me. And I wasnt willing or excited about the idea of getting married or having a family in the absence of that.' Love story: George had previously said that they went on a safari with friends and he took a photo of some giraffes that had come up to a smiling Amal when he proposed Rumours of a romance have been swirling for months. And Cara Delevingne and stunning Ashley Benson yet again did nothing to stop the rumour mill working in overdrive as they were seen arriving at the George V hotel during Paris Fashion Week on Thursday alongside Cara's pal Kendall Jenner. The British supermodel was rocking an androgynous ensemble as she suited up in a smart two-piece while Ashley was super glam in an LBD alongside edgy Kendall who flashed her taut abs in a tiny white crop top. Off we go: Cara Delevingne and stunning Ashley Benson yet again did nothing to stop the rumour mill working in overdrive as they were seen arriving at their hotel George V during Paris Fashion Week on Thursday alongside Cara's pal Kendall Jenner Cara naturally looked sensational as she stepped out with the blonde beauty yet was no doubt ready for rest as she has been working the catwalks. The blonde beauty, who walked the catwalk for Balmain the following afternoon, was rocking skin-tight trousers and an edgy, biased- cut blazer. Ashley was looking glam in a black dress with a handkerchief hemline while boosting her height with a pair of ankle boots and keeping warm in a trench coat. She wore her blonde locks in mussed lengths skimming her shoulders while her make-up was stylishly applied to show off her stunning good looks. Here we go: The British supermodel sensational was rocking an androgynous ensemble as she suited up in a smart two-piece while Ashley was super glam in an LBD alongside edgy Kendall who flashed her taut abs in a tiny white crop top All white? Kendall looked typically edgy in a white crop top with high-waisted trousers while rocking trainers as she headed into the hotel Chic: Ashley was looking glam in a black dress with a handkerchief hemline while boosting her height with a pair of ankle boots and keeping warm in a trench coat Kendall looked typically edgy in a white crop top with high-waisted trousers while rocking trainers as she headed into the hotel. In April the rumor mill started reporting that there was a romance between the two after they were spotted holding hands together during a late night in New York. Last month, DailyMail.com was the first to publish proof of their love affair when pictures surfaced of the two kissing. The girls: In April the rumor mill started reporting that there was a romance between the two after they were spotted holding hands together during a late night in New York Partying up a storm: The duo looked glamorous for their night out together Cara and Ashley were spotted arriving back to NYC after a trip together in the UK. In the photos the girls snuggled close together while waiting in line for a taxi and shared a passionate smooch. The photos also revealed the PLL star wearing a necklace with a 'c' initial on it, prompting fans to speculate that it stood for Cara. When asked about their relationship recently by PEOPLE, Ashley wouldn't confirm or deny the romance. 'I think it's the best way in any relationship,' she said. 'I've always been very private about them, and I think it's just better.' Stylish: Kendall looked sensational as she hit the town with her pals They recently shared an emotional heart-to-heart on TOWIE, making amends after drifting apart. And Shelby Tribble was putting her focus back on her female friendships on Friday, spending some quality time with best friend Clelia Theodorou at a beauty salon in London. The newly-single star put on a brave face after splitting from boyfriend Pete Wicks when it emerged he had been sexting 10 different women. Moving on: Shelby Tribble was putting her focus back on her female friendships on Friday, spending some quality time with best friend Clelia Theodorou at a beauty salon in London Show of support: Clelia looked delighted to be reuniting with Shelby, following the pair's recent heart-to-heart about their friendship Shelby, 25, looked like she hadn't a care in the world as she strutted down the street in an eye-catching leopard print blazer. She upped the glamour in a skin-tight vest top and high-waisted, leather look trousers teamed with heeled ankle boots. The sweet natured brunette - who earned a legion of new supporters when she blasted love rat Pete on the ITVBe show - showed off her bronzed complexion ahead of getting a new H20 glow facial at Crystal Clear Skincare salon. Quality time together: Her best pal Clelia accompanied Shelby for a little rest and relaxation, going arm-in-arm as they sauntered down the street Pete who? The newly-single star put on a brave face after splitting from boyfriend Pete Wicks when it emerged he had been sexting 10 different women Wild child: Clelia was perfectly on-trend in a leopard print wrap top and leather jacket Her best pal Clelia accompanied Shelby for a little rest and relaxation, going arm-in-arm as they sauntered down the street. Clelia was perfectly on-trend in a leopard print wrap top, skinny jeans and leather jacket. This comes after Shelby admitted she was 'devastated' to find out that Pete Wicks, 29, had also been sending sexually explicit messages with up to ten women. Speaking candidly with The Sun, the TOWIE star said: 'I was devastated, I thought he was The One but after reading those texts I was left heartbroken.' Girls' day out: Shelby, 25, looked like she hadn't a care in the world as she strutted down the street in an eye-catching leopard print blazer Shocked: Shelby Tribble admitted on Monday that she was 'devastated' after finding out that her ex Pete Wicks had been sexting TEN women She continued: 'He was sexting another girl and talking about joining the Mile High Club with her. 'Someone else sent nude pictures to him. I saw all these messages to other girls on Instagram, other texts in his archive in fact some of the texts were sent just two days before we were due to go to a wedding together in Croatia.' The reality star, who did the same thing while with his ex Megan McKenna, had been messaging the women on Instagram, and Shelby found out about their exchanges when she looked on his phone before they left for their trip. Upset: She revealed to The Sun, 'He was sexting another girl and talking about joining the Mile High Club with her...someone else sent nude pictures to him' Shelby didn't hold back on Sunday's episode of TOWIE as she blasted her former beau and co-star, Pete Wicks. Talking to her pals, Clelia Theodorou and Yazmin Oukhellou, during a girls' lunch, the model, 25, revealed that he had sent 'disgusting' messages to other girls and that he even 'used her' before their explosive split. She said: 'I've not heard from him since the festival. That night, I heard he went to a strip club.' Fiery: Shelby Tribble didn't hold back on Sunday's episode of TOWIE as she blasted her former beau and co-star, Pete Wicks A upset Shelby added: 'I just feel like he's used me. Those messages are disgusting. I don't care if he says we weren't official. We've been seeing each other for five months, we've been inseparable for five months.' While Yazmin expressed her shock over the revelations, as she said: 'I don't know what the hell is wrong with him at the minute.' Also during the episode, Pete revealed to close friend Chloe Sims that there was a 'something' missing between him and Shelby, despite her being the type of woman he'd like to settle down with. Oh dear: Talking to her pals, Clelia Theodorou and Yazmin Oukhellou, during a girls' lunch she revealed that he had sent 'disgusting' messages to other girls and 'used her' Candid: She said: 'I've not heard from him since the festival. That night, I heard he went to a strip club.' And after the conversation, the TOWIE veteran decided to meet up with Shelby to talk things over, which resulted in an explosive row between the pair. With Pete revealing: 'I cannot give you want you want' and that there was 'something missing' between them. And Shelby did not react well to her former beau's choice of words as she told him he was 'selfish', to 'grow the f**k up' and that they were done. Loyal: While Yazmin expressed her shock over the revelations, as she said: 'I don't know what the hell is wrong with him at the minute.' Not happy: Also during the episode, Pete revealed to close friend Chloe Sims that there was a 'something' missing between him and Shelby The scenes come after Shelby launched a scathing expletive-laden attack on her ex-boyfriend when she spoke candidly on Access All Areas on Thursday. The model, 25, freely expressed her heartache as she exclaimed she wasn't having her love treat her badly. She ranted on Access All Areas aired on FUBAR Radio: 'The way he's treated this whole thing is good because where it hurt me more and more it makes you stronger, you know what? F**k you! I'm not having it. Make-or-break: And after the conversation, the TOWIE veteran, 29, decided to meet up with Shelby to talk things over, which resulted in an explosive row between the pair 'He obviously does not give two s**ts, so I'm thinking, why am I wasting my time and energy crying over someone who obviously doesn't care about me?' The reality star insisted she will be well and truly off the dating market while she picks up the pieces of her broken heart. TOWIE continues on ITVBe next Sunday. Will Smith is continuing his 'birthday week' with his return to rap in the new track Esta Rico. The actor, 50, teamed up with Marc Anthony and Bad Bunny for the track, which he teased on Instagram Thursday with a behind-the-scenes video from their recording session. 'Oh we aint stopping birthday week continues tomorrow imma drop new music with @MarcAnthony and @BadBunnyPR!! #EstaRico,' the actor-rapper said. Big Willy Style: Will Smith returns to rap, teaming up with Marc Anthony and Bad Bunny with the new track and music video Esta Rico This new track is the first song Smith has released since a 2015 collaboration with Bomba Estereo entitled Fiesta. It's been 13 years since Smith's last solo album, 2005's Lost And Found, but this collaboration with Anthony has been a long time coming. Smith posted an Instagram video from March with Anthony, who also turned 50 earlier this month, teaching him how to salsa dance. Anthony and Smith: Smith teamed up with Marc Anthony and Bad Bunny for the track, which he teased on Instagram Thursday with a behind-the-scenes video from their recording session 'Will and I have always wanted to work on a musical collaboration,' Anthony says in a press release via Billboard. 'This song seems perfect for this moment were both experiencing creatively.' 'Working with Bad Bunny for the first time has been a great surprise,' Anthony added. 'We all had a magnificent chemistry, and that energy is palpable in both the music and the video.' The music video was directed by Carlos Perez for Elastic People, and includes special appearances by Puerto Rican model Joan Smalls and actor Luis Guzman. Will's return: This new track is the first song Smith has released since a 2015 collaboration with Bomba Estereo entitled Fiesta Ante up: It's been 13 years since Smith's last solo album, 2005's Lost and Found, but this collaboration with Anthony has been a long time coming Dynamic duo: Smith posted an Instagram video from March with Anthony, who also turned 50 earlier this month, teaching him how to salsa dance This video comes just days after Smith celebrated his birthday by bungee jumping from a helicopter over the Grand Canyon. The actor/musician stated in another Instagram post that the jump itself was 'quick,' but, 'putting it all together took almost 6 months!' He also shared a photo with his family, wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, 47, sons Trey, 25 and Jaden, 20, and daughter Willow, 17. Birthday style: This video comes just days after Smith celebrated his birthday by bungee jumping from a helicopter over the Grand Canyon Return to rap: The actor/musician stated in another Instagram post that the jump itself was 'quick,' but, 'putting it all together took almost 6 months' New collaboration: He also shared a photo with his family, wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, 47, sons Trey, 25 and Jaden, 20, and daughter Willow, 17 While Smith doesn't have any moves slated for release in 2018, coming off of last year's Bright for Netflix, he is poised for a big 2019. The actor has three major movies slated for release next year, starting with Disney's live-action adaptation of Aladdin (May 24, 2019), where he takes over the iconic Genie voice role, first portrayed by Robin Williams. He then stars in Gemini Man (October 4, 2019) for director Ang Lee, starring alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Clive Owen. Will is back: While Smith doesn't have any moves slated for release in 2018, coming off of last year's Bright for Netflix, he is poised for a big 2019 Finally, the multi-talented star will finish out the year by voicing Lance Sterling in Spies in Disguise (September 14, 2019). He is also attached to star in three highly-anticipated sequels, none of which have official release dates yet. The actor is set to return as Deadshot in Suicide Squad 2, Daryl Ward in Bright 2 and as Mike Lowery in the long-awaited Bad Boys For Life. Return of Will: The actor has three major movies slated for release next year, starting with Disney's live-action adaptation of Aladdin (May 24, 2019), where he takes over the iconic Genie voice role, first portrayed by Robin Williams Long time coming: 'Will and I have always wanted to work on a musical collaboration,' Anthony said, adding, 'this song seems perfect for this moment were both experiencing creatively' Old friends: 'Working with Bad Bunny for the first time has been a great surprise,' Anthony stated, adding, 'we all had a magnificent chemistry, and that energy is palpable in both the music and the video' They have been enjoying a busy few months filming the hotly-anticipated sequel to Marvel's Spider-Man: Homecoming. And Tom Holland was spotted on set with Zendaya and Jacob Batalon as they filmed new scenes in Venice on Friday. The 22-year-old actor looked to be in high spirits as he took a picturesque ride on a Gondola through the city's stunning canals. Happy: Tom Holland beamed as he filmed scenes for Spider-Man: Far From Home in Venice with his co-star Jacob Batalon (centre) on Friday Tom cut a casual figure in a checked shirt which he donned over a white shirt, and paired with a blue raincoat. The BAFTA-winning star styled his brunette locks back into a slick hairstyle, and he couldn't help but smile as he and his co-star Jacob posed for photos. Zendaya, 22, was the picture of casual chic in a grey jacket, which she wore with a black hoodie and a white T-shirt. Getting into character: Zendaya, 22, was the picture of casual chic in a grey jacket, which she wore with a black hoodie and a white T-shirt Stylish: The Shake It Up star showcased her quirky style sense as her shirt had a Suffragette print, with the word 'vote' written across the front Relaxed: The actress completed her look with 3/4 length shorts and black canvas shoes The Shake It Up star showcased her quirky style sense as her shirt had a Suffragette print, with the word 'vote' written across the front. She complemented her striking features with light strokes of neutral-toned make-up, and wore her naturally curly mane in a low ponytail, with a lock of her hair pulled forward to frame her pretty face. The group of actors seemed busy as they filmed throughout the Italian city, after arriving there together on Wednesday. Hi there! Later in the day, Tom put on an animated display as he took a boat ride through town Dapper: Tom cut a casual figure in a checked shirt which he donned over a white shirt, and paired with a blue raincoat Quiet on set: Zendaya could be seen filming scenes with her co-stars in the city Hectic schedule: The group of actors seemed busy as they filmed throughout the Italian city, after arriving there together on Wednesday Earlier this month, the duo were also pictured filming in Prague after they began filming the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming in July in England. Spider-Man: Far from Home, the sequel to the film Spider-Man: Homecoming, is slated to hit cinemas in 2019, and has so far shot scenes in London, Hertfordshire and Liberec in the Czech Republic. The movie is reportedly slated to be released on July 5, 2019 in the U.S. The sequel will hit theaters about two years after the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming - which was released in July 2017. Snapping away: The actor could be seen taking photos of the sights around him Seeing the sights: Tom looked to be in high spirits as he took a picturesque ride on a Gondola through the city's stunning canals Heavy duty: Tom was later seen filming scenes where he carried suitcases into a building Busy schedule: The cast and crew could be seen rushing around before they started shooting According to producer Kevin Feige, the premise of the film reportedly revolves around Peter Parker and his friends going to Europe on summer vacation, though few other details about the film have been revealed to the public so far. Speaking to Den of Geek , Feige also divulged: We've chosen a villain and I think the story line is fairly impacted by the locations we go to. We love the notion of taking Spider-Man to places around the world that we haven't seen him in before. And we have a villain who I think will play into that nicely. As of yet, no trailer for the upcoming film has been released as its still filming. An official trailer for it will likely be revealed in the coming months. Marissa Tomei is reprising her role as Aunt May. Jacob Batalon is expected to return as Ned Leeds and Michael Keaton will reportedly play Vulture. Jet-setters: Earlier this month, the duo were also pictured filming in Prague after they began filming the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming in July in England Thumbs up: Tom showed his positive attitude by posing for pictures while waiting to start Relaxing outing: Tom went out on a boat to explore the city during a break Smile and wave: Tom greeted fans who were eager to catch a glimpse of him in the city Coming soon: Spider-Man: Far from Home, the sequel to the film Spider-Man: Homecoming, is slated to hit cinemas in 2019 Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders will appear as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, two former high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Jake Gyllenhaal will be appearing as the villainous Mysterio while J.B. Smoove is also slated to appear, though details of his specific role arent yet known publicly. Numan Acar is also expected to appear as a character named Dimitri. The film is being directed by Jon Watts and was written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. Its being produced by Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal. Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures are the production companies behind the upcoming movie, which will be distributed by Sony Pictures. In high spirits: Zendaya beamed as she got to work on the hotly-anticipated Marvel film Picture perfect: Tom was keen to capture images of the stunning views in Venice Chatty: Tom and Zendaya were seen talking away as they stepped out on set Out and about: The actor enjoyed a break from filming as he stepped onto a speedboat to explore the city, and took lots of pictures to remember the sights She starred in some of the most high profile movies of the 1990s - with Jude Law in Music From Another Room, with Matt Damon in Rounders, and with Leonardo DiCaprio in Celebrity. And beauty Gretchen Mol, 45 - who is now on season two of the Netflix show Seven Seconds - is still looking sensational as she proved on Thursday evening. The wife of Kip Williams - they have been wed for 14 years - stopped by the Italian Cultural Institute in NYC to help author Enrico Pellegrini celebrate the launch of his critically acclaimed novel Something Great And Beautiful. Beaming beauty: Gretchen Mol stopped by the Italian Cultural Institute in NYC to help author Enrico Pellegrini celebrate the launch of his critically acclaimed novel Something Great And Beautiful on Thursday Good friends: Here Enrico is flanked by Kip Williams, left, and Gretchen, right The novel is about 'love, money and focaccia.' The synopsis reads: 'Sympathetic, good-for-nothing Rosso Fiorentino leaves the beautiful Italian Riviera to follow the woman he loves to America, and soon finds himself the hero of a darkly funny tale when his improbable business plan becomes the rage on Wall Street. 'Rosso Fiorentino, a charming loser who dreams of becoming a writer, falls in love with Chloe, a brilliant young woman with a troubled past. 'They meet in India, where famous Italian novelist the Maestro has decided to spend his last days. They cross paths again in Portofino, and Rosso, following the Maestros injunction to finally do something worthwhile with his life, enlists the help of his friends, a baker and a street peddler, to follow Chloe to America and sell focaccia on the streets of New York.' On stage: Mol dazzled in a white lace dress with her locks pulled up. She gave a reading of several passages from the book Glam gals: Here Gretchen and Kip posed with Enrico's stunning wife Katrina Pavlos, CEO and creator of In-House Series Haute stuff: Pavlos stood out in a black gown with sheer sleeves by designer Amanda Ross and layers of necklaces It was added: 'This modern fairy tale about ambition, hubris, love, and redemption exposes the absurdity of the 2008 global meltdown, and foreshadows the future, all with scintillating wit.' Mol dazzled in a white lace dress with her locks pulled up. The looker added black pointy heels and diamond stud earrings. The New York resident gave a reading of several passages from the book following an introduction by her husband and long time friend of the author, film director Williams. His passion: Pellegrini held up his book; by day the Italian is a lawyer in NYC The host with the most: Enrico also posed with Coralie Charriol Paul who had on a white blazer Enrico wore a white shirt and red sweater. His wife Katrina Pavlos of In-House Series looked like a movie star in her black gown with sheer sleeves by Amanda Ross. Katrina and Kip have been looking into turning Something Great And Beautiful into a movie. The audience sipped Sicilan wine from Gorghi Tondi, Peroni Beer and focaccia from EATALY which is also from Turin, Italy like the author. Shakespeare & Co sold the books. A short Q&A between Williams and the author took place discussing the inspirations and his writing process before guests mingled and took the opportunity to take home signed copies of the book. Family first: The author with his three children Margherita, Sofia and Maximus Pellegrini Imogen Lloyd Weber was there as well as Alexa Hampton, Alexandra Pappas, Ana Saucedo and Peter von Schlossberg, Anne-Marie and Irik Sevin and Annie Churchill. Barbie Bancroft, Charlie Ruger, Clemence Bollore and William von Mueffling, David and Tania Tisch, Dayssi and Paul Kanovas also made the event. And Dennis and Coralie Paul, Garine Zerounian, Jennifer Creel, Lauren Peters, Lorenzo Lorenzotti, Marianna Kulukundis and Vanessa von Bismarck were seen. Patti Raynes, Ram and Preethi Sundaram, Sabine Heller and Tatiana Boncompagni were seen talking to the author. Enrico also posed with his three children Margherita, Sofia and Maximus. Mol can next be seen in season seven of the Netlfix show Seven Seconds. Her two children and ex-husband united to hit her with a lawsuit in July. But just three months later and Luann de Lesseps appears to have buried the hatchet with her son Noel by wishing him a happy 22nd birthday. '@noeldelesseps proud to be your mom!' the Real Housewives of New York City star captioned an Instagram photo, showing the two celebrating together. 'Happy Birthday my handsome kind boy!' Buried the hatchet? Luann de Lesseps wished her son Noel happy birthday despite the pending lawsuit filed by her two children and ex-husband In the photo, Luann has her arms lovingly wrapped around her son with an assortment of pastries, complete with birthdays candles, in front of them. The reality star can bee seen flashing a big beaming smile, while Noel appears to have a more subtle smile on his face. The Instagram picture is tagged Sag Harbor, New York, in the upscale Hamptons neighborhood, which is the home at the center of their pending lawsuit. Family trouble: Luanne was sued by her two children and ex-husband Alexandre de Lesseps in early July when she failed to create a trust for the kids after her 2009 divorce; the reality star is seen in January 2015 with her children, Noel and Victoria, and Chris Young Mending fences: The former countess maintained that 'everything is great' with her two kids, during an appearance on the Bravo show Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen The 53-year old was slapped with a lawsuit by Noel, his sister Victoria, and ex-husband Alexandre de Lesseps when she failed to create a trust for the kids that would entitle them to the $3.1million estate in Sag Harbor as part of her 2009 divorce settlement. The family was reportedly worried she would resell the home for profit and purchase another home in upstate New York. Earlier this month, the former countess maintained that 'everything is great' with her two children, during an appearance on the Bravo show Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. 'There was a big hiccup about me wanting to get a house upstate and not being in the Hamptons,' she said. 'So, I decided to keep the Hamptons home and I'm getting a house upstate in any case.' She also admitted to having a 'fantastic' time with Noel and Victoria during the long Labor Day weekend. Reality star: Luann has been one of the main cast members on The Real Housewives of New York City beginning in 2008 Luanne has had difficult last year that has included multiple rehab stints after being arrested on Christmas Eve in Palm Beach, Florida for attacking a police officer while under the influence of alcohol. She accepted a plea deal in late May and a series of charges were dropped from her records. She is required to complete community service, attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and a victim impact class, and submit to random alcohol and drug testing during her one-year probation. Kate Bosworth is set to make her return to the small screen, as both an actress and producer. Netflix has issued series orders for three new sci-fi shows today, one of which is The I-Land, with Bosworth, 35, attached to star and produce. While Bosworth has produced three of her films, Amnesiac, Hot Bot and Nona, this will mark her first time producing a TV series. Bosworth is back: Kate Bosworth signs on to star in and produce a new sci-fi adventure series entitled The I-Land for Netflix The I-Land is described as a sci-fi adventure series, following 10 strangers who wake up on a strange island, with no idea who they are, or how they got there. As these strangers begin their journey to find a way back home, they discover this mysterious place is not at all what it appears to be. These strangers will have to face the island's 'extreme psychological and physical challenges' if they want to make it out alive, faced with having to 'rise to their better selves -- or die as their worst ones,' according to a Netflix press release. Star and producer: The actress will play one of 10 strangers who wake up on a strange island, with no idea who they are, or how they got there; seen in 2017 Bosworth will play a character named KC, starring alongside Natalie Martinez (The Crossing) as Chase and Alex Pettyfer (Magic Mike) playing Brody. Neil LaBute (Van Helsing) is serving as showrunner, writer and director on the new series, with Netflix issuing a seven-episode order. LaBute has also brought over one of his Van Helsing directors, Jonathan Scarfe, while Lucy Teitler (Mr. Robot) will also serve as a writer. Fashionable star-producer: Bosworth will play a character named KC, starring alongside Natalie Martinez (The Crossing) as Chase and Alex Pettyfer (Magic Mike) playing Brody; seen in early September Scarfe and Teitler will also serve as co-executive producers, while Chad Oakes (Fargo) and Mike Frislev (Wu Assassins) also executive producing. The I-Land is one of three sci-fi shows Netflix issued series orders for today, along with October Faction and Warrior Nun. October Faction is based on Steve Niles' IDW comic book, following 'globetrotting monster hunters Fred and Deloris Allen.' Warrior Nun is inspired by the manga novels of the same name, following a 19-year-old woman who finds a new calling as a demon hunter. Bosworth most recently starred in The Domestics alongside Tyler Hoechlin, Sonoyo Mizuno and Lance Reddick. Her next film, The Devil Has a Name, directed by Edward James Olmos, is slated for release next year. The Devil Has a Name cast also includes Olmos, Pablo Schreiber, Martin Sheen and Alfred Molina. She cut off her long lucisous locks and debuted her new bob earlier in the week. And Julianne Hough proved she was rocking her new look when she stepped out for a gym session in Los Angeles on Friday morning. The 30-year-old was decked out in yoga brand, Alo, flaunting her ample cleavage and washboard abs as she entered the fitness center. Gorgeous: Julianne Hough proved she was rocking her new blonde bob when she stepped out for a gym session in Los Angeles on Friday morning Julianne stunned in a $60 long sleeve crop that hugged her trim waist and featured a v-neck cut. She teamed the look with a pair of concrete colored $125 high-waisted tights from the same brand that featured various cut-outs down her legs. The Dancing With The Stars alum completed her ensemble with plain white sneakers. Gym-honed: Julianne stunned in a $60 long sleeve crop that hugged her trim waist and featured a v-neck cut Julianne was seen entering the gym with her large black water bottle and phone in hand. She kept a low profile with round shades and had her new short blonde locks styled out straight framing her face. The younger sister of Derek Hough appeared to be wearing no makeup for the workout session. Beautiful inside and out: After debuting her blonde locks at the LA premiere of A Star Is Born on Monday night, Julianne later took to social media to explain why she made the bold chop After debuting her blonde locks at the LA premiere of A Star Is Born on Monday night, Julianne later took to social media to explain why she made the bold chop. 'Detaching from what you know can be challenging, but also freeing,' she captioned. 'The best thing about hair is how you get to create, play and just have fun with it! So here is a new look, courtesy of frizzy ends needing a clean cut after going from red to blonde.' Her hair decision: 'Detaching from what you know can be challenging, but also freeing,' she captioned While many commented on how beautiful Julianne looked and noted her resemblance to actress Nicole Kidman, others weren't as impressed. 'This is Horrible!!! you look awful, you aged your self by 20 years,' wrote one non-impressed fan. Julianne was dressed in a black and white striped T-shirt with a glossy red lip. Blonde to red: 'Being a redhead helped me dive into my womanhood and embrace my sexuality,' she old PEOPLE back in July Powerful no matter her hair color or style: 'Now I'm ready to jump back to my roots with everything I learned and integrated into my body and spirit' Over the summer, the Rock of Ages star had said that changing her hair color to a rich deep red had tremendously contributed to how she looks upon her femininity. 'Being a redhead helped me dive into my womanhood and embrace my sexuality,' she old PEOPLE back in July. 'Now I'm ready to jump back to my roots with everything I learned and integrated into my body and spirit.' Sarah Jessica Parker and Mikhail Baryshnikov both attended the New York City Ballets 2018 Fall Fashion Gala on Thursday. The two played lovers on Sex And The City from 2003 until 2004. It did not look like they mingled as the 53-year-old beauty brought her husband Matthew Broderick and the 70-year-old dancer brought his wife Lisa Rinehart. Back together: Sarah Jessica Parker and Mikhail Baryshnikov both attended the New York City Ballets 2018 Fall Fashion Gala on Thursday Back in the day: The two played lovers on Sex And The City from 2003 until 2004 On the long-running series Mikhail played her love interest and Russian artist Aleksandr Petrovsky. He took her to Paris in the shows final season. But then Mr Big - played by Chris Noth - stepped in. Baryshnikov attended the gala with his wife, Rinehart. It is not known if he stopped to talk to Parker, who was also with Any Cohen. The actress wowed in a red ball gown, while Broderick, 56, looked dapper in a tux. The black-tie event took place at the Lincoln Center. Date night: Parker and husband Matthew Broderick side by side on the pink carpet SJP, whose dress featured a plunging neckline and puffy shoulders, wore her hair in a low ponytail, secured with a black bow. The Sex And The City star accessorized with massive diamond earrings and bedazzled red pumps. Meanwhile, Matthew donned a bow tie and his signature round glasses. Flawless: SJP's glam included a nude lip and a smokey eye The star-studded soiree included a special ballet performance followed by a supper ball. Parker and Broderick spent the evening mingling with Cohen and daytime host Kelly Ripa. Ripa dazzled in a patterned silver gown, while Cohen also donned a black tux. Strike a pose: Parker wore her hair in a low ponytail, secured with a black bow Sarah Jessica and Kelly are NYC Ballet gala chairs. 'Lucky to spend a gorgeous night with incredible artists,' Ripa wrote on Instagram. The pair of women co-hosted the event alongside Glam Masters' Zanna Roberts Rassi. Lovebirds: Sarah and Matthew shared a laugh before walking the carpet Pals: The couple mingled with Bravo's Andy Cohen Showstopper: Kelly Ripa, a gala chair, dazzled in a patterned, silver gown He got engaged to Ariana Grande in July, just four months after they started dating. And Pete Davidson talked about their new pet - a pig - that he got with Ariana during his appearance on the Late Night Show With Seth Meyers. The Saturday Night Live star, 24, said: 'Can I just say, this girl, she was like, "I want a pig!" and then an hour later it was just there.' Candid: Pete Davidson talked about their new pet - a pig - that he got with Ariana Grande, during his appearance on the Late Night Show With Seth Meyers Pete jokingly added: 'Like I'm still trying to get a Propecia refill for the last two weeks and this chick got a pig in a f*****g hour.' Seth asked: 'Does she just say it to the universe and the universe hears?' to which Pete said: 'Yea she was like, "I want a pig and then it was there.' He explained that 'the first two days, it was really new and it didn't move much.' So cute: The Saturday Night Live star, 24, said: 'Can I just say, this girl, she was like, "I want a pig!" and then an hour later it was just there' Piggy smalls: He explained that 'the first two days, it was really new and it didn't move much' But 'now it's starting to bite. Starting to do stuff like - it's a pig.' He said the pig's name is Piggie Smalls, and called it a 'top b***h' and a 'boujee pig.' but had already tripled in size. Pete said he loves the pig and wants it to get 'big and fat'; he also got a tattoo of their new pet pig. He's devoted: Pete said he loves the pig and wants it to get 'big and fat'; he also got a tattoo of their new pet pig The comedian was asked by Seth Meyers on Late Night if he still maintained his 'carte blanche open door,' policy of letting whatever friends stay over whenever they wanted since getting engaged to Ariana, 25. 'That day is over, the star revealed. 'I am not friends with them no more.' 'That's the best thing about your life getting better you don't have to hang out with those people any more,' he joked. His lady: The comedian was asked by Seth Meyers on Late Night if he still maintained his 'carte blanche open door,' policy of letting whatever friends stay over whenever they wanted since getting engaged to Ariana; pictured on August 20 at the MTV Video Music Awards in NYC The couple have barely been dating four months and have already moved in together and gotten engaged. Peter returns for his fifth season of SNL this weekend; the premiere episode is being hosted by Adam Driver, with musical guest Kanye West. He would not divulge further details of Kanye's involvement in the show, save to say: 'I've heard some pretty wild things... and I'm excited.' Having fun: Peter returns for his fifth season of SNL this weekend; the premiere episode is being hosted by Adam Driver, with musical guest Kanye West The campaign aims to raise awareness of riding motorbikes correctly and how to minimise the risk of serious accidents, and encourage personal responsibility when choosing to ride a motorbike. It is one of the British Consular Teams efforts to reduce the number of British citizens involved in accidents. This campaign is also an integral part of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Offices commitment to minimising risks to British nationals overseas through reducing preventable incidents, said British Consul-General Ian Gibbons. According to Tran Huu Minh, Deputy Chief of the Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, Vietnamese agencies have issued regulations on converting international driving licences for foreigners in Vietnam. The World Health Organisation (WHO)s statistics show that on average one person dies every hour due to road accident in Vietnam. Motorbike accidents are the leading cause of death, severe injury and emergency evacuation of foreigners in Vietnam. Road conditions differ significantly from those in the UK, with many drivers failing to adhere to road traffic rules and patchy enforcement of traffic laws leading to the accidents. After the launch, the Safe Motorbike Riding Campaign will offer an information booth at British Business Group Fun Run events in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on September 30 and November 4 to raise awareness of the campaign. Vietnamplus She's just jetted back to Los Angeles after attending Paris Fashion Week in France. And Nicole Richie has quickly picked up her regular routine. The 36-year-old fashion designer was spotted leaving the Tracy Anderson Studio after her early morning workout on Friday. Leaving the gym: Nicole Richie has just jetted back to Los Angeles after attending Paris Fashion Week in France Making it hard to believe she's a mom of two children, she showed off her incredibly slender body in a skintight black vest, matching leggings and black Nike sneakers. Lionel Richie's adopted daughter smoothed her blonde tresses up into a high bun. She walked back to her car with a grey sweatshirt slung over her shoulder as she carried her keys and a small bottle of water. Nicole shares daughter Harlow, 10, and son Sparrow, nine, with her Good Charlotte rocker husband Joel Madden, 39. The couple have been married since 2010. Picking up her regular routine: The 36-year-old fashion designer was spotted leaving the Tracy Anderson Studio in Los Angeles after her early morning workout on Friday Not an inch to pinch: Making it hard to believe she's a mom of two children, she showed off her incredibly slender body in a skintight black vest, matching leggings and black Nike sneakers Nicole appears to have been in Paris solo as none of the snaps or videos she shared on Instagram showed Joel. She posted a few shots of herself with the iconic Eiffel Tower in the background. She also shared a snap of herself and fashion journalist Derek Blasberg sitting on plush wingback chairs at the Paris Ritz that she captioned: 'Scroll right to see an example of shedding the unnecessary excess in your life.' Iconic image: Nicole wore a sexy black wrap dress as she posed in front of the Eiffel Tower at Yves Saint Laurent's show during Paris Fashion week She's joking: Nicole shared a snap of herself and fashion journalist Derek Blasberg at the Paris Ritz captioned: 'Scroll right to see an example of shedding the unnecessary excess in your life' The answer: It was followed by the same picture minus 36-year-old Derek It was followed by the same picture minus 36-year-old Derek. The pair seem to have that kind of jokey relationship as he posted a snap of Nicole in a tiger-stripe coat as they enjoyed cocktails. He captioned it: 'DONT WORRY: Much like @nicolerichies personality, the fur is fake.' Eddie Murphy is engaged to his pregnant girlfriend Paige Butcher. The 57-year-old actor's representative confirmed the news to UsWeekly on Friday. The 39-year-old blonde beauty flashed her huge diamond engagement ring on Wednesday when shopping in Los Angeles. Set to wed: Eddie Murphy is engaged to his pregnant girlfriend Paige Butcher. His rep confirmed the news to UsWeekly on Friday. Pictured together in 2016 Big rock: Here the 39-year-old beauty flashed a diamond ring on Wednesday in LA Paige - who is due to give birth in December - was seen shopping at the HomeGoods homewares store in Los Angeles, and sporting a massive sparkler on her wedding finger. The giant rock stood out against the black short-sleeved top and matching leggings the blonde bombshell was wearing. Paige's growing baby bump was on display as she protectively rested her hand on her stomach and slung a cross-body Gucci bag over her shoulder. The Australian-born model appeared to be shopping for furniture in preparation for the birth of her second child, who will be Eddie's tenth overall. It was recently revealed that the child will be a boy. Paige already shares a two-year-old daughter, Izzy Oona Murphy, with the American comedian. Paige and Eddie have been dating since 2012 and their daughter Izzy was born in May 2016. Eddie welcomed his first child, Eric, in 1989 with then-girlfriend Paulette McNeely. His second child, Christian, was born a year later in 1990 from a different girlfriend, Tamara Hood. Murphy then had five children with his wife Nicole Mitchell - Bria, Myles, Shayne, Zola and Bella - before the couple divorced in 2005. He had another child, Angel, with former Spice Girl Mel B in 2007. Growing family! It was recently revealed that Paige's child will be a boy. She already shares a two-year-old daughter, Izzy Murphy, with Eddie. Pictured together in April Paige has had small film roles in Big Momma's House 2 and Something's Gotta Give, but is best known for her work as a model. Eddie hasn't made a movie since 2016's Mr. Church, but is currently filming the American biopic Dolemite Is My Name. There have also been rumours that he will star in Triplets, a sequel to the 1988 comedy Twins, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. She's been dominating the modeling and acting industries for over 40 years. And Andie MacDowell boasted her youthful-looking appearance as she attended the Cedric Charlier SS19 presentation during Paris Fashion Week on Friday afternoon. The Monte Carlo actress, 60, posed up a storm as she twirled around the venue in a striped pleated skirt and a sophisticated leather blouse, which accentuated her slender torso. Working it! Andie MacDowell boasted her youthful-looking appearance as she attended the Cedric Charlier SS19 presentation during Paris Fashion Week on Friday afternoon Looking every inch the style maven, the screen star oozed Parisian chic with a checked trench coat, and boosted her frame in a pair of pointed kitten heels. Andie ensured all eyes remained on her trend-setting ensemble as she kept accessories to a minimum during her fashionable day out. Framing her visage with corkscrew tresses, the supermodel, who has been a spokesperson for L'Oreal for over 30 years, complemented her radiant complexion with strokes of dewy foundation and dark pink lipstick. Fabulous: The Monte Carlo actress, 60, posed up a storm as she twirled around the venue in a striped pleated skirt and a sophisticated leather blouse, which accentuated her slender torso In an interview with Deadline, the star detailed the background of her recent drama film Love After Love, which saw her strip naked during a racy scene. Andie shared: 'Its a movie about loss, in a certain way, in that we lose our patriarch.' The independent movie - set for release in the US on March 30 - focuses on the relationship between Suzanne and her son Nicholas (played by Chris O'Dowd) following the death of a family patriarch. Working it! Looking every inch the style maven, the screen star oozed Parisian chic with a checked trench coat, and boosted her frame in a pair of pointed kitten heels Less is more: Andie ensured all eyes remained on her trend-setting ensemble as she kept accessories to a minimum during her fashionable day out Va-va-voom! The supermodel, who has been a spokesperson for L'Oreal for over 30 years, framed her visage with corkscrew curls Glowing: The brunette complemented her radiant complexion with strokes of dewy foundation and dark pink lipstick 'From my point of view, my character [Suzanne] felt for some reason that he would somehow inherit the role of patriarch, and is very disappointed to find that that natural succession doesnt take place, and that kind of kills him.' 'He has this relationship with his mother, which is at times very intimate and beautiful, but also very difficult because he thinks the role of patriarch would almost make him the man of the house in her eyes, and she doesnt necessarily see that in him.' Comparing this role with her work on previous films, Andie said: 'The process was unique for me, and Ive been doing this for a long time, but Ive never had the opportunity to work in this way, and I am just so grateful that I was given this opportunity to play a complex character.' 'Ive been waiting for something like this for such a long time. It was so delicate, the way that we worked, and you see in the very beginning of the movie, my character is bold, and beautiful, and dynamic, and sexy, and secure, and loving.' Love After Love made its screen debut on at the Tribeca Film Festival in April last year, and it received it's DVD release in the United States on Tuesday. She attended the hearings of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday. And one day later, Alyssa Milano was spotted at the airport in Washington D.C. rocking a T-shirt with the statement: 'When women support each other great things happen.' The 45-year-old actress paired the bold top with a khaki colored jacket and skinny jeans for a comfortable ensemble for her flight back home to Los Angeles on Friday. Making a splash: Alyssa Milano was spotted at the airport in Washington D.C. on Friday rocking a T-shirt with the statement: 'When women support each other great things happen' Alyssa donned the $125 Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet T-shirt for her flight. She sported fitted black jeans with coordinating boots, adding an oversized khaki jacket. The mother of two added glasses and a mini black crossbody handbag, adding pins to the strap. Ayssa wore her brunette locks pulled up into a high bun with pink glossed lips and a touch of blush on her cheeks. Making a valid point: The 45-year-old actress paired the bold top with a khaki colored jacket and skinny jeans for a comfortable ensemble for her flight back home She was seen at the hearings for both Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Alyssa was invited as guest of California senator Dianne Feinstein. The movie star was seen filming parts of the hearing yesterday, breaking the rules of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A security guard walked up to her and ordered her to stop. Casual: Alyssa donned the $125 Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet T-shirt for her flight Only accredited members of the press are permitted to video record in the Committee hearing room; non-flash photography is permitted. She told AFP that she came from Los Angeles 'to show support for Doctor Ford, to stand in solidarity with other women, other survivors that have been through similar experiences.' Adding: 'I think the most beautiful thing that's come out of the last two years is really understanding that women are here for each other. To be part of that is very special.' Heading inside: She was seen at the hearings for both Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Alyssa talked to Cosmopolitan.com about the experience of being in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. She told the magazine that it was 'so emotional' and she arrived there full of 'hope.' She said of Dr. Ford's testimony: 'There were things I will just never forget. What she remembered so vividly - the hearing of sounds going down the stairwell, that she was wearing a one-piece bathing suit, the laughter.' Adding: 'Those little details that victims of sexual assault know are so imprinted on our being, it just struck me.' While he spoke she said to Cosmopolitan that he was 'so volatile and emotional' and thought to herself: 'If a woman acted like this during a line of questioning, she would be considered totally unhinged or hormonal or accused of having a meltdown, or worse, of being a b****h. Adding to the magazine: 'So watching him, I just felt like, this guy does not have the temperament to be on the Supreme Court, regardless of the allegations.' After Kavanaugh's testimony, she felt 'total defeat' but said she is 'not hopeless.' The Charmed actress told the magazine: 'I believe: We're going to take back the House. We're going to take back the Senate. And once that happens, I'm going to lobby my heart out to get Kavanaugh impeached.' She's raising three children while juggling a hectic acting career in Hollywood. But whileher life may be stressful, it doesn't show on the face of Megan Fox, 32. The actress showed off her wrinkle-free skin in a sultry selfie, which the actress had posted to her official Instagram account on Thursday. Fox appears to pout her lips, as she displays her smooth skin complexion and hair-curled locks in the social media snapshot. Smooth skin: Megan Fox appeared wrinkle-free in her Instagram selfie on Thursday 'On my way to ancient aliens interview,' the mother-of-three captioned her photo. But it wasn't long before fans began to question whether the 32-year-old had undergone plastic surgery to obtain her youthful looking appearance. 'Botox,' one user simply wrote. Another commented, clearly in awe of Megan's beauty: 'You are stunning Megan. But please stay away from the plastic surgery. You don't even need it.' While Fox has yet to respond to her fans criticizing the smoothness of her skin, the actress has previously said that people should only consider undergoing plastic surgery after having spoken with a therapist. Any difference? Fans have speculated whether Megan's change of appearance is down to plastic surgery; she is seen in 2004, left, and 2017, right Still on good terms: Transformers director Michael Bay supported his former colleague at the premiere of her film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; seen in 2014 In an interview with Allure in 2010 one of the few times Megan addressed rumors concerning her alleged cosmetic procedures the Jennifer's Body star didn't seem to hold back. 'I will say for people who question the authenticity of my lips, you can clearly see that my lips are my lips,' she told the news publication at the time. Readers were quick to note that she never denied the help of a plastic surgeon, though. After finding the underlying reason as to why someone may choose to opt for cosmetic surgery, Fox doesn't give the impression that she'd be opposed to the idea. Fox rose to fame in 2004's Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen; alongside Lindsay Lohan Has she, hasn't she? Fans have mixed thoughts regarding Megan's alleged cosmetic procedures; seen in March at Forever 21 in Glendale, California 'I would encourage anyone [who wants plastic surgery] to first speak with a therapist, to try and figure out where this want comes from,' she expressed. 'Because a lot of times it's not related to your teeth or your nose or your chin the surgery is not going to alleviate that insecurity for you.' She concludes by saying that, under the right reasons, she would show support to someone who may be dealing with insecurities with their body. 'If, then, you feel, 'This is something that I want to do,' then do it. It's amazing that we have the technology to do the stuff that we do.' The Tennessee native's forthcoming project Naya Legend of the Golden Dolphin, starring James Franco and Gerard Butler, recently commenced production. One fan joked that Fox may have gone under the knife for the purpose of the role not knowing that the motion picture is a 3D animated action film. Advertisement She has been ruling the runways of all the major labels during Fashion Week season. And Winnie Harlow displayed her sartorial prowess on Thursday as she attended the photocall for Jean Paul Gaultier's Fashion Freak Show at the legendary Folies Bergeres theatre during Paris Fashion Week. The 24-year-old ensured she took centre-stage in a bold metallic gown by the famed French couturier, while Oscar winner Marion Cotillard went for an edgy vibe in a sequinned bomber. Taking centre-stage: Winnie Harlow dazzled in bold metallic gown as Marion Cotillard went for an edgy vibe in a sequinned bomber jacket at the Jean-Paul Gaultier Fashion Freak Show photocall during PFW Winnie certainly turned heads in her gown, which featured a plunging neckline and bold print in hues of gold, red and navy and sharp, accentuated shoulders. Letting the statement garment do all the talking, the model added height with a stylish pair of scarlet patent stilettos and accessorised with metallic drop earrings. Styling her raven tresses in a simple swept back 'do, the former America's Next Top Model contestant framed her features with smoky shadow and a slick of burgundy lipstick. Looking good: Winnie certainly turned heads in her gown, which featured a plunging neckline and bold print in hues of gold, red and navy and sharp, accentuated shoulders Ready for her close-up: Styling her raven tresses in a simple swept back 'do, the former America's Next Top Model contestant framed her features with smoky shadow and a slick of burgundy lipstick Working her angles: The beauty accessorised her burnished gold down with metallic drop earrings Hot on her tails was Marion, who looked cool and casual in a sequinned bomber jacket and skinny jeans teamed with leopard-print courts. The 42-year-old Inception actress looked chic in her jacket, which featured bronze, white and navy sequins and velvet cape detail at the back. Marion, who won an Oscar in 2008 for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, looked every inch the stunning screen star despite her laid-back ensemble. Stealing the limelight: Marion looked cool and casual in a sequinned bomber jacket and skinny jeans teamed with leopard-print courts Statement jacket: The 42-year-old Inception actress looked chic in her jacket, which featured bronze, white and navy sequins and velvet cape detail at the back Preened to perfection: Marion, who won an Oscar in 2008 for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, looked every inch the stunning screen star despite her laid-back ensemble Monochrome maven: Model Coco Rocha looked like a modern-day pin-up in her cut-out black and white dress and matching courts Since ending his ready-to-wear line in 2014, Jean Paul Gaultier has been missed on the Fashion Week calendar. However the famed designer returned this season in a different guise with his new musical Fashion Freak Show. All the corsets, sparkle and provocation of the 66-year-old's colorful life have gone into the spectacle that chronicles his journey from a nascent designer in 1976 to achieving world-wide fame via Madonna's iconic conical bra in 1990. It also touches on the darker moments that shaped Gaultier, including the death of his partner, Francis Menuge, from complications from AIDS. The show is set to open October 2 at the Folies Bergere theater in Paris. Going hell for leather: Famed French actress Isabelle Huppert, 65, cuts a stylish figure in a simple leather jacket and open-knit turtleneck sweater Laguna Beach alum Taylor Cole and her husband Kevin Simshauser welcomed their first child, a daughter called Tatum Woods, at an Arizona hospital on Friday. 'Watching the birth of my daughter was the most surreal, intense, amazing thing I have ever witnessed,' the Sims Real Estate broker/investor gushed on Instagram. 'So proud of you and your mama! Happy Birthday Tatum Woods!' 'Our baby girl is here!' Laguna Beach alum Taylor Cole and her husband Kevin Simshauser welcomed their first child, a daughter called Tatum Woods, at an Arizona hospital on Friday Both the blonde photographer and Kevin shared several snaps of their precious princess' first moments. The baby news came three months after Taylor's former castmate Alex Murrel Johnson threw a baby shower for Cole in Newport Beach. 31-year-old Alex - who welcomed her own son Kase Robert on August 1 - was a bridesmaid at Cole's 2015 wedding to Kevin in Palm Springs. And the festive celebrations will continue for the Simshausers, who celebrate their third wedding anniversary this Tuesday. The Sims Real Estate broker/investor gushed on Instagram: 'Watching the birth of my daughter was the most surreal, intense, amazing thing I have ever witnessed' 'So proud of you and your mama! Happy Birthday Tatum Woods!' Both the blonde photographer and Kevin shared several snaps of their precious princess' first moments 'Pink for their girl!' Relatives wore pink attire and expressed emotion holding little Tatum '#8weeksapart': The baby news came three months after Taylor's former castmate Alex Murrel Johnson (R) threw a baby shower for Cole in Newport Beach (pictured June 30) Blessings: And the festive celebrations will continue for the Simshausers, who celebrate their third wedding anniversary this Tuesday (pictured July 14) Audiences first got to know the Kristin Cavallari frenemy when she was a main cast member on the second season and then 'guest' status in the third season of the Orange County-set MTV reality show in 2005-2006. The Laguna Beach spin-off The Hills will get the reboot treatment - titled New Beginnings - next year which will bring back Heidi Montag, Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port, and more. Despite being criticized for fabricating storylines, MTV clearly has faith in renewed interest in The Hills following the tremendous success of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. Throwback! Audiences first got to know the Kristin Cavallari frenemy (2-R) when she was a main cast member on the second season and then 'guest' status in the third season of the Orange County-set MTV reality show in 2005-2006 New Beginnings: The Laguna Beach spin-off The Hills will get the reboot treatment next year with (from L-R) Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt, Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port, and more Owen Wilson is expecting his third child, with longterm friend Varunie Vongsvirates, 34. And while the mom-to-be is expecting to deliver her baby girl any day now, Owen Wilson was spotted in Egypt on Friday. The 49-year-old was part of a talk at the second edition of El-Gouna Film Festival at the Egyptian Red Sea Resort. Scroll down for video Mom to be: Owen Wilson's baby mama Varunie Vongsvirates reveals growing bump... as actor heads to Egypt for work Keeping cool: Owen Wilson dressed casually in a button-up shirt and his signature cowboy hat for the Egyptian event at the El-Gouna Film Festival Owen dressed casually in a button-up polo T-shirt and his signature cowboy hat. Meanwhile Varunie was photographed out in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The mother-to-be wore a tight black vest top and leggings as she walked, while taking a phone call. Girl talk: The mother-to-be wore a tight black vest top and leggings as she walked, while taking a phone call Baby on board: A paternity test confirmed the unborn child was Wilson's daughter Third child: Wilson already has two sons, by two former lovers Owen's appearance comes after it was confirmed on Thursday that he's set to be a father for the third time. The Marley & Me star, who already has two children with two different women, is expecting a baby with Varunie. Page Six reports that a paternity test confirmed he was in fact the father. Baby Lyla: Varunie has already announced the name and gender of her child Back in June, there were reports that the star had offered to take the test after an unnamed woman came forward claiming she was pregnant with his child. A source told UsWeekly at the time: 'Owen has been a great father to his two boys and has maintained a warm and close relationship with their mothers. 'Of course if a paternity test establishes that he is the father of another child, he will fulfill all of his obligations to support his child.' Working dad: The 49-year-old was part of a talk at the second edition of El-Gouna Film Festival at the Egyptian Red Sea Resort Stylish: He was seen completing the look with pink trouser, which he later changed up to navy dress ones Varunie is now sharing Instagram posts as she progresses with her pregnancy and even confirmed the Wedding Crashers star is the father in the comments section. In a recent throwback post showing her and Owen at the premiere of his movie 'Father Figures,' in 2017, she captioned an image '#fatherfigure.' When a follower asked if Owen was the dad, Varunie responded, 'Yes.' She also posted an image of her ultrasound revealing she's expecting a girl. 'Say hello to Lyla 3 months to go!' she wrote, hinting that she's now days away from giving birth. Longtime partners: According to a Radar Online report, Varunie revealed to them that she and Owen had been dating for five years (pictured 2014) Some of Varunie's close friends have also been sharing images from her baby shower. 'Baby shower for one of my best friends @varunie yesterday!' one pal captioned. 'Can't wait to meet baby Lyla. She is so lucky to have a mom like you who is one of the most kind, loving and caring people I know. I'm so excited to be a part of her life.' Varunie was dressed in a gorgeous maxi dress of a lilac color and sported a flower crown on her head. The beautiful brunette, who is a business development rep for American Addiction Centers in LA according to LinkedIn, was photographed on a date with the actor back in 2014. Close! She also posted an image of her ultrasound revealing she's expecting a girl. 'Say hello to Lyla 3 months to go!' she wrote, hinting that she's now days away from giving birth Owen welcomed his first son Robert with girlfriend Jade Duell, a Federal Air Marshall, in 2011. Five months after his birth Owen ended the relationship reportedly because he wasn't ready to commit. At the time it was reported that Jade moved to New York to be closer to her family while Owen remained based in Santa Monica, California. She's glowing! Some of Varunie's close friends have also been sharing images from her shower She's glowing! Varunie was dressed in a gorgeous maxi dress of a lilac color and sported a flower crown on her head Keeping fit! The beautiful brunette, who is a business development rep for American Addiction Centers in LA according to LinkedIn, was photographed on a date with the actor back in 2014 Then in January 2014 Owen welcomed his son Finn with former lover Caroline Lindqvist, a personal trainer. It was reported at the time that the pals had agreed to have a baby together despite not being in a romantic relationship. She told People before the birth of the baby: 'Owen and I are two close friends having a baby together. We are really looking forward to it and can't wait to welcome our child at the end of January.' Business groups say creating another public holiday could cost the Australian economy $3 billion after the prime minister suggested a special day to recognise indigenous Australians. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive James Pearson said the potential cost in foregone economic activity of an extra day off work should be factored in. "So consideration should be given to the possibility of replacing an existing public holiday so the total number of public holidays remains the same," he told Fairfax Media. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne has called out Russia for not accepting the findings of the independent investigation into the shooting-down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine. Ms Payne, at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, met with foreign ministers from The Netherlands, Ukraine, Belgium and Malaysia to hold Russia responsible. "Today, my colleagues from the other Joint Investigation Team countries and I met in New York and reaffirmed our commitment to establishing the truth behind the downing of MH17 and prosecuting those responsible," Ms Payne, who is leading Australia's delegation at the UN General Assembly this week, said in a statement. "I reaffirmed our unconditional support for the JIT's independent investigation. "We regret that Russia has not accepted the factual findings of the JIT to date and reiterate that Australia has full confidence in the impartiality, independence and professionalism of the JIT and in its findings." The Dutch-led JIT concluded MH17 was shot down in 2014 by a Russian-made Buk missile, killing 298 people including 38 Australians. "My Dutch counterpart, Stef Blok, also took this opportunity to brief our colleagues from the other JIT countries on our decision to hold Russia responsible, under international law, for its part in the downing of MH17 and reaffirmed our common resolve," Ms Payne, describing Tuesday's meeting, said. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's Regular Press Conference on September 28 2018/09/28 Q: State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to give a speech at the UN later today. Could you give us some information about that? Is he expected to talk about the recent tensions between China and the US, especially in the context of US leader's accusations of China's meddling in the US mid-term elections and the trade war? A: According to my information, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will deliver a speech at the General Debate of the UN General Assembly tonight Beijng Time. Please stay tuned then if you are interested in it. Q: What does China think of the US planning to make a counteroffer to an Exim-funded Internet network in Papua New Guinea, potentially thwarting Huawei's ambitions in the Pacific Islands countries? Will China offer other incentives to Papua New Guinea in response? A: I am not aware of the specific situation you mentioned. I can check on that. What I can tell you here is that the Chinese side attaches great importance to developing the strategic partnership with Papua New Guinea. For a long time, on the basis of fully respecting the will of the government and people of Papua New Guinea, China has been offering assistance to Papua New Guinea as its capacity allows and if I may point out, with no political strings attached, and actively conducting mutually beneficial cooperation with Papua New Guinea. This has effectively promoted the socioeconomic development there and been warmly welcomed by the government and people of Papua New Guinea. We are also willing to work with all relevant parties to continue to contribute to the development and prosperity of Papua New Guinea. Q: On September 25, the first session of China-Japan Third Party Market Cooperation Working Mechanism was held in Beijing. The press release issued by China's Commerce Ministry made no mention of the Belt and Road Initiative. Did the topics of this meeting cover the Belt and Road Initiative? A: As you mentioned, it was the Commerce Ministry that issued the readout, so I would like to refer you to the Commerce Ministry for relevant questions. According to this year's holiday arrangement during the National Day, there will be no regular press conference from October 1 to 7. The press conference will be resumed on October 8 (Monday). During the recess, the spokesperson's office of the Foreign Ministry will take your questions via telephone, e-mail and fax. Have a nice holiday! A low-security prisoner who fled from a pre-release work detail in Adelaide has been recaptured at a house north of the city. Shane Gauci was serving a five-year sentence for property and theft offences when he failed to return to a Department of Corrections bus after it stopped at a service station on Monday. Acting on information, police went to a Gawler West property late on Wednesday night and found the 41-year-old inside. He has been charged with escaping custody and will appear in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Dozens of protesters have gathered on the doorstep of Australian energy supplier AGL's annual meeting in Melbourne, rallying against its plans for a floating gas processing factory in Victoria. AGL plans to build a gas import terminal in Westernport Bay - protected by a wetlands conservation covenant - and the protesters say the project is polluting and would dump chlorinated water into the bay. Save Westernport co-founder Julia Stockigt told AAP customers would pay more for gas if the plans went ahead, while an environmental impacts statement was yet to be done into its impact on the area's endangered species. More than half of the Queensland government's million-dollar rescue package to the strawberry industry in the wake of the needle crisis will be spent on an awareness campaign. The state government has allocated $1 million towards responding to the crisis, and on Wednesday revealed $600,000 would be spent on a "targeted campaign" while $250,000 has been allocated for safeguarding supply chain integrity. Meanwhile $150,000 will be given to the Queensland Strawberry Growers Association and Growcom to allocate to producers affected by the crisis. Sydney Theatre Company did nothing for 18 months after an actress had an off-the-record conversation in a bar claiming colleague Geoffrey Rush had behaved inappropriately towards her, a judge has been told. It didn't investigate or take any other action until STC executive director Patrick McIntyre was approached by a reporter one-and-a-half years later, Rush's lawyer Sue Chrysanthou said on Wednesday. She was opposing an application by the STC to set aside parts of a subpoena issued by the actor's legal team in his Federal Court defamation lawsuit against The Daily Telegraph and reporter Jonathon Moran. Rush is suing over November 2017 articles about allegations he behaved inappropriately toward fellow cast member Eryn Jean Norvill, who played Cordelia in the STC production of King Lear in 2015 and 2016. The 67-year-old actor says the articles' defamatory meanings include a suggestion his alleged misconduct was so serious that the STC changed its human resources policy and resolved never to work with him again. But Ms Chrysanthou said the source of this claim was Mr McIntyre, who made an off-the-record and not-to-be-attributed comment to Moran in November 2017 but told him he could publish it. No documents about this STC decision had been produced and Rush's legal team believe the statement was false and "there was never any such decision". Further, no documents had been produced showing Norvill made a formal complaint to the STC. "The only thing was a conversation between Eryn Norvill and two people from the STC in a bar in April 2016," she said. An email dated April 6, 2016 had been produced about the conversation but there was "nothing whatsoever" to show any response by Mr McIntyre. "As far as we can see, Mr McIntyre did nothing," she said. No investigation was held, no formal reporting of the complaint was made and Rush was not consulted. "All we have from Mr McIntyre is one-and-a-half years later after Mr McIntyre has received queries from the media." Justice Michael Wigney rejected the STC's contention that some parts of the subpoena, including documents relating to the company's human resources policies, would be irrelevant to the case. It will probably be even harder to get a home loan after the banking royal commission hands down its interim report. A tightening of lending standards since the inquiry began is likely to become more pronounced, with royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC expected to focus on ensuring banks are lending money responsibly. Banking analysts expect the availability of credit will be further restricted after Mr Hayne's interim report, which may be released as early as Friday. Banks will have to do more to verify customers' income and their actual living expenses, rather than relying on the widespread use of benchmark expenditure measures. Citi banking analysts say the interim report is expected to mark a mea culpa for the industry, tipping Mr Hayne will deliver a "blistering" review of existing practices. "The banks have had systems, processes and norms which have allowed them to lend too much," a recent Citi research note said. "This is visible across the system, with issues in mortgage broking all the way through to expense verification." The Citi analysts expect Mr Hayne will conclude lenders have not made sufficient inquiries about a customer's financial situation nor taken necessary steps to verify the information they provide. They suggest Mr Hayne will recommend a move away from the use of the benchmark household expenditure measure, backing up regulator efforts to reduce reliance on HEM. In a recent report, UBS banking analysts said most banks are yet to fully verify customers' living expenses and a large number of customers are still not providing pay slips and tax returns. "As a result we believe there is likely to be much work required for the banks to comply with the royal commission's likely more rigorous interpretation of responsible lending and improve mortgage underwriting standards," the report said. Consumer advocates believe the tighter lending standards are a positive outcome. "Consumers probably aren't aware that it's probably in their interests that it's being tightened up," Financial Rights Legal Centre principal solicitor Alexandra Kelly told AAP. "For individual consumers here and there, they might be a little bit annoyed that a loan they would otherwise have got a few months ago or a year ago they no longer can get. "I think ultimately turning the tap off or restricting its flow is really important." Citi analysts also expect Mr Hayne will find the financial advice industry is extremely poorly governed and will hold regulators and financial institutions accountable for an array of failures. The royal commission's interim report will cover policy issues out of its first four hearing rounds that focused on consumer lending, financial advice, loans for small businesses and financial issues affecting farmers and indigenous Australians. The report has to be handed to the government by Sunday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the report will be released immediately after it has been handed over. New Wagga Wagga MP Joe McGirr says the rise of the so-called "country independents" in Australia is partly due to the fact the major parties are centralised bureaucracies run out of the cities. Dr McGirr delivered his inaugural speech to parliament on Wednesday after he took the previously safe seat from the Liberals in a by-election triggered after the sitting MP was caught in a corruption scandal. The local doctor had previously contested the seat in 2011 and obtained over 30 per cent of the primary vote then. "I was prompted to stand again because I believe there is a need to change the way our communities are represented," the independent MP told the state's lower house. "I genuinely believe I can improve the link between the community and government industry and infrastructure throughout the area." Dr McGirr suggested the rise of the so-called country independents was partly due to the main political parties becoming "bureaucracies centrally-run". "Professional and efficient, no doubt, but perhaps more concerned with power than service. "Is this what ails rural Australia?" A Queensland police officer remains in a critical condition at a Brisbane hospital on Police Remembrance Day after being struck by an allegedly stolen car. Constable Peter McAulay, 24, was hit when police attempted to intercept the car at Booval in Ipswich about 5am on Thursday. He underwent surgery at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and was placed in an induced coma at the hospital's intensive care unit. As well as suffering a serious head injury, Const McAulay also endured broken bones and fractures, the Queensland Police Service said in a statement. A 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl were both charged with one count each of attempted murder and unlawful use of a motor vehicle. The Queensland Police Service was hoping for a good outcome for Const McAuley ahead of Friday's remembrance day services honouring officers killed in the line of duty across the country. "His partner is a police officer as well, just starting his career as well," Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers told reporters on Thursday. "We want Pete to get better. We're praying for him, but we want justice to be served as well." A man has been charged and his car impounded after he allegedly led police on a high-speed chase through northwest Melbourne when he was caught doing burnouts. Highway Patrol officers spotted a white Ford Falcon doing burnouts on Warrs Rd, Maribyrnong, about 12.30am on Friday. When police tried to the stop the car, it was driven away at speeds of up to 140km/h in a 60km/h zone towards Footscray before the two occupants ditched it in Baybrook and ran away. Police arrested a 21-year-old Sunshine man and charged him with a number of offences including conduct endangering life, dangerous driving while pursued by police, drug driving, speeding and other traffic-related offences. He is due to appear at Sunshine Magistrates' Court February 4. The driver's 21-year-old passenger was released without charge. US professor Christine Blasey Ford, who accuses Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, has been quizzed about her Australian work history at an intense US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Arizona sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, hired by the 10 male Republican senators who control the committee, was probing Ford about her fear of flying. "In fact, you fly fairly frequently for your hobbies and you have had to fly for your work. Is that true?" Mitchell asked during Thursday's hearing in Washington DC. "Correct, unfortunately," Ford replied. Mitchell then appeared to presume Ford had worked in Australia. Ford, 51, is a professor at California's Palo Alto University and teaches in a consortium with Stanford University. "You were a consulting bio-statistician in Sydney, Australia?" Mitchell asked. "Is that right?" Ford denied it. "I have never been to Australia, but the company that I worked for is based in Australia and they have an office in San Francisco, California," Blasey said. In a rare moment of levity during the hearing the professor laughed about the prospect of taking the long flight to Australia. "I don't think I'll make it to Australia," Blasey said. Mitchell, also breaking the stark tone of the hearing, smiled. "It is long," the prosecutor said. Ford alleges Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 at a party by pinning her to a bed, groping her and attempting to pull off her swimsuit. Kavanaugh vehemently rejects the accusation, but Ford's claims have the potential to derail his hopes of being appointed to a lifelong seat on America's highest court. There had been reports Ford was reluctant to fly from California to Washington DC for Thursday's hearing and her fear came from the alleged decades ago Kavanaugh assault. Blasey, a keen surfer, did confirm she has flown to Hawaii, Costa Rica, other South Pacific islands and French Polynesia. "It is easier for me to travel going that direction when it is a vacation," Blasey said. Critics, including US President Donald Trump's son Don Jr, jumped on her comments. "I'm no psychology professor but it does seem weird to me that someone could have a selective fear of flying," Trump Jr wrote on Twitter. "Can't do it to testify but for vacation, well it's not a problem at all." A disqualified driver who allegedly made off with $500,000 worth of stolen aluminium pallets in Sydney's west is behind bars. The 41-year-old man was arrested on Thursday accused of stealing 36 pallets, worth an estimated $14,000 each, from a market on Parramatta Road in September. Police believe he then sold the pallets to a number of scrap metal yards in Sydney. The man faced court on Thursday over a string of charges including obscuring a number plate and larceny. He was refused bail and is due to appear in Burwood Local Court in November. William A. "Buddy" Eubanks Jr., of Owings, passed away peacefully in his home on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Shreveport, LA, the son of the late Frieda W.(Pullum) and William A. Eubanks, Sr. He was the beloved husband of Barbara A.(Clarkson) Eubanks. They celebrated their 21st anniversary in June, 2018. Buddy enjoyed his lifelong comraderie with his friends "The Regulators", with whom he enjoyed playing softball. He also was an avid Pittsburgh Steelers fan, fisherman and traveler. Along with his wife, he is survived by two daughters; Paulina Combs (Nate), and Brittney Kindbom (Jordan), a son; William A. Eubanks, V, two grandchildren; Skila and Aaron Combs, a sister; Vicky Eubanks, two brothers; Michael and David Eubanks, several nieces and nephews and many friends. His family has requested friends and family to take a minute and become an organ donor. A computer will be set up at the funeral home to assist anyone wanting to sign up for this worthy cause. Friends may call on Tuesday, October 2, 2018, from 5 to 8 pm, with Prayers at 7:00 pm at Lee Funeral Home-Calvert, 8200 Jennifer Lane, Owings, MD 20736. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the Covenant Community of Jesus the Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 1601 W. Mt Harmony Road, Owings, MD 20736, on Wednesday, October 3, 2018 at 11:00 am, followed by burial in the church cemetery. Contributions in his name may be made to Calvert Hospice, P O Box 838, Prince Frederick, MD 20678 or Donate Life America, 701 East Byrd Street, 16th Floor, Richmond, VA 23219. Leading Supercars team Red Bull Racing have confirmed they will not field a third car next season following Holden great Craig Lowndes' retirement. Nissan's Simona de Silvestro had been tipped to replace Lowndes after his 2018 swansong but RBR ended months of speculation by announcing they would only run two cars in 2019. RBR boss Roland Dane said the contract for their third vehicle was up for sale. "I said we would look at keeping it if there was something sensible," Dane told motoring.com.au. "But there was nothing else that stacked up and that fitted into the ... business plan. "We only went to three cars to accommodate Craig so it's logical to go back to two." RBR will next year stick with running their two superstars - seven-time series champion Jamie Whincup and series leader Shane van Gisbergen - who are off contract next year. Dane had been tightlipped about their third car's future since 44-year-old Lowndes' confirmation in July that the 2018 season would be his last. Three-time series champion Lowndes is vying for his seventh Mount Panorama victory in next weekend's Bathurst 1000. Kostecki Brothers Racing is tipped to vie for RBR's licence after being handed wildcards for rounds at Ipswich and The Bend, outside Adelaide this year. The NSW Premier says she's "extremely proud" of the decision to redevelop two Sydney stadiums a day after an inquiry found the government's actions had undermined public confidence and recommended an independent audit. The joint parliamentary inquiry report also recommended the state hold off refurbishing ANZ Stadium in Sydney's west until the rebuild of Allianz Stadium is completed. Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore says the findings confirm the project is being pushed through without the proper checks and balances. However, premier Gladys Berejiklian was unperturbed by the criticism. "The government consulted for years and years before we made our decision," Ms Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney on Friday. "I think it's going to make a positive difference for the future of NSW and also for every citizen to know that our state won't be falling behind compared to other states in Australia when it comes to hosting these events." Police officers across Australia have remembered their fallen colleagues as one of their own lay critically ill in hospital, sparking new calls for police immobilisers to stop cars in pursuits. Constable Peter McAulay, 24, was in an induced coma in Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital on Friday after being struck on Thursday by a car that was allegedly evading police. His plight has prompted Queensland police vows to lobby nationally for officers to be able to remotely shut down the engines of cars they are pursuing. "I think it's time to seriously consider this. The union certainly supports that push and I think we can get the other police jurisdictions on board," Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said. Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said he had long been a proponent of remote immobilisers and would raise the issue again with state and federal colleagues. Former policeman and federal cabinet minister Peter Dutton also backed calls to adopt remote engine immobilisers. "Let's try and get something done. Let's get the national government involved with this as well as obviously the state government to try and get some uniform rules going," Mr Dutton said. In Sydney, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Const McAuley was in the thoughts not just of his colleagues but all Australians. "It is a reminder, I think, of the work and the sacrifice and the risks that our police officers take all around the country every day," he said. NSW Commissioner Mick Fuller said the National Police Remembrance Day served as a timely reminder of the dangers that came with the oath to protect the community. "Their determination to protect the community sometimes has tragic outcomes and our duty is to ensure their courage and selfless action is never forgotten." Const McAuley had just placed tyre spikes on a road to stop the car in Ipswich when he was struck, receiving serious head and internal injuries and broken bones. A 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl have been charged with attempted murder and unlawful use of a motor vehicle. They faced Queensland Children's Court on Friday and were remanded in custody to reappear on November 6. Since police began in Queensland in the 1800s, 147 officers have been killed in the line of duty. NSW has seen 270 officers lose their lives. The husband of a Sydney woman in a coma after being T-boned by a speeding police car has also called for chase rules to change. Bert Vieira intends to launch legal action to force NSW Police to change the way they conduct pursuits after his wife Gai's car was hit as police chased a driver allegedly using a mobile phone. An international drug probe has led to the seizure of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine in the Solomon Islands and the arrest of two men in Australia. A joint crime investigation involving Australian, Solomon Islands and US officials ended on Thursday when a huge cache of drugs was discovered in a Honiara yacht, and two men allegedly involved in importing the drugs to Australia were apprehended in Sydney. The pair faced Sydney Central Local Court on Friday where they were refused bail. The Australian Federal Police is expected to brief the media about the investigation on Saturday. US President Donald Trump, seen here at a meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque at the United Nations, questions the credibility of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's latest accuser President Donald Trump dismissed the latest accuser of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as "drunk" and "messed up" on Tuesday, as Republicans prepared for a potentially explosive hearing over his suitability to the high court. Taking the political lead in the high-stakes battle over the future of the court, Trump rejected a claim by Deborah Ramirez that Kavanaugh was the person who dropped his pants and thrust his penis in her face at an alcohol-fueled Yale University dorm party about 35 years ago. He said Democratic support for her allegations, as well as those of Christine Blasey Ford, amounted to a "con game" to defeat a person he said was perfectly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court bench. "The second accuser has nothing. She thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not," Trump told reporters in New York. "She admits that she was drunk. She admits that there are time lapses." "Thirty-six years ago, nobody ever knew about it or heard about it, and now a new charge comes up and she said it might not be him, and there were gaps and she said she was totally inebriated, and she was all messed up," Trump said. "The Democrats are playing a con game. They know it's a con game," he said. "It's a shame that you can do this to a person's life." - Second accuser - President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces intensifying opposition amid accusations of sexual assault and impropriety while he was a student Trump's comments came two days before the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing in which Blasey Ford is expected to detail her allegation that Kavanaugh tried to tear her clothes off in an assault during a party around 1982, when both were students at elite private high schools in Washington. Kavanaugh, who has strongly denied the charge, will separately appear at the hearing. The charge has already delayed what was once though certain approval of his nomination, which is crucial to Republican hopes to turn the court sharply to the right for years to come, with huge implications for law on abortion rights and affirmative action programs. But since Blasey Ford's charges, one and possibly two more women have come forth with similar allegations of sexual assault or abuse when he was young. On Sunday, The New Yorker published Ramirez's story, which took place at Yale during 1983-84. On Monday, Michael Avenatti, a lawyer who represents a porn star claiming to have had an affair with Trump, has said he is also representing a third Kavanaugh accuser, whose identity and story he said would be revealed on Wednesday. And two former Yale classmates of Kavanaugh took issue Tuesday with his claims that he did not drink excessively or take part in abusing women during his university years. - Explosive hearing looms - Republicans said they were determined to push the nomination through the narrowly-divided Senate as soon as a possible, rejecting Democratic calls to freeze the process to let the FBI investigate all of the allegations. "What message will we send right now in 2018 and the Me Too movement if the Senate rushes through this?" asked Democratic Senator Patty Murray. There was no guarantee of full Republican support ahead of the hearing, which could prove to be explosive. At least four Republican senators, including two women who have been outspoken against sexual abuse, have withheld judgment, acknowledging the potential validity of Blasey Ford's allegation despite the amount of time that has passed and the paucity of hard evidence. There are more challenges for Republicans. With the midterm Congressional election looming in November, the party's all-male representation on the panel risks appearing disrespectful of Blasey Ford in a way that could turn away women voters. To skirt that challenge, Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said Tuesday that Republicans had recruited an unnamed female lawyer to question Blasey Ford on their behalf. Blasey Ford's lawyers have yet to say they agree with that move or other conditions Grassley has imposed. But Republicans vowed to push ahead. "We're looking for the truth here. I don't think because you happen to be a male you're disqualified from listening to the evidence and making a decision based upon the evidence," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "I'm confident we're going to win. I'm confident that he will be confirmed in the very near future." French President Emmanuel Macron said that Iranian sales would bring down the prices of oil -- a professed concern of US President Donald Trump French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged world leaders to reject "the law of the most powerful," offering a rebuke to Donald Trump's go-it-alone approach to global challenges. Macron did not refer to the US president by name but his address to the UN General Assembly outlined positions that were polar opposites to Trump's world view. "Some have chosen the law of the most powerful, but it cannot protect any people," said Macron, who reaffirmed his strong backing for multilateralism embodied by the United Nations and its global peace efforts. Earlier at the UN podium, Trump vowed to "never surrender America's sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy" and to reject "the ideology of globalism." Since Trump took office in 2017, the United States has ditched the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate deal -- two international accords that France has championed. The US administration has cut funding to the United Nations, aid agencies and to UN peacekeeping whose missions in Mali and the Central African Republic are working with French troops to bolster stability. Macron pointed to growing economic inequality as one of the drivers of the crisis in the world order, with some 783 million people living under the threshold of poverty and 250 million children out of school. Touching on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the French president said there was no credible alternative to the two-state solution that Trump has imperiled with his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Macron also touched on climate change and migration as global issues that "no one can tackle" on their own. There was even a warning that trade agreements could be contingent on membership in the Paris climate pact, in a clear bid to pressure the United States to rethink its intention to quit the accord. - Addressing Iran - Defending the Iran nuclear deal, Macron urged dialogue with Tehran, again clashing with the US president who a few hours earlier called on world governments to isolate Iran. "What will bring a real solution to the situation in Iran and what has already stabilized it? The law of the strongest? Pressure from only one side? No!" Macron said in his address. "We know that Iran was on a nuclear military path but what stopped it? The 2015 Vienna accord." Trump in May withdrew from the seven-nation agreement negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, calling it a "disaster" and instead ramping up pressure on Iran including through renewed sanctions. Supported by Israel and Saudi Arabia, Trump has sought to roll back Iranian influence around the Middle East, including in war-ravaged Syria. "We should not aggravate regional tensions but rather through dialogue and multilateralism pursue a broader agenda that allows us to address all the concerns caused by Iranian policies -- nuclear, ballistic, regional," said Macron. Speaking at a press conference, Macron said Iran should be able to sell oil to bring down prices, challenging Trump's plan to tighten an economic vise around Iran. "It would be good for the price of oil for Iran to be able to sell it. It's good for peace and it's good for the shape of the international price of oil," said Macron. France and other European powers are setting up a way to allow businesses to keep doing business in Iran in hopes of avoiding sanctions by the United States. The French president was due to hold talks later in the day with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, who has refused to meet Trump. Despite their vastly differing world views, Macron and Trump -- both political outsiders who defied the odds in winning power -- have forged an unlikely relationship. After meeting with Macron on Monday, Trump said the two men have had "some very good experiences" but acknowledged, "on occasion not so good, but 99 percent very good." And after Trump's latest espousal of his "America First" foreign policy, Macron again painted himself as an upholder of a more internationalist approach to diplomacy. "Do not accept the erosion of multilateralism," Macron told the gathering on Tuesday. "Don't accept our history unraveling. I'm not getting used to it and I'm not turning my head," he said. The National Security Agency, the US government's premier signals intelligence agency, has its headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland A former National Security Agency hacker whose leak of extremely top secret online spying materials led to the US government ban on Kaspersky software was sentenced to 66 months in prison Tuesday. Nghia Hoang Pho, 68, a 10-year veteran of the NSA's elite Tailored Access Operations hacking unit, pleaded guilty in December to one count of willful retention of classified national defense information. Authorities discovered that between 2010 and 2015, he had taken home with him substantial TAO materials, including programs and data, that eventually ended up in the hands of Russian intelligence. Vietnam-born Pho put the information on his home computer, which was protected by the popular Kaspersky anti-virus program. US authorities believe that Russian intelligence was able to access his computer through Kaspersky. In order to function, the Kaspersky program needs a computer owner's blanket permission to access the machine's systems. It then communicates the results of its anti-virus scans to Kaspersky headquarters -- in Moscow. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that the 2015 penetration of Pho's computer led to the Russians obtaining information on how the NSA itself infiltrates foreign computer networks and protects itself from cyberattacks. Kaspersky itself later confirmed that its software in 2014 automatically detected and downloaded suspicious files on Pho's computer that appeared to contain data and source code for so-called Equation Group hacking software from the NSA. After being examined by Kaspersky analysts, the files were deleted, the company says. Kaspersky denies that Russian intelligence obtained the files from it. The leak was one of the most devastating ever for the NSA, one of the US government's most important spy agencies, and significantly set back its operations against foreign targets' computers. "As a result of his actions, Pho compromised some of our country's most closely held types of intelligence, and forced NSA to abandon important initiatives to protect itself and its operational capabilities, at great economic and operational cost," said US Attorney Robert Hur. The incident was a key reason for the US government's ban on using Kaspersky anti-virus software on government computers, warning that the company has suspect links to Russian intelligence. Kaspersky denies any ties to the Russian government or its spies. Pope Francis said he will name the bishops Pope Francis said on Tuesday that he will have the last word on naming bishops in China after a "bilateral dialogue" on candidates, days after an historic accord paved the way for rapprochement between the Vatican and the Communist country. Roman Catholics belonging to the underground church in China that recognises only the authority of the Vatican will also "suffer" because of the deal signed on Saturday, the pope admitted aboard the plane flying back after a visit to the Baltic states. "It's not just about nominations, this is a dialogue about possible candidates. It's done through dialogue," Francis told journalists aboard his plane. "But Rome names (the bishops). The pope names them. That's clear." Beijing and the Vatican on Saturday announced a provisional deal on who appoints bishops in the world's most populous country. Shortly afterwards Pope Francis recognised seven clergy appointed by Beijing, which has not had ties with the Vatican since 1951. There are an estimated 12 million Catholics in China, divided between a government-run association whose clergy are chosen by the Communist Party and an unofficial church which swears allegiance to the Vatican. The Vatican had not yet released details of the accord and had avoided mentioning the process through which future bishops would be nominated. "My thoughts are with the resistance, the Catholics who have suffered, it's true," the pope said of the Chinese underground church. "And they will suffer. There's always suffering in an accord." Pope Francis has sought to improve relations with China since he took office in 2013, but previous attempts foundered over Beijing's insistence that the Vatican give up recognition of Taiwan and promise not to interfere in domestic religious issues. The Holy See is one of only 17 countries that recognise Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, instead of diplomatic ties with Beijing. The breakthrough came as churches have been destroyed in some Chinese regions in recent months, and there has been a clampdown on Bible sales. Crosses have been removed from church tops, printed religious materials and holy items confiscated, and church-run kindergartens closed. Following the announcement, the pontiff recognised seven bishops who had been ordained in China without the approval of the Holy See. The pope also posthumously recognised an eighth bishop who "had expressed the desire to be reconciled with the Apostolic See" before he died last year, it said. The Vatican cut ties with Beijing two years after the founding of the communist People's Republic. Cody Wilson, 30, quit as director of Defense Distributed on Friday evening, according to its newly-appointed chief Paloma Heindorff The Texas man who sparked panic over the summer after freely distributing 3D-printed firearm blueprints on the internet resigned from the company he founded on Tuesday after he was accused of having sex with a minor. Cody Wilson, 30, quit as director of Defense Distributed on Friday evening, according to its newly-appointed chief Paloma Heindorff. She said the company would continue its mission of disseminating information files that allow the 3D printing of firearms or firearm parts. "I am extremely proud to say that over the past few days the entire team at Defense Distributed has recommitted to enabling the sharing and publication" of the digital blueprints, Heindorff told a news conference. "This resilience, I truly believe to not only be characteristic of our company as a whole, but also the ideas that we have worked so hard to promote." Texas police last week charged Wilson with the sexual assault of a child. He is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl at a hotel room and then paying her $500. Wilson seemingly fled to Taiwan on September 6. Authorities became alarmed when he failed to catch a return flight home. He allegedly attempted to rent an apartment in Taipei. He was arrested Friday and brought back to Texas, and left jail Sunday after posting $150,000 bond. Through Defense Distributed, the self-described crypto anarchist made headlines over the summer by publishing the digital blueprints for 3D-printable guns and gun parts. Authorities were concerned that the firearms could thwart police attempts to trace their origins and evade metal detectors. A federal judge ordered Wilson to stop giving away the blueprints. Wilson said he would comply by instead selling the blueprints for a price. His company said Tuesday they would continue to do so without Wilson. "We understand that Defense Distributed has made some changes," Wilson's attorney Samy Khalil said in a statement. "We expect that the company will continue to grow and do its work. In the meantime, we plan to focus on Cody's defense." Former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, pictured March 2018, said that Lebanon's neighbors should let the recovering country decide its own fate Germany and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday agreed to return ambassadors some 10 months after the kingdom fumed over criticism about its role in Lebanon. Saudi Arabia, which has increasingly challenged Western governments who speak out on its record, in November recalled its ambassador from Berlin following the eyebrow-raising resignation of Saad Hariri as Lebanon's prime minister while visiting Riyadh. Sigmar Gabriel, who was then Germany's foreign minister, said that Lebanon's neighbors should let the recovering country decide its own fate, angering Saudi Arabia which like Hariri denied that he was coerced. Gabriel's successor Heiko Maas, meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly, voiced regret and said the two countries would send back ambassadors. "In recent months our relations have witnessed misunderstandings which stand in sharp contrast to our otherwise strong and strategic ties with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and we sincerely regret this," Maas told reporters. "We should have been clearer in our communication and engagement in order to avoid such misunderstandings." Jubeir, speaking next to Maas, invited him to visit and affirmed "deep strategic ties" with Germany. "The kingdom and Germany play a leading role in bolstering international security and stability and the global economy," Jubeir said. Saudi Arabia, which has especially close ties with US President Donald Trump, has increasingly made clear it would not tolerate reprimands. Last month Riyadh expelled the ambassador of Canada and froze all new trade after Ottawa denounced a crackdown on activists in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia similarly pulled its ambassador from Sweden in 2015 over human rights criticism. Hariri, who eventually returned to Lebanon and reversed his resignation, also holds Saudi and French nationality. The episode was seen as the latest chapter in Saudi Arabia's intensifying feud with regional rival Iran after Hariri improved ties with longtime rival Hezbollah, a militant Shiite movement backed by Tehran. The call to protect religious freedom often code among social conservatives for the ability to discriminate against LGBT people continued to be a rallying cry at the annual anti-LGBT Values Voter Summit, where attendees declared support for President Trump and his policies ahead of the upcoming congressional mid-term elections. Speakers over the weekend at the annual confab in D.C. for social conservatives from Vice President Mike Pence on down repeatedly incorporated the term in their speeches, stoking paranoid fears that religious freedom is in peril and promising the Trump administration will act to preserve it. But what do social conservatives envision when they hear from political leaders about religious freedom being in danger? After all, the concept of religious freedom being imperiled could also apply to Trumps travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, but social conservatives have championed that policy. Attendees at the Values Voter Summit who spoke to the Washington Blade about religious freedom largely signaled it was in fact a term used to express concern about the growth of LGBT rights and the desire for exemptions from laws that prohibit discrimination against LGBT people. Kenny Nelson, a 20-year-old attendee from New York, said religious freedom constitutes the ability to exercise conscience in the free markets, including the denial of services to LGBT people. You have the right to say I dont want to bake a wedding cake because I dont support gay marriage, Nelson said. Thats really all religious freedom is to me, being free to express religion without persecution. Nelson said discussion is warranted over the ability to deny employment to LGBT people like if you come out as something, will you get fired, but in his circles a prohibition on anti-LGBT discrimination is the province of the states, not the federal government. I think that conservatives dont like tackling that because it should be left up to the states, or something of that nature, Nelson said. We need to let people be free. But Nelson pivoted to the idea that religious people are facing discrimination in the workplace instead of LGBT people when elaborating on the issue. We need to let people be fired for whatever, but if youre religious and you get fired, I think maybe religious freedom to me is being able to express your religious views without being totally persecuted for it by lawyers, Nelson said. Although federal civil rights laws dont explicitly prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in the workforce, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion. Asked to identify any incident of individuals fired for their religious beliefs, Nelson identified David and Jason Benham, real estate entrepreneurs who were among the speakers at the Values Voter Summit. In 2014, the Benham brothers were to set to launch a home improvement show called Flip it Forward, but HGTV scrapped the idea after comments emerged from the brothers over their opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. David Benham wrote a 2012 article for the Christian Post in favor of Amendment One, a constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage in North Carolina. Benham called opposition to the amendment a clear glimpse into why morals are declining so rapidly in our culture today and said redefining marriage because of one small group of people would erode the concept of family. They got essentially fired for their religious beliefs, ultimately, Nelson said. So, yeah. I guess it can happen. I guess its sort of an outlier, so to speak. Im really more focused on being able to say, Hey, these are my religious beliefs, if I dont want to provide you service, I dont have to.' Two examples of individuals attendees referenced for acting in the name of religious freedom were Jack Phillips, the Colorado owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop who refused to sell a custom-made wedding cake to a same-sex couple and whose case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Barronlle Stutzman, the owner of Arlenes Flowers in Washington State who refused to sell floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding. Cindy Vick, a 59-year-old homemaker from Arlington, Wash., said religious freedom is under threat and cited as examples both Phillips and Stutzman, whom she called true heroes. They did not deny service to anyone because of any discrimination, Vick said. They could not because of their conscience and their religious beliefs partake of a same-sex marriage, so therein lies the difference. It was according to their faith. Vick drew a distinction between refusal of services for an individual based on religion or race and refusing it based on sexual orientation, insisting one is discrimination but the other is not. Discrimination would be when the customer walked into their store and if youre black or yellow or red or green, and I refuse you service because of your color, or you are a certain race, or you subscribe to a certain belief system, [so] I refuse to sell you my cake or my flowers, Vick said. But that wasnt the case, they didnt refuse on those terms. Vick also expressed opposition to the underlying idea of same-sex marriage despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2015 in favor of marriage rights for gay couples, saying in the Bible its defined as a man and a woman. Youre wanting to rewrite the definition of marriage, so call it something else, but its not marriage, Vick added. Its a bogus term for the true meaning of marriage, and thats what because of their conscience, due to their religious beliefs, they could not participate in. Phillips was among the speakers at Values Voter Summit. Introduced on stage as Jack the Giant Slayer, Phillips and was praised as an individual who stuck to his religious principles in the face of the intolerable forces of the LGBT left. Recounting the story of gay couple Charlie Craig and David Mullins coming into Masterpiece Cakeshop to buy a wedding cake, Phillips said, I knew this was a wedding cake that I could not create because I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. That line got huge applause from attendees at the Values Voter Summit. After he refused Craig and Mullins service, Phillips said the couple flipped him off and swore at him as they exited Masterpiece Cakeshop. The baker also said he had to endure hate emails and death threats and his daughter was threatened, but he stuck to his principles. Phillips became emotional when he recalled years later reading from the Supreme Court orders list it had agreed to take up his case, acknowledging justices take up relatively few cases. The decision the Supreme Court handed down in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case wasnt exactly what Phillips wanted. Alliance Defending Freedom asserted the court should find Phillips has a First Amendment right to refuse service to same-sex couples. Justices instead delivered a narrow ruling for Phillips based on the facts of the case, finding an anti-religion sentiment within the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Other attendees at the Values Voter Summit had a broader interpretation of the concept of religious freedom that wasnt limited to refusal of service for LGBT people. One 23-year-old attendee from central Kansas, who spoke on condition of anonymity, looked at the reports on religious persecution of Christians overseas when asked about the term religious freedom. You look at other countries like North Korea and Iran and other countries, less so, even like maybe Turkey where you cant be a pastor without getting jailed, the attendee said. Religious freedom is the ability to witness, to talk to others about your faith, to live your faith out. But when asked if religious freedom could also be an excuse for anti-LGBT discrimination, the attendee said individuals should be able to refuse service to LGBT people if it contradicts their faith. Its freedom to worship God, the attendee said. Now, you cant violate your belief. If you believe something is wrong, then you cant do something the opposite, like Jack Phillips. Omar Navarr, another attendee and the Republican candidate running against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) in the congressional mid-term elections, had a different take on the concept of religious freedom and said it has a freedom of expression component. If you go to California, for example, if I go anywhere, try to express myself and my beliefs and my religious beliefs, Ill be attacked and vilified for it, Navarr said. Navarr cited as an example of religious freedom under threat being allowed to pray at a school because obviously thats one of the things that the other side has cracked down on. Tolerance is everything, and we have to make sure that we can have tolerance for religious freedom, Navarr said. I wasnt so religious growing up or anything. I was actually a converted Christian, but at the same time, I believe that Christians should have the right to believe whatever they want to believe in as long theyre not pushing it so much into policy and stuff like that. Despite the presence of Phillips on stage at the Values Voter Summit, Navarr denied religious freedom formed a basis on which individuals could engage in anti-LGBT discrimination, saying, I dont see it in that. There are different views that are out there, Navarr said. Like in anything, youre going to have one side where theyre going to be discriminating against gays, and then, the other side that isnt. Most Christians are not going to be doing that, for the most part. In power for nearly two decades, Kabila (r) this year bowed to international pressure and agreed to step aside, allowing a new candidate to stand in the December 23 vote in the Democratic Republic of Congo Congolese President Laurent Kabila pledged at the United Nations on Tuesday that elections planned for December will go ahead, promising to take steps to ensure the vote is peaceful and credible. In power for two decades, Kabila this year bowed to international pressure and agreed to step aside, allowing a new candidate to stand in the December 23 vote in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Addressing the General Assembly, Kabila said that despite the challenges of holding elections in his vast country, "I now reaffirm the irreversible nature of our decision to hold the elections as planned at the end of this year." "Everything will be done in order to ensure that these elections are peaceful and credible," said Kabila. The United States, France and Britain had urged Kabila to state clearly that he would not seek another term amid fears that his failure to step aside could trigger violence. The DR Congo has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Kabila vowed to "oppose any interference in the electoral process under way" and said the DR Congo state would cover the full cost of the elections which has involved a complicated voter registration. The Security Council is planning to visit the DR Congo before the elections, possibly in October, as concerns run high over a risk of election violence. In his address, Kabila renewed his call for the withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO -- the UN's biggest peace operation with some 17,500 troops and police -- from his country. The vast mineral-rich country is wracked by conflict in the east and Kabila's security forces have been accused of resorting to excessive force against the opposition. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was "deeply disappointed" by the EU's plan to circumvent American sanctions to keep doing business with Iran Tensions between the United States and the European Union over Iran soared into the open Tuesday after the Europeans announced plans for a legal framework to preserve business with Tehran and evade new US sanctions. In rhetorical exchanges that brought back memories of the feud over the 2003 Iraq invasion, the United States denounced the Europeans who in turn made clear they would not back down on diplomacy. Britain, France and Germany -- along with Russia and China -- had all pleaded unsuccessfully for President Donald Trump to remain in the six countries' 2015 accord with Iran on ending its nuclear program. Full US sanctions are set to hit Iran in November and the country's economy is already taking a beating. After talks Monday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the Europeans would set up a "legal entity" for businesses to transfer money without coming under Washington's scanner. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, addressing a pressure group on the sidelines of annual UN meetings, said he was "disturbed and indeed deeply disappointed" by the EU announcement. "This is one of the of the most counterproductive measures imaginable for regional and global peace and security," Pompeo said in a speech that was interrupted several times by anti-war protesters. "By sustaining revenues to the regime, you are solidifying Iran's ranking as the number-one state sponsor of terror," said Pompeo, who quipped that Iran's "corrupt ayatollahs" and elite Revolutionary Guards had to be "laughing this morning." - 'Hell to pay' - EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the Europeans would set up a "legal entity" for businesses to transfer money without coming under Washington's scanner John Bolton, Trump's hawkish national security adviser, mocked the European Union for its lack of detail on the planned mechanism. "The European Union is strong on rhetoric and weak on follow-through," he told the United Against a Nuclear Iran campaign. "We do not intend to allow our sanctions to be evaded by Europe or anybody else," he said. Bolton also issued unsubtle warnings to Iran's leaders: "We are watching, and we will come after you." "If you cross us, our allies or our partners, if you harm our citizens, if you continue to lie, cheat and deceive, there will be hell to pay." Bolton has denied that the United States is seeking to overthrow the regime but before taking office had called for efforts to destabilize the country. - Clash at UN - The feud came as Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the United Nations General Assembly, offering diametrically opposed messages. Trump, while vowing that the United States is determined to act alone, urged all nations to isolate Iran -- whose arch-enemies Saudi Arabia and Israel are close to his administration. Rouhani voiced regret that the deal, negotiated under former president Barack Obama, had become a "toy" of US domestic politics and accused Trump of seeking to overthrow his government. French President Emmanuel Macron called for continued sales of oil by Iran, saying the flow would lower global prices and also benefit peace efforts. "What will bring a real solution to the situation in Iran and what has already stabilized it? The law of the strongest? Pressure from only one side? No!" Macron said in his address. He said the nuclear deal put Western powers in a stronger position to raise other concerns highlighted by Washington including Iran's support of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. The Europeans highlight that UN inspectors have repeatedly found that Iran is in compliance with the 2015 deal, under which it scraps the bulk of its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters there was "strong unity" with Iran on minimizing the impact of US sanctions. Nonetheless, a number of prominent European businesses, including French energy giant Total and German automaker Daimler, have already said they will exit Iran to avoid US sanctions. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, left, has made history by bringing her baby to the United Nations General Assembly, here held by her partner Clarke Gayford New Zealand's prime minister has been proclaimed a history maker for taking "first baby" -- daughter Neve -- into the United Nations General Assembly hall, shaking up what is still a boys' club of world leaders. Photographs of Jacinda Ardern, 38, kissing and bouncing her three-month-old in the main hall at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit on the eve of the General Assembly have gone around the world and taken the internet by storm. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed on Tuesday that it had been the first time in the organization's 73-year history that a woman leader had taken her newborn into the assembly room. "It's altogether a good thing and we were delighted to have Neve in the General Assembly hall. With only five percent of world leaders women, we should do everything to make them feel as welcome as possible," he added. The sight of Neve and her father, who is her chief care giver, watching Ardern at work has attracted plenty of positive commentary in a United States, where many worry the Trump administration imperils women's rights. "I cannot stress how much the @UN -- and the governments that comprise it -- need this," tweeted former US ambassador to the United Nations turned Harvard professor Samantha Power, herself a mother of two. Ardern, right, hold her daughter at the UN General Assembly, as her partner looks on Ardern, currently the youngest woman leader in the world, is only the second female prime minister to give birth while serving in office, after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto in 1990. She says she wants to blaze a trail for other women. "I want to normalize it," Ardern told CNN. "If we want to make work places more open, we need to acknowledge logistical challenges... by being more open it might create a path for other women." She's also the first to admit she's not a typical working mother. - Media darling - Pregnancy, motherhood and governing have turned Ardern into a poster child for feminism against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement in the United States "What I consistently acknowledge is that I have assistants who help Clarke with the ability to juggle his career and be our primary caregiver," she was quoted as saying by CNN. Her television presenting partner has also been feted on American social media, fueling the love by tweeting a photograph of his daughter's UN ID designating her "New Zealand First Baby." "I wish I could have captured the startled look on a Japanese delegation inside UN yesterday who walked into a meeting room in the middle of a nappy change. Great yarn for her 21st," he wrote. Pregnancy, motherhood and governing have turned her into a poster child for feminism against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement in the United States. Her first UN General Assembly outing has turned her into something of a media darling, conducting a whirlwind of television interviews, with a slot on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" still to come Wednesday. Through it all, she has chosen to champion the modernity of a country of fewer than five million residents, already on its third female premier. "I never grew up believing my gender would stand in the way of doing anything I wanted," she said. "I credit the women who came before me and credit New Zealanders for welcoming me having a child... I'm proud of the nation." Its a popularity she's no doubt enjoying. In power just under a year, she has been troubled by political difficulties at home in recent weeks following the resignation of two cabinet ministers. No caption Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Thursday called for all Tunisians who are in his country illegally to be repatriated and for illicit migration to be "blocked", during a visit to Tunis. The hardline Italian minister spoke following a meeting with Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi, and several days after Italy's government adopted a series of measures promising to limit clandestine immigration. "The priority was to block the hundreds of thousands of uncontrolled arrivals that we have received these last years," Salvini said during a joint press conference with his Tunisian counterpart Hichem Fourati. "We are working with the Tunisian authorities to...escort to Tunisia those who come from Tunisia", the Italian minister said. Fourati said that if the migrants "prove that they are Tunisian and their fingerprints are processed by the Tunisian authorities, they will be repatriated". Tunisian NGOs oppose increasing a quota of 80 migrant expulsions per week by Italy to the North African country. Italian authorities say this quota is rarely reached. "We have discussed mechanisms for tackling networks implicated in human trafficking, which don't hesitate to trade in the blood of our young people", Fourati added. Italy's interior ministry says 4,487 Tunisians have arrived clandestinely in Italy since the start of the year, compared to 6,092 in the whole of 2017. Tunisia says it arrested more than 8,400 migrants between the start of the year and September 20, including 700 suspected of organising or facilitating perilous Mediterranean crossings. Speaking a day after Donald Trump said he would unveil a new Mideast peace plan within months, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said the US president could not be regarded as a neutral broker The Palestinians will no longer accept the United States as the sole mediator in the Middle East peace process, their president Mahmud Abbas said Thursday, accusing Donald Trump's "biased" administration of undermining a two-state solution. Speaking a day after the US president said he favored a two-state solution to end the conflict between the Israel and Palestinians and revealed he would unveil a new peace plan within months, Abbas said Trump could not be regarded as a neutral broker. "We will also not accept sole American mediation in the peace process," Abbas said in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, saying the US president had shown that he was "biased" towards Israel since coming to power. "This administration has reneged on all previous US commitments, and has undermined the two-state solution, and has revealed its false claims of concern about the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people," the Palestinian Authority president said. Abbas in particular criticized Trump's decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, his order to close the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington and to cut off aid funding, including to a UN agency that supports millions of Palestinian refugees. "All such decisions threaten the Palestinian national cause and constitute an assault on international law and relevant United Nations resolutions," said Abbas. "It is ironic that the American administration still talks about what they call the 'deal of the century'. But what is left for this administration to give to the Palestinian people? Humanitarian solutions?" US President Donald Trump has decided to postpone a meeting with embattled deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein President Donald Trump has postponed a meeting where he is expected to decide on whether to keep the deputy attorney general in charge of the Russia collusion probe in his job, the White House said Thursday. "The president spoke with Rod Rosenstein a few minutes ago and they plan to meet next week," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. A meeting had been expected Thursday, but Sanders said Trump did not want to interfere with the Senate hearings into his nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. Rosenstein's position in the politically sensitive post has been in doubt since sensational press reports that he secretly discussed wearing a wire to record Trump to gather evidence in a push to remove the president from office on grounds of incompetence. Rosenstein has denied the reports, but throughout the week rumors swirled that he would resign or be fired -- a step that would then throw the Russia collusion probe into doubt. Rosenstein and the Kavanaugh confirmation process -- which risks being derailed by a series of sexual assault allegations from his school and college years -- present Trump with two of the most politically explosive crises of his presidency. United Nations Command officers salute a coffin during a 2009 repatriation ceremony The remains of 64 South Korean troops who died during the Korean War are being sent home Thursday, having spent years at a US forensic facility. The remains were recovered in North Korea between 1996 and 2005, at a time when Pyongyang allowed US and South Korean scientists to explore battle sites from the 1950-1953 conflict. The Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which has a large lab in Hawaii, said that its scientists had worked with South Korean counterparts in a joint forensic review over the past month. "Working cooperatively and thoroughly, they concluded that the 64 individual remains are of South Korean origin, though the remains haven't been individually identified," the DPAA said in a statement. The remains will be handed over to South Korea during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii later Thursday. The US last returned 12 sets of South Korean remains in 2012, during a repatriation ceremony. In July, Pyongyang returned 55 cases of US remains, in line with an agreement between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their summit in Singapore in June. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the UN General Assembly, holds up an image of what he says is a secret facility in Tehran for storing equipment and materials from its nuclear weapons program Israel's prime minister on Thursday accused arch-enemy Tehran of harboring a secret atomic warehouse, making deft use of ample props and vowing that his country would never let Iran develop nuclear weapons. Iran "hasn't abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons," Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly, where his annual appearance has frequently focused on Israel's chief enemy, the Islamic republic. "Israel will never let a regime that calls for our destruction to develop nuclear weapons. Not now, not in 10 years, not ever," he said. "Israel will do whatever it must do to defend itself against Iran's aggression." "What Iran hides, Israel will find," the prime minister added. Israel bitterly opposes the Iran nuclear deal, brokered by the United States, Russia, China and European nations in 2015 and has congratulated President Donald Trump for walking away from the deal. Netanyahu opened his speech by claiming that Iran had a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran, holding up a map and a photograph of an outwardly "innocent looking compound" which he urged the UN atomic agency to inspect. "Today I'm disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program," he said. He also claimed that Hezbollah had positioned three missile sites near Beirut airport, holding up what he called "a picture worth a thousand missiles" and titled "Beirut Precision Guided Missile." Netanyahu accused Iranian agents of plotting attacks in the United States and Europe, as well as being an aggressor in the Middle East. He accused the Iranian regime of brutally oppressing its own people for four decades, and of waging violence in Iraq and Syria, arming Hezbollah in Lebanon, financing Hamas in Gaza and firing missiles into Saudi Arabia. He tore into Europe for its policy of "appeasement" with Iran, a word that evokes in history European capitals' reluctance to stand up against Adolf Hitler in the run-up to World War II. "Have these European leaders learnt nothing from history? Will they ever wake up?" Netanyahu hectored. "We in Israel don't need a wake-up call because Iran threatens us every day." He said Israel was "deeply grateful" to the Trump administration for withdrawing from the Iran deal, an agreement which he claimed had had the "unintended consequence" of bringing Israel closer to its Arab neighbors. "By empowering Iran, it brought Israel and many Arab states closer together than ever before ... in an intimacy and friendship that I've not seen in my lifetime and would have been unimaginable a few years ago." Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a sexual assault in 1982, spent nearly four hours testifying under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee Under the glaring lights in a packed room on Capitol Hill, Christine Blasey Ford -- hardly accustomed to the back and forth of a Senate hearing -- breathed deeply, cracked the occasional joke and asked repeatedly for caffeine. The university professor was at times clinical in her testimony about Brett Kavanaugh, the man chosen by US President Donald Trump to fill the ninth and pivotal seat on the Supreme Court, offering precise scientific explanations at key moments. But when she explained her recollection of a house party in the early 1980s, a night when she says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, she offered searing details of the alleged attack in a quavering voice, the tears not far from the surface. And the Senate Judiciary Committee room fell silent. "I believed he was going to rape me," said Blasey Ford. "It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me." - 'Terrified' - Christine Blasey Ford, a university psychology professor specializing in biostatistics, offered sometimes clinical answers to the questions put to her At about 10 am, the 51-year-old Blasey Ford -- dressed in a sober blue suit, her blonde hair styled and her glasses reflecting the spotlights -- entered the room, its windows covered in dark drapes. Before 21 senators, she answered questions for about three and a half hours about the assault she says happened 36 years ago when she and Kavanaugh attended high school in the Washington area. Flanked by her attorneys, Blasey Ford seemed on the verge of tears multiple times, and admitted from the start in a halting voice: "I am terrified." But she smiled broadly when she recognized some friendly faces in the audience of 48 guests -- limited in number for the occasion. Many of them were women. As she launched into her account of that night in 1982, her voice again broke. "I was pushed from behind into a bedroom across from the bathroom. I couldn't see who pushed me. Brett and Mark came into the bedroom and locked the door behind them," she said. "I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me. He began running his hands over my body and grinding into me." Christine Blasey Ford smiled at times during her testimony -- and appeared emotional at other times The scientist in her came out in her description of her most vivid memory. "Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two, and they are having fun at my expense," she said. "I was underneath one of them while the two laughed." On the Republican side of the committee, the 11 male senators mainly kept quiet, ceding their time to a female sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona. On the Democratic side, the 10 senators, four of them women, used most of their time to praise Blasey Ford's courage. - Caffeine, please - Family friend Keith Koegler pats Christine Blasey Ford on the head at the conclusion of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee -- she also got some help of the caffeinated variety During the breaks in the hearing -- there were two during Blasey Ford's testimony -- friends came to offer a supportive pat on the shoulder or the head, or a brief hug. Other victims of sexual assault in the room followed the proceedings intently, seemingly trying to offer support from afar. The hearing was not without a few moments of levity. Some students from the Holton-Arms all-girls school in nearby Bethesda that Blasey Ford attended relayed one by one into the hearing room to witness a bit of history in the one seat reserved for them. "Our school teaches us to self-advocate, to use our voices and we're here to support Doctor Ford," said Zainab Jaffa, 17. "We're using our voice to support her." From the start, Blasey Ford said with a smile that she needed some extra help to get through the hearing. "I will do my best to answer your questions. And I would request some caffeine," she told Grassley. First, a coffee cup was delivered to her. After that, a bottle of Coke appeared. Palestinian pupils protest in front of a school administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)and financed by US aid, in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus in the occupied West Bank The Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA on Thursday received pledges of $118 million from donor countries to help it overcome a crisis triggered by US funding cuts. Kuwait and the European Union were among the biggest contributors along with Germany, Ireland and Norway, UNRWA chief Pierre Kraehenbuehl told a news conference. France said it would contribute next year. The United States, which was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), announced in August that it would no longer fund the agency. Kraehenbuehl said the new funds were "a significant step in the direction of overcoming UNRWA's greatest and gravest financial crisis ever", adding that the shortfall in the annual budget now stood at $68 million. The administration of President Donald Trump has backed Israel in accusing UNRWA of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that millions of Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel. Created in 1949, the agency supplies aid to more than three million of the five million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories. Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who co-hosted the meeting on UNRWA's funding crisis on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, said discussions were under way on ensuring long-term financing for the agency. Safadi said the international community had a "firm, unwavering" commitment to keep UNRWA alive and ensure it continues to provide health and education services to Palestinian refugees. Aside from cutting funds to UNRWA, the Trump administration has also cut $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinians for projects in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said the United States would only give foreign aid "to those who respect us and frankly are our friends." by Sumon Corraya In the last three years about 5,000 migrant women have returned from the Saudi kingdom. Between 1991 and 2018, at least 700,000 Bangladeshi women sought employment abroad, including 250,000 in Arabia. An NGO, BRAC, helps women who escape reintegrate into society. Dhaka (AsiaNews) Thousands of Bangladeshi women who went to Saudi Arabia in search of fortune have gone home penniless after enduring torture and sexual abuse. The numbers are staggering. According to Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC), an NGO that helps migrants escape from places of torture, about 5,000 have done so in the last three years. Officially, at least nine million Bangladeshis work in 160 countries around the world. Those who are lucky enough to travel to the United States or Europe lead difficult but dignified lives. But those who go to the Middle East often find themselves in hell, especially female migrants. Fatama Akter was one of them. She had to emigrate and leave her sick husband and children in Barisal (central-southern Bangladesh). "I went to Saudi Arabia to work even though my husband did not want me to, she told AsiaNews, but he is sick and I wanted to earn some money for medical treatment and to send our children to school. " After three months working for a heavy-handed employer she had had enough. I couldnt take it anymore. I got sick and he denied me medicines. Moreover, my workload was huge and if I dared to speak out, he would beat me." Fatama managed to escape and return to Bangladesh. Like her, many other Bangladeshi women work as domestic help. All report incidents of physical and psychological torture and irregularities over wages. Three men regularly raped me. If I wouldnt agree, they beat me, said another migrant worker, Kobita Bagum. One day I escaped and visited the local police station and this is how I returned to Bangladesh. In her view, the government should not allow women to go to Saudi Arabia to work because that country is not safe for women. BRAC estimates that, between 1991 and 2018, about 700,000 Bangladeshi women went abroad seeking employment, 250,000 in Saudi Arabia alone. Nurul Islam, Minister of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment, does not accept the view that violence drove Bangladeshi women home. For him, the latter do not come home as a result of persecution but rather because of food and language problems. What is more, they did not seek help from the embassy or take legal action. They escaped and returned home. 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. US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh denies all accusations of sexual assault before the Senate Judiciary Committee US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday angrily denied sexual assault accusations made against him by university professor Christine Blasey Ford, calling the process to appoint him to the high court a "national disgrace." The following are key quotes from the federal judge during the combative hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee: - Unequivocal - "I swear today, under oath before the Senate and the nation, and before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge." -- Kavanaugh denies the sexual assault allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford - Collateral damage - "My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed." -- Kavanaugh talks about the impact of the allegations on his family - Circus - "This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election... This is a circus." -- Kavanaugh pulls no punches in slamming the nomination process - Partisan - "Since my nomination in July, there has been a frenzy on the left to come up with something, anything, to block my confirmation." -- Kavanaugh says the process is rigged against him - No surrender - "I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process. (...) You may defeat me in the final vote but you'll never get me to quit. Never." -- Kavanaugh says he will not back down - No evidence - "Dr Ford's allegation is not merely uncorroborated -- it is refuted by the very people she says were there, including by a long-time friend of hers." -- Kavanaugh says there is no evidence to back Blasey Ford's claims - Partying - "I drank beer with my friends. Almost everyone did. Sometimes I had too many beers. Sometimes others did. I liked beer. I still like beer. But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone." -- Kavanaugh explaining his high school social life - Trump backing - "I am deeply grateful to President Trump for nominating me. He was so gracious to my family and me on the July night he announced my nomination at the White House. I thank him for his steadfast support." -- Kavanaugh, thanking the Republican leader "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting," Trump tweeted President Donald Trump on Thursday reaffirmed support for his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after the judge gave hours of testimony denying having sexually assaulted several women in his youth. "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting," Trump tweeted. Trump called the Democratic opposition to his candidate and a slew of sexual assault allegations over the last week "a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" Trump's re-endorsement of Kavanaugh came seconds after the end of the day-long hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senators heard gripping and painful testimony from one of the accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, and then from Kavanaugh himself. Kavanaugh, a conservative-leaning judge whose entry into the lifetime appointment would help shift the Supreme Court to the right for years to come, came out fighting. Angrily denying the accusations against him, he ended his testimony by swearing to God that he had never attacked women, as alleged, during his school and university days. Like many Americans, Trump spent much of the day watching the live broadcast of the hearing. The White House said he even watched a feed on Air Force One as he flew back from New York at the start of the Senate action. Trump had angered many women's rights activists this week by seeming to suggest that the accusers must be making up their stories, because the alleged events dated to decades ago. Experts say that women often keep assault stories secret for long periods out of shame or fear. However Trump softened his position on Wednesday, telling journalists that he was ready to change his mind, depending on the testimony. "I can always be convinced," he said. "It's possible I'll hear that, and I'll say, 'Hey, I'm changing my mind.'" James Jeffrey, the US special representative on Syria, was clarifying recent comments by senior officials who appeared to suggest that troops would stayin Syria indefinitely to counter Iran The United States will stay in Syria as long as rival Iran maintains its presence, but the US role will not necessarily involve troops, a senior official said Thursday. James Jeffrey, the US special representative on Syria, was clarifying recent comments by senior officials who appeared to suggest that troops would stay indefinitely to counter Iran. Such an objective would drastically alter the mission in Syria first authorized by president Barack Obama who set a goal of defeating the Islamic State extremist group, which also considers Iran a foe. Asked if President Donald Trump was making US withdrawal contingent on the removal of Iranian forces, Jeffrey told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations: "The president wants us in Syria until that and the other conditions are met. But he added: "'Us' is not necessarily American boots on the ground." "There are many ways that we can be on the ground. We're certainly on the ground diplomatically," he said, while adding that no options were definite. "Boots on the ground have the current mission of the enduring defeat of ISIS," he said. The United States has some 2,000 troops in Syria, mainly training and advising both Kurdish forces and Syrian Arabs opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. Trump's national security adviser John Bolton, long hawkish on Iran, said Monday on Syria: "We're not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders." Iran, which is ruled by Shiite clerics, has been giving both direct support to Assad, a secular leader hailing from the Alawite minority sect, and backing him through the Shiite Lebanese movement Hezbollah. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said Tehran was out to defeat the Islamic State group and would stay as long as requested by the Syrian government. He rejected the Trump administration's warnings, questioning why the United States was involved militarily so far from home in the first place. The Trump administration, which is close to Iran's rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel, has withdrawn from a deal on ending Iran's nuclear program and vowed to challenge Tehran's influence in Syria as well as Yemen and Iraq. Twelve months since a controversial referendum that sparked a punishing backlash from Baghdad, Iraq's divided Kurds will elect a regional parliament Sunday A year ago, the roads of Iraqi Kurdistan were decked out with green, red and white Kurdish flags as the region voted overwhelmingly for independence from Baghdad. Today, the election posters lining the streets of regional capital Arbil ahead of Sunday's parliamentary vote are simply an annoyance to many Kurdish voters, angry at their leadership and the economic crisis deepened by the September 2017 poll. "They are spending crazy money on printing campaign posters," said Abdullah Mohammed, a 69-year-old retiree. "But when people in need ask for help, they say there's a crisis and there's no money." Twelve months since a controversial referendum that sparked a punishing backlash from Baghdad, Iraq's divided Kurds will elect a regional parliament Sunday, their dreams of statehood shattered. "These elections don't interest me at all," Mohammed said, a black and white kuffiyeh scarf on his head. Last year's poll, held in defiance of the international community, sparked anger and a firm rejection from the Iraqi capital. Iraqi Kurdistan It also deepened the divide between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of longtime regional leader Massud Barzani, who championed the referendum, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Less than three weeks after the vote, federal forces moved in to oust PUK forces that were controlling the disputed province of Kirkuk. The provincial governor, who had supported the KDP-backed referendum, took to the airwaves to call people to arms -- even as PUK forces withdrew without a fight. Iraqi President Fuad Masum, a PUK member, blamed the referendum for triggering the assault on Kirkuk, whose rich oil resources would have been essential to the survival of a Kurdish state. Barzani, who stepped down shortly after the poll, indirectly accused the PUK of "high treason" for withdrawing. The episode exposed the deep split between the two parties that dominate Kurdish politics. - KDP upbeat - Despite the backlash sparked by the referendum, the fact that three million Kurds voted for independence will have major implications for the election, according to Adel Bakawan, director general of the Kurdistan centre of sociology at Soran University near Arbil. "By portraying themselves as victims of an international and regional system that prevents the Kurds entering history by founding their state, the separatists are hoping to win back those votes," he said. The KDP has already reaped the rewards of its separatist stance, winning 25 seats in May elections to the Iraqi national parliament, making it the top party from the Kurdistan region, he said. Party officials are upbeat. The KDP won 25 seats in May elections to the Iraqi national parliament, making it the top party from the Kurdistan region "All the signs indicate that the KDP will dominate and win by a landslide" on Sunday, said Sobhi al-Mandalawi, a high-ranking party member in Arbil. The stranglehold the two heavyweights have over Kurdish politics means smaller parties are excluded from decision-making, Bakawan said. That has created distrust that could prompt record levels of abstention, he said. That will likely prolong the PDK's grip on power, according to Abdulrazaq Sharif of the Goran (Change) movement, set up in 2009 to challenge the monopoly of the two main parties, which it accuses of corruption. "Goran wants to see Kurds play a real role in the central government," he said. Wahid Kurdi, a 57-year-old former Peshmerga fighter from Arbil, said the regional government's key priority should be the wellbeing of "Kurds who are suffering in Kirkuk" and other disputed areas. "Once they're in parliament, MPs must not forget the disputed zones," he said. "They should work to bring them back inside the borders of Kurdistan." In the autonomous region's second city Sulaimaniyah, Ahmed Bashdari, 65, said he plans to vote -- "for those who don't put Kurdistan in danger" -- and urged leaders to rebuild the bridges damaged by the referendum. Leaders in Kurdistan and Baghdad "must make concessions so their conflicts stop damaging people's lives," he said. Pope Francis has recognised seven clergy ordained by Beijing After clinching a historic deal, the Vatican and China are involved in fresh negotiations over the fate of "underground" bishops who remained faithful to the pope for decades despite pressure from Beijing, sources say. The Vatican hopes the negotiations following Saturday's deal -- seen as paving the way for rapprochement between the Catholic Church and Beijing -- will lead China to soften its approach to those who swore allegiance to the pontiff for decades. A Vatican source and a Chinese priest told AFP the Holy See could win concessions by the end of the year, though the details of any agreement reached would remain classified. After a decades-long impasse over who presides over the now roughly 12 million-strong Catholic faithful, Saturday's pact saw Pope Francis recognise seven clergy ordained by Beijing. The clergy were the final seven to gain recognition from Rome after some 70 other members of the Patriotic Catholic Association (PCA), created by the Chinese government to administer the church, were recognised over the past two decades. Analysts largely described the deal as a win for Beijing. China has been waging a broad religious crackdown, with "illegal" churches raided or bulldozed and worshippers harassed, and the underground clergy wants safeguards. Some 20 percent of its bishops are over 90 years old. - Greater freedoms - "China has not changed its position on freedom of religion," but the goal is to try to "give more space" to Catholic believers, a Vatican source told AFP. Saturday's deal "is not very satisfactory" as it stands, "but it is the only one we could get now" he said, predicting that it will be "revised in the next few years". The accord did not include the 40 or so bishops directly nominated by the Holy See, who belong to China's underground church and have never been recognised by the Communist regime. The Vatican wants Beijing to protect their rights. It has already been assured by China that they will be not be forced into the PCA. "Two or three" of them have won acceptance from Beijing so far, and Francis' negotiators hope to get the government to recognise another dozen before December, the source said. The PCA's statute says its aim is to create an "independent church" -- an expression that would appear to rule out the Vatican's oversight. But the Holy See could accept it if it is reinterpreted to mean political independence. - Trusted observers - Under the new deal, Francis will have the final say on naming bishops. "Each nomination will have to be debated. Getting final agreement will be complicated. It will be important to have trusted observers in China," admitted the Vatican source. A Chinese priest, who previously worked in an underground church in China and returned to Rome last year, confirmed to AFP that negotiations on the recognition of underground bishops by Beijing were underway. He said that a final agreement that doesn't mention or recognise them would be a severe blow. "For us priests, we will unconditionally accept the agreement, even if in our hearts we feel terrible. But we will follow whatever is finalised." Underground bishop Joseph Wei Jingyi in China told the Vatican Insider website this week that a failure to win concessions on the matter from Beijing "could provoke a negative reaction... (and) be used against the pope". The US and Australia are rattled by the growing influence of Chinese companies on Pacific island nations The United States and Pacific allies will counter a bid from Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to build a communications network in Papua New Guinea, a senior diplomat said Friday, intensifying a campaign to curb China's rising regional influence. Responding to reports that the US and its close allies Australia and Japan were looking to trump the Chinese firm's bid to build PNG's domestic internet infrastructure, US charge d'affaires in Australia James Caruso was blunt. "We're working on a counter offer," he told Australian national broadcaster the ABC. "It is up to the PNG government at the end of the day but... the whole idea is to give alternatives," he said. Huawei was effectively banned from rolling out Australia's 5G network in August, after Canberra warned of security risks with companies beholden to foreign governments. Australia this year convinced the Solomon Islands to drop a contract with Huawei to build an underwater internet cable, with Canberra instead agreeing to help fund the project, which will also connect to PNG. Huawei has long refuted the accusations of security risks and links to the Chinese state intelligence services. Beijing has been showering billions of dollars in infrastructure loans to tiny island nations across the Pacific Ocean, a region considered strategically important as a maritime gateway to Asia, including China. Australia, which has been critical of Beijing's "soft diplomacy" in the region, has been leading a charge to counter China's influence, boosting aid to Pacific nations and strengthening regional security pacts. Caruso said there was a need to make it easier for Pacific nations to do business with the US and its allies, providing a transparent private sector-led model that offered a clear alternative to Beijing's Belt and Road initiative. "The whole idea is to give alternatives, not to say 'don't do business with China'," he said. "China's offers are out on the table, it is up to us to be competitive." A Yemeni child walks towards a building that was reportedly destroyed in Saudi-led coalition air strike in the capital Sanaa on September 5, 2018 The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemeni rebels alongside government forces on Friday strongly criticised a UN human rights mission as its mandate comes up for renewal. The coalition said any extension should be a matter for the Yemeni government, which already announced on Thursday that it was ending cooperation with the UN investigation into suspected war crimes during more than three years of conflict. But it again took strong issue with an August 28 report by the panel, which accused both government forces and Huthi rebels of violations but said that coalition air strikes had caused "most of the documented civilian casualties" and voiced "serious concerns about the targeting process". In comments released to AFP through the Saudi information ministry, the coalition criticised the "inaccuracy of the information in the report, which was derived from non-governmental organisations and the testimonies of some persons whose circumstances are unknown". It said the report "failed to mention Irans role in Yemen, and the countless violations perpetrated by the Huthis, both against the Yemeni people and against the kingdom" of Saudi Arabia. "These violations include targeting the kingdom using Iranian ballistic missiles -- aimed at civilian and religious sites," it added. The coalition says the rebels have fired more than 185 missiles at Saudi Arabia since it intervened in Yemen in March 2015 when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled into exile as they closed in on his last stronghold. It accuses Saudi arch-foe Iran of smuggling in the missiles through the rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeida, the entry point for UN aid for millions of desperately needy civilians that is currently under attack by government and United Arab Emirates troops. The UN Human Rights Council, which appointed the panel of experts a year ago, is expected to decide imminently on a request by the body to continue its investigation into the "extremely alarming" situation. Human Rights Watch last week accused Saudi Arabia of mounting a "campaign to discredit and undermine a UN investigation into abuses by all Yemen's warring parties", calling it "yet another blatant attempt to avoid scrutiny of the coalition's own actions in Yemen". The United Nations says there have been nearly 10,000 confirmed deaths in the conflict since the coalition intervened in 2015, although the real number is far higher. The conflict has triggered what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with three-quarters of the population -- or 22 million people -- in need of humanitarian aid. A Yemeni child suffering from malnutrition receives treatment at a hospital in the northern district of Abs, in Yemen's Hajjah province At Nasr Hospital's emergency room in the Yemeni city of Daleh, a little boy struggles to breathe. He is too tired, or too hungry, to cry. Born with a degenerative neurological disease, his muscles have atrophied to nothing, his tiny joints visible through his pale skin, his stomach distended. The child's body cannot retain even water, so nurses have resorted to putting him in diapers. And doctors say there is nothing they can do. The boy is one of an estimated five million Yemeni children who may not see their next birthday in a war the UN children's fund has described as a "living hell" for minors. The UN has warned that international aid agencies are losing the fight against famine in Yemen, where 3.5 million people may soon be added to the eight million Yemenis already facing starvation -- more than half of them children. Mahmud Ali Hassan, director of Nasr Hospital, does not mince words. Life for his patients, he says, is "pure misery". "We need help. We need real help." South of rebel-held Sanaa and north of the government bastion of Aden, Daleh is, in the words of its residents, a forgotten city. - 'Desperate need' - The war between Yemen's government, backed by a Saudi-led regional military coalition, and Huthi rebels linked to Iran has left an estimated 10,000 dead since 2015 and triggered what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Another 2,200 have died of cholera, according to the World Health Organization, nearly one-third of them under the age of five. A hospital staffer stands next to a Yemeni child suffering from malnutrition while lying on a bed at a hospital in the northern district of Abs in the northwestern Hajjah province In government-held Daleh, medics at Nasr Hospital are desperately looking for ways to treat patients -- most of whom have not yet learned to read, tie their shoelaces or even walk -- as supplies dwindle and hunger spreads. A sign outside Nasr Hospital reads "funded by the World Health Organization". The hospital is a lifeline for three provinces with a combined population of more than 1.5 million. "We take cases from Daleh as well as Ibb and Lahaj," said Hassan. "Most cases we receive are malnourished children. We get three to four cases a day. The ward is always full. It's full right now." In a lime green onesie, another malnourished baby wails as doctors hook him up to a nasal cannula -- the tube used to deliver oxygen to patients in respiratory distress. His diaper is multiple sizes too big. "We are in desperate need of medical supplies," Hassan told AFP. "We need orthopaedic equipment, and everyone says they're trying -- the government coalition and other sides -- and yet we haven't gotten supplies yet." - 'Nowhere to be seen' - Dr. Ayman Shayef, head of the emergency room at Nasr, says three to four children die under his watch every week of preventable causes, mainly linked to neo-natal care. "We have serious issues with the total absence of pre-natal care and the inability to open an obstetrics department," Shayef said. "We've also seen a rapid rise in malnutrition cases. A Yemeni child suffering from malnutrition is weighed at a hospital in the northern district of Abs in the northwestern Hajjah province "Daleh is an orphaned province. We need help. We need support for pre-natal care, malnutrition " In addition to the war, the rising cost of living in Yemen -- long the most impoverished country in the Arab world -- the depreciation of the local currency and blockades have left millions unable to feed themselves and their children. Katba Ahmed made the trip to Nasr to help a close friend care for her sick child. "A bag of flour is 18,000 riyals ($72). And with four people at home, how long do you think that's going to last, with breakfast, lunch and dinner?" Katba said. And the food baskets sent in by international organisations, Katba says, are nowhere to be seen in her neighbourhood in Hajja province. "Where do they go? Why don't we get any baskets?" she says. "Why should we be deprived? Why should we be humiliated?" Syrians hold a demonstration in the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province on September 28, 2018 calling on the regime to release detainees from its jails Syrians in the country's last major rebel stronghold of Idlib protested on Friday to demand the Damascus regime release detainees from its jails, an AFP correspondent said. Thousands have protested each week since the start of the month in the opposition stronghold on the Turkish border, where a Turkey-Russia deal last week averted a regime military offensive. Hundreds of people streamed into the streets of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province after Friday's midday prayer, chanting against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Some waved the three-star flag of the seven-year uprising, while others brandished the red standard of rebel backer Turkey. "Our freedom will not be complete until detainees are freed from the jails of the Assad regime," organiser Ezzedine al-Idlibi said. A Syrian protester wearing the colours of the opposition shouts slogans in a microphone during a demonstration against the government and calling for the release of those held in its prisons in Maaret al-Numan town on September 28, 2018 Among the crowd, Abu Hassan carried the daughter of his detained brother on his shoulders. Wearing a blue dress, she held up a portrait of the father she had not seen in five years. "We came out to this peaceful protest to ask that the detainees be released from the jails and security service basements," Abu Hassan said. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to be held in government jails across Syria, with relatives and advocates saying they are often tortured, denied fair trial, and deprived contact with families. Women clad in black demanded that those detained be released from "hell behind bars". One of them said she took part in the protest to demand the release of her son, a father-of-three. "My son was arrested a year ago and we haven't heard anything since," she said. Protesters are doused with water to cool them off as they demonstrate against the Syrian government to demand the release of prisoners in rebel-held town of Atareb of northern Aleppo province on September 28, 2018 In the rebel-held town of Atareb in neighbouring Aleppo province, water was blasted onto hundreds of protesters to cool them off, another AFP stringer at the scene said. Female protester Maysa Mahmud said people had streamed in from all over the west of Aleppo province to demonstrate. "We call on the international community to pressure the regime to release" the prisoners, she said. The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates 80,000 Syrians remain forcibly disappeared by the government. Family members can spend years shuttling between security services to find out where their loved ones are, or even if they are still alive. In recent months, activists and families of imprisoned Syrians say authorities have quietly updated civil records to mark detainees as "deceased". Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions more since it erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-Assad protests. "Physically I'm very weak but spiritually and mentally I am strong," said Nicodeme Ayao Habia, president of an opposition party in Togo on Friday -- day 10 of his hunger strike "Physically I'm very weak but spiritually and mentally I am strong," says Nicodeme Ayao Habia, president of an opposition party in Togo on Friday -- day 10 of his hunger strike. Habia lies on a mat in front of the Ghanaian embassy in Lome, where he is demanding the release of protesters who have been detained for months after demonstrating against the ruling regime. "Doctors come every day, I get seen by them. The rest is up to me. If I can make this sacrifice for change in my country, I should do it. "I don't fear for my life, what's important for me is the release of the prisoners," he says. "I'm here to show the world what's happening in Togo." The West African bloc ECOWAS stepped in early this year to negotiate between Togo's government and the opposition after months of protests with people calling for the resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe. The opposition parties had obtained the release of about 40 people arrested in connection with protests and 10 others were released in early September. But according to the leaders of the coalition of 14 opposition parties, there are still 44 people languishing in Togolese prisons who are yet to have their case heard in court. The minister of justice maintains that their situation will be examined on a case-by-case basis. "There are no members of my party who are still in jail but those who remain inside are still Togolese, innocent people suffering in our prisons," said Habia. "If they are released today, I will leave this place." Habia knows what it's like to be a political prisoner. He was arrested several times -- in 1992 and 1994 -- when Gnassingbe's father was president and was "tortured for months by soldiers before being transferred to a prison in Lome". Faure Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 after succeeding his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who led the small West African country with an iron fist for 38 years. He has opposed changes to the constitution that would put a limit on presidential terms, sparking the nationwide uprising. Along with the release of the protesters, Habia has demanded that the government comply with an ECOWAS-approved roadmap and "implement the reforms the Togolese have been demanding for years", including capping the number of presidential terms. - Lost 15 kg - By his side, Habia has a poster of the national flag, photos of four detainees and newspaper affiliated with the opposition, underneath a book with the fitting title "No easy day." Not far from him are stacks of candles. "People come to put out candles every day," said Achille Mensah, Habia's spokesman. "They say they want to call on the spirit of the Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo," one of the two ECOWAS facilitators who helped mediate the crisis in Togo. On Friday morning a crowd of about 50 people, many of them young, gathered in front of the embassy to support Habia. "Some young people spend the night with him and early in the morning go home," Mensah said, adding that Habia has already lost 15 kilograms (33 pounds), according to doctors. A banner flies in the crowd showing the names of detained protesters: "Free Messenth, Joseph, Assibia... human rights and democracy activists arbitrarily arrested in Togo." So far, Habia has refused to break his fast, only drinking water to stay alive. On Monday, he was visited by police. "When they arrived, they told me to get out quickly and knowing my rights, I resisted and turned back," he said. "I'm not here to hurt anyone. I'm here to call attention to the national and international community for the release of my compatriots. Two Congressional hearings were held simultaneously on Wednesday to discuss NASA's future. One thing sticks out of these two hearings: both focused on important topics that NASA was required, by law, to provde reports to Congress about. Both reports were delivered many months after their due date. The reports provide no meaningulful information as to what NASA plans to do, why it wants to do these things, how it plans to do them, what it will actually cost, and who will pay to make all of this happen. These questions were, of course, what Congress wanted NASA's reports to answer in the first place. This pattern from NASA HEOMD of foot dragging and vague responses to simple questions from Congress has typified the way that NASA has explaining its human exploration plans for the past ten years. These responses are filled with Powerpoint cartoons but are otherwise lacking in real substance. And when the real programs go awry its hard to see why or understand what the consequences are - other than the need for more money and time. A new Administrator now has to look at his agency's lackluster performance and, as prompted by Sen. Cruz, answer the question as to why it takes NASA longer to do things it once did much faster - and whether this is the way that the agency is going to comply with the current Administration's intent that NASA regain and/or maintain its leadership in space. Quite honestly it seems to be exactly the opposite of what is required. Full Story. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered that all but emergency staff leave Basra, with consular duties to be taken over by the embassy in Baghdad The United States on Friday shut its consulate in the protest-hit southern Iraqi city of Basra, blaming "indirect fire" by Iran-backed forces and warning its rival of retaliation for any damage. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered that all but emergency staff leave Basra, with consular duties to be taken over by the embassy in Baghdad. Basra has been rocked by weeks of demonstrations by Iraqis protesting unemployment and government inefficiency in the oil-rich south. Pompeo, who has made rolling back Iranian influence in the region a top priority, blamed militias linked to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards for "indirect fire" -- which usually means rockets or artillery -- against the US consulate. "I have advised the government of Iran that the United States will hold Iran directly responsible for any harm to Americans or to our diplomatic facilities in Iraq or elsewhere and whether perpetrated by Iranian forces directly or by associated proxy militias," he said in a statement while in New York to attend the UN General Assembly. "I have made clear that Iran should understand that the United States will respond promptly and appropriately to any such attacks," he added. Ruled by Shiite clerics, Iran has a strong influence in Iraq, especially in the country's Shiite-majority south. Iran's consulate itself was earlier burned down during the protests, although no one was injured and Tehran quickly opened a new mission. Iran's foreign ministry earlier called US allegations of fomenting violence in Basra "astonishing, provocative and irresponsible." Speaking at the General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also dismissed the US criticism of involvement in its neighbor, questioning why Washington itself was involved in a country so far away. Earlier this month three mortar rounds also hit the fortified Green Zone area in Baghdad, home to the US embassy, without causing injuries and with the perpetrators unclear. Diplomatic security is a key priority for the United States and Pompeo, who as a congressman went on the offensive against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton over a deadly attack on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Trump hits 'con job' on Kavanaugh before showdown hearing WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump denounced Democratic efforts to block Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation as a cynical "con job" on Tuesday and launched a dismissive attack on a second woman accusing the nominee of sexual misconduct in the 1980s, asserting she "has nothing." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted that Kavanaugh would win approval, despite the new allegations and uncertainty about how pivotal Republicans would vote in a roll call now expected early next week. Like much of America, lawmakers awaited a momentous Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which Kavanaugh and chief accuser Christine Blasey Ford are to testify Thursday, though not together. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell will be brought in to handle questioning of Kavanaugh and Ford. Mitchell comes from the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in Phoenix, where she is the chief of the Special Victims Division, which covers sex crimes and family violence. Hanging in the balance is Trump's chance to swing the high court more firmly to the right for a generation. Despite McConnell's forecast that Republicans will "win," Kavanaugh's fate remains uncertain in a chamber where Republicans have a scant 51-49 majority. "I will be glued to the television," said Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine, who has yet to declare her position on confirmation. ___ Cosby in cuffs: TV star gets 3 to 10 years for sex assault NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - At an age when other Hollywood stars are settling into retirement and collecting lifetime-achievement awards, an 81-year-old Bill Cosby was led away to prison in handcuffs Tuesday, sentenced to three to 10 years behind bars in what was seen by many of his accusers as a reckoning richly deserved and long overdue. The comedian, TV star and breaker of racial barriers became the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison. He was found guilty in April of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his gated estate in 2004 after being barraged with similar accusations from more than 60 women over the past five decades. "It is time for justice. Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come," Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill said. He quoted from victim Andrea Constand's statement to the court, in which she said Cosby took her "beautiful, young spirit and crushed it." Cosby declined the opportunity to speak before the sentence came down, and afterward sat laughing and chatting with his defense team. His wife of 54 years, Camille, was not in court. Constand smiled broadly on hearing the punishment and was hugged by others in the courtroom. In a blistering statement, Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said the comic was subjected to the "most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States." Wyatt said all three of the psychologists who testified against Cosby were "white women who make money off of accusing black men of being sexual predators." ___ Trump challenges UN, boasting of America's go-it-alone might UNITED NATIONS (AP) - President Donald Trump poured scorn on the "ideology of globalism" and heaped praise on his own administration's achievements Tuesday in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly that drew headshakes and even mocking laughter from his audience of fellow world leaders. "The U.S. will not tell you how to live and work or worship," Trump said as he unapologetically promoted his "America First" agenda. "We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return." Speaking in triumphal terms, Trump approached his address to the world body as something of an annual report to the world on his country's progress since his inauguration. He showcased strong economic numbers, declared that the U.S. military is "more powerful than it has ever been before" and crowed that in "less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country." Just sentences into the president's remarks, the audience began to chuckle and some leaders broke into outright laughter, suggesting the one-time reality television star's puffery is as familiar abroad as it is at home. Trump appeared briefly flustered, then smiled and said it was not the reaction he expected "but that's all right." Later he brushed off the episode, telling reporters, "Oh it was great. Well, that was meant to get some laughter so it was great." ___ Laughter at Trump among a long line of shocking UN moments The laughter was sudden, loud and unexpected. It came at the expense of the U.S. president as he addressed global leaders at the United Nations, and it was witnessed by an audience of tens of millions viewing immediate clips online of an awkward moment for Donald Trump. The laughter followed Trump's boasts that "in less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country." Clearly startled by the laughter, he joked that it wasn't the reaction he expected. Later, as he left the U.N. grounds, he told reporters that he had meant to be funny. ___ Into the fold? What's next for Instagram as founders leave SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - When Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger sold Instagram to Facebook in 2012, the photo-sharing startup's fiercely loyal fans worried about what would happen to their beloved app under the social media giant's wings. None of their worst fears materialized. But now that its founders have announced they are leaving in a swirl of well wishes and vague explanations, some of the same worries are bubbling up again - and then some. Will Instagram disappear? Get cluttered with ads and status updates? Suck up personal data for advertising the way its parent does? Lose its cool? Worst of all: Will it just become another Facebook? "It's probably a bigger challenge (for Facebook) than most people realize," said Omar Akhtar, an analyst at the technology research firm Altimeter. "Instagram is the only platform that is growing. And a lot of people didn't necessarily make the connection between Instagram and Facebook." Instagram had just 31 million users when Facebook snapped it up for $1 billion; now it has a billion. It had no ads back then; it now features both display and video ads, although they're still restrained compared to Facebook. But that could quickly change. Facebook's growth has started to slow, and Wall Street has been pushing the company to find new ways to increase revenue. ___ What happens to Mueller probe if Rosenstein loses his job? WASHINGTON (AP) - The investigation into Russian election interference is often called the Mueller probe, but it's Rod Rosenstein who oversees it. Rosenstein's fate as deputy attorney general remains in the air after a revelation surfaced last week that he floated the idea of recording President Donald Trump. Rosenstein went to the White House on Monday expecting to be fired, but the president gave him a three-day reprieve, and the two are set to have a face-to-face showdown on Thursday. So what happens to the Russia investigation if Rosenstein loses his job after Thursday's meeting? Some questions and answers: WHAT IS ROSENSTEIN'S ROLE IN THE MUELLER PROBE? ___ CBS taps media industry veteran Parsons as interim chairman NEW YORK (AP) - CBS says it has named media industry veteran Richard Parsons as interim chairman of the board as the company moves to reshape itself following the ouster of longtime chief Les Moonves. Parsons is the former chairman of Time Warner and Citicorp. He was added to the board of CBS earlier this month along with five others as the company pursues an independent investigation into Moonves. Moonves resigned just after six women joined others who had previously accused the long-time television executive with sexual misconduct. CBS also said Tuesday that two other board members were stepping down. Bruce Gordon and William Cohen had been on the company's board since it became a standalone public company in 2006. ___ Trump at UN Security Council: 'Most watched meeting ever'? UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council tends to proceed in a scripted, measured way. U.S. President Donald Trump does not. But Trump is set to preside Wednesday over the U.N.'s most powerful body, one that incarnates the very concept of global governing that he swatted aside in a speech Tuesday. The meeting in the sanctum of shared decision-making will put the "America First" president around a table with representatives from countries with fraught relationships with the United States, including Russia and China. The topic alone has been a matter of dispute. In the words of Washington's U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley: "That is going to be the most watched Security Council meeting ever." Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, chaired Security Council meetings in 2009 and 2014. But Wednesday will be Trump's first time in the Security Council, where the U.S. holds the rotating presidency this month. ___ Woman says ex pressed for baby, didn't know her plan to kill FARGO, N.D. (AP) - A North Dakota woman convicted of killing her pregnant neighbor by cutting the baby from her womb testified Tuesday that her boyfriend had pressured her to "produce a baby" after figuring out she had lied about being pregnant. Brooke Crews told the court that she had concocted a phony pregnancy to keep from losing William Hoehn, who is on trial for conspiracy in the August 2017 death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind. Hoehn has admitted helping to cover up the crime but says he didn't know that Crews had planned to kill Greywind and take her baby. Crews testified that she never "explicitly" told Hoehn that was her plan. Crews said Hoehn appeared surprised when he entered the bathroom in their apartment and discovered she had cut Greywind's baby from her body. Crews said Hoehn then retrieved a rope and tightened it around Greywind's neck, saying: "If she wasn't dead before, she is now." Greywind's daughter survived and is being raised by family. Hoehn spoke regularly with his attorney, Daniel Borgen, during Crews' testimony but showed little emotion. Crews was crying and sniffling throughout. ___ Antibiotics for appendicitis? Surgery often not needed CHICAGO (AP) - When emergency tests showed the telltale right-sided pain in Heather VanDusen's abdomen was appendicitis, she figured she'd be quickly wheeled into surgery. But doctors offered her the option of antibiotics instead. A new study from Finland shows her choice is a reasonable alternative for most patients with appendicitis. Five years after treatment with antibiotics, almost two-thirds of patients hadn't had another attack. It's a substantial change in thinking about how to treat an inflamed appendix. For decades, appendicitis has been considered a medical emergency requiring immediate surgery to remove the appendix because of fears it could burst, which can be life-threatening. But advances in imaging tests, mainly CT scans, have made it easier to determine if an appendix might burst, or if patients could be safely treated without surgery. The results suggest that nearly two-thirds of appendicitis patients don't face that risk and may be good candidates for antibiotics instead. CHICAGO (AP) - Lawyers for a white Chicago police officer who killed a black teenager presented an animated video to jurors on Tuesday that aimed to depict the officer's perspective during the shooting and support his claim that he feared for his safety when he shot Laquan McDonald 16 times. The animated video is aimed at countering graphic police dashcam video that shows Jason Van Dyke shooting the 17-year-old McDonald as the teen holds a knife and walks away from officers in 2014. Van Dyke continued to shoot for more than 10 seconds after McDonald crumpled to the street. The dashcam video, released a year after the shooting, is the centerpiece of the state's case against Van Dyke. But it was recorded from a different angle than Van Dyke's view - from the side of the officer and behind McDonald. What the officer saw during the incident could be critical during his murder trial, as jurors try to determine if it was reasonable for the officer to view McDonald as a threat. The animation created for the defense by California-based 3-D Forensic looks similar to a gaming video. At one point, it depicts a view as if a camera were hovering just over Van Dyke's shoulder. The officer figure shoots as an animated figure representing McDonald seems to look at the officer. The video also offers aerial and other views. The company's CEO, Jason Fries, described to jurors how it was made. When a defense lawyer asked Fries if the animation of McDonald was "closing the distance on Van Dyke," a prosecutor objected. The defense attorney rephrased the question, and Fries responded: "Yes, our analysis demonstrates Mr. McDonald was getting closer to Officer Van Dyke." During cross-examination, prosecutor Marilyn Hite Ross noted the animation depicts Van Dyke shooting just five times when there's no dispute he fired 16 times. Ross also argued that a dark red line highlighting McDonald in the animation made him look taller than he was in real life. Lead defense attorney Daniel Herbert gestures at an animated video portraying Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke and Laquan McDonald as it's shown to the jury during the first degree murder trial of Van Dyke for the shooting death of McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. in Chicago. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool) She suggested that lead defense attorney Dan Herbert was heavy-handed in how the animation should turn out. She asked Fries: "He gave you specific direction about what he wanted you to do, correct?" Fries denied that. But he did concede he relied entirely on information defense attorneys passed on to him in crafting the digital recreation. The judge later recessed for the day. The defense will resume calling witnesses Wednesday. It's unclear if Van Dyke plans to testify during the trial. His attorneys may see the animated video as a substitute for any direct testimony that would expose the 40-year-old officer to potentially blistering cross-examination by prosecutors in a case that has also put a spotlight on the Chicago Police Department . Earlier Tuesday, Van Dyke's attorneys called probation officer Dina Randazzo, who testified that McDonald had become "combative" during a juvenile hearing in August 2013. The testimony came a day after three county employees told jurors about physical altercations with McDonald, who had slashed the tires of a police car before Van Dyke arrived at the scene of the 2014 fatal shooting. Defense attorneys have focused on McDonald's behavior in past years and the day he was killed. Under Illinois law, defendants who claim self-defense can present evidence about the past behavior of the person they killed, even if they weren't aware of that history when the killing occurred. Prosecutors rested their case last week. Defense attorneys started presenting their case Monday. ___ Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mtarm Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke listens during his first degree murder trial for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. Lawyers for the white Chicago police officer who fatally shot the black teenager presented an animated video to jurors on Tuesday that was intended to show the officer's perspective during the shooting and support his claim that he feared for his safety. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool) Jason Fries, an expert in video reconstruction, testifies during the first degree murder trial of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Chicago. Lawyers for the white Chicago police officer who fatally shot the black teenager presented an animated video to jurors on Tuesday that was intended to show the officer's perspective during the shooting and support his claim that he feared for his safety. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool) Jason Fries, an expert in video reconstruction, testifies during the first degree murder trial of Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. in Chicago. Lawyers for the white Chicago police officer who fatally shot the black teenager presented an animated video to jurors on Tuesday that was intended to show the officer's perspective during the shooting and support his claim that he feared for his safety. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool) WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump denounced Democratic efforts to block Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation as a cynical "con job" on Tuesday and launched a dismissive attack on a second woman accusing the nominee of sexual misconduct in the 1980s, asserting she "has nothing." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted that Kavanaugh would win approval, despite the new allegations and uncertainty about how pivotal Republicans would vote in a roll call now expected early next week. Like much of America, lawmakers awaited a momentous Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday in which Kavanaugh and chief accuser Christine Blasey Ford are to testify, though not together. "I will be glued to the television," said Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine who has yet to declare her position on confirmation. Hoping for no new surprises, the committee scheduled its own vote on Kavanaugh for Friday, and Republican leaders laid plans that could keep the full Senate in session over the weekend and produce a final showdown roll call soon after - close to the Oct. 1 start of the high court's new term. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Republican chairman of the committee whose 11 GOP members are all male, said in a brief interview that his panel was hiring a female attorney who would ask Ford his party's questions on Thursday. He declined to name her. "We're doing it strictly to depoliticize the whole operation, to offer Dr. Ford the professional environment she asked for," Grassley said of Ford, now a 51-year-old psychology professor in Northern California. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined from left by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks with reporters about the confirmation for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, following a closed-door GOP policy meeting, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Democrats weren't buying that. "My gut is they're trying to avoid a panel of all white guys asking tone-deaf questions," said Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware. Hanging in the balance in the confirmation fight is Trump's chance to swing the high court more firmly to the right for a generation. Despite McConnell's forecast, Kavanaugh's fate remains uncertain in a chamber where Republicans have a scant 51-49 majority. While a few Republicans have also strongly challenged the credibility of Kavanaugh's accusers, Trump's words have been more biting. Last week, he lampooned Ford's allegation that an inebriated Kavanaugh trapped her beneath him on a bed at a high school house party and tried to take her clothes off before she escaped. Surely she would have reported it to police if the encounter was "as bad as she says," the president said. "It's a con game they're playing," he said Tuesday. "They're really con artists. They don't believe it themselves, OK?" Trump's latest broadside against a Kavanaugh accuser was aimed at Deborah Ramirez, who told The New Yorker magazine that Kavanaugh caused her to touch his penis at a party when both were Yale freshmen. Ramirez conceded she'd been drinking, too, and was uncertain of some details of the alleged incident. "The second accuser has nothing," Trump told reporters at the United Nations. "The second accuser doesn't even know- thinks maybe it was him, maybe not. She admits she was drunk. She admits time lapses." Predictably, that played badly with Democrats. "How many women have heard that before? How many women have kept their experiences quiet because they knew they would hear that?" Sen. Patty Murry of Washington said of Trump's characterization. She said Trump's remarks were "disgusting, it's disgraceful and by the way, women are paying attention." She herself was carried to Washington on a 1992 wave of fervor by female voters, a year after the Senate discounted sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas and sent him to the Supreme Court. Republicans also are concerned that, win or lose, the battle is further animating women already inclined to vote against Trump's party in November's elections in which control of the next Congress is at stake. Treatment of Ford on Thursday will be watched closely. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a potentially key Republican vote, said GOP senators need to come into the hearing with open minds. "It's very important to take allegations of those who come forward seriously, and I think we need to go into this hearing with the view that we will listen," she said. On Tuesday, the Republicans were still assessing what Kavanaugh's television interview on the Fox News Channel on Monday - an unusual appearance for a Supreme Court nominee - augured about how he would do in Thursday's hearing. Some in the White House expressed relief that Kavanaugh presented a positive image to counter the allegations. Yet he appeared shaky at times. And there remained concern among aides and Trump himself about how Kavanaugh would hold up facing far fiercer questioning from Senate Democrats, according to a White House official not authorized to speak publicly. The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, acknowledged that for the nominee "it's extremely awkward to be talking about such private matters on TV." But Cornyn said he thought Kavanaugh "did well and did what he needed to do" in the interview. Grassley is planning to use his committee's modest-sized hearing room instead of a far larger chamber that's often home to high-profile hearings. He said in a recent letter that the smaller room would help avoid a "circus atmosphere," and Ford herself has sought to limit the number of TV cameras and journalists covering the event. Congressional testimony is often magnified by TV close-ups, and a single moment, good or bad, can have a major impact. Ramirez's attorney, John Clune, said his client stood by The New Yorker story and said he and Grassley's committee were trying to decide how to provide more information to the panel. He said an FBI investigation - which Democrats have also sought for Ford and Trump and Republicans have blocked - "is the only way to get the truth." Trump's theme was embraced by McConnell, who said Democrats were mistreating Kavanaugh. He said that "vague, unsubstantiated and uncorroborated allegations of 30-plus-year-old misconduct" were "nowhere near grounds to nullify someone's career or destroy their good name." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York retorted that McConnell owed Ford an apology for asserting that the Democrats' use of the women's accusations was a smear campaign. Schumer said McConnell's comment "demeans many, many women." ___ AP reporters Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick, Padmananda Rama, Matthew Daly, Darlene Superville, Jonathan Lemire, Zeke Miller and Deb Riechmann contributed. President Donald Trump answers a reporters question about Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque at the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at U.N. Headquarters. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Brett Kavanaugh, with his wife Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, answers questions during a FOX News interview, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, in Washington, about allegations of sexual misconduct against the Supreme Court nominee. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., returns to his office after speaking on the Senate floor about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) UNITED NATIONS (AP) - President Donald Trump poured scorn on the "ideology of globalism" and heaped praise on his own administration's achievements Tuesday in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly that drew headshakes and even mocking laughter from his audience of fellow world leaders. "The U.S. will not tell you how to live and work or worship," Trump said as he unapologetically promoted his "America First" agenda. "We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return." Speaking in triumphal terms, Trump approached his address to the world body as something of an annual report to the world on his country's progress since his inauguration. He showcased strong economic numbers, declared that the U.S. military is "more powerful than it has ever been before" and crowed that in "less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country." Just sentences into the president's remarks, the audience began to chuckle and some leaders broke into outright laughter, suggesting the one-time reality television star's puffery is as familiar abroad as it is at home. Trump appeared briefly flustered, then smiled and said it was not the reaction he expected "but that's all right." The leaders' spontaneous response to Trump's address only reinforced the American president's isolation among allies and foes alike, as his nationalistic policies have created rifts with erstwhile partners and cast doubt in some circles about the reliability of American commitments around the world. Barely an hour before he spoke, in fact, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared to the assembly that global cooperation is the world's best hope and "multilateralism is under fire precisely when we need it most." President Donald Trump addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Since taking office, Trump has removed the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, promoted protectionist tariffs and questioned the value of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other alliances in furtherance of what he termed on Tuesday a strategy of "principled realism." To that end, Trump flaunted his embrace of negotiations with North Korea's Kim Jong Un just a year after he had warned of raining down "total destruction" on a leader he branded "Little Rocket Man." As Trump praised Kim's "courage" on Tuesday, he unloaded harsh rhetoric on nuclear-aspirant Iran as a persistent malign influence across the Middle East. "We ask all nations to isolate Iran's regime as long as its aggression continues," said Trump. The president has removed the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, citing the country's destabilizing actions throughout the region and support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah, and he accused its leaders on Tuesday of sowing "chaos, death and destruction." His national security adviser, John Bolton, was to go even further in a speech Tuesday, issuing a dire warning to Iran: "If you cross us, our allies or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay," Bolton said, according to prepared remarks released by the White House. In addition to his keynote speech, Trump is to chair a meeting of the U.N. Security Council about nuclear proliferation on Wednesday. His four days of choreographed foreign affairs were designed to stand in contrast to a presidency sometimes defined by disorder, but they were quickly overshadowed by domestic political crises. The fate of his second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, was in fresh doubt after a second allegation of sexual misconduct, which Kavanaugh denies. Kavanaugh and his first accuser testify to Congress on Thursday. Drama also swirls around the job security of Trump's deputy attorney general. Rod Rosenstein was reported last week to have floated the idea of secretly recording the president last year and to have raised the idea of using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. He will meet with Trump at the White House, also on Thursday. At the U.N., Trump seized his opportunity to assert American independence from the international body. He showcased his decisions to engage with the erstwhile pariah North Korea, remove the U.S. from the international Iran nuclear accord and object to U.N. programs he believes are contrary to American interests. "We reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism," Trump said. He referenced a list of U.N. bodies, from the International Criminal Court to the Human Rights Council, that his administration is working to undermine. "America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control and domination," Trump declared. His denunciations of globalism drew murmurs from other members of the organization that stands as the very embodiment of the notion. Shortly before he spoke, in fact, U.N. Secretary-General Guterres had defended international cooperation as the only way to tackle the challenges and threats of increasingly chaotic times. "Democratic principles are under siege," Guterres said. "The world is more connected, yet societies are becoming more fragmented. Challenges are growing outward, while many people are turning inward." On other tense subjects, Trump's criticism of Germany's pursuit of a direct energy pipeline from Russia drew a dismissive headshake from a member of the U.S. ally's delegation, and his mention of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all in one breath was received with stone-faced expressions by Saudi officials. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been boycotting Doha since last year as part of a dispute tearing apart the typically clubby Gulf Arab nations. The laughter in the first moments of Trump's address evoked a campaign line Trump frequently deployed against his predecessor Barack Obama - who embraced international engagement - suggesting that due to weak American leadership, "the world is laughing at us." In 2014, Trump tweeted "We need a President who isn't a laughingstock to the entire World. We need a truly great leader, a genius at strategy and winning. Respect!" Appearances on the global stage tend to elevate the stature of presidents both abroad and at home. But even before his arrival for the annual gathering of world leaders and diplomats, the desired image was being eclipsed as Trump was forced to confront the salacious and embarrassing in the controversies over Rosenstein and Kavanaugh. With cable news chyrons flashing breathless updates about both Beltway dramas, news of Trump's foreign policy moves from the U.N., led by a new trade deal with South Korea, struggled to break through. ___ Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire and Miller at http://twitter.com/@zekejmiller President Donald Trump speaks during a signing ceremony for the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement at the Lotte New York Palace hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump reacts to laughter from diplomats during his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday Sept. 25, 2018 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) President Donald Trump sits in the head of state chair before addressing the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) President Donald Trump delivers a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at U.N. Headquarters. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Warning that the world has a bad case of "trust deficit disorder" and risks "runaway climate change," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged global leaders Tuesday to abandon unilateralism and reinvigorate cooperation as the only way to tackle the challenges and threats of increasingly chaotic times. The U.N. chief painted a grim picture of the state of the world in his opening address to the annual gathering of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and government officials from the U.N.'s 193 member nations. He pointed to rising polarization and populism, ebbing cooperation, "fragile" trust in international institutions and "outrage" at the inability to end wars in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. "Democratic principles are under siege," Guterres said. "The world is more connected, yet societies are becoming more fragmented. Challenges are growing outward, while many people are turning inward. Multilateralism is under fire precisely when we need it most." In contrast, U.S. President Donald Trump defended an America-first policy, rejecting "global governance, control and domination." He said he expects other nations to honor America's sovereignty in return. "America is governed by Americans," Trump said in his speech. "We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism." But French President Emmanuel Macron assailed self-interest in his address soon after Trump, saying "nationalism always leads to defeat." United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) He drew loud applause for his impassioned plea against isolationism and for global cooperation. "Friends, I know you may be tired of multilateralism. I also know that the world is flooded with information, and one becomes indifferent. It all starts to look like a big show," he said. "Please, don't get used to it, don't become indifferent. Do not accept the erosion of multilateralism. Don't accept our history unraveling. I'm not getting used to this, and I'm not turning my head." In his speech, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took a dig at Trump over the issue - indirectly, if not by name. "Confronting multilateralism is not a sign of strength; rather it is a symptom of the weakness of intellect - it betrays an inability in understanding a complex and interconnected world," Rouhani said. Iran has been a target of escalating U.S. accusations over its nuclear and missile programs and international terrorist activities. It vehemently denies any nuclear ambitions or involvement in international terrorism. Trump earlier had blasted what he called Iran's "corrupt dictatorship," saying he has launched an "economic pressure" campaign against the country. The U.S. withdrew this year from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. Rouhani accused the U.S. of trying to overthrow his government, rejecting bilateral talks after Trump predicted stepped-up U.S. sanctions would get Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear program. Guterres highlighted two challenges that have taken on "surpassing urgency" since last year: climate change and new risks from advances in technology. "Climate change is moving faster than we are," he warned. "If we do not change course in the next two years, we risk runaway climate change. ... Our future is at stake." Guterres said artificial intelligence, blockchain and biotechnology can potentially "turbocharge progress," but also pose risks and serious dangers. Technology stands to change or eliminate some jobs and is being misused for sexual abuse, for terrorism and for malicious acts in cyberspace including disinformation campaigns, discrimination against women and for reinforcing "our male-dominated culture," he said. "The weaponization of artificial intelligence is a growing concern," he added. General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces opened the gathering by asking the VIPs to stand in silent tribute to former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who died Aug. 18 at age 80. Espinosa Garces, who was Ecuador's foreign minister, echoed Guterres' appeal on multilateralism, saying the General Assembly is "the only place where a meeting of this kind is possible," and where all countries "have the opportunity to hear and be heard." She said the U.N.'s global contribution has been immense, from international law and the promotion of peace to human rights, combatting poverty and preserving the environment. "The reality is that the work of the United Nations is as relevant today as it was 73 years ago," she said. "Multilateralism stands alone as the only viable response to the global problems that we are faced with. To undermine multilateralism, or to cast a doubt upon its merits, will only lead to instability and division, to mistrust and polarization." Brazil's President Michel Temer also focused on threats to global cooperation. "We live in times clouded by isolationist forces," he said. "Old forms of intolerance are being rekindled. Unilateral relapses are, today, increasingly less of an exception." "However, these challenges should not and cannot possibly intimidate us. Isolationism, intolerance, unilateralism - we must respond to each of these different trends with the very best of our peoples," Temer said. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sharply critical of the veto power wielded by the five permanent members of the Security Council - the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France - and warned that the U.N. risks becoming an organization with "a reputation for failure" if it continues catering to them "while standing idle to the oppression in the other parts of the world." He cited genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda and the failure to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling for the Security Council to be restructured to reflect the 21st century. This year, 133 world leaders have signed up to attend the session, which ends Oct. 1, a significant increase from the 114 leaders last year. Populist leaders attending include Poland's President Andrzej Duda and Italy's Premier Giuseppe Conte, along with the foreign ministers of Hungary and Austria. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned at Monday's U.N. "peace summit" honoring the 100th birthday of South African anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela that "unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise." He likely had Trump in mind, since the U.S. and China have been engaged in a trade war in recent months, with the two sides imposing higher tariffs on imports from each other. Wang said "the U.N. is the symbol of multilateralism" and he urged the international community to "stand united under the umbrella of multilateralism, uphold the central role of the U.N. in international affairs, and provide more predictability and stability in this turbulent world." In speeches and nearly 350 meetings on the assembly sideline, the conflicts, hotspots and issues contributing to that turbulence will be debated. The seven-year conflict in Syria and the three-year war in Yemen that has sparked the world's worst humanitarian crisis and now seriously threatens large-scale famine are certain to be in the spotlight, along with African hotspots including Libya, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Mali and Congo. The U.S., which holds the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council in September, has scheduled two meetings, one chaired by Trump on Wednesday that was initially to focus on Iran but has now been broadened to "nonproliferation" of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The second one, to be chaired Thursday by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is on North Korea, the one major issue where there is a glimmer of hope for progress. The 15 council nations have been united in imposing increasingly tough sanctions to try to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear program. But that unity appears to be at risk over enforcement of sanctions and the broader issues of how to achieve denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, and when sanctions should be lifted. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday Sept. 25, 2018 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) President Donald Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday Sept. 25, 2018 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) France's President Emmanuel Macron addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hands off his speech following his address to the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari listens as United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) NEW YORK (AP) - Gone is the shoulder squeezing, the affectionate dandruff-brushing - and French President Emmanuel Macron's hope that he could use his unlikely friendship with Donald Trump to rein in the American president's more incendiary instincts. When the two men met Monday in New York, they shook hands lightly and got down to the tasks at hand. They agreed to disagree on the Iranian nuclear accord and Trump's protectionist policies and one-sided support for Israel, according to two French presidential advisers. The businesslike mood contrasted with Trump's fawning over Macron at a state dinner in April, and Macron's lavish Eiffel Tower welcome for the Trumps last year. Hours after their meeting, the two men laid out starkly different worldviews in speeches at the U.N. General Assembly. "Nationalism always leads to defeat," said the progressive, multilateralist Macron. "We reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism," said Trump, trumpeting his America-first, zero-sum vision. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron wait for members of the media to arrive at a meeting at the Lotte New York Palace hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Macron later ticked off ways Trump has disappointed him - from his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and Iranian nuclear deal to unilateral tariffs on steel and aluminum. Still, Macron said he'll keep working with Trump on a "case by case" basis, and insisted that they're not rivals but pragmatic allies. At their meeting, "Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to closely coordinate to address global challenges," the White House said. Macron specified that meant working together on Syria and a new U.S. trade deal with Europe - as long as it doesn't involve such things as American GMO products that make European consumers wary. Macron appeared to convince Trump to follow through on promises to visit Paris in November to mark 100 years since the armistice ending World War I, and added a possible battlefield tour to Trump's program. And Trump offered Macron an unexpected compliment, praising him as the new "hardliner" of Europe for his tough stance on Brexit negotiations, according to the French officials. The officials took part in Monday's meeting but were not authorized to be publicly named according to presidential policy. Given Trump's combative, mercurial presidency, the French aides made a point to stress one positive thing about Trump and Macron's latest sit-down session: no new conflicts emerged. President Donald Trump meets with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Lotte New York Palace hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) PHOENIX (AP) - The defiant message hangs under the Mexican bakery's Spanish-language sign in Phoenix's poorest neighborhood, rejecting the city's idea of progress: "4 LANES OR NO TRAIN." Similar placards are plastered along the proposed new leg of Phoenix's light-rail system, a plan that progressed quietly until some shop owners in the mostly Hispanic and black community complained that reducing car traffic from four to two lanes on the affected thoroughfare could hurt business. It was discussed for six years, and 55 percent of voters citywide - as well as 70 percent of voters in the two districts it would traverse - approved an initiative to help fund the 5.5-mile (8.9-kilometer) extension. But business owners in this once-segregated area suddenly protested plans to shrink the roadway to two lanes on the Central Avenue route past automotive shops and Latino markets. Some neighbors worried it would bring more crime, push up rents or change the character of their community. Residents of low-income minority neighborhoods often assume they will be bypassed or harmed by such projects, activists and academics said. There are innumerable tales of communities lost to progress: hundreds of Mexican-American families displaced from Los Angeles' Chavez Ravine, now home to Dodgers Stadium; thousands of people relocated from a black and Polish Detroit neighborhood known as Poletown for a General Motors factory; Phoenix's Golden Gate Barrio razed for the expansion of Sky Harbor International Airport. "History matters," said urban planning professor Francisco Lara-Valencia, who takes his Arizona State University students to south Phoenix to study the project. In this Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, photo, a local business displays a protest sign of the proposed extension of the light rail system along Central Avenue, in Phoenix. The proposed extension of Phoenix's light-rail system into the city's poorest neighborhood is running into eleventh-hour opposition from some business owners in the Hispanic and black community.(AP Photo/Anita Snow) "South Phoenix has suffered a long time - with segregation, discrimination," he said. "But this project could bring more development and other good things to the area." The last-minute protests demonstrate the importance of early input from long-mistreated communities on major projects, transportation experts said. Cities sometimes substitute voter sentiment for true community outreach, said Robert Puentes, president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, a Washington think tank. "Assuming that local communities will sign on can turn out to be dramatically wrong," added Raj Rajkumar, professor and director at Carnegie Mellon University's Metro21 Smart Cities Institute in Pittsburgh. But minority groups more often complain they are being ignored for transportation options they need to get to work, school and medical appointments. In Georgia, residents of some majority-black neighborhoods in recent months accused Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority officials of favoring white residents in their plans to expand rail into wealthier areas. The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority was forced to adjust bus fares and relieve overcrowding in the 1990s after minority neighborhoods complained it was cutting their bus routes even as it spent more on commuter rail to wealthier Anglo areas. Rajkumar said a lack of public transit can limit opportunities people in poor minority neighborhoods, noting that "if one cannot afford to own a car and not even have access to transportation to go to an interview, things go downhill very quickly." When Arizona's largest city began studying the possibility of light rail in the 1990s, "the people in south Phoenix said, 'Why are we being excluded? We use transportation more than anyone else,'" said Ed Pastor, a Latino Democrat who retired in 2015 as the area's representative in Congress. Planners then included the south Phoenix extension. After that, "we met all the requirements, we held over 70 public meetings," said Scott Smith, CEO of the Valley Metro regional transit authority. "But I think a lot of people weren't paying attention, and we need to go above and beyond because this is really a unique neighborhood." Faced with new protests, the Valley Metro regional transit authority scrambled this month to organize a half-dozen community meetings that each drew up to 100 people. Questions were answered. Written feedback was solicited in English and Spanish. But with a new City Council vote on the project looming this week, some supporters said they fear the project could now be up in the air. Smith said designers opted for two lanes because maintaining four could require the demolition of up to 60 buildings. He insisted that reducing four lanes to two would not slow traffic. "For people to now say they are surprised is erroneous," insisted Pastor's successor, Rep. Ruben Gallego. But distrust is high in the community of blacks and Hispanics who were once banned from housing in the white Anglo neighborhoods to the north, said south Phoenix activist Joseph Larios. "The city cited the historical disparities here to get the money, but have otherwise ignored us," said Larios, whose parents lived in Golden Gate. Celia Contreras, the owner of a window tinting business who launched the "4 Lanes or No Train" campaign, declared: "They want to shove this down our throats." But many others support the project in the community where 28 percent of the people don't have cars. They formed their own group, "Build South Central." "We have a lot of people here who cannot drive," longtime Latino resident Julian Sodari noted. Lawrence Robinson, an African American who grew up in south Phoenix, said he suspected outside light-rail opposition groups have thrown the "last-minute curveball." The council affirmed the current two-lane design in June and will review that decision Wednesday. Smith, of Valley Metro, said a council majority has consistently backed the two-lane configuration and voting differently would be a "gigantic shift" that could throw the project off schedule and risk federal funding. Two of the seven members oppose all projects involving the 26-mile (42-kilometer) light-rail system in operation since 2008. Supporters of the extension gathered Tuesday to demand that the extension proceed as planned. "For nearly a decade, community leaders south of downtown have advocated that their neighborhoods should get the same connectivity others have received," former council member and mayoral candidate Kate Gallego said. City voters in 2015 approved $31.5 billion in transportation funds that included $220 million for the south Phoenix rail extension. Another $150 million from a voter-approved regional proposition and $595 million in federal grants would provide the rest of the nearly $1 billion needed to build it. If it remains on schedule, construction could begin in 2019 and be completed in 2023. ___ Anita Snow is on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/asnowreports This Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, photo shows the headquarters of a community outreach office of the Valley Metro transit authority, which is working to provide information to the South Phoenix neighborhood about plans for a 5.5-mile extension of the light rail into the community, in Phoenix. The plan progressed quietly until some shop owners in the mostly Hispanic and black neighborhoods complained that reducing car traffic from four to two lanes on the affected thoroughfare could hurt business. (AP Photo/Anita Snow) In this Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, photo, protesters talk at a community meeting held in the South Phoenix neighborhood to provide information about plans for a 5.5-mile extension of the light rail into the community, in Phoenix. The plan progressed quietly until some shop owners in the mostly Hispanic and black neighborhoods complained that reducing car traffic from four to two lanes on the affected thoroughfare could hurt business. (AP Photo/Anita Snow) The currently proposed light rail extension would take away the median and many of the vehicular travel lanes from Central Avenue, Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018, in Phoenix. The proposed extension of Phoenix's light-rail system into the city's poorest neighborhood is running into eleventh-hour opposition from some business owners in the Hispanic and black community. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) A sign protests the building of the light-rail extension through Central Avenue, Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018, in Phoenix. The proposed extension of Phoenix's light-rail system into the city's poorest neighborhood is running into eleventh-hour opposition from some business owners in the Hispanic and black community. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) Fisheries managers are adopting a host of potentially major changes for Atlantic herring, an economically important fish that serves as key part of the ocean ecosystem in New England. Atlantic herring is a small, schooling fish that is the target of an industry that collects more than 100 million pounds (45 million kilograms) of catch every year. The fish is also the subject of concern from environmentalists and fishery managers, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said a recent assessment of the herring stock shows a decline. On Tuesday, the New England Fishery Management Council adopted a new formula that will help guide how it sets catch limits in the future. Catch limits will change based on the health of the fishery, which is updated through stock assessments. The council aims to further reduce catch limits to prevent overfishing of herring. But there were no projections available Tuesday. It also approved a coastal buffer zone to keep out mid-sized trawlers from sensitive spawning, feeding and nursery habitat. The buffer extends 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the coast in most areas but will extend to nearly 20 miles (32 kilometers) around Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Peter Baker, director of U.S. Ocean Conservation-Northeast for the Pew Charitable Trusts, praised the council's actions. "Protecting these sensitive areas from intensive fishing and rebuilding the herring population will directly benefit marine wildlife and the coastal businesses that depend on them," Baker said in a statement. Debate over the proposed changes has prompted a clash between herring fishermen, harvesters of other species, conservationists and stakeholders. The herring fishery wants to make sure it isn't unfairly penalized for the decline of the species, said Jeff Kaelin, who works in government relations for herring harvester Lund's Fisheries of Cape May, New Jersey. "Environment plays a bigger part than the level of fishing pressure that has been allowed," Kaelin said. Herring are important economically because they serve as key bait for the lobster and tuna industries. They're also used as food for human consumption. But perhaps most important, the fish is a critical part of the marine ecosystem because it serves as food for whales, seals and large fish. "Forage fish are so important to larger species and predators that we need to be doing more," said Zach Cockrum, Northeast director of Conservation Partnerships at the National Wildlife Federation. "It's time to get some rules into place." The Atlantic herring fishery is based mostly in New England, with boats coming to shore in cities like Rockland, Maine, and Gloucester, Massachusetts. The industry has already suffered one hit in recent weeks, as the NOAA announced last month that it was cutting the herring fishing quota by millions of pounds. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh (all times local): 10:15 p.m. Senate Republicans are bringing in Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to handle questioning about allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. A news release from committee chairman Chuck Grassley's office describes Mitchell as "a career prosecutor with decades of experience prosecuting sex crimes." Mitchell worked in the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in Phoenix as the chief of the Special Victims Division, which covers sex crimes and family violence. Republicans have been trying to hire outside counsel for the hearing with Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexual assault when they were teens. They say they want to avoid an overtly political process. But the panel's all-male lineup on the GOP side also prefers to have a woman questioning Ford. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., left, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., second from right, and Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, speaks with reporters about the confirmation for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, following a closed-door GOP policy meeting, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) __ 8:50 p.m. The attorney for the second woman to accuse Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct says Senate Judiciary Committee GOP staffers are involved in "game playing." John Clune said he was supposed to talk Tuesday evening with staffers about how his client, Deborah Ramirez, can tell her story. But Republicans kept changing conditions of the call. He says at one point they demanded all evidence before they'd pick up the phone. In the end, Clune joined the call and found no GOP staffers there. Clune told CNN's Anderson Cooper: "There's a lot of game playing that's going on with the majority party." Clune reiterated that Ramirez wants an FBI investigation into her claims that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drinking game at Yale University 35 years ago. Kavanaugh denies it. ___ 7 p.m. The attorney for Brett Kavanaugh's second accuser says his client wants to give a sworn statement to the FBI. John Clune tweets that he's been trying to talk to Senate Judiciary Committee staffers about how Deborah Ramirez can swear to her account of sexual misconduct by President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee. Ramirez told The New Yorker that Kavanaugh exposed his genitals to her during a party at Yale 35 years ago. "Ms. Ramirez is ready to swear to the FBI under penalty of perjury," Clune tweeted. "Why won't the Senate Judiciary Committee welcome that?" ___ 6:30 p.m. The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote Friday on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. The committee vote is being set for the day after Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford are to testify about her allegation he sexually assaulted her when they were teens. That public hearing is set for Thursday. The committee scheduled the vote as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday he was moving forward with Kavanaugh's nomination. Kavanaugh has denied Ford's claim and that of another woman who has come forward with an allegation from his time at Yale. The committee will be voting on whether to recommend Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate. Senators were told to be prepared for a rare weekend session and McConnell said he was confident Kavanugh would be confirmed. ___ 3:55 p.m. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray says President Donald Trump is sending the wrong message by diminishing the account of a woman who's accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct while both were students at Yale. Trump says Deborah Ramirez acknowledges being drunk and having gaps in her memory, casting doubt on her account. Murray asked, "How many women have heard that before? How many women have kept their experiences quiet because they knew they would hear that?" Kavanaugh has denied Ramirez's accusation. The Washington state senator was elected in 1992, a year after explosive hearings involving then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Murray says Thomas's accuser, Anita Hill, was not treated fairly. She says, "I have been very, very focused on making sure that this time around, 27 years later, this Senate acts appropriately." ___ 2:45 p.m. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's confident Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the Supreme Court. McConnell told reporters Tuesday the Senate is "moving forward" on the nomination. The GOP leader says he's "confident we're going win." Pressed if he had the 50 votes needed for Kavanaugh amid sexual assault allegations from the judge's time as a teenager, the Kentucky Republican indicated he did. McConnell says he's confident Kavanaugh "will be confirmed in the very near future." The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hear Thursday from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexual assault from high school. The committee could vote Friday. Senators may stay in session over the weekend to begin voting on the nominee, with a final vote possible early next week. ___ 2:15 p.m. Senate Republicans are considering a weekend session to begin the process of voting on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. A final vote on Kavanaugh could come early next week, according to a GOP aide not authorized to discuss the plans on the record and who insisted on anonymity. Kavanaugh is set to appear Thursday for a Judiciary Committee hearing with Christine Blasey Ford, who accuses him of sexual assault when they were teens. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. After the hearing, the Judiciary panel could vote as soon as Friday on whether to recommend Kavanaugh's confirmation to the full Senate. Then the Senate could take up the nomination over the weekend. Senators are being told to keep their schedules open. Republicans worry that prolonging the process for Kavanaugh would open him to more rumors and accusations about his past, which they say are being orchestrated by Democrats. -Lisa Mascaro ___ 12:20 p.m. Republicans have hired a female attorney to handle questioning during this week's hearing with Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The attorney's name has not been released. The hire was confirmed by a GOP aide to the Senate Judiciary Committee who was not authorized to speak publicly. Ford's lawyers have objected to Republicans hiring someone they call an "experienced sex crimes prosecutor." They say the move is inconsistent with the GOP pledge to avoid a "circus." Attorney Michael R. Bromwich asked Republicans for the name of the attorney and the opportunity to meet with her before Thursday's hearing. Republicans want a woman to conduct their questioning of Ford, who accuses Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teens. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. All 11 Republicans on the Senate panel are men. -Lisa Mascaro ___ 12: 15 p.m. The attorney for the second woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct says she wants an FBI investigation. Attorney John Clune tweeted that he is in contact with the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said: "We remain adamant that an FBI investigation, where all witnesses are questioned under threat of perjury, is the only way to get the truth." Clune said his client, Deborah Ramirez, stands by her account of drunken wrongdoing by Kavanaugh that she told to The New Yorker. The account was published Sunday. Ramirez alleges that while in his first year at Yale University, Kavanaugh put his genitals in her face after a drinking game. Kavanaugh denies the accusation. ___ 12:10 p.m. President Donald Trump says Democrats are playing a "con game" against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Trump is seeking to cast doubt on sexual misconduct allegations lodged against Kavanaugh by a Yale classmate, Deborah Ramirez, who made her claims in an article published in The New Yorker magazine. Trump says Ramirez says it might not have been Kavanaugh and there were gaps in her memory. He says she says "she was totally inebriated and all messed up." Trump says: "This is a con game being played by the Democrats." Kavanaugh is set to testify Thursday at a public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, is also expected to testify. ___ 11:15 a.m. A key Republican senator is indicating she believes there should be a new FBI investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after allegations of sexual misconduct. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is one of a handful of Senate Republicans undecided on Kavanaugh's confirmation. When asked Tuesday if there should be a full FBI investigation about the claims, she said: "Well, it would sure clear up all the questions, wouldn't it?" President Donald Trump and most Senate Republicans have said an FBI investigation isn't needed. Kavanaugh and his initial accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, will testify Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ford says he sexually assaulted her when both were teenagers. A second woman told the New Yorker magazine that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her in college. Kavanaugh denies both claims. ___ 11 a.m. The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell owes Christine Blasey Ford an apology for calling her allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh a smear job. Schumer says "he should apologize to her immediately." Two women have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct decades ago. He has denied sexually assaulting anyone. Schumer, the minority leader, also says it is galling that McConnell is making charges of partisanship by Democrats. He says McConnell has done more than maybe anyone else to politicize the Supreme Court nomination process. Schumer says that if McConnell truly believed the allegations were a partisan attack, he would join Democrats in calling for a background investigation. Schumer says "I think they're afraid of the facts." ___ 10:35 a.m. The Senate's top Republican says unconfirmed, decades-old allegations of sexual misconduct by Brett Kavanaugh are no reason to block his Supreme Court nomination. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says such charges are "nowhere near" a reason to "nullify someone's career." He says in the United States, accused people are supposed to be treated with fairness and a presumption of innocence. McConnell's emphasis on fairness comes as Republican leaders have ramped up efforts to solidify support for Kavanaugh among GOP senators. Christine Blasey Ford has accused Kavanaugh of molesting her during an early 1980s high school party. Deborah Ramirez has said Kavanaugh forced her to touch his penis during a Yale dormitory party when both were freshmen. Kavanaugh has denied both allegations. McConnell says the Senate will vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation soon. ___ 7:25 a.m. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says "we would be open" to Deborah Ramirez, a second woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, testify before the Senate Judiciary panel this week. Sanders says that "process could take place on Thursday," when Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has separately accused him of assaulting her in high school, are scheduled to testify. She says President Donald Trump "has said a number of times these individuals should be heard." At the same time, she noted that Kavanaugh has been "unequivocal in his denial" of sexual assault allegations. She adds, "This is a country where you're innocent until proven guilty except when you're a conservative Republican." Republicans have accused Democrats of a smear campaign by using the women's accusations of misconduct by Kavanaugh in high school and college to try to defeat his nomination. ___ 12:40 a.m. Brett Kavanaugh says he won't let "false accusations" drive him from his quest to win Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court. That's part of an aggressive drive by President Donald Trump and top Republicans to rally the public and GOP senators behind Kavanaugh's teetering nomination. Trump and Republican leaders are accusing Democrats of a smear campaign by using accusations by two women of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh in the 1980s to try scuttling his Senate confirmation. There were no immediate indications that the emergence of a second accuser had fatally wounded Kavanaugh's prospects. But Republicans tried projecting unflinching support for Kavanaugh that included the nominee taking the unusual step of defending himself in a television interview. Kavanaugh said Monday on Fox News Channel, "I've never sexually assaulted anyone." Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., talk with reporters, on Capitol Hill, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018 in Washington. Denouncing his accusers for launching "smears, pure and simple," Brett Kavanaugh said Monday he'll continue fighting for Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court, even as Republicans battled to prevent a second woman's assertion of a long-ago sexual assault from derailing his nomination. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) President Donald Trump answers a reporters question about Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque at the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at U.N. Headquarters. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) New York, Sept 27, 2018 (SPS) the President of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, H.E. Mr. Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, has reaffirmed his country steadfast solidarity with the just cause of the people of Western Sahara in his address yesterday at the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly held in New York under the theme the UN Nelson Mandela Peace Summit We reaffirm our steadfast solidarity with the Saharan people, and support the search for a final solution to the question of Western Sahara, which will allow the exercise of self-determination and to live in peace in their territory. Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez said in his speech The annual General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly is the occasion for world leaders to gather at UN Headquarters to discuss global issues, such as peace, stability, security and development in the world. SPS 125/090/TRA FARGO, N.D. (AP) - The Latest on the trial of William Hoehn, who is charged with conspiracy in the killing of a pregnant woman whose baby was cut from her womb (all times local): 4 p.m. A North Dakota woman convicted of killing her pregnant neighbor says she never told a fellow inmate that she strangled Savanna Greywind and cut the baby out of her womb. Brooke Crews testified Tuesday in the trial of her ex-boyfriend, William Hoehn, who is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2017 death of Greywind. Crews is serving a life sentence. After a nearly three-hour break, defense attorney Daniel Borgen said he received "new information" from Jennifer Robinson, who's incarcerated in the same New England prison as Crews. Crews denied the claim about strangling Greywind, as well as Robinson's assertions that Hoehn and Greywind were having an affair and, according to Borgen, the baby was "possibly William's." William Hoehn, center, listens to the charges read against him on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018, in Fargo, N.D., for the murder of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a 22-year-old whoss baby was cut from her womb. Hoehn is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind, who was eight months pregnant when she was killed in August 2017. (Michael Vosburg/The Forum via AP, Pool) Crews says she has "very rarely" spoken about the case. Attorneys in the case say closing arguments will likely be held on Thursday. ___ 12:20 p.m. A North Dakota woman has testified that she never "explicitly" told her ex-boyfriend that she planned to murder their pregnant neighbor and cut the baby from her womb. Brooke Crews pleaded guilty to murder and is serving life in prison without parole in the killing of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind in August 2017. Crews is testifying Tuesday at the trial of William Hoehn, who is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death. Hoehn, of Fargo, has admitted to helping cover up the crime but says he didn't know Crews was going to kill Greywind for the baby. Crews has testified that she felt pressured by Hoehn to "produce a baby," but under cross-examination by defense attorney Daniel Borgen, Crews said Hoehn didn't tell her to kill Greywind for the newborn. ___ 11:45 a.m. A North Dakota woman convicted of killing her pregnant neighbor by cutting the baby from her womb says police missed the victim's body and her newborn in three searches of her apartment. Brooke Crews is testifying in the trial of her ex-boyfriend, William Hoehn, who is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2017 death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind of Fargo. Greywind was killed after going to the couple's apartment to help with a sewing project. Her disappearance sparked massive searches before her body turned up in the Red River near Fargo a few days later. Greywind's baby survived. Crews testified that during one police search of the couple's apartment, Greywind's body was in the bathroom closet and the baby was covered up next to Hoehn on a bed. She says Hoehn eventually moved Greywind's body to a hollowed-out dresser and the two of them took it out of the apartment. ___ 10:55 a.m. A North Dakota woman convicted of killing her pregnant neighbor by cutting the baby from her womb says her then-boyfriend told her that she "needed to produce a baby." Brooke Crews testified Tuesday that she lied to William Hoehn, telling him she was pregnant, in order to prolong the relationship. Crews says Hoehn didn't believe her and made comments about 22-year-old Savanna Greywind being pregnant that she understood to mean he wanted their neighbor's baby. Crews says nevertheless that Hoehn's appeared surprised when he came home to discover she had sliced the child from Greywind's womb. Hoehn is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of Greywind. He has admitted to covering up the crime and pleaded guilty to kidnapping, but says he didn't know Crews' planned to kill Greywind and take the baby. ___ 9:05 a.m. A woman convicted of killing a pregnant North Dakota woman by cutting her baby from her womb is testifying in the trial of her former boyfriend. William Hoehn (hayn) is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2017 death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind. Brooke Crews, who pleaded guilty earlier and was sentenced to life in prison without parole, took the stand on Tuesday, the sixth day of the trial. Hoehn has admitted that he helped Crews cover up the crime, but has said he didn't know of her plan to kill Greywind. Hoehn has pleaded guilty to other charges in the case. Greywind's death prompted a North Dakota senator to introduce Savanna's Act, which aims to improve tribal access to federal crime databases, among other things. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Worried they would lack big-name candidates at the top of the ticket this November, California Republicans turned to a ballot measure that would eliminate a recent gas tax increase in hopes of exciting conservatives and ensuring they show up to support lower-profile legislative and congressional candidates. A potential similar strategy for 2020 emerged Tuesday, when a conservative radio host who is the public face behind this year's gas tax initiative announced he will pursue another measure - this one eliminating the state's beleaguered high-speed rail project. Though it's a presidential election year, California is overwhelmingly Democratic and a Republican hasn't won the state since 2006. Early phases of construction have begun on the train meant to take passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours. But the $77 billion project championed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and his supporters has seen costs spike and the completion date pushed back. "This is a colossal failure of these politicians, and you don't want to throw good money after bad," said Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego city councilman who now hosts a radio show. The 2020 initiative also would change the state Constitution to require all fees related to transportation - from the gas tax to taxes on vehicle sales and car insurance - be spent only on transportation-related projects. Those dollars could not go to the general fund. Carl DeMaio, who is leading the Proposition 6 campaign to repeal a recent gas tax increase, gestures to a ballot measure he is proposing to provide money for road repairs and eliminate high-speed rail on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. The 2020 initiative would change the state constitution to require that revenue from existing gas taxes be spent only for road and bridge work. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) It's backed by DeMaio and others behind Proposition 6, which will ask voters this November if they want to repeal a 12-cent gas tax hike and increases in vehicle registration fees approved by lawmakers last year. Proposition 6 was funded in part by California's Republican congressional delegation, including Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 Republican in the U.S. House who is seeking to replace Paul Ryan as speaker. It was an unusual intervention by elected U.S. officials in a state political campaign. They gave their support when it looked possible that no Republican would be in the races for governor and U.S. Senate this November. Republicans feared that would depress turnout among conservatives and allow Democrats to win close contests down the ballot, potentially giving them control of the U.S. House. They dodged that scenario, however, when Republican businessman John Cox snagged the second position in California's gubernatorial primary, in which the top two finishers advance to the general election regardless of party. The U.S. Senate race has two Democrats and no Republicans. In 2020, California will have neither a Senate nor governor's race on the ballot. "I have to believe that it's an issue that's being used because Trump doesn't generate turnout, doesn't generate excitement in California," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a public policy professor at the University of Southern California, said of the latest initiative. Thad Kousser, chairman of the political science department at University of California, San Diego, said he's skeptical ballot measures can tip an election. "I don't think there's any state initiative - and certainly not these - that's going to make people more motivated to turn out than their view of whether they are loving or hating President Trump," he said. California's high-speed rail project has become politically fraught. A poll conducted in March by the Public Policy Institute of California found tepid support for rail and overwhelming opposition among Republicans. Forty-six percent of likely voters said they support the project, with 52 percent opposed. Among Republicans, just 28 percent supported it, with 69 percent opposed. Independents were evenly split, while two-thirds of Democrats supported it. DeMaio said his proposals have nothing to do with driving Republican turnout and predicted conservative voters will be motivated regardless. "I think turnout's going to be healthy in 2020," DeMaio said. "I don't think there's a turnout problem." Voters approved roughly $10 billion in bonds in 2008 to construct the high-speed train. It was supposed to cost about $40 billion. Now, the cost has ballooned to an expected $77 billion, with the completion date pushed to 2033. Construction is underway in the state's Central Valley agricultural heartland, but officials don't have enough money to complete the first phase from Bakersfield to San Francisco. The project has between $20 billion and $28 billion in hand. Its funding comes from the bonds, federal dollars and revenue from the state's cap-and-trade program that requires businesses to buy credits to emit greenhouse gases. The proposed ballot measure would halt funding for high-speed rail, force the state to cease activities on it and use any unspent bond money to retire the debt. The federal money has already been spent. Some Democratic lawmakers have grown frustrated by the problems with California's largest single infrastructure project. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said he supports it but is concerned about its financing. Cox, the GOP candidate, says he would kill the project. ___ Associated Press writer Kathleen Ronayne contributed. Carl DeMaio, who is leading the Proposition 6 campaign to repeal a recent gas tax increase, discusses a ballot measure he is proposing to provide money for road repairs and eliminate high-speed rail on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. The 2020 initiative would change the state constitution to require that revenue from existing gas taxes be spent only for road and bridge work. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Carol Stearns, left, joins other at a news conference to support a proposed ballot measure to provide money for road repairs and eliminate high-speed rail on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. The 2020 initiative would change the state constitution to require that revenue from existing gas taxes be spent only for road and bridge work. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Carl DeMaio, who is leading the Proposition 6 campaign, to repeal a recent gas tax increase, discusses a ballot measure he is proposing to provide money for road repairs and eliminate high-speed rail on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. The 2020 initiative would change the state constitution to require that revenue from existing gas taxes be spent only for road and bridge work. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) BATESVILLE, Miss. (AP) - The Latest on a trial (all times local): 6 p.m. Mississippi emergency workers say that a dying woman was hard to understand, but many say they heard her say that someone named Eric had set her on fire. At least six firefighters and paramedics testified Tuesday they heard Jessica Chambers say what they understood as Eric. Earlier, a speech pathologist testified that Chambers was so severely burned that she wouldn't have been able to produce "articulate" sound. The five men and one woman testified Tuesday in the capital murder retrial of Quinton Tellis, who is accused of killing Jessica Chambers in 2014 by setting her on fire. Jurors couldn't reach a verdict in the first trial last year. Tellis' defense lawyers say prosecutors have the wrong man on trial and are urging jurors to believe what firefighters, paramedics and others heard on a roadside on the outskirts of rural Courtland. Dr. Carolyn Wiles Higdon testifies during the first day of the retrial of Quinton Tellis in Batesville, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 25 2018. Tellis is charged with burning 19-year-old Jessica Chambers to death almost three years ago on Dec. 6, 2014. Tellis has pleaded not guilty to the murder. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal via AP, Pool) Prosecutors say evidence including cellphone locations, video, DNA on a keychain, Tellis' statements and a witness point to him killing Chambers. 3:45 p.m. At least four Mississippi emergency workers say they heard a dying woman tell them someone named Eric had set her on fire. The men testified Tuesday in the capital murder retrial of Quinton Tellis, who is accused of killing Jessica Chambers in 2014 by setting her on fire. Jurors couldn't reach a verdict in the first trial last year. Earlier Tuesday, a speech pathologist testified that Chambers was so severely burned that she wouldn't have been able to produce "articulate" sound. Tellis' defense lawyers say prosecutors have the wrong man on trial and are urging jurors to believe what firefighters, paramedics and others heard on a roadside on the outskirts of rural Courtland. Prosecutors say evidence including cellphone locations, video, DNA on a keychain and Tellis' statements point to him killing Chambers. ___ Noon A speech pathologist says a Mississippi woman who suffered fatal burns could not speak clearly after she was set on fire. Carolyn Wiles Higdon testified Tuesday in the trial of Quinton Tellis, who is being retried for capital murder in the 2014 death of Jessica Chambers. Jurors couldn't reach a verdict in the first trial last year. Higdon says Chambers was so severely burned that she wouldn't have been able to produce "articulate" sound within two to three minutes after she was burned. That testimony could help undercut a key defense argument - that multiple emergency workers heard a dying Chambers say someone named "Eric" attacked her. Defense attorneys urged jurors to trust that testimony - a foundation of their arguments in the first trial. Prosecutors say evidence pointed to Tellis killing Chambers. ___ 10 a.m. Prosecutors say evidence will show a man killed a Mississippi woman by setting her on fire, but defense attorneys say prosecutors can't prove it and that someone else killed her. Quinton Tellis is being retried on capital murder charges in the death of Jessica Chambers in 2014, after jurors couldn't reach a verdict in a first trial last year. This trial could last a week. Prosecutors say cellphone locations, video, DNA on a keychain and Tellis' statements link him to Chambers' death. A new witness may testify she picked up Tellis that night near where Chambers was burned. The defense emphasizes multiple emergency workers heard the dying Chambers say someone named "Eric" attacked her. Tellis faces another murder indictment in 2015's death of Meing-Chen Hsiao in Monroe, Louisiana. Quinton Tellis, right, is seen on the first day of his retrial in Batesville, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 25 2018. Tellis is charged with burning 19-year-old Jessica Chambers to death almost three years ago on Dec. 6, 2014. Tellis has pleaded not guilty to the murder. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal via AP, Pool) Deputy Prosecutor Jay Hale makes an opening statement on the first day of the retrial of Quinton Tellis in Batesville, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 25 2018. Tellis is charged with burning 19-year-old Jessica Chambers to death almost three years ago on Dec. 6, 2014. Tellis has pleaded not guilty to the murder. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal via AP, Pool) Federal safety officials blame two Air Canada pilots for coming within 10 to 20 feet of crashing their jetliner into a plane on the ground last year in San Francisco. The Air Canada pilots were apparently confused because one of two parallel runways was closed and dark before the late-night incident. The crew was seconds from landing their Airbus A320 jet on a taxiway where other planes loaded with passengers were waiting to take off. "We could not have gotten literally or figuratively any closer to having a major disaster," said the safety board's vice chairman, Bruce Landsberg, during a hearing Tuesday in Washington. Underscoring the severity of the incident, the NTSB's top aviation-safety staffer, John DeLisi, said it was the first time the board considered a major investigation for an event in which there were no injuries or damaged planes. The board said the Air Canada crew mistook the taxiway for a runway because they didn't adequately review a warning to all pilots about one of the runways being closed for construction. The board cited other mistakes and crew fatigue as contributing factors. Air Canada did not immediately respond to requests for comment. FILE - This composite of file images released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows Air Canada flight 759 (ACA 759) attempting to land at the San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco on July 7, 2017. At top is a map of the runway created from Harris Symphony OpsVue radar track data analysis. At center is from a transmission to air traffic control from a United Airlines airplane on the taxiway. The bottom image, taken from San Francisco International Airport video and annotated by source, shows the Air Canada plane flying just above a United Airlines flight waiting on the taxiway. Video captured the moment that an off-course Air Canada jet flew just a few dozen feet over the tops of four other jetliners filled with passengers. On Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, the National Transportation Safety Board will consider the probable cause of the close call at the airport. (NTSB via AP, File) The safety board recommended the development of technology to warn pilots and air traffic controllers when a landing plane appears to be aimed at a taxiway instead of a runway. It also said the Federal Aviation Administration should consider better lighting and markings to warn pilots about closed runways. The cockpit voice recorder might have helped investigators better understand how the near-accident unfolded. However, the recording was taped over because the NTSB wasn't notified of the incident for nearly two days. "When we learned of a passenger airliner almost touching down on a taxiway occupied by four other airliners, we elected to launch a full investigation," DeLisi said. The July 2017 incident occurred just before midnight - it felt like 3 a.m. to the pilots, who had taken off from Toronto. The safety board recommended that Canada strengthen rules to prevent pilot fatigue. The safety board's chairman, Robert Sumwalt, urged the FAA and Canadian officials to adopt the recommendations "so that we do not have to relearn the lessons of this incident at a far greater cost." The Air Canada crew was cleared to land on 28R, to the right of 28L. According to a preliminary NTSB report , the pilots thought the lighted runway was 28L - not theirs - and they aimed their jet to land to the right of that, on a parallel taxiway where the other planes were waiting to take off. According to the NTSB, the pilots told investigators that they didn't see planes on the taxiway, but that something did not look right. A United Airlines pilot in one of the planes warned air traffic controllers about the onrushing Air Canada jet, and pilots on a Philippine Airlines jet switched on their landing lights in an apparent warning maneuver. The Air Canada pilots abandoned the landing and pulled their plane up just in time to avoid catastrophe. An NTSB staff member said Tuesday that they calculated the plane flew 10 feet to 20 feet above the first of the four waiting jetliners, then circled and returned for a safe landing. Both pilots of the Airbus A320, which was arriving from Toronto, were experienced. The captain, who was flying the plane, had more than 20,000 hours of flying time, and the co-pilot had about 10,000 hours. In May, federal officials blamed pilot error for three other close calls in the previous 16 months at the San Francisco airport. Pilots say that the airport, with parallel runways close to each other, requires special attention during landings. The Air Canada incident led the FAA to issue new rules for the airport covering nighttime landings when one of the runways is closed and better late-night control-tower staffing. FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2017 file photo, an Air Canada plane prepares to land on a runway at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. Video captured the moment that an off-course Air Canada jet flew just a few dozen feet over the tops of four other jetliners filled with passengers. On Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, the National Transportation Safety Board will consider the probable cause of the close call at the airport. Plane pictured is not the plane the NTSB will review. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2107 file photo, the air traffic control tower is in sight as a plane takes off from San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. Video captured the moment that an off-course Air Canada jet flew just a few dozen feet over the tops of four other jetliners filled with passengers. On Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, the National Transportation Safety Board will consider the probable cause of the close call at the airport. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A man drove an Alaska Native woman to a dark street, said he would kill her and choked her until she blacked out. He then masturbated on her face. Originally charged with kidnapping, 34-year-old Justin Schneider pleaded guilty to a single count of felony assault in a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced last week to two years in prison with one year suspended. Having already spent a year in home confinement, he stepped out of the courtroom with no more time to serve. The case has stirred outrage, with victims' advocates pointing to it as another example of a lenient sentence for a crime against women amid the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. The judge said he thought the sentence was too light but deferred to prosecutors on what could be proven at trial. Advocates are pushing to oust Superior Court Judge Michael Corey in November when he faces a vote to keep him on the bench, months after a successful recall of a California judge who sentenced former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to six months in prison for sexual assault. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, an independent facing re-election, vows to change state law that does not classify Schneider's actions as a sex crime. In this Aug. 17, 2017 photo Eagle River resident Justin Schneider appears in Anchorage district court. The Alaska Department of Law stood by a judge's sentence that calls for no jail time for Schneider who authorities say offered a woman a ride and choked her until she was unconscious. Schneider, 34, pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault in the case. A kidnapping charge was dropped as part of the plea deal. (Kirsten Swann/Anchorage Daily News via AP) "The punishment in this case in no way matched the severity of the crime," Walker said in a statement. "We must fix this problem immediately, and we will." Walker plans to announce proposed legislation this week that will make a conviction for unwanted contact with semen a sex offense carrying prison time of two to 12 years and mandated registration as a sex offender. The case comes in a state with some of the highest sexual assault and domestic violence rates in the nation. The victim was an Alaska Native woman, a group that faces the highest sexual assault rate in Alaska at 42 percent. The Associated Press recently reported how Native American women face disproportionate levels of violent crime. The woman, identified in court documents by her initials, L.K., told an Anchorage detective on Aug. 8, 2017, that she was standing outside a gas station early in the afternoon, looking for a ride to her boyfriend's home. Schneider rolled up in an SUV. He pretended he knew her and offered her a ride. Schneider, who worked as an air traffic controller until his arrest, headed toward the airport instead, claiming he needed to pick up items from another vehicle. He stopped on a dead-end street, parked near a car and asked the woman to step out so he could load the truck. That's when the 6-foot-4 (193-centimeter) man attacked. L.K. awoke to find Schneider standing over her, zipping up his pants. When he drove off, the woman recorded his license plate, called 911 and went to a hospital. The detective who interviewed L.K. described her as so traumatized, she could hardly speak. She later picked out Schneider in a photo lineup. "It's absolutely appalling that he walked away free," said Elizabeth Williams, a social worker and former volunteer rape counselor organizing the effort to oust the judge. She said Judge Corey "makes zero reference to the lifelong impact this had on the victim. It's like she just disappeared from the story." Corey did not respond to a request for an interview passed through the court administrator's office. At sentencing, Corey explained why he was about to give Schneider a sentence that was an "outlier," noting that the sentence leaned far more heavily on Schneider's rehabilitation than other required considerations. "I think those who learn about what's transpiring here today would find the result breathtaking," he said. Corey said the prosecutors who made the terms of the plea deal, including assistant district attorney Andrew Grannik, knew far more about the case than he did and what could be proven. "I think it speaks volumes that an individual such as Mr. Grannik is advocating for the acceptance of what at first blush would really, quite frankly, strike me as way too light of a sentence," the judge said. Even if Schneider had been convicted of all the original charges, he would not be in prison the rest of his life, Corey said. John Skidmore, Alaska Department of Law criminal division director, said the state would not have been able to prove kidnapping at trial. It requires the victim to be "restrained" or moved against her will. "Additional investigation determined that the victim willingly got into Mr. Schneider's vehicle and willingly drove with him to the location of the assault," he said. The prosecutor believed Schneider needed sex offender treatment and the only way to ensure that was by making it part of probation conditions in a plea agreement, he said in a statement. Because the unwanted contact with semen isn't considered a sex crime in Alaska, Schneider will not have to register as a sex offender. He was convicted of the next most serious charge. With no previous convictions, the sentencing range was zero to two years, Skidmore said. "Though it is understandable that some feel his sentence was not sufficiently harsh, all prosecutors are ethically required to follow the law, no matter how disturbing the facts may be," Skidmore said. Williams said the judge could have rejected the plea deal. She started a Facebook page to inform voters and said messages have poured in, predominantly from women, especially Alaska Native women who say they've seen similar behavior all their lives and they're sick of it. "This is another example of Alaska letting them down," Williams said. In this photo taken Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, leaves litter a street that was the scene of a 2017 attack on a woman in Anchorage, Alaska. Sexual violence advocates say the sentencing of defendant Justin Schneider to two years in prison with one suspended was too lenient and they're asking voters to not retain the sentencing judge in Alaska's November election. (AP Photo/Dan Joling) UNITED NATIONS (AP) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday he wants a more constructive relationship with Russia - even as the Western alliance is taking measures to respond to Moscow's increasing military assertiveness. It's a delicate balancing act. Stoltenberg met Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and neither side showed signs of backing down from their firm, wary military posture. Such meetings are rare, as NATO-Russia contacts have waned since the Ukraine conflict broke out in 2014. Speaking to The Associated Press shortly before the meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly , Stoltenberg expressed concern about Russia's military interference in Ukraine and Georgia, support for Syria's Bashar Assad, and the buildup of Russia's naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean. "When we have serious disagreements, when we see increased tensions, when we see more military presence close to our borders, it's actually even more important to have dialogue," Stoltenberg said in an interview. Russia is deeply bitter about NATO's expansion since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and sees NATO activity in eastern Europe as unwarranted interference in Russia's geographical backyard. Improving communication between NATO and Russia could help defuse tensions, Stoltenberg said, as long as conflicts like that in Ukraine remain unresolved. "At least to manage a difficult relationship, to avoid miscalculations, misunderstandings that can trigger really serious incidents or accidents and make sure that if they happen, make sure that they don't spiral out of control." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia, center, listen as American President Donald Trump addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Asked about Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's recent comment that his country's military aims to meet the criteria for NATO membership by 2020, Stoltenberg indicated that NATO wouldn't be seeking Russia's permission for Kiev to join the alliance. "It's for Ukraine to decide its own path, whether they want to join NATO or not," he said. "At the end of the day it will be 29 allies and Ukraine that decides whether Ukraine is ready to meet the standards of joining NATO." Stoltenberg said NATO wants to avoid a return to Cold War days. But he noted that the alliance is deploying battle groups to its eastern members for the first time, stepping up its presence in the eastern Mediterranean and will soon hold the biggest exercise in the Norwegian Sea in a generation - Trident Juncture - involving land, air and naval forces. Stoltenberg said he told Lavrov of NATO's concerns about Russian aggressiveness abroad, and that they discussed Trident Juncture and Russia's recent Vostok military exercises - their biggest in recent history. Stoltenberg announced no specific progress after Tuesday's meeting but said they agreed to continue contacts. Lavrov looked less upbeat, stalking away and refusing to comment on how it went. The Russian Foreign Ministry said they discussed the "current state of political dialogue, and prospects for Russia-NATO relations." The meeting may have been clouded by Russian anger over Norway's arrest last week of a Russian parliamentary aide accused of spying. Stoltenberg is a former Norwegian minister. Lavrov assailed the espionage accusations as "propaganda" and huffed ironically about "Norwegian hospitality." ___ Follow Frank Jordans and Angela Charlton on Twitter at @wirereporter and @acharlton. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A former New Mexico priest, who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse, appeared in U.S. District Court on Tuesday as a federal magistrate decided to keep the 80-year-old behind bars pending trial as his accusers in the audience applauded. Defense Attorney Samuel Winder argued that Arthur Perrault was not a flight risk as he had no passport, no family and no means of leaving the country. But prosecutors described him as a danger to the community who fled before. "He is known to manipulate and gain the trust of people," federal Prosecutor Sean Sullivan told U.S. Magistrate Karen Molzen. "Honestly, a jail setting is the best setting for the defendant to be." Molzen agreed and called Perrault a "very charming man" who once fled to a country that didn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S. Court documents filed late last week said victims described Perrault showering them with gifts and meals before abusing them. They also described Perrault as someone who smoked pipes and wore silk underwear. The documents said the Connecticut-born Perrault also once wrote an apology letter to the parents of one victim in 1971 and blamed his actions on cancer, which prosecutors said he was never diagnosed with. FILE - This 1989 file photo shows Father Arthur Perrault in Albuquerque, N.M. Perrault, who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse and once blamed his behavior on a cancer diagnosis which prosecutors say he didn't have, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File) Perrault was extradited to New Mexico last week from Morocco in connection with sexual abuse cases that are said to have taken place between 1991 and 1992 at Kirtland Air Force Base and Santa Fe National Cemetery. The former Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and a former Air Force chaplain has been charged in a federal indictment with seven counts of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact. Perrault pleaded not guilty in his first court appearance Friday. He also told a U.S. magistrate judge he'd had a stroke three years ago, was deaf in one ear, and had trouble walking. In court Tuesday, a frail Perrault repeatedly asked a judge and lawyers to speak up and needed headphones to listen to arguments. Winder, his attorney, said he had not seen all the evidence in the case. But he cautioned that Perrault's health remained fragile. "He doesn't have any relatives. He can't hear very well," Winder said. Winder suggested that he may ask a federal judge to reconsider the decision to hold Perrault until his trial and instead have he assigned to a halfway house. After the detention hearing, Perrault's accusers and their families - some who were seen crying - left without talking to reporters. Perrault, a one-time pastor at St. Bernadette parish in Albuquerque, is one of many priests sent to New Mexico in the 1960s from around the country for treatment involving pedophilia. Victims, lawyers and church documents show the priests were later assigned to parishes and schools across New Mexico - especially in Native American and Hispanic communities. Perrault vanished in 1992, just days before an attorney filed two lawsuits against the archdiocese alleging Perrault had sexually assaulted seven children at his parish. The FBI said Perrault first fled to Canada and then to Tangier, Morocco, where he worked until last year at an English-language school for children. Perrault denied abusing children in a handwritten letter sent in November 2016 to a judge related to sexual abuse lawsuits in Albuquerque. Perrault said his assets included money from military retirement and Social Security. Church records released last year by a New Mexico judge show Perrault is also accused in state lawsuits of sexually abusing at least 38 boys in other cases. Records also show Perrault was sent in 1965 to Servants of the Paraclete - a religious order that ran a treatment center for pedophile priests in Jemez Springs, New Mexico - after he was accused of molesting young men while serving in Connecticut. ___ Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras FILE -This 1989 file photo shows Father Arthur Perrault in Albuquerque, N.M. Perrault, a fugitive priest who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse has been returned to New Mexico to face charges after being arrested in Morocco last year, federal officials said Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. (The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File) Cindy Leech, center, is greeted by Judy Deaven at the steps of the state Capitol at the conclusion of a march in support of legislation that would change the statute of limitations for child sex crimes, in Harrisburg, Pa., Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. A proposal to give victims of child sexual abuse a two-year window to sue over allegations that would otherwise be too old to pursue was overwhelmingly approved by the state House on Monday, as supporters cheered from the gallery. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) After announcing his support of legislation to change the statute of limitations on child sex abuse crimes, State Sen. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat, facing camera, hugs Rep. Mark Rozzi, himself an abuse victim, at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. A proposal to give victims of child sexual abuse a two-year window to sue over allegations that would otherwise be too old to pursue was overwhelmingly approved by the state House on Monday, as supporters cheered from the gallery. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) Daniel Dye, center, senior prosecutor for state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, acknowledges applause for his role in producing a report on child sex abuse in the Catholic church, in the Pennsylvania state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. A proposal to give victims of child sexual abuse a two-year window to sue over allegations that would otherwise be too old to pursue was overwhelmingly approved by the state House on Monday, as supporters cheered from the gallery. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) BALTIMORE (AP) - A former National Security Agency employee has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for taking top secret U.S. defense materials back to his Maryland home. Nghia Hoang Pho of Ellicott City, Maryland, had earlier pleaded guilty to willful retention of national defense information. At his Tuesday sentencing, Pho explained in faltering English that he took copies of U.S. government documents and writings containing national defense information so that he could work from home. He says he was trying to earn a promotion as he neared retirement. Pho was born in Vietnam and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He worked as a developer in the National Security Agency's Tailored Access Operations unit, which is involved in cyber operations. The charges carried a maximum sentence of 10 years. WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is offering a dim view of females serving in infantry jobs, telling Virginia Military Institute students that the jury is out on whether women can succeed in combat. Mattis says there are too few women in the infantry ranks to provide enough data on how it's going. He says he has asked top Army and Marine leaders for information to determine if having women in the infantry is a strength or weakness. In 2013, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta opened the door to women serving in combat jobs. Two years later, all combat posts were opened to women. Mattis says a few "stalwart young ladies" are charging into the jobs and the military wants to give this every opportunity to succeed. VMI is in Lexington, Virginia. UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Lots of leaders saying lots of things about lots of topics - topics that matter to them, to their regions, to the world. That's what the speechmaking at the U.N. General Assembly invariably produces each year. And each year, certain enormous topics and certain louder voices dominate. Here, The Associated Press takes the opposite approach and spotlights some thoughts you might not have heard - the voices of leaders speaking at the United Nations who might not have captured the headlines and the air time on Tuesday. ___ "Our nation was forged by the ocean. We are acutely aware of the challenges that poses with the threat of climate change. However, the ocean also presents a myriad of untapped opportunities." - Danny Faure, president of the Seychelles, whose very existence is threatened by the rising seas that accompany climate change. Seychelles President Danny Faure addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) ___ "Perhaps because I see from this wheelchair, I see through the eyes of the heart. When you have legs, you look ahead of you and above you. However, when you're seated in a wheelchair, you see horizontally, and you see below you. And you discover other realities, other worlds. You see those who only encounter barriers to move forward, to continue, including even to be able to live. Barriers of different types - mistreatments, xenophobia, racism, injustice, machismo, inequality. In other words, to sum it up, exclusion. This story is not only my story. It's the story of billions of people around the world. ... There are so many brothers and sisters who are abandoned and forgotten, and there are so many people who walk right by without even noticing them." - Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno, who uses a wheelchair after being shot in the back and paralyzed from the waist down during a 1998 robbery: ___ "My friends, there is no such thing as a unilateral agreement. It takes at least two parties to make an agreement." - King Abdullah of Jordan, on the efforts needed to create statehood for the Palestinian people. ___ Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari: "Migration is a constant in human affairs. We in Africa are grateful to countries who treat migrants with compassion and humanity." - Muhammadu Buhari, president of Nigeria ___ "Let us admit that there will always be economic inequality of nations. And yes, we all have something to offer to humanity. But those with more resources and power must step out to offer more. Let us remember - power is not status. Power is responsibility. Leadership is not prestige. Leadership is responsibility. We must define global leadership in terms of global responsibility." - Peter Mutharika, president of Malawi ___ Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report. Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno Garces addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Malawi's President Arthur Peter Mutharika addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at the United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) The John Simpson, Sr. stakes series, honouring the late Hall of Fame horseman and executive, got underway at Harrahs Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon with two-year-old filly action, with over $190,000 in combined purses for three divisions of pacers and two of trotters. In the first pace, the Well Said- Ladys Portrait filly Renaissance Lady K was sent to the front by driver George Napolitano, Jr. before the :27.3 quarter, then the pair got to the half in :56.3. Favoured Philly Hanover launched uncovered from fourth at that point, and made some headway before the leader got to the three-quarter pole in 1:24.1; the chalk then continued to reduce the margin through the stretch, but Renaissance Lady K held gamely to post a neck decision while lowering her mark four seconds to 1:52.1. Norm Parker trains the winner for veteran owner Robert Key. In the other side wheeling division, Rockn Philly, who did not have a good outing upon returning to her home track for a Liberty Bell contest last week, definitely brought her A game today while winning in 1:53.4. Victor Kirby sent the daughter of A Rocknroll DancePhiladelphia to the lead after the :27.4, rested to the half in :57.2, and then powered home in :56.2 :27.4 while unthreatened, boosting her earnings to $118.038 for trainer Jim King, Jr. and the ownership of CC Racing LLC and Jo Ann Looney-King. Turning to the trotters: The Trot Man, driver Mike Simons, showed he knows 5/8-mile track geometry in the first section, going out from the rail with Pilgrims Lass against two outside leavers, forcing one to tuck before letting favoured Navarone Hanover go past the :28.2 quarter, and then racing in the golden seat through middle splits of :58.3 and 1:27.4. As first-over Big Weezy grinded to a short lead head stretch, Simons ducked to the inside, and gradually his Muscle Mass - Goodtimesstarthere filly erased Big Weezys narrow advantage and got to the wire a neck to the good in a personal best of 1:57.1. Pilgrims Lass has now won two straight for trainer Scott Andrews and owner Edward Andrews. The Donato HanoverGlide About miss American Kronos, 3-for-4 lifetime and the 1-9 favourite of the crowd, found herself having to take a two-hole trip behind determined 38-1 shot Sigilwig, who set fractions of :28.4, :58.3, and 1:27.3 in their cut. At the three-quarter pole driver George Brennan eased American Kosmos to the outside, and she trotted nicely down the center of the track to win in 1:57.1, at the wire a length ahead of Meadowbranch Vicki, with the gallant Sigilwig holding for third. Julie Miller trains the quick filly, whose only loss came when she made a break, for owners Marvin Katz, Al Libfeld and Dr. David Goodrow. Stella Jane, looped early and out well past the :28.2 quarter before getting the lead, went on with fractions of :58.4 and 1:27.3, then had enough to withstand the horse that parked her early, Southwind Percy, by a neck in 1:57 after a stretch battle in the last division. George Napolitano, Jr., getting a stakes win on both gaits, guided the daughter of CrazedNaughty Nana for trainer John Butenschoen and owners Crawford Farms Racing. With a carryover from yesterday in the Pick 4 pool, this afternoons quad-win bet drew a lot of attention, with its 50-cent minimum and 15% takeout. Horses paying $7.60, $13.00, and $2.20 in the first three legs didnt really hint at a mega-payoff, but when $64.60 winner Inner Peace nosed out favourite Hes Gone in the bets final contest, a 50-cent ticket was worth $7441.90. Had the favourite held, the payoff still would have been a generous $676.50. (PHHA / Pocono) ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) - Pope Francis acknowledged Tuesday that his landmark deal with China over bishop nominations will cause suffering among the underground faithful. But he said that he takes full responsibility and that he - and not Beijing - will have the ultimate say over naming new bishops. Francis provided the first details of the weekend agreement signed during an in-flight news conference coming home from the Baltics. The deal aims to end decades of tensions over bishop nominations that had contributed to dividing the Chinese church and hampered efforts at improving bilateral relations. China's estimated 12 million Catholics are split between those belonging to the government-backed Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which is outside the pope's authority, and an underground church loyal to the pope. Underground priests and parishioners are frequently detained and harassed. Francis - and before him Pope Benedict XVI - had tried to unite the two communities, and years of negotiations kicked into high gear over a year ago. Francis acknowledged that both sides lost something in the talks, and said members of the underground Chinese church "will suffer" as a result of the deal, the text of which has not been released. "It's true, they will suffer. There is always suffering in an agreement," the pope said. But he said he had already received messages attesting to the "martyr-like faith" of Chinese Catholics and their willingness to accept whatever was decided. He urged prayers "for the suffering for those who don't understand, or who have so many years behind them of living clandestinely." It was a reference to the underground faithful who endured decades of persecution for refusing to join the Patriotic Association and staying loyal to the Holy See. Their cause has long been championed by Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, who has called Francis' deal a sell-out of the church to China's Communist rulers. Francis said the deal calls for a process of dialogue over possible bishop candidates, but that ultimately the pope decides. "It's not that they name. It's a dialogue on possible candidates," he said. "The thing is done in dialogue. But Rome names. The pope names. This is clear." The issue of bishop nominations had been the main stumbling block to restoring diplomatic relations that were severed nearly seven decades ago when the Chinese communists came to power. The Holy See insisted on the pope's right to name bishops to preserve the apostolic succession that dates to Jesus' original apostles. China considered the Vatican's insistence as an infringement on its sovereignty. Because of the dispute, China over the years named some bishops without papal consent, some of whom were then excommunicated by the church. The key part of the deal calls for the Vatican to recognize the seven living illegitimate bishops and regularize their status in the church, while also arranging for two legitimate ones to step aside. Francis said he took personal responsibility for the deal, and signed each of the decrees reconciling with the seven bishops. The Vatican announced the deal Saturday, saying that from now on all bishops in China are in communion with Rome. The Vatican said it was provisional in nature, suggesting it could be revisited periodically. Zen has been the main figurehead in criticizing the deal, but Francis noted there is plenty of historic precedence for state authorities naming bishops, including in his native Latin America. "Let's not forget that, thank God, we overcame this, but that for 350 years it was the kings of Portugal and Spain who named bishops and the pope gave his jurisdiction," Francis said. "Let's not forget that in the case of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Maria Therese got tired of signing the nominations of bishops and gave the jurisdiction to the Vatican." While acknowledging the suffering of some underground faithful in China, Francis pointed to what he considered a good sign that the church is beginning to unify. He noted that in the weeks after a retired Vatican ambassador accused him of covering up the sexual misconduct of an American cardinal, bishops conferences around the world wrote to him voicing their support. The Chinese faithful wrote to him as well, he said. Both an underground bishop and a bishop of the Patriotic Church signed the same letter. "Together, both of them. And faithful, both of them. For me this is a signal," Francis said. BALTIMORE (AP) - The man killed in a weekend shootout with Baltimore police had been convicted as a teenager of killing a man and spent 13 years behind bars until his release earlier this year on parole. Police on Tuesday identified the man as 29-year-old Nathaniel Sassafras and said in a statement that he was only 15 at the time of the man's fatal shooting. Interim Police Chief Gary Tuggle said Sassafras was shot Sunday evening when a crime suppression unit encountered the man in an alleyway of a troubled west Baltimore neighborhood. Police haven't released further details of what prompted gunfire. Officer Phillip Lippe, one of two officers who exchanged gunfire with Sassafras, was shot and released from the hospital the next day, police said. Lippe has been with the department for three years. Officer Steven Foster, a five-year veteran of the force, also fired his gun, police said. The officers' body worn cameras were activated, but police said one camera was shot and is being sent to the supplier to retrieve its data. The police statement said authorities will decide whether to release footage once it has been reviewed in its entirety. Before being paroled in January, Sassafras served 13 years and 6 months of a 20-year sentence for second-degree murder and a handgun charge. and a one-year sentence for second-degree assault of a Department of Corrections employee or inmate, authorities said. A detective talks with a member of the Baltimore Police outside University of Maryland Shock Trauma, following a shooting in Baltimore on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2018. The shootout between a man in a violence-prone Baltimore district and a police officer taking part in a crime suppression initiative has left the officer wounded and the suspect dead Sunday evening, Baltimore's interim police chief said. (Karl Merton Ferron/The Baltimore Sun via AP) Under Maryland law, violent offenders must serve at least half their time. Sassafras was to have been under supervision until 2025 and had been regularly reporting after his release as required, said Gerard Shields, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. According to a 2005 Baltimore Sun story, 16-year-old Sassafras pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a fatal shooting outside a convenience store a year earlier and was sentenced to 20 years. Police didn't release the races of the officers or Sassafras, but online court records say that Sassafras was black. A Baltimore City police officer block stands near the scene of a shooting in Baltimore on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2018. The shootout between a man in a violence-prone Baltimore district and a police officer taking part in a crime suppression initiative has left the officer wounded and the suspect dead Sunday evening, Baltimore's interim police chief said. (Kenneth K. Lam/The Baltimore Sun via AP) CHICAGO (AP) - A Chinese citizen living in Chicago was arrested Tuesday for allegedly spying, including by helping with the recruitment of U.S. engineers, defense contractors and scientists for intelligence services in China, federal prosecutors said. Ji Chaoqun, 27, is charged with one count of knowingly acting in the U.S. as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification of the attorney general, a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago said. He allegedly worked at the direction of high-ranking intelligence officials with the People's Republic of China and was given the task of providing information about eight people for possible recruitment. Ji made an initial appearance in federal court in downtown Chicago, looking tired and fidgeting as he stood before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason. Ji huddled with a Chinese-language interpreter for much of the 15-minute hearing. But when the judge asked if he understood his rights, Ji lifted his head and said in English, "I understand." Assistant U.S. Attorney Shoba Pillay said at the hearing that Ji faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted on the one count. Through a lawyer, Laura Hoey, Ji also asked that the Chinese consulate be notified about his arrest. Judge Mason ordered that Ji remain in custody for now, and U.S. Marshal's agents handcuffed him and led him away. No additional hearings were immediately set. A 17-page criminal complaint says Ji came to the U.S. in 2013 on a student visa to study engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves in 2016 under a program that allows some immigrants living in the country legally to serve in the military if their skills could be vital to U.S. interests. There was no answer at a number for the Chinese consulate in Chicago on Tuesday evening. ___ Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mtarm MANASSAS, Va. (AP) - A jury has heard closing arguments in the capital murder trial of an Army staff sergeant from northern Virginia accused of killing his wife and a police officer on her first shift who responded to the 911 call. Ronald Hamilton of Woodbridge is charged with fatally shooting his wife, Crystal, and officer Ashley Guindon in February 2016. The 34-year-old Hamilton is also charged with shooting and seriously injuring two other Prince William County police officers. During Tuesday's closing arguments, Hamilton's lawyers asked the jury to convict their client on charges less than capital murder. They acknowledged Hamilton is guilty, but said his actions lack the premeditation necessary for a capital murder conviction. If convicted of capital murder, prosecutors will seek the death penalty during the sentencing phase. NEW YORK (AP) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in pushed back Tuesday against widespread skepticism about the sincerity of Kim Jong Un's vows to give up his nuclear bombs, saying that the current round of diplomacy with North Korea is "completely different" than the many failed deals that have frustrated past negotiators. Moon, fresh off a dramatic summit in Pyongyang last week with Kim that saw more promises from the North Korean leader to dismantle his weapons programs, is at the U.N. General Assembly this week, meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders to explain and, to some extent, defend his efforts to bring peace to the famously hostile Korean Peninsula. He told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in New York that it was "only natural that we have plenty of suspicions regarding the true motivations" of Kim. It was, after all, only last year that a series of increasingly powerful North Korean weapons tests, including the nation's sixth nuclear test explosion, and the tough reaction by Trump had many worrying about war. Some critics believe that tough sanctions and pressure, rather than engagement and concessions, stand a better chance of ridding the North of its nukes. "It's completely different this time around," Moon said, speaking through an interpreter. What's changed this time is that, unlike past efforts that collapsed when the countries tried to implement deals that had been made at the working level, this one has Trump and Kim making the decisions and then driving their lieutenants to follow through. "This was a promise made in front of the whole world" by Trump and Kim, Moon said. "For this reason, I believe the promise will be kept." Moon says North Korea will eventually give up its nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees from the United States, which the North has always claimed is intent on destroying the ruling Kim family's grip on power. Pyongyang also wants an end to what it calls U.S. hostility and normalized ties between Washington and Pyongyang. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-In participate in a signing ceremony for the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement at the Lotte New York Palace hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Kim claims that since he has completed his nuclear arsenal, an assertion that analysts say is probably not yet true, he will now turn to boosting the conditions of his impoverished people. Skeptics say that North Korea wants to engage in long-running disarmament talks so it can offer up a series of small gestures in return for a stream of aid and concessions from outsiders. Despite Moon's assertion that a leader-driven process will make this round of diplomacy different from the past, there has been more deadlock than progress since a Singapore summit in June between Trump and Kim. At the time, North Korea demanded that Washington agree to a declaration on the formal end of the Korean War, which was stopped in 1953 with a ceasefire, not a peace treaty, before it makes significant disarmament moves. These would include providing a list of the contents of its nuclear arsenal. The United States wants that list before it will sign off on the war declaration. Trump and Kim have both said they want to meet again soon, and Moon has been pushing for such a meeting as a way to unstick the diplomacy. There will be high expectations if such a summit comes off. Moon said he understands the doubt about Kim's purported sincerity since the North Korean leader halted weapons tests in November and began reaching out to the South and Washington. For that reason he pushed to have large portions of the Pyongyang summit streamed live so that the world could see Kim and Moon together and "decide for themselves what kind of person Chairman Kim is." "The Chairman Kim I experienced ... is young, but he is also candid," Moon said, with "great aspirations to achieve economic development" and a willingness to abandon his nuclear programs to achieve that goal. Bill Cosby was to spend his first night behind bars at SCI Phoenix, a new 3,830-bed state prison in suburban Philadelphia. He was headed there Tuesday night after being held temporarily at a county jail, where he was sent immediately after being sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman at his home in 2004. Correction officials will assess his needs and safety issues to determine where it will be best for the 81-year-old Cosby, who is legally blind, to complete his sentence, prosecutors said. District Attorney Kevin Steele said that could be SCI Laurel Highlands, a state prison housing lower-risk inmates on the other side of the state, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh. SCI Laurel Highlands is the state Correction Department's provider to inmates with special needs, including those requiring long-term care, though it also houses a general prison population, according to its website. It has separate housing units for its geriatric inmates and also has programs for sex offenders, the website says. Cosby was declared a "sexually violent predator' just before his sentencing, requiring him to receive monthly counseling the rest of his life. The prison at Laurel Highlands opened in 1996, at the site of a former state hospital. At last count it held nearly 1,600 inmates. ___ For more coverage visit https://apnews.com/tag/BillCosby TUPELO, Miss. (AP) - A federal appeals court says it will not revive a civil lawsuit over a fatal shooting by a Mississippi police officer. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday rejected a request by the family of Antwun "Ronnie" Shumpert. He fled from a traffic stop in 2016 and was shot to death by a Tupelo police officer. In November 2017, U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock dismissed a Shumpert family lawsuit against Tupelo police officer Tyler Cook and the city. The suit said Cook was inadequately trained and did not follow policies, leading to violations of Shumpert's constitutional rights. Aycock dismissed the case without a trial, writing that no meaningful facts were in dispute and the defendants could not be held liable for damages. ___ Information from: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, http://djournal.com WASHINGTON (AP) - Hurricane Florence was the nation's second rainiest storm in 70 years, a top rainfall meteorologist calculated. Only last year's Hurricane Harvey rained more over a 14,000 square mile (36,260 square kilometers) area during a four-day time period, said Ken Kunkel, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and North Carolina State University. Scientists said climate change likely boosted rainfall totals for both storms. Kunkel's preliminary analysis found more than 17.5 inches (0.4 meters) fell on average over five weather stations in the 14,000 square miles of the eastern Carolinas stretching from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Florence, South Carolina. The amount is second to Harvey's 25.6 inches (0.6 meters). "That's a lot of water," Kunkel said. The third rainiest storm was in March 2016 in northern Louisiana and the seventh was in southern Louisiana in August 2016. The three rainiest and four of the top seven have all occurred in the last three years - which Kunkel said is no coincidence. FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 17, 2018 file photo, floodwaters from Hurricane Florence surrounds homes in Dillon, S.C. Scientists say climate change likely boosted rainfall totals for both Florence and 2017's Harvey. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Kunkel, who specializes in analyzing rain data from thousands of weather stations, based his work on rainfall since 1949 when recording became more widespread across the continental United States. Kunkel examined rainfall over a compact area - 14,000 square miles, a figure based on latitude and longitude squares - and larger areas such as 20,000, 30,000 and 80,000 square miles. Florence's unusual amount was most noticeable on the smallest scale. When the scientist looked at a bigger area, 20,000 square miles, Florence fell to seventh place, behind Harvey, 1998's Hurricane Georges, the two Louisiana rainstorms, a 1962 northern California downpour and a 1994 Texas drenching. The analysis has not been published or peer reviewed yet, but will be, Kunkel said. It is "not surprising - but still terrifying - that the two top ranked soakers happened over the past two years," said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn't part of Kunkel's research but praised it. He said warmer oceans, more moisture and slower moving storms due in various ways to climate change make storms dump more rain. ___ Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears . His 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. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has approved a reorganization plan for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that will compensate victims of clergy sex abuse. Judge Robert Kressel approved the $210 million settlement Tuesday. Hundreds of victims voted overwhelmingly in favor of the plan. Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represented many of the victims, praised the survivors, saying their courage means children are safer. Archbishop Bernard Hebda apologized in court. Hebda says he hopes the resolution "brings some measure of justice" to victims. The settlement was reached in May . Proceeds will be disbursed after each claim is reviewed. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2015, two years after the Minnesota Legislature opened a three-year window that allowed people who had been sexually abused in the past to sue for damages. HOUSTON (AP) - A Houston-area man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder in the fatal shooting of a 4-year-old girl when he was 17. Ferrell Dardar, now 19, was sentenced after entering his plea Monday. He originally was charged with capital murder in Ava Castillo's death during a November 2016 attempt to rob her mother as the family unloaded groceries in their apartment parking lot in suburban Houston. Her mother and 10-year-old sister were wounded by gunfire. Philip Battles, who was 18 when the shooting happened, and Marco Miller, who was 17, remain jailed and await trial on capital murder charges. Battles, now 20, is scheduled to appear in court Thursday. Miller, now 19, is due in court on Oct. 4. Coptic Solidarity Hosts Third Annual Modern Coptic Martyrs Remembrance Day on October 3 Coptic Solidarity encourages everyone to join on October 3, at the US Capitol Visitor Center, Room 200, from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM for the 3rd Annual Modern Coptic Martyrs Remembrance Day. This event commemorates and seeks justice for the many modern Coptic martyrs who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their faith. Contact: Lindsay Griffin, Coptic Solidarity, 801-512-1713, coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2018 /Standard Newswire/ -- Coptic Solidarity encourages everyone to join on October 3, at the US Capitol Visitor Center, Room 200, from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM for the 3rd Annual Modern Coptic Martyrs Remembrance Day. This event commemorates and seeks justice for the many modern Coptic martyrs who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their faith. Photo: On October 9, 2011, Egyptian soldiers used live ammunition without warning and drove armored personnel carriers in zig-zag patterns through peaceful Coptic protesters to kill as many as possible The event will be hosted near the 7th Anniversary of the Maspero Massacre in which the Egyptian army murdered 27 Copts and injured 327 who were peacefully protesting the government's closure of a church in Aswan. The government has yet to take responsibility for this brutal attack in which soldiers used live ammunition without warning and drove armored personnel carriers in zig-zag patterns through the protestors to kill as many as possible. The need for individuals and organizations worldwide to join together and demand protection and justice for Copts could not be more urgent. In recent weeks, there have been mounting reports of church closures forcing parishioners to hold funerals and services in the streets, attacks on Copts and their properties, imprisonment of Copts accused of "praying in an unauthorized building," and continued systematic discrimination against Copts in Egypt. Coptic Solidarity urges concerned individuals of all faiths and denominations to join near the seventh anniversary of the Maspero Massacre to host prayer vigils and other remembrance events. Coptic Solidarity has created an online resource center where churches and individuals can find all the necessary tools to host a prayer event or any other commemorative activity. The resource center includes a church bulletin insert, fact sheet, an educational presentation, an advocacy campaign, and photos and videos. This modern civil rights movement will not achieve success without the support of individuals, organizations and governments worldwide, demanding the Egyptian government acknowledge and provide justice for the victims of the Maspero Massacre, protection of Copts against violent attacks, an end to the systematic discrimination against them, and the institution of full and equal rights to Copts as citizens in their homeland. Confirmed speakers include: Dr. Jonathan Adly: Founder -- History of the Copts Podcast Gary Bauer: Commissioner -- The US Commission on International Religious Freedom Dr. Mark Eid: Executive Committee Member -- Coptic Solidarity Robert Nicholson: President -- The Philos Project Clifford Smith: Washington Project Director -- Middle East Forum This event is open to the public and media. Please RSVP to coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org Coptic Solidarity is an organization seeking to help minorities, particularly the Copts, of Egypt and we support those in Egypt working for democracy, freedom, and the protection of the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens. It advocates in cooperation with the affiliated organizations in Canada and in Europe (Solidarite Copte). For more information, contact Lindsay Griffin at 801-512-1713 or coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org. KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) - A 20-year-old Texas mother whose two toddlers died after they were left for hours inside a hot vehicle has pleaded guilty. The Kerrville Daily Times reports Amanda Kristene Hawkins pleaded guilty Monday in Kerrville to two counts each of child abandonment child endangerment and injury to a child in the June 2017 deaths of her two daughters. Hawkins could receive up to 20 years in prison for each count when she's sentenced Dec. 12. Investigators believe Hawkins intentionally left 1-year-old Brynn Hawkins and 2-year-old Addyson Overgard-Eddy in her vehicle through the night and into the following day while she visited friends. Temperatures reached the 80s while the girls were in the car. Kerrville is 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of San Antonio. ___ Information from: Kerrville Daily Times, http://www.dailytimes.com LITTLE COLORADO RIVER GORGE, Ariz. (AP) - The Latest on Will Smith's bungee jump from a helicopter near the Grand Canyon (all times local): 4:20 p.m. Will Smith successfully bungee jumped from a helicopter near the Grand Canyon. The actor took the leap Tuesday in northern Arizona in front of relatives and friends. He described the experience as going "from pure terror to absolute bliss." The stunt was shown live on his YouTube channel. File - In this Dec. 13, 2017, file photo, Will Smith arrives at the U.S. premiere of "Bright" in Los Angeles. When Smith turns 50 on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, he will jump head-first into the big milestone. The "Fresh Prince" plans to bungee jump from a helicopter over a gorge just outside Grand Canyon National Park. His birthday activity is the latest in a vast history of outrageous stunts staged in and around one of the world's seven natural wonders. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File) Smith arrived with his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, as well as his three children and "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" co-star Alfonso Ribeiro. The stunt was billed as a jump "in the heart of the Grand Canyon." However, the jump was not at Grand Canyon National Park but over a smaller gorge on the Navajo Nation. The tribe's reservation borders the east rim of the national park. ___ 10:40 a.m. Will Smith is diving head first into turning 50. The actor will mark his milestone birthday Tuesday by bungee jumping from a helicopter in northern Arizona. It will be livestreamed on his YouTube channel. The stunt is being billed as a leap "in the heart of the Grand Canyon." However, the "Fresh Prince" will not jump at Grand Canyon National Park but over a smaller gorge on the Navajo Nation. The tribe's reservation borders the east rim of the national park. In a YouTube video posted earlier this month, Smith recalled visiting the Grand Canyon as a child but being terrified to walk up to the edge. The event also raised money for charity with an online lottery for a chance to watch the jump in person. FILE - In this June 23, 2013, file photo, daredevil Nik Wallenda crosses a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. When actor Will Smith turns 50 on Tuesday, he will jump head-first into the big milestone. The "Fresh Prince" plans to bungee jump from a helicopter over a gorge just outside Grand Canyon National Park. His birthday activity is the latest in a vast history of outrageous stunts staged in and around one of the world's seven natural wonders. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File) File - In this April 29, 1999, file photo, Robbie Knievel leaves his jump sight on the Hualapai Reservation in Ariz., after deciding not to make the Grand Canyon Death Jump due to high winds and cold weather. When actor Will Smith turns 50 on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, he will jump head-first into the big milestone. The "Fresh Prince" plans to bungee jump from a helicopter over a gorge just outside Grand Canyon National Park. His birthday activity is the latest in a vast history of outrageous stunts staged in and around one of the world's seven natural wonders. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch, File) FILE - In this June 23, 2013, file photo, daredevil Nik Wallenda crosses a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. When actor Will Smith turns 50 on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, he will jump head-first into the big milestone. The "Fresh Prince" plans to bungee jump from a helicopter over a gorge just outside Grand Canyon National Park. His birthday activity is the latest in a vast history of outrageous stunts staged in and around one of the world's seven natural wonders. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File) SAO PAULO (AP) - An ex-wife of a leading Brazilian presidential candidate is denying a news report that she accused him of sending a death threat in 2011. The newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported Monday that Ana Cristina Valle told Brazil's foreign office she left the country because of threats by far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro. At the time, Valle and Bolsonaro were in a legal battle over custody of their son, who was about 12. A telegram obtained by the newspaper says Valle requested political asylum in Norway because of Bolsonaro. But after the story was published, Valle used Instagram to say the threat never happened. Valle is running for a congress seat for Rio de Janeiro state and uses Bolsonaro's surname in her campaign. Bolsonaro is still hospitalized after being stabbed Sept. 6. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Environmental and tribal groups asked Minnesota regulators on Tuesday to reconsider their approval of Enbridge Energy's plans to replace its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline across northern Minnesota. The groups, including the Sierra Club, Youth Climate Intervenors, Friends of the Headwaters and Honor the Earth, filed their requests with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Opponents contend the line does not meet permit criteria. In June, the commission gave Enbridge the green light to replace Line 3. But a PUC meeting to discuss whether Enbridge met conditions was postponed earlier this month after being disrupted by protesters. Opponents argue the PUC erred in granting a certificate of need for Line 3 because alleged harm to society would outweigh the replacement line's benefits, and that Enbridge did not prove the pipeline was needed. "Line 3 would threaten our clean water, our communities, and our climate," Margaret Levin, state director for the Sierra Club North Star Chapter, said in a statement. Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, said the PUC made a "rogue decision" to approve Line 3 against the recommendations of other agencies. LaDuke called it "a crisis of civil society and we need the PUC to reconsider what this decision means for the future of Minnesota and the planet." Native American and environmental activists contend the new line is unnecessary and risks spills in fragile areas. Canadian-based Enbridge said the old line is increasingly subject to corrosion and cracking, and that its maintenance needs are accelerating. Enbridge said that without a new Line 3, its customers would have to rely more heavily on rail and truck transport, which have higher costs and risks. Line 3 runs from Alberta, Canada, across North Dakota and Minnesota to Enbridge's terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. Enbridge wants to replace the line, which it built in the 1960s and is running at only about half its original capacity. The replacement would restore its original capacity. LITTLE COLORADO RIVER GORGE, Ariz. (AP) - Like a scene out of a high-octane action movie that he would star in, Will Smith celebrated his 50th birthday Tuesday by successfully bungee jumping from a helicopter near the Grand Canyon. Cameras, which captured the stunt for a livestream on YouTube , showed the actor hooked to a harness and bungee cords dangling over a gorge in northeastern Arizona. "This is some of the most beautiful stuff I've ever seen in my life," Smith said while still swinging over the chasm. He described the experience as going "from pure terror to absolute bliss." The entire event had the feel of a polished episode of reality TV. Camera crews showed Smith, wife Jada Pinkett Smith and his three children being greeted by dozens of relatives and friends on a platform. His "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" co-star, Alfonso Ribeiro, served as a host interviewing Smith and others before and after. The stunt was billed as a leap "in the heart of the Grand Canyon." But the jump was outside Grand Canyon National Park on the Navajo Nation. The tribe's reservation borders the east rim of the national park. File - In this Dec. 13, 2017, file photo, Will Smith arrives at the U.S. premiere of "Bright" in Los Angeles. When Smith turns 50 on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, he will jump head-first into the big milestone. The "Fresh Prince" plans to bungee jump from a helicopter over a gorge just outside Grand Canyon National Park. His birthday activity is the latest in a vast history of outrageous stunts staged in and around one of the world's seven natural wonders. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File) A Navajo medicine man gave Smith a blessing and thanked him for coming to the reservation. Smith said the bungee jump was a challenge from Yes Theory, a YouTube channel that makes videos of people doing activities outside of their comfort zone. But the event also raised money for charity through an online lottery for a chance to watch the jump in person. The proceeds will benefit access to education for children in struggling countries. FILE - In this June 23, 2013, file photo, daredevil Nik Wallenda crosses a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. When actor Will Smith turns 50 on Tuesday, he will jump head-first into the big milestone. The "Fresh Prince" plans to bungee jump from a helicopter over a gorge just outside Grand Canyon National Park. His birthday activity is the latest in a vast history of outrageous stunts staged in and around one of the world's seven natural wonders. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File) File - In this April 29, 1999, file photo, Robbie Knievel leaves his jump sight on the Hualapai Reservation in Ariz., after deciding not to make the Grand Canyon Death Jump due to high winds and cold weather. When actor Will Smith turns 50 on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, he will jump head-first into the big milestone. The "Fresh Prince" plans to bungee jump from a helicopter over a gorge just outside Grand Canyon National Park. His birthday activity is the latest in a vast history of outrageous stunts staged in and around one of the world's seven natural wonders. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch, File) FILE - In this June 23, 2013, file photo, daredevil Nik Wallenda crosses a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. When actor Will Smith turns 50 on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, he will jump head-first into the big milestone. The "Fresh Prince" plans to bungee jump from a helicopter over a gorge just outside Grand Canyon National Park. His birthday activity is the latest in a vast history of outrageous stunts staged in and around one of the world's seven natural wonders. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File) ABERDEEN, Md. (AP) - A Maryland law enforcement official is criticizing gun laws in the wake of a shooting at a warehouse last week in which four people were killed and three people wounded. The Baltimore Sun reports Harford County Sheriff's Maj. William Davis told Aberdeen's mayor and city council members Monday 26-year-old Snochia Moseley had been diagnosed with acute schizophrenia, but answered "no" to whether she had been diagnosed with a mental illness when filling out paperwork to purchase a handgun. Davis said everyone at the meeting would agree that someone diagnosed with acute schizophrenia should not be allowed to possess or purchase a weapon. One cannot buy a firearm in Maryland if they have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility for at least 30 days. Davis said Moseley had not. ___ Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com WASHINGTON (AP) - Legislation to substantially overhaul the way music is licensed and songwriters compensated for songs online is being sent to the president's desk for his signature. Congress cleared the bill Tuesday, giving final passage to a rare bipartisan accord between Republican and Democratic lawmakers. It enjoyed wide support in both the House and Senate, and within the music industry. President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law. The Orrin B. Hatch Music Modernization Act, named after the retiring Utah senator, who is also a musician, creates a new independent entity that will license songs to companies that play music online. The nonprofit collective will then pay songwriters, including those who wrote pre-1970s classics before music copyrights protected their work. Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander championed the bill. UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.S. President Donald Trump is set to chair a U.N. Security Council meeting for the first time. Wednesday's meeting will put the "America First" president around a table with representatives from countries with fraught relationships with the U.S., including Russia and China. The topic has been a matter of dispute over the extent it focuses on Iran. And the U.N.'s most powerful body tends to proceed in a scripted, measured way. Trump famously does not. Washington's U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, suggests it's "going to be the most watched Security Council meeting ever." Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, chaired Security Council meetings in 2009 and 2014. Trump has spoken at the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting of presidents and other world leaders. Chairing the Security Council is a somewhat more interactive role. FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, file photo, members of the United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution at United Nations headquarters. U.S. President Donald Trump is set to chair a U.N. Security Council meeting for the first time, on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. The meeting will put the "America First" president around a table with representatives from countries with fraught relationships with the U.S., including Russia and China. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File) President Donald Trump sits down after delivering a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at U.N. Headquarters. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Governments from around the world will address the persistent scourge of tuberculosis at a high-level meeting Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. TB killed about 1.3 million people worldwide last year, making it the leading cause of death from an infectious disease - ahead of HIV/AIDS. A further 300,000 people with both HIV and TB died in 2017. While tuberculosis has been successfully contained with the help of modern medicine in many rich countries, instances of the disease remain high in poorer nations. Experts also warn that drug-resistant variants of this deadly communicable disease pose a growing threat, with India, China and Russia particular affected. Campaigners are calling for more funding to ensure new TB cases worldwide are properly diagnosed and treated. SALEM, Ore. (AP) - The Republican incumbent of a conservative U.S. House district in Oregon, whose forefathers trekked to what was then a territory over 170 years ago, is attacking the pioneer credentials of his Democratic opponent. Rep. Greg Walden's online ad targeted Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner as they campaign in one of the largest U.S. congressional districts, a ranching-agricultural region covering plains, desert and mountains in eastern and central Oregon. Cowboy hats and pickup trucks are prominent, and so is a rugged independence. In an Associated Press interview in August, McLeod-Skinner noted that her wife, Cassandra Skinner's family has been ranching in eastern Oregon for over 100 years. Skinner is also a distant relative of former Oregon Cattlemen's Association President Bob Skinner, McLeod-Skinner said. Walden's ad quotes the rancher speaking dismissively of the link. "It's time to clear up this nonsense about Jamie McLeod-Skinner being part of our ranch family. She's a California liberal who came out to the ranch a few months back and got a selfie under our sign," Bob Skinner is quoted as saying. "Her wife may share our last name, but they're a distant branch of the family." Skinner asked McLeod-Skinner to stop using his ranch sign in her campaign. FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2018, file photo, Oregon Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner poses in Redmond, Ore. Oregon Republican congressman Greg Walden, running for his 11th term in a vast district in rural Oregon, took a dig at Democratic rival McLeod-Skinner saying that her wife hails from a "distant branch" of a prominent ranching family that actually supports him. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky, file) Responding to the ad, McLeod-Skinner said she never claimed Skinner's endorsement. He had invited her to his ranch, she said. "We talked about public lands, we talked about a lot of different issues, water issues," the Democratic candidate said. She also went to the cattlemen's association. "He was very cordial, so I was surprised to see the tone" in the Walden ad that focuses "on divisiveness we're seeing in Washington," McLeod-Skinner said. She said she wants constituents to reach across party lines to find common ground on health care, education and economic development. Walden's ad said his paternal ancestors came to Oregon in fall 1845 before it became a state in 1859. He's seeking his 11th term in Congress. Walden typically wins around 70 percent of the vote and vastly more campaign funds. McLeod-Skinner went to Ashland High School in Oregon and received a law degree from the University of Oregon. She is a former city councilwoman in Santa Clara, California. While campaigning, McLeod-Skinner has crisscrossed the district - the second-biggest in America among states with multiple districts - in a Jeep pulling a teardrop trailer that she sleeps in. McLeod-Skinner and Walden have a televised debate scheduled for Oct. 5. ___ Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of friends and fellow writers were in attendance for a memorial tribute to Philip Roth at the New York Public Library. Attendees on Tuesday included Robert Caro, Salman Rushdie, Mia Farrow and Don DeLillo. The speakers, whom Roth had selected years before his death in May at age 85, included the writers Edna O'Brien and Judith Thurman. Roth was known for such ferocious novels as "Portnoy's Complaint" and "Sabbath's Theater," but speakers shared memories of a devoted and tender friend. They spoke of his rapport with their children and his understated generosity, whether paying for medical bills or consoling those who had lost loved ones. Thurman told of once being hospitalized and receiving more calls from Roth than she did from her own mother. LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) - Democratic former Gov. Phil Bredesen quickly promised not to vote for Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as his Republican opponent U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn repeatedly sought to tie the former Tennessee governor to national Democrats in their first debate for U.S. Senate on Tuesday. Blackburn reiterated multiple times that Bredesen's campaign "is bought and paid for" by Schumer, doubling down later with reporters that Schumer recruited Bredesen to run for the open Senate seat and pointing out that he's previously donated to and at times has praised Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other leading Democrats. Meanwhile, Bredesen responded he would remain independent should he be elected in the upcoming Nov. 6 election, saying that he wouldn't go to Washington to be a "political lackey." Tuesday's hour-long event at Cumberland University was the first of two debates scheduled between the two candidates. The outcome of the red-state race could be critical, with a 51-49 Republican majority in the balance. Though Bredesen pledged to oppose Schumer to lead the Senate, he did not say whether he had a preferred choice. "I think a lot of the problem in Washington is with the leadership we have there now," Bredesen said. "Whether it be (House Speaker Paul) Ryan or (House Minority Leader Nancy) Pelosi or (Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell, or Schumer, they're not doing the job. We need to get new leadership. And I can tell you right now, that if I'm elected, and when I'm elected and go to Washington, I am not going to be voting for Chuck Schumer." Blackburn brushed off Bredesen's pledge on Schumer. Democratic candidate and former Gov. Phil Bredesen speaks at the 2018 Tennessee U.S. Senate Debate against Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn at Cumberland University Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Lebanon, Tenn. (Lacy Atkins/The Tennessean via AP, Pool) "(Bredesen) could have run as a Republican or an independent. Probably didn't want to do that. He is running as a Democrat," Blackburn said. "So, he will be with Chuck Schumer if he were to go to Washington." Blackburn also said that she would support Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination if she were in the Senate, though she said the woman accusing him of sexual assault in high school, Christine Blasey Ford, should be heard. Bredesen, who has also called for Ford's testimony and criticized both parties for making a "circus" out of the Senate proceedings, has not yet weighed in with a yes-or-no on Kavanaugh's nomination, though he has promised one. Another accuser has since come forward alleging sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. "I would vote to confirm him. He is an imminently qualified jurist," Blackburn said. "He has served well on the federal court. And what we see taking place right now is a PR stunt by the Democrats. It is character assassination. This is something that is dirty politics at its worst." Blackburn sought to undermine Bredesen's claims of independence on topics from health care to gun rights, where she pointed to her National Rifle Association endorsement and his latest 'D' rating by the NRA after he was rated 'A' as governor. She said gun control won't make communities safer, specifically mentioning her support for incorporating red flags on mental health into the background check system and "hardening schools." Bredesen said "reasonable rules" should be in place on guns, mentioning universal background checks, funding the background check system properly, and incorporating a judicial process to keep guns away from people who are "clearly not mentally equipped" to have one. The two candidates briefly agreed when they said they opposed Trump's move to increase trade tariffs on certain goods, with both claiming that the decision hurt Tennessee farmers and businesses. They also came out against calling members of the press "enemies of the people." However, Blackburn - who has been quick to point out her allegiance to Trump since she first began running for the seat - said she understood where Trump was coming from and said China had been launching a trade war against the U.S. for decades. Blackburn also noted she opposed Trump's spending measures, while Bredesen said he wished Trump would stop "cozying" up to countries like Russia and instead not damage relationships with countries that have long been allies with the U.S. The second debate has been confirmed for Oct. 10 at the University of Tennessee's Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy in Knoxville. Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn speaks at the 2018 Tennessee U.S. Senate Debate against Democratic candidate and former Gov. Phil Bredesen at Cumberland University Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Lebanon, Tenn. (Lacy Atkins/The Tennessean via AP, Pool) Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen and Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn speak at the 2018 Tennessee U.S. Senate Debate at Cumberland University Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Lebanon, Tenn. (Lacy Atkins/The Tennessean via AP, Pool) Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn speaks at the 2018 Tennessee U.S. Senate Debate against Democratic candidate and former Gov. Phil Bredesen at Cumberland University Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in Lebanon, Tenn. (Lacy Atkins/The Tennessean via AP, Pool) URBANA, Ill. (AP) - An 18-year-old Illinois man facing conspiracy and weapons allegations has pleaded guilty to the charges. Ellis Mack of Clarence entered his plea Tuesday to charges of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats and violence and unlawful possession of a machine gun. U.S. Magistrate Judge Eric Long in Urbana set sentencing for Jan. 9. As part of his plea deal, Mack agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their cases against three other men. Prosecutors allege that Mack and the other men - Michael Hari, Michael McWhorter and Joe Morris - conspired to rob or attempt to rob Walmart stores, and attempted to extort Canadian National Railway by threatening to damage tracks if the railroad didn't pay ransom. Hari, McWhorter and Morris also are charged in Minnesota with the August 2017 bombing of the Dar al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. No one was injured. Fiery Kavanaugh denies quiet accuser Ford in Senate showdown WASHINGTON (AP) - In an extraordinary and highly emotional day of Senate testimony, California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford quietly recounted her "100 percent" certainty Thursday that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. He angrily declared he was "100 percent certain" he did no such thing. They both said the event and the public controversy that has erupted 36 years later had altered their lives forever and for the worse - perhaps the only thing they agreed on during a long day of testimony that was a study in contrasts of tone as well as substance. The hearing was a stunning public airing of a partisan fight - charged with explosive gender politics. The future of a high court, and potentially control of Congress, hangs the balance. Senators were left to decide whether the long day tipped their confirmation votes for or against President Donald Trump's nominee. Coming forward publicly for the first time, Ford quietly told the nation and the Senate Judiciary Committee her long-held secret of the alleged assault in locked room at a gathering of friends when she was just 15. The memory - and Kavanaugh's laughter during the act - was "locked" in her brain, she said: "100 percent." Hours later, Kavanaugh angrily denied it, alternating a loud, defiant tone with near tears as he addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee. ___ Trump shaken by Ford, but backs Kavanaugh after hearing WASHINGTON (AP) - Glued to high-stakes testimony on his Supreme Court nominee, President Donald Trump and his allies were shaken by Christine Blasey Ford's emotional appearance on Capitol Hill Thursday, but heartened by Judge Brett Kavanaugh's forceful pushback against the woman who accused him of sexual misconduct. Trump missed hardly a moment of the proceedings, relying on DVRs to keep up on the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday from his private office on Air Force One as he traveled from New York to Washington, and continued monitoring back at the White House, where Ford's voice echoed from TVs around the building. Within moments of the eight-hour proceedings concluding, Trump tweeted his approval of Kavanaugh's performance and called on the Senate to move swiftly to a vote. "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting," Trump said. "Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" Ford's tearful recounting of allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school, led Trump to express sympathy for Kavanaugh and his family for having to listen to the testimony, according to two Republicans close to the White House but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations. They added that Trump expressed some frustration at the process - and the staff work - that led Kavanaugh to this point. After seeing Ford's powerful testimony, White House aides and allies expressed concern that Kavanaugh, whose nomination already seemed to be teetering, would have an uphill climb to deliver a strong enough showing to match hers. ___ 1 hearing, 2 witnesses, but vastly different takeaways It was one hearing with just two witnesses but, in an era of deep political polarization and yawning cultural divisions, Americans came away Thursday having heard very different things. Millions of men and women listened to nervous-but-composed college professor Christine Blasey Ford tell the Senate Judiciary Committee she was "100 percent" certain that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually abused her as a teenager, and they lauded her courage in speaking out. Millions of others saw a woman with a spotty memory who failed to prove Kavanaugh was her abuser, and believed the judge as he repeatedly choked up and vigorously defended himself. "The allegation of misconduct is completely inconsistent with the rest of my life," he said. Americans followed the hours of testimony and subsequent questions from their homes, in their cars, in offices and in classrooms. Wherever they were, though, it seemed most responded through the prism of their political bents and personal experiences. Few Americans interviewed by The Associated Press seemed to have had their minds changed by anything they heard. Heather Lake of Omaha, a stay-at-home mother of four and registered Democrat, said she went into the hearings believing Ford and that the professor's testimony only solidified her belief. ___ Voices: Americans grapple with emotional, momentous hearing She was authentic. He was passionate. She wasn't remembering correctly. He wasn't truthful. Across the nation, Americans grappled with the extraordinary drama unfolding in the Senate on Thursday and, though passions ran high, it was hard to find people whose minds had truly been changed. Echoes of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill abounded, with many recalling that fraught 1991 hearing. And some addressed the momentous nature of the event. "This is history," said Laura Williams, a law student from Mississippi. AP journalists around the country talked to citizens to gauge their reactions. Here is some of what they heard: JARRED BY EMOTION: ___ What Happened: Top takeaways from Kavanaugh, Ford hearing WASHINGTON (AP) - Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh riveted Washington and the nation with hours of fiery, emotional testimony from the judge and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of sexual assault when they were high schoolers. Kavanaugh denied the accusation. Here are some takeaways from the extraordinary hearing: HOW DID SHE DO? Ford gave a soft-spoken and steady account about what she said happened three decades ago in a bedroom at a small gathering of friends. She said she came forward not for political reasons, but because it was her "civic duty." She described in detail how an inebriated Kavanaugh and another teen, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her. She said he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams, and testified, "I believed he was going to rape me." ___ Kavanaugh-Ford hearing: A dramatic lesson on gender roles NEW YORK (AP) - He let his anger flare repeatedly, interrupted his questioners and cried several times during his opening statement. She strived to remain calm and polite, despite her nervousness, and mostly held back her tears. Throughout their riveting, nationally televised testimony on Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh served as Exhibits A and B for a tutorial on gender roles and stereotypes. Amid the deluge of reaction on social media, one prominent observation: Ford, as a woman, would have been judged as a far weaker witness had she behaved as Kavanaugh did. "Imagine a woman openly weeping like this on a national stage and still getting elected to the Supreme Court. Or any office," tweeted Joanna Robinson, a senior writer with Vanity Fair. Kavanaugh, nominated to fill a vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, mixed tears with fury in his statement forcefully denying Ford's allegation that he sexually assaulted her in 1982 when they were both in high school. He choked up at several points when referring to how his family has been affected by the tempest surrounding allegations by Ford and other women. Opponents of Kavanaugh's nomination said his behavior demonstrated a lack of judicial temperament. Some supporters said they were moved to tears when he broke down. ___ Iran denies Israeli accusation of 'secret atomic warehouse' UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Thursday of keeping a "secret atomic warehouse" just outside its capital, despite the 2015 deal with world powers that was meant to keep it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Hours later, Iran dismissed the allegation. Holding up a poster-board map of an area near Tehran as he spoke at the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu told world leaders that Iranian officials have been keeping up to 300 tons of nuclear equipment and material in a walled, unremarkable-looking property near a rug-cleaning operation. Netanyahu's disclosure - which he presented as a big reveal on the international community's biggest stage - came four months after Israel announced the existence of what it said was a "half-ton" of Iranian nuclear documents obtained by Israeli intelligence in the Shourabad neighborhood near Tehran. Israel said the cache proved that Iranian leaders covered up their nuclear weapons program before signing the nuclear agreement. Iran hasn't acknowledged the alleged seizure. "You have to ask yourself a question: Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse?" Netanyahu asked. "What Iran hides, Israel will find." Netanyahu didn't specify what the material and equipment was, and it was not immediately clear whether it proved to be a violation of the nuclear deal. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been monitoring Iran's compliance with the agreement, had no immediate comment. ___ SEC seeks to oust Tesla CEO Elon Musk over go-private tweet DETROIT (AP) - U.S. securities regulators are asking a federal court to oust Tesla Inc.'s Elon Musk as chairman and CEO, alleging in a complaint that he committed securities fraud with false statements about plans to take the company private. The Securities and Exchange Commission says in the complaint filed Thursday that Musk falsely claimed in an Aug. 7 statement on Twitter that funding was secured to go private at $420 per share, a substantial premium over the price at the time. The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan says that Musk had not discussed or confirmed key deal terms including price with any funding source. It also asks for an order enjoining Musk from making false and misleading statements along with repayment of any gains as well as civil penalties. "Corporate officers hold positions of trust in our markets and have important responsibilities to shareholders," Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said in a statement. "An officer's celebrity status or reputation as a technological innovator does not give license to take those responsibilities lightly." An SEC press release says the agency asked the court for a "bar prohibiting Musk from serving as an officer or director of a public company." ___ LAX allows pot in airport but TSA says it's still a crime LOS ANGELES (AP) - Here's another thing travelers can consider bringing when a trip takes them through Los Angeles International Airport - marijuana. Just be careful about carrying it onto the plane. A written policy posted by airport police says small amounts of weed may now be brought into one of the world's busiest airports. But, police warn, possession of any amount is still a federal crime and TSA agents may find your stash. What happens if they do remains a little murky. TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said Thursday that agents won't take it away but will summon the police and let them deal with it. ___ Graham tells Kavanaugh 'you've got nothing to apologize for' WASHINGTON (AP) - Brett Kavanaugh looked in desperate need of a fighter on his behalf Thursday as he gave impassioned testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee denying allegations of sexual assault. He found it in Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who told the judge straight out, "You've got nothing to apologize for." Kavanaugh alternated from anger to tears during fiery testimony. He took deep breaths and lengthy sips of water to gain his composure. He looked every bit the man who said his family "has been destroyed by this senator, destroyed." Democratic senators pressed Kavanaugh over and over again to request an FBI investigation if he had nothing to hide. Enter Graham, who said that if Democrats truly wanted an FBI investigation, they could have spoken up when Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was first made aware of the allegations from Christine Blasey Ford. Just hours earlier, Ford described for senators what she says was an assault by Kavanaugh on a summer evening three decades ago. Kavanaugh denied the allegation. WASHINGTON (AP) - A highly anticipated meeting between President Donald Trump and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was postponed until next week to avoid conflicting with a dramatic Senate hearing involving Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the White House said Thursday. The two were set to meet Thursday following news media reports that Rosenstein last year discussed possibly secretly recording the president and using the Constitution's 25th Amendment to remove him from office. But White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the men agreed to reschedule their meeting because "they do not want to do anything to interfere with the hearing." Trump said Wednesday that he would "certainly prefer not" to fire Rosenstein and that the Justice Department's No. 2 official had denied making the remarks first attributed to him in a New York Times report. "I would much prefer keeping Rod Rosenstein," Trump said at a news conference in New York. "He said he did not say it. He said he does not believe that. He said he has a lot of respect for me, and he was very nice and we'll see." Trump added, "My preference would be to keep him and to let him finish up." Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein leaves his home on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 in Bethesda, Md. President Donald Trump's meeting with the deputy attorney general may or may not happen Thursday as originally planned, but Trump says he'd prefer not to fire Rosenstein regardless. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) White House counselor Kellyanne Conway would not say Thursday when the meeting would take place, but stressed that the two will talk and Trump has made clear "he would prefer that the deputy attorney general stay on the job and complete the job." Rosenstein is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and his dismissal would put that probe in jeopardy and create a political storm. Any delay in the meeting would prolong the uncertainty of Rosenstein's status. Rosenstein headed to the White House on Monday morning preparing to be fired and had discussed a possible resignation over the weekend with White House officials. But after meeting with chief of staff John Kelly and speaking by phone with Trump, he got a reprieve with the Trump meeting scheduled for Thursday. Since then, the White House has sought to tamp down anxiety that Rosenstein would be fired. White House officials called senators Monday to say Trump had said he wouldn't be firing Rosenstein at the meeting, according to two people familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions. Aides have advised Trump against taking any extreme actions ahead of the midterm elections with his party's majorities in Congress already under threat. "Not wanting to fire Rod Rosenstein is consistent with what I have understood for weeks, not just days," said Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican who talks to Trump often. Friends and former colleagues of Rosenstein say they didn't expect him to step aside and give up oversight of the Russia investigation and the enormous swath of Justice Department operations for which he is responsible. Rosenstein, who has spent his entire career in government, "has tremendous loyalty to the department," said former Justice Department lawyer and longtime friend James Trusty. "He's a very long-run, historical-minded guy in a lot of ways," Trusty said. "I think he may have some confidence that history will be kinder to him than politicians are." Trump's remarks Wednesday followed a chaotic period that began last Friday with reports that Rosenstein had last year discussed possibly secretly recording the president and invoking the Constitution to remove Trump from office. The Justice Department issued statements Friday aimed at denying the reports, including one that said the wiretap remark was meant sarcastically. Rosenstein appointed Mueller in May 2017, oversees his work and has repeatedly defended the breadth and scope of the probe. Trump has been critical of Rosenstein's oversight of the probe, but the two have at times displayed a warm working relationship, and Rosenstein has been spared some of the more personal and antagonistic broadsides leveled against Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Even if Rosenstein survives the week, it's not clear how much longer he'll be around. Trump has signaled that he may fire Sessions after the midterms, and Rosenstein could go with him. But it could be sooner: Some officials around Trump believe Rosenstein's reported musings about invoking the 25th Amendment could make it defensible for Trump to part with him, even in the final sprint to Election Day. Rosenstein's friends and former colleagues describe him as exceptionally committed to the Justice Department - one said he "bleeds" for the agency - and unlikely to leave on his own, though they say he respects the chain of command enough to resign if asked. He joined the department in 1990, serving as a public corruption prosecutor, a Tax Division supervisor and a member of independent counsel Ken Starr's Whitewater team. He was named U.S. attorney in Maryland by President George W. Bush and held the position throughout the Obama administration - remarkable longevity for a position that typically turns over with changes in political power. Within weeks of being confirmed as deputy attorney general, he was engulfed in controversy by writing a memo critical of then-FBI Director James Comey, which the White House cited as justification for Comey's firing. ___ Associated Press writers Chad Day, Ken Thomas and Michael Balsamo in Washington and Zeke Miller in New York contributed to this report. WASHINGTON (AP) - In a day like few others in Senate history, California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford quietly recounted her "100 percent" certainty Thursday that President Donald Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers - and then Brett Kavanaugh defiantly testified he was "100 percent certain" he did no such thing. That left senators to decide whether the long day of testimony tipped their confirmation votes for or against Trump's nominee in a deeply partisan fight with the future of the high court and possibly control of Congress in the balance. Showing their own certainty, Republicans quickly scheduled a recommendation vote for Friday morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where they hold an 11-10 majority. They're hoping for a final Senate roll call next week, seating Kavanaugh on the court shortly after the Oct. start of its new term. In the committee's packed hearing room for hour upon hour Thursday, both Kavanaugh and Ford said the alleged assault and the storm of controversy that has erupted 36 years later had altered their lives forever and for the worse - perhaps the only thing they agreed on during their separate testimony marked by a stark contrast of tone and substance. Ford recounted for the senators and a nationwide TV audience her long-held secret of the alleged assault in a locked room at a gathering of friends when she was just 15. The memory - and Kavanaugh's laughter during the act - was "locked" in her brain, she said. Ford delivered her testimony with deliberate certitude, though admitting gaps in her memory as she choked back tears at some points and said she "believed he was going to rape me." Hours later, Kavanaugh entered the hearing room fuming. He angrily denied her allegation, alternating a loud, defiant tone with near tears of his own, particularly when discussing his family. He decried his confirmation opposition as a "national disgrace." He interrupted senators and dismissed some questions with a flippant "whatever." Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) "You have replaced 'advice and consent' with 'search and destroy,'" he said, referring to the Constitution's charge to senators' duties in confirming high officials. Democrats pressed the judge to call for an FBI investigation into the claims, but he would say only, "I welcome whatever the committee wants to do." Republicans are concerned, among other reasons, that further investigations could push a vote past the November elections that may switch Senate control back to the Democrats and make consideration of any Trump nominee more difficult. Trump made his feelings newly clear that he was sticking by his choice. "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," he tweeted. "The Senate must vote!" Trump nominated the conservative jurist in what was supposed to be an election year capstone to the GOP agenda, locking in the court's majority for years to come. Instead Kavanaugh has seemed in peril and on Thursday he faced the Senate hearing amid a national reckoning over sexual misconduct at the top of powerful institutions. The day opened with Ford, now a 51-year-old college professor in California, raising her right hand to swear under oath about the allegations she said she never expected to share publicly until they leaked in the media two weeks ago and reporters started staking out her home and work. As Anita Hill did more two decades ago when she alleged sexual misconduct by Clarence Thomas, the mom of two testified before a committee with only male senators on the Republican side of the dais. The psychology professor described what she says was a harrowing assault in the summer of 1982: How an inebriated Kavanaugh and another teen, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her. She said he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. Judge has said does not recall the incident. When the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, asked Ford how she could be sure that Kavanaugh was the attacker, Ford said, "The same way I'm sure I'm talking to you right now." Later, she said her certainty was "100 percent." Her strongest memory of the alleged incident, Ford said, was the two boys' laughter. "Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter," said Ford, who is a research psychologist, "the uproarious laughter between the two." Republican strategists were privately hand-wringing after Ford's testimony. The GOP special counsel Rachel Mitchell, a Phoenix sex crimes prosecutor, who Republicans had hired to avoid the optics of their all-male line up questioning Ford, left Republicans disappointed. Mitchell's attempt to draw out a counter-narrative - mainly that Ford was coordinating with Democrats - was disrupted by the panel's decision to allow alternating five-minute rounds of questions from Democratic senators. During a lunch break, even typically talkative GOP senators on the panel were without words. John Kennedy of Louisiana said he had no comment. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he was "just listening." Then Kavanaugh strode into the committee room, arranged his nameplate, and with anger on his face started to testify with a statement he said he had shown only one other person. Almost immediately he choked up. "My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed," he said. He lashed out over the time it took the committee to convene the hearing after Ford's allegations emerged, singling out the Democrats for "unleashing" forces against him. He mocked Ford's allegations - and several others since - that have accused him of sexual impropriety. Even if senators vote down his confirmation, he said, "you'll never get me to quit." Kavanaugh, who has two daughters, said one of his girls said they should "pray for the woman" making the allegations against him, referring to Ford. "That's a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old," he said choking up. "We mean no ill will." The judge repeatedly refused to answer senators' questions about the hard-party atmosphere that has been described from his peer group at Georgetown Prep and Yale, treating them dismissively. "Sometimes I had too many beers," he acknowledged. "I liked beer. I still like beer. But I never drank beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone. " When Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., pressed if he ever drank so much he blacked out, he replied, "Have you?" After a break in the proceedings, he came back and apologized to Klobuchar. She said her father was an alcoholic. Behind him in the audience as he testified, his wife, Ashley, sat looking stricken. Republicans who had been scheduled to vote as soon as Friday at the committee - and early next week in the full Senate - alternated between their own anger and frustration at the allegations and the process. "You're right to be angry," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Sen. Lindsey Graham, his voice rising in anger, called the hearing the "most unethical sham since I've been in politics." ___ Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick, Padmananda Rama, Matthew Daly, Julie Pace, Laurie Kellman and AP photographers J. Scott Applewhite and Carolyn Kaster contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to say Kavanaugh would take his seat shortly after the start of the new court term. Christine Blasey Ford testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 in Washington. (Win McNamee/Pool Image via AP) Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, and his wife Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, hold hands as they arrive for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Judge Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questions Christine Blasey Ford as Senators, from left, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, listen during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, listens to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking member, during opening statements before Christine Blasey Ford testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who says he sexually assaulted her. (Michael Reynolds/Pool Image via AP) HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A Texas inmate was executed Thursday evening for fatally running over his girlfriend in a jealous rage more than 18 years ago. It was the state's second execution in as many days. Daniel Acker was condemned for the March 2000 slaying of Marquetta George of Sulphur Springs. Prosecutors said he ran over George with his truck in rural northeast Texas because he believed she had been unfaithful to him. Asked by the warden if he had any final statement, Acker replied: "No, sir." He closed his eyes, took a breath, then slightly exhaled as the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect. There was no additional movement. He was pronounced dead 14 minutes later at 6:25 p.m. Acker did not acknowledge the presence of George's brother, Christopher Follis, who watched through a window a few feet away from him. Follis declined to speak with reporters after witnessing the punishment. Acker had no friends or relatives present. FILE - This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Daniel Acker. Acker is scheduled to be executed Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, for fatally running over his girlfriend. At least eight other Texas inmates have planned execution dates in the coming months. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP, File) The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Acker's attorneys on Thursday afternoon. They had argued the Acker was innocent of capital murder because his 32-year-old girlfriend's fatal injuries were due to her decision to jump from his truck after he abducted her. A similar appeal was rejected earlier this month by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The 46-year-old Acker became the 18th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the 10th given a lethal injection in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. Acker also was the second Texas inmate put to death in two days. Troy Clark received lethal injection Wednesday for torturing and drowning an East Texas woman in his bathtub and then stuffing her body into a barrel. The executions of Acker and Clark were the first time in nearly six years that Texas put to death inmates on consecutive days. At least eight other Texas inmates have planned execution dates in the coming months. At Acker's trial, several witnesses testified he got into a heated argument with George at a Sulphur Springs nightclub the night before her death over his suspicions she was sleeping with another man. Authorities said that the next day, Acker forced George - kicking and screaming - into his pickup truck. A witness later saw Acker pull George's body from his truck and lay her on the ground. In a petition to the Supreme Court, Acker's attorney, Richard Ellis, had argued the conviction was based on what he describes as a "now discredited" theory that Acker strangled George while he was driving. Ellis said prosecutors changed their theory of George's death after a prosecution expert testified at a post-conviction hearing in 2011 that she died from injuries after being run over. At Acker's trial, a medical examiner testified George had extensive injuries all over her body and her neck injuries were consistent with strangulation. But the medical examiner could not determine if strangulation or blunt force caused George's death. The autopsy report did conclude that several of George's injuries could have resulted from "an impact with or being ejected from a motor vehicle." "From the moment Daniel turned himself in to the authorities, he said that the victim Markie George jumped from the truck," Ellis said. "He has taken full responsibility for abducting her and has shown great remorse for that." In its response to Acker's Supreme Court petition, the Texas Attorney General's Office argued the theory that Acker ran over his girlfriend was presented at the trial to jurors. "Acker produces no new evidence showing he did not commit the crime but continues to assert that George's death resulted from her leap from the vehicle - a theory rejected by the jury at the time of trial," the attorney general's office said. Multiple witnesses testified at Acker's trial that he made several death threats against George in the hours before her death. In a 2017 ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the prosecution's theory of George's death was "largely based on strangulation." But in denying Acker's appeal, the 5th Circuit ruled that all of the evidence, including the updated cause of death, still supports the prosecution's case as it was presented in the indictment and at trial. ___ Lozano reported from Houston. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at www.twitter.com/juanlozano70 CHICAGO (AP) - Now it is Laquan McDonald who is on trial. After days of prosecutors making their case to jurors that Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke committed first-degree murder in 2014 when he shot the black teenager 16 times, attorneys for the white officer are presenting their own evidence. Their contention: The teenager was a violent, dangerous, knife-wielding suspect on "a rampage" whom Van Dyke was forced to kill. "What you are seeing is they are trying to build a case on Laquan as if he is the perpetrator and not the victim," said the teen's great uncle, the Rev. Marvin Hunter. "That's because what you see on the video is so clear that when he (Van Dyke) got out of the car all he saw was a black boy he felt was disobeying the orders or the police." The shooting happened after police were called to a report of someone breaking into trucks. Testimony and video shows officers had McDonald largely surrounded on a city street and were waiting for someone to arrive with a stun gun to use on the teenager when Van Dyke pulled up, got out of his squad car and started shooting. Squad car video shows McDonald was veering away from police, a knife in one hand. An autopsy showed McDonald had a small amount of the hallucinogenic drug PCP in his system. Part of the story being told is about McDonald's past. He spent most of his 17 years as a ward of the state, shuttled between different relatives' homes and foster care from the time he was 3. McDonald wound up in juvenile detention after an arrest for marijuana possession in January 2014, and among those testifying at Van Dyke's trial this week were several current or former employees at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center who said they had violent run-ins with McDonald. Under state law, in cases where criminal defendants claim they acted in self-defense, as Van Dyke has, judges can let attorneys present evidence about previous incidents even if the defendants didn't know about them. But prosecutors have argued that that McDonald's past is irrelevant because Van Dyke did not know anything about the teen when he shot him on Oct. 20, 2014. Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke listens to the proceedings at his trial for the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald, at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool) An attorney who is not involved in the case but who regularly represents police officers says it appears Van Dyke's lawyers are using that evidence to put into context McDonald's actions that night. According to testimony, McDonald ignored orders to drop his knife and at one point used it to puncture a squad car tire. One officer who encountered McDonald before Van Dyke arrived testified that the teenager "looked deranged" and wouldn't look at officers as they followed him. "They are trying to demonstrate to the jury that Laquan McDonald had the capability of becoming violent and resisting the orders of police officers," said Laura Scarry, a Chicago attorney who's represented police officers for more than 20 years. "They are trying to paint a picture that contradicts the idea that he was compliant that night... to show that he had a pattern of violent tendencies, and tendencies to resist orders from police." On Thursday , the defense called a witness to bolster that portrayal: A pharmacologist testified the teen had enough PCP in his bloodstream to cause hallucinations, rage, and violence to trigger "significant bizarre behavior" and leave him dangerous to himself and others. Some see the defense strategy as darker than just trying to show Van Dyke was acting in self-defense. "The mission is not merely to support Van Dyke's view that he had to do what he did but to ... take his humanity away so they can identify with the police officer rather than a dead kid," said Jennifer Bonjean, whose clients include a man whose murder conviction was dropped after he alleged a former Chicago police detective beat him into making a false confession. "They are saying, 'Don't get so worked up over a dead kid; this is a bad dead kid.'" Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune put it more bluntly in a column this week, saying the defense is trying to plant the "vile idea" in jurors' minds "that Van Dyke should be hailed, not convicted, for ridding our city of a pest." Prosecutors have stressed throughout the trial that no other officers opened fire. When a truck driver testified about how McDonald tried to stab him, prosecutor Joseph Cullen noted he was able to fend the teen off by throwing "a cellphone and a handful of rocks." Jeffrey Neslund, an attorney who represented the McDonald family in negotiations with the city that resulted in a $5 million settlement, sees it as risky defense to suggest that "it was OK to shoot this kid because he was a juvenile delinquent troublemaker." Neslund added: "You are sending that message with guys who all were able to get him (McDonald) under control without shooting him." Truck driver Rudy Barillas testifies during the murder trial of Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke for the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool) The drama surrounding President Donald Trump's pick for the Supreme Court over the nominee's behavior in the 1980s has reinforced a warning today's social media-savvy high school students have grown up hearing: What they say and do now will live well past graduation. Judge Brett Kavanaugh faces a historic hearing Thursday over assault allegations dating back to his high school and college years. He has denied the allegations. Some teenagers today say they are more mindful of the enduring quality of their words and actions because they've grown up with the internet, and social media posts are increasingly part of the college admission and job vetting process. In contrast, the evidence collected in the Kavanaugh's past includes decades-old yearbooks and calendars. California high school senior Maya Carpenter, 17, says she's taken classes since middle school on being safe on the internet, and her high school offers a digital citizenship class on the subject. "They put a lot of emphasis on how whatever you say never really goes away," she said. "What's happening with the Kavanaugh hearings is a great example of that." FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh listens to a question while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) At least 10 prospective Harvard University students learned this lesson the hard way last year when their dream school rescinded admission offers after they traded posts on Facebook that were reportedly often sexually explicit and mocked Mexicans, the Holocaust, sexual assault and child abuse. Colleges also make no secret of the fact they visit applicants' social media profiles. A Kaplan Test Prep survey in April said 68 percent of colleges consider profiles on Facebook and Instagram "fair game" as they decide who gets admitted. A big difference today - it's unlikely to take 30 years for misconduct to cause problems. "It's definitely something that a lot of people are aware of," said Georgia VanDerwater, 18, of Holland, New York. She is cautious about what she posts online, and her mother keeps tabs on her social media posts and messages when she sees something that could be troublesome down the road. "Be it a joke or a swear word in a tweet, I send it back. I will write and say, 'I just want you to know that when I read this I interpreted it this way, and so other people might interpret it this way,'" said Georgia's mother, Amy VanDerwater. Kavanaugh is pushing back against allegations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking in the early 1980s as he tries to convince senators he is worthy of a Supreme Court seat. His 1983 high-school yearbook refers to plenty of drinking while at Georgetown Preparatory School, the private all-boys school in Maryland, including being treasurer of the "Keg City Club" - "100 Kegs or Bust." Bob Farrace, spokesman for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, says schools have been steering students toward more constructive yearbook posts for years. "Principals and yearbook advisors have always dissuaded students from writing inappropriate commentary in their yearbook," he said, "understandably because such comments reflect badly on both the school and the student." But it's not just bad acts that live on. VanDerwater, a freshman at the State University of New York at Geneseo, knows that if a potential employer Googles her name, they'll see that she helped organize a high school walkout last year to demonstrate for stricter gun control, and that she called out a Republican congressman for not taking part in a forum on the topic. As she got involved with gun protests, she had to weigh whether that political activity might work against her if she tries getting a job with an employer with different political views. In the end, she decided it was worth it because a company like that wasn't a right fit anyway. "But it definitely could make a difference, because if you Google my name, that will come up," she said. "I've thought about that." Sophomore James Connor at Northport High School in New York said students like him are being reminded by parents and teachers of how youthful indiscretion can come back to haunt them, "but we also do learn that a lot from just growing up and being online in the 21st century." ___ Associated Press journalist Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report. UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Thursday of keeping a "secret atomic warehouse" just outside its capital, despite the 2015 deal with world powers that was meant to keep it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Hours later, Iran dismissed the allegation. Holding up a poster-board map of an area near Tehran as he spoke at the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu told world leaders that Iranian officials have been keeping up to 300 tons of nuclear equipment and material in a walled, unremarkable-looking property near a rug-cleaning operation. Netanyahu's disclosure - which he presented as a big reveal on the international community's biggest stage - came four months after Israel announced the existence of what it said was a "half-ton" of Iranian nuclear documents obtained by Israeli intelligence in the Shourabad neighborhood near Tehran. Israel said the cache proved that Iranian leaders covered up their nuclear weapons program before signing the nuclear agreement. Iran hasn't acknowledged the alleged seizure. "You have to ask yourself a question: Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse?" Netanyahu asked. "What Iran hides, Israel will find." Netanyahu didn't specify what the material and equipment was, and it was not immediately clear whether it proved to be a violation of the nuclear deal. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been monitoring Iran's compliance with the agreement, had no immediate comment. Netanyahu also said Iranian officials had been clearing some radioactive material out of the site, which sits a short distance from Shourabad, and "spread it around Tehran." He then even suggested that residents of the capital might want to buy Geiger counters. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows guided missile sites in Beirut during his address of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) In a tweet, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif derided the Israeli presentation as an "arts and craft show" by a country that he said needed to come clean about its own nuclear program. Israel is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal but has never publicly acknowledged it. Zarif said there was nothing to the Israeli allegation, Iranian state-run media reported. "The only purpose of this is to undercut the reality that Israel is the biggest threat to the region," he was quoted as saying. He noted that the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has certified Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal. The 2015 deal came after years of Western sanctions over Iran's contested atomic program. The West had feared it could be used to build nuclear bombs. Iran long has denied seeking atomic weapons. Under terms of the deal, Iran is allowed to keep documents and other research. The deal strictly limits how many centrifuges - important equipment for making enriched uranium that can be used in nuclear power plants or in weapons - Iran can use and how large of a low-enriched uranium stockpile the country can keep. Netanyahu said the warehouse stored "massive amounts of equipment and materiel," and he said Israel shared the information with the IAEA. The Vienna-based agency had no immediate comment. He noted that Israel had long opposed the multinational agreement with Iran. Israel considers Iran its biggest threat, citing Tehran's calls for Israel's destruction, its support for hostile militant organizations like the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group and Iran's development of long-range missiles. U.S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear deal in May, and his administration has been re-imposing sanctions on Iran. Israel applauded the move, but many other nations lamented it as jeopardizing what they saw as the best chance to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed power. "Instead of coddling Iran's dictators," other countries should support the sanctions, Netanyahu said to applause. He accused Europe of "appeasement" of Iran, a word that harkens back to criticism of Europe's approach to Nazi Germany before World War II. Netanyahu is known for his showmanship at the U.N. In 2012, he famously held up a drawing of a cartoon bomb while discussing Iran's nuclear program, saying "a red line should be drawn right here" and drawing it with a marker. His accusation Thursday about Iran came shortly after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas criticized Israel and the U.S. in his own speech, declaring that his people's rights "are not up for bargaining" and that the U.S. was undermining the long-discussed two-state solution. But Netanyahu devoted less attention to the long-running conflict with the Palestinians. Abbas halted ties with Trump's administration in December after the U.S. recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and Palestinians have said a pending U.S. peace plan will be dead on arrival because of that and other recent U.S. moves that Palestinians see as favoring Israel. "Jerusalem is not for sale," Abbas said to applause as he began his speech. "The Palestinian people's rights are not up for bargaining." He said Palestinians would never reject negotiation, but that "it's really ironic that the American administration still talks about what they call the 'deal of the century.'" "What is left for this administration to give to the Palestinian people?" he asked. "What is left as a political solution?" Netanyahu, in return, said the Palestinians' accusations against his country were hypocritical and unwarranted. "You condemn Israel's morality?" he asked. "This is not the way to achieve the peace we all want and need and to which Israel remains committed." The Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza has led protests for months along the border with Israel, aiming partly to draw attention to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007. At least 137 Palestinians, mostly unarmed, have been killed by Israeli fire since the border protests began on March 30. During that time, a Gaza sniper killed an Israeli soldier. Hamas and Israel came close to serious conflict this summer as Gaza militants bombarded southern Israel with mortars and rockets, and Israel struck Hamas targets in Gaza. Israel says it is defending its border against attempts by Hamas, a militant group sworn to its destruction, to infiltrate and carry out attacks. But Israel has faced heavy international criticism over the large number of unarmed protesters who have been killed or wounded. While meeting with Netanyahu on Wednesday, Trump told reporters he believes that two states - Israel and one for the Palestinians - "works best." Hours before Netanyahu's scheduled speech, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman expressed indifference to Trump's remarks, saying Israel wants "a safe Jewish state." Netanyahu had reluctantly accepted the concept of Palestinian statehood but has since backtracked. Palestinians have been split since Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, ousting forces of Abbas, who now governs just parts of the West Bank. Repeated reconciliation attempts have failed, and Abbas warned that further measures could be taken against Hamas if deadlock persists. The Israeli and Palestinian speeches fell on the same day that members of a U.N. group of 135 developing countries formalized a decision to give the Palestinians the chairmanship in 2019. That stands to boost their aspirations for official statehood but angers Israel. Palestinians were infuriated, and many Israelis were thrilled, by a series of decisions Trump has made, starting with his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The Palestinians also claim the holy city as the capital of an eventual state. Earlier this year, Trump followed up on the recognition by moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. His administration has also slashed aid to the Palestinians by hundreds of millions of dollars and ended U.S. support for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees. Trump and his national security team have defended their position, saying decades of attempts to forge peace have failed. Other leaders who spoke Thursday included Haiti's President Jovenel Moise, who told leaders he had "spared no effort to ensure that institutions are stable and to make sure we are creating a safe and stable environment conducive to investment and to relaunching growth" in his impoverished Caribbean island country since the U.N. peacekeeping mission there wrapped up in October 2017. ___ Associated Press writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed. Seats marked for Iran in the General Assembly Hall, upper left, appear empty as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to display a photograph as he addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, carries his speech and visual aids to address the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) In this photo released by official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani steps out of his plane at Mehrabad airport, in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, on his arrival from New York after attending the United Nations General Assembly. Rouhani said Thursday that the U.N. Security Council meeting chaired by President Donald Trump the previous day reflected America's increasing isolation among the international community. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) In this photo released by official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks at Mehrabad airport, in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, on arrival from New York after attending the United Nations General Assembly. Rouhani said Thursday that the U.N. Security Council meeting chaired by President Donald Trump the previous day reflected America's increasing isolation among the international community. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP) Palestinian minister of foreign affairs Riyad al-Maliki, center, speaks to reporters while Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour, left, and Palestinian official Omar Awdallah look on following a meeting in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Haiti's President Jovenel Moise addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Haiti's President Jovenel Moise arrives to address the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the world stands at the "dawn of a new day" in relations with North Korea but that international sanctions must remain in place and vigorously enforced if diplomatic efforts to get the country to denuclearize are to succeed - a position that faced resistance from China and Russia. Chairing a special session of the U.N. Security Council, Pompeo said President Donald Trump's diplomatic breakthrough with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has led to a point where the nuclear threat from the country can be resolved. But the "unprecedented diplomatic opening" would close unless the pressure from sanctions is kept up. "Until the final denuclearization of the DPRK is achieved and fully verified, it is our solemn collective responsibility to fully implement all U.N. Security Council resolutions pertaining to North Korea," he said, using the initials for the country's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Pompeo said the U.S. has evidence that U.N. sanctions, particularly those restricting North Korean oil imports and coal exports, are being violated and he demanded that U.N. members ensure they are respected. "Enforcement of U.N. Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize final, fully verified denuclearization," Pompeo said. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, whose country is North Korea's main ally, agreed that the sanctions "remain valid," but he said the resolutions provide for them to be modified based on North Korea's compliance and the council should consider doing so. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attends a meeting of the United Nations Security Council during the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow) "China believes that the Security Council may consider invoking in due course this provision in order to encourage (North Korea) and other relevant parties to move denuclearization further ahead," he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow believes that certain sanctions, unrelated to the nuclear program, should also be eased. "We also think it's very important to regularly discuss whether it's advisable to review various restrictions against DPRK as it moves towards giving up its nuclear weapons," Lavrov told the session, adding that the U.N.'s sanctions committee should consider "applications for exemptions from the sanctions regime" for projects agreed to by Pyongyang and Seoul. China and Russia also said they share with North and South Korea a desire to produce a document that would declare an end to the Korean War, which ended with an armistice and not a formal peace treaty. The Trump administration has balked at signing such a declaration without significant progress on denuclearization, such as North Korea submitting a complete inventory of its nuclear and ballistic missile facilities that could be used by international inspectors to verify they have been dismantled. Pompeo, who met on Wednesday with North Korea's foreign minister, will make a third trip to North Korea next month to set the stage for a second summit between Kim and Trump, who met in Singapore in June. Trump, Pompeo and other U.S. officials have repeatedly reported progress in the denuclearization discussions with the North, but there has been little visible evidence of that to date. Although North Korea has suspended nuclear and missile testing and has taken some steps to dismantle affiliated facilities, it has continued to develop missiles and has made no public show of taking down its nuclear weapons development. ___ Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo begins a meeting of the United Nations Security Council during the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from left, attends a meeting with permanent members of United Nations Security Council in New York, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. From left, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Pompeo, Jonathan Cohen, U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N., Jeremy Hunt, Britain Foreign Affairs Secretary and last on left side row is Karen Pierce, Britain's U.N. ambassador. From right, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, French ambassador to the U.N. Francois Delattre, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzia. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi receives a word as he attends a meeting of the United Nations Security Council during the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow) CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on the trial of Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is charged with murder in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald (all times local): 11:45 a.m. A pharmacologist testifying in the trial of a white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the shooting of Laquan McDonald says PCP in the black teen's system could have caused aggression, rage and hallucinations. James Thomas O'Donnell said during Van Dyke's murder trial on Thursday that that someone with as much of PCP in his system as McDonald had in his bloodstream could have a "feeling of omnipotence." O'Donnell said the person could feel as if he has "superhuman powers." He says that could put a person at risk of harming himself or others around him. Other witnesses have testified that McDonald refused to drop a knife as police ordered and that McDonald stabbed the tire of a police vehicle. O'Donnell said such "violent rage behavior" could be explained by having PCP in his system. Under cross examination, O'Donnell acknowledged that he had no information that Van Dyke knew McDonald had PCP in his system when he shot him 16 times on the night of Oct. 20, 2014. Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke holds hands with his wife Tiffany Van Dyke as he walks out of the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018 in Chicago. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP) ___ 11 a.m. A woman is telling the jury in Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke's murder trial about an encounter she had with the teen Van Dyke killed hours earlier that concerned her enough to call police. Yvette Patterson is the latest witness called by defense attorneys who want jurors to know about angry and sometimes violent encounters that black teenager Laquan McDonald had with people. Others have included current and former employees at the county's juvenile detention facility when McDonald was there. Patterson said Thursday that when she got to her home early on Oct. 20, 2014, McDonald was sitting on the stairs. She said he walked to her vehicle and said he wanted to use it. She said that when she told McDonald he could not use her car, he "said OK and started laughing." Still, she said she was concerned enough about her safety to call 911. ___ 11:57 p.m. Wednesday. Lawyers for a white Chicago police officer who shot black teenager Laquan McDonald to death in 2014 are scheduled to call more witnesses as they defend him against murder and other charges. Thursday will be the fourth day that Jason Van Dyke's attorneys present evidence to Cook County jurors. Defense attorneys are trying to show it was reasonable for Van Dyke to have perceived McDonald as a threat. The officer shot the teen 16 times as he walked away carrying a knife. Several defense witnesses have testified about violent encounters McDonald had with authorities at a juvenile detention facility months earlier. And a truck driver testified that McDonald tried to stab him the night of the shooting. Prosecutors rested their case last week but could call more witnesses after the defense rests. Tiffany Van Dyke, the wife of Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, listens during her husband's murder trial for the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool) Owen Van Dyke, center, the father of Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, attends his son's murder trial for the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool) MOSCOW (AP) - The Latest on the nerve agent poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain (all times local): 8 p.m. Britain's foreign secretary says he has warned Russia it will pay a "high price" if it continues to use chemical weapons like the nerve agent used against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. Jeremy Hunt said Thursday he had a "frank" discussion with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when they met during the UN General Assembly meetings in New York. "It was pretty tough because it is not acceptable for Russia to instruct two GRU agents to use chemical weapons on British soil," he told Sky News, referring to Russia's military intelligence agency. Britain has declined to comment on a report Wednesday from the Bellingcat investigative group that identified one of the two suspects in the case as a highly-decorated Russian colonel, but officials had previously called the two men GRU officers. In this frame grab dated June 24, 2017, taken from Russian Defense Ministry official web site, an aerial view of an entrance to Russian Far-Eastern Higher Combined-Arms Command military academy in Blagoveshchensk, Russia. The British investigative group, Bellingcat, said Wednesday Sept. 26, 2018, that it has identified one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in the U.K. as a highly decorated colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, saying that he graduated from the academy in Blagoveshchensk. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP) Hunt said he believed the Russians had made the assassination attempt because they felt they had "got away" with the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian agent, in London in 2005. ___ 7:40 p.m. The founder of the Bellingcat investigative group says a source led its researchers to track down a photo of Col. Anatoly Chepiga, the man the group identified as one of two suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Britain. Eliot Higgins said the resemblance between the ID photo they found of Chepiga and photos of Ruslan Boshirov was striking to people with expertise in the field. In its online report, Bellingcat says one of its sources suggested checking out the Far Eastern Military Command Academy, one of Russia's leading schools for training in foreign languages and clandestine operations. This helped Bellingcat eventually find a photo of Chepiga. "If it had been the wrong person we would have known," Higgins said. "The ear shape is quite distinctive, as in the general shape of nose, face and eyebrows. I've done a lot of facial recognition and there are a lot of little things." He said his group hopes to reveal the real name of the second suspect "soon." ___ 6 p.m. Russia's respected Kommersant daily has interviewed residents in a small village in the Far East who have identified one of the suspects in the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain as a senior Russian intelligence agent. On Wednesday, an investigative group in Britain named Bellingcat said one of the two suspects in the March poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the U.K. is in fact Col. Anatoliy Chepiga with the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, who in 2014 was awarded Russia's highest medal. Kommersant on Thursday interviewed several residents of the village where Chepiga's family used to live as saying that Chepiga is the man identified by the British as one of the poisoning suspects. Russian officials have denied any role in the poisoning in the English city of Salisbury. This undated handout file photo issued by the Metropolitan Police shows the Russian National named as Ruslan Boshirov. An online investigations group has published what it says is the real identity of one of the prime suspects in the Salisbury nerve agent attack. The investigative group Bellingcat says it has identified one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy as a highly-decorated colonel of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU. Bellingcat said Wednesday, Sept. 26 that the suspect whose passport name was Ruslan Boshirov is in fact Col. Anatoliy Chepiga. (Metropolitan Police via AP) In this photo of Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016 taken from Russian Defense Ministry official web site, military students stand during a visit of foreign military attaches as they visit the Russian Far-Eastern Higher Combined-Arms Command military academy in Blagoveshchensk, Russia. The British investigative group, Bellingcat, said Wednesday Sept. 26, 2018, that it has identified one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in the U.K. as a highly decorated colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, saying that he graduated from the academy in Blagoveshchensk. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP) HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A Montana jury has ruled that the Jehovah's Witnesses organization must pay $35 million to a woman who says the church covered up her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member. Neil Smith, an attorney representing the 21-year-old woman, says the jury's verdict in the lawsuit Wednesday sends a message to the New York headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses to stop prioritizing church secrecy over children's safety. Jehovah's Witnesses officials did not immediately respond to a call and email for comment. The monetary award must be reviewed by the trial judge. The jury dismissed claims by a second woman who alleged abuse by the same man in Thompson Falls in the 1990s. The jury concluded church elders did not receive notice of the 32-year-old woman's abuse and therefore did not have a duty to tell authorities. The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they are a victim of a sex crime. File - In this Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, file photo, the iconic Watchtower sign is seen on the roof of 25-30 Columbia Heights, then world headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Two women who were sexually abused as children say the Jehovah's Witnesses failed to report their abuser to authorities in Montana, and instead expelled him from the congregation as punishment until he repented. The Thompson Falls trial that begins Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, is one of dozens of lawsuits filed nationwide over the last decade alleging mismanagement of sexual abuse claims by Jehovah's Witness clergy and members. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) ___ This story has been corrected to say the jury verdict's total award is $35 million, not $34 million. SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - The president of Macedonia has urged voters to abstain from a referendum on changing the country's name to clear its path toward NATO and European Union membership. President Gjorge Ivanov said during the last hours of campaigning for Sunday's referendum that changing the nation's name to North Macedonia would be a "flagrant violation of sovereignty." He spoke Thursday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Voter turnout is critical, as the referendum will be valid only if more than 50 percent of voters participate. Polls indicate a "yes" vote would prevail, but turnout might fall short. Ivanov, a conservative, opposes the deal on which left-wing Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has staked his political future. Police say a student protest against the name change planned for later Thursday was cancelled. LOS ANGELES (AP) - A man wanted on suspicion of an armed sexual assault in Los Angeles last year was added Thursday to the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. The FBI also announced a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading directly to the arrest of Greg Alyn Carlson, 46, who detectives believe is likely responsible for additional sexual assaults. "Greg Alyn Carlson joins the notorious Top Ten list because he is considered an enemy to the public and we believe his violence may escalate," Paul D. Delacourt, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said in a statement. Authorities say Carlson committed a burglary on July 13, 2017, during which he attempted to sexually assault a woman while using a weapon. In September 2017, he was charged with assault with intent to commit rape, assault with a deadly weapon and burglary, and he was arrested by Los Angeles police. Carlson posted bond and was released, then fled to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The FBI said investigators believe he then left the state in a car with a stolen gun and a significant amount of cash. This undated photos released on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 by the FBI shows an FBI wanted poster of Greg Alyn Carlson. Carlson is wanted for allegedly committing an armed sexual assault in Los Angeles last year has been added to the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. The FBI also announced Thursday a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading directly to the arrest of Carlson, who detectives believe is likely responsible for additional sexual assaults. (FBI via AP) He was spotted in Hoover, Alabama, on Nov. 22, 2017, and led police on a high-speed chase, but officers called off the pursuit because of danger to the public. Carlson was then spotted in Florida, first in Jacksonville on Nov. 28, 2017, and in Daytona Beach two days after that. He was last seen in a stolen white, four-door, 2017 Hyundai Accent rental car with South Carolina license plate NKI-770. A federal arrest warrant was issued the following month after he was charged in U.S. District Court with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Carlson could now be in any state or may have fled the country, the FBI said. Authorities urged anyone who believes they were victimized by Carlson but did not report it at the time to call the Los Angeles Police Department. "We believe this collaborative effort will lead to the apprehension of Greg Carlson, an individual who has viciously attacked women and threatened the public safety over the past decade," said Capt. Billy Hayes of the LAPD Robbery Homicide Division. Investigators aren't certain how Carlson earned money, but some information suggests past work as an actor, the FBI said. In the Los Angeles area, he had past residences in suburban Santa Monica and Redondo Beach. CORRECTS MIDDLE NAME TO ALYN FROM ALAN - FBI Assistant Director in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office, Paul Delacourt, at podium, announces the inclusion of alleged sexual predator, Greg Alyn Carlson, on the the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list during a news conference at the FBI headquarters in Los Angeles Thursday, Sep. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) NEW YORK (AP) - The nation's political divide and the burgeoning #MeToo movement played out in a riveting daytime drama Thursday before millions of Americans watching the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Anger, tears, sex, power - it was all on display. California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, acknowledging she was "terrified" to be on stage, told of being sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh at a high school party. Hours later, Kavanaugh, getting choked up at times, indignantly denied the accusations and denounced a process he called "a national disgrace." "Just as you could feel emotional with her, you could feel emotional with him," said CNN's Gloria Borger of the event, shown all day by the nation's major networks. Many TV commentators suggested Ford's testimony was particularly compelling. Perhaps most significantly, some of them were on Fox News Channel, where Chris Wallace called it "a disaster for the Republicans." That's the network President Trump tuned to for the coverage and whose opinion hosts have been most vociferous in backing Kavanaugh's nomination. Wallace said that there has been a lot of talk in the country about the allegations and that two of his daughters had recently told him stories about things that had happened to them in high school that they had never told their parents before. Disregarding Ford would be a big mistake, he said. Christine Blasey Ford listens to her attorney Michael Bromwich as she testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP) Wallace's Fox News colleague Brit Hume observed: "The more hesitant, the more fragile she has seemed, the more credible and powerful she seems to the audience." Yet after Kavanaugh appeared, Hume liked how he fought back. "I don't think it diminishes his credibility one bit," Hume said later. "I think it enhances his credibility." Kavanaugh's partisan attack was matched by Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who denounced the process as a "sham." "He may have just done more than a Trump rally to rally the base," said NBC's Chuck Todd. The raw fury changed the tone from the morning, where ABC's Dan Abrams said Ford's testimony was an "unmitigated disaster" for Republicans. CNN's Wolf Blitzer suggested people watching in their homes were crying as they listened to her story. NBC's Savannah Guthrie said Ford's description of Kavanaugh and a friend of his laughing uproariously during the alleged attack is a moment that will resonate with many Americans. Analysts said the Republicans were harmed by Rachel Mitchell, the sex crimes prosecutor brought in by the all-male GOP members of the Senate panel to question Ford. Mitchell was constrained by the hearing's format, where she was given five minutes at a time to ask questions before she had to yield to a Democratic senator who heaped praise on Ford. Others were baffled by what points she was trying to make, such as establishing that Ford's fear of flying hadn't prevented her from getting on an airplane. On the Fox Business Network, Stuart Varney appeared frustrated by Mitchell and said Ford was perhaps ruining Kavanaugh's career and undermining the integrity of the Supreme Court. "Why can't that person be questioned vigorously?" Varney said. "Why do we have to step back and with absolute maximum caution have her interviewed by another woman?" Despite the sympathy for Ford, some urged caution. NBC's Megyn Kelly said that while some may empathize with her, it doesn't necessarily mean she was attacked by Kavanaugh. And she wondered whether Kavanaugh's exemplary life since high school should be taken into account. A former prosecutor interviewed on Fox Business Network, Sidney Powell, said she did not find Ford credible. "She was far from being raped," she said. "She hasn't even alleged that any body part was exposed. ... It was all a fumbled attempt to make out with a girl at a party." Meanwhile, C-SPAN took phone calls from viewer during breaks in the testimony, and at times it seemed like an impromptu therapy group. At least four callers told their own stories of being victims of sexual assault. Also on Thursday, The New York Times deleted and apologized for a tweet that asked readers to vote on whether they thought Ford's testimony credible. "In retrospect, a Twitter poll is insensitive in light of the gravity of the hearing," the newspaper said. ___ Associated Press reporters Catherine Lucey and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this story. SELMA, Ala. (AP) - Bond is set at $5 million for a man charged in what authorities are calling the ambush-style shooting of a police officer in Selma, Alabama. District Attorney Michael Johnson says 21-year-old Kevin Devonta Johnson Jr. is charged with attempted murder and other offenses in an attack on Officer Michael Hale, who was wounded but survived. A hearing is set for Nov. 6. Court records aren't yet available to show whether the man has a lawyer. Selma police say the officer was wounded while on patrol early Sunday when someone shot into his patrol car using a high-powered rifle. Authorities have said multiple people were involved. The slug pierced the officer's bulletproof vest and entered his chest. The officer sped away but lost control of the police cruiser and crashed. The controversy over sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh spilled into governor's races across the country as the woman at the center of the claims told her story to a riveted nation. The already highly charged contests became even more so after psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford gave her emotional but steady recounting of a sexual assault she says happened while she and Kavanaugh were teenagers. Later, an emotional and emphatic Kavanaugh denied it. Her testimony and whether Kavanaugh's nomination should move forward became flashpoints in governor's races from New Hampshire to Oregon. One Republican facing re-election this November, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, called Ford's allegations serious and said they should be fully investigated. Through a campaign spokesman, Sununu said the Senate "should think carefully about the next steps in this process." But his Democratic challenger Molly Kelly, said Sununu should go further and call for President Donald Trump to withdraw Kavanaugh's nomination. Karina Provost holds up a sign in support of Christine Blasey Ford in Las Vegas on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. Nevada's Republican governor says the U.S. Senate should not cast a final vote on the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh without a full review of the allegations of sexual misconduct that have been made against the nominee. (AP Photo/Michelle L. Price) "Sununu's latest statement is not enough," Kelly said in a statement. "And he owes the women of New Hampshire an apology." It was similar in Oregon, where Republican challenger Knute Buehler called for an FBI investigation into Ford's charges while Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said Kavanaugh's nomination should be rejected. In a Twitter message, Brown called the federal judge "a threat to women's rights in our nation." Governors have no official role in how the U.S. Senate should handle Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, but their voices could add pressure to senators trying to decide how to vote. In Illinois, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said earlier this month that there should be an investigation and the allegations, if true, should disqualify Kavanaugh. He did not specify whether he thought the Senate inquiry was sufficient or whether the FBI should investigate, as Democrats have asked. Rauner's spokesman said the governor was traveling Thursday and did not watch Ford's testimony. His Democratic challenger, J.B. Pritzker, criticized Rauner's response. The governor, he said Thursday, "continues to support Trump and this troubling nominee. I've opposed Kavanaugh from day one because he poses a grave threat to Roe v. Wade, the Affordable Care Act, and critical consumer and environmental protections." The allegations resonate deeply in Maryland, where Kavanaugh and Ford attended separate private prep schools. Ford says the assault took place at a gathering in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. Through a spokeswoman, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Kavanaugh's nomination should not proceed without a full investigation of the allegations. A week earlier, Hogan had rejected a Democratic state senator's call for Maryland state police to investigate Ford's story. Hogan's opponent in the November election, Democrat Ben Jealous, said Kavanaugh should not be confirmed. "The women who have come forward should have the freedom to pursue legal remedy, and our leaders have the obligation to do everything they can to end this epidemic of sexual violence," he said in a statement. Some other Republican governors and candidates for the office stopped short of calling for a full investigation. Others, including Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Connecticut's Republican candidate, Bob Stefanowski, avoided the question by saying Kavanaugh's confirmation was not an issue for governors to decide. Stefanowski drew groans at a debate on Wednesday, the day before Ford's testimony, when he responded to a question on the confirmation by saying, "I'm going to pass on that. That's a federal issue." On Thursday, he issued a statement saying the Senate committee should "fully consider" Ford's and Kavanaugh's testimony before proceeding. His Democratic opponent, Ned Lamont, criticized those responses. "His silence is deafening," Lamont said. "The voters of Connecticut deserve to know where candidates for governor - who are running to appoint Connecticut's cabinet officials and Supreme Court Justices - stand on Brett Kavanaugh." ___ Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Susan Haigh in Concord, Connecticut; John O'Connor in Springfield, Illinois; Michelle Price in Las Vegas; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Bob Salsberg in Boston; Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; Anita Snow in Phoenix; and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill Lisa McAllister, left, Virginia Wisdom, center, and Karina Provost demonstrate in support of Christine Blasey Ford in Las Vegas on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. Nevada's Republican governor says the U.S. Senate should not cast a final vote on the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh without a full review of the allegations of sexual misconduct that have been made against the nominee. (AP Photo/Michelle L. Price) FILE - This panel of 2018 file photo shows New Hampshire Democratic gubernatorial nominee Molly Kelly, left, and Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. Some Republican governors are calling for a delay in the U.S. Senate confirmation vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Governors have no official say in whether Kavanaugh will be confirmed. But their statements could help pressure senators and separate themselves from President Donald Trump as they seek re-election. That might be especially important in Democratic-leaning states such as Maryland, Massachusetts and Vermont.(AP Photos/File) UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held the U.N. General Assembly in suspense Thursday - and flashed boldly printed props - as he accused Iran of hiding a clandestine nuclear warehouse in a rug-cleaning plant. He built up to it with theatrical aplomb. "What I'm about to ay has not been shared publicly before." Pause. "I'm disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse." In case anyone in the hall hadn't already been paying attention, he took the unusual step of brandishing visual aids - a posterboard map, then a posterboard photo, then another posterboard map. Netanyahu vigorously opposes a 2015 deal curbing Iran's nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows an atomic warehouse in Teheran during his address the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows an atomic warehouse in Teheran during his address the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, carries his speech and visual aids to address the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) FARGO, N.D. (AP) - The Latest on the trial of William Hoehn, accused of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Savanna Greywind (all times local): 5:15 p.m. A North Dakota jury has gone home for the day without a quick verdict for a man accused of conspiring in the slaying of a pregnant woman whose baby was cut from her womb. Jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes before reaching day's end Thursday in the trial of William Hoehn (hayn). He's charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2017 death of Savanna Greywind. Hoehn has admitted helping his then-girlfriend, Brooke Crews, cover up the crime. But he says he knew nothing about her plans to carry it out. Crews testified that when Hoehn came upon the bloody scene in the couple's apartment bathroom, he got a rope and tightened it around her neck to make sure she was dead. William Hoehn enters the courtroom on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Cass County District Court in Fargo, N.D., during his trial on a charge of conspiring to murder Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, whose baby was cut from her womb. (David Samson/The Forum via AP, Pool) Hoehn denied that. The jury returns Friday morning. ___ 3:15 p.m. A jury in North Dakota has begun deliberations for a man accused of conspiring in the slaying of a pregnant woman whose baby was cut from her womb. Testimony wrapped Thursday afternoon in the trial of William Hoehn (hayn). He's charged in the August 2017 death of Savanna Greywind. Hoehn has admitted helping his then-girlfriend, Brooke Crews, cover up the death. But he says he had no knowledge of what Crews planned until discovering the crime scene in the couple's apartment bathroom. Crews testified that she didn't tell Hoehn "explicitly" of what she planned. But she said he got a rope and tightened it around Greywind's neck to be sure she was dead. Hoehn's attorney called Crews a liar. ___ 3 p.m. The attorney for a man accused of helping kill a North Dakota woman whose baby was cut from her womb says prosecutors cannot prove the victim was alive when he arrived on the scene - and so jurors should find him not guilty. Williams Hoehn (hayn) is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2017 death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind. Hoehn testified that he helped cover up the crime but had nothing to do with the murder. Defense attorney Daniel Borgen said in his closing argument that testimony by Hoehn's former girlfriend Brooke Crews that Hoehn tightened a rope around Greywind's neck is not credible. He called Crews "one of the most devious, skilled liars we have ever seen." Prosecutor Leah Viste said in her closing that Hoehn and Crews "made a plan and they carried out." ___ 2:30 p.m. Prosecutors in the trial of a man accused of helping kill a North Dakota woman whose baby was cut from her womb say he and his former girlfriend were in on the crime together. William Hoehn (hayn) is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2017 death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind. Hoehn has admitted to helping cover up the crime, but blames Brooke Crews for the killing. Prosecutor Leah Viste said in closing arguments that conspiracy could be proven in two ways. She said the first was Crews' testimony that she felt pressured to produce a baby. She said the other was Crews' testimony that when Hoehn came upon the scene, he retrieved a rope and tightened it around Greywind's neck. The prosecutor said Hoehn and Crews "made a plan and they carried it out." ___ 11:45 a.m. Prosecutors trying a man in the death of a North Dakota woman whose baby was cut from her womb attacked his credibility after he testified he had nothing to do with the killing. William Hoehn (hayn) is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2017 death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind. Hoehn's ex-girlfriend, Brooke Crews, testified earlier that she cut the baby from Greywind and then Hoehn tied a rope around Greywind's neck after he came upon the scene. Hoehn has denied it. Cass County prosecutor Leah Viste pointed out conflicting stories that Hoehn told police after he and Crews were arrested. Hoehn acknowledged that, but when Viste suggested that Hoehn and Crews would do anything for each other, Hoehn said there were "boundaries." Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Judge Tom Olson denied a defense motion for a mistrial at the end of Hoehn's testimony. ___ 10:15 a.m. A man accused in the death of a North Dakota woman whose baby was cut from her womb says his former girlfriend is responsible and that her claim he put a rope around the victim's neck is wrong. William Hoehn (hayn) is on trial for conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2017 death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind. Hoehn's ex-girlfriend, Brooke Crews, testified earlier that she cut the baby from Greywind and then Hoehn tied a rope around Greywind's neck after he came upon the scene. Hoehn testified Thursday that the rope was around Greywind's neck when he entered the bathroom of their apartment. When Hoehn's attorney asked him whether Greywind was breathing, Hoehn said he didn't think so. Hoehn earlier pleaded guilty to helping Crews cover up the crime. Defense attorney Daniel Borgen, left, and prosecutor Ryan Youngren confer with Judge Thomas Olson on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Cass County District Court in Fargo, N.D., during the trial of William Hoehn on a charge of conspiring to murder Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, whose baby was cut from her womb. (David Samson/The Forum via AP, Pool) Fargo Police Det. Philip Swan talks about finding a baby in Brooke Crews' apartment during testimony, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Cass County District Court in Fargo, N.D., during the trial of William Hoehn on a charge of conspiring to murder Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind. (David Samson/The Forum via AP, Pool) WASHINGTON (AP) - With Christine Blasey Ford's testimony over, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee sidelined the woman they brought in to question Ford about her allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. Republican senators, largely silent while Ford was in the witness chair, aggressively defended Kavanaugh after the nominee himself strongly denied the allegations of Ford and other women. If they were concerned about the optics of having 11 men question an alleged victim of sexual assault, those concerns were largely gone with Kavanaugh in front of them. The woman who posed questions to Ford, Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, remained in the room but sat mute while the afternoon wore on. It was another turn in what was clearly an awkward day for Mitchell. She typically tries to put people accused of sex crimes in prison. Instead, she was in the unusual and difficult position of trying to chip away at Ford's credibility. And she was doing it on behalf of the 11 Republican men on the Senate Judiciary Committee who preferred not to question Ford themselves, and in the glare of television lights and with a strict five-minute time limit that seemed to get in her way repeatedly. Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell prepares to question Christine Blasey Ford during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 in Washington. (Win McNamee/Pool Image via AP) As her time for questioning Ford was coming to an end, Mitchell herself seemed to give voice to her exasperation with her task when she rhetorically asked Ford about the best way to question victims of sex crimes. "Would you believe me that no study says that this setting in five-minute increments is the way to do that?" Mitchell asked. One Democratic senator, a former prosecutor who is not on the committee, said Mitchell had a "tough job." Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said: "I can't imagine doing either a direct examination or a cross-examination in five-minute increments. And she's not used to cross-examining people who are telling the truth." In her very first exchange with Ford, Mitchell began by expressing sympathy for Ford, who said she was "terrified" to testify, saying: "I just wanted to let you know, I'm very sorry. That's not right." But then she turned to her task, asking a series of small questions about the accuracy of statements Ford made. In a trial, the answers to those questions can help lawyers paint a picture of a witness as unreliable. But in the Senate hearing room, Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley cut in to say her time was up and it was now the Democrats' turn to ask questions. The questioning moved on to Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The scene repeated itself throughout the day. An experienced prosecutor, Mitchell does not operate under time constraints when she questions witnesses in a courtroom. The tenor of the questions suggested Mitchell was trying, if gently, to question the reliability of Ford's recollections and portray Ford as a pawn of Democrats who are out to stop Kavanaugh at any cost. In one example, Mitchell pointed out that Ford did not mention Kavanaugh's name as her attacker between 1982, when the event allegedly took place, and 2012, when she was in couples therapy with her husband. Mitchell also asked Ford why she only contacted Democratic lawmakers about her allegation. Ford replied that she contacted her representative in Congress - Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat - and Eshoo recommended contacting Feinstein, a California senator and the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. Later, Mitchell pressed Ford repeatedly to reveal who paid for a polygraph exam that Ford took in the late summer. One of her lawyers, Debra Katz, interjected: "Let me put an end to the mystery. Her lawyers paid for the polygraph." The questions about the polygraph also illustrated that Mitchell had little time and no prior access to Ford, which might have allowed her to avoid asking questions where the answers hardly undermined Ford as a witness. When Mitchell asked why the polygraph was done near a Washington-area airport, Ford replied that it was to accommodate her as she headed to her grandmother's funeral. Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell listens to Christine Blasey Ford testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questions Christine Blasey Ford during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing as Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., listen, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questions Christine Blasey Ford as she testies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Latest on a Nashville police officer charged in the shooting death of a black man. (all times local): 4:30 p.m. The attorney for a Nashville police officer who fatally shot a fleeing man says his client was following the law and his training. At a news conference Thursday, attorney David Raybin said he plans to vigorously defend officer Andrew Delke against the criminal homicide charge that he faces. Raybin said he wants the case to go to a jury. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk secured a warrant Thursday charging Delke in the death of 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick. Raybin said Delke is out on a $25,000 bail, adding that the officer appreciates support from fellow officers and the community and is looking forward to being vindicated. Raybin suggested that there may be additional video footage of the incident. ___ 4:15 p.m. A newly released affidavit says a Nashville police officer who shot a fleeing man had been pursuing a car that he mistook for another, and wasn't sure the man he killed was connected to either vehicle. The affidavit was released Thursday by court officials the case of officer Andrew Delke. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk secured a warrant Thursday charging Delke with criminal homicide in the death of 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick. Surveillance footage appeared to show Delke chasing Hambrick and opening fire as the man fled from the officer in July. The court document says incident began when Delke tailed a white sedan while looking for stolen vehicles and known juvenile offenders, though he found the car wasn't stolen. It says he "continued to follow to see if he could develop a reason to stop the Impala," in which he never saw the driver or determined how many people were inside. ___ 2 p.m. A prosecutor is seeking to charge a white Tennessee police officer with homicide after surveillance footage appeared to show him chasing a black man and opening fire as the man fled from the officer. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk says he requested a warrant Thursday to charge officer Andrew Delke in 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick's death. The Tennessean reports that a General Sessions judge found probable cause and signed Delke's arrest warrant Thursday after a magistrate judge ruled earlier Thursday that there wasn't enough evidence. Surveillance video shows the 25-year-old officer chased and shot Hambrick in July as Hambrick ran away. Authorities say it began with a traffic stop and Hambrick had a gun. Funk says charging by warrant lets the case be presented in open court as transparently as possible. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - When voters booted a dozen Oklahoma Republican legislators from office in the primary, the common thinking was that educators angry about classroom funding were behind the ousters. But there were forces at work beyond just agitated teachers. A top GOP House leader actively participated in a plan to take down several hardline members of his own caucus, a move that went far beyond what former President Ronald Reagan once called the 11th Commandment: never to speak ill of a fellow Republican. Meanwhile, a dark-money federal super PAC based in Alexandria, Virginia, spent nearly $750,000 launching a parallel attack against several of the same Republicans. The Conservative Alliance PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money without disclosing its individual donors, targeted several House Republicans with mailers, radio ads and other attack ads. "They've gotten rid of us troublemakers who were holding the Republican principle line," said Rep. George Faught, a 10-year Muskogee Republican targeted with a mailer that featured him with a long Pinocchio nose. Conservative Alliance PAC also targeted Republican state legislators in primary elections in Ohio, where the PAC is being sued for defamation for some of its attacks. FILE - In this April 17, 2017 file photo, state Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow is pictured on the House floor in Oklahoma City. In an unprecedented move that went well beyond violating Republicans' so-called 11th Commandment not to speak ill of a fellow Republican, some House GOP leaders have actively campaigned against their own fellow GOP colleagues. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) In Oklahoma, Republicans have been steamrolling Democrats in elections for a decade, racking up super majorities in both legislative chambers and laying claim to the entire congressional delegation and every statewide elected office. As a result, much of the state's political wrangling takes place within the GOP, evident earlier this year when hardline conservatives like Faught in the state House thwarted GOP leadership's plan for tax hikes to help fund teacher pay increases. With a teacher walkout looming, Republican House leaders were forced to broker a compromise with Democrats to get the necessary votes, further exacerbating the rift within the GOP. Several anti-tax conservatives even joined an effort to roll back the tax hike that ultimately fell short. But the last straw came when some of the Republican hardliners called publicly for more conservative challengers to run for office, said Rep. Chris Kannady, a House floor leader and chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee who acknowledged helping launch the attack on his own colleagues. "All I did was have conversations with people and set things in motion to say that, this situation has to be addressed. We cannot let members of our own caucus actively be against the rest of us because we disagree on policy decisions," said Kannady, R-Oklahoma City. "Sometimes you have to take leadership whenever it might be uncomfortable to do so, especially once we were provoked, and start having conversations with stakeholders in the community." Kannady declined to name individuals with whom he met but said there was a broad coalition interested in taking out the caucus' more conservative members, a group that referred to itself as the "Platform Caucus." "You can name any sector in the community, and I can tell you every one was frustrated," Kannady said. "That's indicative of the amount of money that was infused into the process." Kannady said he acted separately from House leaders and did not discuss his plans with his fellow colleagues. He also said he did not know who was behind the Conservative Alliance PAC or who its donors were. Campaign finance records show Kannady gave $500 to Tulsa Republican Jeff Boatman, who was running against state Rep. Scott McEachin, and $2,000 to Stan May, a Broken Arrow Republican running against Rep. Mike Ritze. Both Ritze and McEachin were defeated, along with six other GOP incumbents who had voted against leadership's plan to raise taxes on cigarettes, motor fuel and oil and gas production to help pay for a pay raise for teachers. Ritze, a five-term incumbent best known for his anti-immigration rhetoric and personally financing a Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol, was among those targeted by Conservative Alliance PAC. In one of the mailers, state Rep. Josh West, an Army combat veteran, accused Ritze, a fellow GOP colleague, of wearing military medals he did not earn. West, a Grove Republican, said he was approached by someone working with the PAC and agreed to let them use his picture in the mailer. "It was no secret that I was unhappy with Ritze and the way he carried himself," West said. "I had no issue allowing them to use my picture." West also said he doesn't know who is behind the Conservative Alliance PAC or how it is funded. West and Kannady both use the same Oklahoma-based consultant, Campaign Advocacy Management Professionals, LLC, that was used by the super PAC to produce mailers and other campaign attacks on GOP incumbents. Fount Holland, a longtime GOP political consultant in Oklahoma, acknowledged he did some work on mailers for the super PAC, but downplayed the suggestion that House leadership was behind the effort. "The only thing I can say is that I worked against two incumbents for an organization," Holland said, "and I was happy to do it." Holland's former partner, Republican consultant Trebor Worthen whose clients include House Speaker Charles McCall, also acknowledged doing some campaign work for the super PAC against GOP incumbents. But Worthen said he didn't know who was behind the attacks. "Look, the way the campaign finance rules are, we may never know that," Worthen said bluntly. Worthen said the hardliners who were targeted in GOP primaries made a lot of enemies by opposing efforts by business and political leaders to pass the tax hike to help fund teacher raises. "There's widespread dissatisfaction with that element of the Legislature," Worthen said. "My guess is it was a whole bunch of people from the more mainstream, pro-business type of element that said: 'We need to get together and get rid of some of these people.'" ___ Follow Sean Murphy at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2017 file photo, Oklahoma state Rep. Chris Kannady, R-Oklahoma City, looks over his computer during a House Budget hearing in Oklahoma City. In an unprecedented move that went well beyond violating Republicans' so-called 11th Commandment not to speak ill of a fellow Republican, some House GOP leaders have actively campaigned against their own fellow GOP colleagues. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2017, file photo, Oklahoma state Rep. Josh West, R-Grove, listens on the floor of the Oklahoma House in Oklahoma City. In an unprecedented move that went well beyond violating Republicans' so-called 11th Commandment not to speak ill of a fellow Republican, some House GOP leaders have actively campaigned against their own fellow GOP colleagues. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) NEW YORK (AP) - The United States and six other nations called Thursday for the United Nations to convene a committee to begin drafting a new constitution for Syria. Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan and Saudi Arabia joined the U.S. in urging the world body and its special envoy for Syria to form the committee as soon as possible to promote a political transition in the war-ravaged country. The U.N.-led effort to bring Syria's warring factions together to draft a new constitution under which elections would be held has been stalled for years. The seven countries said in a statement they want the U.N. envoy to report back on progress by the end of next month. "There is an urgent need for concerted diplomacy and international political will to end the conflict," it said. "To that end, we call on the U.N. and the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria to convene, as quickly as possible, a credible, inclusive constitutional committee that will begin the work of drafting a new Syrian constitution and laying the groundwork for free and fair U.N.-supervised elections in a safe and neutral environment in which all eligible Syrians - including those in the diaspora - have a right to participate." The new push comes as Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces backed by Russia and Iran have made significant progress against rebels after more than seven years of conflict. NEW YORK (AP) - For a few seconds Thursday, Mahathir Mohamad looked his age. The 93-year-old once and current prime minister of Malaysia wobbled a bit as he clasped the railing, cautiously mounted the four stairs leading to the stage in the bowels of the Asia Society and shuffled over to the podium. Then Mahathir, called a strongman by his critics so often that he has a joke ready about it, faced the packed auditorium. He smiled broadly and began talking. And the years, maybe even a decade or two, seemed to melt away. First came the speech: 20 minutes without a single note, relying on the wealth of experience that led one audience member to address him as "the elder statesman of Asia - actually, the elder statesman of the planet." When Mahathir was done, the moderator, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, seemed stunned. He called it a "bravura performance" from the "patron saint of political comebacks," a man who had been premier for 22 years until he retired in 2003 and had now been yanked - willingly - back into the spotlight. But the prime minister had only just begun. FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2018 file photo, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. After nearly a generation out of power, the 93-year-old is clearly relishing his return to power. (How Hwee Young/Pool Photo via AP, File) Mahathir, attending the U.N. General Assembly this week as Malaysia's leader for the first time in nearly a generation, cracked jokes that drew genuine belly laughs from the capacity audience. He rattled off figures related to debt and spending and demonstrated a fluency with government and international policies that dates back decades. He converted currencies on the fly. He spoke with ease about the importance of social media in his upset win in May elections that led to the nation's first change of party power since independence from Britain in 1957. After more than an hour of back and forth with the audience, he looked disappointed that it had ended. His demeanor was that of a man who relished returning to a job he never expected to have again. Asked about his physical and political stamina, he said: "I don't really know." He acknowledged two heart operations and the occasional cough, "but I have my doctor following me everywhere I go." All the while, he tapped into a deep vein of knowledge and experience won from being a high-level political player in Asia and the world for the last seven decades. Though he dodged the occasional thorny topic - a question about gay rights and child marriage in Malaysia, for instance - he deftly handled almost everything thrown at him. He talked about what it was like for countries other than China and the United States to be caught in the middle of the behemoths' growing trade war (uncomfortable). He spoke of the absolute necessity of free sea passage so that Malaysia can pursue its trading lifeblood, and of the region's disputes with China over control of the South China Sea. Asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping's hallmark "Belt and Road Initiative" to build ports, highways and other trade-related infrastructure, Mahathir said he had long ago suggested the rail part of it. He'd proposed that Beijing build a railway line with bigger, longer trains from China to the West: "The idea is not new to us." His remarks were peppered with jokes. The funniest one - "I have been known as a dictator, but I don't think any dictator would have resigned" - was so good he used it twice, and some of the jokes had the feeling of being well-worn campaigning set pieces. But unlike a lot of politician's attempts at humor, they worked - repeatedly - and he drew energy as his moments in command of the stage passed. A smattering of his quips: - On what he said was the previous government's slogan, "Cash is King": It's "practically admitting to the world that bribery is OK." - On U.S. President Donald Trump: "We are still trying to figure out what is it that the president of the United States wants, because sometimes he changes his mind three times a day." - On whether Malaysia would one day allow dual citizenship: "Well, we think you should make up your mind." He focused on Malaysia's corruption problem, which he almost entirely blamed on the government that he drove from power in May. Mahathir's designated successor, Anwar Ibrahim, and Mahathir put aside their 20-year-old political feud to help their alliance win those elections. Mahathir rose again to prime minister amid anger over a massive corruption scandal involving the 1MDB state fund, which is under investigation in the United States and other countries for allegations of cross-border embezzlement and money laundering. Former Prime Minister Najib Razak, 65, has accused Mahathir's government of seeking political vengeance. When Rudd asked impishly about when the next elections would be, Mahathir seemed almost wistful. He smiled and said, "five years from now." But this time, the man who has lived through nearly a century hastened to add, he plans to retire for good. ___ Foster Klug has covered Asia for The Associated Press since 2005. Follow him on Twitter at @APKlug. UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Facing a financial crisis after the United States cut funding, the head of the U.N. agency that helps 5.3 million Palestinian refugees says the problem of their well-being will continue to exist whether there's money or not - and especially if it is forced to shut down. While the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, got some good news Thursday with new pledges of $118 million, it remains $68 million short this year alone. In January, it will start seeking funding again for next year's budget of about $1.2 billion. As UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl sat down for an interview with The Associated Press about the agency's future on Thursday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly that U.S. officials "just want to obliterate it altogether." Head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Pierre Krahenbuhl, left, speaks with a reporter during an interview with AP on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) Head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Pierre Krahenbuhl poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) WASHINGTON (AP) - Brett Kavanaugh looked in desperate need of a fighter on his behalf Thursday as he gave impassioned testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee denying allegations of sexual assault. He found it in Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who told the judge straight out, "You've got nothing to apologize for." Kavanaugh alternated from anger to tears during fiery testimony. He took deep breaths and lengthy sips of water to gain his composure. He looked every bit the man who said his family "has been destroyed by this senator, destroyed." Democratic senators pressed Kavanaugh over and over again to request an FBI investigation if he had nothing to hide. Enter Graham, who said that if Democrats truly wanted an FBI investigation, they could have spoken up when Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was first made aware of the allegations from Christine Blasey Ford. Just hours earlier, Ford described for senators what she says was an assault by Kavanaugh on a summer evening three decades ago. Kavanaugh denied the allegation. "What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020," Graham said with his voice shaking, pointing at Democratic lawmakers. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) Graham said he voted for Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, both nominated by a Democratic president, and he told Kavanaugh to say hello to them when he sees them. "I'd never do to them what you've done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics." Returning his glare to Kavanaugh, he said: "You're looking for a fair process? You came to the wrong town at the wrong time, my friend." Graham's comments seemed to buck up Kavanaugh's mood. He managed a smile when Graham asked if he considered the confirmation process to be like a job interview. "This is not a job interview," Graham told him. "This is hell." The comments also seemed to lift the White House. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted: "@LindseyGrahamSC has more decency and courage than every Democrat member of the committee combined. God bless him." Graham's independent streak has sometimes got him into trouble with conservatives, but he won plaudits from many of them on Twitter. "Blistering statement from Lindsey Graham is as strong a denunciation of this process as I've ever heard," tweeted longtime Fox journalist Britt Hume. He also won a large number of detractors as #LindseyGraham lit up on Twitter. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Officials say South Carolina deputies - after being waved through by National Guardsmen - drove a transport van around a barricade blocking a flooded road shortly before two mental patients drowned inside. Horry (OR-ree) County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Brooke Holden told The Associated Press on Thursday that Guardsmen allowed deputies to drive around a barrier the night of Sept. 18 because they were in a law enforcement vehicle. State police opened a probe after the women's deaths on a flooded Marion County road. Deputies were transporting the patients as part of a court order as flood waters rose in the area due to heavy rains from Hurricane Florence. The deputies have been placed on leave. A South Carolina National Guard spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Responders congregate Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018 near where two people drowned Tuesday evening when they were trapped in a Horry County Sheriff transport van while crossing an overtopped bridge over the Little Pee Dee River on Hwy 76, during rising floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in Marion County, S.C. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Bangladeshi President Sheikh Hasina on Thursday accused Myanmar of failing to honor a verbal commitment to take back Rohingya Muslims who have fled a crackdown she described as tantamount to genocide. Hasina's remarks at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations came as the U.N. Human Rights Council agreed to set up a team to collect evidence of alleged crimes that one day could be used to prosecute suspected perpetrators. U.N.-backed investigators have already said the reported atrocities could amount to genocide and other war crimes. Myanmar, which barred the investigators from the country, has rejected that reporting as "replete with unverified information." "We are appalled by what we have seen in U.N. reports about atrocities against the Rohingya who have now taken shelter in Bangladesh, which are tantamount to genocide and crimes against humanity," Hasina told the General Assembly. She appealed for more international support for the 1.1 million Rohingya refugees now sheltering in Bangladesh, and urged an "early, peaceful solution" to the crisis. Most have arrived since August 2017 when attacks by Rohingya militants on Myanmar security forces triggered a massive retaliation that prompted a massive cross-border exodus of civilians. "Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingya, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back," Hasina said. Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, at the United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) International pressure is mounting on Myanmar, which is to address the General Assembly on Friday. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Thursday hosted a ministerial-level meeting on the sidelines of the assembly to address the plight of the Rohingya, following another hosted by Britain earlier in the week. Both were conducted behind closed doors. Also, a U.S. government investigation released Monday concluded that the Myanmar military had targeted Rohingya civilians indiscriminately and often with "extreme brutality" in a coordinated campaign to drive the minority Muslims out of the country. The report provided statistical analysis. It said most of those interviewed had witnessed a killing, and half had witnessed sexual violence, and the military was identified as the perpetrator in 84 percent of the killings or injuries they witnessed. Human rights groups criticized the Trump administration for not describing the crackdown as "genocide." The U.S. has characterized the gross abuses as "ethnic cleansing," which is not a criminal definition. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told reporters Thursday that the investigation, based on interviews with more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees, was intended as a forensic description and not to make legal judgements. But he added that the U.S. is working toward accountability for those responsible, and on "characterizing it as a crime against humanity or a genocide." Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, right, walks to the podium to address the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, at the United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Everybody survived a plane's crash landing in a Pacific lagoon Friday morning, with boats helping rescue more than 40 people from the half-submerged aircraft in the Micronesia archipelago. The Air Niugini plane hit the water short of the runway while trying to land at Chuuk Island, according to the airline. Seven people were taken to a hospital, according to officials, including one described as being in a critical but stable condition. Striking footage shows people being rescued in boats in images reminiscent of the 2009 crash landing in New York City known as the "Miracle on the Hudson." "It's really fortunate that we didn't have any fatalities," said Glenn Harris, a government aviation security inspector for the Federated States of Micronesia. Harris said the plane left from the Micronesian island of Pohnpei about 700 kilometers (435 miles) to the east before making the water landing a little before 10 a.m. He said he has yet to see a passenger manifest, but he understands at least 30 passengers and 10 crew members were aboard. This photo provided by Blue Flag Construction shows an Air Niugini plane floating in Pacific lagoon after its crash-landing in Pacific lagoon near Chuuk Airport in Weno, Federated States of Micronesia, Friday, Sept. 28, 2018. All of the passengers and crew survived the crash landing. The Air Niugini plane hit the water short of the runway while trying to land at Chuuk Island, according to the airline. (Blue Flag Construction via AP) The typical passengers would be business people from Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia, Harris said, as well as some tourists. Chuuk is known for its world-class diving to see shipwrecks in the clear waters, including 50 vessels sunk during World War II. Harris said he doesn't know what caused the crash landing or whether the pilots had alerted air traffic control of any problems. He said an investigative team would be on the ground in Chuuk by tomorrow morning to figure out what went wrong. He said that the latest reports he'd heard indicated the plane remained afloat in the lagoon. The airline said in a brief statement that everybody aboard the Boeing 737 was able to safely evacuate, and the airline was making all efforts to ensure the ongoing safety of the passengers and meet their immediate needs. Air Niugini is the national airline of Papua New Guinea and has operated since 1973. The fleet includes Boeing 767 and 737 jets for international routes, according to the airline, as well as Fokker F-100 aircraft, Q400 and Dash 8 aircraft for challenging local terrain. Air traffic website Flightradar24 said the flight was PX73. It identified the plane as a 737-800 with the registration number P2-PXE. Flight histories show that aircraft has been used on a number of routes recently, including to Manila, Sydney and Singapore. Air Niugini's network is concentrated on domestic routes linking the capital, Port Moresby, with isolated points across the Papua New Guinea archipelago. Chuuk is among its shorter international routes. It also flies to Tokyo and Hong Kong. Micronesia, located north of Australia and east of the Philippines, is home to just over 100,000 people. It has close ties with the U.S. under an agreement known as a compact of free association. The crash landing comes less than two months before Papua New Guinea hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, expected to draw world leaders to the country beginning on Nov. 17. In 2009, both engines on a US Airways jet failed after striking a flock of geese during takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport. Pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles safely landed their powerless plane on the Hudson River and passengers and crew walked on the wings to be rescued. Associated Press writers Nicole Evatt and Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report. This image made from video photo provided by John Karl Louie Mallari shows an Air Niugini plane floating in Pacific lagoon near Chuuk Airport in Weno, Federated States of Micronesia, Friday, Sept. 28, 2018. All of the passengers and crew survived the crash landing. The Air Niugini plane hit the water short of the runway while trying to land at Chuuk Island, according to the airline. (John Karl Louie Mallari via AP) This Oct. 29, 2017, photo shows the Chuuk Lagoon in the Federated States of Micronesia. An Air Niugini plane hit the water short of the runway Friday morning, Sept. 28, 2018 while trying to land at Chuuk Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. All of the passengers and crew survived the crash landing of the plane in a Pacific lagoon. (AP Photo/Nicole Evatt) This Oct. 28, 2017, photo shows the runway at the Chuuk Airport in Weno, Federated States of Micronesia. An Air Niugini plane hit the water short of the runway Friday morning, Sept. 28, 2018 while trying to land at Chuuk Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. All of the passengers and crew survived the crash landing of the plane in a Pacific lagoon. (AP Photo/Nicole Evatt) This Oct. 28, 2017, photo shows the runway at the Chuuk Airport in Weno, Federated States of Micronesia. An Air Niugini plane hit the water short of the runway Friday morning, Sept. 28, 2018 while trying to land at Chuuk Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. All of the passengers and crew survived the crash landing of the plane in a Pacific lagoon. (AP Photo/Nicole Evatt) This Oct. 28, 2017, photo shows a plane on the runway at the Chuuk Airport in Weno, Federated States of Micronesia. An Air Niugini plane hit the water short of the runway Friday morning, Sept. 28, 2018 while trying to land at Chuuk Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. All of the passengers and crew survived the crash landing of a plane in a Pacific lagoon. (AP Photo/Nicole Evatt) NEW ORLEANS (AP) - It's not the gilt-detailed craftsmanship or the age of the small, brass, black-enameled binoculars that might fetch a French Quarter antique gallery's asking price of $795,000. It's their history: Abraham Lincoln is believed to have used them to get a better view of the stage at Ford's Theatre on the night he was assassinated. M.S. Rau Antiques recently acquired the binoculars, known as opera glasses, from a seller who has remained anonymous. Previous owners have included the Forbes family of publishing fame - the magazine reportedly paid $24,000 for them in 1979. Others include generations of descendants of Capt. James McCamly, a military officer believed to have picked the opera glasses up from the street after they fell from Lincoln's near-lifeless body (it's unclear if they were in the president's hands or entangled in his clothing) as he was carried out of the theater on the night of April 14, 1865. "We deal in history and we deal in great pieces and this is one of the most exciting pieces we've ever owned," Bill Rau, the third-generation owner of the century-old family business on Royal Street, said Thursday. Rau said he had been contacted roughly two weeks earlier by the previous owner, who said he had paid $424,000 for the opera glasses at Christies' auction house in 2002. He was interested in selling. "He's now in his 80s and he's suffered some health issues and that's why he called us," Rau said. The story behind the artifact: After Lincoln was shot, McCamly was among those helping move the mortally wounded president from the theater to a building across the street. Something fell from Lincoln's body and McCamly picked it up. He found the binoculars in his pocket the next day. It's unclear whether he tried to return them amid the turmoil following the president's death. They were handed down within the family from generation to generation. This photo shows a set of small binoculars believed to have been carried by President Abraham Lincoln on the night he was assassinated at Ford's Theatre, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 in New Orleans. The opera glasses are said to have fallen from the mortally wounded Lincoln's body as he was carried from Ford's Theatre in 1865. A captain with the Washington City Guard picked them up from the street. They were handed down in his family for generations before being matched in 1968 to a case found in the balcony after Lincoln was shot. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill) Documents attesting to their authenticity include a 1968 letter from a National Park Service chief curator to McCamly's great-great-grandson, who was seeking to verify family lore. It said the opera glasses "precisely fit" a case picked up in Lincoln's box the night he was shot. There have been skeptics. Another park service curator told The Washington Post in 2011 that she doubted the opera glasses would still have been on Lincoln's person as he was carried across the street and that the case in which they fit may have been Mary Todd Lincoln's. But past buyers have been convinced of the artifact's authenticity, as is Rau, who pointed to a tiny dent in one eyepiece as evidence lending credibility to the McCamly family story. (The Christie's website description of the glasses notes a small crack in one lens "as if dropped.") "Certainly, our belief, and the market's belief, from what they've sold for in the past, is that they are the real thing," Rau said. Stored under a glass display dome, the binoculars are currently on the second floor of the Rau gallery near a Lincoln portrait. Rau says they will be sold to whoever comes up with the sale price, but he adds that his hope is that they go to a collector or museum who will put them on public view. "They are," he says, "a pivotal piece of American history." SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google CEO Sundar Pichai went to Washington Friday to discuss concerns about the company's business practices with members of Congress and emerged with an invitation to meet with President Donald Trump during an upcoming roundtable. Larry Kudlow, the head of the National Economic Council, extended the invitation while meeting with Pichai and the offer was accepted, according to the White House. Other "internet stakeholders" will be invited to the same roundtable with Trump, the White House said, with other details, including the date, still to come. Google didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump has recently accused Google of rigging the results of its influential search engine to suppress conservative viewpoints and highlight coverage from media that he says distribute "fake news." Google has denied any political bias. The White House said Kudlow discussed the internet and the economy with Pichai on Friday, and described the talks as "positive and productive." FILE- In this May 8, 2018, file photo, Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at the Google I/O conference in Mountain View, Calif. Pichai is scheduled to meet privately with members of Congress Friday, Sept. 28, after he and his boss, Google co-founder Larry Page, stood up lawmakers at a public hearing earlier this month. The closed-door gathering is expected to include discussions about President Donald Trump's recent allegations that Google has been rigging the results of its influential search engine to suppress conservative viewpoints. Google has denied any political bias. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) Pichai made the rounds in Washington just a few weeks after he and his boss, Google co-founder Larry Page, irked lawmakers by skipping a public hearing. There was plenty to talk about, based on recent remarks by both lawmakers and Trump. That includes recent reports that Google is poised to re-enter China with a search engine generating censored results to comply with the demands of that country's Communist government. Also potential new regulations that would define how much personal information that internet companies can collect about people using their services. Both Trump and some U.S. lawmakers have been raising the possibility of asking government regulators to investigate whether Google has abused its power to thwart competition through its dominant search engine and other widely used services, which include Gmail, YouTube, the Chrome web browser and its Android software that runs most of the world's smartphones. Pichai's meeting with about two dozen Republican lawmakers was held in the Capitol office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who represents a district in Google's home state of California. "We held a very productive meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai to discuss concerns regarding Google's business practices," said Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia. He said Pichai will be invited to attend a public hearing that the House Judiciary Committee plans to hold in November, after the midterm elections. Before the meeting with Republican lawmakers, Pichai also indicated he planned to meet with Democrats. "These meetings will continue Google's long history of engaging with Congress, including testifying seven times to Congress this year," he said. Google and its corporate parent, Alphabet, also may have been trying to mend some political fences after Pichai and Page - now Alphabet's CEO - snubbed Congress a few weeks ago. Neither of them appeared at a high-profile hearing looking into what Twitter, Facebook and Google have been doing to prevent Russia and other foreign governments from using their services to sow discord among U.S. voters in an attempt to sway elections. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified at the hearing, as did Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, but Google was only willing to send its general counsel. That didn't satisfy lawmakers, who left a vacant chair that they hoped either Pichai or Page would occupy. The no-show prompted Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to call Google "arrogant." NEW DELHI (AP) - India's Supreme Court has lifted a temple's ban on women of menstruating age, holding that equality is supreme irrespective of age and gender. The court ruled 4-1 on Friday the practice of excluding women cannot be regarded as an essential religious practice. The historic Sabarimala temple in Kerala state had barred women age 10 to 50 from entering the temple. Some religious figures consider menstruating women to be impure. The temple argued the celibate nature of Sabarimala temple's presiding deity Lord Ayyappa was protected by India's Constitution. Rahul Eswaran, an attorney for the temple, said the temple management would seek a review of the court's decision. It noted girls and women of other ages were allowed in the temple without restrictions. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's state-run IRNA news agency says the country's foreign minister has denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's allegations against Tehran at the U.N. General Assembly as an "obscene charge." Friday's report also says Mohammad Javad Zarif called Netanyahu a "liar who would not stop lying." Netanyahu on Thursday claimed at the General Assembly that Iran has a "secret atomic warehouse" on Tehran's outskirts and challenged U.N. inspectors to examine it. It was unclear whether Netanyahu's announcement sheds new light on what U.N. inspectors already know, or proves that Iran is violating the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Zarif tweeted Israel's the only one with an "undeclared" nuclear weapons program. In 2012, Netanyahu famously held up a cartoon of a bomb at the U.N. while discussing Iran's nuclear program. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's president is accusing the United States of failing to abide by a deal for a U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia to withdraw from a town it had liberated from Islamic State militants in northern Syria. Washington and Ankara struck the deal in June to defuse tensions. It calls for the militia to leave the strategic town of Manbij and for joint Turkish-U.S. patrols there. Ankara considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG militia a terror group that's part of a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the U.S. hasn't honored the agreed-on "roadmap" for Manbij. Erdogan says "America has not kept up with the roadmap and schedule for Manbij. The (YPG) has not left the region." His comments were published in Hurriyet newspaper on Friday. SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonians have had a country to call their own for less than three decades. Now, the citizens of one of Europe's youngest countries are being asked to weigh matters of national identity and national interest as they decide a fundamental question: what their homeland will be called. A referendum set for Sunday in Macedonia seeks voter support for changing the Balkan nation's name to North Macedonia. Greece has agreed to drop longstanding objections to neighboring Macedonia joining NATO and eventually becoming a member of the European Union, if the new name is approved. The proposed "North" prefix might seem minor, but it touches a nerve in the former Yugoslav republic that declared independence in 1991, and in Greece, which has a province named Macedonia that was the birthplace of the ancient warrior king Alexander the Great. After decades of tortuous and fruitless negotiations between Athens and Skopje, Macedonia's prime minister agreed to the change to North Macedonia. In return, the prime minister of Greece said his country would stop blocking Macedonia from pursuing NATO membership. The referendum asks Macedonian voters: "Are you in favor of membership in the European Union and NATO by accepting the deal between (the) Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Greece?" The agreement has met fierce opposition in both countries, with critics accusing their respective governments of conceding too much. A woman rides a bicycle next to a poster "For European Macedonia", on a street in Skopje, Macedonia, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. Macedonians will vote Sunday in a referendum on whether to change the country's name to "North Macedonia", a move which would allow the Balkan country to qualify for NATO membership and also pave its way toward the European Union. The banner also reads in Macedonian "It is time for decision" and "A secure future for our children". (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) Some Greeks remain suspicious that Macedonia harbors territorial and historical claims to Macedonia province. Macedonian opponents see changing their country's name as a national humiliation. Opinion polls nonetheless have indicated a likely win for the "yes" vote, although it is unclear if voter turnout will reach the 50-percent threshold required for the result to be valid. But even if turnout is below the required 50 percent, if most of the people vote "yes" it will give parliament and the government a mandate to proceed. If voters back the deal on Sunday, Macedonia will then have to amend its constitution. The final step for NATO admission is ratification of the June deal by Greece's parliament, which is expected to vote only after Macedonia completes all necessary procedures. The West has taken a keen interest in the referendum. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were among the Western officials who visited Macedonia in recent weeks to urge voters to mark "yes" on their ballots. Russia is against NATO picking up another member in a part of Europe that was within its sphere of influence for decades. Mattis has said there was "no doubt" Moscow funded groups inside Macedonia to campaign against the name change. Supporters of the deal, led by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, say it will create prosperity by bringing the small, landlocked Balkan country into the fold of international institutions. The decision is between "integration and isolation," Zaev said during a recent campaign rally. "There is no other alternative for the Republic of Macedonia than integration into NATO and the EU." But President Gjorge Ivanov has said he won't vote in the referendum and encouraged other voters to do the same - a move seen as a call for a boycott. Ivanov, a conservative, said at the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Thursday that the proposed name change Zaev negotiated would be a "flagrant violation of sovereignty." More than 70 small political parties and civic associations campaigned against the deal under the umbrella of a coalition called Macedonia is Boycotting. The country's conservative opposition stopped short of asking voters to stay home. "On Sunday, this generation is confronted with the choice of succumbing to the historical challenge, falling on its knees, folding its spine and giving up its own identity," Igor Janusev, a leading member of Macedonia's main opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, said in a statement. "Or to continue to fight and proudly transmit to future generations an example of how to keep what is yours." For retired economist Ljiljana Dimitrieva, the referendum presents a tough choice. "Even with bitterness in my heart - there is no reason to ask someone to change their name- I'll vote 'yes' because of the future for all our children, for their opportunities," the 79-year-old Skopje resident said. "We have no other alternative." Others see it differently. Homemaker Marina Stevcevksa, 55, said she doesn't intend to cast her ballot despite wanting Macedonia to join NATO and the EU. "I've decided to boycott," Stevcevksa said. "I want Macedonia to be in NATO and EU, but I don't want everything which has an adjective 'Macedonian' to disappear." Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up about a quarter of the country's population of roughly 2 million, is expected to play a crucial role in the referendum's outcome. Members of the minority fought an armed insurgency against the government for greater rights in 2001. With a much looser emotional connection to the name Macedonia, ethnic Albanian voters are expected to back the name deal. "They will vote for NATO, they will vote for European Union. They will vote for the future. They will vote for peace, stability and security," said Ali Ahmeti, head of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian DUI party. "I think there is no Plan B, and I don't want to think about Plan B because I don't want to return to the past. The past is painful and it should not be repeated." ___ Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece contributed to this report. A woman holds a poster reading "Come out for European Macedonia", during the final pre-referendum rally of the coalition "For European Macedonia", in Macedonia's western town of Tetovo, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. Macedonians will vote Sunday in a referendum on whether to change the country's name to "North Macedonia", a move which would allow the Balkan country to qualify for NATO membership and also pave its way toward the European Union. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) Donald Trump has delivered a sharp rebuke of multinational authority at the United Nations, drawing headshakes and even laughter from fellow world leaders as he boasted of Americas economic and military might. The US president arrived late, forcing a last-minute scheduling switch, then received polite applause but also blank stares as he took his blustery brand of America First policies to the annual General Assembly. Speaking in triumphant terms, he approached the address as an annual report to the world on his countrys progress since his inauguration. He crowed that in less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country. Rather than applaud or indicate they were impressed, the audience began to chuckle and some broke into outright laughter. Mr Trump appeared briefly flustered before joking that it was not the reaction he expected but thats all right. Donald Trump draws laughter from the audience (Richard Drew/AP) The moment reinforced Mr Trumps isolation among allies and foes alike, as his nationalistic policies have created rifts with former partners and cast doubt in some circles about the reliability of American commitments around the world. Mr Trump seized his opportunity to assert American independence from the international body. He was unapologetic about his decisions to engage with the one-time pariah North Korea, remove the US from the international Iran nuclear accord and object to UN programmes he believes are contrary to American interests. We reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism, he said. Donald Trump arrives late with first lady Melania Trump and US ambassador Nikki Haley (Craig Ruttle/AP) He referenced a long list of UN initiatives, from the International Criminal Court to the Human Rights Council, that his administration is working to undermine. As far as America is concerned, the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy and no authority, he said. The US is boycotting the Human Rights Council, arguing it overlooks abuses by some and serves as a venue for anti-American and anti-Israeli action. His denunciation of globalism drew murmurs from a room that stands as the embodiment of the notion. Other tense moments included his criticism of Germanys pursuit of a direct energy pipeline from Russia, which drew a dismissive headshake from a member of the US allys delegation. His mention of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, all in one breath, was received by stone-faced Saudi officials. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been boycotting Doha since last year as part of a political dispute tearing apart the Gulf Arab nations. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has accused the US of trying to overthrow his government, rejecting bilateral talks after President Donald Trump predicted stepped-up sanctions would get Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear programme. Addressing world leaders at the UN General Assembly, Rouhani accused the Trump administration of violating state obligations from the Obama administration by withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed with the US and five other major powers. On what basis and criteria can we enter into an agreement with an administration misbehaving such as this? Rouhani asked. It is ironic that the US government does not even conceal its plan for overthrowing the same government it invites to talks. Rouhani invited the US to return to negotiations within the UN Security Council, which endorsed the nuclear deal. There, he said, both sides could listen to each other. Hassan Rouhani addresses the United Nations General Assembly (Mary Altaffer/AP) Beginning the dialogue starts with ending threats and unjust sanctions that negate the principles of ethics and international law, he said. In remarks released while Rouhani was still talking, US National Security Adviser John Bolton reinforced the decision to withdraw from the deal, echoing his presidents strong language and using blunt language to dismiss any entreaties from Tehran. He called the scrapped Iran deal the worst diplomatic debacle in American history. Rouhani, in his General Assembly speech, targeted Trump in language if not directly in name. This US govt withdrawing from a multilateral agreement adopted by the Security Council invites us to bilateral talks. Dismissing the basic principle of state continuity it violates state obligations affirmed by its predecessor. #UNGA Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) September 25, 2018 He condemned recklessness and disregard of some states for international values and institutions. Rouhani laid into leaders who believe they can ride public sentiments and gain popular support through the fomenting of extremist nationalism and racism and through what he called xenophobic tendencies resembling a Nazi disposition. Trump, in his own speech, said Americans reject the ideology of globalism in favour of what he called the doctrine of patriotism. He also blasted what he called Irans corrupt dictatorship. Rouhani also said US sanctions against his country amount to an economic war which is disrupting trade and will harm people beyond Iran. Britain will be the low tax high-skilled place to invest after Brexit, Theresa May will tell company bosses in New York as she pledges the country will be unequivocally pro-business. Days after European Union leaders roundly rejected her plans for future trading relations with the UK, the Prime Minister will insist she is confident a deal can be reached. But she will say the UK has a plan to create an economy that is appealing to investors across the rest of the world, with corporation tax the lowest among leading industrialised nations. Mrs May is expected to tell the Bloomberg Global Business Forum: My message today is that a post-Brexit Britain will be an unequivocally pro-business Britain. Corporation tax is 19% but will fall to 17% under Conservative manifesto plans, a low rate in the G20 group of industrialised nations. Mrs May will say the UK wants to forge the most dynamic and ambitious Free Trade Agreements with old friends and new allies alike. Theresa May is wooing American business leaders (Paul Grover/AP) Crucially we also have a plan to deliver an economy that is knowledge-rich, highly innovative, highly skilled and high quality but with low tax and smart regulation, she will add. So let me say this bit very clearly. Whatever your business, investing in a post-Brexit Britain will give you the lowest rate of Corporation Tax in the G20. You will access service industries and a financial centre in London that are the envy of the world, the best universities, strong institutions, a sound approach to public finance and a consistent and dependable approach to high standards but intelligent regulation. Mrs May, who is attending the United Nations General Assembly, was dealt a humiliating blow at a summit of EU leaders in Salzburg last week when they rejected her Chequers blueprint for post-Brexit relations. But she will insist there is no other plan that respects the result of the referendum and resolves the Irish border issue. Our relationship with the EU will change with Brexit. But we will still be neighbours, we still be part of the European family of nations, and we will continue to champion the same beliefs standing for freedom, democracy and the rule of law, underpinned by a rules-based global order, she will say. This is why I am confident we can reach a deal about our future relationship that is built in this spirit. The PM will insist there is no other plan that meets all the of the UKs Brexit red lines in the way Chequers will. The minority Irish Government has survived a no-confidence vote prompted by soaring homelessness numbers. Sinn Fein tabled the parliamentary device aimed at putting pressure on housing minister Eoghan Murphy over what campaigners claimed was a crisis in the Republic. On Tuesday evening the motion was defeated; 49 votes in favour to 59 against, with 29 abstentions, following a bad-tempered and barbed debate. The number without shelter has risen relentlessly, to around 10,000, prompting mass street demonstrations and property occupations. Sinn Fein public representative Eoin O Broin TD said the Government continued to under-invest in social and affordable housing and relied on the private sector to meet housing demand. He told the Irish Dail parliament: Across the country frustration at the housing crisis is turning into anger. Take Back The City are giving voice to the locked out generation. The Dublin representative said child homelessness was up by 77% and pensioner homelessness elevated by 80%. Mr O Broin claimed the Governments Rebuilding Ireland programme had failed and overall homelessness increased by 60% since the plan was published two years ago. Property rental rates in the capital have increased considerably in recent times as Ireland recovered from near-financial collapse. The Government has said the housing crisis stemmed from policies of greed and mismanagement during the boom-time Celtic Tiger years of more than a decade ago when its political opponents were in power. Irelands housing minister Eoghan Murphy has survived a motion of no confidence. Brian Lawless/PA. Mr Murphy accused his opponents of indulging in short-term thinking and populism. He said: Some people want to believe that these issues would be solved overnight. That is dishonest and it is wrong. We have a plan, it is working. The Government is made up of a minority coalition of Fine Gael and independents. Co-operation from Fianna Fail in key votes has prevented the administrations collapse since a divisive 2016 general election. Fianna Fail said it was abstaining from voting on the no-confidence motion. The opposition Labour Party voted in favour along with a collection of other left-wing representatives. Fine Gaels Government front bench was packed. Mr Murphy sat beside Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and a speculated rebellion by a junior minister failed to materialise. Health minister Simon Harris said: There is no silver bullet or magic wand or one measure,this is a hard slog. Mr Varadkar has accused Sinn Fein of tabling the motion purely for political reasons and not really caring about people. Sinn Fein will this evening put their Motion of No Confidence in Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy before the Dail. We need a change of Minister and a change of policy or the housing crisis will just get worse. 10,000 homeless, 4,000 homeless children. Minister Murphy must go! pic.twitter.com/wPRXsfQQG9 Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) September 25, 2018 He has said 20,000 new homes would be built this year and that by 2020 that figure would reach 25,000 annually. Rebuilding Ireland, the Governments flagship housing programme, commits to meet the housing needs of 135,000 households in need of social housing by 2021. A group of about 1,000 housing protesters staged a mass demonstration in Dublin last weekend to highlight the issue. Take Back The City brought traffic to a standstill on one of the citys busiest thoroughfares as demonstrators took part in a sit-down protest. A prisoner who was on a dirty protest was not offered a shower before attending a court date, the Northern Ireland Prisoner Ombudsman was told. A number of dissident republicans imprisoned at Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim are involved in a no-wash dirty protest in which they smear excrement over their cells. The action, which started in May 2012, was in opposition to strip searches. Previously republicans, including the Provisional IRA and INLA, engaged in years of dirty protests for political status at the Maze Prison, Co Down, which culminated in the hunger strikes of 1981 during which 10 men died. The Prisoner Ombudsman for Northern Ireland revealed that within the last year, a prisoner who was engaged in a dirty protest at Maghaberry Prison was not offered a shower before going to court. It was one of a number of complaints detailed in the Ombudsmans annual report for 2017-18. A prisoner engaged in a "dirty protest" against the prison regime was not offered a shower before a court appearance, a Prisoner Ombudsman report said (Matthew Fearn/PA) The report said Mr F complained about not being offered a shower while he was on dirty protest before going to court from Maghaberry. As a result the Ombudsman recommended that the Northern Ireland Prison Services Dirty Protest and Faecal Contamination Policy should be updated to provide that prisoners engaged in the protest should be offered a shower before a court appearance, or any activity outside the prison. Among the 1,953 complaints received by the Prisoner Ombudsman in 2017-18, all but 167 of these complaints were from separated prisoners on Roe 3 and 4 landings at Maghaberry. Inmates can ask to go into separated wings if they feel they are political prisoners and are associated with terrorist groups. Complaints received from prisoners in Northern Ireland last year ranged from the availability of art supplies, late newspapers and alleged assaults. One prisoner said a prison officer had deliberately sprayed him with air freshener, a complaint which was upheld. Another complained on three occasions his newspaper had arrived a day late. The investigation established this was true and that a daily paper was the service Mr.H had paid for, the report found. The prison service said the delays were due to staff shortages. The ombudsmans report said it considered the matter unacceptable, and recommended that the prison service prioritise the delivery of newspapers to ensure that those who pay for the daily service receive their papers daily. However the prison service did not accept the recommendation, pointing out staff pressures, and adding that all prisoners have access to television and radio. So there is no impediment to keeping up with current affairs, the ombudsman report recorded the response of the prison service as. Extending the timetable for the UKs European Union departure talks may be unpalatable but essential, experts have claimed in a new report which warns about the impact of sleepwalking into a no-deal Brexit. The Fraser of Allander Institute think tank, based at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, insisted that an orderly transition as the UK leaves the European Union is vital. As a result its director Professor Graeme Roy said extending the Article 50 negotiating period something Prime Minister Theresa May has already ruled out could be essential, even if it proves unpalatable to the UK Government. He spoke out as the think tank cautioned: Sleepwalking into a no-deal outcome cannot be viewed as an effective economic plan. The report also demanded: Now is the time for effective and strong leadership from all our political leaders. The pleas came in the organisations latest economic commentary, which noted the Scottish economy has outpaced the UK for the last two quarters. Extending the Article 50 period may be `essential the Fraser of Allander Institute has warned (Stefan Rousseau/PA) The report was published less than a week after Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted extending the timetable for Brexit negotiations must remain on the table if the UK is to avoid an economic cliff edge. Prof Roy said: Whether you agree or disagree with the decision to leave the EU and irrespective of the nature of the final settlement it is essential that we have an orderly transition. To enable firms to prepare and develop contingency plans it is vital that a deal is reached. Should this require more time to negotiate a workable solution, then so be it. Extending the Article 50 negotiation period but maintaining the same transition timescale to 2020 may be unpalatable for some but could be essential to protect jobs and livelihoods. A blind Brexit with little or no detail on terms of future EU/UK relationship would be no more acceptable than a no deal Brexit. If thats the choice, Article 50 should be extended to allow all alternative options for Scotland and UK to be considered. https://t.co/6TLOJjKgTw Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) September 20, 2018 While the Fraser of Allander Institute said it expected economic growth of 1.3% this year for Scotland, followed by 1.4% in both 2019 and 20202, it stressed there was a heightened degree of uncertainty about forecasts at the current time. Our forecasts are based upon a broad-based agreement between the UK and the EU, the report said. Should this not happen, then our forecasts are likely to change significantly. The think tank said it would provide more detail about the impact of a no-deal Brexit in December, but recalled it had already warned a hard Brexit, leaving the UK out of the single market and customs union, would be a significant drag on the UK economy. The report continued: It is the risk of a no-deal scenario that is of most concern in the immediate term. Whether you agree or disagree with the decision to leave the EU or the final agreement the UK should negotiate with the EU the need for an orderly transition is vital. As both the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of England have agreed, a no-deal outcome would cause hardship for many firms, workers and families across the UK. Prof Roy added: As we outlined in June, assuming that a broad agreement on Brexit can be struck, we are cautiously optimistic about prospects for this year and next. However, the greatest risk to this assessment is the possibility of a no-deal outcome to the Brexit negotiations. Our latest work shows that most businesses in Scotland are unprepared for Brexit, with the lack of certainty over any final deal being a key stumbling block. As the Chancellor, Governor of the Bank of England and head of the IMF have all warned, leaving the EU in March next year with no agreement in place has the potential to cause serious disruption to the UK and Scottish economies. Responding to the report, SNP MSP Tom Arthur said: Scotlands economy is strong, and this report underlines that however, the Fraser of Allander Institute are right to back the First Ministers call for an extension to Article 50. If, however, the choice we face is between no deal and no detail, then an extension must be on the table as the only way to avoid an economic cliff edge allowing all alternative options to be considered. Of course, even at this late stage, Theresa May can escape the corner into which she has boxed herself. For two years, the SNP has been telling the Prime Minister that by far the least damaging Brexit option would be to remain in the single market and customs union its high time she listened. A UK Government spokesman said: Our White Paper outlined our vision for a principled and pragmatic plan which will ensure that all of the UK, including Scotland, is well placed to capitalise on the opportunities of Brexit. We firmly believe it is in the interests of both the EU and the UK to strike a mutually beneficial deal. That remains the goal on both sides and we are confident that this will be achieved. Conservationists are waiting to see if a very lost beluga whale spotted in the Thames has headed out to sea. The rare marine mammal was seen near Gravesend, Kent, on Tuesday afternoon and appeared to be swimming strongly and feeding in the estuary. However rescue teams were on standby in case the animal, which is normally found thousands of miles away in the Arctic, gets into danger. Rob Lott, a marine mammal scientist at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), said the cetacean was being monitored in case it live strands on a sandbank. Its a monitoring operation at the moment, obviously the longer it stays in the Thames estuary then it will become more of a concern, so well see what happens in the morning, he told BBC Radio 5Live. #Beluga in the #Thames - give the #whale space. Unlike deepsea whales sometimes found in the Thames like the famed northern bottlenose whale, belugas DO swim up rivers in shallow waters BUT not this far south and never all alone! More info: https://t.co/SfSiQCfrKe pic.twitter.com/DsUsH76eKF Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) (@whalesorg) September 25, 2018 Beluga whales can grow up to 20ft in length and are usually at home in the icy waters around Greenland, Svalbard or the Barents Sea. The whale was spotted in the River Thames (PA) They are also a social species, so to see one by itself in the Thames is concerning, Mr Lott said. Hopefully instinct will soon kick in and the beluga will leave the estuary and go out into the north sea and then head north where it should be, the scientist explained. The British Divers Marine Life Rescue said it was sending its area coordinator down to the river to monitor the situation. The network of volunteer marine mammal medics has whale rescue pontoons at the ready that can be used to re-float stranded animals in an effort to move them to safety. A spokeswoman for the organisation said the belugas visit to the Thames was a very rare occurrence, and urged people not to go out in boats to get a close look at the whale, but to watch it from the shore. The whale was first spotted by ecologist Dave Andrews, who tweeted footage of the white animal. Cant believe Im writing this, no joke BELUGA in the Thames off Coalhouse Fort, he said. The last reported sighting of beluga in UK waters was in 2015, when two were spotted off the Northumberland coast and one in Northern Ireland. Among the theories of how the beluga whale ended up in the Thames is that it followed a shoal of fish into the waterway. Schooling fish such as herring, capelin and cod are among the usual sources of food for the species. Danny Groves, from WDC said: This is a High Arctic species thousands of miles from where it should be in Greenland, Svalbard or the Barents Sea, they are usually associated close to the ice. He or she is obviously very lost and quite possibly in trouble. A spokesman for the RSPCA said: The RSPCA is aware of reports of a whale, possibly a beluga, in the Thames. We are working with other agencies to monitor the situation and ready to provide appropriate assistance if requested. In 2006, a whale died after it swam up the river into central London despite efforts to rescue the animal. Girlguiding has rejected criticism that its policy of including transgender members puts girls at risk. The organisation said that simply being transgender does not make someone more of a safeguarding risk than any other person after its inclusion of people who self-identify as female came under attack. In a joint statement, chief guide Amanda Medler and chief executive Ruth Marvel said much of the criticism had been inaccurate, aggressive and counter to the values we hold dear and they wanted to set the record straight. Earlier this month, two leaders had their membership withdrawn after they publicly objected to elements of Girlguidings equality and diversity policy. A statement from our Chief Guide and Acting CEO following the recent media coverage of our Equality and Diversity policy: https://t.co/OmyOXqW4Al pic.twitter.com/xAiVHO6BtC Girlguiding (@Girlguiding) September 25, 2018 In the last few days you may have seen that Girlguidings equality and diversity policy has been criticised in the media, with accusations that our inclusion of trans members puts girls at risk. It does not, they said. The chiefs said they had tried to resist being drawn into the highly politicised, emotive and often aggressive debate around transgender inclusion and they stressed that Guildguiding is not a transgender campaign group. EDITORIAL USE ONLY Guides and Brownies from the 22nd Walthamstow unit in London as Girlguiding announces new badges and activities as part of their #EveryGirl campaign. They added: We are a young peoples organisation. Our focus has been, and will remain, providing our young members with opportunities to learn, grow and discover in a fun, safe, inclusive and legally compliant way. In April, 224 current and former unit leaders, volunteers and parents signed an open letter saying the policy compels units to accept boys who self-identify as girls for camping trips and other activities. They said the policy poses safeguarding risks, reinforces gender stereotypes and denies informed parental consent. A boy who identifies as a girl is still legally and physically male, they said. Trans inclusion, while laudable, must not sacrifice the safety, privacy or inclusion of girls. Among the 12 leaders to sign the letter was Helen Watts, who led a Rainbows unit for girls aged five to seven in Ealing, west London. Along with another leader, she was expelled by the organisation after reportedly making further comments on social media. Ms Medler and Ms Marvel said: Following a number of complaints about two individuals, an independent investigation concluded that both had breached our volunteer code of conduct and our social media policy because they did not and indicated that they were not willing to follow Girlguidings equality and diversity policy and actively encouraged others to do the same. Girlguiding said it had developed its policies in line with legal advice and organisations with experience of supporting transgender children and young people. It denied it had drawn up policies based on comments from individuals or pressure groups. Girlguiding said the law around transgender issues was new and complex and that it will continue to review its policies against the latest advice and guidance. Christine Blasey Ford has said US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her as he and a friend shared uproarious laughter in a locked room at a 1980s high school gathering. The 51-year-old recounted her allegations to the Senate Judiciary Committee and a riveted nation in a drama that threatens to derail Mr Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination. Her account, delivered in a soft and sometimes-halting voice, came as the judiciary panel began an extraordinary session that Republicans hope will let them salvage Mr Kavanaughs chances of joining the high court. She showed no hesitancy in affirming the crucial question about the alleged incident, telling senators her certainty that Mr Kavanaugh was her attacker was 100%. The conservative jurists Senate confirmation had seemed assured until Ms Ford came forward and then other women emerged with additional allegations of sexual misconduct. Mr Kavanaugh, now 53, has denied them all and awaited his own chance to give evidence later. Brett Kavanaugh (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) It has become less clear that Republican leaders will be able to hold Republican senators behind President Donald Trumps nominee. In an election-season battle that is being waged along a polarised nations political and cultural fault lines, Mr Trump and most Republicans have rallied behind Mr Kavanaugh. They have accused Ms Ford and the other women of making unproven allegations and have questioned why they had not publicly revealed them for decades. But with televisions across the nation tuned in to the hearing senators among those riveted to their screens it was unclear how politicians who will ultimately decide Mr Kavanaughs fate will assess Ms Fords credibility. Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in by Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (Tom Williams/Pool Photo via AP) Ms Ford has said Mr Kavanaugh trapped her on a bed and tried undressing her, grinding his body against her and muffling her cries with her hand. I believed he was going to rape me, she said in her opening statement. Democrats have rallied strongly behind Ms Ford. Asked by Patrick Leahy, of Vermont, for her strongest memory of the alleged incident, Ms Ford mentioned the two boys laughter the uproarious laughter between the two and theyre having fun at my expense. The California psychology professor spoke carefully and deliberately during the hearing, using scientific terminology at one point to describe how a brain might remember details of events decades later. The boys laughter was indelible in the hippocampus, she said. Ms Ford has said Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge was also in the room. Mr Judge has said he does not remember the alleged incident and has declined to appear before the panel. Christine Blasey Ford before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington (Andrew Harnik/AP) Ms Ford told the top committee Democrat, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, that she had agonised daily over coming forward about the alleged decades-old attack. She said she feared the personal consequences would be akin to jumping in front of a train. In fact, both she and Mr Kavanaugh have received death threats. When Ms Feinstein asked her how she could be sure that Mr Kavanaugh was the alleged attacker, Ms Ford said: The same way Im sure Im talking to you right now. Later, she told Senator Dick Durbin that her certainty was 100%. The judiciary panels 11 Republicans all men let Rachel Mitchell, a veteran sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona, ask their questions. She began by expressing sympathy for Ms Ford, who had said she was terrified to give evidence, saying: I just wanted to let you know, Im very sorry. Thats not right. Ms Mitchell led Ms Ford through a detailed recollection of the events she says occurred on the day of the alleged incident. Rachel Mitchell (Andrew Harnik/AP) But under the committees procedures, the career prosecutor was limited to five minutes at a time, interspersed between Democrats questions, creating a choppy effect as she tried piecing together the story. Before Ms Ford began, committee chairman Chuck Grassley defended the Republicans handling of the confirmation proceedings so far. Ms Feinstein criticised Republicans who have rejected Democratic demands to slow Mr Kavanaughs confirmation process and let the FBI investigate all the allegations, saying: What I dont understand is the rush to judgment. Mr Kavanaugh and Ms Ford are the only witnesses invited to give evidence before the panel. But the conservative jurist is facing allegations of sexual misconduct from other women as well, forcing Republican leaders to struggle to keep support for him from eroding. Mr Grassley complained that lawyers for other accusers have not provided information to his panel, and said: The committee cant do an investigation if attorneys are stonewalling. Chuck Grassley (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP) Republicans acknowledged that much was riding on Mr Kavanaughs performance. Even Mr Trump, who fiercely defends his nominee, said he would be watching and was open to changing my mind. Republicans are pushing to seat Mr Kavanaugh before the November midterms, when Senate control could fall to the Democrats and a replacement Trump nominee could have even greater difficulty. Mr Kavanaughs ascendance to the high court could help lock in a conservative majority for a generation, shaping dozens of rulings on abortion, regulation, the environment and more. Republicans also risk rejection by female voters in November if they are seen as not fully respecting women and their allegations. Syrian refugee children who use services on both sides of the Irish border could fall victim to a no-deal Brexit, a charity has warned. Youngsters from outside the European Union (EU) or UK and suffering from severe trauma, abuse or substance abuse are cared for at residential homes on an all-Ireland basis to produce economies of scale. They would not be covered by freedom of movement provisions which pre-date the EU and will ensure free passage of most people between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Marchs divorce. A charity consultant, who asked to remain anonymous, said: We are used to being stoical about Brexit. He added: We are concerned about what the future is for cross-border movement for those kinds of service users. He said a number of charities worked with people from Syria, migrants from eastern Europe and families from the Middle East or Africa. A charity consultant has said Syrian refugees who cross the Irish border could be victims of a no-deal Brexit (Niall Carson/PA) Some have mental health issues, have abused substances or suffered other forms of trauma. The consultant added: Charities work on an all-island basis, you send service users across the border to facilities. If those service users are not EU nationals or UK nationals, when the border comes, does that mean we cannot take someone who lives in the south into the north? He added: These are children in crisis and adverse circumstances. Over the last decade the charity has developed an all-island approach, economies of scale in the supply of residential facilities. The first Syrian refugees participating in the UKs Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme arrived in Belfast in December 2015. Hundreds have entered since then. The charity consultant addressed a meeting on Brexit at the offices of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) in Belfast. At @NICVA this afternoon to hear about a very useful #Brexit briefing from Irish Department of Foreign Affairs @dfatirl pic.twitter.com/OEF6wIohxu Inspire (@InspireWBGroup) September 27, 2018 NICVAs head of policy and public affairs Geoff Nuttall said: What happens to services that straddle the border in a no-deal scenario? One of the case studies from Womens Aid (which helps victims of domestic abuse) was talking about, at the sharp end, women seeking help who may be in households that they literally have to leave and go to the nearest support, that support could be over the border, the nearest one. He also raised the prospect of ambulances stopping at the border and patients being picked up at the other side. There are lots of issues around the supply of drugs, licensed drugs, lots of health concerns generally. Environment is the other area that is so bound up with European policy frameworks and enforcement that replacing that is such a major issue, everything from illegal waste to pollution, to how we manage every aspect of the environment is all up in the air. Mr Nuttall said the overall impact of a no-deal Brexit on the economy, cross-border trade and public finances was worrying. There are going to be potentially direct effects on people in our sector who are providing services for the most vulnerable who are already under enormous budgetary pressures. It is the destabilising effect on the economy and on the rights and protections that organisations are highly concerned about. Jeremy Corbyns message on health, social care and the cost of living may resonate with millions of workers and predictable responses just wont cut it with public, an ex-Tory minister has warned. Former education minister Robert Halfon praised the Labour Party for identifying the real anguish that people face in their day-to-day lives and challenged his party to come up with a passionate response. Mr Halfon, who chairs the Commons education committee, called on Theresa May to return to her July 2016 Downing Street pledge to tackle the burning injustices in society. Serious stuff from Labour this week that may resonate with millions of workers - @Conservatives need a thoughtful response to this at conference with a true vision & passion for a #Workers @ToryWorkers #socialjustice agenda . Predictable responses just won't cut it with public. Robert Halfon MP -Working Hard for Harlow- (@halfon4harlowMP) September 26, 2018 Mr Halfon, speaking to BBC Radio 4s PM programme, said: I think that they (Labour) are identifying real anguish that people face in their day-to-day lives, whether it is do with the cost of living, whether it is to do with the cost of childcare, whether it is health issues in terms of the NHS or social care. It doesnt mean I agree with the solutions, but I think that some of what they say resonates, they seem to say that were standing up for the little guy, our party needs to be seen as the workers party, we need to be the party for addressing burning social injustice. Mr Halfon said a lot of the Conservative messages on these issues were being lost in the fog of Brexit. Robert Halfon praised Labour for identifying the `real anguish that people face in their day-to-day lives (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA) He added: Sometimes we come over as very technocratic and when we identify things, we start going on about charging a Mctax if people buy milkshakes at McDonalds, this is not what addressing social injustice is all about. We need to answer big problems such as affordable housing, our skills needs, we should offer a guaranteed apprenticeship to every single young person over the age of 16, there are deep social inequalities. I do believe that there are Conservative answers to these but we have to talk about them with a passion, with a vision and present ourselves as the party of the ladder of opportunity. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed what he says is a secret Iranian nuclear weapons storage site. Mr Netanyahu presented maps and photos of what he says is a secret atomic warehouse in the Turquzabad district of Tehran, concealed as a rug-cleaning operation. Mr Netanyahu said Israel has shared information about this site with the International Atomic Energy Agency and some intelligence agencies. Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons (Oded Bality/AP) There was no immediate reaction from Iran, which denies building nuclear weapons. He made the announcement at the UN General Assembly, where he spoke out strongly against the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord. Mr Netanyahu claimed it is used for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Irans secret weapons programme. Half of the worlds killer whale populations could be wiped out in a few decades because of toxic chemicals in the oceans, researchers say. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were previously used to make electrical components and plastics, but despite efforts to ban the pollutants they remain in high levels in some areas. An international team of researchers, including scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), suggest current concentrations could lead to the disappearance of up to 50% of global orca populations in the next 30 to 50 years. The study, published in journal Science, found declines in the number of killer whales in 10 out of the 19 populations investigated. Those in heavily contaminated waters, including around the UK, Brazil and the Strait of Gibraltar, were particularly at risk and newborns were rarely seen in these areas. Toxic chemicals are lingering in the worlds oceans (Audun Rikardsen/ PA) Despite a near global ban more than 30 years ago, the worlds killer whales illustrate the troubling persistence of this chemical class, the authors said. Jean-Pierre Desforges, from Aarhus University, who led the investigation, said the findings were surprising. As the effects have been recognised for more than 50 years, it is frightening to see that the models predict a high risk of population collapse in these areas within a period of 30 to 40 years, he said. Killer whales, which are at the top of the food chain, accumulate the chemicals ingested by other animals such as seals and large fish. They are among the mammals with the highest level of PCBs in their tissue, and mother orcas can pass the chemicals to their offspring through their milk. Researchers have measured PCB levels as high as 1,300 milligrams per kilogramme in the blubber of killer whales, while previous studies have shown just 50 milligrams can lead to infertility and immune system damage in some animals. Killer whales are are among the mammals with the highest level of PCBs (Audun Rikardsen/ PA) PCBs, which decompose slowly in the environment, were banned in the UK in 1981 and several other countries in the 1970s and 1980s. More than 90 countries pledged to phase out the chemicals and dispose of existing stocks under the Stockholm Convention in 2004. Fewer than 10 killer whales are estimated to remain in the waters around the British Isles, according to the study. Only orcas in less contaminated waters, such as the Arctic and Antarctic, appear to be able to sustain growth, it said. Professor Paul Jepson, from ZSLs Institute of Zoology and co-author of the study, said the findings suggest efforts to eliminate the chemicals have not been effective enough to protect killer whales. There is therefore an urgent need for further initiatives than those under the Stockholm Convention, he added. Willie Mackenzie, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: Thirty years after they were banned, its staggering that polluting PCBs are not only still getting into our ocean, but that they are pushing our killer whales towards extinction. The UK Government has to take a global lead to make sure this situation doesnt get any worse: that means legally binding measures on the disposal of PCBs in the forthcoming UK Environment Act, and urging other countries to take similar measures. A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: The UK is a world leader in protecting marine life and we banned polychlorinated biphenyls over 30 years ago. We are working to ensure any legacy equipment containing PCBs is safely disposed of and will continue to press other countries to join global efforts to remove these chemicals from the marine environment. The American Institute of Architects North Alabama Chapter (AIA North Alabama) announced the winners of its 2018 Design Awards program and annual Cocktail Napkin Sketch & Square Photo Contest Thursday night, September 20, 2018, at an evening celebrating the achievements of the north Alabama architecture community. The Awards were presented by AIA North Alabama Chapter President Jennifer Thorington-Hines (EDT-THA Architecture), President Elect Michael Dowdy (Chapman Sisson Architects) and Les Tillery (Fuqua & Partners Architects). The awards were preceded with a talk by Dennis Madsen, Manager of Urban and Long-Range Planning for the City of Huntsville. The AIA North Alabama Design Awards program recognizes excellence in design, planning, and construction of projects located anywhere in the world that are designed by AIA North Alabama architects registered and licensed in the State of Alabama. Rhea Williams of Karma Management / AL Center for Architecture along with the AIA North Alabama executive board members organized the event. The intent of the Design Awards program is to honor the highest standards of design in response to user requirements, site, context, climate, and environment as well as nurturing new values and activities that contribute to design and design appreciation. Each entry, regardless of size or classification, is judged individually on the basis of total design merit. Design Awards were given in three categories of distinction: Honor, Merit and Citation. This year the jury also awarded a Special Recognition award for social impact. The jury, consisting of three distinguished architects from Miami, David M. Harper, Richard Luis, Arnaldo Sanchez and one architecture graduate student, Alejandro Castiello, decided the type and number of awards. The criteria used by the jury included design quality, program resolution, innovation, thoughtfulness and technique. There was also a People's Choice Award and Cocktail Napkin Sketch & Square Photo Awards all voted upon by the attendees of the program. As well as a Top Block award which was presented by John Sorrell of Alabama Concrete Industries Association our Title Sponsor for the evening. Honor Award: Architect: Nola | VanPeursem Architects Project: Huntsville Aquatics Center Merit Award: Architect: Bird & Kamback Architects Project: Rainbow Mountain Residence Citation Awards: Architect: Chapman Sisson Architects Project: Grissom High School Architect: Chapman Sisson Architects Project: Morris P-8 Special Recognition: Architect: Bird & Kamback Architects Project: His Way Community Center People's Choice Design Award: Architect: Nola | VanPeursem Architects Project: Huntsville Aquatics Center Best Square Award: AIA Member: Michael Dowdy, AIA (Chapman Sisson Architects) Sketch Title: "the Primary Energy Source" Cocktail Napkin Sketch Award: AIA Member: Michael Dowdy, AIA (Chapman Sisson Architects) Sketch Title: "the Primary Energy Source" Square Photo Awards: AIA Member: Kathy Riggs, AIA (Nola | VanPeursem Architects) Photo Title: "Mirrored House" AIA Member: Karen Bjorkman Bell, Associate AIA (Nola | VanPeursem Architects) Photo Title: "In the Gothic Jungle" Top Block Award: Architect: Chapman Sisson Architects Project: Morris P-8 About the AIA North Alabama Chapter AIA North Alabama is part of the Alabama Council of AIA which was established in 1916. AIA North Alabama is dedicated to three goals: design excellence, public outreach and professional development. For more information on AIA North Alabama, please visit aia.org/northalabama The phenomenon, which is hard to predict and elusive, has shown up at El Porto in Manhattan Beach and Marina del Rey this week. A stealthy F-35 fighter jet has conducted a combat air strike for the US for the first time. It culminates years of development and anticipation for the aircrafts move to the battlefield. A Marine F-35B Lightning took off from the USS Essex amphibious assault ship and launched an airstrike on Thursday against Taliban targets in Afghanistan. An F-35B is put through its paces (Andrew Matthews/PA) The aircraft is assigned to the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. There are multiple versions of the F-35 for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The supersonic Marine version can take off over a short distance and land vertically, like a helicopter. Republican US senator Lindsey Graham has said the Democrats treatment of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is the most despicable thing he has seen in politics. Mr Graham said that Democrats sat on allegations against Mr Kavanaugh and then sprung them on the nominee at the last minute in a desperate attempt to prevent his confirmation. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gives evidence (Win McNamee/AP) The South Carolina senator said Democrats want to destroy Mr Kavanaughs life and hold the seat open in the hope of winning the White House in 2020. Mr Graham said a vote against Mr Kavanaugh would legitimise the most despicable thing I have ever seen in politics. He also called the Democrats tactics the most unethical sham. Mr Graham supported Republicans ultimately successful efforts to block action on President Barack Obamas Supreme Court nomination of Judge Merrick Garland. Boris Johnson has issued a blistering attack on Theresa Mays Brexit strategy just days before the Conservative Party conference. The former foreign secretary, who sensationally quit the Cabinet in July, described the Prime Ministers Chequers plan as a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country that will cheat the electorate if implemented. Mr Johnson, in a Telegraph op-ed, accused the Government and civil service of a pretty invertebrate performance in negotiations and said there had been a collapse of will by the British establishment to deliver on the mandate of the people. In a 4,500-word column, entitled A better plan for Brexit, Mr Johnson also set out an alternative vision which he says would make Britain rich, strong and free. As a priority, the former London mayor urged the Government to ditch Chequers and negotiate a Canada-style free deal which would fulfil the instruction of the people. He said: Overall, the Chequers proposals represent the intellectual error of believing that we can be half-in, half-out: that it is somehow safer and easier for large parts of our national life to remain governed by the EU even though we are no longer in the EU. Boris Johnson described the Chequers proposal as the `worst of both worlds (Victoria Jones/PA) They are in that sense a democratic disaster. There is nothing safe or pragmatic in being bound by rules over which we have no say, interpreted by a federalist court. The Chequers proposals are the worst of both worlds. They are a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country. It is almost incredible that after two years this should be the opening bid of the British government. Mr Johnson also argues for a new withdrawal agreement which states that the Irish border question will be settled as part of the deal on the future economic arrangements. He further argues that the implementation period should be used to negotiate and bring into force a SuperCanada type free trade agreement and says MPs should not vote to hand over 40 billion to the EU without any such agreement. He adds: This is the time to get it right. This is the approach that allows this country really to exploit the opportunities of Brexit, to diverge and legislate effectively for the new technologies and businesses in which the UK has such a lead. This is an opportunity for the UK to become more dynamic and more successful, and we should not be shy of saying that and we should recognise that it is exactly this potential our EU partners seek to constrain. Mr Johnson concludes by issuing a rallying cry to the Tory base, saying this is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit, and warning that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail. The intervention comes two days before the start of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham where Brexit is expected to feature heavily. Mr Johnsons comments also come after the current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called for calm over the current Brexit impasse claiming there was always going to come a point in negotiations where everyone was looking into the abyss. Mr Hunt also backed the Prime Ministers resolve and warned the EU and doubters in the UK that underestimating Theresa May is one of the biggest mistakes that you could make right now. Mrs Mays Chequers plan was publicly rejected by EU leaders in Salzburg last week and both Labour and Tory Eurosceptics said they would vote against any such proposal. Three Conservative MPs who back abortion reform in Northern Ireland will be in Belfast later to hear experiences of women impacted by the regions restrictive laws. During a day of meetings, Anna Soubry, Huw Merriman and Nicky Morgan will also speak with midwives, doctors, politicians and lawyers challenging the current regime in the courts. The visit comes on the same day that senior figures in Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the Ulster Unionists and the Alliance Party issued a joint statement urging reform. Abortions in Northern Ireland are illegal in all but exceptional medical and mental health circumstances. Women calling for abortion reform in Northern Ireland (Niall Carson/PA) The Government has resisted calls to step in to legislate for reform in the wake of a recent Supreme Court judgment that found the current legal framework incompatible with human rights laws. In June, a majority of Supreme Court judges said the ban on terminations in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality needed radical reconsideration. Earlier this month, the Women and Equalities Committee at Westminster announced an inquiry that will examine whether the Government has a responsibility to reform abortion laws in the region or whether the contentious issue should only be one for devolved ministers to determine. Next month, a private members bill will be tabled at Westminster aiming to remove sections of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act that make abortion a criminal offence. Anti-abortion demonstrators outside the High Court in Belfast (Brian Lawless/PA) Ahead of the visit to Belfast, Ms Soubry said: Women and girls in Northern Ireland are not second-class citizens. They deserve access to free, safe and legal abortion services without having to travel to other parts of the UK. Our government must prioritise their rights and there is now significant support in Westminster for reform. We will continue to push for it to ensure that long and overdue change happens. The visit is being hosted by pro-choice advocates Amnesty International UK and the Family Planning Association as part of a series of events with Westminster political parties. Anti-abortion activists in Northern Ireland are opposed to calls for the UK government to intervene on the issue, insisting the matter should only be determined by locally elected politicians. Ms Soubry MP added: Its ultimately the people of Northern Ireland who are affected by the restrictive abortion law there, which is why were in Belfast today, to listen first hand to the women, midwives and doctors who find themselves harmed and compromised by the near-total ban on abortion. Mr Merriman said: Abortion is a healthcare and human rights issue. In our United Kingdom, there should be no difference between a woman who lives in Northern Ireland and needs an abortion and a woman who lives in England and needs an abortion. Whilst our preference has been that a devolved government addressed this, the fact is Stormont has not sat since January 2017 and Parliament has responsibilities to legislate for, and represent, citizens in every part of the UK where devolution does not apply or operate. Women cannot wait. Grainne Teggart from Amnesty International said: This visit has huge significance for the people of Northern Ireland who have so far been let down by the UK Governments inaction on abortion law reform. Since Ireland voted to change their restrictive law, weve heard nothing but silence from the UK Government on whether women and girls in Northern Ireland will be given access to free, safe and legal services in Northern Ireland. It is wrong to insist abortion is a matter for a devolved administration. Its clear that Anna Soubry, Huw Merriman, Nicky Morgan and many other MPs across the parties accept this is a matter for Westminster and are taking a stand for the rights of women in Northern Ireland by doing what they can to push Westminster to reform the outdated and discriminatory abortion law. On Friday, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, UUP MLA Doug Beattie and Alliance Party leader Naomi Long also issued a joint call for the law in the region to be radically reconsidered. They stated: Northern Ireland has been without government since January 2017, we are concerned about the harm being caused to women living under the existing Victorian era legislation which makes abortion illegal in almost every circumstance. We agree with the recent ruling of the UK Supreme Court that abortion law in Northern Ireland is in need of radical reconsideration. We note that 919 women travelled to England in 2017 for this healthcare service and countless others purchased abortion pills online, in doing so risked prosecution. We further note that the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women found that the UK is responsible for grave and systematic violations of womens rights by unduly restricting their access to abortion and recommended the repeal of sections 58 and 59 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. We call on UK Government to decriminalise abortion by repealing sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act and to ensure a human rights compliant framework governing access to abortion. The Duke of Rothesay is to present campaign medals to soldiers who have recently returned from Iraq during a visit to Fort George. The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS), have completed a six-month operational tour of Iraq, based at Al-Asad Air Base in western Al-Anbar province. Their two key responsibilities were to provide the main security force for the near 4,000-strong coalition camp and to provide training and mentoring for Iraqi security forces, preparing them to lead security operations against Islamic State. The training company taught their Iraqi partners in a range of areas, from security procedures, basic infantry tactics, life-saving first aid and communications to advanced weapon skills and basic improvised explosive device awareness. Charles, who is Royal Colonel of 3 SCOTS, will present campaign medals and attend a reception at their base at Fort George near Inverness on Friday. During their tour, 3 SCOTS worked alongside other nations, gaining experience manning security positions and honing their skills as a quick reaction force. Prince Charles on a previous visit to Fort George (Danny Lawson/PA) The soldiers also used their tour to raise money for the Army Benevolent Fund, hosted a successful Highland Games and took part in various runs and activities hosted by other nations. The Russian Orthodox Church has warned that it would sever ties with the leader of the worldwide Orthodox community if he grants autonomy to Ukraines Orthodox Church. The stern warning follows Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Is promise to allow the Orthodox Church in Ukraine to be autocephalous, or ecclesiastically independent. The Russian church, the worlds largest Orthodox communion, fiercely opposes the decision by Bartholomew, who is considered the first among equals of Orthodox leaders. Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Vladimir Legoyda warned on Friday it will break the Eucharistic communion with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate if it makes the Ukrainian church autocephalous. His All-Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople (Istanbul) (Fiona Hanson/AP) The church in Ukraine has been tied to the Moscow Patriarchate for hundreds of years, although many parishes have split off over the past two decades to form a schismatic church. Calls for independence have increased since Moscows 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Mr Legoyda said that the plans for autocephaly threaten a fragile religious peace in Ukraine, and charged that they have been driven by political ambitions of the Ukrainian leaders. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is running for re-election next March, has strongly pushed Bartholomew to grant independence to the Ukrainian church. His efforts received a fillip earlier this month when the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced that it was sending two bishops to Ukraine as a step toward declaring ecclesiastical independence for the church there. Among the many ways in which social media or rather Facebook to be precise has changed the world, arguably the most drastic has been its ability to make borders irrelevant. The Internet has always worked without any regard for borders. But earlier, it was more about the data that would travel across the world. Facebook has now enabled entire communities to transcend borders. There was a time when we all thought that this was a change for the good. But now, as countless examples including the "hacking" of the US elections show, we are waking up to the chaos that Facebook's borderless communities bring to the real world. In 1990, John Guare popularised the idea of Six Degrees of Separation. He argued that everyone on the earth is separated from someone else by six steps. In other words, what he meant was that you could connect two random people in the world in six steps by linking friends of friends. Facebook in 2016 announced that it had made the Six Degrees of Separation irrelevant. In a post titled "Three and a half degrees of separation" its engineers said, "Each person in the world (at least among the 1.59 billion people active on Facebook) is connected to every other person by an average of three and a half other people." in India Facebook's measures to check "hacking" of elections remain rudimentary so far. (Photo: Facebook) This must be a nice thing, a mass of humans connected in a better way? It seems we were mistaken. Even though an easier way to reach others allows us to do wonderful things like the whole world coming together to raise a substantial sum of money for the treatment of a cancer patient in an Indian town it also makes it easy to create differences. And as more people use Facebook, and realise its potential to disrupt communities and societies, many are using it not to bring together people but to break them apart. Doing so serves a purpose such as influencing the voting patterns. This is what happened during the US elections in 2016 and during the BREXIT vote in Britain, where the Russian hackers reportedly managed to wrest control of the political discourse through Facebook to such an extent that it resulted in a win for Donald Trump in the US and Leave Vote in the UK. The fear is that this sort of hacking is also going on in India ahead of the crucial 2019 vote. Especially because it's easy to pull off. When we talk of hacking, the image that comes to mind is that someone somewhere is trying to get into computers, or trying to take apart a machine like EVM. The classic definition of hacking, however, is different. It simply means not playing by the rules and exploiting a system using its weaknesses. "Hackers", whether internally or from China, Pakistan, Russia, France or some other country, can easily influence the Indian election process. (Photo: Facebook) So when you hear that Russians hacked the US election, it doesn't mean they got into EVMs used in Alabama. Or that they managed to somehow change the vote count. It simply means they disrupted the discourse before the vote using the weaknesses that are part of the way Facebook works and created sentiments that helped Trump and harmed Hillary. These "hackers" used Facebook very smartly. They probably set up Facebook communities, ran Facebook advertisements, ran fake news sites and then shared "news" from these sites on Facebook, and made memes that went viral and dented Hillary Clinton's credibility. All because it is so easy to do. Now, think of India as it goes into the 2019 elections. "Hackers", whether internally or from China, Pakistan, Russia, France or some other country, can easily influence the Indian election process. Maybe they are already doing it. With almost every household in India owning a smartphone, and with millions of Indians using WhatsApp and Facebook, running a misinformation campaign from China or Pakistan is very easy. And this misinformation campaign can then be tuned to help one political party over other, because that may serve the purpose of an external power. So if China doesn't want the BJP in power it can put to work a few hackers and social media experts and set up some 100 Facebook communities that would create memes against BJP and the Modi government. These memes will reach millions of Facebook users in India and influence their judgment. Or maybe Pakistan wants BJP government to remain in power, in which case it can run 50 Facebook communities for Indians, which will only popularise anti-Congress content "Pappu fail hoga", "Italians go home" and that sort of stuff. The ECI continues working with Facebook, something that allows Facebook to have even better voter data and preferences that it can sell to advertisers. (Photo: PTI) The way social media works, where nuances are lost, where you don't know if the news of someone's murder is fake or accurate, the fact that this news came to you from a friend you grew up with, or from someone called Sergei who is pretending to be Rahul becomes irrelevant, thus making it difficult to combat misinformation. In the US, even with their sophisticated cyber tools the NSA, CIA and FBI have not been able to catch the Russian meddling. In India, if foreigners want to muddle the scene during elections they can do so very easily. This is where the Election Commission of India comes into the picture. In the US, after regulatory pressure, Facebook is starting to act. It has started scrutinising the advertisers buying political ads to ensure they are not foreigners. It has started tracking the communities that do political messaging and make memes that go viral. It has started looking at the political discourse that takes place on its platform. However, in India Facebook's measures to check "hacking" of elections remain rudimentary so far. This is probably because it feels no pressure from the ECI and the government to take more stringent steps. It is also probably because the ECI continues working with Facebook, something that probably allows Facebook to have even better voter data and preferences that it can sell to advertisers. Ideally, the Indian government should be asking Facebook and WhatsApp to bring the same sort of measures to India that it is taking in the US to combat political misinformation. And ideally, the ECI and Indian regulators should be keeping a closer watch on the origins of WhatsApp and Facebook messages that go viral. Also read: Why Facebook deserves to be deleted over Cambridge Analytica scandal Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in a jolly mood when he returned home after participating in the fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) held in Kathmandu on August 30-31. He was still in event mode without sensing the trouble that was looming large just before the BIMSTEC Members Joint Military Drill planned in Pune. As understood, the key reasons that let the euphoria linger for a little while included the following: a) BIMSTEC took some key decisions positioning itself as an alternative to SAARC; b) It was Modis third meeting with Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in the short span of four months, and during his latest visit to Kathmandu, the two countries signed a railway agreement. With Chinas consistent efforts to play the greater role on major infrastructure projects in Nepal, including in railways and airports, the railway agreement on the feasibility study for the Birgunj-Kathmandu line was momentarily relaxing. So, for Modis own self-assessment, his visit was mixed in terms of bilateral and multilateral engagements. Perceptions also emerged in Kathmandu and New Delhi that relations between Oli and Modi had improved a bit. This sudden change in public perception came with steps taken by India for the removal of the Indian Embassy's temporary office located in Biratnagar, assurances of more air routes to Nepal, a joint study to resolve the issues of floods and inundations in border areas and the finalisation of a report by the Nepal-India Eminent Persons Group (EPG) which mandated suggesting ways to reshape the bilateral relationship. (Technically though, these were pending tasks which were attended to of late. Nothing spectacular there!) Moving Forward: In the last six months, Oli and Modi have taken several measures to build an environment of trust at the top political level. (Photo: PTI) Yet, the pleasant scenario suddenly changed when the proposed joint military drill of BIMSTEC countries was marred in controversy. Nepal stayed away from the drill just two days before the scheduled date and sent a shock wave to New Delhi by announcing its plan to go ahead with a joint military exercise with China. Though the military drill was finalised three months ago, it was broadly observed that Modis address in Kathmandu created a ripple in the political spectrum. Ruling and opposition leaders, media, civil society and experts started to criticise the military drill, stating that it was beyond the objectives of BIMSTEC that stood for regional strategic and trade integration, and an attempt to derail BIMSTEC from its key aim. Also, it was considered that such a move could adversely impact the possibilities of improving bilateral ties among countries in South Asia. Oli tried to pacify the dissatisfaction expressed from various quarters. While addressing Parliament, he also defended the proposed Nepal-China joint drill, saying This (military exercise) is targeted at increasing the capacity of armies. We will not enter into any kind of military pact with any country or regional organisations, and we do not believe in military pacts too. Apparently, he failed to convince his party leaders and others. Foreign policy experts argued that such a military drill would go specifically against the basic principles of Nepals foreign policy, i.e., non-alignment. The last-minute decision to stay away from the BIMSTEC military drill apparently sent Modis foreign policy handlers into panic as preparations for holding the drill were completed and well-publicised. Modi had mentioned the military drill in his opening speech during the BIMSTEC Conclave at Kathmandu thus, it was a big deal. Addressing a press conference after the conclusion of the military drill, Indian Army chief Bipin Rawat expressed dissatisfaction with Nepal and Bhutan for boycotting the drill. He said countries like Nepal and Bhutan cannot delink themselves from India as they are more inclined towards India because of geography. Indian Army chief Bipin Rawat expressed dissatisfaction with Nepal for skipping the BIMSTEC military drill. (Photo: PTI) Earlier, Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Manjeev Singh Puri, also expressed dissatisfaction on the same issue with Nepals new Army chief. The statements were strong but didnt find traction as Nepal was steadfast with its plan and it sent clear signals that the move made was principled rather than influenced through any hidden interest. When Nepal decided not to participate in the drill, three members of the Nepal Army were already traveling in India for ground observations. The ruling administration in Kathmandu decided to keep them there as "observers" of the drill to give a message that there is not a total boycott. The trip of a 30-member team which was all set to go India was cancelled though, following instructions reportedly from Nepal's PMO. Ironically, both countries didnt officially engage with each other on the matter. Not only the military drill, but some other developments are also pushing India a step back on Nepal. Soon after the BIMSTEC Summit, Nepal and China finalised the protocol of Transit & Transport Treaty between the two countries signed in 2016. Significantly, the Treaty was signed during this tumultuous phase that ended Nepals sole dependence on India for vital access to ports. As of now, Nepal relies heavily on India for overland trade and the supply of essential goods, including fuel and cooking gas. Kolkata Port has been the lifeline so far but in today's changed time, now it may face stiff competition given Kathmandus increasing connections with Beijing. Noticeably, China managed to route over $8 billion in investments in Nepal last year, leaving India way behind as the countrys largest foreigner investor. These events have been accompanied by the India visit of Nepals former prime minister and Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) co-chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda". He was invited by Modi for an official visit. After the party unification, Prachanda has been both a rival and a close aide of Oli. In this context, Oli and his leaders are clearly wondering why India gave so much importance to Prachanda. Waiting in the wings? Nepals former PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" was invited by PM Modi for an official visit to Delhi. (Photo: PTI) During his stay in New Delhi, Prachanda met PM Modi, Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. He also addressed some programs organised by Indian think-tanks. Barring the protocol, Prachandas time in New Delhi was almost like the visit of a serving prime minister. Neither was he shy in giving smoke signals to Oli that he is not living an existence that detaches him from the internal politics of Nepal and the possibility of holding power again. The strong reflections came through via his close interactions with the influencers who make or shake India-Nepal bilateral ties. In the interviews given to the media in New Delhi, Prachanda made it clear that there has been an understanding between him and Oli about the power-sharing modality of 2.5 years for each. Prachanda clearly hinted that either he will be full-fledged party president or prime minister after 2.5 years. A few Oli loyalists from the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) criticised Prachandas statement, saying that it was not necessary to speak about party matters in India. There are perceptions in Kathmandu that Prachanda wants to secure his position after Olis 2.5 years at the helm and for that, he could seek covert support from India. After his India visit, Prachanda visited China but received a cold shoulder from Beijing. In contrast to the royal treatment he received in New Delhi, his Beijing visit proved not successful at making headlines in the Chinese newspapers. Both the Chinese President and Prime Minister did not meet him in Beijing. Dahal returned home after meeting with the Vice President and talking more of "peace" than "ideology". All these developments have been keenly watched by foreign policy observers. In the last six months, Oli and Modi have taken several measures to build an environment of trust at the top political level but with a lack of capacity to follow on what was promised from both sides, not much could come out positively. In now downplaying what evidently is a wave of turmoil between India and Nepal, both Modi and Oli are doing a great disservice to the bilateral ties and South Asias strategic balance. In relying on directionless policies and giving undue importance to egos, the serving leaderships are scripting a plot that will be damaging for both these countries which otherwise share open borders and have common interests. Also read: Nepal has added insult to India's injury by joining military drill with China. Modi govt must rethink its foreign policy Is the Rafale fighter jet deal likely to be Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bofors? Or has Congress President Rahul Gandhi overplayed his hand? Rahul was 17 years old when the Bofors scam broke in the summer of 1987. His father Rajiv Gandhi (a decent man surrounded at work and home by those with a weak grip on integrity) was savaged by the media and the Opposition over Bofors. Rahul must have awoken every morning to Ram Jethmalanis 10 questions addressed to his father on Bofors on the front page of The Indian Express. He would have heard the Oppositions daily cry: Galli galli me shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai. Two years later, Rajiv lost the 1989 Lok Sabha election. His 414-seat majority fell below 200 seats. Thirty years later, the scars of Bofors havent healed for the Gandhis. The Bofors investigation contributed significantly to the downfall of Rajiv Gandhis Congress party in the November 1989 Lok Sabha election. (Photo: India Today) There are six key elements in the Rafale deal that need the disinfectant of sunlight: 1) Price per Rafale fighter India is paying just over Rs 1,600 crore per fighter jet. The Congress alleges that this is three times the price negotiated by the UPA government. The comparision is odious and the Congress knows it. The price it quotes is for a bare bones fighter. The price for the fully loaded, nuclear-capable Rafale fighter India is buying is the same as the price paid recently by the Egyptian Air Force for a similarly weaponised Rafale and is actually lower than the price (Rs 1,705 crore) paid by the Qatar Air Force for a fully loaded Rafale. Besides, negotiations by the UPA government for the original Rafale fighter jet deal, which began over a decade ago, were for the F3 version, discontinued in 2014. The Rafale now being bought by India is the new F3R version. The current deal also includes a free bonus: France is gifting 32 retired Jaguar fighters belonging to the French Air Force to be used for spares in IAFs ageing Jaguar fighter fleet. 2) India-specific enhancements How significant are these? Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a senior fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, says: Very significant. The RBE2 active radar gives the Indian Air Force (IAF) a huge edge against Chinese and Pakistani fighters. The Meteor missile and the new front sector infrared tracker are also very important in tracking the new-generation Chinese stealth fighters. "They are shaped to evade radar so instead you track them by the heat signature of the exhaust which can't be masked. The enhancements include the helmet-mounted display which shows all the information on the visor/goggles. This means missiles can be launched by simply looking at the target and that split second advantage is critical in a close combat situation. Besides, there will be nuclear modifications on the Rafale that nobody will talk about publicly. Dassault have both stated publicly that all vendors for the Rafale offset programme were chosen by Dassault. (Credit: Reuters Photo) 3) The switch from HAL to Anil Ambanis Reliance defence group Rahul has focused on this following former French President Francois Hollandes comments on the deal. Who chose Anil Ambanis Reliance? French President Emmanuel Macron and Dassault have both stated publicly that all vendors for the Rafale offset programme were chosen by Dassault. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is also among these 72 vendors. The 36 Rafale fighters will arrive from France in flyaway condition. Should they have instead been manufactured by HAL in India? Says Iyer-Mitra: HAL is so incompetent that it has never been able to produce an aircraft cheaper than imports. Save for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) it has only produced metal aircraft. Composites (carbon fibre) aircraft are much more complex and HAL only produces three LCAs per year and of highly variable quality. The problem was that in the earlier 126 aircraft negotiations for the Rafale, HAL refused to accept responsibility for the quality of the parts it produced and wanted Dassault to be held responsible for any flaws. 4) Offset vendors Dassault chose 72 Indian vendors for its Make in India offset programme mandated at 50 per cent (Rs 29,000 crore) of the contracts value (Rs 58,000 crore). Rahul Gandhi has trained his guns on only one of those 72 vendors Anil Ambanis Reliance. Why? Anil Ambanis Reliance group is likely to receive between Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 5,000 crore, or around 12-15 per cent of the offset programme a far cry from the over Rs 1,00,000 crore scam Rahul has alleged against Reliance. 5) Sanjay Bhandari-Robert Vadra angle The notorious arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, a fugitive who absconded from India in February 2017, ran a company called Offset India Solutions (OIS). OIS bid for the Rafale offsets contract in 2012 during the UPA2 regime. Bhandari is close to Robert Vadra as publicly disclosed emails, foreign property transactions and phone transcripts have revealed. Dassault examined OISs capabilities for offsets and rejected its bid in 2012. The contract for 126 Rafales being negotiated by the UPA government since 2007 was coincidentally cancelled in 2012, shortly after Dassault rejected the bid by Bhandaris OIS for offsets. With the introduction of the Bhandari-Vadra angle, the Congress attack on PM Modis personal role in the Rafale deal has lost steam. (Credit: IndiaToday.in) The then Defence Minister AK Antony justified the cancellation of the 126-fighter Rafale deal on camera: Where is the money? Agriculture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat was more direct at a press conference on September 24, 2018: Rahul Gandhi is peeved and has launched a campaign against the Rafale deal as his brother-in-law Robert Vadra and his friend and business partner have been denied brokerage. The Congress president wants the deal cancelled to teach Dassault a lesson as he is angry over how his brother-in-law could not be a beneficiary. Rahul Gandhi should explain to the nation why the deal for Rafale fighters was cancelled in 2012. Was it only cancelled when Vadra and his friend were rejected by Dassault as middlemen? In May 2016, Bhandaris offices in New Delhi were raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Bhandari was booked under the Official Secrets Act (OSA). Confidential defence ministry documents were found by the ED in his offices during the raids. He subsequently fled India and is untraceable. The inability of the prime ministers office (PMO) to clean up a corrupt IAS/IPS lobby working in tandem with criminals could prove Modis single biggest failing. Former RAW officer Jitendra Kumar Ojha described to Ashis Ray of Business Standard in an interview on September 25, 2018 how corrupt officials in government sabotage criminal probes. In the infamous Ravi Shankaran case, where Shankaran allegedly stole classified material from the Navy War Room with the connivance of officials and shared it with Indias enemies and competing foreign defence companies, Ojha says: Records would confirm that proceedings against him could not progress as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) blatantly ignored my repeated pleas to forward the extradition request in the prescribed Hague Convention format. 6) The Congress case Does the Congress criticism of Reliances inexperience in making spare parts for Dassaults line of business jets (not Rafale fighters as is sought to be implied) stand up to scrutiny? Reliance Defence and Engineering (RDEL) acquired Pipavav Shipyard, an 18-year-old company, in 2015. It had by then gained significant expertise in building warships. It then built capabilities in advanced avionics: Aircraft Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), Terrain Avoidance Warning System (TAWS) and other aerostructure equipment. Is that expertise sufficient for it to qualify as one of 72 vendors (including Tata, Mahindra, L&T, HAL and Bharat Forge) to make offset spare parts for business jets (not Rafale fighters)? The Congress has remained tactically silent on this issue. The Congress has sought the intervention of the CVC and CAG but not yet of the courts where statements, if found false, attract perjury. Concrete evidence of malfeasance has to be provided. With the introduction of the Bhandari-Vadra angle, the Congress attack on Prime Minister Modis personal role in the Rafale deal has curiously, but not entirely surprisingly, lost some of its momentum. Facts have a sobering effect on fiction. Also read: Rafale Controversy: Opposition allegations of a scam are built on quicksand A lot of ink has recently flowed over the Rafale (gust of wind in French) planes, but to understand the issue, it is necessary to go back a few years. In February 2013, during the biannual Aeroshow at Yelahanka in Bangalore, the main topic was the supply of 126 Rafale fighter planes by Dassault Aviations to the Indian Air Force. A few weeks earlier, news had circulated that the French company was keen to have a deal with Reliance Industries to help build 108 Rafales in India; Dassault and Reliance Industries had apparently already signed a partnership for the purpose. Observers felt Antony continued to live in the Soviet era where the defence industry must be owned by the state. (Photo: India Today) Private player During a press conference, AK Antony, the then defence minister, was categorical; he did not want to hear about a private player in the deal. Observers felt that Antony continued to live in the Soviet era where the defence industry must be owned by the state. If Boeing, Dassault, Safran, Lockheed-Martin or Rafael of Israel are able to serve their respective countries well, why cant the Tatas or Reliances and others do so in India? Two points need to be noted. First, the association between Reliance and Dassault predates the arrival of Modi at the Centre (though at that time, the collaboration was with Mukesh Ambani, and not Anil as today) and second, why did Dassault select Reliance? Simply because the French companies (with Thales for the avionics and Safran providing the engine) needed a strong Indian industrial group which could facilitate the transfer of technology and help manufacture the fighter planes in India; none of the industrial players had experience, mainly due to the socialist policies of the government. The situation is different today. In the new deal, there is no transfer of technology, though there is an offset component. Some 50 per cent of the entire contract needs to be reinvested in India; it explains why an Indian partner is required for Dassault. In 2015, the negotiations between Dassault and HAL had reached an impasse when PM Narendra Modi unlocked the situation; on April 9, he looked into the possibility to purchase 36 planes off-the-shelf . It was a pragmatic move. While dropping the former framework, India considered primarily the national interests and the IAFs critical operational necessity. Eighteen months later, after tough negotiations, the deal was finally signed to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets. The details, obviously secret, were contained in several thousand pages of the inter-governmental agreement. It would give a breathing space to the IAF (which has been systematically and sadly forgotten in the present debate). The association between Reliance and Dassault predates the arrival of Modi at the Centre. (Photo: Reuters) The saga started in 2001 and could have lasted decades more if Antonys MMRAC (medium multi-role combat aircraft) formula had been stuck to. Air Marshal BK Pandey, one of Indias best experts, explained: Dassault lacked confidence in the capability of Hindustan Aeronautical Ltd (HAL) with respect to Quality Standards, Time Lines and Cost, the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer, i.e. Dassault) was not prepared to partner with HAL and risk their reputation. Serious question The Congress tweeting chor, chor every day, without any understanding of the situation and without proof to corroborate the accusations, raises a serious question: can an issue of supreme national importance be discussed on the public stage via Twitter? The normal course would be to let the CAG find out if there is indeed a scam. Why cant the CAG be trusted to meticulously go through the details of the inter-governmental deal? But with the elections approaching, national interests are shelved. In any case, politicians do not care much for such niceties; they want quick political gains. Unfortunately, the present debate may jeopardise future defence procurements. In April, the defence ministry issued a Request for Information (RFI) for the purchase of 114 new jets. Under the proposed scheme, 18 jets will come in a flyaway condition (like the 36 Rafales); the rest will be produced in India under the new strategic partnership policy, i.e., a joint venture between the selected foreign aviation major and its Indian partners. It is feared that the present noise around the 36 planes from France could be a precedent to question each and every defence acquisition. Indias interest Air Marshal Pandey feels that there is an apprehension that the fresh move termed as MMRCA 2.0 could meet with the same fate (as the present deal). This will be a big disaster for the IAF which will be left with no choice but to depend largely on the LCA Tejas and the AMCA (Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, a hypothetic HAL project) if it does become a reality. To make things murkier, former French President Francois Hollande claimed that the Modi government suggested industrialist Anil Ambanis company as an offset partner. It was apparently later denied by Hollande, with AFP reporting that during a visit in Canada, Hollande declared that he was unaware and only Dassault can comment on this. In the meantime, the harm was done, though the Indian and French governments, as well as Dassault, categorically denied any truth in Hollandes first statement. The French press reported that it was linked to funds received from the Ambanis by Hollandes girlfriend. Though in France nobody takes Hollande very seriously, even as President, he had the lowest approval rate that a French leader has ever had, the Indian politicians jumped on the occasion. Ultimately, it is Indias defence preparedness and the IAF, which suffers and will continue to suffer. But the problem is that many politicians seem not to care much for Indias interests. And who is laughing today? China and Pakistan. (Courtesy of Mail Today) Also Read: Rafale row in Parliament revealed one thing. Government, Opposition, media lack defence knowledge A fight between two entities Uttar Pradesh Mahila Kalyan Nigam and Chhanv Foundation has put in jeopardy the future of acid attack survivors, who had been earning a livelihood at Lucknow's Sheroes Hangout, a cafe run by those survivors. The women running the Sheroes Cafe in Lucknow. (Source: Sheroes) Sheroes Hangout was opened in Lucknow after a successful run in Agra. The then-chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, was reportedly struck by the idea of how acid attack survivors were living a life of dignity because of the unique cafe. He promised to open more such outlets across UP. However, only one could be opened in the state capital of Lucknow. While incumbent CM Yogi Adityanath should have worked towards ensuring more such units get opened, tragically, even this cafe is fighting a lone battle for existence after UP Mahila Kalyan Nigam and Chhanv Foundation failed to agree on the terms of its operation. Ashish Shukla, director of the Chhanv Foundation, says, "While the government was transferring money directly into the accounts of the acid attack survivors, salaries of the support staff were often delayed because of a mismanagement of the corpus." In a letter dated September 22, the Mahila Kalyan Nigam wrote to Chhanv Foundation, saying that there is no reason whatsoever to run the Lucknow unit. Letter written by Mahila Kalyan Nigam to Chhanv Foundation ordering the shutdown of Sheroes Cafe in Lucknow. The letter further says that the survivors, who were working at the unit, would be provided training in cooperation with the National Skill Development Corporation and the State Resource Centre for Women and Child to ensure they keep earning a living. But the attitude that the UP government is showing towards the rehabilitation of the women under question is deeply tragic. Normal human beings can't even imagine the trauma an acid attack survivor has to go through. All the hurt and pain and insults hurled at them aside, the country lacks even a basic policy framework to effectively rehabilitate them. And if this was not enough to prove the government doesn't care, here comes the latest move a decision to take away from 12 survivors their right to dignity. The government can't understand that it is not enough to provide women a basic training in knitting and sewing. It has only prepared the ground to push these survivors towards the same life by promising training under the NSDC and SRCWC. It need not do this. There is no reason why a government cannot ensure that a cafe which is running successfully continues to do so. At a time the government should have been looking at ways to open more such units and bring more disadvantaged women into the fold, it has instead ordered its shutting down. According to Shukla, Chhanv Foundation wasn't even given enough time to vacate the premises from where the cafe currently runs. The Foundation had to move the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court to be allowed time till October 24 to vacate the premises. If only our governments had shown the same sense of urgency in charting policies for victims of acid attack, the world would have been a different and better place. Sheroes Hangout cafe in Lucknow which the government thinks must shut down. (Source: Sheroes) We are not innocent to the plight of Laxmi Agarwal, an acid attack survivor, who recently came back in the news for not being able to pay her rent because nobody wants to give her a job. This, for a woman who became a cause celebre, who walked the ramp for 'socially conscious' fashion designers, who had famous film stars wanting to take selfies with her. Many more Laxmis, unknown and unheard, exist in deep deprivation because we, as a society, have failed to make room for them in our lives. Because we have forced them into economic exclusion. Because women don't matter anyway. Because no one cares about women who have survived gender-based violence. The government's attitude to these women, who became victims of the worst form of misogyny, who are reminded every day, every time they look into the mirror, that they were punished only because they were women, is shameful. There is a lot Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the UP Women and Child Development minister, has to answer for. It is true that the government cannot stop every act of violence perpetrated on women. But it sure can ensure that women who suffer such targeted violence are not left to fend for themselves. This is criminal apathy. There is time for the government to stop this from happening. Also read: No, Indians don't care. The state of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal shows we have no real values Its a hard reality today that adolescents do not know much about their bodies and sexual health. There is a dire need to clear misconceptions and educate them The number of girls enrolled in Bohramal middle school in the Belsand block of Sitamarhi district in Bihar outnumbers those of boys. But these numbers dont reveal the real story. By the time girls reach Class VIII, their absence becomes conspicuous. Parents pull them out of school and get them married even before they can complete the academic year. Gulaichi Kumari, a 14-year-old student of class VIII at this school, knew she wouldnt be able to finish her education since she was engaged to be married in March, just before her final examinations. Although the alliance of Pinky Kumari, also in Class VIII, was to be in April, she wasnt going to sit for the exams because her parents had told her there was no need since she was getting married. Neither girl was sure whether she would be able to study further; although they both wanted to. Gulaichi and Pinky are not the only ones whose dreams have been cut short. About 1.5 million girls in India are child brides. A majority of them can be found in Bihar, which tops the list of States in the country for child marriages with over 42.5 per cent being married before 18 years. So it comes as no surprise that major decline in school completion levels in rural Bihar occurs between Classes VIII and IX for unmarried girls. In fact, two in five married girls discontinued their education because they got engaged or married, according to a 2016 study on adolescents in Bihar by Population Council, a not for profit working on health. Adolescents comprise 22 per cent of Bihars population. How many of them have accurate knowledge about their bodies? How many are equipped with reproductive and sexual health information? Are they aware of contraception or how pregnancy occurs? Not many, found the study. Of the 10,400 adolescents interviewed in 36 out of 38 districts in Bihar, only 44 per cent of girls between the ages 13-14 and 56 per cent of boys aged 13-14 knew that a woman could not become pregnant after kissing or hugging. And only nine to 10 per cent knew that a woman could get pregnant at first sex. Although 27-28 per cent of the older boys and unmarried older girls (15-19 years) were aware that a woman could get pregnant after the first sexual encounter, only four to five per cent knew that a woman was most likely to become pregnant if she engaged in sexual relations mid-cycle. Even among married older girls, just 53 and 12 per cent, respectively, were aware of these two facts. The study also found that 14.1 per cent of unmarried adolescent boys and 6.3 per cent of unmarried adolescent girls had premarital sex, and of them, 22 per cent boys and 28.5 per cent girls had premarital sex before 15 years. Further, a large proportion of adolescents in sexual relations with a romantic partner had engaged in unprotected sex. Contraceptive use in a romantic relationship was limited just 31 per cent of boys and 17 per cent of girls reported using a contraceptive at first sex. Even more limited was consistent contraceptive use only among 28 per cent of boys and seven to 11 per cent of girls. This could be because 70-72 per cent of younger boys and girls (13-14 years) had never received information on how pregnancy occurs or how a pregnancy could be prevented. Neither had 25 per cent of the older boys (15-19) and 44 per cent of the unmarried older girls. Adolescents are shy in seeking sexual and reproductive health services and it is not hard to understand why. Where do they go and who will provide information and services, confidentially and without prejudice? Adolescent-friendly health clinics and peer counsellors were supposed to address these concerns under the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK). Launched in 2014 by the Ministry of Health, the RKSK aimed to reach out to the adolescents and improve their health-seeking behaviour in six strategic areas including nutrition, sexual reproductive health and gender-based violence. But in Bihar, where RKSK was rolled out in 10 high priority districts, the study found that hardly any adolescent had heard about adolescent-friendly health clinics (one per cent of boys and two to five per cent of girls) or received services from them. Further, gaps in the health delivery system, shortage of skilled human resources and medical counsellors as well as women doctors have undermined its implementation. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), India will continue to have the biggest national adolescent girl population until 2030. That adolescent fertility rates are high is clear from the fact that one-third of Indias population is born to adolescent mothers. In Bihar, which has the highest total fertility rate (3.4) in the country, girls constitute 46 per cent of the States adolescent population. All these numbers tell a story if no one is to be left behind, urgent strategic investments in schooling and retention, comprehensive sexuality and life skills education, greater access to contraception and family planning choices, and safe abortion services is imperative. (The writer is a senior journalist) Several parts of Pune lay under thick sheets of water since Thursday afternoon after a portion of the canal of the Khadakwasla dam carrying water to the cultural capital of Maharashtra breached at a place en route inundating at least 250 hutments located in low-laying areas and disrupting water supply to more than a dozen localities that pass along the waterway. Lakhs of litres of water entered the houses and also went down the drain after a portion of the Khadakwasla canal carrying water to the Pune city breached at one place. The Khadakwasla dam is the main source of water for Pune and its suburbs. Its canal cuts through the length and breadth of Pune. More than 1,000 alum hutments located in the vicinity of the Dandekar brigde were rendered homeless following the breach. Fortunately, the floods in Pune did not cause harm to people in any part of the city. The dis-housed people, who have been shifted to safer places, are being provided temporary shelters by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The affected people have been accommodated at make-shift erected by the local Ganesh mandals during the recent festivities. The PMC has directed the affected people to stay put at alternate locations where they have been shifted till the situation returns to normal. The slum dwellers living in the vicinity of a petrol bunk near Dandekar bridge have borne maximum brunt, with structures of around 120 hutments having collapsed and all of them having gone under gone under water. Similarly 30 hutments located in the vicinity of nearby Maruti temple also went under water. After two hours of the canal breach, the State Irrigation Department under which the maintenance of the Khadakwasla dam comes stopped the supply of water from the dam. The TMC and State irrigation department officials came in for a several flak for the alleged laxity that contributed to the canal breach. Hundreds of social media users to twitter and Facebook to share videos and photographs of the damage caused by the canal breach which saw both slums in the low-lying areas and roads being floods for several hours. Following increased water availability in its right hand canal, the Khadakwasla dam has been supplying 600 cusecs of water to Pune as against 300 cusecs supplied. Hower, following the breach, the PMC has stopped the water supply to localities, including Mundwa, Hadapsar, Mahammed Wadi, Yerwada. Koregaon Park, Vishrant Wadi, Tingre Nagar and Viman nagar. We will have impose supply restrictions in water supply in the coming days, a senior PMC official said. Earlier in the day, the side walls of the canal made up of mudstones and concrete at the Mutha bank canal washing following the gushing waters from that pieced through the walls. After the breach, the mangled remains of the hutments like rakes and wooden structure were seen floating in the water. One of the women, Shevanta Bode, living in a hutment near Dandekar bridge said that her currency notes worth Rs 1,5 lakh she had borrowed from someone to pay for JEE entrance examination that her daughter was to take were either soaked beyond use or washed away in the floods. Party tries to mollify leaders as another general secretary Munaf Hakim resigns The NCP on Friday plunged into crisis after two of its general secretaries Tariq Anwar and Munaf Hakim resigned from the party aggrieved over party chief Sharad Pawars defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Rafale deal. Immediately, the party got into the damage-control mode with senior NCP leader Praful Patel clarifying that Pawar has not given a clean chit to anybody in the Rafale deal and backed the demand for JPC probe into the purchase of the fighter jets. In a statement before the media at his Parliamentary constituency Katihar, Anwar said he is resigning from the posts of the NCPs national general secretary and as its leader in the Lok Sabha, besides giving up the partys primary membership and vacating his parliamentary seat. Senior NCP leader and Rajya Sabha member DP Tripathi confirmed that Anwar has quit the party. Anwar alleged the Prime Minister is fully involved in the Rafale deal and it is also substantiated by former French President Francois Hollande, referring to his reported remarks about France being left with no option in Dassault selecting Reliance Defence as an offset partner as part of the multi-billion dollar deal. He said he completely disagreed with Pawars version, which he said has shattered the faith of countrymen in the Opposition. Munaf Hakim, who hails from Maharashtra, said he had quit the primary membership of the party and claimed it is difficult to defend its image after Pawar supported the Prime Minister in the Rafale fighter jet issue. Hakim, a former chairman of the State minorities commission, told PTI that he is following Anwar by resigning and added that more NCP workers might follow suit. About the implications of Anwars resignation for the NCP, Patel said, The party doesnt get impacted just because somebody joins it or leaves it. It is sad to note that after working with us for so many years, he (Anwar) decided to quit without even informing us. It is very surprising because he has based his decision on an interview by Pawar to a news channel. Meanwhile, NCP MP and Pawars daughter Supriya Sule said it is disappointing that people have not heard Pawar raising three key questions on the Rafale deal. What is the justification for a 300 per cent raise from Rs 526 crore to Rs 1,670 crore which potentially could be a significant loss to the exchequer (sic)? she tweeted. If such doubts have been raised and the Government is so confident, then why are they shying from setting up a JPC? Sule said in another tweet. She also said when the BJP raised both price and specification issues during the Bofors allegations, why are they hiding behind artificial justification of secrecy of agreements vis-a-vis both commercial price and offset agreements. Placed in an embarrassing situation by Pawars purported clean chit to Modi, the Congress dubbed media reports about Pawars statement s false and unfounded and claimed it was a conspiracy to create a rift between the two parties. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Pawar clarified to Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge that he had not made any such statement as the NCP favoured the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the deal. Surjewala said the NCP chief held detailed discussion with Kharge and made it clear that this is untrue and unfounded. Anwar as the NCP candidate had successfully contested the 2014 General elections from Kaithar in an alliance with RJD and Congress and retained the seat amidst the Modi wave then. Anwar was the Bihar Congress president in the 1980s and had represented his current parliamentary constituency Katihar as a Congress MP four times, before he joined hands with Pawar and former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma to form the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999. The NCP later allied with the Congress and Anwar served as a Union Minister in the UPA-II Government. The success of the fourth industrial revolution, happening much faster than the earlier transformations, depended on how we are able to adapt our education system to these changes, said former President of the Republic of Mauritius Dr Rajkishwur Purryag at the diamond jubilee national convention of the Indian Institute of Industrial Engineering (IIIE), which began in SOA University here on Thursday. Dr Purryag said the success or failure of the fourth industrial revolution would greatly depend on to what extent it is inclusive as the application of technology is poised to dominate every aspect of our lives. On the occasion, an international conference on the Role of Industrial Engineering in Industry 4.0 Paradigm was also held in which experts from academia, research organisations and industry from across the globe attended, being held in collaboration with SOA. The question is what type of education we must aim at to make the fourth industrial revolution relevant for each one of us, not just a few, he said adding besides education, the other areas of concern would be providing opportunities for all and the centrality of human beings in this revolution. University of Cincinnati, USA distinguished professor and renowned Industry 4.0 expert Prof Jay Lee also spoke. Among others, IIIE Odisha chapter president Prof RP Mohanty was present. A special postal cover was also released Chief Post Master General, Odisha Circle Dr SK Kamilla to mark the occasion. Finance Ministers of six States on Friday decided to organise a Chief Ministers conclave in October. In order to evolve a consensus on financial issues concerning States across the country, the Delhi Government said in a statement. It said the decision was taken at a meeting of a Group of Finance Ministers. The Finance Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Kerala attended the meeting, while Karnataka FM joined it on video conferencing. The Puducherry Chief Minister and the Punjab Finance Minister participated via teleconferencing. According to the statement, West Bengal has also agreed to the proposal of Chief Ministers conclave. We discussed the discriminatory Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the 15th Finance Commission and other financial issues concerning federalism, the statement quoted Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Sisodia said the group of Finance Ministers also held preliminary discussions on GST revenue collection and futuristic revenue collections. All these issues will form an agenda for the Chief Ministers conclave and all CMs of India will be invited to this event, said the deputy Chief Minister. The focus will be on the discriminatory ToRs of the current Finance Commission, he said. The statement said the Chief Ministers conclave will be organised in Delhi. Amritsar Police on Friday registered a rape and sexual harassment case against its Additional Inspector General (AIG), Crime, Randhir Singh Uppal following a probe conducted by the Inspector General (Crime and Women) Vibhu Raj into allegations made by a law student in Amritsar. The registration of case against Uppal came a day after the state Director General of Police Suresh Arora had reportedly asked the Police Commissioner for the same during a high level meeting of senior police officials from all over Punjab at Chandigarh on Thursday. A case under Section 376, 376 D, 354, 354 C of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the AIG on the victims complaint of raping her, said the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Lakhbir Singh. The complaint was received on September 17 and the police had marked a probe to IG Crime and Women Vibhu Raj to look into the allegations of harassment levelled by the victim against Uppal. The victim had lodged a complaint with the cantonment police and also filed a complaint with the police helpline 181 the next day. A student at a local law college had alleged that Uppal, posted in Chandigarh, was harassing her and making sexual advances for the past four months. She alleged that the police are not entertaining her repeated pleas. She has also accused him of intimidation. Refuting the allegations, AIG claimed that the victims mother was known to him and her family requested him to keep a watch on her as she had fallen in bad company. The victim had a number of audio recordings of the conversation and Whatsapp chat with the AIG in which she is urging him not to harass her. She had also made these recordings and chats viral on social media to press her demand. Haryana, known for its skewed sex ratio, has registered 949 rape cases and 95 gang rape cases till August this year. Moreover, 10158 cases of crime against women have been registered in the state during the same period, as per the data of Haryana State Crime Record Bureau. The state had registered 1328 cases of rape in the year 2017, which averages to more than three rapes a day. Lashing out at the Haryana Government for deteriorating law and order situation, Haryana Leader of opposition and INLDs senior leader Abhay Chautala on Friday said that Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign of the BJP Government is a mere slogan. Referring to the data of Haryana State Crime Record Bureau, Chautala while talking to the mediapersons here said that it is shameful that 949 cases of rapes, which averages to more than three rapes a day have been registered in the state till August this year. 95 cases of gang rapes have also been registered as the State Government continues to fail in curbing crime against women in Haryana, he alleged. According to the Haryana State Crime Record Bureau, 20 gang rapes have been registered in the month of August in the state. Recently, the Rewari gang-rape case had evoked sharp reaction from opposition parties. According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) 2016 report, the rape rate in Haryana is 9.4 against the national average of 6.1. Haryana has also earned the dubious distinction of topping the country in the number of gang rapes. A total of 191 gang rapes took place in the state in 2016, or one every two days, as per NCRB 2016 report. Quoting the data of Haryana State Crime Record Bureau, Chautala said that 2461 cases of crime against children, 403 cases of crime against scheduled caste have also been registered from January to August 2018. He alleged that there is a general sense of insecurity among women, dalits and children in the state. During the same time period, 665 cases of murder, 571 cases of attempt to commit murder, 2673 cases of kidnapping and abduction, 220 dacoity, 486 robbery, 4566 of criminal trespass/burglary, 1498 of riots, 159 of arson have been registered during the same time period. A huge 15062 cases of theft have also been registered till August this year. With a view to salute the valour of heroes of the Surgical Strike, Haryana Government will organise a State-level function in district Jhajjar on September 29. The Chief Minister Manohar Lal will be the chief guest at Surgical Strike Day function, said an official spokesman. He said that the entire country is observing September 29 as the anniversary of Surgical Strike in a befitting manner. It is a moment of pride especially for Haryana as every tenth soldier serving in Indian Army belongs to Haryana. Thus, various programmes would be organized at all district headquarters of the state to commemorate this important day, he said. On September 29, 2016, the war heroes of the country had courageously and bravely crossed LOC to strike the terrorists camps. A number of terrorists were killed and their camps were destroyed by these brave heroes of the nation during this coveted operation which was admired by the entire country, the spokesman said. He further said that by observing Surgical Strike Day, it would not only show our gratitude towards these soldiers but would also inculcate the spirit of patriotism among the youth of the country. By observing this day, a message is being conveyed to the soldiers that the whole country is always with them for their support. Various programmes would be organized during this day which include exhibition displaying the glimpse of bravery of the Defence Forces. Besides this, programmes on patriotism would be relayed from Doordarshan Kendras, he added. 20 tonnes of illegal coal seized A special police team on Friday morning recovered around 20 tonnes of illegal coal and seized 12 Bullock carts, one scooter and one motorcycle by conducting a drive in the forest of Maoist-affected Puchambha CCL area under Mufasil police station, said SK Jha, Superintendent of police Giridih. Police have got information that the Maoists used to provide shelter to the mafia for illegal mining and transportation of coal in the area. This unlawful business helps the Red outfit in churning out money as levy. Illegal coal business is a major source of revenue generation for the Maoists. For the past few of weeks, police are conducting frequent drive to hit the revenue generation point of the Naxalites. Hindi Pakwada concludes on high note Hindi Pakwada organised by Jharkhand Postal Circle concluded on a high note on Friday. Chief Post Master General Shashi Shalini Kujur felicitated the winners on the concluding day. Competitions like Hindi noting and drafting, Hindi Essay writing competition, Hindi Extempore Speech including Hindi poetry were organised. A huge number of employees participated in the competition. RU observes Surgical Strike Day Ranchi University (RU) following the guidelines of the University Grant Commission (UGC) observed Surgical Strike Day on Friday with much fervour. Brigadier, BG Pathak addressed the gathering on the occasion focusing on the theme Observing Surgical Strike Day in the benefitting manner and the role of armed forces in a much elaborate way. RU VC, Dr. RK Pandey motivated the students to make their career in army. Lieutenant KS Saha alongwith the senior officials of RU was present on the occasion. 3 killed in road accident Three youths, identified as Muna Gupta, Narayan Mishra and Vijay Verma were killed on the spot at Jaridih in Bermo, when a bike they were riding got rammed by a speeding car coming from the opposite direction at Bandhdih village near Jainamore on Thrusday evening. In other incident took place at Peterwar a woman was killed on spot and her husband and a child escaped closely, when their motorcycle knocked down by a truck near Chargi village on the Chas-Ramgrah road near Chargi village on Thrusday evening. Police identified the deceased as Abda Khatoon wife of Firoj Ansari. Hindi fortnight at CITE Hindi fortnight was observed at Cambridge Institute of Teachers Education at Angara by the 1st and 2nd years students of D.EL.ED Course by presenting a play 'Eidgah' and singing different patriotic songs under the guidance of RENU, H.OD, D.EL.ED Course. Lecturers Asha Mehta, Sarita, Shaiqua Aman, Anita were present. Mr, Navneet Singh the Secretary of the college also graced the occasion and blessed the students. Big Bazaar Public Holiday Sale from today Big Bazaar is all set for Big Bazaar Public Holiday Sale from September 29 to October 3. During Big Bazaar Public Holiday Sale, customers can shop for Rs. 4000 and get Rs.4000 back through cashback and vouchers. Customers will get Rs. 4000 back through a cashback of Rs.500 in their Future Pay wallet, electronics voucher worth Rs.1000, homeware and kitchenware voucher worth Rs.1000, home fashion voucher worth Rs.500 and fashion voucher worth Rs.1000. Speaking about the Public Holiday Sale, Sadashiv Nayak, CEO, Big Bazaar says, With each season of the Public Holiday Sale, we are delighted to see the growing support of our customers towards Big Bazaar. Lux Golden Rose Awards Lux announced the third edition of the Golden Rose Awards, which has grown to be a momentous occasion not only for the industry but for multitudes of fans worldwide. The extravaganza sees the charming, king of hearts- Shah Rukh Khan talk about the women of Bollywood who inspire him the most. Khan said, On celluloid I have swept many women off their feet, but in reality women tend to sweep me off my feet. In the past too, I have made my stance on equality of genders clear. I strongly believe dues meted out should be according to merit and not gender. Both genders have their own plus and minus points, though I love the women who make work so beautiful. Women make you think, and make you want to be a better person and for ages, and even now sadly they do not get the dues or credit they deserve. Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested Pulkit Maharaj alias Pulkit Mishra, a resident of Sahibabad in neighbouring Ghaziabad for allegedly seeking favours by posing as Prime Minister Narendra Modis spiritual guru. The incident came to light after an assistant director posted with the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) approached Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and alleged in his complaint that Maharaj was misusing the PMs name. The PMO reported the matter to police after they discovered that a fraudulent letter was issued to the District Magistrate of Uttar Pradeshs Sitapur in the name of Parul claiming to be the secretary, Ministry of Arts and Culture, seeking security and accommodation for Maharaj and his disciples who wanted to visit an old temple in Sitapur. The PMO official alleged in his complaint that this was a case of misusing the PMs name, and requested Delhi chief to investigate following which the matter was forwarded to the special operation squad of the Crime Branch. Police substantiated the allegations and an FIR was lodged in month of August. The accused posed either as Director of Ministry of Art and Culture to seek Government accommodation or security from the District Magistrate or other Government officials. On investigation it was found that there are no persons with such names in the Ministry office. Pulkit had also forged photographs of himself with the Prime Minister and other high-profile officials. The accused has been also asking security and VIP protocol in different States posing as the guru of the Prime Minister, said Joy Tirkey, Deputy Commissioner of police (DCP), crime branch. The accused have been sent on police remand for five days by Patiala house court. His sister Parul had posed as a secretary in the letter send to DM Sitapur. She has not been yet arrested. Further investigation is going on, said the DCP. Thirteen illegal migrants from Bangladesh, including five children, were taken into custody Friday at a village near here, police said. Acting on a tip-off, the police nabbed them on Monday from Jatora village in the district, Senior Superintendent of Police Babloo Kumar said, adding they were living in the village for the last two years. They were three men, five women and five children. While 12 immigrants were living without an identity proof, one had a bogus Aadhaar card bearing address of Jatora village, the SSP said. According to Kumar, station house officers of all police stations have been instructed to intensify the search against illegal migrants. Japan's iconic Tsukiji fish market, considered the world's largest, will down shutters for the first time in 83 years on Saturday to allow 20,000 workers to prepare for the final closure on October 6. The vendors on Friday continued with their final preparations for the impending move to the nearby artificial island of Toyosu, where it will reopen five days later in an upgraded space with modern facilities, reports Efe news. The shift to Toyosu, located around 3.4 km from Tsukiji, is aimed at modernising the facilities and addressing safety concerns that had cropped up after a blaze had burned around 2,153 sq ft of Jogai, Tsukiji's outer market, a little over a year ago. The origin of the market dates back to 1657, when the Tokugawa Shogunate set up a fish market near Sumida River on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay and called it Tsukiji, which literally means "reclaimed land". The market was officially renamed Tsukiji fish market in 1884 but was destroyed, along with most of Tokyo, in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and shifted to its current location in 1935. The new Toyosu market will begin operating on October 11 and face the challenge of attracting visitors and traders to become, as Tsukiji was, a mecca of Japanese seafood. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. engages in the operation of senior living communities. The firm manages independent living, assisted living and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers. It operates through the following segments: Independent Living Assisted Living & Memory Care, CCRCs, Health Care Services and Management Services. The Independent Living segment is primarily designed for middle to upper income seniors who desire an upscale residential environment providing the highest quality of service. The Assisted Living & Memory Care segment offer housing and 24-hour assistance with ADLs to mid-acuity frail and elderly residents. The CCRCs segment offers a variety of living arrangements and services to accommodate all levels of physical ability and health. The Healthcare Services segment provides home health, hospice and outpatient therapy services, as well as education and wellness programs, to residents of many communities and to seniors living outside communities. The Management Services segment composes of communities operated by the company pursuant to management agreements. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Brentwood, TN. Read More DIC Asset AG is one of Germany's leading listed property companies, and specialises in commercial real estate. With around 20 years of experience on the German real estate market, the company maintains a regional footprint on all major German markets through six branch offices, and has 169 assets with a combined market value of c. EUR 5.6 billion under management. DIC uses a hybrid business model to manage its business divisions Commercial Portfolio, Funds and Other Investments. Taking an active asset management approach, DIC employs its proprietary, integrated real estate management platform to raise capital appreciation potential in its business divisions and to boost its revenues. In its Commercial Portfolio division (EUR 1.7 billion in assets under management), DIC acts as proprietor and property asset holder, and thus generates revenues both from the management of the assets and through the value optimisation of its own real estate portfolio. The Funds division (EUR 1.6 billion in assets under management) generates its revenues by acting as issuer and manager of special real estate funds for institutional investors. Gathered in the business unit Other Investments (EUR 2.3 billion in assets under management) are strategic financial investments, the management of properties in which the company holds no equity stakes, equity investments in property developments and joint venture investments. DIC Asset AG has been included in the SDAX(R) segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since June 2006. The Company's shares are also included in the EPRA index, which tracks the performance of the most important European real estate companies. Read More Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. is an international offshore energy company. It focuses on subsea construction, maintenance and salvage services to the offshore natural gas and oil industry. The firm also provides specialty services to the offshore energy industry, with a focus on well intervention and robotics operations. The company operates through three segments: Well Intervention, Robotics and Production Facilities. The Well Intervention segment offers vessels and related equipment that are used to perform well intervention services primarily in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea regions. The Robotics segment involves four chartered vessels and also includes ROVs, trenchers and ROVDrills designed to complement offshore construction and well intervention services. The Production Facilities segment includes its investment in the Helix Producer I and Kommandor LLC. Helix Energy Solutions Group was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Houston, TX. Read More 11 Wall Street equities research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Hugo Boss in the last year. There are currently 6 hold ratings and 5 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street equities research analysts is that investors should "hold" Hugo Boss stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in BOSS, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares. View analyst ratings for Hugo Boss or view top-rated stocks. The following companies are subsidiares of Roper Technologies: 3089554 Nova Scotia ULC, AC Analytical Controls B.V., AC Analytical Controls Holding B.V., AC Analytical Controls Services B.V., Acumen PM LLC, Aderant Canada Company, Aderant Company, Aderant Holdings Inc., Aderant International Holdings Inc., Aderant Legal (UK) Limited, Aderant Legal Holdings (AUS) Pty Ltd, Aderant Legal Holdings (NZ) ULC, Aderant Legal Holdings Inc., Aderant North America Inc., Aderant Parent Holdings Inc., Advanced Sensors Limited, Alpha Holdings of Delaware I LLC, Alpha Holdings of Delaware II LLC, Alpha Technologies B.V., Alpha Technologies GmbH, Alpha Technologies Japan LLC, Alpha Technologies Services LLC, Alpha Technologies U.K., Alpha Technologies s.r.o., Alpha Trust Corporation, Alpha UK Holdings LLC, Amot Controls Corporation, Amot Controls GmbH, Amot/Metrix Investment Company Inc., Amphire Solutions Inc., Amtech Systems (Hong Kong) Limited, Amtech Systems LLC, Amtech World Corporation, Aplifi Inc., Ascension Technology Corporation, Assureweb Limited, Atlantic Health Partners Inc., Avitru LLC, Axium Holdco Inc., C/S Solutions Inc., CBORD Holdings Corp., CIVCO Medical Solutions B.V., Centurion Research Solutions LLC, Civco Holding Inc., Civco Medical Instruments Co. Inc., CliniSys Group, CliniSys Group Limited, Clinisys Scotland Limited, Clinisys Solutions Limited, Cointec Ingenieros y Consultores S.L., Compressor Controls (Beijing) Corporation Ltd., Compressor Controls Corporation B.V., Compressor Controls Corporation Middle East, Compressor Controls Corporation S.r.l., Compressor Controls LLC, Compressor Controls Mauritius Ltd., Compressor Controls Pty Ltd., Compressor Controls Saudi Arabia LLC, ConstructConnect, ConstructConnect Canada Inc., ConstructConnect Inc., Cornell Pump Company, DAT Solutions LLC, DATSolutions Private Limited, DCMH Group Holdings Inc., DCMH Group Holdings LLC, DCMH Holdings Inc., DI Acquisition Subsidiary Inc., DI Dutch Holdings LLC, DI Hong Kong Limited, Dash I Inc., Data Innovations, Data Innovations Canada Ltd., Data Innovations Cooperatief U.A., Data Innovations Europe S.A., Data Innovations LLC, Data Innovations Latin America Ltda, Dawning Technologies LLC, Deltek, Deltek Ajera Inc., Deltek Asia Pacific (HK) Limited, Deltek Australia Pty Ltd., Deltek Danmark A/S, Deltek France SAS, Deltek GB Limited, Deltek GmbH, Deltek Inc., Deltek Nederland B.V., Deltek Netherlands B.V., Deltek Norge AS, Deltek Sverige AB, Deltek Systems (Canada) Inc., Deltek Systems (Colorado) Inc., Deltek Systems (Philippines) Ltd., Deltek WST LLC, Dominion I Inc., Dynamic Instruments Inc., Dynisco Enterprises GmbH, Dynisco Enterprises LLC, Dynisco Europe GmbH, Dynisco Holding GmbH, Dynisco Hong Kong Holdings Limited, Dynisco Instruments LLC, Dynisco Instruments S.a.r.l., Dynisco LLC, Dynisco Parent Inc., Dynisco S.r.l., Dynisco Viatran LLC, Dynisco Viatran (M) Sdn Bhd, Dynisco-Viatran Instrument Sdn Bhd, FMS Purchasing & Services Inc., FSI Holdings Inc., FTI Flow Technology Inc., Fluid Metering Inc., Foodlink Holdings Inc., Foodlink IT India Private Limited, Foundry, Foundry Visionmongers (Ireland) Limited, GeneInsight Inc., Getloaded Corporation, HRsmart Canada Inc., HRsmart Czech Republic, HRsmart France SAS, HRsmart Germany GmbH, HRsmart Inc., HRsmart International, HRsmart International Holdings LLC, HRsmart Mexico, HRsmart SA (Pty) Ltd., HRsmart Talent Management Solutions Europe Limited, HRsmart Ventures LLC, Handshake Software Inc., Hansco Automatisering B.V., Hansen Technologies Corporation, Harbour Holding Corp., Hardy Process Solutions, Horizon Software International LLC, INPUT Inc., IPA Acquisition Subsidiary Inc., ISL Finance SAS, ISL Holding SAS, ISL Scientifique de Laboratorie - ISL S.A.S., IT Canada Holdings LLC, Innovative Product Achievements LLC, Inovonics Corporation, Instill Corporation, IntelliTrans Limited, Intellitrans Canada Ltd., Intellitrans LLC, Intellitrans Sweden AB, Job Access LTDA, K/S Roper Holding, K/S Roper Investments, Laser App Inc., Link Logistics Holding LLC, Loadlink Technologies Corporation, Logitech Limited, MED Professional Services LLC, MEDTEC Inc., MHA Long Term Care Network Inc., MHA Long Term Care Services Inc., MIPS Austria GesmbH, MIPS CZ s.r.o, MIPS Deutschland GmbH, MIPS France Sarl, MIPS Nederland B.V., MIPS Schweiz AG, MIPS Software Iberica SL, MPR Readers Inc., Managed Health Care Associates Inc., Marumoto Struers K.K., Medical Information Professional Systems NV, Medina Acquisition LLC, Metrix Instrument Co. L.P., NDI Europe GmbH, Navigator Group Purchasing Inc., Neptune Technology Group (Canada) Co., Neptune Technology Group Inc., Neptune Technology Group Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Neptune Technology Group Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Neptune Technology Group Services Inc., Nippon Roper K.K., Northern Digital Inc., Off-Campus Advantage LLC, Omega Legal Systems Inc., PAC (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PAC Denmark ApS, PAC GmbH, PAC Instruments (Thailand) Company Limited, PAC Instruments Asia PTE. Ltd., PB Bidco Limited, PB Holdco Limited, PB Midco Limited, PB Topco Limited, PGP UK Limited, Petroleum Analyzer Company L.P., Phase Analyzer Company Ltd., PowerPlan, PowerPlan Canada ULC, PowerPlan Holdings Inc., PowerPlan Inc., PowerPlan Intermediate Holdings Inc., PowerPlan Operations ANZ Pty Ltd, PowerPlan Operations Ltd., Project Diamond Intermediate Holdings Corporation, Project Torque Intermediate Holdings Inc., Project Viking Holdings Inc., Project Viking Intermediate LLC, QSC 1208 Limited, QSC 1209 Limited, RF IDeas, RF IDeas Inc., RI Marketing India Private Limited, RIL Holding Limited, RMT Inc., RT Merger Sub Inc., Rebate Tracking Group LLC, Resonant Software Inc., Roda Deaco Valve Inc., Roper Acquisitions Holdings Inc., Roper Brasil Comercio E Promocao De Productos E Servicos LTDA, Roper Canada Holdings LP, Roper Canada UK Limited, Roper Denmark UK Limited, Roper EUR Pte. Ltd., Roper Engineering s.r.o., Roper Europe GmbH, Roper GM Denmark Holdings ApS, Roper Germany GmbH, Roper Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Roper Holdings LLC, Roper Holdings Limited, Roper IH LLC, Roper Industrial Products Investment Company, Roper Industries Denmark ApS, Roper Industries Deutschland GmbH, Roper Industries Inc., Roper Industries Limited, Roper Industries Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Roper Industries Mauritius Ltd., Roper Industries UK Limited, Roper International Holding Inc., Roper International Holding Limited, Roper International Holding SCS, Roper LLC, Roper Luxembourg Finance S.a.r.l., Roper Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Roper Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Roper Middle East Ltd., Roper NL1 UK Limited, Roper NL2 UK Limited, Roper Pte. Ltd., Roper Pump Company, Roper Scientific B.V., Roper Scientific SAS, Roper Scot LP, Roper Southeast Asia LLC, Roper Swiss Finance GmbH, Roper UK Investments Limited, Roper UK Ltd., Roper US Finance I LLC, Roper US Finance II LLC, Roper-Mex L.P., Ropintassco 1 LLC, Ropintassco 2 LLC, Ropintassco 3 LLC, Ropintassco 4 LLC, Ropintassco 5 LLC, Ropintassco 6 LLC, Ropintassco 7 LLC, Ropintassco Holdings L.P., SHP Group Holdings Inc., SIRA LLC, Shanghai Roper Industries Trading Co. Ltd., Sinmed Holding International B.V., Societe de Distribution de Logiciels Medicaux, SoftWriters Inc., Softwriters Holdings, Softwriters Holdings Inc., Sohnar Pty Ltd, Star Purchasing Services LLC, Strata Acquisition Subsidiary Inc., Strata Decision Technology LLC, Strata Parallel II Inc., Strategic Healthcare Programs Blocker 2 Inc., Strategic Healthcare Programs Blocker LLC, Strategic Healthcare Programs Holdings LLC, Strategic Healthcare Programs L.L.C., Struers (Shanghai) International Trading Ltd., Struers A/S, Struers GmbH, Struers Inc., Struers Limited, Struers SAS, Student Advantage LLC, Sunquest Europe Limited, Sunquest Holdings Inc., Sunquest Information Systems (Europe) Limited, Sunquest Information Systems (India) Private Limited, Sunquest Information Systems (International) Limited, Sunquest Information Systems Inc., Sunquest Information Systems Pty Ltd, TLP Holdings LLC, Technolog Group Limited, Technolog Holdings Ltd., Technolog Limited, Technolog SARL, The CBORD Group Inc., The Foundry Bidco Limited, The Foundry Bidco No.2 Limited, The Foundry Holdco Limited, The Foundry Holdings Limited, The Foundry Intermediate Holdings Limited, The Foundry Midco 3 Limited, The Foundry Midco No 1 Limited, The Foundry Midco No 2 Limited, The Foundry Topco Limited, The Foundry Topco No.2 Limited, The Foundry USCo Inc., The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd., The Tidewater Healthcare Shared Services Group Inc., The Washington Management Group Inc., Torque Acquisition Holdco Inc., Transcore Atlantic Inc., Transcore CNUS Inc., Transcore Holdings Inc., Transcore ITS LLC, Transcore LP, Transcore Nova Scotia Corporation, Transcore Partners LLC, Trinity Integrated Systems Limited, UHF Purchasing Services LLC, Union Square Software (International) Limited, Union Square Software Inc., Union Square Software Limited, Union Square Software Pty, Uson L.P., Uson Limited, Utilitec Limited, Utilitec Services Limited, Utility Data Services Limited, Verathon Holdings (Delaware) Inc., Verathon Inc., Verathon Medical (Australia) Pty Limited, Verathon Medical (Canada) ULC, Verathon Medical (Europe) B.V., Verathon Medical (France) SARL, Verathon Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Verathon Medical (Japan) K.K., Verathon Medical (UK) Ltd., Vertafore, Vertafore Canada Inc., Vertafore Inc., Vertafore India Private Limited, Viastar Services LP, Viatran Corporation, Walter Herzog GmbH, WorkBook APAC Ltd., Workbook Software A/S, Zetec (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zetec France, Zetec Inc., Zetec Korea Inc., Zetec Rental LLC, Zetec Services Inc., iPipeline, iPipeline (TCP) Limited, iPipeline Canada Inc, iPipeline Co. Ltd., iPipeline Holdings Inc, iPipeline Inc, iPipeline Limited, iSqFt Holdings Inc., iSqFt Parent Corporation, iSqFt Sub Inc., iTradeNetwork Inc., and mySBX Corporation. iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF's stock was trading at $123.88 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, LQD shares have increased by 7.3% and is now trading at $132.92. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. RELX PLC provides information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Scientific, Technical & Medical; Risk; Legal; and Exhibitions. The Scientific, Technical & Medical segment provides information and analytics that help institutions and professionals to progress in science and advance healthcare. The Risk segment offers information-based analytics and decision tools that combine public and industry specific content with technology and algorithms to assist clients in evaluating and predicting risk. The Legal segment provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers in decision-making, as well as enhance the productivity. The Exhibitions segment is involved in the events business. The company was formerly known as Reed Elsevier PLC and changed its name to RELX PLC in July 2015. The company was incorporated in 1903 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. 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 The following companies are subsidiares of Becton, Dickinson and: (Bard Istanbul Healthcare Limited Company), Accuri Cytometers, Accuri Cytometers Inc., Adaptec Manufacturing Singapore, Alverix, Alverix Inc., Atto Bioscience, BD Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., BD Infection Prevention BV, BD Kiestra BV, BD Kiestra Total Lab Automation, BD Rapid Diagnostic (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., BD San Luis Potosi S.A. de C.V., BD Switzerland Sarl, BD Ventures LLC, BD West Africa Limited, BDX INO LLC, Bard (Thailand) Limited, Bard ASDI Inc., Bard Access Systems Inc., Bard Acquisition Sub Inc., Bard Australia Pty. Limited, Bard Benelux N.V., Bard Brachytherapy Inc., Bard Brasil Industria e Comercio de Produtos Para a Saude Ltda., Bard Canada Inc., Bard Chile S.p.A., Bard Colombia S.A.S., Bard Czech Republic s.r.o., Bard Devices Inc., Bard Dublin ITC Limited, Bard EMEA Finance Center Sp.z o.o., Bard European Distribution Center N.V., Bard Finance B.V. & Co. KG., Bard Financial Services Ltd., Bard Finland OY, Bard France S.A.S., Bard Global Holdings I LLC, Bard Global Holdings II LLC, Bard Global Holdings III LLC, Bard Healthcare Inc., Bard Healthcare Science (Shanghai) Limited, Bard Hellas S.A., Bard Holding SAS, Bard Holdings Limited, Bard Holdings Netherlands B.V., Bard Hong Kong Limited, Bard IP Holdings Inc., Bard India Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Bard International Holdings B.V., Bard International Inc., Bard Korea Ltd., Bard Limited, Bard MRL Acquisition Corp., Bard Malaysia Healthcare Sdn. Bhd., Bard Medica SA, Bard Medical Devices (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Bard Medical R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Bard Medical SA (Proprietary) Limited, Bard Mexico Realty S. de R.L. de C.V., Bard Norden AB, Bard Norway AS, Bard Pacific Health Care Company Ltd., Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc., Bard Poland Sp. z.o.o., Bard Productos Plasticos e Medicos Ltda., Bard Reynosa S.A. de C.V., Bard S.r.l., Bard Sdn. Bhd., Bard Shannon Limited, Bard Singapore Private Limited, Bard Sourcing Office Singapore Pte. Ltd., Bard Sweden AB, Bard UK Newco Limited, Bard de Espana S.A., Becton Dickinson (Gibraltar) Holdings Ltd., Becton Dickinson (Gibraltar) Limited, Becton Dickinson (Gibraltar) Management Limited, Becton Dickinson (Mauritius) Limited, Becton Dickinson (Pty) Ltd., Becton Dickinson (Thailand) Limited, Becton Dickinson A.G., Becton Dickinson A/S, Becton Dickinson Argentina S.R.L., Becton Dickinson Asia Holdings Ltd., Becton Dickinson Asia Limited, Becton Dickinson Austria GmbH, Becton Dickinson Austria Holdings GmbH, Becton Dickinson B.V., Becton Dickinson B.V. Saudi Limited Company, Becton Dickinson Benelux N.V., Becton Dickinson Biosciences Systems and Reagents Inc., Becton Dickinson Canada Inc., Becton Dickinson Caribe Ltd., Becton Dickinson Croatia d.o.o., Becton Dickinson Czechia s.r.o., Becton Dickinson Dispensing Belgium BVBA, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Denmark A/S, Becton Dickinson Dispensing France SAS, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Ireland Limited, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Norway, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Spain S.L.U., Becton Dickinson Dispensing UK Ltd., Becton Dickinson Distribution Center N.V., Becton Dickinson East Africa Ltd., Becton Dickinson Euro Finance Sarl, Becton Dickinson Europe Holdings S.A.S., Becton Dickinson France S.A.S., Becton Dickinson GSA Beteilgungs GmbH, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings I Inc., Becton Dickinson Global Holdings II LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings IV LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings V LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings VI LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings VII LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Services Centre Sdn. Bdn., Becton Dickinson GmbH, Becton Dickinson Guatemala S.A., Becton Dickinson Hellas S.A., Becton Dickinson Holdings Limited, Becton Dickinson Holdings Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson Hungary Kft., Becton Dickinson India Private Limited, Becton Dickinson Industrias Cirurgicas Ltda., Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy AB, Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy Holdings UK Limited, Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy Systems Inc., Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy Systems Inc. S.A. de C.V., Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy UK, Becton Dickinson Insulin Syringe Ltd., Becton Dickinson International Holdings II Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson International Holdings III Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson International Holdings Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson Israel Ltd., Becton Dickinson Italia S.p.A., Becton Dickinson Ithalat Ihracat Limited Sirketi, Becton Dickinson Korea Holding Inc., Becton Dickinson Korea Ltd., Becton Dickinson Ltd., Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Finance S.a.r.L., Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Global Holdings Sarl, Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Holdings II S.a.r.L, Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Holdings III S.a.r.L, Becton Dickinson Malaysia Inc., Becton Dickinson Management GmbH & Co. KG, Becton Dickinson Matrex Holdings Inc., Becton Dickinson Medical (S) Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Devices (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Devices (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Products Pte. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Technology (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Netherlands Global Holdings II C.V., Becton Dickinson Netherlands Holdings B.V., Becton Dickinson Netherlands Holdings II B.V., Becton Dickinson Norway AS, Becton Dickinson O.Y., Becton Dickinson Overseas Services Ltd., Becton Dickinson Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd., Becton Dickinson Penel Limited, Becton Dickinson Philippines Inc., Becton Dickinson Polska Sp.z.o.o., Becton Dickinson Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Becton Dickinson Pty. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Research Centre Ireland Limited, Becton Dickinson Rowa Germany GmbH, Becton Dickinson Rowa Italy Srl, Becton Dickinson S.A., Becton Dickinson Sample Collection GmbH, Becton Dickinson Scot Financing L.L.P., Becton Dickinson Scot Financing L.P., Becton Dickinson Sdn. Bhd., Becton Dickinson Slovakia s.r.o., Becton Dickinson Sweden AB, Becton Dickinson Sweden Holdings AB, Becton Dickinson Switzerland Global Holdings SarL, Becton Dickinson Technology Campus India, Becton Dickinson U.K. Limited, Becton Dickinson UK Financing I Ltd., Becton Dickinson UK Financing II Ltd., Becton Dickinson Venezuela C.A., Becton Dickinson Venture LLC, Becton Dickinson Verwaltungs GmbH, Becton Dickinson Vostok LLC, Becton Dickinson Worldwide Investments Sa.r.L., Becton Dickinson Zambia Limited, Becton Dickinson and Company Ltd., Becton Dickinson de Colombia Ltda., Becton Dickinson de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Becton Dickinson del Uruguay S.A., Benex Ltd., Biometric Imaging, Bridger Biomed Inc., C. R. Bard, C. R. Bard (Portugal)-Produtos e Artigos Medicos e Farmaceuticos, C. R. Bard Do Brazil Productos Medicos Ltds., C. R. Bard GmbH, C. R. Bard Inc., C. R. Bard Netherlands Sales B.V., CME America LLC, CME Ltd., CME Medical (UK) Limited, CME UK (Holdings) Limited, CRISI Medical Systems, CRISI Medical Systems Inc., Caesarea Medical Electronics, Cardal II LLC, Care Fusion Development Private Limited, CareFusion, CareFusion (Barbados) SrL, CareFusion (Shanghai) Commercial and Trading Co. Limited, CareFusion 213 LLC, CareFusion 2200 Inc., CareFusion 2201 Inc., CareFusion 302 LLC, CareFusion 303 Inc., CareFusion Asia (HK) Limited, CareFusion BH 335 d.o.o. Cazin, CareFusion Corporation, CareFusion D.R. 203 Ltd., CareFusion France 309 S.A.S., CareFusion Germany 318 GmbH, CareFusion Iberia 308 S.L., CareFusion Israel 330 Ltd., CareFusion Italy 312 S.p.A., CareFusion Manufacturing LLC, CareFusion Mexico 215 S.A. de C.V., CareFusion Netherlands 328 B.V., CareFusion Netherlands 503 B.V., CareFusion Netherlands 504 B.V., CareFusion Netherlands Financing 283 C.V., CareFusion Resources LLC, CareFusion S.A. 319 (Proprietary) Limited, CareFusion Solutions LLC, CareFusion U.K. 244 Limited, CareFusion U.K. 305 Limited, CareFusion U.K. 306 Limited, Carmel Pharma AB, Carmel Pharma Inc, Cato Software Solutions, Cell Analysis Systems Inc, Cellular Research, Cellular Research Inc., Clearstream Technologies Group Limited, Clearstream Technologies Limited, Clontech Laboratories Inc, Corporativo BD de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Cubex, Cytopeia, DLD (Bermuda) Ltd., DVL Acquisition Sub Inc., Davol Inc., Davol International Limited, Davol Surgical Innovations S.A. de C.V., Difco Laboratories Incorporated, Distribuidora BD Mexico S.A. de C.V., Dutch American Manufacturers (D.A.M.) B.V., Dymax Corporation, Embo Medical Limited, Enturia de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Enturican Inc., FJ International Inc., FlowCardia Inc., FlowCardia LLC, FlowJo LLC, Franklin Lakes Enterprises L.L.C., GSL Solutions, Gamer Lasertechnik GmbH, GenCell Biosystems, GenCell Biosystems Ltd., GeneOhm Sciences, GeneOhm Sciences Canada Inc., Gentest Corporation, Gesco International Inc., Gesco International LLC, HandyLab Inc, HandyLab Inc., IBD Holdings LLC, Ionotophoretics Corporation, JoHome LLC, Kabushiki Kaisha Medicon (Medicon Inc.), Liberator Health and Education Services Inc., Liberator Health and Wellness Inc., Liberator Medical Holdings Inc., Liberator Medical Supply Inc., LifeBond, Limited Liability Company Bard Rus, Loma Vista Medical Inc., Loma Vista Medical LLC, Lutonix Inc., Med-Design Corporation, Med-Design Investment Holdings Inc., Med-Safe Systems Inc., MedChem Products Inc., Medafor Inc., Medegen LLC, Medinservice.com Inc., Medivance Inc., NAT Diagnostics, NAT Diagnostics Inc., NOW Medical Distribution Inc., NOW Medical Distribution LLC, Navarre Biomedical LLC, Navarre Biomedical Ltd., Neomend Inc., Nippon Becton Dickinson Company Ltd., Omega Biosystems Incorporated, P.R.C.(Isialys)Societe a responsabilitie limitee(Societe a associe unique), PT Becton Dickinson Indonesia, PharMingen, PreAnalytiX GmbH, Pristine Access Technologies Inc., ProSeed Inc., Procesos para Esterilizacion S.A. de C.V., Productos Bard de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Productos Para el Cuidado de la Salud S.A. de C.V., Puls Medical Devices AS LC, PureWick Corporation, Roberts Laboratories Inc., Rochester Medical Corporation, Rochester Medical Ltd., Saf-T-Med, Safety Syringes, Safety Syringes Inc., Sendal S.L.U., SenoRx Inc., SenoRx LLC, Shield Healthcare Centers Inc., Sirigen, Sirigen II Limited, Sirigen Inc., Sistemas Medicos ALARIS S.A. de C.V., Specialized Cooperative Corporation, Specialized Health Products Inc., Specialized Health Products International Inc., Specialized Health Products International LLC, Staged Diabetes Management LLC, Straub Medical, Straub Medical, Straub Medical (US) LLC, Straub Medical (United Kingdom) Ltd., Straub Medical France, Surgical Site Solutions Inc., TVA Medical, TVA Medical GmbH, TVA Medical Inc., Tepha, Touchstone Medical Limited, Tri-County Medical & Ostomy Supplies Inc., TriPath Imaging, TriPath Imaging Inc., Vas-Cath Incorporated, Vascular Pathways Inc., Velano Vascular, Venetec International Inc., Venetec International LLC, Y-Med Inc., and Y-Med LLC. The following companies are subsidiares of UnitedHealth Group: 1031387 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1070715 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1st Avenue Pharmacy Inc., 310 Canyon Medical, 310 Canyon Medical LLC, 4C MSO LLC, 4C Medical Group PLC, 5995 Minnetonka LLC, ABCO International Holdings LLC, ACN Group IPA of New York, ACN Group IPA of New York Inc., ACN Group of California, ACN Group of California Inc., AHJV, AHJV MSO, AHN Accontable Care Organization LLC, AHN Central Services LLC, AHN Target Holdings LLC, AMIL International, AMIL International S.a.r.l., APS Assistencia Personalizada a Saude Ltda., ARC Infusion, ASC Holdings of New Jersey LLC, ASC Network LLC, ASI Global, ASI Global LLC, Access Administrators Inc., Access HealthSource Administrators Inc., Access HealthSource Inc., Access I.V., Administradora Clinica La Colina S.A.S., Administradora Country S.A., Administradora Medica Centromed S.A., Advanced Care, Advanced Care Pharmacy, Advanced Pharma Inc., Advanced Surgery Center of Clifton LLC, Advanced Surgical Hospital LLC, Advantage Care Network Inc., Advocate Condell Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Sherman Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Southwest Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate-SCA Partners LLC, Alere Health, Alere Health Improvement Company, Alere Healthcare of Illinois, Alere Wellbeing, Alere Wellology, Alere of New York, Aliansalud Entidad Promotora de Salud S.A., All Savers Insurance Company, All Savers Life Insurance Company of California, Alliance Surgical Center LLC, Aloha Surgical Center LLC, Ambient Healthcare, Ambient Healthcare Inc., Ambient Healthcare of Central Florida, Ambient Healthcare of Georgia, Ambient Healthcare of Northeast Florida, Ambient Healthcare of S. Florida, Ambient Healthcare of West Florida, Ambient Holdings, Ambient Holdings Inc., Ambient Nursing Services, AmeriChoice, AmeriChoice Corporation, AmeriChoice Health Services, AmeriChoice of Connecticut, AmeriChoice of New Jersey, AmeriChoice of New Jersey Inc., American Health Network of Indiana Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Indiana II LLC, American Health Network of Indiana LLC, American Health Network of Ohio Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Ohio II LLC, American Health Network of Ohio LLC, Amico Saude Ltda., Amil, Amil Assistencia Medica Internacional S.A., Amil Lifesciences Participacoes Ltda., Antelope Valley Surgery Center L.P., Analisis Clinicos ML S.A.C., Apothecary Holdings Inc., Apothecary Shop of Phoenix Inc., AppleCare Medical Management, AppleCare Medical Management LLC, Aquitania Chilean Holding SpA, Arise Physician Group, Arizona Physicians IPA, Arizona Physicians IPA Inc., AssuranceRx, AssuranceRx LLC, Athens ASC Holdings LLC, Audax Health Solutions, Audax Health Solutions LLC, Austin Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Avella Patient Access Program Inc., Avella Specialty Pharmacy, Avella of Austin Inc., Avella of Columbus Inc., Avella of Deer Valley Inc., Avella of Denver Inc., Avella of Gilbert Inc., Avella of Las Vegas II Inc., Avella of Orlando Inc., Avella of Phoenix III Inc., Avella of Sacramento Inc., Avella of Scottsdale Inc., Avella of St. Louis Inc., Avella of Tampa LLC, Avella of Tucson II Inc., Avella of Tucson Inc., Aveta Arizona, Aveta Health Solutions Inc., Aveta Inc., Aveta Kansas City, Aveta Tennessee, AxelaCare Health Solutions, AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings, AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings LLC, AxelaCare LLC, B.R.A.S.S. Partnership in Commendam, Banmedica Colombia SpA, Banmedica Internacional SpA, Banmedica S.A., Beach Surgical Holdings III LLC, Behavioral Healthcare Options, Behavioral Healthcare Options Inc., Belleville Surgical Center Ltd. an Illinois Limited Partnership, Benefit Administration for the Self Employed L.L.C., Benefitter Insurance Solutions Inc., Birmingham Outpatient Surgical Center LLC, Blackstone Valley Surgicare GP LLC, Blue Ridge GP LLC, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings I SRL, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings II SRL, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings III SRL, Bordeaux Holding SpA, Bordeaux International Holdings Inc., Bordeaux UK Holdings I Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings III Limited, Bosque Medical Center Ltda., Brandon Ambulatory Surgery Center LC, BriovaRx, BriovaRx, BriovaRx Infusion Services, BriovaRx Infusion Services 102 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 200 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 204 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 209 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 305 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 402 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services Inc., BriovaRx Specialty LLC, BriovaRx of California, BriovaRx of California Inc., BriovaRx of Florida, BriovaRx of Florida Inc., BriovaRx of Georgia, BriovaRx of Georgia LLC, BriovaRx of Hawaii, BriovaRx of Indiana, BriovaRx of Louisiana, BriovaRx of Louisiana L.L.C., BriovaRx of Maine, BriovaRx of Maine Inc., BriovaRx of Massachusetts, BriovaRx of Massachusetts LLC, BriovaRx of Nevada, BriovaRx of New York, BriovaRx of New York Inc., BriovaRx of Texas, BriovaRx of Texas Inc., CDC Holdings Colombia S.A.S., CLISA Clinica de Santo Antonio S.A., CMO Centro Medico de Oftalmologia S/S Ltda., CMS Central de Manipulacao e Servicos Farmaceuticos S.A., CNIC Health Solutions Inc., COI Participacoes S.A., COI Clinicas Oncologicas Integradas S.A., Cabin Enterprises LLC, Cabin Holdings LLC, California MedTrans Network IPA LLC, California MedTrans Network MSO LLC, California Medical Group Insurance Company Risk Retention Group, Camp Hill-SCA Centers LLC, Capital City Medical Group L.L.C., Cardio Management, Cardio Management Inc., Care Improvement Plus Group Management, Care Improvement Plus Group Management LLC, Care Improvement Plus South Central Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus Wisconsin Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus of Texas Insurance Company, Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha Ltda., Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha S.A., Castle Rock SurgiCenter LLC, Catalyst360, Catalyst360 LLC, Catamaran Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Catamaran Health Solutions, Catamaran Holdings I, Catamaran IPA III, Catamaran Mail, Catamaran PBM of Illinois II, Catamaran PBM of Puerto Rico, Catamaran PD of Pennsylvania, Catamaran PD of Puerto Rico, Catamaran Rebate Management, Catamaran S.a.r.l., Catamaran Senior Services, Catamaran of Pennsylvania, Cedar Park Surgery Center LLC, Cemed Care - Empressa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Cemed Care Empresa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Central Indiana Care Organization LLC, Central Ohio Care Organization LLC, Central de Compras SpA, CentriHealth Corporation, CentriHealth UK Limited, CentrifyHealth LLC, Centro Medico Hospitalar Pitangueiras Ltda., Centro Medico Odontologico Americano S.A.C., Centro Medico PJ Ltda., Centro de Entrenamiento en Reanimacion y Prevencion Limitada (CERP), Centro de Servicios Compartidos Banmedica S.A., Centromed Quilpue S.A., Centros Medicos y Dentales Multimed Ltda., Centurion Casualty Company, Channel Islands Surgicenter L.P., Channel Islands Surgicenter Properties LLC, Charleston Surgery Properties LLC, Charlotte-SC LLC, Childrens Surgery Center LLC, ChinaGate (Hong Kong) Limited, ChinaGate Company Limited, Citrus Regional Surgery Center L.P., Clinica Oftalmologica Danilo de Castro Sociedade Simples, Clinical Partners of Colorado Springs LLC, Clinica Alameda S.A., Clinica Bio Bio S.A., Clinica Ciudad del Mar S.A., Clinica Davila y Servicios Medicos S.A., Clinica Medico Cirurgica de Santa Tecla S.A., Clinica San Borja (La Esperanza del Peru S.A.), Clinica San Felipe S.A., Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Clinica Sanchez Ferrer S.A., Clinica Vespucio S.A., Clinica del Country S.A., Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare, Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare Inc., Coalition For Advanced Pharmacy Services, Coalition for Advanced Pharmacy Services Inc., Coastal Physicians Management Inc., Collaborative Care Holdings, Collaborative Care Holdings LLC, Collaborative Care Services, Collaborative Care Services Inc., Collaborative Care Solutions, Collaborative Realty, Collaborative Realty LLC, Colmedica Medicina Prepagada, Colonial Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Colorado Innovative Physician Solutions Inc., Colorado Springs Surgery Center Ltd., Comfort Care Transportation, Comfort Care Transportation LLC, Commonwealth Administrators, Connecticut Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Connecticut Surgery Properties LLC, Connecticut Surgical Center LLC, Connextions, Connextions HCI, Constructora e Inmobiliaria Magapoq S.A., Consumer Wellness Solutions Inc., Country Scan Ltda., Crescent Drug Corp., Cypress Care, Cypress Care Inc., DBP Services of New York IPA, DBP Services of New York IPA Inc., DTC Surgery Center LLC, DWIC of Tampa Bay, DWIC of Tampa Bay Inc., DaVita Magan Management Inc., Danbury Surgical Center L.P., Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company, Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company LLC, Definity Health, Dental Benefit Providers, Dental Benefit Providers Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of California, Dental Benefit Providers of California Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois, Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois Inc., Derry Surgical Center LLC, Diagnostico Ecotomografico Centromed Ltda., Diasnostico por Imagenes Centromed Ltda., Dilab Medicina Nuclear Ltda., Diplomat Pharmacy, Distance Learning Network, Distance Learning Network Inc., Doctor + S.A.C., Dry Creek Surgery Center LLC, Dublin Surgery Center LLC, Duncan Printing Services, Duncan Printing Services LLC, E Street Endoscopy LLC, ELG FZE, EP Campus I, EP Campus I LLC, East Brunswick Surgery Center LLC, Electronic Network Systems, Electronic Network Systems Inc., Elual Participacoes S.A., Empire Physician Management Company, Empire Physician Management Company LLC, Employers Health Choice PPO Inc., Empremedica S. A., Endoscopy Center Affiliates Inc., Enterprise Life Insurance Company, Equian, Equian LLC, Equian Parent Corp., Esho Empresa de Servicos Hospitalares S.A., Etho Empresa de Tecnologia Hospitalar Ltda., Evercare Collaborative Solutions, Evercare Collaborative Solutions Inc., Everett MSO Inc., Excellion Servicos Biomedicos Ltda., Excellion Servicos Biomedicos S.A., Excelsior Insurance Brokerage Inc., Executive Health Resources, Executive Health Resources Inc., Executive Surgery Center LLC, Eye Clinic Oftalmologia Clinico Cirurgica e Diagnostico Ltda., FMG Holdings, FMG Holdings LLC, FOR HEALTH OF ARIZONA, Family Health Care Services, Family Home Hospice, Family Home Hospice Inc., First Rx Specialty & Mail Services, Florida MedTrans Network LLC, Florida MedTrans Network MSO LLC, For Health, For Health Inc., For Health of Arizona Inc., Fortified Provider Network Inc., Fortify Technologies Asia LLC, Fortify Technologies LLC, Foundation Financial Services Inc., Franklin Surgical Center LLC, Freedom Life Insurance Company of America, Freeway Surgicenter of Houston LLC, Frontier MEDEX Limited, Frontier Medex Tanzania Limited, FrontierMEDEX, FrontierMEDEX (RMS), FrontierMEDEX (RMS) Inc., FrontierMEDEX Government Services, FrontierMEDEX Government Services LLC, FrontierMEDEX Inc., FrontierMEDEX Kenya Limited, FrontierMEDEX US, FrontierMEDEX US Inc., Fundacion Banmedica, GRANTS PASS SURGERY CENTER LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center Ltd., Gainesville Surgery Center L.P., Gainesville Surgery Properties LLC, Genoa, Genoa Healthcare Inc., Genoa Healthcare LLC, Genoa QoL Wholesale LLC, Genoa Technology (Canada) Inc., Genoa Technology Inc., Genoa Telepsychiatry Inc., Genoa of Arkansas LLC, Glenwood Surgical Center L.P., Glenwood-SC Inc., Golden Outlook, Golden Outlook Inc., Golden Rule Financial Corporation, Golden Rule Insurance Company, Golden Triangle Surgicenter L.P., Grapevine Finance LLC, Greater Hartford ASC LLC, Grove Place Surgery Center L.L.C., Guardian Health Systems Limited Partnership, H&W Indemnity (SPC), H&W Indemnity (SPC) Ltd., H.I. Investments Holding Company LLC, HCP ACO California LLC, HCP ACO Nevada LLC, HCentive Technology India Private Limited, HMI NewCo LLC, Harken Health Insurance Company, Hayes-Strub LLC, Health Business Systems, Health Care-ONE Insurance Agency Inc., Health Inventures Employment Solutions LLC, Health Inventures LLC, Health Net Insurance of New York, Health Net Services (Bermuda) Ltd., Health Plan of Nevada, Health Plan of Nevada Inc., Health Technology Analysts Pty Limited, HealthAllies, HealthAllies Inc., HealthCare Partners ASC-LB LLC, HealthCare Partners Management Services California LLC, HealthCare Partners RE LLC, HealthFirst IPA Inc., HealthMarkets Group Inc., HealthMarkets Inc., HealthMarkets Insurance Agency Inc., HealthMarkets LLC, HealthMarkets NewCo Inc., HealthMarkets Services Inc., HealthSCOPE Holdings Inc., HealthScope Benefits Inc., Healthcare Partners Plan of Nevada Inc., Healthcare Solutions Inc., Heartland Heart and Vascular LLC, Help S.A., Help Service S.A., Highlands Ranch Healthcare, Highlands Ranch Healthcare LLC, Home Care I.V. of Bend, Home Infusion With Heart, Home Medical S.A., Hospice Inspiris Holdings, Hospice Inspiris Holdings Inc., Hospitais Associados de Pernambuco Ltda., Hospital Alvorada de Taguatinga Ltda., Hospital Ana Costa S.A., Hospital Maternidade Promater Ltda., Hospital Samaritano de Sao Paulo Ltda., Hospital Santa Helena S.A., Hospital de Clinicas de Jacarepagua Ltda., Humedica, Humedica Inc., Hygeia Corporation, Hygeia Corporation (Canada), Hygeia Corporation (DE), Hygeia Corporation (Ontario), INOV8 Surgical at Memorial City LLC, INSPIRIS of New York IPA, INSPIRIS of New York Management, INSPIRIS of New York Management Inc., INSPIRIS of Texas Physician Group, IRX Financing I LLC, Illinois Independent Care Network, Imed Star Servicos de Desempenho Organizacional Ltda., Impel Consulting Experts, Impel Consulting Experts L.L.C., Impel Management Services L.L.C., Indian River Surgery Center Ltd., Indian River Surgery Properties LLC, Indiana Care Organization LLC, Infusource, Ingram & Associates, Ingram & Associates LLC, Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3001 S.A., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3600 Ltda., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo S.A., Inmobiliaria Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Inmobiliaria Vinamed Ltda., Inmobiliaria e Inversiones Alameda S.A., Inspiris, Inspiris Inc., Inspiris Services Company, Inspiris of Tennessee, Instituto do Radium de Cammpinas Ltda, International Psychological Services Pty Limited, Inversiones Clinicas Santa Maria S.A., Isapre Banmedica S.A., Isapre Vida Tres S.A., Johnston Surgicare L.P., Joliet Surgery Center Limited Partnership, LHI, Laboratorio ROE S.A., Laboratorios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., LifePrint Health, LifePrint Health Inc., LifeStyles Marketing Group Inc., LifeWell Ltd. Co., Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization, Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization LLC, Lifeprint East, Lifeprint East Inc., Logistics Health Inc., Lotten-Eyes Oftalmologia Clinica e Cirurgica Ltda., Louisville S.C. Ltd., Louisville-SC Properties Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook Inc., Lusiadas - Parcerias Cascais S.A., Lusiadas A.C.E., Lusiadas S.A., Lusiadas SGPS S.A., MAMSI Insurance Resources, MAMSI Life and Health Insurance Company, MD Ops, MD Ops Inc., MD-Individual Practice Association, MD-Individual Practice Association Inc., ME AHS UC LLC, MEDEX Insurance Services, MEDEX Insurance Services Inc., MGH/SCA LLC, MHC Real Estate Holdings, MHC Real Estate Holdings LLC, MIAMI SURGERY CENTER LLC, MSLA Management LLC, MXMD Centros De Cancer, Mamoeco Mamografia e Ecografia Centro de Diagnostico, Managed Physical Network, Managed Physical Network Inc., March Holdings, March Holdings Inc., March Vision Care, March Vision Care Inc., Marin Surgery Holdings Inc., Maryland Ambulatory Centers, Maryland-SCA Centers LLC, Massachusetts Assurance Company Ltd. PIC, Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center LLC, Mat-Rx Development, Mat-Rx Fort Worth GP, MedExpress Development, MedExpress Development LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Alabama LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Inc. - Ohio, MedExpress Urgent Care Maine Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care New Hampshire Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach, MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach LLC, MedSynergies, MedSynergies LLC, MedSynergies North Texas, Medalliance Net Ltda, Medalliance Net Ltda., Medica Health Plans of Florida, Medica Health Plans of Florida Inc., Medica HealthCare Plans, Medica HealthCare Plans Inc., Medical Clinic of North Texas PLLC, Medical Hilfe S.A., Medical Preparatory School of Allied Health, Medical Support Los Angeles Inc., Medical Surgical Centers of America Inc., Medical Transportation Services, Medical Transportation Services LLC, Medication Management Systems Inc., Melbourne Surgery Center LLC, Memorial City Holdings LLC, Memorial City Partners LLC, Memphis-SC LLC, Memphis-SP LLC, Mesquite Liberty LLC, Metro I Stone Management, Metropolitan Medical Partners LLC, Metropolitan Medical Transportation IPA LLC, Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee, Midwest Center for Day Surgery LLC, Mile High SurgiCenter LLC, Mississippi Surgery Holdings LLC, Mississippi Surgical Center Limited Partnership, Mobile Medical Professionals, Modern Medical Inc., Monarch Management Services, Monarch Management Services Inc., Montgomery Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Mountain View Medical Group LLC, Mt. Pleasant Surgery Center L.P., Multiangio Ltda., Muskogee Surgical Investors LLC, Mustang Razorback Holdings, Mustang Razorback Holdings Inc., My Wellness Solutions LLC, NAMM Holdings, NAMM Holdings Inc., NSC Fayetteville LLC, NSC Greensboro LLC, NSC Lancaster LLC, NSC Seattle Inc., NSC Upland LLC, Nashville-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., National Foundation Life Insurance Company, National MedTrans LLC, National Pacific Dental, National Pacific Dental Inc., National Surgery Centers LLC, Neighborhood Health Partnership, Neighborhood Health Partnership Inc., Netwerkes, Netwerkes LLC, Nevada Medical Services LLC, Nevada Pacific Dental, New Orleans Regional Physician Hospital Organization L.L.C., New West Physicians Inc., Newton Holdings LLC, North American Medical Management - Illinois, North American Medical Management California, North American Medical Management California Inc., North Puget Sound Center for Sleep Disorders LLC, North Puget Sound Oncology Equipment Leasing Company LLC, Northern Nevada Health Network, Northern Nevada Health Network Inc., Northern Rockies Surgicenter Inc., Northwest Surgicare LLC, Northwest Surgicare Ltd., Nutritional/Parenteral Home Care, Nutritional/Parenteral Home Care of Huntsville, OC Cardiology Practice Partners LLC, OSB Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Ltda., Omesa S.A., OmniClaim LLC, Oncocare S.A.C., OneNet PPO, OneNet PPO LLC, Optimum Choice, Optimum Choice Inc., Optum, Optum Bank, Optum Bank Inc., Optum Biometrics, Optum Biometrics Inc., Optum Care Inc., Optum Care Services Company, Optum Clinical Services, Optum Clinics Holdings, Optum Clinics Holdings Inc., Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings, Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings Inc., Optum Digital Health Holdings LLC, Optum Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Global Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Global Solutions (India) Private Limited, Optum Global Solutions (Philippines), Optum Global Solutions (Philippines) Inc., Optum Global Solutions International B.V., Optum Government Solutions, Optum Government Solutions Inc., Optum Growth Partners LLC, Optum Health & Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd, Optum Health & Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, Optum Health & Technology (India) Private Limited, Optum Health & Technology (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Optum Health & Technology (UK) Limited, Optum Health & Technology (US), Optum Health & Technology (US) LLC, Optum Health & Technology FZ-LLC, Optum Health & Technology Holdings (US), Optum Health & Technology Holdings (US) Inc., Optum Health & Technology Servicos do Brasil Ltda., Optum Health Services (Canada) Ltd., Optum Health Solutions (Australia) Pty Ltd, Optum Health Solutions (UK) Limited, Optum Health and Technology FZ-LLC, Optum Healthcare of Illinois, Optum Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services, Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services LLC, Optum Inc., Optum Infusion Services 100 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 101 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 103 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 201 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 202 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 203 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 205 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 206 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 207 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 208 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 301 LP, Optum Infusion Services 302 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 308 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 401 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 403 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 404 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 501 Inc., Optum Insurance of Ohio, Optum Insurance of Ohio Inc., Optum Labs, Optum Labs Dimensions, Optum Labs Dimensions Inc., Optum Labs Inc., Optum Labs International (UK) Ltd., Optum Life Sciences (Canada) Inc., Optum Management Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Optum Management Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Optum Networks of New Jersey Inc., Optum Nevada Accountable Care Organization LLC, Optum Operations (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas Inc., Optum Perks LLC, Optum Pharmacy 701 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 702 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 703 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 705 LLC, Optum Public Sector Solutions, Optum Public Sector Solutions Inc., Optum Rocket, Optum Rocket Inc., Optum Senior Services LLC, Optum Services, Optum Services (Ireland) Limited, Optum Services (Puerto Rico) LLC, Optum Services Inc., Optum Solutions UK Holdings Limited, Optum Solutions do Brasil Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Ltda., Optum Technology, Optum Technology LLC, Optum UK Solutions Group Limited, Optum Women's and Children's Health, Optum Women's and Children's Health LLC, Optum of New York Inc., Optum360, Optum360 LLC, Optum360 Services, Optum360 Services Inc., Optum360 Solutions LLC, OptumCare ACO Florida LLC, OptumCare ACO Holdings LLC, OptumCare ACO New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Clinical Trials LLC, OptumCare Colorado ASC LLC, OptumCare Colorado LLC, OptumCare Colorado Springs LLC, OptumCare Endoscopy Center New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Florida CI LLC, OptumCare Florida LLC, OptumCare Health Plan of California Inc., OptumCare Holdings Colorado LLC, OptumCare Holdings LLC, OptumCare Holdings New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Management LLC, OptumCare New Mexico LLC, OptumCare New York IPA Inc., OptumCare South Florida LLC, OptumHealth Care Solutions, OptumHealth Care Solutions LLC, OptumHealth Financial Services, OptumHealth Financial Services Inc., OptumHealth Holdings, OptumHealth Holdings LLC, OptumHealth International B.V., OptumInsight, OptumInsight Holdings, OptumInsight Holdings LLC, OptumInsight Inc., OptumInsight India Private Limited, OptumInsight Life Sciences, OptumInsight Life Sciences Inc., OptumRx, OptumRx Administrative Services, OptumRx Administrative Services LLC, OptumRx Discount Card Services, OptumRx Discount Card Services LLC, OptumRx Group Holdings, OptumRx Group Holdings Inc., OptumRx Health Solutions LLC, OptumRx Holdings, OptumRx Holdings I LLC, OptumRx Holdings LLC, OptumRx Home Delivery of Illinois, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio LLC, OptumRx IPA III Inc., OptumRx Inc., OptumRx NY IPA, OptumRx NY IPA Inc., OptumRx PBM of Illinois, OptumRx PBM of Illinois Inc., OptumRx PBM of Maryland, OptumRx PBM of Maryland LLC, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx PBM of Puerto Rico LLC, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin LLC, OptumRx PD of Maryland, OptumRx PD of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx Pharmacy, OptumRx Pharmacy Inc., OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada, OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada Inc., OptumRx of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumServe Technology Services Inc., Orlando Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., OrthoNet Holdings, OrthoNet Holdings Inc., OrthoNet LLC, OrthoNet New York IPA, OrthoNet New York IPA Inc., OrthoNet Services, OrthoNet Services Inc., OrthoNet West, OrthoNet West Inc., OrthoNet of the Mid-Atlantic, OrthoNet of the South, OrthoNet of the South Inc., Ovations, Ovations Inc., Oxford Benefit Management, Oxford Benefit Management Inc., Oxford Health Insurance, Oxford Health Insurance Inc., Oxford Health Plans (CT), Oxford Health Plans (CT) Inc., Oxford Health Plans (NJ), Oxford Health Plans (NJ) Inc., Oxford Health Plans (NY), Oxford Health Plans (NY) Inc., Oxford Health Plans LLC, P2 Lower Acquisition, P2P Link LLC, PCCCV, PCCCV Inc., PCN DE Corp., PHC Subsidiary Holdings, PHC Subsidiary Holdings LLC, PHYS Holding Corp., PHYSICIANS DAY SURGERY CENTER LLC, PMI Acquisition, PMI Acquisition LLC, PMSI, PMSI Holdco II, PMSI Holdings, PMSI Holdings LLC, PMSI LLC, PMSI Settlement Solutions, PMSI Settlement Solutions LLC, POMCO Inc., POMCO Network Inc., PPH Holdings LLC, PacifiCare Health Systems, PacifiCare Life Assurance Company, PacifiCare Life and Health Insurance Company, PacifiCare of Arizona, PacifiCare of Arizona Inc., PacifiCare of Colorado, PacifiCare of Colorado Inc., PacifiCare of Nevada, PacifiCare of Nevada Inc., Pacific Casualty Company Inc., Pacifico S.A. Entidad Prestadora de Salud, Paoli Ambulatory Surgery Center, Paoli Surgery Center L.P., Parkway Surgery Center LLC, Pasteur Plaza Surgery Center GP Inc., PatientsLikeMe, PatientsLikeMe LLC, Patrimonio Autonomo Nueva Clinica - PANC., Payment Resolution Services, Payment Resolution Services LLC, Peoples Health, Peoples Health Inc., Pharmaceutical Care Network, Pharmacy Review Services, Pharmacy Software Holdco Inc., PhyServe Holdings, Physician Alliance of the Rockies LLC, Physician Care Partners, Physicians Health Choice of Texas, Physicians Health Choice of Texas LLC, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland Inc., Physicians Plaza Holdings LLC, Plano de Saude Ana Costa Ltda., Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico, Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico Inc., Plus One Holdings, Plus One Holdings Inc., Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes, Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes Multiestrategia, Polo Holdco, Polo Holdco LLC, Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Precision Dialing Services Inc., Preferred Care Partners, Preferred Care Partners Holding, Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp., Preferred Care Partners Inc., Preferred Care Partners Medical Group, Preferred Care Partners Medical Group Inc., Premier Choice ACO, Premier Choice ACO Inc., Premier Surgery Center of Louisville L.P., Prime Health, Prime Health Inc., PrimeCare Medical Network, PrimeCare Medical Network Inc., PrimeCare of Citrus Valley, PrimeCare of Citrus Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Corona, PrimeCare of Corona Inc., PrimeCare of Hemet Valley, PrimeCare of Hemet Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Inland Valley, PrimeCare of Inland Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Moreno Valley, PrimeCare of Moreno Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Redlands, PrimeCare of Redlands Inc., PrimeCare of Riverside, PrimeCare of Riverside Inc., PrimeCare of San Bernardino, PrimeCare of San Bernardino Inc., PrimeCare of Sun City, PrimeCare of Sun City Inc., PrimeCare of Temecula, PrimeCare of Temecula Inc., ProHEALTH Fitness of Lake Success, ProHEALTH Fitness of Lake Success LLC, ProHEALTH Medical Management LLC, ProHealth Medical Management, ProHealth Physicians, ProHealth Physicians ACO, ProHealth Physicians ACO LLC, ProHealth Physicians Inc., ProHealth Proton Center Management, ProHealth Proton Center Management LLC, Procura Management, Procura Management Inc., Progressive Enterprises Holdings, Progressive Enterprises Holdings Inc., Progressive Medical, Progressive Medical LLC, Progressive Solutions, Promotora Country S.A., Pronetics Health Care Group, Pronounced Health Solutions Inc., Prosemedic S.A.C., Prospero Management Services LLC, Pueblo-SCA Surgery Center LLC, Pulse Platform LLC, QoL Acquisition Holdings Corp., Quality Software Services, QuarterMaster Newco LLC, R&H Family Fitness Unlimited LLC, Rally Health, Rally Health Inc., Real Appeal Inc., Recaudacion y Cobranzas Honodav Ltda., Redlands Ambulatory Surgery Center, Redlands-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., Reliant MSO LLC, Research Surgical Center LLC, River Valley ASC LLC, Riverside Electronic Healthcare Resources Inc., Riverside Medical Management, Riverside Medical Management LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Meadowlands LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Newark LLC, Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization Incorporated, Rocky Mountain HealthCare Options Inc., SC Affiliates LLC, SCA Alaska Surgery Center inc., SCA Athens LLC, SCA Austin Holdings LLC, SCA BOSC Holdings LLC, SCA California Surgical Holdings LLC, SCA Capital LLC, SCA Cedar Park Holdings LLC, SCA Clifton LLC, SCA Danbury Surgical Center LLC, SCA Development LLC, SCA EHSC Holdings LLC, SCA EWASC Holdings LLC, SCA Hays Holdings LLC, SCA Heartland Holdings LLC, SCA HoldCo Inc., SCA Holding Company Inc., SCA Holdings Inc., SCA IEC Holdings LLC, SCA Indiana Holdings LLC, SCA Nashville ASC LLC, SCA Pacific Holdings Inc., SCA Pennsylvania Holdings LLC, SCA Premier Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, SCA ROCS Holdings LLC, SCA Rockledge JV LLC, SCA SSC Holdings LLC, SCA SSSC Holdings LLC, SCA Sage Medical LLC, SCA Sage Medical MSO LLC, SCA Southwestern PA LLC, SCA Specialists of Florida LLC, SCA Stonegate Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Center of Cullman LLC, SCA Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Partners LLC, SCA Surgicare of Laguna Hills LLC, SCA Teammate Support Network, SCA eCode Solutions Private Limited, SCA of Clarksville Inc., SCA-Albuquerque Surgery Properties Inc., SCA-Alliance LLC, SCA-Anne Arundel LLC, SCA-Applecare Partners LLC, SCA-Bethesda LLC, SCA-Blue Ridge LLC, SCA-Bonita Springs LLC, SCA-Brandon LLC, SCA-Castle Rock LLC, SCA-Central Florida LLC, SCA-Charleston LLC, SCA-Chatham LLC, SCA-Chevy Chase LLC, SCA-Citrus Inc., SCA-Colorado Springs LLC, SCA-Connecticut Partners LLC, SCA-DRY CREEK LLC, SCA-Davenport LLC, SCA-Denver LLC, SCA-Denver Physicians Holdings LLC, SCA-Derry LLC, SCA-Doral LLC, SCA-Downey LLC, SCA-Dublin LLC, SCA-Encinitas Inc., SCA-Eugene Inc., SCA-First Coast LLC, SCA-Florence LLC, SCA-Fort Collins Inc., SCA-Fort Walton Inc., SCA-Franklin LLC, SCA-Frederick LLC, SCA-Freeway Holdings LLC, SCA-Ft. Myers LLC, SCA-GRANTS PASS LLC, SCA-Gainesville LLC, SCA-Gladiolus LLC, SCA-Grove Place LLC, SCA-Hagerstown LLC, SCA-Hamden LLC, SCA-Hilton Head LLC, SCA-Honolulu LLC, SCA-Houston Executive LLC, SCA-IT Holdings LLC, SCA-Illinois LLC, SCA-JPM Holdings LLC, SCA-Kissing Camels Holdings LLC, SCA-MC VBP Inc., SCA-Main Street LLC, SCA-Marina del Rey LLC, SCA-Mecklenburg Development Corp., SCA-Memorial City LLC, SCA-Merritt LLC, SCA-Midlands LLC, SCA-Midway Management LLC, SCA-Mobile LLC, SCA-Mokena LLC, SCA-Mokena Properties LLC, SCA-Morris County LLC, SCA-Mt. Pleasant LLC, SCA-ND VBP Inc., SCA-Naperville LLC, SCA-Naples LLC, SCA-New Jersey LLC, SCA-Newport Beach LLC, SCA-Northeast Georgia Health LLC, SCA-PORTLAND LLC, SCA-Palm Beach LLC, SCA-Palm Beach MSO Holdings LLC, SCA-Paoli LLC, SCA-Phoenix LLC, SCA-Pocono LLC, SCA-Practice Partners Holdings LLC, SCA-River Valley LLC, SCA-Riverside LLC, SCA-Riverside Partners LLC, SCA-Rockville LLC, SCA-Sacred Heart Holdings LLC, SCA-San Diego Inc., SCA-San Luis Obispo LLC, SCA-Sand Lake LLC, SCA-Santa Rosa Inc., SCA-Shelby Development Corp., SCA-Somerset LLC, SCA-South Jersey LLC, SCA-Sparta LLC, SCA-Spartanburg Holdings LLC, SCA-St. Louis LLC, SCA-St. Lucie LLC, SCA-SurgiCare LLC, SCA-Swiftpath LLC, SCA-VERTA LLC, SCA-Wake Forest LLC, SCA-Western Connecticut LLC, SCA-Westover Hills LLC, SCA-Wilmington LLC, SCA-Wilson LLC, SCA-Winchester LLC, SCA-Winter Park Inc., SCA-Woodlands Holdings LLC, SCAI Holdings LLC, SCP Specialty Infusion, SCP Specialty Infusion LLC, SHC Atlanta LLC, SHC Austin Inc., SHC Hawthorn Inc., SHC Melbourne Inc., SPINETRACK 20/20 Inc., SRPS LLC, SXC Comet, Sacred Heart ASC LLC, Saden S.A., Salem Surgery Center LLC, Salveo Specialty Pharmacy, Salveo Specialty Pharmacy Inc., Sand Lake SurgiCenter LLC, Santa Cruz Endoscopy Center LLC, Santa Helena Assistencia Medica S.A., Santos Administracao e Participacoes S.A., Savvysherpa Administrative Services LLC, Savvysherpa Asia Inc., Savvysherpa LLC, Scanner Centromed S.A., ScripNet, ScriptSwitch Limited, Seisa Servicos Integrados de Saude Ltda., Senate Street Surgery Center LLC, Senior Benefits L.L.C., Senior Care Partners, Serquinox Holdings LLC, Serquinox LLC, Servicios Integrados de Salud Ltda., Servicios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., Servicios Medicos Bio Bio Limitada, Servicios Medicos Ciudad del Mar Ltda., Servicios Medicos Santa Maria Limitada, Servicios Medicos Vespucio Ltda., Servicios de Entrenamiento en Competencias Clinicas Ltda., SharedClarity LLC, Shelby Surgery Properties Inc., Sierra Health Services, Sierra Health Services Inc, Sierra Health Services Inc., Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company, Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company Inc., Sierra Health-Care Options, Sierra Health-Care Options Inc., Sierra Home Medical Products, Sierra Home Medical Products Inc., Sierra Nevada Administrators, Sierra Nevada Administrators Inc., Sirona Infusion, Sistema de Administracion Hospitalaria S.A.C., Small Business Insurance Advisors Inc., Sobam Centro Medico Hospitalar S.A., Sociedad Editorial para la Ciencia Limitada., Sociedad de Inversiones Santa Maria S.A., Somerset Outpatient Surgery L.L.C., Southwest Medical Associates, Southwest Medical Associates Inc., Southwest Michigan Health Network Inc., Southwest Surgery Center LLC, Southwest Surgical Center of Bakersfield L.P., Space Coast Surgical Center Ltd., Specialists in Urology Surgery Center LLC, Specialized Pharmaceuticals Inc., Specialty Benefits, Specialty Benefits LLC, Spectera, Spectera Inc., Spectera of New York IPA, Spectera of New York IPA Inc., Spotlite, Spotlite Inc., St. Cloud Surgical Center LLC, StoneRiver P2P Link, StoneRiver Pharmacy Solutions, Stonegate Surgery Center L.P., Streamlines Health LLC, Summit Home Infusion, SunSurgery LLC, Surgery Center Holding LLC, Surgery Center at Cherry Creek LLC, Surgery Center at Kissing Camels LLC, Surgery Center of Boca Raton Inc., Surgery Center of Clarksville L.P., Surgery Center of Colorado Springs LLC, Surgery Center of Des Moines LLC, Surgery Center of Easton LLC, Surgery Center of Ellicott City Inc., Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, Surgery Center of Maui LLC, Surgery Center of Muskogee LLC, Surgery Center of Rockville L.L.C., Surgery Center of Southern Pines LLC, Surgery Center of Spokane LLC, Surgery Center of Summerlin LLC, Surgery Center of The Woodlands LLC, Surgery Center of Vero Beach Inc., Surgery Center of Wilmington LLC, Surgery Center of Wilmington Properties LLC, Surgery Centers of Des Moines Ltd. an Iowa Limited Partnership, Surgery Centers-West Holdings LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates, Surgical Care Affiliates LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates Political Action Committee, Surgical Care Partners of Melbourne LLC, Surgical Center of South Jersey Limited Partnership, Surgical Center of Tuscaloosa Holdings LLC, Surgical Health LLC, Surgical Health of Orlando LLC, Surgical Hospital Holdings of Oklahoma LLC, Surgicare LLC, Surgicare of Belleville LLC, Surgicare of Jackson LLC, Surgicare of Joliet Inc., Surgicare of La Veta Inc., Surgicare of Minneapolis LLC, Surgicare of Mobile LLC, Surgicare of Oceanside Inc., Surgicare of Owensboro LLC, Surgicare of Salem LLC, Surgicenters of Southern California Inc., Symphonix Health Holdings, Symphonix Health Holdings LLC, Symphonix Health Insurance, Symphonix Health Insurance Inc., THE SURGICAL CENTER OF THE TREASURE COAST L.L.C., TeamMD Holdings Inc., TeamMD Iowa Inc., TeamMD Physicians of Texas Inc., TeamUP Insurance Services Inc., Tecnologias de Informacion en Salud S.A., The Advisory Board (Chile) SpA, The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company, The Lewin Group, The Lewin Group Inc., The Magan Medical Group, The Outpatient Surgery Center of Hilton Head LLC, The Polyclinic MSO LLC, Thomas Johnson Surgery Center LLC, Thousand Oaks Endoscopy Center LLC, Three Rivers Holdings, Three Rivers Holdings Inc., Three Rivers Surgical Care L.P., Tmesys, Tmesys LLC, Topimagem Diagnostico por Imagem Ltda., Touchpoint Health Plan, Trails Edge Surgery Center LLC, Travel Express Incorporated, TriMed LLC, Trinity Infusion, Trio Motion LLC, Tucson Arizona Surgical Center LLC, U.S. Behavioral Health Plan, U.S. Behavioral Health Plan California, UHC Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, UHC Global Health Services BC Ltd., UHC International Services, UHC International Services Inc., UHC of California, UHCG Holdings (Ireland) Limited, UHCG Services (Ireland) Limited, UHCG FZE, UHG Brasil Participacoes S.A., UHIC Holdings, UHIC Holdings Inc., UICI Funding Corp. 2, UMR, UMR Inc., USHEALTH Academy Inc., USHEALTH Administrators LLC, USHEALTH Advisors L.L.C., USHEALTH Career Agency Inc., USHEALTH Funding Inc., USHEALTH Group Inc., USMD Administrative Services, USMD Administrative Services L.L.C., USMD Affiliated Services, USMD CT (Mo), USMD Cancer Treatment Centers, USMD Cancer Treatment Centers GP, USMD Diagnostic Services, USMD Holdings, USMD Holdings Inc., USMD Inc., USMD PPM, USMD PPM LLC, USMD of Arlington GP, Ultima Rx, Unidad Medica Diagnostico S.A., Unimerica Insurance Company, Unimerica Life Insurance Company of New York, Unison Administrative Services, Unison Health Plan of Delaware, Unison Health Plan of Delaware Inc., United Behavioral Health, United Behavioral Health of New York I.P.A., United Behavioral Health of New York I.P.A. Inc., United Group Reinsurance Inc., United Health Foundation, United HealthCare, United HealthCare Services Inc., United Management Services Inc., United Resource Networks IPA of New York, United Resource Networks IPA of New York Inc., UnitedHealth Advisors, UnitedHealth Advisors LLC, UnitedHealth Group Finance Inc., UnitedHealth Group Global Healthcare Services Limited, UnitedHealth Group Global Services, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, UnitedHealth Group Information Services Private Limited, UnitedHealth Group International Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, UnitedHealth Group International GP, UnitedHealth Group International L.P., UnitedHealth International, UnitedHealth International Inc., UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services, UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services LLC, UnitedHealth UK Limited, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare Benefits Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas L.L.C., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service (Beijing) Co., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service (Beijing) Co. Ltd., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare Global Canada Limited, UnitedHealthcare Global Medical (UK) Limited, UnitedHealthcare Inc., UnitedHealthcare India Private Limited, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Designated Activity Company, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services Inc., UnitedHealthcare International Asia, UnitedHealthcare International Asia LLC, UnitedHealthcare International I B.V., UnitedHealthcare International I S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International II B.V., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III B.V., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International V S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VI S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VIII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International X S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley Inc., UnitedHealthcare Service LLC, UnitedHealthcare Services Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits LLC, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arizona, UnitedHealthcare of Arizona Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas, UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Colorado, UnitedHealthcare of Colorado Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Florida, UnitedHealthcare of Florida Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Georgia, UnitedHealthcare of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare of Illinois Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky, UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky Ltd., UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana, UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi, UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New England, UnitedHealthcare of New England Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico, UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New York, UnitedHealthcare of New York Inc., UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina, UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Ohio, UnitedHealthcare of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma, UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oregon, UnitedHealthcare of Oregon Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania, UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., UnitedHealthcare of South Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Texas, UnitedHealthcare of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Utah, UnitedHealthcare of Utah Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Washington, UnitedHealthcare of Washington Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin, UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic, UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands, UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest, UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest Inc., UpFront Insurance Agency LLC, Upland Holdings LLC, Upland Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Urgent Care Holdings, Urgent Care Holdings Inc., Urgent Care MSO, Urgent Care MSO LLC, Urology Associates of North Texas, Urology Associates of North Texas P.L.L.C., VERTA MANAGEMENT SERVICES LLC, Valley Hospital L.L.C., Valley Physicians Network, Valley Physicians Network Inc., Vida Tres Internacional S.A., Vidaintegra S.A., Vivify Health Canada Inc., Vivify Health Inc., WESTMED Practice Partners LLC, Wauwatosa Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Wayland Square Surgicare Acquisition L.P., Wayland Square Surgicare GP Inc., WebInsure Benefits LLC, WellMed Medical Management, WellMed Medical Management Inc., WellMed Medical Management of Florida, WellMed Medical Management of Florida Inc., WellMed Networks DFW, West Coast Endoscopy Holdings LLC, Western Connecticut Orthopedic Surgical Center LLC, WillowB Labs LLC, Wilmington ASC LLC, Winchester Endoscopy LLC, Winter Park LLC, XLHealth Corporation, XLHealth Corporation India Private Limited, Your Health Options Insurance Services, Your Health Options Insurance Services Inc., Your Partner in Health Services, divvyDOSE, eCode Solutions LLC, gethealthinsurance.com Agency Inc., hCentive Inc., inPharmative, inPharmative Inc., and ppoONE. Albert Technologies Ltd. provides autonomous cross-channel artificial intelligence marketing platform in Israel and internationally. The company offers artificial intelligence-based software to brands and advertising agencies using a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. It develops and deploys algorithmic solutions to provide marketers with a self-driving solution for cross-channel campaign execution, testing, optimization, analysis, and insights. The company was formerly known as Adgorithms LTD and changed its name to Albert Technologies Ltd. in July 2017. Albert Technologies Ltd. was founded in 2010 and is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Read More John Wood Group PLC, together with its subsidiaries, provides consulting, project management, and engineering solutions to energy and built environment worldwide. It operates through four segments: Asset Solutions Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia; Assets Solutions Americas; Technical Consulting Solutions; and Investment Services. The company offers operations solutions, including maintenance, modifications, commissioning and decommissioning, and aftermarket services, as well as industrial services, such as painting, insulation, scaffolding, rope access, E&I, asbestos removal, and civil and earthworks services; engineering, procurement, and construction management; plant operations and life extension; technology solutions; supervision and management services; fabrication and inspection services; and construction and field services. It also provides environment and infrastructure solutions comprising environmental studies and compliance, environmental remediation, public infrastructure, and geotechnical and materials services; clean energy solutions; mine planning and design, mineral processing and metallurgy, mineral resources and project assessment services; and automation and control solutions, such as asset protection and facility and process automation solutions, as well as simulation, learning, and virtual systems. In addition, the company offers subsea and export systems, including subsea, umbilical, riser, and flowline design, as well as planning, design, and development of marine terminals and pipelines; and hull and marine services. It serves oil and gas, infrastructure, industrial and manufacturing, mining, power, and government sectors. John Wood Group PLC was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Aberdeen, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of BorgWarner: B80 Italia S.r.l., BERU AG, BW El Salto S.A. De C.V., BWA Receivables Corporation, BWA Turbo Systems Holding LLC, Borg Warner Europe Holdings (PDS) B. V., BorgWarner (China) Investment Co. Ltd., BorgWarner (Reman) Holdings L.L.C., BorgWarner (Thailand) Limited, BorgWarner Aftermarket Europe GmbH, BorgWarner Alternators Inc., BorgWarner Arden LLC, BorgWarner Arnstadt RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Asia Inc., BorgWarner Automotive Asia Limited, BorgWarner Automotive Components (Beijing) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Wuhan) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Brasil Ltda., BorgWarner Chungju Co. LLC, BorgWarner Comercial e Distribuidora de Pecas para Veiculos Automotores Ltda., BorgWarner Comercializadora PDS S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner Componentes PDS S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner Cooling Systems (India) Private Limited, BorgWarner Cooling Systems GmbH, BorgWarner Diversified Transmission Products Services Inc., BorgWarner Drivetrain Engineering GmbH, BorgWarner Drivetrain Management Services de Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner Drivetrain de Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner Electric Motors L.L.C., BorgWarner Emissions Systems (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Emissions Systems (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Emissions Systems Holding LLC, BorgWarner Emissions Systems India Private Limited, BorgWarner Emissions Systems LLC, BorgWarner Emissions Systems Portugal Unipessoal LDA, BorgWarner Emissions Systems Spain S.L.U., BorgWarner Emissions Systems of Michigan Inc., BorgWarner Emissions Talegaon Private Limited, BorgWarner Engineering Ketsch RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Engineering Kibo RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Esslingen GmbH, BorgWarner Europe GmbH, BorgWarner Europe Holding S.a. r. l., BorgWarner Gateshead Limited, BorgWarner Germany Holding GmbH, BorgWarner Germany Holding Services GmbH, BorgWarner Germany REH GmbH, BorgWarner Germany REM GmbH, BorgWarner Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, BorgWarner Global Holding S.a. r. l., BorgWarner Heidelberg I RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Heidelberg II RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Heidelberg REH GmbH, BorgWarner Heidelberg REM GmbH, BorgWarner Holding Inc., BorgWarner Holdings Limited, BorgWarner Hungary Kft., BorgWarner IT Services Europe GmbH, BorgWarner India Holdings Inc., BorgWarner Investment Holding Inc., BorgWarner Ithaca LLC, BorgWarner Ketsch Plant RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Ketsch REH GmbH, BorgWarner Ketsch REM GmbH, BorgWarner Kft., BorgWarner Kibo RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Korea Holdings (PDS) B.V., BorgWarner Korea Holdings LLC, BorgWarner Korea LLC, BorgWarner Limited, BorgWarner Ludwigsburg GmbH, BorgWarner Ludwigsburg RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Markdorf Plant RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Markdorf REH GmbH, BorgWarner Markdorf REM GmbH, BorgWarner Massachusetts Inc., BorgWarner Mauritius Holdings Ltd., BorgWarner Mexico Holding BV, BorgWarner Mexico Holdings II LLC, BorgWarner Mexico Holdings LLC, BorgWarner Morse Systems India Private Limited, BorgWarner Morse Systems Italy S.r.l., BorgWarner Morse Systems Japan K.K., BorgWarner Morse Systems Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner Muggendorf RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner NW Inc., BorgWarner Netherlands Holdings (PDS) B.V., BorgWarner Oroszlany Kft., BorgWarner PDS (Anderson) L.L.C., BorgWarner PDS (Changnyeong) LLC, BorgWarner PDS (Indiana) Inc., BorgWarner PDS (Livonia) Inc., BorgWarner PDS (Ochang) LLC, BorgWarner PDS (Thailand) Limited, BorgWarner PDS (USA) Inc., BorgWarner PDS Brasil Produtos Automotivos Ltda., BorgWarner PDS Irapuato S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner PDS Mexico Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner PDS Technologies L.L.C., BorgWarner Poland Sp. z o.o., BorgWarner Pyongtaek LLC, BorgWarner Romeo Power LLC, BorgWarner Rzeszow Sp. z o.o., BorgWarner Shenglong (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner South Asia LLC, BorgWarner Southborough Inc., BorgWarner Spain Holding S.L.U, BorgWarner Sweden AB, BorgWarner Systems Lugo S.r.l., BorgWarner Thermal Systems Inc., BorgWarner Thermal Systems of Michigan Inc., BorgWarner TorqTransfer Systems Beijing Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Tralee Ltd., BorgWarner Transmission Products LLC, BorgWarner Transmission Systems Arnstadt GmbH, BorgWarner Transmission Systems GmbH, BorgWarner Transmission Systems Korea LLC, BorgWarner Transmission Systems Tulle S.A.S., BorgWarner Trustees Limited, BorgWarner Turbo & Emissions Systems France S.A.S., BorgWarner Turbo Systems Engineering GmbH, BorgWarner Turbo Systems GmbH, BorgWarner Turbo Systems LLC, BorgWarner Turbo Systems Worldwide Headquarters GmbH, BorgWarner Turbo Systems of Michigan Inc., BorgWarner Turbo and Emissions Systems de Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner UK Financing Ltd., BorgWarner UK Holding and Services Ltd., BorgWarner US Holding LLC, BorgWarner USA Industries L.L.C., BorgWarner United Transmission Systems Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Waterloo Inc., BorgWarner Wrexham Limited, Cascadia Motion LLC, Creon Insurance Agency Limited, Delphi Technologies, Dytech ENSA, Gustav Wahler GmbH u. Co. KG, Haldex, Kuhlman LLC, Kysor Europe Limited, M. & M. Knopf Auto Parts L.L.C., NSK-Warner (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., NSK-Warner K.K., NSK-Warner Mexico S.A. de C.V, NSK-Warner U.S.A. Inc., New PDS Corp., Old Remco Holdings L.L.C., Old Remco International Holdings L.L.C., Remy International, SeohanWarner Turbo Systems LLC, Sevcon, Sevcon New Energy Technology (Hubei) Company Limited, and Transmission Systems AutoForm LLC. 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 Raymond James Financial, Inc., a financial holding company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the underwriting, distribution, trading, and brokerage of equity and debt securities, and the sale of mutual funds and other investment products in the United States, Canada, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through Private Client Group, Capital Markets, Asset Management, RJ Bank, and Other segments. The Private Client Group segment provides securities brokerage services, including the sale of equities, mutual funds, fixed income products, and insurance products to their individual clients; and borrowing and lending of securities to and from other broker-dealers, financial institutions, and other counterparties. The Capital Markets segment offers securities brokerage, trading, and research services to institutions with a focus on sale of the United States and Canadian equities and fixed income products; and manages and participates in underwritings, merger and acquisition services, and public finance activities. The Asset Management segment engages in the operations of Eagle, the Eagle Family of Funds, Cougar, the asset management operations of Raymond James & Associates, trust services of Raymond James Trust, and other fee-based asset management programs. The RJ Bank segment provides corporate loans, SBL, tax-exempt loans, and residential loans. The Other segment engages in private equity activities, including various direct and third party private equity investments; and private equity funds. Raymond James Financial, Inc. was founded in 1962 and is based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Carnival Co. &: 1972 Productions Inc., 6348 Equipment LLC, A.C.N. 098 290 834 Pty. Ltd., A.J. Juneau Dock LLC, AIDA Kundencenter GmbH, Adventure Island Ltd., Air-Sea Holiday GmbH, Alaska Hotel Properties LLC, Barcelona Cruise Terminal SLU, Bay Island Cruise Port S.A., Belize Cruise Terminal Limited, CC U.S. Ventures Inc., CCL Gifts LLC, CSSC Carnival Italy Cruise Investment S.r.L, Carnival (UK) Limited, Carnival Bahamas FC Limited, Carnival Bahamas Holdings Limited, Carnival Corporation & plc Asia Pte. Ltd., Carnival Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Carnival Corporation Korea Ltd., Carnival Corporation Ports Group Japan KK, Carnival Finance LLC, Carnival Grand Bahama Investment Limited, Carnival Investments Limited, Carnival Japan Inc., Carnival License Holdings Limited, Carnival Maritime GmbH, Carnival North America LLC, Carnival Port Holdings Limited, Carnival Ports Inc., Carnival Support Services India Private Limited, Carnival Technical Services (UK) Limited, Carnival Technical Services Finland Limited, Carnival Technical Services GmbH, Carnival Technical Services Inc., Carnival Vanuatu Limited, Costa Crociere PTE Ltd., Costa Crociere S.p.A., Costa Cruceros S.A., Costa Cruise Lines Inc., Costa Cruise Lines UK Limited, Costa Cruises Shipping Services (Shanghai) Company Limited, Costa Cruises Travel Agency (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Costa Cruzeiros Agencia Maritima e Turismo Ltda., Costa Group Digital & Strategic Services GmbH, Costa International B.V., Costa Kreuzfahrten GmbH, Cozumel Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Creative Travel Lab Ltd., Cruise Ships Catering & Services International N.V., Cruise Terminal Services S.A. de C.V., Cruiseport Curacao C.V., D.R. Cruise Port Ltd., Ecospray Technologies S.r.L., F.P.M. SAS, F.P.P. SAS, Fleet Maritime Services (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services Holdings (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services International Limited, GXI LLC, Gibs Inc., Global Experience Innovators Inc., Global Fine Arts Inc., Global Shipping Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Grand Cruise Shipping Unipessoal LdA, Grand Turk Cruise Center Ltd., HAL Antillen N.V., HAL Beheer B.V., HAL Cruises Limited, HAL Maritime Ltd., HAL Nederland N.V., HAL Properties Limited, HAL Services B.V., HSE Hamburg School of Entertainment GmbH, Holding Division Iberocruceros SLU, Holland America Line Inc., Holland America Line N.V., Holland America Line Paymaster of Washington LLC, Holland America Line U.S.A. Inc., Ibero Cruzeiros Ltda., Iberocruceros SLU, Information Assistance Corporation, International Cruise Services S.A. de C.V., International Leisure Travel Inc., International Maritime Recruitment Agency S.A. de C.V., Milestone N.V., Navitrans S.R.L., Ocean Bahamas Innovation Ltd., Ocean Medallion Fulfillment Ltd., Operadora Catalina S.r.L., P&O Princess American Holdings, P&O Princess Cruises International Limited, P&O Princess Cruises Pension Trustee Limited, P&O Properties (California) Inc., P&O Travel Limited, Prestige Cruises Management S.A.M., Prestige Cruises N.V., Princess Bermuda Holdings Ltd., Princess Cays Ltd., Princess Cruise Corporation Inc., Princess Cruise Lines Ltd., Princess Cruises and Tours Inc., Princess U.S. Holdings Inc., RCT Maintenance & Related Services S.A., RCT Pilots & Related Services S.A., RCT Security & Related Services S.A., Roatan Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Royal Hyway Tours Inc., Santa Cruz Terminal S.L., SeaVacations Limited, SeaVacations UK Limited, Seabourn Cruise Line Limited, Shanghai Coast Cruise Consulting Co. Lda, Ship Care (Bahamas) Limited, Sitmar Cruises Inc., Spanish Cruise Services N.V., Sunshine Shipping Corporation Ltd., T&T International Inc., Tour Alaska LLC, Transnational Services Corporation, Trident Insurance Company Ltd., Westmark Hotels Inc., Westmark Hotels of Canada Ltd., Westours Motor Coaches LLC, Wind Surf Limited, and World Leading Cruise Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.. HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells lighting and electronic components and systems for automotive industry worldwide. It operates through three segments: Automotive, Aftermarket, and Special Applications. The Automotive segment offers headlamps, rear combination lamps, car body and interior lighting products, and radomes; and body electronics, energy management, lighting electronics, and steering solutions, as well as driver assistance systems and components, including sensors and engine compartment actuators. The Aftermarket segment produces and sells automotive parts and accessories primarily in the areas of lighting, electrics, and electronics; and provides workshop solutions in the areas of diagnostics and calibration, as well as various services for wholesalers and workshops. The Special Applications segment develops, manufactures, and markets lighting technology and electronic products for special vehicles comprising construction and agricultural machinery, buses, and motor homes, as well as for the marine sector. The company has strategic collaboration with AEye, Inc. to develop LiDAR sensor systems. The company was formerly known as HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co. and changed its name to HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA in October 2017. HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Lippstadt, Germany. As of June 26, 2020, HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA operates as a subsidiary of Hella Stiftung GmbH. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust. 4.8 Community Rank Outperform Votes Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust has received 64 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust has received 25 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust has received 71.91% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe CEV will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe CEV will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. is an insurance and financial services company. The company provides life insurance, group and employee benefits, automobile and homeowners insurance and business insurance, as well as investment products, annuities, mutual funds, and college savings plans. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Lines, Personal Lines, Property & Casualty Other Operations, Group Benefits and Hartford Funds. The Commercial Lines segment provides workers compensation, property, automobile, liability and umbrella coverage under several different products, primarily throughout the U.S., within its standard commercial lines, which consists of The Hartford's small commercial and middle market lines of business. The Personal Lines segment includes automobile, homeowners and home-based business coverage to individuals across the U.S. The Property & Casualty Other Operations segment includes certain property and casualty operations, currently managed by the company, that have discontinued writing new business and substantially all of the company's asbestos and environmental exposures. The Group Benefits segment offers group life, accident and disabi Read More 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 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., together with its subsidiaries, designs, engineers, manufactures, distributes, and sells vehicles, components, and production systems. The company operates through five segments: North America, LATAM, APAC, EMEA, and Maserati. It provides passenger cars, SUV vehicles, trucks, and light commercial vehicles under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Abarth brands; and luxury vehicles under the Maserati brand, as well as related service parts and accessories, and service contracts under the Mopar brand. The company also provides cast iron components for engines, gearboxes, transmissions and suspension systems, aluminum cylinder heads, and engine blocks under the Teksid brand; and designs and produces industrial automation systems and related products for the automotive industry under the Comau brand name. In addition, it provides retail and dealer financings, and leasing and rental services; and factoring services. The company sells its products directly, or through distributors and dealers in approximately 130 countries. The company was formerly known as Fiat S.p.A. and changed its name to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. in October 2014. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. was founded in 1899 and is based in London, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of InterContinental Hotels Group: 2250 Blake Street Hotel LLC, 24th Street Operator Sub LLC, 36th Street IHG Sub LLC, 426 Main Ave LLC, 46 Nevins Street Associates LLC, Allegro Management LLC, Alpha Kimball Hotel LLC, American Commonwealth Assurance Co. Ltd., Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, BHMC Canada Inc., BHR Holdings B.V., BHR Luxembourg SARL, BHR Pacific Holdings Inc., BHTC Canada Inc., BOC Barclay Sub LLC, Barclay Operating Corp., Bristol Oakbrook Tenant Company, Cafe Biarritz, Cambridge Lodging LLC, Capital Lodging LLC, Compania Inter-Continental De Hoteles El Salvador SA, Crowne Plaza Amsterdam (Management) B.V., Crowne Plaza LLC, Cumberland Akers Hotel LLC, Dunwoody Operations Inc., EVEN Real Estate Holding LLC, Edinburgh IC Limited, General Innkeeping Acceptance Corporation, Guangzhou SC Hotels Services Ltd., H.I. (Ireland) Limited, H.I. Soaltee Management Company Ltd, HC International Holdings Inc., HH France Holdings SAS, HH Hotels (EMEA) B.V., HH Hotels (Romania) SRL, HI Sugarloaf LLC, HIM (Aruba) NV, Hale International Ltd., Hoft Properties LLC, Holiday Hospitality Franchising LLC, Holiday Inn Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Holiday Inns (China) Ltd, Holiday Inns (Chongqing) Inc., Holiday Inns (Courtalin) Holdings SAS, Holiday Inns (Courtalin) SAS, Holiday Inns (England) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Germany) LLC, Holiday Inns (Guangzhou) Inc., Holiday Inns (Jamaica) Inc., Holiday Inns (Malaysia) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Middle East) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Philippines) Inc., Holiday Inns (Saudi Arabia) Inc., Holiday Inns (South East Asia) Inc., Holiday Inns (Thailand) Ltd., Holiday Inns (UK) Inc., Holiday Inns Crowne Plaza (Hong Kong) Inc., Holiday Inns Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Holiday Inns Inc., Holiday Inns Investment (Nepal) Ltd., Holiday Inns of America (UK) Ltd., Holiday Inns of Belgium N.V., Holiday Pacific Equity Corporation, Holiday Pacific LLC, Holiday Pacific Partners LP, Hotel Inter-Continental London Limited, Hotel InterContinental London (Holdings) Limited, Hoteles Y Turismo HIH SRL, IC Hotelbetriebsfuhrungs GmbH, IC Hotels Management (Portugal) Unipessoal Lda, IC International Hotels Limited Liability Company, IHC (Thailand) Limited, IHC Buckhead LLC, IHC Edinburgh (Holdings), IHC Hopkins (Holdings) Corp., IHC Hotel Limited, IHC Inter-Continental (Holdings) Corp., IHC London (Holdings), IHC M-H (Holdings) Corp., IHC May Fair (Holdings) Limited, IHC May Fair Hotel Limited, IHC Overseas (U.K.) Limited, IHC UK (Holdings) Limited, IHC United States (Holdings) Corp., IHC Willard (Holdings) Corp., IHG (Australasia) Limited, IHG (Marseille) SAS, IHG (Thailand) Limited, IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan LLC, IHG ANA Hotels Holdings Co. Ltd., IHG Bangkok Ltd, IHG Brasil Administracao de Hoteis e Servicos Ltda, IHG Commission Services SRL, IHG Community Development LLC, IHG Cyprus Limited, IHG ECS (Barbados) SRL, IHG Franchising Brasil Ltda, IHG Franchising DR Corporation, IHG Franchising LLC, IHG Hotels (New Zealand) Limited, IHG Hotels Limited, IHG Hotels Management (Australia) Pty Limited, IHG Hotels Nigeria Limited, IHG Hotels South Africa (Pty) Ltd, IHG International Partnership, IHG Istanbul Otel Yonetim Limited Sirketi, IHG Japan (Management) LLC, IHG Japan (Osaka) LLC, IHG Management (Maryland) LLC, IHG Management (Netherlands) B.V., IHG Management MD Barclay Sub LLC, IHG Management SL d.o.o, IHG Management d.o.o. Beograd, IHG Orchard Street Member LLC, IHG PS Nominees Limited, IHG Systems Pty Ltd, IHG Szalloda Budapest Szolgaltato Kft., IHG de Argentina SA, IND East Village SD Holdings LLC, Inter-Continental D.C. Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Investment Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Partner Corp., Inter-Continental Hospitality Corporation, Inter-Continental Hoteleira Limitada, Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Owning Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation, Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Inter-Continental Hotels of San Francisco Inc., Inter-Continental IOHC (Mauritius) Limited, Inter-Continental Management (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental (Branston) 1 Limited, InterContinental (PB) 1, InterContinental (PB) 2, InterContinental (PB) 3 Limited, InterContinental Berlin Service Company GmbH, InterContinental Brasil Administracao de Hoteis Ltda, InterContinental Gestion Hotelera S.L., InterContinental Hotel Berlin GmbH, InterContinental Hotel Dusseldorf GmbH (Germany), InterContinental Hotels (Puerto Rico) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Canada) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Espana) SA, InterContinental Hotels Group (Greater China) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (India) Pvt. Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Japan) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (New Zealand) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Shanghai) Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Customer Services Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Healthcare Trustee Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group Operating Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group Resources Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group Services Company, InterContinental Hotels Group do Brasil Limitada, InterContinental Hotels Italia S.r.L., InterContinental Hotels Limited, InterContinental Hotels Management GmbH, InterContinental Hotels Nevada Corporation, InterContinental Management AM LLC, InterContinental Management Bulgaria EOOD, InterContinental Management France SAS, InterContinental Management Poland sp. z.o.o, InterContinental Overseas Holding Corporation, Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Limited, KG Benefits LLC, KG Gift Card Inc., KG Liability LLC, KG Technology LLC, KHP Washington Operator LLC, KHRG 11th Avenue Hotel LLC, KHRG 851 LLC, KHRG Aertson LLC, KHRG Alexandria LLC, KHRG Alexis LLC, KHRG Allegro LLC, KHRG Argyle LLC, KHRG Austin Beverage Company LLC, KHRG Baltimore LLC, KHRG Born LLC, KHRG Boston Hotel LLC, KHRG Canary LLC, KHRG Cayman Employer Ltd., KHRG Cayman LLC, KHRG DC 1731 LLC, KHRG DC 2505 LLC, KHRG Donovan LLC, KHRG Employer LLC, KHRG Goleta LLC, KHRG Gray LLC, KHRG Gray U2 LLC, KHRG Hillcrest LLC, KHRG Huntington Beach LLC, KHRG King Street LLC, KHRG La Peer LLC, KHRG Miami Beach LLC, KHRG Muse LLC, KHRG NPC LLC, KHRG Onyx LLC, KHRG Palladian LLC, KHRG Palomar Phoenix LLC, KHRG Philly Monaco LLC, KHRG Pittsburgh LLC, KHRG Reynolds LLC, KHRG Riverplace LLC, KHRG SFD LLC, KHRG Sacramento LLC, KHRG Savannah LLC, KHRG Schofield LLC, KHRG Sedona LLC, KHRG State Street LLC, KHRG Sutter LLC, KHRG Sutter Union LLC, KHRG Taconic LLC, KHRG Tariff LLC, KHRG Texas Hospitality LLC, KHRG Texas Operations LLC, KHRG Tryon LLC, KHRG VZ Austin LLC, KHRG Vero Beach LLC, KHRG Vintage Park LLC, KHRG WPB LLC, KHRG Wabash LLC, KHRG Westwood LLC, KHRG Wilshire LLC, KHRG Zamora LLC, Kimpton Hollywood Licenses LLC, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, Kimpton Phoenix Licenses Holdings LLC, Kimpton Sedona Licenses LLC, Louisiana Acquisitions Corp., MH Lodging LLC, Mercer Fairview Holdings LLC, PML Services LLC, PT SC Hotels & Resorts Indonesia, Pollstrong Limited, Powell Pine Inc., Priscilla Holiday of Texas Inc., RM Lodging LLC, Regent Hotels and Resorts, Resort Services International (Cayo Largo) L.P., SBS Maryland Beverage Company LLC, SC Cellars Limited, SC Hotels International Services Inc., SC Leisure Group Limited, SC NAS 2 Limited, SC Quest Limited, SC Reservations (Philippines) Inc., SCH Insurance Company, SCIH Branston 3, SF MH Acquisition LLC, SPHC Group Pty Ltd., SPHC Management Ltd., Semiramis for training of Hotel Personnel and Hotel Management SAE, Six Continents Corporate Services, Six Continents Holdings Limited, Six Continents Hotels Inc., Six Continents Hotels International Limited, Six Continents Hotels de Colombia SA, Six Continents International Holdings B.V., Six Continents Investments Limited, Six Continents Limited, Six Continents Overseas Holdings Limited, Six Continents Restaurants Limited, SixCo North America Inc., Solamar Lodging LLC, Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation (BVI) Ltd., Southern Pacific Hotels Properties Limited, Universal de Hoteles SA, White Shield Insurance Company Limited, and World Trade Centre Montreal Hotel Corporation. Toyota Motor Corp. engages in the manufacture and sale of motor vehicles and parts. It operates through the following segments: Automotive, Financial Services, and All Other. The Automotive segment designs, manufactures, assembles and sells passenger cars, minivans, trucks, and related vehicle parts and accessories. It is also involved in the development of intelligent transport systems. The Financial Services segment offers purchase or lease financing to Toyota vehicle dealers and customers. It also provides retail leasing through lease contracts purchase by dealers. The All Others segment deals with the design and manufacture and sale of housing, telecommunications and other businesses. The company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda on August 28, 1937 and is headquartered in Toyota, Japan. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Banco Santander: 2 & 3 Triton Limited, A & L CF (Guernsey) Limited (f), A & L CF June (2) Limited, A & L CF June (3) Limited, A & L CF March (5) Limited, A & L CF September (4) Limited, AFB SAM Holdings S.L., ALIL Services Limited (b), AN (123) Limited, ANITCO Limited, Abbey Business Services (India) Private Limited, Abbey Covered Bonds (LM) Limited, Abbey National, Abbey National Beta Investments Limited, Abbey National Business Office Equipment Leasing Limited, Abbey National International Limited, Abbey National Nominees Limited, Abbey National PLP (UK) Limited, Abbey National Property Investments, Abbey National Treasury Services Investments Limited, Abbey National Treasury Services Overseas Holdings, Abbey National UK Investments, Abbey Stockbrokers (Nominees) Limited, Abbey Stockbrokers Limited, Ablasa Participaciones S.L., Administracion de Bancos Latinoamericanos Santander S.L., Aduro S.A., Aevis Europa S.L., Afisa S.A., Albert., Aljardi SGPS Lda., Alliance & Leicester, Alliance & Leicester Cash Solutions Limited, Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments (Derivatives) Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments (No.2) Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments Limited, Alliance & Leicester Limited, Alliance & Leicester Personal Finance Limited, Altamira Santander Real Estate S.A., Alternative Leasing FIL, Amazonia Trade Limited, Amherst Pierpont, Andaluza de Inversiones S.A., Aquanima Brasil Ltda., Aquanima Chile S.A., Aquanima Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Aquanima S.A., Arcaz - Sociedade Imobiliaria Portuguesa Lda., Argenline S.A. (b), Asto Digital Limited, Athena Corporation Limited, Atual - Fundo de Invest Multimercado Credito Privado Investimento no Exterior, Atual Servicos de Recuperacao de Creditos e Meios Digitais S.A., Autodescuento S.L., Autohaus24 GmbH, Auttar HUT Processamento de Dados Ltda., Aviacion Antares A.I.E., Aviacion Britanica A.I.E., Aviacion Centaurus A.I.E., Aviacion Comillas S.L. Unipersonal, Aviacion Intercontinental A.I.E., Aviacion Laredo S.L., Aviacion Oyambre S.L. Unipersonal, Aviacion Real A.I.E., Aviacion Santillana S.L., Aviacion Suances S.L., Aviacion Triton A.I.E., Aymore Credito Financiamento e Investimento S.A., BEN Beneficios e Servicos S.A., BRS Investments S.A., BZW Bank, Banca PSA Italia S.p.A., Banco Bandepe S.A., Banco Madesant - Sociedade Unipessoal S.A., Banco PSA Finance Brasil S.A., Banco Popular, Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A., Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso 100740, Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso 2002114, Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso GFSSLPT, Banco Santander - Chile, Banco Santander Consumer Portugal S.A., Banco Santander International, Banco Santander International SA, Banco Santander Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Banco Santander Peru S.A., Banco Santander Rio S.A., Banco Santander S.A., Banco Santander Totta S.A., Banco Santander de Negocios Colombia S.A., Banco de Albacete S.A., Bansa Santander S.A., CCAP Auto Lease Ltd., Canyon Multifamily Impact Fund IV LLC, Capital Street Delaware LP, Capital Street Holdings LLC, Capital Street REIT Holdings LLC, Capital Street S.A., Carfax (Guernsey) Limited (f), Carfinco Financial Group, Carfinco Financial Group Inc., Carfinco Inc., Casa de Bolsa Santander S.A. de C.V. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Cater Allen Holdings Limited, Cater Allen International Limited, Cater Allen Limited, Cater Allen Lloyd's Holdings Limited, Cater Allen Syndicate Management Limited, Centro de Capacitacion Santander A.C., Certidesa S.L., Chrysler Capital Auto Funding I LLC, Chrysler Capital Auto Funding II LLC, Chrysler Capital Auto Receivables LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding 2 LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding 4 LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding LLC, Cobranza Amigable S.A.P.I. de C.V., Community Development and Affordable Housing Fund LLC (g), Compagnie Generale de Credit Aux Particuliers - Credipar S.A., Compagnie Pour la Location de Vehicules - CLV, Comunidad Laboral Trabajando Argentina S.A., Comunidad Laboral Trabajando Iberica S.L. Unipersonal en liquidacion (b), Consulteam Consultores de Gestao Lda., Consumer Lending Receivables LLC, Crawfall S.A. (b), Cantabra de Inversiones S.A., Cantabro Catalana de Inversiones S.A., Darep Designated Activity Company, Decarome S.A.P.I. de C.V., Deva Capital Advisory Company S.L., Deva Capital Holding Company S.L., Deva Capital Investment Company S.L., Deva Capital Management Company S.L., Deva Capital Servicer Company S.L., Digital Procurement Holdings N.V., Diners Club Spain S.A., Direccion Estratega S.C., Dirgenfin S.L. en liquidacion (b), Ebury, El Corte Ingles, Elavon Mexico, Electrolyser S.A. de C.V., Entidad de Desarrollo a la Pequena y Micro Empresa Santander Consumo Peru S.A., Erestone S.A.S., Esfera Fidelidade S.A., Evidence Previdencia S.A., Financeira El Corte Ingles Portugal S.F.C. S.A., Financiera El Corte Ingles E.F.C. S.A., Finsantusa S.L. Unipersonal, First National Motor Business Limited, First National Motor Contracts Limited, First National Motor Facilities Limited, First National Motor Finance Limited, First National Motor Leasing Limited, First National Motor plc, First National Tricity Finance Limited, Fondos Santander S.A. Administradora de Fondos de Inversion (en liquidacion) (b), Fortensky Trading Ltd., Fosse Funding (No.1) Limited, Fosse Master Issuer plc, Fosse Trustee (UK) Limited, GTS El Centro Equity Holdings LLC, GTS El Centro Project Holdings LLC, Gamma Sociedade Financeira de Titularizacao de Creditos S.A., Gesban Mexico Servicios Administrativos Globales S.A. de C.V., Gesban Santander Servicios Profesionales Contables Limitada, Gesban Servicios Administrativos Globales S.L., Gesban UK Limited, Gestion de Instalaciones Fotovoltaicas S.L. Unipersonal, Gestion de Inversiones JILT S.A., Gestora de Procesos S.A. en liquidacion (b), Getnet Adquirencia e Servicos para Meios de Pagamento S.A., Global Vosgos S.L. Unipersonal, Grupo Empresarial Santander S.L., Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. de C.V., Grupo Financiero Santander SAB de CV, Guaranty Car S.A. Unipersonal, HQ Mobile Limited, Hispamer Renting S.A. Unipersonal, Holbah II Limited, Holbah Santander S.L. Unipersonal, Holmes Funding Limited, Holmes Master Issuer plc, Holmes Trustees Limited, Hyundai Capital Bank Europe GmbH, Iberica de Compras Corporativas S.L., Independence Community Bank Corp., Insurance Funding Solutions Limited, Interfinance Holanda B.V., Inversiones Capital Global S.A. Unipersonal, Inversiones Maritimas del Mediterraneo S.A., Isla de los Buques S.A., Klare Corredora de Seguros S.A., Landcompany 2020 S.L., Langton Funding (No.1) Limited, Langton Mortgages Trustee (UK) Limited, Langton Securities (2008-1) plc, Langton Securities (2010-1) PLC, Langton Securities (2010-2) PLC, Laparanza S.A., Liquidity Limited, Luri 1 S.A. en liquidacion (b) (e), Luri 6 S.A. Unipersonal, Master Red Europa S.L., Mata Alta S.L., Merciver S.L., Mercury TFS, Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.A. de C.V., Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.L., Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.p.A., Moneybit S.L., Mortgage Engine Limited, Motor 2016-1 PLC, Motor 2017-1 PLC, Mouro Capital I LP, Multiplica SpA, NW Services CO., Naviera Mirambel S.L., Naviera Trans Gas A.I.E., Naviera Trans Iron S.L., Naviera Trans Ore A.I.E., Naviera Trans Wind S.L. (b), Naviera Transcantabrica S.L., Naviera Transchem S.L. Unipersonal, NeoAuto S.A.C., Norbest AS, Novimovest Fundo de Investimento Imobiliario, Open Bank Argentina S.A., Open Bank S.A., Open Digital Market S.L., Open Digital Services S.L., Operadora de Carteras Gamma S.A.P.I. de C.V., Optimal Investment Services SA, Optimal Multiadvisors Ireland Plc / Optimal Strategic US Equity Ireland Euro Fund, Optimal Multiadvisors Ireland Plc / Optimal Strategic US Equity Ireland US Dollar Fund, PBE Companies LLC, PECOH Limited, PI Distribuidora de Titulos e Valores Mobiliarios S.A., PSA Bank Deutschland GmbH, PSA Banque France, PSA Finance UK Limited, PSA Financial Services Nederland B.V., PSA Financial Services Spain E.F.C. S.A., PSA Renting Italia S.p.A., PagoFX Europe S.A., PagoFX HoldCo S.L., PagoFX UK Ltd, PagoNxt Merchant Solutions S.L., PagoNxt S.L., Parasant SA, Patagon.com, Pereda Gestion S.A., Pingham International S.A., Popular Spain Holding de Inversiones S.L.U., Portal Universia Argentina S.A., Portal Universia Portugal Prestacao de Servicos de Informatica S.A., Prime 16 Fundo de Investimentos Imobiliario, Punta Lima LLC, Punta Lima Wind Farm LLC, Retop S.A., Return Capital Servicos de Recuperacao de Creditos S.A., Return Gestao de Recursos S.A., Riobank International (Uruguay) SAIFE (b), Rojo Entretenimento S.A., SAM Asset Management S.A. de C.V. Sociedad Operadora de Fondos de Inversion, SAM Investment Holdings S.L., SAM UK Investment Holdings Limited (b), SANB Promotora de Vendas e Cobranca Ltda., SCF Eastside Locks GP Limited, SDMX Superdigital S.A. de C.V., SMPS Merchant Platform Solutions Mexico S.A de C.V, Sancap Investimentos e Participacoes S.A., Santander (CF Trustee Property Nominee) Limited, Santander (UK) Group Pension Schemes Trustees Limited, Santander Ahorro Inmobiliario 1 S.A., Santander Ahorro Inmobiliario 2 S.A., Santander Alternatives SICAV RAIF, Santander Asesorias Financieras Limitada, Santander Asset Finance (December) Limited, Santander Asset Finance plc, Santander Asset Management - S.G.O.I.C. S.A., Santander Asset Management Chile S.A., Santander Asset Management LLC, Santander Asset Management Luxembourg S.A., Santander Asset Management S.A. Administradora General de Fondos, Santander Asset Management S.A. S.G.I.I.C., Santander Asset Management UK Holdings Limited, Santander Asset Management UK Limited, Santander Back-Offices Globales Mayoristas S.A., Santander Banca de Inversion Colombia S.A.S., Santander Bank & Trust Ltd., Santander Bank National Association, Santander Bank Polska S.A., Santander Brasil Administradora de Consorcio Ltda., Santander Brasil Gestao de Recursos Ltda., Santander Brasil Tecnologia S.A., Santander Capital Desarrollo SGEIC S.A. Unipersonal, Santander Capital Structuring S.A. de C.V., Santander Capitalizacao S.A., Santander Cards Ireland Limited, Santander Cards Limited, Santander Cards UK Limited, Santander Chile Holding S.A., Santander Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Santander Consumer (UK) plc, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2013-B2 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2013-B3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L4 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L5 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-B1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-L2 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-L3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-B1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-L1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-L2 LLC, Santander Consumer Bank, Santander Consumer Bank AG, Santander Consumer Bank GmbH, Santander Consumer Bank S.A., Santander Consumer Bank S.p.A., Santander Consumer Banque S.A., Santander Consumer Credit Services Limited, Santander Consumer Finance Benelux B.V., Santander Consumer Finance Global Services S.L., Santander Consumer Finance Oy, Santander Consumer Finance S.A., Santander Consumer Finance Schweiz AG, Santander Consumer Financial Solutions Sp. z o.o., Santander Consumer Finanse Sp. z o.o. (b), Santander Consumer Holding Austria GmbH, Santander Consumer Holding GmbH, Santander Consumer International Puerto Rico LLC, Santander Consumer Leasing GmbH, Santander Consumer Mediacion Operador de Banca-Seguros Vinculado S.L., Santander Consumer Multirent Sp. z o.o., Santander Consumer Operations Services GmbH, Santander Consumer Receivables 10 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 11 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 3 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 7 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables Funding LLC, Santander Consumer Renting S.L., Santander Consumer S.A., Santander Consumer S.A.S., Santander Consumer Services GmbH, Santander Consumer Services S.A., Santander Consumer Technology Services GmbH, Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc., Santander Consumer USA Inc., Santander Consumo S.A. de C.V. S.O.F.O.M. E.R. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Santander Corredora de Seguros Limitada, Santander Corredores de Bolsa Limitada, Santander Corretora de Cambio e Valores Mobiliarios S.A., Santander Corretora de Seguros Investimentos e Servicos S.A., Santander Customer Voice S.A., Santander Digital Assets S.L., Santander Drive Auto Receivables LLC, Santander Equity Investments Limited, Santander Espana Merchant Services Entidad de Pago S.L. Unipersonal, Santander Espana Servicios Legales y de Cumplimiento S.L., Santander Estates Limited, Santander F24 S.A., Santander Facility Management Espana S.L., Santander Factoring S.A., Santander Factoring Sp. z o.o., Santander Factoring y Confirming S.A. E.F.C., Santander Finance 2012-1 LLC, Santander Financial Exchanges Limited, Santander Financial Services Inc., Santander Financial Services plc, Santander Finanse Sp. z o.o., Santander Fintech Holdings S.L., Santander Fintech Limited, Santander Fundo de Investimento SBAC Referenciado di Credito Privado, Santander Gestion de Recaudacion y Cobranzas Ltda., Santander Global Consumer Finance Limited, Santander Global Facilities S.A. de C.V., Santander Global Facilities S.L., Santander Global Operations S.A., Santander Global Services S.A. (b), Santander Global Sport S.A., Santander Global Technology Brasil Ltda., Santander Global Technology Chile Limitada, Santander Global Technology S.L., Santander Global Trade Platform Solutions S.L., Santander Guarantee Company, Santander Holding Imobiliaria S.A., Santander Holding Internacional S.A., Santander Holdings USA Inc., Santander ISA Managers Limited, Santander Inclusion Financiera S.A. de C.V. S.O.F.O.M. E.R. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Santander Insurance Agency U.S. LLC, Santander Insurance Services UK Limited, Santander Intermediacion Correduria de Seguros S.A., Santander International Products Plc. (d), Santander Inversiones S.A., Santander Investment Bank Limited, Santander Investment Chile Limitada, Santander Investment I S.A., Santander Investment S.A., Santander Investment Securities Inc., Santander Investments GP 1 S.a.r.l., Santander Inwestycje Sp. z o.o., Santander Lease S.A. E.F.C., Santander Leasing LLC, Santander Leasing S.A., Santander Leasing S.A. Arrendamento Mercantil, Santander Lending Limited, Santander Mediacion Operador de Banca-Seguros Vinculado S.A., Santander Merchant Platform Operations S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Services S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions Mexico S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions S.A., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions Uruguay S.A., Santander Merchant Platform SolucoesTecnologicas Brasil Ltda., Santander Merchant S.A., Santander Mortgage Holdings Limited, Santander Paraty Qif PLC, Santander Pensiones S.A. E.G.F.P., Santander Pensoes - Sociedade Gestora de Fundos de Pensoes S.A., Santander Private Banking Gestion S.A. S.G.I.I.C., Santander Private Banking UK Limited, Santander Private Banking s.p.a. in Liquidazione (b), Santander Private Real Estate Advisory & Management S.A., Santander Private Real Estate Advisory S.A., Santander Real Estate S.A., Santander Retail Auto Lease Funding LLC, Santander Rio Asset Management Gerente de Fondos Comunes de Inversion S.A., Santander Rio Trust S.A., Santander Rio Valores S.A., Santander S.A. Sociedad Securitizadora, Santander Secretariat Services Limited, Santander Securities LLC, Santander Seguros y Reaseguros Compania Aseguradora S.A., Santander Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., Santander Servicios Especializados S.A. de C.V., Santander Technology USA LLC, Santander Tecnologia e Inovacao Ltda., Santander Tecnologia Argentina S.A., Santander Tecnologia Espana S.L.U., Santander Tecnologia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Santander Totta SGPS S.A., Santander Totta Seguros Companhia de Seguros de Vida S.A., Santander Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A., Santander Trade Services Limited, Santander UK Group Holdings plc, Santander UK Investments, Santander UK Operations Limited, Santander UK Plc, Santander UK Technology Limited, Santander Wealth Management International SA, Santander de Titulizacion S.G.F.T. S.A., Santusa Holding S.L., Services and Promotions Delaware Corp., Services and Promotions Miami LLC, Servicio de Alarmas Controladas por Ordenador S.A., Servicios de Cobranza Recuperacion y Seguimiento S.A. De C.V., Sheppards Moneybrokers Limited, Shiloh III Wind Project LLC, Sociedad Integral de Valoraciones Automatizadas S.A., Sociedad Operadora de Tarjetas de Pago Santander Getnet Chile S.A., Socur S.A., Sol Orchard Imperial 1 LLC, Solarlaser Limited, Sovereign Community Development Company, Sovereign Delaware Investment Corporation, Sovereign Lease Holdings LLC, Sovereign REIT Holdings Inc., Sovereign Spirit Limited (f), Sterrebeeck B.V., Suleyado 2003 S.L. Unipersonal, Summer Empreendimentos Ltda., Super Pagamentos e Administracao de Meios Eletronicos S.A., Superdigital Argentina S.A.U., Superdigital Colombia S.A.S., Superdigital Holding Company S.L., Superdigital Peru S.A.C., Suzuki Servicios Financieros S.L., Swesant SA, TIMFin S.p.A., TOPSAM S.A de C.V., Taxagest Sociedade Gestora de Participacoes Sociais S.A., Teatinos Siglo XXI Inversiones S.A., The Alliance & Leicester Corporation Limited, The Best Specialty Coffee S.L. Unipersonal, Time Retail Finance Limited (b), Tonopah Solar I LLC, Toque Fale Servicos de Telemarketing Ltda., Tornquist Asesores de Seguros S.A. (b), Totta (Ireland) PLC, Totta Urbe - Empresa de Administracao e Construcoes S.A., Trabajando.com Mexico S.A. de C.V. en liquidacion (b), Trabajando.com Peru S.A.C., Trans Rotor Limited (b), Transolver Finance EFC S.A., Tresmares Growth Fund Santander SCR S.A., Tresmares Santander Direct Lending SICC S.A., Tuttle and Son Limited, Universia Brasil S.A., Universia Chile S.A., Universia Colombia S.A.S., Universia Espana Red de Universidades S.A., Universia Holding S.L., Universia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Universia Peru S.A., Universia Uruguay S.A., Uro Property Holdings SOCIMI S.A., WIM Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., WTW Shipping Designated Activity Company, Wallcesa S.A., Wave Holdco S.L., Waypoint Insurance Group Inc., and Wirecard (Technological Assets). The following companies are subsidiares of Textron: AAI Corporation, AAI Services Corporation, ALSTOM Gears, Able Aerospace, Able Aerospace Services Inc., Able Engineering & Component Services, Aeronautical Accessories LLC, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company LLC, Arctic Cat, Arctic Cat ACE Holding GmbH, Arctic Cat France SARL, Arctic Cat GmbH, Arctic Cat Inc., Arctic Cat Production LLC, Arctic Cat Production Support LLC, Arctic Cat Sales Inc., Arctic Cat Shared Services LLC, Arctic Cat UK Ltd., Arkansas Aerospace Inc., Avco Corporation, Aviation Service servis letal doo Ljubljana, Aylesbury Automation, B/K Navigational Equipment sro, Beech Aircraft Corporation, Beech Holdings, Beechcraft Defense Support Holding LLC, Beechcraft Domestic Service Company, Beechcraft Germany GmbH, Beechcraft International Holding LLC, Beechcraft International Service Company, Beechcraft New Zealand, Beechcraft Service Company UK Limited, Bell Helicopter GK, Bell Helicopter KK, Bell Textron Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Bell Textron Canada International Inc., Bell Textron Canada Limited/Limitee, Bell Textron Inc., Bell Textron Korea Inc., Bell Textron Miami Inc, Bell Textron Prague a.s., Bell Textron Rhode Island Inc., Bell Textron Services Inc, Bell Textron Supply Center BV, Bell Textron Technical Services Inc., Benzlers, Brazaco Mapri Industrias, Burkland, Cessna Aircraft Company, Cessna Citation European Service Center SAS, Cessna Dusseldorf Citation Service Center GmbH, Cessna Finance Corporation, Cessna Finance Export Corporation, Cessna Mexico S de RL de CV, Cessna Spanish Citation Service Center SLU, Cessna Zurich Citation Service Center GmbH, Citation Parts Distribution International Inc., Cushman Inc., Datacom Technologies, David Brown Group, Doncaster Citation Service Centre Limited, E-Z-GO Canada Limited, Energy Manufacturing, Flexalloy, HBC LLC, Hawker Beech de Mexico S de RL de CV, Hawker Beechcraft Argentina SA, Howe & Howe Inc., Howe and Howe Technologies, Industrial Technology Inc., InteSys Technologies, International Product Support Inc., KSB Annecy SAS, Kautex (Changchun) Plastics Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Chongqing) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Guangzhou) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Pinghu) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Shanghai) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Wuhan) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex Corporation, Kautex Craiova srl, Kautex Germany Holding GmbH, Kautex Inc., Kautex Japan KK, Kautex Shanghai GmbH, Kautex Textron (UK) Limited, Kautex Textron Benelux BVBA, Kautex Textron Bohemia spol sro, Kautex Textron CVS Limited, Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG, Kautex Textron Iberica SL, Kautex Textron Italia Srl, Kautex Textron Management Services Company de Puebla S. de RL de CV, Kautex Textron Portugal Produtos Plasticos Sociedade Unipessoal Lda., Kautex Textron de Mexico S de RL de CV, Kautex Textron do Brasil Ltda., Kautex of Georgia Inc., Kaywood Products Corp., Klauke, LCI Corporation International, LLC Textron RUS, Maag, McCord Corporation, Mechtronix, Medical Numerics Inc., Midland Industrial Plastics, MillenWorks, MillenWorks Themed Technologies, MotorFist LLC, OPINICUS Simulation and Training Services LLC, OmniQuip International, Opinicus, Optical Boring Co., Opto-Electronics, Opto-Electronics Inc., Overwatch Systems Ltd., PEINER Umformtechnik, Pirelli Tyres - General Rubber Goods (GRG) division, Premiair Aviation Maintenance Pty Ltd, Progressive Electronics, Ransomes, Ransomes Inc., Ransomes Investment LLC, Ransomes Jacobsen France SAS, Ransomes Jacobsen Limited, Ransomes Limited, Ransomes Pensions Trustee Company Limited, Replacement Part Solutions LLC, Response Technologies LLC, Rotor Blades Limited, Sukosim Verbindungselemente, TRU Simulation & Training Spain SL, TRU Simulation + Training Inc., TRU Simulation + Training LLC, TekGPS Engineering Srl, Textron Airland LLC, Textron Atlantic LLC, Textron Aviation Australia Pty. Ltd., Textron Aviation Canada Ltd., Textron Aviation Defense LLC, Textron Aviation Finance Corporation, Textron Aviation Inc., Textron Aviation Prague Service Center sro, Textron Aviation Rhode Island Inc., Textron Aviation Services de Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Capital BV, Textron Communications Inc., Textron Far East Pte. Ltd., Textron Finance Holding Company, Textron Financial Corporation, Textron Financial Corporation Receivables Trust 2002-CP-2, Textron Fluid and Power Inc., Textron France Holding SAS, Textron France SAS, Textron Global Services Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment UK Limited, Textron IPMP Inc., Textron India Private Limited, Textron Innovations Inc., Textron International Inc., Textron International Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Limited, Textron Management Services Inc., Textron Motors GmbH, Textron Motors North America Inc., Textron Outdoor Power Equipment Inc., Textron Realty Corporation, Textron Shared Service Centre (Canada) Inc., Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc., Textron Sweden AB, Textron Systems Australia Holding Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Canada Inc., Textron Systems Corporation, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK (Holdings) Limited, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK Limited, Textron Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Textron UK Pension Trustee Limited, Textron Verwaltungs-GmbH, Turbine Engine Components Textron (Newington Operations) Inc., United Industrial Corporation, Westminster Insurance Company, Williams Machine & Tool, Wuxi Textron Specialized Vehicles Co. Ltd., and Zhenjiang Bell Textron Aviation Services Limited. Saga plc provides general insurance, package and cruise holidays, and personal finance products and services in the United Kingdom. The company operates in three segments: Insurance, Travel, and Other Businesses and Central Costs. It offers car, home, health, travel, landlord, boat, motorhome, caravan, pet, and personal accident, breakdown cover, building, content, renter, holiday, and holiday home insurance. The company also operates and delivers package tours and cruise holiday products; and provides equity release and care funding advice, savings accounts, credit cards, and wealth management services, as well as shares ISA and share dealing services. In addition, it offers mailing house services; retirement benefit schemes; and publishes Saga Magazine, as well as repairs automotive vehicles. The company was formerly known as Saga Limited and changed its name to Saga plc in May 2014. Saga plc was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Folkestone, the United Kingdom. Read More TCF Financial Corporation operates as the financial holding company for TCF National Bank that provides various financial products and services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Enterprise Services segments. The company offers checking, savings, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; individual retirement accounts; debit and credit cards; and check cashing and remittance services. It also provides investment management and custodial services, trust services, financial and estate planning, and retirement planning and employee benefit programs; residential, consumer, and small business lending products; and consumer real estate secured lending, consumer loans, loans secured by personal property, and unsecured personal loans. In addition, the company offers loans and lines of credit, deposits, cash management, capital market products, international trade finance, letters of credit, foreign exchange management services, and loan syndication services. Further, it provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate banking, and lease financing; and treasury services comprising investment and borrowing portfolios, as well as manages capital, debt, and market risks. As of December 31, 2020, the company operated 478 branches, including 373 traditional branches, 102 supermarket branches, and three campus branches located in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, and South Dakota; and 1,062 ATMs. TCF Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Read More Valley National Bancorp is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of retail and commercial banking services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Lending; Commercial Lending; Investment Management; and Corporate and Other Adjustments. The Consumer Lending segment consists of residential mortgage loans, automobile loans and home equity loans, as well as wealth management and insurance services. The Commercial Lending segment includes the floating rate and adjustable rate commercial and industrial loans as well as fixed rate owner occupied and commercial real estate loans. The Investment Management segment refers to investments in various types of securities and interest-bearing deposits with other banks. The Corporate and Other Adjustments segment represents the income and expense items not directly attributable to a specific segment. The company was founded on November 12, 1982 and is headquartered in New York, NY. Read More PASCAGOULA, Mississippi -- Ingalls Shipbuilding announced Thursday it has been awarded a $5.1 billion multiyear procurement contract to build six more Arleigh Burke-class Flight III destroyers for the U.S. Navy. If all options in the contract are ultimately exercised, the total value of the contact would rise to $5.25 billion. "Destroyers represent the backbone of the Navy's fleet and play a significant role in the defense of our freedom," said Ingalls president Brian Cuccias. "Our shipbuilders construct every DDG 51 with great pride, knowing the significant mission each ship carries out in their lifetime. "This contract for six additional destroyers is significant not only for the men and women who will spend the next several years building and delivering these quality ships, but also for the sailors who will operate these warships around the world ensuring there is peace back home." Over the past three decades, the Pascagoula shipyard has delivered 30 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to the Navy. There are five more DDGs under construction at Ingalls, including the first Flight III ship -- DDG 125 -- for which fabrication began in May. The following companies are subsidiares of Yum China: AIR BP-PBF DEL PERU SAC, BELFAST STORAGE LTD, CANADIAN ULTRAMAR COMPANY, COLONNADE TEXAS INSURANCE COMPANY LLC, COLONNADE VERMONT INSURANCE COMPANY, DIAMOND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY LLC, DIAMOND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY OF CANADA INC., DIAMOND GREEN DIESEL HOLDINGS LLC, DIAMOND GREEN DIESEL LLC, DIAMOND K RANCH LLC, DIAMOND OMEGA COMPANY L.L.C., DIAMOND SHAMROCK REFINING COMPANY L.P., DIAMOND UNIT INVESTMENTS L.L.C., DSRM NATIONAL BANK, ENTERPRISE CLAIMS MANAGEMENT INC., GCP LOGISTICS COMPANY LLC, GOLDEN EAGLE ASSURANCE LIMITED, HAMMOND MAINLINE PIPELINE LLC, HUNTWAY REFINING COMPANY, MAINLINE PIPELINES LIMITED, MAPLE ETHANOL LTD., MICHIGAN REDEVELOPMENT GP LLC, MICHIGAN REDEVELOPMENT L.P., MRP PROPERTIES COMPANY LLC, NECHES RIVER HOLDING CORP., NORCO METHANOL LLC, OCEANIC TANKERS AGENCY LIMITED, PARKWAY PIPELINE LLC, PENTA TANKS TERMINALS S.A., PI DOCK FACILITIES LLC, PICKARD PLACE CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, PORT ARTHUR COKER COMPANY L.P., PREMCOR USA INC., PROPERTY RESTORATION L.P., PURE BIOFUELS DEL PERU S.A.C., PURE BIOFUELS HOLDINGS L.P., Parkway Pipeline, Premcor, Pure Biofuels Del Peru, SABINE RIVER HOLDING CORP., SABINE RIVER LLC, SAINT BERNARD PROPERTIES COMPANY LLC, SUNBELT REFINING COMPANY L.P., THE PREMCOR PIPELINE CO., THE PREMCOR REFINING GROUP INC., THE SHAMROCK PIPE LINE CORPORATION, TRANSPORT MARITIME ST. LAURENT INC., ULTRAMAR ACCEPTANCE INC., ULTRAMAR ENERGY INC., ULTRAMAR INC., Ultramar Diamond Shamrock, V-TEX LOGISTICS LLC, VALERO (BARBADOS) SRL, VALERO (PERU) HOLDINGS GP LLC, VALERO (PERU) HOLDINGS LIMITED, VALERO ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO ARUBA ACQUISITION COMPANY I LTD., VALERO ARUBA FINANCE INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO ARUBA HOLDING COMPANY N.V., VALERO ARUBA HOLDINGS INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO ARUBA MAINTENANCE/OPERATIONS COMPANY N.V., VALERO BROWNSVILLE TERMINAL LLC, VALERO CANADA FINANCE INC., VALERO CANADA L.P., VALERO CAPITAL CORPORATION, VALERO CARIBBEAN SERVICES COMPANY, VALERO COKER CORPORATION ARUBA N.V., VALERO CUSTOMS & TRADE SERVICES INC., VALERO EAST BAY LLC, VALERO ENERGY (IRELAND) LIMITED, VALERO ENERGY ARUBA II COMPANY, VALERO ENERGY INC., VALERO ENERGY LTD, VALERO ENERGY PARTNERS GP LLC, VALERO ENERGY PARTNERS LP, VALERO ENERGY UK LTD, VALERO ENTERPRISES INC., VALERO EQUITY SERVICES LTD, VALERO FINANCE L.P. I, VALERO FINANCE L.P. II, VALERO FINANCE L.P. III, VALERO FOREST CONTRIBUTION LLC, VALERO GRAIN MARKETING LLC, VALERO H2 PIPELINE COMPANY LLC, VALERO HOLDCO UK LTD, VALERO HOLDINGS INC., VALERO INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS INC., VALERO LIVE OAK LLC, VALERO LOGISTICS UK LTD, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY (PANAMA) LLC, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY COMPANY, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPY INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO MARKETING IRELAND LIMITED, VALERO MKS LOGISTICS L.L.C., VALERO NEDERLAND COOPERATIEF U.A., VALERO NEDERLAND COOPERATIEF U.A., VALERO NEW AMSTERDAM B.V., VALERO OMEGA COMPANY L.L.C., VALERO OPERATIONAL SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO OPERATIONAL SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO OPERATIONS SUPPORT LTD, VALERO PARTNERS CCTS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS CORPUS EAST LLC, VALERO PARTNERS CORPUS WEST LLC, VALERO PARTNERS EP LLC, VALERO PARTNERS HOUSTON LLC, VALERO PARTNERS LOUISIANA LLC, VALERO PARTNERS LUCAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MCKEE LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MEMPHIS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MERAUX LLC, VALERO PARTNERS NORTH TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS OPERATING CO. LLC, VALERO PARTNERS PAPS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS PORT ARTHUR LLC, VALERO PARTNERS SOUTH TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS TEXAS CITY LLC, VALERO PARTNERS THREE RIVERS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WEST MEMPHIS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WEST TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WYNNEWOOD LLC, VALERO PAYMENT SERVICES COMPANY, VALERO PEMBROKESHIRE LLC, VALERO PEMBROKESHIRE OIL TERMINAL LTD, VALERO PLAINS COMPANY LLC, VALERO POWER MARKETING LLC, VALERO RAIL OPERATIONS DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO RAIL OPERATIONS DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO RAIL PARTNERS LLC, VALERO REFINING AND MARKETING COMPANY, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-ARUBA N.V., VALERO REFINING COMPANY-CALIFORNIA, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-OKLAHOMA, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-TENNESSEE L.L.C., VALERO REFINING-MERAUX LLC, VALERO REFINING-NEW ORLEANS L.L.C., VALERO REFINING-TEXAS L.P., VALERO RENEWABLE FUELS COMPANY LLC, VALERO SECURITY SYSTEMS INC., VALERO SERVICES INC., VALERO SKELLYTOWN PIPELINE LLC, VALERO TEJAS COMPANY LLC, VALERO TERMINAL HOLDCO LTD, VALERO TERMINALING AND DISTRIBUTION COMPANY, VALERO TERMINALING AND DISTRIBUTION DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO TEXAS POWER MARKETING INC., VALERO ULTRAMAR HOLDINGS INC., VALERO UNIT INVESTMENTS L.L.C., VALERO WEST WALES LLC, VRG PROPERTIES COMPANY, VTD PROPERTIES COMPANY, WARSHALL COMPANY LLC, and ZELIG COMMERCIAL INC.. Temple Grandins Belong Forum Thursday afternoon (Sept. 27) took place before a capacity crowd full of people eager to hear from the worlds most famous animal scientist and likely worlds the most recognizable person with autism. Dr. Grandins work on both these fronts led to her being named one of Time Magazines 100 most influential people on the planet. Her address, held in Cumming Halls Alumni Theatre on the Agricultural Campus, was part of Dal 200s Year of Belonging. She joined past Belong Forum speakers like Buffy Sainte-Marie, Senator Murray Sinclair and Mark Tewksbury in wrestling with the question: What would it take to create a world where we all feel we truly belong? Dr. Grandin, who was nonverbal until she was nearly four years old, has changed the world in at least two significant ways. First, she was behind a revolution in how cattle farming is designed, noting that as long as we eat meat we are ethically responsible for providing farm animals a good life and humane death. A visual thinker, she was able to see things other humans didnt notice that spooked the cows from shadows to spraying water to chains hanging down in their pens. She designed facilities that calmed the animals, making their lives and deaths easier. Animals dont think in words, she said. Its a sensory-based world. As a result of her calming innovations, Half the cattle in North America are handled in equipment I designed, she told the crowd of students, faculty and community members. Advocacy and understanding Secondly, Dr. Grandin became an outspoken advocate for people with autism and for visual learners in general, showing the world that genius like hers is more common than we realized, but it is too often screened out by our education systems. Since the early 90s she has been tirelessly touring the continent educating parents, students and teachers about autism, developing an enormous following. Not surprising, then, that this installment of the Belong Forum series was completely at-capacity within a few hours of it being announced. In keeping with the theme of the Belong Forums, Dr. Grandin focused her talk (which was followed by a Q&A with Paul Withers of CBC one of Dal 200s sponsors) on different learning styles and the need to engage them all, leaving no one out. Were getting better at recognizing different kinds of brains, but weve gotten worse in taking out all the variety of things that kids can do in school to figure out an appropriate career: art, music, woodworking, welding, auto shop, music, said Dr. Grandin in an interview with Dal News prior to her address. Diverse minds are good at doing different things. Watch the full Belong Forum: Archived livestream Temple Grandin And the key point is that people with different learning styles including visual or object thinkers, pattern or mathematical thinkers (also excelling in music), and word or concept thinkers, among others are most effective when they work together. Dr. Grandin gave the example of her grandfather, John Coleman Purves, who worked with a guy who was probably on the autistic spectrum, who came up with this crazy idea everybody in aviation thought it was crazy. Her grandfather was not dismissive, and in fact decided he could make it work. The two men co-invented the autopilot. It took a visual thinker to conceptualize something new and someone with practical engineering skills to build it. Together the two men tinkered and tinkered and tinkered to make the system work, trial and error. You need different kinds of thinkers working together, Dr. Grandin said. Engineers calculate risk. Visual thinkers see risk. The importance of tinkering Dr. Grandin worries that modern education systems, with their focus on test scores and abstract concepts like algebra, screen out visual thinkers into special-education categories. She asked her audience to consider how someone like Einstein, who didnt speak until he was three, would have fared nowadays. Tinkering, Dr. Grandin added, is something kids need to do, but they are too often distracted by screens, especially video games. Kids need to be making things, playing with paper airplanes, trying out different things, adding paper clips, seeing how to make them fly best, she told Dal News. People need to touch in order to perceive. Dr. Grandin is also a strong advocate of internships, or trying on careers, and gave practical advice for young job seekers, especially those with less common learning styles. When youre weird, youve got to show them your work. Your portfolio should be a 30-second WOW. Only the best of a persons work. Dr. Grandin closed with advice for those with disabilities of any kind to focus on what they can do, more so than what they cant do. Autism is an important part of who I am, she said but stressed that her identity is based on her abilities and accomplishments in animal science. Watch the full Belong Forum: Archived livestream Temple Grandin This page may be updated if the event is repeated Past Event - Saturday, October 24, 2020 This page may be updated if the event is repeated The Ohios Hospice of Dayton 3k/5k Remembrance Walk offers families and friends an opportunity to honor the memory of a loved one and raise funds to support patient services. WHAT: The Ohios Hospice of Dayton 3k/5k Remembrance Walk offers families and friends an opportunity to honor the memory of a loved one and raise funds to support patient care and services. These include community-wide grief counseling, complementary therapies such as music, art and massage, and financial assistance for patients unable to pay for their care. WHEN: Saturday, October 24, 2020. Registration starts at 8:30 am. The walk begins at 10 am. WHERE: Ohios Hospice of Dayton 324 Wilmington Ave. Dayton, OH 45420 REGISTER: Call 937.258.5537 MORE DETAILS: Dress for the weather. We will have food trucks onsite, bring extra cash! New Delhi: The all-powerful GST Council may discuss a proposal to increase cess on luxury cars to mobilise funds for helping Kerala, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, which were hit by floods and heavy rains. The Council will hold its 30th meeting through a video-conferencing on Friday. It will be chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley. There are various suggestions which would be taken up by the Council. The existing compensation cess could be raised on one or more items. One of the proposals is to raise cess on luxury cars, said an official. Keralas finance minister Thomas Isaac had last week said that the GST Council should explore the possibility of an all-India cess to help states like Kerala in times of need. It will be discussed in the GST Council. This will be for a stipulated periodall states will contribute, he had said after a meeting with Jaitley. The official quoted above said that one of the suggestions is to limit the increase in levy to Kerala but it may not be a good idea given that the state has suffered badly due to natural calamity and requiring people to pay high price for goods would be inappropriate. There is possibility of a specific cess also for raising funds for calamity-hit states. GST must be made flexible to accommodate unforeseen urgent demand for resources as in the case natural calamities. Kerala welcomes the suggestion of honble FM for a national level cess on selected commodities for a specified period to help such states. GST Council to discuss, Isaac had said in a tweet last week. The sub-section (4) (F) of newly inserted Article 279 A provides for any special rate or rates for a specified period to raise additional resources during any natural calamity or disaster. The Central and State GST laws have a permissible limit of 40 per cent (without cess) for GST, while the current maximum rate is 28 per cent. IndiGo is the only carrier that meets a portion of fuel consumption by directly bringing ATF from overseas. New Delhi: The government move to levy 5 per cent import duty on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) is likely to have only a marginal impact on airlines as the volume of jet fuel coming into the country is less than 4 per cent of the total consumption. IndiGo is the only carrier that meets a portion of fuel consumption by directly bringing ATF from overseas. Industry sources said the low-cost private carriers total import accounts for 10-12 per cent of its fuel bill. Another major carrier SpiceJet has regulatory approval to import aviation turbine fuel but the airline is yet to start shipping in. It needs a lot of investment initially to directly import the jet fuel. This is perhaps the reason not many airlines have started importing. Then, an airline should also be able to get better deal from fuel suppliers, an airline executive said. In a bid to reduce current account deficit and contain the fall in rupee, the government on Thursday hiked import duty on 19 different items, including ATF. The increased rates will be effective from September 27 midnight. While the increase in import duty on ATF is expected to have only a limited impact, the timing of the decision is certainly not right for airlines as they are already facing the double whammy of rising jet fuel price and depreciating rupee. This has badly affected their bottom lines. Rising fuel price, which accounts for up to 40 per cent of their total operating cost, is weighing heavy on them and experts are predicting full-year loss for airlines. In its report this week, rating and research firm Icra said the Indian aviation industry is likely to report an aggregate loss of Rs 8,800 crore in the current financial year. Furthermore, some of the airlines have large capacity expansion plans, which may be either owned (through debt funding) or on operating lease. The industry is expected to require capital infusion of Rs 20,000 crore over FY19-21. There is huge yield pressure on the domestic airlines as expenses have significantly gone up over the last few months, while earning is yet to reflect it proportionately. With additional capacity in the market, airlines have frequently launched fire sale of tickets. They, however, hope that fare level would rise in coming months with the onset of peak season from October. Arjun Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra are yet to work with each other. Mumbai: Actors Sidharth Malhotra and Arjun Kapoor will reportedly share screen space in the sequel to Ek Villain. There was speculation that Sidharth, who starred in the 2014 film, has been replaced by Arjun in the follow-up, produced by Ekta Kapoor. According to a source close to the project, the makers have approached Sidharth to play the lead, and they want Arjun to play the antagonist. The producers have approached both of the actors - Sidharth for the role of the protagonist and Arjun for the negative role... Talks are on and they have not signed the contract as yet, the insider said. Directed by Mohit Suri, Ek Villain also starred Riteish Deshmukh and Shraddha Kapoor. Sidharth is currently shooting for Jabariya Jodi in Lucknow. The actor will next start work on Captain Vikram Batra biopic whereas Arjun's next release is Namaste England. He also has films Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, India's Most Wanted and Panipat lined up. Tanushree Dutta had claimed that everyone in the industry was aware of Nana Patekars misbehaviour with many women. Mumbai: The debate over what is being seen as Bollywood's #MeToo moment snowballed Thursday as Tanushree Dutta reiterated her claim that Nana Patekar had harassed her on the sets of a film in 2008, and the veteran actor laughed off her allegation, asking what he could do about it. A day after Dutta reopened the window on the 10-year-old incident and specifically named Patekar, there was a furious discussion on social media platforms and other media outlets, but the film industry itself was mostly silent. Patekar dismissed Dutta's claim that he had misbehaved with her on the sets of Horn 'Ok' Pleassss in 2008. In a telephonic conversation with Mirror Now, the 67-year-old actor said he would see if he could take any legal step. "What can I do about it? Tell me? How would I know?" he asked with a laugh. "What does she mean by sexual harassment? There are 50-100 people on the sets with me. Will see what I can do legally," Patekar can be heard saying in Marathi in the audio available on the channel's official Twitter account. Such behaviour, he added, could not have gone unnoticed in a film set with "50-100" people. Rakesh Sarang, director of Horn 'Ok' Pleassss, backed Patekar. "She misunderstood the enthusiasm of Mr Patekar. There were so many people on the sets. If somebody wanted to do it, why do it in front of everyone?" Sarang told PTI. Meanwhile, after reacting to the controversy, work went on for Patekar as he headed to Jaisalmer to shoot for Housefull 4. Farah Khan posted a picture on Instagram with the films actors, Kriti Sanon, Pooja Hegde, among others. Still from the song in Chocolate, which Tanushree Dutta probably is referring to as she said there was water around, and she was unwell, but Vivek Agnihotri refused to turn off the air conditioner, saying, 'Should we die in heat?' Mumbai: Tanushree Dutta is making headlines and is being tipped to be the flag-bearer of the #Metoo movement in Bollywood since she accused Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of a film in 2008. Though the actress revealed she had experienced such behaviour for the first time in her career, she shares that there were another moment she faced which also comes under the bracket of sexual harassment. In an interview with DNA, Tanushree revealed an incident involving Hate Story and Zid director Vivek Agnihotri on the sets of their 2005 film Chocolate. She claims he asked her to remove her clothes and dance to give cues to co-star Irrfan Khan, who, along with another co-star Suniel Shetty, got offended by the filmmakers words. Tanushrees statement: "This guy (Vivek Agnihotri) wanted me to give cues to an actor (Irrfan Khan). It was an actor's close-up. It was not even my shot. I was not even going to be in the shot. It was the actor's close-up and he had to just look at something and give expressions. This director, he told me, 'Jao jaake kapde utaar ke naacho, usko cues do.' "...The male actor had to shoot back at the director saying, 'I don't need her to take off her coat and dance for me to give facial expressions.' This was Irrfan Khan. I really appreciated that he actually spoke up like that because it was his close-up shot. I'm not in the frame. He had to look at me and give some expressions. Why do I have to dance in front of him for him to give expressions on his close-up shot? This director tells me 'jao jaake kapde utaar ke naacho'. I was shocked!" "...The actor was horrified. And, because he had done some work, he could say something. He just told the director, 'What are you talking about? I can give my close-up. Mujhe acting aati hai'. Suniel Shetty also spoke up. He was also there, he heard it and he got offended by it. He was like, 'Main aayun kya wahaan cues dene ke liye?' (Should I come there to give cues) Yeah of course, there are good people in the industry. Both, Irrfan Khan and Suniel Shetty spoke up. Suniel scolded that guy." This is not the first time Vivek has got flak for a comment. Recently his derogatory comment against Swara Bhasker on the Kerala nun rape case was removed by Twitter, after he asked the actress, "Where is the placard - #MeTooProstituteNun. Mumbai: Tanushree Dutta has reacted to Nana Patekar laughing off her allegations of his misbehaviour against her in 2008 and described his response as a "fear and intimidation tactic". Patekar was "repeating the mistake" that got him into trouble, she said. "I don't even consider him worth commenting on... Dismissing a woman's claim, dismissing her completely. It is fear and intimidation tactic. This attitude to laugh it off, I think he will face a severe backlash. I can see through everything he is trying to do. That is sad," the actor, who is now based in the US, told PTI. Asked about the issue that was trending on social media and was the subject of many discussions all over, Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan evaded a direct answer. "My name is not Tanushree and my name is not Nana Patekar," Bachchan, who shared screen space with Patekar in Kohram in 1999, said when asked to react to Dutta's allegations. Khan said it would not be right for him to comment but "whenever something like this does happens it is really a sad thing". The two stars were speaking at the trailer launch of their upcoming film Thugs of Hindostan. "I don't think I can comment on it... But whenever something like this does happens it is really a sad thing. Now whether such a thing has happened, it is for people to investigate," Khan added. Asked about the evasive reaction, Dutta said she was going to give them time and was hopeful that "people would do the right thing". "They are exposing themselves. This is the response of those who talk about women's empowerment and support the #MeToo movement happening in America... and when that is happening here, this is how they respond," she said. She said she was coming from a compassionate space and was not going to jump to conclusions. "Some humanity will rise and they will say or do something about it. I am still hopeful that people will do the right thing," the actor said. Salman Khan was also asked about it at an event and his reply was on similar lines. He was quoted as saying. I am not aware of this. Let me know and understand what is happening. I have been here and I am sure that the legal team will handle that. We will see what is going on. I am not aware of it. Meanwhile, Priyanka Chopra, Twinkle Khanna, Farhan Akhtar, Richa Chadha and Swara Bhasker have voiced their support for Tanushree Dutta. Lending his support to the actor by sharing a thread of a journalists account of the incident, Farhan said that her intention should not be questioned. "Even when #TanushreeDutta had career concerns to keep quiet 10 years ago she did not and her story hasn't changed now. Her courage should be admired, not her intention questioned," he tweeted. This thread is very telling. @janiceseq85 was there at the time of the incident being debated today. Even when #TanushreeDutta had career concerns to keep quiet 10 years ago she did not & her story hasnt changed now. Her courage should be admired, not her intention questioned. https://t.co/Ola3MNdmtS Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) September 27, 2018 Priyanka replied to Farhan's tweet, "Agreed..the world needs to #BelieveSurviviors." Her husband Akshay Kumar is shooting with Nana for 'Housefull 4' currently, but Twinkle Khanna still tweeted, "Please read this thread before judging or shaming #TanushreeDutta a working environment without harassment and intimidation is a fundamental right and by speaking up this brave woman helps pave the way towards that very goal for all of us!" Please read this thread before judging or shaming #TanushreeDutta a working environment without harassment and intimidation is a fundamental right and by speaking up this brave woman helps pave the way towards that very goal for all of us! https://t.co/f8Nj9YWRvE Twinkle Khanna (@mrsfunnybones) September 28, 2018 Echoing similar sentiments, Richa said that what happened to Tanushree "on set was intimidation." She tweeted, "It hurts to be #TanushreeDutta rn. To be alone, questioned. No woman wants publicity that opens the floodgates of trolling and insensitivity. What happened to her on set was intimidation. Her only fault was she didn't back down-takes a special courage to be #TanushreeDutta." It hurts to be #TanushreeDutta rn. To be alone, questioned. No woman wants publicity that opens the floodgates of trolling and insensitivity.What happened to her on set was intimidation.Her only fault was she didnt back down-takes a special courage to be #TanushreeDutta. TheRichaChadha (@RichaChadha) September 27, 2018 Even Swara Bhasker supported her by tweeting with the hashtag #IBeliveYouTanushreeDutta. Laxmibai Nagar in New Delhi was buzzing with good news as the cast and crew of Amit Sharma's next Badhaai Ho made the residential government colony their home for over 2 weeks. The director, who is also a leading ad filmmaker, chose to shoot at real locations as opposed to a set unit, zeroing in on a colony home in Delhi's Laxmibai Nagar. Apart from conducting an extensive recce, prior to the film going on floors, the crew along with the Production Designer Ratheesh also worked for days on end to ensure the interiors and exteriors of the residence matched with the middle class homes and even sourced out local furniture and upholstery from the region. Director Amit Ravindranath Sharma informs, Born and brought up in Delhi, I had a vision for this house and Ratheesh brought it to life. We have worked together in past and I had full confidence in him. The set looked exactly like a house. I drew on my childhood memories on how my dadi would have her medicines next to her bed, how our dining table was laid out. We worked on every possible detail- like going to real houses taking pictures and trying to replicate that on our set. We observed middle class lifestyle and added those elements - everyday Ayushmann used to fondly have chawanprash that was centre piece of the dining table. Talking about challenges we had to make the set rain shoot friendly. We had it easy because the set had collapsable walls, detachable windows and doors to shoot the scenes from all the angles. We had to use heatlon sheets and sand to make sure the tiles of the set didnt break and caused no problem during sync sound. The set is seventh character (Ayushmann, Sanya, Neena Gupta, Gajraj Rao, Surekha Sikri and Shardul Rana) that has added life to the whole film. Shoot never felt like one because the whole cast and the crew felt they are at home, he adds. Ratheesh adds, I have worked with Amit in many commercials before. He never asks to do how he wanted, but how it should be. So the script itself was the brief. All he wanted is nothing should look fake. Real location is what we all - Sanu, Amit and I always prefer. But we couldnt find one which could help us to execute the film how amit wanted. Around 40% of the film is inside the house. Space for camera movement, night scenes, atmosphere for sync sound and to finish within the schedule- all these factors made us think about a set. The biggest challenge was to do justice to the freedom Amit gave in production designing. We were creating an interior of an existing location. And the set should match to that- size, texture, props and exterior- at the same time we need enough space to move around but still it shouldnt look bigger than a middle class house. That was the task. The whole set was either on wheels or on hinges to create enough space for shooting and to save time. In September 2016, after the dastardly Uri attack that claimed the lives of our jawans, India carried out one of its most covert counter-insurgency operations in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. These surgical strikes proved to be a strong and resounding message of Indias military and intelligence might to the world. Today marks the 2 year anniversary of this massively successful military operation. Known to push the envelope and back stories that must be told, RSVP is proud to present URI. Directed by Aditya Dhar with Vicky Kaushal in the lead role, it is a film based on the 2016 surgical strikes. URI is a passion project, a story that must be told as it showcases Indias intelligence and military might. The youth of this nation must see who our real heroes are, says Ronnie Screwvala. I am glad to know that a film is being made to honour our armed forces for their services and sacrifice. I am looking forward to it, says Ajit Doval (National Security Advisor). Uri releases 11th Jan 2019. Set in 1940s Spain, Pans Labyrinth tells the story of Ofelia, whose pregnant mother has married a sadistic army captain and is sent to live with him in a remote mill. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and bestselling author Cornelia Funke have collaborated on a novel inspired by del Toros 2006 classic film Pans Labyrinth, which has been acquired by Bloomsbury in a fiercely contested auction. Publishing director, Rebecca McNally acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (exc Canada) from Jenny Savill, director at Andrew Nurnberg Associates. Cornelia Funke says: El Laberinto del Fauno (Pans Labyrinth) has been my favourite movie since I first watched it. It demonstrates what I believe to be true: that fantasy is the sharpest tool to develop and unveil all the miracles and the terrors of our reality. It is both political and timeless, a rare achievement in storytelling. My life has often given me reason to believe in magic. But when Guillermo del Toro asked me to turn my favourite movie into a novel, even I wondered whether I had entered the realm of fairy tales. Rebecca McNally responded: This powerful, visceral, scary, beautiful book demonstrates the storytelling magic that can happen when two brilliant imaginations come together. This is a timeless, forever kind of novel. I cant wait to share it with readers of all ages. Set in 1940s Spain, Pans Labyrinth tells the story of Ofelia, whose pregnant mother has married a sadistic army captain and is sent to live with him in a remote mill at the edge of a dark forest. As her mother grows ill and her stepfathers brutality is revealed, the boundaries between fantasy and reality, dream and waking, fairy tale and horror are eroded. Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer, and novelist. In his filmmaking career, del Toro has alternated between Spanish-language dark fantasy pieces, such as Pan's Labyrinth (2006), and more mainstream American action films such as Blade II (2002) and the science fiction film Pacific Rim (2013). His 2017 fantasy film The Shape of Water received critical acclaim and won a Golden Lion at the 74th Venice International Film Festival as well as the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2018. Del Toro also received an Academy Award for Best Director, as well as the Golden Globe, BAFTA, Critics' Choice, and Directors Guild of America Awards. Cornelia Funke is an award-winning German childrens author, born in Dorsten in 1958. Cornelias books have been translated from German into 35 different languages, and include Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath, The Thief Lord, Dragonrider and Dragonrider: The Griffins Feather, Igraine the Brave, and the Reckless series. A film adaptation of The Thief Lord came out in 2006 and the Hollywood production of Inkheart was released in 2008. Cornelia lives in Malibu, California. Pans Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun will publish on 2 July 2019 in hardback, with illustrations by Allen Williams. Katherine Tegen Books at Harper US will publish simultaneously. Foreign language rights have already been sold to Brazil (Intrinseca), Germany (Fischer), Holland (Querido Kinderboeken), Italy (Mondadori), Poland (Zysk), Russia (Azbooka-Atticus) and World Spanish (PRH). Study finds one in 11 US teens have used cannabis in e-cigarettes. (Photo: Pixabay) Roughly one in 11 American middle and high school students have used cannabis in e-cigarettes, a study suggests. In 2016, researchers surveyed more than 20,000 youth ages nine to 19, including about 5,200 children and teens who said they had vaped at least once. Nearly one in three young e-cigarette users said they had tried cannabis with e-cigarettes at least once, survey results showed. Overall, almost 9 percent of students had vaped marijuana, including 4.5 percent of students in middle school and 12.4 percent of students in high school. Smoke from cannabis contains many of the same toxins, irritants, and carcinogens as tobacco smoke, said lead study author Katrina Trivers of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Although using cannabis through an e-cigarette or in edibles does not have the same risks of smoking it, there are still health risks, Trivers said by email. Big tobacco companies, including Altria Group Inc, Lorillard Tobacco Co and Reynolds American Inc, are all developing e-cigarettes. The battery-powered devices feature a glowing tip and a heating element that turns liquid nicotine and other flavorings into a cloud of vapor that users inhale. Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed a crackdown on sales of flavored e-cigarettes to combat what regulators described as an epidemic of teen vaping. The researchers acknowledge in JAMA Pediatrics that the study wasnt a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how vaping on its own or using cannabis in e-cigarettes might directly cause health problems. Still, they say, their findings add to earlier evidence suggesting that e-cigarettes may be a gateway to smoking tobacco and experimenting with drugs. E-cigarettes can also be used to deliver nicotine and other drugs, including cannabis or marijuana, Trivers said. There are a variety of ways that cannabis or marijuana could be used in an e-cigarette, such as putting hash oils, waxes, and other THC liquids directly in the e-liquid section of an e-cigarette. Some previous research suggests that cannabis use during adolescence can adversely impact learning and memory and impair academic achievement, the study authors note. Vaping has also been linked to breathing problems as well as heart and blood vessel damage. Theres also a risk that vaping cannabis may expose teens to more potent doses of the drug and higher levels of chemicals in marijuana like THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) than they might get by smoking a joint, said Wayne Hall of the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research at the University of Queensland in Australia. Especially in places where marijuana is legal for recreational or medical use, it may not be hard for teens to get access to cannabis oils or extracts to use with vaping devices, Hall, who wasnt involved in the study, said by email. Cannabis products, whether for medical or recreational use such as cannabis oils and cannabis extracts, are being marketed to adults for use in vaporizers as a safer and/or more efficient way to obtain cannabis, Hall said. Study reveals best way to improve your child's brain power. (Photo: Pixabay) Less time on social media and quality sleep can help boost your child's brain power, researchers reveal. A new study found too much time watching TV, surfing the internet or playing video games, hurts your child's brain development. For the study, the team examined how much screen time, sleep and physical activity close to 4,500 children in the US were getting. Children between the ages of eight and 11, who spent a lot of time on electronic devices, were found to have a 5% lower cognitive function than others in their age range. Getting the right activity balance is crucial to a child's development, Dr Jeremy Walsh, of the CHEO Research Institute, Ottawa, told the Daily Mail. "Behaviours and day-to-day activities contribute to brain and cognitive development in children and physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep might independently and collectively affect cognition," he is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. Adding, "We found that more than two hours of recreational screen time in children was associated with poorer cognitive development." Researchers say screen time does not stimulate the brain in the same way reading books do. "Each minute spent on screens necessarily displaces a minute from sleep or cognitively challenging activities. In the case of evening screen use, this displacement may also be compounded by impairment of sleep quality," Dr Eduardo Esteban Bustamante, from the University of Illinois, USA, told the Daily Mail. The findings were originally published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal. This is why some people get worse colds than others. (Photo: Pixabay) A new study has discovered the reason why some people suffer worse cold than others. The organisms living in your nose is a key factor that determines the severity of the cold symptoms one develops, the Daily Mail reported. More bacteria that causes food poisoning, tract infections and boils, the more likely you are to have a worse cough and cold. For the study, 157 participants were injected with rhinovirus type 39, a common cold virus. The team, from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, examined the nasal microbiome before and after the injection. They found nasal bacteria falls into six different patterns. The severity of the symptoms depended on which pattern the individual had. Those who had a great deal of Staphylococcus bacteria had severe nasal symptoms than the others. It can cause toxic shock syndrome and food poisoning. The Daily Mail quotes Dr Ronald Turner, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine: "The first surprise was that you can kind of identify these different buckets that people kind of fit into." "And then the fact that the buckets seem to have some impact on how you respond to the virus and how sick you get was also interesting. "So the background microbiome, the background bacterial pattern in your nose, had influences on the way that you reacted to the virus and how sick you got." Researchers say their findings could help develop individualised treatments for the virus. KPCC President Dinesh Gundurao told reporters the Congress was still confident that the two corporators would support its candidate. (Photo: Twitter) Bengaluru: To avoid alleged horse-trading, the Congress party on late Thursday night shifted five independent corporators to a resort in Bengaluru ahead of the elections to the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The elections are due to be held later today. The election was necessitated following the terms of Sampath Raj and Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy as the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of BBMP respectively ended on Thursday. According to reports, two independent corporators switched loyalty on Thursday after which Congress swung into action and moved the remaining five independent corporators to a Bengaluru resort. The Congress also levelled allegations of poaching against the BJP. In a press conference on Thursday, KPCC President Dinesh Gundurao told reporters the Congress was still confident that the two corporators would support its candidate. In the 2015 polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single-largest party with winning 100 seats out of the total of 198. Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) managed to get only 76 and 14 seats respectively. (With inputs from agencies) 'Congress is used to involvement of middlemen in deals and cannot accept that an agreement can happen without them. There is no middleman here. It is a government to government agreement,' Prakash Javadekar said. (Photo: File) Indore: Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday that Congress president Rahul Gandhi will end up losing face in his attempt to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal, and raked up allegations against his brother-in-law Robert Vadra to target him. After Gandhi attacked the Modi government in Chitrakoot, Javadekar told reporters that he should first answer how documents related to the Rafale deal being negotiated by the UPA government found their way in the house of a friend, a defence dealer, of Vadra. The deal was scrapped later. To Gandhi's claim that Anil Ambani's firm was awarded a contract of Rs 30,000 - Javadekar said not a single paisa of transaction has taken place so far. "The Congress is used to involvement of middlemen in deals and cannot accept that an agreement can happen without them. There is no middleman here. It is a government to government agreement," he said of the Rafale fighter aircraft deal. The Congress seems to have lost its balance, and that is why it is telling lies everyday and repeating them all the time, he said, adding, Rahul Gandhi will end up losing face in his attempt to tarnish the prime minister over the Rafale deal. The opposition could not find a single charge of corruption against the government in its four and a half years of rule, he said, adding that it has now resorted to levelling baseless charges. Chennai: Pointing out that unscheduled power cut is occurring everyday in most of the Tamil Nadu, the Madras high court has directed the secretary to government, energy department, and chairman, Tangedco to appear before the court on September 28 and explain the power position in the state. Justice N.Kirubakaran gave the directive while passing further interim orders on a contempt application filed by the Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association. The judge said, Tamil Nadu is claimed to be a power surplus state. It is not known as to how there would be chance for unscheduled power cuts affecting common mans life, students and elders, even functioning of hospitals and courts. There are many news reports that there is shortage of coal in Tamil Nadu and other reasons for power deficit. It is surprising to note that even the coal storage is also limited only to 15 days. Ours is a bigger state where more than 7 and half crores people are living. In case of emergency, there should be at least one month coal storage available with Tangedco which is the power generator and distributor. The contention of S.Parthasarathy, counsel for the petitioner, at this juncture has to be recalled that wind power is deliberately backed down and the thermal power which is the least in the priority list is given priority. Therefore, to explain the power position in Tamil Nadu, secretary to government, energy department and chairman, Tangedco, are directed to appear before this court on September 28 and answer 13 queries. Electricity has become very essential and without power supply, even human life cannot be lead and no one can think of life without electricity even for 10 minutes. When such was the position, the government should have been careful enough to see that all precautionary steps have been taken to see that the power supply was not interrupted and sufficient power supply was given to the citizens, the judge added and posted to September 28, further hearing of the case. In its contempt application, the association submitted that the order of the court dated July 8, 2015 has been violated. The interim order prohibited the authorities from backing down windmill energy. In spite of direction, the entire wind energy produced has not been infused into the Tamil Nadu grid continuously. The windmill energy should be utilized and it was in the first priority list, whereas the thermal energy which was the least in priority list was given priority over wind energy for unknown reasons backing down the wind energy, the association added. Additional advocate general C.Manishankar submitted that there was no backing down and if at all any backing down was there, it was only due to unavoidable circumstances, taking the grid safety into consideration. Based on the SLDC direction also, the backing down was done some times, he added. CM Kumaraswamy said the state's economic growth till August end was about 24 per cent, compared to 27 per cent in the previous year. (Photo: File) Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Friday said his government was "marching ahead" by implementing budget announcements in a time-bound manner, even as he hit out at those criticising the Congress-JD(S) coalition government for not 'having taken off.' The Chief Minister, who chaired a meeting of officials to review the implementation of budget announcements, set October 15 as the deadline for approval of pending proposals. "I have instructed officials of various departments to take approval to programmes announced during the budget that are still pending, before October 15. I have set October 15 as the deadline," he said. "Some say this government has not taken off, but when you compare (us) with previous governments, our government is marching forward by working efficiently to implement programmes in a time-bound manner," he said. Amid rumours about the stability of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, Kumaraswamy had Thursday asserted that it was 'stable' and would complete its five-year term. The chief minister said orders have been issued on 230 of the 460 announcements made, including those made in the vote on account by the previous government in February and fresh budget presented by his government in July. 'Others are at various stages," he said The opposition BJP has been critical of the functioning of the coalition government, saying it has 'not taken off' and has repeatedly demanded that Kumaraswamy come out with a 'white paper' on the state's financial position. To a question about BJPs demand for a white paper, Kumaraswamy said if they had any information on the finances being in a poor state, they should come out with it He said the state's economic growth till August end was about 24 per cent, compared to 27 per cent in the previous year and added that the growth could not meet expectations as the election process was then on (in May). "However, since September economic growth has picked up at a greater phase and efforts are on to further improve it. Claiming that he has been getting thousands of applications for non-technical and technical jobs from across the state during his 'Janata Darshana' programme, Kumaraswamy said a two-day job fair would be organised from tomorrow to ensure that the applicants got jobs. The Chief Minister also instructed officials to utilise funds of about Rs 29,000 crore for programmes under the Special Component Plan (SCP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP). "We have also framed guidelines under which officials can be held accountable if funds are not utilised adequately within a given time frame and they can even be punished," he said. Jodhpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday inaugurated Parakram Parv exhibition at the military station in Jodhpur to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army across the LoC. Soon after his arrival at the Battle Axe Ground at the military station, the Prime Minister first signed a message paying homage to martyrs and took a round of the exhibition, showcasing combat capabilities of the Indian Army. The Prime Minister also paid floral tributes to martyrs at the Konark War Memorial here. PM Modi was accompanied by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. On September 29, 2016, the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on seven terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) as a response to an attack on its base in Uri earlier that month. The Army had said its special forces inflicted "significant casualties" on terrorists waiting there to cross into Indian territory. The defence minister had announced last week that various events will be held from September 28 to 30 to commemorate the valour of soldiers. After taking a round of the exhibition, PM Modi and Sitharaman proceeded to attend the Combined Commanders' Conference scheduled at the Jodhpur Airforce Station. "The conference will have deliberations among the Prime Minister, Defence Minister, chiefs of all the 3 defence services and some senior officials on some general and contemporary issues on national concern, said Defence Spokesperson Colonel Sombit Ghosh. New Delhi: In a historic judgement, the Supreme Court on Friday lifted ban on women of all age groups from entering renowned Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra gave a 4:1 verdict. In four set of judgements, CJI wrote for himself and Justice A M Khanwilkar, while Justice Indu Malhotra gave a dissenting verdict. Earlier, women of the menstrual age, between 10 to 50 years, were restricted from entering the temple premises. It is believed that the residing deity of the temple, Lord Ayyappa, is considered to be a celibate. Reading out the verdict, CJI Misra said, Women no way inferior to men. On one hand, women are worshipped as Goddesses, but there are restrictions on the other hand. Relationship with God can't be defined by biological or physiological factors. Banning entry of women to shrine is gender discrimination, CJI Misra said. CJI Misra further said, Practice of exclusion of women of 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as essential religious practice. Justice Misra added that, Devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination. Patriarchal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. Religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. Sabarimala Temple practice violates rights of Hindu women. Devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not constitute separate denomination, CJI Misra further said. CJI Misra said Sabarimala temple practice violates rights of Hindu women. He further said, Devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination. Patriarchal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. Religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. Reading out his verdict, Justice Chandrachud said, Exclusion of women is violative of right to liberty, dignity and equality. Exclusion of women because she menstruates is utterly unconstitutional. Justice Chandrachud said prohibition on women is due to non-religious reasons and it is a grim shadow of discrimination going on for centuries. He added, Any custom or religious practice if violates dignity of women by denying them entry due to her physiology is unconstitutional. Reading out dissenting verdict Justice Indu Malhotra said, Issues which have deep religious connotation should not be tinkered with to maintain secular atmosphere in the country. A bench headed by CJI Misra had reserved its judgement on a bunch of petitions that challenge the ban on entry of women on August 1 after hearing the case for eight days. The plea challenging the ban was filed by petitioners Indian Young Lawyers Association and others. SC refused to interfere in arrest of activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- in Bhima-Koregaon case. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday extended the house arrest of five activists accused of Maoists links for four more weeks. The apex court refused to constitute SIT (Special Investigation Team) to probe the matter and asked the Pune police to go ahead with the investigation. The top court also refused to interfere in the arrest of activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha -- in Bhima-Koregaon case. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Mishra and comprising Justices A M Khaniwlkar and D Y Chandrachud, on Friday gave a 2:1 judgement on the plea. Reading out the verdict, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, "Arrests were not because of dissent of activists, there is prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist)." Reading out his verdict, Justice Khanwilkar said: Evidence does not suggest arrest of five accused was made to quell dissent. Justice Khanwilkar added that the accused persons cannot choose which investigating agency should probe the case. Justice Chandrachud said he was unable to agree with view of CJI Misra and Justice Khanwilkar. Reading out his verdict, Justice Chandrachud said: Dissent is symbol of vibrant democracy. Justice Chandrachud further said the petition was genuine and lashed out at Maharashtra police for press meet, distribution of letters to media. He said, Letters alleged to be written by Sudha Bhardwaj flashed on TV. Police's selective disclosure casts cloud on fair probe: Chandrachud. Liberty cherished by Constitution would have no meaning if persecution of 5 activists is allowed without proper investigation, Justice Chandrachud said, adding that the arrest of five activists was an attempt by state to muzzle dissent. The court said that the activists arrested in Bhima Koregaon case can move trial court for relief. The apex court was responding to the plea by historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala, who had sought an independent probe into the arrests and the immediate release of the activists. The activists had been arrested by the Maharashtra police on August 28 in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave 'Elgaar Parishad' held on December 31, 2017 that had later triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in the state. The bench had earlier reserved the judgment on September 20 after counsel for both parties, including senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Harish Salve and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, concluded their submissions. They had also asked the Maharashtra police to file their case diary pertaining to the ongoing investigation in the case. The five activists have been under arrest at their respective homes since August 29. In view of the dismissal of both the review and curative petitions, Jayalalithaa is not bound to pay the Rs 100 crore fine to the Karnataka government. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a curative petition filed by Karnataka seeking reconsideration of February 14, 2017, judgment holding that the appeal in the Rs 66 crore disproportionate assets case against former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa has abated after her death on December 5, 2016. A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Madan B Lokur dismissed as no merits the curative petition which sought a direction to recover the Rs 100 crore fine imposed on Jayalalithaa by the trial court which was upheld by the apex court. The curative petition was filed after the states plea for review was turned down. The bench in a brief order passed in the CJI chamber said, The application for personal hearing is rejected. We have gone through the curative petitions and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out for reconsideration. In view of the dismissal of both the review and curative petitions, Jayalalithaa is not bound to pay the Rs 100 crore fine to the Karnataka government. In its curative petition, Karnataka described the judgment as an error on the face of the record which merits a re-look. It said, If a party dies after the conclusion of arguments and judgment is reserved, there is no question of abatement of appeal and that the judgment subsequently pronounced will have the same force and effect as if the same was pronounced before the death took place. On February 14, 2017, the apex court holding Sasikala, Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi guilty of abetment in the DA case convicted them to undergo four-year imprisonment and they are now in jail in Bengaluru. As far as Jayalalithaa was concerned, the bench said the appeal has come to an end. Assailing this finding Karnataka said, There are no provisions either in the Constitution or in the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 for such abatement of appeal. On the other hand, the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 provide that both in case of civil appeals, as well as election petitions, there will be no abatement if the death takes place after the conclusion of hearing. Karnataka argued that even though the question of Jayalalithaa undergoing further imprisonment does not arise, sentence to pay fine is legally sustainable which has to be recovered from the estate. This is particularly so where the offence alleged is of illegally acquiring disproportionate assets. Therefore, the finding that the appeal has abated is not correct. It said a criminal appeal involving offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act stand on a slightly different footing where the allegation is of acquisition of disproportionate assets by a public servant. In the circumstances, though the death of Jayalalithaa renders a sentence of imprisonment infructuous, the question whether any fine is liable to be imposed as also confiscation of illegally acquired property will survive for consideration. Karnataka urged the Supreme Court to modify its February 14, 2017, judgment and restore the trial court verdict in its entirety against Jayalalithaa. Rahul Easwar, the grandson of Sabarimala priest Kandararu Maheswararu, who died in May this year, said they were going for a review petition. (Photo: Facebook/ Rahul Easwar) Mumbai: President of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena and activist Rahul Easwar, a prominent face of the campaign that challenged the entry of women between the ages of 10 and 50 at Kerala's renowned Sabarimala temple, has argued that the Supreme Court's verdict on Friday was not balanced and he will be appeal to a larger bench. Rahul Easwar, the grandson of Sabarimala priest Kandararu Maheswararu, who died in May this year, said they were going for a review petition. Our core argument is that presiding deity of Sabarimala Shrine has some peculiarities. The deity is in the form of Naishtika Brahmachari and has certain rights to uphold the privacy of the deity. And the deitys private space is the temple, so we were expecting a much more balanced verdict. We will certainly file a review petition. We still have the legal remedy with us. Until October 16, the temple is closed too, so we have time. In a four-one majority verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday lifted ban on entry of women in the temple following a 20-year legal battle, ruling that patriarchy cannot be allowed to trump faith. Also Read: Bond with God not biology: Women of all ages can enter Sabarimala, rules SC Sabarimala temple's rule was made from the still widely-held belief in India that menstruating women are "impure". "To treat women as children of a lesser god is to blink at the constitution itself," said Justice DY Chandrachud, one of the five judges in the constitution that gave a majority verdict on Friday. Women activists on the other hand, hailed the Supreme Court judgement, but expressed concern over its acceptance at the ground level by people. "I am doubtful the temple authorities would take it in the right spirit. Women would accept it but its implementation might pose a problem," Chhavi Methi, a women rights activist said. Activist Trupti Desai also hailed the apex court's decision as a step in the direction. "We welcome the decision of the apex court. This is a very big win for women and is a historical decision. Women have today got right to equality and we will soon declare a date to enter the Sabarimala Shrine. There is a mentality, which is responsible for such practices and this thought process must be changed and we have taken a very significant step forward in that direction with this constitutional win." Another women rights activist Vani Subramaniam said the decision is an extension of various pro-equality judgements taken by the Supreme Court, but she too expressed concern over the community's reaction to it. "Question remains to be seen how it is accepted in the community and by the people at the ground level," she said. Mariam Dhawale, General Secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association, called it another step that would help in bringing equality. "We welcome the judgement. Women have a constitutional right to be able to visit the temple and whoever wishes must be allowed to visit it," she said. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis also defended the state police for addressing a press conference after the arrest, which had been come in for criticism. (Photo: File) Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's refusal to interfere with the probe by the state police against five Left-wing activists in connection with violence in Koregaon- Bhima in December last year. Fadnavis said the decision of the top court proved that there was no conspiracy behind action by the state police against Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha. The five are under arrest at their respective homes since August 29. Fadnavis was reacting soon after the Supreme Court declined to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the arrest of the five activists by the Pune police. The court said the arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist) organisation. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. "The Supreme Court has vindicated the state government and the Pune police. The court has no doubt over the material evidence submitted," the chief minister told reporters. "A conspiracy against the nation has been unearthed by the police," he said on the arrest of the five activists. According to the Supreme Court order, the government will go to the "appropriate forum" in the case, he said. Fadnavis also defended the state police for addressing a press conference after the arrest, which had been come in for criticism. "A lot of things were said against the police after the arrest and an atmosphere was created by pseudo, so-called neo-liberals in the media that the arrests have been made without evidence. The police had to say that the arrests were not motivated but backed by real and powerful evidence," he said. "We will look into the fine print of the order regarding the police press conference. The press conference is not important but the real issue of conspiracy against the nation is. If holding the press conference was wrong, we will improve it," he said. Fadnavis said political parties should not support the arrested persons for political reasons after the SC verdict, "otherwise the political parties will stand exposed." Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on August 28 from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi. The majority verdict by the Supreme Court said the protection of house arrest of the activists will remain in force for four more weeks to enable the accused to seek appropriate legal remedy at appropriate legal forum. Before Swaraj left, she made India's stance clear at the SAARC meeting that India won't engage in regional cooperation when terrorism is the single-largest threat to peace and stability in South-Asia. (Photo: Twitter | @MEAIndia) New Delhi/ New York: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj left the SAARC inter-ministerial meeting midway, shortly after her speech on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, prompting criticism from Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. I am not hesitating in saying that for the progress and success of the SAARC and for the connectivity and prosperity of the region, there is only one obstacle. The attitude of only one country is hampering and not letting the spirit of the SAARC and of the founding fathers fulfilled, Qureshi said, adding When it comes to any positive gesture from India's side, all I can say is that she left the meeting midway, maybe she wasn't feeling well." Before Swaraj left, she made India's stance clear at the SAARC meeting that India won't engage in regional cooperation when terrorism is the single-largest threat to peace and stability in South-Asia. "The number of threats and incidents that endanger South Asia are on the rise. Terrorism remains the single-largest threat to peace and stability in our region, and indeed in the world. It is necessary that we eliminate the scourge of terrorism in all its forms, without any discrimination, and end the ecosystem of its support," the External Affairs Minister said. "I would like to stress that meetings, including high-level ones can only be effective if expressions of resolve are translated in to concrete action on the ground," Swaraj added. The two foreign ministers avoided meeting each other on Thursday. The talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the UNGA were called off by India after three policemen were kidnapped and killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmirs Shopian district. Pakistans move to release stamps glorifying terrorist Burhan Wani, who was killed by the security forces in 2016, was also among the reasons for calling off the proposed talks between the two countries. Terming Sushma Swaraj's statement at the meeting "very vague", Querishi said, She (Swaraj) talked about regional cooperation. My question is that how is regional cooperation possible if the nations in the region are ready to sit and you are the obstacle in those talks." Qureshi also reacted to the cancellation of the meeting. "How can one talk of regional trade when you fail to agree on a date for a summit ? India is saying the meeting cannot happen until there is conducive environment. How do you define what conducive environment is? It can vary from country to country and person to person." The SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) grouping that includes India, Pakistan and six other regional countries was established in December 1985 with an aim to promote the welfare of the people of South Asia. (With inputs from PTI) The plea challenging the ban has been filed by petitioners Indian Young Lawyers Association and others. (Photo: sabarimala.kerala.gov.in) New Delhi: Whether women of all ages, especially those between 10 to 50 years should be allowed to enter the renowned Sabarimala temple in Kerala will be decided by the Supreme Court on Friday. The apex court verdict will be a historic one as at present women of the menstrual age, between 10 to 50 years, are restricted from entering the temple premises. It is believed that the residing deity of the temple, Lord Ayyappa, is considered to be a celibate. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and comprising Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotras verdict will determine whether the religious practice is discriminatory towards women. A bench headed by CJI Misra had reserved its judgement on a bunch of petitions that challenge the ban on entry of women on August 1 after hearing the case for eight days. The plea challenging the ban has been filed by petitioners Indian Young Lawyers Association and others. During the hearings, the Travancore Devaswom Board which runs the over 800-year-old Lord Ayyappa temple, had told the apex court that the ban is not anti-women and is voluntarily accepted by them. But the top court underlined that the all customary or religious practices such as a ban on entry of women had to conform to constitutional principles. The Kerala government had made it clear that it was in favour of allowing the entry of women of all ages to Sabarimala Ayyappa temple without any restriction. The government said it is not against any sort of discrimination towards women or any section of the public in any way. It said all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the Constitution gives right to worship to everyone equally. Hence it is not fair to deny a section of women from entering the temple. Chennai: Health minister C. Vijayabaskar inaugurated 108 Critical Care Emergency Centre in Mamallapuram on Friday. The five bed emergency care centre with minor procedure table is equipped with advanced equipment and trained medical staff to provide medical intervention to trauma and accident victims. Eleven more critical care emergency centres will be established in various districts including Kanchipuram, Dindigul, Villupuram, Vellore, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Tirupur, Namakkal, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli. The establishment of an emergency care centre was started as a pilot project in August 2013 in Tambaram, aiming at reducing the response time to trauma care patients. Emergency Care Centres act as intermediaries to stabilise a trauma care patients in critical condition before they can be admitted in a hospital. The state currently has three completely operational critical care centres in Tambaram, Injambakkam and Padiyanallur, said Uma Maheswari, director, Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project. The emergency care centres will be established in the city and outskirts in a phased manner and the accident hotspots are being identified currently. The critical care centre in Sriperumbadur is almost complete and will be operational soon, she added. So far, a total of 15,226 accident victims have received trauma care at the Tambaram centre, while 10,428 and 2,484 patients were given treatment at Padiyanallur and Injambakkam centre respectively. The emergency care response time for the accident victims has reduced and around 80 percent of more lives could be saved with the help of emergency care centres, said the officials. Health minister announced that Tamil Nadu Accident and Critical Care Initiative will be launched in the state at a cost of Rs. 57 crore to provide pre-hospital care, hospital care and hospital rehabilitation by the medicos trained in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS). Emergency care centres will also be set up at a cost of Rs. 24 crore in Ponneri and Nazarathpettai. Hyderabad: Caretaker minister K.T. Rama Rao on Friday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he did nothing for Telangana in his four-and-half year rule. Mr Rama Rao said that the popularity graphs of Mr Modi and that of the BJP have been dwindling with each passing day. Mr Rama Rao alleged that the PM did not sign a single file pertaining to Telangana in the first nine months of his tenure and failed to fulfil any of the promises made to Telan-gana in the AP Reorganisation Act so far. We made several representations to the PM during the past four years on several issues concerning Telang-ana. But he did nothing. Our repeated requests on Hyderabad ITIR and Bayyaram Steel Plant were ignored, he said. Mr Rama Rao came down heavily on BJP leaders statements that Mr Modi sanctioned lakhs of crores of rupees to TS in four years. What we got from the Centre was less than what TS contributed to the Centre as taxes, he said. Mr Rama Rao predicted that the NDA will not get a majority in Lok Sabha elections and the TRS will play a crucial role in the coalition government coming at the Centre by winning 16 Lok Sabha seats. We will dictate to any government coming at the Centre after Lok Sabha polls and ensure that all pending issues concerning TS are fulfilled, he said. He cautioned people that if the Congress-TD combine wins in Assembly polls, they will make TS a ghulam before Delhi and Amaravati rulers. Time has come for the people to decide whether they want those who do ghulami for Delhi and Amaravati rulers or want KCR as CM, who rules like a lion and check such anti-Telangana parties, he said. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women of all ages in Sabarimala temple. Kadakampally said the government will hold extensive discussions with the stakeholders and all concerned on implementing the Supreme Court verdict. He said the state governments stand was very clear right from the beginning that there should be no discrimination against women not just in Sabarimala, but in any religious place. He said the government had made this position very clear when the petition came up before Supreme Court. This is a historic judgement of the apex court. Sabarimala is a shrine which gives entry to all persons irrespective of their caste and religions identity. The court verdict has clearly explained now that the bar on entry of women between a particular age group, was a violation of human rights, he said. The minister said the nature of the verdict suggested that the rights of individuals cannot be harmed in the name of religion or religious practices. The public which has always taken a stand that rituals and customs need to be changed according to the times, will accept the verdict, he said. New Delhi: The Supreme Court, in a historic verdict on Friday, allowed the entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala. Till now, women in the 10-50 age group were denied entry on the ground that they were of menstruating age. The court termed this centuries-old Hindu religious practice as illegal and unconstitutional and paved the way for womens worship at par with men. A Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Rohinton Nariman, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, by a majority of 4:1, held that denial of entry to women only on the ground that they were menstruating violated Article 14 of the Constitution the right to equality. The CJI said that in no scenario, it can be said that exclusion of women of any age group could be regarded as an essential practice of the Hindu religion. Interestingly, the only woman in the bench, Justice Indu Malhotra, was the sole dissenter to the majority verdict. In his main verdict, the CJI said there couldnt be any discrimination in approach to divinity and spirituality. Man cant dominate views of worship and biological factors cant be a legitimate ground to deny women the right to worship, the Chief Justice said, adding that a patriarchal mindset had resulted in this prejudice against women. Women no way are inferior to men. On one hand, women are worshipped as Goddesses, but there are restrictions on the other hand. Relationship with God cant be defined by biological or physiological factors, he said. Its (bans) effect is to impose the burden of a mans celibacy on a woman and construct her as a cause for deviation from celibacy, says the landmark judgement. He rejected the submission that devotees of Ayyappa constituted a separate section of Hindus. Custom and practice must allow everyone to offer worship without discrimination, he said, adding: The courts must not grant legitimacy to religious practices which derogate women. The CJI rejected the submission that devotees of Ayyappa constituted a separate section of Hindus. Custom and practice must allow everyone to offer worship without discrimination, he said, adding: The courts must not grant legitimacy to religious practices which derogate women. Justice Misra said: Women are in no way inferior to men. On one hand, women are worshipped as goddesses, but there are restrictions on the other hand. Relationship with God cant be defined by biological or physiological factors. Banning entry of women to the shrine is gender discrimination. The practice of exclusion of women of the 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as an essential religious practice. Devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination. Patriarchal notions cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. Religion is a way of life - basically to link life with divinity. The Sabarimala temples practice violates the rights of Hindu women. The CJI said that in no scenario, it can be said that exclusion of women of any age group could be regarded as an essential practice of the Hindu religion. On the contrary, it was an essential part of the Hindu religion to allow Hindu women to enter a temple as devotees and followers and offer prayers to the deity. In the absence of any scriptural or textual evidence, we cannot accord to the exclusionary practice followed at Sabarimala temple the status of an essential practice of the Hindu religion. The CJI held that rights guaranteed under Article 25(1) had nothing to do with gender or, for that matter, certain physiological factors specifically attributable to women and the denial of entry to the temple denudes them of their right to worship. He observed that there is nothing on record to show that the devotees have any common religious tenets peculiar to themselves, which they regard as conducive to their spiritual well-being, other than those, which are common to the Hindu religion. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a PIL filed by Dr Romila Thapar and others seeking a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into the arrest of five activists on August 28 over the Bhima-Koregaon incidents and seeking their release on bail. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, in a majority verdict of 2:1, after perusing the documents and part of the case diary submitted by the Maharashtra government in a sealed cover, held that the state could continue with the investigation. Justice Chandrachud gave a dissenting verdict, directing a SIT probe to be monitored by the Supreme Court. The five activists Varavara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Gautam Navlakha were taken into custody on August 28. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, in a majority verdict of 2:1 held that the state could continue with the investigation. Justice Chandrachud gave a dissenting verdict and ordered a SIT probe to be monitored by the apex court. The five activists Varavara Rao, lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Gautam Navlakha were taken into custody from different parts of the country on August 28. The next day the apex court had directed that they be kept under house arrest and this has been extended further till the pronouncement of order in the petitions. On Friday the Bench while refusing to grant them bail extended the order of house arrest for another four weeks to enable them to move the appropriate courts for relief. Justice Khanwilkar in his judgment which was supported by the CJI said that upon perusal of the materials, we are of the considered opinion that it is not a case of arrest because of mere dissenting views expressed or difference in the political ideology of the named accused, but concerning their link with the banned organisation. The bench said that this is not the stage where the efficacy of the material or sufficiency thereof can be evaluated nor it is possible to enquire into whether the same is genuine or fabricated. The interim order passed by this Court on 29th August 2018 shall continue for a period of four weeks to enable the accused to move the concerned court. Hyderabad: The Election Commission is satisfied that the arrangements and atmosphere in Telangana state are conducive to holding Assembly elections along with the four other states where elections are due Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh. This was decided at an Election Commission meeting presided over by Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat in Delhi on Friday. The EC will announce the election schedule most probably in the first week of October. The EC decision was taken after it had studied deputy election commissioner Umesh Sinhas report on electoral arrangements in Telangana state submitted to Chief Election Commissioner two days ago, which gave a satisfactory account of the states preparedness for holding elections along with the four other states. The report said that the objections raised by the Congress party over the electoral rolls should be resolved. Mr Rawat though satisfied with the report has decided to send another team to Hyderabad on September 30 for further study. Sources in the Election Commission said that if possible Mr Rawat himself may visit Hyderabad. This team will look at the steps taken by State Chief Electoral Officer Rajath Kumar to revise the electoral rolls and whether it has given good results. Cases filled in the SC relating to the dissolution of the Assembly nine months before its tenure ended, and to the electoral rolls, will not be a hurdle to the election process, EC officials said. EC consultant Arun Kumar Sharma arrived in Hyderabad on Friday to discuss election related matters with the state's chief electoral officer Rajath Kumar. The Supreme Courts decision on Friday to reject an appeal for a fair and impartial investigation made on behalf of five eminent intellectuals and human rights activists arrested by the Pune police on August 28, will shock many. Its no less a surprise, the court should also explicitly disregard the plea that dissent was being criminalised. The majority judgment by CJI Dipak Misra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar is spectacularly at variance with the dissenting judgment of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, who not only backed the plea for a special investigation under the courts supervision. Mercifully, the order allows the charged intellectuals to stay under house arrest for another four weeks. In this time, they may seek legal remedies. This time is also given to the police to wrap up its investigations. Its not clear though if the activists will be handed over to the police for custodial interrogation after this period if they havent got bail by then. That will be a travesty. Already, the police is trying to link the accused with bizarre plots to assassinate the PM. People will smell a rat if the police continues on that track. The month of September witnessed a flurry of activity in Seoul, Pyongyang and New York to restart the stalled negotiations between United States and North Korea. Considerable preparatory work in Seoul led to the third North-South Summit this year in Pyongyang between September 18 and 20, followed by an important meeting in New York on September 24, when South Korean President Moon Jae-in reassured US President Donald Trump that Chairman Kim Jong-un was committed to denuclearisation but expected some corresponding measures from the United States. The Pyongyang summit propelled the process of reconciliation between the two Koreas forward, building on the principles enunciated in the historic Panmunjom Declaration of April 27. Chairman Kim announced that a military agreement to create a nuclear-free Korean peninsula had been adopted. President Moon Jae-in added: The South and the North agreed to eliminate all risks that could lead to war from all parts of the Korean peninsula. In the Pyongyang joint declaration, some concrete steps towards the denuclearisation of North Korea were included. North Korea has agreed to permanently dismantle two key facilities of its ICBM program-me, which directly threatens the mainland US. The North will dismantle a missile engine test facility and a missile laun-chpad, and will allow international experts to witness the process. The North also offered to permanently shut its nuc-lear facility at Yongbyon if certain conditions are met. This is the same facility where the rea-ctor cooling tower was demolished by the North in July 2008 following intense international pressure, and was rewarded by the United States by removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. At Pyongyang, a 17-page document was signed between the two defence ministers on The Implementation of the Historic Panmunjom Declaration in the Military Domain, in which the two Koreas have inter alia agreed to completely cease all hostile acts against each other in every domain, including land, air and sea. The two sides have also agreed to create a Joint Military Committee to lower tension and prevent any untoward incident. In a much-analysed para of the Pyongyang joint declaration, the two sides shared the view that the Korean peninsula must be turned into a land of peace free from nuclear weapons and nuclear threats... The nuclear threats obviously emanate from the United States and this wording may give an opening to North Korea to insist on a definition of denuclearisation that goes much beyond the denuclearisation of North Korea. Implying that denuclearisation would be a slow step-by-step process, the North expressed its willingness to take additional measures, such as permanent dismantlement of nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, as the United States takes corresponding measures in accordance with the spirit of the June 12 US-DPRK joint statement between President Trump and Chairman Kim in Singapore. Clearly, the future progress of denuclearisation depends on an agreed understanding between the US and North Korea on the corresponding measures which US would take as the North takes specific action to dismantle its nuclear arsenal and facilities. The official US position is that complete, irreversible and verifiable denuclearisation has to be completed by the North without any preconditions. This is now clearly untenable. On September 24 in New York, Presidents Moon and Trump discussed possible corresponding measures as North Korea takes steps towards denuclearisation. Giving his assessment of the situation consequent to his third meeting with the North Korean leader, President Moon Jae-in reportedly conveyed to President Trump that while repeatedly expressing his high expectations of President Trump, Chairman Kim expressed a hope to meet with President Trump at an early date to quickly conclude the denuclearisation process. It appears that South and North Korea are working together to persuade the United States to formally declare an end to the Korean War, which had ended in an armistice in July 1953. Since the United Nations was a combatant party in the Korean War, a formal end of the war would require an appropriate Security Council resolution as well. In New York, President Moon met UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and conveyed that a formal end of the Korean War would provide some security assurances to North Korea. US analysts fret that if the Korean War is formally ended then North Korea, supported by Russia and China, may demand the exit of 28,000 US forces from South Korea, arguing that there was no justification for their continued deployment on the Korean peninsula. In contrast, the South Korean position is that any such formal end of the war would be essentially a political declaration that has nothing to do with the US-South Korea military alliance or the number of US forces stationed in South Korea. While the US-North Korea negotiations are in uncertain territory, North and South Korea are resolutely moving towards peace and reconciliation. In an emotional address to more than 150,000 North Koreans at Pyongyangs May Day Stadium on September 19, President Moon Jae-in exhorted Koreans on both sides of the DMZ to reunite, saying: We have lived together for 5,000 years and been separated for 70 years. We must live together as one people. In a highly symbolic journey, the two Korean leaders visited Mount Baekdu together the most sacred site in Korean mythology. Chairman Kim Jong-un is expected to come to Seoul in December a first-ever for any North Korean leader since the division of the peninsula. In a dramatic show of confidence in a peaceful future, the two Koreas would also bid jointly to host the 2032 Summer Olympics. Both China and the US have welcomed the outcome of the Pyongyang summit. The Chin-ese foreign ministry spokes-man stated that it produced positive effects easing military tensions and advancing the denuclearisation process. President Trump was more exuberant in his remarks on Twitter, noting Chairman Kims vow to dismantle some of his nuclear installations and to allow nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations. South Koreas assessment is that the North Korean denuclearisation process is so highly publicised even within North Korea that it cannot be reversed. However, this may be wishful thinking, as North Korea has had no qualms in taking 180 degree turns in policy such as walking in and out of the NPT, terminating the Six-Party Talks and closing the much-heralded Kaesong City Industrial Zone. A second summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un is now on the cards. Chairman Kim is carefully pandering to President Trumps ego and may have a clear strategy to drag out the denuclearisation process and extract from the US a formal declaration of the end of the Korean War and considerable easing of the crippling economic sanctions as corresponding measures. It will truly be a highly watched battle of wits between Donald Trump, the Dealmaker, and Kim Jong-un, the Strategist! The writer is a retired diplomat who has served as Indias ambassador to South Korea Google notes that it is difficult to know the creator of images on the web and who might actually own the rights to the image. In its latest step towards safeguarding the rights of an image creator or owner, Google has announced that it will give rights-related image metadata in Google Images. The step is a result of Google's collaboration with photo industry consortium CEPIC, and IPTC, the global technical standards body for the news media. Google notes that it is difficult to know the creator of images on the web and who might actually own the rights to the image. For this, Creator and Credit metadata, whenever present, to images on Google Images will now be added. If you browse through tons of images online and want to know the copyright and licensing information, simply click on Image Credits link to view the metadata. Google will also be adding Copyright Notice metadata. 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. Google CEO Sundar Pichai is scheduled to meet privately with members of Congress Friday after he and his boss, Google co-founder Larry Page, stood up lawmakers at a public hearing earlier this month. The closed-door gathering is expected to include discussions about President Donald Trumps recent allegations that Google has been rigging the results of its influential search engine to suppress conservative viewpoints. Google has denied any political bias. Recent reports that Google is poised to re-enter China with a search engine generating censored search results to comply with the demands of that countrys Communist government are also expected to be on the agenda. Also, potential new regulations that would define how much personal information that internet companies can collect about people using their services. Both Trump and some US lawmakers also have been raising the possibility of asking government regulators to investigate whether Google has abused its power to thwart competition through its dominant search engine and other widely used services that include Gmail, YouTube, the Chrome web browser and its Android software that runs most of the worlds smartphones. Pichais meeting with about two dozen Republican lawmakers will be held in the Capitol office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who represents a district in Googles home state of California. Google has a lot of questions to answer about reports of bias in its search results, violations of user privacy, anticompetitive behaviour, and business dealings with repressive regimes like China, McCarthy said in a statement. Pichai indicated he also plans to meet with Democrats while in Washington. These meetings will continue Googles long history of engaging with Congress, including testifying seven times to Congress this year, he said. Google and its corporate parent, Alphabet, may also be trying to mend some political fences after Pichai and Page now Alphabets CEO snubbed Congress a few weeks ago. Neither of them appeared at a high-profile hearing looking into what Twitter, Facebook and Google have been doing to prevent Russia and other foreign governments from using their services to sow discord among US voters in an attempt to sway elections. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified at the hearing, as did Facebooks No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, but Google was only willing to send its general counsel. That didnt satisfy lawmakers, who left a vacant chair that they hoped either Pichai or Page would occupy. The no-show prompted Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to call Google arrogant. Fridays meetings will be a prelude to Pichais anticipated return to Washington in November for a public hearing before the House Judiciary Committee thats scheduled for after the midterm elections. 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. Uber Technologies will pay $148 million for failing to disclose a massive data breach in 2016, marking a costly resolution to one of the biggest embarrassments and legal tangles the ride-hailing company has suffered. The settlement with 50 US states and Washington DC brings closure to one of several high-stakes legal battles Uber is seeking to resolve before an initial public offering next year, while also delivering a national rebuke against Ubers history of flouting laws and basic business ethics. The amount is the largest among attorneys general settlements in privacy cases. By comparison, the multi-state settlement with Target Corp in 2017, over a breach in which 41 million people had their data stolen, was $18.5 million. The settlement follows a 10-month investigation into a data breach that exposed personal data from 57 million Uber accounts, including 600,000 drivers license numbers. Ubers new Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi disclosed the breach in November, more than a year after the company was hacked under the previous CEO. Khosrowshahi has said the incident should have been disclosed to regulators at the time it was discovered in 2016. The cover-up, widely seen by states as violating data breach reporting and data security laws, drew the ire of authorities across the United States and also in the United Kingdom, Australia and the Philippines. About half of the data breach victims lived in the United States. The settlement terms include changes to Ubers business practices aimed at preventing future breaches and reforming its corporate culture. Uber will be required to report any data security incidents to states on a quarterly basis for the next two years, and implement a comprehensive information security program overseen by an executive officer who advises executive staff and Ubers board of directors. We know that earning the trust of our customers and the regulators we work with globally is no easy feat, said Uber Chief Legal Officer Tony West. Well continue to invest in protections to keep our customers and their data safe and secure, and were committed to maintaining a constructive and collaborative relationship with governments around the world. In November 2016, Uber paid the hackers - who included a 20-year-old Florida man and a hacker in Canada - $100,000 to destroy the stolen data, using its bug bounty program, which is designed to reward security researchers who report flaws in a companys software. Uber then chose not to report the matter to victims or authorities. Ubers decision to cover up this breach was a blatant violation of the publics trust, said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Consistent with its corporate culture at the time, Uber swept the breach under the rug in deliberate disregard of the law. California, one of the lead states in the settlement effort, will keep $26 million, to be split between the state Attorney Generals Office and the San Francisco District Attorneys Office, a spokeswoman for Becerras office said. Khosrowshahi fired two of Ubers top security officials when he announced the breach, and other members of that team have since departed. The company recently hired a chief privacy officer and chief security officer. It still faces lawsuits from riders, drivers and the cities of Chicago and Los Angeles over the data breach. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Facebooks presence in Vietnam has drawn increasing scrutiny after lawmakers approved a controversial cybersecurity law. (Photo: Pixabay) A court in Vietnam has jailed a Facebook user for 2-1/2 years over anti-government comments he posted on the social media website, police said on Thursday, as the Southeast Asian country continues its crackdown on dissent. Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnams ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism. Thursdays decision comes days after Vietnam jailed another Facebook user for two years and three months on the same charges. Bui Manh Dong, 40, was convicted of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state at a trial in the Mekong Delta province of Can Tho, the Ministry of Public Security said on its official news website. He was accused of writing posts on his two Facebook accounts that distorted the guidelines and policies of the party and the state, and defamed party and state leaders, the ministry said in the statement, citing the court indictment. Dongs activities hurt the prestige and leading role of the party and the state, police said. Reuters could not trace contact details for Dongs lawyer to seek comment. Calls to the court went unanswered. Facebooks presence in Vietnam has drawn increasing scrutiny after lawmakers approved a controversial cybersecurity law for global tech companies to store within the country important personal data on users and open offices there. The law, which takes effect on Jan. 1 next year, also requires social media companies to remove offending content within a day of receiving a request from the authorities. Facebook already has a direct channel for Vietnams information ministry to seek the blocking or removal of accounts, content or posts deemed to violate the law. Many activists have complained about growing blocking of content this year. Not all the ministrys requests are met, however, and acting information minister Nguyen Manh Hung this month proposed to set up a working group to improve communications between the government and Facebook. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment. 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. LG has announced its latest flagship phablet LG V40 ThinQ, which is a successor to the last years V30. The smartphone is all set to make its debut on October 3 in New York. It will be available in Carmine Red, Moroccan Blue, and Platinum Grey colour variants. Notably, a teaser posted by LG Korea for the upcoming smartphone boasts of a total of five cameras. The video shows off a trio of rear cameras and a dual-camera setup for shooting selfies. Apart from that, the handset would also come with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. While not much has been revealed by the company, a previous report suggested that the triple rear camera setup would feature a 20MP primary lens, a 16MP wide-angle lens and a 13MP telephoto lens. Furthermore, the selfie cameras are anticipated to support 3D face recognition. If rumours are to be believed, the smartphone would feature a 6.4-inch notched display with a 90 per cent screen-to-body ratio. It might run on Android 9.0 Pie out-of-the-box. At its core, the handset is expected to retain the Snapdragon 845 chipset aided by up to 8GB of RAM, and LG's proprietary Quad DAC audio technology. 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. Most chemist stores in Yeshwanthpur, Peenya Dasarahalli, Vidyaranyapura, Yelahanka Satellite Town and Konankunte remained closed on Thursday to mark their protest against the Centre for registering e-pharmacies. Raghunath Reddy, president of Karnataka Chemist and Druggist Association, said the bandh has been successful all over the state despite a few outlets remaining open. We cannot forcefully ask the chemists to shut shop. Their support has to be voluntary. Since the other associations have not supported the bandh, outlets in Rajajinagar and Vijaynagar remained open, he said. Reddy said since they are affiliated with the all India organisation, their representatives in Delhi would hold talks with the ministry officials. There was some confusion over the bandh amongst the chemists leading to many outlets, which were closed during the morning hours, to open after 11 am, said Ravindra Kumar, secretary of Bangalore City Druggists and Chemists Association. Though some of the private medical shops like Apollo Pharma and Frontline did support us, others like MedPlus and a few other outlets remained open. This caused a huge concern for those who supported the bandh since they did not want to lose out on the customers. Hence we were compelled to open the shutters, Kumar added. A spokesperson from Maruthi Medical in Vijayanagar said that they remained open since MedPlus was serving customers on the same street. Though we support the cause and are against the Centre's decision, there has been confusion due to the lack of coordination and unity among the chemists," added the spokesperson. The US and India have formed an alliance comprising leading experts in public and private sectors to combat the menace of tuberculosis, an American official said. US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Mark Green announced the formation of 'USAID-India End TB Alliance' at an event in New York in presence of Union Health Minister J P Nadda. Green said the experts in the alliance will offer innovative approaches to combat tuberculosis in India. Alliance members include industry and civil society leaders, academics, scientists, innovators, investors, and members of the diaspora. Two alliance members - Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of the World Health Organisation, and Blessina Kumar from the Global Coalition of TB Activists - were present during the announcement. India accounts for 27% of the world's TB cases, with 421,000 deaths per year, Green said. That's one person dying every minute, he added. Referring to his visit to India in November, he said he met with a group of TB survivors and their families and learnt about the barriers to testing and treatment they face. "I was especially moved by those who were initially deterred from seeking treatment because of stigma but persevered, and now those same people, mostly women, are working as patient advocates, supporting others who are also struggling with stigma," Green said. "A major reason for hope in India is that Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi has made an ambitious, but determined commitment to achieve a TB-free India by 2025," he said. USAID is making an initial $30 million commitment, subject to the approval of the US Congress, Green said. A canal wall on the Mutha river that cuts across Pune unexpectedly breached leading to massive flooding in parts of Maharashtra's cultural and IT capital on Thursday. The river carries the water from the Khadakwasla dam, which is the main source for Pune and its suburban areas, considered Oxford of the East. The Khadakwasla dam is close to the National Defence Academy (NDA), Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), College of Military Engineering (CME) and Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS). The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has been put on alert. "There is a breach in the Mutha right bank canal at the Dandekar Pool at Sinhgad Road," officials of the PMC said. After the flooding, the flow through the canal has been stopped by the Water Resources (Irrigation) department. "We have mobilised all resources and will ensure that the water recedes," Pune Mayor Mukta Tilak said. My team is present at the location and repairs are set to being ASAP, Pune MP Anil Shirole tweeted. The maximum flooding was noticed near the Dandekar bridge near Parvati Hill and Sinhgad Road. The Janata colony near Dandekar bridge was the worst affected. Around 50 houses in the area were damaged due to the sudden rise in water level. The breach occurred around 11 am and the rising water - from knee level to waist level - caught everyone by surprise. Rescued Prabhakar Marne, owner of a kirana shop in the locality, was rescued using ropes by civic staff. Sunil Annadate, a senior technocrat with the state government who is on medical leave, was stranded in the traffic as the canal breached. "Though the water supply in the canal from Khadakwasla dam was immediately stopped, the water logging forced some roads to be closed, causing heavy traffic snarls," he said. Japan on Friday inked an agreement with India, pledging a soft loan of Rs 5,591 crore for Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail-line, notwithstanding protests by farmers against the acquisition of land for the project. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) inked the agreement with the Ministry of Finance of the Government of India just 10 days after as many as 1,000 Gujarat farmers moved the high court, opposing acquisition of land for the proposed project to run bullet trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The farmers, who moved the high court, also alleged that the Gujarat government's land acquisition process was not in keeping with the guidelines of the JICA itself. C S Mohapatra, additional secretary at the Department of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance, represented the Government of India to sign the loan agreement with the JICA. Katsuo Matsumoto, chief representative of the JICA in New Delhi, signed the agreement on behalf of the agency assigned by the Japanese government to provide Official Development Assistance to India and other nations, according to an official press release issued by the government in New Delhi. The loan agreement was signed just a day after the Gujarat government agreed to double the quantum of compensation for acquisition of agricultural land located in urban areas for the proposed bullet train project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in September 2017 formally launched works on Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail link, which is going to be the first of its kind in India and built with Shinkansen Bullet Train technology of Japan. The proposed 508.17-km long high-speed train corridor between Ahmedabad and Mumbai will pass through Maharashtra and Gujarat as well as the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Nearly 155.642 km of the proposed rail-line will be laid in Maharastra while 350.530 km will be in Gujarat and 2 km in Dadra and Nagar Haveli. It shall start from Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai and will end near Sabarmati Railway Station in Ahmedabad. Altogether 12 stations would be built along the proposed high-speed corridor. The construction of the high-speed rail link between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will require the acquisition of about 1400 hectares of land in Maharashtra and Gujarat and over 1120 hectares of the land to be acquired are owned privately, with many of the owners being farmers. Some of the farmers in Gujarat are agitated over the prospects of losing their land and they alleged that the State Government was not going by the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The objective of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project is to develop mass and high frequent transportation system by constructing high-speed rail between Mumbai and Ahmedabad with the use of Japanese high-speed rail technologies, thereby improving the connectivity in India, the Ministry of Finance of the Government of India said in a press release it issued after signing the loan agreement with the JICA. Mohapatra and Matsumoto on Friday also signed another agreement with JICA pledging a separate soft loan of Rs 1619 crore for Kolkata East-West Metro Project in the capital of West Bengal. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday said that his government has banned bauxite mining in the Araku Valley area after coming to power and the Maoists are using mining as a pretext for killing TDP legislator Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Somu. Naidu visited the Araku Valley on Friday after returning from New York. From Visakhapatnam, Naidu went to Paderu where he reached out to Kidari's family. Naidu announced Rs 1 crore assistance to the family and government job to Kidaris second son. We will politically take care of Kidaris first son. It is a misnomer that the TDP government has encouraged bauxite mining that led to the killings. It was Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) who opened the Valley for bauxite mining, Naidu said. He said the government is facing cases in international courts for cancelling the leases given during the YSR regime. Despite that, we have said a big no to mining as it would destroy the livelihood of the tribal community, Naidu said. He condemned the brutal and cold-blooded murder of two tribal leaders. Genuine leadership in tribal areas is hard to find. After years of toil, only one becomes a leader and what message are the Maoists giving by killing such young leaders? Naidu asked. He later visited Siveri Soma's residence in Araku. Naidu declared Rs 15 lakh assistance (Rs 10 lakh from government and Rs 5 lakh from TDP) to each of the seven members of the former TDP MLAs family. He also offered a government job to Siveris second son and a plot in Visakhapatnam. Naidu pointed out that none of the two slain leaders had own houses, indicating that they are not corrupt as alleged by the Maoists. Director General of Police R P Thakur, who visited the spot where the TDP leaders were killed by the Maoists on Wednesday, attributed the incident to Intelligence failure arising out of lack of coordination between Greyhounds and other wings of the Police Department. We take the responsibility for the incident and assure the public that we will fight back against the Maoists, Thakur told reporters. A Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by DCP (Law and Order) K Fakeerappa, is probing the Maoist attack. Striking employees of the Royal Enfield plant reported for duty after a gap of three days following an assurance from their company to look into their demand, even as the protest by workers of Yamaha India entered its ninth day without any resolution in sight. Around 700 workers of Yamaha Indias manufacturing facility at Oragadam, 50 km from here, have been protesting against the management that allegedly terminated the services of two employees who were actively involved in forming a union in the factory. The strike by employees of two automobile major comes in the wake of allegations that the organisations were stonewalling moves by its employees to form associations or union to make their representations strong with the management. The Royal Enfield Employees Union called off the strike on Thursday evening and sources said the workers joined duty on Friday morning. The breakthrough came after the management held talks with them over their demands including a wage hike. At Yamaha India, the production has affected due to the strike since September 20. Tripartite talks between Yamaha management, employees and Deputy Commissioner of Labour on Thursday was inconclusive with no end in sight. The strike began after the management allegedly fired two employees who were actively involved in forming a union. Our strike continues, and we will not budge from our stand. We want the reinstatement of the two employees who were sacked. Unless that is done, we are not in a mood to relent, Bharath Kumar, who works at the Yamaha India factory, told DH. While not favouring a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) right now, the Law Commission has suggested significant changes in family and personal laws of all faiths to make them non-discriminatory, especially from a gender point of view. In the absence of any consensus on UCC, the commission felt that the best way forward may be to preserve the diversity of personal laws while at the same time ensuring that these laws do not contradict constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights. After reviewing more than 75,000 responses during two years of deliberation, the law panel came to the conclusion that UCC was neither necessary nor desirable at this stage. In its 185-page consultation paper, it has sought to strike a balance between freedom of religion and right to equality, emphasising that there should be no compromise on the latter aspect. The law panels consultative paper came in response to a reference made to it by the NDA government with regard to the UCC in June 2016. This issue has also been part of the BJPs election manifesto for long but one that it could not pursue during NDA-1 due to the compulsions of coalition politics. This time, its Lok Sabha majority encouraged it to seek a detailed view from the commission. For the Constitution, under the non-binding Article 44, enjoins the State to secure for its citizens a uniform civil code. The Supreme Court, too, in the past has repeatedly reminded the union government to enact a UCC, stressing that such a code would remove disparate loyalties to personal laws which have conflicting ideologies. All this notwithstanding, the commission suggested comprehensive changes in laws of marriage, divorce, inheritance, property, maintenance and adoption to remove existing bias and discrimination towards women, rather than legislating a UCC. The law panel is fully justified in doing so, for obvious reasons. Biased laws The Muslim community, by and large, seems to be hostile to the idea of a civil code and wishes to preserve its own personal law. Hence, any move in this direction against their sentiments is bound to create more ill-will, mutual suspicion and weaken the fabric of the nation. In this atmosphere, it would not be advisable to enact UCC, optional or otherwise, until a consensus evolves. However, not all opponents of the civil code are opposed to the reform of their personal law. Many progressive and forward-looking Muslims say that not only is their law as practised in India unfair to women, it is contrary to the basic tenets of Islam. In any case, not only Muslim Personal Law (MPL), but also the personal laws of other communities are pro-male in character, grossly biased in nature and blatantly discriminatory against women. For instance, a woman cannot inherit ancestral property under Hindu Law. If she is abandoned by her family, she cant claim maintenance from her natal family, either. A Hindu woman cannot adopt a child in her own name. Nor has she guardianship right over a child who is above five years. The wife of a Hindu cannot be her husbands coparcener. The Hindu Succession Act debars the female heirs of a Hindu dying intestate from laying any claim to a portion of residence left by the deceased unless the male heirs choose to determine their share. Whatever the other virtues of Muslim law, the position of women is no better under it. While monogamy is the rule of law for a Muslim woman, the husband is entitled to have four wives at a time. He can dissolve the marriage any time at his will. The wife, on the other hand, can divorce only with her husbands consent. She also cannot be a guardian of her minor child. Under the law, the share of a male heir of the same degree is twice that of a female. Polygamy, Nikah Halala and no maintenance after Iddat period to a divorced woman are other disturbing aspects of the law. Similarly, the Christian laws of marriage, divorce, maintenance and succession appear to be archaic, harsh and biased towards women. For example, Section 10A(1) of the Christian Divorce Law makes the separation period of two years mandatory for any couple to get mutual divorce. However, in other statutes, like Special Marriage Act, Hindu Marriage Act and Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, the mandatory requirement of separation is just one year a patent discrimination on the face of it. This discriminatory provision, however, is under challenge before the apex court. Also, the Succession Act of 1925 gives Christian mothers no right in the property of their deceased kids. All such property is to be inherited by the father. The lot of women in India is miserable simply because personal laws of the different faiths have not been subjected to contemporary social reforms. On the contrary, efforts are made to deny, in the name of religion, even the rights and privileges the Constitution liberally grants to them. To allow things to remain as they are would mean that more and more provisions of such personal laws have to be tested before the law courts to determine how far they are in conformity with the Constitution. In attempting to reform and codify Hindu Law in the first instance, the idea was that if it succeeded, other communities would follow suit, but this didnt happen. However, all this does not mean that existing personal laws should remain unaltered. Laws cannot be static. They evolve and change with the times. While the judiciarys role in attempting to rectify gender and other biases in community-specific legislation is welcome, the legislature cannot escape its responsibility of making laws and modifying them from time to time. There should be equal rights and equal laws for all women, irrespective of their caste and religion, to ensure gender justice. To the Times: Andrew Reilly: Your rhetoric about the ideological excess of some Democrats is exaggerated, but while you make some valid points, you just as surely neglect the shortcomings of Republicans. I myself am a Democrat, but I shudder at some of the loonier members of my own party, whose actions muddy my good name. Speaking for myself, I have no wish to vanquish capitalism and adopt Socialism. Though an argument can be made that capitalism is a horrible system, the problem is that the others are even worse. I do wish to rein in the excesses of unchecked enterprises. Banks should be regulated to prevent financial collapses; industry should be regulated to prevent the poisoning and destruction of the environment; tax rates should be in place that prevent the accumulation of wealth far in excess of what anyone, no matter how talented or motivated they may be, has rightfully earned. Note very carefully that I do not oppose wealth. Highly talented, innovative people will and should become wealthy. It is only natural that this should occur. However, wealth is one thing, and gradually taking ownership and control of the entire country by denying others their rightful share is quite another. There are lines and boundaries. Its the extreme disparity that troubles me. Lets invoke fair and ethical, notions that too many wealthy seem to have no concept of. Wealth need not eliminate ones conscience and soul. Thats the difference in viewpoint between myself and Republicans. You have abandoned all morality in pursuit of profit. Without some measure of it, capitalism can never survive. I am not advocating Socialism in any way, but rather am advocating democracy and Americanism to go along with capitalism. I definitely do not wish to abolish ICE, as some Democrats do. This is insanity. I favor an immigration process within our laws. We have always had immigration, and it must continue as a hallmark of our tradition, but in an orderly manner, not a chaotic free-for-all. Illegal immigrants should not receive benefits. Legal immigrants should receive what help we can provide to ease their transition into American society. That benefits everyone. I know of no Democrat who wants to eliminate prisons altogether. Such a notion is nonsense. I only know of Democrats who want to abolish private prisons. You condemn Democrats for a variety of offenses, while your Republicans work to dismantle environmental protections, do nothing about the obscene cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, gerrymander our Congressional districts in a criminal manner, and have a president who daily shows contempt for our democratic traditions, attacking the free press and actually suggesting that the Justice Department not indict Republicans, a notion that is tantamount to treason. You undo bank regulations, and consumer protections. Right here in Pa., you refuse to enact a severance tax on the fracking industry, thereby condemning our schools to chronic underfunding. And right here in Delaware County, you and the Republicans on County Council willfully and deliberately violated the charter of Delaware County and placed two Republicans on the Election Board, though it was the Democrats who were entitled to two, and the Republicans to only one. And dont forget taxpayers through public assistance paying the wages of Walmarts employees! And taxpayers footing the bill for cleaning pollution left by huge corporations! Sounds like Socialism! These are the facts that should scare any American. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. SALT LAKE CITY The Republican challenger in the race for Salt Lake County district attorney says he will return $18,000 in campaign donations from his parents after he misunderstood a county rule capping contributions. State and county Democratic party leaders called for Republican Nathan Evershed to return the extra money on Wednesday, filing a complaint with the county after reviewing Evershed's campaign finance disclosure forms and saying the violation is troubling. Evershed said it was an oversight. "It was just an honest mistake, an honest misreading," he said Thursday, adding that checks for the excess contributions already had been sent back to the donors. "I take full responsibility." He misinterpreted a county ordinance limiting a donor's contributions to $6,000 in between general elections, he said. His mother, Paula Evershed, his father, Roger Evershed, and his father's company, Rocky Mountain Engineering, each gave two sets of $6,000 donations in that timeframe, contributing double what the county allows. Relying on erroneous advice, Evershed mistakenly believed the county allowed three sets of separate $6,000 donations during each of three different periods within the election cycle, he said. He's grateful the issue could be corrected before ballots are mailed, he added. Evershed, a deputy district attorney for Salt Lake County, is challenging his boss, Democratic incumbent Sim Gill, for the job of top prosecutor in the county. In their complaint to the county clerk, the Utah Democratic Party and Salt Lake Democratic Party wrote that "it is particularly troubling that these violations have occurred by a candidate who, if elected, would be charged with a critically important law enforcement function." Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen in a Wednesday letter to Evershed directed him to return the extra money within 10 days. "I think it was just a misunderstanding," Swensen said Thursday, noting candidates have sometimes misunderstood the ordinance in the past. A prior version of the rule divided the one-year period into three cycles and capped donations to $2,000 per person during each of the periods. In 2008, the policy was changed, limiting the donations to $6,000 over the three terms, Swenson said. Despite decades of mounting evidence on our environmental impact, climate change has been written off as an unmentionable problem in recent political campaigns. It may seem reasonable that climate should be on the back burner when the economy, health care and immigration are such contentious issues. Yet no matter how overwhelmed voters may be, the recent record-breaking wildfires, droughts and floods all of which are worsened by our warming atmosphere - should alert Utahns that climate change is here to stay and must be urgently addressed. Eleven years ago, Gov. Huntsman called on a team of Utah climate experts who predicted that continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions, would yield a decline in natural snowfall and snowpack, particularly in lower-to-mid elevation areas, an earlier and less intense average spring runoff, increased heat wave and drought frequency and severity, more algal abundance in lakes and increased wildfire intensity. Not only are Utahs climate impacts becoming more apparent, but the latent effects are becoming more worrisome as well. As the Earth continues to warm, amplification of the heat-trapping effect is beginning to occur. For instance, the suns heat is absorbed by the oceans where it was once deflected by Arctic sea ice, meaning the Earth is absorbing more of the suns heat. Also, deposits of heat-trapping methane frozen inside permafrost clearly a misnomer, as it is no longer permanent-are beginning to be released into the atmosphere. Perhaps the most worrisome impact is the inertia of meaningful policy. Climate scientists have urged action to address climate change for 35 years. Even if Congress responded immediately, how long will it take to transition to clean energy sources? Think of the over 1 billion gasoline, diesel and natural gas-powered motor vehicles currently being used. What about our homes and businesses heated with natural gas? For all these reasons, we feel that climate change needs to be addressed now. One college student, Megan, speaks about how her generation is continually reminded of the reality of climate change. Ever since we were old enough to know about it, we knew climate change was real - just seeing how the winters in Utah have changed should convince everybody that climate change is a human-caused phenomenon. In class, Ive had debates about whether its ethical to bring children into the world when our future is so uncertain. Children are a high risk-group that is already impacted by to the changes we are seeing. Whether they must escape a sudden flood, breathe polluted air, or sit in a hot car, they are more likely to be hurt or killed than older people, stated David, a retired pediatrician. His professional organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, sees climate change as the defining health issue of our time. Whether youre a parent concerned for their child or a young person concerned for his or her future, climate change is an issue that connects us all. We can no longer keep the climate an unmentionable problem in upcoming elections; policy at all levels of government must be enacted. Luckily, promising solutions are in development. One encouraging policy, carbon fee and dividend, would drive the reduction of harmful emissions by putting a fee on fossil fuels and returning the proceeds directly to American households. Such policies are garnering bipartisan support from varied organizations, like the Republican-founded Climate Leadership Council and Students for Carbon dividends. Through debates, candidate forums and casual conversations, voters will have ample opportunity to raise their concerns about climate. Were well past the time to punt this issue to the next election. HERRIMAN Herriman leaders formalized their separation from the Unified Police Department on Thursday by swearing in 35 police officers to the city's new police department. The swearing-in at Copper Mountain Middle School came before the Herriman Police Department is expected to officially begin service with its first radio call scheduled for Saturday at 11:59 p.m. "This is truly a historical moment," Herriman Mayor David Watts said in an interview before the ceremony. In addition to the 35 officers, Herriman also swore in five civilian members. Herriman's separation from Unified Police Department has "been a journey for quite some time," Watts said, and a decision that came earlier this year in an effort to get Herriman more bang for its buck when it comes to paying for law enforcement. "What this is going to mean for our residents is we're going to see an immediate increase in the number of police officers in our streets and in our schools," the mayor said. "And all of that's going to be at no increase in tax to our residents." City officials estimated residents were overpaying Unified to the tune of $2 million per year for its police officers. "What really drove us to this decision is that we could provide the same service level we were getting from Unified for $3 million a year, yet they were charging us nearly $5 million," Henderson said. "We'll go from 18, 19 officers from Unified for that price tag (to) nearly double our actual law enforcement for the same cost." The new taxing district that will fund the police force, Herriman City Safety Enforcement, will collect tax revenue at the same rate as Unified's taxing entity, he said. "Now we control the money" and are "getting what we're paying for," he said. "We only see an enormous benefit to taking this step," he added. Some, including Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, have said Herriman and other cities' withdrawal from Unified's service are a mistake. But city leaders said they made the decision for the benefit of the city. "Doing what's best for your city is never a mistake," Watts said. "It's our job and role as elected leaders to always look out for the best interests of our community, and the decision to start our own police department was the decision to do the best we can for our residents regardless of who is providing the service," he said. Other cities, including Cottonwood Heights and Riverton, have also joined Herriman in leaving Unified's service area. For Herriman, it was a move to create a more efficient and financially effective police force, Henderson said. "With a fast-growing community, our needs are changing dynamically, and we need to have a little more control over our law enforcement," the councilman said. Herriman Police Chief Troy Carr was among the 35 law enforcement officers sworn in Thursday. In an interview before the ceremony, Carr said he's excited "about the amount of talent we were able to retain." "What we've really done is build a start team that I believe is going to be the best police department in the region," Carr said. Of the 35 officers, about two-thirds were from Unified's police force, Carr said, and the rest from other areas along the Wasatch Front, as well as one officer from California. He said he was pleased to see over 150 applicants apply for Herriman's openings. Knowing other law enforcement agencies along the Wasatch Front have struggled with police recruitment, Carr said Herriman positioned itself to be a competitive agency by offering a starting pay of $22 an hour, which is slightly higher than most other starting wages in the Salt Lake Valley. Carr said having a force of 35 police officers will help Herriman have a denser and more present police force. "We think that will lead to a better presence and ultimately a better identity of our law enforcement," the new chief said. The nation lost something Thursday. Americans hoped for clarity on a high-stakes Senate confirmation process for a candidate to take a seat at the bench of the highest court in the land. They didnt get any. The testimonies of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the heated Senate chamber brought the country no closer to the whole truth of a matter that happened more than 35 years ago. Ford said she is 100 percent certain Kavanaugh is the drunken teenager who lay atop her and groped her at a friendly gathering in their high school years. Her testimony required courage and needed little assurance and support from Democratic senators on the Senate Judicial Committee to prove her credibility. Meanwhile, Kavanaugh emphatically denied his role in any sexual misconduct with Ford or with any other woman. He rightly condemned the process that he said destroyed my family and my name, words that left him angry and emotional throughout the hearing. We lament the character smears heaped upon both Ford and Kavanaugh. Both families have endured vile comments and death threats. The lack of respect given to all parties throughout the proceedings is discouraging. Some could take the path of assuming that both Ford and Kavanaugh are lying and are part of a nefarious plot. Others could also take the path of believing that both are telling the truth, not a huge stretch given that decades have passed and alcohol was involved. If this were a court of law, it would likely end with no judgment and possibly no justice or vindication. But as this is a job interview, perhaps the final question is not whom you believe, but whether Kavanaugh now can faithfully and credibly carry out his duty as a member of the Supreme Court of the United States for what could be the next 30 years. If the answer is no, another nominee should be put forward in his place. Many could admirably fill the role, and the nation has already proved it can move on after it denies a Supreme Court nominee. The defeat of Robert Bork led to the 97-0 confirmation of Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose retirement, coincidentally, set up the present battle. The clearest takeaway of the day is that the country lost. It lost the safety and security every victim should have to confidently bring forth allegations of abuse. It lost the certainty that the accused should have a fair and honest process. It lost some of its humanity and compassion that have defined and made America a beacon of hope to the world. This downward spiral may cause Americans to lose trust for neighbors, friends and family. In an America where every friend is a potential foe and every interaction is a potential accusation, the better angels of human nature cannot emerge. Thursdays hearing and the days surrounding it will certainly make others who seek elected or appointed offices think twice before subjecting themselves to such scrutiny, leading to a loss of talented women and men in public service. Regardless of what happens in the coming days in relation to Ford and the nomination of Kavanaugh, the country should mourn what it has lost and be resolved to be part of the solution. Correction: A previous version mistakenly said Justice Anthony Kennedy's passing set up Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. Kennedy retired, he has not died. SOUTH SALT LAKE After the friend who reported him came to believe he was kidding, a South Jordan man accused of threatening a mass school shooting with a 3D-printed gun has admitted to a lesser charge. Austin James David West, 23, pleaded guilty in South Salt Lake Justice Court Wednesday to disorderly conduct, an infraction. He agreed to continue with therapy, comply with terms of his probation over the next year and pay $150 or do community service. In exchange, the case will be dismissed in a year. Dustin Craig, the friend who reported the perceived threat to Broadview University in South Salt Lake last month, said Thursday in an interview he was scared at the time, but after weeks of consideration he now believes West was joking. "I know he would never do something like that," Craig said. "Now, looking back on it, looking back on his actions, I think it was a prank. I think it just got too far." Craig initially believed the school would lightly discipline West, he said, "but it kind of escalated into this full-blown investigation." Craig said he told prosecutors of his change of heart early this week. On Wednesday, the charge was reduced and West entered the plea in abeyance. He originally was charged with making a threat of violence, a class B misdemeanor. In text messages to Craig on Aug. 7, West referenced killing people with a 3D-printed gun so the gun could not be traced to him, according to a search warrant affidavit. His friend later told police West had a fascination with firearms and mass violence and was capable of committing a mass casualty, such as a school shooting. Craig said Thursday his friend was studying video game design and his creativity has long manifested in talking about guns and violence. West usually stopped discussing them when Craig told him to, but continued to talk about them in the texts last month, he recalled. After Craig told an instructor at the school, administrators called police and sent an email warning students and faculty of the shooting threat, though the school remained open, according to South Salt Lake police. Officers served a warrant at West's South Jordan home Aug. 8 and seized a 3D printer. West's attorney, David Shapiro, declined to make his client available for an interview on Thursday. Shapiro said that if the friends had been talking in person instead of in texts, Craig would likely not have developed such serious concerns. Shapiro said his client was expelled from the school and has $100,000 in student debt. "He's out in the cold," Shapiro said. Craig, of West Jordan, said his friend is a good person who helps him around his house and always hugs Craig's puppies. He believes the stress of graduation four months away may have played a role in his friend's violent text messages. After the court hearing Wednesday, West told Craig he was sorry and that he made a mistake. Craig added, "I've seen a change in him." A federal judge in Seattle last month blocked blueprints for 3D-printed guns from being posted online, saying they pose a danger to the public because they are untraceable. SALT LAKE CITY Said Issa spent much of his childhood in refugee camps. After his family fled civil war in Burundi, they stayed in a refugee camp in Ethiopia for seven years, he said. It was "a hard life" for him, his siblings and parents, Issa explained. "The most hard part was especially the food. So most the kids are hungry, there's no foods over there, you're lucky if you can eat today. But you don't think about what's tomorrow," he told the Deseret News. Issa's family was eventually accepted for resettlement in Salt Lake City when he was 16 years old. Now a U.S. citizen and attending college, he said he believes the best thing people can do to help refugees is to get to know those in their community. "Interact with the refugees. They're very wonderful people, if you get to learn from them what they have been through," Issa, 22, said. Salt Lake residents were able to do just that Thursday evening during a "Forced to Flee" event hosted by Catholic Community Services of Utah at Gallivan Plaza. The first event of its kind held by the group offered people a glimpse into what life looks like for refugees. People worked their way through several white tents set up on mostly dead grass. The tents had life-size photos inside to show the way large families are often crammed, shoulder to shoulder, in tight living quarters. Eating utensils were scattered on dirt floors and a lantern hung in each tent. As groups of people rotated through the makeshift living quarters, volunteers some of them former refugees explained different aspects of refugees' lives. In one tent, volunteers discussed education in refugee camps, which they say is affected by issues including overflowing classes, gender inequality and lack of supplies and teachers. According to Hannah Momoh, from Sierra Leone, "In my fourth grade class, we had 99 kids for one teacher. So it was hard to get that one-on-one experience," she said. They also didn't have any books. "Learning how to read is the teacher writing on the board and then pointing to the words. And if you have a small piece of paper or a pencil that actually works, you could write down things and then go home and try to study," Momoh said. Those living in refugee camps also often face a shortage of basic necessities and health care, troubles caused by weather and climate, and dirty conditions, among many other hardships discussed by volunteers. Issa said his family's home in the refugee camp, built out of mud and stones, burned down twice. Prominent Utah philanthropist Pamela Atkinson, who spoke briefly before the event, said hearing of the trials of refugees "really does choke me up." "This is so moving, in each of these tents, such a story about the people and how they're living in refugee camps, and how they're surviving. And yet, in the United States, the numbers are going down. We've always been such a welcoming country," she said. In 2016, nearly 84,000 immigrated to the U.S. This year, the Trump administration ordered no more than 45,000 refugees be let in. And in 2019, the cap will be lowered further to 30,000 refugees. According to Aden Batar, immigration and resettlement director for Catholic Community Services who was once a refugee himself, more than 22 million people are currently in refugee camps. Most of those camps are in third-world countries, he said. While the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. has decreased the past two years, Batar said, he hopes President Donald Trump will allow "more refugees to come to our country." "We have so many people who have a big heart who want to help refugees," Batar said. Issa said when he came to Utah, the most difficult part was catching up to other kids in school. "One day, I was pretending for a teacher like I knew how to read English, even though I didn't know. And then I just go stand up there and just look at a book. That's when the teacher noticed" that he was from a different background, he said. But he completed packets helping him catch up on credits and was able to graduate. Now, he is studying social work. "So I had to focus because I knew what America is like, a dream, and I wanted my family to be proud of me. But getting that chance to come to the United States, I had to make sure I used that chance. Because not everyone gets this chance not everyone gets the chance to come here and get the education they wanted," Issa said. "This is American dream living the freedom," he said. LAYTON A 26-year-old man who was allegedly shot in Layton but then driven to a hospital in Preston, Idaho, where he later died, reportedly requested to be taken to a hospital out of state, according to police. Layton police on Friday said based on interviews with witnesses, they have no evidence to dispute that the man requested to be driven out of state, even though there were several other hospitals closer. Investigators believe he did that to try and conceal a drug operation inside the trailer where the shooting occurred. The bizarre case is being treated as a homicide investigation. Layton police still had many questions to answer as of Friday and were finishing the execution of a search warrant that started Thursday at the mobile home. By Friday morning, three people had been arrested as a result of the investigation, but none for homicide. The search for two alleged gunmen continued. Kevin Wesner Content, who turned 25 on Friday, was booked into the Davis County Jail for investigation of obstruction of justice and two counts of drug possession. Devon Miller, 22, was booked for investigation of two counts of drug possession, obstruction of justice, possession of a firearm by a restricted person, possession of drug paraphernalia, and marijuana possession. Douglas Michael Cordova, 30, was arrested for investigation of endangerment of a child and possession of drug paraphernalia. The investigation began about 8:20 a.m. Thursday when police in Preston called Layton police to report a man who was allegedly shot in Layton had just been admitted to a hospital in their city, according to a Davis County Jail report. Police believe two men wearing "costume masks," black clothing and gloves, entered the trailer at 2500 N. Lane at Lakeview Estates about 5 a.m. "Numerous rounds were fired," according to a statement from Layton police. Anthony Child, 26, was struck several times, police stated. Layton police on Friday announced they were looking for Angel Christopher Abreu, 22, and said the public should consider him "armed and dangerous." The shooting was believed to be over drugs or money or both, according to Layton Police Lt. Alex Davis. Nine people were believed to be in the trailer at the time of the shooting, in addition to the two intruders, he said. When police began questioning the occupants, Miller told them "that after the victim of the shooting left his trailer with some of their friends, being transported to an unknown hospital 'out of state' at the victim's request, he assisted in cleaning up blood from the floor and area rug, with peroxide, where the victim had bled." Davis said investigators believe Child asked to be taken to a hospital out of state to hide what was happening in the mobile home. Miller also admitted to "picking up spent casings from the shooting" and that "he had moved the casings to save as souvenirs for the victim," the report states. When police began searching the Layton trailer home, they found a considerable amount of drugs, Davis said, including 50 gallons of marijuana being stored in 5-gallon buckets, and a psychedelic mushroom grow operation. According to a jail report, officers observed "a mushroom grow tent located in the master bedroom of the trailer owned by Devon (Miller)" and also found "two jars containing specific bark and chemicals intended to extract Dimethyltryptamine (DMT)." Miller, however, "indicated that he was an active member of the Oklevueha Native American Church and that his membership allowed him certain 'sacraments,' indicating his 'lawful constitutional right' to possess cannabis and other natural plant derived substances otherwise prohibited by law. "He also identified the 'grow tent' as belonging to him for 'sacramental' purposes only and confirmed that the growing plants were indeed mushrooms," according to the report. "He denied the distribution of any of his cultivated mushrooms or marijuana continuing in his testimony of them solely being used for religious sacrament. He denied using it for recreational purposes." Davis said although some religious artifacts were found in the trailer, investigators are disputing the religious claim based on the amount of drugs found. Investigators discovered "a grow house for marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms. Metro Narcotics Strike Force went into full Hazmat gear in order to safely remove the mushrooms so they would not release their spores into the air," the report states. Content also admitted to police that he "cleaned blood from the crime scene, collected shell casings, and did not report the incident to law enforcement when initially contacted. The shell casings were later recovered during the execution of a search warrant in a backpack belonging to Content," a jail report states. Cordova admitted his 2-month-old son stays frequently with him in the trailer. According to Cordova, he was in the trailer at the time of the shooting but did not hear it because "he was too drunk and high," a jail report states. CLEARFIELD Utah Department of Transportation crews will resume maintenance work on two Antelope Drive bridges near the Freeport Center Sunday. The work will continue nightly through the end of October. No work will take place on Friday nights. Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction nightly, beginning at 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and at 6 p.m. on Sundays. Two lanes in each direction will reopen at 6 a.m., Monday to Friday, and at noon on Sundays. Minor delays are possible during these lane closures, and construction may require intermittent shoulder work and temporary neighborhood street access closures. SANDY The Canyons School Board wants parental input as it considers adopting a math curriculum for grades seven through 12 that has a major online component. Like the program now being used by sixth-graders in districts eight middle schools, the online material would be the primary text to aid learning as students work on problems in a hard-copy workbook while in class. According to district officials, the curriculum would provide students mathematics-learning support wherever, whenever and without having to pack around well-worn textbooks. The proposed programs are Illustrative Mathematics for seventh- and eighth-grade students, and Mathematics Vision Project for ninth- through 12th-grade students. District officials say the cost to implement both programs is less than if the district opts to maintain the traditional hard-bound mathematics textbooks, and the texts are closely aligned to Utahs Core State Standards. Parents are encouraged to review the proposed curriculum, either online at canyonsdistrict.org or with a hard-copy that can be accessed at their childs school. Feedback can be provide at the districts website. If the board OKs the curriculum, which will be considered after the public-input process, the district with implement the online textbooks in a layered, grade-by-grade rollout, starting with seventh- and eighth-graders in 2019 and advancing to higher grades until fall 2021. SALT LAKE CITY Prosecutors have asked that a documented gang member accused of ramming a police car be held without bail. Valentine James Malaki, 25, of Salt Lake City, was charged Friday in 3rd District Court with assault on a police officer, a second-degree felony; and failing to stop for an officer, a third-degree felony. On Sept. 6, Salt Lake City gang detectives were conducting a surveillance operation near 1990 South and 200 East when they spotted Malaki and a woman get into an SUV with a stolen license plate, according to charging documents. The officers pulled him over, got out of their cars, and one officer drew his gun and yelled "police" several times, the charges state. "Malaki looked at him, shut the door, started the (SUV) and put it in reverse. Malaki then rammed the police vehicle, pulled forward and rammed it again," according to charging documents. After hitting the car a second time, Malaki drove the SUV as though he were aiming for one of the officers, the charges state. "They could tell he was definitely trying to run over the officer," Salt Lake police said when the incident happened. The SUV sped away and a short pursuit ensued. The chase ended at the Park Place apartments, 731 S. 300 East, where Malaki ran inside one of the units. Knowing his history, Salt Lake police called out their SWAT team to serve a warrant on the apartment to get Malaki. Court records show Malaki was charged in July with felony drug possession. A warrant was issued for his arrest on Aug. 23 when he failed to show up for court. In 2017 he was convicted of theft by receiving stolen property. A warrant was issued for his arrest on March 29 for failing to comply with his probation in that case, according to court records. WEST JORDAN A man accused of gunning down another man inside a fast food restaurant has been charged with murder. Jonathan Hunt, 18, of Murray, was charged Monday with murder and discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, both first-degree felonies. The case was moved to West Jordan's 3rd District Court on Thursday. In addition, Jayden Marshall Olsen, 22, of Moab, was charged in 3rd District Court with obstructing justice, a second-degree felony, and drug distribution, a third-degree felony. On Sept. 13 just afer midnight, Noe Armijo-Luna, 20, was eating in Rancheritos, 7849 S. Redwood Road, with a friend when Hunt walked in, according to charging documents. A witness in the restaurant told police that Hunt was "visibly upset," the charges state. He walked to the bathroom for about 30 seconds and then left the restaurant, according to the charges. Hunt returned about two minutes later with Olsen. Hunt and Olsen confronted the two men who were eating. Hunt shouted at Armijo-Luna and punched him in the head, and when Armijo-Luna stood up, "the shooter pointed a gun at the victim and fired two shots," the charges state. West Jordan police said even though Hunt was the alleged gunman, it was Olsen who had an ongoing dispute with Armijo-Luna that started about five months earlier, allegedly over a relationship with a girl. The girl used to date Olsen, the charges state. The friend Armijo-Luna was eating with said Armijo-Luna and Olsen had been communicating through Snapchat in the months leading up to the deadly confrontation, according to charging documents. That's how Olsen knew Armijo-Luna was at Rancheritos, according to police. Hunt's next scheduled court appearance is Oct. 9. Olsen is scheduled to be back in court Monday. Tanaiste to deliver Irelands national statement at the 73rd UN General Assembly Press release The Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney T.D., will deliver Irelands national statement to the UN General Assembly in New York today (Friday, 28 September). The Tanaiste will use his address to underline Irelands strong support for multilateralism as the best way to address global challenges; to highlight Irelands role in UN peacekeeping, disarmament and humanitarian assistance; and to highlight Irelands concerns regarding the situation in the Middle East. In his address, the Tanaiste will also strongly make the case for Irelands candidature for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2021-2022 term. The Tanaistes speech comes at the end of a busy week for Ireland at the UN, which included bilateral meetings with a wide range of leaders attending the General Assembly, as well as attendance at high-level meetings on issues including climate change, disarmament, human rights, sustainable development and humanitarian response. On Thursday, the Tanaiste attended a meeting of the Informal Ministerial Network for the International Criminal Court in advance of depositing Irelands instrument of ratification of the Kampala Amendments to the Rome Statute on the Crime of Aggression. Both events underlined Irelands unwavering support for the international court. The Tanaiste later attended a Ministerial meeting on UNRWA, where he reiterated Irelands support for the organisations work with Palestine refugees. The Tanaiste separately discussed with Security Council members, and a range of countries from the Middle East, ways to advance the two state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. On Thursday evening, the Tanaiste was the lead speaker at an event for the Womens Peace and Humanitarian Fund of which Ireland is a founding donor. The Tanaiste announced an additional 200,000 in support of the funds work to ensure women play full and meaningful roles in building and sustaining peace. On Friday afternoon, the Tanaiste, with the President of Kiribati, will co-host an event that highlights the impact of climate change on Kiribati and to pay tribute to the leadership Kiribati is showing on climate action and sustainable development. From Wednesday to Saturday the Tanaiste held bilateral meetings with Foreign Ministers from a wide range of countries from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin and Central America. ENDS Press Office 28 September 2018 | A Facebook hack has resulted in the data of 50 million accounts exposed. Facebooks Vice President of Product Management, in a detailed blog post, said that the social network discovered a vulnerability in its system that allowed hackers to take over peoples accounts. Facebook claims to have patched the vulnerability and additionally, users affected by the hack have been forced to sign in to their accounts once again. If you have been logged out of your account tonight, chances are your account may have been hacked. Facebook will also show a notification on top of the news feeds of users that have been affected. In the blog post, Rosen detailed that the hackes exploited a technical vulnerability in the View As feature, a privacy tool that allows users to see how their own profiles look to someone else. Rosen wrote, Its clear that attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebooks code that impacted View As. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over peoples accounts. The vulnerability was the result of three specific bugs and was introduced in July 2017, according to Rosen who addressed reporters at a press call. Its important to say the attackers could use the account as if they were the account holder. The View As privacy tool, if accessed by a third person, will expose all your information including your phone number, email address and other intimate details. Users who used the feature since the vulnerability was introduced have been logged out as well. Facebook claimed 40 million more accounts have been signed out, as a result. Facebook said its unknown who is behind the attack or when it originated from. It also doesnt know whether the data stolen has been used for any illicit purposes. The company is still in the beginning stages of the investigation. However, it claimed that initial investigation has indicated the hackers have not been able to post to accounts, change information or access private messages. Although Zuckerberg said the hackers did try to query our APIs Name, gender, hometown, etc. We do not yet know if any private information was accessed this way. Facebook said it is working with the FBI to get to the bottom of the attack. The social network has over two billion active users and the breach has affected roughly 2.5 percent of the users. This is a really serious security issue, and were taking it very seriously, Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook. We have a major security effor at the company that hardens all our surfaces and investigates issues like this. Im glad we found this and we were able to fix the vulnerability and secure the accounts. It definitely is an issue that this happened in the first place. This underscores the attacks that our platform and community face. The attack comes at a time when Facebook has been criticized over how it handles users data. On Thursday, Gizmodo reported how the company has been using phone numbers that users gave as two-factor authentication, to target users for advertisements. Furthermore, Facebook data was found to be harvested by Cambridge Analytica and other third parties to target ads. Also, back in August, Facebooks Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos resigned from the company. We expect more details to surface about who is behind the hack and whether the stolen data has been used for anything sinister. In case you were logged out and forced to log in again, you might be among those who are affected. I know I was. A Taiwanese white hat hacker is claiming to delete Mark Zuckerbergs Facebook page and stream the whole thing through a Facebook Live session. In a Facebook post, the hacker, named Chang Chi-yuan said he will be deleting the account of Facebooks founder himself and scheduled a live stream for Sunday 3:30 PM IST. The hackers Facebook Page, which is in Taiwanese has 26,000 followers. The page, and Chang himself, is listed as a special contributor to Line Corps bug bounty hall of fame for 2016. Chang was reportedly sued by a local bus operator in Taiwan for hacking into their system and buying a ticket for a single Taiwanese dollar. The hacker is also known for writing articles on earning money by hacking. Facebook too has a bug bounty programme where it rewards and recognises individuals who successfully point out and fixes bugs on the platform. If Chang is successful, it wont be the first time Zuckerbergs account has been hacked. The Facebook co-founders page was hacked back in 2011 when a hacker posted a status update asking the founder to allow users to invest in the social media platform and convert it into a social business. Facebook has been mired in controversies with recent revelations about allowing third parties like Cambridge Analytica to leverage data people shared on Facebook to influence national elections across the world, which led to the #DeleteFacebook campaign encouraging users to delete their Facebook accounts. Recently, Instagram and WhatsApp co-founders, both of which Facebook acquired have quit the company over allegations of diluting the privacy measures of the apps to sell more ads. Provided Facebook allows it, the live stream will begin at 6PM local time on Sunday. In India, you can tune in at 3:30PM and watch the white hat hacker attempt to take control of Mark Zuckerbergs Facebook account and delete it. Earlier this month, Reliance Jio rolled out WhatsApp for the JioPhone. As per Reuters, the two companies are now working closely together for spreading awareness amongst the first time users of the app on the phone. JioPhone is a low-cost smart feature phone that supports 4G data connectivity and Jio says that it has over 25 million users. Most of the device users are transitioning from complete feature phones to a device that comes with support for apps like Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp and the companies want to help these users steer clear of false information circulating on the platform that a while ago caused multiple lynching incidents in India. Those who are using WhatsApp on JioPhone will get educational material so as to easily spot a forwarded WhatsApp message. They are also being encouraged to share messages thoughtfully, WhatsApp spokesman Carl Woog told Reuters. "We are working closely with Jio to continue our education campaign for WhatsApp users," Woog said. The company has also partnered with the NGO Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) for promoting digital literacy in India's towns and cities. As per the report, DEF is hosting a workshop in Ranchi this week. This is not the only step that the online messaging platform has taken to reduce both the fake messages and their impact via the app. WhatsApp is offering unrestricted research rewards of up to $50,000 for proposals from social scientists and research groups that can help better the companys understanding of the fake news problem. This announcement was made after the aforementioned lynching incident in which an angry mob killed a group of five people who were misidentified as kidnappers but actually travelled to Maharashtras Dhule district to beg. Since June 2017, at least 31 people across 10 states in India have been killed by mobs because of misinformation distributed through forwarded WhatsApp messages. The app is also being tested with a new Suspicious Link Detection feature, which is aimed at helping users detect suspicious sent and received links on WhatsApp. The feature works in the following manner: When a user receives a message containing a link, WhatsApp will analyse the link to detect if it may redirect to a fake or alternative website. If this is the case, then the message is identified with a red label and if the user tries to open the link, the app alerts users again that they are trying to open a possible suspicious link. SEC sues Elon Musk for fraud, seeks his ouster as Tesla chief The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused Tesla Inc chief executive Elon Musk of fraud and sought his removal as head of the electric car company, after the maveric entrepreneur made a series of false and misleading tweets about potentially taking Tesla private last month. On 7 August Musk made a surprise announcement that he was thinking of taking Tesla private. Musk told his more than 22 million Twitter followers that he might take Tesla private at $420 per share, with funding secured. But his team of executives had no knowledge of his plans. Twelve minutes later, Teslas head of investor relations told investors to ask Musks chief of staff whether Musks announcement was legit, the SEC pointed out. On 24 August, after news of the SEC probe had become known, Musk again Tweeted that investor resistance forced Tesla to remain public. Musk had not discussed the $420 figure with any potential funding source before he broached the subject to Teslas board in a 2 August email, the SEC said. SEC said Musk knew or was reckless in not knowing that his tweets about taking Tesla private at $420 a share were false and misleading, given that he had never discussed such a transaction with any funding source. The SEC said Musk met for less than an hour with three representatives of Public Investment Fund, at the companys Fremont, California, plant on 31 July during which the lead representative for the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund expressed interest in taking Tesla private if the terms were reasonable, according to the lawsuit. Musk acknowledged the meeting lacked discussion of even the most fundamental terms of the deal and nothing was set in concrete terms. The SEC said its investigation into Tesla is ongoing. The SEC lawsuit comes as Tesla has been struggling to deliver its new Model 3 sedan, which is key to the companys future profitability, after a long series of production issues and delays. The move to bar Musk as an officer of any public company was a rare move for the SEC against the CEO of such a well-known firm. But, despite the pranks, Musk, 47, remains the public face of Tesla and without him the money-losing car maker, which has a market value of more than $50 billion, would go deeper into the red. The Department of Justice has questioned the company about Musks tweets, the company said this month. Musk said he had done nothing wrong. This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed, he said in a statement. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way. Teslas board said they are fully confident in Musk. The SECs lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, comes at the end of two months of uncertainty for Teslas investors, brought about by Musks false Twits offering to buy out shares in his company at $420 per share, with funding secured. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the SEC filed the lawsuit after a proposed settlement with Musk fell apart. The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Thursday. In its lawsuit, the SEC said Musk calculated the $420 price per share based on a 20 per cent premium over that days closing share price and because of the numbers slang reference to marijuana. The lawsuit, which cites emails and text messages between Musk and Tesla executives, quoted Musk as saying he thought his girlfriend would find it funny, which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price. After the initial tweet, Teslas chief financial officer asked Musk would it help if executives drafted a blog post or employee email to explain his tweet. Musk responded, Yeah, that would be great. Sushma Swaraj leaves SAARC meeting in message to Pak to behave Indias external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj left mid way from a meeting of member countries of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) ministers, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York today, making Indias stance clear that it won't let terrorism undermine regional cooperation and that terrorism is posing a clear danger to South Asia cooperation. "The number of threats and incidents that endanger South Asia are on the rise. Terrorism remains the single-largest threat to peace and stability in our region, and indeed in the world. It is necessary that we eliminate the scourge of terrorism in all its forms, without any discrimination, and end the ecosystem of its support," the foreign minister said in an indirect reference to Pakistan as she addressed the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) foreign ministers. "I would like to stress that meetings, including high-level ones, can only be effective if expressions of resolve are translated in to concrete action on the ground," the minister said. Her comments are significant after India last week turned down Pakistan's request for a meeting of the two foreign ministers over the killing of a soldier and three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting a meeting of the foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. India initially accepted the request, but a day later, rejected it after the brutal killings of Indian security personnel and Pakistan's move to release stamps glorifying terrorist Burhan Wani, who was killed by security forces in Kashmir in 2016. "The number of threats and incidents that endanger South Asia are on the rise," Sushma Swaraj said. The two foreign ministers avoided meeting each other on Thursday. As Sushma Swaraj left the venue without waiting for his statement, the Pakistani foreign minister said: "In the progress of SAARC only one country's behaviour is the stumbling block. When it comes to any positive gesture from India's side, all I can say is that she left the meeting midway, maybe she wasn't feeling well." Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi criticised her, saying, it is understood that Sushma Swaraj had other meetings scheduled. Indian officials said Qureshi's allegations are "baseless and away from reality". Sushma Swaraj, said the officials, had "extensively dealt with various SAARC related projects. She also expressed India's unwavering commitment for making SAARC a success as regional grouping. SC rules women of all ages can enter Sabarimala temple In a development that could fundamentally maim the character and sanctity of Keralas famous Sabarimala Temple, the Supreme Court today ruled that women of all ages can enter the abode of the celibate deity, throwing the belief and practice of ages of all Hindu devotees to the wind. For ages now, women of menstrual age are restricted from entering temples across the country and since a pilgrimage to Sabarimala involved 40 days of penance, and any girl past puberty is expected to go through the menstrual cycle within the 40-day period, making the penance itself unworthy, the temple had imposed restriction on women between the ages of 10 and 50 entering the temple. While the argument that the presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered to be a celibate and hence women are not allowed enter to the temple may be a feeble one, the practice of menstruating women not entering the temple is an age-old practice and is not a subject of public debate. The apex court simply held on to the age restriction to counter the practice, and said that age cannot be a bar on temple entry. "The practice of age restriction on women entry to Sabrimala temple can't be treated as an essential religious practice," said the court in a majority four-one judgement. The only woman judge on the five-judge constitution bench, Justice Indu Malhotra, however, has a dissenting view. Justice Malhotra said India has diverse religious practices and constitutional morality would allow anyone to profess and practice a religion she/he believes in and it is not for the court to interfere in such religious practices, even if it may appear discriminatory. The right to equality claimed by some conflicts with the right to follow a religious practice, again a fundamental right, and rejects plea for entry of women of all ages into Sabarimala temple, she said. Justice Malhotra also pointed the issues raised have serious implications for all religions and that issues which have deep religious connotation should not be tinkered with to maintain secular atmosphere in the country. Worshippers of Sabarimala temple constitute a separate religious denomination and they are entitled to continue with their essential practices, which include not allowing women in 10-50 age group to enter the temple, added Justice Malhotra. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra saw it as a patriarchal notion of devotion being subjected to discrimination and denial of equality. For centuries, women of menstrual age were restricted from entering the temple as its presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered to be a celibate. A number of petitions had challenged the restrictions on the entry of women. Justice Misra, who retires as Chief Justice of India on 2 October, who was delivering another in a series of landmark rulings in his last week as top judge, also said, "Lord Ayappa is not a separate denomination." Yesterday, the Supreme Court had scrapped the adultery law saying it went against gender justice. The head priest of Sabarimala, Kandaru Rajeevaru, said: "We are disappointed but accept the Supreme Court verdict on women entry." During the hearings, the Travancore Devaswom Board which runs the over 800-year-old Lord Ayyappa temple, had told the court that the ban is not anti-women and is voluntarily accepted by them. But the top court underlined that the all customary or religious practices such as a ban on entry of women had to conform to constitutional principles. The board had also urged the top court to steer clear of sitting in judgment on sensitive religious matters. We will go for a review petition after getting support from other religious heads: Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president A Padmakumar said on the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of all women in Keralas Sabarimala temple. The Kerala government, which has been changing its stand on the temple ban, had told the Supreme Court in July that it favoured the entry of women. NITI Aayog, UN sign Sustainable Development Framework Indian government think tank NITI Aayog and United Nations in India signed a Sustainable Development Framework for 2018-2022 to further the efforts made by the country towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. The agreement, signed at a function in the capital today, emphasises that 2018-2022 will be a crucial phase in Indias development story since the year 2022 marks the 75 years of Indias independence. In this backdrop, partnership instruments such as the UNSDF assume even more significance to accelerate the pace towards building a New India by 2022, an India that is free of poverty and equal for all, an official release stated. The UNSDF outlines the development cooperation strategy between the government of India and the United Nations Country Team in India, in support of the achievement of Indias key national development priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UNSDF was framed following a highly participative process, in consultation with government entities, civil society representatives, academia, and the private sector. The focus areas include poverty and urbanisation; health, water, and sanitation; education; nutrition and food security; climate change, clean energy, and disaster resilience; skilling, entrepreneurship, and job creation; and gender equality and youth development. Across outcome areas, the UN will support the government on South-South cooperation, in partnership with the ministry of external affairs. The total planned budget outlay for the implementation of the UNSDF 2018-2022 is approximately Rs11,000 crore, of which 47 per cent is planned to be mobilised through the course of implementation from multiple sources, including the private sector and the government. CEO, NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, highlighted the need to promote innovation in meeting Indias development challenges and bringing on board the power of social entrepreneurs and the private sector to act on scale. The UNSDF is underpinned by the overarching principle of the SDGs to leave no one behind, echoing the government of Indias message of SabkaSaathSabkaVikas (development for all). The programmatic work outlined in the UNSDF targets the seven low-income states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, MP, Odisha, Rajasthan, UP), the North-East region, and the aspirational districts identified earlier this year by the NITI Aayog. Work will focus on improving the lives of the most marginalised, poor, and vulnerable communities and people in the country, especially women and girls. UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Yuri Afanasiev, said, The United Nations in India is committed to provide full support to Government of Indias development priorities, ensuring that the UNSDF outcomes are achieved. The solutions we find together can catalyze action across the global south- just as solutions from elsewhere in the world will be adapted to India. He added that together, the India-UN team will ensure that poor, vulnerable, and marginalized communities participate in and benefit from the countrys robust growth trajectory. The UNSDF also includes a set of UN flagship programs that are aligned with major government schemes. The flagship programs will be scalable innovative, multi-sectoral solutions to some of the most pressing development challenges that India faces, while also serving as catalysts for increased investment of development finance. The programmes range from affordable housing for the poor to increasing access to clean energy in rural off-grid areas; from protecting all children from vaccine-preventable diseases to quality education for all children and skilling for young people, especially young girls; and from ending stunting to improving the child sex ratio. Civics education is popular again. As our democracy itself sits on a historic precipice, people from around the country are calling for a national renewal of civics education. However, more civics education by itself is not sufficient. This new political moment requires a new civics: one in which a quest for racial equity is front and center. When it is taught at all, civics is predominantly presented as a stale and monotonous topic, in which democracy feels irrelevant to the majority of students lives. Conventional civics focuses primarily on how government works and does not acknowledge the lived experiences of many of todays students. That approach can harm our very politics. By definition, an effective democracy requires equal representation from all segments of the population. It demands the robust political participation from all voices and communitiesa goal that we can only achieve through a shared commitment to racial equity. That promise does not yet ring true in our country. A new civics education, which centers racial equity as a cornerstone of American democracy, must explicitly address the political and social marginalization of communities that have traditionally been excluded from the formal democratic process. In doing so, we can begin to dismantle the barriers to civic identity and participation faced by so many young people in this country, particularly by young people of color. In this equity-focused civics education, students can develop an understanding of democracys relevance to their own lives. Unfortunately, the word equity itself is now widely understood as a partisan ideal. In consequence, many education leaders and civics educators choose to approach the subject from a broad perspective, believing that a rising tide in civics will lift all boats. Without an explicit focus on educating for the promise of racial equity, however, there is a danger in perpetuating a democracy led by a privileged, often white minority, instead of a diverse, inclusive majority. Civics education should reflect the needs and demographics of the nation's public school children." Civics education should reflect the needs and demographics of the nations public school children, the majority of whom are students of color. In a country that has historically oppressed people who are not white, acknowledging this real history is crucial in cultivating an effective civics education. Teachers can make civics education feel relevant by connecting the discipline to local issues and challenges that students encounter every day. Civics educators should use a pedagogy informed by racial equity to engage students in critical thinking and problem-solving. This project-based approach rooted in political participation is particularly necessary for students of color, who have traditionally been excluded from the formal democratic process. Our ultimate goal should be to create a democracy in which every civic actor can meaningfully take part in our political system. Every school must foster a democratic culture in which every young person feels valued and respected. Many schools attended predominately by youths of color, such as no excuse charter schools, employ overly harsh school disciplinary policies. These policies are correlated to decreased community engagement, voter turnout, and trust in government. In contrast, private and suburban majority-white schools often have a reputation for progressive and liberating pedagogy that allows more student voice. To bridge this gap, every school must equip and empower students to care for their school community. District leaders, principals, and teachers can begin by instituting peer mediation, teaching social and emotional skills, and working with students on minor disciplinary incidents rather than taking punitive measures. Before putting racial equity front and center, the field of civics education providers and advocates must also address the racial leadership gap within its own ranks. Districts whose leadership is primarily white may find it difficult to make equity a priority in their civics worka difficulty compounded by the reality that many teachers have received little critical pedagogical support in the topic. Additionally, the executive leadership and governance of many civics education organizations are also disproportionately white, male, and older. These organizations are therefore missing the insight and experience that people of color and women could bring to the field. We do not highlight this reality to induce shame, but rather to invite all civics education organizationsincluding our ownto prioritize equity in their staffing, messaging, and organizational practice. We work at Generation Citizen, an organization that was originally founded by mainly white leadership. Through the organizations evolution, it has faced an internal struggle to elevate equity and diversify its staff and leadership. And through our work in places as different as New York and California to Oklahoma and Texas, we have come to recognize that the entire country does not think monolithically regarding equity work. Centering racial equity in how civics education is led and taught is an imperative for the field to be democratic. A new civics education must incorporate racial equity into our assessment of academic standards, curricula, policies, civic disposition, and school culture. Nothing less, and nothing else, will prepare a generation of young people to lead as inclusive civic actors in our increasingly diverse society. Its indisputable that most students perform better academically when they have parents or adults to help with homework and to be advocates with teachers and principals. But in many communities, parents who juggle multiple jobs, dont speak much English, or have low levels of education often dont have the time or resources to make meaningful connections to their childs schooling experience. Thats why some leading-edge districts have made it their job to reach out to families and create more welcoming and accessible ways for parents to be part of their childrens schooling. In Washoe County, Nev., for example, the school districts family-engagement work includes organizing home visits by teachersand training those teachers to make the most of those face-to-face encounters in students homes. In Federal Way, Wash., the leader of family-engagement efforts taps a diverse array of parents to serve on committees or task forces that inform major decisionmaking in the district, including high-level hires. Still, the specialized field of parent and family engagement has mostly been driven by ambitious leaders at the district level. And even in districts with robust programming, resources to support the work are often tight. But new and potentially bigger forces are building around the need for schools and educators to forge deeper connections with parents and community members. Philanthropistsin particular the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation of New Yorkare championing the flow of more money into family-engagement initiatives, including research to identify what efforts are effective. And the federal budget has set aside $10 million to help fund efforts by several state education agencies and outside partners to develop strong parent and community programming. The Every Student Succeeds Act also directs states and districts to develop plans to work with families and surrounding communitiesa requirement that has spawned a multistate endeavor to create guidelines and exemplars for schools and districts to follow. Advocates for building strong ties between schools and families say its a major opportunity for a proven, yet underutilized strategy to make schools better. There is a lot of excitement, and more of an evolution in where both policymakers and funders feel like they want to increasingly put their money, said Vito Borrello, the executive director for the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement. Leaders in Mississippi and South Carolina are already taking steps to spread successful parent-engagement efforts to communities across their states, said Kelli Gauthier, a spokeswoman for the Council of Chief State School Officers, which is working with those two states and more than a dozen others to craft the guidelines for family engagement. In Mississippi, officials who run the states early-childhood education programs are working to expand the kind of hands-on efforts they use with parents of children from birth to 5 years to families of students in all grades. As students age, establishing connections to parents gets more challenging and school-led efforts to do so tends to drop off, said Borello. Philanthropic Backing South Carolina leaders are tapping into the states religious community as one tactic to help support students and families. They are recruiting churches to adopt schools and assist them in helping meet students basic needs. More than 1,500 churches across South Carolina have joined the effort. We ask churches to perhaps be a reading buddy to students, ask them if they may be able to do a backpack program where they fill backpacks with non-perishable items and, if possible, include a book in there, as we have a lot of kids who are not reading when not in schools, said Yolande Anderson, the head of the office for family engagement in South Carolinas education agency. Although theres enthusiasm about the new momentum around family engagement, especially from policymakers, it doesnt come without challenges. The $10 million infusion of federal money is dwarfed by earlier government investments in similar initiatives, said Borello. Before being defunded in 2011, states shared $40 million in federal money to support entities knowns as parental information resource centers. And under the requirements of the new ESSA-related grants, state education agencies cant directly apply for the funding, said Anderson. Independent organizations that partner with states must seek the money, making it difficult for states to ensure theres an equitable distribution of resources, she said. Thats why philanthropic sources of funding are especially appealing. Officials with the Kellogg Foundation said they have given about $25 million over the last five years to support family-engagement efforts, including the multistate endeavor to write guidelines. The foundation is also directly funding research, including a study published in 2016 that found that teachers who share their students racial identity or linguistic backgrounds are generally more successful at building trusting relationships with parents and families, said Jenefer ODell, a program officer with the Kellogg Foundation. We want to help the school system move away from looking at family engagement as a one-time program or collection of random events, like fundraisers such as a bake sale, and focus more on looking at sustainable ways in how parents and families are constantly incorporated in every aspect of the learning settings within the school, she said. The Carnegie Corporation of New York has funded family-engagement programs in the past. But officials there increasingly see it as a priority, thanks to research showing its effectiveness and ESSAs push for states to consider ways to get stakeholders more involved, chiefly parents, said Ambika Kapur, an education program officer at Carnegie Corporation. The foundation wanted to first get a snapshot of where family engagement was in the philanthropic world, and surveyed 150 foundations. Carnegie found that they collectively poured about $230 million into family engagement, and nearly half were newer foundations pumping money into the causea confirmation that the support for this work was real. The more we went deeper in learning about research about successful educational reforms, we found that the greatest influence on students is the family, Kapur said. In just the past year, Carnegie has worked with DonorsChoose.org to offer about $500,000 toward matchingdollar for dollarwhat teachers raise themselves, and supporting burgeoning nonprofits. Such nonprofits include EdNavigator, an organization that sends advisers into parents workplaceswith employers cooperation and financial supportto offer help and advice on how to advocate for their children at school. Making Equity a Priority While family engagement again may be fashionable in education reform, educators in districts that have long championed the approach have a few suggestions for those jumping on the bandwagon. Its vital to have a culturally responsive lens in however you shape the outreach, said Trise Moore, the head of family and community engagement for the Federal Way school district near Seattle. ODell, of Kellogg, agreed, saying its vital for policymakers and funders to incorporate awareness of racial inequity into family-engagement programs, as its part of the foundations DNA. To help, Kellogg has issued its own set of guiding principles for promoting racial equity in family engagement to help peers working in education to address such nuanced challenges. Moore also emphasized that in a data-driven education reform culture its important to remember that some positive outcomes are not easily quantifiable, such as the self-efficacy that a parent will gain through family engagement work. You cant measure a parents hopefulness, you cant measure a parents confidence, Moore said. You cant measure a students competence based on the parents confidence. Patricia Spradley, the chief of parent and community engagement in the Springfield school district in Massachusetts, said its important for the superintendent to be on board with championing family engagement and for that work to be a formal part of a districts strategic goals. That allows a mechanism for enforcement, Spradley said, regarding how policymakers can approach supporting family engagement. As for the potential for new funding sources, Spradley said: For those of us who have been the forerunners in the state of parent engagement, we are called upon to do training for others. We have had very little professional-development opportunities to take this work to the next level that funding could help. At the local level, family engagement still feels like we are on our own, a bit of an afterthought, stand-alone part of the system that needs better integration. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos wants to decimate funding to our public schools, warns a Facebook ad from Mikie Sherrill, who is running for an open U.S. House of Representatives seat in New Jersey. Another, from Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who is running for re-election, tells voters, Its time to fire Betsy DeVos. And in the U.S. Senate race in Nebraska, Democrat Jane Raybould, a Lincoln City councilwoman, attacked Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb. , in a recent debate for casting the decisive vote in favor of DeVos confirmation back in 2017. DeVos name wont appear on any ballots this fall. But Democratic candidates are trying to make herand her controversial K-12 agendapart of their campaign to take back the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate, and to win statehouses and governors mansions across the country. In Facebook and television ads, press releases, and debates, theyve pounced on her proposed cuts to federal education funding and her support for private school vouchers and allowing schools to arm educators, to paint their GOP opponents as anti-public education. And theyve been quick to highlight donations from her family to their rivals. In fact, an Education Week review found more than three-dozen instances of DeVos name surfacing in races for Congress, governorships, and state attorneys general. Betsy DeVos has become a particularly attractive boogeyman, said Patrick McGuinn, a professor of political science and education at Drew University in New Jersey. Shes become a symbol of a lot of the fights around education reform and education spending at the local and state level. DeVos is one of the least popular members of Trumps Cabinet, according to a survey conducted in late April and early May by Politico/Morning Consult. She had a 41 percent unfavorable rating among voters. And among educators, her approval rating is low as well. Overall, 67 percent of the 1,122 teachers, school, and district leaders surveyed by the Education Week Research Center last year had an unfavorable opinion of President Donald Trump. Even more72 percentsaid they didnt like DeVos. You can go to any audience of educators and say Betsy DeVos name and get an immediate groan, said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, a 1.75 million-member union thats been critical of the secretary and her policies. DeVos, she said, is a proxy for the kind of hostility that this administration has toward public schools, families, children, educators. But Tommy Schultz, the national communications director of the American Federation for Children, an advocacy organization DeVos chaired and helped found, doesnt think the ads have much political juice. If a candidate is really spending time and money advertising on a Cabinet secretary, it is likely a losing strategy, Schultz said. States still embrace DeVos signature issue of school choice, Schultz said, citing recent expansions in Georgia, Illinois, and North Carolina. And he noted that a poll conducted in May and published in Education Next, a journal put out by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, found that 54 percent of respondents support publicly funded scholarships to private schools a 9 percent increase over last year. Powerful Family Before joining the Trump administration, DeVos was a prolific political donor, mostly to GOP candidates and causes. Shes put that on hold while serving in the Cabinet. But members of her family continue to contribute to Republican candidates. Democrats have seized on those donations to draw a direct line between their opponents and the unpopular secretary. In southeastern Florida, Lauren Baer, a former Obama administration staffer, is trying to unseat GOP Rep. Brian Mast, who has accepted $27,000 from DeVos relatives, including a brother-in-law Douglas DeVos, the president of Amway, and his wife, Maria. Last month, Baers campaign put out a statement highlighting the donationand linking Mast to DeVos support for using federal funds to give firearms to educators , a sensitive issue in Florida, the site of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose family has donated tens of thousands of dollars to [Masts] campaign, is proposing using federal dollars to arm teachersa policy that will put the lives of our children and our teachers at risk, the Aug. 23 statement said. DeVos has said that schools should be given the option of arming teachers. And she has said that there is nothing in the Every Student Succeeds Act to prevent districts from buying firearms or training teachers to use them with federal dollarsa point that many Democrats challenge. The Baer campaign also noted that DeVos supported slashing $9 billion out of the U.S. Department of Educations budget , including money for teacher training and after-school programs. (Congress ultimately rejected those cuts.) Voters in the area associate DeVos with lack of support for public schools, said Rebecca Lipson, Baers campaign manager. When we talk to public school teachers here in the district, they feel like they arent getting support from the Department of Education, she said. In South Florida, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who has worked for nonprofits, also used DeVos support for arming teachers to hit her Republican opponent, Rep. Carlos Curbelo. He has taken nearly $20,000 from DeVos family, her campaign said. In Aurora, Colo., Jason Crow, a former U.S. Army Ranger who is running against Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican, jabbed at his opponent for taking $27,000 from DeVos family in this election cycle. Since the day she took the helm at the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos has run roughshod over our nations public schools while Mike Coffman has looked the other way. Now we know why, said a statement from Mitch Schwartz, Crows communications director. And in DeVos home state of Michigan, Elissa Slotkin, a former intelligence analyst, attacked her GOP opponent, Rep. Mike Bishop, for taking more than $10,000 from the powerful DeVos family. Its not just congressional candidates. Richard Corday, a Democrat and consumer watchdog running for governor of Ohio, has put up a Facebook ad warning that the DeVos family and other big-money special interests were pouring money into the coffers of his opponent, Mike DeWine, the attorney general. He urged donors to help make up the difference by kicking into his campaign. Home State Battleground Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Rep. Dan Kildee, both Michigan Democrats, created similar Facebook ads. In fact, anti-DeVos ads are particularly popular in the secretarys home state of Michigan. Thats not surprising, Drew Universitys McGuinn said. DeVos and her family have spent more of their moneyand been most influentialin Michigan. Shes a controversial figure nationally, but shes a particularly controversial figure in Michigan, he said. Democratic candidates are using DeVos name as a cudgel on the debate stage. Ben Jealous, a civil rights activist and the Democratic nominee for governor in Maryland, chided his opponent, Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, for appearing at an elementary school with DeVos last year. You keep sending money to private schools in the form of vouchers and touring around with Betsy DeVos, Jealous said in their Sept. 24 debate. Hogan replied that the interaction was limited to sitting with DeVos while she was reading to childrensomething he did with President Barack Obamas education secretaries, too. And in an August debate for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska, Republican Fischer was attacked for being the deciding vote on DeVos nomination. Raybould, the Democrat, called DeVos a grossly unqualified secretary of education who would like to siphon off millions of dollars of our hard-earned taxpayer money for a private system of charter schools and vouchers. Technically, any senator who supported DeVos could be tagged as the deciding vote in favor of her confirmation. DeVos was confirmed in February 2017, by a 51-50 vote. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote in her favor, after two GOP senators defected. Such moments drive home just how much DeVos rocky confirmation hearing still resonates more than 1 years after the fact. Its rare that confirmation hearings go viral on the news and social media. But it sure did, McGuinn said. She certainty has been the source of much controversy ever since then. Austrian and German Christmas markets are amongst the best and most romantic in the world. Passengers on riverboat cruises on the Danube can visit markets in Passau, Linz, and Vienna with some cruises continuing downriver to Budapest while occasional trips up the Main-Danube Canal take travelers to the famous Christkindl market in Nurnberg (Nuremberg). Viennas Christmas markets are famous but Salzburg arguably has the most romantic Weihnachtsmarkt setting in Austria. Boats do not go up the Salzach but bus trip excursions are often offered from the Danube River to Salzburg. Danube River Christmas Market Cruises The Danube is amongst the most popular rivers in Europe for multiple-day cruises but the options available in winter are significantly more limited than during the other seasons. During December, the landscape can be a bit bleak and the emphasis is therefore on cities and towns and especially ones with romantic and vibrant Christmas markets. River cruises to visit Christmas markets are usually shorter than summer-time cruises. This allow visitors to see a few Christmas markets and do a cruise as a short excursion for European-based travelers or having the cruise as only part of a longer vacation for intercontinental travelers. Luxury hotels aiming mostly at business travelers in larger cites often offer very good deals over Christmas to allow for budget-priced but high-class extensions to pre-Christmas cruises. Routings of Danube Christmas Market Cruises Passau at the confluence of the Danube, Inn, and Ilz Rivers right at the German-Austrian border is by far the most popular departure port for Danube River cruises. Virtually all Danube River Christmas market cruises are return trips from Passau to Vienna (Wien). Passau-Vienna return trips during December are usually four nights but can be as short as three nights. Occasional week-long cruises will extend the cruise to Budapest in Hungary with stops en route in Bratislava in Slovakia. Very few cruises go upriver from Passau but an interesting option offered on the Premicon Queen is a two-night return cruise from Nuremberg to Bamberg on the Main-Danube Canal. Both cities are incredibly romantic with the perfect medieval backdrops for excellent Christmas markets. Many consider the large Christmas market in Nuremberg to be Germanys best while Bambergs old town is on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list. Some luxury cruise operators, aiming mostly at the international market, have longer cruises with add-on options in cities such as Prague. Amadeus Waterways has weeklong cruises from Nuremberg to Budapest while Viking River Cruises offer a week-long cruise from Passau to Bratislava return. Many more Christmas market cruises are available on the Rhine River where the Weihnachtsmarkte in Frankfurt, Rudesheim, and Cologne (Koln) are the main attractions. See also general booking tips on ways to save money when booking cruises to German and Austrian Christmas markets. Tax Return Deadline - Treasury offer help The Treasury is offering extra help to those still needing to submit their tax returns. Manx residents have just over a week left to file their information for the 2017-18 tax year. With the Government's online facility proving more popular this year, a telephone helpline will be available from next Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Deadline Day). Those looking to complete their returns online will be able to seek help out of hours by calling 685400. Paper returns can be put through the letterboxes located at the front entrance to, or on the 2nd floor inside, Government Office. Anyone who doesn't file the necessary documents by next Saturday faces a 100 penalty. The pro-Kannada, anti-Hindi protests witnessed in Karnataka in 2017 once again drew attention to the perpetual tussle for power among languages in India. A personal anecdote reflects on these power dynamics, as well as the politicisation of language in different contexts, and reveals language to be a mere plot device in the greater conflicts fought over the markers of Indian identity. A wave of violence directed at language has engulfed Karnataka in recent times. In July 2017, the pro-Kannada group, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) garnered thousands of supporters across the state to protest the inclusion of Hindi on nameplates in metro stations. This group went around defacing Hindi nameplates all over Bengaluru, and fuelled an anti-Hindi campaign on Twitter, targeting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in the state for their sanction of Hindi, and threatened to stop paying taxes to the central government if Hindi is not removed from the public eye (DNA 2017). The KRV seems to be following in the footsteps of the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS)regionalist, right-wing organisations based in Maharashtrawhich claim to defend the sanctity of the Marathi language and culture and the rights of its people. In an attempt to intensify support, the KRV also extended its hand to former opponents such as the Tamil Nadu-based party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), with whom it has clashed in the past.1 A meeting hosted by KRV in Bengaluru was attended by representatives from non-Hindi-speaking states, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha and West Bengal, among others, all of which have a history of hostility towards Hindi and its seemingly forceful and imposing presence (Ravi 2017). Some political and cultural groups in these states continue to oppose a three-language policy that gives equal official status to Hindi, English, and the regional language of the state, advocating instead for the primacy of the state language. Students who are chronically absent from school often perform poorly academically, and are more likely to be delinquent, drop out, or engage in other high-risk behaviors. New research identified a common way to define absenteeism and classified youth's absenteeism based on degree. The study found that interventions for youth with the highest rates of absenteeism were more successful than those for youth with fewer absences. Conducted by researchers at the University of Nebraska, the study appears in Justice Evaluation Journal, a publication of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. "It's been difficult to evaluate programs that aim to reduce absenteeism since there are so many differences in how absenteeism is measured," explains Anne Hobbs, director of the Juvenile Justice Institute at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and the study's lead author. "We identified a common way to define absenteeism across programs and then evaluated programs that address a range of absence levels. This can help us determine when to intervene, how to respond, and to whom interventions should be directed." As part of a statewide evaluation in Nebraska to assess the effectiveness of programs in reducing absenteeism, the study looked at 12 programs in 137 schools and involved 1,606 children and adolescents. Youth in the study ranged from 5 to 18 years old and were from a range of races and ethnicities, though the majority of students were White. Researchers defined absenteeism as all types of absences (not just truancy), categorized it into eight types, and classified absences as both excused and unexcused. They established a common measurement system and common definitions for each type of absence statewide. The researchers also created a common data entry system that each program could access, mapped attendance codes to each category of absence, and provided programs with technical assistance on using the new system. Youth were grouped into tiers based on their rates of absenteeism: Youth in Tier 1A missed less than 5% of required school, those in Tier 1B missed 6-10%, those in Tier 2 missed 11-19%, and those in Tier 3 missed 20% or more. With the data gathered using this approach, the study evaluated programs that served a range of youth spanning early intervention to those involved with the courts. It also examined whether classifying youth (by tier) explained improvements in attendance, taking into account age, race, gender, school, and program. For youth who took part in programs to reduce absenteeism, the study found that youth with the highest rates of absenteeism--both excused and unexcused--had the most improvements in reducing absenteeism, while youth with fewer absences did not improve significantly. The school the youth attended also played a role, though it wasn't clear what school characteristic--size, way of handling absences, or climate--had the most impact. The study also found that Black youth, American Indian youth, youth classified as Other, and older youth were significantly more likely to be classified in Tier 3 (that is, missing 20% or more of required school) than in other tiers; White and Hispanic youth were distributed more evenly across the tiers. In addition, males were more likely to be referred to intervention programs earlier (at Tier 1) than females. "Using common measurements for absenteeism and common definitions makes it easier to compare attendance patterns and the success of programs within different schools, school districts, and states where measurement of attendance may vary," suggests Lindsey Wylie, research coordinator at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who coauthored the study. ### The study was funded by the Nebraska Crime Commission. Summarized from Justice Evaluation Journal, Absenteeism Interventions: An Approach for Common Definitions in Statewide Program Evaluations by Hobbs, A, Kotlaja, MM, and Wylie, L (University of Nebraska). Copyright 2018 The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. All rights reserved. Funding decisions have now been made in Germany's Excellence Strategy, a programme designed to strengthen top-level research at universities in Germany. On 27 September 2018, the Excellence Commission, consisting of the members of the international Committee of Experts and the research ministers of the federal and state governments, approved 57 Clusters of Excellence to be funded from among the 88 proposed projects. A list of the approved Clusters of Excellence, with their titles and applicant universities, can be found at: The decisions were announced by Anja Karliczek, Federal Minister of Education and Research and Chair of the Joint Science Conference, and Prof. Dr. Eva Quante-Brandt, Science Senator for Bremen and Deputy Chair of the Joint Science Conference, during a livestreamed press conference following the meeting of the Excellence Commission in Bonn. Prof. Dr. Peter Strohschneider, President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), and Prof. Dr. Martina Brockmeier, Chair of the German Council of Science and Humanities, explained the process and procedures by which the selection was made. In September 2016, the DFG, which is responsible for implementing the Clusters of Excellence funding line in accordance with the administrative agreement between the federal and state governments, issued a call for proposals. A total of 195 draft proposals were submitted to the DFG in April 2017 by 63 universities. The proposals were then reviewed by 21 international panels based on research quality criteria. These assessments served as the basis for decision in the 29 September 2017 meeting of the Committee of Experts, made up of 39 researchers appointed by the Joint Science Committee. At that meeting, the Committee selected 88 projects to proceed to the full proposal stage. The full proposals were submitted by late February 2018 by 41 universities from 13 German states. Of the proposals, 62 were submitted by a single university, 23 by two universities, and 3 by three universities. The 88 full proposals were then reviewed in spring and summer of this year by 32 panels involving almost 400 researchers, 90 percent of whom are based outside Germany. On the basis of these research quality assessments, the Committee of Experts conducted a comparative assessment on 25 and 26 September, with final decisions made today by the Excellence Commission. The 57 Clusters of Excellence now approved are based at 34 universities. A total of 40 will be implemented by an individual university, 14 by two universities, and three by a consortia of three. Approximately 49 percent of the projects build on Clusters of Excellence or Graduate Schools that have been funded through Germany's Excellence Initiative since 2012. The approved Clusters are characterised by a high level of involvement of non-university partners and multidisciplinarity in the majority of projects extending far beyond the four main scientific disciplines. Funding for the new Clusters of Excellence will begin on 1 January 2019. Clusters will be funded for seven years; a second seven-year funding period may be granted upon successful proposal submission and review. The administrative agreement envisages funding of approximately 385 million per year, 75 percent of which will be borne by the federal government and 25 percent by the relevant home state. The decisions on the Clusters of Excellence also serve as the basis for eligibility in the Universities of Excellence funding line, implemented by the German Council for Science and Humanities. In accordance with the decisions,17 universities with at least two Clusters of Excellence and two university consortia with at least three Clusters of Excellence can now compete for funding. Proposals for Universities of Excellence can be submitted until 10 December 2018. They will then undergo review, with final decisions to be made by the Excellence Commission on 19 July 2019. ### Further Information http://www.dfg.de/excellence_strategy https://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/en/fields-of-activity/excellence_strategy Programme Contacts Dr. Ulrike Eickhoff, Head, DFG Coordinated Programmes and Infrastructure, Tel. +49 228 885-2254, ulrike.eickhoff@dfg.de Dr. Inka Spang-Grau, Head, Excellence Strategy, German Council of Science and Humanities, Tel. +49 221 3776-281, spang-grau@wissenschaftsrat.de Press Contacts Marco Finetti, Head, DFG Press and Public Relations, Tel. +49 228 885-2230, marco.finetti@dfg.de Dr. Christiane Kling-Mathey, Head, Press and Public Relations, German Council of Science and Humanities, Tel. +49 221 3776-243, kling-mathey@wissenschaftsrat.de Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has scored a great success in Germany's Excellence Strategy program: The Excellence Commission, consisting of 39 members of the international Committee of Experts appointed by the Joint Science Conference (GWK) and the research ministers of the German federal and state governments, has approved the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence. The total funding is expected to amount to EUR 64 million over the next seven years. "In view of the extremely tough competition among universities throughout Germany, we are thrilled that the international advisory committee of experts has approved funding for PRISMA+. I would like to congratulate and thank our physicists at JGU for their outstanding motivation and dedication," said the President of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Professor Georg Krausch. "This funding within Germany's Excellence Strategy is an exceptional confirmation of the international reputation of the Mainz particle and hadron physics research groups, as attested for many years by their publications, awards, and outstanding national and international rankings." In its 2018 Funding Atlas, the German Research Foundation (DFG) recently ranked JGU as number one in the natural sciences in Germany, explicitly mentioning its clear lead in funding in the area of physics. PRISMA+ is the follow-up application of the Cluster of Excellence "Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions and Structure of Matter" (PRISMA), which was successful in the previous Excellence Initiative and has received funding since 2012. "We have succeeded in continuing to strengthen our position as one of the most prominent centers in particle and hadron physics in the world," said Professor Matthias Neubert from the JGU Institute of Physics, who is one of PRISMA's two spokespersons. "The long-term funding will allow us to make important contributions to research into the most exciting and pressing questions in the field of fundamental physics research." Professor Hartmut Wittig from the Institute of Nuclear Physics at JGU, the other spokesperson for the Cluster, summarized: "PRISMA+ is searching for new physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The experts have recognized our unique approach, which combines innovative precision measurements, in particular using the new on-campus accelerator MESA (Mainz Energy-recovering Superconducting Accelerator), with leading contributions to large-scale international experiments." Furthermore, the broad experimental program is supplemented by groundbreaking computational methods in theoretical physics. The Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics (MITP) augments this research by organizing workshops and a guest program for leading international physicists. The PRISMA Cluster of Excellence is well known in the city of Mainz, in particular for the public MITP lecture series Physics in the Theater in the Mainz State Theater and for the official Guinness World Record awarded for the world's largest magnetic ball accelerator achieved last year. PRISMA+ is one of 57 awarded Clusters of Excellence In the final round of funding, the German Research Foundation reviewed a total of 88 applications from 41 universities to become clusters of excellence, of which 57 were awarded - including the JGU PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence. This makes the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz one of the 34 German universities being successful in Germany's Excellence Strategy program. ### Findings shed light on potential for strategies for prevention and intervention that could improve longevity and quality of life after TBI East Hanover, NJ - September 28, 2018 - Model system researchers have examined the factors associated with mortality among individuals aged 16 years and older who were more than one year post- traumatic brain injury (TBI). Their article: O'Neil-Pirozzi- T, Ketchum JM, Hammond FM, Phillipus A, Weber E, Dams-O'Connor K. "Physical, cognitive, and psychosocial characteristics associated with mortality in chronic TBI survivors: A National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems Study" was published by the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation 2018 Jul/Aug;33(4):237-245. (doi: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000365). The research team, which included investigators from five regional TBI Model Systems, analyzed data from the database of the TBI Model System National Data and Statistical Center. They identified 1,163 decedents and 10,839 matched controls, and examined the following physical, cognitive and psychosocial outcomes: Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale, Disability Rating Scale, Participation Assessment with Recombined Tool Objective, and Satisfaction With Life Scale. "Among individuals who died, we found significantly poorer performance on all measures," noted co-author Erica Weber, PhD, research scientist in TBI Research at Kessler Foundation, and an investigator with the Northern New Jersey TBI Model System. "Most significant was the difference in FIM Motor scores, which points to independence in mobility as an important factor for long-term survival in this population. Another big difference was in community participation," she added. The study shows the need for longer and more detailed study of health and lifestyle factors in the TBI population. "By identifying modifiable risk factors, we can develop strategies for prevention and early intervention, which will reduce the risk of death and improve the lives of individuals and caregivers," concluded Dr. Weber. ### Article link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29271788 Funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (2012P002490, 90DP0084-01-00, 90DP0036-01-00, 90DP0034-01-00, 90DP0032, 90DP0038-02-00). About the TBI Model System The Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems (TBIMS) program, sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) , Administration for Community Living, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, supports innovative projects and research in the delivery, demonstration, and evaluation of medical, rehabilitation, vocational, and other services designed to meet the needs of individuals with traumatic brain injury. NIDILRR awards TBI Model Systems grants to institutions that are national leaders in medical research and patient care; these institutions provide the highest level of comprehensive specialty services from the point of injury through eventual re-entry into full community life. The current grant cycle supports 15 regional TBI Model Systems across the U.S., including the Northern New Jersey TBI Model System based at Kessler. Each TBI Model System contributes to the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center (TBINDSC), participates in independent and collaborative research, and provides information and resources to individuals with TBI; their families, caregivers, and friends; health care professionals; and the general public. About Kessler Foundation Kessler Foundation, a major nonprofit organization in the field of disability, is a global leader in rehabilitation research that seeks to improve cognition, mobility and long-term outcomes, including employment, for people with neurological disabilities caused by diseases and injuries of the brain and spinal cord. Kessler Foundation leads the nation in funding innovative programs that expand opportunities for employment for people with disabilities. Learn more by visiting http://www.KesslerFoundation.org. Stay Connected Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/KesslerFdn Facebook | http://www.facebook.com/KesslerFoundation YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/user/KesslerFoundation Instagram | http://www.instagram.com/kesslerfdn iTunes & SoundCloud | http://www.soundcloud.com/kesslerfoundation Contacts Carolann Murphy, PA; 973-324-8382; CMurphy@KesslerFoundation.org International research team led by researchers at Kyushu University develops a novel method to monitor surface wave velocities in the shallow subsurface and identify natural phenomena and leakage of fluids stored deep underground Fukuoka, Japan - Accurate monitoring of the ground beneath our feet for signs of seismic activity to identify natural phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the leakage of fluids stored deep underground remains challenging. Time-lapse 4-dimensional seismic monitoring surveys that employ an active seismic source can accurately map the subsurface, and comparing results from different surveys can show how fluids (such as carbon dioxide, CO 2 ) move in deep geological reservoirs. However, the expense of such surveys limits how often data can be gathered meaning that subsequent analysis often has poor temporal resolution. An alternative that provides a continuous dataset is the passive monitoring of ambient seismic noise, but the accuracy of this approach depends on the ambient sources, which can change over time. In an article recently published in Geophysics, a team of researchers from Kyushu University and industrial and governmental representatives from Japan and Canada report a new method for accurately monitoring the shallow subsurface at a high spatiotemporal resolution. The method was developed using data from 2014 to 2016 that was collected from the Accurately Controlled Routinely Operated Signal System (ACROSS) located at the Aquistore CO 2 storage site in Saskatchewan, Canada. Obtaining a high-resolution characterization of the shallow subsurface has previously been held back by the limited number of ACROSS units, however the researchers were able to overcome this obstacle. As the lead author Tatsunori Ikeda explains: "applying spatially windowed surface-wave analysis allowed us to study the spatial variation of surface wave velocities using data from a single ACROSS unit." The research team validated their method against data gathered from hundreds of geophone measuring devices located around the ACROSS unit and a computational model of the site. Their analysis of the surface waves shows spatial variation in the surface wave velocities, and the impact of seasonal weather on these velocities. Confirmation of the method's accuracy highlights its potential to identify changes in the shallow subsurface that may be caused by natural phenomena or fluids leaking from storage sites much deeper underground. As well as drawing together experts from a variety of organizations in Japan and Canada, the publication represents another step forward for researchers in Kyushu University's International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER). As co-author Takeshi Tsuji notes: "The approach contributes to our ongoing work in Kyushu University to develop a downsized, continuous and controlled seismic monitoring system." The researchers have been operating the downsized monitoring system at the Kuju geothermal and volcanological research station on Japan's Kyushu Island. ### The article "Imaging and monitoring of the shallow subsurface using spatially windowed surface-wave analysis with a single permanent seismic source" was published in Geophysics at DOI: 10.1190/GEO2018-0084.1 When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Eastern Pacific Ocean, water vapor data provided information about the intensity of Hurricane Rosa. On Sept. 28, Rosa is a major hurricane, now a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. NASA's Aqua satellite passed Hurricane Rosa on Sept. 28 at 4:55 a.m. EDT (855 UTC) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument gathered water vapor content and temperature information. The MODIS image showed highest concentrations of water vapor and coldest cloud top temperatures were in a thick ring of storms around the 20 nautical mile-wide eye. MODIS data also showed coldest cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius) in those storms. Storms with cloud top temperatures that cold have the capability to produce heavy rainfall. Water vapor analysis of tropical cyclones tells forecasters how much potential a storm has to develop. Water vapor releases latent heat as it condenses into liquid. That liquid becomes clouds and thunderstorms that make up a tropical cyclone. Temperature is important when trying to understand how strong storms can be. The higher the cloud tops, the colder and the stronger they are. Twelve hours before the MODIS water vapor imagery, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided temperature data on the cloud tops on Sept. 27 at 4:41 p.m. EDT (2041 UTC). Coldest cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius) around the eye and confirmed the later MODIS data. At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Rosa was located near latitude 16.9 degrees north and longitude 117.3 degrees west. That's 640 miles (1,030 km) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Rosa is moving toward the west near 7 mph (11 kph). A gradual turn toward the west-northwest and northwest is expected on Friday, followed by a turn toward the north Saturday night and a turn toward the north-northeast on Sunday. Maximum sustained winds are near 145 mph (230 kph) with higher gusts. Rosa is a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Little significant change in strength is forecast today, with gradual weakening anticipated by Saturday, and further weakening at a faster rate expected early next week. NHC said although Rosa is not near the coast, swells generated by Rosa will affect portions of the coasts of southwestern Mexico, the southern Baja California Peninsula, and southern California late this week and over the weekend. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. ### For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov Solar energy has long been considered the most sustainable option for replacing our dependence on fossil fuels, but technologies for converting solar energy into electricity must be both efficient and inexpensive. Scientists from the Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) believe they've found a winning formula in a new method to fabricate low-cost high-efficiency solar cells. Prof. Yabing Qi and his team from OIST in collaboration with Prof. Shengzhong Liu from Shaanxi Normal University, China, developed the cells using the materials and compounds that mimic the crystalline structure of the naturally occurring mineral perovskite. They describe their technique in a study published in the journal Nature Communications. In what Prof. Qi refers to as "the golden triangle," solar cell technologies need to fulfill three conditions to be worth commercializing: their conversion rate of sunlight into electricity must be high, they must be inexpensive to produce, and they must have a long lifespan. Today, most commercial solar cells are made from crystalline silicon, which has a relatively high efficiency of around 22%. Though silicon, the raw material for these solar cells, is abundant, processing it tends to be complex and shoots up the manufacturing costs, making the finished product expensive. Perovskite offers a more affordable solution, Prof. Qi says. Perovskite was first used to make solar cells in 2009 by Prof. Tsutomu Miyasaka's research team at Toin University of Yokohama, Japan, and since then it has been rapidly gaining importance. "Research on perovskite cells is very promising. In only nine years, the efficiency of these cells went from 3.8 % to 23.3%. Other technologies have taken over 30 years of research to reach the same level," explains Prof. Qi. The fabrication method he and his research team have developed produces perovskite solar cells with an efficiency comparable to crystalline silicon cells, but it is potentially much cheaper than making silicon solar cells. To make the new cells, the researchers coated transparent conductive substrates with perovskite films that absorb sunlight very efficiently. They used a gas-solid reaction-based technique in which the substrate is first coated with a layer of hydrogen lead triiodide incorporated with a small amount of chlorine ions and methylamine gas - allowing them to reproducibly make large uniform panels, each consisting of multiple solar cells. In developing the method, the scientists realized that making the perovskite layer 1 micron thick increased the working life of the solar cell significantly. "The solar cells are almost unchanged after working for 800 hours," says Dr. Zonghao Liu, a postdoctoral scholar in Prof. Qi's research unit at OIST and the first author of the study. In addition, a thicker coating not only boosted the stability of the solar cells but also facilitated the fabrication processes, thereby lowering its production costs. "The thicker absorber layer ensures good reproducibility of solar cell fabrication, which is a key advantage for mass manufacturing in the realistic industrial-scale setting," says Dr. Liu. The big challenge Prof. Qi and his team now face is in increasing the size of their newly designed solar cell from the 0.1 mm2 sized prototype to large commercial-sized panels that can be several feet long. This is where the industry can help. "There exists a large gap between the findings in lab and reality, and the industry is not always ready to cover this entire gap by itself. So, the researchers need to take one more necessary step beyond their labs and meet the industry half-way," says Prof. Qi. To take that step, Prof. Qi and team received a generous grant from OIST's Technology Development and Innovation Center, under their Proof-of-Concept Program. With that funding, the team has built a working model of their new perovskite solar modules consisting of multiple solar cells on 5cm 5cm substrates, with an active area of 12 cm2- much bigger than their experimental prototype but smaller than what is required for commercial purposes. Although the process of up-scaling has reduced the efficiency of the cells from 20% to 15%, the researchers are optimistic that they will be able to improve the way they work in the coming years and successfully commercialize their use. ### A debate over mummified birds brought to France after Napoleon's conquest of Egypt played a central role in delaying acceptance of evolutionary theory; an episode in the history of biology revealed in an Essay published September 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Caitlin Curtis of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, as well as Craig Millar, David Lambert. The debate between the naturalists Georges Cuvier and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck took place five decades before Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species. Cuvier had developed a theory of bodily form and function called the "correlation of parts," in which every part was integral to the function of the whole. In this model, evolution would be disastrous, and thus Cuvier argued for "the fixity of species," accepting extinction but not gradual adaptation to new environmental conditions. Lamarck, meanwhile, proposed a gradual transformation of species over time in response to environmental changes. While today Lamarck is most famous for incorrectly arguing for the "inheritance of acquired characteristics" as a mechanism of evolutionary change, Curtis, Millar, and Lambert note that he was an important theorist and champion of evolution fifty years before Darwin. In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt, and scientists accompanying the army brought back to France hundreds of mummified animals, including many Sacred Ibises, revered by ancient Egyptians. Cuvier examined these birds, and correctly linked them to recently collected, unclassified birds in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, making him the first scientist to test the idea of evolution. The similarity between the ancient and recent specimens indicated to Cuvier that the bird had not changed form in two thousand years, and thus supported his idea of the fixity of species. Lamarck disagreed, arguing that much more time would be needed to accumulate observable change in a species. In 1802 the two scientists (and another colleague from the Museum) noted the similarity of a collection Egyptian animal mummies to contemporary specimens, and presented this information to the French Academy of Sciences. Cuvier and Lamarck subsequently disagreed about the significance of these findings, however, and continued the argument for more than two decades. Curtis and colleagues argue that Cuvier's greater public prominence and dramatic presentation style tipped the scales in favor of his incorrect theory, which was not effectively refuted until after Lamarck's death in 1829, and continued to influence scientific opinion until the publication of Darwin's theory reshaped evolutionary thought in 1852. "The case of the Sacred Ibis highlights the disproportionate influence that a charismatic and dominant personality like Cuvier can have," according to Curtis and her colleagues. "His unwillingness to consider the potential for the accumulation of small differences over long periods of time set back the acceptance of evolution for the next five decades." "In the late 18th/early 19th century, debates such as these often took place in public spaces like the halls of the Paris Museum." Curtis said. "These days, public debates may have shifted to social media and news outlets, but debates about important scientific issues are still taking place and have a big influence on policy and society. The story of Cuvier highlights that although 200 years have passed we are still grappling with the issue of dominant personalities in science having disproportionate influence on its direction." ### Peer-Reviewed / Opinion Piece / N/A In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2005558 Citation: Curtis C, Millar CD, Lambert DM (2018) The Sacred Ibis debate: The first test of evolution. PLoS Biol 16(9): e2005558. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005558 Image Caption: A Sacred Ibis. Image Credit: Christiaan Kooyman, Public Domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacred_ibis.jpg Funding: Human Frontier Science Program http://www.hfsp.org/ (grant number RGP0036/2011). The funding was received by DML. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Royal Society of New Zealand https://royalsociety.org.nz/ (grant number n/a). The funding was received by DML. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Green algae that evolved to tolerate hostile and fluctuating conditions in salt marshes and inland salt flats are expected to survive climate change, thanks to hardy genes they stole from bacteria, according to a Rutgers-led study. These Picochlorum single-celled species of green algae provide clues to how nature can modify genomes, and suggest ways in which scientists may someday engineer more robust algae to serve as biofuels and provide other benefits, according to senior author Debashish Bhattacharya, distinguished professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. The study appears in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. The findings reveal how the miniaturized genomes of green algae have evolved from the larger genomes of their freshwater ancestors to become resilient primary producers of organic compounds that support ecosystems. This transition to a saltier and more hostile environment achieved by Picochlorum occurred over millions of years but parallels what is happening on a more rapid scale now due to climate change, said Bhattacharya, who works in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. "These photosynthetic species are tiny and have small genomes compared with humans, but they managed to survive in hostile conditions such as salt marshes and salt flats where light and salinity fluctuate widely as seasons change," he said. Lead author Fatima Foflonker, who earned a doctorate from Rutgers' School of Graduate Studies and is a post-doctoral researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory, discovered that Picochlorum species of green algae stole genes from bacteria, allowing them to cope with salt and other physical stresses. Foflonker found that one Picochlorum species has among the most stable photosynthetic processes known for splitting water to release oxygen. This species works efficiently in rapidly changing low- and high-light levels typical of turbid near-shore environments or shallow water ponds in the high plains of the United States. Another species isolated from the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma keeps two very different copies (alleles) of about a third of the genes in its genome to increase its range of responses to environmental stress. Understanding how microalgae adapt to rapidly changing environments can help clarify the potential impact of climate change on the biology at the base of the food chain, the researchers say. Next steps include developing robust Picochlorum species as biofuel feedstock and as targets for genetic engineering to produce bio-products. Such work is underway at the U.S. Department of Energy and various research labs. These species have been studied for potential use in remediating wastewater, producing biomass and serving as feed in aquaculture, the study notes. Using genetic tools, scientists have already manipulated one species to increase lipid production. ### Reading through her middle schooler's science homework one day, Kimberly Tanner noticed a glaring absence: examples of women and people of color doing science. Two years later, Tanner is part of a collaborative project to diversify the scientists featured in middle and high school science lessons, funded by a $1.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. "We're collaborating to change curriculum structures that continue to send the message to students that only certain types of people do science," said Tanner, a professor of biology at San Francisco State University. Over the next two years, students at San Francisco State and Foothill College will create hundreds of "Scientist Spotlights" -- short science assignments that highlight currently practicing scientists from a variety of backgrounds. Since the spotlights also teach important course concepts, teachers can use them in their own curricula as homework assignments or replacements for textbook readings. The spotlights feature scientists from a diverse mix of racial and ethnic groups, sexual orientations and gender identities. They also discuss their personal lives and struggles. According to project leader Jeff Schinske's (M.S., 2007) research, students of all backgrounds and identities connect with stories of scientists who didn't start out interested in science. "There's a surprisingly strong presumption that scientists come into this world with a test tube in their hand," he said. The idea for the spotlights grew out of Schinske's work as a professor of biology at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. "I was just seeing all of this evidence that students need to be able to see themselves in a discipline to succeed and even to be able to learn the material," he said. That meant the litany of examples of older, white, male scientists featured in many textbooks were discouraging to students from groups that are underrepresented in science. Schinske and Tanner have already been working with their colleagues to integrate these lessons into biology courses at SF State, and for this grant they've partnered with eight middle- and high school instructors and four community college instructors to assess the spotlights' effectiveness in a wide variety of classrooms. The Story Collider podcast and National Public Radio's Science Friday are also collaborators and will create content for the spotlights and spread the results of the research. One of those teaching partners is Gianne Souza, a 9th grade biology teacher at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco. Souza has been incorporating the spotlights in her classroom since she pursued her teaching credential at SF State in 2016. "Our curriculum is already so packed," she said. But Scientist Spotlights are designed to fit easily into a course. "Because they can be done as homework and can be linked to so many different things, they're really easy to use and really powerful." After SF State and Foothill College undergrads write the spotlights, K-12 teachers across the Bay Area will incorporate them into their classrooms, using surveys to determine whether the lessons help students learn and boost their sense of belonging in science. Over the next two years the team will create an online database of Scientist Spotlights accessible by anyone. "The database will allow science instructors from middle schools, high schools and community colleges across the country and the world to integrate diversity explicitly into the fabric of their biology courses," said Tanner. ### This project is funded by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIGMS or NIH. A Simon Fraser University study has found that steelhead trout have a remarkable life-cycle variation that responds to changes in temperature and numbers of other species of salmon. They may go to the ocean when they are only a year old and the size of a pinky finger, or when they are five years old and the size of a standard ruler. The study appears this week in the journal Ecosphere. Researchers found that the steelhead trout age of migration, as well as their size and numbers, is controlled by a combination of temperature, co-occurring salmon, and other factors. In years following large returns of pink salmon, steelhead migrated to sea at a younger age, and in some time periods, there were more young steelhead that were produced from the river system. "We think that energy-rich eggs from spawning pink salmon provide an important food source for young steelhead," says SFU biology PhD student Colin Bailey, who is leading the project. SFU biology professor John Reynolds, a study co-author, also chairs the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), the federally-appointed independent committee that assesses the status of species of plants and animals across Canada. He notes: "Many populations of steelhead are struggling, so the insights gained into their population dynamics can be helpful for conservation." Bailey adds: "It's complicated--these fish seem to be controlled by many different factors at different times. We looked back through time and asked the data: do weather, spawning pink salmon, and other factors affect the steelhead life cycle?" Next steps include examining how the survival of steelhead in the ocean is influenced by their size and age at entry to sea. This will allow researchers to determine If there are lasting effects of steelhead rearing conditions on their chance of returning to spawn. Bailey says the research results are made possible because of a remarkable long-term field program on the Keogh River on northern Vancouver Island. Since the early 1970s, a collaboration between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, British Columbia Ministry of the Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, and Instream Fisheries Research resulted in four decades of salmon and trout monitoring in the Keogh River. More information is available at https://www.keoghriver.net/. ### The American Physical Society (APS) is recognizing a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) for his contributions to particle physics. Sheldon Stone, Distinguished Professor of Physics, is the 2019 recipient of the APS' prestigious W.K.H. Panofksy Prize in Experimental Particle Physics. The prize consists of $10,000, a travel allowance to the meeting where Stone will be honored and a certificate citing his ongoing research into the fundamental forces and particles in the universe. "We applaud [Stone's] transformative contributions to flavor physics and hadron spectroscopy, in particular through his intellectual leadership on detector construction and analysis on the CLEO and Large Hadron Collider beauty [LHCb] experiments, and for the long-standing, deeply influential advocacy for flavor physics at hadron colliders," says APS President Roger W. Falcone. Established in 1985, the Panofsky Prize recognizes and encourages outstanding achievements in experimental particle physics. Seven recipients subsequently have won the Nobel Prize. Stone hunts for forces in the universe that help answer astrophysics' most persistent questions, such as "Why is there more matter than antimatter in the universe?" "Every particle has a corresponding antiparticle, identical in every way, but with an opposite charge," says Stone, a decorated APS Fellow. "When matter and antimatter come into contact, they annihilate each other in a burst of energy--much like what happened in the Big Bang. I want to know why matter has become so dominant." Stone also excels in hadron spectroscopy, a subfield of physics studying the quark content of hadrons and their masses. Under his leadership, the 20-member High-Energy Physics (HEP) Group in A&S has garnered international acclaim for making inroads into new physics--that is, physics beyond the Standard Model, a decades-old theory describing the universe's fundamental forces and particles. HEP members often divide their time between Syracuse, where equipment is designed, developed, built and tested, and the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, where experiments are carried out. CERN is home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest, most powerful particle accelerator. Stone is principal investigator of a new, three-year, $3.7 million National Science Foundation grant project, exploring the physics of heavy quarks. The grant supports HEP's involvement with the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment, also at CERN. "The nucleus of an atom is made up of protons and neutrons, each of which contains three quarks. We produce these quarks and other heavier ones with the LHC," he says. HEP is interested in how heavier quarks decay, or transform, into lighter ones. Considerable emphasis is on three of the six kinds of quarks--the peculiarly named "top," or "t" quark; the "bottom," "beauty" or "b" quark; and the "charm," or "c" quark. "Studying the decays of these heavy quarks may help us understand what happened after the Big Bang, nearly 14 billion years ago," Stone adds. At CERN, the LHC hurls beams of protons at one another at nearly the speed of light. HEP combs the debris from these collisions for clues to new or yet-to-be-detected forces in the universe. Since 2014, the LHCb experiment has turned the field on its ear with discoveries of various hadrons, including two rare pentaquarks (a particle with four quarks and one antiquark), a tetraquark (two quarks and two antiquarks) and several never-before-seen baryons (three quarks). A unifying characteristic of these discoveries is the presence of a "b" or "c" quark. "We cannot discern the presence of 'b' quarks until they decay into something else," Stone says. Ian Shipsey, the Henry Moseley Centenary Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Oxford, praises Stone's understanding of the instrumentation used to record the interactions of elementary particles. "Indeed, he has built much of it," says Shipsey, also head of Oxford's physics department. "His knowledge is matched by a remarkable intuition and tenacity that have enabled him to discover new particles"--from the discovery of the B meson and the first definitive observation of the Ds meson to the recent discovery of pentaquark states. In addition to conducting data analysis, HEP is spearheading the construction of the Upstream Tracker (UT). This new device, scheduled for completion in 2020, will replace part of the LHCb's existing charged particle tracker at CERN. "The UT will enhance the capabilities of the experiment's 10 sub-detectors, which also are being upgraded," says Stone, adding that Professor Marina Artuso is overseeing the UT Project. Stone is optimistic about the upgrade, which expects to increase the amount of data that LHCb can handle by factors of five to 10. "Improved luminosity will permit more accurate measurements of fundamental particles, and will enable observations of rare processes occurring below the current sensitivity level," he explains. Also excited is Guy Wilkinson, a founding member and former spokesperson of the LHCb experiment. He says HEP has been a "valued participant," long before the LHC delivered its first collisions in 2009. "Sheldon has been an absolutely key figure in the exploration of flavor physics," says the Oxford professor, referring to the different types, or "flavors," of quarks and leptons. "He has shown great vision and leadership in the development of new experiments and experimental techniques, and has played a central role in many important discoveries." Wilkinson points out HEP's "exceedingly strong track record" in producing important, high-profile publications--most of which explain how protons and neutrons bind together, and how matter is constituted. "Don't be fooled by the group's size. They are an impressive bunch," he says, referring to HEP's relatively small collection of two-dozen professors, research assistants and students. Prior to coming to Syracuse in 1991, Stone held faculty positions at Cornell and Vanderbilt universities. He also has served as co-spokesperson for the CLEO experiment at Cornell and the BTeV collaboration at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) outside of Chicago. Stone has authored or co-authored hundreds of research articles, and has headlined conferences all over the world. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Rochester. Joel Butler, a Distinguished Scientist at Fermilab, says Stone's expertise in data analysis and detector design, combined with an "uncommon understanding" of the theory behind them, yields innovative search strategies and visionary experimental approaches. "Sheldon has devoted his career to studying the decays of heavy quarks, especially 'b' quarks, with the goal of seeing deviations from the Standard Model of particle physics that would indicate new phenomena in nature," says Butler, also spokesperson of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN. "This effort has the potential to see evidence for new forces and particles that cannot be directly observed, even with our most energetic colliders." The Panofsky Prize is named for the late German-American physicist who founded and directed the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). "He profoundly impacted elementary particle physics as a researcher, a machine builder and an administrator of basic research," says Stone, who performed several experiments at SLAC during Panofsky's 46-year tenure, which began in 1961. Chris Quigg, Distinguished Scientist Emeritus at Fermilab, considers Stone an outstanding addition to the "charmed circle"--no pun intended--of Panofsky Prize winners. "Sheldon has been at the center of many key developments, has contributed extensively to the literature defining important issues in the field, and has led the development of novel techniques in both instrumentation and analysis," says the eminent theoretical physicist. "He has built a formidable experimental group at Syracuse, nourishing the intellectual growth of his young colleagues." ### APS is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals; scientific meetings; and education, outreach, advocacy and international activities. The organization represents more than 55,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Radical solutions to climate change might save lives, but a commentary in the October 2018 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change calls for caution because geoengineering still lacks a "clean bill of health." With global fossil-fuel emissions reaching an all-time high and the United States' withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, climate experts have become increasingly interested in "climate engineering," a set of ambitious and largely undeveloped technologies that could artificially counteract global warming. One proposed approach, called solar radiation management (SRM), would reduce incoming sunlight by injecting tiny aerosol particles into the stratosphere or by brightening clouds. Other approaches would directly remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Even if some combination of these worked, scientists warn that the climate wouldn't be the same as it was before climate change. And those differences might make a big difference for global health, ecologists Colin Carlson and Christopher Trisos argue in the Nature Climate Change article. The article was written while both were postdoctoral fellows at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), a unique University of Maryland center funded by the National Science Foundation that brings together science of the natural world with science of human behavior and decision-making. So far, Carlson and Trisos say, almost nothing is known about the potential health consequences of such geoengineered "solutions." "We're a step before saying these technologies will probably save lives or saying they're too dangerous to use," says Carlson. "Right now, what we know is climate and disease are already closely linked, and that raises basic questions about climate engineering. Now, we need answers." Carlson gives the example of malaria, a disease mostly confined to the tropics today, but was once widespread in Europe and North America. Recently, scientists found that malaria transmits best at cooler temperatures. In some projections, SRM would disproportionately cool off the tropics--and that might make malaria worse. "But it's all guesswork--we can qualitatively talk through possible risks, and that's what we do here. But we can't make any judgements without solid, quantitative evidence. And no one's run those models yet. There's no data to go off." Carlson and Trisos hope to shed some light on these issues over the next two years. They are part of an international, interdisciplinary team that has been recommended for a $50,000 grant from the DECIMALS Fund (Developing Country Impact Modelling Analysis for SRM), which was launched by the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative to help scientists understand how SRM could affect the "global south"--a term that refers to less developed countries. Eight projects will receive DECIMALS grants that will be announced in October. The fund is administered by The World Academy of Sciences. "Links between climate change and health are often complex, so climate engineering may impact health in unexpected ways," says Trisos, now a research affiliate at the African Climate and Development Initiative. "Governments have pledged to prevent 'dangerous anthropogenic interference' with the climate system, so it's critical that we can compare public health risks from climate change to those from climate engineering, in order to decide if climate engineering should even be considered." Carlson and Trisos' DECIMALS research proposal was put together in collaboration with lead researchers Shafiul Alam and Mofizur Rahman (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh) and includes epidemiologist Shweta Bansal (Georgetown University), climatologist Alan Robock (Rutgers University), and world-renowned microbiologist and cholera expert Rita Colwell (University of Maryland, formerly the ninth director of the National Science Foundation). Their team is designed to produce important results on a fast deadline. "Climate scientists, ecologists and public health researchers are increasingly working together to understand what climate change means for infectious diseases," says Trisos. "We're lucky to take advantage of that partnership to tackle a problem this complicated--and this urgent." In a perfect world, understanding the possible health impacts of climate engineering might help policymakers make the right call, if other options seem limited. But Carlson says there's another reason this work is important. "From a public health standpoint, we're not likely to be the ones making the call about climate futures. But we want to know what's coming if climate engineering does happen, and we want to be prepared, first in places like Bangladesh that might have the most to gain but also have the most to lose." Bangladesh is the world's hot spot for cholera and has led the global research program to prevent the disease for several decades, with medical care reducing fatalities from 50 percent to less than 5 percent. Climate change will only increase the pressure that countries like Bangladesh face from infectious diseases like cholera and malaria. "Whether or not the climate engineering 'button' gets pushed, the research we do here still helps us," Carlson explains. "We're building our toolbox and getting better at predicting cholera and malaria, and that should save lives, whatever climate change looks like." ### Media Relations Contact: Abby Robinson, 301-405-5845 Writer: Lisa Palmer University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences 2300 Symons Hall College Park, MD 20742 http://www.cmns.umd.edu @UMDscience About the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland educates more than 9,000 future scientific leaders in its undergraduate and graduate programs each year. The college's 10 departments and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research centers foster scientific discovery with annual sponsored research funding exceeding $175 million. PITTSBURGH (September 28, 2018) ... Phantoms are not just ghostly figures of our imagination, they are also numerical or physical models that represent human characteristics and provide an inexpensive way to test electromagnetic applications. Sossena Wood, a bioengineering PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh, has developed a realistic phantom head for magnetic resonance research in the Swanson School of Engineering. Wood started her tenure at Pitt as an undergraduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering where she met Tamer Ibrahim, an associate professor of bioengineering. She began research in his lab, the Radiofrequency (RF) Research Facility, during her senior year and is now finishing her dissertation incorporating similar research as a graduate student in the Department of Bioengineering. Ibrahim envisioned designing a 3D printed phantom head to use with the uniquely designed ultrahigh field technology in his lab. "In the RF Research Facility, we use a whole-body 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imager (7T MRI), which is one of the strongest clinical human MRI devices in the world," said Ibrahim. 7T ultrahigh field technology is a powerful tool, but unfortunately, there are a few setbacks that come with this type of imaging. "As you move from lower to higher fields, the images produced become less uniform and localized heating becomes more prevalent," explained Ibrahim. "We wanted to develop an anthropomorphic phantom head to help us better understand these issues by providing a safer way to test the imaging. We use the device to analyze, evaluate, and calibrate the MRI systems and instrumentation before testing new protocols on human subjects." Researchers are currently using numerical simulations to study the effect of electromagnetic (EM) fields on biological tissues at varying frequencies. Wood said, "EM numerical modeling has been a standard when analyzing these interactions, and we wanted to create a phantom that resembled the human form for use in validating the EM modeling, thereby providing a more realistic environment for testing." Before Wood could print the 3D structure, she had to do computational work to build the digital blueprint for the model. She started with a 3T MRI dataset of a healthy male, which she characterized by segmentation and broke into eight tissue compartments, a feature that differentiates her model from other basic phantom heads. According to Wood, these compartments help improve image accuracy by acting as a sort of "speed bump" for the field. After the computational preparations, Wood used an MRI scanner to produce a 3D-digital image of healthy male's head and ran her model through computer-aided design, which is software used to create, modify, analyze, and optimize a design. The next step was to print the prototype, which took three semesters to complete. "We used a plastic developed by DSM Somos for our printing material because it allowed us to create durable and detailed parts with a similar conductivity to the human body," said Wood. "To help the model further mimic a real environment, we created filling ports on the prototype where we can deposit fluids that resemble various tissue types." Now that Wood has a fully printed anthropomorphic phantom head, she is able to assemble it and begin testing. The phantom has many applications including testing to see if certain implants are able to go inside of an MRI or detecting the temperature rise in different tissues based on various RF instrumentation. "With MR imaging, the power from the RF exposure is transformed into heat in the patient's tissue, which can have detrimental effects on the patient's health, especially with implants if not monitored by the scanner" explained Wood. "With our phantom head, we can test the safety of our imaging by putting probes inside of certain regions of the head and measuring the effects," said Ibrahim. Ibrahim and Wood hope that this model will eventually be developed commercially and provide others with the ability to pursue research without relying on human testing. ### PHILADELPHIA -- The United States in recent years has increased healthcare access by broadening Medicaid coverage, but some worry that these Medicaid expansions lead to more abuse of prescription painkillers and thus worsen the opioid epidemic. A new study suggests that Medicaid expansions may, in fact, have the opposite effect. In a study examining the potential impact of 2001-02 Medicaid expansions by Arizona, Maine and New York - expansions that occurred just prior to the rise in overdose mortality nationwide - researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that from the time of these expansions through 2008, overdose mortality rates (mostly driven by fatal overdoses of opioids) rose significantly less in the expansion states than in non-expansion states. The study is published online this month in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. "These findings suggest that Medicaid expansions were unlikely to have contributed to the subsequent rise in drug overdose deaths, and may even have been protective," said study lead author Atheendar S. Venkataramani, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Penn Medicine. "The results should provide reassurance to policymakers who are concerned that state Medicaid expansions, including the recent expansions implemented as part of the Affordable Care Act, promote rises in drug overdose mortality." In the study, Venkataramani and co-author Paula Chatterjee, MD, MPH, a post-doctoral researcher in Penn's department of General Internal Medicine, examined state-level data on drug overdose mortality from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1999 through 2008. They compared the overdose mortality trends in the three Medicaid-expansion states to those in other states. "We focused on all drug overdose deaths, given the well-known underreporting of opioid-attributable deaths and the fact that over 60 percent of drug overdose deaths are likely due to opioids," said Venkataramani, who is also a member of Penn's Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics. The researchers observed that, prior to the Medicaid expansions in Arizona, Maine, and New York, the gaps between these and other states' overdose mortality rates were relatively stable. After the Medicaid expansions, the gaps generally widened as the mortality rates in Medicaid-expansion states rose more slowly, on average, than those in non-expansion states. In 2001, immediately prior to the Medicaid expansions, the expansion states had about 2 fewer overdose deaths per 100,000 people, compared to all non-expansion states, whereas in 2008 the expansion states had about 7 fewer overdose deaths per 100,000 people. Similarly, in 2001 the expansion states had about 8 fewer deaths per 100,000 people compared to adjacent non-expansion states, but by 2008 the expansion states had 17 fewer deaths per 100,000 people. Overall, the study suggests that drug overdose deaths were nearly 20 percent lower in early expansion states than they otherwise would have been in the absence of Medicaid expansions. While the study wasn't designed to determine how Medicaid expansions might have reined in overdose mortality, researchers suggest that the Medicaid expansions may have reduced the abuse of opioids and other drugs by improving people's financial security and mental health, and by increasing access to treatment for substance use disorders. ### Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $7.8 billion enterprise. The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $405 million awarded in the 2017 fiscal year. The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Medicine Princeton Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital - the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, a leading provider of highly skilled and compassionate behavioral healthcare. Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2017, Penn Medicine provided $500 million to benefit our community. A University of Queensland researcher has uncovered how a French scientist and ibis researcher conducted the first test of evolution more than 50 years before Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species. UQ Centre for Policy Futures researcher Dr Caitlin Curtis has found that the sacred ibis - a cousin of the Australian 'bin chicken' - became central to the history of evolution when several mummified birds were taken from Egypt to France in 1798. "The ibis mummies were taken by Napoleon's army to Paris, and played a surprising role in an early debate about evolution," Dr Curtis said. "Two naturalists, Georges Cuvier and Jean-Baptist Lamarck, disagreed about the significance of the mummified Egyptian sacred ibises. "Cuvier took careful measurements and determined that no changes had happened when comparing the mummified birds against modern specimens. "He went on to conclude that this was proof that species could not change over time, opposing the emerging evolutionary ideas of Lamarck." But Lamarck disagreed, arguing not enough time had passed to see any differences, and that environmental conditions would also have had to change. "This was significant at a time when evolution was not yet an idea," Dr Curtis said. "Cuvier was a prominent scientist who had a lot of voice and power within society, and he continued the debate through to Lamarck's death - even criticising Lamarck's belief in evolution at his eulogy - setting back the idea for decades." Dr Curtis said it was a striking example of a powerful - but incorrect -- scientist controlling the debate. "This story and the lessons from the sacred ibis are as relevant today as they were 200 years ago," she said. "Confirmation bias, where researchers' work is negatively affected by pre-existing biases and ideas, is still an issue within the scientific community. "This is a reminder that now, as much as ever, we need to be aware of confirmation bias, and the detrimental impact that dominant personalities can have on science." Dr Curtis's research, in collaboration with Professor David Lambert from Griffith University and Associate Professor Craig Millar from the University of Auckland, are published in PLOS Biology (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2005558). ### Research at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) has found that websites by cosmetic surgery providers offer incomplete information to perspective patients. A study performed by Laura Manley, a fourth year medical student, and Professor Pietro Ghezzi, RM Phillips Chair in Experimental Medicine at BSMS, investigated the first 200 websites returned by a Google search on breast enlargement. In total, 74% of the results were the websites of cosmetic surgery providers followed by price comparison websites (6%). With many women under increasing pressure in regards to their body image, a growing number are choosing to undergo breast augmentation procedures. Figures from 2017 show that almost 300,000 and 28,000 surgeries were performed in the USA and in the UK respectively. Many women initially turn to the internet for information on the procedure, including the costs involved, possible side effects and which surgeon to use. Professor Ghezzi said: "This study found that cosmetic surgery providers' websites failed to provide complete information, "They offered adequate information on the procedure itself, mentioning five aspects of it on average, such as the anesthetic used, the location of the incision and the type of implant. "However, only a quarter of them reported the cost of the procedure or the fact that the procedure is not permanent. Only one in five disclosed the potential limitations of the final result of the implants." These websites were also poor in informing possible clients about the many potential complications of the procedure such as the risk of infections, ruptures and capsular contractures, with only one complication described on average. The complications least mentioned were the need for revision surgery or reoperation (one third of the websites analysed) or the risk of a particular type of lymphoma (one in ten websites). Professor Ghezzi added: "Incomplete information can be a cause for patients not being fully satisfied with the surgery, filing complaints or even resorting to litigation. The study highlights the need for plastic surgeons to develop guidelines for the information that is provided by websites on breast augmentation." ### MADISON - If Lewis Carroll had described in detail the mushroom Alice nibbles in Wonderland to shrink and grow to her rightful size, he might have noted a scarlet cap topped with white warts: the fly amanita. This brilliant, distinctive toadstool is hallucinogenic. Eating it can distort perception and cause objects to appear to expand and contract, making this mushroom at home in Wonderland. Fly amanitas inspired the magic mushrooms in Super Mario Brothers and are littered throughout art and literature. Other members of the Amanita genus, like the death-cap mushroom, are fatal. Yet these fanciful and sometimes dangerous mushrooms are also friendly -- at least to plants. Most Amanitas can only survive by closely partnering with plants, providing their roots with minerals and nutrients in exchange for sugars. This symbiosis evolved more than 50 million years ago and helps forest ecosystems thrive. Anne Pringle, a professor of botany and bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, researches what genetic changes drove some Amanitas away from their ancestral, decomposing lifestyle toward this intimate relationship with plants. In new work, Pringle and her collaborators show that gene loss -- not the evolution of new genes -- helped drive this major change in the mushrooms' lifestyle. The team also suspects that they've identified a species of Amanita that is on its way to evolving a new symbiosis with plants. In all, the results provide further evidence that symbiosis may be a lot easier to develop than scientists once thought. Or, as Pringle puts it: "Making friends is easy." The new study was published Sept. 18 in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. Jaqueline Hess of the University of Vienna led the study, with collaborators in Norway, the Netherlands, France and Saudi Arabia. To get at what separated symbiotic from free-living Amanitas, the researchers sequenced the genomes of three symbiotic Amanita species -- including the fly amanita -- and three close relatives that aren't symbiotic. The genomic sequences allowed them to reconstruct the evolutionary paths that led to the fungi's different adaptations. "We went into this thinking we'd find commonalities between the three symbiotic Amanitas," Pringle says. But despite their similar lifestyles, symbiotic Amanitas looked vastly different from one another on the genomic level. Some symbiotic species had almost double the number of genes as their similarly symbiotic relatives. The symbiotic mushrooms seemed to take different genomic paths after they first diverged, developing unique ways to tailor their partnership with plants. Earlier research on other families of mushrooms had suggested that one defining characteristic of symbiotic lifestyles was the loss of enzymes capable of degrading the cellulose-laden walls of plant cells. These genes are crucial for decomposers eating through leaf litter. But for fungi that associate with plants and must avoid harming their partners, cellulose-digesting enzymes are only a liability. So when Pringle, Hess and their team looked at this group of digestive enzymes, they were surprised to find that the free-living species Amanita inopinata was missing these genes. Although symbiotic Amanita mushrooms had indeed lost this suite of digestive enzymes, Amanita inopinata's lack of them meant the researchers couldn't link this loss to symbiosis itself. Pringle says the unexpected absence of cell wall-digesting genes in Amanita inopinata's genome may actually be a clue pointing to evolution at work. If symbiosis only develops once fungi let go of these digestive enzymes, the researchers reason, then Amanita inopinata may be primed to evolve a closer partnership with plants. Not quite symbiotic, perhaps not fully independent, Amanita inopinata seems to be "stuck between two worlds," says Hess, who began the work while a postdoctoral researcher in the Pringle lab and is now a senior scientist at the University of Vienna. The evolution of Amanita inopinata -- "the unexpected one," in Latin -- and the other Amanitas also seem to support a developing consensus that symbiosis, once thought to be exceptional, may actually be easy to evolve. The researchers didn't find that Amanita needed to develop a new, complex suite of genes in order to start partnering with plants. Instead, just letting go of a few once-vital genes may be sufficient to forge new relationships in nature. "The story of making friends is one of loss," says Pringle. ### This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (grant 1021606) and Research Council of Norway (project 221840). --Eric Hamilton, (608) 263-1986, eshamilton@wisc.edu A recently launched development project called Sami&Samu is looking to introduce innovative renewable materials, surface finishes and textiles to Hospital Nova, a new hospital due to open in Central Finland in 2020. VTT, JAMK University of Applied Sciences and Central Finland Health Care District have joined forces to combat antimicrobial resistance in hospital environments with the help of natural wood-based bioactive substances. Another main target is to replace traditional materials with new bio-based solutions. The structural solutions and interior design elements of Hospital Nova have been chosen with the health benefits of nature in mind. The goal is to find substitutes for oil-based plastics, reduce the volume of waste generated by the hospital and prioritise recyclable materials. "Our aim is to make the hospital safer and more environmentally friendly. The growth and spread of microorganisms can be prevented, for example, by using wood-based materials and bioactive additives. This interdisciplinary development project is based on earlier research and involves testing the most promising materials and substances developed in connection with previous studies", explains Project Manager Matti Virkkunen from VTT. The project team will experiment with adding bioactive substances to traditional hospital materials, such as textiles. The researchers will also test pilot versions of hospital supplies made with new surface materials or finishes, such as privacy curtains, linen and appliances previously made from oil-based plastics. The project focuses on putting on various kinds of demonstrations and testing the most promising solutions in Central Finland Health Care District's Living Lab development environment. The project is hoped to accelerate the development and commercialisation of wood-based antimicrobial and low-carbon substitutes for plastic coatings and textiles in Central Finland. The two-year project was launched in August 2018, and its total budget is EUR 657,000. The project team consists of representatives of VTT, JAMK University of Applied Sciences and Central Finland Health Care District. The project is coordinated by VTT. ### Several businesses have already expressed interest in the project. Sponsors and partners include KiiltoClean Oy, Millidyne Oy, Paptic Ltd, Sakupe Oy, Serres Oy, UPM-Kymmene Corporation, Walki Oy, Welmu International Oy and Repolar Pharmaceuticals Oy. Further information VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd Matti Virkkunen, Research Scientist, tel. +358 40 545 1743, matti.virkkunen@vtt.fi JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Institute of Bioeconomy Tarmo Lampila, Specialist, tel. +358 50 594 5287, tarmo.lampila@jamk.fi Further information on VTT: Paula Bergqvist Specialist, External Communications +358 20 722 5161 paula.bergqvist@vtt.fi http://www.vtt.fi VTT Ltd is one of Europe's leading research, development and innovation organisations. We help our customers and society to grow and renew through applied research. The business sector and society in general benefit most from VTT when we solve challenges requiring world-class know-how together, and convert them into business opportunities. VTT in social media: Twitter @VTTFinland, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. For photos and videos, please visit our Image Bank. An analysis of data directed by Jonathan Hiskey, associate professor of political science, and his co-authors shows that being a victim of crime is a powerful motivation for migrants to come to the United States, despite understanding the risks of the journey and challenges of the U.S. immigration system. The findings, Hiskey says, suggest that current migration deterrence policies, which mainly target economic migrants, are ineffective against migrants fleeing violence. The research will be published in the forthcoming issue of Latin American Research Review. Political scientists Mary Fran Malone of the University of New Hampshire and Vanderbilt Ph.D. graduates Abby Cordova of the University of Kentucky and Diana Orces of the American Immigration Council also contributed to the research. In 2014, the United States saw a dramatic spike in migration from Central America, creating a humanitarian crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border. In response, the Obama administration implemented a number of efforts to detain and deport the newcomers, as well as launching "know before you go"-type multimedia campaigns throughout Central America to deter potential migrants by warning them about the dangers of the journey north and the high risk of detention and deportation upon arrival. However, these efforts did little to stem that migration. Since several of these nations have exceptionally high crime rates, and there is anecdotal evidence that crime is a heavy driver of migration from these countries, the researchers sought to measure the phenomenon empirically. To do so, they analyzed data from Vanderbilt's Latin American Public Opinion Project's 2014 AmericasBarometer survey, which included questions about respondents' personal experience with crime and whether they intended to migrate to the U.S. in the next three years. (The AmericasBarometer survey, which is conducted entirely in person by fieldworkers, is considered to be the gold standard for public opinion research, making the data highly reliable.) Crime is a powerful migration motivator "We found that one of the most powerful predictors of migration is if the person has been victimized by crime in the previous 12 months, and an even more powerful predictor is if that person has been victimized multiple times by crime," Hiskey said. Of those from El Salvador expressing an intent to migrate who said they had been the victim of a crime in the previous year, 35 percent had been victimized once, and 44 percent had been victimized multiple times. Of those from Honduras, 39 percent had been victimized once, while 56 percent had been victimized more than once. In El Salvador and Honduras, Hiskey said, the violence is often a widespread daily occurrence, where families are routinely extorted, and where children are recruited by force into gangs or to participate into violent initiation rituals. "It's a situation of constantly being exposed to violence and crime, in addition to a government that is either unwilling or unable to do anything to improve the situation," Hiskey explained. "Once individuals have lived through this for several years, they reach a point where they just say, simply, 'I don't care what lies in front of me, I have to leave, I have to get my kids out.'" While Guatemala also has a high crime rate, it didn't appear to be influencing the immigration decision nearly as strongly. This was likely due to the difference in the type and distribution of crime in that country, though it is a question the authors plan to explore more thoroughly in future research. Migrants know the risks They then tested the reach of the deterrence campaign with a special survey conducted by LAPOP in Honduras and found that people were overwhelmingly aware of the U.S. warnings. Nearly nine in ten understood that crossing the U.S. border was more difficult, while 8 in 10 understood it to be less safe and that deportations were increased. Two-thirds also believed that migrants were being treated worse in the U.S. than they used to be. Hiskey said this suggests that migrants who have been repeatedly victimized are likely so desperate to leave that they are willing to take their chances in the U.S., no matter how hard it seems. These are not the kind of migrants who are likely to respond to measures designed to stem economic migrants, Hiskey said. "What we see is a very different demographic profile of the individuals arriving now. The U.S. policy approach to unauthorized migration at the Southwest border, in my mind, has to change fundamentally to match who's arriving." Though Hiskey said their findings may not be all that surprising, given how violent these three Central American countries are known to be and given the stories that migrants have been telling, it's important to be able to attach real numbers to the problem in order to solve it. "I think what our survey-based research does, through the work of the Latin American Public Opinion Project, is provide empirical, statistical support for the anecdotal and qualitative evidence that's already out there." ### Watch an interview with Prof. Jonathan Hiskey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heCtTAxpJnE&feature=youtu.be New research add to a vital 'checklist' that helps to match ovarian cancer patients with the right therapy for their cancer Australian scientists have revealed a better way to identify which patients should respond to powerful ovarian cancer drugs called PARP inhibitors (PARPi), resolving an important question in ovarian cancer care about why some patients respond to these drugs, while others do not. The findings add to a vital 'checklist' that helps to match ovarian cancer patients with the right therapy for their cancer. Being able to offer targeted treatment is crucial for patient survival rates which have seen little improvement over the past 30 years. The study, published today in Nature Communications, was led by Professor Clare Scott, Dr Olga Kondrashova, Dr Matthew Wakefield and Dr Monique Topp from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute; in collaboration with Associate Professor Alexander Dobrovic from the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and LaTrobe University School of Medicine. Subtle yet significant differences Professor Scott said it was well documented that PARPi could only work when the cancer's DNA repair process wasn't functioning as it should. "For the past two decades, it was thought that ovarian cancer patients whose cancer's BRCA1 genes are 'silenced' - or methylated - have faulty DNA repair and therefore were good candidates for PARPi treatment. "Yet the puzzling thing was we were unable to predict the patients for which the drugs would work," she said. Dr Kondrashova said the 'Eureka moment' came when the researchers discovered subtle differences in some BRCA1 methylated cancers. These subtle yet significant epigenetic differences explained why some patients would respond to the drug, while others would not. "It was suddenly clear that all patients in the group could not be treated the same way. We discovered that some of the patients had what could be described as 'incomplete' BRCA1 methylation where not every gene copy was 'switched off'. "As it turns out, incomplete methylation isn't enough to cause faulty DNA repair in cancer cells which explains why PARPi isn't going to be effective for these patients," she said. "At the same time, those in the group who had 'complete' BRCA1 methylation in their cancer were responsive to PARPi confirming to us that the treatment should not be discounted," Dr Kondrashova said. 'Snap shots' at key points Professor Scott said the findings were a result of quality data sets and sophisticated laboratory models called patient derived xenografts (PDX models). "PDX models are powerful because they mimic the complexity of human tumours at key stages as the cancer progresses. "Our models are developed with cancerous tissue donated by patients from the Royal Women's Hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter Mac at the time of their cancer diagnosis, or prior to and after treatment with PARPi" she said. "Like 'snap shots' in time, PDX models allow us to accurately track how each patient's cancer is changing or responding to treatment. The success of this approach shows that a long-term, detailed analysis is invaluable for providing better patient care," she said. No 'one size fits all' Professor Scott said understanding the various reasons for PARPi resistance was vital for developing better, more personalised patient care. "There is no 'one size fits all' approach for ovarian cancer care. We need to keep making these strides in understanding so we can better match patients with the right treatment for their cancer," she said. ### The research was conducted in affiliation with the University of Melbourne and was funded by the Cancer Council Victoria Sir Edward Dunlop Research Fellowship, the Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation, the Victorian Cancer Agency, Cancer Australia, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and the National Health and Medical Research Council. Privacy Settings This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit. NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using. The 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. What someone does with a sex toy behind closed doors is none of the governments business. That seems obvious enough, but use the word robot, and imaginations go wild. Some Houstonians are clutching their pearls at the prospect of the nations first robot brothel opening in their fair city. The righteous decried what they saw as an affront to community standards. This is not the kind of business I would like to see in Houston, and certainly this is not the kind of business the city is seeking to attract, Turner said in a written statement to the Houston Chronicle. He promised to review city ordinances, and if necessary draft a new one, to block KinkySDolls from opening. The U.S. Constitution, though, sets a very high bar for government interference in a persons private property rights. And objectively, thats what this is about, not sex. On HoustonChronicle.com: Americans should be allowed to pipe up KinkySDolls is one of many manufacturers of sex dolls that range in price from $4,000 to $20,000 depending on the features. The company operates a try-before-you-buy store in Toronto, where time alone in a private room with one of the products ranges from $80 to $120. Or put another way, the company offers a hotel room with a sex doll in it on an hourly basis. Setting aside the ick factor, Texans should remember that a federal judge overruled state laws banning the sale, possession and use of sex toys in 2008. A young Ted Cruz, then the states solicitor general, tried to convince the judge to sustain the law, but later said he was only doing his job. Last year Cruz called the sex toy ban a stupid law. Consenting adults should be able to do whatever they want in their bedrooms, he told CNN. One assumes that also applies to a consenting adult and a robot. A full-size sex toy with computer chips should be no different than a vibrator in the eyes of the law. THE BASICS: Things to know about Houston's soon-to-open sex robot brothel Science fiction fans know there is an entire sub-genre that questions when machines will become sentient and worthy of the same rights as humans. But current doll technology is no more advanced than the Siri function on the iPhone. And there is no law against me taking a hammer to my phone if I choose. KinkySDolls is undoubtedly a sexually-oriented business but so are dozens of sex toy stores and strip clubs. Rather than enforce existing ordinances on 16 strip clubs, the city agreed to look the other way in 2013 if the owners contributed to the city's Human Trafficking Abatement Fund. This astonishing flexibility makes the current indignation over a new sex toy store hypocritical. The religious groups sponsoring a petition to ban robot brothels would just as soon shut them all down. They claim sexually-oriented businesses hurt our society by objectifying women. But the U.S. decided long ago that governments do not determine morality. Violent pornography is widely available, blatant sexuality is key to female celebrity and unhealthy sexual expectations distort mens behavior. These things are deplorable. But neither do we want the government to control our Internet browsing, tell women what to wear or instruct men on manners. If our society were serious about curbing violence, the first thing we would do is impose strict gun control laws like those found in every other civilized country. How is it more acceptable to rent an automatic rifle and shoot human-shaped targets than it is to a rent toy to act out a sexual fantasy? On HoustonChronicle.com: Packing a gun at your business sends the wrong message None of this is to argue that relying on robots for companionship would be healthy. A persons mental health degrades in isolation. We know people who spend too much time on their computers and smartphones develop severe behavioral problems. Nor should we take seriously anyone who claims sex robots will make the world safer. Robot brothels will not end human prostitution. And a handful of people may develop sadistic fantasies they later perpetrate on unwilling humans, just as they do through pornography. Frankly, there are more significant problems the government should address. Experts estimate that about 400 Houston businesses are fronts for real brothels where human traffickers exploit and abuse real women. Every day men exploit underage girls using smartphones and the Internet. So many human victims need protection, its ludicrous that elected officials should waste time worrying about what people do with robots. Robot brothels already operate in Europe and Asia, and such businesses make money because they are just another form of an amusement park. There is no justification for government interference between a person and his or her sex machine. Houston officials should concentrate on protecting people instead. Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business and economics. chris.tomlinson@chron.com PAWNEE Ava DeLeon, one of six eighth grade students in this small towns only school, knows a thing or two about oil and gas since both her parents work in the industry in the nearby Eagle Ford shale. But now shes learning what happens to the contaminated soil, drill cuttings, and other solid waste that piles up at well sites. A lot of that waste could be headed two miles down the road from her school, where the Phoenix waste management company Republic Services wants to build a 156-acre landfill that would rise more than 170 feet just outside of this South Texas community. DeLeon worries about heavy metals, chemicals and other pollutants from drilling waste escaping into the environment and how they could affect her health and that of her 12-year-old sister, Olivia, and 14-month old brother, Augie. It can go into the air. It can go into the water, she said, sitting at table in the schools cafeteria. Its just the little things that concerned me because were always outside. DeLeon is part of the local opposition to Republics proposed waste dump as Pawnee joins a handful of small communities in South Texas that have fought similar facilities that they say bring toxic materials, heavy trucks and industrial operations, and mar the quiet, rural character of their communities. Other small towns will likely face similar fights. Even with an increase in the number of landfills, there are still not enough to handle solid waste generated in oil and gas fields around the state. RELATED: Crude oil top petroleum export from U.S. in first half of 2018 The proliferation of these sites represents another side to a drilling boom that is generating mountains of money for energy companies and their investors, but leaving small communities like Pawnee to deal with mountains of waste. At least 19 oilfield landfills already operate Texas, and the Railroad Commission of Texas, which oversees the oil and gas industry, has approved at least 5 new permits this year alone. Inevitably, the siting of the oilfield landfills pits poor rural communities against the states powerful oil and gas industry and rich landfill operators such as Republic. In 2017, for example, Republic reported profits of $1.3 billion. All the property in the Pawnee Independent School District is valued at less than $330 million, according to the Texas Education Agency. Even if they spend a bunch of money on lawyers and experts its nearly impossible to stop such a project, said Neil Carman, clean air program director for the Texas chapter of the Sierra Club, a national environmental advocacy group. The best they can do is delay it. Pawnee, population 166, passes by in a flash while traveling along Highway 72 through a countryside of of huisatche, oak and rolling fields, where towering drilling rigs rise over hay baled in large rounds. The town has a single intersection, but no traffic light, next to the one-story school that educates students from pre-K to eighth grade. In a county where one in four people live in poverty, most of the 156 students qualify for free lunches; Superintendent Michelle Hartmann said the school provides free lunches to all because its just easier. Republic, which has a stock market value of more than $24 billion, acquired the property for the landfill in 2015 when when it bought a subsidiary of the Canadian waste management company Tervita. In July, Republic proposed developing the property, about 2 miles southeast of Pawnee, into a landfill with the capacity to hold more than 11.6 million cubic yards of oilfield waste piled 170 feet high an amount that would cover 11 square miles if the waste was spread a foot deep. RELATED: New review shows oil and gas debt at lowest levels since late 2014 As many as 50 trucks a day would pass through and near the town, hauling waste to the 24-hour, 7-days-a-week operation. Republic says that material, which would include waste oil and gas liquids, fracking fluids and other materials, would be separated and dried at its facility, then stacked in a disposal pit with double lining and leak detectors to prevent liquids from leaching into the environment. In Pawnee, residents worry about increased truck traffic and more accidents. But they are most concerned about fly ash and other fine materials that could blow from the landfill to the school and town, where residents young and old would breathe the polluted air, the tiny particles settling in their lungs. Friable, which refers to easily pulverized materials that can become suspended in the air, has become a frequently used term around town. Dennis DeWitt, who represents Pawnee on the Bee County Commission, has urged residents to send letters to the Railroad Commission, which regulates oilfield waste sites. to voice their opposition. He held up two binders side by side. One brown folder a few inches thick was the amount of paperwork DeWitt said it took to get a similar site near his land rejected. The other, about an inch-and-a-half thick, was the folder of letters and supporting materials opposing the Republic project. Government continues to run on paper I dont care what anybody says, it runs on paper, said DeWitt, a veteran of state government, including long stints with Texas Parks and Wildlife. The more paper we can stack up, the more they listen. Ava DeLeon, 13, was among the first in her class to write a letter to the Railroad Commission. This was an instant where I was like, I have to say something or I have to do something, she said. RELATED: Flint Hill to expand Ingleside oil export facility Floyd Wolff, 63, is a pharmacist who owns land across the road from the proposed landfill. Wolff is familiar and comfortable with the oil and gas industry. At least three natural gas well pads sit on his land. A saltwater disposal well is also on the property, on the hill behind the gas wells, surrounded by scrub brush. A nearby natural gas processing facility operates on land that his grandfather sold to the energy company Pioneer Natural Resources. But he doesnt like what Republic is proposing. Youll have numerous things dispersed in there, and its flying right to the children, right to the children day after day after day, he said. After a period of time, somebodys going to die prematurely. Gary McCuiston, a Republic executive overseeing the landfill development, said fly ash would be used only as a last resort to dry liquid wastes, which would primarily be mixed with dry waste and, if needed, dry soil. Safety is a priority for Republic, McCuiston said, and the company would work with residents to mitigate truck traffic. Truckers would have to follow rules adopted by the town or they would be prohibited from using the landfill which Republic has done at other sites, McCuiston said. On Aug. 28, the Railroad Commission sent a letter requiring Republic to clarify or provide information on 35 points, including clarification of the ownership of the property, design dimensions of the disposal pit, and safety data sheets related to the materials, such as fly ash, that Republic is proposing to use. Republic has 45 days from the day it received the letter to respond to the Railroad Commissions concerns. Floyd said he will stay on his land if the landfill comes, but he doubts his children or grandchildren would want to keep it. He also fears that health and safety concerns will lead parents to take their children from Pawnees school and send them elsewhere, making it difficult for the little school to survive. If theyre not here, then our little community just its gone if the kids arent here, he said. Convicted felons Carlos Uresti, the ex-Texas state senator, and former FourWinds Logistics CEO Stan Bates are accused of securities fraud in a lawsuit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Uresti and Bates made various misrepresentations to potential investors to convince them to invest in a FourWinds, a San Antonio-based start-up oil field services company that collapsed into bankruptcy in 2015, the SEC alleges in a suit filed in San Antonio federal court. Uresti, FourWinds lawyer, escrow agent and a 1 percent owner who recruited investors, was found guilty of 11 felonies including securities fraud and money laundering by a federal jury in February. The longtime San Antonio Democrat resigned from the state Senate and gave up his law license following his conviction. He was sentenced in June to 12 years in federal prison. Bates pleaded guilty to eight felonies in January rather than stand trial with Uresti and Gary Cain, a FourWinds consultant. Bates received a 15-year prison sentence earlier this month. Lawyers and public servants have heightened responsibilities when it comes to handling other peoples money, Shamoil T. Shipchandler, director of the SECs Fort Worth regional office, said in an email. We take action today to impose an industry bar to protect investors from future fraudulent conduct. Mikal Watts, a San Antonio lawyer who represents Uresti, said the SECs action is based on a criminal conviction that Uresti is appealing. Because of the pendency of his appeal, (Uresti) would not agree to a consent judgment to the SECs allegations, which he believes are untrue, Watts said. We will handle the case accordingly. In a news release, the SEC says Bates has agreed to settle the claims and has consented to a final judgment that bars him from serving as an officer or director of any company that issues securities. The SECs suit says it would seek to have both Uresti and Bates turn over any ill-gotten gains. As part of the settlement with Bates, however, the SEC says the restitution Bates owes in the criminal case will satisfy its requirement that he turn over illicit proceeds. In the criminal case, a judge ordered both Bates and Uresti to pay $6.3 million to victims. Bates is appealing his sentence. The SEC opened an investigation into FourWinds in August 2016, two days after the San Antonio Express-News first reported on Urestis involvement in the company and allegations by some investors that they had been defrauded. SEC officials were present during Urestis criminal trial. Uresti and Bates also are accused by the SEC of acting as unregistered securities brokers. Uresti has been free on bond pending the outcome of an upcoming bribery trial, which is unrelated to the FourWinds case. The SEC alleges Uresti and Bates raised $11.2 million to purportedly buy and sell sand used in fracking for oil production. The pair misrepresented the profitability and safety of the investments with FourWinds, the SEC adds. Bates misled investors by claiming that celebrities and professional athletes had invested with FourWinds, that he had invested $2 million of his own money, and that he had received a $200 million offer for the company, the SEC says in the suit. Uresti was facing financial difficulties and believed he stood to make millions through his involvement with (FourWinds), the complaint says. So Uresti backed Bates false claims, telling potential investors that Bates was a successful businessman. Uresti also falsely told some investors that he had invested his own money in the venture, the SEC adds. The lawsuit also recounts how Uresti got one of his law clients to invest. The client, who the SEC didnt identify but is Denise Cantu of Harlingen, invested $900,000 part of a legal settlement Uresti helped obtain for her over the deaths of two of her children in a 2010 vehicle accident. Uresti never disclosed he was receiving a 3 percent commission on her investment and a cut of her profits, the SEC says. The lawsuit notes how Bates fabricated a bank statement to make it appear that FourWinds had $18.8 million in the bank. In reality, the company had less than $100,000 in the account. Uresti forwarded the fake bank statement to one or more investors, the suit says. Bates used proceeds from the scheme to support a lavish lifestyle and pay bills. Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD Q: Our uncle is 84 and in ill health. He lives in Missouri. For the last few years, he has been befriended by a much younger woman, who is dependent on him for financial support. He bought her a new car and a home, and he pays her to take him to doctors visits and run errands. We are concerned about his will. We do not care if his assets go to charity, but we do not like the prospect of her profiting. Can we contest the will, and how would we do that? A: There can be no contesting his will until after he dies. At this point, if you think your uncle lacks the ability to care for himself and manage his finances, then you could hire an attorney in Missouri to seek a court appointed guardian to care for him. Of course, that would be expensive, and you risk completely alienating your uncle, who might actually enjoy the companionship of the younger woman. Plus, after all your efforts, the younger woman might be the person the court appoints to serve as his guardian, if one is needed. After your uncle dies, if you or any other members of your family are inclined, you can hire a lawyer to contest his will. The major problem is that even if you are successful in getting his current will declared invalid, it would be his prior will (or Missouris intestacy laws) that would control who gets his property. It is unclear who would inherit from him, but it might not be any of you. In other words, you could spend a small fortune, only to see his estate pass to other parties. Q: My 33-year-old daughter died a few years ago without a will. She had two minor children from two marriages. She and I were co-owners of a ranch in Dimmit County. Both of her ex-husbands are willing to give me full ownership so that I can lease the property to a solar energy company. What steps do I need to take? A: You need to hire an attorney in Dimmit County because the ownership issue is complicated. The problem is that her half of the land is not owned by the two ex-husbands, but instead, it is now owned by the two minor children according to Texas intestacy law. Changing ownership from the two minors to you might not be easy or even possible until they are adults. Q: Can you please send me all your old State Your Case columns? I would like to read all of your old questions and answers. A: It is easy to access prior columns if you are a newspaper subscriber. Just log in online, and search Lipman at the top of the screen. Most, if not all, past columns will be listed. The information in this column is intended to provide a general understanding of the law, not legal advice. Readers with legal problems, including those whose questions are addressed here, should consult attorneys for advice on their particular circumstances. Ronald Lipman of the Houston law firm Lipman & Associates is board-certified in estate planning and probate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Email questions to stateyourcase@lipmanpc.com. No one turns crosswalks into catwalks like Shear Ann Brick, a San Antonio fashion blogger better known to her friends, family, and more than 145,000 Instagram followers as Shear Bear at @shearbear8. From a metallic gold sequined outfit before the Scottish Rite Theatre & Grand Ballroom to a beige suit dress by the Aztec Theatre, Brick rocks all sorts of styles outside all sorts of Alamo City landmarks, often with a steely gaze that could slice that urban concrete she makes her runway. But what you may not see behind those fierce looks and outfits is a warmhearted passion thats always in fashion. I always say being authentic, being you, and being kind is the most trending style, said Brick, 30, a Philippines native. You can wear the most expensive clothing and the most trending attire, but if youre not comfortable, and youre not kind to other people, youre outdated. Its that kind of timeless style thats made Shear Bear quite a big name in just a short time. READ ALSO: Monster-Con convention scares up fiendish fun In the less than two years since shes moved to San Antonio from San Diego, Brick has built a virtual fashion empire as an Instagram influencer, modeling and hash-tagging all sorts of Vogue-worthy outfits and accessories through collaborations with more than 60 national and international brands, including H&M, Revlon and Hyatt Regency hotels. Brick figures that sponsors provide 80 percent of all the clothes and shoes she wears and writes about in her social media posts. She also collaborates with San Antonio designers and boutiques, and recently landed a nomination for blogger/vlogger of the year for the fourth annual San Antonio Fashion Awards, which lights up the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts Oct. 11. Not bad for a full-time marketing consultant whose only other fashion experience is knowing how to sew and alter garments and who squeezes in fashion shoots only after work on weekends and evenings. Add to that fiance who takes all her photos and who has no background in professional photography and her success is all the more surprising. Its just us learning this cool social media madness together, Brick said. Brick first fell in love with fashion as a child growing up in the Philippines, watching her mother wear her smart dresses and heels for her government job in Olongapo City. Brick would also tap into the styles of her two younger sisters, one more conservative in dress and the other more liberated. Brick sees her own style as a mix of multicolored street fashion and romantic trends, with garments that range from chic dresses and wide-legged pants to oversize tops and ripped jeans. Just about all pigments and patterns are up for grabs, though Brick has a special place in her heart and wardrobe for animal prints. READ ALSO: How San Antonio pin artists share their love of Spurs Coyote, Big Red and tacos I dont think that I have a particular style since I wear what I like, Brick said. And that changes from time to time, or every morning. One thing that doesnt change is Bricks serious expression in her fashion photos, a look that belies a more uplifting disposition and intention. Its like when you feel your best and look your best, it portrays confidence and I-can-do-anything attitude, Brick said. And I love to see someone feeling that way because of their outfit of the day. I think thats what inspires me to help that one more person to abolish their insecurities and rock their true selves. Another Shear Bear fashion photo staple: a background with engaging architecture. Brick has long been a fan of the iconic Flatiron Building in Manhattan (she has prints of the landmark in her condo) and will pose in front of the famous wedge-shaped skyscraper whenever traveling to New York for work or to visit family. Now Brick finds herself falling in love with the Alamo and other structural wonders in the new city she calls home. In fact, the Alamo was the site of her first photo shoot in San Antonio. That shot of Brick in a red, rose-applique mermaid gown racked up around 6,300 likes the first time she posted it in November 2017, then garnered more than 6,500 more likes when she posted it as a throwback pic around this years Fiesta. Thats why I love taking pictures all over San Antonio, Brick said. Because San Antonio, its rich in amazing architectures. READ ALSO: Adopt the runway pairs fashion, furry friends And the citys fashion and lifestyle blogging community has been quick to embrace Brick right back. People gravitate to beautiful things, and she knows how to put them together, said Nia Aguayo in San Antonio, who runs the Instagram style account, @nia4luv. Aguayo first met Brick a few months ago while they were both modeling fashions for a San Antonio morning show segment at San Antonio boutique Thirty3 Style. Aguayo noted Brick is always quick to answer her questions about Instagram influencing, with helpful advice and genuine positivity. I think that makes a big difference when you have a warm heart and (a) willingness to talk to everyone, Aguayo said. Indeed, Brick credits her Instagram success to engaging with other people and building relationships with brands large and small, which boost her own profile with their shout-outs. Brick doesnt buy followers to inflate her social media status. And while she gets to keep the clothes and makeup shes sent, Brick shares some items with other fashion bloggers and donates others to charity. Brick does want to parlay her Instagram fame into her own fashion and travel website and YouTube channel, which are both in development to be up before the end of the year. In the meantime, she aims to continue expressing her love of fashion through more new outfits and, more importantly, more new friends. I always say, Shear Bear cares, she said. READ ALSO: San Antonio video game developers play on despite long odds of success Bricks not the only social media star in San Antonio whos personal stamp on fashion and lifestyle has rung up thousands of fans. Here are four other Instagram influencers to watch for in the Alamo City: Ari Alvarez-Tostado has more than 100,000 followers eating up her bilingual Instagram account @thetoastylife, which serves up all sorts of out and about fashion pics of her in San Antonio and elsewhere in her travels. Alvarez-Tostado is also a San Antonio Fashion Awards nominee for blogger/vlogger of the year. Inspired by kicking off the Cafe Con Ellas video blog for client marketing, Rose Ferreira highlights her own life with @lizostyle on Instagram, where almost 50,000 follow her fashion posts. More than 28,000 follow the tale of @thestoribook on Instagram, where fashion and beauty blogger and public relations guru Tori Johnson shares pics and promotions. With more than 18,000 followers, Christina Coker considers her Instagram lifestyle account @christina_coker as highlighting life and style, focusing on her world as a mother of four children as well as her love for fashion and promoting local businesses. Coker is another San Antonio Fashion Awards nominee for blogger/vlogger of the year. Ron Chapple Stock Texas is beefing up its efforts to prevent babies from being born with syphilis, a growing state crisis highlighted Tuesday in a national report. The Texas health department has hired two new staffers, an epidemiologist and a coordinator, to lead efforts studying and attempting to reduce congenital syphilis around the state. It is also at work on a report, due before the end of the year, assessing the value of a 2015 state law requiring pregnant women be tested for syphilis in the third trimester, an addition to a screening at their prenatal appointment. For hours, a roomful of future lawyers at St. Marys University watched some silently, some whispering fiercely at the televised unfolding Thursday of what they said was a defining moment for their profession and the country. Testimony from Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate Judiciary Committee was probably one of the most historic moments of our law school experience, said Emma Niewold, who was among dozens gathered at the universitys law school to hear it. A California psychology professor, Ford testified that Kavanaugh, who is President Donald Trumps pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, sexually assaulted her when they knew each other in high school in 1982. Kavanaugh, a federal appellate court judge, angrily denounced that and other accusations Thursday. When somebody is in the highest seat, for a lifetime position, their character is a leading factor, student Chris Hartman said of Kavanaugh as he watched Ford answer questions from a prosecutor brought in by committee Republicans. RELATIVE: The many faces of Brett Kavanaugh Kavanaughs apparently clear path to confirmation by a Republican Senate majority was muddied in recent days by Ford and two other accusers, one who said he exposed himself to her when both were freshmen at Yale University at a dormitory party, and another who recalled his presence at a party lining up with other men to take advantage of a woman. The days drama partly was seen as a test for how the senators might treat an accuser compared to the same committees handling in 1991 of Anita Hill, when her claims of sexual harassment against her former boss, Clarence Thomas, were openly scorned by many on the panel. For the St. Marys students most born after Hills testimony who now study Supreme Court decisions Thomas helped make the hearing felt historic and unprecedented. Several law students voiced unease that a confirmation vote could come without further investigation of the accusations. Many said they found Fords testimony believable. Hartman said her allegations are credible enough to be investigated by the FBI, and added, This cross-examination seems unfair. The lack of an FBI investigation was detrimental for both Ford and Kavanaugh, said student Katherine Shamsie. RELATIVE: Trump urges Senate to vote after Kavanaugh's fierce defense The students watched GOP senators yield their time to Arizona prosecutor Christine Mitchell. They watched as both Ford and Kavanaugh became emotional. As politicians, the senators purposes were different from a judges or an investigators, student Frank Pena said. Hiring Mitchell seemed to be helpful, he said, because she had more legal knowledge than the senators. He was closely watching Fords lawyers, too, and said he thought they were doing a great job in advising her. Kavanuagh was going into histrionics during his opening statement, rather than laying out a case, student Sean Regan observed. He said he tended to believe women when they come forward with allegations like Fords, and from what he saw of her testimony she seemed credible, he said. Regan, who said hes a Republican,.had hoped Trump would nominate federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett, who was on a short list for the seat. Kavanaugh has been tainted by the allegations regardless of whether or not he did it, and if Barrett could be considered instead, it would be better for the party and the country, Regan said. A Supreme Court justice is expected to represent our ideals, Shamsie said. This is such an important day for all young people who have ever been assaulted, she said, with the outcome defining what message is sent to them. Hugo Sanchez said he was watching because its important for people to have their story heard. In addition to the legal significance of the day, he wanted to show solidarity for friends with experiences similar to what Ford alleged, even if its just listening, he said. RELATIVE: Kavanaugh-Ford hearing: A dramatic lesson on gender roles Based on her testimony, I believe her, Sanchez said. The allegations against Kavanaugh spurred a conversation about why women dont report sexual assault, which has helped lessen the stigma of being a survivor, said Bianca Ybarra, who worked for a year at a rape crisis center before starting law school. Its helping people understand, My loved one went through this, Ybarra said. Its made people stronger in their voices, and in saying why they didnt report while also highlighting the challenges of being taken seriously, she said. Whoever sits on the highest court in the nation is going to affect us as law students and as lawyers, and the courts decisions will continue to affect everyone, said Nadeen Abou-Hossa. Observations that boys will be boys and that the alleged assault of Ford happened in high school are not an excuse, and as a potential lifetime jurist on the nations highest court, Kavanaugh should be held to an even higher standard, she said. An assistant dean had invited students to watch the hearings all day in the law schools administration building. Informed students make employed lawyers, a sign in the room read. The whole thing started with a fight at the Bustin' Loose nightclub. It was a late night, with lots of booze - and whispers of another man involved. When it was all said and done, Marquetta George ended up dead and bloodied on the side of the road. Eighteen years later, on Thursday night, her former boyfriend Daniel Acker was put to death for her murder. He always maintained his innocence but gave no final statement. He took one deep breath and kept his eyes closed the entire time, according to Texas prison officials. The 46-year-old was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m., 14 minutes after the lethal dose began. Acker's execution was the state's second in as many nights - and the 10th here this year. The Sulphur Springs man was convicted of strangling his 32-year-old girlfriend and pushing her from a moving car, according to court records. But for years, Acker and his defense team have argued that he didn't kill George and that her death was an accident after she jumped out of a moving car. "This is a real tragedy," defense lawyer A. Richard Ellis told the Chronicle earlier in the week. "Daniel Acker is innocent, this was a tragic accident not a homicide, yet the courts are not listening." Now Playing: Man on death row for killing officer to be executed January 2019 Video: Fox 26 Houston At the time of the slaying in March 2000, Acker and George were sharing a rented trailer in Hopkins County. The night of George's death, the troubled couple started fighting at the bar - and he bluntly commented that he was going to kill her, according to court records. PRISON GUARD CHARGED: Guard implicated after inmate who spit on him died Later, Acker got kicked out of the club, while George went home with another man, a bouncer named Calico. But in the wee hours of the morning, Acker went out looking for her, scouring the town all night and even stopping at her mother's house. While there, he told the woman's mother that it was OK if she'd stayed out the night alone. But, he added, "if I find out she was with anybody, I'm going to kill 'em." He didn't get back to his trailer till around 10 a.m., and George showed up about an hour later. Acker wanted to find out if she'd cheated, so he violently forced his girlfriend into his truck and tried bringing her Calico's house for a confrontation. But the two never made it. Instead, George ended up on the side of the road dead. Prosecutors argued that Acker strangled her then tossed her from the truck - and a jury agreed. But Acker has consistently said that his girlfriend leaped from the vehicle - as she'd done before - and was killed in the process. Afterward, Acker didn't hide; he flagged down police himself. "From the day he turned himself in, Daniel has said the victim jumped from his truck, and he has consistently expressed remorse for abducting her," Ellis said. "The state has to date had three differing versions of his guilt, the two latest of which are inconsistent with the facts and testimony presented to the jury at his trial." During the appeals process, the state stepped back from the strangulation theory, but still maintained Acker killed his girlfriend. "Acker had no motive to do this," Ellis said. "He didn't have the physical ability to strangle her while he was driving." In appeals, defense counsel brought up claims of earlier bad lawyering and "massively flawed" post-conviction proceedings, and argued that prosecutors used false testimony from experts and repeatedly changed their theory of the crime. This week, the parole board denied his request for clemency. As of Thursday morning, his last hope for reprieve was an appeal in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that he shouldn't be executed based on a theory of the crime abandoned only after his conviction. The state disagreed. "Acker's assertions of innocence dispute only the victim's cause of death, which the jury determined was strangulation, blunt-force injury, or a combination of the two," state attorneys wrote in their response filing. "Acker produces no new evidence showing he did not commit the crime but continues to assert that George's death resulted from her leap from the vehicle a theory rejected by the jury at the time of trial." Acker's scheduled execution comes a day after Troy Clark was put to death by lethal injection. The Tyler man, who maintained his innocence even in his final statement, was convicted of drowning his former housemate and stuffing her body into a barrel of lime. The last time two convicted killers were executed in two days was in 2012, when the state put to death Ramon Hernandez of Bexar County and Preston Hughes, from Harris County. Hughes, who also professed his innocence with his final words, was convicted in the stabbing deaths of two children. As of now, another eight executions are on the calendar in Texas, including two scheduled in early 2019. The top supervisor of Bexar County Jail has resigned amid the arrest of several jailers and reports of excessive spending. Assistant Chief Deputy Bobby Hogeland, whose resignation became effective Friday, said hes leaving to pursue other opportunities. Sheriff Javier Salazar plans to conduct a national search to fill the post. Hes looking for a candidate thats tough on discipline, good at maintaining morale and good at public speaking. Deputy Chief Ruben Vela, who has been with the Sheriffs Office for more than 30 years, will serve as the interim supervisor. In Hogelands resignation letter, he said he wasproud of his work at the Sheriffs Office, where he helped set up teams to evaluate inmates mental health and to cut back on contraband, and of his deputies. Salazar said he did not speak to Hogeland about his resignation, but wished him well. Ive known Bobby Hogeland for probably 15 to 20 years, he said. I have no doubt that what opportunity he found, he will do outstanding in it. Hogelands resignation comes amid a troubling year for the Sheriffs Office, which has struggled with escape attempts from the jail and the arrest of 20 deputies on a variety of criminal charges, including domestic abuse, assaulting inmates and driving while intoxicated. On ExpressNews.com: Sheriff taking steps to head off problems In April, a deputy chief who helped oversee the jail retired after it was found to be in noncompliance with a state commission on jail standards. The jail passed compliance inspections after Salazar changed jail policies and reallocated resources. The resignation also came after KENS-TV reported that Hogeland approved spending roughly $55,000 in 2017 on office chairs to replace old, battered chairs. Each of the 68 chairs cost around $773 and was embroidered with the Sheriffs Office badge, according to records. The administration also purchased a tall office stool for roughly $1,072. It, too, was embroidered with the Sheriffs Office badge. It is not clear whether the resignation is related to the purchases. However, in his letter, Hogeland wrote that the administration should provide deputies with the best equipment and tools necessary to do their job effectively and safely to keep our community safe. County Judge Nelson Wolff said he wasnt clear on all the details behind Hogelands resignation, but he said the chairs were one reason among many that Hogeland is leaving. He was a nice guy, but he didnt have any administrative experience, Wolff said. Hogeland came straight from the U.S. Marshals Service. Wolff said the chairs, which came with a warranty, were purchased under proper procedures but that he had serious concerns regarding the purchase price. The county has been reviewing its purchasing process since September to add additional safeguards, Wolff said. Hogeland, 55, joined the Sheriffs Office in January 2017, shortly after Salazar took office. Hogeland had worked for 31 years with the Marshals Service. During his time at the department, the administration dealt with a string of deputy arrests. So far this year, 20 deputies most of whom worked in the jail have been arrested on a variety of criminal charges, including sexual assault, aggravated assault, family violence and driving while intoxicated. Salazar has said the high number of deputy arrests is a consequence of his efforts to root out people unfit for the job. He said he does not think more crime is being committed, but rather more arrests are being made. I have made my stance clear on misconduct, that it will be dealt with as swiftly and severely as possible, Salazar said last week after an off-duty deputy was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. Salazar, a 23-year San Antonio Police Department veteran, has announced a variety of initiatives aimed at improving training at the Sheriffs Office. Salazar has said his approach at the office has been influenced by his time at the Police Department, which has a nationally renowned training academy. During his first months in office, Salazar lengthened the course to become a detention officer from seven weeks to 10 to 11 weeks. Soon, it will be expanded to 12 weeks. In-service training has also increased. State law mandates that peace officers receive 40 hours of training every two years. Starting this year, Salazar is requiring deputies and jailers to receive 40 hours of in-service training every year matching SAPD training. On ExpressNews.com: An in-depth look at SAPDs training academy Earlier this month, Salazar announced that the Sheriffs Office intends to hire a psychologist to help screen future applicants and help deputies manage stress. Its going to allow us to remain proactive, Salazar said at the time. A psychologist is going to help us keep people out of this profession that are not maybe cut out for this profession. Theyll be able to head off problems before they become problems. Hogeland is not the first deputy chief to leave the department recently. In April, Deputy Chief Laura Balditt, assistant jail administrator, retired after 31 years with the office. Vela, the deputy chief who will oversee Hogelands duties, was promoted to replace her. During a news conference about Balditts retirement, Salazar was asked whether he had lost confidence in his jail command staff in the wake of an escape in which three murder suspects climbed 20 feet in a recreation area, cut a hole in some mesh and climbed down using bedsheets. Salazar responded at the time that he was not concerned. Emilie Eaton is a criminal justice reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | eeaton@express-news.net | Twitter: @emilieeaton A majority of students at the top-rated high schools in Texas are likely to need remedial course work when they get to college because they dont score well enough on entrance exams, a Hearst Newspapers analysis of newly released school accountability data shows. More than 900 high schools received the equivalent of an A or B rating from the state last month. But the newspaper analysis shows that at two-thirds of those schools, the majority of students are failing to score high enough on the SAT or ACT to be considered college ready, increasing the chances that theyll need remedial course work and jeopardizing their chances of getting a college diploma. The low number of Texas students who are adequately prepared for college has emerged again as an issue as state lawmakers study education funding this fall, in preparation for the Legislative session, which starts in January. At a meeting last week, education committee chairman Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, and Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, recommended giving more money to schools for each student who scores college-ready on the entrance exams. Another group of lawmakers studying the performance of Texas schools, including Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, recommended that Texas do away with the STAAR test, the state standardized exam, and instead use the SAT or ACT to hold high schools accountable. The states top education official says Texas is steadily raising the bar for what students are expected to learn, and schools are improving. But education experts say the high ratings being awarded despite the low college readiness scores exposes a major flaw in the accountability system. They say the gap is proof that lawmakers are placing too much emphasis on improving scores on the STAAR and high school graduation rates, rather than on preparing students for what happens after they finish high school. To get an A means this school is doing a good job of getting an increasing number, and a majority number, of its students ready for the next stage in life, said Sandy Kress, a former senior adviser for George W. Bush and one of the architects of No Child Left Behind, the law that brought accountability ratings to schools across the country. You have no business getting an A if you cant tell me that. Some schools, especially in rural areas, may focus more on preparing students for careers after high school, rather than college. But Hearst Newspapers also analyzed career-readiness data, which includes students enlisting in the military or receiving an industry certificate. Of the schools earning the states top ratings, none was preparing the majority of its students for careers after high school. The highest percentage was in Cumby High School, about 65 miles northeast of Dallas. It had 39 percent of its students meeting career standards. About 3 percent of students tested at a college-ready level. More Information How we did this story Hearst Newspapers analyzed school accountability data from the Texas Education Agencyfor the 2017-18 school year. We identified the high schools that received a score equivalent to an A or B. We then looked at the percentage of students who scored at or above the college-ready level on the SAT, ACT or Texas Success Initiative Assessment at those schools. We also looked at the percentage of students who met career-aligned goals, in order to gauge how well schools are preparing students for college and careers. See More Collapse Low college graduation rates and career attainment have troubled Texas lawmakers for years. They set a goal in 2015 that by 2030, 60 percent of high school graduates would earn a industry certificate or a post-secondary degree within six years. The state has a long way to go only 25 percent of students from the class of 2009 met that goal. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath declined an interview and did not respond to questions sent to him by email, instead releasing a statement: Well-rounded college and career readiness measures have been added to the A-F system for the first time, which reflects a substantial increase in expectations for our schools and our students, Morath said. Over time, this additional focus will result in more kids being well prepared for college and career coming out of our high schools. Students are college ready if they score at least a 530 on the math portion of the SAT and a 480 on the reading and writing portion, according to TEA documents. Student taking the ACT need a 23 composite score and at least a 19 on the math and reading portion. Students who dont hit those marks can still get into college, but the measure can predict how well they will perform in freshman writing and math courses. Some students may be admitted, but theyll have to take remedial courses, which do not count toward graduation and are expensive, increasing tuition costs and potentially delaying graduation. Testing that matters In San Antonios Northside Independent School District, eight schools earned an A or B overall rating from the state. Half of those are preparing less than 40 percent of their students to be college ready, based on SAT and ACT scores. Debbie Ritcheys son and daughter attended Northside schools, and she remembers being troubled by how many state-mandated exams they had to take. Now that theyve both graduated from college, she wishes their high school would have focused more on preparing them for the SAT or ACT, rather than making them take tests that are rarely considered by colleges. Both had to take the college entrance exams multiple times before getting the scores that gave them the best chance of admission and scholarship opportunities. If you teach them correctly, and you have the best teachers in there, they should be able to take those ACT and SAT tests and do fine getting into college, Ritchey said. Her daughter, Emily, graduated from Stevens High School in 2008 and was required to take a summer math course prior to enrolling at Texas State University in San Marcos. Still, Emily graduated college within four years and is now a teacher. Ritcheys son required no remedial work and made it through college in four years as well. At Cypress-Fairbanks ISD outside Houston, the third-largest district in the state, all 10 high schools earned an A or B. But the majority of students are not scoring high enough on the SAT or the ACT to be considered college ready at seven of the high schools. Cypress Creek High School, for example, earned an 86, the equivalent of a B, but less than 40 percent of students are meeting college-ready standards. Jersey Village High School also received a B, but only 36 percent of students are college-ready. Nikki Cowart, a parent with children in Jersey Village High School, said she was shocked to hear seven high schools at Cy-Fair had high percentages of students who didnt meet college-readiness requirements. She is very happy with the education her children are getting there. Its not indicative of what I am seeing, Cowart said. Her son Landon was enrolled in an ACT prep-course at Jersey Village, which helped him get into the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston this fall. She said he is doing very well in his coursework so far. A spokeswoman for Cy-Fair ISD said the district is working to increase college readiness. The district pays for all juniors to take the ACT. The district is also increasing its dual-credit offerings, giving students a chance to take community college courses that also earn them high school credits, said Leslie Francis, the spokeswoman. Afraid to be honest The new accountability system, which debuted this summer, gives school districts and campuses letter grades that are designed to make it easy to understand if a school is meeting expectations. But the system gives schools a lot of credit for improvement on state standardized exams, graduation rates and other measures that may not predict how well students will do in college. A parent may see an A on a campus report and not dig deeper into the data, which may show that students are not scoring high enough on college exams to avoid remedial coursework. Kress and others, including Kara Belew with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, say the state needs to be up-front with parents if high schools are not preparing the majority of students for college and career. While they agree the new accountability system has improved, they recommend the state give greater weight to SAT or ACT scores so that parents know if a school is underperforming. In Texas, we have a long history of failing to call it what it is, Kress said. We are afraid to be honest about evaluation. In this case, we really do our kids a disservice by over-grading schools, especially when they are coming out of our schools not ready for college and career. The Commission on Public School Finance, a group of lawmakers and educators studying how to better fund schools, recently discovered that students lose loan and Pell Grant money to pay for remedial English or math classes that do not count for credit. At a meeting last week, a working-group of the legislative committee examining state education spending recommended an incentive program offering more money to schools that graduate students who do not require remediation, successfully enroll in college or receive an industry-accepted certificate or enlist in the military. The state could also offer more money to schools that achieve those goals for low-income students. The working group also said school staff need to help more students fill out financial aid forms when they apply for college because Texas forgoes more than $500 million in federal Pell Grants annually because students dont apply for them. Unlike student loans, the grants dont need to be paid back. We lose a ton of kids (between high school and post-secondary), said Todd Williams, a member of the work group and the education policy adviser to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. High schools are incentivized to graduate kids, per the accountability system, but they are not historically incentivized for them to be ready to access the next level. We need to figure that out. If you ever want to predict what the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association might do tomorrow, take a look at what the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association did yesterday. Last year, when the Houston union decided to gather signatures for a ballot proposition granting firefighters pay parity with police officers, the union hired a Buda-based firm, Texas Petition Strategies, to do the job. So early this year, when SAPFA launched a charter-amendment drive, they followed Houstons path and hired Texas Petition Strategies. Both the Houston and the San Antonio unions have been without contracts for four years and therefore havent seen any pay increases in that time. Both of them declined to follow the examples of the police unions in their respective cities which reluctantly accepted some reductions in their benefits packages in exchange for pay raises. Both fire unions fought legal battles just to get their ballot propositions on the ballot in November. The Houston firefighters turned to Houston attorney David Feldman for its legal representation. The San Antonio union hired Feldmans son and legal partner, Cris Feldman. And both unions won their battles. Both unions face adamant opposition from the business communities in their cities, who worry that their ballot propositions will destabilize the local economies. Both San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner are staking their reputations on the fight to defeat these ballot propositions. And both mayors have the odds against them. The two unions are motivated by a shared resentment over pay gaps that have developed between police officers and firefighters in their cities. The Houston fire union is addressing this resentment directly, with a proposition requiring firefighters and police officers to receive equal pay for corresponding rank and seniority. SAPFA is taking a more oblique approach, with a trio of propositions designed to weaken the city government and shift leverage to the union: lowering the threshold for referendums to repeal city ordinances from 70,000 to 20,000 petition signatures; allowing the firefighters to unilaterally declare a collective-bargaining impasse and force binding arbitration; and limiting future city managers to an eight-year term and a salary no more than 10 times that of the citys lowest-paid employee. The bottom line is that both unions are trying to go around the collective bargaining process and score, at the ballot box, salary bumps they failed to gain through negotiating. In 2014, Houston firefighters rejected a 4 percent pay increase that would have required them to compromise on their health benefits. They later turned down a 9.5 percent pay increase over three years, according to officials. In San Antonio, the police union in 2016 accepted the concept of premiums, with officers given the choice between a consumer-driven plan with high deductibles but no monthly premiums and a standard plan with low deductibles that required premiums for family members. In exchange for that compromise, S.A. police officers received raises totaling 14 percent over five years plus a 3 percent lump-sum bonus in the first year of the deal. San Antonio firefighters, who historically have rubber-stamped the terms negotiated by the police union, refused to fall in line this time. As a result, the pay disparity between cops and firefighters has grown to nearly $8,000 a year. So now theyre going rogue. Its easy to understand the frustration of firefighters in both cities, but theres a bargaining process in place to work out these issues. In the same way it was absurd for the city of San Antonio to challenge the legality of a 10-year evergreen clause that the city had accepted in collective bargaining, its absurd for Houston firefighters to ask voters to give them the salary increases theyve failed to negotiate for themselves through an established process. In Houston, Turners administration is contending that the pay parity proposition will cost the city $98 million in the first year alone. In San Antonio, a study helmed by St. Marys University economist Steve Nivin concluded that the cost of the firefighters charter amendments could be between $382.3 million and $4.2 billion over the next 20 years. That brings us to the final parallel between the Houston and San Antonio fire unions. If they win their proposition fights in November, dont be surprised if their respective cities take them to court. Thats the way it goes for these two unions. Their battles are never settled and even their victories are messy. Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470 WASHINGTON Texas U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz joined the rest of their Republican colleagues Friday in casting votes to approve Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who has faced multiple accusations of sexual assault. The 11-10 party-line vote on the Judiciary Committee came over the bitter objections of Democratic lawmakers demanding an FBI investigation into the claims of Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who told her story to the committee on Thursday. It also came after a dramatic announcement by Arizona Republican Jeff Flake, a key swing vote, that his final vote for the nomination in the Senate would depend upon GOP leaders agreeing to a week-long delay to allow for an FBI investigation, as Democrats have requested. "We can have a short pause and make sure the FBI can investigate," Flake said. Hours after the committee adjourned, Cornyn and other GOP leaders indicated that they would accede to Flake's request to allow another week for a further background check before a final Senate vote on Kavanaugh. While the Republicans have a 51-49 advantage in the Senate, at least two other Republican senators are believed to be undecided. Honoring the agreement with Flake could help determine those votes as well, with Kavanaugh's nomination hanging in the balance. The Senate had been expected to begin preliminary votes on Saturday, with a final vote scheduled for Tuesday. President Trump said he was not bothered by Flake's unprecedented request. "Whatever they think is necessary is OK," he told reporters. Judiciary Committee Democrats praised Flake's stance. They also had pressed unsuccessfully to subpoena Mark Judge, an old high school friend of Kavanaugh whom Ford identified as a witness to her assault at a 1982 house party, when they were teenagers. "We have a responsibility to subpoena, at the very least, Mark Judge," said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. "We cannot in good conscience vote without hearing from Mark Judge." Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, read a letter from Judge saying he did not remember the incident. Democrats argued that falls short of a flat denial, and that Judge's testimony could help produce the corroboration for Ford's story that Republicans say is lacking. "Not recalling is not the same as refuting," said Delaware Democrat Chris Coons. Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, a possible 2020 presidential contender, argued that it would be disrespectful to Ford to dismiss her account without further fact-finding. Amid accusations of politicizing the process, Republicans initially resisted Democrats' calls for a nonpartisan FBI investigation of Ford's claims. They also voted down a Democratic motion to subpoena Judge. Cornyn, arguing against the motion to subpoena Judge, said "he says he has nothing more to offer." He called the Democrats' insistence on further investigation part of a "calculated effort to delay the vote." Cruz took note of Judge's personal problems as a cancer survivor who has battled alcoholism and depression. He also suggested that Judge could face legal liability for his testimony, making it likely he would assert his right against self-incrimination anyway. While praising Ford's testimony as "powerful," Cruz said he saw no corroboration for her story. He accused Democrats of using her allegations and those of at least two other women to delay and derail Kavanaugh's nomination. "It is clear this has been all about politics," Cruz said. Many of the lawmakers' remarks on both sides appeared directed at a small group of Republican lawmakers including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine who remained publicly undecided Friday morning on Kavanaugh's nomination. Flake, a Trump critic, had announced his support for Kavanaugh earlier in the day, but then left the committee room before the final roll call vote was scheduled to take place. Flake's absence prompted other senators from both parties to leave the room to discuss the matter among themselves, seeming to put off the vote in question until the last moment. When they returned, Flake laid out his conditions for voting to advance the Kavanaugh nomination to the full Senate. Meanwhile, both the American Bar Association and the dean of the Yale Law School - Kavanaugh's alma mater have called for an investigation prior to a final confirmation vote. "Proceeding with the confirmation process without further investigation is not in the best interest of the Court or our profession," said Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken. Friday's hearing followed a day of testy debate and emotional testimony from both Ford and Kavanaugh. Among those objecting to the Judiciary Committee's decision to vote Friday was Houston U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who led a group of House Democratic women to the Senate to protest the committee's vote. Re: Ancestors the heroes, Your Turn, Sept. 20: Frederick Vasquezs letter concerned Alamo heroes. I descend from the citys Spanish founders. I wonder what their Mexican descendants felt in 1836 watching American settlers given free land in Mexico. Would Mexican citizens lose family ranches? Would their women be safe? Their language disappear? I cant know. And trying, after 200 years, to know revolutionary motivation is guesswork. Most hated President Antonio Lopez de Santa Annas brutal changes, but he was required to address threats to Mexico. Settlers failing to assimilate, who kept slaves illegally, were threats, but not all were fighters. Many wanted peace, and to stay on their land and manage their own affairs. But fight or negotiate? Some fought; more fighters were needed. A military leader was chosen. Sam Houston recruited in Tennessee and Kentucky. Not a legal immigrant or landowner, Houston came for personal ambition, appealing to other Americans to enter illegally and fight. Santa Anna promised death. Why fight? If another country has a cruel dictator, do you saddle up, leave home and ride off to challenge him? No, you dont. But if winners get free land, with Mexican law gone and slavery legal, you might. They did. Heroes? Depends who you ask. The result was Texas. We Texans are Americans today, an amazing cherished outcome. The Alamo became the Cradle of Texas Liberty, inspiring the decisive battle. Heroes? To their fellow fighters, yes. Maybe not to my ancestors, instantly second-class citizens for generations. Certainly not to anyone of African heritage, coming so close to freedom if the Texans lost, who saw themselves remain in slavery. Winners write history. We are the Alamo City. And we love our heroes. Jan Kissling Delay, delay, delay Lets look back two years and review what happened when President Barack Obama wanted a vote on his nomination for the Supreme Court vacancy. I distinctly remember there was a call to delay, delay, delay. Fast-forward two years, and what do we have? Now, we have President Donald Trump wanting to have his nomination rammed down our throats as expeditiously as possible when he was the one who wanted the delay two years ago. His nominee is being blasted for his past behavior, and still President Trump insists on having his nominee selected. Now there is no room for delay. Why not delay the vote on the nomination until the issue on behavior is resolved? It only makes sense. President Trump will not be paying for his nominees salary if he is voted in. We will. I want to make sure that we are getting our moneys worth. I dont want to pay someone who is to be held to the highest morals when that person does not fit the mold. Lets delay, delay, delay. Santos Hernandez Vote this time OK, Americans, your inattention to the 2016 election and often not voting could soon give you Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and then get ready He will sit on a court that will almost certainly harm womens reproductive rights, make voting more difficult and reduce environmental regulations. The court will also permit even more leeway in campaign contributions and curtail various immigrants rights. Maybe you who stuck your heads in the comfortable world of self will vote in 2018 and then 2020, this starting the move toward a Supreme Court that cares for millions of Americans rather than a selfish elite. Eugene Novogrodsky, Brownsville Who needs court? It appears we are looking at a tactic that will prevent any vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court from ever being filled. Its obvious that any time a candidate supported by one political party appears to be on the verge of getting confirmed, another political party only needs to leak allegations of misconduct, no matter how long ago those might have occurred, and demand an investigation by the FBI. This shouldnt be a concern, though. Pretty much any decision the court issues these days is supported by half the population and detested by the other half. Without a Supreme Court, there wont be any need to provide opinions about that pesky Constitution. This will give us a clean slate to start all over in building a model civilization. The legislative body of this country wouldnt be needed either. It isnt as if Congress, locked in paralysis of partisanship, is doing much of anything productive these days. That leaves the executive branch to stand on its own. All we need to do is decide whether we prefer a monarch or a dictator to efficiently run government, or perhaps someone else can make that decision for us so we dont have to waste time voting. We will all live in a state of peace and tranquility made possible by an unlimited supply of someone elses money, while the news and social media broadcast the wonders of our existence 24/7 without the constant bickering that is broadcast and printed today. Glenn Pollick Conservatives won Hillary Clinton did receive more popular votes than Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. But there is more to this story. The Federal Election Commissions website says 32 people ran for the presidency in the last election. The top four conservative candidates (Trump, Gary Johnson, Evan McMullin and Darrell Castle) received more popular votes than the remaining 28 candidates (including Clinton). In other words, the conservatives actually defeated the liberals with a majority of the nations popular vote, as well as winning the Electoral College for Trump by a significant number. Darrell Williams Sr. GrayStreet Partners has again boosted its presence in the up-and-coming area of west downtown, buying a 1.2-acre property at the same intersection as Bexar Countys Paul Elizondo Tower and a cluster of buildings it purchased last week. The downtown developer bought the property, on the south side of Nueva Street stretching from Flores Street to Main Avenue, on Sept. 20 from members of the Stumberg family, its longtime owners, according to county property records published this week. The purchase price was undisclosed, but the Bexar Appraisal District assessed it at nearly $3.9 million this year. The site includes a parking lot and several buildings, some of which are about a century old, according to the appraisal district. Its current tenants include Cadillac Bar and some law offices. Also last week, GrayStreet bought 1.7 acres of property at the northwest corner of Nueva and Flores, across the street from City Hall. Austin development firm Teeple Partners recently canceled plans to build an $83 million apartment and retail tower there, even after being awarded an $8 million incentive package from the city. READ ALSO: Methodist Healthcare buys long-vacant Forest Park Medical Center at I-10 and 1604 GrayStreet is exploring options for two properties, spokeswoman Tomoko Iimura Alavi said Thursday. We do not have imminent plans to buy additional properties in the area for the time being, she said in an email. With the two purchases, GrayStreet now owns two corners of the intersection of Nueva and Flores. The other two corners are occupied by the Paul Elizondo Tower and a county parking garage. Over the last several years, GrayStreet has emerged as one of the most active developers in the downtown area, taking on construction projects of a scope matched only by a few other heavyweights such as Weston Urban and Silver Ventures. The firms purchases in west downtown, a district known as Zona Cultural, are a boon for the city and county, which have been putting great effort into rehabilitating the downtrodden area where their central offices are located. GrayStreets new properties are a block east of San Pedro Creek, which the city and county are rehabilitating into a landscaped trail similar to the River Walk. Their hope is that the $175 million project will attract pedestrians and new development to the area. READ ALSO: H-E-B-anchored shopping center near Alamo Heights is sold Last week, the city, the county and the University of Texas at San Antonio announced a public-private partnership in which the university will expand its campus onto more than 5 acres of land owned by the city and county in the area. Also nearby, Weston Urban is constructing a new 23-story headquarters for Frost Bank, and a new federal courthouse is set to be built. Two apartment complexes are in the works a block south of the sites GrayStreet purchased. Weston Urban has spent the last few years accumulating properties in the area, including a two-story building across from City Hall earlier this month. GrayStreet burst onto the downtown development scene in 2015 when it bought nine properties on Houston Street, including several historic buildings that it has since rehabilitated into creative office space. The firm has attracted companies such as CaptureRX and WeWork to put offices in the buildings, and it recently began work to turn the Kress building into a food hall. The firm is also rehabilitating the historic San Antonio Light building on Broadway into creative office space, and it has plans to build a 20-story hotel and office tower on Broadway next to The Pearl. In another project, GrayStreet would redevelop 23 acres of land it owns in Government Hill into a mixed-use development. rwebner@express-news.net Qatar Airways is seeking new cabin crew members from Serbia in its fifth employment drive in the country this year. The Doha-based airline will host a recruitment event in Belgrade on October 13 at the Metropol Palace Hotel (Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 69) between 09.00 and 17.00 local time. Those interested must register beforehand. Requirements include a minimum age of 21 years, arm reach of 212 cm on tip toes, high school education with fluency in written and spoken English, as well as excellent health and fitness. Benefits include a tax-free salary, international health insurance, complimentary shared accommodation in Doha, thirty days of annual leave and one free return ticket per year to the crew member's country of origin. Further details, as well as the application form, can be found here This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse you are agreeing to our use of cookies. More information here. Bridal sedan chair is a special sedan chair used in traditional Chinese wedding, and it is also one of the indispensable festive elements in traditional Chinese wedding. So what are the types of Chinese wedding sedan chair? Let's take a look. I. type of Chinese wedding sedan chair Type of sedan chair (I) ancient bridal sedan chair The variety and style of the ancient sedan chair varies slightly from place to place due to customs, wealth and the status of the owner. Ordinary people usually marry in a sedan chair carried by two people. The hangings of the sedan chair are all in large red colored silk, and embroidered with auspicious patterns such as rich flowers, danfeng sunrise and baizitu, which are decorated with gold and silver to create a lively and festive atmosphere. The rich and wealthy families used to carry four large bridal sedan chair, the sedan chair and two people to carry the difference. By the end of the qing dynasty, in Shanghai and other big cities at that time, many women were no longer willing to take bridal sedans, but changed to carriages such as horse-drawn carriage. In the early days of the republic of China, the rickshaws (commonly known as rickshaws) imported from Japan were relatively light and fast, so they were widely used among the people. Sedan chairs were gradually replaced. (2) hard clothes Read more at:bridesmaid dresses uk There are two types of sedan chair: hard and soft. The whole body of the sedan chair is made of wood, which is similar to the top of a pagoda with four corners and eaves. It is more popular in the south of China. 3. Soft clothes It is popular in the north of China. It is enclosed in the frame of the sedan with a red silk curtain, which is called the sedan curtain. Read more at:blue bridesmaid dresses uk Assistant Professor, French Studies with a focus on post-1950 and contemporary France (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) The Department of French and Italian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invites applications for a full-time tenure-track faculty position at the rank of assistant professor in French Studies, with a focus on post-1950 and contemporary France. The University of Illinois is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. For more information, visit http://go.illinois.edu/EEO. To learn more about the Universitys commitment to diversity, please visit http://www.inclusiveillinois.illinois.edu We welcome applicants with an interest in interdisciplinary research. The successful candidate will show evidence of an active research agenda, and demonstrate a commitment to excellence in teaching. The successful candidate is expected to teach French literature and culture courses effectively at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, to establish and maintain an active and independent research program, and provide service to the department, the university and the profession. Native or near-native French and English required; ability to teach in French required. Teaching load is 2/2. Ph.D. in French or related field required at the time of appointment. The anticipated starting date is August 16, 2019; the starting salary is competitive. Candidates with superior qualifications who will complete all the Ph.D. requirements within the first appointment year may be appointed at the rank of Instructor. After the Ph.D. requirement is met, the appointment will be changed to Assistant Professor. To apply, create your candidate profile through https://jobs.illinois.edu and upload your application materials: letter of application, CV, and a writing sample of 20-30 pages. The online application will require the contact information or Interfolio ID for three professional references. Referees will be contacted electronically by the department within 2 business days after submission of the application. Only applications submitted through the University of Illinois Job Board will be considered. To ensure full consideration, all required application materials must be received no later than November 5, 2018. Applicants may be interviewed before the closing date; however, no hiring decision will be made before November 5th. For more information contact slcl-hr@illinois.edu. The University of Illinois conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer. TRUMBULL - Trumbull High School- closed after several inches of rain created water damage - will reopen on Monday. The National Weather Service says the town received more than 7 inches of rain from Tuesdays deluge. Trumbull High School has been closed since Wednesday. Trumbull School Superintendent Gary Cialfi said the building has not been structurally compromised in any way whatsoever. The Trumbull Health Department Inspector and Health Director joined a team of administrators and facility personnel in a walk through visit Thursday and the outcome was favorable, Trumbull schools posted on its Facebook page. It said the Health Department said the affected areas of the building do not present a health hazard while the remediation process continues as school opens on Monday. JP McGuire, a professional property damage cleanup and reconstruction company is working on remediating the affected areas of the school. The work incudes: Drying processes include the use of fans, air conditioning and dehumidifers. Pourous materials contamionated by flood waters, such as drywall and carpeting, are being removed and replaced. Hard surfaces (flooring, wood and metal furniture, appliances and plumbing fixtures) are being cleaned and sanitized per Centers for Diseas Control protocol. Kitchen area was cleaned and sanitized. Food, paper and equipment were not affected by the flood as they were storece approximately 12 inches off the floor. Food contact surfaces were not affected, but will be sanitized prior to opening. Rhonda Capuano, director of health, said we were very impressed by the preventative cleanup efforts taking place at the school. Since the affected parts of the school do not impact the instructional areas of the school, I see no problem in opening the school while the remediation continues. First Selectman Vicki Tesoro said there was no collapse of any roof at Trumbull High School and clean-up at the high school continues. She said the state and the tow are exploring federal options and compiling additional information on storm damage to identify possible resources for assistance. If your home or business was damaged by the storm please email digital photographs, address and contact information to the Trumbull Emergency Management Office at: toem@trumbull-ct.gov. FAIRFIELD Like the famous Field of Dreams line says: If you build it, (they) will come. Thats what those who braved the rain Tuesday night learned at the second transit-oriented development meeting, hosted by the Town Plan and Zoning Commission. Ben Carlson, of GoodyClancy, the consultants hired to help TPZ and the Economic Development Commission develop the studies, said a market analysis shows if there were available rental units, about 900 people a year would consider moving to town near either the downtown or Fairfield Metro station. Of course, Carlson said, there arent that many units available, and its not likely there is enough space to develop that many units. This is simply how many people would like to live here, regardless of what the supply is, he said. The TOD study is looking at areas around the downtown and Fairfield Metro stations, with an eye toward walkability and how residents would like to see them developed. The goal is to recommend potential updates to town regulations. Carlson said the two biggest generations right now are baby boomers and millennials. As a generation with a lot of student debt, he said millennials are not looking to buy property, particularly in towns like Fairfield, where it is difficult to amass the money needed for a down payment. Millennials overall are showing a trend toward renting, rather than owning, Carlson said. Their households are usually just one or two people. Rents in Fairfield range from a low of $781 for 500 square feet to $5,695 for over 2,300 square feet. Its a very wide spectrum, Carlson said. And almost 50 percent of new residents are coming from within Fairfield County. Fairfield is a strong draw, he said. Only about 10 percent of the towns housing is multifamily, according to Planning Director James Wendt. These numbers are just looking at the people who might want to move here, Carlson said. That demand profile is very strong. If the town wanted to take advantage of those potential households, he said, it would mean paying attention to transit-oriented development. The office market in Fairfield outperforms other municipalities in the county, with a low vacancy rate. Some attendees were concerned about the cost to town services if more people were to move to town. Carlson said the bulk of people looking for rental apartments do not have children. He said they assume developments would be similar to the Trademark, which is a mixed-use building. In some areas, he said, commercial development would be more appropriate. At the October meeting, Carlson said, they will discuss the fiscal impact of transit-oriented development on the town. greilly@ctpost.com; 203-842-2585 The dean of Yale Law School is calling for additional investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate votes on his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Dean Heather Gerken said in statement Friday that she agrees with the American Bar Association that more investigation is needed. Gerken said proceeding with the confirmation process without more review is not in the best interest of the Supreme Court or the legal profession. (Editors note: The follow is meant to give some indication of the varied and challenging nature of crime that abounds here.) Criminal Assault Police arrested and charged Dudley Dariel Rodney, 29-year-old farmer of Greiggs for Criminal Assault, on the 22nd September, 2018. According to investigations, on 31.08.18 about 04:40 a.m. at Greiggs, Rodney chased a 33-year-old farmer of Greiggs with a gun and a cutlass with intent to commit an offence. Rodney is expected to appear before the Magistrates Court to answer the charge. Robbery Police are investigating a report of robbery which occurred in the vicinity of the old Stubbs Police Station on the morning of the 24th September, 2018, about 11:50 pm. Preliminary investigations revealed that an off-duty Police Officer, while on his way home, was accosted by an unmasked gunman, who later relieved him of $40.00EC. The complainant indicated that the man searched his person and his belongings and after finding nothing of value allowed him to leave. Attempted murder Police are investigating the report of Attempted Murder made by a 31-year-old labourer of Lodge Village on 24.09.18, against two (2) armed unknown men. According to reports, on 24.09.18 at 09:45 p.m. at Lodge Village, the assailants with intent to commit the offence of Murder on him, did an act, which was merely preparatory to the commission of the offence by shooting at him with a gun. The police are soliciting the assistance of the public, in the retrieval of any information that will assist in this case or any other case, by contacting the ACP in charge Crimes at 17844561339 or the officer in charge CID at 17844561810. Indecent assault Police arrested and charged Wazim Simon, 25- year-old labourer of Brighton for Indecently Assaulting a 15-year-old male student, on 25.09.18. According to investigations, on 24.10.17 about 08:15 p.m. at Brighton, Simon indecently assaulted the student by inappropriately touching him about his body with his hands. Simon is expected to appear before the Family Court Magistrate to answer the charge. Arson Police are investigating the report of Arson made by a 22-year-old labourer of Chateaubelair on 25.09.18, against some unknown person(s). According to reports, on 25.09.18 between 7:30 a.m. and 10:55 a.m., the unknown assailants without lawful excuse destroyed by fire, one (1) galvanize house and its contents. Firearm possession Police arrested and charged Gilvert James, 38- year-old Self-employed, Molissa Soleyn, 17 years old Student, and Jahvil Browne, 18-year-old Fisherman all of Lowmans Hill, for Illegal Firearm Possession, on 23.09.18. On 23.09.18 at 12:15 a.m. at Lowmans Hill, the accused persons were met in possession of one (1) .32 Revolver and a .38 Revolver without licences issued under the firearm act. They were also charged for having in their possession two (2) rounds of .32 ammunition and one (1) round of .22 ammunition without licences issued under the firearm act. The accused appeared before the Serious Offences Court to plea to the charges. 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PROPERTIES LIMITED, GAINEY DRIVE ASSOCIATES, GALAXY AEROSPACE COMPANY LLC, GHE HOLDINGS LIMITED, GRAND HYATT BERLIN GMBH, GRAND HYATT DFW BEVERAGE LLC, GRAND HYATT SAN ANTONIO L.L.C., GRAND HYATT SF L.L.C., GRAND RIVERWALK BEVERAGE LLC, GRAND TORONTO CORP., GRAND TORONTO VENTURE L.P., GREENWICH HOTEL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, H.E. ATLANTA CENTENNIAL PARK HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. AUSTIN L.L.C., H.E. BERMUDA L.L.C., H.E. CAP CANA L.L.C., H.E. DRISKILL LLC, H.E. GRAND CYPRESS L.L.C., H.E. IRVINE L.L.C., H.E. KANSAS CITY L.L.C., H.E. LENOX L.L.C., H.E. NASHVILLE L.L.C., H.E. NEWPORT L.L.C., H.E. ORLANDO L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC HOTEL L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC PARKING L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA HC RETAIL L.L.C., H.E. PHILADELPHIA SANSOM L.L.C., H.E. PORTLAND HC L.L.C., H.E. PORTLAND L.L.C., H.E. PROPERTIES HOLDING L.L.C., H.E. PROPERTIES L.L.C., H.E. SAN ANTONIO I L.L.C., H.E. SAN ANTONIO L.L.C., H.E. TUCSON HOLDINGS L.L.C., H.E. 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TUCSON OWNER L.L.C., HAPP INVESTOR LTD., HARBORSIDE HOTEL LLC, HARBORSIDE LAND LLC, HC PORTLAND JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HC ROYAL PALMS L.L.C., HCV CINCINNATI HOTEL L.L.C., HE ORLANDO HOTEL LLC, HGP (TRAVEL) LIMITED, HH NASHVILLE HOLDINGS L.L.C., HH NASHVILLE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HH PORTLAND L.L.C., HHMA BURLINGTON BEVERAGE L.L.C., HI HOLDINGS (SWITZERLAND) GMBH, HI HOLDINGS BAJA B.V., HI HOLDINGS BRAZIL S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS CELAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS CIUDAD DEL CARMEN B.V., HI HOLDINGS CYPRUS LIMITED, HI HOLDINGS CYPRUS-INDIA LIMITED, HI HOLDINGS GUADALAJARA B.V., HI HOLDINGS HP CABO B.V., HI HOLDINGS HP TIJUANA HOTEL B.V., HI HOLDINGS KYOTO CO., HI HOLDINGS LA PAZ B.V., HI HOLDINGS LATIN AMERICA B.V., HI HOLDINGS NETHERLANDS B.V., HI HOLDINGS PLAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS RIO S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS RIVIERA MAYA B.V., HI HOLDINGS VIENNA S.A.R.L., HI HOLDINGS ZURICH S.A.R.L., HI HOTEL ADVISORY SERVICES GMBH, HI HOTEL INVESTORS CYPRUS LIMITED, HIHCL AMSTERDAM B.V., HIHCL HP AMSTERDAM AIRPORT B.V., HIHCL HR AMSTERDAM B.V., HILP HOTEL SERVICE PROVIDER LLC, HOTEL AM BELVEDERE HOLDING GMBH, HOTEL AM BELVEDERE HOLDING GMBH & CO KG, HOTEL INVESTMENTS HOLDING CO LLC, HOTEL INVESTMENTS L.L.C., HOTEL INVESTORS I INC., HOTEL INVESTORS II INC., HOTEL PROJECT SYSTEMS PTE LTD, HOTEL SERVICES CIUDAD DEL CARMEN S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HOTELS CS CELAYA S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HP ATLANTA CENTENNIAL PARK JV LLC, HP AUSTIN L.L.C., HP BEVERAGE DALLAS DFW AIRPORT LLC, HP BEVERAGE SUGAR LAND LLC, HP BOSTON HOLDINGS L.L.C., HP GLENDALE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HP GLENDALE L.L.C., HP INDIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, HP LAS VEGAS BEVERAGE L.L.C., HP M STREET L.L.C., HP ROUTE 46 TEXAS LLC, HP SAN FRANCISCO L.L.C., HP SAN JUAN L.L.C., HP TEN TEXAS LLC, HPHH ATLANTA L.L.C., HPHH DENVER L.L.C., HPHH SAN JOSE JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HPHH SAN JOSE L.L.C., HQ CHESAPEAKE LLC, HR LOST PINES RESORT LLC, HR MC HOTEL COMPANY S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HR MC SERVICES II S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HR MC SERVICES S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HRHC LLC, HT- WAILEA LLC, HT-AVENDRA GROUP HOLDINGS L.L.C., HT-AVENDRA L.L.C., HT-CHESAPEAKE COMMUNITIES INC., HT-CHESAPEAKE RESORT INC., HT-HOTEL EQUITIES INC., HT-HUNTINGTON BEACH INC., HT-JERSEY PIER INC., HT-JERSEY PIER L.P., HT-JERSEY PIER LLC, HT-LONG BEACH L.L.C., HT-MIAMI BEACH L.L.C., HT-PARK 57 INC., HT-SEATTLE LLC, HT-SIERRA L.L.C., HT-VANCOUVER INC., HTLB L.L.C., HTS - NS L.L.C., HTS - NY L.L.C., HTS-ASPEN L.L.C., HTS-BC INC., HTS-INVESTMENT L L.C., HTSF L.L.C., HTW BEVERAGE LLC, HY LONG BEACH HOTEL LLC, HYATT (BARBADOS) CORPORATION, HYATT (JAPAN) CO. LTD., HYATT (THAILAND) LIMITED, HYATT ARUBA N.V., HYATT ASIA PACIFIC HOLDINGS LIMITED, HYATT AUSTRALIA HOTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LIMITED, HYATT AUSTRIA GMBH, HYATT BEACH FRONT N.V., HYATT BORNEO MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED, HYATT BRITANNIA CORPORATION LTD., HYATT CC OFFICE CORP., HYATT CHAIN SERVICES LIMITED, HYATT CRYSTAL CITY LLC., HYATT CURACAO N.V., HYATT DISASTER RELIEF FUND, HYATT DO BRASIL PARTICIPACOES LTDA, HYATT EQUITIES L.L.C., HYATT FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT SERVICES INC., HYATT FRANCHISING CANADA CORP., HYATT FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT FRANCHISING LATIN AMERICA L.L.C., HYATT FULFILLMENT OF MARYLAND INC., HYATT GLOBAL SERVICES INC., HYATT GTLD L.L.C., HYATT HOC INC., HYATT HOLDINGS (UK) LIMITED, HYATT HOSPITALITY SERVICES L.L.C., HYATT HOTEL MANAGEMENT LIMITED, HYATT HOTELS CONSULTANCY SERVICES ASIA PACIFIC LIMITED, HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION OF KANSAS, HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION OF MARYLAND, HYATT HOTELS FOUNDATION, HYATT HOTELS MANAGEMENT CORPORATION, HYATT HOTELS OF CANADA INC., HYATT HOTELS OF FLORIDA INC., HYATT HOTELS OF PUERTO RICO INC., HYATT HOUSE CANADA INC., HYATT HOUSE FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT HOUSE HOTEL HOLDING COMPANY L.L.C., HYATT INDIA CONSULTANCY PRIVATE LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL (ASIA) LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL (EUROPE AFRICA MIDDLE EAST) LLC, HYATT INTERNATIONAL - JAPAN LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL - SOUTHWEST ASIA LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL -ASIA PACIFIC LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL -SEA (PTE) LIMITED, HYATT INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, HYATT INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS CO., HYATT INTERNATIONAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT (BEIJING) CO. LTD., HYATT INTERNATIONAL MILAN L.L.C., HYATT INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (BEIJING) CO. LTD., HYATT INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL SERVICES INC., HYATT JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., HYATT LACSA SERVICES INC., HYATT LOUISIANA L.L.C., HYATT MAINZ GMBH, HYATT MARKETING SERVICES INC., HYATT MARKETING SERVICES NIGERIA COMPANY LIMITED, HYATT MINNEAPOLIS LLC, HYATT MINORITY INVESTMENTS INC., HYATT MSS L.L.C., HYATT NORTH AMERICA MANAGEMENT SERVICES INC., HYATT OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, HYATT OF BAJA S. DE R.L. DE C.V., HYATT OF CHINA LIMITED, HYATT OF FRANCE S.A.R.L., HYATT OF GUAM LIMITED, HYATT OF ITALY S.R.L., HYATT OF LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN L.L.C., HYATT OF LATIN AMERICA S.A. DE C.V., HYATT OF MACAU LIMITED, HYATT OF MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., HYATT OF PHILIPPINES LIMITED, HYATT PARTNERSHIP INTERESTS L.L.C., HYATT PLACE ANNE ARUNDEL BEVERAGE INC., HYATT PLACE CANADA CORPORATION, HYATT PLACE FRANCHISING L.L.C., HYATT PLACE OF MARYLAND INC., HYATT REGENCY COLOGNE GMBH, HYATT REGENCY CORPORATION PTY. LIMITED, HYATT SERVICES AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED, HYATT SERVICES CANADA INC., HYATT SERVICES CARIBBEAN L.L.C., HYATT SERVICES GMBH, HYATT SERVICES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, HYATT SHARED SERVICE CENTER L.L.C., HYATT TRINIDAD LIMITED, HYCANADA INC., HYCARD INC., HYSTAR L.L.C., Hyatt Corporation, INFORMATION SERVICES LIMITED, INTERNATIONAL RESERVATIONS LIMITED, JOINT VENTURE ITALKYR CLOSED JOINT STOCK COMPANY, JUNIPER HOTELS PRIVATE LIMITED, KSA MANAGEMENT INC., KYOTO HOLDING CO., LHR-PARTNERS LTD., LORING PARK ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, LOST PINES BEVERAGE LLC, MACAE PARTNERS S.A.R.L., MAHIMA HOLDINGS PRIVATE LIMITED, MARION RESERVATION CENTER L.L.C., MEXICO CITY HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V., MILAN HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V., MIRAVAL ARIZONA GUARANTOR LLC, MIRAVAL GROUP LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA HOLDINGS LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA LLC, MIRAVAL RESORT ARIZONA OPERATING CO. INC., MIRAVAL RESORT TUCSON LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS I LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS II LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS III LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS LLC, MONROE MR HOLDINGS TRUST, MRG ATX BEVERAGE HOLDINGS LLC, MRG ATX HOLDINGS II LLC, MRG ATX HOLDINGS LLC, MRG ATX INVESTMENT LLC, MRG ATX MANAGEMENT I LLC, MRG ATX MANAGEMENT II LLC, MRG ATX OPERATIONS LLC, MRG CRW HOLDINGS LLC, MRG CRW MANAGEMENT I LLC, MRG CRW MANAGEMENT II LLC, MRG CRW OPERATIONS LLC, MUNICH OPCO GMBH, Miraval Resort, OASIS LUXURY RENTALS INCORPORATED, PARIS HOTEL COMPANY B.V., PARK HYATT HAMBURG GMBH, PARK HYATT HOTEL GMBH, PARK HYATT WATER TOWER ASSOCIATES L.L.C., PH NEW YORK L.L.C., PHMC RESIDENCIAS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., POLK SMITH REGENCY LLC, PT HYATT INDONESIA, PVD INVESTMENT COMPANY S.A.R.L., Peabody Hotels & Resort, RCG PROPERTIES LLC, REGENCY BEVERAGE COMPANY LLC, REGENCY RIVERWALK BEVERAGE LLC, RESERVATIONS CENTER L.L.C., RIO JV PARTNERS PARTICIPACOES LTDA., RIO PRETO PARTNERS HOTEIS LTDA., RIO PRETO PARTNERS S.A.R.L., ROSEMONT PROJECT MANAGEMENT L.L.C., ROUTE 46 MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES CORP., RUNWAY HOLDING L.L.C., RUNWAY L.L.C., SAO PAULO INVESTMENT COMPANY INC., SAO PAULO INVESTORS LIMITED, SASIH, SDI EQUITIES INVESTOR L.L.C., SDI INC., SDI SECURITIES 11 LLC, SDI SECURITIES 6 LLC, SELECT HOTELS GROUP L.L.C., SELECT JV HOLDINGS L.L.C., SEOUL MIRAMAR CORPORATION, SERVICIOS DE HOTELERIA SAN JOSE S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SERVICIOS HOTELEROS LA PAZ S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SETTLEMENT INVESTORS INC., SHG PUERTO RICO INC., SIERRA HEALTHSTYLES LLC, SJC DESARROLLOS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., SKS CORP. N.V., SMC HOTELS B.V., SOROCABA PARTNERS HOTEIS LTDA, SOROCABA PARTNERS S.A.R.L., STANHOPE L.L.C., STARHILL LORING PARK L.L.C., SUGAR LAND/HP LLC, THE GREAT EASTERN HOTEL COMPANY LIMITED, THE GREAT EASTERN HOTEL HOLDING COMPANY LIMITED, TIJUANA PARTNERS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., TR MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT LLC, TUCSON VILLAS HOLDINGS LLC, TUCSON VILLAS LLC, TWO SEAS HOLDINGS LIMITED, Two Roads Hospitality, WAILEA HOTEL & BEACH RESORT L.L.C., WAILEA HOTEL HOLDINGS L.L.C., WAILEA MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION L.L.C., WAILEA RESORT VILLAS HOLDINGS L.L.C., WAILEA RESORT VILLAS L.L.C., WEST END RESIDENCES L.L.C., XENIA ASSURANCE COMPANY INC., XENIA ASSURANCE COMPANY OF ILLINOIS, ZURICH ESCHERWIESE HOTEL GMBH, and ZURICH HOTEL INVESTMENTS B.V.. KAZ Minerals PLC, together with its subsidiaries, engages in mining and processing copper and other metals primarily in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. It operates through Bozshakol, Aktogay, East Region and Bozymchak, and Mining Projects segments. The company operates the Aktogay and Bozshakol open pit copper mines in the east region and Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan; three underground mines in the east region of Kazakhstan; and the Bozymchak copper-gold mine in Kyrgyzstan. It also develops greenfield metal deposits; operates Koksay deposit in Kazakhstan, and the Baimskaya licence area in the Chukotka region of Russia; and produces and sells various by-products, such as gold, silver, molybdenum, and zinc. In addition, the company supplies and distributes heat, water, and electricity; and offers construction, project management, financing, management, sales and logistics, and repairs and maintenance services. The company was formerly known as Kazakhmys PLC and changed its name to KAZ Minerals PLC in October 2014. KAZ Minerals PLC was founded in 1930 and is based in London, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Cardinal Health: A+ Secure Packaging LLC, Access Closure, Access Closure Inc., Aero-Med Ltd., Alaris Medical Systems, Allegiance Corporation, Allegiance Healthcare, AssuraMed, AssuraMed Inc., Automatic Liquid Packaging, Bergen Brunswig Corp, Bindley Western Industries, Boron LePore & Associates, Borschow Hospital & Medical Supplies, Cardinal Health 100 Inc., Cardinal Health 104 LP, Cardinal Health 105 Inc., Cardinal Health 107 LLC, Cardinal Health 108 LLC, Cardinal Health 110 LLC, Cardinal Health 112 LLC, Cardinal Health 113 LLC, Cardinal Health 114 Inc., Cardinal Health 115 LLC, Cardinal Health 116 LLC, Cardinal Health 118 LLC, Cardinal Health 119 LLC, Cardinal Health 121 LLC, Cardinal Health 122 LLC, Cardinal Health 123 LLC, Cardinal Health 124 LLC, Cardinal Health 126 LLC, Cardinal Health 127 Inc., Cardinal Health 2 LLC, Cardinal Health 200 LLC, Cardinal Health 201 Inc., Cardinal Health 222 (Thailand) Ltd., Cardinal Health 247 Inc., Cardinal Health 249 LLC, Cardinal Health 3 LLC, Cardinal Health 414 LLC, Cardinal Health 5 LLC, Cardinal Health 6 Inc., Cardinal Health 7 LLC, Cardinal Health Australia 503 Pty. Ltd., Cardinal Health Austria 504 GmbH, Cardinal Health Belgium 505 BVBA, Cardinal Health Canada Holdings Cooperative U.A., Cardinal Health Canada Inc., Cardinal Health Chile Limitada, Cardinal Health Colombia S.A.S., Cardinal Health D.R. 203 II Ltd., Cardinal Health Denmark ApS, Cardinal Health Finland Oy, Cardinal Health Foundation, Cardinal Health France 506 SAS, Cardinal Health Funding LLC, Cardinal Health Germany 507 GmbH, Cardinal Health Germany Manufacturing GmbH, Cardinal Health IPS LLC, Cardinal Health International Philippines Inc., Cardinal Health Ireland 419 Designated Activity Company, Cardinal Health Ireland 508 Limited, Cardinal Health Ireland Unlimited Company, Cardinal Health Italy 509 Srl, Cardinal Health Japan G.K., Cardinal Health Korea Limited, Cardinal Health Malaysia 211 Sdn. Bhd., Cardinal Health Malta 212 Limited, Cardinal Health Managed Care Services LLC, Cardinal Health Medical Equipment Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cardinal Health Medical Products India Private Limited, Cardinal Health Mexico 244 S. de R.L. de C.V., Cardinal Health Mexico 514 S. de R.L. de C.V., Cardinal Health Middle East FZ-LLC, Cardinal Health Netherlands 502 B.V., Cardinal Health Norway AS, Cardinal Health P.R. 120 Inc., Cardinal Health P.R. 218 Inc., Cardinal Health P.R. 220 LLC, Cardinal Health Pharmaceutical Contracting LLC, Cardinal Health Pharmacy Services LLC, Cardinal Health Poland Spolka z ograniczonaa odpowiedzialnossciaa, Cardinal Health Portugal 513 Unipessoal Lda., Cardinal Health Singapore 225 Pte. Ltd., Cardinal Health Spain 511 S.L., Cardinal Health Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Cardinal Health Sweden 512 A.B., Cardinal Health Switzerland 515 GmbH, Cardinal Health Systems Inc., Cardinal Health Technologies LLC, Cardinal Health Technologies Switzerland GmbH, Cardinal Health U.K. 432 Limited, Cardinal Health do Brasil Ltd., CareFusion, Cirpro de Delicias S.A. de C.V., Convertors de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Cordis, Cordis (Shanghai) Medical Devices Co. Ltd., Cordis Cashel Company Unlimited, Cordis Corporation, Cornerstone Partners G.P.O. L.P., Covidien Manufacturing Solutions S.A., Curaspan Health Group Inc., Denver Biomedical, Dik Drug, EPIC Insurance Company, Emerge Medical, Enturia, Especialidades Medicas Kenmex S.A. de C.V., Futuremed Health Care Products, Gala Biotech, Geodax Technology, Griffin Capital LLC, HLS Freight Services, Healthcare Solutions Holding, Innovative Therapies Inc., Instant Diagnostic Systems Inc., KPR Australia Pty. Ltd., KPR Italia S.r.l., KPR Switzerland Sales Gmbh, KPR U.S. LLC, Kendall Patient Recovery BVBA, Kendall-Gammatron Limited, Kinray, Leader Drugstores Inc., Limited Liability Company "Cardinal Health Russia", Ludlow Technical Products Canada Ltd., MCD, Magellan Laboratories, Marin Apothecaries, MedMined, Medicine Shoppe International Inc., Mediquip Sdn. Bhd., Medtronic - Patient Monitoring & Recovery, Mirixa Corporation, NaviHealth, Nippon Covidien Ltd., One Cloverleaf LLC, Outcomes Incorporated, Owen Healthcare, PCI Pharma Services, ParMed Pharmaceuticals, Pinnacle Intellectual Property Services Inc., Pinnacle Intellectual Property Services-International Inc., Post-Acute Care Center for Research LLC, Pyxis Corporation, Quiroproductos de Cuauhtemoc S. de R.L. de C.V., R Cubed Inc., R.P. Scherer Corporation, RGH Enterprises Inc., RainTree GPO LLC, RainTree Oncology Services, Renal Purchasing Group LLC, Rxealtime Inc., Sonexus Health LLC, Syncor International, TelePharm, TelePharm LLC, The Harvard Drug Group, The Harvard Drug Group L.L.C., Tradex International Inc., Viasys Healthcare, WaveMark Inc., Zuellig Pharma China, mscripts, mscripts LLC, and mscripts Systems India Private Limited. iShares MSCI Austria ETF's stock was trading at $15.26 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWO shares have increased by 71.6% and is now trading at $26.18. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Mkango Resources Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, explores for and develops rare earth elements and associated minerals in the Republic of Malawi, Africa. It explores for uranium, niobium, tantalum, zircon, nickel, cobalt, rutile, and gold ores. The company's principal project is the Songwe Hill property within the Phalombe exploration license, which covers an area of 849.1 square kilometers located in southeast Malawi. It also holds 100% interests in the Thambani, Chimimbe Hill, and Mchinji licenses. Mkango Resources Ltd. is based in Vancouver, Canada. Read More iShares MSCI Thailand ETF's stock was trading at $63.83 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, THD stock has increased by 23.2% and is now trading at $78.64. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. CCRIF-UWI undergraduate scholarship recipients with (2nd row left) Mrs. Beverly Hunter, Snr. Administrative Officer at UWI; Mrs. Desiree Cherebin CCRIF Board Member and Chairperson of the Technical Assistance Committee; Mr. Timothy Antoine (back row, right), CCRIF Chairman; and Mr. Isaac Anthony, CCRIF CEO (2nd row, far right) (Credit: CCRIF) CCRIF SPC, on September 21, 2018, from Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, announced its UWI-Scholarship and CCRIF Scholarship (extra-regional) winners for 2018. This year, CCRIF provided scholarships valued at US$129,000 to 14 Caribbean nationals, fulfilling its commitment to provide scholarships and internships each year to Caribbean nationals as part of its Technical Assistance (TA) Programme. CCRIF, which is akin to a not-for-profit organization, uses profits made to benefit its members through reductions in premium costs and by funding the Technical Assistance Programme. The resources made available for the TA Programme are derived from a portion of CCRIFs earned investment income. The CCRIF Technical Assistance Programme consists of three components the scholarship, internship and professional development programme; regional knowledge building; and support to non-governmental and community-based organizations for local disaster risk reduction initiatives. Since its launch in 2010, CCRIF has provided resources of over US$2.2 million to support this programme. Five of this years CCRIF-UWI undergraduate recipients are pursuing degrees in Geography or Geology at the Mona Campus; one is at the St. Augustine campus reading for a degree in Ecology with Environmental Science; and two others are at the Cave Hill Campus reading for degrees in Meteorology & Computer Science and Environmental & Natural Resource Management. At the postgraduate level, three students are reading for degrees in Natural Resource & Environmental Management. Under its own scholarship programme, CCRIF awarded scholarships to: Trisha Miller from Grenada, to complete an MS in Applied Meteorology at Mississippi State University; Faustina Wiggins from Guyana, to pursue an MS in Environment & Development at the University of Reading; and Christal Benjamin from Trinidad and Tobago, to pursue an MA in Disasters Adaptation & Development at Kings College in London. The CCRIF Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer met with some of this years scholarship recipients when CCRIF held its quarterly board meeting in Kingston, Jamaica. On meeting the students, CCRIF Chairman Timothy Antoine remarked that "I too am a proud Pelican and I am delighted to meet with you today. You are the future of our region and I am pleased that CCRIF had the foresight to invest in you as we seek to advance solutions for the sustainability of our region. (Source: CCRIF) REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio The Ohio Department of Agriculture recognized five families as winners of the 2018 Conservation Farm Family Awards. The five families honored Sept. 20 at the Farm Science Review in London were: the Brause Family of Crawford County; Paul and Joanne Mechling of Ashtabula County; Chuck and Diane Hicks of Washington County; the Lohstroh family of Madison and Pickaway counties; and T. Wayne Vickers of Pickaway County. This was the 35th year of the awards program, which also celebrated the 75th anniversary of the formation of the first county soil and water conservation districts. These families have gone the extra mile in conserving soil, water, woodland and wildlife on the land they farm and we thank them for their dedication, said Ohio Department of Agriculture Director David Daniels. fsr18-conservation-lohstroh-2 George and Michelle Lohstroh, their son Jon (holding daughter Julie) and daughter-in-law Annie, were honored with the Conservation Farm Family award during the 2018 Farm Science Review. (Susan Crowell photos) < > < > 1 View fsr18-conservation-lohstroh-2 George and Michelle Lohstroh, their son Jon (holding daughter Julie) and daughter-in-law Annie, were honored with the Conservation Farm Family award during the 2018 Farm Science Review. (Susan Crowell photos) 2 View fsr18-conservation hicks Chuck and Diane Hicks (center), of Washington County, were honored with the 2018 Ohio Conservation Farm Family Award during the Farm Science Review. 3 View fsr18-conservation-mechling Paul and Joanne Mechling, of Snowy Oak Tree Farm in Ashtabula County, were honored with one of five Conservation Farm Family awards Sept. 20 at the Farm Science Review. Noah Mechling accepted the honor on behalf of his parents. 4 View fsr18-conservation-vickers Wayne Vickers, who owns farmland and woodland in Pickaway County, received one of Ohio's Conservation Farm Family Awards. Accepting the award during the Farm Science Review on his behalf was Keith Peters, who rents some of Vickers' farmland and works with him on implementing conservation practices. 5 View fsr18-conservation-brause-2 The Brause family, of Sunny Slopes Farm, Crawford County, received one of the Ohio Conservation Farm Family Awards for their ongoing conservation commitment. Brause family Tim, Nathan, and Carrie Brause of Sunny Slopes Farm raise corn and soybeans and own more than 1,550 acres in Crawford County. The farm includes eight acres of quail buffers and 60 acres of tree plantings. In 1988, they restored 40 acres of marginal cropland into hardwood tree plantings and recently they restored an additional 21 acres of marginal cropland to hardwood trees. The Brauses also manage and produce maple syrup from their woodland acres. They use no-till production on 100 percent of the cropland, and also utilize cover crops, precision nutrient management, and follow 4R nutrient management best practices. Nathan Brause has been a supervisor with the Crawford SWCD for the last 13 years. Snowy Oak Tree Farm Paul and Joanne Mechling of Snowy Oak Tree Farm have more than 365 acres in Ashtabula County, and their woodlands are certified tree farms with the American Forest Foundation, inspected every five years to verify they are practicing sustainable forestry. Since 1974, they have planted more than 140,000 trees on reverted agricultural land. The Mechlings have also worked with ODNR to build three wetlands and protect more than 11 acres of wetlands. Paul Mechling has been an Ashtabula County SWCD supervisor since 1998. The Hicks family Chuck and Diane Hicks of Washington County farm 365 acres, with approximately 200 acres in soybeans, 105 acres in corn, 20 acres of hay and pasture. They also finish 60 head of cattle each year. Chuck is an avid promoter of no-till; he built his own no-till soybean planter and has since helped other farmers build their own. He is a supervisor on the Washington SWCD board, is a member of the Washington County Farm Bureau and a United Producers Inc. board member. Lohstroh Family Farms The Lohstroh family (George, Michelle, Jonathan, and Annie) farms approximately 1,000 acres in Madison and Pickaway counties. They raise corn, soybeans, pumpkins, wheat, hay, cover crops, and sorghum-sudan grass for baled silage. The farm also includes a 35-cow beef herd and a fall farm market at their farm near Mount Sterling, offering pick-your-own pumpkins, hay rides, and educational tours for school groups. The Lohstrohs use variable rate technology for precision placement of nutrients, and have implemented numerous conservation practices. Vickers T. Wayne Vickers owns more than 1,300 acres in Pickaway County, including 320 acres of land in the Conservation Reserve Program, 370 acres of woodlands, 250 acres of corn/soybean rotation and 80 acres of lakes and ponds. Vickers has planted more than 170,000 trees on his property and the property is home to the largest bur oak in the state. The farm has hosted tour groups through the local soil and water conservation district and the property has been used by Pheasants Forever to conduct youth programs. About the program Since 1984, the Conservation Farm Family Awards program has recognized 181 Ohio farm families for their efforts conserving soil, water, woodland, wildlife and other natural resources on the land they farm. In addition to receiving $400 each from the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, the families were also featured in the September issue of Ohio Farmer magazine and received plaques from ADS Hancor Inc. Nominations are sought annually between January and May, and Ohio farming families are encouraged to apply. For more information or to apply individuals can contact their local soil and water conservation district. Come and meet Farmer Christmas at Broadditch. Climb on board our Tractor Sleigh and journey to our enchanted wood. Once there you will be met by one of our elves who will lead you to Farmer Christmass cosy cabin. Once inside enjoy the wonder of meeting Farmer Christmas as he reads you one of his festive stories. Before you say goodbye and if you have been good all year, a Christmas present will be yours! Rural Accommodation near this Show A Brexit no deal could leave the UK pig industry facing a "disastrous situation" where exports to the EU are blocked but imports continue to flood in. The latest set of Defra technical papers on a no deal, released this week, includes an explanation of the implications for exports of live animals and animal products. In order to export to the EU, Export Health Certificates would be required from the end of March 2019, with consignments needing to travel through a Border Inspection Post within the EU. The EU would require the UK to be a listed third country, but Defra acknowledged it "cannot be certain" of the EU response to such a request or its timing. It is expected the process could take at least six months. Without listed status no exports to the EU could take place. The total value of agri-food exports to the EU in 2017 was 13bn, of which 3.15 billion was animals and animal products. 'Worst of all worlds' The National Pig Association (NPA) has now warned this scenario could have "catastrophic consequences" for a sector increasingly underpinned by export trade. NPA chief executive, Dr Zoe Davies said: In the first seven months of this year more than 110,000 tonnes of pig products were exported to the EU, equating to nearly 60% of all UK pigmeat exports. A no deal could be the worst of all worlds for the UK pig industry. If exports are blocked but we continue importing pigmeat from the EU in large quantities, as the Government appears willing to do, it would blow a huge hole through the economics of the UK pig sector. Because of carcass balance issues, the UK would be swamped with pigmeat that had little value on the domestic market, dragging down the pig price and making it very difficult for many pig businesses to continue operating. As we have repeatedly stated, EU trade is critical to ensure the UK pig sector can function properly. It is therefore essential that the Government does everything in its power to secure frictionless trade after we leave the EU. Dr Davies added: But in the event of a no deal, we expect a much more forward thinking and cohesive plan from the Government than the flimsy and uncertain arrangements contained in this document. If the situation persists, it could result in the collapse of the supply chain with producers and processors going out of business. 'Difficult' NPA senior policy advisor, Ed Barker said the document also made it clear it would be difficult to export live animals after the UK leaves the EU. It offers no real answers about what would happen to movements of pork products and live pigs across the Irish border. This could cause huge problems on both sides of the border, Mr Barker said. The Governments approach to imports is also a concern. Brexit actually provides an opportunity to limit imports from areas that pose biosecurity risks to the UK pork sector. But from the evidence of these documents, the Government seems happy to do the total opposite. Buccleuch Estate, which manages over 270,000 acres of land across Scotland, has announced it is to sell land on its Borders estate for more than 19m. Around 8,959 acres of predominantly agricultural and forestry land, available as a whole or in 18 separate lots, is up on the market. The land is situated close to the A7 road to the south of Langholm at Canonbie in Dumfries and Galloway. Buccleuch has confirmed that any sale of land encompassing tenanted farms would see current leasing agreements honoured. John Glen, chief executive of Buccleuch, said that due to the structure of the portfolio, the sale process is expected to take some time. As the Buccleuch business continues to evolve, we have to reflect the fact that the productive use of land is a far more complex proposition than it was previously, Mr Glen said. We are committed to achieving the best use of land possible and part of that strategy involves reducing our footprint. These land holdings being brought to market offer a wide variety of opportunities for prospective owners. Due to the structure of the portfolio, we expect the sale process may take some time and we will appraise tenants and staff at the estate as soon as matters develop. We have been in discussion with tenant farmers, who have expressed an interest in buying their farms for some time and these are continuing. Other tenant farmers who have not yet indicated an interest to buy can, of course, do so. He added: Farms occupied on 1991 Act tenancies are not part of this marketing and current lease arrangements on other farms would be honoured by the new owner as we have stipulated as part of the sale process. Estate agents Savills, which is advising Buccleuch, is anticipating a good level interest at a time when there is a lack of supply and opportunities across the UK. Charles Dudgeon of Savills, said: While the properties sit in a beautiful part of the world, amidst a rolling landscape, they are conveniently located close to the main Edinburgh to Carlisle trunk road, providing quick access to the motorway network. The deadline is looming for the Northern Irish agricultural industry to have a say on a Future Agricultural Policy Framework. The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is reminding farmers and those in the wider industry to contribute their views on the 'Future Agricultural Policy Framework document, with the closing date October 10. The Department has been seeking the views of farmers on its Future Agricultural Policy Framework document since August 1. It is an important engagement exercise which will help to shape the debate on future agricultural support arrangements for Northern Ireland as the UK prepares to leave the EU. In a statement, the department said: "DAERA is extremely grateful for the comments it has received already and would encourage those who have not yet responded to take the opportunity to do so. Final decisions on a future agricultural policy will be taken by Ministers only." Written responses can be sent to Brexit Division, Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Room 424, Dundonald House, Upper Newtownards Road, Ballymiscaw, Belfast, BT4 3SB. Alternatively, by email to: NIFutureAgriPolicy@daera-ni.gov.uk Eight young "farming champions" have been chosen to represent British agriculture at the 2018 Lord Mayors Show. It follows a nationwide search by the NFU to find those who have made an outstanding contribution to agriculture. The eight farmers, from each of the NFU's seven English regions and Wales, will attend the historic civic ceremony, which dates back to the 16th century. The NFU will be supporting The Worshipful Company of Farmers alongside Massey Ferguson, Red Tractor, the UKs largest farm and food assurance scheme, and Surrey Docks City Farm, to help take the 'Back British Farming' message into the heart of the City of London. As an additional prize this year, one of the farming champions will be invited by Massey Ferguson on a special trip to Beauvais in Northern France as a guest to tour the factory. This years Worshipful Company of Farmers entry into the Lord Mayors Show will incorporate a tractor, a combine harvester and food, with the participants providing the heart and soul of the exhibit. NFU Vice President, Stuart Roberts said: It was a tough selection process as all the young farmer nominations we received were of a high calibre. The judges were impressed with the enthusiasm shown in the entries to promote all aspects of the agricultural industry. I know the chosen eight will do a fantastic job as they all share a passion about what they do playing a vital role in helping to produce safe, high-quality, traceable and affordable food for the nation. Supporting the Worshipful Company of Farmers in the Lord Mayors Show again this year will provide us with the perfect opportunity to showcase the best of British food and farming to millions of people and explain the crucial role of British farming and its vital place in the wider food industry, he added. The 803rd parade takes place on Saturday 10 November and is featured in a live BBC broadcast. Three persons charged with murder ,will have their cases heard in January 2019. Hermina Jackson, Caswell Smart, and Antonio Simon were given that indication by Justice Brian Cottle last Tuesday, the opening day of the last quarter Criminal Assizes. Jackson, a housewife of La Croix, was charged following the death of her husband Henry Jackson at their home July 11, 2017. Henry, a chauffeur, suffered multiple stab wounds. Hermina pleaded not guilty at the arraignment. Caswell Smart faces a murder rap stemming from the death of Julius Murray who succumbed days after an incident in the Campden Park area, March 20, 2017. Smart pleaded not guilty to the charge. Antonio Simon, age given as 24 at the time of his arrest, pleaded not guilty to his indictment in relation to Vancito Balcombes death at Langley Park, December 21, 2016. Justice Brian Cottle informed the accused, that cases will be heard at the next Assizes scheduled for January 2019. The three murder charges were among 18 new matters on the Criminal Assizes. Others before the High Court Benjamin Harvey faces charges of: concealing criminal property, disguising criminal property, and possession of criminal property. Terano Samuel is before the court for rape and wounding. Lexion Joseph and Marcus Ashby have to answer to one rape charge each; but Alaska Williams will try to prove his innocence in two counts of rape, an attempted rape, and damage to property. Alistair Gordon is charged with having sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of thirteen years. Garfield Nero is indicted for rape, aggravated burglary and causing actual bodily harm. Ron McQuire-Cambridge pleaded not guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of thirteen, and assault with intent to commit wounding. Grafton McDowall pleaded not guilty to aggravated burglary and also to attempted murder. His woes came from an incident at Rillan Hill, April 3, 2017. His trial is expected to begin later in the Assizes. Akeeni Hackshaw is charged with wounding with intent, as well as possession of a firearm with intent to cause injury. Kimolow Quashie is on charges of robbery and causing actual bodily harm. Uroy Edwards is indicted on aggravated burglary and wounding offences. Stevan Stephens faces a wounding with intent accusation. David Legair has a possession of controlled drugs, and drug trafficking charges. Kentish Keith Williams will have to come back later in the Assizes to answer a charge of robbery. (WKA) Michael Gove has given his backing to a new initiative which seeks to support LGBTQ farmers and those living and working in rural communities. Agrespect, a body which supports LGBTQ people living and working in rural communities, aims to start positive conversations about inclusivity in agriculture and show the industry can offer fulfilling careers for everybody. Set up by farmers, it wants to show that while homophobic, biphobic and transphobic opinions can still exist in rural communities, they dont define all views in the farming sector. More than 20 companies have so far signed the Agrespect pledge to stand against prejudice in agriculture, including Barclays, McDonalds, Sainsburys and agricultural machinery manufacturers Fendt and Massey Fergusson. Other partners include Harper Adams University, LEAF, the National Federation of Young Farmers, the Royal Agricultural University and the Soil Association. This week, the list was joined by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) when Secretary of State Michael Gove signed the pledge during a special meeting with rural leaders. Mr Gove was joined by Defra permanent secretary Clare Moriarty, NFU president Minnette Batters and CLA director general Helen Woolley, who also added their organisations to the pledge. 'Regardless of background' Speaking during the event, which was also attended by Agrespect founders and supporters, Mr Gove said: Farming today is an innovative and progressive industry that benefits greatly from being open to all, regardless of their background, gender, religion and sexuality. I hope that through the signing of this pledge we can further demonstrate our ongoing support for LGBTQ+ people in our rural communities. Clare Moriarty, Defra permanent secretary, added: Its encouraging to see how the world has moved on in recognising LGBTQ+ rights in the last 20 years, but we are not yet as inclusive a society as we need to be, including in our rural communities. Agrespect has highlighted a really important issue for diversity and inclusion, and by sharing personal stories and experiences they are uniting the rural LGBTQ+ community to change things for the better. I am incredibly proud to sign the Agrespect pledge to demonstrate Defras support for this brilliant work, she said. Minette Batters, NFU president, said the union was delighted to support the Agrespect initiative. British farmers have big responsibilities resting on our shoulders over the next few years and we must challenge ourselves to be an inclusive industry which welcomes new entrants of every type from any background, she added. 'Massive change' Lincolnshire flower grower Matt Naylor, one of the farmers behind Agrespect, said the initiative wanted to encourage positive conversations about inclusivity in rural areas. Conceived following a Countryfile feature about the Gay Farmers Helpline which looked at farmers in isolated communities who were struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, the organisation wanted to help LGBTQ+ people and their families understand that being yourself was not barrier to a fulfilling life and career in the countryside. Agriculture and the rural economy are going through a period of massive change and the countryside needs to retain and attract the very brightest and best people. We need to welcome everyone, he said. It is really important to promote the countryside as a vibrant and accepting place to live and work regardless of your gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. "Farming and food production is the bedrock of society and it is important that the people managing and working in these industries are fully representative of the people that they feed. Mr Nayor added: Obviously there is still a way to go before all rural industries, businesses and communities can call themselves truly diverse and actively inclusive but we are thrilled with the support and commitment that we are being given by our partner organisations. Agrespect is currently working with agricultural colleges and universities to unite and attract LGBTQ+ students and is planning activities at Pride events in the UK to promote British food and farming. The initiative follows the release of a BBC Countryfile episode which shone a light on depression and suicide within the gay, rural community. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category critic's rating: 3.0/5 Vishal Bhardwajs Pataakha is based on Charan Singh Pathik's short story titled Do Behnein, which is about two sisters who are always bickering. The writer is known to set his stories in rural Rajasthan and taking a cue from that Bhardwaj too hasnt deviated away from the milieu. The language, production design and costumes are authentically Rajasthani and so are the locales. National award winning Cinematographer Ranjan Palit has done a fine job of capturing the small hamlets beauty, not sparing us its warts and lending a realsitic feel to the surroundings. Deciphering the Rajasthani dialect may prove to be a problem for some but its by and large watered down and isnt as thick as it actually is in reality. The film is called Pataakha because the two sisters, Genda 'Chhutki' Kumari (Sanya Malhotra) and Champa 'Badki' Kumari (Radhika Madan) are explosive firebrands who have a cat and dog relationship with each other and are always ready to gouge out each others eyes. The films big USP indeed are the realistic fight scenes between the two set to some funny music. You feel engrossed as they start off by verbally assaulting each other and then the blows start raining. Its all very melodramatic and over-the-top on one hand and paradoxically feels very real as well. But the sisters dont just fight. They are also companions of sorts when it comes to playing hooky from the school, lighting up beedis or saving each other from lechers. And they arent wilted willows but strong characters having a knowledge of the world. One of the scenes in the beginning has them throwing off advances of the rich Patel (Saanand Verma) by asking whether he would like to sleep with one of them or with both of them together. They are also women who havent given up dreaming. Chhutki wants to study and be a teacher and Badki wants to own her own dairy. Indeed, one of the conflicts of the film arises from the fact that due to the lack of money, their dreams arent getting fulfilled. They find themselves yoked to domesticity with no way out and are deeply frustrated because of it. They had unknowingly eloped with brothers played by Namit Das and Abhishek Duhan and cant tolerate living together under the same roof after a point because of a lack of financial independence. Its a Vishal Bhardwaj product so there has to be some sort of political commentary even in a film about sisters hating each other. He compares their hatred to that of India and Pakistan and makes a case of cant live with them, cant live without them kind of scenario. In the most telling moments of the film, the sisters are seen cooperating to drive a wedge between their husbands for material gain. That can be perceived as a subtle dig at politicians across the border conspiring to keep the hatred intact for political gains. But the subtext doesnt take over the comedy, which is thankfully situational and isnt forced down our throats. Sunil Grover plays Dipper, the narrator as well as the catalyst of the story. He likes to see them spar and is often guilty of adding fuel to the fire. He also comes to the aid of the sisters when they are in need and plans out their solutions. Hes part salesman, part mystic and part mischief-maker and one can see the actor had lots of fun essaying the role. The ever-reliable Vijay Raaz plays their father and his helplessness as well his love comes across as the real thing. The film belongs to its two leads, Sanya and Radhika. They play Chhutki and Badki with abandon, bringing out both the fierceness and vulnerability with the assurance of seasoned performers. Its indeed an achievement considering its Sanyas second release while Radhika is making her big screen debut with it. They start off as school-going girls and are mothers to young children towards the end and have put on weight to lend another realistic touch to their characters. Why do the sisters hate each other -- is the question that pops up in your mind time and again. Sometimes, there is no reason either to love or hate and thats Bhardwajs approach as well as the sudden transformation of their feelings towards each other is just as inexplicable. But these brief niggles aside, Pataakha is a cracker of a watch indeed, total paisa vasool on the strength of the acting alone. Trailer : Pataakha Vishal Bhardwajs Pataakha is based on Charan Singh Pathik's short story titled Do Behnein, which is about two sisters who are always bickering. The writer is known to set his stories in rural Rajasthan and taking a cue from that Bhardwaj too hasnt deviated away from the milieu. The language, production design and costumes are authentically Rajasthani and so are the locales. National award winning Cinematographer Ranjan Palit has done a fine job of capturing the small hamlets beauty, not sparing us its warts and lending a realsitic feel to the surroundings. Deciphering the Rajasthani dialect may prove to be a problem for some but its by and large watered down and isnt as thick as it actually is in reality.The film is called Pataakha because the two sisters, Genda 'Chhutki' Kumari (Sanya Malhotra) and Champa 'Badki' Kumari (Radhika Madan) are explosive firebrands who have a cat and dog relationship with each other and are always ready to gouge out each others eyes. The films big USP indeed are the realistic fight scenes between the two set to some funny music. You feel engrossed as they start off by verbally assaulting each other and then the blows start raining. Its all very melodramatic and over-the-top on one hand and paradoxically feels very real as well. But the sisters dont just fight. They are also companions of sorts when it comes to playing hooky from the school, lighting up beedis or saving each other from lechers. And they arent wilted willows but strong characters having a knowledge of the world. One of the scenes in the beginning has them throwing off advances of the rich Patel (Saanand Verma) by asking whether he would like to sleep with one of them or with both of them together. They are also women who havent given up dreaming. Chhutki wants to study and be a teacher and Badki wants to own her own dairy. Indeed, one of the conflicts of the film arises from the fact that due to the lack of money, their dreams arent getting fulfilled. They find themselves yoked to domesticity with no way out and are deeply frustrated because of it. They had unknowingly eloped with brothers played by Namit Das and Abhishek Duhan and cant tolerate living together under the same roof after a point because of a lack of financial independence.Its a Vishal Bhardwaj product so there has to be some sort of political commentary even in a film about sisters hating each other. He compares their hatred to that of India and Pakistan and makes a case of cant live with them, cant live without them kind of scenario. In the most telling moments of the film, the sisters are seen cooperating to drive a wedge between their husbands for material gain. That can be perceived as a subtle dig at politicians across the border conspiring to keep the hatred intact for political gains. But the subtext doesnt take over the comedy, which is thankfully situational and isnt forced down our throats.Sunil Grover plays Dipper, the narrator as well as the catalyst of the story. He likes to see them spar and is often guilty of adding fuel to the fire. He also comes to the aid of the sisters when they are in need and plans out their solutions. Hes part salesman, part mystic and part mischief-maker and one can see the actor had lots of fun essaying the role. The ever-reliable Vijay Raaz plays their father and his helplessness as well his love comes across as the real thing. The film belongs to its two leads, Sanya and Radhika. They play Chhutki and Badki with abandon, bringing out both the fierceness and vulnerability with the assurance of seasoned performers. Its indeed an achievement considering its Sanyas second release while Radhika is making her big screen debut with it. They start off as school-going girls and are mothers to young children towards the end and have put on weight to lend another realistic touch to their characters.Why do the sisters hate each other -- is the question that pops up in your mind time and again. Sometimes, there is no reason either to love or hate and thats Bhardwajs approach as well as the sudden transformation of their feelings towards each other is just as inexplicable. But these brief niggles aside, Pataakha is a cracker of a watch indeed, total paisa vasool on the strength of the acting alone. Rachit Gupta, September 27, 2018, 10:04 PM IST critic's rating: 3.5/5 Fiery and furious Pataakha Story: Badki (Radhika Madan) and Chhutki (Sanya Malhotra) live in a small town in Rajasthan. They are sisters who squabble about anything and everything from stolen bidis and clothes to broken phones and TV sets. Dipper (Sunil Grover) is their nosy neighbour, who is always on the lookout for an opportunity to make the sisters go to war, while their father (Vijay Raaz), a single parent, is always trying to make peace between the warring sisters. Pataakha Review: Pataakha is the story of sisters who love to hate each other. This isn't your average sibling rivalry; this is passionate and spiteful hatred for your kin. The sisters literally want to strangle and choke the life out of each other. This strange sibling relationship forms the crux of Vishal Bhardwajs film, where the Rajasthani language and the rustic setting present a side of Rajasthan that you havent seen before. But for all its novelty, Pataakha is a film thats a bit too hard to take in. Grasping the strong Rajasthani dialogues might prove to be a challenge for the average viewer. For 2 hours and 15 minutes, the sole focus of the screenplay stays on the fact that the sisters cant live without getting into a brawl and while the uniqueness of the story is admirable, after a point, it does get a tad monotonous. Badki and Chhutkis bickering and battles become spectacles for local crowds as their wily neighbour, Dipper, never misses a chance to instigate a war between the two sisters. Vishal Bhardwajs Pataakha, comes from an original short story by writer Charan Singh Pathik, and the sheer audacity of the sisters relationship, makes this idea interesting. As a viewer, the most pertinent question that you feel while watching Pataakha is why do the sisters fight so much? At some point in the film, the father (Vijay Raaz) poses the same question to Dipper, who explains that its just like the one between India and Pakistan, where the sisters and the countries cannot survive without conflict and combat. Vishal Bhardwaj has set the film in Rajasthan and the sights and sounds are nothing like the usual, castle-heavy landscapes of Jaipur and Udaipur, which the audience has seen before. While hes kept the story realistic to an extent that the characters speak only in the local language, which also becomes one of the biggest problems for the audience. You will often find yourself grappling to comprehend the dialogues. Perhaps, more lines in Hindi would have made it easier for the audience to connect with Pataakhas excellent physical and situational humour. The performances by Radhika Madan and Sanya Malhotra are top-notch to say the least. Both actresses have dug deep into their earthy characters and their feisty and animated performances are worthy of applause. During the second half, the actresses put on weight too, and their physical transformations are impressive. The two sisters are nothing short of firebrands. Vijay Raaz, Sunil Grover and Saanand Verma are equally adept with their comic timing. Vishal Bhardwaj, as he always does with his films, has tried to put many quirky spins into this comedy. The music is rustic, but very pleasing. He has also provided an interesting background score. During the second half, as the film briefly explores a psychological reason for the sisters tendency to fight, the sci-fi sounding background music adds a delightful touch to the proceedings. But for all its wonderful and creative touches, Pataakha still feels like a story that stretches a short concept, for a little too long. , September 27, 2018, 11:29 PM IST critic's rating: 3.5/5 , '' ( ) ( ) , , ( ) , ( ) ( ) , - ? , , - , , , : Mumbai Mirror, September 28, 2018, 9:30 AM IST critic's rating: 3.5/5 By Nandan Kini Five minutes into the film and you realise that theres no name that fits Vishal Bhardwajs latest directorial effort better than the one he has picked for it Pataakha. And while it is a proper cracker of a film, what it comes across as is a breath of fresh air, way removed from what Hindi cinema is ladling up otherwise these days. Another literary adaptation, this time Bhardwaj moves from the likes of Shakespeare and Ruskin Bond and into more rustic territory, adapting writer Charan Singh Pathiks short story, Do Behnein. A rustic story doesnt make for an idyllic one though, and Bhardwajs film is centred around two fiery sisters, Badki, Champa Kumari, (Radhika Madan) and Chhutki, Genda Kumari, (Sanya Malhotra), who just cant see eye-to-eye. Forget eye-to-eye, in fact, the only thing they seem to be able to focus on is each others throats, and the blood-lust that bonds them. Right from the first scene of the film, Bhardwaj sets up the dynamic between the two sisters, two daughters of a hapless miner, Bapu (Vijay Raaz), who can do little apart from occasionally rage in his own subdued manner to negotiate peace between the siblings. There is also a narrator of sorts, in their neighbour and childhood friend Dipper (Sunil Grover), who indulges in random trade as a hawker throughout the film and seems to like nothing better than to fan the flames between the two sisters, painting himself in shades of Naarad Muni, as Bapu notes at one point. Indeed, at the tiniest spur, the sisters are back at it, launching into tawdry tirades in a perfect Rajasthani patois and tearing at each others hair. Together, the two are like a tinderbox with a short fuse, and ironically, the only love that the two visibly share is for the stolen beedis that they are both addicted to. While the two are similar in their mannerisms, they are a world apart in their aspirations while Badkis reveries revolve around starting a dairy of her own, Chhutki dreams of starting her own school, even if she cant manage to matriculate herself. The twist in the tale comes when both sisters find themselves suitors in the village, even as Bapu is planning to betroth one to a rich widower, Patel (Saanand Verma), so as to conjure up a bribe that he has to pay in order to keep his mining business going. Played up for perfect comical effect, both sisters elope one after the other, leaving both Bapu and Patel in a lurch, setting up the second half of the film. Domestic life is hardly paradise though, and it takes a few more twists and turns before the two are finally rid of each other. However, the two quickly discover that separation isnt all that it was cracked up to be in their heads, and they miss each other in a way that nobody could possibly have imagined. Pataakha sparkles simply because of the pitch-perfect casting and setting that Bhardwaj has managed to put together. While Sanya Malhotra plays Chhutki with incomparable abandon, it is Radhika Madan who truly shines as the plucky Badki in her debut role. Together, the two share an extraordinary chemistry that makes this film worthwhile all on its own. They dont have to labour alone, though, as every character in the film is perfectly cast, be it Vijay Raaz as their harassed father, or Sunil Grover as the impish Dipper. Namit Das and Abhishek Duhan as Badki and Chhutkis husbands do their roles great justice too. The magic lies in how Bhardwaj manages to capture the dialect of his setting and the locales hes filmed at, which cinematographer Ranjan Palit captures with a practiced ease. If one had to gripe about the film, though, the singular plaint would be about how Bhardwaj seems to rush into the climax, trying to set up an unconvincing allegory about India and Pakistan. Given that it is just a short story that he is adapting though, it is easy to overlook this misstep, even if it is one. Simply put, with sparkling performances and a colourful setting, Pataakha shines on screen like a proper boxful of crackers! St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the latest CARICOM member country to move towards legalizing the cultivation and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Three Bills relating to marijuana were advanced to the select committee by this countrys Parliament on September 6. The Medicinal Cannabis Industry Bill intended to regulate the supply and use of cannabis for medicinal purposes; the Cannabis Cultivation (Amnesty) Bill that will provide for the granting of an amnesty for the period commencing Aug. 1, 2018 and ending July 31, 2019 to persons engaged in the cultivation of cannabis, and the Permitted Use of Cannabis for Religious Purpose Bill which provides for the decriminalisation of the use of cannabis as sacrament in religious practice as per the Rastafarian faith were introduced in parliament by Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar. Some three weeks since that sitting of Parliament at which the Opposition was duly present, Leader of the Opposition Dr. Godwin Friday has expressed concern about "the haste with which the government is moving on the matter of legislation, geared towards encouraging and accommodat-ing the establishment of a Medical Marijuana Industry here. Dr. Friday expressed the concern during last Mondays airing of his weekly programme on NICE Radio. Listeners to the programme heard that Dr, Friday had attended a meeting of the select committee that very morning. According to the Opposition Leader, given how that meeting proceeded, it appeared that there was a certain haste to get the matter over and done with as quickly as possible. However, Dr. Friday opined, this haste was not going to do the process any good, and the Bills were of such importance that they demanded detailed and informed discussion. Dr. Friday also expressed the hope that, once the select committee had discussed the bill, made amendments accordingly, and was satisfied that there was a final version for advancement, that this (version) should be put to the people for their feedback. ".. I will hope that more time will be given for that, not just the select committee, but for the people to understand whats in the bill, how it is going to function, who is going to benefit from it, before it is debated in the Parliament, Dr. Friday said. The select committee - comprised of government and opposition members of Parliament - was scheduled to meet again last Tuesday. It has so far been a tale of two credits for Huarong and HNA, two Chinese borrowers which are being forced to slash their asset bases to avoid a liquidity crunch. At one end of the trading spectrum is HNA, the airline turned global conglomerate whose offshore bonds are trading at highly distressed levels in the run up to two pivotal redemptions in November and December. At the other end is China Huarong Asset Management, the countrys largest financial asset manager, whose dollar-denominated bonds are still trading close to its peer group, despite mounting evidence of the same cashflow problems afflicting HNA, including... As head of a major family-owned conglomerate Shinta Widjaja Kamdani is well-placed to take a view on China's investment in her native Indonesia. The archipelago nation of 260 million people is exactly the kind of country China wants to bring into its Belt and Road Initiative. It is geographically close, has a dynamic but underdeveloped economy and is in need of massive infrastructure investment to fulfil its potential. And, in April, Indonesian President Joko Widodo met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing to seal five cooperation contracts worth some $23.3 billion. Four of those deals covered the energy sector one of four key business focuses... Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 27, 2018) - Southern Silver Exploration Corp. (TSXV: SSV) ("Southern Silver") reported that the following directors were re-elected at its annual general meeting held on September 27, 2018: Lawrence Page, Q.C., D. Roger Scammell, Eugene Spiering, Nigel Bunting, Larry Buchanan, Peter Cheesbrough and Donald Head. In addition, the shareholders re-appointed Smythe LLP, Chartered Accountants, as auditor of Southern Silver and approved Southern Silver's rolling incentive stock option plan pursuant to which a maximum of 10% of the issued shares will be reserved for issuance under the plan. The plan is subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance. The following officers were re-appointed subsequent to the annual general meeting: Lawrence Page, Q.C. as President, Robert Macdonald as Vice President, Exploration, Graham Thatcher as Chief Financial Officer, and Arie Page as Corporate Secretary. Southern Silver also reports that it has granted 800,000 incentive stock options to directors, officers and consultants. The options are exercisable at a price of $0.17 per common share for a period of five years and are subject to the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. About Southern Silver Exploration Corp. Southern Silver Exploration Corp. is a precious metal exploration and development company with a focus on the discovery of world-class mineral deposits in north-central Mexico and the southern USA. Our specific emphasis is the Cerro Las Minitas silver-lead-zinc project located in the heart of Mexico's Faja de Plata, which hosts multiple world-class mineral deposits such as Penasquito, San Martin and Los Gatos. We have assembled a team of highly experienced technical, operational and transactional professionals to support our exploration efforts with the objective of developing, along with our partner, Electrum Global Holdings LP, the Cerro Las Minitas project into a premier, silver-lead-zinc mine. The Cerro Las Minitas project is an advanced exploration stage polymetallic Ag-Pb-Zn-Cu Skarn/CRD project located in southern Durango, Mexico. Utilizing two drill rigs, approximately 5,800 metres of drilling has been completed of an anticipated 12,000 core hole 2018 exploration program. Drilling continues with one core drill focused on systematic resource expansion in the Area of the Cerro which contains the existing Mineral Resource Estimate and the second core drill rig focused on new Ag-Au epithermal vein targets in the recently staked CLM West claim group. The company continues refining the CLM West drill targets through surface sampling and VLF-EM surveys over specific target areas. The Cerro Las Minitas project as of January 8th, 2018 contains an estimated Indicated Resource, at a 175g/t AgEq cut-off, of 33.6Mozs silver and 319Mlbs of lead and 813Mlbs zinc (116.1Mozs AgEq) and an estimated Inferred Resource of 20.7Mozs silver, 131Mlbs lead and 870Mlbs zinc (92.7Mozs AgEq).(1) A total of 121 drill holes for 55,400 metres have now been completed on the Cerro Las Minitas project with past exploration expenditures of approximately US$15.5 million equating to exploration discovery costs of approximately $0.07 per AgEq ounce to the end of 2017. A further US$3.0 million is budgeted for the current 2018 exploration program. The Cerro Las Minitas project operates on a joint venture basis by Southern Silver at a 40% interest and Electrum Global Holdings LP at a 60% interest. Southern Silver is operator of the project. Since formation of the Joint Venture in September, 2017, the partners have approved over US$3.5 Million in exploration on the project. Southern's property portfolio also includes the Oro copper-gold porphyry project located in southern New Mexico, USA. The Oro property consists of patented land, State leases and BLM located mineral claims which cover a highly prospective quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration zone, interpreted to overlie an unexposed porphyry centre and distal sediment-hosted, oxide-gold target. ____________________ 1. The 2018 Cerro Las Minitas Resource Estimate was prepared following CIM definitions for classification of Mineral Resources. Resources are constrained using mainly geological constraints and approximate 10g/t AgEq grade shells. The block models are comprised of an array of blocks measuring 10m x 2m x 10m, with grades for Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, Zn and AgEq values interpolated using ID2 weighting. The models identified at a 175g/t AgEq cut-off, an indicated resource of 10,135,000 tonnes averaging 102g/t Ag, 0.1g/t Au, 1.4% Pb, 3.6% Zn and 0.15% Cu and a cumulative inferred resource of 8,685,000 tonnes averaging 74g/t Ag, 0.04g/t Au, 0.7% Pb, 4.5% Zn and 0.15% Cu. Mineral Resource cut-offs are estimated using an average long-term price of $16/oz silver, $1,200/oz gold, $2.75/lb Cu, $1.00/lb lead and $1.10/lb zinc and metal recoveries of 82% silver, 86% lead 80% copper and 80% zinc. AgEq calculations did not account for relative metallurgical recoveries of the metals. All prices are stated in $USD. Mineral Resources are conceptual in nature and as such do not have demonstrated economic viability. The current Resource Estimate was prepared by Garth Kirkham, P.Geo. of Kirkham Geosciences Ltd. who is the Independent Qualified Person responsible for presentation and review of the Mineral Resource Estimate. Robert Macdonald, MSc. P.Geo, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and responsible for the supervision of the exploration on the Cerro Las Minitas Project and for the preparation of the technical information in this disclosure. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Lawrence Page" Lawrence Page, Q.C. President & Director, Southern Silver Exploration Corp. For further information, please visit Southern Silver's website at southernsilverexploration.com or contact us at 604.641.2759 or by email at ir@mnxltd.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. 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. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Southern Silver Exploration Corp. does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law. WEIHAI, China, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jointly organized by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs P.R.China and the People's Government of Shandong Province, the 10th China Shandong Domestic and Overseas High-end Talents Exchange Fair will be held in Weihai, Shandong province from Oct 29 to Oct 31, 2018. Conference Theme Gather the Intelligence of Global Elite; Boost the High-quality Development Sponsored By State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs P.R.China People's Government of Shandong Province Organized By Human Resources and Social Security Department of Shandong Province The People's Government of Weihai Venue The Weihai International Exhibition Center Schedule of Main Activities Oct 29 Registration. Oct 30 The grand opening ceremony of the conference and the Award Ceremony of "Qilu Friendship Award". Oct 31 Relevant municipal and project docking units invite some Overseas Chinese talents and domestic post-doctors to carry out field project investigation and docking Main Content of the Conference (1) Commend the winners of the Qilu Friendship Award and the Shandong Returned Overseas Students Entrepreneurship Award. (2) Organize foreign experts and domestic and overseas high-end talents negotiation activities. Centering on the key development strategy of our province, a group of foreign experts, high-level study abroad talents, domestic post-doctors is invited to attend the conference to promote patents, high-tech achievements and entrepreneurial intentions, and held discussions and exchanges with investment and financing institutions, provincial institutions of higher learning, scientific research institutions and large and medium-sized enterprises. (3) Organize special projects docking and negotiation activities. Invite famous domestic and overseas universities and research institutes to docking and negotiation activities on university-industry-research cooperation. Invite famous domestic human resources organizations, headhunting companies and provincial human resources service industrial park to hold human resources service organizations exhibition and docking and negotiation activities. (4) Organize roadshow for the projects. During the conference, a project roadshow will be organized for the Supporting Plan of Returned Overseas Chinese talents to Start an Entrepreneurship in Shandong, the roadshow for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Final, cooperative bidding for scientific and technological achievements of overseas high-level talents and other events, boosting the landing of the transformation of scientific and technical achievements. (5) Organize summit forum activities. Domestic and overseas high-level experts and institution representatives will be invited from related professional fields including Noble Prize winners and academicians, respectively hold Talents to Support Shandong Old and New Kinetic Energy Conversion Weihai Summit, Human Resource Service Summit, "The Belt and Road" International Professional Education Summit and other activities, carry out discussions and exchanges on issues such as the conversion of old and new kinetic energy, the development of human resources service industry and the cultivation of skilled personnel. (6) Organize meetings to offer advice and suggestions. The winners of Chinese Government Friendship Award and Qilu Friendship Award, experts of National Foreign Expert Plan, Nobel Prize winners, academicians and other high-level talents as well as provincial international talent overseas liaison office, overseas recruitment workstations and other organizations will be invited, respectively held Foreign Experts Suggestion Meeting, Symposium of Academicians and Symposium of Overseas establishments, to listen to the views and suggestions of relevant parties. (7) Organize Innovation and Entrepreneurship Achievements and Development Environment Exhibition. Held provincial and municipal Talents Innovation and Entrepreneurship Environment Exhibition and Qilu Craftsmanship Achievement Exhibition, concentrated display the innovation and entrepreneurship achievements achieved by the experts of "Thousand Talents Program", Qilu craftsman and other high-level talents. (8) Conduct recruitment activities. Invite domestic and overseas graduates to attend the conference, and organize universities, scientific research institutions, enterprises and other units to conduct on-site recruitment. Application conditions and Methods By means of online application, participants can log in the portal page of the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Shandong Province to apply (Website: www.sdhrss.gov.cn). Overseas Chinese talent applicants should be with master's degree or above, have certain scientific research achievements, patented technology or have technical cooperation projects of investment, entrepreneurship in Shandong. Domestic post-doctor applicants should achieve certain scientific research achievements, master certain patents or technical projects, and be postdoctoral researchers online or doctors to be online. The deadline for application is October 10, 2018. People who have a master's degree or above and have a job hunting, entrepreneurship or investment cooperation intention can directly take part in the high-level talent recruitment and technical project exchange activities organized during the conference. Conference Invitation and Negotiation Arrangements The Organizing Committee Office of "The 10th China Shandong Domestic and Overseas High-end Talents Exchange Fair" will summarize the application situation of overseas Chinese talents and domestic post-doctors. The technical projects and investment and entrepreneurial intentions to be brought to the conference will be recommended to all relevant scientific research units in time, enterprises and institutions in Shandong Province for pre-conference project exchange and docking. At the same time, the Organizing Committee Office of the conference will also organize the units in Shandong Province to regularly publish high-level talent and technical demand information on the information platform of "The 10th China Shandong Domestic and Overseas High-end Talents Exchange Fair". Overseas Chinese talents and domestic post-doctors have established project docking links with provincial units and exchanged ideas to achieve the results of cooperation between talents and technology projects. The Organizing Committee Office of the conference will organize experts to conduct further argumentation, confirm the participants, and distribute the invitation to the conference before October 20. For overseas Chinese talents and domestic post-doctors who are invited to participate in the conference (only for invited participants), The Organizing Committee Office of the conference will provide project promotion booths during the conference, arrange a project assistant to assist in the docking negotiation and provide accommodation during the conference and partial international and domestic travel grant. The Organizing Committee Office of "The 10th China Shandong Domestic and Overseas High-end Talents Exchange Fair" is located in the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Shandong Province. Address: No. 16 Jiefang East Road, Jinan, Shandong Postal Code: 250014 Contact Persons: Project contact group Jiang Yubin, Wang Lun, Zhang Qingshan Telephone: 0086-531-88597986 Fax: 0086-531-88597980 Website: www.sdhrss.gov.cn ABX464 showed impressive safety and efficacy results and proof-of-concept in ulcerative colitis (UC) in phase 2a clinical trial ABX464 proven to reduce HIV reservoirs in phase 2a clinical trials ABX464 advancing into phase 2b trials in UC and HIV as well as phase IIa for Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis ABX196 to enter into Phase 1b/2a clinical trial for hepato-cellular carcinoma treatment Additional preclinical product candidates advancing from ABIVAX mRNA discovery platform Cash for operations through key milestones, until Q4 2019 Abivax to focus on potential partnering for ABX464: No capital raise planned at this stage Regulatory News: Abivax (Paris:ABVX) (Euronext Paris: FR0012333284 ABVX), an innovative biotechnology company harnessing the immune system to develop treatments for inflammatory/autoimmune diseases and cancer, as well as functional cure for HIV, today announced its 2018 half-year financial results, as of June 30, 2018, and provided an update on its product pipeline progress. The financial statements for the first half of 2018, approved by the Company's Board of Directors on Sept. 27, 2018, have been audited and the certification report is being prepared by the Company's external auditors. "The first half of 2018 has been terrific for Abivax, with excellent financial data and transformative Phase 2a results in ulcerative colitis and HIV infection with our lead drug-candidate, ABX464. Four weeks ago, we reported impressive top-line safety and efficacy Phase 2a results of oral once daily ABX464 in patients with ulcerative colitis," said Professor Hartmut Ehrlich, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Abivax. "Further elucidation of the mechanism of action of ABX464 has increased our confidence towards accelerating development of this highly differentiated first-in-class therapeutic candidate into Phase 2b trials for both UC and HIV. In addition, because its unique mechanism of action and the preclinical and clinical data we have gathered suggest a broad anti-inflammatory effect, we are now preparing the initiation of Phase 2a clinical trials of ABX464 in Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis early next year. In addition, our phase 1/2 clinical trial with ABX196 in hepatocellular carcinoma is scheduled to start in the coming months, and several exciting new molecules are moving from discovery into preclinical testing for severe viral infections like respiratory syncytial virus, influenza and dengue fever. Of course, Abivax may prioritise some of these indications based on medical needs, market opportunities and upcoming additional data." Didier Blondel, Chief Financial Officer of Abivax, added: "We are very excited about the prospects of ABX464 and the company. Given its mechanism of action, preclinical and clinical results and the fact that it is administered orally once a day, ABX464 is opening up to various potential indications with large unmet medical needs and broad market opportunities. Because of the scale of the development program justified by ABX464's potential, Abivax is pursuing a partnering strategy in order to leverage the resources and the industrial development infrastructure and competencies of a partner. In our assessment, ABX464' s current economic valuation (net present value, NPV) already exceeds Abivax' current market capitalization: Therefore, and given Abivax's current market capitalization, we do not intent to raise dilutive equity in the near future." FIRST HALF 2018 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS Items in the Income Statement in thousands of euros H1 2018 H1 2017 Change Total operating income 492 4 488 Total operating expenses (9 058) (7 410) (1 648) of which Research and Development costs (7 061) (5 729) (1 332) of which administrative costs and overheads (1 996) (1 681) (315) Operating result (8 565) (7 406) (1 159) Financial result 27 33 (6) Ordinary result (8 538) (7 373) (1 165) Extraordinary result (59) 173 (232) Tax on income 1352 1 651 (299) Result for the period (7 245) (5 549) (1 696) Operating loss 7.2m (+1.7m compared with 5.5m as of June 30, 2017) mainly reflects the increasing investment in development of ABX464 in inflammatory and HIV clinical indications (+1.5m), as well as the progressive scaling up of the mRNA splicing platform and library of small molecules (+0.7m). Total headcount at the end of June 2018 was flat at 24. R&D expenses amounted to 7.1m, mainly due to ABX464 development costs (64%) and the mRNA splicing research platform investment (29%). G&A expenses were at 2.0m in H1 2018 (22% of total operating costs) compared to 1.7m (23%) in H1 2017. Revenues, which were comprised mainly of a Research Tax Credit, were at 2.0m in H1 2018, compared to 1.9m in H1 2017. The Company's cash utilization rate during H1 2018 was 1.6m per month. Cash at the end of June 2018 was 7.6m, compared to 17.0m at the end of 2017. Company is fully funded through Q4 2019, based on the assessment of planned R&D needs, and the 10m first tranche of Kreos Capital loan agreement in July 2018. Financial Items from the Balance Sheet in thousands of euros 06/30/2018 12/31/2017 Change Net financial position 7 579 16 862 (9 283) of which financial fixed assets* 5 000 15 000 (10 000) of which fixed-term deposits (maturing in 1 year) 0 0 0 of which fixed-term deposit (maturing in <1 year) 5 000 15 000 (10 000) of which available cash flow 2 579 2 032 547 (of which financial debts) 0 (170) 170 Total assets 46 045 53 815 (7 770) Total equity 41 086 48 180 (7 094) of which equity capital 36 071 43 916 (7 215) of which conditional advances 4 385 4 264 121 Excluding items of the liquidity contract (liquidity and own shares) and deposits guarantees Operating Highlights: Portfolio Update ABX464 in UC and other inflammatory diseases In early September, Abivax reported impressive top-line safety and efficacy data from its randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2a clinical trial ABX464-101 in patients moderate to severe UC. In this clinical study, the efficacy of ABX464 on both clinical and endoscopic endpoints was already statistically significant different from placebo, which is indicative of a substantial therapeutic effect of the drug candidate. The onset of efficacy was rapid, with a 3.2 fold improvement in clinical remission rate and 4.5 fold in mucosal healing compared to placebo. The convenient once-a-day oral 50 mg regimen was safe and well tolerated in this chronic and severely debilitating disease. The clinically meaningful efficacy was judged by opinion leaders advising Abivax as indicative of a substantial therapeutic effect. With a first-in-class mechanism of action, i.e. an up-regulation of the anti-inflammatory microRNA miR124, ABX464 is ready to move into Phase 2b clinical trials, scheduled to start in Q1, 2019, as well as into phase 2a studies in Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis at around the same time. The inflammatory disease space represents an area of highly unmet medical need, and a corresponding substantial market opportunity. It is estimated that nearly 1 million patients with ulcerative colitis live in the US, 650,000 in Europe, and over 2.7 million globally, representing a potential market opportunity of up to $5.5 billion, based on 2017 pharmaceutical sales in this sector. In combination with Crohn's disease, pharmaceutical sales during this same period are estimated to have reached $15 billion. The market potential for the full range of inflammatory conditions treated with anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies, including rheumatoid arthritis, represents over $30 billion, a market and patient population that the Company expects will benefit from ABX464. ABX464 clinical development in HIV In June of this year, Abivax communicated top-line data from ABX464-005, a phase 2a study in HIV infected patients that measured whether ABX464 could reduce the HIV reservoir in blood and in rectal tissue of these fully suppressed HIV patients. ABX464-005 showed that ABX464 reduced HIV-viral reservoirs in the blood as well as in rectal tissue and, therefore, Abivax will also advance the promising therapeutic candidate into phase 2b testing for HIV in H1 2019. HIV still presents a significant burden to the quality of life of patients. Even with the availability of antiretrovirals, patients are still required to medicate daily for life, and risk the rebound of viral load with missed dosing because of the presence of the latent HIV reservoir. A functional cure for this disease is critical, and the market opportunity for such a functional cure capable of reducing the viral reservoir represents about $22 billion. ABX196 a clinical stage immune enhancer for oncology based on iNKT regulation ABX196 is a synthetic agonist (glycolipid) of iNKT (invariant Natural Killer T) cells, in a liposomal formulation, that is ready to begin Phase 1/2 clinical proof of concept studies. Preclinical development of ABX196 has shown its capacity to turn tumors that are non-responsive to checkpoint inhibitors into responsive tumors and the molecule previously underwent successful Phase 1 clinical testing. Abivax is planning start a proof-of-concept clinical study in hepato-cellular cancer in Q1 2019. At the same time, Abivax is seeking an external partner for the development of this molecule the immune-oncology field, which is not a core focus for the company. Novel antiviral molecules with potential to treat RSV, Influenza and Dengue discovered Abivax screenings of its targeted library of small antiviral molecules have generated positive hits with potential for Respiratory Syncytial Viral (RSV), Influenza and Dengue indications. As part of its long-term collaboration with EVOTEC, lead molecules targeting RSV are in lead optimisation and will advance into preclinical proof of concept testing in H1 2019. Molecules for Dengue are currently in lead identification across the four subtypes of the virus and will advance into lead optimization in H2 2019. Molecules for influenza are currently in the hit optimization phase. Kreos Capital up to 20m debt financing agreement in July 2018 On July 25, 2018 Abivax completed an up to 20m debt financing agreement with Kreos Capital. This financing comprises two tranches of 10m each (8m straight bonds and 2m convertible bonds), with the first tranche fully drawn in July 2018, extending cash runway (including phase 2b for UC and HIV, phase 2a for Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis and phase 1/2 with ABX196 in hepatocellular carcinoma) until Q4 2019. FINANCIAL CALENDAR UPCOMING EVENTS: During late October/early November, Abivax will hold a global investor webcast in association with a detailed R&D update 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_ 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/20180927006011/en/ Contacts: Abivax Finance Didier Blondel didier.blondel@abivax.com +33 1 53 83 08 41 or French Media ALIZE RP Caroline Carmagnol/Margaux Pronost abivax@alizerp.com +33 6 64 18 99 59 +33 1 44 54 36 65 or Investors LifeSci Advisors Chris Maggos chris@lifesciadvisors.com +41 79 367 6254 or US Media LifeSci Public Relations Matt Middleman, M.D. matt@lifescipublicrelations.com +1 646 627 8384 or Press Relations and Investors Europe MC Services AG Anne Hennecke anne.hennecke@mc-services.eu +49 211 529 252 22 DUBLIN, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Many of the largest institutions in South Africa have decided to pursue claims on behalf of their clients and funds that suffered losses as a result of the collapse in the share price of global retailer Steinhoff[1] in December 2017. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/751486/Claims_Funding_Europe_Logo.jpg ) The institutions include Abax Investments, Allan Gray, Bateleur Capital, Coronation, Denker, Electus, Eskom, Investec Asset Management, Investec Wealth & Investment, Momentum, Old Mutual, Sanlam, Tantalum Capital, Truffle and Visio Capital. These institutions, whose clients' and funds' holdings collectively represented approximately 20% of the total shareholding in Steinhoff at the time the company's share price collapsed, are engaging their respective clients. They are informing their clients that they have concluded that the 'class action' case being run in the Netherlands by the Dutch law firm BarentsKrans, is their preferred legal route. The institutions are proposing to their clients that they participate in the BarentsKrans case, which they have concluded is aimed at achieving an outcome that is in their clients' best interests. The BarentsKrans case will be heard by the District Court of Amsterdam. It covers shareholders that acquired shares in Steinhoff or its predecessor entity from 26 June 2013 to 6 December 2017. Martijn van Maanen, a partner at BarentsKrans, said: "The decision by many of South Africa's largest institutional investors to participate in the BarentsKrans Steinhoff litigation, follows a longevaluation process by many of them. We are pleased thatso many of South Africa's largest asset managers have chosen the BarentsKrans Steinhoff shareholder case as the most appropriate option for their clients". The BarentsKrans Steinhoff shareholder case is being fully funded by Claims Funding Europe, a litigation funding company based in Dublin, Ireland. Martin Hyde, who is the director of Claims Funding Europe, said: "Institutions that participate in the BarentsKrans Steinhoff shareholder case will have the benefit of the combined experience of BarentsKrans and CFE at successfully running and resolving large class actions". Registration now open to other Steinhoff investors Shareholders who bought shares in Steinhoff or its predecessor entity, Steinhoff International Holdings Limited (SIHL), on either the Johannesburg Stock Exchange or the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, between 26 June 2013 and 6 December 2017 (both dates inclusive) and who held some shares on 5 or 6 December 2017, are able to join the BarentsKrans claim. Shareholders who bought Steinhoff shares in this period and are not clients of South African institutions that have elected to participate in the BarentsKrans case, can register at steinhoffclassaction.com . BarentsKrans[2] is one of Europe's leading mass litigation law firms. Claims Funding Europe[3] is a litigation funding company which is co-owned by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers[4], the most successful plaintiff class action law firm in Australia. 1. Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. (Steinhoff) 2. BarentsKrans: https://www.barentskrans.nl/en/expertises/mass-litigation/ 3. Claims Funding Europe: http://claimsfundingeurope.eu/ 4. Maurice Blackburn Lawyers: https://www.mauriceblackburn.com.au/general-law/class-actions/ TOKYO, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- First oral presentation of Quality of Life data from the phase III trial (MAVORIC), the largest randomised trial inMF and SS - the two most common types of Cutaneous TCell Lymphoma[1] Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., (Kyowa Kirin) announces that Quality of Life (QoL) data from the pivotal MAVORIC trial will be the subject of an oral presentation,[2] at the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Cutaneous Lymphoma Task Force (CLTF) meeting, September 27-29, St. Gallen, Switzerland. A case report of a long-term responder in the MAVORIC[3] trial will also be reported as a poster.[4] Presentation titles at the 2018 EORTC CLTF Mtg: Quality of Life in Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma Patients Treated with the Anti-CCR4 Monoclonal Antibody Mogamulizumab Versus Vorinostat: Results from MAVORIC [Abstract 105; Fri 28 th Sept, 11am-12.30pm ] [Abstract 105; Fri 28 Sept, ] Long-term complete remission induced by mogamulizumab in a severe Sezary patient, together with five different possible autoimmune manifestations [Abstract #059; Case study poster (external)] QoL was a secondary end-point of the phase 3 MAVORIC (mogamulizumab versus vorinostat in previously treated cutaneous T-cell lymphoma) trial and significant improvements were seen with mogamulizumab versus vorinostat as early as cycle three and continued throughout. Using QoL measurements including Skindex-29, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) and EuroQol-5D-3L (EQ-5D-3L), clinically meaningful improvements in patient-reported skin-related symptoms and preservation of physical well-being were observed. = 61% of mogamulizumab patients reported clinically-meaningful improvements in skin-related symptoms from Cycles 3 through to 11 and significantly more vorinostat patients reported clinically-meaningful declines in physical well-being in Cycles 1 through to 11. There was also delay in patient reported deterioration in the Skindex-29 Summary and Emotions subscores in patients given mogamulizumab. Dr Pierluigi Porcu, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health, Thomas Jefferson University, USA elaborates further on the data: "Cutaneous T cell lymphomas are highly visible cancers, that can significantly impact patients' QoL. The effects of the disease can be extremely debilitating, which in turn can affect the patient both mentally and emotionally. We are extremely excited about these findings as it demonstrates the potential benefits of mogamulizumab beyond efficacy and, in particular, for outcomes that are especially important to people affected by CTCL. It is reassuring to see quick improvements and benefits across Symptom, Emotional, and Functional domains. Importantly, patients with the highest symptom burden and functional impairment derived the most QoL benefit from mogamulizumab." Mogamulizumab met its primary endpoint in the MAVORIC trial, which is the first pivotal trial in CTCL to use progression-free survival (PFS) as a primary endpoint. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in PFS and overall response rate (ORR) for mogamulizumab compared to vorinostat in patients with previously treated MF and SS.[3] Results of the study were published in Lancet Oncology in August 2018. On Friday 21stSeptember 2018, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) scientific committee, adopted a Positive Opinion recommending approval of the marketing authorisation of mogamulizumab for the treatment of adult patients with MF or SS who have received at least one prior systemic therapy. KKI Chief Executive, Tom Stratford, said "There has been limited innovation in the last fifteen years for patients with MF and SS and quality of life is a big factor in these diseases. The Kyowa Hakko Kirin Group companies strive to contribute to the health and wellbeing of people around the world through advances in life sciences and technologies and mogamulizumab addresses a universal unmet need in this patient population. The recent positive CHMP opinion brings us one step closer to bringing this much needed treatment to patients with MF and SS." If mogamulizumab is approved, Kyowa Kirin International PLC, a Kyowa Hakko Kirin Group company, will be responsible for commercialising mogamulizumab in Europe. About Mogamulizumab Mogamulizumab is a humanised monoclonal antibody (mAb) directed against CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4), which is frequently expressed on leukemic cells of certain haematologic malignancies including CTCL (cutaneous T-cell lymphoma). Mogamulizumab was produced using Kyowa Hakko Kirin's proprietary POTELLIGENT platform, which is associated with enhanced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). About Mycosis Fungoides (MF) and Sezary Syndrome (SS) MF and SS are the two most common subtypes of CTCL[1], a rare type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is characterised by localisation of malignant T lymphocytes to the skin, and depending on the stage, the disease may involve skin, blood, lymph nodes, and viscera. About MAVORIC MAVORIC is a Phase 3 open-label, multi-center, randomised study of mogamulizumab versus vorinostat in patients with MF and SS who have failed at least one prior systemic treatment. The study was conducted in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Australia, and randomized 372 patients to receive either mogamulizumab or vorinostat. Additional Data from Analyses Mogamulizumab resulted in symptomatic and functional improvement with differences in Skindex-29 Symptoms (Cycle 3 (C3), C5, and C7; p<0.05) and Functional (C3 and C5; p<0.05) scales. The proportion of patients who improved by at least the meaningful change threshold (MCT) from baseline was significantly greater for mogamulizumab vs vorinostat on Skindex-29 Symptoms at C3 (61.1% vs 45.3%), C5 (64.5% vs 42.4%), C7 (67.1% vs 47.5%), and C11 (84.1% vs 50.0%) and Skindex-29 Functioning domain at C5 (54.3% vs 28.8%). Significant difference in the FACT-G Physical Well-Being scale (C1, C3, and C5; p<0.05) were observed in favour of mogamulizumab and a greater proportion of patients declined by at least the MCT in favour of mogamulizumab vs vorinostat at C1 (19.3% vs 34.7%), C3 (17.4% vs 42.9%), C5 (13.1% vs 43.3%), and C7 (15.9% vs 37.5%). The median time to worsening of symptoms on Skindex-29 was 27.4 m for mogamulizumab vs 6.6 m for vorinostat. Mogamulizumab Regulatory Status The Positive Opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) scientific committee, recommending approval of the marketing authorisation of mogamulizumab for the treatment of adult patients with MF or SS who have received at least one prior systemic therapy has been referred to the European Commission (EC), which is expected to render its final decision by the end of 2018. The EC typically adheres to the recommendation of the CHMP but is not obligated to do so. On the 8th August 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for mogamulizumab for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory MF or SS after at least one prior systemic therapy. Mogamulizumab was granted Priority Review and Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA in late 2017. In Japan, mogamulizumab has received approval for: relapsed or refractory CCR4-positive ATL in March 2012; relapsed or refractory CCR4-positive PTCL and relapsed or refractory CCR4-positive CTCL in March 2014; chemotherapy-native CCR4-positive ATL in December 2014; and, relapsed or refractory CTCL (CCR4-positive removed) in August 2018. About Kyowa Kirin Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. is a research-based life sciences company, with special strengths in biotechnologies. In the core therapeutic areas of oncology, nephrology and immunology/allergy, Kyowa Hakko Kirin leverages leading-edge biotechnologies centered on antibody technologies, to continually discover innovative new drugs and to develop and market those drugs world-wide. In this way, the company is working to realise its vision of becoming a Japan-based global specialty pharmaceutical company that contributes to the health and wellbeing of people around the world. Kyowa Kirin International PLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyowa Hakko Kirin and is a rapidly growing specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development and commercialisation of prescription medicines for the treatment of unmet therapeutic needs in Europe and the United States. Kyowa Kirin International is headquartered in Scotland. You can learn more about the business at: http://www.kyowa-kirin.com 1. Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma Facts. http://www.lls.org/sites/default/files/file_assets/FS5_Cutaneous%20T-Cell%20Lymphoma_2014_Final.pdf . Accessed May 2, 2018 2. Pierluigi Porcu et al. Quality of Life in Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma Subjects Treated with the Anti-CCR4 Monoclonal Antibody Mogamulizumab Versus Vorinostat: Results from MAVORIC. Data presented at ASCO and EHA, and oral presentation at EORTC, 2018 3. Youn H Kim et al. Mogamulizumab versus vorinostat in previously treated cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (MAVORIC): an international, open-label, randomised, controlled phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncology 2018. Sep;19(9):1192-1204 4. Long-term complete remission induced by mogamulizumab in a severe Sezary patient, together with five different possible autoimmune manifestations [Abstract #059; Case study poster (external)] 28 September 2018 PHSC PLC Sale of Property PHSC plc ("PHSC" or "the Group"), a leading provider of health, safety, hygiene and environmental consultancy services and security solutions to the public and private sectors, is pleased to announce that it has now exchanged contracts with GMP Holdings Limited for the sale of its Essex property for 305,000 in cash. The property was previously occupied by the Company's now discontinued asbestos consultancy business, Adamson's Laboratory Services Limited, and was not required for the Group's other operations . After legal costs and agent's fees, we anticipate that there will be net cash proceeds of 290,000 to the Group from the sale which will be used for general working capital purposes. The net proceeds will also strengthen our overall cash position and allow us to seek to reduce the size of our banking facility with HSBC from 300,000 to 150,000 when it is renewed in November 2018. The book value of the property as at 31 March 2018 was 134,631. The sale is expected to complete today. For further information please contact: PHSC plc Stephen King 01622 717 700 Stephen.king@phsc.co.uk www.phsc.plc.uk Strand Hanson Limited(Nominated Adviser) 020 7409 3494 Richard Tulloch/Frederick Twist Novum Securities Limited (Broker) 020 7399 9427 Colin Rowbury About PHSC PHSC plc, through its trading subsidiaries Personnel Health & Safety Consultants Ltd, RSA Environmental Health Ltd, QCS International Ltd, Inspection Services (UK) Ltd and Quality Leisure Management Ltd, provides a range of health, safety, hygiene, environmental and quality systems consultancy and training services to organisations across the UK. B2BSG Systems Ltd offer innovative security solutions including tagging, labelling and CCTV. The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). Zurich - FinTechs are changing the way how banking and finance works today. They pressure traditional banks and offer smarter solutions for the customer. But besides customer experience and price - how innovative are innovators when it comes to responsibility, participation, transparency, fairness and trust? Are they able to bring change in the areas of the financial sector where mostly needed: its impact on society? Yova founder and CEO Dr. Tillmann Lang will also share his perspective on how technology & digital business models are driving sustainability in practice.Conscious FinTech Berlin is a series of events that aims at opening up a general discussion about conscious, sustainable and impact-driven innovation in banking and finance. Partnered by Sustainable FinTech , Yova - Impact Investing and Impact Hub Zurich, Conscious FinTech Berlin organises a meetup in Zurich to discuss the "sustainable fintech" ecosystem in a more international perspective.Date and timeThursday, 18 October 2018 from 18:30-21:00VenueImpact Hub Zurich, Sihlquai 131, 8005 ZurichRegistration and costsThe event is free, please register by sending an email to sabrina@yova.chAgenda18:30: Welcome & Intro Conscious FinTech Berlin - History, Roadmap & Principles // Sanika Nele Hufeland 18:45: Intro Sustainable FinTech - Policy change and prototype development - a two-sided approach // Anna Stunzi 19:00: Talk: Yova - Impact Investing - Making impact investing mainstream ... Den vollstandigen Artikel lesen ... LONDON, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb today announced the appointment of Jane Anderson as Environmental Manager for the UK and Ireland. In this role, Jane will lead the UK&I Environmental team and have responsibility for financial performance and the development of their environmental portfolio. The appointment is effective immediately and Jane will report to Mark Roberts, P&C Chief Underwriting Officer, UK&I. Jane, who was previously Senior Environmental Risk Underwriter, UK&I, joined the company in 2014 as an Environmental Risk Underwriter. Since then she has underwritten complex global multinational accounts and also worked on a series of initiatives for SME business. Mark Roberts, P&C Chief Underwriting Officer, UK&I, said: "I am delighted Jane has been appointed to this role. She has developed a wide range of broker relationships and is a regular presenter at client and industry forums. Jane is a well-respected figure within the market and I am looking forward to working with her to develop new opportunities for growth." About Chubb Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: chubb.com/uk Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/324916/Chubb_Logo.jpg Victor Banks, Anguillas Chief Minister, said that the FCIB closure had nothing to do with the state of the Anguillan economy. (Credit: The Anguillan.com) Anguillas Chief Minister, Victor Banks, has assured his people that the decision by FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB) that it will be closing its operations in Anguilla on January 31, 2019, has nothing to do with the state of that territorys economy. The Chief Minister prefaced his explanation by saying that he had in fact brought forward the date decided upon when an official announcement about the closure would be made, because of information that had filtered out to the public through social media. According to Banks, "FCIB was not holding its own and not performing up to levels that would satisfy them that it merited to have their continuation as a branch in Anguilla. The Chief Minister noted that FCIB had only five percent of the overall market share in Anguilla, with the National Commercial Bank of Anguilla and Scotiabank taking most of the share. Unofficially, the estimate of loans at FirstCaribbean (Anguilla) was put at eight million (dollars) with deposits amounting to somewhere in the region of seventy million (dollars). That said, Banks proceeded in a statement to the nation, to refute postings on social media and other public statement which alluded to the FCIB withdrawal as a sign of difficult economic times in the territory. "The Government is doing exceptionally well in turning the economy around, Banks assured, adding, "We have a number of large projects which are now hiring hundreds of people. We have a number of projects in the private sector coming on-stream. We have in our discussions plans for serious expansion in the public sector, including airport and seaport development; and there are private sector projects that are now taking place. "So the economy is looking good, especially for the opening of the tourist season. We all have been impacted by both natural and human events and, as a consequence, there are a number of businesses in the region that have (suffered) and FirstCaribbean International Bank is no exception. (Source: Business Focus Weekly) PORTLAND, Oregon, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Increase in prevalence of chronic diseases, rise in geriatric population, surge in the number of surgical procedures worldwide, spike in healthcare expenditure, and growth in demand for plastic & reconstructive surgery are expected to drive the growth of the global surgical equipment market. Allied Market Research published a report, titled, Surgical Equipment Market by Product (Surgical Sutures & Staples, Handheld Surgical Equipment, and Electrosurgical Devices), Category (Reusable Surgical Equipment and Disposable Surgical Equipment), and Application (Neurosurgery, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeries, Wound Closure, Urology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Thoracic Surgery, Microvascular Surgery, Cardiovascular Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Laparoscopy, and Others) - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023. The report offers an in-depth analysis of the market size & share, drivers & opportunities, key winning strategies, top investment pockets, competitive landscape among others. According to the report, the global surgical equipment market garnered $10.49 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $15.73 billion by 2023, registering a CAGR of 7.0% from 2017 to 2023. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg ) Increase in incidence of chronic diseases, rise in geriatric population, and surge in the number of surgical procedures worldwide drive the growth of the global surgical equipment market. In addition, increase in healthcare expenditure and growth in demand for plastic & reconstructive surgery and technologically advanced minimal invasive surgical procedures supplement the market growth. However, stringent government regulations and poor reimbursement schemes for surgical equipment hinder the market growth. On the other hand, untapped markets in emerging economies and launch of advanced technologies would create new pathways for the market players in future. Request Sample Report at:https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/68 Surgical sutures & staplers segment to lead, electrosurgical devices segment to grow the fastest The surgical sutures & staplers segment accounted for 40% of the total market share in 2017 and would continue its dominance through 2023, owing to the huge demand for wound closure as well as closure of surgical incision site. However, the electrosurgical devices segment would register the fastest CAGR of 8.3% from 2017 to 2023. This is attributed to the increased demand for advanced surgical techniques and high demand for minimally invasive surgical procedures. The handheld surgical instruments segment would grow at a steady pace during the forecast period. Reusable surgical equipment to be the highest revenue generator by 2023 The reusable surgical equipment segment contributed more than half of the total market share in 2017 and would maintain its lion's share through 2023, as surgeons across the globe use these equipment mainly to reduce overhead costs, especially those who operate in small medical set-ups or ambulatory surgical center (ASC) settings. However, the disposable surgical equipment segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 7.2% from 2017 to 2023, owing to the increasing penetration of disposable equipment during surgeries as well as large-scale use of reliable and high-strength medical grade engineered polymers or plastics for constructing disposable surgical equipment. Plastic & reconstructive surgeries segment to grow the fastest Rise in the number of cosmetic surgical procedures worldwide has enabled the plastic & reconstructive surgeries segment to grow at the fastest CAGR of 8.7% from 2017 to 2023. However, the laparoscopy segment accounted for 21.5% share of the total market revenue in 2017 and is expected to remain dominant throughout the forecast period, owing to the rise in obese population across the globe and increase in preference for bariatric surgeries. The study also analyzes various applications such as neurosurgery, wound closure, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, thoracic surgery, microvascular, cardiovascular orthopedic surgery, and others. For Purchase Enquiry:https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/68 North America to remain dominant, Asia-Pacific to grow the fastest North America contributed 43% of the total market share in 2017 and is anticipated to continue its dominance during the forecast period. The market in the region is primarily driven by the advent of new technologies, surge in elderly population, favorable regulatory frameworks, and high per capita income. However, Asia-Pacific would grow at the fastest CAGR of 9.0% from 2017 to 2023, owing to advancing medical tourism industry, pressing need to fulfill unmet healthcare needs, improving healthcare infrastructure in the region, and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases that require surgical procedures. The other regions explored in the study are Europe and Latin America, Middle East, and Africa (LAMEA). Torchbearers of the industry The key market players analyzed in the report include Medtronic Plc., Stryker Corporation, Johnsons & Johnsons, Conmed Corporation, Alcon Laboratories Inc., Smith & Nephew Plc, Zimmer Holdings Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, B. Braun Melsungen AG, and KLS Martin Group. The other companies profiled in this report include Abbott Laboratories, Applied Medical Resources Corporation, Microline Surgicals, Inc. (Subsidiary of Hoya Corporation), Olympus Corporation, Karl Storz GmbH & Co. Kg, Cook Medical Incorporated, Aspen Surgical Products, Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Intuitive Surgical, and Teleflex Incorporated. 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: Surgical Robotics Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017 - 2024 Electrosurgical Devices Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2016 - 2022 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. Contact: Shriram Dighe 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1?855?550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com LUXEMBOURG, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Millicom will announce its third quarter results for the period ending 30 September 2018, on 23 October 2018 at approximately 22:00 (Stockholm) / 21:00 (London) / 16:00 (New York) via a press release. The company will host a conference call for the global financial community on 24 October 2018 at 14:00 (Stockholm) / 13:00 (London) / 08:00 (New York). The conference call will be webcast at www.millicom.com Dial-in information: Please dial in 5-10 minutes before the scheduled start time to register your attendance. Dial-in numbers for the call are as follows: Sweden: +46 (0)8 5033 6574 Luxembourg: +352-2786-1336 UK: +44 (0)330 336 9105 US: +1-323-794-2423 The access code is: 2980751 Replay information: A replay of the call will be available for 7 days from 24 October 2018 at: Sweden: +46(0)8-5199-3077 UK: +44(0)207-660-0134 US: +1-719-457-0820 Replay passcode is: 2980751 For further information, please contact Press: Vivian Kobeh, Corporate Communications Director +1-305-476-7352 / +1-305-302-2858 press@millicom.com Investors: Michel Morin, VP Investor Relations +352-277 59094 investors@millicom.com Mauricio Pinzon, Investor Relations Manager Tel: +44-20-3249-2460 investors@millicom.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/millicom-international-cellular/r/notice-of-third-quarter-2018-results-and-conference-call,c2630696 The following files are available for download: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2018) - RosCan Minerals Corporation (TSXV: ROS) ("RosCan" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has changed the name of the Company to "RosCan Gold Corporation". Shareholders of the Company approved, among other things, the name change at the annual and special meeting of the Company held on April 26, 2018. Effective Monday October 1, 2018 the Company will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange as RosCan Gold Corporation under the trading symbol "ROS". ABOUT ROSCAN RosCan Minerals Corporation is a Canadian gold exploration company focussed on the acquisition and exploration of gold properties in West Africa. The Company has assembled a significant land position of 100%-owned permits in an area of large gold deposits for its Kandiole Project in West Mali. For further information, please contact: Greg Isenor President and Chief Executive Officer Tel: (902) 832-5555 or (416) 293-8437 Email: gpisenor@roscan.ca Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is 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. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable securities laws. 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. Friday 28thSeptember 2018 LONDON FINANCE & INVESTMENT GROUP P.L.C. ("Lonfin", "the Company" or "the Group") Unaudited Preliminary Results for the year ended 30thJune 2018 Dividend Declaration London Finance & Investment Group P.L.C. (LSE: LFI, JSE: LNF), the investment company 'whose assets primarily consist of Strategic Investments and a General Portfolio, today announces its unaudited Preliminary Results for the year ended 30thJune 2018 and the Board's Dividend Declaration. Strategy, Business Model and Investment Policy Lonfin is an investment company whose objective is to generate growth in shareholder value in real terms over the medium to long term whilst maintaining a progressive dividend policy. The Group's investment policy is to invest in a range of 'Strategic', 'General Portfolio' and from time to time 'Other Investments'. General Portfolio Investments comprise liquid stock market investments, both in equity instruments and bonds, and, at the Board's discretion, 'Other Investments' which are typically property and other physical assets. Strategic Investments are significant investments in smaller UK quoted companies; these are balanced by the General Portfolio, which consists of a broad range of investments in major USA, UK and other European companies which provides a diversified exposure to international equity markets. The Group's net assets per share for 2018 have remained broadly unchanged over the previous year at 65.4p and net assets per share have increased 107% over the last five years. Shareholders' dividends for 2018 have increased by 4.5% over the previous year and by 37.5% over the last five years. Results Net assets have remained broadly unchanged at 65.4p per share (2017 - 65.6p per share) Strategic Investments have decreased in value slightly, over the year, from 10,673,000 to 10,650,000 due to the fluctuation in share price of Finsbury Food Group Plc. Strategic investments are yielding 3.4% (2017 - 3.1%) The General Portfolio has decreased, adjusting for investment purchases and sales, over the year, by 0.8% from 10,766,000 to 10,676,000. Fair value movement is 140,000 No significant increase in Group operating costs A final dividend of 0.60p per share is recommended, making a total of 1.15p per share for the year (2017 - 1.1p) The Company and its subsidiaries ("Group") achieved an operating profit for the year, before interest, tax and changes to the fair value adjustments of investments of 306,000, compared to an operating profit for the previous year, before tax and changes to the fair value adjustments of investments, of 275,000. The significant increases in fair value of investments that occurred last year have not been repeated this year and, as a result, the Total Comprehensive Income for the year, comprising profit after tax and the other comprehensive income (the fair value adjustments, net of tax, of Strategic Investments) was 256,000 compared to 1,658,000 for the previous year. Basic earnings per share are 0.6p (2017- 3.5p) and headline earnings per share are 0.8p (2017 - 1.0p). Strategic Investments Strategic Investments have reduced in value by 23,000 due to the market movements in the share prices. Western Selection P.L.C. ("Western") The Group owns 7,860,515 ordinary shares, being 43.8% of the issued share capital of the Western. On 26thSeptember 2018, Western announced unaudited preliminary results showing a profit after tax of 784,000 for the year to 30thJune 2018 (2017 - profit after tax, of 850,000). Earnings per share were 4.4p (2017- 4.7p). Western paid an interim dividend of 1.1p in March this year and proposes a final dividend of 1.15p making 2.25p for the year (2017 - 2.2p). Western's net assets at market value at 30thJune 2018 were 17,342,000 equivalent to 96p per share, an increase of 1% from 95p last year. Our share of the net assets of Western, including the value of Western's investments at market value, was 7,595,000 (2017 - 7,500,000). The fair value for Western recorded in the Statement of Financial Position is the market value of 3,930,000 (2017 - 3,773,000). This represents 19% (2017 - 18%) of the net assets of the group. Western's objective is to generate growth in value for shareholders over the medium to long term and pay a progressive dividend. Western's business model is to take sizeable minority stakes in relatively small companies usually before or as their shares are admitted to trading on one of the UK's stock exchanges and have directors in common through which they can provide advice and support for these growing companies. These may or may not become associated companies. The aim is that these companies ("Core Holdings") will grow to a stage at which Western's support is no longer required and its stake can be sold over time into the relevant stock market. Companies that are targeted as Core Holdings will have an experienced management team, a credible business model and good prospects for growth. Western is a strategic investment which is technically a subsidiary of the Company that has not been consolidated due to the application of the investment entity exemption under IFRS 10. David Marshall is the Chairman of Western and Edward Beale is non-executive director. Western's main Core Holdings are Northbridge Industrial Services Plc, Swallowfield Plc, Bilby Plc and Tudor Rose International Limited. An extract from Western's announcement on 26thSeptember 2018 relating to its main Core Holdings is set out below: Core Holdings Northbridge Industrial Services plc ("Northbridge") Northbridge hires and sells specialist industrial equipment to a non-cyclical customer base. With offices or agents in the UK, USA, Dubai, Germany, Belgium, France, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil and Korea, Northbridge has a global customer base. This includes utility companies, the oil and gas sector, shipping, construction and the public sector. The product range includes loadbanks, transformers and oil tools. Further information about Northbridge is available on their website: www.northbridgegroup.co.uk Northbridge, which is admitted to trading on AIM, announced its results for the year ended 31stDecember 2017 on 12thApril 2018 and recorded a loss after tax of 4,626,000 for the year. No dividend was recommended by Northbridge and no dividends were received by Western from Northbridge during the year. During the year, Western invested 95,000 in acquiring 76,368 new ordinary shares in Northbridge pursuant to a share placing. Western now holds 3,300,000 Northbridge shares which represents 12.6% of Northbridge's enlarged issued share capital. The value of this investment at 30thJune 2018 was 4,290,000 (2017 - 3,320,000) which represents approximately 25% (2017 - 19%) of Western's net assets. David Marshall is a non-executive director of Northbridge. Swallowfield plc ("Swallowfield") Swallowfield is a market leader in the development, formulation, manufacture and supply of cosmetics, toiletries and related household products for global brands and retailers operating in the cosmetics, personal care and household goods market. Further information about Swallowfield is available on their website: www.swallowfield.com Swallowfield, which is admitted to trading on AIM, announced its results for the 53 weeks ended 30thJune 2018 on 25thSeptember 2018 and recorded a profit after tax of 3,633,000 compared to a profit after tax of 2,572,000 for the comparable period last year. Dividends of 78,500 were received from Swallowfield during the year (2017 - 66,900). A final dividend of 4.2p per share has been declared and, if approved, Western will receive a further 54,600 of income in December 2018. In March this year, Western sold 200,000 Swallowfield shares, realising a profit of 443,000, during the year. At the reporting date, being 30thJune 2018, Western held 1,300,000 Swallowfield shares which represented 7.7% of Swallowfield's issued share capital. The market value of our reduced holding in Swallowfield on 30thJune 2018 had decreased to 4,095,000 from the value of our holding at 30thJune 2017 of 5,700,000. The value of this investment represents approximately 23.6% (2017 - 33%) of Western's net assets. Edward Beale is a non-executive director of Swallowfield. Bilby Plc ("Bilby") Bilby is an established, and award winning, provider of gas installation, maintenance and general building services to local authority and housing associations across London and South East England. They have a strategy of growing organically and by acquisition. Further information about Bilby is available on their website: www.bilbyplc.com. Bilby, which is admitted to trading on AIM, announced its results for the year ended 31stMarch 2018 on 16thJuly 2018 showing a profit after tax of 3,450,000 compared to a loss after tax of 180,000 for the previous year ended 31st March 2017. Dividends of 54,000 were received from Bilby during the year (2017 - 53,000). Bilby announced a final dividend of 2.0p per share which was paid in July 2018 and which provided Western with further income of 54,000. Western holds 2,700,000 Bilby shares which represents approximately 6.7% of Bilby's issued share capital. The market value of this investment on 30thJune 2018 was 2,835,000 (2017- 1,917,000) which represents approximately 16% (2017 - 11%) of Western's net assets. Tudor Rose International Limited ("Tudor Rose International") Tudor Rose International works closely with a number of leading UK branded fast-moving consumer goods companies, offering a complete sale, marketing and logistical service. Based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, Tudor Rose International sells into 78 countries worldwide including USA, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, Australia and China. Western holds 441,090 A ordinary shares in Tudor Rose International which represents 49.5% of the company's issued share capital. Western also holds 1,000,000 of redeemable preference shares in Tudor Rose International at a par value of 1p per share. The Company has made available to Tudor Rose International a working capital facility of 750,000, bearing interest at the rate of base + 5% per annum, which has been fully drawn down at the year end. Tudor Rose International, which is a private company, has a 31st December year end and, in the year to 30thJune 2018, generated a trading profit before tax of 130,140. Turnover in the period was 19,032,000 (2017 - 17,145,000). Western's share of a profit after tax for the twelve months to 30thJune 2018 was 41,000 (2017 - profit 49,550) and the book value of the investment at 30thJune 2018 was 1,633,000 (2017 - 1,647,000) being 9.4 % (2017 -10%) of Western's net assets. Including the loans to Tudor Rose International and its directors (942,000), the total book value of the investment comes to 2,575,000 which is 15% of Western's net assets. Western has two nominees on the board of Tudor Rose International: Edward Beale and David Marshall. Finsbury Food Group plc ("Finsbury") Finsbury is one of the largest producers and suppliers of premium cakes, bread and morning goods in the UK and currently supplies most of the UK's major supermarket chains. Further information about Finsbury, which is admitted to trading on AIM, is available on its website: www.finsburyfoods.co.uk At 30thJune 2018, Lonfin held 6,000,000 Finsbury shares, representing 4.6% of Finsbury's issued share capital. The market value of the holding was 6,720,000 as at 30thJune 2018 (cost - 1,724,000) and represents approximately 33% (2017 - 34%) of Lonfin's net assets. On 17thSeptember 2018, Finsbury announced audited adjusted profits on continuing operations after tax and minority interests of 13,508,000 for the 52 weeks ended 30thJune 2018 (2017 - adjusted profits 12,958,000). Finsbury paid an interim dividend of 1.1p in April 2018 and has recommended to its shareholders a final dividend of 2.2p per share, making 3.3p for the year (2017 - 3p). The final dividend, if approved, will be paid in December 2018 and will provide the Company with further income of 132,000. Edward Beale was a non-executive director of Finsbury up until 23rdNovember 2017. General Portfolio The investments comprising the General Portfolio at 30thJune 2018 are listed below. Composition of General Portfolio At 30thJune 2018 000 % LVMH Moet Hennessey 504 4.7 Diageo 463 4.3 Schindler Holdings 457 4.3 Investor AB 429 4.0 Pernod Ricard 427 4.0 Unilever 423 4.0 Heineken Holding 411 3.8 Henkel 400 3.7 Antofagasta 396 3.7 L'Oreal 395 3.7 HSBC Holdings 391 3.7 Royal Dutch Shell 387 3.6 Brown-Forman 380 3.6 British American Tobacco 375 3.5 Chevron Corp 373 3.5 Givaudan 361 3.4 Nestle 346 3.2 Danone 334 3.1 3M Co 328 3.1 United Technologies Corp 322 3.0 Exxon Mobil Corp 313 2.9 Phillip Morris International Inc 311 2.9 Reckitt Benckiser Group 306 2.9 BASF 304 2.8 Anheuser Busch Inbev 285 2.7 Kimberley Clark Corp 271 2.5 Procter & Gamble Co 266 2.5 Becton Dickinson & Co 254 2.4 Imperial Brands 251 2.4 Compagnie Financiere Richemont 213 2.1 10,676 100.0 Analysis by currency 000 % Euro 3,060 29 Sterling 2,991 28 US Dollar 2,820 26 Swiss Franc 1,376 13 Swedish Kronas 429 4 10,676 100.0 The General Portfolio is diverse with material interests in Food and Beverages, Natural Resources, Chemicals and Tobacco. We believe that the portfolio of quality companies we hold has the potential to outperform the market in the medium to long term. At 30thJune 2018, the number of holdings in the General Portfolio was 30 (2017 - 30). We have increased the amount invested in the General Portfolio over the year by 1,000 (2017 - increased by 2,767,000). The opening value of our General Portfolio investments at 30thJune 2017 was 10,766,000 which compared with a cost of such investments at the same date of 6,053,000. After investment purchases during the year of 699,000 and investment sales (including selling expenses) during the same period of 698,000, the value of the General Portfolio investments as at 30thJune 2018 had decreased by 0.8% to 10,676,492. Board Changes Following Michael Robotham's retirement on 6thDecember 2017, after a long period of service to the Company as a non-executive director, it is with regret that the Board reports to shareholders that Michael passed away peacefully on 16th April 2018. Along with his family and friends, he will be greatly missed by members of the Board who he, as a fellow director, supported and provided good counsel to the Company for many years. Following Michael Robotham's retirement, the Board looked to strengthen the Board and on 31stJanuary 2018, the Company announced the appointment of Warwick Marshall. Warwick is the son of David Marshall, the Chairman. In 1996, Warwick established the trading division of the Monteagle Group initially trading in retailer branded fast moving consumer goods, and then later diversifying into metals, minerals and logistics. This profitable division of the Monteagle Group now turns over in excess of US$350 million annually. He also has extensive investment experience in his private capacity. Whilst the Board is satisfied that it now has a sufficient spread of skills, experience and support within the Board to operate the Company and to develop the Company's investment business, the Board will be seeking to identify further suitable Board candidates who can add value. Operations, Directors and Employees All of our operations and those of Western, with the exception of investment selection, are outsourced to our subsidiary, City Group PLC ("City Group"). City Group also provides office accommodation, company secretarial and head office finance services to a number of other companies. City Group is responsible for the initial identification and appraisal of potential new strategic investments for the Company and the day to day monitoring of existing strategic investments. Dividend The Board recommends a final dividend of 0.60p per share, making a total of 1.15p per ordinary share for the year (2017 - 1.1p). Subject to shareholders' approval at the Company's AGM to be held on 4thDecember 2018, the dividend will be paid on Tuesday, 18thDecember 2018 to those shareholders on the register at the close of business on Friday, 23rd November 2018. Shareholders on the South African register will receive their dividend in South African rand converted from sterling at the closing rate of exchange on Thursday, 20thSeptember 2018 being GBP1= ZAR 18.73341. JSE Disclosure Requirements In respect of the normal gross cash dividend, and in terms of the South African Tax Act, the following dividend tax ruling only applies to those shareholders who are registered on the South African register on Friday, 23rdNovember 2018. The number of shares in issue as at the dividend declaration date is 31,207,479; The dividend has been declared from income reserves, funds are sourced from the Company's main bank account in London and is regarded as a foreign dividend by South African shareholders; and The Company's UK Income Tax reference number is 948/L32120. Dividend dates: Last date to trade (SA) Tuesday, 20th November 2018 Shares trade ex-dividend (SA) Wednesday, 21st November 2018 Shares trade ex-dividend (UK) Thursday, 22nd November 2018 Record date (UK and SA) Friday, 23rd November 2018 Pay date Tuesday, 18th December 2018 The JSE Listings Requirements requires disclosure of additional information in relation to any dividend payments. Shareholders registered on the South African register are advised that a dividend withholding tax will be withheld from the gross final dividend amount of 11.24005 SA cents per share at a rate of 20% unless a shareholder qualifies for an exemption; shareholders registered on the South African register who do not qualify for an exemption will therefore receive a net dividend of 8.99204 SA cents per share. The dividend withholding tax and the information contained in this paragraph is only of direct application to shareholders registered on the South African register, who should direct any questions about the application of the dividend withholding tax to Computershare Investor Services (Pty) Limited, Tel: +27 11 370 5000. Share certificates may not be de-materialised or re-materialised between Wednesday, 21stNovember 2018 and Friday, 23rdNovember 2018, both days inclusive. Shares may not be transferred between the registers in London and South Africa during this period either. Outlook Political and economic uncertainty around the world continues and in particular in the UK given the ongoing negotiations with the EU over the terms for Brexit. There are clearly greater challenges ahead but your Board believes the Company's mix of Strategic Investments and the Company's General Portfolio of international investments will give us opportunity to outperform the broader market in the medium to long term. Future Developments The future development of the Group is dependent on the success of the Group's Investment Strategy in the light of economic and equity market developments and the continued support of its Shareholders. A resolution will be put to Shareholders at the forthcoming AGM to amend the Company's Investment Policy so that up to 40 investments may be held in the Company's General Portfolio at any time. Aside from this change, the Board will maintain the current Investment Policy for the foreseeable future and has no plans to make any further changes to the policy. 28thSeptember 2018 The annual report and accounts will be finalised shortly and sent to shareholders. This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014. The directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement. For further information, please contact: London Finance & Investment Group P.L.C.: 020 7796 9060 (David Marshall/Edward Beale) Johannesburg Sponsor: Sasfin Capital (a member of the Sasfin Group) Consolidated Statement of Total Comprehensive Income For the year ended 30th June Operating Income 2018 2017 000 000 Dividends received 674 608 Rental and other income 107 109 Profits on sales of investments 26 3 Management service fees 274 296 1,081 1,016 Administrative expenses Investment operations (411) (352) Management services (364) (389) Total administrative expenses (775) (741) Operating profit 306 275 Unrealised changes in the carrying value of General Portfolio investments (117) 989 Interest payable (14) (33) Profit before taxation 175 1,231 Tax Income/ (expense) 20 (121) Profit after taxation 195 1,110 Non-controlling interest (8) (7) Profit attributable to shareholders 187 1,103 Other comprehensive income/(expense) Unrealised changes in the carrying value of Strategic investments (23) 477 Profit on sale of investments - 217 Other taxation - Deferred tax 42 99 Corporation tax 50 (238) Total Other Comprehensive Income 69 555 Total Comprehensive Income attributable to owners of the parent 256 1,658 Reconciliation of headline earnings Basic and diluted earnings per share 0.6p 3.5p Adjustment for the unrealised changes in the carrying value of investments, net of tax 0.2p (2.5)p Headline earnings per share 0.8p 1.0p Consolidated Statement of Financial Position At 30th June 2018 2017 000 000 Non-current Assets Property, Plant and Equipment 13 14 Investments 10,650 10,673 10,663 10,687 Current Assets Listed investments 10,676 10,766 Trade and other receivables 251 220 Cash and cash equivalents 304 222 11,231 11,208 Current Liabilities Trade and other payables (346) (250) Current tax liabilities - (236) Borrowings (325) - (671) (486) Net Current Assets 10,560 10,722 Deferred Taxation (722) (829) Total Assets less Total Liabilities 20,501 20,580 Capital and Reserves Ordinary share capital 1,560 1,560 Share premium account 2,320 2,320 Unrealised profits and losses on investments 8,056 8,265 Share of retained realised profits and losses of subsidiaries 4,207 3,794 Company's retained realised profits and losses 4,253 4,544 Capital and reserves attributable to owners 20,396 20,483 Non-controlling equity interests 105 97 Total Capital and Reserves 20,501 20,580 Company Statement of Financial Position At 30th June 2018 2017 000 000 Non-current Assets Investments in Group companies 902 1,071 Current Assets Listed investments 10,676 10,766 Trade and other receivables 36 26 Cash and cash equivalents 99 101 10,811 10,893 Current Liabilities Trade and other payables (126) (117) Borrowings (325) - (451) (117) Net Current Assets 10,360 10,776 Deferred Taxation (343) (408) Total Assets less Total Liabilities 10,919 11,439 Capital and Reserves Ordinary share capital 1,560 1,560 Share premium account 2,320 2,320 Unrealised profits and losses on investments 2,786 3,015 6,666 6,895 Realised Profit and Loss Balance at 1st July 4,544 4,928 Net Profit/(Loss) for the period 52 (41) Dividends paid (343) (343) Balance at 30th June 4,253 4,544 Equity shareholders' funds 10,919 11,439 Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows For the year ended 30th June Not 2018 2017 000 000 Cash flows from operating activities Profit before tax 175 1,231 Adjustments for non-cash - Finance expense 14 33 Depreciation charges 9 8 Unrealised changes in the fair value of investments 117 (989) Realised gain on disposal of investments (26) (3) Decrease/(Increase)in trade and other receivables (32) 52 (Decrease)/Increase in trade and other payables 96 (66) Taxes paid 7 (230) (45) Net cash inflow from operating activities 123 221 Cash flows from investment activity Acquisition of property, plant and equipment (8) - Acquisition of current investments (699) (2,856) Disposal of current investment 12 698 207 Disposal of non-current investment - 2,438 Net cash inflow/(outflow) from investment activity (9) (211) Cash flows from financing Interest paid (14) (33) Equity dividends paid (343) (343) Net drawdown of loan facilities 15 325 - Net cash outflow from financing (32) (376) (Decrease)/Increase in cash and cash equivalents 19 82 (366) Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year 222 588 Cash and cash equivalents at end of the year 304 222 Company Statement of Cash Flows For the year ended 30th June 2018 2017 000 000 Cash flows from operating activities (Loss)/Profit before tax (197) 878 Adjustments for non-cash and non-operating activities - Finance expense 14 33 Unrealised changes in the fair value of investments 117 (989) Realised gain on disposal of investments (26) (3) (Increase)/Decrease in trade and other receivables (10) 1 Increase in trade and other payables 8 24 Overseas Taxes paid (44) (45) Net cash (outflow) from operating activities (138) (101) Cash flows from investment activity Acquisition of investments (699) (2,856) Disposal of investments 698 207 Net cash inflow/(outflow) from investment activity (1) (2,649) Cash flows from financing Interest paid (14) (33) Equity dividends paid (343) (343) Decrease in loan to subsidiary 169 2,776 Net drawdown/(repayment) of loan facilities 325 - Net cash inflow from financing 137 2,400 (Decrease)/Increase in cash and cash equivalents (2) (350) Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year 101 451 Cash and cash equivalents at end of the year 99 101 Consolidated Statement of Changes in Shareholders' Equity Ordinary Share Capital Share Premium Account Unrealised Profits and Losses on Investments Share of Retained Profits and Losses of Subsidiaries Retained Realised Profits & Losses Total Non-Controlling Interests Total Equity 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 Year ended 30th June 2017 Balances at 1st July 2016 1,560 2,320 8,539 1,821 4,928 19,168 90 19,258 Profit for the Year - - 913 231 (41) 1,103 7 1,110 Other Comprehensive Income/(Expense) - - (1,187) 1,742 - 555 - 555 Total comprehensive income - - (274) 1,973 (41) 1,658 7 1,665 Dividends paid and total transactions with shareholders - - - - (343) (343) - (343) Balances at 30th June 2017 1,560 2,320 8,265 3,794 4,544 20,483 97 20,580 Year ended 30th June 2018 Balances at 1st July 2017 1,560 2,320 8,265 3,794 4,544 20,483 97 20,580 Profit/(loss) for the Year - - (228) 363 52 187 8 195 Other Comprehensive Income/(Expense) - - 19 50 - 69 - 69 Total comprehensive income - - (209) 413 52 256 8 264 Dividends paid and total transactions with shareholders - - - - (343) (343) - (343) Balances at 30th June 2018 1,560 2,320 8,056 4,207 4,253 20,396 105 20,501 Company Statement of Changes in Shareholders' Equity Ordinary Share Capital Share Premium Account Unrealised Profits and Losses on Investments Realised Profits & Losses Equity Total 000 000 000 000 000 Year ended 30th June 2017 Balances at 1st July 2016 1,560 2,320 2,219 4,928 11,027 Profit/(loss)for the Year and total comprehensive income - - 796 (41) 755 Dividends paid and total transactions with shareholders - - - (343) (343) Balances at 30th June 2017 1,560 2,320 3,015 4,544 11,439 Year ended 30th June 2018 Balances at 1st July 2017 1,560 2,320 3,015 4,544 11,439 Profit/(loss) for the Year and total comprehensive income - - (229) 52 (177) Dividends paid and total transactions with shareholders - - - (343) (343) Balances at 30th June 2018 1,560 2,320 2,786 4,253 10,919 Notes: 1. Basic earnings per share and Headline earnings per share Basic earnings per share are based on the profit attributable to the shareholders after tax and non-controlling interests of 187,000 (2017 - 1,103,000) and on 31,207,479 shares (2017 - 31,207,479) being the weighted average of the number of shares in issue during the year. Headline earnings are required to be disclosed by the JSE. Headline earnings per share are based on the profit attributable to the shareholders after tax and non-controlling interests, before unrealised changes in the fair value of investments net of tax, of 240,000 (2017 - 309,000) and on 31,207,479 (2017 - 31,207,479) shares being the weighted average of the number of shares in issue during the year. The adjustments for the unrealised changes in the carrying value of investments, net of tax, are 53,000 (2017 - 794,000). 2. Net assets per share The net assets per share are calculated taking investments at fair value and on 31,207,479 shares (2017 - 31,207,479) being the weighted average of the number of shares in issue during the year. 3. Financial information The financial information in this preliminary announcement does not constitute the Company's statutory accounts for the year ended 30th June 2018. The accounts have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the European Union and with those parts of the Companies Act 2006 applicable to companies reporting under IFRS. The accounts are prepared on the historical cost bases, except for certain assets and liabilities which are measured at fair value, in accordance with IFRS. The audited accounts for the Group for the year ended 30thJune 2017 were reported on with an unqualified audit report and did not contain an emphasis of matter paragraph or any statement under section 498 of the Companies Act 2006 and have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. Copies of this notification are held at the Company's office, 6 Middle Street, London, EC1A 7JA (tel. 020 7796 9060) and are available for a period of 14 days from the date of this announcement. 28 September 2018 BWA GROUP PLC ("BWA" or the "Company") Audited Results for the year ended 30 April 2018 REVIEW OF BUSINESS As you are aware, the objective of the Company is to find a suitable candidate for a reverse take-over and, in the meantime, to invest in smaller opportunities that may arise. As shareholders will also be aware, finding suitable candidates is a time-consuming process but the Board continues to try hard to bring a transaction to fruition. Your Directors have continued to nurture the two early stage investments in which the Company already has a direct interest, namely Prepaid Global Services Limited (formerly Prego International Limited) and Mineralfields Group Limited. Both investments are held as Available-For-Sale as it is the intention to realise their value as soon as practicable. Mineralfields Group Limited is the holding company of a small group which has been attempting to obtain mining licences in Cameroon. Progress has been hampered by the company not being listed so during the year BWA decided, in agreement with Mineralfields Group, to make its own application for 5 licences each of 500 sq.km. through a wholly-owned subsidiary in Cameroon, BWA Resources Cameroon Limited. This is the maximum area for which any one company can apply. In the last twelve months there have been two visits to Cameroon to meet the Minister of Mines and his senior staff to seek to expedite the issue of the licences for which we have applied. The British High Commissioner in Cameroon is following the applications on our behalf. In the event our application is successful BWA will negotiate an operating agreement with Mineralfields Group. The Company's holding in Mineralfields has been valued at 0.1p per share which is the price at which shares were issued in the most recent funding round and which accounts for the value attributed to them in these accounts of 293,261. To finance the activities of both Mineralfields Group and BWA Resources Cameroon Limited, in February 2018, BWA Group plc issued 220,000 nominal of convertible loan notes (of which 150,000 was issued for cash). The convertible loan notes are convertible on 31 December 2019 for BWA Group plc shares at a price of 0.5p per share. The whole of the Company's investment in Cameroon, including loans made to Mineralfields and BWA Resources (UK) Limited is carried in the balance sheet at 453,963. Prepaid Global Services Limited is a programme manager for the issuance of Prepaid Master- and Visa-Cards, targeted at migrant workers in the Far East and Europe, with an initial concentration in the case of Europe on Norway and the Scandinavian countries. Prepaid's development has been considerably slower than we originally hoped but we are working to produce an acceptable result for our shareholders. Prepaid's intention remains to list its shares on a European stock exchange at the earliest opportunity, possibly by means of a takeover. The Company's investment in Prepaid is valued at 314,364 which is the price at which BWA last sold a small part of its holding. The Board is hopeful that these two investments will yield a return over the medium term having obtained the additional finance they require, obtained market listings or been the subject of trade sales. In the meantime, your Directors will continue their search for suitable opportunities in the Mining and FinTech fields or other transactions which will transform the Company's activities. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR The key performance indicator of the company is the valuation of its investment portfolio. At 30 April 2018 the value of the company's portfolio was 610,046 (2017: 618,271). For further information, please contact: BWA Group Plc Richard Battersby (Non-Executive Chairman) 07836 238 172 Peterhouse Capital Limited Mark Anwyl 020 7469 0930 INCOME STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2018 2018 2017 TURNOVER - - Administrative expenses 62,232 31,322 (62,232) (31,322) Other operating income 891 12,000 OPERATING LOSS (61,341) (19,322) Interest receivable and similar income 10 16 (61,331) (19,306) Interest payable and similar expenses 7,510 - LOSS BEFORE TAXATION (68,841) (19,306) Tax on loss - - LOSS FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR (68,841) (19,306) Earnings per share expressed in pence per share: Basic -0.06 -0.02 Diluted -0.06 -0.02 OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2018 2018 2017 LOSS FOR THE YEAR (68,841) (19,306) OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME Unrealised gain/(loss) on revaluation of investments (8,226) (206) Income tax relating to other comprehensive income - - OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME FOR THE YEAR, NET OF INCOME TAX (8,226) (206) TOTAL COMPREHENSIVE LOSS FOR THE YEAR (77,067) (19,512) BALANCE SHEET AS AT 30 APRIL 2018 2018 2017 FIXED ASSETS Available-for-sale investments 610,046 618,271 CURRENT ASSETS Debtors 160,701 15,774 Cash at bank 76,345 16,980 237,046 32,754 CREDITORS Amounts falling due within one year 82,742 80,611 NET CURRENT ASSETS/(LIABILITIES) 144,304 (47,857) TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES 764,350 570,414 CAPITAL AND RESERVES Called up share capital 602,659 560,788 Share premium 12,663 12,663 A-F-S revaluation reserve 609,655 617,881 Capital redemption reserve 288,625 288,625 Equity reserves 225,364 - Retained earnings (974,616) (909,543) SHAREHOLDERS' FUNDS 764,350 570,414 The Company's audited accounts for the year ended 30 April 2018 contain the following statement by the Company's auditors: "Emphasis of matter - Going concern In forming our opinion on the financial statements, which is not modified, we have considered the adequacy of the disclosure made in note 3 to the financial statements concerning the company's ability to continue as a going concern. At 30 April 2018 the company had incurred a loss of 68,841 (2017: 19,306 loss). These conditions, along with the other matters explained in note 3 to the financial statements, indicate the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements do not include the adjustments that would result if the company was unable to continue as a going concern. Emphasis of matter We draw your attention to note 3 of the financial statements, which describes the accounting policy regarding the valuation of unquoted investments. We note that there is significant uncertainty regarding the key assumptions which the directors used when valuing these investments. Specifically, the investment in Mineralfields Group Ltd is highly dependent on the ability of the directors to both obtain and retain the mining licences in Cameroon, discussed in the Strategic Report. The investment in Prepaid Global Services Ltd is essentially contingent on the ability of the company to list its shares on a European stock exchange. Our opinion is not modified in this respect." The Directors do not recommend the payment of a dividend. The information above has been extracted from BWA's audited accounts for the year ended 30 April 2018. The Directors of BWA are responsible for the contents of this announcement. 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. Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., former CEO Gregory Wasson, and former CFO Wade Miquelon with misleading investors about increased risk that the company would miss a key financial goal announced when Walgreen Co. entered into a merger with Alliance Boots GmbH in 2012. Walgreens agreed to pay a $34.5 million penalty to settle the SEC's enforcement action. According to the SEC's order, Walgreens announced a two-step merger with Alliance Boots in June 2012, and at the same time projected that the combined entity would generate $9 billion to $9.5 billion in combined adjusted operating income in the 2016 fiscal year. After completing the first step of the merger, Walgreens' internal forecasts indicated that the risk of missing its 2016 projection had increasing significantly. But Walgreens, Wasson, and Miquelon repeatedly publicly reaffirmed the projections without adequately disclosing the increased risk. When Walgreens subsequently announced that it was moving forward with the second step of the merger in August 2014, it announced a new earnings per share goal that translated to an adjusted operating income projection of $7.2 billion for fiscal 2016, a 20 percent decline over its initial projection. Walgreens' stock price dropped 14.3% on the day of the announcement. "Over multiple reporting periods, senior Walgreens executives misled investors about the company's public financial goal," said Stephanie Avakian, Co-Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "The penalty assessed against Walgreens is intended to punish and deter such conduct, which deprived investors of information necessary to make fully informed investment decisions." Melissa Hodgman, Associate Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, added, "As this case shows, we are committed to holding corporate executives accountable when they are in the best position to ensure that disclosures are accurate and not misleading." Without admitting or denying the findings, Walgreens, Wasson, and Miquelon consented to the entry of an SEC order finding that they violated the antifraud provision contained in Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, which prohibits the use of untrue statements or omissions in the offer or sale of securities. The SEC's order requires each of the respondents to cease and desist from further violations of that provision, and also requires Walgreens Boots Alliance to pay a $34.5 million penalty, and Wasson and Miquelon to each pay a $160,000 penalty. The SEC's investigation was conducted by W. Bradley Ney and D. Ashley Dolan and supervised by Melissa Robertson in the Washington, D.C. headquarters. TORONTO, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- (In United States dollars, except where noted otherwise) First Quantum Minerals Ltd. ("First Quantum" or the "Company", TSX Symbol "FM") today noted the following proposed changes to the Zambian mining tax regime that are pertinent to the Company. The proposed changes were included in the country's 2019 budget delivered on September 28, 2018 to the National Assembly and are expected to take effect from January 1, 2019. Mineral Royalty changes: Increase mineral royalty rates by 1.5% at all levels of the existing scale Introduce a fourth tier rate at 10% which applies when copper price above $7,500 per tonne per tonne Make mineral royalty tax non-deductible for income tax purposes Other key measures Introduce an import duty of 5% on copper and cobalt concentrates Introduce an export levy on precious metals including gold of 15% Abolish Value Added Tax and introduce a non-refundable Sales Tax (no detail on Sales Tax rate yet announced). Impact of the Mineral Royalty rate increase by 1.5% on 2017 All In Sustaining Cost (AISC): Kansanshi AISC per lb would increase from $1.54 /lb to $1.58 /lb /lb to /lb Sentinel AISC per lb would increase from $2.19 /lb to $2.23 /lb /lb to /lb Group AISC per lb would increase from $1.65 /lb to $1.68 /lb It is expected that there would also be an impact of the non-refundable Sales Tax on C1 and AISC however the rate is not yet known. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of First Quantum Minerals Ltd. G. CliveNewall President For further information visit our website at http://www.first-quantum.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Certain statements, information and analysis contained herein are based on the details of the 2019 Zambian budget as announced by the government of Zambia, and on assumptions in respect of the implementation of the same. The forward-looking statements include estimates, forecasts and statements as to the Company's expectations of production and sales volumes, and expected timing of completion of project development at Cobre Panama and Enterprise and are subject to the impact of ore grades on future production, the potential of production disruptions, capital expenditure and mine production costs, the outcome of mine permitting, other required permitting, the outcome of legal proceedings which involve the Company, information with respect to the future price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources, First Quantum's exploration and development program, estimated future expenses, exploration and development capital requirements, the Company's hedging policy, and goals and strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words 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 statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about continuing production at all operating facilities, the price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, anticipated costs and expenditures and the ability to achieve the Company's goals. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to, future production volumes and costs, the temporary or permanent closure of uneconomic operations, costs for inputs such as oil, power and sulphur, political stability in Zambia, Peru, Mauritania, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Panama, Argentina and Australia, adverse weather conditions in Zambia, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Mauritania and Panama, labour disruptions, potential social and environmental challenges, power supply, mechanical failures, water supply, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations, and the production of off-spec material. See the Company's Annual Information Form for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information. Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause actual results, performances, achievements or events not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of these factors are beyond First Quantum's control. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. All forward-looking statements and information made herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. United Kingdom contact: Clive Newall President Tel: +44(0)-780-272-1663 Fax: +44(0)-20-612-8674 E-Mail: clive.newall@fqml.com North American contact: Sharon Loung Director Investor Relations Tel: +1-(647)-346-3934 Fax: +1-(604)-688-3818 Toll Free: +1-(888)-688-6577 E-Mail: sharon.loung@fqml.com AKKA ranks as the European leader in engineering consulting and R&D services in the mobility sector. As an innovation accelerator for its clients, AKKA supports leading industry players in the automotive, aerospace, rail and life-sciences sectors throughout the life cycle of their products with cutting edge digital technologies (AI, ADAS, IoT, Big Data, robotics, embedded computing, machine learning, etc.). Founded 1984, AKKA has a strong entrepreneurial culture and is pursuing is its fast-paced growth and international development in line with its strategic plan CLEAR 2022. With 16,300 employees in 29 countries, who are passionate about technology and dedicated to advancing the future of industry, the Group recorded revenues of 1.3 billion in 2017. 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. Washington, D.C--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Stryker Corp. with violating the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the second time the SEC has brought an FCPA action against the Michigan-based medical device company. Stryker agreed to settle the charges and pay a $7.8 million penalty. The SEC's order found that Stryker's internal accounting controls were not sufficient to detect the risk of improper payments in sales of Stryker products in India, China, and Kuwait, and that Stryker's India subsidiary failed to maintain complete and accurate books and records. "Stryker's failures to implement sufficient internal accounting controls and keep accurate books and records are unacceptable, especially as this is not the first time the company has been charged for these types of violations," said Marc P. Berger, Director of the SEC's New York Regional Office. "The penalty ordered along with the imposition of a compliance consultant are appropriate and necessary." Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, Stryker consented to the entry of an order requiring the company to cease and desist from committing violations of the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the FCPA and pay a $7.8 million penalty. In October 2013, Stryker settled charges of FCPA violations and was required to pay a $3.5 million penalty plus more than $7.5 million in disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and more than $2.2 million in interest. Stryker also must now retain an independent compliance consultant to review and evaluate its internal controls, record-keeping, and anti-corruption policies and procedures relating to use of dealers, agents, distributors, sub-distributors, and other such third parties that sell on behalf of Stryker. The SEC's investigation was conducted by William Martin, Brenda Wai Ming Chang, and Thomas P. Smith Jr. of the New York office and Devon A. Brown, Andrew Shirley, and Brian O. Quinn out of Washington D.C. The case was supervised by Sanjay Wadhwa. Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell is confident, this time around, that Grenadians will vote in favour of the CCJ being their final appellate court (Credit: Dominica News Online) Left: Senator Ray Roberts, Labour Representative in the Senate, has warned Grenadians to be mindful about the current state of affairs in their country. (Credit: Grenada Broadcast) Grenadians, for a second time, will vote in a referendum to say whether or not they want the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as their final appellate court. The November 6, 2018 CCJ referendum stands alone as a single bill, having been previously included as one of seven bills but which were rejected by the people in a referendum of November 24, 2016. The Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) government, unlike the first time around in 2016, has embarked upon a high-pitch campaign in support of a Yes vote in the November 6, 2018 referendum. They have brought in a number of high-profile regional figures to promote its Yes vote, including the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and former CCJ President, Sir Denis Byron of St. Kitts. PM Mitchell is confident that he can get Grenadians to vote for the CCJ this time around, since in 2016 he did not campaign for the CCJ bill. The Grenadian leader is confident of prevailing on November 6, given his third 15-0 clean sweep at the polls on March 13. But at least two well-known Grenadians have voiced concerns about a Yes vote. The New Today Newspaper reported that former Public Servant, Joseph K. Roberts staged a one-man protest last week Friday, at the entrance of Mt. Wheldale, the road leading to the newly opened Parliament Building, while the Senate was in session. He was reported as saying that the bill was not in the "main interest and authority of the people, and that it sent a message of disrespect to them from the powers-that-be. "I am saying it is unfair, we need respect, I am saying to the people I am here on a Vote No Campaign saying to the people, there is no harm in voting no, Roberts told reporters. Against that backdrop, he issued a call for the people to come out on Referendum Day on November 6th and "vote no to the CCJ Bill. Meanwhile, Senator Ray Roberts, in his weekly column in the New Today Newspaper, and in an effort to give some backdrop to the referendum, asked: "What difference will the CCJ make to an increasing corrupted Grenada democracy? He warned that Grenadians ought not to be fooled that ridding themselves of the Privy Council and all other symbols of our colonial past will manifest themselves into an era of all that is wonderful. (Source: The New Today) Merrill Lynch B.V. today informs its security holders that its unaudited interim accounts for the six months ended June 30, 2018 has been filed with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (the "AFM"), the competent authority of the Netherlands, Merrill Lynch B.V.'s home Member State. Merrill Lynch B.V. makes available free of charge on its website its Annual and Half-Yearly Financial Reports filed with the AFM as soon as reasonably practicable after Merrill Lynch B.V. electronically files these documents with the AFM. These documents are posted on Bank of America Corporation's website at http://investor.bankofamerica.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=71595&p=merrill_lynch under "Subsidiary Financials." The AFM maintains a website that contains reports and other information that issuers are required to file with it. These materials may be obtained electronically by accessing the AFM's page at http://www.afm.nl/en/professionals/registers/alle-huidige-registers.aspx. Copies of the above referenced information will also be made available, free of charge, by calling +31-20-5925-606 or upon written request to: Merrill Lynch B.V. Amstelplein 1, Rembrandt Tower 27 Floor, 1096 HA, Amsterdam The Netherlands View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005415/en/ Contacts: Armstrong Okobia, Merrill Lynch B.V. +31-20-5925-606 Societe de la Tour Eiffel announces the change in its Executive Management The Board of Directors, meeting today under the chairmanship of Hubert Rodarie, has modified the composition of the Company's Executive Management. In accordance with the provisions of the Articles of Association, the Board noted the end of Philippe Lemoine's term as Chief Executive Officer and, further to the proposal of the Appointments and Compensation Committee, Thomas Georgeon has been appointed Chief Executive Officer for a three-year term. On the latter's proposal, the Board of Directors has also decided to appoint Bruno Meyer as Deputy Chief Oeprating Officer for a 3-year term. The Chairman of Societe de la Tour Eiffel, Hubert Rodarie, joined all the Directors in warmly thanking Philippe Lemoine for his invaluable contribution over the last four years to the attainment of all the objectives of the real estate company's growth and development plan, doubling the size of its real estate portfolio while unfolding a clear strategy of business parks and services complexes, both in the Ile de France and in the other regions of France. To support the transition, on request from the Board of Directors, Philippe Lemoine will act as Consultant to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for a period ending in 2019. "The change is in line with our strategy and development plan implemented over the past four years. The new Executive Management will have as its main task to continue and accentuate the growth strategy of the property company," said Hubert Rodarie, Chairman. Thomas Georgeon joined Societe de la Tour Eiffel as Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the start of September 2018. At 43, a graduate of the Ecole Centrale Paris, his career up to now had been with the Bouygues group. Program Manager at Sodearif (currently Linkcity) for 4 years, then head of tenders for many Public Private Partnerships (PPP), including the Palais de Justice in Paris or the Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt, he was then in charge of a business unit at Bouygues Batiment IdF Renovation Privee, specializing in the renovation of office buildings. Bruno Meyer has been Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Societe de la Tour Eiffel since October 2014. Aged 59, with a Postgraduate Accounting Studies Diploma (DECS), he began his career at the Financial Department of the Atomic Energy Commission and then joined the General Inspectorate of the Europeenne de Banque and CIC Paris. In 1992, he joined the UIS, a listed credit institution, specializing in corporate real estate financing where he successively held several positions including that of Central Director. Further to the acquisition of the UIS in 1998 by the American group General Electric, Bruno Meyer became Chief Financial Officer of GE Real Estate France, then from 2000 to 2004, was appointed head of management control for GE Real Estate Europe. Early in 2005, as Chief Financial Officer, he took part in the creation and the IPO of the CBoTerritoria property company. From 2008 to 2010 he was Chief Financial Officer of Eurosic. Before joining Societe de la Tour Eiffel, since 2010 Bruno Meyer had been Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Silic. About Societe de la Tour Eiffel A listed real estate investment company (SIIC) on NYSE Euronext Paris, the company pursues a strategy focused on the ownership and the development of quality offices capable of attracting a wide range of quality tenants. The company's portfolio stood at 1.159bn Euros for close to 500,000 sq. m of assets mainly located in the Paris region as at 30 June 2018. Societe de la Tour Eiffel is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris (Compartment B) - ISIN Code: FR0000036816 - Reuters: TEIF.PA - Bloomberg: EIFF.FP - Indexes: IEIF Foncieres, IEIF Immobilier France www.societetoureiffel.com Press Contact Jean-Philippe MOCCI / Capmot Tel: +33 (0)1 81 70 96 33/+33 (0)6 71 91 18 83 ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-55283-2018_09_28-press_release-bulletin-_thomas_georgeon_-bruno-meyer.pdf RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shell Brasil Petroleo Ltda, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell"), and its bid consortium member Chevron Brasil Oleo & Gas Ltda ("Chevron"), today won a 35-year production sharing contract for the Saturno pre-salt block located off the coast of Brazil in the Santos Basin. Shell will pay its share of the total signing bonus for the block, equating to approximately USD $390 million [R$ 1,562 billion]. "We are pleased to add another material, operated exploration position to our leading portfolio in one of the world's most prolific deep-water areas," said Andy Brown, Upstream Director, Royal Dutch Shell. "We continue to grow an exciting and resilient Upstream business of long-term competitive positions in our heartlands while maintaining strong, capital discipline." With the addition of the Saturno block (Shell 50% operating, Chevron 50%) won today at the Fifth Pre-Salt Bid Round, Shell increases its total net acreage off the coast of Brazil to approximately 2.7 million acres. Shell will engage with Chevron to define specific plans for exploration drilling in the area won today. Shell is a major oil and gas producer in Brazil with a clear strategy to continue developing an industry leading portfolio of pre-salt acreage through exploration. The company plans to drill the Alto de Cabo Frio West and South Gato do Mato pre-salt fields in the Santos Basin next year and is proceeding with seismic studies to mature two exploration blocks awarded earlier this year. Since 2014, Shell has more than doubled its global, deep-water production and expects to exceed 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent by 2020, coming from previously discovered areas in Brazil, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Nigeria, and Malaysia. The company is also developing deep-water, exploration plans for its acreage off the coast of Mexico, Mauritania, and in the Western Black Sea. Cautionary Note Resources: Our use of the term "resources" in this publication includes quantities of oil and gas not yet classified as SEC proved oil and gas reserves. Resources are consistent with the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) 2P + 2C definitions. The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this release "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. 'Subsidiaries', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this release refer to companies over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to "joint ventures" and "joint operations" respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as "associates". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest. This release contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as 'anticipate', 'believe', 'could', 'estimate', 'expect', 'goals', 'intend', 'may', 'objectives', 'outlook', 'plan', 'probably', 'project', 'risks', "schedule", 'seek', 'should', 'target', 'will' and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. No assurance is provided that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell's 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov ). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward-looking statements contained in this release and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this release, September 28, 2018. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this [report]. We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this release that United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/449079/shell_oil_company_logo.jpg Washington DC--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged San Francisco-based LendingClub Asset Management LLC (formerly known as LendingClub Advisors LLC) and its former president Renaud Laplanche with fraud for improperly using fund money to benefit LendingClub Corporation, LCA's parent company that Laplanche founded and for which he served as CEO. LCA and Laplanche along with Carrie Dolan, LCA's former CFO, also were charged with improperly adjusting fund returns. All three have agreed to settle the agency's charges against them and will pay more than $4.2 million in combined penalties. The SEC also barred Laplanche from the securities industry. According to the SEC's order, LCA provides investment advisory services to several private funds that purchase loan interests offered by LendingClub Corporation, a publicly-traded online marketplace lending company. LCA and Laplanche caused one of the private funds it managed to purchase interests in certain loans that were at risk of going unfunded, to benefit LendingClub, not the fund, in breach of LCA's fiduciary duty. The order also finds that LCA, Laplanche, and Dolan improperly adjusted monthly returns for this fund and other LCA-managed funds to improve the returns they reported to fund investors. "Investment advisers have an obligation to put their clients' interests ahead of their own," said Daniel Michael, Chief of the SEC's Complex Financial Instruments Unit. "By using funds managed by LCA to benefit its parent company, LCA and Laplanche failed to do so." "Investors depend on fund advisers to give them the straight scoop on performance so they can make informed investment decisions," said Jina Choi, Director of the SEC's San Francisco Regional Office. "Advisers who adjust their valuation processes to boost results are in breach of their duties to investors." The SEC's order finds that LCA, Laplanche, and Dolan each violated the antifraud provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. To settle the SEC's charges, LCA, Laplanche and Dolan agreed to pay penalties of $4 million, $200,000, and $65,000, respectively. Laplanche also agreed to a securities industry bar and investment company prohibition. The SEC's order permits Laplanche to apply for re-entry after three years. LCA, Laplanche, and Dolan agreed to the entry of the SEC's order without admitting or denying the findings. The SEC's Enforcement Division determined not to recommend charges against LendingClub Corporation, which promptly self-reported its executives' misconduct following a review initiated by its board of directors, thoroughly remediated, and provided extraordinary cooperation with the agency's investigation. LCA also reimbursed approximately $1 million to investors who were adversely impacted by the improperly adjusted monthly returns. The SEC's investigation was conducted by Jason Casey and Amy Sumner of the Complex Financial Instruments Unit and Chrissy Filipp and Crystal Boodoo of the San Francisco Regional Office. The case was supervised by Laura Metcalfe, Monique Winkler, and Erin Schneider. The SEC appreciates the cooperation of the U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC has agreed to settle charges brought by the SEC and the Office of the New York Attorney General regarding material misrepresentations and omissions made in connection with its now-closed Retail Execution Services (RES) business' handling of certain customer orders. The settlements require Credit Suisse to pay $5 million to the SEC and $5 million to the NYAG for a total of $10 million. According to the SEC's order, Credit Suisse created the RES desk to execute orders for other broker-dealers that handle order flow on behalf of retail investors. The SEC's order finds that although RES promoted its access to dark pool liquidity to customers, the firm executed an exceedingly minimal number of held orders - orders that must be executed immediately at the current market price - in dark pools from September 2011 to December 2012. The SEC's order also finds that although Credit Suisse touted "robust" and "enhanced" price improvement on orders, RES's computer code treated orders for which execution quality is required to be publicly reported differently from orders for which execution quality is not publicly reported. The SEC's order finds that from mid-2011 to March 2015, retail customers did not receive any price improvement from RES on their non-reportable orders, which Credit Suisse failed to disclose. The SEC's order also finds that for these non-reportable orders, RES disproportionately used a routing tactic that generally caused market impact and resulted in less favorable execution prices for customers, despite claiming to benefit RES's customers. The use of this routing tactic provided RES an opportunity to profit from its execution of the final portions of those customer orders internally. "Market makers that handle retail orders must be transparent with their customers about how orders will be executed and how the market maker will profit from their customers' trades," said Marc P. Berger, Director of the SEC's New York Regional Office. "The settlement holds Credit Suisse accountable for failing to accurately disclose important information about the nature and quality of its execution of trades for retail investors." The SEC's order finds that Credit Suisse negligently violated Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act. In addition to imposing the penalty, the SEC's order censures Credit Suisse and requires that it cease and desist from further violations. Credit Suisse consented to the SEC's order without admitting or denying the findings. The SEC's investigation was conducted by Howard Kim, David Oliwenstein, and Steven G. Rawlings with assistance from Ilan Felix in the New York Regional Office's Examination Program and Lei Yu of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis. The investigation was supervised by Lara Shalov Mehraban of the New York office and Joseph G. Sansone of the Market Abuse Unit. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the NYAG. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2018) - Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. (TSXV: PEMC) ("Pacific Empire", "PEMC" or the "Company"), a hybrid prospect generator focused in British Columbia, is pleased to report that its drill crews has been mobilized to the Moffat property to begin a reverse circulation ("RC") drill program. Three target areas have been prioritized for RC drill testing based on the presence of roughly ovate magnetic signatures. PEMC has an exploration permit to complete up to 25 RC drill holes. The Moffat Property is situated approximately 20 km southeast of the Woodjam Cu-Au-Mo developed prospect in south-central British Columbia. The program will be expanding upon historical drilling results while testing targets outlined from an airborne magnetic survey flown over the property by PEMC in May of 2018. Moffat Property Drill Targets with Airborne Magnetics To view an enhanced version of the Drill Targets, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5412/38987_a1538157890605_44.jpg Brad Peters, Pacific Empire's President and CEO, states: "We are excited to begin testing targets on the Moffat property. The presence of multiple target areas with road access is ideally suited for the Company's track-mounted RC drill." Qualified Person Rory Ritchie, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company, serves as a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed the scientific and technical information in this news release, approving the disclosure herein. About Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. PEMC is an exploration company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that employs a "hybrid prospect generator" business model and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PEMC. The Company's strong portfolio of projects is a result of continuous generative work conducted since the Company's inception in 2012. By integrating the project generator business model with low-cost RC drilling, the company intends to leverage its portfolio by identifying, and focusing on, the highest quality projects for partnerships and advancement. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD, "Brad Peters" President and Chief Executive Officer Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. Tel: +1-604-356-6246 brad@pemcorp.ca www.pemcorp.ca 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. Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mineral exploration; fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume and the additional risks identified the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against clearing firm COR Clearing LLC for failing to report suspicious sales of penny stock shares totaling millions of dollars. As part of the settlement, COR has agreed to exit a key penny stock clearing business by significantly limiting the sale of penny stocks deposited at COR. Broker-dealers are required to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for transactions suspected to involve fraud or with no apparent lawful purpose. According to an SEC alert dated March 29, 2016, microcap securities are more susceptible to manipulation and it is often easier for fraudsters to manipulate the price of microcap stocks because microcap stocks historically have been less liquid than the stock of larger companies. The SEC's order finds that in 2016, COR ranked second among all broker-dealers in the total dollar value of sub-$1 penny stocks that it cleared, and from January 2015 to June 2016, COR cleared for sale a significant amount of penny stock on behalf of customers of its introducing broker-dealers. The SEC finds that approximately 193 customer accounts deposited large blocks of low-priced securities, quickly sold these securities into the market, and then withdrew the cash proceeds. The SEC further finds that in some instances the same customers engaged in this suspicious pattern with multiple securities. According to the order, COR failed to file SARs with respect to a subset of the foregoing transactions and, as a result, violated the securities laws. "SAR filings by both introducing and clearing brokers, especially those who transact in the microcap space, are critically important to the regulatory and law enforcement communities," said Marc P. Berger, Director of the SEC's New York Regional Office. "The penalty imposed and the limitation placed on COR's business reflect how seriously we take the failure to file SARs in the face of numerous red flags." Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, COR agreed to a settlement that requires it to not sell penny stocks deposited at COR with certain narrow exceptions and pay an $800,000 penalty. COR also consented to a censure and to cease and desist from similar violations in the future. The SEC investigation was conducted by Jorge G. Tenreiro, Elizabeth Baier, Michael Fioribello, and Sandeep Satwalekar in the New York office with assistance from the Enforcement Division's Bank Secrecy Act Review Group. The case was supervised by Lara Shalov Mehraban. The SEC's examination that led to the enforcement action was conducted by Edward Janowsky, Stephen Bilezikjian, and Dennis Koval, and supervised by Steven Vitulano of the New York office. JUPITER, Florida, Sept. 28 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Amidst looming concern with the EB-5 Regional Center program potentially expiring on September 30th, 2018 - over the last week, the U.S. Congress has passed legislation that extends the program in its current form, through December 7th, 2018. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/751670/USIF.jpg The bill includes funding or continuation of services for the Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019 and Continuing Appropriations Act which includes a Continuing Resolution that extends the regional center program authorization through December 7th, 2018. The resolution extends the program without any changes. Both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have voted to approve this legislation. Today at noon, the President held a signing ceremony in the Oval Office and signed the legislation, extending the regional center program through December 7th. While extensions have been short in the past, industry experts are anticipating a long-term reauthorization plan after the mid-term elections on November 2, 2018. Bernard Wolfsdorf, managing partner of Wolfsdorf Rosenthal, a top-rated immigration law firm providing immigration and visa services predicts that, "while Congress has attempted to reform the EB-5 program for several years, my view is the stars are now in alignment and we can expect to see new legislation before the end of 2018. I am hopeful Congress will provide meaningful reform including a long-term extension, reasonable grandfathering of TEA rules and a moderate increase in the minimum investment amount so that the already diminished demand is not cut-off. Most important, I am hopeful Congress will correct the program to 10,000 investors not only allow 3,000 investors and their family annually." U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF) will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide any new information as it becomes available. USIF is America's leading EB-5 Regional Center operator with world-renowned investment opportunities from New York City to California and 6,000 clients from across the globe. With approved Regional Centers located in the world's most thriving cities, USIF provides worthwhile opportunities for foreign investors and their families to obtain permanent U.S. residency through the EB-5 Program. These initiatives enjoy full government support as they stimulate the economy, generate at least ten jobs per investment, and promote community development while providing access to green cards for foreign investors and their families. Contact: U.S Immigration Fund 115 Front Street suite 300, Jupiter, FL 33477 (561) 799-1883 publicrelations@usifund.com Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2018) - Sona Nanotech Inc. (TSXV: SPT) ("Sona" or the "Company") further to the Company's press releases dated September 18, 2017 and March 26, 2018, Sona is pleased to announce that it has completed the amalgamation of its predecessor companies, Stockport Exploration Inc. and Sona Nanotech Ltd. to form "Sona Nanotech Inc." as a federally amalgamated corporation, as more particularly described below under the heading, "The Amalgamation". Sona has reduced the pricing of the previously private placement of common shares of the Company from $0.40 per share to $0.25 per share. The Company has now completed this private placement of its common shares at $0.25 per share to raise gross proceeds of $2,000,000, by the issuance of 8,000,000 common shares (the "Offering"). In connection with the Offering, the Company has paid $150,000 in finder's fees and issued finder's share purchase warrants to Numus Capital Corp., a private company controlled by a director and consultant to Sona, for the right to purchase up to 600,000 common shares at an exercise price of $0.25 per share until September 27, 2020. The net proceeds from the Offering will be used by Sona to fund its business development and for general working capital. Overview of Sona Sona is a nano technology life sciences firm that has developed two proprietary methods for the manufacture of rod shaped gold nanoparticles. The principal business carried out and intended to be continued by Sona is the research and development of its proprietary technology for use in multiplex diagonostic testing platforms that will improve performance over existing tests in the market. Sona's gold nanorod particles are CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium) free, eliminating the toxicity risks associated with the use of other gold nanorod technologies in medical applications. It is expected that Sona's gold nano technologies may be adapted for use in applications, as a safe and effective delivery system for multiple medical treatments, pending the approval of various regulatory boards including Health Canada and the FDA. The Amalgamation Pursuant to the terms of the Amalgamation, every four (4) common shares of Stockport were exchanged for one (1) common share of Sona (the "Sona Shares"); and every 1.5802 common shares of Sona Nanotech Ltd. were exchanged for one (1) Sona Share. The amalgamation was completed on August 8, 2018. The Company voluntarily delisted its common shares from the TSX Venture Exchange on August 7, 2018, and proposes to file an application for listing its common shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE"). The Company received conditional approval for the CSE listing on July 27, 2018, and listing on the CSE is subject to the Company fulfilling all listing requirements. For More Information For more information about Sona, please contact: Darren Rowles President and Chief Executive Officer Telephone: (902) 442-0653 Email: darren@sonanano.com FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Company's current expectations. When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release includes information relating to the use of proceeds from the Offering, and the implementation of Sona's business plan. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company with respect to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: risks associated with the marketing and sale of securities, the need for additional financing, reliance on key personnel, the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors, and the volatility of the Company's common share price and volume. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to Sona's proposed business, such as failure of the business strategy and government regulation; risks related to Sona's operations, such as additional financing requirements and access to capital, reliance on key and qualified personnel, insurance, competition, intellectual property and reliable supply chains; risks related to Sona and its business generally, such as infringement of intellectual property rights and conflicts of interest. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on the Company's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS PRESS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES The sling shot one of the weapons Forestry officials advise against. The hunting season begins at midnight this Sunday. Wild meat lovers, as expected, will welcome this with salivating mouths. The long wait is over. But even as the hunt is on for the wildlife in our forest, Law Compliance Enforcement Officer in the Department of Forestry Department, Bradford Latham, is encouraging citizens to select their catches with consideration and their hunting tools with discretion. Latham is discouraging persons from using gadgets like the air rifle, blow pipe and sling shot. These may be "effective but they harm the animals, he said at last Wednesdays Forestry Focus exhibition held in Kingstown. And for aquatic life, Latham suggests the use of fishing baskets, rod and nets, and encouraged hunters to return premature catches to their habitat. He urged hunters to: "Do it the right way. The 'National Agriculture Export Policy' is formulated in line with the vision to double the farmers' income and increase the share of agricultural exports from present about $30 billion to over $60 billion by 2022. New Delhi: The Cabinet may approve India's Agriculture Export Policy in the next few days, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Friday. Stable trade policy regime, reforms in the APMC Act, streamlining of Mandi fee and liberalisation of land leasing norms are some of the key recommendations of the draft agriculture export policy, which seeks to double the shipment to over $60 billion by 2022. "We have already come out with Agriculture Export Policy, which should be approved by the Cabinet in the next few days because inter-ministerial consultation, which takes some time, is already in advanced stage and once we do that there can be huge opportunities," Prabhu said while addressing a FICCI event. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last month a new agriculture export policy will be unveiled soon to boost farm income as the government is on track to achieve the target of doubling farmers' income by 2022. Prabhu said the thrust now is to promote India's exports and to identify opportunities not only in large markets but in areas where there are immediate opportunities. The commerce ministry had come out with the draft agriculture export policy earlier this year. The draft policy has pitched for greater involvement of states, improvement in infrastructure and logistics, and promotion of R&D activities for new product development for the upcoming markets. The 'National Agriculture Export Policy' is formulated in line with the vision to double the farmers' income and increase the share of agricultural exports from present about $30 billion to over $60 billion by 2022. It also aims to boost high value and value added agricultural exports, focusing on perishables; to provide an institutional mechanism for tackling market access barriers and deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues; and to become one of the top 10 exporting countries of agricultural products and strive to double India's share in world agri exports. Amazon's rival Flipkart, backed by American retail corporation Walmart, also expects gross sales from its Big Billion Days to double from last year to more than $1 billion E-commerce major Amazon is reportedly expecting its gross sales (excluding grocery) to jump two to five times during the Great Indian Festival sale, scheduled from 10-15 October, a media report said. We are expecting a bumper Diwali in every sense. We believe we have a very complete portfolio of best-sellers making it bigger and better, Manish Tiwary, vice-president of category management at Amazon was quoted as saying by Mint. Amazon's rival Flipkart, backed by American retail corporation Walmart, also expects gross sales from its Big Billion Days to double from last year to more than $1 billion (Rs 7,250 crore), according to The Economic Times. Flipkart will host its The Big Billion Days festive sale from 10-14 October. Amazon is confident of clocking strong growth this festive season in India, driven by the availability of a large selection of products and big brands as well as new customers coming onto its platform, especially from tier II and III towns. Amazon India, which competes head-on with Flipkart, will be lining up new launches across various categories and dishing out discount offers to woo Indian shoppers. "Each festive sale (Great Indian Festival) has been bigger than the previous one. We feel confident because we have new customers coming in. More than 70 per cent of new customers are expected to come from tier II and III towns," Amazon India Vice President (Category Management) Manish Tiwary told PTI on Thursday. He added that big brands like OnePlus, Xiaomi and Samsung across categories like mobile phones, large appliances and others are also lining up their products during the festive sale. The company doesn't share country-specific details on number of customers and revenue. Asked about the segments that would drive growth, Tiwary said every category is expected to do well with many of them witnessing 10X growth. "We expect mobile phones, fashion and large appliances categories to do really well," he added. Tiwary pointed out that the company is also lining up finance options, including EMI on debit cards and Amazon Pay wallet, to ease purchases through its platform. Amazon India has also set up a festive home showcase, where it is displaying more than 1,600 of the over 170 million products available on its platform. With inputs from PTI Calling on businesses to adopt ethical practices, Jaitley said that entities should pay their due share of taxes as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) will shut doors on fly-by-night' operators. New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley Friday said the ongoing global trade war may have created initial instability, but will gradually open up opportunities for India as a bigger trading and manufacturing base. Calling on businesses to adopt ethical practices, Jaitley said that entities should pay their due share of taxes as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) will shut doors on fly-by-night' operators. Speaking at the annual session of PHD Chamber of Commerce, Jaitley said some global trends do adversely affect India, but going ahead they will open up avenues for the country to grow faster. The trade war initially created instability, but eventually may open up greater markets. They will open up India as a bigger trading and manufacturing base and, therefore, we must closely watch the situation as to when the challenge turns into an opportunity, Jaitley said in his video conference address. Experts say that the ongoing trade war between the US and China could make Indian products, like machinery, electrical equipment, vehicles and transport parts, chemicals, plastics and rubber products, competitive in the US markets. Jaitley said the rising oil prices, too, pose a challenge for the economy, since India is a net importer of crude oil. India is 81 percent dependent on imports to meet its oil needs. India is the third-largest importer of crude oil, and rising international crude oil prices are inflating domestic transport fuel rates in a strong demand environment. Brent, the benchmark for half of world's oil, climbed to $80 per barrel from $71 in the last five weeks. Not withstanding these challenges, I'm quite certain that in the days and years to come, there are great opportunities for India in order to grow, the minister said. Asking businesses to be ethical in their practices, Jaitley said post the IBC, doors will be shut on fly-by-night operators and those with ethical practices will find a much greater opportunity to continue their businesses. While free trade is allowed the emphasis also has to be on ethics of the business. Those who should be paying taxes must be paying taxes and the taxpayers should not be burdened with those who evade taxes. Therefore, one of the most ethical practices has to be to bring in those who evade taxes within the tax net, the minister said. The IBC, Jaitley said, has imposed a new ethics on Indian businesses when you take money from lenders you have to service the debt, it can't be that the lenders spend sleepless night after lending money to Indian businesses. It will pay to be ethical - that is the kind of culture we are trying to introduce and that is the kind of culture Indian businesses should encourage, he said. The merger is likely to have a negative short-term financial impact on Bank of Baroda, due to the weak financial profile of Dena Bank New Delhi: The proposed merger of Bank of Baroda (BoB) with two mid-sized PSU lenders shows the willingness of the government to go ahead with difficult reforms in the banking sector, Fitch Ratings said Friday. The government had last week announced its plan to merge BoB with Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank to create the third largest bank in the country. The boards of each bank will meet to give a go-ahead to the proposed merger. Consolidation is likely to be part of the government's strategy to deal with small, weak banks, and should ultimately put the banking system in a better position to support a fast-growing economy, Fitch noted. The Indian government's announcement of a proposed merger of Bank of Baroda and two mid-sized state-owned banks underlines its apparent willingness to follow through on difficult reforms in the state-owned banking sector, Fitch Ratings said. It said BoB is likely to be the resulting entity post-merger and will become the third-largest Indian bank, overtaking both Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank, in terms of assets, but would remain behind State Bank of India and HDFC Bank. The proposed merger will be an important test case for future consolidation. This merger, therefore, involves more potential complications than the recent amalgamation of State Bank of India with its five associate banks, Fitch said. It said confrontational trade unions pose the most significant immediate challenge for the proposed merger, while integrating cultures will be important over the long term. The merger is likely to have a negative short-term financial impact on Bank of Baroda, due to the weak financial profile of Dena Bank, it said. The rating agency has already placed BoB's viability rating of 'bb' on rating watch negative and will review the rating once details of the merger are available. It said the merger could also be a sign of the government's growing impatience with the weak state banks. Out of 21 state-owned banks, 11 lenders, including Dena, are currently under RBI's prompt corrective action framework, having fallen below benchmarks for capital, non-performing loans or profitability. Most of these could be candidates for future mergers. Further consolidation could provide state banks with stronger pricing power and more clout with borrowers, supporting the long-term health of the sector, it added Fitch said BoB will remain highly likely to receive extraordinary government support, if needed, as its systemic importance will increase after the merger. Bank of Baroda also remains one of the few state-owned banks with capacity to raise equity from capital markets, while the government has also committed to provide BoB with additional capital to support the merger, Fitch added. By Carolina Mandl SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Petroleo Brasileiro SA will pay an $853.2 million fine to settle U.S. criminal charges that the Brazilian state-run oil company bribed politicians and then sought to conceal the payments, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday By Carolina Mandl SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Petroleo Brasileiro SA will pay an $853.2 million fine to settle U.S. criminal charges that the Brazilian state-run oil company bribed politicians and then sought to conceal the payments, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday. Shares in Petrobras, as the company is known, were up 4.2 percent in early afternoon, helped by investors' perception that the pact is another step toward getting past the painful legacy of the landmark "Car Wash" investigation. "Executives at the highest levels of Petrobras including members of its executive board and board of directors facilitated the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Brazilian politicians and political parties and then cooked the books to conceal the bribe payments from investors and regulators, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski said in a statement. Petrobras said in a statement that it had acknowledged responsibility for "violations of books and records and internal controls provisions." Executives responsible for this have already left Petrobras, the company said, noting that the company did not admit wrongdoing on the bribery allegation. Under the agreement, which settles violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Petrobras will deposit $682.6 million, or 80 percent of the penalties, in a special fund in Brazil, with the remainder of the fine being split between the DOJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Brazilian federal prosecutors will determine how Petrobras should allocate money in the fund into social and educational programs in an agreement yet to be settled. Petrobras said in a statement that the deal "puts an end to the uncertainties, risks, burdens and costs of potential prosecution and protracted litigation in the United States." The oil company will take a third-quarter 3.6 billion real charge - the local currency equivalent of the penalty. SHARES UP Although Petrobras had not already provisioned for the U.S. settlement, XP Investimentos' analyst Gabriel Francisco said the penalties will not hurt the companies' results. "The fines will not hinder Petrobras' plans of reaching a net debt of $69 billion by year end, as it has a comfortable cash position" said the analyst. "The deal means the end of a chapter." Still, although Petrobras has settled a dispute with the U.S. authorities, it still faces other demands for compensation related to the Car Wash probe. Earlier this month, for instance, a Dutch court ruled that shareholders in Petrobras will have their complaints heard. Argentine investors also initiated this month an arbitration proceeding against the firm for losses related to the corruption probe. (Reporting by Carolina Mandl; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Marguerita Choy) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada on Thursday shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism that talks to modernize NAFTA were moving too slowly and made clear it had to keep negotiating as long as there was a chance of success By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada on Thursday shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism that talks to modernize NAFTA were moving too slowly and made clear it had to keep negotiating as long as there was a chance of success. The prospects for a quick deal to update the North American Free Trade Agreement appeared to dim on Wednesday after Trump blasted Canada's stance and threatened to impose tariffs on cars imported from Canada. "The Americans are finding that the negotiations are tough because Canadians are tough negotiators, as we should be," Trudeau told reporters on the way into a regular weekly cabinet meeting in Ottawa. "But a good fair deal is still very possible. We won't sign a bad deal for Canadians," he added, saying his office had not requested a private meeting with Trump. He declined to answer when asked whether Trump had lied. The United States has imposed a Sept. 30 deadline for Canada to agree to the text of a new NAFTA. The 1994 deal underpins $1.2 trillion in annual trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States. Canada, which sends 75 percent of its goods exports to the United States, is vulnerable. The Canadian dollar weakened to its lowest in more than two weeks against the U.S. greenback early on Thursday before recovering slightly. But insiders - who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation - say there is no alternative for Canada but to keep trying to settle the differences between the two nations and ignore mounting pressure from the U.S. administration. "Plan A, B, C and D is NAFTA. If the government listened to everything the Trump team said about the negotiations we'd never get anything done," said one source with direct knowledge of Ottawa's stance. Washington has already wrapped up a deal with Mexico, the third NAFTA member, and is due to publish the text on Friday. Although U.S. lawmakers said they expected that text to completely exclude Canada, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has made clear Ottawa could sign on later. Canadian officials say there is no enormous rush to get an agreement since any move to recast NAFTA as a bilateral deal would have to be approved by the U.S. Congress. Some U.S. legislators - echoing comments by business leaders - say the agreement must stay a three-nation affair. Rep Brian Higgins, a Democrat whose district borders Canada in upstate New York, attended a briefing by Lighthizer and afterwards attacked the plan to proceed with Mexico. "(Lighthizer) indicated there was no deal with Canada, but the hope is that Canada will come in later on, which I think is totally unacceptable. This is an abject failure," Higgins told reporters. One Canadian government source said there was a significant chance that Congress would balk at any move to turn NAFTA into a bilateral pact. "Think of the disruption that changing NAFTA would cause. Is Congress really going to back that?" said a second Canadian government source, citing a study showing many hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs could be at stake. Yet people close to Trudeau acknowledge that it is quite possible Trump might slap tariffs on Canadian autos, which would have major consequences. That said, insiders have consistently played down the idea that U.S. pressure could be politically damaging for Trudeau's ruling Liberals, in the short term at least, predicting opposition politicians would be forced to back the government at a time of crisis. Trump also appeared to attack Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Wednesday, saying the U.S. team did not like Canada's representative at the talks. Canadian government ministers lined up to praise Freeland before the cabinet meeting on Thursday. "Minister Freeland is doing an outstanding job at a very difficult task on behalf of all Canadians," said Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott. (Additional reporting by David Lawder at the United Nations; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. IL&FS has an aggregate debt pile of Rs 91,000 crore and it has been downgraded to junk status by rating agencies following the default. New Delhi: IL&FS Financial Services Thursday said it has defaulted on seven fresh payment obligations worth Rs 395.46 crore. The company was unable to service its obligations in respect of bank loans (including interest), term deposit and short-term deposit, it said in a regulatory filing. These defaults were in respect of five bank loans (including interest) totalling Rs 239.50 crore, term deposit obligation of Rs 103.53 crore and short-term deposit worth Rs 52.43 crore. The short-term deposit of Rs 52.43 crore was due for 27 September, 2018, while the term deposit of Rs 103.53 crore was to be serviced on 25 September. In bank loan repayments, it defaulted on Rs 100.60 crore and Rs 50.30 crore obligations due for 24 September, while a Rs 62.90 crore loan due on 26 September could not be serviced. It also defaulted on loan repayments of Rs 50.20 crore (due 16 September) and Rs 20.50 crore (12 September), IL&FS Services said in the filing. Having already declared three defaults this month, the company has thus far not been able to service a total of 10 obligations. On Monday, it had disclosed defaulting on interest payments on commercial papers. Following this, the company has been barred from accessing the commercial papers market for up to six months from the date of repayment of this obligation. The troubled IL&FS group has been on a spree of defaults which led to resignation of IL&FS Financial Services Managing Director and Chief Executive Ramesh C Bawa and some key board members on 21 September. Amidst monetary defaults, the group is also grappling with corporate governance issues. IL&FS has an aggregate debt pile of Rs 91,000 crore and it has been downgraded to junk status by rating agencies following the default. Of this, Rs 57,000 crore are bank loans alone, most of which are from state-run lenders. State-owned LIC is the largest shareholder with a fourth of the firm's equity, while Orix Corporation of Japan owns 23.5 percent. Other shareholders include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority with 12.5 percent stake, IL&FS Employees Welfare Trust with 12 percent, HDFC with 9.02 percent, Central Bank of India with 7.67 percent and State Bank of India (SBI) with 6.42 percent at March-end 2018. IL&FS Financial Services earlier also informed the stock exchanges that Infrastructure Leasing & Finance Services Limited (IL&FS), the promoter and majority shareholder of the company, filed an application with the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench on 24 September seeking certain reliefs in connection with filing of a scheme of arrangement under Section 230 of the Companies Act, 2013. LIC and SBI have stated that they will not let the financial conglomerate to collapse and efforts are on to help the entity. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is conducting the audit in the areas of flight operations quality assurance, operations and training Mumbai: Aviation regulator DGCA has commenced a special safety audit of domestic airlines following the direction of aviation minister Suresh Prabhu in the wake of a series of incidents, both on the ground and in the skies, a senior official said Thursday. The special audit is currently being conducted on all Delhi-based scheduled air operators, while the exercise on the Mumbai-based airlines will be carried out from 15 October, the DGCA official told PTI. Of the nine scheduled operators, budget carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet have their AOP (air operator permit) registered in Gurugram, while full-service carrier Vistara has Delhi as its registered office. National carrier Air India, its subsidiary Air India Express and private operators Jet Airways, JetLite and GoAir have their registered offices. Another budget carrier AirAsia India has its AOP registered in Bengaluru. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is conducting the audit in the areas of flight operations quality assurance, operations and training, the official said. Prabhu had on 21 September ordered a safety audit of all scheduled airlines and airports, amid a number of incidents related to the safety of passengers. "Besides carrying out an audit of airlines' operations and training facilities and programmes, we are also conducing audit of the performance of their crew," the official said. The minister had directed officials concerned to prepare a comprehensive safety audit plan, which involves assessment of safety parameters of all scheduled airlines, aerodromes, flying training schools and MROs (maintenance, repair and overhaul organisations) immediately, soon after the Jet Airways Mumbai-Jaipur flight incident. On 21 September, at least 30 passengers on a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Jaipur suffered nose and ear bleeding after the crew "forgot" to turn on a switch that controls the cabin air pressure. In recent times, there have been incidents of mid-air engine failures as well, involving the Pratt and Whitney (P&W) engine-powered Airbus A320 Neo planes being operated by IndiGo and GoAir. Significantly, both Jet Airways and Air India have also gone through a comprehensive financial audit from the DGCA recently. In addition, the regulator has only recently concluded an audit into the training programme of the two airlines, which are facing severe cash crunch. The financial audit of airlines is done to assess their fiscal health and ensure that they are not compromising on safety aspects due to financial stress. Earlier this month, the LIC board had taken decision on the modalities and timeline for increasing stake in IDBI Bank to 51 percent. Mumbai: State-owned IDBI Bank said on Friday its board will meet next week to consider preferential allotment of up to 51 percent shares to insurance behemoth LIC to acquire the debt-ridden bank. In a regulatory filing, IDBI Bank said it has received a letter from LIC conveying approval of their Board of Directors for subscribing to the equity capital of the bank, through preferential issue /open offer, up to 51 percent, as an acquisition of controlling stake as promoter in the bank. IDBI Bank further said its board will meet on 4 October to "consider the preferential allotment of equity shares to LIC aggregating up to 51 percent..." Earlier this month, the LIC board had taken decision on the modalities and timeline for increasing stake in IDBI Bank to 51 percent. The bank, in which the government holds 85.96 percent 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 in June had permitted LIC to increase its stake from 10.82 percent to 51 percent in the IDBI Bank. As per current regulations, an insurance company cannot own more than 15 percent 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. IDBI Bank's scrip closed at Rs 50 on BSE, up 0.40 percent. The IL&FS group is facing serious liquidity crisis and has defaulted on interest payment on various debt repayments since 27 August. It has over Rs 91,000 crore in debt at the consolidated level. Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday met the large shareholders of debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing & Finance Services (IL&FS) to decide on revival and capital infusion plans for the company, sources said. Deputy governors NS Vishwanathan and MK Jain have met the representatives of LIC and Orix Corporation of Japan, the two largest shareholders which own 25.34 and 23.54 percent stake in the company, respectively, sources said, but refused to share the contours of the meeting. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, HDFC, Central Bank of India and SBI hold 12.56 percent, 9.02 percent, 7.67 percent and 6.42 percent, respectively in the cash-strapped company. The RBI had earlier called all the shareholders of the group for the meeting, but later whittled it down to two of the large shareholders. The IL&FS group is facing serious liquidity crisis and has defaulted on interest payment on various debt repayments since 27 August. It has over Rs 91,000 crore in debt at the consolidated level. The company needs an immediate capital infusion of Rs 3,000 crore and is planning a Rs 4,500-crore rights issue. On Thursday, IL&FS Financial Services defaulted on bank loans, including interest of Rs 284.5 crore to five banks. The company also said it defaulted on repayments of Rs 103.53 crore of term deposit and Rs 52.43 crore of short-term deposit. On 24 and 26 September, IL&FS Financial Services had defaulted on repayment of commercial papers due on the respective days. At a meeting held earlier this month, the key shareholders of the debt-ridden company, including LIC, SBI and HDFC, had kept a pre-condition for it to raise funds through its assets or non-core businesses, before any additional money could be pumped in. There have been reports that IL&FS has even put on block its headquarters in the city for around Rs 1,300 crore. On 4 September, it came to light that IL&FS had defaulted on a short-term loan of Rs 1,000 crore from SIDBI, while its subsidiary has also defaulted Rs 500 crore dues to the development finance institution. St. Vincent and the Grenadines was expected to sign the "Escazu Agreement on regional environmental matters on Thursday, at a high-level ceremony at United Nations headquarters, New York. Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana and Saint Lucia were expected to join SVG in this regard. The Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as the "Escazu Agreement, will open for the signature of all the countries in the region in the framework of the UN General Assembly. The Escazu Agreement named because it was adopted last March 4 in Escazu in Costa Rica is the regions first environmental agreement and is the only one of its kind in the world, since it includes specific provisions regarding defenders of human rights in environmental matters. It is the first legal instrument to have emerged thus far from the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) provides the technical secretariat for the agreement. From September 27 onward, any state that has signed the regional agreement will be able to ratify, accept or approve it. Ratification, acceptance or approval can be undertaken immediately after the signature. To enter into force, the agreement will require 11 states parties. The Escazu Agreement seeks to ensure that all persons have access to timely and reliable information, can participate in an effective way in the decisions that affect their lives and their environment, and can access justice in environmental matters, thereby contributing to the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The capital infusion of Rs 5,431 crore by the Centre would be through preferential allotment of Punjab National Bank's equity shares at a price determined as per the regulation New Delhi: The board of Punjab National Bank (PNB) Thursday approved proposal to seek Rs 5,431 crore capital support from the government. The capital infusion of Rs 5,431 crore by the Centre would be through preferential allotment of the bank's equity shares at a price determined as per the regulation, PNB said in a filing to stock exchanges. The extra general meeting (EGM) in this regard will be held on 30 October, it said. The finance minister Tuesday committed capital support to banks after meeting heads of public sector lenders. "Some of them did mention that the PCA (prompt corrective action) guidelines should be revisited because that is indirectly impacting their lending ability and that government should be more upfront in the capital requirement of some of these banks. "I have assured them that we will immediately look at this subject because we are as keen as them, as every Indian is, that this opportunity is not missed because we want the cycle of high consumption, high growth, NPA recoveries, credit offtake really to be utilised to the fullest in order to help economy," he had said. The government infused Rs 2,816 crore as capital infusion via preferential allotment of equity shares this month to meet regulatory ratios. The government in July decided to infuse Rs 11,336 crore in five state-owned lenders, including PNB, Corporation Bank and Andhra Bank to help them meet regulatory capital requirement. The infusion was part of remaining Rs 65,000 crore out of Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion over two financial years. The government announced Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion programme October last year. As per the plan, the public sector banks (PSBs) were to get Rs 1.35 lakh crore through re-capitalisation bonds, and the balance Rs 58,000 crore through raising of capital from the market. Out of the Rs 1.35 lakh crore, the government has already infused about Rs 71,000 crore through recap bonds in the banks and balance would be done during this fiscal. Besides, PSBs are also planning to tap the markets to raise more than Rs 50,000 crore this fiscal to shore up their capital base for business growth and meeting regulatory global risk norms. Bandhan Bank said it is taking steps to comply with licensing condition to bring down the shareholding of Non-Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) in the bank to 40 percent Mumbai: The Reserve Bank has restrained Bandhan Bank from opening new branches and also ordered the freezing of remuneration of its CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh for not meeting the licensing conditions, the newly-launched bank said Friday. The bank, on its part, said it is taking steps to comply with licensing condition to bring down the shareholding of Non-Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) in the bank to 40 percent. "RBI has communicated to us that since the bank was not able to bring down the shareholding of NOFHC to 40 percent...general permission to open new branches stands withdrawn and the bank can open branches with prior approval of RBI and the remuneration of the MD & CEO of the Bank stands frozen at the existing level, till further notice," it said in filing to stock exchanges. "The bank said it is taking steps to comply with licensing condition to bring down the shareholding of NOFHC in the Bank to 40 percent and shall continue to engage with RBI in this behalf," Bandhan Bank said. As per the bank's website, it has 937 branches in parts of the country. The Bandhan, an MFI, was given conditional approval by the RBI for setting up a universal bank in April 2014. Headquartered in Kolkata, Bandhan, which started as a micro-finance company in 2001, received banking licence by Reserve Bank of India in 2014. Besides Bandhan, the RBI had also given the banking licence to IDFC. Bank's shares closed at Rs 565 apiece on BSE, down 0.78 percent. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, HDFC, Central Bank of India and SBI hold 12.56 percent, 9.02 percent, 7.67 percent and 6.42 percent, respectively in IL&FS which collectively owe over Rs 91,000 crore to lenders. Mumbai: The Reserve Bank will meet the large shareholders of Infrastructure Leasing & Finance Services (IL&FS) on Friday to discuss a turnaround plan for the crisis-ridden infra major, the central bank sources said. LIC and Orix Corporation of Japan, which have 25.34 and 23.54 percent stake in the company, respectively, are expected to attend the meeting to which minority shareholders, which include two state-run banks, and HDFC have not been called. "The officials concerned will meet the large shareholders of IL&FS Friday," an RBI source told PTI. Earlier in the day, two banking sources said they have been told that Friday's meeting has been cancelled. "Friday's meeting has been cancelled as the regulator want to know what is the course of action and what is the roadmap that the firm is taking," one of the shareholders, said. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, HDFC, Central Bank of India and SBI hold 12.56 percent, 9.02 percent, 7.67 percent and 6.42 percent, respectively in IL&FS which collectively owe over Rs 91,000 crore to lenders. Meanwhile, IL&FS's annual general meeting is scheduled for 29 September. The IL&FS Group is facing serious liquidity crisis and has defaulted on interest payment on various debt repayments since 27 August. It has over Rs 91,000 crore in debt. The company needs an immediate capital infusion of Rs 3,000 crore and is planning a Rs 4,500-crore rights issue. At a meeting held earlier this month, the key shareholders of the debt-ridden company, including LIC, SBI and HDFC, had kept a pre-condition for it to raise funds through its assets or non-core businesses, before any additional money could be pumped in. There have been reports that IL&FS has even put on block its headquarters in the city for around Rs 1,300 crore. On 4 September, it came to light that IL&FS had defaulted on a short-term loan of Rs 1,000 crore from Sidbi, while its subsidiary has also defaulted Rs 500 crore dues to the development finance institution. On Monday, IL&FS Financial Services also defaulted on repayment of commercial papers due that day. The clarification follows Sebi seeking details from mutual funds about their exposure to all NBFCs and housing finance companies, amid concerns over liquidity in the system, according to sources. New Delhi: Capital market regulator Sebi on Friday said it has not issued any advisory to mutual funds against rolling over of their current exposure to Indiabulls Housing Finance and Dewan Housing Finance. "It has been reported in certain sections of the media that Sebi has advised mutual funds not to roll over their current exposure to Indiabulls Housing Finance and Dewan Housing. It is clarified that Sebi has not issued any such advisory," the regulator said in a statement. The clarification follows Sebi seeking details from mutual funds about their exposure to all NBFCs and housing finance companies, amid concerns over liquidity in the system, according to sources. In recent days, shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies have taken a beating against the backdrop of IL&FS group entity defaulting on its debt obligations, triggering fears of liquidity crunch. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sent letters to mutual funds seeking details about their exposure to all NBFCs and housing finance companies, regulatory and industry sources said. The companies include DHFL and Indiabulls Housing Finance, they added. Mutual funds have significant exposure to several housing finance firms and NBFCs as a whole, including through their debt securities. On Thursday, shares of NBFCs and housing finance companies tumbled up to 8.5 per cent on worries over liquidity. The scrip of DHFL declined nearly 5 percent to close at Rs 290.15, while that of Indiabulls Housing Finance plunged over 6 percent to end the day at Rs 937.20 on the BSE. Rating agencies -- Crisil, Icra and Care -- has re-affirmed the long-term credit rating of Indiabulls Housing Finance at the highest of 'AAA' with stable outlook, the company had said in a filing to the BSE on Tuesday. IL&FS Financial Services, a group company of IL&FS defaulted on one of its commercial paper (CP) issuances due for repayment on Monday. This was the third default by the company. On Thursday, the Reserve Bank allowed banks to dip further into statutory liquidity cash reserves in a bid to ease a liquidity squeeze afflicting the nation's money markets. The move by the central bank follows concerns over tight liquidity conditions and banks' unwillingness to lend to NBFCs. Sebi said it had conducted an investigation into alleged violations by the entities from April to September 2010. New Delhi: Regulator Sebi Thursday slapped a total fine of Rs 17 lakh on four entities, including a director and promoter of Pithampur Steels for violating securities norms by carrying out off-market transfer of shares of the firm without payment. The regulator also fined the promoter and director of Pithampur Steels Ltd (PSL) for not disclosing the change in the shareholding of the company to the exchanges within the stipulated time. In an order, Sebi said it had conducted an investigation into alleged violations by the entities from April to September 2010. The regulator found that promoter of PSL, Yard Securities had transferred 25,000 shares in off-market transaction to one Nitin Sharma and 1 lakh shares to Highlight Leafin Pvt Ltd in September 2010 without the receipt of consideration. Sebi said the transfer of shares in off-market deal, outside the stock exchange mechanism, against no consideration is in contravention of provisions of SCRA (Securities and Contracts (Regulation) Act). In April 2010, director Sachin Sharma received 87,200 shares through off-market transfers, regulator said. The transfer of shares changed the shareholding of Yard Securities by more than 2 percent and receipt of 87,200 shares by Sachin Sharma was more than threshold of 25,000, which triggers the disclosures requirement. However, both failed to do so and violated PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) norms, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said. Accordingly, Sebi imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh each on Yard Securities along with Nitin Sharma and Highlight Leafin Pvt Ltd for violation of SCRA norms Sachin Sharma and Yard Securities were fined Rs 1 lakh for contravening PIT regulations. In a separate order, Sebi fined two individuals Rs 6 lakh for carrying out investment advisory services without registration. By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators on Thursday accused Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk of fraud and sought to ban him as an officer of a public company, saying he made a series of 'false and misleading' tweets about potentially taking the electric car company private last month. Musk, 47, is one of the highest-profile tech executives to be accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators on Thursday accused Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk of fraud and sought to ban him as an officer of a public company, saying he made a series of "false and misleading" tweets about potentially taking the electric car company private last month. Musk, 47, is one of the highest-profile tech executives to be accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Losing its public face and guiding force would be a big blow for money-losing Tesla, which has a market value of more than $50 billion, chiefly because of investors' belief in Musk's leadership. Tesla shares tumbled 12 percent in after-hours trading. Tesla was not immediately available for comment. The SEC's lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, comes less than two months after Musk told his more than 22 million Twitter followers on Aug. 7 that he might take Tesla private at $420 per share, and that there was "funding secured." "Neither celebrity status nor reputation as a technological innovator provides an exemption from federal securities laws," Stephanie Avakian, co-director of enforcement at the SEC, told a news conference https://bit.ly/2xT7vzV announcing its charges against Musk. Musk has long used Twitter to criticise short-sellers betting against his company, and already faced several investor lawsuits over the Aug. 7 tweets, which caused Tesla's share price to gyrate. According to the SEC, Musk "knew or was reckless in not knowing" that his tweets about taking Tesla private at $420 a share were false and misleading, given that he had never discussed such a transaction with any funding source. The SEC said he also knew he had not satisfied other contingencies when he declared unequivocally that only a shareholder vote would be needed. Thursday's complaint also seeks to impose a civil fine and other remedies. The SEC does not have criminal enforcement power. On Aug. 24, after news of the SEC probe had become known, Musk blogged that Tesla would remain public, citing investor resistance. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Pete Schroeder in Washington; Editing by Bill Rigby and Lisa Shumaker) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The RBI recently asked Rana Kapoor to quit the post by January next year. Mumbai: Rana Kapoor, the embattled co-promoter and chief executive of Yes Bank, Friday said he does not intend to sell his holding in the private sector lender. Following the Reserve Bank decision on September 19 to curtail Kapoor's term as managing director and chief executive to 31 January,2019 from the three-year sought by the board, Yes Bank shares have plunged over 40 percent. "Even after I demit office as the MD and CEO of Yes Bank, I will never ever sell my shares," Kapoor wrote on his handle on the microblogging site Twitter Friday. Kapoor said his holding will be bequeathed to his three daughters and added that he will make a request in his will not to sell a single share in the bank. "My promoter shares of Yes Bank are invaluable to me," Kapoor, who is not regular on the microblogging site unlike other industry captains, wrote. The assertion comes amid reports of Madhu Kapur, the legal heir of the deceased co-promoter Ashok Kapur, selling 7 lakh shares of the bank representing 0.04 percent in the open market on September 21 amid the heavy slide in share price. The sale has brought down Kapur's shareholding to 9.28 percent, while Kapoor's stands at 10.66 percent. Earlier this week, the Yes Bank board decided to seek an extension of up to eight months beyond the trimmed down period of 31 January, 2019 for Kapoor to stay on so that the bank could find a successor and meet other regualtory demands of closing the financial accounts for the year. It also established a search and selection committee comprising three members from the existing nomination and remuneration committee along with two external experts to identify Kapoor's successor. In this leadership transition at @YESBANK, I continue to remain fully committed to the interests of the Bank and all its stakeholders. I will be fully guided by the Board of Directors of YES BANK and the Reserve Bank of India Rana Kapoor (@RanaKapoor_) September 28, 2018 To ensure a long-term succession plan, the board elevated senior group presidents Rajat Monga, who handles financial management, and Pralay Mondal, who heads the focus area of retail, as executive directors. After the RBI move, Madhu Kapur wrote to the board asking Kapoor to be sent on leave till January 31 to ensure a fair search. She has also demanded a forensic audit of loans sanctioned under Kapoor's leadership. The bank had last week disclosed that RBI has said Kapoor may continue to head the bank only till end January 2019, curtailing his term by nearly two and half years. The board had reappointed him for a period of three years starting September 2018. Kapoor is the second chief executive at a private sector lender after Shikha Sharma of larger rival Axis Bank to face a curtailment of terms. Both the banks were found to have underreported non-performing assets by over Rs 10,000 crore each for two consecutive years in regulatory audits conducted by the Reserve Bank. The RBI move has not gone down well with the investors and the bank stock has seen steep selling in all the trading sessions since the disclosure was made. Yes Bank scrip continued its slide and plunged 9.50 per cent to Rs 183.90 a piece on the BSE Friday. Adding to the trouble was the decision of the foreign brokerage Citigroup to remove it form its model portfolio. Amit Shah stressed on the need for a more inclusive education system while insisting that the Indian education system should not only focus on management, technology or finance alone but also work towards turning a person into a good human being. Haridwar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Thursday stated that education system bereft of culture holds no significance. He was speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of yoga guru Ramdev's 'Acharyakulam Bhawan'. Shah said that though there is no qualm in accepting the good of the West, he urged the countrymen to stay true to the Indian roots. "If our education system is not as per our culture, then our development holds no significance. During the Mughal period, we lost the right to rule but we kept our education system preserved. It was British invaders who changed our entire education system and the culture of all-round development was lost. It now requires a lot of effort to get out of the glow and glimmer of this education system. We have no qualms in accepting the good of the West but we must stay true to our roots and not look down at it," he said. The BJP president also stressed on the need for a more inclusive education system while insisting that the Indian education system should not only focus on management, technology or finance alone but also work towards turning a person into a good human being. The Supreme Court's order has created hope for expeditious hearings once they commence in October a timetable that happens to align with the BJP's campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Congress sources denied the idea, suggesting that the battle over ownership was complicated which would take time. The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to refer to a five-judge constitutional bench a plea relating to the Ayodhya temple-mosque dispute. The apex court, in a majority 2:1 judgment, held that its 1994 judgement in the Dr M Ismail Faruqui versus Union of India case, which said that a mosque was not integral to Islam, need not be revisited. The bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Abdul Nazeer and Ashok Bhushan said that the civil suit (Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute) has to be decided on the basis of evidence, and the previous verdict has no relevance. BJP expresses hope for early verdict A report from The Times of India suggests that by emphasising that the appeals had been pending for long, the court's order has generated optimism in the BJP. Particularly, it created hope for expeditious hearings once they commence in October a timetable that happens to align with the BJP's campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It is no surprise then, that the BJP welcomed the Supreme Court's order, hoping that it will pave the way for an early final verdict on the contentious issue. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Aditynath said a majority of people want a solution to the case at the earliest as he welcomed the verdict, and expressed hope that a final verdict will be delivered quickly. In a veiled attack on Muslim organisations which urged the apex court to send the matter to the five-judge bench a plea that the court rejected the Hindutva leader said some people wanted to delay the final verdict, and the sooner it comes the better it will be. "Today's verdict is very important. We welcome it," he told reporters. Union minister Uma Bharti also welcomed the judgment. I have said it at the outset that it is not a matter of dispute between two faiths. For Hindus, it is the birthplace of Lord Rama. It is not an important historical or religious place for Muslims, she was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy lauded the move as well: , . Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) September 28, 2018 DNA quoted former BJP Member of Parliament Vinay Katiyar saying that the Ram temple would be built before next year. "The fight is over 80/40 square feet of land. I hope we will be victorious in the title suit," he was quoted as saying. The BJP's ideological parent RSS also welcomed the order. "Today, the Supreme Court has decided to hold hearing the... case from 29 October by a three-member bench. We welcome this decision and are confident that a just verdict will be reached over the case at the earliest," the RSS said in a statement. Its chief Mohan Bhagwat had recently said that a Ram temple should be built at the earliest. AIMPLB expresses relief that matter will be heard as title suit All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member Zafaryab Jilani was quoted as saying by DNA that they honour the court order and see some positive movement regarding the Ayodhya case. "Two positive things have come from this verdict. First, the Ayodhya matter will not be heard on the basis of faith and will be heard as a title suit. Second, the 1994 observation by the court will not make an impact on the case," he said. He also hoped that the final hearing of the Ayodhya case will be completed soon. Muslim parties in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute welcomed the verdict, saying it "is in our favour". Khaliq Ahmad Khan, the nominee of one of the litigants in the title suit, said, "The other side always quoted the 1994 judgment that mosque is not an integral part of Islam. Now the court has made it clear that the 1994 judgement was related to the land acquisition... and that it has no connection with the title suit. We have achieved our goal as the Supreme Court will hear only the title suit." Congress proceeds with caution Much unlike the BJP's brazen response, the Congress was cautious in its reply to the issue. While there was no response from the Congress via party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala or from party chief Rahul Gandhi himself, a few party leaders stressed that all sides should abide by the Supreme Court judgment on the issue. The party, however, according to some reports trained its guns on BJP for misusing the court's verdict. A report from The Times of India claimed that Congress sources denied the idea that the case would play out to the BJP's electoral timetable, suggesting that the battle over ownership was complicated which would take time. According to the report, sources have accused the BJP of using the court order to whip up passions. Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja was of the same opinion, saying that some parties have been trying to gain political advantage from the Ayodhya issue ahead of the general election. He asked people not to fall "into the trap". As per a report from The Indian Express, AICC communication department convenor Priyanka Chaturvedi also accused the BJP of conspiring for the last 30 years to mislead people on the Ram Temple issue. She added that while the BJP garners votes in the name of Ram Temple, it sends Lord Ram "to exile" the moment it comes to power. Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi told The Indian Express that the (Ismail) Faruqui judgment was delivered 24 years ago. Faruqui has therefore held the field for 24 years. Good, bad or indifferent, it has been the law for 24 years. All that todays judgment has decided is that there is no need to revisit Faruqui (verdict), he said. If Faruqui (judgment) has not disturbed the Ayodhya issue for 24 years, why should a simple decision not to revisit it lead to so much hullabaloo? he asked. Moreover, Faruqui (case) was limited to the issue of acquisition of land on which the mosque stands. It was not concerned with the title dispute regarding Ayodhya." Singhvi also took to Twitter to respond to the ruling, saying that: With inputs from PTI The Supreme Court on Friday said that the interim order passed by the court for house arrest of activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case shall continue for four more weeks. The Supreme Court on Friday said that the interim order passed by the court for house arrest of activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case shall continue for four more weeks. The apex court gave out the verdict rejecting a plea by historian Romila Thapar and others seeking the immediate release of the five arrested rights activists and an SIT probe into their arrest. The court with a 2-1 majority held that the investigation officers are permitted to continue with the investigation and that the accused persons have no say in seeking investigation of their choice. "They cannot choose the manner of arrest," Justice AM Khanwilkar read out the judgment on behalf of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and himself. "Accused persons cannot choose which investigating agencies should investigate. This is not a case of arrest merely because of dissent or difference in political views," Khanwilkar held in court. The top court also declines to constitute a SIT for the case and said that the accused were at liberty to pursue other appropriate remedies. "We don't wish to go into the facts of the case as it may create prejudice," Khanwilkar stated. However, Chandrachud dissented again, saying that he was unable to agree with views of Misra and Khanwilkar. "Petition isn't motivated. Technicalities cannot override substantive justice," he said. He strongly argued his case against the Pune Police, berating it for holding a press conference immediately after the court had passed an interim order. "A letter alleged to be written by Sudha Bhardwaj was flashed on a TV channel. Acts of Maharashtra Police raises the question of whether it can be trusted to carry out the investigation," Chandrachud remarked. "Voices of opposition cannot be muzzled because it is a dissent. Deprivation of liberty cannot be compensated later," Chandrachud said asking for a SIT to be constituted to look into the matter. A bench headed by Misra had reserved the judgment on 20 September after the counsel for both parties, including senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Harish Salve and Additional Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, concluded their submissions. The bench, that also comprised Justices AM Khaniwlkar and DY Chandrachud, had asked the Maharashtra police to file their case diary pertaining to the ongoing investigation in the case. The five activists Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha are under arrest at their respective homes since 29 August. #bhimakoregaonviolence A three-judge bench consisting of CJI Dipak Misra, Justices A M Khanwilkar, & D Y Chandrachud to pronounce verdict tomorrow on a plea filed by Romila Thapar & others seeking SIT probe into the alleged arbitrary arrests of human rights activists. pic.twitter.com/q7sL5ICCdC The Leaflet (@TheLeaflet_in) September 27, 2018 Justice DY Chandrachud had written the judgment for CJI, himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar. The plea by Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala, has sought an independent probe into the arrests and the immediate release of the activists. The Maharashtra police had arrested them on 28 August 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 in the state. The apex court had on 19 September said it would look into the case with a "hawk's eye" as "liberty cannot be sacrificed at the altar of conjectures". It had told the Maharashtra government that there should be a clear-cut distinction between opposition and dissent on one hand and attempts to create disturbance, law and order problems or overthrow the government on the other. Senior advocate Anand Grover, Ashwini Kumar and advocate Prashant Bhushan had also alleged that the entire case was cooked up and adequate safeguards should be provided to protect the liberty of the five activists. The apex court had also said that it may order a SIT probe if it found that the evidence has been "cooked up". At one point, the Chief Justice had suggested that they (accused) could continue to contest their case in the competent lower courts. The chief justice mooted transferring the pending cases against the activists to another court while continuing with their house arrests. But senior advocate AM Singhvi, for petitioner Romila Thapar and four others, persisted that the apex court should first hear them. The hearing also saw the Centre (through Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh) step in and voice its apprehensions about the problem of Naxalism in the country, The Hindu reported. This concerns serious offences. There is material recovered from their laptops, computers, hard disks, etc. We have videotaped all our raids from the moment we knocked on their doors to the recovery and seizures. This was done to protect ourselves against future allegations of high-handedness which may be raised against our investigation done in compliance with the CrPC, Mehta had argued in court while presenting his case for the Maharashtra government, the report stated. With inputs from PTI, The Leaflet and Bar and Bench The Tropical Storm Watch issued for SVG led to closure of schools, beginning yesterday, Thursday 27th September. As of yesterday, Thursday 27th September, St. Vincent and the Grenadines was officially under a tropical storm watch occasioned by the approach of Tropical Storm Kirk. The tropical storm watch continued into today, Friday 28th September. A Met Office advisory issued late on Wednesday, said that Tropical Strom Kirk was moving towards the west-northwest near 18 mph (30 km/h), and this motion was expected to continue into the next few days. The report also warned that the storm was expected to pass between 80 to 100 miles north of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, between Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon. As such, therefore, following a meeting of the National Emergency Council on Wednesday afternoon, acting Prime Minister, Montgomery Daniel advised that all schools in St. Vincent and the Grenadines will be closed on Thursday, Sept. 27. Beginning Wednesday night, lightning streaked across the sky and the state experienced showers into the early morning of Thursday. Overcast conditions persisted throughout the morning, and capital Kingstown remained relatively quiet, as citizens went about their business with a sense of caution. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's refusal to interfere with the probe by the state police against five Left-wing activists in connection with violence in Bhima-Koregaon in December last year. Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's refusal to interfere with the probe by the state police against five Left-wing activists in connection with violence in Bhima-Koregaon in December last year. Fadnavis said the decision of the top court proved that there was no conspiracy behind action by the state police against Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha. The five are under arrest at their respective homes since 29 August. Fadnavis was reacting soon after the Supreme Court declined to appoint an SIT to probe the arrest of the five activists by the Pune police. The court said the arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist) organisation. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. "The Supreme Court has vindicated the state of the government and the Pune police. The court has no doubt over the material evidence submitted," the chief minister told reporters here. "A conspiracy against the nation has been unearthed by the police," he said on the arrest of the five activists. According to the Supreme Court order, the government will go to the "appropriate forum" in the case, he said. Fadnavis also defended the state police for addressing a press conference after the arrest, which had been come in for criticism. "A lot of things were said against the police after the arrest and an atmosphere was created by pseudo, so-called neo-liberals in the media that the arrests have been made without evidence. The police had to say that the arrests were not motivated but backed by real and powerful evidence," he said. "We will look into the fine print of the order regarding the police press conference. The press conference is not important but the real issue of conspiracy against the nation is. If holding the press conference was wrong, we will improve it," he said. Fadnavis said political parties should not support the arrested persons for political reasons after the SC verdict, "otherwise the political parties will stand exposed." Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on 28 August from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi. The majority verdict by the Supreme Court said the protection of house arrest of the activists will remain in force for four more weeks to enable the accused to seek appropriate legal remedy at appropriate legal forum. Supreme Court judge, Justice DY Chandrachud penned another strongly worded dissenting opinion this week, which also happens to Dipak Misra's last week as the Chief Justice of India. After emerging as the lone dissenting voice in the Aadhaar case, Supreme Court judge Justice DY Chandrachud penned another strongly worded dissenting opinion this week, which also happens to Dipak Misra's last week as the Chief Justice of India. Even though the Supreme Court in a 2-1 majority rejected the plea of historian Romila Thapar and others seeking immediate release of the five arrested rights activists in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence, Justice Chandrachud dissented to the CJI and Justice Khanwilkar's view in a fervently worded judgment, saying, Voices of Opposition cannot be muzzled because it's dissent. Deprivation of liberty cannot be compensated later." Chandrachud also berated the Maharashtra Police for what he termed as "using electronic media selectively for shaping public opinion". He held that the present petition was not motivated by political aspects, and raised a doubt on the Maharashtra Police's ability to carry out a fair investigation. Read the full judgment here: On the issue of maintainability, Chandrachud opined that "technicalities cannot be allowed to override substantive justice". If the court does not stand by liberty, dignity, and dissent, it may as well compose a requiem for these rights, he remarked. Noting that the arrests had infringed the dignity of individuals, he ordered for a SIT probe. Referring to the press conference held by the Pune Police immediately after an interim order in the case was passed by the Supreme Court, Chandrachud said that it was an attempt to selectively leak information and termed it disconcerting. He also referred to the letter allegedly written by activist Sudha Bhardwaj and noted that since it was flashed on a TV channel, thus, such selective disclosure of probe details could cast a cloud on the fairness of the investigation. Chandrachud had earlier dissented in a landmark judgment in the verdict for Aadhaar's constitutional legality. Interestingly, with his judgement on the adultery law on Thursday, he overruled the judgment of his father YV Chandrachud, a former CJI, for the second time; the first being in the case of Right to Privacy. Quoting the court's order, Patra claimed that the fact that a majority judgment has held that the accused were not arrested because of dissent, confirms BJP's stand Reacting to the Supreme Court judgment on the Bhima-Koregaon arrests, Bharatiya Janata Party said the apex court's ruling vindicated their stand and exposed the Congress party. Addressing a press conference after the ruling, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Supreme Court made some important observations which vindicated its stand on the controversial arrests of five human rights' activists on charges of being "urban Naxals", waging war against India, supporting banned Maoist outfits and hatching a conspiracy to instigate the Bhima-Koregaon violence on 1 January, 2018. The five activistsVaravara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakhahave been under house arrest since 29 August. Quoting the court order, Patra claimed that the fact that a majority judgment held that the accused were not arrested because of dissent, confirmed BJP's stand that there was no hidden agenda in the activists' arrest. Patra said that the court also held that there were valid reasons to believe that the activists prima facie had links with banned maoist outfits. He pointed out that all of those arrested had either been previously convicted or accused of similar charges. Slamming the Congress party, he said, "You would remember how the Congress was playing politics on the issue and its chief Rahul Gandhi shamelessly stood by these urban Naxals. He was posing as their lawyer in front of the entire nation." Patra claimed that while Rao has been previously arrested, Gonsalves was convicted under the arms Act in 2007. He also said that Navlakha was accused of instigating divisive sentiments in Kashmir by a former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister. He said that Rahul's "shameless" support for these people wasn't a recent phenomenon. He claimed that Sonia Gandhi, then UPA chairperson and Congress president, appointed known "urban Naxals" like Binayaka Sen to the Planning Commission. He said that after the Supreme Court verdict, the Congress party's lies were blatantly expose and Rahul's attempt to gain political mileage out of the issue failed. He also accused the Congress chief of disregarding national security in favour of reaping personal political gains. "Just to propel his political career, Rahul fanning a sort of politics that threatens national security. And the judgment not only exposes the accused but also the Congress chief. He will not hesitate even if just to project himself, he has to trample upon the country," Patra said. Patra's reactions came after the Supreme Court refused to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists by the Maharashtra Police in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case and declined to appoint a SIT to probe their arrest. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. The bench also extended by four weeks the house arrest of the activists. With inputs from PTI India has been seeking entry into the 48-member elite nuclear club, which controls nuclear trade, but China has repeatedly stonewalled its bid. Apart from the support of countries like the United States, Russia and France, India also has "unconditional support" by Britain for its membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The UK reiterated its support saying India has done enough to merit an entry into the elite group, according to a report in The Times of India. After a meeting between the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a diplomatic source was quoted as saying in the report, "India has the right credentials for NSG membership and we believe it should be a member. Only the Chinese can explain what objections they have to India's membership." India has been seeking entry into the 48-member elite nuclear club, which controls nuclear trade, but China has repeatedly stonewalled its bid. While India has garnered the support of a majority of the group's members, China has stuck to its stand that new members should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), making India's entry difficult as the group is guided by the consensus principle. India is not a signatory to the NPT. This is not the first time when the UK has offered support for India's membership bid to the group. In 2013, Britain stepped up its efforts to let India join the global body and pressed its case in a paper prepared ahead of the NSGs annual meeting that year. It argued that India qualifies because of the size of its civilian atomic industry and its commitment to stopping the spread of military material. Then in 2016, then British prime minister David Cameron assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi of UK's "firm support" for India's NSG membership bid. A Downing Street spokesperson told PTI that Cameron spoke to Modi and confirmed that the UK would firmly support India's application. "They agreed that in order for the bid to be successful it would be important for India to continue to strengthen its non-proliferation credentials, including by reinforcing the separation between civil and military nuclear activity," the spokesperson added. Later in November 2016 also, UK backed India's bid for membership to NSG. The India-UK joint statement, during the visit of Britain prime minister Theresa May to New Delhi, said UK "continues to be a strong advocate of early Indian membership of the NSG". India has been constantly seeking help from other nations to secure its membership. Washington has been offering its support to New Delhi since the very beginning and even agreed to work together towards achieving this goal during the 2+2 dialogue held recently. US endorses India's membership bid Since taking office in January this year, the Donald Trump administration has endorsed India's bid for membership to the NSG for the first time in July. A US Department of State official was quoted as saying by The Economic Times that Washington believes India is ready for NSG membership and it is an indication that there is no change in America's policy on the issue under the Trump regime. India also became the first south Asian country to be added to the Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 (STA-1) list after the US issued a federal notification to this effect. Traditionally, the US has placed only those countries in the STA-1 list who are members of the four export control regimes. India is a member of three of the multilateral export control regimes, but hasn't got an NSG membership. By placing India in the STA-1 list, the United States acknowledged that for all practical purposes India adheres to the export control regimes of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. During the 2+2 dialogue held this year, US reiterated its full support for India's immediate accession to the NSG. Washington has repeatedly said that it will continue to advocate for New Delhi's membership to the elite grouping. Alice Wells, the principal deputy assistant secretary of south for South and Central Asia, was quoted as saying by PTI that Washington believes India meets all the qualifications of the NSG. France joins US in backing India France has also extended its support to India's membership to the group and promised help to New Delhi in garnering support for its bid. Backing India's case in 2016, France said it will bolster global efforts against nuclear proliferation. The French foreign ministry in a statement said, "France considers that Indias entry into the four multilateral export control regimes (NSG, MTCR, The Australia Group, The Wassenaar Arrangement) will bolster international efforts for combating proliferation. "Indias participation in these bodies will help better regulate the export of sensitive goods, whether they are nuclear, chemical, biological, ballistic or conventional materials or technologies." Later French president Emmanuel Macron vowed to support India on NSG. India's credentials for NSG membership 'impeccable': Russia Russia has also supported India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group and is even negotiating with China to facilitate the entry, according to reports. Russia deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov has said India and Pakistans application for membership of the elite group cannot be compared. India, he was quoted as saying by Livemint, had an impeccable non-proliferation record while Pakistan could not claim the same qualifications for membership of the club that sets the rules for global nuclear commerce. Russia is also negotiating with China to further India's case. Mikhail Ulyanov, head of disarmament division in Russia's foreign ministry, told The Economic Times that his government is in constant negotiations with China to enable India to become a member of NSG. "In 2010 there was high level commitment by Russia to support Indias case in NSG. We remain committed to that. Moscow is talking with interlocutors in Beijing to narrow down their differences with Delhi to ensure entry," he was quoted as saying in the report. China continues to block India's bid China has repeatedly expressed its opposition to India's bid primarily on the grounds that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Beijing has made it clear that it will continue to block India's bid and it's stand has not changed. India had argued that countries like Brazil, Argentina and France became members of NSG when they were not signatory to the NPT. Beijing countered India's claim by saying that France was a founding member of the group and therefore, the issue of its acceptance does not arise. Pakistan has also applied to become a member of the grouping. With regard to India and Pakistan, The Economic Times quoted Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying as saying,"China, along with other countries, has been maintaining that there should be a thorough discussion on whether non-NPT countries can join NSG, and this decision should be made on consensus. This applies to all non-NPT countries, including Pakistan." With inputs from agencies The Modi government on Thursday constituted an eight-member search committee, to be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, to recommend the chairperson and members of the anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal. New Delhi: The Modi government on Thursday constituted an eight-member search committee, to be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, to recommend the chairperson and members of the anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal. The committee, formed despite concerns raised by the Congress, has former chief of State Bank of India (SBI) Arundhati Bhattacharya, Prasar Bharati chairperson A Surya Prakash and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) head AS Kiran Kumar as members. Besides them, Justice Sakha Ram Singh Yadav, former judge of Allahabad High Court; Shabbirhusein S Khandwawala, former Gujarat Police head; Lalit K Panwar, retired IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre; and former Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar are the other members of the panel, according to an official order issued by the Personnel Ministry. "The process of Lokpal selection is going as per the guidelines laid down in the Lokpal Act," Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh told PTI when asked about the development. The move assumes significance as the government decided to go ahead with the formation of the search committee despite Congress leader in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, boycotting meetings of the Lokpal selection panel, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a senior government official said. "The search committee is a major step towards setting up of the Lokpal. The committee will start its functioning soon," he said. The decision to constitute the search committee comes four years after the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, which envisages the establishment of anti-graft body Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states to look into cases of corruption against certain categories of public servants, was passed in 2013. Kharge had been boycotting the selection committee meeting on the pretext that he is not made a full-fledged member in the panel. He had rejected the invitation extended to him to attend the meetings of the selection committee held this year on six occasions 1 March, 10 April, 19 July, 21 August, 4 September and 19 September as a "special invitee". The eight-member search committee is mandated to recommend a panel of names for the appointment of the Lokpal and its members. Kharge had earlier urged the government to amend the Lokpal Act to include the leader of the single largest opposition party in Lok Sabha in the selection committee and bring an ordinance in this regard. As per the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, only the leader of the opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha is a member of the selection committee and since Kharge does not have that status, he is not a part of the panel. A party should have at least 55 seats or 10 percent of the strength of the Lok Sabha for its leader to get the LoP status. The Congress is the single largest opposition party in the Lower House but its leader could not be given the LoP status as it does not have the requisite number to qualify for it, the official said. The Lokpal selection committee headed by the prime minister has as its members the Lok Sabha speaker, leader of the opposition in the lower house, the chief justice of India or a judge of the apex court nominated by him, and an eminent jurist who could be nominated by the president or any other member. Upon the recommendations of the selection committee in its meeting held on 10 April, President Ram Nath Kovind had nominated Mukul Rohatgi, former Attorney General of India as 'eminent jurist' member of the panel against the vacancy arising following the death of senior advocate PP Rao. A series of measures announced by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on empowering local government in Jammu and Kashmir are likely to significantly change the ground rules in Kashmir if implemented. New Delhi certainly means business this time around. A series of measures announced by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on empowering local government in Jammu and Kashmir are likely to significantly change the ground rules in Kashmir if implemented. Media and critics are likely to see these as election sops, which they are at one level. However, they will also address the most fundamental problem that ails Kashmir, which is the absolute lack of any semblance of governance on the ground. Having said that, the move upends the traditional way of coming to power in Kashmir. Instead of uneasy coalitions with established parties of diverse hues, this is an attempt to create a well-funded local government that, among other things, will lead to a thumping validation of the BJP. To evaluate the measures one by one. The key issue highlighted by the home minister is that the government will implement the 73rd constitutional amendment in the state. The 73rd amendment was passed in December 1992, and gives panchayats all over the country a share of state funds and certain taxes, and an overall devolution in about 28 areas. It also provides for allocation of centrally funded grants and Union Finance Commission Grants. The trouble is that Jammu and Kashmir has its own Panchayati Raj Act of 1989 which allows devolution in far fewer areas, particularly in terms of funding. So when the home minister says that local bodies will get Rs 4,335 crores of the 14th Finance Commission Grants if the elections go off successfully, hes only stating the facts. Hes also cutting the ground from under the feet of local politicos. As any shrewd politician (or shrewder bureaucrat) knows, money talks the loudest. In case the locals dont get the big picture, the home minister also made it clear by reiterating that panchayats will be part of the extensive alphabet soup that are central government-funded schemes, including MNREGA, National Health Mission and several dozen others with acronyms that are probably a mystery to most. All of this is covered under the 73rd Amendment, but New Delhi is just making sure to dot the 'i's and cross the 't's. Thats a lot of funds. There are also additional posts to be had, which means more power to the local leaders, and more inducements to vote for the public. Thats still only a part of it. Under the new scheme, there are to be significant enhancements to panchayats financial powers by a factor of ten, and the powers to raise their own funds through tax collection of various local activities. Kahsmir's own laws also allow local taxation, but at first glance, the new measures seems to cover a far larger net. Such taxation can be an inducement as well as a responsibility. Taxation is part of the contract between the governed and the government. That means the one has a right on the other. Simply put, local demands or dissatisfaction in an effective panchayat system is then directed at its own local heads, and not at Srinagar or Delhi. Its not a perfect solution, but it does give people a sense of control over their own affairs. The problem is that while there are inducements aplenty, those who covered the last round of panchayat elections will remember that while it was held successfully, with more than 78 percent turnout. That at least showed there was popular enthusiasm for the process. There are some 4,130 sarpanches and more than 29,000 panches. Though the government has geared itself to provide protection during the elections, it is virtually impossible to provide this all the year around. In 2012, six such local leaders were killed in Baramulla and three in Pulwama. This led to a mass resignation of leaders in certain districts, with a stated 63 percent of total posts declared vacant. The separatists have again issued a call for boycott of the polls. While there is considerable disillusionment about the motives of the so-called Joint Resistance Leadership, vested interests will back them, particularly the disaffected political parties who see power slipping out of their hands. The key problem that confronts New Delhi is, however, more than just security, serious though it is. First, the elections can go fully ahead only if people see value in voting. To most people, the inducements provided in the form of various schemes and grants are just confusing language. To get people to vote, the Centre has to transmit what it proposes to devolve in plain and simple language. The MHA has vastly improved its webpage and communication skills, but there is a lot of space for improvement. Cut the talk on yojanas and get to the chase. Second, Kashmiris have little faith in their own governments, local or otherwise. Increased powers to panchayats has to be coupled with increased transparency. If a horse owner is to be taxed, he needs to know what advantage he gets out of it. Third is the problem of getting educated not to mention well-intentioned people to stand for local government elections. While this is true almost everywhere in India, in Kashmir, it becomes particularly important to ensure that the educated middle class is encouraged to have a stake in local government at the very least in an advisory capacity. Otherwise, it is corruption that will trickle down, not governance. And finally, it can be expected that the media and the Opposition will cry foul on the new measures as attempts to influence the elections. But this is what political parties are supposed to do in a democracy. They propose and carry out various measures to improve the life of people they are supposed to serve. Efficiency is generally rewarded, while an unhappy public will boot them out. Thats called democratic accountability. In Kashmir, democracy has been more about grants and subsidies. It's time to shift the focus towards Kashmir generating and disbursing its own revenues. Governance has to be both created and paid for. Hopefully, the panchayats will be provided that first boost. Ahead of Misra's final day as the head of the judiciary of India, here's a look at the key important judgments pronounced since Monday by the Supreme Court. In his final week as the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Dipak Misra set to retire on 2 October has passed various judgments on important cases, ranging from the one on the constitutionality of Aadhaar to the case on the entry of women into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. Misra's last working day will be 1 October as the court will not be functioning the following day on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Ahead of his final day as the head of the judiciary of India, here's a look at the key judgments that he was a part of in his last week: Sabarimala The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that women in the 10-50 age group should be allowed into the Sabarimala temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa in Kerala. In a 4:1 majority verdict, the five-judge constitution bench headed by Misra said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates the fundamental rights of Hindu women. The CJI said religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. While Justices RF Nariman and DY Chandrachud concurred with the CJI and Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Indu Malhotra gave a dissenting verdict. Malhotra, the lone woman judge in the bench, passed a dissenting judgment, and said: "What constitutes essential practices of religion is to be decided by worshippers, and it is not for the judiciary to adjudicate." She held the view that it is not for courts to determine which religious practices are to be struck down except in issues of social evils like 'sati'. Ayodhya The Supreme Court on Thursday, by a majority 2-1 judgment, rejected a plea of M Siddiq, one of the original litigants of the Ayodhya case, for referring the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue to a larger Constitution bench. Justice S Abdul Nazeer dissented with the majority view, and said the question whether a mosque was an essential part of the religion cannot be decided without a "detailed examination of the beliefs, tenets and practice of the faith" and favoured reconsideration of the issue to a larger bench. The majority judgment said now the civil suit on land dispute will be heard by a newly-constituted three-judge bench on 29 October in view of Misra's retirement. Aadhaar Observing that Aadhaar neither tends to create a "surveillance state" nor does it infringe on the right to privacy, the Supreme Court on Wednesday declared that the Centre's biometric identity project was constitutionally valid. In a 4-1 verdict that also quashed some contentious provisions of the Aadhaar Act, a constitution bench headed by Misra held that Aadhaar would remain compulsory for filing of Income Tax Returns and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN) and for availing facilities of welfare schemes and government subsidies. The court ruled that seeding of Aadhaar would not be required for opening bank accounts, availing mobile services, and for admissions in schools and free education for children. "Aadhaar gives dignity to the marginalised. Dignity to the marginalised outweighs privacy," said Justice Sikri, who sided with the majority, while reading out the operative part of the 1,448-page judgment in the packed courtroom of the CJI. The top court struck down as unconstitutional the portion of Section 57 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 that permitted private entities like telecom companies or other corporates to avail of the biometric Aadhaar data. Meanwhile, Justice Chandrachud gave a dissenting judgment in which he ruled that the Aadhaar Act should not have been passed as a Money Bill. He said that it amounts to a fraud on the Constitution and is liable to be struck down. The majority verdict, however, upheld the passage of the Aadhaar Bill as a Money Bill by the Lok Sabha. Adultery Declaring that adultery is not a crime, the Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a colonial-era anti-adultery law, saying it was unconstitutional, and treated women as "chattel of husbands". The constitution bench was unanimous in striking down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code dealing with the offence of adultery, holding it as manifestly arbitrary, archaic and violative of the rights to equality and equal opportunity to women. It said that unequal treatment of women invites the wrath of the Constitution. The top court, which held adultery as a relic of the past, said the autonomy is intrinsic in dignified human existence and Section 497 denudes women from making choices. However, the bench also held that adultery should continue to be treated as civil wrong, and can be a ground for dissolution of marriage or divorce. There can't be any social licence which destroys a home, Chief Justice Misra said. "We declare Section 497 IPC and Section 198 of Code of Criminal Procedure dealing with prosecution of offences against marriage as unconstitutional," said Misra, adding that any provision treating women with inequality is not constitutional and it's time to say that "husband is not the master of a woman". Politicians with criminal antecedents In its unanimous verdict, a five-judge bench led by Chief Justice Misra on Tuesday left it to Parliament to bar lawmakers facing trial for heinous and grievous offences from contesting elections by enacting a "strong law", while it observed that the criminalisation of politics is a bitter manifest truth and a "termite" to the citadel of democracy. Refusing to put a ban on candidates with criminal antecedents from entering the poll fray, the court said the law should also make it mandatory for political parties to revoke the membership of candidates facing serious criminal cases. The court, however, passed a slew of directions to cleanse the "polluted stream of politics", one of which was that pending criminal cases have to be stated "in bold letters" in the form provided by the Election Commission. Arrest of five activists in Bhima-Koregaon case In a 2:1 majority judgment, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere in the arrest of five activists in the Bhima Koregaon case in Maharashtra. It also declined to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), allowing the Pune Police to go ahead with its probe. The house arrest of the five rights activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira will continue for four more weeks, said the majority judgment, read out by Justice Khanwilkar. He said that in perusal of documents submitted before the bench it was not a case of arrest merely because of dissent or difference in political views. In a dissenting judgment, Chandrachud said the liberty cherished by the Constitution would have no meaning if persecution of the five rights activists were allowed without a proper investigation. Chandrachud lashed out at the police for going public with evidence and termed it as disconcerting behaviour. Other important judgments passed On Wednesday, the apex court refused the Centre's plea to refer to a seven-judge bench its 2006 verdict on SC/ST job promotion. It pronounced the verdict on the ground that it was impossible to gather quantifiable data showing their backwardness backed by inadequacy of their representation and administrative efficiency. The same day, it also allowed the live streaming of its proceedings, saying the move will bring "transparency and accountability" to the judicial process and was manifestly in the "public interest". Justice Ranjan Gogoi will take over as the CJI after Misra, on 3 October. The Supreme Court, dismissing a plea challenging Gogoi's appointment, said that the plea was "devoid of merits." Chief Justice Misra said, "We are of the view that it is not the stage to interfere (with the appointment)." With inputs from agencies The Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala as it ruled that the repression of women under the garb of 'physiological factors' cannot be legitimised. The Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala as it said that the repression of women under the garb of "physiological factors" cannot be legitimised. The Chief Justice Dipak Misra-headed Constitution bench in a 4-1 verdict held that the existing ban violates rights of Hindu women. Observing that patriarchy in religion cannot "trump over" devotion, the Supreme Court bench rejected the vehement submissions of the Travancore Devaswom Board, which runs the temple, and ruled that the devotees of Lord Ayyappa are "exclusively Hindus" and do not constitute a "separate religious denomination". Justice Indu Malhotra, the only woman judge in the five-judges bench, gave a dissenting judgment. She said, "What constitutes essential practices of religion is to be decided by worshippers and it is not for the judiciary to adjudicate. "It is not for courts to decide if such practices should be struck down. Rationality cannot be used to judge faith. All followers must be allowed to follow their own faith as per their own beliefs in a secular polity," she said. Here is the full text of the Supreme Court verdict: With inputs from PTI Most of them were stranded at various locations in the Himalayas for the past six days with heavy snowfall in the region triggering massive landslides that snapped road links in the Lahaul-Spiti district since 22 September. Shimla: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday resumed its rescue operation on the fourth day and airlifted 26 people from Himachal Pradesh's snow-marooned Lahaul Valley. They were stranded for nearly a week in Chotta Dara near the Kunzum Pass area. The total number of people rescued since September 24 rose to over 1,350, including over 30 foreigners. Most of them were stranded at various locations in the Himalayas for the past six days with heavy snowfall in the region triggering massive landslides that snapped road links in the Lahaul-Spiti district since 22 September. Snow clearing operation have been in full swing by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to restore the road link between the Baralacha Pass and district headquarters Keylong. It was estimated that a large number of tourists and truckers were stranded near the Baralacha Pass. Another large group was reported to be stuck in Suraj Tal Lake and Zingzing Bar areas along Keylong-Leh road. Two light utility helicopters Cheetah were additionally deployed on Thursday along with the three IAF choppers, including MI-17, to speed up the rescue in Lahaul. State Tribal Development Minister Ram Lal Markanda said the task of rescuing 200-300 people stranded in the Saruchu and Darcha by air was being carried out on war footing. In order to know the whereabouts of those trapped near the Chandratal Lake, a team of rescuers led by Additional District Magistrate Vikram Singh Negi reached the lake area after 16 hours of trek on Thursday, Markanda said. At least 45 tourists and others stranded in the Chandratal Lake were transported to safer places, besides 13 tourists were airlifted. Early snowfall in the higher reaches, cloudburst and heavy rains devastated large parts of the state from 22 to 24 September. Heavy snowfall on the Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft) has cut off the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys affecting a large number of tourists and hampering water and electricity supply. Weather conditions improved on Thursday. The Supreme Court had in July ordered that the central and state governments should broadcast on radio and television and other media platforms, including the official websites of the home department and police of the states, that lynching and mob violence of any kind shall invite serious consequences under the law. New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Friday issued an advisory to all private satellite TV channels, urging them to run as a scroll that lynching and mob violence shall invite serious consequences under the law. The Supreme Court had in July ordered that the central and state governments should broadcast on radio and television and other media platforms, including the official websites of the home department and police of the states, that lynching and mob violence of any kind shall invite serious consequences under the law. "While Doordarshan is already implementing the decision, for ensuring widest possible outreach of the directions of the apex court, it is advised that private satellite TV channels may also run as scroll the two messages as given below in public interest. "Mob violence and lynching is a heinous crime and invites serious consequences under the law. Mob violence and lynching is a serious criminal offence and invites stringent punishment under the law," the ministry letter said. The advisory comes just days after the home ministry asked all states to make the general public aware that mob violence of any kind will invite serious consequences under the law. Quoting the directive of the Supreme Court, the home ministry told the states that preventive measures must be taken to check incidents of lynching which have taken place in different parts of the country in the recent past. News Story not available This story has been published on: 2021-11-13. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. The Common Application, an online platform a million students use to apply to college, has acquired Reach Higher, the college-encouragement campaign that Michelle Obama launched when she was the first lady. The leaders of Reach Higher and the Common Application announced the acquisition here Thursday during the annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The two organizations hope to use the outreach expertise of Reach Higher to bring more students into the college fold. The move takes effect on Jan. 1, when Reach Higher and a suite of related college-access programs that originated in the Obama White House will become initiatives of the organization widely known as the Common App. Reach Higher was a central piece of Michelle Obamas work during her White House years. A public-awareness campaign that urges young people to pursue postsecondary studies, it featured her in public appearances, social media posts, and even rap videos , promoting college as a smart option. When the initiative joins forces with the Common Application, it can build demand and help inspire confidence in young people that they can go to college, as it always has, but it can add a concrete step for studentsconnecting them to the Common Apps network of 800 colleges and universities, Eric Waldo, Reach Highers executive director, told Education Week in an interview here. After the Obamas left the White House, Reach Higher moved to Civic Nation, a nonprofit that works on improving education and civic engagement. Michelle Obama has stayed active in that work, including appearances at the annual spring College Signing Day, and will continue to do so, as a Reach Higher advisory board member, when the program moves to the Common App, officials said. Other programs related to Reach Higher that had also moved to Civic Nation will now migrate to the Common Application along with Reach Higher. They include Better Make Room, a campaign that publicizes the stories of high school and college students; Up Next, which uses text messages to nudge young people into completing key college tasks, such as signing up for admissions exams or applying for financial aid; College Signing Day, which celebrates students college choices, and Beating the Odds, which hosts summits of aspiring college students. Common Application CEO Jenny Rickard said in an interview here that she hopes the two groups can blend their expertise to solve some stubborn problems, such as why some students set up Common App accounts and never submit applications. Perhaps the Up Next text-nudging system could be harnessed to reach out to those students and get them to move through the application process, Rickard said. Reach Higher will also continue to support school counselors as it moves to the Common App. Obama was a vocal and ardent cheerleader for the counselors during her White House years, and made the symbolic choice to give her emotional farewell address as first lady at a meeting of counselors . Reach Higher will continue to host summits that train counselors on a variety of topics, such as building good pipelines to career-and-technical education for students, Waldo said. Photo: Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks at College Signing Day at Temple University in Philadephia in May. The event was one of many around the country honoring students who pursue education or training after high school. --Matt Slocum/AP Get High School & Beyond posts delivered to your inbox as soon as theyre published. Sign up here . Also, for news and analysis of issues that shape adolescents preparation for work and higher education. Press Release The St Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association condemns the continuous spate of violent crimes which seem to plague or Blessed country St Vincent & the Grenadines, and highlights its explicit concern that many of these crimes involve the nations Youths. The most recent events relating to Dr Browne-Caesars robbery and that of the police officer at gun-point, highlight the fact that NO ONE is exempted from crime, even the school child that was robbed of her mobile and her pocket money in the vicinity of Block 2000, or the Fruit vendor outside the Nurses Hostel in New Montrose, or the attempted, armed robbery of the Black Rose Bar in Arnos Vale. The St Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association calls on ALL Social service agencies, educational institutions, Faith Based Organisations, Parent-Teachers Associations, the Media, the Corporate sector, the Network of Non Governmental Organisations, the Trade Union Movement, representatives of the Opposition parties, to pool their human and financial resources in an attempt to address the sore and vexed rising situation of crime in this BLESSED land, and hereby, indicates its willingness to be part of a facilitative and collaborative process. The Association also takes this opportunity to call on the Hon Prime Minister and Minister of National Security to speak to the nation on the issue of Crime and Violence, outlining his Governments plan and strategies to address them, as there is evidence of a culture of fear, uncertainty and anxiety permeating this BLESSED land, which impacts overall productivity, transparency and good governance. Respectfully yours, Jeanie Ollivierre Msc PRO/Education & Training Officer. Amid paranoia over attempts to further dilute the states special status, the popular wave in the Valley seems opposed to the polls. In 2011, as Jammu and Kashmir geared up for panchayat elections after a long hiatus, Ghulam Hassan Panzoo, then a teacher in the governments service, resigned from his job to contest the polls from his village with the hope to drive forward development projects there. He won with 740 votes in the village Panzoo in north Kashmirs Kupwara district that had about as many households, he said. After years of neglect infrastructure schemes had started to be undertaken but the awe that the law on papers inspired in him was soon replaced by frustration and dejection. Having taken an early retirement, 18 years before the completion of his services, Panzoo found himself struggling for money and maintaining his authority as a sarpanch. The reason was not the militancy, but friction with the Legislature. Lawmakers do not want to share power, said Panzoo, who now heads an apolitical outfit, the Jammu and Kashmir Awami Movement that works to strengthen these local body institutions. An FIR was filed against him, over the cutting of trees on a public land, after he took the initiative to build an eidgah in his village, which was a long-pending demand. MLAs want to get involved even in the marriages of people in villages, he rued. They feel small when we run our affairs by ourselves. This year, as the state again gears up for panchayat and municipal elections, Panzoo has found new hope as he mobilises candidates for both elections. Early on Friday morning, the Central government announced new measures to empower the local bodies. Home minister Rajnath Singh announced on Twitter the empowerment of panchayats under the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution of India besides increasing their funds, tenfold, and allowing them to levy and collect taxes for local development. This, Panzoo said, will go a long way in empowering the institutions at a time when the state is under Governors Rule and the interference of legislators is minimal. Singh tweeted: Local bodies are also being vested with significantly enhanced devolution of powers in line with best practices in the country. This will enable them to address most of the local issues in their jurisdictions. But the hope rekindled by the Centres decision may still not ensure a smooth conduct. Between a rock and a hard place One can do wonders, remarked a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) worker on the scope of the developmental works and public outreach that can be achieved through local bodies but being a party member, he is faced with a dilemma: whether to toe the partys official line of boycott or quit and brave militant threats to contest the elections. Eventually the resident of Pahalgam in south Kashmirs Anantnag district gave up on his ambitions. It isnt just the fear of the gun in the Valley this time, militants have repeatedly warned of acid attacks against contestants. Anyone can throw acid, it does not require a militant, he said. It is only the threat of militancy that is stopping me this time. After the recent fiasco in the Valley that once again surprised some in the security establishment, as separatist militants abducted policemen and their relatives, they made their intentions clear and exhibited their capabilities of striking civilians and off-duty policemen in their homes. Weeks later, three policemen were killed after militants took them from their homes. Both the PDP worker and Panzoo pleaded that the elections have nothing to do with politics and are purely about local governance. The baggage of politics and statements of referendums from the Central government that come with every poll in the state have put these grassroots workers in a tight spot. Our job is not to make or amend laws. That is for the Assembly, said Panzoo. We are small people with even smaller statures. Their views, however, are not shared by everyone. Amid paranoia over attempts to further dilute the states special status, the popular wave in the Valley seems opposed to the polls. Riding this popular wave, the states largest regional unionist party, the National Conference, declared a boycott of the elections, officially calling for the Centre to clear its stand on the special provisions of the state, particularly Article 35A that, among other things, empowers Jammu and Kashmir to define its permanent residents. A sensitive topic in a region where fears of demography change run high. The PDP followed their lead. The response to the elections from the Muslim-majority Kashmir province and the Jammu region with a significant Hindu population is in sharp contrast. While the Valleys main political parties and separatists are up in arms against the polls, the Jammu province has largely welcomed it. Javed Baig, the PDP legislator from Baramulla, said this had further divided the state on political and communal lines. The PDP, he said, took the step to boycott after the National Conference used the veil of 35A and the party could not contest elections lest it be seen as not concerned about safeguarding the provision, he said. In Kashmir, participation is seen as betrayal while Jammu is seeing this differently; it sees Kashmirs reaction as a pro-Muslim stance, he said. We are heading towards a split in the state. Pertinently, the NC and PDP made no such statements during the council elections in Kargil. Threat to workers security may have been one of the reasons for regional parties decision to boycott. Still, by filing nominations, Baig said that candidates had reposed their faith in the government to give them security. If they dont, who will be responsible for innocent killings? Kashmiris will be killing Kashmiris, he said. But the boycott announced by the regional parties has offered hope in other quarters, which are looking to see the rise of alternative leaders. For one political activist in Handwara, the emergence of alternative leaders who could deliver governance could shake the old guard of politics who ran fiefdoms. Perhaps understanding this, both regional parties have reportedly fielded proxy candidates. Opening for BJP The boycott of these polls by the regional parties has led to fears of the Bharatiya Janata Party seizing the opportunity to directly carry out activities in the Valley. Panzoo believes the NC and PDP have left an open space for the BJP to take over local governance in the Valley. They have paved the way for the BJP and RSS to come up in Kashmir, he said. Veer Saraf, the BJPs in-charge for south Kashmir, said he was dead sure that the party would capture many municipalities in the first phase of the polls that begin on 8 October. The party has fielded candidates in several wards including in north Kashmirs Handwara where Sajjad Lones Peoples Conference is the only regional party to participate in the elections. Various candidates in several wards in the municipal polls, scheduled before the panchayat elections, are expected to be elected uncontested. The BJP is counting on this to make inroads in the Valley. Saraf said, Vis-a-vis Kashmir, we are a new party but we have passed the first phase by fielding candidates. The party, he said, was going door to door to mobilise voters. The municipal and panchayat polls are also a litmus test for the BJP which claims to have more than three lakh workers in the Valley alone. Either way, these elections will decide the course of future polls in the state and present new challenges for the security establishment that for now claims to be on top of things. For New Delhi, however, conducting the elections after announcing them, seemingly without consulting the regional parties, has never before been so important. Unionist political workers and security officials point to the violence and low voter turnout on the day of parliamentary bypolls in central Kashmirs relatively peaceful Budgam district, last year, on 9 April, as having boosted the morale of the separatists. The deferment of the bypolls for the Anantnag seat, vacant since 2016, was seen as having accepted defeat. Polls for that seat were not undertaken even as general elections are around the corner in the country. In Handwara, a retired school teacher and a supporter of Peoples Conference said the town was pragmatic and would participate in the polls if they werent afraid for their security. Even kids would come out to vote like it used to happen, he said. Just tell Pakistan to take back their gun. The importance given to the election process and the concerns for safety made one socio-political activist in Handwara, Tahir Lone, accidentally call it an operation. In Kashmir, legislators are representatives of India, if they feel pushed to the wall, what will the common masses feel? he asked. Indias credibility is at stake now. Arvind Kejriwal, Medha Patkar and Meera Sanyal, were booked under various provisions of the Maharashtra Police Act pertaining to holding public rallies without prior permission from the police. Mumbai: A court in Mumbai on Friday acquitted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and seven others in a case of holding a political rally without requisite police permission in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener, Kejriwal, and the others, including activist Medha Patkar and Meera Sanyal, were booked under various provisions of the Maharashtra Police Act pertaining to holding public rallies without prior permission from the police. Metropolitan Magistrate PK Deshpande, while acquitting Kejriwal and the others, Friday observed that the police had failed to give the accused persons a written statement refusing them permission for the rally. The rally in Mankhurd, in north east Mumbai, was held as part of the poll campaign of AAP candidates Meera Sanyal and Medha Patkar. The Mumbai Police had claimed it was "unscheduled" and held without prior requisite permissions from the traffic police. In March 2014, a complaint was lodged against Kejriwal and the others at suburban Mankhurd police station. While Kejriwal, Sanyal and the other accused were present in the court Friday, Patkar was absent. Bhagat Singh was born in Banga village of Faisalabad district (previously called Lyallpur) now in Pakistan's Punjab province in 1907. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday paid tribute to Bhagat Singh on his 111th birth anniversary. The Prime Minister took to his official Twitter handle and said that Bhagat Singh's valour motivates millions of Indians across generations. "Shaheed Bhagat Singh's valour motivates millions of Indians across generations. I bow to this proud son of India on his Jayanti and join my fellow citizens in remembering his heroic deeds that contributed to India's freedom," he wrote. -- - Shaheed Bhagat Singh's valour motivates millions of Indians across generations. I bow to this proud son of India on his Jayanti and join my fellow citizens in remembering his heroic deeds that contributed to Indias freedom. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 28, 2018 Bhagat Singh was born in Banga village of Faisalabad district (previously called Lyallpur) now in Pakistan's Punjab province in 1907. The revolutionary freedom fighter was a charismatic Indian socialist revolutionary whose two acts of dramatic violence against the British in India and execution at the age of 23 made him a folk hero of the Indian independence movement. Bhagat Singh, who was hanged in the Lahore jail along with Shivaram Hari Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar on 23 March 1931, left a strong impact during his lifetime. Narendra Modi's plan to dissolve the Medical Council of India (MCI) was so confidential that people in the council did not even see it coming Narendra Modi's plan to dissolve the Medical Council of India (MCI) was so confidential that people in the council did not even see it coming. The Cabinet meeting was to be held on Wednesday it was known to all, but it even took ministers present in the Cabinet by surprise when such a sudden decision was taken. The prime minister inaugurated the Jan Arogya Yojana on 23 September to provide healthcare to all. But forming a new board of governors after disintegrating the MCI is one of the key precedents in the series of daring decisions by Modi. The prime minister categorically put the necessity of the Ordinance before his Cabinet colleagues and after getting the Cabinet nod, it was immediately sent to the president for its promulgation. At the Cabinet meeting, Modi spoke about the reason for the dissolution of the MCI and how it would bring about a change in healthcare services. The prime minister expressed the need to open one-and-a-half lakh primary healthcare centres, so that the healthcare-for-all scheme could come to fruition. The prime minister emphasised on the effective steps to be taken to fulfil the shortage of doctors and medical professionals, to successfully deliver a healthy India. Further, Modi also expressed his concerns about the corruption in medical education and stressed on the need to disintegrate the MCI to rein in the mafia in the council. In fact, the last Monsoon Session of Parliament was abuzz with the passing of the National Medical Council Bill and because of the non-passage of this bill, the government started facing various charges. It was alleged that the Gujarat lobby directly or indirectly had its clout in the MCI. And this was the reason the government did not pass the bill to support the council. Doctors were divided on the issue of the bill. But the promulgation of the Ordinance by the president with such alacrity meant that all the rumours about the government were swiftly deflated. Presently, the MCI stands disintegrated and it will function with the help of a board of governors. According to the press release, seven names on the board of governors are globally recognised in their respective work areas. These are: 1) Dr VK Paul, who is a member of NITI Aayog and will be taking over as the chairman of the council. 2) Dr Randeep Guleria, who is at present the director of AIIMS. 3) Dr Jagat Ram, who is the director of PGIMER, Chandigarh. 4) Dr BN Gangadhar, who is the director of NIMHANS, Bengaluru. 5) Dr Nikhil Tandon, who is a professor in endocrinology and metabolism. 6) S Venkatesh, who holds the position of director-general, health. 7) Dr Balram Bhargav, who is director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research. By choosing such experts, the government seems to be seeking to give a fitting response to the rumours doing the rounds against the National Medical Council Bill. It was alleged that the institution of doctors was to be replaced by the bureaucrats. The background behind the disintegration of the MCI Due to out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare, 66 lakh people have been pushed below the poverty line. This is a big challenge to the government. To cope with this, the government is preparing to open one-and-a-half lakh primary healthcare and wellness centres. And the target to achieve it has been fixed for the year 2022. Thirty-one states have already agreed to be part of the Ayushman Bharat Yojana. Meanwhile, 26 states have already started the process of its implementation. According to government data, 2,300 healthcare and wellness centres are operational and by the end of this year, the target has been fixed at 15,000 new centres in total. The scarcity of capable healthcare professionals has let to difficulties in achieving the targets of universal healthcare coverage, sustainable development goals and the national health policy. And the main reason for this failure seems to unchanged medical education and massive corruption in the field. The government wants and improvement in the quality of tertiary healthcare. In order to achieve this goal, there are plans to open 14 AIIMS in various parts of the country. After the opening of all these, the total number of AIIMS in the country will be 22. There are plans to open super specialty blocks in 54 medical colleges for which a sum of Rs 9,000 crore has been earmarked. Further, at an expense of Rs 16,000 crore, there is a plan to open 82 medical colleges in backward areas, under the sponsorship of the Centre. Therefore, without the reformation in medical education, implementation of such a vast project was very difficult. It is obvious that the need of doctors and health professionals for such a large project is a major challenge. That is why the government believes that the need of the hour is a change in medical education. The government had to take this step because the National Medical Council Bill was prepared on the basis of a report by the parliamentary committee in 2016 under the chairmanship of late Ranjit Roy Chaudhary and it was tabled in the Lok Sabha on 29 December, 2017. The bill stressed on the need to increase the numbers of undergraduates and postgraduates, and a reform in medical education was also proposed in the bill. The draft spoke of the formation of four boards which must ensure the best integrity and professionalism of its members. The draft was again sent to the parliamentary committee for advice. This bill was passed by the Cabinet on 28 March this year and was tabled in the Lok Sabha for its passage, but is still pending. A second oversight committee was formed at the end of 2017. But on 6 July, 2018, the oversight committee complained about its lack of authority through a letter to the Ministry of Health and all members handed in their resignations. The government believes that when the order of the Supreme Court was surpassed and the MCI began taking decisions without taking the oversight committee into confidence, it was then imperative to replace the MCI. The National Medical Council Bill is pending in the House and for better medical education and to provide better health services, the government has made its intentions clear by taking effective steps. Sharad Pawar's comments, made to a Marathi news channel, set off a political storm, and the NCP's national general secretary Tariq Anwar resigned from the party. Days after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar said that people 'do not have doubts' over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intentions in the Rafale deal, his daughter and party MP Supriya Sule on Friday said that the questions that he raised over the deal are being ignored. In a series of tweets, Sule said, "Its disappointing that people have not heard (Sharad Pawar) where he has clearly raised three questions: 1) What is the justification for a 300 percent price increase from Rs 526 crores to Rs 1,670 crores which potentially could be a significant loss to the exchequer? 2) If such doubts have been raised and the government is so confident, then why are they shying from setting up a JPC? 3) When the BJP raised both price and specification issues during the Bofors allegations, then why are they hiding behind the artificial justification of secrecy of agreements vis-a-vis both commercial price and offset agreements?" Pawar's comments on Wednesday, made to a Marathi news channel, set off a political storm, and the NCP's national general secretary Tariq Anwar on Friday said that he had resigned from the party and Parliament due to the party president's statement. Anwar told reporters he was "hurt" by Pawar's comments. The party later came out with a clarification, saying it did not amount to a clean chit to the prime minister. In the interview, Pawar, who is a former defence minister, also said the Opposition's demand to share technical details relating to the fighter jet "made no sense". He, however, said there was no harm for the government to disclose prices of the aircraft. "I don't think people have doubts about Modi's intentions personally," Pawar told the news channel. He, however, said the way defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the government's side led to confusion in the minds of people. "Now, (Union Finance Minister Arun) Jaitley can be seen articulating (government's stand) on the issue (instead of Sitharaman)," he added. The Congress has launched an offensive against the BJP government over the Rafale deal, alleging corruption and violation of rules by Modi. It has accused the government of causing loss to the public exchequer and endangering national security by bypassing the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in favour of some businessman "friends" for offset contract. With inputs from PTI India has been trying to get the NSCN-K to the negotiating table like the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) faction as it is felt that peace wont hold unless all the rebel groups agree to it. Jolted by a recent split along ethnic and religious lines, the dreaded National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Khaplang) (NSCN-K)which unilaterally walked out of a 14-year ceasefire with the government on 27 March, 2015is willing to return to the negotiating table. Backed by more than 500 and still many more readying to join hands, the NSCN (also known by the abbreviation GPRN) led by Khango Konyak shall continue to defend the rights and identity of the Nagas, and we are also seriously considering the Naga people's genuine appeal for peace and political dialogue with government of India, NSCN-K spokesperson Isak Sumi said in an emailed statement on Friday. After decades of waging an incessant struggle against India, the Myanmar-headquartered outfits desire to come to the negotiating table may have been prompted by the latest split, whose impact will be felt for a long time, besides having a big bearing on the strategy and tactics of the various armed underground groups in the region. Till last year, NSCN (K), United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and People's Liberation Army of Manipur (PLA)the leading insurgent outfits from Assam and Manipur respectivelyoperating in close coordination had become a formidable force to reckon with, especially in the mountainous and heavily forested badlands of Myanmar bordering India. About 60,000 square kilometres in size, the area is largely ungoverned with thousands of insurgents mounting a formidable challenge to the Myanmar Army on one side and the Indian Army on the other. Besides, these insurgents are involved in trading of sophisticated weapons and mining of jade, according to reports. While the NSCN-Kthe big daddy of these groups mainly due to the predominance of Naga villages in the areasplit along tribal lines with Myanmar Naga tribes staunchly opposing Khango Konyak, an Indian Naga who assumed the leadership of the outfit after the death of SS Khaplang, what is of utmost significance is the sudden souring of relations between the ULFA and PLA. Accusing the Pangmi sect, a Naga tribe from Myanmar led by Yung Aung (aka Yonghong), of trying to assassinate Konyak, Sumi said, The Pangmi sect connived with the Myanmar Army and mounted a full-scale military operation to assassinate his excellency Khango Konyak. The offensive is still continuing to hunt down NSCN/GPRN workers guided by the Pangmi renegades. Alleging that the ringleaders of the splinter Pangmi sect will be endowed with huge monetary bonus and other lucrative offers in the form of gold and jade mining licences and permanent citizenship privileges anywhere in Myanmar, the NSCN-K spokesperson added, They will also be entitled to contest in Myanmar Union elections by renouncing the Nagas historical sovereign rights. Questioning the impeachment process of Konyak, Sumi questioned the validity of the process. Whereas the renegades at the instigation of Meitei UG groups and ULFA without acquiring even a quarter of the quorum arbitrarily imposed the impeachment, which is unconstitutional, illegal and invalid and therefore stands nullified not a single NSCN leader from India-occupied Nagaland were consulted or involved in this illegal process. With NSCN-Ks Myanmar Nagas siding with ULFA and PLA, Konyak stands effectively isolated, which will have huge implications for the capability and logistics for these groups to operate inside Indian and also on the ongoing peace talks with the Isak-Muivah faction. Sumi also questioned Aungs religious mooring: the usurper Yonghong, who is a non-Christian and a devout Hindu and Buddhist is a Meitei (a largely Hindu Manipuri community) by culture and mindset. Yonghong is just a mere puppet of Meiteis and can never represent the Naga interests in any platform. India has been trying to bring the NSCN-K to the negotiating tablelike the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) factionas it is felt that peace wont hold unless all the rebel groups agree to it. On 9 June, 2015, the army attacked two NSCN-K camps across Manipur and Nagaland along the India-yanmar border and claimed significant successes in terms of destroying insurgent bases and elimination of insurgents. The government is celebrating Parakram Parv from 28-30 September to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes that the forces had carried out on terror launch pads. New Delhi: On the eve of the second anniversary of the surgical strikes, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday that terrorists' launch pads were destroyed after the exercise and those wanting to spread terror were adequately punished. The government is celebrating Parakram Parv from 28-30 September to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes that the forces had carried out on terror launch pads in 2016. "We showed that for the cowardly act of killing, India shall not sit and watch the whole thing. We proved to them (terrorists) that it (their acts) shall not go unpunished...It is all out in the open now (that) all terrorists' launch pads were cleared off and those who wanted to spread terror were adequately punished," Sitharaman said at an event organised at the India Gate Lawns to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes. The minister said the government was celebrating the Parakram Parv through which people could see the valour of the armed forces and remember them. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated on Friday the "Parakram Parv" exhibition at a military station. Chief justice of India Dipak Misra, through powerful judgments in Section 377 case, Section 497 case and now the Sabarimala temple entry case not only pronounced legal verdict that tends to correct certain legal wrongs, but also unleashed a spree of social reforms On 7 June, 1949, during a constituent Assembly debate, one of its prominent members Mahavir Tyagi commented that the "seats they occupy are the seats of gods", while referring to the judges and the higher judiciary. His observations were dismissed by BR Ambedkar as mere "feelings" which were perhaps of lesser significance for the assembly that was debating the constitutional edifice of the country. Tyagi was instead asked to express only his "opinions" on the matter. Ambedkars rebuke to Tyagi was important for the fact that judges should not be elevated to the stature of God as it runs the risk that they might assume morality other than the one dictated by the Constitution that they tend to uphold. The Supreme Court of India and more specifically the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, through three judgments, pronounced in last few weeks, has in 'letter and spirit of law' upheld the basic spirit of the Indian constitution: equality before law, ignoring other moralities dictated by different 'sects' and sections of the society. Article 15 of the constitution reads: the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them". And, it also makes the State responsible for checking and eliminating any such discrimination perpetuated by any section of the society. The Supreme Court in three cases pertaining to Section 377 of the Indian penal code (IPC), Section 497 of IPC and now in the Sabarimala temple entry case brought to an end forms of discrimination that was dictated by certain 'religious and societal morality' that did not weaned off with the passage of time. On Friday, Chief Justice Misra held that the age-based restriction on entry of women in Keralas Sabarimala temple cannot be justified as an essential part of the religion. The constitutional bench which had five judges, with one judge dissenting, held that any exception placed on women because of biological differences violates the Constitution. Earlier on 6 September, the Supreme Court had restored 'inclusiveness' by decriminalising part of Section 377 that made consensual sex between homosexuals a crime. The court while delivering a judgment observed, Section 377 IPC, so far as it criminalises even consensual sexual acts between competent adults, fails to make a distinction between non-consensual and consensual sexual acts of competent adults in private space which are neither harmful nor contagious to the society. Section 377 IPC subjects the LGBTQ community to societal pariah and dereliction and is, therefore, manifestly arbitrary, for it has become an odious weapon for the harassment of the LGBTQ community by subjecting them to discrimination and unequal treatment." On 27 September, a bench headed by CJI Misra struck down the adultery law, pertaining to Section 497 of IPC and Section 198 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), as unconstitutional through a unanimous judgment. The court ruled, The time when wives were invisible to the law, and lived in the shadows of their husbands, has long since gone by. A legislation that perpetuates such stereotypes in relationships, and institutionalises discrimination is a clear violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution. There is therefore, no justification for continuance of Section 497 of the IPC as framed in 1860, to remain on the statute book. Chief Justice Misra, in judgment written for himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar held, The beauty of the Indian Constitution is that it includes I you and we. Such a magnificent, compassionate and monumental document embodies emphatic inclusiveness which has been further nurtured by judicial sensitivity when it has developed the concept of golden triangle of fundamental rights. If we have to apply the parameters of a fundamental right, it is an expression of judicial sensibility which further enhances the beauty of the Constitution as conceived of. In such a situation, the essentiality of the rights of women gets the real requisite space in the living room of individual dignity rather than the space in an annexe to the main building. The judgment added, "That is the manifestation of concerned sensitivity. Individual dignity has a sanctified realm in a civilised society. The civility of a civilisation earns warmth and respect when it respects more the individuality of a woman. The said concept gets a further accent when a woman is treated with the real spirit of equality with a man. Any system treating a woman with indignity, inequity and inequality or discrimination invites the wrath of the Constitution. Any provision that might have, few decades back, got the stamp of serene approval may have to meet its epitaph with the efflux of time and growing constitutional precepts and progressive perception. A woman cannot be asked to think as a man or as how the society desires. Such a thought is abominable, for it slaughters her core identity. And, it is time to say that a husband is not the master. Equality is the governing parameter. All historical perceptions should evaporate and their obituaries be written." In all these three cases, the chief justice of India Dipak Misra, through powerful judgments, not only pronounced legal verdict that tends to correct certain legal wrongs; but also unleashed a spree of social reforms. By striking down Section 377, Section 497 of IPC and now with Sabrimala judgment, by all means, the apex court and the chief justice of the country upheld the "emphatic inclusiveness" that is the cornerstone of the Indian constitution. With the striking down of adultery under Section 497 of the IPC, constitutional law has finally entered the institution of marriage in a bid to ensure constitutional freedoms, destroy hierarchies, eliminate inequalities and attempt to democratise matrimonial relationships In the Joseph Shine versus Union of India case, a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, a provision that was immensely asymmetrical, and declared it manifestly arbitrary and unconstitutional. Section 497s asymmetry was manifest in how it applied only to the man committing the crime, how the woman committing adultery was not even an abettor to the office, and how only the husband of the said woman had the right to prosecute her for the offence. Section 497 espouses the sexual stereotypes that ascribe sexual agency to men, and sexual passivity to women, and characterises men as the seducers and liable, criminally, while women are seduced, hence they are victims. The judgment was delivered by a Constitutional Bench consisting of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, and Justices AM Khanwilkar, Rohinton Nariman, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra. CJI Misra struck down the section, stating that it violates Article 14 of the Constitution, which says that any provision treating woman with inequality is not constitutional". Justice Malhotra stated that [i]t would be unrealistic to proceed on the basis that even in a consensual sexual relationship, a married woman, who knowingly and voluntarily enters into a sexual relationship with another married man, is a 'victim', and the male offender is the 'seducer'". Justice Chandrachud's concurring opinion stated that the roots of the provision were patriarchal, and it viewed women as mens property; the provision sought to control the sexuality of women, and is an anathema to the right of life, dignity and autonomy of women. With this judgment, India now joins a host of countries The Peoples Republic of China, Japan, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Germany, Austria, the Republic of Ireland, Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Seychelles that have done away with adultery as a crime. While section 497 has been struck down, according to the judgment, adultery will continue to be grounds for divorce, and in this, the Bench has been extremely judicious. It has begun to remove state intrusion from the extreme privacy of the matrimonial sphere. The Bench states that criminalising something that is essentially private, and has no social impact, would be an infringement of privacy. Justice Chandrachuds concurring opinion is nothing short of incredible in changing the rights of both parties in a marriage in India. He talks about womens right to sexual autonomy, and mentions the role of a constitutional analysis of the public/private divide. It becomes imperative for us to intervene when structures of injustice and persecution deeply entrenched in patriarchy are destructive of constitutional freedom. But, in adjudicating on the rights of women, the court is not taking on a paternalistic role and granting rights, he said. His opinion removes the veneer of immunity that the institution of marriage and the family structure often claim to have when faced with constitutional scrutiny. While critics may state that one seeks to encourage adulterers by removing adultery from the Indian Penal Code, and that keeping it as a ground for divorce may be problematic for the sanctity of matrimonial relationships, adultery as a ground of divorce is not a new phenomenon. In the Special Marriage Act 1954, the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and the Divorce Act of 1869 (amended in 2001) all reference adultery as a ground for seeking divorce. In Muslim Law, a wife can bring a claim for dissolution of marriage (lian) against her husband, if he has accused her of adultery. By identifying adultery only as a ground for divorce, and not as a criminal offence, the judgment did not do anything new. It protected the privacy of the matrimonial relationship, while maintaining that women have constitutional freedoms that are independent of the marriage and family structure. In a previous judgment concerning Section 497 Yusuf Abdul Aziz versus State of Bombay (1954) the court stated that women were immune from criminal liability because it was seen as a special benefit for women as they were vulnerable, and hence, valid despite being discriminatory. The judgment in Joseph Shine case completely reverses this it states that adultery, though no longer an offence, continues to be a concept in heteronormative marriages, and that persons aggrieved because of adulterous partners can seek recourse in the family courts. In many ways, the judgment transformed how marriages are perceived. Marriage is a significant social institution where this subordination is pronounced, with entrenched structures of patriarchy and romantic paternalism shackling women into a less than equal existence [] Constitutional protections and freedoms permeate every aspect of a citizens life the delineation of private or public spheres become irrelevant as far as the enforcement of constitutional rights is concerned. Therefore, even the intimate personal sphere of marital relations is not exempt from constitutional scrutiny, Justice Chandrachud remarked in his judgment on the case. The victory from the Joseph Shine versus Union of India case is the fact that social institutions, whether they be familial structures or marriages, are no longer above the rights of an individual who participates in these social institutions. Many years ago, in Harvinder Kaur versus Harmander Singh Choudhry (1983), the introduction of constitutional law was thought to be inappropriate "a bull in a china shop. It will prove to be a ruthless destroyer of the marriage institution and all that it stands for." Now three decades later, with this judgment, constitutional law has finally entered the institution in a bid to ensure constitutional freedoms, destroy hierarchies, eliminate inequalities and attempt to democratise matrimonial relationships. The Supreme Court has said that the bare feet of ladies log can now enter Sabarimala, now trudge up those 18 steps, see the light of the Makara Villak if they wish. By Nisha Susan In the mists of my childhood is a (false) memory of a district collector, a woman, being temporarily declared a man by a court. As I understood it back then, the collector had some work to do in Sabarimala and was stumped by the ban on women, and so the court said she could be a man for a day. This made perfect (if mildly comical) sense to my teen self since I had spouses of family members who had become Christian for seemingly all of an hour so as to marry in Church. And years later, when The Economist reported that a Chinese construction company had converted hundreds of workers to Islam to gain access to work in the vicinity of Mecca, I thought to myself, its the old Sabarimala logic taken to Chinas usual Evil Mass PT extremes. Of course, what I remembered isnt quite what happened. In 1995, KB Valsala Kumari, DC of Patthanamthitta was directed by the court to go coordinate work between multiple institutions that serve Sabarimala pilgrims. In an affidavit Kumari pointed out that not only did the temple rules prevent her from entering but so did a 1990 court order. Much head scratching later, she was told that she could go but strictly as a public servant and to entertain no notions of pilgrimage, do not even step on the first golden step of the Pathinettam Padi. Clearly, no one on that bench had either read the Bluebeards Chamber story nor heard the story about the king who was instructed by his doctor not to think about golden mangoes. Upon her return from Sabarimala, a thrilled Valsala Kumari said at a press conference that as a believer of Lord Ayyappa, she felt blessed to have gotten the special permission from the court. (Note that even the week before Kumaris entry, two women were spotted having sneaked into the temple.) Kumari then also said she wished that other women also had the opportunity to go. This made many gents of the time go cuckoo and issue death threats to her as they also did recently to the one of the Sabarimala case petitioners, the Young Indian Lawyers Association. Here we are in 2018 and the Supreme Court has said that the bare feet of ladies log can now enter Sabarimala, now trudge up those 18 steps, see the light of the Makara Villak if they wish. Or to quote the verdict, devotion cannot be subject to gender discrimination. The dissenting judge Justice Indu Malhotra argued that issues of deep religious sentiments should not be ordinarily be interfered by the Court. On that front, one could argue that gayi bhains paani mein a rather long time ago in our young septuagenarian nation. Justice Malhotra perhaps would agree with a friend of mine, a historian who likes to ask me horribly pointy (and often useful) questions about faith. My historian friend said, going to a temple is like visiting a family member. Why would you want to visit someone elses house? As in, if there is no tradition of going to a particular temple, why do you want to go? Of course, this deference to the status quo would have made sure the continued exclusion of Dalits and lower castes from religious establishments. Luckily, the law and Dalit activism has emerged victorious on that front, but we still need to examine that question of being welcome or not. The truth is, it is our national hobby to go on pilgrimage and find new ones to declare as instant family traditions. To extend my friends metaphor, we are always in the search of new family to visit and make burnt offerings to. And while we are on the subject of ready-to-mix traditions, recently in Kodagu district, some men seemed to have taken courage from their (otherwise much despised) Malayali neighbours. They tried to declare the Brahmagiri hills, site of the temple dedicated to the Thala Kaveri, the source of the river Kaveri, banned to menstruating women. The whole hills. Because these men felt that the impurity of women walking about in the hills was the reason for the springs declining volume of water. Luckily, this struck plenty of Kodavas as ridiculous and the District Administration has stepped in to say please, dudes. We have seen a version of my friends question appear often enough among those who say that a true believer wouldnt want to defy the Sabarimala temple rules and go. If you believe in Ayyappa why would you go, they ask. To them, not being Ready to Wait (that is until menopause) is to be deliberately sacrilegious, blowing smoke rings in the face of your grandmother, so to speak. But Vatsala Kumari believed. And she believed that other women who believed should have a right to climb those steps. And not unlike Catholic men and women who believe and are questioning the terrible sins that their clergy have gotten away with, these women too find ways to reconcile being believers and being those who question the system. Or to quote the pithy tweet of IPS officer Rema Rajeshwari this morning: Bleeding is not blot. Of course, there were those who believed and rejoiced that Kerala was wrecked by the recent floods as divine punishment for even considering the entry of women to Sabarimala, so fragile is their sense of the order of the universe. There are those who wouldnt go quite so far but do wonder (and will continue to wonder) what is the need for all this? I have rarely heard the Malayalam word parishkari (reformer) delivered without scorn, without the implication that the desire for modernisation is just an indication of arrogance and lack of social niceties. It is going where you are just not welcome, dont you know? The real-life Trupti Desais announcement to land via helicopter inside the Shani temple or demand that the RSS admit women in its ranks is the personification of Malayalam movie scriptwriters idea of a parishkari woman. Mission Impossible-ing her way everywhere. Instead the women who have been campaigning to go to Sabarimala, to fight female genital mutilation, to take down the rapists in the Church would probably see themselves otherwise. Their dhikaram, dhairyam and parishkaram is to love the circus, the horses, the jugglers, the trapeze artists, the elephants and even perhaps the stars that you see through the thin fabric of the tent, but to retain the prerogative to dislike the ringmasters and the clowns. The Ladies Finger (TLF) is a leading online women's magazine The note highlighted that the politburo, Maoist's top decision-making body, controls the urban activities through various regional bureaux and sub-committees, including those involved in mass organisations. New Delhi: While the Supreme Court on Friday rejected the demand for an SIT probe in the arrest of five activistsVernon Gonsalves, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha and Arun Ferreirain the Bhima Koregaon case, paving the way for Pune Police to continue further investigation, a secret note prepared by the security agencies and sent to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said influence of urban activities of CPI (Maoists) has been reported in at least 18 states of the country. Punjab, and Gujarat Police have informed MHA that the state witnessed overground activities of CPI (Maoist) in the last 4-5 years while demanding that security-related expenditure given to the Naxal violence affected states should also be extended to those states affected by Maoists activities in urban areas. Gujarat has asked for regular sharing of intelligence regarding visits of activists with Maoist leanings and their activities in urban areas. They have also referred to the document prepared by Kobad Ghandy, senior most Maoists leader, on the prospect of Naxalism in Punjab, which outlines the Naxal plan to work in the urban areas of the state, an informed government source told Firstpost. The note highlighted that the politburo, Maoist's top decision-making body, controls the urban activities through various regional bureaux and sub-committees, including those involved in mass organisations. The mass organisations represent the link between the rural and urban areas. The main objective is the mobilisation of the masses including the working class and the youth and formation of Tactical United Front by involving other like-minded organisations, by exploiting common issues. Such organisations are also used to supply men and material from the urban centres to rural areas and recruitment of educated urban youth as leaders of the party like the work done by GN Saibaba, ex-Joint Secretary of Revolutionary Democratic Front. The prominent areas identified in this plan included the Surat-Pune industrial corridor, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Coimbatore, it said. The note has also cited the activities of Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners, Mazdoor Sangthan Samiti active in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and involved in holding ideological classes for furthering Maoists propaganda. Security agencies have observed that inputs regarding Tactical United Front were received from Jharkhand last year where extensive protests were held over death of Motilal Baskey, a Maoist cadre, by terming it as a fake encounter. MHA has been informed that the role of Fact Finding Team and subsequent formation of Daman Virodhi Morcha by associating with mainstream political parties and other Marxist-Leninist outfits is clearly towards strengthening the urban cadres. The orientation of state police should be calibrated towards work of mass organisations, particularly in states that are not affected with violence. Interdiction of funding of these outfits and forming a long-term perspective to tackle the challenges of Urban Naxalism is immediately required. There is a need to supplement the National Policy on dealing with Naxals, with guidelines on this front and the provision of funds. Separate cells should be formed in State Intelligence branches to monitor these activities and efforts should be made to ensure proper investigation and subsequent conviction of the Maoists Urban activists, the note added. On the issue of prosecution, sources said, it was most challenging since people with sympathy towards Naxalism are working in urban areas under the garb of front organisations and an earlier judgment of Supreme Court that mere membership of a banned outfit, without involvement in any violent act, was not a crime, also posed as a major challenge. The Supreme Court judgment on Friday will allow the Maharashtra Police to thoroughly investigate the case. Acquiring the membership of Maoists is a structured process and enough protection is provided to the cadres keeping them off the radar. For example, we came to know later that a funded protest held in Gujarat following Una incident was orchestrated by certain individuals from Bihar. There are several organisations active on Karnataka-Kerala-Tamil Nadu trip-junction working under the garb of welfare and youth solidarity, sources said. It said religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. While Justices R F Nariman and Y Chandrachud concurred with the CJI and Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Indu Malhotra gave a dissenting verdict. The court pronounced its verdict on a clutch of pleas challenging the ban on the entry of women of menstrual age in Kerala's Sabarimala temple saying law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for the entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala. The five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. It said religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. While Justices RF Nariman and Y Chandrachud concurred with the CJI and Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Indu Malhotra gave a dissenting verdict. The court pronounced its verdict on a clutch of pleas challenging the ban on the entry of women of menstrual age in Kerala's Sabarimala temple saying law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. The bench passed four sets of separate judgments. The CJI said devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination and patriarchal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. He said devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not constitute a separate denomination. The CJI said the practice of exclusion of women of 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as essential religious practice and Kerala law denies rights to women on the ground of physiological reasons. Justice Nariman said the Sabarimala temple custom barring women of 10-50 age is not backed by Article 25 and 26 of the Constitution. The custom of barring women is violative of Article 25 (Clause 1) and Rule 3(b) of Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (authorisation of entry) Rules, 1965 is struck down by Justice Nariman. Justice Chandrachud said religion cannot be used as cover to deny rights of worship to women and it is also against human dignity. He said the prohibition on women is due to non-religious reasons and it is a grim shadow of discrimination going on for centuries. Devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not form separate religious denominations, Justice Chandrachud said and added that any custom or religious practice if violates the dignity of women by denying them entry due to her physiology is unconstitutional. He said the popular notion about morality can be offensive to the dignity of others and exclusion of women because she menstruates is utterly unconstitutional. Justice Chandrachud held that exclusion of women is violative of right to liberty, dignity and equality and said nanning women of a particular age group is not essential practice of religion. Justice Malhotra said notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion and India has diverse religious practices and constitutional morality would allow anyone to profess a religion they believe. She said equality doctrine cannot override fundamental right to worship under Article 25. Supreme Court's judgment on the Sabarimala temple issue is the decent, honourable thing. But the decent thing isnt necessarily the right thing. For as long as anyone could remember, the Billavas and Holeyas of Dakshina Kannada had only been able to gaze at God from across the walls outside the Sri Krishna temple in Udupi. They were kept from 'defiling' the idol as it was worshipped and they waited patiently for a priest to collect their offerings from their outstretched hands. Then, in the first years of Independence, Madras Province acted to ensure Dalits were allowed in. In 1954, the Supreme Court upheld the right of all to worship as equals. The courts Thursday judgment allowing women to enter the Sabarimala shrine has done the decent, honourable thing something every right-thinking Indian will support. But the decent thing isnt necessarily the right thing. As Indians celebrate the judgment, we ought also be considering the costs of the courts involvement in adjudicating questions linked to faith are mosques a necessary part of Islamic practice? Should temples be open to all? Should Sikhs wear their hair long? In effect, religion has been nationalised. It's time for Indias judicial system and government to leave the business of God to the pious and the private sector. Politicians will not easily give up the power nationalised religion gives them but the alternative is a creeping theocracy that will consume our democratic rights. Back in 1954, when the Supreme Court heard the case of His Holiness Sri Vishwothama vs The State of Madras, it sought guidance from the Constitution. Even Clause 2 of Article 25, guaranteeing religious freedoms, has a caveat: the right to worship does not prevent the State from regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity associated with religious practice, or throwing open of Hindu religious institutions of a public character, to all classes and sections of Hindus. To understand why this caveat exists, we must turn to the early years of the freedom movement, when egalitarian tendencies seeking reforms in Hinduism began to surface. In 1917, Indian National Congress including many Hindu nationalists in its ranks adopted a resolution urging supporters to accept the necessity, justice and righteousness of removing all disabilities, imposed by customs upon the Dalits. Three years later, the INC identified removing discrimination against Dalits as a major national priority. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhis followers established spiritual centres, where Dalit agricultural workers might inculcate the values of temperance. For the most part, the INC did not see state-led action as a solution to Dalit issues. Instead, its campaigns recruited religious heads and Hindu notables to speak out for reform within. Even though many upper-caste leaders in the INC were less-than-enthused by this fledgling war on caste, the project was the key to building bridges between the Congress largely elite leadership and Dalits and thus, creating a united front against imperialism. The movement came to flower, first, in Tamil Nadu then, the Madras Presidency. Following years of battle, when Hindu reformers proved unable to transform social attitudes, the states legislature passed a law allowing temple entry for all. Less than a month before the Second World War, Dalits were able to enter the Soundararaja Perumal Temple at Valayapatti in Melur taluk, followed in quick time by the Meenakshi Amman Temple at Madurai, and the magnificent Brihadeswar Temple at Tanjore. In large swathes of India, the battle goes on: just in 2016, BJPs Tarun Vijay had to face a stone-pelting mob when he, along with a Dalit colleague, visited Uttarakhands Jaunsar Bhabhar temple. From the 1950s, the pursuit of egalitarian ends led the state to take direct control of growing numbers of Hindu religious institutions. In 1951, the Madras government introduced the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act. The law's 1959 successor-legislation became a template for similar laws nationwide. The law gave a government-appointed commissioner the power to take control of Hindu institutions if it thought they were mismanaged. Tamil Nadus commissioner for Hindu religious institutions, wrote legal scholar Donald Smith, a public servant of the secular state, today exercises far greater authority over the Hindu religion in Madras state than the archbishop of Canterbury does over the Church of England. In the years since, staggering numbers of Hindu institutions have come to be run by the government. Tamil Nadu administers more than 34,000 temples, presiding over everything from the selection of rituals to the appointment of priests. The Andhra Pradesh government alone administered more than 30,000 temples in 2003, scholar Pratap Bhanu Mehta noted. Even though the Supreme Court, in 2014, qualified the States powers saying if the management of a temple is taken over to remedy evil, the management must be handed over to the person concerned immediately after the evil stands remedied the ground reality is different. The Amarnath Shrine, Vaishno Devi to Sabarimala they are all government-run enterprises. The courts have turned their attention to Islam too. In 1961, the Supreme Court heard the case of Ajmer Sharifs Khadims, or hereditary retainers, against the state legislation which governs its functioning. The Khadims said the legislation deprived them of their freedom of religion, as members of the Chishti Sufi order, to manage the affairs of a shrine long associated with their denomination. In particular, they asserted a right to pilgrims offerings. In response, the court held that unless a practice was found to constitute an essential and integral part of a religion, its claims to constitutional protection would have to be carefully examined. Put another way, this meant that courts not custom, or communities would be the final arbiter of faith. Senior advocates Rajeev Dhavan and Fali Nariman have pointed out that judges have, for all practical purposes, assumed the theological authority to determine which tenets of faith are essential to any faith." Perched on a hill above the Sahasrakshi Meru temple in Visakhapatnam where worshippers, irrespective of their caste or gender, may worship the goddess themselves is the Kamakhya Peetham. Each month, when the Goddess is believed to menstruate, men are barred from the temple. Sabrimalas deity shuns women who have passed puberty; the Brahma Temple in Pushkar bars married men from sanctorum; only celibate men may enter even the premises of the Kumari Ammal temple in Kanyakumari. Faiths may indeed have essential features but determining them clearly isnt easy. Ever since the 1950s, courts have been drawn into a maze of religious disputes, ranging from Shah Bano and Ram Janmabhoomi, to disputes between Sikh orthodoxy and fringe cults. The effect has been to allow the State to play the monarch, arbitrating on legitimacy, dispensing patronage to the priesthood, and governing the practices of the pious. From Catholic Spain and Italy to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the alliance of clerics with state power has strangled democratic rights. In India, where religion suffuses life, it seems impossible even dangerous for the State to untangle itself from religion. The State would argue that its efforts have played an important role in transforming religious institutions from corruption-ridden oligarchies to publicly accountable bodies. There is a better model: allowing all religious orders to administer their own affairs, and pay the price for running or misgoverning them. Getting the State out of the God business will serve several ends. It will curb the political impulse to use religious institutions as sources of legitimacy and patronage, and push communities to take responsibility for their own faith. The State will no longer be able to build alliances with clerics by serving their interests. Perhaps most important, privatising religion will extricate the State from the morass of competing religious interests it now mediates. Find the practices of the temple next door toxic? Picket it. Proselytise. Pray. Pay to build an alternative temple. Every Indian should be able to exercise these Constitution-given rights but not to use the power of the State to enforce their vision of whats right. The Supreme Court on Friday is likely to pronounce its verdict on the long-standing contention against prohibiting women from entering Lord Ayyappa's Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that women will be allowed entry into Lord Ayyappa's Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The apex court allowed women access to the iconic temple, with the constitutional bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra saying that the rules put in place by the temple administration violated Articles 14 and 25 of the Constitution. The verdict, in the 27-year-old case, was to decide whether women aged 10 to 50 (the typical duration of time when a woman menstruates) should be allowed to enter the temple of the deity who has been 'celibate'. The case was last heard by a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and including Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud, and Indu Malhotra. The apex court had reserved its verdict in the matter on 8 August after hearing it for eight days. However, the bench mentioned the provisions under Article 25 and 26 (Freedom to practice religion) of the Constitution and observed that a person can only be restrained on the grounds of "public health, public order, and morality". Senior lawyer AM Singhvi, appearing for the Travancore Devaswom Board which is said to have the legal authority to manage the 800-year-old Sabarimala temple's administration, had argued that the practice was a bonafide one as it originated from the deity itself. Lord Ayyappa was a celibate for life, a 'Naishtika Brahmacharya', the defence argued, and that the age-old practice is based on the belief of the devotees. The bench told Singhvi that it was the duty of the Devaswom Board to establish that the practice of banning women of a certain age group was the essential and integral part of the religious practice. Sabarimala case hearing in July In the hearing of 19 July, the apex court had questioned the rationale behind banning the entry of women in the 10-50 age group into the temple in Kerala, saying menstruation may begin before the age of 10 and menopause may hit women much earlier. The court was apparently not in agreement with the plea of the Devaswom Board that women of that age group were barred as they cannot observe purity and "penance" for a period of 41 days, a condition for undertaking the pilgrimage. The Kerala government had earlier told the court that it supported the entry of women of all age groups into the shrine. The apex court had observed that the fundamental right of freedom to practice religion is provided to "all persons" by the Constitution and women have the right to enter and pray like men at the shrine.The bench had also termed as "absurd" the notification of the board banning entry of women in the 10-50 age group. The apex court had on 13 October last year referred the issue to a Constitution bench after framing five "significant" questions including whether the practice of banning entry of women of that particular age group into the temple amounted to discrimination and violated their fundamental rights under the Constitution. The Supreme Court in its judgment on Friday is expected to address the issue of Article 25's provisions which have been raised by the defence, and hotly contested by women's rights activists. It will give its opinion on whether or not the temple management can argue that banning the entry of women is an essential religious practice for them, and hence gets protection under the Article. In July, advocate K Parasaran, appearing for the Nair Service Society, had also mentioned that the court consider provisions under Article 26 (b), which provides the right to every religious denomination to "manage its own affairs in matters of religion". On 26 July, advocate J Sai Deepak made headlines with his assertion of Lord Ayyappa as his "client". He said, "The temple has asserted its rights, women have asserted their rights, but no one has asserted the rights of the deity inside Sabarimala." The case was reserved by the bench on 1 August, with Amicus curiae K Ramamurthy arguing that the apex court should steer clear of interfering with the religious practises which have been in vogue for centuries. According to reports, the Sabarimala custom of not allowing entry to women is protected by Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorization of Entry) Rules, 1965. The 'Public Worship Rules' allow the exclusion of women from public places of worship, if the exclusion is based on 'custom'. Timeline of the case The practice was first challenged in 1991, when the Kerala High Court held that the practice was constitutional. In 2006, Indian Young Lawyers Association filed a PIL before the Supreme Court challenging the custom on the grounds that the custom of banning women entry violated the right to equality under Article 14 and freedom of religion under Article 25 of female worshipers. Ultimately in October 2017, the apex court referred the case to a constitutional bench. Kerala government's stand During the hearing of the case in July this year, the state government expressed that it supported the entry of women, which in turn had out Travancore Devaswom Board in a spot. "The state government supports the entry of women. The state is not opposing," senior advocate Jaideep Gupta told the bench. According to reports, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in 2015 had filed an affidavit in the apex court supporting the entry of women of all age group inside the temple. Later the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, in 2017, made the U-turn and opposed the entry of women. With inputs from agencies The prime minister was accorded guard of honour upon his arrival at the Jodhpur airport. He also visited the Konark War Memorial where he laid a wreath and signed the visitor's book. Jodhupur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday attended a Combined Commanders' conference here to commemorate the second anniversary of the cross-Line of Control (LoC) "surgical strikes" carried out against militant launch pads in Pakistan. The Prime Minister was accorded guard of honour upon his arrival at the Jodhpur airport. He also visited the Konark War Memorial where he laid a wreath and signed the visitor's book. He is slated to inaugurate an army exhibition, "Parakarm Parv", at the city's military station, marking the second anniversary of the surgical strikes. The Indian Army conducted surgical strikes (on the intervening night of 28-29 September, 2016) which had strategic ramifications and were aimed to "dissuade inimical adversary from adopting the path of violence and to ensure an environment of peace for the nation". The government has decided to observe the attacks as "Parakram Parv", commemorating the valour and sacrifice of the armed forces, on the anniversary. A three-day main event from Friday to Sunday will be organised at the India Gate lawns in New Delhi besides similar events at 53 locations in 51 cities across the country to "highlight the valour of the Indian Armed Forces in general and special forces in particular". Idol Wing DSP Ashok Natarajan said a total of 89 items including 56 stone idols, 22 pillars and 12 metal statues were recovered from Ranvir Shah's home on Thursday. Chennai: The Idol Wing CID of Tamil Nadu police Thursday recovered antique items including idols and temple pillars from businessman Ranvir Shah's house in Chennai, and said it had strong reasons to believe they could have been stolen from temples. "I have reasonable grounds to believe all these idols and artefacts are all stolen from Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu," Inspector General, Idol Wing CID, AG Pon Manickavel said. Speaking to reporters after overseeing the searches conducted at Shah's house, he said the needle of suspicion pointed to Dheenadayalan, an alleged kingpin behind idol thefts and smuggling who had been arrested earlier. He also said nobody in Tamil Nadu has been given licence to sell antique artefacts including idols dating back to over a century. "None in Tamil Nadu has been given licence to sell antique idols dating over 100 years. But this is happening and we are taking action. Even pillars have been stolen (from temples)," he added. Shah "is a purchaser," and any arrest in this matter will be effected only if any "incrimination" was found on his part, the official said, adding the former had put on display all the artefacts. Idol Wing DSP Ashok Natarajan said a total of 89 items including 56 stone idols, 22 pillars and 12 metal statues were recovered from the house on Thursday. The businessman possessed records like registration certificates which showed from whom he had purchased it but there was no record of where these idols were present prior to that, he said. "They have bought some of them from him (Dheenadayalan) and some others from an antique dealer in Kerala and also from Puducherry," he said. Notices will be served to sellers from Kerala and Puducherry as part of further action, he added. The idols will be produced before a local court in Kumbakonam and further action will be taken based on its order, he said. "It is for certain these artefacts have been taken from some Tamil Nadu temples. These were kept for worshipping and they are antique in nature," he added. The Idol Wing CID has recently recovered a number of stolen idols, even as the Tamil Nadu government recommended a CBI probe into the matter citing the need to carry out an inter-state and international probe into the matter. However, the Central agency has expressed its inability to take up the probe sought by the government citing a shortage of manpower and informed the Madras High Court of the same. But, it has assured all assistance to the state police in the extradition of the accused or coordination with Interpol, among others. The court had earlier set up a special bench of Justices R Mahadevan and PD Audikesavalu to deal with a batch of petitions. It had also reinstated Manickavel as the Idol Wing chief after he was transferred earlier and asked him to continue to investigate the theft of idols from temples in the state over a period of time. However, the state government took the decision to transfer the cases to CBI, claiming the idol wing, headed by Manickavel, was not performing satisfactorily. With inputs from IANS Most of these Indian women who kill themselves are under 40, and most are married. By Aashika Ravi Would it surprise anyone to know that marriage, just like every other institution in this glorious patriarchy that we live in, is harder on a womans mental health than on a mans? Some alarming statistics were recently reported from a study published in The Lancet Public Health journal. The study found that four of every 10 women who commit suicide in the world are Indians. Most of these Indian women who kill themselves are under 40, and most are married. In fact, married women account for the highest proportion of suicide deaths among Indian women. These are not isolated data. According to the National Crime Records Bureau data (2013), out of 1.3 lakh suicides, women comprised 51.4 percent of which again 76 percent were married. We spoke to psychiatrists, sociologists and other mental health professionals to uncover the multiple factors that inform such a high incidence of suicides among married women in India. Dr Rathna Isaac, a clinical psychologist based in Bengaluru, clarifies that the gender tilt to suicide is a worldwide phenomenon and not restricted to India. When it comes to mental health, gender itself is a negative in that women generally have poorer mental health than men, and that has been linked to their gendered position [and also] associated with their reproductive time. Marriage on the whole places a higher burden on the wife. Women have a slightly harder time while men have a better time their mental health gets better while womens gets worse. Worse, the Lancet paper also states that Indias contribution to global suicide deaths increased from 25.3 percent in 1990 to 36.6 percent in 2016 among women data that singles India out as a caustic place for womens mental health. Psychiatrist and founder of Sneha suicide prevention centre, and a collaborator on the Lancet study, Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar wrote recently about marriages impact on mental health: In India and other such low-income countries, marriage isnt a protective measure. It acts as an aggravating factor. The inability to adjust to a new environment and solve interpersonal issues plays a major role in pushing under-30 women to commit suicide. Sociologist, feminist researcher and activist Manjima Bhattacharjya also believes that mental health is informed by social pressures. Increasingly, research is telling us that mental well-being is not just a medical issue or a pathological issue. It's not only about mental illness per se. It is strongly related to lived experiences of social life, especially to gendered norms. Strict gender roles or gender norms keep women and girls under high levels of surveillance, restrict their mobility, leave them with high burdens of domestic labour as well as lead to gender-based violence. For married women, these gender roles are usually compounded (of caring, child-bearing, household labour, tight webs of familial control). Additionally, there are so many taboos around sexuality and lack of information on contraception, and so, women have little control over their own bodies or choices around child bearing. Bhattacharjya also points to a study by SAMA, a resource group for women and health, that found young women in early marriages in rural India had an increased risk of mental health issues due to a disproportionate burden of household labour and lack of companionship, among other reasons. While SAMAs study tackles questions of class variations in the mental health of married Indian women, Bhattacharjya shares an insight on the link between caste and suicide. Marginalisation is certainly a cause of distress. Both caste and age are structural factors that compound marginalisation being Dalit or being younger means another kind of powerlessness that is bound to have an impact on mental well-being. Pune-based MASUM did a study (2015) on young people committing suicide in the area they work in and found that many of the deaths were due to inter-caste relationships, which were taboo. The lack of space to talk about desire, love, romance and strong taboos around sexuality and caste, along with very little space to dialogue with parents, were behind many of these youth suicides. In contrast, in urban areas, the pressure to perform multiple roles can also cause a deterioration of womens mental health. Isaac suggests a role conflict that comes from the idea of having it all projected onto working women these days. Some parts of womens lives are changing, but some are not. In a certain way, this has piled on expectations. More women are working and earning now than 30 years ago. Theyre also expected to have a life, look nice, etc. But the traditional expectations that you look after the home and your partner, be the primary caregiver for children that hasnt changed. They have to do both and that becomes a bit of a strain. This vulnerability is further exacerbated by age. Incidentally, the Lancet study found that 71.2 percent of suicide deaths among women in India were in the 15-39 age group. Physically and physiologically, they are at a vulnerable time, especially if they are pregnant or going through a post-natal period, says perinatal psychiatrist Dr Ashlesha Bagadia. If [a woman is] going to become mentally unwell or be at her lowest, emotional strength-wise, its going to be during this period. Hormonally, biologically and physiologically, women are more at risk. And culturally, we are very far from an environment where they can seek help which is validated, and are not blamed for it. As Bagadia points out, access to mental health support services remains particularly difficult for married women in India. I go to a maternity centre to work with obstetricians who will identify if a patient needs to go to a psychiatrist. Then the woman will be like No no, if I see someone here, what will everyone in the hospital think? And these are all educated women. So the stigma is there everywhere. When asked about possible family opposition to seeking help, she says, Theres opposition, and theres also Cant we help you? Lets say the woman is in a position to talk about what shes feeling and there is a supportive environment at home. Sometimes in their eagerness to be supportive, the family tends to be invalidating in saying Just talk to us, well help you out of it. Isaac adds that time is also an issue. Finding time to go for therapy and to look after yourself is not easy. Even if attitudes in the family are pro seeking mental health help, there is a section of people whose husbands or husbands family are not keen on you getting help because they fear either that theyll be exposed [and shamed] or that the woman might get ideas and someone might encourage her to seek something that is for herself and not them. As expected, seeking help for mental health issues is even harder in rural areas. In SAMAs study, the researchers found that women's health-seeking trajectories are determined by their families or husbands, not by themselves, Bhattacharjya explains. They have little say in when they get to go to a doctor usually, unless in extreme circumstances. In most places I visit in rural India, women only go to the hospital for childbirth. It is rare that they access health services for other reasons, so to think they would go and seek help for mental ill health already a taboo with so much stigma attached to it seems improbable. Vivek Varma, a Bengaluru-based psychotherapist, sees these statistics differently. Stressors build up at earlier ages, mostly at puberty. So if theres a high chance of mental illness that leads you to suicide, you start catching it at a much earlier age. In rural areas, marriage happens at a much earlier age, like before they hit 20. So if people have been pushed to the limit of suicide, they are usually already married. The chances of them being unmarried is much lower due to cultural expectations. In terms of solutions for tackling this suicide epidemic among young married Indian women, how do we go beyond just knee-jerk calls for more awareness and sensitisation? Manoj Chandran, CEO of White Swan Foundation, an organisation that offers knowledge services in the area of mental health, provides an interesting perspective. For every person who dies of suicide, there are at least 10 attempts made, and 100 people who carry the thought of suicide. We very rarely talk about attempts and thoughts of suicide. That is where the focus must be. In his opinion, efforts to create awareness shouldnt stop there. Very rarely do we find communication and aids for the rest of the population those around suicidal people who have a much larger role to play in the prevention of suicide. When asked about women-centric suicide prevention strategies, Bagadia suggests that public reporting should not give out graphic details of suicide deaths. Just reading up about how it [suicide] can be done can give a woman ideas on what she can do at home with what she has around. She adds that, specifically, folks to whom women present themselves commonly obstetricians, pediatricians or even quasi-psychologists like hairdressers and bartenders should be sensitised and be able to talk about mental illness in a mature way. In the long term, Chandran believes that suicide prevention should become integral to health and community services elements. If I have a women-centric community initiative, I must include suicidality in my work. If Im running geriatric-related work, then suicide among geriatrics is something I should look at. The Ladies Finger (TLF) is a leading online women's magazine delivering fresh and witty perspectives on politics, culture, health, sex, work and everything in between. During the visit, Putin will hold official talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will meet President Ram Nath Kovind as well. New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin, will pay a two-day official visit to New Delhi from 4-5 October for the 19th India-Russia annual bilateral summit. During the visit, President Putin will hold official talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will also have a meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind, as well as other official engagements, a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs read. The last annual summit was held during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Russia on 1 June last year. Russia has been a longstanding and time-tested partner for India. The development of India-Russia relations has been a key pillar of India's foreign policy. Since the signing of "Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership" in October 2000 (during the visit of President Putin to India), India-Russia ties have acquired a qualitatively new character with enhanced levels of cooperation in almost all areas of the bilateral relationship including political, security, trade and economy, defence, science and technology, and culture. Under the strategic partnership, several institutionalised dialogue mechanisms operate at both political and official levels to ensure regular interaction and follow up on cooperation activities. During the visit of the Russian President to India in December 2010, the strategic partnership was elevated to the level of a "special and privileged strategic partnership." In May, Prime Minister Modi had visited Sochi for a one-day informal summit with President Putin, where the two leaders discussed a variety of bilateral issues extensively. A ban on women in Sabarimala was no social evil, but a matter of faith. The Supreme Court should have left the faith to the believers. Editor's note: This article was originally published on 7 November, 2016. It is being updated and republished in light of Friday's 4:1 majority judgment by a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court that ruled that women of all ages should be allowed to enter Kerala's Sabarimala temple. Women, regardless of their age, should be allowed to enter Keralas Sabarimala temple, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday. That settles a long legal debate and Sabarimala will now follow the footsteps of a few other religious entities where courts have overruled religion. In Kerala,the Left's stand on the issue was consistent since 2007. Back then, the CPM-led LDF government had said that all women should be allowed to enter Sabarimala. When the Congress-party led UDF came to power, it argued otherwise and logically, the view was reversed when the regime changed. Now, lets examine this issue a bit closer. The fundamental question on the Sabarimala issue is this: Should the judiciary or the government be indulging in a matter that is predominantly a matter of faith and tradition? In my view, they shouldnt. Why? Sabarimala was never a case of caste or colour-based oppression or ostracising of any particular community. There was no social injustice against which to fight. It is also not an institution that has upheld any social evil like Sati or child marriage. Behind the reason why for centuries the temple has not encouraged women in the age group of 10-50, to enter its walls lies an age-old faith that has been the cornerstone of the very existence of this hill-temple. Sabarimala is built on a story. A story that has linkages with faith that said that the main deity of the temple, Lord Ayyappa, is a brahmachari (a celibate god) and the presence of women of the menstruating age group is a hindrance to his meditation. Women outside this age group can enter the temple and that has been always so. And there is more to this story. A female deity in the temple called 'Malikappuram Devi', is given place within the temple and as per the centuries-old belief, Lord Ayyappa will marry Malikappuram Devi the year in which there are no 'kanni' ayyappans (first-time visitors to the temple). But, such a scenario doesn't happen in reality since every year there are thousands of new devotees thronging Sabarimala. Although the story of Lord Ayyappan and the associated faith may sound silly to the proponents of gender equality and social reform, the fact is that the very existence of the hill-temple and its relevance is based on this. Sabarimala wasnt created by an Act of the Kerala state Assembly, Parliament or by an order of court, but on faith. Now, if that faith is not respected, there isn't Sabarimala as it exists today. There is no end to the debate on whether law of the land should dictate institutions of religion. But, its better to leave matter of faith to the people who have faith. The Supreme Court can, of course, pass an order based on the state governments recommendation and let the Sabarimala temple open to all women, but that would ridicule the very faith of people for whom the centre of worship matters. Of course, the sky wouldnt fall or the world will end if women enter Sabarimala. But, Sabarimala will then become another tourist-pilgrim centre like many other places, where faith may not have much importance. In fact, Sabarimala has been one of the most liberal institutions of worship in the country. It doesnt differentiate between people of various religions. Anyone can enter. There is also no differentiation between people belonging to upper and lower castes. Even the restriction on women has not been necessarily seen as an act of oppression but the willingness of female devotees to respect a faith. Also the debate on whether law of the land should dictate institutions of religion persists. But, wouldn't it have been better if the Supreme Court had left the matter of faith to the people who have faith. The Supreme Court can, of course, pass an order based on the state governments recommendation and open the Sabarimala temple to all women, which is what happened on Friday, but isn't that ridiculing the very faith of people for whom the centre of worship matters most? Of course, now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favour of women's entry, the sky won't fall and the world won't end if women enter Sabarimala. Sabarimala can then become another tourist-pilgrim centre/site like many other places and of course, the place can then transform to another case study for gender equality and civil rights. But where does that leaves the idea of faith? Wasn't Sabarimala one of the most liberal religious institutions of worship in the country already? It never differentiated between people of different religions. There is also no differentiation between people belonging to upper and lower castes. Even the restriction on women has not been necessarily seen as an act of oppression but the willingness and respect of women devotees to the faith. There is no resolution either to the question pertaining to what extent the government and judiciary should intervene in matters of faith, unless there is an angle involving social injustice, oppression or denial or natural justice. A few years ago, a Bihar court had heard a case against Lord Rama on the alleged cruelty towards his wife Sita. The petitioner wondered how in the world a man, a king, known to be just and merciful could be unjust to his own wife that too based on hearsay (there wasn't any proof of Sita's alleged infidelity when she was sent on vanvaas). But, finally when the judge heard the case, the case was dismissed on account of the absence of eyewitnesses and the confusion surrounding who should be punished even if Rama was found guilty. This is precisely what happens when the judiciary bids to weigh in on an issue of faith using tools of modern day justice. This incident is narrated here only as a context to the Sabarimala case.Now that the court has let women enter Sabarimala and this will be, most likely, celebrated a victory by feminist groups and equal-right activists after Shani Shingnapur and Haji Ali, what's next? There is no end to things one can ask for in all religions if faith is ignored and law steers the act of devotion. The pope can no longer insist then that women cant be Roman catholic priests like he did a few months ago or the Muslim community cannot insist that women arent allowed in mosques. A majority of Kerala temples dont allow non-Hindus to enter again a matter of faith. All these centuries old practices can be and will be challenged one by one. There isnt any end to this. Besides hurting those people who keep a certain faith and respect to their age-old practices, the judiciary's encroachment on matters of faith won't help raise the status of women in society. A ban on women in Sabarimala was no social evil, but a matter of faith. The Supreme Court should have left the faith to the believers. Day 4 of PIFF features a variety of films from countries across the world including Australia, Tunisia and Norway So far, the first edition of the Pondicherry International Film Festival With has featured award-winning works such as Reservation and What Will People Say, along with documentaries like Burkinabe Rising, which have been screened at Alliance Francaise de Pondicherry. As Day 3 of the festival draws to a close, here is a look at some of the screenings that must be attended on 29 September. Day 4 Count Your Curses (2017): In a town created by Belgian director Lorene Yavo, supernatural beings are just a part of life. All is well in this land where humans and spirits co-exist until overnight, an unknown creature devours the house ghost of two roommates. Their house must have a spirit, so they go out in search of one that will be a good replacement, but the mystery remains unsolved: Who was the pest that infected their house and killed the spirit? Areka (The Ditch) (2017): A collaboration of nearly 20 artists, this animation project is rooted in the Basque culture, a community straddling the border between France and Spain. The collaboration, Atxur Animazio Taldea, explores the story of a land in which repression and dictatorship ended long ago, but Euxebi, a girl whose father was shot by a firing squad, has to wait 80 years to discover where his body had been buried. The Ditch reconciles a region and culture that is far removed from the mainstream with the aftermath of a totalitarian regime. Meanwhile In Tunisia (2017): Ines Khannoussi grew up in Austria. Half-Tunisian, it was her desire to trace her roots and look beyond the social and political identity of Tunisia to discover the lives of its people. This documentary is her journey through her second home, filled with her conversations with the Tunisians she met along the way. "With a simple beard like this, you are already a terrorist," a man says to Khannoussi as she chats with him over a game of chess. This Tunisian-Austrian work has previously been screened at the 2nd Buddha International Film Festival, Pune and the 1st Linz International Short Film Festival in Linz, Austria. I Am Free (2017): What happens when a family member goes missing? Do you mourn his death or wait for his return? I Am Free, a documentary by Edvard Karijord and Bendik Mondal, poses this question through the story of the Karijords. The disappearance of Geir Karijord in the Romsdal Valley of Norway on 8 October, 2013 put the parents and siblings of this boy into a dilemma. It tells the story of how they hoped against hope that he would return, and yet came to terms with the possibility that he might never come home. It features intimate accounts of this family, of the hope, the loss and the burden of living with unanswered questions. For all of us in search of answers, coping with the pain of unbearable grief, this family's narrative is but a reflection of these tragedies. Kathputli (Threads of Fate) (2017): Kathputli, which dwells on the impact of child marriage, is a story about three people caught in a web of frail human sensitivities. Married off at a young age to a much older man, the protagonist has a rather dull life in a village of Rajasthan until she meets her stepson. As he is closer to her age, she finds herself getting attracted to this man who is a breath of fresh air in her otherwise unexciting life. Trapped in a complex situation, her mind wanders and at last settles on such an object whose pursuit could result in further disaster. The Knife Salesman (2016): Set in a small, heat-drenched town of Australia, this short thriller follows a travelling knife salesman, one who goes door to door sharpening blades, into the house of Mary, a frustrated housewife. Her children keep watching this duo as they settle into eerily familiar roles. As blade grinds on stone, the feeling that something terrible is about to happen washes over the viewer. The film has previously been screened at the 74th Venice Film Festival and the 2nd Buddha International Film Festival, Pune. Crache Coeur (Raging Rose) (2015): This drama set in France is part of the special screenings category of the PIFF, a platform created to honour the works of women who have achieved incredible success in cinema. Crache Couer is the story of Jozef, a Polish man in his 50s who starts working at a construction site and asks his employer's daughter Rose, to help him deliver a letter to his son. Abandoned 15 years ago, Jozef's son Roman turns out to be Rose's classmate. But when Rose falls in love with Roman, it complicates matters as she starts using information about him to her own benefit. Directed by Julia Kowalski, this dense, coming-of-age film is an engrossing experience with some spectacular performances. By Trend Russia for Azerbaijan is a very important and valuable partner, a friend, a neighbor with which Azerbaijan has the highest level of relations, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Sept. 27 at a one-on-one meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Please allow me to welcome you to Azerbaijan once again, Ilham Aliyev said. We are always very glad to see you. Today's visit is quite special. We are participating in the work of the inter-regional Russian-Azerbaijani forum for the first time, the Azerbaijani president said. It brings together a record number of participants about 1,000 people, which is evidence of a great interest in this event. We met in Sochi earlier this month and are meeting in Baku today, and this is a clear indicator of the level of our relations. We actively cooperate in political sphere, in economic, transport, energy and humanitarian spheres, and we are seeing great progress in all areas. We have just said this to the participants of the forum, thereby giving them another impetus to work even harder and advance our cooperation further, Ilham Aliyev noted. Russia for us is a very important and valuable partner, a friend, a neighbor with which we have the highest level of relations. I think that in the coming years we will only follow the path of building up our cooperation, creating even better conditions for the businesses of our countries and strengthening cooperation in all areas. Welcome again and thank you very much for this visit! Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the apex court has decided that police will conduct the investigations in the case and no one can be held guilty before conviction in a court. New Delhi: The Congress on Friday hoped that the Maharashtra Police will conduct investigations in the Bhima Koregaon violence case as per the law and not according to the "whims and fancies" of the BJP. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of the five rights activists in connection with the case and declined to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe their arrest. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea filed by noted historian Romila Thapar and others, seeking the immediate release of the activists. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the apex court has decided that police will conduct the investigations in the case and no one can be held guilty before conviction in a court. "We hope that any person who is found in any clandestine activity against the Indian state would be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law rather than according to the whims and fancies of (BJP chief) Amit Shah who has already seen the writing on the wall in the five election-bound states," he told reporters. Polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are scheduled this year. Therefore, "frustrated and scared", Shah, fearing defeat in these poll-bound states, is prone to making intemperate remarks, and the Congress rejects them, he told reporters. Shah, attacking the Congress for its alleged support to Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements, has said "there is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress". The BJP chief's response came after the Supreme Court judgment. The Congress leader said, "I do not think the law or the Constitution permits anyone to be held guilty without the verdict of a court". Shah has been a "Tarhipaar" (externed) and has been in jail. "He should know what that is it is only on conviction that anybody is found guilty," he said. On the BJP demanding an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his support to "urban naxals", Surjewala said, "Let (prime minister) Narendra Modi and Shah first apologise to the nation for inviting dreaded Pakistani ISI to our Pathankot Air Base." "Let Shah apologise for reposing confidence in the ISI which is the benefactor, protector and harbinger and exporter of terrorism from Pakistan to India. Why was he having confidence in them? "Let Shah and Modi apologise to people of India for thanking Pakistan and separatists after they formed a PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir," he said. The Congress leader also asked Shah and the prime minister to apologise for members of the BJP's IT Cell in Madhya Pradesh, who were allegedly found spying on the Indian Army. "Will you apologise Shri Amit Shah? Will you apologise Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji? We challenge you," he said. Uttar Pradesh labour minister Swamy Prasad Maurya on Friday lashed out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and called him a 'mad man who doesn't deserve to lead India's oldest political party'. Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh labour minister Swamy Prasad Maurya on Friday lashed out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and called him a "mad man who doesn't deserve to lead India's oldest political party". "Rahul Gandhi has been continuously calling the prime minister a thief. Look at the decency of Modi that he is not (even) responding," said Maurya, who switched sides from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2017 Assembly elections. "It is a matter of great shame that the Congress leader is mouthing such (abusive) language for the country's prime minister," the minister told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mainpuri. He said that "this childish behaviour did not behoove of the Congress chief", adding that the Opposition party should be worried since this will invite public ire. Maurya said that the "immature behaviour" of Rahul was for all to see as he had embraced Modi in the Lok Sabha and also gave statements that even a child would not. The minister also said that the vicious Congress campaign on the Rafale deal will not cut into BJP victory prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. As the 2019 elections draw near, Narendra Modis outreach to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes must be seen as a determined plan to expand the partys support base beyond its traditional social constituency Editors note: Russia is not the only riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. For many, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also fit Churchills description of Russia. So, analysts tend to interpret both (Modi and the RSS) according to the convenience of their own perceptions. This happened after Mohan Bhagwat's outreach to Delhi's elite on 17, 18 and 19 September. Bhagwat espoused the RSS' idea of India and spoke about Muslims, Hindutva, the Congress and caste divisions in India. His assertions were seen either as a radical departure from the RSS position or as an attempt to rein in Modi and reaffirm the RSS' position as the ideological mentor of the Parivar. This three-part series will attempt to unwrap the mystery that is sought to be created around the RSS and its relations with the BJP. More importantly, it will show how Modis politics is not delinked from the RSS concept of nation-building. This is the second part of the series. *** Among the many interpretations of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwats recent address is the supposed divergence between him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, between the organisation and the government. But, if one looks without ideological blinkers, the opposite is the case as both are turning out to be extra-sensitive to the Dalit cause. When the government takes the route of the Parliament to overturn a ruling of the Supreme Court, it is bound to be a defining moment. There was such a moment in the late 1980s when, in the Shah Bano episode, Rajiv Gandhi leveraged his majority in the Parliament to stand on the side of Muslim hardliners following the Supreme Court order diluting provisions of their personal law to empower Muslim women divorcees. The move was seen as abject surrender of the Indian State to a section of Muslim clergy beholden to dogmas and obscurantism. It would not be wrong to say that the BJP owed its rise to this exposure of the Congress "pseudo-secularism" in the Shah Bano controversy. The then BJP president LK Advani recollects in his memoir, My Country My Life, that he had cautioned Rajiv Gandhi against this political misadventure. Contrast the Shah Bano case with Prime Minister Narendra Modis decision to overturn the SC order that diluted the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. There is an attempt to foment trouble on caste lines across the country. Yet, no political party is willing to be seen at the vanguard of the agitation against the apex courts decision. On the other hand, the Sangh Parivar has been consistent in its endeavour to win over Dalits for years on end. And there is a discernible pattern in these efforts. On 6 December, 1993, a year after the demolition of the Babri mosque, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) supremo Ashok Singhal held a meeting with Hindu religious leaders of Ayodhya. The meeting assumed significance as for the first time, Dalit icon BR Ambedkar was included in the pantheon of the Sangh Parivar's "revered leaders". The rise of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (BSP) effective counters to Hindutva in Uttar Pradesh posed a grave challenge to the Sangh Parivars project. Hence the co-option of the assertive OBCs and Dalits was the best option. This was followed by RSS-VHP leaders lining up outside the residence of 'Dom Raja' (the fabled king of the funeral ghat in Varanasi belonging to the Scheduled Caste) to have a meal with him. The spectacle was not only symbolic but also a determined move to align Hindutva with the assertion of the scheduled castes. Modis thrust on winning over the SCs and STs is certainly not without design. Except for Uttar Pradesh, where the BSP is representative of the Dalit assertion, this social block is still in a state of political flux. In large parts of the country, its political strength is often channelised in no coherent manner. With the Congress withering away as an important political force, radicalisation of Dalits in certain pockets often challenges social peace and harmony. Modis decision to overturn the SC verdict on the SC/ST (POA) Act is a part of the agenda of Hindu socialism which may be radical in its content but not in style. Those who regard Modis pro-Dalit stance as a charade would do well to remember that the BJP is the only party with national presence to have had a Dalit, Bangaru Laxman, as its chief (not counting the one-off exception of Sitaram Kesri as well as the case of regional parties or parties formed on the basis of Dalit identity). The project of elevating Laxman to the partys top position came a cropper because of different reasons (he was seen accepting money in the Tehelka sting operation). But there is enough possibility of a Dalit leader emerging as a Hindutva icon in future. Given the fact that the RSS-BJP has been focusing substantially to co-opt Dalits to its fold, the possibility of emergence of a strong Dalit leadership steeped in the values of the Sangh Parivar and aligned within the Hindutva ideology cannot be discounted. Consider the fact that the BJP has the largest contingent of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes legislators in the country. In the Hindi heartland, the party has been winning the maximum number of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In states like MP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Gujarat where tribals dominate, the partys strong contingent of lawmakers includes this section too. Those aware of Modi's style of functioning would know that as party general secretary and strategist during his stint in Delhi in the late 1990s, Modi had always insisted on focusing more on non-traditional constituencies in the states under his watch. For instance, he let non-Jat leadership grow in Haryana while he focused on tribals in the pre-bifurcated Madhya Pradesh. In Himachal Pradesh, he co-opted social sections falling outside the dominant Brahmin-Thakur leadership of the state. Over the years, his political experiments proved to be more successful than anticipated. In essence, Modi has never relied on a static social base for political support. As the 2019 elections draw near, Modis outreach to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes must be seen as a determined plan to expand the partys support base beyond its traditional social constituency. Needless to say, this effort may have to weather a rough storm given the fact that a section of traditionalists within the Sangh Parivar is still beholden to dogmas and social prejudices. Such resistance would be very feeble in the face of a profound change expected to be unleashed by Dalit assertion within the Hindutva fold. If this happens, it would without doubt upend the traditional political leadership in the country and significantly conform to the Sangh Parivars idea of India. Read the first part here, and the second part here. Tariq Anwar alleged the prime minister is fully involved in the Rafale deal and it was also substantiated by former French President Francois Hollande. Katihar/Patna/New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party's founding member Tariq Anwar Friday quit the party and announced he is giving up his Lok Sabha membership, saying he left aggrieved by the party's national president Sharad Pawar's "clean chit" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal. Amid speculation about the veteran Bihar leader's next move ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress said Anwar was "welcome" to return to the party from where he started his political career. Anwar was the Bihar Congress president in the 1980s and had represented his current parliamentary constituency Katihar as a Congress MP, before he joined hands with Pawar and deceased Meghalaya leader PA Sangma to form the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999. The NCP later allied with the Congress and Anwar served as a Union minister in the UPA-II government. The announcement, made by Anwar in his parliamentary constituency, is seen as a politically significant development for possible alignments in Bihar, where Congress, NCP and RJD have been part of the 'grand alliance or Mahagathbandhan' against the BJP and its allies. The Mahagathbandhan camp leaders lauded Anwar's decision, with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) urging Pawar to review his stand on the issue. The JD(U), headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and an ally of the BJP, termed Anwar's move opportunistic and aimed at "greener pastures". Anwar's Katihar constituency has a large number of Muslim voters and any indication towards his party or party leaders being sympathetic towards the BJP or Modi government could be politically incorrect, party leaders said. Notwithstanding the Modi wave, Anwar had managed to win 2014 Parliamentary poll from Katihar as the NCP had fought at that time in alliance with the RJD and the Congress. In a statement after making the announcement before journalists in Katihar, 67-year-old Anwar said he was resigning from the posts of the NCP's national general secretary and as its leader in the Lok Sabha, besides giving up the party's primary membership and vacating his parliamentary seat. Anwar's move came a day after media reports quoted Pawar having told a Marathi news channel that he did not think people had doubts over the prime minister's intentions in the Rafale fighter plane deal. Pawar's reported statement was lauded by BJP chief Amit Shah who asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take a cue from his ally and place national interests above party politics. The Congress and other Opposition parties have been targetting Modi and the NDA government over the Rafale deal alleging corruption and crony capitalism. The government has denied the charges. An NCP spokesperson, however, issued a clarification terming the media reports quoting Pawar as "misleading and confusing" and claimed the party chief has had not given a clean chit to Modi. Anwar, however, said in his statement he was aggrieved by Pawar's statement since Modi has been given a clean chit over his intention despite the prime minister having not cared to prove himself clean in the Rafale deal. Anwar alleged the prime minister is fully involved in the Rafale deal and it was also substantiated by former French President Francois Hollande, referring to his reported remarks about France being left with no option in Dassault selecting Reliance Defence as an offset partner as part of the multi-billion dollar deal. The Bihar leader said he completely disagreed with Pawar's version, which he said has shattered the faith of countrymen in the Opposition. Lauding Anwar's step, senior Congress leader Prem Chand Mishra said his party would be keenly watching his next political move and if he chooses to return to the party (Congress), he would be most welcome. In New Delhi, senior NCP leader and Rajya Sabha MP DP Tripathi confirmed that Anwar has quit the party. RJD spokesman and MLA Bhai Virendra said his party welcomes the bold stand taken by Anwar. "We urge Sharad Pawar, who is a senior and widely respected leader, to review his stand on the issue," he said. JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, however, said Pawar had only aligned himself with the popular sentiment in the country. Calling it an act of opportunism, Prasad said Anwar has quit his party shortly ahead of Lok Sabha polls and, perhaps, he will find "greener pastures". According to political pundits, Rahul Gandhis approach towards soft Hindutva is an effort to come out of the clutches of 'Nehruvian secularism.' In an election year, when nothing is more important than votes, Congress president Rahul Gandhi doesn't seem to be getting a handle on which vote bank to woo and to what extent. He has tried to assert his Hindu identity on several occasions recently. The latest attempt has been to show his devotion to Lord Ram. With Rahul too jumping into the Ram melee, it would be interesting to see who eventually benefits from it the Congress or the BJP. Interestingly, poll-bound Madhya Pradesh has provided Rahul with a unique platform to experiment and launch himself in several avatars. First, he kicked off his poll campaign in August by visiting the Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga shrine and paying obeisance to Lord Shiva. Later, after his return from Kailash Mansarovar, he was hailed as a Shiv bhakt, with hoardings put up across Bhopal. Further, at Chitrakoot in Satna, he has been projected as Ram-Bhakt Pandit Rahul Gandhi. However, as part of his newly-acquired avatar, will Rahul support the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and take a stand against damaging the 'Ram Setu' for the Sethusamudram project? Such political positions will be contrary to those that the Congress has taken in the past. What political pundits say According to political pundits, Rahuls approach towards soft Hindutva is an effort to come out of the clutches of the Congress traditional "Nehruvian secularism" and win over Hindu voters. Through his new avatars, Rahul wants to communicate to voters that while he is the president of the "secular" Congress, he is not anti-Hindu. During the UPA regime, the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi followed Nehruvian secularism and sided with the Wahabis, who form only 2 percent of the Muslim population in India. This led to resentment among the majority community and moderate Muslims; and the Congress is paying the price, MD Nalapat, political analyst and a professor of geopolitics at Manipal University, told Firstpost. After having adopted this new avatar, Rahul ought to get into action and publicly clear his stand on the Ram Mandir and Ram Setu. It would be cheap politics to merely resort to narratives in election rallies and take no positive action. On the one hand, he projects himself as a Ram-bhakt, and on the other hand, he attacks Narendra Modi and the BJP on the Ram Mandir issue, he said. Indeed, the Congress campaign in Madhya Pradesh this time borrows heavily from the BJP repertoire. Besides Rahul, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh completed a Narmada Yatra and promised to build a Sri Ram Van Gaman Path that the BJP never did. State Congress chief Kamal Nath has promised to build a cow shelter in every panchayat in the state. The Congress, which has come under pressure from the RSS and BJP, has been talking of soft Hindutva, and has sought to put on a cloak of liberal Hinduism. This move is nothing but an attempt to win Hindu voters, while keeping an eye on the upcoming elections to the state Assembly and the Lok Sabha. However, people will come to know the party's real face. The Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi, has been compelled to follow this path because its policy of appeasement did not bring welfare to Muslims. At the same time, this policy alienated Hindu voters, Anil Saumitra, Madhya Pradesh BJP convener and media relations in-charge, told Firstpost. Bhopal-based senior journalist Prabhu Pateria added, The Congress is following the BJP line to win over voters from the majority community. The party wants to get rid of its secular tag that has proved to be damaging for it. The Congress now wants to identify itself with the majority community. Therefore, Rahul Gandhi has visited temples, participated in the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, become a Shiv-bhakt and Ram-bhakt, and performed Kanya-pujanwhich ways to assert Hindu symbolism. Now, the Congress wants to create a new image for itself based on secularism and soft Hindutva. But to what extent it will pay off remains to be seen." Worrying factor Ironically, it was Rahul's father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who stirred the hornet's nest of politics over Lord Ram in the first place. It was he who got the doors of the Ram Lalla temple unlocked in 1986 and allowed devotees to offer prayers there daily. This move came in the aftermath of the Shah Bano case, after which the BJP and Sangh Parivar had accused him of minority appeasement. Rajiv Gandhi did not have the mechanism to put his modern ideas into practice due to the people around him. His ideas got sabotaged, remarked Nalapat. Though the Congress government unlocked the Ram Lalla temple, it was the BJP which reaped benefits from it. Rahul's new avatars may mean several things to several people. But it definitely proves one thing that the BJP's success in the complicated game of elections has forced even the avowedly secular Congress to embrace Hindu symbolism blatantly. Never in recent memory has a Congress president openly declared his religious credentials favouring one religion over another. Clearly, vote bank politics muddles all ideologies and the Congress, with its support having declined in the past five years, has fired a shot in the dark. The Congress, which is trying to refashion itself, faces a challenging task of juggling secularism and Hindutva. Rahul needs to come out of the shadow of the UPA in order to establish himself as the leader of the new Congress, a party in which people can have faith. As of now, Rahuls Congress is nothing but UPA-III, with most leaders from the UPA regime still present. How can people accept that the corrupt UPA is claiming to fight against corruption? Rahul also must make his stand clear on secularism. This is a big challenge for the Congress, added Nalapat. In the past, all mainstream political parties except the BJP had shunned the Hindutva narrative like the plague. It remains to be seen if the Congress president's evident attempt to foreground his Hindu identity will change the party's electoral fortunes. Once considered unthinkable under the iron command of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, a number of Goa BJP leaders have publicly dissented against the cabinet reshuffle of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition. Panaji: The Goa cabinet reshuffle has led to anger and frustration not just among MLAs but also their supporters, some of whom have threatened to block water supply to half of the state, while a taxi drivers' body plans to go against the BJP. Supporters of Independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar, who is with the ruling dispensation, have threatened to stop water supply from a dam that caters to half of Goa, if Gaonkar was not included in the cabinet. While 20,000 taxi operators plan to reject BJP if Michael Lobo is not given a ministry. Once considered unthinkable under the iron command of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, a number of Goa BJP leaders have publicly dissented against the cabinet reshuffle of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition. Two ailing ministers were dropped in favour of two other party MLAs earlier this week. Urban Development Minister Francis D'Souza, who is being treated for cancer in New York, and Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar, who suffered a brain stroke earlier in 2018 were replaced by BJP MLAs Milind Naik and Nilesh Cabral, respectively. Kin and associates of D'Souza and Madkaikar have criticised the BJP leadership for the sudden axe. BJP MLAs and other ruling legislators, who failed to make the cabinet cut have also publicly slammed the party leadership for ignoring their claims. BJP MLA from Bicholim Rajesh Patnekar said: "Bicholim (sub district) did not get a ministry, so the BJP workers here have expressed anger and concern. "I was hoping that Bicholim would get one ministry and I would get it. I am sure that the state party president Vinay Tendulkar will come here and quell the anger among the party workers." Aldona BJP MLA Glenn Ticlo said he deserved to be part of the cabinet on account of his "dynamism" and said that people from his constituency wanted him to be a minister in order "to get their work done". But with a cabinet berth remaining elusive, there was frustration among his workers. "People are absolutely unhappy. I am getting calls and messages. I told them it is a party decision and when the Chief Minister is back, he will take a call...," Ticlo said. The sudden reshuffle by Parrikar, who was being treated for advanced pancreatic cancer at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, came at a time, when the opposition, as well as the civil society, was taking potshots at the ruling combine. They alleged that there was lack of leadership in the Goa government with ailing lawmakers holding on to ministerial posts like Parrikar himself, besides D'Souza and Madkaikar. The decision, however, have riled the kin of sacked ministers. "It comes as a shock, that he (D'Souza) wasn't even informed prior to the decision being taken. It would have been good, if he had been taken into confidence," says D'Souza's son Joshua. D'Souza, the only popular Catholic BJP legislator, himself has warned that he would resign from the party once he returns from the US. Madkaikar's wife Janita said the BJP leaders should have at least shown the courtesy of informing them before sacking the minister, who was recuperating in a Mumbai hospital. Supporters of Independent MLA from Sanguem Prasad Gaonkar have threatened to start an agitation which would block the flow of water from the Selaulim dam, located in the Sanguem assembly constituency, which provides water to nearly half of Goa. "The dam is in our panchayat. All industries and people in South Goa get water from the dam. We will start an agitation to stop water from the dam for at least eight days, if Prasad is not given representation in the cabinet," Sanjay Shirodkar, the Uguem Panchayat sarpanch said. Even Goa's notorious taxi lobby has taken a leap into the controversy, backing the candidature of Calangute MLA Michael Lobo for a cabinet berth, failing which they said taxi operators would work against the BJP. "There are 20,000 taxi operators in Goa. In the coming elections, we will reject BJP if Michael Lobo is not given a ministry. "Today, if a taxi meets with an accident, we have to give fitness certificate from RTO to resume. Why does the Chief Minister not need a fitness certificate to operate when he is sick for several months now?" North Goa Taxi Driver's Association president Laxman Korgaonkar said. While BJP leaders were unwilling to formally comment on questions about the dissent, a party official said that there were only 12 cabinet berths and the Bharatiya Janata Party had to accommodate both, their own MLAs as well as allies. "We cannot accommodate everyone. The decision on whom to induct and whom to drop was taken by the Chief Minister, in consultation with the party high command. The cadre and MLAs will have to accept it," the party official said on condition of anonymity. Anwar told reporters he was 'hurt' by Pawar's interview to a Marathi news channel this week where he said prime minister Narendra Modi's intentions on the Rafale fighter jet aircraft deal were not wrong. Katihar/New Delhi: NCP national general secretary Tariq Anwar on Friday said he had resigned from the party and Parliament following party chief Sharad Pawar's "defence" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Rafale deal. Making the announcement in his Lok Sabha constituency in Katihar, Anwar said he was resigning from all posts in the party, of which he was a founding member, and also giving up his membership of Parliament. Anwar told reporters he was "hurt" by Pawar's interview to a Marathi news channel this week where he said Modi's intentions on the Rafale fighter jet aircraft deal were not wrong. The party later came out with a clarification, saying it did not amount to a clean chit to the prime minister. Anwar, a former union minister, has been backing the Congress demand for a JPC probe into the deal and has also sought a white paper on the issue. "No decision has been taken so far about my future political move. I will be deciding that after consulting my supporters," he said. Reacting to the development, Congress MLC Prem Chand Mishra described Anwar as a "fine leader". "We shall be eagerly looking at his next political move," he said. In New Delhi, senior party leader and Rajya Sabha MP D P Tripathi confirmed the development. A former president of Congress' Bihar unit, Anwar formed the NCP in the 1990s along with Pawar and the late P A Sangma, opposing Sonia Gandhi taking over as AICC president on grounds of her foreign origin. The party thereafter allied with the Congress at the national level and also in Maharashtra. tech2 News Staff The beta version of iOS 12.1 is out and it is seeded with eSIM support. This feature allows users to get a cellular connection without a physical SIM card. The activation was spotted by the 9to5Mac. The new beta version has begun seeding eSIM support for some telecom operators but it may not be available for all telecom operators as it may await the iOS 12.1 launch officially. Meanwhile, according to the report, Apple is offering a list of telecom companies supporting eSIM. You will have to connect with the respective carriers (for the activation of the eSIM) to see if they have enabled eSIM support. On installing the iOS 12.1 beta, you need to head over to Settings > Cellular and go to the eSIM related set up. You will need to head over the 'Add Cellular Plan' section which will open a QR code scanner. Using this you will have to scan the QR code provided by the eSIM supported service provider. We do not know if Indian carriers such as Airtel and Jio (which were the eSIM partners for Apple, as announced at the keynote), have enabled eSIM for iOS 12.1 beta. The iPhones are going to start selling in India from 28 September. The iPhone XS Max, iPhone XS and iPhone XR come with dual SIM support. However, one of the SIMs shall only be an eSIM. Only the China market has provision to add two physical SIM cards, as the regulations in China do not allow eSIM. This is the first time that Apple is supporting dual SIM on its iPhones. Bahrain-based Waqfe, a leading fintech solutions provider, recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the non-profit organisation, AIESEC, to create opportunities for over 100 Bahraini interns. The collaboration will enable 100 talented Bahrainis to intern in different parts of the world with AIESEC, said a statement from the organisation. Being a two-way agreement, Waqfe will in turn be accommodating 3 interns from AIESEC, it said. The agreement is another step taken by Waqfe as part of its internship initiative, which is a loyalty programme that offers various career acceleration opportunities to young Bahrainis. Through the internships with AIESEC, young Bahrainis will benefit from the unique opportunity of working with experts in a number of fields including digital marketing, accounting, and sales in various locations across the world, it added. Fatima Al Alawi, chief business officer of Waqfe, said: We are delighted to have signed such a beneficial agreement with AIESEC. The agreement is certainly in line with both our organisations ambitions to support and create new opportunities for young Bahrainis to advance their careers, she said. The work put in by AIESEC to develop and support young leaders has been immense over the years. By working together, we along with AIESEC will be able to create more opportunity for the Bahraini youth to develop their careers in top organisations from across the world, she added. Hasan Alnoaimi, program director of incoming global entrepreneur at AIESEC, said: We are delighted to be partnering with Waqfe for this internship programme which gives young Bahrainis an opportunity to experience various diverse and unique work environments from across the world. I am confident the interns will be able to reap great benefits through the internship programme, as it will equip them for the challenges they will have to face in a high performance work environment, he added. So far through the Loyalty Program, over 400 internships have been successfully secured at various corporate organizations and over 800 internships are in line to be placed in the coming months. Gaining immense support from several corporates and institutions across industries throughout the region, the Loyalty Program will be using the support to create over 5,000 new opportunities for young Bahrainis to advance their careers by 2020, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Reuters Googles chief executive officer, Sundar Pichai, is on Capitol Hill this week to face questions from Republican lawmakers who accuse the company of being biased against conservatives and have raised a litany of other concerns. House of Representatives Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican who has repeatedly criticized Google, is hosting a meeting of more than two dozen Republican lawmakers on Friday with Pichai. Google has a lot of questions to answer about reports of bias in its search results, violations of user privacy, anticompetitive behaviour and business dealings with repressive regimes like China, McCarthy said in a statement. Pichai will also meet with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Friday to discuss national and international issues, a White House official confirmed. Republicans want to question Google, the search engine of Alphabet Inc, about whether its search algorithms are influenced by human bias. They also want to probe it on privacy issues, search dominance, classification of news and opinion results and operations in countries with human rights violations. Pichai said in a statement he plans to meet with both Democrats and Republicans, answering a wide range of questions, and explaining our approach. Pichai wrote in an internal email last week that suggestions that Google would interfere in search results for political reasons were absolutely false. We do not bias our products to favour any political agenda. The Wall Street Journal on Sept. 20 reported, citing internal emails, that Google employees had brainstormed ways to alter search functions to counter the Trump administrations controversial 2017 travel ban. The Journal said Google did not go through with the ideas that were brainstormed. Google came under criticism for refusing to send a top executive to a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 5 September about efforts to counteract foreign influence in US elections and political discourse. Facebooks chief operating officer and Twitters chief executive testified at the hearing, where an empty chair was pointedly left for Google after the committee rejected Googles top lawyer as a witness. Pichai is expected to meet Thursday with House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, congressional aides said. Google has faced questions from lawmakers on whether it intends to resume operating its search engine in China. Google described its work on search for China as exploratory and not close to launching. McCarthy said the House Judiciary Committee plans a hearing after the November elections with Google. Googles chief privacy officer testified before a Senate panel on Wednesday and in written testimony said the company acknowledged that it had made mistakes in the past on privacy. Earlier this week, the Justice Department met with state attorneys general to focus on the need to protect consumer privacy when big technology companies amass vast troves of data, but came to no immediate conclusions, Reuters reported. Indo-Asian News Service More than a billion smartphones will be sold in India over the next five years, taking the number of users to surpass 700 million by 2022, Counterpoint Research said on Friday. Mid-range smartphones (roughly Rs 14,000-Rs 29,000), will grow 20 per cent (year-on-year) in 2018 and by almost four times during the next five years to make it one of the most important smartphone segments in India, the market research firm added. The sales volume sweet spot is moving from sub-$150 (nearly Rs 10,000) segment towards mid-tier as many features and capabilities common among flagship models, progressively diffuse through to these lower price bands, noted Counterpoint's white paper on "India Mid-Tier Smartphone Segment and opportunity for SoC players". "Features such as full-screen displays, dual-cameras, biometric security and support for Artificial Intelligence (AI) are beginning to make in-roads to the mid-range. They will become widespread over the next few years," said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research. Many of these advanced features will be enabled and enhanced through the evolution of the underlying System-on-Chip (SoCs) and other components. "These features will help OEMs to differentiate their offerings in the mid-tier segment at a time when overall smartphone innovation is perceived to have plateaued," Pathak added. India is the second largest smartphone market in the world after China. It has just surpassed 400 million smartphone users. However, this accounts for just 44 per cent of the potential total addressable market for smartphones as the country is underpenetrated relative to many other markets. "Part of this lack of development can be attributed to the poor relative development of data-capable mobile networks and high data pricing. Upstart operator, Reliance Jio, has catalysed a rapid shift toward 4G LTE, together with much more accessible data pricing," noted Research Director Neil Shah. Looking at the competitive environment, the top five brands contributed to 92 per cent share of the mid-tier segment in India. Samsung, Vivo, Apple, OPPO and Huawei were the leading brands in the first half of 2018. "However, we expect competition to increase in the segment as more brands enter including Xiaomi, Asus, Nokia HMD and others," said the white paper. The role of SoC players is critical to unlocking the potential of the mid-tier market segments. If done successfully, we believe the mid-tier segments will grow almost four times in volume over the next five years in India. To enable this growth, cutting-edge solutions such as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 710 are required on a broad scale. "Qualcomm already has a strong presence in key brands in the mid-tier. The Snapdragon 710 can further strengthen Qualcomm's share within key brands in the mid-tier segments as it has in the $100-$200 lower-tier segment," the white paper added. Indo-Asian News Service Kailash Satyarthi, a Nobel laureate and advocate for children's rights, has called for the adoption of a legally-binding international convention outlawing online child sex abuse and pornography, an evil that has proliferated into an $8 billion curse of the digital age. "We are demanding an international convention against child sex abuse, and online pornography that should be supported by a new global task forcean inter-agency, inter-governmental task forceto combat child trafficking, child pornography, online child pornography, and sexual abuse," he said in an interview to IANS on Thursday. Child pornography and sexual abuse using digital technology are growing unchecked without such an UN convention into a $8 billion-industry, he said. When governments shut down such websites, they sprout elsewhere because there is no international regime to control them effectively, he said. He also demanded the creation of an international database and registry of child traffickers that would be hosted by Interpol and connect national and international law enforcement enabling access to comprehensive and timely information to crack down on traffickers and networks. "It's very sad and rather strange that in spite of all the technological advancement the world has been able to make and make so fast, we are not able to control organised crime of human trafficking and that has become a $150 billion industry," he said. "The traffickers move around and they use some of the most modern equipment and they are so fast", while "the police in most countries are still using some of the old methodologies in tracing them", he said. These were among the demands made by a group known as Laureates and Leaders for Children that comprises of eminent global citizens, Satyarthi said. At their summit in Jordan in March, they adopted the 'Dead Sea Declaration' which includes these demands, as well as others to protect children. Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela, who is a member of the group, presented the demands to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, Satyarthi said. Satyarthi, who founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a movement against child labour, shared the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani advocate for girls' education. There are still about 152 million child labourers around the world, Satyarthi said. "It is not true to say it is only a problem in developing countries, it is very much here," and to say otherwise "would be a hypocrisy", he added. In the US, where he said he has been working with anti-child labour groups for more than 15 years, there is no law against children being made to work in agriculture, he said. Children, including many of Latino ethnicity, work on tobacco farms in the US because of the lack of legal protection for them, he said. There has been remarkable progress though against child labour in India, he said. According to government statistics, the number of child labourers has gone down from 12.3 million 15 years ago to 4.3 million now, he said. Indo-Asian News Service Microsoft has decided to put an end to 'Skype 7.0Classic' version in November and will focus on improving 'Skype 8' with better features based on user feedback. "Support for 'Skype versions 7', and below will end on 1 November 2018 on desktop devices and 15 November 2018 on mobile and tablet devices," the company wrote in a blog post late on Thursday. The company would, however, allow users to use the older versions, while giving them time to shift to newer Skype updates. "We're continuing to work on your most requested features. Recently, we launched call recording and have started to roll out the ability to search within a conversation. You'll soon be able to add phone numbers to existing contacts, have more control over your availability status, and more," the post added. Earlier in September, Microsoft redesigned Skype's interface for both mobile and desktop, simplifying its voice calling, video chatting and messaging features. The video-and-voice app also rolled out end-to-end encryption for private conversations on the platform. It is not clear how long 'Skype Classic' would continue operating after the company ceases supporting it. tech2 News Staff WikiLeaks' founder and internet watchdog Julian Assange stepped down from the position of editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks under "extraordinary circumstances". Former Wikileaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsoon has replaced Assange for this position. According to a tweet from Wikileaks, Assange is not allowed to communicate with anyone except for his lawyers. He does not have access to the internet as it was denied to him in late March, this year. Hrafnsson is an Icelandic investigative journalist who was selected for the 'Icelandic journalist of the year' award in 2010 for his work at WikiLeaks. ANNOUNCEMENT: Assange appoints Hrafnsson Editor-in-Chief after six months of effective incommunicado detention, remains publisher [background: https://t.co/2jOgvSu5bG] pic.twitter.com/0Fwvf3SrkL WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 26, 2018 Formerly a spokesperson with WikiLeaks, he said, "I condemn the treatment of Julian Assange that leads to my new role, but I welcome the responsibility to secure the continuation of the important work based on WikiLeaks ideals." Earlier this year, Ecuador granted citizenship to Assange after Britain denied him diplomatic status. He is currently residing in the Ecuadorian embassy of London. Late in March, internet access for him was removed since Assange had broken a condition set by the Ecuador government. As per the rule, he was not allowed to send messages that could interfere with Ecuador's relationship with other countries. Indo-Asian News Service Citing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's lament that India had missed the industrial revolution, Karnataka IT and Biotech Minister K G George said on 27 September that the country should not miss the electronic revolution at least. "I remember Gandhi telling me that we (India) had missed the industrial revolution. Hence, we cannot afford to miss the electronic revolution at this point of time," said George at a preview of the 10th edition of Bengaluru Indian Nano event on 5-7 December here. Assuring the state government's support to the meet, George said that Indian scientists and engineers should catch up with disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, data analytics and nanotechnology, which was gaining recognition worldwide. "As India's IT and Biotech capital, Bengaluru is at the heart of innovation and emerging technologies. We are also witnessing a great deal of change in science over the last two years, with the city becoming a platform for academia, experts and entrepreneurs to build the eco-system," asserted George. Distinguished scientist and Bharat Ratna C N R Rao urged his fraternity to make the best use of nano-technology and nano-medicine which enable early detection of cancer. "Extraordinary things are taking place in science, which has become an interesting field to explore more. Advancement in nano-technology has also been tremendous," said Rao. Rao, however, cautioned the stakeholders against losing the excitement of pure science in the pursuit of its applications such as nano-technology and nano-science. Indian Institute of Science (IISc) professor A K Sood said about 700 national and international delegates, including 60 Speakers from the world over, would participate in the summit, whose theme is 'Nano for a Better World'. Organised by the Karnataka IT, BT, Science and Technology department along with the industry and academia, the annual event will be flagged in dozen cities across the country for its awareness and participation by other states and stakeholders. The expo will showcase advancements in nano-technology to improve the quality of life. Donald Trump whole-heartedly backed Brett Kavanaugh, whose Supreme Court nomination will be put to an initial vote on Friday, after a dramatic Senate hearing that saw him furiously fight back against sexual assault allegations dating back decades ago. Washington: Donald Trump whole-heartedly backed Brett Kavanaugh, whose Supreme Court nomination will be put to an initial vote Friday, after a dramatic Senate hearing that saw him furiously fight back against sexual assault allegations dating back decades ago. America watched transfixed as the gripping day-long hearing opened with Christine Blasey Ford, 51, recounting to a packed room the harrowing details of what she said was an attempted rape by Kavanaugh 36 years ago. In a passionate defense, the 53-year-old conservative judge insisted before the Senate Judiciary Committee that it never happened, accused Democrats of destroying his reputation and condemned his confirmation battle as a "national disgrace" and a "circus." "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him," the president tweeted just minutes after the close of the hearing. Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2018 "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," Trump said. "Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct and resist. The Senate must vote!" Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump would get his wish, with the Judiciary Committee which has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats set to vote on its recommendation on Friday before the nomination goes to the full Senate, where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 edge. "We're going to vote in the morning and we're going to move forward," McConnell told journalists. The allegations against Kavanaugh by Blasey Ford, a psychology professor in California, have threatened to derail Trump's bid to tilt the nation's highest court to the right for years to come. They come against a backdrop of the #MeToo movement and the hearing included sharp exchanges between Republicans and Democrats mirroring the atmosphere of bitter political partisanship in Washington. "I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation by Dr Ford," Kavanaugh said in an opening statement during which his voice shook with anger, repeatedly fighting back tears. "I've never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever," he said. "I am innocent of this charge." Earlier, during four hours of testimony, Blasey Ford said she was "100 percent" certain that Kavanaugh was her assailant and it was "absolutely not" a case of mistaken identity. "I am here today not because I want to be," Blasey Ford said as she recounted the alleged assault at a high school party at a suburban Maryland home. "I am terrified," she said, her voice often quavering. "I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me." 'Character assassination' The married mother-of-two, wearing glasses and a sober dark blue suit, appeared nervous but poised as she sat at the witness table, consulting occasionally with her lawyer. She said Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were drunk at the 1982 party when they pushed her into a bedroom. "Brett and Mark came into the bedroom and locked the door behind them," she said. "I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me. "I believed he was going to rape me," she said. "I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling. "It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me," she said. Blasey Ford said she managed to escape after Judge jumped on the bed, toppling the three on to the floor. Kavanaugh said he did not watch Blasey Ford's testimony but he categorically denied her allegations. "This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election," he said. "This is a circus." "My family and my name have been permanently destroyed by vicious and false accusations," Kavanaugh continued. "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace." But he said he would not be "intimidated" into withdrawing his candidacy for a spot on the nine-member Supreme Court. "You may defeat me in the final vote but you'll never get me to quit. Never," he said. 'I believe you' Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had been a swing vote on a court now divided between four conservative and four liberal justices. Democrats on the committee praised Blasey Ford for coming forward and repeatedly questioned Kavanaugh about his drinking habits in high school, asking if he had ever "blacked out" while drunk. "I believe you," Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, told Blasey Ford. Blumenthal also hit out at Trump for failing to authorise an FBI investigation into Blasey Ford's allegations, a move he said "amounts to a cover-up." Several Republican senators accused Democrats of trying to delay Kavanaugh's nomination until November in the hopes of capturing control of the Senate. "This is the most unethical sham since I've seen in politics," said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. "I hope the American people can see through this sham. "I intend to vote for you and I hope everybody who is fair-minded will," he told Kavanaugh. By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The families of two Reuters reporters imprisoned in Myanmar have asked for a pardon from the country's president, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney told a press freedom event at the United Nations on Friday as she pressed Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to agree to the request. 'The president can grant a pardon anytime after a conviction. He does so following a consultation with Myanmars leader Aung San Suu Kyi,' said Clooney, who is a member of the legal team representing Reuters journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28 By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The families of two Reuters reporters imprisoned in Myanmar have asked for a pardon from the country's president, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney told a press freedom event at the United Nations on Friday as she pressed Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to agree to the request. "The president can grant a pardon anytime after a conviction. He does so following a consultation with Myanmars leader Aung San Suu Kyi," said Clooney, who is a member of the legal team representing Reuters journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28. "The journalists' families have already submitted a pardon request," Clooney said. "This case began with authorization from the government at the highest level, all the way up to the president's office. And the government can, if it wants to, end it today." The Myanmar mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The reporters were convicted on Sept. 3 under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act in a case seen as a test of democratic freedoms in Myanmar. The reporters, who pleaded not guilty and have been detained since December last year, were sentenced to seven years in prison. They had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys by security forces and local Buddhists in western Myanmars Rakhine state during an army crackdown that began in August last year. The operation sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh. A U.N mandated fact-finding mission said 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. Suu Kyi said at a forum in Vietnam this month that the case had nothing to do with freedom of expression. She said the reporters had been sentenced for handling official secrets and "were not jailed because they were journalists." "Aung San Suu Kyi knows better than anyone what it is like to be a political prisoner in Myanmar. She has slept in a cell at the prison in which Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo now sleep," said Clooney, who was speaking for the first time about the case. Clooney said Suu Kyi held "the key to their liberty" and "the key to a more democratic and prosperous Myanmar. History will judge her response." The U.N. event hosted by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also focused on the cases of imprisoned journalists in Egypt, Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh. The CPJ said a record 262 journalists were jailed worldwide in 2017, with Turkey, China, and Egypt responsible for imprisoning 134 of those journalists. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier this month called on the Myanmar government to pardon and release the Reuters journalists as soon as possible. Representatives for the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Lebanon and other countries attended the event on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Sheikh Hasina has asked for early repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. New York: Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina has asked for early repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. In her speech at the UN General Assembly General Debate on Thursday, Hasina regretted the fact that repatriation had not started in a permanent and sustainable manner, reported Xinhua news agency. "Myanmar is one of our neighbours. From the outset, we have been trying to find a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis through bilateral consultations," she said. "So far, three bilateral arrangements have been concluded between Bangladesh and Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation. Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingya, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back. "The Rohingya crisis has had its origin in Myanmar. As such, its solution has to be found in Myanmar... We want an early, peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis," the prime minister added. The Rohingya in Bangladesh are living in an uncertain situation, she said. Bangladesh has made arrangements for their food, clothing, health care, child care and security to the best of its ability. Many countries and organisations, including the UN and the Commonwealth, have shown solidarity with the Rohingya and extended support and assistance for them. Bangladesh has started working on a new housing facility for the refugees. "So long the Rohingya are not able to return home, they should, as a temporary arrangement, be able to live in a good and healthy condition," she said. Hasina called upon international organisations to work with her country in the relocation of the Rohingya to the new facility. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 720,000 Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority living in mostly Myanmar's Rakhine state, have fled to Bangladesh since violence broke out in August 2017. They joined another 200,000 Rohingya who earlier fled into adjacent Bangladesh, said the UNHCR. Iran 'hasn't abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons,' Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly, where his annual appearance has frequently focused on Israel's chief enemy, the Islamic republic. 'Israel will never let a regime that calls for our destruction to develop nuclear weapons. Not now, not in 10 years, not ever,' he said United Nations: Israel's prime minister on Thursday accused arch-enemy Tehran of harboring a secret atomic warehouse, making deft use of ample props and vowing that his country would never let Iran develop nuclear weapons. Iran "hasn't abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons," Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly, where his annual appearance has frequently focused on Israel's chief enemy, the Islamic republic. "Israel will never let a regime that calls for our destruction to develop nuclear weapons. Not now, not in 10 years, not ever," he said. "Israel will do whatever it must do to defend itself against Iran's aggression." "What Iran hides, Israel will find," the prime minister added. "Today I'm disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program," he said. He also claimed that Hezbollah had positioned three missile sites near Beirut airport, holding up what he called "a picture worth a thousand missiles" and titled "Beirut Precision Guided Missile." Netanyahu accused Iranian agents of plotting attacks in the United States and Europe, as well as being an aggressor in the Middle East. He accused the Iranian regime of brutally oppressing its own people for four decades, and of waging violence in Iraq and Syria, arming Hezbollah in Lebanon, financing Hamas in Gaza and firing missiles into Saudi Arabia. He tore into Europe for its policy of "appeasement" with Iran, a word that evokes in history European capitals' reluctance to stand up against Adolf Hitler in the run-up to World War II. "Have these European leaders learnt nothing from history? Will they ever wake up?" Netanyahu hectored. "We in Israel don't need a wake-up call because Iran threatens us every day." He said Israel was "deeply grateful" to the Trump administration for withdrawing from the Iran deal, an agreement which he claimed had had the "unintended consequence" of bringing Israel closer to its Arab neighbors. "By empowering Iran, it brought Israel and many Arab states closer together than ever before ... in an intimacy and friendship that I've not seen in my lifetime and would have been unimaginable a few years ago." Emaar Hospitality Group, the hospitality and leisure business of global developer Emaar Properties, has appointed Alma Au Yeung as its corporate director Strategic Projects and Partnerships. In her new role, she will have overall charge in driving the groups strategic partnership with Expo 2020 Dubai. In addition to leading the Emaar Hospitality Group team to deliver on its mandate as the 'Official Hotel and Hospitality Partner', Au Yeung will be involved in planning, managing and executing numerous private clubs, food and beverage (F&B) outlets and catering sites within the Expo 2020 Dubai site. She will develop strategic plans to drive incremental business growth prior to and during the much-anticipated global event by selling rooms, events and F&B. Au Yeung will also focus on the guiding spirit of Expo 2020 Dubai Connecting Minds, Creating the Future and its three sub-themes, Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability, to build new strategic partnerships, market awareness and business opportunities. Olivier Harnisch, chief executive officer of Emaar Hospitality Group, said: Following the award as Expo 2020 Dubais Official Hotel and Hospitality Partner, we have been harnessing all our best resources to ensure that we deliver the highest standards of hospitality service for the world-class event that adds to the reputation of Dubai and the UAE. Alma has a wealth of experience in planning and managing high-level events of Emaar and Emaar Hospitality Group, which puts her in good stead in leading our dedicated team for the event. Au Yeung added: It is a privilege for Emaar Hospitality Group to be the Official Hotel & Hospitality Partner, a prestigious award that underlines our strong competencies in the service business. The new role places a strong responsibility to lead the team and ensure that our services are impeccable and seamless, meeting the aspirations of visitors prior to and during Expo 2020 Dubai. We will deploy our best resources and strategic planning and implementation competencies to deliver on our mandate. With over 20 years of industry expertise, including over a decade in senior management roles, Au Yeung was previously group director of Lifestyle Events, Sponsorship & Partnership at Emaar Hospitality Group. She was responsible for the development, planning and management of the groups varied lifestyle events and ensuring that the highest standards are upheld. Au Yeung has played a pivotal role in the international expansion of the business and has been involved right from the design stage for organising events for new hotel openings. She was one of the first employees in Emaars events department and has been associated with all key project launches. She has been an integral part of the Emaar Properties team, collaborating on diverse projects including the opening of Burj Khalifa, The Dubai Fountain and The Dubai Mall. Other prestigious events she has been part of include the New Years Eve Gala in Downtown Dubai, the Ramadan projects at Emaar and the Vogue Dubai Fashion Experience held in The Dubai Mall. Previously, she has worked on several significant hospitality ventures with prominent global hotel brands in Asia and UAE. Au Yeung holds a diploma from University of London with majors in Account, Commerce and Economics. As the Official Hotel and Hospitality Partner, Emaar Hospitality Group will be responsible for providing exceptional service to Expo 2020s special ticket holders. The group will also operate several other experiences across the Expo site. In addition, Emaar Hospitality Group will showcase trends and innovations in the hospitality industry. - TradeArabia News Service ISRAEL-EGYPT BORDER (Reuters) - A normally sealed-off road along the Israel-Egypt border was opened for a Jewish holiday, giving travellers on the Israeli side a glimpse into the Sinai desert backdrop to the biblical journey commemorated by the festival. ISRAEL-EGYPT BORDER (Reuters) - A normally sealed-off road along the Israel-Egypt border was opened for a Jewish holiday, giving travellers on the Israeli side a glimpse into the Sinai desert backdrop to the biblical journey commemorated by the festival. The Sukkot holiday celebrates the biblical story of God's protection of the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt and 40-year sojourn in the wilderness, which religious scholars say included the Sinai. Israel's narrow Route 10 runs along the Egyptian border from the Gaza frontier in the north before connecting to a highway into Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat. Curving along an Israeli security fence, it is usually closed to civilian traffic and patrolled regularly by the Israeli military. Egyptian watchtowers dot the other side. Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979, but fighting has raged in areas of the Sinai in recent years between Islamic State militants and the Egyptian military. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Mark Heinrich) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. A lone US Senator Jeff Flake has tilted the delicate balance in the ongoing Brett Kavanaugh confirmation cliffhanger in the wake of sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick, as he pushed for an FBI probe in 'no more than one week' into sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh in what is clearly a bipartisan left hook against the US president. A lone US Senator Jeff Flake has tilted the delicate balance in the ongoing Brett Kavanaugh confirmation cliffhanger in the wake of sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick, as he pushed for an FBI probe against Kavanaugh in what is clearly looking like a bipartisan left hook against the US president's hurry to get this wrapped up. Flake, the deciding vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to a full floor vote, but said the vote should be delayed for up to a week to allow time for the investigation of Christine Blasey Ford's claims. Ford says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school. Kavanaugh has denied Ford's accusation. Trump, who has accused the Democrats of obstruction and delay and has opposed the FBI probing the allegations against his nominee, said merely that he would "let the Senate handle that." That's shorthand for the understanding that without Flake's vote, the nomination is in danger anyway. Given the razor thin margin that the ruling Republican party has in the Senate 51-49, every Senator matters and so it is in the case of Flake. Flake, who retires this year, has been at odds with Trump for many months now. Tears of joy as Sen. Jeff Flake calls for a FBI investigation pic.twitter.com/dvSXDLtI25 VICE News (@vicenews) September 28, 2018 Trump was unusually subdued in his reaction to the latest twist Friday afternoon, saying good things about both the accuser and Kavanaugh. He called Ford "credible" and "very fine woman" and praised Kavanaugh's defence as "incredible" and "historic". The dramatic scene of a possible one-week delay unfolded a day after Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testified in an emotional, hours-long hearing. Kavanaugh angrily denied the allegations that he assaulted Ford while they were both in high school, while she said she was "100 percent" certain he was her attacker. Flake, a key moderate Republican, was at the center of the drama and uncertainty. On Friday morning, he announced that he would support Kavanaugh's nomination. Shortly after, he was confronted in an elevator by two women who, through tears, implored him to change his mind. After huddling privately with his colleagues, Flake announced that he would vote to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate the allegations against the judge. Democrats have been calling for such an investigation, though Republicans and the White House have insisted it's unnecessary. Flake said that after discussing the matter with fellow senators, he felt it "would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week." That increases the pressure on a handful of colleagues who haven't yet said whether they back Kavanaugh: Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. With a 51-49 majority, Senate Republicans have little margin for error, especially given the fact that several Democrats facing tough re-election prospects this fall announced their opposition to Kavanaugh on Friday. Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Jon Tester of Montana all said they would vote no. (With Associated Press) The House of Commons last week unanimously voted to call the killings of Rohingya a genocide, a move that Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said at the time was significant. Ottowa: Canadian legislators, in a symbolic move, on Thursday voted unanimously to strip Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary citizenship in response to crimes committed against the Rohingya minority. The move by the House of Commons lower chamber has no immediate effect because honorary citizenship is conferred by a joint resolution of both the House and the upper Senate chamber and officials say it must be removed the same way. Suu Kyi received hers in 2007. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Wednesday that he was open to looking at stripping Suu Kyi of the honour but said doing so would not end the crisis in Myanmar, where more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled a government crackdown. The motion on removing the honorary citizenship was proposed by Gabriel Ste Marie, a member of the opposition Bloc Quebecois party, who told reporters after the vote that "I think it's a great symbol". The House of Commons last week unanimously voted to call the killings of Rohingya a genocide, a move that Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said at the time was significant. "Our government supported this motion in response to her (Suu Kyi's) continued failure to speak out against the genocide of the Rohingya, a crime being committed by the military with which she shares power," said Freeland spokesman Adam Austen. Legislator Andrew Leslie, who serves as Freeland's parliamentary secretary, told reporters "that the machinery of government will chew over the details of what specifically is required to implement" the motion. The Myanmar government was not immediately available for comment. Freeland is among many western politicians who condemned the decision by a Myanmar judge earlier this month to find two Reuters journalists guilty of breaching a law on state secrets. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had been probing the killing by the security forces of Rohingya villagers, were jailed for seven years. They had pleaded not guilty. A US government investigation last month found Myanmar's military waged a "well-planned and coordinated" campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the Rohingya. At the Council on Foreign Relations, Afghanistan's chief executive also said that that there was a need to persuade those who support the Taliban. Washington: Pakistan continues to support the Taliban and there has been no change in its policy despite the formation of the new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, a top Afghan leader has said. Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said at the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday that for the peace and the talks to get serious, a few things are required. He said that there was a need to persuade those who support the Taliban. "One is that those who are supporting Taliban need to be persuaded and convinced that they should stop support. And one country is key to that, which is Pakistan," Abdullah said in response to a question. He pointed out that even after the formation of the new government in Pakistan the "real change has not taken place as far as their policy" towards Taliban is concerned. "In the past they have made promises that they will bring the reconcilable Taliban to the negotiating table and put pressure on others. We have seen none in that sense. But still we are hopeful," he said. Abdullah, however, said that Afghanistan will continue to engage with Pakistan hoping that Islamabad will understand that such groups won't serve any country's interest. "With Pakistan, we will continue our engagement with them with the hope that they will be convinced that these groups, the groups which are using ideology, but at the same time terror tactics and violence and killing civilians, will not serve any country's interests," the leader said. "If there is one lesson in the past three decades, that is that these groups have their own agendas. At the end of the day, they will pursue their own agenda rather than the agendas of the countries or country which has helped them," Abdullah added. He stated that India was for a stable and peaceful Afghanistan. "India has been supporting Afghanistan in the past seventeen years and also when we were in the resistance against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. They were on the side of the resistance or official government of Afghanistan," Abdullah said. "They have continued with the same policy. And their offer to us is that you tell us your needs, we will see in the realm of our possibilities that how we can help, because stability in Afghanistan is in their interest, not insecurity in our country," he added. BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has an interest in an economically stable Turkey, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday, adding that she also wanted to discuss critical issues such as human rights during her upcoming talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has an interest in an economically stable Turkey, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday, adding that she also wanted to discuss critical issues such as human rights during her upcoming talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber, Editing by Andrew Heavens) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. India has raised objections over Pakistan raking up the Kashmir issue at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting, saying it is completely 'unwarranted' for the grouping as well as its member countries to discuss matters related to India's internal affairs New York: India has raised objections over Pakistan raking up the Kashmir issue at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting, saying it is completely "unwarranted" for the grouping as well as its member countries to discuss matters related to India's internal affairs in any multilateral setup. Pakistan raked up the Kashmir issue at the OIC Contact Group meeting held on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. "We always note with regret that the matter which is very internal to Indian affairs was again discussed at the OIC," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters when asked about Pakistan raising the issue at the OIC meeting. He said India rejects such references to a matter which is very internal to it. "We have said in the past that OIC has no locus standi to comment on India's internal affairs" and it is completely unwarranted for OIC as well as its member countries to discuss matters related to India's internal affairs in any multi-organisation set up, he said. When asked about Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also raising the Kashmir issue in his bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Kumar said Islamabad has been doing this for a long time. "It is not the first time they are raising the issue in their bilateral meetings. You would note that what they come up with is their side of the story. What they share and what they say has no acceptance anywhere in the international community, he said. He said Pakistan has realised its "falsehood" and what it has been projecting had already been rejected by the international community. On the possibility of any exchange between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Qureshi in the SAARC meeting, Kumar said, "we have made it very clear that it is not a bilateral meeting between India and Pakistan, and added that it is "difficult to predict if there will be a handshake" between the two. Swaraj will be attending the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) and Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) meeting on Thursday. On Wednesday, Swaraj held bilateral meetings with her counterparts from Germany, Bolivia, Armenia, Panama, Austria, Antigua and Barbuda, Chile, Iran and with Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. "A relationship like no other! EAM Sushma Swaraj met the Nepal prime minister KP Sharma Oli. Positive and friendly conversation on taking our relationship to an even higher trajectory, Kumar tweeted. India is committed to buying Iranian oil and continuing the two nations economic cooperation, the Iranian foreign minister said after a meeting with his Indian counterpart and ahead of US sanctions aimed at halting Tehrans oil exports. New Delhi: India is committed to buying Iranian oil and continuing the two nations economic cooperation, the Iranian foreign minister said after a meeting with his Indian counterpart and ahead of US sanctions aimed at halting Tehrans oil exports. US president Donald Trumps May withdrawal from an international nuclear pact with Iran was followed up with plans to impose new sanctions against the third-largest producer among the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Washington is pushing allies to cut Iranian oil imports to zero once the sanctions start on 4 November. Irans Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, in New York on the sidelines of United Nation General Assembly, according to a video from news agency ANI, a Reuters affiliate. Our Indian friends have always been categorical in terms of their intention to continue economic cooperation and (the) import of oil from Iran. And I heard the same statement from my Indian counterpart, Zarif said when asked if India has given an assurance about continuing with oil imports. India, Irans second-biggest oil client behind China, has already reduced its intake of Iranian oil but has not yet decided whether to end purchases completely. We have comprehensive cooperation with India and that comprehensive cooperation also includes energy cooperation because Iran has always been a reliable source of energy for India, Zarif added. Iran is Indias third-biggest oil supplier and the South Asian nation had drawn plans to increase purchases this financial year after Tehran offered almost free shipping and extended credit period. In the previous round of sanctions, India was one of the few countries that continued to trade with Iran. Zarif said Iran wants to expand its bilateral relations with India. The Indian-backed Chabahar port complex in Iran is being developed as part of a new transportation corridor for land-locked Afghanistan. The complex could open the way for millions of dollars in trade and cut Indias dependence on sometimes-hostile neighbour Pakistan. The plant is expected to be operational by 2019. India is looking at providing a $3.5 million-equivalent bank guarantee for development of the port through UCO Bank, another Indian government source said. Zarif said that Chabahar is still functional and Iran wants to expand its capacity with support from Indian and other investors. By Gavin Jones and Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Italy's populist government brushed off protests from its own economy minister to back a significant rise in deficit spending next year, spooking financial markets and setting up a battle with Brussels. After tussling with Economy Minister Giovanni Tria for weeks, the four-month old government on Thursday proposed a 2019 deficit that is, at 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), three times the previous administration's target By Gavin Jones and Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Italy's populist government brushed off protests from its own economy minister to back a significant rise in deficit spending next year, spooking financial markets and setting up a battle with Brussels. After tussling with Economy Minister Giovanni Tria for weeks, the four-month old government on Thursday proposed a 2019 deficit that is, at 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), three times the previous administration's target. The spending is meant to finance the campaign promises of the ruling parties - the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and right-wing League - to lower the retirement age, cut taxes, invest in infrastructure and boost welfare. The rub is that Italy has the largest debt among big European Union economies, at 131 percent of GDP, and it is under pressure from the EU to rein in spending amid fears it could sow the seeds of a new debt crisis in the euro zone. In a move certain to raise hackles with the European Commission, which monitors and enforces EU fiscal rules, the government sees the deficit remaining at 2.4 percent for the next three years, rather than progressively declining towards zero as the Commission's recipe prescribes. And yet the first reaction from Brussels was measured. Nothing would be gained from a clash with Italy, European Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said, but he added, "We don't have any interest either that Italy does not respect the rules and does not reduce its debt, which remains explosive." The plan to lift deficit spending rattled markets, prompting a selloff of bonds and a rout of banking stocks, though both recovered slightly in the afternoon. The euro slumped on the news overnight, then recovered. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was "very worried", while Finnish Finance Minister Petteri Orpo deadpanned: "Populism and responsibility do not always fit in the same room." CELEBRATION Late on Thursday while a cabinet meeting was still ongoing, Deputy Prime Minister and 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio stepped onto the balcony of the prime minister's palace, pumping his arms to celebrate the budget, which foresees 10 billion euros for the movement's flagship minimum wage for the poor next year. Below, 5-Star lawmakers and supporters waved flags and chanted, "Luigi! Luigi!" The decision marked a victory for the ruling parties -especially 5-Star - over Tria, an unaffiliated technocrat who investors were relying on to avert the financial risks associated with unchecked spending. Tria had wanted a deficit as low as 1.6 percent of GDP next year, or at least below 2 percent, government sources said. A deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP remains under the 3.0 percent ceiling dictated by EU rules, but Italy had promised Brussels to cut the deficit decisively to curb its huge debt. Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini argue that the new budget will spur economic growth, boost revenues and allow the debt to fall as a percentage of output. Asked what Rome will do if Brussels rejects its budget plan, Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, said: "Press ahead". "Italy is not a problem for Europe," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said. "I can't wait to go to Brussels to illustrate the budget plan." The EU executive is not the government's only concern. The budget risks running afoul of ratings agencies as well, and that could further roil markets. The agencies have been waiting for the fiscal plans before reconsidering their ratings on Italy's sovereign debt. Moody's, which has a negative outlook on Italy's Baa2 rating, said it would pass judgment by the end of October. On Thursday lawmakers said Tria had offered his resignation in protest against the deficit hike. But on Friday, Salvini said his position had "never been in doubt", and Conte said the minister told him on the telephone he had never offered to step aside. ($1 = 0.8609 euros) (Additional reporting by Angelo Amante, Giuseppe Fonte and Giselda Vagnoni in Rome; Abhinav Ramnarayan in London; Sara Rossi in Milan; Leigh Thomas in Paris; Jussi Rosendahl in Helsinki and Stephanie van der Berg at The Hague; editing by Mark Bendeich, Larry King and Andrew Heavens) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Lawrence Hurley, Andrew Chung and Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A university professor on Thursday said she was '100 percent' certain Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, sexually assaulted her 36 years ago, telling a dramatic U.S. By Lawrence Hurley, Andrew Chung and Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A university professor on Thursday said she was "100 percent" certain Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, sexually assaulted her 36 years ago, telling a dramatic U.S. Senate hearing she feared he would rape and accidentally kill her. In his testimony, Kavanaugh made an angry denial. Christine Blasey Ford, her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, appeared in public for the first time to detail her allegation against Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge chosen for a lifetime job on the top U.S. court. Kavanaugh, seeking to salvage his nomination, appeared after Ford finished her appearance, and they were never in the hearing room together. Calling himself a victim of "grotesque and obvious character assassination," Kavanaugh, speaking passionately, said he "unequivocally and categorically" denied Ford's allegation. Kavanaugh at times held back tears, especially when he mentioned that his daughter suggested that they pray for Ford and when he spoke of his father. The momentous hearing could determine whether Kavanaugh will be confirmed by the Senate after a pitched political battle between Trump's fellow Republicans and Democrats who oppose the nominee. Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, said over four hours of testimony that a drunken Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a gathering of teenagers in Maryland when he was 17 years old and she was 15 in 1982. Kavanaugh said he wanted to testify as soon as Ford's allegation first emerged and was not surprised that other allegations followed. "In those 10 long days, as was predictable and as I predicted, my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations." The delay in scheduling a hearing "has been horrible to me and my family, to the Supreme Court and to the country," Kavanaugh said. "I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process," Kavanaugh added. Looking sombre, Kavanaugh was accompanied by his wife as he entered the hearing room. He sharply attacked Democratic senators, saying he was the victim of "a calculated and orchestrated political hit." He was careful not to denounce Ford, noting that he wished her "no ill will." He said that he was not questioning that Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time, but that he had never assaulted her or anyone. "I am innocent," he said. The hearing, which has riveted Americans and intensified the political polarization in the United States, occurred against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault. "With what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you?" Democratic Senator Richard Durbin asked Ford. "One hundred percent," she replied, remaining firm and unruffled through hours of testimony even under questioning by a sex crimes prosecutor hired by the committee's Republicans. Ford said "absolutely not" when Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her if it could be a case of mistaken identity, as Kavanaugh has suggested. Democrats lauded Ford's testimony as credible, brave and, in the words of Senator Cory Booker, "nothing short of heroic." "I want to thank you for your courage. And I want to tell you I believe you. ... And I believe many Americans across the country believe you," Democratic Senator Kamala Harris said. While some Republicans and Trump have called the allegations by Ford and the two other women part of a smear campaign, Ford told the committee she had no political motivation, adding, "I am an independent person and I am no pawn." Ford was seated at a table in the packed hearing room flanked by her lawyers, facing a bank of senators. Cameras from news photographers clicked as she entered the room and took her seat, smiling nervously. Ford told the senators she was "terrified" to testify but felt it was her civic duty come forward. The audience at the hearing remained in rapt attention. "Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was very inebriated and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothing. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help," Ford said, adding that Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were "drunkenly laughing during the attack." Democratic senators sought to score political points during their five minutes apiece of questioning Ford. The panel's Republican senators, all men, did not question her, assigning that task to Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor. While Mitchell sought to probe Ford's account including any gaps in her story, her questioning seemed disjointed. She took turns with the Democratic senators to ask questions in five minute segments, disrupting her flow. Supreme Court appointments must be confirmed by the Senate. The Republicans control the Senate by a narrow 51-49 margin. That means that a handful of moderate Republican senators who have not announced whether or not they support Kavanaugh could determine his fate. One of them, Senator Lisa Murkowski, told Reuters: "I find Dr. Ford's testimony to be credible." The committee could vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation on Friday, with a final Senate vote early next week. Some Democrats have called on Kavanaugh to withdraw in light of the allegations. The controversy has unfolded just weeks ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to seize control of Congress from the Republicans. Kavanaugh's confirmation would cement conservative control of the high court as Trump moves to shift it and the broader federal judiciary to the right. 'TERRIFIED ME THE MOST' Ford said Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming during the assault, adding, "This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me." Ford said she has suffered from claustrophobia and anxiety as a result of her experience and initially struggled when at college. Her strongest memory of the incident, Ford said, was the "uproarious laughter between the two (Kavanaugh and Judge) and their having fun at my expense." She said the laughter has haunted her ever since. Falling back on her own professional expertise, Ford fended off Mitchell's questions about her memories by explaining the biological underpinnings of memory formation and what factors can prompt anxiety. In her testimony, Ford said she could not recall the precise date or location of the alleged assault, how many people were at the gathering or how she got home afterward after she escaped the attack. Judge, who wrote a memoir about his experience as a teenage alcoholic, submitted a statement to the committee saying he could recall no such incident. Ford repeatedly said during her testimony that further information about Judge, including when he worked at a local Safeway grocery store that she remembers seeing him at after the attack, could helped her recollect the summer of 1982 in more detail. Republican Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the committee who strongly supported Kavanaugh during confirmation hearings earlier in the month, declined to give his views on Ford's testimony. "I shouldn't comment until we're all done and maybe not comment until I've slept on it," Grassley told reporters during a break. Two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in the 1980s. He has also denied those allegations. Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself during a drunken dormitory party during the 1983-84 academic year when both attended Yale University. Swetnick said she witnessed efforts by Kavanaugh and others to get girls drunk at parties so they could be raped. She said Kavanaugh was present at a 1982 party where she was raped. Trump, who has himself faced accusations of sexual misconduct, chose Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired effective in July. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Andrew Chung, Amanda Becker, Richard Cowan, Makini Brice and Susan Heavey; Editing by Will Dunham) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Investors are taking advantage of the current low cost of prime land in Dubai to exploit highly-profitable opportunities for strategic development, said a leading real estate expert in the UAE. Land prices in key locations such as Downtown Dubai and Business Bay are giving rise to a wave of residential and commercial projects worth hundreds of millions of dirhams, stated Firas Al Msaddi, CEO of fam Properties, one of Dubais largest real estate brokerages. But the company warns that investors who fail to study the market in detail to ensure they pick the right plot and devise the correct development plan can destroy their profits. Investors are attracted by plots now available for Dh325 per sq ft compared with Dh700-Dh800 per sq ft in 2007-2008, said Al Msaddi. That means huge savings in outlay, and a properly planned development strategy can maximise the return on investment. Tarek Bou Karroum, the managing partner of fam Properties, said developers are being rewarded for being more creative and innovative, with the introduction of new products previously unseen in the Dubai market paying off particularly well. One very good example of this is Al Wasl Plots by Meraas, a new freehold opportunity in Dubai, where we have sold more than Dh600 million worth of plots, he stated. Meanwhile, a plot sold by Bou Karroum beside the Dubai Water Canal in recent weeks is giving rise to an Dh600m residential tower. Another in Business Bay was acquired for a Dh235m hotel project. Fam Properties said it is curently working on a deal for a 200,000 sq ft plot in the Dubailand area which is earmarked for an under supplied product, as well as another for an unlimited heights plot in Downtown. The key for investors is understanding the efficiency aspect of developing land, said Bou Karram. This is vital for any profitable development. The profit business module can collapse if its not done correctly and is not backed up with an intensive market study, he added. Lower constructions costs is another factor making the present time a good one to buy and develop prime Dubai lands. "This is the ideal time to go hunting for prime plots that are almost impossible to buy when the market is booming, prices are sky high, and contractors and consultants are not as flexible as they are at present," remarked Bou Karram. The companys land development advisory team worked closely with Saudi Arabias Artar Real Estate Development on the 36-storey Mada Residences, which was the only residential project handed over on schedule in Downtown Dubai this year. Al Msaddi, who does not expect to see land prices appreciating in the short term, said: "Selling a plot today comes at the cost of taking a hit on the selling price, regardless of its location, and this is creating real opportunities for a new generation of buyers." "They are investors who are thinking medium and long-term, or have the appetite to develop as soon as they acquire the plot," he added.-TradeArabia News Service By Maria Tsvetkova and Polina Devitt MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Thursday cast doubt on photographs that appeared to show a suspect in the Skripal poisoning case was a Russian intelligence officer, saying that 'many people look alike.' British officials have released surveillance footage of two men they said flew from Russia to Britain using fake passports and then used a nerve agent hidden in a vial of perfume that poisoned Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The Bellingcat investigative website this week published a photograph of someone who looked like one of the men, and whom it identified as Russian military intelligence colonel Anatoliy Chepiga -- challenging the Kremlin account that the two men were civilians in Britain on sightseeing visit. Asked about the Bellingcat report on a regular conference call with reporters on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: 'Many people look alike, but I cannot tell you who this citizen who was pointed out in this investigation is.' Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said the two men shown in British surveillance footage near Skripal's home in the English city of Salisbury were civilians and there was nothing criminal about their activity By Maria Tsvetkova and Polina Devitt MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Thursday cast doubt on photographs that appeared to show a suspect in the Skripal poisoning case was a Russian intelligence officer, saying that "many people look alike." British officials have released surveillance footage of two men they said flew from Russia to Britain using fake passports and then used a nerve agent hidden in a vial of perfume that poisoned Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The Bellingcat investigative website this week published a photograph of someone who looked like one of the men, and whom it identified as Russian military intelligence colonel Anatoliy Chepiga -- challenging the Kremlin account that the two men were civilians in Britain on sightseeing visit. Asked about the Bellingcat report on a regular conference call with reporters on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Many people look alike, but I cannot tell you who this citizen who was pointed out in this investigation is." Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said the two men shown in British surveillance footage near Skripal's home in the English city of Salisbury were civilians and there was nothing criminal about their activity. Asked on Thursday to comment on Putin's words in the light of the new information, Peskov said: "The president said that these people were civilians. Thus, he voiced the information that he had received ... You and I know nothing about these people's past, it is outside our (job) function." He said Russian officials would look into the information brought to light by the Bellingcat report. The man named by Bellingcat, Anatoly Chepiga, has been designated a Hero of the Russian Federation, one of Russia's highest honours, according to the website of the military academy he attended and photographs of a memorial on which his name is inscribed. "We will check the lists of honourees," Peskov said. Sergei Skripal, a Russian ex-spy who leaked secrets to Western intelligence, was found slumped on a public bench in Salisbury on March 4, alongside his daughter, Yulia. They were in a coma for weeks. British officials said they had been poisoned with the Russian-developed "Novichok" nerve agent. They have been discharged from hospital but a local woman, Dawn Sturgess, died after accidental exposure to the agent, British officials said. The Skripal poisoning has deepened Russia's international isolation. Britain accused it of using a military-grade chemical weapon on its soil and Washington, rallying to London's support, has warned it will impose new sanctions on Russia. Moscow has denied any involvement in the Skripal poisoning, saying Western states are gripped by "Russophobia" and that British authorities have failed to produce any evidence. FRANK EXCHANGE British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday he had spoken about the poisoning to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Hunt told Sky News he had a frank exchange of views with Lavrov, and said Russia may be privately regretting its actions. "They paid a very high diplomatic price," he said. In an interview broadcast on Russian state television earlier this month, two Russian men said they were Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov - the aliases Britain said were used by the suspects in the Skripal poisoning. They denied any connection to the poisoning, saying they were friends who worked in the health supplements business and went to Salisbury to see its gothic cathedral. The report by Bellingcat published this week cited what it said was an official Russian passport dossier for Chepiga, which included his photograph. It bore a close resemblance to the man in the British surveillance footage using the name Ruslan Boshirov. According to the Bellingcat report, Chepiga was born in 1979 in a village in the far east of Russia, and studied at the elite Far-Eastern Military Command Academy. It said he served in a special forces brigade under the command of Russian military intelligence, and went on several missions to the Russian region of Chechnya, where Moscow was fighting an Islamist insurgency. It said he received the Hero of Russia award in 2014, the year Russian military intelligence took part in clandestine operations on Ukrainian territory. The citation on his old academy's website did not give any details of why he was given the award. Two European security sources familiar with the Skripal investigation said the details published by Bellingcat were accurate. (Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By John Irish and Arshad Mohammed UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described on Thursday what he said was a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran and accused Europe of appeasing Iran as he sought to rally support for U.S. By John Irish and Arshad Mohammed UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described on Thursday what he said was a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran and accused Europe of appeasing Iran as he sought to rally support for U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu showed an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow and pointed to what he said was a previously secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material. He argued this showed Iran still sought to obtain nuclear weapons, despite its 2015 agreement with world powers to curb its programme in exchange for loosening of sanctions. Netanyahu spoke four-and-a-half months after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord, arguing it did too little to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions and triggering the resumption of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran. Netanyahu said the site contained some 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of radioactive material that has since been moved called on the U.N. atomic agency to inspect the location immediately with Geiger counters. "I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran's secret nuclear programme," Netanyahu said. Iran did not immediately respond to Netanyahu's allegations. He did not identify the material or specifically suggest that Iran had actively violated the nuclear deal. An outspoken opponent of the deal, Netanyahu has previously made allegations about Iran's nuclear activities that are difficult or impossible to verify, including presenting a cartoon bomb to the General Assembly in 2012 warning of how close Tehran was to producing a nuclear device. In April, Netanyahu presented what he said was evidence of a large secret archive of documents related to Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons programme at a different site in Tehran. He said Israeli agents removed vast amounts of documents from that site. At the time, Iran said the documents were fake. In a speech in which he said relatively little about efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said Iran had since begun moving items out of the second site. "Since we raided the atomic archive, they've been busy cleaning out the atomic warehouse. Just last month they removed 15 kilograms of radioactive material. You know what they did with it?" he said. "They took it out and they spread it around Tehran in an effort to hide the evidence." He said Iranian officials still had a lot of work to do because there were some 15 shipping containers full of nuclear-related equipment and materials stored at the second site. "This site contained as much as 300 tonnes - 300 tonnes - of nuclear-related equipment and materiel," he said. Under the nuclear deal struck by Iran and six major powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in return for relief from U.S. and other economic sanctions. The International Atomic Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly said Tehran was abiding by its commitments to the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), including in a document reviewed by Reuters on Aug. 30. France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia have stayed in the pact, vowing to save it despite the restoration of U.S. sanctions and this week discussing a barter mechanism they hope may allow Iran to circumvent the U.S. measures. Netanyahu criticized Europe for doing so in unusually harsh language that evoked European nations' initial failure to confront Nazi Germany in the 1930s. "While the United States is confronting Iran with new sanctions, Europe and others are appeasing Iran by trying to help it bypass those new sanctions," Netanyahu said. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is aware of the facility Netanyahu announced and described it as a "warehouse" used to store "records and archives" from Irans nuclear programme. A second U.S. intelligence official called Netanyahus comments "somewhat misleading. First, we have known about this facility for some time, and its full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminium tubes for centrifuges, and second, so far as anyone knows, there is nothing in it that would allow Iran to break out of the JCPOA any faster than it otherwise could." The Israeli leader also lambasted Iran's ballistic missile activity, identifying three locations near Beirut airport where he said Lebanon's Hezbollah was converting missiles. "In Lebanon, Iran is directing Hezbollah to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles, missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of 10 metres (yards)," he said. The IAEA, Iran and Hezbollah were not immediately available for comment. The Israeli military released a video clip and photos of what it said were Hezbollah Shi'ite militia rocket building sites in Lebanon, shortly after Netanyahu's address. (Reporting by John Irish, Arshad Mohammed, Yara Bayoumy and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Jonathan Landay and John Walcott in Washington, Laila Bassam in Beirut, Francois Murphy in Vienna; Editing by James Dalgleish) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Daniel Dickson and Johan Sennero STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's anti-immigration party - shunned by the political mainstream - insisted on Thursday it would block the formation of a new government unless it gets a say in policy - leaving parliament deadlocked three weeks after a general election. By Daniel Dickson and Johan Sennero STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's anti-immigration party - shunned by the political mainstream - insisted on Thursday it would block the formation of a new government unless it gets a say in policy - leaving parliament deadlocked three weeks after a general election. The Sweden Democrats have grown in popularity since entering parliament in 2010 and hold the balance of power after winning 62 seats in the 349-member house at a Sept. 9 election. They voted with the centre-right, opposition Alliance bloc to sink the government of Social Democrat prime minister Stefan Lofven on Tuesday. But at consultations on forming a new administration on Thursday, said they would not back an Alliance government. "We will not, either actively or passively, support a government that does not give us influence," Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson told reporters after meeting the speaker of parliament, who met all party leaders on Thursday. The speaker, Andreas Norlen, has four attempts at picking a prime minister who can get support from parliament - a process that could take weeks. If he fails there will be a new election within three months. After his meetings, Norlen said he had not asked any potential candidate to try and put together a government yet. "My judgement is that we will probably need one or more rounds ... of discussions with the partly leaders," he told reporters. "They are not all in agreement on how things should proceed." Lofven and Alliance leader Ulf Kristersson are both claiming the right to build a new minority administration. Kristersson said he wanted to form a government consisting of his Moderate party and its Centre, Liberal and Christian Democrat allies. With 143 members of parliament, that grouping is one seat smaller than Lofven's centre-left bloc. The Centre and Liberal parties ruled out such an arrangement unless it was backed by Lofven's Social Democrats. "I do not plan to be a hostage to the Sweden Democrats in a government," Centre Party leader Annie Loof told reporters. Lofven, whose Social Democrats are the biggest party in parliament, is hoping that the Centre and Liberal parties will support him if their only other option is a deal with the Sweden Democrats. But splitting the Alliance would probably consign the centre-right to years in opposition and few parties have fared well after cooperating with the Social Democrats. Support for the Green Party dipped to 4.4 percent at the most recent election, down from 6.9 percent after four years in a coalition with Lofven, their worst result since 1991 when they dropped out of parliament. The Centre party slumped in polls after backing a Social Democrat government in the early 1990s. Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson said he would prefer a government of the Moderates, the biggest Alliance party, and the Christian Democrats, but that they would have to his party a say in policy to get his support. GRAPHIC: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/SWEDEN-ELECTION/0100808Q0J6/SWEDEN-ELECTION%20GOVERNMENT-01.jpg (Additional reporting by Simon Johnson and Johan Ahlander; Writing by Simon Johnson; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trumps accusation of Chinese meddling in upcoming U.S. elections marks a new phase in an escalating pressure campaign against Beijing that Washington is pursuing on multiple fronts, senior U.S. By Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trumps accusation of Chinese meddling in upcoming U.S. elections marks a new phase in an escalating pressure campaign against Beijing that Washington is pursuing on multiple fronts, senior U.S. officials said on Thursday. National security adviser John Bolton, long considered a China hawk, has played a key role in persuading Trump to take a tougher approach toward Beijing that goes beyond the bitter trade war between the worlds two biggest economies and includes disputes such as cyber activities, Taiwan and the South China Sea, two officials told Reuters. While the strategy is still taking shape, the push against China is expected to bring further sharp U.S. rhetoric and unspecified policy actions in coming weeks, according to one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House did not address Reuters questions on these points. Trumps claim at the United Nations on Wednesday that China was trying to sway the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections against his Republican Party to punish him over trade, without offering any evidence, came at time of increasingly tense relations between Washington and Beijing. It also raised questions as to whether Trump was trying to deflect attention from an investigation of his campaigns possible ties to alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and also set up China for the blame if Republicans do poorly in the midterm vote, which will determine whether they keep control of Congress. The senior official insisted, however, there was a growing sense within the White House that Trump needed to issue a high-profile reminder that China was another powerful rival, besides Russia, waging hybrid warfare against U.S. interests. Among recent points of conflict was Washingtons sanctioning of a Chinese military agency and its director for buying fighter jets and a missile system from Russia, in breach of U.S. sanctions on Moscow. Beijing on Saturday summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and postponed joint military talks. 'INCREASED PRESSURE ACROSS THE BOARD' The Trump administration is looking to push back harder against China on several fronts, including so-called political influence operations, an issue on which Trump recently has been given a lot more information in his intelligence briefings, according to the official. We are in a spot where we can start acting with increased pressure across the board, especially because of trade action, the official said. Washington has long identified China as a major culprit in the cyber hacking of U.S. government and corporate databases, but U.S. officials and independent analysts say they have not detected the kind of systematic political campaign, including manipulation of social media, that Russia is alleged to have conducted during the 2016 election. China has strongly denied any effort to interfere in the U.S. elections, calling such accusations slander. On Wednesday, the only specific action by China that Trump cited was that it was "placing propaganda ads" in U.S. newspapers, referring to a Chinese government-run media company's four-page supplement in the Sunday Des Moines Register promoting the mutual benefits of U.S.-China trade. Iowa, which voted for Trump in 2016, is a state whose farmers face damage from any protracted trade war, which has already featured billions of dollars in tit-for-tax tariffs. However, the practice of foreign governments buying space in U.S. newspapers to promote trade is common and differs from a clandestine operation run by a national intelligence agency. "The Chinese government uses all kinds of methods to try to get us to turn back our policies," a White House National Security Council spokesman said when asked for comment. "They are targeting tariffs and retaliation at farmers and workers in states and districts that voted for President Trump, and they are using other political, economic, commercial, military, and media tools to benefit the interests of the Chinese Communist Party." The Trump administration appears determined to push back more broadly, even at the risk of a harsh response from Beijing. Washington, for instance, is considering tougher action against Chinese cyber theft and cyber espionage, the U.S. official said, but declined to provide details. Earlier this week, the U.S. military showed it was willing to continue bucking Chinas claim to the disputed South China Sea when it flew B-52 bombers over the strategic waterway, China was angered this week when the United States approved the sale of spare parts for F-16 fighter planes and other military aircraft worth up to $330 million to Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province. U.S. officials, meanwhile, are increasingly concerned that China is no longer fully enforcing some sanctions on North Korea, and say they intend to keep up pressure in this area. But some analysts questioned the wisdom of going too far. Friction and leverage can be useful tools in international relations if used judiciously, particularly in response to problematic behaviour like Chinas, said Daniel Russel of the Asia Society Policy Institute, who was until last year the State Department's top diplomat for East Asia. But an aggressive, frontal assault across sectors is unlikely to succeed, particularly against a country as large and powerful as China, he said. (Reporting By Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom, additional reporting by John Walcott and Jonathan Landay; editing by Clive McKeef) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Pompeo said the UN has evidence that UN sanctions, particularly those restricting North Korean oil imports and coal exports, are being violated and he demanded that UN members ensure they are respected. United Nations: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the world stands at the "dawn of a new day" in relations with North Korea but that international sanctions must remain in place, and vigorously enforced if diplomatic efforts to get the country to denuclearise are to succeed a position that faces resistance from China and Russia. Chairing a special session of the UN Security Council, Pompeo said President Donald Trump's diplomatic breakthrough with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has led to a point where the nuclear threat from the country can be resolved. But the "unprecedented diplomatic opening" would close unless the pressure from sanctions is kept up. "Until the final denuclearisation of the DPRK is achieved and fully verified, it is our solemn collective responsibility to fully implement all UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to North Korea," he said, using the initials for the country's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Pompeo said the UN has evidence that UN sanctions, particularly those restricting North Korean oil imports and coal exports, are being violated and he demanded that UN members ensure they are respected. "Enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realise final, fully verified denuclearisation," Pompeo said. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, whose country is North Korea's main ally, agreed that the sanctions "remain valid," but he said the resolutions provide for them to be modified based on North Korea's compliance and the council should consider doing so. "China believes that the Security Council may consider invoking in due course this provision in order to encourage (North Korea) and other relevant parties to move denuclearisation further ahead," he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow believes that certain sanctions, unrelated to the nuclear program, should also be eased. China and Russia also said they share with North and South Korea a desire to produce a document that would declare an end to the Korean War, which ended with an armistice and not a formal peace treaty. The Trump administration has balked at signing such a declaration without significant progress on denuclearisation, such as North Korea submitting a complete inventory of its nuclear and ballistic missile facilities that could be used by international inspectors to verify they have been dismantled. Pompeo, who met on Wednesday with North Korea's foreign minister, will make a third trip to North Korea next month to set the stage for a second summit between Kim and Trump, who met in Singapore in June. Trump, Pompeo and other US officials have repeatedly reported progress in the denuclearisation discussions with the North, but there has been little visible evidence of that to date. By Lawrence Hurley, Andrew Chung and Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fighting to salvage his U.S. By Lawrence Hurley, Andrew Chung and Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fighting to salvage his U.S. Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh angrily and tearfully denied on Thursday a university professor's accusation that he sexually assaulted her 36 years ago and complained about a "political hit" after she told a dramatic Senate hearing she was "100 percent certain" he did it. Christine Blasey Ford, her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, appeared in public for the first time to detail her allegation against Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge chosen by President Donald Trump for a lifetime job on the top U.S. court. Ford told the committee she feared Kavanaugh would rape and accidentally kill her during the alleged assault when both her high school students in Maryland. Kavanaugh testified after Ford finished her appearance, and they were never in the hearing room together. "I swear today, under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge," Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee. The clash pitted her word against his. Members of the Senate, controlled 51-49 by Trump's fellow Republicans, must now decide whether to vote to confirm him after the extraordinary nearly nine-hour-long hearing. Senate Republicans planned to meet on Thursday night to discuss the next steps on the nomination. Calling himself a victim of "grotesque and obvious character assassination," Kavanaugh, speaking passionately, said he "unequivocally and categorically" denied Ford's allegation. "I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process," Kavanaugh added. Writing on Twitter after the hearing, Trump said of Kavanaugh, "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" Kavanaugh at times choked back tears, especially when he mentioned that his daughter suggested they pray for Ford, when he spoke of his father and when he mentioned women friends who have rallied to support him. Kavanaugh sharply attacked Democratic senators, calling himself the victim of "a calculated and orchestrated political hit" fuelled by anger on the left at Trump's 2016 election win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, his conservative judicial record and revenge on behalf of Clinton and her husband Bill. Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, said over four hours of testimony that a drunken Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a gathering of teenagers when he was 17 years old and she was 15 in 1982. The hearing, which has riveted Americans and intensified the political polarization in the United States, occurred against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault. "With what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you?" Democratic Senator Richard Durbin asked Ford. "One hundred percent," she replied, remaining firm and unruffled through hours of testimony even under questioning by a sex crimes prosecutor hired by the committee's Republicans. For his part, Kavanaugh testified he was "100 percent certain" none of the alleged incidents of sexual misconduct occurred. Ford said "absolutely not" when Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her if it could be a case of mistaken identity, as Kavanaugh has suggested. Democrats lauded Ford's testimony as credible, brave and, in the words of Senator Cory Booker, "nothing short of heroic." "I want to thank you for your courage. And I want to tell you I believe you. ... And I believe many Americans across the country believe you," Democratic Senator Kamala Harris said. While some Republicans and Trump have called the allegations by Ford and the two other women part of a smear campaign, Ford told the committee she had no political motivation, adding, "I am an independent person and I am no pawn." Ford was seated at a table in the packed hearing room flanked by her lawyers, facing a bank of senators. Cameras from news photographers clicked as she entered the room and took her seat, smiling nervously. Ford told the senators she was "terrified" to testify but felt it was her civic duty come forward. "Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was very inebriated and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothing. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help," Ford said, adding that Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were "drunkenly laughing during the attack." Democratic senators sought to score political points during their five minutes apiece of questioning Ford. The panel's Republican senators, all men, did not question her, assigning that task to Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor. While Mitchell sought to probe Ford's account including any gaps in her story, her questioning seemed disjointed. She took turns with the Democratic senators to ask questions in five minute segments, disrupting her flow. During Kavanaugh's testimony, Republican senators ditched Mitchell and asked their own questions. The controversy has unfolded just weeks ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to seize control of Congress from the Republicans. Kavanaugh's confirmation would cement conservative control of the high court as Trump moves to shift it and the broader federal judiciary to the right. 'VICIOUS AND FALSE' Kavanaugh, sitting alone at the witness table, said he wanted to testify as soon as Ford's allegation first emerged last week and was not surprised that other allegations followed. "In those 10 long days, as was predictable and as I predicted, my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations." The delay in scheduling a hearing "has been horrible to me and my family, to the Supreme Court and to the country," Kavanaugh said. Looking sombre, Kavanaugh was accompanied by his wife as he entered the hearing room. A handful of moderate Republican senators who have not announced whether or not they support Kavanaugh could determine his fate. One of them, Senator Lisa Murkowski, told Reuters: "I find Dr. Ford's testimony to be credible." The committee could vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation on Friday, with a final Senate vote early next week. Kavanaugh repeatedly tangled with Democratic senators, interrupting several of them, including Dianne Feinstein and Amy Klobuchar, during testy exchanges. When Klobuchar asked him about his teenage drinking, he threw the question back at her, asking her whether she had ever been blackout drunk. He later apologised for the question. Kavanaugh was careful not to denounce Ford, noting that he wished her "no ill will." He said that he was not questioning that Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time, but that he had never assaulted her or anyone. Some Democrats have called on Kavanaugh to withdraw in light of the allegations. At the hearing, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham castigated Democratic senators, seeking to rally Republicans not to abandon the nominee. "This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics," Graham said, adding that voting against Kavanaugh would legitimize the attacks on the nominee. Ford said Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming during the assault, adding, "This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me." Her strongest memory of the incident, Ford said, was the "uproarious laughter between the two (Kavanaugh and Judge) and their having fun at my expense." She said the laughter has haunted her ever since. Two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in the 1980s. Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself during a drunken dormitory party during the 1983-84 academic year when both attended Yale University. Swetnick said she witnessed efforts by Kavanaugh and others to get girls drunk at parties so they could be raped. She said Kavanaugh was present at a 1982 party where she was raped. Trump, who has himself faced accusations of sexual misconduct, chose Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired effective in July. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Andrew Chung, Amanda Becker, Richard Cowan, Makini Brice, Steve Holland, David Morgan and Susan Heavey; Editing by Will Dunham) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Finnish holdings firm MPH Technologies has filed a fresh lawsuit on Apple in federal court accusing the company of patent-infringing with products including iMessage and FaceTime. MPH Technologies attempted to license its IP to Apple in 2016. The lawsuit is being filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The firm filed the lawsuit asserting eight patents relating to secure messaging solutions, targeting existing Apple software and services. This specially infringes on IP related to sending and forwarding messages over a secure connection. The lawsuit includes iMessage, FaceTime and Apples always-on VPN feature, the latter being a mobile device management (MDM) solution marketed to corporations and educational institutions. According to MPH, Apple has implemented the protected tech in devices running macOS, iOS and watchOS without authorization. MPH claims that it has informed Apple about the patent infringement in a series of emails back in July 2016, this lead to a telephonic conversation with Apples patent acquisitions executive. This later is followed by a letter in October 2016 detailing the applicability of MPHs patents and introduced Apple to a pending patent that was later granted. Months after reviewing MPHs documents, Apple sent a letter containing conclusory statements, saying it did not believe a license is required, as the asserted patents are not infringed and/or invalid as MPH appears to be interpreting the claims. MPH and Apple representatives proceeded with the matter further leading to multiple teleconference sessions in May 2017 regarding a potential licensing agreement. Apple counsel in one of these telephonic conversations said that the company was preparing an analysis of MPHs patents demonstrating the IP was invalid based on prior art. However, the analysis was never delivered. The direct communications between the two companies seemingly ended in July 2017, with MPH notifying Apple of two patent grants and Apple acknowledging the message with a brief reply. Again in July, patent risk management entity RPX, of which Apple was an early member, reached out to MPH to discuss the issue. MPH believes the move was on behalf of and for the benefit of Apple, but fails to provide evidence of the tech giants involvement. Cut to the chase, MPH seeks undetermined compensation for infringement and a permanent injunction that will further prohibit the use of the eight patents. Source The various bus types and officials at the unveiling. Saudi Arabias Arriyadh Development Authority has unveiled the buses that will form the bus network of the Riyadh Public Transport Network. This follows a meeting of the High Committee of King Abdul Aziz Public Transit Project chaired by HRH Prince Faisal Bin Bandar Bin Abdul Aziz, the chairman of the Council of the Arriyadh Development Authority. The first few buses are undergoing testing, and more vehicles are being delivered. Bus services will commence later in 2019, a statement said. In total, the initial Riyadh bus system will operate with 842 buses. The vehicles specifications are as follows: MAN -Lions City 10.5m length; 65 passengers capacity; 2 doors; and fleet size - 242; Mercedes - Citaro - 12m length; 70 passengers capacity; 3 doors; and fleet size - 179; and Mercedes - Citaro G - 18m length; 110 passengers capacity; 4 doors; and fleet size 421. The buses have air conditioning which has been specially modified to operate with the extreme heat of the Riyadh summer. The buses meet Euro 5 emission standards and offer on-board free wifi for customers. All buses are fully wheelchair accessible and incorporate air suspension for a smooth ride. In addition, interior and exterior design complements the design of the Metro trains. The bus network is comprehensive with 2,860 bus stations and stops. Facilities at stops and stations vary according to usage with four different types of bus shelters. A replica of one of the air-conditioned bus shelters can be seen by visitors to the Riyadh Public Transit Visitor Center. Three different types of bus route will be operated: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) fully segregated bus routes - three lines covering 103 km route length; Community lines 19 lines covering 910 km route length; and Feeder lines primarily to link local communities to the Metro 58 lines covering 892 km route length. Deployment of bus infrastructure (stops and shelters) is being done in parallel with BRT construction and is ongoing at 650 sites across Riyadh, the statement said. The bus system will be closely integrated with the Riyadh Metro, enabling citizens to travel quickly, safely and cheaply across the city. This will improve connectivity between residential, commercial and industrial parts of Riyadh, it said. - TradeArabia News Service A battle is brewing in Washington, D.C., over White House plans to add a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces. There's sure to be opportunities that arise out of the proposal, but investors need to be careful not to get too caught up in excitement over eye-popping spending plans for the new service. The Pentagon by some estimates will have to spend upward of $13 billion just to get Space Force up and running. The math behind that amount is debatable, as is what will become of the White House proposal. The underlying trends driving the idea of Space Force, however, should withstand the debate. Here's a look at where Space Force stands, and what the proposal tells us about the Pentagon's spending priorities. A budget-busting bureaucracy? The Air Force, in a Sept. 14 Air Force memo obtained by Defense One, said the stand up costs of a new Space Force branch would be $12.9 billion over five years. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, writing to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, said the cost projection is based on a force of about 13,000, including 2,400 at a newly constructed headquarters. Wilson and the Air Force are on the defensive, as the Air Force is where much of the Pentagon's space activities currently reside. Today the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in southern California oversees about 85% of Department of Defense space procurement, overseeing satellite acquisition and launches. In an interview with CNBC Wilson said the Air Force is committed to supporting the White House's goal of establishing a separate branch, but did note that considerable work is already being done without the cost of a new agency. The Air Force "has a lot of authorities now" to invest in space," she said, adding "we don't have to wait" for Space Force to be established. Skeptics outside of the Pentagon have questioned the Air Force's projections, which could be viewed as an attempt to derail the White House Space Force plan. Todd Harrison, director of budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., during a Sept. 20 news conference called the $13 billion figure "the highest estimate I think you could possibly come up with," noting it assumes building all new infrastructure and hiring a massive support staff on day one. The industry wins either way The Space Force debate is largely a political one, and it's impossible to say with any certainty what an eventual Space Force would look like. Fortunately for investors, the only real certainty in this debate is that the Pentagon, via some agency or branch, is going to be investing heavily in space. As Wilson said, the Air Force today has the authority, and the willingness, to spend. The fiscal 2019 Pentagon budget includes $9.3 billion for space programs, a jump from $7.8 billion in 2018. Throw in what is very likely a substantial sum of space-related business contained within the classified budget, and space is clearly a growth area. The companies best in position to take advantage of this trend are Boeing (NYSE:BA), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), Harris (NYSE:LHX), and Raytheon (NYSE:RTN). Boeing and Lockheed work together as the United Launch Alliance, competing against Elon Musk's SpaceX and Northrop to launch new gear into orbit, and also make a range of satellites and high-tech aircraft that travel into the upper levels of the atmosphere and beyond. Northrop recently bet big on space via its $9.2 billion deal for Orbital ATK, while Harris and Raytheon make a lot of the sensors and electronics that go into highly classified satellites. Part of the Pentagon's goal in establishing a separate Space Force is to speed the development, acquisition, and launch of military hardware. That push is likely to survive whatever becomes of the Space Force debate to the benefit of contractors. Space is a differentiator After a few years of steady growth, the Pentagon budget is expected to be flat in 2020. Government officials hope to cut costs to keep procurement levels rising, but chances are there are going to be winners and losers among big-ticket programs. Space-related programs are likely to survive budget battles, and investors should expect contractors with significant exposure to space to hold up better in a more difficult budgeting climate. Space exposure alone isn't a reason to buy into any stock, but it is a reason to have confidence that investments in companies that are already going strong -- a list that includes Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Harris -- will hold up even if Pentagon spending ebbs. Space is essential to national security, but also very expensive and complicated to master. Investors can ignore the turf battle and headline cost figures and come out on top no matter whether Wilson or the White House sees their vision become reality. Rowan, a global provider of offshore contract drilling services provider, said that Rowan Norway, an N-Class ultra-harsh environment jack-up rig, has been awarded a two-well contract in the Mediterranean Sea by Turkish Petroleum. The contract, expected to commence in late 2018, is for estimated duration of 100-140 days. The Rowan Norway is currently warm-stacked in the UK sector of the North Sea. Rowan has a fleet of 27 mobile offshore drilling units, composed of 23 self-elevating jack-up rigs and four ultra-deepwater drillships. The company's fleet operates worldwide, including the United States Gulf of Mexico, the UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea, the Middle East, the Mediterranean Sea, and Trinidad. Additionally, the Company is a 50/50 partner in a joint venture with Saudi Aramco, entitled ARO Drilling that owns a fleet of five self-elevating jack-up rigs that operate in the Arabian Gulf. - TradeArabia News Service Funds Advised By Apax Partners Acquire Authority Brands September 24, 2018 // Franchising.com // New York and Columbia, Maryland - Funds advised by Apax Partners (the Apax Funds") today announced the acquisition of Authority Brands, a leading North American franchisor of home services, from PNC Riverarch Capital. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, Authority Brands is the parent company of two home services franchisors: The Cleaning Authority, which provides residential cleaning services to over 100,000 customers across the U.S.; and Homewatch CareGivers, which delivers at-home services including elderly, disabled and after-surgery care, as well as help for those living with dementia. Authority Brands operates over 300 franchises in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, supporting them to grow through the provision of marketing, technology and operational support. The acquisition by the Apax Funds will help the company accelerate its growth, both organically and through strategic acquisitions, as it looks to expand internationally and offer additional services. It also presents digitization opportunities as Apax intends to leverage its significant experience in this area to help Authority Brands provide enhanced software, digital marketing and systems to support its franchise partners. Under the terms of the acquisition, Authority Brands management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Rob Weddle, will remain in place. Rob Weddle, CEO of Authority Brands, said: We are very excited about the experience and depth the Apax team brings to this new partnership. Authority Brands has a vision to become the leading franchisor of home services by providing unparalleled business ownership opportunity to its franchisees and delivering first-class service to consumers. We are confident Apax shares in this vision and expect a bright future for Authority Brands. Ashish Karandikar, Partner at Apax Partners, said: We have been attracted to the home services market for some time, due to its size, fragmentation and attractive growth rate. We have been impressed by Authority Brands established franchise network, experienced management, and strong track record of growth. We look forward to working with management and all franchise partners to accelerate growth, both organically and through M&A, as well as to leverage Apaxs significant experience in international expansion and digitization. About Authority Brands Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, Authority Brands, LLC is the parent company of two leading home service franchisors, The Cleaning Authority and Homewatch CareGivers. Together, these brands provide recurring home services through more than 300 franchise locations in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Authority Brands is dedicated to supporting individual franchisee growth through providing strong marketing, technology and operational support. About Apax Partners Apax Partners is a leading global private equity advisory firm. Over its more than 35-year history, Apax Partners has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of over $50 billion. The Apax Funds invest in companies across four global sectors of Tech & Telco, Services, Healthcare and Consumer. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. For more information see: www.apax.com. SOURCE Authority Brands ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Residents and travellers in Dubai longing for the culinary flavours of Sicily can head to the Gusto Italian Restaurant at Rotana Al Bandar where Chef Fortunato Leocata is serving up an exciting menu. Chef Leocata combines the countrys rich gastronomic traditions and recipes with fresh seasonal ingredients brought in from Italy as well as the best fish markets in Dubai. Guests can treat themselves to a menu comprising dishes including Arancini, Polpette, Ravioli, Casarecci, Stewed Baccala Sardine alla Siciliana, and Lamb Aggrassato among others. Top off the entire experience in true Sicilian style as well with desserts such as Sicilian Cassata and Cannoli. Take a pick from an a la carte menu or opt for the tasting menu paired beautifully with a glass of Sicilian grape. Guests can enjoy the special menu until September 30. - TradeArabia News Service Bahrain's new hospitality management college, "Vatel", was officially inaugurated by the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani, on September 27, on occasion of World Tourism Day. The opening ceremony was attended by the chief executive officer of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa, and key officials including the Ambassador of France to Bahrain, Cecile Longe, GCC Ambassadors and parents of the admitted students. The launch of Vatel Bahrain represents a cornerstone in the development of the kingdoms hospitality sector. The BTEA, in collaboration with Vatel Group, aims to train the national workforce in accordance to international standards, as well as provide students with the qualifications required in order to obtain job opportunities, said Al Zayani. We are delighted to announce the launch of Vatel School which will provide students with comprehensive learning experiences through its four-year academic programme. Students will be matched with jobs that meet their academic qualifications to utilise their expertise and knowledge, said Shaikh Khaled. We are proud of this collaboration with Vatel Group which comes in line with the BTEAs strategy to further develop the skills of nationals within the hospitality and tourism sector, further contributing to boosting the national economy in line with the kingdoms 2030 Economic Vision, he added. Vatel currently has 29 schools, 7,000 students and over 29,000 alumni who are a living proof of the success of its unique teaching concept, further positioning the school as the first worldwide Business School Group in Hospitality and Tourism Management. The first Vatel School opened in Paris with a unique and fundamental educational method: having theoretical courses followed by a professional experience using what had been learned in class. Each Vatel School has a restaurant or hotel on the campus where students could test their knowledge through professional application with customers. Students who wish to enrol at Vatel School can visit the college website. - TradeArabia News Service The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday delved into the details of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaughs high school years, with Christine Blasey Ford detailing her allegations that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her at a party when both were high school students, and Kavanaugh strongly denying her account. Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes, Ford said about Kavanaughs alleged behavior at a house party they attended in 1982. He had a hard time because he was very inebriated, and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit underneath my clothes. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling. This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. Kavanaugh, who is President Donald Trumps pick for the high court, appeared later Thursday and strongly denied the allegations. Im here today to tell the truth, Kavanaugh said in an emotional and defiant opening statement. Ive never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever. The showdown came after two weeks of public debate and political wrangling over the allegations by Ford, as well as additional women who have alleged sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, either at high school parties or while he was an undergraduate at Yale University. Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge in Washington, has denied those allegations as well. Ford testified that in 1982 she was a 15-year-old student at the Holton-Arms School, an independent all-girls school in Bethesda, Md., who was in a social circle with boys from such nearby all-boys schools as the Landon School and Georgetown Preparatory School, the Jesuit high school where Kavanaugh had completed his junior year that summer During my freshman and sophomore school years, when I was 14 and 15 years old, my group of friends intersected with Brett and his friends for a short period of time, Ford said. I had been friendly with a classmate of Bretts for a short time during my freshman and sophomore year, and it was through that connection that I attended a number of parties that Brett also attended. We did not know each other well, but I knew him and he knew me. Ford, now a 51-year-old research psychologist at Palo Alto University in Palo Alto, Calif., described in detail the alleged assault and said she was 100 percent certain it was Kavanaugh. The nominee later said that he and his Georgetown Prep friends typically socialized with girls from nearby Catholic all-girls schools, and that he did not travel in the same social circles as Ford. It is possible that we met at some point at some events, although I do not recall that, Kavanaugh said. Kavanaugh himself brought up his Georgetown Prep senior yearbook entry, which has drawn scrutiny for references to the Beach Week Ralph Club and other items that have raised questions about alcohol use and other behavior. I doubt were alone in looking back at high school and cringing at some things, Kavanaugh said in his opening statement. For one thing, our yearbook was a disaster. I think some editors and students wanted the yearbook to be some combination of Animal House, Caddyshack and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which were all recent movies in that time. But he grew angry when Democratic senators asked him about some of the yearbook entries. If we want to sit here and talk about whether a high school yearbook page decides a Supreme Court nomination, that takes us to a new level of absurdity, Kavanaugh said. The hearing was continuing late Thursday afternoon. Photo: Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27 in Washington. Her attorneys Debra Katz and Michael Bromwich watch. --Win McNamee/Pool Image via AP By Imran Inamdar, TwoCircles.net Calligraphy is one of the many arts that has been on the decline in the modern age: with people not even using pen and paper these days, the art of calligraphy has few takers, or at least that is what the image around calligraphy has been. But in Bhiwandi, a city in Thane district, a medical practitioner is working hard to ensure that the future generations both treasure and learn the art of Urdu Calligraphy. Dr.Rehan Ansari has been conducting weekend Urdu Calligraphy (Khattati) classes for the past many months at a local school for the benefit of all. Dr Ansari, who is a calligraphy expert and has been practising it since his school days, says that his classes have been met with an enthusiastic response from students of all age groups and professions. In a conversation with TwoCircles.net, Dr Rehan says that these classes are at an attempt to save the script. In an interesting observation, he says, This art has helped me a lot in being a doctor. Observing the words, the art of turning the hand and setting words in a proper shape is a unique art which is called calligraphy and it needs sincere efforts. I regularly use a blackboard as a teaching aid to draw letters and explain the various aspects of calligraphy. The one thing that sets Dr Rehan apart from other people is he disagrees to the statement that calligraphy is a dying art form. In Bhiwandi, Hyderabad and other cities of India, calligraphers exist and extend their services. Nowadays, social media is also playing a favourable role in promoting this and expanding the market. It would be wrong to expect hundreds of calligraphers; one or two are enough for the amount of work that exists, he says. To add to his point, He further told Twocircles.net that India will be hosting the International calligraphy conference of Urdu, Arabic and Persian on October 22 and 23 in Jaipur, which will see delegates of about 50 countries participate in the event. Talking about his teaching methods, Dr Rehan says he provides beginners with the Reed Pen (Baru Qalam), which is a well-known tool in the world of Urdu and Arabic Calligraphy. Sajida Jamal, a teacher and an Urdu story writer, shared her experience with TwoCircles.net. This is really a good opportunity for me to improve my writing skillit is a skill that helps everyone and I believe it makes a person love the language a little more and appreciate the art of writing a lot better. Another student of Dr Rehan, Fahim Bari, who is a lecturer at the local commerce college, was full of praise for the classes. This is our literary and cultural assetits promotion and progress can only be possible when we protect it and reach more and more people. Dr Rehan is the creator of the famous Faiz Nastaliq font and his classes are doing a lot to help us fall in love with the language again. By TCN News: National Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination based on Caste (Work and Descent) was organized on 27th September in Constitution Club to bring together Dalit leaders, Parliamentarians and activists across the nation and other South Asian countries to address the challenges in the implementation and continuous attempts to dilute the provisions of the SCs and STs (PoA) Act. Dr Ramesh Nathan, National Convener, NCSPA delivered the welcome speech in which he mentioned that attempts are being made to dilute the SC/SST (PoA) Act because the implementation of the Act is very poor. Support TwoCircles The supreme court in its verdict of 20th march diluted the SCs and STs (PoA) Act and protests were carried out 2nd April. But the police unleashed excessive force to suppress the protests organised during the Bharat Bandh. Several protesters were injured and killed in several parts of the country including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha, Andhra Pradesh. Thereafter NCDHR has put a lot of effort to restore its original provisions. NCDHR filed review petition and did continuous advocacy to restore the original provisions of the Act. And now amidst so many challenges the banning of the use of the word Dalit by media has been another setback to Dalit movement . Shri. P.S. Krishnan IAS, Former Secretary to the Government of India & Chief Advisor, NCSPA, delivered his opening speech with an introduction to the background of the amendment to the SCs and STs (PoA) Act. He mentioned that there has been resentment among the Dalit and Adivasis community against the government because of continuous attempt to dilute the Act. Other prominent dignitaries were Ms. Meenakshi Natrajan, Former M.P, Indian National Congress, M.P, Ram Lakhan Chamar, Member of Parliament, Nepal, Mr. Jai Singh, Dalit Dasta Virodhi Manch, Dr K. Krishnan, D. Raja, M.P, Communist Party of India, Delhi Dr. Thol. Thirumavalavan, Former M.P President, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Tamil Nadu and the 17 Survivors and the family members of those died during the April 02, 2018 Bharat Bandh from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for protesting against the Supreme Court order of March 20 2018 diluting the SCs and STs (PoA) Act. These 17 survivors and martyrs were conferred Dr B.R Ambedkar National Award 2018 for their contribution in restoring the original form of the Act. All the speakers focussed on the challenges in implementing the SC/ ST (PoA) Act and their continuous consistent efforts to ensure that the Act is restored. The silence of the president of India who is supposed to be the protector of the constitution was also questioned. Later more discussion ensued on Untouchability Free South Asia. Delegates and Parliamentarians from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka participated in the convention to discuss on the status of legal framework in their respective countries and inclusion of caste perspective in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals. Other important delegates were Paul Divakar, Chairperson ,ADRF, Mr. Wilson Bezwada, National Convener, Safai Karamchari Andolan, Ms. Durga Sob, Co-Chairperson ADRF & Director, Feminist Dalit Organization, Nepal and Mr. Bhakta Biswakarma, Director, Dalit NGO Federation, Ms. Rineeta Naik, Social Inclusion Specialist, UN Resident Coordinator, India , Ms. Vimal Thorat, National Convener, NCDHR, Ms. Annie Namala, Director, Centre for Social Equity and Inclusion and Mr. Siva Pragasham, Director, Human Development Organization, Srilanka. After fruitful discussions the delegates from India and other South Asian countries came up with the following demands: Justice to the 17 survivors and those who died during the protest organized on 2nd April Bharat Band and arrest of the accused. The Central and State governments should ensure proper implementation of the SCs and STs POA Amended Act 2018 including establishment of Exclusive Special Courts and appointment of Special Public Prosecutors The government authorities to provide special protection to the SCs and STs communities in declared atrocity prone regions Supreme Court should take cognizance of the ground situations of historical injustice to the Dalits and Adivasis Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to withdraw the circular banning to the use the word Dalit by the Media and recognize the term as a self-empowering and unifying identity; and not to further degrade the term The legal protection enforcement authorities should recognize the wide spread existence of untouchability practiced against Dalits The Authorities to take into account caste perspectives while implementing SDGs UN Guidelines on Elimination of Discrimination based on Work and Descent should be ratified and be implemented in true spirit by South Asian countries including India Peter Davis is chief of the Galveston Island Beach Patrol. The views in this column are Davis and do not necessarily represent those of the Beach Patrol, Galveston Park Board of Trustees or any other entity. We talk to All Blacks pitch invader 'Jarvo 69' He's invaded a few pitches over the years, but this weekend's effort was his best yet as he tells Lee & Tammy all about it. Fresh off his performance this weekend here in little ol' NZ (and surprising us by dropping in to the office!), Skrillex has a killer NYE lineup coming up. But it seems he's planning even more festie performances into 2019, with the lineup leaked for Lollapalooza Argentina - and Skrillex is the headliner. On the ticketing website Stubhub, when searching for 'Skrillex' events, Lollapalooza appears. It hasn't been officially announced, but this wouldn't be the first time the site has leaked a lineup... Check out the vid of Skrill performing at Lollapalooza last year to see what Argentina may be in for. Looks bloody hectic! Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next. Government launches new app DigiVAARTA to increase awareness on digital payments News oi-Priyanka Dua The initial phase of DIGIVAARTA will help and promote learning in digital payments and empower users to draw content on topics as per their choice. To increase awareness on digital payments, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad today announced the launch of "DigiVAARTA app based on SAMWAD platform. The initial phase of DIGIVAARTA will help and promote learning in digital payments and empower users to draw content on topics as per their choice. The new app will initially be in Hindi and English languages and engage with users through multiple channels - over Mobile App, SMS and OBD (Outbound Dialler). DigiVAARTA is an easy way to educate citizens on the use of digital tools for banking and payments," said Prasad. He was speaking at the inauguration of the NIC Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics in Delhi, which also saw the launch of the initial phase of the DigiVAARTA programme in Delhi and is focussed on increasing awareness on digital payments. The app focuses on to increase awareness and familiarity of individuals on various financial products and services and to educate the unbanked and under-banked individuals, SAMWAD provides enabling engagement across multiple channels in the form of stories, images, and videos in any chosen language. Krishnan Dharmarajan, Executive Director, CDFI said, "We learned from a pilot in rural Karnataka, that while the poor were happy to engage on the platform, they were worried about the money that was getting deducted as SMS charges. So MeitY decided that such exchanges be kept toll-free so that people could engage, learn and get empowered at zero cost." 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 Police busts robbery ring responsible for stolen Apple products worth $1 million News oi-Vishal Kawadkar Police arrest 17 people who allegedly were a part of these robberies. Calfornia seems to be cracking down on thieves who enter Apple stores during the opening hours and run away with as many devices as possible. This week the police arrested and charged 17 people who allegedly were a part of these robberies at Apple Stores across 19 of the state's counties, the SF Gate reports. These thieves steal iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, MacBooks, and pretty much everything they can grab from the store, making the losses reach up to $1 million for the Cupertino-based company. California Attorney General Xavier Beccera issued a statement on the matter saying: "Organized retail thefts cost California business owners millions and expose them to copycat criminals," Beccera said in the statement. "Ultimately, consumers pay the cost of this merchandise hijacking. We will continue our work with local law enforcement authorities to extinguish this mob mentality and prosecute these criminals to hold them accountable." The arrests were made on the basis of the investigation that involved many law enforcement agencies across California. Although the exact number of robberies at Apple stores hasn't been revealed, a local news outlet claims there were 21 in the last five months across the state, with some stores facing multiple hits. The thieves reportedly wear hoodies to hide their faces from security cameras and witnesses, they enter the store in large numbers, snatch the products from the display tables and run away. Such heists are often over in a matter of seconds. Apple would be relieved to find out that the robbery ring was busted. The company recently announced its much-anticipated iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR in their respective variants. The company has also launched its Apple Watch Series 4, which is a promising gadget with all newer features. These products are exceptionally well in terms of high-grade design and spectacular features. The iPhone XS comes with an edge-to-edge screen with almost a bezel-less screen. Its camera will be an improvised version with a TrueDepth camera system that supports Face ID. Designed with the most spectacular technology, the latest smartphone by Apple is undoubtedly the most awaited mobile of the year 2018. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Russia to look into new claims on UK poisoning suspects Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 07:06PM Russian authorities say they will investigate claims in the British media that one of the two men accused of a poisoning attack on a double spy in southern England in March was a Russian colonel. Kremlin spokesman Demitry Peskov said Thursday that Moscow will investigate reports that Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, an alleged Russian military officer, posed as Ruslan Boshirov when he entered Britain earlier this year to allegedly carry out a nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. "Many people look alike, but I cannot tell you who this citizen who was pointed out in this investigation is," said Peskov. He said that Moscow will check claims that Chepiga, 39, had been an honoree of Russian Federation by decree of President Vladimir Putin in 2014 after serving in wars in Chechnya and Ukraine. The Daily Telegraph and the BBC on Wednesday published reports citing evidences by Bellingcat, a website that covers intelligence matters, reiterating British government claims that Boshirov and Alexander Petrov had used fake passports to travel to Britain and carry out the attack on the orders of the Russian government. Russia has denied any involvement in the alleged attack, saying the whole story is a fabrication by the British intelligence services to pile more pressure on Russia amid deteriorating relations between Moscow and the West. Boshirov and Petrov surfaced in an interview two weeks ago to the Russian news channel RT in which they said they were in Britain in March solely for tourism purposes. The interview came after Putin said the two were civilians and had been wrongly accused. Peskov told reporters that Putin's designation of the two as civilians were based on current facts and not what they had been up in the past. "The president said that these people were civilians. Thus, he voiced the information that he had received ... You and I know nothing about these people's past, it is outside our (job) function," said the Russian official. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Complete Nonsense': How Russia Is Countering A New Report On The Salisbury Poisoning Suspect Carl Schreck September 27, 2018 The Russian government and media are casting doubt on a new report claiming to reveal the true identity of a Russian man Britain accuses of the nerve-agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in southern England. The September 26 report by the investigative website Bellingcat and its Russian partner, The Insider, claims to have conclusively demonstrated that the poisoning suspect known publicly as "Ruslan Boshirov" is, in fact, a decorated colonel in the Russian military whose real name is Anatoly Chepiga. Russia has repeatedly denied and mocked British allegations that it is responsible for the March poisoning of Skripal and his daughter with the Soviet-developed toxin Novichok in the city of Salisbury. Earlier this month, Britain announced charges against the man known as Boshirov and his associate, known as "Aleksandr Petrov." Both men publicly acknowledged being in Salisbury at the time of the poisoning but said they had arrived as tourists -- a claim that British Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman called "an insult to the public's intelligence." British officials have not publicly confirmed the details in the September 26 report by Bellingcat and The Insider, though Reuters cited two unidentified "European security sources" familiar with the investigation into the Skripal poisoning as saying that they were accurate. British Defense Minister Gavin Williamson, meanwhile, said on Twitter following the report that the "true identity of one of the Salisbury suspects has been revealed to be a Russian colonel" but subsequently deleted the tweet without explanation. Here's a look at how Moscow has dismissed the alleged revelation of the poisoning suspect's true identity -- and how Russian media outlets have cast doubt on the new report. 'Diverting Attention' Asked about the Bellingcat report on a regular conference call with reporters on September 27, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Many people look alike, but I cannot tell you who this citizen who was pointed out in this investigation is." Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said the two men shown in British surveillance footage near Skripal's home in the English city of Salisbury were civilians on a tourist trip. Asked to comment on Putin's words after the new Bellingcat report, Peskov said: "The president said that these people were civilians. Thus, he voiced the information that he had received.... You and I know nothing about these people's past, it is outside our [job] function." He said Russian officials would look into the information brought to light by the report. Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, suggested in a Facebook post late on September 26 that the release of the report was deliberately timed to coincide with May's address at the UN Security Council "during which she again aired accusations against Russia." During the address, May said Russia "recklessly deployed a nerve agent on our streets" and accused Moscow of seeking "to obfuscate through desperate fabrication" in connection with the poisoning. "There is no proof, so an information campaign is continuing with the primary goal of diverting attention to the main question: WHAT HAPPENED IN SALISBURY?" Zakharova wrote. She did not provide any substantive rebuttal of details reported by Bellingcat and The Insider. 'Typical Conspiracy Theory' A senior Russian lawmaker laughed off the report with a reference to Major Pronin, a fictional Soviet-era secret agent who successfully battled spies and generated scores of popular jokes revolving around the character's incredible counterespionage abilities. "It's a typical conspiracy theory," Frants Klintsevich of the defense committee in Russia's upper house of parliament, told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. "You could just as easily say Ruslan Boshirov is named Major Pronin, if one recalls such a character from Soviet-era jokes." Klintsevich added: "What we warned about is continuing." "More and more details will accumulate so that the plot doesn't get dull," he was quoted as saying. "Interestingly, one gets the impression that the British media are working hand in glove with authorities. And that's completely depressing." 'Complete Nonsense' A Russian news outlet owned by Klintsevich's fellow lawmaker, Vitaly Bogdanov, published interviews with a retired major-general in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) who claimed documents used in the investigation by Bellingcat and The Insider could not have made their way into the public domain. "It's complete nonsense. How could secret documents become publicly available?" the retired officer, Aleksandr Mikhailov, told National Sluzhba Novostei (NSN). Mikhailov said the British media "together with turncoats" will "spin tall tales" and suggested that the key piece of evidence in the report -- a 15-year-old passport photo of Chepiga showing a man resembling Boshirov -- could have been doctored. 'Completely Unprofessional' NSN also published an interview with Andrei Vedyayev, a writer focusing on Russia's security services, who said the poisoning suspects are unlikely to be officers for Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, as British authorities alleged. The Bellingcat/Insider report said it had confirmed that Chepiga is actually a GRU colonel who was previously awarded Russia's highest state medal: Hero of the Russian Federation. "First of all, they don't admit this," Vedyayev said, referring to the interview with the two suspects on Russia's state-funded network RT that May's spokesman said was full of "lies and blatant fabrications." "Secondly, they don't resemble [GRU officers] at all," Vedyayev added. "From the perspective of security-service officers, if they carried out this task as has been told and described, then they acted completely unprofessionally: roaming around the city, being filmed by video cameras." Interpol Other Russian media outlets published reports focusing on the fact that searching for the name "Chepiga" yields no results on the publicly available portion of Interpol's database of "red notices." That appears to have first been reported by the Russian news agency Interfax and subsequently picked up by RIA Novosti and Kremlin-friendly outlets Life.ru and Ren-TV. This is, in fact, no surprise. Interpol itself notes that most red notices -- which alert police worldwide of at-large suspected criminals wanted by a particular government "are restricted to law enforcement use only." "Some member countries choose to make an extract publicly available," Interpol says on its website. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/complete-nonsense-how- russia-is-countering-a-new-report-on-the-salisbury -poisoning-suspect/29512936.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Frontex Starts Testing Drones to Monitor EU External Borders Sputnik News 16:35 27.09.2018 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Border and Coast Guard Agency said on Thursday that it has started testing Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in Italy, Greece and Portugal as part of a border monitoring mission. "This week, Frontex, the European Border and Coast Agency, has begun testing the use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in Greece, Italy and Portugal to monitor the European Union's external borders. Frontex is exploring the surveillance capability of the medium altitude long endurance RPAS and evaluating the related cost efficiency and endurance," the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, also known as Frontex, said in a statement. Frontex will also test unmanned aircraft in several operational situations, including sea surveillance, detection of ships suspected of criminal activities such as smuggling of weapons and drugs as well as the support of search and rescue operations, according to the statement. The RPAS being tested by the agency are equipped with thermal cameras and radars. In Portugal, Frontex said it was using smaller unmanned aircraft to monitor the North Atlantic Ocean and share this data in real time. The testing in Greece and Italy is expected to be completed this year, the agency added. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Derides New Claims in Skripal Poisoning By VOA News September 27, 2018 Moscow has responded derisively to a report by a Britiain-based investigative group claiming one of the two men suspected of poisoning ex-spy Sergei Skripal is a highly decorated colonel in Russian military intelligence. A report by Bellingcat asserted Wednesday that the man identifying himself as Ruslan Boshirov is really Anatoly Chepiga, a military intelligence colonel awarded the Hero of Russia, the country's highest honor. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova characterized the report as a stunt timed to coincide with British Prime Minister Theresa May's address to the U.N. General Assembly. "There is no proof, so they are continuing their information campaign whose main task is to divert attention from the main question: WHAT HAPPENED IN SALISBURY?" Zakharova wrote on Facebook Wednesday, referring to the British town where the poisoning occurred. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the president's administration had seen the Bellingcat report but dismissed it. "Lots of people look like one another," he said when questioned about the physical similarities between Boshirov and the photo of Chepiga published in the report. Putin has denied that the men in question are spies, repeatedly identifying them as civilians. His government has been accused of being behind the March poisoning of Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok, a nerve agent developed in the Soviet era. The report said the man identified as Chepiga, 39, graduated from the Far-Eastern Military Command Academy, one of the country's top training grounds for marine commandos and special forces. He is said to have fought in Chechnya and possibly Ukraine, receiving the Hero of Russia award in 2014 for "conducting a peace-keeping mission," probably a reference to the Ukraine conflict. The report said it was "highly likely" that Putin knew Chepiga as he personally hands out the Hero of Russia awards. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chairman's European Trip Will Concentrate on NATO Sept. 27, 2018 By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity LONDON -- Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford arrived here today beginning a trip that will concentrate on the North Atlantic alliance. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is meeting with his British counterpart Gen. Sir Nicholas Carter of the British army, the chief of defense staff. The two men will journey to Warsaw, Poland, for the NATO Military Committee Meeting. The committee, made up of all the alliance defense chiefs, will discuss the way forward following the successful NATO summit in July. To counter Russia, alliance heads of state agreed to raise the readiness of forces and make them more mobile. The leaders agreed to form two new commands to safeguard the link between North America and Europe, and a logistics command in Europe. The United States will host the Atlantic command, and Germany the logistics command. Cyber Operations Center The leaders also approved a new cyber operations center and counter-hybrid support teams. The alliance also looked to combat terrorism, approving a new training mission in Iraq; more support for Jordan and Tunisia; a fully operational hub for the South in Naples in Italy, and more. NATO defense chiefs will examine the road ahead and how each of these tasks will be accomplished. Dunford and Carter have worked together in the past, most recently when Dunford commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and Carter was the deputy commander. Carter took his position in June 2018 and this is his first Military Committee Meeting. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address It's Official: Boeing Wins T-X! U.S. Air Force selects Boeing T-X as its new advanced pilot training aircraft. September 27, 2018 The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a contract for the T-X pilot training program worth up to $9.2 billion. The Air Force plans to purchase 351 jets, 46 simulators and associated ground equipment. "Today's announcement is the culmination of years of unwavering focus by the Boeing and Saab team," said Leanne Caret, president and CEO, Boeing Defense, Space & Security. "It is a direct result of our joint investment in developing a system centered on the unique requirements of the U.S. Air Force. We expect T-X to be a franchise program for much of this century." The fighter-like trainer aircraft, which was designed for ease of maintenance, is the cornerstone of an all-new pilot training system that also includes classroom training and simulators. It will help train future fighter and bomber pilots for generations to come. Watch the video for some of the best sights and sounds of Boeing's T-X. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Department of Defense Press Operations News Release No. NR-276-18 September 27, 2018 Navy to Commission Submarine Indiana The Navy will commission its newest fast attack submarine, the future USS Indiana (SSN 789), during an 10 a.m. (EDT) ceremony Saturday, Sept. 29, at the Navy Port at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Port Canaveral, Florida. The principal speaker will be U.S. Representative Jim Banks from Indiana. Mrs. Diane Donald, wife of retired Adm. Kirkland H. Donald, director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion from 2004 to 2012, is serving as the ship's sponsor. She will give the order to "man our ship and bring her to life!" in a time-honored Navy tradition. "The future USS Indiana shows the increased capabilities that our industrial partners bring to the fleet as we deliver the Navy the nation needs," said Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer. "This submarine sends a signal to friend and foe alike that we will maintain supremacy under the waves, and extend our lethality and readiness in every domain. The future Indiana (SSN 789) is the 16th Virginia-class fast attack submarine and the sixth Virginia-class Block III submarine. This next-generation attack submarine provides the Navy with the capabilities required to maintain the nation's undersea superiority well into the 21st century. The submarine, which began construction in 2012, will be the third U.S. Navy ship to be christened with the name Indiana. The first Indiana (BB 1), the lead ship of her class of battleship, served in the North Atlantic and later participated in the blockade of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War. The second Indiana (BB 58) was a South Dakota-class battleship that earned nine battle stars for her service in the Pacific Theater in World War II. The ship fought in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and participated in the invasions of Tarawa, Kwajalein, and Okinawa, and bombarded Saipan, the Palau Islands, the Philippines, and Iwo Jima. Indiana earned nine battle stars for service in World War II. Virginia-class submarines are built to operate in the world's littoral and deep waters while conducting anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface ship warfare; strike warfare; special operation forces support; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; irregular warfare; and mine warfare missions. Their inherent stealth, endurance, mobility, and firepower directly enable them to support five of the six maritime strategy core capabilitiessea control, power projection, forward presence, maritime security, and deterrence. For media queries, contact the Navy Office of Information at (703) 697-5342. The ceremony can be viewed on the Navy Live blog at http://navylive.dodlive.mil. Access the media kit with photos and videos at http://navylive.dodlive.mil/2018/09/07/uss-indiana-ssn-789-commissioning/ Additional information on Virginia-class Attack Submarines is available online at http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4100&tid=100&ct=4. http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1646958/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US-led coalition admits killing 1,100 people in Syria, Iraq IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Sept 27, IRNA -- The US-led international coalition admitted that it killed more than 1,100 civilians as a result of raids carried out in Syria and Iraq since 2014. The coalition said in a statement that 1,114 civilians were killed "unintentionally" by its "strikes", SANA reported. Since it was illegally formed outside the jurisdiction of the UN Security Council in 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh (ISIS), the alliance has been committing massacres against innocent civilians, killing hundreds of people and injuring others in the countryside of Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, Hasaka and Aleppo in addition to destroying infrastructure. 1396**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South of S. Arabia targeted by Yemeni missile IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Sept 27, IRNA -- Yemeni Army's missile unit targeted Saudi Arabian forces' positions with a Zelzal I missile in Assir province, south of Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, Saudi militias' positions in Midi, Hejjeh province in Yemen, were hit by two 'Zelzal 1' missiles. This is while Saudi Arabian fighters bombed Al-Hudaideh, Taezz and Saada 19 times on Wednesday, killing three civilians including one child. 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. The assaults of the Saudi-led coalition forces have failed to stop the Yemenis from resisting the aggression. Recently, the Yemeni army unveiled its home-made underground missile launching pads. 8072**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Under SECNAV Visits Fiji for Partnership Building Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180927-16 Release Date: 9/27/2018 12:00:00 PM From Under Secretary of the Navy Public Affairs SUVA, Fiji (NNS) -- Under Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly completed a partnership-building visit to Fiji on Sep. 27, 2018. Modly was in the area to meet with senior civilian and military officials to discuss bilateral and multilateral maritime security issues and efforts. Meetings were held with Acting Minister of Defense, the Honorable Jone Usamate; Deputy Permanent Secretary of Defence, Ilai Moceica; Deputy Commander Fijian Military Forces, Brigadier General Aziz Mohammed; Chief of Fijian Navy, Capt. Tawake and Commissioner of Police, Sitiveni Qiliho. Modly discussed, among other topics, improving military-to-military cooperation, shared security interests, and a mutual desire for safety, security & prosperity in the region. "I'm very glad to be here to reaffirm our friendship with the people of Fiji and the armed forces of Fiji," said Modly. "I look forward to continuing our partnership and our relationship going forward." Modly's stop in Suva is part of a multi-nation visit to the Oceania region focused on strengthening partnerships and cooperation. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Navy to Commission Submarine Indiana Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180927-19 Release Date: 9/27/2018 3:41:00 PM From the Office of the Navy Chief of Information WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Navy will commission its newest fast attack submarine, the future USS Indiana (SSN 789), during a 10 a.m. (EDT) ceremony Saturday, Sept. 29, at the Navy Port at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Port Canaveral, Florida. The principal speaker will be U.S. Representative Jim Banks from Indiana. Diane Donald, wife of retired Adm. Kirkland H. Donald, director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion from 2004 to 2012, is serving as the ship's sponsor. She will give the order to "man our ship and bring her to life!" in a time-honored Navy tradition. "The future USS Indiana shows the increased capabilities that our industrial partners bring to the fleet as we deliver the Navy the nation needs," said Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer. "This submarine sends a signal to friend and foe alike that we will maintain supremacy under the waves, and extend our lethality and readiness in every domain. The future Indiana (SSN 789) is the 16th Virginia-class fast attack submarine and the sixth Virginia-class Block III submarine. This next-generation attack submarine provides the Navy with the capabilities required to maintain the nation's undersea superiority well into the 21st century. The submarine, which began construction in 2012, will be the third U.S. Navy ship to be christened with the name Indiana. The first Indiana (BB 1), the lead ship of her class of battleship, served in the North Atlantic and later participated in the blockade of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War. The second Indiana (BB 58) was a South Dakota-class battleship that earned nine battle stars for her service in the Pacific Theater in World War II. The ship fought in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and participated in the invasions of Tarawa, Kwajalein, and Okinawa, and bombarded Saipan, the Palau Islands, the Philippines, and Iwo Jima. Indiana earned nine battle stars for service in World War II. Virginia-class submarines are built to operate in the world's littoral and deep waters while conducting anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface ship warfare; strike warfare; special operation forces support; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; irregular warfare; and mine warfare missions. Their inherent stealth, endurance, mobility, and firepower directly enable them to support five of the six maritime strategy core capabilitiessea control, power projection, forward presence, maritime security, and deterrence. For media queries, contact the Navy Office of Information at (703) 697-5342. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Bringing Home 20 Local Sailors, USS Ronald Reagan arrives Guam Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180927-08 Release Date: 9/27/2018 10:39:00 AM By Alana Chargualaf, Joint Region Marianas Public Affairs ASAN, Guam (NNS) -- With 5,000 Sailors aboard, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) arrived in Guam for a port call Sept. 24. Ronald Reagan, the flagship of the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group, made its way to Guam from its homeport of Yokosuka, Japan to participate in Valiant Shield 2018. The U.S.-only, biennial training exercise is focused on integrating U.S. forces in a blue-water environment and enables real-world proficiency in sustaining the forces through detecting, locating, tracking, and engaging units at sea, in the air, on land and in cyberspace for a range of missions. According to Ronald Reagan Weapons Officer Cmdr. Ivan Borja, Valiant Shield contributes to the readiness of the military as a whole, especially as the exercise is conducted in the Pacific region. "It's a complex environment where we have to be on top of our game for the training and support of what we do as a military," he said. "We (have) got to be flexible at all times to execute the mission." Borja said the exercise isn't only a training opportunity for him and fellow shipmates, but a chance to see familiar faces. "Valiant shield is always good because we know when we do Valiant Shield, I know I'm coming to Guam. It's always great to be on Guam. It's always great to be back home," he added. Borja, along with 19 other Sailors aboard the carrier with roots to Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, are taking advantage of the time they'll get to spend with family. They, among the rest of the Ronald Reagan Sailors, will have liberty to immerse themselves in all that Guam has to offer. For Aviation Support Equipment Technician Airman Makayla Duenas, this port call is a chance to not only indulge in her favorite local foods and activities, but to spend some long-awaited time with family. "It feels good," she said. "It's a blessing to be able to come home on deployment. I'm going to go swimming, going to eat, go shopping, and just enjoy my time back home." Layla Villagomez, Duenas's mother, expressed her excitement for her daughter to be home, as well as how proud she is of her daughter's service to the country. "I saw her earlier this year, but this is the first time I get to see her get off her ship, and see where she spends a lot of her time and works, so it's very touching today," she said. "We're so very proud of her." Amid the ongoing exercise, Duenas believes the Sailors' presence in the region is important. "We're forward deployed, so, if anything happens, we're first on the scene." During the port call, Sailors will participate in nearly a dozen community relations projects at local schools, mayors' offices, senior citizens centers and non-profit organizations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Allied Maritime Warfighters Strengthen Partnerships, Capabilities in San Diego Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180927-07 Release Date: 9/27/2018 10:38:00 AM From Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center Public Affairs Naval Base San Diego (NNS) -- Maritime leaders from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand the "Five Eyes" alliance participated in the 2018 Maritime Warfare Working Group (MWWG) Sept. 17 21. The MWWG is an enduring event that improves maritime operability among partners and increases combat effectiveness. "The value of these meetings cannot be overstated," said U.S. Navy Capt. Christopher Barnes, the deputy commander for SMWDC and leader of the U.S. Navy delegation. "It is critical that we continue to build on our relationships and sharpen our tactics through collaboration with our allies." The five-day forum held at Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center (SMWDC) Headquarters onboard Naval Base San Diego was a follow up to previous years' proceedings, as well as an opportunity for the 75 attendees to share maritime observations, information and events in an era of great power competition - including the maintenance of Sea Control. "History has shown coalitions that don't have a common tactical language lose, particularly when the opposition is monolithic," said Royal New Zealand Navy Cmdr. Jon Beadsmoore, director, Directorate of Sea Power and Warfare. "For New Zealand this forum represents essential access to a large pool of warfighting and scientific expertise that allow us to keep pace with tactical developments, in order to be ready to integrate our combat units with our partners." The MWWG was broken into seven unique warfare areas called syndicates. The warfare syndicates (Anti-Air Warfare, Amphibious Warfare, Anti-Submarine Warfare-ASW, Aviation Warfare, Information Warfare, Mine Warfare, and Surface Warfare) each developed strategies to address this year's theme of "Task Group Integration and Theater ASW," which refers to the role surface combatants play when operating in task groups and within the theater ASW arena. "For the Royal Australian Navy, the MWWG is the premier tactical development and information sharing forum between the five partner nations," said Royal Australian Navy Capt. Guy Holthouse, commander, Australian Maritime Warfare Centre. "The opportunities and professional exchanges undertaken at MWWG 18 will drive and shape the key requirement of interoperability between participating nations well into the future." Partner nations' Maritime Warfare Centers engagement in the working group is an important aspect and value-add to the process. For instance, SMWDC the command hosting this year's event is one of the U.S. Navy's five warfighting development centers. In this role, they oversee the effort to increase the lethality and tactical proficiency of the U.S. Navy's Surface Fleet across all domains. They accomplish this through advanced tactical training, and they write, revise and update doctrine and tactical guidance, provide operational support to operational commanders, and provide capability assessments, experimentation opportunities, and future requirements. Similar expertise from the allied Maritime Warfare Centers leads to vibrant and valuable group discussions. Reviewing previous years' action items ensured each allied nation maximized the knowledge, expertise and time involved at the forum. During the conference, participants reconciled action items from previous years, and identified new action items for consideration. These actions ranged from developing and sharing a tactical memorandum, to broad reaching items such as planning participation for future at-sea exercises. Partner nations also discussed their plans to commit more of their ships to serve as escorts for U.S. carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups, the return of British aircraft carrier deployments, as well as future task group deployments of Australian amphibious platforms. The location for the annual MWWG rotates between the participating nations, and is scheduled to take place next in Australia in 2019. SMWDC is located at Naval Base San Diego with four divisions in Virginia and California. The command's mission is to increase the lethality and tactical proficiency of the Surface Force across all domains. Its four lines of operation are advanced tactical training, doctrine and tactical guidance development, operational support to combatant commanders, numbered fleet commanders, and task force commanders, and capabilities assessments, experimentation and future requirements. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Palestine's Islamic Jihad movement selects new leader after 20 years: Official Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 06:19PM The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement, which is based in the besieged Gaza Strip, has selected a new leader for the first time in over 20 years. Syria-based Ziad al-Nakhala would replace Ramadan Abdullah Shalah as the movement's secretary general, an unnamed senior official told AFP on Thursday, claiming that the latter had been suffering from serious health issues for months. Sixty-year-old Shalah, who has led the Islamic Jihad since 1995, is reported to be in a coma following an unknown illness. Nakhala, 65, has been serving as Shalah's deputy since the 1990s. The movement, which was founded in 1981 to realize the Palestinian cause in establishing an independent Palestinian state, has not publically confirmed the report yet. Alongside the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, a Gaza-based ally, the Islamic Jihad has defended Gazans against the Israeli regime during three deadly imposed wars since 2008. The Gaza Strip has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007, which has prevented some two million Palestinians from having free access to the remainder of Palestine and the outside world. The blockade has also undermined living conditions in the coastal enclave and fragmented its economic and social fabric. The Tel Aviv regime carries out regular attacks on its inhabitants under the pretext of hitting positions belonging to Hamas, which governs the territory. The coastal sliver has also witnessed a fresh wave of deadly tensions since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests demanding the right to return for the Palestinians driven out of their homeland. Nearly 190 Palestinians have been killed and over 20,000 others wounded in renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Seven soldiers and one civilian killed in Mali bomb attack Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 06:13PM Seven soldiers and one civilian driver have been killed after two Malian military vehicles were hit by improvised explosive devices while on an escort mission. The Malian Defense Ministry denounced it as a "cowardly terrorist attack" in a statement on Thursday as it offered condolences to the families of the deceased. The fatal ambush happened as the French military parachuted 120 soldiers in the north-eastern region of Menaka near the Niger border, French military spokesman Colonel Patrik Steiger said. France's bolstered military presence in Menaka comes after Malian security sources claimed that unknown gunmen had executed more than 12 civilians in the region on Tuesday. Mali has been in turmoil since Tuareg rebels and loosely-allied militants took over the northern desert regions from the Malian military control in 2012. The ensuing power vacuum allowed extremists linked to al-Qaeda to dominate the territory. French forces intervened in 2013 to allegedly fight back the militants, but extremist forces have since regrouped and now regularly attack Malian and international forces. France has kept about 4,500 troops in the region as part of the operations. French officials acknowledge that Paris is likely to remain in the area for the next decade. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Palestine president addresses UN, slams Trump's Quds policy, racist Israeli law Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 05:55PM Palestine's president has taken the podium at the UN to harshly condemn the US administration's policy shift on Jerusalem al-Quds, saying there will be no peace with Israel without the eastern part of the occupied city as the capital of the future Palestinian state. Mahmoud Abbas opened his speech to the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly with the sentence "Jerusalem (al-Quds) is not for sale," drawing the applause of the audience. The Palestinian leader slammed the US's growing pro-Israel bias under President Donald Trump, which has seen Washington recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel, cut aid to Palestinians and close the diplomatic office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on US soil. "With all of these decisions, this administration has reneged on all previous US commitments and has undermined the two-state solution," Abbas said, adding, "I renew my call to President Trump to rescind his decisions and decrees regarding Jerusalem, refugees and settlements." Trump's action, he added, has "shocked" the Palestinian nation, stressing that no peace will come about with Israel as long as the regime fails to end its occupation of East Jerusalem al-Quds, which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state. The Trump administration waged a diplomatic war against Palestine in December 2017, when it first announced that the US would recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel. Months later, Washington moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city in defiance of international criticisms. The move angered Palestinians, who said they would no longer accept Washington's mediation role in their conflict with Israel. The Trump administration has also cut aid to Palestinians and slashed its contributions to UNRWA the UN agency that supports more than five million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. Trump also closed the Palestinian Liberation Organization's office in Washington last month. Abbas further said there will be no peace without "an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as its capital, and not some place in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as its capital, and with all of its holy sites." The Palestinian president also stressed that Palestinians will not recognize Israel unless the entity recognizes the Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders. He once again rejected the US as the sole mediator in any future Israeli-Palestinian talks, stressing that Washington can play a part in the so-called peace process in the format of the Quartet on the Middle East -- the EU, Russia, UN and the US itself. "We will not accept sole American mediation in the peace process because the US has lost its eligibility -- they are too biased toward Israel," he stated. 'Israel's racist law crossed all red lines' Elsewhere in his speech, the Palestinian president blasted Israel for adopting the so-called "Jewish nation-state" law, saying the racist law "legalizes discrimination" against the Arab population in Israel. The law, he added, "crossed all the red line," and will lead to a single "racist, apartheid state." The president called on the world body to act as it did in the case of the apartheid regime in South Africa and reject the discriminatory Israeli law. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Rockets hit Ghazni during President Ghani's visit Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 03:42PM Three rockets have hit the Afghan city of Ghazni during a visit by President Ashraf Ghani as Taliban militants ramp up attacks across various parts of the country. At least two rockets landed within 300 meters of the governor's compound while a third struck farther off, Ghazni police spokesman Ahmad Khan Sirat said on Thursday. The attacks took place as President Ghani was holding meetings with security officials, religious leaders and members of civil society in the building. Provincial deputy police chief Ramazan Ali Mohseni said no one was killed or wounded in the attack which was claimed by the Taliban. Presidential spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri played down the incident, saying it was far from the governor's office. Ghazni is still struggling to return to normal after it was overrun by militants last month. It bears the scars of days of heavy combat in August when thousands of militants stormed the city. More than 200 civilians were killed and hundreds more wounded during the five-day assault which also left at least 100 members of Afghan security forces dead. The attackers were eventually driven out with heavy losses, but the assault underlined Taliban's ability to mount large-scale attacks on major cities. Many areas of Ghazni Province have been heavily contested by the Taliban in recent years. The militants had earlier seized the control of the Khawaja Omari district north of Ghazni and Ajrestan in the west of the province. However, this was the first serious attempt by the Taliban to take the provincial capital, which is located on the main highway linking Kabul with Afghanistan's south. The attack on the strategic city was the most serious blow to the Kabul government since the militants came close to overrunning the western city of Farah in May. Despite the presence of thousands of foreign boots on the ground, Afghanistan has been rocked by a surge in terrorist attacks, some of them carried out by Daesh terrorists mainly active in Nangarhar Province. The country has already been torn apart by decades of Taliban-led militancy and the 2001 invasion of the US and its allies. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Nearly 400,000 killed in South Sudan's civil war: Study Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 11:21AM South Sudan's civil war has claimed the lives of nearly 400,000 people since fighting erupted in late 2013, a new study says, offering a tally far higher than previous estimates. The report, published by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and financed by the US State Department, revealed on Wednesday that the conflict in South Sudan had led to at least 382,900 excess deaths over the past five years. The study said about half of the deaths had resulted from ethnic violence, while the rest had been caused by increased risk of disease and reduced access to health care. "It is clear that the war has severely affected the health of the South Sudanese population, and that the humanitarian response to the crisis has been insufficient," said Francesco Checchi, a professor of epidemiology and the lead author of the report. "To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive estimate of how many people have died because of the war. Every day that goes by, hundreds more lives may be lost," he added. Previous reports had put the number of the deaths at about 50,000. The study, based on statistical modeling and not peer-reviewed, said the deaths appeared to peak in 2016 and 2017 after a power-sharing agreement brokered in 2015 fell apart and the violence spread into other regions. Most of the deaths reportedly occurred in the country's south and northeast and among adult males. The researchers behind the report said their findings "indicate that the humanitarian response in South Sudan must be strengthened and that all parties should seek urgent conflict resolution." The bloody civil war in South Sudan, the world's youngest country, began in December 2013, when incumbent President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup. The violence has displaced some two million people inside the country since then and has also prompted another 2.5 million to flee to neighboring countries. The two rivals signed a renewed peace accord during a ceremony in Ethiopia earlier this month. PressTV-South Sudan president, rebel leader sign peace deal South Sudan's President Salva Kiir signed a peace agreement with rebel factions in the Ethiopian capital on Wednesday. "More fundamentally, our estimates illuminate the human cost of the war and should spur warring parties and international actors to seek lasting conflict resolution," Checchi said, adding that the report "should also spur warring factions to conduct war according to its rules, instead of attacking civilians and humanitarian actors." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China slams US for flying B-52s over South, East China Seas Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 11:03AM China has lambasted the United States for flying its B-52 bombers over the contentious South and East China Seas, disputed territory which Beijing claims historical sovereignty over. "As for the provocative action taken by the US military aircraft, we are firmly against it and we will take all necessary means to safeguard our rights and interests," Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said at a monthly briefing in the capital, Beijing, on Thursday. His remarks came a day after Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn said that earlier in the week, a group of US B-52 long-range strategic bombers had flown through "international airspace over the South China Sea," which is almost entirely claimed by China. He further said that on Tuesday, the nuclear-capable planes also "participated in a regularly scheduled, combined operation in the East China Sea," where Beijing disputes territory with Japan. The US, an extraterritorial power, often conducts what it calls freedom of navigation patrols in territory claimed by China, drawing Chinese objection. Washington also accuses Beijing of undertaking a land reclamation program by building artificial islands in the South China Sea. China and the US are also involved in disputes involving Taiwan and bilateral trade, as well as Beijing's military ties with Russia. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Yemeni ballistic missiles hit targets in Saudi Arabia' Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 07:25AM Yemeni armed forces have reportedly fired domestically-designed and -developed ballistic missiles at military targets in Saudi Arabia's southwestern border regions of Jizan and Asir, in retaliation for strikes by a Saudi-led military coalition waging war on Yemen. Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing an unnamed military official from the missile unit of the Yemeni army, reported that a gathering of Saudi-led mercenaries in the east of the mountainous area of al-Doud had been hit with two short-range Zelzal-1 (Earthquake-1) missiles in early hours of Thursday, without giving the number of potential casualties of the strikes. It added that the Yemeni troops had earlier pounded that same area with artillery and rocket fire. Meanwhile, Yemen's official Saba news agency, citing an unnamed military official, reported that Yemeni army forces had hit another gathering of Saudi-led mercenaries in the Majaza border area of Asir with the same type of ballistic missile on Wednesday night. The official added that another Zelzal-1 missile had also struck a group of Saudi-led military hardware and equipment in the Midi Desert in Yemen's northwestern Hajjah Province earlier on Wednesday, inflicting damage. Saudi Arabia and some of its allies, including the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan, launched a brutal war against Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The aggression initially consisted of a bombing campaign but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces to Yemen. Some 15,000 Yemenis have so far been killed and thousands more injured. The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country's infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The United Nations (UN) has said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. A number of Western countries, the United States and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CENTCOM Confirms FirstEver F-35 Combat Strike Against Taliban in Afghanistan Sputnik News 21:11 27.09.2018(updated 21:41 27.09.2018) WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Marine Corps F-35B, Lightning II, conducted its first combat strike in the US Central Command area of responsibility in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan, CENTCOM stated. According to CENTCOM, the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter operated by the US Marine Corps has carried out its first ever combat air operations against Taliban* targets in Afghanistan. Earlier in the day, CNN reported citing three US defense officials all speaking on condition of anonymity as its sources that the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter operated by the US Marine Corps has carried out its first ever combat air operations against Taliban targets in Afghanistan. "The strike took place in Afghanistan against a fixed Taliban target," the US media reported. "The aircraft involved was the US Marine Corps' variant of the aircraft flying from the USS Essex amphibious assault ship." The F-35 is regularly described as the most expensive aircraft and military program in history with projections of its costs running to $1.5 trillion over a 30-year period. The program continues to be plagued by delays, cost overruns and failures of fundamental systems. The F-35B is the world's first supersonic short and vertical takeoff and landing (STOVL) aircraft and is operated by the US Marine Corps. It is the first of the three F-35 variants that have been cleared as combat-ready. The F-35B attacks on the Taliban come amid a report from the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan that found civilian casualties from pro-government airstrikes surged in 2018. The mission reported a 52 percent increase in civilian casualties from air assaults, with 149 civilians dead and 204 injured, during the first half of 2018 as compared with the same time frame a year prior. *Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) and Taliban are terrorist groups banned in Russia Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Handy Tool for Foes': Norway Rolls Out Map With Secret Army Facilities Sputnik News 18:41 27.09.2018 A digital map published by Norwegian authorities shows 239 "no flight" zones where drones are prohibited. It is searchable and includes geographical maps and aerial photos. Experts believe this disclosure can assist foreign intelligence and terrorists. The Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM) has published a digital map showing the exact locations of armed forces facilities, including sensitive antennas and secret installations. The map shows red marks over objects the authorities previously tried to keep secret, including a facility often referred to as the government's wartime headquarters. Several of the Intelligence Service's facilities are also displayed with exact coordinates. While the idea of this disclosure was to highlight areas where drone navigation is prohibited, it triggered protests from pundits, who suggested this measure jeopardized Norway's security. "Even a quick search yields simple screenable objects. This is disastrous when it comes to operational safety. I almost can't believe they've really done this," Commander Svein Jarle Jacobsen, former chief of the Naval Home Guard, told the news outlet Aldri Mer. "I think it's very problematic. I believe this map shouldn't have been published at all," Norwegian Maritime Academy researcher Stale Ulriksen told national broadcaster NRK. "I understand that it is important to have a ban on drones, but it seems to me that this has provided a very nice and handy intelligence tool for those who want to inflict harm on Norway," he added. Ulriksen explained that the map includes a lot of sensitive information, which would save any intelligence organization a lot of work. By simply zooming in and comparing it with aerial photos of the location, one could gain a lot of useful information, he pointed out. "This gives people an opportunity to travel to these areas and find more about them. They will probably also be investigated from satellites," former chief of the intelligence department E14 Ola Kaldager told NRK. Earlier, a ban on drone photography or data collection was introduced, which led to the fact that Apple was denied the opportunity to make a 3D view of Oslo. "The map is needed for both individuals and companies to know where it is allowed to film and photograph from the air, and where it is not," NSM deputy director of security management department Frode Skaarnes explained to NRK. "Our map shows around 250 red dots today, but they do not say anything about what exactly is there and what these facilities are used for," he added. Skaarnes suggested that much has changed from the Cold War era, when a military facility could be held secret. "To deny its existence would be very difficult today, since satellite photography is so readily available," Skaarnes pointed out. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Jerusalem is not for sale' Palestinian President Abbas tells world leaders at UN Assembly 27 September 2018 - Taking the podium of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, President Mahmoud Abbas declared that "Jerusalem is not for sale and the Palestinian people's rights are not up for bargain." Taking the podium of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, President Mahmoud Abbas declared that "Jerusalem is not for sale and the Palestinian people's rights are not up for bargain." President Abbas underscored his commitment to peace and the two-state solution, as well as the path of negotiation to achieve them, reiterating that peace in the Middle East cannot be realized without an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. "We have always fully and positively engaged with the various initiatives of the international community aimed at achieving a peaceful solution between us and the Israelis, including the Arab Peace Initiative," he told world leaders gathered for the Assembly's annual debate, noting that he also engaged with United States President Donald Trump and his administration from the start of his tenure. However, the US administration's decision to close office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington D.C., the proclamation of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and transferring of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, not only violate UN resolutions, they have also undermined the two-state solution, added President Abbas. Those decisions, have also caused the US administration to lose its eligibility as the mediator in the Middle East peace process, he said. "The path to peace is enshrined in your [the UN] resolutions, including resolution 67/19 of 29 November 2012, which was adopted by an overwhelming majority and refers to the State of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders," he stressed. Mr. Abbas also highlighted what he called "racist" laws enacted recently in Israel, which not only discriminate against the Palestinian-Arab citizens, but, will also lead to the "inevitable" nullification of the two-state solution. Palestinian people and the territory of the state of Palestine are in urgent need of international protection, he said, and while he welcomed economic and humanitarian support in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but added that such support cannot be a substitute to a political solution to bring an end to the Israeli occupation. President Abbas also highlighted the importance of the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and urged all countries as well as the General Assembly to support the agency. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Abbas Bashes Trump, US Policies in UN Speech By VOA News September 27, 2018 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said "Jerusalem is not for sale" and "Palestinians' rights are not up for bargaining" Thursday at the United Nations. Abbas also called U.S. President Donald Trump "biased" in favor of Israel and said, "We will also not accept sole American mediation in the peace process." The day before, Trump said he now favored a "two-state solution," a term that typically refers to splitting Israel and Palestine into two sovereign areas with Jerusalem as a shared capital. He said he would reveal a new peace plan in the coming months. While Palestinians welcomed the statement, many were still furious at Trump's decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, to close the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington and to end aid funding, including to a U.N. agency that supports Palestinian refugees. "This administration has reneged on all previous U.S. commitments, has undermined the two-state solution and has revealed its false claims of concern about the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people," Abbas said in his speech. "All such decisions threaten the Palestinian national cause and constitute an assault on international law and relevant United Nations resolutions," said the Palestinian Authority president. "It is ironic that the American administration still talks about what they call the 'deal of the century.' But what is left for this administration to give to the Palestinian people? Humanitarian solutions?" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the next up to the podium, stating the Palestinian Authority kills those who sell land to Jews. "And you call Israel racist? The more they slay, the more you pay," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Two arrested in Denmark on suspicion of attempting to ship drones to Daesh Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 08:51AM Danish police say two people have been detained in the capital, Copenhagen, on suspicion of purchasing drones bound for the Daesh terror group mainly active in the Middle East. The arrests were made on Wednesday during raids by police in cooperation with security and intelligence forces in the Danish capital and its vicinity, according to a police statement. The detainees are believed to be members of a broader Daesh-linked network in the Scandinavian country, which ships drones and other military supplies to the world's most notorious terror group. Police said the pair faces charges of seeking to collaborate with terrorists abroad and will appear in court later on Thursday, without giving information on their identities. Prosecutors want the hearing to take place behind closed doors as the investigation is still underway. Local Danish media have described both suspects as being 29 and residents of Copenhagen. Last year, a man was arrested in Denmark for allegedly shipping drones, drone components and infrared cameras to Daesh through Turkey. Daesh began to recruit hundreds of European nationals in 2014, when it unleashed a campaign of death and destruction in Iraq and Syria and captured swathes of land there. There have been growing concerns in European countries over the return of their radicalized citizens now that Daesh has lost its territorial rule in the two Middle Eastern states. Over the past years, several European capitals have been hit by terror attacks claimed by Daesh, the bloodiest of which left 130 people dead in the November 2015 Paris attacks in France. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Launches Program to Detect Terrorists Traveling Between Countries Sputnik News By 17:50 27.09.2018 WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The United States has launched a global program to catch terrorists who are transiting between countries by coordinating exchanges of data such as biometric markers, the Department of State said. "The Terrorist Travel Initiative will bring together national and local governments, law enforcement and border screening practitioners, and international organizations to share expertise on how to develop and implement effective counterterrorism watchlisting and screening tools," the Department of State announced in a press release on Thursday. The initiative was revealed on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, the release added. According to the document, one of the most effective ways to counter terrorist travel is by accessing databases such as Advanced Passenger Information (API), Passenger Name Record (PNR), as well as biometric markers. The program will be run by the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), a multilateral organization founded in 2011 by the European Union and 29 nations, including the United States and Russia. The initiative will convene a series of four regional workshops in 2018 and 2019 to develop recommendations, to be endorsed by a GCTF ministerial in 2019, according to the release. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Launch Event of the GCTF Terrorist Travel Initiative Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC September 27, 2018 The United States and Morocco, under the auspices of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), today launched the GCTF Terrorist Travel Initiative in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly. Formally named the "Initiative on Improving Capabilities for Detecting and Interdicting Terrorist Travel through Enhanced Terrorist Screening and Information Sharing," the Terrorist Travel Initiative will bring together national and local governments, law enforcement and border screening practitioners, and international organizations to share expertise on how to develop and implement effective counterterrorism watchlisting and screening tools. One of the most effective ways to counter terrorist travel is through traveler data such as Advanced Passenger Information (API), Passenger Name Record (PNR), and biometrics. In December 2017, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2396 (UNSCR 2396), requiring all member states to use these tools, including by implementing systems to collect traveler data and develop watchlists of known and suspected terrorists. The GCTF Terrorist Travel Initiative will convene a series of four regional workshops in 2018 and 2019 to develop a set of good practices that will be endorsed at the 2019 GCTF Ministerial. The resulting document will reinforce how countries and organizations can use the border security tools prescribed in UNSCR 2396 to stop terrorist travel. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China demands US 'dispel obstacles' to military relations, stop slander Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 04:20PM China has urged the United States to "dispel obstacles" in the way of improving military relations and to stop slandering the country amid souring tensions in bilateral ties over a range of issues, including trade tariffs and US President Donald Trump's claims of Beijing's interference in the upcoming US mid-term elections. Back in April, Trump initiated what is effectively an all-out trade war with China after he first imposed unusually heavy duties on a wide range of imports from China, a move that infuriated Beijing and prompted it to take a tit-for-tat action by levying tariffs on American goods. Furthermore, Washington imposed an array of sanctions on the Chinese military over Beijing's decision to purchase 10 Russian SU-35 fighter jets in 2017 as well as S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment in 2018. The move angered China, which said that the purchases were a normal act of cooperation between two sovereign countries and the US had "no right to interfere." China also said that its military reserved the right to take further countermeasures against the latest US-imposed sanctions on the Equipment Development Department (EED) a branch of the Chinese military responsible for weapons procurement. China has the world's largest standing army and has been engaged in a modernization program that reportedly includes investment in technology as well as new equipment such as stealth jet fighters and aircraft carriers. "The United States is to blame for the present problem, so the United States must immediately correct its mistakes, and withdraw the so-called sanctions to dispel obstacles that interfere in the healthy development of relations between the two militaries," said Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang at a monthly briefing in the capital Beijing on Thursday, hinting a planned visit to the US later this year by Defense Minister Wei Fenghe could be in doubt. Meanwhile, China lambasted the US for recently flying a group of B-52 long-range strategic bombers over the South and East China Seas, two disputed waterways over which Beijing claims historical sovereignty, calling the move a "provocative action." "The United States is to blame for the present problem, so the United States must immediately correct its mistakes, and withdraw the so-called sanctions to dispel obstacles that interfere in the healthy development of relations between the two militaries," said Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang at a monthly briefing in the capital Beijing on Thursday, hinting a planned visit to the US later this year by Defense Minister Wei Fenghe could be in doubt. Meanwhile, China lambasted the US for recently flying a group of B-52 long-range strategic bombers over the South and East China Seas, two disputed waterways over which Beijing claims historical sovereignty, calling the move a "provocative action." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Has No Right to Meddle in Russian-Chinese Defense Cooperation - Beijing Sputnik News 17:55 27.09.2018 BEIJING (Sputnik) - Russian-Chinese defense cooperation is a bilateral issue of two sovereign countries in which the United States is not allowed to meddle, Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman said on Thursday. "China and Russia enjoy the relations of a comprehensive strategic partnership, defense cooperation is normal between two sovereign states," Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman Ren Guoqiang told reporters, answering the question on whether the US sanctions could affect Moscow-Beijing defense relations. According to the spokesman, such cooperation is aimed at protection of the two states' interests in which "the United States has no right to interfere." All Russian-Chinese projects in defense are progressing as planned, the spokesman added. Last week, the United States sanctioned a key Chinese military research unit for buying Russian-made aircraft and an S-400 air defense system. The United States has been actively using sanctions under its 2017 Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) to promote US interests worldwide. Both Russia and China have fallen under the scope of US restrictions. China has been targeted by US trade sanctions, including restrictions on investment and tariffs on Chinese imports. At the same time, a number of Russian entities and individuals have been sanctioned over Moscow's alleged meddling in US elections, which the Russian authorities denied. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chinese Media: Trump Election Allegations 'Crazy Talk,' 'Creative Strategy' By Bill Ide, Joyce Huang September 27, 2018 China has rejected accusations from President Donald Trump that Beijing is meddling in the upcoming U.S. elections, with some Chinese media calling the suggestion "crazy talk" and others noting the remarks were just "campaign strategy." Trump made the rare and very public accusations Wednesday during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council. After which, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi gave a swift rebuttal, denying that China interferes in the "internal affairs of any country." During a regular briefing in Beijing with reporters on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang echoed those remarks. He also said the international community knows which country interferes the most in other countries affairs. "We advise the United States to stop this unceasing criticism and slander of China," Geng said. "Stop these wrong words and deeds that damage bilateral relations and the basic interests of both countries' peoples." In his remarks, Trump said China is targeting his supporters because "they do not want me, or us, to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade." A loud rebuttal in the communist party backed Global Times on Thursday argued that the White House and Trump has only itself to blame, calling the accusations a "creative campaign strategy." 'Using China' In an article entitled "Trump's 'blame China' midterm strategy won't secure GOP victory," the Global Times said: "The White House needs to be up front with its own party and explain that the more intense the trade war becomes, the more Republicans will find themselves the targets of China's retaliation." The editorial went on to say that his position on trade with China is something that could hurt the president's party in the upcoming mid-term elections and his aspirations for re-election in 2020. On Twitter, which is blocked in China, the newspaper's editor, Hu Xijin, wrote: "@realDonaldTrump, you are using China issue to assist your campaign. Previous presidents all wanted China to buy more from states that supported them to help them reelected. Did that constitute China interfering in US elections?" During a briefing to White House reporters Wednesday afternoon, a senior administration official said Beijing has been using "political, economic, commercial, military and informational tools to benefit the interest of the Chinese Communist Party" in ways that go beyond how countries normally engage with each other. On Wednesday, Trump also said in a posting online: "China is actually placing propaganda ads in the Des Moines Register and other papers, made to look like news." In China, some headlines in official media contrasted what they called Trump's "crazy talk and accusations" with the "indifference" of China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Commentaries for that story, however, did not all follow in lockstep. Some noted their surprise and disagreement with a decision by the China Daily to place advertisements in newspapers in the Des Moines Register and other papers. "China placing ads in American newspapers, can the U.S. do the same in China?" one user asked. Trade standoff The United States launched a second wave of tariffs on Chinese imports Monday, putting a levy on some $200 billion in products from China. In response, Beijing targeted $60 billion products of its own. The likelihood of the two holding talks to negotiate their way out of the current trade standoff seems increasingly unlikely. Earlier this week, China said it was impossible to hold talks with the United States while Washington is imposing tariffs that are like holding a knife to someone's throat. Beijing has rarely discussed its contribution to the current stalemate, placing most of the blame on Washington. Its offers to remedy the trade frictions so far have focused largely on the purchase of American goods and less on policy issues such as government subsidies and forced technology transfers in joint ventures. China denies it is forcing companies to hand over technology in exchange for access. On Wednesday, China announced that it would be lowering tariffs on another 1,500 goods from 9 percent to around 7.8 percent. President Trump has already warned that an additional $267 billion in tariffs could follow if China retaliates against farmers or other industries. It was not immediately clear whether Trump's accusations at the U.N. meant that further tariffs which would effectively cover all goods imported from China - would soon follow. What is clear, some analysts note, is that both sides are increasingly unlikely to budge. "The US has had a maximum pressure policy on North Korea, Iran and now it is doing the same with China," said Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based economist. "China will and is pushing forward reforms but on its own terms and at its own pace and that will never be enough (for the United States)." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump not fond of setting deadline for DPRK's denuclearization People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 16:47, September 27, 2018 UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Wednesday that he does not want to put a timeframe for the denuclearization of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Speaking at a press conference on the last day of his stay for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Trump said that "we're not playing the time game." "They're taking down plants, they're taking down a lot of different testing areas. They're going to take down some more. You'll be hearing about that very soon. I don't want to go ahead of myself," Trump said. "I really believe he wants to get it done. He wants to make a deal, I want (to) make a deal," he said, referring to DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un. "If it takes two years, three years or five months, it doesn't matter," Trump said. But he added the U.S. sanctions on the DPRK would not be lifted. "There's no, you know, cessation of sanctions. We got the sanctions on. I didn't take any sanctions off," Trump said. Also on Wednesday at the UNGA, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said high-level diplomacy has "removed the shadow of war" that hung over the Korean Peninsula last year. "Over the past year, something miraculous has taken place on the Korean Peninsula," Moon said in his speech. "We have crossed the barriers of division and are tearing down the walls in our heart." U.S. State Department said on Wednesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Pyongyang next month to discuss a second summit between the leaders of the United States and the DPRK. Pompeo, in his meeting with DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho earlier in the day, accepted Kim's invitation to travel to Pyongyang next month, so as "to make further progress on the implementation of the commitments from the U.S.-DPRK Singapore summit, including the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK, and to prepare for a second summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim." Pompeo earlier tweeted that his meeting with Ri was "very positive." Also on Wednesday, Pompeo said in an interview with CBS News in New York that the second meeting between Trump and Kim "may happen in October, but more likely sometime after that." At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit in June in Singapore, the two sides issued a joint statement, agreeing to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula. However, U.S.-DPRK talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences over the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration. In August, just one day after Pompeo announced his visit to the DPRK, Trump tweeted that he had asked Pompeo not to go due to the insufficient progress with the DPRK. During his Sept. 18-20 trip to Pyongyang, Moon held talks with Kim, and signed the Pyongyang Declaration, an advancement towards the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization and concrete measures to end hostile acts near the inter-Korean border areas. Pompeo said later in response that the United States is ready to transform its relations with the DPRK immediately. He added that he had invited Ri to meet in New York City where they were scheduled to attend the UNGA meeting. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN Security Council Should Consider Easing N Korea Sanctions - Beijing Sputnik News 18:47 27.09.2018 WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - China believes the UN Security Council should ease some of the sanctions on North Korea in order to encourage the continued progress toward denuclearization, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi said on Thursday. "A provision in the Security Council resolutions that the council is prepared to modify the sanction measures in light of the DPRK's [North Korea's] compliance," Wang said. "Now given the positive developments in the inter-Korean and DPRK- US relations, and the DPRK's important pledges and actions on denuclearization, China believes that the Security Council needs to consider invoking in due course this provision to encourage the DPRK and other relevant parties to move denuclearization further ahead." Earlier, the United Nations Security Council has introduced multiple sanctions against North Korea in response to its repeated missile launches and nuclear tests. The body, in particular, has restricted oil exports to Pyongyang, banned imports of textile products from North Korea as well as the country's access to gas liquids. The United States is seeking boost of the sanctions against North Korea despite the recent de-escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula that involved several meetings between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in as well as Kim's summit with US President Donald Trump. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Peace in Korea Can Be Reached Only Via Diplomacy, Denuclearization - Pompeo Sputnik News 18:33 27.09.2018 UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his visit to Pyongyang in October. "The President has directed me to travel to Pyongyang next month to meet with Chairman Kim," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during his address to the UN Security Council. Peace on the Korean peninsula is only attainable through diplomacy and denuclearization, Pompeo added. The secretary of state also said the United States continues to see illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum for use by North Korea and is disappointed that certain UN Security Council members continue to use North Korean laborers. On Wednesday, the US State Department announced that Pompeo has accepted an invitation to visit Pyongyang next month that was extended to him by North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho during a meeting in New York. On June 12, US President Donald Trump and Kim held their first official summit in Singapore. Upon the conclusion of the talks, the two countries signed a bilateral agreement outlining their joint commitment to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. However, the agreement did not specify steps or deadlines as to when would denuclearization be achieved. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Remarks at a Meeting on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Remarks Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State With Members of the UN Security Council United Nations New York City September 27, 2018 SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning. The 8,363rd meeting of the Security Council is called to order. The provisional agenda for this meeting is non-proliferation/Democratic People's Republic Of Korea. The agenda is adopted. In accordance with Rule 37, I invite the representatives of Japan and the Republic of Korea to participate in this meeting. It is so decided. I am pleased to welcome the distinguished ministers and representatives gathered here this morning. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of item two on the agenda. I shall now make a statement in my capacity as Secretary of State of the United States of America. Time and time again over the past quarter century, the United Nations has made it clear: the world cannot accept a nuclear-armed North Korea. That's not just the United States position. That is the world's position. Past diplomatic attempts to halt North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile development were unsuccessful. But now we're at the dawn of a new day. Since taking office, President Trump has led the international pressure campaign that has resulted in the first significant diplomatic breakthrough in decades. During President Trump and Chairman Kim's historic Singapore summit, Chairman Kim committed to work towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The two leaders share a common personal understanding of what must take place for the transformation of the United States-DPRK relations. The United States continues to engage with North Korea to implement the commitments made in Singapore. Yesterday, I had a very positive meeting with Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho to discuss how we can move forward on all four commitments in the Singapore joint statement. We also discussed a second summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un. We must not forget what's brought us this far: the historic international pressure campaign that this council has made possible through the sanctions that it imposed. Until the final denuclearization of the DPRK is achieved and fully verified, it is our solemn collective responsibility to fully implement all UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to North Korea. President Trump has made abundantly clear that if Chairman Kim follows through on his commitments, a much brighter future lies ahead for North Korea and its people, and the United States will be at the forefront of facilitating that bright future. We want to see that time come as quickly as possible. But the path to peace and a brighter future is only through diplomacy and only denuclearization. That means any other path North Korea may choose will inevitably lead to ever-increasing isolation and pressure. It is imperative for members of the United Nations to take that to heart. Enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize the fully, final, verified denuclearization. The members of this council must set the example on that effort, and we must all hold each other accountable. Particularly, we must all be accountable to enforce Resolution 2397, which lowered the annual cap on refined petroleum imports to North Korea. The United States has assessed and we can say in no uncertain terms that the cap of 500,000 barrels has been breached this year. We continue to see illegal imports of additional refined petroleum using ship-to-ship transfers, which are clearly prohibited under the UN resolution. As UN Security Council members, we must convey to the captains of these ships, to their owners, and anyone else involved in these transfers that we are watching them and that they must cease their illicit activity. We must all be accountable for cutting off North Korea's illegal coal exports, which provide funds that go directly to its WMD programs. And we must be accountable, too, for curbing the number of North Korean laborers permitted within our borders. The United States is troubled by recent reports that member-states, including members of the Security Council, are hosting new North Korean laborers. This violates the spirit and the letter of the Security Council resolutions that we all agreed to uphold. And while sanctions remain part of the total approach we are pursuing to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons, I want to finish on a positive note. We are well into a diplomatic process, and we hope indeed, we want to see this through to a successful end. I'm pleased that, based upon recent exchanges between President Trump and Chairman Kim, that the President has directed me to travel to Pyongyang next month to meet with Chairman Kim and to accelerate that process. I want to reiterate that the future can be very bright for North Korea if it makes good on its commitment to final, fully verified denuclearization. It will lead to the positive transformation of the U.S.-DPRK relations, to greater prosperity for the North Korean people, and to an enduring peace. In our vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific, nations are strong, sovereign, connected, prosperous, and at peace. But that vision for the region will never be complete if we fail to bring about this transformation on the Korean Peninsula. The Korean people, the region, and the world will never realize the full promise of the future if we do not seize this unprecedented diplomatic opening for peace. I said at the beginning of my statement that we are at the dawn of a new day in the world's relationship with North Korea. We do not yet know what that day will bring, but we are hopeful that the current breakthrough in diplomacy will yield a brighter future for North Korea and a safer world for all of us. Thank you, and I look forward to the discussions. I give the floor now to the deputy prime minister and minister and foreign affairs of Kuwait. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Path to peace' on Korean Peninsula only possible through diplomacy and full denuclearization: US tells Security Council 27 September 2018 - If the leadership of North Korea follows a diplomatic path to end its nuclear weapons programme, then a "much brighter future lies ahead" for its people, the US Secretary of State told the Security Council on Thursday. Mike Pompeo, chairing a ministerial-level meeting convened by the United States on North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), said that "final, fully-verified denuclearlization" was essential. Saying that the world was at the "dawn of a new day" over the Peninsula, Mr. Pompeo said "the Korean people, the region, and the world, will never realize the full promise of the future, if we do not seize this unprecedented diplomatic opening for peace." He said that North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, and President Donald Trump following their historic summit in Singapore "share a common, personal understanding of what must take place" to transform relations between the two countries, adding that he'd had a "positive meeting" with his DPRK counterpart on Wednesday, and work was well underway for a second leaders' summit. But on the implementation of Security Council resolutions which include punitive economic sanctions against North Korea, he said the US had evidence that a cap on petroleum imports to DPRK, had been "breached", and illegal coal imports were continuing. He claimed that some members of the Security Council had been complicit with breaking an embargo on hosting North Korean labourers, in violation of sanctions. China raises possibility of sanctions relief China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, told the Council that his country welcomed the diplomatic efforts by the US and the Republic of Korea, or South Korea, towards denuclearization and lasting peace. He said that an "end of war" declaration to officially cease hostilities from the Korean War, would help build trust, and he called for six-party multilateral talks to continue. On sanctions, he said that it was equally important to advance the political process. He said that the Council should consider allowing a relaxation of some economic sanctions, if North Korea was in compliance: "Given the positive developmentsChina believes that the Security Council needs to consider invoking in due course, this provision to encourage DPRK and other relevant parties, to move denuclearization further ahead." 'Critical role' of Security Council The foreign ministers of both South Korea, and Japan, were invited to brief the Council, in addition to the 15 members. For the Republic of Korea, Kang Kyung-wha, said the Council had played "a critical role" in adopting sanctions, to pressure DPRK to the negotiating table. "In the last few months, it has taken a series of 'for the first time' actions, that were unthinkable, only a year ago," she said. "We are committed to continuing to work with the international community, to ensure that the Council's sanctions are faithfully implemented, even as we continue to engage North Korea, to facilitate substantial progress towards complete denuclearization." Japan's foreign minister, Taro Kono, said international unity was "critical" and agreed with the US that the petroleum sanctions cap on imports, had been breached. "It is important that all Member States immediately stop supplying these products to North Korea", he said. He said that together with reports of other sophisticated attempts to evade sanctions, using ship-to-ship transfers and the selling of fishing rights, it meant that "the very authority of the decisions made by this Council, is at stake." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia, China Urge Easing of North Korea Sanctions By Margaret Besheer September 27, 2018 Russia and China called Thursday for international sanctions to be eased on North Korea as an incentive for it to denuclearize. The call is seen by the West as jeopardizing the international consensus on pressuring Pyongyang. "China firmly believes that pressure is not the end," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a high-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council on North Korea. "Both implementing sanctions and promoting political settlement are equally important under Security Council resolutions." Wang urged the 15-member council to consider using a provision in its resolutions that allows for modifying sanctions. Russia and China called Thursday for international sanctions to be eased on North Korea as an incentive for it to denuclearize. The call is seen by the West as jeopardizing the international consensus on pressuring Pyongyang. "China firmly believes that pressure is not the end," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a high-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council on North Korea. "Both implementing sanctions and promoting political settlement are equally important under Security Council resolutions." Wang urged the 15-member council to consider using a provision in its resolutions that allows for modifying sanctions. Lavrov said the Security Council should send a "positive signal" to the North and asked why some council members "stubbornly" refused to do so. He said Russia is ready to draft a council resolution supporting the positive momentum around the Korean Peninsula. US response Their position is opposite of the United States and most Western countries, which seek to maintain a policy of maximum pressure on Pyongyang until it fully denuclearizes. "We must not forget what brought us this far: the historic international pressure campaign that this council has made possible through the sanctions that it imposed," said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who chaired the council meeting. The United States holds the council's rotating presidency this month. "Until the final denuclearization of the DPRK is achieved and fully verified, it is our solemn collective responsibility to fully implement all U.N. Security Council resolutions pertaining to North Korea," Pompeo said. Since North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, the U.N. Security Council has imposed several rounds of increasingly tough targeted sanctions to choke off funding to Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Until now, the council has been united in its approach, but the call to ease sanctions by Beijing and Moscow could signal an end to the council's unity and ability to pressure North Korea going forward. Pompeo said he met Wednesday with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho to discuss how to move forward on commitments made at the June Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un. He said they also discussed a second summit between the two leaders. Pompeo said he plans to go to Pyongyang next month for more discussions. Illegal transfers The United States has accused Russia of "consistent and wide-ranging" violations of the sanctions imposed on North Korea. Specifically, Washington says it has evidence of illicit ship-to-ship transfers of banned items, mainly oil, but increasingly coal and other goods. Washington said last week it has tracked at least 148 instances this year of oil tankers conducting such illegal transfers of refined petroleum products, netting North Korea more than 800,000 barrels of refined petroleum products. Pyongyang is allowed 500,000 barrels a year under the sanctions. Also present at the session were the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan, who both urged international pressure to continue. North Korea did not speak at the meeting, but had diplomats in the room. Thursday's meeting was held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of world leaders, who are gathered this week at the General Assembly. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Rouhani: 'Iran's righteousness, US bullying' crystal clear to World IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Sept 27, IRNA -- All media and leaders of the world were focusing on Iran's righteousness and the US' bullying, which were the most important points of my trip to New York, said the Iranian president upon arriving in Tehran on Thursday. Speaking to reporters upon arrival from New York to Tehran, he said during the visit the Iranian delegation tried to voice Iran's stands and approaches at the UN general assembly. 'I delivered two speeches in the UN, had three speeches to the US media, intellectuals, politicians, and Muslim leaders of the US,' said President Rouhani. The US has adopted a unilateral approach in dealing with the international community and simply ignores international bodies as well as international rules and regulations and this fact was highlighted by other delegations as well, he said. 'In my opinion, the US gained nothing from this year's UN general assembly meeting and while he was delivering speech and giving good words on his government, all the audience burst into laughing which was highlighted by the US media leading to humiliation of the US government and nation,' Rouhani said. Iran managed to raise explicitly its stands, which were consistent with the stances of its Supreme Leader and Iranian nation, he said. On the UNSC meeting, the US said earlier that its topic of the agenda would be Iran but then claimed that it had something to do with another issue but one day ahead of the meeting the US president tweeted that the session concerned Iran, he said. The US was alone on its stands against the JCPOA which totally isolated the country among the 15 UNSC members, Rouhani said. On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the Islamic Republic of Iran and G4+1 comprising Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany held meeting leading to issuance of an statement supporting their stands on the JCPOA and appreciated Iran that fully carried out its commitments and said there will establish a new and special banking route to broaden cooperation with Iran while remaining committed to their pledges, he said. The EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that in November, the measures will be implemented to support Iran which bothered the Americans, he said. President Rouhani also held a number of meeting with the heads of other countries on issues of mutual interest, regional developments, the JCPOA and expansion of economic cooperation and underlined that all countries will not support the US on toughening sanctions against Iran. President Hassan Rouhani was in New York to attend the General Assembly of the United Nations, which is a yearly event taking place late September. He also said he had had 17 meetings with the leaders of countries and international organizations, three neighboring, two Asian and six Latin American countries, one international sport and one financial body, and also the UN secretary-general. 1430**1420 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkey not to follow US in sanctioning Iran: Turkish FM IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Ankara, Sept 27, IRNA -- Turkey will not stand alongside the US to impose sanctions on Iran, said the foreign minister of Turkey. 'Turkey will not support any sanctions and will keep its trade with Iran, Russia and other countries; Turkey is an independent country and has sovereignty,' Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters following the trilateral meeting with Iran and Russia's foreign ministers, respectively Mohammad-Javad Zarif and Sergei Lavrov in New York on the sidelines of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly. 'Turkey will continue commerce with Iran, regardless ogf the US sanctions.' 'We are committed only to the sanctions decided by the UN and will not accept any other sanctions.' Regarding the meeting on Idlib, he said that the three countries stressed the implementation of Sochi agreement and believe that the chance should be used to gather together the opposition groups in Syria and accelerate the peace process. 'In the coming days, formation of the committee of Syrian constitution should be the most important step because the list of members of the committee was finalized a while ago,' said Cavusoglu. He also said that Turkey will continue to counter terrorism. 9417**1420 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Rouhani urges int'l community efforts to safeguard JCPOA IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency New York, Sept 27, IRNA -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani underscored the need for the global community to work hard in protecting the JCPOA as an important international agreement and complying with Resolution 2231 of UNSC. In the meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Wednesday, President Rouhani said, "The United Nations should carry out its responsibilities in solidity of international laws, so that no country can violate international commitments, including resolutions of the Security Council." He also said, "The clear stances of UN Secretary General in protecting the JCPOA as the symbol of success gained from dialogue and diplomacy will be effective". After the United States' illegal withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran has so far lived up to its commitments under the deal, said the President, adding, "We should work hard so that other countries can cooperate for the continuation of the JCPOA in action, in addition to taking political stances". He also said that Iran was ready to cooperate with UN and regional and international issues, as well as positive measures in resolving the Syrian and Yemeni crises, adding, "Iran, Turkey and Russia have been able to take good steps in establishing peace and security and fighting terrorism in Syria". "The three countries' agreement prevented bloodshed in Idlib from breaking out and we hope that the Astana process, along with Geneva process, can achieve full success," continued Rouhani. He went on to express concerns about human catastrophes in Yemen and said, "The United Nations should work more on the Yemeni situation and deliver humanitarian aid to the people of the country". Rouhani said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to have full cooperation and coordination with the UN in different regional and international fields". In turn, Guterres hailed the Iranian government's response to the United States' withdrawal from the JCPOA, adding "As an international agreement, the JCPOA is endorsed by the United Nations and the Security Council and should be fully implemented, and sanctions against Iran are not endorsed by the UN." Stating that the UN encourages Europe and Iran's other partners to resist against sanctions against Iran, he said, "We believe that the breach of the agreement was against UNSC regulations and sanctions out of the framework of the UN regulations will be followed by human and economic impacts." He also hailed Iran's positive role in Syrian developments, and stressed more cooperation with Iran in the fight against terrorism and helping crisis-hit peoples in the region, especially in Yemen. 1396**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran's expectations more than contents of 4+1 statement IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency New York, Sept 27, IRNA -- President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday hailed Tuesday statement of 4+1 ministers, saying that it is a good progress in preserving the JCPOA but Iran expects more than that. "We have discussed our expectations with the parties and they have promised to help fulfill the expectations and pave the way for Iran to benefit from the JCPOA," he said in a news conference with reporters in the UN. Asked about today's (Wednesday) meeting of the United Nations Security Council, he said that UNSC today's session was due to discuss Iran but they changed the topic due to the opposition of the other members. "During today's session it was clear that the US is isolated. All supported the JCPOA and condemned the US move as wrong," he said. Rouhani further noted that he held meetings with officials of 17 countries with all of them hailing Iran's stay in the JCPOA, as an intelligent and wise move. The nuclear deal does not referred to something named missile and this was clear from the beginning, he said, noting that if somebody wants to violate its commitment, there is no need for making excuses. 8072**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Netanyahu puts on new anti-Iran show at UN, repeats baseless nuclear claims Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 07:14PM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again taken the stage at the United Nations to bring out fresh theatrics against Iran, repeating his threadbare allegation that the country is working to develop nuclear weapons at "secret" sites. As already expected, Netanyahu used a map and photographs of a building that he claimed was a "secret atomic weapons warehouse" in the Iranian capital, Tehran, to justify his false accusations during his speech on Thursday at the 73rd annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York. "In May we exposed the site of Iran's secret atomic archive. Today, I'm revealing the site of a second facility; Iran's secret atomic warehouse," claimed the Israeli PM, who added, "Iran has not abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons." Netanyahu was referring to his earlier dubious show against Iran, during which he went live on television and put on display what he called records from a secret warehouse in Tehran. The claims came while Iran has drawn the praise of the world community for remaining fully committed to its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers despite Washington's much-criticized withdrawal from the international document. Iran's compliance with the deal has been verified in numerous reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency -- the UN's nuclear watchdog, which uses strict mechanisms to monitor the technical aspect of the agreement's implementation. During his anti-Iran rant, Netanyahu further slammed the European Union for firmly supporting the nuclear accord after Washington -- influenced by intense Israeli lobbying -- scrapped the international document. "While the United States is confronting Iran with new sanctions, Europe and others are appeasing Iran by trying to help it bypass those new sanctions," Netanyahu said, referring to EU efforts to compensate for Washington's absence and keep Iran in the deal. Netanyahu's new vaudeville at the UN was nothing new. Observers say the Israeli premier indulges in theatrics as a method to influence public opinion, without providing any proof to support his claims. During his dramatic performance in early May -- which was widely ridiculed inside Iran and abroad -- Netanyahu claimed agents with Israel's Mossad spy agency had managed to break into the warehouse in an overnight operation and bring back "half a ton of the material" consisting of 55,000 pages and another 55,000 files on 183 CDs. Back then, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the Israeli premier "the boy who can't stop crying wolf is at it again," recalling a similar anti-Iran speech by Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly in 2012, during which he used a cartoon bomb in an attempt to portray the Islamic Republic as a threat. Except in the US, Netanyahu's claims, however, have fallen on deaf ears, with the European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, saying the presentation failed to question Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement. Emboldened the by the uncritical support of the US under President Donald Trump, Netanyahu even threatened Iran with a nuclear attack during a speech at the regime's secretive Dimona nuclear weapons facility. In response, Tehran wrote to the United Nations, calling on the world body to condemn Israel for the nuclear attack threat and bring the regime's atomic weapons program under its supervision. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Rouhani: US attempts to isolate Iran at UN only backfired Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 02:36PM Back home from New York, President Hassan Rouhani says Washington's attempts to advance an anti-Iran agenda at the UN only backfired, stressing that this year's General Assembly session and related events further exposed the US's isolation on the world stage. Speaking at Tehran's Mehrabad airport on Thursday, President Rouhani briefed the reporters on the outcome of his trip to New York, where he attended the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, met with world leaders on the sidelines, and gave several interviews to American media outlets. The Iranian president touched on the administration of US President Donald Trump's abortive attempts to put pressure on Iran and show it as an isolated country at the world body. Trump had "no achievement," neither in his speech to the General Assembly, nor at the Iran-centered UN Security Council meeting he chaired a day later, Rouhani added. At the General Assembly, Rouhani said, Trump was laughed at when he began to speak in praise of his administration's performance, adding that global media took that laughter as "humiliating for the American government and nation." Rouhani said the US sought to use its capacity as chair of the UN Security Council to single out Iran at the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the General Assembly's session, only to face the "reverse effect." That meeting turned, instead, into a strong show of support for the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran , which the Trump administration scrapped in May in defiance of the very same council's Resolution 2231, said Rouhani. "Trump was left alone at the session, and this was yet another instance of US isolation," the Iranian president said. He added that Iran, unlike the US, used this year's General Assembly session to transparently present its positions to the world community. Noting that the US "has chosen the path of unilateralism and turns a cold shoulder to international institutions and regulations," the Iranian president emphasized, "The important thing is that no one -- except for one or two countries -- has America's back today." Rouhani brings home ancient bas-relief From New York, Rouhani also brought home an ancient Persian bas-relief, which had been smuggled out of the country more than 80 years ago. The $1.2 million limestone sculpture, which dates back to around 500 B.C., was handed back to Iran on the orders of a New York Supreme Court judge. The relief was initially stolen in 1936 from the ruins of Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, situated 60 kilometers northeast of the city of Shiraz in Iran's Fars Province. The ruins were declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site in 1979. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN must act against deal breaking, lawlessness: Rouhani to Guterres Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 07:49AM Iranian President Hassan Rouhani slams the US's withdrawal from the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, saying the United Nations should not allow any country to make a habit of breaching international commitments, especially those under Security Council resolutions. Rouhani made the remarks in a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday during his stay in New York for the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. "The United Nations should shoulder its responsibility to strengthen the rules of international law so that no country could renege on its international commitments, including Security Council resolutions, at its own desire," Rouhani said. He said promise-breaking and lawlessness should not turn into a routine trend in the international community. "Transparent positions of the UN secretary general will be effective in preserving the JCPOA as a symbol of successful deal making and an outcome of dialog and diplomacy," he added, using an acronym for the official name of the Iran deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Iran has so far lived up to its commitments under the JCPOA despite the illegal US exit, said Rouhani, urging the UN to help get its member states to take practical measures to protect the JCPOA besides adopting political positions on the matter. Back in May, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA despite objections from the other signatories to the accord. Besides re-imposing the anti-Iran sanctions it had lifted under the accord, the Trump administration has also been seeking to discourage the European firms from doing business with Iran by threatening them with penalties. Elsewhere in his comments, Rouhani expressed Tehran's readiness to cooperate with the UN in resolving regional and international issues such as the crises in Yemen and Syria. "Iran, Turkey and Russia have been able to take good steps in establishing peace and security as well as fighting terrorism in Syria," the president said. He also expressed concerns about the humanitarian situation in Yemen, urging the UN to play a more active role in the impoverished country and deliver humanitarian aid to its citizens. The UN chief, for his part, hailed Iran's reaction in the face of Washington's pullout from the nuclear agrrement. As an international agreement, the JCPOA is endorsed by the United Nations and the Security Council and should be fully implemented, Guterres said. He added that the UN encourages Europe and Iran's other partners to stand against unilateral US sanctions, which the UN chief said do not conform to UN rules and could entail "humanitarian and economic consequences." The UN secretary general further appreciated Iran's efforts to resolve the Syria crisis and called for closer cooperation between Tehran and the world body concerning the counter-terrorism fight and aid delivery to crisis-hit people. Rouhani's meetings Separately on Wednesday, Rouhani held talks with his Swiss and Venezuelan counterparts, Alain Berset and Nicolas Maduro, as well as Italian and Malaysian prime ministers, Giuseppe Conte and Mahathir Bin Mohamad. In a meeting with the Malaysian premier, Rouhani called for enhanced cooperation among Muslim countries to counter terrorism and extremism, saying this could contribute to global stability and security. The Malaysian PM, for his part, described US sanctions against the Iranian nation as illegal, saying Tehran and Kuala Lumpur need to deepen bilateral relations to render American bans ineffective. Additionally, the Iranian president sat down with his Swiss counterpart. During the meeting, Rouhani said the JCPOA should be kept alive as an important international agreement. Berset, for his part, stressed that the Swiss government has always supported the deal and will make efforts to keep it alive, hailing Iran's wise response to Washington's unlawful withdrawal from the agreement. In a meeting with the Italian premier, Rouhani said that the US pullout from the JCPOA was "an insult to the UN and independence of countries." He further expressed his satisfaction with the attempts by the EU and Italy to defend the deal, adding, however, that Europe should take swift practical measures in this regard. Conte, for his part, voiced Italy's readiness to enhance its ties with Iran despite the problems that the US has created in the way of implementing the JCPOA. In a meeting with Maduro, Rouhani said that the Venezuelan and Iranian people have always been hit by US "aggression and sanctions." "The Americans invite us to dialog, and at the same time, are seeking to overthrow the Iranian government, thinking that if they put pressure on the people, they can achieve this goal. They don't, however, know that a government that enjoys people's support will not surrender to threats," he said. "Today, independent countries should develop relations in all fields and resist enemies' excessive demands and prove that the path they have taken is wrong." Maduro, for his part, called for resistance against enemies' efforts to gain dominance over nations by resorting to "terrorism." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia's Brief Taste Of Political Liberalization Drowns In Pig's Blood Robert Coalson, Lyubov Chizhova September 27, 2018 MOSCOW -- On the morning of September 25, 34-year-old Nadezhda Zagordan, a member of the municipal council of Moscow's Izmailovo district, opened her apartment door to find a bloody, severed pig's head on her doorstep with a knife sticking out of its skull. The previous morning, the same surprise was waiting outside the apartment door of Zagordan's mother. Police, so far, have not opened a criminal investigation. "They left not one pig's head, but two," Zagordan, who was elected as an independent candidate, told RFE/RL's Russian Service. "And not only outside my apartment, but outside the apartment where my parents live. This happened practically at once. Of course, I see this as a threat of physical violence." Zagordan is one member of a unique class of local officials in Moscow who came to office during the surprising elections of September 2017. At that time, truly independent and opposition-minded figures won about 20 percent of the 1,502 local council seats up for grabs in the capital, compared to 77 percent for the ruling United Russia party. Those modest results were hailed as a small but significant signal that the Kremlin was ready to tolerate genuine political pluralism for the first time since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000 -- hopes that the Kremlin itself helped to fan. "This is excellent," Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time. "They will take part in the life of the city and demonstrate their effectiveness. This is pluralism. This is political competition." "I always thought the region had to have independent representatives," Zagordan said when asked why she ran for office in 2017, "in order to inform people about upcoming changes, dangerous situations, and budget decisions. Because of all this, I decided to become a deputy and won in 2017 with a majority of voter support." Former Duma Deputy and opposition figure Dmitry Gudkov said at the time that the 2017 vote sent "a very important signal." One year later, the political signals in Moscow are coming in the form of severed pig heads and vandalized cars. "I have had other threats as well," Zagordan said. "In June, my car was vandalized, and they threw acid into it. I had to sell the car for parts. And that wasn't the first such case. Other deputies have also been threatened." In June, fellow Izmailovo district council member Anastasia Muralova, 29, was attacked on the street by someone who poured motor oil on her. That attack came shortly after Muralova successfully halted street repairs in the district that were being carried out illegally without a contract. On September 11, Vitaly Tretyukhin, a council member from the Pechatniki district, found the rear window of his car smashed with a brick. A severed pig's head had been left in the vehicle. In Tretyukhin's case, his supporters believe the incident was connected with the council member's work to halt illegal trash dumping at Moscow Oblast landfills, although they also suspect it could be over his exposure of corruption in local revitalization projects. Zagordan is also convinced the threats against her are politically motivated. "I have been involved in rather a lot of matters," she said. "And each matter has participants who are not interested in certain things becoming public or attracting the attention of the police. Absolutely any case could lead to actions like this. But I can't concretely point to any specific one." Over the last year, the new opposition council members, many of whom are associated with the liberal Yabloko party or ran as independents with the support of unregistered movements, have made their presence known even though they remain in the minority everywhere. A significant development in Moscow regional politics over the last year has been a wave of vocal and angry protests against illegal trash dumping and the expansion of landfills. The independent council members have played important roles in these actions, which have brushed up against the interests of companies controlled by the son of Russian Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika. The once optimistic independent local council deputies are on the cutting edge of Russia's shifting political climate. In the spring, Putin ran for and secured a fourth term as president without allowing opposition leader Aleksei Navalny or any other significant opposition figure to run against him. In the summer, the government sparked a national wave of anger with a plan to raise retirement ages that United Russia is now pushing through the legislature. Meanwhile, the newly created National Guard and the Interior Ministry's Antiextremism Center have stepped up efforts to contain political activism and dissent. Hundreds of cases have been opened against citizens for liking or posting political items on social media, while youths who have participated in demonstrations or unsanctioned campaigns have been interrogated and harassed. The United Russia-dominated status quo is mounting a defense, Zagordan believes. "The controlling organs, in my experience, don't properly respond to our complaints about illegal budget expenditures, illegal construction projects, illegally confiscated property, or the illegal transfer of property from one purpose to another," she told RFE/RL. "Unfortunately, I cannot say that I ever saw an appropriate reaction -- in general, we just get rejections. And I think this is due to the fact that the government organs are intertwined with the control agencies and law enforcement." Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson, based on reporting by RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Lyubov Chizhova Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-s-brief-taste-of- liberalization-drowns-in-pig-s-blood/29512994.html Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Army achieves new advancement in al-Safa hills, Sweida IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Sept 27, IRNA -- Syrian army units killed scores of Daesh (ISIS) terrorists including a number of snipers while advancing in the area of al-Safa hills, the last bastion of the Takfiri organization in the depth of Sweida eastern Badyia (desert). SANA reporter in Sweida said that army units, in cooperation with the supporting forces, engaged in fierce clashes with Daesh terrorists between the rocky cliffs in the direction of Qabir al-Sheikh Hussein in the area of al-Safa hills in parallel with conducting airstrikes and bombardments against positions and gatherings of terrorists in the area and its depth. The reporter added that army units established control over new areas of the cliffs that are full of caves and strategic positions used as fortifications by terrorists after killing many terrorists including a number of snipers, in addition to destroying their barricades, ammunition and machineguns. The reporter added that the new advancement achieved by army units on the western, southwestern and northwestern axes of al-Safa hills led to tightening the noose on Daesh terrorists and cutting their supply routes in al-Safa hills, in addition to depriving them of most of their water resources and foiling their infiltration attempts amid a state of successive collapses among their ranks in the depth of the area. 1396**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At UN, Iran, Russia, Turkey FMs exchange views on Syria crisis, Idlib situation Iran Press TV Thu Sep 27, 2018 09:17AM Top diplomats of Iran, Russia and Turkey which serve as guarantors of the Syria peace process have sat down for talks in New York on the latest developments in the country's Idlib Province, amid efforts to peacefully rid the area of terrorists. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian and Turkish counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu, held a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the trio had hailed a recent Moscow-Ankara agreement to set up a buffer zone in Idlib, the last major terrorist-held bastion in Syria. "The sides discussed in detail the situation on the ground, first of all in the Idlib de-escalation zone, and prospects for the launch of a really sustainable process of political settlement of the Syrian crisis," the ministry said in a statement. "Participants in the meeting highly assessed the agreements on the stabilization of the situation in Idlib that were reached in Sochi on September 17. These agreements make it possible to protect civilian populations while continuing uncompromised fight against terrorists," it added. Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met in the Black Sea resort of Sochi and announced an agreement on Idlib. The deal stipulates a demilitarized zone of 15-20 kilometers in Idlib along the contact line between the armed opposition and Syrian government troops by October 15. It also involves the withdrawal of "radically-minded" militants, including the al-Nusra Front, from the region. Elsewhere in its statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Zarif, Lavrov and Cavusoglu had, during the meeting, reiterated their commitment to the formation of a constitutional committee aimed at enabling "Syrians to decide about the future of their country by themselves." Iran, Russia and Turkey are operating as guarantors of the Astana process, a track of negotiations which have resulted in the return of a succession of militant strongholds to the government fold and movement of civilians to safe zones. The latest Turkey-Russia deal has suspended a Syrian military operation to liberate the city. Tehran and Damascus have both welcomed the agreement. Takfiris 'unlikely to resist buffer zone withdrawal' On Thursday, militant sources in Syria expressed confidence that their Takfiri rivals would leave the Idlib demilitarized zone, Reuters reported. A senior militant official said Tahrir al-Sham, the most powerful Takfiri terrorist group in Idlib, had sent secret feelers to the Turkish army in the last few days signaling they would comply with the buffer zone deal. "Matters are moving well and Tahrir al-Sham has pledged it is going to implement but without announcing its agreement," the source added. Ahmed Toma, another militant figure, said that he expected Tahrir al-Sham to honor the Idlib deal and dismissed risks of a showdown. "I foresee it will be implemented within the time set," he said. Moreover, Abdul Salam Abdul Razzak, a leading figure in the so-called National Liberation Front (NLF), an alliance of militant factions supported by Ankara, stressed that he did not expected "any hurdles in implementation" of the Idlib agreement. Iran will remain in Syria: Rouhani Observers say any potential Syrian military operation in Idlib would be Syria's "final battle" against terrorists. Thanks to Iranian and Russian help, Syrian government forces have liberated most of the areas captured by foreign-backed militants across the Arab country. During his meetings in New York, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani emphasized that Iran would maintain its military advisory role in Syria for as long as the Damascus government wanted it there. "Our presence in Syria will continue for such time that the Syrian government requests our presence," Rouhani said at a press conference in New York on Wednesday. He further noted that Iran was not seeking conflict with the US in the Middle East and questioned American forces' presence in the region. "We do not wish to go to war with American forces anywhere in the region," Rouhani said. "But we ask the United States to adhere to laws and to respect national sovereignty of nations." Tehran has been offering military advisory assistance to the Syrian army at the request of Damascus, enabling pro-government forces to speed up their advances against terrorist groups. The US and Israel, whose interests are at stake in Syria, have repeatedly called for an end to Iran's mission in the Arab country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Jordan Ready to Reopen Border With Syria - Foreign Minister Sputnik News 23:35 27.09.2018 UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - Jordan is prepared to reopen its border with Syria once the technical details of such a move are worked out, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told Sputnik on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. "In principle, we want to open borders. A technical committee is meeting right now to agree details that will allow us to open borders," Safadi said. The foreign minister stressed that Amman did not initiate the closure of the border. When the parties agree on technical details, they will move on to another step, Safadi added. Jordanian sources told Sputnik earlier this month that the Syria-Jordan technical committee held their first meeting on reopening the border on September 12. Jordan closed its border with Syria in 2015 after an array of militants, including the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia), seized large swathes of territory on the Syrian side. In July, Russian-backed Syrian government forces recaptured the Syrian territory near the Jordanian border in July, including the Nassib border crossing, which used to be one of the busiest checkpoints and main border crossings for Syrian exports to Jordan. Syria has been engulfed in an armed conflict since 2011. Syrian government forces are engaged in ongoing military operations to clear the country of terrorists. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel's 'Unprofessional' Actions Reason for Russia's Il-20 Plane Crash - Moscow Sputnik News 21:29 27.09.2018 ROME (Sputnik) - Israel's "erroneous, unprofessional and cowardly" actions led to the crash of a Russian Il-20 plane near Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. "The tragedy occurred on September 17 following erroneous, unprofessional and cowardly actions of one of our partners, despite Russia's efforts to develop the relationship with Israel, including when it comes to the issues that are important for them," Zakharova told the Italian Panorama magazine. At the same time, the spokeswoman also pointed at the positive changes that took place in Syria, such as the defeat of the majority of terrorist groups operating in the Middle Eastern country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that he had agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin that military delegations of the two countries would meet soon to discuss coordination in Syria. The Russian military jet Il-20 was downed on September 17 over the Mediterranean Sea by a missile launched by Syria's S-200 air defense system that was targeting Israeli aircraft. The Russian Defense Ministry said Israeli F-16 jets flying in the vicinity used the Russian aircraft as a shield against Syrian air defenses. The incident claimed the lives of 15 Russian servicemen. Israel has refuted the accusations of its aircraft using the Russian plane as a shield and maintains that Moscow was warned about the air raid in a timely manner. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The United States, the United Kingdom and France Co-Sponsor an UNGA High Level Event With Syrian Human Rights Defenders To Condemn Assad Regime Detentions in Syria Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC September 27, 2018 Senior representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and others concerned about the situation in Syria were briefed by Syrian human rights activists from the Center for Civil Society and Democracy in Syria, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, Families for Freedom, and the Syria Justice and Accountability Center on the estimated 210,000 individuals detained, 85,000 disappeared, and 14,000 tortured since the start of the conflict in Syria. The group stressed that the Assad regime used widespread torture and detention prior to the uprising to retain control of the population and targeted perceived opponents and their families. It will continue to do so as a means of retaining control and instilling fear in the hearts of Syrians. It was noted that the numerous UN resolutions since 2011 have called for unfettered access to regime detention facilities by a neutral party, condemned the regime's egregious conditions in detention facilities, and called for the release of detainees and the integration of detainees and missing persons concerns into all aspects of the UN-led political process. Please contact DRL-Press@state.gov, newsdesk@fco.gov.uk, or presse.new-york-dfra@diplomatie.gouv.fr for more information, or visit https://www.state.gov/j/drl.htm or follow us @StateDRL. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkey's Erdogan Visits Berlin to Reset Relations By Dorian Jones September 27, 2018 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan began a three-day state visit to Germany on Thursday, the latest step in rapprochement efforts after more than a year of acrimony that pushed bilateral ties to the breaking point. In in op-ed in the Thursday edition of Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Erdogan called for bilateral ties to "turn over a new page." The arrest of German citizens in Turkey has been a point of contention between the two NATO allies, and Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to press for their release. They include five Germans who Berlin says are being held for political reasons. Turkey's human rights record is also seen as a key obstacle in Erdogan's talks with German leaders. Berlin is a strong critic of an ongoing crackdown following a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, which led to the arrests of tens of thousands of people and the purging of just as many from their jobs. Erdogan last year accused Merkel of using Nazi tactics after Germany accepted thousands of political refugees in the wake of the failed coup against him. Erdogan regularly dismisses international human rights criticism, saying the judiciary is functioning normally and merely defending democracy. Some analysts, however, say the human rights issue could sour hopes of a new Turkish-German relationship. They also say the Turkish president will be under pressure to accommodate some of Berlin's demands. Others predict that both sides may be keen to prevent human rights from scuppering reconciliation efforts. Berlin's granting of a full state visit already is seen as a diplomatic victory for Erdogan. 'Togetherness of necessity' The Turkish leader now appears to be looking to the future, rather than dwelling on the past, according to analysts. "It's a marriage of logic, a togetherness of necessity they may not love each other, but they have to come together because the strategic and geopolitical imperatives forced both sides together and there is no way out," said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara's Middle East Technical University. "He [Erdogan] has seen in particular that without the German leader, you cannot do anything on the European continent." Erdogan is scheduled to hold several talks with Merkel during his three-day visit, as well as to attend a state banquet Friday in his honor, hosted by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Erdogan's visit comes as the Turkish economy is facing a crisis, with the currency falling in value by more than 40 percent this year. Analysts predict the Turkish economy is likely to need considerable financial support, given that Turkey owes upward of $140 billion in foreign-denominated loans, much of which is due to be repaid over the next 12 months. Ankara has repeatedly ruled out turning to the International Monetary Fund for help. Such a move, analysts say, would be politically toxic for Erdogan since he regularly touts freeing Turkey from dependence on IMF support as one of his most significant achievements. Berlin, along with the wider European Union, is promoted in Turkey as an alternative to the IMF. German and Turkish finance ministers met earlier in September in Berlin for talks that reportedly included possible German financial support. Johannes Hahn, EU enlargement commissioner, appeared, however, to rule out any wider EU support. "Turkey's current economic problems are essentially homemade. The situation cannot be solved by the EU or single member states giving out aid packages or credit to Ankara," he told the German Die Welt newspaper this week. Separately, Christian Lindner, the leader of Germany's pro-business Free Democrats, criticized the granting of the state visit, calling it a "propaganda victory" for Erdogan. Ankara has significant leverage over Berlin in its role as gatekeeper for refugees and migrants entering the European Union. An EU deal with Ankara two years ago resulted in a dramatic drop in migrant numbers leaving Turkey for the EU. Erdogan frequently has warned of ending the agreement. Opposition to Trump's moves U.S. President Donald Trump also is providing major impetus for improving relations between Erdogan and Merkel. The two leaders share opposition to Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the reimposition of sanctions. With key trading partner Iran providing oil for Turkey, Erdogan has ruled out imposing U.S. sanctions, putting Ankara on a collision course with Washington. Trump warned Wednesday that anyone who did not comply with U.S. sanctions would "face severe consequences." U.S.-Turkish relations continue to be profoundly strained for myriad reasons, and in August, U.S. tariffs imposed on Turkish goods triggered a collapse in Turkey's currency. Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat, underscores that Berlin is key for Ankara in resisting U.S.-Iranian sanctions. "The biggest ally for Turkey will be the EU, and among the EU countries it obviously will be Germany, and that is why we must watch very carefully when Erdogan is in Berlin," said Selcen. Erdogan is likely to be buoyed by EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini's Wednesday announcement of an initiative to create an alternative payment system to dollars in an effort to avoid U.S. sanctions in trading with Iran. The Turkish president is likely to be offered the lure of long-term business contracts with German companies. German media reported manufacturing company Siemens is on the verge of a $35 billion deal to modernize Turkish railways. Analysts point out Ankara will be aware that such mammoth contracts provide an essential incentive to Berlin to support the Turkish economy. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Multi-million-pound competition to destroy battlefield chemical weapons launched by UK and US The UK has launched a two-million-pound competition alongside the US in a joint-mission to safely eliminate chemical and biological devices on the battlefield. 27 September 2018 The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), part of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and UK Ministry of Defence, has launched the 'Don't Blow It!' competition, the first joint UK-US industry competition run by DASA and funded by the MOD and US Department of Defense. Competitors have been asked to identify innovative concepts or adapt current technologies to access, disable and destroy chemical and biological devices. This includes chemical and biological munitions, improvised explosive devices containing lethal agents or containers of bulk quantities of chemical or biological agents discovered on the battlefield or in other austere and resource-limited environments. Defence Minister Stuart Andrew said: "Horrific incidents stretching from Salisbury to Syria this year have shown us that chemical weapons are sadly still very much a reality but a reality that we are determined to deal with. Destroying these deadly weapons is a complicated process and not doing it properly could mean devastating collateral damage. These are challenges that we share with our allies like the US. Competitions like this help us to tackle them head on with some of the best and brightest minds across both our countries." Although it is over 100 years since the first large-scale use of chemical weapons, the threat from both chemical and biological weapons persists. This has been demonstrated by the recent rise in the use of such deadly weapons on the battlefield and in targeted attacks. Much progress has been made to destroy state-declared global stockpiles of chemical weapons through very successful large scale destruction programmes, utilising techniques such as incineration, explosive destruction or neutralisation. However, to meet emerging and future challenges, such as the destruction of smaller caches produced by terrorists in resource-limited or hostile environments such as Iraq or Syria, there needs to be a focus on developing more robust elimination capabilities that are less labour intensive. The competition has an initial 500,000 to fund multiple proof-of-concept proposals at low Technology Readiness Levels. Based on the outcome of the initial funding phase, an additional 1.5 million of funding could be released. The competition is seeking innovative ideas from non-traditional supply sectors and is looking for 'outside-the-box' proposals that will: - Enable rapid and flexible destruction - Reduce logistical support requirements - Maximise ease of operation and transportability - Address a greater breadth of threats MOD Chief Scientific Advisor, Dr Simon Cholerton said: "As the use of chemical weapons in Syria and the Novichok attack in Salisbury demonstrate, the risk from chemical weapons still remains and the issue of safely eliminating them from an austere tactical environment remains an enduring technical challenge. I am delighted therefore that we are working with our closest ally to launch a new industry competition to help us develop effective and safe elimination capabilities. Our collaboration is the first time we have launched a truly joint UK-US competition through the UK Ministry of Defence's Defence and Security Accelerator, which is charged with enabling us to innovate by rapidly transforming the ideas of today into the capabilities of tomorrow." Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, US DOD, The Hon. Guy Roberts said: "The expanding proliferation of chemical weapons use, from state and non-state actors, portends the greatest threat of their use on the battlefield since World War I. My responsibility is to ensure our forces are protected from, and can fight through, any such threats. To that end, we must continually innovate our capabilities, and it is especially important to do so in collaboration with those who fight alongside us. This competition does just that. It allows us to jointly invest in research and development with our closest ally as well as seek innovative ideas from a broader set of brilliant minds who I am confident will lead us to creative solutions." The competition will be launched at an event in London on the afternoon of 26th September. Potential suppliers will be provided with context on the challenge by both UK and US speakers, as well as information on how to apply to the competition by DASA. The submission deadline for proposals is 5 pm GMT (midday EST) on 7 November 2018. Follow this link for more information on the competition or contact DASA directly on accelerator@dstl.gov.uk NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address THE head of Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific, Horst von Sanden, is confident the Germany luxury marques first electric vehicle, the EQC SUV, will be a gamechanger for the company and the industry when it launches here late next year. In an interview with GoAuto at the launch of the updated C-Class in Victoria this week, Mr von Sanden said the company intended to offer every EQ model that makes sense in this marketplace which could be most, if not all of the 10 EVs planned by 2025 based on high expectations within the company and among prospective customers. While unable to provide specific figures, Mr von Sanden said the Australian subsidiary had been inundated with enquiries since the EQCs unveiling in Stockholm, Sweden, earlier this month, and that dealers had reported extremely strong early interest before officially taking deposits and firm orders when pricing is announced closer to launch. He also cautioned that Australian allocations of the EQC were still to be confirmed, and might only be low in the early period of production operating as a ramp-up scenario given the small size of the EV market here. But as a gamechanger, Mr von Sanden was unequivocal about the EQCs expected influence in Australia. It sure will, he said. Its obviously the first fully electric car that Mercedes-Benz will sell, and I think with the expectation of our prospects and customers, us being the experienced car brand that has invented the car and certainly having taken a bit longer before we bring out an electric car, I think there are high expectations and the word is already out there in the market that, Okay, if Mercedes is getting serious about electric cars, then this will be a gamechanger. These are not my words, these are words of consumers. I think theres quite a number of people waiting for it and being very confident and are going to buy one. Audi has also just unveiled the all-new, all-electric e-tron crossover due to launch next year, and its Australian arm has committed to selling every variant made available to this market. As to whether Mercedes would follow suit, Mr von Sanden said: (Its) probably a bit early to say. If the success we expect with the first vehicle comes true, then why not? Whilst we look in general in our range to reduce complexity, also for the benefit of the customer, it doesnt make a lot of sense to offer really every car, especially if we only sell very low volumes. But in general, we want to make every car that makes sense in this marketplace available to our customers. Mr von Sanden would not be drawn on nominating the potential number of EV sales the company could achieve as all-electric models are launched, saying it depends on market demand and how the recharging infrastructure evolves, the latter being an area Mercedes is quietly working on with potential partners. He also said he could not be certain that Mercedes would be the clear sales leader for EVs among the luxury brands including Tesla just as it dominates the market in overall terms. However, the Mercedes chief made it clear that we are ambitious, no doubt. I look at it in a pragmatic and simplistic way, he said. You know, if you have 132 years of experience, if you have invented the motor car, if you have been the technology leader in all different fields for so many years, I cant see a reason why, in a new field, this experience shouldnt come to fruition. Weve never been interested in power battles, really. Of course its great to be market leader, but I think we try to do it in a more subtle way. We try to put the right strategies into place to be successful, and dont run around and make big announcements that well be the leaders. Well see. We are ambitious, no doubt. If you dont only talk in numbers if you talk in technology and design (terms), yes, of course, thats part of our brand we want to be technology leaders, we want to be leaders in innovative design, and that is no different regardless of whether its combustion engine or electric. Mercedes-Benz Aust/Pac is committed to following the global directive that every model line will have some form of electrification by 2022. Asked if the migration to EVs should be left to the market or forced by government quotas or regulation, Mr von Sanden said: Forced is not a nice word. I would say supported ideally. I think in the end its the consumers choice, but the consumer needs to be given a motivation for change, and shouldnt be punished for the preparedness to change. The EQC will make its public debut at the Paris motor show next week and will enter production in the first half of next year alongside conventional Mercedes large cars at the companys Bremen plant in Germany. It will be followed by the EQA small hatch a concept of which was presented at the Frankfurt motor show last year before other models come on stream, including an EQB and EQS. The Road to Recovery podcast series (In United States dollars, except where noted otherwise) TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 - First Quantum Minerals Ltd. ("First Quantum" or the "Company", TSX Symbol "FM") today noted the following proposed changes to the Zambian mining tax regime that are pertinent to the Company. The proposed changes were included in the country's 2019 budget delivered on September 28, 2018 to the National Assembly and are expected to take effect from January 1, 2019. Mineral Royalty changes: Increase mineral royalty rates by 1.5% at all levels of the existing scale Introduce a fourth tier rate at 10% which applies when copper price above $7,500 per tonne Make mineral royalty tax non-deductible for income tax purposes Existing Mining Royalty rates 2019 Budget Announcement Less than $4,500 - 4% Less than $4,500 5.5% $4,500 - $6,000 - 5% $4,500 - $6,000 6.5% Greater than $6,000 6% $6,000 - $7,500 7.5% Greater than $7,500 10% Other key measures Introduce an import duty of 5% on copper and cobalt concentrates Introduce an export levy on precious metals including gold of 15% Abolish Value Added Tax and introduce a non-refundable Sales Tax (no detail on Sales Tax rate yet announced). Impact of the Mineral Royalty rate increase by 1.5% on 2017 All In Sustaining Cost (AISC): Kansanshi AISC per lb would increase from $1.54/lb to $1.58/lb Sentinel AISC per lb would increase from $2.19/lb to $2.23/lb Group AISC per lb would increase from $1.65/lb to $1.68/lb It is expected that there would also be an impact of the non-refundable Sales Tax on C1 and AISC however the rate is not yet known. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of First Quantum Minerals Ltd. G. Clive Newall President For further information visit our website at www.first-quantum.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Certain statements, information and analysis contained herein are based on the details of the 2019 Zambian budget as announced by the government of Zambia, and on assumptions in respect of the implementation of the same. The forward-looking statements include estimates, forecasts and statements as to the Company's expectations of production and sales volumes, and expected timing of completion of project development at Cobre Panama and Enterprise and are subject to the impact of ore grades on future production, the potential of production disruptions, capital expenditure and mine production costs, the outcome of mine permitting, other required permitting, the outcome of legal proceedings which involve the Company, information with respect to the future price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources, First Quantum's exploration and development program, estimated future expenses, exploration and development capital requirements, the Company's hedging policy, and goals and strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words 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 statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about continuing production at all operating facilities, the price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, anticipated costs and expenditures and the ability to achieve the Company's goals. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to, future production volumes and costs, the temporary or permanent closure of uneconomic operations, costs for inputs such as oil, power and sulphur, political stability in Zambia, Peru, Mauritania, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Panama, Argentina and Australia, adverse weather conditions in Zambia, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Mauritania and Panama, labour disruptions, potential social and environmental challenges, power supply, mechanical failures, water supply, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations, and the production of off-spec material. See the Company's Annual Information Form for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information. Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause actual results, performances, achievements or events not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of these factors are beyond First Quantum's control. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. All forward-looking statements and information made herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-quantum-minerals-comments-on-proposed-changes-to-the-mining-tax-regime-in-zambia-300720958.html SOURCE First Quantum Minerals Ltd. Insurer's for the Sepang International Circuit has made a payment of compensation to Haas F1 for damage to Romain Grosjean's car in a crash last season. The Haas driver crashed heavily in practice for the final Malaysian Grand Prix after a loose drain cover hit his car and caused him to spin into the barriers. Haas team principal Gunther Steiner confirmed to the media on Thursday ahead of the Russian Grand Prix that the team had finally received compensation with a payment from the circuit made 13 months after the incident occurred. We settled, the insurance was very good to deal with and we are happy. The insurance was very professional, they stood up for their responsibility. Its (been) a year now roughly, its a long time this case. I think its the first (time) something like this happened. It got sorted, they were good to deal with. There were so many parties involved as well. These things take always time. An insurance claim is never quick. Although the team finally received a payment, the figure was not revealed by Steiner who stated that the team was looking to cover the costs of the damage caused by the drain cover crash and nothing more. We were not looking for anything else. They agreed it wasnt our felt, there was something that went wrong and thats why they have insurance. GREENWICH The recent shooting death of a Stamford teenager was on the minds of many of those who gathered in Greenwich to hear Connecticuts assistant attorney general speak about legal challenges to gun safety legislation. Were tired and frustrated with the cycle of shootings, followed by thoughts and prayers, followed by inaction, said Jen Barro, group leader of the recently formed Greenwich chapter of Moms Demand Action, after referencing the murder of 16-year-old Marcus Hall. I think we owe it to our community to change our culture and improve our gun laws. The death of Hall the second fatal shooting of a teen in Stamfords West Side neighborhood in the past several months wasnt the only tragedy that propelled the crowd to action. Many of the dozen or so people who attended the Thursday night event, organized by Moms Demand Action and held at the YWCA Greenwich, indicated they had been directly affected by gun violence and most said they knew someone who had been. Connecticut Assistant Attorney General Maura Murphy Osborne detailed the origin story of Public Act 13-3, legislation passed by Connecticuts legislature shortly after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. And she recalled her fight in the U.S. Supreme Court to save it. Were proud of a lot of the laws our office has defended, Murphy Osborne said. But we are especially proud of the post-Sandy Hook gun laws we saved. The law expanded the states ban on assault-style weapons and implemented a ban on high-capacity magazines. It also strengthened gun seizure laws and mental health provisions. In Shew v. Malloy, the plaintiff, June Shew, claimed her Second Amendment rights were stifled by the law by preventing her from buying an AR-15. In the case, Murphy Osborne argued the Constitution doesnt afford the public the right to own extremely dangerous types of firearm. She drew on Antonin Scalias opinion in the landmark case District of Columbia v. Heller, which said though individuals do have the right to bear weapons that are commonly used, that right is not extended to all weapons. Murphy Osborne said she demonstrated through expert testimony that assault rifles like the AR-15 are essentially as deadly as weapons of war. The Sandy Hook shooter went in with an AR-15 and had 10 30-round magazines and a Glock pistol with a 17-round magazine. In under five minutes, he fired 154 bullets, she said. For practical purposes, an AR-15 operates in much the same manner as an M16. Public Act 13-3 withstood the federal challenge, but its constitutionality is still being decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court. Weve litigated it, and were hoping for favorable decision on that in the near future, Murphy Osborne said. Though the states gun laws are in good shape, Murphy Osborne said, she pointed to some developing national issues. A major question is: Do people have the right to carry a firearm outside of their home? she said. Connecticut does not restrict carry as long as its a suitable person. But federal courts all over the country are all saying different things. It will go to the Supreme Court in future, most likely. Ghost guns are another emerging legal issue, she said. The term refers to homemade or 3-D printed guns. Few studies have been done on gun violence in America, Murphy Osborne said, so its difficult to measure its true impact on society. Congress passed law 20 years ago that prohibits the Centers for Disease Control from using any funding to study gun violence, she said. A focus on the midterms Barro told the group Moms Demand Action is focusing its efforts for the first time on supporting political candidates who pledge to support gun safety laws. This year, for the first time, (Moms Demand Actions umbrella organization) Everytown is awarding the Gun Sense Candidate Distinction for candidates that have pledged to vote on the side of gun safety, she said. There are 97 candidates in Connecticut who earned the distinction, Barro said. This story was originally published on Sept. 27, 2018, and has been updated. The past eight months have been some of the most tumultuous in Facebooks 14-year history. In March, the public learned of Facebooks user data scandal and the now infamous Cambridge Analytica. The following month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in a series of Congressional hearings. May marked reports that the FBI and Justice Department were investigating the social media giant, and weeks later, more alleged data-sharing partnerships came to light. In July, the companys stock plummeted almost 20 percent after its quarterly earnings report, and an interview misstep by Zuckerberg -- when he mentioned that Facebook wouldnt necessarily remove content from Holocaust deniers -- led to public outcry. By August, a score of prominent executives had left the company. But September marked one of the biggest blows to the social media giant: The co-founders of Instagram, the popular photo-sharing app said to be driving a significant portion of Facebooks growth, announced their resignation. And today, less than a month later, Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe announced he was leaving Facebook -- reportedly due to differences in opinion over the future of Oculus. Here are the stories of six founders who sold their companies to Zuckerberg. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger (Instagram) The backstory: When Kevin Systrom created one of the earliest iterations of Instagram, he had a wealth of experience -- at a company that would later become Twitter, at a travel startup that sold to Facebook and at Google working in corporate development. It was early 2010, and the app -- called Burbn -- allowed users to check in to certain locations or post their plans. Instead, however, Systrom noticed they were sharing photos more than anything else. His co-founder Mike Krieger came aboard, and the two worked to create a social photo-sharing app. Instagram launched in October 2010, and less than two years later, Facebook shelled out $1 billion to call Instagram its own. The split: On Monday, Systrom and Krieger announced their resignation from Instagram and its parent company with a diplomatic statement. But reports point to rising tensions between the co-founders and Zuckerberg himself as key to their decision. Recently, Zuckerberg increased his involvement in Instagrams day-to-day operations. Whats more, Systrom and Krieger reportedly clashed with Facebook over a range of decisions, including the latters pushback over the creation of IGTV for fear it would compete with Facebook Watch. The status: In their statement, Systrom and Kriger said they wanted to explore [their] curiosity and creativity again. As for what else is on their horizon? Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; thats what we plan to do, they wrote. Palmer Luckey (Oculus) The backstory: Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey had a heavy hand in the rocket-like rise of virtual reality, thanks to a VR headset he built in his parents garage. The prototypes Kickstarter campaign made waves with investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund, even attracting Facebook, which paid $2 billion for Oculus in 2014. The split: Luckey stayed on as a Facebook employee until last year, when he and the company parted ways after reports said Luckey allegedly funded a pro-Trump troll group leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Zuckerberg maintains that politics did not factor into Facebooks decision to end its relationship with Luckey. The status: At his new company, Anduril Industries, Luckey is working on a new system to detect unauthorized border crossings at the U.S. border. He aims to replace Trumps idea for a physical wall with a digital one -- an intelligent surveillance tool with virtual reality wrapped in -- thats always watching the countrys border. Luckey hopes to work with the Department of Homeland Security to implement the technology. Brendan Iribe (Oculus) The backstory: Brendan Iribe partnered with Palmer Luckey in 2012 to launch Oculus's first Kickstarter campaign, which brought in about $2.4 million. He then took up the mantle as CEO after Facebook purchased the company and, in December 2016, stepped down to lead another arm of Oculus. The split: Iribe announced his impending departure from Facebook today. Although in a Facebook post Iribe mentioned he wanted to thank everyone who's been a part of his journey, "especially Mark [Zuckerberg] for believing in this team and the future of VR and AR," TechCrunch reports that Iribe and the Facebook executive team had fundamentally different views on the future of Oculus that grew deeper over time." The status: In his announcement, Iribe mentioned that this will be the first real break he's taken in 20 years -- and that he's looking forward to recharging, reflecting and embarking on his next chapter. As for his thoughts on the future of Oculus? "This is our time to be pushing the state-of-the-art onward and upward," Iribe wrote. "Every part of VR and AR needs to improve, especially the hardware and core technology, and Oculus has the best team in the world to do that. Although were still far from delivering the magical smart glasses we all dream about, now they are nearly within our reach." Brian Acton (WhatsApp) The backstory: Brian Acton, the 44th employee at Yahoo, met Jan Koum in 1997, when Koum came to inspect the companys advertising system. The two went on to become fast friends -- and after they both left Yahoo 10 years later, Facebook rejected their job applications. When Apple launched the App Store, Koum went through a few iterations of the secure international texting app before almost throwing in the towel in 2009. Acton convinced him to stick with WhatsApp, and a few months later, he raised $250,000 in seed funding -- earning him the title of co-founder, granted by Koum. Five years later, Facebook bought WhatsApp for close to $22 billion in a bombshell acquisition, paying about $55 per user. The split: When Acton left Facebook last year, he attributed the decision to his desire to focus on a nonprofit. But in March, the Cambridge Analytica scandal sparked Acton to write a bold message on Twitter: It is time. #deletefacebook. It remains the most recent post on his Twitter page. (Koum, for his part, left Facebook in April.) Acton spoke publicly for the first time on Wednesday, telling Forbes that he and executives disagreed about the level of encryption necessary for WhatsApp -- as well as Facebooks desire to incorporate targeted ads and commercial messaging. He walked away from the social media giant in September 2017, deciding to leave as much as $850 million on the table in not-yet-vested stock. The status: Acton has invested $50 million in Signal, a messaging app hes working with in order to essentially realize his original dream for WhatsApp: free, end-to-end encrypted calls and messages without ad partnerships. Hes also siphoned $1 billion from his Facebook earnings into philanthropy efforts serving healthcare in low-income areas and early childhood development. Jonathan Perlow (Beluga) The backstory: In 2011, three former Google employees launched Beluga, a group messaging service for Android and iOS that was designed for easy use with Facebook. One of them, Jonathan Perlow, made use of his past experience developing Gmails user interface. After Beluga went viral -- and less than a year after its launch -- Facebook acquired the company, hiring Perlow and his co-founders. The social media giant aimed to create a standalone messaging client, and Beluga would become the foundation for todays Facebook Messenger. The split: Perlow left Facebook in June 2016 to start Trove Technologies, a full-service storage service that picks up, stores and returns items to customers. He co-founded the company with Michael Pao, Ubers former head of product, and the two designed Troves online view of your own storage space, with items photographed, catalogued and available for delivery request. The status: Perlows roles at Trove mirrors the ones he held at Beluga: co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO). In 2017, Trove secured $8 million in funding. Nikita Bier (TBH) The backstory: Nikita Bier launched TBH, an app allowing users to send anonymous compliments to their friends, with three co-founders in the summer of 2017. He didnt have high hopes -- he had tried to launch as many as 14 apps in the past, and he knew the team would soon run out of funding. But within two days of TBHs soft launch in a Georgia high school, about 40 percent of the original high school had downloaded the app -- and it had spread to three other schools. In order to combat trolling, Bier made sure the apps questions were structured in poll format -- for example, Who has the best laugh? followed by the option to select one of four friends. By October 2017, Facebook had acquired TBH, reportedly for less than $100 million. The split: In July, Facebook announced it would shut down TBH due to low usage. The app reportedly had 5 million downloads at the time it was acquired, and the day after the deal went through, it ranked number one on the App Stores daily download charts. But a little over a month later, TBH had fallen off the list of the top 500 daily downloads, which didnt bode well for its future. The status: Bier told Business Insider that despite Facebooks decision to discontinue the app, he would stay with the company and, as a product manager on the Youth team, continue to build new products alongside the former TBH team. Related: Instagram, Oculus, WhatsApp and More: Here's How Things Panned Out for 5 Founders Who Sold to Facebook Alexa, I Feel Sick Can Big Tech Solve the Growing Crisis in Healthcare? Facebook's Portal Gets Even Creepier. 3 Things to Know Today. Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Martin Divisek, Bloomberg Steve Bannon's crusade to unify right-wing forces in the European Union before the bloc's parliamentary elections next year may have hit a speed-bump after a populist firebrand disagreed with his views on trade. The mastermind of Donald Trump's 2016 election victory met Czech President Milos Zeman, an early fan of the U.S. leader, this week in Prague. Zeman also welcomed Petr Bystron, a lawmaker for the euroskeptic, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party that is part of Bannon's push to bring together anti-establishment groups to challenge the EU's liberal order. As a smartphone enthusiast, there arent too many reasons to unlock a bootloader anymore. In the past, people used to unlock the phones firmware so they could flash software that had more to offer than factory ROMs. In many cases they were quicker, leaner, and offered more functionality and customization than bloatware-laden carrier firmware of the time. Those days are long gone as all Android phones nowadays are well-optimized, have plenty of customization, and offer most features we need in a device. However, for those who would like to develop custom firmware or apps on Nokia devices, Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer for HMD, tweeted that Nokia will allow customers to officially unlock their devices bootloader. To the passionate developer and modding community out there, we have news to share! You can now unlock the bootloader of your #Nokia8. #BootloaderUnlock #Nokiamobilehttps://t.co/v61TmWNbV9 pic.twitter.com/EUuuzf3cKq Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) September 27, 2018 Unlocking a bootloader is not for everyone. Nokia says it will void your warranty and once unlocked, your device will no longer be eligible for a warranty, even if you relock it. Unlocking a bootloader will cause certain apps to stop working like Netflix, some banking apps, and Google Pay will not work since the devices security is compromised. Head to the Source link where you can sign up to request a bootloader unlock code from Nokia for the Nokia 8, and presumably, a few other Nokia devices. You should not unlock the bootloader unless you know what youre getting into. Happy flashing! Source Haiti - Economy : Training for 150 beneficiaries of the Support Program for Youth Entrepreneurship As part of the second component of its Program to Support Youth Entrepreneurship (PAPEJ), the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MCI) organizes on 27 and 28 September 2018 a training in business management and accounting for 150 companies recipients of the PPAJ. It should be remembered that the PAPEJ aims to promote youth entrepreneurship while helping them, on the one hand, to launch innovative income-generating activities and on the other, to consolidate their entrepreneurial activities through technical and financial support aimed at to promote the development and creation of wealth. This workshop, which brings together mainly young Haitian entrepreneurs working in activities likely to boost the national economy, aims to help beneficiaries acquire the knowledge necessary for effective management of their businesses. In his speech Ronell Gilles, the new Minister of MCI announced "The MCI will go further by providing post-financing support to beneficiary companies. This is the last component of the program that aims to mentor young entrepreneurs after financing their business in the execution of their business plan. To this end, the Ministry through the PAPEJ intends to assist the beneficiary companies in the different stages of their growth to ensure their viability." The Minister also encouraged young people to cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit, exploit the potential of Haiti and support the local economy by developing companies capable of generating jobs. Daniel Denis, the Director General of the Ministry recalled the importance of supporting job creation through local economic initiatives "Haiti needs work to get out of poverty. Also, the Government can only rejoice in an initiative that allows the creation of jobs while enhancing the competence of young people "inviting participants to become promoters of the potential of Haitian youth concluding" Be part of those who believe in the future of Haiti that are undertaking, that contribute to creating wealth." HL/ HaitiLibre Published on 2018/09/28 | Source BTS pose with the hosts of ABC's "Good Morning America" in this photo posted on GMA's Instagram on Wednesday. BTS appeared on U.S. network ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday. Advertisement Times Square in Manhattan, where the ABC Studio is located, was packed with BTS fans, known as the ARMY, who gathered from the night before to watch the interview. Hosts Michael Strahan and Robin Roberts introduced the boys as "the biggest boy band in the world". When Strahan asked how they felt about their Idol music video garnering more than 200 million views, the group's leader RM said they did their best in making the song and that its success was all due to their fans. BTS also talked about the speech they made at the UN on Monday. They were invited to an event as part of UNICEF's "Generation Unlimited", which is "dedicated to increasing opportunities and investments for children and young people". They urged young people to find their voice. RM, who gave the speech on behalf of the band, said, "I think I did it okay. I was holding the paper and my hands were shaking. It was a nervous thing, but it was the best moment in my life". BTS, dressed in colorful suits, performed Idol after the interview. The hashtag #BTSonGMA had more than 1.8 million tweets on the day, trending No. 1 worldwide. On Tuesday, BTS made an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon". The show, hosted by actor and comedian Fallon, is one of the most popular programs on NBC. Fallon mentioned that tickets for their concert at Citi Field in New York sold out in 10 minutes and asked what about the band's next goal. They said they want to go to the Grammys. BTS has appeared on numerous popular shows on the U.S. networks, including "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" on ABC, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", "The Late Late Show with James Corden" and "America's Got Talent". By Vasia Orion | Published on 2018/09/27 I've seen my share of dysfunctional romances in Korean drama, but a romantic comedy based on revenge against the other party is really pushing that envelope. Jo Bo-ah has joined "My Strange Hero" as said party, the first love of Yoo Seung-ho's character, and the target of his revenge. Here's hoping for a huge misunderstanding. Advertisement Yoo Seung-ho plays Kang Bok-soo, whose first name is the epitome of subtlety, as it actually means revenge. Bok-soo was expelled from high-school after being framed as a perpetrator of violence, with his first love and another friend being the ones who have betrayed him. The drama is a 'cheerful school romance' about him re-entering the same school as an adult in order to have his revenge. Yep, sounds cheerful. Jo Bo-ah plays Son Soo-jong, and although she was a top student back in her school days, she has been repeatedly failing to pass the teachers' certification exam. This brings her back to her alma mater, where she works as a fixed term teacher. It is there where she reunites with Bok-soo, and where their ill-fated relationship will need some major airing out. Hopefully of the 'my future wife did not actually ruin my future' variety. Jo Bo-ah has shared that she is happy to be starring in a romantic comedy, a genre she has wanted to try. She has also expressed her fondness for the script, and her wish to convey that excitement to viewers. I'm not sure how the whole 'cheerful revenge' bit is going to work, but I've seen stranger things happen. "My Strange Hero" will follow "Where Stars Land" on SBS. Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings' Sources (1) (2) By Emily Mayer Today was the day! Sept. 28 was the date for the fourth Liberty Loan drive to raise funds to fight the war over there. Local projections were that Hill County for the fourth time would oversubscribe its goal of $100,000, and there was a very lengthy article on The Havre Plaindealers Sept. 28, 1918 front page encouraging Hill County residents to be patriotic and support the troops. To punctuate the point, another full page ad ran on the back page with a Doughboy in battle and a list of reasons why you should buy Liberty bonds, including You couldnt be 100% American if you didnt, You couldnt take off your hat to the flag with half the sense of ownership if you didnt, and You couldnt read the war news with half the eager faith if you didnt. Local grocers and meat market owners met to discuss war regulations and to implement changes to business operations to reflect those regulations. HAVRE MERCHANTS START CONSERVATION Will Make Only One Delivery Each Day Havre, Montana Sept. 26, 1918. At a meeting of retail meat and grocery stores of Havre, held Wednesday evening, Sept. 25th, in the office of and presided over by County Food Administrator E. C. Carruth, it was decided to adopt the War Industries Boards request to make only one delivery a day of meats and groceries. Therefore, on and after Oct. 1st, 1918 all meats and groceries ordered until twelve oclock noon will be delivered the afternoon of the same day as ordered. All such orders placed after twelve oclock will be delivered the following day in the afternoon. Goods purchased in the store may be carried home by the buyer at any time. It is further agreed that a charge of ten cents will be made for each delivery of meats and groceries not amounting to $1.00 sale and such charge of ten cents is to be added on the sales slip. The War Industries Board at Washington insist on the reduction of deliveries for the following reasons: 1. Saving of man power. 2. Saving of gasoline, now in great demand by U. S. Government. 3. Saving of upkeep on delivery cars and wagons. E. C. CARRUTH Food Administrator for Hill Co. In Havres early days, one could call or come in person and place an order at the food store of your choice and they would deliver your groceries, meat, dairy products, etc. to your service door, or if you didnt have a service door, your back door. Several homes in Havre had a service door meant specifically for deliveries. Delivering groceries-now thats what I call customer service! Speaking of groceries, the local Price Regulating Committee met to set prices on various grains and foodstuffs. A couple of months back, I included a list of those grains the committee would be charged with setting the price for, but that list has expanded to include Victory Bread (unwrapped, 16 oz. loaf for ten cents or wrapped for a penny more); beans; vegetables; evaporated milk; butter (55 cents per pound); oleomargarine (40 cents per pound); lard; bacon; syrup; ham, and salmon. The committee composed of V. R. Griggs, H. A. Miller, C. M. McCatherine, A. C. Vanderhorck, J. T. Moody and E. C. Carruth. The women were busy completing garments to donate to the troops or to the less fortunate. Petticoats, chemises (shirts); pajama suits (meant to sleep in, folks, not wear out in public like I see nowadays); boys suits and shirts; socks; afghan squares to be made into completed afghans later; quilts; hospital shirts; and sweaters were donated, as was tin foil for use in the war effort. Others donated cash to the Red Cross for the war effort. The Red Cross also issued the following article. SAVE NUT SHELLS AND FRUIT PITS FOR THE RED CROSS To save the lives of our men from German poison gas, a certain kind of carbon is needed for the making of gas masks. The best form of carbon for this purpose is made from cocoanut shells, but at present there is an acute shortage of these. The most satisfactory substitute for the cocoanut are, in the order named, peach stones, apricot pits, prune pits, plum pits, olive pits, date seeds, cherry pits, brazil nut shells, hickory nut shells, walnut shells, and butternut shells. Save these and ship them to the Red Cross at Great Falls, which is the collection center for Montana. All pits and shells must be thoroughly dried, either in ovens or by the sun, before they are shipped. There is no reason for separating the pits and shells in any way. Ship them all together. Another piece of lengthy news that would signal the beginning of a new era was also found on the Plaindealers front page. The Border Liquor Store near the Canadian border on Wild Horse Road was the subject of a raid. The store itself had very little liquor, but upon the Assistant Attorney General Groruds inspection of the barn, the story was a bit different. Grorud packed along Undersheriff Roberts and Deputy Sheriff Syverud along with him, thus involving the local sheriffs office in the raid. The Attorney Generals office had long had an issue with the illegal actions taking place in and around Havre, and the 1916 initiative passed by voters to implement Prohibition only made things more convenient for the state Attorney Generals office to intervene in local vice. Joe LeSeuer, Eval Bolton and B. M. Wilbur were arrested and charged with selling, bartering or delivering alcohol, in violation of the law. Grorud himself was charged with forcible entry and detainer and with unlawfully and maliciously seizing anothers property. Also charged in connection with the case was Harley Ward with carrying concealed weapons, and displaying a deadly weapon. Grorud brought Ward and the Rev. Huston with him to the raid and after Ward was charged, Grorud tried to get the charges dropped. Hill County Attorney Griggs claimed to know nothing of the charges but would go over evidence and if Mr. Grorud has been guilty of violation of our criminal statues he will be prosecuted the same as any other individual would be. It just so happened to be an election year. More on this story in future columns! Wednesday, during Native American week, the sacred kettle dance, returned to Fort Belknap Indian Reservation after being lost for generations, Ken Tuffy Helgeson, a language and culture teacher at Hays-Lodge Pole schools, said Thursday. It was a historic day. We havent had that dance for a long, long, time, he said, adding that this dance holds a special place due to it being the basis of their powwow. The dance was lost to the tribes at Fort Belknap about 100 years ago as people who knew it died, he said. The positions are organized for the powwow according to the kettle dance, he said. The dance has origins in the area that became Nebraska, Helgeson said. Tribes used to share dances, usually giving some offering in order to receive the dance. The sacred kettle dance is the foundation of the grass dance, Helgeson said, and other tribes may have their own dances but this dance was specific to their tribes. The kettle dance was given back to the Aaniiih Nakoda people from the Kainai Nation, or Blood Tribe, out of Canada, who were one of the few tribes that were given and still had the specific dance. Helgeson said it has been absent from the community for so long that it was a special occasion for the children during Native American Week to see the dance. Little Don Racine III said this also was been followed by the re-creation of the Grass Dance Society at Fort Belknap. Students have already begun to show support and have worked alongside elders in building the society, he added. John Stiffarm, a teacher from Harlem schools, said it was exciting and incredible to see the dance come back. Now Ive settled down, I realize how special of a day it was, he said, adding that something that has been absent from the community for so long making its way back is historic. The dance is so deeply rooted with the actual powwow, he said, it will give everyone a better understanding of the positions in the committee and bring back the history and reasons why things are set up for the powwow as they are. Some things are destined, he added, with everything falling into place perfectly during Native American Week and the return of the kettle dance. Look for more on the Kettle Dance in next Fridays Hi-Line Living Press release The Havre-Hill County Library will host Montana Conversations program Homestead Dreams: From High Hopes to Lingering Legacy with storyteller Hal Stearns Monday. The program will be at the Havre-Hill County Library at 7 pm. The presentation is free and open to the public. Hal Stearns describes the American Wests last great agricultural land rush and what followed, illustrating his talk with a myriad of signs left on the landscape. Montana has always been a state marked by boom and bust the fur trade, cattle on the open range, the gold and silver, coal and oil rushes. But no moment in our history has left a mark quite like that of the honyocker or homesteader. Thousands trekked west at the beginning of the 20th century in search of a dream. The agrarian paradise worked for a time but then came drought and depression. Stearns, a 34-year educator, taught high school students in Montana and Germany and graduate students at the University of Montana. He was honored as Montanas teacher of the year and outstanding U.S. history teacher. He was also a Keizio Koho Scholar to Japan, two-time National Endowment of the Humanities Fellow and Wake Forest University Center for Law Related Education Scholar. His Bachelor of Arts is from Notre Dame and masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Montana. In the military, he served in the Montana National Guard for 35 years in a number of command positions. He retired as a brigadier general. He has served on many boards, including Humanities Montana, Montana Coal Board, Nebraska and Montana Lewis and Clark commissions, the National Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Board and Nebraskas Wayne State College Board. Today, Stearns is an instructor for the University of Montanas Lifelong Learning Institute and Humanities Montana. He has a particularly fond interest in sharing his passion for Montana and the West and education with community members, students, teachers and administrators. He has led tours coast to coast and lectured in over 40 states, Germany, England, Japan, Korea and Brazil. For more information, people can call the Havre-Hill County Library at 265-2123. Funding for the Montana Conversations program is provided by Humanities Montana through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Montanas Cultural Trust, and private donations. Walk at Northern remembers missing and murdered indigenous women Sweetgrass Society member Justin Goggles Sr., left, offers prayers and a blessing Thursday to all the missing and murdered indigenous women at Montana State University-Northern. The Society held an awareness walk and placed memorial markers in front of the teepees set up on the northeast corner of campus. Editors note: This version is updated to show that U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., has called for a hearing on missing and murdered indigenous women. A local college group held a remembrance of people affected by an issue that is gaining national headlines - missing and murdered indigenous women. "People just really want to find their loved ones," said Sweetgrass Society member Kiara Love minutes before attendees started arriving at Thursday's walk at Montana State University-Northern. "Even just the bodies, because in our culture that's such an important thing that goes on. So it's really hard on a family to not even know. This needs to end. Not a lot of people are talking about it; not a lot of people know about it." The Awareness Walk for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women started at the Student Union Building on Northern's campus. The goal of the Sweetgrass Society, the group formed to unify and provide for communication among Native American students, in holding the walk was to raise awareness for the many missing Native American women. "I would like to see more news reports," Love said. "We don't see very much. Unless it's on Facebook. This past summer I saw my family sharing different missing persons posters from different reservations. So it's like we only have Facebook and certain people who care to post when it should be everywhere." Half of the missing women in Montana alone are Native American women, though Native American women only make up 6 percent of the total population, according to the documentary "Missing, Murdered and Native" that was screened prior to the walk. In the same documentary, local activist Ivy MacDonald discusses how Montana is so vast and open that it makes it nearly impossible to locate people who have gone missing. The poster for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's Walk states that, since the beginning of 2018, 20 Native American women have gone missing in Montana. Four out of 5 Native American women experience violence of some sort and have no resources available to them, the documentary added. One-third of Native American women will have been raped at some point in their lives. Part of the problem lies in the jurisdictional spider web that surrounds tribal lands. Most tribes have their own tribal police force, but the number of officers on the force is grossly inadequate for the area they are asked to cover. Sweetgrass Society member John Healy said this is a similar issue on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. According to their website, Fort Belknap covers 675,147 acres which is approximately 1,055 square miles. The directory lists seven police officers along with the chief, lieutenant and sergeant of police. That equates to about 105 squaremiles for each police member. "We need more police involvement," Sweetgrass Society Secretary-Treasurer Morgan Lilley said. Love added that "most people assume these women were out drinking, but that's not the case." Furthermore, jurisdiction needs to be established, some say. When a crime happens on tribal land, authorities must determine if the case will be handled by state, county, federal or tribal law enforcement. This is believed to be the reason why most cases are never solved according to the documentary "Death and Disappearance in Indian Country." "Most people are afraid to speak out because they believe nothing is going to happen," Lilley said. Once the documentaries concluded, attendees picked up signs attached to stakes that had the names of all the missing and murdered Indigenous women. Listed under their names were various dates - "The dates are the last date of contact," Healy said. Then the group made the one-mile walk through the surrounding, rain-filled neighborhoods in a testament to how close this issue is to their hearts. The crowd walked to the Northern campus at the grassy area just off 11th Street, where three teepees had been erected earlier this week. As the crowd arrived, they planted the signs in front of the teepees with the names facing the street. Jonathan Nepoose introduced Justin Goggles Sr., a member of the Northern Arapaho tribe from Wyoming, to lead the concluding ceremony. Goggles performed two songs from his tribe's culture; one honoring the missing and murdered women and the other a blessing for all those who showed up to participate. Prior to his songs, he offered a simple statement. "Women are very important," he said, "they give us life. That is why we must respect our women." After the blessing, the crowd moved back into the Student Union Building where soup and frybread were served. Goggles talked again, during an interview in the SUB, about the importance of women. "Think about home," he said as a little girl handed him his soup and frybread. "What do you think about? You're thinking about your mother, aren't you? I know I always do. When I think of home, I think of my mother. That's how important women are." Some awareness is growing within the United States government regarding missing and murdered indigenous women. U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., introduced Senate Bill 1942, Savanna's Act, into Congress Oct. 5, 2017. The act is aimed toward making law enforcement and justice protocols standardized with regards to missing and murdered Native Americans. The bill also seeks to develop protocols to investigate these cases and provide tribes and law enforcement agencies with training and technical assistance relating to the implemented protocols. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., a supporter of Savanna's Act, also called for a Senate hearing regarding the crisis of missing Native American women last month. Last week, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., also sent a letter requesting a hearing. Justice and closure remain elusive for some of these missing and murdered women, Kiara Love said, but if people can raise awareness and get the nation to see that it is a crisis, maybe the nation can take a step forward to bringing peace to hurting families. Maybe the people can get a step closer to bringing home aunts, daughters, sisters, cousins and even mothers, she said. Students along with their family and community members participate in a powwow held at the gymnasium of Hays-Lodge Pole High School an Fort Belknap Indian Reservation Thursday. Students from Dodson, Harlem, Chinook and St. Paul's Mission also took part. The powwow at Hays-Lodge Pole High School Thursday, the finale of Native American Week activities on Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, saw great success, with many schools throughout the area coming together for the event, said Ken "Tuffy" Helgeson, a language and cultural teacher at Hays-Lodge Pole The powwow was the final scheduled event for the week, he added. This is the first year that Hays-Lodge Pole, Harlem and Dodson schools organized, in a group effort, events throughout the week to help students understand and be immersed in Native heritage and be educated in the cultural roots of many of their students, said "Little" Don Racine III, a language and cultural teacher at Hays-Lodge Pole. He added that many different community groups and programs assisted with the activities during the week. Watch for more on the schools' Native American Week activities in next Friday's Hi-Line Living. As students from the various schools came into the Hays-Lodge Pole gymnasium, some students were getting dressed into their regalia, getting ready for the powwow. Racine said almost 1,000 students attended the powwow, coming from Harlem, Dodson, Chinook, St. Paul's Mission and Hays-Lodge Pole. He added that some of the students are in full regalia, but that wasn't a requirement and all students were welcome to participate. Two drum circles, made up of both students and adults, beat drums and sang as other students, by grade, walked and danced during the grand entry before making their way back to their seats. Fort Belknap Community Council President Andrew Werk Jr. stood in the middle of the circle holding the Eagle staff, beside military veterans and other tribal council members holding the U.S., Montana and Fort Belknap flags. Princesses from different tribes and areas stood behind them, along with the school principals, staff and community members who played a role in organizing the event. People attending were of all ages and races, celebrating the idea of coming together as one in a community, Harlem Principle Doug Komrosky told the people at the powwow. Everyone should know that Racine and Helgeson worked very hard to make the week and the powwow possible, he added. "Those two people have been instrumental in this entire celebration and that's exactly what it is," he said. "You notice we are not all Natives, we are not all whites, we're all human beings. We've learned in the last five days that we're all the same, right, wrong or indifferent we're all the same. That's what we celebrate." During the powwow, students were given the chance to dance in several different styles by grade and win prizes. Organizers also honored some of the students who worked hard to help with the events throughout the week, presenting them with quilts. Racine, who is of the Aaniiih Tribe, said in an interview that he was thankful to everyone who helped organize the event and to all the different groups and schools that participated in teaching the students. He said the lesson he would like every student to leave the powwow, and the events throughout the week, with is to "know who they are." Helgeson said the he was happy to see so many different people from so many different areas at the event, adding that the goal of the week was to make the students into a community where they learn and understand, embrace their cultures and walk away with new knowledge and respect for the traditional teachings of the tribes. "Be proud of who you are, everyone," Helgeson said. "Every race of man has strong rich heritage ... always walk with grace and beauty, be respectful." He added that they hope Native American Week next year activities will be even bigger next year with more schools and communities involved. Montanans will have a direct say in what we pay when the 6 mill university levy comes before us again this election year as LR 128 on the November election ballot. There may be other states that have statewide voted university levies, but Im not aware of them. In the case of the 6 mill levy, a top-heavy majority of Republican and Democratic legislators voted last year to refer it to Montana voters as the Legislature has done every 10 years since the 1947 session. It has always passed; it has never been increased. There may be other issues in Montana that have a history of strong bipartisan support lasting for 70 years, but Im not aware of those, either. Over the years, conservative and liberal governors including Republicans Tim Babcock, Stan Stephens, Marc Racicot and Judy Martz, and Democrats Tom Judge, Ted Schwinden, Brian Schweitzer and Steve Bullock have publicly supported the 6 mill levy. Even in this era of increasing partisanship, the 6 mill continues to stand out, perhaps uniquely, as a matter on which Montanans across party lines can still agree. According a recent statement by Republican Sen. Steve Daines, I join Montana voters in supporting the continuation of common sense investments in our schools so that future generations can also benefit from our states public education system. The 6 mill levy has served as the traditional building block of Montana education funding for nearly 70 years, and has also received the bipartisan support of Montanas State Representatives and Senators, as well as a multitude of community leaders. According to Sen. Jon Tester, Montanans have seen the value of the 6 mill levy for the last 70 years because we know that investing in our kids, the future of this state, is a Montana value. A vote to renew the 6 mill levy is a vote to give students the educational tools they need to decide their own futures. These Montana leaders have all realized that while higher education builds a strong workforce and a strong economy, it also provides vital and ongoing research. In the years since World War II Montana crop yields have increased by over 100 percent. Research in seeds, soils, drought and temperatures at MSU in Bozeman and affiliated Agricultural Experiment Stations around the state have made this happen. The Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience at UM has been a national leader in studying proteins that move small molecules in and out of brain cells. Because these proteins occur in excessive levels on glioblastoma tumors, UM scientists research on inhibitors may lead to effective new therapies while spurring economic development in Montana. The 6 mill levy is a great, good, and uniquely Montana tradition. Our great-grandparents established it for our grandparents who renewed it for our parents and us at the same rate of 6 mills. It is now our turn to pass on the same level of support for higher education to our kids and their kids. Bob Brown is a former Montana secretary of state and state Senate president and serves as the treasurer of Montanans for the Six-mill. Turkey, Azerbaijan to cooperate in long-term marketing, joint production activities, says Turkish company deputy. As Anadolu Agency writes in the article Azerbaijan offers Turkey defense cooperation, the Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Company (MKEK) received a defense cooperation offer from Azerbaijans Ministry of Defense Industry, the companys deputy head said. In our meeting with the officials from the Ministry of Defense Industry, we [MKEK] received an offer to cooperate in long-term marketing and joint production activities. "I assume that we will launch a work on this, the Deputy Chairman of MKEK, Arif Akgul, told Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of the 3rd Azerbaijan International Defense Exhibition (ADEX) in capital Baku. Pointing that the cooperation is on the table, Akgul said it would boost MKEKs presence in Azerbaijan. He also said MKEK provided great support to the defense industry of Azerbaijan, exampling Turkish made sniper rifle in the inventory of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. Noting that there are 35 factories under the Ministry of Defense Industry of Azerbaijan, Akgul said that the MKEK supports these factories with semi-finished and finished products. "We want to significantly move forward our relations with the Ministry of Defense Industry," he stressed. MKEK -- undertaking important responsibilities in the production of weapons, ammunition, explosives, machinery, equipment, and provisions -- introduced its' ammunition and weapons systems products at ADEX. The fair -- held between Sept. 25-27 -- was organized in coordination with Azerbaijans Ministry of Defense Industry. Around 40 Turkish companies attended ADEX and discussed building partnerships with Azerbaijani counterparts to develop defense industries, according to Akgul. The fair aimed to showcase the force and power of Azerbaijans military and industrial complex, as well as modern weaponry and equipment. The MKEK has been the main supplier of Turkish Armed Forces, under various names, since its establishment and gained its current legal status in 1950. The company -- staffed with 5,500 personnel and owning 10 modern factories -- not only serves the Turkish Armed Forces but also takes share in the International Defense Industry Market by exporting to more than 40 countries. In 2016, 216 companies from 34 countries, 29 official delegations from 21 countries took part in the ADEX fair. The geography of participants has expanded at the expense of such countries as Latvia, Montenegro, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia. In total, the exhibition was attended by companies, delegations and guests from 44 countries. Occupying three pavilions of the Baku Expo Center and an open area, the exhibition showed a 10% growth in area. The largest number of companies was from Turkey (42 companies), Israel (14 companies), Russia (14 companies). The military equipment was demonstrated by such famous companies as Aselsan, CETC, Damen, MBDA, Norinco, IAI, Roketsan, Rosoboronexport, Thales and others. Exhibits of the previous fairs Children's Minister Katherine Zappone is suspending all State funding to Scouting Ireland as she ramps up pressure on its directors to resign. At a press briefing outside her department, the minister said she was "very concerned" to learn about the decision last Saturday to reinstate chief scout Christy McCann as chair of the upcoming extraordinary general meeting. Mr McCann is one of four volunteers under investigation over Scouting Ireland's handling of a 2016 rape allegation. He stepped aside in April pending the findings of the ongoing inquiry. Ms Zappone received correspondence from the interim chair of the board, Annette Byrne, and from child safeguarding expert, Ian Elliott, which caused her "grave concern". She said funding will be suspended as long as the board of directors remains in place. "The interim chair has indicated that she can no longer stand behind assurances previously given to me with regard to the delivery of future change essential to ensure the robust governance of the organisation," said the minister. "Indeed, she has indicated that, based on the decision taken last Saturday, she cannot have confidence in the current board to act impartially when the current independent investigation is completed." The minister said Mr Elliott was "appalled" by last Saturday's decision and said he pointed out his "strong view that bad governance generates risk" to young people. "It is plainly wrong that any publicly-funded youth organisation would be led by directors who do not put the interests and safety of young people to the fore," she said. Ms Zappone said it was a crucial moment for Scouting Ireland and urged the directors to do the right thing. Reassure She also wanted to reassure parents that the actions she is taking stem from "bad governance" and are in no way connected to the "fantastic work" being carried out by Scout groups, leaders and volunteers throughout the country. Scouting Ireland said its board was meeting last night to discuss the matters "Scouting Ireland must be above reproach regarding governance and safeguarding," it said, adding it had a pathway to put in place robust structures. A father-of-three was caught carrying out a bogus charity collection in a supermarket car park with a clearly doctored ID card. Shane Cawley (23) had a wooden table set up for the collection when gardai caught him, a court heard. Judge David McHugh said Cawley had taken advantage of the public in an "appalling" way. He adjourned the case for the production of a probation report. Cawley, with an address at Palmerstown Lodge, Kennelsfort Road Lower, Palmerstown, pleaded guilty to acting as a collector and holding an un- authorised collection. The incident happened at the Lidl car park on the Nangor Road, Clondalkin, last August 26. Blanchardstown District Court heard gardai encountered the accused at 12.40pm on the afternoon in question. He was holding a collection at a wooden table, with a plastic lunch box containing money. Gardai asked him what he was collecting for and he told them it was the Irish Lung Foundation. Homeless Asked if he had a licence, he produced an Irish Lung Foundation ID card, but it was "clear that it had been altered and doctored and was not valid", a garda said. Cawley had no previous convictions of any kind. The accused had been unemployed and homeless and staying in B&Bs. He had three children, three-month-old twins and a two-year-old, his lawyer said. Cawley, who had not attended secondary school, had no drink or drug problem. "From a moral, never mind a legal perspective, it is absolutely appalling that someone would take advantage of the public in the name of a charity," Judge McHugh said. He ordered a probation rep-ort and adjourned the case to a date in November. The judge granted free legal aid and remanded the defendant on continuing bail. Cawley did not address the court during the brief hearing. The charges against him were under the Street and House to House Collections Act. Michael D Higgins made an impassioned plea for Ireland to pay better attention to mental health services as he returned to his presidential duties yesterday. But his speech at Dublin City University was met with a blunt statement from Senator Joan Freeman who described herself as the "expert" in the area. Rival candidates Peter Casey and Gavin Duffy also hit out at Mr Higgins for failing to take part in a radio debate. After greeting Britain's Prince Edward and his wife Sophie at Aras An Uachtarain yesterday, President Higgins later opened the new student hub, called The U, in DCU with a 25-minute speech that was well-received by students. He said there is a "legacy of a time when mental health did not receive the recognition or provision that was needed. Thus, now we must fill the gap and without any further tardiness. Stresses "In a student's world there are particular stresses and worries associated with self-image, exams, awakening sexuality, shyness, bullying, family dysfunction, prevailing social and cultural attitudes about mental health," he said. "All or any mix of these can overwhelm even the strongest in any other sense, and can for others be too much to deal with alone." He added that any society that "neglects mental health loses a rich resource". Ms Freeman, the founder of Pieta House, was later asked whether she viewed this as an attempt by the President to move into the area she has highlighted as the centrepiece of her Aras campaign. "A lot of people are going to bring in mental health as one of their pillars," she said. "I am actually the true person who can talk about mental health in Ireland. "I really believe that we need to create a culture of good mental health. "I'm the expert in this area. I'm sure Michael D Higgins is an expert in other areas but this is the most crucial issue that is facing our country, along with homelessness, which is part of that." As the race got fully under way, Sinn Fein's Liadh Ni Riada said she believed the story of IRA abuse victim Mairia Cahill. This marked a diversion from the party's deputy leader, Michelle O'Neill, who has been criticised for refusing to say whether she accepts Ms Cahill was abused and subsequently subjected to an IRA kangaroo court. Meanwhile, businessman Mr Casey described Donald Trump as a "serial womaniser and abuser of women". While saying that he would welcome the US president to this country, Mr Casey offered his "personal view" on Mr Trump. "I would obviously welcome a guest, but my position on Donald Trump is that he's a serial womaniser and abuser," she said. "He's a disgrace, but you have to respect the office of the president." Presidential candidate Joan Freeman's campaign is being partly funded by a businessman linked to a company that was once accused of operating a pyramid scheme. Millionaire Des Walsh has given the senator a "commercial loan" worth 120,000 to help her bid for Aras an Uachtarain. Settlement Mr Walsh is the executive vice-president of Herbalife Nutrition which has previously been at the centre of a $200m settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in the US. The settlement meant it avoided the "pyramid scheme" label. Herbalife, which is valued at 7.3bn, sells weight-loss products using a network of individuals rather than stores. However, it repeatedly faced allegations that it was focused more on signing up new salespeople than selling the product to customers. Two years ago, redress was paid to 350,000 people who had lost money running the business. However, as part of the arrangement, Herbalife agreed to overhaul its business practices. In return, it avoided being charged with operating a pyramid scheme. Mr Walsh was at the forefront of the company's campaign to reject the accusations. At one point he told CNBC that the claims were a "gross distortion of the reality". Ms Freeman said the LA-based businessman had been her friend for 40 years and recently supported her setting up of Solace House, a suicide prevention service, in New York. "He knows how difficult it is for somebody like me, the ordinary independent, to get funding," she said. Swipe "Because he believed in me, he has given me a loan that I will be paying back." In a swipe at Sinn Fein's Liadh Ni Riada and the three Dragons' Den investors in the race, Ms Freeman said: "I've no buses. I've no helicopters. I arrived here in a small white car." She has also received a 10,000 loan from Tipperary-born businessman Michael Madden who is chairman of Teneo Capital. Dushanbe is hosting the CIS summit today. All CIS heads of state arrived in Tajikistan yesterday, except of the president of Turkmenistan. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov went to New York to attend the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. Armenia will be represented by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was invited to the meeting of the Commonwealth, as Ukraine de jure has not yet left the CIS. But Kiev ignored the invitation. The reception of the distinguished guests was thoroughly prepared in Tajikistan. President Emomali Rahmon, together with the mayor of the capital, his son Rustam Emomali, opened a new reception hall for official guests at the Dushanbe international airport. According to the press service of the head of state, "this hall is on three levels and has a basement." In addition to meeting rooms, rest rooms and offices, there are also duty-free shops and three restaurants. The heads of state will discuss preparations for the celebration of the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. 18 documents will be signed, including in cultural and humanitarian areas, in ensuring security in the CIS area. The leaders of the CIS countries will approve passing the CIS chairmanship to Turkmenistan from Tajikistan in 2019. The summit participants will also consider the issues related to writer Chingiz Aitmatov's 90th anniversary and the World Nomad Games. Breakthrough decisions are not expected at the summit, according to experts, since the establishment of the CIS meant "a mode of civilized divorce." Independent expert Kubat Rakhimov told Vestnik Kavkaza: "When the union republics "scattered", a mechanism was needed that would conjugate different-speed disintegration." "Until now, the CIS is still an institution for divorce. It is hard to call it an integration association, but a positive thing should be noted. The most part of the Commonwealth is visa-free, the parameters of information exchange and socio-cultural aspects are preserved. However, economic results of these processes are negative," Rakhimov noted. The expert believes that at the moment there is no real alternative to the Commonwealth, even though the CIS has lost Georgia and Ukraine is withdrawing. "The CIS has no instruments of pressure. It is rather a discussion platform, a venue for holding bilateral meetings," Kubat Rakhimov stressed. According to the head of the Eurasian Analytical Club Nikita Mendkovich, the CIS is a wide-range organization which includes countries of several autonomous regions, each with its own specific agenda related to transit, economic and security issues. "Given the recent context of CSTO statements and events, I am sure that the agenda related to security issues will be relevant in many cases," Nikita Mendkovich told Vestnik Kavkaza. This is not accidental. Recently, the head of the Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center (CIS ATC), Colonel-General Andrei Novikov, said that militants of the ISIS terrorist group (banned in Russia) are trying to create a stronghold in Central Asia. Mendkovich believes that this topic will be discussed at the meeting of the CIS summit. The fact is that the exercises of the CSTO countries were completed recently, during which the skills of repelling threats from Afghanistan and ISIS were worked out. "The CSTO deals with issues of military and quasi-military defense. Therefore, the sides may discuss the interaction of CIS special services in preventing the penetration of ISIS into the territory of the Commonwealth, particularly into the Central Asian republics," Mendkovich believes. The expert recalled that Russia, India, Iran, China and Afghanistan agreed recently to create a joint database of terrorist organizations. It cannot be ruled out that the issue of the CIS ATC database's interaction with a newly created database with the participation of several far abroad countries will be raised during the CIS summit. President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyev was one of the first to arrive in Dushanbe. The presidents of Tajikistan and Tajikistan met twice this year. In March 2018, the Uzbek leader came to Dushanbe, while Tashkent was visited by Emomali Rahmon in August. Dushanbe and Tashkent have almost no outstanding issues to consider. Therefore, the presidents have started their meeting with the cultural program. According to experts, the leaders of the two countries have long delayed the discussion of the construction of the Rogun HPP. The hydroelectric power plant is being built on the territory of Tajikistan. Uzbekistan worried that the hydroelectric power plant would deprive tens of thousands of hectares of new land in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya of water. It is possible that this time Uzbekistan will not only agree on the project, but also offer its participation in financing the completion of the Rogun HPP. Moreover, the launch of the first hydroelectric power station is planned on November 19. Emomali Rahmon received the Moldovan president Igor Dodon in the Palace of the Nation, the Tajik presidential press service reported. The Moldovan president also hopes to meet Putin. There are a lot of issues in the Moldovan-Russian relations. Their decision depends on the results of the parliamentary elections in Moldova. If the Socialist Party wins, Chisinau will be able to integrate into the Eurasian space, retaining ties with the EU. Otherwise, the course towards the European Union will be taken. The future of Kyrgyzstan depends on President Sooronbai Jeenbekov's talks with the Russian leader. Kyrgyzstan is experiencing an economic crisis. Experts believe that Kyrgyzstan can not get out of it without Russian assistance. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has recently met with the Russian leader, but bilateral negotiations are still planned. The Belarusian leader received a $1 billion loan from Russia and the possibility of unlimited exports of Belarusian products to the Russian regions. For his part, he promised to strengthen the border with Ukraine. The heads of Russia and Tajikistan will discuss the expansion of cooperation between the two countries. "It is planned that during the talks the leaders will exchange views on the most pressing regional problems. Russia and Tajikistan have similar positions in the framework of integration associations and international organizations," presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists. He noted that Russian investments in the Tajik economy reached $1.6 billion. Russia ranks second, while China is first with 2.2 billion dollars. "The energy cooperation is developing. The Sangtuda-1 HPP is operating, providing around 12% of Tajikistan's electricity output. Gazprom's subsidiary manages a network of 31 gas stations and three oil bases," Ushakov said. However, according to experts, Emomali Rahmon can also discuss with the Russian leader the issue of transit of power in Tajikistan. Rahmon prepares his son Rustam Emomali to lead the country. The leading expert of the Center of Contemporary Afghanistan Studies, political scientist Andrei Serenko believes that the problem is that it should be approved by the Kremlin yet. Rakhmon's attempts to present his son to Putin earlier were unsuccessful. Rahmon must make a decision: either to appoint Rustam Emomali to the highest post and govern himself with his son-president, or to be elected once again. It is expected that this transition can be completed in the next two years. Of course, Emomali Rahmon, is interested in ensuring that the process of transit of power goes as smoothly as possible, being recognized by the international community. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said that as long as the Iran nuke deal meets with Iran's interests, his country will remain in the deal. Speaking at a press conference in New York, Rouhani said that "as long as the deal serves our interests we will remain in the pact." As Chinese Xinhua writes in the article Rouhani says Iran to remain in JCPOA with conditions, remaining members of the deal have taken very good steps forward but Iran has higher expectations," he said. "We do hope with all the law-abiding and multilateral-oriented countries that we can ultimately put this behind us in an easier fashion than it was earlier anticipated." "Should the situation change, we have other paths and other solutions that we can embark upon," he said. Earlier on Wednesday, leaders of France and Britain, while speaking at the UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on non-proliferation, vowed to defend the Iran nuke deal. Earlier on Monday, European Union (EU)'s foreign and security policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the EU will set up a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran in light of the U.S. withdrawal from the international agreement on Tehran's nuclear program and the re-imposition of sanctions. All these showed that Washington, by exiting the deal and sanctioning Iran, has put itself in isolation, Rouhani said. "The United States of America one day, sooner or later, will come back. This cannot be continued," Rouhani said. "We are not isolated; America is isolated." U.S. President Donald Trump said in the same Security Council meeting earlier on Wednesday that the United States will impose "tougher than ever" sanctions on Iran after the punitive actions against the country slated in November this year. Rouhani said that the expected U.S. sanctions in November on Iran were illegal and "nothing new." Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted later that "once again, the U.S. abused the UNSC only to find itself further isolated in its violation of #JCPOA and SC resolution 2231. When will it learn its lesson?" Rouhani, however, added at the press conference that Tehran had no intension to go to war with U.S. forces in the Middle East. The Iran nuclear deal was reached in Vienna in 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - China, France, Russia, Britain, the United States - plus Germany). In May, Trump announced Washington's withdrawal from the landmark Iranian nuclear deal. Since then, the Trump administration has slapped a number of sanctions on Iran while vowing to apply more in November. French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau compared Matteo Salvini to Pontius Pilate Wednesday, accusing the Italian populist of leaving African migrants to die in the Mediterranean. Vice News in the article THE FEUD BETWEEN ITALY AND FRANCE OVER MIGRANTS JUST GOT BIBLICAL, writes quotes Loiseau as saying: Mr. Salvini today, hes like Pontius Pilate. Its obscene, she told RTL radio, referring to the Roman magistrate best known for adjudicating at Christs execution. When there are people who are risking being drowned, Mr. Salvini prefers to look the other way. Loiseau was speaking about the standoff over the Aquarius 2, a charity-run rescue ship carrying 58 illegal migrants saved from the Mediterranean, which has been the subject of fraught negotiations between European countries after Italy refused to let the vessel dock. France announced a solution Tuesday, with the 58 migrants on board to be distributed between France, Germany, Portugal, and Spain, after being allowed to disembark onto a Maltese boat. The episode was just the latest standoff over where to allow rescued migrants to land since Italys new coalition government, which includes Salvinis far-right Lega party, closed the countrys ports to migrant rescue vessels in June. Under international law, people rescued at sea are supposed to be taken to the nearest safe port. With Libya not considered safe, the next closest ports are in Italy and Malta. But both governments have refused to let the ships dock, forcing other countries to act. Salvini has accused the charity-run rescue ships of acting as a taxi service for human traffickers transporting African migrants from Libya to Italy; the closing of the ports has helped slash migrant arrivals to Italy by sea to about 20,000 this year, compared with 181,000 in 2016 and 119,000 in 2017. About 1,260 have died this year making the crossing to Italy. The Aquarius 2 is the only remaining privately-run rescue vessel patrolling the migrant route between Libya and Italy, and it faces an uncertain future after being deregistered by Panama under pressure from Italy, according to the charities that operate the vessel. Italy has denied pressuring Panama to deregister the ship. The brinkmanship over the migrants has sparked terse words between European governments, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying there's a political crisis between Italy and the rest of the EU over migration. On Wednesday, Salvini, who is Italys interior minister and deputy prime minister, hit back. We don't take lessons on law and humanity from Mr Macron," he said. In recent months he locked the border with Italy and turned back over 50,000 migrants above all, women and children. Loiseau defended her president from Salvinis criticism, saying that Macron had repeatedly taken responsibility for finding solutions to the standoffs caused by Italys stance. Each time, it is Emmanuel Macron who organizes the reception and distribution of these shipwrecked, each time it is him who picks up the phone, she said. The Moscow Bureau for Human Rights released the report titled 'Nonlinear Radicalism: Aggressive xenophobia and intolerance in the Russian Federation in January-August 2018: Major Trends.' The report analyzes nationalist and xenophobic incidents, demonstrations, protest actions, terrorist activities on the basis of national and religious hostility, as well as manifestations of criminal nature, acts of vandalism. According to a member of two Councils under the President of the Russian Federation - for Civil Society and Human Rights and for Interethnic Relations, Alexander Brod, at least 17 attacks and at least 15 cases of vandalism on the basis of aggressive xenophobia and radical nationalism were recorded for eight months. In the same period last year, there were at least 26 manifestations of aggressive xenophobia, in 2016 - 17, in 2015 - 22. Thus, there is no sharp growth, there is even a decline compared with the previous year. Brod also cited sociological data: "According to a poll conducted by the Levada Center in July, the share of Russians who support residency restriction for ethnic groups has increased. The rating of undesirable ethnic groups is led by the Roma, Chinese and Vietnamese. According to the Romir research holding, 45% of respondents from Moscow believe that the presence of migrants is one of the main negative factors. 48% of respondents do not consider labor migration positive for the country. The poll by the Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center showed an increasing number of "arguments" that "the Jews played a decisive role in the 1917 revolution, participated in the ritual murder of the royal family." These data lead to the conclusion that the rise in xenophobic tendencies takes place against a background of the general growth of protest moods caused by rising prices, tax burden, complex pension reform. "Xenophobia is not linear, as long as these protest moods do not lead to a direct rise in incidents motivated by the activity of radical nationalists. During the period under review, the number of public actions by radical nationalists wasn't great. But this is another reason not to reduce attention to this topic and prevent it more actively," Alexander Brod believes. Meanwhile, according to Brod, there is a positive trend in the North Caucasus: "During the first quarter, 27 people were victims of the armed conflicts on the territory of the North Caucasian Federal District, compared to 45 people in the same period of last year. At the same time, there were wake-up calls - a series of attacks on law enforcement personnel occurred in the Chechen Republic in August. Despite the positive developments in Syria, the recruitment of young people continues." Member of the Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation, Deputy Director of the Institute for Ethnology and Anthropology of the RAS, Vladimir Zorin, believes that Russia has experienced a very interesting period from the presidential elections to the September 9 elections: "During this period, the situation with pension reform and the language issue were discussed, the migration legislation was actively improved. All this caused an increased interest in our subjects." Zorin made four conclusions from the report: First. Combating aggressive xenophobia and intolerance, strengthening interethnic relations requires constant work and manual management. Second. When it comes to combating xenophobia, extremism and intolerance, local governments are the weakest link in the system of power. "We need radical measures to increase the level of responsibility and training of personnel involved in this issue, to find resources, new mechanisms and funds," the expert believes. Third. The Internet is underestimated: "The fake news has worked both in Kabardino-Balkaria and in the events taking place around the Sunzhensky district. This is a multifaceted task, a multifaceted program, on which we must work." Fourth. Better work with young people is required. Member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, head of the Spiritual Assembly of Muslims of Russia, Albir Krganov, noted that regional authorities are not always ready to initiate actions to counter the spread of extremism and terrorism: "Local authorities must work out the correct pattern of behavior. I mean interethnic and interreligious friendship." For Subscribers Parents call for removal of books from school system libraries Two of the books that have explicit content are "Lawn Boy," by Jonathan Evison, and "L8r, g8r," by Lauren Myracle. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held a meeting with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi yesterday, vowing to cement bilateral cooperation. Being Turkey's friend, China firmly supports Turkey's efforts to safeguard national stability and development, and is willing to maintain communication at all levels with Turkey to strengthen mutual understanding, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, and fully consider each other's core interests and major concerns, Wang said. Under the current circumstances, according to Wang, the two sides should enhance coordination and cooperation in international affairs, make joint efforts to safeguard multilateralism, international system and international rules, and work together to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of emerging economies and developing countries. The Turkish foreign minister noted that Turkey attaches great importance to the ties with China, and hopes to expand practical cooperation with China in various fields including economy and trade, energy and counter-terrorism, Xinhua reported. Cavusoglu stressed that Turkey spoke highly of China's just and balanced position in dealing with international affairs, and expects closer cooperation under multilateral frameworks. The next CIS summit will be held in Turkmenistans Ashgabat city on October 11, 2019, head of the CIS Executive Committee Sergey Lebedev said at an expanded meeting of the Council of Heads of CIS member-states. "A decision was made to hold the next meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State on October 11, 2019 in Ashgabat upon the Turkmen sides proposal," TASS cited him as saying. Lebedev added that a decision on the chairmanship of Turkmenistan in the CIS in 2019 was made and Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will be the co-chairs. (JTA)-When the Argentine-Jewish filmmaker Pablo Solarz was 5 or 6 years old, he asked his grandfather if he was Polish. On the phone recently, in heavily accented English, he described his grandfather's reaction. "He gave me a very dead face," Solarz recalled. "My father said that [Polish] is a very bad word, and I don't want to [talk about] it with my grandfather again. My grandfather never wanted to talk about his life in Poland." Solarz's grandfather didn't spend time in a Nazi concentration camp, but he left his native Poland in the 1930s as conditions worsened for Jews. He settled in Buenos Aires and, over time, heard stories from the local Jewish community and the occasional news report about survivors who wanted to return to their roots and thank righteous gentiles who saved their lives. That return narrative became the genesis of Solarz's "The Last Suit," a Jewish film festival favorite that opened Sept. 21 in New York and Sept. 28 in Los Angeles prior to a wider national release. The film tells the story of Abraham Bursztein, a Holocaust survivor who leaves Argentina to find his savior, who hid him in a basement following World War II. Bursztein is played by Miguel Angel Sola, a famous Argentine actor whose career dates back to the 1970s. In the film, Bursztein is on his last legs, almost literally. One of them, which he nicknames "tsores," or "troubles" in Yiddish-may need to be amputated. Meanwhile, his family wants to put him into a retirement home, sell his house and divide up his things. While cleaning out his closet, a maid discovers a suit that Bursztein, a tailor, made to fulfill a pledge to the boy who saved his life after the war. Without telling anyone, Bursztein buys a ticket to Europe to find him. Bursztein is a humorously stubborn curmudgeon, yet strangers on his journey-it includes stops in Madrid and Paris-ignore his often nasty behavior to befriend and help him. It's a tribute to Sola's nuanced performance: He somehow convinces those around him that there's more to him than the surface bluster. There's also his tearjerker story that makes it hard to hate him. In flashbacks we see the immediate aftermath of the war and a young, gaunt Bursztein struggling to walk while trying to reach his family's home in Lodz-only to find himself turned away by its occupant, a former employee at his father's business. But the man's son, a former friend of Bursztein, defies his dad and takes Bursztein into a basement room and nurses him back to health. This is the man Bursztein now seeks, not knowing whether he is still alive 70 years later or even if the neighborhood still exists. The film is affecting, but not perfect. Bursztein's daughter Gail had fled to Madrid a decade ago, when the pair became estranged. In need of cash, he visits her, but it is unclear why he let her go in the first place, or how he can so easily ignore the granddaughter he sees on a staircase but has never met. Gail has her father's concentration camp number tattooed on her arm to keep his memory alive, but even that does not move him to seek a rapprochement. The plot line raises too many unanswered questions and slows the film. Making the film changed his life, Solarz told JTA. Growing up, he learned about Polish figures such as Chopin and Paderewski and could not understand his grandfather's hatred of an entire nation. "I thought my grandfather was crazy, and that it was impossible for an entire people to be anti-Semitic," he said. But shooting scenes in contemporary Lodz neighborhoods, including the ghetto where his grandfather once lived, and seeing several graves with his last name deeply moved the filmmaker. His research for the film included studying the ways that the Nazis were "able to kill 11,000, 12,000 people in the same place in the same day, leave everything clean and be able to do the same thing the next day." "That wasn't the first Holocaust," Solarz said, "and it won't be the last." SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA)-While growing up in Palo Alto, Raphael Bob-Waksberg was a serious consumer of popular culture. He would watch TV for hours on end and view movies over and over until he memorized them. In particular, he was a huge fan of "The Simpsons." "We used to talk about Bart and Lisa at the dinner table as if they were real people," said his mother, Ellen Bob. Nowadays, the conversation around American tables is more likely about "BoJack Horseman," a successful Netflix animated series created by Bob-Waksberg. The show's fifth season premiered on Sept. 14. In addition, Comedy Central recently acquired the rights to reruns of "BoJack Horseman," reportedly making it the first Netflix show to enter TV syndication in the United States. Season 1 reruns are scheduled to begin on Sept. 26. The show is an adult drama-comedy set in an imaginary Hollywood populated by humans and anthropomorphized animals (the eponymous main character, BoJack Horseman, has a horse's head and man's body), and has catapulted Bob-Waksberg's career to new levels in the real Hollywood. In addition to his work as head writer and showrunner for "BoJack," Bob-Waksberg is developing new shows for Netflix and Amazon. He's also writing a book of short stories scheduled to be published next year by a major imprint. The 34-year-old's success has come as no surprise to family, friends, rabbis and teachers in the Bay Area who nurtured his creativity and independent thinking from an early age. "I think Raphael was really headed in that direction since his teen years," said family friend Nechama Tamler, a longtime Jewish educator who early on recognized his writing and performing talent. Simultaneously sad and funny, but mostly funny, "BoJack" is a satire about the elusive nature of happiness. It has gained praise for its intelligent writing that does not adhere to the typical sitcom formula, and there is no emotional closure at the end of each episode. It's an ongoing, frustrating effort for characters to learn and grow from their mistakes, and to grapple with the meaning of existence. The titular character, the deeply flawed BoJack Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett of "Arrested Development"), struggles after his successful acting career flounders. Fans still recognize BoJack for his role as a young, single guy who adopts three orphans in a popular late 1980s sitcom called "Horsin' Around." However, now he's a 50-something depressive addicted to alcohol and drugs. Critically, he lacks the required self-awareness to stop from hurting himself and those closest to him. When Todd (voiced by Aaron Paul of "Breaking Bad"), a slacker who lives on BoJack's couch and suffers the equine actor's constant indifference, has had enough of BoJack's apologies, he yells at him: "You can't keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself, like that makes it OK. You need to be better... You are all the things that are wrong with you. It's not the alcohol, or the drugs, or any of the shitty things that happened to you in your career, or when you were a kid. It's you." The message is that there are no easy answers, and that making amends takes hard work. Ultimately, actions speak louder than words. Bob-Waksberg's father, David Waksberg, recognized the Jewishness of this value immediately. "When a friend asked me about it after the first season, I said it was about teshuvah," he said, using the Hebrew word for the Jewish concept of repentance. For his part, Bob-Waksberg wasn't quite sure how to answer when asked whether his Jewish identity influences his writing, and in particular the melancholic humor of "BoJack." "Asking me that question is like asking a fish how much being in water has affected it," he said. Bob-Waksberg grew up in Palo Alto in the late 1980s and 1990s with two younger sisters, Becky and Amalia, in a family that was-and still is-very involved in the Jewish community. David Waksberg worked to free and resettle Soviet Jewry, and is now the CEO of the San Francisco-based Jewish LearningWorks, the central agency promoting Jewish education in the Bay Area. Ellen Bob ran a Judaica store (Bob and Bob) with her mother for 26 years, and in 2011 joined Congregation Etz Chayim as executive director. Humor was always central to life at home. "We like to laugh... big belly laughs," Ellen Bob recalled. "David is a great storyteller and joke teller. He would regale the kids with routines from Steve Martin, Woody Allen... and songs from Tom Lehrer. I'm more of a wisecracker. Like my son, nothing gives me more pleasure than to make someone laugh." She said she is always pleased when her son makes a point of telling his interviewers (and there are many) that his was a happy childhood, and that BoJack's family is not based on his family of origin. "I'm delighted to be known as Raphael's mother, as long as people don't think BoJack's mother is based on me," she said, alluding to Beatrice Horseman (Wendie Malick), a neglectful and abusive heiress to a sugar cube company who appears primarily in flashbacks. In looking back on his childhood and adolescence, Bob-Waksberg pointed to Mid-Peninsula Jewish Community Day School (now Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School), the Palo Alto Children's Theatre and the Gunn High School drama program as other outlets where his creativity was rewarded. "In school, there were a handful of teachers who understood me. And there were many who didn't. I didn't make it easy for them," he joked. Rabbi Sheldon Lewis, rabbi emeritus at Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, recalled Bob-Waksberg as "not an easy student" in the religious school. "It was because he was so clever and beyond his years in creativity, humor and mischief," he said. Despite having grown up in the Palo Alto academic pressure cooker, Bob-Waksberg was never saddled with any expectation that he would become a doctor, lawyer or founder of a startup. His parents were always supportive of his creative leanings. "It was pretty clear to me that he was going to need to figure a way to make a living through the arts because it was the only thing he knew how to do," his mother said. Like "BoJack Horseman," the shows Bob-Waksberg is writing for Netflix and Amazon are also animated. It's not a format the graduate of Bard College in New York originally planned to work in when he moved to Los Angeles after trying his hand at comedy writing in the Big Apple. In his spare time, he collaborated off and on for a decade with his high school friend, illustrator Lisa Hanawalt, on a cartoon featuring human-like animals, which became the basis for "BoJack." Hanawalt is now a production designer and producer for the show. The program was in development with Michael Eisner's company, Tornante, for a couple of years before it went to Netflix, which wanted it to be put into quick production for a summer 2014 premiere. "I didn't know I would get into animation. I was initially writing for live action, but 'BoJack' is the one [project] that went," Bob-Waksberg said. He said this decade has been an exciting time to be working in animation, and that he has an appetite for more. "Animation is a format, not a genre," Bob-Waksberg said. "There is a lot to do in animation for adults. What has been done in the past has been limited in scope and has lived in the shadow of 'The Simpsons.' The new shows I am developing are about women, which is really fresh." Much has changed for Bob-Waksberg in the past few years. On the personal side, he was married a year ago. Bob-Waksberg and his wife have not yet found a synagogue in Santa Monica that feels like the right fit for them, but they welcome Shabbat on Friday evenings at home. "My wife grew up more observant than me, so she has been a good influence and has helped me reconnect to Jewish practice," Bob-Waksberg said. "We even had benchers [blessing booklets] at our wedding, which surprised my parents." Professionally, Bob-Waksberg has become more aware of his role and responsibility in the pop culture universe. First, he checks himself as to whom he hires, ensuring that he brings in writers and cast members of diverse backgrounds. Additionally, he doubts he would now make some of the jokes he made about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and Nazis in the show's first season. Raphael Bob-Waksberg, right, in studio with "BoJack Horseman" actor Aaron Paul. "Those jokes were made in the spirit of Mel Brooks, in the sense that you have to laugh at the things that scare you," he said. "But now I think a lot about how what is said on 'BoJack' will be perceived by the audience." Speaking to that point, Bob-Waksberg recalled how, as he was growing up in Palo Alto, other kids would tease him with anti-Semitic taunts they had heard on the Comedy Central animated series "South Park." The writers of that show meant it to be satirical and did not intend to actually be anti-Semitic, but that was lost on Bob-Waksberg's young tormentors. He would hope that viewers take dialogue from "BoJack" in context, understanding that it is not what the writers are saying, but rather the flawed characters' thoughts or opinions. However, Bob-Waksberg said he is more averse these days to taking a writing risk, lest the point be lost or weaponized. "If we make jokes that are bad for society," he said, "then it is on us." (JTA)-For months author JK. Rowling has been warning about the dangers of anti-Semitism in England, sparring on Twitter with critics who either downplay the phenomenon or say its proponents are confusing criticism of Israel with Jew hatred. Now, in her newest book, she includes a character whose obsessive anti-Zionism morphs into anti-Semitism. "Lethal White," the fourth series in Rowling's Cormoran Strike mystery series, written under the pen name Robert Galbraith, features a pair of hard-left political activists who believe "Zionists" are evil and have a stranglehold on Western governments. Extortionist Jimmy Knight's extreme hatred of Israel has led him to hate Jews. "I wouldn't trust him if it was anything to do with Jews," Knight's ex-wife tells a detective. "He doesn't like them. Israel's the root of all evil, according to Jimmy. Zionism: I got sick of the bloody sound of the word. You'd think they'd suffered enough," she says of Jews. Rowling's depiction of a far-left anti-Semite comes at a time of record high anti-Semitism in Britain, where she lives. Britain's Labour Party and its leader Jeremy Corbyn have been accused of insensitivity to Jews and condoning anti-Jewish sentiments within the party's ranks. Corbyn previously defended a grotesquely anti-Semitic London mural depicting Jewish bankers, and referred to his "friends" in terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah, though he's said he now regrets these positions. A September 2018 poll found that nearly 40 percent of British Jews would seriously consider emigrating if Corbyn became prime minister-as polls show he might. The latest novel isn't the first time the author of the Harry Potter series has commented on the dangers of anti-Semitism. "Most UK Jews in my timeline are currently having to field this kind of crap, so perhaps some of us non-Jews should start shouldering the burden," she wrote in April, in response to a critic who said Judaism is a religion, not a race. "Antisemites thinks this is a clever argument, so tell us, do: were atheist Jews exempted from wearing the yellow star?" Rowling, who is not Jewish, also shared with her 14.4 million Twitter followers examples of posts she'd received that denied anti-Semitism was a problem. To a commenter who posted that Arabs cannot possibly be anti-Semitic because Arabs are Semites too, Rowling tweeted a photo of a dictionary definition of anti-Semitism: "hostility to or prejudice against Jews." She also included a spirited defense of Jews: "Split hairs. Debate etymology. Gloss over the abuse of your fellow citizens by attacking the actions of another country's government. Would your response to any other form of racism or bigotry be to squirm, deflect or justify?" When a Jewish mother tweeted Rowling to say her son had faced anti-Semitic bullies in school, Rowling tweeted back "so sorry" and wrote "Know that you aren't alone and that a lot of us stand with you xx." A few months later, on Aug. 26, after a fellow mystery writer, Simon Maginn, tweeted that British Jews' outrage over Corbyn's views were "synthetic," Rowling defended the Jews. "What other minority would you speak to this way?" she posted, before quoting from Jean-Paul Sartre's essay "Anti-Semite and Jew." In 2015, Rowling declined to endorse open letters calling for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel and signed by over 1,000 British authors and opinion leaders. Instead, she joined 150 other writers and artists in penning an alternative letter opposing singling out Israel for opprobrium. "Israelis will be right to ask why cultural boycotts are not also being proposed against...North Korea," her Oct. 23, 2015 letter declared. Instead of boycotts, the letter said, "Cultural engagement builds bridges, nurtures freedom and positive movement for change." Rowling has been critical of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but is adamant that Israel, its people and its supporters should not be subjected to a double standard by their opponents. The works to set up a demilitarized zone in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib are going well, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. The Turkish leader noted that Turkeys National Intelligence Organization (MIT) is taking a major role in the implementation of a deal. "Works [in Idlib] seem to be taking shape. Some 50,000-60,000 people returned home yesterday. I hope it will continue. The majority of the burden falls on the shoulders of MIT," Erdogan said, speaking to a group of journalists on his way from New York to Germany. The Turkish president noted that his country had talks with Russia about reconstruction efforts in Syria, adding that he will also talk about the issue with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his visit to Berlin. Speaking about the possibility of halting a bombardment on Idlib, Erdogan said that he hopes it won't happen. "We cannot say something like this at the moment. But there is no such possibility at the moment. We hope it will not happen. These are promises made by Putin to us," Hurriyet Daily cited the president as saying. Ari Fuld's son and wife hold hands over his enshrouded body, wrapped in a tallit and awaiting burial at the Kfar Etzion cemetery in Judea. (JNS)-Thousands of people gathered at the Kfar Etzion cemetery just before midnight on Sunday to eulogize and lay to rest Ari Fuld, a 45-year-old father of four living in Judea whose fight against the terrorist who stabbed him earlier in the day earned him acclaim throughout the country as a hero. "You were a good man. I'm not sure how to go on without you," Fuld's wife, Miriam, said at the funeral. "You were always running towards danger instead of away from it, and you never backed down from a fight because you knew you were in the right. "You fought for what you believed in," she added. "You've left behind a legacy for the entire world to savor-videos and stories that we will be telling for many years to come." Fuld, a well-known Israel advocate who promoted Jewish life in all of Israel via social and traditional media, was waiting for an order of falafel to be ready at the Gush Etzion shopping center in northern Judea when he was approached by 17-year-old Khalil Yousef Ali Jabarin. The two engaged in a brief interchange, after which Fuld turned around and was then stabbed violently by Jabarin. Though Fuld was felled by the blow, he engaged his training as an IDF paratrooper and as a member of the local security team for his hometown of Efrat, and jumped up, ran after the fleeing terrorist, leapt over a low cement wall and fired his personal firearm at Jabarin. A security guard and an armed Israeli shopper also fired at the killer. Fuld collapsed and was taken to Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center, where he passed away soon afterwards. The funeral, which was attended by several dignitaries, including U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, was delayed a few hours after the killing so that one of Fuld's children, who was in the United States, could arrive. Fuld held duel U.S. and Israeli citizenship, and was a 1991 graduate of Yeshiva University in New York. "He was a true hero. Not only in his death, but all of his life," eulogized Fuld's father, Rabbi Yonah Fuld. "He was a giant of strength, of passion, of love for his family. He was a hero to all." Fuld's father noted that the family had received tens of thousands of messages of support from people all over the world, including from staunchly Muslim countries. "He gave his life to sanctify God, to sanctify the land," said the rabbi. "If you would have asked him, that's way he would have said he wanted to go." Prior to the funeral, the parents and brothers of Fuld received a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "I embraced them in the name of the entire nation in this time of terrible grief," Netanyahu said on Twitter. "We are alive thanks to heroes like Ari. We will remember him forever." PRAGUE (JTA)-A new Torah scroll is being used in this historic city by one of its two Reform Jewish congregations to welcome the High Holidays and the series of solemn and joyous celebrations that conclude with, what else, Simchat Torah-the rejoicing of the Torah. But it's really not a new scroll at all. Originally a Czech scroll, the Torah has spent the last several decades at a Reform synagogue in London. How it got there, and how it made its way back to Prague, points to the continuing rebuilding of Jewish life in the Czech Republic and the revival of traditions and culture that were lost in the Holocaust and under communism. It's unclear how and when the scroll made its way to the Hendon Reform Synagogue in the British capital. It wasn't part of the Memorial Scrolls Trust, a Czech scrolls collection sold to Westminster Synagogue by the Czech communist government in 1964. Instead it was given to Hendon's rabbi at the time, Arthur Katz, by a congregant in tribute to Katz's heritage. Born in Prague and educated at a yeshiva in eastern Czechoslovakia, Katz served a community in Sobeslav when the Nazis invaded. He narrowly escaped to England in 1939. After the Hendon Synagogue merged with the nearby Edgware Reform Synagogue, the newly formed congregation realized that there wasn't enough space for all the scrolls. So Hendon's current rabbi, Stephen Katz, son of Arthur Katz, contacted Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, rabbi emeritus of the Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue in outerborough London. Goldstein said the younger Katz said he wanted it to go to the Czech Republic. The scroll was donated to the European Union for Progressive Judaism, or EUPJ. Earlier this year, Goldstein brought it to Prague as a gift for ZLU, the Jewish Liberal Union. ZLU's new Torah scroll was welcomed April 28 at a ceremony at the Spanish Synagogue here, where the scroll was read for the first time in over 50 years in the country of its origin. The crowd gathered in its sanctuary hailed from over 25 countries, all participants of the EUPJ's first-ever conference in the Czech Republic. They came for shacharit-a service that now is a rarity in the building, which before World War II was home to a thriving Reform Jewish congregation and today functions as a museum and event space. There were so many worshippers for the service that the synagogue's wooden pews, downstairs and upstairs, had to be augmented with folding chairs. "I had to get the fire chief's approval; there were probably about 470 people there," said Jonathan Wootliff, EUPJ's Executive Board member for the Czech Republic. "There's never been that many people in that synagogue since before the war, the largest number for a service in living memory." Frantisek Fendrych, the ZLU chairman, said the scroll is being kept at the High Synagogue, where an Orthodox congregation meets, because it has proper security. The synagogue is safekeeping the scroll for ZLU until the Progressive synagogue has its own space, it meets now at temporary quarters in Prague's Old Town. For Goldstein, bringing the Torah to the Czech Republic was a natural continuation of his decades-long work dedicated to resurrecting Progressive or, as it is known elsewhere, Reform or Liberal, Judaism in the country. The rabbi made his first trip to what was then Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s. Since then, and especially after the fall of communism, he has led services and presented lectures in nascent Czech and Slovak Reform communities and brought over groups from his and other congregations. According to Tomas Kraus, the executive director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, there are about 15,000 people with a Jewish background in the country. "Before the war we had 350,000 Jews [in the whole of Czechoslovakia] and in [the territory of] today's Czech Republic 120,000," Kraus said. "From the numbers you see the magnitude of the catastrophe here." Of all European countries, with the exception of Germany, the Holocaust lasted the longest in the Czech Republic. It began with the Munich agreement of 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and ended several months after V-E Day, only after the Terezin camp was finally liberated following a typhoid epidemic. The memory of what happened to the Czech Jews during the Holocaust has a strong influence on the identity of modern Czech Jewry. "The Shoah [plays] a big role in the self-definition of what it means to be Jewish," said David Maxa, a rabbinical student at the Abraham Geiger College of the University of Potsdam in Germany. Maxa accepted an appointment to become the next Reform rabbi of the Czech Republic when he is ordained. "One of my key missions is to make sure that this kind of heritage will, in the end, be positive-more than just mourning the past but also looking to the future," he said. Building strong, active communities is part of that future. Today there are 10 congregations in the Czech Republic; in addition to the two Progressive congregations, there is the Orthodox Prague Jewish Community and several nondenominational congregations. ZLU, founded 18 years ago by three people-Fendrych, Martin Hron and Simona Sternova-has since grown to a membership of about 150. Until now, ZLU did not have its own Torah. For ZLU, as well as other Progressive Jews in the Czech Republic, the scroll's return is highly symbolic "The Torah scroll is a great recognition and honor for us; it's a new heart of our congregation," Fendrych told JTA via email. "Our dream is to have standard Jewish life again-we are working to reach here in the near future a more democratic, pluralistic Jewish life for our children." The history of Jewish life in what is now the Czech Republic dates back hundreds of years. Prague has the oldest functioning synagogue in Europe: The Old New synagogue was built in 1270. The country boasts many known Jewish philosophers and scholars-among them Rabbi Jehuda Loew ben Bezalel, the 16th-century sage and mystic who figures in legends of the Golem, a mythical clay creature who extracts vengeance on the Jews' enemies. And in the 19th century Czechia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was one of the centers of Reform Judaism, born to modernize Jewish beliefs and practices. Today the Reform movement is working to restore this traditional vitality of Czech Jewish life. Part of that work is reaching out to Jews who are not involved. "During communism, Jewish identity forming was highly stigmatized," Maxa said. "We are trying to change this kind of perception and [build] an open synagogue community where people could come and see that Judaism can bring joy and meaning in daily lives to [those] who have lost connection to their Jewish roots." Sylvie Whittmann, one of the founders of Bejt Simcha, Prague's other Reform congregation, echoes the sentiment. "Bring more Torahs, bring educators, help the Czech Jews understand their identity," she said. "We need normal Jewish life." The return of a Czech scroll and its restoration to its rightful place, a Czech Republic Jewish congregation, is part of that normality. Political newbie Tracey Kagan won the Democratic primary spot for Florida State House 29 against her primary opponent, Darryl Block, with 66.8 percent of the vote in all 34 precincts. "This win is a pinch-me moment and a dream come true," said Kagan. "It is also the culmination of months of speaking with the voters of District 29, knocking doors, calling and really listening. What I heard is that our families care passionately about public education, affordable healthcare, common-sense gun legislation and protecting our environment." Now Kagan will face Republican incumbent Scott Plakon in the general election on Nov. 6. "I have always been involved in the community, but never in a political way," said Kagan, a longtime Longwood resident, a veteran criminal defense attorney, and a single mom of three-Emma, a recent University of Florida graduate, Sofie, a senior at Lyman High School, and Stella, who is in 8th grade at Rock Lake Middle School. Everything changed after the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in February, which took the lives of 17 students and staff-including several young members of the Jewish community. "I felt I had to do something to make our community safer for my children and all of our children," said Kagan. "We need common-sense gun legislation. The vast majority of Americans agree on that, but our voices aren't being heard in the current Florida legislature." Inspired to act, Kagan traveled to South Florida with her daughters to join March for Our Lives. When she returned, she began speaking with local residents who shared her concerns. After meeting around a friend's kitchen table, she decided to enter the State House race in Seminole County's District 29, where she has lived for more than two decades. "It has been an incredible journey so far," said Kagan. "I have been to every corner of District 29, meeting with our senior community, children, families, businesses and more. Everywhere I go, I hear the same message: People want their families to be safe. They want affordable healthcare. They want to protect our beautiful Florida environment. And they want to ensure that public education thrives." Recently, Kagan was endorsed by Seminole UniServ, the organization that represents educators, support staff and bus drivers through four local public-school unions: Seminole Educators Association, Seminole Education Clerical Association, Seminole County School Bus Drivers Association and Non-Instructional Personnel of Seminole County. "My father was a public school principal," said Kagan. "I'm the proud product of public education, and so are my three daughters. Meanwhile, Florida ranks 42nd in the nation for teacher pay. Our public schools need a fighter in Tallahassee, and I can't wait to get there and get to work." Also throwing their support behind her is the Florida AFL-CIO. "Labor unions aren't just important-they're a matter of survival for the middle class," said Kagan. "Wealth inequality is skyrocketing in Florida and across the country, and collective bargaining power is a key toward closing that gap." Long involved in the Jewish community, Kagan has volunteered with Jewish Pavilion, serves on the board of SPARK Jewish women's group and is an active member of Congregation Ohev Shalom. She has been endorsed by Ruth's List Florida, Florida NOW PAC, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, former State of Florida CFO Alex Sink, the Florida Democratic Environmental Caucus, State Senator Linda Stewart, former Florida State Rep. Dick Batchelor and former Florida State Rep. Karen Castor-Dentel, among others. Kagan said the guiding principle behind her race is the Jewish value of tikkun olam. "One of the most beautiful Jewish teachings is tikkun olam, our obligation to repair the world. I'm trying to do that every day, and to teach my daughters to do the same. We must all take care of each other. Nothing is more important." The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando announced that it has received a grant under the Department of Homeland Securitys Urban Areas Security Initiative. The grant, which totals almost $130,000, is the only one of its kind for the Orlando area this year. For several years, members of Congress from Central Florida have pressured the federal government to include Orlando in the special program. Led by Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy (D-7th district), the delegation argued that Orlandos position as a national tourist destination made it a top target, and the Federal government agreed. In addition to providing millions of dollars for local law enforcement, Orlandos inclusion on the list provided the opportunity for any non-profit organization in the area to apply for special federal grants designed to help defray the cost of security improvements. The process for applying was arduous and highly competitive, said Ben Friedman, the Federations director of community relations. We received only one-week notice of our eligibility, and applications required approval by the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There were a lot of legal and governmental requirements to navigate. Despite the roadblocks, the grant application ultimately proved successful. The Jewish Federation was the only non-profit organization in the entire Greater Orlando area awarded a grant this year. The Federation credits much of this success to help from elected officials, including Reps. Darren Soto, Val Demings, and Stephanie Murphy. We were fortunate that all 3 members of Orlandos congressional delegation publicly supported our application. Its likely we would not have made it through without their support, said Friedman. Of course, these successes do not come on their own, and the Federation has committed to working with civic leaders to secure critical funding through grants and appropriations. When elected officials see an active and engaged community, they respond in kind. The Federation is leading that effort, and we are thrilled to see our relationships with political leaders of all levels delivering results for the Jewish community, said Brad Jacobs, Federation President. Congresswoman Murphy, whose district includes the Federations campus in Maitland, was thrilled with the result. I am so pleased our central Florida delegation in the U.S. House worked together to get Orlando re-includedafter a four-year hiatuson the list of U.S. cities that receive federal funding to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks, said Murphy. As a result of Orlandos inclusion, non-profit organizations in our city became eligible for a separate federal grant program to strengthen their security systems, and I was proud to support the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlandos successful application. JFGOs Maitland campus hosts a range of educational and community services with a focus on children and youthand the safety of these families is of paramount importance. Next year, the Federation plans to help other Jewish organizations secure funding, as well, by lending assistance with drafting applications and navigating the political process to other agencies. Our goal is to make our area one of the top recipients in the state. Thirty organizations in Miami received grants this year, compared to just one in Orlando; we think we can help change that, said Friedman. (JNS) WASHINGTONAhead of the second round of American sanctions on Iran in November since the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Friday that those measures will drastically change the way any business is done with the regime. Make no mistake, come November 4th, there will be a fundamentally different set of rules on anyone who deems it necessary to engage in economic activity with the Islamic Republic of Iran, he said. Pompeo added that countries, especially in Europe, have already seen the ramifications of engaging with the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism. You can see many countries already taking actions to combat Iran, discontinuing to do business in advance of the deadline, he said. Not only the seriousness of U.S. sanctions, but theyre also coming to see this activity supporting the exact kinds of malign activities that President Trump has been talking about since the day he took office, he continued. Whether its providing missiles... the assassination efforts underway in the heart of Europe, I think the world is beginning to see the issues the [Iran deal] even pretended to address. Moreover, Pompeo expressed aversion with former Secretary of State John Kerry, who negotiated the deal on behalf of the United States, for engaging in shadow diplomacy to salvage the nuclear deal. What Secretary Kerry has done is unseemly and unprecedented, said Pompeo. This is a former secretary of state engaged with the worlds largest state sponsor of terror. Trump accused Kerry on Thursday of having illegal meetings with Iran. John Kerry had illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime, which can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American people, Trump tweeted. He told them to wait out the Trump Administration! Was he registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act? BAD! The Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, requires those representing the interests of international entities to disclose their relationships with foreign governments and their relevant finances and activities. (JTA)For years, American Jewish groups have agitated for more religious pluralism in Israel. And year after year, the Israeli government has acted as if the countrys demographic and political realities make any kind of substantial reform impossible. The latest version of an annual survey disputes that claim: It shows that Jewish Israelis disapprove of how their government handles religious issues. It shows that they want more liberal religious policies. And it says they want American Jews to intervene in the debate. The one wrinkle is that when Jewish Israelis talk about religious freedom, they are mostly talking about a different set of issues than their American counterparts. American Jewish institutions have poured their energy into changes at the Western Wall and blocking restrictions on Jewish conversion. But Jewish Israelis mostly care about quotidian issues like public transit on Saturdays and government funding of yeshivas. Those are some of the takeaways from an annual survey of attitudes among Jewish Israelis on religion and state conducted by Hiddush, an Israeli organization that supports religious pluralism. The survey questioned 800 Jewish Israelis in July and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent. The overwhelming majority views negatively the governments policy on religion and state, opposes practically every aspect of any decision or any issue, whether its the [military] draft or marriage or public transit on Shabbat, said Rabbi Uri Regev, the founder and CEO of Hiddush. The public does want freedom, does oppose government decisions and policies. The public wants Diaspora Jewish involvement in promoting religious freedom. As it does every year, the survey found that Jewish Israelis are far more liberal on religious issues than their government. The governments religious policies are largely administered by the haredi Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, which only recognizes Orthodox rabbis, Orthodox weddings, Orthodox conversion and Orthodox kosher certification. Israel bans nearly all public transit on Shabbat. It does not recognize same-sex marriages performed in the country But two-thirds of Jewish Israelis support separation of religion and state, representing an increase of 10 percentage points since 2012. Seventy percent back government recognition of all forms of marriage, including civil marriagean increase from 53 percent in 2009. Sixty-six percent support the three major denominations of JudaismOrthodox, Conservative and Reformenjoying equal status in Israel. Nearly half support recognition of all forms of Jewish conversion, while an additional 28 percent support a liberalization of current conversion regulations. More than 70 percent want increased public transit on Shabbat. There is a consistent and continual decline in peoples preference for the Orthodox option, Regev, a Reform rabbi, said regarding marriage. The self-righteous claim of the Rabbinate to be the authentic, authoritative, legitimate representative of halachic Judaism is not borne out by the people. The survey does have some good news for fans of Israels religious status quo. On issue after issuefrom conversion to marriage to kosher certificationyounger respondents favored more traditionalist policies than their elders. While more than 80 percent of respondents over age 50 support separation of religion and state in Israel, for example, only 42 percent of those under 29 do. Regev said part of this divide is due to high haredi birth rates. But he said its also due to an element of contrarianism you find in young people. And while only 22 percent of Israelis identify as religious or harediand 13 percent self-identify as Conservative or Reforma greater part of the population has traditional religious tendencies. Nearly half of Jewish Israelis observe Shabbat partially or fully. And given the choice between different types of weddings, most would still opt to be married in an Orthodox ceremonyeither under the Chief Rabbinates auspices or outside of it. But while 76 percent of Jewish Israelis express dissatisfaction with the current governments religious policies, it may not make a difference. Israelis have not historically voted on religious issues, prioritizing security and economic concerns. Even so, the survey found that most Jewish Israelis are more likely to vote for a political party if it supports increasing religious freedom. If they waver between party A and party B, and party A took a strong stand on this issue, its going to win brownie points with the voters, Regev said, adding, however, that It will depend on what happens, to a great degree, shortly before the elections, which are scheduled for next year. Whether or not they vote on religious issues, Jewish Israelis say they want Diaspora Jewrys help in advancing religious pluralism. Two-thirds expressed support for Diaspora groups working to strengthen religious freedom and pluralism in Israel. That includes 65 percent of those who voted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the 2015 election. Netanyahu froze a compromise last year, backed by American Jewish groups, that would have expanded a non-Orthodox prayer plaza at the Western Wall. The Western Wall has been the top religious policy priority for American Jewish groups over the past several years, but it doesnt register with non-haredi Jewish Israelis. They told Hiddush that their most important religious issues were, in order: reducing government funding of Orthodox yeshivas, instituting civil marriage and allowing public transit on Shabbat. American Jewish groups have also pushed for civil marriage, but have not spoken out significantly on the other two issues. Its not about giving carte blanche to American Jewry, Regev said. Its saying these are things we feel strongly about ... and we welcome your help. Clearly there is a disconnect over the wall. The wall, unlike marriage, is a symbol of what many American Jews feel so strongly about that in Israel is seen as a marginal issue at best. Jewish Academy of Orlando announced that it is providing gifted training for the entire faculty. "From the coding and robotics teacher to the Hebrew language teachers, all faculty are participating in the training," Alan Rusonik, head of school, stated. Teachers began gifted endorsement training in March 2018 and will complete their endorsements by June of 2019. Bryan Demeritte from Suncoast Education Center and an author of the Standards for Gifted Curriculum in the state of Florida conducts the training each month. Mr. Demeritte teaches both graduate and undergraduate-level teacher education courses, and served a district-level administrator in gifted education. "We are fortunate to have such a renowned leader in gifted education guiding our school," Rusonik said. "The faculty is excited to learn and apply the techniques in the the classrooms." Nikki Buyna, director of Academics, shared that "gifted training for our faculty will inevitably strengthen all instruction. The fundamental core of Jewish Academy of Orlando's academic foundation is differentiated instruction. Attending to the needs of each learner, our teachers begin differentiating content, process, and product in Kindergarten and continue across all core subjects areas throughout students' time here. Our process ensures that students are taught in a way that encourages them to reach their full potential." Rusonik stated, "We believe adding the gifted endorsements are another way Jewish Academy of Orlando continues striving for excellence. Our academic standards have always been high. Comparatively, our students score grade levels ahead of their peers nationally. This new certification adds another layer to provide high-quality differentiated education to our student body." To learn more about Jewish Academy of Orlando, please visit: https://www.jewishacademyorlando.org or follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JewishAcademyOrlando. A warm, sweet noodle kugel makes a wonderful goodwill ambassador. Throw in bagels and lox and apple cake alongside breakfast staples such as boiled eggs and oatmeal, and youve got yourself a satisfied and receptive crowd. Thats what Nancy Ludin, CEO of the Jewish Pavilion, aims for when she hosts breakfasts at the Maitland Chamber of Commerce with the help of staff and volunteers. The Jewish Pavilion is an important public relations force for Jewish culture in the wider community, said Ludin. Anything we can do to make people feel positively about the Jewish community can only be a tremendous help. Just after Rosh Hashanah, the Pavilion brought the High Holidays experience to the monthly Maitland Chamber Coffee Connections networking breakfast. Chamber members come before work to mix and mingle over breakfast and learn about upcoming events and initiatives. The breakfasts are sponsored each month by a different Chamber member who is given a forum to share information. Ludin uses her sponsored breakfasts to make Jewish religion and culture more familiar. Many people have never had a chance to talk to Jewish people or understand their holidays, Ludin explained. This is a great opportunity for them to understand our culture more fully and appreciate its richness. To make the messages more memorable, Ludin said, Every year, I always try to have the best breakfast that the Maitland Chamber has. We always decorate beautifully and have homemade food. Its delicious and its gorgeous. At the recent breakfast, Ludin explained the High Holidays and some of their customs and symbols such as dipping apples in honey. Susie Stone demonstrated the shofar sounds as her husband, Mark, called each of them. They were sounds many of the people in the room had never before heard. Said Ludin, We want them to have fond memories of the experience, so if anyone ever asks them whether they know anything about Rosh Hashanah, the answer is yesthey eat apples and honey on that holiday and they wish everyone a sweet new year. Several years of High Holidays breakfasts and other Pavilion-sponsored Chamber events have helped win the Pavilion a number of donations, sponsorships and volunteers, and of course such contributions are always welcomed and appreciated. But just as valuable is the increased understanding of Judaism and the positive feelings that promotes. Judaism is a very wonderful culture with nice peoplethats what I want them to remember, said Ludin. I want them to feel really good about it. John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor in the American Culture department at the University of Michigan, cited the BDS movement in his decision to withhold a letter recommendation for a Jewish student seeking to study abroad in Israel. (JNS)-A University of Michigan professor who denied a student a letter of recommendation for a semester-long study-abroad program in Israel is standing by his decision, citing his support for the BDS movement. John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor in the American Culture department, told JNS that this was the first time he rejected a student's request for a letter of recommendation to study abroad anywhere, as he labeled Israel an "apartheid" nation. "I declined to write the letter because I believe in equality," Cheney-Lippold said in an email. "Israel's Nation-State Bill makes it so only Jewish citizens of Israel have the full night to self-determination. This is not the case for Palestinian citizens of Israel." "More empirically, to use the most basic of examples, infant mortality among Palestinians citizens is 3x more than Israeli citizens," he continued. "This is the result of what some people have called Apartheid-including Israeli state officials-and that's the reason why I participate in the boycott." Cheney-Lippold wrote to the student, Abigail Ingber, who is looking to study at Tel Aviv University: "As you may know, many university departments have pledged an academic boycott against Israel in support of Palestinians living in Palestine." However, the University of Michigan prohibits its departments or any part of the school to boycott or divest from Israel. In his email to JNS, Cheney-Lippold sought to clarify what he meant by academic departments supporting BDS. "It should [have] read 'many university professors have pledged an academic boycott against Israel' instead of 'many university departments,' " he said. "I was in doing a lot of departmental business before/after writing that email to the student, and I accidentally mixed my words up. I apologize for the confusion this might have caused." "I believe in solidarity, and I want to help oppressed peoples anywhere they are in the world. I hope Israeli activists and politicians will help resolve the gross inequality present in Israel, and I believe that outside pressure from academics like me has the ability to push them to resolve that inequality even faster," added Cheney-Lippold. "Israel's universities contribute to oppression by developing weapons and military training. They should be part of the solution instead." Ingber, a junior in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts majoring in communications and media studies, told JNS she met with the school on Monday and is "waiting to hear back from them until I comment further on this matter." On Sept. 17, the Israel advocacy group Club Z posted on Facebook a screenshot of the email he sent her regarding his decision. Many pro-Israel organizations, such as the Endowment for Middle East Truth, denounced the professor's move. Alums for Campus Fairness has heard from many concerned community members, parents of students and alumni of the University of Michigan. The group said it is "deeply troubled by the professor's discriminatory action and hope the administration will do a thorough investigation of this incident. While we recognize and appreciate the administration's statement against any boycott of Israel, more needs to be done to ensure that students have a safe academic environment where they can freely pursue their educational goals." Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law last year a measure forbidding boycotts of public entities or individuals from a foreign nation, though it does not specifically refer to Israel. Anti-Defamation League CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt posted on Twitter that "a student striving to learn and further their education should never be a victim of political bias. The University needs to publicly clarify it opposes the academic boycott of Israel." "Professor Cheney-Lippold's discriminatory email is indicative of how universities and faculty that embrace the BDS movement vigorously discriminate against Jewish and pro-Israel students," EMET director of research and communications Jennifer Dekel told JNS. "Punishing a student for choosing to study abroad in Israel is simply an anti-Semitic act, whether the University would like to admit so or not." The incident is not Cheney-Lippold's first regarding anti-Israel vitriol. In 2011, he wrote an article that discusses how "researchers in Israel have created an algorithm that predicts an author's gender based on lexical and syntactic features." Keith Dvorchik, CEO of The Roth Family JCC, announced that Jacob "Jake" Silverman has been hired to fill the security director position vacated by Andy Brennan. He will assume his new position on Oct. 3. Brennan is relocating in the middle of October. "Andy has been a wonderful addition to our team and we will miss his presence and hope he returns to visit us in Central Florida often," said Dvorchik in a safety update. Silverman has been in security and law enforcement for more than 30 years. He was a member of the Orlando Police Department, serving as patrol officer, national incident management systems coordinator and technical services officer. He is currently a corporal/master police officer with OPD and handles security and safety for the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. Silverman is well equipped to meet any security needs that affect the JCC. He earned his master's degree in Homeland Security from American Military University, and has received the City of Orlando Police Administrative Award of Excellence for his work on a comprehensive "High-Threat Area" manual for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "We are confident that Jake will be a strong security director who will further strengthen our relationships with local and federal law enforcement agencies in the interest of ensuring that everyone who works, studies and plays on the Maitland campus can do so in the safest environment possible," Dvorchik stated. The World Trade Organization evaluated a global trade war scenario and assessed possible consequences, WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo said, addressing the international forum on the Promotion of Trade Facilitation and Investment for Development, which is underway in Astana. He recalled that the WTO revised the forecast of global trade growth 2018. "We announced the revision of our trade forecast for the WTO. We predict 3.9% instead of 4.4%, it is healthy growth," the Director General noted, adding that the figure for 2019 was reduced to 3.7% from 4%. Azevedo said that the WTO evaluated several scenarios, including a global trade war scenario. "If all countries set tariffs in a manner of lack of cooperation, this will affect the reduction in 17% of the global trading market, and will reduce GDP growth by 7.5%," the head of the WTO warned. Azevedo urged to do everything possible to improve the situation. Ruth Schwartz (second from right, middle row), the mother of Ezra Schwartz, stands at the "Ezra Schwartz Lookout," surrounded by teens in Israel from Camp Yavneh, where her son went to summer camp. (JNS)-Four years ago, the world waited with bated breath to learn the fate of three Israeli boys-Gilad Shaar, 16; Naftali Fraenkel, 16; and Eyal Yifrach, 19-after they went missing just outside the Gush Etzion community of Kfar Etzion. After a three-week search, news broke that their bodies had been found. Their abduction and murder set off a chain reaction that led to "Operation Protective Edge," the Israeli incursion into Gaza in the summer of 2014. One year later, on Nov. 17, 2015, Ezra Schwartz, an American student from the Boston area, was volunteering in Israel as part of a gap-year program when the 18-year-old was shot and killed by terrorists on the side of the road in Gush Etzion, near the same location where the three Israeli boys were kidnapped. These events shook residents of Israel and the international Jewish community to their core. No one should fear that their child's trip to the bus stop will be their last or that taking public transportation on a major highway could subject them to terrorist sniper fire. "We needed to build a safe road for the communities," said Shani Abrams Simkovitz, director of the Gush Etzion Foundation. "There was really nothing here. Now people can bicycle, walk freely on Shabbat and during the week, and play-all on a well-lit recreational space." On July 24, standing side by side with the families of the four boys, Jewish National Fund-USA (JNF), the Gush Etzion Regional Council and Gush Etzion Foundation joined together along the road where the events took place to unveil a memorial site commemorating Gilad, Naftali, Eyal and Ezra. The sites are called the "Boys' Promenade" and the "Ezra Schwartz Lookout," and connect a 1.4 km (approximately 1 mile) promenade to the bus stop that was the site of the kidnapping, as well as Kibbutz Kfar Etzion and Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim, creating a safer junction between these neighboring communities. Along the promenade, mosaics and stories of the boys will entwine their legacy to the future of the community. "The promenade is a sign of continuing life," said Knesset member Yehuda Glick during the ceremony. "It allows people to live and provides accessibility to the community. We are showing the world that we are here to bring life." "The Three Boys' Promenade is a testament and message to the world that we will continue to build the Jewish homeland by creating a more secure means of traveling," said JNF Chief Israel Officer Eric Michaelson. "The Ezra Schwartz Lookout serves as an invitation to others to see what we have built, and to stop and appreciate the beauty of this land-a reminder of what we fight for each and every day." Parallel to 'Path of the Patriarchs' Racheli Fraenkel and Ruth Schwartz, mothers of Naftali and Ezra, could not agree more. "People are starting to feel safe here in Gush Etzion," said Fraenkel. "There's so much life here, and for us, that's the ultimate memorial. Physical health and mental health; for us, this is amazing." For Ruth Schwartz, Gush Etzion has become a family-one that will continue to honor Ezra for generations. Ruth Schwartz stands with JNF-USA Chief Israel Officer Eric Michaelson at the "Ezra Schwartz Lookout," named for her son, overlooking Gush Etzion. "It's one of the most true, personal and happiest memorials of the boys and of my son," said Schwartz. "It's really a living testament to them, their lives and loves. It shows the heart of Gush Etzion-the resilience, the love, the loyalty. The most terrible thing happened to my family, to my son, here. All the ongoing memorializations of him are so special and so heartwarming. Ezra is now part of this heart that's on full display in Gush Etzion." The promenade runs parallel to Derech Ha'avot (the "Path of the Patriarchs"), an unpaved road that winds through Gush Etzion's communities. The symbolism of a promenade dedicated to four modern Jewish sons running alongside one of Israel's ancient paths-once forged by its most revered biblical forefathers-deepened the emotion of the day and placed the boys' memory into the context of Jewish legacy, continuity and unity. (JNS)The state of Texas will require schools to teach that Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict in the Mideast. The Texas Board of Education voted during a curriculum review last week to keep the controversial sentence in high school textbooks, used by approximately 5.4 million public-school children. The board is comprised of five Democratic members and 10 Republican members, implying that the decision was likely demonstrative of a shift towards a more right-wing educational program. After a period of public input, this decision, among other ones by the board, will be subject to a final vote in November, according to The Independent. Last week was a perfect demonstration of why its a really bad idea for politicians to write curriculum standards that guide what public schools teach, Dan Quinn, communications director of Texas Freedom Network, a religious liberty advocacy group, told The Guardian. Because then you end up with history thats decided by a majority vote instead of by facts and historical accuracy. However, Charles Jacobs, the president of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, which supported a lawsuit in Newton, Mass., last month over the towns public schools using anti-Israel materials, told JNS that both the Israeli and Palestinian narrative should be taught, with the perspective that Texas is looking to institute as the truth. They should teach the truth and the truth is Arab rejection, said Jacobs. At the same time, they should explain to students what the Arab narrative is and how its wrong. The same board also voted to eliminate historical references to Helen Keller, Barry Goldwater and Hilary Clinton. SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA)-A Jewish inmate serving life in prison without parole took a step toward freedom Aug. 21 and credited the local Jewish newspaper for the turn of events. James A. White Jr., was sentenced in 1981 for the murder of his wife's ex-husband. Last week, California's Board of Parole Hearings unanimously voted to recommend commutation of his sentence after 37 years behind bars, in part because of the work he has done in establishing a community college program for fellow inmates. That program was given wide publicity earlier this year in an article on White by Alix Wall in J. The Jewish News of Northern California. "There's no doubt in any of our minds that it was your article that was the impetus that forced them to deal with my case," White told Wall last week in a phone call. "Your article changed my life." White, a decorated Vietnam veteran, is credited with establishing the community college program-allowing inmates to work toward an associate's degree-at Ironwood State Prison in Riverside County. (He has since been moved to the California Medical Facility prison in Vacaville in Northern California's Solano County.) Some 1,500 Ironwood prisoners have graduated from the community college program since its start in 2001. A 2013 study by the Rand Corp. found that inmates who participated in educational programs were 43 percent less likely to return to prison within three years than those who did not participate. The next scheduled stop for the case is the state Supreme Court; after that, it is expected to go to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has the power to commute White's sentence. But the hearing was the main hurdle. "He's not out till he's out," said Rabbi Mendel Kessler, who knows White through his work as a prison chaplain. "But I'm 99 percent sure." One of the inmates White helped was Ryan Lo, who was released from prison in 2014 after serving 23 years on a murder he committed as a juvenile and now runs a project documenting the experiences of former inmates. Lo was one of the 13 people who attended the board hearing in Sacramento. "This crazy, old, Jewish guy came by my door and introduced himself, and said, 'I'm James White,'" Lo said. White insisted Lo take college courses, and didn't let up. Lo completed six associate degrees in prison and says White changed his life. In return, he made a promise. "If I ever do go home, I promise you I will do everything in my power to bring you [White] home with me," Lo said he told himself. Kessler, who was a chaplain at Ironwood and is now the director of Chabad of Sedona, Arizona, also spoke in favor of White. Calling himself the "odd one out" among a group of speakers that included mainly ex-inmates and veterans, Kessler told the board that while crimes must be punished, White's inspiring example and mentorship in helping other inmates should be recognized. "From that sense of responsibility that creates civilization, we also have to have the responsibility to rehabilitate all these guys," he said. White spoke about the college program's success during a 2014 TEDx talk at Ironwood. He also started a veterans organizations and held charitable fundraisers while serving his sentence. "What he's done, and how he's turned so many lives around," said Shad Meshad, the president and founder of the National Veterans Foundation, who has been working on White's case for decades. "If you could have heard the testimony of these men." White was born in London in 1939 or 1940 and adopted by James and Margaret White, a wealthy Jewish couple in Connecticut who later moved to Texas. After three years at Texas A&M, White served 10 years in the Army and the Marines, earning the rank of sergeant, and was decorated for his service. In 1972, White went to Southern California, where he met his wife, Nancy Napoli, and settled in Sunnymead, near Riverside. According to White, Napoli's ex-husband began threatening White and Napoli, ignored a restraining order and then molested one of his former stepdaughters. White went to the man's office and shot him dead. In 1981, he was sentenced to life without parole. White was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder; his friends say that nowadays his sentence would not have been as severe, because PTSD is more well known. Although the hearing was a major step, White is not free yet. Due to the circumstances of his case, the California Supreme Court also must weigh in, but his friends are hopeful. The Board of Parole Hearings, which is comprised of 15 full-time commissioners, was unanimous in its vote, and Lo said the number of people who spoke at the hearing was unusually high. (Wall also spoke there). Kessler also said that the chief commissioner told him afterward that the number of speakers made a difference. "Basically she said it was very helpful that all those who came to testify came to testify," he said. White has touched many lives during his nearly four decades in the prison system, but if and when he's released, Meshad said, White will keep doing the same work on the outside: he's promised to come work for Meshad's foundation to keep helping the population he's already helped so much. "This wasn't a hard decision," Lo said. "This is a special case. This is a person with a phenomenal record." (JNS)Students for Justice in Palestine will host its annual national conference in November at the University of California, Los Angeles. Despite the notoriously anti-Semitic rhetoric used by this group, UCLA will be directly facilitating the spreading of SJPs deplorable and racist ideologies by providing campus grounds for this national summit. There, students under the auspices of social justice will be trained how to promote false propaganda about the Arab-Israeli conflict via events and news articles; most importantly, they will be taught the importance of hijacking narratives from a diverse range of minorities to falsely adopt the struggles from victimized minorities. All of this will be done in the context of defeating Zionism. After all, SJP has gained its reputation on campus through chants calling for Intifada, Intifada (a demand for armed resistance) and physical intimidation intended to discourage support for Israel on campus. SJPs 2018 National Conference platform clearly states that its mission will be: To remind us that Zionism is not an insurmountable force. We know that Zionism is ethnic cleansing, destruction, mass expulsion, apartheid, and death, but it is also something very tangible. The reason we can have hope is that Zionism is a human ideology and a set of laws that have been challenged and can be destroyed. This should not be surprising since the 2016 National SJP conference, which was held at George Mason University, hosted Ramah Kudaimi. who has repeatedly practiced Holocaust denial, called for violent resistance against Zionists and advocates for the demise of the State of Israel. The upcoming national SJP conference at UCLA will serve as fuel for those committed to the demonization of students across the country who are supportive of Israel. The UCLA administration must be held accountable for providing a space that allows Jewish students to feel and be threatened. And yet, this does not reconcile with UCLAs code of conduct, which clearly states: We value open access to information, free and lively debate conducted with mutual respect for individuals, and freedom from intolerance. In all of our pursuits, we strive at once for excellence and diversity, recognizing that openness and inclusion produce true quality. With 10 percent of the general student body population being Jewish, how will UCLA uphold its commitment to inclusiveness and freedom from intolerance if it provides a podium for the proliferation of anti-Semitic hatred hidden under the masquerade of social justice? UCLAs decision to host the conference puts it as risk of not being able to truly promote academic debate and equality. After all, teaching students how to shut down invited speakers and threatening to engage in violent resistance against fellow classmates is detrimental to any academic institution. Just this past May, the Amcha Initiative reported the violent disruption of a Students Supporting Israel at UCLA event that not only involved the verbal assault, intimidation and silencing of the events speakersand the vandalizing of their propertybut threatened the safety and well-being of everyone in the hall. The SJP chapter at UCLA formed an essential part in orchestrating this non-peaceful protest. Look no further than Stanford University to truly understand how SJP rhetoric contributes to hostile and violent attitudes towards Jewish students on campus throughout the United States. This summer, incoming resident adviser and SJP member Hamzeh Daoud declared online his intent to physically fight Zionists on campus. Stanford hosted the National SJP conference in the fall of 2013. After significant pressure was put on the administration by both students and outside organizations, Daoud resigned from his RA position. While the Stanford administration responded appropriately to Daouds threat, college administrations regularly fail to appropriately punish the perpetrators of such discriminatory hate. From faculty members openly supporting BDS at UC Davis in Californian and Columbia University in New York, to professors using their authoritative positions in the classroom to preach anti-Zionist narratives and to fuel the anti-Israel establishment on their respective campuses, SJPs unique brand of anti-Semitic hatred is left to flourish by administrations on many campuses. Less than a month ago, CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) hosted Zionist students from across North America and the United Kingdom for its eighth Annual Student Leadership Training Conference in Boston. Some of the attendees shared their stories of the sickening discrimination they had experienced at the hands of anti-Israel groups on campus. Their belief in the right to Jewish self-determination was used as justification for them to be verbally assaulted and publicly shamed, and ostracized by their fellow classmates indoctrination, which is based on distortions and lies regarding the realities experienced by both Israelis and Palestinians. They returned to their campuses in preparation for the upcoming academic year equipped with the knowledge, passion, motivation and a comfortable notion that CAMERA would provide the support needed to combat hate and intolerance on their campuses. Now, the same organization the students learned to confront will be hosting its national conference and opposing goals: to spread hate and intimidation. UCLA must reconsider the moral grounds on which it has chosen to host SJPs conference, which is built on the pillars of racism, lies and bigotry. Administrations continuing to provide a platform for this type of hatred need to understand that this is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. Jewish and Zionist students have been bullied, targeted and villainized for too long. After having hosted the National SJP Conference on their respective campuses, George Mason University in Virginia, Tufts University in Massachusetts, the University of Michigan and San Diego State University are dealing with some of the most volatile anti-Semitic rhetoric in America For the protection of minority rights on campus, join CAMERA-supported groups and fellows across the world in demanding that UCLA halt its compliance in fueling anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses. With the work of our fellows on the ground and our CAMERA supported pro-Israel groups around the country, a united front has been created to urge the UCLA administration to halt its compliance in fueling anti-Semitism in college settings. Please take a minute to sign this petition and demand that UCLA adhere to its commitment to mutual respect, equality and inclusion. Jonathan (Yoni) Michanie a campus coordinator for CAMERA on Campus. One of Hezbollahs most important members arrested in Brazil BUENOS AIRES (JTA)One of Hezbollahs most wanted members, Assad Ahmad Barakat, was arrested near Brazils border with Argentina and Paraguay on Friday. Barakat has been labeled by the U.S. Treasury as one of the Lebanese terrorist groups main financiers. He is part of the Barakat Clan, a criminal organization known for its links to Hezbollah. Barakat was arrested in Foz de Iguazu, in southern Brazil. That triple border, or Triple Frontier as it is known as, has been linked with Hezbollah terrorist activity for decades, specifically as a source of the groups funding. In July, the Barakat Clans assets were frozen by the Financial Information Unit of Argentina. On Aug. 31, Argentine Judge Ruben Dario Riquelme ordered Barakats international capture. Barakat was also sought by Paraguay and Brazil. Barakt, who was born in Lebanon, is also accused in Paraguay for identity fraud and for omitting information about his nationality status. We have monitored international terrorist activity in the lawless contiguous Triple Frontier region for some 20 years, Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Centers director for international relations, said Friday in a statement. We commend this arrest and the expected extradition of Barakat to Argentina, as a sign that the three countries will begin to drive Hezbollah out of Latin America. 58 groups call on UM to sanction professors who promote Israel boycott (JTA)Fifty-eight organizations called on the University of Michigan to sanction professors who implement academic boycotts of Israel. The letter, sent Friday to university president Mark Schlissel, was signed by Jewish, Israel advocacy and political organizations and organized by the AMCHA Initiative, a nonprofit seeking to combat campus anti-Semitism. It referred to an incident last week, in which a professor at the school, John Cheney-Lippold, refused to write a letter of recommendation for a student who wanted to study abroad at Tel AViv University, citing his support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the country. I have extraordinary political and ethical conflict lending my name to helping that student go to that place, Cheney-Lippold has told reporters. On Tuesday, the university said in a statement that it opposes academic boycotts of Israel and that [i]njecting personal politics into a decision regarding support for our students is counter to our values and expectations as an institution. On Thursday, in a separate statement, Schlissel said that [w]e will be taking appropriate steps to address this issue and the broader questions it has raised. The signatories of Fridays letterwhich included groups such as the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity, Christians and Jews United for Israel, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Zionist Organization of Americastrongly criticized Cheney-Lippolds decision and called on Schlissel to make a statement that such behavior would not be allowed. Impeding a students ability to participate in a university-approved educational program in order to carry out political activism is reprehensible, it read. Cheney-Lippolds decision has raised questions about academic freedom. The American Association of University Professors opposes academic boycotts, although writing letters of recommendation is voluntary on the part of professors. Hans-Joerg Tiede, the associate secretary of the AAUPs Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance, told Insider Higher Ed that AAUP does address whether faculty are obligated to write reference letters, but that refusing to write a letter of reference on grounds that are discriminatory would appear to be at odds with the AAUPs Statement on Professional Ethics. John K. Wilson, the co-editor of the AAUPs blog, Academe, told Insider Higher Ed that it is morally wrong for professors to impose their political views on student letters of recommendation. Wilson emphasized, however, that the professor should not be punished. Jewish man allegedly assaulted outside Frankfurt nightclub (JTA)Two men, one of whom reportedly self-identified as a Palestinian, are suspected of assaulting a Jewish man in Frankfurt in what police are calling an anti-Semitic incident. The incident occurred on Sept. 7, according to a Sept. 16 statement by police. State Security Police are investigating the incident, which took place after 4 a.m. outside a disco. The alleged perpetrators have not yet been identified, according to news reports. They chatted with the 20-year-old victim, who was not named in the German media, before assaulting him, according to the German tabloid Bild. The man was assaulted after the alleged attackers asked about his nationality, according to the report. When he said that he was Jewish and half-Israeli they attacked him physically, slapping him, punching him in the head and calling him a shitty Jew. During the assault, one of the attackers said he was Palestinian, the victim alleged. Frankfurt Mayor Uwe Becker said if the incident is confirmed to be an anti-Semitic hate crime, he considers it an attack on the social fabric of his city. Kosovo will open an embassy in Jerusalem if Israel recognizes it (JTA)Kosovo would set up an embassy in Israel if the Jewish state recognizes it as an independent state, the president of the Balkan breakaway republic said. If Kosovo were recognized by Israel, I would place the Kosovo embassy in Jerusalem, Hashim Thaci told the Real Story news show Thursday, the Kosova Press agency reported. The United States and dozens of other countries have recognized Kosovo, a Muslim-majority country, as a state since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008. But opposition by Russia and China have kept Kosovo from getting U.N. membership. Israel, Spain, India, Morocco and Ukraine are among the key countries that have not recognized Kosovo, reportedly out of opposition to unilateral declarations of independenceincluding in territories they control. Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly urged a number of countries to follow the United States example in May and move their embassies to Jerusalem, though so far only Guatemala and Paraguaywhich this month returned its embassy to Tel Aviv amid vociferous protests by Israelhave done so. In June, Czech President Milos Zeman joked during a speech that Netanyahu had offered to give up his own home in Jerusalem if the Czech Republic opened an embassy there. Pro-Israel group warns Spain about recognizing Palestinian state (JTA)A pro-Israel lobbying group in Spain warned that if the country recognizes a Palestinian state, Israel may do the same for the restive Catalonia region. The head of the ACOM group, Angel Mas, issued the warning last week in an op-ed for the ABC daily. It came amid reportswhich were confirmed Thursday by Spanish Foreign Minister Minister Josep Borrellthat Spain is pushing the European Union to recognize what it is calling the State of Palestine. The reports said Madrid will recognize Palestine regardless of the blocs position. Asked about ACOMs analysis on the probability of Israeli recognition for Catalonia, Emmanuel Nahshon, the top spokesperson of Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told JTA: I do not comment on speculations. Catalonian separatism plunged Spain into a major crisis in October. Federal police clashed with voters over an illegal referendum on independence and the regions parliament in Barcelona passed a motion declaring independence from Spain despite the federal governments warning to desist. Madrid dissolved the regional government in a bid to block secession. ACOM is one of Spains most high-profile organizations defending Israel and has won dozens of court cases, thanks to private funding by donors, against organizations promoting a boycott of Israel. On Sept. 4, a court in Huelva in southwestern Spain scrapped a vote by the town of Ayamonte that declared the municipality part of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or BDS. The Spanish judiciary considers such actions discriminatory. In his op-ed, Mas wrote that if Spain recognizes a Palestinian state, there is a real possibility that Israel will decide to recognize Catalonia as a state. France to open Dreyfus museum at Emil Zola House (JTA)Preparations are underway for opening a state museum in France for the wrongly persecuted Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus, a prominent historian said. The Dreyfus museum will open next fall inside the Emil Zola House in Medan in suburban Paris, which is a monument comprising a museum that opened in 1984 for the author, who championed Dreyfus cause. The plans were aired in an interview with Alain Pages, a retired Sorbonne University professor of history who edits the Cahiers Naturalistes magazine and website about Zola. It was published Thursday on the website of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities Partly thanks to Zolas protests, the 1894 treason conviction of Dreyfus was decried internationally as a miscarriage of justice rooted in anti-Semitic bias, for which the affair became a symbol. In 1899, Dreyfus was pardoned by the French president and released, and in 1906 a military commission officially exonerated him. The plan to set up a museum for Dreyfus, whose trial served as a catalyst for Zionism, was announced in March by French President Emmanuel Macron. Dutch Islamist politician: Yom Kippur fast wont atone for Israels sins AMSTERDAM (JTA)A Dutch Muslim politician who has prayed for Allah to exterminate the Zionists said that a day of fasting on Yom Kippur will not suffice to atone for Israels sins. Arnoud van Doorn, a lawmaker of the Hagues city council for the Islamist Party for Unity, wrote on Sept. 18 on Twitter: Israel celebrates Yom Kippur tomorrow. Id make it a month. One day to reflect on all its errors and regret them is not enough. Separately, the mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, who is Muslim, last week announced he has ordered prosecutors to look into calls that referenced killing Jews during a demonstration in July 2017. Van Doorns tweet was denounced as anti-Semitic in the Dutch media, including De Dagelijkse Standaard website, and on social networks, where dozens of users mockingly asked him whether the month-long Muslim daytime fast of Ramadan was a response to the volume of moral sins performed by followers of that faith. Responding to his critics on Twitter, van Doorn reminded them that in Israel one politician after another is being tried for corruption. But this prompted fresh ridicule by users who pointed out that corruption trials are preferable to their absence in Israels corrupt neighbor states. In May, the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, which is the Netherlands main watchdog group on anti-Semitism, filed a complaint for incitement to violence against van Doorn after he wished for Allah to exterminate the Zionists. He wrote on May 14: Its busy in heaven, talking about more than 60 Palestinians shot and killed that day by Israeli troops during Hamas-organized attempts to cross the border between Gaza and Israel. May Allah exterminate the Zionists. Last year another lawmaker of the same party, Abdoe Khoulani, called Israeli children Zionist terrorists in training and future child murderers and occupiers. Dutch prosecutors dismissed complaints against Khoulani, saying that his remarks did not constitute incitement to hate. After foot-dragging, Romanian Holocaust victims got $10 million since 2015 (JTA)Romanian Holocaust survivors have received $10 million in payments since 2015, the World Jewish Restitution Organization said. The funds have been distributed to thousands of recipients from that country, which after decades of resistance and foot-dragging has in recent years taken some major steps toward offering compensation to victims of the genocide perpetrated by its former ally, Nazi Germany, and local collaborators. During the High Holidays, WJRO distributed extra aid among 142 impoverished recipients, including a 104-year-old who lives alone in Israel, the organization said. These funds help Holocaust victims live with the dignity they deserve, Gideon Taylor, WJRO chair of operations, said in a statement last week. Over the past three years, payments of over $1,900 were made to 1,393 needy Holocaust survivors from Israel from funding obtained after 2015. Another 1,067 needy survivors reveiced $600 payments. In 2017, extra funds for Romanian Holocaust survivors living outside Israel and Romania were set aside and $600,000 distributed among those recipients. Another $1.3 is to be given out to the same group this year. The program for Romanian Holocaust survivors is administered by the Claims Conference on behalf of the Caritatea Foundation, which was formed as a partnership of the WJRO and the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania. In 2016, legislation making it easier for Holocaust survivors to press restitution claims passed in Romanias Parliament. But Romania has not addressed heirless or unclaimed property left by victims of Holocaust persecution. Years after the expiration of a deadline for filing claims for private-owned property stolen during the Holocaust, Romanian authorities have processed less than half of some 250,000 claims. Bloody prayer shawl from Yom Kippur pogrom found in former Lodz ghetto (JTA)Part of a blood-stained prayer shawl from a 1940 Yom Kippur pogrom was found in the former ghetto of Lodz, Poland and brought to Israel, its finder said. The part of the shawl, or tallit, is a decorative collar known as an atarah. It was discovered this month by a worker with the Shem Olam Holocaust museum near Hadera in Israel under the wooden floor of a structure that used to be part of the Jewish ghetto of the central Polish city, Israels Channel 2 reported Friday. According to the museums director, Avraham Kriger, the blood on the tallit belonged to a victim of a Nazi-led pogrom that erupted on the eve of Yom Kippur in 1940. Chaim Rumkowski, the head of the local Judenrat, the Jewish council appointed by the Nazis to administer life inside the ghetto, had arranged for Yom Kippur prayers to take place at a former cinema that had been turned into a synagogue, according to the Channel 2 report, which is based on Shem Olams research. Nazi officers came to witness the Yom Kippur event, along with Rumkowski. Thousands of Jews had amassed at the entrance to the theater, as hundreds prayed inside. At a certain point, ghetto police officers began violently dispersing the crowd, resulting in the death of several people, according to the report. Nazi officers also joined the beating. The bloody tallit collar was discovered during renovations to the former theater, Channel 2 reported, along with several crumbling prayer books Its a chilling, a rare, find, Kriger, whose institution focuses on religious life during the Holocaust, told Channel 2. It attests as to Jewish religious life in the ghetto and the unfathomable cruelty of the German murders, who showed no mercy even on the holiest day to the Jews, never ceasing to butcher, Jews abuse and murder them in cold blood. Holocaust historians call shredding of death records by Hamburg archives catastrophic (JTA)The Hamburg State Archive shredded millions of death records, including those dating from the Nazi era. A historian of the Holocaust called the records destruction catastrophic. According to the Hamburg Morgen Post newspaper, the state cultural ministry is defending the decision by the archives director, Udo Schafer, to destroy an estimated 1 million death certificates dating from 1876 to 1953. But even Schafer admits he made a mistake. In his own defense, he explained to the paper that almost all the information contained in the files is found in other archived documents, like death registries and in files from jails or hospitals. Schafer, who has directed the archive since 2001, now says he should have considered that historians and other scholars have cited the documents in their publicationsand that these sources no longer exist. He said he would not make the same decision today. Historian Sybille Baumbach, who has worked on reconstructing the life stories of Jewish Holocaust victims for the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, told reporters that the death certificates contained information thatif recorded elsewhere at allwould be difficult to find, such as cause of death and the name and signature of the doctor who made the determination. She said that in many cases these certificates provided important clues in cases of so-called euthanasia murders, because such deaths were far from natural and merciful, and the doctors who signed off on them often were the murderers themselves. Baumbach called the loss catastrophic. The shredding has drawn criticism from politicians, historians and associations representing survivors of the Nazi regime. The documents have been considered important in research on Nazi crimes against humanity and have been consulted by the Hamburg association for cobblestone memorials, which mark the last domicile of victims who were deported and murdered. Rainer Nicolaysen of the Hamburg Historical Association called it a serious loss. He told the Morgenpost that Schafer had admitted to him in early August that he had wrongly thought the documents were duplicates. Unopened letter sent to Anne Franks home fetches $11,000 at auction AMSTERDAM (JTA)An unopened letter that was mailed to the home of Anne Frank while she and her family were in hiding fetched more than $11,000 at an auction. Bidding on the envelope, which came from an insurance company in 1942, began at $570 ahead of the auction, which took place Friday at the Corinphila Auction House in Amstelveen south of Amsterdam. The name of the new owner was not disclosed. The letter is of paramount importance, a testament to the most difficult period in the life of the Frank family, their underground existence, the auction house wrote in a statement. The envelope carries a red return to sender stamp and is addressed to Otto Frank, the teenage diarists father and the only member of her nuclear family who survived the Holocaust. When it was sent to the familys home in Merwede Square in Amsterdams south, the Franks were already in hiding in what is now called the Anne Frank House in the Dutch capitals west. They hid there for over two years, until they were discovered and sent to concentration and death camps. Anne Frank, who was 13 when she went into hiding with her family, wrote journals during her time there. Her father later edited them into a book titled The Diary of a Young Girl. Published in 1947, it became a bestseller and turned Anne Frank into a symbol of persecution and one of the worlds best-known Holocaust victims. The unopened letter, which presumably never reached Otto Frankhe died in 1980was found among the belongings of stamp collector Stefan Drukker following his death in 2013, the Trouw daily reported last month. The envelope containing the weighty letter carries the logo of the British life insurance agency Gresham. Nathan Bouscher, the auction houses director, told Trouw that the envelope was found in a room containing other old envelopes that Drukker had collected for the stamps on them. This weeks murder of a neighbor in a terror attack carried out by a teenage Palestinian Arab was glaring and jarring in many ways. First and foremost, his death is a great loss for our community and Israel on the whole, but mostly for his wife, four children, parents, siblings and many other family and close friends who survived him, of which there were many. Hes been lauded as a hero in his life and his death. Its jarring because not only was he armed, but he chased down the terrorist after being fatally stabbed, shooting the terrorist, and preventing further loss of life. Its jarring because we just observed the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords that was to have ushered an era of peace. Instead, the past quarter century has seen thousands of Israelis murdered and injured in an era marked by ongoing Palestinian Arab terror, incitement, and placating and excusing their culture of hatred and murder being celebrated and glorified. This happened days before Jews observe Yom Kippur, when God seals His judgment, including who shall live and who shall die. Its unusually jarring, leaving us to grieve, be angry, and ask why to a question that cannot be answered, or whose answers cannot be understood. While Israelis never fully live without fear of terror and war, these things are, sadly, part of our norm. This murder was not a stand alone act but one thats part of an overall pattern. This week three other things happened locally that underscore that. First, while you may have heard of the practice originally emanating from Gaza, a simple balloon found in a neighborhood just to the north of mine, mile closer to, and obviously downwind, from Bethlehem became a cause for concern. Youd be forgiven for not knowing about this new Palestinian Arab innovation by using childrens toys such as kites and balloons (also inflated condoms) attached to explosive or incendiary devices to create terror. Its scarcely been reported in foreign media. But worse, and even more inhuman than the acts themselves, they are designed premeditatedly to create maximal death and injury among children. The terrorists have even produced special balloons decorated with hearts and the word Love, albeit in Arabic, to fool children. After all, what little child wont see a balloon with hearts all over it and not want to pick it up and play with it. Particularly a preschool child who has yet to learn to read much less identify the Arabic for anything more than a bunch of squiggly lines. This depth of premeditated evil is unimaginable, on many levels. In the same neighborhood this week, there was a terrorist infiltration that caused thousands of us to be on lockdown for hours speculating as to what was going on. From my bedroom window, I saw several flares fired into the air over the valley that separates us from Bethlehem and its southern suburbs. We saw drones hovering. We heard (and saw) firing of weapons including what one neighbor identified as stun grenades. My son-in-law joined his volunteer rapid response team to complement the military presence tracking down the terrorist. Eventually at about midnight we got an all clear that it was safe to leave our homes. It seems the infiltrating terrorist made it back to his home, or at least someones home in which he could hide. This is not the first such incident in our neighborhood and its known that incidents like this take place often in other places as well, though are virtually never reported in the media. This lead me to think that though things have been relatively quiet here, at least as far as stabbing and similar attacks go, is it possible that this will trigger a new stabbing intifada, the likes of which Israel suffered three years ago? During that period, numerous Palestinian Arabs armed themselves with kitchen knives and approached Israelis to stab them. Many of these were successful, resulting in dozens of casualties. It might be easy to write these off as lone wolf attacks, but the fact that they are celebrated in their society, and there were even training videos made to teach Palestinian Arabs how to inflict the most harm, make it all part of their culture of terror and hatred. A knife I left on the counter after cutting a lime created a bit of PTSD. During that stabbing intifada we had Palestinian Arab workers in our home. At one point when my wife had opened a kitchen drawer, the foreman whom we had grown fond of, slammed it shut. He was worried about the appearance of knives being in the open, or maybe that one of his own workers might find an open drawer with a knife visible too tempting, as if thats a normal thought. Hopefully this wont lead to more copycat terrorism, but we have to be prepared, and aware. My older son, away at a pre-military academy, texted me asking if he should come home for the funeral of our neighbor this week. I wrote back that he should stay there and pray with the other young men. Hes at least 90 minutes away and might not have made it in time anyway. He asked why. Of course I couldnt stop him, and admired that he thought about it. My kids have had enough opportunities to go to funerals of terror victims. But what I thought during that exchange, but didnt say, was Dont worry, youre young and havent even gone into the army yet. Youll have plenty of funerals to go to. I pray I am wrong. I pray that his military service will be marked by boredom and the long dreamed-of era of peace that we were to have 25 years ago. I pray that 25 years from now his son wont ask the same question. Im not holding my breath. Jonathan Feldstein was born and educated in the U.S. and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six. Throughout his life and career, he has been blessed by the calling to fellowship with Christian supporters of Israel and shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel. He writes a regular column for Standing With Israel at charismanews.com and other prominent web sites. He can be reached at firstpersonisrael@gmail.com. By Mel Pearlman This has been a rough year for the Palestinian Arabs. First they lost the diplomatic battle for Jerusalem. Then they lost the battle to prevent the relocation of the U.S. and Guatemala embassies to Israels declared capital city. On March 23, 2018, President Trump signed into law The Taylor Force Act. The Act is named for an American college student who was stabbed to death in Jaffa in 2016 while on an educational tour of Israel as part of his studies at Vanderbilt University. His killer, a Palestinian from the territories, was awarded compensation by the Palestinian Authority for committing this crime. The legislation requires the Federal government to reduce the U.S. annual aid allocation to the Palestinian Authority by the same amount paid by the Palestinian Authoritys Martyr Fund to the families of terrorists killed or imprisoned by Israel. Over the years, instead of using donated U.S. funds for the intended purposes of education, housing construction and economic development, the Palestinians have paid from their foreign aid package hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to these terrorists and their families. Several other western countries have followed the lead of the U. S. in cutting off funding which ends up in the P. A. Martyrs Fund. In the last few months, U.S. funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which since 1950 has supported an increasing population of descendants of the original Palestinian refugees, was first reduced and now has been eliminated. The cries from UNRWA that withdrawal of U.S. financial support will impede the education and summer camp experiences for Palestinian children are crocodile tears. What it really means is that Hamas and the P. A. will have more difficulty in perpetuating the curriculum taught to Palestinian children which includes hatred and dehumanizing of Jews; and that it is a religious duty to martyr themselves for the sake of the Palestinian cause. Summer camps for Palestinian children are not comprised of swimming, playing sports, singing happy songs and learning arts and craft. Summer camps in Gaza are military boot camps for children who are taught how to use knives, and other weapons of convenience to harm or kill Jews. This is not a syllabus that promotes the idea of peaceful co-existence. It is about time America and all other nations stopped funding this despicable U.N. agency. And most recently, the Trump Administration has cut off all other aid to the Palestinian Authority because of its refusal to return to the negotiating table with Israel. If only we could persuade other countries to do the same. A clear message must be sent to the Palestinian Arabs that their continuing futile pursuit of making the Jewish people disappear from the Middle East and the world will only create suffering and impede progress for future generations of their own people. Let us also not forget that hundreds of millions of the billions of dollars of aid already given to the Palestinian Authority and to UNRWA for housing, education and economic development have been skimmed off by Palestinian leaders for their own enrichment, and stolen by Hamas to build their terror tunnels and to fund their rocket attacks and other terrorist activities while completely ignoring the needs of their own people who continue to wallow in poverty. Hopefully, there will arise among the Palestinian Arabs, leaders who will not know Arafat, Abbas or the other terrorist leaders of the past; and who will lead their people onto the path of reconciliation, peace and mutual existence with the Jewish state and with the Jewish people throughout the world. Until this happens, pity the poor Palestinians, but do not blame Israel for their plight! If you wish to comment or respond to any of the contents herein you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner. If you wish to respond by ranting and raving, please go into your bathroom, lock the door and shout your brains out. Mel Pearlman has been practicing law in Central Florida for the past 45 years. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; on the District VII Mental Health Board, as Special Prosecutor for the City of Winter Park, Florida; and on the Board of Directors of the Central Florida Research and Development Authority. He was a charter member of the Board of Directors and served as the first Vice President of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as its first pro-bono legal counsel. (JNS)In miserable timing, the PLOs Executive Committee announced that the Palestinian Authority has turned to the International Criminal Court at The Hague to open proceedings against Israel over its decision to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar east of Jerusalem within the framework of Israels settlement crimes. When the Palestinian media covers Khan al-Ahmar, the viewer at home can see a few tents and tin structures, built with the help of the European Unionornaments intended to curb the growth of Jerusalems urban ring. The images of utter devastation of entire cities in Yemen and Syria, however, paint the Khan al-Ahmar issue in a grotesque light. Almost simultaneously, in a stroke of impeccable timing, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton threatened to sanction and punish the ICC if it investigates the U.S. army for war crimes in Afghanistan. Bolton stressed that the U.S. would not allow this unrecognized court to harm it or its ally Israel. Alongside the Tamimi familys demand to launch a public relations campaign abroaddescribed by their lawyer as a campaign to reveal the unique truths to liberate all of Palestineactivists on the left quickly issued an announcement that the prioritization of nationalist considerations over humane ones is dangerous. That is to say, Jewish national considerations are not humane, unlike the national considerations of the Palestinians. In a response to the left, P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas and his cohort (together with Israeli-Arab Knesset members Ahmad Tibi and Jamal Zahalka) stressed how serious they are about negating the Jewish state and its capitalby arguing for the right of return; championing UNRWA; rejecting the nation-state law; and denigrating the United States. Despite regional shifts, from the Palestinian perspective nothing has changed. Both Hamas and the PLO abide by the principal mantra (alongside other lethal demands): the return of the refugees to their homes based on U.N. Resolution 194, which effectively equates to the end of Israel. The Palestinians have dug many a tunnel beneath us. Ironically, the light they see at the end of their tunnel is Trumps locomotive speeding toward them, squashing all of their illusions in its tracks. Thus far, moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem has crushed the illusion of making it the Palestinian capital. UNRWA, too, has been flattened, along with the refugee lie and fantasy of return. Financial support for the P.A. has been reduced, its offices in Washington shuttered. Trumps locomotive is charging full steam ahead on the track of American interests, straight through the Hejaz and branching farther into Europe, Asia and the Far East. On his stops along the way, Trump is rebuilding the coalition destroyed by Barack Obama, preparing to stop Iran and China and their supporters and is taming recalcitrant European countries. The Palestinians realized, too late, that the light at the end of their tunnel of incitement was Trumps charging locomotive. Despite their best efforts to derail it, Trump didnt stop at the rejectionist, manipulative Palestinian station to do business. He simply ran it over. Dr. Reuven Berko was the adviser on Arab affairs to the Jerusalem district police and a writer for Israel Hayom. Two events took place yesterday; both were the kind we have gotten used to, especially since the Oslo accords were signed a quarter of a century ago. One was the murder of yet another holy, beautiful Jew by an Arab, and the other was a meeting between a group of Israeli thinkers and intellectuals and the PLO leadership in Ramallah. They made the trip to the terror incitement capital in order to keep the dialogue and communication channels open for peace. They wanted to lift their peace partners spirits and encourage him to stay the path as the champion of peace despite the warmongering, hate fanning, and other sins of the current evil Israeli government. Twenty-five years ago and two thousand fewer (murdered by Arabs) Jews (not to mentioned ten thousand maimed for life), these same self-appointed emissaries and their mentors, particularly Shimon Peres, were certain that Yasser Arafat was our ultimate and exclusive peace partner. All that was needed was to encourage, cajole, appease, bribe and otherwise worship the arch-terrorist if the Jews were ever to be safe and prosperous in Israel, within whichever borders agreed upon. Twenty-five years later after the harrowing blood-drenched quarter of a century, the average Israeli has gotten over the initial hallucination fed them by these know-alls. Today the know-alls find their best audience no longer in Israel but in Ramallah where the mutual admiration society complain to each other how misunderstood they are and how things might have been different if it were not for the naysayers and others who just dont understand... Yossi Beilin, Peres sidekick, and a major architect of and current Oslo stalwart was interviewed on the radio this morning about his meeting with the Al Fatah leader. He was asked if the PLO leader condemned yesterdays butchering of Ari Fuld? Not precisely... but he did say that he was against terror. The Israeli journalists who interviewed Beilin did not think to ask him, Well did you point out to Abu Mazen that he names streets and schools after terrorists and supports their families very handsomely after they are apprehended by Israel for murder? Did you ask him why he refers to terrorists as martyrs? Did you only go there only to idolize a Holocaust denier? The journalists did not think to pose any of the above. Strange? Not really. Beilin gave the PLO leader a pass and the journalists gave the Oslo engineer a pass. This is how the Oslo crime was launched and fed and this is all they know. They all give each other passes while they apparently think they are in a 25-year time warp. The journalists, courts politicians, and writers; the kind, like Amos Oz that makes the pilgrimage to murderers (mass murderer Barghouti) in jail to offer them their autographed books, playwrights and other members of the we know better elite, may not know that they lost their audience. They talk to each with great enthusiasm and resolve even as their hitherto spellbound audience is melting away. The Israeli public truly did want to believe their sweet lies and was even ready to consider Peres repugnant cliche, sacrifice for peace, whenever Jews were increasingly murdered by our peace partners. The public was ready to believe that the religious/settler naysayers were messianic and dangerous to peace. That they were the problem and not the solution. That Arafat was the solution and Jewish patriots were the problem. Their intellectual leadership could be heard calling for the physical removal of these obstacles to peace from enlightened, peace-loving Israel society. Some even called for a civil war, another Altalena massacre to cleanse Israel of the fanatics who would hinder progress with our peace partners. Israelis are not buying that anymore. They are exhausted after a quarter of a century of blood and lies. The Oslo addicts are however using every means to regain their position of power and influence in an Israel that will never again grant them that power through the ballot box. How bizarre and horrifying it is that at the same hour that the knife was plunged into the back of Ari Fuld, may Hashem revenge his blood, that the Oslo traitors were enjoying the company of the man who will welcome Aris killer with a street named after him. The Oslo dagger was plunged into our collective back a quarter of a century ago by Beilin and his friends. Only now are more waking up to the fact that it must be removed. Speedily in our time, Amen. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif refuted claims made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Tehran has developed a secret nuclear site. "No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a 'secret' and 'undeclared' nuclear weapons program - including an 'actual atomic arsenal. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors," Zarif wrote on Twitter in response to Netanyahus claims. "Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Irans secret nuclear weapons program, Netanyahu had said in a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York. He called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to investigate the site, saying Iran has already taken 33 pounds (15 kilograms) of nuclear material and spread it throughout Tehran to hide it, Anadolu Agency reported. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had claimed Iran has a second weapons facility for its nuclear weapons program. Reimagining India entails both nostalgia and quest. One of the greatest periods of Indian history was when India was the intellectual and knowledge capital of the world. The ancient Nalanda University was a centre of global excellence till the 12th century CE. Nalanda had attracted scholars from different places in Asia and beyond. Detailed accounts about the ambience,architecture, pedagogy, and scholastic pursuit, have been extensively recounted. Many hundreds of its books were later translated into Chinese, quite a few at the Wild Goose Pagoda in Xian, the old capital of China. It also brings to my mind that Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese scholar when provocatively asked by the monks in Nalanda why he was going back to his country,a land of the Maleech, replied with humility, who would be so unfortunate that after receiving light and knowledge would not want to share it with others? During the period when Nalanda was being destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193,Oxford was barely settling down. Did this represent the transit and transfer of intellectual power from Asia to the West, and more importantly, from India to Europe? In a sense,India was both an economic and knowledge powerhouse. Not surprisingly, according to Angus Maddisons calculations, around 1000 CE, India, and China contributed 50.5% of global GDP. Even much later, in 1603 when the English merchant John presented himself at the court of Akbar, the Mughal emperor clutching a letter from the Queenmentioned India as the worlds richest nation comprising a quarter of the global economy. When we reimagine India, the least we can seek is to regain and recreate its lost intellectual and economic leadership. How do we realise this natural quest? First,we must accept that this cannot just be by more of the usual. Our teaching methods and pedagogy have for long remained frozen.Education methods and institutions need greater synergy between societies and institutions of learning. There can be no better example than the case of Nalanda since we are on that theme.Few remember that Nalanda was supported by its two-hundred contiguous villages. There was synergy between society and educational pursuit. The new pedagogy and teaching methods or employment structures need congruence between users and creators. Technology, big data, artificial intelligence, and robotics make them increasingly possible. The recent initiatives in emphasising meritocracy,according greater autonomy to educational institutions, fostering competition and allowing some play for market forces are encouraging. Tinkering with the existing structures which are outmoded and misaligned to our needs would be grossly inadequate. Second, we must grow faster,but grow differently.Growth is a necessary condition but inadequate for balanced, equitable and acceptable outcomes. The Sustainable Development Goals centre on poverty elimination. The recently released UN report suggests that over 270 million people in India moved out of poverty in the decade since 2005-06, halving the poverty rate from 55% to 28%. This has happened when we have grown roughly at 7%. We need to get to a sustained 8% plus growth for a long period and also invest more aggressively in enhancing the quality of human capital. Third,on improved health outcomes, the recent initiatives on Ayushmann Bharat,which was launched by the Prime Minister a few days ago,can overcome the financial constraints which hobbled the poor in seeking healthy lives without a debt trap. The 1,50,000 Wellness Centres are congruent to this staggering initiative. But where are the doctors,nurses,paramedics, and gynaecologists and anaesthetists? The debilitating impact of the Medical Council of Indias regulatory regime stymies market forces even in a country with abundant human resources. The powerful lobbies that cluster our health regulations can negate these decisive moves. Fourth, urban expansion in India remains messy. Almost 75.5 million Indians live in urban slums. We need a fresh approach and a regulatory structure with a genuine delegation of administrative and financial powers to the third tier. Why cant a higher percentage of overall revenue from the Centre and the states be made available for urban local bodies? Fifth, we need to find ways to achieve a sustainable trade balance. Export competitiveness needs more than a competitive exchange rate by the way of more dependable transport structures,flow of credit and technological upgradation. Finally, maintaining the hard-won macroeconomic stability, a solution for twin balance sheet syndrome, regaining the momentum on the unfinished structural reforms, remain central to sustained long-term growth. Going by the words of the late Atal BihariVajpayee,India has the sanction of her own past glory and future vision to become strong in every sense of the term. NK Singh is the chairman of the 15th Finance Commission Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have confronted U.S. President Donald Trump over their right to independently choose the supplier of gas for their countries. Erdogan told about it the reporters today. The conversation with Trump reportedly took place during the NATO summit which took place in Brussels on July 11-12, the Turkish TV channel A Haber reported. According to Erdogan, Trump told those attending the summit that they were all "feeding Russia" and that Germany gives Russia too much money. Erdogan replied that his country imports 50% of its natural gas from Russia, and if it blocks this supply, Turkish citizens will freeze during the winter. The Turkish leader recalled that Merkel has echoed his concerns, adding that Russian gas fulfills 38% of Germany's gas needs and that she also cannot let her people freeze. Trump has repeatedly criticized European nations for continuing to stick to Russian gas supplies and suggested that countries like Germany drop the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. On September 27, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and decriminalised adultery in India (it remains a civil offence, that can be a ground for divorce). The judgment is important not simply because it got rid of an archaic and patriarchal law, but also because of its consequences for the future. Section 497 of the IPC part of the British-enacted penal code of 1860 criminalised adultery, but did so asymmetrically: that is, only the man and not the woman who engaged in adultery could be punished. Moreover, only the husband could bring a prosecution for adultery; but he would have no case if he had consented or connived in the adulterous act. This set of bizarre conditions together constituted a near-perfect storm of patriarchy. The husband being authorised to bring a prosecution against the other man (but not if he consented to the relationship) smacked of the belief that, on marriage, ownership over a womans body passes from her father to her husband. The woman has no independent personality but is, instead, subsumed into the personality of her husband, for the purposes of law and for society. And exempting the adulterous wife from criminal proceedings although seemingly a benefit to her was nonetheless based on the idea that it is the man who is the seducer, and it is the woman who is sexually submissive, and lacking agency in a relationship (and hence, the asymmetry: you cannot punish someone for something they are not responsible for). Both these presumptions were staple features of Victorian law and morality, which was the basis of the Indian Penal Code of 1860. Not only was this all a matter of historical record, but it had even been accepted by the courts. The Bombay High Court acknowledged, for instance, that the section was premised on the assumption that women were chattels (although the Supreme Court would ultimately go on to uphold the constitutionality). And the Supreme Court itself remarked, a few decades after this, that it was generally the man who acted as a seducer. With all this in the background, it was an easy task for the Constitution Bench to unanimously strike down the section as unconstitutional. The four concurring opinions authored by the Chief Justice, RF Nariman, DY Chandrachud, and Indu Malhotra all agreed that the law was based on gender stereotypes, and therefore violated Article 14 of the Constitution (equal protection of laws), and also Article 15(1) (non-discrimination on grounds of sex). The exemption of women from criminal liability was not a benefit, but rather, part of a broader set of presumptions that effectively caged and limited them. But the court also went one step further: it also held that adultery could not be criminalised at all. The court held that subjecting interpersonal relationships (where there was no violence) to the rigours of criminal law would amount to an unwarranted intrusion into the right to privacy. Therefore, the legislature could not respond to the judgment by passing a fresh, gender-neutral adultery offence: that, too, would be unconstitutional, this time under Article 21 of the Constitution. The judgment of the Supreme Court is also important, however, for the further implications that it may have. All the judges were clear that a woman has the right to bodily integrity, individual choice, and personal autonomy not just against the State, but also within the context of the home and the family. This immediately calls into question a number of our laws that actively deny these rights. Two of the most prominent ones include the restitution of conjugal rights (which allows a court to direct one spouse who has left the company of the other spouse to return, even against her will), and the marital rape exception (which states that rape within a marriage does not count as rape for the purposes of criminal law). Therefore, the decriminalisation of adultery may have a ripple effect that goes beyond its immediate context, and serves as a launchpad for greater freedom, equality, and independence within what is commonly understood to be the private sphere. Gautam Bhatia is an advocate in the Supreme Court The views expressed are personal Following the landmark judgment striking down Section 377 in early September, the Supreme Court has struck down another colonial relic in the form of the offence of adultery under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC). Section 497 penalises a man for having consensual sexual intercourse with a married woman, without the consent or connivance of her husband, and makes him liable for imprisonment up to a maximum sentence of five years, or fine, or both. In four concurring opinions running into 243 pages, Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Rohinton Nariman, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Indu Malhotra found Section 497, IPC violative of the fundamental rights to equality, non-discrimination, privacy, dignity and autonomy guaranteed under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution. Interestingly, the petitioner in this case had challenged the law in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it mainly discriminated against men, by making them liable, while the woman, who is equally liable, faces no criminal prosecution, thereby infringing the right to equality of men under Article 14. On the face of it, the argument seems attractive, but when one digs deeper to understand the genesis of the law, it is evident that the offence of adultery is nothing but a clear and unequivocal affront to the dignity and autonomy of married women. And this is exactly what the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision in Joseph Shine v. Union of India [Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 197 of 2017] held, thereby overruling the earlier Supreme Court judgments that had upheld the validity of Section 497, especially in Sowmithri Vishnu v. Union of India [AIR 1985 SC 1618]. Without getting into the details of the opinions, it is clear that all the judges went deep into the history of the law, including when it was an ecclesiastical wrong, i.e., a crime against the Church, to underscore what Justice Nariman succinctly states that what is therefore punished as adultery is not adultery per se, but the proprietory interest of a married man in his wife, and adultery was considered the highest form of invasion of property. This is the crux of the offence, which the court held has no place in our present constitutional scheme, for being manifestly arbitrary, and demeaning the dignity of women. Justice Chandrachud too concurs that Section 497 exacts sexual fidelity from women in marriage, while curtailing her sexual agency and autonomy, with an underlying assumption that they have given up their sexual self-determination and bodily integrity upon entering the institution of marriage. This notion is an anathema to the constitutional morality as well as founded on gender stereotypes, which is impermissible under Article 15. As the court held, intimate personal choices of women do not cease after marriage, which would be equally relevant in the case of making marital rape an offence, currently pending in the Delhi High Court. Agreeing with all these observations, Justice Indu Malhotra pertinently adds a crucial dimension in her opinion, i.e., the doctrine of coverture in old English law, which provided that the husband and the wife were a single legal unit, thereby subsuming the wifes rights by that of her husband. This principle was in turn the origin of adultery offence in tort, giving the husband the right to claim damages against the man for having sexual relationship with his wife. The doctrine of coverture has had a devastating impact on womens rights in marriage, wherein the husband is supposed to be entitled to wifes sexual companionship, as evident from the provisions on restitution of conjugal rights, or no law on equal division of matrimonial property after divorce. Joseph Shine is a first step in the reform of matrimonial laws, with hopefully more to come in the form of criminalisation of marital rape, no fault divorce and womans right to matrimonial property. As Chandrachud remarks, throughout history, the law has failed to ask the woman question, it seems that finally that question is being asked and answered too in the increasing jurisprudence on gender justice, albeit slowly, one case at a time. Amritananda Chakravorty is a Delhi-based advocate The views expressed are personal As Ranbir Kapoor turned 36, the Brahmastra actor celebrated his birthday (September 28) surrounded by family and friends at a get-together hosted by his aunt, Raj Kapoors daughter Rima Jain, on Thursday. Ranbir and Rima share the same birthday. Girlfriend Alia Bhatt, her mother Soni Razdan and Ranbirs mom Neetu Kapoor were all there for the special occasion. The group enjoyed some laid-back family fun and photo ops at the cosy dinner party. Here are the pictures Neetu posted from the casual birthday bash, which she paired with a sweet caption that read, Happy ?? to my Friend Philosopher an Guide ?? loads of love and duas ?? #lovehim #bestintheworld #wise happy birthday @rimosky. On Wednesday night, Ranbir Kapoor had an early birthday celebration, while surrounded by his girlfriend Alia and a handful of their famous friends Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, and filmmaker Karan Johar at a casual house party Ranbir hosted. The celeb-filled shindig looked like a total blast. In case you missed it, checkout the epic star-studded photo shared by Karan to his Instagram: Ranbir and Alia continued their weekend of birthday fun by stepping out for a family dinner on Thursday. The dolled-up duo smiled as they posed with their mothers. The Raazi actor turned heads in a cool navy blue and red dress from Gucci, accessorised with delicate hoop earrings. Ranbir looked dashing in a dark round-neck T-shirt. Over the last few months, Ranbir and Alia have been busy shooting in Bulgaria for Brahmastra, a superhero fantasy film directed by Ayan Mukerji and produced by Karan Johar. The duo has also travelled to Israel quite a few times in preparation for the upcoming feature and sure enough, have been spotted spending time together and posing against scenic landscapes in the many pictures Alia shared on Instagram. Follow @htshowbiz for more Mouni Roy is celebrating her 34th birthday today. The actor says she usually likes to bring in the day with her close friends and family, and get out-of-town to rejuvenate. Talking about her plans this year, she says, I am in Greece with five of my closest friends. Athens has a lot of history, so Im quite excited and looking forward to exploring the 5000 year old history there. Visiting Mykonos will be the fun part of the trip, and there are enough days for all of us to accommodate whatever we want to do every day. Mouni adds that from all the gifts she has received over the years, a special present by her father remains her favourite. It was one of the early edition binding copy of Jane Austens all seven novels, which is really close to my heart, says the actor, who is bad with setting resolutions as she cant keep up with them. Mouni made her Hindi film debut this year opposite Akshay Kumar in Gold. And now, the actor has Made In China and Brahmastra in her kitty. Mouni is extremely happy to have received these opportunities. Recently, she wrapped up the first schedule of Made In China and is already impressed with Rajkummars acting chops. He has brilliant sensibilities when it comes to approaching scenes. He takes it to another level. Its like seeing a magician do his tricks beautifully and organically. So its been an honour, says the Naagin actor. And for her, Brahmastra, which features Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt was no less than a surreal experience. It was a brilliant set-up with a superlative team, great actors, and very helpful co-stars, says Mouni, who has had a great year work-wise. It has been a roller coaster I have learnt a lot by being part of some extremely beautiful projects. Im thankful to God for whatever surprises I received along the way this year, she signs off. When asked what is the biggest struggle to sustain in Bollywood, Mouni said, Ive just started out. I dont really know and understand all of that. But I believe that if you do your work with utmost honesty, thats all you really need to think about. Ranbir Kapoor, who turns 36 on Friday (September 28), is extremely talented and good-looking. It turns out, the Brahmastra actor is quite the photographer, as well. When Ranbir and girlfriend Alia Bhatt arent shooting a film together, the celebrity couple is being downright romantic on Instagram. Alia and Ranbir, who have been officially dating since May, definitely dont shy away from a little social media PDA. Ranbirs relationship with Alia is not only very aesthetically pleasing (they are just so cute together) but also rather admirable. In case you are unaware of their social media habits, Alia is known for constantly sharing snaps of her taken by her boyfriend. The couple have done a ton of travelling together and Instagram-sharing within the past couple of months. Only days ago, while shooting Brahmastra with Ranbir in Bulgaria, Alia posted the above perfect photo of her from their outing at an unknown location, overlooking trees and mountains. Keep your eyes lifted high upon the sun, & youll see the best light in everyone, the Raazi actor wrote in the caption, giving picture credit to her boyfriend RK. Whether shes celebrating at a party, enjoying a fun date or just staring fiercely at the camera as her hair blows in the wind across her face, Ranbir nails the shot angles and aesthetic in the photos he takes of Alia. Alia and Ranbir continue to redefine couple goals. Dont believe us? Keep scrolling to relive some of the most swoon-worthy moments captured by Ranbir of Alia that the Badrinath Ki Dulhania star shared on her Instagram. Follow @htshowbiz for more India will soon announce steps to boost exports, while not ruling out further import curbs, a senior finance ministry source said on Thursday. India on Wednesday raised import tariffs on 19 non-essential items, in a bid to reduce a widening current account deficit and tackle a dramatic slide in the rupee. The finance ministry expects the tariff hike, on goods including air conditioners, refrigerators, footwear and aviation turbine fuel, will raise 40 billion rupees ($551 million) annually, the source, who declined to be identified, told reporters. Another senior finance ministry official earlier added the ministry saw no impact on Indian airlines from its decision to impose a 5 percent import duty on jet fuel, after shares of companies including Jet Airways fell on Thursday. The first source said the finance ministry expects robust economic growth despite the fall in the rupee and rising crude oil prices, but would need to conserve its foreign exchange reserves. (The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Indian refiners will either have to significantly reduce or completely stop importing crude oil from Iran over the next month, increasing their dependence on other Middle Eastern suppliers like Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Moodys Investors Service said Thursday. US President Donald Trump earlier this week in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly reiterated sanctions on Iranian oil exports will take effect on November 5 and that the US is working with countries that import Iranian oil to cut their purchases substantially. India is the second largest buyer of Iranian crude after China, accounting for about 30 per cent of total crude exports from the Persian Gulf nation during April-August 2018. Indian refineries, which import over 80 per cent of their crude feedstock from overseas, sourced about 14 per cent of their imports from Iran. We expect Indian refiners will either have to significantly reduce or completely stop importing crude oil from Iran over the next month or so. As a result, Indian refiners will increase dependence on the remaining Middle Eastern crude oil suppliers (mainly Saudi Arabia and Iraq), aside from Iran, Moodys said. Iranian crude is usually sold at a discount of up to USD 2-4 per barrel to other Middle Eastern crude oil grades. Irans national oil company, National Iranian Oil Company, also subsidises the freight costs for crude oil delivery and offers extended payment terms to buyers. Assuming a complete cessation of imports of Iranian crude and USD 3 per barrel negative impact on earnings because of that, on the barrels being substituted, we estimate total decline in earnings for Indian refiners to be USD 400-500 million, against combined EBITDA of about USD 10 billion for the 3 largest state-owned Indian refiners in 2017-18, it said. Thus we expect the impact on the refiners credit metrics to be limited. Iranian crude oil is imported into India by refiners including Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), Reliance Industries, Nayara Energy and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL). The sanctions on Iranian oil are credit negative for Indian refiners because their supplier concentration will increase after the sanctions take effect. The refiners exposure to oil price volatility will also increase if they turn to the spot market, Moodys said. It said India imported 220.4 million tonne (MT) of crude oil in 2017-18 fiscal, out of which about 9.4 per cent was from Iran. During April-August 2018, India imported 94.9 MT of crude, out of which about 14.4 per cent was from Iran. Exports to India accounted for 21 per cent of Irans crude oil outbound shipments in 2017-18 and 30 per cent from April to August 2018. A dissenting opinion, said Charles Evans Hughes, before becoming chief justice of the US Supreme Court in 1930, should be an appeal to the brooding spirit of the law, and to the intelligence of a future day. Perhaps that spirit will come alive in India one day, and, perhaps then the Supreme Court will recognise the value in Justice DY Chandrachuds majestic dissent in the Aadhaar case. But until then were left with a verdict that delivers a punishing blow to the edifice on which the Constitution stands. Despite its length, and despite nullifying certain troubling aspects of the programme, the majoritys judgment offers little in the way of consistent and cogent rationale for upholding the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial & Other Subsidies, Benefits & Services) Act, 2016 [Aadhaar Act], and for giving the courts imprimatur to substantial parts of a scheme that is fundamentally opposed to democratic tenets. When the Aadhaar programme was originally envisaged, it was seen as an effort at providing to every Indian a unique identity number. This supposed identity, the government argued, would allow for a fairer distribution of welfare benefits. But even at its conception the programme lacked legal foundation. When the government began to implement the scheme in 2009, it did so through an executive notification unbacked by legislation. And, ultimately, when, in March 2016, a bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, to validate and give effect to the programme, the proposed law was categorised as a money bill. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha certified that the bill required no assent from the Rajya Sabha to turn into law. The government argued that the Aadhaar Acts introduction as a money bill conformed to Article 110 of the Constitution. This provision allows the Speaker to classify a proposed legislation as a money bill, when the draft law deals only with all or any of the matters enlisted therein. These include items such as the imposition or remission of any tax, the regulation of the borrowing of money by the government of India, the custody of the Consolidated Fund of India, the appropriation of money out of the consolidated fund, and, critically, any matter incidental to these subjects specified within Article 110. Now, while there was broad agreement across the bench on the amenability of the Speakers decision to judicial review, only Justice Chandrachud found the categorisation of the Aadhaar Act unconstitutional. Superseding the authority of the Rajya Sabha, he wrote, amounted to a fraud on the Constitution. As his opinion rigorously highlights, for a bill to be classed as a money bill, it must contain only provisions that deal with every or any one of the matters contained in Article 110(1). Any draft law, therefore, that contains an item beyond the scope of the subjects enlisted in clauses (a) to (g) of Article 110(1) cannot be introduced as a money bill. In Justice Chandrachuds holding, even Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, which allows the government to make the receipt of any subsidy or benefit for which the expenditure is incurred from the consolidated fund conditional on Aadhaar, only imposes a requirement of authentication. It does not declare any expenditure to be a charge on the consolidated fund, as Article 110 requires. In any event, the other provisions of the Aadhaar Act, he found, traverse far beyond purposes incidental to Section 7. For instance, they deal not only with the generation of Aadhaar numbers, but also the collection of demographic and biometric information, the creation of offences and penalties, and, most harmfully, the use of Aadhaar for any purpose. Yet, the majoritys opinion, while singing paeans to the Rajya Sabhas place in Indias democracy, validates the programme by ruling that every other provision in the law is only incidental to Section 7. This finding is not only incorrect but is also potentially productive of the greatest public mischief. Tomorrow, using the consolidated fund as a fig leaf, virtually any legislation can be introduced as a money bill. All that the draft law needs are one or two provisions that contain elements of a money bill. To allow the majoritys judgment to stand, therefore, would only prove hugely damaging to Indias democracy. Suhrith Parthasarathy is an advocate, Madras High Court The views expressed are personal A stunning verdict was delivered on Aadhaar Wednesday. It wasnt the one by the Supreme Court. It came from that greatest court of the people these days: Google Trends, which tells you what is it that we are interested in, or searching. Given how much Aadhaar had dominated our minds, you would have expected it to be the top trend. It was, probably, for a few fleeting moments now and then. But mostly, it struggled to be in the top 10 beaten by such vital interests as Ajay Devgn and Hazel Keech at No. 5 and 6. What did it mean on a day when the Supreme Court delivered a rare, wise judgment, weighing in with technology, science, modern governance tools and the tough choice of the larger common good versus the last man standing? That unique doesnt have to be the best is a more literary way of reiterating that pragmatic wisdom: Good is not the enemy of the best. Then why is nobody bothered, barring, the about 3,229 (remember I made up that number, with some exaggeration) Aadhaarophobes? Some of these are mourning defeat, some searching for shards of victory out of the wreckage, and promising to fight another day. Heres my question: Was anybody really bothered, barring in the tiny echo chamber of voices that feed on and amplify each others, crying havoc in the name of the poor multitudes, who they know nothing about? The Indian intellectual-Left elites cognitive understanding of the Indian poor is about as good as the last seminar she attended at one of New Delhis vegetating intellectual hangouts where cross-fertilisation of ideas is viewed with deep suspicion and the other view is necessarily immoral, stupid, compromised, corrupt and funded by evil corporates. Or, how come so few Indians are interested in what was built up into the greatest challenge to our liberties since the Emergency? There will be murmurs in the English-language press for a few days. If you watch Hindi, and other languages, which a vast majority of India consumes, it will disappear in 48 hours, max. Thats the gap between the elites and our little planet that thinks and speaks in English, feeds off Western debates and fads, and real India. Our is the universe that proudly cites Julian Assange and Edward Snowden as our champions of liberty. Fifty metres away from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India International Centre, India Habitat Centre or the Press Club of India, 999 out of 1,000 wont know who these two free speech icons are. Aadhaar was a lost cause for three reasons. First, because our intellectual elites are far too distant from real India to understand it. Your housemaid, driver, auto rickshaw or paanwala cant be your window to real India. You have to live it more closely. Our on-ground social activists, Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Jean Dreze belong there. They believe (sincerely, but erroneously in my view) that technology is opaque, non-accountable, and the poor will suffer if it replaces the touchy-feely humanised state, however imperfect. That view, unfortunately, was totally subsumed in this Aadhaar or Apocalypse fight. The second, privacy is a very vital human concern. What precedes it, however, is identity. Because identity gives you dignity. For the vast majority of Indians, a lack of identity is their cruellest indignity. What does privacy mean to somebody who has to face daily humiliation at some government office just for that rubber stamp on a piece of paper confirming she is, who she actually is. For her Aadhaar brings identity, and a new beginning. Why should she be dragged into the fight for the privacy concerns of the entitled few? And third, because the intellectual upper crust is easy to please. See the celebration by so many of the fact that Aadhaar is no longer mandatory for bank accounts and phone connections. Yay, no more getting spammed with messages on my phone: We have heard and seen this often since Wednesday. But, werent we told that the fight was about the rights and dignity of the poor, that how could we ever trust the state with our data? What are we now celebrating if the court says trust the state, with your data, leave the poor to them, we will meanwhile protect you from the pestilence of phone and finance companies? In more direct language, the judges have masterfully separated elitist chaff from utilitarian grain. They deserve admiration for upholding a modern view of governance, as also for the shrewdness of offering a lollipop to the noisy few in this masterful two-in-one verdict. Politics in the 24x7 media age is increasingly about perception management, which, in turn, is about constantly shaping the narrative on favourable terms. The UPA 2 government lost the plot when they simply couldnt handle the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement. That was the period when the Manmohan Singh government ceded the executive space to the noise of prime time television as hyperventilating anchors convinced the Centre that its time was up. By contrast, Narendra Modi has been much more astute in handling the media, refusing to be drawn into the cacophony of the daily news whirl even while ensuring that Team Modi controls the headlines through sharp event management. And yet, there comes a time in the life cycle of every government when the hurly-burly of news can unnerve the most shrewd of public figures: for the Modi government, that time may have finally come. It has been increasingly obvious as the Congress ratchets up the clamour on the Rafale deal that the Modi government is slowly beginning to feel the heat. The normally calm defence minister now appears routinely brusque in her responses. That almost every Union minister, most of whom have nothing to do with the defence ministry, are fielded to respond to Rahul Gandhis daily jibes is a sign that the Congress president is gradually getting under the skin of the BJP leadership. That BJP spokespersons have spoken of the ubiquitous Pakistan hand, the finance minister has even suggested a collusion between the former French President Francois Hollande and Gandhi, and the prime minister has warned against a global mahagatbandhan against his government are pointers to the diversionary tactics that are usually adopted when the battle becomes more about rhetoric than reason. Modis foreign hand conspiracy theory is straight out of the Indira Gandhi playbook. Whenever Indira Gandhi was pushed into a corner, she would come out fighting by occupying the nationalist space. That is the arena where the BJP, too, is most comfortable and where the ruling party believes a Sonia-Rahul-led Congress remains vulnerable. During the 2017 Gujarat elections, for example, the prime minister had led the charge against the Congress by virtually accusing the party leadership of hobnobbing with Pakistanis. That even fake Facebook accounts were used to suggest a sinister Congress-Islamabad conspiracy reflects the nature of the no-holds-barred assault. It seemed to work, especially among the urban Gujarati voter. Now, with the Rafale heat rising ahead of the next round of assembly elections, the BJP has launched a similar offensive against the Congress leadership. While suggesting that Rahul Gandhi is being backed by Pakistan in his Rafale war, the BJP hopes to once again position their arch rivals as anti-national collaborators. Moreover, by drawing Robert Vadra, the controversial son-in-law of the partys First Family, into the political slugfest, the BJP has attempted to create an equivalence between the cronyism charge its party leadership faces and the corruption/dynasty tag attached to the Congress. And yet, the frenzied nature of the BJP response suggests that, for once, the self-assured mien is losing its shine. It is almost as if the BJP feels compelled to engage in the Rafale dogfight rather than focus on the core challenge of daily governance, especially on the economic front. If in the Anna movement, the Congress was shaken by TV images of large crowds at Ramlila Maidan, the BJP seems unsettled and far too obsessed by the aggressive social media hashtag wars, the personalised content reflecting the low level of the prevailing political discourse. This is not to suggest that Rafale is the BJPs Bofors moment. Not yet at least. But by drawing the BJP into a perception war in which the prime ministers name is repeatedly linked with special favours granted to businessman Anil Ambani while the Congress bats for the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the terms of the battle are being set in a manner in which it isnt very easy for the BJP to do its familiar nationalist flag-waving. After all, you cant just wrap the tricolour around a billionaire businessman with mounting debts while damning the reputation of a long- standing PSU. What real impact this will have on the prime ministers na khaoonga na khane doonga staunch anti-corruption image is uncertain: perhaps Modi still has enough personal equity to ride through this storm for now. But the public goodwill could yet be squandered if his government chooses to brazen it out behind a wall of opacity rather than accept greater scrutiny of its decisions. Clearly, no honeymoon is permanent as the Modi government is slowly discovering. Post-script: There is no better example of the Modi governments loss of nerve than its sudden U-turn over a planned Indo-Pak foreign ministers meet in New York. It is almost as if the social media outrage among the BJPs own internet armies forced a rethink, a troubling sign if executive decision-making is guided by Twitter trends rather than considered policy choices. Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author The views expressed are personal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on te European countries to support new sanctions against Tehran. "So heres what I say to Europes leaders and to others: Instead of coddling Irans dictators, join the US, and Israel, and most of the Arab world in supporting new sanctions against a regime that endangers all of us and all of the world," the Israeli PM said, addressing the United Nations General Assembly. He expressed gratitude to U.S. President Donald Trump for his decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, Times of Israel reported. Netanyahu also showed an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow and pointed to what he said was a previously secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material. Delhi assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Thursday said that if a grand alliance against the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is formed in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha polls, then the Aam Aadmi Party should be a part of it. When asked by reporters about AAP joining hands with Congress in Delhi, Goel said, It will be in the interest of Delhi and the country if the Mahagathbandhan comes about and the party (AAP) participates in it. Goel was speaking on the sidelines of an event to pay homage to Vithal Bhai Patel and Bhagat Singh on their birth anniversary at the Delhi Assembly. The Delhi Congress was quick to pick Goels comment and said the Congress has no intention to form an alliance with the AAP. The AAP, which won 67 out of 70 seats in the 2015 Delhi assembly elections, is now struggling to keep its flock together as the popularity of the party has been eroding. AAPs vote share in the municipal corporations of Delhi elections in 2017 came down to 26%. But the vote percentage of the Congress is on a steady rise, said Sharmistha Mukherjee, chief spokesperson of Delhi unit of the Congress. Speaking to HT later, Goel clarified that he never said AAP should opt for an alliance with the Congress in the general elections. I never talked about any alliance with the Congress. But yes, in the national context if there is a grand alliance against the BJP, then it would be beneficial for the AAP to be a part of it, he said. Last month, AAP convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said in a rally in Haryanas Rohtak that his party will not be part of any Opposition alliance for the 2019 elections. Goel, however, said his comment was made in his personal and independent capacity as a Speaker of the Delhi Assembly. No leader from the AAP was available for a comment. Goel also expressed his concern over mob lynching and said people need to be wary of forces trying to break the country. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has called a Bharat Trade Bandh on Friday to protest the sealing of shops in Delhi. A demonstration will also be held at Jantar Mantar from 11 am to 1 pm. CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said traders had been suffering from sealing for a long time and no efforts were being made to stop the drive. The bandh has been called to pressure the government to stop sealing and provide relief to the traders. The central government should bring an ordinance to protect traders from sealing, Khandelwal said. Prominent markets of Delhi, including Chawri Bazar, Kashmiri Gate, Karol Bagh, Kamla Nagar, Rohini, South Extension, Greater Kailash, Amar Colony Kalkaji, Tughalaqabad, Tilak Nagar, Uttam Nagar, Kirti Nagar are expected to remain closed. But representatives of the Chandni Chowk Serva Vyapar Mandal said that they would not support the Bandh. We are not supporting the strike. The central as well as the state governments cannot do anything in connection with sealing in the city. It is the court that can stop sealing. Bandhs dont serve any purpose, president of CCSVM Sanjay Bhargawa said. The Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) on Thursday declared the result of state combined competitive preliminary examination 2018 on its official website. The examination was held on September 16. Candidates can check their result of Jammu and Kashmir combined competitive preliminary examination 2018 by clicking here. Or see the result at the bottom of the story Candidates who have passed the preliminary exam have qualified for admission to the Jammu and Kashmir Combined Competitive (Main) Examination, 2018. They will have to apply online again in a new form (Detailed Application Form ) provided to them. The DAF would be available on the website of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission www.jkpsc.nic.in. They should fill up the Detailed Application Form (DAF) online and submit the same online. The Jammu and Kashmir Combined Competitive (Main) Examination is scheduled to be held in February/March 2019. The e-admit card alongwith the time table of the main examination will be uploaded on the Commissions Website around three weeks before the start of the examination. The marks, cut off marks and answer keys of the preliminary examination will be uploaded on the commission website after the declaration of final result of Jammu and Kashmir Combined Competitive (Mains) Examination 2018. About eight cannabis tablets and three grams of sulfa-like drug were seized from an inmate when he was brought to Bhondsi jail after being produced in a court, the police said on Thursday. The drugs were recovered from the right pocket of trousers worn by Satpal, an undertrial prisoner, on September 15 while he was searched upon entering the prison, said, Umesh Kumar, station house officer of Bhondsi police station. On Wednesday, an FIR was registered at the Bhondsi police station under Section 42 of the Prisons Act, based on a complaint filed by deputy superintendent of Bhondsi jail, Sajid Khan. According to the police, the accused told the jail authorities that he got the narcotic substances from a person who had come to meet him in the court. The SHO said that they would procure a production warrant from the court and question the accused. Jai Kishan Chillar, superintendent of Bhondsi jail, said that security has been tightened and prisoners and staff going in and out of the prison are properly checked and frisked. We also strictly screen food and other materials that are moving in and out of the prison, he said, adding that the incidents of drugs and mobile phones being seized from inmates has decreased. In June, a volunteer jail warder of the jail was arrested with 20 grams of opium, four cellphones, one battery and two phone chargers following a surprise check. He was suspected of supplying narcotics to the inmates. Also in June, jail authorities had seized 65 grams of sulphonamide drug, a broken phone charger and a cigarette rolling paper from a white polythene bag suspended from a boundary wall in the jail complex. The deep sea was scary as hell. It was so, so bad. That sight, it was something I had never seen before in my life, said champion sailor Commander Abhilash Tomy over satellite phone from Ile Amsterdam, a remote island in the southern Indian Ocean, in his first interview after being rescued from the remotest place on Earth in the southern Indian Ocean on Monday. The 39-year-old is now recovering from a back injury he suffered while negotiating a deadly storm that left his yacht, SV Thuriya, crippled last week. He was participating in this years Golden Globe Race (GGR), a circumnavigation race involving solo participants, and which bars the use of modern technology. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Thursday that he spoke to Tomy. Every Indian is praying for his quick recovery. I also compliment the teams that were involved in his rescue. Reconstructing some of the most terrifying moments of his 70-hour ordeal, Tomy said he was working on the Thuriyas deck on September 21 when powerful winds knocked down his boat, leaving it tilted at a 110-degree angle and sending its mast under water. It was scary as hell. When the first knockdown happened, I was swept off my feet. I fell down to the mast and put my hands around it. I got swept outward to the tip of the mast. And then a few seconds later when the boat straightened, I found myself hanging from the top of the mast, said Tomy, non-stop hiccups interrupting his conversation with this reporter. The hiccups havent stopped since the mishap. I have some problem in speaking because of that, said Tomy from a tiny medical facility at Ile Amsterdam, a 55-sq km island that is part of French territory in southern Indian Ocean. The first knockdown was only the beginning of a nightmare that would test Tomys endurance and willpower for the next three days, with the entire country praying for his early rescue. As Tomy fell from the top of the mast, his hand got entangled in a wire rope. My watch got entangled in it. I was hanging by one hand. I felt my wrist would crack. Then the watch strap snapped and I came crashing down to the boom attached to the mast on the deck, he said on Thursday. It was the first of four knockdowns, with the last being the deadliest. Tomy said he had a warning of winds of 100 kmph, along with 10-metre-high waves. But this beast was something else. The wind speed was more than 150 kmph and there were 14-metre-high waves. The sea was so bad that there was not an inch of water that was not white. There was sea foam everywhere. Every millimeter of water was ripped up by hurricane-force winds, said the decorated sailor, who has sailed more than 52,000 miles in his naval career spanning 18 years. The winds and waves were becoming more powerful with every passing moment. I had to take off every sail on the boat. The wind was so powerful that I couldnt steer the boat. I tried every trick in the book. Nothing worked. The storm was not letting the boat move in any direction. The boat was 90 degrees to the wind. I was not able to align it with the wind to reduce impact. It was something I had never seen before in my life, he said. A falling barometer indicated the worst was yet to come. The reading one day before was 1,020 millibar. It dropped to 970. Thats a drop of 50mm. A cyclone was forming in the sea and I was in the middle of it, he said. By now, the boats wind generator was destroyed. This makes electricity from the wind. If the blades were still there, I could have fixed it, he said. Before Tomy could even examine the generator, though, Thuriya was battered by a second knockdown. This was even worse and broke the boom of the mast. The boat was an absolute mess by the time it was toppled by powerful winds for the third time. The gas stove had flown off and it was hanging by the hose of the cylinder. Gas was leaking into the boat. I somehow lifted it and put the stove back. I then shut the gas supply. Barely had I done that that I could smell diesel leaking into the boat, right next to the engine. I couldnt fix that, he said. Tomy began cleaning up the mess in the boat, restoring key electronics items and the emergency gear that was flying all around him. And then the worst happened. He realised he could not move. My back was gone, he said. I summoned all my strength and tried to walk. But I was all wobbly and kept falling. I thought to myself, let me lie down for a bit and take some rest. Thats when Thuriya took its worst beating, a 360-degree spin that dismasted the boat. Everything was flying all over the place. I could hear pieces of the mast beating against the deck, said Tomy. He knew the situation was out of control now. So Tomy did what he could.He crawled his way to vital communication equipment and lobbed it into the bunk. In excruciating pain, he crawled back to the bunk and somehow hauled himself up. He then sent a message to the GGR organisers detailing his condition. He got a call that night to activate the EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon). I checked the gear I had thrown on the bunk. The radio beacon wasnt there. Unable to move the next day, I turned around deliberately and fell from the bunk. I crawled a few feet to get the beacon, activated it and crept back to the bunk, he said. He kept his mind blank. There were no thoughts in my mind during those 70 hours. That is something I have taught myself over the years. Thinking can lead to problems. I was trying to figure out what to do next all the time, he said. French patrol vessel Osiris rescued Tomy in a dramatic mission, supported by the Indian and Australian militaries, on September 24. When the rescuers got on my boat, I couldnt hear their voice. They were shouting. I finally managed to hear what one of them was saying. Do we have permission to come inside your boat? I replied, Please come in. Before the accident, Tomy was in the third position among 11 international participants and had sailed over 10,500 nautical miles since the race began on July 1. I am very upset about being eliminated from the race, he said. There are two things that Tomy wants to do after getting back home. I walked a few metres using crutches today. The first thing is to get my health back to normal, he said. And the second? Start sailing again. As many as 81 people, mostly tourists, were rescued by the Indian Air Force (AIF) helicopters from the various locations of the snow-marooned Lahaul and Spiti district on Friday. As the rescue operation entered its fourth day, in an early morning operation IAF helicopters airlifted 26 people from Chhatru and Chhota Dara. The rescued included six bikers, three of whom were women, from Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram and Rajkot. Over 30 people, who were stranded for nearly a week in Chotta Dara near the Kunzum Pass area, were airlifted later in the day. Divisional commissioner (central zone, Mandi) Vikas Labru informed as many as 191 people, including 30 foreigners, have been airlifted from the valley in the last four days. Two light utility helicopters Cheetah have been additionally deployed by IAF along with the three already deployed helicopters, he said, adding that a ground-level rescue operation by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is also on. Kullu deputy commissioner Yunus Khan said at least 37 people were rescued from the 16,020-foot high Baralacha La Pass by road on Friday. While around 1,200 people have been rescued through Rohtang Tunnel so far. Most of them were stranded for the past six days at various locations in the Himalayas due to heavy snowfall. Early snowfall in the higher reaches, cloudburst and heavy rains snapped several road links from September 22 to 24. Kullu and Lahaul & Spiti districts were the worst affected. Heavy snowfall on the Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft) has cut off the Lahaul and Spiti valleys, affecting a large number of tourists and hampering the water and electricity supply. Labru said a 10-member technical team of HP State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) landed at Keylong, the headquarters of Lahaul & Spiti district, on Friday along with electric transformers to step up the restoration of electricity supply. Skiers rescue five people In a daring operation, two professional skiers from Manali, Joginder Thakur and Praveen Sood, rescued five people who were stuck in their vehicles at a location away from Baralacha La Pass, where the helicopter could not reach. Thakur and Sood were air-dropped at Baralacha La by an IAF helicopter from where they skied for around five kilometres to reach the stranded people, including a woman and a seven-year-old child. They brought the stranded people to the helicopter. The duo was also involved in the rescue of a BRO jawan who was buried in an avalanche at Rohtang in February, earlier this year. Weather takes a turn, operation partially hampered Meanwhile, the aerial rescue operation was partially hampered in the late afternoon owing to the onset of snowfall. The higher reaches in Lahaul & Spiti experienced fresh snowfall, partially hampering the rescue operation at Baralacha La Pass and other locations, said the Kullu DC, adding that operation will continue on Saturday. BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday tore into the Congress after the Supreme Court ruled that there was prima facie evidence that five rights activists have links to a banned Maoist group and were not arrested for their dissenting views. There is only one place for idiocy and its called the Congress. Support Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang, Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working, Shah tweeted. The court, however, said the lawyer and trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj, Telugu poet P Varavara Rao, activist Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves will remain under house arrest for more four weeks and can seek bail Shah also asked the Congress to clear its stand on urban Naxalism. Those who stooped down to the level of polticising an issue of national security have been exposed by the Honourable Supreme Court's decision today. It is high time that the Congress now clears it's stand on this critical issue of Urban Naxalism. Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 28, 2018 In a countrywide crackdown on August 28, the Maharashtra police arrested poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha in Delhi for suspected Maoist links. The police raids were part of a probe into a conclaveElgar Parishadheld in Koregaon-Bhima near Pune on December 31, 2017 which had allegedly triggered violence the next day. Following the arrest, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had accused the BJP-led government of jailing activists. There is only place for one NGO in India and its called the RSS. Shut down all other NGOs. Jail all activists and shoot those that complain, he had tweeted. The Supreme Courts refusal to intervene in the arrest of five rights activists by Maharashtra police in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case or order an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), triggered a war of words between the two leading national parties. Even as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah claimed it had exposed Congress president Rahul Gandhi and those who indulge into politics over national security, the Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah of being hand-in-glove with Pakistan. Shah asked Gandhi to clarify if he was siding with urban Naxals . Congress worries about the human rights of urban Naxals and illegal immigrants, but not countrys people, the BJP president said in a statement. He wrote on Twitter, Those who stooped down to the level of politicising an issue of national security have been exposed by the honourable Supreme Courts decision today. It is high time that the Congress now clears its stand on this critical issue of Urban Naxalism. In a separate tweet in response to Gandhis post on the micro blogging site, Shah wrote, There is only one place for idiocy and its called the Congress. Support Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang, Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working. Welcome to Rahul Gandhis Congress. The Congress said the Supreme Court is the final authority. I do not think the law or the Constitution permits anybody to be held guilty without the verdict of a court and Amit Shah is a taddi paar (externed) and has been in jail for a long time. He should know what that is -- it is only on conviction that anybody is found guilty, the partys chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters. We hope that any person who is found in any clandestine activity against the Indian state would be dealt with sternly in accordance with law rather than according to the whims and fancies of Amit Shah who has already seen the writing on the wall in the five election-bound states and is, therefore, frustrated and scared and is prone to making intemperate remarks, he alleged. About the BJPs demand for an apology from Rahul Gandhi for his support to the arrested persons, Surjewala hit back, Let Narendra Modi and Amit Shah first apologise to the nation for inviting the dreaded Pakistani ISI to our sacrosanct Pathankot airbase. Let Amit Shah apologise for reposing confidence in the ISI which is the benefactor, protector and harbinger and exporter of terrorism from Pakistan to India. Why was he having confidence in them? A 46-year-old Chinese man was caught working in a factory in Dehradun without a valid work visa and has been asked to leave India within two days. He only had a tourist visa. Liao Yuan had come to India on September 25 on tourist visa valid for 60 days and applied for a job in a company. After an interview, the company recruited him for as an engineer in its Dehradun-unit based in Selaqui industrial area on the outskirts of the city. On Thursday, his second day in his job at the factory, the local intelligence unit (LIU) of the district police came to know about him and approached him to verify his documents. When asked for a work visa, Yuan produced a tourist visa, said a police officer, who was privy to the probe, on condition of anonymity. He was then detained and booked under relevant sections of Foreigners Act and his passport seized. The ministry of external affairs was informed and Yuan was issued a Leave India notice, asking him to leave the country within two days. Additional director general of police, law & order, Ashok Kumar said action would be taken against the company which recruited him as it should have verified Yuans documents before taking him on board. Police will also check if other companies in the industrial area have hired foreigners similarly, he said. At least six foreigners have been nabbed from Selaqui industrial area in the past few months for not having a valid work visa. US President Donald Trump looks forward to visiting India but the timing will depend on his other commitments, according to a senior State Department official. I am certain that President Trump looks forward to being able to visit India at an appropriate time, Alice Wells, the principal deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asia, told IANS in an interview. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Trump to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations next year. Asked if Trump would come to the celebrations or would schedule his visit for another time, Wells said that the White House will decide taking into account both the domestic commitments he has here in the US as well as overseas. Wells pointed to the steady stream of US officials who visit India as a symbol of the close ties between the two countries at the official level. As somebody who helps manage India relationship, its amazing the number of cabinet officials and high-level visitors that we have in India every month of the year, she said. That too reflects the density of the ties between our countries that I think we have over 40 major dialogues that take place between our government agencies and departments. Modi first met Trump in Washington in 2017, and also at other multilateral meetings. A military parade is the centre of the Republic Day celebrations and Trump has been a fan of such parades and wants the US to have one, too. While these parades are held annually across the globe world as part of patriotic celebrations, the US does not have one. At Trumps suggestion a parade was scheduled for November on Veterans Day, which honours former servicemen, and this year it would coincide with the centenary of the conclusion of the First World War. However, having never having held such a parade, the Defence Department postponed it to possibly next year. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.) The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs called on the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to intensify negotiations, according to the press statement following the meeting of Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Armenia's Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The statement says that the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) met separately and jointly with the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, and the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, between 25 and 27 September on the margins of the UN General Assembly. It was noted that the ministers continued negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "The Co-Chairs and the Ministers discussed the situation in the region and sought clarification with respect to several recent statements and incidents of concern. The Co-Chairs expressed deep regret over the continuing and unnecessary loss of life. They cautioned the Ministers about the dangers of escalation, called on the parties to engage constructively in a positive atmosphere, and to avoid inflammatory rhetoric. The Co-Chairs underscored that a comprehensive settlement will require compromises on all sides," the statement reads. In this context, Mammadyarov and Mnatsakanyan confirmed the importance of taking measures to intensify the negotiation process and to take additional steps to reduce tensions. The Ministers agreed to meet again before the end of the year. The Co-Chairs plan to visit the region in the near future and will then brief the OSCE Minsk Group and the Permanent Council on the status of negotiations. The Election Commissions sudden decision to impose the poll code in Telangana has forced the K Chandrasekhar Rao government to sit on many plans and announcements it had lined up for the election-bound state. There is also a pile of sarees, a huge pile. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi government had bought 95 lakh sarees from weavers at the states Sircilla textile cluster to be distributed as the states gift to poor women on the occasion of Bathukamma, a Telangana folk festival celebrated during the Dasara Navratri celebrations. The sarees have already cost the government Rs 280 crore. At an exhibition of the sarees that IT minister and the chief ministers son KT Rama Rao had inaugurated just hours before news of the model code of conduct came in, Rao had spoken in some detail about the preparations to distribute the sarees on October 12. The government has received 50 lakh sarees and dispatched them to various parts of the state for distribution, Rao had said. The remaining 45 lakh, he added, would reach by October 10. A TRS leader told HT that it appeared the grand plan could get impacted because of the election commissions circular. He said the government had sought permission to go ahead from election commission officials. B Vinod Kumar, the TRS Lok Sabha member from Karimnagar said he was hopeful of the election commissions approval since this was an existing scheme. At the most, the chief minister and other party leaders may not be able to participate in the programme , he said. The poll code could also impact implementation of Rythu Bandhu, another important scheme which the TRS believes, could be a game changer for the party in the coming elections. Under this scheme, the states 57 lakh farmers in nearly 11,000 villages are entitled to get Rs 4,000 per acre during the coming Rabi season in the second week of November. The election commission hasnt yet responded to the states request for clarification on implementation of the two schemes. But the Congress wants to make sure that it isnt blamed for standing in the way of the public getting the sarees and farm assistance. We dont mind distribution of sarees to women and money to farmers. But the saree distribution should be done through fair price shops without using the picture of chief minister or ministers and Rythu Bandhu cheques should be released only through officials without the involvement of the ruling party, said the state Congress treasurer G Narayana Reddy. The union environment ministry is considering a uniform, countrywide legislation to phase out four single-use plastic products styrofoam cups, plastic water bottles, disposable plastic cutlery and all plastic carry bags. Single-use plastic meant for packaging will not be covered by the legislation, a draft of which is ready with the ministry but is being negotiated internally on various clauses. The ministry has also written to all states to come up with their own policy or guidelines for immediate phase out of these products. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was recently conferred the champions of the earth award by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for pledging to eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022 and for leading the International Solar Alliance. The award will be handed to him by UN officials on October 3. According to senior environment ministry officials, the plastic industry has been demanding countrywide, uniform rules and not state-specific bans. The definition of single-use plastic is still being worked on, they said, and it appears that about 50% of plastic usage is of the single-use variety. A central legislation is being worked on but the country has to be prepared for it. States have to be on board. Plastic bags or thin plastic bags have been either partially or fully banned in 22 states. Maharashtra has the strongest legislation. Sikkim is also implementing the ban on plastic bags well. We have seen promising results in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh as well, said a senior environment ministry official from the hazardous substances management division who is familiar with the developments. The Maharashtra Plastic and Thermocol (manufacture, usage, sale, transport, handling, and storage) Products Notification, which restricts plastic bags and cutlery as well as plastic packaging, was notified in March 2018. The central legislation may be on the lines of the Maharashtra notification. A punitive clause will be included to ensure strict compliance. The ministry is negotiating with states and institutions to begin phasing out these products in offices. We have written to all ministries and government departments to voluntarily phase out these four items, the official said. Milk sachets are single-use and form a large part of the plastic waste in India but they will not be included in the phaseout due to lack of sufficient alternatives. On packaged drinking water bottles, the ministry plans to restrict usage in offices and institutions, not by individuals. For now, we are asking people not to use packaged water as a culture. It may not be banned altogether, the official added. Ravi Agarwal, director of Toxics Link, said a phaseout may not have much impact unless it also covers plastic packaging. We need a packaging legislation. Joseph Shine, the hotelier whose petition led the Supreme Court to decriminalise adultery, is a happily-married Church-going Malayalee in Italy and, as his lawyer underscores, has no personal stake in the law scrapped by the court on Thursday. Shine told Mint that he just wanted to shield Indian men from being penalised for extra-marital affairs by vindictive women or their husbands. The hotelier, who has been reluctant to speak about the case, told the newspaper why he fought all the way to abolish the adultery law. He said the trigger for him was when a close friend in Kerala committed suicide after a woman colleague made a false rape complaint. They (married women) might have willingly participated, but it will be the men who suffer (when the husband files a complaint). Something like this (an adultery complaint) will make a man feel isolated. He might not be able to cope with it. This (abolishment of adultery) is a basic step, it can create further changes, the businessman told Mint. Shine thinks the law dented the individuality of men. Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code made it an offence if a man has sex with the wife of another married man without his connivance or consent. But only men, and not women, could have been prosecuted under the adultery law. In the Supreme Court, his lawyer Kaleeswaram Raj questioned the gender bias in the colonial-era law that he contended flew in the face of the constitutional right to equality. Adultery cannot and should not be a crime. It can be a ground for a civil offence, a ground for divorce, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said in his judgment. The five judges on the bench were unanimous in their opinion that the adultery law was unconstitutional. In his separate but concurring verdict, justice RF Nariman attacked the archaic law, saying, What is therefore punished as adultery is not adultery per se but the proprietary interest of a married man in his wife. Kaleeswaram Raj said Joseph Shine liked to support general causes and was extremely interested in Kerala. Shine, he said, had earlier also filed a petition against Keralas power minister MM Mani for alleged derogatory remarks against women. The reshuffle in the Goas Manohar Parrrikar-led coalition ministry has left many MLAs passed over for cabinet berths fuming and also angered their supporters who have warned of protests, including a water blockade, or rethinking their support to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Two ailing ministers were dropped earlier this week - urban development minister Francis DSouza, who is being treated in a New York hospital and power minister Pandurang Madkaikar who suffered a brain stroke earlier in 2018. They were replaced by BJP MLAs Milind Naik and Nilesh Cabral respectively. The move came after the BJP leadership ruled out a changing an ailling Parrikar, who is being treated for a pancreatic aliment in New Delhi and said that a cabinet reshuffle would take place. Several other BJP legislators have expressed their dissent at not being considered for ministerial posts. Bicholim MLA Rajesh Patnekar said: Bicholim (sub district) did not get a ministry, so the BJP workers here have expressed anger and concern. He hoped state party president Vinay Tendulkar would come to quell the anger. Aldona MLA Glenn Ticlo said he deserved to be part of the cabinet on account of his dynamism and said that people from his constituency wanted him to be a minister in order to get their work done. His exclusion had left party workers and other people absolutely unhappy, he added. Goas taxi operators have been backing Calangute MLA Michael Lobo for a cabinet berth, failing which they said taxi operators would work against the BJP. There are 20,000 taxi operators in Goa. In the coming elections, we will reject the BJP if Michael Lobo is not given a ministry, North Goa Taxi Drivers Association president Laxman Korgaonkar said, reported IANS. On the other hand, supporters of Independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar, who is with the ruling dispensation, have threatened to stop water supply from the Selaulim dam, located in his Sanguem assembly constituency, which provides water to nearly half of Goa, if he is not made a minister. The dam is in our panchayat. All industries and people in South Goa get water from the dam. We will start an agitation to stop water from the dam for at least eight days, if Prasad is not taken into the cabinet, Sanjay Shirodkar, the Uguem Panchayat sarpanch said. While BJP leaders were unwilling to formally comment on questions about the dissent, a party official said that there were only 12 cabinet berths and the party had to accommodate both their own MLAs as well as allies. We cannot accommodate everyone. The decision on whom to induct and whom to drop was taken by the Chief Minister, in consultation with the party high command. The cadre and MLAs will have to accept it, the party official said on condition of anonymity, according to IANS. Meanwhile, D Souza has has expressed his unhappiness over his removal and warned that he would resign from the party once he returns from the US. The sudden removal of the two ministers has also left their families upset. It comes as a shock, that he (DSouza) wasnt even informed prior to the decision being taken. It would have been good, if he had been taken into confidence, said his son Joshua. Madkaikars wife Janita said the BJP leaders should have at least shown the courtesy of informing them before sacking him. The BJP government in Haryana has come under fire for refusing to grant lease for extracting minor minerals from Dadam mines in Bhiwani to the highest bidder. Setting aside the governments order to cancel the bid of the petitioner (the highest bidder), a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court on August 14 ordered that the mining lease to the highest bidder be awarded. The HC bench of justices Mahesh Grover and Mahabir Singh Sindhu in its order said that once the petitioners bid was accepted there was no justification for the government to sit over the matter for as long as seven months and then clandestinely let Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) in through the back door without even intimating the petitioner. Holding the actions of the state government highly arbitrary, the HC said: In matters of public contract, the government has to act fairly and not treat the subject matter of the contract as a largesse to be distributed at its own whims and fancies, which again is impermissible as there has to be a supporting coherent policy even if discretion of the government has to be exercised. The successful bidder M/s Goverdhan Mines and Minerals had petitioned the court, praying that the July 25 order of the Haryana government whereby the bid offered by them for mining was cancelled and permission refused arbitrarily, be quashed. The state government had issued an e-auction notice inviting bids for extraction of minor minerals from the mines of Mahendergarh, Bhiwani and Dadri districts. For the Dadam mines in Bhiwani, the reserved price was Rs.115 crore. The auction fell through as no one responded. Another e-auction notice was put up on August 29, 2017 with the reserve price of Rs 115 crore. Once again the auction fell through with no prospective bidder coming forward. Subsequently, the process of e-auction was again started with a reduced reserve price of Rs.92 crore. The petitioner, Goverdhan Mines and Minerals, made a bid of Rs.92.12 crore and deposited the 10% of the bid amount, Rs 9.20 crore with the state government. However, the government did not issue a letter of intent to the petitioner for seven months even as the petitioner kept sending representations and legal notices. On July 26, the state government issued an order stating that though the bid of Rs92.12 crore was offered by the petitioner, the permission to operate is being refused as the government has decided to operate the mines through the public sector undertaking in public interest. It was also ordered that the initial amount deposited by the bidder be refunded. The weatherman has warned of very rough sea conditions due to high energy swell waves in the waters along the western and Tamil Nadu coasts over the weekend. The sea waters along south Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar islands, low lying coasts of Kerala, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa will be affected between September 28 and 30, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday. West Bengal will also be affected on Sunday. The Hyderabad-based Indian Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has advised fishermen in these states to be cautious, water-based recreational activities to be suspended, avoid taking boats to the sea and boats be anchored at a fair distance from each other to avoid damage. According to INCOISs wave forecasting system, high energy swell waves with periods of 16 to 20 seconds and heights between 1 to 1.5 metres will be experienced along the south-western coast of India. This event coincides with spring tide conditions. The effect will be amplified during high tides, INCOIS said in a statement. Such swell waves are usually caused due to a distant weather disturbance. The disturbance can even be in the southern hemisphere but propagates to the northern hemisphere. These are distant waves. The disturbance could be because of a cyclone, a volcanic eruption or of any other nature, said M Mohapatra, director general (meteorology) at IMD. The high energy swell waves will be monitored on real time using instruments which have been deployed in the deep sea and near shore. INCOIS has deployed a wave rider buoy off Seychelles for monitoring such events for early warning requirements and there is a plan to deploy one to the south of Sri Lanka soon. In Kerala, the sea will be rough near the shore. Areas that may be affected include Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasargod from evening of September 28 to the night of September 29. In West Bengal, low lying areas of East Midnapore and South 24 Parganas may experience high wave conditions between evening hours of September 29 and night of September 30. Udupi, Murdeshwar, Gokarna, Mashem and surrounding coasts of Karnataka will experience surges intermittently in the evening hours between September 28 and 29, low lying areas in Mormugoa, Panaji, Vasco Da Gama will be affected by the high waves till late on September 29. In Mumbai, areas near the shore, including Malvan, Munage, Phanase, Velas, Colaba, Gateway of India will be affected till Saturday evening. In Gujarat, Jakhau, Mundra, Kandla, Navlakhi, Rozi, Porbandar, Kambhat, Dahej, Bhavnagar, Suvali, Vansi, Valsad may be affected, according to warnings by INCOIS. Apart from rough sea, the IMD has issued warning for heavy rain at some places over Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and south interior Karnataka and thunderstorm accompanied by lightning in parts of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and south interior Karnataka on Saturday. There is a warning of heavy rain over Tamil Nadu and Kerala on Sunday also. Karnatakas women and child welfare minister Jayamala, who stoked a controversy in 2006 after admitting she visited the Sabarimala temple when she was 27 years-old, welcomed the Supreme Courts verdict ending a ban on the entry of women between 10 and 50 years. The former actor and Congress member of Legislative Council in 2006 claimed she touched the idols feet in 1986. The Kerala police subsequently filed a case against her for deliberately offending religious sentiments that was struck down by the Kerala High Court in 2012. This is a historic verdict and has delivered justice to the women of this country. There cannot be greater happiness than this, Jayamala said. The minister said the country was forever indebted to BR Ambedkar and the Constitution, adding that she wished to thank the judges for verdict. I was pained by the incidents of the past, all the women of the country were pained by the ban, she said. The Supreme Courts verdict has provided a balm for some of this hurt. A complete shutdown was observed in Kashmir on Friday to protest the killing of a civilian during a cordon and search operation in Srinagar the previous day. Educational institutions, shops and business establishments remained closed while public transport remained off the roads. Twenty six-year-old Saleem Malik was among six people killed in separate incidents of violence in the Kashmir Valley on Thursday. The killing triggered protests by locals which turned into a clash with forces. At least eight persons were injured in the ensuing police action against the protesters. The separatist leadership had given a call for strike over Maliks killing. Police blamed militants for Maliks killing in Srinagars Noorbagh during a cordon and search operation by security forces. But Maliks family blamed security forces for his targeted killing saying the forces opened fire on him when he came out during the wee hours to check on his flock of sheep. Security forces had launched the cordon and search operation in the wee hours based on information about militants hiding in the area. While the targeted militants escaped, Malik was killed in cross-firing, police said. Fridays bandh affected public transport and attendance in government offices was also thin. A police official said that they had imposed restrictions in areas falling under five police stations of down town Srinagar, besides restricting Kralkhud and Maisuma areas partially to prevent any mass protest. Police and CRPF were also deployed in strength in sensitive areas of the city. Separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, who had given the call for shutdown were either put under house arrest or taken into custody. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik was detained from his home to prevent him from taking out any protest. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is also the chief priest at Jamia Masjid and leads Friday prayers, was placed under house detention. The Centre on Friday sought recusal of the two-judge Supreme Court bench monitoring the CBI probe into the alleged extra-judicial killings of 1,528 people in Manipur by security forces between 1985 and 2001. But the top court reserved its order on the plea. Attorney General KK Venugopal backed the plea made by Manipur commandos that some of the courts observations (oral remarks) had created an apprehension of bias from the bench by those facing the probe. Strong objection was raised against the judges terming some officers, named in the CBI charge sheet, as murderers. The top law officer made his submissions before a bench of justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit and referred to the July 30 proceedings to make his point. While pulling up the CBI for not arresting those named in the charge sheet filed in connection, the judges had remarked that the agency was letting murderers roam free. The CBI director was present on the day of hearing to explain the slow pace of investigation. Venugopal said: Armed forces in Manipur are fighting insurgency and secession. Large number of soldiers are killed by insurgents...this direction from court... It has completely shaken the morale of the forces. Their families live in grave risk... Then there are these statements from the court...every newspaper reported this... Before even cognisance is taken, if highest court of the country declares there are murderers roaming in the streets of Imphal, all 41 of them stand branded. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Manipur commandos, said the comments made by the judges foreclose his clients case before the trial court. There is apprehension that we are not likely to get justice and the future course of proceedings may be tilted against us, he submitted, adding it is our case that this court should not hear this matter. Venugopal showed similar concern. Will the trial judge have the courage to go against this observation? The personnel feel we are finished, he said. Justice Lalit intervened to give the context in which the statement was made. He said the CBI counsel who had appeared before it that day had explained how the charge sheet is vetted multiple times before filing. The murderer remark was only in the context of a charge under section 302 (murder) being added to the chargesheet, he said. What is published in newspapers is not what fell from this court. I dont think there is any room for apprehension of this sort. If required we will pass an order that these (comments) were not intended for anything else, the judge told Rohatgi. But this failed to satisfy the counsel. It will not wash it off. Such an order will not meet the ends of justice, Rohatgi said. When Venugopal repeated the apprehension that the personnel were not confident of a fair trial, justice Lokur said: Which means CBI will not investigate fairly? He did not reply to the question, but said that to allay the fears of these people, justified or not, it was better the bench did not monitor the case. The bench then reserved its order on the plea. Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar was on Friday conferred an honorary doctorate by the National Institute of Technology, Goa, for his contribution to the state and the country. The degree, presented by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu at the institutes 4th annual convocation ceremony in Panaji, was received by NIT Director Gopal Mugeraya, on behalf of the ailing Parrikar, who is undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. Announcing the decision to award the honorary doctorate, Mugeraya said it was in recognition for one of the foremost political leaders of the country who rose up to be the defence minister. The chief minister has been credited with transparency, efficiency and fast decision making, he said. Parrikar who is an IIT graduate in metallurgy, has served as Goa chief minister for four terms (2000-2002, 2002-2005, 2012-14 and 2017-present) while serving as defence minister between 2014 and 2017. Speaking after conferring the honorary doctorate, the vice president showered praise on Parrikar. He deserves many such things. He is one of the best ideal political leaders of our country, Naidu said. Manohar, as I could see from earlier days to now, is one of the exemplary characters. Honest, disciplined, very innovative... how could a man who was defence minister of India leave the post to become CM of his own state... Goa, you know what is the size, still the love for his native place, motherland that made him do this. We are sorry we are missing him. We all pray to the almighty to give him back his good health and again enable him to work for the welfare of the people, Naidu added. The NIT Goa was one of the ten NITs established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2010. Russia's President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Austrias Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in St Petersburg next week, Russian Ambassador to Austria Dmitry Lyubinsky said. Kurz is expected to make a visit to Russia for a discussion of relations between Moscow and the EU, as well as the situation in Ukraine and in Syria, a spokesperson for the Office of the Federal Chancellor said. "The Chancellor and President Putin will have a tour of the exhibition titled The Imperial Capitals: St Petersburg and Vienna at the State Hermitage Museum that opened at the Art History Museum in Vienna when Putin was visiting Austria," TASS cited the spokesperson as saying. "Also, Kurz and Putin will have working talks on bilateral relations, energy sector problems, relations between the EU and Russia and the situation in Ukraine and Syria," he added. Austrian officials say, however, the sides have not coordinated the final date of the visit yet. Social scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta said on Friday extraordinary expansions of personal freedoms were simultaneously creating an era of enormous social conformity. The Ashoka University vice-chancellor, while delivering the 11th Vithal Mahadeo Tarkunde Memorial Lecture, was referring to what he called a central paradox of modernity: while the personal sphere was characterised by increasing freedoms, the public sphere was marked by rage, rancour and rigidity. Individuals, despite enjoying greater freedoms today, are somehow rendered powerless in collectively shaping social structures that impinge them, Mehta said. This was the disenchantment of freedom, he said in his lecture titled Freedom and its Discontents. Tarkunde (1909-2004) was one of Indias foremost civil rights lawyers and a judge of the Bomb- ay high court. He is often referr- ed to as the Father of the Civil Li- berties movement in the country. if individuals are liberated because they are no longer bound by any teleologies of customs and traditions, if the idea that modernity is this realm of increasing choice if these ideas are getting more entrenched how do we ex- plain what is happening to, in a sense, our public realm, Mehta said. He began with a line by Nobel-winning Russian poet Joseph Brodsky who was hounded out by Soviet authorities: Freedom is when you forget the spelling of the tyrants name. Greater freedom, often achieved through constitutional means, at the same time produces a sense of powerlessness in their actual ability to shape the collective surroundings, he said. Mehta said there were many versions of this contradiction of modern times, such as Marxs concept of alienation. Marx described alienation as workers loss of control over their own lives and the commodities they produced under the capitalist mode of production. There is Marxist version of the argument that the sense of expanding freedom was really an experience of commodification of the individual; the sense of expanding occupational choice was a chimera because one did not in any way shape the condition under which one works, or had the appropriate kind of relationships to the products we produce, Mehta said. It is actually quite possible, he said, for people to want all basic freedoms and yet carry the burden of the discontents these freedoms produced. After snubbing the Congress in Chhattisgarh, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has decided to discontinue pre-poll alliance talks with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, a party insider said. The BSP was likely to go solo in both the states, the insider added. The decision was taken even as BSP chief Mayawati reviewed the preparation for assembly elections in three states and screened a list of candidates on Friday, a senior party leader said. Bahujan Samaj Party national general secretary Ramachal Rajbhar, who is in-charge of party affairs in Madhya Pradesh, said the party would release a list of 40 candidates soon. We have already announced candidates for 22 seats, the candidates for the remaining 168 (MP) seats will be announced in the first week of October. The BSP has geared up its cadre to contest the assembly election on its own strength in the state. Behenji (Mayawati) will launch the election the campaign in October, he said. A senior BSP leader, who did not wish to be named said the Congress was offering few seats to the BSP; besides, the Congress was opening the doors for Dalit leader Devashish Jarariya, who was expelled by Mayawati. In Rajasthan too, the BSP decided to go solo as the talks with the Congress had run into rough weather there, another BSP leader said. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis Friday said the Supreme Court ruling refusing to interfere in the arrests of activists following the Bhima-Koregaon violence vindicated the stand of the Pune police and his government. The SC verdict and observations have vindicated our stand and our action. This is not a political conspiracy, an attempt to stem dissent or mala fide action by the Pune police. The apex court has clarified that, said Fadnavis, speaking to reporters after the verdict. The chief minister said that the Pune police had presented material evidence before the apex court that allegedly showed a conspiracy by these people against the nation. This evidence, he said, would now be presented to the appropriate courts. Our evidence shows that these people have colluded to create instability and civil war like situation in the country. They have tried to instigate communities against one another and have colluded with agencies of the enemy state and conspired to assassinate the PM, said Fadnavis. He added that the evidence presented showed the link between the ground-level Maoists to urban Naxals. Thats why the SC has also said that there is link between these people and banned organisations, he added. The chief minister said that he was sure on the basis of the evidence, Pune police would get custody of the accused and successfully convict them of their crimes. When asked about the dissenting opinion on this judgement that questioned the police holding a press conference while the case was being heard in the courts, he said that the apex court works on the basis of majority judgments. I have not read the dissenting judgement but even that has not cast suspicion on material evidence gathered by the police. Whether the decision of police to hold press conference was right or wrong can be examined. Fadnavis said that the reason the police held the press conference was because there had been an attempt in the media and by certain political parties and pseudo-liberals to create an atmosphere that this action was without evidence and politically motivated. The police presented their side through the press conference. If the SC says that it was wrong, care will be taken to not engage in it in the future. The chief minister also said that political opponents should keep ideologies aside and not support people who have been accused of conspiring against the nation. At least after this SC judgement, I hope no political party will sympathise with these people out of political motives and if they do, they will stand exposed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday attended an annual conference of top commanders from the Indian Army, Navy and the Air Force which deliberated extensively on the external security challenges facing the country, officials said. The conference was also attended by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and top brass of the ministry. A range of issues, including the situation along the border with China as well as geo-political power play in the critical sea lanes surrounding India, were discussed in the conference, officials familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. The officials said the chiefs of the army, navy and the air force presented to the prime minister an account of Indias security preparedness. The conference also carried out a comprehensive review of the anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir. The conference took place a day ahead of the second anniversary of the surgical strike on September 29, 2016. Back in Delhi, defence minister visited the ParakramParv exhibition at India Gate and interacted with those present to pay homage to the soldiers. She said, We are celebrating it because we want to tell the people of India the kind of sacrifice and valour which the Indian army shows. She added the Indian armed forces that day proved to the world that there is a very clear way to show our strength. The Congress criticised Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for using soldiers as a tool to garner votes while celebrating Parakram Parv . Party chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala accused the BJP-led government of compromising national security and claimed that in 52 months of its rule in Jammu and Kashmir alone, 414 security personnel and 259 civilians had been killed in Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. He reiterated that the 2016 strikes were not the first time that India had carried out such attacks across the Line of Control (LoC). We are proud that our forces have successfully conducted multiple surgical strikes over last two decades, he said, and listed the past assaults, which inlcude January 21, 2000 (Nadala Enclave), September 18, 2003 (Baroh Sector, Poonch), June 19, 2008 (Bhattal Sector, Poonch), August 30-September 1, 2011 (Sharda Sector), January 6, 2013 (Sawan Patra checkpost), July 27-28, 2013 (Nazapir Sector), and August 6, 2013 (Neelam Valley Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit the hinterland trail in the Vindhya region of Madhya Pradesh by attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi on multiple fronts, citing his hubris, the failure to provide jobs to youth, the demonetisation drive and farm distress, through a series of public and street corner meetings that lasted over six hours on Friday. Gandhi also continued his belligerent attack on Modi over the Rafale deal and repeatedly alleged, Chowkidar chor hai. (The watchman is a thief) Talking to the media at Tyonthar, a town bordering Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi said, Chowkidar ki Chori pakri gai hai. Unhone upne mitra ko madad karne ke liye France pey dabav banaya (The chowkidar has been caught stealing. He put pressure on France to help his industrialist friend). Gandhi, accompanied by Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Kamal Nath and MPCC election campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia and other senior Congress leaders hit the campaign in a specially designed bus. Addressing a public meeting at Tyonthar, 90 km from Rewa district headquarters, Gandhi said, I heard Modijis speech on August 15. I was amazed to hear him saying that before he became PM the elephant (India) was sleeping and achieved nothing, and it was he who woke it up. Mo- diji is insulting your forefathers because the country has come forward not because of Congress or BJP, but due to sweat and blood of the farmers, drawing app- lause from the audience. He said Modi promised two crore jobs for the youth every year but failed. At a public meeting at Baiku- nthpur, Gandhi criticised Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and claimed he had made 21,000 promises without fulfilling any. We are di- fferent from them. We do not make hundreds of empty promises, but we will make four to five promises and will fulfil all. Gandhi promised that all farm loans will be waived within 10 days of the Congress coming to power. State BJP vice-president Vijesh Lunawat said, Rahul Gandhis immaturity and etiquette is reflected in his choice of language. Also, he is not speaking on his brother-in-laws scams and those scams he himself has been found involved in. The name Sabarimala means the hill of Sabari. It was named after the pious tribal woman, Sabari, who welcomed Rama and Lakshmana as her guests in the Ramayana. It is said that Sabari first tasted the berries she had collected to feed Rama, to ensure that they were good enough. Despite Lakshmanas objection, Rama ate those fruits, saying nothing could equal the taste and purity of those fruits offered to him with such undiluted devotion. It is therefore ironic that women of a menstruating age were prevented from worshipping at the Lord Ayyappa temple atop a hill named after such a woman icon of devotion. With Fridays landmark judgment, the Supreme Court has overturned that historical injustice. The claim that the deity of Sabarimala is represented as following a strict vow of celibacy has been used by the conservatives to prevent women from offering prayers. However, there are many Ayyappa temples in Kerala where women devotees of all ages freely enter. It is ridiculous to say that the Ayyappa of these temples is not celibate. Even if the Sabarimala Ayyappa is depicted as celibate, it should be an insult to the divinity of the deity to imagine that a gods celibacy will be compromised or polluted by the mere presence of women who come full of devotion. Such a stand is an affront to the Hindu religion itself. The rules in Kerala temples were drawn up by Brahmin priests based on their patriarchal practices that excluded women. During the time when Sabarimala was believed to have been controlled by celibate Buddhist monks, women might have faced restrictions. There is no foolproof evidence either that women of a menstruating age werent allowed when Hindus took over the temple again although the tricky trek through the hilly terrain and forests could have deterred some women. Its after complete Brahminisation and the relatively recent advent of a male-oriented ascetic brand of conservative Hindutva that women were banned fully. Above all, the argument that religious customs that predate the Constitution should not be challenged because they are a matter of pure faith, is nothing but pernicious. If this view is accepted, the entry of lower castes into the temples of Kerala would have been impossible on the ground of their exclusion for centuries. The Supreme Court has rightly asserted that devotion cannot be subjected to gender discrimination. The right to worship should be given to all devotees. Women who want to wait till the end of menstruation, are free to do that. Nobody can force them to go. At the same time, women who want to enter the Sabarimala temple to express their devotion should be allowed to go there, free of fear. Lekshmy Rajeev is a columnist and author based in Thiruvananthapuram The Kerala government on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to the hilltop temple Sabarimala, but the supreme priest of the temple Rajeevaru Kandarau said the verdict was disappointing. It was part of the temples age-old custom. It is really painful for me to dilute it. But since the court said ruled it we have to by its verdict, the temple priest said. Calling the verdict revolutionary, Kerala government said the verdict will open the floodgates. It is an important day in the annals of social justice and gender equality. Will implement the verdict in letter and spirit, state PWD Minister G Sudhakaran said . The Travancore Dewsaom Board, custodian of the temple, however said they would seek a review of the verdict. We will go for a review petition after getting support from other religious heads, said Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president, A Padmakumar, according to new agency ANI. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. Exclusionary practise given support by a subordinate legislation is neither essential nor integral part of religion. We hold rule... is ultra vires,Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said. But after hearing the board and other parties, the bench indicated that the practice appeared to be based on the patriarchal belief that a mans dominant status in the society makes him capable of austerity. For pilgrimage to Sabarimala situated in Western Ghats mountain ranges, a devotee has to observe 41 days fast followed by a tough trek through forests. Women aged between 10 and 50 are allowed only till Pamba, the base camp before a 5-km arduous trek to the hill shrine begins. The temple management had earlier told the Supreme Court that the ban on entry of women of the particular age was because they cannot maintain purity on account of menstruation. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists, saying there was prima facie material to show that they had links to a banned Maoist group and rejected their argument that they were arrested for their dissenting views. Rejecting a request to set up a special team to probe the five activists, the court said the accused do not have a say in deciding which agency should investigate them and told Maharashtra Police to go ahead with the probe. This is not the stage to inquire into whether the charges are genuine or fabricated, said the majority verdict of the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Read | Show one document to prove 5 activists involvement with Maoists: SC Lawyer and trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj, Telugu poet P Varavara Rao, activist Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves were arrested on August 28 in country-wide raids for alleged links with Left-wing rebels called Naxals or Maoists. But on a petition by historian Romila Thapar that linked the police crackdown to the strong views of the activists, the Supreme Court had ordered the police to place the five under house arrest rather than send them to jail. The activists will remain under house arrest for four more weeks to allow them to seek bail, the court ruled. On the petitioners plea regarding lack of evidence in the arrest, the court on Friday said it has been seriously disputed and ruled that the arrest was done because of their links with the members of a banned organisation of the Maoists. The main accused have already resorted to legal remedies. They can resort to legal remedy as per law, the court said, refusing to interfere in the case as it did not want to cause prejudice against the accused at this stage. The lone dissenting judge, Justice D Y Chandrachud, however, questioned the arrest, saying there was a serious allegation that it was to quell dissent. Initiation of proceedings under Article 32 of the Constitution is not motivated by extraneous reasons. Jurisdiction was invoked in extraordinary circumstances, he said. The court has to be vigilant in the exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 32 that liberty is not sacrificed at the altar of dissent, he said, adding that unlawful activities have to be dealt in accordance with law. He also noted that the counter-affidavit by the Maharashtra Police does not connect the accused to the allegations made. Slamming the cops for holding a press conference soon after the arrest, he said it cast a doubt on the investigation process. It subverts the process. Trial by the media follows such police briefing. Calling for a fair investigation, he said the court would monitor the probe and asked periodic reports from the police. Maharashtra Police have said the arrests were part of their probe into an event called Elgar Parishad in Pune on December 31, 2017, when activists and Dalit organisations came together. On January 1, violence broke out at Bhima Koregaon, about 40 km from Pune, as tens of thousands of Dalits celebrated the 200th anniversary of an 1818 war between the British army, manned mainly by Dalits, and the states Peshwa rulers. Bhardwaj is under police guard at her home in Delhi, Rao in Hyderabad, Navlakha in Delhi, and Ferreira and Gonsalves in Mumbai.. No woman can be stopped from entering Sabarimala temple, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday, ending a traditional ban on the entry of women between 10 and 50 years of age to the hilltop shrine in Kerala. Religion cant become a cover to exclude and deny basic right to worship... nor can physiology be a reason, the top courts five judge bench said in a 4:1 majority verdict. Women of reproductive age were restricted from entering the over 800-year-old shrine in south Keralas Pathanamthitta district as its presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered to be a celibate. The Supreme Court, which tested this traditional ban against the constitutional right to equality before law, had asked the temple board to establish that the restriction was an essential and integral part of religious faith. Read | What the Sabarimala temple controversy is about The court wasnt convinced with its arguments. Exclusionary practise given support by a subordinate legislation is neither essential nor integral part of religion. We hold rule... is ultra vires,Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra who headed a five-judge constitution bench , said. The bench also comprises justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra. But after hearing the board and other parties, the bench indicated that the practice appeared to be based on the patriarchal belief that a mans dominant status in the society makes him capable of austerity. Acknowledging the presiding deity has rights including the right to privacy with regard to certain rites observed at the shrine, CJI Misra had said, But whether the right of privacy is the same as reflected in the judgment that recognizes privacy as a fundamental right will have to be examined. Lawyer Indira Jaising, who appeared for the petitioners, the Indian Young Lawyers Association, argued the temple rules on entry of women were discriminatory as they were based on sex alone. Citing the Constitution, she contended that any custom or practice which violates its Articles 14 and 15 pertaining to equality should be struck down. The restriction on women was first challenged in Kerala High Court that decided in 1991 that it was part of an age-old tradition and not discriminatory. Nearly 15 years later, the Indian Young Lawyers Association challenged the practice in the Supreme Court, saying it was discriminatory in nature and against gender justice. A pilgrimage to Sabarimala situated in Western Ghats mountain ranges is unique in many ways. A devotee has to observe 41 days fast abstaining from all worldly pleasures followed by a rigorous trek through forests. Lord Ayyappas favourite disciple is a Muslim saint Vavar Swami and devotees will have to worship first at his mosque before proceeding to the hilltop. Women aged between 10 and 50 are allowed only till Pamba, the base camp before a 5-km arduous trek to the hill shrine begins. Women cops are employed in Pambha in large numbers to screen devotees. If police become suspicious, women devotees will have to furnish proof to verify their age. The temple management had earlier told the apex court that the ban on entry of women of the particular age was because they cannot maintain purity on account of menstruation. Refusing to interfere with the investigation into the arrest of five activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon incident by the Pune police, the Supreme Court of India on Friday allowed the process to continue, although it provided a way out for the activists by extending their house arrest by four more weeks, allowing them to move bail applications in this time (some of them already have). In a 2:1 majority verdict, the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra dismissed the petition filed by historian Romila Thapar and four others seeking the release of Gautam Navalakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves and also the appointment of a Special Investigation Team. The top court held that the accused persons do not have a say to choose as to which Investigating Agency must investigate the offence committed by them. In a pan-India crackdown on August 28, the activists were arrested for suspected Maoist links. The raids were a part of a probe into a conclave, Elgar Parishad , held in Bhima Koregaon near Pune on December 31, 2017 that allegedly triggered violence the following day. But dissenting with the two judges, Justice DY Chandrachud held that there was a need to constitute a SIT and hand over investigation to it. Circumstances have been drawn to our notice to cast a cloud on whether the Maharashtra police has in the present case acted as fair and impartial investigating agency. Sufficient material has been placed before the Court bearing on the need to have an independent investigation, he added. The majority judgment said the police is free to go ahead with investigations and it is not a case of arrest because of mere dissenting views expressed or difference in the political ideology of the named accused, but concerning their link with the members of the banned organisation and its activities. Rebutting the argument of the petitioners that there is no evidence against the five activists, Justice AM Khanwilkar, writing the judgment for himself and the Chief Justice, held that there is no mala fide exercise of power the he police. Justice Khanwilkar in the judgment also held, This is not the stage where the efficacy of the material or sufficiency thereof can be evaluated nor it is possible to enquire into whether the same is genuine or fabricated. The judges also refused to comment on the evidence collected by the police as it could prejudice the case. The option to proceed in the case with more arrests is open before us, said Pune police commissioner K Venkatesham after the SC ruling. Todays judgment is the recognition of professional work done by the investigating team. Justice Chandrachud came down heavily on the police for holding media briefings in the case while the matter was in courts. He said, In the present case, police briefings to the media have become a source of manipulating public opinion by besmirching the reputations of individuals involved in the process of investigation. What follows is unfortunately a trial by the media. That the police should lend themselves to this process is a matter of grave concern. Making a case for an independent probe , Justice Chandrachud highlighted the recent case of Nambi Narayanan, who was framed by Kerala police in the ISRO sying case. He said a CBI probe in the case exonerated Nambi Narayan and he was awarded him 50 lakh as compensation for wrongful prosecution. The petitioners said their stand had been vindicated by the dissenting verdict delivered by Justice Chandrachud. Addressing the media in New Delhi, historian Thapar said due to the top courts judgment the liberty and dignity of the human rights activists had not been jeopardised for the time being, according to news agency IANS. Supreme Court advocate Vrinda Grover, who represented the petitioners, said: Justice Chandrachud has categorically held that liberty cannot be sacrificed at the altar of conjecture. Russian President Vladimir Putin, addressing the restricted format meeting of the CIS Heads of State Council in Dushanbe, stressed the great importance of interaction between the countries of the Commonwealth, according to the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Putin pointed out that the trade between the CIS countries rose despite the negative external environment and called for expanding the use of national currencies in mutual payments at the Dushanbe summit. According to Peskov, Russia's president highlighted the importance of the CIS and the cooperation between the CIS member states in politics, social, economic and humanitarian affairs and also in law enforcement. "Vladimir Putin said that the uneasy global economic trends did not affect the trade in the CIS which increased by almost 15% in January-June 2018. Now it stands at $85 billion despite a number of negative external factors," Peskov added. The Russian leader urged to make the most of the CIS Free Trade Agreement and also to increase the use of national currencies in mutual payments, to coordinate action in the international arena and in the UN. During the restricted format meeting the participants exchanged opinions on the current issues of the CIS. It was decided to pass on the CIS presidency 2019 to Turkmenistan, with the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan acting as co-chairs. The participants included President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan Purli Agamyradov, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev. The deputy dean of the Faculty of Global Economics and International Affairs of the Higher School of Economics of the National Research University, Andrei Suzdaltsev, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that CIS longevity proves the relevance of the format of the Commonwealth. "Back in 2007, I was asked if the CIS would ever survive, and now we see that 11 years later it still exists. The CIS represents our region, and the documents signed within the framework of the Commonwealth have a region-wide significance. Look, Georgia, which officially left, and Ukraine, which is withdrawing, reserved the right to act within the framework of several agreements signed by them - that is, it is almost impossible to completely withdraw from the CIS," he stressed. "It is to be expected that in the near future the CIS will deal more with humanitarian issues, which are very important because the language of the region is Russian. In terms of the economy, it is more difficult with prospects, since the economy was initially laid as an option for cooperation in the CIS, but we could not achieve full integration. The CIS as a platform for negotiations is also important for Russia," Andrei Suzdaltsev drew attention. A professor of the Department of Russian Foreign Policy in the National Security Faculty at RANEPA, Alexander Mikhailenko, said that in the first place Russia is interested in the CIS in the field of security. "Then Russia is is interested in expanding economic cooperation within the EEU, for example, paying closer attention to the possibility of participation of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, in the Union. And, of course, humanitarian cooperation," he said. Ending a centuries-old ban on the entry of women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, the Supreme Court said on Friday that exclusion on the basis of biological and physiological features was unconstitutional and discriminatory because it denied women the right to be treated as equals. A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra in a 4:1 verdict held that restrictions on the entry of women in religious places for physiological reasons lowered her dignity. CJI Misra, justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud ruled against the restriction, declining to accept it as an essential practice of a denominated religious group and said it was a form of untouchability. The dualism that persists in religion by glorifying and venerating women as goddesses on one hand and by imposing rigorous sanctions on the other hand in matters of devotion has to be abandoned. Such a dualistic approach and an entrenched mindset results in indignity to women and degradation of their status, said the judgment by CJI Misra,who wrote for justice Khanwilkar and himself. The dissenting judge, justice Indu Malhotra, warned against judicial review of religious faith and belief and insisted on the need for balance between two rights equality and the freedom to profess ones religion. Notions of rationality cannot be invoked in matters of religion by courts, she said. The majority judgment struck down as unconstitutional Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965 framed in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 4 of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Act, 1965 . The top court overruled the Kerala high courts 1991 judgment upholding the restriction on the entry of women between the age of 10 and 50. The HC had accepted the contention that the Naisthik Brahmachari nature of the presiding deity, Lord Ayappa, was enough to impose this restriction . Prejudice against women based on notions of impurity and pollution associated with menstruation is a symbol of exclusion. The social exclusion of women, based on menstrual status, is but a form of untouchability which is an anathema to constitutional values, justice Chandrachud noted . The issue for entry in a temple is not so much about the right of menstruating women to practice their right to freedom of religion, as about freedom from societal oppression, he said. The Centre welcomed the judgment. I welcome the Supreme Court order to allow women of all ages to enter Sabarimala temple. Hindu religion is inclusive. God is equal to all, its wrong to discriminate, said women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi. But privately, BJP leaders said they were troubled by the judgment and that the court should have been more careful in deciding on matters of faith. They also argued that now that the Sabarimala issue is decided, the same yardstick should be applied to issues of other faiths. The Congress also praised the verdict and said religious beliefs and laws should evolve with society. There can be no discrimination to worship on the basis of gender or otherwise. A welcome and progressive move towards gender equality by Supreme Court in Sabrimala, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted. The Kerala government called the verdict historic. The government and Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) will make all arrangements to implement it. We will ensure smooth pilgrimage to women, said state temple affairs minister Kadakampally Surendran. Now women can choose if they want to go or not. Earlier it was imposed on them in the name of religion, said Rekha Sharma, the head of the National Commission for Women. But the supreme priest of the Sabarimala temple, Rajeevaru Kandarau, said the verdict was really disappointing. It was part of the temples age-old custom. It is really painful for me to dilute it. But since the court ruled it we have to go by it, he said. The judgment came on a bunch of petitions filed by non-government organisations and individuals. It was an exclusionary practice leading to a classification that lacked constitutional objective, the court was told. The temple board justified the tradition and attributed it to the manifestation of the deity, who is believed to be a celibate. Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who was asked to assist the top court, supported the petitioners. Misra and Khanwilkar condemned societal attitudes centered around patriarchal mindset and remarked , Faith and religion do not countenance discrimination but religious practices are sometimes seen as perpetuating patriarchy thereby negating the basic tenets of faith and of gender equality and rights. The temple boards argument that devotees of Ayappa constituted a religious denomination was also turned down. There is no identified group called Ayyappans. Every Hindu devotee can go to the temple. Devotees of Lord Ayyappa are just Hindus and do not constitute a separate religious denomination, the CJIs verdict read. Patriarchy in religion cannot be permitted to trump over the element of pure devotion borne out of faith and the freedom to practise and profess ones religion. The subversion and repression of women under the garb of biological or physiological factors cannot be given the seal of legitimacy, it said. For justice Chandrachud, exclusion on the ground of menstrual status of a woman was tantamount to untouchability that applied to systemic humiliation, exclusion and subjugation faced by women, besides in relation to lower castes. To treat women as children of a lesser god is to blink at the Constitution itself, he said. The fundamental right to profess religion was equally entitled to all persons, including women, held justice Nariman. He said the right claimed by thanthris who justified prohibition integral to their faith must yield to the right of women who cannot be denied the right to worship at any temple of their choice. Rejecting the contention that the rules were due to the celibate character of the deity, justice Chandrachud said the assumption in such a claim is that a deviation from the celibacy and austerity observed by the followers would be caused by the presence of women. Such a claim cannot be sustained as a constitutionally sustainable argument. (with inputs from Ramesh Babu in Thiruvananthapuram) Four of the five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra upheld a plea to allow women of all ages to worship at the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. CJI Misra who wrote the verdict for himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar said, Dualistic approach in religions results in lowering dignity of women....The rule violates the right of woman to worship and practise religion. He went on to say, Practice of exclusion of women of 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as essential religious practice. Rule has to be in harmony with Constitution, the CJI added. Justice Rohington Fali Nariman said, Women are equally entitled to the right to practice religion. CJI Misra, Justice Khanwilakr and Justice Nariman were backed by Justice D Y Chandrachud. Article 25 of the Constitution protects the equal entitlement on all persons to freely practice religion, Justice Chandrachud said. Social exclusion of women on ground of menstruation is a form of untouchability which is anathema of Constitutional values, he said. Justice Indu Malhotra was the only judge to dissent in the 4:1 verdict. Equality in matters of religion must be viewed in the context of the worshippers of the same faith, Justice Malhotra said. She said court should not determine practices of faith. It is not for the court to determine which practices of faith are to be struck down except when they are evil, for example sati. She also said, Grievances raised are non-justiciable. In a strongly-worded dissent, justice SA Nazeer on Thursday called for a re-look of the 1994 Ismail Faruqui judgement that observed that a mosque is not an essential part of Islam and Muslims could offer prayers anywhere, even in the open. Justice Nazeer was part of a three-judge bench led by chief justice Dipak Misra, which, by a 2:1 verdict, ruled the Faruqui decision didnt require reconsideration by a larger bench and that the observation related to the mosque was in a limited context of acquisition of land where a religious structure stands. CJI Misra and justice Ashok Bhushan held the majority view. The contention over the 1994 judgment arose while the special bench was hearing the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute. Lawyers for the Muslim parties pressed for a hearing before a larger bench of seven judges, as Faruqui was by a five-judge bench, arguing the 1994 judgment had a bearing on the Allahabad HC 2010 verdict that trifurcated the disputed land. Appeals against the HC verdict are pending before the top court since 2010. Justice Nazeer differed with the majority view as he felt the observation in the 1994 judgment did permeate the HC judgement. Considering the constitutional importance and significance, the matter should be referred to a larger bench, the judge held. What an essential practice is can only be determined after a thorough examination, the judge said. His view was that the 1994 case fell afoul of this principle. Also, the comment on the essentiality of offering prayers in a mosque has to be re-examined in the background of the constitutional right that allows propagation of religion. Earlier decisions of the SC makes it clear that the doctrine, tenets and beliefs of a religion need to be considered while ascertaining if a particular practice is essential or integral to the religion. The 2010 HC judgment has been affected by the questionable observations (of 1994), justice Nazeer held. It is clear that the questionable observations in Ismail Faruqui have certainly permeated the impugned judgment. Thus, the impugned judgment can be claimed to be both expressly and inherently affected by the questionable observations made in Ismail Faruqui, he said. In 42 pages, the judge referred to three cases where reference was made to larger benches for adjudication. The first being the petition challenging the practice of polygamy, the second on whether religious activities can be allowed in public parks and the third against female genital mutilation. Faruqui needed a re-look because it took a different approach regarding the application of essential or integral test. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj left an informal meeting of ministers of Saarc countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly after highlighting terrorism in her speech, with Pakistan seeing the exit as a snub. The ministers of Bangladesh and Afghanistan left Thursdays meeting before Swaraj, who also referred to the lack of progress in regional cooperation in her address. They all left for their next meetings. Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi saw Swarajs exit as a snub. She left midway, he told reporters when asked if he and Swaraj spoke. Speaking in Urdu, he attempted to mask his disappointment by saying: She was probably not feeling well. An Indian official wondered why Qureshi had made such a fuss and said: As it happens in such meetings, (the external affairs minister) left after her speech for her next meeting. The ministers of Bangladesh and Afghanistan had left before her. The official added, Besides, the Indian delegation, led by the FS (foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale), stayed for the discussion. Another Indian official said people leave such meetings all the time, sometimes even the chair. In her speech, Swaraj spoke of the most significant threat for members of Saarc: Terrorism remains the single largest threat to peace and stability in our region, and indeed in the world. It is necessary that we eliminate the scourge of terrorism in all its forms, without any discrimination, and end the ecosystem of its support. She said, Regional cooperation can only be successful if it meets the expectations of the peopleThe world is moving ahead to become more integrated and connected, where movement of goods and people is becoming easier with each passing day. She added, Saarc needs to deliver on its commitments or risk being left behind. Pakistan has been upset about India cancelling a meeting of foreign ministers that had been sought by Prime Minister Imran Khan. It was scheduled to be held on the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York, and would have been Indias first high-level contact with the Khan government. India cited the killing of security personnel in Kashmir by Pakistan-based terrorists and the glorification of slain militant commander Burhan Wani by Pakistan for calling off the meeting. Qureshi had seemed prepared for a showdown on Thursday. In his remarks to reporters waiting outside the venue of the Saarc meet, he attacked India without naming it. He said there is just one rukawat (obstacle) and ek mulk ka rawaiyya (one countys attitude) standing in the way of progress on Saarc. When I judged from todays meeting, he said, was that most of the members present there understand the significance and value of (Saarc) and they want to move on. They want to convene the Saarc summit, which Pakistan is scheduled to host, he said. Asked if there is support for holding the summit, Qureshi said, I cant speak for them but I can deduce from their body language (their) disappointment. Indian officials found the reference to body language interesting. How can you take this seriously, said one of them. It is the same as the handshake with Trump that he turned into a meeting? US officials have said Qureshi mischaracterised an encounter with President Donald Trump at a recent luncheon in New York as a meeting. Qureshi brought up the issue of the next Saarc summit and the Indian delegation reiterated its position, as laid out by Swaraj in her remarks. I would like to stress that meetings, including high-level ones, can only be effective if expressions of resolve are translated into concrete action on the ground, she said. Who will determine an atmosphere conducive to the next summit, Qureshi told reporters. The Saarc summit to be held in Islamabad in 2016 was cancelled after India decided to stay away following a string of terror attacks blamed on Pakistan-based terrorists. It has been pointed out that a Saarc Summit currently looks implausible for other reasons. Bangladesh is going to the polls and will not have a government in place for a summit. The Maldives is transitioning to a new government and its permanent representative to the UN led the countrys delegation to the Saarc meeting. Outgoing Border Security Force (BSF) chief KK Sharma Friday said the force was waiting for the right time to retaliate against the recent killing of jawans along the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir. Sharma also said that the BSF was witnessing a more aggressive stance from Pakistan after Imran Khan became the prime minister. We have taken sufficient action across the LoC to avenge the death of our soldier. We also reserve our right to retaliate at an appropriate time and place of our choosing, said Sharma, who retires on September 30. Speaking to reporters at the BSF headquarters, the director general admitted that Head Constable Narender Singh was killed in an action of the Border Action Team of Pakistan. Singh was shot three times on his chest, dragged to the other side of the fence, his feet were tied and throat slit, Sharma said. There was no mutilation of the body. This incident is a first of its kind because generally on the IB you dont have a BAT action. This was a BAT action...It is an unfortunate incident, he said. He said following the incident, the Pakistani side got their villages vacated thinking we will hit them. So, even if we had retaliated, it would not have been of any use at that time, he said Oxytocin injections worth 1,19,300 were seized by the food safety and drug administration (FSDA) department in a special drive conducted across the states 18 divisions between September 24 and September 26. After the order in March 2001, oxytocin is to be packed in blister packing but we got reports that it is being packed in vials, which indicated that a single vial was being used multiple times said UP drug license and controlling authority AK Jain, explaining the reason for the raids. A blister packing ensures the drug is used only once. Jaggery trader selling oxytocin? The FSDA team in Lucknow seized oxytocin worth 98,125 on Thursday after raiding the shop of a jaggery trader on Mohan Road. The team recovered oxytocin in vials, plastic bottles and some in containers, all stored and sold illegally. The team, including drug inspector Rama Shankar and Madhuri Singh, along with the Para police raided the premises and recovered the injections. We got tip off about this trader as we had been after him for the past few days. Today, as we got a clear tip off, we raided the shop and recovered oxytocin, said Rama Shankar. The FSDA team is now looking for the supplier of this consignment. Raj Kumar who has been nabbed with the oxytocin, has not disclosed the name of the supplier. He only told us the stock was provided by two men and now we are looking for those who supplied this stock as they must be supplying it to other traders too, said Rama Shankar. The districts where raids were conducted include Bahraich, Faizabad, Sant Kabir Nagar, Kanpur Dehat,, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Mathura, Badaun, Bareilly, jaunpur, Barabanki, Balrampur, Kanpur Nagar, Firajabad, Shamli, Deoria and Baliya, Rae Bareilly, Sitapur, Lucknow, Azamgarh, Agra, Allahabad. In all, oxytocin was recovered from eight different places (in all 37 districts) and samples from each seized lot have been sent for lab tests. FIRs were registered in two cases while 95 raids were conducted in the different districts. Action was taken against dealers for keeping oxytocin in vials instead of single use blister packing and also for not being able to produce documents related to purchase/sale of oxytocin. The raids will continue in the coming days, said Jain. He said that once the lab reports of the samples come, further action will be taken against the traders. Apart from oxytocin, narcotic drugs worth 20,36,443 were also seized where the traders were not able to produce related documents. Welcoming the Supreme Court ruling that declined to set up a larger bench to revisit a 1994 verdict which held that mosque is not essential to Islam, Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das on Thursday said Muslims should now stop opposing construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. The Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas has been at the forefront of the Ayodhya movement. Construction of temple is just a matter of time. After the Supreme Courts verdict, Muslims must set aside their opposition to Ram Mandir and become facilitators in temple construction, said Nritya Gopal, who also heads the Mani Ram Das Chawni Peeth in Ayodhya. If the Supreme Court has decided the issue (Ismail Faruqui ruling) then the Modi government must take immediate steps for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya without any further delay, he said. In a 2:1 majority verdict, the apex court on Thursday ruled that the 1994 Ismail Faruqui case would not be referred to a larger bench clearing the way for hearing of the main Ayodhya title suit. In the M Ismail Faruqui case in 1994, the Supreme Court had ruled that mosque was not essential for worship in Islam and hence its acquisition (by the state) was not prohibited by the provisions of the Constitution. Some appellants in the Ayodhya title suit case had pleaded that the place of a mosque in Islam and the importance of offering prayers inside a mosque should be first decided by a five-judge bench. According to them, this question should be answered before the court looks into the main Ayodhya title dispute. Issuing an appeal to Muslims, member of Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Mahant Suresh Das said: A mosque is not essential for worship in Islam but statues of gods and goddesses are integral part of temples. Muslims should now realise this fact after the apex courts verdict and help us in the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Purshottam Narain Singh, a member of central advisory board of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), said it was not in the interest of Muslims to refer the birthplace of Lord Ram as disputed. President of Sant Samiti Mahant Kanahiya Das said he was confident about the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. After todays verdict, it is clear that even Lord Ram wants a grand temple at his birthplace, he said. Meanwhile, regional spokesman of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Sharad Sharma said a meeting of Sant Uchchadhikar Samiti had been called in New Delhi on October 5 to chalk out the future course action for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. The Supreme Court is hearing the Ayodhya land title appeals against the Allahabad high courts judgment of 2010 which had ordered a three-way partition of the disputed land. A Supreme Court bench headed by chief justice Deepak Mishra, justice Ashok Bhushan and justice Abdul Nazeer had reserved its judgment on July 20 last on the question whether the apex courts 1994 ruling requires reconsideration by a larger bench. The Uttar Pradesh police have registered a case against the assailants of two Meerut Medical College students, who were manhandled on Sunday, police superintendent (city) Ranvijay Singh said. It was registered at Medical Police Station on sub-inspector Pramod Kumars complaint. As many as 18 people have been named in the case and charged with hurting religious sentiments. The assailants had barged into the house of one of the students, a Muslim, and thrashed, abused and attacked him for being with his Hindu female classmate, who is a nursing student. There is no mention of the names of the Hindu outfits the assailants belong to in the FIR, police officers familiar with the developments said. A few assailants had identified themselves as members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and other Hindu outfits. Ranvijay Singh said the case has been registered and investigations were underway to identify which organisations the attackers are associated with. The female student separately claimed that the police put pressure on her to implicate her classmate in a fake rape case for her release from the police station. She had gone to take her laptop from her Muslim classmate on Sunday when the assailants barged into the house and manhandled them. The assailants accused the Muslim youth of being involved in the so-called love jihad, a controversial term Hindu groups have coined to describe what they claim is a Muslim conspiracy to lure Hindus into marriage. The attackers then brought the two to the police station. Another purported video of the incident surfaced on Wednesday in which a group of men are seen thrashing the Muslim boy in the presence of police. A purported video of the incident that went viral on Tuesday shows a woman constable slapping her and removing the cloth wrapped around her face. They started assaulting us immediately in full public view and levelled wild and humiliating allegations at us. Soon, the police arrived and took us in a jeep to the police station. On the way, the policemen removed the cloth with which I had covered my face, assaulted me while using filthy language against me, the woman told media on Wednesday. At the police station, the VHP men started building pressure on her to level fake rape or molestation charges on her Muslim friend. We will let you go if only you level these charges at him, the victim recalled. She said, What was more shocking was the fact that my video shot on mobile was made public by the police. Now, they have shamed me in the public eye. The girls mother said, When I reached police station, there were several VHP cadres at the police station. I spoke to my daughter and found out that there was not an iota of truth in the wild accusations levelled against my daughter. After the horrifying treatment, the victim said she was too scared to continue her nursing studies. Senior police superintendent Akhilesh Kumar has ordered an inquiry against the police officers accused of using foul language against the female student while taking her to the police station. Kumar had suspended three cops and a home guard after the video went but no case has been registered against them. Adequate action will be initiated against the errant cops after receiving the inquiry report, said Singh. After the loss of 23 lives in the stampede at Elphinstone Road station on September 29 last year, the railway authorities formed 13 multi-disciplinary teams to inspect and assess the infrastructure on the entire suburban network, and give suggestions to make them safer. A year later, the authorities are still to act on the recommendations, leaving some stations vulnerable. EXPERTSPEAK: RECOMMENDATIONS Among the railway ministrys immediate measures taken in the aftermath of the incident at Elphinstone Road, now renamed Prabhadevi, was formation of teams comprising personnel from the central, western railway, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC), Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC), Mumbai Police, Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF). The detailed report prepared by the teams suggested deployment of additional manpower to control crowd, construction of foot overbridges, escalators and lifts and clearing the entry and exit points. The railway authorities also deployed 550 Maharashtra Security Force (MSF) personnel to prevent overcrowding at railway stations. In the past one year, they have constructed 21 FOBs on CR route and 11 on WR route. SHAKY GROUND REALITY Two incidents this year highlighted how very little has come of the teams suggestion to manage the crowd on the FOBs better. The shutting of Delisle Bridge at Lower Parel in July led to stampede-like situation, thanks to the lack of coordination between railway, civic and police personnel. Action was taken only after commuters posted images on social networking sites. A similar situation arose at Santacruz railway station in September, when the public bridge was shut and pedestrians were asked to use the railway foot overbridge. Another suggestion of the teams decongestion of entry points by preventing autorickshaws and taxis too hasnt been paid heed to. A case in point could be the narrow entrance at Chinchpokli railway station. The south-end of the bridge is narrow and it becomes difficult for commuters during peak hours, said Shiv Sena corporator Ramakant Rahate. ENTRY TO CROWDED CENTRAL At Kurla railway station too, despite having a separate space, autorickshaws continue to block the entrance of the railway station. Finding your way through a maze of autorickshaws is a task, said Abdullah Shaikh, a Kurla resident. The audit also recommended declaring the 50-meter area outside railway stations no-hawking zones. At Ghatkopar, the audit team had sought eviction of unauthorised hawkers to the west of platform number one. However, the hawkers continue to operate during peak hours. At times, the ticket queues reach outside the station. The hawkers waiting in the passage make it difficult to reach the platform, especially during peak hours, said Mohini Nirmal, a Ghatkopar resident. Restricting WiFi to ticketing area was among the other ideas put forth by the teams, stating that free WiFi was being used by non-commuters, thus blocking foot overbridges, entry and exit points. Passenger associations said the agencies have learnt nothing from the stampede. Jogeshwari, Kurla, Ghatkopar and Andheri are vulnerable to stampede. There is no coordination between railways and civic body on critical issues. The Andheri bridge collapse is an example of it, said Subash Gupta, president, Rail Yatri Parishad. A 27-year-old man who was critically injured when his speeding Jaguar car crashed into the divider on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida died at Delhis Indraprastha Apollo hospital on Friday evening. An eyewitness told Hindustan Times that the man leaned out of the window to spit paan masala and his luxury sedan hit the central verge of the expressway on Thursday evening. Prashant Kasana, a resident of Kasana Towers in Sector Alpha 1 in Greater Noida, was admitted to Kailash Hospital in a critical condition around 6.15 pm on Thursday after the accident while he was coming from Jewar towards his residence. Around 9 pm, Kasanas parents shifted him to Apollo Hospitals in Delhi. The victim was admitted to our hospital on Thursday night in a critical state. He was under constant observation and despite our best efforts, he breathed his last on Friday evening, an Apollo Hospitals spokesperson said. According to a staff of the Yamuna Expressways concessionaire, he saw Kasana leaning out of the car window, moments before the accident. It was around 6pm when I saw the Jaguar, being driven at a high speed, and the driver leaning his head out to spit out paan. He lost control of the vehicle and it hit the central verge of the expressway before coming to a halt. My colleague and I pulled him out of the car and took him to Kailash Hospital in Greater Noida, Mahaveer, who goes by a single name, said. However, police said they have no such information about the reason behind the accident. We received information about the accident only after 9pm and a team was sent to remove the vehicle from the expressway. We have not questioned the family yet and no case has been filed, Arvind Pathak, station house officer, Knowledge Park police station, said. Kasana received head injuries and, according to doctors at Kailash Hospital, he was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital. The victim was brought in around 6.15pm and he was immediately shifted to the ICU. We kept him on ventilator support as he had sustained severe head injuries and a forearm fracture. Late night, the victims kin transferred him to Apollo Hospitals in Sarita Vihar, Delhi, a representative of Kailash Hospital said. We had taken Prashant to Apollo Hospitals and his condition was extremely critical. Doctors said his brain did not recover, a relative of Kasana, who did not wish to be named, said. Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev are attending the summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Tajikistans capital of Dushanbe. The heads of delegations are expected to sign a number of documents, and also to approve passing the CIS chairmanship to Turkmenistan in 2019. According to the CIS Executive Committee, at the meeting of the Council of the Heads of State, the sides plan to exchange views on cooperation in the framework of the Commonwealth, and also discuss issues regarding the chairmanship in the organization, the date and venue of holding another Councils meeting. At the meeting with delegation members, the sides plan to focus on political cooperation, further development of cooperation in cultural and humanitarian areas, in ensuring security and also a number of projects aimed improving the activity and legal basis of the CIS. Special attention will be paid to preparations for celebrations in 2020 to mark 75 years since the Soviet defeat of Hitlers forces in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War. The heads of state also plan to discuss an intergovernmental program on joint steps to combat crime in 2019-2023. The five-year program stipulates cooperation in countering drugs smuggling, human trafficking and illegal migration, and also crimes in information technologies. The new terminal building of Patna airport will be ready by mid-2022, with work expected to commence next month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to lay its foundation stone after the Union government on Wednesday approved Rs 1,217 crore for construction of a new domestic terminal building and allied structures at Patna airport. Airport director Rajender Singh Lahauria said the time taken for construction of terminal building at the existing airport would be more than that in Bihta, where the Airports Authority of India had got 108 acres of virgin land. He was speaking at a seminar on Tourism sector in Bihar Opportunities and Challenges, organised by the Bihar Industries Association (BIA) as part of the World Tourism Day on Thursday. We will be able to construct the terminal building at Bihta in about two years, while the one at Patna airport will take at least three-and-a-half years. Relocating utility services for the new terminal building and dismantling existing structures, keeping the Patna airport functional, will be an onerous task, which will be time consuming, he said. Lahauria also said that flight operation from Darbhanga would not commence before mid-2019, as runway strengthening work had to be undertaken there. The Spice Jet is scheduled to operate flights to Bangalore and Delhi from Darbhanga under the Centres regional connectivity scheme (RCS). Similarly, it would take at least two years for Purnia to be taken up for bidding under RCS as the Indian Air Force was to undertake recarpeting of the runway work in two years there. Talking from tourists point of view, Lahauria urged the Bihar Industries Association (BIA) to pitch for a flight connecting Patna with Amritsar and Guwahati. He also suggested another flight between Patna and Ahmedabad. Both Amritsar and Guwahati are important religious places hosting the Golden temple in Amritsar and Kamakhya temple in Guwahati. A hopping flight connecting Patna with Amritsar and Guwahati will fetch good number of passengers, he said. He also suggested that the BIA should explore the options of setting up a budget hotel near the airport as many passengers, coming from faraway places with early morning flights to catch, were found to be sleeping either on chairs or on floors outside the terminal building. The airport director said despite the severe congestion of flights in afternoon, a morning slot between 8.30am and 9.30am was available, where a flight or two could be easily accommodated here. He also listed several operational constraints, including lack of space, at the existing airport. Industrialist Shailendra P Sinha suggested having a flight between Patna and Bagdogra while Sanjeev Sinha of Mamata Hotels demanded an international service to Kathmandu as well. BIA president KPS Keshri was also present on the occasion. Nearly 350 low-income and slum tenements of Janata Vasahat were inundated with water on Tuesday morning after the Mutha right bank canal wall suffered a breach at around 10.30 am causing minor floods in the Dandekar bridge area. The situation could have been far worse had the canal breached at night. Irrigation department officials said the wall of the canal which brings water from Khadakwasla dam to the Cantonment water treatment plant, suffered a breach of almost 15 metres and water from the canal gushed onto Sinhagad road, Dandekar bridge and Janata Vasahat areas populated mainly by slums and small tenements. Executive engineer (Khadakwasla irrigation division) P B Shelar said, The Irrigation department halted the release of water immediately after receiving news of the breach in the canal wall. It will take some time to reduce the flow of the water as the canal is 11 km long. Once the water level reduces, we will repair the breach and resume water supply. The Fire brigade station chief PR Sonavane said that fortunately, most of the children had gone to school at the time of disaster. We had to pull out just the elderly and small children of about 4-5 years. One lady and one child were taken to hospital for minor injuries. But no casualty was reported. Pune Mayor Mukta Tilak faced the wrath of the area residents who expressed their anger at her even as the police and civic officials tried to diffuse the situation. As per the primary report, around 300-350 houses have been damaged due to the floods. All civic departments are working on a war footing to assist the people. The people need not panic as we are with them, she said. When asked about the charge that the issue of canal leakages had been raised by the area residents in the past, Tilak said, Yes, even the PMC had written to the Irrigation department. However, this is not the right time to blame one other. Priority should be given to help the people first. Immediately after the breach was reported, the discharge from Mutha canal was shut down. Water however, continued to gush out forcefully and the flow reduced only at around 2 pm. The poor slum dwellers were shattered when they saw the state of their homes with television sets, two-wheelers, electronic equipment, food and clothes submerged in water. At several places, weak constructions and walls had collapsed and the residents tried to collect their valuables from the debris. This man-made calamity has robbed me of everything. I was saving money for my daughters marriage but now everything is gone. My house is filled with water and mud and one section of the wall collapsed in the nallah. I will have to spend lot of money to get it repaired, said Shivaji Hiwale, a 50-year-old resident of Janata Vasahat. On arrival, fire brigade officials used ropes and human chains to rescue around 100-150 people from the locality. People who had gone out to work rushed back home on receiving news of the floods. However, they were held at bay by the police as water continued to be discharged with force. A seven-year-old girl who was reported missing on Tuesday was found dead in Pimpri. A case under IPC Section 363 (kidnapping) had been registered on Tuesday. Following the case leads, the police found her decomposing body on Hindustan Antibiotics property. The police received a call from the localities stating a foul smell coming from the area.The parents had informed the police that she was wearing yellow coloured t-shirt and a black pair of leggings. However, her pants were missing when she was found. The body was found in rotting condition. The body has been taken to Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial hospital for post-mortem. While the reports are awaited, doctors informed the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Two teams are formed to investigate the matter. The public around the area informed the police about the foul smell in the area (where the girl was found). We are inspecting the footage of the area, said Rangnath Unde, police inspector (crime) of Pimpri police station. As of now, the doctors havent said anything regarding sexual assault. We will know better once we have a suspect, said Satish Patil, assistant commissioner of police, Pimpri division. We have various teams investigating the case. We have questioned her relatives and everyone living in her locality besides having checked the available CCTV footage of the area, said police sub inspector, Nimgire. who was investigating the missing case. RK Padmanabhan, police commissioner of Pimpri-Chinchwad has taken cognisance of this case. The girls father is said to be an alcoholic whereas her mother works as a domestic helper in the Pimpri- Chinchwad area. A case has been registered under Section 302 of the IPC at Pimpri police station. This incident comes to light days after the case of two minor girls being sexually assaulted was reported in Hinjewadi. The police have opposed Aam Aadmi Partys Delhi legislator Naresh Yadavs application for a probe into the bank accounts of Vijay Kumar, the main accused in the Malerkotla Quran sacrilege case. Police told the court that the probe has been completed and Yadav has no right to seek further investigation from the court at this stage. However, the court of additional sessions judge Dinesh Kumar will decide on October 4 whether a probe should be ordered or not. Vijay Kumar, the main accused in the burning of Quran in Malerkotla on June 24, 2016, had claimed that he did it at the behest of his friend Yadav. Later, Vijay took a U-turn before the media alleging that the police forced him to name Yadav in the case. Both Yadav and Vijay are out on bail. Malerkotla police wrote to the court that challan has been produced and the case is at the framing of charges stage. At the charges stage, the accused has no right to submit any document or file application for more documents. We appeal the court that this application be cancelled and charges framed against the accused, police told the court. Yadavs counsel Narpal Singh Dhaliwal said according to Ranjit Singh Commission report Vijay Kumar was an RSS pracharak in New Delhi from 1999 to 2001 and had received 90 lakh in his bank account, of which he withdrew 56 lakh, but there was no mention of Naresh Yadavs involvement in the case. Though the police have opposed further probe, the court will decide on October 4 whether to order investigation or not, said Dhaliwal. Besides, Vijay Kumars counsel Raj Kumar Goyal said that his client never faced any case before income tax or ED and there was no need for further probe into the matter. RSS is not a banned organisation in India but Yadavs advocate tried to link RSS with the sacrilege case. The Ranjit Commission report is biased and my client was never summoned by IT or ED, said Goyal. Polices stand exposes state govt: Harpal Cheema Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema alleged that polices opposition to probe into financial transactions of Vijay Kumar has exposed the hidden alliance of Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP. The SAD-BJP government implicated AAP MLA Naresh Yadav in a false case and now the Congress government is opposing the probe which was recommended by its own commission. It shows that the state government has rejected Ranjit Singh commission report, said Cheema. Punjab Police additional inspector general (AIG, crime) Randhir Singh Uppal was booked by the cantonment police here on Friday for allegedly raping and intimidating a 28-year-old law student at an Amritsar college. Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP-1) Lakhbir Singh said a case under sections 376 (rape), 376-D (rape by one or more persons), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354-C (voyeurism), 506 (criminal intimidation), 498 (enticing a married woman with criminal intent) of the Indian Penal Code; Sections 25, 27, 54, 59 of the Arms Act and relevant section of the Information Technology Act-2000, has been registered against the police officer at the cantonment police station on the victims complaint. He said these are non-bailable offences and the police were working on to make the arrest. The victim is married and mother of a 6-year-old boy, police said. The victim, who hails from Hoshiarpur, had lodged a complaint with the Amritsars cantonment police on September 17 and also filed a complaint through police helpline 181 the next day. Amritsar police commissioner SS Srivastava forwarded this complaint to the office of DGP, Punjab. A probe was marked to inspector general (IG, crime and women) Vibhu Raj, who recommended registration of a case against Uppal after investigations. As this is a rape case, we have constituted a special investigation team (SIT) led by assistant commissioner of police (ACP-headquarters) Richa Agnihotri. She will also be accompanied by SHOs of cantonment and woman police stations, he said. The ADCP said the victim was yet to appear at the police station. First of all, her medical examination will be conducted, he said. The victim had alleged that Uppal, posted in Chandigarh, was harassing her and making sexual advances for the last four months. The complainant had a number of recordings of her conversations with Uppal and WhatsApp chats she had with him. She had even put these recordings and chats on social media, seeking justice and alleging that the police were not looking into her complaint. She reportedly produced these recordings before the probe officer at Chandigarh. Apart from this, she, along with Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) leader and MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains, held a press conference at Jalandhar on Thursday, alleging that the police were not taking any action on her complaint. Uppal, however, refuted the allegations, terming them as baseless, news agency PTI reported. The town will again take centre stage on October 7 as the Sikh radicals and Aam Aadmi Partys rebel group will hold a joint congregation parallel to the Congress and Akali Dals rallies elsewhere. The radicals have also given a call to observe the third death anniversary of the two Sikh youths killed in Behbal Kalan police firing on October 14. Every Sikh who wants justice and feels the pain of these deaths and for the be-adbi (sacrilege) of Guru Granth Sahib, will reach Bargari on October 14, appealed radical Sikh preacher Baljit Singh Daduwal, who was one of the key players behind starting the protest on June 1. The Captain government has failed to arrest even a single accused officer to date, he said. He said the Badals were using the media to spread rumours that the Bargari morcha was fading out. The daily gathering here shows that the Sikh community wants justice and this protest will continue with the same zeal till our demands are met, Daduwal said. He reiterated the three demands arrest of culprits behind the sacrilege and arrest of police officers responsible for Behbal Kalan killings, release the Sikh detainees without any trial. The Bargari protest had begun on June 1, much ahead of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report was tabled in August that held some cops officers responsible for the Behbal Kalan firing deaths on October 14, 2015. The protest, known as the Bargari Insaaf Morcha, continues to attract visitors as the daily 2-hour congregation on Thursday afternoon was attended by nearly 4,000 people. Every day, the two-hour afternoon congregation is presided over by a religious preacher and it was the turn of Baba Sewa Singh Rampur Kheri from Hoshiarpur on Thursday. He appealed to the masses to gather in large numbers on October 14 to issue a warning to the state government for not arresting the sacrilege culprits. The American Bar Association called on the US Senate to delay a vote on Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination until after an appropriate background check into the allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford regarding sexual assault is completed by the FBI. We make this request because of the ABAs respect for the rule of law and due process under law, ABA President Robert Carlson said in a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and the panels top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California. The basic principles that underscore the Senates constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI. The letter marked a last-minute hitch in Kavanaughs nomination and came at the end of a tumultuous day in which Ford, in an emotional appearance before the committee, accused Kavanaugh of attacking her at a Maryland house party in 1982. She was followed by Kavanaugh, who fiercely denied the allegations and lashed out at Democrats on the panel. The letter emerged before a planned vote Friday by the Judiciary Committee to advance the Kavanaugh nomination to the full Senate. Republican leaders were hoping to confirm him to the high court by early next week. Each appointment to our nations Highest Court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote, Carlson said in the letter, which was provided by a Senate aide. The non-partisan organisation is composed of lawyers and law students and a high rating is highly prized by judicial nominees. For 12 years, everyone who has appeared before me on the D.C. Circuit has praised my judicial temperament, Kavanaugh said Thursday during his combative testimony. Thats why I have the unanimous well-qualified rating from the American Bar Association. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also mentioned the ABAs assessment during an impassioned defense of Kavanaugh on Thursday. If you lived a good life people will recognize it like the American Bar Association has the gold standard, he said. His integrity is absolutely unquestioned. In 1994, in the case of Dr Ismail Faruqui vs Union of India, the Supreme Court made two serious observations. One, that a mosque is not an essential part of Islam; and two, that the protection of law to religious places can be tested on the basis of particular significance. Of the three judges of the Allahabad high court hearing the title suit at the time, two judges considered these observations relevant for adjudication. In its 2010 judgment, the high court quoted that portion of the SC verdict where the issue of particular significance and integral part of religion with respect to the mosque was mentioned in the Ismail Faruqui decision. Ultimately, the high court decided Muslims shall be entitled to only one third portion of the land, and that,too, not where the mosque existed. The reason for arriving at that conclusion can be safely understood that the Muslim right to claim the mosque appeared weak in comparison to the Hindu right to the claimed birthplace of Lord Ram. There was no option for the Muslim litigants but to take this issue to the Supreme Court . Now, the SC has said the observation in Faruqui judgment was in the context of acquisition of land and non-availability of immunity to mosques from the concept of eminent domain. But the apex court has not clarified in clear terms whether the high court judgment, to the extent that it relies on observations in the Faruqui case, shall be set aside or not. The court has said that these civil appeals will be decided uninfluenced by the said observations. This is not the first time that a difference of opinion has cropped up between benches of equal strength of the high court and the Supreme Court. Even otherwise, a larger question was raised as to whether such observations can be made without undertaking the exercise of the test of essentiality. Initially in 1954, five judges stated that essential part of religion was to be ascertained with reference to the doctrine of that religion itself. Later in 1964, it was stated that the court would enquire whether the practice in question is religious in character and if it is, whether it can be regarded as integral or essential part of that religion. In ascertaining that, the court would depend upon evidence qua tenets of its religion and conscience of the community concerned. That being the reason, the minority view of justice S Abdul Nazeer, is important where he says that the proposition in Ismail Faruqui needs to be brought in line with other judgments. The religious tenets and faith of Muslims lead to the conclusion that mosque is essential part of Islamic faith and practice. As far as the conscience of the Muslim community is concerned, substantive majority feel that the mosque is essential to practice of namaaz, essential for religious practice. After this three judges judgment, the fact remains that the said observation has its place in our law books which is without discussion on religious practice, doctrine and belief of Muslims with respect to the requirement of the mosque, as has been the established principle so far. Such a finding or observation by the Supreme Court, the highest court in our land, no matter what the context, cannot be based on intuitive understanding and can only be the outcome of the judicial exercise of the test of essentiality as laid down by this very court since 1954. Equally, a strong reason for referring the matter to a larger bench was because of the general importance of the matter. On earlier occasions, cases have been referred to larger benches by simply stating that the matter involved issues of considerable importance or general importance. For this dispute, the Supreme Court has earlier stated that the act of demolition of the mosque was an act of national shame and that it did not only demolish an ancient structure, but the faith of the minorities in the sense of justice and fair play of the majority. In contrast to the present judgement, two judges of the High Court in 2010 had observed that the disputed land was a place where angels feared to tread and also that it was the centre of the controversy between the two major communities of the country. If this was not a fit case to refer to a larger bench on the just the point of the matter being of importance, then in my considered view, the Supreme Court shall have no occasion to refer any matter to a larger bench on the ground of the importance of the matter. It must also be stated that questions essential to the enjoyment of Constitutional Rights have been raised by both parties. Considering the fact that the present CJI will be demitting office soon, and further considering that this litigation is of national importance, the future CJI was to be given the opportunity to adjust the roster and place the matter on an appropriate date for placing the matter before the appropriate bench. In the recent past, we have witnessed the controversy in national news regarding the prerogative of the CJI for roster allocation. (Advocate on Record in Supreme Court for Iqbal Ansari) A gay kindergarten teacher in China is suing his former school after being fired last month, in what his lawyer called a landmark case to test Chinas protection of minority groups. The teacher was dismissed in August from a school in the coastal city of Qingdao after he posted some comment on social media about an LGBT event he had attended, he told Reuters. The teacher, who declined to be identified, said he was told by the school principal that parents may not want a gay man teaching their children. He said that made him feel grave apprehension that parents were choosing to raise their children in a society where people of different sexual orientations were not respected. I hope that I can use this case to push forward Chinese society to be more balanced and accepting, he said. After decades of prudent rule by Chinas Communist Party, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are now openly tackling bureaucracy, legal uncertainty and entrenched social norms to assert their place in society. The teacher was asked to leave without sufficient severance or payment for his 10 percent stake in the school, said his lawyer, Tang Xiangqian. The main reason we filed this case is not just as a labour dispute but to make the gay community more visible to a wider group of people. To let more people realise that they can easily be victims of discrimination, Tang said. Chinese labour laws lack specific sections on LGBT issues, but there are broad provisions against discrimination that can be used by minority groups to protect their rights, Tang said. A court in Qingdao accepted the teachers case on Thursday. Tang said, as far as he was aware, it is the first case in China of a gay teacher taking a school to court after being fired over sexual orientation. The teacher is seeking a court order that he be rehired and paid compensation for his financial losses, according to a copy of the court filing seen by Reuters. The name of the school and the court were redacted in the court filing. Tang declined to give the names of the court and the school because he said it might affect the case. Chinese activists have organised rallies to press for greater protections for the LGBT community - and same-sex marriage - to be included in a civil code set to be passed in 2020. Despite thriving gay scenes in many of Chinas big cities and growing awareness of LGBT issues, gay people have battled against conservative Confucian values and government censorship. Cooperation through Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and billion-dollar infrastructure projects are all fine but Bhadra and Rupasi could soon become the vigorous symbols of increasingly strong Sino-Nepal ties. Earlier this year, around 50 people, including Nepalese army personnel, technical experts, veterinary doctors and wildlife officials, fanned out and then sweated it out besides risking injury for days inside the Chitwan National Park to track down four one-horned rhinoceros. It was all for a bit of animal diplomacy with Nepals big neighbour and benefactor, China. Nepals decision to gift two pairs of endangered rhinos to China was made in 2016 during the government led by KP Sharma Oli, and the animals, including two named Bhadra and Rupasi, were handed over in July. Nurendra Aryal from the park told Xinhua news agency two years ago: We captured three rhinos from different parts of the park in a week, as we already have one rhino under our surveillance. Going by their food habits, the four endangered animals seem to have to taken to China well they eat 60 kg of food a day, including fresh grass and fruits. The animals besides representing Nepals deep affection for China, according to a Chinese official have inspired Beijing and Kathmandu to launch a joint research project on one-horned rhinos. The two pairs of rhinos Nepal gave to China represent the Nepalese peoples deep affection for Chinese people and the project to protect the rhinos will be the embodiment of friendship between China and Nepal, SFGAs Li Chunliang said during the launch of the China-Nepal Rhinoceros Conservation Collaborative Research in Shanghai. An investigation by US-based NGO Elephant Action League found last year that most poached horns find their way to Vietnam and Chinese provinces. Until then Bhadra and Rupasi will remain mere tools of diplomacy. At the beginning of the day, she was asked if she was sure that he was the one who sexually assaulted her 36 years ago. One hundred percent, she said. At the end of the day, he was asked if he was certain he had not. One hundred percent, he said. One after the other, Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh sat in the same chair before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, separated by less than an hour but a reality gulf so wide their conflicting accounts of what happened when they were teenagers cannot be reconciled. With millions of Americans alternately riveted and horrified by the televised drama, Blasey and Kavanaugh left no room for compromise, no possibility of confusion, no chance that they remembered something differently. In effect, they asked senators to choose which one they believed. And in that moment, these two 100 percent realities came to embody a society divided into broader realities so disparate and so incompatible that it feels as if two countries are living in the borders of one. It has become something of a cliche to say that the United States has become increasingly tribal in the era of President Donald Trump, with each side in its own corner, believing what it chooses to believe and looking for reinforcement in the media and politics. But the battle over Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination has reinforced those divisions at the intersection of sex, politics, power and the law. Senators emerged from Thursdays hearing bitterly split into those tribes, with Democrats persuaded by Blaseys calm and unflustered account of being shoved onto a bed, pawed, nearly stripped and prevented from screaming for help, while Republicans were moved by Kavanaugh, who bristled with red-faced outrage and grievance at what he called an orchestrated campaign to destroy his life. By Thursday night, only a few of the 100 who will decide Judge Kavanaughs fate remained undecided, searching for answers where none were readily available. There is doubt, said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Well never move beyond that. Just have a little humility on that. It was surely the most explosive and surreal confirmation hearing since Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill in 1991. A nominee for the Supreme Court was asked if he was a gang rapist and a blackout drunk, while defending himself by describing how long he preserved his virginity. His accuser described him grinding into me, covering her mouth when she tried to scream and fearing that he was accidentally going to kill me. Unlike Hill 27 years ago, Blasey was treated gingerly by the committee Republicans, who feared looking as if they were beating up a sexual assault victim and handed over the questioning to an outside counsel who never meaningfully challenged her account. For a dozen days, Blasey had been an idea rather than a person, the focal point of one of the most polarized debates in a polarized capital without anyone having seen her, met her or heard her. But on Thursday, she became a very human being, telling a terrible story about Kavanaugh in compelling terms that brought many women to tears and transformed the battle for the Supreme Court. She came across as Everywoman an Everywoman with a Ph.D. at once guileless about politics yet schooled in the science of memory and psychology. By the end of her testimony, even Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee chairman, thanked her for your bravery coming out. At this point, at the White House, on Capitol Hill and in Republican circles around town, there was despair. Even Kavanaughs friends acknowledged that she had come across as powerful and credible. Text messages with words like disaster were shared as Republicans began thinking ahead to what would happen after the nomination was withdrawn or voted down. Liberals began arguing that Kavanaugh should even step down from the appeals court where he currently serves. But when Kavanaugh showed up in the same hearing room, it was a different nominee than the mild, overly rehearsed jurist who was interviewed on Fox News earlier in the week. Encouraged by Trump, he embraced Thomas approach of confrontation and anger, appealing to his tribe by adopting the narrative of the president who nominated him and the base that supports him. While careful not to directly attack Blasey, Kavanaugh practically shouted at the senators, calling the confirmation process a circus and national disgrace and blaming the questions about his history on a conspiracy to destroy me fueled by pent-up anger about President Trump and revenge on behalf of the Clintons. Suddenly, the Republican senators who seemed so defeated just minutes earlier roared back to life with righteous indignation on Kavanaughs behalf and dispensed with the outside counsel, taking over the questioning for themselves. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., led the way with a scathing assault on Democrats sitting a few feet away. What you want to do is destroy this guys life, he railed at them. Turning to Kavanaugh, he said, Youve got nothing to apologize for. Then addressing the wavering Republican senators whose votes will determine this confirmation, Graham said, To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, youre legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics. The messages were directed at two audiences one was Trump, who had backed Kavanaugh but left open the possibility that he would pull the nomination if he believed Blasey, and the other was the clutch of three or four senators whose votes seemed genuinely in play. Trump responded immediately after the hearing with an endorsement of Kavanaugh and a call to confirm him. The swing votes, however, remained uncertain and huddled together into the night. With a narrow 51-49 majority, Republicans could afford to lose only one of their own if they could not pick up any Democrats. The Judiciary Committee was scheduled to meet Friday morning to vote, with Flake the deciding vote, and Senate Republican leaders planned to move the nomination to the floor perhaps by the weekend. If Kavanaugh seemed doomed at midday Thursday and revived by the end of the day, anything could still happen before the final vote, especially if additional accusations continue to pile up. Whether or not he is confirmed, however, the battle will not end there. With Election Day barely five weeks away and some voters already casting early ballots, Kavanaughs case will play out in the court of public opinion. Democrats hope that outrage among women will drive them to the polls to help them take control of Congress. Republicans recognize that the confirmation of a nominee accused of sexual assault would be a political liability, but hope to energize the conservative base by focusing on what they characterize as a left-wing character assassination campaign. In the end, the public will weigh in. One tribe will win. The other will lose. But they will not meet in the middle. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gained the support of a key Republican senator Friday, virtually ensuring his nomination will advance to the full Senate a day after he adamantly denied the high-school-years sexual assault of a woman who testified she was 100 percent he was guilty. The vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee was set for 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley announced as the panel gaveled to order. Emotions running high, several Democratic senators walked out for a time in protest. Moments before the panel convened, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a member of the panel, announced he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh, who he said was entitled to the presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence. While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senates advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the Constitutions provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well, Flake said. I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. Tensions were high inside and outside the hearing room and protesters swarmed Capitol Hill. Two women cornered Flake in an elevator and, through tears, implored him to change his mind. Frankly, weve reached a point where its time end the circus, said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in opening remarks. Its time to show some dignity around here. Its time to vote. As soon as the committee opened, Democrats offered a motion to subpoena Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh who Ford testified was a witness to the alleged assault. Judge has said he does not recall the incident, and the motion offered by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. was blocked by Republicans in a vote. Blumenthal and several other Democrats, including Kamala Harris of California and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, then walked out of the hearing room. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said it was like the potential witness had effectively nailed a do not disturb sign, and apparently the Republicans on this committee are satisfied. Leahy said its not that Democrats are trying to delay the nomination ahead of the midterm elections as Republicans contend. This is about doing our job, he said. One Democrat not on the committee, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, added his name to the opposition. Nelson, who faces a tough re-election this fall in the swing state, announced Friday he was voting against Kavanaugh. Meanwhile, there were signs that Thursdays remarkable testimony before the panel in which Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ford calmly recounted the moment in which she says he attacked her had registered negatively with two organizations whose support Kavanaugh had earlier received. The American Bar Association, which previously gave Kavanaugh its highest rating of well qualified, asked the Senate committee and the full Senate to delay their votes until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims something President Donald Trump has refused to order. Grassley, too, has refused. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that Friday, telling reporters that Kavanaugh has already been through six separate background investigations by the FBI. Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and should be withdrawn. If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a womans report of an assault, the America editors wrote. Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country. Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Roman Catholic faith and his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgetown Prep school in Maryland. Meanwhile, former President George W. Bush has been advocating for Kavanaugh with wavering senators in recent days, according to a person familiar with Bushs outreach who wasnt authorized to speak publicly. The White House said it was also engaging with wavering GOP senators, but provided few details. Trump is publicly standing by his nominee. His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting, he tweeted late Thursday. The Senate must vote! Flakes decision has been among the most watched, and he had told reporters it was a tough call as he left the Capitol late Thursday. The Arizonan had been holed up with other key senators Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia after the daylong hearing. Thursdays testimony appeared to have only sharpened the partisan divide over Trumps nominee. Republicans praised Fords bravery in coming forward, but many of them said her account wont affect their support for Kavanaugh. At the daylong session, Ford and Kavanaugh both said the event and the public controversy that has erupted 36 years later had altered their lives forever and for the worse perhaps the only thing they agreed on. Telling her story in person for the first time, Ford, a California psychology professor, quietly told the nation and the Senate Judiciary Committee her long-held secret of the alleged assault in locked room at a gathering of friends when she was just 15. The memory and Kavanaughs laughter during the act was locked in her brain, she said: 100 percent. Hours later, Kavanaugh angrily denied it, alternating a loud, defiant tone with near tears as he addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee. You have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy, he said, referring to the Constitutions charge to senators duties in confirming high officials. Trumps tweet later used the same search and destroy language. Repeatedly Democrats asked Kavanaugh to call for an FBI investigation into the claims. He did not. I welcome whatever the committee wants to do, he said. Republicans are reluctant for several reasons, including the likelihood that further investigations could push a vote past the November elections that may switch Senate control back to the Democrats and make consideration of any Trump nominee more difficult. Ford delivered her testimony with steady, deliberate certitude. She admitted gaps in her memory as she choked back tears and said she believed he was going to rape me. Kavanaugh entered the hearing room fuming and ready to fight, as he angrily denied the charges from Ford and other women accusing him of misconduct, barked back at senators and dismissed some questions with a flippant whatever. Trump nominated the conservative jurist in what was supposed to be an election year capstone to the GOP agenda, locking in the courts majority for years to come. Instead the nomination that Republicans were rushing for a vote now hangs precariously after one of the most emotionally charged hearings Capitol Hill has ever seen. Coming amid a national reckoning over sexual misconduct at the top of powerful institutions, it exposed continued divisions over justice, fairness and who should be believed. And coming weeks before elections, it ensured that debate would play into the fight for control of Congress. Wearing a blue suit as Anita Hill did more two decades ago when she testified about sexual misconduct by Clarence Thomas, Ford described what she says was a harrowing assault in the summer of 1982: How an inebriated Kavanaugh and Judge locked her in a room at a house party as Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her. She said he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. L ight installations flooding rooms in a spellbinding spectrum of colours, from ultraviolet to sunset orange, were a major attraction at the latest London Design Biennale at Somerset House. Responding to its theme, Emotional States, designers from more than 40 countries displayed innovative ideas that explored sustainability, social equality and technological advances. Representing the Netherlands, Marjan van Aubel showed her plant-lined greenhouse, which investigated the future of farming in cities by demonstrating how easily solar glass in her case in glowing fluorescent pink can be fitted into our environment. Flynn Talbot from Australia displayed his enveloping, undulating creation, Full Spectrum, intended to arouse the emotion of love and celebrate the introduction of same-sex marriage in Australia last year: visitors looked like they were plucking heartstrings as they caressed its vertical filaments. Orion tube and globe lights in polished gold finish by Lee Broom, from 850 As Talbot points out, the introduction of LEDs has rendered clunky hardware obsolete, giving designers freedom to create more elegant, delicate lighting. Lighting technology is getting more and more compact. Using LEDs and custom electronics, I could design a super-slim, refined structure, so the emphasis is on immersive light effects. Looking into the emotional impact of sunsets, London-based Haberdashery Studios piece comprised concentric glass arcs refracting multicoloured light. And, as the recent London Design Festival made abundantly clear, experimental lighting is increasingly common in our homes. One company Meystyle, which exhibited at Decorex, makes wallpaper incorporating LED lights forming graphic panels of light. Other brands reflect this development for marrying aesthetics with technology. Similarly glamorous is Laliques Hirondelles lamp masquerading as an Art Nouveau perfume bottle, which is nevertheless state-of-the art for being cordless, and Alexander Josephs handblown-glass portable lamps, for indoor and outdoor use, which will light up any space for 52 hours before they need recharging. Sarah Colson Prism lights for Debenhams, a new addition to the store's Editions collections, from 90 Lee Brooms Orion light, unusual for combining horizontal illuminated tubes with spheres, is rich for incorporating a polished gold finish, while Artes wall lights in brass and alabaster from CTO Lighting can be mounted individually or grouped a key trend now is for modular lighting with individual components forming larger clusters to show-stopping effect. Pipeline 28 September 2018 National real estate investor and developer Lightstone announced today the topping out of construction at the company's Moxy hotel in Manhattan's East Village neighborhood. The 286-key hotel is located at 112-120 East 11th Street and is the third of four Moxy hotels that Lightstone is developing in New York City in partnership with Marriott. Moxy East Village is set to open in the fall of 2019. Located just blocks from Union Square and NYU and directly across from Webster Hall, Moxy East Village reflects its vibrant, ever-transforming neighborhood. Designed in collaboration between Stonehill & Taylor and Rockwell Group, the hotel's design concept is based on urban archeology and references the city's past, present and future. Conceived as a vertical timeline, each floor reveals a different layer in Lower Manhattan's history, creating a sense of discovery for guests. "The East Village is teeming with energy, and we designed Moxy East Village with the character to match," said Lightstone President Mitchell Hochberg. "We're thrilled with the progress on this project and look forward to having Moxy East Village join Moxy Times Square and Moxy Chelsea in offering affordable, stylish options for visitors to New York's most sought-after neighborhoods." Standing 13 stories tall, the stylish and affordable Moxy East Village will feature 286 cleverly-designed bedrooms, technology-savvy amenities, community based cultural and fitness programming, a well-equipped 24/7 gym, and co-working spaces. The hotel will include four new eating and drinking establishments for guests and locals, including a cellar level restaurant and lounge, a lobby bar and lounge area, an elevated twist on a traditional Grab & Go, and an outdoor rooftop amenity. Moxy East Village adds to Lightstone's growing hotel development portfolio, which includes 1,500 Moxy hotel rooms in New York City, including the brand's 612-room flagship U.S. property in Times Square that opened in fall of 2017 and Moxy Chelsea, which will open this fall. The company is developing seven Moxy properties across the nation, with additional locations in South Beach, Miami, downtown Los Angeles and West Hollywood. Pipeline 28 September 2018 Avani Hotels & Resorts has signed a second property in South Korea. In the final stages of development and scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2019, Avani Central Busan Hotel will be located in Busan's city center. Busan is located on the southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsula and is South Korea's second-most populated city after Seoul, with a seaport that is the ninth-busiest in the world. A 30-minute drive from the city's Gimhae International Airport, the 289-guestroom hotel will be located in the Munhyeon Finance Complex, which includes the tallest building in Busan, the Busan International Finance Centre. The hotel is part of a 37-story twin-tower mixed-use complex that includes offices, residences, a retail mall and the largest theater (1,800 seats) in Busan. For business travelers, the Avani Central Busan Hotel is located in Busan's commercial district within the Munhyeon Finance Complex, which includes BIFC, Bank of Korea's Busan headquarters, and the regional headquarters for several government financial bodies. The complex has direct connection to the Busan subway system and is a 15-minute drive to Korea's bullet train KTX stop and international cruise terminal. Avani Central Busan Hotel joins the Avani Busan Hotel, which was signed last year and is scheduled to open in 2021. Avani currently operates 24 hotels and resorts in 15 countries. The brand recently debuted in Australia, New Zealand and Laos. Avani currently has 15 new hotels in the pipeline, including a recent signing in Melbourne, Australia; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and a third Avani property in Bangkok. Now Open 28 September 2018 Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, a leading upper midscale hotel brand, today announced the opening of Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Fort Atkinson, WI located at 1650 Doris Drive. This is the first hotel in eighteen years to be built in Fort Atkinson, WI. The newly constructed hotel features the brand's latest design with modern interiors, stylish furnishings and spacious guest rooms and suites. The hotel's convenient location at the intersection of the Highway 26 Bypass and Highway 12 makes it the ideal destination for guests visiting the Fireside Dinner Theatre, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater or local businesses within the Jefferson County area. "This hotel fits perfectly into our five-year strategic plan to accelerate the transformation of our Country Inn & Suites by Radisson portfolio to our Generation 4 product," said Aly El-Bassuni, senior vice president, Franchise Operations, Americas, Radisson Hotel Group. "Built from the Gen 4 prototype design, this new hotel is an ideal example of that plan in action and with an owner and management team committed to delivering outstanding hospitality to our guests." The hotel offers 83 modern guest rooms and suites. Guests have access to a fitness center, 24-hour business center, indoor pool and free Wi-Fi. There are four meeting rooms with flexible configurations perfect for gatherings for up to 300 guests. The hotel serves as an excellent space for hosting special events, as well as more intimate occasions such as business seminars and small conferences. Each meeting room features Wi-Fi, audio-visual equipment, projector screens and catering service. Guests have access to a bar and lounge in the foyer area of the banquet space on weeknights and weekends when an event is not taking place. The hotel also offers a free, hot breakfast to guests every morning. "We are excited to make an impact on Fort Atkinson and be the first to open a new hotel in nearly two decades in this great city," said MaryJo Eggers, the hotel's regional general manager. "The hotel's fresh design, coupled with our kind and caring staff, makes for a great recipe for success that we can't wait to share with our guests. Appointment 28 September 2018 Sage Hospitality, one of the country's leading hospitality management, investment, and development companies, today announces the appointment of Mike Nelson to General Manger for the group's newest boutique properties, The Alexandrian Hotel and Morrison House. Both hotels, located in the heart of Old Town Alexandria, VA, are part of Marriott's prestigious Autograph Collection. As General Manager, Mike Nelson is responsible for leading all areas of the hotels and guiding the hotels' guest experience efforts. Prior to this appointment, Nelson joined Sage Hospitality in early 2015 as the General Manager of the Union Station Hotel Nashville, an Autograph Collection Hotel, located in the heart of downtown Nashville, TN. During his tenure, he made a significant impact on the guest experience, amplifying the destination and securing positive financial results. With over 20 years of professional experience, Nelson will bring his expertise to the property to drive sales and maintain the property's outstanding approach to hospitality for visitors to Old Town Alexandria. Press Release 28 September 2018 HSMAI Washington DC Chapter will present a Deep Dive Into the Group Market on Oct. 11 hosted by Cvent, a global leader in meeting, event and travel technology. Advertisements The program, to be held at Cvent headquarters at 1765 Greensboro Place Station Place in Tysons Corner beginning at 5 p.m., will feature Brian Berry, Cvent senior vice president of sales and data analytics, and Suzanne Shogren, Cvent regional director, Ownership Group Services for the Hospitality Cloud. They will discuss the future of the group market, industry drivers and tools to increase conversion and win more business. Presentations will be offered on two tracks, one for property-level sales professionals and the other for general managers, revenue managers and corporate managers. Attendees will get a sneak peek at new Cvent data and learn how group strategies can adapt to a changing landscape. Berry and Shogren will share insights for gaining a competitive edge, tools for attracting meeting planners and ways to manage sales teams. Registration, complimentary for all attendees, will open at 4:30 p.m., and a networking reception will follow the presentations. Free parking will be offered in the garage adjacent to Cvent's building, which is a short walk from the Greensboro Station of the Washington Metro. Click HERE to register. Photo: HSMAI About the Speakers Brian Berry, Cvent Senior Vice President of Sales and Data Analytics Berry engages with executives throughout the hospitality industry to strengthen marketing returns and develop deeper performance insights. He provides strategic leadership and direction for the Cvent Supplier Network, continuously developing better connections between hotels and meeting planners. Prior to joining Cvent, Berry was senior vice president of sales and revenue management for Host Hotels & Resorts, the largest lodging real estate investment trust and one of the largest worldwide owners of luxury and upper-upscale hotels. Prior to joining Host, he held regional and corporate management positions with Starwood Hotels and ITT Sheraton in both North America and Europe. Berry is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, Ithaca, New York, and Johns Hopkins University's Carey Business School, Baltimore. He has served on numerous industry, chain, and education advisory boards, including HSMAI's Americas Board and its Chief Revenue Officer Council, the AH&LA Customer Innovation Council, and the DePaul University School of Hospitality Leadership. Suzanne Shogren, Cvent Regional Director, Ownership Group Services for the Hospitality Cloud With 24 years of experience in hotel sales, training, and development of sales teams and leveraging partnerships between management and owners, Shogren works directly with ownership groups and asset management companies to help them quantify the performance of their hotel portfolio. By sharing and analyzing data and creating advocacy within the hospitality Industry, owners gain a strategic advantage in the hospitality digital space. Shogren is a graduate of Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, and received her master's degree in organizational development/knowledge management at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. About HSMAI Washington DC Chapter HSMAI Washington DC Chapter is an affiliate of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, an individual membership organization based in McLean, Virginia, composed of more than 7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. HSMAI is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners and is the industry's leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals and their partners with tools, insights and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing and optimize revenue through programs including the Adrian Awards and Revenue Optimization Conference. Click HERE to join HSMAI. For more information, go to www.hsmaidc.org. Opinion Article 28 September 2018 Many years ago I was working with a beautiful Pub in County Cavan. The owner was cheerful, energetic and driven. Still, things weren't happening and business was slipping. It didn't take long to see why. A quick glance at the palatial surroundings couldn't hide the glum faces of every staff member. The solution was clear but would he implement it? Advertisements Culture Culture comes from the top. Culture begins with values. Staff, good and not so good, will quickly 'follow the leader' and the culture you create becomes the norm. Yes, there are intensely emotional values that can outperform any standard values or even standard operating procedures. Why? Because, we are human and often conflicted by our own emotions. How you set your compass, what's negotiable and what's not, will ultimately determine your course. It's your choice. "It's His Boat" The team were flat. They worked hard, they were passionate about standards, the community and doing a good job. Still, they were flat. It didn't make sense. I gathered them around and gently probed this complex conundrum. Clarity arrived in minutes. A girl, a very hardworking girl, in response to my "Why are you so flat?" prodding said "It's his boat, not ours" I didn't understand. I asked her to explain. She said "He is always talking about 'sailing together, his crew and we will ride out any storm because we have built a great strong ship'. Thing is, it's his boat, not ours" I understood and quickly drawing on their analogy, I said this; "If it is his boat and he wants to sail across a channel to get to the island then he will need help. The boat, your boat, has 3 oars on the port side and 3 on the starboard side. He may well be the Skipper, he may well own the boat but without his sailors and oarsmen, he will be staying in port for a very long time yet". The Skipper If the Skipper wants to sail fast and effectively then he has to do what never comes easy to the enterprising Publican, he has to 'let go'. If he can't do this, nothing else will happen. To build a team that make decisions, own your brand and deliver the standards you want, then they simply have to be empowered. Why? Because empowered teams must have responsibility and authority over the work that they do. They must be given autonomy to plan and manage work, make decisions and solve problems. That is how they grow, emerge and learn. If those that are truly ambitious don't see that freedom, learning and development, they go. If they keep going, no matter how well you recruit, you are simply a breeding ground for smart competitors who understand that motivation comes from learning, development and seeing a clear future career. What Do You Do? You have good people, they know that and you know that. You've been smart, you've hired well. In fact, you may even have over sold the role to make sure you got them. That's temporary unless you deliver. Quite simply, ambitious people won't wait if you're running late on your promises. Therefore, you must understand what motivates your team. First. Motivated staff are energetic, positive, cheerful and satisfied. This is the key to ownership, action and atmosphere. Think of the opposite? But before we talk more on 'what motivates?' think on this - slowly; "There is no such thing as a lazy person. They are either sick, lost or in the wrong job" - Ivor Kenny Assuming you have recruited people who love hospitality, a challenge and the pursuit of learning, then you must understand how to keep them. The answer to this is rarely money, that's a symptom, not a cause. Here are 5 simple steps that will help you take your team from being detached to attached; Share Your Vision The most common question I ask senior team members of any business we work with is; "Do you know where this business is trying to go?" Unsurprisingly, the answer is 'No'. Share your vision and get their input. Priorities Do they know your boundaries and theirs? What they can and can't do? Where they have authority and where they don't? If not, expect inertia, it's safer. Learning Ambitious people and successful people always invest time and money in continuous learning. In our experience, this is the No.1 reason to leave a job and the No.1 reason to go to a competitor. Also, in a fast changing world, why would you not invest in training, learning and development? In 2008 who would have predicted a fast changing world that saw an economic collapse, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump? A new order means new learning, new strategy and new tactics. If you don't continue to learn, you'll be out of date fast and past your sell by date just as quick. Mentoring When you meet, study or interview great leaders, every one of them will talk about the influence of mentors. It is not a coincidence that they were humble enough to recognise their limitations and seek wise counsel to fix the gap. Encouraging It's easy to hit a sinking ship but good leaders don't do that. Instead, they encourage, nurture, challenge and advise. They listen, they learn and they remain open to new ideas. When you think about it, why would you not want to hear what your staff think? Is it because most of us would rather be damned by praise rather than saved by criticism? To Finish Last year I had the privilege of interviewing 7 of the world's best hoteliers for my 2nd book 'Dancing at the Fountain'. There isn't a page where they don't share precious wisdom. But, to finish, let me quote directly from just some of the 7 interviewed; "I wouldn't have come close to achieving what I have without mentors" - Kiaran MacDonald, MD, The Savoy, London. "Our job is to make rough stones shine" - Philippe LeBoeuf, Mandarin Oriental, Paris "Hire personality, not skill" - Nathalie Seiler-Hayez, Beau Rivage Palace, Switzerland "The counter is the border" - Michael Davern, The K Club, Ireland. "Are you doing something for me? Or, are you doing something to me?" - Bernard Murphy, Gleneagles, Scotland No, they didn't talk about Pubs, luxury or even hotels, they talked about people and, as I've said before; "What's the point in having a great big dramatic theatre full of plush red velvet seats, wonderful lighting and a fantastic backdrop if the guys on stage haven't a clue what they are doing?" So, if you want a motivated team, empower them. If you want more customers, empower your team. If you want a better atmosphere, new ideas, creativity and much more - empower your team. It really is that simple. Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) announced today that a Hyatt affiliate has entered into a franchise agreement with Resolution Property, which has partnered with Berkeley Capital Group, to develop a Hyatt Place hotel at Black Lion House on Whitechapel Road in Aldgate. Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) announced today that a Hyatt affiliate has entered into a franchise agreement with Resolution Property, which has partnered with Berkeley Capital Group, to develop a Hyatt Place hotel at Black Lion House on Whitechapel Road in Aldgate. Hyatt Place London City/East will be a 280-room hotel managed by Cycas Hospitality and will mark the fourth collaboration with Cycas Hospitality on select service Hyatt hotels in Europe. The Hyatt Place brand is rooted in extensive consumer insights indicating that guests seek stylish, comfortable, seamless experiences that accommodate their lifestyles and familiar routines. To embody this, the brand offers casual hospitality and purposeful service in a smartly designed, tech-forward and contemporary environment. Slated to open in 2020, Hyatt Place London City/East will be the third Hyatt Place hotel in Greater London, joining Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport and Hyatt Place West London/Hayes. It will feature a ninth-floor hotel lounge and terrace providing scenic views across London, a flexible meeting room concept, further lobby area, inner courtyard, gym, and a grab-and-go food market. "Set to be the first city center Hyatt Place hotel in London, Hyatt Place London City/East will mark an important milestone for the brand in the UK," said Nuno Galvao-Pinto, Hyatt's regional vice president acquisitions and development Europe. "We are delighted to have this opportunity to collaborate with Cycas Hospitality, Resolution Property and Berkeley Capital Group to build on our commitment to expanding the Hyatt Place brand footprint. We are excited to continue our role in London's continued expansion in the east and the on-going regeneration of Aldgate and Whitechapel. Hyatt Place London City/East will benefit both business and leisure travelers and will be a significant contribution to Hyatt's growing select service portfolio in Europe." "Securing planning is a significant achievement, and it is fantastic that we can now move forward with the development of Black Lion House into a Hyatt Place hotel, supported by our partner Berkeley Capital Group," commented Head of UK Investment Oliver Jackson, Resolution Property. "Bringing the Hyatt Place brand into central London perfectly demonstrates Resolution's approach as a pioneering developer focused on creating new and exciting hotel destinations in collaboration with world-leading brands, such as Hyatt Place, to meet the needs of emerging and future demands." "We are pleased to be teaming up with Resolution Property and Hyatt to develop this exciting central London site," said Lissa Engle, founder and director Berkeley Capital Group. "This development underscores our keen interest to seek out and collaborate with best-in-class operators, owners and leading hotel brands to create properties that deliver optimum value. We thank the team for all their efforts and look forward to continuing our work together to ensure the successful opening of the first Hyatt Place hotel in central London." "We are excited to be expanding our work with Hyatt by managing Hyatt Place London City/East; our fourth collaboration with Hyatt," said Eduard Elias, co-founder of Cycas Hospitality. "Our deep understanding of the Hyatt Place brand ensures that we can consistently exceed the levels of care Hyatt Place guests have come to know and expect, and we look forward to further growing our collaboration with Hyatt across the UK and Europe." Hyatt Place London City/East will be the seventh Hyatt-branded hotel in the UK, joining Hyatt Regency London The Churchill, Andaz London Liverpool Street, Hyatt Place West London/Hayes, Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport, Hyatt Regency Birmingham, and the Great Scotland Yard Hotel London, which is expected to open early 2019. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach announces the appointment of Federico Giovine as Director of Rooms effective September 1, 2018. Born in Argentina, Federico is a third generation hotelier, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, uncles and cousins before him. Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach announces the appointment of Federico Giovine as Director of Rooms effective September 1, 2018. Born in Argentina, Federico is a third generation hotelier, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, uncles and cousins before him. His Four Seasons Journey began in Buenos Aires in 2005, as overnight PBX operator and from there he worked his way up to Front Office and then on to Night Manager. The first opportunity for international transfer presented itself in the Seychelles in November 2009 as Resort Assistant Manager. In February 2011 he was promoted to Front Desk Manager, where he championed the arrival experience in this beautiful island resort and also worked across many departments to hone his hospitality skills, improve innovation and enhance the day-to-day operations of the Resort. Recognising his efforts, Giovine was promoted to Front Office Manager and was also awarded Manager of the Quarter. Prague came calling next in September 2013, once again the Front Office operations benefitted from Federico's innovations and expertise, displaying tangible results in several key performance indicators. Here Federico was also given the chance to lead the Spa operations, delivering the strongest financial results ever for the department. A year later Prague's ownership announced a brand new spa for the property (AVA Spa), another project that Federico was involved in and his involvement contributed to its success. In April 2016, Federico was appointed Assistant Director of Rooms at Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon, taking the lead of the Rooms Division and less than a year later, Federico and his wife Meline were blessed with the arrival of their baby boy Fausto, who was actually born in the Hotel, so there is potential for a fourth generation hotelier within the family. In July 2017 he was promoted to Director of Rooms, and during his time in Lisbon he has driven arrival and departure scores, created new guest-focused roles within his operations and hit historical records for three consecutive years. Federico has a genuine focus on people development, and countless success stories can be told when it comes to his team and their career progression. Continuing to combine his love for travel within his role, Federico also had the opportunity take on a task force assignment at Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire, where he has been based for the last four months supporting on the management transition. In his new role at Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach, Giovine's experience in operational planning, pre-opening strategic support and project management will help guide the Resort's exceptional guest experience. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Country Inn & Suites by Radisson yesterday announced the opening of Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Fort Atkinson, WI located at 1650 Doris Drive. This is the first hotel in eighteen years to be built in Fort Atkinson, WI. Country Inn & Suites by Radisson yesterday announced the opening of Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Fort Atkinson, WI located at 1650 Doris Drive. This is the first hotel in eighteen years to be built in Fort Atkinson, WI. The newly constructed hotel features the brand's latest design with modern interiors, stylish furnishings and spacious guest rooms and suites. The hotel's convenient location at the intersection of the Highway 26 Bypass and Highway 12 makes it the ideal destination for guests visiting the Fireside Dinner Theatre, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater or local businesses within the Jefferson County area. "This hotel fits perfectly into our five-year strategic plan to accelerate the transformation of our Country Inn & Suites by Radisson portfolio to our Generation 4 product," said Aly El-Bassuni, senior vice president, Franchise Operations, Americas, Radisson Hotel Group. "Built from the Gen 4 prototype design, this new hotel is an ideal example of that plan in action and with an owner and management team committed to delivering outstanding hospitality to our guests." The hotel offers 83 modern guest rooms and suites. Guests have access to a fitness center, 24-hour business center, indoor pool and free Wi-Fi. There are four meeting rooms with flexible configurations perfect for gatherings for up to 300 guests. The hotel serves as an excellent space for hosting special events, as well as more intimate occasions such as business seminars and small conferences. Each meeting room features Wi-Fi, audio-visual equipment, projector screens and catering service. Guests have access to a bar and lounge in the foyer area of the banquet space on weeknights and weekends when an event is not taking place. The hotel also offers a free, hot breakfast to guests every morning. "We are excited to make an impact on Fort Atkinson and be the first to open a new hotel in nearly two decades in this great city," said MaryJo Eggers, the hotel's regional general manager. "The hotel's fresh design, coupled with our kind and caring staff, makes for a great recipe for success that we can't wait to share with our guests. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Author Nick Craig explains how knowing your purpose can provide sound footing in today's business environment. Mission statements are fine and employee handbooks are dandy, but what really matters in an organization is the purpose behind it all. Thats the message in a new book from Nick Craig, founder and president of Core Leadership Institute. Whether in business or in our personal lives, a strong sense of purpose offers firm footing on shifting ground. After working closely with 10,000 senior executives over 10 years, Craig learned that for 95% of them, it wasnt about quitting their job and going to work for Save the Children . [It] was about realizing that purpose is present in every moment, and we can choose to operate from it or not. Craig joined the Knowledge@Wharton radio show on SiriusXM to talk about his book, Leading from Purpose: Clarity and the Confidence to Act When It Matters Most. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Knowledge@Wharton: Your book suggests that purpose can be a constant in an ever-changing world. Can you explain that? Craig: The level of uncertainty that we find ourselves in these days, where what was stable for the last 50 years all of the sudden isnt, definitely humbles all of us. I think the biggest insight I have from the 10,000 people Ive worked with is that the one thing that doesnt change is our purpose. Its the solid ground that we actually can stand on. Each of us has a unique purpose. I think the point here is that for every leader, no matter who they are even if theyre in the same situation as someone else what they do and how they do it is their own signature. In some sense, thats the purpose that they have. Knowing what that [purpose is] is the key to the kingdom. Knowledge@Wharton: With the growing reliance on digital and automation, how much does the idea of purpose serve in business? Craig: That is actually why [the idea of] purpose really is sticking. I get to work with [companies like] Ben & Jerrys [and I do] programs at Wharton or West Point. Ive got a digital bank in Amsterdam where all 5,000 employees are doing this work. The bottom line is that we all need something to stand on that doesnt change. All this other stuff is happening, but the beauty of purpose is that it doesnt change. Knowledge@Wharton: A sense of purpose would be very important in the military, correct? Craig: Ive done this program all over the world, so when I went to West Point to work with faculty, I was curious about whether this was going to work . In some senses, that group took it on even more strongly than some of the others because every individual there has an underlying ethos of service. When you add purpose to service, you begin to see what has made them take a career that isnt the one where they would make the most money, in which its very likely that if theyre successful, theyll be in a firefight. Very few people have that as their definition of success. The bottom line is that we all need something to stand on that doesnt change. Youve got to have something truly solid that you feel as to why youre doing this stuff. What is the intrinsic motivation? The word love was in a lot of their purpose statements, and it was a shock to me. But you realize that if youre going to give your life for your country, if love isnt in your purpose, chances are youre in the wrong job. Advertisement Knowledge@Wharton: You believe that purpose is most impactful when we use it in both our business and personal lives. Can you explain? Craig: The beautiful thing about purpose is that you dont really turn it off. You have a different way you express it. How we express it when were hanging out with our kids or our neighbors is very different than when were sitting in a very serious boardroom meeting, dealing with analysts. At the same time, theres something you bring to the situation that someone else with the same skill wouldnt. And thats your purpose. I think purpose is a way in which we see the world that is ours, that comes from our magical moments as a child or from our challenging life stories. But each of us has a different way of dealing with those. I see purpose as the thread through our life that is the constant while everything else changes. The challenge is most of us dont know what it is. To paraphrase Einstein, Everyones a genius. But if you ask a fish to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking that its stupid. The challenge for most of us is that were being asked always to climb a tree. But what if were the fish? The challenge is, if you know what you are, then you can truly step in and own it. And if you own it, then you can lead from it. Knowledge@Wharton: How can purpose be used in business? Craig: If we look at the most iconic brands out there whether its Lego, Amazon, Starbucks, Apple or Southwest Airlines those are all based on the purpose of their founders. I was working with Jostein Solheim, the CEO of Ben & Jerrys. His purpose was helping people thrive in paradox and ambiguity [when working toward a goal that matters]. A purpose like that means that youre happiest when all hell breaks loose. If we look at the most iconic brands out there whether its Lego, Amazon, Starbucks, Apple or Southwest Airlines those are all based on the purpose of their founders. He was about to leave Ben & Jerrys and go onto the next thing, because it was a 24-month turnaround, and he was a turnaround guy. When he realized what his purpose was, he said, No, Im going to stay. He stayed for eight years and took the business from half-a-billion to a billion dollars. One of the biggest, most powerful, most satisfying things he did was to approve the release in 2011 of a [limited release] flavor called Schweddy Balls. No one ever forgets it. How many ice cream flavors have you ever remembered? Knowledge@Wharton: Obviously, the name was taken from a popular skit on Saturday Night Live. Craig: He initially said, No, Im not doing this. This is crazy. Everybodys going to be completely crazed. Were going to be D-listed by Target and Walmart. But he stepped back and said, Now that Im here and Im not going anywhere, what do I really need to do to make this brand come back? They did it. Wal-Mart ended up D-listing them. They did have a lot of mothers groups really upset at them because there were lots of teenage boys running around screaming this thing. But when that flavor came out, the brand was back. Theyve since done all kinds of flavors. Theyve done a Black Lives Matter flavor. This only happened because Jostein became clear [about his] purpose, and he was on that stage to sing his song. If he had taken this huge promotion that they were offering him and six-figure raise and all the things that went with it, he would have been managing somebody who would do that, but not doing it himself. So, he turned down the promotion that 99.999% of us would never turn down. But in doing so, he gave all of us a brand that is iconic. Obviously, he didnt do this by himself. Ive worked with the whole management team, and they all have such an incredible sense of purpose. Their social activism at Ben & Jerrys is probably the best of any company that Ive seen because they so believe that their purpose isnt selling ice cream. Their purpose is to change the world. What they realize is that [when there are] two people who have opposite points of view around abortion or whatever it may be, if you give them ice cream, theyll have a conversation. Knowledge@Wharton: Tell us about Lego? Craig: I go around the world running programs and working with executives. One of the things we do is help them look back at when they were a kid and some of the magical moments in life before everybody told them who they should be. They get a lot of really powerful narratives and stories that help them think about that purpose thats always been with them. For many people, their experience with Lego has a magical moment in it. I cannot tell you the number of people whose purpose statement had the word Lego in it. Ive got one guy who says his purpose is to be the Lego poet that helps people connect head to heart. I have another guy whose purpose is to build the Lego helicopter that actually flies. These are very powerful metaphors for each of these individuals. Theres something about that brand thats iconic in that sense. Legos purpose is to allow kids to become engineers and scientists, and be able to step into that part of themselves. Whats beautiful is weve been doing work with Lego with some of their HR groups and some of the other groups, to help them clarify what their individual purposes are and how to connect their individual purpose to the organizations purpose. How do you fully bring that to the next level? All toy companies right now are struggling. Lego is just like every other company, reinventing itself and discovering what is the next thing. But the one interesting thing is that the purpose hasnt changed. Thats the most powerful compass for them. Purpose will keep focusing you on what is it you really need to do. But if you get sucked into how youre doing it today, youll forget the purpose. Kia Motors, for example, has a beautiful purpose, which is to make whats available to the few to be available to the many. Unfortunately, they forgot that the internet showed up. Ten years ago when I was doing this work, nobody was doing it. Now every time I turn around, somebodys talking about purpose. All of the sudden, their sales went down as their competitors were able to get on the internet. They had been so focused on their store experience. Well, their purpose has nothing to do with stores. The purpose is: How do you make whats available to the few available to many? They realized that they had lost the connection and needed to step back, and that the internet was a beautiful [way to] bring that purpose alive. Knowledge@Wharton: You wrote that the internet gives us an opportunity to drive a new era of purpose. Can you elaborate? Craig: Ten years ago when I was doing this work, nobody was doing it. Now every time I turn around, somebodys talking about purpose. Whats interesting is, why? Why is it so sexy and important right now? My sense of it is this: In the last 10 years, the level of uncertainty has increased dramatically within every organization. I dont know any organization right now that has a strategic plan that goes out more than a couple years . Being in the automotive industry right now must be incredibly challenging. Ten years from now, what are we going to be selling? What are we going to be buying? If you look at this across banks and [other organizations], the timelines are dramatically shrinking. But we all still need some solid certainty to stand on. You have to lead from some place. People have realized the strategies are fragile, the tactics show up as a tweet in the morning. Purpose now becomes the only thing that doesnt change, both for you as an individual, as a leader, as well as the organization. This article is reprinted with permission from Knowledge@Wharton. This article originally appeared on Knowledge@Wharton. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Chief Keef has been feeding the streets with a ton of new projects this year. In fact, the Glo Gang rapper has already released 6 projects in 2018, most recently sharing Ottopsy & Mansion Musick this Summer, and he doesnt look to be slowing down either. Out of nowhere today, Sosa decides to dig into the vaults and share The Cozart project, which he first announced way back in 2015. Laced with 17 tracks in total, 5 of which are techno remixes of original songs that Chief Keef teased earlier this year, the follow up to Mansion Musick features guest appearances from Ballout & Jenn Em, the latter of which who appears on the lead single Chiraq. Meanwhile production is handled by the likes of 808 Mafia, CBMix, Dolan Beats, TM88, KE On The Track, DP Beats and others. Available now on streaming platforms, fans can listen to the surprise project (below) and let us know what you think. If you wish to see Chief Kerf live in person, youre SORTA in luck as the Glo Gang rapper just kicked off his hologram tour that will be coming to a city near you. Peep tour dates right here if interested. It looks like Jenni JWoww Farley from MTVs hit series Jersey Shore, is calling it quits with her husband. According to a report by the Asbury Park Press, JWoww has filed for a divorce from her husband of less than three years, Roger Mathews. Farley cites irreconcilable differences in her filings, which were submitted on September 12. "The Plaintiff and the Defendant have irreconcilable differences which have caused the breakdown of the marriage for a period of at least six months which make it appear that the marriage should be dissolved and that there is no prospect of reconciliation," she states in her complaint, according to the Asbury Park Press. JWoww is reportedly seeking joint custody of their children, and wants primary residential custody of them, according to the complaint. She is seeking child support and for Mathews to continue to provide health insurance and to contribute to healthcare expenses for the children. Farley also is seeking life insurance on behalf of the children and to be named a trustee on the policy. Rumors of possible difficulties in Farley's marriage surfaced earlier this year, when her husband Roger Mathews shared an Instagram post in January in which he referred to his wife having a mid-life crisis and flying to Miami to film Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. The post said his wife left her husband for a really jacked dude from the club." It went on to say that he made up the last part and was blessed to have what we have and grateful for it." Mathews also lamented in the post that his wife wouldnt see it for a month because she wasnt allowed to have a cellphone while filming the show. Well continue to keep you posted on this as more develops. [Via] Pre-sale numbers for the Luca Brasi 3 Tour were a good indication of the buzz permeating Kevin Gates' new release. The expectation arose out of his inactivity, or non-compliance to the state legislature. Those who stuck with by him for the wait time were rewarded with 18 songs underlined by Kev's single-minded focus (on personal growth), one of the standouts being "Shakin Back," a song he dedicates to the prison staff that did him wrong while he was jailed in East Moline, Illinois. Luckily for them, they were spared the disrepute of hearing their name called on the record. "Shakin Back" is slightly different than other records celebrating a rappers return from prison. In lieu of visiting an IHOP on his way back home, Kev digs deeper into this sense of paranoia that festered because some of his presumed friends failed to keep in touch. He anticipates a "bait-switch" welcome home party-turned-ambush, carried out by those presumed friends. If anything, "Shakin Back" is the unconscious deliberation of his internal validation system, the one he adopted in order to survive prison life. "Shakin Back" to civilian life is no small order, according to Luca Brasi the 3rd. Quotable Lyrics: I'm pissing clean for my CO, I'm a living legend Straight out the clink, fuck every CO that encounter Kevin White people showing love, n****** hating on me They say they got a cake bait and they waiting on me. Lil Wayne's long-standing legal battle with Birdman and Cash Money ended this summer which meant that fans would soon eat. Lil Wayne's been teasing the project's release over the past few weeks, but many were still convinced that it might not come out for a while. Thankfully, the album dropped at the wee hours of the morning. Not only are hip-hop heads ecstatic about its release, but it looks like Tha Carter V might be on some politicians weekend playlists as well. TMZ recently caught up with NOLA congressman, Rep. Cedric Richmond, who praised Lil Wayne, not only for his music but for being a music ambassador for New Orleans. Richmond said that Wayne's held in the same regards as Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino and Aaron Neville in New Orleans for his contributions in hip-hop. "[Lil Wayne] is one of our music ambassadors when it comes to rap," Richmond said outside of Capitol Hill. "When it comes to jazz, we have Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Aaron Neville. We have a bunch of ambassadors, but rap music? Lil Wayne's one of the best lyricists of all time." When asked if Wayne is at the same level as the three legendary jazz musicians mentioned, Richmond simply replies, "Absolutely." While Richmond wouldn't dub Wayne an "unofficial mayor of New Orleans," he does praise Weezy and the Cash Money team for giving back to their community. Peep the clip below. Trinidad James hasn't been at the forefront of the rap game, but that's not to say that he hasn't been working. He released his single, "M.M.M" earlier this summer and also appeared on Fre$h's March Madness 4 mixtape. However, he recently debuted a new song which appeared in the soundtrack for the Kevin Hart and Tiffany Hadish film, "Night School." He also landed writing credits on Marc Anthony, Will Smith and Bad Bunny's recent collaboration. Now, he comes through with a brand new single titled, "Full Size." Trinidad James returns with his brand new single, "Full Size." The song serves as the theme song to Complex' sneaker show "Full Size Run" after appearing as a co-host on the show for a while. It's a heavy trunk rattling single that finds Trinidad James expressing his love for sneakers. Peep the track below. Quotable Lyrics I like black tights, three stripes Gym chick, swoosh life I like 'em Spanish Asian, like a black white I feel like Swae Lee, I got no type An influx of West Texas sand mines, coupled with a production slowdown in the booming Permian Basin resulting from pipeline shortages, has led to two companies suddenly idling five sand mining plants in the Midwest, eliminating hundreds of jobs, at least temporarily. The sand mining services hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in oil and gas wells. However, the demand for sand is weakening as companies delay fracking operations until more pipeline capacity is built to bring their oil and gas to Gulf Coast markets. With pipeline projects unlikely to be completed until next year, many companies are drilling but not completing wells, opting to leave the oil and gas in the ground for now. The federal government estimates the number of drilled but uncompleted wells known as DUCs in the Permian has jumped more than 40 percent, from 2,500 at the beginning of this year to more than 3,600 at the end of August. On HoustonChronicle.com: Has fracking reached peak sand? The fracking slowdown coincides with companies opening several new sand mines within the Permian, creating an oversupply that led sand companies this summer to slash prices by almost 40 percent, energy analysts said. The ripple effects are now cutting jobs as far away as Wisconsin and Michigan. I think theres more idling and shut-ins to come, said George OLeary, director of oil services research at Houston energy investment firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. The Permian is just now starting to crack. On Wednesday, the Houston company Hi-Crush Partners said it is idling one of its Wisconsin sand mining plants. Thursday morning, Ohios Covia Corp. said it is temporarily shuttering four plants in four states Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan and Illinois. Covia also is reducing its activity at its East Texas mine in Cleburne, and at two other plants in Missouri and Wisconsin. The sand, known in the industry as proppant, props open the fissures in fractured shale rock, helping oil and gas flow into the wells. Nationwide, the demand for frac sand skyrocketed from roughly 40 million tons in 2016 to about 100 million tons this year as oil prices rebounded and the volumes of sand per well continued to rise. Analysts initially projected that demand this year would rise to about 110 million tons, but Permian pipeline shortages led that estimate to be revised downward, OLeary said. In addition, fracking activity has slowed in natural gas shale plays in the Northeast. That demand compares to about 150 million tons in U.S. sand production capacity by the end of this year. The Permian alone will soon account for almost 50 million tons of annual sand production capacity astonishing growth for a new West Texas mining sector that was virtually nonexistent until two years ago. West Texas brown sand is putting a lot of pressure on the higher quality, but more expensive, northern white sand from Midwestern states such as Wisconsin. The Midwest sand must be shipped more than 1,300 miles by rail to the Permian. The idling of these facilities is a difficult but necessary step, said Covia Chief Executive Jenniffer Deckard, and we regret the impact that this has had on our people, their families and the local communities. Covia was created in June through the merger of sand mining firms Fairmount Santrol and Unimin. On HoustonChronicle.com: Fast growth of sand mining is real deal The Permian is the fastest growing oil-producing region in the world, accounting for nearly one-third of the record U.S. oil production of 11 million barrels a day. That growth is starting to plateau as companies race to build and expand pipelines to refining and port hubs near Houston and Corpus Christi. Most those projects, however, wont start for about another year. Even with the added pipeline capacity, the oversupply of sand from the rapid expansion of mining operations should continue, likely causing some Midwest mines to close permanently, OLeary added. As drillers have pushed to become more efficient in producing oil, wells have become deeper and longer, and the amount of sand used to frac each has surged. The largest wells now consume up to 25,000 tons 50 million pounds of sand each, up from 1,500 tons, or about 3 million pounds, just a few years ago. Companies can afford it because the sand is cheap, selling for $30 to $50 per ton. Northern white sand from mines in states such as Wisconsin is most desired by oil companies, but companies like Covia and Hi-Crush also are building more mines in West Texas to provide sand at lower costs, in part because its much closer to the wells. jordan.blum@chron.com twitter.com/jdblum23 What a savage, twisted little play. With Exit Strategy, playwright Ike Holter has, in a crisp 90 minutes, revealed the underbelly of American society. At the Rec Room through Oct. 13, this play isnt just a finely-tuned, crackling drama about a Chicago public school on the verge of shutdown. The play is about racism, capitalism, cynicism, grief, hopes, dreams, life and death. Its about why we dare fight for what we believe in. Its about when we decide to smarten up and give up. Directed by Matt Hune, the production has the finest castIve seen in Houston since last years The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, with standout performances from the entire ensemble Matthew Jamison, Susan Koozin, Greg Dean, Michelle Magallon, Melanie Burke, Miguel Cortes and Gabriel Regojo. In a storyline that will feel all-too-familiar with those following recent threats of closures of several HISD schools, Exit Strategy chronicles the travails of four teachers, one administrator and one student as they attempt to save their school, which is more valuable to the city as a bulldozed plot of land. The cast speaks like a seasoned secretary at a typewriter rapid, punctuated, rolling over and into each others lines of dialogue. Filled with slang and profanity, their words are, on the surface, Aaron Sorkin-esque insults that are surprising and hilarious. But bubbling underneath these jabs are deeper emotions, like resentment, that burst out in incredible fashion. Exit Strategy When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday through Oct. 13 Where: Rec Room, 100 Jackson St. Tickets: $20; 713-344-1291, recroomarts.org. See More Collapse Just look at Donnie (Cortes), a charismatic senior who wants to lead the effort to save his school, spitting hard truths at an administrator, played by the wily, astonishing Jamison. Donnie is about to be suspended for attempting to raise money for his school, which is too poor to buy toilet paper. You can see in his face his anger and passion. He doesnt face toward the audience, a common tendency in theater. No, he looks directly at the administrator, so that we cant see his full figure, so that his confrontation is total and personal and private. But, as in Judas, every searing monologue is upended by yet-another brutal moment. Nearly every character has this kind of moment. Dean, as the tired, veteran teacher, opposes the teachers plan to stage a walkout. In a lesser play, he would be a villain. Yet look at his slow, steady gait, suggesting someone who has fought and lost one too many battles. What else would you expect this man to do? And what else would you expect Donnie, the student activist, to do? Thus exists the clash between the young and old, between idealistic activism and cynical pragmatism, between two parties that want the same thing but fight over not only how to achieve it but whether the effort is worth the risk. The play was written after the 2012 Chicago teachers strike 26,000 of them walked out of their classrooms that day and after the 2013 shutdown of 49 public schools. Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who instituted the closures, is never mentioned by name in Exit Strategy, yet he looms over the play like a ghost. But Holters critique isnt focused on individual politicians or policies. The play chooses, rather, to reveal the failings of the American public school system by showing how even the smartest, hardest working teachers have no power to change their students fate. The set, designed by Stefan Azizi, is a crumbling, unromantic depiction of apathy, where the paints running away from the walls. On the first day of school, Sadie (Burke) has brought not only snacks but also rat poison, to stop the rat feces from appearing in the cafeteria cheese dip. Jania (Magallon) asks her coworkers if she should call the police about the street gang that threatened her walk to work. We see that there is nothing to be done about all this. And you know whos missing from this play? The White Savior, that educated, hopeful white teacher who swoops in on a rescue the impoverished brown children mission. Holter eviscerates this trope with biting references to both the films Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers. There is no room here for unrealistic, hopeful happy endings that make the audience feel good. Instead, we have an unvarnished look at the way our society fails our youth, how we rob those who live in poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods of equal opportunity. More than one of the teachers says the equivalent to Im just so (expletive) tired. Over the course of the play, we begin to understand why. As they fight and fight, we root for them, even if theres not much to root for. By the end, we realize what a scandal it is that we have pitted them against such dire odds. wchen@chron.com Mischief is written all over the faces of Ava and Prince, two rescue dogs who are the subject of a new childrens book by Houston Chronicle fashion writer Joy Sewing. Four-year-old Prince (obviously) is the one wearing a crown, and Ava, 5, is the beauty peeking out from behind her adopted brother. The boxers are the fur babies that Sewing adopted a few years ago, and since then they have gained popularity all on their own with more than 3,700 Instagram followers (instagram.com/avaandtheprince). Now theyre the stars of their own book Ava and the Prince (LongTale Publishing; $15.95; 32 pp.) which publishes Monday. Ava has modeled a Wonder Woman costume at Halloween, and their antics destroying throw pillows, chewing up shoes or napping on the sofa when no ones looking prompted Sewings friends to urge her to take their hilarious story to the next level. They suggested a calendar. (Um, no.) A book. (Well, maybe.) Sewing is a fan of childrens books and regularly writes about them for the Chronicles Zest section. Since shes a fan of pet rescue groups and Ava and Prince are rescue dogs, she thought that their story could be fodder for a book. Pets add unconditional love and a kind of innocence that no other creature in your house can give you. Dogs just want to be in your space, they want to be loved and they want to give you their undivided attention, said Sewing, a Houston native. Children can relate to that. Sewing will sign copies of her book Oct. 6 at the Blue Willow Bookshop, then again on Oct. 13 at Brazos Bookstore. Additionally, Ava and the Prince will be part of the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundations My Home Library program. The result is a young readers book, designed by Chronicle art director Susan Barber, that tells the story of how dogs or any pet for that matter can steal your heart and complete your family. Its also meant to instill empathy in children for all animals and encourage families to consider adopting rescue animals when they want pets. Sewing adopted Ava after a chance encounter at Neiman Marcus in 2013. She was there to interview fashion designer Roland Mouret, just as the retailer was in the midst of its annual SPCA Holiday Windows of Life, when it fills its first-floor display windows with cats and dogs in need of forever homes. This years Windows of Life will be the 30th such event, and will run from Black Friday through Christmas. During the event, Neiman Marcus helps the Houston SPCA find homes for about 200 pets. More Information "Ava and the Prince" By Joy Sewing (LongTale Publishing; $15.95; 32 pp.) Book signings Oct. 6: 3 p.m. at Blue Willow Bookshop, 14532 Memorial; a portion of proceeds will go to Lone Star Boxer Rescue Oct. 13: 10:30 a.m. story time at Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonet Dec. 15: 11 a.m. at LAUNCH Houston, 701 Avenida de las Americas See More Collapse Sewing had slipped out a back door and saw a woman walking Ava who was then named Foxy on a leash. Years earlier, Sewing saw a cute photo of a boxer on the internet and decided right then that a boxer would be her next pet. After two years of thinking about it and months of searching, she still hadnt found her dream dog: a boxer with a flashy fawn coat and a black face. But there she was, panting and wagging her tail right in front of her. Sewing paid the adoption fees, then returned after work to pick her up. Ava was just a pup and had been given up by an owner who couldnt keep up with her energy. Sewing took her on walks at Hermann Park and visited dog parks, and every time she met someone with a boxer, the person always had two. So next came Prince, who she found through Lone Star Boxer Rescue, and the two pooches have been fast friends ever since. Yet they couldnt be more different. Ava loves attention and has a big personality. Prince eats and sleeps and might bark if someone knocks on the door. When hes feeling lazy, he eats laying down. Ava and the Prince encourages children to see pets as part of their family, as creatures that both give and receive love and comfort. Sewing grew up with pets of all kinds; she had cats and dogs and turtles and ducks. Yes, ducks. Inside the Loop. And mostly because when she was very young she loved Robert McCloskeys classic childrens book, Make Way for Ducklings. It was my all-time favorite book as a child, and I checked it out of the library as many times as they would let me. I wore that book out, she said. Her connection to pets of all kinds resurfaced a year ago when Sewing was sent to NRG to write a story about its pet reunion area, where Hurricane Harvey evacuees went in hopes of finding their lost pets. I was really touched by one mother and daughter. The little girl was frantically going from cage to cage to find their dogs. I just broke down and cried, she said, noting that they found two of their three dogs. As for Ava and Prince, theyre getting ready for their own five minutes of fame. Well, Ava likes to eat, and I have to watch her because shell eat Princes food, Sewing said. She learned how to run on the treadmill, and shes back on it. She has upped her workouts to 20 minutes, twice a day. Reese Witherspoons new lifestyle book Whiskey In A Teacup launched earlier this month, sending many of my and maybe your sorority sisters into a heart-eye-emoji frenzy, if their Facebook feeds are to be believed. Its the rule in newspaper writing that after first reference, a writer is supposed to refer to her subject by their last name. But my girl Reese is the rare actress that feels like shes a part of me. Over the years, the 42-year-old has showed me that nothings out of reach whether its getting into Harvard (What, like its hard?) in Legally Blonde, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in Wild, or winning an Oscar for best actress in real life. So Im going to refer to her by her first name, because thats who she is to me. Thats why it hurts so much to write this: I have conflicting feelings about this book, which Im fairly certain is the very last reception Reese wanted. And therein, I believe, lies the problem it feels like Reese wants everyone who reads this to love her a little bit more when they reach the last page. I get that. And, in a lot of ways, thats all many of us want. But at my age Ive learned that I dont have time to fake Instagram-filtered perfection with my friends. And I love a girls night loaded with real talk. More Information Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up In The South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits, by Reese Witherspoon Touchstone 304 pages $35.00 See More Collapse In the opening chapter, Reese writes that she chose the name of the book in reference to and reverence of a saying her grandmother Dorothea had, that southern women are whiskey in a teacup because of their combination of beauty and strength. This book is lovely. Truly. But Im a little disappointed that its more teacup than whiskey. This book itself is as beautiful as the heart-faced goddess herself, and I know just where to put it in my Pinterest-inspired apartment. It comes with recipes Im dying to try, like her approach to fried okra (one of my all-time favorites), her cheddar biscuits and a take on baked brie that includes whiskey. But even as I found myself fan-girling throughout the read, I still couldnt help thinking that the entire book was written as a marketing tool. And allow me here to make up a word: Its yall-washed. Every part of Reeses upbringing discussed here is immediately brought back to the fact that its so quintessentially southern. Road trips are a southern thing. Quilts are a southern thing. And hey yall, did you know that fireflies are a southern thing? I grew up in upstate New York, where my dad drove a hay truck for a living, and we slept in tents at the edge of our favorite alfalfa field on hot summer nights. Am I southern now? To me, her insistence that all the Norman Rockwell moments of her youth are inherently tied to geography rang hollow. You know those cringe-worthy moments when a politician is caught on video adding forced twang and folksiness to a stump speech south of the Mason-Dixon line? Thats what I felt in so many of forced yalls in this book. But the difference here is that Reese isnt carpetbagging. Shes actually southern, having been born in New Orleans and raised in Nashville. And shes actually telling the stories of her childhood. But only the pretty parts. And when she did give us a peek at something slightly less than perfection, it was still aspirational. For instance, one of the most stunning spreads in the book is a series of shots of Reese wearing her hair in perfectly arranged hot rollers, as she drives in what looks like a Cadillac. Curling hair is a four-step process for her. And step three is where we see Reese get a little crazy: Three: Get into the car to go wherever youre going with the rollers in your hair, she writes. Pro tip: Roll down the window to let the outside air cool the rollers. The whole drive, pray you do not see any ex-boyfriends or current crushes until your hair is finished. She explained the process to her daughter, Ava, who thinks Im nuts. Celebrities, theyre just like us! This is a sweet, humanizing anecdote, and snaps to her for including it. But this little bit of quirkiness is the only moment we get to see anything even akin to warts in what I was hoping would be an all-access look into Reeses life. And in case you were wondering, yes I did try Reeses roller trick. I did not look that cute, and Im fairly certain I saw the woman in front of me in traffic Wednesday morning try to snap a picture of me to text her friends. So even when Reese is at her lowest, her level of perfection at least as portrayed in this book is still way out of reach for a Wanna-Be-Witherspoon like me. I remember reading a great article about Reese in the New York Times, back in 2014, just as Wild was about to be released. In it, she talked about peoples perceptions of her as Americas Sweetheart, and the blowback she knew shed receive for her portrayal of Cheryl Strayed in the upcoming film, which includes cursing, drug use and promiscuity. Ive sat through millions of development meetings where people are like: We dont want Reese to say profanity. We dont want her to have sex. We dont want her to take drugs, she told the Times back then. I didnt really feel the constraints of it until about three years ago, where I realized, Im not this. Im a complex person that has so many different aspects in my personality. But somehow, I have this reductive experience where Im put into this tiny little box. This, she has said, is the driving force behind her decision to produce stories by, about and for strong, complex women, like Gone Girl, Wild, and Big Little Lies. And that makes this sweet-as-Grandma-Dorotheas-sun-tea book feel like a missed opportunity albeit a very charming one. I was hopeful that here in the 300-ish pages of her book, Id see her explore these parts of herself. The whiskey inside the teacup. And Im bummed that instead, it feels like she wrote herself into the box of likability from which Id love to see her escape. Theres a great anecdote, hidden about halfway through, about her nerves when she was about to sing during her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line, for which she won that Oscar. I confess I thought I was going to throw up every single time I shot a scene where I sang. (Have you seen the movie? Theres a lot of singing, yall!) But I just drank a beer and did it anyway. And it all worked out OK. A lot of key moments in life are like that: You can be nervous as all get out. Just drink a beer and do it anyway! And I wish shed taken that advice. It can be hard to open up and show people that youre more complicated than theyve assumed you are. But just drink a beer and do it anyway, Reese! Ill wait. Believe me, I can kill plenty of time baking your biscuits and watching Sweet Home Alabama. maggie.gordon@chron.com; twitter.com/MagEGordon Just off winning its zillionth Emmy Award two weeks ago, "Saturday Night Live" is poised to return this week with host Adam Driver and musical guest Kanye West. Pitchfork reports that guests for the first three weeks have been set. Missouri City rapper Travis Scott will make the trip to New York to be the musical guest for the Oct. 6 broadcast of "SNL." Hosting that night will be "Crazy Rich Asians" star Awkwafina. Students from Summer Creek and Kingwood Park high schools are working together to design and construct homes for homeless veterans in the Houston area. These Humble ISD students are planning to construct a 28-acre community for homeless veterans composed of tiny houses. Not only will students help a homeless veteran get a home but this project, also known as Students Helping Veterans, will also give them the opportunity to work with professional architects, engineers and tradesmen. Each school has their own adviser as well as a student lead architect and student representative. This project really started off in the beginning of the second semester last (school) year, KPark Student Representative and Student Council President Nicholas Logan said. Not that long ago, Logan and Summer Creek High School Vice President Blayne Adams went before the Humble City Council to get support on their Student Helping Veterans Project. Now Playing: Peter Banach received a home with a low-cost mortgage as part of Operation Tiny Home's effort to help veterans find affordable housing. Banach, 37, was a Marine Corps private first class in 2007 when he was injured by a roadside bomb that shattered his ankle. Video: Orlando Sentinel We felt that if we got the support of first off Humble ISD and the support of the City of Humble and the City of Houston that we would have a much better chance of getting everything done, Logan said. The students have also gone to the Houston Veteran Affairs Department and plan on going to speak with the East Montgomery County Improvement District. KParks Lead Architect Sarah Dalby said there will be one model home built at their respective schools where they will be eventually transported to a community that will house a homeless veteran. The home that I designed is about 200 square feet and it has a small bathroom, a small kitchen, itll have a porch and itll have a grilled stove outside, Dalby said. Its pretty small but one of the things that Ive tried to do is add a lot of windows and things to really open up the tiny house. While working with professionals to design and create homes, the students are also learning how to build homes that are compliant with government code and deciphering the different types of permits they need. Each school has determined it will cost at least $25,000 to build one of these tiny homes. To build a home in the KPark location they will also need to fundraise an additional $40,000 to cover the site prep fee. Adams said SCHS will have their tiny home built on their campus by the end of the year. Our home is about 250-300 square feet depending to how much more we add to it, what little tweaks we do on it these next few weeks, but its just a living room, kitchenette and it also has a small bathroom so they still have the feeling of a normal home and they get to feel like they own it at the same time SCHS Lead Architect Natalia Andrade said. Andrade said the SCHS tiny home will also include a tiny porch. A lot of these homeless veterans do have problems socializing with people, so the goal is to get them to socialize with their neighbors and have cookouts, Andrade said. KPark and SCHS students will come up with a different home design each year. Helping these veterans have a home is somewhat personal for Adams. He plans on enlisting to the Air Force Academy once he graduates. Ive always viewed the military as a priority because they are the people that protect, they are the people that fight for this country and its rights. So the people that have gone out to war, have fought for us, have lived for us, are willing to die for us; the fact that they dont have a home is extremely unfortunate and giving them a home we thought is a really awesome thing, Adams said. Both campuses agree that as the Student Helping Veterans continues throughout the years, they would like to get some schools involved in not only Houston but the state as well. kaila.contreras@chron.com WASHINGTON - A government employee told a House panel on Thursday that Mel Watt, the former North Carolina congressman who now heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sexually harassed her for years and prevented her from securing a raise when she rebuffed his advances. "I felt vulnerable and unsafe," Simone Grimes, an FHFA supervisory program management analyst, told the House Financial Services Committee in her first public appearance. The harassment made her "extraordinarily uncomfortable," said Grimes. "I have never in my professional career been diminished to just an object." The hearing played out simultaneously as the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from Christine Blasey Ford about accusations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were in high school. "Given what is happening at the end of the other end of the Capitol, as I speak, I am not sure this hearing will be heard, but it should be," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chair of the committee. Both Grimes and Watt deserve to heard, Hensarling said. "There is something amiss at FHFA and this committee has to get to the bottom of it." Grimes faced mostly polite, deferential questions from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, including several who said they served with Watt during his 21 years in Congress and considered him a friend. "No matter our friendship ... I have a responsibility to ensure that Simone Grimes, who has raised deeply troubling allegations, is heard before this committee," said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the committee, who said she had been to Watt's home and given presents to his first grandchild. During sometimes combative testimony, Watt denied the accusations and complained that he was only given two days notice that Grimes would be testifying during the hearing, which had originally slated to focus on FHFA's supervision of two housing giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "I did not take actions, or engage in any conduct involving Ms. Grimes that was contrary to law," Watt told the committee. "I am disappointed that it appears that Ms. Grimes is now attempting to use my efforts to advise and mentor her" to pursue a legal claim. Watt clashed with Hensarling, whom he repeatedly interrupted, about his refusal to cooperate with an independent investigation into the allegation conducted by a U.S. Postal Office investigator. Watt said that he was not required to and would cooperate instead with an investigation being conducted by the agency's inspector general. "I didn't do anything to try to obstruct [that] investigation. I just didn't participate in it," Watt said. "Why duplicate efforts here?" Grimes, 44, has said the harassment started when Watt, 73, approached her during a going-away party in 2015, according to a report by an investigative office within the U.S. Postal Service. Grimes told investigators for the agency that she was standing at a snack table with other employees when Watt ushered her away and "asserted that there was an attraction between them that needed to be explored," according to the report. Over the next two years, according to the report, Watt repeatedly asked Grimes to meet him outside the office, including inviting her to his vacation home in North Carolina, restaurants, the jazz club Blues Alley and his home. Grimes told the House panel that she agreed to several of the meetings so she could complain that she was being underpaid after assuming the responsibilities of another employee who had been promoted. But the topic of the meetings inevitably would turn to Watt's attraction to her, Grimes said. In one case, he asked to see a picture of her in a bikini and during another asked her about a tattoo on her ankle. "If I kissed that one would it lead to me?," Watt said in one of 15 records Grimes made of their interactions. Eventually Grimes said she filed an anonymous FHFA complaint. Then Watt warned her that the "#Metoo movement" has been harmful to some of the women involved, she said. "I found this to be a threat. It was a warning," she said. "I did feel trapped, as if my back was against the wall," Ms. Grimes said. "I don't have a personal vendetta against Director Watt," Grimes told the committee, saying she believed he had made "sound" decisions as the head of the agency, which overseas a huge swath of the mortgage market. But, she said, "I do not have any reason to believe I am the first .... person to experience this with Director Watt." Watt told the committee he was disappointed to learn that Grimes had been taping their conversations and questioned whether some of the recordings had been tampered with. "Unlike what is going on in the Senate, this committee cannot resolve this matter," Watt said, referencing the Kavanaugh hearing. "I am a big supporter of the #MeToo movement. I think it is a wonderful thing. . .but it cannot be a substitute for going through the legal process." Watt responded that times had changed and that women's frustrations required Grimes to be heard and the committee to grapple with the issue. "In this atmosphere and in this time where women have come forth, and they have decided that they're going to step out, they're going to tell their story" the committee felt compelled to allow Grimes to testify, she said. "There's one lesson in all of this, maybe for you, it's a new day, it's new time and the old processes don't work quite well anymore," Waters said. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to defuse the confusion surrounding the future of his deputy attorney general, saying he would prefer to keep Rod Rosenstein in the job and might even delay a scheduled meeting between the two on Thursday that some had feared could lead to his ouster. Answering questions at a lengthy news conference, Trump said he liked Rosenstein and hoped he would remain in the position. "I'm talking to him; we've had a good talk," said the president. Rosenstein's job security has been a subject of near-constant speculation almost since the moment he got it in early 2017. But it seemed never more at risk than after a New York Times story last week said the No. 2 official at the Justice Department had once suggested secretly recording the president and mustering support to use the 25th Amendment of the constitution to remove him from office. "My preference would be to keep him and to let him finish up," Trump said. "He said he never said it. He said he doesn't believe it. He said he has a lot of respect for me." A departure by Rosenstein could spark fresh fights within different parts of the government, as he is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and whether any Trump associates conspired with those efforts. Trump and Rosenstein had planned to meet Thursday afternoon to discuss the matter, but the president suggested Wednesday that meeting may not happen and that he wasn't particularly concerned about the issue. "I may call Rod tonight or tomorrow and ask for a little bit of a delay to the meeting," Trump said, adding that he wanted to focus tomorrow on the Senate hearing over embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The latest chapter in the ongoing saga of Rosenstein's tenure may be the most confusing, as just days ago senior Justice Department officials had become convinced that he was about to quit or be fired. Rosenstein has frequently been the target of attacks from a president furious over the Russia investigation, but behind the scenes, the relationship between the two men is often amiable, according to people familiar with their talks and meetings. In recent administrations, it was unusual for a president and the No. 2 Justice Department official to interact much. But a chain of events that began in the early days of the Trump presidency has thrust the two of them closer - a strange relationship that has somehow survived the frequent turbulence of the administration. Traditionally, the job of deputy attorney general is one that draws intermittent political fire from congressional leaders or internal Justice Department critics but rarely rises to the level of national political debate. Rosenstein, however, has operated in the job under the harsh glare of national politics as he tries to navigate the hypercharged politics of the Russia investigation. At times, Rosenstein has been attacked by Democrats; more recently, the president's congressional allies have tried to force him out of the job. James Trusty, a former Justice Department official now at the Ifrah Law firm who is close to Rosenstein, said the deputy attorney general's constantly shifting position in the eyes of each political party is probably due to his own lack of interest in politics. "During Rod's tenure, he's obviously drawn fire from both sides of the aisle at various junctures, and at the heart of the political problem is that he's not a politician," Trusty said. "He just keeps his head down and prosecutes cases or investigates cases. Ultimately, in a town like Washington, that's maddening to everyone." Part of the reason for Trump and Rosenstein's frequent interactions lies in how Rosenstein came to supervise the Russia investigation. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who as a senator was one of Trump's earliest backers during the GOP primaries, infuriated the president by recusing himself in early 2017 from the investigation into Russian election interference. Advisers to the president said he has never forgiven Sessions for that decision, so much so that Trump dislikes talking to - or even about - the attorney general. That has meant that the president interacts often with the very person overseeing the investigation into his conduct. "Based on my observations, Rod enjoys working with the president and respects him and what he is trying to accomplish," said Ian Prior, a former Justice Department spokesman. "As a longtime prosecutor, I think Rod truly enjoys being in leadership at the Justice Department in an administration with a law-and-order president that supports law enforcement." On issues of crime, the opioid crisis and illegal immigration, Prior said, "they are on the same page." Earlier this week, it appeared a final break was imminent. Rosenstein publicly disputed the assertions about what he had said in those May 2017 discussions but privately told senior White House officials that he was willing to resign in the wake of the revelations, as long as the president would commit to not publicly disparaging him once he left the job, according to people familiar with the conversations. Those conversations, from Friday to Sunday evening, led White House and Justice Department officials to think Rosenstein would soon be out. They were wrong. White House officials now say they expect Rosenstein to stay in the job until after the election, when both he and Sessions are likely to be replaced. When the president first nominated Rosenstein for the job, he was serving as the U.S. attorney in Baltimore, having held that job in both Republican and Democratic administrations. The pick was seen as uncontroversial and was met with relief by many Justice Department veterans, who felt Rosenstein would bring a degree of stability and institutional perspective to the table. Shortly after assuming the job, Rosenstein made a fateful decision - writing a memo sharply critical of then-FBI Director James Comey's handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of private email when she was secretary of state. That memo was used to justify Comey's firing, but days later the president said in a television interview that he was thinking about the Russia case when he decided to fire Comey. Publicly, the Rosenstein memo made him an instant villain of the left - someone who had seemingly caved to political pressure to help the president weaken an investigation of those close to him. Even within the Justice Department, some officials privately questioned Rosenstein's decision and worried he had been manipulated. Days later, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special prosecutor, which tempered much of the criticism he had received at that point from Democrats. "This isn't a normal administration, and he isn't a normal official," said Matt Miller, a Justice Department spokesman during the Obama administration. "I think he was very unsteady at the beginning of his tenure, and he then stabilized and grew somewhat into the job, and I think the last week has tested him again and he has again looked a little bit unsteady, but I hope that for the stake of the department he is able to continue in the job." By some accounts, this was one of the ugliest weeks in modern political history. Personally, I thought the ugliness was bracing, in its way. This confirmation process has become a national disgrace, said Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday, during his opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was telling the truth about that much, at least. And any subsequent fibs were irrelevant to the question at hand whether he should be confirmed to a lifetime appointment on the U.S. Supreme Court. Kavanaugh has been credibly accused of sexual assault, among other things. But President Donald Trump was unfazed by that revelation about his second Supreme Court pick, and Republicans control the Senate. So the confirmation process, in itself, has eroded the American publics confidence in the judiciary. Grieder: Brett Kavanaughs defenders should take Christine Blasey Ford seriously But on the bright side, the entire sordid debacle helps explain why I think all Texans should be paying attention to this years attorney general race and why all Americans should be rooting for Justin Nelson, the Democratic nominee. I say that not as a partisan, but as someone who believes in the rule of law and the separation of powers, and who thinks that all of our statewide officials should aspire to both competence and decency. Its an indictment of the Republican Party of Texass current leadership that Ken Paxton became Texas attorney general in the first place in 2014. A metaphorical indictment, I mean. While running for the Republican nomination that year, he admitted to violating a state securities law that he had voted to create some years previously as a member of the Texas Legislature, and paid an administrative penalty. For Republicans like Greg Abbott, who was then running for governor, that might have been a warning sign. Paxtons admission triggered an investigation by the Texas Rangers; just months after being sworn in as the states top law enforcement official, he was charged with several felonies. But Abbott continued to support Paxtons bid for statewide office, as did most of his Republican colleagues. In fact Paxton who remains under indictment was unopposed in this years primary. Even the most blindly loyal Republican voters should be outraged by that, I think. Paxton began his term with Chip Roy as his first assistant attorney general; that gave me confidence that a reasonably competent adult would be overseeing the day-to-day operations of the agency. Paxton also had a sterling solicitor general, Scott Keller. But Roy left Paxtons employ in 2016; he is now the Republican nominee for Congress in Texass 21st Congressional District. Keller left recently, for a private sector gig. One can hope that Paxtons current deputies are working hard on behalf of the state, and providing effective leadership for the thousands of public servants whose work they oversee. But it is impossible to have confidence in the attorney general himself. The most charitable explanation for Paxtons conduct in office is that he is profoundly incompetent. The most plausible one is that he is a corrupt and opportunistic charlatan, who rode Abbotts coattails to the attorney generals office, which he has proceeded to use for his personal enrichment and political gain. Even under normal circumstances, it would be hard to make a case for Paxtons re-election. And under the current circumstances, its crucial that Texas have a genuinely independent attorney general. Ive written before that I see Trump as a mostly incidental threat to the rule of law; he seems to chafe at constraints on his own power, rather than that of the office he holds. Grieder: Trumps assaults on rule of law are falling short Still, an incidental threat may be real enough, and Trumps haphazard attacks on the rule of law have been met with no resistance from Paxton. In fact, since Trumps inauguration, Paxton has helped pursue the presidents agenda through the judiciary; this year, the state is seeking to end the Affordable Care Acts protection of patients with pre-existing conditions, among other things. But Texas voters have a real chance to oust Paxton in lieu of Nelson this November. There havent been many public polls of this race, but all of them show the Democrat within single digits, despite the fact that many voters have never even heard his name. Thats a measure of how underwhelming Paxtons tenure in high office has been. And although Nelson is a first-time candidate, his resume holds up to scrutiny. He is an ethically rigorous and highly qualified centrist whose priorities are what one hopes they would be. We want to have an independent voice in that office, Nelson told me recently, at an Astros game. We want to have someone who is a check on power. We want to have someone who will stand up for the rule of law. We do. And we currently dont have that, in our attorney generals office. Paxton once swiped an expensive fountain pen from a security bin at the Collin County courthouse, and returned it to its rightful owner only after being identified as the culprit thanks to CCTV. But thats a story for another day, perhaps. For now, all Texans should be aware that we have a clear choice to make in this years attorney general race between Paxton and Nelson. And I hope everyone, in this case, votes for change. erica.grieder@chron.com twitter.com/ericagrieder When John Kerry considers Houston, his thoughts go to recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey or the health of President George H.W. Bush. He says the 2004 presidential election doesnt cross his mind. And yet, when Kerry speaks Saturday during a Progressive Forum event at Congregation Emanu El it will be in a city that played some part in his undoing as a presidential candidate 14 years ago. Here, an attorney who debated Kerry on TV in 1971, took an active role in pushing against Kerrys campaign and in doing so inadvertantly coined a new phrase for political subterfuge swiftboating. The effect of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the TV ads they ran against Kerry cant be quantified with specificity. The ads ran during election season in 2004, calling into doubt Kerrys service during the Vietnam War. Kerry had received three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for his service on a Swift Boat, a 50-foot long aluminum patrol boat, in the Mekong River Delta. Did the ads make a difference in 2004? asked historian Douglas Brinkley. Well never know. John Kerry When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday Where: Congregation Emanu El, 1500 Sunset Details: $40-$150 (includes book); 888-695-0888, progressiveforumhouston.org See More Collapse But Brinkley, the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Professor in Humanities at Rice University, said, My point is that theres no question the term swiftboating emerged in 2004 as a way of smearing ones opponent by attacking his virtues. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truths work which was maligned and lauded at the time eats up about 10 pages of Kerrys new memoir, Every Day Is Extra, suggesting he hasnt entirely moved past it. Neither has John ONeill, the Houston attorney who helped organize the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that ran TV ads calling into question the legitimacy of Kerrys Navy service in the Vietnam War. ONeill also authored a book, Unfit for Command, in which he sought to undermine the campaign. Nearly 15 years later, ONeill hasnt softened on the subject. I think its one of the best things Ive ever done in my life, ONeill said. Thats how I feel about it. Im not angry at him anymore. But I really do believe that. Its one of the greatest things Ive done. The division between two men who served on the same Swift Boat in the same war at different times maps out cultural fissures that, despite nearly half a century, havent been filled. Genghis Khan! Last year documentary filmmaker Ken Burns presented an 18-hour documentary, The Vietnam War, on PBS. While in Houston to promote the project Burns suggested that the film was as much about the wars aftermath as it was about the history of the conflict. We live in a country beset by divisions that first metastasized in Vietnam, Burns said. This idea: My way or the highway, no compromise, red state/blue state. That all has roots in Vietnam. We certainly havent reconciled this war. Brinkley agreed. Were still fighting that war, no question, he said. People are heading into their 80s now, and theyre still beating each other up over Vietnam. It was this great unraveling of American between these hawks and doves, and years later a consensus has not emerged. Theres scholarly consensus and academic consensus, that the war was a mistake. But especially in the conservative movement, theres this feeling that Kerry was representing the wrong side. The war plays a significant part in Kerrys memoir, as one would expect. Kerrys distinguished CV includes time spent as Secretary of State and years as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. But his return from Vietnam became a flashpoint for cultural divisions. On April 22, 1971, Kerry, as a representative of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the war. The second paragraph of his prepared statement described accounts by some soldiers associated with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War: They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan. The opening paragraph claimed these atrocities were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis. Forty-seven years later, ONeill remains outraged by the assertion. Ghengis Khan! ONeill exclaimed. Look, the war was openly debated. There was nothing wrong with debating it. There were a lot of good people opposed to the war. I disagreed with him. But my real problem was his false claim. That this was an Army of Ghengis Khan. I knew that to be a lie. Some of the best people Ive known in my whole life were in my unit. Bad things happened. But this was not the Army of Ghengis Khan. It was a destructive suggestion, and it was extremely harmful to a lot of good soldiers. And also to the wives and children of those who died. Kerry and ONeill appeared on The Dick Cavett show in 1971 for a debate. Video from the show underscores irreconcilable differences, and not just because of the way the men presented themselves ONeill wide-eyed and agitated, Kerry reclined and soft-spoken. But they also came across as engaged in a non-parallel disagreement. ONeills concern was representation of the soldiers, Kerrys was representation of the war. Kerrys book includes an excerpt from his Senate testimony: The famous part in which he asks, How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? Brinkley called that , One of the best lines ever written by any American politician. Its eternal. And Brinkley also recognized that the segment about atrocities caused needless provocation. Kerry didnt include the paragraphs about atrocities in the book, cuts that couldve been made due to regret or simply to keep down a word count. It doesnt matter to some. Hes never apologized for any of it, ONeill said. Never. The debate was their last interaction for decades. ONeill became a successful attorney in Houston. Kerry was elected to the Senate. I wouldnt vote for me Fast forward to 2004 and the Democratic primary for president. Americas involvement at the time in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan meant armed conflict was on the collective mind as questions of national security were at the surface of conversations about the presidential election. Months earlier, the Democratic frontrunner was presumed to be Howard Dean. But Kerry pulled off wins in Iowa and New Hampshire. His service really propelled his candidacy, Brinkley said. He had Jim Rassmann, whose life hed saved in Vietnam at his side in Iowa, even though Rassmann was a registered Republican. Americans have a tendency to admire their veterans. And when he gave his acceptance speech at the DNC he said, Reporting for duty. Long before that convention, though, and unbeknownst to Kerry, a hornets nest had already been stirred. Brinkley in early 2004 published Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, which drew significantly from Kerrys war journals as well as interviews conducted with most of the soldiers who served with Kerry. The book sat poorly with Admiral Roy Hoffmann, who was compared unfavorably to the adrenalized Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore in the film Apocalypse Now. Hoffman had written commendations for Kerry for his time on the Mekong Delta. But he felt burned by the book. Hoffmann reached out to other Swift Boat veterans, who met in Dallas in April 2004. Hoffman became chair of the resulting organization: the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. ONeill because of Unfit for Command became the most visible in the group. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth hired press representation and began fundraising. One of their first backers was Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, who in a 2002 Chronicle profile was referred to as one of the most modest heroic patriots we have, by a Texas Republican Party chair. And he was called Darth Vader by Annise Parker, then a Houston city councilwoman. Perry, who died in 2013, was a fascinating and divisive figure who, at least from a political perspective, operated in the shadows. He avoided interviews, and often avoided the politicians and causes to whom and which he donated. He was a private man who believed in causes, and funded them well. The first Swift Boat Veterans for Truth press conference was held May 4, 2004. ONeills book was published in August, when the TV spots began to run. The Swift Boat ads were as deceptive as they were effective, featuring testimony from soldiers who never served with Kerry speaking vaguely about lies and loyalty. They questioned the extent of the injuries for which he received three Purple Hearts. If I were a citizen watching that ad, if that was my principal frame of reference, I wouldnt vote for me, Kerry wrote in his memoir. The ads circulated heavily in Ohio, a state George W. Bush won by 118,000 votes. Bush had carried Ohio four years earlier by 165,000 votes; so perhaps they had negligible or no effect. Brinkley believes Kerry wouldve fared better in Ohio had he linked up with Sen. John Glenn instead of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. Regardless, the Swift Boat ads drew the ire of many who served with Kerry, including Rassmann, as well as Sen. John McCain, who called the ads dishonest and dishonorable. McCains relationship to Kerry bears mention. When Kerry arrived in the Senate, McCain, like many Vietnam veterans, regarded him warily because of his public opposition to the war. But they worked through their differences and became friends. We came to understand each other, Kerry said. We both came to service from a similar place. Both sons of greatest generation parents. We both had a sense of duty, an obligation to and love for country. Then he saw the war differently than I did. Kerrys relationship to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is colder. He said it infuriates me, that the phrase swiftboating became codified terminology for political attacks rooted in untruth. We will never get past this ONeill eventually retired from practicing law. Earlier this year he wrote a book about George Strake, the late Texas oil man, and the part Strake played in unearthing a tomb beneath the Vatican. Time has done nothing to soften his feelings about Kerry. We will never get past this. I just dont see it, honestly. He lived his life in a destructive way, and I hope for him he can still turn it around. At some point well both face the guy who decides whos telling the truth and whos right. Until then, thats where we are. The title of Kerrys book suggested that at 74, he would like to enjoy each extra day. Like the decades-spanning feud and like so much unresolved animosity in our culture, it goes back to the war. Those of us lucky enough to come back from the war, we had a very strong feeling that it was a gift that others werent so lucky to enjoy, Kerry said. And with that comes a very special sense of responsibility. Live a purposeful life. Give back. Honor those who laid down their lives. Every day is extra is about life being fragile and short. andrew.dansby@chron.com A former Conroe priest facing decades-old child molestation accusations has been staying at a gated retirement community in southwest Houston while out on bail, according to officials. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has been housing Manuel Larosa-Lopez at the St. Dominic Village along Holcombe Boulevard after he was released on a $375,000 bond two weeks ago, the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office confirmed. The property is fenced off save for a guarded driveway. The diocese touts the village, which includes a senior home and about a dozen apartments for retired priests south of the Brays Bayou, as providing all the comforts of home on its website. Larosa-Lopez was arrested Sept. 11 on four counts of indecency with a child for alleged sexual misconduct dating back to 1998. The abuse lasted at least three years and targeted a boy and a girl who attended the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Conroe, according to an arrest affidavit. The priest walked out of the Montgomery County Jail the next day after a mystery benefactor paid his bail. The vow of poverty would have prevented Larosa-Lopez from having the financial resources to pay his way out, said Wendell Odom, the priests lawyer. He declined to reveal who supplied the funds, whether it was the diocese or an individual. An archdiocese spokesman declined to comment, other than to say the church is cooperating fully with the civil authorities in their investigation. This has been a person who has done a lot of good work and a lot of people are supportive of him, Odom told the Houston Chronicle. The person who has paid his bail has done so in confidence. Four bond payments three for $75,000 and a fourth for $150,000 dated Sept. 12 fail to provide further insight. The documents list two addresses for Larosa-Lopez, including his latest parish assignment at the St. John Fisher Church in Richmond. A second address points to a diocese-owned property in the 6400 block of Brookside Drive in retired Archbishop Joseph Fiorenzas name, according to Harris County Appraisal District records. Conroe bondswoman Renell Pedigo handled the payments, but when reached last week, she said only Odom would know the source of the funds. The source of the payments is a curiosity to Assistant District Attorney Tyler Durman, who is prosecuting the case. If the church is paying it, it makes your head tilt sideways, he said, adding that it doesnt change how we go about our investigation. On Wednesday, Montgomery County Assistant Attorney John McKinney Jr. asked the state Office of the Attorney General on Wednesday to reject the Chronicles request to access Larosa-Lopezs bond payment records, believing that the information would interfere with the prosecution of the case. The criminal charges against Larosa-Lopez are a rarity in light of the Roman Catholic Churchs attempts to cover up sex abuse scandals. Last month, a nearly 900-page grand jury report in Pennsylvania found a pattern of protection surrounding more than 300 priests accused of sexual misconduct. Terry McKiernan has kept logs on about 4,600 cases of abusive priests for the watchdog website Bishop Accountability, with the oldest claims dating back to the 1960s. Of that number, he said only 13 percent have wound up in the criminal justice system. He sees Larosa-Lopez post-jail housing with the Archdiocese as a classic attempt to shield him from your attention. Monitoring is really at subject in all this. Its hard to tell if the priests are being kept in or if youre being kept out, he said. The last they want is for him to misbehave in any way. Thats not good for them. After reading the three-page affidavit detailing Larosa-Lopezs alleged abuse, McKiernan said this is a person you dont want to have in the streets, let alone a parish. Despite the shroud of mystery, Larosa-Lopez lawyer does not see his clients release and continued residence on church property as a sign of protection. Just because hes still living in the church property doesnt mean theyre still supporting him, Odom said. The diocese is in a really difficult position here. The conditions of Larosa-Lopezs release require him to wear a GPS device and not to have contact with children. He is also barred from church activities as the criminal investigation continues, Odom said. He sees Larosa-Lopezs arrest as a warning to clergy members. Beware any priest right now for any contact he has had 20 years ago with someone because it could turn on you, Odom added. Youre going to be in a bunker mentality. nicole.hensley@chron.com @nkhensley A fisherman died Thursday in a west Houston pond, where signs warn of alligators, police said. The man went under while fishing with his brother and a friend around 3:30 p.m. at Bishop Fiorenza Park near Westpark Drive at Eldridge Parkway, authorities said. HPD's helicopter and dive team launched a search and recovered the body hours later. ON THE HUNT: Bike bandit strikes Midtown The man's cause of death and identity will be confirmed by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, according to HPD. A sign near the water warns to "be aware of alligators." Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com Houston police shot and killed a man who allegedly abducted his ex-girlfriend in west Houston and shot her multiple times Friday morning, authorities said. Officers arrived at the man's apartment at 2525 Winrock around 12:25 a.m., after the ex-girlfriends cousin called and said shed seen her on FaceTime with a gun to her head, according to Executive Assistant Chief Matt Slinkard, of the Houston Police Department. The woman who called police suspected her cousins ex-boyfriend. Police officers saw the mans car in the parking lot, and as they went to find him, heard a womans screams, Slinkard said. Now Playing: HPD kills man suspected of shooting girlfriend Video: Metro Video The officers entered the apartment, and the man immediately fired several rounds at officers, causing them to take cover, Slinkard said. An officer saw the man shoot the female victim, and police again entered the apartment. The man picked up a knife and wouldnt listen to commands to drop it, Slinkard said. One sergeant and two officers then fired at the man, hitting him. He died at the scene. The woman was taken to the hospital with five gunshot wounds, Slinkard said. She's expected to survive. Slinkard described the scene as a violent one that could have ended badly for a number of people. "This was a dangerous situation for all," he said. "Were very happy that no other citizens or officers were injured in this." The sergeant and two officers will be on administrative duty while an investigation is underway. By Sep. 27, 2018 nniversary Book Talk This year marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. The central question in the book - Just because it can be done, should it be done? - is just as relevant now as it was in the early 19th century. In partnership with the Class Acts Series and the US Bank Family Series at the Carson Center in downtown Paducah, the McCracken County Public Library will host a free book discussion of this enduring classic on Monday, October 15 at 7 pm in the library's Meeting Room. The discussion is open to everyone, from students through adults. Information about the Carson Center's productions of Frankenstein will also be available at the discussion, as well as a chance to win some free tickets to the US Bank Family Series performance on October 21 at 6 pm. Matt Jaeger is the library's youth services assistant. Copies of the book, both physical and digital, are available to check out from the McCracken County Public Library. PADUCAH - Frankenstein, 200th Awill be presented by Matt Jaeger on Monday, Oct 15 from 7 until 8 pm at the McCracken County Public Library in the 2nd floor library meeting room. A majority of students at the top-rated high schools in Texas are likely to need remedial course work when they get to college because they dont score well enough on entrance exams, a Hearst Newspapers analysis of newly released school accountability data shows. More than 900 high schools in the state received the equivalent of an A or B rating from the state last month. But the analysis shows that at two-thirds of those schools, the majority of students are failing to score high enough on the SAT or ACT to be considered college ready, increasing the chances that theyll need remedial course work in college and jeopardizing their chances of getting a college diploma. SCORES: Houston-area schools fare well on TEAs new accountability ratings The low number of Texas students who are adequately prepared for college has emerged again as an issue as state lawmakers study education funding this fall, in preparation for the Legislative Session, which starts in January. At a meeting Tuesday, education committee chairman Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, and Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, recommended giving more money to schools for each student who scores college-ready on the entrance exams. Another group of lawmakers studying the performance of Texas schools, including Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, recommended that Texas do away with the STAAR test, the state standardized exam, and instead use the SAT or ACT to hold high schools accountable. The states top education official says Texas is steadily raising the bar for what students are expected to learn, and schools are improving. But education experts say the combination of high ratings and low college readiness scores exposes a major flaw in the states accountability system. They say the gap is proof that lawmakers are placing too much emphasis on improving scores on the STAAR and high school graduation rates, rather than on preparing students for what happens after they finish high school. To get an A means this school is doing a good job of getting an increasing number, and a majority number, of its students ready for the next stage in life, said Sandy Kress, a former senior adviser for George W. Bush and one of the architects of No Child Left Behind, the law that brought accountability ratings to schools across the country. You have no business getting an A if you cant tell me that. Some schools, especially in rural areas, may focus more on preparing students for careers after high school, rather than college. But Hearst Newspapers also analyzed career-readiness data, which includes students enlisting in the military or receiving an industry certificate. Of the schools earning the states top ratings, none was preparing the majority of its students for careers after high school. The highest percentage was in Cumby High School, about 65 miles northeast of Dallas. Thirty-nine percent of its students met career standards. About 3 percent tested at a college-ready level. Low college graduation rates and career attainment have troubled lawmakers in Texas for years. They set a goal in 2015 that by 2030, 60 percent of Texas high school graduates would earn an industry certificate or a post-secondary degree within six years. The state has a long way to go only 25 percent of students from the class of 2009 met that goal. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath declined to be interviewed and did not respond to questions sent by email, instead releasing a statement: Well-rounded college and career readiness measures have been added to the A-F system for the first time, which reflects a substantial increase in expectations for our schools and our students, Morath said. Over time, this additional focus will result in more kids being well prepared for college and career coming out of our high schools. Students are college ready if they score at least a 530 on the math portion of the SAT and a 480 on the reading and writing portion, according to TEA documents. The top score is 800 for each portion of the test. Student taking the ACT need a 23 composite score, out of a top score of 36, and at least a 19 on the math and reading portion. Students who dont hit those marks can still get into college, but the measure can predict how well they will perform in freshman writing and math courses. Some students may be admitted, but theyll have to take remedial courses, which do not count toward graduation and are expensive, increasing tuition costs and potentially delaying graduation. How we did this story Hearst Newspapers analyzed school accountability data from the Texas Education Agencyfor the 2017-2018 school year. We identified the high schools that received a score equivalent to an A or B. We then looked at the measure that identifies what percentage of students scored at or above the college-ready level on the SAT, ACT or Texas Success Initiative Assessment. We also looked at the measure that identifies how many students met career-aligned goals in order to gauge how well schools are preparing students for both college and career. Finally,for schools that received A's and B's,we determined if the percentage of students scoring college-ready or meeting career standards. See More Collapse Testing that matters In San Antonios Northside ISD, eight schools earned an A or B overall rating from the state. Half of those are preparing less than 40 percent of their students to be college ready, based on SAT and ACT scores. SAN ANTONIO AREA: TEA releases ratings for Bexar County school districts Debbie Ritcheys son and daughter attended Northside schools, and she remembers being troubled by how many state-mandated exams they had to take. Now that theyve both graduated from college, she wishes their high school would have focused more on preparing them for the SAT or ACT, rather than making them take tests that are rarely considered by colleges. Both had to take the college entrance exams multiple times before getting the scores that gave them the best chance of admission and scholarship opportunities. If you teach them correctly, and you have the best teachers in there, they should be able to take those ACT and SAT tests and do fine getting into college, Ritchey said. Her daughter, Emily, graduated from Stevens High School in 2008 and was required to take a summer math course before enrolling at Texas State University in San Marcos. Still, Emily graduated college within four years and is now a teacher. Ritcheys son required no remedial work and made it through college in four years as well. At Cypress-Fairbanks ISD outside Houston, the third-largest district in the state, all 10 high schools earned an A or B. But the majority of students at seven of the schools are not scoring high enough on the SAT or the ACT to be considered college ready. Cypress Creek High School, for example, earned an 86, the equivalent of a B, but less than 40 percent of students are meeting college-readiness standards. Jersey Village High School also received a B, but only 36 percent of students are college ready. Nikki Cowart, a parent with children in Jersey Village High School, said she was shocked to hear seven high schools at Cy-Fair high schools had high percentages of students who didnt meet college-readiness requirements. She is very happy with the education her children are getting there. Its not indicative of what I am seeing, Cowart said. Her son Landon was enrolled in an ACT prep course at Jersey Village, which helped him get into the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston this fall. She said he is doing very well in his course work so far. AG ON BOARD: Paxton takes a stand for Cy-Fair ISD in case of student who sat for Pledge of Allegiance A spokeswoman for Cy-Fair ISD said the district is working to increase college readiness. The district pays for all juniors to take the ACT. The district is also increasing its dual-credit offerings, giving students a chance to take community college courses that also earn them high school credits, said Leslie Francis, the spokeswoman. Afraid to be honest The new accountability system, which debuted this summer, gives school districts and campuses letter grades that are designed to make it easy to understand if a school is meeting expectations. But the system gives schools a lot of credit for improvement on state standardized exams, graduation rates and other measures that may not predict how well students will do in college. A parent may see an A on a campus report and not dig deeper into the data, which may show that students are not scoring high enough on college exams to avoid remedial course work. Kress and others say the state needs to be upfront with parents if high schools are not preparing the majority of students for college and career. While they agree the new accountability system has improved, they recommend the state give greater weight to SAT or ACT scores so that parents know if a school is underperforming. In Texas, we have a long history of failing to call it what it is, Kress said. We are afraid to be honest about evaluation. In this case, we really do our kids a disservice by over-grading schools, especially when they are coming out of our schools not ready for college and career. The Commission on Public School Finance, a group of lawmakers and educators studying how to better fund schools, recently discovered that students lose loan and Pell Grant money to pay for remedial English or math classes that do not count for credit. At a meeting Tuesday, a working group of the legislative committee examining state education spending recommended an incentive program offering more money to schools whose graduates receive an industry-accepted certificate, enlist in the military or enroll in college without needing remedial courses. The state could also offer more money to schools that achieve those goals for low-income students. The working group also said school staff need to help more students fill out financial aid forms when they apply for college because Texas forgoes more than $500 million in federal Pell Grants annually because students dont apply for them. Unlike student loans, the grants dont need to be paid back. We lose a ton of kids (between high school and post-secondary), said Todd Williams, a member of the work group and the education policy adviser to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. High schools are incentivized to graduate kids, per the accountability system, but they are not historically incentivized for them to be ready to access the next level. We need to figure that out. alejandra.matos@chron.com AUSTIN The top candidates for governor will face-off Friday in their only televised debate, giving little-known Democrat Lupe Valdez an opportunity to introduce herself to voters and attempt to cut into Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's momentum. Abbott leads Valdez, the former sheriff of Dallas County, by a double-digit margin in recent polls and in campaign fund-raising. During the first half of 2018, Abbotts campaign spent more than $19 million on advertising, compared the $113,000 Valdez spent, according to campaign finance reports. A Democrat hasnt won statewide office since 1994. But the party is hoping voters dissatisfied with Republican leadership in Washington D.C., will help boost their candidates on November 6. The hour-long debate at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin is Friday at 7 p.m. It offers Valdez a chance to introduce herself to voters, galvanize the Latino base and to throw punches at Abbott, who has gone largely unscathed this race, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. Valdez, whose parents were migrant farm workers, made history as the first Latina and openly gay person to win a major party nomination for Texas governor, but shes little known across the state. More than 30 percent of Democratic voters said they havent heard enough to form an opinion of Valdez in a recent Quinnipiac University Poll. More Information How to watch The Texas gubernatorial debate will air at 7 p.m. Friday on KSAT-TV (ABC) and KVDA-TV (Telemundo) in San Antonio. In Houston, it will air on KPRC-TV (NBC) and KTMD-TV (Telemundo), according to a release by Nexstar Media Group, Inc. The debate will also be live-streamed online. See More Collapse Its not been a competitive race. She needs to introduce herself to Texas, Rottinghaus said. Her biography is her biggest advantage. Abbott meanwhile, who is the states former attorney general and is seeking a second four-year term as governor, recently rolled out a series of television ads casting himself as a tough-on-crime leader who has helped grow the states economy. The ads dont highlight controversial issues he supported in the last legislative session, including the so-called bathroom bill that would have set restrictions on which public restrooms transgender people can use. We can assume Abbott will take the same tack as in his campaign ads that is, fairly middle of the road, brag about the positive, more or less wash over some of the negative things, Rottinghaus said. What the (Democratic Party) needs is someone who will take the fight to the Republicans on law and order, border security and education and health care. These are places where Greg Abbott is potentially vulnerable. Abbotts campaign did not return a request for comment about teh debate. Valdez, who has at times stumbled on the specifics of state policy, is likely to hammer on issues of public education, health care and wages. (Abbott) speaks of Texas values, but he is actively working against the well being of Texans, said Valdez campaign Press Secretary Juan Bautista Dominguez. amorris@express-news.net SAN LEON Roy Lee Cannon stands on the deck of his shrimp boat docked at Eagle Point Fishing Camp during the golden hour of a summer evening, his whippet-thin, sun-tanned frame slouched against the boats fish hold. He looks out on Galveston Bay, his office for the last 44 years. Its the end of a long work day for Cannon, a shift that began before sunrise. The early-morning hours are harder for the 76-year-old Cannon, who has a titanium plate in his arm from an accident and a pig valve in his chest, but this time of day is undoubtedly the most productive. On a good day, Cannon will haul in 600 pounds of shrimp, though his yield steadily has decreased as the bay and ship channel have become a highway of commerce for the oil and chemical industries. The ship channel is kind of a strange place because shrimp fall into it, but its not the same, Cannon said. Its nice on those days when you can just run out there, throw (the net) over and just do good. As the ship channel has been widened to allow for more boat traffic and chemical plants have been constructed, which in turn have discharged millions of pounds of toxic runoff, Cannon has watched over four decades as the Galveston Bay has been transformed from a jewel of recreation and commerce into what one Texas environmental group calls a potion of pollution. SILENT SPILLS: In Houston and beyond, Harveys spills leave a toxic legacy So, when Cannon heard an $800 million anhydrous ammonia plant was in the works for the shores of Texas City, he decided that another potential bay polluter should not proceed without protest. The proposed plant has drawn widespread objections, including navigational, environmental and public health concerns, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public-comment records obtained by the Houston Chronicle. The concerns have produced strange bedfellows, uniting government agencies, the chemical industry and environmentalists in raising serious questions about the facility. Texas City residents know all too well the risks of an industrial disaster. In April 1947, the French-owned SS Grandcamp was loading ammonium nitrate fertilizer when a fire broke out, triggering a massive explosion that could be heard as far as 150 miles away. This led to a series of fires, including on nearby ships and at the nearby Monsanto Chemical Co. plant; a mushroom cloud that rose 2,000 feet into the air, destroying two small planes that passed overhead; and a 15-foot tidal wave that leveled buildings, leaving hundreds homeless. The disaster caused the deaths of more than 575 people and left another 4,000 people injured. The proposed plant, which will receive a 10-year tax abatement from Texas City and create between 25 and 50 full-time jobs, includes planned dredging for an offshore dock and pipeline tower; a piping system that will include ammonia lines, potable water, sanitary sewer, electrical, and communication pipelines; and a permit to discharge 2.2 million gallons of utility wastewater and storm water runoff daily into the bay, directly into the vicinity of a shrimp nursery that Cannon and other shrimpers rely on. I dont see how they can say nothings going to be affected or there will be little effect on the environmental situation for the oysters, fish, shrimp, etc. because they have no way of knowing that, Cannon said. All they can say is, No, no it wont hurt it. The plant operators, Gulf Coast Ammonia LLC, a partnership between Miami-based Agrifos and Borealis AG, Europes second-largest producer of polyethylene and polypropylene, declined to comment about how it would address the myriad of concerns. FUEL FIX: How the ethane molecule, found in Texas shale fields, changed the Gulf Coast and the world Nancy Sims, a public relations executive representing Gulf Coast Ammonia, said in a written statement to the Houston Chronicle that the proposal has enjoyed broad support and will bring quality jobs and economic benefits to the region. The statement noted that the plant will produce liquid ammonia, not the more controversial ammonium nitrate, the chemical that caused the 1947 explosion in Texas City. We have heard and addressed all of the comments submitted during the permitting process and we will continue to place safety as the highest priority of our company, Sims wrote. Nice deal Texas City Mayor Matthew Doyle told the Galveston Daily News that the $800 million project was a nice deal for the city. Indeed, the city has rolled out the red carpet for Gulf Coast Ammonia with the decade-long tax abatement, the maximum number of years that state law allows for cities to abate taxes for new development. The city would forgo 100 percent of the plants property taxes while the company would pay a lump sum of between $750,000 and $1 million each year for the 10 years to the city in lieu of property taxes, depending on the property values and as long as that value is at least $450 million. The abatement is set to begin in 2021. Property tax abatements for corporations are nothing new in Texas a University of Texas study found that companies received more than $1.4 billion in property tax breaks from the state between 2005 and 2015. Still, residents of Texas City, which has nearly 50,000 residents, are leery of yet another potentially hazardous facility. Galveston Bay sits to the east, and the Texas City industrial chemical and refining complex sits to the south. The fenceline community where the plant would be built bears the brunt of any toxic releases, as well as shelter-in-place and evacuation orders. CROSBY: For residents, a bitter taste about Arkema, and little help from government Bryan French, an attorney with the Lone Star Legal Aids Environmental Justice Team, submitted comment to the Army Corps of Engineers on Cannons behalf. He said Texas City qualifies as an Environmental Justice Community by federal standards encompassing sites with a risk management plan, hazardous waste and wastewater discharge, as well as exposure to air pollutants. This bay belongs to all of us. Its a public resource, a lot of people benefit from it, French said. The people who work in refineries are on the bay or at the beach every week. They have a vested interest in this. A catastrophic event at the future Gulf Coast Ammonia facility or dock could put thousands of people at risk. Texas City High School, with 1,894 students, is located less than 2 miles from the site. Several other schools are even closer, including Roosevelt Wilson Elementary, Woodrow Wilson Alternative, Coastal Alternative and Blocker Middle schools. Doyle, who did not respond to requests for comment, explained in a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers in March that the city does not take lightly the placement, construction, docking, processing, transport or handling of chemicals within its community. Gulf Coast Ammonia plans on employing a number of precautions in the construction of the facility, Doyle added, and the city has concluded that the dock location and loading of vessels at this location poses no more risk than multiple vessels navigating the Texas City, Houston and Galveston Ship channels. Navigation concerns The Port of Texas City and the Galveston Texas City Pilots are among those worried about a potential risk to navigation created by the proposed 140-foot long, 89-foot wide barge and dock facility that would border the Texas City Ship Channel and sit about 3,800 feet away from shore, connected via pipeline to the actual plant on the mainland. Karol Chapman, the president of the Port of Texas City noted that the dock would be located at the Texas City Y, a high-traffic waterfront juncture where big ships and tankers typically make the turn toward the Port of Houston or the Port of Texas City. Our concern is in various weather circumstances or navigational circumstances, about 12,000 vessels a year go sailing past this point, Chapman said. Youll have a barge or a ship tied up alongside that dock, and we have prevailing southerly winds out there, lets say they get up to 20 mph, what impact would that have on (ships) ability to pass? LATEST: New Farm Bill may undercut chemical safety measures inspired by West explosion The Galveston Texas City Pilots largely agreed with Chapmans concerns, stating in public comments that the proposal currently lacks sufficient study and detail to receive the support of the Galveston Texas City Pilots. Industry competitors also submitted comments in support of the Port of Texas Citys position. Its one of the busiest traffic intersections in the Western hemisphere, we wouldnt want anything to ever slow that process down, said Greg DeLong, a senior manager and marine liaison for Enterprise Products. Alternative sites may be less cumbersome on the ship channel, including building a dock alongside the facility on the mainland, rather than offshore, Chapman said. She said Gulf Coast Ammonia executives seemed wary of spending money on the dredging that some of the alternatives would require. Their concerns are mainly for their own interests, she said. Our desire would be for them to locate their dock at not the most economical spot, but the safest. Explosive potential Another primary concern is the potentially hazardous health effects that anhydrous ammonia could have in the event of an accident. The toxic gas typically is used to manufacture agricultural fertilizer and as an industrial refrigerant. If heated, the gas can explode. The use of fertilizers such as anhydrous ammonia dates back to the end of World War II, when the government built plants that produced ammonia to make bombs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, anhydrous ammonia is a pungent gas with suffocating fumes stored at high pressures, and exposure can cause breathing difficulties, chemical burns, blindness and, at high concentrations, death. The thing with ammonia is, its both toxic and very explosive, said the late M. Sam Mannan, a professor of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University, who died earlier this month. Acidity when it gets out can cause breathing problems, things like that. If concentration is high enough, it could be a problem. CHEMICAL BREAKDOWN: Dangerous chemicals, roadblocks to information combine to create hidden dangers The U.S. Coast Guard designates anhydrous ammonia as especially hazardous cargo that has the potential for catastrophic consequences if discharged or released, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While Gulf Coast Ammonia was quick to distinguish anhydrous ammonia from ammonium nitrate, the two compounds are considered chemical cousins. Anhydrous ammonia, while not as explosive, has caused its share of accidents. Most recently, improper storage of anhydrous ammonia was found to have exacerbated a 2013 explosion of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate at the West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas, that killed 15 people, injured 180 and damaged more than 150 buildings in a five-block radius. The West facility stored more than 50,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia, more than five times the threshold quantity standard set by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. A database compiled by the Center for Effective Government, a nonpartisan watchdog, found that from 1996 to 2011, there were 939 accidents at plants that stored large amounts of anhydrous ammonia, an average of one accident per week. These accidents killed 19, injured 1,651 and damaged almost $350 million in property. Impact on wildlife Galveston Bay, Texas largest estuary, also is one of the states most polluted bodies of water. Gulf Coast Ammonia, if built, would add 2.2 million gallons of industrial wastewater to the estimated 4 trillion gallons of wastewater that flow into Galveston Bay each year from sewers, industrial facilities and roads, according to advocacy group Environment Tcxas. The company had a pending industrial wastewater permit application that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality recently referred to the State Office of Administrative Hearings for additional review. David Galindo, director of TCEQs water quality division, urged the Army Corps of Engineers to have Gulf Coast Ammonia explain how leaks from the pipelines will be prevented or minimized, considering that contents such as ammonia can be highly toxic to aquatic life. In his public comment to the Army Corps, Scott Jones, the director of advocacy for the Galveston Bay Foundation, urged Gulf Coast Ammonia to find a more suitable location for the plant. One of the reasons we said that location has all sorts of red flags is that it has all sorts of impacts to wildlife and to people, Jones said. The Galveston Bay Foundation is concerned that the discharge of wastewater into the bay could seriously harm wildlife, including shrimp and oysters, which would directly affect fishermen like Cannon. The biggest question to me personally is whats this (wastewater) flow going to do? Cannon said. How can they possibly say that 2.2 million gallons will be absorbed quickly? LESIONS: Galveston Bay dolphins struggle to recover from Hurricane Harvey Kenneth Teague, a Dallas-based ecologist who recently retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, noted that unlike some states, Texas does not have an ammonia water quality standard. Teague noted that ammonia is highly toxic to aquatic life, and that the facility should be designed to minimize the risk of ammonia spills. Michael Ciaglo, Staff Photographer / Houston Chronicle Cannon is a realist. He has seen too many chemical plants pop up along the shores of the bay to expect much from due process. Cannon does have a list of requests for Gulf Coast Ammonia: conduct an environmental impact study; test the sediment quality before dredging, complete a Hazardous Toxic Radioactive Waste evaluation; ensure that the project will not lead to the loss of oyster reefs or any habitats for endangered species; and most importantly, address risk that their product poses to public health and the surrounding environment. Given his age, Cannon is well aware that any long-term impact from the plant may not affect him in his lifetime. He is the only member of the shrimping or commercial fishing industry to submit a public comment to the Corps of Engineers, a step he is glad to have taken it means future generations are spared the possible toxic effects of the ammonia plant in Galveston Bay. Youre not going to know a thing until its actually in the works. And guess what? That may be too late, he said. All of this is part of the life that Ive been in now for 44 years. You just hate to see things destroyed. nicholas.powell@chron.com Twitter.com/nickpowellchron All candidates have to make sacrifices on the path to Election Day. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has decided to sacrifice criminal justice reform, and thats a real shame. The conservative movement for improving our courts and prisons started right here in Texas, largely spearheaded by Right on Crime, an activist nonprofit. The group, under the umbrella of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, has boldly argued that the lock em up mantra doesnt comport with individual liberty. Bloated prison budgets are anything but fiscally responsible. Unchecked civil asset forfeiture threatens private property rights. The group also recognizes legitimate concerns about how racial bias influences our criminal justice system. Its a project worthy of support from across the political spectrum. While they may address the issues from different perspectives, Democrats and Republicans have worked together in fighting mass incarceration and refocusing efforts toward rehabilitation. Part of this cooperation included an unspoken detente on scaremongering and race-baiting campaigns. Without the fear of cheap attacks, politicians and policymakers have been free to discuss the failings of our criminal justice system in stark, earnest terms. Historically low crime rates certainly contributed to that political truce. In his campaign for re-election, Cruz has shattered that truce. He has targeted otherwise bipartisan rhetoric about criminal justice reform as the subject for convenient campaign season attacks. It cheapens the debate and stifles the sort of progress that Texas Republicans once took pride in. For example, at their debate Friday, Cruz critiqued his opponent, U.S. Rep. Beto ORourke, for referring to our system of mass incarceration as the new Jim Crow the title of a groundbreaking 2010 book by Michelle Alexander that describes how the disproportionate mass incarceration of black men has broken up families, destroyed communities and criminalized otherwise decent people, robbing generations of their true potential. Cruz shouldn't have been shocked by the Jim Crow phrase. He heard his 2016 primary opponent, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, use it on the campaign trail, too. At the time, our senator didnt seem too bothered. Now, however, Alexanders serious study of race and criminal justice merely serves as a convenient cudgel. Cruz also went after ORourke for saying that then-Dallas police officer Amber Guyger should have been fired from her job. Guyger was arrested on manslaughter charges earlier this month after she shot and killed Botham Shem Jean in his own apartment for apparently no reason. It was a tragedy so shocking that it led National Review writer David French a longtime critic of police accountability groups like Black Lives Matter to rethink his own personal biases about criminal justice. To put it bluntly, when I look back at my older writings, I see them as contributing more to a particular partisan narrative than to a tough, clear-eyed search for truth. So Ive set out to rectify that imbalance, he wrote this month. French went so far as to say he was troubled by the fact that Guyger was only charged with manslaughter instead of murder. While leaders in the conservative movement, like French, have used Jeans death as an opportunity for serious self-reflection, Cruz has merely treated it as just another political stepping stone. Meanwhile, the Dallas Police Department fired Guyger on Monday. Finally, in a particularly ironic move, Cruz has also tried to bop ORourke for wanting to end the war on drugs while the Republican Party of Texas platform calls for the decriminalization of marijuana. There is no reason for anyone, Democratic or Republican, to resurrect the political fear that fueled four decades of an expensive and ineffective drug policy. Over the past several years, criminal justice reform has been one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement. Neither party has a monopoly on this movement. Yet as the left and right engage in earnest debate on an electorally risky topic, Cruz is exploiting it for political opportunism. Texans have been lucky enough to witness our state leaders, like former Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, and Houston state Sen. John Whitmire, a Democrat, work to recraft a criminal justice system that was anything but just. Now we risk seeing the Cruz campaign douse that light with the cynical cloak of partisanship. When Texans get it right, as we have on some aspects of criminal justice reform, we deserve to see those ideas elevated and promoted at the highest levels of government, not sacrificed on the altar of election year strategy. I am taller than the average woman, yet smaller than the average man. I strength-train hard but could still be subdued by men who dont. I submit myself to torture by waxing once a month; Ill bet not one of the men I know does the same. Few women talk about the momentous act of changing their names when they marry they just do. Women have 50 percent more penetrable openings than men. These are the kinds of things Ive been thinking about lately. These thoughts are new to me. Im used to weariness of the patriarchy simmering within me like a nice pot of soup never fully boiling over. But Brett Kavanaugh has changed things. Caitlin Moran observed that women have been conditioned to be thin, maternal, self-deprecating, kind whereas men have been conditioned to do. When the powers that be, like U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump, refuse to treat the serious allegations against Kavanaugh seriously, they are telling women that they exist not to do. Instead, theyre saying women exist to to have things done to them by men. Theyre saying that men shouldnt suffer for doing things to women, because thats the natural order of things. Holding someone as privileged as Kavanaugh as like them as Kavanaugh accountable for allegedly doing bad things to women would change everything. It should change everything. However, entertaining that possibility of holding young men accountable for assaulting young women is too threatening to their world. Thats why getting to the bottom of who Kavanaugh is which absolutely informs the decisions he would make as a Supreme Court justice is not only unimportant to them, but an exercise to be avoided. The suggestion that Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, Julie Swetnick, and Kavanaughs fourth accuser, should she reveal her identity, would subject themselves and their families to death threats and hate mail, grind their lives to a halt and endure public shaming by the president, senators and congresspeople on a whim is heinous. The so-called arguments advanced for dismissing Kavanaughs accusers are specious at best: Anyone who has ever been a victim of sexual violence heck, anyone whos been a high school or college student can understand why Ford, Ramirez and Swetnick didnt come forward years ago. When a high school Spanish teacher told me to wear more skirts because he preferred girly outfits, I felt icky. But I didnt have the experience or maturity to unpack that feeling, or to do anything about it. I just didnt want to feel icky anymore, so I dismissed the comment. If an inappropriate comment was too much for me to handle at 15, I cannot begin to imagine how I would have reacted to sexual assault. I truly havent a clue what my 15 year-old psyche would have done, nor how it would have developed as a result. Anyone who has read Trumps tweets, heard any number of senators and congressmens misogynist comments, or remembers Anita Hills reception during her testimony can imagine why publicly accusing Kavanaugh is an exercise in masochism. I believe Blasey Ford. I find her to be eminently credible. The lawyer in me certainly found Blasey Ford's testimony more compelling than Kavanaughs. She stuck to the subject at hand the alleged assault and never strayed past the boundaries of her memory. Kavanaugh, on the other hand, seemed to yell out his opening statement, exposing both his temper and sheer incredulity that someone of his pedigree which he spent a good deal of time detailing should have to abide the days proceedings. At the very least, Kavanaugh has demonstrated that he is deeply partisan. The lawyer in me, the woman in me, the American in me, hopes that Kavanaughs own words are enough to keep him off the Court. They should be. Preventing Kavanaugh from being confirmed as a result of Blasey Fords testimony would, to me, keep the Supreme Court legitimate. It would be a relief to millions of American women and women around the world. However, much damage has already been done. I am a former lawyer and former Supreme Court intern. Ever since I started law school, I have paid rapt attention to the court because I understand how critical it is. Each potential justice is vitally important to millions of American lives. The stakes are even higher with this nomination. How the overwhelmingly male Senate Judiciary Committee addresses the allegations against Kavanaugh sends a powerful message to more than half of all Americans the woman half. They could send the message weve come to expect: You should just be. We will do. We cant help it. We wont change. We dont have to. Or they could change everything. Wolf is a recovering lawyer and emerging writer. She is working on her first novel and lives in Houston with her husband and two young sons. Texas is a prosperous state, but lawmakers are failing to adequately finance public education, and communities and students are suffering the academic, physical and economic consequences. The upcoming legislative session provides a unique opportunity for our states elected leaders to right the past wrongs, but a preliminary budget request from the Texas Education Agency projects a $3.5 billion decline in state funding over the next few years. More of us need to understand the flaws in our states school finance system. We also must hold our elected leaders more accountable for making substantial improvements in the next legislative session. Inadequate and inequitable state funding does harm to schools. Texas public schools receive both state general revenue and local property tax revenue. State revenue is intended to help increase overall funding and addresses the inherently inequitable system that arises from funding schools based on local property taxes. But the state revenue has been declining. Ten years ago, the state contributed 48.5 percent of the cost of education, but in 2017 that number declined to 42.4 percent. Put differently, in 2008, the state contributed about $17.1 billion toward education for about 4.7 million students. However, in 2017, Texas public schools enrolled more than 5.3 million students. The states contribution was only $19.3 billion. Despite the 13.7 percent growth in the total student population, the proportion of funding the state contributes declined by 12.6 percent per pupil. Advocates for the states current system naively suggest it is existing law that requires the state to use the expected growth in property taxes to fund public education before factoring in state funding. Legislators are elected to ensure state laws benefit its citizens and this law has not protected public schools. At the very least, it ought to be amended. Texas has a long history of inadequately funding public education and leaving undue burden on local districts. It is time voters demand a new finance system that addresses the significant disparities across districts and regions. A study by the Center for Education Research and Policy Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso found that the highest-poverty districts in Texas receive about 11 percent less state and local funding per student than wealthier, low-poverty districts. With additional funding, lawmakers could expand professional development opportunities for principals and teachers that can improve student achievement and lifetime outcomes for students in districts serving high-proportions of low and mid incomes families. The state also has to remedy an illegal cap that delayed or denied special education to eligible students for a decade, which will require districts across the state to invest in identifying previously denied but eligible students and hire additional special education teachers. With more money, districts could hire additional special education teachers and ensure all students with disabilities receive a high-quality education. Gun violence in schools and increases in youth suicide rates is another issue that must be addressed. The Texas Legislature must mandate that each school have at least one counselor and that the state complies with the American School Counselor Associations recommendation of at least one counselor for every 250 students. These pressing issues cannot be adequately financed in the current system. And those saying otherwise are not telling the truth if they are not talking about dramatically changing Texas school finance. In many states, a sizable proportion of school funding is generated through state income tax, which does not exist in Texas. Instead, lawmakers could find additional funding by increasing the sales tax or by reducing expenditures in other areas. During the last legislative session, a Republican state representative suggested an increase in the motor fuel tax, of which 25 percent funds education in Texas. Meanwhile, a U.S. Department of Education study found that growth in expenditures on corrections outpaced expenditures on education in Texas by a factor of 8.5-to-1 since 1980, more than any other state in the country. Public education is one of the states most important obligations. Lawmakers have a duty to uphold the Texas Constitution and ensure each student is provided with a suitable education. Educators and voters have a similar duty to be informed and to elect representatives that will ensure Texas youths are well-educated, safe, and provided with equal opportunities to be successful in life. DeMatthews is an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at The University of Texas at Austin. Knight is the associate director of the Center for Education Research and Policy Studies and an assistant professor of educational leadership and foundations at The University of Texas at El Paso. Note: This article has been updated. Phyllis Webstad was six-years-old when the new orange shirt she excitedly chose for her first day of school was stripped off her back. She never saw it again. Advertisement It was the early 70s and Webstad was the third generation of her family to attend St. Josephs Residential School in Williams Lake, B.C. Most people knew it as The Mission. She was a kid. She didnt know that merely being born an indigenous child surrendered her to an education system designed to break down her identity. A childhood photo of Phyllis Webstad. The colour orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didnt matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing, she said in a statement. All of us little children were crying and no one cared. From the 1880s until the last school shut down in 1996, Canadas residential school system forced about 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children to attend church-run facilities that aimed to take the Indian out of the child. Advertisement The students faced widespread neglect and abuse in the schools, which was examined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that released a report with 94 recommendations earlier this year. It took Webstad 40 years to find a way to re-frame her experience to fight racism and bullying under the motto every child matters and by using orange. Facebook Orange Shirt Day began on Sept. 30, 2013. On Sept. 30, 2013, Webstad organized the first Orange Shirt Day in Williams Lake to acknowledge the harm that Canadas residential school system has left in generations of indigenous families and their communities. And every year on Sept. 30, Canadians are asked to wear orange as a sign of support. Advertisement When I was in school, I didnt know my own history, Webstad explained in a video. Alarm bell sounded over abuse of fish aggregating devices in Samoa by Elizabeth Ah-Hi September 23,2018 | Source: Samoa Observer The Samoa international Game Fishing Association (S.I.G.F.A) has sounded the alarm about the abuse and misuse of Fishing Aggregating Devices (F.A.D) by some local fishermen. The alarm was sounded by the President of S.I.G.F.A, Poao Frances Hansell, who is calling on the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (M.A.F) to investigate the issue. They have provided pictures for evidence. One F.A.D. has already gone missing. Earlier this year, the Association, with the support of its partners, deployed six devices around Samoa to attract more fish to Samoas waters. But Poao said he is disappointed at the lack of awareness in Samoa. He said such devices are critical not only to boost Samoas international game fishing tourism but also to help sustain local food supply and income for Samoans. S.I.G.F.A believes that education is key and we would like to call a meeting of M.A.F, members of the alia association, the owners and the skippers of the alia. I dont think that the education process so far goes all the way to the boys on the boats. S.I.G.F.A member and owner of Troppo Fishing adventures, Greg Hopping, said the F.A.D identified as Kiwi-1 deployed by S.I.G.F.A in Falefa has disappeared. Last week, Mr. Hopping was on a separate fishing expedition to check on the F.A.D. deployed in Apia, which according to him is the most productive F.A.D in Samoa, when he came across an alia boat moored on the device. Poao said it has been brought to their attention that this is a common practice. The thing is people anchor their alias on the F.A.Ds all day and all night especially the one out at Falefa that is now lost, said Poao. It was donated by the New Zealand High Commission. The other thing is they run their longlines next to the F.A.Ds so when they rock in the bad weather it ruins the main rope. We are not doing it just for our fishing tournaments, we are doing it to the benefit of all of us. They cost a lot of time and money now one is lost. We have no money to replace it and we need to have one for next years tournament, at the moment we dont know what to do. Mr. Hopping says that over the years, S.I.G.F.A members have noticed that local Alias fishing for skip jack and yellow fin to supply the local market have been tying on to the fads which puts pressure on the F.A.Ds. Probably more than 60 percent of all fish we find at the fish market comes from Apia F.A.D so thats how important that F.A.D is, said Mr. Hopping. Hopefully we still have it, even though we told those fishermen to untie themselves from the F.A.D doesnt mean that some other alia hasnt gone back there and tied off again. Weve lost one and now we have to concentrate on protecting that one we have in Apia. The Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Tilafono David Hunter, responded saying they will look to impose the full force of the relevant fisheries laws and regulations to curb these incidences. Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods. Wetlands vanishing 3 times faster than forests: report September 27,2018 | Source: AFP Wetlands, among the worlds most valuable and biodiverse ecosystems, are disappearing at an alarming speed amid urbanisation and agriculture shifts, conservationists said on Thursday, calling for urgent action to halt the erosion. We are in a crisis, Martha Rojas Urrego, head of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, told reporters in Geneva, warning of the potential devastating impact of wetland loss, including on climate change. The convention, adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar nearly a half-century ago, on Thursday issued its first-ever global report on the state of the worlds wetlands. The 88-page report found that around 35% of wetlands which include lakes, rivers, marshes and peatlands, as well as coastal and marine areas like lagoons, mangroves and coral reefs were lost between 1970 and 2015. Today, wetlands cover more than 12 million square km , the report said, warning that the annual rates of loss had accelerated since 2000. We are losing wetlands three times faster than forests, Mr. Rojas Urrego said, describing the Global Wetland Outlook report as a red flag. While the world has been increasingly focused on global warming and its impact on oceans and forests, the Ramsar Convention said wetlands remain dangerously undervalued. Thursdays report, released in advance of a meeting of the parties to the convention in Dubai next month, stressed the importance of wetlands to all life on Earth. Directly or indirectly, they provide almost all of the worlds consumption of freshwater and more than 40% of all species live and breed in wetlands. Animals and plants who call wetlands home are particularly vulnerable, with a quarter at risk of extinction, the report said. Wetlands also provide a livelihood for more than one billion people, while mitigating floods and protecting coastlines. They are also a vital source of food, raw materials and genetic resources for medicines. The Ramsar Convention has been ratified by most of the worlds nations, including the U.S., China and India, and has designated more than 2,300 sites of international importance. AFP Theme(s): Others. 2018 Annual Report to Shareholders Adelaide, Sep 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Core Exploration Ltd ( ASX:CXO ) provides the Company's 2018 Annual Report to Shareholders.Chairman's LetterDear Shareholder,I am pleased to report that we have made substantial progress toward our goal of becoming the Northern Territory's first, and Australia's next, lithium producer. We have made considerable progress at Finniss and are now at the stage where subject to finance and the grant of all remaining government approvals, the construction of the mine is expected to commence in late 2019.Key achievements for 2017/18 were:- Application for a Mining Lease at Grants lodged in October 2017.- Signing of binding offtake, share placement and prepayment agreement with Ya Hua International Investment and Development Co. Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shenzhen stock exchange listed Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group Co., Ltd.- Acquisition of additional tenements and prospects at Finniss.- Continued drill success at Grants and BP33 which led to a doubling of resources at Finniss.- Pre-Feasibility Study released in June 2018.Since our last annual report, Core's primary focus has been the efficient and aggressive development of the Company's Finniss Lithium Project. The development of the Finniss project has now accelerated to the point where subject to finance and expected grant of the requisite government approvals, construction of the mine can commence in late 2019.With a relatively short construction period, the first production from the Grants mine is planned to occur in late 2019. The mining operations at Grants will be simple open cut with simple on-site processing. Finniss will become the Northern Territory's first lithium mine and with its close proximity to Asia, makes Finniss an ideal project.The exponential growth in battery storage, in particular electric vehicles, gives us the confidence to proceed with Finniss and become Australia's next lithium miner. Data, analysis and commentary predicts lithium demand and prices to remain strong during the proposed life of the Grants project.As was highlighted in last year's review, we only started drilling at Grants in August 2016. For us to go from a standing start in August 2016 to a proposed working mine at the end of 2019 is a remarkable achievement. There would be very few mining operations in Australia that have gone from first discovery to operations in just over 3 years. This achievement is a testament to the hard work of the team at Core.Whilst mining at Grants is expected at the end of next year, our work at Finniss is far from over. We are having continued drill success at BP33 and elsewhere on the Finniss tenements and the race is on to discover and develop new mines to complement Grants. It is exciting times ahead.The Core team has grown over the past year and we are confident that we have the right team in place to develop Finniss on time and on budget.The increase in activity at Finniss during the year meant that the Company needed to raise funds during 2017/18 and we thank our shareholders for their support of the recent Share Purchase Plan.Next year will be a transformational year for the Company as we move from a lithium explorer to lithium miner toward the end of 2019 and we look forward to taking this journey with our shareholders, staff, offtake partners and relevant stakeholders.To view the Annual Report, please visit:About Core Lithium Ltd Core Lithium Ltd (ASX:CXO) is an emerging lithium producer focused on development of its Finniss Project near Darwin in the Northern Territory. Core owns 100% of Finniss, a major developing project that lies close to existing infrastructure such as the Darwin Port, grid power, gas and rail infrastructure. The Finniss Project covers a 500km2 tenement holding and 25 historic pegmatite mines. The project area is about 80km from Darwin Port. Exploration work has generated a near term development timeline, with feasibility studies to be completed over the course of 2018 ahead of receipt of approvals in early 2019 and planned first production during 2019. An aggressive exploration program is under way, which has confirmed the high quality prospectivity across much of the Finniss Project area. Core's stated ambition is to upgrade Finniss' resource base to fast-track commercialisation options. Corporate Restructure and Share Consolidation Perth, Sep 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - White Cliff Minerals ( ASX:WCN ) ("White Cliff", "the Company") advise that it has appointed Mr Ian Hobson as Company Secretary effective 28 September 2018.Key Points:- New company secretary appointed- Share consolidation completed- Cobalt strategy focus on resource definition drilling to crystallise cobalt-nickel value at Australian projects- Gold strategy focus on extracting shareholder value from the 484,000 ounce Aucu gold depositMr Hobson is a fellow chartered accountant and chartered secretary with in excess of 30 years professional accounting experience working for large chartered accounting firms together with commercial experience in Australia, UK and Canada.As an experienced finance and corporate governance professional, Ian brings a wealth of experience to the Company contributing to financial management, corporate governance, capital raising strategies and transaction and due diligence capabilities drawn from exposure to a variety of industries.We warmly welcome Ian to the team.Corporate RestructureThe Company is pleased to report that shareholders approved the consolidation of the Companies shares and that the shares are now trading on a consolidated basis. Post consolidation, the Company will focus on extracting value for its gold deposit in the Kyrgyz Republic and advancing selected Australian cobalt and nickel deposits to JORC compliant resources and ultimately operating mines.In conjunction with the share consolidation the Company previously announced that it was seeking to divest non-core assets including the Australian Gold assets and the Bremer range cobalt and nickel project via sale, joint venture or spin out. The Company is pleased to note that is has made substantial progress with several parties indicating interest in these assets.A review of the composition and roles of the board of directors will also be undertaken.Australian Cobalt Nickel FocusThe Company will focus on its cobalt and nickel projects located south-east of Laverton. Each of these projects have the potential to become significant mines in the near term. Although the projects are at early stages, White Cliff believes each could potentially support a stand-alone development of a size and quality that could rival some similar projects being promoted by the leaders in the Australian cobalt-nickel sector. The White Cliff projects also benefit from being located close to Glencore's existing Murrin Murrin nickel-cobalt plant and GME Resources' proposed Mt Kilkenny nickel-cobalt plant, which offer alternative development options.Gold FocusThe Company will also focus on extracting value from its 90%-owned Aucu Gold Project in the Kyrgyz Republic, which contains an inferred gold resource of 2.95 million tonnes at 5.1 g/t Au for 484,000 ounces of gold and an inferred copper resource of 17.2 Mt at 0.37% copper containing 64,000 tonnes of copper. Recent geochemical sampling across the project porphyry area has highlighted multiple significant gold-copper and base metals targets highlighting the scale potential of this mineralised system.About White Cliff Minerals Ltd White Cliff Minerals Ltd is a Gold, Copper, Cobalt, Nickel resources and mining company listed in Australia (ASX:WCN). The Company is focused on developing low cost high value mineral deposits that have near term cash flow potential. Major projects include the Aucu gold deposit that contains 484,000 ounces of gold (3mt at 5.1 g/t) starting at surface and Chanach copper deposit that contains 64,000 tonnes of copper (17.2Mt at 0.37% copper). Both projects have substantial blue sky potential with drilling covering only 5% of the known structures. In Australia the company is developing the Coronation Dam cobaltnickel deposit where a maiden resource will be announced in the late 2018. Annual Report 2018 Sydney, Sep 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - MNF Group Ltd ( ASX:MNF ) provides the Company's Annual Report 2018.AchievementsDuring the year MNF Group achieved some major milestones in its cornerstone business, allowing it to invest in multiple new initiatives and growth strategies.- New Zealand Symbio Network Roll-OutA key pillar in the MNF Group growth strategy is regional expansion into new markets for its Domestic Wholesale products suite. The first milestone in the execution of this strategy was the upgrade and roll out of a new Symbio Network in New Zealand. This new capability will increase margins for our Global Wholesale segment, as well as providing many years of organic growth for our Domestic Wholesale segment into the regional market which is most similar to Australia. MNF Group is now the only Australian or New Zealand carrier with a homogenous trans-Tasman voice network capability.- SuperInternet Acquisition in SingaporeComparable to a mini-Symbio Network in Singapore, the SuperInternet group comes with a fully interconnected domestic voice network in Singapore, as well as connectivity to the national NBN network, as well as its own dark fibre assets in the Singapore CBD. The SuperInternet acquisition is predominately a capability acquisition where MNF Group is looking to accelerate its regional expansion into Asia. While the Group will now invest in upgrading and deploying its tried and trusted software eco-system into Singapore, this acquisition will save precious time in launching our Domestic Wholesale products into this new and exciting market.- Enabling MobilityMobility is a key component of any communications strategy today. While MNF Group has no aspirations of building its own spectrum and tower mobile network, it will leverage its key capabilities to make mobility a significant component of its product portfolio. This year saw MNF Group achieve considerable milestones in both the Domestic Retail segment and the Domestic Wholesale segment with regards to its mobile strategy. In the Retail segment MNF Group successfully re-launched the Pennytel brand to be the new face of MNF Group's consumer segment. In the Wholesale segment MNF Group is now a significant player with its software enablement capabilities - enabling one of the largest MVNO retail brands in the country, as well as providing its own post-paid mobile wholesale aggregation services. The multi-segment approach has allowed MNF Group to become one of the fastest growing post-paid mobile user bases in Australia.To view the Annual Report, please visit:About MNF Group Ltd MNF Group Limited (ASX:MNF) is one of Asia-Pacific's fastest growing technology companies. Listed on the ASX since 2006, it is now capitalised at around $380m, and twice winner of the Forbes Asia-Pacific "Best under a Billion" award. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the company has over 500 people located across Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. MNF develops and operates a global communications network and software suite enabling some of the world's leading innovators to deliver new-generation communications solutions. As the world moves to IP, MNF Group is building the brands, services, network and technology to lead the way. For further information about MNF Group Limited please visit: http://mnfgroup.limited/ CDFA Board will hear from agricultural stakeholders on key issues related to farming and ranching Sacramento, California - The California State Board of Food and Agriculture will hear from agricultural stakeholders on key issues related to farming and ranching at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday, October 2, 2018. The meeting will be held from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, 1220 N Street Main Auditorium, Sacramento. As we approach the end of the year, its appropriate to hear from some key stakeholders on issues of importance to the states farming and ranching community, said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. Invited speakers include: Tom Nassif, Western Growers; Jamie Johansson, California Farm Bureau Federation; and Jeanne Merrill, California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN). The board will also hear from CDFA officials, including: Jenny Lester Moffitt, Undersecretary; Rachael OBrien, Deputy Secretary for Legislation; Crystal Myers, Office of Grants Administration and Thea Rittenhouse, CDFAs Farmer Equity Advisor. Among the departmental updates will be an overview of the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, a follow-up discussion about the recent Global Climate Action Summit, and an introduction of CDFAs Farmer Equity Advisor. California is the largest agricultural producer and exporter in the nation with 77,100 farmers operating on more than 25 million acres. Last month, the United States Department of Food and Agriculture reported that Californias farmers and ranchers received more than $50.1 billion in cash receipts for 2017, representing approximately 13 percent of national production. Farmers are impacted by a lot of issues at the local, state and federal level, said President Don Cameron, California State Board of Food and Agriculture. But I cannot think of a better place to farm our state remains at the forefront of innovation as we face challenges related to water, immigration, trade and agricultural pests and disease. We are innovative because Californias farmers and ranchers are dedicated to doing what is right and committed to finding workable solutions. The California State Board of Food and Agriculture advises the governor and the CDFA secretary on agricultural issues and consumer needs. The state board conducts forums that bring together local, state and federal government officials, agricultural representatives and citizens to discuss current issues of concern to California agriculture. All meetings are open to the public and attendance is welcome. Secretary of State Pompeo's Meeting With DPRK Foreign Minister Ri New York - Wednesday, Secretary Pompeo met with Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in New York. Secretary Pompeo accepted Chairman Kims invitation to travel to Pyongyang next month to make further progress on the implementation of the commitments from the U.S.-DPRK Singapore summit, including the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK, and to prepare for a second summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim. United States Applauds Central African Republic's Ratification of the Biological Weapons Convention Washington, DC - On Tuesday, the Government of the Central African Republic deposited its instrument of ratification to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) with the U.S. Department of State, one of this treatys Depositary Governments. The United States warmly congratulates the Central African Republic for taking this step, which advances the BWC toward the goal of universalization. The BWC is the key instrument for strengthening international efforts against the threat posed by biological weapons, whether in the hands of state or non-state actors. Maximizing its effectiveness requires that all states become Parties and fully implement its obligations. The United States urges all states not party to the BWC to accede to the treaty without further delay. Deputy Secretary of State Sullivan's Meeting With Qatari Foreign Minister Al Thani Washington, DC - Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan met Wednesday with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. During the meeting, the Deputy Secretary and the Foreign Minister discussed a range of regional and bilateral topics, including ways to promote regional ties, security, and stability. Deputy Secretary Sullivan and Foreign Minister Al Thani agreed on the importance of urgently assisting the thousands of Iraqis affected by the water crisis in Basrah. The Deputy Secretary thanked the Foreign Minister for Qatars strategic partnership and friendship with the United States. It was only last week that a study projected that almost half of your incoming phone calls next year will be from scammers and spammers. Almost twice as much as this year, and up astronomically from 3.7 percent last year. People asked what the government could possibly do about it. Now, just a few days later, there's a heck of an answer. The Federal Communications Commission this week came down hard on two small companies--actually a small business and an individual person who was allegedly hiding behind several companies----moving forward on fines totaling $119.5 million after determining they'd made more than 23 million illegal robocall sales calls to U.S. phone numbers. Specifically, the FCC says that telemarketer Philip Roesel made a total of 21 million spoofed robocalls, meaning that he disguised the caller ID information to make it seem as they were coming from someone else, as part of a scheme to sell health insurance. Separately, the FCC charges that an Arizona company called Affordable Enterprises made more than 2.3 million "maliciously-spoofed telemarketing calls" during a 14-month period starting in 2016. Their goal? To sell "home improvement and remodeling services," according to a press release. Roesel got hit with $82 million in total fines; Affordable Enterprises is potentially on the hook for $37.5 million. "Roesel was responsible for more than 200,000 spoofed robocalls a day--21.5 million altogether, over a three-month period from late 2016 through early 2017," FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. As for Affordable, because it allegedly spoofed caller ID information in many cases to display totally unrelated, real customers' phone numbers, those victims started getting angry phone calls "back" from some of the millions of people who Affordable called. "One of them claimed to have received more than five calls a day from people irate that they were receiving unwanted calls from her number," Pai said. "[N]o wonder ... Affordable had made more than 48,349 calls alone using her phone number during the period that it was assigned to this consumer. This conduct is outrageous and unacceptable." The enforcement has been in the works for a while. The fine against Roesel was originally proposed last year but confirmed this week, while the one against Affordable Enterprises is new. But the actual enforcement comes as robocalls, spam phone calls, and pure scam attempts are drastically on the rise. The 2018 Scam Call Trends and Projections Report from First Orion last week suggested that spoofed caller ID and aggressive phishing attempts had soared in the last year. Perhaps most egregious, "scam callers" are targeting areas with lots of immigrants who speak English as a second language, and claiming to be government officials who demand payment "to clear up some kind of legal issue," according to the report. If you've gotten a number of spam calls from people speaking a language other than English, especially Chinese, chances are your phone number is on a list of numbers suspected to belong to immigrants who might be unfamiliar with the U.S. legal system. All of which leads to two things at the FCC: a track record in which literally half of what they spend their time doing involves trying to combat robocalls and other telemarketing scams--and this kind of enforcement action involving giant fines against the people they catch. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk in federal court on Thursday afternoon, accusing him of misleading the public when he announced he was taking Tesla private during an August 7 tweet storm. The lawsuit claims that Musk made false and misleading statements that "caused significant confusion and disruption in the market for Tesla's stock and resulting harm to investors." The statements in question began with Musk's now-infamous tweet: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." Musk went on to double-down on his statement in subsequent tweets, saying that a shareholder vote was the only obstacle remaining before Tesla could go private. That, of course, proved to be false. As a result, the SEC is suing Musk directly, requesting that the court require Musk to pay civil penalties and bar him from running any publicly traded company, including Tesla. I read through the SEC's 23-page complaint, which you can find here. Here are five big highlights from the allegations. 1. Musk did, in fact, pick the price because he thought it was funny. The complaint speaks for itself here: According to Musk, he calculated the $420 price per share based on a 20% premium over that day's closing share price because he thought 20% was a "standard premium" in going-private transactions. This calculation resulted in a price of $419, and Musk stated that he rounded the price up to $420 because he had recently learned about the number's significance in marijuana culture and thought his girlfriend "would find it funny, which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price." 2. The company's chief financial officer, head of communications, and general counsel tried to do damage control almost immediately. Tesla's CFO sent a text message to Musk 35 minutes after his tweet went up: "Elon, am sure you have thought about a broader communication on your rationale and structure to employees and potential investors. Would it help if [Tesla's head of communications], [Tesla's general counsel], and I draft a blog post or employee email for you?" Musk replied, "Yeah, that would be great." Tesla's chief financial officer then replied, "Working on it. Will send you shortly." Musk sent out an email providing his rationale for wanting to go private to Tesla employees, which was also posted to the company blog about two hours later. 3. The questions started almost instantly, but Musk didn't clarify things for six days. Within minutes of Musk's tweets, a Tesla investor texted Musk's chief of staff, "What's Elon's tweet about? Can't make any sense of it. Would be incredibly disappointing for shareholders that have stuck it out for so long." Several minutes later, a business reporter texted the chief of staff, "Quite a tweet! (Is it a joke?)." Musk didn't clarify until six days later, when he revealed for the first time that he was still in the discussion stage about taking the company private and that no official proposal had yet been presented. 4. Tesla's head of investor relations apparently didn't know the situation--which made things worse. According to the complaint, at least three research analysts reached out to Tesla's head of investor relations within hours of Musk tweeting to ask whether the company had actually secured funding. In all three cases, the exec confirmed that it had. "Firm offer means there is a commitment letter or is this a verbal agreement?" one analyst asked. The investor relations head wrote back: "I actually don't know, but I would assume that given we went full-on public with this, the offer is as firm as it gets." 5. The potential deal Musk thought he had with a Saudi Arabian fund might have been contingent on building a factory in the Middle East--but he never confirmed this detail. If you've successfully landed investors for your business, you know that keeping them happy is a key part of your job. Yet sometimes that's easier said than done. Everything from personality conflicts to deep-seated differences of opinion about how to fix problems can sour your relationships. Good communications practices and demonstrating respect for your backers' opinions can help maintain the peace, even when you disagree or your business faces a setback. "It's all about stakeholder management," says Alexander Lowry, a professor of finance at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, and an advisory board member for 202works, a platform for finding public policy experts that's based in Washington, D.C. So how exactly can you keep your money people happy? Choose your investors wisely. If you can, be picky--and look for backers who are aligned with your long-term vision. "We were selective," says Ryan Mughal, the co-founder and CEO of Optio Surgical, a Lakewood, Colorado-based maker of software designed to track medical devices and reduce hospital surgical costs. Mughal says he and his partners turned down investments by people who wouldn't commit to the founders' desired valuation or exit strategy: "It's important to be on the same page as your investors about where you're taking the company." Mughal also recommends looking for backers with different skill sets. "We wanted a well-rounded mix," he says. "We have physicians, software executives, and some finance folks as well." That sort of diversity of experience may help reduce tensions and long-term stress at investor-funded startups, according to a study published in the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice in 2014. Stay in touch. Regular updates to your investors are a must. Theo Lee, co-founder and CEO of KPop Foods, an L.A. startup that makes Korean sauces and snacks, says he learned this lesson after he got busy and didn't send out his monthly investor email. Two weeks later, an angel investor reached out, worried that the radio silence meant trouble. "It was interesting to me, because it wasn't like he'd been immediately emailing, texting, or calling after receiving previous updates," Lee recalls. "That's when I knew how important updates are." How you communicate is also key. KJ Miller, the co-founder and CEO of Mented Cosmetics, a New York City-based beauty line for women of color, says she used to send out short monthly updates, thinking people didn't want to read lengthy communiques. But she would often get back questions from investors, asking for information she could have easily provided up front. So she switched to bulleted emails, which would provide more information but be easier to digest. Her investors "actually do love data," Miller laughs. "The more I can give them, the happier they are. But doing it in a bulleted manner keeps it from seeming like they need to read a novel every time I email them." Avoid surprises. Don't be an ostrich. Investors will find out bad news; trying to hide it will only upset them. No one wants to learn from an outside source that your business is about to burn through its accumulated funds, says Vanessa Kruze, CEO of Kruze Consulting, a San Francisco-based firm that works with seed- and venture capital-funded startups. "It destroys the investors' trust in you and your team," she states. Miller says when she needs to communicate something like a missed goal, she does two things. First, she makes sure to put it in some context. Second, she quickly follows up with more positive information. "This way, our investors know we're still moving toward our target," she explains. Value your investors. They've invested in your company because they want it to do well--not because they're secretly hoping you fail. So make your investors feel needed for more than their money, and if they offer some specific expertise, take them up on it. Certifications Include OHSAS 18001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 Achieves Three Global Certifications Sydney, Sep 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Speedcast International Limited ( ASX:SDA ) ( OTCMKTS:SPPDF ), the world's most trusted provider of remote communication and IT solutions, today announced that it has achieved three global certifications: Occupational Health and Safety Management (OHSAS 18001), ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management, and ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management. With these three certifications, Speedcast has reached its goal of acquiring global certification by the end of September 2018."Obtaining three global certifications simultaneously is a huge accomplishment," said John Truschinger, EVP Speedcast. "OHSAS 18001 ensures health, safety and wellbeing of employees, contractors and the public. ISO 9001 shows our ongoing commitment to quality improvement, which in turn drives increased customer satisfaction and improved cost effectiveness. Our ISO 14001 program manages, controls and improves our environmental operational impact. I want to thank everyone for all their hard work, energy and commitment to making Speedcast an exceptional company for our customers, employees and partners."To simplify the process, Speedcast contracted with a single accreditation company, NQA, for all three certifications.About Speedcast International Ltd Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA) is the world's most trusted communications and IT services provider, delivering critical communications solutions to the Maritime, Energy, Mining, Media, Telecom, Cruise, NGO, Government, and Enterprise sectors. With more satellite capacity than any other provider, Speedcast enables faster, seamless pole-to-pole coverage from a global hybrid satellite, fiber, cellular, microwave, MPLS, and IP transport network with direct access to public cloud platforms. The company also integrates differentiated technology offerings that provide smarter ways to communicate and distribute content, manage network and remote operations, protect and secure investments, and improve the crew and guest experience. With a passionate customer focus and a strong safety culture, Speedcast serves more than 3,200 customers in over 140 countries. Learn more at www.speedcast.com. In a recent interview, Chieh Huang, co-founder and CEO of Boxed, gave a live audience unique pointers on screening for the right job candidates during an interview. The only question he said he asks is an interesting one: Tell me the story of you, but the thing you can't say is anything that's on your resume. The reason the 36-year-old Taiwanese-American entrepreneur, who started the business back in 2013 in his parents' garage, asks the question is to weed out--in his own words--"complete assholes." He says that as the CEO of a company now worth over $100 million, he's also in the critical role of "Chief No Asshole Officer." To Huang, hiring super smart people is important. More important, however, is hiring super smart people without huge egos--the assholes he's protecting his company from. As the last line of defense to safeguard the Boxed culture, Huang spends 30 minutes to get to know the job candidate in the final interview. Then he pops the question and listens intently. It's rare for the CEO of a company growing at breakneck speed to even get involved in the interview process, but Huang demands it and has an ear for eliminating potential assholes. What is he listening for, exactly? The real you. Since most of us spend more time and waking hours with our co-workers than we do with friends and families, Huang said, "Selfishly, I just don't want to spend it with folks I don't like." Huang was asked another question at the iConic conference in New York: "How quickly do you actually know when someone's not right for you?" His response? "Within 10 to 15 minutes." Judging potential jerks and assholes with an intuitive sense really comes down to listening for self-absorption. If Huang hears too many examples of "I did this" and "I did that" and not enough "we" it's a good indication you don't fit the team culture at Boxed. Arguably one of the hottest young companies in the retail delivery industry (Boxed has been called the digital version of Costco), Boxed is home to over 400 employees and six fulfillment warehouses across the country. And they just announced that Aeon Group, one of the largest retail chains in Japan, has invested $110 million in Boxed, valuing the startup at $600 million, according to a report in The New York Times. It's a little early for Halloween, but a new startup's goal is to sell blood, and lots of it. Physician Dr. Jesse Karmazin is the founder of what some might consider a vampiric business called Ambrosia, LLC. The company, which hopes to open a clinic in elder-rich New York City, is being built on the premise of blood plasma transfusions. Karmazin's team basically will take the plasma from young individuals (those 25 or less) and pump it into people who are older, the idea being that the transfusion will help recipients combat aging or, even better, reverse it. Sound like a pipe dream? Maybe, maybe not. Karmazin's business is based primarily on parabiosis, which is the centuries-old idea that you anatomically or physiologically can join two organisms together, usually through the vascular system. Conjoined or Siamese twins are an example of natural parabiosis, but you can also achieve it through surgery, and transfusions are thought of as a don't-need-to-stitch-it-together variation on the theme. Scientists and medical researchers have been playing Frankenstein in this way for decades, hoping to learn from how the organisms involved influenced each other. But when it comes to controlling aging through the blood, the science jury is still out. For example, Stanford University researchers found that infusions of blood from young mice reversed brain impairments in older mice, and that plasma infusions improved how well older mice did on learning and memory tests. Later work revealed that the results likely came from a specific enzyme called ten eleven translocation methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 (Tet2). But another study from UC Berkeley found that tissue health and repair declined in young mice when researchers gave those mice blood from older ones. The researchers thus argued that there probably are molecules in older blood that drives the aging process, and that it's those molecules scientists need to target for real age reversal. The debate has gone back and forth like this since at least 2005, getting more seriously heated starting in 2014. It was in that year that Harvard Stem Cell Institute researcher Amy Wagers first published findings suggesting that older mice improved in areas like heart and brain function when given the blood of young mice. And while plenty of people are paying attention to how blood transfusions might translate into youth, there are also just as many voices shouting that it's all snake oil. This includes Tony Wyss-Coray, who led the Stanford University study, and who asserted to Science in 2016 that there wasn't clinical evidence for Karmazin's study and described it as an abuse of people's trust. Surging forward anyway Despite the fact that results from his trials hasn't been published and the trials lacked control groups or peer review, Karmazin told Mashable he's already nabbed 150 patients. The price tag for the "treatments" (Karmazin technically can't call them treatments until he actually knows what the transfusions do) hasn't been announced publicly. But the cost during the trials leading to the NYC clinic reportedly were as high as $8,000 apiece. That fee, according to Karmazin, covered costs like lab tests, insurance, and administrative expenses. Like any business professional, Karmazin undoubtedly will consider the need for investors as he tries to get the new clinic established and scaled. And in that regard, he's already attracted some high-profile attention. PayPal co-founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel, for example, already has expressed interest in parabiosis as a personal health treatment, and his chief medical officer during the trials, Jason Camm, got in touch with Karmazin about his research. Thiel might very well be right to support Karmazin, and it's understandable that people want to find something that can turn back the clock. But as Tony Wyss-Coray has pointed out, it's not all that difficult to conduct a study with a placebo arm so you can prove you've got something worth crowing about. Whether you're an investor, someone who wants to be Karmazin's first real competitor, or a person who wants to let Karmazin's team give you a blood plasma, that alone is worth some thought. But let's say this does work. Who benefits? In the United States, it's difficult for many people to afford treatment for conditions they know they have, let alone to spend more money for elective procedures they don't technically need. Will this end up separating classes, creating a situation where the only ones who can obtain longer life and/or protection against decline are those with deeper pocketbooks? Black Friday and Cyber Monday might be almost over, but you can still get a great deal on flights and holidays. You just need to know where to look. To save you time, we've gathered together some of the best discounts by airline, wherever you'd like to go. Last year, the travel industry offered up a host of strong discounts, including a deal from Thomas Cook which gave customers 200 off every holiday. Air New Zealand offered 375 discounts on return flights to LA, while Expedia gave 50 per cent off selected hotels and British Airways had an array of low-priced trips across Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Seychelles. We'll be constantly updating this year's deals throughout the weekend. Air New Zealand (Getty) (Getty Images) Head to Air New Zealand's Black Friday 2018 page from Friday, 22 November for its deals. Last year, some flights sold out in minutes. As a tempting taster, 100 return flights to Los Angeles will be available on the site at 10am on Black Friday, at just 175. Best deals: London to New Zealand, economy flights: from 839pp, buy now London to New Zealand via Los Angeles, premium economy flights: from 2,390pp, buy now London to New Zealand via Los Angeles, business premier flights: from 4,144pp, buy now Auckland to Fiji flights, seat only: from $213pp, buy now British Airways BA discovered major data breach on Wednesday (Getty) Head to British Airways' Black Friday page for this year's offers on flights and holidays. Best deals: Grenada, Tobago and St Kitts in the Caribbean, flights and hotel: save up to 300, buy now New York business-class flights and three nights in a hotel: from 1,119, buy now Seychelles business-class flights and seven nights' hotel from 1,949: buy now Rome business-class flights and three nights' hotel: from 359pp, buy now Barcelona flights and two nights' hotel: from 99pp, buy now Orlando flights and seven nights hotel: from 1,229pp, buy now easyJet easyJet charges up to 26.99 for seat selection ( (AFP) Black Friday deals are hot right now on the easyJet website with money off holidays from Amsterdam and Barcelona to Rome and Berlin. Best deals: Barcelona flights and three nights hotel: 118.20pp, buy now Paris flights and three nights' hotel: 131.13pp, buy now Paris flights with three nights' hotel at Disneyland: 168.92pp, buy now Reykjavik, Iceland flights and three nights hotel: 241.40, buy now Rome flights and three nights' hotel: from 143.13, buy now Etihad London to Abu Dhabi: from 399, buy now Expedia Expedia (Expedia) We're looking forward to the Expedia deals on its Black Friday page. Expedia offered travellers 50 per cent off certain hotels last year, as well as 330 off when spending 800 or more on select flights. Best deals: Paris flights and three nights hotel: from 222pp, buy now New York flights and five nights hotel: from 1,075pp, buy now Recommended Best Black Friday UK Amazon deals 2018 Orlando flights and five nights' hotel: from 756pp, buy now Phuket flights and six nights' hotel: from 607pp, buy now Ryanair Many planes were parked last year due to industrial action (Reuters) Every day this week, the budget airline is releasing deals on its Black Friday page. Best deals: London Stansted to Barcelona, one-way flight: 4.88pp, buy now London Stansted to Edinburgh, one-way flight: 9.78pp, buy now London Stansted to Venice, one-way flight: 9.78pp, buy now London Stansted to Bologna, one-way flight: 12.73pp, buy now London Stansted to Lanzarote, one-way flight: 9.78pp, buy now Thomas Cook (Alamy (Alamy) Black Friday deals from Thomas Cook will be announced through its dedicated page. The Canary Islands, Greece and Turkey are likely to be popular. Best deals: Tenerife flights and seven nights hotel: from 389pp, buy now Greece flights and seven nights hotel: from 216pp, buy now Italy flights and seven nights hotel: from 370pp, buy now Turkey flights and seven nights' hotel: from 234pp, buy now Croatia one way flights from 32.99, buy now Gran Canaria one way flights from 42.99, buy now TUI (AFP/Getty) For a bargain holiday, head to the TUI Black Friday page. You can save 100 on short-haul and mid-haul holidays with the code 'BF100' or 150 on long-haul holidays with the code 'BF150'. Book before Monday and you could even win back the cost of your holiday. Best deals: Spain flights and seven nights hotel: from 288pp, buy now Greece flights and seven nights hotel: from 175pp, buy now Recommended Best Black Friday UK Apple deals 2018 Cape Verde flights and seven nights hotel: 749.88pp, buy now Iceland flights and four nights hotel: 610pp, buy now Thailand flights and seven nights hotel: 973, buy now Virgin Trains Change here? Virgin Trains arrival at Crewe station in Cheshire (Simon Calder) Waiting to buy your train ticket home for Christmas? Last year, Virgin Trains cut prices on 250,000 first- and standard-class tickets by up to 52 per cent, and we predict it will offer a similar deal this time round. Best deals: Fixed-price family tickets from 65, buy now Upgrade to first class for 10, buy now IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing. The five London schoolgirls who chatted with Haya on Friday, as part of The Independent's Learn to Live campaign with War Child, said they found the Syrian school girl inspirational and the conversation made them feel lucky for the opportunities they have handed to them. Teenagers Liberty Bairstow, Noha Moulana, Harriet Webster, Lola Langham, Honey Hargreaves and Naila Amegashitsi gathered around a classroom computer screen at Hornsey School for Girls in north London on Wednesday in order to spend 20 minutes of their lunchbreak chatting to Haya. After asking questions such as: What is it like where you live? What do you do after school? and What are your ambitions? the call was ended with promises of exchanging letters and photographs that detail their everyday lives. The girls, all 13, chatted excitedly when the call was ended, with most saying they really enjoyed the experience and admired the schoolgirl who will address the UN today. Harriet, who wants to work in politics, said after the call: I really enjoyed talking with her. But I was, not shocked, but I was surprised to find out how similar she was to everyone that I know. I think we are very much the same, but we havent had the same life. I really enjoyed meeting her and it seems like shes not very different to any of us. Liberty, who wants to work in psychology, added: From what she said, it doesnt sound like she is going to be leaving where she is very soon. I think I wake up and I walk five minutes to school every day, I have a free education. She has been through so much but she still manages to do that the same thing I do, slightly reluctantly, every day. Vanessa Kirby backs the Independent's 'Learn to Live' campaign When asked about whether she thought about Haya's achievement of speaking at the UN, Naila who would like to be a pathologist - said: I admire her for what she had done at this age. I feel like we get so many opportunities and none of us have done as much as she has. I realise we have a lot to be grateful for. Lola, who wants to study law, added: To do that at our age, it is really inspirational that she can achieve so much. It makes me feel like I need to do more. She is so normal as well. It is like talking to someone you have been friends with for a long time. About The Independent's Learn to Live campaign, Lola said: This just opened all eyes up so much to what it is like over there. We knew about it but we didnt know how it felt to wake up living somewhere like that. It has been really good to get to know about her situation. An inspirational Syrian child refugee who helped launch The Independent and The Evening Standards Learn to Live campaign spoke on Friday at the United Nations. Haya, 16, fled a war-torn rebel-held region in Syria as the civil war began in 2011. The then-11-year-old had to walk through the desert to the Jordanian border with her family, holding just the bags they could carry and leaving a whole life in Daraa behind. Haya was chosen by London-based charity War Child to speak at a child-led Day of General Discussion on child human rights at the UN headquarters in Geneva. She shared the experience live with her new London friends. It was the first time the teenager, who has spent the past six years living in a caravan home in the huge, dusty Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian desert, miles from the Syrian border, ever flew on a plane or caught more than a glimpse of a metropolitan city. Recommended Carey Mulligan highlights children caught in war zones on UN visit Haya is one of the first children affected by conflict, from those in Jordan to Iraq and the Central African Republic, linked up with four London schools through our Learn to Live campaign. The project aims to increase understanding between pupils of all backgrounds. Hayas War Child-run education programme in Zaatari, led by Jordanian Hatem, 26, who accompanied Haya to the UN and translated for her, have carried out their own projects in Zaatari, reporting and documenting the child labour catastrophe and lack of education opportunities they see around them daily. After wandering around the new city in the favourite headscarf she wears in Zaatari, Haya put on her smartest clothes and addressed a panel with top UN officials, where she raised her opinions about what more needs to be done to help refugee children like her group fight for their own rights. She spoke alongside a young Colombian refugee, and met child activists from all over the world she had previously only ever met one or two people not from her own background. Haya takes a selfie in Geneva She told The Independent: I want them [the UN] to know about people in the camp and about how they are living, and also about what we can do. If someone comes from Europe to Zaatari for a few days and comes back and tells what they see, it is not the same [as me telling them]. It is a step forward. Haya has been sharing her experience with friends and family in the camp, sending WhatsApp photos of every new sight, recording noises in the streets and taking selfies to send back to the camp where they have already been shared around the whole community. She said: I still cant believe I am here. When I got to Amman I knew I wasnt in the camp, but from what I saw I knew I belonged. But coming here its totally different. The buildings and the people. My mum and dad were very supportive, my mum said: Take care of yourself and enjoy. I was confident I said, dont worry about me. They never left Syria before going to Jordan. My brother has taken screenshots of the pictures Ive sent and is sending them to everyone. Sadiq Khan calls on all Londoners to get behind Learn to Live campaign I will go back to the camp and tell them about this different world. This experience has opened up my world. I am so happy to meet all these different people, and now I want to talk with everyone about their culture and their backgrounds and find out lot about them. Haya and her classmates have already started this process, by sharing messages and creating an art project with Hornsey School for Girls in north London. Over a Skype session she shared her latest UN experiences with her London peers, explaining the struggles of life in Zaatari, and they all laugh together about their life ambitions and where they hang out with friends. Haya said: It was good to tell them about my life. I enjoyed it and would like to talk more. It will be good to learn more about their whole lives. Haya met Michael Copeland, global co-ordinator at the UN childrens fund, who said he was positive about the work being done through War Child and the campaign. Sarah Hyland has shared how she was sexually assaulted by a friend at a New Years Eve party, revealing that she didnt think shed be believed if she came forward. The Modern Family actor detailed the alleged incident while tweeting her support for Dr Christine Ford, who yesterday provided testimony claiming that shed been sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when they were teenagers. Using the widely spread Why I Didnt Report hashtag, Hyland explained that the assault had occurred while she was in her last year of high school. He was a friend. It was New Years Eve my senior year of high school, she wrote. Everyone was drunk. He broke into the bathroom I was in. I hoped it was a dream but my ripped tights in the morning proved otherwise. Hyland feared the way in which people would react if she spoke openly about what had happened, which is why she didnt report it at the time. I thought no one would believe me, she wrote. I didnt want to be called dramatic. After all I didnt say no. Shock can do that to a person. Many people have praised the actor for the bravery that shes demonstrated by sharing her experience. Recommended Kavanaugh accuser Christine Ford and judge testify before Senate Thank you for sharing your story Sarah. I am so sorry for what you went through, one person tweeted. I also didnt think people would believe me because I also didnt say no I was frozen in fear. I just wanted to say thank you for being so brave and speaking up, another person wrote. I absolutely adore you and the admiration just grows each day. Youre such an amazing warrior of a woman. A number of celebrities have used the Why I Didnt Report hashtag to explain why they didnt report being sexually assaulted, including Mira Sorvino, Ashley Judd and Cara Delevingne. In Delevingnes case, she says that she worried about how reporting her attacker would affect his life, despite the way in which his actions negatively impacted hers. Because I felt ashamed of what happened and didnt want to publicly ruin someones life, even though they privately ruined mine #WhyIDidntReport, she tweeted. Insurance company Bupa has been fined 175,000 after an employee offered personal data of 547,000 customers for sale on the dark web. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) fined the insurer for failing to have effective security measures in place to protect customers personal information. The employee accessed the information between 6 January and 11 March 2017 via Bupas customer relationship management system, which holds customer records relating to 1.5 million people. The employee sent bulk data reports, including names, dates of birth, email addresses and nationality, to his personal email account before the data was put up for sale online. ICO director of investigations, Steve Eckersley, said: Bupa failed to recognise that peoples personal data was at risk and failed to take reasonable steps to secure it. An investigation revealed systemic inadequacies in Bupas safeguarding of personal data and showed that these failures had gone unchecked for a long time, Mr Eckersley added. Failing to keep personal data secure is a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. Bupa was alerted to the breach on 16 June 2017 by an external partner who spotted customer data for sale. Bupa and the ICO received 198 complaints about the incident. The rogue employee was dismissed and Sussex Police issued a warrant for his arrest. A spokesperson for Bupa Global said: We accept this decision by the ICO and have co-operated fully with its investigation. We take our responsibility for protecting customer information very seriously. We have since introduced additional security measures to help prevent the recurrence of such an incident, reinforced our internal controls and increased our customer checks. Legal & General, one of Europes largest asset managers, will be voting against Unilevers Marmite plan to shut up shop in Britain and move to the Netherlands. The British-Dutch consumer goods giant, which is known for owning hundreds of brands including Dove, Ben & Jerrys and Knorr, announced its intentions to leave the UK earlier this year, with the aim of unifying its corporate structure with a single HQ in Rotterdam. L&G explained their rather unusual step of declaring their voting intention weeks ahead of Unilevers shareholder meeting next month by citing significant client enquiries about the companys plans to move away from London. Sacha Sadan, director of corporate governance at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), said: We do not believe Unilever has made a compelling case for many PLC shareholders to support the recommendation in favour of Dutch incorporation. Therefore, we intend to vote against Unilevers proposed resolution. Unilever, which has been based in Britain for almost a century, reviewed its dual-headed corporate structure in the aftermath of an attempted $143bn takeover from Kraft Heinz last year, as Dutch laws offer more comprehensive protections against hostile takeovers. Bosses have since tried to convince investors that their proposed Dutch incorporation will create a simpler, more agile and more focused company. Unilever needs at least 75 per cent of votes of London-listed shareholders in order to get the green light for an exodus from the capital. Mr Sadan added: As a supportive shareholder in Unilever for more than 25 years, we have engaged with the company on a number of issues including its decision to unify its corporate structure. We asked the company to ensure that any approach they take safeguards the ability of our clients to maintain their investment and benefit from Unilevers continued success. LGIMs decision to vote against the relocation plans of the UKs third largest company mirrors the opposition expressed by other shareholders, including Brewin Dolphin, Lindsell Train and Columbia Threadneedle. Nicla Di Palma, equity analyst at Brewin Dolphin, said: We arent convinced that the move will realise tangible benefits for shareholders and plan to vote against. A man accused of attempting to launch a terror attack outside the Houses of Parliament is to go on trial next year. Salih Khater allegedly ploughed his silver Ford Fiesta into cyclists and pedestrians before swerving towards police officers and crashing into a security barrier last month. The 29-year-old appeared at the Old Bailey charged with two counts of attempted murder. Recommended Salih Khater appears in court over attempted murder outside Parliament The charges state he tried to kill people at the junction of Parliament Square and Abingdon Street, and police officers in Abingdon Street on 14 August. Police said prosecutors will be treating his case as terrorism due to the method of the alleged attack, the targets selected and the high-profile location. The Sudanese-born suspect, who is a British citizen, was arrested by armed police following the incident, which left three people with non-life threatening injuries. Mr Khater, of Highgate Street in Birmingham, appeared in court by video-link from Belmarsh Prison and spoke only to confirm his name during Thursdays hearing. Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Show all 30 1 /30 Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Forensic officers by the car that crashed into security barriers outside the Houses of Parliament PA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police arrest the man Sky News Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Forensic officers work at the scene EPA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Damaged bikes near the crash site Getty Images Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police arrest the man who crashed a car into the barriers ITV Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Getty Images Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Getty Images Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police activity outside the Houses of Parliament after a car crashed into security barriers BBC/PA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Bicycles lie on the ground at the scene REUTERS Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament A forensics investigator arrives at the scene REUTERS Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police and emergency response teams work outside the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Images Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament The area is cleared near to the incident PA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament A forensics investigator works at the scene REUTERS Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Armed police on Victoria Embankment PA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament A forensic officer attends the scene near the Houses of Parliament PA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police officers and a search team secure the roads around the Houses of Parliament as forensic teams continue their work around a vehicle Getty Images Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police forensics officers outside the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Images Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament The car crashed into parliament barriers Vincent McAviney/NBC News/Euronews/Twitter/PA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament PA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Fire fighters attend the scene Reuters Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament A police dog team works behind the cordon REUTERS Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament olice and emergency services respond EPA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police on Westminster Bridge PA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Reuters Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police respond EPA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament EPA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Armed police stand in the street after the incident Reuters Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police officers stand at a cordon Reuters Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Police activity on Millbank PA Westminster incident: car crashes into barriers outside parliament Reuters Mr Justice Haddon-Cave remanded Mr Khater in custody and set a provisional trial date for 4 February 2019. Mr Khater is next due to appear at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing in December. Additional reporting by PA Pret a Manger's food labelling failed to warn a 15-year-old girl who died after eating one of its baguettes that the sandwich contained allergens, an inquest has heard. Concluding the hearing into the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, coroner Dr Sean Cummings recorded a narrative verdict, finding that the teenager was "reassured" by the lack of specific warnings on the packaging. "Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died of anaphylaxis in Nice on July 17, 2016, after eating a baguette purchased from Pret a Manger at London Heathrow's Terminal 5," he said. "The baguette was manufactured to Pret specifications and contained sesame to which she was allergic. "There was no specific allergen information on the baguette packaging or on the (food display cabinet) and Natasha was reassured by that." Natasha was on her way to a four-day break in France with her father and best friend when she bought an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette from the Pret at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 in Juuly 2016. She boarded a British Airways flight from London to Nice but after eating the sandwich her throat started to tighten and red hives flared up across her skin. Recommended Coroner questions allergen labelling rules after Pret a Manger death Her father previously told the inquest how he had rushed her to the toilet and tried to treat her as the symptoms worsened. We waited a couple of minutes to see how she reacted, Nadim Ednan-Laperouse said in a statement to the hearing. She said she couldnt breathe properly and it was getting worse and urged me to get the second epipen right away. Natasha said that she still couldnt breathe and desperately looked at me, she said Daddy, help me, I cant breathe. Crew members and a junior doctor who happened to be on board performed CPR until the plane landed in France, the inquest subsequently heard. However, Natasha was taken to hospital, where doctors told Mr Ednan-Laperouse that it was unlikely his daughter would survive and he then put a phone to his daughters ear so that her mother and brother could say goodbye. "The pain and agony of the call was beyond anything I have known, the statement said. "How could it be that such a terrible thing could have happened when we were so careful with food? During the inquest, it emerged that a "specific warning" about the dangers of not signposting the allergen had been given to the food chain the previous year. Pret baguettes described as "posh" or "artisan" were said to contain sesame seeds, including the one that Natasha ate. A complaint log for the company from between July 17, 2015 and June 29, 2016 showed nine cases of sesame-related allergy incidents. Four of these led to customers seeking hospital treatment, while another went to a medical centre. More than a year after the complaint, Pret changed the design of a label within its fridges that tells customers to ask staff for allergy information. Under EU regulations, food companies are required to warn customers about allergy risks either on signs and packaging or orally, usually meaning they are told to inquire themselves. Pret chose to deliver allergy information orally and was supposed to have stickers within fridges telling customers to ask staff members for details, the inquest heard. British Airways cabin crew were questioned over their response after the inquest heard that the on-board defibrillator was not used in-flight. Mario Ballestri, who helped junior doctor Thomas Pearson-Jones as he performed CPR on Natasha, said it would have been too dangerous to get the device from the other end of the aircraft when she went into cardiac arrest minutes before landing Dr Cummings has said he will make a report to Environment Secretary Michael Gove over whether large businesses should be able to benefit from regulations that allow reduced food labelling for products made in shops. Additional reporting by Press Association Speedcast Recognized at VSAT Stellar Awards for Leveraging Industry-leading Network of Networks to Enhance Customer Experience Honored with Service Provider of the Year Award at VSAT Global 2018 London, Sep 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Speedcast International Limited ( ASX:SDA ) ( OTCMKTS:SPPDF ), the world's most trusted provider of remote communication and IT solutions, announced that the company was honored by receiving the 2018 "Service Provider of the Year" award at the VSAT Stellar Awards during VSAT Global 2018 in London last week.The Service Provider of the Year award recognizes Speedcast for developing its new industry-leading "network of networks", comprised of the world's most robust Ku-band network coupled with global capabilities on C-band, L-band, Ka-band and alternate access technologies such as 4G/LTE and terrestrial links. The combined network provides users with access to the largest global system of satellites available, combining wide beam satellites for coverage and narrower higher throughput beams for better efficiency and bigger bandwidth. This approach enhances flexibility and redundancy, allowing customers to meet their dynamic business needs and achieve a consistent user experience globally. Several industry-firsts in multiple segments have been achieved by the company this year leveraging its recently-upgraded world-class global "network of networks"."Speedcast is extremely honored to be recognized by VSAT Global and the VSAT Stellar Awards committee as the Service Provider of the Year," says PJ Beylier, Speedcast CEO. "We have worked hard in 2018 to integrate our assets from the acquisitions over the past few years into this unique "network of networks", which leverages our many invaluable partnerships and assets to create a network that is flexible, redundant and addresses each customer's needs. Providing a great customer experience is at the forefront of our values and goals at Speedcast, and having the right network with global scale and options to serve our customers in all industry segments is the core of our success. We look forward to continuing the evolution of this network as the industry grows, leveraging all relevant access technologies to ensure that we remain agile and in touch with our customers' requirements."For more information about Speedcast, visit www.speedcast.com or contact marketing@speedcast.comAbout Speedcast International Ltd Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA) is the world's most trusted communications and IT services provider, delivering critical communications solutions to the Maritime, Energy, Mining, Media, Telecom, Cruise, NGO, Government, and Enterprise sectors. With more satellite capacity than any other provider, Speedcast enables faster, seamless pole-to-pole coverage from a global hybrid satellite, fiber, cellular, microwave, MPLS, and IP transport network with direct access to public cloud platforms. The company also integrates differentiated technology offerings that provide smarter ways to communicate and distribute content, manage network and remote operations, protect and secure investments, and improve the crew and guest experience. With a passionate customer focus and a strong safety culture, Speedcast serves more than 3,200 customers in over 140 countries. Learn more at www.speedcast.com. The father of a girl who died after suffering an allergic reaction to a Pret A Manger sandwich has accused the company and the government of playing Russian roulette with her life. Nadim Ednan-Laperouse said the death of his daughter Natasha, 15, should be a watershed moment that prompts life-saving changes in food labelling laws. The teenager, who was allergic to sesame, died after eating an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette that did not list the ingredient on its packaging. She collapsed on a British Airways flight from London to Nice after buying the sandwich from Pret A Manger in Heathrow Terminal 5 before travelling ahead of a four-day holiday with her father and her best friend. Concluding an inquest into her death, coroner Dr Sean Cummings said on Friday he would write to the government to raise concerns about inadequate food labelling regulations. Following the hearing, Mr Ednan-Laperouse, 53, said his beloved daughter died in a tragedy that should never have happened. Speaking outside West London Coroners Court alongside his wife Tanya, 51, and son Alex, 15, he added: We believe that the inquest has shown that she died because of inadequate food labelling laws. We were also shocked to learn that there have been a number of previous serious allergic incidents, involving sesame seeds in Pret A Manger food, before our daughter died. It feels to us that if Pret A Manger were following the law, then the law was playing Russian roulette with our daughters life. It is clear that food labelling laws as they stand are not fit for purpose and it is now time for the law to change. Natashas inquest should serve as a watershed moment to make meaningful change to save lives. Recording a narrative conclusion, Dr Cummings said Natasha had been reassured by the absence of specific allergen information on the baguettes packaging or display cabinet when she bought the sandwich on 17 July 2016. The teenager died of anaphylaxis caused by sesame seeds baked into the bread. The allergen caused her throat to tighten and vicious red hives to flare up across her midriff, before triggering cardiac arrest. Her father, who was on the flight, jabbed two EpiPens into her legs but the symptoms did not abate and she was declared dead later that day day at a hospital in Nice. Dr Cummings said he would write to Michael Gove, secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, about the case. The coroner questioned why large businesses should be able to benefit from regulations which permit reduced allergen warnings on freshly made products. The law as it stands currently treats multinational companies in the same way as the local sandwich shop. This cannot be right, said lawyer Jill Paterson of negligence specialists Leigh Day, which represented Natashas family. She called on Mr Gove to take immediate action in response to the coroners report. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 10 November 2021 Climate activists dressed as characters inspired by the Netflix series Squid Game protest as they ask Samsung to go 100% renewable energy, outside the venue for COP26 in Glasgow Reuters UK news in pictures 9 November 2021 A deer statue silhouetted at Loch Faskally in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 8 November 2021 Sunrise over St Mary's Lighthouse at Whitley Bay on the North East coast of England PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2021 Activists from Friends of the Earth during a demonstration calling for an end to all new oil and gas projects in the North Sea outside the UK Government's Cop26 hub during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2021 Protesters take part in a rally organised by the Cop26 Coalition in Glasgow demanding global climate justice PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2021 Final touches are made to a life sized Sir David Attenborough cake surrounded by animals as part of a display created by a group of cake artists during Cake International at NEC Birmingham PA UK news in pictures 4 November 2021 A spectacular display of the Northern Lights seen over Derwentwater, near Keswick in the Lake District PA UK news in pictures 3 November 2021 Police and demonstrators at a Extinction Rebellion protest on Buchanan Street, during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 2 November 2021 A person walks along the Basingstoke canal near to Dogmersfield in Hampshire PA UK news in pictures 1 November 2021 Sir David Attenborough delivers a speech during Cop26 in Glasgow Reuters UK news in pictures 31 October 2021 Extinction Rebellion activists protest in Edinburgh as the Cop26 conference begins in Glasgow Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2021 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with Mapuche leader and Minga Indigena Lead Coordinator Claflin Lafkenche (right) alongside indigenous delegates at a ceremonial gathering at the Tramway in Glasgow in a symbolic gesture to mark a unified demand for climate justice PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2021 Ocean Rebellion put on a display of puking oil heads ahead of climate change conference COP26 in Glasgow EPA UK news in pictures 28 October 2021 A man dressed as Santa Claus outside Selfridges in London as the department store unveils its Christmas windows on Oxford Street PA UK news in pictures 27 October 2021 Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak during a visit to Fourpure Brewery in Bermondsey, London, after the chancellor announced a cut to beer taxes in his budget PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2021 Activist Steve Bray demonstrates with a toilet outside the gates of Downing Street, after MPs voted in Parliament against the Environment Bill, allowing companies to pump raw sewage into UK rivers and seas, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 October 2021 Second World War veteran James White, 96, at the opening of the Edinburgh Garden of Remembrance, marking the start of the remembrance period PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2021 Richard Ratcliffe holds up a photo of his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe as he protests outside the Foreign Office while on hunger strike, part of an effort to lobby the UK foreign secretary to bring his wife home from detention in Iran Getty UK news in pictures 23 October 2021 Partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Stella Morris and Editor in Chief of WikiLeaks Kristinn Hrafnsson attend a protest ahead of the appeal hearing over Assange's extradition, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 22 October 2021 Palace Gardener Justine Howlett adds the finishing touches to pumpkins bearing the face of Henry VIII and his wives, at Hampton Court Palace. PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2021 Flooded fields near Lingfield in Surrey, after southern England was hit overnight by heavy rain and strong winds from Storm Aurore moving in from France PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2021 A wing surfer enjoys the strong winds as they surf in the sea off of Hayling Island in Hampshire PA UK news in pictures 19 October 2021 Actor Jude Law holds hands with Little Amal, a 3.5-metre-tall puppet of a nine-year-old Syrian girl, as it arrives in Folkestone, Kent, as part of the Handspring Puppet Company's 'The Walk' PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2021 A view over Southend-on-Sea in Essex, which is set to become a city in tribute to Sir David Amess MP, who spent years campaigning for the change Getty UK news in pictures 17 October 2021 Members of the Essex Bangladeshi Welfare Association pay their respects by floral tributes laid at the scene where Sir David Amess MP was killed at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea Reuters UK news in pictures 16 October 2021 Boris Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer, Priti Patel and Lindsay Hoyle pay respects to Sir David Amess at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea, the site of his death EPA UK news in pictures 15 October 2021 A person lays flowers at the scene near the Belfairs Methodist Church in Eastwood Road North, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, where Conservative MP Sir David Amess has died after he was stabbed several times at a constituency surgery. A man has been arrested and officers are not looking for anyone else PA UK news in pictures 14 October 2021 A red deer stag during rutting season in Bushy Park, Richmond, south west London, which is home to over 300 red and fallow deer PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2021 Police officers detain a man as Insulate Britain activists block a roundabout at a junction on the M25 motorway during a protest in Thurrock Reuters UK news in pictures 12 October 2021 The aerial climate installation by Swiss artivist Dan Acher 'We Are Watching' is unveiled at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2021 A young girl is helped by a Border Force officer as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel. PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2021 People walk past a life-size sculpture of British singer John Lennon entitled "Imagine", by sculptor Lawrence Holofcener, displayed to mark what would have been the 81st birthday for the former member of the Beatles in Carnaby Street Reuters UK news in pictures 8 October 2021 WW II veteran, 96-year-old Lorna Cockayne, who served in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), popularly and officially known as the Wrens, as a Bletchley Park codebreaker, poses for a photograph with the Legion d'honneur after receiving it during a ceremony at the Pear at Parley in Ferndown, Bournemouth PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2021 British comedian Jo Brand poses with cut-out silhouettes representing women outside the Metropolitan Police headquarters New Scotland Yard, to highlight violence against women by male police officers or former police officers AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 6 October 2021 A protester, wearing a mask of Johnson, holds a sign reading Question it all on the final day of the Tory conference Getty UK news in pictures 5 October 2021 Members of Insulate Britain outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, before a hearing over the injunction banning the environmental activists from blocking the M25 PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2021 A delegate passes a street cleaner on the second day of the annual Conservative Party Conference being held at the Manchester Central convention centre AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2021 Margaret Thatcher-themed mugs for sale at the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester EPA UK news in pictures 2 October 2021 A couple make their way through a flooded underpass in Bristol as a yellow weather warning for rain and wind is issued for parts of the UK Tom Wren/SWNS UK news in pictures 1 October 2021 A driver talks to members of the media after passing his HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) driving test at National Driving Centre in Croydon, south London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 30 September 2021 The centrepiece One Thousand Springs by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is seen ahead of the beginning of the Japan Festival, a celebration of the countrys plants, art and culture running from 2-31 October, at Kew Gardens in London PA UK news in pictures 29 September 2021 The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2021 A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London AP UK news in pictures 27 September 2021 Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London PA UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA At the time of Natashas death, Pret relied on stickers on food display units highlighting that allergy information was available by asking staff or visiting the companys website. Although regulators assessed the arrangement as being within the law, the coroner said: I am of the view that they were inadequate in terms of visibility. During the inquest, it also emerged that Pret had received a specific warning about the dangers of not highlighting sandwiches contained sesame the year before Natasha died. The companys complaint log showed nine cases of sesame-related allergy incidents between 17 July 2015 and 29 June 2016 Four of these led to customers seeking hospital treatment, while another went to a medical centre. Dr Cummings said measures taken so far by Pret to collect information on allergic reactions and respond to serious concerns were insufficient. He added: Overall I am left with the impression that Pret had not addressed the fact that monitoring food allergy in a business selling more than 200 million items a year was something to be taken very seriously indeed. Clive Schlee, chief executive of Pret A Manger, said: We are deeply sorry for Natashas death. We cannot begin to comprehend the pain her family have gone through and the grief they continue to feel. We have heard everything the coroner and Natashas family have said this week. And we will learn from this. All of us at Pret want to see meaningful change come from this tragedy. We will make sure that it does. Tom Watson, deputy leader of the Labour Party, accused large food companies of failing to show responsibility for the welfare of their customers. He said: As politicians it is now incumbent on us to ensure that food retailers and producers serve their customers interests by offering full disclosure of information on the 14 allergens. I would hope that the industry is capable of putting its own house in order. But reality tells me otherwise. That is why we need to address the law on food labelling, review the cosy relationship between big corporations and their licensing authorities, and challenge the Food Standards Agency to police rather than simply administer the industry. Labour MP Jon Cruddas, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Allergy, said there were many lessons to be learned from Natashas death. It is clear that the law must also be redressed so that no family has to endure what Natashas family has endured because of lax regulation, he added. The Independent has asked the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for comment. Boris Johnson has launched an eve of conference attack at Theresa May's Brexit proposals, branding them a national humiliation for Britain and accusing her of seeking to "cheat the electorate". In a bid to fend off claims he has no ideas of his own he wrote a sprawling 4,600 word newspaper column setting out his six-point plan to what he claimed would be a better Brexit. It included a call to agree a "super Canada" free trade deal and refusing the EU's plans for the Irish border, with Mr Johnson simply insisting Brussels will agree to something else if pushed. His broadside heaps pressure on the prime minister who found herself under fire from all wings of her party ahead of the Conservatives' annual gathering in Birmingham over EU withdrawal, her leadership and a lack of vision. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson accused the government and civil service of a pretty invertebrate performance in negotiations and said there had been a collapse of will by the British establishment to deliver on the mandate of the people. In his column, the former mayor of London said Ms Mays proposal would leave the UK half-in, half-out of the European Union and proposed a six-point alternative plan for Brexit. Mr Johnson said Britain should chuck Chequers, Ms Mays Brexit plan, and negotiate a SuperCanada-type free trade agreement with the EU. He called on MPs not to vote to hand over 40bn to the EU without such an agreement. Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Show all 14 1 /14 Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Internal divisions in the Conservative Party have exploded into a bitter public row over Boris Johnsons disgusting criticism of Theresa May. Some senior Tories furiously denounced the former foreign secretary after he accused the prime minister of having wrapped a suicide vest around Britain Reuters Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Sajid Javid, Home secretary Sajid Javid, the home secretary, rebuked his former cabinet colleague and said: I think there are much better ways to articulate your differences. He told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show that the public wanted politicians to use measured language BBC/PA Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide But other MPs leapt to Mr Johnsons defence, as dividing lines ahead of a possible leadership contest begin to take shape. The Uxbridge MP has repeatedly criticised Ms Mays Chequers plan and used a newspaper article on Sunday to suggest it amounted to wrapping a suicide vest around the British constitution. His latest salvo at the prime minister prompted immediate condemnation, with one minister publicly vowing to end Mr Johnsons career over the matter PA Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Alan Duncan, Foreign minister Alan Duncan, a foreign minister who worked in Mr Johnsons team for two years, wrote on Twitter: For Boris to say the PMs view is like that of a suicide bomber is too much. This marks one of the most disgusting moments in modern British politics. Im sorry, but this is the political end of Boris Johnson. If it isnt now, I will make sure it is later. Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide James Brokenshire, Housing secretary Housing secretary James Brokenshire added his voice to the criticism, calling Mr Johnsons comments wrong He said: I think he is wrong on this...I think the tone that he has used isnt right and I think that we just need to be very focused on actually moving forward with the Chequers plan. AFP/Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Zac Goldsmith But as Tory hostilities spilled over into open public warfare, Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith, an ally of Mr Johnson, hit back at Mr Duncan. He wrote: There are a number of possible motives behind this tweet, but given its author, we can be certain principles arent one of them. Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Jacob Rees-Mogg Senior Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg told The Independent he thought Mr Johnsons suicide belt accusation was little more than a characteristically colourful catchphrase. He added: I agree with the sentiment. The criticism of Boriss wording merely serves to highlight his point. It means more people hear of Boriss criticism of Chequers and many will agree with him. Reuters Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Nadine Dorries Nadine Dorries, another Brexit supporter, said Mr Johnsons opponents were terrified of his popular appeal, adding: Dont underestimate the vitriol thatll be directed towards Boris today. He delivered the Leave vote, Remainers and wannabe future PMs hate him. If Mr Johnson became leader and prime minister he would deliver a clean and prosperous Brexit, she said Rex Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Andrew Bridgen Andrew Bridgen said Ms May was to blame for her leadership problems. Asked if Mr Johnson had put a bomb under her leadership, Mr Bridgen said: I think that Theresa May did that herself when she put forward the Chequers proposals without consulting widely prior to that. Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Steve Baker, former Brexit minister Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, warned Ms May the Conservatives faced a "catastrophic split" if she did not jettison her Chequers plan. Mr Baker, who quit the government in July over the scheme, said: When negotiating, the prime minister needs to demonstrate her intent and also her power to deliver. "If we come out of conference with her hoping to get Chequers through on the back of Labour votes, I think the EU negotiators would probably understand that if that were done, the Tory party would suffer the catastrophic split which thus far we have managed to avoid. But he insisted he did not want a change in the Conservative leadership, saying Brexiteers did not want to be in a position of conflict with our own prime minister Reuters Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Tom Tugendhat The deep divisions on the Tory benches were laid bare as Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee and is a possible leadership rival to Mr Johnson, also hit out at the former foreign secretary. Recalling how he encountered a suicide bomber in Afghanistan during his time in the army, Mr Tugendhat told Mr Johnson to grow up. He said: A suicide bomber murdered many in the courtyard of my office in Helmand. The carnage was disgusting, limbs and flesh hanging from trees and bushes. Brave men who stopped him killing me and others died in horrific pain. Some need to grow up. Comparing the PM to that isnt happy. PA Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Alistair Burt Alistair Burt, another Foreign Office minister who worked in Mr Johnsons team, said: Im stunned at the nature of this attack. There is no justification for such an outrageous, inappropriate and hurtful analogy. If we dont stop his extraordinary use of language over Brexit, our country might never heal. Again, I say, enough. AFP/Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide It comes amid that Ms Mays former aides drew up a dossier on Mr Johnsons sexual encounters with the aim of undermining his leadership prospects. The document was compiled in 2016, when the Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP was seen as the main rival to Ms May in her bid to enter No 10. Downing Street and Conservative Campaign Headquaters (CCHQ) both denied having leaked the 4,000 word memo after it was circulated around Westminster AFP/Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Mr Johnson confirmed that his 25-year marriage to wife Marina had ended AP He wrote: Overall, the Chequers proposals represent the intellectual error of believing that we can be half-in, half-out: that it is somehow safer and easier for large parts of our national life to remain governed by the EU even though we are no longer in the EU. They are in that sense a democratic disaster. There is nothing safe or pragmatic in being bound by rules over which we have no say, interpreted by a federalist court. The Chequers proposals are the worst of both worlds. They are a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country. It is almost incredible that after two years this should be the opening bid of the British government. Mr Johnson also argued for a new withdrawal agreement in which the Irish border question would be settled as part of the deal on the future economic arrangements. He wrote: This is the time to get it right. This is the approach that allows this country really to exploit the opportunities of Brexit, to diverge and legislate effectively for the new technologies and businesses in which the UK has such a lead. This is an opportunity for the UK to become more dynamic and more successful, and we should not be shy of saying that and we should recognise that it is exactly this potential our EU partners seek to constrain. 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 Mr Johnson concluded his op-ed by issuing a rallying call to loyal Tory voters, writing that this is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit and warning that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail. His comments come as Jeremy Hunt, the current foreign secretary, called for calm after EU leaders publicly rejected Ms Mays proposal in Salzburg last week. He claimed there was always going to be a point in the negotiations where everyone was looking into the abyss. Mr Hunt also warned the EU and Ms Mays detractors that underestimating Theresa May is one of the biggest mistakes that you could make right now. Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg was among the first Brexiteers to rally behind Mr Johnson's dismissal of the prime minister's Chequer's proposal. Appearing on BBC1's Question Time, he likened the Chequers Brexit plan to Count Dracula, saying it "doesn't have much life in the sunlight". He said: "I think the negotiations have been badly conducted, I think we have let the European Union make the running in negotiations, we agreed to their establishment of the terms of negotiations and the timetable of the negotiations. "I think this has not been impressive and I think Chequers is not leaving the EU, it is remaining bound to an EU rule-book which is interpreted by the European Court of Justice and the EU's rejected it anyway. "So Chequers may not not even be a dying duck, it may be slightly more Count Dracula in that it seems to get up at night and walk abroad, but it doesn't seem to have much life in the sunlight." Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat MP who also appeared on the programme, said Mr Johnsons Brexit plan was a half baked, sloppy rant and more of a joke than his stint as foreign secretary. She said: The blue on blue in-fighting has already kicked off ahead of Tory conference. But while Johnson is being paid hundreds of thousands to belch out the first thing that comes to mind on page, there are businesses up and down the country wondering whether theyll still exist after Brexit. Its a disgrace that he cant take the most important decision facing this generation seriously. This is why hes known Britains best-paid charlatan. Although just six months remain before the UK is scheduled to leave the EU on 29 March, 2019, Ms May has failed to secure a divorce deal with the EU and rebels within her own party have threatened to vote against any deal she makes. Mr Johnson, who was one of the most prominent campaigners for Brexit during the 2016 referendum, resigned as foreign secretary in July over a disagreement with Ms Mays Brexit proposals, which he condemned in his 4,600-word article for The Telegraph as enforced vassalage. Ms May has repeatedly claimed her Brexit proposals are the only viable option. Earlier this week, she ruled out a general election before Britain leaves the EU, saying it would not be in the national interest, and staunchly rejected the possibility of a second Brexit referendum. Boris Johnson has not ruled out challenging Theresa May for the Tory leadership ahead of the partys annual conference. The ex-foreign secretary was twice asked whether he would rule out launching a bid against the prime minister, but would not do so. Instead he again warned the prime minister there is time for her to ditch her Chequers proposals for Brexit, having earlier in the day set out his own ideas in a sprawling newspaper article. It comes just 24 hours before Conservatives begin gathering in Birmingham for what is to be one of the most fraught conferences in years. Ms May has faced a flood of criticism in the past two days over her approach to Brexit, but also from MPs crying out for a more substantial domestic agenda, in the wake of Jeremy Corbyns well received conference speech in Liverpool. Speaking to the BBC Newss Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Johnson was asked to rule out challenging the prime minister. He said: My job is to speak up for what I believe in and the vision that Ive set out today and I believe in it very, very sincerely and you know, Im going to keep going for as long as it takes. Pressed again he said: The prime minister will go on. As she said to us herself, and as she said to the country. Shes a remarkable person, she will go on for as long as, as she feels it necessary. Lord Heseltine predicts Boris Johnson will be nominated for Conservative party leadership But the most important thing for me is to avert what I think would be a political and economic disaster for this country, which is to agree to come out of the EU but still to be run by the EU. What is the point of that, what will we have done? And I think there is still time for her to change course. Mr Johnson also used the interview to set out again his own support for a Canada-style trade deal with additional elements as an alternative to the plans set out by Ms May. The most important thing for me is to avert what I think would be a political and economic disaster for this country, which is to agree to come out of the EU but still to be run by the EU Boris Johnson MP He also undertook other broadcast interviews indicating that he intends to use a high-profile media approach to pressuring Ms May throughout the conference season. Earlier in the day he wrote an article for the Daily Telegraph in which he indicated that the prime ministers proposals would result in a national humiliation for Britain. He said in the BBC interview: I did play a role in the Leave campaign and we had a very clear vision for what could be achieved and I believe in it, absolutely, passionately. And the sad thing for me is that although I spent two years in government wrestling with, as it were, the steering wheel, to try to keep us on the right track, in the end it wasnt possible, and by Chequers it became clear that we were effectively going to stay, both in the customs union and to be rules takers. Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Show all 14 1 /14 Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Internal divisions in the Conservative Party have exploded into a bitter public row over Boris Johnsons disgusting criticism of Theresa May. Some senior Tories furiously denounced the former foreign secretary after he accused the prime minister of having wrapped a suicide vest around Britain Reuters Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Sajid Javid, Home secretary Sajid Javid, the home secretary, rebuked his former cabinet colleague and said: I think there are much better ways to articulate your differences. He told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show that the public wanted politicians to use measured language BBC/PA Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide But other MPs leapt to Mr Johnsons defence, as dividing lines ahead of a possible leadership contest begin to take shape. The Uxbridge MP has repeatedly criticised Ms Mays Chequers plan and used a newspaper article on Sunday to suggest it amounted to wrapping a suicide vest around the British constitution. His latest salvo at the prime minister prompted immediate condemnation, with one minister publicly vowing to end Mr Johnsons career over the matter PA Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Alan Duncan, Foreign minister Alan Duncan, a foreign minister who worked in Mr Johnsons team for two years, wrote on Twitter: For Boris to say the PMs view is like that of a suicide bomber is too much. This marks one of the most disgusting moments in modern British politics. Im sorry, but this is the political end of Boris Johnson. If it isnt now, I will make sure it is later. Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide James Brokenshire, Housing secretary Housing secretary James Brokenshire added his voice to the criticism, calling Mr Johnsons comments wrong He said: I think he is wrong on this...I think the tone that he has used isnt right and I think that we just need to be very focused on actually moving forward with the Chequers plan. AFP/Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Zac Goldsmith But as Tory hostilities spilled over into open public warfare, Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith, an ally of Mr Johnson, hit back at Mr Duncan. He wrote: There are a number of possible motives behind this tweet, but given its author, we can be certain principles arent one of them. Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Jacob Rees-Mogg Senior Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg told The Independent he thought Mr Johnsons suicide belt accusation was little more than a characteristically colourful catchphrase. He added: I agree with the sentiment. The criticism of Boriss wording merely serves to highlight his point. It means more people hear of Boriss criticism of Chequers and many will agree with him. Reuters Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Nadine Dorries Nadine Dorries, another Brexit supporter, said Mr Johnsons opponents were terrified of his popular appeal, adding: Dont underestimate the vitriol thatll be directed towards Boris today. He delivered the Leave vote, Remainers and wannabe future PMs hate him. If Mr Johnson became leader and prime minister he would deliver a clean and prosperous Brexit, she said Rex Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Andrew Bridgen Andrew Bridgen said Ms May was to blame for her leadership problems. Asked if Mr Johnson had put a bomb under her leadership, Mr Bridgen said: I think that Theresa May did that herself when she put forward the Chequers proposals without consulting widely prior to that. Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Steve Baker, former Brexit minister Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, warned Ms May the Conservatives faced a "catastrophic split" if she did not jettison her Chequers plan. Mr Baker, who quit the government in July over the scheme, said: When negotiating, the prime minister needs to demonstrate her intent and also her power to deliver. "If we come out of conference with her hoping to get Chequers through on the back of Labour votes, I think the EU negotiators would probably understand that if that were done, the Tory party would suffer the catastrophic split which thus far we have managed to avoid. But he insisted he did not want a change in the Conservative leadership, saying Brexiteers did not want to be in a position of conflict with our own prime minister Reuters Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Tom Tugendhat The deep divisions on the Tory benches were laid bare as Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee and is a possible leadership rival to Mr Johnson, also hit out at the former foreign secretary. Recalling how he encountered a suicide bomber in Afghanistan during his time in the army, Mr Tugendhat told Mr Johnson to grow up. He said: A suicide bomber murdered many in the courtyard of my office in Helmand. The carnage was disgusting, limbs and flesh hanging from trees and bushes. Brave men who stopped him killing me and others died in horrific pain. Some need to grow up. Comparing the PM to that isnt happy. PA Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Alistair Burt Alistair Burt, another Foreign Office minister who worked in Mr Johnsons team, said: Im stunned at the nature of this attack. There is no justification for such an outrageous, inappropriate and hurtful analogy. If we dont stop his extraordinary use of language over Brexit, our country might never heal. Again, I say, enough. AFP/Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide It comes amid that Ms Mays former aides drew up a dossier on Mr Johnsons sexual encounters with the aim of undermining his leadership prospects. The document was compiled in 2016, when the Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP was seen as the main rival to Ms May in her bid to enter No 10. Downing Street and Conservative Campaign Headquaters (CCHQ) both denied having leaked the 4,000 word memo after it was circulated around Westminster AFP/Getty Boris Johnson 'suicide vest' Brexit jibe causes Tory divide Mr Johnson confirmed that his 25-year marriage to wife Marina had ended AP So my duty now is to make the case for freedom again. He argued that the issue of the Irish border, which has proved such a stumbling block to negotiations in Brussels, could be solved, but that the plans supported by the EU should not be countenanced. Mr Johnson was in the cabinet last December when Ms Mays administration agreed the joint report with Brussels that committed the UK to a backstop arrangement, that could keep Northern Ireland or even the whole UK in the customs union though Ms May has since said she wants an alternative arrangement. He also insisted that as part of a free trade deal, instead of the Chequers proposals, the EU would agree to an arrangement that allowed free flow of goods across the border and for checks to take place away from the frontier. But Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris hit back saying: This is not a workable or negotiable plan for Brexit as both sides have made clear on several occasions, no deal is available without a guarantee that there would be no hard border in Northern Ireland in any eventuality, the so-called Irish backstop. Theresa May on Brexit deal: 'no-one wants a good deal more than me' The government is united behind the prime ministers efforts to negotiate a good deal that works in the interests of the whole United Kingdom. Speculation about the timing of a Johnson leadership bid has ramped up in recent months with the former cabinet minister using his newspaper columns to launch weekly attacks on the PMs plans. He will also be speaking at a Brexit rally in Birmingham on Tuesday and at meetings in the conference fringe likely to be well attended by pro-Brexit party members. A government source said of his article on Friday: Boris was a member of the cabinet that agreed the December joint report and praised the PM for doing so and was part of the committee that agreed the customs backstop. The truth is that reneging on those two things would simply guarantee no deal. Conservative Party Conference: Five things to watch So this is just another very lengthy article which doesnt offer any answers; rather, it regurgitates ideas which would damage our union of nations and put jobs at risk. Adopting Boris Johnsons Brexit plans would leave the Conservatives commons majority at risk of collapse after their Northern Irish DUP partners branded the proposals too vague. The partys Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said a Canada-style trade deal advocated by Mr Johnson and other Brexiteers was 'not something we could support'. It comes as ex-foreign secretary Mr Johnson set out how he believed such a plan might work in a sprawling 4,600 word article on the eve of conference. But the DUPs stance is a boost for Ms May as she attracted criticism from all wings of her party over a lack of vision for the UK. Mr Wilson told the Belfast News Letter that the proposals for a Canada-like free trade deal, with added elements, set out in a paper by Brexiteers David Davis and Jacob Rees-Mogg were inconsistent. He said: I am not sure if this report is deliberately vague or just not very well thought out. It talks about the goods which are regulated differently in EU member states, and uses the phrase 'of which there are many. Are they saying that the UK government would commit to, or the NI Executive would be required to commit to, copying all of the EU regulations in relation to that myriad number of goods? That is not clear. Emmanuel Macron says Britain could stay in the EU for sure if it changes its mind on Brexit Mr Wilson, who has also been critical of Ms Mays plans, went on to raise doubts about laws for some goods being specific to Northern Ireland rather than the whole UK. In his article advocating his proposals, Mr Johnson accused the government and civil service of a pretty invertebrate performance in negotiations and said there had been a collapse of will by the British establishment to deliver on the mandate of the people. The former mayor of London said Ms Mays proposal would leave the UK half-in, half-out of the European Union and proposed a six-point alternative plan for Brexit. Within that he argued for a new withdrawal agreement in which the Irish border question would be settled as part of the deal on the future economic arrangements. Elsewhere, Tories across the party turned their fire on the prime minister ahead of its Birmingham get together, warning her that the they risk being "stuck in political rhetoric of the past". Senior figures have been rattled by the interventionist policies set out at the Labour conference, which have attracted attention away from rows over Brexit and antisemitism. Former minister Robert Halfon said Jeremy Corbyn's messages on failing railways, overpaid bosses and infrastructure "resonates with millions of people", as he condemned the "Groundhog Day of Brexit" among Tory ranks. Theresa May's hopes of continuing as prime minister have been dealt a blow after a survey of Conservative supporters found 80 per cent think she should quit before the next general election. A poll of readers of the ConservativeHome website found that more than a third (35 per cent) think the prime minister should resign immediately, while a further 45 per cent said she must step aside before the next election is due in 2022. Just 19 per cent of respondents said Ms May should not resign at all. The poll will come as blow to the prime minister on the eve of the Conservatives' annual conference, which kicks off on Sunday. Although it found that Tory supporters were increasingly willing to give Ms May more time, with the proportion wanting her to resign immediately having fallen by 5 per cent since last month (down from 40 per cent), the number wanting her to quit before the next election is up 6 per cent (from 39 per cent). The prime minister has come under mounting pressure over her Brexit strategy, which is deeply unpopular with many of her own MPs and party members. She is expected to use the party conference in Birmingham to attempt to convince her party to back her Chequers plan, which she insists is the only alternative to a no-deal Brexit. But Tory Brexiteers will try to force her to drop the strategy, which they say would keep the UK tied too closely to the EU. Critics of the plan include Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, who used his latest newspaper article to once again savage the Chequers proposals. Writing in The Telegraph, he said: "Overall, the Chequers proposals represent the intellectual error of believing that we can be half-in, half-out: that it is somehow safer and easier for large parts of our national life to remain governed by the EU even though we are no longer in the EU. "They are in that sense a democratic disaster. There is nothing safe or 'pragmatic' in being bound by rules over which we have no say, interpreted by a federalist court. "The Chequers proposals are the worst of both worlds. They are a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country. It is almost incredible that after two years this should be the opening bid of the British government." The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty A number of other senior Conservative MPs also hit out at Ms May's leadership as she prepares for a conference that could determine her future as prime minister. Former minister Robert Halfon said the Conservatives under her leadership were failing to provide "a proper Tory vision for the future". Writing for ConservativeHome, he said: "We are stuck in the political rhetoric of the past, rather than providing a proper Tory vision for the future. "Its why even with the most left wing leader in the history of mankind etc, Corbyns Labour remains pretty high in the polls. "They are speaking to the problems faced by many. We too often speak only for the few." Sam Gyimah, a business minister, also voiced concerns, saying the Conservatives "have lost our way". Writing for The House magazine, he said: "We cant out-Corbyn Corbyn, and if we try we risk offering a pale imitation that leaves people yearning for the real thing. When I look at how we on the centre-right have reacted to the perceived failing of capitalism, I cant help thinking we have lost our way." Dominic Raab says Canada-style Brexit trade deal is 'off the table' Mr Gyimah said his party was confused about how to handle business and had flip-flopped between Trumpian economic nationalism and the old playbook, implying that if we simply deregulate and cut taxes, all will be fine". Speaking to the same magazine, Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman, a former head of Ms May's policy unit, said the Tories risked becoming a "rump party of nostalgic nationalists". He said: This is a 1975, 1945, 1905 moment: when the underlying rules of our system of political economy profoundly change. A new generation of aspirational professional voters under 45 are rejecting the old model. Unless the Conservative Party reconnects with them, we risk becoming a rump party of nostalgic nationalists, Cabinet ministers also voiced fears over the Tories' prospects. Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, admitted she had been impressed with Labour's latest campaign video, which focused on "left behind" towns. Speaking at the Reform Scotland think-tank, she said the broadcast was very good and a serious threat to the Tories, adding: That video does capture the heart of where we need to be as a party. So we need to be talking about how peoples lives are getting better. Loyalty, it used to be said, is the Tories secret weapon. A long time ago, maybe, but this year the partys conference will be marked by open splits and divisions. There are two key battlegrounds, intimately connected: Brexit and the leadership. Brexit will dominate everything, fairly obviously. The battle lines will be drawn first in the TV studios on Sunday. The prime minister will be on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show; ex-Brexit secretary David Davis will be interviewed for Sky by Sophy Ridge. News clips of them contradicting each other will set the template for the next few days. Still, Theresa May goes into conference in about as strong a position as she can, in the circumstances. Her defiant post-Salzburg speech last week, demanding the EU respect Britain and reviving the slogan no deal is better than a bad deal rallied grassroots support for her and her Chequers plan. A Washington DC restaurant has apologised for offering a bottomless mimosa promotion to patrons viewing Dr Christine Blasey Fords testimony against US Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday. In a now-deleted tweet, Shaws Tavern tweeted: Open at 10am for the hearing. Bar service starts at 11am with bottomless mimosas, People reports. The tweet and the bottomless alcohol offer from the popular DC hangout was considered insensitive by some due to the nature of the Senate testimony - Dr Ford was testifying on behalf of her claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party in the 1980s. Recommended Photo of women reacting to Brett Kavanaugh at hearing goes viral Although Kavanaugh denies the allegations, Dr Ford alleges that alcohol consumption was a factor in the events that took place that night. Not a great look, commented one person, while another said: having drink specials for a congressional hearing on accusations of sexual assault seems off. Following the backlash over the tasteless offer, Shaws deleted the tweet and issued an apology on social media. We would like to apologise for the feature of bottomless mimosas. We are opening early today serving our breakfast and lunch menus to provide a place for those who wanted to watch the hearing, the bar wrote on Twitter. It followed up with another apology, adding: It was an oversight on our part given the very serious circumstances of todays hearing and in no way did we intend to offend anyone or make light of the situation. Shaws Tavern stands with the victims. In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Show all 21 1 /21 In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images The bar also announced that it would be donating all of the days proceeds to RAINN, an American non-profit sexual assault organisation. Shaws has previously offered drink specials for viewings of major Capital Hill events, including the testimony for former FBI Director James Comey - during which the bar had a special on Stoli Vodka flavours. Canadian legislators have voted unanimously to strip Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary citizenship granted over a decade ago in response to alleged atrocities committed against the Rohingya minority in her country. In 2007, the House of Commons granted Aung San Suu Kyi the status of honorary Canadian citizen, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Adam Austen. Today, the House unanimously passed a motion to remove this status. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Wednesday that he was open to stripping Ms Suu Kyi of the honour, while noting that doing so would not end the crisis in Myanmar. Recommended Suu Kyi defends jailing of journalists who covered Rohingya killings Since last year, a reported number of at least 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar following a campaign of mass killings and other atrocities against the Rohingya people. The army and government have denied being responsible. The US State Department released a report earlier this week saying Myanmars military had waged well-planned and coordinated attacks against the Rohingya people. A United Nations official had labelled the crimes an ethnic cleansing. The House of Commons had voted unanimously to call the crimes against the Rohingya people a genocide. Our government supported this motion in response to her (Ms Suu Kyis) continued failure to speak out against the genocide of the Rohingya, a crime being committed by the military with which she shares power, said Mr Austen. Cate Blanchett has urged the UN not to fail the Rohingya again Ms Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her leadership and efforts in fighting for democracy against military rule in Myanmar, also Burma. Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Show all 30 1 /30 Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women and children wait in line for a food distribution of super cereal at Action Against Hunger Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees gather near the fence in the "no man's land" zone between Myanmar and Bangladesh border AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women cry as they shout slogans during a protest rally to commemorate the first anniversary of Myanmar army's crackdown AP Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A Rohingya Muslim child holding an umbrella while under the rain AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees cry as they pray during a gathering to commemorate the first anniversary of Myanmar army's crackdown which lead to a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh AP Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Police stand near the checkpoint at the Shwe Zar village in Maungdaw township, Rakhine State, western Myanmar EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A group of Rohingya refugee children stand at a makeshift camp EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugee Juhara, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, poses for a portrait at the Kutapalong refugee camp near Cox's Bazar in southern Bangladesh. Juhara passes her days carting water with difficulty to thirsty bricklayers working in a bustling corner of Cox's Bazar. She has just one hand - the other was cleaved off in a raid on her village after the August 25 clampdown started last year. Her husband and parents were killed. The 40-year-old said she ran for her life but was hunted down and savagely attacked AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees walk on a road along a makeshift camp in Kutubpalang EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees are seen outside of their makeshift tent in the Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar Reuters Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Thousands of Rohingya refugees staged protests for "justice" on August 25 on the first anniversary of a Myanmar military crackdown that forced them to flee to camps in Bangladesh AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A Rohingya refugee child looks through a window at a makeshift camp in Teknuf EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugee women hold placards as they take part in a protest at the Kutupalong refugee camp Reuters Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A young Rohingya boy waits in line for a food Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees shout slogans during a protest march AFP/Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugee girl with other children at a makeshift camp in Teknuf in Cox's Bazar EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women protest on the first anniversary of the Rohingya crisis Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women and children receive super cereal at Action Against Hunger Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya girls share a laugh in Kutupalong, the largest refugee camp housing the Rohingya Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees gather near the fence in the "no man's land" zone between Myanmar and Bangladesh border AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees attend a ceremony organised to remember the first anniversary of a military crackdown that prompted a massive exodus of people from Myanmar to Bangladesh AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rashida Begum, a Rohingya refugee woman walks on the Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar Reuters Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A Rohingya refugee bursts into tears as she shouts slogans during a protest march AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugee baby Nur Sadek two years old undergoing treatment at a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Teknuf in Cox's Bazar EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees protest Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees perform prayers AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rashida Begum, a Rohingya refugee woman bathes her son in the Kutupalong camp Reuters Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees protest Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees walk on a muddy road EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women and children wait in line for a food distribution of super cereal at Action Against Hunger Getty The vote to strip Ms Suu Kyi of honorary citizenship does not have an immediate effect because it must be removed by a joint resolution of both the House and the upper Senate chamber. Mr Austen added that Canada: will continue to support the Rohingyas by providing humanitarian assistance, imposing sanctions against Myanmar's generals and demanding that those responsible be held accountable before a competent international body. Donald Trump has ordered the FBI to carry out a fresh investigation into his nominee for the Supreme Court, after Republicans were obliged to delay a full confirmation vote after being blind-sided by one of their own senators. During a day of blurred and frequently confusing drama on Capitol Hill, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday voted 11-10 to approve Brett Kavanaugh for a confirmation vote in the full senate. But it did so, only after an 11th hour intervention from Jeff Flake, a senator from Arizona, who said his support in the later confirmation vote was dependent on the FBI being given a week to carry out an investigation into Mr Kavanaugh, the subject of sexual assault allegations from several women, all of which he denies. This country is being ripped apart here, Mr Flake told the committee, after a vote scheduled for 1.30pm was delayed. We ought to do what we can to make sure that we do all due diligence with a nomination this important. Recommended Senate committee approves Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court Mr Flakes deeds sent senior Republicans scrambling to decide how best to proceed. The senates Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley, who has long said he did not see the need for an additional investigation into Mr Kavanaugh, said it was the decision of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on when to hold the confirmation vote. Within a matter of hours, Mr Grassley issued a statement saying he would ask the White House to request the FBI carry out an additional background check. Shortly afterwards, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement from the president, which read: Ive ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaughs file. As the senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who delivered powerful testimony on Thursday in which she outlined, calmly but with emotion, the incident allegedly involving Mr Kavanaugh, said she welcomed an FBI investigation into the allegations. But one of her lawyers, Debra Katz, sought to push back on efforts to limit the length of the probe or its scope. Donald Trump responds to Brett Kavanaugh- No artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed on this investigation, said Ms Katz. Reuters said the prospect of a new investigation put the confirmation chances for Mr Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge, in further jeopardy in a senate only narrowly controlled by Republicans. While he has stridently denied the accusations against him, his own testimony on Thursday was combative and at times aggressive. Several Republican women in the senate have already expressed doubts about him. The move to delay the vote by a week was immediately supported by two of those women, Susan Collins of Maine and and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who have been considered possible no votes in the senate because of Mr Kavanaughs perceived opposition to womens reproductive rights. I support this sensible agreement, said Ms Collins. In a statement issued by the White House, Mr Kavanaugh said he would cooperate with the FBI. Throughout this process, Ive been interviewed by the FBI, Ive done a number of background calls directly with the senate, and yesterday, I answered questions under oath about every topic the senators and their counsel asked me. Ive done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate, he said Earlier, Mr Trump said he will leave it to the Senate to determine when it will vote on his Supreme Court nominee. But he said he felt optimistic. Im sure it will all be very good, he said at the White House, where he was meeting the president of Chile. In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Show all 21 1 /21 In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images He said he believed Ms Fords testimony was very compelling, and she looks like a very fine woman to me. He added: Bretts testimony was, likewise, really something that I hadnt seen before. Mr Flake may have been motivated to act by the words of two protesters who confronted him in a senate elevator after it was initially announced he would back Mr Kavanaugh. What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them. I have two children, shouted one of the women, Ana Maria Archila. I cannot imagine that for the next 50 years they will have to have someone in the Supreme Court who has been accused of violating a young girl. What are you doing, sir? Before Mr Flakes actions, committee Republicans voted down a Democratic motion seeking to subpoena Mark Judge, a friend of Mr Kavanaugh who Ms Ford said witnessed the 1982 alleged assault. Mr Judge had told the committee in a written statement he does not recall any such incident. He is likely to be central to any FBI probe. In a letter sent to the committee, Mr Judge sent a signed letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, saying he categorically denies sexual misconduct allegations made by Julie Swetnick. In a sworn statement released on Wednesday, Ms Swetnick accused Mr Kavanaugh and Mr Judge of excessive drinking and helping to organise the gang-rape of women. Both men denied the claims. Mr Kavanaugh has also been accused of exposing himself during a drunken dormitory party at Yale University. The Washington Post said Republicans said they still planned to move ahead with a procedural vote on Mr Kavanaughs nomination on Saturday but will postpone a final vote on his confirmation that they had hoped would take place on Tuesday. Close Senate Judiciary Committee votes 11-10 to progress Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved Donald Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, in a vote 11-10 on party lines. However, moderate Republican Senator Jeff Flake called for an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the judge before a final Senate vote. Mr Trump later ordered the FBI to conduct that understanding. Mr Flake's intervention means a final Senate vote on the nomination could be delayed for up to a week so that the FBI investigation can be completed. Mr Kavanuagh denies the allegations from three different women. I will vote to advance the nominee to the floor with that understanding, Mr Flake said. 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The 21-member committee, which contains just four women, has an intentionally inbuilt Republican advantage of 11-10, because Republicans hold the majority in the senate, the upper chamber of the two houses of the US congress. There had been speculation one of the Republicans, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, may not vote along party lines. He failed to ask any questions on Thursday, and instead allowed Mr Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford have that allotted time to speak for themselves. Mr Kavanaugh has stridently denied the allegation made by Ms Ford that he assaulted her. Recommended Feinstein explains why she cannot vote for Brett Kavanaugh On Friday morning, as the committee, prepared to vote, Mr Flake said he had decided to support the judge. While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the senates advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the constitutions provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well, he said, according to the Associated Press, something that immediately caused the senator to be confronted by protesters. I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. Yet, even if the committee voted against confirming Mr Kavanaugh, his future as a Supreme Court justice would be far from dead in the water. Senate officials said the chambers rules meant the full senate could vote to discharge the issue from the Senate Judiciary Committee and instead have all the members consider the nominee. Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court vote Republicans currently have a slim 51-49 majority in the senate and several members Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mr Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker from Tennessee, have at times appeared uncertain on Mr Kavanaughs nomination. They have certainly been subjected to large, costly lobbying campaigns from both supporters and opponents of the judge. Adding another twist to the mix is the possibility that several Democratic senators facing tough reelection races in states that voted for Donald Trump Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana may feel obliged to support Mr Kavanaugh in order not to turn off Trump supporters they rely on. In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Show all 21 1 /21 In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images Mr Manchin has said he is undecided and that Thursdays testimony changed nothing. Senator Manchin remains undecided on Judge Kavanaugh, his communications director Jonathan Kott reporters. Any tweets to the contrary are false and not from any sources familiar with Senator Manchin If Mr Kavanaugh is approved by the committee, it is theoretically possible he could be confirmed as early as Saturday. Yet that would require a full 100 per cent vote in his favour, something that will not happen. Rather it is more likely to he decided next week. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he is confident on getting Mr Kavanaugh confirmed and that he intends to plow right through the confirmation process. I want to make it perfectly clear, he said earlier this week on the senate floor, as fresh allegations of sexual assault were levelled at Mr Kavanaugh. Judge Kavanaugh will be voted on here on the Senate floor. Up or down on the senate floor. This fine nominee to the Supreme Court will receive a vote in the senate in the near future. The senior Democrat on the committee that will determine the fate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, has said she will not vote for him because of his views on womens rights, gun control and presidential authority. Agreeing that the testimony of Mr Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of sexually assaulting her three decades ago, had been a national moment, Senator Dianne Feinstein said she was not concerned about Mr Kavanaughs qualifications, but rather his views about fundamental issues that could have a powerful and lasting impact on the country. It was broadcast nationally. Thats what made it a national moment, the senator told The Independent as she prepared for the crucial vote that will determine the 53-year-old judges future. It was an important nominee to the Supreme Court and one that could tip the balance on key issues, and that is a womens right to control her own reproductive system, as well as gun issuesas well as presidential authorities. She added: I think his qualifications are there. I dont agree with may of his views, particularly what I just said I and cant vote for him, and I will be a no vote. The committee is due to vote on Mr Kavanaughs nomination on Friday afternoon. It will then pass the issue up to the full senate for a confirmation vote. Despite the nine-hours of testimony on Thursday from Mr Kavanaugh and one of at least three women who have accused him of sexual assault, it was unclear how much difference it make in terms of the votes of the 21 committee members poised to make an initial decision on the judges future. With Republicans holding a 11-10 advantage on the committee, it had been assumed the nomination would go forward along party lines. The only possible doubt was over the intention of Republican senator Jeff Flake of Arizona who is not seeking re-election and is free to vote on his conscience. Addressing Mr Kavanaugh on Thursday, Mr Flake said he wanted to hear from Ms Ford. Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court vote She came at great difficulty for her and offered compelling testimony. Youve come and done the same, he said. Im sorry for whats happened to you and your family. Im sorry for what has happened to hers. This is not a good process, but its all weve got. But on Friday, Mr Flake said he had decided to vote in favour of the judge and that he was entitled to the presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence. While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the senates advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the constitutions provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well, he said, according to the Associated Press, something that immediately caused the senator to be confronted by protesters. I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. Meanwhile, there were signs the testimony before the panel in which Mr Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ms Ford calmly recounted the moment in which she says he attacked her had registered negatively with two organisations whose support Mr Kavanaugh had earlier received. In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Show all 21 1 /21 In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images The American Bar Association, which previously gave Mr Kavanaugh its highest rating of well qualified, asked the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate to delay the vote until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims. Meanwhile, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Mr Kavanaugh a devout Catholic saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and should be withdrawn. After Republican Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the committee, gaveled the special meeting in session, the committee voted along party lines to reject a Democratic motion to suspend proceedings until they had heard from Mark Judge, the teenage friend of Mr Kavanaugh who Ms Ford said was present in the bedroom when she said she was assaulted. At least five Democrats walked out of the meeting after the committee moved to vote later today on Mr Kavanaughs nomination. Senators Richard Blumenthal, Kamala Harris, Sheldon Whitehouse and Mazie Hirono left the room as Mr Grassley was giving an opening statement and Patrick Leahy left a shortly later, CNN reported. Ms Hirono of Hawaii told reporters she had stepped out because its very clear that the Republicans will break every norm, every rule, to get this person on the Supreme Court. She said Mr Kavanaugh would arrive with a cloud and would weaken the court as a result. This has got to stop. So I walked out. Im not going to participate in this charade anymore, she said. Ms Feinstein countered accusations that Democrats were trying to simply derail proceedings. This was not about ensuring a fair process, this was about doing the bare minimum, she said. Lets be clear, Dr Ford asked for confidentiality. We all know that if I referred allegations to the FBI when she would not come forward, there would have been nothing to do, she said. She said Ms Fords allegations were referred to the FBI on September 12. She said: While the Republican strategy is no longer attack the victim, it is now ignore the victim. Donald Trump has said that the Senate will whatever it thinks is necessary over an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Mr Kavanaughs nomination and push it forward to a full Senate vote, in an 11-10 decision along party lines with all Democrats voting no. However, the committee was stunned by a request by Republican Senator Jeff Flake for a delay to the full vote of no more than a week to allow the FBI to investigation the allegations against Mr Kavanaugh. Mr Flake said he would back advancing to the full vote as long as time was given for the investigation. Recommended Senate committee approves Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court Im going to let the Senate handle that. They will make their decisions, Mr Trump said of the idea of the investigation. Theyll do a good job. Im just hearing a little bit about it... Whatever they think is necessary they will do. Republican leadership are currently deciding whether to allow the delay to the final vote in order to allow space for the possible FBI investigation. The Senate Judiciary Committee vote came a day after one of Mr Kavanaughs accusers, Dr Christine Blasey Ford, gave testimony to the committee over her allegation that Mr Kavanaugh tried to force himself upon her at a party they both attended in high school. In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Show all 21 1 /21 In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes... I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help, she said. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me, she added. Mr Kavanugh denied the allegations in his own testimony and said his family had been destroyed by them. Mr Kavanaugh faces sexual misconduct allegations from two other women, which is also denies. Senate Judiciary Committee votes 11-10 to progress Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination Talking about the testimony, Mr Trump called Dr Ford a very fine woman before a meeting at the White House with the president of Chile, Sebastian Pinera. I thought her testimony was very compelling and she looks like a very fine woman to me, very fine woman, Trump said. And I thought that Bretts testimony likewise was really something that I hadnt seen before. It was an incredible moment I think in the history of our country. But certainly she was a very credible witness. A powerful earthquake has struck off the coast of Indonesia, triggering a tsunami warning. The huge 7.5 magnitude quake was recorded near the island of Sulawesi, east of Borneo, the US Geological Survey said. Authorities lifted an early tsunami warning within an hour, although officials warned those in the area to remain vigilant as a number of aftershocks hit. We advise people to remain in safe area, stay away from damaged buildings, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said in a televised interview. It is better not to be in a house or building because the potential for aftershocks can be dangerous. People are encouraged to gather in safe areas. Avoid the slopes of hills. He added that the national agency in Jakarta was having difficulties reaching some authorities in island's Donggala province, home to around 300,000 people. The US Geological Survey initially reported the quake as magnitude 7.7, but later downgraded it to a 7.5 reading. Earlier on Friday, a tremor measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit the same area, destroying several houses, killing one person and injuring at least 10, authorities said. Mr Nugroho warned the second quake had been felt very strongly, adding he expected more casualties and more damage to follow. The scale of the destruction caused by the quake, which hit as the sun was setting, would not be known until Saturday, according to officials. A local disaster agency official in Donggala, named only as Akris, told Associated Press many houses in the area had collapsed following the second tremor. It happened while we still have difficulties in collecting data from nine villages affected by the first quake, he said. People ran out in panic. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty The airport in Central Sulawesi province's capital, Palu, halted operations for 24 hours due to damage, according to a notice from AirNav, which oversees airline traffic in Indonesia A series of earthquakes in July and August killed nearly 500 people on the holiday island of Lombok, hundreds of miles southwest of Sulawesi. Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004, a big earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia. Additional reporting by agencies A Boeing 737 passenger jet with almost 50 people on board has crash-landed in a lagoon in the Pacific state of Micronesia. The plane, operated by Papua New Guinea state airline Air Niugini, hit the water short of the runway while attempting to land at Chuuk Island. Dramatic footage emerged showing the 47 passengers and crew being rescued in boats from the half-submerged plane. One passenger posted a video to social media saying the aircraft was filled waist-deep with water before the first rescuers arrived. The airline said in a brief statement that all those on board were able to evacuate safely. An airport manager said the incident happened at around 9.30am local time. It was supposed to land but instead of landing it was 150 yards short and she went down, Jimmy Emilio, general manager of Chuuk Airport, told the Reuters news agency. We dont really know what happened ... people were rescued by boats 36 passengers and 11 crew were all rescued, only the plane is sinking right now, he said. The plane crash-landed in a lagoon (US Navy/AP) A local hospital spokesperson said the passengers and crew were all taken to hospital, where eight remained, four in a serious condition with bone fractures and other injuries. I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in, passenger Bill Jaynes said in a video posted by the Pacific Daily News website. I thought, well, this is not like the way its supposed to happen, he said. He said the water had risen up to waist height in the cabin before rescuers arrived. Air Niugini has been in operation since 1973, and its fleet includes Boeing 767 and 737 jets for international routes. Boeing said in a brief statement that it was glad to hear initial reports that all passengers and crew evacuated the sinking plane safely. The company said it would provide technical assistance under the direction of investigating government authorities. Micronesia, located north of Australia and east of the Philippines, is home to just over 100,000 people. It has close ties with the US under an agreement known as the Compact of Free Association. Indias Supreme Court has ruled that religious freedoms cannot be invoked as a cover for sexist policies, ordering a historic temple to lift its ban on women of menstruating age. The Sabarimala temple, one of the holiest sites in Hinduism, attracts tens of millions of pilgrims every year but has barred women between the ages of 10 and 50 from entering. Religious authorities argued the rule was a fundamental part of their belief system, in recognition of the fact that the temples presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is celibate. Some leaders suggested menstruating women were impure. But in the latest historic ruling issued by Indias top court in the last few weeks, judges said restrictions like those put in place by the Sabarimala temple cant be held as essential religious practice. Chief justice Dipak Misra said patriarchal beliefs were not more important than equality in devotion. Religion cannot be the cover to deny women the right to worship. To treat women as children of a lesser God is to blink at constitutional morality, he said. Though central to the judgement issued on Friday, Sabarimala, nestled among the mountains and dense forests of the Periyar Tiger Reserve in the southern state of Kerala, is not the only temple in India to ban women. The operators of a temple in Rajasthan believe the Hindu god Kartikeya curses women who enter the temple, instead of blessing them. Two years ago, a Mumbai court ruled it was the fundamental right of women to enter any place of worship that allows men access, and that the state should protect this right. The discussions that followed triggered a wider debate on womens rights in the country. Chhavi Methi, a womens rights activist, hailed the court verdict, but said its acceptance by temple authorities remained to be seen. I am doubtful the temple authorities would take it in the right spirit. Women would accept it, but its implementation might pose a problem, she said. Temple authorities said they had received support from other religious heads and would appeal against the verdict, which was carried by four votes to one on a five-judge panel. Rahul Eswaran, an attorney for the temple, noted girls and women of other ages were allowed in the temple without restrictions. Justice Indu Malhotra, the lone dissenting judge and the only female on the bench, said: Religious practices cannot solely be tested on the basis of the right to equality. It is up to the worshippers, not the court, to decide what is the religions essential practice. The Supreme Court ruling is just the latest in a series being heralded by activists for gay rights, womens rights and the rights of religious minorities. On Thursday the court struck down a 150-year-old law that made adultery a criminal offence but only for the lover of a married woman. It was discriminatory towards men, petitioners argued, and treated women like their husbands property. And earlier this month the court read down a section of the British-enacted Indian Penal Code which made gay sex illegal, affirming the rights of LGBT+ people to equality in the eyes of the law. The rulings have all been rushed through before the end of Mr Misras tenure as chief justice. He will step down on Tuesday, after reaching the state-mandated retirement age for Supreme Court judges of 65. Additional reporting by agencies As the new school year has begun in Italy, parents no longer have to prove their children have been immunised highlighting a clash of priorities, stoked by the new populist government. In 2014, the Global Health Security Agenda had tapped Italy to lead world vaccination strategies. But just four years later, the country has instead become the testing ground for anti-vaxxers, a movement growing across Europe and the US, and whose ideologies often share space on the political landscape with populist parties. "Ten obligatory vaccinations are useless and in many cases dangerous, if not harmful, Italys interior minister Matteo Salvini said, in the run up to the general election in March. The measles epidemic in Europe as a whole is now at an eight-year high. Recommended Italian upper house votes to overturn mandatory vaccinations Mr Salvini, from the League party, and also the countrys deputy prime minister, shares something in common with other leading populists such as his European ally Marine Le Pen and US president Donald Trump. As part of their anti-establishment views, they are also choosing to target science. The League and its coalition partner, the Five Star Movement, both stood with anti-vaxxer groups during the electoral campaign, promising to oppose the pre-existing law that made vaccines mandatory. Soon after forming a government, the new health minister Giulia Grillo lifted the existing requirements by allowing parents to self-certify that their children have had the compulsory vaccinations, hitherto necessary for school admission. But the parliament then said the requirement to provide proof of vaccinations would just be postponed until the 2019-2020 school year. On one side, anti-vaxxers now accuse the League and the Five Star Movement of betrayal. And on the other, confusion and legal uncertainty about compulsory vaccination has made the start of a new year much more difficult for vulnerable children, such as those with suppressed immune systems. The measles epidemic in Europe is now at an eight-year high (PA) Im not ignorant, says Anna Pettinarolli, from Genoa, the port city of northern Italy. I am a 35-year-old financial advisor who cares for her child. I believe that vaccines can cause damage, and thats why I have been persuaded that parents have the right to choose if they should vaccinate their children or not. Ms Pettinarolli is a board member of Comilva, the Italian Movement for Freedom of Vaccination one of the most well-known of all the Italian free-choice, or anti-vaccination associations. Take a look at the vaccination rate: look at the percentage of unvaccinated kids, and youll know how big our numbers are Anna Pettinarolli, anti-vaccination campaigner Our movement has grown over the last 30 years, and in particular in the last two years," she says. "Do you want to know how many we are? Take a look at the vaccination rate. Look at the percentage of unvaccinated kids, and youll know how big our numbers are. These numbers are exactly why the World Health Organisation is so concerned about the rise of the anti-vaxxer movement in Italy; the countrys vaccination rate is far behind the goal. To stop transmission of infections, 93-95 per cent of the population should be immunised, the herd immunity threshold. But in 2015, Italys paediatric measles vaccination rate was around 85 per cent for the first dose and 83 per cent for the second dose. Scientists say that rather than becoming the leader in a global vaccination strategy, the country has become a black sheep. When measles rates soared across Europe in 2017, the number of cases was three times higher than the year before. The two countries with the highest number of cases were Romania and Italy, with Italy accounting for 34 per cent of new cases. And in a sample of 5,000 of these cases, 89 per cent were unvaccinated people, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. In 2017 Beatrice Lorenzin, the former health minister, reacted to the fall in vaccinations by introducing a law that obliged children under the age of six to undergo 10 routine vaccines before enrolling in nurseries and pre-school. But this mandatory vaccination policy appeared to fuel the no-vaxxers protest and populist movements capitalised on it. Recommended Matteo Salvini has made Italy a joke in the west What Italy is seeing is not a vague sentiment, or parents' response to some abstract concern about vaccines. It's the product of real people and specific facts, says British journalist Brian Deer. This is principally the achievement of the disgraced former British doctor Andrew Wakefield, and a group of enablers who work with him, aiming to destabilise public confidence in vaccines. Embittered after he was caught falsifying vaccine research, he can do this because of the opportunities provided by social media. Mr Deer has become the unofficial debunker of the claims of anti-vaxxers. Twenty years ago, Wakefield published a study in The Lancet suggesting an association between the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine and autism and gastrointestinal diseases. This paper is at the origins of parents growing scepticism towards vaccination but Mr Deer showed that Wakefield had manipulated evidence and had a conflict of interest. As The Lancet itself had to admit, the study was fake news long before the term was popular. Nevertheless, the fake news continues to be spread online, and public confidence in vaccinations continues to drop, and, as Mr Deer points out, the result is polarisation. Italy's far-right government calls for a 'mass cleansing' of the country As was the case with Donald Trump who tweeted and claimed that vaccines and autism are linked at first Italian populists rode the wave of anti-vaccine sentiment in their election campaigns. On the other side, scientists are trying to adapt and react. Roberto Burioni, a professor of microbiology and virology at the Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, is trying to use social networks to oppose no-vaxxers. The drop in vaccination rates made Italy comparable to Namibia or Ghana thats unacceptable," he said. Vaccines are necessary for public health: a high rate would mean that even children that cant be vaccinated because of immunodepression can be protected from infections. Ill continue explaining this whenever I can. This has cost me lots of threats and intimidations from fanatics, too. The EUs chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said he will not stand as a candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. In a letter posted to Twitter, the 67-year-old Frenchman said running as the so-called lead candidate, or Spitzenkandidat, of the centre-right European Peoples Party (EPP) would be incompatible with his role in negotiations over the UKs exit from the bloc. We are in the final stretch of a serious and complex negotiation on the orderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom. It is my duty to remain engaged with all my energy and determination, he said. Under the Spitzenkandidat system, the party groupings in the European Parliament each choose a lead candidate to campaign across the EU and challenge each other in debates. One of the candidates most likely the nominee of the grouping that wins the most seats in the parliament is then chosen by the European Council, made up of EU leaders, to be the commission president. The process was first employed in 2014 when Mr Juncker became president, having beaten Mr Barnier to the EEP nomination. But it is unclear whether it will be used again, after it was heavily criticised by EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who want more of a say over appointing the EUs top official. 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 The Commission has the initiative to draft EU laws, monitors compliance and acts as a competition watchdog. A new executive will take over in November 2019. During the Brexit negotiations, Mr Barnier has greatly increased his profile by travelling extensively around the EU and holding meetings that have also included less-prominent regional leaders, labour unions and business. Additional reporting by agencies Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has insisted the Kremlin has "nothing to add" to reports linking a serving military intelligence colonel to the Salisbury novichok poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. In an angry exchange with journalists, he said the Kremlin would not discuss the findings of an independent investigation by Bellingcat/Insider. That investigation named 39-year-old Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga for the first time, documented a history of his service, and provided a photographic match with a man UK prosecutors have charged with murder. But Mr Peskov claimed to be confused. "In the last few months ... there have been a number articles and investigations about the Skripal affair," he said. "No-one can work out which of them are truthful and which are lies," He suggested journalists should address questions to "relevant agencies," and said Moscow would only respond if it was given access to "raw data" by "official sources." Moscow has regularly complained about not being given access to the British investigation. The British side says that is not going to happen, referring to past experience investigating the death-by-polonium of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko. Then, the Kremlin allowed British detectives to interrogate the main suspects. But they limited the number of questions that could be asked, and reportedly handed blank tapes to the investigating officers. Karen Pierce, UK Ambassador to the UN presented the British position in blunt terms during an extraordinary session of the Security Council in March. Russia asking to be part of the investigation was akin to "an arsonist investigating his own fire," she said. Recommended Salisbury novichok suspect identified as highly decorated GRU colonel Earlier in the day, Russian state media carried an interview with Alexander Borzhkov, a man they identified as Colonel Chepiga's former commander. Mr Borzhkov confirmed he trained a "certain" Chepiga at the the Far-Eastern Military Command Academy in the city of Blagoveshchensk, but any attempts linking him to the Salisbury incident had "a whiff of mild schizophrenia." The interviewer failed to ask the simple question: are Chepiga and the man presented as Ruslan Boshirov the same person? Mr Peskov also said the Kremlin would not attempt to identify the officer in question "we don't do searches and identifications." But he also questioned the photographic evidence presented in the Bellingcat / Insider report. "There are 10 Stalins and 15 Lenins on Red Square and they all look like the original," he said, referring to the lookalike artists that mingle with tourists in central Moscow. "Thats all I wanted to say. I dont think it's necessary to add anything else." Iran has described allegations it is hiding a secret atomic warehouse as an arts and crafts show made up of photographs from Google Street View. The official response came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that nuclear equipment was being kept near a rug-cleaning business on the outskirts of Tehran. During his presentation to world leaders on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu held up a poster-board map of the area as he claimed Iranian officials had recently cleared out 15kg of material from the site and spread it around. Mr Netanyahu called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the site using Geiger counters and urged European countries to abandon the 2015 deal with Iran. I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Irans secret nuclear program, he said. Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse? Mr Netanyahu asked. What Iran hides, Israel will find. Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described it as an obscene charge and called Netanyahu a liar who would not stop lying. No arts and craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program including an *actual atomic arsenal*, he tweeted. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors. The Iranian representative at the UN said in a rebuttal statement that the Israeli prime minister had a pathological tendency to tell monstrous lies and distort reality. Exhibiting some photographs of Google Street View, today the Israeli showman claimed that he discovered new nuclear facilities in Iran, the official added. This is yet another false story. Mr Netanyahu also accused European leaders of appeasing Iran by helping it bypass new sanctions imposed by US president Donald Trump. Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Show all 10 1 /10 Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burnt a US flag in parliament after Donald Trump announced America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal US President Donald Trump displays a presidential memorandum after announcing his intent to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House. Reuters Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Some Iranian MPs reacted after Trumps decision by shouting 'death to America'. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian lawmakers prepare to burn two pieces of papers representing the US flag and the nuclear deal. AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran said it will hold talks with signatories to the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to withdraw from the accord, which it branded "psychological warfare". AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Several Iranian MPs stood chanting in the Tehran parliament. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burning a US flag AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal President Hassan Rouhani addressed the nation in a televised speech in Tehran. He said he'd send his foreign minister to negotiate with countries remaining in the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to pull America from the deal, warning he otherwise would restart enriching uranium "in the next weeks." Iranian Presidency Office via AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran's press condemned Trump's withdrawal from a multi-party nuclear deal but was divided over whether Tehran should react with patience or withdraw itself. AFP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Trump announced the US withdrawal from what he called the "defective" multinational nuclear deal with Iran, and said Washington would reinstate sanctions against the Islamic republic. AFP/Getty Does anyone seriously believe that flooding Irans theocracy with weapons and cash will curb its appetite for aggression? Mr Netanyahu asked. Have these European leaders learned nothing from history? Will they ever wake up? Four months ago Israel announced that its intelligence officers had obtained a half-ton of Iranian nuclear documents in the Shourabad neighborhood near Tehran. Israel claimed the documents proved that Iran covered up its nuclear weapons program before signing the 2015 agreement, which loosened sanctions crippling the countrys economy. In 2012 Mr Netanyahu held up a cartoon picture of a bomb while discussing Irans nuclear program before saying a red line should be drawn right here as he added a red line using a marker pen. Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press Annual Report to Shareholders Perth, Sep 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Intermin Resources Limited ( ASX:IRC ) provides the Company's Annual Report to shareholders.Chairman and Managing Director's ReviewDear ShareholderThe 2018 financial year has been one of successful growth for the Company and a year with mixed sentiment and commodity prices for the resources sector in general.Despite continuing concerns around the global economy, trade wars and increased geopolitical tension, the safe haven of gold has seen a generally weaker US$ gold price in the second half with current prices around the US$1,200 per ounce mark. With the Australian dollar gold price holding between $1,600-$1,700 and the industry's focus on reducing costs of production, Australia is now globally competitive and attracting investment both domestically and internationally.Locally, Western Australia and the goldfields region has had another exceptional year with the mid-tier producers reporting continued record production, cash balances and performance metrics putting them well and truly on the world stage. Organic growth has been the focus with increased exploration budgets, asset acquisitions and joint ventures with the smaller developers and explorers. This has resulted in a number of new discoveries and mine developments in what is considered one of the most successful gold fields in the world.The Company has made significant progress during the year with the successful completion of our first mining operation at Teal which produced 22,000 ounces of gold at 3.2g/t and 93% recovery, ahead of Feasibility Study estimates. This delivered significant cash flow to the business with the Company holding $10.3M in cash as at June 30, no debt and holdings in ASX listed Companies with a value of $1.013M. No capital raisings were required during the year and the Company remains in a strong financial position to self-fund future organic growth.Cash flow from Teal has enabled the Company to commence an aggressive 55,000m resource extension and new discovery drilling program in February 2018 across four key project areas: Teal, Anthill, Blister Dam and Binduli. A number of acquisitions were also completed with total landholding now at 890km2 on major geological structures in and around existing tenure and key infrastructure in the Western Australian goldfields.A number of highly successful drilling campaigns totalling 55,379m were completed across the Company's existing and newly acquired tenure and our Resource position has grown 21% to 432,333 ounces net of gold production depletion. Over 23,500m have been completed at the Teal gold camp following up new discoveries made last year at Jacques Find, Yolande and Wills Find. Results released during the year have defined four parallel structures along a 6km strike zone and remain open in all directions.Drilling at the Binduli gold project has focussed initially on the Crake Prospect with excellent results released from the first campaign. At year end, further step out drilling had been completed at Crake and three further high priority targets identified at Coote, Darter and Honeyeater. Drilling also commenced at Anthill where 14,000m of resource extension and new discovery drilling is planned for the September Quarter 2018. Drilling at Blister Dam (14,000m) and regional projects is planned to commence in the December Quarter 2018.The Feasibility Study for the Goongarrie Lady gold project was released during the year delivering robust economics from a 7 month mine life. Statutory approvals are well advanced with the aim to have the project ready for development in 2019 as part of the Company's development pipeline. Mining studies have also commenced for the Anthill, Jacques Find and Peyes Farm gold projects.The Company completed a number of acquisitions during the year to further consolidate assets on the major shear zones and now has a strong landholding of 890km2 including the new Yarmany and Lakewood projects. These low cost acquisitions will be the focus of significant exploration and resource development programs next year with many of the projects untested in the last 20 years.Existing joint ventures with AXF Vanadium, EGS, Saracen and Mithril Resources progressed during the year as did discussions with new potential partners that can provide mutual benefit. The Joint Venture with AXF covering the world class 2.6Bt Richmond Vanadium project has generated considerable excitement with the development of Vanadium redox flow batteries and we look forward to AXF completing detailed metallurgical testwork to advance the project to commercialisation.We'd like to take the opportunity to thank all our Board members, staff, contractors and you, our shareholders, for your support during the year. A special thank you to BMGS, Paddington, Golden Mile Milling, Rivet, Cardno and our other Teal operations team members on a fantastic job in delivering a very successful first mining operation.The Intermin team look forward to keeping you fully informed as the business grows in what will be another very exciting year ahead.To view the Annual Report, please visit:About Horizon Minerals Limited Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed. Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline. Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage. An Iraqi model and social media influencer has been shot dead by unknown attackers in Baghdad. Tara Fares, a prominent former beauty queen with nearly 3 million followers on Instagram, was killed after gunmen opened fire on her on Thursday in the citys Kam Sara neighbourhood. The Interior Ministry announced it had opened an investigation into the models death, according to Kurdistan 24. Ms Fares body was taken to Baghdads Sheikh Zaid hospital at 5.45am local time. Doctors told local media she had died after suffering three bullet wounds. The 22-year-old lived in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, but regularly visited Baghdad. Fans began posting across social media after her death was confirmed, with many celebrating her outspokenness in a country that can still have conservative attitudes towards women. Taras death screams discrimination, lack of freedom and rights, wrote one fan. Sympathy is not enough. It is unclear who killed Ms Fares. Her death comes just days after the death of Suad al-ali, an Iraqi human rights activist who was shot and killed in her car in the southern city of Basra. Tara Fares was a 22-year-old Iraqi model who was shot and killed in her car in Baghdad on Thursday night, just a day after she was voted one of Iraq's most followed online stars. She was taken to Baghdad's Sheik Zayed hospital where doctors reported that the model had at least three bullet wounds. The influencer was well known on Iraq's fledgling beauty pageant circuit and had competed in the Miss Iraq and Miss Baghdad contests. Recommended Iraqi model and Instagram star shot dead in Baghdad She lived in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan but recently spent an increasing amount of time in Baghdad as her career progressed. Fares had 2.7 million followers on Instagram and uploaded occasional vlogs to her YouTube channel. A photo uploaded to her account after her death showed her with angel wings made of light. "Sleep well princess, we will miss you," the caption said, in English and Arabic. Tara Fares was 22 It is unclear who uploaded the photo. As fans mourned Fares, speculation mounted on social media that she was killed because she was viewed as a provocative figure in Iraq, where attitudes to women can be conservative. She had been threatened frequently, which led her to move to Erbil, according to Bas news. "The fragile masculinity of those who have access to arms in Iraq is staggering," one user wrote on Twitter. The model's killing is another in a string of deaths in which Iraqi women have been shot or have died in mysterious circumstances. Rafeef al-Yaseri and Rasha al-Hassan, who both worked in Iraq's beauty industry, died separately in August in their homes, according to Kurdistan 24. The causes of death were unknown but social media users were quick to link the deaths to the shootings of Fares and Suad al-Ali, a human rights activist who was shot and killed in Basra just days ago. Iraq's Ministry of the Interior has announced an investigation into Fares' murder. Donald Trump has vowed to deliver a fair Middle East peace plan within four months. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York City, the US president said he hoped to be able to bring an end to the 70-year Israel-Palestine conflict and publicly endorsed a two-state solution for the first time. I really believe something will happen. It is a dream of mine to be able to get that done prior to the end of my first term [in 2021], he added. Recommended Trump promises Middle East peace plan within four months But how realistic is Mr Trumps goal, how has his declaration been received and what exactly are the options available? What has been the reaction to Donald Trumps announcement? Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has met frequently with Mr Trump of late, thanked him for his extraordinary support. It is important to set what is inadmissible to us: Israel will not relinquish security control west of Jordan. This will not happen so long as I am prime minister and I think the Americans understand that, he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Mr Netanyahu's acceptance of the Palestinians' right to their own state is not shared by Naftali Bennett, his own education minister, who responded: The president of the US is a true friend of Israel. However, it must be emphasised that there will not be a Palestinian state. That would be a disaster for Israel. The US has had no contact with the Palestinian leadership since Washington relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv in December 2017, therein recognising the holy city claimed by both sides as Israels capital. Mr Trump made matters worse by slashing $500 million in aid to the Palestinians via the US contribution to the UN Relief and Works Agency, seen by some as an attempt to weaken Palestinian unity and promoting warnings from observers about the possibility of further violence erupting. Their president, Mahmoud Abbas, told the UN: This administration has reneged on all previous US commitments and has undermined the two-state solution. Palestinian foreign affairs minister Riyad al-Maliki said Mr Trump's words at the General Assembly had been too vague to amount to meaningful progress in bringing real peace in our region. Perhaps the most scathing reaction to his announcement came from Yossi Beilin, architect of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords: What does he know? What did he do in life?, Mr Beilin asked NBC. It is tragic comedy. When I saw the leader of the free world say, If my son-in-law cannot solve the Israel-Palestinian problem, nobody can do that, I didnt know whether to cry or to laugh, he added, alluding to Jared Kushner, given the unenviable task of bringing peace to the Middle East. What would a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict consist of? A two-state solution to the disputed territory almost came into being in 1947, when the UN proposed carving a new state from Palestine west of the River Jordan: one housing Jews, the other Palestinian Arabs. The latter party rejected the idea and the Israeli state was founded on 14 May 1948, prompting the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli War, which forced 700,000 Palestinians to flee the fighting, seeking refuge in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, often without citizenship being granted. Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt held Gaza until the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel forces conquered those territories. Palestinian nationalists under Yasser Arafat and right-wing Israelis led by Menahem Begin called for a Greater Palestine and a Greater Israel respectively, until Arafat began to move towards a two-state solution in 1974 and established a Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza in 1993 following the breakthrough in Oslo. Mr Arafat also encouraged Palestinians, 5.3 million of whom live as refugees outside of Israel, to observe Nakba Day every year in response to Jews marking Israeli Independence Day, mourning the catastrophe of the loss of territory they consider to be their homeland in an act of ethnic cleansing and the still-deserted villages to which they long to return. Israel, however, refuses to allow Palestinian refugees to return because doing so, they say, would compromise the Jewish nature of the state. While Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Mr Netanyahu have all advocated a Palestinian state, agreement on what form independent, self-governing states should take is hard to come by. Any division of the land would be highly contentious for myriad religious and political reasons. Mr Netanyahu has long insisted that any newly-formed Palestine would need to be demilitarised and recognise Israel as the home of the Jewish faith. What other solutions have been proposed? A one-state solution would merge Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into one country. The incorporation of Arab Muslims would though bring an end to Israel as an ethnically Jewish state, which Israel has strongly opposed in the past. Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a racket to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian demonstrators run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator shouts Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Tear gas canisters are fired by Israeli forces at Palestinian demonstrators Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A wounded Palestinian is evacuated Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a sling to hurl stones at Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A female demonstrator uses a slingshot to hurl stones at Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator with a slingshot looks on Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Female Palestinian demonstrators react to tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Israeli forces fire teargas canisters toward Palestinian demonstrators AFP Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Female demonstrators run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian medics evacuate a wounded protester AP Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator moves a burning tire Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a racket to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian demonstrators during clashes with Israeli forces AFP/Getty One alternative suggested would see Israel annexe the West Bank and remain as a single state. This would require the eviction of Palestinians currently present there or the denial of their right to vote to maintain Israels Jewish integrity, which most observers would regard as an unacceptable violation of their basic human rights. A three-state solution has also been discussed in the past an economic union between Israel, Jordan and a Palestine formed from the West Bank and Gaza likened to that between the Benelux countries in Europe. Quite what form Mr Trump's eventual plan will take remains unknown but American relations with the Palestinian camp will need to improve drastically before he has any realistic hope of achieving his stated aim and succeeding where so many before him have failed. A new hiking route has been launched through Chiles Patagonia region. Created to attract more tourists to the area and improve awareness of the need for conservation, the Route of Parks run from Puerto Montt to Cape Horn a distance of 2,800km in total. The area is known for its lakes and rich array of wildlife and plants. The trail was funded by US billionaire Douglas Tompkins and his wife Kristine. The North Face and Esprit co-founder, who died in a kayaking accident in Chile three years ago, set up the Tompkins Conservation foundation, which bought up great swathes of land in Chile and Argentina in order to preserve it. Mr Tompkins widow Kristine, the former CEO of outdoor clothing brand Patagonia, signed over a large amount to the Chilean government in 2017 with the idea of using it to make a series of connected parks and trails. The land was used to create 17 national parks, all of which are connected by the new hiking trail, encompassing a huge area around the size of Switzerland. Ice-swimming grannies defy age and cold in Patagonia Its the largest land donation in history from a private entity to a country, according to Tompkins Conservation. We want Chile to be internationally recognised for having the most spectacular scenic route in the world, and thus become a benchmark for economic development based on conservation, said Carolina Morgado, executive director at the foundation. The Chilean president called the Route of Parks an unprecedented preservation effort. Mr Tompkins rejected capitalism later in life, preferring to use the great fortune hed amassed to help preserve the environment. According to his foundation, he had come to see the very consumer culture his company was part of as another destructive manifestation of an industrial growth economy toxic to nature. Dozens of flights to and from UK airports have been cancelled by the latest strike by Ryanair staff. An estimated 2,000 Ryanair employees, mainly cabin crew working in Spain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy, as well as Dutch and German pilots, are stopping work. They are unhappy about issues from pay to labour contracts. As with several previous stoppages this summer, the industrial action has been coordinated across Europe for Friday normally the busiest day of the week. In total, around 250 flights have been grounded, affecting 40,000 passengers. Ryanair had cancelled 150 flights earlier in the week, notifying the affected customers and telling other travellers that their departures would go ahead. But on Thursday the airline said pilots in Germany would join the strike, with up to 100 additional flights shelved as a result. Interview with Ryanair passengers Nigel and Bridget Clark from Colchester, flying to Bari Stansted, the airlines biggest base in Europe, is Britains worst-affected airport. Twenty flights, mainly to and from Germany, have been cancelled. At Manchester, links to and from Barcelona, Berlin, Faro and Malaga have been grounded. Other cancellations include Birmingham to Lanzarote and East Midlands to Malaga. Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Show all 20 1 /20 Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair airline workers shout slogans during a small protest during the first of two days of a cabin crew strike at Adolfo Suarez-Barajas international airport in Madrid in July AP Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Empty Ryanair check-in counter at El Prat airport in Barcelona AFP/Getty Images Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair employees hold up signs in English and Spanish on the first day of a cabin crew strike in Palma de Mallorca REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair airplanes stand idle on the tarmac EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Irish Ryanair pilots outside the company headquarters at Swords in Dublin, as they stage their fourth one-day strike with their union, Forsa PA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos A woman sits at a Ryanair airline check-in desk after her flight to Pisa, Italy, was cancelled AP Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair employees protest at the entrance of the airport in Malaga REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Stranded Ryanair passengers line up for information at the airport in Valencia REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Employees of Ryanair's customer service department wear T-shirts with a slogan 'Ryanair Must Change' during the first day of strike of the company's cabin crew members at Brussels South airport in Charleroi, Belgium, in 25 EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Cabin crew workers for low-cost airline Ryanair went on strike in four European countries over working conditions in July, forcing thousands of passengers to make last-minute travel adjustments at the peak of the summer holiday season REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary addresses a news conference in Schwechat, Austria Reuters Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair employees hold up signs at the airport in Palma de Mallorca REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos People queue at the Ryanair airline customer service desk during the first of two days cabin crew strike AP Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair personnel stand at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, during a strike of cabin personnel AFP/Getty Images Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair's customer service department gather behind a banner reading: 'Ryanair On Strike - Respect Us! Ryanair must change' at Brussels South airport, in Charleroi, Belgium EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Passengers wait in line in front of Ryanair's desks EPA Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos Ryanair planes at Valencia airport, during a protest on the first day of a cabin crew strike held in several European countries REUTERS Ryanair: strikes and cancellations cause travel chaos A passenger tries to get informations on Ryanair flights EPA Ryanair first recognised trades unions in December 2017, after thousands of flights were cancelled due to a shortage of pilots. Since then, it said significant progress had been made in negotiations with trade unions across Europe. Its chief executive, Ryanairs Michael OLeary, said: Progress is being impeded by the interference of competitor airline pilots and cabin crew who are conspiring to call repeated and unnecessary strikes, which are disrupting Ryanairs customers, and damaging our business for the benefit of their legacy airline employers. The majority of Ryanairs pilots and cabin crew do not support these strikes, and they have continued to work normally. We work hard to ensure that our people enjoy the best pay, terms and conditions of any low cost 737 airline in Europe. Stranded at Stansted? Ryanair has cancelled 20 flights to and from its main base due to the latest strike (Simon Calder) Passengers whose departures are cancelled are entitled to replacement flights, accommodation and meals. In addition the Civil Aviation Authority has urged Ryanair passengers grounded by strikes to claim 250 (220) or 400 in compensation under European air passengers rights rules. But Ryanair says it will reject any compensation claims for strikes because they were caused by extraordinary circumstances. The Brett Kavanaugh congressional hearings have stunned TV audiences globally while casting a new light on the American judicial appointments system. But what if a senior judge in this country had skeletons in his or her closet that made them an unsuitable candidate for our own Supreme Court? The truth is we would probably never ever hear about it. The selection of judges in the United Kingdom remains a closely controlled process conducted behind closed doors. Serious complaints of sexual offences are investigated by the Judicial Conducts Investigation Office. But an allegation of an incident that took place during a judge's schooldays would fall outside its jurisdiction. Instead, it is up to a selection panel, appointed by the Lord Chancellor, to discover whether there is anything in a judge's past that makes them unsuitable to be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. A Kavanaugh-style complaint would probably never see the light of day for the simple reason we don't know the names of the judges who apply or are asked to apply to join the Supreme Court. It is only when the final decision has been made that the public is told the identity of the winning candidate. So it would be almost impossible for someone in Christine Blasey Ford's position to ever discharge her civic duty by making known an allegation about the behaviour of a judge seeking election to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. It would be too late, as the judge would have already taken his or her place in the chamber. Of course, our unwritten constitution is not the same as the American one. Our top judges are not political appointments, although the Lord Chancellor does have a limited power to veto appointments. But the advantage of the US confirmation system of appointing judges is that the judiciary is directly accountable to Congress. The Congressional hearings also allow the public to witness the character, demeanour and temperament of the judge, which helps give the public confidence in the people who pass judgment on their lives. Its time we used a similar system to confirm the appointment of senior judges in this country. In other parts of government, we already have confirmation hearings for those seeking public office. The Greater London Assembly holds confirmation sittings when the Mayor proposes to make an appointment to a number of senior offices, including the chair or deputy chair of Transport for London or the head of a Mayoral Development Corporation, such as the London Legacy Development Corporation. The Assembly, like Congress, can request that a candidate attends the Assembly to answer questions relating to the appointment before making a recommendation. In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Show all 21 1 /21 In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AP In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing REUTERS In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing EPA In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Chaos and fury at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing AFP/Getty Images And it was the Labour Government, who brought the Supreme Court into being, who first raised the prospect of confirmation hearings for judges. Such a proposal was seriously considered during the passage of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 when the now-defunct Department for Constitutional Affairs mooted the idea of enhancing the status of the members of the [new Supreme] Court by establishing confirmation hearings before one or other of the Houses of Parliament. This could, it argued, help to ensure that Parliament had confidence in the judiciary. The idea was even supported by Sir Thomas Legg, former Permanent Secretary in the Lord Chancellors Department and Professor Robert Hazell, founder and director of the Constitution Unit at University College London, a think tank specialising in constitutional reform. But by 2009 the government had got cold feet and the proposal was firmly rejected. Now is the time to revive it. And such scrutiny need not descend into the partisan farce that has characterised the Kavanaugh hearings in the US. Parliament does not behave like Congress and select committees have a strong track record of working outside party loyalties. Parliamentary scrutiny would also open up the secretive tap on the shoulder selection that still has a part to play in the British appointments system. A long-standing problem in this country has been the perception that our judges are out of touch. Parliamentary confirmation hearings would allow judges to show the human face beneath the wig. Our senior judiciary comes from an overwhelmingly narrow social group. Recent studies show that almost three-quarters are privately educated. Only three of the current 12 Supreme Court justices are women, and none are from an ethnic minority background. By subjecting them to select committee scrutiny whose membership is more reflective of Britain's communities, the public would gain a greater trust in the justice system. It might also make for interesting TV. Why were some Conservative MPs secretly pleased that Jeremy Corbyns Labour conference speech received such good reviews? Because they hope it will shake the Tories out of their dangerous complacency about Labour, and force Theresa May to come up with some big, popular domestic policies that grab voters attention. This mindset tells us a lot about the Tories high anxiety as they head to Birmingham for their conference starting on Sunday. The headlines will inevitably be dominated by Brexit, the issue which consumes the government and has left a vacuum on the domestic front. But a simmering debate about how to respond to Labours radical plans to reform capitalism might also reach boiling point. Many Tory MPs know their partys traditional tunes (such as socialism has been tried before, failed and wrecked the economy) dont work. No wonder the Tories have an under-50s problem a 50-year-old today was eight when a Labour government was bailed out by the International Monetary Fund. They might as well blame Corbyn for the General Strike. This week Labour offered change for a country crying out for it, as the 2016 referendum showed. The cleverest thing about New Labour was the word new; Corbyns ideas are fresh to most voters, while the Tories appear stale after eight years in power. Tory MPs are arguing among themselves about how to get back in the ideas game. George Freeman, Mays former policy head, warned that the Tories risk becoming a rump party of nostalgic nationalists. Robert Halfon, who champions white collar conservatism, admitted: We are stuck in the political rhetoric of the past, rather than providing a proper Tory vision for the future. Labour are speaking to the problems faced by many. We too often speak only for the few. But Sam Gyimah, the universities minister, warned that trying to out-Corbyn Corbyn leaves people yearning for the real thing. No doubt ministers will breathlessly trumpet non-Brexit announcements at the Birmingham conference. But they will probably not be significant enough to even flicker on most peoples radar. The Tories are successful when they offer both competence and compassion. At the moment, they appear to offer neither. Their competence is under threat from the endless Brexit process, their compassion from eight years of austerity. May is aware of the problem. She has asked ministers to come up with life after Brexit proposals for a Queens Speech next June or July. Yet some Tories doubt the Downing Street or Whitehall machines have the capacity to think big while they are so immersed in Brexit; they are currently scrambling together belated plans for a no-deal crash-out next March. 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 Mays Tory critics fear another damp policy squib. The job of radical thinking may have to be outsourced to the ideas factories in centre-right think tanks. Onward, the new kid on the Tory block, is producing some good new models. It will publish plans for the private rented sector and retraining in the age of the robots before the end of this year. The Tories should listen; Labour is streets ahead among renters and, as I reported this week, its conference targeted left behind voters, many of whom voted Leave in 2016. If May gets Brexit over the line next March, there will be a window of opportunity on the domestic agenda. Many voters are bored by Brexit; they will be even more so after saturated media coverage over the next six months. But May is being very optimistic in telling the cabinet to plan for after Brexit. For a start, she might not be in Number 10 much longer. The vultures are already circling; she will come under strong pressure to announce her departure timetable as soon as the UK leaves the EU. In any case May, or her successor, will find it difficult to escape the Brexit straitjacket. Recommended Labour supporters want a real alternative to Theresa May I suspect we are heading for blind Brexit with a vague political declaration about the future UK-EU relationship. If it scrapes through parliament still a big if that would leave the trade talks starting next April to do most of the heavy lifting. They are supposed to be concluded by the end of the status quo transitional period in December 2020. But UK ministers and officials admit privately that is unlikely, so we might need to extend the transition to avoid another cliff edge. The EU wants an extension clause included in any withdrawal agreement. Even Boris Johnson, in his 4,500-word piece in todays Daily Telegraph acknowledges that his proposed SuperCanada slimline trade agreement might take longer. A hiatus as a new European Commission is chosen and takes office next year will prolong an already complex process. The trade talks will finally define what Brexit really means but, with a new Tory leader likely to be in place, the argument will continue to divide the political parties and the country. Even then, there will be a battle over which EU laws to keep, whether to diverge further from the EU, and perhaps over whether to move back towards it or even rejoin if the economy takes a hit. After Brexit sounds nice. But its still years away. The shadowy figures of Kurdish fighters can be just made out on film as they ambush and kill three pro-Turkish fighters in a night time attack in Afrin in northern Syria. The Kurdish enclave was invaded and occupied by the Turkish army and their Syrian armed opposition allies earlier in the year. Sporadic guerrilla warfare has been going on ever since. This skirmish took place a few days after an attack on a military parade by gunmen a thousand miles away from Afrin in Ahvaz in southwest Iran that killed 25 people. Film shows soldiers and civilians running in panic as they are sprayed with bullets, leaving 25 dead, including 11 conscripts and a four-year-old child. The killings were claimed by both Isis and Arab separatists from the province of Khuzestan whom the Iranians accused of acting as catspaws for the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These incidents matter because they may be the harbinger of the next round of confrontations, crises and wars engulfing the Middle East. The most recent phase of conflict in the region saw the rise and fall of Isis and failed campaigns to overthrow the governments of Syria and Iraq. But Isis, which three years ago ruled a de facto state with a population of five or six million, has been largely crushed and confined to desert hideouts. President Bashar al-Assad whose fall was confidently predicted after the uprising in 2011 is firmly in power, as is the Iraqi government that suffered calamitous defeats at the time of the Isis capture of Mosul in 2014. But the round of conflicts just ending may soon be replaced by another with different players and different issues. The guerrilla action in Afrin is a single episode in the escalating confrontation between Turkey and the Kurds in northern Syria which will involve the US and Russia. The Middle East is always dangerous because, like the Balkans before 1914, it is full of complex but ferocious conflicts that draw in the great powers. The risk is always there but is more dangerous under President Trump because he and his administration view the Middle East through a paranoid prism in which they everywhere see the hidden hand of Iran. President George W Bush and Tony Blair had similar tunnel vision during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 when they blamed everything that went wrong on a remnant of Saddam Hussein supporters. Recommended The Syrian ceasefire proves how far Putin has come out on top The exaggeration of the Iranian threat by the Trump administration this week at the UN General Assembly in New York was very like what was being said about Iraq fifteen years earlier. The National Security Advisor John Bolton threatened that the murderous regime and its supporters will face significant consequences if they do not change their behaviour. We are watching, and we will come after you. The US military intervention in Syria, previously targeting Isis, will in future be directed against Iranian influence. US policy in Syria and Iraq has been likened to playing chess while mistaking the knight for the bishop and thinking that castles move diagonally. The US has decided to retain a military force in northeast Syria in order to thwart Iranian ambitions, but the country most affected by this is not Iran but Turkey. The US can only stay in this part of Syria in alliance with the Syrian Kurds, whose de facto state, which they call Rojava, Turkey is pledged to eliminate. Turkey has been nibbling its way into northern Syria over the past two years and is now deploying troops in Idlib province in cooperation with the Russians. A shaky alliance with Turkey as a leading Nato military power is one of the biggest Russian gains of its military intervention in Syria which it will go a long way to preserve. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now threatening to extend the Turkey advance east of the Euphrates river in order to slice up the Kurdish statelet. Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Show all 10 1 /10 Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burnt a US flag in parliament after Donald Trump announced America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal US President Donald Trump displays a presidential memorandum after announcing his intent to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House. Reuters Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Some Iranian MPs reacted after Trumps decision by shouting 'death to America'. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian lawmakers prepare to burn two pieces of papers representing the US flag and the nuclear deal. AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran said it will hold talks with signatories to the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to withdraw from the accord, which it branded "psychological warfare". AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Several Iranian MPs stood chanting in the Tehran parliament. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burning a US flag AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal President Hassan Rouhani addressed the nation in a televised speech in Tehran. He said he'd send his foreign minister to negotiate with countries remaining in the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to pull America from the deal, warning he otherwise would restart enriching uranium "in the next weeks." Iranian Presidency Office via AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran's press condemned Trump's withdrawal from a multi-party nuclear deal but was divided over whether Tehran should react with patience or withdraw itself. AFP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Trump announced the US withdrawal from what he called the "defective" multinational nuclear deal with Iran, and said Washington would reinstate sanctions against the Islamic republic. AFP/Getty This would mean the extinction of the last remaining gain of the Syrian uprising of 2011. Rojava was the unexpected creation of the Syrian Kurds and their YPG militia that allied themselves with the US against Isis during the siege of Kurdish city of Kobani in 2014. They provide the ground troops and the US the airpower. The US-backed Kurds are greatly overextended, holding a swathe of northeast Syria, half of whose population are Arabs hostile to Kurdish rule. It is not a place where American troops can stay forever without becoming somebodys target. Prolonged US presence invites disaster as with the American ground operations in Lebanon in 1982-84, Somalia in 1992-95 and in Iraq in 2003-11. There will always be people in the Middle East who think that the best way to get rid of the Americans is to kill some of them, noted one observer with long experience of region. Denunciations of Iran as the root of all evil by Trump, Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and UN ambassador Nikki Haley are simple minded to the point of idiocy. Haley responded to the Ahvaz massacre by telling the government to look in the mirror. Bolton last year promised the exiled Iranian opposition group, the very weird cult-like Mojahedin-e Khalq, that by 2019 they would be ruling Iran. This week he was saying that there would be hell to pay if Iran stood in the way of the US. Recommended Trump knows that he can exercise more power in a UK weakened by Brexit The blood-curdling rhetoric may be arrogant and puerile but should be taken seriously because it reflects the same attitude of mind that preceded past US interventions in the Middle East: the enemy is demonised and underestimated at the same time. There is credulity towards self-interested exiled groups who claimed that US intervention would be easy (Iraqi opposition groups were privately cynical in 2003 about how far they were misleading the Americans on this score). Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE have an interest in luring the US into fighting Iran, though they are not intending to do much fighting themselves. The twists and turns of US policy in the Middle East has in the past mystified knowledgeable observers who attribute bizarre actions by the White House to stupidity and ignorance of local conditions. But US policy was often more rational than it looked so long as one understood that it was determined by American domestic politics and the main purpose was to persuade the US voter, particularly in the run up to important elections, that their president had not mired them in a bloody and unsuccessful war. The reputation of every US President since the 1970s, with the exception of President George Bush senior, has been damaged to a greater or lesser degree by conflict in the Middle East or North Africa. There is Jimmy Carter (Iran), Ronald Reagan (Lebanon, Irangate), Bill Clinton (Somalia), George W Bush (Iraq, Afghanistan), Barack Obama (Syria, Libya). It would be surprising if Trump turns out to be an exception to the rule. As any parent will tell you, the joy of caring for a baby and child brings with it practical challenges and sacrifices. More often than not, it falls to women to take on this wonderful responsibility. But it can come at a cost to our employment prospects. Studies have found that time away from their job and fewer years of full-time work are two of the reasons women struggle to progress in their careers thereby widening the gender pay gap. These issues can, of course, affect men who take time out of work for caring reasons, but we know that nine out of 10 people returning to work after spending time out caring for someone are women. Serena Williams says she is sticking up for women's rights following a heated Umpire Exchange at the US Open And the challenges women face when they try to re-enter the job market can be significant. Some organisations are reluctant to consider candidates with gaps in their CVs, or offer flexible hours or part-time working necessities for mothers caring for children. For too long this has cut short careers. Thats why this government is investing 1.5m to start up projects across the country that will support people to come back to work. The organisations will give anyone who has taken a break to care the opportunity to refresh and grow their skills ensuring they are in the best position when they are applying for jobs. They will also be linking in with employers, opening their eyes to the talent they are losing and encouraging them to change outdated recruitment processes and consider different types of skills. Five grant recipients have already been awarded 500,000, and more winners of the further 1m will follow this autumn. The five organisations will be working directly with 79 employers from a range of sectors including law, finance, tech, retail, communications, advertising and marketing. They are supporting people from all over the country and from all walks of life. Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Show all 10 1 /10 Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Marchers hold up banners as they gather in London to mark 100 years since women won the right to vote in the UK Getty Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Women hold up banners as they march down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh during Processions 2018 Getty Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Getty Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Women march in London Reuters Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Women march in London AFP/Getty Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Women march in Belfast Reuters Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Women march in Belfast Reuters Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage A banner at the London march PA Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage Women march in Edinburgh Getty Processions 2018: March to celebrate 100 years of womens suffrage A samba band performs at the Edinburgh march Getty One project, run by Women Returners, will support 100 returners to the legal sector through workshops and training in the northwest and Leeds. They will also reform the recruitment and support practices of twelve law firms to enable them to focus on returners in the future. For too long, brilliant, talented women have been unable to re-enter industries which will not support them to return. Equality means allowing people to achieve their full potential not being held back by where they come from, what they look like, or what gender they are. Aside from the clear injustice, this issue has real practical implications for the UK and our economy. We cannot afford to prevent women from returning to work. Research by McKinsey estimates that bridging gender gaps in employment could add 150bn to the UK economy by 2025. And figures have shown that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 per cent more likely to enjoy profits above their industry averages. This government is taking action to make sure women and men can return to work. This is good for business, great for our economy and helps parents to achieve their potential at work while enjoying their time at home. Victoria Atkins is the minister for women Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe was forced to defend the Governments housing plan after he was confronted by a resident in Dublin during a press conference. Geoffrey Fox, who has lived in the same social housing flat in Smithfield for sixteen years, asked the minister to force his government to do more for the homeless and children in the area. You can go home and lie in your bed and have your dinner, these people cant, theyre sleeping in doorways, its not fair, theyre human beings, he said. Expand Close Paschal Donohoe with prominent Together for Yes campaigner Deirdre Duffy (Brian Lawless/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Paschal Donohoe with prominent Together for Yes campaigner Deirdre Duffy (Brian Lawless/PA) Me and my son and wife live in a flat, with two little bedrooms, we need a house, Im in it 16 years, and Ive been told I have to wait another three years before I get something. Look at all the derelict buildings look around this area, with leaks, and water, its desperate. Build houses for people who need them, theres too many children in flats. Mr Donohoe said the Government was committed to building more social housing but did not respond when asked repeatedly for a promise by Mr Fox. We know that, were going ahead and trying to build council housing, weve starting building them, and well build even more. We know we need good homes for peoplePaschal Donohoe We know we need good homes for people. Its happening at the moment, were doing a lot of work to change the derelict buildings into more homes. We want to do more, were striving for people to have good accommodation, a safe home. The minister was in Smithfield to announce that Deirdre Duffy would join him on the partys general election ticket in Dublin Central. Ms Duffy, who recently served as campaign manager for the Together for Yes campaign, is a barrister and was added to the constituency ticket on Thursday at a meeting of Fine Gaels executive council. When asked if she was comfortable joining Fine Gael given the number of members who opposed repealing the Eighth Amendment, she said that change would not come from an echo chamber. This was the party that put in place a really successful process to have a national conversation into what was a really divisive topic, she said. I wanted to go somewhere where I could achieve change and be effective, theres no point me going into an echo chamber because you have to have those conversations and find a common purpose and a common ground. The Dublin central constituency has been highlighted as a battleground for Fine Gael with some claiming the party were lucky to keep the seat at the last election. I would not be putting my name forward on the ballot if I didnt think I could win and that we could bring in two seats, she added. A place for cleansing and contemplation, for relaxation and conversation. Azerbaijan's old hammam culture may have waned in recent years, but many of the city's older residents recall with nostalgia the weekly ritual of visiting the city's public baths. Azerbaijan Baku Caucasus Continents and regions Eastern Europe Europe Russia South Caucasus Azerbiajan travel guide Demographic groups Population and demographics Society In the days of the shahs, the khans and even the Russian Empire, hammams in Azerbaijan were about much more than just getting clean. "People got together, chatted, discussed. It was a social institution where you would relax and, everything that had built up inside of you, you'd talk about it and share it," says Kamil Ibragimov, head of the archaeological department in Baku's Old City administration. Spiritual and physical needs Azerbaijani cities in the Middle Ages were separated into small neighborhoods known as mehelle and each one had its own hammam and mosque, catering to both the spiritual and physical needs of local Muslims. The hammam also played a key role in marriage. Long before the Soviets did away with religious conservatism, women's hammams were a natural hunting ground for mothers eager to get a closer look at potential young brides. Men on the other hand used the hammam to strike deals over tea and games of nard, the local version of backgammon. Above all, though, hammams were historically a means of maintaining public hygiene. In the days of the Silk Road, for example, a hammam stood at both entrances to Baku's Old City and travelers could only enter after burning their old clothes and having a good scrub. Hammam culture dipped a little in Soviet times as apartments were increasingly fitted with their own baths and showers, but hammams were still the first port of call whenever there was a water crisis. Today there's still a loyal crowd of locals that can't live without a hammam, but before joining them here's a brief guide to its rules and rituals. How to hammam 1. Male or female: Hamams in Azerbaijan are strictly segregated: Some are just for men, some for women and some for both but on different days. While this segregation rule has relaxed a little since the Middle Ages -- some male hammams now employ masseuses -- mixed bathing is still a complete no-no. 2. Wear a towel: As opposed to Russian "banyas" and Finnish saunas and despite the segregation rule, strutting around completely naked is not allowed. Instead a special towel called a fite must be worn at all times. 3. Be whipped: Given the former Russian influence over the Caucasus it's no surprise that bushy and aromatic birch twigs have also found their way into the Azerbaijani hammam. Being lightly whipped by a companion in the parkhana, or steam room, stirs up the heat and aids breathing and circulation. 4. Scrub hard: Central to the Azerbaijani hamam ritual is kise, in which a person called a kisechi scrubs all the grime from your body using a large abrasive glove. It may feel a little forceful at first, but will leave a light tingle across the body. 5. Steam room etiquette: A felt hat should also be worn to insulate you (and your hair) and prevent overheating. Scrubbing in the steam room is strictly prohibited. 6. Foamy soap: Another interesting ritual is something called kurpuk. Soap and water are whisked together with a special net to create big clouds of soapy foam which the kisechi rubs over every inch of your body. 7. Coffee, salt and honey: Another procedure is rubbing salt, coffee and honey into the skin. The salt helps you sweat, the coffee is aromatic and the honey soothes any wounds and inflammations. 8. Take your time: The bathing process itself shouldn't be rushed, but equally important is drinking tea afterward. There's no time limit on how long you can spend at the hammam so it's not unusual to sit, scrub and socialize over six to eight hours. 9. Admire the architecture: Azerbaijan's old hammams were built in the Eastern style common across Iran, Central Asia and the Middle East. A key feature is the cupola with holes at the top, superbly engineered to let air out but not let rainwater in. Older hammams were often built half-underground, keeping them warm in winter and cool in summer. Most of Azerbaijan's old hammams stopped functioning a long time ago. Some are preserved as monuments while others have been converted into shops, bazaars or tea houses. But there are still a few places in central Baku to experience the steamy rituals of the past. Agha Mikayil Hamami This is the number one choice for a quintessential Azerbaijani hammam experience. Built in the 18th century, Agha Mikayil is Baku's oldest functioning hammam. It operates separate days for men and women and is run by an enthusiastic team with lots of experience. "I'm like an amphibian," longtime manager Orkhan Gasimov tells CNN Travel. "I can't live without a hamam." Given its timeless appeal, Agha Mikayil has been used several times as a film location. A hammam scene from the 1956 film "If Not This One, Then That One" is especially popular. Women's days are Mondays and Fridays, all the rest are for men. Basic entrance is just 10 manats (around $6), including limitless access to the steam room, showers and pool. Extra services cost as follows: body scrub -- 10 manats; coffee, salt and honey treatment -- 20 manats; massage -- 20 manats. Agha Mikayil Hamami, 16, Kickik Qala, Icheri Sheher, Baku; +994-50-345-21-44 Agha Zeynal Hamami Agha Zeynal Hamami (also known as Prestige) dates back to Baku's late 19th-century oil boom. This was originally a men's hammam, switched to being women-only during the Soviet era, and is now once again exclusively for men. Today this hammam has a local clientele, offers all the traditional treatments and still breathes the spirit of the past. Prices: entrance (including steam room and baths) -- 12 manats; 30-minute massage -- 15 manats; the full package costs about 60 manats ($35). Agha Zeynal Hamami, 5 Saftar Quliyev Street, Icheri Sheher, Baku; +994-55-639-19-99 // +994-55-434-65-35 She-Bi Hamami This 19th-century hammam -- known until recently as Gasim Bey Hammam, after its millionaire founder Gasim Bey -- was exclusively for women for most of its existence. It's now a men-only hammam and is especially popular with civil servants, thanks to its location near four government ministries. The main attractions are its elegant central pool and a locals-only feel. It offers all the usual procedures (steam room, whipping, pool, scrub, mochalka -- a smoothing wash with soap -- and massage), plus there's an in-house barber, cafe and a booth for pedicures. Prices are 12 manats for entrance (includes unlimited time in the steam room and pool); 12 manats for scrubbing, 20 manats for an hour-long massage. She-Bi Hamami, 41 Murtuza Mukhtarov Street, Baku; +994-50-540-08-41 Akhund Hammam Further along Murtuza Mukhtarov Street is a great example of the age-old link between mosques and hammams. Almost opposite the green-domed Haji Sultan Ali mosque is the men-only Akhund Hammam, named in honor of the akhund (cleric) that lobbied for its construction way back in 1887. Prices: entrance and use of the sauna -- 10 manats; a 30-minute scrub -- 12 manats; and a 30-minute massage -- 14 manats. Akhund Hammam, 141 Murtuza Mukhtarov Street; +994-12-595-50-59 Tezebay Hammam This hammam's building may date back to 1886, but it's only been functioning as a hammam for the last 20 years. The eclectic mix of souvenirs, stuffed animals and dim lighting create a wacky ambiance and make the place feel part hammam, part museum. Look out for the portraits of Lenin and Stalin and the small statue of Donald Trump. While less historic, its services and equipment are a little more upmarket. This is reflected in the prices - 23 manats covers entrance while the average all-inclusive package is 86 manats. This includes Russian, Turkish and Finnish saunas, pool and baths, body scrub, a half-hour massage and veniki (birch-twig whipping). Tezebay is especially popular with stag and hen parties. Men's and women's hammams are housed in adjacent buildings. Tezebay Hammam, 30 Sheikh Shamil Street, Baku; +994-12-492-64-40 Hemis temizlikde! Enjoy your bath. Grounded: Airlines fear that a no-deal Brexit could have a short-term hit on operations between the UK and the EU RYANAIR, EasyJet and IAG's British Airways are among the three airlines most exposed to a no-deal Brexit, according to ratings agency Moody's. It warned that the scenario may hurt their ability to raise ticket prices and fill planes. "A no-deal Brexit could be significantly credit negative for European airlines," said Jeanine Arnold, a Moody's vice-president and author of the report. "It could compound an airline's ability to increase yields, raise load factors and generate cost efficiencies in what is still a competitive market environment in Europe. "Ultimately it could lead to cash flow and liquidity pressures," she added. Fears of a no-deal Brexit have heightened concerns amongst a number of sectors - including car makers and retailers - which risk significant adverse impacts to their operations if the UK falls out of the EU next March without any divorce deal in place. The future of the Northern Ireland border has been the key sticking point. Airlines, including Ryanair, have warned that flights could be grounded in and out of the UK in the weeks after the UK leaves the EU unless an agreement is struck to enable them to keep operating. Moody's said that its "central view" is that the UK and the EU will reach a deal, "minimising the impact on European airlines' business profiles and financial metrics". "However," it warned, "a 'no-deal' scenario remains a threat to the aviation industry as the Brexit deadline approaches and until a withdrawal agreement with transition arrangements is reached." If risks materialise, financial implications could be severe in the short term, but modest in the long term because more time should allow comprehensive agreements to be reached and airlines to adjust their operations, said Moody's. But it cautioned that even in a no-deal scenario, agreements are "imperative", because the airline industry lacks fall-back legislation comparable to World Trade Organisation rules, which would apply for other industries. "The strong liquidity of British Airways, EasyJet and Ryanair should enable them to weather the financial impact of a no-deal Brexit, even if flights are disrupted for an extended period," noted Moody's. "However, for airlines negatively affected by a no-deal Brexit, a sustained deterioration in liquidity and key credit metrics such as gross leverage or cash flow coverage could lead to negative rating actions." Moody's said that the main risks to EU airlines from a no-deal Brexit outcome include: the loss of traffic rights between the UK and the European Common Aviation Area; weaker macro-economic conditions; a loss of traffic rights between the UK and other third countries that have aviation agreements with the EU, including the US; and meeting ownership and control conditions to retain valid operation licences. As multiple investigations into Danske Bank get under way, Denmark's government wants to know why the bank's auditors appear to have missed signs that one of Europe's biggest money laundering scandals was unfolding in front of them. Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov says he finds it surprising that the firms hired to go over Danske's accounts didn't react to years of irregular transactions at the bank's Estonian unit. "All I can do is give the layman's perspective that the financial ratios were off," he said. "A lot of money was made in a tiny Estonian branch, which posted a huge profit margin and quick, large transfers in and out of the branch, which looked off," Jarlov said, after attending a parliamentary hearing in Copenhagen. "It's the sort of thing that I would assume would catch the interest of management and auditors." Danske has admitted that a large part of about 200bn that flowed through an Estonian unit between 2007 and 2015 may have been laundered. CEO Thomas Borgen has resigned in disgrace and Danske now faces hefty fines. Danske changed its auditors several times during the period in question, according to its annual accounts. Between 2010 and 2014, it switched between Grant Thornton, PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY. During this time, the Danish units of KPMG and EY merged, as did Grant Thornton and PwC. Bloomberg President of IFA Joe Healy and RTE's Europe Editor Tony Connelly guest speakers at the "Brexit Masterclass" held at the Loughrea Hotel, Co. Galway. Photograph: Hany Marzouk Everything will be hit, including CAP, if there is a hard Brexit, RTE Europe Editor Tony Connelly told a recent Brexit conference. "The EU budget would be impacted and CAP would come under attack," Mr Connelly said, adding though, that he was of the view that the Commission didn't want a radically cut CAP budget because of Brexit - but that was under the scenario that there would be a withdrawal agreement. "I think everything will be hit if there is a hard Brexit," he added. Tariffs, currency fluctuations and corporation tax were among the concerns raised by more than 230 small business owners and interest group representatives at the event this week. The event held in Loughrea, Co Galway, and organised by Supermac's, was also addressed by IFA president Joe Healy. Mr Healy said that some people questioned whether Ireland had allowed itself to become too dependent on the UK as an export market for food. However he pointed to fact that when Ireland first joined what was then the EEC in 1973, 70pc of agri-exports were going to the UK. Today this figure is around 40pc. Nonetheless, the agri-food sector is set to be disproportionately impacted by Brexit. Mr Connelly noted that within weeks of the Brexit vote taking place, five mushroom businesses in Ireland went to the wall, due in part to the impact of the fall in the value of sterling. Ann Mitchell, a member of Galway IFA, asked whether the budget for Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) would by affected under a no-deal scenario between the UK and the EU. Mr Healy went on to say that a fear for the IFA is that the UK, post-Brexit, pursue a "cheap food policy... importing food from places like South America". Mr McDonagh, CEO of Supermac's, said that he was hosting the event because Brexit is something "we are all still learning about". Approximately 50pc of people shopping in Tesco in the UK have 85 or less to feed a family for a week, IFA President Joe Healy told a Brexit briefing this week. Healy said he feared that post-Brexit the UK will pursue a cheap food policy, importing food from South American countries. He said not only would this be damaging to UK farmers, but also to Irish farmers, who are hugely reliant on the UK as an export destination. A cheap food policy in the UK, Healy said could see the UK look to strike a trade deal with South American countries if a hard Brexit occurs. UK farmers that think in the moment and not down the line, he said, were seeing the benefits of the falling sterling, as they get their CAP payments in euro. While the UK contributes about 6bn to the overall CAP budget of 56bn, UK farmers he said get about 3bn of that so net loss to CAP could be about 3bn. RTE Europe Editor Tony Connelly told the meeting in Loughrea that Brexiteers don't realise 40bn is what the UK has committed to legally, the exit bill is for stuff already committed too, but EU budget would be impacted and CAP would come under attack. "I think everything will be hit in a hard Brexit," Mr Connelly said. A wool sale room sign is pictured outside an auction, sampling and storage and distribution centre in Yennora, Sydney, Australia September 20, 2018. Picture taken September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Barrett Auctioneer Ian Sharp has been selling Australian agricultural products to the highest bidder since 1968, and hes never seen demand like this before. Earlier this year, the benchmark price for fine Australian merino wool gained a foothold above the once mythic A$20/kg (about $6.60/lb) price, as one of Australias worst-ever droughts leaves farmers struggling to keep flocks fed. The surge, up 20pc in a year, has confounded buyers who have waited in vain for prices to fall, as they have done previously. This is very exciting for an old auctioneer like me in the fact that we are selling at these prices and we are clearing a lot of wool, Sharp told Reuters, shortly before an auction at one of the countrys biggest wool-selling sites, in Sydneys western suburb of Yennora. Expand Close Veteran auctioneer Ian Sharp looks through fine wool samples ahead of an auction in Sydney, Australia September 20, 2018. Picture taken September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Barrett / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Veteran auctioneer Ian Sharp looks through fine wool samples ahead of an auction in Sydney, Australia September 20, 2018. Picture taken September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Barrett Theres very little wool on hold anywhere on farms or woolbrokers stores. Australia controls 90pc of global fine-wool exports, where demand is being driven by Chinese wool mills and Italian garment makers, according to wool brokers at the Yennora auction. While wool has long been used by suit-makers, the surge in popularity is being driven by fitness and leisure clothing manufacturers looking for soft, durable and natural fibres. But the drought savaging Australias east, where the bulk of the countrys wool is produced, is hitting flock numbers, leading to lower production, threats to quality, and higher prices. THIRSTY BUYERS, PARCHED SELLERS Like any commodity, wool has had its ups and downs, with sharp price spikes followed by troughs. Wool buyers say this has prompted many overseas buyers to run down their stocks and wait for prices to fall. I think going back a few months people were prepared to believe this market could correct in a big way - thats gone now, said Peter Brice of Australian Merino Exports, which has a big base of Chinese clients who mill the raw wool into fabric. We think from October onwards they will need to stock the pipeline up again knowing the further we go, the less wool there will be. The threat of a fairly dramatic reduction in supply next year is really underpinning this market and I think the Chinese in particular now appreciate that. Many Australian farmers, meanwhile, are selling their older sheep to reduce their exposure to rocketing feed costs as the drought lingers, and to take advantage of high mutton prices. Expand Close Wool presser Dave Wilson prepares wool to be compacted in Sydney, Australia September 20, 2018. Picture taken September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Barrett / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Wool presser Dave Wilson prepares wool to be compacted in Sydney, Australia September 20, 2018. Picture taken September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Barrett Lamb and sheep sales are running at around 15pc more than this time last year at the large sale yards in the NSW regional city of Wagga Wagga, according to livestock agent Isaac Hill. Australias chief commodity forecaster ABARES anticipates wool production will drop 4pc this financial year to 404,000 tonnes, the first annual decline in four years. Sheep numbers are also expected to fall this year, down 3 percent to 69.1 million, according to ABARES. The supply imbalance is hard to correct. While New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina also export merino wool, it takes years to build flocks, making it difficult for other countries to quickly respond to demand. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT The question of what happens next in the wool market is complicated by its opaque nature, according to analysts. Unlike more transparent markets like cotton, analysts have a much harder time looking through the wool supply chain to measure global stock levels and anticipated demand. Australias weather will also play a part. Wool traders at the Yennora auction told Reuters more dust was turning up in the wool as a result of the drought, although the overall quality was still sound. If rural conditions deteriorate, dirt and other impurities will start to reduce the quality of the fleeces. Under-fed sheep could also be a problem, given they produce weaker fibres. David Hart, wool manager at broker Landmark, said high prices were posing some problems for supply chains that ultimately produce a woollen garment. There is difficulty passing on these prices down the pipeline - so far the shortage of supply has ensured the wool has kept flowing because there is demand for the final product and so that pulls the wool through system. Manufacturers may start decreasing the wool content, substituting in lower-cost fibres such as cotton and polyester, when they renegotiate new season production contracts, according to a September note by forecaster ABARES. Any substitution is expected to occur with lower-margin, mass-produced garments, as opposed to tailored suits, for example. Japanese casual wear retailer UNIQLO, which sells merino jumpers, said in a statement it minimized the risk of market fluctuations by establishing stable supply sources. Additionally, we reduce our exposure to fluctuations by purchasing at favorable times, said UNIQLO, which is owned by Fast Retailing Co. On the Yennora sale-room floor, buyers are showing no sign of holding back. Youll see strong bidding today from a number of countries, people representing all parts of the world, trying to secure wool thats difficult to come by at the moment, said Andrew Blanch, managing director of Italian textile maker-owned New England Wool. Sharp, the chief auctioneer at Macdonald & Co Woolbrokers, uses an abbreviated swing of his gavel to swiftly work through the days offerings. In short order, hes sold 75 lots of wool, representing 316 bales of high quality fleece. The culmination of my job is that moment when I stand in the auctioneers blocks and I knock the hammer down, he said. Whether its good or bad, you need to do your best to get as much money out of the room you can. Dunnes shut down all of its stores in England and Scotland this year but continues to operate in Northern Ireland, where it has 16 stores. Stock image Pre-tax losses at the main UK firm of retail giant Dunnes Stores rose more than four-fold to 23m (25.7m) last year. The family-owned retailer shut down all of its stores in England and Scotland this year but continues to operate in Northern Ireland, where it has 16 stores. The Dunnes Stores (Bangor) Ltd firm covers the activities of Dunnes in the North, England and Scotland. The pre-tax loss at the business's last full year in England and Scotland is mainly due to an exceptional 18.2m non-cash cost concerning a write-down in assets. A note attached to the accounts said the write-down took place "to reflect current market conditions". Revenues totalled 113.43m in the 53-week period to the end of December 29 last compared to revenues of 99.85m in the prior 47-week period. The directors confirmed that "the company has ceased trading at its current stores in Great Britain post year end. The stores in Northern Ireland continue to operate." The firm paid 4.79m in dividends and this followed a dividend of 250.8m last year. The pre-tax loss also takes into account non-cash depreciation costs of 5.498m and foreign exchange gains of 1.24m. Numbers employed last year fell from 1,289 to 1,230. At the end of last year, the company's accumulated profits stood at 48m. Irish oil and gas explorer Aminex has reported an interim loss of $2.36m (2m) for the six months to 30 June. This is a swing from a profit of $1m for the same period in 2017, according to a trading update from the group. Net current assets at 30 June 2018 were $3.39m, a decline on the $6m of net current assets at 31 December 2017. The company has no debt. Revenues from continuing operations amounted to $0.34m for the six month period, a decline on the revenues of $4.59m reported for the same period last year. Gas revenues were "significantly lower" than the comparative period following a decline in production rates and wellhead pressure from the second half of 2017, the company said. Group administrative expenses, net of costs capitalised against projects, were $1.87m. Post reporting period the group has done a $5m (4.2m) farm-out deal with Omani giant the Zubair Corporation. The deal is designed to accelerate the development of an Aminex asset in Tanzania. It will see Zubair take a 50pc interest in the project, known as Ntorya, and cover Aminex's share of costs up to $35m (29.8m). Commenting on the results Aminex CEO, Jay Bhattacherjee, said that the farm-out agreement signed with the Zubair Corporation "is an advantageous way to accelerate development and generate material cashflow from Ntorya." "Aminex has a bright future, having signed a farm-out agreement with the Zubair Corporation over the Ruvuma acreage with a fully-funded carry to material cashflow, together with exciting low risk assets over Kiliwani and the shelfal region of Nyuni, which can be monetised in the near-term." "Aminex continues to look at new venture opportunities that will provide low risk, robust returns to shareholders whilst diversifying the asset base and risk profile of the company." A consortium of Irish company Roadbridge and Spanish group FCC has been named preferred bidder for the construction of a new runway at Dublin Airport, the Irish Independent understands. The contract includes the construction of the runway itself, as well as associated taxiways and is part of a wider 320m infrastructure project there. "We are currently in a procurement process for the main North Runway construction contract and have yet to appoint a contractor," said a DAA spokesman. The managing director of Roadbridge, Conor Gilligan, did not respond to calls seeking comment. Limerick- based Roadbridge is a family- owned civil engineering firm. Roadbridge has already been involved in preparation works for the runway. In 2016 it was named main contractor for part of the project that included a diverting a road and site clearance. FCC helped to construct a 40m fuel farm that opened at Dublin Airport this year. Roadbridge and FCC hired Spanish company Sener and engineering consultancy Arup this year to design construction works for the runway as the tender process continued. Construction of the 3.1km runway, due to open in 2021, is set to start by the end of the year. The precise cost of the runway and taxiways construction isn't known, but it's a significant element of the total 320m cost of the overall project. Other costs include house and school insulation. (CNN) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee is once again the scene of a national drama Friday as its members prepare to vote on President Donald Trump's embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Senate Republican leaders appear to have 49 solid yes votes, one shy of the 50 they need to confirm Kavanaugh -- meaning they could lose one Republican and have Vice President Mike Pence break a potential tie -- so they're going to gamble with a damaged nominee who is viscerally opposed by Democrats. Tune into the Action News Now LIVE STREAM at 11:30 a.m. to watch the vote. Friday morning, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, presumed to be the swing vote on the committee, said he would back Kavanaugh. Two Republicans -- Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska -- and two Democrats in red states -- Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota -- now essentially hold the future of Kavanaugh's nomination in their hands. A third undecided Democrat, Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, announced his opposition to Kavanaugh late Friday morning. Donnelly was one of three Democratic senators who voted for Trump's first Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Flake confronted by two female protesters after announcing he'll back Kavanaugh The Judiciary Committee vote is set for 1:30 p.m. ET. The panel has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Friday's vote follows a wrenching, partisan hearing Thursday where Christine Blasey Ford detailed her sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh and he vehemently denied them. It sets into motion days of high drama on Capitol Hill, with the prospect of a conservative Supreme Court for a generation in the balance. The committee action will be the first step in a series of votes to determine whether conservatives lock in a 5-4 majority on the court. After the committee votes, the GOP's current plan is to hold a procedural vote on the Senate floor midday Saturday and hold the final vote early next week. Shortly after the vote time was set by committee Republicans on Friday in a meeting that started at 9:30 a.m. and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley began reading a statement praising Kavanaugh, California Sen. Kamala Harris led several Democrats in walking out of the hearing room. She was joined by Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal, Hawaii's Mazie Hirono, Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse, and later, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy. "From top to bottom this has been about bullies," Harris told reporters outside the committee room. "Dr. Ford came in and she poured out her heart. She cooperated with the process. She gave the process dignity and respect. The least we could do is give her the dignity and respect of a process that has credibility." "I'm not going to participate in this charade anymore," Hirono said. Republicans responded angrily, saying they believed Kavanaugh's denial of Ford's allegation. "I'm a single white male from South Carolina, and I'm told I should just shut up, but I will not shut up," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said Friday. He said he feels sorry for Ford, "but I don't believe it was Brett Kavanaugh" who assaulted her. "Everything I know about Judge Kavanaugh screams that this didn't happen," Graham said. Democrats also made a last-ditch effort to push Grassley to subpoena Mark Judge -- the man Ford told senators was in the room with Kavanaugh when she says she was assaulted. Wrenching hearing During an intense, day-long hearing Thursday, Ford, a California professor, testified that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were both teenagers in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh later offered a vociferous and emotional defense, alternately shouting and tearing up on national television. On Thursday, Ford told the committee she is "100%" certain it was Kavanaugh who attacked her at a party when the two were teenagers in 1982. As the nation watched, she said she "believed he was going to rape me." She told senators it has "haunted me episodically as an adult." Then, Kavanaugh denied that allegation and other accusations of sexual misconduct he has faced in recent days. He blamed Democrats for what he said was a "calculated and orchestrated political hit" designed to keep him off the Supreme Court. He also refused to support a Democratic push for an FBI investigation of the allegations. "I've never done this," Kavanaugh said of Ford's assault charge. "It's not who I am. I am innocent." Late Thursday night, the American Bar Association took the extraordinary step of recommending the Senate Judiciary Committee pause on Kavanaugh's nomination until a FBI probe into the allegations is completed. The association had previously given Kavanaugh a unanimous "well-qualified" rating, its highest rating. "The basic principles that underscore the Senate's constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI," said Robert Carlson, president of the organization, in a Thursday night letter. "Each appointment to our nation's Highest Court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote," Carlson wrote. "Deciding to proceed without conducting additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senate's reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court." The general secretary of the Financial Services Union, which represents bank workers, has left the post after just seven months. Dermot Ryan announced his decision to resign via Twitter, and later released a statement through a public relations firm. The union confirmed the departure. The FSU said that Mr Ryan had resigned in order to "pursue other interests". A Tipperary native, he had been in the role seven months following his return to Ireland from Australia. Mr Ryan replaced Larry Broderick, who'd been with the former Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) for 32 years - 16 as general secretary. During his time in Australia Mr Ryan was head of external affairs at Amnesty International Australia, and before that spent five years as chief of staff at the Transport Workers Union of Australia. Mr Ryan said in a statement that he had been "privileged" to lead the FSU, and steer it through a change agenda to improve the lives of financial services workers. "I passionately believe in the power of unions to make a difference in the lives of working people," he said. Operation: The group prints seven of its own newspapers along with other titles. Stock image Celtic Media has warned the viability of its printing business is at major risk due to continuing losses, declining print volumes and very substantial increases in newsprint costs. Celtic Media Print Ltd has sounded the warning to the Labour Court where it is in dispute with trade union Unite over its plans to reduce hours for a number of staff at the firm. The group's print business based in Navan, Co Meath prints newspapers for the group's own seven newspapers along with other titles, including the 'Irish Daily Mirror'. In its argument before the Labour Court, Celtic Media Print has stated that it recorded a loss for 2017 "and the forecast for 2018 is not positive". The print firm has told the Labour Court that if it does not achieve the required savings it will turn cash negative by year end. It has stated that while savings have been achieved in other areas, its payroll bill has remained static "and an immediate reduction in payroll costs is urgently required". The print subsidiary has said it has been told by its funder, Bank of Ireland, to reduce its payroll costs immediately. The firm believes that a five-hour reduction in the working week can be achieved without any business disruption - otherwise four workers risk losing their jobs in alternative cost-cutting measures. In its argument before the Labour Court, Unite stated that the company has "cried wolf" in the past and it doesn't believe that the reduction in working hours is necessary. Unite also contends that there is a better way to make cost savings than reducing working hours and that administration costs in the company are too high and should be addressed. Unite said its members feel that they have nothing left to give to the company and they will not agree to anything that reduces their pay. The union said that over the last number of years, the workers have agreed to a reduction in the workforce, to alter their contractual hours, redundancies and pay cuts. A spokesman for Celtic Media said yesterday that the dispute "is reflective of a print industry that is experiencing considerable challenges and undergoing consolidation". He said the company is looking forward to re-engaging with the union as soon as possible at the Workplace Relations Commission. The Labour Court has recommended that the parties return to conciliation in relation to the quantum of savings required or how such savings could be achieved. The court said little or no engagement has taken place on those issues and has given the parties a six-week deadline in which to complete the talks. Among the new rules will be a clampdown on Airbnb lets in rent pressure zones there are 21 rent pressure zones around the country. Stock picture Property owners in certain areas are facing a clampdown on the use of sites like Airbnb to cash in on short-term lets on a long-term basis. Long-awaited legislation has been held up by an internal row between Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy and Transport Minister Shane Ross over which department should take the lead on drafting new laws to regulate the sector. However, Mr Murphy is expected to bring a memo on the much-delayed plans to Cabinet in the coming weeks and expects to outline his proposals next week. Among the new rules will be a clampdown on Airbnb lets in rent pressure zones - there are 21 rent pressure zones around the country. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he has been verbally briefed on the plans and said legislation will be before the Dail in the next couple of weeks. "It'll involve restricting the use of apartments and homes in rent pressure zones for short-term lettings like Airbnb," Mr Varadkar said. "It'll still be possible, of course for people to rent out a room in their house on a short-term basis, but you couldn't be using an apartment or house that you own for long-term Airbnb... and those apartments should be released into the market for people to let them to people who live in Ireland rather than people who are visiting." It is estimated that stricter regulation in the sector could bring up to 1,000 properties into the rental market in Dublin alone. Mr Murphy said he is a "fan of home sharing", but said it cannot be allowed to happen in an "unfettered way". The Housing Minister has pledged a two-pronged approach to regulate the sector. "What we will be talking about is potentially a two-stage process whereby in the near and immediate term we go to make a change that will have a substantial outcome in terms of getting short-terms back into the long-term market, but then also moving to a point after that where we can have a proper understanding of what is happening in terms of licensing, regulation and everything else," he said. A timeline for the laws will be announced next week in order to allow people time to adjust to the new regime, Mr Murphy said. A much-hyped fast-track housing plan to deliver thousands of new homes for families will be gathering dust for at least three years before anything is done. The city scheme was announced by Government more than two years ago, but its promise of a quick supply of new homes is in tatters. Plans to develop 3,500 houses and apartments in the middle of Dublin city have been delayed as planners seek additional information in relation to major factors such as parking and community facilities. An Bord Pleanala has not yet approved the masterplan amid staffing shortages. A decision was due last July, and now the board has written to the city council seeking additional information on community facilities to be provided for the 16,000 people set to live and work there. The latest delays call into question the Government's credibility in tackling the housing crisis with the fanfared fast-track schemes. When Poolbeg West was announced in May 2016, then-housing Minister Simon Coveney said he expected it delivered at a pace that would "take people by surprise". Expand Close Furious over delay: Labours Kevin Humphreys. Photo: Damien Eagers / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Furious over delay: Labours Kevin Humphreys. Photo: Damien Eagers But construction works are now unlikely to take place before 2020, despite rising prices, and as the numbers living in homeless accommodation approach 10,000. The delay emerged as current Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy endured another torrid day, admitting the crisis had not yet peaked. He added that a 're-categorisation survey' had identified 741 people that were incorrectly being classified as in emergency accommodation. He told a Dail committee: "I can tell you we are in the middle of a very serious crisis. "I can tell you that it is linked fundamentally to a lack of houses being built, but I can also tell you the building of new homes is ramping up very dramatically." However, the Poolbeg scheme remains stalled, as a masterplan drawn up by Dublin City Council is yet to be approved by An Bord Pleanala. In a letter dated September 18, the board asked for additional information to be provided by January 1. It wants more specifics around the community facilities to be provided, and information on proposed building heights. In addition, it wants detailed plans for public spaces, as well as information on car and bicycle parking arrangements. Poolbeg West is a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) that was approved by the city council as far back as October 2017. But it was appealed to An Bord Pleanala, with an oral hearing heard in April this year. It includes the former Irish Glass Bottle site, bought at the height of the boom for 412m, and the adjoining Fabrizia lands, both of which are controlled by Nama; also two parcels of land both owned by the Dublin Port Company. Some 350 of the 3,500 homes will be for social housing, with another 550 affordable houses. Office and retail are also proposed along with two schools. Local politician Kevin Humphreys (Labour) said he was furious at the delay, adding: "I'm totally disappointed at the level of information provided by Dublin City Council." A spokesman for Dublin City Council said: "An Bord Pleanala was to make their decision in July and that's now gone out into January. We're very concerned it's taking so long. The city council is disappointed with the timescale, we need to get moving on this." The Department of Housing said it continued to support the development of an SDZ in Poolbeg West. "However, given that the adoption of the SDZ scheme is an ongoing statutory process, the department cannot comment further." Mr Coveney is in New York on official business, and could not be contacted for comment. What was said about Poolbeg development May 20, 2016 Then housing, planning and local government minister Simon Coveney says construction works in Poolbeg could begin in 2017, and plan would create "city living of real quality". "We need to create and encourage a demand to live in the city, with city living of real quality, and using the transport networks and infrastructure the State has spent a lot of money on," he said. May 25, 2016 At the Housing Agency's annual conference, Mr Coveney noted that the Government had approved a new strategic development zone (SDZ) for Poolbeg. "I expect we will be doing more of that in terms of strategic development zoning," he said, adding he hoped to "take people by surprise at the pace that we can deliver that". December 13, 2016 In response to a Dail question, Mr Coveney said: "The SDZ site has significant potential to deliver additional housing supply, including for social housing purposes, at a pace and scale that will greatly assist in addressing the current critical shortage of housing supply in the Dublin region." September 18, 2018 In a request for further information, An Bord Pleanala said: "Having regard to the Poolbeg West... the board may be of the opinion that the scheme is insufficiently clear in respect of community facilities, the overall design of the development and car and bicycle parking strategy." A SPANISH bank has bought Irish credit operator Avantcard in a move that raises the prospect of a new foreign lender shaking up the market. Madrid-headquartered Bankinter is the first bank to enter the retail market here since the economic crash. It comes as An Post seeks a partner to launch mortgages with the aim of undercutting AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, Permanent TSB and KBC Bank. Bankinter already has a business relationship with An Post, which is expanding its financial offering. The Spanish bank has bought the banking operations of EVO Banco in Spain and its consumer credit affiliate in Ireland, AvantCard. The operations were purchased from Smart Holdco, an entity owned by the US fund Apollo. The cost of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, was not disclosed. Bankinter employs over 5,000 people. The bank reported a gross operating income of 977m for the six months to June 30 this year. Its net profit for the six-month period was 261m, while its loan book stood at 54.7bn. AvantCard, which employs 150 people in Carrick-in-Shannon in Leitrim and in Dublin, used to be called MBNA before it was taken over in 2012. AvantCard, which offers credit cards and loans, has been advertising heavily. It recently launched personalised pricing for credit cards and personal loans. It also offers credit cards through insurance brokerage Chill.ie. AvantCard has a tie-up with An Post, with credit cards and loans set to be rolled out from early next year. In a statement, Bankinter said AvantCard has 151,000 Irish customers, and 280m in revolving card and deferred payment receivables, and 66m in personal loans. The 'Sunday Independent' last week revealed that An Post has entered into an agreement with Avantcard to offer credit cards and personal loans. Bankinter may decide to enter the Irish mortgage market through An Post, which plans to enter the market with a pledge that it will undercut current market rates by 1pc. Davy Stockbrokers banking analyst Diarmaid Sheridan said the Spanish bank was planning to grow its consumer finance business, which could include expanding in Ireland. "Bankinter's strategic rationale is to grow its international exposure, with consumer finance its preferred route. "It could also potentially provide it with a route into the mortgage market in the longer term, given its existing agreement with An Post for consumer lending and An Post's intention to seek a partner to enter the mortgage market," he added. Bankinter was advised by McCann FitzGerald on the deal. A Bora tribe member - whose family benefited from the work of Irish revolutionary Roger Casement - has travelled to Ireland to be part of an exhibition of Amazon painters. Darwin Rodriguez Torrez (28) is a plastics artist who was born in Loreto and belongs to the Bora indigenous people. His art depicts the Bora peoples spirituality and their relationship with the Amazon rainforest. Darwins grandparents were among the thousands of South American natives who suffered under British rubber plantation companies at the beginning of the century. Roger Casement, who at the time was working as a diplomat on behalf of the British government, was sent to investigate alleged atrocities committed by the Peruvian Amazon Company following his expose of enslavement and torture of rubber workers in the Congo. His research exposed the brutality experienced by the workers along the Peru-Colombia border - including beatings, floggings and shootings. Expand Close The paintings are being exhibited at the Georgian Society on South William Street. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The paintings are being exhibited at the Georgian Society on South William Street. Darwin said that Casement who was executed for treason in 1916 after he was found importing guns to help the Irish cause - is held in high regard for his work in the area. "My great grandparents lived during the times of the rubber exploitation, when we lost many relatives, many children, some of whom were taken to Europe in the same rubber ships. We do not know what became of them," he said. "I have Casement very present in my mind and the Bora people remember him because he came to denounce this ill treatment and helped to stop the exploitation. Darwins paintings are on display along with Roldan Pinedo Lopez (47) from Wednesday September 26 until Friday 28 September at the Georgian Society on South William Street. Roldan was born in Ucayali and belongs to this Shipibo-konibo indigenous people. His paintings are inspired by ayahuasca - an hallucinogenic herb which is used for therapeutic and spiritual purposes. It is also the core element in Amazon traditional medicine. Expand Close The exhibition is on today at the Georgian Society on South William Street, Dublin. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The exhibition is on today at the Georgian Society on South William Street, Dublin. The exhibition was organised by the new ambassador of Peru Carmen McEvoy. She said: These artists come to show Ireland the mythical, multi-coloured and creative universe of the largest ecological reserve in Peru." In addition to the art show, there will be a talk specifically about Roger Casement at 6pm in the Royal Dublin Society (RDS). The talk entitled Crossing borders, forging Republics. Roger Casement and his experience in Peru will address Casements diligent reporting of human rights abuses but how he had to leave Peru under threats from rubber bosses. He was later knighted for his humanitarian work. Expand Close The exhibition was organised by the new ambassador of Peru Carmen McEvoy. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The exhibition was organised by the new ambassador of Peru Carmen McEvoy. Video of the Day It's hard to believe, but Glenn Close has never won an Oscar. Nominated six times, for films like Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, The Big Chill and The World According To Garp, she's always been pipped at the post but ought to, at the very least, get another nod for The Wife, in which she's at her very best. Her role is a juicy one, but she capitalises on it brilliantly, and while Bjorn Runge's film feels a little theatrical at times, the acting from Close and her co-stars more than compensates. She is Joan Castleman, dutiful wife of swaggering literary lion Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce), an adored and respected Jewish-American novelist whose incisive, muscular prose has won him plaudits across the globe. He's about to land the biggest prize of all and, as the film opens, is informed by phone that he's been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Not a man inclined towards false modesty, he dances about on the bed in celebration, but Joan seems more subdued. It's the 1990s and they board a Concorde for Stockholm, accompanied by their sensitive 20-something son David (Max Irons), who wants to be a writer too and desperately craves his dad's approval. At the back of the plane lurks Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater), a hack biographer who's writing a book on Joe and would dearly love an interview. And as they near the Swedish capital, trouble is clearly brewing, because Joe's bombastic personality has not endeared him to those around him. He's clearly inspired by the likes of Philip Roth and Saul Bellow, whose ghosts may not be flattered, because Castleman is a jovial bully, a literary thug who can't bear the idea that anyone else might step into his spotlight, even for one second. He demeans his son at every opportunity, withholding praise and grimacing slightly when David asks for his opinion on one of his short stories. He regularly damns his wife with faint praise, and when he publicly describes her as "the love of my life", it almost sounds like an insult. He's one of those unspeakable monomaniacs who leaves no oxygen in the room for anyone else, and expects them to suffocate gratefully. Up to now, Joan has been doing just that, but on the eve of the Nobel award, something seems to snap. Bone isn't exactly helping, and when Joan goes for a walk in the snowy city, he corners her in a bar and wonders aloud why Joe's writing improved so dramatically after she met him. Has she been secretly editing his books? And why did she decide to give up writing herself? Video of the Day "I didn't really have the personality for it," she tells him. "I'm quite shy, I don't like to be looked at." Which may be partially true, but doesn't satisfy Bone, who also confronts Joan with the allegation that Joe is a bit of a goat, and has conducted numerous affairs throughout their marriage. The cracks in the Castlemans' public facade are beginning to show, and even as they speak, Joe is making eyes at a pretty young photographer and seductively quoting James Joyce's The Dead to her. The Wife is based on a novel by Meg Wolitzer, and Jane Anderson's screenplay sometimes gets bogged down in its literary origins. But while slightly stagey, it's hugely entertaining, and Jonathan Pryce embraces his character's essential hollowness with enthusiasm. In flashbacks, we find out how, as a young college professor, he seduced his most talented student, Joan, and ultimately left his wife for her. She quickly became his literary help-meet, and even got him his first publishing deal. And only now, as Joe prepares to join literature's uppermost elite, is Joan beginning to wonder what their life together was all about. We don't get to see Christian Slater much on the big screen these days, which is a pity, and he brings real nuance and humanity to his portrayal of a muckraker who isn't all bad. But it's Close you can't take your eyes off, her performance so rich in detail and suppressed emotion. Joan grins and bears it as her husband makes flatulent speeches and says things like "oh Joan doesn't write". She has borne his relentless egotism in silence for decades, but the Nobel award seems to push her over the edge and make her question the nature of their pact. The stage is set for an almighty row. (15A, 100mins) Bertie Ahern features on the next episode of Who Do You Think You Are? on RTE One, Sunday September 30th at 9.30pm Bertie Ahern has discovered that a relative died fighting under nemesis of Fianna Fail - Blueshirt Eoin O'Duffy. The former taoiseach digs into his family's past in the next episode of RTE's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' and finds an IRA messenger boy and a relative who died fighting for the Free State Army. He also learns why his mother had a lifelong resentment of the 'Brits'. Mr Ahern may be known as a Dubliner but his roots come from Cork, where both of his parents were born and raised, and the fourth episode of the TV series shows him discovering more about their early lives. Arrest His late father Con had always been tight-lipped about his revolutionary youth, but Bertie discovers his early days as an IRA messenger boy, and his Civil War arrest and imprisonment in Cork City Gaol. Con later spent time in Tintown Camp on The Curragh where he took part in a hunger strike that left a lasting impact. Bertie also returns to his family farm in east Cork - where the Aherns went from being lowly tenants on English gentry land after the Famine in the late 1800s to become part of a new generation of Catholic landowners at the beginning of the 20th century. But on his mother's side, Bertie finds out about the notorious K Company branch of the Auxiliaries who attacked his mother's Cork home during the War of Independence. Also on his mother's side he finds out he has relatives who ran a Workhouse in west Cork for more than 50 years. Video of the Day They saw their son killed in an ambush during the Civil War while fighting for the new Free State Army under O'Duffy. 'Who Do You Think You Are?' RTE One, Sunday, September 30, 9.30pm ITS the oldest excuse in the political book: My nameless official is to blame. Thats essentially what Michael D Higgins said to explain away his expensive hotel bills, although he even went one better. The people at fault are actually the folks in their Iveagh House (the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), who naturally wouldnt put a call into Aras an Uachtarain before booking his bed and breakfast for overseas travel. Man of the people, Michael D, would be happy with a tent. As a champion of the downtrodden and the homeless, he doesnt particularly like staying in hotels that cost a fortune in many cases. The President knows he will face many tough questions over the coming weeks before, as currently seems likely, he settles back into life in the Phoenix Park. In his opening exchange with journalists, he said this was not a problem but we have yet to see the evidence. He enjoys campaigning and looks ready to give as good as he gets. How his answers play out with the public will be interesting. After seven successful years as Head of State, Mr Higgins is a confident character who is uniquely positioned to appeal to young and old. In DCU yesterday, he had the students in stitches of laughter as he recalled his days as President of the Student Union in NUIG in 1965. Its like saying do you remember the war? he said to a group of people who were born long after the advent of the internet. He joked about having edited the student newspaper briefly because it was banned after the third issue. All good fun. Mr Higgins appeared almost like a grandfather figure, or a wise old sage, to his young fans. As for that 317,000 everybody is shouting about, sure doesnt he use that to host afternoon tea for senior citizens. At 77, he is gaining fitness rather than losing it. An inspiration for our aging population. After the jovial DCU event opening their new student hub called The U he retired for tea and a chat with those behind the project. All very worthy. However, across the city in Montrose, four of his rivals for the presidency were gearing up for the first live debate on radio. Mr Higgins told RTE that the scheduling for the News At One showdown didnt suit him. After his morning with the students, he had to be back in the Aras to welcome Prince Edward who is 10th in line to the British throne. Yet this reporter was able to make it to RTE in time for the debate without the help of a garda escort and candidates were promptly off-air by 1.40pm. A disgrace, is how Peter Casey described the Presidents absence. Gavin Duffy suggested Mr Higgins, and fellow no-show Sean Gallagher, needed to show respect to the electorate and be available to answer questions. It might be a cheap shot from the Dragons but they have a point. Mr Higginss logic that staying in 3,000-a-night hotels is OK because he didnt know in advance doesnt wash. He needs to explain why he didnt ask the Department to tone down the luxury. The President is an influential figure after all. Blaming officials is reminiscent of the approach taking by former Ceann Comhairle John ODonoghue before he was pressured to resign for spending on overseas travel. When the Ceann Comhairle travels abroad, it is normal that arrangements made are on the recommendation of the host, giving due regard to criteria such as security and proximity to the venues or to accommodate meetings, his spokesman said at the time. The President is above politics but until October 26, Mr Higgins will have to face the same scrutiny as any other politician. Butte County K9 Assists in Arrest Chico Police used a K9 to detain 34-year-old Anthony Aragon outside of Walmart Thursday night. Aragon is wanted in Tehama, Shasta and Butte counties for burglary and robbery. He is now behind bars at theButtee County Jail. Delta Fire Update The U.S. Forest Service expects the Delta Fire to be fully contained by Friday, Oct. 5. It remains at 98 percent containment after a spot fire broke out in Bear Gulch on Tuesday. Burglary and Assault Arrest in Red Bluff The Tehama County Sheriff's office says 34-year-old Raymond Mcmanus was arrested for burglary and assault in Red Bluff after the alleged victim held him at gunpoint until deputies arrived. The homeowner had a concealed weapons permit. Mcmanus is also charged with fleeing from officers. Chapmantown Night Out Tonight is the annual "Chapmantown Night Out. Residents have the chance to learn about business, social and health-related organizations serving the area. The event starts at 4 p.m. in the park area of the Dorothy Johnson Center in Chico. Last Legal Workshop for Carr Fire Victims Tomorrow is the last legal workshop for victims of the Carr Fire in Redding. It is hosted by "legal services of northern California". That is happening in the community room at the Redding Library on Sept. 29 at 11 a.m. Los Angeles Man on FBI's Most Wanted List A Los Angeles man is now on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. Authorities say Greg Carlson is suspected of sexually assaulting several women in the city. He has been on the run for just over a year after his parents in South Carolina paid for his $1 million bail. The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for his capture. Senate Judiciary Hearing The Senate Judiciary Committee is making statements before the vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. They have changed the time of the vote to 11:30 a.m. PST. Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford both testified before lawmakers for hours on Thursday. Ford alleges that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school. He denies the allegations. There have been multiple calls to delay the vote until an FBI investigation can be completed. Despite that, the committee is making a vote this morning. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) reversed earlier decisions not to prosecute crimes in eight cases last year. This was double the number of cases where the DPP changed her mind in 2016, when just four decisions were reversed. While the increase is notable, it represented just a tiny proportion of the 11,415 files disposed of by the DPP last year. The figures were revealed in the annual report of the Office of the DPP, published today. The report said the DPP received 219 requests from victims of crime for a review of a decision not to prosecute during 2017. Some 190 of these original decisions were upheld, but in eight cases the original decision was reversed. The outcome of another two requests is pending, while 19 requests were found to be invalid. The decision to review cases is in line with legislation enacted last year following the EU Victims Directive. This allows victims to request a review of a decision not to prosecute within 28 days of being informed of the decision by the DPP or gardai. DPP Claire Loftus described the volume of work involved in dealing with victims of crime as significant, but said these obligations were being taken very seriously. We are continuing to review the resources required to ensure victims and their families have the least traumatic experience possible of the criminal justice system, she said. According to the report, the DPP also received 638 requests last year for reasons why a decision was taken not to prosecute. Sexual offences accounted for around 40pc of all cases where there was a request for reasons or a request for a review of a non-prosecution decision. The next most common category was crimes involving non-fatal offences against the person, which accounted for around 20pc of requests for reasons or a review. The report said the most common reason not to prosecute was because the evidence in the file submitted to the DPP was not sufficient to support a prosecution. This was the case in 3,579 cases out of 4,494 where there was a decision not to prosecute last year. The next most common reason was that the injured party withdrew their complaint. This happened in 302 cases. There were 80 cases where prosecutions were not taken on public interest grounds. A further 76 were dealt with via the Juvenile Diversion Programme, while 79 were handled via an adult caution. Some 48 cases were not prosecuted due to undue delay, while in 39 cases the time limit within which a prosecution could have been brought had expired. One case was not prosecuted on sympathetic grounds. The report said the expenditure of the Office of the DPP was 41m last year, up from 38.6m in 2016. The largest area of expenditure, at 16.4m last year, was in respect of fees paid to counsel engaged to prosecute cases in the courts. This was an increase of over 1.5m on the level of fees paid in 2016. While significant fees were again incurred in 2017 on large and lengthy trials arising from the banking crisis, increased activity levels in both the Dublin Circuit Court and the Central Criminal Court accounted in the main for the increased expenditure, said Ms Loftus. She said that while trials in relation the financial crisis have now concluded, her office will continue to operate a special financial unit, which has been in place since 2011. Ms Loftus said this would focus on other large financial crime cases in close liaison with the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau. The report revealed around half of decisions from the DPP on whether or not to prosecute some 5,655 matters were taken within a fortnight of a file being received. However, it also showed that in 328 cases, around 3pc of those dealt with, it took between six months and a year to issue directions. There were 18 cases where it took over a year to issue directions. The report said the DPP appealed the outcome of 49 cases to the Court of Appeal. Such appeals usually relate to the DPPs view that a particular sentence was unduly lenient. Meanwhile, Ms Loftus expressed concerns over the impact Brexit may have on the extradition of suspects from the UK. She said Brexit would have very serious implications for the prosecution of crime and criminal justice generally in this country. Last year, the vast majority of European Arrest Warrants issued by Irish authorities were sent to the UK. Ms Loftus said having effective extradition arrangements with the UK was extremely important. As of March 31, 2019 the current arrangements, which are very efficient in securing the return of persons wanted for prosecution, will no longer operate, she said. It is therefore crucial that an agreement is reached on an alternative system prior to that date. I know that the Department of Justice and Equality and the Government are acutely aware of the imperatives in this area. One hopes that a practical solution will be found so that mechanisms are put in place to enable us to seek the extradition of an accused or seek important evidence from that jurisdiction. This is particularly important having regard to the shared border with Northern Ireland, and the ongoing necessity for prosecutions in respect of dissident subversive activity. A passenger who was allegedly late for a flight from Dublin to Amsterdam has been charged with damaging a door lock at a boarding gate. Patrick Kehoe (23) dropped his trousers and mooned press photographers outside the Criminal Courts of Justice after he was released on bail on the charge. Gardai had been called following a breach of security at Dublin Airport at about 7am yesterday. It is alleged the passenger was late for his flight but got through the boarding gate and a door leading to the tarmac, close to the Ryanair plane, at Terminal One. Ryanair staff and airport police stopped the man while he allegedly chased and tried to flag down a flight bound for Amsterdam. He was restrained and held until gardai arrived and brought him to Ballymun garda station, where he was subsequently charged. Expand Close Kehoe then mooned at reporters. Photo: Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kehoe then mooned at reporters. Photo: Collins Mr Kehoe was grinning awkwardly when he was brought before Judge Bernadette Owens at Dublin District Court in custody yesterday. When she asked him whether he had a solicitor, or the name of one, he said: "I don't know any of them. Do you want to choose me one?" The judge then assigned solicitor Peter Connolly on free legal aid. Judge Owens remanded Mr Kehoe on bail to a date in November after gardai said there were no objections. However, an attempt to ban him from Dublin Airport was successfully resisted by Mr Connolly. The accused, with an address at Raheenaskeagh, Oulart, Gorey, Co Wexford, is charged with criminal damage to a door lock at Gate 106 at Terminal One in Dublin Airport. Garda David Cahill gave evidence of arresting Mr Kehoe at 7.50am at Dublin Airport before he was taken to Ballymun station and charged. Garda Cahill said that DPP's directions were outstanding on the charge and Mr Kehoe also faced the possibility of further charges. Gda Cahill said there were no objections to bail. However, he asked for one of the conditions to be for Mr Kehoe to be banned from the airport unless he had legitimate business there. Mr Connolly objected to this being a condition of bail. Judge Owens remanded Mr Kehoe on bail in his own bond of 200. She did not ban the accused from the airport but imposed the statutory bail terms, to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. The accused, wearing a grey padded jacket and tracksuit bottoms, left the court after he signed his bail bond. He spoke briefly to his solicitor before Mr Kehoe, together with a young woman and carrying his luggage, walked out of the court building. As he made his way towards the Phoenix Park, Mr Kehoe dropped his trousers and mooned the press photographers. He also swung his suitcase around in the air and made hand gestures towards the assembled snappers. Mr Kehoe has not yet indicated how he is pleading to the charge. A speeding up of the Leaving Cert appeals process is on the cards next year, in the wake of the High Court ruling in the Rebecca Carter case. Education Minister Richard Bruton said there was a need to "contract" the appeals period, and also to see what changes colleges could make to ensure that students who successfully appealed weren't disadvantaged. "I don't want to see it happen again; it's not right that we should have children in the courts. We need to find a way to solve this," he said. Talks involving the State Examinations Commission (SEC), the higher education colleges and Department of Education officials, are to get under way. "I'd be optimistic that we can find a solution; everyone is on the same page and working for the same outcome," Mr Bruton said. At the heart of the High Court case is that the result of appeals are not released until mid-October, up to six weeks after college year starts. An added factor in the Rebecca Carter case was that, this year, UCD introduced a September 30 deadline for admissions. UCD is of the view that it is not in the best interests of students to join classes after the semester has begun, because experience shows that their academic performance and health and welfare tend to suffer as they try to catch-up. For its part, the SEC says it needs the time to ensure that the appeals system meets its quality assurance standards. Mr Bruton said that he could see the point that UCD made that, if someone started a programme six weeks late, they were at a disadvantage. In the interest of equal treatment for all UCD applicants who may succeed in appeals, the UCD Academic Council Executive Committee meeting next Thursday will consider amending its admissions approach on an exceptional basis for this year. Little party: Rebecca Carter plans a family celebration tomorrow if she gets her place on the UCD vet course confirmed today. Photo: Damien Eagers The stakes were high for Rebecca Carter when she pursued her dream of becoming a vet all the way to the High Court, but the victorious student believes it was a risk worth taking. The teenager has wanted to be a vet for as long as she can remember, but an exam points blunder put her place on the University College Dublin (UCD) course in jeopardy. Ms Carter never thought the case would have to go all the way to the High Court. "We thought it was a simple adding up error that could be corrected in the space of minutes," she said. She said it was a difficult decision to go to the High Court. "It was solely down to my parents. They said: 'Look, the barristers are really confident in this case. They really feel we have a strong case. So we are going to take the risk.' "I am extremely grateful that my parents were so supportive throughout everything. "They backed me from start to finish." All going well, she will today be finally allocated her place, allowing her to start on Monday, three weeks into the course. "It's OK, it's better than waiting a year," she told the Irish Independent. Ms Carter, from Castlebridge, Co Wexford, discovered that her Leaving Cert marks had been wrongly totted up by an examiner. She brought High Court proceedings against the State Examination Commission (SEC) over its decision not to recheck her results before mid-October, effectively costing her a place in UCD, which decides its student allocation at the end of September. A thumbs-up from one of the barristers in her case on Wednesday was the signal she had hoped for. The case had gone her way. Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said he would direct the SEC to carry out the necessary corrections to her exam paper and notify UCD of the results two hours later. "I am just so happy, now I can finally put everything behind me and hopefully start on Monday morning," said Ms Carter. "The last year has been extremely tough, especially the last few weeks. I have never celebrated my results." Ms Carter initially believed she had achieved 554 points in the Leaving Cert - but if the error hadn't occurred, it would have been 566 points. The judge said it was an "extremely high mark that would easily have qualified her for a place on the UCD course". It's expected her place will formally be offered to her on the veterinary medicine course today. UCD Students' Union, which has commended her "bravery and determination", plans to welcome her next week. "We have a family little party organised for Saturday if all goes well," she said. Ms Carter, who will be 20 in November, was delighted the outcome of her case could potentially help others. "With all this media, they can see there are flaws that need to be fixed, because students put so much time and effort in the last two years of secondary school, and then when you turn around and if you don't get your chosen course or the points you need, it is extremely disappointing," she said. A father of one who lost his life in a "freak" farming accident yesterday morning has been named locally as Declan Gohery. The 47-year-old was using a digger on his pig farm in Rathcabbin, Borrisokane, Co Tipperary, about 8.30am when he was hit by a falling tree. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Health and Safety Authority has confirmed that it is investigating the incident, with two inspectors called to the site in the subsequent hours after the incident. It's understood that Mr Gohery is survived by his wife and teenage daughter. Local councillor Michael O'Meara described his neighbour as a "loving and extremely hard-working man". "It's just such an awful shock to the entire community," he told the Irish Independent. "When I saw the emergency services rush to his farm, I feared the very worst and once I found out that Declan was involved, I was just raw with grief. "I knew him as an extremely loving, quiet and hard-working man. "He was well known in the locality and comes from a very respectable family. "My heart goes out to them during this very sad time, but I'm sure the community will rally around them and provide them with the utmost support in the coming days and weeks," he said. Another family friend of Mr Gohery described the incident as a "freak accident". "Borrisokane has suffered a terrible loss today. "He was just going about his morning work at the time when this freak accident occurred. I suppose it could have happened to anyone. "I don't know the intricate details of how the tree fell, but I'm sure the outcome of the investigation will provide some closure to his family. "I hope all of our thoughts and prayers provide some solace to his family." Gardai sealed off the scene of the tragedy with investigations set to continue today. In a statement, a Garda spokesperson said: "Gardai in Borrisokane were called to the incident at approximately 8.30am (September 27, 2018), at a farm in Rathcabbin, Borrisokane. "A 47-year-old man was fatally injured while working on a digger. The man was pronounced dead at scene," the spokesperson said. The latest accident comes after a number of other farm-related fatalities over the summer months. In July, a man in his 90s died on his Kerry farm, while in the same month a woman was killed in a farm accident in Galway. The woman (54) was tending to her cattle in a field and was fatally injured. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has admitted he's concerned at the "style and manner" of how a recent housing protest was policed, but has defended officers, saying they were in a "difficult" and "invidious" situation. Mr Harris said it was a "distortion of what happened" to say gardai were seen to be protecting people in balaclavas enforcing an eviction, insisting members were there to keep the peace. The new commissioner was grilled about the controversial events at a protest on Dublin's North Frederick Street at his first appearance before the Policing Authority. He previously said it was incorrect for gardai to wear hoods during the operation earlier this month but condemned intimidation and abuse directed at his officers. Mr Harris told the authority that he has received a report on how the protest was policed and said that issues relating to the incident go beyond "code of dress". But he said officers were in an "invidious situation" where they had to keep the peace amid the enforcement of a legal eviction. He said the eviction occurred peacefully but "others arrived to agitate" and the situation became "increasingly ugly". Mr Harris added: "Certainly there was issues about our appearance and style and the manner in which we went about it which were of concern to me." He promised to report back to the authority on the issue as early as possible as such protests are an "emotive issue" and gardai don't know when the next one will happen. Policing Authority chairperson Josephine Feehily condemned the intimidation of gardai on social media after the protest. She said her organisation understood there was a "balancing act" involved in such situations but also that there were lessons to be learned as "these challenges tend to come around again and again". Earlier, Mr Harris hailed Garda successes in seizing criminals' assets, saying: "If there's one thing better than locking criminals up, it's taking their ill-gotten gains from them." He said it sent a message to gang members that "if they're enjoying a lavish lifestyle, it's not going to be for very long". He said he's been struck by the quality of staff and Garda members since he was appointed earlier this month and praised how "many major blows" against organised crime have been dealt in recent times. He pointed to a 2m seizure of cash from one crime group at the weekend, and he said the murder conviction of gangland figure Freddie Thompson was as a result of a "world-class investigation". It emerged at the meeting that only around 50pc of 10,000 Garda members who have undergone Code of Ethics training have signed the declaration saying they will abide by it. Mr Harris said signing the code was required if individuals wanted to gain promotion and staff were being encouraged to sign. He insisted reforms were being made and believed he would be able to improve culture in the gardai during his five-year term. The meeting heard that more than 2,000 gardai have only basic driver training and aren't authorised to use blue lights or sirens. Garda bosses are considering outsourcing basic training to try to cut the backlog in advanced driving courses. Mr Harris was asked about diversifying the Garda ranks, including bringing in more civilians to free up Garda members for front-line duties. He said he'd been assured 250 civilians would be hired by the end of the year and that this process would accelerate in 2019. He said the hiring of civilians - who are now being called Garda staff - would allow "precious experience back out into front-line policing". The head of the Irish Prison Service, Michael Donnellan, is to step down from his role at the end of November after seven years in the post. Mr Donnellan made the announcement that he would leave the role of director general yesterday. He was re-appointed to the post last January for a second five-year term, having first taken up the position in December 2011. Mr Donnellan previously served as director of the Probation Service from 2005. Before that, he served as director of two children's detention schools in Dublin. He also has previous experience of working in health and social services in the UK. Paying tribute to Mr Donnellan, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said that he had "led the Irish Prison Service with energy, integrity and dedication for the last seven years". "Michael's personal leadership has contributed enormously to the improvement of our prison service and he will be missed by all his colleagues in the criminal justice system," he added. New support systems for the extension of abortion services need to be "fit for purpose" to avoid failures seen in CervicalCheck, a leading GP has warned. Dr John O'Brien, president of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), said: "We don't want a situation where any woman is let down along the way." The recent Scally report on CervicalCheck found it was doomed to failure because it had not been set up properly a decade ago. Dr O'Brien was speaking after the Cabinet approved the text of the Health Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill, which follows the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. Health Minister Simon Harris said he intends to bring the legislation before the Dail next week and have the extension of abortion services in place by January. However, several doctors' organisations are concerned the deadline may be too ambitious. Mr Harris said there will be "significant cost" involved, but he intended it to be "safe and woman-centred". Around 1,100 women have gone abroad for abortions since the referendum, he added. Most terminations will be medical abortions administered by GPs while around one in five will be carried out in maternity hospitals. The legislation allows for unrestricted medical abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Women whose baby has been diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality will also be entitled to a termination and it will be allowed in cases of serious threat to the life of the woman. Dr O'Brien said the GP body is to meet with the minister early next week. "It is really important we get it right and we deliver a set of structures that are fit for purpose," he said. He said he would like to see a phone line put in place for women seeking advice and information on services. A doctor in the Coombe maternity hospital in Dublin has become the first woman in half a century to head the organisation representing obstetricians and gynacecologits. Dr Cliona Murphy has taken over as chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which is marking its Jubilee year. It comes as new appointees to the posts of consultant obstetrician in Irish maternity services are increasingly women. The speciality was traditionally dominated by male doctors although all of their patients are women. Dr Murphy, who comes from Ballincollig in Cork, has taken over a three-year term from Dr Peter Boylan, the retired National Maternity Hospital obstetrician who she said had made an "outstanding contribution" to the organisation. Speaking yesterday she said that women's access to quality gynaecology services for all "remains a challenge". Waiting lists for women seeking a routine appointment in several maternity units are a year or more. More than 27,900 women across the country face delays in getting an outpatient appointment. Dr Murphy said as women live longer their health in their "post-reproductive" years was important. She warned the legislation widening the grounds for abortion following repeal of the Eighth Amendment will need to underpinned with resources. "The institute is committed to playing a key role in its implementation," she added. Other major issues in the service including the problems of recruitment and retention of doctors, nurses and midwives across the health sector. This is one of the "most urgent needs in specialty women's health services", she added. The Institute, which is part of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, now has 200 members following a rise in appointments. Warning: Dr Peadar Gilligan said 450 consultants are on lower pay but he hopes work-to-rule will not be needed. Photo: Shane ONeill Hospital consultants are threatening a work-to-rule which would see extra outpatient clinics curtailed. It is among the options for industrial actions being considered if the pay dispute over new recruits is not resolved. Nurses' unions have warned it is also almost inevitable they will end up balloting for strike action over pay. A 10pc cut for new entrants, imposed during the recession on consultants, will be restored under proposals unveiled by the Government last week. But a further 30pc, which was also taken from the salaries of new recruits, was not addressed. Dr Peadar Gilligan, president of the Irish Medical Organisation, said members were being consulted on potential forms of industrial action which could trigger. The doctors, who briefed members of the Oireachtas yesterday in advance of the upcoming Budget, said there remains a pay difference of up to 50,000 between long-standing consultants and those employed after 2012. Dr Gilligan said around 450 consultants are affected by lower pay at a time when some 500 specialist posts remain unfilled due to a recruitment and retention crisis. Asked what kind of industrial action consultants could potentially take, he said it may take the form of a work-to-rule: "Irish consultants see significantly more patients per capita than specialists in many other European countries. "The HSE acknowledge that consultants work long in excess of their contractual obligation." He said: "Our hope is that we don't go down that route. "But there is a growing group of doctors around the country who are so angry that they would certainly consider industrial and are pressuring the organisation for some form." GPs have also stressed that headway is needed in reversing the 120m in cuts in fees imposed during the recession. The IMO's pre-Budget submission also called for significant investment across the health system. It said there was a need for the immediate provision of 1,260 acute hospital beds to restore bed capacity to safer levels. "There needs to be substantial increase in acute beds, the construction of stand-alone public hospitals for elective, ambulatory and diagnostic care and investment in 10,500 long-term residential care beds and 600 short-term rehabilitation beds for the elderly and those requiring rehabilitation," it said. Meanwhile, as hospital waiting lists reach a record high, Health Minister Simon Harris is to visit Glasgow today to visit a hospital which only deals with non-emergency patients. Under the National Development Plan 2018-2027, the Government has promised to build three new dedicated elective hospitals in Cork, Dublin and Galway. The idea is that these would only cater for waiting list patients. However, the plan as yet remains vague as lists continue to spiral and public patients endure gruelling delays for surgery and other treatments. The minister said: "Health systems across Europe face many similar challenges, such as ageing, chronic disease, anti-microbial resistance, delivering homecare and community care. "We in Ireland are keen to learn from other health systems as we reform our services". A new waste regulator is needed to oversee price controls in the bin collection sector, according to the State's competition watchdog. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has issued a raft of recommendations to empower the consumer. In its analysis, the CCPC said the country's household waste collection has characteristics of a natural monopoly. This brings with it high fixed costs and also a large cost advantage for a single operator. The report follows a request from then Tanaiste and business minister Frances Fitzgerald a year ago. The current market structure used in Ireland is known as side-by-side competition, where waste operators can offer services in any location, meaning there could be more than one operator in a given area. It also means pricing is set by private operators. Speaking following the publication of the report, CCPC chairperson Isolde Goggin said the household waste collection market is "highly concentrated". "In theory, side-by-side competition should allow for multiple suppliers and consumer choice. "However, in reality, the domestic waste collection market in Ireland is highly concentrated and becoming increasingly so. "As a result, consumers have little or no power to influence the behaviour of operators in this market," added Ms Goggin. In its detailed report, the CCPC said that should the Government introduce legislation to establish a national waste watchdog, it would recommend a number of different functions. Among the functions were the following: The power to set price controls, where appropriate. This could be in scenarios where there is a monopoly provider which has considerable market power; A power to grant licences in specific areas, which dependant on the area could see a competition for the market or licences issued to a number of different operators. And the power to issue fines for specific breaches. Tendering The report also said that a regulator should have the function of creating a market design for the sector. Possible market design could include introducing targeted competitive tendering for certain areas and creating markets by combining less commercially viable areas with more viable areas. Former Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald has suggested she was a victim of fake news and was not given due process before she was forced to resign last year. Speaking about Garda whistleblower controversy which led to he downfall for the first-time, Ms Fitzgerald said her resignation was inevitable because of a media and political frenzy. We talk a lot about fake news and other countries and fake news but the whole thing developed into such a frenzy, she told Independent.ies Floating Voter podcast. Ms Fitzgerald handed in her resignation to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last November following a week of controversy surrounding her knowledge of an alleged Garda legal strategy to discredit whistleblower Maurice McCabe. Fianna Fail threatened to support a motion of no confidence in the then Tanaiste if she did not resign. After days of political uncertainty, Ms Fitzgerald dramatically decided to resign hours before the Dail motion was to be debated. She said she took decision because she believed a general election was not in the interest of Fine Gael or in the interest of the country. She accused Opposition politicians of looking for a head on a plate and said both Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein did not afford her due process during the scandal which was subsequently investigated by Justice Peter Charlestons Disclosures Tribunal. Obviously it was the most difficult period Ive ever had in politics. And I think it was a very difficult situation and decision for Leo as well politically and personally. It was a very big call by him and by me and for the party at that time, she added. The former Justice Minister said the Taoiseach was very loyal to her throughout the scandal which saw Fianna Fail publicly state they had no confidence in Ms Fitzgerald. He (Mr Varadkar) was always into due process and Fine Gael was always into due process. Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail didnt on that occasion but there we go thats politics, she said. I will absolutely wait for the Charleton Report some time in October before I make any comment about that but the one thing I will say there was certainly due process down there and I think due process is always what I have wanted to see and it is the way I have treated other people and it is the way the Fine Gael party has always believe people should be treated, she added. Ms Fitzgerald was taking part in a special live recording of the Floating Voter podcast where she discussed the recently published biography on the Fine Gael leader: Leo Varadkar A Very Modern Taoiseach. Former Independent Newspaper political correspondent and current government adviser Niall OConnor returned to the podcast to discuss the biography he co-authored with Independent Newspaper deputy political editor Philip Ryan. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe (right) listens to local resident Geoffrey Fox following a press conference in Smithfield, Dublin Credit: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe (right) speaks with local resident Geoffrey Fox following a press conference in Smithfield, Dublin. Credit: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe was confronted by a local constituent over the homelessness crisis at a party event today. Geoffrey Fox, from Smithfield , met the Dublin Central TD at a Fine Gael General Election campaign in the area today. In front of the assembled media Mr Fox challenged the minister on the lack of homes available for those in need. You can go home at night in your car, you can have your dinner and these people cant. Theyre sleeping in doorways its not fair, he said. Mr Donohoe spoke about a number of regeneration projects in the area and said the Government planned to do more on the issue of housing. I give you credit for that but you need to do more. Will you build houses for the people that need them? Theres too many children in the flats, Mr Fox said. Expand Close Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe (left) and prominent Together for Yes campaigner Deirdre Duffy during a press conference in Smithfield, Dublin Credit: Brian Lawless/PA Wire / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe (left) and prominent Together for Yes campaigner Deirdre Duffy during a press conference in Smithfield, Dublin Credit: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Mr Donohoe who spoke with Mr Fox privately afterwards said: What the government is driven by is trying to make sure that people have good accommodation, a safe home. Mr Fox told the minister he has been living in a flat that is too small for his wife and son for 16 years and has been told it will be another three before he can be moved into a house. Mr Donohoe was in Smithfield today to officially launch Deirdre Duffy as his running mate in the constituency of Dublin Central. Ms Duffy worked as campaign manager on the Together4Yes campaign which led the yes campaign in the recent referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment. Presidential candidate Joan Freeman's campaign is being partly funded by a businessman linked to a company once accused of operating a pyramid scheme. Millionaire Des Walsh has given the senator a "commercial loan" worth 120,000 to help her bid for Aras an Uachtarain. He is the executive vice-president of Herbalife Nutrition, which has previously been at the centre of a $200m settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in the United States, avoiding a finding that it was operating as a pyramid scheme. Herbalife, which is valued at 7.3bn, sells weight-loss products using a network of individuals rather than through stores. However, it faced repeated allegations that it was focused more on signing up new salespeople rather than actually selling the product to users. Two years ago, redress was paid to 350,000 people who lost money through the business. However, as part of the arrangement Herbalife agreed to overhaul its business practices and in return avoided being charged with operating a pyramid scheme and facing a forced shutdown. Mr Walsh was to the forefront of the company's campaign rejecting the accusations, at one point telling CNBC that they were a "gross distortion of the reality". Ms Freeman confirmed the Los Angeles-based businessman has been her friend for 40 years and recently supported her setting up of Solace House, a suicide prevention service in New York. "He knows how difficult it is for somebody like me, the ordinary Independent, to get funding. Because he so believed in me, he has given me a loan that I will be paying back," she said. It is understood the founder of Pieta House will pay interest at a rate of 9pc per annum. She said it was necessary to borrow money because it is estimated that the average campaign costs around 350,000. "One thing that has become clear to me in my quest for the presidency is that the rules put in place by the political establishment make it virtually impossible for someone like me, with limited resources to contest the election against an incumbent, a political party candidate or wealthy persons," Ms Freeman said. In a clear swipe at Sinn Fein's Liadh Ni Riada and the three 'Dragons' Den' investors in the race, Ms Freeman said: "I've no buses. I've no helicopters. I arrived here in a small, white car." She has also received a 10,000 loan from Tipperary-born businessman Michael Madden. He is chairman of Teneo Capital and has previously made political donations to Labour TD Alan Kelly. Ms Freeman said her need to secure loans shows the "true reflection of the people of Ireland". "I live in a semi-D. I have a mortgage. I have bills that everybody else has," she said. Ms Ni Riada will have financial backing from Sinn Fein, while businessmen Peter Casey and Sean Gallagher indicated that they will draw largely on personal wealth. Gavin Duffy has secured a bank loan to help fund his activities over the coming month. Senator Joan Freeman has declared herself as the "expert" on mental health after Michael D Higgins used an event in DCU to highlight the issue. The President told students that the country has a legacy where "mental health did not receive the recognition or provision that was needed". "Ireland's young people's mental well-being is all of our responsibility," Mr Higgins said. Asked whether Mr Higgins was attempting to outshine the key message of her campaign, Ms Freeman, who founded Pieta House, replied: "I'm the expert in this area. I'm sure Michael D Higgins is an expert in other areas. But this is the most crucial issue that is facing our country, along with homelessness which is part of that." A clear divide has opened up in Sinn Fein over how to respond to Mairia Cahill's abuse claims after presidential candidate Liadh Ni Riada diverged from the line set by deputy leader Michelle O'Neill. Ms Ni Riada has said she believes Ms Cahill's story of being abused and subjected to an IRA 'kangaroo court' in which she was forced to confront her attacker. "I do, of course [believe her]. And I have absolutely sympathy for Mairia. I think, look it, with Mairia Cahill no amount of apologies will ever go far enough because you can never undo that past," she said. It marks a change in tone from the attitude taken by Ms O'Neill, who said such questions were not for her. "I don't think that that's an issue for me," Ms O'Neill said. In 2010, Ms Cahill told officers she had been sexually abused by alleged IRA member Martin Morris - who was acquitted of rape and IRA membership and denies all wrongdoing - on a number of occasions from 1997 to 1998. In recent weeks the Police Ombudsman found that the RUC had information about the alleged abuse 10 years before Ms Cahill's report, but did not act. In the wake of the report, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said she "unreservedly apologised" for the lack of procedures in place for mandatory reporting of abuse at the time. However, this was overshadowed by Ms O'Neill's performance on a BBC programme where she insisted it was "not for me to say" whether Ms Cahill's version of events stood up. Ms Ni Riada faced the same question yesterday and spoke about the need for structures to be in place to help anybody who suffers abuse. "You probably never get over that kind of thing. But you have to try and ensure that people get through it in the best way possible," she said. Asked if Ms O'Neill's response had added to Ms Cahill's hurt, she replied: "No, I don't think so. Like I said, any apology that anybody does will never ever undo it. It will never go far enough so I can only wish her the very best in the future and hope that she gets through this." At this point she grabbed her handbag and ended the media doorstep, saying: "I have to go because I have a long trip to the Rebel County." Ms Cahill told the Irish Independent that she has yet to receive a proper apology from Sinn Fein. She said Mary Lou McDonald was sorry for not having appropriate procedures but has not acknowledged what happened to her. Presidential candidate Peter Casey has described Donald Trump as a "serial womaniser and abuser of women". While saying he would welcome the US president to this country, Mr Casey offered his "personal view" on Mr Trump. Speaking on RTE's 'News At One', he said: "The president obviously has to welcome any guest of the government to Ireland. I would obviously welcome a guest, but my position on Donald Trump is that he's a serial womaniser and abuser, he's a disgrace, but you have to respect the office of the president." Asked afterwards whether this was an appropriate statement for somebody in the contest to make, Mr Casey replied: "That's not as if I'm breaking news here. Donald Trump is well-known for his misbehaviour for women." When asked how she would react to a visit from Mr Trump, Sinn Fein's Liadh Ni Riada said she'd ask about his "ridiculous hair". Following the radio debate, she denied this was a gaffe. "It's good to have a bit of fun and a sense of humour as well. Of course, I'm very diplomatic," she said. "I've been dealing with people on an international footing since I was elected and I can guarantee you there were no such gaffes. It's about also having the ability to charm and engage with people in a light-hearted way. We mustn't forget our humour." Fellow presidential candidates Joan Freeman and Gavin Duffy said they would welcome him to Ireland. The Chief Scout of Scouting Ireland Christy McCann has acknowledged it is possible he mishandled a 2016 rape allegation in the organisation. He also said he will not chair an upcoming meeting of the board on governance reforms in the group. Mr McCann was speaking on RTE Radio One's Today with Sean O'Rourke after it was announced yesterday that Children's Minister Katherine Zappone suspended funding for Scouting Ireland. Independent.ie reported yesterday that the minister said she was "very concerned" to learn about the decision to reinstate Mr McCann as chair of the upcoming extraordinary general meeting on governance reforms. Mr McCann is one of four volunteers under investigation over Scouting Ireland's handling of a 2016 rape allegation. He had stepped aside in April pending the findings of the inquiry. Expand Close Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone. Photo: Frank McGrath / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone. Photo: Frank McGrath Ms Zappone said yesterday she received correspondence from the interim chair of the board, Annette Byrne, and from child safeguarding expert Ian Elliott, which caused her "grave concern". The minister said that Mr Elliott was "appalled" by last Saturdays decision and said that he pointed out his "strong view that bad governance generates risk to young people". "It is plainly wrong that any publicly funded youth organisation would be led by directors who do not put the interests and safety of young people to the fore," she said. Ms Zappone said that funding would be suspended for as long as the current board of directors remains in place. Expand Close Christy McCann stepped down / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christy McCann stepped down Speaking today, Mr McCann said her decision to withdraw funding was "disappointing", but acknowledged it was not a good decision for him to chair the board. He said it was "not the best solution" given the current difficulties in the youth organisation. "I shouldn't chair the board. Things are too raw. The optics would be incorrect," Mr McCann said. "I haven't had the opportunity to tell them I shouldn't chair the board, but I will notify [the board] today. "I think the board made the wrong decision," he added. Mr McCann said he has signed a letter of resignation from the Board of Scouting Ireland and will follow through with that if the Board does stand down at its next meeting on September 30. He said he was happy to stand aside and await the outcome of an ongoing review into Mr McCann and three other senior volunteers under investigation over the organisation's handling of a rape allegation by an 18 year-old in 2016. He said it was possible he had mishandled the organisation's response to the allegations and he welcomed the introduction of new governance procedures as "there is no guidelines or rulebook" to deal with this type of matter. "Yes, that's the situation at the moment. I'm responding to an external investigation which I welcome in so far as I voluntarily stood aside to allow the external investigation to see what is wrong and went wrong. "I need to find out whether there was any wrongdoing or any influences as a result of that. "I'm quite happy to stand aside and wait for the outcome and when we have learnings from the outcomes we need to move on. "I don't believe what I did was wrong, I'm open to correction. "I hope the investigation will make that known. If it was something I shouldn't have done, I'm happy to put my hands up. "At this moment in time, I don't believe [the external report findings] are correct. I don't believe I was wrong." He continued and agreed with Sean O'Rourke that "it was possible" that "with the best of intentions he may have mishandled the situation". He added; "Nobody's perfect, people make mistakes. There is no guidebook or rule book [to deal with this type of matter]. "We need to correct what is not known or understood." Mr McCann told the programme he is committed to scouting and to leading young people and could continue in his role under a new governance structure where the role is separated from the Board's role. In a statement issued last night, Scouting Ireland said that at a board meeting in September some members sought to have the four respondents to the current investigation reinstated, before the investigation was complete, but this proposal was defeated. However, it added that the proposal "to ask the chief scout to chair the next board meeting and the EGM" was voted on by the board. It added: "D-day for Scouting Ireland is our EGM on October 6. Everyone in scouting who wants change has to work together and make it happen." In April, annual State funding of 900,000 was suspended from Scouting Ireland over the controversy. Ms Zappone subsequently released an interim of 220,000, following reform commitments and was due to make a decision on fully restoring the funding later this month. Dublin Aviation has uploaded the conversation that occurred between a Ryanair pilot and Air Traffic Control as a man ran onto the apron in a bid to make an Amsterdam-bound flight. The man ran out of Terminal One towards the aircraft before he was stopped by Ryanair staff and Airport Police, and gardai arrived on the scene. "Yeah... I think we have to call the authorities here, there is a passenger trying to get inside the airplane," the pilot said. "Umm, I think you have to call security right now". Air Traffic Control also advised another pilot to "be careful there was reports of a man near the Ryanair on your right running around so have an eye out, yeah?" A man has been charged with criminal damage to a magnetic door lock at Gate 106 at Terminal One in Dublin Airport. WATCHING The Rotunda, RTEs documentary going behind the scenes at one of Dublins maternity hospitals, brought me back to my own long nights of pacing the floor awaiting the birth of my children. The programme, which documents the exhilarating highs and devastating lows of childbirth, has seen social media light up in response to those stories particularly those of loss. But women have also taken to social media to talk about the kinds of birth and choices available to women in the documentary. The Rotunda comes at a time when a debate has been raging over whether sharing stories about difficult births on social media is prompting a rise in women experiencing a pathological terror of childbirth known as tocophobia. The debate was sparked after Catriona Jones, a midwifery lecturer at the University of Hull in England, suggested the sharing of birth horror stories on social media might be fuelling womens fear of childbirth. Expand Close Shauna and Daryl with their baby son / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Shauna and Daryl with their baby son You just have to google childbirth and youre met with a tsunami of horror stories. If you go on to any of the Mumsnet forums, there are women telling their stories of childbirth Oh it was terrible, It was a bloodbath. I think that can be quite frightening for women to engage with, Jones said. Her comments unleashed their own tidal wave of resentment from women saying they would not be silenced Jones says that was never her intention. Expand Close Kay Cramp and her baby grandson Lar from The Rotunda / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kay Cramp and her baby grandson Lar from The Rotunda For generations, childbirth was very much a private affair. It certainly wasnt something that was talked about. But at what cost? Women were simply told to get on with it, that they should count themselves lucky. But there has been a sea change. Online forums and parenting sites provide women with access to information about every aspect of labour and birth. Shared stories about the ups and the downs of childbirth allow women to talk freely about their experience. There is a sense that knowledge is power in every aspect of life and going into something like labour and childbirth with your homework done can only be a good thing. Because, be honest, youre not going for a walk in the park and the more you demystify the process, the better. Expand Close The Rotunda, Kayla Lafferty and Margaret Condon / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Rotunda, Kayla Lafferty and Margaret Condon But what if we only listen to the negative stories, to the ones of trauma and hurt? Surely, then, during the hours of labour those are the ones well play on repeat in our heads as we prepare to meet our baby. Expand Close Staff battle to save baby Michael in The Rotunda, RTE One, 9.30pm / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Staff battle to save baby Michael in The Rotunda, RTE One, 9.30pm Being made to feel left out of the decision-making process at birth, not feeling at the centre of the care or being emotionally scarred by a traumatic birth are, for many women, the reality of their experience. What about the positive stories? Its important to hear those too. Expand Close Michelle reveals her heartbreak after losing several babies at the same gestation / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michelle reveals her heartbreak after losing several babies at the same gestation Maybe you feel those stories of women breathing their babies out in a darkened room bear little resemblance to the bloody reality. But they exist online too. So why not listen to both? Sharing our stories and learning that we were not the only ones to experience something can be hugely empowering. It can make us breathe a sigh of relief to learn that were not alone, that this happened to someone else. Our individual stories are what make us unique and also connect us to a larger collective human experience. But its important to find a forum where your story is heard and honoured. Having the courage to go online, tell your birth story only to come away with a feeling that it wasnt understood or worse, drew negative reactions, is unhelpful. It could even compound the hurt and leave a woman feeling isolated. Finding a space from where you can speak in confidence, where what you say will not be judged, is really important. Organisations like AIMS Ireland the association for Improvements in Maternity Services provide such forums where women can share their experiences in a safe environment. Talking about the types of birth we want, or hope for, is good. It makes us realise that we all have different preferences. For those preferences to be informed, we need to talk to others and learn from their experience. Then we can make our own minds up. Choice cant happen in a vacuum. For some women, that choice might be to avail of every drug going. For others, it might be to opt for a home birth with a midwife. Each to their own, and its important for us to acknowledge that one size certainly does not fit all. And when it comes to sensitive yet universal subjects like childbirth, it is important to choose who you talk to. Only by opening up to people we trust can we ever break taboos around other sensitive subjects such as miscarriage and post-natal depression. Not talking about these things means they keep getting brushed under the carpet, eating away at us. Change happens when we bring these things into the open. So we need to keep talking and speaking our truths. Its fundamental to our wellbeing. But finding the right forum or person to talk to is also important. Keep talking but make sure the listener is on your side. In April 2014, I was rushing around from one school drop-off to another pick-up, living in a stress bubble of work, getting thinner by the day, not really knowing I was secretly dieting, but delighted with my skinny frame all the same. Two babies and waist 28-inch jeans? Fantastic, I thought as I bought a new pair to go on a weekend trip with my sister to see our other sister in London. Drinking, dining, fashion awaited us. We always have the best times together. While I was away, I started bleeding again, something that had been going on for months. My sister, a nurse, made me promise to visit my GP. It was a "it's not normal" conversation and after months of justifying my symptoms as some sort of post-pregnancy side-effect, I made the appointment. My GP has known me for years. He was quite reassuring that it was probably just a cyst or my cycle settling down after breastfeeding. We decided to arrange a smear test, but before leaving, he checked my stomach. I will never forget his face. He asked if I could feel what he was feeling and moved my hand to replace his. I could feel this large mass protruding from my body, on both sides. I could feel the pain I'd been experiencing for months and been writing off as too much, or not enough, food. The air sucked out of the room. This was one of those you can't really hear or think moments. An ultrasound was arranged for the following day. The only other time I'd had an ultrasound was in pregnancy, so I nervously cracked jokes about it being a boy or a girl, but the radiographer's response was no joke. It was the first of many "this is very serious" moments. Within minutes of having the ultrasound, my GP phoned. Thankfully my husband Colm was with me, as I'm pretty sure I would not have been able to drive home. My GP wanted to discuss the results and make "a plan". "A plan", "results", "this is serious"; words I was not used to hearing and I was getting quite terrified. When we got to our GP, he told me my ovaries were swollen and needed to be examined urgently. Next to the gynecologist and an operation to remove my ovaries was planned. I arrived, nervously, at the hospital for the surgery. But it had been cancelled. My first thoughts were of embarrassment, I'm nearly ashamed to admit. I thought there had been some big mix-up and all the 'serious' conversations were everyone being over-cautious and there was nothing wrong. But then the hushed tones and knowing looks became apparent. I was told the doctor wanted to see me. There are days in your life where things happen around you and you have no idea what is going on - this was one of those. My amazing super-sister, Siobhan, a specialist oncology nurse in the hospital, was waiting for me in the room, which was strange. She grabbed my hand and I saw tears in her eyes. In walked my doctor and to this day I really don't remember what he said apart from "high levels of cancer cells". It was all a blur after that and the next step was to see my oncologist, Prof Desmond Carney, who has been a consistent presence of support, advice and reassurance. My initial diagnosis was of the very serious variety. The primary cancer site was my appendix - itself very rare and unusual. It had metastasized to my colon, bowel, uterus and ovaries, causing the swelling that had prompted me to visit my GP. Appendiceal cancer is very hard to diagnose due to a lack of symptoms so, in a way, I was lucky the tumours moved to my ovaries. My treatment plan was six months of chemo to shrink the tumours, before a large operation to remove the tumours, my womb, uterus, ovaries and a large part of my bowel. My surgeon performed ground-breaking HIPEC surgery also, which essentially washed my body with chemotherapy during surgery - only a few people had been treated like this at the time. Post-surgery recovery was long, as I was left with a stoma (an artificially created hole in the abdomen so faeces can still leave the body) , which I had to get used to. I was propelled into the menopause due to a hysterectomy. Cancer treatment and recovery can really impact on family life. I'm incredibly lucky and have outstanding support from my husband, in-laws, parents, friends and siblings, especially my aforementioned sister. I honestly don't know what I would do without her advising and minding me when I can't mind myself. I've been cared for by the outstanding nurses in the Mater Hospital and the Mater Private Hospital. How they look after their patients with such heart, day-in, day-out, cannot be easy. Cancer patients are either experiencing the worst day of their lives receiving a diagnosis or having really tough times with treatment. They are true life-angels to get us cancer crusaders through. They put me in touch with ARC Cancer Support Centres, which provide practical life support for people with cancer, from counselling to yoga to support groups. It can even be just a cuppa and a chat with their volunteers on a good or a bad day. As a mum to Lughan (10) and Fionn (6), I can attest to the fact that their latest programme, CLIMB, for children whose parent or significant adult is going through cancer, is fantastic. Although I've exceptional support, it was great to use the free counselling sessions to 'let it all out'. The counsellors helped me think through my 'new life'. I'm luckily not terminal, but in the past four years, I've had another three diagnoses of tumour regrowth. So, to combat this, I'm on bi-weekly chemotherapy sessions for the rest of my life. There have been many ups and downs as I travel through what I call 'Cancerland', but without the support of family, friends, my employers Tesco Ireland, my doctors, nurses, husband and children, I'm sure I'd have given up long ago. I've made so many positive changes to my life as a result of cancer that although it has changed me physically, it has improved my mental approach. I'm still ambitious for my future, I've plenty of life to live, even though it's with certain limitations now. I recently achieved a life-long dream by being accepted to art college. A great friend once told me "never turn off the dream machine". I have no intention of doing so. I may have cancer. But it doesn't have me. Alison will be a torch-bearer in the ARC Cancer Support Centres' Torch of Hope Relay around Dublin Bay on Sunday, October 21. Visit arccancersupport.ie/torch-of-hope. Cancer Week Ireland - a national initiative to get people talking about cancer and how to spot it - runs until Sunday. Visit cancerweek.ie Debt and mental health are two sides of the same coin you cannot effectively treat one without taking the other into account. Stock Image Half of Irish people say their mental health suffered due to the economic recession with hundreds of thousands driven to thoughts of suicide or self-harm. The startling findings are revealed in a survey of the impact of the downturn on the emotional and mental wellbeing of the population. It shows that seven in 10 experienced stress and anxiety, while over a quarter had to seek professional help to cope with the mental struggle. The Amarach Research, surveying 1,000 Irish people, was commissioned by SilverCloud Health, the HSE provider of online mental health programmes. It marks the 10th anniversary of the banking crisis. The findings show the hidden toll of the financial hit and the psychological fallout. Some 17pc of adults - the equivalent of 540,406 adults over the age of 19 years - were diagnosed with depression or other mood disorder linked to the crash. And for 14pc of adults, the ongoing struggle contributed to thoughts of suicide or self-harm. Jobs were lost, businesses collapsed, thousands were plunged into negative equity, while people's income and savings were destroyed. The havoc wreaked meant that more than a third said their mental state meant their ability to deal with their financial problems was affected. Others felt so anxious they could not relax, and 42pc suffered from sleep problems or sleep disorders The lean years left many feeling more pessimistic, a trend highest in 35-44 year olds. A majority feel financial institutions should have supports in place to help clients who are going through mental stress. And there is strong support for financial regulators to further improve protection for customers who get into financial difficulty. Ken Cahill, chief executive of SilverCloud, said: "The results of our survey demonstrate that for a significant part of the population our collective and individual mental health has greatly suffered over the past decade as a result of financial difficulty stemming from the crisis. If we look at the latest data from the Central Bank of Ireland, Irish households continue to be the fourth most indebted in the EU at an average of 29,307 per capita. "Debt continues to be a massive problem and our survey strongly indicates that as many as 74pc of the Irish population expect banks to provide structures to support clients in debt. In fact, 66pc of these specified that they would like banks to provide 'supportive tools to address the emotional health pressures relating to financial debt.'" Dr Derek Richards, SilverCloud's director of clinical research and innovation, suggested that while efforts have been made in recent years to set up various debt advice support structures "none of these recognises the fact that debt and poor mental health are two sides of the same coin". He added: "You cannot effectively treat one without taking the other into account. Supporting vulnerable clients in this way allows them to take better control of their finances, which ultimately benefits them and the economy as a whole. Clearly our survey data reflects this." The advice to anyone who had thoughts of self-harming or is feeling suicidal is to contact someone they trust immediately - GP, a friend or relative. Liz Chaloner, interim executive director with Samaritans Ireland, said: "We want people to know that Samaritans are here around the clock for anyone in need and that they don't need to be suicidal to call us." Call Freephone: 116 123 or text 087 2 60 90 90 (standard text rates apply). Email: jo@samaritans.ie Admire a woman's outfit and she'll probably give you a twirl, proudly proclaiming: "Penneys!" How times have changed. Irish women used only to buy cheaper clothes when we were broke and admiring comments led to the shifty confession: "Oh this old thing, sure it's only from Penneys." Now, there's no shame in flaunting a bargain. Fashion has become less about the label and more about the skill in putting an outfit together. The less it costs, the better. Something similar is happening in interiors. I recently admired a friend's dining table - an impressive looking piece in oak with a super-silky finish. "That's from Ikea," she said casually. I did a double-take. It certainly didn't look like an Ikea table, but that was partly due to context. The table sat beside an antique sideboard, under a painting by a well-known Irish artist, and was surrounded by Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chairs from Lost Weekend. Those chairs, I knew for a fact, cost 400 a pop. That all seemed like very posh company for an Ikea dining table, but the blocky design of the Morbylanga six-seater looked good without drawing too much attention to itself. I commented on the gorgeous grain of the wood. My host laughed, admitting that her husband, who is an architect, had spent an entire weekend fine-sanding and oiling the table top. This is a new way of thinking about Ikea furniture. In Sweden, they've been doing it for generations. "We started much earlier with that mix-and-match approach to interiors," says Liz Nilsson, a Swedish textile artist who lives in Dublin. "It began in the 1920s with the ethos that everyone should have attractive things in their home and Ikea was a continuation of that." Expand Close Bror trolley, 95 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bror trolley, 95 Nilsson grew up in Sweden where the store has been around since 1958. That makes her an Ikea-native. As an artist and designer, she has sold designs to Ikea and worked for them directly. She's also seen the way in which the Swedish chain, which opened in Belfast in 2007 and Dublin in 2009, has raised the awareness of interior design in Ireland. "When Ikea first came to Ireland, people in the craft circles thought that it would destroy their livelihood," she reflects. "That didn't happen. People found out that you can do both." Like the fashionista who combines a high street dress with a vintage handbag and a scarf that cost more than the rest of her wardrobe put together, Nilsson's home contains a mixture of family heirlooms, Ikea furniture, and handmade artisan items. And that my friends, is the secret to using Ikea to very best effect. Expand Close Odger chairs, 80 each / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Odger chairs, 80 each But back in 2009, it was like Santa had come to town. Ikea had tremendous novelty value and people flocked from every corner of the country. Because it's a one-stop-shop, and a long trek from almost everywhere, we filled our homes with Ikea stuff. That resulted in a lot of very boring interiors. Naturally, we blamed the retailer. "Ikea furniture is boring!" we complained. That wasn't entirely fair. A room composed of items from any one shop will always lack character. Then, there was the quality issue. At first, beguiled by low prices, we bought the cheapest Ikea furniture that we could lay our hands on. When it failed to stand the test of time, we gave out about "disposable furniture". Now, nearly ten years on, we're beginning to realise that Ikea's more expensive pieces are better quality, and will last longer, than their cheaper options. That seems obvious, but it took a while for the penny to drop. In Ikea, just like everywhere else, you get what you pay for. Expand Close Stepladder with three steps, 35 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Stepladder with three steps, 35 My neighbour's Morbylanga table, for example, retails for a substantial 600. It's a beast of a yoke, measuring 220x100cm, so you'd want a large room to house it. The smaller version (140x85cm) costs 500. They are good value, but you couldn't call them cheap. Alternatives include the Ypperlig table, a good family workhorse in ash wood (200x90cm) for 200. But the Ypperlig might not inspire you to spend the weekend polishing its surfaces and it probably would look a bit incongruous with the Series 7 chairs. In Sweden, some of Ikea's better quality pieces have a cult following. They're not treated as disposable furniture at all. People love them, care for them, and even buy them swanky covers. The Swedish company, Bemz, sell loose covers for Ikea sofas that often cost more than the sofa itself. A two-seater Klippan sofa, for example, costs 225. Ikea sells removable covers (55) in white, grey, green, and a pattern that looks like liquorice allsorts, but there's not a lot of choice. If you love your Klippan, but fancy a different fabric, covers from Bemz come in every shade of gorgeous and cost anything from 179 to 499 (that's for Brera Lino Duck Egg linen from Designer's Guild). In one way, that's an expensive way of treating a cheap sofa. In another, there's something cool about treating Ikea basics as a blank canvas. Expand Close Bemz covers for Ikea furniture / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bemz covers for Ikea furniture Then, there's the flat pack thing. Not all Ikea furniture is flat-packed, but the larger items are and assembling them can go horribly wrong. "Follow the instructions!" says Roger Bennett, wood turner. "Don't ever try to second guess them. If the instructions don't work, it means that you've done something wrong." He tells a horror story of someone whose builders decided that they were smarter than the Ikea instruction booklet and could assemble a kitchen without it. They failed. Eventually, they abandoned the project leaving boxes unpacked, their contents jumbled, and the units half-built. "Each one had to be dismantled and reassembled from scratch," he says. "That's the way not to do it." Promoted: See the latest Ikea offers and deals on Independent Discounts Expand Close Brathult corner sofa bed, 385 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Brathult corner sofa bed, 385 When Bennett was buying his own kitchen he went out to Ikea so many times that someone suggested that he should be paying them rent. "As a craftsman I felt a bit guilty about not having a bespoke kitchen but I couldn't afford one," he explains. He purchased the kitchen on Wednesday, 105 boxes were delivered on Thursday, and he assembled it over the weekend. "There wasn't a screw missing!" he says, but admits to being a meticulous person with good carpentry skills. The kitchen cost 1,875, excluding appliances, five years ago. "I don't know how long it will last but it certainly hasn't been damaged in any way in the five years." Ikea isn't Santa - we've learned that the hard way - but it's brought something to Irish interiors that wasn't there before. Expand Close Hemnes bookcases, 145 each / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Hemnes bookcases, 145 each See ikea.com/ie, bemz.com, lostweekend.ie, liznilsson.com and rogerbennettwoodturner.com Proudly fanning their tail feathers, peacocks parade around the rims of ceramic plates for sale in Florentine shop Sbigoli Terrecotte. Along with plump pomegranate kernels and emerald green hills dotted with Cyprus trees, the scene is one of many traditional Tuscan designs revived and replicated by Antonella Cini and her daughter. Dating back to 1859, the small store tucked between medieval towers on Via Sant'Egidio, is one of the few surviving examples of the artisanal entrepreneurship that helped Florence blossom into one of Italy's most prosperous and forward-thinking cities. Hidden away at the back, a small workshop stacked with paint palettes and kiln-baked earthenware is proof of the labour and love invested in each piece - a refreshing alternative to the mass-produced products crowding so many high streets today. "It's getting much harder to find terracotta masters," laments Chiara, who helps run the shop with her parents and sister. "As generations change, the knowledge is dying. It's hard, but we still love what we do." Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A quiet street in Florence. PA Photo/thinkstockphotos. A Generic Photo of the Florence skyline. PA Photo/thinkstockphotos. The roof terrace at Hotel Continentale. PA Photo/Lungarno Collection. Basilica San Miniato al Mont. PA Photo/thinkstockphotos. The 50s-themed lobby at Hotel Continentale. PA Photo/Lungarno Collection. Ristorante Il Cibreo. PA Photo/Cibreo. The Uffizi Gallery. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. A selection of ceramics on sale at Sbigoli Terrecotte. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. The Ponte Vecchio. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. Ceramics on sale at Sbigoli Terrecotte. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A quiet street in Florence. PA Photo/thinkstockphotos. A cluster of terracotta rooftops dominated by Brunelleschi's magnificent cathedral dome, Florence played a significant role in shaping Italy's culture and commerce. In the Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri created a blueprint for the modern Italian language with his epic narrative poem Divine Comedy, and in the mid-15th century, Lorenzo Ghiberti sparked the Renaissance movement with his innovative, three-dimensional designs for the Baptistery doors. Architecturally beautiful and spewing with history, Florence could easily be classed as a museum piece. But beyond its gilt-framed masterpieces and glorious stucco facades, there's a living, breathing community still pulsing with energetic activity. If you want to appreciate the past while having some present-day fun, try these essential Florentine activities... Eat tripe at Cibreo Expand Close Ristorante Il Cibreo. PA Photo/Cibreo. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ristorante Il Cibreo. PA Photo/Cibreo. Celebrity chef Fabio Picchi has built a gastronomic empire in a busy corner of Sant'Ambrogio, not far from one of the city's biggest fresh food markets, San Lorenzo. In 1979, he opened Il Cibreo - a fine-dining brasserie decorated with velvet seats and mirror-backed bars - and has since expanded with the more economical Cafe Cibreo opposite, a noodle bar, a fast-food ravioli outlet and a mobile lampredotto (tripe) trailer. His food is quintessentially Tuscan - liver pates, chicken meatballs and oil-soaked peppers - and the atmosphere is lively day and night. Visit cibreo.com. Drink an aperitivo at Procacci The smell of truffle is deliciously overpowering at this postage stamp-size bar and delicatessen in the downtown city centre. Their famous tartufo panini are best served with a glass of prosecco - either at the bar or huddled around stand-up tables. Founded in 1885, the company once supplied truffle delicacies to the king; expect to find anchovies, artichoke cream and foie gras flavoured with the 'Tuscan gold'. Visit procacci1885.it. Rest your head at Hotel Continentale Expand Close The roof terrace at Hotel Continentale. PA Photo/Lungarno Collection. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The roof terrace at Hotel Continentale. PA Photo/Lungarno Collection. Part of the upscale Lungarno collection, this fashionable, white-themed property pays homage to Italy's 1950s cinematic sirens. Overlooking the Ponte Vecchio (bridge), it's in a prime position for exploring major landmarks, such as the Uffizi Gallery and Gothic Cathedral - although from the peaceful rooftop bar where breakfast is served, crowds of tourists disappear into a distant hum. Early morning, the open-air space is an ideal place to sip a cappuccino as swallows flit overhead, and at night, it's a cool, breezy spot to enjoy a cocktail. Visit lungarnocollection.com. Stock up on potions at Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella Originally concocted by Dominican monks in the 14th century, rosewater produced on these premises is now sold worldwide. Nothing, though, compares to visiting the original shop adjoining the monks' cloisters, where wooden cabinets stocked with glass bottles reflect an original 17th century design. A museum tells the story of the company, and there's also a cafe to sit back and enjoy the surroundings. Visit smnovella.com. Admire art at the Uffizi Expand Close The Uffizi Gallery. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Uffizi Gallery. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. Originally built as offices for the government judiciary in the 16th century, Italy's most popular art gallery opened as a museo (a place for the muses) in 1769. The showstoppers here are undoubtedly Botticelli's triumphant The Birth of Venus and Primavera - but don't dismiss less well-known works. Unfortunately, there's no quiet time to visit, so booking timed tickets online is recommended. Visit uffizi.it/en/the-uffizi Pose for pictures at San Miniato Expand Close The Ponte Vecchio. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Ponte Vecchio. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. Perched on a hilltop a 20-minute walk from the Ponte Vecchio (above), this 1,000-year-old church is a fine mish-mash of Romanesque and Byzantine styles. Turn up when the monks are singing vespers and it's a peaceful place for contemplation too. Outdoor terraces command fine panoramic views of the city and shimmering Apennine mountains in the distance, and are less busy than nearby favourite photo-stop, Piazzale Michelangelo. Follow the road down to San Niccolo - a bohemian neighbourhood on the south bank - and enter one of the ancient stone gates to find a huddle of modern galleries and artisanal boutiques. Sample historic ice cream at Antica Gelateria Fiorentina Eating a gelato is an Italian institution, and Florentines have laid their own claim to inventing the creamy dessert. Responding to a request by Grand Duke Cosimo I de'Medici to make an impressive dessert, architect Bernardo Buontalenti presented a sorbet with eggs, salt, lemon, honey and milk. This is one of the few parlours permitted to replicate his creation. Visit gelateriafiorentina.com. Read more: Notice of the action by Germany-based pilots forced it to cancel almost another 100 flights. Photo: REUTERS Ryanair passengers are bracing for more disruption today as some of its cabin crew in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Italy strike for 24 hours. Some of the airline's pilots in Germany are also taking part in industrial action today. Ryanair had already cancelled 150 flights in advance of the cabin crew strike. Notice of the action by Germany-based pilots forced it to cancel almost another 100 flights. The airline, which has been battling labour unrest for almost a year, has blasted the decision of German pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) to call the strike there. Ryanair said that it held seven hours of talks on Tuesday with VC representatives. The airline said it had already agreed to arbitration with VC, and that such arbitration could take place over four to five weeks. Ryanair also invited VC representatives to talks in Dublin next week to finalise those agreements. Ryanair chief operations officer Peter Bellew said it was "deeply disappointing" that some of its passengers in Germany will have their flights disrupted. The International Transport Workers' Federation and the European Transport Workers' Federation yesterday claimed that worker representation on the Ryanair board "would go some way" to addressing what it said were strained industrial relations at the airline. Meanwhile, Ryanair yesterday announced the opening of two new bases in France - at Marseille and Bordeaux. It had previously operated a base at Marseille, but closed it in 2011. Bunches of flowers at the entrance to Bridewater Mews, Linenhall Street, are a poignant reminder of the tragedy which has robbed two young children of their mother and sent shock waves through the town and far away in Lithuania. They were placed there by friends and townspeople shocked by the murder of thirty-one year old Ingrida Maciokait, who was fatally stabbed outside the apartment block where she lived around 2.45pm on Tuesday, September 18. Her closest relative is an elderly aunt living in Lithuania and her two children, a six year old girl and eighteen month old boy, are being cared by friends. The slightly built dark haired mother was a familiar figure in the area and she was well known in the close knit Lithuanian community. The Lithuanian Community in Dundalk has launched an appeal to help raise money to cover the costs of her funeral and to provide for her young family. Ingrida came to Dundalk from her native Lithuania in search of a better life around eight years ago. She had worked in Fitzpatrick's Bar and Restaurant, Rockmarshall, McCreesh's Deli on the Avenue Road, and had only recently taken up a job in Ruby's Vintage Tearoom, Francis Street. Ingrida is remembered as 'a very nice, very friendly, funny, and hard-working person,' according to Rgidijus Vaitkus, chairperson of the Dundalk Lithuanian Community. He said that there are around one thousand Lithuanians living in Dundalk and surrounding areas, making up 'a close community' who would know one and other. Ingrida's violent death was 'very, very shocking news', he said. 'We are all in shock.' The Dundalk Lithuanian Community have launched an appeal to raise money to cover Ingrida's funeral costs, and Rjidijus says that any money left over will go to her two young children. Anyone who would like to donate to the fund can do so via Paypal to dundalklc1@gmail.com or by bank transfer to Dundalk Lithuanian Community, account number 04795207, sort code: 991044, IBAN: IE30DUCI99104404795207; BIC: DUCIIE21XXX. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched by Dundalk man Eugene Garvey who explains: 'Ingrida Maciokaite life was tragically taken away from her in the most horrible of circumstances, she leaves behind her two beautiful young children. Her family in Lithuania has given permission to her close friends to bury her here in Ireland, a place that she had made her home. Her friends want to give Ingrida a proper send-off but unfortunately funerals are not cheap. As they grieve, I have offered to help them raise the funds. If there is anything you can do to help it would be greatly appreciated ,any excess money raised will go toward her two children.' Russells Gin Saloon, in Park Street, also took up a collection over the weekend, with staff donating tips to the customers' contributions. Gardai investigating the incident have appealed for anyone who was in the Linenhall Street area around 2.45pm on Tuesday September 18 to come forward. Investigating Gardai are appealing to any person who may have witnessed the assault or who may have information or to any drivers who may have dash cam footage to contact the incident room at Dundalk Garda Station on 042-9388400, the Garda Confidential Line 1 800 666 111 or any Garda Station. Specsavers Dundalk is proud to inform customers that store director, Martina Kelly, will travel as part of a team of five volunteers to Ethiopia on Sunday 04 November with Vision Aid Overseas. Martina will be accompanied by Specsavers Galway store director Noel Meehan, Miriam Kilgarriff, also from Specsavers Galway, store director at Specsavers Wilton, Dee Moore, as well as Marie Burke, Specsavers Bandon store director. Specsavers Ireland has been working closely with Vision Aid Overseas for over 10 years, helping the fight against poverty in developing countries by transforming access to eye care. Dundalk based Martina Kelly is no stranger to working with the charity, having previously travelled with Vision Aid Overseas to Zambia in 2015. In preparation for their store managers mission to Ethiopia, the team at Specsavers Dundalk is urging local people to donate their old, unwanted glasses, which can then to help improve the eye health of those less fortunate. Customers can get involved in the appeal by dropping their old frames into the in-store collection, which will then travel to Ethiopia with Martina for Vision Aid Overseas. With over 50,000 frames donated by Irish stores per year, Specsavers Ireland's contribution has a significant impact. Martina will spend two weeks in Ethiopia helping the visually impaired. Along with a team of Irish volunteers, she will carry out numerous eye tests for local people and teach students in the local hospital how to conduct these eye tests, prescribe glasses and detect common eye diseases. With this training, these students will be able to provide optometry services for the community, who, otherwise, would not have access to this level of healthcare. Vision Aid Overseas is committed to creating sustainable solutions in developing countries and with the help of Specsavers, Vision Aid Overseas will provide eye care to people living in Ethiopia. With a population close to 100 million people, the country has just 300 qualified optometrists to look after the eye health needs of all its people. Store director at Specsavers Martina commented: 'In Ireland, we are very fortunate to have access to excellent eye care but most people in Ethiopia are not as lucky, making it vital that we do all we can to improve their eye health services.' Martina who previously visited Zambia in 2015 commented; 'I am delighted to be embarking on my second volunteering trip with Vision Aid Overseas.' She added: 'After witnessing first-hand the poverty that people with visual impairments face, it is great to be able to make a difference.' The store manager pointed out 'By locals donating their old, unwanted glasses, we can really improve the eye health of those less fortunate.' She added: There must be hundreds of spare pairs of specs lying around in drawers across Dundalk that are no longer of use to their owners. All donations will be welcome!' In an effort to support Martina's upcoming travels, Specsavers Dundalk is encouraging locals to drop in their old unused frames which will be donated to those who suffer from visual impairment. For more information on the range of stylish and designer frames at Specsavers Dundalk, or to make an appointment, call (042) 932 6806 or visit https://www.specsavers.ie/stores/dundalk. The adage of how the apple doesn't fall far from the tree can be said about a Duhallow father and son whose love of music knows no bounds. Fiddle player and Scully festival organiser Eoin O'Sullivan has been appointed as the Sliabh Luachra Musician in Residence and for the next year he will be working with schools in the region promoting awareness of the region's vast musical heritage. Eoin spent his childhood immersed in the music and history of Sliabh Luachra with thanks to his father, the fiddle playing Newmarket historian Raymond O'Sullivan. Eoin has worked as a musician since the age of 16 and while his own musical life has been diverse and colourful, he is most passionate about the music and culture of the region where he grew up. Back in 2013, Eoin began a small school teaching local music to people of all ages and that year he also took on the role of director of Scullys Fest, and has helped grow the festival to be one of the highlights of the Sliabh Luachra musical calendar. Eoin will also engage with music festivals, music, singing and set dance groups, local musicians and music teachers to help promote the excellent work that is being done by these groups. The residency is a new initiative by the Arts Offices of Cork and Kerry County Council and Limerick City and County Council, the Irish Traditional Music Archive and the Arts Council. Announcing the appointment, Cork County Arts Officer Ian McDonagh said: "The Sliabh Luachra region has an incredibly rich heritage in music, song and dance. The Sliabh Luachra style is one of the great traditional music performance styles and is known the world over. "However, the transmission and practice of that great tradition is under pressure on many levels. Through this residency, we are delivering on a commitment to support the musicians and organisations already working locally to preserve and promote the music of their local areas." A teenage photographer from Kanturk has made her own little piece of local history by becoming the youngest member of Mallow Camera Club to be awarded a prestigious national accolade. Just a year after joining her parents, Justyna and Janusz, as members of the club, 14-year-old Julia Trzezicka was awarded her licentiateship (LIPF) at a recent Irish Photographic Federation (IPF) distinction session in County Carlow. The IPF awards distinctions on three levels in ascending order, commencing with licentiateship and progressing onto associate and finally fellow. In order to achieve the first of these, a candidate must present a selection of 10 images, which may be of general subject matter or in a specialist category, that demonstrate competence in the key area of camera skill to a panel of experienced judges. Mallow Camera Club PRO Neil O'Mullane said the judging panel were suitably impressed by Julia's presentation. "The award makes Julia, at 14 years of age, the youngest person in the history of Mallow Camera Club to have received the LIPF distinction. This is a wonderful achievement given that she only joined the club last year," said Neil. During that time she has enjoyed several successes in the club's annual league and Photographer of the Year competitions, most notably winning three accolades in the latter - including the Grade 2 overall Photographer of the Year Award. She has also enjoyed success in external competitions, winning a gold medal in the mono print non-advanced category at the 2017 Southern Area Camera Club's Photographer of the Year competition. Some of her images were also entered into the IPF national competition, with one earning her gold in the colour print non-advanced category. Julia, a second year student at Colaiste Treasa, Kanturk, said that she has taken inspiration from watching her father Janusz, a professional photographer and regular contributor to The Corkman, at work. "Ever since I was little I have always been interested in photography and loved watching my Dad editing and taking shots of other people. I have had a lot of support from my parents and members of Mallow Camera Club," she said. Neil said Julia was a credit to her parents and the club. "We are all very proud of Julia and look forward to seeing lots of fabulous photography from her in the future," he said. There was superpower galore to the fore by the most powerful patients of the Mercy University Hospital who helped announced this year's 'Mercy Heroes' campaign. This week, Olan Hanrahan of Charleville, who is seven years old, suitably turned himself into Batman, and cute little six year old Alex Madden from Aherla was a most dashing Wonder Woman. Also joining the powerful duo was Jumail Alhlaichi, who is five years old and is from Blackpool. The children helped to launch the fundraiser for POONS - the Paediatric Oncology Outreach Nursing Service, which allows children with cancer to receive treatment from the comfort of their own home. The POONS service is the only service of its kind in Ireland and covers a large geographical area from Youghal to Bantry, and Mitchelstown to Kinsale, as well as some areas in surrounding counties so that all children have access to this service regardless of their location. For the past five years the Mercy Hospital Foundation has helped to fund this service through voluntary donations. A further 40,000 is now required to ensure the service continues to be available to children like Olan, Kumail and Alex and their families when they need it most. Speaking about the importance of offering the POONS service to families, Olga Buckley, Paediatric Oncology/ Haematology CNS at The Mercy said: "being able to deliver a home-based option to sick children enhances their quality of life and allows for some normalisation of family life during cancer treatment. It also means there is a reduction in hospital admissions and promotes early discharge from the hospital." Continued funding will enable the service to empower families to manage as much of their care at home and try to regain some semblance of normal family life and routine during what is described as a very 'distressing, frightening and uncertain time' in their lives. To help raise funds for POONS, the Mercy Hospital Foundation is inviting people of all ages and from all walks of life to join in the fun on October 19th. Whether you're planning a Dress Up/ Dress Down Day at work or school, a coffee morning at home or at your local club, or you can help out with Mercy street collections around the county, there's a way to get involved. To host your own Mercy Heroes event or fundraiser, simply register at www.mercyfundraising.ie and you will receive a free 'Mercy Heroes' pack full of information and ideas. Speaking about the Mercy Heroes campaign, Micheal Sheridan, CEO, Mercy Hospital Foundation said: "Our patients, from the youngest to the oldest, are our heroes; the staff at the Mercy Hospital are our heroes; and our donors are our heroes. Our donors and supporters are wonderful real-life heroes that help to deliver the best research, diagnosis, treatment and care to patients every day at The Mercy University Hospital, the People's Hospital. Anyone can be a Hero, and we want to celebrate our Mercy Heroes and so we are encouraging the people of Cork to join with us on Friday, October 19." A planning application has been lodged with County Council seeking permission for Cork's second crematorium on the site of the former Duhallow Park Hotel at Dromcummer Beg, Kanturk. The application, lodged this month, makes provision for the construction of a crematorium and associated site works, car parking and alterations to existing site entrances to create a single entrance and exit. A Natura Impact Statement will be also submitted as part of the application. In February of last year the owners of the site, Whitegate-based Classic Lodges (Ireland) Ltd, made a submission seeking their proposal for the facility to be incorporated into the draft Local Area Plan (LAP). It called for the plan to be amended to give general support to the provision of crematoria in rural brownfield sites and "identify the former Duhallow Park Hotel as a suitable location." The submission listed reasons why the site would be suitable for a crematorium, saying their was a growing demand for such a facility that had only been addressed in urban areas. It said a crematorium was a "particularly suitable" use for a rural brownfield site, with the one at Dromcummer Beg ideal for the provision cremation services over a wide area of North Cork and Kerry. The company pointed out there was extant planning permission for a substantial commercial development on the site and that its proposed use as a crematorium would "generate a lower level of traffic than the established and permitted uses." "A crematorium at this location would improve the range of social and community facilities in North Cork while providing new employment and an economic benefit for the area," concluded the submission. The submission, which received the tacit support of some local councillors, was forwarded to council CEO Tim Lucy for review. In his report published in the development plan, which was formally adopted last July, Mr Lucey wrote that an objective of the County Development Plan recognised "the potential of brownfield sites in urban and rural areas and their potential to contribution to a more suitable pattern of development". "The council will therefore give favourable consideration to appropriate proposals which seek to promote the redevelopment of the site of the former Duhallow Park Hotel." However, there was no specific mention of the site being used for a crematorium. While issues were also raised over traffic safety on the adjoining N72 road, a Council official told The Corkman that the plan does not rule out the lodging of a planning application for a crematorium on the site. The Council has set a date of October 17 for submissions on the proposal. Speaking to The Corkman, Cllr John Paul O'Shea said he was surprised at the application as, to his knowledge, neither locals nor public representatives had been consulted about the proposal. "Also, in my opinion, given the lack of hotel beds in Duhallow, the site might be better served by having another hotel there," he added. Brett Kavanaugh denied allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when both were high school students and angrily told Congress that Democrats were engaged in a calculated and orchestrated political hit. In her own testimony, Ms Ford told the same Senate Judiciary Committee that she was 100% certain a drunken young Mr Kavanaugh had pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothes and clapped a hand over her mouth as she tried to yell for help. She described uproarious laughter by Mr Kavanaugh and his friend, whom she said was also involved in the alleged incident in a locked bedroom at a gathering of high school friends. The Judiciary panels day-long hearing, an extraordinary Senate airing of long-ago and painfully personal memories, came as GOP support for Mr Kavanaughs ascension to Supreme Court lay in the balance. Republicans quickly scheduled a recommendation vote for Friday morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where they hold an 11-10 majority. Expand Close Judge Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in to give evidence (Andrew Harnik/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Judge Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in to give evidence (Andrew Harnik/PA) Mr Kavanaugh vowed to continue his bid to join the high court, to which US president Donald Trump nominated him in July. Now a judge on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, Mr Kavanaugh seemed assured of confirmation until Ms Ford and several other accusers emerged in recent weeks. He has denied all the accusations. You may defeat me in the final vote, but youll never get me to quit, never, he said in an irate voice. Both Mr Kavanaugh and Ms Ford testified under sworn oath, leaving senators who will decide his fate and millions of Americans watching on television to parse whose version to believe. In her three hours of testimony, Ms Fords tone was polite but firm as she detailed her accusations but offered no major new revelations. Rachel Mitchell, a veteran sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona who asked all questions of Ms Ford for the committees all-male GOP senators, seemed to elicit no significant inconsistencies. During her testimony, Ms Ford, now 51, said of Mr Kavanaugh: I believed he was going to rape me. Expand Close Christine Blasey Ford testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christine Blasey Ford testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) As deferential and hushed as Ms Fords delivery was, Mr Kavanaughs was incensed and combative. He repeatedly interrupted Democratic senators questions, including on whether he would support their bid for testimony by Mark Judge, the friend whom Ms Ford has claimed participated in Mr Kavanaughs assault on her. When Senator Richard Durbin pressed him to request an FBI probe, Mr Kavanaugh said he would do whatever the committee wished and repeatedly refused to change that position. Mr Trump and Republicans have refused to bring the FBI into the matter. I want to know what you want to do, Mr Durbin said in an exchange that grew progressively louder. Im telling the truth, said Mr Kavanaugh. Later, he twice answered, Have you? when Senator Amy Klobuchar asked if he had ever passed out drinking. He later apologised to her. The emotional tone continued as Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Mr Kavanaughs strongest backers, lashed out at Democrats. What you want to do is destroy this guys life, hold his seat open and hope you win in 2020, he said, referring to that years presidential election. Republicans are pushing to seat Mr Kavanaugh before the November midterms, when Senate control could fall to the Democrats and a replacement Trump nominee could have even greater difficulty. Mr Kavanaugh, 53, struggled to hold back tears, particularly when he referred to his own family, and said that his family and his name had been totally and permanently destroyed. Asked about drinking in high school, he said he had, sometimes to excess. I like beer, he said, but he also said he had never passed out and never attacked Ms Ford. I have never done this to her or to anyone, he said. Expand Close Senator Lindsey Graham speaks as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Senator Lindsey Graham speaks as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP) But he moved beyond simple denials, accusing Democrats of targeting him to assuage political grudges. This whole two-week effort have been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fuelled with apparent pent-up anger about president Trump and the 2016 election, he said, adding that they were seeking revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups. You have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy, he told the senators, referring to the Constitutions charge to senators duties in confirming high officials. During Mr Kavanaughs 45-minute opening statement, senators watched intently, the only sound the clicking of cameras. In the front row, family and friends quietly cried including his wife, Ashley, whose lips were trembling. Among the television viewers on Thursday was Mr Trump, who has mocked the credibility of Mr Kavanaughs accusers. The president watched aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from the United Nations, said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. As the hearing concluded after more than eight hours, Mr Trump tweeted his approval of Mr Kavanaughs performance, saying he showed America exactly why I nominated him, and calling his testimony powerful, honest, and riveting. He added: Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote! Ms Ford, a California psychology professor, spoke carefully and deliberately during the hearing, using scientific terminology at one point to describe how a brain might remember details of events decades later. The boys laughter was indelible in the hippocampus, she said, using her scientific expertise to describe how memories are stored in the brain and adding: Its locked in there. People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane which crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this still image taken from a video obtained from social media. Akang San/via REUTERS People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane which crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Akang San/via REUTERS People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane which crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Akang San/via REUTERS People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. James Yaingeluo/via REUTERS People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. James Yaingeluo/via REUTERS People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane which crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Blue Flag Construction/via REUTERS All passengers and crew have survived after a plane crash-landed on Friday morning in a Pacific lagoon. The Air Niugini plane hit the water short of the runway while trying to land at Chuuk Island in the Federated States of Micronesia, according to the airline. Striking footage from the scene shows people being rescued in boats from the half-submerged plane, in images reminiscent of the 2009 crash-landing in New York City known as the "Miracle on the Hudson". The airline said in a brief statement that everybody aboard the Boeing 737 plane was able to safely evacuate, and the airline was making all efforts to ensure the ongoing safety of the passengers. Expand Close People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. James Yaingeluo/via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. James Yaingeluo/via REUTERS The airline did not immediately say how many people were aboard the plane, where it was travelling from, or what caused the crash. Local news reports indicated between 40 and 50 people were aboard. Expand Close People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. James Yaingeluo/via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. James Yaingeluo/via REUTERS Air Niugini is the national airline of Papua New Guinea and has been in operation since 1973. The fleet includes Boeing 767 and 737 jets for international routes, according to the airline, as well as Fokker F-100 aircraft, Q400 and Dash 8 aircraft for challenging local terrain. Expand Close People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane which crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Akang San/via REUTERS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People are evacuated from an Air Niugini plane which crashed in the waters in Weno, Chuuk, Micronesia, September 28, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. Akang San/via REUTERS Micronesia, located north of Australia and east of the Philippines, is home to just over 100,000 people. It has close ties with the US under an agreement known as a compact of free association. In 2009, both engines on a US Airways jet failed after striking a flock of geese during takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport. Pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles safely landed their powerless plane on the Hudson River. The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced Brett Kavanaughs nomination for the US Supreme Court after informally agreeing to a one-week investigation into sexual assault allegations made against him. It is unclear whether Republican leaders, who have pushed for fast confirmation of Mr Kavanaugh, would back the request made by senator Jeff Flake for further investigation. President Donald Trump, who has accused the Democrats of obstruction and opposed the FBI investigating the allegations against his nominee, said he would let the Senate handle that. The vote came a day after Mr Kavanaugh and an accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, gave evidence in an emotional hearing. Expand Close Christine Blasey Ford gives evidence before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christine Blasey Ford gives evidence before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/AP) Mr Kavanaugh angrily denied the allegations that he assaulted Ms Ford while they were both in high school, while she said she was 100% certain he was her attacker. Mr Flake, a key moderate Republican, was at the centre of the drama and uncertainty. In the morning, he announced that he would support Mr Kavanaughs nomination. Shortly after, he was confronted in a lift by two women who, through tears, implored him to change his mind. The confrontation was captured by television cameras. After speaking privately with his colleagues, Mr Flake announced he would vote to advance Mr Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate the allegations against the judge. Democrats have been calling for such an investigation, though Republicans and the White House have insisted it is unnecessary. The committee vote was 11-10 along party lines. Mr Flake said that after discussing the matter with fellow senators, he felt it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week. Let it now be a matter of record that victim culture is in fact the petulance of white men closing ranks to protect their jobs/status & insist on the continued oppression of women so they can thrive. #Kavanaughvote tells a devastating truth we can no longer pretend not to hear. Sophie Walker (@SophieRunning) September 28, 2018 That increases the pressure on a handful of colleagues who have not yet said whether they back Mr Kavanaugh. These are Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. With a 51-49 majority, Senate Republicans have little margin for error, especially given the fact that several Democrats facing tough re-election prospects this autumn announced their opposition to Mr Kavanaugh on Friday. Senators, make no mistake. If you vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, you are sending this message and perverting the Supreme Court: -Women & survivors dont matter -Impartiality doesnt matter -Integrity & honesty dont matter#StopKavanaugh Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) September 28, 2018 Senators Bill Nelson of Florida, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Jon Tester of Montana all said they would vote no. During Thursdays hearing, Democrats repeatedly peppered Mr Kavanaugh with questions about whether he would support an FBI investigation. He said he would back whatever the committee decided to do. The FBI conducts background checks for federal nominees, but the agency does not make judgments on the credibility or significance of allegations. It compiles information about the nominees past and provides its findings to the White House, which passes it along to the committee. Republicans say reopening the FBI investigation is unnecessary because committee members have had the opportunity to question both Mr Kavanaugh and Ms Ford and other potential witnesses have submitted sworn statements. If the FBI does reopen the background investigation, agents could interview accusers and witnesses and gather additional evidence or details that could help corroborate or disprove the allegations. Democrats have been particularly focused on getting more information from Mark Judge, a high school friend of Mr Kavanaugh who Ms Ford said was also in the room during her alleged assault. In her evidence, Ms Ford said Mr Kavanaugh and Mr Judges laughter during the incident has stuck with her nearly four decades later. Mr Judge has said he will co-operate with any law enforcement agency that investigates confidentially. Police operations are seen at the closed ferry port in Helsingoer, Denmark (Keld Navntoft/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) A traffic jam is seen after police closed the Oresund Bridge near Copenhagen (Nils Meilvang/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) A police manhunt prompted Danish authorities to briefly cut off the eastern island of Zealand, including the capital of Copenhagen, from the rest of the country as well as from Germany and Sweden. A black Swedish-registered car with "possibly three people onboard" was being sought in connection with "serious criminality", the Copenhagen police said. Expand Close View from the webcam of the Oresund Bridge. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp View from the webcam of the Oresund Bridge. Sweden's Aftonbladet paper, citing an unnamed police source, said the case was likely connected to a kidnapping. Bridges from Zealand to the central island of Funen and to neighbouring Sweden were closed down for about two hours, and ferry crossings to Germany and to Sweden were halted. Shutting down these major crossings caused major traffic jams near bridges to Sweden and to the mainland. On Twitter, Copenhagen police later said all bridges and ferry crossings were reopened. Denmark's TV2 said a police helicopter and a search with police dogs was spotted on the road near Roskilde, 40 miles west of Copenhagen between the capital and the Storebaelt bridge to the island of Funen. Copenhagen airport stayed open during the manhunt, according to its website. More to follow A former Vatican ambassador has challenged the Holy See to say what it knows about a scandal surrounding a disgraced American ex-cardinal and accused Pope Francis of mounting a campaign of subtle slander against him. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano penned a new missive a month after his initial 11-page document sent shockwaves through the Catholic Church. It was uploaded to a document-sharing site. The archbishop denounced the official Vatican silence about his claims and accused Francis of mounting a campaign of subtle slander by referring indirectly to him as Satan in recent homilies. Expand Close Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been accused of sexual misconduct (Patrick Semansky/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been accused of sexual misconduct (Patrick Semansky/AP) The cleric urged the current head of the Vatican bishops office to speak out, saying he has all the documentation needed to prove years of cover-up by the Vatican about alleged sexual misconduct by ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick. How can one avoid concluding that the reason they do not provide the documentation is that they know it confirms my evidence? the archbishop wrote. The popes unwillingness to respond to my charges and his deafness to the appeals by the faithful for accountability are hardly consistent with his calls for transparency and bridge building. The archbishop threw Francis papacy into turmoil last month when he accused Francis of rehabilitating ex-cardinal McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI. He accused more than two dozen current and former Vatican officials, as well as a host of US bishops and papal advisers, of being part of the cover-up and called for Francis to resign over the scandal. Francis removed Mr McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a US church investigation determined an allegation he fondled a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible. After news broke of the investigation, several former seminarians and priests came forward to report that they, too, had been abused or harassed by Mr McCarrick as adults. The scandal has led to a crisis in confidence in both the US and Vatican hierarchy, since Mr McCarricks penchant for seminarians was apparently an open secret in some US and Vatican church circles. In his first denunciation, published on August 26, the archbishop initially claimed Benedict had imposed sanctions against Mr McCarrick prohibiting him from exercising public ministry, travelling or lecturing on behalf of the church. Expand Close The archbishop claimed Pope Benedict had imposed sanctions against now ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick (Ben Birchall/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The archbishop claimed Pope Benedict had imposed sanctions against now ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick (Ben Birchall/PA) He has changed his account, however, since the historic record is rife with evidence Mr McCarrick lived his ministry free from any real constraints, and it is unclear what type of sanctions were ever imposed. But the crux of the archbishops claim was that he told Francis of the sanctions against Mr McCarrick on June 23 2013, and that the pope effectively rehabilitated Mr McCarrick and made him a trusted adviser. Francis has refused to directly respond to the archbishops claims, though the Vatican is expected to release some clarifications soon. Francis, however, has referred to the issue indirectly in his morning homilies, speaking of the silence of Jesus before the great accuser, seemingly comparing his own silence to that of Christ and the archbishops accusations to the work of Satan. Rather than directly responding, the archbishop complained, Francis put in place a subtle slander against me, slander being an offence he has often compared to the gravity of murder. But the purpose of any secret, including the pontifical secret, is to protect the church from her enemies, not to cover up and become complicit in crimes committed by some of her membersArchbishop Carlo Maria Vigano Indeed, he did it repeatedly, in the context of the celebration of the most Holy Sacrament, the Eucharist, where he runs no risk of being challenged by journalists. Francis refused to take questions about the accusations during his in-flight news conference returning from the Baltics on Tuesday. The archbishop acknowledged he has violated the pontifical secret, the rule of confidentiality that governs much of the inner workings of the Catholic Church. Certainly, some of the facts that I was to reveal were covered by the pontifical secret that I had promised to observe and that I had faithfully observed from the beginning of my service to the Holy See, the achbishop wrote. But the purpose of any secret, including the pontifical secret, is to protect the church from her enemies, not to cover up and become complicit in crimes committed by some of her members. Kurds in Turkey Have Occupied Assyrian Monastery's Land for 40 Years The St. Augin Assyrian Monastery in Tur Abdin, Turkey. ( Nineb Lamassu) (AINA) -- The St. Augin Syriac Orthodox Monastery is located on Mount Izlo, in the region known as Tur Abdin in southeast Turkey. The area is historically Assyrian and is home to many Assyrian monasteries. For the last 40 years major tracts of land belonging to St. Augin Monastery have been occupied by Kurds, most of whom are members of the People's Democratic Party (HDP). Repeated attempts by Assyrians to regain their lands have failed. Several promises to return the lands have been made to Assyrians by well known Kurds, such as Ahmet Turk, but these promises have not been honored. Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of PKK (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistane), issued a statement from his prison cell condemning the occupation, saying "I am very furious that you are not able to solve these kinds of problems...these people [Assyrians] were massacred and exiled. A handful of people are left. Now, those who do not want to stand with this handful of people and hold the attackers responsible are with no honor." Despite this strong message from Ocalan to his fellow Kurds, nothing has happened and the land of St. Augin Monastery is still under the occupation. The president of the Swedish-based St. Augin Monastery Association, Iskender Gabrielsson, said they have contacted many organizations and individuals in Turkey to resolve the situation, but no progress has been made despite many promises. According to Gabrielsson some Kurds have expressed regret that this has happened to the Assyrians, and have blamed the religious and "ignorant" Kurds that were used by the Turkish state. However, members of HDP have made no effort to resolve the situation. The lands belonging to the St. Augin Assyrian Monastery in Tur Abdin, Turkey have been occupied by Kurds for the past 40 years. ( Nineb Lamassu) "Should we only blame the Turkish state?" Gabrielsson asks. "When will the Kurds take responsibility for their actions?" Representatives of HDP and other Kurdish individuals have been informed about this on multiple occasions. Additionally, several commissions in Ankara and Istanbul were created in order to resolve the land problem, but when the delegates of these commissions went to the region, they remained powerless against the Kurdish tribes and their interest in confiscating the Assyrian lands. "The occupiers' strategy is to tire the Assyrians and see them give up," says According to Gabrielsson. "But this is our land and we will not rest until we have the Monastery's land back. The only hope we have is that the good people can hear our cry and start to support us with our struggle." German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have stressed the importance of the two Nato allies working together as they sought to improve acrimonious relations. The two nations have clashed over numerous issues in recent years, including Turkeys jailing of German journalists and a German parliament resolution labelling the early-20th century killing of Armenians in Turkey as genocide. Turkey vehemently denies that the massacre was genocide and insists it was part of the violence during the First World War. The rhetoric escalated to the point where Mr Erdogan called Germanys mainstream parties enemies of Turkey and accused German officials of acting like Nazis, prompting Mrs Merkel to condemn the Turkish presidents comments. Mr Erdogan ignored a question on Friday about whether he had apologised for the Nazi comment. He instead demanded closer co-operation from Germany against groups that Turkey considers terrorist organisations, including Kurdish rebels and people with alleged links to a failed 2016 coup in Turkey. With the mutual trust we have for each other, I believe the handing over of (suspects) would make our work easierRecep Tayyip Erdogan Mr Erdogan alleged that thousands of Kurdish militants and hundreds of people with suspected links to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen are living in Germany. Turkey accuses Mr Gulen of orchestrating the coup attempt, which he denies. With the mutual trust we have for each other, I believe the handing over of (suspects) would make our work easier, Mr Erdogan said. Mrs Merkel noted that Germany considers the PKK Kurdish rebel group a terrorist organisation and prosecutes its members, and said German authorities take Mr Erdogans information on Mr Gulen seriously but we need more material what we have is not enough for a similar status to the PKK. She also criticised the Turkish prosecution of journalists and others, detaining some for months without charges. It is no secret to anyone that there have been deep differences in our relationship in recent years, and that there still are, she said. That largely has to do with questions of the rule of law, with questions of press freedom. Mr Erdogan said he has no right to criticise the German judiciary and Germany has no right to criticise the Turkish judicial system. On all questions of how a democratic, free and open society looks, there are also deep misunderstandings not misunderstandings, differencesAngela Merkel The trip is Mr Erdogans first formal state visit to Germany, home to more than 3 million people with Turkish roots. But the increasingly authoritarian leader is viewed with suspicion across the political spectrum in Germany. At the same time, the two countries recognise mutual strategic interests, with Turkey being key to the European Unions strategy to slow the flood of migrants into the continent. Turkey, which has a struggling economy, also needs economic co-operation from Germany and other European nations. Mrs Merkel said she and Mr Erdogan talked about bilateral economic co-operation and stressed that Germany has an interest in an economically stable Turkey. There is, on the one hand, a common strategic interest in good relations, and on Germanys part too an interest in developing these relations, she said. But on the other hand, on all questions of how a democratic, free and open society looks, there are also deep misunderstandings not misunderstandings, differences. I think this visit is significant because we can only clear up differences by talking to each other, she said. Tesco is hoping that Jacks will help it in the fight against Aldi and Lidl (Joe Giddens/PA) Tesco boss Dave Lewis will be quizzed on the performance of the supermarkets new discount store format Jacks this week as the group unveils its half-year results. Jacks, launched just weeks ago, aims to take on German discounters Aldi and Lidl, which have eaten into the market share of Britains so-called big four supermarkets. Tesco plans to open up to 15 Jacks branches over the next year, and the City will be keen to hear how the first two stores in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, and Immingham, north-east Lincolnshire, have been trading. Expand Close Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis at the new Jacks store in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire (Joe Giddens/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis at the new Jacks store in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire (Joe Giddens/PA) There has much speculation regarding the groups plans for its new discount outlet, Jacks, and how many stores it will close or convert, said Graham Spooner, investment research analyst at The Share Centre. Mr Lewis said when Jacks launched that prices will be the cheapest in town at each location. He added that the move, which has been under discussion at the supermarket for more than two years, is in response to consumer desire for a smaller, simpler range at shops. Expand Close Tesco is expected to report its 11th consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales growth (Niall Carson/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tesco is expected to report its 11th consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales growth (Niall Carson/PA) City analysts also expect the grocery giant to report its 11th consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales growth. For the first half as a whole, Tesco will report UK and Ireland like-for-like sales growth of 3.3%, according to consensus estimates. David McCarthy, analyst at HSBC, said warm weather over the summer, which helped supermarkets, will boost the results. We expect slightly better half one sales than consensus for the UK like for like. Consensus is implying a second-quarter slowdown in sales, whereas we believe that total sales will prove to be better helped by the strong summer. Expand Close Tescos deal to take over cash-and-carry operator Booker is expected to boost the supermarkets profits (Joe Giddens/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tescos deal to take over cash-and-carry operator Booker is expected to boost the supermarkets profits (Joe Giddens/PA) Tescos deal to take over cash-and-carry operator Booker is also expected to boost profits, Mr McCarthy added. Tesco finalised the 3.7 billion deal earlier this year, and the group has been moving quickly to integrate the two businesses. Mr Spooner said: Tesco have had 10 consecutive quarters of rising sales and the performance of Booker has been encouraging. Fierce price competition and promotions are likely to remain a squeeze on margins for some time; however, the revised strategy is helping move the group and the share price, which hit a four-year high in August, in the right direction. Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP) The US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh produced hours of fiery, emotional testimony. Both Mr Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of sexual assault when they were high school students, appeared before senators on Thursday. Mr Kavanaugh denied the accusation. Here are some of the key takeaways from the extraordinary hearing: What did Ms Ford say? Ms Ford gave a soft-spoken and steady account about what she said happened three decades ago in a bedroom at a small gathering of friends. She said she came forward not for political reasons, but because it was her civic duty. She described in detail how an inebriated Mr Kavanaugh and another teenager, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Mr Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her. Expand Close Christine Blasey Ford becomes emotional during the hearing (Andrew Harnik/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christine Blasey Ford becomes emotional during the hearing (Andrew Harnik/AP) She said he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams, and testified: I believed he was going to rape me. The 51-year-old mother of two said the incident was seared into her mind through trauma, while admitting there were some gaps in her memory around the attack. Ms Ford, a California psychology professor making her first public remarks about the incident, choked up occasionally as she described the alleged attack. Democratic senators questioned her directly, but the 11 Republican members on the committee instead chose to have a female sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona question her. Asked how certain she was that Mr Kavanaugh was her attacker, she declared: 100%. What did Mr Kavanaugh say? Mr Kavanaugh ditched his prepared remarks and instead issued a blistering statement declaring the confirmation process a national disgrace. He strongly denied Ms Fords allegation, but said he believed she had been the victim of a sexual assault. The father of two daughters said one of his girls said they should pray for the woman accusing him. Expand Close Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) Thats a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old, he said, choking up. Mr Kavanaughs scorched-earth strategy gave president Donald Trump what he wanted: a nominee willing to fight back aggressively and yield no ground to Democrats. Echoing Ms Ford, he said he was 100% certain he did not commit the assault. At times, Mr Kavanaughs frustrations boiled over. When Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar asked if he had ever drunk so much he blacked out, he snapped: Have you?. He later apologised. Moments after the hearing finished, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. Expand Close Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questions Christine Blasey Ford (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questions Christine Blasey Ford (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) What happened to the prosecutor? Republicans appointed prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to question Ms Ford, and she led off the questioning of Mr Kavanaugh. Then she quickly faded away. After Ms Mitchell asked Mr Kavanaugh several detailed questions about Ms Fords allegations, the GOP senators took matters into their own hands. Senator Lindsey Graham led the way with a scorching denunciation of Democrats for raising the allegations against Mr Kavanaugh in the final days of the confirmation process. From there, each GOP senator handled his own questions, while Ms Mitchell sat silently nearby. Hours earlier, Ms Mitchell opened her questioning of Ms Ford by expressing sympathy for the professor, who said she was terrified to testify. I just wanted to let you know, Im very sorry. Thats not right, Ms Mitchell said. Expand Close Senator Orrin Hatch speaks to the media after the hearing (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Senator Orrin Hatch speaks to the media after the hearing (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) What happens next? Republicans quickly expressed their determination to move forward. After huddling in the Capitol, senators said the Judiciary Committee would hold a Friday morning vote on whether to recommend Mr Kavanaugh for confirmation. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, a long-time committee member, said he thinks Mr Kavanaugh will get confirmed by a party-line vote. Republicans margin for error in the full Senate is slim. If all Democrats oppose the nomination, just two GOP senators would sink Mr Kavanaughs confirmation if they were to oppose him as well. Multiple Republican politicians have not said which way they will vote, including two women with reputations as moderates who have been willing to buck their party Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Mr Graham cautioned them against voting no. To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, youre legitimising the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics, he said. Yesterday was a day we will not forget. It will be remembered, replayed, revisited, and re-examined for years. It is a day with enormous sociological and political significance, not just as a symbol or an emblematic event of a tumultuous era, but something we will likely look back on as a direct cause of change. As I write this, the hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee is still ongoing. But we already have a good idea of how this spectacle will reverberate through national life in the US. In her prepared testimony, Christine Blasey Ford said, "I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified." And she clearly was. It would be hard enough for anyone to get up in front of all those senators and all those cameras, knowing that the eyes of the world were on you, even if you were testifying about soybean yields or banking regulations. But to have to describe the most traumatic thing that had ever happened to you, something that you had been taught to treat as a cause of shame? It's almost unimaginable. Twitter is not a representative sample of anything, so take this as anecdotal, but as I watched Prof Ford's testimony with my computer in front of me, what I saw from one woman after another was expressions of pain, anguish, even horror. Whether they had experienced sexual assault themselves, watching someone have to describe her assault to the world, seeing how difficult it was for her, her voice cracking from the strain of keeping her composure, was very painful. The most powerful moment came when Prof Ford was asked what most stays in her memory from the attack, and she said it was the laughter: Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, laughing as she was gripped by terror. The women who don't have stories like Prof Ford's, or stories that are worse, know that it is only through good fortune that they avoid being victimised by men with predation on their minds. Their partners, their co-workers, their acquaintances, or just men they walk by on the street have power over them and their bodies. They move through life knowing that they are always vulnerable, and if the worst happens and they are victimised, they will likely be disbelieved and attacked for having the temerity to complain. That is the psychological context in which every woman watches this hearing. For Brett Kavanaugh the optics are different. We've seen him before so we know what he looks and sounds like, and we know what he's going to say: It's all lies, he has always been an upstanding gentleman, he never hurt anyone. The message will be clear: I'm the victim here. I'm sure there are many people who will find Prof Ford's testimony unpersuasive. Each will seize on whichever of the theories about why she is not telling the truth they find the least outlandish. She's part of an anti-Trump conspiracy, she's been paid by George Soros, she's delusional, she was assaulted by someone who looked like Brett Kavanaugh. Some will react the way Donald Trump did, by saying what amounted to "You know what liars women are." Despite the power of Prof Ford's testimony and all the reasons to believe her, there's enough ambiguity (it's not like we have video of the event) that anyone who wants to can persuade themselves that Judge Kavanaugh is the one telling the truth. And so it is possible that at the end of all this, Judge Kavanaugh will still get on the Supreme Court. Where, by the way, he'll be poised to join the other male conservatives on the court to begin an assault on women's reproductive rights. How is that going to feel to American women? Judging by what so many of them are saying, what they feel already - after all the revelations of the Me Too movement, after Trump got elected despite being on tape bragging about his ability to sexually assault women with impunity - is, yes, pain and frustration. But more than anything else, what they feel is rage. If Judge Kavanaugh becomes Justice Kavanaugh, that rage is going to erupt. It could have an enormous impact on this year's elections, the 2020 election, and the future of the two parties. And we have no idea yet how far it will go. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's nominee to the US supreme Court, broke down as he said his confirmation process had become a "national disgrace" and America would "reap the whirlwind" for decades to come. Giving evidence to the Senate judiciary committee, Judge Kavanaugh became visibly angry as he said he was the victim of a "calculated and orchestrated political hit," and "grotesque character assassination" by Democrats. In a defiant performance, the judge said his reputation had been "totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false accusations". He was sworn in after Professor Christine Blasey Ford gave four hours of evidence detailing an alleged attack on her by Judge Kavanaugh at a high school party. Judge Kavanaugh was led into the committee room in Washington holding the hand of his wife Ashley and with a large security detail. He said: "I am innocent of this charge. I've never sexually assaulted anyone. Sexual assault is horrific. This is a circus and the consequences will be with us for decades." Judge Kavanaugh broke down as he described praying with his 10-year-old daughter last night. He described how his daughter said: "We should pray for the woman." The judge told the committee: "That's a lot of wisdom for a 10-year-old." Earlier, Prof Ford's voice had cracked as she begun to outline her allegation against Judge Kavanaugh. "I am here today not because I want to be," the California professor said, appearing close to tears. "I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me." Over the three hours of testimony that followed, Prof Ford outlined in graphic detail her recollection of what happened at a party in the summer of 1982 and the impact it had. She described fearing she was about to be raped as Judge Kavanaugh allegedly drunkenly pinned her on a bed and attempted to remove her clothes while Mark Judge, his friend, looked on. She recounted how Judge Kavanaugh covered her mouth as she yelled over the music, and how she became convinced her alleged attacker was "accidentally going to kill me". And, when asked what she remembered most vividly - which she allegedly escaped only after Mr Judge jumped on the pair - she claimed one thing stuck out: the laughter. "Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter. They're having fun at my expense," Prof Ford said, voice wavering. "They were laughing with each other. I was underneath one of them while they laughed." The emotional testimony played out before millions as television channels carried the hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which vets nominees. Hanging in the balance was a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, the top of the US legal system. Judge Kavanaugh "categorically and unequivocally" denied the allegation. "I never had any sexual or physical encounter of any kind with Dr Ford," he said in written testimony ahead of his appearance. "I am not questioning that Dr Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time. But I have never done that to her or to anyone. I am innocent..." Judge Kavanaugh, a 53-year-old Yale graduate, was cruising to confirmation a fortnight ago. But then Prof Ford went on the record with her allegation, throwing his nomination into doubt. Since then two more women - Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick - have publicly accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in his student days. He has denied all accusations. Before the hearing, Prof Ford and the other women had been characterised by leading Republicans - including Mr Trump - as being puppets in a "con game" being orchestrated by the Democrats. But yesterday such claims were called into question as Prof Ford spoke plainly and at times with emotion about her alleged experience. A string of Democrat senators said Prof Ford proved a "credible" witness and declared their belief in her claims. Senator Orrin Hatch, a leading Republican sceptic, said she was not "uncredible". However, Lindsey Graham, Republican senator for South Carolina, called her claims "uncorroborated" and noted she did not know exactly where or when the alleged incident took place. Prof Ford began by describing the alleged 1982 incident, when she would have been 15, and Judge Kavanaugh 17. She described how after spending the day at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland she attended a "small gathering" where Mr Judge and Judge Kavanaugh were present. She alleged she was shoved into a bedroom and claimed she made eye contact with Mr Judge, wishing he would intervene, as Judge Kavanaugh, "visibly drunk", allegedly groped her. Prof Ford also recalled the relief she felt after fleeing the house and discovering that the men were not following. Discussing the impact on her life, Prof Ford said she had experienced anxiety and PTSD-type symptoms. She also revealed that after reluctantly going public with her claim - initially submitted with a wish to remain anonymous - she had received death threats, had her emails hacked and been forced to flee her home. Republicans hired Rachel Mitchell, a female prosecutor experienced in talking to victims of sex crimes, to lead their questioning. She probed gaps in Prof Ford's recollection and questioned if it may have been a case of mistaken identity. "Absolutely not," Prof Ford said, insisting she was "100 per cent" sure Judge Kavanaugh committed the assault. Mr Judge, the only first-hand witness of the alleged incident outside Prof Ford and Judge Kavanaugh, has declined to give evidence. He has previously denied the claims in the press. President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has gained the support of a key Republican senator. Expand Close Christine Blasey Ford gives evidence before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Christine Blasey Ford gives evidence before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/AP) The decision virtually ensures his nomination will advance to the full Senate a day after Mr Kavanaugh adamantly denied sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford, who insisted she was "100pc" certain he did. Moments before the panel convened, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a member of the committee, announced he would vote to confirm Mr Kavanaugh. Mr Flake said Mr Kavanaugh was entitled to the "presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence". "While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senate's advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the Constitution's provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well," Mr Flake said. "I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh." The remarkable evidence before the panel saw Mr Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ms Ford calmly recount the moment in which she says he attacked her. The American Bar Association, which previously gave Mr Kavanaugh its highest rating of "well qualified," asked the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate to delay the vote until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that on Friday, telling reporters Mr Kavanaugh has already "been through six separate background investigations by the FBI". The magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Mr Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and "should be withdrawn". "If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritising policy aims over a woman's report of an assault," the America magazine editors wrote. "Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country." The magazine's reversal is significant given Mr Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Roman Catholic faith and his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgetown Prep school in Maryland. Former president George W. Bush has been advocating for Mr Kavanaugh with wavering senators in recent days, according to a person familiar with Mr Bush's outreach. Mr Trump is publicly standing by his nominee. "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," he tweeted late on Thursday. "The Senate must vote!" The US Senate Judiciary Committee set a vote for 1:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) Friday on nominee Brett Kavanaugh, one day after a contentious hearing on sexual assault allegations against him. Fighting to salvage his U.S. Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh angrily denied on Thursday a university professor's accusation that he sexually assaulted her 36 years ago in a day of dramatic testimony that gripped the country. Christine Blasey Ford, her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, appeared in public for the first time to detail her allegation against Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge chosen by President Donald Trump for a lifetime job on the top U.S. court. Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee she feared Kavanaugh would rape and accidentally kill her during the alleged assault in 1982, when both were high school students in Maryland. Expand Close Claims: Professor Christine Blasey Ford appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Claims: Professor Christine Blasey Ford appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday She said she was "100 percent certain" it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her. Kavanaugh testified after Ford finished her appearance, claiming he was the victim of "grotesque and obvious character assassination" orchestrated by Senate Democrats. He said he "unequivocally and categorically" denied Ford's allegation and vowed he would not back down. "I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process," Kavanaugh added. Although they were at no point in the hearing room together, the clash pitted his word against hers. Expand Close Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images The almost nine hours of intensely emotional testimony came against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault and had millions of Americans riveted to their TV screens and smart phones. Ford has emerged in the eyes of many American women as a compelling figure in the #MeToo movement that is usually associated less with the names of victims and more with a list of high-profile men accused of misconduct. Expand Close Senator Lindsey Graham defends Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Senator Lindsey Graham defends Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (Tom Williams/Pool Image via AP) It was not clear, however, if the drama changed the views of any senators. The Senate, controlled 51-49 by Trump's fellow Republicans, must now decide whether to vote to confirm Kavanaugh after the extraordinary nearly nine-hour hearing. Four senators -- Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Jeff Flake along with Democrat Joe Manchin -- are seen as possible swing voters whose decisions will determine whether Kavanaugh is approved or rejected. Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump and his confirmation would cement conservative control of the Supreme Court with disputes over abortion rights, immigration, gay rights, voting rights and transgender troops possibly heading toward the justices soon. The Judiciary Committee, on which Republicans hold an 11-10 majority, was to meet on Friday morning and several senators said they expected it to vote then. The full Senate could vote within days. Writing on Twitter after the hearing, Trump said of Kavanaugh: "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" Kavanaugh at times choked back tears, especially when he mentioned that his daughter suggested they pray for Ford, when he spoke of his father and when he mentioned women friends who had rallied to support him. Kavanaugh sharply attacked Democratic senators, calling himself the victim of "a calculated and orchestrated political hit" fueled by anger on the left at Trump's 2016 election win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, his conservative judicial record, and revenge on behalf of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. "I swear today, under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge," Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee. Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, said over four hours of testimony that a drunken Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a gathering of teenagers when he was 17 years old and she was 15. "With what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you?" Democratic Senator Dick Durbin asked Ford. "One hundred percent," she replied, remaining firm and unruffled even under questioning by a sex crimes prosecutor hired by the committee's Republicans. When Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her if it could be a case of mistaken identity, as Kavanaugh and some Republican senators have suggested, Ford replied: "Absolutely not" . Murkowski, one of the three moderate Republican senators who have not announced whether or not they will support Kavanaugh, told Reuters: "I find Dr. Ford's testimony to be credible." For his part, Kavanaugh testified he was "100 percent certain" none of the alleged incidents of sexual misconduct occurred. Democrats lauded Ford's testimony as credible, brave and, in the words of Senator Cory Booker, "nothing short of heroic." "I want to thank you for your courage. And I want to tell you I believe you. ... And I believe many Americans across the country believe you," Democratic Senator Kamala Harris said. While some Republicans and Trump have called the allegations by Ford and the two other women part of a smear campaign, Ford told the committee she had no political motivation, adding: "I am an independent person and I am no one's pawn." Ford was seated at a table in the packed hearing room flanked by her lawyers, facing a bank of senators. She told the senators she was "terrified" to testify but felt it was her civic duty to come forward. "Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was very inebriated and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothing. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help," Ford said, adding that Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were "drunkenly laughing during the attack." Democratic senators sought to score political points during their five minutes apiece of questioning Ford. The panel's Republican senators, all men, did not question her, assigning that task to Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor. While Mitchell probed Ford's account looking for gaps, her questioning seemed disjointed. She took turns with the Democratic senators to ask questions in five-minute segments, disrupting her flow. During Kavanaugh's testimony, Republican senators sidelined Mitchell and asked their own questions. The bitter fight over Kavanaugh's nomination is unfolding just weeks before the Nov. 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to seize majority control of Congress from the Republicans. It has also deepened the country's political polarization. Kavanaugh, sitting alone at the witness table, said he wanted to testify as soon as Ford's allegation emerged last week and was not surprised other allegations followed. "In those 10 long days, as was predictable and as I predicted, my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations," he said, as his wife sat behind him. Kavanaugh repeatedly tangled with Democratic senators, interrupting several of them, including Feinstein and Amy Klobuchar, during testy exchanges. When Klobuchar asked him about his teenage drinking, he threw the question back at her, asking her whether she had ever been blackout drunk. He later apologized for the question. Kavanaugh was careful not to denounce Ford, noting he wished her "no ill will." He said he was not questioning that Ford may have been sexually assaulted by someone in some place at some time, but that he had never assaulted her or anyone else. Some Democrats have called on Kavanaugh to withdraw in light of the allegations. At the hearing, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham castigated Democratic senators, seeking to rally Republicans not to abandon the nominee. "This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics," Graham said. Ford said Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming during the assault. She added: "This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me." Her strongest memory of the incident, Ford said, was the "uproarious laughter between the two (Kavanaugh and Judge) and their having fun at my expense." She said the laughter had haunted her ever since. Two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in the 1980s. Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself during a drunken dormitory party during the 1983-84 academic year when both attended Yale University. Swetnick said she witnessed efforts by Kavanaugh and others to get girls drunk at parties so they could be raped. She said Kavanaugh was present at a 1982 party where she was raped. Trump, who has himself faced accusations of sexual misconduct, chose Kavanaugh to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired effective in July. RSA Insurance has warned that weather-related losses in the UK have dented profits. The insurer said its UK and London business made an underwriting loss of 70 million in the third quarter as it was stung by higher weather, large losses and attritional claims, particularly in its marine division. RSA said pre-tax profit in the year to date is higher than 2017 but lower on an underlying basis as a result. We are determined to restore satisfactory performance whilst continuing our progress internationallyRSA chief executive Stephen Hester Boss Stephen Hester said: RSAs international businesses performed well in quarter three, making strong progress against our best-in-class ambitions. However, our UK and London market business reported an underwriting loss, which is disappointing. Actions to improve in the UK are well under way and we are determined to restore satisfactory performance whilst continuing our progress internationally. The firms weather woes come after a difficult 2017, when three major hurricanes in the US and Caribbean as well as earthquakes in Mexico hammered the sector hard. However, RSAs international arm which spans Scandinavia, Canada, Ireland and the Middle East is delivering a profit. Net written premiums for the year to date are up 1% at 4.9 billion, although 2% lower on a headline basis. US President Donald Trump has directed the FBI to launch a supplemental investigation into his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The move came after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Mr Kavanaughs nomination to the top US court. Mr Trump said in a statement that the updated investigation, which comes in response to sexual misconduct allegations, must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week. The decision marks a reversal for the administration, which had argued that Mr Kavanaugh had already been vetted. Statement from President @realDonaldTrump: Ive ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaughs file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week. Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) September 28, 2018 Mr Kavanaugh has adamantly denied the allegations. He says he has done everything the Senate has asked of him and will continue to co-operate. The judiciary committee vote came a day after Mr Kavanaugh and an accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, gave evidence in an emotional hearing. Mr Kavanaugh angrily denied the allegations that he assaulted Ms Ford while they were both in high school, while she said she was 100% certain he was her attacker. Jeff Flake, a key moderate Republican, was at the centre of the drama and uncertainty. In the morning, he announced that he would support Mr Kavanaughs nomination. Shortly after, he was confronted in a lift by two women who, through tears, implored him to change his mind. The confrontation was captured by television cameras. After speaking privately with his colleagues, Mr Flake announced he would vote to advance Mr Kavanaughs nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate the allegations against the judge. Democrats had been calling for such an investigation, though Republicans and the White House had previously insisted it was unnecessary. The committee vote was 11-10 along party lines. Mr Flake said that after discussing the matter with fellow senators, he felt it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week. That increases the pressure on a handful of colleagues who have not yet said whether they back Mr Kavanaugh. These are Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Senators, make no mistake. If you vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, you are sending this message and perverting the Supreme Court: -Women & survivors dont matter -Impartiality doesnt matter -Integrity & honesty dont matter#StopKavanaugh Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) September 28, 2018 With a 51-49 majority, Senate Republicans have little margin for error, especially given the fact that several Democrats facing tough re-election prospects this autumn announced their opposition to Mr Kavanaugh on Friday. Senators Bill Nelson of Florida, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Jon Tester of Montana all said they would vote no. During Thursdays hearing, Democrats repeatedly peppered Mr Kavanaugh with questions about whether he would support an FBI investigation. He said he would back whatever the committee decided to do. The FBI conducts background checks for federal nominees, but the agency does not make judgments on the credibility or significance of allegations. It compiles information about the nominees past and provides its findings to the White House, which passes it along to the committee. FBI agents could interview accusers and witnesses and gather additional evidence or details that could help corroborate or disprove the allegations. Democrats have been particularly focused on getting more information from Mark Judge, a high school friend of Mr Kavanaugh who Ms Ford said was also in the room during her alleged assault. In her evidence, Ms Ford said Mr Kavanaugh and Mr Judges laughter during the incident has stuck with her nearly four decades later. Mr Judge has said he will co-operate with any law enforcement agency that investigates confidentially. Investors are making their feeling on Unilevers structural change known (PA) Unilever is facing growing opposition to its move to a Netherlands-based unified structure, after another shareholder signalled its intention to vote against the change. Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has joined other investors in saying it will not back the scrapping of Unilevers UK-Dutch dual listing and the relocation of its headquarters to Rotterdam. Sacha Sadan, director of corporate governance at LGIM, said Unilever had not made a compelling case for the move. We understand Unilever has explored a number of alternatives in reaching its final decision, he said. We asked the company to ensure that any approach they take safeguards the ability of our clients to maintain their investment and benefit from Unilevers continued success.Sacha Sadan However, we do not believe Unilever has made a compelling case for many PLC shareholders to support the recommendation in favour of Dutch incorporation. Therefore, we intend to vote against Unilevers proposed resolution. The opposition from LGIM, which holds a 2.28% stake in Unilever, comes after similar warnings from other investors. Aviva Investors, Lindsell Train, Columbia Threadneedle and M&G Investments have all indicated that they will vote against the move to the Netherlands in a ballot scheduled for October 25 and 26. Mr Sadan also said that LGIM had reached its decision even after engaging with the company on its move to change its structure. We asked the company to ensure that any approach they take safeguards the ability of our clients to maintain their investment and benefit from Unilevers continued success. As part of our engagement with Unilever we have also worked with the Investor Forum to engage collectively with other investors. Unilever announced that it planned to simplify from two legal entities into a single one, incorporated in Rotterdam, in March. It dealt a major blow to the UK Government and its efforts to uphold Britains status as a centre for business after Brexit. But Unilever has insisted the move to Rotterdam has nothing to do with Brexit. It also said at the time its 7,300 workers in the UK and 3,100 in the Netherlands will be unaffected by the changes. Unilever, which is also behind well-known household brands such as Ben & Jerrys ice cream and Lipton teas, employs around 169,000 people around the world. The changes simplification will be achieved through a UK scheme of arrangement and a Dutch legal merger, which will complete over the weekend of December 22 and 23. The new shares will begin trading in the Netherlands on December 24. However, Unilevers shares are unlikely to continue trading in the FTSE 100 in the wake of the move. Without a UK headquarters, Unilever is expected to fall short of requirements which would allow a listing on the FTSE 100, where its shares currently trade. The shares would continue to trade on the London Stock Exchange, but would no longer be listed on a benchmark index. US senator Jeff Flake has been confronted in a lift by two women who say they have been sexually assaulted. Two women cornered Mr Flake as he got in a lift, pleading for him to reconsider his support for the Supreme Court nominee accused of sexual assault. The raw, emotional moment was caught on television, capturing the charged atmosphere in the US capital as senators prepare to vote. Look at me and tell me that it doesnt matter what happened to me, said 23-year-old Maria Gallagher. A day earlier, the senators heard hours of evidence from Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who told them Mr Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were teenagers. Mr Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegation in hours of evidence. Mr Flake had lobbied Republican leaders to give Ms Ford the chance to speak. He was viewed as a possible no vote, until the announcement on Friday morning. What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court The senator was on his way to the Senate Judiciary Committee as the two women, who are both affiliated with advocacy groups, told him they has been sexually assaulted. On Monday, I stood in front of your office, Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of the non-profit Centre for Popular Democracy Action, told Mr Flake. I told the story of my sexual assault. I told it because I recognised in Dr Fords story that she is telling the truth. What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Ms Archila, 39, appeared to block the Arizona senator from closing the lift door. Then Ms Gallagher said: I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me. I didnt tell anyone, and youre telling all women that they dont matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them. Thats what happened to me, and thats what you are telling all women in America, that they dont matter, she said through tears. She begged Mr Flake to look her in the eye. She said: Dont look away from me. Mr Flake, cornered in the lift, shifted between looking at them and looking down. He said thank you but did not response to questions on whether he believed Ms Fords evidence. When a reporter asked whether he wanted to respond to the womens questions, he said no. I need to go to the hearing. I just issued a statement. Ill be saying more as well, he said. Mr Flake voted to advance Mr Kavanaughs nomination from the committee to the full Senate, but announced he wanted to delay a confirmation vote by a week in order to let the FBI investigate. A decision has not been made. He said he had been speaking with Democrats to making sure that we do due diligence here. During a break, Mr Flake said that he was hoping to accomplish a better process. Ms Gallagher told the Associated Press she did not intend to tell Mr Flake about her assault but she saw him, and I got really angry. Ms Archila said she was sexually assaulted when she was five years old by a teenager when she and her family lived in Colombia. She said she did not tell anyone before this week. I had planned to just talk to him nicely, but once when I saw that he was voting for Kavanaugh my niceties went out the window, she said. What are you doing to our country? You are sending the wrong message youre saying that all of us who put our pain to the world to confront dont matter. After hearing about Mr Flakes request, she said the sequence of events suggested their conversation helped move him. What it tells me is that telling our stories and showing up can actually change their minds, she said. It has been two days since the entire industry has kept mum. Tanushree Dutta left everyone shocked when she revealed that Nana Patekar on the sets of Horn Ok Please sexually harassed her and nobody did anything despite knowing it all. She said she wanted to file an FIR but Nana had counter FIR ready already. Finally, Nana Patekar has broken his silence. Nana Patekar laughed at the allegations. He asked, What does she mean by sexual harassment? We were on the set and there were 200 people sitting in front of us. On being asked if he would take any legal action against Tanushree Dutta, he furthermore told Mumbai Mirror, I will see what can be done legally. Let's see. It is also wrong/inappropriate to talk to you (media) since you publish anything. Actor Nana Patekar denies sexual harassment allegations by Actress Tanushree Dutta. pic.twitter.com/vqyTpSkBm4 Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) September 27, 2018 Let anyone say anything. I will continue to do in my life what I have been doing, he added. Soon after, Nana flew to Jaisalmer to shoot for Sajid Khans Housefull 4. Take a look at the picture below. Not many people know but it is only after this incident, Tanushree Dutta took the spiritual path and had shifted to the US. After years, she returned to India, and when in an interview she was asked as to when will #MeToo kick-start in India, she revealed her personal experience and said that it had begun ten years ago but her voice was curbed. Nana Patekar maintained his silence on the sexual harassment allegations that Tanushree Dutta levied on him for the longest time until today when he threatened to sue her. And now his lawyer has confirmed that he is in process of sending her a legal notice for making false claims. They want an apology from her. Also Read: Nana Patekar Finally Responds To Sexual Harassment Allegation, Threatens To Sue Tanushree Dutta While Nana Patekar has flown to Jaisalmer to shoot for Sajid Khans Housefull 4, his lawyer Shirodkar said that they will be sending a legal notice today. We are in process of sending legal notice to Tanushree Dutta as she has made false allegations and has spoken untruth. We will send the notice later today which will be basically a notice seeking apology for her statements, he was quoted as saying by ANI. Also Read: Eyewitness Confirms Tanushree Duttas Allegations Against Nana Patekar, Vouch For Her Credibility Tanushree Dutta had alleged that Nana Patekar misbehaved with her on the sets of Horn Ok Please in 2008. He was being aggressive and was pushing me around. I complained about him, but it was not heard. They (film crew) were forcing me to do an intimate step. My contract stated that it was a solo dance sequence, and it was not supposed to be a duet. It was a way to manipulate me. This was the whole harassment situation going on," she said. The Aashiq Banaya Aapne actor further alleged that she and her family were attacked after she refused to perform the intimate step. Also Read: In The Wake Of Tanushree's Sexual Assault Claims, Celebs Take A Stand & Extend Their Support Back in 2016, India had hit Pakistan where it hurts the most. Uri attacks were amongst one of the most brutal ones from Pakistan when militants stormed an Army camp in Uri near the Line of Control at around 4 am and killed 19 Indian soldiers. In a strong and a brave response, Indian army carried out a surgical strike at LoC of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It is a story that goes down in the history and people for centuries will remember how the Indian soldiers avenged the death of the Jawans who were martyred during the pre-dawn Uri attack. In the early hours of 29th September 2016, Indian soldiers avenged those who were martyred in the URI attacks. This is their brave story. #URITeaser out today at 12 noon.@yamigautam @SirPareshRawal @RonnieScrewvala #AdityaDhar @RSVPMovies pic.twitter.com/TqhCizjL2c Vicky Kaushal (@vickykaushal09) September 28, 2018 To narrate the story of the bravehearts again, Aditya Dhar has made a film on the incident that made waves two years ago. Starring Vicky Kaushal in the lead role and titled Uri, the movie also has Paresh Rawal and Yami Gautam in prominent roles. The first hhard-hitting teaser of the movie starring Vicky Kaushal is out. Vicky, who is playing the role of the lead commander-in-chief, can be seen leading the soldiers during the surgical strike. When this film came to me and we had this discussion. I was really thrilled and kicked about it because this is one story that I feel that everyone needs to know. One of the fantastic army operations that the Indian army has conducted and with great efficiency. I also feel it is a great opportunity and also a responsibility for all of us to portray this story, Vicky Kaushal was previously quoted as saying. URI is scheduled to release on Jan 11, 2019. Ever wonder why your enthusiasm for hitting the gym post New Year's Eve almost always fizzles out. While you may be beating yourself silly for losing your mojo, it may not be something you may be able to fully control. The fact that the World Health Organisation (WHO) more claims that a quarter of the worlds adult population (1.4 billion people) were deemed insufficiently inactive doesnt come as a surprise either. medcom.id A recent study suggests that the reason for inactivity stretches far beyond than the lack of motivation, time or energy, because of the way our brains are designed. Matthieu Boisgontier, a researcher at the University of British Columbia and his longtime friend Boris Cheval, a postdoctoral researcher in health and exercise psychology at the University of Geneva set out to determine why it was so hard to stick to exercise regularly. The failure of public policies to counteract the pandemic of physical inactivity may be due to brain processes that have been developed and reinforced across evolution, said Matthieu Boisgontier, a postdoctoral researcher in UBC. news.vinacircle.com. The findings, led by researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada, suggest that our brains may simply be wired to prefer lying on the couch and that human brains work harder to pick physical activity over relaxation. "We knew from previous studies that people are faster at avoiding sedentary behaviours and moving towards active behaviours," said Boisgontier. "The exciting novelty of our study is that it shows this faster avoidance of physical inactivity comes at a costand that is an increased involvement of brain resources. These results suggest that our brain is innately attracted to sedentary behaviours," Boisgontier said. However, the question is whether people's brains can be re-trained or not. shbabbek.com The study published in the journal Neuropsychologia helps us understand the fact that the natural tendency of the brain to feel lazy is something we cannot control but knowing that it does tend to feel this way can help us be more determined to make some important choices. "Anything that happens automatically is difficult to inhibit, even if you want to because you don't know that it is happening. But knowing that it is happening is an important first step," Boisgontier said. Gainesvilles newest addition to the craft beer community is coming downtown and receiving a warm welcome from veteran breweries. Big Top Brewing Co., which started in Sarasota, Florida, will open its doors to the public in mid-October, said CEO Mike Bisaha. The brewery will be located next to Marks Prime Steakhouse downtown. Customers can choose from up to 100 beer flavors and a full menu, which includes gourmet burgers and tacos, Bisaha said. The brewery will offer unconventional flavors of beers like PB&J, Pumpkin and Big Tops newly award-winning beer, the Hawaiian Lion, which is a coconut coffee porter. Bar-goers will find a casual atmosphere dimly lit by vintage Edison light bulbs and two garage doors that open to the outside at the new space. The bar will also boast an open brew system, where customers will have a direct view of the brewing process from their barstool, he said. Bisaha wanted the open concept to encourage visitors to ask brewers questions about how the beer is made. It will be completely open to the consumer, meaning you can sit on one side of the bar, and the entire brewing process is happening on the other side of the bar with no wall or glass between you, he said. Big Top has received about 400 applications for various positions at the brewery from bartenders and brewers to servers. Bisaha plans to keep the brewery a local affair, hiring local brewers, working with local farmers and partnering with local charities. Were excited to be a small part of the growth of craft beer in Gainesville, he said. Local is key to us. Over the past few years, Gainesville has become a hotbed for craft beer, and current breweries including First Magnitude Brewing Company have extended a warm welcome to Big Top, Bisaha said. We really have a great camaraderie in our market of craft beers, and thats really in general the way that it is, he said. Two streets over on West University Avenue, Alexander Whelpton runs Gainesville House of Beer. He hopes the new addition to the craft beer scene will draw more people to the downtown area. I think that a successful brewery downtown would help all of the local restaurants, bars and hotels, because it gives the people of Gainesville a good reason to come downtown, he said. After running Gainesville House of Beer for one year, Whelpton has learned the recipe for success in a college town is susceptible to seasonal swings, he said. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now I think if they provide a really good service, a really good atmosphere and a really good drink, then they shouldnt have a hard time in marketing that, Whelpton said. Though Big Top will have to be on par with other successful bars like First Magnitude, Swamp Head Brewery and Gainesville House of Beer, competition should be the least of its worries, Whelpton said. He would love to serve some of Big Tops beers in his own bar. I would be extremely excited for any breweries to be added to the downtown area, he said. I believe that hide tide raises all the ships. Correction: This story has been updated to reflect how long Alexander Whelpton has run Gainesville House of Beer. Vintage Edison light bulbs illuminate the inside of Big Top Brewing Co. The new brewery will open next to Marks Prime Steakhouse downtown in mid-October. Being a woman, there are a lot of boundaries youre pushed into. One such baseless tradition, going on for centuries, debars women from entering a few religious places. Nevertheless, the times are changing and the recent Supreme Court verdict permitting women, regardless of age, to enter Sabarimala temple in Kerala is a proof. But we'still have a long way to go. Here are 7 places that should follow suit and give women a warm welcome to all their quarters: 1. Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Kerala While the women can enter the temple to offer prayers, they are still kept away from the vault with all the riches. flickr 2. Lord Kartikeya Temple, Pushkar The temple worships the brahmachari form of Lord Kartikeya and it's said that women who enter the temple will be cursed instead of getting blessings. fuzia 3. Nizamuddin Dargah, Delhi Women are not allowed to enter the sanctum to offer prayers at this centuries old mosque in Delhi. Wikimedia Commons 4. Patbausi Satra, Assam It's believed that letting women enter will make the temple impure and hence, the ban. Wikimedia 5. Jama Masjid, Delhi One of the largest and the most sacred mosques, Jama Masjid, does not allow women to enter after the evening prayers have been observed. Wikipedia 6. Haji Ali Dargah, Mumbai One of the most prominent mosques, Haji Ali Dargah also forbids women from entering the main sanctum. Wikimedia Commons 7. Bhavani Deeksha Mandapam, Vijayawada Women still dont have access to the inner sanctum of the temple here. Interestingly, after the death of the head priest, the government honoured his daughter with the title of the head priest of the temple but even she wasnt allowed into the inner sanctum. Hindu Existence It's high time we do away with these archaic and baseless traditions. Taking cognisance of the recent verdict by Indias Supreme Court decriminalising section-377 which prohibited gay sex in India, a Kenyan court on Saturday allowed parties which seek decriminalising of the gay sex in Kenya to make submissions based on the recent verdict of Indias apex court. The SC on September 6 had decriminalised gay sex in India by striking down the validity of section-377 of Indian Penal Code. reuters The constitutional division of Kenyas High Court will hear submissions from both parties on Oct. 25 on the relevance of Indias decision to Kenya, given that both countries have shared the law - dating back to the days of British colonial rule - that criminalises sexual acts against the order of nature. Homosexuality is taboo across much of Africa and gay people face discrimination or persecution. In Kenya it can lead to a 14-year jail sentence, but in recent years campaigners for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender (LGBT) rights have become increasingly vocal. Opponents of decriminalising gay sex in Kenya say Indias decision was flawed and they will ask the Kenyan court to disregard it. pti Kenyan courts are bound only by decisions of higher courts in Kenya, but decisions of foreign courts can be persuasive. They dont have to be adopted, said Charles Kanjama, a lawyer representing parties against decriminalisation. Discrimination Supporters of decriminalisation say the current ban is being used daily to discriminate against LGBT people, making it harder for them to get a job or promotion, rent housing or access health and education services. Due to a lack of legal protection, campaigners say sexual minorities are routinely abused, assaulted by mobs, raped by police or vigilantes, or enslaved by criminals. Last weeks decision by a Kenyan court temporarily lifting a ban on an acclaimed film called Rafiki which had been censored by the government for portraying a lesbian relationship, raised hopes in the LGBT community that the court may be softening its view on same-sex relationships. reuters Although the movie screened to a sold-out crowd on Sunday, it drew sharp criticism from the Kenyan censor who said it still considered Rafiki morally subversive. However, parties against decriminalisation in the current case say that Rafiki is unlikely to change opinion of the court on homosexuality. The views of that proportion of the population that watch it are unlikely to change, because those may be part of the three or four percent who already have very ambivalent views about this issue, Kanjama said. Same-sex relationships are a crime in more than 70 countries around the world, almost half of them in Africa. South Africa is the only African nation to have legalised gay marriage. The law against gay sex in Kenya was introduced during British rule more than 120 years ago. In 2010 Kenya adopted a new constitution that provides for equality, human dignity and freedom from discrimination. (With inputs from The Reuters) Right-wing student group Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) may profess and propagate Sanskaar in college, but they themselves seem to be far from that. The students affiliated to the group made a professor grovel in front of them. According to a TNN report, the Professor was harassed and humiliated by being dubbed as anti-national by a group of ABVP leaders. The incident took place in Mandsaur, MP. He reportedly apologized to the students by touching their feet. In a video that has gone viral, professor Dinesh Gupta is seen running after the students, saying: Kisse maafi maangu? Aao. Maine padhane ka apraadh kiya hai. Maafi maangta hun (who shall I apologize to next? Come. I should say sorry for committing the crime of teaching). The ABVP leaders are seen trying to get away when he touches their feet. Prof Gupta, a heart patient, had tried to stop them from shouting slogans when he was taking a class at Rajiv Gandhi Government College. His colleagues were outraged by his touching the feet of students, and the professors association debarred him and college principal R K Sohni for failing to act against the students and maintaining discipline. Sohni said, The students, who were in the college to submit a memorandum, shouted slogans in the corridors. Prof Dinesh Gupta asked them not to do so as his class was getting disturbed. However, one of the students claimed that the professor had asked them not to shout slogans about the nation. They began calling him anti-national and asked him to apologize. This act was wrong, and seniors of the student union should think twice before appointing members in smaller regions, Sohni added. Pawan Sharma, district convener of ABVP, said, BSc students of fourth semester were agitated because their results were delayed by four months. I arrived at the college when they were giving a memorandum to officials. A verbal spat broke out between the students and the professor. I spoke to both parties and it was stopped then and there. We respect our gurus and will always do so. However, director of State Government Collegiate Education Professors Association removed both Gupta and Sohni from the forum. This is a shocking incident and the action was initiated because the professors failed to maintain discipline in their college and did not take any police action against the students, said Kailash Tyagi, director. Professor Gupta submitted a threeday leave application and has reportedly left the town. Police said no case has been registered as the college authorities felt it was their internal matter. The Supreme Court of India seems to be on a roll, making landmark verdicts this year. In last month alone four landmark judgements have come which are certain to give citizen of the country a relief. These verdicts not only ensure justice, but also address issues that may or may not be seen as sane and acceptable by the society. In the coming years these verdicts will prove instrumental in bringing a change for the better. 1. Decriminalisation of Section-377 On September 6th, India had a date with destiny when the SC struck down the British era law on homosexuality which criminalised the gay sex under section-377 of Indian Penal Code. Activist fought a long and tiring legal battle to get freedom for people who had been denied the right to love freely. The five judge bench unanimously accepted gay rights and ended 157-year-old draconian law. Read More 2. Aadhaar verdict Just a few days ago the apex court upheld the constitutional validity of Aadhaar-the controversial unique identification programme. However, the apex court made sure that the absence of Aadhaar doesnt hinder routine life of a citizen and it abolished the mandatory clause of Aadhaar at schools, private sector and for obtaining the mobile sim-cards. The banks too now cant ask the account holders to link their accounts with Aadhaar. But the court upheld its constitutional validity which dejected the main argument of it being an intruder to the right of privacy. Read More 3. Adultery - not an offence anymore Another British era law was sent to the gallows by SC. The adultery law which persecuted men was struck down with the Supreme Court saying it was unconstitutional, dented the individuality of women and treated them as "chattel of husbands.". The SC mitigated the Section-497 of the IPC which punished a married man for having a consensual sexual relationship with a woman married to another man with her husbands connivance. Read More 4. Triple-talaq deemed illegal The SC in a landmark verdict declared the instant triple talaq a practice which allowed Muslim men to divorce his wife by instantly saying talaq thrice illegal. The verdict was passed by SC in August last year. The verdict was seen as a landmark judgement as the issue was pending for over three decades. The government recently brought an ordinance which made instant triple talaq a criminal offence. 5. Right to privacy In August last year, the SC ruled the right to privacy of an individual comes under Article-21 of the constitution which brings it in the ambit of the Fundamental Right. The nine-judge bunch unanimously declared that right to privacy is an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution. The article 21 of the constitution guarantees life and liberty of an individual under the constitution. Read More 6. Passive euthanasia In March this year, the apex court ruled that human beings have to right to die with dignity and allowed passive euthanasia for terminally ill people under strict guidelines which was not allowed until the verdict. Read More 7. Sabarimala verdict PTI This verdict came today and the SC allowed women of all ages to enter Sabarimala temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa. CJI Dipak Mishra while reading out the verdict said devotion cant be subjected to gender discrimination. Earlier the women between age group of 10 to 50 were not allowed to enter Sabarimala temple. Read More It seems that the reports of petrol prices touching Rs 100 around Diwali are true. It may actually happen even earlier as the fuel prices have already crossed Rs 90.50 mark in Mumbai. According to reports, in New Delhi, petrol is being retailed at Rs 83.22 (increased by Rs 0.22) per litre, while diesel is being sold at Rs 74.42 (increased by Rs 0.18) per litre. AFP/Representational Image Meanwhile, ANI has reported that a litre of petrol has touched Rs 90.57 per litre (increase by Rs 0.22) in Mumbai, while diesel has been capped at Rs 79.01 per litre (increase by Rs 0.19) per litre. Fuel prices have been witnessing a steep rise since the past few weeks. While the Opposition has repeatedly blamed the Union government for not doing enough to keep a check on prices, the latter has maintained that global crude oil prices and other international factors are causing a hike in prices of petroleum products. Read More 2. India Testing Advanced Surveillance Systems Developed For Pakistan And China Border Reuters In the backdrop of a major anti-infiltration system being operationalised along the India-Pakistan border earlier this month, more high-tech equipment for border surveillance, perimeter security and counter-terrorist operations have been developed for deployment in Kashmir and the borders with Pakistan and China. The equipment are also aimed to not only reduce infiltration and intrusions, but also provide 3D mapping of terrorist prone areas in Kashmir with a data backup for planning future operations. Some of these systems could also prevent BAT actions and Pathankot and Uri type attacks. Read More 3. No Show At This 235-Year-Old Ramlila In Varanasi, As 'Ram' & 'Lakshman' Admitted To Hospital For the first time in 235 years, Ramlila at Ramnagar was put on hold for a day after four actors playing the characters of Lord Ram, Laxman, Bharat and Shatrughan were admitted to Lal Bahadur Shastri government hospital with symptoms of diarrhoea. The 45-day-long Ramnagar Ramlila was recognised as an intangible world cultural heritage by Unesco in 2005. On Wednesday, the episode of Phulwari could not be performed after an outbreak of diarrhoea in Malahi Tola, where the team was camping at a dharamshala. Following improvement in the condition of the boy playing Laxman, the episode was to be staged on Thursday but could start only three hours after the scheduled time of the famous Ramlila, which sees the entire city turn into an openair set and involves the audience movement with the actors to different locations, over a period of 31 days. Read More 4. Meet Swapnil And Four Other Law Students Who Filed Petition For Live Streaming Of SC Hearings Swapnil Tripathi, Live Law In a move that would give court hearing a new dimension, the Apex Court on Thursday upheld the plea of live-streaming of its proceedings, observing that the use of technology is to virtually expand the court beyond the four walls of the courtroom. The bench presided by CJO Justice Dipak Mishra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud held that this would help people in distant places to witness court proceedings. The judgement has been hailed by the legal community as well as the common people, the true winners are five law students as the fight for the live-streaming was led by five law students Swapnil Tripathi (National Law University, Jodhpur), Aman Shekar (Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida), Byron Sequeira (Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida), Ayush Prakash (Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida) and Ashwariya Aggarwal (Modern College of Law, Ghaziabad). Read More 5. Called Anti-National Repeatedly, MP Professor Touches Feet Of ABVP Men To Seek Mercy Right-wing student group Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) may profess and propagate Sanskaar in college, but they themselves seem to be far from that. The students affiliated to the group made a professor grovel in front of them. According to a TNN report, the Professor was harassed and humiliated by being dubbed as anti-national by a group of ABVP leaders. The incident took place in Mandsaur, MP. He reportedly apologized to the students by touching their feet. In a video that has gone viral, professor Dinesh Gupta is seen running after the students, saying: Kisse maafi maangu? Aao. Maine padhane ka apraadh kiya hai. Maafi maangta hun (who shall I apologise to next? Come. I should say sorry for committing the crime of teaching). The ABVP leaders are seen trying to get away when he touches their feet. Read More 6. 14-Metre High Crushing Waves, 150 kmph Winds, Commander Tomy Recalls The Hell He Bravely Faced Wanted: Men - young, energetic, vegetarian, teetotaller, non-smoker and soft-spoken. This is no matrimonial advertisement, but the qualities the Kumbh Mela administration is looking for in policemen to be deployed during the Mela in Allahabad, starting January 15 next year. This apart, the policemen should also have "certified good character" clearances from their seniors. The department has also decided no police officers on duty during the Kumbh should belong to Allahabad. Deployment of security will start by October. More than 10,000 men in uniform, including paramilitary personnel, are expected to be on duty during the Kumbh. An age limit has been set for various ranks - constables to be assigned duties should be below age 35, head constables below 40 and sub-inspectors and inspectors below 45 years. DIG/SSP (Kumbh) K P Singh, said, "We've written to the SSPs of Bareilly, Badaun, Shahjahanpur and Pilibhit to verify the character of policemen who have applied for the Mela duty as the department seeks only vegetarian, non-smoking, non-drinking and soft-spoken policemen for the period." Starting October 10, police will be assigned duties in four phases. BCCL/Representational Image Around 10% will be deployed in the first phase, Singh said, and 40% in the second phase in November. In phases three and four, 25% of paramilitary forces will be deployed in December. The DIG added that he has written to SSPs to interview policemen personally as officials for the second, third and fourth phases will be coming from western and other parts of the state. Rita Shameeva was 25 when she died back in January 2016 from unknown causes. But today, well over a year later, she got a memorial that her father probably thought was apt for a millenial. So shes got a tombstone in the form of a giant iPhone. Images courtesy: east2west news Rais Shameeva, the girls father, reportedly purchased the headstone and installed it, though it seems hes refused to comment to media about it. Made from basalt, the tombstone sits in a graveyard in the Russian city of Ufa. Its a fairly good representation, likely of the iPhone 7, complete with engravings to portray the Home button, front and rear cameras, and even the light sensors and LED flash. Its not just a blank phone obviously, considering this is a memorial. Instead the phone has the womans face as its screensaver, along with her name and dates of birth and death. According to reports, mourners in Ufa were taken aback when they noticed a giant stone iPhone had appeared in the cemetery overnight. At five feet tall, its not exactly hard to spot among the sea of other headstones. It seems likely the gravestone was designed by a Siberian artists named Pavel Kalyuk. In 2016, his company began designing death accessories as a publicity stunt, some of which included iPhone headstones like this one. But ever since, the bizarre memorial has gained popularity in Russia, leading to the company doing actual business like in this case. Three counties election supervisors tried to put fears of a foreign influence to rest Thursday night. About 25 people gathered to ask the election supervisors of Leon, Marion and Okaloosa counties about the upcoming election. The purpose of the event was to address concerns of voter security and the safety of Florida residents ballots due to concerns raised during the 2016 election after reports of Russian hacking, said TJ Pyche, the director of outreach for the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections. Whenever we have an election, we want to make sure that people have confidence in the procedures we have in place, Pyche said. The election supervisors, Paul Lux of Okaloosa County, Wesley Wilcox of Marion County and Mark Earley of Leon County, addressed the crowd about ballot security and specific plans for November. Susan Macmanus, the event moderator , said one in three Americans believe that a foreign influence will change election results this November. In Okaloosa County, all ballots are kept in a bank vault after they are made, Lux said. Leon County has amped up its security around ballot storage. It is installing more cameras and requiring photo ID to get in the door, Earley said. Sue Gruner, 62, of Gainesville, said she has always been interested in anything election-related and decided to attend the event at the last minute. The forum reassured her of Floridas election procedures. I had no idea the amount of security that exists, she said. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now A public forum was held on the attack on Julian Assange, journalists, democratic rights, labor and imperialist war on September 16, 2018. The forum focused on why Assange is under attack by both capitalist political parties and the role of Wikileaks in exposing the crimes of US imperialism and the corrupt capitalist parties, politicians and the billionaires who run these capitalist governments. The Attack On Julian Assange, Journalists, Democratic Rights, Labor & Imperialist War: A ForumA public forum was held in Oakland, California on the attack on Julian Assange and Wikileaks on September 16, 2018. The effort by the US government to continue to attempt to arrest whistleblower and journalist Julian Assange is a threat to all labor, journalists and free speech rights speaker pointed out. Assange and Wikileaks exposed the criminal activities of governments and corporate crooks as well as the corrupt Democratic party who manipulated the results of the primary in last election. Speakers also discussed how governments, politicians and the billionaires who run these governments are desperate to shut Assange and to silence all whistleblowers and journalists.This forum also looked at the attack on Julian Assange not only as an attack on democratic rights but also part of the growing crisis in capitalism and US imperialism. It will also looked at the role of independent media and Pacifica radio on how the Julian Assange case is being covered.Speakers included:Steve Zeltzer KPFA WorkWeek Radio, member CWA-PMWGNozomi Hayase, Journalist and AuthorAnne Garrison, San Francisco Bayview and Black Agenda ReportRandy Credico, Journalist and WBAI Radio Host by SkypeJohn Holmes, Retired member of CWA Pacific Media Workers Guild and member of Peralta Federation of TeachersAdditional media:SF Rally To Free Julian AssangeWe Love the CIA!Or How the Left Lost its Mind https://blackagendareport.com/we-love-cia-or-how-left-lost -For more informationThe event was sponsored by Bay Area Free Julian Assange Action Committee BAFJAACProduction of Labor Video Project Switch the Market flag Open the menu and switch the Market flag for targeted data from your country of choice. for targeted data from your country of choice. UF students Instagram feeds might soon be flooded with Gainesvilles newest acai bowls. The Good Berry Acai Bowls, located at 16 NW 18th St. in Midtown, held its grand opening Tuesday, said Joan Pouparina, 21, who co-owns the shop with his 23-year-old girlfriend, Ariel Sonnino. The pair serves up traditional acai bowls with an emphasis on presentation. Our big thing is decorations, the aesthetic of the bowl, Pouparina said. Not only is it very good for you, organic and taste delicious, but we try to be very presentable as well. Each bowl comes with granola, toppings and a choice of drizzle. A small bowl costs $6 and comes with three toppings, a medium costs $8 with four toppings and a large costs $13 with five. Toppings include fruit, almonds, chia seeds, hemp seeds and coconut flakes. Customers can also drizzle honey, Nutella, condensed milk, dulce de leche or agave on top, Pouparina said. The stores prices are similar to other acai restaurants in Gainesville like Big Island Bowls, where bowls range from $8 to $10. The co-owners graduated from Florida State University and met while studying abroad in Valencia, Spain. On their first date, they went to a health cafe in Valencia known for its acai bowls. They decided to replicate the acai bar in the U.S. together. The owners plan to expand the menu within the next two weeks. New additions could include create-your-own salads, fruit smoothies, avocado toast and Nutella toast, Pouparina said. Sophia Codispot, a 20-year-old UF chemical engineering junior, visited the new restaurant Thursday. She ordered a small bowl with strawberry, banana and blueberry with a honey drizzle. She said that while other acai bowls can have a gritty consistency, she found The Good Berrys acai bowls just right. Sometimes its like the texture is kind of weird, but this is actually pretty good, Id say, Codispot said. The Good Berry Acai Bowls, located at 16 NW 18th St. in Midtown, held its grand opening on Tuesday Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now In SCORs view, the Covea CEO is in a general conflict of interest situation and must respect his commitment to resign under the internal regulations of the reinsurers board. SCOR went on to say that the procedure and the methods used by Thierry Derez and Covea to prepare, submit, and make public the combination proposal of August 24, 2018, as well as their renewed expressions of interest, can only be considered as hostile and unfriendly, and are significantly disrupting the functioning of the company. Meanwhile Covea, for its part, said it made the information public to ensure a properly informed market. The French insurance group on the same day its sale of UK personal lines broker Swinton Group Limited was announced also stated that it regrets the lack of discussions with SCOR and the attacks targeted against Covea. As for its chief executives SCOR board membership, Covea said: In the interest of serenity and appeasement, Thierry Derez decided to temporarily withdraw from the board of directors of SCOR until the annual shareholders meeting to be held in 2019. In response, the independent global reinsurer slammed the statement. SCOR clarifies that Thierry Derez serves on SCORs board of directors as an individual and that Covea is therefore not positioned to speak on his behalf in this regard, it said. Moreover, the concept of a temporary withdrawal of a director is not set out by law or by SCORs bylaws or the internal regulations of the board of directors. The company also formally contests Coveas allegation that it has been the target of attacks. According to SCOR, its decision to reject the proposal was purely based on an appraisal of its own corporate interests and contained no element of criticism of Covea. Earlier this month asset manager CIAM, which manages two investment funds with stakes in SCOR, wrote to the latters chair and CEO Denis Kessler, in apparent disapproval. I believe that your refusal to engage in any discussions with Covea means that you are not able to fully appreciate whether the offer could be in the corporate interest of SCOR, expressed CIAM president Catherine Berjal in the letter seen by Insurance Business. Your decision to reject the proposal is based on general considerations such as SCORs independence, but seems to reflect a desire from SCORs board of directors to be independent from its shareholders, which is clearly not acceptable. A French version was sent to Kessler, who has since countered the concerns raised by CIAM. Coveas offer, which it withdrew following SCORs refusal to enter into discussions, involved a price of 43 per share. Read more: Higginbotham buys specialty broker - adds new practice We were able to immediately plug into the established client service teams with marketers and account managers, and have picked up our desired service levels immediately, so weve hit virtually no hiccups with working remotely from that perspective and have had very good experience with the service team working with us on a remote basis, said Gray Holden, executive vice president for Higginbotham. As weve gone through the last 18 months with the firm, weve begun building out our own staff here in Oklahoma and started transitioning new business services locally, and are in the process now of integrating our local service team and account executives with the team that are already working with our clients in Fort Worth. As the Oklahoma City firm looks to the coming months, organic growth is a key aspect of its strategy. The two parts of our growth strategy are not different from Higginbotham overall, and that is organic growth from soliciting new clients and creating new relationships from a revenue perspective, and then also continuing to seek agency partner opportunities and acquisitions in the Oklahoma market, said Holden. We were successful with that mid-year in 2017 we brought over an employee benefits producer, purchased his book of business, and brought him on as a partner, and are looking to expand that with new partnerships in Oklahoma. Certain lines of business are especially primed for further growth. Holden now leads the management liability practice for Higginbotham, and says that segment is experiencing growth, not only in Oklahoma City, but in the Texas operations overall, with cyber also offering growth opportunities. Thats not a tremendously expensive product and its still relatively new in the marketplace, so our hurdle there, quite honestly, has been educating the clients on what their exposures are, and implementing programs that meet their specific needs, explained Holden. From an industry perspective, the firm also does a lot of business in the environmental contractors space as well as in oil and gas services, and transportation, all of which have unique exposures that the brokers are paying closer attention to. Most of the exposures were dealing with are sudden accidental-type situations. On the transportation side, its going to be an overturn of a vehicle hauling environmentally sensitive materials, said Holden. What were seeing in the environmental insurance market is that in a continually broad offering, there are very specific differences in each of the companys forms that we have to be aware of and really navigate the clients who are making sure that the exposures they have are specifically covered with the product that we could place. After a relatively benign catastrophe period post-Hurricane Sandy and prior to 2017, lots of opportunistic carriers saw coastal catastrophe-exposed markets as ripe for business. Specialty firms like SageSure suddenly faced competition from a lot of new entrants and independent agents were bombarded with options. This is a cyclical trend, which doesnt always end well for the broker and end-consumer, according to Terry McLean, CEO and co-founder of SageSure Insurance Managers. A common trend weve seen in catastrophe-prone areas is new entrants coming into the market and competing primarily on price. They charge a low price to try and win market share but when they realize their loss experience isnt as good as they want it to be and their catastrophe exposure is driving up their reinsurance costs, they increase their rates dramatically. We call it burning their way into the market, McLean told Insurance Business. This is a real challenge for independent agents with clients in catastrophe-prone areas, McLean explained. A key value proposition of the independent agent is the promise of the trusted and stable relationship. If new carriers offer low rates, then dramatically increase their rates, and then exit the market, the agents effectively get burned over and over again. This burning the market trend sometimes works in our favor and sometimes works against us, McLean commented. We consider ourselves a specialist in catastrophe-exposed markets. Were well-known and highly regarded by our producers, so they know were not going to cause them problems. However, when we try to enter new areas, agents are sometimes skeptical about working with a new partner because theyve been burned so many times. Independent agents have all these new carriers knocking on their door and unless theres a compelling reason to work together, theyre increasingly rejecting the business. This is part of the problem and is creating a bit of a vicious cycle. The new entrants cant get the business, so the only way they can attract is with rates, which are often unsustainably low. Once they start writing business, they realize their prices are too low to make return targets or to pay for losses and reinsurance, so they end up in a bad place. While this is a common problem in catastrophe-prone markets, it doesnt mean independent agents should ignore competition around price. Rather, they should be careful about selecting partners who are aligned with their goal, according to McLean. Successful business could take some digging by the agent to work out why and how one carrier is charging seemingly lower rates. Agents can ask how one carrier is able to defy the rest of the market and charge a lower price. If their answer is simply that they want to offer a lower price, then thats not good enough in and of itself, McLean added. The track record of lots of new entrants is that they dont have much market data upon entry, so theyre taking their best stab and charging a low price without having historical experience. Theres a relatively decent chance that if their prices seem way lower than the rest of the market where theres smoke, theres fire. Aside from you and your loved ones, nobody wants you to be healthier than your health or life insurer. At Amica Life, we are excited about pioneering new digital methods to engage people and meet their needs, said Amica Life vice-president and chief life actuary Shiela Companie. Users already signed up to the free insurance coverage also have the option to upgrade their coverage to up to $500,000; they will have to pay from $9 up to $41 a month for the upgrade, however. Ultimately, life insurers save dollars by saving lives, said Cardiogram co-founder Brandon Ballinger. The Apple Watchs heart rate sensor is transforming healthcare from reactive to preventive, creating the opportunity for life and health insurers to save dollars by saving lives, he told AppleInsider. Ballinger gave assurances that no data is being shared in the Cardiogram program without the express consent of users. He also added that data gathered by the wearable devices is not used as a basis for the rates or for grounds to deny coverage. One of the more amusing parts of this election season was writing my columns as if nothing was going on (since it would be more, or less, improper to use my column as a platform for self-promotion). But now, elections are over, so I can talk about them. The spectrum of politically-inclined folks, in my view, ranges from policy-loving to campaign-loving folks. Im not exactly a campaign-loving boy, since I will admit that I am typically pretty reserved, introverted, whatever. But yes, you gotta talk to people, you gotta listen to people and you gotta desperately shepherd them toward voting sites if you wanna win. This season, I ran for my third Senate term. I honestly wanted to talk about standing around. I have figured out at this point that I put around 50 hours or so of canvassing for every election Ive ran in. Stand in the same place for an extended amount of time, and you will start to notice things. When I first ran for senator of Infinity Hall, I stood outside the entrance. I ran as an independent during that race, and because I didnt have any political party shirts, I actually wore a suit for those sweltering 50 hours outside. Worse, I was a bit less used to campaigning back then, and I guess you could say I was pretty damn shy, so I really just meandered around the handrail and opened the door for people since I was too scared to talk to them. Infinity Hall had a really weird Asian doorman that election season. Thats not even that weird since its a really nice residence hall that looks like a hotel. As the days went by, I noticed the same people walking the same dogs. It sounds really impressive to say this, but I started to recognize the cars that came by. (I mean, it was really just one car that had distinct light-up rims.) I bet you all the cents in my bank account that I even recognized the same darn birds that came around the area. They perched in the same tree and whispered the same sweet nothings into my ear every afternoon. Im no bird expert, but I can distinguish between a hoot and a tweet. The next year, I instead stood around in the Murphree Area during campaign season. I ditched the suit for a T-shirt affiliated with a political party, and there I was standing around in the courtyard making friends with birds. When my legs started to fail me, I would lean against the stone wall of the archway that I suppose you could consider my perch. Oh, I guess I made friends with people too. Back at Infinity, I eventually mustered up the courage to start handing out flyers. People saw me as they left in the morning. People saw me as they came back at night and asked what I was doing. One way to avoid bothering somebody is to have them talk to you, I suppose. So yes, I got to know people. I got to know their names, then their stories the classes they had, the activities they participated in. In the case of the Murphree Area, some people who lived there last year stayed in the area, and I got to see them again. Sometimes, I didnt say anything and just observed as they rushed by or chatted with their friends. Its not all-encompassing, but I figured who knows who and how, all by just standing there in the same place. I like to think I really got a sense of my community by standing out there all those hours. Its important to get to know your community because, as senators, its our jobs to advocate on the behalf of and fight for our communities. To all the new and old senators elected or re-elected this past season, I look forward to keeping an eye on everything you accomplish for your constituents. Zachariah Chou is a UF political science junior and Murphree Area Senator. His column focuses on Student Government. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Massachusetts regulators are calling for an outside review of the states natural gas distribution system in the wake of gas explosions and fires that affected three communities earlier this month. The Department of Public Utilities said Wednesday it would name an independent evaluator to conduct a statewide assessment of both the physical integrity of the system and the policies and practices of companies that distribute natural gas. The agency says the companies themselves will be required to pay for the study under an emergency declaration issued by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker after the Sept. 13 disaster. The blasts in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover killed one person, injured some 25 others and damaged or destroyed dozens of homes and businesses. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Massachusetts Most British firms are unprepared for Brexit, but a fifth plan to move all or some of their business to the European Union in the event the U.K. fails to reach a deal with the bloc, according to one of the biggest surveys so far on the topic. Some 62 percent of companies are yet to carry out a Brexit risk assessment, according to the survey published Friday by the British Chambers of Commerce. Their poll of more than 2,500 companies also found that 21 percent of businesses would cut investment in the U.K. in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The findings are a wake-up call for the government, underlining the lack of preparation in corporate Britain and the potential economic damage that would result from a chaotic Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa Mays proposal was rejected by European leaders last week, forcing her to come up with a new Brexit plan both the EU and the warring factions in her Conservative Party can accept. Businesses are clear that reaching a deal with the EU, which addresses the future terms of trade and provides certainty, must be the governments number one priority, BCC Director-General Adam Marshall said in a statement. Our evidence is clear: failure to reach a political agreement would have real-world consequences, with significant decreases in both investment and recruitment. Negotiators are trying to forge a withdrawal agreement and an accompanying political statement on the future relationship between the EU and the U.K. by mid-November. May must put the deal to a vote in the U.K. Parliament, and it must also be approved by the European parliament in time for Britains scheduled departure at the end of March. Related: As Brexit Day Nears, 630 UK Financial Services Jobs Have Shifted to EU, Reuters Finds Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Trends Europe Uk Brexit Australias big banks and wealth managers pursued profit ahead of their customers interests and saw regulatory compliance as a cost rather than a guide to proper conduct, a scathing interim report from a commission of inquiry said on Friday. The sector has been rocked by months of revelations of wrongdoing stemming from the Royal Commission, driving down share prices and trashing the reputations of some of the countrys biggest companies. Commissioner Kenneth Haynes report was brutal in its assessment of the industrys ethical standards and governance while also criticizing efforts by the regulator to police behavior, although it did not immediately recommend any legal action or reform. A final report is due in February. In almost 60 days of public hearings, the inquiry has heard instances of bribery, fraud, fee-gouging and board-level deception across the industry. Some of the more shocking allegations included the charging of fees to dead people, persuading a legally blind pensioner to be a loan guarantor without warning her of the risks, and the aggressive selling of a complicated insurance product to a boy with Down Syndrome over the telephone. The three-volume report blamed a widespread culture of avarice. Too often, the answer seems to be greed the pursuit of short term profit at the expense of basic standards of honesty. How else is charging continuing advice fees to the dead to be explained? it said. The banking lobby said the interim report marked a day of shame for the countrys lenders. There are no excuses for the behavior that has been exposed by the Royal Commission, said Anna Bligh, chief executive of the Australian Banking Association. In separate statements, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia , Westpac Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and National Australia Bank acknowledged the wrong-doing raised in the report. They pledged to provide a more comprehensive response in October. The four are due to face questioning over the report before a parliamentary committee next month. The lack of immediate recommendations helped lift Australias financial index 1.6 percent on Friday. The big four banks have lost some A$30 billion ($22 billion) in combined market value since the commission was announced in late November last year. The report said the inquiry would probe further into whether commission remuneration structures for mortgage brokers and financial advisers a pillar of the sectors profitability could actually serve customers properly. Should financial product sellers be permitted to provide financial advice at all? the report said. The final report could recommend major regulatory reform for banks, financial advisers, pension funds and insurers, as well as civil and criminal prosecutions. In addition to the banks, wealth manager AMP Ltd has taken a huge reputational hit due to the inquiry while the nations insurers have also come under fire. Regulatory Weakness Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the report demonstrated a need for the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), to do more to tackle misconduct in the troubled sector. They do need to pursue litigation, to impose the penalties that are available to them, rather than some of these negotiated settlements which have seen the perpetrators of these offenses or misconduct get off too lightly, he said. Australias center-right government late last year proposed new laws to increase penalties and lengthen prison terms for financial crimes in a bid to strengthen the regulators enforcement powers. In particular, the inquiry found ASIC was too quick to negotiate settlements with banks following breaches. Much more often than not, when misconduct was revealed, little happened beyond apology from the entity, a drawn-out remediation program and protracted negotiation with ASIC of a media release, an infringement notice, or an enforceable undertaking that acknowledged no more than that ASIC had reasonable concerns about the entitys conduct, the report said. ASIC said in a statement on Friday that it would work towards building a system of tougher penalties. ($1 = 1.3843 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Colin Packham and Tom Westbrook in Sydney; additional reporting by Paulina Duran and Swati Pandey; writing by Jonathan Barrett; editing by Stephen Coates and Edwina Gibbs) Related: Topics Legislation Profit Loss Australia Telecoms and financial services companies face an investigation by Britains competition regulator after consumer body Citizens Advice complained that customers who do not switch providers were being ripped off . Such customers were being overcharged 4.1 billion pounds ($5.2 billion) a year, the charity said on Friday and asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to tackle this. The practice of overcharging loyal customers is widespread and Citizens Advice has repeatedly warned that loyal consumers are being ripped off, its Chief Executive Gillian Guy said. Citizens Advice submitted a so-called super complaint, which the government defines as raising any feature, or combination of features of a market for goods or services which appears to be significantly harming the interests of consumers. The CMA said it would consider the concerns raised and what should be done about them. This will include engagement with relevant regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Ofcom. It will publish a response within 90 days. The competition regulator said possible outcomes include recommendations to change legislation, action by sectoral regulators and competition or consumer enforcement action. Citizens Advice said its research had found that eight in ten people were paying a significantly higher price, in at least one of the markets, for remaining with their existing supplier. As a result of this super-complaint, the CMA should come up with concrete measures to end this systematic scam, Guy said. Important Issues The FCA said it has been concerned for some time about the issue of long-standing customers being charged more for some products than new ones. The financial watchdog said it would launch a market study into how general insurance firms charge their customers for home and motor insurance. Citizens Advice have raised a number of important issues and we will work closely with the CMA as they investigate this super-complaint, FCA Chief Executive Andrew Bailey said. The FCA said it was already looking at the savings and mortgages market. UK Finance, which represents banks, said the industry has already made changes to improve competition in mortgages and savings markets, including helping longstanding borrowers switch to a better deal. The super-complaint is the fourth the charity has made since being given the power in 2002. It said its complaint on payment protection insurance (PPI) in 2005 has helped customers receive 32.2 billion pounds in refunds and compensation so far. ($1 = 0.7652 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey and Huw Jones; editing by Kate Holton and Alexander Smith) A Chicago insurance agent has pleaded guilty to failing to pay federal and state taxes on more than $4.7 million in income earned over a decade, according to federal prosecutors. The office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois reported that John Ocwiej, 49, admitted he failed to pay income taxes for tax years 2006 to 2016, causing a combined loss to the United States and State of Illinois of more than $1.1 million. Ocwieja earned a total income of more than $4.7 million as a licensed insurance agent and financial representative during that time, the plea agreement states. Ocwieja pleaded guilty on Sept. 24 to three counts of willfully failing to file a federal tax return. His sentencing is set Dec. 18. According to the plea agreement, Ocwieja earned more than $500,000 in three of the 11 years he failed to pay income taxes, and more than $300,000 in four other years. Ocwieja acknowledged in the plea agreement that he used the funds for personal matters instead paying taxes. The conviction carries a maximum total sentence of three years in federal prison. The guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John R. Lausch Jr. and Gabriel L. Grchan, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrianna Kastanek and Patrick King. Source: U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Topics Agencies USA Illinois Shortly after last years shooting massacre on the Las Vegas strip, Ohio Gov. John Kasich convened a panel to explore possible reforms to state gun laws. A Republican, Kasich wanted to be sure its members clearly supported the Second Amendment. Yet it also was to be bipartisan, representing views across the political spectrum. The panels work accelerated after the Valentines Day slaughter at a high school in Parkland, Florida, and it eventually produced a legislative package that Kasich said represented sensible changes that should keep people safer. The legislation was introduced by a Republican lawmaker in the GOP-dominated Legislature. It went nowhere. Among other objections, the Republican leadership raised constitutional concerns about a provision allowing courts to order that weapons be seized from people showing signs of violence. The way we put it together, the fact that you had people on both sides of the issue _ I would have thought something would have happened, said Kasich, who watched the bill package languish in legislative chambers run by his own party. But the negative voices come in unison and they come strongly. The Ohio experience is not unusual. An Associated Press review of all firearms-related legislation passed this year, encompassing the first full state legislative sessions since the Las Vegas attack, shows a decidedly mixed record. Gun control bills did pass in a number of states, but the year was not the national game-changer that gun-control advocates had hoped it could be. Even in a year that included yet another mass school shooting and an unprecedented level of gun-control activism, state legislatures across the country fell back to largely predictable and partisan patterns. Its exactly what happened after Newtown: The anti-gun states became more anti-gun and the pro-gun states became more pro-gun, said Michael Hammond, the legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, referring to the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six educators. The major exceptions were Florida and Vermont. Both states have Republican governors and long traditions of gun ownership. Lawmakers passed sweeping legislation after the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 14 students and three staff members and after a foiled school shooting plot in Vermont days later. The law signed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott banned bump stocks, raised the gun buying age to 21, imposed a three-day waiting period for purchases and authorized police to seek court orders seizing guns from individuals who are deemed threats to themselves and others. The latter provision has already been used hundreds of times, court data show. Florida is a rare case in which gun laws approved by a Republican legislature and governor are being challenged in court by the NRA. ___ No other Republican-dominated state followed Floridas lead, the AP review found. The Parkland shooting did slow momentum for additional gun rights bills in some Republican-led states, but others pushed forward with a pro-gun policy agenda. They widened the definition of who can legally carry a weapon in public, allowed more concealed weapons in schools, churches and government buildings, and strengthened legal protections for people who claim they shot someone in self-defense. In Tennessee, county commissioners were granted the ability to carry concealed handguns in their workplaces. Oklahoma approved a bill allowing permit holders to carry handguns while scouting. Nebraska lawmakers enacted a long-sought bill shielding all documents related to gun permits from the states open records law. In South Carolina, where a state senator was killed in the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, lawmakers rejected a simple bill requiring court clerks to enter convictions and restraining orders in a timely fashion to strip gun rights from people who have been disqualified from possessing firearms. The most significant policy development, the review found, was the enactment of so-called red flag laws in eight states. Those laws allow police or relatives to seek court orders to seize guns from people who are showing signs of violence. Five Republican governors signed those laws, which have been used to seize guns from hundreds of individuals already this year. Supporters say the laws are proven to save lives, and they were a rallying cry amid reports that the suspected Parkland high school gunman, Nikolas Cruz, was deeply troubled yet allowed to own guns. Nine states also approved laws to ban bump stocks, the rapid-fire devices that a gunman used as he shot hundreds of people at the music festival in Las Vegas, including 58 who were killed. But often, the debate over public safety and the reach of the Second Amendment played out in statehouses with familiar results. In Colorado, a state rocked by the 1999 Columbine High School and 2012 Aurora theater mass shootings, lawmakers in the divided Legislature refused to compromise. The Democratic-controlled House passed bills to ban bump stocks and enact a red flag law that had the support of many police officers and prosecutors. But the Republican-controlled Senate quickly assigned those to a kill committee and defeated them. To me, the Second Amendment and individual rights demand the highest respect. Thats the basis of where I come from, said Republican Sen. Tim Neville, a member of the committee and one of the capitols most ardent gun rights activists. The Colorado House returned the favor by rejecting Republican plans to allow concealed guns on school grounds and repeal the state ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines, a law passed after the Aurora shooting. Tom Sullivan, whose son Alex was killed by James Holmes as he celebrated his 27th birthday in the Aurora theater, said he is encouraged that the state has maintained the post-Aurora ammunition limits and is calling for further gun control as he runs for a Colorado state House seat. Sullivan sees long-term promise in gun-control efforts by Parkland students and survivors of other mass shootings. Its like any major change. It can take 20, 30, 40 years, Sullivan said. I tell the Parkland kids that this is the natural progression of things. In North Carolina, where Republicans hold majorities in the legislature, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper asked lawmakers a few weeks after the Florida school shooting to pass new gun regulations, including more background checks and permit requirements. But Republicans never took up gun-related proposals from him or legislative Democrats, whose efforts to force floor debate on them failed. We are really missing an opportunity for something serious for school safety, said Democratic Rep. Pricey Harrison. Republicans instead approved money to hire more campus police officers, school nurses, psychologists and social workers, as well as to create a statewide phone app for students to report tips to deter school violence. ___ Democratic-controlled legislatures in states with already strict gun control laws, such as Illinois and New Jersey, made them tighter in the wake of the tragedies. New Jersey expanded background check requirements to nearly all private sales and transfers of firearms and put into a law a strict definition requiring a justifiable need to carry a handgun for citizens to qualify for a permit. The Illinois Legislature extended an existing three-day waiting period to buy a handgun to rifles and other firearms, a measure signed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. Advocates for stricter gun laws pointed to the changes in Florida and Vermont, the new red flag laws, the bump stock bans and laws meant to disarm accused domestic abusers as major victories in 2018. They say many of the laws passed with bipartisan support and could mark the beginning of a slow turn in their favor. Weve got a lot more work to do, but I do think were seeing progress and the pace of progress is increasing, said Robyn Thomas, executive director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, who said at least 55 bills backed by her group became law. One policy change many thought would be non-controversial turned out to be a harder sell: banning bump stocks. Lobbying by gun rights activists succeeded in blocking many states from enacting proposed bans, which they had feared would quickly spread nationwide after the Las Vegas shooting. Congress hasnt acted on them, either. Hammond, the lawyer for Gun Owners of America, said that after early defeats his group also is beginning to succeed in thwarting red flag bills. He argues that they can allow authorities to unfairly seize guns from owners who are not dangerous. In Texas, for example, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had said the state should consider adopting some type of red flag bill. Supporters of the legislation were hoping for a breakthrough in the most populous of the GOP-dominated states, which has seen mass shootings at a high school and a church over the past year. Instead, the Legislatures Republican leaders have already declared Abbotts idea dead, and the governor has backed away from it. ___ Vermont was a rare case of a Republican governor signing into law far-reaching gun control measures passed by a Democratic legislature. The action by Gov. Phil Scott was out of step with his previous position on guns and angered his political base. The Vermont law is similar to Floridas but also requires background checks on most private firearms sales and bans high-capacity magazines. Scott told a reporter the day after the Parkland shooting that he thought Vermonts loose gun laws were adequate. But later the same day, he learned of what police called a near-miss high school shooting in a town along the states border with New York. Police have said a former student threatened to shoot up the school, hoping for more dead than the 32 killed during the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. The next day, a visibly shaken Scott, a life-long gun-owner and hunter, called on lawmakers to consider gun safety legislation. The resulting restrictions were the first significant gun ownership limits in Vermont history and came after weeks of intense debate. Ohios Republican governor never got the same chance as Scott. A coalition of groups representing students, teachers, school counselors, police chiefs, pediatricians and Catholic clergy joined in a letter to state legislative leaders urging them to pass the changes recommended by Kasichs panel. State Rep. Nickie Antonio, a Cleveland-area Democrat, said she could have told the governor it would fail. She said Republican lawmakers sound to her like automatons when the topic of gun control arises. They go to these automatic catchphrases that come right out of a pamphlet from either Buckeye Firearms or the NRA, she said. Thats what I think its about. I do believe its a case of follow the money. To express his frustration, Kasich refused to sign the next gun bill that crossed his desk, which waived certain concealed carry license fees and training requirements for current and former military members. It became law without his signature. Asked months later about the defeat of his legislation, the governor said gun-control groups are simply not as unified as the pro-gun lobby. And so you, he said, you have disparate groups going against a force that totally knows what it wants. Associated Press writers Jim Anderson in Denver, Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vermont, contributed. Related: Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Florida Law Enforcement Ohio Education Colorado The Wild West days of unregulated recreational drones may be nearing an end. A bill close to passage in Congress would repeal the current exemption for hobbyists from regulations and for the first time require them to take a test before flying. It also says such operators must fly no higher than 400 feet and stay clear of traditional aircraft. They may have to eventually install radio identification signals on the devices. The measures have been endorsed by government agencies and industry groups to combat growing numbers of safety and security incidents, and to ensure a predictable environment for burgeoning commercial operations such as deliveries. But it will also significantly change the ground rules for users of products that have grown enormously popular, generating a following among fiercely independent purchasers who want to fly with limited or no restrictions. The FAA estimates 1.6 million drones will be sold this year in the U.S. The civilian drone world has evolved in recent years from one dominated by hobbyists to growing involvement by companies seeking to profit from unmanned flight in everything from infrastructure inspections to drone deliveries that are already subject to regulations. These uses have been embraced by industry behemoths including Intel Corp., Berkshire Hathaway Inc.s BNSF Railway Co., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. Appropriations Bill Some hobbyists are urging lawmakers to oppose the changes, which are included in a bipartisan appropriations bill on aviation policy that passed the House Wednesday night and could be voted on by the Senate within days. Its just being shoved down our throats, said Sean Wendland, a drone enthusiast from California, who is helping form an advocacy group for hobbyists who guide their drones via a video stream providing a pilots-eye view from the craft. Were literally losing our freedom to have input into the process. Flying by video known as first person view or FPV would be allowed for hobbyists for the first time under the law, but only with an observer acting as a spotter. Thats a restriction that Wendland says his fellow pilots in the nonprofit FPV Freedom Coalition resent. They believe their flights, which stay at low altitudes and away from airports and other aircraft, are safe. Congress attempt to create new restrictions will harm people like him, he said, but wont prevent the nefarious users who fly close to airliners, drop contraband into prisons or attempt terrorist attacks. The Academy of Model Aeronautics Inc., which represents almost 200,000 model aircraft enthusiasts and helped negotiate the legislation, also disagrees with elements of the version that emerged Sept. 22 from talks between the House and Senate, said Chad Budreau, the groups interim executive director. These new restrictions may have a detrimental impact on long-standing model aviation activities that support local charities and non-profits, Budreau said. The law also weighs into the controversial issue of whether drones should have radio beacons that identify their position and registered owner. It would grant the Federal Aviation Administration the authority to require that. The agency is drafting such a regulation at the request of homeland security and law enforcement agencies and has signaled it may require retrofitting millions of drones already in use. Height Restrictions One provision contained in the law prohibits hobbyists from flying more than 400 feet (122 meters) above the ground, which brings them in line with restrictions on commercial users. However, groups like AMA are concerned that there are no procedures to get a waiver and its members sometimes go above that height with government permission at airshows and other events, Budreau said. The group is also concerned that the law would be too restrictive on educational uses of drones for students in middle and high schools. In addition, it worries the new license requirement for about 1 million U.S. hobbyists would drown the FAA in new work it isnt adequately funded to perform. The Drone User Group Network, which says on its website that it represents 20,000 people, is urging its members to call on lawmakers to vote against the bill. The bill has many positives for commercial operators, but is overwhelmingly bad for recreational fliers, said Steven Cohen, president of the group. Security Incidents Soar Lawmakers who wrote the bill, which was hammered out as a compromise in recent months and contained in legislation authorizing FAA for the next five years, say hobbyists have nothing to worry about and that FAA has authority to grant waivers for such things as flights above 400 feet. Revamping the law is critical to bringing order to an aviation system flooded with drones behaving badly, they say. Each month, the FAA receives more than 100 reports of drone sightings by pilots, citizens, and law enforcement, Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon who authored much of the drone legislation, said in an emailed statement. These operators have impeded wildfire suppression, including in my district this summer, and have put lives in danger through collisions or near-collisions with manned aircraft. The legislation would create a minimal burden on hobbyists while restoring FAAs authority to oversee these flights, DeFazio said. The bill is supported by the Commercial Drone Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group representing Alphabets Wing as well as other drone businesses. While technology has surged ahead, policy making has lagged behind, particularly around drone security issues, said Lisa Ellman, a Washington lawyer who is co-executive director of the coalition. The bill being considered by Congress would take some important steps forward, and would promote innovation while enhancing safety and security. We are hopeful that the bill passes expeditiously. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Legislation Aviation Munich Reinsurance America, Inc. (Munich Re) has launched a cyber reinsurance product for regional property/casualty insurance carriers seeking to provide this coverage and associated services to their small and medium-size enterprise (SME) clients. According to Annamaria Landaverde, vice president and head of cyber for the US Reinsurance Division, Munich Re. A May 2016 IBISWorld industry report noted that 72 percent of U.S. cyberattacks occurred in SMEs. A cyber event can have a crippling effect on small to medium-size businesses, which often dont have the resources or insurance protection needed to recover following such an occurrence. Munich Re offers regional primary carriers a flexible, turnkey cyber solution to help protect their small to medium-size commercial customers, Landaverde said. Cyber insurance may provide coverage for a loss resulting from a variety of events, such as a denial-of-service attack, unauthorized access, introduction of malicious code, privacy breach, extortion threat, regulatory proceedings, and/or third-party claims and more. Munich Res cyber product provides reinsurance capacity for limits up to $15 million, technical expertise, and tools such as a risk management portal and a post-breach services panel to primary insurance carriers that may not have the experience or resources necessary to provide cyber protection to their clients. Insurance carriers participating in Munich Res cyber product will retain a portion of the risk. Munich Res turnkey product can include ISOs stand-alone commercial cyber policy or the information security protection cyber policy as well as a primary carriers proprietary cyber product. Munich Res cyber reinsurance product is available in all 50 states to primary property/casualty insurance carriers and reinsurance brokers for their SME policyholders. Munich Reinsurance America, Inc. provides reinsurance coverages, specialty reinsurance, and risk management solutions to commercial and personal lines insurance carriers, agents and brokers, program administrators, and managing general agents. It s admitted and non-admitted insurance company affiliates also offer specialty insurance products. Topics Carriers Cyber Commercial Lines Business Insurance Reinsurance The last community in the way of Hurricane Florences floodwaters as they slowly flow to the sea got some good news Wednesday the predictions arent as dire as they once were. And it appears the Waccamaw River wont top a lake of coal ash or the main highway to Myrtle Beach. Officials originally expected flooding in the worst areas of Georgetown County to be from 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 meters). But the latest forecast lowered that estimate to 2 to 4 feet (0.6 to 1.2 meters), according to the countys Facebook page. The water is spreading, Georgetown County Administrator Sel Hemingway said Wednesday. We are not seeing the vertical rise. Twelve days after the once-fierce hurricane arrived on the coast, and more than a week after it blew north and dissipated, rivers swollen by its relentless rains are still flooding homes and businesses in their paths as they make their way to the sea. And even the new flooding forecasts are still well above records set just two years ago by Hurricane Matthew. The death toll from the storm is still adding up. North Carolina officials blamed the death of a 67-year-old man who fractured his neck cleaning up storm debris Sept. 18 in Craven County on the storm. Florence has killed at least 47 people 36 in North Carolina; nine in South Carolina; and two in Virginia. In many places in the Carolinas, the damage is already done. North Carolina agriculture officials estimate $1.1 billion in losses from Florence, most of it done to crops in the field. That was nearly three times the damage reported by farmers from Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said the losses this year were greater because harvests were underway or just getting started. Preliminary estimates show about 2,000 homes have been damaged by flooding in South Carolina, with half of them suffering major damage or being destroyed, said state Emergency Management Division Director Kim Stenson, adding those numbers are far from final with flooding still occurring that could affect hundreds or thousands of additional homes. Ivory Williamson took a boat Wednesday to check on her home she left four days ago in Bucksport, a small inland community about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Myrtle Beach near the confluence of several rivers. Water is all over her yard and covers the roads, streets and buildings. It is worse than the 2016 flooding from Hurricane Matthew, she said. Now its the second time, Williamson said. We live near the water, but we wont expect the water to bury us like this. The flood wasnt going to go away quickly. The newest predictions from South Carolina officials moved back the peak of the flooding from Thursday to either Friday or Saturday in Georgetown County, where the most seriously flooded waterways the Waccamaw and Pee Dee rivers meet three other rivers on their way to the Atlantic Ocean. The forecasts could change again, officials warned, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster joined the call for residents to not let their guard down. We are still in full battle mode in Georgetown County, McMaster said at a news conference Wednesday. There appeared to be good news in Conway, too. The Waccamaw River, which flows through the city of 23,000, spent more than a day at just over 21.1 feet (6.4 meters), some 6 inches (15 centimeters) under the predicted crest. That averted potential environmental and transportation problems. The river water stayed 1 foot (30 centimeters) below a coal ash pond at a closed power plant in Conway, according to the state-owned utility Santee Cooper. The floodwater from the river also had not made it over a temporary barrier quickly built on U.S. Highway 501, the main link to Myrtle Beach. Water is touching the barrier of sand and plastic called the Lifeline, but is still well below the top of it, according to the state Department of Transportation. In North Carolina, residents in Lumberton sued CSX Corp. saying the railroad company refused to give permission to build a temporary sandbag berm under a bridge until an emergency order from the governor at the last minute. The lawsuit said the underpass also created a gap in a levee that made flooding worse during Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and cited a report in May where the state called for a floodgate. CSX issued a statement that it doesnt comment on pending litigation, but noted the extraordinary storm devastated Lumberton and other communities with its flooding. Also in Robeson County, Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said his deputies with help from National Guard high-clearance trucks rescued 400 animals which included dogs, cats, horses, peacocks, chickens, quail and potbellied pig from a flooded property after some were seen stranded on a rooftop in the Orrum community. About 300 more animals were found dead on the property over the weekend, Sealey said. Authorities were meeting with prosecutors Wednesday to see if the people responsible for the animals should face charges. But even in places that saw the worst of Florence, there were signs that life was returning to normal. In Wilmington, North Carolina, where swollen rivers cut off the city of 117,000 people from the rest of the country for several days, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington will restart classes on Oct. 8, Chancellor Jose Sartarelli said. ___ Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writers Jonathan Drew and Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte, North Carolina; contributed to this report. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Trends Flood Agribusiness Hurricane North Carolina South Carolina A second beam in San Franciscos celebrated new $2 billion transit terminal shows signs of cracking, an official said Wednesday, a day after a crack in a nearby support beam shut down the building that opened just last month. The first crack found by workers installing roof tiles Tuesday spans a beam holding up a park over the three-block-long facility and runs over a downtown street, Salesforce Transit Center executive director Mark Zabaneh said. He said the problems were localized to that area of the transit hub but it would remain closed at least through the end of next week as inspections continued. Its not yet clear what caused the cracks. Mayor London Breed said the facility would stay closed until it was safe to reopen. Its role in the broader transportation system is too important not to act quickly to have definitive answers for the public, and someone needs to be held accountable once the cause is determined, she said in a statement. Engineers decided to shut down the station around 5 p.m. Tuesday, just as rush hour started, out of an abundance of caution, Zabaneh said. The behavior of the beam is unpredictable, he said. The transit hub, a commanding presence in the citys South of Market neighborhood where construction is booming, sits adjacent to the so-called sinking condominium, Millennium Tower, which has settled about 18 inches (45 centimeters) since it opened over a former landfill in 2009. Homeowners have filed multiple lawsuits against the developer and the city, some alleging that construction of the transit center caused the Millennium Tower to sink. Zabaneh said he did not believe the cracked beam was related to ongoing problems at Millennium Tower. The crack was found near a weld on a stress-bearing horizontal beam, Zabaneh said. Engineers are searching for other cracks in other pipes but are optimistic the damage is limited to the one beam. Buses were rerouted to a temporary transit center about two blocks away that was used during the centers construction. A downtown street that runs under the beam also was ordered closed indefinitely, causing traffic chaos at the same time some streets were closed for a conference sponsored by Salesforce that was expected to draw 170,000 attendees. Enveloped in wavy white sheets of metal veil, the five-level center includes a bus deck, a towering sky-lit central entrance hall and a rooftop park with an outdoor amphitheater. Zabaneh said American steel was used in the centers construction. A structural steel beam should never crack, Joe Maffei of Maffei Structural Engineering told the San Francisco Chronicle. The newspaper previously reported that the complex faced delays in putting out contracts to bid, and the winning bids were ultimately higher than expected. The terminals cost rose from $1.6 billion at its 2010 groundbreaking to more than $2 billion in 2016 because of what one analyst called optimistic assumptions, according to the Chronicle. The project is financed by land sales, federal stimulus grants, district fees and taxes, bridge tolls, and federal and state funds. Numerous towering condo buildings have gone up in the booming South of Market neighborhood in the last five years and several multistory construction projects are still underway as San Francisco lures technology companies from Silicon Valley to the neighborhood. The online business software company Salesforce, which opened its adjacent 61-story Salesforce Tower earlier this year, bought naming rights to the transit center in 2017 as part of a 25-year, $110 million sponsorship agreement. The Salesforce Transit Center is operated by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority. Related: Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Construction A federal judge has dismissed a whistleblower lawsuit after a settlement was reached with the Montana hospital accused of paying some of its physicians at above-market rates in exchange for patient referrals to in-house services. The Daily Inter Lake reported the suit filed last year by Jon Mohatt, Kalispell Regional Healthcares physician network chief financial officer, was dismissed with prejudice Wednesday in federal court in Missoula. The suit argued the hospitals practice could have negatively affected patient care. The hospital has maintained that it did not commit any wrongdoing. It had also set aside $21.5 million ahead of a potential settlement. Settlement details and case documents have remained sealed at the request of U.S. attorneys, who claimed the documents discuss the governments investigative and settlement processes. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Montana California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill into law peace officers can file a claim for workers compensation if injured or killed while in the line of duty while out of state. Brown signed Assembly Bill 1749 into law. The bill was inspired by the Las Vegas mass shooting nearly one year ago. During the Las Vegas shooting on Oct. 1, 2017, several off-duty deputy sheriffs and district attorney investigators brought themselves and others to safety and were injured doing so. Assemblyman Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee, introduced the bill. Topics California Workers' Compensation If you are a strong proponent of socially responsible investing, you may find this article hard to fathom. There are definite advantages to investing in "clean" companies. But if there is one aspect of society that has endured the test of time: sin. And believe it or not, there are investors who have found ways to invest in porn stocks. Key Takeaways Sinful stocks including porn stocks, gambling stocks, and tobacco stocks present investors with some tough but potentially lucrative choices. Although some may have ethical dilemmas with investing in sinful stocks, the returns provided by these companies are often less prone to economic downturns. ETF companies have even made it easier for you to invest in sinful companies and get instant diversification in the industry. Since so many investors choose to shun sin stocks, they tend to be systematically underpriced. While demand for things like tobacco and alcohol is certainly stable, sin stocks face higher regulatory and taxation risks than the average company. What Is Sinful Investing? Sinful stock is stock from a company that is associated with (or is directly involved in) activities considered unethical or immoral. The thing with ethics and morality, however, is that there is no universally accepted definition of what is or what is not ethical or moral. For example, one investor may view certain advertising campaigns as unethical and brand the product or the ad company itself as a sinful investment. Another investor may see no ethical compromise in the situation. In discussing sinful investing, there is some gray area in defining a stock as sinful. However, there are some sectors of the economy that are generally considered sinful, such as the gambling, alcohol, tobacco, sex, and defense industries. Below we explore some of these so-called sinful industries. Gambling Stocks Just one trip to Las Vegas or Atlantic City will show you the huge size of the gambling industry. In Vegas alone, there are numerous casino operators with market capitalizations in the multibillion-dollar range. In addition to the casino and hotel operators, there is the less sexy end of the business; maintaining the hardware to keep the casinos full. The industry also encompasses racetrack operators and sports betting companies. Some of the biggest gambling stocks include casino operators such as Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Resorts (MGM), and Caesars Entertainment (CZR), as well as fantasy sports operators such as Flutter Entertainment (PDYPF) and DraftKings (DKNG). One thing is clear: gambling is not going away anytime soon. If anything, gambling's popularity has soared in recent years with more and more online options for placing bets. Alcohol Stocks The profitability of beer, wine, and spirits has been something that companies have been capitalizing on for hundreds of years. While the majority of vineyards are private, there are plenty of brewers and distillers that are publicly traded. Curious investors can invest in a wide variety of wine stocks, beer stocks, and liquor companies. The best part? These stocks have the potential to provide market-topping returns. As of May 22, 2021, diversified alcohol giants Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (BUD), Constellation Brands (STZ), and Diageo (DEO) are up 87%, 41%, and 33%, respectively, over the past year. Tobacco Stocks Despite a firestorm of class-action lawsuits at the end of the millennium and the billions of dollars spent in settlement payouts, tobacco and cigarette companies remain profitable. Even if smoking has become less vogue in North America, the rest of the world continues to puff away. Huge markets remain for tobacco products for the foreseeable future. For example, cigarette giants Altria (MO) and Philip Morris International (PM) returned 42% and 45%, respectively, over the past year; again, in the middle of a major pandemic. The Dividend King At the time of writing (May 2021), Altria has raised its dividend for a whopping 51 consecutive years. 1:29 The Value Of Sin Stocks Sex Stocks The sex industry is so enormous, though much of it underground, which makes it hard to find precise industry figures. But in recent years, a number of companies in the pornography industry, condom manufacturing, and even makers of drugs designed to enhance a sexual experience have gone public. Just like gambling, the Internet brings a whole new dimension to this business. It may be a taboo subject, but there are companies doing very well selling pornography on the Internet (though most of these firms are not publicly traded). Even if you ignore the more brazen and visible operators, like Playboy and Hustler, there are a great many more innocuous industries that benefit from the sale of sex, such as hotel and cable operators that make handsome sums from their pay-per-view movies. Today, the best publically traded example of a sex stock is RCI Hospitality Holdings (RICK). The company owns and operators upscale adult nightclubs such as Rick's Cabaret, Jaguars Club, Tootsie's Cabaret, and XTC Cabaret. Defense Stocks Although the defense industry represents one of those gray areas that we alluded to earlier, in most circles these stocks are considered sinful. The production of missiles, guns, tanks, and fighter jets can be interpreted in different ways. Either you view it as destructive and harmful to the entire human race, to those in the country where the arms are destined, or you may feel that it is simply a proactive measure for protecting one's nation. Regardless of your ethical or moral stance on the issue, there is no debate on the profitability of the manufacture, sale, and distribution of military equipment. One example of a defense stock includes Lockheed Martin (LMT). Irresistible Returns Industries that lure us with "naughty" temptations can offer a good place to park a portion of your portfolio. First of all, these companies provide relatively stable returns to investors, both in good times and bad. As the old saying goes, "What do you do to celebrate good times? Drink, smoke, gamble, and have sex." And what do many do during stressful and recessionary times? "Drink, smoke, gamble, and have sex." The returns provided by the companies related to these activities are often less prone to the cyclical downturns of the economy. They provide respectable returns in times of prosperity as well as welcome returns during the market and economic slumps. In addition to being somewhat insulated from the cyclical nature of the economy, many sin stocks are renowned for providing consistent dividend payments. Why Do It? The simple answer is investment returns. A great number of companies in these industries have time and again turned a healthy profit and will continue to do so. By neglecting all of the companies within these industries you may restrict your portfolio's ability to make some solid gains. It's easy to understand why; many of these businesses revolve around addiction. Gambling, tobacco, and alcohol are all habit-forming products or activities. Here is where the morality argument comes in. Few would debate that cigarette smokers or frequent gamblers are very loyal customers. But is it ethical to keep on taking a gambler's money even though they have a serious problem? What about selling beer to an alcoholic? Clearly, there are no easy answers here and it's a decision each investor has to make personally. While we wouldn't suggest a portfolio to consist of only sinful stocks, holding a portion of it in a balanced portfolio is worth considering. Just as in all industries, there will be firms that outperform others and by no means will all stocks involved in these types of businesses be prosperous. You will still have to do your homework to select the best ones. How to Invest? ETF companies have even made it easier for you to invest in sinful companies and get instant diversification in the industry. Issuers like Invesco, VanEck, ETFMG, and AdvisorShares all offer ETFs that invest along these lines; a socially responsible investor's nightmare. Take, for instance, the AdvisorShares Vice ETF (VICE). This ETF seeks long-term growth by investing in "vice" companies such as those involved with alcohol, tobacco, gaming, and other vice-related activities. Some of the fund's biggest holdings include The Boston Beer Company, Turtle Beach (HEAR), and Jack in the Box (JACK). If marijuana is your sinful stock of choice, take a look at the ETMFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ). MJ tracks the Prime Alternative Harvest Index, which is designed to measure the performance of companies in both the global medicinal and recreational cannabis sectors. Its top holdings include Tilray (TLRY), Canopy Growth (CGC), and Cronos Group (CRON). The VanEck Vectors Gaming ETF (BJK) is another easy way to jump into sin stocks. The goal of this ETF is to mimic the MVIS Global Gaming Index, which is an index designed to track the overall performance of companies involved in casinos, sports betting, lottery services, gaming services, and gaming technology. A few of the ETF's top holdings include Las Vegas Sands, Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts, and DraftKings. Finally, if you'd like a little bit more diversification, you can try the Invesco Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment ETF (PEJ). PEJ is based on the Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment Index, which is comprised of 30 U.S. companies based in the leisure and entertainment industries. Some of the ETF's holdings include gambling stocks like Churchill Downs (CHDN), Penn National Gaming (PENN), and Boyd Gaming Corp (BYD). So while PEJ isn't exactly a "pure" play on sinful investing, it still allows you to gain a bit of exposure to vice-based businesses while staying diversified. Just as ETF families may offer a technology fund or an energy fund, investors now have access to diversification and professional management within the tobacco, gambling, alcohol, defense, and sex industries. You can be sure that a socially conscious investor wouldn't even think of participating in these types of investments. But for some, investing means nothing more than finding companies that stand the test of time and make a lot of money. On the other hand, if you feel a company does not meet your social standards, speak up with your dollars, and refrain from investing. Advantages and Disadvantages of Sin Stocks There are several advantages to investing in sin stocks. As we've discussed, the biggest benefit is the upside potential they're able to provide, whether the overall market is climbing or declining. Sin stocks are far more immune to economic shocks than more cyclical businesses. Let's face it: people drink, smoke, gamble, and have sex in both good times and in bad. Sin stocks also benefit from monopolistic returns. Industries like tobacco, alcohol, and gambling are highly regulated, so the big companies already entrenched in the space often have very little competition. Sin stocks can provide market-beating returns which are nicely complemented by historical stability. That's the best of both worlds. Another advantage of sin stocks is that they tend to be systematically underpriced. In other words, you can usually pick them up at "bargain" prices. Since sin stocks carry such a negative stigma, many investors continue to avoid them. However, this gives other investors the opportunity to scoop them up at cheap risk-adjusted prices. Of course, there are disadvantages to investing in sin stocks. While demand for things like tobacco and alcohol is certainly stable, sin stocks face higher regulatory and taxation risks than the average company. Since there are so many ethical questions tied to these industries, they're always vulnerable to shifts of national and political opinion. The Bottom Line Whether or not you agree with sinful investing is a personal choice; however, human weaknesses and the lure of sinful pleasures are unlikely to disappear soon. If you have a long-term outlook and seek a little excitement, try adding a bit of peccadillo to your portfolio. For more insight, you might even look into the evolution of sinful investing. What Are 5 Recession Resistant Industries? When a recession or an economic slowdown occurs, markets become volatile leading investors to sell stocks. While some industries are very susceptible to economic changes, other industries perform well regardless of what's happening with the economy. Although no company is entirely recession-proof, the following industries tend to see strong performance even when unemployment increases and consumer sentiment falls. Therefore, it's typically an excellent strategy to add these companies to your portfolio when a recession hits, or ideally before one does. In addition, industries like grocery stores and alcoholic beverages held up well during the COVID-19 pandemic, although the cosmetics industry struggled, except for skincare lines and gadgets that sold well. Key Takeaways While some industries are very susceptible to economic changes, other sectors tend to perform well during recessions. However, no company or industry is 100% safe from an economic crisis or recession. Consumer staples and alcoholic beverage industries all performed well during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumer staples, including toothpaste, soap, and shampoo, enjoy a steady demand for their products during recessions and other emergencies, such as a pandemic. Discount stores often do incredibly well during recessions because their staple products are cheaper. 1. Consumer Staples No matter what happens in the economy, people still need certain household items on a recurring basis. Toothpaste, soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, dish soap, toilet paper, and paper towels. Since these products are always in demand, they're considered consumer staples. Major companies in this sector include Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL), Proctor & Gamble Co (PG), and Unilever N.V. (UN). If you look at the manufacturer of many items in your home, you will find these companies. They each own more than 30 major brands as well as dozens of smaller brands. 2. Grocery Stores and Discount Retailers Consumer staples have to be purchased somewhere, and many of those purchases happen at grocery stores or large retail chains with locations around the world. The Kroger Company (KR), WalMart Stores, Inc. (WMT), and Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) are among the largest grocery chains in the United States. These powerhouse retail giants collectively bring in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. No one can guarantee an industry won't tank during a financial crisis, but the grocery and consumer goods industry usually holds up well in times of crisis. 3. Alcoholic Beverage Manufacturing Beer, wine, and distilled beverages are high-margin products that are in demand. In recent years, a small group of companies has acquired many of the largest beer and spirit brands around the globe. The largest companies in this sector include Anheuser Busch InBev SA (BUD), Companhia de Bebidas das Americas (ABV), and Diageo plc (DEO). Anheuser-Busch InBev owns brands such as Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois, Becks, Leffe, and Hoegaarden. UK-based Diageo controls brands include Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, and Tanqueray. Although research has shown that consumers tend to spend less in total dollars on alcohol and other vices during a recession, the quantity tends to increase as people buy more less-expensive products. If you keep a stocked liquor cabinet at home, you're most likely a customer of these companies. 4. Cosmetics Despite a down economy, women and men still like to look good when out socially or at work. The largest cosmetics companies include Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (EL) and Coty Inc. (COTY), a major licensed brand manufacturer. Both of these companies have non-cyclical product portfolios that do well in weak economic conditions, in addition to luxury brands, which thrive in a strong economy. As previously mentioned Procter & Gamble and Unilever are also strong members of the beauty industry. 5. Death and Funeral Services As the popular saying goes, the only two things that are certain in life are death and taxes. While no one can buy stock in the Internal Revenue Service, investors can purchase shares in companies that profit from death-related services. Carriage Services, Inc. (CSV), Service Corporation International (SCI), and Matthews International Corp. (MATW) are three companies that make their revenues from lifes inevitable end. These companies provide caskets and funeral-related services, whereby their revenue tends to be recession-resistant. It is worth noting that during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 600,000 American lives, as of July 9, 2021, the funeral and death-related industry saw a spike in revenue. The Bottom Line Although companies never guarantee that companies will generate investment gains, some companies and industries tend to thrive in a recession. Perhaps, these companies can help make a well-balanced portfolio recession (and pandemic) resistant. Billionaire Barry Rosenstein's Jana Partners submitted its Q4 2017 13F filings to the SEC, and now analysts are poring over the documents to find out how the billionaire investment giant moved his assets and holdings in the final months of last year. Jana Partners ended 2017 with a total of 43 holdings as reported by its 13F, according to Nasdaq.com. Of those positions, 12 were newly added in the final quarter of the year. Sixteen positions saw an increase over the course of the fourth quarter, while 25 were decreased. The total of 43 positions also included 14 positions which had been sold out entirely from the previous quarter. Among Rosenstein's most significant purchases for the fourth quarter were Facebook (FB), Comcast (CMCSA), and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA). New Positions in PTC, Facebook and Comcast Of Rosenstein's 12 new positions for Q4, the largest purchase was for software company PTC Inc. (PTC). Jana bought more than 1.4 million PTC shares over that three-month period. Facebook was the fourth-largest new buy for Jana Partners, with a total of 473,526 shares purchased as of December 31, 2017. Comcast followed that, as Jana amassed a stake of more than 2.1 million shares valued at $84 million. The fund bought more than $69 million in Teva stock, accounting for more than 3.5 million shares. Teva was popular more broadly in the fourth quarter. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway revealed holdings of more than $300 million in the pharmaceutical company, prompting a quick boost in the stock price upon the release of 13Fs. (See also: Hedge Funds Bet on Consumer Discretionary Stocks: 13F Filings.) Largest Positions Are EQT and Zimmer Rosenstein's largest holdings are energy company EQT Corp. (EQT), Zimmer Biomet Holdings (ZBH), and Tiffany & Co (TIF). His firm holds more than $463 million in EQT stock, over $453 million in Zimmer stock, and close to $388 million in Tiffany stock. The 12 new positions added in Q4 do not come close to topping these three leading holdings. Jana Partners' portfolio is more than 29% weighted toward consumer cyclicals. Industrials stocks make up about one-fifth of its holdings, while energy companies account for about 13%. The total market value of Jana's holdings as of December 31, 2017 was more than $3.5 billion. Notable sell-offs for the final quarter of 2017 include the investment company Altaba Inc. (AABA). Billionaire Barry Rosenstein sold off shares worth more than $113 million over the course of the final three months of the year, eliminating the position in the process. (See also: Citadel Advisors' Stock Holdings Rose 18.2% In 4Q: 13F.) 13F reports do not provide a full picture of a firm's holdings. Further, they are out of date by the time the reach the public, as they reflect holdings at the end of the previous quarter. VANCOUVER - September 28, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Ascent Industries Corp. (CSE: ASNT) ("Ascent" or the "Company") would like to provide an update regarding the press release issued by the Company on September 27th relating to the partial suspension of the Health Canada licenses issued to its wholly owned subsidiary, Agrima Botanicals Corp. The Company is committed to providing shareholders timely updates regarding the process and timeline for full reinstatement of our licenses once determined. In advance of being able to provide shareholders with full information regarding the process and timeline of full reinstatement of our licenses, the Company has taken the following actions: Enhanced our Quality Assurance & Regulatory Compliance team with the addition of three experienced staff, headed by an individual with extensive Quality Assurance and Quality Control experience in Pharmaceutical and other highly regulated industries. In addition, the Company has conducted an audit of its record keeping controls and procedures, identifying areas for enhancement, and commenced implementation of operational improvements. Further, the Company has or will be relieving certain managerial staff of their positions with the Company. Ascent is committed to ensuring that applicable subsidiaries comply fully with Health Canada requirements applicable to operations. About Ascent Industries Corp. In Canada, Ascent (through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Agrima Botanicals) is a Licenced Producer under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations of Health Canada, with licences to cultivate cannabis and produce cannabis extracts. In addition, the Company is a Licenced Dealer under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Canada), with the ability to produce, package, sell, send, transport and distribute medically focused cannabis products in Canada to other licenced entities and internationally in jurisdictions where medical cannabis is legal. In the United States, the Company holds licences in Oregon (for processing and for distribution of cannabis to any licenced entity in the state) and in Nevada (for cultivation and for production, processing and wholesale distribution of cannabis). In Europe, Agrima ApS, a Danish company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Ascent, has submitted licence applications for a Wholesaler Dealers Licence and Controlled Drug Licence in Denmark, and applications for the approval of eight products to the Danish Medical Cannabis Pilot Program. The Company's operations currently include licenced facilities in British Columbia, Canada, and in Oregon and Nevada in the United States. The Company is increasing its cultivation and production capacity from 50,000 square feet to 710,000 square feet in 2018, from which it expects to produce significantly higher amounts of cannabis and cannabis oil to support its expanding operations. The Company offers a product suite of more than 40 unique products under several consumer-focused brands, including gel capsules, tinctures, medicinal oils, concentrates, vaporizer pens, pre-rolled joints, various edibles and raw flower. Through careful development of its sophisticated cannabis brands, Ascent is positioned to be a leader in branded, commercialized products in both medical and adult-use markets across North America and internationally. In addition, the Company conducts cannabis-based research with Simon Fraser University, including in the area of unique cannabinoid formulations that produce targeted physiological outcomes. The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. NEITHER THE CSE OR ITS MARKET REGULATOR (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE CSE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: Ascent's expectations concerning its Health Canada licences. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties. 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. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, Ascent assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. SOURCE: Ascent Industries For further information: Philip Campbell, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Telephone: 1.604.908.1305, Email: ir@ascentindustries.com Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp YVERDON LES BAINS, Switzerland and DALLAS - September 28, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Leclanche SA (SIX: LECN), one of the world's leading energy storage solution companies, today announced its interim results for the half year ending 30 June 2018. Leclanche's revenues have more than doubled year-on-year to CHF 22.3 million from CHF 10.6 million in the six months to 30 June 2018, in line with the Company's previously stated estimate of doubling revenues for the year 2018. Excluding exceptional items, EBITDA losses for the period have reduced on a like-for-like basis as a percentage of revenues. Key figures (in million CHF) We expect the year-end EBITDA loss to reduce as a percentage of revenue. Most of the large projects under construction should be completed or close to be completed by end of the year and will contribute to the improvement of the Company's year-end profitability. In the same period, the related inventories increased from CHF 12.3 million to CHF 23.1 million reflecting the growth in demand for Leclanche's energy storage solutions and the scale of the projects under construction. Other operating expenses increased due to one-off costs. Personnel costs increased by 10% reflecting the recruitment of over 45 people to increase production and deliver the large scale projects that the Company is delivering. Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanche, said "In the first half of 2018, we launched the JV with Exide Industries, completed the EMS acquisition, have consolidated our debt, and secured a financing programme which will take us to being EBITDA positive in 2020. This places us in a strong position to capitalise on the tremendous opportunities in the fast-growing markets of eTransport and Stationary Energy Storage Solutions. 2018 is a year of transition for Leclanche as we deliver on our stated growth strategy. Thanks to the significant investments made in the past three years under the Growth Plan announced in 2015, the Leclanche team is now demonstrating its solid ability to deliver large-scale landmark projects. We are on track to hit the milestone of 100 MWh of stationary storage projects in operation by end 2018, and completing tests for Electric Bus Battery Packs in India with Sun Mobility, a leading Electric Vehicle Systems Integrator in India and in Europe with Skoda Electric. We have been awarded projects which total over 300 MWh for deliveries through to 2019, including Master Supply Agreements in the eTransport Business that envisage more than 150 MWh of recurring annual deliveries. We are particularly encouraged by the rapid electrification trend in the marine market and we are expecting multiple project wins in the near term in this market segment. We confirm our guidance to double our turnover for the year. We have recruited key individuals, in particular leaders from the automotive industry, who will ensure that we deliver our projects and mitigate the obvious execution risks during this important phase of growth for Leclanche. Our solid order book and qualified pipeline of projects, underpin our confidence for 2019 and beyond. We have never been in a better commercial and operational position than we are now." Funding Status In the first half of 2018, Leclanche secured a significant financing programme which fully funds the business plan through to 2020 when the Company expects to be EBITDA positive. FEFAM[2], the Company's largest shareholder, has committed a total of CHF 75 million of corporate funding and an additional CHF 50 million M&A facility to finance acquisitions and joint ventures in e-Transport and Stationary grid-based storage markets. To date, CHF 7.6 million have been drawn down from the M&A facility to finance the JV with Exide Industries in India and the EMS acquisition. In June 2018, Leclanche also converted CHF 16.5 million of its debt into equity after FEFAM received approval from the Swiss Takeover Board to convert that amount into equity. Leclanche and FEFAM are also finalising arrangements to convert a further CHF 53.4 million by Q1 2019, subject to approval by the Swiss Takeover Board. This conversion will reduce the Company's current debt by 75% and go a very large way towards addressing any going concern risks raised in section 5 of the Interim Condensed Financial Statements 2018. In July 2018, Leclanche began simplifying its debt structure and consolidate its debt with FEFAM, which has recently committed to extend the maturity of its debt to 31 March 2020. This funding programme strengthened Leclanche's balance sheet and gives the Company enough financial firepower to deliver the large scale projects currently underway and take full advantage of the opportunities in the fast growing markets of eTransport and Stationary Energy Storage Solutions. Business Highlights Acquisition of EMS software suite from IDI Inc. On 27 August 2018, Leclanche completed the acquisition of a full suite of advanced Energy Management Software (EMS) from IDI Inc., a company based in Indiana, USA. The full suite provides flexibility across multiple applications and captures key product margins for the Stationary Storage business. The EMS is expected to increase margin of stationary solutions by an average of 3.5 percentage points or an average of 20% for a typical project. On 27 August 2018, Leclanche completed the acquisition of a full suite of advanced Energy Management Software (EMS) from IDI Inc., a company based in Indiana, USA. The full suite provides flexibility across multiple applications and captures key product margins for the Stationary Storage business. The EMS is expected to increase margin of stationary solutions by an average of 3.5 percentage points or an average of 20% for a typical project. Joint Venture with Exide Industries Limited, India Formation and registration of the joint venture is in the final stages. The factory and headquarter site has been leased in Prantij, outside of the city of Gandhinagar, in the state of Gujarat in India. Key executives have been hired to start by end of October 2018. Stationary Storage Business Unit Formation and registration of the joint venture is in the final stages. The factory and headquarter site has been leased in Prantij, outside of the city of Gandhinagar, in the state of Gujarat in India. Key executives have been hired to start by end of October 2018. Stationary Storage Business Unit Cremzow storage plant, Bradenburg, Germany The project's special purpose vehicle (SPV) is 90% owned by Enel Green Power Germany (EGP) and the German wind operator ENERTRAG AG owns 10% of the SPV. Leclanche is the turnkey contractor for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), leading the integration between batteries and power conversion systems and with the energy management software. The first unit of 2MW/ 3.2MWh has been commissioned by Leclanche in April 2018. EGP has signed an agreement to acquire this unit from Leclanche for EUR 1.8 million. The second tranche of construction work has started. The project is expected to be completed by end of 2018. Once completed, the aggregate final operational size of the Cremzow storage plant will be of 22MW / 34.8MWh and will provide frequency regulation services to the German Primary Control Reserve (PCR) market to rapidly stabilize the grid. The project's special purpose vehicle (SPV) is 90% owned by Enel Green Power Germany (EGP) and the German wind operator ENERTRAG AG owns 10% of the SPV. Leclanche is the turnkey contractor for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), leading the integration between batteries and power conversion systems and with the energy management software. The first unit of 2MW/ 3.2MWh has been commissioned by Leclanche in April 2018. EGP has signed an agreement to acquire this unit from Leclanche for EUR 1.8 million. The second tranche of construction work has started. The project is expected to be completed by end of 2018. Once completed, the aggregate final operational size of the Cremzow storage plant will be of 22MW / 34.8MWh and will provide frequency regulation services to the German Primary Control Reserve (PCR) market to rapidly stabilize the grid. SWB Bremen, Germany The SWB project has reached the Commissioning milestone and the Commercial Operation Date, with a 15MWh frequency regulation system. Additional customer testing is ongoing. The SWB project has reached the Commissioning milestone and the Commercial Operation Date, with a 15MWh frequency regulation system. Additional customer testing is ongoing. NRStor, Oakville, Ontario, Canada Leclanche has delivered a 4MWh system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this Commercial and Industrial (C&I) customer. This behind-the-meter project has obtained Commercial Operation Approval and is operating currently. Full approval is expected within October 2018. Leclanche has delivered a 4MWh system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this Commercial and Industrial (C&I) customer. This behind-the-meter project has obtained Commercial Operation Approval and is operating currently. Full approval is expected within October 2018. Marengo, Illinois, USA The Marengo project from Leclanche is a 20MW/ 19.5MWh, in PJM market system located in Marengo, Ill., USA. Mechanical Completion will be realized in September 2018, with the Commercial Operation Date (COD) scheduled for October 2018 and Final Approval in November 2018. The Marengo project from Leclanche is a 20MW/ 19.5MWh, in PJM market system located in Marengo, Ill., USA. Mechanical Completion will be realized in September 2018, with the Commercial Operation Date (COD) scheduled for October 2018 and Final Approval in November 2018. IESO Basin 1 & Basin 2, Ontario, Canada Leclanche is delivering a 13.8 MWh battery storage system for grid ancillary services. The two adjacent 6.9 MWh projects in near downtown Toronto will provide various ancillary services to support grid stabilisation and resiliency. Basin 1 will reach the COD milestone in October 2018 and Basin 2 will reach the same milestone in November 2018. Leclanche is delivering a 13.8 MWh battery storage system for grid ancillary services. The two adjacent 6.9 MWh projects in near downtown Toronto will provide various ancillary services to support grid stabilisation and resiliency. Basin 1 will reach the COD milestone in October 2018 and Basin 2 will reach the same milestone in November 2018. Canadian Solar, Ottawa, Canada Leclanche scope of supply includes a 2.75MWh Battery Energy Storage System, Energy Management Software and its integration. Mechanical Completion is scheduled for September 2018, with COD and Final Approval within the 2018 timeframe. Leclanche scope of supply includes a 2.75MWh Battery Energy Storage System, Energy Management Software and its integration. Mechanical Completion is scheduled for September 2018, with COD and Final Approval within the 2018 timeframe. NRStor, Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada Leclanche will deliver a 1.4MWh C&I system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this C&I customer. COD is scheduled for December 2018 with Final Approval to follow in January 2019. Leclanche will deliver a 1.4MWh C&I system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this C&I customer. COD is scheduled for December 2018 with Final Approval to follow in January 2019. NRStor, Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada Leclanche will deliver a 4MWh C&I system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this C&I customer. The COD milestone will be obtained in February 2019 with Final Approval in March 2019. eTransport Business Unit Leclanche will deliver a 4MWh C&I system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this C&I customer. The COD milestone will be obtained in February 2019 with Final Approval in March 2019. eTransport Business Unit Sun Mobility, India In February 2018, Leclanche signed a multi-year Master Supply Agreement with Sun Mobility, a leading Electric Vehicle Systems Integrator in India. The agreement includes joint development of swappable battery packs for electric bus, electric commercial vehicles and electric auto rickshaws. The agreement envisages delivery of battery modules and packs with recurring annual volume in the range of 90 to 150 MWh, subject to successful completion of the ongoing pilot tests. Leclanche has delivered battery modules for ten electric buses and battery cells for 3-wheeler auto rickshaws. Electric bus homologation process is underway, including road trails. The process is expected to be completed by the end of the year 2018. In February 2018, Leclanche signed a multi-year Master Supply Agreement with Sun Mobility, a leading Electric Vehicle Systems Integrator in India. The agreement includes joint development of swappable battery packs for electric bus, electric commercial vehicles and electric auto rickshaws. The agreement envisages delivery of battery modules and packs with recurring annual volume in the range of 90 to 150 MWh, subject to successful completion of the ongoing pilot tests. Leclanche has delivered battery modules for ten electric buses and battery cells for 3-wheeler auto rickshaws. Electric bus homologation process is underway, including road trails. The process is expected to be completed by the end of the year 2018. Kongsberg Maritime, Norway In May 2018 Leclanche signed a long-term strategic partnership agreement with Kongsberg Maritime to deliver battery solutions that can be found in virtually any modern ship. Kongsberg Maritime integrates these battery packs with their advanced drive train solutions and extensive software suite to deliver a true one-stop shop value proposition to marine customers around the world. Kongsberg Maritime has selected Leclanche's Marine Battery Rack System for 12 vessels and off-shore rigs, with a combined total of more than 50MWh. The first project to be jointly executed will be Yara Birkeland, the world's first autonomous and electric container vessel ordered by YARA. Replacing 40,000 truck journeys a year, Yara Birkeland will reduce NOx and CO2 emissions and improve road safety, at the same time reducing noise and dust emissions. In May 2018 Leclanche signed a long-term strategic partnership agreement with Kongsberg Maritime to deliver battery solutions that can be found in virtually any modern ship. Kongsberg Maritime integrates these battery packs with their advanced drive train solutions and extensive software suite to deliver a true one-stop shop value proposition to marine customers around the world. Kongsberg Maritime has selected Leclanche's Marine Battery Rack System for 12 vessels and off-shore rigs, with a combined total of more than 50MWh. The first project to be jointly executed will be Yara Birkeland, the world's first autonomous and electric container vessel ordered by YARA. Replacing 40,000 truck journeys a year, Yara Birkeland will reduce NOx and CO2 emissions and improve road safety, at the same time reducing noise and dust emissions. Skoda Electric, Czech Republic The Joint Development and Supply Agreement that was signed between Skoda Electric and Leclanche in May 2017 has led to the creation of a modular battery pack concept that can power any bus and commercial vehicle. The design has now been completed and battery packs are under construction to be placed in the first vehicle to go through homologation. In December 2018, the first electric bus with a joint Skoda Leclanche solution is scheduled to go into regular commercial service. Upon successful run of the first bus, we expect the partnership to deliver 500 electric vehicles, or an average 100MWh, over four years, in line with the Agreement. Financial Results For further details, please refer to the 2018 interim report which is available in pdf format on the Company website: http://www.Leclanche.com/investor-relations/financial-reports-publications/interim-reports/ About Leclanche Headquartered in Switzerland, Leclanche SA (SIX: LECN) is a leading provider of high quality energy storage solutions designed to accelerate our progress towards a clean energy future. Leclanche's history and heritage is rooted in over 100 years of battery / energy storage innovation. The Company is a trusted provider of energy storage solutions globally, which coupled with the Company's tradition of Swiss precision and highest quality engineering, continues to make Leclanche the partner of choice for both disruptors, established companies and governments who are pioneering positive changes in how energy is produced, distributed and consumed around the world. The energy transition is being driven primarily by changes in our electricity networks and advancements in all types of EVs, and these two end markets form the backbone of our strategy and business model. Leclanche is at the heart of the convergence of the electrification of transport and the changes in the distribution network. Leclanche is the only listed pure play energy storage company in the world and is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange. SIX Swiss Exchange: ticker symbol LECN | ISIN CH 011 030 311 9 Disclaimer This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to Leclanche's business, which can be identified by terminology such as "strategic", "proposes", "to introduce", "will", "planned", "expected", "commitment", "expects", "set", "preparing", "plans", "estimates", "aims", "would", "potential", "awaiting", "estimated", "proposal", or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding the ramp up of Leclanche's production capacity, potential applications for existing products, or regarding potential future revenues from any such products, or potential future sales or earnings of Leclanche or any of its business units. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. 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Media Contacts Rick Anderson T: +1 (718) 986-1596 Henry Feintuch T: +1 (212) 808-4901 E-mail: Leclanche@feintuchpr.com Investor Contacts Anil Srivastava / Hubert Angleys Tel.: +41 (0) 24 424 65 00 E-Mail: invest.Leclanche@Leclanche.com More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. 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Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp Jersey City, NJ - September 28, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) EnergeiaWorks, North America's leading executive search firm servicing the renewable energy markets, reports an increase in solar hiring in conjunction with the Solar Power International 2018 conference on September 24-27 in Anaheim, California. Among the 750 solar and energy storage companies and over 20,000 participants at SPI, EnergeiaWorks offered a presentation on site, hosted a sold-out networking event, and shared expertise on the job market and hiring trends. EnergeiaWorks noted a consensus among exhibitors and attendees in that employment in solar and storage will grow through the end of 2019. William Liuzza, CEO, EnergeiaWorks, said, "EnergeiaWorks is very optimistic about the near-term hiring in solar. During the three productive days of SPI and the weeks leading up to the event, my team and I met with dozens of companies across the solar market to develop recruiting strategy and advancement in manufacturing, development, engineering, design, construction, and O&M. We've also partnered with the Solar Foundation on their annual Solar Jobs Census, and a sneak peek into the report indicates a positive increase over 2017 figures." Victoria Waye, Senior Renewable Energy Account Manager for EnergeiaWorks, was selected by SPI to architect a poster presentation on Best Hiring Practices for Renewable Energy. Victoria explained, "Building the presentation helped us identify demographics within the industry, and to articulate hiring practices to better advise our clients on improving efficiencies and staff retention." The EnergeiaWorks presentation was displayed on the expo floor near aisle 4100 of the Anaheim Convention Center. EnergeiaWorks hosted a successful Renewables UnWind networking opportunity for over 200 SPI attendees on the patio of Fire+Ice on Monday, September 24. The event was sponsored by Antenna, EnergeiaWorks, Hugh Wood, Locus Energy, Pure Power Engineering, and Soltage. Renewables UnWind gathers the brightest cleantech professionals in cities across North America to talk about policy, partnerships, and progress towards a clean energy future. Over the last three years, EnergeiaWorks had hosted 55 networking events in 17 cities for over 20,000 cleantech professionals that are interested in keeping the conversation of clean energy moving forward. Following the success of SPI, EnergeiaWorks will be represented in October at the annual CanWEA wind conference, with Renewables UnWind events on October 24 in Calgary and October 11 in New York. Additional Renewables UnWind events will be held on November 6, in partnership with SolarWakeup Live! and a full day of discussion and learning in Jersey City, and on December 13 in New York. EnergeiaWorks will participate in the Solar Power Midwest in Chicago in November, and at the Solar Business Festival in Austin, Texas, where Monica Scantlen, Senior Recruiter, EnergeiaWorks will speak on the Women in Solar panel. Details are available at renewablesunwind.com EnergeiaWorks forges relationships and establishes connections at the most prominent events across the renewable energy industry. Job candidates and hiring employers are encouraged to visit energeiaworks.com More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp Ericsson and Telstra reportedly have successfully deployed and tested Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) data connections up to 100 kilometers from a base-station in Telstras commercial network, which is the longest-range NB-IoT connection of its kind, and a key milestone towards increasing Telstras LTE footprint in rural and regional Australia. The technology breakthrough, designed by Ericsson, extends the 3GPP standards-based limit and is activated entirely through software upgrades, with no changes required to NB-IoT devices. Telstra launched Cat M1 coverage in 2017 over an approximate three million square kilometers before deploying NB-IoT technology in its IoT network in January 2018. With this new capability, Telstras NB-IoT coverage increases to more than three and a half million square kilometers and will provide enhanced accessibility and reliability. Telstra already had Australias largest IoT coverage with Cat M1 across our 4G metro, regional and rural coverage footprint, said Channa Seneviratne, Executive Director, Network and Infrastructure Engineering, Telstra. With this NB-IoT extended range feature, we have now extended our coverage to more than three and a half million square kilometers, delivering our customers the best IoT coverage and capability in the country. Once again Telstra, working closely in partnership with Ericsson, has delivered innovation that ensures the benefits of IoT technology can be enjoyed by the largest number of Australians, not just those in the cities and towns. The extended-range capability of Telstras mobile network was shown with a Captis NB-IoT temperature sensor, sourced from mIoT, located 94km from the Telstra base station on Mount Cenn Cruaich in New South Wales, Australia. The networks ability to reach difficult urban locations was demonstrated with a Captis sensor from mIoT located three floors below ground level in an underground parking lot in central Sydney that was beyond the reach of regular LTE signals. A solar powered Metos weather station from PessI Instruments was also on display reporting temperature, relative humidity, rain fall and leaf wetness. Edited by Ken Briodagh Danilo Masoni and Helen Reid European shares rose slightly yesterday, reversing initial losses, as anxiety over political stability in Italy appeared to ease just hours before a cabinet meeting to set budget targets. Italian stocks came off lows but remained in negative territory, ending down 0.6%, while the broader pan-European Stoxx-600 index rose 0.4% to a one-month high, having earlier lost up to 0.6%. A newspaper report that an Italian cabinet meeting on 2019 budget goals would be pushed back a few days raised worries that Italys economy minister Giovanni Tria could resign, risking putting Rome on a collision course with the EU. The prime ministers office later denied the report and the meeting was finally set for yesterday evening, easing initial worries. A well-bid auction of Italian government bonds also gave support. If the results of the Italian debt auction are anything to go by, then the market is confident a crisis can be averted, said Capital Index Research director Kathleen Brooks. The Italian banking index more than halved losses, ending down 1.3%. Italian banks are particularly sensitive to political risk due to their big sovereign bond holdings. Eurozone banks fell 0.3%. Although tensions appeared to ease some, investors remained cautious about the prospects of the eurozone member. Societe Generale analysts wrote: Given the amount of dissent between the two parties and the discontent within Five Star itself, it seems quite possible that the coalition could collapse at the time of the budget vote or just afterwards, as the disagreements could intensify once the details of the budget bill are known Eurozone banks earnings forecasts have been revised down consistently over the past months as political risks mounted. In positive moves, the Swedish fashion retailer H&M jumped 11.1% after reassuring investors it would not need to cut costs further to shift unsold clothing. Stronger-than-expected margin figures helped investors shrug off a one-off hit from logistics problems. The UKs top share index eased, weighed down by weaker financials and materials stocks, but strength in oil majors helped contain the losses. UK stocks outperformed the broader European market, which was dragged into the red by worries that Italys government could aim for a larger-than- expected budget deficit, while global equities were hit after the Federal Reserve affirmed plans for policy tightening. Oil and gas stocks led gainers as crude prices were pushed up by the prospect of tighter markets due to US sanctions against major oil exporter Iran. Unless the US releases reserves or Opec commits to further output to plug the gap, oil could continue to crank higher from here. Breaking out of multi-year highs leaves Brent facing little resistance on the upside, said Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson. Oil majors BP and Shell supported the Ftse, rising 1.1% and 0.6%. Airlines, were hit by the strength in crude prices, with EasyJet down 3.1%. IAG and Ryanair also declined. US stocks rose, helped by Apple and Amazon, as well as the Federal Reserves confidence in the strength of the economy as it raised rates for the third time this year. Reuters Loans, vaccines, a border poll, and the presidential salary were some of the opening topics juggled by candidates during a cautious but fast-paced opening debate in the race for Aras an Uachtarain. While not trading lethal blows, four of the candidates laid down markers for the long days of campaigning ahead, even as the main star of the race stayed out of the ring for the opening round. The RTE radio debate showed us that this contest, like presidential races before, will indeed be tough, personal, unpredictable, and colourful at times. Most noticeable during the News at One debate hosted by Aine Lawlor was the absence of the presidential incumbent, Michael D Higgins. In the morning, he was met with cheers and applause from crowds of students at DCU, focusing his speech on youth and his college memories. All away from the heat of a radio debate and media questions. It was clever, campaigning while not campaigning. We can expect more of that. While wearing his presidential hat (which he must), Mr Higgins can in essence send out messages on topics of his choosing on a daily basis. But of course that is what a president must do... while still seeking a second seven-year term in the Park. Later, in RTEs Montrose studios, it was the turn of four challengers to face other, more uncomfortable topics. Senator Joan Freeman revealed she has borrowed 120,000 from Des Walsh, a businessman and friend based in Los Angeles. It later emerged that Ms Freemans lender was, until recently, the president of Herbalife, a major nutritional company. Mr Walsh has denied claims the firm is in some way a pyramid scheme. Tipperary entrepreneur Michael Madden had also loaned her 10,000, said Ms Freeman. The Pieta House founder said the loans complied with race rules. Expect some more questions about these loans in the coming days. Ms Freeman also insisted she represents the ordinary voter in the contest, as she lives in a semi-detached home, has a mortgage, and drives an ordinary car. In contrast, the two Dragons Den stars in the radio debate took shots at each other over what they would do with a presidential salary. Meath businessman Gavin Duffy said the presidents salary should remain the same because otherwise only wealthy people, such as fellow businessman and rival Peter Casey, could afford to run. I dont think it should be an exclusive club, quipped Mr Duffy. Mr Casey fired back, saying that the high salary of the office should not be to keep Gavin in the lifestyle he is used to. It wasnt gripping stuff. But at least the two Dragons tried for the listeners. Sinn Feins Liadh Ni Riada also faced tough questions yesterday about her opinion of the HPV vaccine. In 2016 the MEP said she would not allow her daughter to receive the HPV vaccine. Yesterday she denied she had written to her daughters school in Cork on the issue. She said she was fully in favour of vaccines, having seen cancer close up, and said it was unfair that the media would seek information about her childrens medical records. The Cork woman also said the president could lead discourse around a border poll and lay the groundwork for a conversation around unification. Ms Freeman said a government should be the ones to lead debate on such a matter. All candidates had differing opinions on how they would welcome US president Donald Trump if he visited Ireland. Mr Casey said he would meet him while declaring that Mr Trump was a serial womaniser and abuser. On the face of it, the radio debate finished with no winners or losers. Rather, it gave us an insight into how this will be a colourful campaign, with many turns still to come. And when all six candidates finally do sit down in the same room together, we may see the real shape of this race and whether it will be a clean fight. Mr Casey left listeners in no doubt that he thought it was disgraceful that Mr Higgins had failed to join the debate while he also asked why businessman Sean Gallagher did not. The latter says he wont join any debate unless it involves all candidates. There is still a long road until voting day on October 26. And while there was a lot of noise in a cramped studio yesterday on the first full day of campaigning in the race, candidates can expect a lot more to come in the contest to be the nations first citizen. Exactly 10 years on from the bank guarantee a group of campaigners will march in the Cork village of Ballyhea this Sunday to raise awareness of what they describe as the continuing injustice resulting from the 2008 crash. Made up of local residents, the Ballyhea Says No campaign was set up in 2011 but revealed how they have recently changed its name to Ballyhea Says Know to remind people about the ongoing burning of billions. Since 2011, the group has undertaken a number of actions to progress the case for debt renegotiation for Ireland and have met with the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the Irish Central Bank. Earlier this year they gave an hour long presentation to the Oireachtas Finance Committee and received commitments for an allparty committee to challenge the ECB. The campaign was back-boned by a weekly march up and down the village of Ballyhea. According to organisers a number of politicians and public figures have been invited to the village of Ballyhea to join campaigners this Sunday at 10.30am and at least one presidential candidate expected to appear. On September 30th 2008 the Irish government underwrote the entire Irish banking system with what's become known as the bank guarantee. Ballyhea Says Know campaign organiser and Ballyhea resident Diarmuid OFlynn says it was a catastrophic decision". He went on: "Most catastrophic of all was the subsequent enforced bailout of Anglo Irish Bank, which on its own cost us 35billion - more than half the entire bailout cost. Ballyhea Says Know campaigner Fiona Fitzpatrick went on: Despite the common impression to the contrary, we are still today paying that cost, 10.5billion destroyed by our Central Bank in the last three years, 4billion last year alone - the Promissory Notes legacy. MEP for Midlands Northwest Luke Ming Flanagan MEP added his support to the march. Since March 6 2011, the Ballyhea Says No campaign (now Ballyhea Says Know) has protested this injustice. On Sunday September 30th, exactly 10 years on from that disastrous Guarantee, they march again in Ballyhea 10.30am. From the first time they made contact with me, several years ago now, I have supported them. I ask you to do so now. Know what's happening. - Digital Desk The chairman of a Dail committee has said he does not believe the Catholic Church will hand over hundreds of millions of euro in abuse compensation to the State by Christmas. Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) called into question the sincerity of 18 Church congregations involved in abuse, just weeks after Pope Francis apology to Ireland, saying they have been hearing the same claim from the Catholic Church for more than a decade. The Church has handed over less than half of the compensation money and property it promised to give the State in light of repeated physical and sexual abuse for decades across the country. The money, which is meant to help survivors of the abuse, was agreed as part of the 2002 formal indemnity agreement with the then Fianna Fail-led government and the 2009 voluntary payments packages in response to the Ryan report revelations. In an 18-page document sent to the PAC, Department of Education secretary general Sean O Foghlu said a total of 480.6m was meant to have been transferred to the State in the form of funds and property since the deals were struck 128m as part of the 2002 agreement and 352.6m under the 2009 deal. However, in his correspondence to the PAC, Mr O Foghlu said just 253.65m of the expected money 4.21m from the 2002 agreement and 249.44m from the 2009 deal has been transferred to the State to date. And while department officials and the Church congregations involved have indicated they believe the matter will be resolved by Christmas, PAC members were suspicious of the latest claimed deadline. Speaking during a PAC meeting examining more than 2,000 pages of correspondence sent to the committee over the summer break, PAC chair and Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming said: Ive been hearing this now for 12 or 13 years. Noting that Pope Francis apologised to Ireland for wide-scale physical and sexual abuse, Mr Fleming added: We shouldnt be hearing about or talking about issues that should have been resolved 15 years ago. If you believe this will all be done by Christmas... I dont believe it. Mr Fleming was supported by other PAC members, including Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy and unaligned Independent TD Catherine Connolly. Ms Connolly said multiple properties are failing to be handed over to the State and are framed as charitable, PR-friendly donations instead of abuse compensation when they are eventually provided. Highlighting a specific case in her Galway constituency, she said one property at Taylors Hill was provided recently, having been left idle for a decade, drastically reducing its value in the process. Meanwhile, the same PAC meeting also heard that 878m in potential tax is currently unavailable to the State because of 78 ongoing appeals to the tax commissioner. The figure includes three cases involving unnamed individuals or companies whose appeals relate to 361m worth of potential tax. Gardai have launched a confidential line for the reporting of bribery and corruption, after a senior officer admitted that these are difficult cases to investigate and prove in court. The new number, 1800 40 60 80, can be contacted 24 hours a day and the messages can be left confidentially or anonymously, before being sent to a central email address, where they will be heard between 9am and 11pm. Messages will be evaluated by staff attached to the Garda Anti-Corruption Unit, which was set up within the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) last year. Detective Superintendent Gerard Walsh, of the GNECB, said there is a suggestion that corruption in Ireland is endemic and, yet, gardai are not coming across evidence to support that view. They are difficult cases to investigate and difficult cases to prove, Det Supt Walsh said, referring to the small number of prosecutions in this area. We need the best evidence and the best witnesses. Det Supt Walsh said the hope is that evidence given through the new phone line would fall under the Criminal Justice (Corruption Offence) Act, 2018, which includes new offences relating to corruption occurring both within and outside the state, and which applies to individuals as well as business entities. We are going to endeavour to investigate credible allegations of bribery and corruption, he said. At the time of the new act being signed into law, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan referred to significant provisions contained in it, including the introduction of criminal liability for corporate bodies and senior management. It also includes new offences, such as an Irish official doing a corrupt act in relation to his or her office, as recommended by the Mahon Tribunal. Det Supt Walsh said that the unit is prepared for a certain number of false or vexatious allegations and that some information may need to be investigated by other sections within the force. He said some people who might otherwise report corruption or bribery to gardai might hold back from doing so, out of fear they may be compromising themselves something it is hoped can be navigated by using the phone line. He also said that information lodged with the phone line may play a role in fighting organised criminal gangs. A lot of criminality is interrelated, he said, adding that everyone wants to cover their ill-gotten gains and that some instances of bribery can be a step away from other criminal elements. However, he said many of the cases that come before the courts are in relation to smaller-scale cases, involving areas such as the national car test, and that any credible information lodged with the new phone line will be reviewed as a possible subject for investigation. The number, 1800 40 60 80, can be contacted 24 hours a day. Kevin O'Neill THE WAR on dereliction in Cork city continues to grow with more than 90 sites now placed on the derelict sites register by City Hall. Officials are hoping that an extra five sites will be added by the end of the year, pending the outcome of legal processes and potential interventions by the owners of the sites. A report issued by City Hall in response to a query from Fianna Fail councillor Tim Brosnan shows that there are 91 sites currently on the register, valued at a total of 19,921,973.51. There are three sites on the list provided that do not have an estimated value included, meaning that the total figure is likely to surpass the 20 million mark. It includes 1.2 million worth of derelict sites on North Main Street, as well as several major standalone sites, such as the former St Kevin's hospital and associated buildings, valued at 2.7 million; the former Murrayford site on Kyrl's Quay close to the Bridewell Garda Station, valued at 1.9 million; the former Vita Cortex factory on Kinsale Road, valued at 2.25 million; and a block of six buildings at Carmelite Place on Western Road, valued at 1 million. There are also several sites on prominent, busy city centre streets, including Oliver Plunkett Street, South Main Street, North Mall, Barrack Street and Cornmarket Street. Efforts are also underway to add additional sites to the register, according to the report. "Notices have been served on the owners and time remains for submissions to be made by the owners to the notices issued. It is hoped approximately five more sites could be placed on the register by year-end, pending the legal process and potential representations by property owners," the report said. The information was issued in response to a query from Fianna Fail councillor Tim Brosnan. Mr Brosnan called on city management to forward the list to the Department of Environment to seek funds to purchase the properties and put them to use for housing. Addressing city management, he said: "Could I ask that you would write to the secretary-general of the Department of Environment and ask for the money to buy those 91 properties. Tell them we want it immediately as the Housing Minister is doing nothing to solve the homeless problem. If we have the money, we can buy the houses now." Ann Doherty, the chief executive of Cork City Council, said: "Not all of the sites are suitable for housing, but for those that are, I look forward to working with colleagues in the roads and housing departments to progress those that are." The report also included details of the sites currently on the city's vacant sites register. The process of adding sites to this register allows for a number of appeals and can slow down the time it takes to add a site to the register. Among the 11 sites currently on the vacant sites register are Farranferris Grounds, a site on Curraheen Road, land off the South Douglas Road and the former Lough Tavern. The owners of sites on the Vacant Sites Register are subject to annual fines of 3%, which will increase to 7% in 2020. This story originally appeared in the Evening Echo By Sean ORiordan The battle to extend Cork City Councils boundary is still not over as the county council has written to Oireachtas members urging them to ensure it retains the Blarney/Tower area. Initially, the city council looked for a massive swathe of territory for its boundary extension, stretching from Ovens to Carrigtwohill and taking in the largest rates generating base in the region at Little Island. County councillors saw red and held out for a better deal. Eventually, the Local Government Implementation Oversight Group decided to reduce the area the city wanted to take in Blarney, Cork Airport, Ballincollig, and Glanmire, and parts of Grange, Togher, and Douglas. County councillors felt that all the areas, bar Blarney and Tower, are already basically joined to the city. It has emerged that the county council has now written to Cork-based TDs and senators appealing for them to use their influence, especially as they will ultimately vote on the boundary extension legislation, to prevent Blarney and Tower from falling into city council control. On foot of concerns expressed by a number of councillors, especially those who represent the Blarney/Macroom municipal district, Mayor of County Cork, Patrick Gerard Murphy, decided to write to the Oireachtas members. Mr Murphy told them the implementation groups exclusion of Blarney and Tower and adjacent hinterlands from the county jurisdiction came as a surprise to the members of council when the revised boundary was confirmed. Mr Murphy said both areas are settlements which constitute rural communities, separated geographically from Cork City, which have little in common with the city and its urban-centric focus, and which have no significant transport or infrastructural connectivity with the city. Mr Murphy also said a significant expansion of Blarney had been planned at Stoneview by the county council, as well as the new 5,300-house town at Monard, south of the village. The county council has spent millions of euro devising the plan for Monard. Final proposal, December 2017 The communication to the Oireachtas members also included a revised map of the city boundary, excluding the two areas. If it is agreed to adopt this map, around 6,357 people who are earmarked to come under city council control would remain in the county council administrative area. Mr Murphy wrote that if this is acceptable, more than 78,000 additional people would still come under the control of the city council when the boundary is extended. He said it is worth noting that the changes arising from the county councils new proposal would provide for an expanded Cork City administrative area which has an approximate population of in excess of 200,000. He said this should be an acceptable size for an expanded city, which is estimated to grow to 207,000 by 2020. Meanwhile, uncertainty still remains over whether the city council will pay any sort of compensation to the county council for the significant loss of rates it will suffer from the boundary extension. While it has been assumed that the city will pay up, there is no legal obligation to do this written into the boundary extension agreement. County council officials fear they might have to go to court to force the city council to pay up. They are also concerned that any liabilities for assets transferring to the city will remain with the county council. 250 county council staff may transfer Talks are going on between Cork City Council and Cork County Council about the number of staff that will be transferred to City Hall as a result of the boundary extension. The Irish Examiner understands a preliminary figure of 187 transfers has been flagged to staff working in County Hall. However, some believe the final figure could rise to 250. A county council spokesman said that staff in County Hall had been briefed about the likelihood of transfers. The county council director of corporate affairs, Padraig Barrett, declined to comment on the numbers likely to be transferred. Our position is that discussions with Cork City Council are still ongoing, he said. The county council has also held meetings with the various unions representing staff about the transfers to set out how this process will pan out. Mr Barrett said that the workers that will eventually transfer to City Hall would represent a cross-section of staff ranging from outdoor workers, such as roads and park maintenance, up to senior administration jobs. Were in part of a process and were anxious for it to be a success for both the city and county to look forward to successful futures, said Mr Barrett. Pilot programmes to train doctors in abortion care are already underway at undisclosed locations, modelled largely on the training provided in Britain, according to the first female chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (IOG). Cliona Murphy, who takes up the chain of office today, told the Irish Examiner that the institute is actively involved in setting up training courses at the moment with the HSE so that women can have the service that they need, that they want, and that they voted for. Dr Murphy, from Ballincollig, Co Cork, said the IOG had looked at the training provided by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in Britain and that training for Irish doctors would be something similar. She said she does not wish to pinpoint where the pilots are taking place but that they are out of clinical areas. Dr Murphy said abortion care will be integrated into a doctors training course the institute is the national professional and training body for obstetricians/gynaecologists in Ireland and would include practical skills and counselling skills. Education in abortion care will be extended to both young doctors in training and older consultant obstetricians/gynaecologists who need to upskill. Its about quality and safety and we need to train people, she said. Asked if she believes in a need for exclusion zones around facilities providing abortions, Dr Murphy said they may also be necessary around family planning clinics to avoid women being stigmatised. During the referendum campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution which has effectively prohibited abortion in all bar exceptional circumstances since 1983 concerns were raised about women being targeted by protesters outside doctors clinics and hospitals. An anti-abortion group last week said it would use the proposed three-day waiting period to target women trying to access terminations in Ireland. The Cabinet yesterday approved the text of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018, which will provide for access to terminations without restrictions up to the 12 weeks of pregnancy. Health Minister Simon Harris said the legislation will be published in the coming days and introduced in the Dail to commence its legislative passage next week. Approval for legislation to regulate termination of pregnancy in Ireland. Time to legislate and pass the law #repealedThe8th pic.twitter.com/wJHgEi43ft Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) September 27, 2018 He said the text of the bill is very much in line with the general scheme published before the referendum. He said he remains committed to having abortion available from January 1. The minister said a separate piece of legislation will address safe access zones. Dr Murphy said the Governments heart is in the right place in trying to make sure that the women are not traumatised. In relation to the CervicalCheck scandal, Dr Murphy said the institute will do all that we can to ensure an audit conducted by RCOG goes smoothly. The Department of Health and the HSE published the terms of reference of the audit this week. It will look at cases of cervical cancer that occurred since the establishment of CervicalCheck in 2008, to see if they could reasonably be attributable to errors in screening and reporting of cytology. A total of 1,856 cases will be reviewed and the women, or their next-of-kin in cases where women are deceased, will be contacted to ask if they wish to take part. Asking prices fell by 2.5% in Dublin in the third quarter and by a more modest 0.8% nationally, according to the latest residential property price report from MyHome.ie. A report from MyHome.ie shows the average price of a 3-bed semi is now 268,000 - and 375,000 in Dublin. The annual rate of inflation for newly listed properties nationally is now 5.9% while its just 2.2% in Dublin, the slowest pace of increase in two years. Asking prices in the capital have increased by 2% since this time last year, but there's been a slowdown in the last few months. Author of the report, Conall McCoille, explains what's behind it: "The slow down is due to Central Bank rules in Dublin "If you take the average house in Dublin, it's around nine times the average income. "Ireland in general and particular in Dublin is not cheap any longer so by that stretched affordability and the Central Bank saying you can't take on dangerous levels of mortgage debt like you did in the Celtic Tiger period we're inevitably going to see a slowdown and we're beginning to see that now." Earlier, Mr MacCoille said: The double-digit price inflation we experienced earlier this year was simply not sustainable and the slowdown we predicted earlier this year has now materialised. "While the magnitude of the drop this quarter may be surprising, some of the quarterly decline may be seasonal, reflecting typically weaker prices at the end of a busy summer trading season. He continued: With jobs and wages growth both exceeding 3%, underlying demand remains exceptionally strong and we expect inflation to equal 8% by December. "Brexit of course remains something of a wild card but the key assumption here is that the UK will move to the transition period in March next year, maintaining the status-quo by effectively remaining inside the single market In the 12 months to June 2018 completions equalled 16,300, already well ahead of the 14,446 recorded in 2017. In total planning permissions for 26,750 units have been granted in the 12 months to June. Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie said the increase in homebuilding was beginning to feed through to improved stock levels, particularly in Dublin. There were 22,658 residential properties listed for sale on MyHome.ie in September, up 6% on last year. "This is the second consecutive quarter in which the stock listed for sale has increased, breaking the downward trend over the past six years. "The improvement is even better in Dublin with 5,000 properties listed for sale, up 18% on last year." She continued: We are also seeing an increase in transaction figures. "The Property Price Register indicates that 34,706 properties have been sold so far this year and we estimate this represents a 6% growth in transaction volumes, although the register is not yet fully up to date. "We believe the total figure of transactions for the year will be close to 60,000, which would be an increase of around 9%. The average time to sale agreed continues to decline nationally its 3.5 months, down from 3.8 months previously. "In Dublin, its steady at 2.9. This is consistent with higher transaction levels rather than a result of any slowdown in the housing market Full details of the report can be found at www.myhome.ie/reports Digital Desk Update - 1.15pm: Dublin Chamber has said it is alarmed that work to build the 3,500 new homes in the Poolbeg West Strategic Development Zone will not begin until 2020. Dublin Chamber CEO Mary Rose Burke said the delay calls into question the ability of the planning system to deal with the housing crisis and deliver the Governments Ireland 2040 project. Ms Rose Burke said: This reports of a further delay are major disappointing. We are in the midst of a severe accommodation crisis that is impacting on every walk of life in Dublin, and the Poolbeg West scheme is one that has the potential to deliver exactly the kind of integrated, high-density solution that Dublin urgently requires. "Delivery of the Pollbeg scheme would make a real dent in the housing shortage, so the announcement of yet another delay is extremely disheartening. The Governments entire Ireland 2040 plan is all about regenerating our cities through a focus on high-density development of brownfield sites. Dublin Chamber is supportive of that approach, but we now have to ask whether Irelands planning system is really fit for the purpose. "If we want to ensure that Project Ireland 2040 is actually implemented, its clear take to take a serious look at the functioning of the Irish planning system. Earlier: Housing Minister urged to intervene in Poolbeg West housing scheme delay A fast-tracked housing project for Dublin which was due to begin construction in 2017 now faces a three-year delay. The Housing Minister is being urged to intervene in the Poolbeg West housing scheme for Dublin. It had been hoped construction on the site would start last year and deliver more than 3,000 homes. However, it now faces long delays as an Bord Pleanala wants more information on recreational and community facilities for the area. Sinn Feins Housing spokesperson Eoin OBroin said Eoghan Murphy needs to intervene. He said: "Poolbeg is a strategic development zone and it is a long complicated process. "Dublin City Council have agreed a very good plan. I think it's unfortunate that it was appealed to an Bord Pleanala and I also think it's unfortunate that an Bord Pleanala don't have sufficient staff to turn that around quick enough. "We need a decision on this and we need building on that site, so I believe the minister could do more." Labour Senator Kevin Humphreys has criticised Housing Minister and his cabinet colleagues for the failure to get a promised 'fast-track' housing plan off the ground. He said: "Yet again this government has failed to deliver on housing. "Yet again a plan which was hailed as a new departure has failed to come to fruition. "The Poolbag development was promised on under Simon Coveney, and he spoke at the time of how quickly this development would be delivered. "Thousands of homes were promised. Now we learn under Minister Murphy that development won't even start until 2020. "This part of Dublin is in desperate need of public housing. "How government expects people in Dublin Bay South to have any faith in their ability to deliver such housing in the future, I really don't know." Digital Desk The Criminal Assets Bureau has seized luxury cars, designer bags and almost 150,000 from bank accounts in an ongoing operation targeting a family-run drug gang in west Dublin. In a major search operation, a range of businesses, comprising scaffolding companies, a barbers shop, and a garage, were hit, along with professional firms, including an accountancy firm, a solicitors office, and an auctioneers. In addition, six residential homes in Dublin and Wicklow were searched in an operation which also involved the Special Crime Task Force, part of the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau. CAB targeted a number of brothers behind a criminal gang based in the Ronanstown area of Clondalkin and yesterdays searches are described as a significant development in that operation. The gang is suspected of supplying drugs both in the west Dublin area and the general Leinster region. The west Dublin region boasts the highest number of CAB targets in the entire country, with 161 targets. Sources said this was a huge number and reflected the sheer number of serious criminals and criminal gangs in the division, which stretches from Blanchardstown and Finglas down to Clondalkin and Ballyfermot. Last June, CAB seized luxury Range Rover vehicles in a garage linked to a notorious heroin dealing gang in Ronanstown, run by two brothers. After Dublin west, the next largest number of targets is in Dublin South (104), the division boasting the bulk of Kinahan cartel members in the country. In the search operation yesterday, CAB and SCTF officers seized: A 161 Audi A4; A 152 Mercedes C class; A 151 Seat Leon; A 141 VW Passat; At least eight designer bags; A luxury Hublot watch. In addition, restraint orders have been made in respect of 145,000 in accounts in financial institutions. CAB officers are conducting a range of examinations, including at the garage where the seized cars were bought through. Experts will also probe the scaffolding business and barbershop to determine whether or not they were bought with the proceeds of crime or were used to launder proceeds. An amount of documentation was obtained from the professional offices searched. CAB has repeatedly raised the issue of garages being used as a means of laundering significant amounts of criminal proceeds. A neighbour from hell who harassed three of his neighbours and filmed one of them masturbating received a four-month suspended sentence in Blanchardstown District Court. Judge David McHugh also ordered that Thomas Kelly stay away from his three victims forthwith. Kelly installed CCTV cameras at the back of Weir View, Lucan, Co Dublin, that looked down on his neighbours. The live feeds from 16 cameras were then fed into a large TV in his sitting room. Kelly told the court after he filmed Paul Lynam masturbating, he reported the incident to Tusla. He also wrote a letter to then justice minister Frances Fitzgerald. Kelly, aged 65, of Weir View, Lucan, was found guilty of two counts of harassing Mr Lynam at Weir View, on dates between July 1 and July 15, 2016. He was also found guilty of harassing John Mooney at another address at Weir View on a date between February 1, 2016, and February 12, 2016, and to harassing William Stapleton at another address at Weir View on a date between those same dates. The court had heard on February 11, 2016, a Garda assisted a detective inspector with a search of three premises at Weir View owned by Kelly. In Kellys house, there were two 50- to 60-inch TVs in the living room. One of the TVs was set to a normal channel and the other to a number of live CCTV feeds. Gardai later found a camera on the escarpment behind the house pointed at the three injured parties homes. On July 15, 2016, gardai again went to Kellys house where they saw the two TVs set up in the same way. Another camera was found in the escarpment. Mr Lynam told the court he had lived in Weir View for 15 years and had a feeling he was being watched. Mr Mooney told the court: Living there is a nightmare at the moment. I cant articulate how I feel. I feel Im being watched. The back of my house is in darkness. I cant allow my young daughter to open the blinds at the back of the house in case we are being filmed. Mr Stapleton told the court he was shocked when he discovered he and his family were being watched. Kellys solicitor, Valerie Buckley, said her client is a pensioner who had never come to the attention of the gardai before or since. Ms Buckley said the charges arise from a land dispute that is currently before the civil courts. Kelly is someone who is very focused in relation to that dispute and perhaps a little bit too focused in relation to the security aspect. Ms Buckley said the media attention on Kelly following the hearing was very intense and distressing for him and his family. She asked the judge to deal with the case by way of an order for Kelly to stay away from the victims. Judge McHugh told the court: I consider this gentleman to be what is commonly known as the neighbour from hell. The judge said there is no question of leaving Kelly without a conviction and instead the decision is whether he serves. He said it was a close call but he sentenced Kelly to four months jail, suspended for two years. Judge McHugh also made an order for Kelly to stay away from the victims forthwith. By David Raleigh President Michael D Higgins has said Ireland must not treat migrants the same way it has treated members of the Travelling community. The President, who has sought a second concurrent term in the Aras, gave a keynote speech at the launch of a four-year migrant integration plan by Limerick City and County Council today. President Higgins highlighted how Irish society should make efforts to understand and accept the complexity of (different) identity, by reflecting on its own history of mass migration, including the Great Famine; the Flight of the Wild Geese; and more recent periods. We need to be ready to cast our memory back to our own ancestors and relatives, to consider how they were treated on arrival in their new homes, he said. Even more, how we would have wished their experience had been when encountering the other. In doing so, we should be able to reconsider our own (integration) approaches, so that we don't repeat the mistakes that were made elsewhere at any time. Skilled migrants, he said have a value and (a) contribution to make to Ireland. Mr Higgins recalled working in a hotel in England in the 1960s, when racism was widespread against the Irish and the Black communities: I was writing my first letter to a newspaper, The London Evening Standard, (after) someone had (said they) wanted to send all the Irish home; and the owner of the hotel where I was working for the summer, said (to me), we would like you not to put the address of the hotel in your correspondence. He added: Weve made mistakesin the past. I think, particularly, in relation to the Travelling community, where, in fact, we hadnt, in fact, understood when we had a standard (and) often inflexible housing legislation, which was not capable of taking into account the complexity, of difference, and of needs. In the 20 years from 1996-2016 Limericks population has grown by almost a fifth, by 18%, and some of this group can be attributed to migration, he said. Today, people born outside Ireland count for just under ten per cent of the population of Limerick city and county. People have come from afar, and they are making a contribution to Irish life and society. Eugene Quinn, National Director, Jesuit Refugee Service Ireland and Chairperson of the Limerick Integration Working Group, said he was worried that anti-immigrant rhetoric is finding political traction in the US, in Europe, in Poland, Hungary and Austria, and recently, even in a progressive and open State like Sweden. This is dangerous and it is wrong, and we must fight it, he said. By Linda McGrory A casting agency is on the hunt for a Michael D Higgins lookalike to pose for a photoshoot in the coming weeks. Extras Ireland have put the call out for potential doppelgangers of the incumbent president, notwithstanding our head of States distinctive and arguably inimitable style. The company said the role will be a paid one for anyone who secures the position to temporarily impersonate the diminutive 77-year old statesman. Applicants are asked to apply including their name, age and height. The company also want photos clearly showing the applicants eyes and hair as well as a head-to-toe shot, showing a persons build. Were looking for a Michael D Higgins lookalike for a photoshoot that will take place in Dublin in the coming weeks. This is paid work if cast, dates yet to be confirmed, Extras Ireland said in a Facebook post. Mr Higgins, the ninth President of Ireland, is among six candidates who will fight the presidential election next month. The other five are Sinn Feins MEP Liada Ni Riada, senator Joan Freeman and former Dragons Den stars Sean Gallagher, Gavin Duffy and Peter Casey. Campaigning officially got underway this week after the nominations process closed. Lookalikes of Michael D Higgins can contact Extras Ireland by emailing info@extrasireland.com with Higgins in the subject line. By Niall Murray and Elaine Loughlin The board of the State Examinations Commission (SEC) will today consider the implications of the High Court ruling in which its Leaving Certificate appeals system was strongly criticised. While a full judgment is not due until a later date, High Court Justice Richard Humphreys said the situation that brought a distressed 18-year-old student before him showed the Leaving Certificate appeals system is not fit for purpose. Co Wexford student Rebecca Carter should be told today if the re-check of her Leaving Certificate business exam will result in an upgrade and a college place. The court directed the SEC to have her paper re-examined by noon today and the result notified to University College Dublin two hours later. It, in turn, will contact the Central Applications Office (CAO), who must notify Ms Carter by 5pm today if she is being offered a place on the veterinary medicine degree course for which she fell just one CAO point short before her appeal. The college told Ms Carter that, while an appeal result would ordinarily be notified to it by October 12, it could only hold a place on the veterinary medicine course until the end of this month. As well as the specifics of this case, the judge said the situation which arose should not be repeated next year. The SEC would only say after the direction of the High Court that it noted what it described as a significant judgement. It has convened an unscheduled meeting of its board to consider the implications. However, it is uncertain and unlikely that any major decisions can be made, particularly without assessment of any necessary resources that might be required to fast-track the checking of exam papers where an upgrade might directly affect a students entitlement to access a college course. Last year, around 1,400 out of 5,600 students who appealed got an upgrade, but the outcomes are not notified to all applicants until the second week of October. For some of the 300-plus people entitled as a result to a college offer, it may be too late into the course and the place may have to be deferred for a year. The judge had noted midweek that it takes 40 days after the early September closing date for appeals for more than 9,000 appeals to be assessed by 400 examiners. In the Dail yesterday, Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty described the case as very regrettable and said the system would be reviewed. The minister said she or the Government could not stand over a situation where the applicant would have to defer her college place to next year if she had not gone to the High Court. Fianna Fails Dara Calleary said the case highlighted deficiencies in the exam marking process. He said it was extraordinary the issue could have been rectified outside the normal appeals process if the totting error was on the front cover of the exam script, but had to go through the formal system because it happened inside the exam paper. Regina Doherty No simple solutions to tackling Leaving Certificate appeal delays What is the Leaving Certificate appeals system? Each year, the results issued to more than 55,000 Leaving Certificate students are provisional only. This is because they are open to amendment, mainly, in cases where a student applies to have their performance in one or more grades remarked. Last year, such appeals were lodged by 5,616 students in respect of 9,810 grades, as a candidate is open to appeal more than one subject. How many of them get an upgrade? Last year, there were 1,446 upgrades to a mark given in August, although the number of students involved may be fewer if some with two or more appeals were successful in more than one. Are those 1,400 or so students being denied a college place every year because they were marked wrongly? No, an upgrade and the subsequent increase in Central Applications Office (CAO) points might not bring a college applicant over the line with the points needed for a course higher on their application than a course for which they were already offered a place. Last year, following the issue of appeal results in October, the CAO issued offers to more than 300 students. However, as courses may already be running up to six weeks, or have tight limits on student numbers because of clinical placements or other factors, colleges sometimes tell students they must defer their place for a year. The State Examinations Commission told the High Court the student could not get her appeal result until October. Isnt that a long wait? Firstly, the closing date for appeals was Wednesday, September 5 three weeks after students received their provisional results. But this in line with the timeframe of other years. Why the initial delay? To facilitate decisions on whether to appeal a grade, students first have a chance to physically view their exam script or other written material submitted as part of their work in a particular subject. They can be accompanied by one person under strict rules about access. But to allow for this, the SEC must provide for the transfer of written scripts back to schools. More than 530,000 papers are ready to be transmitted to schools, but the SEC must wait until it knows which students papers in individual subjects need to be reviewed. Applications for scripts to be viewed must be made through schools on the Tuesday after Leaving Certificate results are received. This is the day after the CAO issues first-round offers, when students have a clearer idea if they are short of the points needed for a particular course and, if so, by how many points. Students were given appointments this year on Friday, August 31, and Saturday, September 1 10 and 11 days after the closing date for script viewing applications. They then have until the following Wednesday to have an appeal submitted and received by the SEC. Surely if a basic error in calculating marks and grades is spotted during a script review, this can and should be rectified more promptly? A facility already exists for circumstances where a calculation error has been found on an exam script, but this relates specifically to marks written on the front page of each paper. This is where the examiner marking it brings forward the marks from each question in a section to add them up to a total that determines a students grade. If this is brought to the immediate attention of the SEC, it can be reviewed outside the formal appeals process. This system operates only for the purpose of putting right an error transcribing the overall mark from the answer-book to the marking sheet, or an error keying the mark from the marking sheet onto the exams database in the SEC. But why not also allow this fast-track system for clear errors inside a students exam script? The SEC says that any issue of interpretation, such as disallowed questions, computation of marks, the application of the marking scheme, and/or claims that the work has not been fully marked can only be resolved through the formal process and review of the marking schemes application by an appeal examiner. Is there any way, then, to speed up the marking process for appealed exam papers? In the High Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys noted that it took 40 days after the closing date for more than 9,000 appeals to be assessed by 400 examiners, yet 1,700 examiners can mark almost 390,000 papers in 54 days to get the main Leaving Certificate results out in mid-August. However, there is a big difference, in that the marking work is done almost entirely by teachers who are in full-time employment in schools. By the time appealed exams are being distributed for re-checking, the examiners hired by the SEC are back at work during the day, whereas they are on summer holidays when the work is done between June and August. So why not hire more teachers to get the work done more quickly? This is not as easy as it sounds. The SEC has had a growing problem finding enough teachers to mark State exams in recent years, with calls being made through to the end of June for people to correct students work in some subjects. In some instances, people who are not qualified to teach the subject have had to be recruited, although this is mainly at Junior Certificate level, and the majority of them do have a college qualification in the subject even if they are not a teacher. The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland and Teachers Union of Ireland have lodged a claim for a 30% increase in the rates payable for the work, saying the crisis is due to inadequate pay and rising workloads as more people drop out. State funding of Scouting Ireland will be suspended for a long as the current board of directors remains in place, Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone has announced. Ms Zappone is very concerned at the boards recent decision to reinstate chief scout Christy McCann as chair of its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) that takes place on October 6. She said an investigation by an independent barrister was focused on the actions of four board members, including the chief scout during an internal inquiry into an alleged very serious assault. Earlier this year, Ms Zappone suspended State funding to the organisation but released an interim payment in June of 220,000 after receiving reform commitments. Ms Zappone said recent correspondence from the interim chairwoman of the board, Annette Byrne, and child safeguarding expert Ian Elliot caused her grave concern. Ms Byrne said she could not have confidence in the current board to act impartially when the independent investigation is completed. Mr Elliot told Ms Zappone that he is appalled at last Saturdays decision to have Mr McCann chair the forthcoming EGM. It reinforced his view that there are directors who have consistently sought to obstruct essential change in the organisation and that bad governance puts young people at risk. Ms Zappone said that, as minister, she can not accept such a situation. It is plainly wrong that any publicly funded youth organisation would be led by directors who do not put the interests and safety of young people to the fore, she said. She assured parents that the action she is taking stems from bad governance and is in no way connected to the fantastic work carried out by scout leaders and volunteers. "I have been assured that they are committed to and compliant with the highest possible level of safeguarding standards, she said. Ms Zappone urged the directors to do the right thing for the future of the organisation. Ms Byrne told the minister she can no longer guarantee the delivery of commitments given four months ago. While a clear majority of people in Scouting Ireland want change, there is a problem at board level. Ms Zappone said she is considering having a government appointee on the board. I think that would be part of the conversation as, hopefully, the organisation makes the right decisions to move forward, said Ms Zappone. Ms Byrne said she wants parents to be aware that Scouting Ireland was a safe organisation. The issues we have are on governance and, hopefully, they will be addressed by the organisation on October 6, said Ms Byrne. Ms Zappone said Ms Byrne is absolutely committed to making essential governance changes while Mr Elliott continues to be invaluable in helping the organisation develop the strongest safeguarding policies. Scouting Irelands chief scout, Christy McCann, says the board made the wrong decision when they voted to have him chair the organisations extraordinary general meeting. Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone, has suspended state funding of the organisation for as long as the current board of directors remains in place. She was very concerned to learn that the board had voted last Saturday to reinstate Mr McCann as chair of the EGM that takes place next weekend. The controversy surrounds the organisations handling of a rape allegation in 2016. Dr Zappone said an investigation by an independent barrister was focused on the action of four board members, including the chief scout, during an internal inquiry into an alleged very serious assault. Mr McCann said nobody was more surprised than him when he was asked to chair the meeting on Saturday, October 6. I think the board has made the wrong decision. I think they did not consider the ramifications, he said yesterday. Mr McCann, who was speaking on RTE radio, said he did not have an opportunity to tell Scouting Ireland that he would not chair the meeting but would notify them later in the day. The organisation has confirmed that the forthcoming EGM can be chaired by an individual other than the chief scout. It is appropriate that meetings proceed and decisions are taken with an interim in place, it stated. Mr McCann said he had been happy to stand aside last April and wait for the outcome of the external investigation. He did not believe that what he did was wrong or inappropriate. All I have done is my duty as chief scout. I would certainly hope that the investigation will also make that known. Mr McCann said there were livelihoods at stake and projects at risk because of the suspension of state funding. I think we will come through this if everybody focusses on whats best for Scouting Ireland. Forsa trade union that represents most of the staff employed by Scouting Ireland says the boards reckless decision to reinstate Mr McCann as chair of the forthcoming EGM had put the jobs of staff at risk. Forsa official, Dessie Robinson, said it was the second time this year that funding had been suspended. The boards decision, in this context, can only be seen as reckless. It puts the jobs of dedicated staff at risk and potentially undermines the services provided to Scouting Irelands national network of volunteers, he said. Mr Robinson wrote to the minister seeking assurances that her decision to suspend state funding would not undermine services or prevent the payment of salaries. He said Scouting Ireland staff agreed that the organisation should follow best practice regarding governance issues, particularly with regard to safeguarding. Mr Robinson told the minister that the continuing uncertainty had put staff under enormous strain. Kilkenny-based artist, Roger OReilly, shines the spotlight on the treasury of architectural gems that are Irelands lighthouses in his new book. Ailin Quinlan reports Name-checked in Van Morrisons classic hit Coney Island, St Johns Point Lighthouse is also Irelands tallest. A lesser known fact about this eye-catching 40-metre-high lighthouse, is that in the early 1950s, it was (badly) painted by Brendan Behan, the renowned poet, novelist and playwright. Behan was tasked with painting the building in Killough, Co Down, by his father, but the subsequent paint job, says Kilkenny-based artist Roger OReilly, author of a new book about Irelands lighthouses, was so poorly received, that by mutual consent he never reached such heights in the painting and decorating game again! Its just one of many anecdotes contained in OReillys beautifully illustrated study of the lighthouses of Ireland. For hundreds of years, long before the advent of GPS, or even radio transmission or radar, they served as beacons, helping ships safely navigate the sometimes treacherous waters around our coasts. Many of these tall, picturesque, and for many, deeply romantic sentinels around the Irish coastline have a colourful and sometimes funny history, as the award-winning artist and illustrator was to discover. OReilly spent a year or so criss-crossing Ireland, visiting this treasury of architectural gems for what would turn out to be a visually stunning new book. Hes particularly enamoured of a story related by the keeper of the isolated and very compact Beeves Rock Lighthouse on the Shannon Estuary in 1910. He was James McGinley, grandfather of former Taoiseach Enda Kenny. After taking time off to marry Margaret Heekin, McGinley returned to his lonely post on Beeves Rock, which was only accessible by boat. Meanwhile his new wife moved alone into a Commissioners of Irish Lights cottage on the mainland, near Askeaton: Daily communication was only possible via semaphore (a visual signalling system using hand-held flags), as there were no phone or radio communication, explains OReilly. Margaret could see the lighthouse, and, using binoculars, James could see his new wife but until his leave came due, this was the newly-weds sole form of intimacy. OReilly, who grew up in Drogheda, near the Boyne Estuary lighthouse in County Meath, has always associated a sense of peace and reassurance with the warm glow of lighthouse beacons. However, with a busy and highly successful artistic career, which has encompassed projects as diverse as storyboarding the Vikings TV series and illustrating for editorial and advertising clients around the world OReillys paintings are also to be found in collections at home and abroad, including the Musee dHistoire Contemporaine in Paris it was decades before he rediscovered his childhood fascination with the lighthouse. He was, in fact, in his 50s, married and living with his wife and three children in Kilkenny when it happened. In 2016, OReilly had begun designing a popular series of retro posters, Irelandposters.ie, in the style of old-fashioned railway advertisements, of well-known Irish landmarks like Newgrange, The Cliffs of Moher and The Spires of Cork. Coming up to Christmas he decided to add two lighthouses, Hook Head, and the Fastnet Lighthouse to the series as Christmas gifts. He enjoyed painting the two lighthouses so much, he recalls, that early in 2017 he decided to draw all the lighthouses in the south-east. He started in Ballycotton, but he found it so much fun that by the time he reached Youghal he had firmly decided, he recalls, to do every lighthouse in the land. I probably forgot about the lighthouses for 20 years, he ponders, and then when I started this project it all came back. Fitting the lighthouse visits between his normal work, and making occasional family trips to some of the more picturesque locations at weekends, he managed to visit more than 40 of the 87 lighthouses he portrays in his book by the end of that year. Those lighthouses situated in very remote or difficult-to-access locations, such as the Fastnet, off the coast of West Cork, or Inishtrahull in Co Donegal, he sketched from photographs. My brother Joe was an electrical engineer and worked for a period with Irish Lights. He had photographs which came in very useful, and lots and lots of stories. The result is an extraordinary collection of images and information. Each beautifully depicted landmark is accompanied by a wealth of practical and insightful background: history, location, elevation, signal and range as well as quirky anecdotes did you know, for example, that Spitbank Lighthouse at Cobh was designed in 1850 by a blind engineer? Despite his lack of vision, Alexander Mitchell personally oversaw the construction, and was ferried out to his lighthouse, even in rough seas, falling overboard twice. He climbed up and down ladders, crawling along planks examining the wood, iron and rivets all through touch. He sometimes, reports OReilly, discovered flaws that had escaped even the foremans eagle eye. Most Irish lighthouses belong to the Commissioners of Irish Lights a few, such as Hook Head in Co Wexford, Mizen Head in West Cork and Fanad Head are open to the public, while more can be visited through the successful Great Lighthouses of Ireland tourism initiative. These structures, as OReilly points out, are not only eye-catching in themselves, but they are often located in some of the wildest and most beautiful environments in the country: I would bring the sketch book out when I went to see a lighthouse, and Id generally do some sketches, he recalls. Lighthouses tend to be in the most beautiful, isolated and wild areas of the country. As a result, the book features many local nature scenes from around the featured lighthouse he sketched basking seals below the lighthouse at Dunbar Head in Co Wicklow, for example, and the Roseate Tern at the Rockabill Lighthouse at Skerries. On occasion, he was confronted by the unexpected: During my visit to Rockabill Lighthouse, I picked a rock about 100 yards out to sit on. I was sitting there, sketching the islands around the area when I happened to notice a little fish swimming in a rock-pool at my feet. Disconcerted, he realised the tide had crept in and, once he stepped off his rocky perch, he found that he was up to his waist in water. I waded back to land with my sketchbook over my head if it hadnt been for that little fish I might have ended up ringing the coastguard. One of his personal favourites is the Fanad Head Lighthouse in Donegal that drawing is accompanied by sketches of Canada Geese arriving for winter along the Lough Swilly headlands: It has a little spiral staircase inside and the last section of the tower is a little ladder to the lantern. It is a very picturesque lighthouse up in the Gaeltacht in Donegal. The views from the top of the lighthouse over Lough Swilly are extraordinary. It was a fascinating and fulfilling project, he recalls now: I did every single lighthouse on the island of Ireland, apart from one or two harbour lights and one or two lights which are called lighthouses but were basically just a big box with a light on top. The ones I was interested in, were the traditional lighthouses with a stairs and a big light at the top the romantic idea of a lighthouse in other words. One of the reasons he decided to produce the book, he says, is because the use of the lighthouse is changing, and perhaps eventually, he worries, these graceful structures will become utterly obsolete. Lighthouses are an 18th century invention whose time has possibly passed already because the job could be done by an LED light on a pole. Ships today have GPS and the lighthouse more often than not the lighthouse is just a back- up. When I went to see Fanad Lighthouse, for example, the light in the lantern there was basically an LED light the size of my fist - but the old lantern that it had replaced was gigantic. This will gradually happen in all the lighthouses, he says. OReilly believes that eventually the conversation will have to be had as to what we do with our lighthouses and, he predicts, Ireland will have to find a compromise between maintaining them as heritage structures and also as working lights. Theres this whole romantic notion about lighthouses. It can be hard to explain, but everyone feels it, and everyone has a soft spot for them. I think that is what will save them in the long term. - Lighthouses of Ireland - An Illustrated Guide to the Sentinels that Guard our Coastline Roger OReilly, The Collins Press. Price 27.99/24.99; hardback; full colour. In our image-obsessed world our newly found addiction to outrage delivers a satisfying kick of moral righteousness along with an increase in our social standing online, suggests Paula Kenny. THE prickle of irritation. The rush of indignation. The craving for release. Tap tap tap, send. Ahhhh. Thats better. For now. The consumption of news these days has a predictable pattern. Disbelief, indignation, anger - and if the media have done their job well - an avalanche of outraged tweets and posts. Each angry post or acerbic tweet delivers a satisfying kick, at least for an instant, allowing us to feel not just part of the conversation, but part of the righteous resistance. And the outrage kick grows as the likes and retweets roll in. We are addicted to outrage. It is not enough to feel disappointed or sad, and certainly not thoughtful or curious. Our reactions must be dialled up to maximum. Our addiction is fuelled by a media industry and social media platforms that are organised around feeding our habit. For many news media the news is no longer about the objective and neutral delivery of information. Stories are carefully selected, peppered with loaded words and superlatives, and delivered in a shrill tone of breathless indignation. The goal? To supply the audience with enough outrage so they will click, share and keep coming back for more. As with all drug trades, it is driven by the lure of profits. In a hyper-competitive media world, journalists and media organisations that avoid sensationalist content are quickly punished with a declining readership. Of course the supply of content is only half the story. To actually score the hit, we need the opportunity to express our outrage. This is where social media comes in. As Oxford psychology professor Molly Crocket explains, social media not only makes the expression of outrage easier, it also makes it infinitely more satisfying. Social media allows us to signal our own moral virtue to those we want to impress, and through likes and retweets, reaffirms our sense of belonging to that group. Crockers research shows that people express less outrage when they are anonymous when you cannot be personally rewarded for your correct views, it is not worth the effort. Social media turns outrage into valuable social capital, and that is what makes it feels so good. But what harm? If the media can make a buck from stoking our outrage, and we can gain some online popularity from expressing it, perhaps its win-win. An addiction maybe, but more of the coffee variety than an opioid crisis. Unfortunately, the outrage epidemic is not so benign. For one thing, it fuels the polarisation of views that is so evident in our culture today. Each outrageous story, and our response, allow us to imagine that we are fighting on the right side of an epic battle between good and evil (replace with conservative and liberal, Repeal and Save, men and women, Remain and Leave, Alt-Right and Social Justice Warrior as you see fit). It also makes it harder to distinguish the trivial from the serious. As journalist Ryan Holliday observes, if we are constantly in a state of pseudo-outrage, we are less likely to take action (or demand action) when an actual terrible event occurs. In a world where everything is outrageous, nothing is. When our outrage is directed at an individual, it can destroy lives. Jon Ronsons book So Youve Been Publicly Shamed gives a depressing account of how our penchant for online outrage has targeted people for fairly minor transgressions, decimating reputations, careers and friendships in the process. If we do accept we have a problem, what is there to do about it? We could demand that the media act more responsibly, cutting back on the sensationalism and dog whistle content. We could press social media platforms to do a better job at filtering out fake news stories or abusive comments and posts. Or perhaps we need to accept responsibility for our own habit. Does that story really merit an outraged response? Could we cope with taking it down a notch? Could our comments push a more nuanced balanced view? But it will be a hard habit to break. When we are confronted with stories that stir our emotions or challenge our views, outrage is an easy and comfortable response to choose. Tim Krieder of The New York Times was the first to coin the phrase outrage porn, and perhaps still has the best explanation for why it is so addictive. Like most drugs, it is not so much what it gives us, as what it helps us to escape. It spares us the impotent pain of empathy, and the harder, messier work of understanding. Paula Kenny has recently completed an MA in Journalism with New Media in Cork Institute of Technology. [She has worked in the field of international relations for the past 10 years, with a focus on Africa and international development. She has a particular interest in technology and internet culture and how it affects society and the political landscape. We have a great country full of hard-working people that needs fixing. Doing that will not be easy, but letting it continue along the path it is now on will bankrupt us, writes John McGuinness on the 10th anniversary of the banking bailout. It cannot be said often enough: The first obligation of any government is to keep its people safe. Before and since the financial crash, the Government and the EU have ignored this central principle. As a result, people have lost faith in politics, bureaucracy, and government. This is extremely dangerous and threatens the wellbeing of our people and an orderly society. The fallout of the economic crash continues to have a devastating effect on people and families. Children have had to watch their parents scramble furiously to adjust to the reality of not having the quality of life they once enjoyed as well as, in some cases, losing their jobs and homes. No doubt that generation will be marked, if not damaged, by the experience. Those who have suffered from our State throwing individuals and families on the human scrap heap to save the banks will never forget. The stain that began when the State let its people down, aided by politicians without the backbone to call halt, will be a blemish on the fabric of our society for generations. Small businesses, built up through generations of hard work and that once employed 900,000 people, have had to downsize overnight or close completely resulting in job losses. Communities have been left weakened because of this but nonetheless their resilience has helped shape a slow rebuilding of confidence and economic and social activity. Irish people have an inner strength and pride that keeps them going for their families, community, and country. You have to stand back in awe of their achievements to date, using the power of a backbone that is sadly absent in the Dail. But what of our systems of governance and the political and public-service classes? Are they accountable? Have systems improved or been reformed? Has the Government, the Oireachtas, and all those that are elected or have chosen to work for the State on the promises that they will keep our people safe learned from past mistakes? Have they changed in any way? They have not. They have abdicated their responsibility behind a veil made of words, false promises, and inaction. They are bringing Ireland to the cliff edge because the country cant afford the management incompetence for which it is paying. The banks are experiencing a return to healthy profits profit on the backs of people being broken by debt, having their homes repossessed after years of being dragged through the courts as lay litigants against the might of the banks, their professional teams, and a legal system that is not fit for purpose. No civilised society should tolerate this behaviour. The vulture funds are being allowed to do immense damage to the very fabric of Irish society. The Government and the EU will not regulate the funds because they see them as necessary for untrammelled capitalism. So throwing people out of their homes, their businesses, is OK? Standing by as the vulture funds drag individuals and families through the courts for years, with all of the emotional stress and anxiety that this process visits on a family, is OK? The system is rotten, it can only get worse. We need a radical national plan and politicians and public service with the vision, energy, and courage to drive it. There is no other way. Brian Lenihan wanted to burn the bondholders, which would have saved us at least 64bn. The bondholders had been paid to take a risk, but they now didnt want to take the pain of a bet gone wrong. He rang me from Dublin Airport, isolated and angry because his colleagues and the bureaucrats wouldnt support him, so 64bn of bondholders money was returned to, largely, German and French banks that had lent badly. The country has that burden on its shoulders still. Thats where lack of State and political backbone gets you. Sitting on the finance committee watching tracker mortgages and vulture funds do their worse, I thought I had seen everything until the powerful voice of Vicky Phelan was raised to reveal the cervical smears scandal and the efforts made by the State to cover it up. She refused to let the State cover up her case and revealed a system that is rotten to the core. A system that believes it can pay off those whose lives have been destroyed and then hide behind a confidentiality clause. How many people like Vicky Phelan and whistleblowers Sgt Maurice McCabe and Jonathan Sugarman and others do we have to hear above the din created to silence them before we decide enough is enough and demand that our politicians, local and national, represent us to the best of their ability as they promised? Vicky Phelan Politicians must confront the system that is clogging the arteries of our country with rules, regulations, and red tape. Interacting with the State is now a nightmare for most of us, including politicians, because they have allowed themselves to be reduced to the status of supplicants, neutered by extraordinary curtailments of their powers that they foolishly voted for. The Central Bank has failed to control banking excess. It had to be forced to acknowledge the tracker-mortgage scandal and it has impeded the credit union movements ability to play a constructive role in the provision of social and affordable housing. Determined to save banks no matter what the cost, it resists all attempts to regulate vulture funds and ignores the fact that agents of these funds do not respect existing regulations. Our politicians follow its instructions like sheep, while huge numbers of families bend and break under the lash, ignoring the wellbeing of a society that has paid enough for political and State failures, cover-ups, and lack of care. Political parties, in doing their business, need to be more open and constructive. The tribal nature of some does not serve politics or the country well. It is clear from opinion polls that old loyalties to the type of tribal politics practised by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael is rapidly on the wane. Thank God for that. It was that mentality and groupthink that led us to make bad decisions when the country needed more honesty, not nodding obedience. I met the troika in the early days of their work in Ireland. I was impressed by their desire to push through an agenda of reform that, if implemented, would greatly improve the lot of people in their lives. I was less impressed with the brutal way they set out, in a short timeframe, to correct the countrys finances. The government had no hesitation in implementing measures of austerity that are still being felt to this day. The story was so very different when it came to the reform agenda. Most reforms were given a nod and a wink, just enough to make the IMF believe that we were on our road to Damascus. For proof of this, just watch the public accounts or finance committees each week. Millions of euro of public money is being wasted by a system that is unwilling to be fully accountable or transparent. A HR system that sees no one fired or sanctioned for wrongdoing unless, of course, he or she is on the lowest rung of the ladder. The threat of another crash is now being predicted by many international commentators and bankers who saw the last one. Ireland pays close to 6bn to service its debt which is in excess of 200bn. As a country, the political elite has provided poor leadership and slipped back into political game-playing and paying lip service to the many reforms needed to keep our people safe. The Government will not be able to pass on austerity measures again, if needed, because people have not recovered from the last onslaught. The only route now is reform, competence, truth, and a new dynamic political push that puts people and their wellbeing front and centre. And its about time all that happened, because our people are not being kept safe, the Dail has become a talking shop, and many of our State services are not fit for purpose. We have a great country full of hard-working people that needs fixing. Doing that will not be easy, but letting it continue along the path it is now on will bankrupt us. What needs to be done will take leadership and courage from politicians, trade unions, the professions, and senior civil servants? It will require the forbearance of our people because there will be pain, but it can be done. And it must be done because it is the duty of all of us to hand a better country to our children. We are remembering the great wars of the past and the heroes of 1916. Is this the type of country they died for? I doubt it. John McGuinness is chair of the Oireachtas finance committee and a Fianna Fail TD for Carlow Kilkenny. By Jay Badford Gary Hurley looks primed to progress to stage two of European Tour qualifying school with Kevin Phelan also well placed at Frilford Heath. Hurley is in a three-way tie for third heading into this mornings final round after a four-under par round of 68 yesterday catapulted him up the leaderboard. A stunning eagle two on 14 was the highlight with Hurley six-under (210) after 54 holes along with Scotlands John Henry and Welshman David Boote. The trio were two strokes back on Englishman Ashton Turner, who led the way on eight-under. Phelan, meanwhile, heads into the final round four-under after his 70 yesterday, flying out of the traps with four birdies before the turn before a couple of bogeys on the back nine. He also looks well placed to bag one of the qualifying spots, which will be earned by the top 24 and ties. Two-under par is the current mark with John-Ross Galbraith, two-over and Brain Casey, three-over with a lot of work to do today. However its the end of the road for Tim Rice, Paul McBride, John Hickey, Niall Kearney, Stuart Grehan and Paul ONeill who all missed the cut. Meanwhile at the corresponding first stage event at Bogogno in Italy, Irishman Cameron Raymond also remains firmly in contention to qualify. The top 23 and ties there this evening will progress with Raymond six-under through three rounds one stroke inside the magic mark heading into round four. Dubliner Raymond recovered from a double bogey seven at the fourth to eventually sign for a one-under 71 having shot 69 and 70 for the first two round. To greatly increase the number of women in politics, changes that run deeper than the current electoral pink wave will be needed, write Anne-Marie Slaughter and Francesca Binda. A record number of American women are running for elected office in 2018, many of them motivated by outrage over US president Donald Trumps policies and attitudes. But running is not winning, and outrage alone cannot produce the kind of steady progress needed to achieve political equality. To produce a substantial increase in the number of women in Congress, changes that run deeper than the current electoral pink wave will be needed. With only 19.3% female representation in the House of Representatives and 23% in the Senate, the United States currently ranks 103rd in the world in terms of womens representation in national legislatures. To improve its record, the US should look to countries with greater gender parity. At the top of that list is Rwanda, where women make up 61.3% of the lower house and 38.5% of the upper house. In 2003, the country adopted a new constitution that reserves 30% of parliamentary seats for women and requires political parties to ensure that women hold at least 30% of elected internal positions. France is one of 49 other countries that also have statutory quotas or reserved seats for women. Such quotas may, however, be unnecessary. In seven of the top 10 countries for female representation, political parties have voluntarily implemented their own rules on the matter. Globally, over 100 political parties in 53 countries have voluntary measures in place to increase the number of women candidates and party officials But, legislated or not, quotas can be controversial. Some claim that they are undemocratic. There is no doubt that they are a blunt instrument. Can we do better? A more nuanced approach would focus on eliminating the underlying, interconnected barriers that women face in getting nominated for elected office and conducting successful campaigns. Such obstacles include the election system itself (women fare better under proportional representation than they do in first-past-the-post systems based on single-member districts); lack of access to financing; weaker professional networks; and outside responsibilities that make it harder to take on punishing and unpredictable working conditions. Overcoming such structural barriers requires a comprehensive strategy for supporting women candidates. One of the most powerful tools is money. In many countries, the cost of campaigning is becoming prohibitively high for most aspirants, regardless of gender. But women seem to have it worse than men. In a 2008 survey of 292 parliamentarians around the world, the Inter-Parliamentary Union found that female MPs viewed lack of finance as a more significant deterrent to entering politics than their male counterparts did. This problem is particularly pronounced in the US, where parties and candidates can spend almost unlimited amounts to get elected. Wealthy candidates (usually men) finance their own campaigns, with some women, such as Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein, relying on their husbands fortunes. Overall, this system disadvantages women. Fortunately, some countries are introducing innovative measures to address this problem. In Georgia, for example, political parties that include at least 30% of each gender on their electoral lists receive a 30% supplement from the state budget. Similarly, in Ireland, political parties lose 50% of their state funding if their candidate pool includes less than 30% of either gender. Beyond financing constraints, women face high social and cultural barriers to political participation. In particular, greater care obligations, reinforced by public perceptions of a womans role, severely undermine womens ability to run for public office. These issues are difficult to address directly. One step that could help would be for male politicians to assume more care responsibilities, thereby making the playing field more level, while demonstrating that family is a high priority for everyone. Likewise, new mothers should be able to bring their children to work. In 2015, a photo of Argentinian MP Victoria Donda Perez breastfeeding while taking part in a parliamentary hearing went viral, as it demonstrated the commitment, capabilities, and challenges of working mothers. Such challenges were exemplified by the experience of Madeleine Henfling, a member of Germanys Thuringia state parliament, who last month was barred from entering the legislative chamber with her six-week-old baby. Concrete policies should also be put in place to support working parents, by giving them more flexibility to meet family responsibilities. That is why the United Kingdoms House of Commons is considering introducing proxy voting, as part of a broader effort to give members male and female parental leave. Women may also benefit from targeted training. UN Womens recent Political Academy in Tunisia trained women candidates on local governance, the missions and roles of municipal councils, and media relations. Some may one day follow in the footsteps of Souad Abderrahim, who was elected the first woman mayor of Tunis with the support of the Islamist Ennahda Movement. Some leaders have made powerful statements in support of greater female participation in government. In 2015, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau gave his country its first cabinet with an equal number of men and women. His Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez has gone a step further, appointing a cabinet where women outnumber men. Political parties, which serve as gatekeepers for aspirants to public office, also have significant power to find creative ways to support women candidates. Nigerias two main parties, for example, will waive or reduce non-refundable nomination fees for the 2019 general election. One Cambodian party provides women candidates with basic campaign resources, including clothing and a bicycle. In past Canadian elections, political parties have reimbursed women candidates for child-care and travel expenses, and provided subsidies to women seeking nomination in constituencies where a male incumbent is retiring. The New Democratic Party and Liberal Party have endeavoured to have women candidates run for winnable open seats. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to gender inequality in politics. But there is plenty that can and should be done to ensure that womens voices are heard. Anne-Marie Slaughter is president and CEO of New America. Francesca Binda is co-owner of Binda Consulting International (BCI), based in Malta. www.project-syndicate.org Four men and two women are in the mix for next months presidential election. Rebecca Black looks at their lives and careers as they embark on their election campaigns, Michael D Higgins. Michael D Higgins The sitting President, aged 77, was born in Limerick and had an academic career in the 1960s-70s, teaching sociology in Ireland and the United States. He entered the political arena in the late 1960s, joining the Labour Party, and served as a senator in the 1980s before representing Galway West in the Dail from 1987 to 2011. Mr Higgins is a fluent Irish speaker and served as minister for arts, culture and the Gaeltacht in the 1990s. He is also a published poet and has presented TV documentaries. Mr Higgins was first elected president in 2011 after running as a Labour candidate. He made history in 2014 when he became the first Irish President to undertake an official State visit to Britain. Earlier this year, he welcomed Pope Francis to Ireland the first papal visit in almost 40 years. As the current President, Mr Higgins is able to nominate himself as an independent candidate for another seven years in office. However, he has secured the backing of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, and Labour, who agreed not to field candidates from their own parties. Joan Freeman The independent member of the Seanad is a psychologist and mental health activist from Dublin. Ms Freeman has served on the Seanad since May 2016 after being nominated by the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. She is the chairwoman of the committee on mental health. The 60-year-old founded Pieta House, a suicide intervention charity, in 2006, in Lucan, Co Dublin. It now boasts 12 additional centres around Ireland. Ms Freeman also founded the annual fundraising event Darkness into Light in aid of Pieta House. The event began with 400 participants in 2008 and has since grown with approximately 200,000 people participating in the 2018 events held across Ireland, including at the Phoenix Park. She resigned from Pieta House in 2014, in order to concentrate on developing Solace House, a similar charity based in New York City and launched in 2015. Ms Freeman will run as an independent candidate. She earned the backing of Galway City Council as well as Galway County, Fingal, and Cork County councils. Sean Gallagher The 56-year-old businessman and former Dragons Den star from Ballyhaise, Co Cavan, finished second in the 2011 Irish presidential election. He secured more than half a million first preference votes, but lost out to Mr Higgins. Mr Gallagher has described himself as coming from the Fianna Fail gene pool, but is running as an independent. In 2002 he co-founded Smarthomes, a home technology business. The company won numerous awards for innovation, and Mr Gallagher was a finalist in the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year contest. Mr Gallagher became a public figure during his time as an investor on RTE Ones Dragons Den from 2008 to 2011. Last year, the State broadcaster, RTE apologised to Mr Gallagher over a fake tweet read out during a live TV debate during the last election campaign. The tweet, which accused Mr Gallagher of collecting funds for Fianna Fail, was purported to be from an official account linked to the late Martin McGuinness, who also ran for president in 2011. However, it later emerged the account was not the official campaign account of the Sinn Fein candidate. Mr Gallagher had been leading some opinion polls in the 2011 race prior to the tweet furore in the closing stages of the campaign. This time around, Mr Gallagher won the backing of Roscommon, Mayo, Leitrim, and Wexford councils, and was the first independent candidate to secure a nomination. Gavin Duffy The entrepreneur and businessman from Sallins, Co Kildare, is best known for his role on RTEs Dragons Den. Mr Duffy, 58, started his career as a shareholder in radio stations, and in 1992 he co-founded a media and management consultancy. He previously held shares in HRM, one of Irelands largest recruitment companies. His early career in the media included presenting the first RTE television business programme, Marketplace; broadcasting on Morning Ireland on RTE Radio One; and founding regional radio station LMFM. Later, Mr Duffy became a serial entrepreneur and is now a veteran of more than 40 start-ups. His venture capital portfolio has been concentrated on recruitment, professional development, education, and media. He has been a panellist on Dragons Den for all eight seasons since the show began in 2009. Mr Duffy has worked in the past as an adviser to both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. He has said he would accept the full presidential salary of 350,000. The current President, Michael D Higgins, has voluntarily reduced his own salary to less than 250,000 while in office. Mr Duffy will run as an independent candidate after securing his nomination by winning the backing of Waterford, Meath, Carlow, and Wicklow councils. Peter Casey Derry-born businessman Peter Casey became the third star of RTEs Dragons Den to secure the support of four councils to run for President. The 60-year-old is the founder of the recruitment firm, Claddagh Resources. Mr Casey set up his business in 1995 in Atlanta. It operates from five locations across the world, including its European base in Buncrana, Co Donegal. He lives in the US with his wife Helen and their five children but regularly returns to Ireland. Mr Casey studied business administration, politics, and economics at Aston University in Birmingham before starting his career by joining Rank Xerox UK as a sales representative in 1979. He has mooted an entrance to politics in the past. In 2015 he indicated he was considering running for Dail Eireann and attempted to be elected to Seanad Eireann as part of the Industrial and Commercial Panel in 2016. He has written a number of opinion pieces in newspapers and also wrote a book about the history of the Tata Group which was published in 2014. Speaking about his campaign to be President, Mr Casey said he is not running to lose and is prepared to spend up to 750,000. He is the third Dragons Den entrepreneur to seek a nomination after Sean Gallagher and Gavin Duffy. Mr Casey won nominations from Limerick City and County Council, Tipperary County Council, Clare County Council, and Kerry County Council. Liadh Ni Riada Liadh Ni Riada was unveiled as Sinn Feins chosen candidate on Sunday. She was the hot favourite for the nomination ever since the party signalled its intent to run. The former television producer from Dublin from Cuil Aodha, Co Cork, is the daughter of legendary Irish traditional musician and composer Sean O Riada. Ms Ni Riada entered the political arena in 2011 by joining Sinn Fein. The married mother of three daughters was elected in 2014 as one of her partys four MEPs on the island of Ireland, representing the South constituency. The 51-year-old is the youngest of the six candidates and one of two women in the race. She has faced considerable adversity in her personal life, losing both parents at an early age. Her first husband also died when she was in her 20s. In the European Parliament, Ms Ni Riada has been a vocal advocate for the Irish fishing industry, and critical of the Common Fisheries Policy, arguing the Irish have not received their fair share of the fishing quota. Before her political career, she served on the board tasked with setting up Irelands Irish language television channel, TG4. She also worked as a producer for state broadcaster RTE. She ran her own production company for several years, and has been an advocate of the Irish language. Ms Ni Riada currently lives in the Muskerry Gaeltacht. News To Advance Peace Process, Govt Urged to Build a Union All Groups Want to Join The governments first meeting of peace process stakeholders convenes in July 2017. / Myanmar State Counselors Office / Facebook CHIANG MAI, ThailandTo resolve the current standoff over the issue of non-secession, observers of the peace process urged the government at a stakeholders meeting in Yangon on Friday to focus its efforts on building a Union whose conditions would make it unnecessary to extract a pledge of non-separation from ethnic groups. The Myanmar military currently demands that ethnic groups pledge never to seek secession from the Union as a prerequisite for moving ahead with the peace process. Ethnic groups have balked at the request, believing it would put them at a disadvantage as the process moves forward. [The secession] issue is a stumbling block, because [Myanmars military says] that without a pledge not to seek secession, we cannot draft a state constitution. Our suggestion is that instead of asking for this promise, which is merely words on paper, what if we build a Union from which no one wants to separate in the first place? said U Maung Maung Soe, an analyst who closely follows ethnic and political affairs. The government invited nearly 40 people to a meeting of stakeholders in Myanmars peace process and sought their perspectives at Yangons National Reconciliation and Peace Center on Friday. It was the second such meeting to be held under the National League for Democracy-led government. The first, in July 2017, was attended mainly by descendants of the signatories of the original 1947 Panglong peace agreement, along with a few other experts. Fridays discussion was attended by some representatives of Kachin, Shan, Rakhine, Karen and Bamar political parties; civil society groups and think-tanks working on the peace process and related policy; former Myanmar Peace Center employees; and writers and journalists. They spent a day discussing the current peace process and sharing insights. All of the participants were close followers of the peace process. The secretary of the governments Peace Commission, U Khin Zaw Oo, and State Counselors Office director-general U Zaw Htay shared details of the governments efforts and the challenges it faces dealing with the countrys ethnic armed organizations during peace talks, and offered their views on why the process has been delayed. After listening to the governments explanation o f its efforts, I expressed my view that we must all think in terms of the whole countrys sovereignty, not in terms of individual [groups] sovere ignty, so that we can move forward on the peace building journey and build a federal state, said U Khin Maung Swe, the chairman of the National Democratic Force (NDF) party . The 29 participants in Fridays discussion shared their opinions, while the government negotiators were able to clarify some of the misunderstanding that exist regarding the peace negotiations, said U Hla Maung Shwe, an adviser to the Commission. Some of the invitees, such as former peace negotiators U Aung Min and U Khin Yi, were not able to attend due to schedule conflicts. Others were unable to travel to Yangon. Every issue related to the peace process was discussed, U Hla Maung Shwe told The Irrawaddy, though he declined to discuss details. Among the main hurdles to progress in the peace process are non-secession, prohibitions on the holding of ethnic political dialogues in Shan and Rakhine states, and the absence of negotiations between the government and northern-based ethnic armed organizations, including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). U Hla Maung Shwe said he was glad that Yup Zau Khawng, a leader of the Kachin Peace-talkCreation Group (PCG) based in Myitkyina, was able to participate. The PCG served as a key peace broker during talks between the KIA and the previous government. Such discussions are good if we can spare time for [regular] meetings, he said, because they allow the majority of participants to air their concerns, while the government gets a chance to respond. Such stakeholder discussions were held frequently under the previous administration of former President U Thein Sein. Asia China says Rohingya Issue Should Not Be Internationalized China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi addresses a UN Security Council meeting at the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US on September 26, 2018. / Reuters BEIJING The Rohingya issue should not be complicated, expanded or internationalized, Chinas top diplomat said, as the United Nations prepares to set up a body to prepare evidence of human rights abuses in Myanmar. The UN Human Rights Council voted on Thursday to establish the body, which will also look into possible genocide in Myanmars western state of Rakhine. China, the Philippines and Burundi voted against the move, which was said to be supported by more than 100 countries. Over the last year, more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled the Buddhist-majority country to neighboring Bangladesh following a military response to attacks on security posts by Rohingya insurgents. The United Nations has called Myanmars actions ethnic cleansing, a charge Myanmar rejects, blaming Rohingya terrorists for most accounts of atrocities. China has close relations with Myanmar, and backs what Myanmar officials call a legitimate counter-insurgency operation in Rakhine. Beijing has helped to block a resolution on the crisis at the UN Security Council. Speaking to Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali and Myanmars minister of the office of the State Counsellor Kyaw Tint Swe in New York on Thursday, Chinas State Councilor Wang Yi said the Rakhine issue was a complex, historical one. The Rakhine State issue is in essence an issue between Myanmar and Bangladesh. China does not approve of complicating, expanding or internationalizing this issue, Wang said, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement issued on Friday. China hopes that Myanmar and Bangladesh can find a resolution via talks, and China is willing to continue to help provide a platform for this communication, he added. The international community, including the United Nations, can also play a constructive role on this, Wang said. The statement added that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also attended the meeting, held on the sidelines of a UN summit. Burma Analysis: History Suggests Intl Targeting of Tatmadaw over Rohingya Is Misguided A picture of Myanmar military chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing is seen on a truck-mounted LED screen being driven around New York City earlier this week as part of a campaign launched by Amnesty International. / Amnesty International YANGONIn its latest attempt to bring to account those responsible for atrocities against the Rohingya, the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday voted to set up a body to prepare evidence for use in any future prosecution brought by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Earlier this week, the rights group Amnesty International (AI) plastered wanted pictures of Myanmar military chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing around New York City. The posters read: Wanted for mass murder Dont let him get away with it. The public shaming campaign and the UN vote were the latest in a series of moves intended to ratchet up international pressure on Myanmars top general for his troops alleged atrocities against Rohingya in northern Rakhine State. In August last year, nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape security forces clearance operations. The operations were triggered by a series of attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on police outposts in the area. The Myanmar government has denounced ARSA as a terrorist group. Since then, Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has faced mounting international pressure. A recent UN Fact Finding Mission (FFM) recommended that he and his subordinates be referred to the ICC for ethnic cleansing and acting with genocidal intent against the Rohingya. During a visit to Myanmar two weeks ago, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the international community should consider referring Myanmar to the ICC over its treatment of the Rohingya if those responsible are not tried and held accountable inside the country. This was followed by AIs poster campaign and the UN Human Rights Council vote. In its relentless lobbying for action against the leadership of the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) over the Rohingyas plight, the international community appears to be trying to exploit the issue to oust the military from Myanmars politics. The countrys controversial 2008 Constitution enshrines the Tatmadaws political role by reserving 25 percent of the seats in Parliament for military appointees and handing the military the reins of three security-related ministries. Its taken for granted that not everyone in Myanmar is pleased with the militarys involvement in the countrys politics. Over nearly five decades of military rule until 2011, Myanmars citizens watched the men in uniform turn their country from the most developed nation in Southeast Asia into one of its least developed. Thats why the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) continues to push for amendments to the charter that will keep the military out of politics. It has achieved no tangible results so far, due to resistance from the military, but the countrys de facto leader, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, said in Singapore last month that We shall do that through negotiation and step by step, keeping in mind our need for national reconciliation. By national reconciliation, she means establishing sufficient mutual trust with the armed forces to convince military leaders that the government can be entrusted to handle pressing national issues such as the peace process and constitutional amendment. Is it therefore realistic for the international community to treat the Rohingya crisisprobably the countrys most controversial and militarily sensitive issueas an opportunity to try to force the military out of politics using harsh measures? Thats wishful thinking and shows a lack of understanding of how Myanmars military officers think of themselves, said Myanmar expert Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist who has covered Myanmar and Asia for nearly four decades. Lintner said he didnt think Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing had much to fear, as the officer corps was loyal to him and would remain so even after he retires. No one is going to hand him over to any international court. And as long as he has the backing of powerful nations like China and Russia, he is safe, he said. NLD spokesperson U Myo Nyunt said outsiders who attempt to push the military out of politics are taking the wrong approach, as the military has traditionally never kowtowed to outside pressure. History shows how defiant the Myanmar military can be. Examples can be seen in its refusal to hand over power to the NLD after the 1990 general election, as well as its crackdown on the Buddhist monk-led Saffron Revolution, the 11th anniversary of which is marked this week. To do so [submit to international pressure] now would be a source of shame to them, he said. The spokesperson said trying to exploit the Rohingya crisis to oust the military from politics would be counterproductive, as most people in Myanmar stand with the military on the issue. Harsh measures would only turn the public against the West, U Myo Nyunt said. Rather than using pressure, he said, the international community should cooperate with the military to expedite the process of repatriating the Rohingya to Myanmar. If they do so, it would be very effective [for the repatriation process], he said, because only the military has the ability to convince the refugees that it is safe to return. He is not the only one calling for international engagement. In its recent report on Chinas role in Myanmars internal conflicts, the United States Institute of Peace recommends that Washington consider ways to both apply pressure and appropriately engage the Myanmar military in a way that empowers democratic institutions in Myanmar, moves toward resolution of the Rakhine crisis, and continues the progress of reform inside the country. Yangon-based political analyst U Maung Maung Soe said the international community, including the UN, should focus more on pressing issues like repatriation, rather than taking action against military leaders. What they are doing now is sort of inflaming the militarys anger. The more they are getting pissed off, the more difficult repatriation will be, he said. And the military leadership is showing signs of displeasure. Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing last week rejected Hunts request for a meeting and would not even allow his deputies to receive the minister. This was a break from the military leaders previous approach of painstakingly explaining the Tatmadaws view of the Rohingya issue to nearly every international dignitary he met, insisting that his troops had followed normal rules of engagement in Rakhine. Presumably, he sees the U.K. as one of the countries lobbying for his referral to the ICC. Later that week, the armed forces chief warned against foreign interference, saying, As countries set different standards and norms, any country, organization and group has no right to interfere in and make decision[s] over [the] sovereignty of a country. It was his first public comment on the issue since the UN fact-finding mission released its report calling for the prosecution of Myanmars military leadership at the ICC. U Maung Maung Soe expressed concern that the scenario could force the military to cling even more firmly to powerdimming hopes of its exit from politics. Even with the power they have now, they are being referred to the ICC. They fear they would be more vulnerable if they have no power, he explained. For Lintner, the most likely scenario is that Myanmar will remain under military rule for the foreseeable future. If change ever comes, he said, it will have to come from within the military. But he said thats not likely to happen any time soon, and even less so now while the military is under international pressure. Instead of giving up power, he added, the military will dig in, fortify its defenses even more vigorously and wait for the international criticism and condemnation to die down. Thats exactly what they did after the massacres of pro-democracy demonstrators in August and September 1988. And it worked then. Burma KBZ Bank to Finance Restoration of the Secretariat 5538: The East Wing of the Secretariat seen in July 2016 while a facade cleaning was underway. / The Irrawaddy YANGON One of Myanmars largest private banks, KBZ, announced that it would finance the entire restoration of the Secretariat, one of the most prominent historic and colonial architecturally significant buildings in Yangon. A statement from the bank released on Thursday said the restoration was expected to be completed by the end of the year. It added that the restoration would reimagine the entire venue and create new public and commercial spaces for modern Myanmar citizens to gather, learn about their heritage and reimagine their futures. The bank didnt disclose the amount of the loan. U Aung Kyaw Myo, the deputy CEO at KBZ Bank, said the restoration would revitalize not just the immediate area, but also all of Yangon. Our shared views on the potential for the Secretariat to contribute to economic and national development were reaffirming. In addition, the developers demonstrated a strong commitment to environmental standards that are in line with our own values and criteria, he said. Built in 1890, few colonial structures in present-day Burma are as historically important as the magisterial Victorian-era complex located at No. 300 Thein Phyu Road. It served as the headquarters for the British-Burma administration during colonial times. In 1947, Burmas independence hero Gen. Aung San, father of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and his colleagues were assassinated in an upstairs room in the west wing of the complex. Standing in the center of the Secretariat courtyard is a flagstaff where the flag of a newly independent Burma was first raised on Jan. 4, 1948. After the 1962 military coup, the complex became the Ministers Office. It was used in this capacity until 2005, when it was abandoned as the military regime suddenly made Naypyitaw its administrative capital. Currently, renovation at the complex is now underway with a Conservation Management Plan commission by the Yangon Heritage Trust, by the Secretariat conservation group run by Myanmar Cultural Heritage Co Ltd, which is collaborating with Anaw Mar Group. The Anaw Mar Group won rights from the Myanmar Investment Commission in 2012 to restore the buildings architecture and preserve it as a historical museum and arts and cultural center. The group is owned by family members of former junta general Tun Kyi. Dr. Maung Maung Thein, director of the Myanmar Cultural Heritage Co. Ltd., said in a statement that it was an honor to be working with KBZ on the restoration project. Upon completion, this is a destination that all Myanmar citizens will be proud of and will refer to for generations to come, he said. Burma Monk Accused of Defaming Military Chief Turns Self In, Released on Bail U Thawbita arrives at the Amarapura Township police station, Mandalay Region, on Friday. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy MANDALAY A Buddhist monk accused of defaming Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Facebook turned himself in to police in Mandalay on Friday and was released on bail. Lieutenant Colonel Myo Khaing Win, who is stationed with the militarys Central Command in Mandalay, filed a complaint with police in Amarapura Township on Sunday requesting legal action against U Thawbita for Facebook posts critical of the military and commander-in-chief. U Thawbita, who heads the Bawa Alin charity, was away from his monastery in Amarapura when police went to search for him there. The Mahagandaryone monastery expelled the monk on Tuesday, claiming he had abused its rules and regulations. The police stormed the monastery by force while I was away and I dont like their manners. I walked into the police station myself to face the accuser, U Thawbita told reporters at the station. Im saddened by the decision of the senior abbot of the monastery to expel me, he said, adding that the senior monks may have been pressured to kick him out by authorities. Dozens of monks and activists were at the station to show their support for the monk, who was questioned over his alleged breach of Article 66 (d) of the Telecommunications Act, which covers criminal defamation, and released on bail. The police will continue to investigate the case and submit a report to the local court, which will decide whether to press charges. Under recent legal amendments, anyone accused of defamation can only be sued by the party the accused allegedly defamed or the partys legal representative. U Thawbita denied any wrongdoing. What I wrote on Facebook does not defame anyone, he said. The offending posts claim that Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing may have orchestrated a prison break in Karen State earlier this month, liken the military chief to a cow, and describe the military as more destructive than a natural disaster. U Thawbita has repeatedly posted messages on Facebook criticizing the military and supporting State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her ruling National League for Democracy party. Burma UWSA Detains Lahu Christian Leaders, Forces Students into Military Service, Baptist Group Says United Wa State Army soldiers march in Pansang, in Wa territory in northeast Myanmar, in October 2016. / Reuters The United Wa State Army (UWSA) has detained 92 Lahu Christian leaders and 42 Wa students in Shan State, and the students have been forced to serve as soldiers, the Christian group said. Based in northern Shan, the UWSA is Myanmars largest ethnic armed group. In a statement dated Sept. 25, LBC (Lahu Baptist Convention) said that 52 churches had been closed and stripped of all Christian symbols. Three other churches were demolished, and religious schools have been shut down, it said. The LBC is based in Kengtung, eastern Shan. We sent our statement to [the UWSA], but they havent replied yet, said Rev. Dr. Lazarus, general secretary of the LBC. However, contacted after the LBC statement was released, Lashio-based UWSA spokesman Nyi Rang told The Irrawaddy that his organization had detained the groups religious leaders because there were extremists among them. In an earlier comment made last week, he told The Irrawaddy that the UWSAs actions against Christian groups in the area were intended to prevent extremist religious leaders from destabilizing the region. The LBC asked other Baptist groups in Myanmar to pray for the detainees release. We are very worried about our members who have been detained because we have lost contact with them. We heard that when they were taken, they were not allowed to take their clothes with them. The weather in Mong Pauk is cold, Rev. Dr. Lazarus said. We heard the UWSA plans to hold the detainees until the group celebrates the 30th anniversary of its ceasefire with the Myanmar government [in April 2019], he said. The 42 students are all ethnic Wa, according to Rev. Dr. Lazarus. The UWSA initially detained more students but released those who were not Wa. The 42 students have been pressed into military service by the UWSA, the reverend said. We want them to be released as soon as possible. Our Baptist members are all praying for them, he said. The UWSA has also shut down churches belonging to the Kachin Baptist Convention and the Wa Baptist Convention, according to local sources. The LBC is based in Mong Pauk Township, which is a majority ethnic Lahu community. There are about 400 churches in eastern Shan, according to Rev. Dr. Lazarus. The UWSA began ordering churches in the area under its control to shut down earlier this month. It issued an order that all illegal churches built without its permission should be destroyed. According to a Burmese-language translation of a UWSA statement issued in the Wa language on Sept. 13, all churches built after 1992 would be destroyed, as they had been built illegally. Only churches built between 1989 and 1992 were legal, it said. Burma Yangon Govt to Sign Deal with Swiss Company for Youth Innovation Hub Yangons skyline and a section of its waterfront as seen from the Hlaing River. / Kyaw Phyo Tha / The Irrawaddy YANGON The Yangon regional government is to sign with a Swiss-based company to implement Yangon Innovation Center (YIC), a project that aims to be an innovation and entrepreneurship hub for youth. Yangon Regions Kayin Ethnic Affairs Minister, Naw Pan Thinzar Myo, one of the government representatives involved in negotiations on the project, said in Parliament on Friday that YIC will target the young people of the city in creating a platform for innovation, nurturing start-ups, emerging entrepreneurship and creating networks between local and international startups. The government invited tender for the project in January, receiving six bids. The company selected was Swiss-based Seedstars, a company which has experience in entrepreneurship and international startups in 85 countries around the world, she said. Naw Pan Thinzar Myo said, We already prepared the contract. We also sent a draft of the contract to the Union Attorney General for his legal advice. We will sign very soon. Yangon Innovation Center will be implemented at Nanthidar Jetty on Strand Road on the banks of the Hlaing River, also known as Rangoon River, in downtown Yangon. The construction is estimated to measure more than 930 square meters (10,000 square feet). Naw Pan Thinzar Myo explained that the company will transform the compound of the building into an IT-accessible place for young people by upgrading both the inside and outside spaces. The Yangon government revealed in 2016 a plan to establish a public waterfront downtown on the banks of the Hlaing River. The area currently has limited public access due to the large number of walled-in compounds of warehouses, jetties and ports scattered along the banks. In April 2017, the government announced its plan to implement the YIC project and began looking for a suitable operator. According to the draft contract agreement, an initial sum of $200,000 will be used to upgrade the site. The total budget for the five-year project is expected to be $1.1 million. We agreed that the company will hold an entrepreneurial program called Seedstars Academy for youth twice a year. The company will have to invite other external investors for the project as well, Naw Pan Thinzar Myo said. According to the agreement with the government, she said, the company will have to persuade about 50 Myanmar startup companies to invest in YIC. The Yangon regional government has said that, as there are more than 10 universities in Yangon which collectively produce thousands of graduates every year, the YIC is expected to be a main source of job opportunities, support youth innovations and access to IT companies. Burma Yangon Public Accounts Committee Criticizes Budget Miscalculations A session of the Yangon Region Parliament in 2018. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy YANGON The Public Accounts Committee of the Yangon Region Parliament has criticized regional government departments for budget miscalculations. The committee submitted a report and remarks on the 2018-19 fiscal year budget bill on Wednesday, pointing out that there were large gaps between the possible costs and estimated costs in the proposed budget. According to secretary Daw Thet Htar Nwe Win of the Public Accounts Committee, the departments get about three months to review the proposed budget after the submission of the first draft to Parliament in June. Most of the departments failed to calculate their proposed projects in detail, design their projects in advance, conduct relevant surveys on the ground and calculate estimated costs, she said. State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, according to the report of the Public Accounts Committee, has called for the careful calculation of timeframes, break-even points and cost of projects, adding that failure to undertake feasibility studies could result in unnecessary costs. According to the findings of the committee, the Yangon Electricity Supply Corporation (YESC) asked for a budget of nearly 1.5 billion kyats for 19 projects, which have already been implemented either by the YESC itself or the Union government. Moreover, the YESC made some miscalculations in electricity supply projects in the outskirts of Yangon. It overestimated the costs by more than 2 billion kyats in 47 projects and underestimated by more than 650 million kyats in 42 projects. It is important that only necessary projects are implemented because the budget is limited, and we have to use it wisely. If the same project is to be implemented in two places, weve suggested giving priority to suburban areas. We have made surveys and found that many [proposed] projects are unnecessary, said Kyauktada Township lawmaker Daw Kyi Pyar. The Public Accounts Committee also found gaps in budgets proposed by other departments, ranging from 10-100 million kyats. Yangon regional lawmakers say they are also not happy that the Union Parliament did not scrap a proposed $5 million investment in the Yangon City Bank by the Yangon municipality despite their bitter opposition. The municipality proposed in June that it would invest the equivalent of US$5 million in kyats in the Yangon City Bank to provide foreign banking services. At that time, the amount was equivalent to 6.8 billion kyats, but with the weakened kyat-dollar exchange rate over the past few months, the amount is now nearly 8 billion kyats. The Public Accounts Committee called for spending that money on development works of townships in the city if foreign banking is still unnecessary. That money should be used for development work instead, Dagon Township lawmaker U Kyaw Zeya told the regional Parliament. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. News UN Sets Up Body to Prepare Myanmar Atrocity Prosecution Files An exhausted Rohingya refugee fleeing violence in Myanmar cries for help from others crossing into Palang Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 2, 2017. / Reuters GENEVA The UN Human Rights Council voted on Thursday to set up a body to prepare evidence of human rights abuses in Myanmar, including possible genocide, for any future prosecution. The 47-member Council voted by 35 votes to three, with seven abstentions, in favor of a resolution brought by the European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. China, the Philippines and Burundi voted against the move, whose backers said it was supported by more than 100 countries. Myanmar Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun said the resolution was based on the report of a UN fact-finding mission (FFM) that his government had categorically rejected, and which was unbalanced, one-sided and encouraged disunity of the country. The draft resolution is based on serious but unverified accusations and recommendations of the FFM that could even endanger the national unity of the country, he said. He said the resolutions intrusive language and demands would not contribute to finding lasting resolutions to the delicate situation in Myanmars Rakhine State. The resolution sets up a body to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011, and to prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings. The new agency is to work closely with any future prosecution brought by the ICC, which said earlier this month that it had jurisdiction over alleged deportations of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh. A year ago, government troops led a brutal crackdown in Myanmars Rakhine State in response to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on 30 Myanmar police posts and a military base. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled the crackdown and most are now living in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. The FFM report said Myanmars military had carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with genocidal intent and called for commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing and five named generals to be prosecuted for the gravest crimes. In Thursdays resolution, the Council said there was enough information to warrant a competent court to determine their liability for genocide. Chinese diplomat Chen Cheng told the Council that Beijing opposed the resolution because it was very likely to exacerbate the tensions. This is in no ones interest, he said. An exclusive new Star Wars collection of furniture to take kids, serious sci-fi fans, Jedis, Siths, padawans, midichlorian users and anyone else wanting an out-of-this-world experience has docked into no small moon Fantastic Furniture and soon, homes across the Empire, the Republic and beyond. The force has awoken at Fantastic Furniture, and you don't need to be the last Jedi, a force ghost or someone with astonishing force powers to be storm troop into your closest store, beset by Jedi-like pester power from your kids - or your inner child. The collaboration with Disney, which is sure to be as popular and profitable as the Star Wars franchise itself, is an exclusive to Fantastic Furniture stores, and is naturally inspired by the popular characters and aesthetics from one of the most successful and recognisable film franchises of all time and will be flying into stores and Australian homes from 1 October. Whether youre a Star Wars fan who loves all things from a galaxy far, far away or an everyday furniture lover, we're told the line-up is "sure to capture the imagination". {loadposoition alex08}We're told that "some interstellar standouts include an X-Wing bed ($349) and a TIE Fighter bedside ($129), a Death Star-themed table ($99) and matching seat ($49), as well as an impressive collection of character cushions ($15 ea) and wall art ($59 ea) fit for any home empire. Everyones favourite droid, the one and only R2-D2, even makes an appearance thanks to a cleverly designed R2-D2 Cupboard ($169) that everyone will love. "Further additions to the range will be dropping in late October and November, traveling through hyperspace to arrive just in time for Christmas. These include the subtly styled Lucas 1 Seater Chair ($269), a Star Wars Mattress ($159) and Bed Head (from $159), as well as a range of accessories, including Lamp Shades ($39), Manchester (from $39) and Rugs (from $29)." Caroline Adams, Fantastic Furniture senior buyer, emphasised "how thrilled both she and Fantastic Furniture are to finally launch the range to customers, many of whom are Star Wars fans already". Adams said: It has been an exciting journey working with Disney to bring one of the worlds most popular film franchises to Australian homes in a fun, new way. A lot of considered time and planning has gone into making this collaboration happen and we couldnt be happier with the final product it really is Fantastic! We cant wait to share it with our customers and all Star Wars fans, big and small. The Star Wars range will be hitting Fantastic Furniture stores around Australia from Monday 1 October, when aspiring Jedi Knights and Sith Lords will be able to take home their own piece of theStar Wars galaxy! A full list of products appearing in the Fantastic Furniture Star Wars Range can be found below: 1st October Range: Star Wars X-Wing Single Bed ($349) Star Wars X-Wing Storage Box ($129) Star Wars TIE Fighter Bedside ($129) Star Wars R2-D2 Cupboard ($169) Star Wars Kids Death Star Table ($99) Star Wars Death Star Kids Stool ($49) Star Wars Assorted Character Cushions ($15) Star Wars Assorted Canvas Art ($59) Star Wars Medium Lamp Shade ($39) Star Wars Medium Death Star Rug ($49) Star Wars Small Logo Rug ($29) Late October Range additions: Star Wars Double Bed Manchester ($49) Star Wars Single Bed Manchester ($39) Star Wars Faux Mink Blanket ($39) Star Wars Single Mattress ($159) November Range additions: The NSW Government has launched its first cyber security strategy with an investment of $20 million aimed at creating a cyber safe NSW. The security action plan was announced on Friday by the governments chief information security officer, Dr Maria Milosavljevic, who said, Cyber security has emerged as one of the most-high profile, borderless and rapidly evolving risks facing governments. "Investing in strong cyber capabilities will provide confidence to citizens and business who trust us with their data. Dr Milosavljevic said the action plan included a whole-of government integrated approach to managing cyber risks and responding to cyber security threats, safeguarding our information, assets, services and citizens. As part of the action plan, a strengthened cyber security policy and new standardised incident reporting and incident response arrangements are being introduced to enhance government cyber security capability across all agencies. The suite of initiatives will ensure that the government is equipped to prevent, prepare for and respond to incidents and that each agency and all staff have a clear understanding of their role, Dr Milosavljevic said. To ensure this, we have introduced whole-of-government advisories that are already improving the ability of agencies to quickly and effectively respond to emerging threats. We will continue to collaborate with industry leaders and research groups as well as Commonwealth and state law enforcement to ensure we maintain a collaborative approach to cyber security. To view the cyber security strategy click here. Posted on: September 28, 2018 5:25 PM A number of African Anglican bishops have said that Good News for creation and ecological justice should be placed at the top of the agenda for the Lambeth Conference in 2020. The bishops also say that it should be addressed by dioceses, provinces, and the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA). The urgent cry was contained in a statement issued by bishops, women leaders and young leaders, united by a passion for climate justice who gathered at the Good Shepherd Retreat Centre in Hartebeespoort, South Africa, for a meeting of the eco-bishops. The event, organised by the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, brought together participants from 17 dioceses in 14 African countries, who released An Urgent Cry for Ecological Justice: Reclaiming the Gospel Imperative for All Creation at th end of their meeting. In a part of their statement addressed to the Anglican Communion, the participants say that their urgent cry to our Dioceses, Provinces, CAPA, and Lambeth 2020 [is] that Good News for creation and ecological justice be placed at the top of the agenda. All of us are invested in this and all are part of the problem, whether in the north, south, east or west. Our Communion provides opportunity for global witness and resources to tackle this global challenge together. The call echoes discussions at the first two of several regional Primates Meetings that are being held to help shape the agenda of the Lambeth Conference, a gathering in Summer 2020, to which all Anglican bishops will be invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The environment and Climate Change was raised by Primates in Oceania and Africa when they met earlier this year. In their statement, the participants begin by affirming and celebrating their heritage, including Scripture, which beckons us to bear witness, with words and works, to the Good News of the redemption and restoration of all creation according to Gods purpose and will Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. They go on to acknowledge and lament . . . our failure to live true to the Gospel imperative to steward creation for the glory of God and for the flourishing of humankind and creation and our gravitation to the greed systems of the world that have resulted in gross inequalities and poverty, and continue to rape the earth, erode the dignity of humanity, and break genuine communion. They make a number of commitments, including holding eco-theology trainings at all levels, to include clergy, laity, guilds, and youth; and to popularize available ecological resources. They also say that they will make budget provision for ecological activities in our Dioceses and encouraging such provision in our Provinces. They say that they will plant indigenous and environmentally friendly species and remove alien vegetation which degrades the environment. They also commit to using church land productively, for example, for solar energy, and increasing green cover and bio-diversity. In her concluding remarks, the Bishop of Swaziland, Ellinah Wamukoya, the Chair of ACEN, said that the participants had reflected on how the Church can adapt, mitigate and witness in the era of climate change . . . in the context of listening to some theological insights addressing what the Old Testament has to say on eco-justice; the connection between the Eucharist and the environment; and salvation and reconciliation with the environment as contained in the New Testament. She said that with the commitments made by the participants, we will actively work against injustice to the environment. We will not take part in anything that harms the environment. Wherever the honesty of unity with the environment is in question, Jesus commands us to leave religious exercises that encourage disunity with the environment. I therefore commission you my brothers and sisters in the words of Erhard Arnold, to adhere to Jesus Justice that is better than that of all moralists and theologians, better than that of all socialists, communists and pacifists. For in it flows the sap of a living plant, the peace of the future, the strength of salt. Let us go and embrace the light from Gods heart that shines out as a beacon from the city on the hill, whose towers proclaim freedom, unity and surrender. Lets go and do to the environment as we would like done unto us. Amen. The participants were drawn from the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, the Church of Uganda, the Province of Central Africa, the Anglican Church of Kenya, the Anglican Church of Tanzania, and the Anglican Church of Congo. In addition to bishops, a number of participants came from the Green Anglicans youth movement of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Australia, along with Japan and the US, is once again trying to elbow out Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from building a cable system, this time an internal one in Papua New Guinea. American charge d'affaires James Carouso told the ABC's AM program that the three countries were putting in a counter offer to wrest the cable contract which had been awarded to Huawei. He said it was not a case of being against Chinese participation in such a project, but rather of providing a competitive option. According to a report in The National, a PNG newspaper, on 10 August, the financing for the PNG Kumul domestic submarine cable project is being provided by the Exim Bank of China. PNG Public Enterprises and State Investment Minister William Duma said the project was being built in preparation for the Coral Sea cable, which was to be built by Huawei, but is now being paid for by Australia and being built by the Vocus Group. The Kumul cable will run from Port Moresby to Alotau, Popondetta, Lae and Madang, with the cost being about US$200 million. The Coral Sea cable was awarded to Vocus after the intervention of the spy agency, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. It will link PNG and the Solomons to Sydney. In July 2017, it was reported that Australia was putting pressure on the Solomon Islands to withdraw from the project after the contract was awarded to Huawei. Security concerns were said to be the reason why Australian officials had made the request which was, tellingly, conveyed to then Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare by Nick Warner, the director-general of the spy agency ASIS. iTWire has contacted Huawei for comment. Thanks to The Register for the links Posted on: September 28, 2018 5:58 PM The latest members of the St Anselms community at Lambeth Palace have been commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Nineteen members from various Church traditions took their vows in a service at the palaces chapel today (Friday) an occasion which Archbishop Justin described as one of the highpoints of his year. The Archbishop, who is Abbot of the Community, prayed for them and presented each member with a cross, watched by their friends and families. He said he was welcoming them with profound emotion, with joy and with awe at the promises they were making. St Anselms provides an opportunity for young people aged 20 to 35 to spend a year in Gods time in new-monastic community with a shared Rule of Life focused on prayer, study and service to the most vulnerable in society. Most members are residential but the community also includes non-residential members who commit to the same Rule of Life while continuing in their work or studies in London. This is the fourth group since the Community was founded in 2015. This years group is drawn from 12 countries: the UK, Australia, Bahamas, Canada, France, Germany, Pakistan, South Sudan, Uganda, the United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Steven Semanda, 27, from Masaka in Uganda, said he had joined because he was seeking a much deeper experience of God and was attracted to the idea of life in a Christian community. Steven was raised an Anglican his father, Kezlon Semanda, is the Dean of St John's Cathedral, Kasaka, in the Diocese of Central Buganda but had drifted in his spiritual life. He told ACNS that he was excited about the year ahead. This will be a great opportunity to discover what God wants me to do with my life, he said. Steven Semanda from Uganda is one of 19 young people spending A Year In Gods Time with the Community of St Anselm at Lambeth Palace, the official residence and offices of the Archbishops of Canterbury in central London. Photo: ACNS Rachelle Kratz, from Pennsylvania in the US, said, I am most excited about my community the community members that I have here. Its been really amazing and I know that we are just going to get closer! Her compatriot, Becca Walton, said: Im really excited about the study component and getting to do it with this wonderful community, and that everyone will bring their own experiences. Joseph Mwenya, from Zambia, was attracted by the prayer life. The community, for me, is a place of prayer and a place to seek God. When I saw the pattern of the prayer and everything . . . I thought it was the best thing for me and the best place to discern where God wants me and what he wants me to do next. Katy Hirst is one of three members of last years intake who are staying on for a second year. She will be helping the leadership team. She said her first year had not always been easy but it had been worthwhile. When the prospect of staying for another year came up, it felt good to stay . . . to continue this journey of healing and freedom, but in a new way, she said. In his sermon, Archbishop Justin said there was a common theme running through the testimonies from the new members of the community: they were a disparate people from different places, different cultures, and different origins who had all seen something special in Jesus. As followers of Christ, they were now part of the greatest nation on earth. He said the Church, and society, had something to learn from religious communities in the way they loved each other and put aside the things that could break them apart. That was the vision of St Anselms. Religious communities might be drops in the ocean, but they infect, in the best way, every part of the nation. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2018) - RosCan Minerals Corporation (TSXV: ROS) ("RosCan" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has changed the name of the Company to "RosCan Gold Corporation". Shareholders of the Company approved, among other things, the name change at the annual and special meeting of the Company held on April 26, 2018. Effective Monday October 1, 2018 the Company will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange as RosCan Gold Corporation under the trading symbol "ROS". ABOUT ROSCAN RosCan Minerals Corporation is a Canadian gold exploration company focussed on the acquisition and exploration of gold properties in West Africa. The Company has assembled a significant land position of 100%-owned permits in an area of large gold deposits for its Kandiole Project in West Mali. For further information, please contact: Greg Isenor President and Chief Executive Officer Tel: (902) 832-5555 or (416) 293-8437 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is 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. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable securities laws. 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 United States dollars, except where noted otherwise) TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 /CNW/ - First Quantum Minerals Ltd. ("First Quantum" or the "Company", TSX Symbol "FM") today noted the following proposed changes to the Zambian mining tax regime that are pertinent to the Company. The proposed changes were included in the country's 2019 budget delivered on September 28, 2018 to the National Assembly and are expected to take effect from January 1, 2019. Mineral Royalty changes: Increase mineral royalty rates by 1.5% at all levels of the existing scale Introduce a fourth tier rate at 10% which applies when copper price above $7,500 per tonne per tonne Make mineral royalty tax non-deductible for income tax purposes Existing Mining Royalty rates 2019 Budget Announcement Less than $4,500 - 4% Less than $4,500 5.5% $4,500 - $6,000 - 5% $4,500 - $6,000 6.5% Greater than $6,000 6% $6,000 - $7,500 7.5% Greater than $7,500 10% Other key measures Introduce an import duty of 5% on copper and cobalt concentrates Introduce an export levy on precious metals including gold of 15% Abolish Value Added Tax and introduce a non-refundable Sales Tax (no detail on Sales Tax rate yet announced). Impact of the Mineral Royalty rate increase by 1.5% on 2017 All In Sustaining Cost (AISC): Kansanshi AISC per lb would increase from $1.54 /lb to $1.58 /lb /lb to /lb Sentinel AISC per lb would increase from $2.19 /lb to $2.23 /lb /lb to /lb Group AISC per lb would increase from $1.65 /lb to $1.68 /lb It is expected that there would also be an impact of the non-refundable Sales Tax on C1 and AISC however the rate is not yet known. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of First Quantum Minerals Ltd. G. Clive Newall President For further information visit our website at www.first-quantum.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Certain statements, information and analysis contained herein are based on the details of the 2019 Zambian budget as announced by the government of Zambia, and on assumptions in respect of the implementation of the same. The forward-looking statements include estimates, forecasts and statements as to the Company's expectations of production and sales volumes, and expected timing of completion of project development at Cobre Panama and Enterprise and are subject to the impact of ore grades on future production, the potential of production disruptions, capital expenditure and mine production costs, the outcome of mine permitting, other required permitting, the outcome of legal proceedings which involve the Company, information with respect to the future price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources, First Quantum's exploration and development program, estimated future expenses, exploration and development capital requirements, the Company's hedging policy, and goals and strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words 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 statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about continuing production at all operating facilities, the price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, anticipated costs and expenditures and the ability to achieve the Company's goals. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to, future production volumes and costs, the temporary or permanent closure of uneconomic operations, costs for inputs such as oil, power and sulphur, political stability in Zambia, Peru, Mauritania, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Panama, Argentina and Australia, adverse weather conditions in Zambia, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Mauritania and Panama, labour disruptions, potential social and environmental challenges, power supply, mechanical failures, water supply, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations, and the production of off-spec material. See the Company's Annual Information Form for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information. Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause actual results, performances, achievements or events not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of these factors are beyond First Quantum's control. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. All forward-looking statements and information made herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. A Montenegro-based veteran reporter who has investigated organized crime in Europe and war crimes in the Balkans received on Thursday the 2018 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. Jovo Martinovics work helped expose war crimes including allegations of organ trafficking during and immediately after the 1999 conflict in Kosovo. His investigations with US-based American RadioWorks led to the arrest and conviction of Serbian and Albanian paramilitaries and the creation of a new war crimes court in The Hague, organizers of the award said. The 44-year-old has worked for top outlets including National Public Radio, BBC, Vice, CBS, Canal Plus, The Economist, Time, The Financial Times, GlobalPost and the Balkan Investigative Reporting network. He was unable to attend Thursdays awards ceremony in New York, however, as he remains passport-less while awaiting a trial that could see him sentenced to 15 years in prison over accusations of participating in drug trafficking networks. Its a great honor to receive this award and to continue working despite all the hindrances we, in this part of Europe, face as journalists, he said via video link, calling the area an increasingly authoritarian part of Europe. The award was created in 2008 to honor the memory of longtime AFP journalist Peter Mackler, who died of a heart attack that year at the age of 58. Martinovic was arrested in October 2015 on charges of marijuana trafficking and participation in a criminal organization, and held for more than a year despite the failure by prosecutors to substantiate the allegations. The journalist has rejected the accusations and said that his contacts with criminal circles were strictly professional in the context of reporting. Human Rights Watch criticized the detention of the journalist and said the accusations against him had little credibility. He was working on a story on the notorious Pink Panther international jewel thieves gang whose members are mainly from the former Yugoslavia. They are suspected of some hundred attacks on jewelry stores around the world. For the first time in 10 years, we are honoring a journalist who knew my dad (Peter Mackler) and who could attest to his passion, his drive and his humor, said the late journalists daughter Camille Mackler at the ceremony. Peter Macklers accomplishments during his 30-year career with AFP included working on the conflict in Kosovo, where he briefly met Martinovic. He struck me as a hardworking and kind man always willing to help anyone, Martinovic said of Mackler. Last years award went to Marcos Vizcarra, who lives and works in Mexicos violent northwestern state of Sinaloa. Partners in the award are the Global Media Forum training group, the US branch of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and Agence France-Presse. Previous recipients have been honored for reporting in Burundi, Syria, Pakistan, Sudan, Kazakhstan, Honduras, Russia and Sri Lanka. cat/mdo/dcr CBS CORPORATION SOCIETE DEDITION DE CANAL + South Sudans vice president urged world governments Friday to put aside skepticism about Jubas commitment to a new peace deal following a string of failed agreements. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Vice President Taban Deng Gai said South Sudan was ready to welcome regional forces to monitor the agreement signed on September 12 by President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar. I have been asked specifically why my government believes that it is a permanent peace this time? the vice president told the UN assembly. He responded by quoting an African proverb that he said showed that the leaders had changed attitude by looking where you have slipped, because it is there you will find what made you fall. Several peace deals signed by South Sudans leaders have collapsed, most notably in 2016 when a major battle in the capital forced Machar to flee for his life. Taban Deng called on members of the UN family, including those who are skeptical, to give peace a chance in South Sudan, arguing that his government had unreservedly embraced diplomatic efforts led by the regional IGAD group. UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the Security Council last week that despite the peace deal, fighting was continuing in the states of Central Equatoria and Unity. South Sudan is ready to allow a regional force to monitor security arrangements under the new deal that include the cantonment of forces, he said. Frustrated with failed peace efforts, the Security Council in July imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan and slapped sanctions on two military officials. South Sudan descended into war in late 2013 when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup. A US-funded study released this week put the death toll from the war to at least 382,9000, far higher than previous estimates and more than in the conflict in Syria. Amnesty International this month accused government forces of carrying out war crimes of staggering brutality during a recent offensive in northern Unity state. Civilians were shot, burnt alive, hung in trees and run over by armored vehicles. The group also documented rape, gang rape and abductions of women and girls. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. The audience at Rothe House last week was treated to a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Kilkenny women a hundred years ago. Beautiful hats and painful-looking corsets were in evidence, made and worn by Kilkenny women. Ann Murtagh spoke in general about the lives of women of the period, many of whom were among the thousand who signed the famous La na mBan ledger against British government plans to conscript Irishmen. It's the only surviving collection of signatures in the country and it's in the archives of Kilkenny Archaeological Society. Using figures from the 1911 census, Ann was able to detail 287 Dressmakers, 82 Seamstresses, 12 Tailoresses and 16 Milliners living in Kilkenny then. We heard what life was like for the women, the deaths of many of their children, the extension of suffrage, the 1918 elections, and the flu pandemic - one theory held that the flu was caused by women wearing low-necked dresses. Nine of the ledger signatories died from the flu in 1918. Orla Murphy, Angela Moylan O'Reilly and Mary Brennan spoke about some of the actual women of 1918. Women like Orla's grandmother Elizabeth O'Regan who married Tom Treacy in 1915 and established a drapery on Parliament Street. In addition to her own family, Orla has traced stories of dozens of the 1918 women. She strongly urged the audience to become 'historical detectives'. Angela Moylan spoke of some women she has researched who signed that ledger, women such as Margaret Carrigan and Agnes Bibby of High Street, Eileen Godfrey of Parliament Street, and Johanna White of Lacken. Mary Brennan brought this captivating evening to a close by focussing on two women in particular, Moya Bligh of Maudlin Street, and Winifred de Loughry of Parliament Street who was later President of Cumann na mBan. Mary also told us about twenty Loreto nuns who signed. In all, a moving tribute to women whose lives might easily be forgotten. Many of the thousand women have yet to be identified. If you recognise one, contact Kilkenny Archaeological Society. See the full list of 1,015 women on the society's website. The Press reports: Restoration of the Christ Church Cathedral could be a condition of any post-election coalition deal, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says. The potential power is going to his head. This is like saying a condition of any coalition deal could be the confiscation of the building owned by Mrs Smith-Jones of Lower Hutt. The cathedral is owned by the Anglican Church. Politicians vowing to force them to restore it, rather than replace it, are effectively saying we wish to steal it from the Church and make ourselves the owners so we can decide what is done with it. He told The Press restoration of the cathedral would certainly be part of coalition talks with the Government if he secured enough votes in the September election. Ive already given a written commitment that I would raise this in any negotiations, he said. I am seriously committed to this project. It means much more than just the cathedral. Peters was very, very confident a deal could be reached. Im very confident it cant be, unless Peters think parties will agree to a law change stealing the cathedral off the church. The church has already made a decision. Peters said he did not understand why Bishop Victoria Matthews did not want to restore the building. I dont understand how the specialness of this building is not grasped. I dont want to open a personal feud with the bishop, but on this matter she is seriously wrong. Im not Anglican and Im from the North Island, but thats my view. So maybe you should shut the fuck up on it then? Only Anglicans living in Christchurch get to decide. Anglican church spokesman Jayson Rhodes said Peters comments suggested the cathedral be taken off the Anglican church. He said it was surprising that Peters had not spoken to the church trustees who had made a decision based on issues including building resilience and cost. Peters suggestion that the land was gifted to the church by European settlers was wrong. It was Anglicans giving to Anglicans. Just bullshit grandstanding. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More Reddit Pinterest Print Tumblr Scott Olson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The Boeing Company has been awarded a contract worth up to $9.2 billion to build the Air Force's new trainer aircraft, the Air Force announced on Thursday. The Air Force currently plans to purchase 351 new trainer aircraft, 46 simulators, and the associated ground equipment to replace the current fleet of T-38C Talon trainers that are 57 years old, the Air Force said in a statement. The contract allows the Air Force to eventually purchase up to 475 aircraft and 120 simulators. "This new aircraft will provide the advanced training capabilities we need to increase the lethality and effectiveness of future Air Force pilots," Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson said in the statement. "Through competition we will save at least $10 billion on the T-X program." The original service cost estimate was $19.7 billion for 351 aircraft, the Air Force said. The savings are a result of a well-conceived acquisition strategy that leveraged full and open competition. Fierce competition is ultimately very good for the United States Air Force and taxpayer, Capt. Hope Chronin, an Air Force spokesperson, said. The Air Force would not comment on the competing companies, but Reuters reported they were Leonardo DVS and Lockheed Martin. Trainer aircraft are used by student pilots at the undergraduate- and graduate-level training courses. The first new trainers and simulators are scheduled to arrive at Texas's Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in 2023. Then, all undergraduate pilot training bases will transition to the new aircraft, the Air Force said. The goal is to have the new trainer aircraft at full operational capability by 2034. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. CBI Member London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) today welcomes the listing of China Construction Bank Hong Branchs US$1bn sustainability bond on the International Securities Market (ISM). The $1bn bond is the first sustainability bond admitted to London Stock Exchanges ISM. The 3-year floating rate bond received strong demand from international investors, confirming Londons status as a leading international green and sustainable financing centre. CCB Hong Kong Branch listed the bond on the International Securities Market under the simplified disclosure regime. Learn more about CCBs sustainability bond. Simplified disclosure now available to issuers on ISM ISM has supported a variety of fixed income issuers seeking access to Londons uniquely deep pool of international capital, providing an efficient and customer focussed admission approach. Simplified disclosure is available to issuers with securities already admitted to one of London Stock Exchanges markets, an EU-regulated market or a market deemed suitable by London Stock Exchange. Issuers with equity admitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchanges Main Board now qualify for the simplified disclosure route to market. For issuers eligible for the simplified disclosure regime, documentation for any new securities admitted to ISM will largely be limited to the information relating to the securities on the basis of the information already publicly disclosed by the issuer. For information on ISM visit lseg.com/ism or contact the Fixed Income team at bonds@lseg.com or 0207 797 3921. Arsenal balls: Aaron Ramsey takes his one goal a season and heads to Italy Yesterday Arsenal fans learned something that had escaped them. The Mirrors John Cross told them and readers of his Daily Mirror exclusive that Aaron Ramsey is one of Europes top goal-scoring midfielders. Last season, Ramsey scored one goal in the Premier League. Are goals from midfield so hard to come by that one represents the apogee? That question to David Silva, Mo Salah, Deli Alli, Kevin de Bruyne, James Maddison, Bernardo Silva, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Pascal Gro. We could go round Europe looking at goalscoring midfielders, but the point is made: Ramsey is not as effective as his PR says he is. But the impression that he hits the net pervades. Last night, former Arsenal star Ian Wright told Sky Sports: Aaron Ramsey is captain material It should have been done ages ago. Ivan Gazidis [the Arsenal chief executive who left for AC Milan] has got a lot to answer for for this to happen because Ramsey should be a focal point in the team Hes somebody that Id like to see stay because I think he is that player who is never afraid. He scores goals. He scores very few goals. And another player on the big money Ramseys after might score more goals than him. Arsenals habit in recent years of sticking with players on the drift has seen them not challenge for the title and slip out of the Champions League slots. Unai Emery is building his own team. Why does he need Wengers journeymen? So Ramseys off in search of vast riches and loyalty payments elsewhere. As soon as Arsenal agreed to pay 350,000 a week to Mesut Ozil, every other player; on Arsenals books thought themselves worth more. But theyre not. So Arsenal withdrew their contract offer to Ramsey the one he hadnt agreed to sign. The Standard says hes booking a one-way flight this January to Juventus or AC Milan. Or maybe itll be Chelsea or Manchester United? Anyone in the market for a skilful but slowing midfielder who scores one goal a season knows his agents number. Anorak Posted: 28th, September 2018 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink (ANSA) - Sanremo, September 27 - An Italian medical examiner was stabbed to death in his studio in the centre of Sanremo on Thursday and the alleged murderer was caught. Giovanni Palumbo was killed in the central Via Fratti. The reasons for the attack are not yet known. The alleged killer, a man, was arrested by Carabinieri. TUNIS - Tunisia wants the priority on oil provisions from Libya, Tunisian Premier Youssef Chahed said during the first Tunisian-Libyan forum organized by the Tunisia Africa Business Council, attended by ministers, officials and hundreds of entrepreneurs from the two countries, which wrapped up today. In particular, Chahed said the two countries will start a strategic cooperation on energy, which will enable to exchange surplus, based on the mechanism 'Oil for Food', or goods in exchange for oil. To boost exchanges, Tunisia and Libya will strengthen efforts to develop trade inside the country, accelerating railway, highway and electric connections and creating a free trade zone like Ben Guerdane, the last Tunisian city before the border with Libya. Chahed also relaunched the idea of new maritime and air connections. The premier expressed Tunisia's support for legitimate Libyan institutions and for UN efforts to preserve a truce among rival militias in Tripoli. Mediterranean Corridor will be finished in 2021 Madrid makes progress on Algeciras-France high speed train (ANSAmed) - MADRID, SEPTEMBER 28 - The Mediterranean Corridor is "in the final stretch" and will be completed in 2021, according to Spanish Infrastructure Minister Jose Luis Abalos. Abalos spoke during a meeting with 1,400 entrepreneurs convened by the Asociacion Valenciana de Empresarios (AVE) at the Catalan Convention Centre in Barcelona on Thursday. The high-speed rail line on the Mediterranean side, which will transport goods and passengers, will connect Andalusia, Murcia, the Valencian Community, and Catalonia with the French border and Europe. In the original plan, the project was scheduled for completion in 2016, but the difficult economic situation in recent years caused Spain to slow down on construction. Abalos, cited by the media, said that the European infrastructure project received a "strong technical push" from the current Socialist government, with funding for construction. The standard route between Algeciras and France will go into service in 2021, three years ahead of the scheduled completion, which was listed as 2025 in the last revision. The minister said the project's scope is of a "national dimension" that the entire country will benefit from, because it contributes to social cohesion and the competitiveness of Spanish businesses in Europe. Abalos said the Mediterranean Corridor will change the country's appearance, moving it from its current "radial" organisation with Madrid as an epicentre, to "another idea of Spain, more interconnected and integrated thanks to infrastructure". According to official sources cited by the economic daily Cinco Dias, as of May 31 investments made in the Corridor totaled 14.224 billion euros, 39% of the 23.363 billion planned overall for the infrastructure. Thursday's meeting in Barcelona was convened by the Asociacion Valenciana de Empresarios at the conclusion of the "Quiero Corredor" campaign ("I Want the Corridor"), which began two years ago. The campaign took place in nine Spanish cities to highlight the need for the infrastructure project and to get commitments from local public governments to complete it.(ANSAmed). GAZA/TEL AVIV - Fresh tension on Friday was registered at the Gaza-Israel border near which, at Hamas' instruction, new demonstrations have been organized as part of the so-called 'March of Return'. Since yesterday, the minarets of mosques have been calling on the population to join the protests in large numbers. Meanwhile incendiary balloons are being launched from Gaza into Israel. Yesterday, fires were reported in western Negev camps, where balloons with bombs were also launched. One of them exploded upon landing near an Israeli farmer who was not injured. The other was detonated. GENEVA - At least 1,733 migrants and refugees have died in the Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of the year through September 26, with three new victims on the Western Mediterranean route since updated figures were released through September 23, according to the UN Migration Agency International Organization for Migration (IOM). The Western Mediterranean route towards Spain has registered 362 deaths since the beginning of the year, while the Central Mediterranean route towards Italy and Malta has registered 1,260 victims. A total of 111 migrants and refugees have died at sea thus far this year in the attempt to reach Greece and Cyprus. ROME - The World Food Program (WFP) has warned through its executive director, David Beasly, that ''Yemen is a disaster and I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel right now'', Al Jazeera reports. ''Yemen is undeniably the world's worst humanitarian crisis by far,'' Beasley was reported as saying at a closed briefing during the UN General Assembly in New York City on Thursday. The WFP has warned that Yemen is on the brink of a full-blown famine, with 18 million of its 29 million population food insecure. The price of food has increased by 35% over the last year, the organization said. A civil war has been ongoing in Yemen since 2015 between government forces, supported by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition, and Houthi militias. ANSAmed - Weekly diary from October 1 to October 7 (ANSAmed) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 28 - Weekly diary of the main events scheduled in the Euro-Mediterranean area from October 1 to October 7: MONDAY OCTOBER 1 ATHENS - Second Sustainability Summit for Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean (also 2/10). TUNIS - Observers present their final report on May 6 local elections in Tunisia. STRASBOURG - European Parliament, plenary session (until 4/10). TUESDAY OCTOBER 2 VARIOUS CITIES - International Day of Non-Violence. ROME - Senate, 5.00 pm. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, will present in the Chamber information on developments in Libya. ROME - Palazzo Montecitorio (Lower House), 3pm. Presentation of the book 'The International Alexander Langer Prize to the Lower House 1997-2017' as part of "Euromediterranea 2018". TURIN - Palazzo Graneri della Rocca, 6pm. Conference titled 'Impasse Iran' as part of 'Mediterranean Paths 2018'. BRUSSELS - EU, Economic and Financial Affairs Council Meeting. STRASBOURG - EU, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker speaks at the European Parliament plenary session on EC preparations for the European Council in October. WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3 ROME - National Italian Press Federation headquarters, 11:00. Public meeting focusing on the topic of dialogue between cultures in the Middle East. THURSDAY OCTOBER 4 MAZARA DEL VALLO - 7th edition of Blue Sea Land, the expo of agro-fishery clusters of the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East (until 7/10). TIRANA - EU, visit of European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Vera Jourova (also 5/10). BRUSSELS - NATO, Defence ministers meeting. FRIDAY OCTOBER 5 FERRARA - XII International Journalism Festival, sponsored by Italian newsweekly Internazionale (until 7/10). BRUSSELS - EU, informal meeting of trade ministers. SATURDAY OCTOBER 6 No major events scheduled. SUNDAY OCTOBER 7 SARAJEVO - Political elections. (ANSAmed). Benghazi allocates 260 mn for rebuilding Green light on tenders for building schools and removing rubble (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 28 - An allocation of 415 million Libyan dinars, equivalent to nearly 260 million euros, was approved by the Committee for the Restoration of Stability in Benghazi, the second-largest city in Libya after Tripoli, said website Alwasat. The committee's decision came in its fifth meeting, which took place in Al Bayda, presided over by Abdullah al-Thinni, prime minister of the "provisional" government not recognised by the United Nations. It gave permission to the Authority for Urban Development to assign tenders directly to companies for the maintenance or building of 54 schools in Benghazi, and approved projects totaling 64.81 million dinars (40.54 million euros). A disbursement of 20 million dinars (12.51 million euros) was also approved for the removal of buildings damaged in combat, the website said, implicitly referring to the three years of fighting in which General Khalifa Haftar's forces drove jihadists and other Islamic extremists out of the city. The committee was formed by a decision of the speaker of the House of Representatives in Tobruk, Alwasat said. It also gave the city of Benghazi permission to take projects away from companies that have not yet started work.(ANSAmed). New Delhi [India], Sept 28 (ANI): Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will arrive in India on Sunday to commence his two-day maiden state visit to the country. President Mirziyoyev, accompanied by his spouse, will pay a visit to Agra on September 30. On October 1, he will be accorded a ceremonial guard of honour at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, after which he will visit Raj Ghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi, a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs read. During his visit, President Mirziyoyev is slated to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi for delegation-level talks at the Hyderabad House. He will also meet President Ram Nath Kovind and attend a presidential banquet. Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the Uzbek President. Relations between India and Uzbekistan have traditionally been close and cordial. Since 2011, the two countries have elevated their relations to the level of 'strategic partnership' encompassing cooperation in a wide spectrum of areas including political, economic, education, health, human resource development, defence, counter-terrorism, science and technology, culture and tourism. "Exchange of frequent high-level visits on both sides has served to cement bilateral ties. Both India and Uzbekistan have also been closely working together as members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The visit Uzbekistan President will provide an opportunity to discuss bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest and reinforce the strategic partnership which exists between the two countries," the statement added. In June, Prime Minister Modi had met President Mirziyoyev on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China's Qingdao. Two months later, Swaraj held bilateral discussions with the Uzbek President during her visit to the Central Asian country. (ANI) (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, September 28: Outgoing Director General of Border Security Force (BSF) while interacting with media on the last of his office said that the paramilitary force had successfully contained the influx of Rohingya's into India. He also claimed that smaller groups of the community always tried to enter into the Indian territory, but the paramilitary force had not allowed to enter. The outgoing DG, KK Sharma, however, accepted that preventing Rohingya's entry into India would be a challenging task for the force. Sharma refused to comment after being asked about his views on the stand of West Bengal government on Rohingya. He said that he did not want to start a fresh controversy. Centre's Directive to States on Rohingya Refugees: 'Record Their Biometrics, Do Not Issue Aadhaar. We have successfully contained the influx of Rohingyas. However smaller groups often try to enter but we haven't allowed them to enter. It is a serious and constant problem. This will remain a challenge for BSF: KK Sharma, outgoing BSF DG pic.twitter.com/Yb4QacKgLR ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 Meanwhile, Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina on Thursday accused Myanmar at the United Nations of not keeping its commitment to take back Rohingya Muslims. Hasina's remarks came as the U.N. Human Rights Council agreed to set up a team to collect evidence of alleged human rights violation crimes and to punish the guilty. The Bangladesh government in September also signed a $50 million grant financing agreement with the World Bank to improve the country's services to cater to the health, nutrition and family planning needs of the Rohingya refugee population. The Mission established by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2017 has found patterns of gross human rights violation in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan states. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 28, 2018 06:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shared a photo of Commander Abhilash Tomy, and tweeted that he enquired about his wellbeing. The Prime Minister also said that every Indian is praying for his quick recovery. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also complimented the teams involved in his rescue. Commander Abhilash Tomy Credits His Navy Training For Surviving the Indian Ocean Storm. The Prime Minister, in his tweet, shared a picture with Commander Abhilash Tomy and recalled the fond memories of his meeting with Commander Tomy and team of INSV Tarini. Abhilash Tomy, Injured Indian Navy Commander, Rescued by French Vessel Osiris. Watch the Pictures in the Tweet Below Spoke to @abhilashtomy and enquired about his wellbeing. Every Indian is praying for his quick recovery. I also compliment the teams that were involved in his rescue. I have fond memories of my meeting with Abhilash, when he came with the team of INSV Tarini. pic.twitter.com/Yefo9l4Ksu Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 27, 2018 Commander Abhilash Tomy was rescued a day after an Indian Navy aircraft loctaed his boat Thuriya nearly 3,300km from the Australian coast. Abhilash Tomy was in concious state when a French vessel Osiris rescued him. He suffered serious back injuries and was unable to move when his 10-metre yacht de-masted in extreme weather that saw 14-metre high waves during the Golden Globe Race on Friday. First Visuals of Rescue Operation of Commander Abhilash Tomy, Injured Navy Officer; Watch Video. The Indian Navys P8I aircraft had located the mast broken boat rolling excessively near Australian coast, the Defence spokesman said on Sunday. "Indian Navy P-8I aircraft operating ex-Mauritius has visually sighted 'Thuriya' (the boat in which he was sailing) on Sunday. Continuous watch over the ship is being maintained by Indian Navy and RAAF aircraft and this will continue till the rescue operation is completed," the Navy said. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 27, 2018 10:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). MADRID - Barcelona will host the 3rd Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Regional Forum on October 8, which will bring together foreign ministers and other representatives from the Euro-Mediterranean partnership's 43 member countries. The forum will be co-presided by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. Jordan currently holds the rotating presidency for the UfM. The annual meeting will be hosted by Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell and UpM Secretary-General Nasser Kamel. This year's forum will recognise the 10th anniversary of the founding of the UfM, initially called the Barcelona Process. The conference will take stock of progress reached thus far and give new impulses to dialogue and cooperation to overcome the region's challenges, including economic and social development, environmental damage, climate change, energy, migration, terrorism, and extremism. Discussions will focus on private sector efforts in sustainable and inclusive development and the private sector's social impact on the region. Best practices from sponsors and beneficiaries of various UfM projects will also be discussed as part of the Med4Jobs initiative for job creation, in particular for young people and women. Since its founding, UfM has sponsored more than 50 regional cooperation projects, including sustainable development initiatives, urban infrastructure projects, and programmes for multi-sector development, gender equality, youth entrepreneurism and job creation. New Delhi, September 29: This day, two years ago, the Indian Army carried out an operation that destroyed terror camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The Indian Army also destroyed Pakistan bunkers to avenge the Uri terror attack in which 18 Indian soldiers were martyred. In the surgical strikes of September 29, 2016, Indian soldiers killed 38 terrorists and two Pakistani soldiers in a 4-hour long operation. Two years on, India is today celebrating Parakram Parv (Surgical Strike Day) to commemorate the jawans who avenged the killings of Indian soldiers in the Uri attack by four terrorists. The Narendra Modi government has inaugurated a three-day Parakram Parv celebration across the country with several events planned in over 50 cities. Why India carried out Surgical Strike in 2016 On the intervening night of September 18 and 19, 2016, four terrorists lobbed 17 grenades in three minutes on the 12th Brigade of the Indian Army in Uri sector. On the early morning of September 19, terrorists attacked the administrative block of the Army. The terrorists were gunned down after a six-hour long gunbattle. Surgical Strike Video: Fresh Visuals of September 29, 2016, Indian Army Operation in PoK Surface While the country lost 18 soldiers, over 20 jawans were also injured in the attack. The attacks had come just months after an attack by terrorists on the Pathankot air base in which seven Indian jawans were martyred. It was time for India to act against the terror camps along the border on the Pakistani side since Pakistan was not destroying them on its own. Just ten days after the Uri attack, the Indian Army launched a surgical strike in PoK. How Indian Army Carried Out Surgical Strike The surgical strikes were carried out by the Indian Army in Bhimber, Hotspring, Kel and Lipa sectors in the Pakistan side of the Line of Control. The Army and Special Forces commandos were airdropped at the LoC from where they crossed to the Pakistani side. A few days ago, former Nagrota Corps commander Lt Gen Rajendra Nimborkar said that they carried leopard urine while carrying out the strike as they knew that dogs were scared of leopards and would not bark if they smell leopards around. "There was a possibility of dogs in villages barking at us on the route. I knew they are scared of leopards. We carried leopard urine with us & that worked & dogs didn't dare to come forward," he said. The Indian jawans entered 3 km into the Pakistan side and destroyed at least seven terror camps while killing 38 terrorists and two Pakistani jawans. Recently, Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat said that India was ready for another such operation against Pakistan if the need arises. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 28, 2018 05:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Child sexual abuse, molestation, rape; the severe issue of concern continues to increase globally. Where humanists and medical experts are striving to create awareness and reach to every corner of the society, it appears that we still fail to protect the children from becoming a victim of such assault. Because, in the majority of cases, the molesters are familial. Another phenomenon that cannot be ignored is that in countless numbers of cases, we have seen the parents remaining silent over it. Ask nearly anyone, no one believes they would allow the harmful sexual behaviour to continue if they knew for sure that it was going on; but sadly, the fact remains the opposite. A recent case in Indiana screams such relevance. The mother admits to not protect her 10-year-old daughter from her boyfriend who raped her leading to pregnancy pleaded guilty. The child reportedly, delivered a baby boy. 3-Year-Old Student Molested By School Bus Conductor In Bhopal, Accused Arrested. According to the Chronicle-Tribune, the 33-year-old Marion woman faced charges of neglect aiding child molesting and assisting a criminal. She further agreed to accept a sentence of 20 years in prison and five years of probation. At the courts hearing, she admitted that her daughter told her that the boyfriend, 34-year-old Nicholas Deon Thrash, was molesting her, yet continued to let him live with them. The woman throughout, never reported the molestation that led her daughters pregnancy. The young girl testified against Thrash, saying he molested her at least 15 times. We were certainly ready to go to trial in a few weeks, but the emotional and psychological toll would have been significantly more (for this trial) than the Thrash trial, said Deputy Grant County Prosecutor Lisa Glancy. Haryana 'Baba' Krishna Nand Arrested for Molesting Children in Boarding School. Thrash was sentenced last week to 160 years in prison after being convicted of 10 counts of child molesting. Part of the womans plea stated that she can have no contact with her now 12-year-old daughter until a counsellor gives permission. FOX59 reported that the young girl after turning 11, gave birth to a boy in September 2017 who was given up for adoption. The victim is currently at a foster care. Glancy further said, Shes doing better. Thats all that we can hope for right now. Shes at a really good place. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 27, 2018 10:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). NAPLES - ''Women who build inclusive societies in the Mediterranean'' is the theme of the fourth edition of the conference on the legitimization of women organized by the Union for the Mediterranean together with the Portuguese Republic. The conference will be held in Lisbon on October 9-11 and will host 300 participants including ministers, policy makers, international organizations and leading figures of civil society and the entrepreneurial sector. The 2018 edition on the condition of women in the Mediterranean is part of celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the Union for the Mediterranean at a historic time in which 43 member States have adopted a strong statement to promote measures and seek policies to promote equality among women and men across all sectors of society. During the congress, progress made on the issue will be discussed one year after a ministerial-level meeting focusing on the dossier, sharing experiences and promoting the increasing involvement of women. The inaugural session on October 9 will be attended, among others, by the presidents of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, and Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as well as the ministers of equal opportunities of Portugal, Maria Leito Marques, Jordan, Hala Lattouf, Tunisia, Neziha Labidi. The president of Egypt's national women's council, Maya Morsi, i salso expected to attend. The three-day event will focus on the role of men, the private sector and the media in the elimination of social barriers and stereotypes, ways of fighting gender violence, the means to give roles of responsibility to women in rural areas, the roles of science and technological innovation and measures to invest in women's sexual and reproductive health. A series of collateral events includes the description of regional cooperation programs on women, a forum on women's entrepreneurship in the area and a dialogue session between Ufm representatives and MPs from different countries. Sep 28, 2018, 10:53am ET Elon Musk declined no-guilt settlement, sources claim The SEC reportedly demanded that Musk step down from chairman for two years and Tesla would appoint two independent directors. Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly refused to sign a no-guilt settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC yesterday announced a lawsuit accusing Musk of fraudulently misleading investors with his 'funding secured' Twitter post that was the first public disclosure of a failed bid to take the company private. Sources told CNBC the executive had been offered a settlement that involved a nominal fine and no admission of guilt. The sticking point for Musk, however, was presumably the SEC's alleged demand that he step down from his role as chairman for two years and the Tesla board would have had to add two independent directors. Musk is said to have declined the offer "because he felt that by settling he would not be truthful to himself, and he wouldn't have been able to live with the idea that he agreed to accept a settlement and any blemish associated with that," the sources said. If true, Musk is taking a potentially bigger long-term risk if he does not emerge victorious in the looming battle. The SEC is now pushing for him to be permanently barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company. The CNBC report suggests he may have been able to stay on as CEO and return eventually as chairman if he had accepted the terms of the initial private negotiation before the lawsuit was filed. A tractor-trailer that lost control early Friday morning during heavy rain on Interstate 78 West in Lower Saucon Township crossed the median into oncoming traffic, struck another truck and rolled onto a car, Pennsylvania State Police report. The highway was closed for about 11 hours following the 2:10 a.m. wreck, with the westbound lanes finally reopening after 1 p.m. Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said. It was another three and a half hours before the eastbound lanes once again hosted traffic. Two people in the car were trapped for about three hours before being extricated by firefighters and Fast Lane Towing, police said. Both people suffered moderate injuries and were taken to St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill for treatment, police said. The westbound truck jackknifed, spinning clockwise into the median before hitting a raised dirt embankment and heading into the eastbound lanes, police said. It struck the oncoming truck's trailer, causing it to go off the right shoulder and over the guardrail before heading down an embankment, police said. The truck's tractor stayed connected and in the shoulder, keeping the trailer from going farther down the bank, police said. The first tractor-trailer then rolled over onto the eastbound car which was in the left lane, police said. Damaged vehicles ended up on both sides of the highway. Fuel was spilled. Police did not immediately release the names of those in the trucks or the car. The road was shut for hours between the Route 33 and Hellertown-Bethlehem interchanges, causing local roads and Routes 33 and 22 to get tangled in detoured traffic. State police were assisted by Bethlehem police andfirefighters, Bethlehem EMS, Lower Saucon firefighters and EMS, Dewey firefighters and EMS, Bethlehem Township firefighters and EMS, Williams Township firefighters, Lehigh County haz-mat personnel, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and local emergency management personnel. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A substitute custodian at Easton Area Middle School was in custody Thursday night after he made a threat to another employee involving the Forks Township campus, an Easton Area School District official said. The campus was evacuated not long after the end of school. An arrest warrant in District Judge Jacqueline Taschner's court charged William Raymond Strunk, 60, of 100 block of Brentwood Avenue in Palmer Township, with a felony count of making terroristic threats to cause a public inconvenience. Strunk was picked up by Palmer police at his home in the township, Director of Safe Schools John Remaley said. Strunk was arraigned at 10:53 p.m. on the single charge before District Judge Alicia Rose Zito, records say. Bail was set at $100,000 and he was housed in Northampton County Prison, records say. His preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. Oct. 11 in Taschner's court. The threat was to return to the school and do harm, but Remaley didn't go into details. Authorities learned Strunk owned a handgun, which "made it a more viable threat," Remaley said. The middle school, Shawnee Elementary and Forks Elementary, which is temporarily housed within a middle school building, were cleared and students, staff and athletes were taken to Tracy Elementary School on Tatamy Road in Palmer to begin their trips home, the district said. Having Strunk in custody provides "some form of closure" in a situation made all the more serious by the current culture of violence involving schools, Remaley said. School will open on time in the morning, Superintendent John Reinhart said. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The man accused of a shooting at the Lehigh Valley Mall waived his hearing Friday, after a supporter allegedly took a cellphone photo of a witness set to testify. Miles Harper, 19, was in court Friday for his preliminary hearing on attempted homicide and aggravated assault charges stemming from the June 1 shooting in the Whitehall Township mall parking lot. Witnesses failed to show for the scheduled court date in August. On Friday, one witness arrived late. A young man, the boyfriend of Harper's girlfriend's sister, according to Harper's attorney, allegedly used the cellphone of Harper's mother to take a photo of the witness in the courthouse hallway. Deputies seized the phone in court, and escorted the alleged photographer out. In the hallway outside the hearing room, the man said there were no photos on the phone. When confronted with a photo of the witness on the phone, he said it was "an accident." He was taken into custody and prosecutors said the incident is under investigation. Harper didn't say anything in court as he signed his waiver paperwork. His mother said she loved him as he was walked back to county jail. Harper remains in county jail in lieu of $1 million bail in the case. Police were called for the shooting shortly after 7 p.m. June 1 in the parking lot between Macy's and Route 22. The gunman fled, leaving two victims: one male wounded in the torso, the other male shot in the waist/pelvic area. Both were hospitalized but survived. Authorities have not identified the victims to ensure their safety. One victim cooperated with investigators, and said the incident started with a fight with Harper outside the interior entrance of Macy's Department Store, according to police. Associates, members of the Money Rules Everything gang and another gang joined the fight, police said. When the victim allegedly saw Harper with a gun, he and his friends ran. Defense attorney Michael Moyer said his client denies being in the gang. Harper was at the mall that night with his girlfriend and baby, when he was "cornered" by the other group. The fight was over "bad blood" but was not gang related, Moyer said, and a friend gave Harper a gun. Court documents that identified a handful of men as MRE gang members were hearsay and innuendo, Moyer added. "I don't know how much proof there is" that the men belonged to a gang, he added. There have been plea negotiations in the case, and Moyer was confident the case would not go to trial. "We are very close to a plea agreement in the case," he said. Surveillance video recorded the fight and Harper holding a firearm, investigators said. The gang MRE is based out of Bethlehem, and police there said its members were behind the April 24 killing and burning of Tyrell Holmes in the city; a robbery and attack July 5 on the South Side; and an armed robbery at Moravian College. Bethlehem police said Holmes and several of his friends were involved in a "drug rip" robbery involving marijuana. Holmes could be identified as one of the five men who robbed the victim, and gang members became aware of that fact, according to police. Prosecutors said Holmes was repeatedly stabbed and then set on fire while he was still alive near the Parkhurst Apartments in the 1800 block of Barbara Street. His burning body was left beside a dumpster. No one has been charged in Holmes' killing. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. UPDATE: Fugitive jailed without bail on child rape charges A dangerous fugitive on the run since last week was caught Friday in a bedroom closet in Pennsylvania, authorities said. David Allen Hamilton Jr., 47, of Lower Southampton Township in Bucks County, was on the run from authorities since being charged Sept. 19 with two counts of child rape and 10 related crimes, said to have occurred in 2013. He was also wanted on aggravated assault and related charges for allegedly fighting with and trying to take the firearm of a New Hope police officer Sept. 21. U.S. Marshals said they received a tip, and searched a home in the 100 block of Roberts Road in Aston, Delaware County. Marshals believe the home belongs to a female relative of Hamilton. Hamilton was found hiding in an upstairs bedroom closet, authorities said. He was arrested without incident. "This sexual predator placed the community in significant danger. We are extremely glad we were able to bring Mr. Hamilton in custody without incident and in a timely manner," Supervisory Deputy Robert Clark said in a news release. Hamilton is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army and was a Cavalry scout who served two tours in Iraq, Lower Southampton police Chief Ted Krimmel said, citing information from family and friends of the fugitive. The manhunt spanned the Delaware River. Hamilton was spotted on a bicycle Sept. 20 in Morrisville, Bucks County, where police found his white 2016 Toyota Corolla, then was seen crossing the Calhoun Street Bridge into Trenton about 12:15 a.m. Sept. 21, authorities said. After the run-in with the New Hope officer that afternoon in Solebury Township, Bucks County, Hamilton was photographed by an archery hunter in a wooded area near Stoney Hill and Reeder roads in the township, according to police. That night, a Friday, Hamilton began hiding out in the Bobwhite Road home of a 78-year-old woman in Solebury, aided by the elderly woman's caregiver, investigators said. The caregiver, 58-year-old New Hope resident Meredith Custodio, was arrested Sept. 26 on hindering apprehension and conspiracy charges and sent to Bucks County prison. By the morning of Sept. 26, Hamilton had disappeared and was believed to have stolen a white Toyota Avalon with Pennsylvania license plate PD3759P. The U.S. Marshals Service on Sept. 26 released a surveillance photo purported to show Hamilton buying a tent Sept. 15 at the Target Oxford Valley Store in Langhorne, Bucks County. Authorities asked for the public's help in keeping an eye out for the Avalon and Hamilton's white tent with red rain fly, and they said he may be hiding out along the Delaware River or Canal area. Police advised residents to keep their doors locked at home and on outbuildings like sheds or barns. Anyone with information on Hamilton's whereabouts was urged to call the U.S. Marshals tip-line at 866-865-8477 (TIPS) or 911. Investigators offered a $1,000 reward for information leading directly to Hamilton's arrest. "I would again ask residents of Hunterdon County especially those in the western region to please remain vigilant, if located call 911 immediately, and remind everyone that all tips submitted will be kept anonymous," Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns III said in announcing the CrimeStoppers reward Sept. 26. The manhunt began as U.S. Marshals were wrapping up a three-month search for Shawn Christy, the New Jersey native and Pennsylvania resident accused of threatening President Donald Trump and other officials. He was arrested Sept. 21 in Ohio and was awaiting extradition back to Pennsylvania on federal and local charges. The Hamilton search also came during the fourth anniversary of the 48-day hunt for cop killer Eric Frein in September and October 2014 in Monroe and Pike counties. Frein was convicted of killing Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Bryon Dickson II and wounding Trooper Alex Douglass in a Sept. 12, 2014, ambush on the state police Blooming Grove barracks in Pike County. He was sentenced to death and is appealing his conviction. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A judge denied bail Friday for the Bucks County man who, for more than a week, evaded authorities who had a warrant for his arrest. Fugitive David A. Hamilton Jr., 47, of Bucks County, is taken into custody Sept. 28, 2018, in Aston, Delaware County, following a nine-day manhunt. He is charged in the rape of two young girls and, while he was on the run, assaulting a police officer. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com) David A. Hamilton Jr., 47, of Feasterville, Pennsylvania, was captured Friday morning and arraigned Friday afternoon in the child rape case that led him to flee from police. Lower Southampton Township police in Bucks County obtained the arrest warrant Sept. 19 for Hamilton. On the run, he made his way into Trenton and hid out in a Solebury Township, Bucks County, home with a woman charged with hindering his apprehension, police said. He also faces an aggravated assault charge and a related felony for allegedly fighting with a police officer in New Hope, Bucks County, and trying to take the officer's gun Sept. 21. U.S. Marshals on Friday said they received a tip, and searched a home in the 100 block of Roberts Road in Aston, Delaware County, where Hamilton was found hiding in an upstairs bedroom closet. He was arrested without further incident. Investigators believe the home belongs to a female relative of Hamilton. He was arraigned in the child rape case Friday afternoon before District Judge Daniel Baranoski in Penndel, Bucks County. In sending him to county prison with bail denied, Baranoski called Hamilton a flight risk and danger to the community, court records show. Hamilton is charged with 12 felonies, including rape of child; aggravated indecent assault; indecent assault; involuntary deviate sexual assault with child; photographing, filming or depicting on a computer a sex act involving a child; and statutory sexual assault. Court records did not immediately list a defense attorney for Hamilton. Lower Southampton police earlier this week described the victims as minor females related to each other but not to Hamilton. Police learned of the alleged sexual assaults Sept. 14 and say they began about five years ago and continued through this past Sept. 10. They occurred at at least three different locations in Bucks County, police said. Hamilton was not immediately arraigned Friday afternoon in the New Hope police officer assault. In that case, the borough police officer responded to the report of a wanted individual -- Hamilton -- sitting on a curb in the area of Stoney Hill Road by Sugan Road, according to court records. Officer Steven Gruber recognized Hamilton as wanted on child rape charges, after his "photo had been widely distributed on social media," court records say. Gruber began talking to Hamilton, who tried to flee on a bicycle, according to police; the two began to wrestle. "During the confrontation, the defendant got Officer Gruber onto his back and while the defendant was above him, Officer Gruber believed that he was attempting to grab his weapon," court records say. The officer "was able to retain his weapon, but in doing so, the defendant was able to flee through the woods." Gruber was injured in the fight and unable to catch Hamilton, who then continued to elude police until Friday, police said. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The next boss of prisons in Portlaoise and elsewhere will be paid a six figure salary but to earn it the person must be able to cope with a 'high pressurised' role that involves a 341 million budget for 12 jails run by 3,200 staff who secure 4,300 prisoners. That is according to the job spec advertised by the Irish Prison Service (IPS) following the resignation of Michael Donnellan two years into his second five year term as Director General. Details of what the job entails are published by the State's recruitment body Public Jobs. It says the next director will continue to be based at the IPS HQ in Longford and serve a five year term. As for what is required the new DG will be asked to delivering on the mission to provide safe and secure custody, dignity of care and rehabilitation of prisoners to ensure safer communities. The spec says there are currently 12 institutions in the Irish prison system accommodating approximately 4,300 prisoners. "Accepting personal accountability to the Minister (for Justice) through the Secretary General for the operation of the Prison Service, including the security and safety of prisons and places of detention, managing a budget of 341m and staff in excess of 3,200. The appointee must be able to cope with a high pressure working environment in which there is keen political and media interest" The salary with effect from October 1, 2018 is 175,111 excluding expenses. The rate applies where the appointee is an existing civil or public servant appointed on or after April 1995 or is newly recruited to the Civil Service and is required to make a personal pension contribution. The salary will not be subject to negotiation but may be changed in line with Government policy. The appointee may not engage in private practice or be connected with any outside business. When absent from home and headquarters on official duty, the appointee will be paid appropriate travelling expenses and subsistence allowances, subject to normal civil service regulations. Working hours will be fixed from time to time but will amount to not less than 43 hours 15 minutes gross per week. Other requirements of the job include leading the management team within the context of "democratic political accountability structures". The new boss will also have to relate "effectively to the key interests" listed as: the Minister/Department, senior management, staff, trade unions, political, media, NGOs, prisoners, and families. Another requirement is delivering value for money by ensuring the effective and efficient delivery of services within budgetary frameworks and in compliance with the Public Spending Code The new boss will also be responsible for ensuring that capital projects are properly appraised, planned, delivered and evaluated in order to enhance and streamline prison services. The Department of Justice have declined to reveal why Mr Donnellan stepped down early. The Prison Service say it was for personal reasons and a letter was sent to the Minister Charlie Flanagan to whom Mr Donnellan reports. Having already upset the odds and defeated Mountmellick Gaels once this year, Courtwood will look to repeat the trick again this Saturday night in a highly anticipated Laois IFC final. As has generally been the case in the IFC, the recently relegated side, Mountmellick Gaels, were widely expected to breeze through the competition and return to the SFC ranks, especially so given the fact they were allowed to retain the Castletown players. Courtwood shattered that illusion in Round 1 by claiming a narrow victory, and they have kicked on since, picking up convincing wins over Timahoe and Portlaoise to book their place in the final. Manager Eddie Kinsella is getting the most out of this talented young team, and they will be primed for another cut at Mountmellick on Saturday night. Niall Donoher will roam and probe and get their attack in gear, while they have an abundance of scoring threats too. In just three games, they have scored 7-43, an average of a little over 21 points per game, which is mightily impressive. It should be hard to beat, but Mountmellick Gaels can go (literally) one better, as they have averaged a little over 22 points per game in their four outings, scoring a total of 10-60. For their part, perhaps the best thing that could have happened Mountmellick Gaels was losing that game, as it gave them an early warning of what Courtwood were capable of. Mountmellick would have been aware they entered this competition as favourites, so the early shock could have done them a favour. They took the defeat in their stride, bouncing back with big wins over Barrowhouse, The Rock and then Rosenallis in the semi-finals. They are, on paper, probably the better side, although not by much. Even though they lost that opening round game, they are probably still slight favourites here. They are a bit more physically imposing than Courtwood, although there is enough room in O'Moore Park for Courtwood to play to their own strengths. Courtwood will be a senior club soon, the age profile of their squad would point to that. The Clonaslee team which was relegated from the SFC this year, if they are forced to go it alone at IFC level in 2019, would struggle against either of these teams next year. That's a side issue for now though, because neither of these teams are contemplating that. The reality of this clash is that is could well be the best game O'Moore Park sees this weekend. Both teams have potent attacks, there is an awful lot at stake and they will be going hell-for-leather at each other. In spite of Courtwood winning that opening round game, we have a feeling that could have worked to Mountmellick Gaels' favour. That's why they get the nod to win this one, but if the form of both teams holds, there should only be a score or two in it. A woman who stole a bottle of brandy because she wanted something nice for herself for Christmas has been given a suspended sentence after she failed to complete community service. In March of this year, Carmen Rostas (29), Cosby Avenue, Fairgreen, Portlaoise, was convicted of theft, from Tesco, Portlaoise, on December 24, 2017. When she first appeared before the district court in February last, the court heard the accused stole a bottle of brandy. Sgt JJ Kirby told the district court that the accused had eight previous convictions, three for theft. Defence, Ms Thomasina Connell said her client, a mother of three, wanted something nice for herself for Christmas and took an opportunity. The accused, a Romanian national, came to Ireland in 2004 and was on social welfare. She was trying to do the best she could and it was Christmas Eve, said Ms Connell. Remarked Judge Catherine Staines: I would understand if she took toys or food for the children, but a bottle of brandy? The judge imposed 80 hours community service in lieu of three months in prison. However, an issue then arose over the accuseds ability to do community service as she looks after her children. Despite this, Judge Staines reaffirmed her order of 80 hours community service and warned the accused that if she did not do it, she could face three months in prison. At last weeks court, the accused was brought before Judge Staines for breaching the community service order. Probation officer Ms Ann Walsh gave evidence that the accused did attend with probation several times, but her husband is now in prison and she has no one to mind her children. Judge Staines imposed three months in prison, suspended for one year on a bond of 100. More than 40 editors from local, regional and national newspaper titles briefed members of the Oireachtas last Wednesday on the need for Budget 2019 to include supports for independent journalism in Ireland. Local Ireland and NewsBrands Ireland have a campaign underway called #JournalismMatters, which highlights the need to support Irish journalism, now more than ever. The campaign calls on the Government to use Budget 2019 to deliver on a five-point-plan for the industry: - Apply a 5 per centVAT rate to newspapers and digital products in Budget 2019, ahead of ultimately reducing to 0% once EU laws allow - Reform Irelands draconian defamation laws to ensure that the stories that need to be told, are told - Appoint a Minister for Media a single member of the Cabinet should have oversight for all aspects of our complex media landscape - Establish a News Publishers Media Fund to drive innovation and investment - Invest in a training support scheme for all journalists - #JournalismMatters President of Local Ireland, Frank Mulrennan said, Aside from the loss to democratic life in our society, the losses will be big in many communities jobs will go, not just in the newspaper titles, but many of the supporting ones in newsagents and other indirect jobs. Without strong and healthy local newspapers politicians will be challenged in maintaining engagement with the electorate because local newspapers reach at least 1.5 million people across Ireland each week. Chairman of NewsBrands Ireland, Vincent Crowley said, The future of Irish journalism is at a crossroads and government inaction now is simply not an option. Without the supports and investment, and clarity on VAT rates, the sector will not be able to thrive and invest, but will falter and publications will be forced to close or at best scale back on the good, independent journalism that has been a bedrock of Irish democracy. The budget gives the government the opportunity to send a strong message that it appreciates a vibrant news media industry and is seeking ways to protect it for future generations. Health campaigners have called a public meeting in Portlaoise where the possible extensive downgrade of Portlaoise hospital and a new national health services campaign will be discussed. The Still Waiting Ireland Health campaign says it has a number of reasons for calling the meeting which has been co-organised by members of the the Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee . They say they want to inform the public about how the Portlaoise committee is now represented on the national Still Waiting Ireland Committee. It is hoped the public meeting will help promote Laois involvment in a national demonstration on the health services fixed for Dublin on Saturday, October 6. Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee speakers will also update the public on the campaign against downgrade. The organisers say medics will speak about the 'health crisis' and where the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise fits into the big picture. A&E, ICU maternity, paediatrics and most surgery in an existing downgrade plan. Members of the Portlaoise campaign are also due to give an update on progress with the report which they have been writing in collaboration with the local medics. They intend outline how they will be able to contribute to the consultation process. "We recommend that people arrive early to secure a seat. We look forward to connecting with the passionate people of Laois and beyond in order to move our campaign forward," said a statement. The meeting will also promote the new website of the Portlaoise campaign ww.ourhospitalsmatter.ie The meeting, scheduled to last an hour, takes place this Friday, September 28 at 7.30pm in the Maryborough Suite of the Midland Park Hotel, Portlaoise. Two fun charity nights are on the way to help the vital work of Portlaoise Action to Homelessness charity PATH. PATH volunteers spend every Saturday evening pulling a big cart of hot stews, drinks, food and clothes around the streets of Dublin to give out to homeless people sleeping rough. The next big fundraiser is Dancing at Dixie's, a country & western music dance featuring John Molloy and guests, at Napper Tandy's Stradbally this Friday September 28 at 9.30pm. Tickets are 10 on the door. A big raffle has prizes donated by Laois businesses. Then on November 2, Manhattan Mixer in Portlaoise will host a Fr Ted comedy night, with a Lovely Girls competition. It is an interactive stand-up show by Fr Ted actors, comedians Joe Rooney and Patrick McDonnell. Tickets are 15. Irene Redmond is the chairperson of PATH and said the homeless situation is worsening. We bring as much as we can, with stews from Treacy's restaurant and sandwiches but it is not enough. Everyone is so grateful to us. We could do with more male volunteers as the cart is heavy, she said. They now need donations of small tents, underwear, socks, hats, scarves and gloves, crisps and chocolate. Drop to Portlaoise Parish Centre or call PATH to collect items at 087 7744043. A major new exhibition at the Dunamaise Arts Centre in October will salute Colonel James Fitzmaurice, the Portlaoise airman affectionately known as Fitz, who flew into aviation history by co-piloting the first aeroplane to successfully cross the Atlantic in a westerly direction. The 90th anniversary of the momentous flight will be marked with a weekend of events in Portlaoise, starting with a celebration evening at the Dunamaise Arts Centre on Friday, October 5, including the formal opening of the exhibition, presentations on the flight and the people behind it, and screening of archive footage. The following day, October 6, will see a fly-past in Portlaoise with historic aircraft by members of the Irish Historic Flight Foundation, established in 2014 to promote the historical aspects of aviation in the State. The fly past will use historic chipmunk aircraft, and the event will also feature a guard of honour and wreath laying in memory of the aviators at County Hall, Portlaoise. Fitzmaurice Place - named in honour of Col Fitzmaurice is currently being upgraded as part of the Heritage Council-funded urban regeneration works in the centre of Portlaoise. The exhibition of original artefacts from the flight and new works in response to the achievement will be curated by artist, Brendon Deacy, at the Dunamaise Arts Centre for the month of October, in recognition of Fitzmaurices accomplishment. Relatives of all three of the adventurers have enthusiastically accepted invitations to attend the Portlaoise events. The commemorations have been led by Teddy Fennelly of Laois Heritage Society, who y wrote the book on the subject Fitz and the Famous Flight. He has supplied memorabilia for display as well as acting as historical advisor to the commemorations. The First East-West Transatlantic Flight ocurred on the 12th of April 1928, the Bremen took off from an Aerodrome outside Dublin with a crew of three: Fitz, Captain Hermann Kohl and Baron Von Huenefeld. Thirty-six hours later the world changed as they landed on Greenly Island, Canada. Fitzs thrilling life story, from his formative years in Laois to his fearless flight and legacy, is told through original artefacts, information panels and short films designed and curated by artist Brendon Deacy. The international dimension of the flight is being celebrated as well, with relatives of the German aviators, and representatives of flying clubs in Bremen in Northern Germany scheduled to attend. In April of this year a Laois delegation made up of then Cathaoirleach Padraig Fleming, author Teddy Fennelly, Heritage Officer Catherine Casey, artist Brendon Deacy and MDA Manager Patrick Buggy attended the ninetieth anniversary celebrations of the flight in Bremen, where the original aircraft has been restored and is on public display. Since then, close links have been developed with representatives from across Germany, in celebrating the joint Irish German achievement. Michael Parsons is Chair of the Heritage Council and a member of the Fitzmaurice Commemoration Committee. In this European Year of Cultural Heritage, it is fitting that the aviation heritage of Ireland and Germany is being commemorated in this co-operative way. The theme of the European Year is connecting local communities with their heritage, and the Fitzmaurice commemoration is a great example of how these connections are being made across Europe. The Heritage Council is delighted to be able to support the events and the exhibition. Attendance at the events on 5th and 6th October is free and all are welcome. For more information on the event and to reserve your ticket, please contact the Dunamaise Arts Centre, 057 866 3355, www.dunamaise.ie. Brendon Decays exhibition runs at the Dunamaise Arts Centre from October 1 to 25. The commemorations are supported by Laois County Council, the Heritage Council, Creative Ireland Laois, Laois Heritage Society and the Dunamaise Arts Centre. x The Wives and Partners of the Defence Forces (WPDF) marched for better pay and working conditions for members in Dublin last Wednesday, September 19. They claim that the Defence Forces is in crisis, coping with poor pay, declining training standards and ever more people seeking to leave. Our families live in poverty, we suffer from food, income, fuel and child poverty, said spokesperson Sarah Walshe, who lives in Newbridge. It is the new members mostly affected, on yellow pack contracts and low pay, and they have to go after 21 years. I was talking to a soldier based at the Curragh Camp recently who has only been in the forces for three years. She just wants to go overseas to make enough for a deposit for a house and then she will leave there is no incentive for people to stay. While members of the Defence Forces, through their Representative Associations, PDFORRA and RACO, have recently accepted the provisions of the Public Service Pay Agreements and increases in pay have been made accordingly, these do not go far enough, according to Ms Walsh. It is breadcrumbs what they are getting, she added. They are in dire straits and they can't say no, and some of the allowances that were cut do not come under the Landsdowne Road agreement. These are unique to the Defence Forces and have left members worse off than nurses and teachers. There are over 1,000 solders in the Curragh and most of them can't afford the rent rises in Newbridge and areas around the Camp. There are 48 vacant homes in the camp, which, although in bad condition, could be repaired. They need to set up a housing agency in the Defence Forces instead of putting them on the council housing list. Many of these soldiers are young, in crisis and are feeling isolated and fearful of speaking out because they don't want to look bad. The morale is very low. In response, the Minister for Defence Paul Kehoe TD said the Government has requested the Public Service Pay Commission to examine issues of recruitment and retention in the Defence Forces. We are in a process of restoring pay and reversing the cuts that were introduced across the public service during the economic downturn, he said in a statement to the Leader. Kildare independent Cllr Joanne Pender, who also attended the march, said members often need to rely on Family Income Supplement from social welfare. Promised pay increases can't come quick enough and as usual these families will turn to high interest loan sharks for Christmas just to get by. SEE ALSO: Frustration over Curragh Over 700 Intel employees have put together over 1,200 care packages for Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH). The care packages include sanitary products, perishable food items and non-perishable food items. The pack events took part on both days and nights on Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 September. And with all shifts engaged, over 700 employees took part, putting together 1200 packages. The packs were then handed out by volunteers that night, ensuring that those less fortunate got the supplies they needed. In addition to the donation of the care packs, Intel will also match the hours contributed to the charity by employees with $10 per hour paid from the Intel Foundation to ICHH. All employees at the Leixlip based campus had the opportunity to engage in worthy causes this month with September being named a 'Do Wonderful Month'. According to a spokesperson the month consisted of a Charity Cycle, a pack for Dogs Trust and a clothes collection for Dress for Success. However, central to the Do Wonderful Month were four pack events, in aid of Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH). Founded in November 2013, ICHH was a direct result of an increased number of people sleeping rough in Dublin City. ICHH outreach volunteers are on the streets of Dublin 7 nights a week. Bringing supplies such as tea, coffee, sandwiches, fruit, gloves and scarves. But most importantly they offer empathy and compassion that can have a positive impact on those living rough in the city. Brian McLoughlin, Head of Communications from Inner City Helping Homeless, added: We are so appreciative of the hard work and support from everyone at Intel Ireland as part of their Do Wonderful Month. Our outreach volunteers are assisting 120-160 people a night on the streets of Dublin and surrounding areas 7 nights a week so the food and sanitary packages put together by Intel staff went straight out onto the streets to the most vulnerable in society that need our help the most. SEE ALSO: Intel employees take to their bikes The official opening of the new Newbridge Citizens Information Centre office on Cutlery Road takes place today. Kildare TD and Ceann Comhairle, Sean O Fearghail will officially open the new building at 1.30pm. Also in attendance will be Grainne Griffin, Senior Manager with the Citizens Information Board; James Blighe, Chairperson of the North Leinster Citizens Information Service CLG; Noel OConnor, Regional Manager North Leinster Citizens Information Service CLG; elected representatives, staff and volunteers of the Newbridge office. Joan OConnor, Development Manager for South Kildare said; Our new premises in Newbridge affords us the opportunity to further extend the service we offer to the people of Newbridge and beyond. This stand-alone centre with a walk in reception, three interview room, a dedicated advocacy office and board room allows us to deliver a quality service to all. We are very grateful for the support of the Citizens Information Board and the North Leinster Citizens information Service CLG in supporting this project. The first Citizens Information Office was opened in Newbridge in 1976 and the service has developed and expanded in its over forty years of existence. Thousands of people have been supported with a free and confidential information, advice and advocacy service across the full range of state services and entitlements. In 2017 11,947 queries were dealt with and all the signs are that this number will significantly increase by the end of the year. A Free Legal Advice Clinic (FLAC) and a CAVA (Chartered Accountants Voluntary Advice) service are also available in the Newbridge office. Essential to this is the website provided by the Citizens Information Board www.citizensinformation.ie and the Citizens Information Phone Service on 0761 07 4000. These services are fully funded by the Citizens Information Board. Two brothers have appeared in court following a chase involving the Garda helicopter that occured on Wednesday. Joseph Donoghue, 29, with an address listed as 10 Stocking Hill, Stocking Lane, Rathfarnham, and Thomas ODonoghue, 24, with an address listed as 13 Cloonmore Avenue, Tallaght face charges relating the discovery in their car of a screwdriver and gloves, as well as items which Gardai alleged were stolen. The two men appeared at Naas District Court on Thursday, September 27, where Gardai objected to bail for the pair of them. Garda Michael ODonovan alleged that the men were arrested following a high speed chase by road. There were, Garda ODonovan told the court, four occupants in the car at the moment that Gardai apprehended them at Castledillon, Straffan. The Garda helicopter was involved in the chase, he said. Garda ODonovan objected to bail on the basis of the seriousness of the charge, and the fact that they did what they could to evade capture by Gardai. He told the court that if given bail, he believed they would not appear to answer the charges. Judge Desmond Zaidan refused bail and remanded the pair to remain in custody for a week. As Lidl ploughs ahead on work for its new distribution centre and the link road on the outskirts of Newbridge, another prime development site has come on the market at Little Connell. This strategic industrial land bank has been put on the market for 11 million through joint agents Lisney and Conway Auctioneers. Read also: My Kildare Life interview with Newbridge blogger Sarah Mc Dermott The entire site covers 224.8 acres and is partly zoned industrial, agricultural and unzoned. It borders the dual carriageway running from Naas to Newbridge and is on the right hand side of the road coming out of Newbridge towards Naas. The land is adjacent to the massive Lidl distribution centre, which is currently under construction, and the Pfizer plant. The site is divided in three lots. Lot one consists of an 11.4-acre site of mainly industrial land which adjoins the Lidl site. It has a guide price of 1.8 million. These lands will be serviced by the construction of the new link road from the R445 through to the original Lidl distribution centre on the Great Connell Road. Lot two consists of 98.5 acres and is mostly zoned industrial. This has a guide price of 6.2 million. Lot three contains 114.9 acres of unzoned/part-zoned agricultural land. This has a price tag of 3 million. This location is one of the most strategic for the establishment of any logistics facilities for distribution to the entire country and its ease of access has meant companies such as Aldi, Lidl, Primark and DSV are all located in the vicinity, said the agents. At over 54,000m2 the Lidl distribution hub is one of the largest building projects undertaken in Ireland this year. When complete, the company has said it will employ a workforce of over 350 including 100 newly created positions. The development includes the first part of the long-awaited Newbridge bypass. Another significant land holding is also for sale at nearby Great Connell. This property comprises of 44.5 acres with two existing houses, extensive farmyards and stables and outbuildings, formerly Greatconnell Stud. The property is zoned part industrial, and industrial and warehousing and agricultural. JPM Doyle is looking after the sale. HE is one of the wealthiest men in Ireland and owns the Adare Manor Hotel, but this week strong rumours that JP McManus had also purchased the nearby Dunraven Arms Hotel have been strongly denied. Such was the intensity of the gossip that staff at the popular hotel in Adare were assured that there was no truth to the rumours that had taken Limerick by storm, the Limerick Leader understands. The Dunraven Arms is run by the Murphy family, who like Mr McManus have strong links to the racing industry. But no one was available for comment at the Dunraven this week. Also sources close to Mr McManus were not available for comment on the matter. Journalists from a number of national media outlets had been making efforts to stand up the story, but the Limerick Leader has been assured that there is no truth whatsoever to the gossip from informed sources. This gossip has taken Adare by storm, but staff at the Dunraven have been assured that there is no truth at all to the story, said a well placed source in the hotel industry. Meanwhile, JP's Adare Manor continues to pick up plaudits, taking home two Gold Medal Awards this week at an event hosted by the Hotel and Catering review, the latest in a slew of accolades for the resort. THE head of the Limerick garda division says gardai require evidence to prosecute drugs suspects even if the dogs on the street know who they are. Chief Supt Gerard Roche was responding to claims that cocaine is being openly sold in towns and villages along the Shannon Estuary. Cllr Emmett OBrien said the identity of local drug dealers and their bosses is widely known but that it appears nothing is being done to apprehend them. The barrister claimed cocaine is being openly sold in pubs in towns and villages across West Limerick. They are brazen in terms of their public dealing of cocaine, he said adding that he has repeatedly raised the issue. Repeated questions are being asked as to why moves are not being made on these people, he said. Cllr Stephen Keary said the use of illicit drugs has reached epidemic levels in west Limerick and needs to be tackled. He says one incident over the summer shows the extent of the problem. There were a lot of sporting occasions this year during the summer where buses were engaged to ferry people to games and there was one particular bus which left one particular location in County Limerick and 90% of the occupants of that bus were engaged in the use of illegal substances, he said. Addressing members of the Joint Policing Committee, Chief Supt Roche said more than 1.1m worth of illegal drugs has been seized in Limerick so far this year. He said mid-level dealers are being specifically targeted and that gardai require evidence before they can prosecute people for drugs offences. So far this year almost 600 people have been caught in Limerick with drugs for their own person use. WE are hopeful that there can be a resolution, Minister of State Patrick ODonovan has said after the US announced a three week extension before sanctions kick in for Rusal, owners of Aughinish Alumina. We would hope that the additional time will facilitate a resolution of the issues in a way that protects the jobs at Aughinish Alumina. We are in close, almost permanent, contact with the management in Aughinish, continued Minister ODonovan who has been deeply involved in the Irish governments efforts to avert sanctions on Aughinish which supplies up to 30% of Europes alumina. As a government we are working closely with the company and the US authorities, he continued pointing out that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Ministers Simon Coveney and Heather Humphreys have all put their weight behind the issue. As late as this Tuesday, the Taoiseach, speaking in New York, said he wanted a more long-term solution on the issue, not just a three-week extension. As part of the Irish effort to avert the Aughinish sanctions, Minister ODonovan and Minister of State for Trade Pat Breen have travelled to the United States, and have held a number of meetings with US officials to explain the implications for Aughinish and its 450 workers. The Irish Ambassador to the US Dan Mulhall and his staff, have been superb in their efforts, Minister ODonovan said. As a government, we are conscious of making sure every avenue is explored, he said. We have had very good bilateral relations. But we are conscious of the fact we are dealing with state agencies in another jurisdiction: the State Department, the US Treasury and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Trade Minister Heather Humphreys welcomed the extension of the sanctions deadline and said her department had had regular and close contact with Aughinish. There has also been extensive engagement with the US authorities and our European partners in an effort to achieve a positive outcome, she said. This remains a difficult and complex situation but we remain determined to find a solution. Fianna Fail spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Niall Collins TD said he was very concerned that this latest extension is only for three weeks. The uncertainty and worry generated at the imposition of these sanctions by the US Government is not lost on the local community. Last April, the US treasury introduced sanctions targeting Russian individuals and businesses. These included sanctions on Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska the majority shareholder in EN+ Group which owns 48 per cent of Rusal, which owns Aughinish. The US authorities initially gave the company until the end of October to come up with a solution to address Mr Deripaskas interest in the company. At the weekend, this date was extended by a further three weeks. EN+ and Rusal have approached the U.S. Government about substantial corporate governance changes that could potentially result in significant changes in control to allow sufficient time for review, we are extending these licenses until November 12, a Treasury spokesperson said. But President Trumps 10% tariff on aluminium imports could also hurt Aughinish indirectly. Aughinish supplies alumina to some of the biggest users of aluminium in Europe, who then export their products to the US. EU imports were initially exempted but ultimately they will face the same rules. Aughinish employs 450 people directly with more jobs downstream. THE PRESIDENT of Ireland Michael D Higgins will visit Limerick city this Friday to deliver a keynote speech at the launch of a new strategy to boost migrants place in local life. The Limerick Integration Working Group, which has been operating in the city and county for around 10 years, will launch its third integration plan at Thomond Park this Friday morning. The aim of the three-year strategy is to strengthen migrants sense of belonging in Limerick, with an emphasis on language, education, access to public services, intercultural awareness, direct support services, and active citizenship. The working group is supported by Limerick City and County Council, the Jesuit Refugee Service and Doras Luimni, whose patron is President Higgins. President Higgins significant public appearance will be among the first since he officially threw his hat in the ring for the presidential election on October 26, when he will face Sinn Fein MEP Liadh Ni Riada, Sen Joan Freeman, and businessmen and reality TV figures, Sean Gallagher, Gavan Duffy and Peter Casey. Doras Luimni CEO Leonie Kerins said that the president has long been an outspoken champion for people from migrant and minority backgrounds living in Ireland. The groups chairperson Eugene Quinn, who is also director of the Jesuit Refugee Service Ireland, said the aim of the new strategy is to ensure that the voice and experience of migrants who have made Limerick their home is at its heart. The event, which kicks off at 10.30am at the stadium, will be launched by Mayor of Limerick James Collins. EDITORS from regional and national newspapers from across the country briefed TDs and senators in Dail Eireann on the need for support for independent journalism to be included in the forthcoming Budget. The industry leaders met with members of the Oireachtas in Dublin last week as part of a nationwide #JournalismMatters campaign, driven by Local Ireland and NewsBrands Ireland. The Limerick Leader was represented by Alan English, group editorial director with Iconic Newspapers, who own the Leader, and TDs and senators from the city and county. The major campaign calls on the Government to use the upcoming budget to deliver on a five-point plan for the industry. This includes a 5% Vat rate on newspapers and digital publications; a reformation of Irelands defamation laws to ensure that the stories that need to be told are told; the appointment of a Minister for Media, who will have oversight for all aspects of the complex media landscape; to establish a media fund for news publishers in order to drive innovation and investment; and to invest in a training support scheme for journalists. Local Ireland president, Frank Mulrennan, said that without strong local newspapers, politicians will be challenged in maintaining engagement with the electorate as local journalism reaches at least 1.5m people each week. Aside from the loss to democratic life in our society, the losses will be big in many communities jobs will go, not just in the newspaper titles, but many of the supporting ones in newsagents and other indirect jobs, he said. NewsBrands Ireland chairperson, Vincent Crowley, said the future of Irish journalism is at a crossroads and Government inaction now is simply not an option. Without the supports and investment, and clarity on VAT rates, the sector will not be able to thrive and invest, but will falter and publications will be forced to close or at best scale back on the good, independent journalism that has been a bedrock of Irish democracy. The forthcoming budget gives this government the opportunity to send a strong message that it appreciates a vibrant news media industry in this country and is seeking ways to protect it for future generations, he added. SIX MEN strode down the very same corridors of Castletroy College that they did a few years ago as boys. Limerick hurlers Dan and Tom Morrissey, Gearoid Hegarty, Barry Nash, Lorcan Lyons and Andrew La Touche Cosgrave were all dressed in a uniform of green zip up Limerick tops. It was eerily quiet. There wasnt a boy or girl to be seen which is rare in a school of over 1,200 pupils. They were all together patiently waiting for their heroes to arrive with the Liam MacCarthy Cup. Dan Morrissey strode through the final door into the gallery of the auditorium and lifted the Cup high in the air. The cheers that went up from the masses below rivalled Croke Park on All-Ireland final day. Indeed, signs for the Davin, Cusack, Hogan and Nally Stands adorned the four walls. The Cranberries Dreams being played added to the atmosphere. At this stage, the hurlers are well used to homecomings but this was special for them to come back to where they spent a large chunk of their formative years. After a few minutes of soaking it up and posing for photos they returned to the solitude of the corridors, went down the stairs and made their way into the auditorium. The place erupted again. .@CastletroyC goes absolutely ballistic for their six former pupils and All-Ireland champions pic.twitter.com/fZtvGwwduP Donal O'Regan (@DonalORegan1) September 21, 2018 They were welcomed by teacher and an MC to rival Marty Morrissey, Trevor Griffin. First up on stage was Limericks giant half back, Dan Morrissey. Trevor can recall a teacher telling him years ago that he had a good hurler from Ahane in first year. He said he had all the skills but he needs to grow a small bit. So anybody in first year who is a bit small this is what you could look like in a few years time, said Trevor. Gearoid Hegarty said it was a massive honour and thanked all the pupils and staff for an unbelievable reception. He had some words of advice for any aspiring young hurlers, both boys and girls. If you want something in life, no matter what it is, put in the hard work and you will be able to achieve it, said Gearoid. Tom Morrissey, Lorcan Lyons, Barry Nash and Andrew La Touche Cosgrave all got resounding roars when they took to the stage. The MC, Trevor, could be in line for extra teaching duties as he welcomed the principal, Padraig Flanagan, by saying, I could be wrong but I think he is the first Roscommon man to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup! Padraig said the six guys behind him were small little boys a few years ago with dreams, hopes and ambitions. They are stars on the hurling field, they are successful personally and they are nice guys. Those are three aspirations for every one of you boys and girls aged between 12 and 18 to be successful in your life, have some hobby and you mightnt be an All-Star but you can be a star, and most importantly of all is that you are a nice person and you treat people with respect. These six guys are an absolute credit to their families, to themselves, to their clubs and to their former school, and they are an example to all of you that you can achieve whatever it is, said Padraig. The school had a surprise for the six. A framed Castletroy College jersey with their name and All-Ireland champions on each one was presented to each player. As three of the hurlers have siblings in the school they were the ideal ones to hand over the jerseys. Diarmaid Hegarty, Ronan Lyons and Laura Nash presented Gearoid, Lorcan and Barry respectively with their framed mementoes. Andrew La Touche Cosgrave received his from fellow Monaleen man Joe Fitzgerald. Dan Morrissey got his from Ahane camogie player Caoimhe Hackett. One of the biggest cheers of the Friday afternoon went up when it was announced that first year student and massive Limerick hurling supporter, Eoghan Kelleher would present Tom Morrissey with his jersey. The broad smile on Eoghans face as he returned to his place in the crowd summed up a day in Castletroy College that will live long in the memory. See page 42 of L2 for more photographs TWO HUNDRED trees were removed and a new aircraft route to University Hospital Limericks helipad was created, after local residents complained of disruptions caused by helicopters landing at the hospital. In severe emergency scenarios, casualties are transported to UHL via helicopter so that patients can be treated in a timely manner. Members of Dooradoyle Estate and St Nessans Park Residents Association have lodged complaints with the UL Hospitals Group over disruption caused by aircraft landing at the helipad. Sinn Fein councillor Malachy McCreesh raised the issue with the CEO of the UL Hospitals Group, Prof Colette Cowan at the Regional West Health Forum in May last. Cllr McCreesh said that residents had been promised a response to their correspondence by June 2017almost a year at that stage. Prof Cowan said, following a review of an annual safety and aviation audit, trees which were located near the helipad have been removed, resulting in improved access to the helipad and the addition of new approach routes. The UL Hospitals Group confirmed this week that a total of 200 trees were removed. Prof Cowan said at the meeting that the Group has sought and received agreement with Shannon Airport, the Army and Search and Rescue that they use these alternative routes to the helipad in an effort to minimise disruption to some of the houses who were experiencing the downwash of air from helicopters at the UHL site. However, it should be noted that on rare occasions, depending on the wind direction, it may be necessary for pilots to revert to the original flight path. A spokesperson told this newspaper that helicopter crews have been asked to use the sectors to the Southeast and Southwest of the hospital to approach for landing and to take off, dependent on wind direction. Ms Cowan concluded at the meeting: We expect these new arrangements to reduce the impact of the helicopters to our neighbours and a response to the Dooradoyle Estate and St Nessans Park Residents Association is being drafted outlining the work undertaken and arrangements for follow-up. A COUNTY Limerick man has been charged with thirty counts of theft from a Community Council bank account controlled by the parish priest. John Lonergan, aged 55, of Knockainey, appeared before Judge Marian OLeary in Kilmallock Court. The 30 alleged offences under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act are from Fr Liam Holmes who held a bank account on behalf of Knockainey Community Council. It is alleged Mr Lonergan cashed cheques purporting to be from the parish priest. They are alleged to have taken place on dates between 2009 and 2017 at a location at Main Street, Hospital. Detective Garda Chris Cowan, of Bruff Garda Station, gave evidence of arresting Mr Lonergan on the morning of the court for the purpose of charging him. The court heard that Mr Lonergans reply to the 30 charges after caution was: I am guilty of these things. Det Garda Cowan said there was no objection to bail by the State. Mr Lonergan was represented by Brendan Gill, solicitor, during the brief hearing in Kilmallock Court. Sergeant Michelle Leahy said the Director of Public Prosecutions has directed trial on indictment. The case was adjourned until October 26 for service of the book of evidence. FORMER Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has officially launched Senator Maria Byrnes general election campaign. Mr Noonan, who will not run in the next election after sitting in the Dail for 37 years, said on Thursday night at Bobby Byrnes pub he couldnt think of a better or nicer person to succeed me in the Dail. The Fine Gael senator was selected to run for the Limerick City constituency alongside fellow senator Kieran ODonnell. Senator Byrne, who first entered politics as a Young Fine Gael member, age 14, and was elected to Limerick City Council in 1999, was elected to Seanad Eireann in early 2016. She said it was appropriate for the former minister to launch her campaign, as she has been involved with him since he was elected 1981. She mentioned her late father and former mayor, Bobby Byrne, as an inspiration. Sen Byrne said that, following Limericks economic success in recent years, we cannot afford to go back to where we were 10 years ago, certainly. She said that since being elected to the Seanad, she has gained a great insight into the wishes of people. Issues presented to her at her constituency office on Henry Street include housing, medical cards, education grants, overcrowding, and microlocal issues, such as potholes and street lights. You also have to be a good listener. And no matter how small somebodys problem is, it means something to them. Deputy Noonan said: I would like that Maria would be in the Dail, to continue the work for Limerick that I had started. We need someone of confidence and vitality to continue to drive the agenda forward, and I think Maria is the person to do that. So, you have my full support Maria. I couldnt think of a better or nicer person to succeed me in the Dail, and I know everyone here tonight has the same view. Metropolitan mayor, Cllr Daniel Butler welcomed her campaign. If you track Marias career, it has only been heading in one direction and that is towards the Dail. Winter birds take off at FDOI ceremony in Vermont Sep 28, 2018, 6 AM Sharon D. Owens (USPS) and Charles Rattigan (Vermont Institute of Natural Science) unveil the Birds in Winter forever stamps Sept. 22 in Quechee, Vt. Photo by Jay Bigalke. By Molly Goad The Vermont Institute of Natural Science hosted a first-day of issue ceremony for the United States Birds in Winter forever stamps Sept. 22. VINS is located in Quechee, Vt., and offers environmental education and avian rehabilitation programs. Executive director Charles Rattigan welcomed the crowd of more than 100 people. At VINS, we are in the business of environmental education, he said. Were working very hard to help create the next generation of environmental stewards, and youre all part of that process. We appreciate you coming today to experience this we are delighted and we think the stamps are so particularly beautiful. Four of winters feathered friends appear on the set: the black-capped chickadee, the northern cardinal, the blue jay and the red-bellied woodpecker. The stamps were designed by Antonio Alcala from original artwork by Nadia Taylor. Postal Service Pricing and Costing Vice President Sharon D. Owens served as the dedicating official. The stylized images highlight the colorful feathers of these resilient birds against a stark white background, Owens said. A limited palette and the simplified shapes give the birds a bold, fresh look. Ornithologist and quantitative ecologist Jason Hill also took to the podium, offering five simple ways to help conserve bird populations, including the four species featured on the stamps the species that many grew up with in their back yards. First, Hill said, financial support is needed; there are numerous crowd sourcing websites accepting donations in this area, such as experiment.com. Hill also emphasized purchasing a migratory bird hunting and conservation stamp annually, citing that 98 percent of the purchase price goes to conservation efforts for migratory bird populations and their habitat. Connect with Linns Stamp News: Sign up for our newsletter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter At home, Hill recommended reducing the extent of your lawn, eliminating pesticides and growing native plants that provide food and a year-round habitat for bird populations. Also, support agriculture producers who grow coffee in a way that promotes bird populations. According to the Smithsonians National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, Bird Friendly certified organic coffees grow under biodiverse shade that provides critical habitat for migratory songbirds and other wildlife, sequesters carbon and fights climate change. Hill suggested visiting the Smithsonians webpage to learn more, and ask your local coffee shop to carry one Bird Friendly certified organic coffee. Finally, Hill said its very important to pass this passion on to our children, proposing gifts of old binoculars, a field guide and hiking shoes instead of traditional presents. As the father of a two-year-old child, I believe we have a responsibility to preserve what we have for future generations to experience, he said. The ceremony included a presentation of colors by Wilder Boy Scout Troop 260 and the National Anthem performed by the Hartford High School concert choir. After the dedication, VINS provided a demonstration with live birds and an owl. Sep 28, 2018, 5 AM By Donna Houseman Before we turn our attention to the many value changes and editorial enhancements made in this 2019 Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers, the Scott editors salute Scott editor emeritus James E. Kloetzel for working tirelessly on the thousands of value changes and hundreds of editorial changes. He and the rest of the Scott editors have been busy adding and expanding listings and making significant improvements throughout the catalog. Special thanks to Scott editor Charles Snee for leading this colossal project from the home office in Sidney, Ohio. Unlike in the 2018 U.S. Specialized catalog, where the large number of lowered values for stamps in very fine condition was the story, the biggest story this year are the editorial enhancements to the catalog. Because of the significant number of changes made to the 2018 catalog, the total number of value changes is somewhat fewer than normally seen. Value changes present a mixed picture this year. Stamps that see lower values include Scott 1 and 2. Scott 1 slides downward slightly, from $6,500 unused and $375 used in Vol. 1A of the 2019 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, to $6,000 unused and $350 used, respectively, in the 2019 U.S. Specialized catalog. The value for Scott 2 moves downward in used condition, from $800 to $775. Interestingly, the reproductions of these two stamps (Nos. 3 and 4) jump in value, from $850 unused and $1,050 to $900 and $1,100, respectively. These reproductions were not valid for postal use. Some strength is seen in the values for unused lower denominations of the first Bureau of Engraving and Printing issues and a few of the 1902-03 definitive stamps. Of great interest is the way the market has responded to recently published census information concerning Scott 596, the 1923 1 green rotary press sheet stamp. The value for a sound, fine stamp with machine cancel soars to $200,000, from $150,000, and the stamp precanceled moves upward to $150,000, from $130,000. Also featured in this edition of the Scott U.S. Specialized catalog is the 23rd edition of the Scott Stamp Values: U.S. Specialized by Grade. The supplement can be easily located in this catalog by the yellow-tipped pages. Scott Stamp Values lists values for sound stamps in eight different grades. Numerical grades are assigned to the verbal grades commonly used. What editorial enhancements have been made? Many editorial enhancements and improvements have been made in the 2019 U.S. Specialized catalog. These include comprehensive additions to the many footnotes concerning uncut press sheets of the die-cut convertible (double-sided) booklet panes of 20, which yield imperforate-between pairs plus cross-gutter blocks of four imperforate within. These interesting varieties are now listed and valued in the footnotes. Collectors of modern errors will be pleased to see the addition of 10 new listings. One of the more intriguing is the 59 James Michener with blue and yellow omitted, which enters the 2019 U.S. Specialized catalog as Scott 3427Ad. This error was discovered on a pane of 20 Michener stamps that have the blue, magenta and yellow omitted (3427Ac). The imperforate 1913 1 green George Washington booklet pane of six, Scott 424e, has been deleted from the catalog. An editors note explains why this item has been deleted. The note reads, Research has proven beyond doubt that all examples of the previously listed No. 424e, booklet pane of 6, imperforate and without gum, are unissued fabrications made from an ungummed press sheet on stamp paper once undoubtedly housed in the Smithsonian philatelic collection. The Test Stamps and Test Booklets sections have been thoroughly reviewed, and a plethora of corrections and additions have been made, including the addition of 16 new major and minor listings. Numerous illustrations also have been added or replaced. Specialists in these areas are encouraged to review carefully these sections. An entirely new section of nonpostal and revenue counterfeits has been added to the 2019 catalog. This section consists of the scarce counterfeit of the 1919 $5 War Savings stamp, Scott WS4, plus seven rare revenue counterfeits. Speaking of counterfeits, there are seven new listings in the Postal Counterfeits section. For the most part, these are very convincing knock-offs of the genuine stamps. Detailed footnotes explain how to differentiate between the real and the bogus. And there will be more to list next year. Shortly after our editorial deadline for the 2019 edition expired, two new postal counterfeits came to the attention of the Scott editors. In the Registry Exchange Labels section, new quantities are reported for six cities, and the listings for Naco, Ariz., have been reorganized. No gum listings have been added to the 1879 postage due special printings (Scott J8-J14). A small number of modern booklets with scarcer plate numbers have been given separate listings, to distinguish their higher catalog values. The Personal Computer Postage (1CVP) section has been expanded to include computer-vended Official stamps. These new listings may be found at the end of the section, immediately preceding computer-vended postage test stamps. Connect with Linns Stamp News: Sign up for our newsletter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Earliest-documented use dates have been added for the 1853-55 Nesbitt stamped envelopes (Scott U1-U18a). This valuable new information is presented in a footnote following the listings for these envelopes. More than a dozen cut cancel listings have been added in the Revenue Stamps section. Two Special Feature articles in the 2019 Scott U.S. Specialized catalog explain significant listing changes in two back of the book sections of the catalog: Confederate States of America General Issues and Puerto Rico. The first article carries the byline of well-known dealer, researcher and author Patricia Kaufmann, who speaks with first-hand knowledge and logic concerning original gum on Confederate States of America stamps. This article explains and announces a change in Scott listing policy in valuing almost all the Confederate stamps in unused condition. Please read this article and the rewritten notes and listings in this catalog section to fully grasp this change in valuing philosophy and practice. The second article, by respected dealer, collector and author Bill DiPaolo, deals with the controversial subject of the unused 1898 5 Ponce, Puerto Rico stamp, Scott 200. Again, this is an article that should be studied carefully, because it explains in some detail the reasons the Scott editors have decided to delist this well-known stamp, which was not listed for decades after its supposed issuance, and is now delisted, with explanatory notes. To purchase the 2019 Scott catalogs, contact your favorite dealer, or call Amos Media at 1-800-572-6885. Also visit online at www.amosadvantage.com. For Scott eCatalogues, visit www.scottonline.com. A medical illustration of the human brain from 'Quain's Elements of Anatomy, Eighth Edition, Vol.II' (by William Sharpey MD, LLD, FRS L&E, Allen Thomson, MD, LLD, FRS L&E, and Edward Albert Schafer) depicts the right half of the brain, 1876. The human brain is the command center for the human nervous system. It receives signals from the body's sensory organs and outputs information to the muscles . The human brain has the same basic structure as other mammal brains but is larger in relation to body size than the brains of many other mammals, such as dolphins, whales and elephants. How much does a human brain weigh? The human brain weighs about 3 lbs. (1.4 kilograms) and makes up about 2% of a human's body weight. On average, male brains are about 10% larger than female brains, according to Northwestern Medicine in Illinois . The average male has a brain volume of nearly 78 cubic inches (1,274 cubic centimeters), while the average female brain has a volume of 69 cubic inches (1,131 cubic cm). The cerebrum, which is the main part of the brain located in the front area of the skull, makes up 85% of the brain's weight. How many brain cells does a human have? The human brain contains about 86 billion nerve cells (neurons) called "gray matter," according to a 2012 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The brain also has about the same number of non-neuronal cells, such as the oligodendrocytes that insulate neuronal axons with a myelin sheath. This gives axons (thin strands through which electrical impulses are transmitted between neurons) a white appearance, and so these axons are called the brain's "white matter." Other cool facts about the brain The brain can't multitask, according to the Dent Neurologic Institute . Instead, it switches between tasks, which increases errors and makes things take longer. . Instead, it switches between tasks, which increases errors and makes things take longer. The human brain triples in size during the first year of life and reaches full maturity at about age 25. Humans use all of the brain all of the time, not just 10% of it. The brain is 60% fat, according to Northwestern Medicine . . The human brain can generate 23 watts of electrical power enough to fuel a small lightbulb. Anatomy of the human brain The largest part of the human brain is the cerebrum, which is divided into two hemispheres, according to the Mayfield Clinic. Each hemisphere consists of four lobes: the frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital. The rippled surface of the cerebrum is called the cortex. Underneath the cerebrum lies the brainstem, and behind that sits the cerebellum. The frontal lobe is important for cognitive functions, such as thought and planning ahead, and for the control of voluntary movement. The temporal lobe generates memories and emotions. The parietal lobe integrates input from different senses and is important for spatial orientation and navigation. Visual processing takes place in the occipital lobe, near the back of the skull. The brainstem connects to the spinal cord and consists of the medulla oblongata, pons and midbrain. The primary functions of the brainstem include relaying information between the brain and the body; supplying most of the cranial nerves to the face and head; and performing critical functions in controlling the heart, breathing and levels of consciousness (it's involved in controlling wake and sleep cycles). Human brain anatomy. (Image credit: Mark Garlick/Getty Images) Between the cerebrum and brainstem lie the thalamus and hypothalamus. The thalamus relays sensory and motor signals to the cortex. Except for olfaction (sense of smell), every sensory system sends information through the thalamus to the cortex, according to the online textbook, "Neuroanatomy, Thalamus" (StatPublishing, 2020). The hypothalamus connects the nervous system to the endocrine system where hormones are produced via the pituitary gland. The cerebellum lies beneath the cerebrum and has important functions in motor control. It plays a role in coordination and balance and may also have some cognitive functions. The brain also has four interconnected cavities, called ventricles, which produce what's called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This fluid circulates around the brain and spinal cord, cushioning it from injury, and is eventually absorbed into the bloodstream. In addition to cushioning the central nervous system, CSF clears waste from the brain. In what's called the glymphatic system, waste products from the interstitial fluid surrounding brain cells move into the CSF and away from the brain, according to the Society for Neuroscience. Studies suggest this waste clearance process mostly happens during sleep. In a 2013 Science paper, researchers reported that when mice were asleep, their interstitial spaces expanded by 60%, and the brain's glymphatic system cleared beta-amyloid (the protein that makes up Alzheimer's disease's hallmark plaques) faster than when the rodents were awake. Clearing potentially neurotoxic waste from the brain or "taking out the trash" through the glymphatic system could be one reason that sleep is so important, the authors suggested in their paper. Is brain size linked to intelligence? Overall brain size doesn't correlate with level of intelligence for non-human animals. For instance, the brain of a sperm whale is more than five times heavier than the human brain, but humans are considered to be of higher intelligence than sperm whales. A more accurate measure of an animal's likely intelligence is the ratio between the size of the brain and body size, although not even that measure puts humans in first place: The tree shrew has the highest brain-to-body ratio of any mammal, according to BrainFacts.org , a website produced by the Society for Neuroscience. Among humans, brain size doesn't indicate a person's level of intelligence. Some geniuses in their field have smaller-than-average brains, while others have brains that are larger than average, according to Christof Koch, a neuroscientist and president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. For example, compare the brains of two highly acclaimed writers. The Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev's brain was found to weigh 71 ounces (2,021 grams), while the brain of French writer Anatole France weighed only 36 ounces (1,017 g). Brain size doesn't indicate a person's intelligence. (Image credit: Shutterstock) The reason behind humans' intelligence, in part, is neurons and folds. Humans have more neurons per unit volume than other animals, and the only way they can all fit within the brain's layered structure is to make folds in the outer layer, or cortex, said Dr. Eric Holland, a neurosurgeon and cancer biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington. "The more complicated a brain gets, the more gyri and sulci, or wiggly hills and valleys, it has," Holland told Live Science. Other intelligent animals, such as monkeys and dolphins, also have these folds in their cortex, whereas mice have smooth brains, he said. How the brain is integrated also seems to matter when it comes to intelligence. A genius among geniuses, Albert Einstein had an average size brain; researchers suspect his mind-boggling cognitive abilities may have stemmed from its high connectivity, with several pathways connecting distant regions of his brain, Live Science previously reported. Humans also have the largest frontal lobes of any animal, Holland said. The frontal lobes are associated with higher-level functions such as self-control, planning, logic and abstract thought basically, "the things that make us particularly human," he said. What's the difference between the left brain and right brain? The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and right, connected by a bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. The hemispheres are strongly, though not entirely, symmetrical. Generally, the left brain controls the muscles on the right side of the body, and the right brain controls the left side. One hemisphere may be slightly dominant, as with left- or right-handedness. Related: What's the difference between the right brain and the left brain? The popular notions about "left brain" and "right brain" qualities are generalizations that are not well supported by evidence. However, there are some important differences between these areas. The left brain contains regions that are involved in language production and comprehension (called Broca's area and Wernicke's area, respectively) and is also associated with mathematical calculation and fact retrieval, Holland said. The right brain plays a role in visual and auditory processing, spatial skills and artistic ability more instinctive or creative things, Holland said though these functions involve both hemispheres. "Everyone uses both halves all the time," he said. The human brain has two hemispheres, which are popularly considered to be responsible for completely different set of skills, but there's little scientific research to support that notion. (Image credit: Dimitri Otis/Getty Images) BRAIN Initiative In April 2013, President Barack Obama announced a scientific grand challenge known as the BRAIN Initiative, short for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. The $100-million-plus effort aimed to develop new technologies to produce a dynamic picture of the human brain, from the level of individual cells to complex circuits. Like other major science efforts, such as the Human Genome Project, the significant expense is usually worth the investment, Holland said. Scientists hope the increased understanding will lead to new ways to treat, cure and prevent brain disorders. The project contains members from several government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as well as private research organizations, including the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In May 2013, the project's backers outlined their goals in the journal Science . In September 2014, the NIH announced $46 million in BRAIN Initiative grants. Industry members pledged another $30 million to support the effort, and major foundations and universities also agreed to apply more than $240 million of their own research toward BRAIN Initiative goals. When the project was announced, President Obama convened a commission to evaluate the ethical issues involved in research on the brain. In May 2014, the commission released the first half of its report, calling for ethics to be integrated early and explicitly in neuroscience research, Live Science previously reported . In March 2015, the commission released the second half of the report, which focused on issues of cognitive enhancement, informed consent and using neuroscience in the legal system, Live Science reported . The Brain Initiative has achieved several of its goals. As of 2018, the NIH has "invested more than $559 million in the research of more than 500 scientists," and Congress appropriated "close to $400 million in NIH funding for fiscal year 2018," according to the initiative's website. The research funding facilitated the development of new brain-imaging and brain-mapping tools, and helped create the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) an effort to catalog the brain's "parts' list." The BICCN released its first results in November 2018. Beyond a parts list, the BRAIN Initiative is working to develop a detailed picture of the circuits in the brain. For example, in 2020, BRAIN Initiative researchers published a study in the journal Neuron , reporting that they had developed a system, tested in mice, to control and monitor circuit activity at any depth in the brain. Previous efforts could only examine circuits close to the surface of the brain. Also in 2020, the initiative's Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks (MICrONS) program, an effort to map circuits in the cortex, launched a website where researchers can share their data, including electron microscopy images of circuits. Since 2019, the initiative has sponsored a photo and video contest in which initiative researchers are invited to submit eye-catching depictions of the brain. Check out the 2020 winners on the Brain Initiative website . Does the brain stay alive after a person dies? April 2019 marked a milestone for both the initiative and neuroscience research at large: BRAIN Initiative researcher Nenad Sestan, of the Yale School of Medicine, published a report in the journal Nature , revealing that his research team had restored circulation and some cellular functions to pig brains four hours after the animals' deaths, Live Science previously reported. The results challenged the prevailing view that brain cells are suddenly and irreversibly damaged shortly after the heart stops beating. The researchers did not observe any signs of consciousness in the brains, nor were they trying to; on the contrary, the researchers injected pig brains with chemicals that mimicked blood flow and also blocked neurons from firing. The researchers emphasized that they did not bring the pig brains back to life. They did, however, restore some of their cellular activity. Additional resources This article was updated on May 28, 2021 by Live Science contributor Ashley P. Taylor. Underwater archaeologists have finished their latest research trip to the wreck of the HMS Erebus, a ship abandoned in the Canadian Arctic 170 years ago during the ill-fated Franklin expedition. Harsh weather conditions hampered this month's mission. Divers could not enter Sir John Franklin's cabin, where they had hoped to find documents or the ship's logs preserved in icy water that might explain the tragic fate of the ship. The archaeologists did, however, bring nine more artifacts to the surface for conservation, including a ceramic pitcher and an artificial horizon used for navigation from an officer's cabin on the lower deck. [See Photos of the Newly Recovered Artifacts] In 1845, Franklin left Britain in search of the fabled Northwest Passage, a sea route that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. His ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, became choked in ice in the Canadian Arctic and were abandoned in 1848. None of the 129 crewmembers lived to tell what happened after that. The disaster was one of the worst in the history of polar exploration. Subsequent search parties, explorers and archaeologists have found scattered graves, notes and artifacts in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, hinting at the fate of the Franklin expedition. But the final resting place of the ships remained a mystery until recently. A decade ago, Parks Canada launched a mission to find the ships. The wreck of the HMS Erebus was finally rediscovered in 2014 in Victoria Strait. Two years later, the HMS Terror was found off the coast of King William Island, thanks to a tip from a local Inuit fisher from Gjoa Haven, the only town on the island. Underwater archaeologists have been regularly returning to the sites. This year, they had planned to explore more of Erebus' inner chambers, but thick sea ice delayed and shortened the mission. [In Photos: Arctic Shipwreck Solves 170-Year-Old Mystery] Parks Canadas Underwater Archeology Team prepares for their first dive of the season to explore the wreck of HMS Erebus on Sept. 10, 2018. (Image credit: Parks Canada) "This proved to be the worst ice conditions we've ever seen," Ryan Harris, a senior underwater archaeologist for Parks Canada, and one of the leaders of the research on the Franklin expedition, told reporters in a call on Wednesday (Sept. 26). "We were only able to cover a day and a half of scientific diving on the site," Harris said. "We look forward to a longer window of opportunity next season, hopefully when ice conditions return to the norm that we've seen in the last few years. One of our immediate intentions is to explore deeper down into the hidden rooms at the bowels of the ship, which will be extremely interesting." This is part of an artificial horizon that would have been used with a sextant to determine latitude when the horizon was obscured by obstacles like sea ice. (Image credit: Parks Canada) In addition to the pitcher and the artificial horizon, the divers found metal parts of rigging instruments. The team also found a piece of tarred felt used for waterproofing the vessel, and the material still had the impressions of wooden planks. The nine artifacts are now at a laboratory in Ottawa, Canada, where they will undergo chemical analysis and sampling; the archaeologists said they hope residues inside the pitcher, for instance, will reveal what the officer was drinking. The objects will then undergo conservation. Divers had previously recovered 65 artifacts from the HMS Erebus, including buttons, dinner plates, a boot, medicine bottles, the ship's bronze bell and part of the vessel's wheel. Those 65 objects are owned by the United Kingdom. The nine newly recovered artifacts, as well as any artifacts found in the future, will be jointly owned and managed by Parks Canada and the Inuit Heritage Trust. Original article on Live Science. A preserved painting shows the clearing of the site of Capitolias, with the assistance of Dionysus and other gods. In an ancient Roman tomb that was recently discovered in Jordan, a colorful mural offers a comics-like glimpse of what life may have been like in the bustling city of Capitolias thousands of years ago. Hundreds of illustrated figures humans, animals and gods appear in the paintings. Their poses demonstrate routine activities, such as harvesting crops and building a defensive wall, in a city that was a thriving center of commerce and culture during the second century A.D. But the mural doesn't just contain pictures. Dozens of inscriptions appear alongside the figures; they describe the action in the local language of Aramaic (though written in Greek letters), and they seem to serve the same purpose as speech bubbles do in comics, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) recently reported. [30 of the World's Most Valuable Treasures That Are Still Missing] "The inscriptions are actually similar to speech bubbles in comic books, because they describe the activities of the characters, who offer explanations of what they are doing ('I am cutting (stone),' 'Alas for me! I am dead!'), which is also extraordinary," Jean-Baptiste Yon, a researcher with the History and Sources of Ancient Worlds Laboratory (HiSoMA) in France, told CNRS. Two stonecutters at work. (Image credit: Copyright CNRS HiSoMA) First unearthed in 2016 in the town of Beyt Ras, the tomb and its remarkable artwork were recently revealed by the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, according to CNRS. Researchers with CNRS were among the international team of archaeologists working to excavate and interpret the contents of the ancient tomb. The site is remarkably well preserved, measuring about 560 square feet (52 square meters) and containing two funeral chambers. Paintings cover the walls and ceiling in the main room, including nearly 260 figures accompanied by 60 inscriptions. Images of construction convey as much activity and chaos as the scenes likely did in life; characters resembling foremen organize laborers, and stone cutters scale walls, "sometimes resulting in accidents," HiSoMA researcher Julien Aliquot told CNRS. Capitolias was part of a region known as Decapolis, and other tombs that have survived from this area were also decorated with colorful paintings. But the artwork inside this new discovery is unusual in its abundance and detail, HiSoMA representatives said in a statement. And what really made archaeologists take notice was the Aramaic text, which is rarely seen in descriptive murals from this period alongside the more traditional Greek labels, Yon told CNRS. Experts will present their initial findings from this unique site at the 14th International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan, which will be held in Florence, Italy, in January 2019. Originally publishedon Live Science. San Antonio-based marketing firm Harte Hanks Inc. reported Thursday that it has trimmed its workforce by about 30 positions. The cuts involve employees who performed corporate overhead functions that did not produce revenue for the company, according to Andrew Harrison, chief human resources officer. The cuts occurred in several locations, but primarily Denver, Harrison added. No jobs were eliminated in San Antonio. The company has about 4,000 employees, including overseas, he said. Thats down from more than 5,000 at the end of last year. In February, it announced it was eliminating 460 positions in Bowie County in Northeast Texas near the Arkansas border. Thursdays announcement follows by about a month the departure of CEO and President Karen Puckett. The company has said it would conduct a search for her replacement. The latest headcount reduction will result in a $300,000 restructuring charge for employee severance and related costs, Harte Hanks said in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company anticipates the cuts will result in savings of $3 million a year, however. It added it plans to reduce certain non-labor discretionary expenses by the beginning of next year, saving about $2 million a year. Harte Hanks specializes in direct and digital communications, database marketing solutions, direct mail and call-center operations. It is a successor to a newspaper business started by Houston Harte and Bernard Hanks in Texas in the early 1920s. In the 1980s, it owned dozens of daily and weekly newspapers, as well as over-the-air and cable television stations and radio stations. The company has struggled as corporations abandon traditional print advertising for digital. Last year, it announced it was trimming $10 million in annual costs as part of a plan to enhance its strategic position and financial flexibility. Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD A womans Fitbit clocked a rapid rise in her heart rate before a sudden drop-off to nothing, helping San Jose police piece together clues and charge her 90-year-old stepfather with her murder, according to court records. Tony Aiello was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murdering his 67-year-old stepdaughter, Karen Navarra, on Sept. 8. Aiello is married to Navarras 92-year-old mother. Navarra, a pharmacy technician described by family as a recluse, was discovered deceased by a co-worker Sept. 13 after she failed to show up to her job. Police said Navarra was found slumped over in a chair, clutching a large kitchen knife with a gaping slit to her neck. To investigators, the scene appeared to be staged to look like a suicide. But a later autopsy revealed multiple deep and intrusive wounds to her head and facial area, most likely inflicted by a small hatchet or ax. The doctor told investigators Navarra couldnt have inflicted the wounds herself and classified the case as a homicide. At his initial interview, Aiello told San Jose police that he dropped by Navarras home on Saturday, Sept. 8, to bring her pizza, according to court records. He also said he was outside his own home a few hours later, and witnessed his step-daughter drive by and honk with someone else in the passenger seat. But police say Aiellos account didnt match up with what they saw on surveillance footage. Nearby cameras captured his car at Navarras home for at least 21 minutes that day, between 3:12 p.m. and 3:33 p.m, but they didnt show her car ever leaving in the direction Aiello described, police said. Investigators noted Navarra was wearing a Fitbit, a wristband device that can collect data like number of steps walked and heart rate, when she was found, and they later consulted with the company to see if the device could offer any clues. A company employee told police Navarras heart rate spiked at 3:20 p.m. Sept. 8 and then rapidly slowed. The device stopped registering a heartbeat at 3:28 p.m. Aiello repeated his initial story after his arrest and denied that he killed his stepdaughter, according to court records. When confronted with the Fitbit evidence Aiello suggested someone else could have been in the home. He told police she couldnt have died when he was there, because she walked him to the door. Police also found clothes in his hamper covered in blood splatter. Aiello told police he cuts himself frequently, according to court records. Homicide investigators across the country have turned to fitness trackers to help piece together timelines, movements and other key information for their cases. A Connecticut man was arrested after his wifes Fitbit data showed her last movements were more than an hour after her husband said she had been killed by intruders. In Wisconsin, another mans Fitbit acted as an alibi. The device corroborated his story during a crucial window of time when police said his live-in girlfriends body was being dumped in a field. More online: How Vallejo police botched a kidnap-for-ransom case before falsely declaring it a hoax. http://bit.ly/VallejoKidnap See More Collapse Aiello is being held without bail and is due in court Oct. 4. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy A man is wanted for allegedly making unauthorized transactions with a credit card, according to Laredo police. Authorities identified him as Ivangordon Edayan Cabalis Jr., 30. He has an active warrant for his arrest on credit card abuse charges. READ ALSO: LPD: Man wanted for making unauthorized purchases with stolen card at H-E-B Edayan Cabalis is about 6 feet 2 inches and weighs 195 pounds. His last known address was in the 9800 block of Cantera Court in North Laredo. To report his whereabouts, call Laredo Crime Stoppers at 727-TIPS (8477). Callers will remain anonymous. Information leading to an arrest may be rewarded with up to $1,000. A 16-year-old boy landed behind bars following a domestic disturbance Wednesday afternoon in northwest Laredo, police said. LPD officers responded to the assault report in the 100 block of Tours Lane in the Dellwood Park Subdivision. READ ALSO: LPD: Man accused of hitting teen with cane because he was staring at him An officer arrived to find a fellow officer in a struggle with the teen in the kitchen area, according to LPD. He was actively resisting and trying to assault the officer, police said. An officer deployed a taser to subdue the teen. He then had to use it a second time because he resisted detention and refused to get into the marked unit, according to police, police said. He was charged with assault on a public servant, assault-family violence and resisting arrest. He was later taken to the Webb County Youth Village. A construction worker admitted Thursday that while working on a health club in Sterling, Virginia, last fall, he pointed a laser at two planes and ended up sending two pilots to the emergency room. Nicolas Pifer, 46, pleaded guilty in Alexandria, Virginia, federal court to a felony count of aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft and faces up to five years in prison. WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered the evacuation of U.S. diplomats stationed at the U.S. Consulate in the Iraqi city of Basra on Friday, citing "threats to our personnel and facilities" from Iran and its proxies. The closure of the consulate, one of three U.S. posts in the country, follows at least two rocket attacks apparently targeting the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the mission in Basra earlier this month. While the rockets landed harmlessly away from the facilities, they underscored heightening tensions between Washington and Tehran as Iraq tries to form a new government. "Given the increasing and specific threats and incitement to attack our personnel and facilities in Iraq, I have directed that an appropriate temporary relocation of diplomatic personnel in Iraq take place," Pompeo said as he held a flurry of meetings with foreign counterparts in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. All week, U.S. officials have issued increasingly ominous warnings to Iran that the United States will respond aggressively to any perceived threats to its interests in the Middle East. In a speech on Tuesday, national security adviser John Bolton promised there would be "hell to pay" if Iran continues to "cross" the U.S. or its allies. The saber rattling comes as the U.S. Treasury Department prepares to implement a new round of economic sanctions in November targeting Iran's oil sector. In Iraq, top envoys for the United States and Iran have been competing to place allies in the key positions of parliament speaker, president and prime minister. But since the national election in May, neither country has been able to whip up enough support to fill the posts. Mohamed Halbousi, who was selected to serve as speaker of parliament, has shown a willingness to work with both parties but his ascension came at the expense of the U.S. favorite. The race between Iran and the United States to shape Iraq's next government has rankled many Iraqis, who see it as inappropriate meddling in Iraq's affairs and a dangerous bi-product of Washington's campaign to isolate Tehran politically and economically. A senior Iraqi security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the decision to close the consulate in Basra did not appear driven by any credible threat from Iran or the militias it supports. Since July, Basra has been the epicenter of a popular protest movement over government corruption and the lack of basic services. At times, the demonstrations have turned violent and taken on geopolitical dimensions. Protesters have torched government buildings and the Iranian consulate there, while chanting against what they called Iran's disproportionate influence over Iraq's domestic affairs. Abu Mahdis al-Mohandes, the deputy commander of Iraq's coalition of armed-militias - many of which are backed by Iran - blamed the attack on the Iranian Consulate on saboteurs he claimed were supported by the U.S. Consulate. But those tensions have eased in recent weeks as Iraqi politicians bore down on accelerating the government formation process amid the pressure from Basra's protest movement. In his statement on Friday, Pompeo said the United States is working with the Iraqi government to address Iranian threats. "We look to all international parties interested in peace and stability in Iraq and the region to reinforce our message to Iran regarding the unacceptability of their behavior," he said. MEXICO CITY (AP) Authorities said Friday that a mob of about 100 people in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo doused a detective with gasoline and burned him to death. The Hidalgo state prosecutors' office said the crowd attacked local police in the town of Metepec on Thursday and took the detective and three other men captive. They severely beat the men and burned the detective after dousing him with fuel. It was unclear if he was on duty or if they knew he was a detective. Video posted on social media sites showed a mob kicking one of the men in the town square and beating him with cudgels and fists. Police eventually arrived to rescue him and two others. READ ALSO: Complaints as 157 bodies kept in morgue trailer in Mexico The mob was reportedly roused by rumors that the men were planning to abduct children. The prosecutors' office said it was investigating and would bring the killers and other members of the mob to justice. "Let it be clear, inciting or promoting these kind of acts is also a crime," the office said. In similar cases, prosecutors have been able to identify and arrest suspects because townspeople often record attacks on their cellphones and post videos online. There have been five killings in the span of about a month in Mexico based on false rumors about child snatchers. In four of those cases, the victims were also burned. Authorities say the rumors circulate on social media and have asked the public not to believe them. But the country's human rights commission faulted authorities. A lack of effective law enforcement and rising crime has led some communities to form vigilante squads, and passengers on buses in the greater Mexico City area regularly kill thieves who get on board to rob them. "As long as the government does not provide minimal conditions of safety for the population, the lack of confidence in the government and people's desperation for justice will open the door for more cases of people taking the law into their own hands," the agency said in a statement earlier this month. READ ALSO: Laredo woman believes son was kidnapped in Nuevo Laredo It is not the first time that investigative agents have been killed in Mexico by townspeople. In 2004, a mob on the southern outskirts of Mexico City beat two federal agents and burned them to death for allegedly taking pictures of school children. Some claimed they believed the agents were kidnappers, but it turned out that they were investigating a case on assignment. The hysteria has also swept up people who were simply asking questions. In late August, two men were set afire by an angry mob in Puebla after they apparently stopped to have beer near a school. In 2015, residents of Ajalpan, Puebla also beat to death two young men who were making inquiries in the town. Rumors spread that they were trying to kidnap children, but they were actually conducting a commercial survey about tortilla consumption. Bihari mathematician Anand Kumar was conspicuous by his absence at the poster-release event for Super 30. Bihari mathematician Anand Kumar was conspicuous by his absence at the poster-release event for Super 30, the film starring Hrithik Roshan thats based on his life. But thats because, true-to-form, he was spending the day with his students. The poster was released on Teachers Day, and I had to be in Patna, with my students, on that day. Thats why I couldnt attend the poster-release. However, Ill be promoting the film along with Hrithik Roshan when its ready for release. I may also ask some of my students to join me. I am what I am because of my students, Anand says. He also reveals thats the films tagline, Ab raja ka beta raja nahin banega. Ab raja ka beta wahi banega jo haqdaar hoga! was finalised long before the shooting even began. The writers thought that that line would convey the films purpose. My endeavour in life has been to educate the poor and equip them with the knowledge that will empower them against poverty, he says. He adds thats delighted with the way Super 30 has shaped up. The film will definitely encourage promising students to become teachers. I dont know why the profession has lost its aura. Perhaps teachers themselves are to blame for the loss of credibility. I hope this film will revive the respectability of teachers as gurus and architects of the future, Anand says. Ask him how it feels to be portrayed by Hrithik Roshan on screen, and he says, I dont look like anything like Hrithik Roshan, he looks like a Greek God. But to see him playing me is a very big thing for someone who comes from a background where film stars are thought to belong to a dream world. 3 1 of 3 James Durbin, MBR / Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Melissa Phillip, Staff photographer / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 3 of 3 With the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court still undecided, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has announced he is remaining in Washington, D.C. over the weekend and will not be campaigning in Texas. That means Sunday's debate between Cruz and U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke has been postponed as well. Cruz also canceled a late Friday event he had scheduled in El Paso. Hamilton County Schools will open on a two-hour delay on Friday due to areas where water is still reported on roads in the north section of the county. Officials said, "Opening on two-hour delay will provide daylight for bus drivers to determine road conditions as they transport children to school in the morning. With saturated ground and rain continuing to fall in Hamilton County, the district is operating with an abundance of caution to keep our children safe. School entrances, parking lots and buildings have been checked today and are prepared for children tomorrow." School-age child care will open on the regular schedule on Friday. Continued heavy rains have forced the cancellation of the annual County Fair at Chester Frost Park. "Due to flooded parking areas and saturated grounds, we are with great regret canceling the 2018 Hamilton County Fair. We hope you will join us next year for the 30th anniversary of the Hamilton County Fair," officials said. The 4-H AgVentures event scheduled for Friday at Chester Frost Park is cancelled due the rain and conditions. Also, the Chattanooga IRONMAN will skip the swim portion of the event this weekend due to dangerous river currents. There has been a new flash flood warning issued following several previous ones. Here is the latest warning issued for Hamilton County by the National Weather Service: FLASH FLOOD WARNING FROM 1:49PM EDT THU UNTIL 6:45PM EDT THU THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MORRISTOWN HAS ISSUED A * FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR... SOUTH CENTRAL RHEA COUNTY IN EAST TENNESSEE... NORTHWESTERN BRADLEY COUNTY IN EAST TENNESSEE... SOUTHWESTERN MEIGS COUNTY IN EAST TENNESSEE... WEST CENTRAL MCMINN COUNTY IN EAST TENNESSEE... NORTHEASTERN HAMILTON COUNTY IN EAST TENNESSEE... * UNTIL 645 PM EDT. * AT 148 PM EDT, TRAINED WEATHER SPOTTERS REPORTED HEAVY RAIN ACROSS THE WARNED AREA. SEVERAL INCHES OF RAIN HAVE FALLEN. FLASH FLOODING IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN SHORTLY. * SOME LOCATIONS THAT WILL EXPERIENCE FLOODING INCLUDE... CHATTANOOGA, CLEVELAND, DAYTON, SODDY-DAISY, LAKESITE, HARRISON, HILLSVIEW, HOPEWELL, HARRISON BAY STATE PARK, BIG SPRING, MIDDLE VALLEY, BIRCHWOOD, SHADY GROVE, SALE CREEK, FALLING WATER AND MOWBRAY MOUNTAIN. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... TURN AROUND, DON'T DROWN WHEN ENCOUNTERING FLOODED ROADS. MOST FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR IN VEHICLES. KEEP CHILDREN AWAY FROM STORM DRAINS, CULVERTS, CREEKS AND STREAMS. WATER LEVELS CAN RISE RAPIDLY AND SWEEP CHILDREN AWAY. 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. PLEASE REPORT FLOODING TO YOUR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY WHEN YOU CAN DO SO SAFELY. Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury agreed with her. This is like criminalising the triple talaq law. New Delhi: The Supreme Court verdict declaring adultery is not a crime was welcomed by many Thursday but some experts sounded a note of caution, calling it anti-women and warning that it could give a license to people to have illegitimate relationships. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra unanimously struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code dealing with the offence of adultery, holding it manifestly arbitrary, archaic and violative of the rights to equality and equal opportunity to women. Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal said decriminalising adultery completely is just going to add to the pain of women in the country. Totally disagree with the Supreme Court judgement on adultery. The judgement is anti-women. In a way, you have given a open general license to the people of this country to be in marriages but at the same time have illegitimate relationships, she said. What is the sanctity of marriage? she asked. Social activist Brinda Adige also sought clarity and asked whether the verdict allows polygamy. Because we know that men very often marry two, three times and there is so much of problem when the first, second or third wife are abandoned. If adultery is not a crime, how is this woman even going to file a case against the husband who might desert or abandon her. Its a concern, she said. Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury agreed with her. This is like criminalising the triple talaq law. Now the men will just abandon us or not give us talaq. They will have polygamy or nikah hallala which creates hell for us as women. I am glad its not a crime anymore but I do not see how it helps, she said. The court should give us clarity, she said. The Supreme Court bench also held that adultery would continue to be treated as civil wrong and can be ground for dissolution of marriage. There cant be any social licence which destroys a home, the chief justice said. Section 497 of the 158-year-old IPC says: Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery. The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks! Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics. The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc. The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics. The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates. Access to college recruiters and advisors its harder to line up higher education. Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family. Vote View Results Tech & Science, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Travel & Local Attractions, Press Releases By Legislator Anker's Office Published: September 28 2018 On Thursday, September 13th, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker attended the 20th anniversary celebration of the Brookhaven National Laboratory Community Advisory Council (CAC). Upton, NY - Sept. 28, 2018 - On Thursday, September 13th, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker attended the 20th anniversary celebration of the On Thursday, September 13th, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker attended the 20th anniversary celebration of the Brookhaven National Laboratory Community Advisory Council (CAC). The CAC was formed in 1998 to advise the Laboratory Director on selected issues, particularly on the environment, safety, and health, while representing a diverse range of interests and values of individuals and groups who are interested in or affected by the actions of the Laboratory. I commend Brookhaven National Laboratory for providing an open dialogue with the community through the creation of the Community Advisory Council, said Legislator Anker. I first joined the CAC over 17 years ago as the President of the Community and Environment Coalition, a not-for-profit organization I founded to address health and environmental concerns in our community. In addition to a general open dialogue, the members of the council provide valuable insight and recommendations to the lab regarding remediation, support for new technologies, and outreach to the community. The CAC consists of representatives from 26 local business, civic, education, environment, employee, government, and health organizations. The CAC sets its own agenda, brings forth issues important to the community, and works to provide consensus recommendations to Laboratory management. Meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Laboratorys Berkner Hall. Meetings are open to the public and interested community members are encouraged to attend. Local News, Crime, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: September 28 2018 The forum focused on significant issues pertaining to Nassau Countys children and families. Hempstead, NY - Sept. 28, 2018 - Nassau County Executive Laura Curran this week joined Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick J. Ryder and Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas to host an important County-wide School Safety Forum at Hofstra University. I am proud to work with two of the best law enforcement leaders in the nation, District Attorney Madeline Singas and Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, said Curran. Together we are implementing policies to encourage children to respect themselves, respect each other and respect the law. The forum focused on significant issues pertaining to Nassau Countys children and families--including active shooter training, the opioid epidemic and cyberbullying--and featured expert speakers from the Narcotics/Vice Bureau, Central Testing Division/Drug Recognition, Bureau of Special Operations, NCPD Homeland Security and many more from both the Police Department and the private sector. School safety doesnt have a one-size-fits-all all solution, said Nassau County District Attorney Singas. Its a multi-pronged approach that is continually evolving and its events like these that bring stakeholders together, so we break down communication barriers to ensure Nassau is taking a proactive approach to prevent senseless crimes. I thank County Executive Curran and Police Commissioner Ryder for their leadership on this critical issue. Attendees also heard from speakers at the forefront of the Nassau County opioid epidemic and saw firsthand demonstrations including, Active Shooter, Cyberbullying, Stop the Bleed and Operation Natalie - Our War on Opioid Abuse. Teachers, school administrators, parents, students, community members and residents attended this important event. This is a partnership and the biggest partner we have is the community, said Commissioner Ryder. We need to engage our families and we need to engage our communities. We need to make sure we take care of our children. They are our future, the future in this county that we need to make sure they are protected and that we do the right thing by them. If you are not part of the conversation, you wont be part of the solution, and we need the community to be involved if we want to be successful in keeping our kids safe, said County Executive Curran. The forum is part of Nassau Countys continued public safety efforts which also include a 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. Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: September 28 2018 State Route 394 in the Town of Ellicott, Chautauqua County, will be Renamed as the "Sergeant James C. Matteson Memorial Highway." New York, NY - Sept. 28, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed legislation (S.8855/A.10976) naming a portion of the State Highway System in honor of Sergeant James C. Matteson. The bill designates State Route 394 in the town of Ellicott as the "Sergeant James C. Matteson Memorial Highway". "Sergeant Matteson made the ultimate sacrifice fighting to protect this nation and its values," Governor Cuomo said. "I am proud to honor his heroism and bravery with this legislation, preserving his memory for generations to come." Sergeant Matteson, a native of Chautauqua County, served in the United States Army's 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. Sergeant Matteson tragically lost his life in service to our country on November 12, 2004 during a ground assault in Falluja, Iraq. Senator Catharine M. Young said, "Sergeant Matteson is a genuine American hero whose sacrifice for our nation inspires the deepest gratitude and respect. He lost his life serving our country, and dedicating this portion of State Route 394 in his honor is one way we can pay tribute to his selfless service. My thanks go to Governor Cuomo for signing this legislation which will ensure Sergeant Matteson's bravery and valor will not be forgotten." Assemblyman Andrew Goodell said, "Army Sergeant Matteson made the ultimate sacrifice to our Country when he lost his life in 2004 during a ground assault in Iraq. By unanimous vote, the Chautauqua County Legislature and County Tech & Science, Nature & Weather, Local News, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: September 28 2018 Supports Governor Cuomos Goal of 2,400 Megawatts of Offshore Wind by 2030. New York, NY - Sept. 28, 2018 - The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that supports the continued cooperation regarding strategies and solutions for the development of offshore wind energy. This agreement recognizes the shared common interest in developing offshore wind energy and reflects New Yorks commitment to learn from Europe as an industry leader in offshore wind energy as a clean and sustainable energy source. The work and learning that will result from the states partnerships in this area will better enable New York to fulfill Governor Cuomos goal to obtain 50 percent of the states electricity from renewables by 2030, and his goal of 2,400 megawatts of new offshore wind generation by 2030. Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy and Finance said, The innovation of clean energy and the economic development of New York State are clearly tied together and by working with Denmarks offshore wind experts, Im looking forward to learning from their decades of experience. This MOU is, yet again, another example of the commitment made by Governor Cuomo in finding innovative energy solutions that will greatly benefit New Yorkers and lead the nation in combatting climate change. Lars Christian Lilleholt, Denmark's Minister of Energy, Utilities and Climate said, "I am very proud that Denmark has signed an MOU with New York. We are delighted to share the lessons that we have learned over the years with NYSERDA. In our experience, offshore wind provides affordable, reliable and clean energy, while creating scores of jobs and growing the economy. I hope that our collaboration will help New York to develop its abundant offshore wind energy resources." Under the agreement, NYSERDA, which is leading the development of offshore wind on behalf of the State, and the Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate will work to exchange expertise and knowledge in the development of offshore wind energy, including areas such as infrastructure, supply chain, workforce development, and procurement solutions. This collaborative partnership will build upon the foundation of the New York State Offshore Wind Master Plan, which was released earlier this year by Governor Cuomo and will guide the state in the responsible and cost-effective development of offshore wind. Alicia Barton, President and CEO, NYSERDA said, Todays signing is another major step forward in Governor Cuomos relentless commitment to bringing clean renewable energy for all residents of New York State. New York has all of the assets required to become a global hub for this emerging industry; through this collaboration, we can take the lessons learned from Europe to ensure the cost-effective and robust development of this environmentally and economically beneficial resource." Denmark is one of the leading offshore wind energy producers in Europe with the third largest market for offshore wind. With world leading offshore wind industry and workforce capabilities, Denmark boasts expertise within all aspects of the offshore wind supply chain, including wind turbine producers, development and manufacturing of offshore wind farms, and maintenance. Offshore wind energy is poised to become a major source of affordable, renewable power for New York State. Meeting New Yorks 2030 offshore wind goals will result in supplying 2,400 megawatts of clean power for the State, enough to power 1.2 million homes. Benefits of offshore wind include: Clean, locally produced power where demand is highest Significant investments in coastal infrastructure and communities The opportunity for thousands of short- and long-term skilled construction, manufacturing, and operations jobs Renewable energy generation close to a densely populated region Diversified electricity supply New York State is working diligently to ensure that offshore wind is developed in the most responsible and cost-effective way possible. With a world-class workforce, unmatched intellectual capital, physical infrastructure and financial institutions, and national clean energy policy leadership, New York plans to become a hub for the United States emerging offshore wind energy industry. Reforming the Energy Vision Reforming the Energy Vision is Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's strategy to lead on climate change and grow New York's economy. REV is building a cleaner, more resilient and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers by stimulating investment in clean technologies like solar, wind, and energy efficiency and requiring 50 percent of the state's electricity needs from renewable energy by 2030. Already, REV has driven growth of more than 1,000 percent in the statewide solar market, improved energy affordability for 1.65 million low-income customers, and created thousands of jobs in manufacturing, engineering, and other clean tech sectors. REV is ensuring New York reduces statewide greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030 and achieves the internationally recognized target of reducing emissions 80 percent by 2050. To learn more about REV, including the Governor's $5 billion investment in clean energy technology and innovation, visit rev.ny.gov , follow us on Twitter Facebook , and LinkedIn About NYSERDA Local News, Business & Finance, Travel & Local Attractions, Health & Wellness, Press Releases By Chris Boyle Published: September 28 2018 Unique new business offers numerous health and therapeutic benefits by way of salt therapy. Port Washington, NY - Sept. 28, 2018 - Port Salt Cave is a fairly new business in the Port Washington community, having initially opened their doors for business the weekend after Black Friday in 2017. However, unlike many establishments in the area old or new the services they offer are not only unique, but can legitimately improve your quality of life in many different ways. Port Salt Cave specializes in what is known as salt therapy; the benefits, according to owner and Port Washington resident Sue Sullivan, come from actually breathing in atomized pharmaceutical grade imported salt via a dry salt generator that is pumped into a very real cave located on the premises. Its like using a toothbrush on your respiratory system, she said. Breathing in salt serves to open up your airways, moving the mucus out of your bronchioles much like a sponge. Sullivan noted that there are numerous health and therapeutic benefits that come along with salt therapy. There are elements in the salt that your body has, so there are receptor sites where magnesium goes, where potassium goesits a giving salt cave. We also have iodine in our water cascades, and that's good for your thyroid, she said. The cave itself is very good for respiratory problems, including sinusitis, COPD, emphysema...we people coming in on oxygen, with cancer, and being in the cave helps with their stress. Port Salt Cave specializes in what is known as salt therapy. Photo Credit: Chris Boyle Regular exposure to a salt cave also functions as a form of preventive medicine, Sullivan said. It works really great for prevention of ailments such as colds, sinusitis, allergies, and asthma, she said. My sister and I are both off of our allergy medications, and it's all just from working here every day. And we're not even doing sessions, were just in and out of the salt cave, and we don't need our meds anymore. The benefits of salt therapy come from actually breathing in atomized pharmaceutical grade imported salt that is pumped into a cave located on the premises. Photo Credit: Chris Boyle Sullivan comes from the medical and health care industry, having worked in pharmaceutical and medical device sales for 26 years. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, and suffered numerous complications as she journeyed along the long road to recovery; adding insult to injury, Sullivans employer let her go after having been out of work for over three years while enduring numerous surgeries, leaving her at a crossroads in her life. I didn't know what I was going to do...I was really panicking for a little bit, she said. Sullivan turned to her sister, Lori Ciotoli of Glen Head who runs the business with her for guidance, and it was at that time that she was introduced to the concept of salt caves, a new and fascinating method of achieving relaxation and addressing health issues through 100 percent natural means. A friend of mine visited a salt cave, and she was telling me what a great business it was, and I immediately thought of Suethis is right up her alley, Ciotoli said. I told her about it, and I could see that she was immediately into it. And within six months, she opened up Port Salt Cave. Port Salt Cave owner Sue Sullivan (left) and sister/co-worker Lori Ciotoli (right). Photo Credit: Chris Boyle Such a swift transition between unemployment and entrepreneurship, however, does not denote a lack of know-how and effort on Sullivan's part; indeed, she dove headfirst into in-depth research on the subject, even traveling to Canada to experience the phenomenon of a legitimate salt cave first hand. I decided to meet with someone in Canada because I knew she would be open and honest...I didn't want to stay local because of the competition, she said. I drove up to Canada and met the owner and the builder who made her cave, and on the way home I said to my husband, we're going to do this. That was in March of 2017- fast forward to November 2017, and we were open. Sullivans salt cave, upon first entering, is an otherworldly, captivating, and unique environment. Approximately 400 square feet in size and filled with approximately 22,000 pounds of salt imported from Poland, the walls are lined with large salt rocks intermittently backlit by lamps casting an atmospheric glow, and the entire floor is covered with approximately 4 inches of granulated rock salt. Faux stalactites hang from the ceiling, and the gentle, soothing sound of running water cascades casts a relaxing aura. The cave itself is dim and cool kept at approximately 67 degrees at all times and upon spending any length of time in the room, one will very quickly become aware of the sensation and taste of a salty mist upon their bodies whenever the atomizer is active. It is a truly unusual experience at first, but once you lie down and experience an introductory 45-minute session, it easily becomes one of the most relaxing and stress-reducing experiences you can imagine. Port Salt Cave features a retail store which offers items such as rock salt lamps, hand-made jewelry, soap, and skin care products. Photo Credit: Chris Boyle Sullivan said that salt therapy has been around for many, many years, and while it's not certain exactly when the practice was first developed, she noted that physicians conducted studies in the 1800s upon coal and salt mine workers and the effects of their individual working environments on their overall health. The salt mine workers, it was found, were in far, far better shape than their coal mining brethren, and the coal miners enjoyed similar benefits when they were sent into the salt mines as well. From there salt therapy was born, and the practice spread across Europe and eventually found its way over to the United States. While generally still somewhat uncommon, Port Salt Cave seeks to change that distinction and bring salt therapy to the masses in a very accessible form. Regular exposure to a salt cave also functions as a form of preventive medicine, in addition to being a very relaxing experience as well. Photo Credit: Chris Boyle However, Port Salt Cave isn't just about laying back and breathing in all that salt; there also numerous other activities that make use of the cave, including yoga classes, children's playtime, meditation, reiki sessions, sound healing, and much more. For a full list of the different activities and their respective schedules, please visit Port Salt Caves website . In addition, interested parties can actually rent the entire cave for private events if they so wish. Ultimately though, aside from the health benefits, Sullivan noted that the salt cave is a place where people can go to get away from the rat race and embrace some peace and serenity, if only for a little while. What we really like is for people to just unwind and get rid of all of the electronics, and just clear your mind and try to get into a meditative state, she said. Because that's when you're going to feel the best when you walk out of the cave. Port Salt Cave features a retail store which offers items such as rock salt lamps, hand-made jewelry, soap, and skin care products. Photo Credit: Chris Boyle Port Salt Cave also offers numerous other amenities for its patrons, including a sauna booth as well as a small retail store, run by Sullivans sister, which offers numerous interesting items such as rock salt lamps, hand-made jewelry, soap and skin care products, and more. After successfully juggling cancer and a unexpected and dramatic career shift, Sullivan noted that she's happier than she's ever been; moreover, she wants to share those good feelings, and invites everyone who's interested to come down to Port Salt Cave and experience its benefits for themselves, first-hand. I get to work on the water, I get to wear a t-shirt and jeans to work, and I get to help people... I just can't believe that I'm getting to live this life, she said. Plus I get to work with my best friend, who is my sister, and we just get to have fun. This isn't work. The Peoples Plan Campaign, launched in Kerala, more than two decades ago, no longer excites most people. The Government of India recently announced the launch of a Peoples Plan Campaign from October 2, 2018 to prepare development plans for every Grama Panchayat in the country, to properly utilise the resources over which the Grama Panchayats have command, particularly Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS) and the Fourteenth Finance Commission Grants. I read this important announcement with both pride and amusement pride at having been an active player in the operationalisation of the Peoples Plan Campaign in Kerala, more than two decades ago and amusement tinged with a bit of cynicism at the fact that in the state of its origin, it no longer excites most people, in spite of its huge potential to actually show what good governance can be. Recently, I read an article in a Malayalam newspaper written by Dr V. Ramankutty, director of Achutha Menon Centre, SCTIMST, in which he had commented that the reconstruction activities could re-ignite Peoples Plan. I feel that this is the right time to go back more than two decades in time and recreate the most creative and idealistic phase in Keralas development history, suitably adapted to the present times. The philosophical roots of Peoples Plan can be traced to the Gandhian concept of village democracy and local development with special emphasis on antyodaya and Paolo Freires belief that people, ordinarily treated as mere objects, known and acted upon, are capable of becoming subjects of their destiny, knowing and acting. The core objectives of participatory planning and development embedded in Peoples Plan need to be reinstated. They include: i) Democratisation and humanisation of the State taking it to the door steps of the citizen. ii) Enable people to have a formal role in local developmental governance, with special emphasis on the excluded social groups. iii) Shift from official and political patronage to socially constructed norms and criteria for provision of benefits to people fair and transparent. iv) Incorporate local knowledge and wisdom and motivate peoples contribution. v) Increase transparency and accountability social accountability, in particular - and reduce corruption. vi) Transform conflictual politics into a new politics of development. vii) Facilitate a cooperative and creative public action. Some of the core ideas and concepts of Peoples Plan can easily be transplanted to the post flood reconstruction with great benefit. They are: (i) Building a cadre of local resource persons drawn from the most competent and active sections of government, academia and the civil society to work very closely with the people. (ii) Mobilising high quality technical experts and professionals from both within and outside the country on a purely voluntary service mode; the concept of Voluntary Technical Corps (VTC) propounded by no less a person than E.M.S. Namboodiripad himself, has fascinating relevance in the present context. With so much of international attention, experts from all over the world would be willing to volunteer with ideas and concrete suggestions and, some of them, even with their presence, to guide the reconstruction activities. This would enable multiple perspectives incorporation of the best knowledge inputs and transparent decision making. (iii) An innovation of the Peoples Plan was the preparation of the Development Report by every local government combining formal as well as participatory methodologies. This would be best suited in a disaster situation where the affected people can contribute with feeling to understanding what happened, why it happened and what needs to be done both for mitigation and prevention. This will ensure that peoples priorities based on their experience get the primacy and not narrow interests guided by extraneous considerations, partisan-political or rent-seeking. (iv) Peoples Plan also sought to ensure participation in implementation and monitoring, though it was not very successful. It can still be tried out learning lessons from experience. (v) Probably, the most successful institutional innovation of the Peoples Plan was the functioning of a high-level Coordination Committee, headed by the Minister for Local Self Government with full participation of the Departments concerned including Finance and Planning. It used to meet every Wednesday and it was empowered to take all decisions related to Peoples Plan. It was easily accessible to even ordinary members of Local Governments who could raise any issue and be guaranteed that the government would respond with clarity in a formal way within a week or two. Such a mechanism is highly necessary to sort out the problems which would arise at different stages. One of the unrealised ideas of Peoples Plan was social audit which has been trivialised and domesticated in Kerala. This is the right time to revitalise social audit and make it applicable to all flood relief works including provision of benefits. A strong political signal needs to be sent by government that really there would be zero tolerance of corruption and partisanship in respect of flood relief as a challenge to validate the salary and crowd funding challenges. With this signal, participation and social vigilance can really be effective. It is well known that in disaster relief, diversion of funds from the intended activities and localities, wastage and corruption are rather high even in well run countries. But such corruption repulses people more than anything else, particularly those who have borne the brunt of the disaster and in whose name funds have been mobilised. It has to be particularly noted that social accountability even if it is inconvenient to local power structures, official and political, formal and informal, actually yields a lot of political dividend. A case in point is the firm decision by late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to insulate MGNREGS from any kind of wrong doing in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. A close analysis of the media reveals that during the hardest days of the disaster, elected representatives of the local governments were the first responders rushing into the relief work and trying to coordinate to the best of their ability (even though disaster relief is a subject not devolved to local governments). But now one gets the feeling that the Grama Panchayats, Municipalities and Corporations may be ignored in the planning and implementation of reconstruction works. This needs to be avoided. For whatever one may say, they are the closest to people and their accountability is direct and sharp. Of course, they have the risk of partisanship but this can be offset through transparent norms, genuine participation and pro-active accountability measures. If Kerala could suitably adapt the practices which it had conceptualised and pioneered, in this attempt for Nava Keralam, it can develop an international model of quality and significance for post-disaster reconstruction. S.M. Vijayanand is former Chief Secretary, Kerala The only woman judge on 5-judge bench, Justice Indu Malhotra, offered dissenting judgment, disagreeing with her peers. Justice Indu Malhotra said issues which have deep religious connotation should not be tinkered with to maintain secular atmosphere in the country. (Photo: File | PTI) New Delhi: In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday lifted ban on entry of women between 10 to 50 years in the renowned Sabarimala temple in Kerala. In its 4:1 verdict, said banning entry of women to Sabarimala temple is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. The only woman judge on the five-judge constitution bench, Justice Indu Malhotra, offered a sole dissenting judgment, disagreeing with her peers. "The practice of age restriction on women entry to Sabarimala temple can't be treated as an essential religious practice," said the apex court in a majority judgment. Justice Indu Malhotra began her dissenting judgment stating that the issues brought up during the Sabarimala case will have a bearing on other places of worship as well. Also Read: Bond with God not biology: Women of all ages can enter Sabarimala, rules SC She said issues which have deep religious connotation should not be tinkered with to maintain secular atmosphere in the country. She went on to state that notions of rationality cannot be brought into religion and that a balance needs to be struck between religious beliefs on one hand, and the cherished principles of non-discrimination and equality laid down by Constitution on the other. What constitutes essential religious practice is for the religious community to decide, not for the Court, Justice Indu Malhotra said. She was of the view that it is not for courts to determine which religious practices are to be struck down except in issues of social evil like 'Sati'. "An equality doctrine cannot override the fundamental right to worship under Article 25. Notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion," Justice Malhotra said. Women of menstrual age, for centuries, were restricted from entering Sabarimala temple as the presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered to be a celibate. A 24-year-old man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly shot a 15-year-old girl inside a fried chicken restaurant in Mattapan in July, Boston police said. Boston police said John Jackson, of Mattapan, was arrested multiple charges including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and several firearm charges Thursday morning. He was not licensed to carry a gun or carry ammunition during the July shooting, police said. Police say that at about 11:30 a.m. July 17, police in Mattapan responded to a business at 998 Blue Hill Avenue for reports of gunshots. Boston Fried Chicken lists this as their address, but police did not identify the restaurant. "Witnesses heard a noise best described as a 'bang' in the bathroom and saw the 15-year-old female victim on the floor," police wrote in a news release. Minutes before the shooting, Jackson entered the restaurant and asked for a bathroom key, police said. The 15-year-old girl was taken to the hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Johnson allegedly ran down Blue Hill Avenue toward Callender Street. He was arrested Thursday morning. The Sandwich woman convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter in 2001 was found dead in her prison cell Wednesday. Erin Colleran, 43, was "found unresponsive" in her cell at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Framingham by "correctional staff while conducting security rounds," Jason Dobson, deputy director of communications for the state Department of Correction told MassLive. The Massachusetts State Police and the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office were notified Dobson said. She has been held in Framingham since 2003, Dobson said. On Dec. 18, 2001 police responded to Colleran's home in Sandwich where they found Skyler Colleran, 2, dead. Colleran told police she had been awake and contemplating suicide. When her daughter woke up at 6 a.m. Colleran said she pushed the child's face into the sofa and suffocated her before choking her. She then called the police, according to reporting from The Cape Cod Times. Witnesses at trial described Colleran as a responsible mother. She told jurors she could not explain why she killed her daughter but said that she wanted to die and thought if she killed her child someone would kill her, the Times reports. In October 2008, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that there was no premeditation involved in the toddler's killing. Instead, the court said the act resulted from Colleran's "profound, possibly psychotic depression," according to The Cape Cod Times. In 2009, Colleran was resentenced on a second-degree murder charge, which allows for parole after 10 years, the Times reports. The Times reports that the docket in Barnstable Superior Court shows that Colleran retained a private attorney on June 15, who filed a motion for money to hire a forensic psychologist to "evaluate defendant and potentially testify before the Massachusetts Parole Board with affidavit." That motion initially was denied July 5 because it was not properly filed, but it was then allowed Sept. 10, according to The Cape Cod Times. Dobson declined to comment on the manner of Colleran's death. Federal authorities are investigating whether the State Police Association of Massachusetts illegally reimbursed political donations by its board members, according to a new report by the Boston Globe. The probe, which included subpoenas of SPAM financial records, represents an expansion of the ongoing state police overtime abuse investigation to the political activities of the state troopers' union. MassLive has not independently confirmed the report, which is based on information given to the Globe by a source with first-hand knowledge of the federal investigation. News of the U.S. Attorney's Office's investigation of the union broke hours after Trooper Dana Pullman announced his resignation as president of the union, citing personal reasons. The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the Globe's report, federal authorities are investigating whether the SPAM repaid board members for their contributions to political campaigns, illegally concealing that the donations came from union accounts. The U.S. Attorney's Office has subpoenaed union bank records and documents relating to political donations, as well as records of a charity operated by Pullman's wife, the Globe reported. Six members of the state police have been charged by federal authorities with embezzlement for allegedly skipping overtime shifts or claiming pay for full shifts despite cutting out early. About 40 troopers are under investigation, which centered on overtime traffic enforcement programs on the Massachusetts Turnpike. Three former state police lieutenants have also been indicted on state charges by the Office of Attorney General Maura Healey. All the accused troopers were members of Troop E, the unit responsible for patrolling the Massachusetts Turnpike and Metropolitan tunnels. Troop E was disbanded by Gov. Charlie Baker and Col. Kerry Gilpin as part of a package of reforms offered in the wake of the overtime scandal. Troop E, which was responsible for patrolling the Massachusetts Turnpike and Boston tunnels, was known as a lucrative posting for troopers because of its frequent access to overtime shifts. Accident Injury Reduction Effort (AIRE) patrols were four-hour overtime shifts designed to reduce crashes on the Pike and X-Team patrols targeted aggressive driving. Investigators used data from cruiser radios to show that troopers had their radios off when they claimed to be working shifts. Accused troopers also filed "ghost tickets" -- citations that were either fabricated or falsely dated -- to appear as though they were working during overtime traffic enforcement shifts. AMHERST - Following several controversial incidents at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the school's chancellor has released a statement urging students to "stand united against acts of hate." Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said Friday that recent incidents--including one involving racist graffiti and another in which police were called on a black employee walking to work--should not be tolerated. "Acts of hate can take many forms and target a range of social identities," Subbaswamy wrote. "Creating a community of dignity and respect requires active engagement." The chancellor also blamed what he called " a contentious national environment" for on campus tension, as well as alleging that "outside groups" may be responsible for instigating certain incidents at schools. "Well-organized, outside groups, often using anonymous methods, seek to provoke division and strife on college campuses," he said. "Discerning their involvement in particular incidents is difficult, but we remain vigilant. The best antidote to these hateful acts is to denounce them and stand united, building community bonds that foster excellence and inclusiveness." Subbaswamy released the statement not long after multiple calls from UMass students to address racism on campus. Subbaswamy ended his statement by encouraging students to attend a panel of Afro-American Studies faculty and students for a public discussion of "The Problem of the Color Line: A Discussion of Racism and Racial Profiling on Campus." The full statement released by Subbaswamy can be read at the UMass website. This story elaborates on an article published at 7:35 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018: Success in marijuana industry in Massachusetts means knowing regulations: Greenfield forum GREENFIELD -- Sara Orellana left Thursday's forum thinking she just might want to get into growing. "I came to this event that was facilitated by GCC because I am interested in the possibility of investing or learning about the cannabis industry in Massachusetts and the possibilities of growing, as an entrepreneur within it," said Orellana, a Greenfield Community College student, mother and Holyoke resident. GCC held the forum -- "The Marijuana Industry in the Pioneer Valley" -- at its Downtown Center at 270 Main St. with Patriot Care, which runs a medical marijuana facility at 7 Legion Ave. Patriot Care representatives discussed regulations in the Massachusetts marijuana industry and the importance of knowing such rules, the status of medical and recreational marijuana across America, job and licensing opportunities and challenges faced by marijuana businesses. "I think it's giving a lot of basic information, which is good," Orellana said. "But I think it's good that they're offering the opportunity to learn about it in an open forum like this." (see video above) Miguel Aquino of Holyoke said the forum was informative in showing how the marijuana industry can help down-but-rising communities like Holyoke and Greenfield. "Because the textile industries are gone, the paper industries are gone. That's really what I'm interested in, how they're going to use" such industrial sites now, Aquino said. Over 50 people attended the forum. Taking photographs and shooting video was prohibited during the event. Massachusetts voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2016 and legalized marijuana for medical use in 2012. Marijuana is legal for medical use in 30 states and for recreation in nine states. Massachusetts shares its position on making marijuana available with other states. But the Bay State stands alone when it comes to regulations, said consultant Daniel J. Delaney, of the Delaney Policy Group of Boston, calling the embrace of rules here puritanical. Delaney participated in the forum with Patriot Care "The mindset of government officials on the East Coast vs. the West Coast is like night and day. We love to regulate in Massachusetts. We're really good at it. We can take something really simple and make it complicated," Delaney said. A benefit of being able to operate within such structure is if a business can do that in Massachusetts, he said, "You can do it anywhere in the country." "This is a new field, it's complex, it's innovative," he said. "I think we're doing to see a lot of changes, so it's good to pay attention and stay open minded." Such points were echoed by Patriot Care founder Bob Mayerson. Succeeding in the Massachusetts medical marijuana industry requires, at least, a knowledge of the regulations and the ability to adapt as the industry changes, he said. "It's an evolving industry. It's not like going to work for Staples, like I did. Here things are still evolving in this industry, so you need to be resilient, whether you're working in or going to be investing in it....You have to always be able to address any issue or things that come up," he said. The Massachusetts marijuana regulations provide an example of that. The rules can be considered strict, but they also safeguard the companies and their products. No marijuana that facilities like Patriot Care sell can be ingested unless tested first by an independent laboratory, he said. Labs test to ensure the pot is free of pesticides and heavy metals like mercury and lead. Pot sold on the streets, the "black market," isn't subject to such health standards, he said. "That product that has pesticides in it is getting in the stream for people to ingest. Not to make it a scare tactic, but that product is carcinogenic," Mayerson said. Business and job opportunities are available in the marijuana industry, and in a variety of ways in Massachusetts, given the spectrum of licensing available. Among marijuana-industry licenses available from the state are: marijuana cultivation cooperatives lab testing research retail manufacturing marijuana transporter. Eventually, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission also will consider issuing licenses for marijuana deliverers and establishments that would permit onsite consumption, Delaney said. GREENFIELD - Massachusetts State Police say a traffic stop on Interstate 91 North in Greenfield led to the arrest of four Vermont residents on charges of drug trafficking. Troopers seized a large bag containing 23 grams of fentanyl, another package containing 20 grams of cocaine, and 500 packets of heroin mixed with fentanyl that were packaged for street sales. They also confiscated $1,046 in cash. The arrests resulted from an 11:30 p.m. traffic stop. A trooper on patrol pulled over the black Ford Focus because its license plate light was out. A records check showed that driver Joel Collins' license had been suspended. Collins, 42, of Lyndonville, Vermont, was placed in custody, police said. When troopers searched the car, they found drugs under the front seat. Also arrested were passengers Caleb Cassidy, 29, of Lyndonville, Vermont, Samantha Chase, 28, of Woodsville, Vermont, and Michael Ashford, 29, of South Ryegate, Vermont. All four were charged with three counts of trafficking for fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, as well as conspiracy to violate drug laws. Cassidy was also charged with tampering or destruction of evidence, and Collins was charged with driving with a suspended license. Each was held overnight at the Franklin County House of Correction pending arraignment in Greenfield District Court. State Police Association of Massachusetts President Dana Pullman has resigned from his position as the head of the state troopers' union. The union announced Pullman's resignation in a news release Friday, saying Pullman cited personal reasons for leaving his position. SPAM Vice President Kevin Fredette has been named acting president, pending the appointment of a successor next week by the union board. In recent months, Pullman has steered the union through a series of scandals affecting the Massachusetts State Police. In March, as news broke of overtime abuse allegations that have led to investigations of dozens of troopers, Pullman laid blame on former Col. Richard McKeon -- who resigned last year following allegations that he improperly censored a police report into the drug arrest of a judge's daughter. He also expressed frustration in April with how Gov. Charlie Baker and new Col. Kerry Gilpin implemented reforms in reaction to the scandal. He said he and the union did not have advance notice of plans to activate GPS tracking in cruisers and abolish the troop at the center of the scandal. Pullman is a decades-long veteran of the State Police. He served as treasurer of the SPAM from April 2008 to July 2012, when he was elected president. This is a developing story. Washington is pushing allies to cut Iranian oil imports to zero once the sanctions start on November 4. Iran's Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, in New York on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly. (Photo: AP) New Delhi: India is committed to buying Iranian oil and continuing the two nations' economic cooperation, the Iranian foreign minister said after a meeting with his Indian counterpart and ahead of US sanctions aimed at halting Tehran's oil exports. US President Donald Trump's May withdrawal from an international nuclear pact with Iran was followed up with plans to impose new sanctions against the third-largest producer among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Washington is pushing allies to cut Iranian oil imports to zero once the sanctions start on November 4. Iran's Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, in New York on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly, according to a video from news agency ANI, a Reuters affiliate. "Our Indian friends have always been categorical in terms of their intention to continue economic cooperation and (the) import of oil from Iran. And I heard the same statement from my Indian counterpart," Zarif said when asked if India has given an assurance about continuing with oil imports. India, Iran's second-biggest oil client behind China, has already reduced its intake of Iranian oil but has not yet decided whether to end purchases completely. "We have comprehensive cooperation with India and that comprehensive cooperation also includes energy cooperation because Iran has always been a reliable source of energy for India," Zarif added. Iran is India's third-biggest oil supplier and the South Asian nation had drawn plans to increase purchases this financial year after Tehran offered almost free shipping and extended credit period. In the previous round of sanctions, India was one of the few countries that continued to trade with Iran. Zarif said Iran wants to expand its bilateral relations with India. The Indian-backed Chabahar port complex in Iran is being developed as part of a new transportation corridor for land-locked Afghanistan. The complex could open the way for millions of dollars in trade and cut India's dependence on neighbour Pakistan. The plant is expected to be operational by 2019. India is looking at providing a USD 3.5 million-equivalent bank guarantee for development of the port through UCO Bank, another government source said. Zarif said that Chabahar is still functional and Iran wants to expand its capacity with support from Indian and other investors. NORTHAMPTON -- Judge W. Michael Goggins, 63, retired on Friday. He was first justice at Northampton District Court the past seven years, and served on the bench nearly two decades. In a written statement, Massachusetts District Court Chief Justice Paul C. Dawley praised Goggins. "For 19 years, seven of which he served as First Justice of Northampton District Court, Judge Goggins has conducted his judicial work with competence and integrity. We commend his outstanding public service as a District Court judge and wish him well in retirement," Dawley wrote. Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan called Goggins an "outstanding district court judge." In a statement, Sullivan said the judge "was always fair and balanced and made sure the court served the greater community. His work ethic was notable. He was a force of nature, many times handling multiple court sessions in a single day. He'll be missed by attorneys, clerks and staff alike." Goggins graduated from Western New England College School of Law in 1982 and was admitted to the bar the same year. He served as an assistant district attorney in the Northwestern district from 1983-85, and from 1993 until his appointment as a judge in 1999 by Gov. A. Paul Cellucci. He was also a partner in the law firm Maguire & Goggins in the 1980s. Northampton Attorney Jesse Adams, president of the Hampshire County Bar Association's executive committee, also praised Goggins' service. "Judge Goggins is known for fairness, thoughtfulness, efficiency, sharp wit, legal acumen and good humor. He is a true class act, a great person and a great judge. It is the end of an era in the Northampton District Court. He has made those of us who have practiced before him better lawyers. He will be missed. We wish him the absolute best in his well-earned retirement," Adams said in a statement. Dawley has appointed Judge Maureen Walsh to serve as first justice in Northampton District Court. She is also the regional administrative justice in Region 6. A man was killed when he was hit by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Lexington Friday morning, according to State Police. The man, who has not been identified, was hit around 3:45 a.m. on the northbound side between Exits 30A and 30B. He was taken to Lahey Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The driver of the tractor-trailer, a 40-year-old man from Pennsylvania, is not facing charges at the time. The cause of the incident, including why the man was in the road, remains under investigation. GREENFIELD -- The rules regulating the marijuana industry in Massachusetts can seem puritanical while also helpful such as with safe-ingestion testing requirements, speakers at a forum said Thursday. "It's an evolving industry. It's not like going to work for Staples, like I did," said Bob Mayerson, founder of Patriot Care, which runs a medical marijuana facility here. "Here things are still evolving in this industry, so you need to be resilient, whether you're working in or going to be investing in it....You have to always be able to address any issue or things that come up," he said. Patriot Care held the forum -- "The Marijuana Industry in the Pioneer Valley" -- with Greenfield Community College at the GCC Downtown Center, 270 Main St. About 50 people attended. Taking photos and shooting video was prohibited during the workshop. The Patriot Care dispensary is at 7 Legion Ave. Representatives of Patriot Care and GCC discussed an overview of the pot industry, Massachusetts regulations of medical and recreational marijuana, jobs in the industry and marijuana businesses' challenges. Massachusetts voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2016 and legalized marijuana for medical use in 2012. Check back with The Republican and MassLive.com for more coverage of "The Marijuana Industry in the Pioneer Valley" workshop in Greenfield. One of State Police's most wanted sex offenders in the state was taken into custody at a New York hotel Friday morning, police said. Angel Rosado, 53, was tracked and found at the Bronx Park Motel around 6 a.m. Rendition proceedings are in process. Rosado is a Level 3 sex offender and was wanted for four counts of failure to register as a sex offender as required by law. In 1991 he was convicted of raping a child under 16 with force, assault and battery and robbery in connection with an incident in which he and another person dragged a girl under a bridge in Boston, hit her with a large object and took turns raping her, state police said. He has since served his sentence but failed to register as a sex offender. State police said he has an extensive criminal history in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. SPRINGFIELD - A North Adams man is facing federal charges related to the exploitation of children, and the possession and distribution of child pornography, the Office of the U.S. Attorney announced Friday. Anthony K. Deordio, 43, had previously been charged at the state level with possession of child pornography. He pleaded innocent in April in Berkshire Superior Court to three counts of knowingly possessing visual material of a child engaged in sexual conduct. Bail in that case was set at $2,500, and Deordio has remained in custody at the Berkshire County House of Correction. The new charges are being brought by the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts and the FBI, and will be tried in U.S. District Court in Springfield. He will be arraigned on the new charges at a later date. The new charges against him are the sexual exploitation of a minor, distribution of a minor, receiving child pornography, and possession of child pornography. The U.S. Attorney charges that between November of last year and March, Deordio used a child to make pornography. He is then said to have shared it with others and received additional pornography in return. If convicted of all counts, he could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. The case against Deordio was brought under the federal Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice program launched in 2006 to combine federal, state and local resources to find and prosecute those involved in child pornography. VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has expelled from the priesthood 88-year-old Fernando Karadima, a key figure in the church's sexual abuse scandal in Chile, and a figure - much like the 88-year-old former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick in the U.S. - that has engulfed his papacy. In a statement released Sept. 28, the Vatican said Francis "made this exceptional decision in conscience and for the good of the Church." Karadima was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing boys in Santiago in the 1970s and 1980s. He was sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude, but allowed to remain a priest. Once one of Chile's most popular priests who prepared boys for the priesthood, Karadima has denied any wrong doing. A Vatican investigation earlier this year into cases of accused pedophile priests in Chile was said to show that documents related to the crimes were destroyed and actions not taken to protect vulnerable children. All of Chile's 34 Roman Catholic bishops resigned in May following a meeting in Rome during which Francis said the bishops were collectively responsible for covering up clerical sexual abuse in their dioceses. Francis has since accepted the resignation of seven Chilean bishops, including that of Juan Barros Madrid whom he had appointed bishop of the Diocese of Osorno in 2015 despite widespread protests in Chile by those who accused Barros of witnessing and covering up Karadima's abuse. Barros has denied the allegations. Francis acknowledged after the Vatican investigation that he made "serious mistakes" in judging the case due to "a lack of truthful and balanced information." Chilean police and prosecutors have since begun their own investigations into allegations of sexual abuse against priests and church workers. In July, Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., from the College of Cardinals and ordered him to a "life of prayer and penance" amid allegations that the charismatic and influential McCarrick abused minors and adults over decades. Last month, the former top Vatican official in the United States accused Francis of having knowledge of the allegations of abuse against McCarrick, which he has denied, and allowing McCarrick to continue in ministry despite alleged restrictions. The official, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, issued a second letter Sept. 27. A number of state attorney generals have begun investigations into dioceses across the country in the aftermath of the recent release of Pennsylvania's grand jury report that more than 300 Catholic priests victimized more than 1,000 children over six decades and that church officials concealed the abuse. Earlier this week, Francis defended the church's handling of its global clergy sex abuse scandal by saying "in older times these things were covered up" in many situations, but that investigations such as the Pennsylvania grand jury report show "the church realized that it had to battle it in a different way." According to media reports, Francis signed a decree on the defrocking, technically known as being "reduced to the lay state," on Thursday, and Karadima, who is believed to be living in a home for the elderly in the Chilean capital Santiago, was notified on Friday. A man who helped carry out a prison murder and an inmate who shot his brother's girlfriend are now accused of smuggling drugs into MCI-Cedar Junction, using family connections and a romantic relationship with a prison nurse. Chad Connors, 42, and William Guillemette, 39, allegedly ran an operation to sell the opioid suboxone and the anxiety drug alprazolam to other inmates within MCI-Cedar Junction, according to a federal indictment. They each now face a count of conspiracy to possess controlled substances with intent to distribute. Connors was already incarcerated at the prison for serving as a lookout during the murder of another inmate at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. Guillemette was convicted in 2009 of wounding his brother's girlfriend with a shotgun blast. Connors and Ramos were both housed in the MCI-Cedar Junction's Departmental Disciplinary Unit, federal authorities said. Connors allegedly began a romantic relationship with Christine Ramos, a nurse in the unit who was responsible for distributing prescription drugs to inmages. Ramos has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute suboxone and alprazolam, better known by its trade name Xanax. Prosecutors say she agreed to a request by Connors to help smuggle drugs into the prison. "In order to do this, Ramos opened two Post Office Boxes through a third party. Connors sent letters and money to Ramos at these P.O. Boxes, and, at Guillemette's direction, his wife, Lisa, and mother, Margaret, obtained and sent Suboxone and Alprazolam to the P.O. Boxes," the Office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in a news release. Ramos then picked up the drugs and smuggled them into the Departmental Disciplinary Unit, delivering them to Connors. Connors then allegedly sold the drugs to other inmates, who sent checks to Guillemette's wife and mother as payment. Lisa and Margaret Guillemette were arrested on Friday, federal authorities said. While in the outside world suboxone is typically prescribed to help addicts quit heroin, in prison it is valuable contraband, the U.S. Attorney's Office has said. It is distributed in dissolvable strips that are easily concealed behind envelope seams and stamps. SPRINGFIELD - Two residents were displaced after a fire damaged their home Thursday night. The residents said they were cooking on a grill on the porch and it caught fire and spread to the house at 62-64 Bristol St., Fire Capt. Brian Tetreault said. The fire was reported at about 9 p.m. and the flames were extinguished quickly. At 9:40 p.m. firefighters were on the roof looking for any extension of the fire. Smoke was still coming from the roof. There were no injuries in the fire, Tetreault said. The fire is believed to have caused about $30,000 in damage but firefighters are still working at the scene so the estimate is very preliminary, he said. The Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross had been called to assist the residents, he said. Bristol Street is expected to remain closed for several hours while firefighters work. People are asked to stay away from the area. This is the second blaze firefighters extinguished on Thursday. A total of 11 residents were displaced in a fire at 38-40 Algonquin Place and caused an estimated $75,000 in damage. SPRINGFIELD -- A firefighter was taken to the hospital with unknown injuries Thursday night after responding to a house fire in the Upper Hill neighborhood. Fire Capt. Brian Tetreault had no information on the nature of the firefighter's injuries Friday morning. Two residents safely escaped the blaze, which was reported about 9 p.m. at 64 Bristol St. Damage was estimated at less than $80,000, Tetreault said. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation by the Springfield Arson & Bomb Squad. Residents reported, however, they were cooking on a grill when the porch caught fire and spread to the home. The Western Massachusetts Chapter of the American Red Cross is aiding the two people who were displaced. NORTHAMPTON - A 28-year-old Springfield man was sentenced to up to 7 years in state prison on Thursday after his conviction in Hampshire Superior Court on a single count of rape. The charge stems from an assault on a woman at his apartment in Amherst on May 27, 2016. A jury found him guilt on Wednesday. Judge Daniel sentenced him him to serve 5 to 7 years in state prison. 'A conspiracy against nation has been unearthed by police,' Fadnavis said on the arrest of 5 activists. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis also defended the state police for addressing a press conference after the arrest, which had been come in for criticism. (Photo: File | PTI) Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's refusal to interfere with the probe by the state police against five Left-wing activists in connection with violence in Koregaon- Bhima in December last year. Fadnavis said the decision of the top court proved that there was no conspiracy behind action by the state police against Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha. The five are under arrest at their respective homes since August 29. Fadnavis was reacting soon after the Supreme Court declined to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the arrest of the five activists by the Pune police. The court said the arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist) organisation. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. "The Supreme Court has vindicated the state government and the Pune police. The court has no doubt over the material evidence submitted," the chief minister told reporters. "A conspiracy against the nation has been unearthed by the police," he said on the arrest of the five activists. According to the Supreme Court order, the government will go to the "appropriate forum" in the case, he said. Fadnavis also defended the state police for addressing a press conference after the arrest, which had been come in for criticism. "A lot of things were said against the police after the arrest and an atmosphere was created by pseudo, so-called neo-liberals in the media that the arrests have been made without evidence. The police had to say that the arrests were not motivated but backed by real and powerful evidence," he said. "We will look into the fine print of the order regarding the police press conference. The press conference is not important but the real issue of conspiracy against the nation is. If holding the press conference was wrong, we will improve it," he said. Fadnavis said political parties should not support the arrested persons for political reasons after the SC verdict, "otherwise the political parties will stand exposed." Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on August 28 from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi. The majority verdict by the Supreme Court said the protection of house arrest of the activists will remain in force for four more weeks to enable the accused to seek appropriate legal remedy at appropriate legal forum. AMHERST - A graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has received a prestigious award from the U.S. Department of Energy that will put him to work on a project connected to the Large Hadron Collider--the world's largest particle accelerator. Physics Ph.D. candidate Guy Rosin, of Watertown, has been chosen to receive the Science Graduate Student Research Program award, UMass announced Wednesday. Rosin is one of 47 students nationwide to receive the award which prepares graduate students for STEM careers by providing work and thesis opportunities at DOE labs. Rosin, who is currently is working on his doctorate in high-energy physics in the Carlo Dallapiccola lab at UMass, will begin his new work starting in October. The Large Hadron Collider is the world's most powerful particle accelerator and the largest machine in the world--capable of accelerating protons to something called "13 TeV energy," which is more than 99.99% the speed of light. Roughly the size of a seven-story building, the gargantuan mechanism is the property of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN--the world's largest physics lab. It is located in a 17-mile tunnel located beneath the France-Switzerland border. Having once had the opportunity to visit it, Rosin said the spectacle of the Collider was otherworldly. "It's an amazing sight to behold," he said. However, Rosin won't be working in Switzerland. Instead, he'll be at the Brookhaven National Laboratory located on Long Island. There, he'll be working on upgrades to the Collider's ATLAS program--which seeks to "exploit the full discovery potential and the huge range of physics opportunities that the LHC provides," according to the experiment's website. Used for an assortment of experiments in particle physics, the work that goes on with the Collider has often been as mysterious as it is a topic of popular intrigue. Some have wondered whether it is capable of creating a "Earth killing" black hole. The ATLAS program, for which Rosin will be working, "detects all kinds of particles and interesting physics, and lets us look at collisions. It's elementary physics, looking at the nature of what the universe is made of," Rosin said. This is done through a mechanism called the ATLAS "detector," Rosin said. The "detector is a cylindrical detector centered on the beam line and is compromised of 3 main parts," he explained. "The innermost part is called the inner detector(ID) which contains a tracking detector that allows us to see the paths particles took as they exploded from the collision point." From the collisions, researchers are offered "more opportunities to search for new physics," Rosin said. "The plans for the LHC over the next decade or so is to increase the Luminosity (roughly the number of protons per bunch) by a factor of ten," he said. "It's very exciting," he went on. "I'll be working with some of the best scientists in the world in this field. It's a big honor." "The scientists I will be working with in BNL, Stefania Stucci, Dave Lynn, Alessandro Tricolli and Gerrit Van Nieuwenhuizen, are all brilliant scientists with extensive experience in different experiments," he added. Rosin's advisor Dallapiccola said that he is very excited for the student. "Guy will have this opportunity to work on cutting-edge techniques while working on hardware components of one of the world's foremost particle detectors. His having received this prestigious national award is a testament to his tremendous hard work and promise as a rising scientist in the field." A Worcester Superior Court judge is considering whether to dismiss evidence gathered from a sample of David Njuguna's blood after he allegedly slammed his car into State Police Trooper Thomas Clardy's cruiser, killing the trooper. Njuguna's defense lawyers, Peter Ettenberg and Jaclyn Greenhalgh, argued a motion in Worcester Superior Court on Friday, asking for the blood evidence to be suppressed, saying there were irregularities with the chain of command for the blood evidence. The blood evidence is a key part of the Worcester County District Attorney's office case against Njuguna. Njuguna allegedly crashed into Clardy's cruiser on March 16, 2016, on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Charlton. Clardy, 44, was on duty when he pulled over a driver on the Pike. Authorities say Njuguna crossed three lanes of traffic and slammed into Clardy's cruiser. Njuguna was allegedly driving 81 miles per hour at the moment of impact. Clardy was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center and pronounced dead. Njuguna was taken by medical helicopter to the University Campus of UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. While at the hospital, blood and urine samples were taken from Njuguna. Ettenberg and Greenhalgh argued that there were four issues with the evidence, including the irregularities of the chain of command of the blood evidence, State Police procedural violations regarding the storage of the blood evidence, an issue with the blood sample measurements and uncertainty of the measurement of the sample. The state called six witnesses -- two troopers and four employees of the State Police Crime Lab -- to testify. A search warrant executed on March 17, 2016, asked for evidence including blood, serum and urine samples. However, no urine sample was collected and brought to the State Police lab for testing. Ettenberg and Greenhalgh criticized the State Police for not collecting urine evidence even though it was available at the hospital. Urine was sent to a third party lab for testing, assistant district attorney Jeffrey Travers said during the motion hearing. The blood was reportedly collected at the hospital at 12:45 p.m., however, the search warrant for the blood was signed at 1:14 p.m. Trooper Shawn Murphy collected the sample, four vials in a clear plastic bag, at UMass Memorial Medical Center and then took it to the State Police Detective Unit, about a 15-minute drive away. He testified that he collected the blood sample at 1:14 p.m., and not 12:45 p.m. as some records indicate. Murphy gave the sample to Trooper Robert Parr, who placed it in an evidence refrigerator. That was not logged until 3:10 p.m., even though Parr testified that it actually went into the refrigerator between 1:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. Parr testified that he had to leave the detective unit and go to court to get a search warrant affidavit approved, delaying him logging the evidence into the system. The blood sample got to the State Police Crime Lab the next day. Ettenberg asked Parr if he knew what temperature the blood was stored at, but Parr testified that the detective unit does not have to follow any specific procedures for the temperature or humidity of blood in evidence storage, unlike other divisions in the State Police. The defense attorneys argued that there was a span of more than 20 hours where the blood evidence had no temperature or humidity controls before it got to the State Police Crime Lab. Ettenberg also criticized the lack of photos of the evidence, questioning if it was sealed properly. There are no existing photos that show a seal on the brown paper evidence bag with Parr's initials on it. Parr and Kerrie Donovan, one of the State Police Crime Lab forensic scientists, testified that the lab would not have accepted the evidence if it was not sealed properly. Donovan also testified that when she got the sample at the crime lab, she was not sure how it was handled by State Police before that. While the crime lab monitors the temperature at which blood evidence is stored, it does not worry about short-term storage prior, she testified. When the blood was tested at the crime lab, it was positive for marijuana. Donovan testified that the blood would not test positive for marijuana unless it was in the person's bloodstream when the sample was collected. The state asked Judge Janet Kenton-Walker to deny the motion, but Ettenberg asked the judge to allow it, arguing that there were many inconsistencies with the handling and storage of the evidence. Kenton-Walker said Friday afternoon that she was taking the motion under advisement. Njuguna remains held on bail for charges of manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, driving while under the influence of drugs and other motor vehicle charges. The case is scheduled to be heard again on Nov. 15. When Dick and Linda Adams were growing up in Worcester in the 1950s, they would go to Poli's Palace on Southbridge Street to watch movies for 25 cents. Today, the theater - once a representation of the "Golden Age of the Movie Palace" - has been transformed into the Hanover Theatre thanks to a $31 million project that preserved the unique piece of the city's history. On Friday, the theater celebrated its 10th anniversary as the Hanover with a performance gala featuring Tony Bennett. "I used to come here when I was 7 or 8 years old," said Dick Adams, who has been volunteering at the Hanover with his wife, Linda, since the theater reopened. Combined, they have 3,000 volunteer hours at the Hanover. "This is our passion, it really is," Linda Adams said. "I love the people, I love the shows, I love the excitement." Over the past decade, the couple said they've seen a dramatic increase in the number of patrons coming to Worcester from communities outside the city - especially during the last five years. Troy Siebels, president and CEO of the Hanover, said 80 percent of the venue's patrons come from outside of Worcester. "I think we get credited a lot for having a really transformational impact. When we first opened, downtown wasn't a place you wanted to come after five o'clock," he said. The Hanover, Siebels said, "breathes air and light into the area." The theater was built in 1904 as the Franklin Square Theatre. Prior to its reopening in 2008, two local businessmen - Ed Madaus and Paul Demoga - noticed the large, vacant building and saw its potential. Together, they founded the Worcester Center for the Performing Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring the old building. "It was sort of chopped up and a lot of the detail was destroyed by the time we got it. It had been boarded up for 10 years and it looked like was falling down, and so it took a lot of vision to imagine that it could be again what it is today," Siebels said. The 2018 March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction raised a record-breaking $125,000 at Mechanics Hall in Worcester Thursday night. The annual fundraiser featured food from 16 local restaurants, as well as a silent and live auction. The money raised will go to March of Dimes, a national organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Tim Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, was also honored during the event for his "unwavering commitment and transformative vision" for the city. "There are few great things in this city that Tim doesn't have his hands on, and that's a good thing," said Devon Kinnard, a partner at the law firm Seder & Chandler who introduced Murray during the event. Kinnard pointed to the Worcester Red Sox and downtown development as examples of Murray's work in the community. "When you bring major economic development and major economic growth to the city, you do exactly what the mission is promoting -- you work together as a community to make everyone better," he said. Budd Wyman was also honored with a Volunteer Lifetime Achievement Award during the ceremony, and attendees heard from the Kosma family, whose daughters Olivia and Ella were born prematurely at just 28 weeks. "We want to speak up for all the families who can benefit, as we have, from the work of March of Dimes," their mother, Chelsea Kosma, said. "We won't stop, ever." "I believe Dr. Ford." So said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, on Friday. Healey was referring to Christine Blasey Ford's testimony on Thursday, in which the California professor accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both in high school. Healey, who has been a vocal critic of Republican President Donald Trump's administration, said she does not think Kavanaugh belongs on the Supreme Court. "It seems to me that Brett Kavanaugh should have withdrawn already, and the Senate should be on to considering someone else for this lifetime appointment," Healey said. Ford and Kavanaugh both testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Ford said she was "100 percent certain" that Kavanaugh, drunk at a high school party, pulled her into a bedroom, groped her, grinded on top of her, and covered her mouth when she tried to scream, making her fear that he would try to rape her. Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegations, saying he never sexually assaulted anyone. He accused Democrats of orchestrating a "political hit" against him. Later Friday afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee said it will ask President Donald Trump to open a supplemental background investigation of Kavanaugh. In a statement, the committee says it will ask that the FBI's probe be limited to "current credible allegations against the nominee." It also says that investigation should be completed no later than Oct. 5. Asked who she believed, Healey said Ford. "I believe, anybody watching that, how could you not believe her compelling, moving and direct recounting of an experience?" Healey said. Regarding whether she believed Kavanaugh, Healey said, "Not only did I not find him credible, I also did not find him comporting himself with the temperament, with the dignity, with the decorum that frankly is required for that job." "When you sit as a justice on the Supreme Court, you need to be able to conduct yourself with care," Healey said. Healey said Kavanaugh's testimony "showed that he can't really handle the heat." She accused Kavanaugh of showing "arrogance and a 'poor me' attitude." Healey said there are many judges with the qualifications to sit on the Supreme Court, and she noted that the future justice will have to hear cases related to sexual assault. "Brett Kavanaugh has no place, no business being on the Supreme Court," she said. Healey said she is hopeful that senators will "do their jobs" in the next week. "Part of this isn't even about belief," Healey said. "It's like do we care? Do the senators actually care that we're even having this conversation at this point?" Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. At the last hearing Jacqueline Franchetti attended related to custody of her daughter Kyra, a New York family court judge told her that it was "not a life or death matter." "She was wrong," Franchetti said. On July 27, 2016, 28-month-old Kyra Franchetti's father, Roy Rumsey, shot her dead, according to the police and news reports. Rumsey then lit his house on fire and shot himself, in what police called a murder-suicide. "Her murder was 100 percent preventable," Jacqueline Franchetti said in a phone interview. "She should never have been with him." The advocacy of Franchetti and more than 50 domestic violence groups led Congress to pass a resolution on Tuesday aimed at changing the way state family courts address domestic violence and child abuse in custody cases. "It's incredibly significant because it's the first time the federal government has ever spoken explicitly, in an official capacity, about problems in family courts," said Joan Meier, a professor at George Washington Law School and founder of DV LEAP, which handles legal appeals for domestic violence victims, who advocated for the resolution. "Congress is extending itself to say we're very concerned, children are dying." The congressional resolution was engrossed by the House on Tuesday on a voice vote. It is not a binding bill, but it expresses the "sense of Congress" on how custody cases should be handled in state family courts. An extensive preamble to the resolution notes the prevalence of child abuse and domestic violence, which affect an estimated 15 million children annually. The resolution writes that "research confirms that allegations of domestic violence, child abuse, and child sexual abuse are often discounted when raised in child custody litigation" and abusive parents are often granted custody, "placing children at ongoing risk." According to the Center for Judicial Excellence, more than 650 children since 2008 have been murdered by a parent who is involved in a divorce, custody, child support or similar case. Ten were in Massachusetts. For example, in 2012, Daryl Benway separated from his wife, then fatally shot his seven- and nine-year-old children in their Oxford home before killing himself. In 2016 in Roxbury, three-year-old Kenai Whyte was beaten to death by his stepmother, Maria Buie. Buie was married to Whyte's father, and Whyte's parents had shared custody, according to the Boston Globe. The Center for Judicial Excellence identified 85 of those murdered children, in 65 different cases, in which the family court was involved and safety concerns were ignored. The Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence estimates that 58,000 U.S. children a year are court-ordered into the custody of abusive parents over the objections of caring parents. "Many of these child homicides were preventable, if family courts had just prioritized child safety," said Kathleen Russell, executive director of the Center for Judicial Excellence, in a statement. "This resolution commemorates the lives of these innocents and helps ensure that more parents are spared the immeasurable grief of losing a child at the hands of an ex-spouse." The resolution was spearheaded by Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, and has 86 co-sponsors. None are from Massachusetts. The resolution says that in family court cases, courts should consider child safety as the "first priority of custody and parenting adjudications." It writes, "courts should resolve safety risks and claims of family violence first, as a fundamental consideration, before assessing other best interest factors." The resolution also offers specific guidance about the family court process. Often, courts use independent third parties to assess the risk to a child in a custody case. The resolution writes that states tend to lack standards for expertise and experience of these court-appointed professionals. The resolution says all evidence in parenting disputes should be subject to evidentiary admissibility standards, as it would be in other court cases. Court-appointed professionals should only be admitted when they have expertise relevant to the type of abuse being alleged. States should define standards of expertise and experience for these professionals. States should consider paying professionals through the court system, then seek reimbursement from the parties after considering their financial circumstances, the resolution recommends. Meier said the payment piece is meant to address problems with poor parents being bankrupted by court-ordered payments. The resolution also calls on Congress to hold hearings "on family courts' practices with regard to the objective, fair, and unbiased adjudication of children's safety and civil rights." It will be up to individual state family courts whether to consider the congressional resolution and take any action. The Republican/MassLive.com previously reported that many Massachusetts mothers who allege domestic violence struggle to retain custody of their children in family court, despite a presumption in state law that being placed with an abusive parent is not in the best interests of a child. Jennifer Donahue, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Trial Court, said the court has no comment on the congressional resolution at this time. Meier said although the family courts are controlled by the states, state courts are often resistant to change. "The national picture is important to get states to take it seriously," she said. She said she hopes the congressional resolution will bring more attention to the problem of family courts being "overly skeptical of claims of abuse" that a mother or child reports against a father. Franchetti said she told a family court judge in New York that her ex-husband was emotionally abusive, had anger problems and control issues. She told the court that her husband was suicidal and that her daughter was showing signs of distress after visiting him. "Throughout this process, no one was putting Kyra's safety first," Franchetti said. "He was stalking me and Kyra, and each time I'd bring this forward, it was almost as though I was being viewed as difficult, not him." Franchetti said she found when she began researching the issue that states tend to treat child murders as isolated incidents. People, she said, "are treating these like one-offs, not looking at these collectively to make changes." Franchetti said although she feels "overjoyed" that the resolution passed, it is bittersweet. "If this had happened years ago, Kyra may have been alive," she said. The Massachusetts state police and the state medical examiner are investigating the death of former state Sen. Brian Joyce. Brian Merrick, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, said the state medical examiner has Joyce's body and will perform an autopsy and related tests, including a toxicology report, to determine the cause of death. A toxicology report determines what, if any, drugs are in someone's system. Merrick said the time frame for an autopsy varies based on the case, and he could not speculate on how long it would take. "Every case is different," Merrick said. A medical examiner investigation is standard practice for an unattended death, which means a death at which a doctor or hospital staff are not present. State Police spokesman David Procopio said troopers from the Bristol County State Police Detective Unit investigate all unattended, unnatural deaths in the county. He confirmed that the state police are investigating Joyce's death, with help from the medical examiner. Joyce was involved in a car crash on Wednesday. "As of yesterday, it was not yet known whether there was any nexus between the crash and his passing," Procopio said Friday. The Republican/MassLive has left a message for the Westport police department seeking a copy of the accident report. Joyce was found dead in his Westport home on Thursday. Joyce, 56, was a Democrat who represented Milton in the state Senate for 18 years. He was awaiting a federal trial on corruption charges. Prosecutors allege that the former assistant majority leader used his state Senate office for personal gain, taking bribes and kickbacks from companies in exchange for taking action as a legislator. On Thursday, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling offered his sympathies but declined to comment further. "We extend our condolences to Mr. Joyce's family and friends as they grieve his passing," Lelling said. Joyce's attorney Howard Cooper declined to comment. Thursday evening, the state's politicians offered condolences to Joyce's family, but spoke little about the man himself. Sarah Finlaw, a spokeswoman for Gov. Charlie Baker said, "Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito extend their deepest condolences to the Joyce family during this difficult time." Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, said in a statement, "As authorities handle the appropriate investigations, my thoughts are with his family." Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to proceed with the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, one day after landmark testimony by the woman who says he tried to rape her when they were teenagers. The committee voted 11-8 to hold a vote on Kavanaugh at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Two of the 10 Democrats on the committee refused to vote in protest. The chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley said, "The alleged behavior is inconsistent" with what the committee knows about Kavanaugh. Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor, says Kavanaugh tried to rape her when they were both teenagers. "I believe she is sincere in her version of the facts," Grassley said in his opening statement, adding, "....there is simply no basis to deny Judge Kavanaugh seat on the Supreme Court because of the evidence presented to us." He argued that questions asked of Ford were respectful, while the questioning of Kavanaugh was "hostile." Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, argued, once again, that the FBI and committee should hear from potential witnesses and other accusers before taking a vote. The motion was denied on a strict party-line vote. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, pushed back against accusations that Ford's allegations are a hit job by Democrats in an attempt to stop Kavanaugh's nomination. "This is someone who was aggressive and belligerent," Feinstein said of Kavanaugh. Of Ford Feinstein said, "she was poised, she was credible and she should be believed." The Senate Judiciary Committee is narrowly split with an 11-10 Republican majority. Democrats were expected to oppose the nominee, while all Republicans have said they will confirm Kavanaugh. Sen. Jeff Flake, believed to be the only swing vote, confirmed to reporters Friday morning that he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh. The full Senate could start taking procedural votes Saturday on Kavanaugh, setting up a final vote as soon as Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. The film, which is slated to release on October 5, has been cleared by the Censor Board of Film Certification. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed that no coercive action is to be taken in any part of the country against Salman Khan Ventures Pvt ltd, the producer of upcoming Bollywood movie Loveyatri. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud considered the submission that the movie, slated for all India release on October 5, has been cleared by the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and despite this an FIR has been registered in Bihar and a criminal complaint is pending in Vadodara in Gujarat. Counsel Nizam Pasha told the bench that the film was earlier named Loveratri, but it was changed to Loveyatri because people misunderstood it with Navratri festival. The bench took note of the plea of the producer and said that no coercive action shall be taken against it. relating to the content and the name of the movie. The bench taking note of the submissions said no FIR should be registered in relation to the films name, song or any of its contents and posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks. Several private criminal complaints have been filed against the movie alleging that its name has hurt the religious sentiment of Hindus. The film which was earlier named as Loveratri was changed to Loveyatri by the producers keeping in mind that earlier name sounded like Navratri. The film, which is slated to release on October 5, has been cleared by the Censor Board of Film Certification It ran into rough weather after an FIR was registered in Bihar, and a criminal complaint in Gujarat. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had opposed the earlier title Loveratri, which according to them distorted the meaning of the Hindu festival, Navratri. Following VHP protests, the actor, who is also the producer of the film, had changed the name from Loveratri to Loveyatri. Several private criminal complaints have been filed against the movie alleging that its name has hurt the religious sentiment of Hindus. The Global Dental 3d Printing Market is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period. It is estimated that the Global Dental 3d Printing Market is expected to register a CAGR ~ 24.5 % during the forecast period of 20182023. Dental 3D printing is a form of modern dentistry and is considered to be wide-spreading in the dental industry. Dental 3D printing involves creating three dimensional solid dental models such as dentures, surgical guides, dental implants, crown, and bridges. Numerous factors are anticipated to drive the growth of this market such as high incidence of dental caries and other dental diseases, growing demand for cosmetic dentistry, increasing geriatric population, and growing adoption of dental 3D printers in dental hospitals and clinics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the year 20152016, the prevalence of total dental caries was 45.8%, and the prevalence of untreated caries was 13.0% among group 219 years. Industry Updates: July 2018 A well-known biotechnology company, Evo Dental which is based out of London has received as 4 million investment from the British Growth Fund (BGF) to develop its 3D printing jaw correction clinics through the UK. The new clinics will aid Evo Dental will offer its exclusive full jaw dental implant solution, which features prosthesis additive manufacturing, digital scanning, and high-precision milling machines to patients who require jaw reconstruction. To Get Sample Report visit https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6260 Competitive Analysis The eminent players in the market are 3D Systems, Inc., Stratasys Ltd., EnvisionTEC, Inc., Renishaw Plc., Formlabs, SLM Solutions Group, Carbon, Inc., Prodways group, DWS Systems, EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems, Concept Laser GmbH, Rapid Shape GmbH, Asiga, and Roland DG. The improved financial liquidity of the competitors in the market has enhanced thus offering new chances for the growth of the market. The market appeal and the contenders forces at work are considerably improved by the strategies that are being used by market companies. The market displays massive potential for growing at an accelerated pace. The sustainability of the market is however considerably reliant on the tactics and the strategic roadmaps that are engaged by market companies. The market is very varied in terms of segments and also about the products as well as the end users that are a portion of the market. The product offering of the market has expanded massively as compared to the past few years, thus making the market more profitable for present and different competitors. Dental 3D Printing Market Segments The dental 3D printing market globally has been segmented on the basis of technology, product and service, application, and end-user. The segmentation of the market on product and service basis has been segmented into materials, equipment, and services. The equipment segment has been further segmented into dental 3D printers and dental 3D scanners. Additionally, the materials segment has been segmented into metal, plastic, and other materials. The basis of technology segments the market into selective laser sintering, vat Photopolymerization, polymer technology, fused deposition modeling, and other technologies. The vat Photopolymerization has been additionally segmented into digital light processing and stereolithography. By application, the segments of the market include orthodontics, implantology, and prosthodontics. On the basis of end-user, the market has been segmented into dental hospitals and clinics, dental laboratories, research institutes and dental academic. The market by region has been segmented, into Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. Dental 3D Printing Market Regional Analysis As per the regional analysis of the market, the Americas region is estimated to lead the dental 3D printing market globally. The markets development in this region is credited to the growing demand for growing oral care expenditure, cosmetic dentistry, and the escalating popularity of digital dentistry. Furthermore, the growing occurrence of dental caries and tooth loss related to the aging population is anticipated to power the development of the market in this region. The European region is appraised to be the next largest market in the globe due to the growing number of dental problems, rise in the government expenditure for oral care, the existence of disposable income, and growing demand for cosmetic dentistry. The Asia Pacific is estimated to be the most rapidly rising market due to the increasing occurrence of dental caries and dental related problems in the emerging countries. Furthermore, the Middle East & Africa is projected to be responsible for the lowermost market portion in the dental 3D printing market owing to low development, poor medical facilities in developing economies and lack of technical knowledge in this region. To Get an Exclusive Discount on Report Visit https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/6260 Some Brief Table of Contents of Report Chapter 1. Report Prologue Chapter 2. Market Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope Of The Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations Chapter 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation Chapter 4. Market Dynamics 4.1 Drivers 4.2 Restrains 4.3 Opportunities 4.4 Challenges 4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators 4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis 5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis 5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers TOC Continued Do You Have Specific Requirement? Ask To Our Experts https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/6260 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Statistical Report, Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Us: Market Research Future Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India Phone: +1 646 845 9312 The judgment has scaled up the level of individual liberty in the country. New Delhi: Lawyer Kaleeswaram Raj who spearheaded the legal battle on adultery described the Supreme Court judgment as a monumental one. True, it apparently redefines the husband-wife relation or man-woman relation. He said it has also radically altered the state-citizen relation in the matters of intimate personal decisions. The judgment has categorically said that the state has no legitimate interest in punishing citizens for matrimonial or personal aberrations. The SC by striking down the colonial provisions has acted as the guardian of the Constitution. The judgment has scaled up the level of individual liberty in the country. It has reduced the states police power in the matter of intimate personal choices. It upholds the dignity of not just men or women but of citizens as a whole. We are now among the galaxy of more than 70 modern democracies where citizens are not punished for their moral wrongs. According to the scheme of provisions, even in a vexatious litigation where a woman is tag-ged with a man, by her own husband, she cannot defend herself, as she is not a party to such proceedings. Massive misuse of the adultery provision will come to end with this judgment. Very often, many families are perpetually and irreparably broken on account of prosecution for adultery, some of which are even malicious. Therefore, the judgment will carry out a rescue operation. in thousands of families, in future. The court has also struck a fine balance on the topic by holding that adultery will remain as a ground for divorce in accordance with the personal laws in the country, he added. Duodenum is the first part of the small intestine. It is also the smallest part of the small intestine. It plays an important role in the chemical digestion of chyme (partially digested food). Cancer in the duodenum is known as duodenal cancer/small bowel cancer. The rising geriatric population, increasing prevalence of rare cancers, and technological advancement in cancer treatment are expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. According to an article published by Worldwide Cancer Research, there are 198 different types of rare cancers identified to date. These rare cancers account for 1 in 5 cancers diagnosed every year. Additionally, the rising healthcare expenditure is likely to boost the market growth. On the other hand, high-cost of treatments and stringent government regulations for product approval may hinder the growth of the market during the forecast period. Get Exclusive Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6420 Segmentation The Global Duodenal Cancer Market has been segmented into type, diagnosis, and treatment. The market, on the basis of type, has been segmented into adenocarcinoma, sarcoma, neuroendocrine (carcinoid) tumors and lymphoma. The market, by diagnosis, has been segmented into endoscopy or colonoscopy, capsule endoscopy, barium X-ray, CT scan, MRI scan, and other tests. The market, by treatment, has been segmented into surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Top 10 Players Listed in The Duodenal Cancer Market Report are: AbbVie, Inc., Pfizer Inc., Eli Lilly & Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd., Becton, Dickinson & Company, Novartis AG, Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Abbott, G E Healthcare, Agilent Technologies Inc., AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH and Bayer AG. Regional Analysis The market in the Americas is expected to dominate the global duodenal cancer market during the forecast period owing to the presence of well-established healthcare system, increasing healthcare expenditure, and growing incidences of rare & chronic diseases. According to a report published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in January 2018, 60% of people are diagnosed with duodenal cancer at the regional or distant stage. The European market is expected to be the second-largest due to government funding and support of the healthcare sector coupled with the rising prevalence of various chronic diseases. Moreover, the market in Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest-growing during the assessment period owing to growing disposable income, increasing incidence of chronic diseases, and favorable government initiatives for healthcare facilities. The market in the Middle East & Africa is likely to account for the smallest share of the global duodenal cancer market. The market growth in this region can be attributed to the rising expenditure for the healthcare sector and improving healthcare infrastructure. Ask to Expertise @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/6420 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 Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India Phone: +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Medical sensors are playing a critical role in health monitoring. The advent of such sensor technologies has greatly contributed to the improved quality of care giving. Medical sensors facilitate a holistic diagnostics approach, reaching parameters beyond just monitoring of blood pressure, temperature or vibration. Medical sensors are steadily coming under the spotlight in healthcare; they are used in an array of applications. Advances in technology has broadened the application base for medical sensors, which in turn is driving their adoption. Today, medical sensors are used in monitoring health conditions of patients with diabetes, cardiovascular or respiratory diseases. The technology is being utilized in diagnostics and therapeutics as well. Factors as such are driving the sales of medical sensors worldwide. Medical Sensors Market Industry Trends and News LifePlus, a healthcare startup has recently revealed what the company believes is the world-first noninvasive continuous blood glucose monitoring multi-sensor wearable. The company has named the device LifeLeaf, which will be part of the companys effort to capitalise on the growing medical wearables category. Apart from monitoring blood glucose, the devices will be capable of tracking blood pressure, track heart rate, oxygen saturation and respiration rate. Leading wearable technology company Fitbit is reportedly going to leverage Googles new Cloud Healthcare API to increase its healthcare-centric capabilities. With the help of Cloud Healthcare API, the company will be able to connect its devices to EMRs and provide clinicians and patients a more complete view of the patient profile. Get Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2038 Medical Sensors Market Competitive Landscape Some of the leading market participants discussed in MRFRs report include Medtronic Plc. Measurement Specialties Inc. NXP Semiconductors N.V. Smiths Medical Given Imaging, Inc. GE Healthcare First Sensor AG Honeywell International, Inc STMicroelectronics N.V. Philips Healthcare STMicroelectronics Medical Sensors Market Segmental Analysis Based on types, the market has been segmented into blood glucose sensors, ECG sensors, motion sensors, pressure sensors, temperature sensors, blood oxygen sensors, image sensors, inertial sensors, and others. On the basis of sensor placement, the market has been segmented into wearable sensors, invasive/non-invasive sensors, strip sensors, ingestible sensors and implantable sensors. Based on application, the market has been segmented into monitoring, imaging, diagnostics, medical therapeutics, fitness, and others. Medical Sensors Market Regional Outlook On the basis of region, the market is North America expected to remain highly attractive throughout he reviews period. High healthcare expenditure and presence of prominent healthcare focused tech firms in the regions is supporting the growth of the market in North America. The region is expected to be followed by Europe and Asia Pacific (APAC) respectively. During the forecast period, the APAC medical sensors market is projected witness a relatively higher CAGR. To Know More Enquire @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2038 Major Table of Content Chapter 1. Report Prologue Chapter 2. Market Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope of the Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations Chapter 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation Chapter 4. Market Dynamics Continued. About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com Global Radiotherapy Market Major Players Some of the players are involved in manufacturing of the Radiotherapy those are, GE Healthcare (UK) Siemens (Germany) Varian (India) Cardinal Health (US) Nordion(CA) Isoray(US) View ray (US) Fuji Holdings (Japan) Philips Healthcare (US) Shimadzu Corporation (Japan) Hologic (US) Get Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1526 Global Radiotherapy Market Updates Feb 2018 the foremost international provider of innovative, superior quality and patient-centric radiotherapy solutions, CIVCO and Stratpharma AG which is a Swiss company that concentrates in pioneering topical medical products to progress post-procedure results, have joined their synergies to concentrate on wound care for patients in radiation therapy. This enterprise is in line with the missions of the two companies to emphasize on patient outcomes in the space for radiation therapy. CIVCO will be the special provider in the U.S. of the StrataXRT product which is a ground-breaking wound dressing in the treatment for dermatitis from radiation. Reactions which are acute and radiation-induced skin are an unavoidable result of radiation therapy and happen in up to 95% of patients getting treatment to the groin, breast or perineum. The StrataXRT is a gel which is a self-drying wound dressing is developed to be used through and after radiation treatment. Jan 2018 Varian Medical Systems signed an agreement to acquire Sirtex Medical Limited. This acquisition expands Varians addressable market into interventional oncology to emerge as a global leader in radio embolization. October 2017 Varian has launched its radiotherapy device ProBeam Compact single-room proton therapy system. July 2017 View Ray has recently announced the launch of MRI-guided radiation therapy solution, MRIdian Linac. Global Radiotherapy Market Highlights Radiotherapy is generally used as a treatment for cancer. Around four out of every ten people are treated for cancer undergo radiotherapy. Normally together with other types of treatment including chemotherapy and surgery. Radiotherapy usually uses high power X-rays to destroy unwanted cells, such as cancer cells. The Radiotherapy Market will grow very rapidly at a rate of 7% CAGR during the forecasted period 2017-2023. The market is expected to reach USD 7 million from 4.5 million in 2016 during the forecasted period. Global Radiotherapy Market Segmentation The segmentation for the Radiotherapy Market is done on the basis of the treatment type and by application. On the basis of treatment type includes X-Ray, Gamma ray, External Beam radiotherapy, proton therapy, internal radiation therapy. The external beam radiotherapy segment is further sub-segmented into the treatment types which are 3D conformal radiation therapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), image guided radiation therapy (IGRT), Tomotherapy, Stereotactic radio surgery, and stereotactic body radiation therapy. On the basis of the application the segment is prostate cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer, ovarian cancer and thyroid. Global Radiotherapy Market Regional Analysis The Radiotherapy Market is segmented into four main geographic regions Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East and Africa. America holds the larger market in the radiotherapy the market increasing due to the increasing advancement in the technology. Europe is another dominating region for the use of the radiotherapy. Asia-pacific region is growing at a rapid pace because of the increasing number of patients in the region. The number is increasing due to the more consumptions of tobacco is seen in this region. Middle East and Africa is slow growing segment because of the lack of awareness of the chronic diseases and the treatment facilities are also limited in this region. Major Table of Content Chapter 1. Report Prologue Chapter 2. Market Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope of the Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations Chapter 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation Chapter 4. Market Dynamics Continued. To Know More Enquire @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1526 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com Saudi Arabia Medical Devices Market Predominant Players The major participants of this market are: Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, Medtronic, Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV., Baxter International, Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co., Cardinal Health, Al-Salehiya Medical Estableshment, Saudi Pharmaceutical Industries & Medical Appliances Corporation (SPIMACO), Al Amin Medical Instruments Company (AMICO), Al Faisaliah Medical Systems (FMS), Siemens Ltd and others. Get Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2801 Industry/Innovation/Related News: August 2018 The Saudi Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has published an update to its clearance policy for medical device shipments to the country. The requirements entail that the total shelf life of a device should be more than one year. The policy also includes that the device must have at least four months of its shelf life remaining at the port of entry. These revisions help facilitate the launch of a new market pathway for Class I non-sterile medical devices through the Saudi Medical Device National Registry (MDNR). May 16, 2018 Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions (UK), a global organization, in charge of the healthcare portfolio and Global Exhibitions division, announced the Global Health Exhibition to be held from 10-12 September 2018 at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center, Saudi Arabia. One of the objectives of the exhibition is to avail Saudi Arabias leading healthcare platform to the global market to meet and network with Saudi healthcare sectors pioneers and officials. More than 10,000 industry professionals across the globe are expected to explore the opportunities, along with the more than 500 Saudi-based and international exhibiting companies showcasing the latest advances in health services, pharmaceuticals, training and education, and medical device technologies. Saudi Arabia Medical Devices Market Highlights A Medical Device is any instrument, appliance including any software, biologic or non-biologic material, to be used for the diagnostic or therapeutic use for management of diseases and disorders. The Medical Device Industry witnessed one of the fastest growths propelled by innovation and rapid uptake of technologies. The Medical Devices Market has also resulted in the successful fusion of information technology and healthcare. Technology and product development remain the main pillars for the growing market for medical devices. The market involves two segments one high-tech devices with extreme sophistication and another is the low-tech improved devices. The high-tech segment such as diagnostic imaging devices is witnessing higher rates of growth. The low-tech segment is also growing at a good rate but has witnessed growth in developing regions as the market for these in developed regions is stagnant. The other market driving factors are rising public healthcare expenditure in Saudi Arabia, development of large hospitals such as King Faisal hospital in Riyadh, demand for noninvasive therapy etc. The Saudi Arabia Medical Devices Market is to reach the value of approximately USD 3870 million, outperforming its own achievement of USD 2250 million in 2017, forecasts Market Research Future (MRFR). The market is exhibited to register a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period (2017-2023). The market constraints are strict and ambiguous regulatory framework, growing concern for security especially data security, differential availability between developed and developing regions, connectivity issues in Saudi Arabia, the interference Sharia courts etc. The future developments will include cloud integration, connected healthcare devices and growing demand for personalized medical wearable devices. Healthcare mobile applications will also lead the market. Saudi Arabia Medical Devices Market Segmentation MRFR has segmented into 4 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding; By Product Types: Comprises Diagnostic Devices, Monitoring Devices, Diagnostic Molecular Devices, Surgical Devices, Drug Delivery Devices, Bio Implants and Stimulation Devices, Automation and Robotics among others. By Therapeutic Applications: Diagnostic Imaging, General Surgery, Respiratory, Cardiovascular, Orthopaedics, Dental, Neurology, Ear-Nose-Throat (ENT), Ophthalmology, Nephrology and Urology, among others. By End-Users: Ambulatory, Home and Hospitals among others. By Regions: Geographical regions & Continents of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Medical Devices Market Regional Analysis The Healthcare Sector of Saudi Arabia is divided between private and state. The public healthcare expenditure accounts for approximately 75% of total health expenditure in 2014. Local manufacturing represents a poor outlook which is limited to consumables and ordinary articles. The government has established some of the best hospitals in the region such as King Faisal specialist hospital and research center, Riyadh military hospital, Saudi Arabias National Guard health affairs hospital etc. Saudi Arabia is extremely dependent on imports for medical devices and imports account for approximately 92% of total market for medical devices. U.S. medical device suppliers dominate the scenario with European vendors in the second position. Among the regions of Saudi Arabia Riyadh tops the healthcare expenditure list followed by Tabuk, Makkah and Madina. To Know More Enquire @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2801 . Major Table of Content 1 Introduction 1.1 Definition 1.2 Scope of Study 1.3 Research Objective 1.4 Assumptions & Limitations 1.5 Market Structure: 2 Research Methodology 2.1 Research Process 2.2 Primary Research 2.3 Secondary Research 3 Market Dynamics 3.1 Drivers 3.2 Restraints 3.3 Opportunities 3.4 Challenges 3.5 Macroeconomic Indicators 4 Market Factor Analysis .Continued About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com by Melynda Fuller , September 27, 2018 Expecting to close the deal this week, High Times Holding Corp. has announced plans to acquire Seattle-based Dope magazine. The purchase is valued at $11.2 million. Dope publishes eight local editions across six states and ships more than 1 million copies a year through its network, which counts cannabis retailers among its majority. High Times' acquisition of Dope follows its previous acquisitions of Culture and Green Rush Daily, all of which joined the companys flagship print and online magazine. With it, Dope brings a magazine, multimedia website, events business and seasoned staff, which it will retain post-acquisition. Notable staff joining the High Times Holding Corp. include Dope CEO George Jage and founders Dave Tran, James Zochondi and Evan Carter. advertisement advertisement Adam Levin, CEO of High Times, stated: What Dope Media has built in such a short time is not only impressive, but needed, considering the difficult landscape and legislation brands face with today. Through Dope Media, state-licensed cannabis brands and retailers are able to better target their advertising campaigns within licensed territories. Additionally, Dope hosts Dope Cup events across Seattle and Portland, adding greater audience and leverage to High Times Cannabis Cup portfolio. Jage, who was once president of Marijuana Business Daily and a leader behind the Marijuana Business Conference, is a notable figure within the entrepreneurial and hospitality fields. He received the Nevada Entrepreneur of the Year award from In Business magazine and the Jerry Valen Award of Distinction "Hospitality & Convention Executive of the Year. Under terms of the deal, High Times paid 909,129 shares of High Times Class A common stock, $1 million in cash and $200,000 payable on or about November 10, 2018. High Times is valued at $11 per share. by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, September 27, 2018 While I have no real opinion about if Brett Kavanaugh would make a reasonable Supreme Court judge (although the fact that The Moron In Chief is backing him casts grave doubts), it has been instructive to watch Christine Blasey Ford's testimony -- while also listening to the conversations of people in the advertising business on whether it was a good or bad thing for her to come forward. As you might expect, the commentary has run the gamut from "It was 36 years ago, and Brett is not the same person" to "Who among us didn't do things in high school or college we aren't proud of?" to "If he lied about this, he has lied about other things so can't be trusted on the Supreme Court" to finally, "Men who attack women should be held accountable forever." Angry Republicans are convinced Ford is just one of a three- or four- (so far) part conspiracy to derail his nomination, while Democrats contend that it is wrong of Congress to endorse someone who apparently has a checkered past (and has lied about it). advertisement advertisement It has been interesting to me to hear so many women who have been in the advertising and media businesses for decades try to reconcile their own experiences of being attacked by men "back in the day" with the new urgency of the #MeToo movement. Many of them, pioneers in climbing the ranks of the ad business, tend to shrug off the unwanted attention given them by men in the same business with "Well, yeah, that was everyday for us." They tended not to report the abusive behavior for fear of being labeled troublemakers or having the men involved enact some later retribution that would restrict or end their careers. The experience of many who tried to report things like unwanted sexual advances was too often a tone-deaf response from HR or management to "not rock the boat." This was a very similar to the "boys will be boys" rationalization some Kavanaugh defenders have deployed. This served to solidify in women's minds that there was no upside to making accusations, so they tended to just let it go -- or fight it in subtle ways, like calling in sick so they would not have to travel to the sales meetings in Puerto Rico where they knew alcohol-fueled aggression waited. Many women today would condemn their compatriots for not coming forward more forcefully, but they were not part of the almost totally (white) male hierarchy that was the ad business in the '60s and '70s. They made the rules and you were expected to follow them -- or your career went nowhere. Among the rules was that, as with Kavanaugh, it was just the alcohol talking, and down deep, these often-married men were good guys just having a little fun. But as we have learned from Ford and so many other women, what was excused as "playfulness" was far more traumatic for the women involved -- made all the more so because they felt there was no recourse and ultimately, no accountability. While the ad business has grown up in many ways over the years to include more races, creeds, and sexual identities as part of their headcounts, there is still a tendency to minimize the impact that inappropriate behavior has on women in the business. Younger men tend to be far more sensitized to this than the old white dudes still hanging around, but they too "make mistakes" -- especially at social gatherings that include women they work with. Regardless of what happens on Capitol Hill this week, let's use this occasion (like so many in the past year or two) to recalculate how we treat women in the workplace. If drugs and alcohol tend to compromise that resolve, stay the hell away from them when you're around women in the business. Plenty of folks can survive Cannes without rose (so to speak). by Larissa Faw , September 28, 2018 Page 1 Solutions is acquiring Strategic Edge Partners (SEP) as the digital agency expands its medical advertising solutions. While Page 1 is well-equipped within the digital landscape, this deal fleshes out its off-line offerings, including print materials, event planning and on-site practice consulting. The combined client roster includes plastic surgeons, dermatologists and other practices in the medical aesthetics industry, as well as attorneys, dentists and ophthalmologists. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Under the agreement, the 11-year old SEP will be fully absorbed into Page 1 with president and CEO Dana Fox stepping in as Page 1's vice president, practice development. She has made a "long-term commitment" to serve in her new position, says Page 1's president/CEO Dan Goldstein. The enhanced agency will operate as Page 1 Solutions, based in Page 1's office in Lakewood, Colorado. However, the newly expanded company anticipates keeping the Strategic Edge office in Edmonds, Washington, open for several months as leaders work through the transition. Eventually, some employees may work remotely from that location. advertisement advertisement There are now 75 staffers with the combined business. Page 1 has about 40 employees in Colorado, with an additional 20 developers and internet marketing specialists in India. SEP has approximately 10 employees working out of its Washington state office, as well as several other contract workers who work remotely from various locations in the U.S. by Larissa Faw , September 28, 2018 WPP seeks to further its role in developing more positive images of girls and women through a new partnership with the United Nations Women that will include pro-bono media support brokered by GroupM and creative services from WPP agencies. Creativity for Equality will be piloted across six key countries: U.S., UK, India, Turkey, Thailand and Mexico. More than a dozen WPP agencies across these markets have committed to providing pro-bono strategic, creative and media support during two key moments in the UN Womens calendar: International Womens Day in March and 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence in November. In the case of Mexico and the UK, the WPP teams will build on previous work they created for UN Women locally. At the core of every country activation is J. Walter Thompsons creative, GroupMs media partnerships and investment strategy, and research and insight from Kantar. advertisement advertisement Harnessing the power of GroupMs media relationships across the globe in support of UN Womens mission to improve gender equality is more than philanthropy, it is a business imperative," stated Kelly Clark, global CEO, GroupM. "This is an important cause for our people, our clients and the world." Already, WPP has secured $1 million in pro-bono media placements and more than $6 million in earned media for previous UN Women initiatives. The relationship has grown since the company joined the industry-wide Common Ground initiative at the 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. To date, more than 33 WPP agencies have developed 26 initiatives under this Common umbrella. In addition, WPP CEO Mark Read signed the Womens Empowerment Principles, established by UN Women and UN Global Compact, to serve as a workplace guide on how to empower women as part of this long-term commitment. A new, large-scale study published in The BMJ suggests that newer birth control pills can significantly reduce the risk of ovarian cancer among young women. Share on Pinterest Newer birth control pills may keep ovarian cancer at bay, reports new research. In the United States, ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate of all gynecologic cancers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2014, for instance, over 21,000 new cases of ovarian cancer occurred, at least 14,000 of which resulted in death. Previous research has suggested that combined oral contraceptives that is, birth control pills that contain both estrogen and progestogen may lower the risk of ovarian cancer in women of reproductive age. Moreover, these beneficial effects lasted for years after the women discontinued them, noted the studies. However, these past results applied to older contraceptives that had higher amounts of estrogen and contained older forms of progestogen. Little was known about the effects of newer pills. New research aimed to fill this knowledge gap by studying the effects of newer birth control pills on the risk of ovarian cancer. Imagine you have hurt your elbow. Do you think it would hurt less if you received immediate attention from someone you knew well? Or would it hurt less if the help came from a complete stranger? Share on Pinterest Should you seek assistance from someone you know or from someone you dont? Earlier this year, one study covered on Medical News Today showed that, just by touching someone we care about, we can relieve physical pain to a certain degree. More recently, researchers from the University of Wurzburg in Germany, the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and the University of Zurich in Switzerland have conducted a study addressing an intriguing question. They wanted to learn whether treatment was likely to be more effective if delivered by a person with whom the recipient of the treatment was already familiar or whether the impact would be stronger if it came from a complete stranger. [In the present study,] participants received pain on the back of their hand, explains lead author Grit Hein. In one group of participants, this pain was relieved by a person from their own social group, another group of participants received pain relief from a person from a different group. We measured how the pain relief treatment changed neural pain responses and subjective pain judgments, he adds. The researchers report their findings in the current issue of the journal Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences. Care from a stranger is more soothing First, the researchers recorded the response to pain that all the participants showed before the experiment. Before the treatment, both groups showed similarly strong responses to pain, says Hein. Although pain tolerance was about the same for all the participants, the investigator noticed that, after having received analgesic care, the volunteers perception of pain appeared to change depending on whom they received the attention from. Thus, those individuals whose pain was treated by someone they did not know beforehand felt that their pain was more diminished, compared with individuals who had received the treatment from a person in their own group. In contrast, after being treated by what they considered a stranger, the participants from this group rated their pain less intense than the other group. Grit Hein Moreover, this effect was not based purely on subjective impressions. As Hein observes, there was also a reduction of the pain-related activation in the corresponding brain regions in the case of participants who were treated by a stranger. SC refused to interfere in arrest of 5 rights activists in connection with Koregaon-Bhima violence case. Hyderabad: The Supreme Court's refusal to interfere in the arrest of five rights activists is "unfortunate and unexpected", a family member of P Varavara Rao, who is under house arrest in Hyderabad for his alleged links with Maoists, said on Friday. Varavara Rao, a Left-leaning writer, was arrested from the city last month, while activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested in New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere in the arrest of five rights activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint a SIT for a probe into their arrest. The court also refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. Also Read: SC extends house arrest of five activists by 4 weeks, denies SIT probe "This is unfortunate and unexpected because the way the whole proceedings went on and the way the judges reacted, we were hoping that the case will be quashed... Because the falseness of the concocted evidence has come out openly in the court. Despite our hopes and expectations today's 2:1 judgment refused to intervene," N Venugopal Rao, a nephew of Varavara Rao told news agency PTI. Though the court refused to intervene, it was a relief that it extended the house arrest by four weeks, he said. Speaking to reporters, Varavara Rao's wife Hemalatha said, "We did not expect this judgment. We, me and Varavara Rao sincerely thank the lawyers for taking up our case. Following the arguments in the court, we assumed that the case will be quashed." Varavara Rao was arrested on August 28 by the Pune Police. He is under house arrest since August 30 as per the Supreme Court's order. Venugopal Rao said they will move either the Bombay High Court or the Hyderabad High Court seeking to quash the case against Rao and others. When you're trying to seek out a woman you fancy, you cannot expect them to simply fall into your lap, because you've got the looks for it or enough bank balance to pamper her with. While we all feel great when we come to know someone loves us, women usually like to go a step further to size up the compatibility they share with the other person. Listed below are 10 such habits or personality traits that every woman usually looks for and appreciates in a man: 1. Thoughtful Mannerisms Dharma Productions One of the things women notice very early on during their interactions with a man, are his mannerisms. By that, we don't just mean things like holding the door for her or paying attention to her when she speaks, those are basic etiquettes anyone should follow. But an easy trace of thoughtfulness and kindness in a man's mannerisms (that aren't merely pretentious), always catch a woman's attention. 2. Willingness To Mend Things In the present times of easy availability and abundant Chinese goods around us, thoughts of ditching something when it stops working and replacing it with a new one, come quick and easy. But women aren't a fan of the idea, until it becomes absolutely necessary. Women love it when men show signs of being willing to fix things, rather than abandoning them, the very first chance they get. Dharma Productions 3. Holding The Pace Most people are unaware of the fact that women really appreciate it when a man consciously makes an effort to hold the pace during conversations or even when they are simply walking together. Rushing a conversation, meeting or constantly walking a few steps ahead of her seems a bit crude. 4. Respecting Time Yeah, it's a no-brainer, and yet half of you fail to follow this simple rule. Punctuality in every aspect of your personal and professional life is a major turn on for women. Your respect for time comes across as an indication of meticulousness and thinking ahead of time, which women absolutely admire in a man. Jhoom Jhoom Productions 5. Positive Vibes You may think it isn't as important, but trust us when we say that your whole game will change if a woman gets attracted to your vibe before anything else. Women love men who make them feel welcome and calm. They dig men who exude positivity in the way they look at things. Your vibes can be a total game changer for you. 6. Passion & Discipline Having a passion that's close to your heart and making it a point to follow up on it, is something every woman seeks in a man. Nobody wants a man who only works, eats, sleeps and repeats it all over again, day in and day out. So, whether it's a hobby you're passionate about or it's gymming that makes you happy, following it with a discipline will surely make her admire you all the more. Sunshine Pictures 7. A Vision For The Future Goes without saying, but women find men with a vision for the future extremely attractive. Women directly connect it to the fact that the man is dependable and can be trusted, not only with her heart but her own visions for the future, both personally and professionally. Men with a plan come across as sincere, invested and action-oriented, and women totally love that. 8. Eating Often & Eating Right Women love food. Well, mostly. Regardless of whether they are into cooking or not, women enjoy the company of good friends and delicious food at all times. So be assured, that she'll have her eyes on you when you take your call on food. If you can cook it, superb, that's a winner right there. If not, she'll score you on how much you appreciate good food when you taste it. Viacom 18 Motion Pictures 9. Regard For Money & Finances This is something you feel we'd rather not mention, but this happens to be an important factor for women. If you're into the habit of taking care of your finances and closely monitoring your expenses and investments, while you indulge in a fair share of goodness that money provides, then that's going to be appreciated. Women don't like men who throw around their money simply because they can/want to. Dependability and security are crucial. 10. Initiating Open Conversations/Discussions If you've heard this one before, then you should know that it's true. It may be a common stereotype that women like to talk, anytime and anywhere, but the truth is, most of them want to stay away from futile conversations just as much as you do. Hence, if you can initiate open and quality conversations or are willing to initiate discussions on matters of mutual interest, she'll want to come back to you for more of it. How many of these do you think you have been blessed with? An officer from the Consulate General of Greece in Toronto will visit Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Oct. 26th-28th, 2018 to provide consular services to the Greek citizens residing in the area. If interested, please contact the Consulate General on and mention the matter you are interested in as well as your contact details. Please include Manitoba in the message subject line. We will confirm to you the exact time & date of your appointment. Please note that all appointments will take place at the following address: St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church & MHCC 2255 Grant Avenue Winnipeg, MB R3P 0S2 Canada Phone: 204-889-8723 Fax: 204-837-4340 Email: This Email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Markos Bolaris received, today, the committee of the Holy Community of Mount Athos at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The committee consisted of the representative of the Holy Monastery of Great Lavra, Elder Nikodemos, the representative of the Holy Monastery of Iviron, hieromonk Antonios, the abbot of the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou, Elder Petros, the representative of the Holy Monastery of Agios Pavlos, Elder Nikodemos, and the representative of the Holy Monastery of Osiou Gregoriou, hieromonk Fotios. Discussion focussed on current issues of the Athonite state which fall within the Deputy Ministers competencies. Dissent is a symbol of a vibrant democracy. Voices in opposition cannot be muzzled by persecuting those who take up unpopular causes. New Delhi: Justice D.Y. Chandrachud in his dissenting verdict ordered an SIT probe into the arrest of five activists as there is a serious allegation that the arrests have been motivated by an attempt to quell dissent and to persecute five individuals who have pursued the cause of persons who have suffered human rights violations. Differing with the majority view of CJI Dipak Misra and Justice Kanwilkar, Justice Chandrachud pointed out that the recent order passed by this court in ordering the payment of compensation to former Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan nearly 24 years after the wrongful arrest is a grim reminder about how tenuous liberty can be and of the difficulty in correcting wrongs occasioned by unlawful arrest. He said in approaching the present case, the court must be mindful of the need not to thwart a criminal investigation leading to the detection of unlawful acts. He said individuals who assert causes, which may be unpopular to the echelons of power, are yet entitled to the freedoms, which are guaranteed by the Constitution. Dissent is a symbol of a vibrant democracy. Voices in opposition cannot be muzzled by persecuting those who take up unpopular causes. He said the conduct of the Pune police in utilising the agency of the electronic media to cast aspersions on those under investigation fortifies the need for an investigation which is fair. When the Joint Commissioner of Police and the Additional Director General of Police cast aspersions in the public media against persons whose conduct is still under investigation, and in disregard of proceedings pending before a judicial forum, it is the duty and obligation of this Court to ensure that the administration of criminal justice is not derailed. He took exception to the Maharashtra Police for selectively disclosing purported details of the investigation to the media and on television channels and its conduct casts a cloud on the Impartiality of the investigative process. The use of the electronic media by the investigating arm of the State to influence public opinion during the pendency of an investigation subverts the fairness of the investigation. He said the police are not adjudicators nor do they pronounce upon guilt. In the present case, police briefings to the media have become a source of manipulating public opinion by media. That the police should lend themselves to this process is a matter of grave concern. The investigation commenced as an enquiry into the Bhima-Koregaon violence. The course of the investigation was sought to be deflected by alleging (in the course of the press briefings of the police) that there was a plot against the Prime Minister. Such an allegation is indeed of a serious order. Such allegations require responsible attention and cannot be bandied about by police officers in media briefings. But during the course of the present hearing, no effort has been besmirching the reputations of individuals involved in the process. While it was alleged that a plot against the Prime Minister has been uncovered in an alleged letter, it is noteworthy that no new FIR has been registered by the police and investigation continues by the Pune police under FIR 4/2018, pertaining to the Bhima-Koregaon violence. While the Court does not determine the course of the investigation, it acts as a watchdog to ensure that a fair and impartial investigation takes place. A fair and independent investigation is crucial to the preservation of the rule of law and, in the ultimate analysis to liberty itself, he added. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav is facing turbulent weather after a Comptroller and Auditor General. Lucknow: With chances of a grand alliance in UP between the SP and BSP getting increasingly dim, leaders of both parties feel that complaints related to alleged financial wrongdoings against their own leaders could queer the pitch. A senior BSP leader, who recently joined the SP admitted, There is no denying the fact that both, the SP and BSP, leaders are presently under tremendous strain and the alliance is not on their priority list. If the cases against them are pursued further, it could jeopardise the chances of alliance. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav is facing turbulent weather after a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report indicted the involvement of his government in a Rs 97,000-crore scam. According to a CAG audit, the mandatory utilisation certificates of work done between 2014 and 2017, involving Rs 97,000 crore, are missing.This amount was spent on 2.5 lakh works and projects, sources said. Most of the cases rel-ate to the departments of social welfare, panchayati raj and education n which more than Rs 26,000 crore was spent, but there is no certification of the works done. As far as the BSP is concerned, its chief Mayawati is also in trouble, The Allahabad HC recently sought a status re-port from the state government on the probe into the Rs 1,400-crore scam in memorials built during the BSP regime. The probe is being conducted by the vigilance department. A bench comprising Chief Justice D.B. Bhonsle and Justice Yashwant Verma has given the state government one weeks time to present the progress report in the matter in which the Lokayukta had inferred large-scale financial irregularities and corruption. Former Lokayukta N.K. Mehrotra, in his 88 page report, had pointed towards major financial irregularities in the construction of Ambedkar Smarak Parivartan Sthal, Manyavar Kanshiram Smarak Sthal, Eco Park, Gautam Buddha Upwan, Ramabai Ambedkar grounds and Smirit Upwan in the state capital Lucknow and the Ambedkar park built in Noida. What could further add to Ms Mayawati woes in this matter is the fact that the two other accused in the scam Babu Singh Khushwaha and Naseemuddin Siddiquihave left the BSP and are now firmly ranged against Ms Mayawati. Moreover, a dozen legislators and more than 100 engineers and government employees, officers of the Noida Authority, Rajkiya Nirman Nigam and the Public Works Department (PWD) have been made accused in the scam and their loyalties have obviously changed with the change in government in the state. With both the leaders caught in a web of their own making, the BJP is apparently preparing to use these corruption issues against SP and BSP in the upcoming electionsmore so because the issues have been raised by constitutional authorities like Lokayukta, CAG and the judiciary. They should have cleaned the bench before sitting on it. An alliance between SP-BSP would not be seen as an alliance of corrupt forces, remarked a senior BJP leader. Middle school students from Girls Preparatory School and McCallie School will soon present Disneys The Little Mermaid Jr., complete with much of the beloved songs and scenes as the original Broadway play and animated movie. The production will be held on Monday, Oct. 15, at 4:30 p.m., and Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m., in GPSs Frierson Theatre, at 205 Island Ave. The show is presented through a special arrangement with Music Theatre International. Review for Disney's The Little Mermaid Jr.: Based on a Hans Christian Andersens fairy tale, The Little Mermaid Jr is a window into a magical, underwater kingdom where sacrifices are made for love and acceptance. The journey under the sea features the familiar characters of the 1989 filmthe beautiful young mermaid Princess Ariel, her father King Triton and mersisters, the sea witch Ursula, and Ariels adorable aquatic friends plus tunes from the popular Academy Award-winning musical, including Part of Your World and Shes in Love. "This Disney adaptation not only has a beautiful score of memorable songs, but also sends a positive message to young people today, to never give up on their dreams," said GPS Middle School Musical Director Mike Lees. "Anything is possible." Mr. Lees and Assistant Director Erin Bas, GPS world languages teacher, began the casting process for The Little Mermaid Jr. in August, with middle school students from GPS and McCallie auditioning over a two-week period with voice screenings, script readings, and dance combinations. Students also serve backstage, helping with everything from lighting to costumes. I am so very proud of these students, said Mr. Lees. Not only are they super talented, but they are also eager and willing to take directions. They are dedicated to ensure this to be a first-rate production. Mr. Lees chose the musical from among his childhood favorites. He recalls the late Walt Disney as a great admirer of classic fairy tales. Timing and concept, he says, prevented The Little Mermaid from making it to the big screen in 1940, so the project was abandoned. Some 50 years later, Disney animators would try again, hiring Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (Little Shop of Horrors) to create a musical-theater score for the movie. The animated film won Oscars and Golden Globes (Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song for Under the Sea) as well as two Grammys. Mr. Menken and Mr. Ashmans work led to the successful adaptation of The Little Mermaid to the Broadway stage, with new additions to the films score. Today, other than a few new songs, the stage version remains true to the story and film, Mr. Lees says. The public is invited to attend both shows in GPS Frierson Theatre. General admission is $10. Tickets are on sale now at GPSLittleMermaid.eventbrite.com. Gaur last fortnight stirred up a hornets nest when he attended a book release ceremony organised by the Congress here. Bhopal: Prime Minister Narendra Modis warm handshake with BJP veteran Babulal Gaur, who has been sulking ever since he was dropped from the Shivraj Singh Chouhan ministry in 2016 for crossing 75 years of age, followed by an inspiring rem-ark, ek baar aur (once more), Gaurji, during his recent visit to Bhopal has created a buzz in the ruling party here, sending a note of optimism in the dissidents camp. After addressing the mega BJP rally here on September 25, Mr Modi had exchanged greetings with senior leaders of the party present on the dais on the occasion. While shaking hands with Mr Gaur, who won the Assembly elections from Govindpura seat in Bhopal district a record 10 times in a row, the Prime Minister was heard exhorting him, ek baar aur, Gaurji, leaving the former chief minister overwhelmed with joy. The PM made the remark in the presence of a host of party leaders. His gesture has overwhelmed me and I am thankful to him for encouraging me, 89-year-old Mr Gaur, considered chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans arch rival, told the media here on Friday. Mr Gaur last fortnight stirred up a hornets nest when he attended a book release ceremony organised by the Congress here. He had also heaped praise on Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath for ensuring all development of the latters parliamentary constituency of Chhindwara, causing discomfiture in the BJP here. He was dismissed from the state ministry along with another septuagenarian BJP leader Sartaz Singh in 2016 for having crossed the age of 75, thus facing the prospect of denial of party ticket in the year-end assembly elections. The PMs remarks have sent a clear message to the state leadership not to overlook Mr Gaur in the affairs of the party ahead of year-end assembly elections. The development has caused discomfiture in the loyalists camp and sent a note of optimism in the dissident camp, a senior BJP leader here said requesting anonymity. Incidentally, Union minister Uma Bharti, another dissident leader, had shared the platform with the chief minister after a long time on the occasion. Ms Bharti who belonged to other backward community of Lodha, later told reporters that she was personally requested by the chief minister to attend the PMs programme. Only one place for idiocy and its called Congress, says Amit Shah New Delhi: After the Supreme Court refused to interfere with the arrest of five activists by the Maharashtra police in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, the BJP on Friday claimed that the apex courts order has vindicated its stand that the accused were not arrested because of dissent and attacked the Congress president Rahul Gandhi for coming out in support of Maoists, urban Naxals, fake activists and the Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang. Tagging an old tweet of Mr Gandhi where he had attacked the RSS over the arrests, BJP president Amit Shah tweeted: There is only one place for idiocy and its called the Congress. Support Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang, Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working...Welcome to Rahul Gandhis Congress. Asking Mr Gandhi to clarify its stand on Urban Naxalism, the BJP president said those who stooped down to the level of polticising an issue of national security have been exposed by the Supreme Courts decision today. Mr Shah said that India is a vibrant democracy with a healthy culture of debate, discussion and dissent. However, plotting against the country with the intent to harm our citizens is not one of these. Those who politicised this issue need to apologise. The apex court refused to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists by the Maharashtra Police in connection with the case and declined to appoint a SIT to probe their arrest. Citing comments of Mr Gandhi and other Congress leaders against the BJP and the Narendra Modi government following arrests of the activists for their alleged links with Maoists, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said that the Congress president stood with them shamelessly to promote his political interests. This is defeat of the Congress. Rahul Gandhi should hang his head in shame...Our country and national security mean nothing for Rahul Gandhi, and the only thing important for him is his political agenda... Why dont you stand with India and why do you stand with anti-India forces? asked Mr Patra. adding that some of these activists were arrested earlier as well for their alleged links with banned outfits. The BJP leader alleged that the Congress wants to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it does not matter to it that whether Pakistan does it or Maoists. He claimed that even as allies of the Congress are not backing Mr Gandhis leadership, he is stooping to make himself acceptable. CASS CITY A comprehensive plan to maintain streets in the village of Cass City is being developed. Marcus McNamara and Rich Kathrens, project managers with Spicer Group, did a 30-minute presentation on the villages street asset management plan to the council. The company did a one-day survey of all of the streets in the village, and rated each street, giving it a 1 or 10 rating of the roughly 20 miles of streets in the village. The Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) program uses a 10 rate for new construction and 1 is for failed pavement, explained McNamara. The village has about 18.58 miles of paved streets that are not federal fund eligible, 1.24 miles (Seeger Street) that qualifies for federal aid, and 0.33 miles of gravel, which is Scotty McCollough Drive that goes into the park. McNamara explained 13.71 miles of streets are in poor condition and .70 miles was in good condition. The average PASER rate (of village streets) equals out to 4.1 rating, he said. To make headway on street improvements, the village has to up their funding for street work over the next 10 years. Spending at least $250,000 would make some headway in improving streets, but spending $500,000 on streets over the next 10 years would reduce poor roads from about 50 percent to about 40 percent, while spending $750,000 would reduce poor streets to about 20 to 25 percent. However, to reduce poor streets to less than 10 percent, it would take $1 million. It means that spending $250,000 to $300,000 annually on street is needed to keep up with network wide deterioration, and to realize a minor reduction in poor roads after 10 years, McNamara said, noting incremental increases of more money would increase the average PASER and further reduce the number of poor streets. It was pointed out investing more in street improvements would be costly and money had to be available for future maintenance; and in order to do that, it was suggested going for a bond issue for streets could be a consideration. The council will have to decide how much they want to spend on streets, and to identify specific streets that need work in the next one to three years. In years four to six, there should be yearly evaluations as part of a continuous plan. During years six through 10, portions of the total budget planned for maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction should be outlined. The plan will have to be continually updated as work is done, McNamara said. In a few years, doing this kind of assessment will be mandated by the MDOT (Michigan Department of Transportation). It will be used to receive state and federal street funds, and help with getting grants. The council approved accepting and placing the Transport Assessment Management Plan on file. Spicer Groups charge for the assessment management plan is $20,000, which was previously approved. The street assessment also helps lay the groundwork of water main and sewer asset mapping and management. In other matters, the council awarded contracts for work on the Helen Stevens Memorial Pool. The $6,000 bid from Lubeski and Son Excavating, of Ubly, was approved to do the removal of roughy 7,000 square feet of concrete around the pool. And, the $32,300 bid from Ryan Cumper, of Cass City, was approved to replace about 7,600 square feet of concrete around the pool. Although the first reading of the revised blight ordinance was expected, it was postponed because some changes needed to be made. Halloween trick or treat hours were set at 5:30 to 7 p.m. BAD AXE Economic development officials pitched a plan to county officials this week that would encourage brownfield property development. The contaminated Lapeer Metal Stamping site in Sebewaing would be a good candidate for property to be placed in a county land bank, said Carl Osentoski, executive director of the Huron County Economic Development Corporation. Osentoski joined officials from the Michigan Land Bank Authority at a recent Huron County Board of Commissioners meeting. They described the process of forming a land bank for properties that are abandoned, contaminated or blighted. A land bank would have two functions, according to Jim Trischler, development director for the Michigan Land Bank Authority. The first would be as titleholder to the property as a municipal corporate entity. The second would be determining how to put the parcels to productive reuse through a relationship with a brownfield authority. For example, Trischler said, Tuscola County is considering developing a land bank that would include a former prison camp and portions of the Caro Center. Sanilac County has a land bank, and Trischler encouraged county officials to consult with Sanilac and Tuscola counties while considering taking the step of forming a land bank. The land bank would be in charge of remediation of the site, Trischler said, and would contract with a developer to improve it. A resolution by the board of commissioners would be required to form the land bank. There would be no direct oversight by the county. A land bank board would be responsible for oversight, and the Huron County treasurer would be a member of that board. Commissioner Steve Vaughan asked whether former land fill sites would be eligible for ownership by a land bank. Trischler said yes, and that solar development is often pursued on such sites. The county has three landfill properties. Oliver Townships landfill is 29 acres; the Sigel Township landfill is nearly 18 acres; and the Sheridan Township landfill, which is privately owned, is 25 acres. The concept of a county land bank, Vaughan said, "sounds like a win-win situation." Sabarimala temple custom barring women of 10-50 age is not backed by the right to practise religion. New Delhi:The Supreme Court, in a historic verdict on Friday, allowed the entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala. Till now, women in the 10-50 age group were denied entry on the ground that they were of menstruating age. The court paved the way for their worship at par with men. A Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Rohinton Nariman, A.M. Kanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, by a majority of 4:1, held that denial of entry to women only on the ground that they were menstruating violated Article 14 of the Constitution the right to equality. The rule brought by Kerala in 1965 denying entry of women in the 10-50 age group violated the right of women to worship, it said. Interestingly, the only woman in the bench, Justice Indu Malhotra, was the sole dissenter to the majority verdict. In his main verdict, the CJI said there couldnt be any discrimination in approach to divinity and spirituality. Man cant dominate views of worship and biological factors cant be a legitimate ground to deny women the right to worship, the CJI said, adding that a patriarchal mindset had resulted in this prejudice against women. He rejected the submission that devotees of Ayyappa constituted a separate section of Hindus. Custom and practice must allow everyone to offer worship without discrimination, he said, adding: The courts must not grant legitimacy to religious practices which derogate women. Justice Misra said: Women are in no way inferior to men. On one hand, women are worshipped as goddesses, but there are restrictions on the other hand. Relationship with God cant be defined by biological or physiological factors. Banning entry of women to the shrine is gender discrimination. The practice of exclusion of women of the 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as an essential religious practice. Devotion cannot be subjected to discrimination. Patriarchal notions cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. Religion is a way of life basically to link life with divinity. The Sabarimala temples practice violates the rights of Hindu women. The CJI said that in no scenario, it can be said that exclusion of women of any age group could be regarded as an essential practice of the Hindu religion. On the contrary, it was an essential part of the Hindu religion to allow Hindu women to enter a temple as devotees and followers and offer prayers to the deity. In the absence of any scriptural or textual evidence, we cannot accord to the exclusionary practice followed at Sabarimala temple the status of an essential practice of the Hindu religion. The CJI held that rights guaranteed under Article 25(1) had nothing to do with gender or, for that matter, certain physiological factors specifically attributable to women and the denial of entry to the temple denudes them of their right to worship. He observed that there is nothing on record to show that the devotees of Lord Ayyappa have any common religious tenets peculiar to themselves, which they regard as conducive to their spiritual well-being, other than those, which are common to the Hindu religion. The CJI also said that by allowing women to enter the Sabarimala temple to offer prayers, it couldnt be imagined that the nature of the Hindu religion would be fundamentally altered or changed. The court also said the Devaswom Board had accepted before the high court that female worshippers of the 10-50 age group used to visit the temple and conducted pujas in every month for five days for the first rice-feeding ceremony of their children. It had also taken a stand that the restriction of entry for women was only during Mandalam, Makaravilakku and Vishu days. The CJI observed: Nobody can say that an essential part or practice of ones religion has changed from a particular date or by an event. Such alterable parts of practices are definitely not the core of religion where the belief is based and religion is founded upon. It could only be treated as mere embellishments to the non-essential part of practices. Justice Rohinton Nariman held that the customs and usage of the Sabarimala temple must yield to the fundamental right of women to worship in the temple. Although the rights claimed by Thantri and the believers in the temples customs have protection under Article 25(1), the right of a woman believer is also protected under Article 25(1), and her right should prevail over the right to maintain the exclusionary custom. Referring to the submission that women of all ages are allowed in other Ayyappa temples, Justice Nariman said it was no answer to the denial of their fundamental right to practice religion as they see it, which includes their right to worship at any temple of their choice. He said Section 3 of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Act 1965 declared that every place of public worship of Hindus is open to all sections and classes of Hindus. The section had an overriding effect on contrary customs and usages. The rule violated the Constitutions Articles 15(1) and 25(1). Justice Nariman said the Sabarimala temple couldnt claim the status of a religious denomination to claim rights under Article 26. Three things were stated as necessary in order to establish that a particular temple belongs to a religious denomination the temple must consist of persons who have a common faith, a common organisation, and are designated by a distinct name. It was held that no answers could be found for the query whether Thanthris and worshippers alike are designated by a distinct name, he said. WEST HAVEN Billboards decorate highways with advertisements for business and education, social change campaigns, and event announcements for concerts, fairs and more. But as people sit in traffic on Interstate 95 near Exit 42, three billboards ask them to consider something different. Illustrated in large red and blue letters against a white background, three consecutive billboards read Thank God ... And Vote for Science, Pray for All ... And Vote for Science, Hope for the Best ... And Vote for Science. The billboards, which have been up since early September, are visible on I-95 southbound and promote a social message to voters: Support science in addition to ones religious considerations. They were designed by Class Action, a group of graphic designers formed in 1992 at the Yale School of Art who create visual messages to advocate social change. The project was supported by a grant from the Union of Concerned Scientists. The messages are situated on one of the busiest thoroughfares between New York and Boston. It stands to remind people that its OK to have belief and understand the scientific method as part of human existence, said Richard Hanley, associate professor journalism at Quinnipiac Universitys School of Communications. Its the operative word and that you can have these beliefs and hopes and prayers and appreciate the role of science in the context of politics, he said. The billboards put science in the same space with religion as they ask people to consider both when casting a vote in the upcoming elections. The members of Class Action come from various religious traditions, the group, who prefer to speak collectively, said in an email. They recognize that faith and science are not mutually exclusive, and wish to underscore this with their messaging. We were attracted to this spiritual world/physical world duality. Faith and science have coexisted in modern times until recently. I appreciate the convergence of the religious and scientific considerations for voting, said the Rev. Adam Eckhart, of First United Church of Christ in Milford. I think the practice of science and religion are both important paths of human curiosity and helps to formulate truth. Sometimes those paths have been set up in conflict and zero-sum gain, but I usually see them as complementing each other religion speaks to why the university is the way and science shows how it is that way. The messages seek to confront the presidential administrations efforts to sideline science, the group said. These include President Donald Trump denying climate change and appointing people who oppose environmental regulation, such as Trumps pick for head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who has actively battled its mission, they said. In addition to proposing deep budget cuts to science funding in a number of health and environmental agencies Trump directed funding away from climate research on earth by NASA. I think theres misunderstandings, because I think the current political climate is stuck in this notion that truth is this zero-sum gain, Eckhart said. They believe they have to believe in science or religion. In some cases, its become more problematic, but I think theres room for there to be truth on both. Versus one truth, there can be different dimensions. The phrases invoked on the billboards are among those that however they originated, have become secularized so we are addressing a wider audience than only people of faith but we wanted to recognize spiritual world/physical world duality, they said. This is an age-old theme for example, Cleanliness is next to godliness, or God helps those who help themselves. One of the earliest examples of aphorisms we found encouraged putting ones trust in God, but at the same time accepting responsibility for our earthly acts. As for deciding the exact phrases each billboard would begin with, we sought generally accepted sayings that transcend specific religions and that are familiar and inviting. Eckhart said he doesnt think religion is being unfairly called out by the message, but rather they are calling attention to two diverging elements of society. I felt like it was a conciliatory move, Eckhart said. I can see some folks raising eyebrows, because in some religious traditions, there has been more of an either or perspective. ... But (the billboards) are not fully dismissive of the religious part. Its not saying only vote for science. The messaging starts with the religious component, which helps balance it without being aggressive toward either side, Hanley said. The language isnt belligerent or demeaning and makes a point to be inclusive of both sides. By using and the projection is that its OK to pray to that higher power and its OK to hope and its OK to vote for science and know theres a life system thats alongside these beliefs that should be considered when casting a ballot, Hanley said To lift up the possibility that it can be and or both instead of or, its really important to lift that up so we can bring our spiritual and religious selves to the decision, he said. Examples of where people divide on science and religion are climate change and how the universe began. But as a religious leader Eckhart said he thinks of science as helping people understand creation. The billboard platform makes the message more effective because its situated for people to take notice. In that section of I-95, traffic is often moving slowly and the messages have a captive audience, he said. Billboards need have to be designed in a way to provoke thought or impulse and this is seeking to promote thought, Hanley said. There is a moment of contemplation on the highway for people to take notice, he said. Because it doesnt fall into the main category of billboards it also has a certain shock impact. It gets people to ask the eternal question of what does it mean? The messaging tries to hit both aspects of the psychological mindset the rational and the irrational, Hanley said. Where science is based on facts, religion is based on the intangible elements. By the size of the messaging its showing great respect for the beliefs of people as part of a plea to consider science along with those elements. Billboards are also part of our cultural heritage, Hanley said, since they grew with the popularity of automobiles. For as long as people alive today would be able to remember there were billboards. The billboard and messaging instrument are deeply embedded in Americas society. Two series of billboards became cultural landmarks in their time Burma-Shave billboards from the 1920s to 1960s and the South of the Border billboards that line the highways of I-95 leading to the restaurant roadside attraction in South Carolina. Class Actions billboards have the potential to join the cultural heritage because of their simplicity of message and design, he said, adding it could go viral from passengers photographing the billboards and passing it along the information ecosystem. It starts conversations and gets people to think and puts it in the conscience of the voter that science is part of our lives too, Hanley said. The billboards will be up through Sept. 30 and others are being installed across the country individually rather than in a series. mdignan@hearstmediact.com Ms Swarajs early exit from the venue ensured that she had no interaction with Mr Qureshi. New Delhi: In a huge snub to Pakistan, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj left midway a meeting of the Saarc foreign ministers, including her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, amidst fresh chill in bilateral ties. In her address before leaving the informal interaction held in New York on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly, she ruled out a Saarc summit any time soon due to terror concerns, a comment which evoked an angry response from Pakistan later in the day. The mood was intensely frosty between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers at the meeting and Ms Swarajs early exit from the venue ensured that she had no interaction with Mr Qureshi. While Indian officials cited her other engagements as the reason for her leaving the meeting midway, her early exit seemed intended at sending a strong message to Pakistan in the light of last weeks decision by New Delhi to call off a meeting between Ms Swaraj and Mr Qureshi in New York. Initially, India had accepted a suggestion from Pakistan for the foreign minister-level interaction on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly but New Delhi later called off the meeting citing the brutal killings of three policemen in Jam-mu and Kashmir and Islamabad releasing pos-tage stamps glorifying slain Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani.After making her statement on Thursday, Ms Sushma left the meeting early, evoking criticism from Mr Qureshi, who later told reporters, No I didnt have any talk with her (Swaraj). On the positive gesture, I can say she left the meeting midway, may be she was not feeling well. Indian diplomatic sources said that it was quite normal in a multilateral meeting to leave early after one has delivered the countrys statement. Sources said that Ms Swaraj was not the first minister to leave the meeting as her counterparts from Afghanistan and Bangladesh had also left before her. In her statement at the meeting chaired by Nepals foreign minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Ms Swaraj pointing out, in a veiled reference to Islamabad, that terrorism remains the single largest threat to peace and stability in our region and that it is necessary that we end the ecosystem of its support. In another veiled barb at Pakistan which is seen to be resisting Saarc connectivity initiatives, including movement of people and goods, Ms. Swaraj said, Saarc needs to deliver on its commitments or risk being left behind. Spelling out Indias stand, Ms. Swaraj said, An environment of peace and security is essential for regional cooperation to progress and achieve economic development and prosperity of our people. The number of threats and incidents that endanger South Asias are on the rise. Terrorism remains the single largest threat to peace and stability in our region, and indeed in the world. It is necessary that we eliminate the scourge of terrorism in all its forms, without any discrimination, and end the ecosystem of its support. South Asia region has the potential to be the front-runner of growth and prosperity and is one of the fastest growing regions of the world. But the true potential of the region can be realised only if all countries contribute constructively towards delivering on the commitments Saarc has made to the people of the region, she added. A furious Pakistan hit back by issuing a statement that said, The foreign minister (Qureshi) emphasised that one country was holding the 1.7 billion people of South Asia hostage, while making vague statements and unsubstantiated, whimsical allegations. The Saarc summit has already been delayed by two years, with no end in sight. Pakistan continues to insist that there is no alternate to communication, engagement and dialogue, and the attempt to scuttle the Saarc process, was actually the major impediment in ensuring the prosperity, eliminating poverty and instituting development for the peoples of the region. NEW HAVEN - The Rev. Robert Beloin, who led the Catholic community at St. Thomas More Chapel and Center at Yale University for nearly 25 years, died late Saturday night at age 71. While he had been seriously ill with brain cancer since January and his passing was not unexpected, it still hurts, it still stings, it is still painful, the Rev. Karl Davis, an assistant chaplain, told tearful members of the community at a service Sunday morning. We are, in some sense, never ready. Davis said Beloin, a priest for 45 years whom everyone addressed as Bob, approached his life as a journey, a journey were all on. He said his focus was always on the laity, on community. ... In that vein, service. Good community that reflected the presence of Christ was one that was filled with service. ... Even in his illness, he was hospitable. He was still serving others. Beloin, in his long tenure at St. Thomas More Chapel, oversaw the construction of the Golden Center in 2006, which added space to expand programs offered to students and members of the Greater New Haven community who were drawn to his preaching and outreach. He also introduced the Small Church Community program, a Bible-study format, that invited participation by students, faculty and people outside Yale. Richard Beloin was able to stay with his brother for the past several months. I am retired, which made it possible for me to move to New Haven to be with my brother after his diagnosis. I always knew he was respected, but the outpouring of gratitude, love and appreciation for him from the St. Thomas More and Yale community has been extraordinary, his brother said. For the past nine months, members of the community provided home-cooked meals for Beloin every night and he received more than 800 letters and cards from former students and friends who were part of the larger Catholic community. Community members Sunday reflected on what Beloin had meant to them. He addressed his illness and dying the way he lived his life. He didnt ask himself why this was happening to him. He asked himself, 'What does this mean for me? And how can I be more loving?' His response to that much more important question was to live his remaining months with joy, gratitude, faith, humor, love and profound appreciation for all that God intended of his life, Kerry Alys Robinson, a close friend, said. Davis said everyone felt that Beloin considered them his best friend. He said he always recognized peoples happiness. He touched everybodys heart. His openness, his welcome. His joy in Catholic Christian life was a pure gift, Gail Bellucci said. You could talk to him about anything and he would listen to you. He just made you feel better. Stephen Kobasa, a long-time member of the community, said Beloin was of both the old and new worlds. He came out of the old usages and yet he found his way into the grace of the present. He was so clear about the obligation to speak out in the world, his presence on the issue of immigration. There is a cliche about teaching by example. He was that. It was never just words with him. Beloin and Davis both were arrested at a sit-in outside Immigration Court in Hartford protesting the imminent deportation of an undocumented immigrant. Beloin opened the demonstration with a prayer, asking God to look down on this nation so that it is a place of welcome for all peoples. Bless those who are struggling with deportation, give them hope and courage and assure them of our support. Before the demonstration began, Beloin reflected about why he was there. He said [T]he (Catholic) church is pro-life, pro-family and it is just appalling that families are being broken up hard-working families who are here trying to have a life together. It is really a disgrace a moral disgrace, Beloin said. Kobasa said Beloin was always human, which he acknowledged. There were times when he could be severe, but always in a good cause, Kobasa said laughing. Kobasa said the chaplain felt things deeply. He always measured losses in his own heart. Thats rare. Richard Gard, who runs the music program at the chapel and has known Beloin for 17 years, said he celebrated 2,042 Masses with him. I never knew what my last time to be with him in that way would be, Gard said, tearing up. Most priests are not as cognizant of music as he was. It was so wonderful to work with him, he said of their long friendship. He said Beloin was always open to new ideas, one of which led to a concert at Carnegie Hall. Evelyn Gard, his wife, who sings at the church, said in their last meeting, she sang a hymn she wrote for him. He said to him what a great team they were and his last words to me were I love you. Evelyn Gard said. It was such a beautiful moment. He had this amazing intelligent approach to theology and religion, she said. John Cirello and his wife, Michelle Cirello, would meet with engaged couples as part of a pre-marriage program at the church. He used to come in and make such a connection with the couples, primarily because he was so used to dealing with 20-year olds. A lot of priests at the other parishes were totally unrelatable, John Cirello said. Douglas Black, a convert to Catholicism, said Beloin was a great teacher. He also helped me with the passing of my wife, Marlene, who had known him for decades. He created special relationships with so many people. Everybody talked about his homilies. They had such a way of being intellectual, at the same time really perceptive, Black said. Pat Morrison said he broke down the barriers between Yale-affiliated members and those outside. There is no town and gown feeling. Everyone is equally welcomed, she said. Details regarding the wake and funeral were still under discussion Sunday night. A Mass will be said for Beloin Monday at 5:30 p.m. at the St. Thomas More Chapel. mary.oleary@hearstmedia ct.com; 203-641-2577 The slum was submerged in water for over three hours, resulting in residents losing all their belongings. Pune: Over 300 houses in a Pune slum were inundated with water after the wall of a canal on Mutha river broke on Thursday morning. The slum was submerged in water for over three hours, resulting in residents losing all their belongings. Due to the flooding on roads, traffic on Sinhgad road, Sargate, Shastri road and the nearby areas was affected for three hours. It was a nightmare for residents of Janata Vasahat, survey no 130, near Sinhgad Road in Pune, when the right canal of Mutha River broke and water gushed to Janata Vasahat, Sinhgad Road and Parvati area at around 11am. According to locals, they were left to fend for themselves till the fire brigade team reached the spot after an hour. Prashant Ranpise, the fire brigade chief, said, Five of our officials and five personnel were able to rescue more than 50 people from houses that were full of water. Most of them were kids and senior citizens. We also rescued a disabled person, who was stuck inside his house. He is hospitalised. Over 50 vehicles, both two-wheelers and autos were damaged in the deluge. The irrigation department releases water from the Khadakwasla dam, located on the city's outskirts, to the Indapur and Daund tehsils of the district for farming and drinking purposes. The water released from the reservoir flows through the Mutha canal to these places. According to K. S. Shelar, an official from the irrigation department, We immediately stopped the flow of water from the Khadakasla dam and also created a block here. As of now we cannot say why the wall got broken. We will study the situation to find the cause, he said. Meanwhile, only four houses remained undamaged in the slum. Due to the force of the water, most of the houses collapsed and the residents belonging were swept away. Kalpana Adsul, one of the victims, pointed to her empty room, with one wall collapsed and said, My TV, fridge, gas cylinder were swept away by the water. Only some utensils and clothes stored in the upper compartments were left behind. Testifying to a bitterly divided Senate committee and a transfixed nation, Bay Area professor Christine Blasey Ford said Thursday she is 100 percent sure that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were teenagers 36 years ago an allegation the judge decried angrily as a plot by Democrats and a national disgrace. The daylong hearing was combative, with neither side backing away from their conflicting versions of past events. Republicans said they would hold a committee vote Friday morning though the outcome remained uncertain after a key member expressed doubts following testimony. A full Senate vote could happen early next week. The hearing came as the nation comes to terms with dozens of sex harassment and assault scandals and a #MeToo backlash from survivors who have their own stories. And it brought back memories but also stood in contrast to the 1991 hearings on Anita Hills sexual harassment complaint against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Holding back tears, Ford testified Thursday that she vividly recalls Kavanaugh and a friend drunkenly laughing while she was pinned to a bed. The laughter, uproarious laughter between the two of them and their having fun at my expense is her strongest recollection of the day in 1982, Ford said, her voice breaking at times, that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed while his friend Mark Judge stood nearby. Kavanaugh, who spoke angrily for much of his testimony, also appeared near tears at times as he described the impact of the 11th-hour allegations. My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed, he said. He mentioned the possibility of rejection for a nomination that had seemed assured before Fords allegations surfaced last week. You may defeat me in the final vote, but youll never get me to quit, he told committee Democrats. At stake in the dueling accounts is a critical seat on the closely divided court. Trumps nomination of Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge since 2006, to succeed the retired Justice Anthony Kennedy had seemed to be headed toward confirmation in a Senate with a 51-49 Republican majority before Fords allegations surfaced this month. The next justice could determine the courts direction on issues such as abortion, environmental regulation, minority rights and presidential powers. President Trump tweeted his support for his nominee as the hearing wrapped up: Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote! A potentially significant political development occurred at the end of the hearing, when Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, the only Republican committee member yet to declare his support of the nominee, said that both Ford and Kavanaugh had presented compelling testimony and there was doubt and uncertainty going out of this room. Senate Republican leaders agreed to the one-day hearing after Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University, told her congressional representatives that Kavanaugh had tried to rape her at a gathering of teens in Maryland, when he was 17 and she was 15. At least three other women have since accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in the 1980s and 1990s, but Republicans allowed only Ford to testify and rejected her requests to call supporting witnesses or seek an FBI investigation. In 3 hours of testimony, Ford, 51, said she did not remember every detail of the events but vividly recalled her assailants enjoying themselves. They were laughing with each other. I was underneath one of them while the two laughed, two friends having a really good time, she said. Kavanaugh moved from anger to near tears in a 45-minute opening statement he composed Wednesday, scrapping a brief prepared statement he had released earlier in the day. When Democratic attacks at his first confirmation hearing two weeks ago went nowhere, he said, some of you were lying in wait with a long series of last-minute smears. I am innocent of this charge, and have never had any physical or sexual contact with Ford, a person he does not remember, Kavanaugh said. He said a detailed calendar he has kept of his activities since 1980 contained no indication that he been at a weekend party in the time or place described by Ford. And three people described by Ford as present at the party have declared, under oath, that they recall no such event, Kavanaugh said. Ford, asked about their denial earlier in the hearing, said two of those people, a man and a woman, had not been in the room at the time of the attack she described and had no reason to recall the party, and the third was Judge, Kavanaughs friend and alleged accomplice. Kavanaugh batted away repeated questions about his drinking in high school and college, saying he worked hard in school and sports and got into Yale Law School. He also rejected the notion that he disparaged the name of a girl he knew in high school in his yearbook post. The committees 11 Republicans, all men, avoided the appearance of a male-vs.-female spectacle like the Anita Hill hearings. They delegated questioning of Ford to Rachel Mitchell, an Arizona sex crimes prosecutor, who chipped away at a few of the accusers details but left her overall testimony unshaken. Questioned by Mitchell, Ford acknowledged saying different things to a Washington Post reporter and her representatives, Rep. Anna Eshoo and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, about when the alleged attack occurred and how many people were at the party. She also said she often travels by plane despite having expressed reluctance to travel to Washington for the hearing because of a fear of flying. She acknowledged that Feinsteins office had recommended one of her lawyers and said someone else may have paid for her lie-detector test, which she passed. But she rejected suggestions by several Republicans, including Trump aides, that she had mistaken someone else for Kavanaugh. Asked by Feinstein, the committees ranking Democratic member, how she could be sure that Kavanaugh was the person who lay on top of her and covered her mouth when she tried to call for help, Ford said, The same way Im sure Im talking to you. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said she found Fords account particularly credible because of her own experience prosecuting sex crimes. Trauma, shame and fear of consequences almost always cause survivors to delay reporting (sexual assaults), if they report at all, Harris said. She called Ford a true profile in courage and noted that Ford, but not Kavanaugh, had urged the committee to call outside witnesses and seek an FBI investigation of the incident. During Kavanaughs testimony, several Republicans attacked Democrats treatment of the nominee. Youre right to be angry, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told Kavanaugh, describing the allegations as uncorroborated and unfair. I cant think of a more embarrassing scandal for the United States since the McCarthy hearings. This is going to destroy the ability of good people to come forward because of this crap, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, opened the hearing by blaming Democrats for prolonging the proceedings and delaying Kavanaughs confirmation vote. He noted that Feinstein received Fords letter on July 30 but did not disclose it until the Washington Post reported it Sept. 13, not mentioning it while the senators met with Kavanaugh in August. Democrats were determined to obstruct (the) nomination by any means necessary, Grassley said. He said the committee could have kept Fords identity confidential while looking into her claims. Feinstein replied that Ford had asked her to keep her letter confidential. She noted that Republicans summoned Ford to a hearing 36 hours after learning about her letter, later agreeing to postpone it by a few days. What I find most inexcusable is this rush to judgment, Feinstein said. Too often womens memories and credibility come under assault. They are put on trial. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@BobEgelko NantEnergy said it has created a rechargeable zinc-air battery storage system that can provide power at a lower cost. NantEnergy says its zinc-air battery system can deliver energy for $100 per kilowatt hour. (Photo: AP) Remote villages in Africa and Asia are receiving electricity using a little-known type of technology: zinc-air batteries. The goal is to provide a battery that can capture the renewable energy and store it for later use. California-based NantEnergy said Wednesday it has created a rechargeable zinc-air battery storage system that can provide power at a lower cost than lithium-ion systems. The technology has been deployed in more than 110 villages serving 200,000 people who have no other access to electricity in their communities, said NantEnergy chairman Patrick Soon-Shiong. If you look at a map of Earth at night and you see where its darkest, its in Africa, Asia and developing countries, said Soon-Shiong, who is also the owner of the Los Angeles Times. To reduce cost and be competitive with fossil fuels is critical. Companies are working to develop alternatives to lithium-ion or lead-acid batteries commonly used for energy storage, aiming to create a product thats cheaper and more environmentally friendly. NantEnergy says its zinc-air battery system can deliver energy for $100 per kilowatt hour. Today the only batteries that are in that price range are lead-acid batteries, said Ramkumar Krishnan, chief technology officer of NantEnergy. By comparison, lithium-ion batteries vary in price but often range from $300 to $500 per kilowatt-hour, according to the Energy Storage Association. Companies such as Tesla have been pushing to lower battery prices into the $100-$200 per kilowatt-hour range. If this is true, it would be great, Jay Whitacre, director of the Wilson E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University, said of NantEnergys efforts. If these guys even get close to this price point of $100 per kilowatt hour it is exciting and disruptive...If you can get to that, what you end up with is a technology that is really economical and can be used in many ways. Whitacre said he would like to see data on how the batteries have performed to assess the impact of what the company achieved. Its not just how much it costs when you buy it, its how long it lasts, Whitacre added. I have no reason to think that it doesnt work, but I also would need to see some evidence to support these claims. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary support. Krishnan did not immediately provide performance data on the batteries to support NantEnergys claims. The company is deploying its batteries to remote villages to establish microgrids, which are localized power sources that distribute energy to homes, communities or businesses without being connected to a traditional utilitys electric grid. The microgrids are powered by solar panels that capture energy from the sun when its shining. Electricity from the solar panels is used to separate zinc oxide into zinc and oxygen, and the zinc generated in the process stores energy that can be used when its dark or cloudy. The energy in the zinc can be combined with air to discharge electricity. The batteries are rechargeable and are designed to hold a charge for up to a few days, Krishnan said. They last through thousands of cycles over a period of years, he said. By comparison, lithium-ion batteries can last through thousands of cycles and for more than 10 years on average, said Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science at Argonne National Laboratory. Even with its global presence, the amount of power NantEnergy is providing so far is small compared to the scale of lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, Krishnan acknowledged. NantEnergy has installed 55 megawatt-hours of storage, compared to about 10 gigawatt-hours of energy storage deployed worldwide, he said. Duke Energy is using one of NantEnergys storage systems to power a communications tower for the National Park Service in the Great Smoky Mountains, said Randy Wheeless, spokesman for Duke. Previously, two dozen power poles and lines served the customer, and because of the remote location it was expensive and time-consuming to fix outages, Wheeless said. The microgrid concept allowed Duke to disconnect the customer from its grid. Utilities across the US are deploying energy storage systems as part of their infrastructure, often to capture the clean but erratic renewable energy generated by the sun and wind. Military bases and small communities often use lithium-ion batteries, especially to power microgrids found on islands or in remote areas, said Jason Burwen, vice president of the Energy Storage Association. Zinc-air batteries are less common, and the companies that are working on them are still in the early stages, Burwen said. Challenges include developing batteries that are rechargeable, have a long enough life and deliver enough power density, Srinivasan said. The NantEnergy zinc-air storage system is also being used in cell phone towers in North America, Central and Latin America and Southeast Asia. NantEnergy, formerly known as Fluidic Energy, plans to open a battery manufacturing facility in California in 2019, Krishnan said. (Source) The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a $9.2 billion contract to build the service's next aircraft for training future pilots. The firm fixed-price contract award includes funding for 351 jets, 46 simulators and associated ground equipment, Boeing said. The payment structure, officials said, also allows for an indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity option to give the Air Force the opportunity to purchase up to 475 aircraft and 120 simulators. "This new aircraft will provide the advanced training capabilities we need to increase the lethality and effectiveness of future Air Force pilots," Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said in a release. "Through competition we will save at least $10 billion on the T-X program." Reuters was first to report the news. Related content: Air Force officials said Thursday they are confident Boeing will deliver what the service requires, even at a lower price ceiling than originally discussed. "We used and scored and conducted the source selection on all of the documents, and everything in the request for proposal that we communicated to industry, and that [resulted in] the awardee," said Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the Air Force's military deputy for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Acquisition at the Pentagon. Bunch, alongside Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper, briefed reporters at the Pentagon Thursday following the award announcement. The Air Force wants to buy the new jets to replace its current Northrop Grumman-made T-38 Talon trainers, at a time when the service is struggling to replenish its fighter pilot ranks. The first T-X aircraft and simulators are scheduled to arrive at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in 2023. All Education and Training Command bases that currently have a T-38 program will transition to the Boeing model. "We have a very deliberate process to evaluate risk, cost and technical factors in the program. It's rigorous," Roper added. "Overall, our assessment was [that] Boeing had the proposal that was best value." The announcement marks the third major contract in recent weeks for Boeing, the U.S.' largest aerospace firm. The Air Force this week also selected the company to build the replacement for its UH-1N Huey helicopter, at a cost of approximately $2.38 billion. And last month, the Navy selected the firm to build its first operational carrier-based MQ-25 tanker drone. "Today's announcement is the culmination of years of unwavering focus by the Boeing and Saab team," said Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, in a release. "It is a direct result of our joint investment in developing a system centered on the unique requirements of the U.S. Air Force. We expect T-X to be a franchise program for much of this century." Bunch said there were certain aircraft attributes the Air Force valued and looked for in a proposal: higher angle-of-attack, and the ability to withstand greater levels of G-force, among others. These factors "would help us later on with how we train the pilots," Bunch said Thursday. In the T-38, he added, training is limited because "of the legacy system." "We want to turn out an aviator that's better prepared to go into their follow-on fight," Bunch said. Boeing unveiled its sleek T-X trainer jet during a ceremony at its St. Louis facility in 2016. The Chicago-based company, collaborating with Saab, competed with a new, clean-sheet design against Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries, which proposed a variant of KAI's T-50; and Leonardo DRS' T-100 modified jet design. Northrop had been in the running early on -- also with a brand-new design -- but withdrew from the competition in early 2017. Boeing's jet offers a twin-canted, vertical tail design, mimicking fourth- and fifth-generation fighter jets such as the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18 Hornet. While the original service cost estimate for the T-X replacement program was $19.7 billion, the Air Force in 2016 announced a $16 billion competition to build the aircraft. Firms that were publicly competing for the contract included Boeing, Lockheed and Leonardo, but it was said Sierra Nevada Corp. and Turkish Aerospace Industries were also partnering on their own design. The contract award had been anticipated by the end of 2017, but officials cited ongoing program reviews and discussions with defense industry executives as reasons for delaying the contract announcement. "It is the review, the review of the proposals, and ensuring that we have the right items taken care of," Bunch told reporters last year. "This is a case ... sometimes you need to go slow in order to go fast," he said of the acquisition strategy. "Because if we do it [too fast], we end up in a protest, and [if ] we go through that process, it will set us back. It will take us even longer." The new trainer cannot come too soon for the service as it grapples with using its aging T-38 Talons, as well as its T-6 Texan II aircraft. The Air Force most recently cleared its fleet of T-6 trainers to resume training operations at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph after a "brief pause" following a crash near the base Sept. 18. Both pilots safely ejected from the aircraft. The Texan was also grounded in February after ongoing reports of pilots suffering breathing problems. That crash followed another trainer mishap in Texas on Sept. 11. In that incident, a T-38C from Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, crashed after takeoff, officials said. Two other T-38s have crashed this calendar year. Last November, total hydraulic failure in a T-38 from Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, caused that aircraft to crash. The accident killed Capt. Paul J. Barbour, 32, who was on a requalification flight that day. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- New storage containers that can keep blood fresh for up to three days could change battlefield medicine as troops deploy to far-flung places without much backup support. The Far-Forward Blood Storage Container was on display here during the Modern Day Marine Expo. Packed with bags of blood from universal donors, the portable systems could help save lives of Marines operating far from any medical support. The special containers maintain consistent temperatures to keep blood fresh, said Jason Payne, acting program manager for tech solutions with the Office of Naval Research, which developed the box. In hot weather, the box keeps the blood cool -- around 38 degrees. In cold climates when temperatures fall below that, it will warm up. The rugged box can be packed with up to 14 450-milliliter units of blood. When fully stocked, it weighs about 42 pounds and can easily be moved by a single person. Current systems can weigh more than twice that, Payne said, and only keep blood fresh for a matter of hours. This system stretches that time window to 72 hours. It also features a touch screen that displays information so corpsmen know whether the supply is still fresh. "The benefit is that this can be transported with the forward-deployed forces so it brings the blood supply right to the point of conflict," Payne said. The container can easily fit into the back of a Humvee, he added. They've also made sure it has sturdy handles that can be strapped to a drone and flown right out to Marines in austere locations. It can run on batteries, solar power or traditional power sources. An alarm will sound if the temperature falls outside the desired range to maintain the blood's freshness, though that can be turned off in a tactical setting. ONR plans to deliver the first Far-Forward Blood Storage Containers to the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in December. The Warfighting Lab will work with the Marine expeditionary forces to incorporate the blood boxes into an upcoming training exercise so they can assess the product, Payne said. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ginaaharkins. YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan -- As the sun rises over the jungle canopy, the workers are already on the move. They take in the crisp scent of the morning air as they head up the rocky mountain path, slipping between the trees of a wet, dew-covered forest in Vietnam. At the top of the green mountain ridge, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Quoc Bao Lam is waiting to greet them with a smile and a handshake before getting started on the day's work. On a normal day, Lam is a master-at-arms with the military police at Naval Station Everett, Washington, but today he's part of a unique assignment. He is acting as the lead linguist for a recovery team deployed by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on its fourth mission to Vietnam. Remote Site Lam works at an excavation site found on a remote mountain peak in one of the Vietnamese jungle's most austere locations. The site is only accessible by helicopter, and the nearest village is about 5 and a half miles away, down a long steep rocky trail on the brink of being overgrown by the jungle. Being at a site so removed, a linguist is a necessity for a successful recovery mission. "Nothing in this mission could be accomplished without the skill sets and abilities of an experienced linguist on the team," said Marine Corps Capt. Mark Strickert, DPAA senior recovery team leader. "Linguists translate intent, interpret body language, serve as cultural advisors, facilitate negotiations and build camaraderie with the local community and government officials we work with so closely every day. Linguists are the underlining glue in the tireless steps we take to fulfill our nation's promise to bring our fallen home." The mission of DPAA is to provide the fullest possible accounting for missing service members to their families and the nation from past conflicts. The total number of service members unaccounted for from the Vietnam War was 2,646, but through the work of DPAA, 1,052 of those missing have been found, identified and repatriated. The work of DPAA continues to find the remaining 1,594 missing U.S. service members from the Vietnam War. Painstaking Work The work to recover missing service members starts with intense analyzing of historical records from all sides of a conflict surrounding the missing individuals. This is followed by interviewing eye witnesses, gathering local accounts and pinpointing and evaluating possible dig sites. Once all the data has been compiled and strongly suggests a specific area, recovery teams are brought in to dig and sift the soil, looking for remains of the missing individuals. When Lam first learned about DPAA and its missions to Vietnam to recover missing troops, he felt an instant connection and he knew he had to find a way to contribute. "I wanted to be a part of this important work," Lam said, "to have an opportunity to help my fellow service members and their families find closure, and possibly help to find some of the lost or fallen friends of my father." Lam moved to America at age 8 with his mother and siblings. His father, Ouang Lam, had left five years prior to escape prosecution and possible execution at the end of the Vietnam War. From the start of the conflict, Ouang fought with South Vietnam's army. As U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War increased, the U.S. Army began seeking out local people who could speak English, Chinese and Vietnamese to help U.S. troops better navigate the region. Becoming a Translator After applying to train with the U.S., Ouang was sent to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, to get a better grip on the English language and military terminology. Once proficient in English, he was sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he was taught how to fly medical helicopters before going back to his country and the war. For the rest of the war, Ouang delivered supplies and wounded U.S. and South Vietnamese troops by helicopter. He regularly came under fire and, throughout the conflict, lost fellow aircrew, friends and family. Ouang made it to the rank of chief warrant officer 3 at the war's end. North and South Vietnam were reunited. Those who had worked with the Americans were soon hunted by the authorities. Ouang had to leave his country to save his and his family's lives. Ouang began building a new life for his family in Chicago, thanks to a religious group that sponsored individuals who had fought alongside U.S. troops during the war. They brought foreign veterans and their families to the U.S. to ensure they were not harmed by the new Vietnamese government. After all he experienced during the war, Ouang was against war for the rest of his life. Ouang urged his children to go to school and not join any military service, but Lam wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. Luckily before his father passed away, Lam was able to explain why he chose to serve in the military after realizing school was not for him. Father's Pride "My father was incredibly upset and did not talk to me for some time," Lam said. "After a few years I sat down with him and talked about why I joined the Navy. While he still did not like the idea of me being in the armed forces, over time came to be very proud of my service to the country that has given his family so much." If it wasn't for Ouang's close work with the U.S. during the war, he may never have gotten out of Vietnam after the country's reunification and would have never had the chance to provide his family with the American dream. "Lam's father is always watching from above and he would be proud of Lam working to find his lost friends from so long ago," said Lam's mother. "We have been proud of everything that he has done so far in life, to give back to the U.S. for all the U.S. has done for our family. We are extremely proud." After weeks of facilitating negotiations, advising on cultural differences and interpreting body language, Lam's mission in Vietnam came to a close. From his position atop the mountain, Lam surveyed the green valley below, as the setting sun cast the sky in hazy blues and purples. WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law a $670 billion defense spending measure that includes money for the largest boost to service members' pay in nearly 10 years and increases in troops, equipment and weapons for the 2019 fiscal year. The so-called "minibus" appropriations measure, H.R. 6157, is part of a larger package of more than $850 billion to fund labor, health and human services and education priorities. It also funds priorities directed in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. Trump's approval Friday marks the first time in about 10 years that the Defense Department won't operate under a temporary funding measure, otherwise known as a continuing resolution, for the start of its fiscal year. The 2019 fiscal year begins Monday. "Today, I signed into law important legislation to rebuild our military, protect our communities, and deliver a better future for all Americans," Trump said Friday in a statement. Trump said the legislation secured funding to order 93 new F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighters, 142 Apache and Black Hawk helicopters and 13 Navy battle force ships. "America is being respected again -- and our people are being protected again. I am pleased to have signed this bill into law," he said. Related content: Lawmakers lauded the news Friday. "It is a monumental achievement. By funding our military in full and on time, we can begin to restore its strength, agility, and effectiveness. The president was right to make rebuilding our military a high priority," Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. "As I have said before, the task before us now is to make full, on time funding of our military the rule in Washington, and not the exception." On Wednesday, the House passed the measure by a vote of 361-61, sending the bill to Trump. Last week, the Senate approved the legislation in a vote of 93 to 7, sending the bill to the House. "This package continues a historic increase in funding for our nation's defense, helping the president deliver on his commitment to rebuild the military," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Friday in a statement. The defense budget moves on two tracks: the annual NDAA directs policy and spending plans for the military, while the defense appropriations bill is what actually moves money to the Pentagon. Trump signed the 2019 NDAA, H.R. 5515, into law Aug. 13, which ushered through a series of new policy reforms, such as revamping the military's "up or out" promotion system and policies to reign in sexual misconduct and domestic abuse among the ranks. The $716 billion NDAA also authorizes a 2.6 percent pay raise for service members, as well as new purchases of aircrafts, ships, submarines and weapons. The NDAA directs funding for Defense Department, as well as atomic energy defense activities under the Energy Department. Because it funds additional agencies, the NDAA directs larger spending priorities than its appropriations counterpart legislation, H.R. 6157, said Andrew Sherbo, a University of Denver finance professor who has tracked government and defense budget issues. Thornberry had said this week that he was confident Trump would sign the legislation into law. "If you step back and look what are the two biggest accomplishments of the Trump administration, it's been economic growth and rebuilding the military," Thornberry said Wednesday. "Signing this bill that we are going to pass today is the most significant step towards rebuilding the military because they will have a whole year to efficiently use that money." Several times this year, Trump threatened a veto of spending measures if Congress didn't include significant funding for a southern border wall, a move that could have triggered a government shutdown. But later Wednesday, Trump said he would keep the government open. On Friday, Trump said H.R. 6157 includes additional funding for border security, "including $1.6 billion, annualized, to keep building the wall." He also said the Democrats refuse to support additional border security. H.R. 6157 also includes a continuing resolution to fund agencies that aren't covered by the minibus appropriations bill until Dec. 7 to avert a partial government shutdown. Lawmakers have also lauded the plan's boost to pay, troop levels, and equipment, including 18 C-130J aircraft, 13 V-22 aircraft and the upgrade of 135 Abrams tanks. They have also praised the measure's efforts to fund research and development of new defense systems and technologies, including nuclear force modernization and the Ohio-class submarine replacement. The bill also funds cancer research, traumatic brain injury research, sexual assault prevention and veterans vocational education. The plan builds on the momentum to increase the size and might of the military in response to China and Russia's growing capabilities as laid out in Trump's defense budget proposal earlier this year. The Trump request for the fiscal year included an increase of more than 15,000 active-duty troops, which lawmakers matched in the NDAA. A two-year spending deal that lifted federal budget caps allowed the defense budget to expand. Coupled with approaching November midterm elections, lawmakers worked to pass the bills earlier than in past years. Service members know that life doesnt go on hold while youre deployed. If your financial goals include buying your own home, you can fulfill that goal while you are overseas serving our country. A National Association of Realtors survey found that 51 percent of surveyed service members between 18 and 35 owned homes, whereas their non-military peers had a homeownership rate of 34 percent. Your dream of owning a home can come true while youre serving abroad. How to Buy a Home from Afar Well walk you through the basic steps to purchase your dream home during your deployment. Narrow Down the Neighborhood Let the internet do the heavy lifting as you decide on your new neighborhood. Check out the citys website for basic information like school ratings, parks, events, activities and property taxes. You can use a street-view map like Google Earth to see recent images of the area and exterior shots of the homes you like. This research will help you figure out what your budget should be and what the essential elements are for you and your family. It will also help you weed out areas that dont meet your needs. We recommend researching a couple of zip codes for easy comparison. Hire an Expert A local real estate agent can be your boots on the ground as you search for your new home. You will also want to seek out an agent who understands the relocation and home-buying process for military personnel. Some realtors choose to earn a Military Relocation Certification from the National Association of Realtors. Agents with this certification understand common issues facing current and former military members, and theyre familiar with the programs and benefits for which military members qualify. Hiring a real estate agent may also help you be the first to know when houses go on the market. Tour Homes on Video Employ your spouse, family member or a friend to attend viewings of your top-choice houses. This representative can measure rooms, drive around the neighborhood and tell you any other specifics that your internet research did not uncover. Get creative: explore the home alongside your friend or family member using video chat. Exercise A Power of Attorney Speak to a lawyer about using a power of attorney, which is a legal document signed by one person granting another person the power to represent the signer in signing papers, title documents, contracts and other activities. If you can't be at closing, the person you have selected (like your spouse, for instance) can represent you under the power of attorney. If you are getting a VA loan, there may be additional hoops to jump through, such as an occupancy requirement. Your spouse may be able to fulfill the occupancy requirements for you, or you can file for an extension. Use Snail Mail if Necessary If you are single and don't have family or friends in the area who can sign for you under a power of attorney, your realtor may need to mail the documents for you to sign. This isnt ideal, as shipping the documents can extend the buying process significantly. Your mortgage company will let you know beforehand what their process is. Enjoy the Benefits One huge perk of homeownership is the tax benefits that come along with it. If your move is the result of a military relocation, you may be able to claim unreimbursed moving expenses as a tax deduction. With a VA loan, you may also be able to claim the interest paid as a deduction. Work with your real estate agent and tax professional to identify applicable benefits and perks. Buying a home is an exciting milestone, and one that deployed military members can achieve. Homeownership is a step towards putting down roots and belonging to a local community. The buying process may feel complicated (even on a good day), but your own home will be a haven for your family while you are away, and a joyful place to return to when you come back. Phil Karp, 25-year real estate industry veteran, is head of Brokerage Services at Owners.com, where the process of buying and selling your home is made simple. Phil is based in Atlanta and enjoys offering tips to military who are looking to buy a home while overseas. In his downtime, he chases his passion for auto racing in the Greater Atlanta area. Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but... How to use the mindat.org media viewer Click/touch this help panel to close it. Welcome to the mindat.org media viewer. Here is a quick guide to some of the options available to you. Different controls are available depending on the type of media being shown (photo, video, animation, 3d image) Controls - all media types Zoom in and out of media using your mousewheel or with a two-finger 'resize' action on a touch device. Use the mouse or your finger to drag the image or the view area of the image around the screen. < and > at the left and right hand side of the screen move forwards and backwards for the other images associated with the media you selected. Usually this is used for previous/next photo in a gallery, in an article or in search results. Keyboard shortcuts: use shift + the left and right arrow keys. < and > in the bottom center are used for switching between the photos of the same specimen. Keyboard shortcuts: use the left and right arrow keys. > in the bottom center, raises the information box giving details and further options for the media, < at the top of this box then hides it. Keyboard shortcuts: use the up and down arrow keys. ? opens this help window. Keyboard shortcuts: use the H key or the ? key. Other keyboard shortcuts: 1 Fit image to screen 2 Fill screen with image 5 Display at full resolution < Make background darker > Make background lighter space Hide/dim titles and buttons Scalebar If the field of view (FOV) is specified for the photo, the scalebar appears in the left bottom corner of the viewer. The scalebar is draggable and resizeable. Drag the right edge to resize it. Double click will reset the scalebar to it's default size and position. If the scalebar is in default position, double click will make it circular. Controls - Video Video files have a standard set of video controls: - Reset to start, - Skip back, - Play, - Pause, - Skip forwards. Keyboard shortcuts: You can stop/start video play with the P key. Controls - Animation (Spin Rotation) Animation (usually 360 degree spin rotations) have their own controls: - enable spin mode. Note that while images are loading this option will not be available but will be automatically activated when the animation has loaded. Once active you can spin the image/change the animation by moving your mouse or finger on the image left/right or by pressing the [ or ] keys. The button switches to move mode so that you can use your mouse/fingers to move the image around the screen as with other media types. The button, or the P key will start playing the animation directly, you can interrupt this by using the mouse or finger on the image to regain manual movement control. Controls - 3D Stereoscopic images If a stereoscopic 3D image is opened in the viewer, the 3D button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "3D settings" menu. The 3D images can be viewed in several ways: - without any special equipment using cross-eyed or parallel-eyed method - with stereoscope - with anaglyph glasses. - on a suitable 3D TV or monitor (passive 3D system) For details about 3D refer to: Mindat manuals: Mindat Media Viewer: 3D To enable/disable 3D stereo display of a compatible stereo pair image press the 3 key. If the left/right images are reversed on your display (this often happens in full-screen mode) press the 4 key to reverse them. Controls - photo comparison mode If a photo with activated comparison mode is opened in the viewer, the button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "Comparison mode settings" menu. Several layouts are supported: slider and side by-side comparison with up to 6 photos shown synchronously on the screen. On each of the compared photos a view selector is placed, e.g.: Longwave UV . It shows the name of currently selected view and allows to select a view for each placeholder. Summary of all keyboard shortcuts GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Michiganders will have a second chance to see Bob Seger in concert in his home state on his farewell tour. The Detroit native has just added a second and final concert set for Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids on Saturday, January 5, 2019. The first show for Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band's "The Traveling' Man Tour" will be at Van Andel Arena on Wednesday, November 21, 2018. That show sold out in minutes. Tickets for the new date go on sale Friday, October 5 at 10:00 a.m. Bob Seger fan club members will have special access to purchase tickets in advance of the scheduled on-sale dates. People can become a member on Seger's website. Seger postponed his tour last October to have back surgery. The tour also includes all 16 concerts he had to postpone last year as well as new shows. Along with Grand Rapids, those new concerts will be in Cleveland, Toledo, Louisville, Nashville, Ft. Wayne, Buffalo and Peoria. Seger will announce more new shows in the coming weeks in Las Vegas, Fresno, San Diego, Vancouver and more. The Detroit native released what could be his final album, "I Knew You When," on November 17, 2017. It's his 18th studio album. Seger performed four concerts in Michigan on this tour in 2017 in Saginaw, Grand Rapids. Clarkston and Auburn Hills. The Auburn Hills concert was the final show in the history of The Palace on September 23, 2017. Full tour dates: TomTom said it has begun a strategic review of its telematics division, which helps businesses to save money by using software. TomTom is considering selling its fleet-management business to concentrate on competing head-to-head with Google in-car navigation software, it said. Shares in the Dutch company jumped by 17 per cent to 7.25 euros on the news, but that only recovered about half of the one-day loss suffered last week when Google announced a far-reaching supply deal with a group of carmakers including Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi. TomTom said it has begun a strategic review of its telematics division, which helps businesses to save money by using software to monitor and improve the performance of their car and truck fleets and has been valued by analysts at about 700 million euros ($820 million). Chief Executive Harold Goddijn said the threat posed by Google played no role in TomToms decision and the company wants to concentrate on selling navigation, traffic and other software to carmakers. I want to focus the united company behind that goal, give the company a clearer profile, he told Reuters. Its true that today its a more bumpy ride, but thats what we like, thats what were good at. LOSING GROUND? Some analysts have said that TomTom, which is debt-free but barely profitable, will be relegated to third place in its main market. They say it will be left trailing behind both Google and market leader Here Technologies, which is owned by the three biggest German carmakers. Thats not a scenario were planning for, Goddijn said, adding that carmakers should be wary of becoming dependent on Google software. Im confident the car industry will get together and say whats going on here?. The car industry is notorious for not allowing single-source components into its development chain. Goddijn said he could not comment on how TomTom would use proceeds from a sale of the telematics business, but a cash injection would clearly be welcome for a company that spends more than 100 million euros a year to maintain and develop its mapping technology. ING analysts, who rate TomTom shares a buy, said a sale of the telematics division could be a precursor to further strategic moves. We believe the door is still wide open for a partnership of TomTom with an industry player in automotive, they said in a note, citing Toyota as a possible partner. TomToms revenue from map licensing is expected to grow for at least the coming year, with deals made in 2016 with Volkswagen and others offsetting a broader decline in group sales because of its declining satnav hardware business. TomTom also supplies maps for Apple and Uber. ANN ARBOR, MI - Now that it's known a Wixom manufacturing company is a source of PFAS contamination in the Huron River, Ann Arbor area lawmakers are urging Gov. Rick Snyder to take action to shut down the plant's discharge of harmful chemicals. "On behalf of our constituents, we urge you to act immediately to protect human health and the waters of the state from the ongoing discharge of toxic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)," states a letter sent to the governor from state Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, on Thursday, Sept. 27. In addition to Rabhi, the letter is signed by four other Democrats from Washtenaw County, including state Sen. Rebekah Warren and state Reps. Donna Lasinski, Ronnie Peterson and Adam Zemke. They're calling on Snyder to prevent further harm by shutting off the pollution at the source. "It is not acceptable to allow a known polluter to continue to poison our river even one day longer," the lawmakers argue. Snyder's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday afternoon. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has identified Adept Plastic Finishing Inc., a maker of chrome-plated automotive parts that is now part of Tribar Manufacturing, as a source of PFOS, or perfluorooctane sulfonate, sent to the Wixom municipal wastewater treatment plant. The contaminated water is subsequently discharged to Norton Creek, which feeds into the Huron River. PFOS is one of the PFAS "forever chemicals" linked to cancer and other health concerns, and it's now found in Ann Arbor's drinking water, which comes from the Huron River. It's an emerging issue that Ann Arbor is spending close to $1 million trying to address right now through new filtering methods. The city of Wixom recently issued an administrative order seeking to get Adept/Tribar to reduce or eliminate the PFAS it is sending into the city's wastewater treatment plant. Adept/Tribar is being represented in the PFAS matter by Northville-based law firm Fausone Bohn LLP. Through its legal counsel, the company released a statement on Sept. 21 saying the Adept Plastic Finishing Plant 4 in Wixom historically used PFAS chemicals, but that use was ceased by the company in 2015 after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave notice to chemical manufacturers that the products were being removed from commerce. "More recently, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) began further investigation of potential PFAS releases from historical operations that may have used PFAS chemicals throughout Michigan," the company's statement reads. "Based on voluntary sampling undertaken by the company in May of 2018, it was determined that trace amounts of PFAS (measured in parts per trillion) were identified in a waste stream being discharged to the City of Wixom's waste water treatment plant from Plant 4. "The company is diligently working with the city and MDEQ to come up with a solution, and to implement the same. Since May 2018 when the condition was first discovered, the company already performed test pilot studies on an emerging technology which may be able to address this condition in its waste stream and is aggressively working towards a comprehensive solution. The company prides itself in being a responsible environmental steward and is actively pursuing a solution in cooperation with the city and the MDEQ." The lawmakers who sent Snyder a letter on Thursday said the company's PFOS discharge is "indisputably impairing surface water quality and exposing humans through fish consumption, contact with foam, and drinking water." If improvements such as filtration systems or new plating tanks are necessary to control PFOS levels in effluent, they argue, the DEQ should require those before any further discharges are allowed. "The Tribar plant must not emit wastewater until it can operate in a way that is consistent with environmental standards and the public welfare," the lawmakers conclude in their letter. ANN ARBOR, MI - Responding to concerns about lead in the water at many Ann Arbor schools, the school district is assuring the community it's taking steps to address the issue. Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Jeanice Swift issued a two-page statement shared with the school board and posted on the district's website this week, saying AAPS is committed to achieving the lowest possible levels of lead in school drinking water. Some parents are raising new questions and concerns about the issue, arguing even low levels of lead aren't safe for children. The district's last test results from July and August of 2017 showed several schools had lead in the water from various faucets and drinking fountains above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency action level of 15 parts per billion, and others at lower levels. Huron High School was the only one out of 33 buildings tested that didn't have any detectable levels of lead. In some cases, the levels were well above the EPA action level -- as high as 320 ppb from one faucet at Burns Park Elementary. The district hasn't tested since then, but its next round of testing is scheduled for October and November. Swift said the district has voluntarily tested the water annually since 2016 in all AAPS schools and has addressed issues in all cases where there were lead levels above the 15 ppb action level. Swift said the district takes very seriously the risks associated with lead exposure, particularly with young children, and AAPS is currently working to replace older water fixtures in schools and installing more water bottle filling stations, among other measures. AAPS parent Abby Dumes suggests the district should be doing more, including testing every source of water in every school, and taking action to address even lower levels of lead. A University of Michigan lecturer whose work includes medical anthropology and environmental health, she said the lead levels shown for various schools are concerning, not just those above 15 ppb. Even though 15 ppb is the EPA action level, Dumes notes the EPA's maximum contaminant level goal is still zero. "EPA has set the maximum contaminant level goal for lead in drinking water at zero because lead is a toxic metal that can be harmful to human health even at low exposure levels. Lead is persistent, and it can bioaccumulate in the body over time," the EPA states. "Young children, infants, and fetuses are particularly vulnerable to lead because the physical and behavioral effects of lead occur at lower exposure levels in children than in adults. A dose of lead that would have little effect on an adult can have a significant effect on a child." In children, low levels of exposure have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing, and impaired formation and function of blood cells, according to the EPA. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality notes the lead action level is not a health standard and the DEQ recommends taking action if the lead concentration is above 5 ppb. The school district recently placed yellow caution tape over a drinking fountain at the gym at Ann Arbor Open at Mack School as concerns about lead in the water heightened. Last year's tests showed 9 ppb of lead in the water from the fountain. According to the district, the fountain has been taken out of service out of an abundance of caution and it will be replaced with a new hydration station in the next two to four weeks. AAPS spokesman Andrew Cluley said the new water stations that the district is installing are drinking fountains that also have a water bottle filling feature, so they're still connected to the building plumbing. Some already have been installed at some schools. Often the issue with lead in the water is in the fountain or fixture itself, Cluley said, so replacing it can solve the problem. After installation, he said, the new water bottle filling stations are tested, and if necessary, the pipes will be replaced as well. The AAPS protocol when lead levels are above 15 ppb includes flushing and retesting at the location, replacing water fixtures, and, in some cases, replacing water pipes behind the fixture. Following that protocol, Swift said, the district has addressed all locations with lead above the EPA action level. The issue was discussed at this week's school board meeting. Swift is now proposing implementing a protocol of flushing and retesting in cases across the district where lead levels are above 10 ppb, increasing the mitigation efforts. She said that will place the district ahead of a new 12 ppb action level taking effect starting in 2025. The school district has shared a 66-page report showing the last lead test results from July and August of 2017. In a number of cases, there was no detectable lead in the water from certain faucets, drinking fountains and water coolers. But in those cases where there were detections from various fixtures, the results showed the following ranges of lead levels: Abbott Elementary -- 2-8 ppb Allen Elementary -- 2-8 ppb Angell Elementary -- 1-42 ppb Ann Arbor Open at Mack School -- 1-9 ppb Bach Elementary -- 2-15 ppb Balas Administration Building -- 1 ppb Bryant Elementary -- 1-4 ppb Burns Park Elementary -- 2-320 ppb Carpenter Elementary -- 2-4 ppb Clague Middle School -- 1-50 ppb Community High -- 2-26 ppb Dicken Elementary -- 2-25 ppb Eberwhite Elementary -- 2-39 ppb Forsythe Middle School -- 2-120 ppb Haisley Elementary -- 1-38 ppb Huron High -- no detections King Elementary -- 1-8 ppb Lakewood Elementary -- 1-9 ppb Lawton Elementary -- 1-51 ppb Logan Elementary -- 1-6 ppb Mitchell Elementary -- 1-4 ppb Pathways to Success Academic Campus -- 2-7 ppb Pattengill Elementary -- 1-16 ppb Pioneer High -- 2-10 ppb Pittsfield Elementary -- 4-8 ppb Preschool and Family Center -- 1-8 ppb Scarlett Middle School -- 1-3 ppb Skyline High -- 1-31 ppb Slauson Middle School -- 1-11 ppb STEAM at Northside -- 1-110 ppb Tappan Middle School -- 1-11 ppb Thurston Elementary -- 1-2 ppb Wines Elementary -- 1-82 ppb Thirteen of the 33 buildings had one or more water sources with lead levels at or above 15 ppb. In most cases, though not always, flushing and retesting after the initial tests later resulted in either no detections or lower lead levels. AAPS Board President Christine Stead said most of the buildings were not in use when the lead testing was done in July 2017, so the first-sample readings may have been higher due to stagnant water supplies. The district believes testing this fall should give a better picture. Stead said the goal is to get lead levels down to zero, and there was some discussion at this week's school board meeting about whether that's possible if the city's water source is at 3 ppb. She noted there are lead filters included in the water stations, which is an important part of the district's strategy to get to 0 ppb. She said the stations cost $4,700 each for hardware and the district is exploring how to get them installed expeditiously where needed. At Angell Elementary, the highest reading of 42 ppb was from a faucet in Room 108, which was at 37 ppb a couple weeks earlier. There also were readings at Angell Elementary of 18 ppb from a drinking fountain in Room 207, 11 ppb from a drinking fountain in Room 123 and 10 ppb at the clinic faucet in the main office. At Bach Elementary, the high reading of 15 ppb was in the staff lounge area. At Burns Park Elementary, the 320 ppb was from a faucet in Room 304. The report notes a brown color was visible. When the faucet's water was retested a couple weeks later, it was down to 5 ppb. A drinking fountain in Room 103 at Burns Park Elementary showed lead at 15 ppb. At Clague Middle School, a classroom faucet in Room 228 had lead at 50 ppb, and another faucet in Room 226 was at 16 ppb. Followup tests a couple weeks later showed levels of 4 ppb and 24 ppb, respectively. At Community High, the high reading of 26 ppb was from the main office staff sink. At Dicken Elementary, the highest readings were in the range of 20-25 ppb from a a combo sink in Room 113. Later tests showed one side non-detect and the other at 4 ppb. At Eberwhite Elementary, the high reading of 39 ppb was from a hallway water cooler by the main office, which was later down to non-detect, while a faucet in Room 125 had a reading of 13 ppb. At Forsythe Middle School, the high reading of 120 ppb was from a drinking fountain across from Room 412, later down to non-detect. There also were readings of 9 ppb, 21 ppb, 49 ppb and 79 ppb at other Forsythe drinking fountains, and 74 ppb at a sink in Room 611, as well as 18 ppb in another classroom sink in Room 312. Later followup tests at Forsythe showed levels ranging from 1-13 ppb, and in some cases non-detect. At Haisley Elementary, the high reading of 38 ppb was from a faucet in Room 109, later down to 3 ppb. A library work room sink at Haisley was at 17 ppb, later up to 20 ppb and then down to 4 ppb. At Lawton Elementary, the high reading of 51 ppb was from a classroom faucet in Room 312, later down to 23 ppb. At Pattengill Elementary, the high reading of 16 ppb was from a faucet in Room A-8, down to 1 ppb weeks later. At Pioneer High, the high reading of 10 ppb was from a hallway drinking fountain outside Room C-125. At Skyline High, the high reading of 31 ppb was from a third-floor water cooler, later down to non-detect. At Slauson Middle School, the high reading of 11 ppb was from a water cooler near Room 248. Several other drinking fountains and water coolers in the school ranged from 1-8 ppb, and one non-detect. STEAM at Northside had a high of 110 ppb in a classroom faucet, later down to 71 ppb, and 30 ppb and 33 ppb in two drinking fountains, later down to 3 ppb and 5 ppb, respectively. Tappan Middle School's high reading of 11 ppb was from a hallway water cooler outside Room 138. At Wines Elementary, two drinking fountains had readings of 42 ppb and 12 ppb, the highest one later shown down to 3 ppb. A faucet in the teachers lounge was at 17 ppb and later up to 82 ppb. The AAPS water testing is done by Arch Environmental Group, which does similar work for other school districts in Michigan. "Testing in AAPS schools is focused on high-priority locations, including drinking fountains, kitchen sinks, and classroom water fixtures," Swift wrote in her memo, noting the AAPS has increased the number of locations tested at each campus and plans to do even more. The superintendent's proposed next steps include installing water bottle filling stations in all schools, a project she believes can be accomplished fairly quickly, and encouraging students and staff to use those locations for drinking water. Other proposed next steps include continuing the flushing of all water systems following school breaks, such as summer, Thanksgiving, winter break, and spring break. The district also plans to increase the number of locations tested in each school, particularly in elementary schools, with the upcoming fall water testing. Other plans include installing signage in "low-priority locations," such as custodial closets, to remind everyone that water in those locations is not to be used for consumption, Swift said. "In the AAPS, we are committed to the work of preventing and addressing levels of lead in school drinking water, and look forward to maintaining our position as a leading school district in the state on this very critical issue of student health and safety," she wrote. Dumes said it seems the district is not testing every water source in every school and she believes it should to make sure it's not missing other spots where there may be dangerous lead levels. According to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, zero is the level of lead in water determined to be safe according to toxicological and biomedical considerations. The ATSDR website explains more about how lead can end up in water. "The use of lead solder and other lead-containing materials in connecting household plumbing to public water supplies was banned by EPA in June of 1988," the ATSDR website states. "Many older structures, however, still have lead pipe or lead-soldered plumbing internally, which may substantially increase the lead content of water at the tap. Regulations controlling the lead content of drinking water coolers in schools went into effect in 1989." Ann Arbor officials said last week that many city property owners may need their old galvanized water service lines replaced if they were once connected to lead components in the city's water system because lead can be built up inside them. The city is planning to put together an inventory of those locations per new state requirements, and gradual replacement of the lines would begin by 2021. Brian Steglitz, the city's water treatment plant manager, said the 90th-percentile lead level in the water in Ann Arbor is 3 ppb. The EPA has announced it plans to award $20 million in grants under a program to help with voluntary testing for lead in drinking water at schools and child care programs. In a letter to governors, the EPA requested that states interested in participating in the grant program, submit letters of intent to EPA by Jan. 11, 2019. Cluley said Ann Arbor school district officials are meeting with water quality experts and will be sharing more detailed information soon. ANN ARBOR, MI - Michigan Medicine is notifying approximately 3,700 patients about a mailing mistake that may have exposed their names and contact information. No social security numbers, credit or debit card or bank account numbers were exposed, according to Michigan Medicine. There also was no specific medical information included in the mailings. This month, with assistance from a contracted printing company, the Michigan Medicine Development Office began a fundraising campaign that involved mailing a letter to a large number of Michigan Medicine patients. On Sept. 4, Michigan Medicine discovered a portion of these letters were incorrectly processed by the vendor, which resulted in letters being mailed to the incorrect patient. The name and address printed on the envelope did not match the name and address printed on the letter inside the envelope. A letter intended for one patient may have been sent to another individual, according to Michigan Medicine. The information in the letter was limited. The letters included name and address, and some letters also included phone number and/or email address. The errors occurred with the vendor's computers and procedures after new software was put in place. Prompt steps were taken by the vendor to fix the errors and prevent future recurrences. To further prevent potential errors, Michigan Medicine's Development Office will begin using window envelopes to eliminate the need to match letters to envelopes. "Patient privacy is extremely important to us, and we take this matter very seriously. Michigan Medicine took steps immediately to investigate this matter," Jeanne Strickland, Michigan Medicine chief compliance officer, said in a news release. As a precautionary measure, affected patients have been advised to monitor their medical insurance statements for any potential evidence of fraudulent transactions using their information. However, the risk of this occurring is low because the information involved did not include account or social security numbers, Michigan Medicine said. As required by federal law, Michigan Medicine is also notifying the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. Affected Michigan Medicine patients are expected to receive letters in the mail notifying them of this incident within the next few days. Patients who have concerns or questions may call the Development Office at 734-764-6777 Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. or via email. The federal government is looking keep under wraps information about body parts, cadavers and fetuses seized from a Detroit body broker's warehouse in 2013. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Wyse, in a motion filed in Detroit federal court Friday, Sept. 28, asked U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman to order the forfeiture of the biological remains so that the FBI may cremate them or return the bodies to relatives. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's offices have declined to answer questions about the quantity or type of body parts in its possession. Based on leaked FBI photos and comments made in court, the FBI seized multiple fetuses that Rathburn claims came from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Museum officials have denied the claim and refused to comment further. Both the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office previously denied MLive records requests for inventories of the body parts seized by the government, even though the criminal matter is resolved. The body parts and fetuses were seized from Arthur Rathburn of Grosse Pointe, who owned and operated International Biological Inc., a company the FBI says kept a "cutting room" inside the Detroit warehouse for dividing bodies into parts for shipment. A jury convicted Rathburn of fraud and illegal transport of hazardous biological materials in May. He is serving a nine-year sentence and was ordered to pay $761,354.72 in restitution. The government accused Rathburn of buying discounted cadavers from donors who died with diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. He'd then rented the diseased body parts to unwitting customers for use in nearly 140 medical training courses between 2000 and 2013. Wyse argues the body parts and fetuses, which are currently stored in an FBI freezer, were never presented in trial and there is no need to preserve the evidence for future hearings. "There is ... no legitimate reason to delay cremation and - where possible - return of cremains to grieving families," Wyse wrote. "Rathbum's continued insistence that the remains be preserved is without basis in law and contrary to human decency." A post-conviction status conference is scheduled for Oct. 15. Rathburn is appealing his conviction. He went into prison as a 17-year-old convicted cop killer sentenced to mandatory life behind bars. Forty-three years later, Charles Lewis, now a 59-year-old man with glasses, a slight paunch and a shaved head marked with patches of gray stubble, is still hoping to find freedom. Lewis is one of 350-plus Michigan Department of Corrections inmates who had been serving a mandatory life sentence for crimes committed before they turned 18. Charles Lewis Sept. 28, 2018 In 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that every one of these mandatory life sentences for juvenile lifers must be revisited, and if county prosecutors wish to uphold a mandatory life sentence, they must argue their reasons before a judge. Otherwise, the life sentences must be reduced to a minimum term of between 25 and 40 years, with a maximum sentence of 60 years. Because Lewis has already served 43 years, his attorney , Sanford Schulman, said his hope is that Lewis might be released with time served when he has a re-sentencing hearing. However, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office is fighting to keep Lewis behind bars for the remainder of this life. Lewis, while he maintains his innocence, is convicted of killing off-duty Detroit Police Officer Detroit Police Officer Gerald Swpitkowski on July 31, 1976. Prosecutors say Lewis killed Swpitkowski with a shotgun blast to the head during a botched robbery on Detroit's east side. Three other teens, who all received immunity in exchange for testifying against Lewis in 1977, claimed they were attempting to rob the off-duty officer when Lewis opened fire. According to Lewis, who's written many of his post-conviction court filings without legal assistance, there were three other witnesses, including an off-duty officer who saw the shooter fire from a different vehicle than the one Lewis was in. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Thomas L. Dawson In court Friday, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Thomas L. Dawson said police recovered Lewis' vehicle with brain matter and blood throughout. Tests revealed the blood type matched that of the slain officer, Dawson said. Lewis, through the decades, has taught himself about the legal system, appeals, post-conviction filings and other legal nuances. With stacks of legal documents in front of him on a small desk, Lewis appeared via a video feed from Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater to participate in a motion hearing held in Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Qiana Denise Lillard's Detroit courtroom Friday, Sept. 28. Schulman, Lewis's fifth or sixth attorney in less than six years, according to Dawson, filed several motions arguing for the unlikely dismissal of the case. Attorney Sanford Schulman A major dispute in the case revolves around the fact that the Wayne County Clerk and the Circuit Court lost the case file some time in 2013. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and court administrators have worked together to reconstruct the file. Lewis claims crucial documents, such as deals made with witnesses who testified against him, remain missing. Schulman argues it would be a miscarriage of justice to re-sentence Lewis to mandatory life in prison without having the entire file to rely upon. Dawson likened the numerous court appearances and filings by Lewis and his ever-changing counsel to the movie "Groundhog Day," in which Bill Murray, no matter what he does differently, wakes up each morning with his alarm clock playing "I've got you Babe," by Sonny and Cher, and repeats the same day over and over. Since "Groundhog Day" wasn't released until 1993, about 15 years after Lewis entered prison, it's not clear if Lewis understood the analogy. Lillard is preparing to undergo surgery and will be on leave until December. She expects to issue a written ruling on the motions no later than Dec. 7. If Lillard doesn't dismiss the case, it's likely she'll set a date for a re-sentencing hearing. "The system failed," Lewis said before the hearing ended. "This is the reason you have guys like Colin Kaepernick taking a knee ... This is the epitome of that. This is a blatant example of what people are protesting and marching about in the streets, a lack of justice. "This is it right here." FLINT, MI - A federal magistrate ordered a man who authorities say brought a gun into Southwestern High School and claimed to be a federal agent to undergo a mental competency evaluation. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis ordered the 31-year-old Flint man evaluated to deem if he is able to assist his attorney. The order came during what was supposed to be a detention hearing on Friday, Sept. 28 in Flint U.S. District Court. The man's attorney, Judith Gracey, requested the evaluation during an approximately 15-minute hearing. On Friday, the man sat with his head down and appeared to be shaking just before the proceedings began. He gave short answers to Dawkins Davis' questions. His name is being withheld pending formal arraignment. He said he knew where he was, how long he had been in custody, the role of his attorney and what a magistrate was. "I do have concerns for his mental health," Gracey told the court. "There is an extreme lack of memory in some cases. There are gaps in there that are of major concern to me." The man is married and has two daughters. A detention hearing will be held following the competency evaluation. Flint police responded at 3:24 p.m. on Sept. 19 to a report of a person armed with a gun inside Southwestern, 1420 W. 12th St., according to a criminal complaint filed last week in Flint U.S. District Court. Investigators claim the man falsely impersonated a federal agent and possessed a firearm in a school zone. A security supervisor told the man he was not allowed to have a weapon inside the school and escorted the man out of the building, according to the complaint. OTTAWA COUNTY, MI - Children who have not been immunized can't return to Jenison schools' Kids First - Early Childhood Center because of confirmed cases of the chickenpox, the Ottawa County Health Department announced Thursday, Sept. 27. "If your child has not been immunized and you cannot provide a verification of a previous diagnosis of chickenpox by a health care provider, your child will be excluded from school for 21 days after onset of the last confirmed case,'' according to the health department's press release. Students cannot not return until Oct. 16. Health officials say Chickenpox is a very contagious disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus that spreads easily from infected people to others who have never had the disease or been vaccinated. Health officials were notified on Tuesday, Sept. 25, by the district. Marcia Mansaray, epidemiologist for the Ottawa County Health Department, said they are not releasing the number of confirmed cases because it is an evolving situation. She said approximately 10 to 15 families at the school have children who haven't been immunized and will be affected by the 21-day order. "We have legal responsibility to protect public health,'' she said. "We understand it is a hardship for families." According to the district, there were a few isolated cases of chickenpox in the building that houses over 1,200 students, including preschoolers and the district's K-6 Spanish Immersion program. "We are trying to do everything that is allowable to support the families impacted,'' said Jenison Superintendent Tom TenBrink, who said he has been in constant contact with health officials. "As a district we believe it is still our responsibility to care for families who have needs, and that will continue to be our mission.'' Vaccines are required for school entry in Michigan but parents can obtain a waiver for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. In a letter to parents Thursday night, TenBrink said he consulted the district's legal counsel and was informed that health department officials had the authority to issue an exclusion order barring students who had vaccination waivers from attending until Oct. 16. "As the Superintendent of Schools, I am obligated by law to enforce this exclusion order. For the past 48 hours, I have been working diligently to get answers to my questions and to problem solve how we might support the families whose children are being impacted,'' he wrote, in his letter. In addition to the exclusion order, the health department advised families of the following. If you have been told previously that your child should not receive the vaccine because of a medical condition, please contact your child's medical provider in the event of chickenpox exposure. If you suspect that your child has chickenpox you are encouraged to contact your medical care provider. All individuals diagnosed with chickenpox should be kept home until the rash has crusted over (usually about five days) Officials say chickenpox is spread mainly by touching or breathing the virus particles that come from chickenpox blisters, and possibly through tiny droplets from infected people that get into the air after they breathe or talk. Mansaray said there have been 17 cases cases of chickenpox, probably and confirmed, since Jan. 1. She 10 of the 17 were school age children. There were 14 cases, probable and confirmed in 2017, and 26 in 2016. TenBrink said he was unaware the health department was sending out a press release. He told parents that federal laws that address individual's privacy (FERPA & HIPAA) make any type of communication regarding this particular situation extremely difficult. He said he had not sent out previous communication informing them of the few isolated cases of chickenpox or the exclusion order because he was very conscious of the potential for violation of some of our children's rights under FERPA and HIPAA. "The students who were vaccinated were not at risk and those who were on vaccination wavers were notified immediately,'' TenBrink said. "It is a very complex and delicate matter. I, along with our district administrators, teachers, and support staff are committed to maintain a safe, caring, loving, and healthy school environment for all the children who attend Jenison Public Schools.'' According to the health department, the best way to prevent chickenpox is to get the chickenpox vaccine. Officials say children, adolescents and adults should get two doses of chickenpox vaccine. CASCADE TOWNSHIP, MI -- The Gerald R. Ford International Airport claims its testing shows that drinking water at nearby homes is safe, despite independent private tests that found PFAS in wells near a creek previously contaminated by aircraft de-icing fluid. The airport says only one of the 28 nearby private residential water wells it sampled this summer tested positive for low PFAS levels, prompting the facility to issue a Wed., Sept. 26 press release stating its test results "indicate drinking water is safe." The announcement included concurrence from the Kent County Health Department that there's "no need" to continue testing in the neighborhood, but not from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which says it's waiting for more data. Exactly where the airport tested homes isn't known. Citing confidentiality agreements, the airport won't identify specific addresses or even streets on which it took samples. Homeowners in the neighborhood northeast of where the airport once conducted fire training with PFAS-laden AFFF foam are reluctant to speak on the record, but some have privately shared test results that show detections of multiple PFAS compounds. Scott Rissi, president of the Cascade Thornapple River Association, said homeowners are confused by previous tests showing no PFAS in wells at Cascade Township Park, which is sandwiched between the airport and neighborhood streets where PFAS have been found. Earlier this year, PFAS was confirmed in the soil and water underneath the former airport training area, and groundwater is known to flow northeast toward homes by the river. The confusion has led to suspicions about the airport's data, Rissi said. The airport "should at the very least release the street names where they are checking." The PFAS issue echoes a long-running problem that neighbors previously had with propylene glycol-based aircraft de-icing fluid, Rissi said, which is funneled into the Thornapple River during the winter via Trout Creek, a tributary which cuts through the neighborhood. During winter, Rissi said the airport previously used de-icer containing urea, which homeowners believe contributed to high nitrate levels found in some neighborhood wells. Some of those wells have also showed PFAS detections, he said. Detections of individual PFAS compounds have been low, but one home near Tripoli Street SE tested at 95-ppt total PFAS in April. Homes on either side of Trout Creek, on Tuscany Drive and Tanglewood Drive, have also shown detections. "Put those two pieces of evidence together," Rissi said. "Where there were high nitrates -- well, what do you know -- that's where wells are testing positive for PFAS." "I've heard Tripoli Court come up in conversation several times." Rissi said some neighborhood residents have met with and shared their test results with the airport, hoping to spark follow-up testing and provide data to the larger investigation. On a conference call with MLive, airport managers confirmed they did not factor-in those requests, nor consider where de-icing fluid previously caused problems when choosing where to sample nearby residential wells for PFAS contamination. Homes were selected by the airport's consultant, LimnoTech. "This has been a data-driven investigation, both on- and off-site," said Casey Ries, airport facilities manager. "People requesting us to sample their wells were not considered." When asked whether the airport sampled wells around Tripoli Street and Burger Drive SE, communications director Tara Hernandez said, "we're not going to answer that." Airport CEO James Gill said the state hasn't identified any correlation between past runoff issues and PFAS testing. "If they thought there was a correlation there, we're listening," he said. Gill cast doubt on the validity of private PFAS test results obtained by homeowners, saying the airport takes "no accountability or responsibility" for data obtained by residents. Regulators at the DEQ are reluctant to rely on testing data not obtained following specific protocols and, notably in the PFAS investigation around Wolverine World Wide dumping in the Rockford and Belmont areas, they have re-sampled numerous wells that detected PFAS through privately-contracted testing in an effort to quality-check the data. It's not clear whether the DEQ has done that in Cascade Township. Abigail Hendershott, district manager for the DEQ remediation division in Grand Rapids, issued a statement indicating the department is pleased to see some wells come back clean, but that its investigation is ongoing. "DEQ is encouraged by the results of the residential drinking water wells," Hendershott said. "DEQ is expecting additional investigation data from the onsite field work at the Gerald R Ford Airport to be forthcoming soon. Once all of the data packages can be reviewed together as part of the conceptual site model, then DEQ will have sufficient information to determine if additional residential well sampling is warranted or not." At a meeting on Sept. 6, Hendershott noted that PFAS can be found in some wells but not in others despite being in very close proximity. "We see that PFAS tends to travel in narrower bands," she said. A plume is "going to follow the easiest route." The airport's announcement included a statement from Adam London, health officer at the Kent County Health Department, concurring that there's no need to continue residential well testing around the airport "at this time." London says he made that statement based on the limited data available, but noted that the DEQ has not concluded its investigation and that concurrence could change. "All I have is a set of sample results from a consulting firm that follows the EPA (sampling) method," London said. "Those sample results are a snapshot. We're admittedly dealing with limited data." GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Public sentiment toward the Grand Rapids Police Department saw a slight decline last month and the police chief is pointing to an incident that he believes caused the dip. Using recently collected survey data of the community's sense of safety, satisfaction and trust in local law enforcement, Police Chief David Rahinsky said trust in police dipped about 4 percent between July and August. The city's relatively new electronic surveying service collects data about the police department concerning the public's trust, satisfaction and safety. The service area with the largest drop in trust -- about 5.3 percent -- was in Southeast Grand Rapids, where three juveniles, including a pair of 11-year-old brothers and a 17-year-old family friend, were temporarily detained Aug. 26. Police were responding to a report of a teen seen walking down the street with a gun, and two members of the group matched partial descriptions from the caller. The youths were stopped at gunpoint, handcuffed, searched and released. No firearms were located. The incident raised concerns from the parents and community leaders. "Four percent was large enough, and particularly when correlated with the incident that occurred in the end of August, I was confident that I could say this incident here, which garnered not just local but national conversations, led to a decrease in trust," Rahinsky said. Soon after the incident, Rahinsky reviewed video footage and applauded his officers for following protocol and de-escalating the situation with age-appropriate explanation as soon as the perceived threat was dismissed. Seeing the dip in public trust didn't change his opinion, but rather showed him that further conversation is needed within the community. "In this instance, having conversations and explaining why we did what we did is important," Rahinsky said. "The recognition that we've taken almost 300 guns off the street this year and the fact that, unfortunately, a lot of them are taken off of young people. "We need to make sure the public understands what our role is." In April, the city commission voted 4-3 to approve a $150,000 contract with the tech organization, Elucd, which provides an electronic-surveying service and software to view the results on a month-by-month basis. Rahinsky spoke in favor of the contract. He envisioned using the data to adjust where the department focuses its community policing and relationship-building efforts. The police department has now collected survey data from June, July and August. Preliminary findings indicate that public sentiment in all three categories -- trust, satisfaction and safety -- are in good standing, according to the chief. "We started off with very high benchmarks, according to Elucd," Rahinsky said. "We started off strong and we've had some fluctuation. And to be honest with you, if we didn't, if the numbers were flat or consistently high, I'd question the value of it." Possible scores range from 100 to 900, and are comparable to a credit score. Grand Rapids police scores for safety and satisfaction have stayed above 700 each month, with slight increases in July, followed by slight decreases in August. For trust, the department rose from 696 in June to 721 in July, before dropping to 689 in August. Grand Rapids' results were comparable to the scores the New York Police Department first received when it contracted Elucd in 2017, according to a New York Times article. With three months of survey data collected, results can be broken down into service area. Once more data is collected, Rahinsky expects to be able to see results specific to each neighborhood. Right now, the scores can only be viewed by police leadership but Rahinsky said he hopes to eventually make them public to where they can be accessed like crime data. "I know what our crime rates are and what our clearance rates are, but I think to general population, speaking about those numbers is a little academic," he said. "Trust, sense of safety and satisfaction, those are things that make them feel comfortable in their environment. "I think they're as valuable as crime rates or any other numbers we look at." Much like the addition of body-worn cameras in 2015, Rahinsky said he imagines officers will see the pros and cons of having this data available. But he said evaluating public sentiment is important for a department dedicated to transparency and improving community-police relations. "If you want to be accountable and transparent, those can't just be buzz words," he said. "You have to show by your actions that that's what you're looking to accomplish." GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Court records show Adam Nolin -- the man suspected of killing his girlfriend and later exchanging gunfire with police on U.S. 131 -- was involved in several personal protection orders in recent years. Nolin, 33, about two years ago tried to file a protection order against his girlfriend's brothers and mother for what he claimed was assaulltive behavior against him. A judge denied the orders. Nolan is suspected of fatally shooting that girlfriend, 27-year-old Tia Randall, then leading police on a brief chase along U.S. 131 before crashing his pickup in the S-curve Tuesday, Sept. 27. He then exited the truck and exchanged gunfire with police before he was struck by a cruiser while running. He was taken to a hospital for injuries not considered life-threatening. Court records also show that in 2014, a man received a protection order against Nolin for an assault in. Nolin allegedly threatened him by displaying a knife. Nolin was convicted of assault and battery and malicious destruction of property in connection with the case and sentenced to a year of probation, 80 hours of community service and fines and costs. In 2009, a woman who had a previous relationship with Nolin also received a protection order against him. She said he kept trying to contact her. Nolin's criminal record in Kent County includes the 2014 assault and batter conviction, a 2007 conviction for misdemeanor assault and battery that resulted in a 30-day jail sentence, a 2008 conviction for creating a disturbance and a 2012 conviction for driving with a suspended license. Kamala Harris, Mazie Hirono, Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse left after GOP chairman set vote on nomination for 1:30 pm on Friday. Republicans have blocked Democratic efforts to subpoena a high school friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh who's been described as witness to alleged assault involving Kavanaugh about 30 years ago. (Photo: File | AFP) Washington: Several Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have walked out of a hearing on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Kamala Harris of California, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island left after the GOP chairman set a vote on the nomination for 1:30 pm on Friday. That was approved by a committee vote. Democrats say Republicans are rushing the confirmation. Republicans have blocked Democratic efforts to subpoena a high school friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh who's been described as a witness to an alleged assault involving Kavanaugh about three decades ago. The Senate Judiciary Committee's vote to subpoena Mark Judge has been defeated in a party-line vote, with all 11 Republicans on the panel voting against the motion and all 10 Democrats voting for it. Democrats say Judge has never been interviewed by the FBI or questioned by a member of the committee, and that committee has a responsibility to subpoena Judge before it votes on whether to recommend Kavanaugh to the full Senate. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. The committee chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, has read a statement from Judge that says he doesn't recall the events described by Kavanaugh's accuser and "never saw Brett act" in the way that he's accused of. CROCKERY TOWNSHIP, MI -- A 37-year-old Muskegon Township man died after his vehicle went off I-96 and struck a bridge wall, police said. Shane Bloomberg was driving west on I-96 about 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27 when his vehicle left the road and struck the bridge wall to 112th Avenue. Ottawa County sheriff's deputies said the crash is under investigation and it's not clear why the vehicle went off the road. Police said Bloomberg was not wearing a seat belt. Founders Brewing Company says an unauthorized employee was behind the Sept. 19 social media post stating the brewery was leaving the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce because of its endorsement of Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette. In a Friday afternoon news release, Founders said the unauthorized social media post -- made on the brewery's official Facebook and Twitter pages -- was "unfair to the chamber and its reputation" and that the brewery would not be withdrawing its membership. Founder's Sept. 19 social media post shared a letter from the Grand Rapids Pride Center that was critical of the chamber's endorsement of Schuette. The post also said: "We stand with our LGBTQ community and ask that the Grand Rapids Chamber reverse their decision. We will be terminating our membership in the meantime and encourage our fellow local businesses to consider doing the same." Mike Stevens, Founder's co-founder and CEO, said the brewery does not endorse any political candidates. "At Founders, we support and attract diverse, passionate employees with strong personal opinions,"Stevens said in a statement. "While we celebrate diversity in everything that we are and everything we do, as a company we strive to stay focused on beer - and leave advocacy and politics to others. To the extent that the message was interpreted as an endorsement or opposition to a particular candidate, we want to be clear - Founders does not endorse any political candidates." Despite the push back the chamber has faced from the gay and transgender community over the endorsement, Founders says it believes the chamber has "been out front on LGBTQ issues and diversity, equality and inclusion efforts for many years." Stevens could not immediately be reached Friday to discuss the issue, including why the brewery waited nearly 10 days after the social media postings to clarify its position. A growing list of businesses, residents and advocacy groups pushed back against the chamber after the organization announced its endorsement of Schuette on Monday, Sept. 17. They expressed concern over a legal opinion, issued by Schuette in July, that said the Michigan Civil Rights Commission does not have authority to interpret the state's civil rights act as including discrimination protections against gay and transgender residents. The commission voted 5-0 in May to approve a statement interpreting the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act's ban on "discrimination because of ... sex" to include discrimination against sexual orientation or gender identity. In response, Republican leaders in the state Legislature asked Schuette to issue an opinion on whether the commission had the authority to do so. After Founders and other businesses announced their intention to leave the chamber because of its endorsement of Schuette, the Republican from Midland released a statement, in which he said "there is no room for discrimination of any kind, because all people must be treated with dignity, grace and respect." "We will work together to protect everyone, including employment protections and religious liberties. It's been done elsewhere," he said. "It's the 21st century, we can do it here, too. We believe all sides must be brought to the table to talk in a welcoming environment for everyone involved. Changes to law in Utah are one example of the ability to find a way forward but I would be listening to the people at the table to find Michigan's way forward, including the folks at Founders and others." Opposition to the chamber's endorsement began building the day after it was made, when two popular Grand Rapids restaurants - Donkey Taqueria and The Winchester - posted messages on Facebook denouncing the chamber for endorsing a candidate that "doesn't recognize the rights of all Michigan citizens under the Elliott-Larson Civil Rights Act." Donkey Taqueria and The Winchester share the same owner. WYOMING, MI - Tia Mae Randall's young son and daughter were everything to her. "They were her rock," said Jeff Petersen, the general manager at Mr. Burger in Wyoming where Randall worked the last seven years. Randall, 27, was shot and killed Thursday, Sept. 27, at her home. Her boyfriend, Adam Kenneth Nolin, 33, is suspected by police of shooting her then leading police on a pursuit before a shootout on U.S. 131. It ended with a Grand Rapids police officer hitting Nolin, who was outside of his pickup truck, with his patrol car. Petersen said many were devastated by the loss. She was a manager, and acted as a mentor for some of the younger workers. "She was a great person. She's going to be deeply missed, of course," he said. He posted this message on the restaurant's sign: "Pray for Tia and her children." The children are Dalaylah, 7 and Reginald, 4. Petersen is holding a vigil at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at the restaurant at 950 44th St. SW. The victim's family members declined to comment on Friday but said they planned to attend the vigil. Workers started asking about Randall when police identified Nolin as the suspect in a homicide. Randall was found slain in their home at Creekside Estates mobile home park, near Clyde Park Avenue SW and 52nd Street. She was in charge of the restaurant when Petersen wasn't in. "It's just been hard for us here," Petersen said. "We're just dealing with the situation the best as we can. We're trying to move on but we have so many emotions: Sadness, anger, we're concerned for the kids." He has been in contact with her family. The loss has to be so hard for her children, he said. Nothing can really make it better. "I know justice will prevail," he said. "But is that going to be enough?" Nolin was hospitalized after he was run down by the patrol car while he fired at police. His injuries are not life-threatening. A GoFundMe page has been established to help pay for funeral expenses and support Randall's children. WYOMING, MI - Adam Nolin, accused of killing his girlfriend and shooting at police before he was run over by a patrol car on U.S. 131, was ordered held without bond Friday, Sept. 28, at his arraignment in his hospital room. Nolin, 33, suffered serious injuries when he was struck by the patrol car after he got out his pickup truck on the S-Curve while allegedly firing at police. Adam Nolin Wyoming District Judge Pablo Cortes arraigned Nolin on two charges of assault with intent to murder, for allegedly firing at police, fleeing police and carrying a concealed weapon. Further charges are expected. He has not been charged in the killing of Tia Randall, 27, a mother of two. Soon after Randall was found dead Thursday morning, police identified Nolin as the suspect. Wyoming police soon spotted him and gave chase. The charges of assault with intent to commit murder allege that Nolin shot at Wyoming police officers Matthew Rooks and Jeremy Walter, records showed. "Defendant shot at officers with a firearm," a probable-cause affidavit said. "Defendant fled police that were in fully marked police vehicles with lights and sirens activated. Defendant possessed a firearm inside his vehicle while fleeing from police and shot at police with the firearm. All of these actions were witnessed by police." Police listed the crime scene involving the officers as Buchanan Avenue SW and 32nd Street, court records showed. Randall was found dead of a gunshot wound Thursday, Sept. 27, at her home in Creekside Estates mobile home park, near Clyde Park Avenue SW and 52nd Street. After the pursuit, a Grand Rapids police officer used his patrol car to ram the suspect who was allegedly firing at police. Instead of doling out tips on Italian gelato or showing off the oldest tower in Ireland's oldest city, travel guru Rick Steves will be in Michigan campaigning for recreational marijuana legalization. Steves, who is from the state of Washington, is a marijuana policy reform advocate and said he's traveling to Michigan on his own dime. Steves will be in Grand Rapids Tuesday, Oct. 2, and will be in Ann Arbor Wednesday, Oct. 3. The events are being promoted by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, a group of marijuana lawyers, drug policy reform groups and the ACLU. Steves is one of the first celebrities to get involved on the ballot issue of recreational marijuana legalization in Michigan. Voters will decide whether recreational marijuana should be legal for adults 21 and over to use Nov. 6. The proposed law would prohibit public use of marijuana, and would require the state to set up a licensing system to launch marijuana businesses. Last week a group of prosecutors, law enforcement and health officials held six press conferences around the state, announcing their opposition to the recreational marijuana ballot proposal. A number of chamber of commerce organizations across the state have voiced their opposition as well. Steves said his experiences traveling in Europe have changed his attitude towards marijuana, where fewer people are jailed for marijuana crimes. Steves said he's not pro-marijuana, but pro-civil liberties. "We address problems as a legal issue where it can be a health and education challenge," Steves said of the U.S., noting that the Netherlands and Portugal initiated their marijuana legalization program to reduce hard drug use. "People don't need lawyers and cops, they need nurses and counselors." He was the spokesman in his home state of Washington for the pro-recreational marijuana campaign, which passed in 2012. Since then, he's actively campaigned across the country for marijuana reforms. "People who want to smoke pot do, so if we legalize, we're not going to have more people smoking pot," Steves said. Steves said he's an occasional user, but some of the thrill to marijuana has gone now that it's legal and accepted. "It was a declaration of freedom for Americans, and now I don't even go to HempFest anymore," Steves said. Steves will appear at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2 at the Peter Martin Wege Theatre at 341 Ellsworth Ave. SW in Grand Rapids, and at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Rackham Auditorium at 915 E. Washington St. in Ann Arbor. Both events are free. At each event he'll be delivering a talk, and then will be taking questions afterwards. -- Amy Biolchini is the marijuana beat reporter for MLive. Contact her with questions, tips or comments at abiolch1@mlive.com. Read more from MLive on this issue. GRAYLING, MI -- The four-year legal battle between a fishing group and a fish hatchery on the East Branch of the Au Sable River has been settled. The Anglers of the Au Sable announced Thursday, Sept. 27, that a settlement was reached in its case against Harrietta Hills Trout Farm LLC. As a result, the Anglers group will assume operation of the hatchery in 2019 and pay $160,000 to take over the current lease. The group is trumpeting the legal settlement as an important victory that eliminates a serious threat to the Au Sable, while the hatchery's owner says fears over his business' impact were unfounded. "The state's issuance of this permit was a green light for a commercial fish farm operation to pollute the Au Sable River, plain and simple," Anglers of the Au Sable President Joe Hemming said in a statement. Harietta Hills owner Dan Vogler argues aquaculture is not the "hairy scary monster" that it has been painted as by groups like the Anglers of the Au Sable. "The concerns that they raised have been unfounded from the start," Vogler said. "We never posed a threat to the river." Anglers of the Au Sable filed a lawsuit in March 2017 against Harrietta Hills Trout Farm, claiming the farm's plan to raise up to 300,000 pounds of rainbow trout at the 104-year-old state hatchery. The group argued the company's plans would pollute the iconic river and ruin the downstream fishery, particularly a beloved stretch known as the "Holy Waters." The hatchery is located on the east branch of the Au Sable, about 1,200 feet upstream from the river's main branch. Water flows directly into the hatchery and through eight north-to-south raceways before exiting. Once owned and operated by the state, Crawford County purchased the property in 1995. Vogler's company, which also operates a fish farm in Wexford County, began leasing the property in 2012. In 2014, Harietta Hills and Crawford County signed a 20-year lease. Vogler's company releases fingerling rainbow trout into the raceways and harvests them when they reach a weight of 1.25 pounds, selling them to restaurants and a grocery distributor. Harrietta Hills' plan to raise 300,000 pounds of trout would have been a significant increase from the current production level of 70,000 pounds of fish. Opponents contended that expanding the operation would send huge volumes of feces and uneaten fish food into the river, potentially exposing wild trout to illness and boosting phosphorus levels. The Anglers of the Au Sable and Sierra Club brought two legal challenges after the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued a revised permit to Harrietta Hills in 2016. One of those challenges was argued in 2016 before state administrative law judge Dan Pulter. The judge ruled the new permit be upheld, but that Vogler should conduct additional testing for pollutants and the hatchery should add 'quiescent zones' where fish poop can be vacuumed out of the water. The group also brought a lawsuit against Vogler in Crawford County Circuit Court, where Judge George Mertz said last year that Vogler's use of former state and county property violates deed restrictions and state law. Under a mediated settlement in that case, the Anglers group will buy out the lease for $160,000 and operate the hatchery as a tourism and educational attraction, under a new nonprofit entity, Grayling Hatchery, Inc. Visitors will be able to see and feed trout but no commercial fish farming will take place there. Harrietta Hills will shut down its operation by the end of the year. Vogler said the settlement, reached after years of litigation, took a toll on his small family business. "We do believe that if we were financially able to see this to the end we would have been vindicated," Vogler said. Shutting down the hatchery at its current capacity impacts local demand for locally produced food, he said. "If you don't want fish farms producing locally, where do you get fish locally?" Vogler asked. "I feel like we've been booted out of something that is good. I just spent my day telling people they'll be losing their jobs." Two full-time and two part-time staff members will lose their jobs as a result of the settlement, he said. Hemming argued that the fish hatchery should be operated as a historic landmark and tourist attraction, not as a higher-volume production business. "Such permits, and such operations, have no business being located on one of the most popular wild trout streams in the world," he said. "Today is a new chapter in the life of this historic facility." KALAMAZOO, MI -- Kalamazoo Public Schools board members are considering endorsing two of the three statewide proposals appearing on ballots in November. The Board of Education's Policy Committee, which includes three board members, wants to bring forward a resolution in support of Proposals 2 and 3. Both pertain to voting issues, committee Chairperson Craig Herschleb said Thursday, Sept. 27, during an informational meeting held prior to Thursday's board meeting. Proposal 2, placed on Michigan ballots by the group Voters Not Politicians, would create a commission of voters to decide on redistricting the state for Michigan Senate, Michigan House of Representatives and U.S. Congress elections. Proposal 3, brought by the group Promote the Vote, would authorize changes to voting restrictions, including absentee voting and registration guidelines. The local school board's committee plans to bring the proposed resolution of support to the full board for a vote at its next meeting, Oct. 11. Board President Patti Sholler-Barber, who is not a member of the policy committee, voiced support for the resolution, saying that the two proposals promote voting and are nonpartisan. Both proposals are about "civic awareness" and the "responsibility you have as a citizen," Sholler-Barber said. "It makes it easier to vote," Sholler-Barber said. "I think it very much promotes what we are encouraging our children to do, be conscientious citizens. It doesn't matter how you vote to us, but just vote. Be an active participant in this democracy." Board Vice President Carol McGlinn, who is also not on the Policy Committee, echoed Sholler-Barber's statements of support, saying that when politicians control how districts are assigned, it is unfair to voters. "It makes these redistrictings fair, and takes it out of the politicians' hands," McGlinn said. If passed by Michigan voters in November, Proposal 3 would authorize no-reason absentee voting, give military members additional time to vote, let citizens register to vote anytime with proof of residency, allow straight party voting, protect secret ballots and require audits of election results. Board members also voiced support for Proposal 3, citing problems busy parents have on voting day to get to the polls. "I think it's being progressive," Sholler-Barber said. "I think it's being helpful, it's setting a great standard for our children to hear us really encouraging voting." The board will not take a stance on Proposal 1, which would legalize recreational marijuana in Michigan, board member and Treasurer Ken Greschak said after the meeting. In responses to a questionnaire from the League of Women Voters, Proposal 2 was described as a "grassroots, nonpartisan campaign to end partisan gerrymandering in Michigan so voters can choose their politicians - not the other way around." Supporters of the proposal said as the law currently stands, "politicians and lobbyists draw voting maps behind closed doors to directly benefit themselves and the special interests they represent, instead of considering the interests of voters or communities." Changing the law would create a "transparent redistricting process," the response said. Opponents said Proposal 2 is "complex, expensive and unfair," according to questionnaire responses from Protect My Vote. The response cites failing schools and broken roads as reason to not divert money to creating and funding the committee. Another issue the group brings forward is the restrictions put on who could serve on the committee, which includes partisan officeholders, their employees, certain relatives and lobbyists. "Corporate CEOs, leaders of controversial advocacy groups, and even the Mayor of Detroit are all permitted to serve but if you are related to someone who ran for precinct delegate four years ago, you're not," the response said. "We don't accept such blatant discrimination based on race and ethnicity, and we shouldn't accept it based on our relatives." Proposal 3 "helps ensure that every eligible Michigan citizen can vote and every vote will count," according to League of Women Voters questionnaire responses from Promote the Vote. If passed, it would remove barriers that make it harder for voters to participate, the response said. "Voting and registering are so easy for many that we sometimes forget about the parents working two jobs, the military family that moves frequently, or the farmer who lives far from the polls," the response said. Protect My Vote also responded to the questionnaire as an opponent of Proposal 3, citing a threat to election integrity. "This proposal would undermine election integrity by removing safeguards that help prevent ineligible people from voting or casting multiple ballots," the group's response said. If voters can register as late as Election Day, officials would have no time to verify the eligibility of voters, and no-reason absentee voting would allow for anyone to vote without proper identification verification, the response said. "Make no mistake: This proposal would be a disaster for election integrity and would lead to ineligible votes being cast, negating the votes of eligible voters," it said. KALAMAZOO, MI -- Students attending Grand Valley State University will now be offered early enrollment into the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine. Grand Valley will sign an agreement with the medical school to create a "preferred relationship," according to a press release from Grand Valley State University. The WMedStart Early Decision Program will give GVSU students an early look into the school's admission process and allow juniors to apply for an early decision, the release said. GVSU President Thomas Haas said in the release that the partnership will help fulfill the state's shortage of physicians. "This partnership provides a wonderful opportunity for Grand Valley students, and enables us to work as public partners in the effort to produce more of the state's best doctors," Haas said. The medical school has "preferred relationships" with Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College and Bowie State University in Maryland, according to the program's website. Students are given an early glimpse into the admission process, but must meet all admission requirements. Leaders from both institutions will sign the agreement Wednesday, Oct. 3 at GVSU's Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall. Dr. Hal Jenson, founding dean of the medical school, said the early decision program benefits students because they can focus on completing their undergraduate degree knowing they are already accepted into medical school. "They avoid expending energy, time, and money on applying, traveling, and interviewing at multiple medical schools," Jenson said. The early decision program requires a 3.7 cumulative GPA and a minimum ACT score of 30 or 1350 on the SAT, the website said. Those accepted into the program are restricted from applying to other medical schools. The medical school's first class of graduates completed their degrees in May, marking a milestone for the new school. WMed was granted full accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in 2018, nearly a decade after it was merely a vision for former President John Dunn. SAGINAW, MI -- Earlier this year, the Most Rev. Joseph R. Cistone, Bishop of Saginaw, announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Now, Catholic Diocese of Saginaw officials say, his cancer has spread. Cistone indicated while his original radiation and chemotherapy had positive results, his situation remains active, according to Erin Looby Carlson, the Diocese's director of communications. "Following the initial treatments, he began a series of immunotherapy which, in many individuals, helps attack and control the growth of cancer cells," Carlson said. "However, this did not prove as effective for the bishop and tests have shown that the cancer is evident in other areas of the body. Therefore, he began a new series of chemotherapy which would more aggressively control and remediate the cancer." In short, Cistone's treatments remain "in flux," Carlson said. "All in all, the bishop remains very positive about the situation," she continued. "His level of energy is, of course, compromised; however, he intends to gradually assume public and pastoral responsibilities as his health allows. He continues to rely on the prayers of the faithful, and is deeply grateful for their support." Cistone on Feb. 1 sent a letter to his priests and diocesan leaders informing them of his cancerous affliction. The diagnosis followed a series of tests Cistone submitted to after suffering a persistent cough since September 2017. Cistone's health issues come as the diocese is dealing with the arrest of Rev. Robert J. DeLand Jr., who on Sept. 4 pleaded no contest to six felonies and one misdemeanor related to his sexual assault of two teens and one young man. He is free on bond pending sentencing by Saginaw County Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson on Oct. 8. Cistone, DeLand, and the Saginaw Diocese itself are defendants in a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of DeLand's youngest victim and an adult representative. The suit alleges DeLand had groomed and molested his victim, and that Cistone and the Diocese knew of DeLand's alleged misconduct with minors. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cistone as bishop of the Saginaw Diocese, making him the sixth man to hold that position. The Michigan Attorney General's Office has now joined several other states in investigating allegations of Roman Catholic clergy sexual abuse spanning more than a half-century. The investigation includes all seven dioceses in Michigan. In a letter to members posted on the Diocese's website, Cistone said the Diocese stands ready to cooperate with the state's investigation. "While the Diocese is confident the policies and procedures it has put in place and carefully followed for over 15 years are effective, it welcomes the opportunity to work with law enforcement authorities to determine if there is more it can do to protect children," Cistone wrote. SAGINAW, MI -- Police are seeking public assistance to identify a person they believe was involved in a shooting at a liquor store on the city's West Side. Michigan State Police released surveillance photos of a man entering Liquor Valley Party Store, 3516 State Street, and shoot a man before fleeing on foot. The shooting occurred after 9 p.m. on Sept. 26. A 32-year-old man inside the store had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to MSP Lt. David Kaiser. He is listed in critical condition at an area hospital. From surveillance cameras, detectives observed a male exit a dark-colored SUV which was parked on the west side of the store. The male was wearing a red zippered hoodie and black pants and was attempting to hide his face with a mask. The man entered the front door of the store and proceeded to shoot at the victim several times before fleeing, according to police. Anyone with information is asked to call the Major Crimes Unit at 989-615-6257, Saginaw Police Department at 989-759-1598 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-422- JAIL (5245). The Philippine National Police (PNP) estimates that it killed about 4,500 people in a legitimate way. International organizations and observers estimate that more than 12,000 people have died, many of whom are victims of summary executions. Manila (AsiaNews) - For the first time, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte (photo) has admitted that extrajudicial killings took place in the war on drugs promoted by his government. The confession could give strength to the two complaints against Duterte filed with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. In a speech before government officials at the presidential palace this morning, Duterte once again tackled one of the issues that most shocked the country in the first two years of his mandate. The president said he had challenged the government and military police to remove him from his post if they were not satisfied with the way he leads the nation. "I told the military, what is my fault? Did I steal even one peso?" Mr Duterte said. "My only sin is the extrajudicial killings." Shortly after Duterte's speech, spokesman Harry Roque called on citizens "not to take the president's joking seriously". The Philippine National Police (PNP) claims to have killed about 4,500 people in drug-fighting operations conducted in the last two years, insisting that in all cases the use of force was legitimate. However, international organizations and observers estimate that more than 12,000 people have died, many of whom are victims of summary executions. The Catholic Church is among the few voices that denounce the dead, in spite of the polls that reveal the widespread popularity of the Philippine president. In response to criticism of extrajudicial killings, Duterte has repeatedly launched harsh attacks on bishops and priests. Liu Xiaobos widow spoke for a few minutes, with difficulty, about her husbands last days. She thanked those who supported her. Friend Liao Yiwu criticised the West for closing its eyes to Beijing human rights violations. For Teng Biao, China is holding Lius brother hostage. New York (AsiaNews/Agencies) Liu Xia, the widow of the late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, appeared for the first time in public alongside her friend Liao Yiwu at a human rights conference titled The power of the powerless in China held two days ago at New Yorks Vaclav Havel Library Foundation. Liu Xia was able to leave China for Germany on 10 July, after she was held under house arrest for eight years without formal charges. Her husband Liu Xiaobo passed away on 13 July 2017 after he was left to die in prison from liver cancer. On Wednesday, the poet spoke for a few minutes, uncertain to talk about her late husband and her experience of forced detention. Liu shared a brief anecdote from the period she spent with her husband shortly before his death in July 2017. "I got a message from the Kafka office in Prague," she told the panel, describing her years under house arrest as "more absurd than anything Kafka could have written." "One of the questions they asked was whether one day he would return to the public eye, and whether he had the power to rally the public ... and I told Xiaobo that I can't see how that could happen," she said. "Liu Xiaobo smiled after hearing that, she added. Liu Xia did not elaborate but changed the subject by thanking those who supported her and her husband. After this, she fell silent, and her friend, dissident Liao Yiwu, took the floor to recount Liu Xias troubles and her husbands last days. Even during Liu Xiaobos last minutes, he didnt have hate in his heart, he said, adding, He wanted Liu Xia to leave [China]. Liu Xia then leaned over to tell Liao, in Chinese, that he should stop speaking about her husband and her experience. Liao, in exile in Germany since 2011, is a writer and human rights activist, who has criticised mainland Chinas regime. At the conference, he slammed the West for closing its eyes to Chinas human rights violations in order to continue doing business with the Asian giant. Liao had words of gratitude for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Donald Trumps trade war, which he believes is one of the factors that won Liu Xias release and move from China. Chinese lawyer and dissident Teng Biao was also in the audience. According to him, Beijing continues to exert heavy pressure on Liu Xia even at a great distance by holding her brother Liu Hui hostage. The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce names prosthetic manufacturer Fillauer; Motivo, providing online clinical supervision for mental health credentialing; and employee feedback platform WorkHound; as finalists for the 2018 Spirit of Innovation Award. Fillauer is a leader in the evolution, design and technology of orthotic and prosthetic products and services, including the NEXO system, an upper extremity prosthesis that has drastically changed options available for patients, technicians and prosthetists. The device is 50 percent lighter than other prosthetic products, with options for various wrist and elbow attachments and PEEK rods that are flexible and reduce both vibration and pressure on the residual limb. Motivo has developed an online option for pre-licensed mental health therapists to access consultation hours mandatory for licensure. Aspiring mental health professionals search and match with an ideal supervisor through Motivo, which also offers capabilities to schedule appointments, conduct sessions, document notes, collect payment and track hours, making clinical supervision hours more accessible and affordable. WorkHound gives frontline workers a voice and gives companies tools to act on that feedback, helping them improve operations and increase retention. With a focus on industries like nursing, manufacturing, trucking and warehousing, the WorkHound platform lets employees submit feedback, problems or ideas anonymously through their phones, then WorkHound distills that data into actionable insights. The Spirit of Innovation Awards, presented by the Chamber and presenting sponsor Bridge Innovate, honor businesses that originated in the region and have potential to impact many people and inspire change either within one industry or across a broader spectrum. Eligible innovations have been implemented within the last five years and are in the revenue-generating stages of their business plan. A volunteer-led committee made up of community business and tech leaders is responsible for selecting finalists based on their applications, as well as selecting the Spirit of Innovation Award recipient after site visits to each location. The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce honors finalist companies and names an award recipient at the Spirit of Innovation Awards Wednesday, Oct. 24 at the Chattanooga Convention Center. This event is comprised of an awards luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and an Innovation Fair from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 2 p.m. The Innovation Fair highlights innovative community partners, sponsors and previous award recipients. Register here. Kiev (AsiaNews) - "The apostolic nunciature in Ukraine once again confirms its position, often stated by the Holy See, for whom questions of the creation of one Ukrainian Orthodox local church is an internal matter of the Orthodox Church, regarding which the Holy See has not and does not intend to offer any assessment reads a communique from the Apostolic nunciature in Ukraine, led by Msgr. Claudio Gugerotti. The statement was issued two days ago, after news had spread that the Vatican supported the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church. The autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has long been requested by the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I is willing to grant it, but the question has led to serious tensions between him and the patriarchate of Moscow, so as to arrive at a situation of quasi schism, with the breaking of direct contact between the two Churches. The Vatican maintains a neutral position. On September 25, at the UN General Assembly, Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Pavel Klimkin, met the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Mgr. Paul Richard Gallagher. As Credo.Press.ru recounts, soon after news appeared on the ministry website claiming that the Holy See had expressed support for the idea of the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Hence the denial of the nunciature. The report said: this process has already begun, and a return to the status quo is impossible. The support of the Holy See and the clear position relative to granting a tomos is an important step for strengthening inter-religious dialogue". The pontiff calls for overcoming mistrust and mutual prejudices. First of all, he said, we have the duty to discern and recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in these communities, trying to construct bonds of authentic fraternity with them. For him, it is necessary to avoid settling on static and immutable positions. Vatican City (AsiaNews) Pope Francis spoke Friday to participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, whose theme was Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Evangelicals: Impact on the Concept of Unity. In his address, the pontiff called for overcoming mistrust and prejudices that exist between the Catholic Church and other Christian movements. For him, The constant growth of these new expressions of Christian life is a very significant phenomenon, which cannot be overlooked. [. . .] First of all, we have the duty to discern and recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in these communities, trying to construct bonds of authentic fraternity with them. This will be possible by multiplying the opportunities for meeting and overcoming mutual distrust, motivated many times by ignorance or lack of understanding. And I would like to offer you a personal experience and declare a mea culpa. When I was provincial [superior], I had forbidden Jesuits to enter into relationships with these people - with the Catholic Renewal - and I said that more than a prayer meeting it seemed like a samba school! Then I apologized, and as a bishop I had a good relationship with them, with Mass in the cathedral ... But it takes a journey to understand. Among the various shared activities are prayer, listening to the Word of God, service to the needy, the proclamation of the Gospel, the defence of the dignity of the person and of human life. In a fraternal mutual acquaintance, we Catholics can learn to appreciate the experience of many communities that, often in ways different from those to which we are accustomed, live their faith, praise God and witness the Gospel in charity. At the same time, they will be helped to overcome prejudices about the Catholic Church and to recognize that in the priceless treasure of tradition, received from the Apostles and kept in the course of history, the Holy Spirit is not at all extinguished or suffocated, but continues to operate effectively. The fact that more than a few Catholic faithful are attracted to these communities is a source of friction, but can become, for our part, a matter of personal examination and pastoral renewal. At the same time, the pope acknowledged that relations with these communities are not easy. Yet, many communities are inspired by these movements and live authentic Christian experiences in contact with the Word of God and in obedience to the action of the Spirit, which leads us to love, witness and serve. Even these communities, as the Second Vatican Council taught, are by no means devoid of meaning and value in the mystery of salvation (cf. Unitatis redintegratio, 3). Catholics can welcome those riches that, under the guidance of the Spirit, contribute greatly to the fulfilment of the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth. In fact, the Church grows in fidelity to the Holy Spirit the more she learns not to tame it, but to accept without fear and at the same time with serious discernment its fresh newness. The Holy Spirit is always new. Always. And we have to get used to it. It is newness that makes us understand things more deeply, with more light, and makes us change so many habits, even disciplinary habits. But He is the Lord of newness. Jesus told us that He will teach us; He will remind us of what He has taught us, and then He will teach us. We must be open to this. It is therefore necessary to avoid settling on static and immutable positions, to embrace the risk of venturing into the promotion of unity: with faithful ecclesial obedience and without extinguishing the Spirit (cf. 1 Thess 5:19). It is the Spirit Who creates and recreates the newness of Christian life, and it is the Spirit Himself Who leads everything back to true unity, which is not uniformity. For this openness of heart, the search for communion and careful discernment are the attitudes that should characterize our relationships according to the Spirit. Francis cited some recent ecumenical meetings of great importance and comfort, like the one in Bari (Italy) over the beloved and tormented Middle East, and the one in Geneva for the seventieth anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Churches, which provided an opportunity to renew our irreversible commitment to the promotion of ever greater unity between believers. Francis also mentioned the meeting with the Pentecostals on the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Rome, at the Circus Maximus, and finally the meeting he had during his recent visit to the Baltic States, in Riga and Tallinn. The United Wa State Army (UWSA) detained 92 pastors, closed all Protestant churches, and forcibly drafted 41 youth, both male and female. Salesian nuns who provided for education and health care in Mong Mau were expelled. For Bishops Conference spokesman, The authorities behaviour is wrong. Yangon (AsiaNews) The campaign to suppress Christianity in areas controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) in Shan State continues with crosses removed, three Baptist churches destroyed, 52 closed, 92 pastors arrested and 41 students forcibly enrolled. Myanmar's largest ethnic army also shut down a Catholic mission run by Salesian missionary nuns and ordered the latters expulsion. Rev Lazaru, a spokesman for the ethnic Lahu Baptist community, released a statement yesterday (picture 2) in which he denounces the rebel acts of violence near the city of Mongpauk. In it, he notes that dozens of clergymen were taken into custody, Baptist schools shut down and dozens of students, both male and male, forcibly recruited into the rebel force. To add insult to injury, the people who were detained had their heads shaved. Although the UWSA, in the statement announcing its action, used the Chinese term jidujiao, a word that applies to Protestants and evangelical Christians, and not tianzhujiao, used for Catholics, the latter were targeted as well. The hilly Wa area falls under the Diocese of Lashio, suffragan of Mandalay, and has no Catholic churches. However, at Mong Mau, some Salesian nuns teach and serve as healthcare providers to locals. Last Monday, Wa officials shut down the mission and expelled them. The Catholic presence in the Wa area is quite recent but very important, said Mariano Soe Naing, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar (CBCM) and head of the latters Office for Social Communication (CBCM-OCS). "In 1991, Wa tribal leaders asked the bishop of Lashio for help from the Catholic Church to develop the territory, said the clergyman. The following year we opened schools and clinics with the permission of local authorities. Since then we have been involved with children teaching them to read, write and master the Wa language, the Burmese language and English. "Starting in Mong Mau, we built schools in three other locations along the border with China. This is not proselytising. We did all this for the good of tribal people even if there are no Catholics in the areas." "The Sisters were interrogated by the authorities for the first time on 9 September at their building. Once it was determined that the women religious were working only in the field of education, the officials let them go; in fact, they complimented their work, Fr Naing said. All this happened when the first arrests among the Baptists were being carried out. On 16 September, local officials detained five young Catholics from other parts of the country who were helping the Sisters in the mission. "The young people were taken to the police station, Fr Naing added. The agents treated them well, did not harm them and after a few hours released them. On the 23rd, together with their personal belongings, they again took them to the barracks, where they spent the night. The following day, despite the opposition of local villagers, the youth and the nuns were ordered to leave Mong Mau and return to Lashio." "The authorities know who the Catholics are and what they do. They know that we do not want to convert anyone. Their behaviour is wrong. First, they invite us and then they throw us out without any explanations, said the CBCB spokesman. For his part, Card Bo, archbishop of Yangon and a Salesian, visited the nuns on Wednesday. He celebrated Mass with them and listened to their stories. by Benigna Menezes* The religious belongs to the Missionaries of the Immaculate. She spent 25 years at the Damien Leprosy Center in Vegavaram and another 25 at the Frascogna Memorial Rehabilitation Center in Srungavraksham. Vijayawada (AsiaNews) - Bringing the message of the Gospel to the peripheries, among the people most in need of help: This is what sr. Daniela Kuzhiadyil has been doing among the lepers of Andhra Pradesh for 50 years. The religious is a member of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception, a female congregation linked to the PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions). Her life, spent at the service of leprosy patients, is the living testimony of how God uses the missionaries to bring comfort and consolation to the ends of the earth. Today in the Indian state there are several health institutions that treat Hansen's disease: St. Mary's Leprosy Center in Bhimavaram; theFather Frascogna Memorial Leprosy Rehabilitation Center in Srungavraksham; the Paolo Manna Home in Vegavaram; St. Mary's School in Bhimavaram; hostels located in Mogalturu, Fatimapuram and Jangareddygudem and other services for patients suffering from leprosy, HIV, tuberculosis and marginalized people in general. All these initiatives have a common origin: in 1962, Mother Clara Bellotti, superior of the Missionaries of the Immaculate, responded to the request of Msgr. Ambrogio De Battista, then bishop of Vijayawada, opening the first hospital for leprosy patients in Vegavaram. At that time the streets of West Godavari and East Godavari were full of sick people begging for help at every corner. With that first hospital the congregation launched itself into the most difficult but praiseworthy adventure in the district of Godavari: evangelizing the peripheries. Sr. Daniela is a tireless servant. Originally from Trivandrum, in Kerala, in 1949, a teacher asked her the question that would change her life: "What do you want to do in the future?". Daniela's thoughts immediately ran in various directions: teacher, doctor or nurse. While reflecting, an unexpected image came to mind. It was that of a leper with skin covered with sores. At the time sr. Daniela did not even know what leprosy was and had never seen a patient. Only by reading the Gospel did she discover the existence of people sick with ulcers and mutilated limbs. She understands that it is the Holy Spirit who has chosen the direction of her life and decided to welcome him. In 1962, Sr. Daniela found the address of the Missionaries in a magazine and decided to send a letter, asking to be admitted into the congregation. It was a blessed coincidence, because at that time mother Clara Bellotti was founding the hospital for lepers and was looking for some prepared people. In 1963, Sr. Daniela entered the congregation, in 1965 she was sent to Italy to attend a specific course, in 1968 she returned to India and began working at the Damien Leprosy Center in Vegavaram. Here it will remain for 25 years at the service of the sick. Meanwhile Fr. Nicola Frascogna, PIME, opened another center in Veeravasaram for the disabled lepers who crowded along the railroad tracks. He had been tormented by the sight of those human wrecks abandoned by everyone, who survived alms. That's why he decided to buy a piece of land and create a shelter to accommodate them. However, it met with the opposition of the local inhabitants who do not like the presence of lepers in the village. Eventually the priest was forced to buy more land in Sungavraksham and Gunupudi and transfer the sick there. Sr. Daniela arrived at the Frascogna Memorial Rehabilitation Center in 1993 and is still working here at the age of 87. Despite her venerable age, she is still lively and smiles, thanking the Lord for her constant love. On 12 October the center will dedicate a special ceremony to it, involving all 185 hospitalized patients. * Missionary of the Immaculate The Gujarat High Court Friday dismissed a plea filed by Adani Gas challenging the bidding process for the supply of PNG and CNG in three areas of Ahmedabad district. In the bidding process, which was carried out by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) in 2016, Adani Gas lost to state-run Gujarat Gas Limited to supply PNG and CNG in Sanand, Bavla and Dholka areas of the district. In June 2016, Adani Gas approached the Gujarat High Court over this loss. A bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi dismissed Adani Gas's objection plea against the bidding process. Before the PNGRB Act came into force in 2006, the Gujarat government gave Adani Gas permission to supply gas in Ahmedabad district with a condition that the permission was subject to any act that came into force in the future. As per regulation 18 of the PNGRB Act, a company needs to take PNGRB's authorisation to carry out work in an area for which the firm does not have permission from the Central government. In 2013, as per Regulation 18 of the PNGRB Act, Adani approached PNGRB seeking permission to build gas supply infrastructure in entire Ahmedabad district. However, while granting permission, the PNGR Board excluded Sanand, Bavla and Dholka areas of the district. Later the regulator invited bids for these three areas in 2016, with Gujarat Gas emerging victorious while the Adani firm lost. IL&FS Transportation Networks | The company defaulted on the interest on non-convertible debentures due on August 25, 2020. (Image: Reuters) Cash-starved IL&FS plans to focus on management and execution of infrastructure projects, and stop funding long term projects, the Business Standard reports . The company, which is facing a severe liquidity crunch, may put some of its assets for sale to pare debt, sources told the news daily. This may include some assets from the 28 build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects that are undertaken by its subsidiary IL&FS Transportation Networks (ITNL). Read Cash-strapped IL&FS in advanced talks with Atlantia to sell road assets for $1.2 bn: Report According to the report, the company has been trying to move to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts from BOT contracts. An EPC contract requires a company to design, engineer, procure materials for and construct the project, before handing it over to the end-user or owner. IL&FS' board has made several attempts to sell the company, the news daily reported. Ajay Piramal had earlier offered to buy a majority stake in IL&FS, but the deal was dropped over differences in its valuation. Similarly, the deal to sell ITNL to global private equity firm Lone Star did not materialise. Also see: Opinion | IL&FS mess highlights the rot in infrastructure financing space As on March 31, IL&FS' total outstanding debt stood at Rs 91,091.31 crore at the group level, with most of its operating assets owned by its subsidiaries. Around Rs 5,756 crore worth of debt is due for repayment over the next one year. Nearly half of IL&FS' debt is because of various highway projects. The company is reportedly considering a proposal to appoint an international audit firm to validate a Rs 15,000 crore claim from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Read: Cash-strapped IL&FS may receive Rs 700 crore from NHAI soon: Report The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will meet the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on September 28 to chart out a course of action for the crisis-stricken IL&FS group. LIC is IL&FS' largest shareholder with a 25.34 percent stake. IL&FS Financial Services has defaulted on seven debt repayments between September 12 and 27. The defaults were five bank loans, one deposit and one short-term deposit. The company's credit rating has been downgraded from AAA to defaulting status after it failed to repay a Rs 1,000 crore short-term loan from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Teheran Foreign Minister makes announcement on the sidelines of a meeting with his counterpart in New Delhi. India is Iran's second-largest oil buyer. Between the two countries a "collaboration across the board". The price of crude oil continues to rise on global markets. Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - India is committed to buying Iranian oil and continuing economic cooperation between the two nations. This was stated by the Foreign Minister of Teheran, after a meeting with his Indian counterpart a few weeks after the entry into force of the second part of the US sanctions, aimed at the sale of hydrocarbons. The Islamic Republic is the third largest producer in the OPEC nations (the organization that unites oil exporting nations). The face-to-face meeting between Mohammad Javad Zarif and Sushma Swaraj took place yesterday in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. "Our Indian friends - underlined Zarif - have always been categorical in their intention to continue the economic cooperation and the importation of oil from Iran. I could hear these same statements from the voice of my Indian counterpart ". New Delhi is the second largest Iranian oil buyer, after China; In recent weeks India has already reduced the volume of crude oil purchased, but has not yet officially expressed its intention to reduce imports, as requested by Washington. "We have an all-encompassing cooperation with India - added the Iranian minister - and this also includes cooperation in the energy sector, because Iran has always been a reliable source of energy for India". Zarif concluded by underlining that the Islamic Republic wants to "expand" bilateral relations with India. Last May, US President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal from (the JCPOA) nuclear agreement strongly wanted by his predecessor Barack Obama, introducing new sanctions against Tehran, "the hardest sanctions in history" . A decision that caused a significant drop in the Iranian economy and a collapse in oil sales; it was primarily the weakest and most vulnerable part of the population to pay the costs. Meanwhile, the price of oil continues to rise, with international investors maneuvering to try to mitigate the effects of the war launched by the White House to the crude oil of the ayatollahs. Oil prices are coming to a close with the WTI crude oil contracts expiring in November, earning 10 cents more per 72.33 dollars a barrel. Brent remains stationary at 81.71 dollars Rana Kapoor, Founder - Yes Bank live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Diamonds have yet again found a reference in the banking industry, and this time, it is Yes Bank. No, it is nothing like the scam that was unearthed at Punjab National Bank (PNB), headlined by diamond merchant Nirav Modi. In this leadership transition at @YESBANK, I continue to remain fully committed to the interests of the Bank and all its stakeholders. I will be fully guided by the Board of Directors of YES BANK and the Reserve Bank of India Rana Kapoor (@RanaKapoor_) September 28, 2018 Rana Kapoor, the largest promoter and co-founder of Yes Bank, has taken to Twitter to say that his shares of the bank are invaluable and will remain with him forever like diamonds. At the same time, Kapoor said, "In this leadership transition at YES BANK, I continue to remain fully committed to the interests of the Bank and all its stakeholders. I will be fully guided by the Board of Directors of YES BANK and the Reserve Bank of India." I will eventually bequeath my @YESBANK Promoter shares to my 3 daughters and subsequently to their children, with a request in my Will stating not to sell a single share, as Diamonds are Forever!! Rana Kapoor (@RanaKapoor_) September 28, 2018 I will eventually bequeath my @YESBANK Promoter shares to my 3 daughters and subsequently to their children, with a request in my Will stating not to sell a single share, as Diamonds are Forever!! Kapoor tweeted. Diamonds are Forever: My Promoter shares of @YESBANK are invaluable to me Rana Kapoor (@RanaKapoor_) September 28, 2018 Kapoor and family holds 10.66 percent stake in Yes Bank, making him the largest shareholder (and promoter) of the mid-sized private bank. Madhu Kapur, wife of later Ashok Kapur, who was the co-founder of Yes Bank, holds 7.6 percent in Yes Bank. Also Read : Yes Bank denies hiding bad loans, manipulating stock price This comes following the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) action on Kapoor to step down as the banks chief executive officer and managing director (CEO and MD) from January 31, 2019 as against the shareholders and boards proposal till September 2021. Taking to the micro-blogging social media website, Kapoor said, Even after I demit office as MD & CEO of YES BANK, I will never ever sell my @YESBANK shares. The board of Yes Bank on September 25 informed the stock exchange about its decision to request the central bank to allow Kapoor to remain at the helm until a minimum of April next year and further extend it to September 30, 2019. The private lender faced RBI action for under-reporting of total bad loans worth Rs 10,531 crore for two consecutive fiscal years FY16 and FY17. In a response to queries by National Stock Exchange (NSE), Yes Bank has denied any window dressing of corporate loans to hide its non-performing asset (NPA) status. For now, the bank has appointed a selection committee in place to find a successor for Kapoor, who has been at the helm since its inception in 2004. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a meeting with large shareholders of IL&FS on September 28 raised concerns about the ongoing debt crisis in the group. Among the shareholders, only Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), financial services group Orix Corporation and Abu Dhabi Investment attended the meeting. Sources told Moneycontrol that the banking regulator took stock of the events at IL&FS and allied companies. RBI was concerned about the defaults on the debt payments by the IL&FS group. Shareholders were asked about their views on the issue. However, no plan of action was suggested by RBI, said an official. In today's meeting, that went on for almost three hours, the central bank assessed the situation and sought the shareholder's opinion about how the situation could be better managed. This is the first such official meeting between the banking regulator and IL&FS shareholders. Earlier, RBI had also initiated a special audit of IL&FS after it defaulted on its Rs 450-crore inter-corporate deposits (ICDs) raised from state-owned Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). LIC is the largest shareholder in IL&FS with 25.34 percent. Sources said LIC is ready to support the stake hike in the infrastructure financing major. This was also stated to RBI. However, it comes with a caveat of the group giving a detailed plan of action on how they will bring down the debt. IL&FS needs an immediate capital infusion of Rs 3,000 crore and is also planning a Rs 4,500 crore rights issue. Apart from LIC, Japans Orix holds 23.54 percent stake in IL&FS while Abu Dhabi Investment holds 12.56 percent. Other shareholders include Housing Development Finance Corporation (9.02 percent), Central Bank of India (7.67 percent) and State Bank of India (6.42 percent). However, these companies did not attend the meeting. Moneycontrol had reported earlier that Central Bank of India was looking to sell its stake in IL&FS but will wait for the IL&FS annual general meeting (AGM) before taking a final decision. IL&FS will have its AGM on September 29 when the infrastructure financing major will discuss the plans of debt reduction as well as fundraising. IL&FS debt crisis The first signs of trouble in the IL&FS group emerged in June when IL&FS defaulted on inter-corporate deposits and commercial papers (borrowings) worth about Rs 450 crore. Over the next two to three months, at least two rating agencies downgraded its long-term ratings. IL&FS, which has missed more than five debt payments since August and has been downgraded by three rating agencies as a result, has filed an application with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The company has sought some accommodations from NCLT for itself and 40 group units under the Companies Act. Among the group companies, its financial services arm IL&FS Financial Services also defaulted on interest payment on commercial papers four times in September. Further, IL&FS Financial Services also defaulted on seven debt repayments between September 12 and 27, the financial services arm of IL&FS informed the stock exchange. IL&FS group has over Rs 91,000 crore in debt. A board meeting held on September 15 on raising capital by IL&FS was inconclusive, with Hemant Bhargava stepping down from the Chairman's post at IL&FS. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Drug maker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on September 28 said it is not seeing any adverse effects from plummeting generic drug prices in US market even as it counters commoditisation with new launches and a pipeline of complex and differentiated products. "Pricing pressure (in US) continues. I don't think we are going to see any moderation," Glenn Saldanha, Chairman and Managing Director of Glenmark, told Moneycontrol. "We are fortunately able to compensate because we got number of new launches, which are exciting," Saldanha said. Sales from the US, the biggest market for Glenmark, constituting 35 percent of revenues in FY18, declined 13.32 percent. The drug maker posted revenues of Rs 9185.5 crore in the same period. The company said the drop in US sales was largely due to pricing pressure on account of rapid approvals, cut-throat competition and emergence of large buying groups that acquired enormous purchasing power undercutting margins of manufacturers. Its estimated that every year generic drug prices are falling by around 11 percent. The US sales drop also look exacerbated on a YoY basis for Glenmark as the drug maker had benefit of 180 days marketing exclusivity for generic version of cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia in FY17. Green offshoots After a tough FY18, Glenmark is confident about arresting the slide. That confidence stems from three recent generic launches such as hormonal drug Vagifem and cholesterol lowering medication Welchol in both oral solid and suspension formulations. All the three products cumulatively have sales of around $880 million, having limited competition where Glenmark is pitted against not more than four competitors. The company is also working on rationalising costs and prioritising product selection during development and after commercialisation to maximise returns from each product launch. Glenmark said it will continue to stay invested in US even during this difficult phase. The companys Monroe plant, built at an estimated cost of over $100 million exclusively caters to US market, had successfully finished USFDA inspection in June this year and is expected to ship tablets and capsules from second half of FY19, followed by nebulisers and injectables in later stages. Specialty and biosimilars Glenmark, which is often criticised for spending heavily on R&D, has started finally to see the benefits of those investments with US FDA accepting the company's first ever New Drug Application (NDA) for Ryaltris nasal spray. Ryaltris is a novel fixed-dose combination of two drugs in a nasal spray format indicated for treatment of symptoms associated with seasonal allergic rhinitis. The company expects to launch it in FY20. Saldhanha said the company is figuring out commericalising strategy in US. Glenmark in July this year entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Australia's Seqirus to commercialise Ryaltris in the Australian and New Zealand markets. Glenmark's other product GBR 310, a biosimilar of Xolair for allergic asthma, has completed phase 1 and is likely to enter phase-3 in the current financial year. The company said it plans to file biologic licensing application (BLA), seeking approval of the drug in 2021-2022. Glenmark has a pipeline of 9 novel assets in various stages of clinical development focused in the therapy areas of respiratory, dermatology and oncology. The company last month entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Harbour BioMed to develop, manufacture and commercialise GBR 1302, for the treatment of certain kinds of cancers for the Greater China territory. Moneycontrol has learned that Glenmark is considering more such licensing deals as it plans to develop and commercialise its R&D assets. For the US market, Glenmark has 63 generic drug applications pending with the USFDA of which 30 are Para-IV applications that may get the company 180 days marketing exclusivity if the patents of the innovator are invalidated successfully. "We have proactively invested in innovation over the years, even when revenue and profits have been under pressure, as was the case in FY18 and it is my pleasure to report that this commitment is bearing fruit," Saldanha said. Products such as Ryaltris and biosimilar Xolair will help the company move beyond the competitive generics landscape in the US on a sustainable basis, Saldhanha added. What are analysts saying? Analysts say Glenmark has to breakout from $100-$110 million sales run rate in US, where it got stuck over the last two years barring the one-off impact of generic Zetia exclusivity. "Execution in the US is key to a sustained recovery Glenmarks US revenues have been sluggish over the last few years, with delays in approvals for key products along with high base erosion not allowing the company to make much headway," said Citi Research in its report. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Indias leading hospitality chains Indian Hotels Company and ITC Hotels will face off today in a bidding war to grab the rights to run Delhis Taj Mansingh. The 292-room luxury property, located in the heart of Delhi, has seen interest from only two players despite several rounds of e-auctioning held by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to find a new suitor. September 20 was the last date for submission of the bids invited by NDMC. The winning bidder will be able to run the hotel for 33 years. Tata Sons-led Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) which manages over 100 hotels, many under Taj brand, is the current operator of the hotel. The Mumbai-based company has run the Taj Mansingh uninterruptedly since 1976. The property is one of four luxury properties run by IHCL in the national capital. Rival ITC Hotels too has four properties in New Delhi under four brands ITC, Sheraton, Welcome and Fortune. Both companies are keen on acquiring the Taj Mansingh as readymade properties especially in a city like Delhi are not easily available. At nearly 16,000 rooms Delhi has the largest supply of branded hotel rooms in India followed by Bengaluru and Mumbai, according to a report by HVS. ITCs bid was rejected in June as the company failed to submit it through the online medium leaving only IHCL in the fray. This forced NDMC to abort the auction. ITC has only two properties under the luxury category in Delhi, lower than at least four run by its competitor. Marriott-Starwood, for instance, has more than five properties while Intercontinental Hotels Group has eight properties in Delhi. ITC Maurya and Welcome Hotel Dwarka are the properties run by ITC under its own brand. Taj Mansingh sits on a plot area of 3.78 acres with a total built-up area of 2.45 lakh sq feet, including terrace and basement. It has 292 rooms, seven food and beverage outlets and six meeting rooms with flexible capacity. Despite being a prime property the bid has generated very low interest so far. Part of this was to be blamed on the terms, riders and lease conditions laid down by NDMC as per which more than 17.25 percent share of the revenue will have to be shared with the municipal council. In addition, the property is over four decades old and has previous generation design and architecture, offering little scope for structural modification necessary to suit the preferences of luxury brands of today. IHCL has kick started an aggressive cost cutting drive under its new managing director Puneet Chatwal. The company has taken efforts to reduce debt by selling unprofitable properties and exiting loss-making contracts. IHCL has shown keen interest in retaining the Mansingh property under the Taj brand. Praveg Communications (India) Ltd. Pharmacies across India will stay shut on September 28 in protest against the Centres move to regularise online sale of medicines. The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), an association of brick-and-mortar retail chemists has called on all its 800,000 members across the country to observe a day-long strike. AIOCD has exempted pharmacies attached to nursing homes and hospitals and catering to emergency requirements to remain open. Brick and mortar chemists are worried about e-pharmacies hitting their livelihoods and allege that online sales would raise the risk of drug abuse. Earlier this month, the Union Health Ministry notified rules that would allow online pharmacies to register and dispense all medicines, except narcotics and psychotropic drugs, tranquillisers and other drugs classified under the Schedule-X category. "We want government to immediately roll back its decision on allowing e-pharmacies, as it will hit livelihood of lakhs of pharmacists and small entrepreneurs," said KK Selvan, Treasurer of AIOCD. Selvan said nearly 35,000 chemists including Apollo Pharmacy stores in Tamil Nadu remained closed today. Business worth nearly Rs 35 crore was affected in Chennai alone. The government is banking on e-pharmacies to bring competition and make medicines accessible and affordable. But AIOCD isn't convinced. "We don't have an online database of doctors, how can one verify whether a prescription is written by a doctor or not, there is a danger of drug abuse," Selvan said. But an executive at an e-pharmacy company dismissed the concerns of AIOCD. "E-pharmacies are highly regulated, drugs can't be dispensed without a valid prescription and we have to maintain all the data related to our transactions for government to inspect," the executive said. E-pharmacies, unlike e-commerce, isn't easy, it is more difficult in India due to thousands of stock keeping units (SKUs) that one has to maintain. Even e-commerce giants like Amazon have struggled. Drug sales from e-pharmacies constitute around 5-6 percent of the little over Rs 1 lakh crore Indian pharmaceutical market. In the dock for under-reporting of bad loans, Yes Bank, has denied any window dressing of corporate loans to conceal its non-performing asset (NPA) status. The lender has also refuted allegations that it inflated its share price ahead of key fund-raising activities. It denied parallel dealings with Three Sisters Family Office, which manage personal investments of the current Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Rana Kapoor and his family. In a filing with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) it said, The bank has been regularly making disclosures in terms of SEBI circular on Disclosure of divergences in the asset classification and provisioning by banks dated July 18, 2017.As mandated and required under regulations, the bank has been making all disclosures to stakeholders on NPA divergence related findings made by the regulator. This was also validated by Statutory Auditors BSR and Co. on a quarterly basis, Yes Bank said. The bank pointed out it is the subject of a comprehensive annual risk-based supervision by the banking regulator, Reserve Bank of India (RBI). NSE seeks details The clarifications come in response to queries sent by NSE after it received a written complaint making certain allegations against the bank. The RBI also came down heavily on Yes Bank on September 17, to cut short Kapoors tenure as the CEO to five months until January 31, 2019 without citing any reasons. On September 25, Yes Banks board decided to request the central bank to extend Kapoors term till at least April 2019. But Moneycontrol sources suggest RBI is unlikely to accept the request. Previously, the reappointment was proposed by the banks board and shareholders for three years until September 2021. Parallel business activity In its clarification, NSE had also asked the bank about the parallel lending/investing business being run by Kapoors family office compromising the interest of Yes Bank. In response, Yes bank categorically said in one sentence that the bank has no dealings with the Three Sisters Family Office. Stock price manipulation? In another query, NSE accused Yes Bank of influencing market participants to artificially inflate/support the banks share price before key events like equity raise/QIP (qualified institutional placement). Yes Bank responded it was fully compliant with disclosures of fundraising activities and it had followed all guidelines. It clarified that in September 2016, when the bank had decided to defer its QIP, it had voluntarily written to stock exchanges, seeking an investigation into the volatility in its share price and any manipulation by vested interests. NSE also raised questions on non-compliant facilities sanctioned by camouflaging end uses or transactions done by Nirma, Monnet, Binani, etc. While saying it was fully compliant with bonafide end uses, Yes Bank said it cannot share customer-specific information as per confidentiality rules. Hiding NPAs? On being questioned if the rise in NPAs was being noted by the audit committee, Yes Bank said its gross NPA ratios are among the finest in the banking industry and the internal control over financial planning is audited with BSR and Co (KPMG), that has given an un-qualified opinion on it. Due to guidelines issued by the RBI in April 2017, banks were expected to disclose the divergence between the NPA number disclosed by them and that assessed by the RBI. The disclosure was mandatory for banks where the divergence was larger than 15 percent of the originally reported bad loans. For FY16 ending March 2016, Yes Bank reported a divergence of Rs 4,173 crore and in FY17 the divergence increased to Rs 6,355 crore. The bank also pointed out it has made appropriate disclosures while appointing Raj Ahuja as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to replace Rajat Monga, who is now proposed by the board to be its Executive Director. On September 27, Yes Bank shares ended lower by 9.14 percent in trade, eroding nearly half of its market capitalisation from Rs 91,000 crore on 20 August. Indias largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume Zebpay has announced on Friday that it will be halting its trading service later on the same day. We are stopping our exchange. At 4 PM today, we will cancel unexecuted orders & credit your coins to your Zebpay wallet. No new orders will be accepted. The Zebpay wallet will work even after the exchange stops. Read more: https://t.co/W8ygzPIYz1 pic.twitter.com/tPWCnyu7Yu September 28, 2018 The Ahmedabad-based company put out a tweet saying that all exchanges services will be frozen and all unexecuted orders will be cancelled, following which funds will be credited to all customers wallets. In a blog post, Zebpay explained: "The curb on bank accounts has crippled our, and our customers, ability to transact business meaningfully." It added that that, since the ban, it had tried various alternative measures to ensure services for its customers but the recent months were extremely difficult. However, it added that its wallet service will continue to function even after the exchange closes. In April, the RBI barred domestic banks from dealing with or providing financial services to any individual and/or business entity dealing in cryptocurrency. Following this announcement, Zebpay had unsuccessfully mulled moving its head office to countries like Singapore, Belarus or the US, which are cryptocurrency-friendly. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The Reserve Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation will discuss a rescue plan for the IL&FS group on September 28. LIC is the largest shareholder in IL&FS with 25.34 percent. The meeting is scheduled a day ahead of the annual general meeting (AGM) of IL&FS on September 29 when the infrastructure financing major will discuss the plans of debt reduction as well as fundraising. Sources told Moneycontrol the banking regulator will discuss the recent events at IL&FS and proposed actions with shareholders. LIC Managing Director Hemant Bhargava will also attend the meeting. It is likely that the second largest shareholder, the Orix Corporate, Japan that holds 23.54 percent stake also sends a representative to the meeting. Other large shareholders in IL&FS include Abu Dhabi Investment (12.56 percent), Housing Development Finance Corporation - HDFC (9.02 percent), Central Bank of India (7.67 percent) and State Bank of India (6.42 percent). However, sources said State Bank of India, Central Bank of India and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) will not be attending. According to sources, Central Bank of India was on the lookout to sell its stake in the debt-strapped firm but will wait for the IL&FS shareholders' and board meet before taking a final decision. Central Bank of India is under prompt corrective action (PCA) imposed by the RBI and therefore, may not be in a position to provide additional funds. The advent of the crisis The first signs of trouble in the IL&FS group emerged in June when IL&FS defaulted on inter-corporate deposits and commercial papers (borrowings) worth about Rs 450 crore. Over the next two to three months, at least two rating agencies downgraded its long-term ratings. Later, its financial services arm IL&FS Financial Services also defaulted on interest payment on commercial papers four times in September. Further, IL&FS Financial Services also defaulted on seven debt repayments between September 12 and 27, the financial services arm of IL&FS informed the stock exchange. The defaults include five bank loans, one deposit and one short-term deposit. Lifeline from shareholders IL&FS group has over Rs 91,000 crore in debt and is seeking a capital infusion from large shareholders like LIC. A board meeting held on September 15 by IL&FS was inconclusive, with Hemant Bhargava stepping down from the Chairman's post at IL&FS. The company needs an immediate capital infusion of Rs 3,000 crore and is also planning a Rs 4,500 crore rights issue. Its largest shareholder Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) could offer a lifeline to IL&FS if the firm is able to give a roadmap for a reduction in its debt in the next three to four months. Regulatory action RBI has also initiated a special audit of IL&FS after it defaulted on its Rs 450 crore inter-corporate deposits (ICDs) raised from state-owned Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). IL&FS, which has missed more than five debt payments since August and has been downgraded by three rating agencies, as a result, has filed an application with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The company has sought some "accommodations" from NCLT for itself and 40 group units under the Companies Act, according to a disclosure made to the stock exchanges. Smart City The CITIIS programme under the country's Smart Cities Mission provides a "strong platform" for both India and France to achieve their shared vision of a sustainable future and a more equal and just society through collaboration, French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler has said. Under the CITIIS (Cities Investment To Innovate, Integrate and Sustain) challenge programme, cities are encouraged to propose projects in areas of sustainable mobility, urban e-governance and information and communications technology (ICT), public open spaces and social and organisational innovation for low-income settlements. Ziegler was speaking here at a two-day preparatory workshop held for the 100 cities shortlisted to become the country's next Smart Cities. The event, organised by the National Institute for Urban Affairs (NIUA) along with the French Development Agency (AFD), was held at the India Habitat Centre from September 25-26. "The CITIIS programme provides a strong platform for both India and France to achieve their shared vision of a sustainable future and a more equal and just society through collaboration," Ziegler said. "The competitive approach used, in line with the Smart Cities Mission strategy, will ensure the emergence of innovative and participatory projects answering the needs of the citizens," he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the French Embassy on Thursday. The workshop was attended by over 200 participants from over 40 cities across India. Around 50 international and Indian experts were present to provide the cities with advice and guidance on preparing their proposals ahead of the deadline in October, the statement said. The CITIIS programme will be implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and NIUA. It is financed by the AFD, the government of France, and the European Union (EU), it said. "This is yet another concrete project building upon the India-EU Partnership for Smart and Sustainable Urbanisation, adopted by our leaders during the 2017 Summit," said Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the European Union to India. "The EU partnership with AFD paves the way for collaborative efforts promoting low-carbon and innovative city-level ideas. We are keen to support projects of excellence that build on the experiences of urban local bodies to achieve concrete and integrated urban results," he was quoted as saying in the statement. Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said, "With the CITIIS challenge and this program, India-France cooperation in the area of urban development has reached a new milestone. This will be acknowledged in India's transformation journey." He said the CITIIS program focuses on four key areas of development of Smart Cities - development of public spaces, use of ICT and e-governance, sustainable mobility and social and organizational innovation in low-income settlements. "The program is an important step in our efforts to create the new India of 2022 as envisioned by our Prime Minister," Mishra said. Following this workshop, the cities' SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) will be requested to submit their project applications on the SmartNet portal in October. Thereafter, an independent jury composed of members of the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry and NIUA, international and national experts will thoroughly assess all project applications, the statement said. When the Smart Cities Mission was launched in 2015, a competitive, challenge process was used to select the 100 smart cities. Now, the challenge process is being applied to project implementation, in line with the NITI Aayog guideline where under the Indo-French partnership programme, at least 15 projects would be selected through the all-India challenge. Google's chief executive officer, Sundar Pichai, is on Capitol Hill this week to face questions from Republican lawmakers who accuse the company of being biased against conservatives and have raised a litany of other concerns. House of Representatives Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican who has repeatedly criticized Google, is hosting a meeting of more than two dozen Republican lawmakers on Friday with Pichai. "Google has a lot of questions to answer about reports of bias in its search results, violations of user privacy, anticompetitive behaviour and business dealings with repressive regimes like China," McCarthy said in a statement. Pichai will also meet with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Friday to discuss national and international issues, a White House official confirmed. Republicans want to question Google, the search engine of Alphabet Inc, about whether its search algorithms are influenced by human bias. They also want to probe it on privacy issues, search dominance, classification of news and opinion results and operations in countries with human rights violations. Pichai said in a statement he plans to meet with both Democrats and Republicans, "answering a wide range of questions, and explaining our approach." Pichai wrote in an internal email last week that suggestions that Google would interfere in search results for political reasons were "absolutely false. We do not bias our products to favour any political agenda." The Wall Street Journal on September 20 reported, citing internal emails, that Google employees had brainstormed ways to alter search functions to counter the Trump administration's controversial 2017 travel ban. The Journal said Google did not go through with the ideas that were brainstormed. Google came under criticism for refusing to send a top executive to a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on September 5 about efforts to counteract foreign influence in US elections and political discourse. Facebook's chief operating officer and Twitter's chief executive testified at the hearing, where an empty chair was pointedly left for Google after the committee rejected Google's top lawyer as a witness. Pichai is expected to meet Thursday with House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, congressional aides said. Google has faced questions from lawmakers on whether it intends to resume operating its search engine in China. Google described its "work on search" for China as "exploratory" and "not close to launching." McCarthy said the House Judiciary Committee plans a hearing after the November elections with Google. Google's chief privacy officer testified before a Senate panel on Wednesday and in written testimony said the company acknowledged that it had "made mistakes in the past" on privacy. Earlier this week, the Justice Department met with state attorneys general to focus on the need to protect consumer privacy when big technology companies amass vast troves of data, but came to no immediate conclusions, Reuters reported. Subhash Chandra Garg The Prime Minister's Office is keeping a close watch on the developments related to beleaguered infrastructure lending company IL&FS, a top government official said on September 28. A solution to save the company from further defaults is expected soon with major stakeholders, including LIC, Central Bank and State Bank of India attending high level meeting at the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai and the Finance Ministry in Delhi. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said that the government will ensure there is no adverse impact of IL&FS crisis on the system. "Government is monitoring the situation on IL&FS. IL&FS is a large company in the infrastructure space. It has lot of connection with the government departments. It does a lot of PPP projects and therefore, is an important entity," Garg said. LIC Chairman VK Sharma, who will be meeting top Finance ministry officials, said that right now the company is 'not ruling out options like rights issue or capital infusion into IL&FS, adding that they are trying to work out solution for the remaining debt. "Around Rs 70,000 crore worth assets can be recovered from IL&FS," Sharma said. Advent of the crisis The first signs of trouble in the IL&FS group emerged in June when IL&FS defaulted on inter-corporate deposits and commercial papers (borrowings) worth about Rs 450 crore. Over the next two to three months, at least two rating agencies downgraded its long-term ratings. Later, its financial services arm IL&FS Financial Services also defaulted on interest payment on commercial papers four times in September. Further, IL&FS Financial Services also defaulted on seven debt repayments between September 12 and 27, the financial services arm of IL&FS informed the stock exchange. The defaults include five bank loans, one deposit and one short-term deposit. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Nirmal Jain, chairman of IIFL, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the company's liquidity situation and shared his views on the non-banking financial company (NBFC) space. "We are comfortable in our liquidity position and are facing no issues at all," said Jain. He further said that they have enough liquidity to tide over any crisis. Talking about the business, Jain said, Our business is going as usual; we are disbursing loans as usual in all the product categories. So there is absolutely no concern. According to him, "Non-banking financial company sector with regards to growth is doing pretty well. I think most of the (NBFC) fears are exaggerated, but its just a matter of time and we will see how regulators and the government react and what kind of corrective actions they take, he said. Source: CNBC-TV18 Oil prices are likely to climb continuously into next year, as concerns over drops in supply from the likes of Iran and Venezuela outweigh any worry that global trade disputes could undermine demand, a Reuters poll showed on Friday. A survey of 50 economists and analysts forecast Brent crude to average $73.48 a barrel in 2018, up from the $72.71 forecast in August and the $72.68 average so far this year. Brent was forecast to average $73.75 in 2019. This is the highest projection for the benchmark for both 2018 and 2019 in the polls this year. "Concerns over global trade disputes have not yet really affected economic growth, but the sanctions on Iran already have had an impact on Iranian exports and output," said Frank Schallenberger, head of commodity research at LBBW. "If an export destination like South Korea is not willing to buy Iranian oil anymore, there is a high probability that output from Iran could drop some 500,000-1 million bpd. This is really bad news for the supply side - and especially also for the consumers - as prices could go up even further." Iranian exports of crude and condensates have declined by 0.8 million barrels a day (mbd) from April to September, according to the Institute of International Finance, ahead of the Nov. 4 U.S. sanctions on the third largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Brent prices have risen more than 20 percent since the beginning of April. Analysts expect a reduction of anywhere between 500,000 and 1.5 million bpd in Iranian supply due to the sanctions, with most expecting Saudi Arabia to take the lead in filling any supply gaps. "The best is yet to come with a fourth-quarter of $80+/bbl driven by still strong oil demand growth, expectation of a significant drop in Iranian exports to 1 mbd by year-end and an only limited willingness by OPEC to ramp-up output to exhaust spare capacity," said Jan Edelmann, commodities analyst at HSH Nordbank AG. However, an escalating trade dispute between the United States and China, the world's largest consumer of commodities, could affect demand growth, especially next year, analysts said. "Uncertainty about possible effects of a trade war between the U.S. and China could dampen some of the upside risks triggered by the supply issues," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro. Meanwhile, U.S. crude futures were forecast to average $67.29 a barrel in 2018, compared with the $67.13 consensus last month and an average of $66.76 until now. A majority of participants saw growth in U.S. shale oil output slowing over the remainder of 2018 and into next year due to infrastructure problems. September 28, 2018 / 03:37 PM IST Market at Close It has been a rather jittery start to the October series. The Nifty has stayed below 11,000-mark. The Sensex is down around 90 points. Selling in automobiles, infrastructure, metals and pharma names were the highlight, while FMCG and the Bank Nifty have ended in the green. But the selling in midcaps have also been one of the major factors for the market to fall. At the close of market hours, the Sensex closed down 97 points or 0.2% at 36227.1, and the Nifty down 44.4 points or 0.4% at 10933.1. The market breadth is negative as 526 shares advanced, against a decline of 2,101 shares, while 159 shares were unchanged. Shares of Axis Bank, ITC, and Wipro are the top gainers, while Yes Bank, Hero MotoCorp, and Indiabulls Housing lost the most. A city cannot be built smart unless citizens do not participate in its transformation. They play a crucial role not only in pushing policy changes but also ensuring that smart solutions brought in to ease their lives are implemented, said D B Gupta, chief secretary, Rajasthan government. He said this at the concluding session of the three-day Smart Cities Expo India held in Jaipur, the first-ever such event to be held in India and Asia. A smart city cannot be built unless the citizens participate in its transformation. I believe harmony between citizens, industry and the government can bring about the best changes. The success of smart cities is defined only when it is accepted by its citizens as the core objective of the smart city is to build a city solely for its people. Smart cities are the cities that are smart enough to provide sustainable environment, friendly urban infrastructure to its citizens where smart solutions can ease their lives, Gupta said at the Expo organised by Quantela, Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) and Fira Barcelona International, with CII as the industrial partner. Earlier during the day, former executive director of UN Habitat Dr Joan Clos, in his keynote address titled Urbanization in the 21st century the New Urban Agenda in India and its Regional Context, said urbanisation faces five main challenges urban growth, housing affordability, increased costs of urban services, growth of urban poverty and failure in local finance. Urban agenda must focus on development. Urbanisation should generate value higher than the urban cost. This value can be increased by understanding the importance of location and agglomeration, he said. In order to increase this value, cities need to be better designed with clear and defined objectives which will help distribute the value generated appropriately. To design a good quality city, we need positive perception of the quality of governance of the acting administration, he said. As for the challenge of urban poverty, Clos said in the last century, urbanisation has increased from 20 percent to 50 percent. This will further get enhanced to 75 percent in the next two decades. Urban poverty poses a new kind of problem due to lack of affordable housing, increased cost of urban services and growth of informal settlements. These challenges can be combated by facilitating equitable and sustainable development. Addressing a parallel session on A low Carbon Future: Energy Transition in the Smart City, Abdul Marah, Freetown City Council Development Planning Officer, Freetown, Sierra Leone, said before one even plans to develop a city, there must be structure planning to control the process of development. This helps prevent a variety of urban problems, including carbon emissions and environmental damage. Speaking about use of renewable energy in her country, Nadine Bitar, chief placemaking officer, Dubai, UAE said renewable energy usage is 10 percent of the UAEs total energy mix and 25 percent of the total power production. This could produce annual savings of $ 1.9 billion by 2030 by avoiding fossil fuel consumption and low energy costs. At yet another discussion on Sustainable Cities, Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency, Ajeya Bandopadhyay of KPMG disclosed that the global waste burden is expected to touch 70 percent by 2050 and that the major concern is that India tops the list in solid waste generation. This issue needs to be addressed both by public and private groups. The theme of the Smart Cities Expo held in Jaipur was Smart India: Making it Happen. As many as 122 exhibitors and 69 startups participated in the event and around 2,600 delegates were in attendance. The event was aimed at identifying specific solutions to address the challenges cities face especially in the area of innovation, technology, digital governance, social development, clean tech and circular economy, the future of mobility and urban planning and smart villages. Vandana.ramnani@nw18.com MOSCOW, RUSSIA - JULY 14: A taxi of the Uber Company pass by on the street in Moscow, Russia, on July 14,2017. Uber and Yandex, the "Google of Russia", have agreed to combine their Russian ride-sharing businesses, with Yandex the leading partner in a deal that extends to five nearby markets. (Photo by Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Spain on Friday gave Uber and Cabify drivers four years to comply with new licensing regulations issued by its autonomous regions and cities, defying protests by drivers for the ride-hailing services. There are almost 11,000 vehicles with ride-sharing licences and more than 65,000 with taxi licences, Public Works Ministry data shows, with more than 150,000 taxi drivers and 15,000 Uber and Cabify drivers in operation. On Thursday, drivers of Uber and Cabify took to the streets to protest against the proposed transfer of licensing powers to Spanish regions. Drivers fear it aims to reduce licence numbers. "If they want to continue working in cities they will have to apply for appropriate licenses," Public Works Minister Jose Luis Abalos told a news conference after a cabinet meeting. The government agreed in 2017 on new regulations in an attempt to guarantee a cap on licences for Uber and similar services at a ratio of just one permit for every 30 taxi permits. But taxi drivers took to the streets this summer saying this ratio was not being respected and demanded an end to the practice of transferring ride-hailing permits between drivers. The government then decided to transfer licencing regulations to the regions. "Some will see four years as too long and others will see it as too short," said Abalos on Friday. "We are trying to create a space that allows for both sectors to coexist under the same legislation." (Image: Shutterstock) At the Chindia Dialogue 2018, entrepreneurs and investors talked about the cross-border synergies between both countries. Chinese and Indian investors discussed the investment ecosystem in the India. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant called for more Chinese investment in the country. He said, There is a need for greater Chinese investment. We have over 100 Chinese companies but the number still should increase. The Chinese companies should catch up in terms of investing more in India. China remains the 17th largest investor in India and should become the first. So instead of exporting, we would like Chinese companies to invest in India. Close to $3.7 billion have been invested in India by China in the last 3 years. Close to 15 percent of investment in Indian startups is from China and we would like it to increase. A majority of the investments from China have happened in 25 startups. He added, Last year close to $13.7 billion were invested across 620 deals, this is much higher than what India received in 2014-15. Finance, consumer internet, healthcare, Food & Beverage, Education technology (Ed-tech) and software as a service (SAAS) are the top areas of investment. Apart from big cities, deals have happened in tier 2 cities also. The Indian market is very similar to China in terms of scale and complexity. During the panel discussion on Seeking cross-border synergies for creating massive scale, investors discussed the scalability, exits and IPO, investments in the ecosystem. While talking about the Chinese investments in Indian startups, Karan Mohla, Managing Partner, IDG Ventures said, The amount of Chinese investment today in the Indian startups is the tip of an iceberg. A lot of investment will be done by them. In terms of Indian investors investing in Chinese startups, they were positive to invest in them. Investors talk about the difficulties in India for getting an IPO and exits. They pointed at the scalability problem in India compared to China. The pain for the startups is not the market but scaling in the market or having a secondary buyer, said Tarun Davda, Managing Director, Matrix Partner. He added, Now we have seen secondary exits in Flipkart, Ola. It will take three to four years in the ecosystem to have an exit or a IPO. While talking about the next big sectors which can help both the countries, Tej Kapoor, Managing Director, Fosun RZ Capital India said, Fintech, logistics, content are the preferable sectors. Insurance in Fintech will help to create a lot of expertise for cross border. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shares of Assam Company (India) locked at 5 percent lower circuit after company fixed record date for the purpose of delisting of equity shares. As per the directions of the Monitoring Committee (MC) acting through its authorized representatives, the MC has fixed October 4, 2018, as the record date, i.e., the date for determining the public shareholders to whom the exit price is to be paid, company said in release. The public shareholders will be paid the said amount on or before October 19, 2018 There were pending sell orders of 1,963,967 shares, with no buyers available. At 11:22 hrs Assam Company (India) was quoting at Rs 3.25, down Rs 0.17, or 4.97 percent on the BSE. For more market news, click here Posted by Rakesh Patil live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Union Bank of India has taken fugitive billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi to a court in Hong Kong after two of his companies defaulted on more than USD 5.49 million in credit facilities, according to a media report. The bank claimed in a writ filed at the High Court on Wednesday that the Mumbai-born businessman, wanted over a massive financial scam in his home country, guaranteed two loans made to Firestone Trading Private on October 21, 2011 and Firestar Diamond on November 15, 2011, South China Morning Post reported. The bank is demanding Modi who owns a chain of jewellery shops from Hong Kong to New York -- pay more than USD 5.49 million plus interest, after both firms allegedly defaulted on repayments, the report said. Modi, 47, has been on the run since February after Indian authorities launched an investigation into his alleged involvement in a Rs 13,400 crore scam against the Punjab National Bank (PNB). The Post reported in April that Indian authorities had submitted a request to Hong Kong's Department of Justice for the provisional arrest of the diamond merchant, who was believed to have been hiding in the city before apparently moving to Britain. Modi and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi are accused of defrauding banks by raising loans from overseas branches of Indian lenders, using fraudulent guarantees. They have denied wrongdoing. Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways All 6000 stations in the railway network will have free WiFi connections in the next 120 days if collaborations with private players like Google are successful, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday. Speaking at the launch of the project, 'The Railways-Lifeline of the Nation' (digitization of Indian Railway Heritage and bringing it online for wider dissemination and worldwide viewing) in collaboration with Google Cultural Institute, Goyal said that 711 railway stations already have free WiFi and his target was to reach the 6000 station mark in the next four months. Google with railways has provided free WiFi in over 400 stations, this shows how powerful collaborations can be and how it can be used to serve the people. "We should expand this to all 6000 stations so that local people in the vicinity of the stations, particularly from the poor or marginalised sections of the society can use this and enjoy the fruits of the country's development," he said. He highlighted the need for partnership in making this possible and urged Google to partner with railways to provide free WiFi in more stations. "We have offered over 5000 stations for public private partnership on Rail Sahayog website for WiFi maybe Google can take some of these stations up. I hope to have WiFi connections in all 6000 stations in the next 120 days in the spirit of partnership," he said. 'The Railways-Lifeline of the Nation' project will showcase the heritage of Indian Railways on Google Arts and Culture, an online platform of art and culture by the search engine giant. It will have more than 100 online exhibitions, more than 150 videos and 3500 images. It will offer an in-depth exploration of the sights, sounds and significance of Indian railways. The project will also bring alive the lesser known stories and heroic efforts of people like trackmen, station incharges and workshop engineers, to celebrate their contribution to India's railways. "The extraordinary heritage, history and culture of Indian Railways is truly fascinating, and a treat for both the young and the old. This initiative is all about the iconic moments, the heritage, and the making of Indian Railways, which today is the backbone of the country in many ways," said Amit Sood, Director, Google Cultural Institute. Google Arts & Culture has partnered with more than 1800 institutions in 80 countries globally, with 50 million people using the Google Arts & Culture platform every month. In India, Google Arts & Culture has partnered with over 50 cultural institutions to bring digital exhibits capturing country's rich culture online. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has met all paramilitary DGs. Singh was briefed about the border situation. He gave specific instructions to all DGs for complete preparedness at the border and full strength deployment. Instructions were also given for safeguarding civilians and following standard operating procedures (SOPs) in case of any emergency. (Image: Moneycontrol) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Friday said elections to panchayat and urban local bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, boycotted by the two major parties in the state, will be of historic significance in many ways and help re-establish grassroots democracy. The home minister said in a statement that the central government will provide all support, including central forces, to help in the smooth conduct of the elections. "These local body elections will have a historic significance in many aspects. The local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir will re-establish the long overdue grassroots level democracy in the state," he said. The polls to elect 4,130 'sarpanches' (village headmen), 29,719 'panches' (panchayat members) and 1,145 ward commissioners will be held next month. The National Conference and the People's Democratic Party have decided to boycott the elections, saying the central government is yet to clear its stand on Article 35A of the Constitution, which was challenged in the Supreme Court. Urban local body elections were last held in 2005 and panchayat elections in 2011. The home minister said the Jammu and Kashmir government has taken a number of decisions following a review meeting during his visit to the state on July 4-5. The most significant of them is the conduct of local body elections. "The central government is providing all possible support to the state government for smooth conduct of these elections including deployment of central forces in sufficient numbers," he said. Singh said the elections will also pave the way for making available nearly Rs 4,335 crore of 14th Finance Commission central grants to the duly constituted local bodies. "But for these elections, people of Jammu and Kashmir would have been deprived of these funds meant for their welfare," he said. According to Singh, local bodies are also being vested with significantly enhanced devolution of powers in line with best practices in the country and the polls will enable them to address most of the local issues in their jurisdictions. The minister said the functions and functionaries of all 29 subjects transferred to panchayats under the 73rd amendment of the Constitution will also be transferred to the panchayats of Jammu and Kashmir. These include institutions like primary health centres, primary schools and anganwadi centres. The home minister said financial powers of panchayats are being enhanced 10 times from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh. Similarly, from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh for block councils, every panchayat will now get around Rs 50-80 lakh per year at its disposal for implementation of development schemes, the minister said. To further strengthen the panchayats, additional posts are being sanctioned for accountant, data entry operator, block panchayat inspector and the like, he said. The home minister said the Leh and Kargil Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDC and KAHDC) have been strengthened and empowered to become the most autonomous councils in the country to address various issues being faced by people living in the remote areas of Ladakh region. Article 35A was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order and accords special rights and privileges to Jammu and Kashmir citizens. The Article, which also denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state, has been challenged in the Supreme Court and the matter is still under its consideration. Maharashtra: Visuals from a petrol pump in #Mumbai. Petrol & Diesel prices in Mumbai today are Rs 90.57 per litre & Rs 79.01 per litre, respectively. pic.twitter.com/liL8zD5ZDM ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 Visuals from a petrol pump in Delhi. Petrol & Diesel prices in Delhi today are Rs 83.22 per litre & Rs 74.42 per litre, respectively. pic.twitter.com/OZk4mCSmpj ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 Fuel prices continued to rise across the country on September 28. The price of petrol in Mumbai increased by 22 paise to Rs 90.57 per litre, while that of diesel rose by 19 paise to Rs 79.01 per litre.In Delhi, prices of petrol and diesel price were hiked by 22 paise and 18 paise, respectively. Petrol now costs Rs 83.22 per litre, while diesel is priced at Rs 74.42 per litre, according to Indian Oil Corporation ( IOC ). Chennai witnessed a petrol price hike of 23 paise and diesel price hike of 20 paise. The two fuels now cost Rs 86.51 per litre and Rs 78.69 per litre, respectively, in the city. Read Fact check | Are interest payments on UPA-era oil bonds responsible for high fuel prices? Kolkata too witnessed similar hikes in prices of petrol and diesel. The price of petrol was raised by 21 paise to Rs 85.03 per litre, while that of diesel was raised by 18 paise to Rs 76.27 per litre. The price of petrol and diesel in other cities: Petrol & Diesel Rates Nov 09, 2021 Petrol Rate in Mumbai Nov 09, 2021 Current Petrol Price Per Litre 110 110 View more Diesel Rate in Mumbai Nov 09, 2021 Current Petrol Price Per Litre 94 94 View more Show City Petrol price Price change (increase) Diesel price Price change (increase) (Rs/litre (in paise) (Rs/litre) (in paise) Bangalore 83.88 22 74.80 18 Bhopal 88.99 22 78.41 19 Hyderabad 88.23 24 80.95 20 Lucknow 82.53 17 74.54 18 Port Blair 71.58 19 69.60 16 In Patna, prices of petrol and diesel were down by 21 paise and 20 paise, respectively. Petrol now costs Rs 89.37 per litre in the city, while diesel costs Rs 80.09 per litre. On September 27, the city had witnessed hikes of 58 paise and 54 paise, respectively, in petrol and diesel prices. Amid growing pressure to bring down fuel prices, the BJP-led Maharashtra government said the state would lose Rs 2,200 crore of revenue per year if it slashes prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 1 per litre. The price of petrol has crossed the Rs 90-mark in more than 20 of Maharashtra's 36 districts. Read Northern states agree to fix uniform tax rates on fuel Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on September 26 blamed global factors for the increase in prices of petroleum products. He said reducing taxes on these items would not have any lasting impact because crude oil prices were still quite volatile. Petrol & Diesel prices in #Delhi are Rs 83.22 per litre (increase by Rs 0.22) & Rs 74.42 per litre (increase by Rs 0.18), respectively. Petrol & Diesel prices in #Mumbai are Rs 90.57 per litre (increase by Rs 0.22) & Rs 79.01 per litre (increase by Rs 0.19), respectively. pic.twitter.com/TwLKUcRFk3 ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 "The basic problem is that crude prices are volatile. The effect of any measures, including a reduction in value added tax (VAT) by the states and the Excise duty by the Centre will not last long due to the volatility in crude prices," Pradhan said. However, the minister also said that higher fuel prices are a matter of concern and that the government is finding ways to offer some relief to the public. The Centre currently levies an excise duty of Rs 19.48 per litre on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel. In addition to this, various states levy VAT on the two fuels. Mumbai has the highest VAT -- 39.12 percent -- on petrol, while Telangana levies the highest VAT -- 26 percent -- on diesel. With PTI inputs live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Congress president Rahul Gandhi questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the soaring fuel prices and asked "whose pockets are being filled" because of this. He also attacked the Modi government, once again, over the Rafale fighter plane deal before wrapping up his two-day visit to the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. "Crude oil prices were $140 per barrel in international market during the UPA regime. These rates have come down to $70 (in global market) now. But, the prices of petrol and diesel in India have been going up," Gandhi told a gathering at Baikunthpur of Rewa district. He went on to ask, "Whose pockets are being filled with high prices? Why is the prime minister not speaking on price rise of petrol and diesel?" Taking a dig at the prime minister, Gandhi said, "Narendra Modi used to ask the people (during his speeches) whether they are getting petrol at Rs 50 now.Yes, the people are getting half-a-litre petrol in Rs 50 now." The Congress leader said the Modi government has ignored the interests of farmers but helped a small group of industrialists by waiving loans amounting to nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Turning to the Rafale figher issue, he said during the UPA rule, the contract related to the deal was given to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) so that it could help create jobs. "But the Modi government gave this deal to industrialist Anil Ambani and hiked the planes procurement price," Gandhi alleged. "When we asked about the price, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharama lied that there was a secret clause. But, French President said that there is no such secret pact," he charged. He alleged that French President has said that their government had no option because the Indian government had proposed Anil Ambani's name. Gandhi claimed that Ambani had not manufactured even a single aircraft but was awarded a contract of Rs 30,000-crore after "snatching" the work from HAL. Ambani has already rejected Rahul Gandhi's allegations and emphasised that the government had no role in the Rafale- manufacturer French company Dassault picking up his company as a local partner. He had written to Gandhi on December 12, 2017, refuting allegations of his Reliance Group lacking the experience to get the Rafale fighter jet deal. Ambani had written that Reliance Defence has the largest shipyard in the private sector at Pipavav in Gujarat and is currently building five Naval Offshore Patrol Vessels (NOPVs) for the Indian Navy and 14 Fast Patrol Vessels for the Indian Coast Guard. Congress president also alleged that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had helped industrialist Vijay Mallya in escaping from the country after defaulting on loans to the tune of thousands of crores but Modi doesn't utter a word. Gandhi also attacked the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, saying the roads in the state are full of potholes but Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan claims that they are better than those in the United States. As Shivraj comes on the stage (at a public meeting), even a five-year-old child says that a 'Ghoshana Machine' (a machine of announcements) has come. No work on ground only announcements, he said. He said that the teachers in Madhya Pradesh in schools are hired on contract, which gives no security to their future. Alleging rampant corruption in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress president said Chouhan must answer about the Vyapam scam and the e-tendering scam. He also promised to implement the Land Acquisition Act with rates four times more than the market costs. "Madhya Pradesh only pays twice the land prices," Gandhi said. Earlier in the day, a member of erstwhile royal family of Rewa Pushparaj Singh joined the Congress in the presence of Gandhi and other leaders. He was a minister during the Congress regime in the state but had joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2008. Singhs son Divyaraj Singh is BJP MLA from Sirmour assembly seat. Gandhi reached Chitrakoot (Satna district) from Allahabad by a helicopter on September 27 and visited the Kamta Nath temple where he performed 'puja'. The temple is located in the forested hills of Kamadgiri where, according to mythology, Lord Rama stayed during his exile. Later on September 27, he addressed two public meetings respectively at Chitrakoot and Satna besides holding a roadshow in Rewa city in the night. On September 28, Gandhi addressed public meetings in four assembly constituencies of states Vindhya region including at Baikunthpur (Sirmour), Shahpur (Simaria), Lalgaon (Mangawan) and Chunari (Teothar). After addressing the rally at Chunari, the Congress president left for Allahabad in a helicopter. The 48-year-old Amethi MP was accompanied by Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath, state party campaign committee chairman Jyotiraditya Scindia and Leader of Opposition in MP Assembly Ajay Singh. In a landmark judgment, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on September 28 lifted the ban on the entry of women aged 10-50 inside the 800-year-old Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The bench, comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, delivered a 4:1 verdict. Justice Indu Malhotra was the only dissenting member on the bench. The judgment was delivered by CJI Dipak Misra on behalf of Justice Khanwilkar and himself. Stating that "law and society are tasked with the task to act as levelers", CJI Misra said "dualistic approach against women degrades the status of women". "Women are not lesser or inferior to man," CJI Misra said, adding that the patriarchy of religion cannot be allowed to trump over faith. "Biological or physiological reasons cannot be accepted in freedom for faith," the Chief Justice said. Concurring with the CJI's judgment, Justice Nariman stuck down Rule 3(b) of Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965, which prohibited the entry of women of the aforementioned ages inside the temple. "To treat women as the children of a lesser God is to blink at the Constitution," Justice DY Chandrachud said, while pronouncing the judgment. "The fact that women have a physiological feature of menstruating has nothing to do with her right to pray," he said. Justice Indu Malhotra, in her dissenting judgment, said the court should not interfere in issues of "deep religious sentiments". "The Sabarimala shrine and the deity is protected by Article 25 of Constitution of India and the religious practices cannot be solely tested on the basis of Article 14," Justice Malhotra said, adding that the issues raised in the case will also impact "several other places of worship". Justice Malhotra also stated that the worshippers of Sabarimala temple do not constitute a separate religious denomination. Rahul Eeshwar, who is one of the 24 respondents in the case, said they will file a review petition. "We feel that the petition will be answered positively. It is our Constitutional right," he told the press after the verdict. A look at the Sabarimala case While the Kerala government had opposed the entry of women in 2016, it told the Supreme Court at the hearing this year that it was in favour of allowing women to pray at the temple. Advocate Jaideep Gupta, representing the state government, said it would support the entry of women of all ages to the temple. During the hearing, the apex court had observed that "what applies to a man applies to a woman" as well and that "once you open it for public, anyone can go". The bench had also said that a "woman's right to pray was not dependent on any law but it is a Constitutional right". "Your (intervener) right to pray being a woman, is equal to that of a man and it is not dependent on a law to enable you to do that," observed Justice Chandrachud. Justice Nariman had observed that "menstruation is not impure." The management of the Sabarimala temple had earlier told the Supreme Court that the ban on the entry of women was because menstruation prevented them from maintaining "purity". In 2006, the Indian Young Lawyers Association filed a plea in the apex court, seeking to scrap Rule 3 (b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965, which restricted the entry of women inside the temple. The plea sought the reversal of a 1991 judgment by the Kerala High Court, which had concluded that restriction on women inside the temple was an "essential religious practice" that qualified as a custom. The apex court took up the case for hearing in January 2016. In October 2017, a three-judge bench comprising CJI Dipak Misra, Justice R Banumathi and Justice Ashok Bhushan, had referred the matter for consideration to a Constitution bench. The three-judge bench had framed five "significant" questions to be considered by the higher bench, including whether the practice of banning women from entering the Sabarimala temple violated their fundamental rights and amounted to discrimination. The higher bench had reserved its judgment in the case on August 2. The temple management had contended in court that they are allowed to frame the rules and that the state should not interfere since an Ayyappa devotee form a denomination. Advocate Indira Jaising, who was representing the petitioners, had said the restrictions went against Articles 14 (equality before law), 15 (prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth) and 17 (abolition of untouchability) of the Indian Constitution. Jaising had argued that the custom is discriminatory in nature and that it stigmatised women. During the course of the hearing, CJI Misra had pointed out that since the Sabarimala temple drew funds from the Consolidated Fund, and had people coming from all over the world, it was qualified to be called a "public place of worship." The Kerala government, under the Left Democratic Front (LDF), had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2008, stating that imposing a restriction on entry of women was discriminatory and that it should be discontinued. In 2016, however, the United Democratic Front (UDF) government told the court that it was duty-bound to protect the centuries-old tradition. In July this year, the LDF government restated that gender discrimination should be done away with and that it favors the entry of all women to the temple, irrespective of their age. The Congress alleged a "mahagathbandhan" between Pakistan's ISI and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, accusing the prime minister of betraying the country's national interests and its security. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala demanded that both the prime minister and the BJP president apologise to the nation for "inviting" the ISI to Pathankot air base and for reposing faith in it. The Congress leader also said Modi and his party should not draw political gains out of the valour and courage of armed forces who carried out surgical strikes on terror camps in Pakistan. "Modi-Shah duo have a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) with Pakistan's ISI," he told reporters, claiming the biggest proof of their links with the ISI was the statement by its former chief Assad Durrani that 'Modi is ISI's favourite choice as the prime minister of India'. He said it was due to this "grand alliance" that the Modi government invited the ISI to probe Pathankot terror attack even though it was the Pakistani intelligence agency was responsible for it. Surjewala alleged the Pakistani delegation invited to probe the Pathankot terrorist attack, included members of the ISI. "The prime minister should tell the nation on what basis was the ISI, responsible for Pathankot terror attack, was allowed to carry out a probe," he said. The Congress leader asked why "Shah gave character certificates of appreciation" to ISI on March 30, 2016 in Kolkata by publicly claiming that "Pakistan has made serious efforts in the Pathankot terror probe". "Shah should tell the nation why he praised Pakistan's ISI if he did not have links with it," he asked. Surjewala was joined by a host of ex-servicemen, including Indian Ex Servicemen Movement (IESM) chairman Maj Gen Satbir Singh, in saying the valour of soldiers should not be used for political gains and vote garnering. They were objecting to the alleged release of a video by the government of surgical strikes carried out by Indian Army on terror camps in Pakistan. Surjewala said his party saluted the indomitable courage and bravery of the Armed forces and the nation had always celebrated the valour, fortitude and the spirit of sacrifice of jawans. He said the wars of 1947, 1962, 1965, 1971 and 1999 were a testimony of the heroism of the Armed forces. "Conducting strategic surgical strikes with utmost precision and effective penetration at different times in last two decades has been characteristic of the grit and determination of our forces," he said, providing a list of such strikes since 2000. "The prime minister and the BJP have always used the blood and sacrifice of our jawans as a tool to garner votes. In fact, the BJP chief dishonoured the valour of our armed forces on October 7, 2016 by disregarding the supreme sacrifices made in the five wars and numerous surgical strikes," he claimed. He alleged the Modi government had compromised the national security and betrayed the national interests in four and a half years. "The lack of political action and policy has led to a disquiet border and an alarming internal security situation," he claimed. The Congress leader also asked a set of 10 questions to the prime minister and alleged he had played failed to defend India's borders and had imperiled its safety and security which was apparent in the 500 per cent increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan since May 2014. "Where was the '56-inches chest' missing when Pakistan committed more than 3,000 ceasefire violations at the LoC and international border," Surejwala asked. "Hasn't Modi failed to consolidate the valiant surgical strikes of our Army on September 28, 2016, as Pakistan dared to commit 1,604 ceasefire violations thereafter in which 29 jawans have been martyred," he asked. He asked why Modi "bent over backwards before China" by shelving the raising of a special regiment called 'Mountain Strike Corps' along the China border, approved by the Congress-UPA government. "Has it not imperiled the security of our eastern border," he asked. Surjewala also asked why the prime minister played havoc with India's internal security by "permitting the ugly menace of Naxalism to raise its head, kill our soldiers and civilians and creates internal disturbances". "Is it not true that since the year 2015, 237 jawans and 380 civilians have been killed in over 3,200 Naxal attacks under the Modi government's watch," he asked. He asked if it was a fact that Modi has completely failed to draft a policy to tackle Naxalism and why he had "betrayed" the soldiers by denying them 'One Rank, One Pension'. "Why has Modi disregarded the honour of our soldiers, veterans and ex-servicemen by making 'One Rank, One Pension' as 'One Rank Five Pensions'," he asked. The Congress leader asked if it was true that in the 52 months of the Modi government in Jammu and Kashmir alone, 414 jawans were martyred and 259 civilians killed in Pakistan- sponsored terrorism. Representative Image The BSF vowed strong retaliatory action against Pakistan, saying it was witnessing a "more aggressive stance" of the opponent along the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir after Imran Khan became prime minister. Outgoing BSF Director General (DG) K K Sharma told reporters that his troops were waiting for the right time to strike back against the enemy in retaliation to the recent killing of their jawan along the IB in the state. Sharma, who demits office on September 30, also admitted that Head Constable Narender Singh was killed in an "action of the Border Action Team (BAT)" of Pakistan. The jawan was shot three times on his chest, dragged to the other side of the fence, his feet were tied and throat slit, the DG said. "There was no mutilation of the body," he said. The Border Security Force (BSF) chief said the gun and ammunition of the jawan, who went ahead of the fence in Jammu's Ramgarh sector along with seven other personnel, was taken away. "This incident is a first of its kind because generally on the IB you don't have a BAT action. This was a BAT action...It is an unfortunate incident," the DG told reporters here. He added that some counter-action has already been taken along the Line of Control (LoC) and more is in store. "We have taken sufficient action across the LoC to avenge the death of our soldier. We also reserve our right to retaliate at an appropriate time and place of our choosing," Sharma said. "The moment this incident took place we noticed that the other side simply vanished. They were no where in sight. "They also got their villages vacated thinking we will hit them. So, even if we had retaliated, it would not have been of any use at that time," he said, adding "we have reserved the right". Sharma said the BSF has given a befitting reply and caused more damage on the Pakistan side than ever before. "The BSF has given a very tough and befitting reply and caused much more damage on the other side in the past. We will do the same again. "In this case, it was very important for us to retrieve the body first and then think of something else. We will see in the near future, we will do something," he said. Sharma said it is expected that the BAT's actions can now also happen along the IB and hence, BSF personnel in forward locations have been asked to remain alert from this point of view. The DG was subsequently asked if there has been any change in the security situation along the border after Imran Khan took over as the prime minister of Pakistan. "There has been no change on the border and this incident has taken place after Imran Khan took over as the PM. Such action never took place on the IB. "We are seeing a more aggressive stance of the opponent on the border than in the past. This incident is an act of aggression," the DG said at the BSF headquarters here. He reiterated that "many training camps" and launching pads of terrorists were active along the IB where hundreds of militants are present and are wanting to infiltrate into India. "It is Pakistan's state policy to help and push terrorists into India. This is part of the Zia-ul-Haq (former Pakistan president) doctrine to make India bleed by thousand cuts," he said. The DG said there has been no successful infiltration bid from along the IB this year and whatever has happened has taken place from the LoC which is under the army's operational control. He added that the Pakistani side, in anticipation of a 'surgical strike' like retaliation from India is still alert and they have got cleared about 5 km of area from the IB on their side. When asked if the force has seen Chinese troops along with Pak Rangers on this border, the DG replied in the negative, saying he has knowledge of Chinese PLA troops manning the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) assets. Abdulla Yameen Kunal Singh The people of the Maldives voted for a change on September 23. The joint opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, according to provisional results, emerged victorious, bagging 58% of the votes polled. India was quick to congratulate in a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), India welcomed the triumph of democratic forces in the Maldives. This result came as a relief to New Delhi because incumbent dictator-president Abdulla Yameen had titled entirely towards China. Having concluded that he had Beijings back, Yameen went about repressing civil liberties inside the Maldives and unnecessarily provoking India. Matters came to a head in February when Yameen, in response to the Maldives Supreme Court ordering release of political prisoners, imposed a state of emergency and arrested judges of the top court and members of the opposition. Opposition leader-in-exile and former president Mohamed Nasheed asked for New Delhis intervention. But India just chose to issue platitudinous statements. After Solihs victory, some strategic affairs commentators in India have wholeheartedly lauded New Delhis patience in not heeding to hawkish voices which asked for a military intervention in February. They say that New Delhis restraint helped the democratic opposition as Yameen could not use an anti-India plank to build up a nationalistic election campaign. They also point to Indias recent botched experience of using a non-military intervention in Nepal in the form of an economic blockade and praised New Delhi for refraining to use the instrument of economic sanctions against the Maldives. Economic pressure from India would have alienated the Maldivian public opinion, the argument goes. There has also been a suggestion that Solihs victory is a fine exemplar of Indias regional statecraft. What is the need for tough, military options after all if the same result could be achieved by quiet, behind the scenes work? The biggest problem with all these arguments is that they assume that India has already achieved its outcome in the Maldives and the dilemma of intervention has been left far behind. But that is not the case. There were some indications on September 26 that Yameen may not let go of his position even though he has already conceded defeat in the election. Ahmed Mahloof, the spokesperson of the joint opposition, tweeted that the Yameen government was trying to get the election result annulled. He also told the press that the government in Male had asked the election commission to delay announcing the final results. In the event, a statement each from the military and the police promising to uphold the election verdict ended up assuaging Mahloofs concerns. But Yameen is slated to remain in power till November 17 and if he chooses to play further tricks, the question of intervention will come back to haunt New Delhi. The praise for the Indian statecraft is a bit misleading. The presidential election in the Maldives did not happen in the best of circumstances. Most international observers have reported that the election was not free and fair. If Yameen had won through blatant rigging, would we still be praising Indian statecraft and restraint? Even though the result in the Maldives is favourable to India, this is not a moment to run away from the question of intervention. It will definitely crop up in the future, either in the Maldives or somewhere else in South Asia. India claims the mantle of regional leadership. One cannot simultaneously be a leader and also the good boy in the room. It is true that interventions will necessarily please one group and alienate another, but that is the cost of leadership. India should decide on intervening based on a clear assessment of its own national interests. Having stayed after imposing emergency and weathering India's criticism, Yameen continued to provoke India by hosting the Pakistani army chief and asking New Delhi to take back its helicopters. Of late, emboldened by his success, KP Sharma Oli of Nepal has been treading a similar path. Oli recently chose to embarrass India by pulling the Nepalese army out of a BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) military drill but went ahead with a joint military exercise with China. India cannot wish away the option of intervening in the neighbourhood. The instrument of intervention should definitely be carefully zeroed upon. Economic blockades do hurt ordinary people, not just rulers. But New Delhi cannot let tyrants get away after hurting Indias interests. In normal times, India should be generous towards neighbours without even demanding reciprocity. But it should also let its red lines known very clearly and be willing to enforce them if required, using military options. If New Delhi thinks otherwise, it should stop making a song and dance about being the regional leader. (Kunal Singh is a New Delhi-based strategic affairs analyst. Views expressed are personal.) Shekhar Iyer On September 27, the Supreme Court declined to set up a larger bench to relook its 1994 Ram temple-Babri Masjid case verdict, which held that a mosque is not an essential part of the practice of Islam. With the latest decision by the apex court, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hope for a decision by the court on the main title suit before the 2019 elections. But the BJP and its ideological mentor RSS know that there is little that the central government can do to speed up matters in the court. The onus is now on the Supreme Court to announce a new bench (as Chief Justice Dipak Misra will retire on October 2) and ensure hearings resume as decreed from October 29. A closer reading of the two-judge majority judgment as well as the manner in which the Ram temple issue has panned out over the years will show that no major gains are likely for the BJPs politics, even if the court hearings were to go full steam from now on. The Ayodhya dispute has been around for more than 25 years. The BJP has promised its supporters a Ram temple at the disputed site since 1989. Whenever its core supporters have raised the issue of the long delay in arriving at a resolution, the BJP has been on the defensive. It has been reiterating as a ritual in every manifesto that it remains committed to the cause. But beyond that commitment, the party leadership has acknowledged though not in as many words that there is little that it can do until the main title suit is adjudicated by the apex court. There has been talk of other ways of resolving the problem, either by an out-of-court settlement or by a legislation, both of which do not appear feasible for many reasons. Barring individuals, major Muslim groups have held that they would rather wait for the apex courts final call on the disputed land in Ayodhya being divided into three parts a solution mooted by the Allahabad High Court. In 2010, the Allahabad High Court split the disputed 2.77 acre land in Ayodhya between Hindu and Muslim parties. It was to be split equally between the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla (infant Ram). Hindus and Muslims have challenged this decision and this forms the core of the disputed title suit. At the moment, there is no talk about a Lok Sabha resolution, but in the event of the state elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan not going in the BJPs favour, some party leaders could opt for this route before the general elections. However, it is highly doubtful if Prime Minister Narendra Modi would let the hawks hijack his development-growth plank. Such an approach would rob Modi of his stature. This is perhaps why the BJP is not vocal about celebrating the latest verdict, understanding the finer points that follow from the majority order by Justice Ashok Bhushan. Even Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has limited himself, saying the country would benefit if the Ayodhya issue is resolved quickly. In 1994, the apex court had ruled that namaz or prayers can be offered anywhere and a mosque is not essential. This verdict allowed the central government to take over the land where the 16th century Babri mosque stood before it was razed in December 6, 1992. All religions, all mosques and temples, churches are equal. We have already noticed all religious places are liable to be acquired as per 1994 verdict, said Justice Bhushan on September 27. He made it clear that the 1994 verdict regarding acquisition should not be taken into account while deciding suits and appeals. After considering Justice Bhushans majority judgment, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) too sees some positive movement in the case, citing the Supreme Courts order that the main Ayodhya case will not be approached on the basis of faith but will be heard as a title suit. (Earlier, the AIMPLB wanted the court's 1994 observation be put before a Constitution bench so that the matter is resolved permanently.) Significantly, the issue whether the mosque is integral to Islam cropped up when Congress leader Kapil Sibal, representing one of the Muslim bodies, raised it. He even suggested that the hearings be put off till the Lok Sabha polls, prompting the BJP to accuse the Congress of seeking inordinate delay for the resolution of the dispute for political reasons. That only underscored what the Congress always felt about the Ram temple issue: the BJP will gain from this, no matter how it is settled. First, deep breath. The churn of news is so fast these days, that it is easy to be overwhelmed, and easier to ignore the news altogether. But, what an eventful week this has been! World leaders laughed openly at Donald Trump in the United Nations General Assembly. Trump, according to certain news reports, made 73 false statements at the last count. These false or misleading statements add to the already over 5,000-such claims he has made since taking office, as meticulously tracked by The Washington Post. Next, Dr Christine Blasey Ford offered a brave and emotional testimony about the alleged assault she suffered during her high school days at the hands of the current Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the United States senate. Brett Kavanaugh gave a red-faced, belligerent, often misogynistic rebuttal. Donald Trump, naturally, supported Kavanaugh. Closer home, a Supreme Court majority judgment upheld the constitutionality of Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI's) controversial project Aadhaar and struck down Section 57, which had allowed private companies to use the Aadhaar database. Justice Chandrachud, the sole dissenter on the bench, wrote a scathing judgment calling the entire Aadhaar project, unconstitutional. Then on Thursday, the same Justice D Y Chandrachud, termed section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes adultery, an archaic provision which treats women as a commodity, and stated categorically that the state power cannot be used for prosecuting an individual over matrimonial issues. Today, on the 28th of September, in another landmark judgment, the Supreme Court has ruled that women of all ages be allowed entry into the Sabarimala temple. There were routine controversies about a Made in China Sardar Patel statue and Madhya Pradesh's governor Anandiben Patel recommending cooking lessons for girls so that they can learn to make dal. The Antigua government assured India of its full cooperation in the extradition of fugitive Mehul Choksi, allegedly involved in the $2 billion scam in the Punjab National Bank. And all this is just the very tip of the gargantuan newsberg that has become our lives these days. We are the Titanic, and the news the iceberg; each day a collision, each event triggering PTSD. But complacency is a privilege reserved only for the elite. So, shoulder on we must, and address another issue thats been on a slow burn for a while now. We will begin with the latest episode of the Digging Deeper podcast with fresh developments in the furore surrounding the AgustaWestland chopper deal. On September 19, according to a Reuters report, an Italian appeals court released a detailed judgment specifying why it acquitted AgustaWestland officials of corruption charges in the VVIP helicopter deal with India over eight months ago. The Milan court said in a 322-page judgment, "There is, conclusively, no evidence of the corrective agreement stipulated according to the imputation, with the foreign public official, just as it requires the incriminating law. But what exactly are we talking about? And what is the AgustaWestland helicopter deal all about? Well, the deal is about an agreement that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government signed with the British-Italian firm AgustaWestland in 2007. In a rather familiar script that evokes a sense of deja vu if you have been keeping track of proven or disputed scams burgeoning across the decades, the deal was put on hold after Italy arrested the head of Finmeccanica, AgustaWestlands parent company. This was done on account of bribery charges and accusations of corruption in order to win the contract. On January 8, this year, an Italian court acquitted former Finmeccanica President Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland Chief Executive Officer Bruno Spagnolini of charges of illegal payment of 560 million euros in the deal to sell 12 AW101 helicopters to India. Before that, in February 2013, Orsi had been arrested and Spagnolini was put under house arrest. Italian-American consultant Guido Ralph Haschke was sentenced to one year and 10 months in April 2014, while heavy fines were imposed on AgustaWestland. An Indian Express piece was among the many that reported that eight months and 10 days after its decision acquitting AgustaWestland officials of corruption charges in the VVIP helicopter deal with India, an Italian appeals court in Milan last week gave its judgment detailing the reasons for finding no evidence of graft. We quote, "The court also said that the allegation that the operational ceiling limit for flying the helicopter was changed on illegal payment to the then IAF chief was not chronologically possible as per the evidence submitted." Former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi was and is also an accused in the case and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the moment are investigating the case in India. One of the allegations levelled against former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief S P Tyagi was that he allegedly changed the operational ceiling limit for flying the aircraft. However, The Indian Express has reported that the court, in its judgment, found no chronological evidence to support this charge. In another development, Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper scam, has been reported missing since a Dubai court ordered his extradition to India. It is notable though, and as multiple reports have stated that the Italian court's conclusions will not weigh on the investigation into the case being conducted in India by the ED and the CBI even though as reported by Reuters, the recent detailed judgment will possibly close the case in Italy as it has already gone through a first-degree trial, two appellate trials and a Supreme Court ruling. And who exactly is Christian Michel? As NDTV and many other media houses have reported, the detailed judgment of the Italian court comes days after news that alleged middleman Christian Michels extradition to India had been cleared by a Dubai court. Michel is a British citizen and is one of three alleged middlemen accused of bribing Indian officials to secure the Rs 3,600-crore deal. He has reportedly gone missing. Michels lawyer, Amal Alsubei told NDTV that the former has gone missing from the day UAE went to the court. Alsubei also added that the middleman in the Rs 3,600 crore deal will be arrested when found, and that he is likely to appeal in the Supreme Court. Michel was arrested in the UAE in 2017 and is currently out on bail. The Quint reported that at the time of the Rs 3,600-crore scam (early 2013), Christian Michel was a well-known British consultant active in the Indian defence sector. Allegedly, he was hired by AgustaWestland to facilitate the deal for the supply of 12 helicopters to India in 2010. We quote the Quint, "In its chargesheet filed against Michel in June 2016, the ED had alleged that he received 30 million euros (approximately Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland as kickbacks to execute the deal and to make it look like a genuine transaction. Michel is one of the three middlemen being probed in the case, besides Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa, by the ED and CBI. AgustaWestland became eligible to supply the dozen helicopters for VVIP flying duties after this change." PTI reported that according to the Enforcement Directorate investigation, remittances made by Michel through his Dubai-based firm Global Services to a media firm he floated in Delhi, along with two Indians, were made from the funds which he got from AgustaWestland through what was termed as criminal activity and corruption. The Economic Times reported that subsequently, a Red Corner Notice was issued against Michel in 2015 by Interpol on the request of both the ED and CBI. A Red Corner Notice, is the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant in use today. The Economic Times added that India has been trying to secure Michels extradition for the past one year. The Quint report also said and we quote, In July 2018, after he was granted bail in Dubai, Michel had accused Indian investigators of pressuring him to name UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and frame senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel in return for a clean chit in the multi-crore scam. On July 19, while he was in custody, his lawyer Rosemary Patrizi had made similar charges against the Indian probe agencies, although CBI had denied the allegations." The plot thickens As India Today reported, the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter case has remained a mystery to Indian investigators as to who the beneficiaries were in the multi-crore scam. "The CBI maintains that kickbacks were paid to Indian Air Force officials, bureaucrats and politicians. References to "AP", "FAM", "Pol", "Bur" and "AF" in the diary of Christian Michel have remained unexplained. His extradition is likely to solve this puzzle." But the story goes even further back in time. We quote India Today again, "To understand the nature of AgustaWestland scam, going into the background of the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal is important. It genesis lies in a review and recommendation by the Indian Air Force in 1999 - Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister then - to buy new helicopters for VVIPs. Soviet-era Mi-8 helicopters were then used by the VVIPs in India. Mi-8 helicopters were found be obsolete in the view of latest security requirements. Tenders were floated in 2002 for new helicopters. One of the conditions mentioned in the tender warranted a bidder to have the capability to fly at 6,000 metre altitude. Only Eurocopter qualified in the bid in 2002 prompting an order by the then National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra to change the eligibility criteria." The article reports that post the end of the Vajpayee government in 2004, the defence ministry under the new government prepared a new eligibility criteria bringing down the flying altitude to 4,500 m. "Three vendors qualified for the bid now. A deal was finalised with AgustaWestland in 2010. The UPA government signed a purchase contract for 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters for the Indian Air Force for Rs 3,600 crore. Eight of the helicopters were to be used by VVIPs including the President, Vice-President and the Prime Minister of India. Four choppers were to be used for other purposes. Three helicopters were delivered to the IAF by 2012. They were kept in a mothball - that is, in packaging -- condition at the Palam Airport for next four years. Meanwhile, a corruption scandal broke out in Italy involving Finmeccanica, an Italian firm that owns AgustaWestland, a British company." The UPA government says the piece, subsequently scrapped the AgustaWestland deal in February 2013. In January 2014, India froze the bank account of AgustaWestland and recovered Rs 250 crore as bank guarantee. What was Christian Michel's role? Let us repeat ourselves a bit here and cite India Today again, according to which, the ED charge sheet filed against Michel in June 2016 says that he received about Rs 225 crore from AgustaWestland to get the VVIP chopper deal done. "The ED investigation found that Christian Michel made remittances to a media firm he floated in Delhi through his Dubai-based firm Global Services. The agency also found that the routed fund was part of the money Christian Michel got from AgustaWestland. The ED described the routing of money as "criminal activity," writes India Today. Similar payments were allegedly made, says India Today, to various other companies including one jointly owned by former IAF chief S P Tyagi. We quote, "This particular company received Rs 1 crore. SP Tyagi is the 50 percent partner of the company named Krishnom. Christian Michel is believed to be the key figure who connected middlemen in touch with Indian bureaucrats, IAF officials and politicians to AgustaWestland." Besides Tyagi, says India today, another figure to be charge-sheeted is retired Air Marshal J S Gujral along with eight others, including five foreign nationals. Michel, as is clear by now, is one of the three foreign country-based middlemen charge-sheeted in the matter. Political subtext The current political climate has not been easy for political parties staking their claim as the front runners for the 2019 elections, but with issues like the falling rupee, dizzying fuel prices and a lot more, focusing selectively on controversies that discredit rivals can go a long way in winning the war of perception. Interestingly though, the scandal was first sniffed out in Italy in 2013. As Firstpost reported, " The Italian authorities were first to allege that kickbacks worth Rs 40 million had been paid to Indian officials to grease contracts favouring debt-laden State-controlled Finmeccanica, through its Britain-based subsidiary AgustaWestland. " It was then that defence minister AK Antony ordered a probe into the matter, which ultimately led to the deal being shelved on January 1, 2014. What makes things interesting as Firstpost commented is that although it was not immediately clear if the UAE court order can be challenged or if there are other means for Michel to escape extradition, if Michel's extradition actually takes place, then investigating agencies can probe his alleged connection with Indian politicians, air force officers and other middlemen. And that will be another interesting twist though as we have seen through time, the canary rarely if ever sings in cases that are this complex and the truth hardly if ever comes out. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Institutional and private investors rejected the resolution to reappoint Neeraj Kanwar as Managing Director of Apollo Tyres at the recently held annual general meeting. Nearly 57 percent of the pack of institutional investors, which is made up of foreign and domestic players, rejected the resolution. In addition, nearly 49 percent of the non-institutional investors also rejected it. However, 51 percent of the equity shares of the company is held by the promoters and promoter group. This resulted in nearly 73 percent voting in favour of the resolution. "Apollo Tyres' Board of Directors will discuss the resolution in the next meeting and determine the course of action to be taken with respect to it. The company would like to reiterate that it is the vision and resolve of the company, and its senior leadership, to deliver value to all its stakeholders including employees, shareholders, customers, partners and other relevant communities," a Apollo Tyres spokesperson said. The reason behind the shareholders rejection is not known however market watchers say point out to the 42 percent jump in remuneration paid to Kanwar during last financial year. From Rs 30.03 crore in 2016-17, his pay package surged to Rs 42.75 crore in 2017-18. Kanwars father Onkar Kanwar, who is the chairman of Apollo Tyres, did not see a massive hike rise in his remuneration during last year. Onkar took home Rs 44.98 crore last year as against Rs 44.91 crore in 2016-17. Apollo Tyres reported its worst net profit in five years. At Rs 724 crore, the companys consolidated net profit dipped 34 percent last year compared to Rs 1,099 crore recorded in 2016-17. In 2012-13, the company recorded net profit of Rs 613 crore. Fellow director Robert Steinmetz also faced similar opposition from the shareholders. 42 percent of institutional investors voted against the continuation of Steinmetz, for which a special resolution was put forward for voting. In all nearly 20 percent of Apollo's shareholders voted against this resolution. The Ministry of Electronics and IT Friday signed an agreement with Uzbekistan's Tashkent University to collaborate in the IT sector. "A declaration of intent was signed between the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) and Tashkent University today for deepening our cooperation in the field of capacity building in the field of information technology," Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. The agreement was signed at a meeting between Meity Official led by Prasad and Uzbek delegation led by IT Minister of Uzbekistan Shuhrat Sadikov. IT services arm of government, NIC signed agreement with Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications Uzbekistan for greater cooperation in the field of eGovernance. In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court on September 28 allowed entry for women of all age groups to the 800-year-old Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala. Reading out the judgment, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra said the "patriarchal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion". A five-judge bench, comprising CJI Misra and Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, delivered a 4:1 verdict. Justice Indu Malhotra was the only dissenting member on the bench. While Sabarimala head priest Kandararu Rajeevarau said the decision was "disappointing", he added that the shrine board accepted it. Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, while welcoming the decision, told ANI that "it (the verdict) opens up and brings the way forward for Hinduism to become even more inclusive and not a property of one caste or one sex". We welcome the historic Supreme Court judgement allowing entry of women of all ages into the #SabarimalaTemple #SabarimalaVerdict Congress (@INCIndia) September 28, 2018 The Congress, too, welcomed the verdict in a tweet. Congress Member of Parliament (MP) from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor said the court has reiterated the case of equal justice through this verdict. Tharoor had differed from his party's 2016 stance that it was duty-bound to protect the centuries-old tradition. Party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the decision has "given a fresh expression to the rights of women and how they cannot be subjugated to any religious practice, no matter how sacred". There can be no discrimination to worship on the basis of gender or otherwise. A welcome and progressive move towards gender equality by Supreme Court in #Sabrimala . As society evolves, so should our religious beliefs and laws. Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) September 28, 2018 I am happy that SC has decided that gender equality in worship is to be followed in Sabarimalai. This what I had been advocating Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) September 28, 2018 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy tweeted that he was "happy" with the decision. Karnataka Women and Child Development Minister Jayamala, who had claimed that she had entered the temple in 1987 for a film shoot, called the verdict "historic". "There is no happier moment in my life. I thank the women community, Supreme Court judges and God today... I also thank Ambedkar who wrote our Constitution," the actor-turned-politician said. Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said he respected the apex court's verdict. He said the state government's stand is not just with regard to the Sabarimala temple, but all places of worship and insisted that there should be no discrimination. BJP's Kerala president PS Sreedharan Pillai said the state government and Devaswom should work to build a consensus and "not escalate the situation". "On one side are the beliefs of crores of people. On the other side is the fight for equal rights. The two sides must be brought together. Without compromising on the importance of Sabarimala, there must be an atmosphere of consensus," Pillai said. Meanwhile, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) called the verdict "unfortunate" and said the organisation will approach the Supreme Court with a review petition, The Hindu has reported. "The VHP recognises and accepts the apex court verdict in the case. The organisation will fully abide by the directives of the court and will not obstruct any woman from entering the temple. However, one may not be able to predict the response of Ayyappa devotees to women entering the temple," SJR Kumar, state president of the organisation, said. Railways has formed joint venture companies with 12 states with equity participation of 49:51 respectively for effective and speedy implementation of rail projects in the country, a senior official of the ministry said Thursday. The first such project under this model was approved by the Cabinet on September 26 in Chhattisgarh where a new broad gauge electrified line of 294.53 route km from Katghora to Dongargarh will provide rail connectivity to unserved areas of the state. "We have started this model with share of 51 percent for the state and 49 percent for us. We have formed such companies with 12 states. In this we make the JV and then we tell the states to choose the line. After we are convinced, we decide to go ahead. "If the line is profitable, we take a loan through a special purpose vehicle. Railways will spend only Rs 350 crore out of the total Rs 5950.47 crore. The state will pay Rs 365 crore. There are coal companies which will get benefited that are also part of this. So over all 25 percent of the cost is through equity and 75 percent is through loans. We will repay the loan in 20 years," said Mahesh Gupta, Member, Engineering, Railway Board. While the line in Chhattisgarh is primarily for goods trains, two pairs of passenger trains are being envisaged for the state as well. The JVs for other states could be for both passenger or goods trains depending on the needs of the state government. "In this model, the onus is on the state government to determine which line will be beneficial for them in terms of profit. If they propose a profitable line, we are happy to work with them. "This is the model which would mean that the state governments and railways will together share the profits and bear the losses, if any," said Gupta. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has criticised Myanmar for failing to fulfil its commitment to take back Rohingya Muslim refugees who had fled to Bangladesh due to ethnic and religious persecution in their home country. Hasina said Myanmar had given a verbal commitment to take back Rohingya Muslims who have fled a military crackdown she described as "tantamount to genocide and crimes against humanity". Hasina made the remarks in her speech at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations on Thursday, even as the UN Human Rights Council agreed to set up a team to collect evidence of alleged crimes that could later be used to prosecute suspected perpetrators. "The world cannot ignore or remain silent over the plight of the Rohingya people driven from their homes in Myanmar and sheltering in Bangladesh," Hasina, said as she urged world leaders for an early and peaceful solution to the massive refugee crisis. "We are disappointed that despite our earnest efforts we have not been able to begin Rohingya repatriation in a permanent and sustainable manner. Myanmar is one of our neighbours. From the outset, we have been trying to find a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis through bilateral consultations," said the Bangladeshi premier noting that her country has concluded three refugee repatriation arrangements with Myanmar, UN News reported. "Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingya, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back," Hasina said. Hasina also recalled the five-point proposal she presented to the UN General Assembly last year, which outlined a durable and peaceful solution for the plight of the forcibly displaced Rohingya. She said Bangladesh is hosting some 1.1 million members of Myanmar's minority Rohingya Muslim community and, supported by humanitarian organisations, including UN agencies, is providing them with food, clothing, healthcare and security. Work is also underway to provide improved housing, as well as education and other services. "I call upon international organisations to join hands with us in this initiative. I also seek their assistance to help relocate the Rohingya to the facility," she added. Most of the Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh since August, 2017 when attacks by Rohingya militants led to a major crackdown by Myanmar's security forces that triggered a massive cross-border exodus of refugees. Egypt has received the third and last $500 million tranche of a $1.5 billion African Development Bank loan which will support the government's development programmes, the investment ministry said on Friday. The loan was agreed in 2015 amid an acute foreign currency shortage that crippled import activity and had the country scrambling to find new sources of dollars as shipments piled up at ports and manufacturing slowed. Egypt has since implemented tough reforms under a $12 billion IMF loan program agreed in late 2016 that involved deep cuts to energy subsidies, new taxes and a floated currency in a bid to draw back investors who fled after its 2011 uprising. "The funds will help support development programmes that meet the citizens' needs, and which come as a top priority for the government in the context of the social dimension of Egypt's economic reform programme," the statement read. The country's foreign reserves stood at $44.42 billion as of end-August. Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said last week that Egypt's economy has proven "resilient" in the face of wider emerging market turbulence, but that the government will seek around $5 billion in foreign currency bonds in the coming months. Officials plan to launch Asian and European tours in mid-October to market the international bonds. Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has said that the LTTE militant group had planned to attack Colombo with an aircraft flying from Chennai in 2009. "No one knew it better than me," said Sirisena, who was the acting defence minister during the last two weeks of the civil war with the LTTE in May, 2009 when the rebels were eventually defeated. He was addressing the Sri Lankan community in New York where he spoke at the UN General Assembly. "The former president was away, the former prime minister was away. There was no defence ministry secretary and army commander in the country at the time," he said. Sirisena said it was a well-guarded secret that all senior leaders were out of the country fearing an LTTE air raid. "The Tamil Tigers were going to operate an aircraft from Chennai or some other jungle area to bomb and destroy targets in Colombo," the president said, adding "I was the acting defence minister. All the others had fled because they feared air attacks". "Even I did not stay in Colombo. I was at several locations outside Colombo in case the Tigers attacked the capital city," he said. The LTTE had carried out two air raids in the capital in 2007 and 2009. A flotilla of small boats rescued all 47 passengers and crew from an Air Niugini flight that crashed into the sea short of the runway at an airport in the tiny South Pacific nation of Micronesia on Friday, the airport's manager said. "It was supposed to land but instead of landing it was 150 yards short and she went down," Jimmy Emilio, general manager of Chuuk Airport at Weno in Micronesia, told Reuters by telephone. "We don't really know what happened ... people were rescued by boats - 36 passengers and 11 crew were all rescued, only the plane is sinking right now," he said. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft hit the lagoon surrounding the small island about 9.30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Thursday), Emilio said. The passengers and crew were taken to hospital but no serious injuries were reported. "I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in," passenger Bill Jaynes said in a video posted by the Pacific Daily News website. "I thought, well, this is not like the way it's supposed to happen," he said. Water was waist-deep in the cabin before rescuers arrived, he said. Video published online by Radio New Zealand and pictures posted on Twitter showed the half-submerged aircraft surrounded by small speedboats. Air Niugini said in a statement the airline is "making all efforts" to look after the passengers and crew. A spokesman for Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Commission said investigators would fly to the scene as soon as possible to piece together what happened. In 2013, all 101 passengers aboard a Lion Air flight that overshot the runway at Denpasar in Indonesia and landed in shallow water were similarly rescued by boats without casualties. Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud | Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia | A new entrant in the list, at 8th position, he virtually controls the oil rich nation. In November 2017, he launched an "anti-corruption campaign" that caused many prominent Saudis to be arrested and forced to turn over their fortunes. Forbes predicts, he will be the fulcrum around which the Middle Eastern geopolitics moves for the next generation. (Reuters) Saudi Arabia, the new entrant to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has inked grant agreements with Pakistan to finance three road infrastructure and energy projects under the $50 billion CPEC, according to media reports. The two sides also signed three agreements worth $16.1 million for financing projects in health and education sectors in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The agreements were signed by the Saudi envoy and the officials of Pakistan's finance ministry on Thursday when Chairman of the Saudi Fund for Development, Ahmad Agil Al-Khateeb, visited Pakistan with a six-member delegation. The aide to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman made an unscheduled stopover in Islamabad on Thursday, raising prospects of a multi-billion-dollar Saudi Arabian bailout package for cash-starved Pakistan, according to media reports. Saudi Arabia gave a grant of $10 million for furnishing the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz campus of a university in PoK, the Express Tribune reported. "These agreements have been inked in line with the understanding reached during Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told a press conference on Thursday. On the signing of the grants agreements to finance road infrastructure and energy projects under the CPEC, the minister said, "The first step has been taken as three grant agreements have been signed. This is a very positive step and bodes well for relations between the two countries." The CPEC is the flagship project of the multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a pet project of Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at enhancing Beijing's influence around the world through China-funded infrastructure projects. India has protested to China over the CPEC as it traverses through PoK. Saudi Arabia is the third "strategic partner" of the CPEC, a senior Pakistani minister said recently soon after Prime Minister Khan returned from his first foreign trip to the cash-rich kingdom. Since the prime minister's visit to Saudi Arabia, the Opposition has been asking the government to unveil the pledges made by Riyadh regarding mega investment and monetary assistance to Pakistan. Chaudhry said that a high-level Saudi delegation would arrive in Pakistan on Sunday and more agreements would be inked. Finance Minister Asad Umar held a meeting with a Saudi delegation led by Al-Khateeb, raising prospects of a Saudi Arabian bailout package for Pakistan. Umar is learnt to have discussed with the delegation matters relating to strengthening bilateral economic ties between the two countries. Although the government denied that Pakistan sought a bailout package, there are reports suggesting that the country requested a multi-billion-dollar assistance package in the shape of oil on deferred payments and cash to cope with growing external sector challenges, the report said. 3. International Monetary Fund | At 2,814 tonnes gold in its reserves, the IMF is on the third spot. Projecting Sri Lanka's economic growth below four percent, an International Monetary Fund team said the country should accelerate reforms to its economy's resilience to domestic and external shocks. The comments came at a time when the Sri Lankan rupee plunged to its worst level vis-a-vis the US dollar. The rupee has collapsed from 153 to 169 against the US dollar so far this year. The team led by Manuela Goretti said the authorities should sustain reform efforts to support trade, investment and inclusive growth. "A strong policy mix and exchange rate flexibility are critical to strengthen the economy's resilience to market volatility, while supporting competitiveness and growth," it said. "Macroeconomic performance has been mixed in the first half of 2018...The current account deficit widened on the back of higher fuel imports...while international reserves declined from their peak level in April, amid volatile global market conditions. Growth is projected to remain below 4 percent in 2018, and gradually reach 5 percent over the medium-term," the team added. It noted that in the face of greater market volatility in emerging markets, the Lankan authorities have maintained a strong policy stance with prudent monetary policy and further fiscal consolidation. "Reforms need to accelerate to strengthen the Sri Lankan economy's resilience to domestic and external shocks, given still significant vulnerabilities," it said. The IMF team concluded its two-week visit to the island nation to hold discussions on the fifth review of the country's economic programmes supported by a three-year Extended Fund Facility. Licence quota raj dominates the Indian drone market, allowing a select cabal of companies (or cronies) to exclusively bid for government tenders. We will examine one such tender in detail and point out all the flaws that ultimately result in the taxpayer getting a substandard system at an inflated cost. The tender we will examine is one issued by Forest Survey of India, which comes under ministry of environment, forest and climate change. (The tender notice is at the end of this article.) Let us examine the technical specifications first Page-2 of the tender specifies that they give the full form of UAV in brackets 1) A professional survey grade UAV 2) A standard survey grade UAV Appendix-I, Appendix-IA (pages 16-19) list out the specifications, which are standard. There is nothing drastically different between these two variants other than size and type of camera. The price breakup should be approximately in this range a) The drone with peripherals (other than camera) should cost around Rs5 lakh-Rs7 lakh (This includes the hassles of filling government tenders) b) Multi-spectral camera for professional grade UAV should be around Rs5 lakh-Rs6 lakh c) Regular camera for at most Rs1 lakh d) Cost of training their personnel Rs2 lakh-Rs3 lakh But the tender will probably get quotations, which are several magnitudes higher (around three to five times above the prices). Let us examine why this occurs... Regulatory Capture: The Definition Regulatory agencies may come to be dominated by the industries or interests they are charged with regulating. The result is that the agency, which is charged with acting in the public interest, instead acts in ways that benefit the industry it is supposed to be regulating. Let us look at the necessary qualifications of the bidder(s) listed as eligibility criteria on pages 3-7 (ironically these are longer than the technical specifications) Item no 1.3.2 on page-4 states: All Indian original equipment manufacturer (OEM) should have industrial licence for manufacturing of Drone/UAV It is an open secret that these licences are not issued and it is a vested cabal, which has cornered most of the licences. So this rules out a majority of companies and prevents a fair competition. All other eligibility criteria such as item number 1.3.1 (three years sales experience in UAVs) and 1.3.7 (ISO certification) are designed to further skew the field in favour of existing licence holders (item number 1.3.2). It will be most curious to know, who wins the above tender and at what price. In the meantime, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) refuses to issue licences for manufacture of civilian drones. Manufacture of military drones, which can be used for civil applications as well, however, requires an industrial licence that is a very lengthy process and takes one to an 'inter-ministerial' group. One cannot know a priori, whether this policy is designed out of ignorance or malfeasance, but it is obvious that such terms and practices are violative of Article-16 of the constitution , which guarantees equal opportunities. A public interest litigation (PIL) will, or should be, filed on this point. Ultimately, the price for this cronyism is paid by the taxpayers, who will get a substandard product at an inflated cost. (Srinath Mallikarjunan is founder of Unmanned Dynamics, an advanced guidance system company) IL&FS Financial Service (IFIN) has defaulted in payment obligations of bank loans (including interest), term and short-term deposits. According to a BSE filing, the bank loan (including interest) obligations were worth Rs 284.5 crore. As per the filing, the obligations on term deposit were Rs 103.53 crore and short-term deposit were worth Rs 52.43 crore. The firm is a Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) which provides a range of financial and advisory solutions. It specialises in infrastructure financing transactions, among other things. Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article. Disney Pixar films have fast become a staple in household's throughout New Zealand and the world. And back in 1995, it was Toy Story that kicked off Disney's branch into computer animation. Toy Story kicked off a series of three movies spanning over two decades, with a fourth film currently in production. And, though not much is known about the next film in the series, actor Tim Allen, who voices Buzz Lightyear, recently teased Toy Story 4 details that will make any fan of Pixar exciting, and maybe also cause them to reach for the tissues. Chocolate lovers, rejoice! Australian news site Nine has revealed a new flavour of M&M's that is hoped to reach Aussie shores in the coming months. Mars revealed that it will releasing M&M chocolate bars as well as a hazelnut spread M&M. "Hazelnut spread M&M's are filled with a creamy, nutty feeling and coated in milk chocolate and candy coating" Nine reported. In a statement to People magazine, Mars' senior brand director said "The industry is changing and consumer tastes are evolving. Were continuing to recognize and anticipate demand," The Harvard Graduate School of Educations (HGSE) Education Redesign Lab is pleased to welcome ChattanoogaHamilton County as the newest community in their By All Means consortium. Lesley Scearce, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Chattanooga said, Being selected to join the By All Means consortium is an honor and recognizes our hard work and commitment through Chattanooga 2.0 to the children of our community. The partnership with Harvard and the Education Redesign Lab is an important opportunity to learn from and with other communities so we can accelerate our work. With programs ranging across health, education, housing assistance, and child development, the integrative work of the By All Means consortium aims to ensure that all students thrive. Paul Reville, founder of the Education Redesign Lab and the former Education Secretary of Massachusetts, echoed the promise of this new partnership, saying we are thrilled to welcome Chattanooga-Hamilton County to the By All Means consortium. We were impressed by their efforts to support children and families in their community, and look forward to working together and learning from one another. Through innovation, partnership, and community collaborationwe believe we can provide all our children the opportunity to succeed in education and life. Jim Coppinger, newly re-elected Hamilton County Mayor welcomed the news, saying We know that the investments we make in education pay dividends for our county long term, and in particular this is an important opportunity to support students in after-school and summer programs. Im excited this is a priority for By All Means 2.0, and we see this as a great chance to learn from other communities and accelerate the work we have already been doing. We have been working hard as a school district and community to improve outcomes for all students. One of our action areas within Future Ready 2023 is to engage the community. We know our schools cant do it alone; it takes supports and services from across the community to connect every student to the help he or she needs to be successful, shared Dr. Bryan Johnson, the superintendent of Hamilton County Schools. Chattanooga-Hamilton county joins six other communities across the countryLouisville, Ky.; Oakland, Ca.; Providence, RI; Salem and Somerville, Ma.; and the state-wide Partnership for Resilience work in Illinoiswhose mayors, superintendents and civic leaders are leading cities to develop integrated systems of education and child well-being to close achievement and opportunity gaps. Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive. To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research. Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process. Transparency is how we protect the integrity of our work and keep empowering investors to achieve their goals and dreams. And we have unwavering standards for how we keep that integrity intact, from our research and data to our policies on content and your personal data. Wed like to share more about how we work and what drives our day-to-day business. After transferring coverage of American Airlines (AAL), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Southwest Airlines (LUV), and United Airlines (UAL), we are maintaining our no-moat and stable moat trend ratings. However, we are raising our fair value estimates for Delta to $62 per share from $60, for Southwest to $62 per share from $58, and for United to $85 per share from $81. Collectively, the major U.S. carriers look fairly valued at our updated fair value estimates. Of the four, we prefer Delta because of the revenue premium it earns from its network breadth. Consolidation has driven roughly 80% of U.S. domestic market share into the hands of four major carriers, partially alleviating the excess supply issue that historically plagued the airline industry and improving margins. The emergence of loyalty programs also helped push margins to new heights. By switching loyalty programs from distance-based point systems to revenue-based systems, airlines structurally changed the economics of credit card partnerships and generated a windfall of income. Despite the success of credit card partnerships, we question whether the programs will continue producing robust growth. Were also unsure if the improved core airline business can endure a full cycle and consistently generate returns above its cost of capital; our concerns are particularly pronounced for American and United, while we remain more bullish on Deltas and Southwests passenger operations. The Ontario government has given municipalities until January 22, 2019 to opt out of having cannabis retail stores in their jurisdictions. Dispensaries which have begun operations prior to October 17 will also be barred from further business unless they secure a license to operate after legalization takes effect. This, amid a new proposal that would see licensed cannabis producers limited to just one retail location in the province. Consumer advocacy organization Allied Progress has called on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Mick Mulvaney to fire a senior Trump appointee following a Washington Post report detailing controversial blog posts including one in which he claimed that a majority of hate crimes were hoaxes. The CPFB website lists Eric Blankenstein as policy associate director of the agencys Supervision, Enforcement, and Fair Lending division, which ensures compliance with federal consumer financial laws by supervising market participants and bringing enforcement actions when appropriate. In his role, Blankenstein serves as a liaison to Mulvaneys office and leads strategic direction for the division with the associate director. Allied Progress listed examples of what it described as Blankensteins racist, sexist, and politically toxic writing. In a blog post discussing hate crime policies at the University of Virginia, Blankenstein questioned whether or not calling someone the n-word in fact makes someone racist. He had also claimed that hate-crime hoaxes are about three times as prevalent as actual hate crimes. Mr. Trump's Wild Ride: The Thrills, Chills, Screams, and Occasional Blackouts of an Extraordinary Presidency By Major Garrett All Points. 326 pp. $28.99 --- The memorial service for John McCain revealed the prestige of the modern presidency. George W. Bush and Barack Obama, McCain's former political adversaries, delivered eulogies on behalf of the entire nation, appealing to the deeper well-springs of democracy. Bush and Obama sat with Bill and Hillary Clinton, representing how presidents can rise above the factions that the founders feared and pull the country together to extol basic freedoms and national interests. Thousands of Americans watched in awe of these statesmen; many were inspired by their appeal to what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature." President Trump was not there, although his ghost haunted the service. His presidency is from a different mold - probably the only point his supporters and detractors agree upon. Major Garrett, the chief White House correspondent for CBS News, has written a close-up account of Trump's first year in office, attempting to figure out what it all means for the country and the future of the presidency. Other authors, notably Bob Woodward, have chronicled this White House. Garrett tries to focus on policy deliberations more than personal details. "I seek," he writes, "to record events that represent genuine and lasting change." It is, of course, too soon to tell, but Garrett tries to show how Trump has shattered the shared world of the old men at McCain's memorial. The book covers a range of issues, from tax cuts to judicial appointments to immigration restrictions to foreign policy. In each area Garrett narrates the chaos created by the president. He "rarely reads memos," and he often fails to tell his closest advisers what he has decided before they read about it on Twitter or somewhere else. Garrett draws a surprising comparison between Trump and Lyndon Johnson, describing how both presidents were obsessed with television, relied on the telephone for their deliberations and exploited their "size and bearing to 'own' a room and to intimidate." Trump has pulled the presidency back to its "primal" essence. In this White House jungle, serious policy analysis is censored and punished. Garrett explains that even Trump's enablers find it impossible to work with him: "The reality is that Trump does not share, does not inspire and does not lead nearly so much as he owns, commands, demands, projects and brands." Decisions reflect the political instincts of the president, not a careful examination of risks, costs and consequences for the nation. Garrett describes how this arbitrary and self-serving atmosphere contributed to controversial decisions surrounding the infamous travel ban, the failed repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the president's fawning visit to Saudi Arabia and other head-spinning events. Trump's instinctive politics often led him to say and do things that undermined his stated goals, and weakened his allies in Congress and the executive agencies. Trump was often "his own worst enemy," Garrett writes. The president is rational and strategic in this account. Garrett credits Trump with having media savvy and a feeling for large parts of the electorate. The most insightful section of the book is Garrett's step-by-step account of how, during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump used the replacement of the late justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court as an issue to rally Republican voters and separate himself from other White House contenders. He was the first candidate to publish a list of conservative judges he would consider. His successful nomination of Neil Gorsuch appealed to those who demanded a figure they could trust to limit government regulation of businesses and communities. And with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, Trump had his second opportunity to shape the high court. Despite his frequent recklessness, Trump signaled that he was a reliable president for reshaping the federal judiciary along the most conservative lines. With a large cohort of circuit and district court nominees approved by the Senate, this amounts to Trump's most enduring legacy. The chaos surrounding the White House makes it difficult to weigh the actions of the president and his supporters. Garrett recounts a frequent refrain among today's journalists: "What a long year last week was." He also seems to reveal his own feelings when he writes that Trump is "exhausting to the soul and corrosive to the spirit." "Mr. Trump's Wild Ride" captures the political storm and takes the reader to the center. Other journalists have reported on many of the same details, but Garrett provides a coherent narrative. His book allows readers to understand how different Trump really is - behind the scenes and on the surface - from other recent presidents who still define the image of the office. And we do not know how it will end, because Trump is making it up as he goes. That is the limitation of this revealing book. Garrett describes the storm and the damage it has done, but he leaves the reader with few clues about what to expect next. Despite his early emphasis on "lasting change," Garrett offers little analysis of which elements from the Trump whirlwind will endure and which will not. By the end of the book, Garrett seems overwhelmed by his subject, unable to give readers a better handle on what to make of the havoc he has faithfully recounted. Few observers are, in fact, confused by Trump any longer. He is a self-serving bully with little regard for the welfare of those who did not vote for him. He does not believe in the basic tenets of our democracy. He shares little with Bush or Obama or any other modern president. Garrett has helped readers to understand this. His book leaves open what Trump's time in the White House will mean for the presidency as our democracy struggles forward. "Mr. Trump's Wild Ride" is excellent journalism, an early draft of our current history. --- Suri is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of "The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office." I always knew that in addition to the millions of honorable soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, the U.S. Department of Defense had the most suffocating bureaucracy in Washington. My belief was supported after reading Robert Gates memoir Duty, about his terms as defense secretary, and his bureaucratic battles in two different administrations. One of the facts that has always bothered me about the enormous bureaucracy at the Pentagon is that the Defense Department has never been audited. The Pentagon building was the largest office building in the world when it opened in 1943. Toward the end of World War II, the United States had some 11 million people in uniform and there were 43,000 people working at the Pentagon. Before computers and the instant communications systems now available to about everyone, orders and other official documents were typed in triplicate, using carbon paper on manual typewriters and filed in innumerable filing cabinets. This all required enormous numbers of typists and file clerks, which accounts for some of the 43,000 people working at the Pentagon 75 years ago. Today, there are about 1.28 million Americans actively serving in uniform, yet there are now 26,000 people working at the Pentagon. So why are there so many people working there now, when we have an active uniformed force slightly over one-eighth of the size of seven decades ago? Are all these staff people really necessary? Last weekend, I happened upon a video of a speech given earlier this month by Secretary of Defense James Mattis at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Ive always liked secretary Mattis for his direct, no-nonsense speaking style. One remark in his speech caught my attention. He was talking about the bipartisan support for the enormous defense appropriation that passed Congress, and how he was determined that the money be spent wisely. He noted that even though the Defense Department is the 17th largest economy in the world, [it] has never had an audit. I looked up at the monitor to see if Id heard correctly. He continued, I dont have stress, I create it. Were doing an audit this year. He promised to be transparent with the findings before Congress and with the rest of the administration. Its hard to imagine a more gargantuan task that auditing the enormous Pentagon bureaucracy. Audits are stressful events for those in charge, thus Mattis remark about creating stress. I cannot remember any previous defense secretary announcing an initiative that could possibility result in funding reductions at least not until now. For bureaucratic Washington, Mattis announcement must come as a frightening portent. I still remember when merely mentioning the possibility of slowing the rate of funding increases in any departments appropriations caused denunciations, with phrases like slashing or gutting the budget for this or that program. Those who made such exaggerations always knew that they had the looming example of the unaudited Pentagon, where occasional budget items of $600 toilet seats and $200 hammers were leaked to the press. Cabinet secretaries used to guard their department budgets like a mother bear defending her cubs, and defense secretaries were among the most vigilant. Now we have a secretary of defense who is calling for an audit of his own department. Maybe when the audit is complete, and the report is issued, we may hear that a few extra rooms have suddenly become available for rent in the Pentagon. Jacksonville resident Jay Jamison writes each Friday for this page. PKL Season 6 Full Schedule Haryana Steelers CEO Mustafa Ghouse felt they found the perfect fit in Yogeshwar. "We are delighted to have Yogeshwar joining the Haryana Steelers as Team Ambassador. He has, through the years, been a fantastic role model to everyone beyond the wrestling mat. He is an icon for the country and the state and we are certain his presence will help elevate the sport in all the right ways." We are pleased to announce Dhaba Bollywood as our Hospitality Partner. Look forward to having a sumptuous meal together. #ShaanSeSteelers pic.twitter.com/g8aSnVrRaA Haryana Steelers (@HaryanaSteelers) September 27, 2018 Yogeshwar, who has been honoured with the Padma Shri, the Arjuna Award and the Khel Ratna for his contributions to sport, was happy about his new role. "Haryana has always been a home to kabaddi and when JSW Group bought a team that represented the state on a national platform, I was quite delighted. "I look forward to seeing how we can work together to deepen the state's association with the sport through the Steelers and I look forward to cheering for the team I can truly call my own. "I am looking forward to the upcoming season, especially the home leg in Sonipat, which also happens to be my hometown." said Yogeshwar. Columbia power outage View Photos Update at 5:30 p.m.: PG&E has pushed back the estimated repair time for the 19 customers in the Columbia area still without power to the ten oclock hour. For further details on the outage can be viewed below. Update at 5 p.m.: All but about 19 of the original 430 PG&E customers have had their power restored in the Columbia area. The remaining area without electricity is along Loop Road off Parrotts Ferry Road near Springfield Road. The estimated repair time posted is 6 p.m. Original post at 3:10 p.m.: Columbia, CA PG&E is report that 430 customers are without electricity this afternoon in the Columbia area. Their lights went out just before 3 p.m. in the 22000 block of Sawmill Flat Road near Marcus Lane near Columbia College. School officials tell Clarke Broadcasting that the campus is affected but class are ongoing. Other areas dealing with the outage include a small section of Highway 49 and along Parrotts Ferry Road to Howser Lane and Forest Park Drive. The company details that a crew is headed to the scene. While PG&E has not confirmed a cause, the CHP has reported a tree into power lines in that area. The estimated repair time posted is 6 p.m. We will bring you additional information as soon as it comes into the news center. On Saturday September 29th from 11 a.m. 2 p.m., community members of all ages are invited to a free community picnic in celebration of Columbia Colleges 50th Anniversary. Columbia College President Santanu Bandyopadhyay was Fridays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. This family-friendly event will feature free food, music, campus tours, a Then & Now exhibit, exotic animals and more. Columbia College was established in 1968, in Sonora, CA pursuant to the action by the district electorate to expand the former Modesto Junior College District into the Yosemite Community College District. This created one of the largest community college districts in the state geographically, encompassing 4,000 square miles from San Joaquin Valley and the coast range on the west to the Sierra Nevada on the east. All of Tuolumne and Stanislaus Counties and parts of Calaveras, San Joaquin, Merced and Santa Clara counties come under the service area of the College. The College serves over 4,000 students every semester. The broad range of courses or programs offered by the College cater to diverse needs of the students. Whether one is seeking a degree or vocational certificate, planning to transfer to a four-year institution, improving occupational skills or simply pursuing self-enrichment, there is something for everyone. For more information about the programs and services, please visit www.gocolumbia.edu. For additional information about the picnic, please call 209.588-5115. 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. San Andreas, CA With the flu season approaching, Calaveras County Health Officials are trying to make it as easy as possible for people to get their shot. Deaths related to flu are tragic reminders that the flu virus needs to be taken very seriously, according to Calaveras Health Officer Dr. Kelaita, who adds, A yearly flu shot is the best way to protect against infection and prevent others from coming down with the flu. Noting that in California, the flu usually begins to increase in late November or December, Kelaita shares that it takes a couple of weeks after vaccination for the body to respond fully, so getting vaccinated early is the best protection. His office wants to help residents beat the flu by participating in its Drive-thru Flu Clinic being held on November 1st from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Calaveras County Government Center located at 891 Mountain Ranch Road in San Andreas. Shots will be given to ages six months and older for a $5 fee, which can be waived for those unable to pay. Kelaita recommends wearing loose clothing, as sleeves will need to be rolled up to administer the shot to the upper arm. This season there are several different kinds of influenza vaccines being offered including a regular and high dose version for persons over 65, according to Kelaita. It is also expected that there will be enough vaccine to meet demand. Calaveras Health Department provided these tips to stop the spread of flu and other respiratory illnesses: Stay home when you are sick and limit your contact with others Cover your coughs or sneezes with your sleeve or a disposable tissue Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water, or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth Flu shots are available at Calaveras County Public Health on Mondays from 3-4:30 p.m. Sonora, CA Tuolumne County Animal Control has tested six skunks as being positive for rabies this year, compared to just one all of last year. Two of the skunks were located in Jamestown, and the others were in Columbia, Chinese Camp, Tuttletown and Tuolumne. The reason for the recent spike remains unknown. Anytime a domestic animal, livestock, or even a human, comes into contact with wildlife, Tuolumne County Animal Control requests to be notified. The countys Registered Veterinary Technician, Christine Whitcomb, says, Rabies is a viral disease of the brain and spinal cord. The disease is fatal in humans and other warm-blooded animals if not treated. She adds, Rabies is a reportable communicable disease that the California Department of Health Services monitors. Investigation, enforcement, and the quarantine of animals suspected of possibly being exposed to rabies, and animals that have bitten, scratched, or otherwise possibly exposed a human to rabiesis mandated by California State law. The disease is typically transferred through the saliva from a bite or scratch inflicted by an animal with rabies. Animal Control Officer Shawn Shimer adds, Animals which have had contact with wildlife are placed into a quarantine period. The quarantine is imposed to observe clinical signs or symptoms of the disease. The length of the quarantine is based on the vaccine status of the animal at the time of the exposure. If the animal has received a vaccine, the quarantine period is 30 days, and if there was no vaccine, it is six months. Regardless of which, an animal must receive a booster within 48 hours of exposure. The quarantine is cancelled if there is a specimen available for testing and it comes back as negative. Clinical signs of rabies include three phases: The prodromal stage lasts two to three days. During this stage, signs of erratic behavior may include irritability, restlessness, chewing at the bite site. The furious stage lasts two to four days. During this stage, signs of erratic behavior may include irritability, restlessness, barking, aggression, vicious attacks on inanimate objects, and unexplained roaming. Disorientation and seizures may also develop. The paralytic stage lasts two to four days. During this stage, signs of paralysis develop, usually beginning in the limb that was bitten. Paralysis of the throat and face cause a change in the bark, drooling with typical foaming at the mouth. Anyone with questions for Tuolumne County Animal Control, or seeking additional information, can call 209-694-2730. The Army is investigating the death of a drill sergeant who was injured on a live-fire training range, a post spokesman said Friday. Staff Sgt. Pascual Murillo, 28, of San Antonio was injured during exercises Thursday night and died Friday morning, said Mike Alley, chief of external communications at Fort Leonard Wood. Murillo was a drill sergeant with the 14th Military Police Brigade, Alley said. The nature and circumstances of Murillo's injuries were under investigation, and no one else was injured in the incident, the Army said. ROME The magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States has publicly withdrawn its endorsement of Judge Brett Kavanaugh as Supreme Court justice following testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by the Jesuit-educated Kavanaugh and the woman accusing him of sexually assaulting her decades ago. In an editorial posted late Thursday, America magazine said it had no special insight into whether Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford is telling the truth. But it said that the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and "should be withdrawn." "If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a woman's report of an assault," the editors wrote. "Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country." The reversal is significant given Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Catholic faith and Jesuit education in defending himself against Ford's accusations. In his opening statement Thursday, Kavanaugh twice referenced his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgeown Prep school in Maryland. Ford has accused a drunken Kavanaugh of assaulting her at a house party in the summer of 1982, when he was a student at the school. Kavanaugh has vigorously denied her claims. America in July had endorsed Kavanaugh on the grounds that he might have provided the Supreme Court with the vote needed to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The Catholic Church firmly opposes abortion. "Anyone who recognizes the humanity of the unborn should support the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh," the editors entitled their July 9 editorial, before Ford's accusation was made public. In their new editorial, America's editors said they were still committed to finding a justice with Kavanaugh's textualist approach to jurisprudence that is suspicious of the kind of judicial innovation that led to the Roe decision. But they said Kavanaugh was not the only candidate available. "For the good of the country and the future credibility of the Supreme Court in a world that is finally learning to take reports of harassment, assault and abuse seriously, it is time to find a nominee whose confirmation will not repudiate that lesson," the editors wrote. The magazine is not the only Jesuit institution to respond to the nomination. The president of Georgetown Prep, the Rev. James R. Van Dyke, has said the controversy over Ford's accusations has compelled the school to "evaluate our school culture" and redouble efforts to help students develop a healthy understanding of masculinity. "And it is a time to talk with them honestly and even bluntly about what respect for others, especially respect for women and other marginalized people means in very practical terms_in actions and in words," Van Dyke wrote to the school community Sept. 20. The reviews are coming in for Christine Blasey Ford's Senate testimony on President Donald Trump's favorite network, Fox News -- and they aren't good for the Republican Party. Fox News panelists discussing Ford's testimony during a break in the Senate hearing called her credible, and one -- anchor Chris Wallace -- said her recounting of an alleged sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was "a disaster" for the GOP. Kavanaugh denies the allegations. "I think Dr. Ford is exceptionally credible," Fox News judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said. The sex-crimes prosecutor Judiciary Committee Republicans hired to question Ford, Rachel Mitchell, has been hampered by the format of the hearing, he said, which requires Mitchell to ask questions in five-minute blocks and alternate with Democratic senators. "This was extremely emotional, extremely raw, and extremely credible," Wallace added. Anchor Bret Baier added that hearing from Ford directly "is a totally different thing" than merely reading her prepared testimony. Trump watched the hearing aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from the United Nations General Assembly, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She didn't say what channel he was watching, but Trump's made no secret of his preference for Fox. She also said Trump hasn't spoken with Kavanaugh in several days. While the president hasn't tweeted or otherwise publicly remarked on Ford's remarks, his son Donald Trump Jr. mocked what Ford said is a fear of flying, a point Mitchell probed in her questioning. Trump Jr. also retweeted several conservatives who questioned or ridiculed Ford's testimony. But Laura Ingraham, a conservative television and radio host, said on Twitter: "Most anchors are saying the accuser is very 'credible.' Your thoughts?" And Ben Shapiro, another conservative personality who contributes to Fox News, noted Ford's testimony that Kavanaugh's laughter during the alleged assault is what she remembers best, "indelible in the hippocampus." "So that's brutal for Kavanaugh, obviously," Shapiro said on Twitter. Before Ford's testimony, three Republican governors -- Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, John Kasich of Ohio and Larry Hogan of Maryland -- called for the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct a more thorough investigation of the accusations against Kavanaugh. "The accusations brought against Judge Kavanaugh are sickening and deserve an independent investigation. There should be no vote in the Senate," Baker said on Twitter. Michael Ciaglo, Staff / Houston Chronicle Texas oil and gas producers are brimming with optimism and are looking to increase their borrowing in the fall, according to a new study by Haynes and Boone. Some 78 percent of producers responding to the Haynes and Boone Fall 2018 Energy Roundup said they expect to increase their borrowing. In all, 36 percent of respondents said they expect to increase their borrowing by 20 percent or more. Note: This is a Just a Taste review, which the Express-News does soon after a restaurant or bar opens to give our first impressions. The life of Meadow Neighborhood Eatery + Bar can be measured in days. But its history can be measured in years. Owners Lindsey and PJ Edwards met at Meadow at The Alley on Bitters eight years ago. Except it wasnt Meadow then. It was Bin 555, where they worked together for chef Jason Dady. They went on to get married. Dady went on to open and close two more restaurants in the space, most recently Tre Enoteca, which shuttered in June. On ExpressNews.com: Review: Brunch with a side of soul at The South Chicken & Waffles Meadow opened Sept. 22 with fresh paint and floors, a lounge framed in reclaimed wood and a broad new Southern accent. PJ Edwards works the kitchen as he has for places like McCradys Tavern in South Carolina. Lindsey Edwards runs the front, drawing on her past life as Dadys general manager. Together, theyve forged an intriguing union of Texan and Southern influences. On the menu: Of all the kitchen arts, pickling is among the least appreciated and the most effective. Tart, sweet, crunchy and colorful, pickles energize everything they touch. And they touch a lot of the menu at Meadow. Forget fried green tomatoes. Lets get behind pickled green tomatoes, which made cameos in a brisk housemade pickle sampler with cucumbers, green beans and mushrooms ($4) and in a freewheeling grilled okra plate with fried shallots, pecans and jalapenos ($8). Pickled peppers worked their way like parade confetti into an earth-tone dish of shrimp with creamer peas and cabbage ($12) that struck a robust alliance between land and sea. Those peppers also joined a hallelujah chorus of shaved fennel, roasted peppers, pickled butternut squash and more in a lively 10-vegetable salad with cornbread croutons ($10). Even collard stems got the pickle memo, forming the base of a chow chow relish over properly twangy braised greens. Those greens were just the opening act on a plate with something even better: fried chicken with whorls of chile-dusted batter, three pieces with armor like pleated tempura and centers cooked clean and juicy ($16). Related: 20 places for fried chicken in San Antonio Fried chicken skin played unwitting accomplice to the only hitch in this early foray to Meadow, tucked inside a toasted country biscuit with the barest schmear of pepper jelly that left the whole thing high and dry ($4). The brunch menu forecasts more biscuit action, with the promise of gravy. Meadow hit key points on the Southern food roadmap with studied ease: moist cornbread and honeyed lard with pimento cheese ($4), a perfectly broiled grouper with creamy grits ($22), a solid chess pie with smoked coca nibs ($9) and crunchy cornmeal fritters as playful as state fair food with hearts of creamed corn and indulgently sweet marmalade spiked with nduja salami ($7). The bar, overseen by Nick Martinez, came through with a bittersweet in all the right ways aperitif called 281+Bitters with gin, Aperol and bitters ($9). A double-rum La Pina ($12) could have gone the way of the tiki but dialed back the pineapple sweetness with cold coconut water and lemongrass. Either one or both would make a suitable toast to this addresss storied past and its potential to become one of the strongest players in San Antonios ongoing Southern revival. Location: 555 W. Bitters Road at The Alley, 210-481-4214, meadowsantonio.com Hours: 5-10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; brunch 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday Lee Universitys annual Dee Lavender Mission Week will take place Oct. 1-5 to raise funds for the Smoky Mountain Childrens Home in Sevierville, Tn. In honor of Lees Centennial year, the university will observe its roots and early connection with Sevierville and SMCH with the theme of Going Home. Missions Week will include special chapel services, the first being the Missions Week Celebration with Professor of Music Dr. Brad Moffett speaking in the Conn Center on Tuesday, Oct. 2. Also on Tuesday, Dr. Mava Wilson, professor of computer information systems at Lee, will speak in Dixon Center on growing up on the mission field and her journey to Lee. On Thursday, Dr. Mauldin will speak in Conn Center chapel. A special offering will be taken for SMCH in each chapel service. Exhibitors from over 24 local, national, and international missions organizations will be on campus in the Paul Conn Student Union and School of Religion to meet with students and will also speak in classes across campus throughout the week. Plans are being made for Lee students to participate in a day of service for SMCH. Since 1991, Missions Week has been carried out in honor of Lee University student Dee Lavender, who died on a summer mission trip to Panama just before her 21st birthday. Missions Week projects have been in place for more than 20 years, and a week devoted to missions has been part of Lee programming since the 40s. SMCH is a private, faith-based, not-for-profit agency that has been serving children for over 90 years. It exists to provide care, love, and healing to children and youth who have no one else to advocate or care for them. The money raised during Missions Week 2018 will go directly toward remodeling the Alpha Educational Learning Center at the home for children. According to Dr. Walt Mauldin, director of SMCH and a former vice president at Lee, many young people come to SMCH with academic deficiencies and need tutoring. SMCH is required by the State of Tennessee to offer a school for youth who need to recover high school credits and graduate on time. There are approximately 40 high school students attending the Alpha school, which fulfills this requirement. The school serves as a catalyst for many of its youth to experience their dreams of attending college. Missions Week T-shirts are available in Lees Campus Ministries Office for a $15 donation to the project. For more information or to make a donation, visit http://www.leeuniversity.edu/missions-week/ or contact Campus Ministries at 614-8420. The combination of two therapies that enlist the patient's immune system showed promise against incurable cancers caused by the sexually transmitted HPV virus in a new Houston study. MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers reported Thursday that a vaccine that revs up the immune system and a drug that releases a brake on it shrank tumors in a third of patients whose human papilloma virus-related cancers had recurred after standard treatment of chemotherapy and radiation. Such cancers historically haven't responded to follow-up treatment. "This encouraging response rate is about twice the rate produced by (only a drug that releases the brake) in previous clinical trials so these results will lead to larger, randomized clinical trials of this combination," Dr. Bonnie Glisson, an MD Anderson professor of thoracic, head and neck medical oncology and the study's principal investigator, said in a statement. The results are the latest sign of promise from immunotherapy, the new frontier of cancer treatment. The field was thought to be a lost cause until Jim Allison, MD Anderson's chairman of immunology, discovered a brake that reins in the immune system and developed a drug to release the brake that has produced lasting benefits in certain cancers considered a death sentence. The breakthrough breathed new life into the field. RELATED: The scientist who just might cure cancer Twenty-four MD Anderson patients, all but two with throat cancer, were given the therapeutic vaccine and the brake-releasing drug, known as a checkpoint inhibitor. One patient had cervical cancer and the other had anal cancer. Trial participants' average survival time was 17.5 months, compared to the roughly eight to 10 months such patients typically live after the diseases recurs. The tumors of eight of the patients shrank, two completely. Because immunotherapy only works in a subset of patients and cancer types, researchers are currently testing the treatments in different combinations to determine the best strategies. That includes the use of both two immunotherapies or a single immunotherapy combined with, say, chemotherapy or radiation. Vaccines have previously been shown to spark a strong immune response in studies with HPV-related cancers but the activity was stifled before tumor cells were killed. Glisson's research team theorized that adding a drug to release the brake would enhance the vaccine's action. RELATED: Patients clamor to get into trials for immunotherapy, new frontier in cancer treatment Two patients had side effects that required them to discontinue the trial, but Glisson said there were no signs of synergistic side effects from the combination. HPV causes nearly all cervical cancers and most throat, anal, penile, vulvar and vaginal cancers. Though it can be treated effectively if caught early, such cancers are deadly if they recur. The study was published Thursday in JAMA Oncology. Todd Ackerman covers medicine for the Houston Chronicle. He can be reached at todd.ackerman@chron.com or twitter.com/ChronMed. Students from Summer Creek and Kingwood Park high schools are working together to design and construct homes for homeless veterans in the Houston area. These Humble ISD students are planning to construct a 28-acre community for homeless veterans composed of tiny houses. Not only will students help a homeless veteran get a home but this project, also known as Students Helping Veterans, will also give them the opportunity to work with professional architects, engineers and tradesmen. Each school has their own adviser as well as a student lead architect and student representative. This project really started off in the beginning of the second semester last (school) year, KPark Student Representative and Student Council President Nicholas Logan said. Not that long ago, Logan and Summer Creek High School Vice President Blayne Adams went before the Humble City Council to get support on their Student Helping Veterans Project. We felt that if we got the support of first off Humble ISD and the support of the City of Humble and the City of Houston that we would have a much better chance of getting everything done, Logan said. The students have also gone to the Houston Veteran Affairs Department and plan on going to speak with the East Montgomery County Improvement District. KParks Lead Architect Sarah Dalby said there will be one model home built at their respective schools where they will be eventually transported to a community that will house a homeless veteran. The home that I designed is about 200 square feet and it has a small bathroom, a small kitchen, itll have a porch and itll have a grilled stove outside, Dalby said. Its pretty small but one of the things that Ive tried to do is add a lot of windows and things to really open up the tiny house. While working with professionals to design and create homes, the students are also learning how to build homes that are compliant with government code and deciphering the different types of permits they need. Each school has determined it will cost at least $25,000 to build one of these tiny homes. To build a home in the KPark location they will also need to fundraise an additional $40,000 to cover the site prep fee. Adams said SCHS will have their tiny home built on their campus by the end of the year. Our home is about 250-300 square feet depending to how much more we add to it, what little tweaks we do on it these next few weeks, but its just a living room, kitchenette and it also has a small bathroom so they still have the feeling of a normal home and they get to feel like they own it at the same time SCHS Lead Architect Natalia Andrade said. Andrade said the SCHS tiny home will also include a tiny porch. A lot of these homeless veterans do have problems socializing with people, so the goal is to get them to socialize with their neighbors and have cookouts, Andrade said. KPark and SCHS students will come up with a different home design each year. Helping these veterans have a home is somewhat personal for Adams. He plans on enlisting to the Air Force Academy once he graduates. Ive always viewed the military as a priority because they are the people that protect, they are the people that fight for this country and its rights. So the people that have gone out to war, have fought for us, have lived for us, are willing to die for us; the fact that they dont have a home is extremely unfortunate and giving them a home we thought is a really awesome thing, Adams said. Both campuses agree that as the Student Helping Veterans continues throughout the years, they would like to get some schools involved in not only Houston but the state as well. kaila.contreras@chron.com WESTPORT Accusations of foul play are flying from both sides in the race for the 26th Senate District pitting a 22-year-old Democrat versus a Republican 21-year veteran of Hartford politics. It seems to be one of the races where theres an unusual amount of interest this year, Gary Rose, a professor of government at Sacred Heart University, said of the race for the 26th District, which includes parts of Bethel, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, Westport and Wilton. Incumbent Sen. Toni Boucher has accused Haskell of being a privileged Westport kid and his supporters of taking down campaign signs and conducting push polls, which propose leading and often negative questions to discredit a candidate. Bouchers challenger, Will Haskell, says Boucher is levying false claims about his familys finances and personal life. The testiness and antagonism now showing up in the race for the 26th could be filtering down from the state gubernatorial race, which has gotten heated with personal attacks, Rose said. Democratic enthusiasm in the state, coupled with antipathy to President Donald Trump, could buoy Haskells chances of winning the race, but Boucher has won her last two elections with more than 60 percent of the vote in a district that has 30.8 percent registered Democrats and 30.4 percent registered Republicans. It would be an upset of major proportions, Rose said of the possibility that Haskell defeats Boucher. In a Sept. 19 Facebook post on her personal page, Boucher, who has represented the 26th Senate District since 2009 and previously represented the 143rd House District, which includes Wilton, her hometown, and Norwalk for the previous 12 years, said her opponent has engaged in unfair campaign practices. First pulling up signs and now push polls. So sad to start a new political journey by using the worst of campaign tactics. And, not a good way to establish a positive reputation when newly entering the political arena, Boucher, 68, wrote, noting she heard about the alleged push polls from several of her supporters, including Weston resident Michele Tivey, who said she received a call that painted Sen. Boucher in a negative light and repeatedly lied about her record on education funding, tax reform and LGBTQ rights. Tivey did not return a call seeking comment. All the other side is interested in doing is levying accusations that just arent true, Haskell said, adding, Push polls are not something my campaign could afford or something were interested in doing. A search of Haskells campaign on the State Elections Commission website does not show any expenditures for polling. Boucher claimed, without evidence, that his campaign removed several Boucher lawn signs from private property in Weston in a Facebook post on Sept. 15 and a week prior told a group of Republicans at the opening of the Ridgefield Republican Town Committee that his parents are major donors to U.S. Rep. Jim Himes and Sen. Chris Murphy, (both D-Conn.), Haskell said. Im not aware of any political sign theft complaints that weve received, Norwalk police Lt. Terry Blake said. It certainly has to be those that are advancing that campaign, otherwise I dont know why they would spend the money and time to do it, Boucher said of the woman that removed her sign. Haskell denies his campaign was responsible for the removal of Bouchers signs in Norwalk. In a recording obtained by the Westport News, Boucher levied several personal criticisms of Haskell in speaking to a group at the opening of the Ridgefield Republican Town Committee headquarters. He has nothing else to do. People get the sense that he is that really privileged, wealthy kid from a wealthy family in Westport and he cant wait to get to law school, Boucher is heard on the recording. His parents gave so much money to the Democrats, he gets every opportunity to work for Himes, or Chris Murphy, or Blumenthal, and so on. So, trust me, he has his minions and he had them there tonight that are his college buddies that graduated, and of course apparently, his parents are paying for his lifestyle. Haskell, who graduated from Georgetown University in May and interned in the Washington offices of Himes and Murphy, said he is supporting himself with money he saved from working as a researcher and at a convenience store throughout college. His parents are not financially supporting him at this time, he said. Haskell, who grew up in Westport, lives in an apartment in New Canaan, he said. A search of Haskells parents on the Federal Election Commission database shows neither of Haskells parents has donated to the campaigns of Murphy or Himes. What weve seen repeatedly from the other side is an interest in talking about anything other than Sen. Bouchers record and the issues. The distraction is so frustrating because when I go door-to-door, no voters want to talk about push polls or signs. They want to talk about the cost of prescription drugs and common-sense gun regulation, Haskell said. In response to why she made false claims about Haskells parents campaign donations, Boucher blamed the Haskell campaign for sending trackers to follow her. Theres apparently some person tracking and running around trying to get I gotcha kind of tapes, Boucher said, adding, This is all part of the devolution of the process. We do not send trackers or people to spy on the other person in their private gatherings. Our campaign desperately needs all the help we can get and we simply dont have an indefinite number of resources to send people to her events and its not something were going to do, Haskell said, denying the use of trackers. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 Christine Blasey Ford was calm and measured, if shaken at times, as she recounted to a national audience an alleged sexual assault when she was a teenager, even though the high-profile appearance made her "terrified." A few hours later in the same seat, a livid Brett Kavanaugh unleashed a visceral anger that seemed to have been pent up for the two weeks that the Supreme Court nominee faced mounting allegations of sexual misconduct from Ford and two other women. "This has destroyed my family and my good name, a good name built up through decades of very hard work and public service at the highest levels of the American government," Kavanaugh said in a roar that overwhelmed the small Senate hearing room. "I'm here today to tell the truth. I've never sexually assaulted anyone. Not in high school, not in college, not ever." Whose story the majority of senators believe will ultimately determine whether Kavanaugh, 53, sits on the Supreme Court, cementing a conservative majority on the court for a generation. Both of the stories - told under oath during a tense, dramatic and emotional hearing - can't be true. Ford said she was "100 percent" sure that Kavanaugh was the boy who pinned her to a bed, groped her and tried to take off her clothes at a suburban Washington home more than three decades ago. Kavanaugh vowed that "I have never done this ever, done this to her or anyone else." The scene during the more than eight hour hearing was unlike any congressional proceeding in recent history. All but one senator - Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., - had arrived on time, itself a rarity for a Senate hearing. As Ford discussed her allegation in searing detail, numerous senators leaned forward in their chairs, their elbows on the desk, listening intently to the psychology professor's soft, almost girlish voice. The Senate Judiciary Committee tried to limit distractions and possible protests in the room. Gone were the dozens of shuttering cameras that would normally snap photos of high-profile witnesses, or the stream of interested passersby who would hop in and out of a hearing. Aside from the press and the senators on the dais, the room was limited to 47 seats - with the two front rows reserved for Ford and Kavanaugh's respective supporters who would sit behind them as they testified. Republicans - with the exception of committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, - would be silent while Ford testified, ceding all their questioning to a female veteran female prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, who they had hired to avoid the optics of 11 GOP men questioning a woman who says she was sexually assaulted. Mitchell's approach was gentle but direct - yet inside the room, her methodical questions couldn't help but have the feeling of a cross-examination, exactly the atmosphere that Ford's attorneys wanted to avoid. Democratic senators couldn't hide their irritation with Mitchell's questions. When Ford said she arrived in Washington via an airplane and Mitchell reminded her that she was reportedly afraid to fly, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., looked deeply skeptical at the line of questioning. Later, when Mitchell said, "Is that an objection, counsel?" in response to a comment from one of Ford's attorneys, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., shook his head and Harris looked slightly stunned. "You are not on trial," Harris told Ford later. "You are sitting here before members of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee because you had the courage to come forward because, as you have said, you believe it was your civic duty." The sensitive atmosphere of the room changed sharply almost immediately when Kavanaugh sat down at the witness table. He flipped open the binder that held his notes - almost every page had passages underlined, with annotations in the margins in thick black pen - and declared that no one had seen a draft of his opening statement except one of his former law clerks. A person close to Kavanaugh confirmed he had complete control over his remarks: "It was not pre-cleared with the White House. This is 100 percent Brett Kavanaugh." His 45-minute statement was not only a defense of his character and an emphatic denial of the allegations he's faced, but an enraged, almost uncontrolled indictment of the contentious confirmation process that he had undergone since July. "This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election," Kavanaugh said. "Fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record. Revenge on behalf of the Clintons. Millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups." He continued: "This is a circus. The consequences will extend long past my nomination. The consequences will be with us for decades. This grotesque and coordinated character assassination will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country." As he referenced Sen. Cory Booker's remarks earlier this summer that supporting Kavanaugh would be complicit in "evil," the New Jersey Democrat sat in his seat, expressionless. All the other Democratic senators were equally stone-faced. Several of Kavanaugh's supporters were openly crying during his defiant opening statement. A close family friend, Laura Cox Kaplan, sat to the right of Kavanaugh's wife, looking visibly upset and rubbing Ashley Kavanaugh's arm when the nominee called her a "rock." It wasn't just Kavanaugh who had pent-up frustrations to unleash. Graham, who had been one of Kavanaugh's most loyal and vocal allies since the first allegation broke, didn't defer to Mitchell for questioning during Kavanaugh's testimony and instead took sharp aim at Democrats. "This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics," an outraged Graham said. "If you really wanted to know the truth, you wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy." Turning toward his end of the dais - and seemingly toward the wavering Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who was looking down with his arm folded across his chest - Graham continued, "To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, you're legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics." Graham's enraged monologue seemed to give all the remaining Republicans the implicit permission to stop outsourcing their questions to Mitchell. One by one, each GOP senator would make it clear which story he believed - just as all the Democrats gave no doubt as to which story they believed. And the openly undecided one - Flake - indicated that he may never be fully comfortable with what he ultimately decides. "This is not a good process, but it's all we've got," Flake said. "And I would just urge my colleagues to recognize that, in the end, we are 21 very imperfect senators doing our best to provide advice and consent, and, in the end, there is likely to be as much doubt as certainty going out of this room today." DARIEN Two former Darien residents have been chosen to be a part of Whole Foods national fall campaign. Kristy Lewis and Chris Mears, both Darien High School Class of 1999 graduates, will have their products featured in the Nostalgic Snacking & Sweets campaign, which starts Wednesday in stores across the country. Mears, a 38-year-old Colorado resident, said the campaign is meant to replace food people may have given up to live healthier lives. What theyre trying to do is kind of bring back items youve given up eating, like Kit Kats, because theyre all filled with chemicals and preservative, he said. His product, Little Secrets Crispy Wafers, will be one of the snacks featured in the campaign. Mears said Whole Foods fall push fell in line with what his business was already doing. For us its about a permissible indulgence. When youre eating it, youre not feeling guilty about yourself. ... Taste always has to win, he said, noting Little Secrets uses high-quality, fair-trade ingredients and quality chocolate. In order to get taste you need high-quality ingredients. Mears said his company saw an opportunity to take some classic chocolate snacks like Kit Kats or M&Ms and reinvent them for consumers. The initiative for cleaner food also came from his personal lifestyle. I have two kids now and living a healthy lifestyle is something Ive been doing, he said. Its been kind of like in my DNA. Meanwhile, Lewis will have her Quinn Pretzel Twists & Sticks featured at Whole Foods. Lewis, a 38-year-old also living in Colorado, said one of her company Quinn Snacks missions is to make cleaner snacks. In my early 20s, I began reading ingredient labels and seeing what was going on in our food, she said. Lewis decided she wanted healthier options on store shelves, and also saw the importance of removing chemicals and plastic from products bags. In 2010, she founded Quinn Snacks, named after her firstborn son. She started with Quinn Popcorn, the first microwavable popcorn in a compostable paper bag with no chemicals or plastic coatings. The popcorn is made with real ingredients and healthy oils, she said. Whole Foods was a big supporter of her company and has continued to show support, Lewis said. Her pretzel twists and sticks featured in the campaign are the first and only whole grain, ancient grain sorghum, certified gluten-free and naturally gluten free non-GMO pretzels on the market. Were trying to work closely with our farmers to make sure that were doing it the right way, Lewis said. This year is the first year for the national campaign, she said. As part of her personal drive for cleaner snacks, Lewis also has a Farm to Bag initiative, which allows consumers to see what is in her products. It is an internal and external transparency policy that lists all of the suppliers for the customers, she said. Our mission is cleaning up snacks, Lewis said. Making them better for you, better for your family and better for the planet. dj.simmons @hearstmediact.com, 203-842-2568 The last event of the 2018 Madison County Historical Societys Speakers Series will be held on Sunday, Oct. 7 at 2 p.m. in the fellowship hall of Immanuel United Methodist Church at 800 N. Main Street in Edwardsville. The speaker will be Emeritus Professor James Weingartner who will discuss World War I as it was experienced in Madison County, Illinois, a century ago. Nov. 11, 2018 will mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. That war was in many ways the war that made the 20th century, but it has faded badly in the American collective memory. Some of us can remember when Nov. 11 was not Veterans Day, but Armistice Day, marking the cease-fire that brought the unprecedented slaughter of World War I to an end. That observation ended way back in 1954, by which time World War II and the Korean War had supplanted The Great War in the national consciousness. There have been more wars since the armistice. For decades, the search for life in outer space has focused on finding tiny microbes that would do little to satisfy a growing appetite for connection with beings that more closely resemble us. Its been the appetizer to the main course, a search for sophisticated creatures that truly deliver on the answer to one of humanitys central questions: Are we alone? Now, thanks to new interest in Congress for further scientific research, NASA is changing its focus to search for life advanced enough to, like us, create technology. The signs are called technosignatures, as compared with biosignatures, like in microbes, that show signs of life. Technosignatures come primarily as radio signals that allow scientists to infer the existence of technological life in the universe. A bill proposed in the U.S. House in April recommended that NASA receive $10 million to partner with private sector and philanthropic organizations to search for alien life. It wouldnt actually allocate the funds, and would still have to pass in the House and Senate, but it represents the first time in 25 years that the federal government has considered using funds to search for extraterrestrial life. The original program, called SETI, or the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, lost federal funding in 1993 after a year of research didnt turn up a "single green little fellow," said then U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan of Nevada. Unlike SETI, NASA argues that the search for technosignatures goes a step further, focusing on radio or laser emissions, not just communication signals. Our own radio and television broadcasts have been drifting into space, so we may be able to receive signals from other beings, the agency said. And signs of large structures or an atmosphere full of pollutants _ like our own _ could prove that there is a civilization like Earths elsewhere in the universe. Whether NASA will find life outside our solar system is anyones guess. Astronomer Frank Drakes Drake formula postulates that there could be 10,000 intelligent civilizations in the galaxy. Italian physicist Enrico Fermis Fermi paradox asserts that if there was intelligent life out there, we would have met it already. But recent discoveries by the Kepler mission of multiple exoplanets, including some that have similarities with Earth, and the TESS mission, which recently launched a satellite that has already found two new exoplanets, have increased public interest in finding alien life. Itll have to be more an irregular radio signal to pass the test, though. NASA said that to answer the question of our place in the universe, it will need unmistakable signs of life. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency New York For years, the three main airports that serve New York City have been the site of one of the country's biggest fights over the minimum wage. A Republican governor and airline companies were pitted against Democratic officials and labor leaders over how much to pay workers who clean planes, load luggage and perform many other duties. On Thursday, the campaign ended in victory for as many as 40,000 airport workers who are now on a path to earning at least $19 an hour, the highest minimum wage target set by any public agency in the country. The pay increase, which was approved unanimously by the commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will raise the wages of tens of thousands of workers over the next five years. It will go well beyond the $15 minimum hourly wage that several cities have enacted and that New York state will adopt as the base wage for many workers at the end of the year. And it may add impetus to union-led campaigns to reverse the widening gap in incomes between rich and poor Americans even amid a robust economy. The vote by the Port Authority board came after several months of deliberation and years of pleading and pressure from unionized airport workers. The airlines that contract with the companies that employ many of the workers also complained about raising wages, arguing that such a move could ultimately force them to pass along the costs to travelers. The Port Authority operates three of the busiest airports in the country: La Guardia Airport and Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The staggered wage increase will apply to most workers at those airports, including baggage handlers, cabin cleaners and caterers. "This is going to be the highest targeted minimum wage anywhere in the country," said Hector J. Figueroa, president of 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which represents many of the workers. "That's a significant breakthrough." The biggest beneficiaries will be workers at Newark Liberty Airport, some of whom have been earning significantly less than their counterparts at the New York airports, a remnant of a political divide between the two states. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, endorsed the union-backed campaign for a higher minimum wage that has become known as the Fight for 15. But he ran into opposition from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, with whom he shared control of the Port Authority. Christie's appointees to the agency's board blocked a proposal to set a higher base wage for the airlines and companies they hire to perform various services at the airports. That left the minimum wage at the airports at $10.45 an hour, well above New Jersey's statewide minimum wage of $8.60 an hour, but below the fast-rising minimum that Cuomo had pressed lawmakers in Albany to adopt. Under New York law, the workers at La Guardia and Kennedy airports, like many other workers in the state, already earn at least $13 an hour. That floor will rise to $15 on Dec. 31, making New York one of the leaders in the movement toward much higher minimum wages. California and several cities around the country have adopted plans to gradually raise their minimums to $15 an hour. The federal minimum is $7.25 an hour. In what Port Authority officials said was a first for a New York governor, Cuomo traveled to Jersey City, New Jersey, where the agency's board was meeting, to urge the commissioners to approve the measure. "It's smart, it's right, it's fair and you will reap the benefits in dividends," Cuomo said. The opposition at the Port Authority began to dissolve after New Jersey voters elected Christie's successor, Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, who campaigned last year on a promise to raise the state's minimum wage. But a vote on the proposal to raise the minimum for airport workers was postponed for several months after airlines challenged the Port Authority's power to mandate pay for private companies. In response, the agency produced a comprehensive "analysis and justification" that argued that the airports were plagued by high turnover that threatened to make the airports less safe and degrade the services provided to travelers. It cited the benefits other airports had realized after raising their minimum wages. "Lifting airport-workers' wages is now a tried and tested tool, widely used for responding to a recurring set of serious problems at airports around the United States problems that now beset the Port Authority's airports, too," the document stated. Airlines for America, a trade group in Washington, countered that the agency's arguments for the wage increase were a "gloss for social welfare policies" and that it would amount to "simply another cost to be borne by the passengers." After the vote, a spokesman for the group, declined to say whether it would mount a legal challenge to the decision. The Port Authority's chairman, Kevin O'Toole, and its executive director, Rick Cotton, said they were comfortable that their action could withstand any legal challenges. "It is our anticipation that within 35 days, there'll be a minimum-wage increase," O'Toole said. The Port Authority resolution calls for its first step toward $19 an hour to occur on Nov. 1, followed by annual increases for the next four years. On Nov. 1, the minimum will rise to $13.60 an hour for workers at the two New York airports and to $12.45 an hour for workers at Newark Liberty. That impending bump of $2 an hour would be the biggest raise Yasmeen H. Holmes has received since she started working at Newark Liberty in 2004. Back then she was paid slightly more than $7 an hour and now she earns $10.45 an hour for managing the lines at security checkpoints in Terminal C, she said. Holmes, 37, said she often works two shifts a day, up to 16 hours in all, to help support her five children, ages 15 to 21, and one grandchild. "I'm getting tired," she said, adding that she hoped the raise would allow her to work a little less and spend more time with her family. NORWALK - The Norwalk Parking Authority on Wednesday evening will invite public input on its ongoing capacity study and later in October discuss how to manage parking at Liberty Square. The authority last year launched a $200,000 inventory of Norwalks public and private parking inventory stock to understand future needs and develop a citywide comprehensive and cohesive strategic parking plan. Walker Consultants, the firm undertaking the study, will provide an overview of the project and invite public comment at City Hall on Wednesday evening. The meeting on Wednesday will be Walker Consultants talking and listening to the public to gather more input for the citywide parking study/plan, said Parking Authority Director Kathryn Hebert. The reason for the public information meeting is to engage public participation and hear from the public. That could include Liberty Square or any other citywide parking-related topic. The meeting is set for Oct. 3, from 6 to 8 p.m., in the Community Room of City Hall, 125 East Ave. It will include a presentation by Walk Consultants followed by the opportunity for public input. For more information about the Citywide Parking Study/Plan, visit the Norwalk Tomorrow website at http://tomorrow.norwalkct.org/citywide-plan/parking/. At its Oct. 24 meeting, the parking authority will discuss what type of management plan to adopt for Liberty Square, an approximately 60-space parking lot into which it soon will sink $85,000 worth of improvements, including paving, striping and adding two pay stations. Liberty Square property owners, tenants and merchants reiterated their opposition to the pay stations at the authoritys Sept. 26 meeting. I have that clients that come in, theyre sitting for six hours, and those meters are definitely going to drive my business out, said Anthony Neave, owner of Bad Fish Tattoo at 197 Liberty Square. People arent going to want to pay the meter to come in and sit for six hours and worry about it, worry about getting a ticket. I was talking to the other businesses down there and nobody wants these meters. For several weeks, Liberty Square has been a construction site. On Sept. 10, the Connecticut Department of Transportation began $400,000 worth of drainage improvements. Late Sunday, the parking authority plans to close the lot, as part of its approximately four-week project, and direct motorists to temporarily park across the street at Veterans Memorial Park. We have all the signs where people can park, said Vanessa Valadares, senior civil engineer at the Norwalk Department of Public Works. We have the police officers on site every day for the DOT project not for the city project but theyre going to be there most of the time while were there and they can direct people. The project will install electrical conduits and two pay stations similar to those at the North Water Street Parking Lot in nearby SoNo and culminate with the paving of the lot. Dick Brescia, parking authority chairman, said hell recuse himself from discussing or voting upon a management plan for Liberty Square. He noted that he owns property in the square. He stood by the Parking Authoritys management of municipal parking amid complaints of overly aggressive ticketing, and praised ongoing public outreach efforts, including the Courtesy Card Parking Violations Program. Under the program, which was rolled out in summer 2017 motorists who overstay their time on two randomly selected streets, twice a week, receive a courtesy card rather than a ticket. People think were all crazy here, all were here to do is to do ticketing, Brescia said. So now weve changed that. Weve reached into the business community, weve reached into the customer community. Brescia has proposed extending and expanding the courtesy program three days a week into the first half of 2019. That also will be discussed Oct. 24. In another outreach effort, LAZ Parking Ltd., the company that manages municipal parking under contract with the authority, is rolling out a customer help car and three-wheeled vehicle for LAZ employees to help motorists with everything from how to use pay stations to giving directions and getting help for a flat tire. Bexar County has secured a pair of federal grants totaling nearly $1.7 million to battle the local opioid epidemic, local and federal officials announced Thursday. The $1.65 million in funds will be awarded over three years to the county through the U.S. Justice Departments Bureau of Justice Assistance, according to a news release from Congressman Lloyd Doggett, of San Antonio. A man who was fatally shot during a confrontation with police last month had a knife, a metal pipe and was screaming obscenities when the incident occurred, according to a police report. A San Antonio Police officer responded to Pete Sanchezs apartment at about 11:30 a.m. Aug. 31 in the 5900 block of Royalgate for reports of a man yelling and screaming inside. When the officer knocked on the apartment door, a man responded with obscene language, What ... you want, Im gonna ... kill you! Sanchez, 52, then opened the door, a knife in one hand, a metal pipe in another, and charged at the officer, investigators said. RELATED: Arson investigating 3 intentionally set blazes at abandoned San Antonio homes The officer backed up as Sanchez rushed toward him, pointing the objects he held at him, police said. Police said the officer yelled at Sanchez repeatedly to stop and drop his weapons, but he continued charging. The officer shot Sanchez several times, the report states. Investigators said that Sanchez ran back inside his apartment where he stopped, dropping his weapons. Police applied a tourniquet to Sanchezs bleeding leg. An officer who arrived seconds later noted that Sanchez was bleeding from several gunshot wounds. He was then taken to University Hospital where he later died. The report notes that there were three shell casings found at the scene. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA Over a period of about 8 hours, San Antonio firefighters responded to suspicious fires at four abandoned homes on the East Side. "It's been a very busy night and early morning for the San Antonio Fire Department," said Chief Charles Hood. All four fires occurred within about a 1 mile radius and utilities at each house had been cut, leading firefighters and law enforcement authorities to believe someone may have intentionally set the fires. "All four of these appear to be very suspicious in nature," Hood said, noting that there's nothing explicitly connecting the fires but that it's a "huge coincidence." Arson investigators are now combing through the debris at each home searching for clues that may connect all the fires and potentially point to the person behind them. The night began at about 10:50 p.m. with a house fire in the 1400 block of East Commerce at a house directly across the street from a fire station. A few hours later, at 2:30 a.m., firefighters responded to a blaze just down the street in the 200 block of South Olive Street. RELATED: Suspect in fatal drunken driving collision on Northeast Side identified Then came the most serious of the fires, in the 900 block of Dawson at 4:50 a.m. When firefighters arrived, the home was totally engulfed in flames. A battalion chief decided to let the flames destroy the home and then extinguish the blaze as it died down. The final fire was reported at about 6:50 a.m. in the 1000 block of Montana. Nobody was injured in any of the fires. Hood said the department is on high alert, and law enforcement officers are combing the neighborhood in search of any witnesses who might have evidence about the origins of any of the fires. He said the fire department is on high alert, and he asked residents to immediately call 911 if they see anything or smell smoke. "If we do have someone who is out there setting fires, they are going to get caught," he said. "They're going to do something that will trigger the investigation or they're going to get comfortable and someone will witness them." 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 After spending five years on the run, a Kerrville man facing 116 child pornography charges was arrested in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Thomas Patrick Waggoner, 65, who was wanted for 58 counts of possession of child pornography and 58 counts of promotion of child pornography, was brought back to the United States Thursday, according to a news release from the U.S. Marshals Service. The offices of the Bexar County district and county clerk play important roles in our lives, though few residents realize it. These elected clerks and their small armies of assistants are the keepers of the government documents recorded when a couple marry or divorce, a child is adopted, a lawsuit is filed, a jury returns a multimillion-dollar verdict, a will is probated, a property changes hands, or a defendant is sentenced. If you visit the courthouse, one of the first people you encounter likely will be employed by one of the elected clerks. These officials head two offices that operate independently of each other and have jurisdiction over specific types of records. They serve four-year terms. It is important that the officials elected to these posts have strong managerial skills, a thorough understanding of county operations, and good working relations with fellow county officials and the lawyers, title companies and others who interact with their offices on a daily basis. We strongly urge voters to consider the qualifications of the candidates and not cast a vote in these important races based only on party affiliation. We recommend re-election of Republican Donna Kay McKinney to a third term as Bexar County district clerk. Prior to her election to the post, McKinney worked in various county departments and several courts, giving her a good perspective on county government operations. The district clerk has an operating budge of $11.4 million and manages 198 employees. She runs an efficient department and has streamlined operations to provide a cost savings to the taxpayers. McKinney has built a reputation for running a transparent operation that is responsive to public records requests. The major complaint of her challenger, Mary Angie Garcia, is about the countys antiquated records-management system. It is not an issue unique to the district clerks office. McKinney and other county officials have been dealing with the problem for many years. Bexar County suffered a major setback on that project when the vendor abandoned it as the first phase was getting ready to launch. A countywide solution to that problem is in the works, and it would serve the taxpayers well to keep the incumbent in place to see that project through. In the Bexar County clerks race, we recommend Republican Gerry Rickhoff for a seventh term. The Democratic challenger is Lucy Adame-Clark, with a Green Party candidate, Earl Lyons, also on the ballot. Rickhoff operates a department with 148 employees and manages a budget of $8.4 million. The many duties that come with this office include recording marriages and land transactions, as well as maintaining misdemeanor court and probate records. He, too, has gained a reputation for transparency in the operations of his department and making public records easily accessible. During his long tenure, he has taken on some projects not generally associated with a county clerks job description. Concerned about the number of weddings that elected judges were conducting in their chamber and the fees they were pocketing for those ceremonies, Rickhoff became ordained and started performing weddings himself. He donates the thousands of dollars he collects to charitable organizations that provide services for women and children in need. On June 26, 2015, when the states ban on gay marriage was ruled unconstitutional, Rickhoff kept his marriage license office open late to accommodate the long line of waiting couples. A history buff, Rickhoff has worked relentlessly during his years as county clerk to have the University of Texas at Austin return Spanish archives the county sent to UT in 1899. Some 81,000 documents were sent there to get translated, but the work is far from complete and the clerk wants them back in the countys possession to expedite the process. He is now working to link Google maps to properties on the countys tax foreclosure list so potential buyers can be better informed. The challengers in both these races lack managerial experience, have not dealt with big dollar budgets and failed to make a valid case for replacing the incumbents. Taxpayers would be best served by re-electing McKinney and Rickhoff. VICE-PRESIDENT Kembo Campbell Dugish Mohadi, is embroiled in an adu_ltery storm which has seen his estranged wife, Tambudzani Bhudagi Mohadi (nee Muleya) petitioning the High Court seeking $1,5 million in damages from his alleged current girlfriend, Juliet Mutavhatsindi. Mohadi and Tambudzani are in the middle of a nasty divorce and the matter is still pending at the High Court. However, on Wednesday, the Zanu PF Beitbridge Senator filed summons against Mutavhatsindi, who is yet to enter an appearance to defend. Tambudzani, under case number HC8792/18, and through her lawyers Scanlen and Holderness, said she was still married to Mohadi in terms of the Marriage Act. Mohadi, who is currently the Acting President while President Emmerson Mnangagwa is attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the United States, has said he married Tambudzani in 1981 and they lived together before separating in 1999. Since July 2017, the defendant [Mutavhatsindi] unlawfully and intentionally committed adu_ltery with the plaintiffs husband [Mohadi] and inflicted contumelia on the plaintiff; she alienated Kembo Mohadis affection for the plaintiff and caused plaintiffs loss of Kembo Mohadis companionship, comfort and service, Tambudzani said in her declaration. As a consequence of the defendants conduct, the plaintiff has suffered damages in the sum of $1 500 000 made up as follows; (1) contumelia inflicted on the plaintiff by the defendant $250 000 and (2) alienation of affection, loss of comfort, society and services of Kembo Mohadi $1 250 000. Tambudzani also said she was claiming interest thereon at the prescribed rate from date of judgment to date of payment plus costs of suit. Early this month, Mohadi was granted a protection order by a Harare magistrate, barring Tambudzani from issuing threatening messages and influencing the couples children to turn against him. In terms of the court order, whose details have been kept a secret by court officials and Mohadis lawyers, but were confirmed by Tambudzani, who said she has also been barred together with her children from selling the couples matrimonial property before finalisation of the divorce. The granting of the protection order in Mohadis favour followed his petition urging the court to determine the case as a matter of urgency, saying he feared for his life because Tambudzani had been calling him on his mobile phone and issuing threatening messages. In September last year, Mohadi approached the High Court in Bulawayo seeking nullification of the couples marriage, claiming their marriage had irretrievably broken down. On August 10 this year, Mohadi petitioned the court in Harare seeking a protection order against his wife on the basis that violence against him had escalated to an unprecedented level. He said he started witnessing harassment and violence just after Tambudzani received summons seeking divorce against her. Mohadi said Tambudzani had even gone to the extent of influencing the pairs children to turn against him and to dispose of the couples matrimonial property. Meanwhile, the Vice-President has also decided to transfer his divorce matter from Bulawayo High Court to Harare, where the case has been allocated a new case number as it awaits determination by a Harare judge. NewsDay Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News A MARRIED Victoria Falls woman skipped the border to South Africa after her long suffering husband discovered that she was cheating on him with two men. The woman, Duduzile Ngwenya (30), reportedly had a long history of cheating on her husband, Mthulisi Ncube (40). According to sources Duduziles two-timing escapades came to light after her official boyfriend found her in the arms of another man around midnight on 11 August. The boyfriend is said to have beaten her before confiscating an iPhone that he had bought her as a gift. The vengeful boyfriend did not stop there as he proceeded to leak a number of lewd pictures of Duduzile to her friends and relatives. This publication is in possession of the nud_e pictures. The distribution of the nudes caused her to become the butt of jokes in Victoria Falls. Left alone with no friends to turn to or a shoulder to cry on, Duduzile packed her bags for South Africa on 27 August. According to a close friend, Duduzile was in the habit of sending nudes to men that she desired. Dudu was something else. You will not believe me if I tell you that she is a baptised church member. She was always drinking and half the time she was as high as a kite. But she used to be a good girl, I dont know what happened to her. She was now neglecting her children. Its like the maid was now their mother because the children spent more time with the maid than with the mother, said the friend who requested anonymity. Another friend revealed that Duduzile, who has a taste for the finer things in life, spent the whole of December in China thanks to a generous married boyfriend who always showered her with gifts. She went without telling the husband and he had to juggle work and family commitments. It was difficult for him but what could he do? She came with bags of clothes that she wanted to sell but only a few clothes were bought because people knew who had sponsored the trip to China. Victoria Falls is a small community and we tend to stick together. I had to buy something because she was my friend but I never liked her behaviour. I might sound callous but the truth is that she got what she deserved. We used to tell her to change her ways because she had a good marriage and a caring husband but she never listened. According to the friends, the church once intervened in an effort to save the 10-year marriage. A reliable source who is close to both Duduzile and Mthulisi said the husband filed for divorce five years ago when he discovered that his wife was having an affair but the wife challenged the marriage annulment. What has happened now will obviously speed up the divorce because the husband has evidence of his wifes cheating. She cannot deny anymore because it is obvious to everyone that she is the guilty party. It sounds wrong but I am happy that they are divorcing because I feared that something bad might happen. Mthulisi declined to comment when contacted. I do not think its wise for me to say anything. Dudu is the mother of my children. Please respect our privacy. Publishing the story will not solve anything, he said. Efforts to get a comment from Duduzile were fruitless. BMetro Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News - A 37-year-old woman identified as Antonela Milena Padilla has found herself in the news for apparently faking pregnancy - In a desperate bid to keep her husband from leaving her, Antonela allegedly told her family she was pregnant - After nine months, she staged an abduction and claimed thugs cut the baby out of her - It was discovered in the hospital that she was never pregnant and had no knife cut injuries as she claimed It's judgement day for 37-year-old Colombian woman identified as Antonela Milena Padilla who apparently used desperate measures just in a bid to stop her husband from leaving her. According to reports, Milena faked pregnancy for nine months just to discourage her husband from abandoning her. Interestingly, her plan worked out and for nine months, her husband and his family believed she was pregnant. Reports reveal that the 37-year-old used cushion to appear pregnant and used rags to increase it as the months went by. On the due date, a fake pregnant Padilla took herself out of the house and informed the family she was heading to the hospital. On the way she called the family and claimed she had been abducted by body organ thugs who cut the baby out of her womb. READ ALSO: Davido presents his bae Chioma with N2.3m Cartier bracelet Disturbed by her health condition, when she was found, she was rushed to the hospital where her lies were unscrambled. The doctors who were concerned she will be bleeding out or worse infected, giving that she said she had been cut open by thugs found no injury on her body. Further tests revealed she was never pregnant and had been lying to her family the whole time. 37-year-old Antonela Milena Padilla was discovered to have been faking her pregnancy in the hospital Source: Daily Mail Source: UGC Surprisingly, despite being caught in a lie, she still claimed she had been pregnant. Ms Padilla's mother-in-law, who wasn't named, told Colombia's Al Dia newspaper that the woman continued to insist she had been pregnant. She said: "They did the tests, and she still tried to convince them she had been expecting. But the gynaecologist confirmed she had never been pregnant." Reports revealed she was able to fool the family for so long because her husband never tried to touch her despite the fact that they slept in the same room. Milena also printed an ultrasound off the internet which she showed her family as proof that she was carrying a child. READ ALSO: Davido claims military men have sealed off a polling unit in Orolu and are refusing voters from entering Police commander, Mariano Cotero Coy, who revealed that an investigation had been launched, stated that she could be charged for wasting public resources, as many people are at the hospital seeking serious treatment. Ms Padilla reportedly fled the hospital at 3am on September 23, two hours after blood tests confirmed she had not been pregnant, and her whereabouts are still unknown. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app Linda Ikeji: Why I'm Pregnant But Not Married on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - The PDP in Kaduna will soon make public the names of the delegates to participate in its primaries - The party says the name of the 2,677 delegates will be made public to the aspirants vying for different public offices - The PDP will be holding its primary elections on Sunday, September 30 The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna state has said that it would soon make public the names of the 2,677 delegates to participate in its party primaries to the aspirants vying for different public offices. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that no fewer than 220 aspirants in Kaduna state are seeking the PDPs ticket to run for the governorship and 53 various offices in the 2019 general polls. Legit.ng gathers that in statement on Thursday, September 27, by the partys publicity secretary, Abraham Catoh, said that the list of delegates would be released ahead of the primaries scheduled for September 30. READ ALSO: Minimum wage: Labour enforces compliance of strike in Lagos Catoh said that the decision was part of a resolution adopted at a meeting of the partys state executive and all aspirants on September 26. The statement said it was part of efforts to ensure transparency, fairness and equal level playing ground for all the aspirants. The statement read in part: The meeting of State Executive Committee (SEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party and members of the Party aspiring for state House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate and governorship positions held on the 26th September, 2018, for a transparent, free and fair party primaries, the following resolutions were reached: Authentic delegates list will be given to all aspirants, at their level of contest before the election day; which will be verified by the aspirants on the day of the primaries before the commencement of the primaries. The aspirants will sign the back of the ballot papers, each, before the commencement of the exercise. The party shall provide a venue and logistics for the primaries as agreed by the party and the aspirants, proper security arrangements will be provided by the party at the election venue. A standby generator (source of power) will be provided at the election venue by the party to avoid power outage. Each of the aspirants will give name of one person to be appointed as a member of the electoral committee, for the verification of the delegates list before the commencement of the primaries. All delegates shall cast their votes by themselves or announce to an official loudly to write the name of the preferred aspirant on the ballot for him/her, which will be confirmed by the agent of the aspirant mentioned. You may wish to bring more suggestions to the party leadership, as members of our great party, on how best to have a very transparent, free and fair party primaries. A list of aspirants for the primaries obtained by NAN showed that 10 persons are in the race for the partys governorship ticket. According to the partys list, 12 persons are vying for the three Senate seats, while 52 others are in the race for the 16 House of Representatives seats. The list also indicated that no fewer than 146 politicians are seeking the PDPs tickets to run for the 34 state House of Assembly seats. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) explained why it asked presidential aspirants in the party to sign an undertaking before the primary election. The undertaking will ensure that the aspirants act in a certain way before, during and after the primary election. The national publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, said on Friday, August 31, that all the aspirants had been informed about the need to have what he called code of conduct ahead of the primary. PDP's magnificent 7 for 2019 - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Everyone could relate to Davido when he sang; Love is sweet but when money enter love is sweeter and some how the truth is million of girls will want to be Chioma right now. Just recently, the 30 Billion Gang leader surprised his woman with a brand new Porsche car said to be worth N22 million. The internet was thrown into a frenzy with many ladies waiting on their own assurance for their man. Many believed he couldn't do more after the Porsche car except put a ring on it, which he often keeps teasing about on social media. Recently, Davido wanted to reassure his assurance and showed off a new piece of jewelry he gifted her. Flaunting the new eye-catching jewelry, Chioma was seen rocking a new Cartier bracelet said to be worth N2.3 million gifted to her by her one and only man. Just like Davido said, his baby wears only the latest. READ ALSO: Davido claims military men have sealed off a polling unit in Orolu and are refusing voters from entering Davido spoils Chioma with new Cartier bracelet Source: Instagram story, Davido Source: Instagram READ ALSO: You are mad Davido says to fan who drags him for supporting his uncle's governorship bid Davido shows off his baby's new bracelet worth N2.3 million Source: Instagram story, Davido Source: Instagram Just few days ago, he showed off her new Fendi bag to the world said to be worth N827,000 and it is clear that money is making their relationship 100 times sweeter. What else will one expect from someone who claims to have N30 million in the account? Fans are just patiently waiting for the day the lovers will walk down the aisle because all this pampering and spoiling better lead to the altar. Meanwhile, just as he is spoiling his woman, the father of two is also spoiling his daughters. Recently Davido gifted his first daughter, Imade a dog which she named Bubbles. The little princess was recorded saying a big thank to her dad on Instagram. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app Davido Gifts Girlfriend, Chioma N45 Million Present on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Femi Babalola has picked the presidential form of the African Democratic Congress - The prominent businessman and philanthropist is confident of getting the party's ticket ahead of the 2019 contest - Babalola stated that Nigeria needs fresh and creative ideas to move the country forward Businessman and philanthropist, Femi Babalola, has purchased the expression of interest and nomination form of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), ahead of the 2019 general election. In a statement sent to Legit.ng by his media officer, Mercy Ayo-Oloye, Babalola said his party has gained the trust of Nigerians to lead the nation to promise land. He stated this after he filled and submitted the documents after meeting all requirements of the ADC ahead of the party primary. READ ALSO: Obasanjos son announces willingness to work for Buharis re-election Babalola expressed confidence of clinching the party's ticket and facing President Muhammadu Buhari in the general election, describing the ADC as a credible alternative political vehicle, capable of moving the nation forward. The ADC is the third force that is morally conscripted to offer Nigerians an escape route from the failed promises of the status quo and the party that connects across Nigeria today, most movements and people who believe that we must depart from the worn out system of mediocrity and corruption; which the APC and PDP represent," he stated. Babalola said that a country cannot run successfully without a defined system, stressing that the government is owing Nigerian youths and this is the time to pay the debt. My presidency will activate more than six geopolitical zones that will bring even development to every part of the country. One of the pivotal programmes of my administration will be industrialization of every part of Nigeria and the creation of several millionaires in every local government area in the country. Nigeria has more than enough resources to sustain these vision, he said. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Babalola had earlier declared his intention to contest the 2019 Nigerian presidential election, saying governance in the country needs creative and fresh ideas to deliver the country from its current woes. He noted that challenges facing the country are not rocket science but lack of sincere political will has kept the country in the situation. PDP's Magnificent 7 for 2019 on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Nigeria The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has reportedly blocked two ministers in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari from becoming the governorship candidates of the party in their states. Premium Times reports that the affected ministers include Aisha Alhassan of the women affairs and Adebayo Shittu in charge of communication. They were reportedly disqualified by the screening committee of the APC. READ ALSO: Osun Decides 2018: LIVE UPDATES from the governorship rerun election The report said Alhassan wanted to govern Taraba while Shittu eyed the governorship of Oyo state. The report said no reason was given for the refusal to clear Alhassan. However, Shittu was reportedly disqualified because he failed to participate in the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme as reported recently. Yekini Nabena, the spokesperson of the APC, reportedly released a list of all aspirants cleared to participate in the primary election slated for this Saturday, September 29. Alhassans name was followed by a short remark: not cleared with no explanations made. But Alhassan caused a steer in 2017 when she was reported to have told former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, that her loyalty remained with him even as a minister in the government of Muhammadu Buhari. Legit.ng earlier reported that Adebayo Shittu, on Thursday, September 27, rejected the indirect primary election adopted for the state. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app I, Adebayo Shittu, the leading governorship aspirant of the APC in Oyo state, rejects the recommendation of the NWC for indirect primary in the state, he said. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Shittu said this in Abuja while speaking with newsmen at the APC national secretariat after meeting with the partys National Working Committee (NWC). Osun Election 2018: I will surely win this election - Senator Adeleke | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in the evening of Thursday, September 27, officially declared Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the Osun governorship election. The full result was finally declared after a supplementary election in four local government areas of the state where the exercise had been cancelled but later declared to be re-run. The result was declared following a keenly contested election between him and Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). READ ALSO: Osun Decides 2018: LIVE UPDATES from the governorship rerun election Check out how Oyetola beats Adeleke below: Oshogbo ward 5, unit 17: Registered voters: 884 Accredited voters: 473 APC: 299 PDP: 165 Valid votes: 467 Votes cast: 473 Orolu LGA Accredited voters: 419 APC: 280 PDP: 122 Valid votes: 411 Rejected votes: 8 Ife South Polling units 10 and 12 Registered voters: 1314 Accredited voters: 515 APC 455 PDP 36 Total votes cast: 515 Rejected: 13 Ife North Registered voters: 353 Accredited voters: 133 APC: 126 PDP: 2 Total votes cast: 133 Rejected votes: 4 PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Legit.ng earlier reported that the Osun state chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) berated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying the opposition party attempted to win the governorship election by fraud. The Independent reports that while reacting to the unverified results of rerun election, APCs director of publicity, research and strategy in the state, Kunle Oyatomi, said the PDP was unable to manipulate the result this time around, so they are crying foul. INEC Officer who tore election results confesses, says his Electoral Officer sent him | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit On Monday, October 1, Nigeria celebrates her 58th year of independence and to recognise the fact that Nigeria has been an independent country for 58 years, Legit.ng takes a look at the past to find the moments that defines Nigeria. Nigeria has been through a lot as a country but there are notable moments of learning through hardship and moments of victory that made Nigeria. These events shape the present and future of Nigeria. One of the most interesting facts about Nigeria is that she was not formulated by an indigene or an African, she was created by the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by Lord Lugard in 1914. For this year's independence, this article would take a look at most memorable events that transpired before and after Nigeria was formed. READ ALSO: Retro: 15 fantastic facts about Nigerian history 1) Yoruba and the Nri Kingdom The kingdom of Nri, which is where the Igbo culture began, was the first monarchy to be established in Nigeria. However, the Yoruba was the first group to ever live as a tribe in Nigeria. Nri kingdom was seen as a safe haven for people who had been rejected from their communities. It was also a unique place because rulers did something unusual, they governed the people through political, religious and economic means. Kingdom of Nri Photo: UGC Source: JANAKESHO/answersafrica.com Source: UGC 2) Benin Empire In the 15th century, the Edo people began the Benin Empire. The empire was one of the most popular empires in history due to the famous artworks that were created by the Benin people. The empire became famous internationally for its artworks which were exported out of the empire to different parts of Europe. It was the first territory in Nigeria to rival any contemporary European power. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on Legit.ng News 3) The establishment of the Hausa Kingdom Hausa people were influenced by the Islamic religion and even influenced other African regions such as Mali. The empire was created by old city states that lay between the Niger River and Lake Chad. Although, it was a stronghold that had powerful trade and commerce as its central power, the empire fell apart in 1808. It was later revived by the British in 1880. 4) Nigeria's decolonization and independence The British power had pulled out of the country in 1963, after Nigeria was decolonized. The people of Nigeria were finally free to govern their own affairs. However, influences of the colonization still remained behind even after the British left. Nigerians still speak English as one of its major languages and parts of the way of life of the British people still remain. 5) The first National election First national election was held in December, 1964. This happened a year after Nigeria gained her freedom and the first independent government of Nigeria was established. National election Photo: UGC Source: answersafrica.com Source: UGC PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group 6) Transition of power In 2007, Nigeria had her first peaceful transition of power. The ruling governing parties had a peaceful transition of power since Nigeria became a state. Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua took over the government from Chief Olusegn Obasanjo. Transition of power Photo: UGC Source: answersafrica.com Source: UGC How Nigerians celebrated the 57th Independence anniversary in Umuahia | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng News - The Nigerian Air Force has destroyed a Boko Haram hideout in Borno state - The structure was used by the terrorists as tactical headquarters from where they launched attacks against troops positions - NAF has vowed to sustain the momentum of operations with a view to destroying vestiges of the insurgents on the fringes of Lake Chad and other areas in Northern Borno The Nigerian Air Force says its Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation Lafiya Dole has destroyed a Boko Haram hideout at a settlement known as Bakassi near Daban Masara on the fringes of Lake Chad in the northern part of Borno. Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, NAF director of public relations and information, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, September 27, in Abuja, adding that the operation was carried out on Wednesday, September 26, NAN reports. READ ALSO: Osun re-run: I will retrieve my stolen mandate at tribunal - Adeleke Legit.ng gathers that Daramola stated that the attack at Bakassi followed days of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions. He noted that the attack at Bakassi was carried out on September 26, following days of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions that led to the identification of a group of buildings and makeshift shelters in the settlement that was being used by terrorists as tactical headquarters from where they launch attacks against own troops positions. Accordingly, the location was attacked by a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Alpha Jet aircraft leading to damage of some of the structures and neutralization of several terrorists. He also said that the ATF, in close coordination with troops of 145 Battalion Nigerian Army (NA), repelled a Boko Haram attack at Gashigar. Daramola said: "Also, later in the evening on September 26, the ATF received intelligence report that a group of the insurgents in several gun trucks and on motorcycles were advancing for an attack on own troops position at Gashigar. Consequently, a fighter jet and helicopter gunship supported by an ISR platform were scrambled to the location. The aircraft, in coordination with ground troops, intercepted and destroyed some of the gun trucks and motorcycles and neutralised some terrorists at the outskirts of the town. According to him, the helicopter gunship subsequently carried out several follow-up attack passes and continued to engage fleeing terrorists. He said that NAF, working in concert with surface forces, would sustain the momentum of operations with a view to destroying vestiges of the insurgents on the fringes of Lake Chad and other areas in Northern Borno. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app In a similar development, Legit.ng previously reported that the Operation Lafiya Dole of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) destroyed some facilities of Boko Haram terrorists at Bukar Meram and Tumbun Allura on the fringes of Lake Chad in Borno. Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola said the attack at Bukar Meram was conducted based on credible human intelligence reports indicating the presence of some insurgents along with their equipment within the settlement. Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit Monday, October 1, 2018, has been declared as a public holiday by the federal government, in commemoration of Nigerias 58th Independence Anniversary. The announcement was made on Thursday, September 27, by the minister of interior, Lt Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd.). READ ALSO: NAF destroys Boko Harm tactical headquarters in Borno Legit.ng gathers that in the statement which was released by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Dr Mohammed Umar, Dambazau congratulated Nigerians on the anniversary and urged them to sustain the efforts of President Muhammadu Buharis administration at maintaining and strengthening the unity and peace of the country. The minister stressed the federal governments commitment to promote national unity, social and political development and economic growth based on democratic principles. Legit.ng previously reported that the Heritage Africa Village Square (HAvis), Abuja, is set to celebrate this years Independence Day on October 1 with the vibrant cultural and artistic endowments of Nigeria and China. The celebration will take the shape of conversations and performances around the theme: China-Nigeria: Shared Legacy of Culture and Humanity to mark the independence anniversaries of the two respective giants of the African and Asian continents. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, the federal government has kick-started activities lined up for the commemoration of the 2018 independence anniversary celebration with a photo exhibition, tagged The Footprints of Nigerias Political Leaders, which was curated by the ministry of information and culture. Speaking at the opening of the exhibition at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, on Tuesday, September 25, the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the 1st of October every year provides an opportunity to reflect on the nations unity, patriotism and commitment to nation-building. How Nigerians celebrated the 57th Independence anniversary in Umuahia - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng News Nigerian ladies are no doubt one of the most curvy ladies in the world. However, due to the country's predominantly carbohydrate foods, it comes as no surprise that some ladies soon add weight and get out of shape. Nollywood actress, Mercy Johnson Okojie, seems to have lost serious weight. The once curvy actress shared new photos that have her fans stunned. The mother of three took the movie industry by storm because of her acting talent, as well as her curvy body. In her heyday, Mercy had people looking forward to seeing her in movies, just so they could drool over her curves. However, in recent photos she shared online, the actress has obviously lost weight and is now looking trim. Mercy obviously added some extra weight after the birth of her three kids, but she seems to have lost all that baby weight and some more. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria See photos below: READ ALSO: Twitter creates a special emoji to mark Independence Day in Nigeria Despite losing all that weight, Mercy is still curvy and looks like a snack! Legit.ng earlier reported that a Nollywood actress, Destiny Etiko, recently went bald. The daring actress shaved all the hair on her head for a movie role where she was acting as a widow. However, Destiny seems to be rocking the new look as she posed confidently with her bald hairstyle in new photos. McDermott Interview: I Believe in Equity Nigeria Actress Ufuoma McDermott on Feminism | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng There is nothing that would be posted on social media, from family problems to people bragging about their latest fashion item and to sharing of unclad pictures. Some people got bashed on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for posting such personal stuffs while others got away with them. A beautiful Nigerian lady has taken to her Facebook profile to share pictures of her sitting in the toilet. According to Favour Obi, she disclosed that she is chilling in the loo because of the air conditioner. READ ALSO: South African actress Shoki Mokgapa dies after battling with depression (photos) Obi who was seen sitting pretty in her pink leggings and wine colored top shared the pictures with the caption: Chilling in the toilet. When you go to a hotel your A/C is in the toilet, you go there to chill once in a while. See post below: According to her profile, Obi is a professional makeup artist working with the Nigerian Film Industry. She also studied at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka. PAY ATTENTION: Join Africa Love Aid today for your daily relationship tips and advice Legit.ng earlier reported that a rising actress identified as Stella Clifford has taken to her Instagram account to call out a movie director Lake Asmah. She claimed that the married man wanted to sleep with her and when she refused, he threatened her. Wonders shall never end! McDermott Interview: I Believe in Equity Nigeria Actress Ufuoma McDermott on Feminism Legit.ng TV - on Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit Newspaper - President Muhammadu Buhari has spoken about his administration so far in bright colours - The president dismissed claims that his administrative policies are slow, adding that he is only trying to follow due process - He promised to do much better, if he is re-elected in the 2019 presidential election President Muhammadu Buhari has told Nigerians in the diaspora that his administration has done well in the areas of security, economy and anti-corruption. The president, who stated this during an interactive session with a select group of Nigerian professionals based in the United States (US) and Canada, said his administration had delivered within the available resources, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. READ ALSO: Facts to know about Adegboyega Oyetola, Osun state governor-elect The president explained that Boko Haram had been decimated, adding that it was most important for the country to be secured but regretted that the terrorist group was still targeting soft spots using girls for attacks. He declared that Boko Haram is not about religion but a pure terrorist group, adding that is why we are dealing with them. On corruption, he regretted that Nigeria made so much money from 1999 to 2014 when the price of crude oil per barrel was above 100 dollars while Nigeria produced around 1.2 million barrels per day. Calculate 2.2 million barrels times 100 dollars times 16 years; but everything went down the drain, he said, emphasising that if Nigeria does not tame corruption, corruption will tame Nigeria. The president also said that he was not slow as some people had assumed, saying he was trying to follow the law, especially as democracy is different from military rule. He recalled that he put people in Kirikiri Maximum Prison in Lagos when he was a military head of state and then ensured they remained in custody until they were able to prove themselves innocent. Buhari, however, said his administration was making progress but had to go by the law assuring that if I win the next election and I survive the next four years, I will do better. He also recounted his bitter experience in politics saying that he suffered electoral corruption from 2013 when he started contesting for the presidency and had at each point, pursued the case up to the Supreme Court but lost. Im always conscious of the ordinary people because they are the ones that always vote for me. A lot of big men have no time to go and queue on the line for hours. There were even pregnant women who were on the line for hours and they delivered. They are my constituencies; they always vote for me, Buhari said. The president explained that he had warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies to ensure that every vote counts by allowing Nigerians to vote whoever they want without harassment. Buhari said he recognised that Nigerians in the diaspora were talented people and called on them to come to the support of the country, particularly, in education. NAN reports that the diasporas appealed to the president to get them more involved in issues about the country considering that they are major stakeholders. Earlier, the consul-general of Nigeria in New York, Benaoyagha Okoyen, commended the willingness of the diasporas to support the efforts of the governments economic growth and diversification plans. He said: The purpose of this gathering is to allow Nigerians in diaspora interact with Mr President by offering useful suggestions for government to continually strengthen the existing bond of affection, identity and sense of responsibility for the Diaspora community, to actively participate in development efforts of Nigeria at home. I feel delighted to state the obvious that among Nigerians in the United States, we have some of the most celebrated and outstanding in various fields of human endeavours. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! I wish to report to Mr President of the desire and passion of these Nigerians to contribute and maintain an effective working partnership with government to integrate their valuable contributions into the domestic growth mechanisms. More importantly, as human capital is a vital resource for the development of any country, I wish to call on Nigerians in United States America to utilise the opportunities to invest at home and be good ambassadors of change in Nigeria." Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that the president was on Thursday, September 26, at the UN headquarters in Manhattan, New York, and delivered an address at the 73rd session of the general assembly on the fight against tuberculosis. The president also held a bilateral meeting with the UN's secretary general, Antonio Guterres, on ways to tackle the terminal disease. EXCLUSIVE: Be patient with President Buhari, Femi Adesina tells Nigerians - On Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - PDP has called emergency NEC meeting over its convention venue - The convention was slated to hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, on October 6 - Governor Nyesom Wike had threatened that his government would not support any desperate PDP presidential aspirant who is against hosting of convention in the state The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has summoned its National Executive Committee meeting to discuss the venue for its national convention. Legit.ng reports that the emergency NEC meeting holds in Abuja later today Friday, September 28. It was gathered that the convention was slated to hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, on October 6. READ ALSO: Facts to know about Adegboyega Oyetola, Osun state governor-elect It was gathered that some members of the party had kicked against Port Harcourt, claiming that the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, is rooting for one of the presidential aspirants. One of the presidential aspirants is also believed to have used his influence to break the ranks of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party on the issue. The BoT, which is described as the conscience of the party, was initially banned from campaigning for any of the 13 aspirants. The chairman of the board, Senator Walid Jibrin, made the pronouncement on behalf of the BoT. He said the Board arrived at the conclusion after its meeting with its members. Some of the members of the board, however, had jettisoned the directive and had pitched tents with their preferred candidates. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, declared that his government would not support any desperate Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant who is sabotaging the economy of the state by fighting the hosting of the partys presidential primary in Port Harcourt. It was reported that in a statement by his special assistant on electronic media, Simeon Nwakaudu, the governor further warned that there would be consequences if the party succumbs to pressures from planted PDP presidential aspirants to move the partys national convention away from Port Harcourt. PDP's magnificent 7 for 2019 - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - As the 2019 general elections are drawing nearer, there are apprehensions as to how INEC's conduct of the all-important exercise will play out - The United State Institute for Peace has said that based on field research, there are possibilities of electoral violence and defections between political parties - The group urged international bodies to rally round Nigeria and assist it during the campaign, voting, and results phases of the election The United States Institute for Peace (USIP) has said that the 2019 general elections might be fraught with violence in Nigeria. In a recent report, the institute stated that social and economic imbalance, ethnic and religious divisions, and corruption would be the contributory factors to the risks of electoral violence in the country, if they are not properly dealt with, www.usip.org reports. READ ALSO: Osun re-run: Lai Mohammed, Fayemi, Omisore, others celebrate Oyetolas victory The international body pointed that the challenge required innovative approaches on account of the shift in the dynamics of violence since the last elections in 2015. The report said: In addition to the broad trends and shifts identified earlier in the report, the eight states profiles that follow illustrate the distinct combination of risks faced in different parts of Nigeria across the countrys various political zones. "While not intended to be exhaustive, these profiles demonstrate the diversity of challenges across the country. They clearly show the limitations of pursuing a single strategy to mitigate electoral violence and argue for adaption and innovation, on a state-by-state basis. The report also disclosed that public confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for credible elections is unstable, adding that the electoral body would gain a much from a transparency in managing polls' results. It further predicted that grievances arising from recent local government elections might also have significant consequences for the national elections. It suggested that successful state-level initiatives in Plateau state would reduce religious intolerance. The group further recommended that other international supporters of Nigerias electoral process should augment their diplomatic efforts to preempt electoral violence in the run-up to the 2019 elections. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! Moreover, it suggested that during the campaign, voting, and results phases of the election, regional and continental leaders should be prepared to mediate disputes and to work toward peaceful acceptance of the elections outcomes. Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that the election observation teams of the United States (US), the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom, late Thursday, September 27, gave their initial observation on the conduct of the rerun governorship election in Osun state. Speaking in Osogbo in an interview, a member of the observer team, who spoke on behalf of the others, said there were reports of irregularities, harassment and interference by inappropriate persons in the elections. INEC Officer who tore election results confesses, says his Electoral Officer sent him | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - President Muhammadu Buhari and president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, met in New York, United States, on Thursday, September 27 - The two leaders, who met at the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly, discussed about attacks against Nigerian traders in Ghana - Akufo-Addo said there was no intention to deliberately target Nigerians President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana on Thursday, September 27, met with President Muhammadu Buhari and briefed the latter on the attacks against Nigerian traders in Ghana. This was disclosed by President Buhari's special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, on Thursday, September 27. Legit.ng gathers that the two leaders met in New York on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly, during which President Buhari expressed delight that the attacks were being decisively taken care of. President Muhammadu Buhari and President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana. Photo credit: Facebook, Femi Adesina. Source: Depositphotos READ ALSO: Aisha Buhari honoured in US with excellence, honorary citizen's awards According to Adesina, the Ghanaian leader said there was no intention to deliberately target Nigerians, noting that it was all about complying with the rules that guide trading in the country. President Akufo-Addo was quoted as saying: "I have met with the different groups, and have been reassured that there was no agenda to send anybody away. It is just that they needed to regularise their positions according to the trading laws of the country." The two leaders met at the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, September 27. Photo credit: Facebook, Femi Adesina. Source: Depositphotos Adesina said Ghanas minister of trade and industry, Alan Kyerematen, had issued a press statement on the matter. The statement read: "The ministry of trade and industry wishes to inform the general public that the national committee on retail trade will continue to ensure that all businesses operating in the retail trade sector of Ghana are given the opportunity and support to regularise their operations and comply with the laws and regulations in the country. President Nana Akufo-Addo said their was no intention to deliberately target Nigerians in Ghana. Photo credit: Facebook, Femi Adesina. Source: Depositphotos "In this regard, all owners of the affected businesses and shops are requested to contact the relevant state institutions and agencies to regularise their operations as required by the various bodies under reference. "The ministry takes this opportunity to assure the general public, particularly the international community, that there is no orchestrated action by government or any state institution targeted at Nigerian nationals or any particular foreign nationals." President Buhari urged citizens of Nigeria and Ghana to comply with the laws, adding that both countries have a relationship that dates back in time. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Nigerian traders at the Suame Magazine in Kumasi in the Ashanti region were allegedly attacked by Ghanaians who vowed to evict foreigners from the market. The leaders of the Nigerian retailers at the Suame Magazine said their members were living in fear following what they called incessant attacks on them. Nigerians protest against Xenophobia - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng The typical expectation when a police officer is mentioned is to see an unwelcoming and scary looking man whose physical appearance will get you questioning if he is for or against the law. Well, this Nigerian lady seems to be breaking that popular opinion. Identified simply as Obianuju, this female Nigerian police officer has left many people on social media in awe. Her beauty, sense of style and the fact that she takes pride in her job as an officer of the law continues to remain a thing of discussion on social media. With several thousand followers on Instagram, the amount of support and compliments she gets goes to show that a lot of people won't mind getting arrested by the stunning beauty who most people consider the most beautiful police officer in Nigeria. Going through her Instagram page, it is easy to deduce that Obianuju who is assistant superintendent, is one lady who takes her job very seriously and is proud of what she does. She maintains the same energy when it comes to looking fly. At first glance, one would think she's into the fashion business and not a law officer. READ ALSO: 34-year-old South African actress kills herself after battling with depression See some of her beautiful photos below: READ ALSO: 74-year-old man returns home 45 years after being declared dead in Kenya Reacting to questions about why she chose the police profession which is uncommon with the regular young Nigerian woman, she had this to say: "People always ask me why i joined the force or what am i doing in the police. Lol. If only they know but i will leave them to keep wondering because most of us dont have any knowledge about the police force and theres no need explaining myself to anyone. If you want to know, join us #ilovemyjob#livingmybestlife#livingmydream#imaginemein10years " PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on Legit.ng News App Amazing! Get the hottest gist on Africa Love Aid Ifeanyi Daniel Akanegbu Story 27-Year-Old Graduate Breaks Even With Small Chops Business Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng When kids have to celebrate an occasion in their school, parents are often excited, also mirroring the happiness of their little ones. In Nigeria, most schools celebrate the countrys independence, which is on October 1. To celebrate Nigeria's 58th independence, students are made to dress up in their traditional attires, while the school displays native food from different tribes. This is done to foster nation building and bridge the gap among people of different tribes in the country. Davidos daughter, Imade Adeleke, was not left out of the celebration as she also dressed up in her native attire to school. Imade was spotted wearing a nice pink iro and buba which she paired with a pink headgear also known as 'gele'. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria She accessorised the whole look with a faux leopard skin school bag and traditional beads. The little girl owes her outfit on that day to her grandmother who was responsible for styling her. The cute photos were posted on her Instagram page. READ ALSO: Meet steamy army drill sergeant who turns model when she is off duty (photos) Legit.ng earlier reported that the cute little girl celebrated her third birthday in a stylish way. It seems like just yesterday that music artiste, Davido, welcomed his first child with Ovation magazine boss, Dele Momodu's niece, Sophia. Well, time indeed does fly as the little princess, Imade Aurora Adeleke, clocked three years of age on May 14. The official Instagram page of the little princess shared some new stunning photos of her. In one of the photos, she is dressed like the Disney princess, Moana. Nigeria News Today: Davido's NYSC Trouble During Osun Election | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - President Buhari has met with a Nigerian-born senator in Italy - The president congratulated Toni Iwobi, the first Black man ever to be elected senator in Italy - Iwobi emphasized the need for collaboration to curb illegal immigration President Muhammadu Buhari has met Toni Iwobi, of Nigerian origin and who is the first Black man ever to be elected senator in Italy. On the sidelines of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York, on Thursday, September 27, Iwobi met with Buhari, along with a high-powered team from the Italian Senate. My congratulations to you, and to Italy more, President Buhari told Iwobi, who was elected in March this year, on platform of the far-right League Party. It shows the advanced respect of Italians for human beings, in spite of colour. Its very impressive." READ ALSO: Nigerians react to Osun's APC victory The team from Italy discussed issues like illegal migration and how it can be curbed through investments in Africa, recharge of the Lake Chad via inter-basin water transfer, among others. Africa doesnt need charity, but collaboration to develop, Senator Iwobi declared. President Buhari noted that what causes irregular migration from developing to developed countries include lack of security, education, health care, among others, stressing: Climate change has had negative impact on a big country like Nigeria. That is why our youths often defy the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, to try and get to Europe. It is a problem that needs to be solved," he said. The Italian Senate delegation plans to visit Nigeria soon. Iwobi has lived in Italy for 41 years. Meanwhile, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana on Thursday, September 27, met with President Muhammadu Buhari and briefed the latter on the attacks against Nigerian traders in Ghana. This was disclosed by President Buhari's special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, on Thursday, September 27. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng gathers that the two leaders met in New York on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly, during which President Buhari expressed delight that the attacks were being decisively taken care of. According to Adesina, the Ghanaian leader said there was no intention to deliberately target Nigerians, noting that it was all about complying with the rules that guide trading in the country. Nigerians protest against Xenophobia - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Superstar D'banj's wife, Lineo Kilgrow, sends sweet apologies to Wizkid's first son Boluwatife - Lineo who seemed to have wronged the little boy sent a cake with the words: 'I'm sorry Tife, forgive me', boldly written on it There are a lot of people blessed with amazing spirits who just live to make other people happy. Ever since Wizkid's first baby mama, Shola, opened up about the Starboy being a deadbeat father and not paying attention to his son, many people have been sending love her way. One of such people is D'banj's wife, Lineo, who recently sent the young boy a lovely cake with words: 'I'm sorry Tife, forgive me' written on it. There's no explanation as to why she was apologising to Boluwatife but people are guessing it must be tied to doing all she can to put a smile on the little boy's face. It's understandable that a mother would understand the plight of Shola who appears to have been saddled with the responsibility of caring for her son alone. It's even more emotional giving that Lineo and her megastar husband, D'banj, recently lost their son to a tragic accident in their home. READ ALSO: Actress Stella Clifford calls out married movie director who wants to sleep with her Amazingly, not even the devil could steal the light burning hard, shinning bright in the heart of Kilgrow. Dbanjs wife Lineo Didi Kilgrow sends Wizkids son Boluwatife a cake Source: Instagram story, Oluwanishola Source: Instagram Tife's mum, Shola shared the photo on her social media page, thanking Lineo for being so sweet and assured that she's been forgiven by Tife. Like it or not, women rise by lifting others up. Great move Kilgrow! Meanwhile, recently, Dbanj and his wife Didi Lineo Kilgrow were spotted having the best time of their lives in Dubai. D'banj shared photos of their baecation on his Instagram page. The couple were spotted with another popular Nigerian couple 2baba and his wife Annie on a double date baecation. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app Is Wizkid a DeadBeat Dad? - Nigeria News Today on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng Two Nigerian Air Force jets collided a few minutes ago while conducting a routine air display over Abuja. The crash occurred around the Katampe area in the Nigerian capital as they prepare for Nigeria's 58th independence anniversary celebration. No lives were lost as the pilots were ejected using the parachutes. READ ALSO: Nigerians react to Osun's APC victory The Nigerian Air Force spokesman, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, in a short statement sent to journalists, confirmed the crash. I wish confirm an air incident involving 2 Nigerian Air Force aircraft taking part in the rehearsals for the 58th Independence Day Celebrations. Details will be communicated later, he said. UPDATE One of the pilots involved in the crash has been reported dead by the Nigerian Air Force. Air Commodore Daramola confirmed the sad news in a short statement which read: It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully announce that one of the pilots who successfully ejected from one of the F-7Ni aircraft that crashed earlier today has passed on. May his soul RIP. Additional details on the incident will be communicated later. PAY ATTENTION: Get more videos on Legit.ng T Legit.ng had earlier reported that as part of the 58th Independence Day celebration, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has started aerial display in Abuja. NAF called on Abuja residents not to panic as jets will be flying low. It said the aerial display will continue till October 2. NAF clarification came after some news media (not Legit.ng) had earlier reported that fighter jets caused a scare at the National Assembly forcing staff at the complex to flee. Female aerospace engineer from the Tsaigumi UAV team on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - A lawyer and activist, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has accused INEC of being biased during Osun rerun election - The said the commission betrayed the trust reposed in it by Nigerians - Adegboruwa stated that the commission needs a review by the National Assembly A lawyer and activist, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has accused the electoral body, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) of breaching the trust reposed on it by Nigerians through the way it handled the Osun election, The Punch reports. In a piece he wrote on Friday, September 22, titled 'Osun governorship election: Back to the trenches,' Adegboruwa said the electoral commission was sympathetic to the ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC) Legit.ng gathers that the lawyer also berated the commission, adding that the process is a signpost confirming the claims that Buhari's loyalists and disciples are the ones heading the commission. READ ALSO: Osun re-run: Lai Mohammed, Fayemi, Omisore, others celebrate Oyetolas victory He said: First, the election has shown that INEC is not independent. The influence of the ruling party on INEC cannot be overemphasised, especially as it has constantly been trumpeted that there are many loyalists and relatives of the president, occupying very high positions in INEC. It is thus almost certain that in keenly contested elections, such as the Osun governorship, INEC will be reluctant to declare a candidate of the opposition party, as the winner. Thus, the general view in respect to the Osun governorship election is that it became inconclusive because the opposition candidate was leading. Recall that INEC declared the candidate of APC, Gboyega Oyetola, the winner of the poll with 255,505 votes. His close challenger, Senator Ademola Adeleke of opposition Peoples Democratic Party pulled 255,023 votes, raising question about the sincerity of INEC. The lawyer was also of the opinion that having keenly followed the election process in the state, he submitted that the electoral body has some loopholes that can only be removed by the National Assembly. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Senator Ademola Adeleke, rejected Osun re-run election result. He described it as a charade which must not be allowed to stand. Ademola Adeleke Campaign Organisation, in statement to the media, said the election was a show of force and violence and hence, rejected it. Adeleke justified his claims with an evidence that voters were deliberately refused access to polling points at gun points. Osun Election 2018: Electorate accuses INEC ad hoc staff of taking bribe | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - The streets of Osogbo and other major towns in Osun state have remained calm after the just concluded governorship rerun election in the state - Army patrol vans also stationed at some major motor parks in a bid to prevent protest which some people believe may trail the announcement of the poll results - A security man in one of the hotels in Osogbo, who identified himself simply as Yinusa, said people really voted because they wanted development in the state The streets of Osogbo and other major towns in Osun state have remained calm despite the declaration of the All Progressive Congress candidate, Gboyega Oyetola, as the winner of the just concluded governorship rerun election in the state. The Punch reports Olaiya Junction was clam as the security men were stationed there to prevent the breakdown of the law and order especially from residents who believed that the election was openly rigged in favour of Oyetola. It was learnt that Army patrol vans are as well stationed at Okefia motor park and other volatile areas in a bid to prevent protest which some people believe may trail the announcement of the poll results. READ ALSO: APC releases list of all cleared governorship aspirants across 28 states (full list) A security man in one of the hotels in Osogbo, who identified himself simply as Yinusa, said the people voted because they wanted development and not fight. According to him, Osun people are peaceful and would not resort to violence. Yinusa said: The problem with the Aregbesola government is in the area of payment of salaries. If the incoming governor can settle that, I think the people will be happy. A female phone dealer at Olaiya junction, Osogbo, who gave her name as Kemi, said she does not care who emerged as the governor of the state, provided there are peace and development in the land. Ahmodu, a resident of the city, who is however, from Ondo state, said he doesnt see any difference between the two political parties and so no one should lose sleep over the outcome. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app He said: They are birds of the same feathers. I dont see any difference between the two. They will still do what they want to do. Kunle Adedeji is a phone repairer at Odi Olowo Street in Osogbo claimed to have voted for the APC and was happy that the party won the election. He, however, said he believed that despite the initial bitterness that followed the electoral contest, peace would reign and people would cooperate to see that the state moves forward. The PDP, as a party and its candidate as an individual, have rejected the election results, claiming it was a coup against the people, while the APC hailed the result, claiming it was the wish of the people expressed. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Senator Ademola Adeleke vowed to retrieve his stolen mandate from the APCs Gboyega Oyetola, at the Election Petition Tribunal. He made the comment in a chat with newsmen shortly before the returning officer, Joseph Fuwape, announced the final figure for the Osun gubernatorial re-run election on Thursday, September 27. Speaking through his brother, Dele Adeleke, the candidate said the PDPs next step would be to proceed to the tribunal. Osun Election 2018: I will surely win this election - Senator Adeleke | Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - Charles Idahosa, Oshiomholes former aide, spoke about the chances of the APC and President Buhari in the forthcoming 2019 elections - Idahosa said the election will be easier for the president, compared to 2015 - He listed reasons why he believed President Buharis re-election will be easier Charles Idahosa, a former political adviser to ex-Edo Governor Adams Oshiomhole, has said the 2019 presidential election will be easier for the All Progressives Party (APC) to win than 2015. Idahosa, who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin on Friday, September 28, added that the 2015 victory was a hard-fought one for the APC. He said the 2015 presidential election was particularly a difficult one because, aside from being an opposition party, religion and ethnic sentiments played a major part of the campaign. READ ALSO: Osun Decides 2018: Nigerians react to APC's victory The election of 2015 was based on religion and it was between the North and the South. A lot of us were emotional that Buhari was a northern Muslim. You see churches carrying propaganda that Buhari will islamise the country. But this election will probably be between two northern Muslims. Our pastors will get no contract of sharing money inside their churches and the voting system will be different. In 2015, we lost almost everything in Edo South. It was difficult to convince people to vote for Buhari in this state. 2019 will be a different scenario. Anybody making permutations based on 2015 will be making a very big mistake. Buhari has a cult followership in the north. His 12 million votes are waiting for him intact. He will get the bulk vote but it will not be the same for the PDP in the south and southeast, he said. Idahosa further stressed that since President Buhari had worked very hard, it would also largely contribute to make his re-election easy. According to him, Buharis presidency has been very eventful for the development of this country. He has by no small means, improved on the infrastructure development of the country. The rail is not only receiving priority attention; roads, agriculture and many other sectors have seen more support in this government than in any other in the history of the country. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari congratulated the APC and Adegboyega Oyetola, the partys governor-elect of Osun state for winning the state's governorship election which he described as keenly contested. The senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, in a series of tweets on Friday, September 28, said Buhari stated that by voting for the ruling party, the people of Osun state had shown that they are supporting his administrations good governance agenda. The president urged Oyetola to always remember that the electorate expects unreserved commitment to delivering results that directly impact their lives and families. President Buhari on 2019 Presidential Election: Will You Vote For Him? | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - The ruling APC has condemned the recent suspension of the former speaker of the Delta state House of Assembly - The party said the suspension of Monday Igbuya is vindictive and an affront on democracy The All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the three months suspension slammed on the immediate past speaker of the Delta state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Monday Igbuya, describing it as vindictive and an affront on democracy. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the condemnation by the party is coming just as Igbuya also denied the allegation of financial recklessness leveled against him by the House and accused the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, of witch-hunting him and instigating the three months suspension slammed against him. The lawmaker in a statement by his aide, Sunday Boyitie, said: It is comical for anyone to say I was involved in any form of financial recklessness while I headed the House as speaker because no money was given to me by the Okowa administration during my tenure as speaker. I believe its as a result of my defection to the APC. READ ALSO: Just in: Ambode, Pat Utomi, Ribadu, others cleared as APC releases governorship aspirants' list across 28 states (full list) "I have also briefed my lawyers to seek legal counsel on my next line of action as the House does not have the power to suspend any of its members and I would not ignore this cheap political script being authored by some individuals who see themselves as demigods. The Delta state chapter of the party in a statement by its publicity secretary, Sylvester Imonina stated that the party condemns the action of the House as same ultra-vires the power of the House. Tasking the House to immediately recall the former speaker who recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC to avoid legal fireworks against her, the party stated that the decision is vindictive, affront to democracy and freedom of association. READ ALSO: Independence Day rehearsal: 2 Nigerian Air Force jets collide in Abuja It said: The All Progressives Congress, Delta state chapter condemns in totality the suspension of Rt. Hon. Monday Igbuya by Delta State House of Assembly over concocted/purported allegation of financial misapplication. Though, the House has the rules that govern conduct of her members, same ought not to be used arbitrarily against those who are not on the same page with the powers-that-be. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the APC had on Thursday, September 27, said it had screened members of the party with ambitions to become governors in various states across Nigeria. The party in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Yekini Nabena, said the governorship aspirants from states of the federation that were cleared to contest the primaries were screened by APC's governorship screening committee. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app The list also contained names of aspirants that were not cleared and those that withdrew from the race. Osun Election 2018: I will surely win this election - Senator Adeleke | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng If Instagram were real life and the amount of followers one had equal to their daily income, then BBNaija's Alex would have been a millionaire and then not, all in one day. Unfortunately and fortunately for the 21-year-old reality star, Instagram isn't real life and earning money in reality requires more effort than generating likes and comments. In this social media age, where brands find every means to hook on major influencers on the gram, it's no surprise that so much value is attached to followership, and celebs, take time out to make speeches and thank you notes when they hit a new milestone of followers. It was no different for BBNaija queen, Alex, who hit one million followers and decided to pop virtual champagnes on her gain. Without wasting time, she shared a photo informing her followers she will be hitting one million in a second and screen munched how far she had come in gaining a million followers. READ ALSO: South African actress Shoki Mokgapa dies after battling with depression (photos) However, she spoke too soon. Just as she was getting set to jump up and shut hallelujah, Instagram rained on her parade and she went down a couple of thousands. Many accused her of buying fake followers but her fans came back fighting strong, increasing it yet again to a million. BBNaija housemate Alex celebrates 1 million Instagram followers, but it was too early Source: Instagram READ ALSO: Mercy Johnson loses weight, shows off her hot body in new photos Realising that whether she had a million followers or less, she was still loved, she then released a statement thanking her supporters for their love. To her, such show of care and support trumps hitting the million followers benchmark. BBNaija housemate Alex celebrates 1 million Instagram followers, but it was too early Source: Instagram It's not surprising that Alex is one of the loved celebs on the gram. Recently, she made the list to Legit.ng 's favourites who killed it during the Agbada Challenge. Alex and many other Nigerian celebrities showed up looking all shades of gorgeous in their various agbada designs. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app Laura Ikeji Interview for Star Chat: There are a lot of angry people on Twitter on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng - There is heightened tension in the Lagos state chapter of the APC ahead of the primary - An APC chieftain has said there are no plans to endorse Governor Ambode by the party's national leader Tinubu - The aide said the claim of an endorsement is a total fallacy and its not going to happen The feud between Senator Bola Tinubu and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is still on contrary to speculations that the former Lagos state governor has endorsed the incumbent ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election on Saturday, September 29. An APC chieftain close to the party's national leader says there are no plans to endorse the governor by Tinubu, saying the decision of the former governor not to back Ambode for a second term is intact. The party official accused aides of Governor Ambode of planting fake stories in the media about Tinubu anointing the governor ahead of the primary election. Ambodes camp is desperately trying to mislead Lagosians with these stories, the unnamed chieftain told Pulse Nigeria. READ ALSO: After victory, Osuns Oyetola makes first promise ahead of swearing-in He added that: The Ambode camp just rose from a meeting and agreed to publish a news story that Asiwaju is set to endorse and anoint Ambode in the early hours of Saturday morning before the primaries. There has been no meeting between Asiwaju and Ambode. This story is concocted and a lie from the pit of hell. The aim of this is to misinform the electorate in Lagos and to cause confusion. A number of similar false publications are already in the works. Another aide of Tinubu's who was contacted for this story said: The claim of an endorsement is a total fallacy. Its not going to happen. The governor has challenged the people of Lagos to a fight. Let him face it. Ambodes political future has been under threat since Tinubus Mandate Movement, threw up the managing director of Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC), Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to challenge the governor at the partys primary. Also in the race, is another strong contender, a former commissioner for works and Infrastructure, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, who has the backing of an equally powerful group, the Justice Forum. The chairmen of the 57 local council development areas in Lagos had also declared support for Sanwo-Olu. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app A last-minute effort by the First Lady of Lagos state, Bolanle Ambode, to save her husbands job also failed. Mrs Ambode was said to have waylaid Tinubu in Oshogbo during an APC rally, and tried to pacify him to change his mind on his hard stance against her husband. A source privy to the meeting said her efforts did not yield any result as Tinubu received her cordially and joked with her. Can Ambode Get a Second Term Without Tinubus Approval? - Nigeria Street Gist on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng It is rare for you to see any university graduate who did not undergo the one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), program but some still do overlook the mandatory service year but it later come to hunt them in future. This has deprived some of them their political appointments and others the chance to hold elective posts. However, President Muhammadu Buharis personal photographer has taken to his Instagram handle to advice Nigerian youths on the importance of serving their country for a whole year. READ ALSO: Nigerians react to minister of finance Kemi Adeosun's alleged NYSC certificate scandal Bayo Omoboriowo made this post on Thursday, September 27, saying: Please take your NYSC serious opls! Please I beg you, do all you need to do to prepare for your tomorrow. If a Minister can be disqualified from running for the office of a governor because of NYSC certificate, it tells you things are getting more serious. Check yourself and be sure you are prepared for your tomorrow cos it sure would be bigger than what your drea can capture today #letsdomore. See screenshots below: PAY ATTENTION: Join Africa Love Aid today for your daily relationship tips and advice Legit.ng earlier reported that Adebayo Shittu, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and communications minister in the current administration is facing allegation that he failed to participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. Well said! I quit my accounting job to start making shoes. | Legit.ng TV - on Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit.ng - Adetokunbo Pearse claimed INEC as an electoral body cannot be independent - The SDP chieftain said presidents must stop appointing its chairmen - Pearse said his party was ready to give Akinwunmi Ambode governorship ticket if his party does not give it to him Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, chairman, strategy and mobilisation, Social Democratic Party (SP), Southwest Zzone, on Friday, September 28, said that the party would accommodate Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos state in 2019 election. Pearse, a University teacher, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that Ambode would be welcome to fly SDPs ticket if his (Ambode) party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) denied him second term ticket. READ ALSO: Breaking: APC releases list of all cleared governorship aspirants across 28 states (full list) NAN reports that Ambodes second term ticket has been facing some opposition within his party following speculations that he has fallen out of favour with his political godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Tinubu is said to be currently rooting for a former commissioner in the state, Jide Sanwo-Olu, who has already declared his intention to contest the governorship on the platform of the APC party, where Ambode also belongs. Analysts view the development as a trying political season for Ambode, who has since announced his readiness for the partys direct primary on September 30 to slug it out with his opponents. Sanwo-Olu, the managing director, Lagos State Development and Property Corporation, and Femi Hamzat, a former commissioner for works, are in the race for the APCs governorship ticket. Pearse said: I have to tell you the truth that our national leaders have asked us in Lagos to reach out to Ambode and to let him know that we will be ready to accommodate him in our party if he so chooses. The reason being that Ambode has not performed excellently but we think, he should have an opportunity for second term to complete some of the works he has started. More importantly, we see Ambode as a man who seems to be standing up to greed. Thats the reason why we feel Ambode should be given an opportunity. They are fighting him because he has not agreed to sell Lagos totally. So, we will welcome him if he comes." READ ALSO: After victory, Osuns Oyetola makes first promise ahead of swearing-in The SDPs chieftain, however, said that whether Ambode came or not, the 2019 general elections were going to be the end of the ruling APC in Lagos. He said that the national leader of the APC and former governor of the state, Senator Bola Tinubu had made a big mistake by allegedly bringing somebody that is totally unknown. They can win the primary (against Ambode) but let it come to the general elections, people will show that this state does not belong to them," he said. On SDPs alliance with some other opposition parties ahead of 2019 elections, Pearse said that the alliance at the national level still subsists and would be used to oust the APC in the state. He said: We understand that it might be difficult to oust the incumbent that has been there for years. We need an alliance and that alliance by the grace of God will come into being. With that alliance we are sure to win 2019 elections for the people and to retire APC in the state. On the outcome of Osun poll, Pearse said that the alleged flaws that characterised the election and runoff had shown that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not prepared for 2019 elections. INEC is not prepared for 2019 general elections with the conduct of Osun gubernatorial election. INEC is not independent at all and cannot conduct a fair, credible and acceptable elections. The reason being that, once the President of the country is the person who appoints the chairman of INEC, the INEC is already compromised. Looking at the decision of INEC on Osun gubernatorial election, do you think if APC had been the party that won with 353 votes in Osun, they would not have declared the partys candidate as that winner? So, INEC must be trustworthy, incorruptible and fair. People must stand firm to ensure that INEC is uncompromising. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the ruling party had reportedly blocked two ministers in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari from becoming the governorship candidates of the party in their states. The affected ministers include Aisha Alhassan of the women affairs and Adebayo Shittu in charge of communication. The report said Alhassan wanted to govern Taraba while Shittu eyed the governorship of Oyo state. Osun Election 2018: I will surely win this election - Senator Adeleke | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - The Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM) says it is disturbed over alleged involvement of police in the violence that marred Osun election rerun - The CPPM wants IGP Ibrahim Idris to investigate what it calls a condemnable development - The observer group says it will not allow enemies of democracy to truncate the system The Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM), one of the local observers during the governorship election in Osun state, has called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to commence investigation into alleged violence during the exercise. The organisation specifically lamented the alleged involvement of the police in the alleged violence widely reported during the election rerun which took place on Thursday, September 27. The group led by Nelson Ekujumi noted while the governorship election earlier conducted was deemed free and fair, the rerun could not be described as such. READ ALSO: Breaking: APC's Oyetola is winner of Osun governorship election rerun Thus, the Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM) as a responsible and patriotic body is concerned and disturbed by allegations of violence, intimidation and assault of the electorate, party agents, observers and the media by security personnel deployed to maintain law and order. We are also troubled by the allegations of the complicity of the security agencies with political party thugs and miscreants to assault the democratic rights of Nigerians which is unacceptable and condemnable. These worrisome allegations against the neutrality and professionalism of the security agencies if allowed to stand without an investigation and report of the findings to do the needful, has the tendency to mar the credibility of the election and undermine the sanctity of the ballot box derived from an atmosphere devoid of fear and intimidation. It is in this vein, that we at CPPM, call on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, in line with his constitutional responsibility, to immediately set up an investigative panel to examine these alleged violations of the electoral act with a view to establish the veracity of the allegations and prosecute accordingly. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app We cannot fold our arms, sit idle and allow anti-democratic elements and their sponsors, to erode the strenuous gains of our democracy in recent times by the alleged resort to hooliganism and gangsterism which must be condemned and confronted with the full weight of the law, the group said. Legit.ng earlier reported that the election observation teams of the United States (US), the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom, late Thursday, September 27, gave their initial observation on the conduct of the rerun governorship election in Osun state. Osun Election 2018: Electorate accuses INEC ad hoc staff of taking bribe | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Nigerian lady reportedly gets killed by husband - The woman allegedly died after 19 days of marriage - She was reportedly beaten to death by her husband A Nigerian lady has taken to social media to mourn a friend who was reportedly killed by her husband. The woman identified as Sharon Joseph shared her friend's story on her Facebook page to mourn her. On her Facebook page, the woman who identified her friend as Amarachi Emmanuela, revealed that she had gotten married nineteen days before her death. Joseph who was mourning her friend, noted that they were best friends when they were both in Imo state. Man kills pregnant wife Photo: Facebook Source: Sharon Joseph Source: Facebook READ ALSO: 22-year-old Iraqi Instagram model and activist reportedly shot dead According to the lady, Emmanuela was reportedly beaten to death by her husband. She also revealed that the deceased had died with a baby in her womb. The Facebook who expressed sadness over the death of her friend, noted that she wished she didn't have to write a tribute nineteen days after wishing her a happy married life . PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News on Legit.ng News Joseph wrote: "I don't want to post this not after typing hml to you early last month now this, the news of your death is something I refused to believe.. I called and called you this morning but no one was picking my calls.. Back then in Annunciation Convent Ehime Mbano IMO State... You were my best friend because of you and Ezinne Queeneth I left my hostel and moved to yours because of how close we were. How can i explain that after 19days of marriage you died with your baby still in the womb as a result of domestic violence? Annunciation Convent most especially 2009 set will miss you.. Rest In Peace Amarachi Emmanuela." PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group XXXTentacion is dead: What Really Happened To The Young Rapper | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng Funke Adedoyin, a member of the House of Representatives from Kwara state has reportedly died on Friday. September 28. Premium Times reported that the 54-year-old lawmaker died in Abuja. This is a big loss to me, I am feel a personal loss right now, Razak Atunwa, her Reps colleague from Kwara, was quoted to have said Friday evening. It was this afternoon that she passed on in Abuja. The news outlet reported that Mr Atunwa, chairman of House Judiciary Committee and governorship aspirant in Kwara, said Ms Adedoyin died of cancer. She was reported to have been battling cancer in the past few years. Photo credit: TVC Source: Twitter READ ALSO: After victory, Osuns Oyetola makes first promise ahead of swearing-in She had been battling cancer in the past few years, the lawmaker said. Ms Adedoyin was appointed as health minister by former president Olusegun Obasanjo during his first term between 1999-2003. She was among the All Progressives Congress lawmakers who joined the Peoples Democratic Party in a mass defection earlier this year. Legit.ng had reported that the first military governor of Kwara, retired Brig.-Gen. David Bamigboye, is dead. The younger brother to the deceased, retired Col. Theophilus Bamigboye, confirmed the death to the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday, September 21, on the telephone. He said the late military governor died on Friday during a brief illness in Lagos. The deceased was born on December 7, 1940, and was the military governor of Kwara between May 1967 and July 1975. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app He was credited with establishing the Kwara state Polytechnic in 1972. Recall that a former governor of Adamawa state in northern Nigeria Saleh Michika died some months back. Osun Election 2018: How Much is Enough to Vote for a Politician? Osun Residents Speak | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - 388,653 party members of APC across Rivers state have voted for the only presidential aspirant of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari - The election was based on the direct mode of primary - According to reports, the exercise was witnessed by all the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday, September 28, held its presidential primaries across the 319 wards of Rivers in peace. Mr Chris Finebone, publicity secretary of APC in Rivers, announced this in a statement in Port Harcourt. He said that the minister of transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi was the presidential primaries returning officer for Rivers. READ ALSO: APC releases list of all cleared governorship aspirants across 28 states (full list) According to Finebone, 388,653 party members across the state voted for the only presidential aspirant of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari. The election was based on the direct mode of primary earlier adopted by the National Working Committee/National Executive Committee of the party. The exercise was witnessed by all the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Electoral Officers in the 23 councils of the state. Also on hand to witness the primaries were the various divisional police officers, Finebone said. Earlier, the Rivers presidential returning Officer, Amaechi arrived at the APC state secretariat before visiting some wards within the Port Harcourt metropolis and environs to see things for himself. The publicity secretary disclosed that the 319-ward party secretaries served as ward returning officers, and the 23 LGA secretaries of the party served as LGA returning officers. He said that all hands were on deck to ensure a successful governorship primary scheduled for Sunday in Port Harcourt. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, September 28, received double honours as the state of New Jersey and City of Philadelphia gave him special citations in New York. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Buhari had made a presentation at the High Level Roundtable on corruption, migration and bridging Africas infrastructure gap, a programme on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly. Osun Election 2018: How Much is Enough to Vote for a Politician? Osun Residents Speak | Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit Nigeria - Buhari has scored 202,599 votes in a primary election conducted at 287 wards across the 27 local government areas of Jigawa state - Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) Alhaji Umar Namadi said the exercise was conducted in accordance with the resolution of the APC national working committee - Muhammad Badaru, governor of Jigawa state was the chief returning officer for the election President Muhammad Buhari has scored a total of 202,599 votes in the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential primary election conducted at 287 wards across the 27 local government areas of the state. Governor Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa, who is also the chief returning officer for the election, stated this while announcing the result in Dutse on Friday, September 28. READ ALSO: APC releases list of all cleared governorship aspirants across 28 states (full list) I Muhammad Badaru, in my capacity as chief returning officer for presidential primary election in Jigawa have received and collated all results from 287 wards in the 27 local government areas of the state. Buhari scored a total of 202,599 votes and that is the total number of registered party members that participated in the exercise and all of them indicated their interest for Buhari to return. So, in my capacity, I declared Buhari as the winner of the election, Badaru said. He commended party executives and members of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for a job well done. The governor also commended the 81-member team that conducted the exercise, saying that 3 members were drawn from each of the 27 area councils. Also commenting, the LOC chairman, Alhaji Umar Namadi, said that the exercise was conducted in accordance with the resolution of the APC national working committee. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday, September 28, held its presidential primaries across the 319 wards of Rivers in peace. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Mr Chris Finebone, publicity secretary of APC in Rivers, announced this in a statement in Port Harcourt. He said that the minister of transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi was the presidential primaries returning officer for Rivers. Osun Election 2018: How Much is Enough to Vote for a Politician? Osun Residents Speak | Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit.ng Yves here. This important story on fracking seems not to have gotten the attention it warrants. By Justin Mikulka, a freelance writer, audio and video producer living in Trumansburg, NY. Originally published at DeSmog Blog The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has clearly documented the multiple risks despite repeated dismissals from the oil and gas industry that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) poses to drinking water supplies. However, the tables may be turning: Water itself now poses a risk to the already failing financial model of the American fracking industry, and that is something the industry wont be able to ignore. The U.S. is setting new oil production records as horizontal drilling and fracking open up shale deposits in places like North Dakota and Texas. Fracking is based on the hydraulic process of using pressurized liquid to shatter shale rock to let the oil and gas inside escape. And while that liquid is a mixture of many hazardous chemicals, it is mostly water. And acquiring that water and then properly disposing of the toxic wastewater produced by fracking is becoming a big and expensive problem for the industry. Gabriel Collins is a fellow in energy and the environment at Rice University, and in August he gave a presentation at the Produced Water Society Permian Basin 2018 event in Midland, Texas. There, Collins presented a business case for starting a large water processing company to service the fracking industry. One sign that the fracking industry is becoming concerned about water is that there are now societies and conferences dedicated to the topic of produced water. Produced water is the term for the toxic water that is produced over the life of a fracked oil or gas well. In a story by Bloomberg News, Collins said he didnt believe investors were aware of the risks that water poses to the fracking industry in the Permian Basin. [Investors] arent as well apprised of some of the other risks and challenges that could be just as material, if not more so, he told Bloomberg News. Id put water right at the top of that list. Why should water top the list of potential financial challenges facing the fracking industry? According to a study by Wood MacKenzie and reported by the Wall Street Journal, the costs of water disposal for the fracking industry could add another $6 per barrel of oil produced. For the U.S. shale oil and gas industry, which has consistently lost money over the past decade, adding another $6 per barrel in costs represents a grim outlook. Fracking Wastewater: Old Problem Getting Much Bigger A new Duke University study concluded that from 2011 to 2016 the amount of water used to frack oil and gas wells rose 770 percent. But the amount of toxic wastewater produced in that same time period rose 1,440 percent. The industry has to do something with all of that wastewater, and that costs money. To save costs on wastewater disposal, the fracking industry has taken many approaches in the past almost all of which put the environment at risk. Some of the industrys efforts to get rid of wastewater at low costs have included dumping it into rivers, watering crops, de-icing roads, dumping it into the Gulf of Mexico, letting it evaporate, injecting it into drinking water aquifers, and sending it to municipal water treatment facilities not equipped to handle that type of waste. And those were just some of the legal ways of dealing with it. They dont include any illegal dumping that also occurred. In 2012 InsideClimate News reported evidence of illegal dumping of drilling and fracking waste in North Dakota, and in 2014 reported similar illegal wastewater dumping in Texas. Dealing with toxic wastewater has always been a problem for the fracking industry, sometimes leading to illegal workarounds. A big unanswered question for the shale companies doing the fracking is whether they can ever properly handle the amount of toxic wastewater they are producing, whatever the cost is. Where Will It All Go? A 2015 Washington Post story about fracking wastewater disposal highlights the main issue in one sentence: Currently there is no way to treat, store, and release the billions of gallons of wastewater at the surface. Instead of addressing this glaring issue, the industry solution has been to pump the toxic water back into the ground in what are known as injection wells. And while the long-term risks of this practice arent known, it is widely credited for the large increase in earthquakes in the areas where it is done. But as the amount of fracking wastewater continues to increase and more of it is injected into underground wells, what will that mean for the resulting earthquakes? And what will the industry (or the communities where it operates) do about them? While fracking pioneer and billionaire Harold Hamm, at least, would prefer to ignore the earthquake issue, injection wells present another problem which his industry does care very much about. By trying to drill and frack as many oil and gas wells as possible in a productive area, the newer wells seem to be damaging the existing producing wells via a process known as frac hits. And the same thing is now happening with the wastewater injection wells. Andrew Hunter, a drilling engineer for Guidon Energy, recently explained how injection wells can damage the producing wells, saying the situation is getting worse. He also added another point that may be of interest to investors. I think people are afraid to talk about this problem, Hunter said during a Houston conference focused on water. Were trying to get the word out to let everyone know how serious this is. In sum: The shale industrys preferred solution for disposing of its huge amounts of wastewater also damages existing oil and gas production infrastructure. While also causing earthquakes. Not exactly a sustainable option, and one of the reasons for growing opposition to wastewater injection wells. Of course, without the injection wells, the fracking industry would have to slow down or stop oil and gas production so injection wells will stay in use. If You Cant Make Money, Change the Rules In September 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump addressed a group of fracking executives, explaining his position on regulation. I think probably no other business has been affected by regulation than your business, Trump said. Federal regulations remain a major restriction to shale production. However, the major restriction to shale production is the fact that the industry prepetually loses money. While dealing with wastewater is an expensive area for the industry, it isnt the only one. The Trump administration is working to loosen federal rules governing the fracking industry, which will be a boon for industry finances and a disaster for the climate and environment. Recently, the EPA proposed rolling back regulations requiring the fossil fuel industry to monitor and fix methane leaks (a major greenhouse gas) with big savings expected. In Texas the industry currently flares off $1 million a day of methane, greatly contributing to air pollution, because it says there arent enough pipelines to take the natural gas to market. Why is this allowed? Because properly capturing the methane would cost the industry money and slow down production. This is similar to the approach that North Dakota used toward regulations over the amount of radioactivity allowed in fracking waste. The state simply loosened the rules (and bumped up the radioactivity allowed in waste disposal) to make it easier for the oil companies working within its borders, which could then stop trucking their waste to states with higher limits. And, of course, the Trump administration is looking at ways to roll back fracking wastewater regulations. There is no way for the shale industry to deal with the financial issues it faces including its water crisis without changing the existing rules. The headline of a recent Dallas News story on the fracking water crisis in the Permian Basin referred to it as a Disposal nightmare. And while the article was referring to the logistical and financial nightmare for the fracking industry which it most definitely is theres another nightmare. The industry currently has no feasible way to dispose of its wastewater using environmentally safe methods and yet it pushes on full speed ahead. Yves here. Haha, Lamberts volatility voters thesis confirmed! They are voting against inequality and globalization. This important post also explains how financialization drives populist rebellions. By Lubos Pastor, Charles P. McQuaid Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Pietro Veronesi, Roman Family Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Originally published at VoxEU The vote for Brexit and the election of protectionist Donald Trump to the US presidency two momentous markers of the ongoing pushback against globalization led some to question the rationality of voters. This column presents a framework that demonstrates how the populist backlash against globalisation is actually a rational voter response when the economy is strong and inequality is high. It highlights the fragility of globalization in a democratic society that values equality. The ongoing pushback against globalization in the West is a defining phenomenon of this decade. This pushback is best exemplified by two momentous 2016 votes: the British vote to leave the EU (Brexit) and the election of a protectionist, Donald Trump, to the US presidency. In both cases, rich-country electorates voted to take a step back from the long-standing process of global integration. Today, globalization is going through a major crisis (Macron 2018). Some commentators question the wisdom of the voters responsible for this pushback. They suggest Brexit and Trump supporters have been confused by misleading campaigns and foreign hackers. They joke about turkeys voting for Christmas. They call for another Brexit referendum, which would allow the Leavers to correct their mistakes. Rational Voters We take a different perspective. In a recent paper, we develop a theory in which a backlash against globalization happens while all voters are perfectly rational (Pastor and Veronesi 2018). We do not, of course, claim that all voters are rational; we simply argue that explaining the backlash does not require irrationality. Not only can the backlash happen in our theory; it is inevitable. We build a heterogeneous-agent equilibrium model in which a backlash against globalization emerges as the optimal response of rational voters to rising inequality. A rise in inequality has been observed throughout the West in recent decades (e.g. Atkinson et al. 2011). In our model, rising inequality is a natural consequence of economic growth. Over time, global growth exacerbates inequality, which eventually leads to a pushback against globalization. Who Dislike Inequality Agents in our model like consumption but dislike inequality. Individuals may prefer equality for various reasons. Equality helps prevent crime and preserve social stability. Inequality causes status anxiety at all income levels, which leads to health and social problems (Wilkinson and Pickett 2009, 2018). In surveys, people facing less inequality report being happier (e.g. Morawetz et al. 1977, Alesina et al. 2004, Ferrer-i-Carbonell and Ramos 2014). Experimental results also point to egalitarian preferences (e.g. Dawes et al. 2007). We measure inequality by the variance of consumption shares across agents. Given our other modelling assumptions, equilibrium consumption develops a right-skewed distribution across agents. As a result, inequality is driven by the high consumption of the rich rather than the low consumption of the poor. Aversion to inequality thus reflects envy of the economic elites rather than compassion for the poor. Besides inequality aversion, our model features heterogeneity in risk aversion. This heterogeneity generates rising inequality in a growing economy because less risk-averse agents consume a growing share of total output. We employ individual-level differences in risk aversion to capture the fact that some individuals benefit more from global growth than others. In addition, we interpret country-level differences in risk aversion as differences in financial development. We consider two countries: the US and the rest of the world. We assume that US agents are less risk-averse than rest-of-the-world agents, capturing the idea that the US is more financially developed than the rest of the world. At the outset, the two countries are financially integrated there are no barriers to trade and risk is shared globally. At a given time, both countries hold elections featuring two candidates. The mainstream candidate promises to preserve globalization, whereas the populist candidate promises to end it. If either country elects a populist, a move to autarky takes place and cross-border trading stops. Elections are decided by the median voter. Global risk sharing exacerbates US inequality. Given their low risk aversion, US agents insure the agents of the rest of the world by holding aggressive and disperse portfolio positions. The agents holding the most aggressive positions benefit disproportionately from global growth. The resulting inequality leads some US voters, those who feel left behind by globalization, to vote populist. Why Vote Populist? When deciding whether to vote mainstream or populist, US agents face a consumption-inequality trade-off. If elected, the populist delivers lower consumption but also lower inequality to US agents. After a move to autarky, US agents can no longer borrow from the rest of the world to finance their excess consumption. But their inequality drops too, because the absence of cross-border leverage makes their portfolio positions less disperse. As output grows, the marginal utility of consumption declines, and US agents become increasingly willing to sacrifice consumption in exchange for more equality. When output grows large enoughsee the vertical line in the figure belowmore than half of US agents prefer autarky and the populist wins the US election. This is our main result: in a growing economy, the populist eventually gets elected. In a democratic society that values equality, globalization cannot survive in the long run. Figure 1 Vote share of the populist candidate Equality Is a Luxury Good Equality can be interpreted as a luxury good in that society demands more of it as it becomes wealthier. Voters might also treat culture, traditions, and other nonpecuniary values as luxury goods. Consistent with this argument, the recent rise in populism appears predominantly in rich countries. In poor countries, agents are not willing to sacrifice consumption in exchange for nonpecuniary values. Globalization would survive under a social planner. Our competitive market solution differs from the social planner solution due to the negative externality that the elites impose on others through their high consumption. To see if globalization can be saved by redistribution, we analyse redistributive policies that transfer wealth from low risk-aversion agents, who benefit the most from globalization, to high risk-aversion agents, who benefit the least. We show that such policies can delay the populists victory, but cannot prevent it from happening eventually. Which Countries Are Populist? Our model predicts that support for populism should be stronger in countries that are more financially developed, more unequal, and running current account deficits. Looking across 29 developed countries, we find evidence supporting these predictions. Figure 2 Vote share of populist parties in recent elections The US and the UK are good examples. Both have high financial development, large inequality, and current account deficits. It is thus no coincidence, in the context of our model, that these countries led the populist wave in 2016. In contrast, Germany is less financially developed, less unequal, and it runs a sizable current account surplus. Populism has been relatively subdued in Germany, as our model predicts. The model emphasises the dark side of financial development it spurs the growth of inequality, which eventually leads to a populist backlash. Who are the Populist Voters? The model also makes predictions about the characteristics of populist voters. Compared to mainstream voters, populist voters should be more inequality-averse (i.e. more anti-elite) and more risk-averse (i.e. better insured against consumption fluctuations). Like highly risk-averse agents, poorer and less-educated agents have less to lose from the end of globalization. The model thus predicts that these agents are more likely to vote populist. That is indeed what we find when we examine the characteristics of the voters who supported Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum and Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The models predictions for asset prices are also interesting. The global market share of US stocks should rise in anticipation of the populists victory. Indeed, the US share of the global stock market rose steadily before the 2016 Trump election. The US bond yields should be unusually low before the populists victory. Indeed, bond yields in the West were low when the populist wave began. Backlash in a booming economy In our model, a populist backlash occurs when the economy is strong because that is when inequality is high. The model helps us understand why the backlash is occurring now, as the US economy is booming. The economy is going through one of its longest macroeconomic expansions ever, having been growing steadily for almost a decade since the 2008 crisis. This study relates to our prior work at the intersection of finance and political economy. Here, we exploit the cross-sectional variation in risk aversion, whereas in our 2017 paper, we analyse its time variation (Pastor and Veronesi 2017). In the latter model, time-varying risk aversion generates political cycles in which Democrats and Republicans alternate in power, with higher stock returns under Democrats. Our previous work also explores links between risk aversion and inequality (Pastor and Veronesi 2016). Conclusions We highlight the fragility of globalization in a democratic society that values equality. In our model, a pushback against globalization arises as a rational voter response. When a country grows rich enough, it becomes willing to sacrifice consumption in exchange for a more equal society. Redistribution is of limited value in our frictionless, complete-markets model. Our formal model supports the narrative of Rodrik (1997, 2000), who argues that we cannot have all three of global economic integration, the nation state, and democratic politics. If policymakers want to save globalization, they need to make the world look different from our model. One attractive policy option is to improve the financial systems of less-developed countries. Smaller cross-country differences in financial development would mitigate the uneven effects of cross-border risk sharing. More balanced global risk sharing would result in lower current account deficits and, eventually, lower inequality in the rich world. See original post for references As weve pointed out regularly, the SEC has been hobbled by Congress for so long that its enforcement actions focus mainly on insiders trading cases. To see the agency file a suit against Elon Musk, and (as well see) on such short notice means they are highly confident they can prove that Musk violated securities laws. The Wall Street Journal describes how Musk gave the SEC the middle finger: The SEC had crafted a settlement with Mr. Muskapproved by the agencys commissionersthat it was preparing to file Thursday morning when Mr. Musks lawyers called to tell the SEC lawyers in San Francisco that they were no longer interested in proceeding with the agreement, according to people familiar with the matter. After the phone call, the SEC rushed to pull together the complaint that it subsequently filed, the people said. Its one thing to have some preliminary discussions and then decide that youll see the SEC in court. Its quite another to complete an agreement, have the SEC commissioners bless it, and then renege. And indeed, it looks like the SEC has a slam dunk case. As most readers will recall, Musk tweeted that he has the financing lined up to take Tesla private: Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018 Analysts who called Teslas Investor Relations department about the details of the financing didnt get more information but were reassured that the funding secured statement was accurate. Musk later tweeted other details consistent with a deal being structured and ready to go: My hope is *all* current investors remain with Tesla even if were private. Would create special purpose fund enabling anyone to stay with Tesla. This story was front page news for a day or so until it became clear that this going private plan was pure varporware. Musk had had four conversation about the general idea with a sovereign wealth fund, presumably from the Middle East, since it repeatedly asked Musk to open a facility there. Musk did not agree to the idea. Again from the complaint regarding the very last meeting: The July 31 meeting lacked discussion of even the most fundamental terms of a proposed going-private transaction. For example, there was no discussion at the July 31 meeting of (1) any dollar amount or specific ownership percentage for the Funds investment in a going-private transaction; (2) any acqui sition premium to be offered to current Tesla shareholders; (3) any restrictions on foreign ownership of a significant stake in Tesla; (4) the Funds available liquid capital; (5) whether the Fund had any past experience participating in a going-private transaction; (6) any regulatory hurdles to completion of a going-private transaction; or (7) the board approval process necessary to take Tesla private. Musk has acknowledged that the July 31 meeting was the most specific discussion of a transaction to take Tesla private between him and representatives of the Fund. Between the July 31 meeting with representatives of the Fund and the morning of August 7, Musk (1) did not have any further substantive communications with representatives of the Fund; (2) did not discuss a going-private transaction at a share price of $420 with any potential funding source; (3) had a conversation with a private equity fund representative about the process, but did not actually contact any additional potential strategic investors to assess their interest in participating in a going-private transaction; (4) did not pr ovide Teslas Board of Directors with a more specific proposal to take Tesla private; (5) did not contact existing Tesla shareholders to assess their interest in remaining invested in Tesla as a private company; (6) did not formally retain any advisors to assist with a going-private transaction; (7) did not determine whether retail investors could remain invested in Tesla as a private company; (8) did not determine whether there were restrictions on illiquid holdings by Teslas institutional investors; and (9) did not determine what regulatory approvals would be required for such a transaction or whether they could be satisfied. There are more damaging details in the short and readable filing, which we have embedded at the end of the post. The stock jumped nearly 11% on the day as shorts closed out their positions. Musks Twitter account was indeed an official venue for investor communications. From the complaint: On November 5, 2013, Tesla publicly filed a Form 8-K with the Commission stating that it intended to use Musks Twitter account as a means of announcing material information to the public about Tesla and its products and services and has encouraged investors to review the information about Tesla published by Musk via his Twitter account. Musk had over 22 million followers at the time of his ill-advised tweet. By contrast, Bernie Sanders has only 7.9 million followers. Musk also made clear he hated short sellers: Musk has complained that Tesla has been unfairly targeted by short sellers and predicted that short sellers would be burned. For example, on May 4, 2018, Musk tweeted, Oh and uh short burn of the century comin soon. Flamethrowers should arrive just in time. On June 17, 2018, Musk tweeted that short sellers have about three weeks before their short position explodes. Musks recklessness gives the SEC a great opportunity to burnish its badly-tarnished image with a high-profiel victory. Again from the Journal: The case ranks as one of the highest-profile civil securities-fraud cases in years. Its filing less than two months after the Aug. 7 tweets by Mr. Musk also marks an unusually rapid turnaround by an agency that has been under fire for its perceived failure to promptly bring significant cases in the financial crisis and other episodes. It means there was not that much investigation they needed to do to get comfortable that it was a case they should bring, but also a case they can win, said Michael Liftik, a former SEC enforcement lawyer now at Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart & Sullivan LLP Its an easy case, said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. He said in the tweet he had financing, and apparently he didnt. Its about as straightforward as you can get. Needless to say, as the high short positions show, Teslas business is not faring well, despite its huge market capitalization and the enthusiasm of customers. Musk made a great show of getting production of his Model 3 over 5,000 a week. A Bloomberg tracker based on vehicle identification numbers says that was a one-shot wonder: And reminds readers that Tesla has repeatedly fallen short of its production targets: These figures are particularly important since Tesla is still losing money on every car sold. The company claims it will be able to show a manufacturing profit once it can produce 5,000 to 6,000 cars a week. But that seems questionable given its quality problems. From an August 31 article in Seeking Alpha: With 84% of the cars rolling off the production line needing repairs, there is a strong likelihood that Model 3 is the lowest quality mainstream car ever produced. This kind of yield for any other company would only occur during prototype stages We are now starting to see data that shows how bad the quality problems are. For example, public Model 3 tracker shows that: 62% had defects in the first 30 days of ownership 47% had AT LEAST one visit to the service center in the first 30 days 20% were out of service AT LEAST one day in the 30 days The same article argues, in detail, that Model 3 demand is greatly exaggerated: Even with rapid homologation, we now estimate that Model 3 LR/P/AWD version worldwide demand to be about 2500 to 3500 a week well below even the 5k per week production level Tesla reached in Q2. This number can double with the base short range $35K version of Model 3 but given the Companys cost structure we do not expect to see the $35K car until mid-to-late 2019 if at all. The consequence of the above is that Tesla now has significant amount of Model 3 overcapacity once the reservation queue is exhausted which is almost certain to happen in Q4 if not sooner. And Teslas financial condition is desperate. Interest expenses are now $640 million a year. The car company lost $743 million in its latest quarter, up 85% from the prior quarter and worse than expectations. An improvement in the burn rate did little to change the overall picture. From MarketWatch at the end of August: The Canaccord analyst [Jed Dorsheimer] also worried about Teslas cash position. With $2.2 billion in cash at the end of second quarter, Tesla only has enough cash to maintain operations for another six to nine months at its current rate, he said. The company has managed to stem the flow of cash burn from $1 billion to roughly $740 million quarter-over-quarter, but has not managed to achieve profitability since a short stint in 2016. The financial press is hotly debating what sort of life, if any, Tesla has if the SEC succeeds in forcing Musk out of the company. Of course, Musk can attempt to escape the practical effect of an SEC win (save for whatever fine it imposes) by taking the company private. That may be the reason Musks lawyers decided to blow the agency off. However, if the SEC prevails, the bar would include any company that had public debt, not just public shares, which would restrict Teslas financing options. But the bigger barrier is that Teslas prospects dont seem likely to improve, particularly as the company has seen high executive turnover in the last two years and Musk has been more and more erratic. And losing to the SEC has other downsides. From the New York Times Dealbooks daily e-mail: If the commission convinces a jury that Mr. Musk misled investors, he could be blocked from serving as an executive or director of any public company. That could force him to assume a different position at Tesla. It could also affect his other companies, SpaceX and the Boring Company, were they to go public, and potentially harm their ability to raise money from investors. Andrew [Ross Sorkin]s take: Mr. Musk will want to prove that his intent wasnt to mislead investors, probably by demonstrating that he had real conversations to take the company private. But his intent is almost beside the point. He can be found guilty simply for being reckless. And naivete isnt a defense. This is turning into a sad story for Teslas employees, investors and ultimately everyone who has followed Mr. Musks efforts to transform the auto and energy industries. Tesla has long seemed to be more a vehicle for Musks personal mythology than a business, despite the fact that is actually has produced quite a few cars. And Musk may have foreseen his car companys future when he choses its name. Even though Tesla profited from licensing his inventions, he eventually exhausted his funds. A second South Tipperary rural community has decided to appeal against the decision to permanently close their local post office and it will be backed by a petition signed by more than 500 local residents. Newcastle's Save Our Post Office Committee has sent a letter of appeal against the upcoming closure of the village's post office. The appeal has been submitted to an independent assessor appointed by An Post to review rural post office closures in communities that believe they have good grounds for the service being retained. The deadline for submitting the appeal is today Friday, September 28. The appeal letter sets out why the people of Newcastle need a Post Office and will include details of Newcastle communitys support and commitment to continuing the post office service. The campaign group has set up a Facebook page Save Newcastle Post Office and has issued an invitation to local residents and businesses to write letters of support for the appeal submission. Newcastle is one of eight Co. Tipperary communities facing the loss of their post office under a controversial voluntary retirement deal for rural post masters. Ballingarry, Clogheen, Gortnahoe, Littletown, Templetuohy, Coolbawn and Upperchurch are the other communities in the county facing the loss of the service under the deal hammered out between An Post and the Irish Postmasters Union. Clogheen's Save Our Post Office Group in Clogheen has also decided to appeal the decision to close its local post office. The group is citing Clogheen's substantial population of close to 500 in the village alone as one of its key arguments for saving the service. Tipperary TD, Mattie McGrath, was among a group of 52 TDs and Senators who met with older people at an event in Dublin, in advance of Budget 2019. The event, A Fair Budget 2019? - A Conversation with Older People, was facilitated by Active Retirement Ireland, Age Action and ALONE. Among the issues raised by attendees were; The need for urgent action on pensions and benefits The increasing number of older people experiencing housing difficulties and homelessness, Chronic shortfalls in health coverage for older people and homecare Loneliness The discussion with the TDs was a lively affair as older people engaged face to face with policy makers. At a time of year when interest groups and lobbyists are preparing pre-budget submissions, these older people decided to come together and make their case directly to the politicians. The goal of the event is to give politicians a real insight into the lives of older people living in Ireland. There are many reports written and policy documents submitted on the issues faced by older people, but this event personalised the issues to make policy makers aware of the real struggles and views of people who will be directly impacted by Budget 2019. Grainne Kenny, attended the event: I appreciate the opportunity given to us older citizens to talk directly to politicians about issues which concern our welfare. Too often older people are disregarded and our voices are blown in the wind. We want to live independently for as long as possible. We have and do contribute to the State and are not a burden. Therefore, a fair budget is a key enabler in making that happen. Thank you to ALONE, Age Action and Active Retirement Ireland for making this happen, Maureen Kavanagh, CEO, Active Retirement Ireland: "When people think of the Budget and older people they automatically think of the State Pension, and it's vital that this safety net for older people is increased and strengthened in the face of a rising cost of living. As important as pensions and benefits are, there's more to life and to growing older in Ireland. Loneliness is a serious risk factor for older people and we want to see the Government act decisively to tackle this." Age Action, Interim CEO Anna McCabe: Home support services in Ireland continue to be piecemeal and under resourced right across the country. There is huge variation in access to primary care and social services for older people in Ireland. This can have a devastating effect on older people and their families, many of whom struggle to pay for their medication and associated medical costs. We hope to see Slaintecare adequately resourced in the forthcoming Budget to expand affordable GP and primary services to all. ALONE CEO, Sean Moynihan. Budget 2019 is an opportunity to take meaningful steps towards remedying the housing challenges faced by older people, said ALONE CEO Sean Moynihan. ALONE are meeting more and more older people who are struggling to maintain their homes. 25% of older people have difficulties with housing maintenance and nearly 21% have housing facility problems. Housing issues are the second most common problem faced by older people who come to ALONE. We believe it is vitally important that the funding for the Housing Aid for Older People Scheme increases to 84.5 million per year to match the growing numbers of older people in Ireland. (Natural News) For tech junkies, the arrival of 5G cant come soon enough but for all those concerned about environmental and public health, its a soon-to-be health disaster looming overhead. As the wireless industry competes to see who can roll out a 5G network the fastest, it seems the days of 5G are coming closer and closer, with the latest estimates suggesting that 5G will be available in homes as soon as 2019 if its not in your area already. While 5G is credited with speeds ten times faster than current 4G networks, and is expected to usher in a new generation of self-driving cars, concerns about the health risks of 5G are mounting. The next generation of the internet may be lauded for unbridled data access, but health advocates are wary of the budding new technology and for many good reasons. 5G will unleash substantially higher amounts of electromagnetic radiation, and it will be virtually inescapable. What could go wrong? What is 5G? For many, the promise of faster internet sounds great, but the real-life implications of 5G extend far beyond internet speeds and data transfer rates. As the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) explains, 5G will feature a host of brand-new technologies, designed to make the internet function at a nearly-seamless speed. As IEEE notes, users of 4G currently experience about a 70 millisecond delay when receiving data. 5G promises to reduce that delay down to just one millisecond. This sounds great, but the cost of such speed will be great: The new technology needed for 5G will rely on millimeter waves, small cells, massive MIMO, or other types of potentially damaging technology, like beamforming. These are some of the industry favorites so far, and it seems like all of these parts may end up being used in the next generation of the internet. But what does that mean for you? In order for 5G to work as intended, the radiowaves used to transfer data on the 4G spectrum will have to be substantially smaller millimeter waves, which have never been used before. Millimeter waves operate at a much higher frequency, but are also more readily absorbed by buildings and nearby foliage which means more cell stations would be needed, and theyd need to be closer together. Thus, the industry has invented small cells, which are miniature base stations that would be installed every 250 meters or so in cities nationwide. Thousands of small cells would need to be installed in a single city. The sheer number of these will make escaping the electromagnetic radiation they give off impossible. To add to this, massive MIMO stations would be implemented, as well. This means massive multiple input, multiple output. As IEEE explains, MIMO describes wireless systems that use two or more transmitters and receivers to send and receive more data at once. Massive MIMO takes this concept to a new level by featuring dozens of antennas on a single array. Health risks and more These new millimeter waves can be absorbed by your body. So, these small cells will be in peoples places of work, maybe even their homes, and they will unwittingly be absorbing the electromagnetic radiation these devices produce. In areas where 5G has been tested, people have already begun reporting side effects. A team of San Francisco firefighters say that they began experiencing confusion and memory loss after 5G was installed in their fire house. The symptoms didnt go away until the the firefighters transferred to new stations. Mark Steele, a former IEEE scientist, reported that people in his hometown were experiencing nosebleeds and miscarriages as a result of the new technology. Some experts have called 5G a health calamity. Research has linked older, less potent wireless networks, like 2G, to a host of health problems including brain cancer. What is 5G, with its more powerful, smaller and more insidious wavelengths going to do? Learn more at Glitch.news. Sources for this article include: NaturalHealth365.com ActivistPost.com Spectrum.IEEE.org (Natural News) Democrats continued the destruction of our political system on Thursday by ensuring that a woman whose unsubstantiated accusations of sexual assault from 35 years ago against Judge Brett Kavanaugh were aired publicly for the world to see. But when all was said and done, not only were Dr. Christine Blasey Fords accusations still uncorroborated, some of the details she provided didnt add up while others were not remotely believable. As reported by The Western Journal, one of the earliest errors she made had to do with details surrounding how she got to and left the alleged party where she was allegedly accosted by Kavanaugh while a classmate, Mark Judge, watched a door and looked on. The news outlet which first broke the story, The Washington Post, noted that Ford could not remember how the gathering came about on the evening in question. Specifically, the Post reported that Ford said she could not remember some of the key details about the event in question. One of the details was how she got to and from the gathering. She said she often spent time in the summer at the Columbia Country Club pool in Chevy Chase (Maryland), where in those pre-cellphone days, teenagers learned about gatherings via word of mouth, the Post reported, The National Sentinel noted. She also doesnt recall who owned the house or how she got there. And yet, during questioning Thursday by Rachel Mitchell, chief of the Special Victims Division in Phoenix where she serves as a special prosecutor, Ford gave a different answer: During the hearing, Mitchell began to ask a series of questions regarding the night of the alleged assault. She started off by bringing out a large map with the area in which the assault allegedly happened and asked about the distances between her house and the house where the alleged assault happened. Ford described it as being about a 20-minute drive from her parents house. Mitchell then turned the questioning to ask about how she got to and from the gathering at the house that night. Would it be fair to say that somebody drove you somewhere either to the party or home from the party? Mitchell asked, to which Ford responded, Correct. Ford said she was only 15 at the time and therefore not old enough to drive. There were more inconsistencies. As noted by Breitbart News, Ford according to published reports claimed that she has a fear of flying. When asked about it by Mitchell, she said she initially hoped that the Senate Judiciary Committee could come to her at her home in California, but realized that was an unreasonable request. Multiple mistakes in testimony That said, Ford was in the Delaware area in mid-August for a vacation and didnt seem to have the same problems with flying then as she purported to have when it came to flying in for testimony or for her job as a consulting professor, or for vacation to tropical locations like Tahiti. Its easier for me to travel going that direction when its a vacation, she said. Oh. Okay. Dr. Ford On Fear of Flying: "It's easier for me to travel going that direction when it's a vacation" pic.twitter.com/sNRmQzx0IU Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 27, 2018 Im no psychology professor but it does seem weird to me that someone could have a selective fear of flying. Cant do it to testify but for vacation, well its not a problem at all, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted. Im no psychology professor but it does seem weird to me that someone could have a selective fear of flying. Cant do it to testify but for vacation, well its not a problem at all. Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 27, 2018 Also, in another odd admission, Ford claimed that she could not remember details about a polygraph test she took earlier this summer. Specifically, she said she didnt know who paid for it or whether she was videoed and recorded during the session (Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans had requested the video and audio of the session, but Fords lawyer refused to hand them over). Eventually, her attorneys said they paid for the test, which is routine, but the inability to remember if she was recorded was odd. "Let me put an end to this mystery: her lawyers have paid for her polygraph," attorney for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford says. "As is routine." https://t.co/2YmzwxEUgt #KavanaughHearings pic.twitter.com/FWDktRqkUv ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 27, 2018 Read more about the Democratic hoax against Judge Kavanaugh at Hoax.news. Sources include: WesternJournal.com TheNationalSentinel.com (Natural News) As Leftists continue to lose political power in America due to elections (President Trump) and Supreme Court nominations (Brett Kavanaugh), their activists are becoming more militant and extremist. Now, weve learned that left-wing groups are openly discussing mass executions and planned murders of prominent conservatives, and theyre using Twitter to carry out the attacks. (See details and links, below.) Twitter is just one of several tech giants that selectively bans conservative speech but refuses to remove radical left-wing users who openly call for violence and murder. For political reasons, tech giants have decided to protect left-wing terrorist groups in America, becoming complicit in the escalation of the coming civil war. As just one example among hundreds, see this article from InfoWars: KILL TRUMP, HANG HIM, HUNT HIM FACEBOOK PAGE DOESNT VIOLATE FACEBOOK COMMUNITY STANDARDS. Now, The Daily Caller reports that someone in the House of Representatives has doxxed conservative U.S. Senators by using a congressional computer to publish their home addresses and phone numbers to Wikipedia. Doxxing means publishing someones personal, private information such as the location where they live, their social security number or their private phone number. Importantly, doxxing members of the U.S. Senate allows left-wing kill teams to physically locate where those Senators live. Armed with this information and driven to violent hysteria by a complicit, lying media left-wing kill teams can assault the homes of U.S. Senators while they sleep and attempt to executive those Senators and their families. As this article shows below, left-wing activists are openly and explicitly discussing such plans on Twitter, and they are not being banned by Twitter or other tech giants. The doxxed Senators include Sens. Lindsey Graham (who gave a roaring speech yesterday, condemning the dirty tactics of Democrats like Sen. Feinstein), Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch. The Daily Caller reports: They appear to be targeting Republican members of the committee after they question Judge Kavanaugh, a Hatch spokesman told The Daily Caller News Foundation. A Lee staffer confirmed the senators home address in Utah and personal cell phone number were posted to the public page. This doxxing took place immediately after Sen. Graham ripped into the Democrats at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, yesterday. It was timed, in other words, to target those who are arguing for the defense of Brett Kavanaugh. While doxxing alone is not a call for mass executions, theres more to this story Radical left-wing thought leaders plot executions and murder strategies on Twitter and Twitter wont ban them The full extent of the planned violence and mass executions becomes apparent when you see whats being openly discussed on Twitter. Writer Debra Heine has uncovered truly shocking details that she describes in a September 27th article on PJ Media. It begins: Communist agitators took to Twitter this week to brainstorm strategies for a violent armed insurrection against their perceived enemies. Dr. Bones, the co-host of the far-left podcast The Guillotine, started the conversation going with his 5,000-plus Twitter followers. Bones (@Ole_Bonsey on Twitter) asked: Hey quick little question for military minded lefties: should leftists train/organize in a insurgent focus where they blend into a civilian population for potential attacks or a more militia structure focused on holding/maintaining turf? As PJ Media reports, this left-wing group, with over 15,000 Facebook followers, calls for ambushes and assassinations against conservatives. The two hosts go by the handles @Ole_Bonsey and @DeadIrishRebe. As PJ Media explains, the pair seem to be huge fans of mass-murdering Communist dictators and revolutionaries like Mao Zedong and Che Guevera. Here are some of the suggestions from Dr. Bones, the apparent leader of the left-wing group now calling for execution squads to murder prominent conservatives: Organize as hidden cells, unknown even to the population bleed them dry once they take control. Instead of a full size AR which is pretty goddamn obvious Im thinking having people prioritize compact and easily concealable platforms, something you could keep under a jacket and never tip any one off to. An apparent follower of the radical left-wing group, @The_Einzige adds: Having a common language and tactics is unbelievably important in future situations where your 5 person cell has an opportunity for a big kill and can group up with 4 other cells to get the needed firepower. Another member of the group, going by the handle @Bored_Anterieur, adds: Like a boyscout, be prepared: Pistol Shotgun Pistol-caliber SBR Rifle-caliber SBR AR15 / AK47 AR10 with this, youre prepared for a very wide range of tactical scenarios. different loadouts for different members of squad will provide flexibility for specific applications of force Another user, named @MutualRevolt, chimes in about the terror cell structure that Leftists will adopt to carry out maximum violence and carnage: the less information one person has on EVERYONE in the group defends against one person being caught and spilling everything on the network. A network of distributed/only necessary information/ gives more flexibility and safety to the movements to disrupt. Another user, going by the handle Captain Howdy (@jackherer20) has been covered by PJ Media before. As PJ Media reports: @JackHerer20 (Captain Howdy) is a particularly nasty St. Louis antifa who has been featured at PJ Media and Far Left Watch before. In January of 2018, he encouraged his followers to dox GOP officials and show up at their homes. He also offered to pay someone to assassinate President Trump. Incredibly, he still maintains a Twitter account. Anti-Trump resistors inside the DOJ use government computers to find and share home addresses of conservatives PJ Media also correctly points out that a recent Project Veritas video caught a DOJ resistance employee admitted to using government computers to discover and share the license plates and home addresses of targeted conservatives. This means that left-wing operatives inside the DOJ, FBI and other anti-Trump organizations are using government resources to set up conservatives for left-wing kill teams. The DOJ employee caught on tape is named Allison Hraber. Shes a member of the so-called Democratic Socialists of America, a radical left-wing terrorist group with strong ties to Marxist and Communist ideologies. She used government resources to discover the home address of a conservative Trump supporter, then doxxed that information to her DSA conspirators who waged a stalking episode at the personal home of the target in order to intimidate that person. It wont be long before this escalates to sending kill teams to such homes to carry out murder plots and political assassinations. My warning for all conservatives is that it wont be long before conservative Supreme Court justices like Brett Kavanaugh are targeted for political assassinations by the radical left-wing kill teams. They openly talk about such plans, and they are clearly driven to mass mental illness by a complicit, anti-America media cartel that continues to indoctrinate left-wing masses with hatred and lies about America and its political leaders. Many DSA members already see themselves as waging a resistance campaign against the United States government, and they are engaging in daily sabotage to destroy the U.S. government infrastructure from within, all while using government tools to target their political opponents, all of whom happen to be conservatives and Trump supporters. Hraber is caught on tape via Project Veritas saying, whats kind of lucky is at the DOJ, we cant really get fired. She also admits, so we ran the license plate we cannot do it officially, but admits they run license plates on their intended targets unofficially. Notably, even after being caught on video admitted to these felony crimes, Hraber has not yet been arrested or charged with anything, proving once again that even when left-wing radicals are caught confessing to their crimes, they are never held accountable. We must all be ready for the rapid escalation of violence by deranged, lawless Leftists who are committed to taking over America and murdering all prominent conservatives Its not difficult to see where this is all headed. The desperate, lawless Left now apparently led by deep state treasonous criminals like Sen. Dianne Feinstein is willing to do anything they think might be required to destroy their political opponents. Complicit in all this are the tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter, all of which have selectively silenced conservative channels while protecting and even promoting left-wing terrorism groups that are openly calling for violence against conservatives. This, the tech companies tell us, is their campaign to combat hate speech. But in their minds, hate speech is defined as anything uttered by a conservative. Its also clear now that left-wing terrorists are deeply embedded in the U.S. Congress, where they managed to use House computers to doxx U.S. Senators, as reported above. They have also infiltrated and now occupy many positions inside the DOJ, IRS and other government agencies. This is on top of what we already know about James Comey, Andrew McCabe and the treasonous actions of anti-Trump traitors inside the FBI, none of whom have yet faced anything resembling real justice for their obstruction of justice (covering up the crimes of Hillary Clinton) and acts of open insurrection against Trump campaign officials via the FISA warrant fraud. (This fraud also involved criminal actions carried out by Barack Obama, Loretta Lynch, Peter Strzok and many others). The upshot is that the more political power Leftists lose, the more they turn to desperate tactics like doxxing and calling for executions and mass murder. This is not conjecture. They openly admit this in their own words. You can see the videos, read the tweets and confirm it all for yourself. Should they fail to take the House in the upcoming mid-term elections, I fear they will unleash open insurrection in the streets of America, launching a nationwide campaign of kill teams and terror cells to attempt a sweeping political coup and mass murder takeover. Notably, all this is playing out exactly as myself and Alex Jones have warned over the last two years. EXACTLY. We have both accurately reported on whats coming, and we have repeatedly warned informed Americans to get ready to defend America, defend the President and defend the Republic against the deranged, lawless violence of increasingly unhinged Leftists. The conventional media, for their part, has only fed the hysteria by deliberately publishing deep state lies and false accusations from anonymous (fictitious) sources. If the escalation stays on its current trajectory, civil war violence seems inevitable. Remember the other day when a group of deranged Leftists confronted Sen. Ted Cruz at that public restaurant in Washington D.C.? It wont be long, I fear, before the next similar confrontation involves the stabbing of a conservative U.S. Senator (or the shooting). I share this urgent warning because U.S. Senators like Ted Cruz need to take real measures to protect themselves and their family members. (Its also crucial that Ted Cruz win in Texas, as we cannot survive the open borders policies of Beto who is another left-wing lunatic running for office by promising to overrun and destroy America.) The Lefts plans, importantly, are not mere conjecture or theory. Their kill team desires are being open discussed, encouraged and even supported by a complicit media that, for the last two years, has knowingly carried out a malicious campaign to overthrow the results of the 2016 election and rip this country apart. How to stay informed: Crucial information resources you need to follow The complicit, lying media refuses to report any real truth to the American people. Its only the independent media that now dares to carry out legitimate journalism and publish the real stories of whats going down. Here are some resources you need to follow daily: Censored.news A replacement for Google News, this site aggregates real-time headlines from 20+ independent media websites, including PJ Media, Daily Caller, Breitbart, Trump.news and others. Brighteon.com A replacement for YouTube, this platform features thousands of video channels, including many news channels that cover daily news events in near-real time. GoodGopher.com A search engine covering independent media. Allows you to easily search thousands of indy media websites to get the true story on current events. Lastly, if youre interested in my own forward-looking analysis of current events, follow my channel on Brighteon.com: Brighteon.com/channel/Counterthink God Bless America. #MAGA #ConfirmKavanaughNow San Francisco police say an 82-year-old woman was stabbed to death and that a relative has been arrested. Relatives of Chii-Chyu Horng tell the San Francisco Chronicle her 30-year-old grandson, Andrew Luke, was detained and hospitalized after Horng's body was found Wednesday. The suspect's ex-stepmother, Eva Fok, says that Horng raised Luke after his mother died when he was a child and the two lived together in San Francisco's South of Market. Fok says she doesn't know what happened and but that Luke loved his grandma. She adds that Luke suffered from mental illness and was prone to violence. San Francisco police found Horn's body while responding to a request for a welfare check. They decline to provide additional details because of the ongoing investigation. What to Know Christine Blasey Ford testified for about four hours, spoke carefully, deliberately and occasionally scientifically Brett Kavanaugh forcefully denied the accusations from Ford and other women Every 98 seconds someone is a victim of sexual assault, according to RAINN The sexual assault allegation by Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and other allegations of sexual misconduct that have emerged leading up to Thursday's Senate hearing have sparked wall-to-wall news coverage. To some survivors of sexual assault and victims of abuse, the hearings and testimony may trigger trauma, according to their advocates. People who have been sexually traumatized will try to avoid anything that will be a trigger to the trauma. This is something thats pretty hard to avoid," said John E. Jannes, PhD., associate executive director of NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island. "Its not like you cannot elect to go to this movie. Its on the internet. Its on the television. Its on 24/7. Sexual assault is a topic that remains taboo, but it's also not uncommon. Every 98 seconds, another person experiences sexual assault, according to Rape Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), the nations largest anti-sexual violence organization that oversees the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673. RAINN spokeswoman Sara McGovern said the National Sexual Assault Hotline saw a 147% increase above normal volume on the day of the Kavanaugh and Ford testimony. RAINN tweeted the organization also experienced unprecedented wait times for its online chat. We are experiencing unprecedented wait times for our online chat. If you are able, we encourage you to call 800.656.HOPE (4673) or reach out via chat tomorrow. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. RAINN (@RAINN) September 27, 2018 We are angry about the things that have happened to us. Were angry that it happens to other people. Were angry that, for a long time, we werent able to talk about it, sexual assault survivor Aminatou Sow told The New York Times earlier this week. Sow went on to say the way the news media reports about sexual violence can often cause harm. One 76-year-old caller into CSPAN during the Ford-Kavanaugh hearing recalled her own experience being molested in second grade by another student in seventh grade. Brenda from Missouri calls C-SPAN "I'm a 76-year-old woman who was sexually molested in 2nd grade. This brings back so much pain. Thought I was over it but it's not. You will never forget it. You get confused & you don't understand it but you never forget what happened to you." pic.twitter.com/uCgroeQ4B5 CSPAN (@cspan) September 27, 2018 "This brings back so much pain," she said. "Thought I was over it but it's not. You will never forget it. You get confused and you don't understand it but you never forget what happened to you." She said she hadn't brought up her experience for years, and hearing Ford's testimony was "just breaking my heart." Several other people called into CSPAN as well to share their experiences and voice support for Ford. After 35 years of experience treating victims of sexual trauma, Jannes said Fords testimony and courage to come forward may have a positive impact and helps victims. Both young men and young women who have had experiences that meet the definition of sexual trauma and who were afraid to report may now be empowered to report it, said Jannes. Jannes said that the Ford-Kavanaugh case "may stimulate conversations between parents and their adolescents ... and that is a good thing." "Adolescent girls who are empowered and adolescent boys who are mindful how they behave, Jannes said. The nation is watching closely following Ford's testimony in which Ford alleged with 100 percent certainty that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while in high school. The historic hearing is a rare occurrence, and has echoes of Anita Hills testimony in 1991 when she accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Both Ford and Kavanaugh were questioned by senators and Rachel Mitchell, a former sex crimes prosecutor from Maricopa County, Arizona. Ford specifically accused Kavanaugh, a United States Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, of sexual violence at a social gathering in the 1980s. Since Ford surfaced her allegation on July 30, two more women have come forward alleging sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh. Another accuser is anonymous. Democrats have called for an FBI investigation into the allegations noting that Kavanaughs nomination process should be delayed. Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., was among those in his party who rebuked the request for an investigation as politically motivated and put his full support behind Kavanaugh. #MeToo founder Tarana Burke sat behind Ford during her testimony and tweeted: These men are wholly uninterested and unmoved by this womans words...Dr. Ford has to talk about the worst trauma of her life in front of them. This is the reality of being survivor of sexual assault in this country. #WeBelieveDrFord #WeBelieveSurvivors #metooMVMT The #MeToo movement has been at the forefront of the nations consciousness following allegations of sexual violence by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein last year. Just this week, entertainer Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for aggravated indecent assault. More than 60 women have self-identified as sexual assault victims of Bill Cosby, wrote sex assault survivor Andrea Constand in a victim impact statement made public ahead of Cosbys sentencing. When the sexual assault happened, I was a young woman brimming with confidence and looking forward to a future bright with possibilities. Now, almost 15 years later, I'm a middle-aged woman who's been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward. During his emotional and at times tearful testimony, Kavanaugh called the events surrounding his nomination a national disgrace and a media circus. But it was during Kavanaughs testimony that strong reactions were seen on social media regarding the definition of sex assault after he stated he never had sex in high school. Sexual assault isnt about sex, its about power, tweeted Nick Morrow, with the Human Rights Campaign. Sexual assault includes more than forced intercourse or rape, according to the federal Office on Women's Health. It is "any type of sexual activity or contact, including rape, that happens" with someone who cannot or does not consent and includes rape, attempted rape, sexual coercion, sexual contact with a child, fondling or unwanted touching above or under clothes and exposing oneself to another. Sex assault resources are available at the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673. Since it was first created in 1994, the National Sexual Assault Hotline has helped more than two million people, according to its website. The House intelligence committee voted Friday to release transcripts of more than 50 interviews it conducted as part of its now-closed investigation into Russian election interference during the 2016 presidential campaign. Among those to be released are interviews with President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, his longtime spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, and his former bodyguard Keith Schiller. The committee also will reelease dozens of other transcripts of interviews with former Obama administration officials and numerous Trump associates, including Roger Stone, currently the subject of a grand jury investigation. The move to release the materials by the committee chairman, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California, a close Trump ally, will provide the public with 53 transcripts spanning thousands of pages of raw testimony as special counsel Robert Mueller continues his Russia investigation. But not all interviews conducted by the committee are being released, and there wasn't a firm timetable Friday for when they will ultimately be made public. The interviews form the basis for the GOP-authored report released this year that concluded there was no coordination between Trump's presidential campaign and Russian efforts to sway the election. Committee Democrats, who voted against approving the report, have disputed its findings. They say the investigation was shut down too quickly and that the committee didn't interview enough witnesses or gather enough evidence. Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who led the investigation in place of Nunes, said he "wanted to declassify or release as much of the underlying data as we could so that not only would they have my conclusion, but they could look at what I was looking at to make up their own mind." But Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the committee's top Democrat, said some of the most important transcripts six in total are still being withheld. The withheld transcripts include separate interviews with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who has attracted attention for his pro-Russian statements, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who headed the Democratic National Committee when court papers say its computer systems were hacked by Russia. Conaway said those transcripts were being withheld as a "professional courtesy" extended to members of Congress who participated in the interviews with the understanding they would be confidential. Democrats say Wasserman Schultz has agreed to the release of her transcript. And on Friday, Rohrabacher told The Associated Press that he hasn't objected to the release of his. Asked if he would agree to its release now, Rohrabacher said, "I'll think about it." Also being withheld are transcripts of closed hearings with former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey and former National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers as well as the transcript for the committee's business meeting when GOP members approved their final report. None of the transcripts, including those set for public release, has been provided to Mueller as part of his investigation, a move Democrats unsuccessfully pushed for on Friday. "We have suspicions that people testified before our committee falsely and committed perjury, and the special counsel is in the best position to determine, on the basis of the additional information he has, who might have perjured themselves," Schiff said. But Conaway said Mueller hasn't asked for access to the transcripts, and Republicans don't want to be accused of trying to "skew" the investigation or obstruct justice by sending him materials he didn't request. "He'll ask for it if he wants to. He's a big boy," Conaway said, noting the special counsel will be able to review them once they're public. The 53 transcripts approved for release will now go to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for a declassification review. Conaway and Schiff said they didn't know how long the review would take or when the transcripts would be released to the public. Schiff said Republicans made clear that none of the transcripts, which largely don't contain classified information, will be released until the declassification review is completed for all of them. New Hampshire has cleared the way for Vail Resorts to buy the rights to the Mount Sunapee ski area. Sarah Stewart, commissioner of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said Wednesday that the department found no reason to object after a review, an audit and an extensive public input period. She called Vail a "great fit" for New Hampshire. The ski area is built on public land but has been in private operation since 1998. The Concord Monitor reports that the state's approval comes with several amendments to the underlying lease that will require approval by the governor and Executive Council next month. The changes include an expansion proposal that was approved by the governor and council in 2016 but has faced some strong opposition in the community. The confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has mobilized people in Maine, where Republican Sen. Susan Collins is still undecided on his fate. The process has inspired some women to protest, and some survivors of sexual assault to speak out. Now, a new coalition of men is joining the conversation. "We are picking a judge that will shape laws for generations," said Adam Lee. "What's the hurry?" Lee, a Democrat, spoke at a press conference with a bipartisan group of men who say they stand in solidarity with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. They asked for the FBI to have the opportunity to investigate multiple allegations against Kavanaugh before the Senate Judiciary Committee votes. "My message to Senator Collins is pretty simple," said business owner Joshua Wojcik. "Pump the brakes. There's no reason to rush any of this. Nothing good in the history of work has ever come from rushing a promotion." "I hope and pray the Republican Party is on the right side of history with this issue," added Michael Cambareri, a registered Republican. The group includes independent voters, former Republicans, former politicians, and business owners in Maine. They said it was important to speak up to support women but also important to let them be heard. "I believe men need to do a lot less talking, and a lot more listening," said Justin Alfond, the former Democratic Senate President. The press conference was held before Ford and Kavanaugh testified Thursday. Prior to the hearing, conservative radio host Ray Richardson said he believes Ford has credibility but questions if there is proof that Kavanaugh was her abuser. "I think you can say Dr. Ford was assaulted, and you can say Brett Kavanaugh didn't do it," said Richardson. "Both can be true." Representatives of New Englands six state police agencies are gathering in Vermont for a conference on law enforcement leadership. The focus of the gathering, organized by the New England State Police Administrators Conference, is on boosting women in the ranks of leadership. We have room for improvement, acknowledged Col. Chris Wagner of the New Hampshire State Police, saying his agency needs to do better when it comes to recruiting and promoting women. Women make up roughly 7 percent of the force, Wagner said, and none of New Hampshires current female state troopers has achieved the rank of lieutenant or higher. It will change, Wagner told necn and NBC10 Boston. Were going to put together a committee at the New Hampshire State Police to drive interest with women within in the organization, career aspirations, how to develop leadership positions, and to identify the challenges that they continually face. Wagner noted that the troopers he has spoken with dont want to be promoted simply because they are womenbut rather, the colonel said the women want to feel as if they have proven themselves as leaders in the organization. The NESPAC Womens Leadership Conference at Vermonts Jay Peak Resort has attracted more than a hundred female troopers from across New England, to attend training seminars and panel discussions. Several of the meetings are promoting professional mentorship, organizers said. The host states force is about 12 percent female, and also wants to become more diverse, said Maj. Ingrid Jonas of the Vermont State Police. Were better at our job when we ourselves represent the folks we are out there to promote safety for, Jonas said of the goal to attract more women and minorities to careers with the Vermont State Police. Col. Kerry Gilpin of the Massachusetts State Police, who said her force is approximately 5 percent female, wants to raise that number and also restore public trust, after a series of scandals. Chief among themseveral dozen Massachusetts troopers allegedly stole from taxpayers by padding their overtime. Gilpin told necn and NBC10 Boston she believes leadership traits often associated with women, including organization and interpersonal skills, should help with her goal to improve the reputation of the agency with the public. Were in trying times right now in the Massachusetts State Police, Gilpin said. We need to communicate better, be more compassionatewe need to be better. And I think being a female brings a lot to that role. The NESPACs third annual womens leadership conference continues Friday morning. What to Know Two earthquakes hit Sulawesi in Indonesia on Friday morning The first earthquake, which came in at a 6.1 magnitude, killed at least one person A second, 7.5 magnitude earthquake led to a tsunami that rushed water over Sulawesi Rescuers struggled Sunday to reach victims in several large coastal towns in Indonesia that were hit by an earthquake and tsunami, and authorities feared that the toll of more than 800 confirmed dead would rise. With the area largely cut off by damaged roads and downed communications lines, military and commercial aircraft were delivering some aid and supplies to the hard-hit city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi, and others in the region. But there was a desperate need for heavy equipment to reach possible survivors buried in collapsed buildings, including an eight-story hotel in Palu where voices were heard in the rubble. A 25-year-old woman was found alive during the evening in the ruins of the Roa-Roa Hotel, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency, which released photos of her lying on a stretcher covered in a blanket. At least 832 people were confirmed killed by the quake and tsunami that struck Friday evening, Indonesia's disaster agency said, with nearly all of those from Palu. The regencies of Donggala, Sigi and Parigi Moutong with a combined population of 1.2 million had yet to be fully assessed. "The death toll is believed to be still increasing, since many bodies were still under the wreckage, while many have not been reached," said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. Bodies covered in blue and yellow tarps lined the streets of Palu, and officials said they were digging a mass grave for at least 300 of the dead. It was not immediately known when the burial would take place, but "this must be done as soon as possible for health and religious reasons," said Willem Rampangilei, head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. Most of Palu's residents are Muslim. The cries from beneath the Roa-Roa Hotel, which appeared to have toppled over with its walls splintered like pickup sticks, went silent by Sunday afternoon. Officials had estimated about 50 people could be inside. "We are trying our best. Time is so important here to save people," said Muhammad Syaugi, head of the national search and rescue team. "Heavy equipment is on the way." Metro TV showed about a dozen rescuers in orange jumpsuits climbing over debris with a stretcher carrying the body of a victim from the modest business hotel. Other rescuers worked to free a 15-year-old girl trapped under concrete in her house in Palu after it collapsed on her family during the magnitude 7.5 earthquake that spawned a tsunami. Unable to move her legs under the rubble, Nurul Istikharah was trapped beside her dead mother and niece. Rescuers also tried to control water from a leaking pipe, fearing she would drown. Istikharah was unconscious during part of the effort to free her, but rescuers kept talking to her to try to keep her awake. Others offered her food and water. Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo toured Palu on Sunday and said rescuers were having difficulty reaching victims because of a shortage of heavy equipment. "There are many challenges," Jokowi said. "We have to do many things soon, but conditions do not allow us to do so." He said authorities were deploying more heavy machinery so emergency workers can help recover more victims Monday. The stricken areas also needed medical supplies, fuel, fresh water and experts. It was the latest natural disaster to hit Indonesia, which is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. More recently, a powerful quake on the island of Lombok killed 505 people in August. In Donggala, the site closest to the epicenter of Friday's earthquake, aerial footage on Metro TV showed the sugary blond sands of beaches swept out to sea, along with some buildings. Some buildings in the town were severely damaged, with plywood walls shredded and chunks of concrete scattered on the pavement. Much of the damage, however, appeared limited to the waterfront. Palu, which has more than 380,000 people, was strewn with debris from the earthquake and tsunami. A heavily damaged mosque was half submerged and a shopping mall was reduced to a crumpled hulk. A large bridge with yellow arches had collapsed. The city is built around a narrow bay that apparently magnified the force of the tsunami as the waves raced into the tight inlet. Nugroho, the disaster agency spokesman, said waves were reported as high as 6 meters (20 feet) in some places. Looters hit a badly damaged shopping mall, apparently unconcerned for their safety amid ongoing aftershocks and the structure's questionable stability. In one devastated area in Palu, residents said dozens of people could still be buried in their homes. "The ground rose up like a spine and suddenly fell. Many people were trapped and buried under collapsed houses. I could do nothing to help," resident Nur Indah said, crying. "In the evening, some of them turned on their cellphones just to give a sign that they were there. But the lights were off later and the next day." With hundreds injured, earthquake-damaged hospitals were overwhelmed. Nugroho said 61 foreigners were in Palu at the time of the disaster. Most were accounted for, but one South Korean was believed to be trapped in the Roa-Roa Hotel, while three others from France and one from Malaysia were missing. The survivors were to be evacuated to the Sulawesi city of Makassar in the island's far south. Communications with the area were difficult because power and telecommunications were cut, hampering rescue efforts. Most people have slept outdoors, fearing strong aftershocks. Indonesia is a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that span a distance that would stretch from New York to London. It is home to 260 million people. Roads and infrastructure are poor in many areas, making access difficult in the best of conditions. The disaster agency has said that essential aircraft can land at Palu's airport, though AirNav, which oversees aircraft navigation, said the runway was cracked and the control tower damaged. Sulawesi has a history of religious tensions between Muslims and Christians, with violent riots erupting in the town of Poso, not far from Palu, two decades ago. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country. Associated Press writers Margie Mason and Stephen Wright contributed. Imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich wrote an op-ed from behind bars calling for prison reform. In his editorial, posted by the Washington Examiner, Blagojevich said he is living the reverse American dream along with several other inmates at a prison in Colorado. The national debate in Congress on prison and sentencing reform is a conversation that is long overdue, he wrote. And as that debate heats up, Id like to offer a few points of my own and share some things Ive learned on this painful journey. Blagojevich detailed his role as a dishwasher in the prison, noting that many jobs for inmates pay less than $1 an hour. I never expected to get rich in prison, but am I wrong in viewing this rock-bottom wage as society's way of showing its contempt, telling us that we are all worthless? Is that a good message to send to people we plan to release someday, and whom we'd rather not see offend again? Blagojevich criticized what he described as tough on crime policies and mandatory minimum laws, a rush to conviction and lack of compassionate release approvals. My time in prison has taught me that we need serious reforms. Its also taught me that there are a lot of people in here with good hearts, he wrote. Instead of creating a system that punishes and dehumanizes inmates, lets create a system that rehabilitates prisoners and prepares them for life outside of prison. So here is my message: We can never reach our potential until we as a people rise up and demand that our elected representatives bring about reform. Blagojevich isnt the only recognizable name called for reform in the criminal justice system. Reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who successfully pushed President Donald Trump to grant a pardon for a drug offender earlier this year, has met with senior aides in the White House to talk about similar issues. Kardashian West last visited the White House three months ago to press for a pardon for 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson, who served a more than two-decade stint on drug charges. "When I looked at Alice, I said we can't just stop with one person. We have to change the laws," Kardashian said in a statement released by #cut50, a group that looks to reduce incarceration time. The pardon for Johnson was one of several instances where the president has used his constitutional power to pardon federal crimes. Trump in May pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza and suggested he was considering a commutation for Blagojevich and a pardon for lifestyle guru Martha Stewart. He has not yet acted on either front. Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the signing of a bill that in part keeps abortion legal in Illinois, the same day a U.S. Senate committee moved forward with the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh - whose confirmation abortion-rights advocates have said could result in the repeal of federal protections for abortion. Gov. Bruce Rauner signed House Bill 40 on Sept. 28, 2017, after weeks of deliberating on the measure under intense political pressure. The law has two main components: expanding insurance programs for state employees and Medicaid recipients to include coverage for abortion, and ensuring that abortion would remain legal in Illinois should Roe v. Wade - the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing it - be overturned. The law does that by repealing language in Illinois' 1975 law that would criminalize abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The bill's chief sponsor, state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, marked the anniversary Friday in a statement pointing to both Kavanaugh and President Donald Trump. "After repeated threats from Supreme Court nominees like Brett Kavanaugh and President Trump himself to strip abortion rights away from women, this legislation is necessary to safeguard a woman's right to make decisions that affect her personal health in Illinois," said Feigenholtz, a Democrat who represents portions of Chicago's North Side. Trump tapped Kavanaugh to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat in July after Kennedy - often a swing vote - announced his retirement, bringing abortion rights into focus as Trump's nominee could give the split court an anti-abortion majority. Trump said during a presidential debate in 2016 that he is "pro-life" and planned to appoint justices that hold the same view, though Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge, has a relatively thin record of legal decisions on the issue. Advocates have pointed to his 2017 decision that a federal shelter did not have to facilitate an abortion for a pregnant 17-year-old immigrant, who was taken into custody after entering the U.S. illegally, so long as the facility secure an adult sponsor for the girl and "expeditiously" release her to the sponsor's custody. Kavanaugh has also praised Justice William Rehnquist's dissent in Roe v. Wade, saying in a 2017 lecture that although "Rehnquist was not successful in convincing a majority of the justices in the context of abortion," he had succeeded in "stemming the general tide of freewheeling judicial creation of unenumerated rights that were not rooted in the nations history and tradition." Both of those issues came up in Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, where he refrained from sharing his personal view on abortion and called the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling "precedent." On Friday, the Senate Judiciary committee voted in dramatic fashion to send Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate, with GOP Sen. Jeff Flake calling for a one-week delay before a floor vote in order to allow the FBI to investigate an allegation of sexual assault against Kavanaugh. Regardless of what happens at the federal level, Feigenholtz said Friday, "Illinois has made a strong affirmative statement: access to safe legal abortion will remain protected in Illinois." In the year since it was signed into law, House Bill 40 has also played a pivotal role in the race for Illinois governor. Rauner, a Republican who was elected in 2014, saying at the time that he had "no social agenda," drew a GOP primary challenger based in part on his approval of House Bill 40. State Rep. Jeanne Ives jumped into the race, accusing Rauner of lying to Cardinal Blase Cupich amid the negotiations on the bill and claiming he "sure did have an agenda... a socially progressive agenda." With far more name recognition and funding, Rauner won the March primary by a 3-point margin, coming stunningly close to being ousted by members of his own party. But that victory didn't result in a Republican coalescence, as state Sen. Sam McCann launched a campaign for governor under the Conservative Party label, angered by House Bill 40 in the same vein as Ives. At the first televised forum of all the candidates for governor, McCann took aim at Rauner over the measure, calling himself, "about the most pro-life person you'll ever meet and very proud of that." "I think it's reprehensible that the taxpayers of Illinois are required to pay for taxpayer-funded abortion on demand," McCann continued. "Ive even had pro-choice constituents come to me and say that," he added, later calling Rauner a "liar." "You've been lying to the people of Illinois from the very beginning," McCann said. "You said you would have no social agenda and all you've been able to accomplish is to make yourself the most progressive, liberal governor the state of Illinois has ever had. You're a liar and a thief." For his part, in signing the bill in 2017, Rauner said he understood that abortion is a "very emotional issue" with passionate opinions on both sides. "But, as I have always said, I believe a woman should have the right to make that choice herself and I do not believe that choice should be determined by income," he said in a statement at the time announcing his decision. "I do not think its fair to deny poor women the choice that wealthy women have. That is why I am signing HB40." Evette Wormleys been using edible forms of medical marijuana for a year now. "This is strawberry candy bar," she said of one of her cannabis-infused treats. "Really good." She suffers from autoimmune deficiencies, including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. "I don't have not as much inflammation," she said of her symptoms after using medical marijuana. She recently renewed her Firearm Owner Identification card and decided to buy a gun from a store in Plainfield. She chose a .38 EZ special for protection. "They did 10 minutes background check, said all was fine, so I paid for the gun and was told there was a three day waiting period," Wormley recalled to an NBC 5 reporter on Friday. But a few days ago, Wormley says she got a call from the Illinois State Police telling her the purchase was denied because she uses medical marijuana. "He told me that its still classified as a schedule one drug," she said of the phone call. "There are people out there on opioids that have a gun." Wormley says she asked state police to tell her where she could find more specifics and if it was state law. "He read it to me but could not tell me where to go to find it," she said. Information NBC 5 found on the Illinois State Police website says medical marijuana cardholders will not have their FOID or concealed carry cards revoked, or denied due to their status. State law requires that a person's status as a medical marijuana cardholder not result in the denial of any right or privilege. But NBC 5 found nothing saying medical marijuana card holders cant buy guns from stores. "It does not make any sense to me," Wormley said. "I want to purchase a gun, but I can't. I'm mad." Wormley says state police recently contacted her again, telling her that she can buy a gun from a private seller or have one gifted to her. NBC 5 called the Illinois State Police for clarification but did not immediately hear back. "I have nothing to hide," Wormley said. "I'm trying to do it all legally." Wormley says she plans on getting a refund for the gun she bought. She says shell possibly buy one from a private seller. A student was recently attacked near an alley not far from the campus of Loyola University, but the crime has upset some because they say the university never told them it happened. That student talked exclusively with NBC 5 on Thursday. Chicago police said the attack and robbery happened back on Sept. 17 in the 6300 block of Lakewood Avenue at about 2:30 a.m. The victim was heading home, police said, when three men approached, hit her, knocked her to the ground and then ran off with all of her belongings. The Loyola senior, who only wanted to be identified as Lizzie, told NBC 5 her life changed after the terrifying attack when she was walking after a late night out with a friend. I dont really walk much, alone, or at night or anything, she said. (I feel) really nervous, and like really paranoid now, about walking around even during the daytime. She said she couldn't remember much about the attack because she was in shock. She said there was lucky there was a witness. What they said is, there was two men that approached me at my door, she said. "We went into this alley and then about 20 seconds later they came running out." She later had cuts, bruises and a "gash" on her head, she said. Lizzie said she hopes Loyola, which only sends out safety alerts to students if an incident occurrs within a certain geographic area, will take a different stance. I hope that, obviously, maybe Loyola will take a different stance on what they report and what they dont report, she said. Maybe letting the students know whats going on around campus, having students be aware so that nothing bad like this happens to any other studentsand maybe there could be a positive outcome. Other students in the community reacted to the violent incident. Its horrible," Loyola student Ally Runnion said. "Its also not surprising because you here about this stuff all the time." The campus newspaper, the Loyola Phoenix, wrote about the attack and the fact that the university never informed any of the student body that it happened. "It isnt the job of the students to scrutinize police records, attend community meetings and hunt down information for their own safety while at the same time attend class, study, participate in extracurriculars and prepare for life after graduation," a recent editorial in the paper reads. Loyola officials say they did nothing wrong by not reporting the attack to the campus community, and they stand by their decision. "Alerts are sent based on geography and ongoing threat," Loyola officials said in an emailed statement. "If the situation meets that criteria, then the process for issuing an alert would start." They said the crime happened outside of that geographic area, which did not require them to report it. Runnion did the graphics for the Phoenix article. She says underreporting crimes by the university has been going for years. Its not only people in the journalism community," she said. "Girls in my sorority are furious and want to start petitions to hold campus safety accountable. A picnic for a 60-year-old grandfather fizzled out pretty quickly when he and his grandsons were kicked out of a park in Virginia for drinking kombucha. The bubbly, fermented tea originated centuries ago in China and typically contains a slight bit of alcohol. That's what got Sid Tatem in trouble while celebrating his birthday with his two grandsons at Chesapeake's Northwest River Park. "I thought it was good, clean fun," Tatem told The Virginian-Pilot, "And as far as I'm concerned, it is." The Virginia newspaper reports the three were sipping homebrewed kombucha at the park when a ranger asked what they were drinking and then kicked them out upon discovering what it was. Tatem explained to the officer that he was drinking kombucha, and that the tea might contain small amounts of alcohol. "He was very disturbed, convinced I was contributing the delinquency of my grandsons," Tatem said. "Kombucha is not considered an alcoholic drink anywhere." City spokeswoman Elizabeth Vaughn says the ranger acted because the beverage was given to juveniles. Kombucha sold in supermarkets must fall below 0.5 percent alcohol, but Tatem's homebrewed drink had not been tested for alcohol content. Hannah Crum, president of trade group Kombucha Brewers International, told the Virginia-Pilot that she didn't know anyone who drank kombucha to get intoxicated, and that it would be difficult to do so. Tatem questioned whether he will need to hide his kombucha the next time he is out in public. On Sunday, he listened to the officers orders. "I thought, this is a losing situation. I asked the officer what he wanted us to do. He said, 'Dump the kombucha out, and leave the park.' We did so in silence," he told the newspaper. As I thought about a topic for this weeks column, I kept coming back to all the rain lately, not just in our area but across the country. In addition to the that issue, other communities have been battling wildfires. Recently, homeowners across the country have been evacuated for both of these natural disasters, and as a REALTOR it is not lost on me the importance of our industry continuing to work on behalf of all property owners. When the REALTOR organization lobbies on behalf of property owners, our efforts are known as the REALTOR Party a bi-partisan group of industry professionals monitoring laws and regulations and going to bat for consumers. We tackle a variety of issues from preserving the mortgage interest deduction to improving federal mortgage programs, which allows more families to join the ranks of homeownership. Yet, we also have our finger on the pulse of environmental issues, including flooding and wildfires. Several topics related to environmental and property rights concerns are on the Realtor Partys radar and include: clean water, endangered species, energy efficiency, natural disasters. National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), lead paint, and wildfires, to name a few. What do these topics have to do with real estate? Each of these issues can have a significant impact on property owners and the costs to own and maintain those properties. Did you know that flood insurance is required for a mortgage in more than 20,000 communities nationwide? Millions of small business and homeowners depend on the federal program to protect their property against flooding, the most costly and common natural disaster in the United States. Without the NFIP, more property owners could become uninsured and turn to the Federal government for taxpayer-funded disaster relief and rebuilding assistance after major floods. Its likely you or someone you know in another part of the country has faced raising insurance rates following a natural disaster such as a hurricane, wildfire, or earthquake. Or worse, perhaps the policy was denied. Without federal involvement, affordable property insurance will continue not to be available in many parts of the U.S. to protect against the next mega-catastrophe caused by a hurricane, earthquake, or other Act of God. Without insurance, it is the taxpayer not the property owner that pays when Congress reacts to the latest disaster by providing millions of dollars in financial disaster assistance to rebuild under-insured properties and communities. What would it look like if energy efficiency were federally mandated? REALTORS believe property owners ability to sell their home or building could be at risk without first having to conduct energy audits and improve its heating and cooling system, windows, insulation and/or lighting. Also, older homes that do not meet adequate energy efficiency requirements or score poorly on energy use assessments may lose value compared to newer, more efficient homes. REALTORS support improving energy efficiency through voluntary incentives, commercially reasonable approaches and education in lieu of individual building mandates, and we oppose applying existing laws/regulations that are not designed for global climate change to try to address these issues; provisions that impose undue economic burdens on property owners or managers; or triggering such requirements at the time when real property is sold. As you can see, the REALTOR Party identifies, analyzes and acts on a variety of issues that affect the real estate industry and private property owners. It is critical for REALTORS to come together and speak with one voice about the stability a sound and dynamic real estate market brings to our communities. That voice is the REALTOR Party working on behalf of you. What to Know The new timeline puts Trump's nominee in further peril and pushes the politically risky vote for senators closer to the election Democrats have been particularly focused on getting more information from Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh Some Republicans still resisted the delay but went along with the plan that may be the only way salvage Kavanaugh's confirmation Reversing course, President Donald Trump bowed to Democrats' demands Friday for a deeper FBI investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after Republican Sen. Jeff Flake balked at voting for confirmation without it a sudden turn that left Senate approval newly uncertain amid allegations of sexual assault. Kavanaugh's nomination had appeared back on track earlier Friday when he cleared a key hurdle at the Senate Judiciary Committee. But that advance came with an asterisk. Flake indicated he would take the next steps leading to full Senate approval only after the further background probe, and there were suggestions that other moderate Republicans might join his revolt. The abrupt developments gave senators, the White House and millions of Americans following the drama at home hardly a chance to catch their breath after Thursday's emotional Senate hearing featuring Kavanaugh angrily defending himself and accuser Christine Blasey Ford determinedly insisting he assaulted her when they were teens. Emotions were still running high Friday, and protesters confronted senators in the halls. "The country is being ripped apart here," said Flake. After he took his stance, Republican leaders had little choice but to slow their rush to confirm Kavanaugh, whom they had hoped to have in place shortly after the new court term begins on Monday. Trump quietly followed suit, though he had vigorously resisted asking the FBI to probe the allegations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh, now being raised by three women. One day earlier, he had blistered the Senate process as "a total sham," accused Democrats of a conspiracy of obstruction and declared on Twitter, "The Senate must vote!" The new timeline puts Trump's nominee in further peril and pushes the politically risky vote for senators closer to the November congressional elections. It also means that any cases the Supreme Court hears before a ninth justice is in place will be decided by just eight, raising the possibility of tie votes. It was clear Republicans were still short of votes for final Senate approval after Thursday's hearing. They convened late into the evening in a room in the Capitol with various senators, including Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, raising pointed questions, according to those familiar with the private meeting but granted anonymity to discuss it. Republican leaders said and Trump ordered that the new probe be "limited in scope." But there was no specific direction as to what that might include. Two other women besides Ford have also lodged public sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh. Democrats have been particularly focused on getting more information from Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh who Ford said was also in the room during her alleged assault. Judge has said he does not recall any such incident. In a new letter to the Senate panel, he said he would cooperate with any law enforcement agency assigned to investigate "confidentially." Kavanaugh issued his own statement through the White House saying he's been interviewed by the FBI before, done "background" calls with the Senate and answered questions under oath "about every topic" senators have asked. "I've done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate," said the 53-year-old judge. Flake, a key moderate Republican, was at the center of Friday's uncertainty. In the morning, he announced he would support Kavanaugh's nomination. Shortly after, he was confronted in an elevator by two women who, through tears, said they were sexual assault victims and implored him to change his mind. "Look at me and tell me that it doesn't matter what happened to me," said 23-year-old Maria Gallagher, a volunteer with a liberal advocacy group. The confrontation was captured by television cameras. Soon he was working on a new deal with his Republican colleagues and Democrats in a Judiciary Committee anteroom. Flake announced he would vote to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate. Democrats have been calling for such a probe, though Republicans and the White House have insisted it was unnecessary. The committee vote was 11-10 along party lines. Attention quickly turned to a handful of undeclared senators. Two other key Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said they backed the plan after they and other GOP senators met for an hour in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office in the Capitol. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin said he supported Flake's call for a further probe "so that our country can have confidence in the outcome of this vote." With a 51-49 majority, Senate Republicans have little margin for error on a final vote, especially given the fact that several Democrats facing tough re-election prospects this fall announced their opposition to Kavanaugh on Friday. Bill Nelson of Florida, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Jon Tester of Montana all said they would vote no. Flake's vote on final approval is not assured either. Some Republicans still resisted the delay but went along with the plan that may be the only way salvage Kavanaugh's confirmation. "I think it's overkill," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "But they have a right to request it." The FBI conducts background checks for federal nominees, but the agency does not make judgments on the credibility or significance of allegations. It compiles information about the nominee's past and provides its findings to the White House, which passes them along to the committee. Republicans say reopening the FBI investigation is unnecessary because committee members have had the opportunity to question both Kavanaugh and Ford and other potential witnesses have submitted sworn statements. Agents could interview accusers and witnesses and gather additional evidence or details that could help corroborate or disprove the allegations. Connecticut State Police are searching for a driver who rear-ended a state trooper in Windsor Thursday. Police said a blue pickup rear-ended a state police vehicle on Bloomfield Avenue in Windsor around 5:15 p.m. The vehicle was found unoccupied a few moments later. The suspect is described as a man, approximately 5-foot-2, and wearing grey pants and a pink shirt. Anyone with information or who sees a person fitting this description is asked to call 911 or Troop H at 860-534-1000. Parents across the state are looking for new child care options after several day care centers under the same ownership announced they are closing. NBC Connecticut first reported Tuesday the abrupt closure of the Apple Tree Learning Center in Vernon, which is one of day care four locations owned by the estate of Kerry Hils. Thursday the director of Wee Ones Child Care Center in Cromwell told NBC Connecticut she was informed that day care center, which shares the same owner as Apple Tree, will close Friday. Staff spent the day calling parents to let them know. The director said she received a statement from the attorney representing the estate of former owner Kerry Hils saying that the business can no longer stay open. The director said they were helping parents make arrangement for new child care. Some staff already have other job offers. The Apple Tree Learning Center in Colchester, also owned by the estate, will also close. Their director said the last day will be Oct. 5. "I can't see why anyone would do this. I feel bad for my friends. I feel bad for the kids. I feel bad for the parents," said Alyssa Howard, a teacher at the Colchester location. The Enfield location is also slated to close. In a statement to NBC Connecticut, Michael Romano, attorney for the estate, said the child care centers had been operating at a loss for many years and without him, the family was unable to keep the businesses afloat. He added that the estate is likely headed to insolvency and would lack funds for overhead and payroll that exceeded $20,000 weekly. The explanation is little consolation to staff like Angela Gregoire, who also has two children of her own. She said she'll miss caring for the kids and families they've come to love. "It just sucks that we didnt get any notice. Now were just left," Gregoire said. Romano also said there is not yet a plan to return deposits to any families, pending a review of payment records. The Office of Early Childhood said that because these centers didn't provide the required 30-day notice to shut down, their office will be consulting with the state attorney general to see if there are legal consequences. The full statement from the estate of Kerry Hils is below: The Estate of Kerry Hils regrets having to close the day care centers previously owned and operated by Kerry Hils. Only recently did the Estate obtain copies of financial records and tax returns indicating that the child care centers had been operating at a loss for many years and without him, the family was unable to keep the businesses afloat. It is apparent that the Hils estate will likely be insolvent and there would not be enough funds to continue operations, make payroll and pay overhead expenses as those bills came due. The Hils family deeply regrets the impact this action has had on staff and families, but the passage of time would only deepen the losses and not result in a better ending. We wish all our staff and children the best of luck in the future. A West Hartford couple accused of trashing at least two homes in West Hartford while participating in a state program that paid their rent is facing additional criminal charges. NBC Connecticut Investigates first reported the allegations against Chad and Jessica Anderson in May when several landlords complained that the couple had damaged their rental properties. The pair receives rental assistance through the federally-funded Shelter Plus Care program, which is administered by the through the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS). Chad and Jessica Anderson were arrested Friday by West Hartford Police. They are each charged with one count of Criminal Damage to a Landlord's Property in the 1st Degree and Larceny in the 2nd Degree. Their former landlord, Dritan Dalipi, told NBC Connecticut Investigates a DMHAS employee contacted him to inquire about renting his home to the Andersons. Dalipi said the pair blatantly disregarded the no pets clause in their lease, damaged his house, and stole furniture when he asked them to leave. The Andersons and their six children moved into Dalipis home after they were kicked out of their previous rental property in Bishops Corner. In June, Chad and Jessica Anderson were charged with one count each of Criminal Damage to a Landlord's Property in the 1st Degree after the homeowner, Laura Guilmartin, accused them of causing $20,000 in damages. Guilmartin said DMHAS gave her $4,000 to cover damages, the maximum allowed under the terms of the states Shelter Plus Care program. The Andersons deny the charges and say they did nothing wrong. They invited NBC Connecticut inside their current rental home, which was spotless when we visited. NBC Connecticut Investigates was unable to reach Chad Andersons attorney. We spoke by phone with the attorney representing Jessica Anderson. Paul E. Mawn, Jr. He says he doesnt believe his client has done anything in bad faith and called the allegations, at best a misunderstanding. Mawn added that it is unusual for criminal charges to be filed in a landlord/tenant dispute. In response to the landlords allegations, a DMHAS spokesperson told Investigates the department does not conduct background checks or vouch for its clients. The spokesperson also said the leases are between the landlord and tenant, and any disputes should be handled in court. Chad and Jessica Anderson are scheduled to appear in court later this month. A man suspected in a Bridgeport slaying last year has been taken into custody in Florida. The U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force in Florida took 18-year-old Jahmari Wack Cooper into custody around 8:30 p.m. Thursday as he got out of a car in Riviera Beach. Cooper is suspected of shooting and killing Jeri Kollack at the Greene Homes housing complex in Bridgeport on Oct. 11, 2017 and is charged with felony murder, murder, and first-degree robbery. Based on information from the public on Wednesday, authorities were led to believe Cooper might have fled to the West Palm Beach area in Florida and the U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force tracked him to an apartment complex in Riviera Beach. Authorities searched the apartment Cooper was suspected of staying in and found a handgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a New Jersey drivers license under the alias Mark White, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Cooper is being held in state custody in Florida awaiting additional drug and possible gun charges, officials said. He will be held pending extradition to Connecticut. Police are trying to identify a woman accused of assaulting a teenager on a Connecticut Transit bus in Hamden last week. Officers were called to a house on Dixwell Avenue on Sunday after getting a report of an assault that had happened the day before. An investigation revealed that a 16-year-old Hamden resident got on a Connecticut Transit bus near Dixwell Avenue and Putnam Avenue on Saturday. The teenager said a passenger, described as a 40-year-old woman who was about 5'9" with a heavy build, wearing a jean jacket began provoking her. The teenager told police that the woman made demeaning statements to her then attacked her. According to the teen, the woman first threw a cup of soda at her then she "struck her an unknown amount of times with closed fist punches" and bit her on the arm. The teenager sustained injuries to her neck, face and arm and was transported to a medical facility for treatment by a family member. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Officer Justin Thibault at (203) 230-4030. Big Tex is back at Fair Park in Dallas! NBC 5 and the State Fair of Texas invite you to celebrate everything Texan. Starting this Friday, September 28, celebrate a Texas tradition thats been around since 1886. This is your chance to be a part of hundreds of activities, shows, daily concerts, and exhibits. With the wide range of events and activities held at the fair, you are bound to find something special to do with your family and friends. Check out Mundo Latino, a Latin American themed exhibit on Cuba. Telemundo 39 and NBC 5 sponsor this exciting celebration of Latin culture. Housed inside the Womens Museum, this exhibit is Free with State Fair Admission. Get in for just $4 during Its a Fair Deal any Wednesday during the State Fair of Texas. NBC 5, Telemundo 39 and Kroger sponsor this State Fair favorite. Just bring 4 cans of food to donate to the North Texas Food Bank on Wednesday and your ticket will be discounted so you can enter the Fair for just $4. Only one (4 can) donation per person. This discount may not be combined with any other offers. Over two million people attend the State Fair of Texas, so purchase your tickets and coupons ahead of time at www.BigTex.com/Tickets. All proceeds from the event will go right back to preserve Fair Park and fund scholarship programs for inner-city agricultural students. The event located at the historic Fair Park in Dallas will be fun for everyone. For more information on the State Fair of Texas visit www.BigTex.com. State Fair of Texas 2018 Each Wednesday Fair Park 3921 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Dallas, TX 75210 214-565-9931 www.BigTex.com Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the world stands at the "dawn of a new day" in relations with North Korea but that international sanctions must remain in place and vigorously enforced if diplomatic efforts to get the country to denuclearize are to succeed a position that faced resistance from China and Russia. Chairing a special session of the U.N. Security Council, Pompeo said President Donald Trump's diplomatic breakthrough with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has led to a point where the nuclear threat from the country can be resolved. But the "unprecedented diplomatic opening" would close unless the pressure from sanctions is kept up. "Until the final denuclearization of the DPRK is achieved and fully verified, it is our solemn collective responsibility to fully implement all U.N. Security Council resolutions pertaining to North Korea," he said, using the initials for the country's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Pompeo said the U.S. has evidence that U.N. sanctions, particularly those restricting North Korean oil imports and coal exports, are being violated and he demanded that U.N. members ensure they are respected. "Enforcement of U.N. Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize final, fully verified denuclearization," Pompeo said. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, whose country is North Korea's main ally, agreed that the sanctions "remain valid," but he said the resolutions provide for them to be modified based on North Korea's compliance and the council should consider doing so. "China believes that the Security Council may consider invoking in due course this provision in order to encourage (North Korea) and other relevant parties to move denuclearization further ahead," he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow believes that it's "very important" for the Security Council to regularly discuss "whether it's advisable to review various restrictions against DPRK as it moves towards giving up its nuclear weapons." He stressed that negotiations are "a two-way street" and steps by the DPRK toward gradual disarmament "should be followed by easing of sanctions." The Security Council must not become "a hindrance" to dialogue between the two Koreas, Lavrov said, and he suggested that the council committee monitoring sanctions against the DPRK should consider applications for exemptions from sanctions "to carry out projects of inter-Korean cooperation which Pyongyang and Seoul have agreed to." Lavrov criticized Western nations for "stubbornly" ruling out any positive signal from the Security Council on the positive steps taken by Pyongyang so far. He said Russia will circulate a council resolution that would have the council "send a clear signal in support of the positive momentum on the situation around the Korean peninsula." China and Russia also said they share with North and South Korea a desire to produce a document that would declare an end to the Korean War, which ended with an armistice and not a formal peace treaty. The Trump administration has balked at signing such a declaration without significant progress on denuclearization, such as North Korea submitting a complete inventory of its nuclear and ballistic missile facilities that could be used by international inspectors to verify they have been dismantled. Pompeo, who met on Wednesday with North Korea's foreign minister, will make a third trip to North Korea next month to set the stage for a second summit between Kim and Trump, who met in Singapore in June. China's Wang said "the recent positive developments on the peninsula are exactly what China has been working for over the years. He stressed that peace on the peninsula is essentially about security and "the key is to address the legitimate security concerns of all parties in an appropriate and balanced manner." Trump, Pompeo and other U.S. officials have repeatedly reported progress in the denuclearization discussions with the North, but there has been little visible evidence of that to date. Although North Korea has suspended nuclear and missile testing and has taken some steps to dismantle affiliated facilities, it has continued to develop missiles and has made no public show of taking down its nuclear weapons development. The newest home in Copper Canyon has a strong foundation. For owner Jake Murphy, that foundation is about much more than just the carpentry. It's hard to put into words what it means, said Murphy. It's just so generous and heartfelt." Murphy is an Army veteran who attended West Point. The Army captains military service was cut short in July 2011 when, while on a mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan, he stepped on an IED. Shock and awe, said Murphy, who says recollection of the moment is fuzzy. It's kind of watching a war movie. Everything goes blank for a second. Murphy said his last recollection was asking for water. Six weeks later, he awoke from a coma. Because of injuries suffered in the blast, both legs were amputated. That's reality, said Murphy. I'm just lucky I'm alive." On Thursday, Murphy, his wife Lisa, and their two children were joined by folks who are building their new home. The accessible structure is being built through the Gary Sinise Foundation, which assists veterans, first responders and their families. It means a lot, said Murphy. You don't realize how much support you have behind you." The Murphys hope to move into their new home by next spring. At Thursdays Walls of Honor event. Neighbors both old and new left messages of love, support and honor on the studs and beams of the house, which is still under construction. We're really upset that they're moving, but we're really happy for them, said Abbie Piette, who with her husband Jeremie lives next door to the Murphys currently. For everything thats happened to them, I dont think Ive ever met a more generous couple. We live in a world with so much negativity, said Scott Schaeperkoetter. It shows, people who don't even know Jake and Lisa, it shows how much they support our military, how much they support families." On that foundation, there is no better way to say "thank you." I can feel it inside, that all these people love us and they want to make sure things are the best for me and my family, said Murphy. It's an amazing feeling." Friday marks a landmark day for first responders in North Texas as Collin College officially opens its massive Public Safety Training Center. The 25-acre Public Safety Training Center houses the latest technology for first responders and will be home to training for law enforcement officers, firefighters, cadets and active duty first responders. Police officers are able to train in a "reality-based training area." The area is made basically main street of a town, but housed inside. Each building can house a different real-life scenario that trainees must navigate and negotiate. The scenarios are based on actual incidents that happened in the nearby Collin County community. Officers also have three indoor shooting ranges to fine tune marksmanship and accuracy. Having a facility like this with police and fire we are going to be able to do cross training that we just havent seen in this area, Law Enforcement Academy director Scott Donaldson said. [In the past] officers have had to use travel funds we are now going to be able to do it here locally. On the firefighting side of the complex is state-of-the-art training equipment that could save lives of both rescuer and civilian. There are two multi-story burn buildings where firefighters can train in home, apartment and office building scenarios. This facility allows us to create the most realistic scenarios yet maintain a high level of safety while they are doing their training, Fire Science and EMS director Pat McAuliff said. While the cities of McKinney and Allen partnered with Collin College, first responders from all over the state will train at the facility. For more information on the Public Safety Training Center click HERE. The State Fair of Texas opens Friday morning and even with a shrinking force, Dallas police are ready, according to fair and police officials. The latest September figures show the Dallas Police Department has 3,016 officers, more than 300 fewer than two years ago and 600 fewer than 2011. Were very aware of what the number situation has been with DPD, so weve been in talks with them from the beginning, said Fair President Mitchell Glieber. Theyve got to be able to cover what they need to cover around the city and we need to make sure we have a safe State Fair environment as well. Glieber said police asked that the fair hire more off-duty officers for protection so the number of off-duty officers will triple in 2018 to keep more on-duty officers on patrol. The fair will also pay for overtime police required to provide protection. The fair paid the City of Dallas $1.5 million for police protection in 2017, about half the total cost. Glieber expects the bill to rise even higher this year. That number can change a little bit depending on what the circumstances are at the fair, if there are certain events that are bigger than others and they feel the need to bring in additional officers. We leave the planning to them, he said. The fair will not pay for all of the regular salaries of on-duty Dallas officers involved in 2018 Fair security. The State Fair of Texas is ultimately the responsibility of the Dallas Police Department, like any event that takes place in the City of Dallas. We work well with our partners. Were happy that the State Fair is here, said Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall. The chief said she is confident in the ability of her force to protect the fair and the rest of Dallas at the same time. Dallas City Council Member Philip Kingston pushed this year to make the fair pay all of the security expense. In August he said fair security would compromise response to other police calls. Its not OK to ask a citizen to wait two and three hours on a burglary call when the fair is getting free police, Kingston said. His push for a city budget amendment to recover then entire fair security cost failed this month. Glieber said the fair has never refused to pay more. We have never negotiated a single item with DPD, he said. Its important to us that whatever they tell us to pay, were going to pay. The gates to the fair, which runs for the next 24 days, open at 10 a.m. Friday. Police say a 1-year-old West Texas girl whose eyes and mouth were glued shut has been released from a hospital as her father faces allegations he attacked her. Odessa police Cpl. Steve LeSueur said Thursday, Sept. 27 that the girl and two siblings -- a 2-year-old brother and 2-month-old sister -- were placed with Child Protective Services. All three children were at their Odessa home when police responded to a domestic disturbance Sept. 16. Their father, 29-year-old Johnnie Lee Carter, remains jailed in El Paso on a charge of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury. Police said he's suspected of beating and choking the 1-year-old and using an adhesive stick to glue her eyes and mouth shut. They say Carter was arrested Monday, Sept. 24 in El Paso and awaits extradition. A Texas inmate was executed Thursday evening for fatally running over his girlfriend in a jealous rage more than 18 years ago. It was the state's second execution in as many days. Daniel Acker was condemned for the March 2000 slaying of Marquetta George of Sulphur Springs. Prosecutors said he ran over George with his truck in rural northeast Texas because he believed she had been unfaithful to him. Asked by the warden if he had any final statement, Acker replied: "No, sir." He closed his eyes, took a breath, then slightly exhaled as the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect. There was no additional movement. He was pronounced dead 14 minutes later at 6:25 p.m. Acker did not acknowledge the presence of George's brother, Christopher Follis, who watched through a window a few feet away from him. Follis declined to speak with reporters after witnessing the punishment. Acker had no friends or relatives present. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Acker's attorneys on Thursday afternoon. They had argued the Acker was innocent of capital murder because his 32-year-old girlfriend's fatal injuries were due to her decision to jump from his truck after he abducted her. A similar appeal was rejected earlier this month by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The 46-year-old Acker became the 18th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the 10th given a lethal injection in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. Acker also was the second Texas inmate put to death in two days. Troy Clark received lethal injection Wednesday for torturing and drowning an East Texas woman in his bathtub and then stuffing her body into a barrel. The executions of Acker and Clark were the first time in nearly six years that Texas put to death inmates on consecutive days. At least eight other Texas inmates have planned execution dates in the coming months. At Acker's trial, several witnesses testified he got into a heated argument with George at a Sulphur Springs nightclub the night before her death over his suspicions she was sleeping with another man. Authorities said that the next day, Acker forced George -- kicking and screaming -- into his pickup truck. A witness later saw Acker pull George's body from his truck and lay her on the ground. In a petition to the Supreme Court, Acker's attorney, Richard Ellis, had argued the conviction was based on what he describes as a "now discredited" theory that Acker strangled George while he was driving. Ellis said prosecutors changed their theory of George's death after a prosecution expert testified at a post-conviction hearing in 2011 that she died from injuries after being run over. At Acker's trial, a medical examiner testified George had extensive injuries all over her body and her neck injuries were consistent with strangulation. But the medical examiner could not determine if strangulation or blunt force caused George's death. The autopsy report did conclude that several of George's injuries could have resulted from "an impact with or being ejected from a motor vehicle." "From the moment Daniel turned himself in to the authorities, he said that the victim Markie George jumped from the truck," Ellis said. "He has taken full responsibility for abducting her and has shown great remorse for that." In its response to Acker's Supreme Court petition, the Texas Attorney General's Office argued the theory that Acker ran over his girlfriend was presented at the trial to jurors. "Acker produces no new evidence showing he did not commit the crime but continues to assert that George's death resulted from her leap from the vehicle -- a theory rejected by the jury at the time of trial," the attorney general's office said. Multiple witnesses testified at Acker's trial that he made several death threats against George in the hours before her death. In a 2017 ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the prosecution's theory of George's death was "largely based on strangulation." But in denying Acker's appeal, the 5th Circuit ruled that all of the evidence, including the updated cause of death, still supports the prosecution's case as it was presented in the indictment and at trial. All 47 passengers and crew survived a plane's crash landing in a Pacific lagoon Friday morning, wading through waist-deep water to the emergency exits and escaping on local boats that came to the rescue in the Micronesia archipelago. Seven people were taken to a hospital, according to officials, including one described as being in a critical but stable condition. Passenger Bill Jaynes said the plane came in very low as it was attempting to land at the Chuuk Island airport. "I thought we landed hard," he said. "Until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in. And I thought, well, this is not the way it's supposed to happen." Jaynes said the flight attendants were panicking and yelling, and that he suffered a minor head injury. He said he called his wife, who started crying. "I was really impressed with the locals who immediately started coming out in boats," he said. "One would think that they might be afraid to approach a plane that's just crashed." The sequence of events remains unclear. Jaynes said the only scenario he can imagine is that the Air Niugini plane hit the end of the runway and continued into the water. However, the airline said the plane landed short of the runway. The striking images of people being rescued from the half-submerged plane were reminiscent of the 2009 crash landing in New York City known as the "Miracle on the Hudson." "It's really fortunate that we didn't have any fatalities," said Glenn Harris, a government aviation security inspector for the Federated States of Micronesia. Harris said the plane left from the Micronesian island of Pohnpei about 700 kilometers (435 miles) to the east before ending up in the water at about 10 a.m. He said he has yet to see a passenger manifest, but typical passengers would include business people from Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia, as well as some tourists. Chuuk is known for its world-class diving, with dozens of WWII shipwrecks visible in the clear waters. Harris said he doesn't know what caused the crash landing or whether the pilots had alerted air traffic control of any problems. He said an investigative team would be on the ground in Chuuk by Saturday to figure out what went wrong. The airline said in a statement that the 35 passengers and 12 crew members aboard the Boeing 737 were all able to safely evacuate. It said the weather was poor at the time, with heavy rain and reduced visibility. The airline said it was making all efforts to ensure the ongoing safety of the passengers and to meet their immediate needs. It said it was in touch with embassies, passenger representatives, stakeholders and families of the crew. Air Niugini is the national airline of Papua New Guinea and has operated since 1973. The airline identified the flight as PX 073 with the registration number P2-PXE. Flight histories show that aircraft has made recent flights to Manila, Sydney and Singapore. Air Niugini's network is concentrated on domestic routes linking the capital, Port Moresby, with isolated points across the Papua New Guinea archipelago, but it flies as far as Tokyo and Hong Kong. The fleet includes Boeing 767 and 737 jets for international routes, according to the airline, as well as Fokker F-100 aircraft, Q400 and Dash 8 aircraft for challenging local terrain. Micronesia, located north of Australia and east of the Philippines, is home to just over 100,000 people. It has close ties with the U.S. under an agreement known as a compact of free association. The crash landing comes less than two months before Papua New Guinea hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, expected to draw world leaders beginning on Nov. 17. In the "Miracle on the Hudson," both engines on a U.S. Airways jet failed after it struck a flock of geese during takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport. Pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles safely landed their powerless plane on the Hudson River and passengers and crew walked on the wings to be rescued. Associated Press writers Penny Wang, Nicole Evatt and Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report. After Republicans ceded their questioning of Christine Blasey Ford to an outside counsel, a visibly angry Sen. Lindsey Graham claimed his time with Brett Kavanaugh and used it to attack his Democratic colleagues for wanting to "destroy this guys life." Shouting from his seat at the front of the room, Graham accused Democrats of prioritizing the upcoming midterm elections, as well as the 2020 presidential election, over a fair proceeding for Kavanaugh, who is accused by Ford of sexually assaulting her when they were teens in the 1980s. "This is the most unethical sham since Ive been in politics," said Graham, his faced reddened. "If you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldnt have done what youve done to this guy!" His outburst seemed to break from the measured tone set by the rest of the Judiciary Committee. As Graham raised his voice and widened his eyes, other senators looked seemingly surprised. Republican Sen. Jeff Flake looked down and Sen. Thom Tillis was wide-eyed. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who was the senator to receive the initial allegation from Ford in July and received backlash for not making the accusation public at the time, looked away. Other Democrats kept their eyes down and some looked directly at Graham. Soon after his moment of fury, the White House praised Graham. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said he "has more decency and courage than every Democrat member of the committee combined. God bless him." "You want this seat; I hope you never get it," Graham said to his colleagues across the aisle. Graham occasionally spoke to Kavanaugh directly, at one point telling him, "Youve got nothing to apologize for." Graham continued: "This is going to destroy the ability of good people to come forward because of this crap. Your high school yearbook. You have interacted with professional women all your life. Not one accusation. You're supposed to be Bill Cosby when you're a junior and senior in high school. And all of a sudden, you got over it. It's been my understanding that if you drug women and rape them for two years in high school, you probably don't stop. Here's my understanding. If you lived a good life, people will recognize it." At the closing of his time, Graham assured Kavanaugh that his mind had not been changed in regards to his vote, which was still planned for Friday. "I wish you well. And I intend to vote for you," Graham said, adding later Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for two North Texas counties Friday after severe weather and flash flooding hit the area last week. Tarrant and Ellis counties are included in the declaration. A third county, Sutton, was also included which is three hours west of Austin. The declaration may allow affected citizens in the three counties gain access state and government resources they need in order to start rebuilding. The storm system that moved across North Texas last Friday dumped record amounts of rain and caused flooding. Floodwaters swept 23-year-old Alan Amaya from a bridge to his death near the University of Texas' campus in Arlington. Photos of Flooding and Heavy Rain September 25, 2018 The Dallas Fire Department said at least 15 people were rescued from the rising waters at about 7 a.m. Saturday, including five Dallas police officers and a motorist. The officers became trapped while trying to rescue the motorist. Up to 45 homes in Everman, south of Fort Worth, were damaged by floodwaters as some residents were forced to scramble onto roofs to escape rising water. Heavy rain Friday night damaged more than 150 homes in Everman where floodwaters overflowing from a nearby creek overwhelmed homes within minutes, forcing some residents to scramble onto rooftops where they were trapped by high water and required rescue from EMS workers. Though not part of the disaster declaration, the city of Plano said last week's torrential rains damaged more than $225,000 in city property, including dozens of orchestra instruments, located in a park in preparation for the city's annual balloon festival. The 58 victims who lost their lives while attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas will be publicly remembered just days before the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting. Through Oct. 19, Clark County and the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center will exhibit portraits created by artists from around the world of the 58 victims killed during the mass shooting, located in the Rotunda Gallery of the Clark County Government Center in downtown Las Vegas. The selected artists for the project chose their subject based on news articles and photos published after the attack. Some of these artists live outside the United States: one from Las Vegas, two from Australia, five from Canada, and one each from Greece, Peru, and South Africa. Some family members collaborated with the artists in the making of the portrait. "Many of them have created quite a bond during this process. Some have become friends. Some even learned they're related, as was the case with our artist from South Africa, Kayla Beukes, and the family of Quinton Robbins," organizer Ellen Abramo said. There's also an "Art of Healing Mural" created by students from Las Vegas Academy of the Arts and the local Guerilla Artz Foundation. Volunteers with the nonprofit Angels of Love, which is based in Orange County, crafted several stained-glass angels. The County Museum's 58 crosses have also been set out on tiered pedestals by the infamous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. Clark County commissioners honored artists Abramo and her cousin Kortney Struempf for organizing the Las Vegas Portraits Project. "Our goal with this project is to help build a bridge of hope and healing through art, and we appreciate Clark County's and the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center's partnership in this effort," Struempf said in a news release. Shortly after the attack, Abramo and Struempf organized the Las Vegas Portraits Project via Facebook, in search of volunteer artists willing to create a portrait of each victim. "Fifty-eight men and women lost their lives on 1 October, and they are more than a number. We want people to remember their faces, and when they do so, remember their friends and families," Abramo told NBC4. The portraits will be gifted to the families and on Oct.4 a special event will be held for the artists and families to meet face to face. Emotional support will be provided at the memorial for those affected by the tragic event. There will be a resource table with trained volunteers and therapists from the American Red Cross. Therapy dogs from the non-profit Las Vegas-based Michael's Angel Paws, will also be present to provide emotional support. The Clark County Government Center is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 500 S. Grand Central Parkway in Las Vegas. Officials encourage anyone who was present the night of the shooting to sign up for the Nevada Victims of Crime Program by the Oct. 1 deadline, which will help pay for expenses that may not be covered by insurance. What to Know Amanda Kay Key, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and her daughter Haley Marie Vilven are missing. Friends and family haven't heard from the two in 11 days. Anyone who has seen either Key or her daughter is asked to call (877) LAPD-24-7. Police were searching for a woman from Oklahoma with bipolar disorder, who along with her 11-year-old daughter were reported missing, possibly near Union Station or El Monte Station. Amanda Kay Key, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and her daughter Haley Marie Vilven were last heard from on Sept. 15. Amanda's father, Steven Jindra, arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday night and pleaded for his daughter or granddaughter to call him, and for the public's help in locating them. "She hasn't contacted any family or friends in 11 days,'' Jindra told NBC4. "We know they like the beach, so if she still had some money left, she may have tried to get to the beach. We just need your help. He told NBC4 Amanda was in California for a job interview and may have been trying to take a bus back to Oklahoma from El Monte station after her car broke down. Jindra will be at El Monte station, 3510 Santa Anita Ave., on Friday handing out flyers of his daughter and granddaughter, NBC4 said. Key is 40, 5-feet-7 inches tall, weighs about 160 pounds and has brown hair and eyes. Haley is 4-feet-10 inches tall and weighs about 100 pounds. Anyone who has seen either Key or her daughter or has information regarding their whereabouts was urged to call the LAPD's Missing Persons Unit at (213) 996-1800. After-hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to (877) LAPD-24-7. Anonymous tips can be submitted through Crime Stoppers by calling (800) 222-TIPS or at lacrimestoppers.com. What to Know A scholarship set up at one Miami-Dade school aims at helping those first generation students looking to go to college. A scholarship set up at one Miami-Dade school aims at helping those first generation students looking to go to college while honoring a former student who reached that potential and more while working as the press secretary for Gov. Rick Scott. Scott was at Miami Beach High School on Thursday to announce the scholarship named after Jeri Bustamante, a graduate of the school who was the first in her family to go to college after moving from Panama. The 33-year-old who worked closely with the Governor died in a boating accident in the Florida Keys this past April, leaving behind her family including her husband, Anthony and her dream of one day working as the press secretary for the White House. Everyone, she met she built them up. There wasnt a mean bone in her body, her widower said during the ceremony. The only way she would achieve her American dream, a little Panamanian girl, would be through an education. She was relentless, relentless. Scott said a student must write an essay on what it means to live the American Dream as well as be a part of the 2019 graduating class at the school. Theres no requirement for GPA or test scores because we want the scholarship to be available or anyone trying to live the American Dream, Scott said while accompanied by his wife, Ann, and Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera. She was a consummate professional and what she did, and she gained the respect of everybody in the governors office, Lopez-Cantera added. The scholarship will pay for four years at any college or university in the state of Florida. What to Know Friday is finally here, South Florida and NBC 6 has the top stories you need to know for the end of the work week. Friday is finally here, South Florida and NBC 6 has the top stories you need to know for the end of the work week. No. 1 Senate committee to vote on recommendation of Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court justice After a heated and emotional day of testimony, the 21 member judiciary committee is expected to approve the judges bid to go forward for a full vote from the United States Senate amid growing controversy stemming from sexual misconduct allegations from multiple women. Already, Floridas two senators have announced their decisions on the matter with Democrat Bill Nelson saying he would vote no while Republican Marco Rubio says he would vote yes. No. 2 Ultra Music Festival will not return to Bayfront Park Turn off the lights and pull the plug on EDM in downtown Miami - for now. City commissioners voted against a new contract to keep the festival at its usual location. Ultra says they're moving forward with a 21st edition in Miami. No. 3 7 kangaroos temporarily moved from South Florida Home Seven kangaroos have been removed temporarily by Florida wildlife officials from a home-based sanctuary where a 5-year-old kangaroo escaped earlier this week. State wildlife officials said Friday that they had found "deficiencies" in the kangaroos' enclosures at a home in Jupiter, Florida. The kangaroos were moved to an undisclosed, licensed facility. Seven kangaroos have been removed temporarily by Florida wildlife officials from a home-based sanctuary where a 5-year-old kangaroo escaped earlier this week. State wildlife officials said Friday that they had found "deficiencies" in the kangaroos' enclosures at a home in Jupiter, Florida. The kangaroos were moved to an undisclosed, licensed facility. No. 4 Miami commissioners vote to condemn Salt Bae after serving Maduro Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday on a resolution condemning the chef, whose real name is Nusret Gokce, for what they say is his "insensitivity to the suffering of the people of Cuba and Venezuela." No. 5 Miami wins ACC opener with blowout victory over North Carolina. Coach Mark Richt making the QB switch against the Tar Heels, picking N'kosi Perry right before the game. The Canes are now 4-1 for the season and sitting in a three-way divisional tie for first place ahead of next week's huge matchup against Florida State. No. 6 National Coffee Day is on Saturday Cinnabon: Free 12 ounce signature hot coffee at participating stores Saturday. Dunkin': Buy one hot coffee, get one hot coffee free Saturday. McDonald's: Any size McCafe brewed coffee for $1 or small McCafe espresso drink for $2. The promotion is underway and an end has not yet been announced. Krispy Kreme: Free cup of coffee on Saturday. The chain has also introduced new flavors: a coffee-glazed doughnut and a glazed doughnut-flavored coffee. Starbucks: Not holding a promotion but instead the company is donating 2 million coffee seeds and a $583,000 grant to help Puerto Rico's coffee industry. No. 7 Marijuana at LAX Travelers can now pack their marijuana along with their vacation essentials as long as it stays within the legal limit in the state of California. Los Angeles International Airport will allow anyone 21 years of age or older to bring up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana, in accordance with Proposition 64, according to the airport's new policy. What to Know The Amber Alert that was activated Thursday for the missing 12-year-old Hudson Falls girl who was last seen in Staten Island was canceled Officials have one person in custody in connection with the disappearance of Malaya Johnson, who vanished from her hometown Wednesday New York State Police said Friday afternoon she had been located safely, though there was no information on her whereabouts The Amber Alert that was activated Thursday for the missing 12-year-old Hudson Falls girl who was last seen in Staten Island was canceled Friday afternoon. The news follows the arrest of a 19-year-old man who was charged with kidnapping in connection to the missing girl. According to the Associated Press, New York State Police said Malaya Johnson, who vanished from her hometown Wednesday, had been in touch with her family and says she's "OK", though there were no further details on her whereabouts. Officials in Hudson Falls said in a Friday morning press conference that authorities have not had any further information as to Johnsons whereabouts since 8:30 p.m. Thursday when she was spotted in Staten Island by the pier. Authorities had issued an Amber Alert for Johnson Thursday afternoon, warning that whoever took her may be heading to New York City. Johnson was seen getting into a red, two-door Ford Mustang in her hometown, they say. The person taken into custody was identified early Friday as 19-year-old George Torres of Staten Island; he was taken to Washington County late Thursday for questioning. According to Washington County authorities he was charged with kidnapping in the second degree and is being held without bail. According to authorities say that they believe Johnson and Torres met online. The Post-Star of Glens Falls reports Johnson used social media to connect with him and that she arranged for Torres to pick her up after school on Wednesday, which is when she was reported missing. "The child is still missing and believed to be in danger," New York State Police tweeted around 10:20 a.m. Friday. Late Thursday, police said they found the red, two-door Ford Mustang with Pennsylvania license plate No. KCG8950 they were searching for in New York City in connection with the Amber Alert, but the exact location was not immediately known. Authorities say that a second person was in the Mustang when they located the vehicle, but there are no plans of identifying that second individual publicly at this point since he has cooperated with police and they are still unsure of his involvement in the case. Authorities say Torres left Johnson at the Staten Island Ferry Thursday; it wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney who could comment. Officials had said Johnson was taken near Oak Street in Hudson Falls around 3 p.m. Wednesday "under circumstances that lead police to believe that she is in imminent danger of serious physical injury and/or death." Johnson is described as being a black girl with long, brown hair and brown eyes who stands at around 5 feet and weighs around 115 pounds. She was last seen wearing light red jeans and a white tank top. What to Know Senate Republicans are plowing forward with a committee vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to Supreme Court after a day of testimony A body believed to be that of a 6-year-old boy with special needs who went missing in North Carolina over the weekend was found, police said Rapper Nelly has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleges he raped her on his tour bus in Seattle then defamed her Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here. GOP Races to First Brett Kavanaugh Vote After Hearing From Accuser Senate Republicans are plowing forward with a committee vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to Supreme Court after an extraordinary and emotional day of testimony where he denied accusations of sexual assault as "unequivocally" false. His accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testified she was "100 percent" certain Kavanaugh attacked her. The remarkable testimony appears to have only sharpened the partisan divide over President Donald Trump's nominee. Republicans praised Ford's bravery in coming forward, but many of them said her account won't affect their support for Kavanaugh. President Trump also made clear that he was sticking by his nominee. "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," he tweeted. "The Senate must vote!" The Senate Judiciary Committee, where the initial vote on Kavanaugh will be held, is narrowly split with an 11-10 Republican majority. Democrats are expected to oppose the nominee. But even if the panel deadlocks on whether to recommend the judge for confirmation, the full Senate could start taking procedural votes Saturday on Kavanaugh, setting up a final vote as soon as Tuesday. Body Believed to Be That of Missing 6-Year-Old Boy Found A body believed to be that of a 6-year-old boy with special needs who went missing in North Carolina over the weekend was found, police said. As NBC News reports, authorities have notified the parents of the boy, Maddox Ritch, and identification of the body will be done by the medical examiner's office, the Gastonia police department said in a statement. Ritch, who has autism and is nonverbal, was last seen by his father and another adult at Rankin Lake Park in Gastonia on Saturday, police have said. The FBI and two dozen agencies worked to locate him in the days that followed. SEC Charges Tesla CEO Elon Musk Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud, according to court documents. Sources close to the company told CNBC the company was also expecting to be sued, though Tesla was not named as a defendant in the complaint. Shares of the automaker fell roughly 11 percent in extended trading. The stock is roughly 30 percent below its 52-week high of $387.46. The SEC complaint alleges that Musk issued "false and misleading" statements and failed to properly notify regulators of material company events. The SEC held a press conference regarding the complaint. Among other remedies, the SEC is seeking to bar Musk from serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company if found guilty. Rapper Nelly Settles With Woman Over Sexual Assault Lawsuit The rapper Nelly has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleges that he raped her on his tour bus in suburban Seattle then defamed her when he claimed she made up the accusation. Settlement terms between Monique Greene and Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Haynes Jr., haven't been disclosed, the Seattle Times reported. A dismissal order filed in King County Superior Court shows both sides agreed to pay their own attorneys' fees and costs. Nelly's lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, said in an email that no money exchanged hands. Greene's lawyer, Karen Koehler, disputes that assertion but said she couldn't comment specifically. Police arrested Nelly on Oct. 7, after Greene reported he had sexually assaulted her on his tour bus in the city of Auburn. 'Real Housewives of Potomac' Star Accused of Sexually Assaulting Cameraman Real Housewives of Potomac star Michael Darby has been charged with sexually assaulting a cameraman, according to court documents. The cameraman said in charging documents they were filming for the show at a home on Pleasant Hill Drive in Potomac, Maryland, on Sept. 1. when Darby "grabbed and groped" his butt. "As I turned around he smiled and gave me a flirtatious look," the cameraman said in the documents. He said he then put his camera down and told Darby to stop before telling his supervisor about the incident. He filed charges three days later. Michael Darby has been charged with one count each of second-degree assault and fourth-degree sexual contact. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 11 years in prison and could have to pay thousands in fines. What to Know Police are looking for a man who attempted to carjack a woman parked on West 17th Street near 7th Avenue in Manhattan Thursday The woman's baby was in the back seat and she leaped to protect the baby when the man tried to open the back door The suspect ran off; the mother and baby were not physically hurt Terrifying surveillance video shows a man throwing open the door of a woman's car parked on a Manhattan street and threatening her at knife point while her baby was in the backseat, police say. The suspect, 32-year-old Gabriel Rodriguez, was arrested Friday, a day after NYPD released the video to the public. The Queens man is facing multiple charges, including attempted robbery, attempted grand larceny, criminal possession of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child and menacing. Attorney information for the man wasn't immediately available. The attempting carjacking happened in broad daylight, around 3:30 p.m., on West 17th Street near Seventh Avenue on Thursday, according to police. The man is seen on video waiting between two parked vehicles, apparently waiting for an opening to target the woman sitting in the driver's seat of a parked SUV. He approaches the car, opens the driver's door and points a large knife at the 39-year-old woman, video shows. The victim described the confrontation to News 4 New York Thursday. "All of a sudden, this guy came and opened the door and said, 'I have a knife,'" the woman told News 4. "And I was like immediately, 'My baby's in the back seat, my baby's in the back seat.' My mother's instinct kicked in, and I tried to get him out of the way and I started screaming, and then he ran away." The woman and her 16-month-old baby were not physically hurt. Police are looking for the suspect, described as being about 25 to 30 years old, 5-feet-8 and 135 pounds, with his hair in a ponytail and last seen wearing a red knit cap, a white and dark colored V-neck shirt, gray pants, white socks and black loafers. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS. What to Know Heavy rain pounded a large swath of the region early Friday, but the storm is expected to move out quickly Rain will begin to push out of the area around noon with clearer skies by the evening The weekend looks to be much brighter with Saturday and Sunday both calling for lots of sunshine and temperatures in the 70s A fast-moving storm walloped the tri-state early Friday, prompting flash flood warnings across the region ahead of the morning commute, but the wet weather was short-lived -- and Storm Team 4 says a gorgeous weekend is ahead. Up to 2 inches of rain were expected by the time the system moved out, and radar showed it moving off the coast of Long Island before 8:30 a.m. Flash flood warnings issued for parts of the city expired before that, though flood warnings remain in effect for some Jersey Shore towns until mid-morning. Get the latest severe weather alerts for your neighborhood here and stay on top of the latest conditions using our interactive radar. The entire day won't be a complete washout. Showers will begin to subside around noon, followed by clouds and then some sunshine by the end of the day. It will stay cool, though, with highs lingering in the high 60s at best. Temperatures improve for the weekend, with highs in the low-to-mid 70s expected both days under sunny skies. Touting the title of best coffee city in America, New York couldn't be a better place to celebrate National Coffee Day. Here are businesses offering discounts for java on Saturday, Sept. 29. Intelligentsia Coffee offers a free cold coffee or tea with purchase of a 16-oz. reusable coffee cup at all their NYC locations. The Coffee Counter at Nickel & Diner is offering guests buy-one, get-one cold-brew soft serve ice-cream. The SoHo standalone coffee bar features some epic coffee creations as well, like a cold brew milkshake with coconut milk ice cream. Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur at The Flower Shop will be offering reduced-price coffee-cocktails at their LES location at 5p.m. on Saturday. Mr Black will be offering $8 Espresso Martinis and $8 "Cold Fashioneds" made with Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur. Birch Coffee entices people to pay what they please at their 10 locations across the city. By offering a pay-as-you-please incentive, Birch hopes customers will foster a stronger appreciation for the people involved in the process of getting coffee from the farm to the cup. Dunkin Donuts will celebrate with buy one hot coffee, get a second one free. Krispy Kreme will offer a complimentary coffee of any size just for walking in. The chain is also celebrating with special coffee-flavored doughnuts available for one week only, and doughnut-flavored coffeea permanent new addition to the menu. Barnes and Noble will offer a free cup of coffee at their three NYC locations. Brueggers is offering a free coffee with any purchase, now through Saturday. Rise cafes in Manhattan are offering BOGO coffee on Saturday, as well as 20 percent off java on their website. Use promo code "NationalCoffeeDay". What to Know Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified Thursday in a high-stakes, emotional hearing on a sex assault claim she made against him The president has stood by Kavanaugh throughout the ordeal, but was shaken by Ford's testimony, those close to the White House say Soon after the end of the hearing, Trump remained firm in his support for Kavanaugh, tweeting that "The Senate must vote!" Glued to high-stakes testimony on his Supreme Court nominee, President Donald Trump and his allies were shaken by Christine Blasey Ford's emotional appearance on Capitol Hill. But they stood by Judge Brett Kavanaugh after his forceful pushback against the woman who accused him of sexual misconduct. Trump missed hardly a moment of the proceedings, relying on DVRs to keep up on the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday from his private office on Air Force One as he traveled from New York to Washington, and continued monitoring back at the White House, where Ford's voice echoed from TVs around the building. Within moments of the eight-hour proceedings concluding, Trump tweeted his approval of Kavanaugh's performance and called on the Senate to move swiftly to a vote. "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting," Trump said. "Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" Ford's tearful recounting of allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school, led Trump to express sympathy for Kavanaugh and his family for having to listen to the testimony, according to two Republicans close to the White House but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations. They added that Trump expressed some frustration at the process and the staff work that led Kavanaugh to this point. After seeing Ford's powerful testimony, White House aides and allies expressed concern that Kavanaugh, whose nomination already seemed to be teetering, would have an uphill climb to deliver a strong enough showing to match hers. White House officials believe Kavanaugh's passionate denials of Ford's claims, including the judge's tearful description of the impact the accusations had on his family, met the challenge. A White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly said the West Wing saw the judge's opening statement as "game changing" and said Trump appeared to be reacting positively. Signaling the continued White House support for Kavanaugh, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted praise for Sen. Lindsay Graham after the South Carolina Republican railed against Democrats, accusing them of treating Kavanaugh "despicably." Sanders tweeted that Graham "has more decency and courage than every Democrat member of the committee combined. God bless him." Trump's son, Donald Jr., also tweeted his review: "I love Kavanaugh's tone. It's nice to see a conservative man fight for his honor and his family against a 35 year old claim with ZERO evidence and lots of holes that amounts to nothing more than a political hit job by the Dems." Going into the hearing, Trump had grown increasingly frustrated, angry at members of his staff and, in particular, White House counsel Don McGahn for not better managing the confirmation process for his second Supreme Court nominee. McGahn, who is set to depart his post in coming weeks, had advocated for Kavanaugh, seeing his confirmation as the crowning achievement of his tenure and part of a decades-long effort to install more conservatives on the high court. Trump has also criticized Republican leaders in Congress for not speeding the process along, leading to days' worth of revelations against Kavanaugh. White House aides have bemoaned the drip-drip-drip nature of the emerging allegations and thought a faster process could have avoided Ford's testimony. As the day unfolded, White House aides and allies offered a mix of optimism and frustration. Viewing the hearing from their desks, some aides expressed concerns that Ford appeared highly credible, though others noted there were still gaps in her decades-old story. How the proceedings were playing out on television was a key anxiety. Some White House officials were not pleased with the questioning from Phoenix prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, saying she did not effectively target the weak spots in Ford's narrative and worrying that the Democrats had seized the moment. But many felt the proceeding took a turn once Kavanaugh appeared. Aides said they thought Kavanaugh was effectively fighting back and expressed optimism he could survive the process. Trump has also told allies that he wished Kavanaugh's Fox News interview Monday had gone better, believing it was a missed opportunity to change the momentum around the story, according to the two Republicans and another outside adviser. And White House allies noted the importance of how Fox would cover the proceedings in shaping Trump's reactions. Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report. What to Know A New York Times report last week said Rod Rosenstein had discussed possibly recording the president to expose chaos in the White House The Justice Department issued statements from Rosenstein meant to deny the report, and another indicated it was a sarcastic comment The deputy attorney general agreed to speak privately with lawmakers following the report Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has agreed to speak privately with lawmakers following reports that he had discussed secretly recording President Donald Trump. A person familiar with the situation said Rosenstein agreed to the meeting during a call Thursday evening with the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. GOP Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, tweeted Friday that Republican leaders agreed to ask Rosenstein for a private meeting and said lawmakers would subpoena Rosenstein if he refused to answer questions. He said the goal of the questioning was to make Rosenstein "explain his alleged comments on 'wiring' POTUS--as well as other inconsistent statements." But the person familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Rosenstein had agreed to a meeting in upcoming weeks even before that tweet. The person said the conversation with lawmakers was not described to Rosenstein as a hearing or an interview. Rosenstein is also to meet next week with Trump. Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in his own tweet that House Republicans "cannot be left alone in a room with DAG Rosenstein" and that he would demand that House Speaker Paul Ryan grant Democrats access to that meeting. He called the meeting with Rosenstein part of a Republican effort to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel and oversees that investigation. Rosenstein's job as the Justice Department's No. 2 official had appeared imperiled since a New York Times report last week that said he had discussed possibly recording the president to expose chaos in the White House and invoking constitutional procedures to have the Cabinet remove Trump from office. The Justice Department issued statements from Rosenstein meant to deny the report, and released a statement from someone who recalled the recording comment but said it was meant sarcastically. Rosenstein headed to the White House on Monday with the expectation that he would be fired. Instead, the White House said he would meet on Thursday with Trump. That meeting was postponed until sometime next week after the White House said Trump wanted to focus on a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and a woman who accuses him of sexually assaulting him when they were teenagers. What to Know A DOJ investigation criticizes how Philly handled nearly a third of a $50 million grant for security during the July 2016 DNC The report said the city did not perform adequate oversight for spending by police agencies, host committee's expenditures or fire dept OT. City spokesman Mike Dunn said there was no implication of fraud, waste or abuse. A U.S. Department of Justice investigation released Thursday criticized how Philadelphia handled nearly a third of a $50 million grant for security during the July 2016 Democratic National Convention. The agency's inspector general issued a report that said the city did not perform adequate oversight for spending by police agencies, the host committee's expenditures or fire department overtime. It also found that Philadelphia did not do enough to ensure accountability over spending and failed to comply with federal rules for requesting funds and reporting how the money is doled out. "We found significant deficiencies in Philadelphia's management of the grant funds, and overall, we identified over $14 million in unallowable or unsupported expenditures," Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said. Philadelphia spokesman Mike Dunn said the city should have done better and is making changes but added there was no implication of fraud, waste or abuse. "We acknowledge that there was room for improvement in how the grant was administered that we learned from those mistakes and we've implemented procedures to make sure those issues are addressed," Dunn said. The inspector general's office said it found "significant deficiencies" involving about $14.9 million of the federal grant. A parallel review of Justice Department security grant spending at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland found it generally complied with federal rules, the one exception involving record keeping about $3.2 million worth of vehicles purchased with the money. The Philadelphia report said overtime paid for the city's fire department was not based on actual costs, but instead used a "weighed average," making it difficult to assess whether some payments were valid. Auditors also found about $9,000 in duplicate costs. "We found instances where PFD submitted overtime requests for reimbursement on days they were scheduled to work regular hours, and instances where duplicate overtime was included in PFD's reimbursement worksheet," the report said. Dunn said the weighted average method was required "to compensate for the reporting limitations of the city's legacy payroll system, which did not allow for distinguishing between overtime specific to DNC versus overtime for other reasons." The inspector general said the city did not have valid agreements with outside police agencies serving as mutual aid partners, and classified about $7.6 million as unsupported payments. "We found mutual-aid partners submitted a range of items for reimbursement, including law enforcement officer overtime, fringe benefits, travel time, bus rental, equipment purchases, meals and lodging, despite Philadelphia's memorandum only identifying reimbursement for personnel," the report said. Dunn said the city used "long-standing and proven" procedures for regional emergencies and major events. The city also challenged how the report characterized the relationship between the convention host committee and the Democratic National Convention Committee, which the inspector general said may have created the appearance of improper political influence on how contracts were awarded. Justice Department grants may not be used to "establish, administer, contribute to or pay for the expenses" of political parties or any group set up to influence elections. "Some coordination between the city, host committee and the DNCC is necessary in order to host a national political convention," Dunn said. "We look forward to working with the DOJ on these issues." The city has drawn down $41 million of the total grant. Its related spending was $46 million, so it has yet to collect the final $5 million, Dunn said. The city does not expect it will have to repay money to the Justice Department, he said. What to Know Sex assault suspect David Hamilton Jr. led police and U.S. Marshals on a multistate, weeklong manhunt. Marshals captured Hamilton in Aston, Pennsylvania, Friday morning. Hamilton is wanted on a warrant out of Lower Southampton Township for allegedly carrying out multiple sexual offenses against children. A more than weeklong, three-state manhunt for a dangerous child rape suspect ended Friday with his capture in the Philadelphia suburbs. U.S. Marshals captured David Hamilton Jr. around 10:15 a.m. after receiving a tip that Hamilton was in a home on Roberts Road in Aston, Delaware County, marshals said. Marshals and Aston police found Hamilton hiding in a second-floor bedroom closet of the home that belongs to a family member and arrested him without incident. Hamilton was alone in the house, Aston police said. "This sexual predator placed the community in significant danger," Marshals Supervisory Deputy Robert Clark said. "We are extremely glad we were able to bring Mr. Hamilton in custody without incident and in a timely manner." Lower Southampton Police picked up Hamilton in Aston Friday afternoon. As Hamilton was walked to a waiting police car, he said he "would never" sexually assault children and said he ran because he feels that suspects are presumed guilty until proven innocent in many of today's cases. "I hope there is a good lawyer out there who could help me," Hamilton said. As David Hamilton Jr. was transferred to a waiting police vehicle in Aston, Delaware County, to face child sex assault charges in Bucks County, he denied raping any children and asked for an attorney to come to his defense. The 47-year-old had led police and U.S. Marshals on a weeklong manhunt from the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area to Bear, Delaware, to Aston, after initially trying to arrest him after child rape charges were filed on Sept. 19. Along the way, Hamilton assaulted a New Hope police officer, stole a car and was spotted in the woods, police said. Some schools in the Aston area were briefly put on lockdown Friday morning out of caution as police took Hamilton into custody, the Penn-Delco School District said. Sun Valley High School and Northley Middle School were dismissed early as planned midday Friday. A $1,000 reward was offered for information leading to Hamilton's arrest. It was unclear if someone could claim that reward. Hamilton is wanted on a warrant out of Lower Southampton Township for allegedly carrying out multiple sexual offenses against kids, police said. Police found Hamilton's 2016 Toyota Corolla in Morrisville and he was spotted riding a bike across the Calhoun Street bridge into Trenton, New Jersey, last Friday morning. Then, last Friday afternoon, a hunter saw Hamilton walking through the woods in the New Hope area. Officers responded and attempted to capture him, but police say he attacked a New Hope officer and tried to steal his gun. Hamilton was able to get away. Police set up a 40-acre search area on the ground and New Jersey State Police scrambled a helicopter to assist from the air but Hamilton remained on the run for another week, allegedly getting help along the way. A woman, Meredith Custodio, is accused of hindering the apprehension of Hamilton by hiding him in a New Hope home where she worked as the caretaker for an elderly woman, Solebury Township and Lower Southampton police and U.S. Marshals announced Wednesday. Custodio, who hails from Philadelphia, was arraigned Wednesday and sent to county jail unable to post 10 percent of $150,000 bail. It is unclear if she has an attorney who could comment on her behalf. She is charged with hindering apprehension and theft by unlawful taking. Days after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced globalism before world leaders at the United Nations, China and Russia positioned themselves Friday as defenders of internationalism that are keeping promises when Washington is backing away from them. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denied his country was trying to eclipse the U.S. as a world leader, but his speech at the U.N. General Assembly was a stark contrast to Trump's "America First" message. It came amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China, which Trump accused this week of interfering in the upcoming U.S. midterm election. China denies the claim. Russia is also facing U.S. accusations of election meddling, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced the claims as "baseless." He lashed out at U.S. policies in Iran, Syria and Venezuela, while vigorously defending multilateral organizations such as the U.N. and warning against unilateral moves by the U.S. or other countries. "We see the desire of several Western states to retain their self-proclaimed status as world leaders and to slow down the irreversible, objective process of establishing multipolarity," or multiple centers of power, Lavrov said. "These powers do not hesitate to use any methods, including political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force." China often portrays itself as an advocate for "win-win" international cooperation, and Wang was hardly the only leader to defend the concept of multilateralism at this week's U.N. gathering of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other leaders. But coming in the wake of Trump's proclamation that Americans "reject the ideology of globalism," Wang's speech sounded a note of rebuttal from a competing power. "Should we seek to uphold the architecture of the world order or allow it to be eroded upon and collapse?" Wang asked. "China's answer is clear-cut. ... China will keep to its commitment and remain a champion of multilateralism." In a week when Washington raised tariffs on Chinese products and Beijing responded in kind, Wang insisted that "China will not be blackmailed or yield to pressure" and warned that "protectionism will only hurt oneself, and unilateral moves will bring damage to all." "State-to-state relations must be based on credibility, not on willful revocation of commitments," he said. Wang highlighted China's massive economy as a major contributor to global growth. He described his country's trade policies as defending not just its own interests but the system of global economic exchange. Most other nations challenge China's assertions that it's a defender of free trade. And gesturing at China's influence in one of the international community's most pressing issues, he encouraged North Korea which counts China as its traditional ally and main trading partner to keep going in "the right direction toward denuclearization." At the same time, he said the U.S. should "make timely and positive responses so as to truly meet the DPRK halfway" in their ongoing efforts to reach a deal that would bring an end to the nuclear ambitions of the nation formally called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. China says it has been instrumental in reducing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Still, "China will not challenge the United States still less will China take the place of the United States," Wang said earlier in the day at the Council on Foreign Relations. China has been asserting itself on the world stage under President Xi Jinping, though it continually stands by a foreign policy of noninterference in the affairs of other countries. It has long used that policy to rebuke other countries that criticize its record on human rights. The country has come under increased criticism as its global profile has risen and its economic interests and accompanying political clout have spread from Asia to Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Besides China's clash with the Trump administration, some Africans have protested what they say is an attempted Chinese takeover of their countries. The U.S. and China are locked in a dispute over Beijing's high-tech industrial policies. The Trump administration alleges that China steals U.S. trade secrets and forces American companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market. China has accused the Trump administration of bullying. The U.S. has imposed tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese products. China has counterpunched with taxes on $110 billion in U.S. imports. The latest round of hikes came Monday. Two days later, Trump stunned other members of the Security Council by saying that China was meddling in the midterm elections because it opposes his tough trade policies. When questioned by reporters, Trump said there was "plenty" of evidence but didn't immediately provide details. Instead, he zeroed in on China's efforts to flood the U.S. with ads and statements against Trump's billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods. Beijing was quick to respond, urging Washington to stop slandering China and claiming that the Chinese government does not interfere in other countries' internal affairs. Wang didn't address the election-meddling claim Friday. Lavrov, meanwhile, held a flurry of individual meetings with other countries at the U.N. this week and vociferously defended Russia's strategies in meetings at the Security Council. Syria has been a running theme as Moscow seeks to manage the end of the civil war and ensure a long-term foothold in the region. As a longtime ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russia wants Western aid for financing postwar reconstruction while also maintaining its upper hand in discussions about the country's political future. Lavrov promised wide-ranging Russian aid in a meeting with embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who faces international condemnation, increasing U.S. sanctions and fears of a possible U.S. intervention. Seeking to maintain leverage in discussions on North Korea's denuclearization efforts, Lavrov met with North Korea's foreign minister the same day that Ri Yong Ho met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Lavrov also offered support to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas right after Abbas slammed the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Friday's speakers at the General Assembly included Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who returned to politics this year after having retired in 2003. The 93-year-old Mahathir noted that in his last speech at the forum shortly before his retirement, "I lamented how the world had lost its way." And it hasn't been found, he said. "If at all, the world is far worse than 15 years ago." ___ Associated Press writers Angela Charlton, Matthew Pennington and Edith M. Lederer contributed. What to Know Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh wrongly claimed that he was legally allowed to drink beer as a senior in high school in Maryland Kavanaugh was 17 the year the drinking age turned to 21; he would have not made it under a grandfather clause for people 18, 19 or 20 Kavanaugh could legally drink in nearby Washington D.C. for the final five months of high school Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has readily acknowledged that he often drank beer during his prep school days and made a point in his congressional testimony that seniors could buy beer legally in Maryland at the age of 18. But Kavanaugh was never a legal drinker in that state when he was a high schooler he was still 17 when that state's drinking age was increased to 21 on July 1, 1982. Anyone who turned 18 after that date, including Kavanaugh's classmates, also would have been unable to drink legally in the state. The law was different in the District of Columbia. There, until 1986, 18-year-olds could legally buy and consume beer. That means Kavanaugh was legal there for only the final four months of his senior year at Georgetown Prep, following his Feb. 12, 1983 birthday. Kavanaugh's drinking has come under intense scrutiny after California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that a heavily intoxicated Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were both teenagers at a Maryland house party during the summer of 1982. On Friday, the White House argued that any claim Kavanaugh had said he was legally allowed to consume beer during high school is inaccurate and that he "never suggested that all of his high school drinking was of legal age," said White House spokesman Raj Shah. He said Kavanaugh's testimony about drinking and the drinking age was "for context" of how Maryland high schoolers obtained beer. The 18-year-old limit "allowed friends to legally purchase beer, and for him to drink at high school parties," Shah added. When he was pressed Thursday at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing about his drinking habits in high school, Kavanaugh explained: "My friends and I, boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer. I liked beer. I still like beer... The drinking age as I noted, was 18, so the seniors were legal. Senior year in high school, people were legal to drink." In a Fox News interview on Monday, Kavanaugh said, "Yes, there were parties. And the drinking age was 18. And yes, the seniors were legal." With the law change in Maryland, where the students lived and where the offending house party presumably would have occurred, no one in Kavanaugh's class was of legal age unless they were 21. In his testimony, Kavanaugh, who has denied all of Ford's accusations, stated correctly that the drinking age had been 18 in Maryland for "most" of his time in high school. But in fact, that never applied to him. While he admitted in his congressional testimony that there were probably occasions during his time at Georgetown Prep that he had consumed "too many beers," a combative Kavanaugh denied he had ever gotten out of control or acted inappropriately toward women. "I liked beer," he said. "But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone." There was a grandfather clause in the Maryland law, but only for those who were 18, 19 or 20 on the day the increase went into effect, thereby not including Kavanaugh. Alcoholic consumption by Kavanaugh also would have been illegal during notorious Beach Week, an annual trip to the Eastern Shore that involved heavy drinking, according to numerous eyewitness accounts. The rapper Nelly has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleges that he raped her on his tour bus in suburban Seattle then defamed her when he claimed she made up the accusation. Settlement terms between Monique Greene and Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Haynes Jr., haven't been disclosed, the Seattle Times reported. A dismissal order filed Monday in King County Superior Court shows both sides agreed to pay their own attorneys' fees and costs. Nelly's lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, said in an email that no money exchanged hands. Greene's lawyer, Karen Koehler, disputes that assertion but said she couldn't comment specifically. Asked by the newspaper if Greene still stands behind the allegations detailed in the lawsuit, Koehler said: "100 percent." Police arrested Nelly on Oct. 7, after Greene reported he had sexually assaulted her on his tour bus in the city of Auburn. An Auburn police investigation found probable cause of an assault, but prosecutors decided against charging the rapper, citing a lack of cooperation by his accuser. Rosenblum said the accusations were fabricated. Afterward, Nelly's attorney issued several public statements contending the then-unidentified woman had made up her claims. Greene, then a 22-year-old student at the University of Washington, sued Nelly in December. He responded by countersuing Greene for defamation, contending their sexual encounter was consensual. His claims also were dropped under the dismissal agreement. The Associated Press generally doesn't name people who say they are victims of sex crimes, but Koehler said Greene agreed to be publicly identified. Editor's Note (Oct. 8, 2018 at 9:15 p.m.): The charges against Michael Darby were dropped Oct. 4. Read the latest here. "Real Housewives of Potomac" star Michael Darby has been charged with sexually assaulting a cameraman, according to court documents. The cameraman said in charging documents they were filming for the show at a home on Pleasant Hill Drive in Potomac, Maryland, on Sept. 1. when Darby "grabbed and groped" his butt. "As I turned around he smiled and gave me a flirtatious look," the cameraman said in the documents. He said he then put his camera down and told Darby to stop before telling his supervisor about the incident. He filed charges three days later. Darby, 59, is married to Ashley Darby, a cast member of the show that is filmed throughout the D.C. area. The pair own Oz, an Australian restaurant in Arlington, Virginia's Clarendon neighborhood. Michael Darby has been charged with one count each of second-degree assault and fourth-degree sexual contact. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 11 years in prison and could have to pay thousands in fines. Court records also show the cameraman filed for a restraining order against Michael Darby citing the Sept. 1 incident and another alleged assault that happened in August at the L2 Lounge in Georgetown. He said in the documents that Darby kicked him in his buttocks while he was filming. The restraining order was denied. This isnt the first time Darby has allegedly engaged in such behavior. During an episode of Season 1, castmate Gizelle Bryant raised her concerns about Michael's sexuality to Ashley Darby after seeing him "squeezing" another housewife's boyfriend's butt. Ashley Darby defended her husband and called the incident a "joke." In an interview with Bravo.com after the episode aired, Michael Darby responded to the accusation, saying at the time that he "playfully touched Andrew's butt," and Andrew Martin wasn't offended. "He responded as expected with a laugh and we continued to dance with our lovely ladies," Darby added. Google CEO Sundar Pichai went to Washington Friday to discuss concerns about the company's business practices with members of Congress and emerged with an invitation to meet with President Donald Trump during an upcoming roundtable. Larry Kudlow, the head of the National Economic Council, extended the invitation while meeting with Pichai and the offer was accepted, according to the White House. Other "internet stakeholders" will be invited to the same roundtable with Trump, the White House said, with other details, including the date, still to come. Google didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump has recently accused Google of rigging the results of its influential search engine to suppress conservative viewpoints and highlight coverage from media that he says distribute "fake news." Google has denied any political bias. The White House said Kudlow discussed the internet and the economy with Pichai on Friday, and described the talks as "positive and productive." Pichai made the rounds in Washington just a few weeks after he and his boss, Google co-founder Larry Page, irked lawmakers by skipping a public hearing. There was plenty to talk about, based on recent remarks by both lawmakers and Trump. That includes recent reports that Google is poised to re-enter China with a search engine generating censored results to comply with the demands of that country's Communist government. Also potential new regulations that would define how much personal information that internet companies can collect about people using their services. Both Trump and some U.S. lawmakers have been raising the possibility of asking government regulators to investigate whether Google has abused its power to thwart competition through its dominant search engine and other widely used services, which include Gmail, YouTube, the Chrome web browser and its Android software that runs most of the world's smartphones. Pichai's meeting with about two dozen Republican lawmakers was held in the Capitol office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who represents a district in Google's home state of California. "We held a very productive meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai to discuss concerns regarding Google's business practices," said Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia. He said Pichai will be invited to attend a public hearing that the House Judiciary Committee plans to hold in November, after the midterm elections. Before the meeting with Republican lawmakers, Pichai also indicated he planned to meet with Democrats. "These meetings will continue Google's long history of engaging with Congress, including testifying seven times to Congress this year," he said. Google and its corporate parent, Alphabet, also may have been trying to mend some political fences after Pichai and Page now Alphabet's CEO snubbed Congress a few weeks ago. Neither of them appeared at a high-profile hearing looking into what Twitter, Facebook and Google have been doing to prevent Russia and other foreign governments from using their services to sow discord among U.S. voters in an attempt to sway elections. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified at the hearing, as did Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, but Google was only willing to send its general counsel. That didn't satisfy lawmakers, who left a vacant chair that they hoped either Pichai or Page would occupy. The no-show prompted Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to call Google "arrogant." Democrats came full-throated to Friday's Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Judge Brett Kavanaugh and furiously pleaded their cases for why the nominee should not be confirmed to the Supreme Court without more investigation into sexual misconduct allegations, with some even walking out of the meeting in protest. The meeting followed a long and emotional day of testimony from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused the judge of sexually assaulting her when they were teens. On Thursday, the events turned partisan as the day dragged on, with Kavanaugh and Senate Republicans claiming in fiery statements that Democrats used Ford and her experience as political pawns. Kavanaugh called his confirmation process a "national disgrace" and Sen. Lindsey Graham deemed it "the most unethical sham." Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified in front of the Senate Judicial Committee about allegations that Ford was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh in high school. Here are some of the key moments during the hearing. After remaining relatively measured through their questioning of Ford and Kavanaugh, Democrats displayed their outrage right off the bat on Friday. As soon as the committee opened, Democrats offered a motion to subpoena Mark Judge, the high school friend of Kavanaugh who Ford said was the sole witness to the alleged assault. Judge has said he does not recall the incident, and the motion offered by Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut was quickly blocked by Republicans in a vote. Blumenthal and three other Democrats, Kamala Harris of California, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, then stood from their seats on the dais and walked out of the hearing room. "Its bad enough that we sent one person to the Supreme Court with this kind of cloud. We should not be sending both," Hirono told reporters outside the hearing room, referencing the confirmation of Justice Clearance Thomas after Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment. Harris said Republicans were "ramming" Kavanaugh's confirmation through, telling reporters, "There should not be a tyranny of the majority." "This has been about raw power," Harris added. "You're seeing that in display in this hearing this morning. Youve been seeing it from the process in the beginning." Sen. Corey Booker, of New Jersey, followed suit, leaving the meeting after delivering an impassioned speech to committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley. Booker said that this is a moral moment in our nation. We do not have to have this vote today, he told Grassley, adding, I cannot stomach that are going to move forward. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., spoke about his experience in the Judiciary Committee and how he thinks the country sees this moment not as a partisan moment but a time to discuss sexual assault. Harris and Booker both refused to vote on Grassley's preferred 1:30 p.m. time for Friday's vote on advancing Kavanaugh out of the committee. "They're refusing to vote because this is so unfair," Hirono yelled before she and the three others walked out in protest. Some Democrats who remained in the room repeated calls for another FBI background investigation into Fords claims, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota. She argued that a federal probe could obtain necessary information and statements from the people alleged to be involved in or related to the incident. She claimed its not the same thing to rely on a letter from Judges lawyers denying the events described by Ford, which Republicans have used to chip away at Fords credibility. Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asks Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee why there is a rush to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court without a reopened FBI background investigation. Whitehouse returned to the room to rebuke his committee colleagues for not supporting another investigation. He drew renewed attention to Kavanaughs calendars that the judge had submitted to help support his claim that the gathering Ford described didnt happen. Whitehouse argued that an entry written by Kavanaugh on July 1, 1982, indicated there had been a gathering of the same people Ford had alleged were present at the party and that they were getting together for beers. This may, may be powerful corroborating evidence that the assault happened, that it happened that day, and that it happened in that place, but with no FBI investigation, we cant tell, Whitehouse said. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., zeroed in on the July 1, 1982, entry of Brett Kavanaugh's calendar to illustrate that a deeper FBI Investigation might be able to corroborate Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's allegation. Rachel Mitchell, the special prosecutor hired by the Republicans to question Ford and Kavanaugh, questioned the judge briefly on the July 1 calendar date. After this line of questioning from Mitchell, the rest of the Republican senators claimed their time with Kavanaugh and Mitchell did not question Kavanaugh further. Though expressing sympathy for Ford and belief that something happened to her, Republicans held their ground in their support for Kavanaugh. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana called the confirmation process "an intergalactic freak show" and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said it is an example of "Washington D.C. at it's very ugliest." "Judge Kavanaugh, he too has been dragged through the mud for the last two weeks in a way that has no precedent," Cruz added. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, says the politics of personal destruction against Judge Kavanaugh is D.C. at "its very ugliest." Graham, whose visible anger and shouted attacks on Thursday seemed to surprise his fellow senators, called the allegations against Kavanaugh "a bunch of garbage." "We are in the Twilight Zone," he said, echoing a phrase used by Kavanaugh in denying one of the accusations against him. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says there needs to be a better process for addressing sexual assault allegations like those brought forward by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford against Judge Brett Kavanaugh. However, Democrats did manage to get one key committee Republican on their side by the end of the meeting. In a dramatic turn after speaking with friend Sen. Chris Coons and several other Democrats, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake suggested that the full Senate vote be delayed while the FBI investigates Ford's claims. Only Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer can approve a delayed vote; the committee then decided 11-10 to proceed to a full Senate vote. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Friday called for a one-week delay of a full Senate vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, to allow time for an FBI investigation of accusations against Kavanaugh. Coons had said that women have reached out to him to share their own stories of sexual assault and that "speaks to what a public service is being done here." After Flake called for a federal probe, Coons praised his close friend and said they share a deep concern about the health of the nation and closing the growing divide in the country together. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont defended his partys approach and handling of Kavanaughs confirmation proceedings, saying Democrats arent trying to delay the nomination ahead of the midterms but that they are doing our job. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that victims of sexual assault will be negatively affected if Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified that she was assaulted by Kavanaugh in high school. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The pressure is turning up on Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is still undecided on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court. More than 200 protesters gathered outside Collins' office in Portland, Maine, ahead of Friday's Senate Judiciary Committee vote. The protesters, mainly women, were there to urge Collins to vote no on Kavanaugh. "Women are powerful and we want to be heard," said Theresa Foley. She said watching Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testify about an alleged sexual assault at the hands of Kavanaugh moved her to tears, and inspired her to tell her husband about an assault she suffered decades ago. "Women have had enough," she said. Collins and fellow Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, two Republicans who have been willing to buck party leaders before, have not yet said whether they will vote to confirm Kavanaugh in the final Senate vote. With Republicans needing 50 votes to confirm Kavanaugh, Collins and Murkowski are said to be key votes. Inside Collins' office, women staging a sit-in talked about sexual assault and abusers while Collins' staff took notes. One woman was so emotional that she went out in the hallway and began sobbing. Demonstrators packed into the office took turns speaking to Collins' staffers about their concerns over Kavanaugh. "One of the main factors for Sen. Collins is her own historical legacy," said University of Southern Maine political science professor Ron Schmidt. He said this may be the most political pressure she has ever faced, and while she may surprise him, he doesn't think Collins will stand in the way of Kavanaugh's confirmation. "I'm not familiar with a time where she has cast a vote that has cost the GOP something that other votes haven't already been cast upon," he said. "She has an opportunity. I'm not sure how she's going to use it." Outside, protester Theresa Foley fired up the crowd, speaking out against those who say women who were sexually assaulted years ago should have come forward then and not waited, referring to how Ford came forward decades later. "These poor young girls that are still fighting this stuff. Women have to push and pull and push women up, not take them down," Foley said. Some Mainers were so determined to reach Collins, they took a bus trip overnight to Washington and demanded a meeting with her. Organizer Diane Russell said a handful of them met with Collins and voiced their concerns. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 Friday afternoon to report Kavanaugh's nomination favorably out of committee, moments after Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake called for a one-week delay for the FBI to continue investigating sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh. Collins tweeted Friday afternoon that she supported a "sensible agreement" to request the FBI conduct a supplemental investigation into "credible allegations" against Kavanaugh. Flake, who has been mentioned as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, is scheduled to give a speech on Monday night at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. Also on Monday, Flake and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are scheduled take part in a panel discussion at Emerson College in Boston. The school is seeking to cancel that event for "safety reasons." Former Massachusetts state Sen. Brian Joyce was found dead in his home on Thursday. The Bristol District Attorney's Office issued a statement saying that Joyce's wife found him dead in their home in Westport early Thursday afternoon. Foul play is not suspected. The investigation is ongoing and an autopsy will be conducted in the coming days, the district attorney's office said. Joyce, 56, was awaiting trial on federal corruption charges. He was arrested in December of 2017 and charged with using his office for personal profit by accepting up to $1 million in bribes and kickbacks and hiding the money in a shell company and disguising it as "legal fees." He faced up to 20 years in prison and up to $2 million in fines if convicted. He was accused of participating in a number of complex schemes dating back to 2010 that netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars, and concealing the payments by using his law office as a "money laundering conduit." Joyce, who had served as assistant majority leader, said shortly after the investigation was announced that he would not seek re-election. He had represented his district since 1998. Prosecutors accused Joyce of running his public office as a "criminal enterprise." They said he lied to the state's ethics commission and used the panel as a "cloak of legitimacy for his corrupt schemes." In one case, prosecutors alleged Joyce used his position to exert influence on behalf of a New York-based energy brokerage business and formed a shell company to collect secret kickbacks from the firm. In another scheme, prosecutors say Joyce pressured a local planning board to approve a waiver sought by a developer, who gave Joyce a Jeep from one of the developer's car dealerships. The indictment also accused Joyce of taking legislative action to aid a coffee franchise whose owner was paying him tens of thousands of dollars for "purported legal fees" and providing him with hundreds of pounds of free coffee. Authorities are investigating the death of a man in Boston police custody earlier this month. The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office confirmed Thursday night that John Campbell, a 45-year-old Revere man, was found unresponsive in his cell on Sept. 7. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Boston police said Campbell had been arrested the previous day on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. The case allegedly involved a knife. According to the DA's office, an investigation by the medical examiner found no signs of physical trauma. The cause of death is not known, but toxicology screenings are underway. No further information was immediately available. A Massachusetts woman has been indicted by a grand jury for allegedly sex trafficking a minor at the group home where she worked. Ashley Goodrich, 27, of Lynn, was indicted Thursday on multiple charges, including four counts of trafficking a minor for sexual servitude and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Attorney General Maura Healey announced Friday. She is expected to be arraigned at a later date in Suffolk and Worcester counties; it's unclear if she has an attorney. Goodrich is accused of posting online ads offering sex for money, and then driving a minor to sexual encounters in Boston and Worcester. She allegedly coordinated the appointments when the unidentified victim had run away from the group home. NBC10 Boston exclusively reported in May that the Saugus group home where Goodrich used to work at abruptly shut down after state and federal investigators were at the scene. The group home, which was operated by Eliot Community Human Services, has not reopened since being shut down. What to Know A $100 million study approved to review health effects of PFOA on military bases did not include firefighters in its scope. The chemical is no longer manufactured in the United States and new water-resistant chemicals are in new gear. The senators say they want to look at other countries and what theyre now using in their firefighter turnout gear. Two New England senators are calling for at least some firefighter protective turnout gear to be replaced because of potentially carcinogenic chemicals. The NBC10 Boston Investigators reported Monday that the chemical, PFOA, has been linked in some studies to certain kinds of cancer. We need to make sure any equipment that is contaminated that cant be cleaned up is replaced, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said. Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire agreed. We should look at whether there are other countries, other locations that use firefighter protective gear that doesnt have these chemicals and we should work as quickly as possible to replace that gear, she said. Hassan is a member of a committee in the U.S. Senate that held the first-ever hearing on PFAS, a group of chemicals that includes PFOA that potentially causes cancer and is used as a water repellent in firefighters turnout gear and in firefighting foam. The hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committees Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management, on which Hassan sits, highlighted the urgency of addressing PFAS in drinking water contaminated from use of the foam around military bases. A $100 million study approved to review health effects of PFOA on military bases did not include firefighters in its scope. We are hearing a lot of concerns from firefighters whose protective gear contains PFAS, Hassan said. She asked Maureen Sullivan, deputy assistant secretary of defense for environment, whether the Department of Defense is researching the chemicals impact on firefighters. I am not aware of any research of the gear itself, Sullivan said. Hassan urged the Department of Defense to keep digging and including firefighters. Here we have people putting their lives on the line, first responders as firefighters, people in active service for us, and a great irony here is the protective gear may, in fact, become the long-term devastating health consequences, Hassan said. The chemical is no longer manufactured in the United States and new water-resistant chemicals are in new gear. Although major US manufacturers have assured IAFF the PFOA is no longer persistent in the turnout gear, to protect the firefighter's health we support discontinuing the use of legacy foams and turnout gear containing PFOA, according to testimony by Lt. Timothy Putnam of the International Association of Fire Fighters. Putnam testified the firefighter association supports yearly physicals to determine levels of the chemical in firefighters bloodstream. According to the centers for disease control, some studies have found workers producing the chemical PFAS have an increased risk in some diseases including cancer. Other studies found no correlation. Putnam testified Europe and Australia use firefighting foam with new different chemicals. The senators say they want to look at other countries and what theyre now using in their firefighter turnout gear. Selectmen in Billerica, Massachusetts, have issued two-day suspensions to half of the liquor stores in town after police said they were found selling to minors. "Alcohol and minors just don't mix. It's something we take very seriously," Selectman Ed Giroux said. Billerica Deputy Police Chief Roy Frost said they are used to seeing one or two violations during compliance checks, but not six. "We send in an undercover person under the age of 21 who goes in there and attempts to purchase alcohol. There's no attempt to fool anybody," Frost explained. "There is nobody telling anybody they are older than they are. There is no identification thats shown that's fake or otherwise. So it's just to see they are being asked for their ID." Frost said employees did not ask the undercover teens for identification before selling them six packs of Bud Light on Aug. 2. "As far as trying to say it was an accident and it never happens to me... well unfortunately it did," Giroux said. As a result of the compliance checks, five of the town's 12 liquor stores were issued 5-day suspensions, with three days held in abeyance for a year. A sixth store received an 8-day suspension because it had already received a previous liquor license violation within the past seven years. It will serve four days, with four held in abeyance. The suspensions were scheduled as follows: Lincoln Liquors, 480 Boston Rd., Oct. 8 and 16 Jim's Quick Stop, 502A Boston Rd., Oct. 9 and Oct. 15 Turnpike Market, 509 Middlesex Turnpike, Oct. 1, 9, 15 and 23 Billerica Liquors, 25 Boston Rd., Oct. 22 and 30 Georgios Liquors, 480 Boston Rd., Oct. 8 and 16 129 Liquors, 252 Salem Rd., Nov. 5 and Nov. 13 Billerica Liquors told NBC10 Boston it was their first violation. Although a 2-day suspension will hurt business, they said they are glad the police are working to stay vigilant. One store that wanted to remain anonymous said that nobody is perfect and they are being held to an unattainable standard. They said a 2-day suspension for a first-time violation is unfair. World-leading motorsport engineering company wins Princess Royal award for its apprenticeship programme Thatcham-based transmission technology company Xtrac has received royal recognition for the extremely high standard of its apprenticeship scheme, which started more than 25 years ago, shortly after the business was founded in 1984. The firm, which now boasts more than 350 employees, was congratulated by Patricia Stringfellow MBE, who chairs the Princess Royal Training Awards Commission. Stringfellow has written to Xtrac apprentice manager Warren Page, who has served as a member of the City & Guilds-sponsored Industry Skills Board for the past four years, saying: I am delighted to inform you that HRH The Princess Royal has confirmed your award. Once again, this year, the standard of applications was extremely high. The Princess Royal Training Awards, delivered by the international City & Guilds Group, which operates in more than 100 countries, are now in their third year. Each of the 90 applications was assessed against three hallmarks of excellence by the awards commission, which includes HRH The Princess Royal and seven leading figures in the business and training community. Xtrac head of human resources Jane Gilham, who has represented the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) in meetings with UK parliamentary committees and at 10 Downing Street, said: The impact on the business of the 56 apprentices who have undertaken our SEMTA-approved advanced apprenticeship in mechanical engineering in conjunction with Newbury College, and additionally 60 engineering undergraduates, who have studied at various UK universities, is a steady flow of skilled young people for our cutting-edge design and manufacturing operations. Mr Page said: By the end of the training all participants have significantly improved capability, not only technical, but also personal development, which features highly in the programme. Even 10 years after completing their apprenticeships, we retain 85% of these youngsters as highly-valued technicians and professional engineers. Indeed, our first apprentice, Simon Short, now heads our transmission build and overhaul facility at our US company based in Indianapolis. Xtrac has won the 2018 standard of excellence award for the contribution its apprenticeship programme makes to the business. The awards will be presented by HRH The Princess Royal at St Jamess Palace, in October. This is shortly after the latest cohort of six undergraduates and four apprentices, selected from more than 100 applicants, commence their training with Xtrac. Former managing director and chairman, and now president of the company, Peter Digby, has long supported the development of the apprentice scheme, as he himself was a British Airways apprentice. He said: This latest honour will be well received, and I know the entire company will be delighted. Virtually all the worlds top motorsport teams and key manufacturers of high-performance hypercars and the next generation of road-going high-performance hybrid and electric vehicles rely on Xtrac transmission expertise, which is underpinned by our excellent employee training programmes. These long-running pro-grammes have resulted in exceptional commercial benefits for a company now operating in 24 global markets and exporting 78 per cent of its motorsport transmissions to Europe, the US, Japan, South America and China. Chief executive Adrian Moore, who was himself sponsored as an undergraduate student by Rolls-Royce, said: The board of directors, executive management team and the entire workforce remain as committed now as when we initiated our apprentice and undergraduate training programmes. Our training and succession planning around apprentices and retirees are ongoing and regularly reviewed. Advanced technology training is fully integrated into all aspect of the programme, which is given the highest priority throughout the business to support the future success of the company. By empowering our employees and actively promoting from within, we can ensure that we have the best people generating the best ideas to deliver innovative solutions to our customers. We are currently implementing a major investment programme including a new 27,000 sq ft machine shop extension with the latest state-of-the-art specialist gear manufacturing equipment, and our training schemes are essential to enable our young people to make the most of the opportunity this investment will give them. Mexico City Student a Breakthrough Challenge Finalist San Francisco, California - On September 21, the top finalists in the 2018 Breakthrough Junior Challenge global science video contest were announced, and 14-year-old Luciana Lozano of Mexico City is among the group of 16 impressive students from around the world who are competing for $400,000 USD in prizes. For the fourth year, students ages 13-18 were invited to create original videos (up to three minutes in length) that illustrated a concept or theory in the life sciences, physics or mathematics, and the 2018 installment of the global competition, which began on April 3, attracted more than 12,000 students in 190 countries. The videos were evaluated on the students' ability to communicate complex scientific ideas in engaging, illuminating, and imaginative ways (Think: Steven Spielberg meets Albert Einstein), and Luciana was not only among the 16 finalists, but has also been named Regional Champion in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge Popular Vote for Latin America. Luciana chose her video topic, "The Theory of Everything," to commemorate one of her scientific heroes, the late Stephen Hawking. Although she wasn't familiar with these concepts prior to starting the challenge, String Theory - with its extra dimensions, wormholes and multiverses - quickly sparked her imagination, reminding her of the magic she reads about in novels. On September 7, the field was reduced to 29 semifinalists, which represented the top submissions after two rounds of judging: first, a mandatory peer review, followed by an evaluation panel of judges. The semifinalist's submissions were then entered in a Popular Vote contest, which ran September 7-20, and invited the public to vote for their favorite video by "liking," "sharing," or posting a positive reaction on the Breakthrough Prize Facebook page. Nikhiya Shamsher, 16 (India) was the top scorer in the Popular Vote contest with more than 25,000 likes, shares and positive reactions for her video on spacetime and gravity, earning her automatic entry into the final round of judging. The finalists are: Ayesha Ahmed, 18, (Australia); Jason Chen, 15 (United States); Sam Cryan, 18 (United States); Victor Elgersma, 18 (Belgium); Samay Godika, 16 (India); Artem Kirsanov, 17 (Russia); Diogo Afonso Leitao, 16 (Brazil); Luciana Lozano, 14 (Mexico); Srishti Mishra, 17 (Cambodia); Adelyn Moore, 17 (United States); Kavya Negi, 18 (India); HP Park, 16 (Republic of Korea); Grace Patenaude, 15 (United States); Avideep Pradhan, 17 (United States); Nikhiya Shamsher, 16 (India); and Matthew Walak, 18 (United States). Their videos can be viewed at breakthroughjuniorchallenge.org. One of these 16 finalists will be announced the winner of the 2018 Breakthrough Junior Challenge on the Breakthrough Prize Facebook page, live from the 2018 Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Silicon Valley on Sunday, November 4. The winner of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge will be awarded a $250,000 USD college scholarship. The science teacher who inspired the winning student will win a $50,000 prize. The winner's school will also receive a state-of-the-art science lab valued at $100,000. Big puffs of white clouds sailed across a bright blue sky Sept. 15, casting a stunning reflection onto the town pond in Bridgewater, a reflection of beauty that mirrored the smiles and joy that radiated from the faces of more than 30 seniors from the New Milford area who participated in the annual Senior Fishing Day at the pond. Residents of Candlewood Valley Health & Rehabilitation and Village Crest Center for Health & Rehabilitation were among the anglers who ventured out for a day of fishing, fellowship and a lunch. The late-summer event was coordinated by the Rotary Club of New Milford. It had previously been spearheaded by Arthur Palmer and run by volunteers. Numerous civic organizations, including Boy Scouts, helped serve lunch. Trophies were also presented to the participants. For more photographs, visit www.newmilfordspectrum.com. The final version of the massive opioid bill Congress released Wednesday would grant the Food and Drug Administration new powers to crack down on drug imports, but it also includes a provision nearly killed in the Senate to shield people who are just trying to buy cheaper, needed prescription medication from other countries. Broadly, the bill seeks to enlist the FDA in combating the opioid crisis by mandating that the agency take steps to accelerate development of non-opioid painkillers and to limit the supplies of the drugs, both illegal and legitimate, that claimed the lives of more than 49,000 people last year. Among those steps, the bill expands the FDAs power to debar people from importing or offering for import into the United States a drug if they are violating any of a number of regulations, including importing mislabeled medications, which includes any from overseas. In the original House version of the bill, there was also a provision that defined those importers to exclude regular people who were importing personal prescriptions from foreign countries. That definition had been cut without explanation from the Senates version of the bill. Congressional staffers who spoke on background to describe internal negotiations said the senators eliminated the protection because they believed it was unnecessary. The FDA already has discretion to look the other way on personal imports and told lawmakers it has no intention of changing the policy, staffers said. Still, advocates for importation of cheaper drugs raised a red flag, noting that policies are not permanent and could be changed at any time absent legislation. "I believe pharma lobbyists tried to piggyback language onto this bill to give FDA greater authority to stop importation of lower-cost, non-controlled medicines ones having nothing to do with the opioid crisis, whether wholesale or personal, said Gabriel Levitt, the president of PharmacyChecker.com, which serves as a clearinghouse for people trying to buy prescriptions from regulated foreign pharmacies. If that's the case, then they did not get everything they wanted." PhRMA, the lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry, could not immediately respond to questions about the shifts in the bill, but praised the overall goal of the broader measure. "We applaud Congress for producing bipartisan, bicameral legislation that is a comprehensive approach to combating the opioid addiction crisis, spokeswoman Priscilla VanderVeer said in a statement. We look forward to the final legislation moving swiftly through the House and Senate and then on to the President's desk to be signed into law. Indeed, the definition appears to have been added back to help forestall any controversy that might have interfered with swift passage of a measure that lawmakers hope to tout for the rest of campaign season. The bill is expected to be passed by the House this week and the Senate next week. While lawmakers who at first removed the language may have seen it as unnecessary, advocates saw it, if not as a major victory, at least as a significant step in recognizing the legitimacy of importing medication from places where it is less expensive. That this language was put back in the bill is very helpful because now personal drug importation has greater recognition under law as different from illegal wholesale importation and worthy of protection, said Levitt. For those people who rely on lower-cost personal imports from pharmacies in Canada and other countries, this is very good." Millions of Americans every year seek prescriptions from overseas and Canada. Many millions more dont take or thin out their prescribed medications, often because of costs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 8 percent of Americans do not take their medication as prescribed, and more than 15 percent seek cheaper alternatives from their doctor. The consequences of non-adherence are on a par with the opioid crisis. The failure of people to take medication properly kills about 125,000 every year and costs the health care system between $100 billion and $289 billion, according to studies. KHN's coverage of prescription drug development, costs and pricing is supported in part by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Children registering for school in Florida this year were asked to reveal some history about their mental health. The new requirement is part of a law rushed through the state legislature after the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. On registration forms for new students, the states school districts now must ask whether a child has ever been referred for mental health services. If you do say, Yes, my child has seen a counselor or a therapist or a psychologist, what does the school then do with that? asked Laura Goodhue, who has a 9-year-old son on the autism spectrum and a 10-year-old son who has seen a psychologist. I think that was my biggest flag. And I actually shared the story with a couple of mom friends of mine and said, Can you believe this is actually a thing?' Goodhue said she worries that if her childrens mental health history becomes part of their school records, it could be held against them. If my child was on the playground and something happened, she said, they might think, This child has seen mental health services. This must mean something more than it really means. The question was largely overlooked until parents started filling out school registration forms this summer. It was one sentence in a 105-page school safety bill that contained such controversial measures as increasing the minimum age to buy a gun and arming school employees. Parents express concern that the information could fall into the wrong hands and may follow children throughout their education, said Alisa LaPolt, executive director of the Florida chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In a perfect world, getting treatment for mental health challenges would be no different than getting medical treatment for a skin rash or a bad cold or a broken leg, LaPolt said. But thats not the world we live in right now. There is stigma around mental illness and getting treatment for it. School districts say counselors will use the information to help Florida students get the services they need. Some districts will share the information only with psychologists and administrators. Others say they will provide access to teachers and front-office staff as well. School counselors say they understand the stigma surrounding mental illness. Some say the way the law was written doesnt help. The mental health question was grouped with requirements to report arrests or expulsions. I can certainly understand parents having a reaction when they see those questions, sort of, asked back to back, said Michael Cowley, manager of psychological services for Pinellas County Schools. But in order to help students, Cowley said, school officials must first determine who needs mental health services. The process were trying to develop and everything were trying to do is just with an eye toward reducing stigma, increasing awareness and getting students access to more care, Cowley said. The requirement has school districts worried about more than just stigma. The state left implementation of the provision up to local districts. At a meeting in Tampa, Fla., Hillsborough County School Board member April Griffin raised the issue of patient privacy and a federal law that protects it, known as HIPAA. I could foresee some lawsuits around this, Griffin said. Still, counselors say more parents may support the law once they start to see children getting the counseling they need. The school safety law provides nearly $70 million to increase access to mental health services in schools. National experts say the money is long overdue. Florida has historically been among the worst states in terms of providing money for mental health care, said Ron Honberg, senior policy adviser for the National Alliance on Mental Health. We know that the symptoms of mental health conditions and serious mental illnesses in particular tend to surface during the teen years and early 20s, Honberg said. And thats a time when we should be putting the most resources into interventions. In Broward County, where Parkland is located, the district is using part of the $6 million it received to hire 50 staff members many of them counselors, psychologists and social workers. Their ability to reach students in need could depend on whether parents feel comfortable checking yes on a registration form. This story is part of a partnership that includes WUSF, NPR and Kaiser Health News. KHN's coverage of children's health care issues is supported in part by the Heising-Simons Foundation. A new generation of broadly neutralizing antibodies provides a novel approach to treating HIV infection. The research group of Prof Florian Klein, Director of the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital Cologne and scientist at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), has collaborated with scientists at the Rockefeller University in New York and the University Hospital Cologne to investigate the impact of combining such antibodies in HIV-infected patients. Two articles on the results of this clinical trial have now been published in Nature and Nature Medicine. Antiretroviral drugs are the critical component for effective management of HIV infection. Because of the rapid development of viral resistance against single agents, these drugs need to be administered in combination. While the currently approved drugs are highly active inhibitors of viral replication, they require daily and life-long dosing. Compared to antiretroviral drugs, broadly neutralizing antibodies have longer half-lives and can directly target the virus. In previous clinical trials conducted with participation of the University Hospital Cologne, two of these antibodies, called 3BNC117 and 10-1074, were administered individually. Both antibodies were well tolerated and resulted in significant reductions of the viral load. However, similar to treatment with classical antiretroviral drugs, the administration of a single antibody had only transient effects on the viral load and was associated with the development of viral resistance. In the current study, the scientists investigated the administration of the combination of the antibodies 3BNC117 and 10-1074 in a total of 30 HIV-infected individuals. Antibody infusions, administered up to three times per individual, were well tolerated by all study participants. In the group of HIV-infected participants who were not taking antiretroviral drugs at the start of the trial, the antibody combination resulted in substantial reductions of the viral load. In a second group, the antibody combination was administered to individuals who paused their previous treatment with regular antiretroviral drugs. While this interruption usually results in a rapid return of HIV to the blood, no viremia was detectable in many study participants for several months after the last infusion of the antibody combination. "The results of this clinical trial highlight the potential for antibody combinations to maintain long-term control of HIV," says Dr Henning Grull, co-first author of both publications and resident physician at the Institute of Virology of the University Hospital Cologne. Based on the results of the current study that was conducted in collaboration with the Rockefeller University (Prof Michel Nussenzweig; Prof Marina Caskey), novel approaches for antibody-mediated therapy of HIV infection are under consideration that could allow for long-term control of the virus without the need for daily medication. "The success of these studies at the University Hospital Cologne is also a result of the close collaboration with the Infectious Diseases Research Group (led by Prof Gerd Fatkenheuer) and the Infectious Diseases Outpatient Clinic (led by Dr Clara Lehmann). We are delighted that we were again able to safely and rapidly translate findings from basic research into clinical application", says Florian Klein, principal investigator of the study in Germany. Further clinical trials investigating additional approaches to using broadly neutralizing antibodies in HIV infection are currently being conducted at the DZIF site in Cologne. Researchers at Johns Hopkins report that a novel analysis of more than a thousand patients adds to evidence that hospitalization, critical illness and major infection may diminish brain structures that are most commonly affected by Alzheimer's disease. Results of the study, published Sept. 24 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, suggest -- but do not prove -- that critical illness and major infection can promote such brain structure changes and accelerate the process of cognitive decline, the researchers say. "There's long been evidence that critical illness severe enough to require hospitalization is linked with subsequent negative neurological outcomes such as dementia, but we believe our study is one of the first to look specifically at how both critical illness and infection might promote brain changes that set the stage for late-life cognitive decline, and serve as independent risk factors for dementia," says Keenan Walker, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study's lead author. Walker cautions that the findings may be limited due to undetected or misclassified billing codes that define diagnosis in the medical records; a lack of information about potentially relevant comorbidities such as delirium; and the "observational" nature of the study, which was not designed to -- and cannot -- determine or prove cause and effect. But, he said, "The findings do indicate that hospitalization, infection and critical illness may well influence changes in brain regions that underlie dementia." He went on to say that "in order to maintain brain health in older adulthood, it is important to maintain bodywide health. Some of the events that can land you in the hospital may serve as risk factors for dementia." To explore whether critical illness and infection were associated with brain structure changes underlying cognitive decline and dementia, the research team used data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC), which included MRI scans showing brain structure, as well as social, demographic and hospital information for a large cohort of participants followed over a 24 year period that included five medical exams and structured interviews. The study originally enrolled nearly 16,000 participants ages 45 to 64 from Washington County, Maryland; Forsyth County, North Carolina; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Jackson, Mississippi. Using this dataset makes the team's study especially rigorous, Walker says, because of the long follow-up period that allowed the research team to capture hospitalization events over many years. This is important, he notes, because the process of Alzheimer's disease evolves over the course of decades and takes time to diagnose. For its analysis, Walker's team focused on a subset of ARIC subjects who received a brain MRI during the final medical exam in the study to look at evidence of atrophy and damage to so-called white matter -- the part of the brain responsible for transmitting messages. Damaged white matter appears superwhite on a scan, similar to overexposure on a photograph, Walker explains, and was measured using an automated program. All participants who received this brain MRI were included in the analysis. Data on hospitalization frequency was collected from five in-person exams, annual telephone contact with participants and a survey of medical records from hospital admissions throughout the ARIC study. The research team identified critical illness using internationally defined classification of disease codes, or ICD-9 codes, used for insurance billing purposes. Critical illness included shock, severe sepsis (blood infections), acute respiratory failure, hypotension, respiratory or cardiac arrest, and the need for cardiopulmonary resuscitation orprolonged ventilation. The team then also identified the number of major infections, including septicemia, other bacterial infection and pneumonia, the same way. Of the 1,689 participants included in the analysis, 1,214 (72 percent) were hospitalized, 47 (4 percent) had a critical illness and 165 (14 percent) had a major infection. The participants' age at the first visit was 52.7 years, 60 percent were women, 28 percent were African-American and 5 percent met criteria for dementia. The research team found that hospitalization during the follow-up period, regardless of the reason, was associated with 9 percent greater white matter hyperintensity volume and significantly lower integrity of white matter microstructure. Among the 1,214 hospitalized patients in the analysis, those who had one or more critical illness had a 3 percent smaller brain volume in brain regions such as the hippocampus that are implicated in Alzheimer's disease. Major infection was associated with both smaller brain volume in regions vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease (2 percent smaller) and 10 percent larger brain ventricle volume. Although infection can, in some instances, cause critical illness, the research team found that infection alone (without critical illness) was associated with reduced brain volume later in life. Walker and the research team say they plan to examine how each hospitalization event relates to inflammation in the brain and systemic inflammation. They suspect, based on a growing body of research, that events such as critical illness and infection can cause brain inflammation, which leads to the observed reduction in brain volume. Together, these brain changes are thought to set the stage for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease, which is estimated to occur in one in every three older adults in the U.S. The Academy of Medical Sciences is delighted to announce a pledge of 600,000 from the Dennis and Mireille Gillings Foundation towards a pilot programme to develop two cohorts of innovative new leaders in medical science. This pledge along with a 750,000 commitment from the UK Government through their Investment in Research Talent provides a total investment of 1.35m towards creating the leaders able to build our life science industry into a global hub, making the UK the home of clinical research and medical innovation. The programme, called Future Leaders in Innovation, Enterprise and Research (FLIER), will develop dynamic future leaders in biomedical and health research who can create the vital collaborations and partnerships needed to drive new innovations across the life sciences sector. Representatives from pharma, biotech and MedTech companies including GSK, BTG International and BenevolentAI have been involved in scoping the programme. Dr. Mireille Gillings, Hon DSc neuroscientist, business entrepreneur and founder of HUYA Bioscience International said: "Future leaders in the biomedical and health sector will need to be brilliant scientists that can manage money and medicine. I am confident that the FLIER programme will give researchers expertise in what I call the 3M's - management, money and medicine. Skills across the 3M's will help get new drugs to patients faster. We are delighted to contribute to this new programme that will help fill this gap." The FLIER programme will create a network of talented people equipped to lead innovation and collaboration across academia, industry, the NHS and government in the years to come. The programme was developed after consultation with leaders in the health and life sciences sector demonstrated there is a need to develop an innovative, immersive programme focused on cross-sector and collaborative working. Dr. Dennis Gillings, CBE FMedSci said: "As a proud Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, statistician and philanthropist, I can see how vital it is to champion the next generation of biomedical and health scientists. We need new leaders in the health research sector that can seize opportunities and overcome hurdles to work across sectors." Professor Sir Robert Lechler PMedSci, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: "The ability to navigate different sectors and disciplines is not a common skill and is not easily developed. Our new leadership programme will span sectors and help build connected groups of leaders. Participants will immerse themselves in a two year learning experience, with the look and feel of the scheme determined by their needs and interests. This is a bold programme that will offer a very different experience to existing leadership programmes - and I would like to heartily thank Dr Dennis and Dr Mireille Gillings, President and Vice President of the Dennis and Mireille Gillings Foundation, for their support and contribution to this important programme." Should researchers inform research participants, if they discover genetic disease risks in the participants? Yes, many would say, if the information is helpful to the participants. However, the value of complex genetic risk information for individuals is uncertain. In a PhD thesis from Uppsala University, Jennifer Viberg Johansson suggests that this uncertainty needs to be acknowledged by both geneticists and ethicists. One of the reasons people participate in large genetic studies is the comprehensive health check that researchers often include to collect data. These studies inform participants about their blood pressure, lung function and the results of different blood tests. In the future, people could also be offered information about genetic risks. Jennifer Viberg Johansson's PhD thesis explores factors that researchers should consider before offering these kinds of results. According to Jennifer Viberg Johansson, providing genetic risk information may not be as helpful to individuals as one may think. Knowing your genetic make-up is not the same as knowing your own probability for disease. In addition, the kind of genetic risk information you would get when participating in research is less "personalized" than results from a genetic test you would do in a hospital to confirm suspicions that you might be at risk, or have a genetic disorder. Instead, you are given results that are not connected to any symptoms. Genetic risk information is complex and can be difficult to understand. Jennifer Viberg Johansson has studied how participants in the Swedish population study, SCAPIS, understand genetic risk information, and what kind of information they would like to receive. It turns out that participants think of genetic risk as something that could explain who they are, or where they are from, but also as affecting their future life. To them, learning about genetic risk represents an opportunity to plan their lives and take appropriate precautions to prevent disease. Answering whether research participants want genetic risk information or not is more complex. Jennifer Viberg Johansson found that people's willingness to receive genetic risk information could be influenced by the way the question is asked. Risk research has shown that people interpret probabilities in different ways, depending on the outcome and consequences. Her work points in the same direction: probability is not an essential component in peoples' decision-making in cases where there are ways to prevent disease. Jennifer Viberg Johansson found that people have difficulties making sense of genetic risk when it is presented in the traditional numeric sense. Having a 10% or 50% risk of developing a condition is hard to interpret. Instead, people tend to understand genetic risk as a binary concept: you either have risk, or not. She suggests that we need to keep this in mind when conducting genetic counselling. According to her, genetic counselling needs to be tailored to people's often binary perceptions of risk. "Communicating risk is difficult, and requires that genetic counsellors understand how different people understand the same figures in different ways," says Jennifer Viberg Johansson. Facts about SCAPIS: The SCAPIS (Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study) research programme is a population study involving extensive measurements of 30,000 Swedes aged 50-64. The aim of the project is to find risk markers that allow prediction of who is at risk of cardiopulmonary disease, and prevention of this disease before it occurs. The study is a collaboration among six university hospitals in Sweden, funded primarily by the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading killer of people with type 2 diabetes, and it's not a secret killer. Physicians can assess the risks of major coronary events for someone with diabetes for reasonably well. Among those with diabetes, there are well-established indicators of risk such as weight, fasting levels of blood glucose and family history of the disease. Doctors also can consider more general measures of health such as cholesterol levels, blood pressure and smoking history. Until recently, researchers thought that genetic analyses could add relatively little to these factors in predicting CAD risk for people with type 2 diabetes. But a study led by Joslin Diabetes Center scientists now has shown that adding genetic factors into the mix can help to further hone these risk assessments, says Alessandro Doria, MD, PhD, an Investigator in Joslin's Section on Epidemiology and Genetics. The study leveraged greater information gathered in recent years about genes implicated in CAD among the general population, notes Doria, the senior author on a paper describing the research published in Diabetes Care. "The effect is not dramatic, but it is much better than what we expected," he says. Joslin scientists used a genetic risk score derived from 160 gene locations now associated with CAD in the population at large, says Doria, who is also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. The team examined how well this score applied to people in two studies of type 2 diabetes, the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial and the Outcome-Reduction with an Initial Glargine Intervention (ORIGIN) trial. Scores were calculated for 5,360 ACCORD participants and 1,931 ORIGIN participants. The results showed that the genetic score provides a significant improvement in the ability to correctly predict future major coronary events, Doria says. The advantage of a score based on genetic markers is that it can be used early in life, when clinical predictors of cardiovascular risk, such as increased body weight or increased cholesterol, may not yet appear. However, the score doesn't seem to be useful for predicting which treatments, such as intensive control of blood glucose levels, may help to guard against major coronary events. In previous work, Doria and his colleagues had identified two genes that do help to predict whether such treatments would be effective against CAD in type 2 diabetes. Continuing to seek out genetic clues, they then found that lower levels of a protein called GLP-1 are associated with people who will benefit most from intensive control of their blood glucose levels. Drugs that increase production of this protein are widely used to treat diabetes. It may be that people who produce less GLP-1 when they are under intensive glycemic control receive particular benefits against CAD from such drugs, Doria speculates. His study shows that large clinical trials such as ACCORD and ORIGIN can continue to provide useful data long after their main conclusions have been gathered. "Ten years after its completion, ACCORD continues to generate ideas and findings," Doria says. The research also highlights the role of collaboration across expertise and institutions, he emphasizes. For instance, leaders of the ORIGIN trial at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario made key contributions to the work. In low-resource countries without well-developed screening programs, expanding access to human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination is the best means of preventing cervical cancer and other diseases caused by HPV infection, according to an editorial in the October special issue of the Journal of Lower Genital Tract Disease, official journal of ASCCP. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "For countries without screening and treatment, HPV vaccination offers the best and possibly only opportunity for protection against HPV-related neoplasia," write Herschel W. Lawson, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, and Mona Saraiya, MD, MPH, of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Their editorial introduces a special collection of papers focusing on anogenital and HPV-related diseases in medically underserved populations. Papers Highlight Burden of Lower Genital Tract Disease in Underserved Populations Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been remarkable progress in reducing the burden of cervical and other lower genital tract cancers - first by cervical cytology screening (Papanicolaou test) and then by identifying HPV as the main cause of cervical cancer. Current HPV vaccines can reduce the risk of cervical cancer by preventing infection with "high-risk" types of HPV. The World Health Organization recommends universal HPV vaccination for girls aged 9 to 14 years. "Unfortunately, the application of this great health benefit has not been universal," Drs. Lawson and Saraiya write. The special issue of JLGTD presents 15 research papers, with a focus on extending effective screening and prevention for cervical cancer to underserved populations, in the United States and around the world. Underserved women, both in the United States and in low-resource countries around the world, face barriers to healthcare due to a wide range of geographic and socio-economic factors. T. Clark Powell, MD, MPH, and colleagues of University of Alabama at Birmingham looked at racial, geographic, and socioeconomic risk factors for advanced-stage cervical cancer among women in Alabama. More than half of women had advanced cancer at diagnosis - indicating "ample opportunities for improvement in both prevention and early detection," the researchers note. Black women were more likely to have advanced cervical cancer at diagnosis, regardless of age, insurance, and geography. For white women, insurance status and age were significant risk factors. "Disparities in cervical cancer are multifactorial and necessitate further research into socioeconomic, biologic, and systems causes," the researchers write A study by Meheret Endeshaw, MPH, Dr. Saraiya, and other CDC researchers found that foreign-born women living in the United States were twice as likely as US-born women to have never received cervical cytology screening (17% versus 7%). Women from Mexico, South America and the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia were least likely to have had this recommended screening test. Endeshaw and colleagues also noted that foreign-born women living in the United States fewer years of their lives were less likely than others to have had cervical cytology screening. "These findings may inform cervical cancer screening efforts targeting foreign-born women," the researchers conclude. While cervical cytology screening can reduce the incidence and mortality from cervical cancer, this intervention isn't accessible to most women living in low-resource countries. Given the barriers to effective screening in less-developed countries - including the need for coordinated follow-up testing and treatment for patients with abnormal screening tests - HPV vaccination is the most promising approach to lowering the rates of cervical cancer and other HPV-related diseases worldwide, Drs. Lawson and Saraiya believe. They conclude, "Clearly, applying sustainable funding sources, and vaccine delivery systems, newer screening, management and prevention technologies in a culturally sensitive fashion is important for those communities where access and resources are highly limited." Loyola University Chicago and Loyola Medicine have announced plans to become the first Chicago center to produce cancer-fighting CAR-T cells to treat leukemia and lymphoma. CAR-T cell therapy has been shown to be remarkably effective in treating cancer patients who have failed standard treatments, but it is expensive and can cause severe side effects. Loyola is planning on producing a more purified CAR-T cell product that potentially could reduce toxicities and costs. The Leukemia Research Foundation is supporting the research with a lead gift of $250,000 to Loyola University Chicago. CAR-T therapy harnesses the patient's immune system to fight cancer. In the Loyola clinical trial, T-cells will be collected from the patient and sent to Loyola's clean lab. There, the cells will be genetically modified to target and kill cancer cells. Millions of these engineered T-cells then will be infused back into the patient. (T-cells play an essential role in the immune system. They flow through the bloodstream to fight viruses, bacteria and other foreign invaders. CAR-T is short for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell.) Loyola is among the Chicago centers that have treated patients with CAR-T cells developed by pharmaceutical companies. Now Loyola will be the first Chicago center to produce its own CAR-T cells. The cells will be made available to other centers in Chicago and beyond once initial testing is completed. "We're working to develop a more pure CAR-T product that would lessen toxic side effects and potentially increase the number of eligible patients," said Patrick Stiff, MD, Loyola's director of hematology/oncology research and division director of hematology/oncology. Dr. Stiff is directing Loyola's CAR-T research, along with Michael Nishimura, PhD, program director of immunologic therapies. Kevin Radelet, executive director of the Leukemia Research Foundation, said supporting CAR-T research "directly aligns with our mission of funding medical research and enriching the quality of life of those touched by these diseases." The Leukemia Research Foundation, based in Northfield, Illinois, has awarded $30 million in research grants to more than 500 researchers and more than 200 research institutions in 13 countries. The Foundation also is providing $1.67 million in "New Investigator" grants to 12 young researchers during the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Loyola University Medical Center participated in a groundbreaking clinical trial of CAR-T therapy published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The multi-center study included patients with certain types of large B cell lymphoma who had failed standard treatments. Forty-two percent were in complete remission after 15 months - a remarkable result since most patients had exhausted all other treatment options. The study found that 95 percent of the patients experienced at least one severe side effect. By producing a less toxic product, it may be possible to move the expensive inpatient therapy to an outpatient setting. This could allow many more patients to be treated, including Medicare patients who comprise approximately 50 percent of the lymphoma population. The CAR-T cells will be produced in the McCormick Tribune Foundation Center for Cellular Therapy in Loyola's Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center. The center provides a super-clean environment to produce pure cell populations free of contamination from fungi, microbes, etc. Loyola's cellular center complies with strict standards set by the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. Loyola has used the cellular center to produce cancer-fighting immune cells for clinical trials in melanoma and ovarian cancer patients, and other trials are planned. Also, Dr. Nishimura is producing immune cells for an NIH clinical trial on an experimental treatment for kidney cancer. Loyola initially will test its CAR-T cells on patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia and B-cell non-Hodgkin's' lymphoma who have failed standard treatments. A Phase 1 trial will determine the effectiveness and toxicity of the CAR-T cells. Then, a Phase 2 trial will determine the effectiveness of the CAR-T cells in a larger patient sample, consisting of patients from throughout the Chicago area. Loyola will offer CAR-T cells to other medical centers in this region, across the country and even globally to advance the science more quickly. The Leukemia Research Foundation's support of Loyola's CAR-T research arose out of a casual conversation Dr. Stiff had with foundation officials about Loyola's CAR-T research. "We realized there were synergies between our goals and the foundation's goals," Dr. Stiff said. Mr. Radelet added, "We are thrilled to be able to support this groundbreaking research in Chicago, where the Leukemia Research Foundation has a large footprint." Source: https://www.loyolamedicine.org/ A study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers - collaborating with a team at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden - has documented for the first time widespread inflammation in the brains of patients with the poorly understood condition called fibromyalgia. Their report has been published online in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. "We don't have good treatment options for fibromyalgia, so identifying a potential treatment target could lead to the development of innovative, more effective therapies," says Marco Loggia, PhD, of the MGH-based Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, co-senior author of the report. "And finding objective neurochemical changes in the brains of patients with fibromyalgia should help reduce the persistent stigma that many patients face, often being told their symptoms are imaginary and there's nothing really wrong with them." Characterized by symptoms including chronic widespread pain, sleep problems, fatigue, and problems with thinking and memory, fibromyalgia affects around 4 million adults in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previous research from the Karolinska group led by Eva Kosek, MD, PhD, co-senior author of the current study, suggested a potential role for neuroinflammation in the condition - including elevated levels of inflammatory proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid - but no previous study has directly visualized neuroinflammation in fibromyalgia patients. A 2015 study by Loggia's team used combined MR/PET scanning to document neuroinflammation - specifically activation of glial cells - in the brains of patients with chronic back pain. Hypothesizing that similar glial activation might be found in fibromyalgia patients as well, his team used the same PET radiopharmaceutical, which binds to the translocator protein (TSPO) that is overexpressed by activated glial cells, in their study enrolling 20 fibromyalgia patients and 14 control volunteers. At the same time, Kosek's team at Karolinska had enrolled a group of 11 patients and an equal number of control participants for a similar study with the TSPO-binding PET tracer. Since that radiopharmaceutical binds to two types of glial cells - microglia and astrocytes - they also imaged 11 patients, 6 who had the TSPO imaging and 5 others, and another 11 controls with a PET tracer that is thought to bind preferentially to astrocytes and not to microglia. At both centers, participants with fibromyalgia completed questionnaires to assess their symptoms. When the MGH team became aware of the similar investigation the Karolinska group had underway, the teams decided to combine their data into a single study. The results from both centers found that glial activation in several regions of the brains of fibromyalgia patients was significantly greater than it was in control participants. Compared to the MGH team's chronic back pain study, TSPO elevations were more widespread throughout the brain, which Loggia indicates corresponds to the more complex symptom patterns of fibromyalgia. TSPO levels in a structure called the cingulate gyrus - an area associated with emotional processing where neuroinflammation has been reported in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome - corresponded with patients reported levels of fatigue. The Karolinska team's studies with the astrocyte-binding tracer found little difference between patients and controls, suggesting that microglia were primarily responsible for the increased neuro-inflammation in fibromyalgia patients. "The activation of glial cells we observed in our studies releases inflammatory mediators that are thought to sensitize pain pathways and contribute to symptoms such as fatigue," says Loggia, an assistant professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. "The ability to join forces with our colleagues at Karolinska was fantastic, because combining our data and seeing similar results at both sites gives confidence to the reliability of our results." A tumor-specific vaccine combined with an immune checkpoint inhibitor shrank tumors in one third of patients with incurable cancer related to the human papilloma virus (HPV) in a phase II clinical trial led by investigators at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and reported in JAMA Oncology. "That encouraging response rate is about twice the rate produced by PD1 checkpoint inhibitors in previous clinical trials, so these results will lead to larger, randomized clinical trials of this combination," said principal investigator Bonnie Glisson, M.D., professor of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology and Abell-Hanger Foundation Distinguished Professor at MD Anderson. Vaccines specific to HPV antigens found on tumors had previously sparked a strong immune response, but had not, by themselves, been active against established cancers, Glisson said. "Vaccines are revving up the immune system, but the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment probably prevents them from working," Glisson said. "Our thinking was that inhibition of PD-1 would address one mechanism of immunosuppression, empowering the vaccine-activated T lymphocytes to attack the cancer." The team combined the vaccine ISA101, which targets important peptides produced by the strongly cancer-promoting HPV16 genotype of the virus, along with nivolumab, a checkpoint inhibitor that blocks activation of PD-1 on T cells. Of the 24 patients with recurrent HPV16-related cancers, 22 had oropharyngeal (back of the throat) cancer, one had cervical cancer and one had anal cancer. Eight (33 percent) had a tumor response, two were complete. All eight had oropharyngeal cancer. Median duration of response was 10.3 months. Overall median survival was 17.5 months, progression-free survival was 2.7 months and 70 percent of patients survived to 12 months. Five of the eight responders remain in response. "The median survival of 17.5 months for these patients is promising and provides further support for randomized trials testing the contribution of ISA101 to PD-1 inhibition," Glisson said. HPV causes nearly all cervical cancers, and most oropharyngeal, anal, penile, vulvar and vaginal cancers. HPV16 and HPV18 are the leading viral genotypes that increase cancer risk. Given the viral cause of these cancers, immunotherapy has been considered a strong potential approach. The researchers note that three previous clinical trials of PD1 inhibitors alone for recurrent HPV-related cancers yielded response rates ranging from 16 to 22 percent. Two patients had grade 3 or 4 side effects - elevated enzyme levels - that required them to discontinue nivolumab. Glisson said the team observed side effects expected from the two treatments separately, but the researchers were encouraged to see no sign of synergistic side effects caused by the combination. "That's important as we develop rational combination immunotherapy," Glisson said. This clinical trial was among the first to combine vaccination with PD1 inhibition. Randomized clinical trials of the vaccine and anti-PD1 combination for cervical and oropharyngeal cancer are being organized. The single-arm trial was an investigator-initiated effort originated at MD Anderson, Glisson noted. This study was supported by MD Anderson's Moon Shots Program, a collaborative effort to accelerate the development of scientific discoveries into clinical advances that save patients' lives, and MD Anderson's Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute (P30 CA016672). Philanthropic support also was provided by Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Stiefel and the Abell-Hanger Foundation Distinguished Professorship. Bristol-Myers Squibb provided nivolumab and ISA Pharmaceuticals provided the ISA101 vaccine. The European Society of Coloproctologys (ESCP) Education Committee has launched a new training school to help surgeons continue their professional education and development in the latest techniques of their field. The European School of Coloproctology (ESC) will offer a series of training courses in topics such as laparoscopic complete mesocolic excision and creation of continent pouches and continent ileostomies. Future programmes covering robotic colorectal surgery and other topics are also planned. The format of these courses will help advance doctors knowledge and skills while fitting in with busy surgical schedules. The Society has launched its new initiative on the eve of its Annual Scientific & General Meeting taking place in Nice, France. ESCP envisions that its new School will help coloproctologists across Europe access important new skills and knowledge in a timely and convenient manner that will in turn advance treatment across the continent. It will offer a mix of courses delivered by leading coloproctology experts throughout each year, allowing participants to pick and choose which trainings they require. Klaus Matzel, who is the outgoing chair of ESCP's Education Committee, and Head of Coloproctology at University Erlangen-Nurnberg in Germany, led on creating the School and will oversee its development. He said: We are dedicated to offering coloproctologists as much assistance and opportunity in furthering their skills and knowledge as possible. With the pace of technological change and consequent medical breakthroughs continuing to increase, it is important for doctors to undertake regular training and education. We believe the European School of Coloproctology will have a positive impact on the practice of those who attend, as well as help strengthen networks of knowledge across country borders. This will ultimately lead to better outcomes for patients. The programme of the ESC will be launched with two activities: one is a curriculum for laparoscopic complete mesocolic excision (LapCME), which includes lectures, hands-on workshop and proctoring at the participants home clinics, the second one is a comprehensive two-day course on Ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) and continent ileostomy. Klaus Matzel continued: We are looking forward to also hosting a training program dedicated to robotic colorectal surgery later this year. This program will include train-the-trainer courses for faculty, e-learning, workshops, hands-on training and proctoring for the participants. ESCP will design and deliver the objectives, content and format of each course while educational grants from industry will help to subsidise training costs. Eligibility and application requirements will vary per course, depending on the level and experience each is pitched at. The first two courses for ESC are now available for registration. They are: Laparoscopic complete mesocolic excision (LapCME) for colon cancer, supported by Johnston & Johnston and Medtronic, taking place in Hamburg. Ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) and continent ileostomy looking at Kock pouch surgery and modifications, supported by Johnston & Johnston, and taking place in Hamburg. Further details and the ability to sign-up for future updates are available on the ESCP website by searching for coloproctology school in the search bar. A new white paper, developed by the Vatican-based Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), describes the broad-based, expert-led effort to develop recommendations for improving global palliative care. Advances in palliative care are needed to aid the more than 25 million people who die each year with serious health-related suffering, as the current supply of palliative care cannot meet the growing demand, according to the white paper published in Journal of Palliative Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Palliative Medicine website in English and in Spanish. The article entitled "White Paper for Global Palliative Care Advocacy: Recommendations from a PAL-LIFE Expert Advisory Group of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Vatican City" is a product of the work by a group of experts in palliative care advocacy who represent different faiths and were invited by the PAV to develop strategic recommendations to advance global palliative care. The expert group identified 43 recommendations and 13 stakeholder groups, targeting the most important recommendations for each stakeholder group. "This is of historic importance. The moral authority for much of the world is advocating palliative care for the first time," says Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Palliative Medicine and Vice President, Medical Affairs, Hospice and Palliative Medicine for the OhioHealth system. Lee University hosted its ninth annual Constitution Bowl in honor of Constitution Day. The Department of History, Political Science and Humanities organizes the event each year to popularize the Constitution and the events around its creation. Throughout the day, teams from various high schools throughout the region compete by answering trivia questions regarding the Constitution and other founding American documents, as well as more local documents like the Tennessee Constitution. I think the students learn a lot, and they enjoy coming and seeing Lee, said Brainerd High School teacher Dale Dworak. It gives them an opportunity to see how other students studied and what other students know. Hardin Valley Academys Team 3, composed of students Matthew McCoig, Natalie Savage, Hannah Selph, and Jack Vaughn, took home the winning title this year. This is the second victory for the Knoxville high school, following its first win in last years competition. A total of 24 different teams participated this year, involving 95 high school students from Bradley County Home Educators, Brainerd High School, Girls Preparatory School, Hardin Valley Academy, Lookout Valley High School, Notre Dame High School, Tennessee Christian Preparatory School, and Walker Valley High School. Im really glad that I have the opportunity to come to an event where students my age can interact and learn more about the foundation of the countrys history, said Hardin Valley student Julianna Smith. I had a lot of fun, and Im really glad that I got to be a part of this. The event included the participation of about 63 Lee undergraduate students in roles such as moderators and mascotsstudents assigned to encourage, guide, and cheer on a particular team throughout the day. It was great being a part of something big like that and seeing all the work everyone put into it pay off, said Lee senior classics major and team mascot Nicole Tripp. My group was pretty upbeat and had a lot of fun competing, even when they werent doing well. My part was arguably the smallest, but without everyone doing their part, the event wouldnt have gone so smoothly. In addition to the eight schools that competed, Silverdale Baptist Academy sent a teacher to observe the Constitution Bowl. We were excited to introduce an observation team option for schools who either have never competed or havent competed in years, said Dr. Ana Alves Shippey, assistant professor of political science. Instead of coming to compete, they send a teacher to observe and become familiar with the Constitution Bowl in order to recruit and better prepare their students for next years competition. For more information about the Constitution Bowl or Lees Department of History, Political Science and Humanities, call 614-8137 or visit https://leepoliticalscience.wordpress.com/. If only patients knew how expensive medical procedures are and how wildly prices vary by hospital, they could be smart shoppers and lower the cost of health care for everybody. At least that's what policy experts and health insurers keep saying as they promote "consumer-directed" health care and cost-comparison websites. None of it has had much effect. Now, exasperated Maryland officials are presenting hospital cost information in a way they believe Americans might understand: on a T-shirt. "We tried to focus it on a level most consumers are at," said Ben Steffen, executive director of the Maryland Health Care Commission, which created the campaign. "It is an opportunity to wear a billboard in certain public settings" to get people to ask questions, he said. You can get a black shirt that says "HIP REPLACEMENT $30,067" in big type from the commission's WearTheCost.org website. Or one that says "HYSTERECTOMY $16,138." Other shirts feature prices for a knee replacement or baby delivery. "I sent an email to all my colleagues in the health-policy wonk world and said, 'I just got your holiday gift,'" said Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, a Harvard Medical School professor who has studied medical price transparency and patient responses. Social media for the campaign points people to the WearTheCost.org website, which shows huge differences in what the same procedures cost at different Maryland hospitals. The hysterectomy expense of $16,138 on the T-shirt is just an average. In recent years, the operation cost as much as $20,635 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and as little as $12,798 at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. Hopkins was also the most expensive hospital in which to have a baby, at $14,578, compared with the average Maryland cost of $11,590. "Our teams treat the most complex cases in the region," making them more expensive, said Hopkins spokesman Ken Willis. Hopkins supports publishing data to help patients make informed decisions, he added, but he said the Wear the Cost site "does not yet achieve that goal." The website's price quotes apply to commercial insurance rates and include hospital care as well as non-hospital spending, such as doctors' fees and prescription drugs. The reported expenses are adjusted so that "it would take account of differences in case severity," Steffen said. Hospital-to-hospital results vary sharply even under Maryland's health care finance system, which regulates what hospitals are paid. One reason is that hospitals make money from their mistakes. Those with high rates of avoidable complications, such as infections or drug reactions, end up delivering more care, for which they charge. Wear the Cost's software tries to measure this, flagging avoidable problems and calculating the expense. Potentially avoidable complications added $2,271 to the cost of a hysterectomy at Johns Hopkins. Such costs were even higher at Baltimore's Saint Agnes Hospital, adding $5,481 to a hysterectomy's total cost of $18,433. (The hospital did not respond to requests for comment.) A $4 million federal grant financed the Wear the Cost campaign, which was led by the commission's analysis director, Linda Bartnyska, who died of breast cancer in August. Economists like to note that health care lacks many attributes needed for a minimally functioning market, including customers who understand the product and know what it costs. The price transparency movement was supposed to help fix that. If patients give more business to lower-cost institutions with fewer complications, the thinking goes, hospitals will work harder to contain costs and improve outcomes, slowing the increase in insurance premiums and government health expenses. "The hope is that, over time, consumers will come to expect that prices are available and use them regularly in making decisions about where to get care," said Sarah Litton of Altarum, a research and consulting firm that worked on the campaign with the Maryland commission. But it's an uphill fight. Nobody checks hospital prices when they have a heart attack or get in a car crash, so Wear the Cost, which has given away more T-shirts than it has sold, focuses on elective procedures that people can shop for in advance. Even these patients, though, tend to go to wherever doctors suggest. Since insurance usually pays everything for in-network hospitals once out-of-pocket spending limits are met, they have little incentive to shop around when considering pricey procedures. The patient's portion is likely to be similar whether a joint replacement is $25,000 or $50,000. Federal authorities recently required hospitals to start posting their charges online, but these bear little relationship to what most patients and their insurers pay. Just 3 percent of adults under age 65 compared costs between medical providers before getting care, found a 2017 survey led by Mehrotra. "To date, price transparency initiatives that have been rigorously assessed have had little to no impact on prices in the health care system," Mehrotra said. "The reason so far is few people are using those websites." Still, maybe the point of programs like Wear the Cost "is to shame" expensive hospitals, to say, 'What the heck is going on here?'" Mehrotra said. "'Why are you 50 percent more'" than the hospital across town? The Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) was granted funding for one Cluster of Excellence. As the Excellence Commission announced today in Bonn, Jena's proposal for the cluster 'Balance of the Microverse' is among the 57 selected consortia which will be funded by the German Excellence Strategy for the following seven years. In the Cluster of Excellence 'Balance of the Microverse', the University cooperates with its University Hospital and external research institutions. After having been among the winners with its Graduate School 'Jena School for Microbial Communication' in 2007, this is the first Cluster of Excellence for Jena. "That is great news for the University, for the research location Jena, and the Free State of Thuringia," the President of the University, Walter Rosenthal, is thrilled with the decision. "It proves that middle-sized universities may also belong to the most outstanding German institutions of higher education." According to him, the decision acknowledges the profile that the University has developed over the past few years -- with the motto 'Light, Life, Liberty'. The President is certain this success ultimately puts the scientific and economic region Jena on the global map. "Firstly, I would like to thank my colleagues for the strong commitment on which this very success is based. Secondly, I also thank the Free State of Thuringia for its intensive support." "This is the major breakthrough for Jena as an internationally significant scientific centre," says the Thuringian Minister of Science Wolfgang Tiefensee. "Jena is now part of the 'Champions League' of the German research centres." Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse" Society is currently facing huge challenges: pathogenic microorganisms being resistant to antibiotics and polluted soils, to mention but a few. The researchers of the Cluster of Excellence 'Balance of the Microverse' in Jena can significantly contribute to solutions for those. Nature is full of complex microbial communities -- the microbiota. These may have a stabilizing influence on living creatures and the environment, for instance, on the health of human beings, animals, and plants as well as on the fertility of soils or the water quality. While there is a wide knowledge about the composition of such microbiota available, the functions and dynamics of such systems still have to be examined. The objective of the research activities is therefore to find out the general principles on which microbial communities interact with each other. The crucial questions are what factors may stabilize such systems and how humans may intervene with target-oriented measures to repair a microbial community which lost its balance. The research programme should advance the thematic and methodological scope of the Graduate School 'Jena School for Microbial Communication' and of four existing Collaborative Research Centres. "We are absolutely pleased about the fact that our commitment of the past years has been given the label of excellence and we thus rank among the top research institutions," says the spokesperson of the Cluster, Professor Axel Brakhage. As he says, all participating disciplines and institutions have evolved into a fantastic team. "The elucidation of the function of microbiota would provide completely new preventive measures and therapeutic approaches to diseases and the environmental protection." In the new research network, researchers from several of Jena's faculties are involved: Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, and Faculty of Medicine. The University cooperates with external partner institutions, too: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the Leibniz Institute of Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Hans Knoll Institute), the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technologies, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, the Helmholtz Institute, and the DLR Institute of Data Science. Light, Life, Liberty -- Connecting Visions Led by the motto 'Light, Life, Liberty -- Connecting Visions', the Friedrich Schiller University Jena will advance its profile in the upcoming years. In this context, the successful Cluster of Excellence 'Balance of the Microverse' has a vital role. A cluster of the universities in Jena and Wurzburg with other partners, which was not granted the funding within the Excellence Strategy, represents another focus of the University. The joint cluster 'Enlightening the Receptome' is about to systematically research the receptome and its diversity as a whole. Both clusters thus play a central part in developing the University's profile lines 'Light, Life, Liberty'. In cooperation with the University Hospital, external research institutions, and research-oriented companies, the researchers of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena will take on global challenges, for example, climate change, a sustainable energy supply, ageing, personalized therapies, social change, or the struggle against infectious diseases. "Being the only Thuringian institution of higher education supported by the Excellence Strategy, we want to fulfil great expectations," emphasizes the President Walter Rosenthal. Source: https://www.uni-jena.de/en/News/PM180927_Exstra_en.html For years, congressional Republicans have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Now, in a case sending shock waves through midterm election campaigns, Republican attorneys general across the country may be poised to make good on that promise. The case, Texas v. United States, reveals just how high the stakes are for health care in this year's attorney general races, elections that rarely receive much attention but have the power to reverberate through the lives of Americans. "It just shows that nothing is safe," said Xavier Becerra, California's attorney general, who is leading 16 states and the District of Columbia in defending the ACA in the case. Both parties expect record-breaking fundraising for this year's 30 contested elections for state attorneys general. Democrats aim to translate public outrage over the threat to the ACA into the votes needed to seize a handful of posts currently held by Republicans. This will be the first major election since Republicans tore up a deal brokered with Democrats roughly two decades ago not to challenge each other's incumbents in attorney general races. That gentlemen's agreement acknowledged the need for attorneys general from both parties to collaborate on investigations and lawsuits. But some of the same partisan forces that have embittered Capitol Hill have spilled into these contests. With Republicans in control of the executive and legislative branches and close to staking their claim on the Supreme Court Democratic attorneys general are seen as a check on Trump administration policies. Similarly, their Republican counterparts frequently took the Obama administration to court. That pressure is likely to increase should congressional Democrats fail to win control of at least one chamber of Congress in November. Raphael Sonenshein, the executive director of California State University's Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs in Los Angeles, compared the politics invigorating state attorneys general to a bar brawl. "Two people have a fight, and then it spills out into the street, and 20 people join in," he said. "Everybody gets off the bench and joins the fight." A banner on the Democratic Attorneys General Association's website captures their mindset, while states are busy challenging the Trump administration on issues like sanctuary cities and family separations at the border: "This office has never been more important." Former Vice President Joe Biden recently endorsed six attorney general candidates in races Democrats think they can win, including Ohio and Wisconsin, and the association plans to raise a record-breaking $15 million for November's elections, said Lizzie Ulmer, a spokeswoman for the group. By mid-June, the Republican Attorneys General Association had raised $26.6 million, continuing to break its fundraising records. Of this year's 30 contested attorney general races, 18 posts are held by Republicans and 12 are held by Democrats. (Another five are in play this year, but those posts are appointed by the governor or state lawmakers.) Unlike in Congress, there is no inherent advantage to one party claiming the majority of attorneys general posts. It takes just one attorney general to file a lawsuit. But Democratic attorneys general see themselves as a firewall against an administration and their Republican counterparts dead set on revoking many federal protections. In that arena, every lawyer counts. That is especially the case with health care, where fights over issues like access to abortion have multiplied since President Donald Trump took office, with others liable to end up in the courts at any time. Earlier this month, a federal judge heard arguments in Texas v. United States on the constitutionality of the individual mandate, the ACA's requirement that all Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. Citing the law passed late last year that eliminated the penalty, the plaintiffs a Texas-led coalition of 20 states and two individuals argued the individual mandate was now unconstitutional. By extension, so was the rest of the ACA, they said. They asked for a preliminary injunction that could halt the sweeping ACA in its tracks including popular provisions such as protections for people with preexisting conditions. Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, has defended his decision to challenge protections that have broad support, including among Republicans, saying he has a duty to fight laws that harm Texans and defy the U.S. Constitution. "The least compassionate thing we could do for those with preexisting health problems is to take away their access to high-quality care from doctors of their own choosing and place them entirely at the mercy of the federal government," Matt Welch, Paxton's campaign spokesman, said in a statement. But the idea that insurers would no longer have to cover those with preexisting conditions has proven explosive, offering Democrats a powerful rallying cry beyond even attorney general races. In Missouri and West Virginia, states that Trump won in 2016 but are represented by Democratic senators, the issue has followed the Republican attorneys general Missouri's Josh Hawley and West Virginia's Patrick Morrisey as they run for Senate. "We're wasting millions and millions of dollars of taxpayer money trying to take away preexisting condition protections not just for all Texans but all Americans," said Justin Nelson, Paxton's Democratic challenger, who said he would withdraw Texas from the case should he win his long-shot bid. In Wisconsin, the Republican attorney general, Brad Schimel, has also taken a leading role in Texas v. United States, as well as a 2016 challenge to a landmark Obama administration rule banning discrimination in health care based on a patient's gender identity, among other cases. This year, Schimel has drawn a formidable Democratic challenger, Josh Kaul. He's a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted federal drug crimes and has promised to focus on the state's backlog of untested rape kits and take a more aggressive approach to the opioid epidemic. "We're not going to beat that without ensuring our efforts are targeting large-scale drug traffickers," he said. Experts caution a changing of the guard would not spell the end of a big case like Texas v. United States. For instance, even if Paxton were to defy expectations and lose, Texas' legal and financial backing for the case could easily be picked up by another state. However, the message voters would send by electing a Democratic attorney general in Texas where no Democrat has won statewide office since 1994 could have profound implications for Republican morale. "Without Ken Paxton leading the charge, many Republicans may soften their opposition to Obamacare," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. Air ambulance rides are literal lifesavers. But how much should they cost? In the ongoing, crowdsourced "Bill of the Month" investigation, Kaiser Health News and NPR received more than a dozen bills from people around the country on the hook for medevac helicopter rides that ranged from $28,000 to $97,000. What gives? Why should a lifesaving flight come with a life-altering bill? If an air ambulance service is not part of a patient's insurance network, the operator can charge the patient for the portion of the bill the insurance company won't cover meaning the patient is on the hook for the undiscounted rate that the air carrier decides to charge. "There's nothing really they can turn to because of this regulatory blind spot, essentially, that air ambulances fall into," said Erin Fuse Brown, an associate professor of law at Georgia State University who specializes in health care billing. "There's nothing that would protect them, that would allow them to push back on the extraordinary charges that they are billed when they get home from the hospital." This happens because the federal government treats air ambulance companies more like air carriers like Southwest or American Airlines than like hospitals or clinics. They are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. By law, states cannot set rules for them. That has meant they haven't been required to participate in insurance networks, their prices are not capped, and they can charge patients the balance of the bills even after insurance has paid. Congress now is hashing out its FAA reauthorization bill. The House passed an earlier version of the bill in May that would have allowed states to regulate air ambulances, including pricing and some billing practices. That provision was dropped from a House-Senate compromise bill that is expected to pass. Some consumer protections remain in the new legislation. An aviation consumer advocate with the Department of Transportation would be responsible for handling patient complaints and could pursue enforcement or "corrective action" against unfair or deceptive practices, including air ambulance operators. The Deregulation Game Air ambulances were in their infancy when air travel was deregulated in the 1970s. Since then, the air ambulance sector has had little oversight, especially of the positioning of bases. That has led to vast deserts of coverage and other areas, like on the Oklahoma border, with a saturated market and multiple carriers. With no cap on pricing and high fixed costs, such as helicopters and trained personnel ready to fly at a moment's notice, Greg Hildenbrand, executive director of Life Star of Kansas, a nonprofit air ambulance service and secretary of the Association of Critical Care Transport, said increased competition has driven prices up, instead of down. "The numbers of patients per helicopter has dropped, but we still have to spread the same costs per base over fewer numbers of patients, and so that has driven costs up considerably," he said. The rise in price is dramatic. Take Air Methods, the nation's largest air ambulance company, whose pricing greatly influences the market. Its average helicopter transport costs increased from $13,000 in 2007 to $49,800 in 2016, according to a Government Accountability Office report. Because air ambulance providers accept much lower reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid patients and may not receive any payment from uninsured patients the impact of these rate hikes has fallen almost entirely on private health care insurers and their members. Hildenbrand, a 20-year veteran of the industry, said insurance companies are fed up. "I think we've reached a tipping point in the industry where insurance companies are saying, 'No, we're not going to continue to pay these rates,' and so then patients get balance-billed $40,000 or something after their insurance has paid. I don't think it's a sustainable system," he said. As billed charges have soared, more insurers have started limiting their reimbursements to air medical providers. Air Methods has responded by hiring patient advocates who go through the appeals process with the insurance company. Ultimately, if the insurance company won't pay, the patient is on the hook. The House-Senate compromise bill would also set up a council of industry representatives, led by the Department of Transportation, which oversees air ambulances. The group would include air ambulance providers and insurance company representatives, among others, and would write and re-evaluate consumer protections, including balance-billing practices. The legislation also establishes a complaint hotline for patients, similar to one available for commercial airline passengers. It's a step in the right direction, said Fuse Brown of Georgia State University, but the regulatory council might not go far enough. "The task of the committee would be to come up with additional consumer protections that haven't been specified in the bill," she said. "It's unclear at this point whether the committee would come up with protections that would substantively provide consumer protections." This story is part of a reporting partnership between StateImpact Oklahoma, NPR and Kaiser Health News. File photo of Sabarimala temple. (Image: Reuters) "Prohibition can't be regarded as an essential component of religion. Women are not lesser or inferior to man. Patriarchy of religion cannot be permitted to trump over faith," Misra said while reading out judgement for himself and Justice Khanwilkar. The apex court was hearing a clutch of pleas challenging the ban on entry of women between 10 and 50 years of age into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. Accepting the judgment, the temple board said, "Since women who believe in Lord Ayyappa will be coming, we have no choice but to welcome them. We are happy that all controversies related to Sabarimala are settled." A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had reserved its judgement on August 1 after hearing the matter for eight days. The Kerala government, which has been changing its stand on the contentious issue of women of the menstrual age group entering the Sabarimala temple, had on July 18 told the Supreme Court that it now favoured their entry. The apex court had on October 13 last year referred the issue to a constitution bench after framing five "significant" questions including whether the practice of banning entry of women into the temple amounted to discrimination and violated their fundamental rights under the Constitution. The bench, which also comprised Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, had earlier said that the constitutional scheme prohibiting exclusion has "some value" in a "vibrant democracy". The top court's verdict would deal with the petitions filed by petitioners Indian Young Lawyers Association and others. The Kerala government, which has been changing its stand on the contentious issue of women of the menstrual age group entering the Sabarimala temple, had on July 18 told the Supreme Court that it now favoured their entry. The Sabarimala Temple, considered the abode of Lord Ayyappa, is located in the Periyar Tiger Reserve in the Western Ghat mountain ranges of Pathanamthitta District, Kerala. It is believed that Lord Ayyappa was born out of the union between Lord Shiva and the mythical Mohini, who is also regarded as an avatar of Lord Vishnu. The temple prohibits the entry of women in their menstruating years (between the ages of 10 to 50), on the grounds that it is a place of worship. Travancore Devaswom Board is said to have the legal authority to manage the Sabarimala temple's administration. The board has heavily relied on Article 26 of the Constitution, which guarantees a religious denomination of right to manage its own internal religious affairs. Furthermore, the Sabarimala custom of not allowing entry to women is protected by Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorization of Entry) Rules, 1965 '"Public Worship Rules'). The rule allows the exclusion of women from public places of worship, if the exclusion is based on 'custom'. Chris Claremont on why X-Men is "heartbreakingly more relevant than ever" Chris Claremont ways in on X-Men's past, present, and future Sorry! This content is not available in your region Mumbai: Air passengers from the city are set get a seamless connectivity to at least six new global destinations in the US, Europe and the UK starting next month, an airport official said. Besides, Americas third largest carrier United Airlines will be offering the US-bound passengers from the city more seats as it plans to deploy a bigger aircraft as part of the airlines winter schedule in India. Airlines winter schedule in the country begins from the last Saturday of October and goes on till last Friday of March every year. Also Read | Luka Modric beats Cristiano Ronaldo to win FIFA Best Player of the Year, Mohamed Salah bags the Puskas In addition to Air Italy and Uzbekistan Airways, which are entering in Mumbai market for the first time, national carrier Air India and private jetliners Jet Airways and GoAir will be launching new flights to international destinations from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport from October onwards, the airport official said. While Air Italy will operate five times-a-week non-stop service to Mumbai from Milan with an Airbus A330-200 aircraft from October 31, Uzbekistan Airways will have three direct flights in a week between capital city Tashkent and Mumbai with an Airbus A 320 from October 30, the official said. Air India, which is the only Indian carrier flying directly to the US, will commence its direct flight services from Mumbai to the German city Frankfurt and New Yorks JFK Airport from October 1 and October 4, respectively, the official added. Mumbai will also get direct connectivity to Phuket in Thailand and Male in Maldives with budget carrier set to fly to these destinations from October 12 and October 14. Read More | Iraqi Instagram model Tara Fares murdered at wheel of Porsche in Baghdad In addition, Naresh Goyal-controlled full-service carrier Jet Airways will be connecting Mumbai with Manchester in the UK with five-times a week flight services starting November 4. A wide-body A330-200 aircraft, having 254 seats, would be deployed to cater to the Manchester route, which would be the airlines 21st international destination and fifth non-stop service to and from the UK. At the same time, United Airlines will operate its latest higher seating capacity aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, between Mumbai and New York/Newark route from October 1, replacing the 777-200ER, which is currently being operated on the route. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The proposed merger of Bank of Baroda (BoB) with two mid-sized public sector (PSU) lenders shows the willingness of the government to accept difficult reforms in the banking sector, Fitch Ratings said on Friday. The government had last week announced its plan to merge BoB with Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank to create the third largest bank in the country overtaking both Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank, in terms of assets. But it would remain behind State Bank of India and HDFC Bank. The boards of each bank will meet to give a go-ahead to the proposed merger. It said BoB is likely to be the resulting entity after the merger. Read More | Bhima-Koregaon case: Supreme Court extends house arrest of five activists; refuses to constitute SIT Consolidation is likely to be part of the government's strategy to deal with small, weak banks, and should ultimately put the banking system in a better position to support a fast-growing economy, Fitch noted. The Indian government's announcement of a proposed merger of Bank of Baroda and two mid-sized state-owned banks underlines its apparent willingness to follow through on difficult reforms in the state-owned banking sector, Fitch Ratings said. The proposed merger will be an important test case for future consolidation.... This merger, therefore, involves more potential complications than the recent amalgamation of State Bank of India with its five associate banks, Fitch said. It said confrontational trade unions pose the most significant immediate challenge for the proposed merger, while integrating cultures will be important over the long term. The merger is likely to have a negative short-term financial impact on Bank of Baroda, due to the weak financial profile of Dena Bank, it said. Also Read | Surgical Strike 2nd anniversary LIVE: PM Narendra Modi inaugurates Parakram Parv at Jodhpur Military Station The rating agency has already placed BoB's viability rating of 'bb' on rating watch negative and will review the rating once details of the merger are available. It said the merger could also be a sign of the government's growing impatience with the weak state banks. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: After slashing tax rates on about 90 essential commodities, including sanitary pads in its July meet, the 30th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting took place in New Delhi Friday. The Council during its September 28 meeting is expected to discuss strategies to help flood-ravaged Kerala and may levy a cess on account of the revenue losses in the state. The GST Council will also review if it would levy an extra cess on all goods nationwide for a defined period of time or only on SGST within Kerala. Addressing the 30th GST Council meeting via video conference, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, "GST Council reviews revenue position; expectation that consuming states will benefit has borne out". "It had been decided earlier that GST council secretary will visit revenue deficit states and analyse it. It was found that there's no revenue shortfall in consuming North-east states," Jaitley added. Read | Petrol prices cross Rs 83-mark in Delhi, heading towards century mark in Mumbai Detailed presentation took place about revenue position. It had been decided earlier that GST council secretary will visit revenue deficit states & analyse it. It was found that there's no revenue shortfall in consuming North-east states: Finance Minister after GST council meet pic.twitter.com/GwbdcSWXeq ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 "Bihar imposed additional VAT in 2015-16 when tax reduced due to the prohibition of alcohol. Taxation inflated by 27% as compared to the previous year. Bihar benefited from this aberration," the finance minister said. "We are making a 7 member group of ministers which will discuss the Kerala Cess proposal. This 7 member committee will have members of North East, hill and coastal states. Committee members will be announced soon," Jaitley said. Read | GST collection drops to five-month low at Rs 93,960 crore in August Last week, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and said the GST Council will explore the possibility of an all-India cess to help flood-affected states like Kerala in times of sufferings and need. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The government is monitoring the situation of debt-ridden IL&FS and would take appropriate action to ensure that there is no undue impact on the financial system, Economic Affairs Secretary S C Garg said on Friday. Government is monitoring the development of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). We will ensure no undue impact takes place due to development on IL&FS front. We will find an appropriate solution for this: Subhash Chandra Garg, DEA Secretary pic.twitter.com/crXtcMPL2I ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 Debt defaults by certain group entities of diversified IL&FS has triggered fears of liquidity crisis in the financial markets and the RBI has been taking steps to improve the overall cash situation. Also Read | Sabarimala Verdict: When Justice Chandrachud referred to history behind Kerala temple and pilgrimage Amid persisting concerns in the markets, the Finance Ministry on Friday held a meeting with key shareholders of IL&FSLIC, SBI and Central Bank of Indiato discuss the current situation. Stating that the government is monitoring the situation of IL&FS, Garg said it is a large company within the infrastructure space and there is a lot of connection with the government departments as it has executed a lot of PPP (Public Private Partnership) projects. Therefore, it is an important, significant entity. The government would take appropriate measures to see that there is no undue impact on what happens in IL&FS. Government will ensure there is no undue impact on the system that this institution causes, he said. The meeting, chaired by Garg, is believed to have discussed ways to sort out issues related to IL&FS so that contagion does not impact other sectors of the economy. LIC Chairman V K Sharma, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar and Central Bank of India MD Pallav Mohapatra attended the meeting. Read More | Bigg Boss 12 Day 12 Highlights: Who will be the next Fizz captain? In Mumbai, the Reserve Bank also met various shareholders of IL&FS. About the IL&FS issue, Sharma said all options are open without giving specific details as to what the largest shareholder is going to do to save the company. The annual general meeting is going to take place on Saturday and more details would emerge after it, Sharma said in the national capital. The LIC chief expressed confidence that over Rs 60,000 crore worth assets can be recovered by IL&FS while trying to work out solution for the remaining Rs 30,000 crore. IL&FS, where LIC is the largest shareholder with 25.34 per cent stake, has a debt burden of over Rs 90,000 crore. Japans Orix Corporation has 23.54 per cent stake in the company. Other shareholders include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (12.5 per cent stake), IL&FS Employees Welfare Trust (12 per cent), HDFC (9.02 per cent), Central Bank of India (7.67 per cent) and SBI (6.42 per cent). These are the shareholding figures at the end of March. Earlier this week, IL&FS Financial Services defaulted on interest payment and fixed deposits. This was fourth in the series of defaults by the group entity. On Friday, LIC Mutual Fund said that IL&FS Securities Services has cleared its dues worth Rs 300 crore. IL&FScredited for building the longest tunnel in the country (Chenani-Nashri tunnel in J&K) -- is sitting on a debt pile of over Rs 90,000 crore. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday extended the house arrest of five rights activists for four weeks in connection with the infamous Bhima-Koregaon violence case and refused to constitute SIT investigation into their arrest. The five activists -- Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha have been under house arrest since August 29. Historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala, sought an independent probe into the arrests and the immediate release of the activists. Read | Sabarimala Verdict | Women not inferior to men, can enter Ayyappa temple: Supreme Court Here are the Highlights on Bhima-Koregaon verdict: # 11:50 am: Courts to proceed as if personal practices are essential but examine whether derogatory to liberty: Chandrachud. # 11:44 am: Arrests were not because of dissent of activists, there is prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist): CJI. # 11:43 am: Chandrachud says the petition was genuine and lashes out at Maha police for press meet, distribution of letters to media. # 11:42 am: Liberty cherished by Constitution would have no meaning if persecution of 5 activists is allowed without proper investigation: Chandrachud. # 11:41 am: Justice Chandrachud says he is unable to agree with the view of CJI and Justice Khanwilkar. # 11:40 am: Supreme Court says the activists arrested in Bhima Koregaon case can move the trial court for relief. Supreme Court says the activists arrested in #BhimaKoregaon case can move trial court for relief ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 # 11:37 am: Supreme Court extends house arrest for four weeks of five activists. The apex court refused to constitute SIT and asked Pune police to go ahead with the probe. # 11:36 am: Supreme Court refuses to interfere in the arrest of five activists in Bhima-Koregaon case. Supreme Court refuses to interfere in the arrest of five activists Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha in Bhima-Koregaon case. pic.twitter.com/2vOlPGWba3 ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 # 11:31 am: Accused can't choose which probe agency should examine case: Justice AM Khanwilkar. Accused can't choose which probe agency should examine case: Justice AM Khanwilkar reading out the verdict on the arrest of activists Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha in Bhima-Koregaon case. pic.twitter.com/0uX1iGiqqq ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2018 Read More | Asia Cup 2018 Final Preview: Rohit Sharma and Co. look to tame depleted Bangla Tigers A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had reserved the judgment on September 20 after counsel for both parties, including senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Harish Salve and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, concluded their submissions. The bench, that also comprised Justices AM Khaniwlkar and DY Chandrachud, had asked the Maharashtra police to file their case diary pertaining to the ongoing investigation in the case. The Maharashtra police had arrested them on August 28 in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave -- 'Elgaar Parishad' -- held on December 31 last year that had later triggered violence at Bhima-Koregaon village in the state. Also Read | How Sidharth Malhotra finds a perfect getaway for team 'Jabariya Jodi' in Lucknow The apex court had on September 19 said it would look into the case with a "hawk's eye" as "liberty cannot be sacrificed at the altar of conjectures". It had told the Maharashtra government that there should be a clear-cut distinction between opposition and dissent on one hand and attempts to create disturbance, law and order problems or overthrow the government on the other. Senior advocate Anand Grover, Ashwini Kumar and advocate Prashant Bhushan had also alleged that the entire case was cooked up and adequate safeguards should be provided to protect the liberty of the five activists. Read | Ayodhya Verdict: SC declines to refer case to five-judge bench; hearing on title dispute fixed for October 29 The Supreme Court had also said that it may order an SIT probe if it found that the evidence has been "cooked up". For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has called for a nationwide Bharat Bandh on Friday against Walmarts acquisition of retail major Flipkart and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector. CAIT president BC Bhartia said that Walmart-Flipkart deal was a violation of the FDI policy of the government, which will adversely affect the small businesses in the country, whereas the FDI in retail would be disastrous for small and medium-sized enterprises and the overall national economy. It is regretted that knowing well about the ill effects, the MNCs are being given a passage to enter the retail trade of the country, Bhartia had said in a statement. The traders feel neglected and they are concerned over the future of their business, he said. Read More | Sabarimala Verdict LIVE: Supreme Court allows entry of all women in Kerala temple In a statement, the CAIT said that all commercial markets across the country will remain closed and around seven crore small business houses will participate in the bandh. In the national capital, traders from both wholesale and retail markets are participating in the bandh. The traders body will also hold a protest-dharna at Delhis Jantar Mantar against the Walmart-Flipkart deal and FDI in retail markets. The traders in Delhi are demanding an immediate promulgation of an ordinance to stop sealing of shops in the national capital. CAIT's Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal had alleged that the Monitoring Committee is conducting sealing drive according to its own wishes disregarding the provisions of MCD Act. Khandelwal also said that the DDA and MCD are threatening the traders to seal the shops by issuing notices. Also Read | Nana Patekar breaks silence on Tanushree Dutta's claim of sexual harassment In West Bengal, around 80 per cent of the 40 lakh traders will join the nationwide strike. Despite Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's appeal, CAIT is going ahead with the bandh. About 40 trade organisations from the Northeast are participating in the nationwide strike. The organisations, including the Assam Chamber of Commerce, Wholesale General Merchants Association, North Eastern Garments Traders Association, and North East Distributor Association are supporting the bandh. (With agency inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New York: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj left a meeting of the SAARC foreign ministers early on Thursday. This move by the minister is being viewed as a huge snub to Pakistan. Swaraj attended the Informal Meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers on the sidelines of the 73rd UN General Assembly (UNGA) and chaired by Foreign Minister of Nepal Pradeep Kumar Gyawali. After making her statement, she left prompting criticism from Shah Mehmood Qureshi who later told reporters, No I didnt have any talk with her (Swaraj). On the positive gesture, I can say she left the meeting mid-way, may be she was not feeling well. Read More | Bhima-Koregaon case: Supreme Court extends house arrest of five activists; refuses to constitute SIT Indian diplomatic sources told PTI that it was quite normal in a multilateral meeting to leave early after one has delivered the countrys statement. However, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale was present throughout the SAARC meeting. The sources said that Swaraj was not the first minister to leave the meeting as her counterparts from Afghanistan and Bangladesh had also left before her. Swaraj and Qureshi were slated to meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly session. However, India called off the meeting last week, citing the brutal killings of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad releasing postage stamps glorifying slain Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani. Qureshi said he saw that there was this thinking in the meeting that if we have to achieve something from this forum, we have to move forward. Also Read | Asia Cup 2018 Final Preview: Rohit Sharma and Co look to tame depleted Bangla Tigers What is the way to move forward. We have to decide the next step - I have no hesitation in saying that in the way of SAARCs progress and success and in the regions connectivity and prosperity, there is only one obstacle and one attitude. The attitude of one nation is making the spirit of SAARC and the spirit of the founding fathers of SAARC unfulfilled and unsuccessful, he said, in a veiled reference to India. He said that he heard the Indian ministers remarks at the meeting very carefully. She talked about regional cooperation. My question is how will regional cooperation be possible when the regions nations are ready to sit together and you are the obstacle in that dialogue and discussion, he said. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) national general secretary Tariq Anwar on Friday said he had resigned from the party and Parliament following NCP chief Sharad Pawars defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Rafale deal. Making the announcement at his Lok Sabha constituency in Katihar, Anwar said he was resigning from all posts in the party, of which he was a founding member, and also giving up his Parliament membership. Anwar said that he was hurt by Pawars interview to a Marathi news channel this week where he said Prime Minister Narendra Modis intentions on the Rafale fighter jet aircraft deal were not wrong. Read More | Bhima Koregaon violence: After SC verdict, Amit Shah slams Rahul Gandhi for supporting 'Maoist and corrupt elements' Senior NCP leader and Rajya Sabha MP DP Tripathi confirmed the development. The party later came out with a clarification, saying it did not amount to a clean chit to the prime minister. Anwar, a former Union minister, has been backing the Congress demand for a JPC probe into the deal and has also sought a white paper on the issue. No decision has been taken so far about my future political move. I will be deciding that after consulting my supporters, he said. Reacting to the development, Congress MLC Prem Chand Mishra described Anwar as a fine leader. We shall be eagerly looking at his next political move, he said. Also Read | Sabarimala Verdict | Women not inferior to men, can enter Ayyappa temple: Supreme Court A former president of Congress Bihar unit, Anwar formed the NCP in the 1990s along with Pawar and the late PA Sangma, opposing Sonia Gandhi taking over as AICC president on grounds of her foreign origin. The party thereafter allied with the Congress at the national level and also in Maharashtra. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Unhappy over Sharad Pawar's reported statement on the Rafale deal, giving a "clean chit" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nationalist Congress Party's founding member Tariq Anwar on Friday resigned from the party and announced he is giving up his Lok Sabha membership. In a statement after making the announcement before journalists in Katihar, 67-year-old Anwar said he was resigning from the posts of the NCP's national general secretary and as its leader in the Lok Sabha, besides giving up the party's primary membership and vacating his parliamentary seat. The Congress, seeing an opportunity here ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, said Anwar was "welcome" to return to the party from where he started his political career. Also Read | Bigg Boss 12 Day 12 Highlights: Find out who won became Fizz captain? Before joining hands with Pawar and late Meghalaya leader PA Sangma to form the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999, Anwar worked as the Bihar Congress president in the 1980s and had represented his current parliamentary constituency Katihar as a Congress MP. Anwar served as a Union minister in the UPA-II government after the NCP allied with the Congress. The announcement, made by Anwar in his parliamentary constituency, is seen as a politically significant development for possible alignments in Bihar, where Congress, NCP and RJD have been part of the 'grand alliance or Mahagathbandhan' against the BJP and its allies. Meanwhile, the Mahagathbandhan camp leaders lauded Anwar's decision, with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) urging Pawar to review his stand on the issue. The JD(U), headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and an ally of the BJP, termed Anwar's move opportunistic and aimed at "greener pastures". Also Read | Donald Trump 'looks forward' to visit India; will he be next Republic Day chief guest? Anwar's Katihar constituency has a large number of Muslim voters and any indication towards his party or party leaders being sympathetic towards the BJP or Modi government could be politically incorrect, party leaders said. Anwar had managed to win the 2014 Parliamentary elections from Katihar as the NCP had fought at that time in alliance with the RJD and the Congress. Anwar's move came a day after media reports quoted Pawar having told a Marathi news channel that he did not think people had doubts over the prime minister's intentions in the Rafale fighter plane deal. Pawar's reported statement was lauded by BJP chief Amit Shah who asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take a cue from his ally and place national interests above party politics. The Congress and other opposition parties have been targetting Modi and the NDA government over the Rafale deal alleging corruption and crony capitalism. The government has denied the charges. An NCP spokesperson, however, issued a clarification terming the media reports quoting Pawar as "misleading and confusing" and claimed the party chief has had not given a clean chit to Modi. Anwar, however, said in his statement he was aggrieved by Pawar's statement since Modi has been given a clean chit over his intention despite the prime minister having not cared to prove himself clean in the Rafale deal. Anwar alleged the prime minister is fully involved in the Rafale deal and it was also substantiated by former French President Francois Hollande, referring to his reported remarks about France being left with no option in Dassault selecting Reliance Defence as an offset partner as part of the multi-billion dollar deal. The Bihar leader said he completely disagreed with Pawar's version, which he said has shattered the faith of countrymen in the Opposition. Lauding Anwar's step, senior Congress leader Prem Chand Mishra said his party would be keenly watching his next political move and if he chooses to return to the party (Congress), he would be most welcome. In New Delhi, senior NCP leader and Rajya Sabha MP DP Tripathi confirmed that Anwar has quit the party. RJD spokesman and MLA Bhai Virendra said his party welcomes the bold stand taken by Anwar. "We urge Sharad Pawar, who is a senior and widely respected leader, to review his stand on the issue," he said. JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, however, said Pawar had only aligned himself with the popular sentiment in the country. Calling it an act of opportunism, Prasad said Anwar has quit his party shortly ahead of Lok Sabha polls and, perhaps, he will find "greener pastures". (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: On the eve of the second anniversary of the Surgical Strike Day, outgoing Border Security Force (BSF) Director General (DG) KK Sharma on Friday said that the Border Security Force (BSF) was waiting for an appropriate time to retaliate against the brutal killing of its Head Constable Narender Singh along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir. Sharma said some counter-action has already been taken along the LoC. We have taken sufficient action along the LoC to avenge the death of our soldier. We have reserved our right of retaliation and time. We have given tough and befitting replies, causing manifold damage. And we will do it again, he said. Also Read | Its a fact: Outgoing BSF DG KK Sharma on West Bengal 'friendly' towards Rohingyas remark Speaking at a press conference at BSF headquarters, Sharma, who will superannuate on Sunday, said that Singh was killed by the Border Action Team of Pakistan. Elaborating on the killing of the BSF jawan, the DG said Narender Singh was shot three times on the chest and dragged to the other side of the fence. His feet were tied and the throat slit. But the body, he said, was not mutilated and the cause of death was due to bullet injuries. The gun and ammunition of the jawan, who went ahead of the fence in Jammus Ramgarh sector along with seven other personnel, were taken away. This incident is a first of its kind because generally, on the International Border, you dont have Border Action Team (BAT) action. This was BAT action. This is an unfortunate incident. Also Read | Sholay to be screened for visually and hearing impaired today at Siri Fort Auditorium He said the day the BAT incident took place, the BSF noticed that the other side had emptied. They were nowhere in sight. They also got their villages vacated, thinking we will hit them. So, even if we had retaliated, it would not have been of any use at that time, he said, adding we have reserved the right. The BSF has given a tough and befitting reply and caused much more damage on the other side in the past. We will do the same again, the DG said. Sources told The Times of India that the BSF confirmed that Pakistan suffered significant casualties in the heavy retaliatory shelling. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Baghdad: In a heart-wrenching that sent ripples through the social media circles, famous Iraqi Instagram model Tara Fares has been shot dead at the wheel of her Porsche convertible in central Baghdad. The 22-year-old Instagram starlet suffered three fatal bullet wounds on Thursday as she drove through Baghdad's Camp Sarah town. The Interior Ministry has ordered a probe into the brutal murder of Fares. TAlso Read | Bollywood celebrities come out in support of Tanushree Dutta Twitter users said that Fares, a fashionista with 2.7 million followers on Instagram, used to post pictures sporting tattoos, different hair colours and adventurous clothes. "She became a victim of her fame and targeted because of her lifestyle," a user wrote on Twitter. A young Iraq model was simply enjoying & loving life like other pretty girls. Unfortunately, she got shot & killed by few militants. I am truly heartbroken & saddened by such a tragic news, another wrote. Also Read | 'URI' first look unveiled: Vicky Kaushal looks every bit of rustic and captivating Ahmad al-Basheer, an Iraqi satirist who lives in exile in Jordan after having faced death threats, condemned the murder of Fares, who was based in Iraqi Kurdistan and rarely travelled to her native Baghdad. Anyone who finds excuses for those who kill a girl just because she had decided to live like most other girls on the planet is an accomplice to her murder, he said. (With inputs from PTI) New Delhi: In a sensational claim, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has said LTTE militants had planned to attack Colombo with an aircraft flying from Chennai in 2009. "No one knew it better than me," said Sirisena while addressing the Sri Lankan community in New York where he spoke at the UN General Assembly.Sirisena was the acting defence minister during the last two weeks of the civil war with the LTTE in May, 2009, when the rebels were eventually defeated. "The former president was away, the former prime minister was away. There was no defence ministry secretary and army commander in the country at the time," Sirisena said, adding that all senior leaders were out of the country fearing an LTTE air raid. "The Tamil Tigers were going to operate an aircraft from Chennai or some other jungle area to bomb and destroy targets in Colombo," the president said. "Even I did not stay in Colombo. I was at several locations outside Colombo in case the Tigers attacked the capital city," he said. In 2007 and 2009, the LTTE had carried out two air raids in Colombo. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Singapore: Two Indian-origin Singaporeans, named among nine nominated members of parliament, aim to expand their social and labour work during their tenure in the House. The nine were selected from 48 members nominated by the public because of their community services. They will serve half of the parliaments five-year term. Abbas Ali Mohamed Irshad, 29, has been involved in social activities since his student days. He hopes to encourage the youth to get involved in politics and honour the values and efforts of Singapores leaders. Read More | Bhima-Koregaon case: Supreme Court to announce verdict on arrest of five activists today Our founding fathers have put in a lot of effort building what we have. We cannot take peace, prosperity and progress for granted, Irshad was quoted by Tabla!, a Friday weekly on the Indian society in Singapore. The Tamil-speaking leader feels political apathy is an issue facing the youth of Singapore. He wants to address issues like job mismatch and rising costs of living. Irshad will represent various communities? youth, Indians, Muslims, Tamils and Singaporeans at large - in parliament, reported Tabla! Also Read | Bigg Boss 12 Day 11 highlights: Jasleen and Anup's romance bloom on national television Unionist Arasu Duraisamy, 50, advocates re-skilling workers. I fully understand the need for our workers to be trained [to] keep up with the changes in the industry, said the general secretary of Singapore Port Workers Union. He has served the union for 25 years and plans to gather feedback from sections of labour movement in Singapore. We can do more do educate and raise awareness about how tripartism at the sectoral and middle-management levels can be a valuable one, said Arasu. President Halimah Yacob presented the instruments of appointment to the nine nominated members of parliament during a ceremony Thursday. The members will be sworn-in next week. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Italy's establishment has been dealt a body blow by the populist duo of Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, who have won their first battle to fund costly campaign promises. After long and tense negotiations which threatened the job of Finance Minister Giovanni Tria, deputy premiers Di Maio and Salvini announced triumphantly Thursday night that the government had agreed to set next year's deficit target at 2.4 percent of gross domestic product. That's over the 2 percent threshold which emerged as a litmus test for financial markets worried pressure to deliver on election promises would jeopardize state finances and breach European Union budget limits. The target is a blow to Finance Minister Giovanni Tria and President Sergio Mattarella. The two had sought to moderate the more extreme instincts of the government, formed in June by Di Maio's anti-establishment Five Star Movement and Salvini's anti-migrant League. "This is a defeat for Tria," said Erik Jones, professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna. "Debt is going to grow relative to GDP, and the government's going to be under pressure as it drafts the budget." The fiscal targets set a framework for a draft 2019 budget that the government has to present to the European Commission by mid-October for approval. Five Star and the League want to deliver on expensive campaign promises to shore up support ahead of European Parliament elections in May. That ballot will reveal just how powerful euro-skeptic forces have become as right-wing parties across the region step up their attacks on ruling elites, press for greater national sovereignty, and seek stricter limits on migration. "Mamma mia," exclaimed a European Union official stunned by the deficit figure. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the headline deficit should have been around 1.6 percent to ensure a marginal improvement in the structural balance. The 2.4 figure squarely puts Italy in breach of its obligations, the official said. Tria decided not to quit after president Mattarella urged him to remain in his job, newspaper Sole-24 Ore reported. The head of state also had a conversation with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte Thursday evening, newswire Ansa said. Tria has been locked in a tussle especially with Di Maio, who said this week that a budget deficit above 2 percent "isn't a taboo," and that the government needs to spend lavishly to boost growth. For Five Star, the issue had also become a way to recapture the initiative from the League's Salvini who has jumped ahead of Di Maio in opinion polls. Di Maio and Salvini said measures agreed Thursday included a basic income for the poor, tax cuts and rolling back a pension reform which had raised the retirement age. Di Maio hailed "a budget for the people, which for the first time in the history of this country cancels poverty thanks to the citizen's income" at a cost he put at 10 billion euros. Salvini has taken a more discreet stand in public, but in ministerial meetings he has also pushed for a wider deficit, according to a government official close to the League. Tria, Mattarella, Conte, and Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi have formed a quiet alliance based on their shared commitment to the EU and its budget rules, according to senior officials. The front also includes Ignazio Visco, governor of the Bank of Italy who warned a wider deficit could spook markets and produce an "unsustainable" risk for the country's 2.3-trillion-euro debt. Di Maio has suffered more from the growing tensions in the coalition than Salvini, who has won backing for his party with his hard line on immigration. Support for the League has risen to 32 percent, while Five Star has declined to 28.7 percent, according to an SWG Institute poll published this week. In March's general election, the League got 17.4 percent of the vote and Five Star 32.7 percent. "Attention will now turn to the details and assumptions of the budget to determine whether they are attainable or not," said Mohammed Kazmi, portfolio manager at Union Bancaire Privee. "The reaction of the European Commission will be important to track given previous concerns of this coalition clashing with European officials." Five Star adopted a defiant stand moments after the deficit target was agreed. "We don't fear the spread" -- a reference to the gap between Italian and German 10-year bonds -- "we don't fear the markets," said Stefano Patuanelli, head of Five Star senators. "At last the government is answering the demands of citizens." --With assistance from Bloomberg's Nikos Chrysoloras and Marco Bertacche. DANBURY The head of the Danbury High School English Department has received the Master Teacher of Honor Award from Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education. English teacher Nicole Martone was recognized for her professional development, leadership, community service and exceptional contributions to education, according to the organization. Nicoles experience, empathy, and attention to detail make her a highly effective department chair who has improved the atmosphere of the department, fellow English teacher Greg Euchner said. Her ability to recognize best practices and allow them to flourish has made a difference that is felt by teachers and students alike. Kappa Delta Pi has awarded only 16 master teacher distinctions since the award was created in 2011 to recognize distinguished teachers from kindergarten to university faculty who have a masters degree and at least 15 years of professional experience, according to the organization. Developing a supportive educational climate is a major aspect of Martones philosophy of education, she said. She aims to support students cognitive, social-emotional and physical needs by maintaining a welcoming and safe environment for all, using data to support teaching, learning, and leading and promoting student engagement, she said. Martone serves on several School Safety and Safe School Climate/Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support committees. She also is part of the School Leadership Team at DHS, which works on class curricula, including the recent revisions to the English curriculum for all four high school grades. The National Council of Teachers of English also recognized her as an Emerging Leaders Fellow in 2016. She has pioneered a new approach to share and recognize classroom strategies so that the benefits of an innovative method discovered by one teacher radiated out to the whole department, Euchner said. Martone is currently a doctoral student at Lesley University and already has earned a sixth-year diploma and masters degree from Quinnipiac University after a bachelors degree from Southern Connecticut State University. zach.murdock@hearstmediact.com The Mark Twain Library in Redding is hosting a talk about Congressional oversight investigations at 3 p.m. Sunday. It will be led by author Elise J. Bean, who spent more than 30 years on Capitol Hill and spent 1999 to 2014 working for Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., at the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. More News Collectors and residents swarm Mark Twain Library's book fair kickoff During that time, the committee looked into money laundering, offshore tax abuse and banks behaving badly all of which are described in her book, Financial Exposure: Carl Levins Senate Investigations into Finance and Tax Abuse. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Bean is currently the Washington Co-Director of the Levin Center at Wayne Law. This program is co-hosted by the Redding League of Women Voters. Please register online, at the library or call 203-938-2545 for information. DANBURY A Hartford judge will decide whether Danburys Dorothy Day Hospitality House can continue to operate after city zoning officials closed the door on a possible local settlement plan. After a series of hearings and debates throughout the summer, the citys Zoning Board of Appeals voted to deny a proposal Thursday night that could have created an opportunity to settle the controversy over the downtown homeless shelter. That was a tough one, but I think its the right thing to do in the long term, Chairman Dick Jowdy said. Theres still the lawsuit, if something were to happen there, then the city would be right in the middle of it because we approved these variances. I think we made the right decision. The board unanimously agreed it would not support a series of highly technical variances that would have given the 120-year-old Dorothy Day building permission not to meet certain modern zoning rules. That would have allowed the shelter to apply for a special exception to reauthorize the shelter to continue to operate as it has for 35 years. Instead, the vote sends the final decision back to Judge Marshall Berger, Jr., who presides over the land-use litigation docket in Hartford, where an appeal is pending over the citys 2016 attempt to close part of the Spring Street shelter for lack of proper approvals. The typically heated debate about the issue was muted Thursday night, with only three residents in attendance to hear the vote, and no discussion among board members who already have spent hours debating the details over the past three months. The boards lengthy resolution outlined a series of reasons why members disagreed with the proposed variances, but at the root of the issue was the hall pass nature of Dorothy Day attorney Neil Marcus proposal. That could bend the rules so much that the shelter might not even need the exception or could have unintended consequences should another operation one day take over the site, Jowdy said. The applicants request that the board waive the legal requirements ... so as to grant a hall pass to allow applications to the Planning Commission for a grant of a special exception with site plan approval is outside the scope of the boards authority, the resolution concludes. The vote appears to exhaust Dorothy Days options under city rules to bring its shelter back into zoning compliance. It was not immediately clear at the end of the meeting how soon Marcus and city attorneys will return to the issue with Berger, who had delayed further discussion on the case to allow the parties time to consider the possible settlement. zach.murdock@hearstmediact.com NEW YORK - At 93, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was the most venerable statesman to appear at the United Nations this week. He's the last survivor of an old guard of towering Southeast Asian leaders, including figures like Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Indonesia's Suharto. Before returning to power with a dramatic election victory in May, Mahathir had governed as prime minister between 1981 and 2003. When he delivered his last speech from the dais of the U.N.'s General Assembly 15 years ago, President Donald Trump wasn't even a reality-television star yet. On Friday, Mahathir will address the assembly again. In an interview this week, the prime minister said he will focus on the importance of strengthening democracy and democratizing the international system. It's the same theme he addressed in his 2003 speech, where he, like other non-Western leaders, called for the restructuring of an international system dominated by a handful of powers. The U.N.'s Security Council, Mahathir told this column, is "a very undemocratic organization in which five countries can frustrate the rest of the world." The Malaysian leader has long been known for his sharp remarks - especially when it comes to his grievances with the United States and the West. It's a penchant for plain-speak that endures. "There's talk about equality, but there's no such thing as equality" in the international system, he said. "The powerful will do what they want. The weak will have to submit." In recent weeks, Mahathir has earned attention for attempting to buck this trend. His new government canceled two multibillion-dollar Chinese investment projects, a move perceived by analysts as a rejection of Beijing's geopolitical ambitions in Asia. But Mahathir pushed back on any suggestion that he was "anti-Chinese." "China does not have a history of creating empires through conquests," Mahathir said, contrasting that history to centuries of European colonial violence and plunder. "We have relations with China for almost 2,000 years, but they never conquered us." He condemned the imminent trade war between the United States and China as "silly," "old-fashioned" and something Beijing does not want. He also looks dourly upon Trump, a new antagonist in the White House. "I find it difficult to make out what he is like, because he seems to be rather mercurial, changing his mind in a short space of time," he said of the American president. "When he expresses an opinion, it seems to be not in keeping with reality." Mahathir argued that he canceled the Chinese contracts in questions not as an act of defiance against China, but because the debt-laden deal didn't serve the national interest and was the work of his allegedly corrupt predecessor, Prime Minister Najib Razak. Mahathir's return to the world stage followed a remarkable election campaign this year to unseat Razak, a former Mahathir protege. Popular discontent with Malaysia's political status quo, intensified by spiraling corruption scandals surrounding Razak, compelled his mentor to head up an opposition coalition and bring down the ruling party he had dominated for decades. The opposition victory was "a textbook example of democracy," Mahathir said. "Democracy can only function if people understand and respect the vote." In a high-stakes contest in Malaysia, he argued, the vote was respected. There are profound ironies about this turn of events. For years, Mahathir was viewed by many as an autocrat in democratic clothing, a charismatic politico who ruthlessly consolidated power even as he pioneered his nation's modernization. He is still irked by this characterization, casting it as a "trick" played by the Western media. "Whether my policies were good or bad is up for others to evaluate," he said. "But I stayed on for 22 years. I led five elections and in all five elections, I won with a very good majority. The people were not so disappointed with me to the extent of wanting to throw me out." Nor does he take any responsibility for the political legacy he may have bequeathed to his country - a certain political elite engaging in astonishing graft, enabled in part by a compromised judiciary. Since leaving office in 2003, Mahathir has become a vocal critic of his successors. "I don't see why I should be blamed. Without anybody asking me to, I resigned to give way to other people," he said, referring to his departure in favor of then-Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. Instead, he blames "the character of the people who succeeded me, not the political system" itself. He said his government will work toward cleaning up the country's judiciary and reviving foreign investment. In the 1990s, Mahathir was the chief proponent of "Asian values," a set of principles that challenged the universality of human rights and seemed to justify authoritarian governance if it delivers prosperity and development. Now, he has softened his rhetoric to fit his new democratic bona fides. "It can't be a case of one-size-fits-all," he said, pointing to the failure of democratic uprisings in the Middle East. "Democracy is not perfect, it does not guarantee good governance. Democracy can throw up a leader who can manipulate the law and so he actually becomes a dictator." Mahathir then added: "Trump is what happens with democracy." Malaysia's nonagenarian leader is eager to avoid any more talk about dictatorship at home. He came to power on a pledge to eventually cede office to once-jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, a politician who Mahathir targeted for prosecution 20 years ago. They've since buried the hatchet, and Mahathir told Today's WorldView that he will give way to Anwar in "two or three years." He ended on a matter-of-fact note: "I don't want to stay forever." - - - Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York. The following editorial appears on Bloomberg Opinion: Italy's new populist leaders appear to be sticking to the program that brought them to power: In their budget plans, they're charting a course that could ultimately put the entire European project at risk. One can only hope that they will see reason. Since forming a government last spring, the coalition of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and right-wing League has kept everyone guessing about its genuine intentions. Its leaders made expensive promises to Italians, including big tax cuts, a lower retirement age, and even a basic income. They also vowed to pass a prudent budget that wouldn't run afoul of EU rules on government deficits and debt. Needless to say, these aims are not compatible. Now comes a moment of truth, as the coalition sets out its budget for 2019. It's not looking good. After much deliberation, the government is aiming for a deficit of 2.4 percent of gross domestic product, up from a projected target of 0.8 percent under the previous administration. Although that stays within the EU's 3 percent limit, it violates the further requirement that highly indebted nations make a genuine effort to shrink their burden - which in Italy's case would require a deficit significantly smaller than 2 percent. Minor as the difference might seem, it could have big consequences for Europe. Italy's debt burden, at about 130 percent of GDP, is already the euro area's highest after Greece. If investors lose faith that the government can get it under control, Europe's leaders could find themselves facing the awful options of trying to rescue Italy, overseeing an unprecedented debt restructuring, or allowing the euro's third-largest economy to exit. All would endanger the common currency that is at the heart of Europe's efforts to maintain a lasting union. Harsh reality could yet force Italy toward the path of prudence. News of the government's budget plans has already increased its borrowing costs, a dynamic that has proved sobering in the past. These days, it's not uncommon for populists to do a decent job of managing government finances. Portugal, for example, has performed perfectly well under its nominally left-wing coalition. If Italy pulls back from the brink, Europe's leaders should be accommodative. They can, for example, focus less on budget rules and more on ensuring that Rome puts resources to better use - for example, by raising public investment, which has been squeezed since the start of the recession, rather than by giving more money to pensioners. They should also recognize the extent to which they have aggravated Italy's predicament by leaving the country to bear the brunt of the region's refugee crisis. For now, though, it's up to Italy's leaders to demonstrate some responsibility. - - - Editorials are written by the Bloomberg View editorial board. It wasnt hard to find people who love their jobs and their companies in this group of Top Workplaces winners. Theyre the core of the workforce. We spoke with three of them. KC Kyle Employer: Power Home Remodeling Job Title: Remodeling Consultant Mentor Town of residency: Stamford Years with company: three How you wound up in the industry: I never expected to work in home remodeling, and especially not on the sales side, but after college I was bartending and a close friend of mine couldnt stop bragging about how much he loved his company and career. He spent months trying to get me to apply until I finally took the plunge and interviewed with Power Home Remodeling. What you love about your job: My job allows me to push myself as an individual without ever losing sight of my team, our customers and Powers purposeto improve everything we touch. Ive also gotten to meet more than 3,000 homeowners over the last three years both in Connecticut and Tampa, and thats always rewarding. What you love about your company: Power is a community its a family. We all put each other ahead of ourselves and that builds a culture of trust. I know that my colleagues, managers and leadership have my best interests at heart, and thats allowed me to push myself further than I ever thought possible. Power is also laser focused on development and growth. This company has allowed me to evolve from a 23 year old kid who was scared to a growing professional who moved to Tampa to help open a new office, who is taking on a management role and who has become a better person inside and outside of the office. Fun Fact about your job: Speakers at Powers leadership conferences have included Colin Powell and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Pat Sheary Employer: Darien Library Job title: Programming librarian Town of residency: Stamford Years with the company: Seven How did you wind up working in the library: A lifelong passion for books. What do you love about your job: I can honestly say that I enjoy my job more today than I did on the day I was hired. Who knew that working in a library would deal with so much more than books? While my job has expanded since that first day, the one constant that remains the same is the quality of the staff with whom I work. My colleagues here are an incredibly smart, interesting and diverse group who are incredibly generous and supportive. What you love about your company: Starting at the top with the director, I am always offered help with whatever project or undertaking I embark upon. That level of support has given me confidence to take on challenges I might not have taken on in another environment-which prevents my job from ever becoming boring. Fun Fact: The Darien Library is the busiest public library in the state. Lynn Ridberg Employer: Greenwich Emergency Medical Service Job title: Paramedic Years at company: 32 What do you love about your job: Aside from being a paramedic, I also teach CPR, first aid and advanced classes for health care professionals. I love educating the community about what we do on t he ambulance so they would not be as fearful and, most of all, that we are not ambulance drivers but educated medical professionals that are bringing the emergency room to them to start treating them immediately. My workplace is more like my second home as we work long hours, have stressful situations sometimes, and because of that, we consider our co-workers more like family. What do you love about your company: GEMS is a great place to work not only because we are a family, but also they provide us we yearly physicals, reimbursement for a gym to stay fit, excellent health benefits, tuition reimbursement to further our education and continuing education to stay the top clinicians. Fun fact: When I was graduating from high school they had us write down what they thought we would do when we got older. I wrote down paramedic. Geneva, N.Y. - A new grape created at Cornell University celebrates size. Each fruit, on average, is twice as big as a traditional Concord grape. That's why it was named after Mount Everest, says Bruce Reisch, a horticulture professor and grape breeder at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, N.Y. But it was also named because of what's not there: Seeds. The Everest Seedless is a juicy, sweet and blue grape that's meant to be eaten fresh, rather than put into juices or jams. It's the first truly seedless Concord-type grape ever released, according to the school. "For people who like the flavors of Eastern grapes, this one really fits the bill," Reisch said earlier this month. The Everest Seedless is just one of three new fruits created and released this fall from Cornell, which has the nation's oldest berry breeding program. The grape plants will be available later this year; the berry plants will be for sale in the spring. Crimson Treasure is a sweet red raspberry that produces uniform and firm fruit that holds up well in transport. Under the right conditions, these berries can last nearly two weeks in refrigeration, says berry breeder and Associate Professor Courtney Weber. The Dickens strawberry - named after Charles Dickens - is a late producer. It ripens in about the third week of June, even as the weather warms. And each plant produces about a pound of strawberries. The red berries are the ninth and tenth creations from Weber, who's been at Cornell for nearly two decades. Reisch has been breeding grapes at Cornell for 38 years. "I've lost count," when asked how many grapes he's helped create. The Everest Seedless is the first table grape to come out of Cornell in 14 years. In the early stages of research, Reisch says he considers what eater and growers want. "What do you want in a new grape?" he said. "No grape out there is perfect." Both breeders use traditional breeding techniques to create new varieties. They bring parent plants together whose traits they'd like to blend or strengthen. Sometimes that's resistance to disease or cold weather; other times, the selection factors involve taste, size or even the thickness of a grape skin. The parents are bred then grown in Cornell's fields just outside of Geneva, N.Y. The process can take years. Some of the varieties they produce are better for local markets in the Finger Lakes and in Central New York. Others travel the world: Crimson Treasure is being test grown in California and at international markets, Weber said. Naming fruits presents its own challenge. The fruits are patented, and their names can't be too similar to existing fruits. Weber has been naming strawberries after his favorite authors. The Crimson Treasure is the third in a series of red berries created at Cornell; the Crimson Night is under license in Japan. Cornell University professors Courtney Weber (left) and Bruce Reisch breed new fruit varieties in Geneva, N.Y. Weber's newest breed is a raspberry called Crimson Treasure and Reisch's new breed is a grape called Everest Seedless. All three new varieties are good for backyard growers and local farmers, the breeders said. They hope the new fruit will add diversity to local farmers markets. "We want growers at their markets to have something besides what you can get in the supermarkets," Weber said, "to have a reason for people to come and look for something that's special or different." More about the new fruits: Everest Seedless Traits: Large fruit, as much as 7 grams per berry, with a juicy inside and a thin, crisp skin. Tolerant of temps as low as 10 to 15 degrees below zero. Disease/pests: Moderately resistant to downy mildew and powdery mildew. Insects don't seem interested in the variety in Cornell's fields. Taste: Grapey, with a sweet, cotton candy aroma. Season: Fall crop Color: Blue, almost black-purple blue. Market: Local markets in Upstate New York and into the Midwest. How to buy: Double A Vineyards of Fredonia, N.Y. The nursery will sell the grape vines for the next 10 years and sends royalties back to Cornell's breeding program. Crimson Treasure Traits: Canes produce clusters of berries that are dense and easy to pick. The fruit is uniform in size and shape and is less likely to bruise compared with other raspberries. Each berry can be 4 to 6 grams. Disease/pests: Crimson Treasure has been very resilient regarding diseases. It shows good resistance to root rot, leaf spot and powdery mildew which are the three main diseases in the area. Taste: More sweet than tart. Season: Fall, though berries will grow on smaller canes, close to the ground, in spring. Color: bright red Market: Local, national and worldwide. How to buy: The raspberry canes will be available from North American Plants in McMinnville, Oregon, to wholesalers. Dickens Hudson Falls, N.Y. -- Police have arrested one man in connection with the disappearance of a 12-year-old Hudson Falls girl. Police have not released any updated information on the child's whereabouts, according to The Post-Star in Glens Falls. The girl, Malaya Johnson, was last seen in the Washington County community Hudson Falls, outside of Glens Falls, at about 3 p.m. Wednesday after she left school. Police arrested a 19-year-old New York City man late Thursday in connection with the case, the Post-Star said. The man is being held in the Washington County jail on unspecified charges. The man is believed to have taken Johnson according to the Post-Star. Police plan to release more information on the man's involvement later on Friday. Police said earlier that a red Ford Mustang and two men sought in the case were tracked to Staten Island in New York City. Authorities also said they were investigating possible sightings of Johnson in the city on Thursday, according to the Post-Star. Authorities issued an Amber Alert for Johnson on Thursday afternoon. Police called her disappearance a possible abduction and said they initially did not know what relationship she had with the two men in the car. There was no initial indication she was taken against her will, the Post-Star said. WABC in New York City reported that the passenger in the car was released, but the driver was detained for more questioning. The station also said there had been reports of Johnson near the ferry terminal on Staten Island. Authorities believe Johnson could be in imminent danger of serious injury or death, WABC said. Police also said her cell phone indicated she was in Rockland County sometime on Wednesday, according to the Post-Star. Johnson is black with long brown hair and brown eyes. She is about 5 feet tall and weighs about 115 pounds. She was last seen wearing light red jeans, a white tank top and was carrying a light colored backpack, according to WNYT in Albany. Anyone who sees her or has information on the case should contact police. Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-282-8598 Astrophysicist Francis Rocard lead the Solar System exploration program at CNES. He was interviewed by a French newspaper Courrier International. Rocard showed that Ariane is still in denial about SpaceX. They accept Falcon 9 and now the block 5 Falcon 9 are the lowest cost rockets and that the reuse of first stages is a huge breakthrough. Rocard does not talk about Falcon Heavy. Rocard believes or hopes that SpaceX will not get the BFR funded. Rocard believes that NASA will not supply the $2 to 10 billion because of the funding of the Space Launch System (SLS). Rocard is not wanting to recognize that there are components of BFR already being built and that the Raptor engines appears to be close to working. SpaceX is dominating commercial launch already and will be making $20-40 million from each commercial launch and $40-100 million from NASA and military launches. Nextbigfuture expects SpaceX to win more and more NASA and military launches. SpaceX made $200-400 million from the pre-sale of the moon orbiting mission for billionaire tourist Yasuku Maezawa. SpaceX has demonstrated to the world that they can reuse launchers, rockets, which is a real revolution currently in the space field. Elon Musk is completely crazy. His long-term approach is extremely questionable ethically since he wants to colonize Mars. Mars is for him plan B. And I find it extremely questionable. This is not the American approach and it is certainly not the approach of CNES. Rocard is saying that making humanity multi-planet is unethical. The ethical thing is to only have one planet and to help Earth. Nextbigfuture observes that Dinosaurs were ethical according to Rocard. And what he announces loudly in high-traffic conferences, his Big Fucking Rocket (BFR ), his Raptor, all that is science fiction And Musk is only concerned about one thing: transportation. In fact, it has the same approach as the Falcon 9. Let me explain: SpaceX, with its Falcon 9, sold the idea of a cheap launcher. NASA paid to see and funded SpaceX up to $ 500 million. SpaceX was serious and it is going well. NASA has contracted $7 billion. I do not believe [BFR] too much because Nasa has already invested billions of dollars on a launcher called the Space Launch System, the SLS. NASA has no interest in shooting itself in the foot by financing the BFR. SpaceX alone will not be able to finance the BFR and the Raptor In the very long term, Elon Musks approach is bluffing. DARPA has selected nine teams to compete in the Subterranean (SubT) Challenge to develop new approaches to rapidly map, navigate, and search underground environments. This will better equip warfighters and first responders to explore human-made tunnel systems, urban underground, and natural cave networks that are too dangerous, dark, or deep to risk human lives. DARPA has selected seven teams to compete in the funded track of the Systems competition: Carnegie Mellon University Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia iRobot Defense Holdings, Inc. dba Endeavor Robotics Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology University of Colorado, Boulder University of Nevada, Reno University of Pennsylvania Teams in the Virtual competition will use simulation models and physics-based environments focusing on software-driven advances. The following organizations have received a contract to compete in the DARPA-funded track of the Virtual competition: Michigan Technological University Scientific Systems Company, Inc. DARPA-funded and self-funded teams will vie for a $2 million prize in the Systems track, while the winner of the Virtual track will earn a $750,000 prize. Xue Gong researched and wrote The Role of Chinese Corporate Players in Chinas South China Sea Policy. It shows extensive work by Chinese State-Owned-Enterprises (SEO) in developing infrastructure and tourism, as well as oil and gas, in the South China Sea. China Communications Construction Corporation (CCCC) and its subsidiaries developed some of worlds largest dredgers. CCCC has formed new units centered on the Paracels. They plan to expand in tourism, logistics, fishing and the ongoing construction business. There will be US$15 billion (S$20.6 billion) for investment across various sectors. More than 70,000 tourists have traveled on four cruise ships that tour the South China Sea since the Paracels route was opened in April 2013, the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration said in January. Some 680 commercial flights landed on the expanded runway at Woody Island in 2017. China and Hainan is taking applications to develop South China Sea reefs for up to 50 year permits for tourism, aquaculture, amusement, development of salt and mineral industry, public welfare projects, and harbor and shipyard. Developers will pay the government for using those islands. Chinas opening of its southernmost province to visa-free foreign tourism next month could make features in a nearby, widely disputed sea more accessible to curious travelers. On May 1, 2018 Hainan province started allowing 30-day visa-free stays for people from 59 countries. This includes visiting the reefs of the South China Sea. China is considering proposals aimed at creating a national marine park in the South China Sea. Fiery Cross island (3000-meter runway and military facilities including missile and radar installations) cost around $11 billion. China National Offshore Oil Corporations (CNOOC) has 45% of its oil and gas output from the South China Sea. China will spend over $32 billion developing the oil and gas. The US spends $890 billion on defense in 2019 [4-5% of GDP]. Continuing this rate of spending will mean the US Navy would shrink to 230 ships in 2047. Increasing costs for ships and planes and other military equipment cannot be contained. China is a rising power and is increasing its military size by spending about 2% of GDP and $200-300 billion per year. Russia spends about $50-60 billion but has aggressive use of its military. The US has just been fighting terrorists in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq and had taken their focus off of China and Russia. Now the US military planners are caring about China and Russia. They claim that the US has to boost the Navy by 75 ships and the Air Force by 940 planes or the military will not be able to match up with China and Russia in the future. 2019 US military budget The US authorized $717 billion defense budget for 2019. There is a base defense budget of $639 billion and overseas contingency operations funding total of another $69 billion. It does not include about $181.3 billion. The Department of Veterans Affairs ($83.1 billion), the State Department ($28.3 billion), Homeland Security ($46 billion), FBI and Cybersecurity in the Department of Justice ($8.8 billion) and the National Nuclear Security Administration in the Department of Energy ($21.9 billion). It includes $40.8 billion to overcome the crisis in military aviation by purchasing more equipment, $17.7 billion to rehabilitate worn-out Army equipment and $23.5 billion to upgrade and repair crumbling military buildings and other infrastructure. There is a 2.6 percent pay raise. The US bought 77 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, 15 KC-46 Pegasus aircraft a fourth Ford-class aircraft carrier three Littoral Combat Ships and six polar icebreakers Air Force is pushing for 386 air squadrons which is 940 more planes and adding $37 billion per year The US Air Force wants to go from 312 operational squadrons to 386. The annual additional cost would be about $37 billion at a time when budget projections show no increase, and up to 94,000 additional personnel, active and reserve. The Air Force would require a total of about 940 more aircraft to fill the operational units as well as the associated training, maintenance, and test requirements. This does not include the money for the hypersonic weapons development or new combat lasers. The US Army wants big six modernization The Army needs an additional $2-3 billion per year, above its already generous 2019 budget, to fund its Big Six modernization priorities in the 2020s, says a new strategy document submitted to Congress. Bigger 355 ship Navy plan and its $38 billion per year added operating cost The Navy wants to go to 355 ships up from about 280 now. This will boost procurement by about ten billion per year. Operating costs would go up by $38 billion per year. CBO estimates that, over the next 30 years, meeting the 355-ship goal with new-ship construction alone would cost an average of $26.7 billion annually (in 2017 dollars). Combining that shipbuilding program with service life extension programs (commonly called SLEPs) for some existing ships to achieve a 355-ship fleet faster would cost an average of $27.5 billion annually. The costs for those SLEPs would be concentrated over the next 10 years. The smaller fleets would cost less: If the Navy was kept at its current size, shipbuilding costs would average $22.4 billion annually. By contrast, if funding for the fleet was kept at roughly historical levels, shipbuilding costs would average $16.8 billion per year. CBO expects that the costs for operation and support for all of the alternativeseven a substantially smaller fleetwould be higher in 2047 in real (inflation-adjusted) terms than comparable costs for the existing fleet. By 2047, the annual cost (in 2017 dollars) of operating a 355-ship fleet would be about $38 billion (or 68 percent) more than the $56 billion the current fleet of 280 ships costs to operate. Overall, costs for the alternative that would include SLEPs would be higher in earlier years because some of the ships would be retired later than under the first alternative. A fleet that maintained the size and composition of the current fleet would cost $22 billion (or 39 percent) more in 2047. And the smallest fleet would still cost $12 billion (or 21 percent) more than the fleet costs to operate today. When fall hits, Instagram feeds become flooded with photos of pumpkin spice lattes, new boots and apple-picking excursions. Case-in-point: Silverman's Farm, Lyman Orchards, Outhouse Orchards, Harvest Moon Farm and Orchard and Bishop's Orchards all have more than 1,500 public check-ins on Instagram. Click through the slideshow to see the trendiest orchards to pose for the camera this fall. Irv Silverman owner of Silverman's Farm in Easton said 2019 has seen a "very good" apple crop thanks to a dry summer. "Last year wasn't as good...this has been a very good year," he said. "Pollination was good in the spring and we had no rain during blossom time." In 2018, Chris Seifrit, manager of Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel, said his orchard saw 50 percent less apple growth than the year before. The problems all started at the beginning of summer when the tornado hit and blew the blossoms off the trees. Dan Beardsley, co-owner of Beardsley's Cider Mill and Apple Orchard in Shelton has also seen a good crop this year. "I'm really excited. It looks fantastic; a lot of apples out there," he said. " Just hoping no hurricanes or hail." Silverman and Beardsley both said the most popular apple-picking time is mid-September to mid-October. "We get a lot of kids from NYC that aren't country kids that have never seen apples growing on trees, so it's really an education," Silverman said. "Two generations ago, people had apple trees in their backyards. Now farms are less and less, so its an experience." And Instagram, he said, has made the desire that much bigger. "Everybody is selfie happy," Seifert said. "We have lots of people that post pictures of them having a good time, which is basically what it's all about. Come out and have a nice day in the country." Related: You know it's fall in Connecticut when.... Apple harvest times often range from mid-August to mid-October, but some orchards stay open for picking through Thanksgiving. Pumpkin season has already begun and will overshadow apples in October. HAMDEN Local residents gathered Friday afternoon to commemorate the preservation of Rocky Top and dedicate a trail in honor of the founder of the Connecticut blue-blazed system Friday, celebrating a successful effort to preserve the property. The 18-acre plot of land, located next to the Hamden Public Works facility at 1125 Shepard Ave., used to be the summer home of Edgar Heermance, who created the blue-blazed trail system starting with the Quinnipiac Trail on the property. Multiple attempts were made between 2008 and 2018 to develop the land, according to past reporting, most recently by Mountain View Estates LLC developer Gary Richetelli, who sought to build 288 apartments there. Neighbors and residents fought each proposal in turn. In early 2018, after a joint effort involving multiple groups, Richetelli donated the land to the Hamden Land Conservation Trust, allowing for the dedication of the trail Friday. We were very fortunate to have the advocacy of Connecticut Forest and Parks Association and the hard work and activism of the Rocky Top neighbors, said Jim Sirch, the former president of the Hamden Land Conservation Trust. These people didnt give up for 10 years in fighting this development that was potentially going to be right here. It would have been tons and tons of trap rock removed, leveled, and (resulted in) a very different place than we see here today. I think this project is really a testament to what can happen when groups come together and work together for a common cause, said Clare Cain, trails stewardship director for the Connecticut Forest and Parks Association. Its really a special place, and this is really a special project, because it really has protected the land that Edgar was very connected to. Tim and Roberta Mack, two of those neighbors, were also celebrated during the affair. A plaque praising their vision and efforts to organize the community to save Rocky Top for the people of Hamden and generations following will be placed on an American Chestnut tree on the trail. Tim Mack said he and his wife have lived in the area for about 25 years their home borders the property and wanted to block development to preserve the natural ecosystem in the area, keep the trail system linked, and maintain the top of the ridge, which would have been blasted away. (This property) has all sorts of wildlife, all types of plants. It supplies pristine water to the wetlands, said Mack. If they had flattened this ridge, it would have changed this whole system (of trails) forever. Mayor Curt B. Leng offered a proclamation naming a section of the trail in honor of Heermance. Before he began, Leng took a moment to offer some thoughts on the occasion. Isnt it peaceful here? Leng said, as the soft hum of cars thrummed in the background and birds called. This area almost was decimated, and without the work of the neighbors that were here (it might well have been) Please know that you have the gratitude of a very appreciative town official here for your work. Those in attendance then clambered forward to take ahold of the ribbon that had been strung up at the start of the trail or of one another. The ribbon was cut, and with whoops and cheers, the trail, now preserved for all time, was opened to the world. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com Africa in Motion Film Festival has announced the final short list of its annual Short Film Competition. The festival has successfully run its annual Short Film Competition for the past 11 years. This year, the shortlist was selected from over 450 entries, a record in AiM's history. Agya film (Japan). We have launched! Check out the AiM 2018 programme! https://t.co/sIR9edoryu pic.twitter.com/qEB61MXJzD Africa in Motion (@AiMfilmfest) September 23, 2018 Finalists Africa in Motion was founded in 2006 and is now preparing for its 13Set in Edinburgh and Glasgow, it aims at bringing the excellence of African cinema to Scottish audiences, and at overcoming the under-representation and the overwhelming marginalisation of African films in British film-going culture. The festival will take place from 27 October to 4 November 2018.The competition is central to AiM's commitment to nurturing young African filmmaking talent, and filmmakers who enter must not have previously made a feature-length film. This years final shortlist boasts a diverse and captivating collection of work from across the continent, including Ghana, Algeria, Senegal, Morocco, Kenya and Nigeria.The short films will be screened on Wednesday 31 October in Edinburgh (at Woodland Creatures) and also, on Wednesday 31 October in Glasgow (at University of Glasgow, Andrew Stewart Cinema).There is a cash prize of 500 awarded to the winner, who will be selected by our jury of acclaimed film practitioners and academics, this prize is sponsored by the Scottish Documentary Institute. Audiences also have the opportunity to vote for their favourite film, with the Audience Award winner announced on the website at the end of the festival.The selected films of the Short Film Competition are:: Ayoub Layoussifi | Morocco 2016 | 29m | Arabic with English subtitles | 15While playing football with his friends, young Hassan finds out the cinema in his small Moroccan town will be closing for good the next day. Hassan then goes on a whirlwind adventure to find a ticket to the last screening, Spider-Man 3.: Karanja Ngendo | Kenya 2018 | 5m | 15An exploration of race and colourism. What happens when a person is too black to be white and too white to be black? An experimental look at albinism and colourism in the black community.: Curtis Essel | Ghana 2018 | 5m | Arabic with English subtitles | 15AGYA which means Father in Twi (Ghanaian dialect) is a conversation with father of four YAW (from the Ghanaian naming system, meaning born on a Thursday) condensed into five parts, one film that goes through five different stages.Ilham El Alami | Morocco 2016 | 15m | Arabic with English subtitles | 15The story of Wafaa, a woman who is reliving the same day over and over again. A mysterious man invites her in to look at pictures of his family, but what does it all mean? A tender look at marriage and debilitating health.Faten Jaziri | Tunisia 2017 | 27m | 15Inhabited by a past full of culture, where the shadow of his father floats, Fares, a young and exalted photographer, tries to join a singer who mysteriously fascinates him. Facing the cynicism of the modern city, caught in a hallucinated vortex, he is going to have to step outside of himself in order to confront his fears.Jasyn Howes | South Africa 2018 | 27m | 15A young gang member from Brooklyn, Cape Town gets arrested after a night out turned bad. Abdul was subsequently convicted of murder and sent to prison at Drakenstein Correctional Facility. Whilst on the inside he found the sport of boxing, which changed the course of his life.Denise Ekale Kum | Japan 2018 | 15m | Japanese with English subtitles | 15A little black girl swims against the currents of uniformed masses in the vast city of Tokyo. Every now and then, she bends down to retrieve a glittering piece of a discarded item. For her silent quest has a goal to reclaim a treasure thought lost.The Scottish Documentary Institute is sponsoring the prize for the Short Film Competition Winner. Established in 2004 by Noe Mendelle to nurture documentary filmmakers and audiences in Scotland and beyond, SDI specialises in documentary training, production and distribution, supporting filmmakers through its diverse programme of international activities and high-quality training programmes. https://www.scottishdocinstitute.com HAMDEN - Longtime deputy chief John Cappiello will be named acting police chief in Hamden Oct. 1, according to an announcement from the town. Police Chief Thomas Wydra is set to retire from the role on Sunday, as he steps away to take a job with the Connecticut Department of Labor. Whoever was answering the phones in what was supposedly Sen. Lindsey Graham's office Thursday evening was clearly tired of getting calls. "Hello, FBI!" came the shouted greeting to a reporter's call. "You must have the wrong number," the woman on the phone said when asked about the online disclosure of senators' personal information as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh spoke before a Senate committee earlier in the day. Have you received a lot of calls tonight? But the unwilling receptionist's patience - already thin - had worn out and the line went dead. Graham, R-S.C., was one of three Republicans whose purported personal information was leaked as he questioned Kavanaugh. Republican Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch were also "doxed" when an anonymous Wikipedia user edited the Republican lawmakers' pages, adding in phone numbers and home addresses. The information was quickly removed and aides contacted authorities. The doxing, done in a seemingly partisan fashion, took an increasingly caustic clash over Kavanaugh's nomination to its oddest front yet: the world of Wikipedia revision wars. It came hours after emotional testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who alleges Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, and during Kavanaugh's response, which quickly devolved into a partisan brawl. The Washington Post was able to confirm most of the senators' addresses added to their Wikipedia pages - both in Washington and in their home states - but calls to the posted numbers elicited a range of replies, the most colorful coming from the number listed for Graham's office. Another phone number listed for Graham, this one as his "home" line, was actually the number for a D.C.-based LGBTQ advocacy organization. Most other numbers went straight to voice mail or were disconnected. Graham's spokesman, Kevin Bishop, said the senator's office was aware of the leak but did not comment further. A member of Lee's staff, who did not identify himself, answered the number listed as the senator's office line and said he had spoken to Capitol Police about the incident, but declined to comment further. Lee's spokeswoman, Jillian Wheeler, said her office couldn't confirm any details about the incident and also declined further comment. A spokeswoman for Capitol Police, Eva Malecki, said the department does not comment on ongoing investigations. Some of the information posted could also be found in publicly available documents, and it's unclear what, if any, crimes may have been committed. But the action puts the senators in danger, said Hatch's spokesman, Matt Whitlock. "It's shocking that someone would post Senator Hatch and other Judiciary Committee Republican's home addresses online, putting their families at risk," Whitlock said. "That it happened as they were asking questions in a Supreme Court confirmation hearing is just another indication of how broken this process has become." The Wikipedia entries began circulating on Twitter thanks to an account called @congressedits, a social media "accountability bot" that tracks edits to the online encyclopedia made from IP addresses assigned to the U.S. Capitol. When someone makes edits to a page using one of those IP addresses, the bot takes a screen shot of the change and tweets it out to its 65,000 followers. According to the bot, the Republican lawmakers' articles were "edited anonymously from US House of Representatives." So, too, was the entry for "Devil's Triangle," a drinking game that Kavanaugh, under questioning from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse , D-R.I., said he played in high school. An anonymous user added a new definition to the "Devil's Triangle" entries: "a popular drinking game enjoyed by friends of Judge Brett Kavanaugh." If these edits were meant to intimidate Republican senators or embarrass Kavanaugh, a rebuttal edit - also reported by the @congressedits account as having come from the House - was intended to shame the rogue reviser (or revisers) into abandoning the effort. The Wikipedia article for the U.S. Congress received the following edit: "Wikipedia should block all congressional IPs if some little rich-boy socialist interns can't be responsible online." The "intern" part of that edit may have been a reference to past escapades @congressedits exposed (or, perhaps more likely, facilitated). Last year, the Wikipedia article on internships was edited from a House IP address to include the plea "please pay us." (In an article for the Daily Beast, former Hill intern Kate Kohn shed some light on the intern editing practice and copped to making changes herself.) Thursday evening was the second high-profile instance of doxing for Graham in the past few years. The first came from a member of his own party. On the campaign trail in 2015, then-candidate Donald Trump famously recited Graham's cellphone number during an event in South Carolina. Asked why he gave out Graham's personal number, Trump said, simply: "So people can call him." That day, Graham seemed resigned to his fate, tweeting: "Probably getting a new phone. iPhone or Android?" - - - The Washington Post's Alice Crites contributed to this report. NEW HAVEN In the fourth clean and safe neighborhood walk, city officials went through the Hill North area looking for quality of life issues and educating residents on their responsibility to keep their streets clean. The attention is on getting people to clean litter, clean catch basins and nicely get the message out that they are responsible for the conditions outside their house, Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson said. We will start cracking down on this but not before we get the word out. Departments represented on the walk included the Health, Building and Public Works departments, the chief administrators office, fire and police departments, Liveable City Initiative and alders from Wards three and four. They used SeeClickFix to help report issues in real time as they came across them. The city conducted its first inspection last fall in Newhallville, again in the spring in Fair Haven and in July took to the sidewalks of the Annex area. Howard Boyd, chairman of Hill North management team, said the big issues around the Hill North neighborhood are the garbage around homes and businesses, as well as overgrown trees that block street lighting and signs. Along Daggett Street, officials found heaps of garbage and debris in backyards, chickens running around outside their pen on one property, a broken pool collecting dirty water and overgrown grass and trees on sidewalks. Im happy they can see what needs to be done, Boyd said. The Hill needs someone to come through and take a look. Its been years since we had a walk-through this large, of this caliber. Now that we have them all together, its good because everybodys seeing it at the same time. A perpetual problem in the area has been the corner deli, Howard Mini Mart & Deli, where garbage accumulates, Boyd said, and theyve asked weekly for the owner to clean it up. When LCI, building and health inspectors took a look at the property, they found an uncovered stairwell that leads beneath the mart filled with debris and sectioned off by a broken chain-link fence. Health Department Senior Sanitarian Brian Wnek was concerned about the trash scattered across the back lot behind the building and the open stairwell being an access point for rodents to get into the deli. Wnek said hell contact the department director to issue a cleanup order because the business is responsible for the trash that surrounds the property. Everybody dumps their garbage all over here, deli worker Ruben Cintron said. Ill be chasing people away all day. People dump everything in our toters ... Its tough to deal with it. Especially around the corner, its obvious somebody is dumping and well work with them to develop a maintenance plan to stay on top of it, Wnek said. This happens all over the place. The backyard property next door also had garbage and debris laying around the overgrown lawn. Fire Chief John Alston said the open stairwell presented an imminent hazard because people standing around the area smoking could discard a cigarette and send the business up in flames if it lit a gas line. He called for a fire inspector who issued and order to abate the stairwell in the next 24 hours. The issue is an example of a hazard the department might not know about if they werent involved in the walk, he said, and also a reason the department needs more fire inspectors. Walking the neighborhood, officials also found a couple of vacant properties, something the fire department is crafting an ordinance to address. If vacant properties arent properly boarded up with the power, gas and water lines turned off, they can be hazardous if people try to get inside during winter months to stay warm and start a fire. We want to make sure its registered, its in our systems, the building department is aware of aware of it, LCI and police are aware and what the issues are in that house, Alston said. Maybe the roof or stairs are missing. Firefighters arent going to know that going into a fire if its not registered, but if it is, then a marking will go on the outside of the building and well know its been inspected and secured. The vacant building registry program is being initiated by the fire department and LCI and several communities that Alston has worked in. Where the program has been implemented, they have seen a reduction in the number of fires, he said. It literally is the broken window concept if you dont address those little issues, they become a quality of life issue and end up spreading and becoming a hazard, he said. Fire inspector Shakira Samuel walks the district every day as part of her job, going house-to-house seeing what the issues are. She said the benefit of the walk is being able to address these issues with all the necessary departments on the spot. SeeClickFix is amazing but to actually have the departments out here seeing what the complaints are is phenomenal, she said. mdignan@hearstmediact.com TROY Louise Gerard got suspicious when her brother's longtime personal care aide noticed the fast food charges on her brother's credit card. According to the statement, Michael Peluso was ordering pizza and Chinese food from Troy-area establishments while lying in a hospital bed unresponsive after having choked on his own phlegm in February of last year. Then Gerard remembered back to the final weeks of her brother's life, when she and the aide couldn't find his credit card or Social Security card. She looked at the statement again, and began highlighting items that seemed strange. A $667 charge at CVS a few months earlier seemed especially odd for her brother, who she described as frugal and independent. Paralyzed from the neck down and reliant on a wheelchair, Peluso worked for the state and was a tireless advocate for the disabled. The customer relations person at CVS confirmed that the card was used to buy $107 worth of Tommy Hilfiger cologne and several hundred dollars worth of gift cards. "My brother would never spend that much money on himself," Gerard said. "And he rarely bought things in stores. He did most of his shopping online." Sufficiently suspicious, she asked State Police to investigate. On April 5 more than one year after Peluso's death they arrested James Billups, of Troy, a 39-year-old whom Peluso had hired as an occasional fill-in when his regular aides were unavailable. They charged him with identity theft and criminal possession of stolen property, felonies, and petit larceny, a misdemeanor. Nearly six months later, the Rensselaer County District Attorney's Office has yet to present the case to a grand jury and confirmed on Friday that it doesn't plan to, citing a lack of sufficient evidence. A Times Union investigation last year found such dismissals are common in that office. According to District Attorney Joel Abelove, Billups told police he never stole from Peluso, but that Peluso had given him permission to use the card in his capacity as an aide. "Defendants don't have to prove their innocence. We have to prove their guilt," Abelove said. "And how do I prove that, when the only person who can say passed away?" The matter would almost certainly be different if Peluso were alive, Abelove said. But the alleged crimes weren't discovered until after he had already died. Attempts to reach Billups, as well as his public defender, were unsuccessful Friday. Gerard said she only learned the case wouldn't be presented for indictment on Friday, after the Times Union called and inquired into the matter. She was confounded by the decision, arguing it should be up to a grand jury to decide whether the evidence is sufficient. Abelove countered, saying it would be unethical of him to present a case lacking sufficient evidence to a grand jury. The clock to present the case to a grand jury expires next Friday. "They had all this time, and they're just telling me now when time is about to run out," Gerard said. "It's not fair. He was just a great guy and he doesn't deserve to be ignored like this." Peluso broke his neck when he was a freshman at Syracuse University in the 1970s. He completed rehabilitation, but remained paralyzed from the neck down, needing a wheelchair to get around and aides to help with personal care. He went on to work at a local independent living center, before moving to Albany in 1989 to work for the state and lobby for people with disabilities. In 1992, he testified before Congress for a landmark amendment to the Rehabilitation Act that would bolster workplace and other protections for those with disabilities. At the time of his death, he was a senior manager with the state Education Department, overseeing all 30 independent living centers statewide and was the department liaison to the New York State Rehabilitation Council. In April, Peluso was posthumously inducted into the New York State Disability Rights Hall of Fame for his lifetime work on behalf of disabled people. NEW HAVEN Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination will move forward, but so will an FBI investigation into allegations he sexually assaulted a Christine Blasey Ford in high school. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to move the confirmation forward Friday, but Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, the deciding member in the 11-10 vote, called for a delay up to a week on the full Senate vote so the FBI can investigate Fords claims. Later the committee said it would ask the FBI to probe Kavanaugh limited to current credible allegations against the nominee, the AP reported, and it should be finished no later than Oct. 5. Weve been taking this in nonstop since it happened, second year Yale law student Samantha Peltz said Friday. The stakes are very high anytime someone is being considered to be elevated to the highest court in the land ... Any law student or civically engaged person has a lot of concern of the substance of the jurisprudence of a judge who is being considered. The approval comes a day after the committee heard hours of emotional testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor who says Kavanaugh, a 1990 graduate of Yale Law School, sexually assaulted her when both were in high school, and Kavanaugh, who adamantly denies the accusation. Prior to the committee vote, Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken said in a statement Friday, I join the American Bar Association in calling for an additional investigation into allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh. Proceeding with the confirmation process without further investigation is not in the best interest of the Court or our profession, Gerken said. Peltz compared Fridays hearing to one 27 years ago when Anita Hill testified that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas allegedly sexually harassed her. I fundamentally feel the Senate got it wrong and we as students feel, from a process perspective, the Senate should do a more in-depth investigation into these this time in order to prove the truth or falsity of these allegations and use that as a suite of things they consider in elevating Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Its a moment of reckoning sexual assault in our country, second year law student Alex Mechanicksaid, and when an individual is being considered for such a high honor and position, taking the time to do this right, to honor the most important procedural commitments we have as law students and lawyers and the substantive commitments to fairness is crucial. I appreciate Senator Flake for calling for the investigation, second year Yale law student Briana Clark said. I think the investigation is imperative to ensure impartiality and fairness in this nomination. But Clark said the way an FBI investigation into Fords claim has become a partisan issue concerns her. People on the left and right alike should call for it, Clark said. I believe that Dr. Ford has a right to be heard and (people) on the left and right should take allegations of sexual assault seriously ... It sends a message to the entire nation. What they do here sends a message to survivors of sexual misconducts and to perpetrators. Two Republican senators Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska said late Friday they would also support a deal reached among senators to delay a vote on Kavanaugh, the AP reported. Mechanick said the Senate Judiciary committee didnt take time to pursue important information and evidence that came up during Thursdays testimony. Taking the time to pursue those is crucial to the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, he said. I hope this delay is sufficient, he said. To put a one week cap on it gives me fear that it wont be, but I hope that calm and level head will do everything necessary to ensure that he process is fair and adequate to discovering the truth and weighing whether Judge Kavanaugh should be elevated given the serious allegations against him. Ford repeatedly asked for an FBI investigation into Kavanaugh before testifying before the committee and Democrats have been asking the same all week. Recently, 50 Yale Law School professors signed a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee Sept. 21 that urged the committee not to rush the confirmation of Kavanaugh and take allegations against him seriously. Kavanaugh said during Thursdays testimony he would be all in for an FBI probe and as of 5 p.m. Friday, President Donald Trump said he would leave it to the Senate to determine when it will vote on Kavanaugh, the AP reported. Given the credibility of the allegations and strength of possibility they are true, if they confirm Kavanaugh without a thorough investigation, it means that they just dont care and that to me is both unfathomable and certainly a moment of reckoning for the future of American democracy and legal system as a whole, Peltz said. mdignan@hearstmediact.com The Conservation Fund and The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, held an event today to celebrate the addition of 616 forested acres to Cherokee National Forest near the Tennessee-Georgia border. Located within the Ocoee Bear Reserve, the protection of this land preserves the headwaters of Taylor Branch, a tributary to the biologically-rich Conasauga River, while also preserving habitat for federally and state-listed species and providing increased access for recreation. Federal funding from the threatened Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) helped to make this conservation success possible. Today is a great day for outdoor enthusiasts in Tennessee. The Conasauga River is a national treasure, and were proud that this conservation effort will help keep it healthy for years to come, said Ralph Knoll, The Conservation Funds Tennessee Representative. This effort would not have been possible without federal funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and we are grateful to Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sen. Bob Corker and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann for their leadership in working to reauthorize LWCF. Including the Howell property as part of the Cherokee National Forest has been a goal and a dream for over two decades. It is also a successful example of how government agencies, private organizations, and conservation-minded landowners may come together to achieve lasting conservation results and outdoor recreation access for all Tennesseans, said Terry Cook, State Director, The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee. Our partnership is grateful for the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which has invested approximately $280 million over the last five decades in protecting and expanding beloved parks and forests all across our beautiful state. Taylor Branch creates an exceptionally clear pool where it meets the Conasauga River, and the protection of this tributary will help ensure a quality recreation experience for snorkelers and other forest visitors. The protection of this land, which is located within the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agencys State Wildlife Action Plan for high priority aquatic habitat, also safeguards key habitat for more than 15 species listed on Tennessees threatened and endangered species list and 11 aquatic species listed as endangered by the federal government. This land acquisition protects the waters at an important public river access point, as well as the staging area for our educational snorkeling programs on the Conasauga River, said JaSal Morris, Forest Supervisor of Cherokee National Forest. Since the year 2000, over 8,000 snorkelers have experienced the river through 1,000 guided snorkel trips. The project contributes to the Forest Services mission by safeguarding a free-flowing river and increasing habitat protection for aquatic animals and biodiversity found few other places in the nation. We thank our many partners and the Howell family for making this project possible. The Conservation Fund and The Nature Conservancy jointly acquired this property from the family of Alonna J. Howell, who preserved the property for many years with the hope of one day transferring it to public ownership. The property will now be managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of Cherokee National Forest, which totals more than 655,000 acres and is home to camping, trout fishing, hiking, and other recreation opportunities. My father bought the land primarily to ensure that it was not developed in a way that would be unacceptable to his conservation ethic, said Shepherd L. Howell, son of Alonna and Dr. William Harvey Howell. The whole family was happy that it could ultimately be protected in a way that would be suitable to him. This conservation effort was made possible with private support from the Riverview Foundation, Lyndhurst Foundation, National Wild Turkey Federation, and funding from the LWCF. A bipartisan, federal program that uses a percentage of proceeds from offshore oil and gas royaltiesnot taxpayer dollarsto acquire critical lands and protect our countrys best natural resources and recreational access for more than 50 years, LWCF will expire in two days, on September 30, unless Congress acts to reauthorize. Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and Representative Chuck Fleischmann supported Tennessees request for LWCF funding and helped secure the Congressional appropriations for the program. The Land and Water Conservation Fund has provided more than $200 million to conservation and outdoor recreation efforts in our state including the funding to support this 616-acre addition to the Cherokee National Forest, said Senator Lamar Alexander. Protecting and preserving land in the Cherokee National Forest will help protect our states natural heritage while also giving the millions of people who visit the state every year an additional reason to come and enjoy the great outdoors. Millions of people visit Tennessee each year to experience our incredible God-given outdoor amenities, and this newly protected land in the Cherokee National Forest will help preserve important aquatic habitats and expand recreational opportunities for Tennesseans and visitors, said Senator Bob Corker. It is important that these resources are available for future generations, and I appreciate the hard work of those making that a priority. The Cherokee National Forest offers outdoor enthusiasts unparalleled access to some of the most beautiful, pristine land in the United States, said Congressman Chuck Fleischmann. From the economic impact of tourism and job creation to recreation and enjoyment, the Cherokee National Forest is a unique source of pride for Tennesseans. I am glad to see The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Forest Service, the Howell family, and all parties involved prioritize the preservation of this land. I thank all those who came together to protect this land for their commitment to conservation and ensuring our natural lands can be enjoyed for generations to come. Ever wondered how nudges turn into true behavioural change that benefits society? With the Western Cape's recent #DayZero success as a prime example, all was revealed at SA's first-ever two-day #BI4Gov Behavioural Insights conference, held at the CTICC over 27 and 28 September 2018. Shaffandi via 123RF Great opening for @Bi4Gov - inspiring delegates to think through a different lens, push our own bias & be innovative. When we develop & implement policy we need to think what human beings actually do! #BI4GOV pic.twitter.com/MirZqiChHk Sabrina Chesterman (@sabbychesterman) September 27, 2018 What does society actually do? The nuances of nudge methodology On how and why it happened, Zille said the drastic drop in water usage was in part due to the dramatic price increase on water above the basic free allocation - this was less of a nudge effect than a kick-in-the-butt effect, which is often what's necessary for behavioural change at scale. Getting people to save water or use less electricity is hard. Governments often just turn to things like rate hikes and posters. Understanding Behavioural Insights can help shape policy in a way that makes it easy and compelling to do the right thing. #BI4Gov Dave Duarte (@DaveDuarte) September 27, 2018 The impact of those Newlands Spring-queuing pics Keeping things accountable, victimhood and the role of stigma We cracked open with sex, drugs and using behavioural nudges to solving middle-class problems is not how we roll here. Plain-spoken power from Premier @helenzille (thank you!) May the realness prevail #BI4gov Maximillian Kaizen (@MaxKaizen) September 27, 2018 Culture eats strategy for breakfast every time - @helenzille #BI4Gov David Perrott (@DavidPerrott_) September 27, 2018 Take BI to the next level - get to big problems like HIV and gender-based violence - not just rearrange schools canteens! @helenzille #BI4Gov https://t.co/YhWjR0a9D2 Filippo Cavassini (@FilippoCavassi1) September 27, 2018 Dont run away from the hard issues. It's not all touchy-feely stuff, but it is fundamental to modern culture. Read more MC Africa Melane, known for his velvety voice on CapeTalk, got us to stop the excited networking chatter by saying, "the guy with dreadlocks at the front of the room wants your attention."He then got the programme moving along by saying he was personally looking forward to learning as much as possible from the two-day conference, as he knew nothing of behavioural insights (BI) when he was first approached to MC the event. In the interim, he has read up as much as possible on how BI is used by governments around the world to respond to societys contextual needs.Ammaarah Martinus, director of policy, research and analysis for the department of the premier in the Western Cape Government took the podium next. She said she was pleased to see a full house in attendance as the event marks a momentous occasion, with attendees from every continent apart from Antarctica.Sharing some context, Martinus said the Western Cape Government has been running behavioural insights since 2012, with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD's involvement key to their success as the embodiment of the spirit thatFittingly there was a focus on networking, meeting new faces and collaborating on ideas as we debated, learning about and effectively challenging how policy and interventions are implemented through a filter of inclusion and sustainability, particularly in the realms of access to water, energy and transport, health services, community safety, and youth policies and education.Martinus said it's about thinking of policy through a behavioural lens, meaning we need to focus on not just what wedo but what we, as thats often missing and crucial in effective policy implementation, meaning we also need to implement those behavioural insights in innovative ways.Nick Malyshev, head of the regulatory policy division of the public governance directorate at the OECD also spoke a few words of welcome, stating that the conference marks a watershed moment for the OECD, which has worked on behavioural insights for five years now.Malyshev called it a "a fascinating road", having worked with governments and allying with various bodies towards behavioural insights that result in better policies and outcomes alike for human lives.Malyshev also mentioned last years comprehensive study by the OECD, which formed the basis of how governments can synthesise and embed behavioural insights. He reiterated Martinus' words that the OECD's partnership with the Western Cape Government is key, and concluded by saying the OECD is often referred to as a 'think tank' in the press. Rather, it's an epistemic community that works with world leaders to instill best practice.Next, current Western Cape premiere Helen Zille presented the morning keynote address, saying she was pleased there was a relaxed environment amongst attendees, as that makes it easier to hold serious discussions.Zille spoke off the cuff, admitting that she had become a bit jaded on the subject of behavioural insights over the past few years, as we just weren't seeing much actual change in this regard.Then, the picture changed drastically with the Western Cape's large-scale behavioural change on water use.Zille explained it's referred to as a 'once in 400 years' drought, not that they were measuring water levels 400 years ago, but rather based on the chances of a region seeing three years without decent rainfall.She added that the 'Day Zero' phrase was coined accidentally in a meeting, and became a watchword that instilled the fear of God or the devil (whichever you prefer).The reason? The message was simple: Either stick to 50 litres of water per person per day, everything in - for hygiene, washing and drinking - or queue for 25 litres of water per person per day.Those were the only two options and thats the message that was put out there in volume, repeatedly, to amazing effect: 70% of households that had previously used a large amount of water stuck to the allocated 50 litres per person per day.In a few months, the city had gone from 1.2bn litres per day to just over 400,000 litres per day, almost a third of its previous use. Zille called that unprecedented behaviour change, for anywhere in the world.Looking at other factors, there's the point that the highest water users in the city tend to be the middle class, who use water for watering the lawn, topping up the swimming pool and excessive cleaning. So, the fundamental change was here, in the middle class usage of water, partly because the price went up - levels of education also play a role in people responding to nudges.Zille says we also can't ignore the impact of pictures of people queuing for water at the Newlands Spring.These were published far and wide, and made it look like the '25 litres per person per day' queuing was already happening, which made the potential Day Zero outcome of not saving enough water that much more vivid.Suddenly, there was interest in not just using less water but also in physically storing and saving water through tanks and greywater systems for those who could afford them, with others implementing 'bucket systems' to repurpose the traditional flow of water in their homes.Zille added that the notion of having had a success, as in this case, is critically important for BI.She said that behavioural change on smoking has only been a partial success, with Melane himself mentioning in his housekeeping address that if attendees wanted to "fill their lungs with cancer", they could go stand in the rain to smoke or vape. Zille pointed out that its embarrassing to do so, and as such being a smoker is now becoming a stigma, which is critical to behavioural change.Zille said government has been even less successful in changing peoples sexual behaviour. Sure, people will test if they are HIV-positive, and we have the largest free ARV system in the world - we spend R2bn on it in the Western Cape alone, annually.And yet, HIV transmission rates in girls aged 13 to 25 are going up and up, despite knowing that HIV is usually transmitted through sex - particularly sex with multiple partners and inter-generational sex.According to Zille, transactional sex is largely to blame here, with 'blessers offering different levels of rewards - sadly, it's often just a lift to school, pair of cheap earrings or a cellphone. Zille said because there are different 'levels of blessers' who offer different rewards, this becomes an encouraged culture, with no stigma attached, and therein lies the rub.On the importance of a culture of accountability, Zille said we don't take this seriously enough. While admitting she is just an amateur sociologist, she has been reading a great deal about the culture of accountability, so also spoke of culture overall and its role in behavioural change.Zille said South Africa is sadly not exempt from the emergence of a culture of victimhood, as is happening elsewhere in the English-speaking world. But how do you grow a culture of accountability in a culture of victimhood? She said you dont.It's on all of us to make the change we want to see in the world. Zille concluded:Follow the #BI4Gov hashtag for all the latest updates. The winners for the Creative Circle Monthly Awards, for work flighted between June and August this year, were announced as part of the official opening of Havas Johannesburg's new offices in Rosebank. Todays judging was interesting due to a considerable amount of blurring between traditionally clear categories which are no longer as defined as they used to be. The debate around what fits where in todays creative categories was really lively and left the panel with something to think about regarding the future of judging for industry awards. OConnor Front row from left to right: Alettie Marx, Palesa Motiki and Brett Morris Back row from left to right: Estee Grobler, Fiona OConnor, Tim Bekerling, Assaf Levy, Nikki Taylor, Maxine Twaddle, Grant Sithole and Ronald Mabe Tim Bekerling, Creative Director, Net#work BBDO Estee Grobler, senior creative, Etiket Reece Iver, creative group head: Art Direction, The Niche Guys Assaf Levy, creative director, Joe Public Ronald Mabe, art director, M&C Saatchi Abel Johannesburg Alettie Marx, creative head, JWT Johannesburg Palesa Motiki, copywriter, Ogilvy Johannesburg Grant Sithole, chief creative officer, Avatar Nikki Taylor, creative director, TBWA Hunt Lascaris Johannesburg Maxine Twaddle, copywriter, Grey June 2018 Category Entry Agency Prize Brand Title Communication Design Grid Worldwide First Yellow Pages Dont search, find Communication Design Joe Public Shift Second Boerenmeisje Onderklere Boerenmeisje Communication Design 34 Third South African Depression and Anxiety Group Everyday Colours Digital & Interactive Ogilvy Cape Town Second Volkswagen #Marco #Polo Digital & Interactive Publicis Third Mercedes-Benz #ThereGoesTheNeighbourhood Print FCB Durban Second Independent Media Afrikaans Print King James II Third Allan Gray New Money Film King James II First Allan Gray Father's Share Film Ogilvy Johannesburg Second Philips & The Nelson Mandela Foundation #ShaveToRemember Film Grid Worldwide Third FNB The Helpers Out of Home Joe Public First GreatStock The Anthology of Great(stock) Poetry Out of Home King James II Third Allan Gray Times Change Radio King James Group First Sanlam Lives of Grace Radio Joe Public Second Joe Public United Louise Radio King James II Third Allan Gray Not Sexy July 2018 Category Entry Agency Prize Brand Title Print King James II Third Allan Gray Throw Time Film Ogilvy Johannesburg Second AbInBev More Than That Film TBWA Hunt Lascaris Johannesburg Third MTN SA Os Du Randt Out of Home Grid Worldwide Third Absa The Drone Show Radio Joe Public United Third Chicken Licken Catch It August 2018 Category Entry Agency Prize Brand Title Communication Design Grid Worldwide First Saint Saint - Pazzo Italiano Communication Design 34 Third MFM Koning Digital & Interactive Digitas Liquorice Third Unilever Leave No Food Behind Print Joe Public United Second One School at a Time Crime Print BC2018 (Brave Cullinan Colab) Third Cliff Central Sisulu/Mandela/Tambo Film TBWA Hunt Lascaris Johannesburg Second MTN SA Kenny G Film TBWA Hunt Lascaris Johannesburg Third MTN SA Steve Tshwete Radio Joe Public United Third Chicken Licken The Pronunciation Song The duties of jury president were shared by Brett Morris, CEO of FCB and Fiona OConnor, joint-ECD of host agency Havas Johannesburg.The jury constituted a combination of senior and junior creatives from Creative Circle member agencies, allowing the judging process to act as an all-important training ground for up-and-coming South African creatives.The panel included:The categories judged were: Communication Design; Integrated Campaign; Digital and Interactive Communication; Film; Live Communication; Radio; Print; Out of Home; and PR and Media Communication. Not all categories placed winners.All the monthly award winners for June to August 2018 are listed in the tables below. All winning work can be viewed on CreativeCircle.co.za The Creative Circle represents advertising and design agencies, and only Creative Circle members are eligible to enter the awards. All monthly winners are shortlisted for the annual awards that will take place in March 2019.Entries for work flighted in September and October 2018 will be open between 5 and 12 November with judging taking place on 29 November at FoxP2 in Cape Town. Several Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have walked out of a hearing on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Kamala Harris of California, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island left after the GOP chairman set a vote on the nomination for 1:30 p.m. Friday. That was approved by a committee vote. Democrats say Republicans are rushing the confirmation. During that vote, Hirono yelled: "''I strongly object! What a railroad job! No, no, NO." Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh riveted Washington and the nation with hours of fiery, emotional testimony. (Sept. 27) The Senate Judiciary Committee's vote to subpoena Mark Judge has been defeated in a party-line vote, with all 11 Republicans on the panel voting against the motion and all 10 Democrats voting for it. Democrats say Judge has never been interviewed by the FBI or questioned by a member of the committee, and that committee has a responsibility to subpoena Judge before it votes on whether to recommend Kavanaugh to the full Senate. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. The committee chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, has read a statement from Judge that says he doesn't recall the events described by Kavanaugh's accuser and "never saw Brett act" in the way that he's accused of. The leader of the violent "Dirty Blok" street gang and his younger brother, a gang enforcer, were sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison for gunning down a 25-year-old man in front of an Atlantic City restaurant, authorities said. The killing was one of at least eight shootings between October 2010 and February 2013 that the gang used to terrorize and control territory a few blocks from the Atlantic City Convention Center for its drug-dealing operation. "Dirty Blok" leader Mykal Derry, 38, and his brother Malik Derry, 27, are already serving life sentences on federal drug trafficking and weapons convictions after a lengthy investigation including wire taps of hundreds of phone calls and texts. Mykal Derry ordered the killing of rival drug dealer Tyquinn James, 25, telling fellow gang members he wanted them to "put him down," federal authorities have previously said. His brother Malik Derry carried out the hit on Feb. 10, 2013. "Malik Derry shot the victim in the head from close range while riding a bicycle past him as the victim stood in front of an Atlantic City restaurant," federal authorities said. James was shot once in the back and twice in the head in the 7:30 p.m. attack on the corner of Adriatic and South Carolina Avenues. The 50-year sentences for murder and conspiracy to commit murder levied against the brothers on Wednesday will run concurrent to the federal life sentences they received in 2016. "The senseless murder of Tyquinn James was callous and calculated," Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner said in a statement. "We are all safer knowing that Mykal and Malik Derry will never terrorize the streets of Atlantic City again." The shooting attributed to the "Dirty Blok" gang included an April 2011 attack that left a 17-year-old paralyzed, federal authorities said. Mykal Derry ordered that shooting because he believed the teen was cooperating with police about a previous assault by Derry on the teen. Authorities seized 20 firearms including the handgun used to kill James when the federal agents and local police busted the gang's operations. Multiple other gang members were also sentenced for their roles in the drug trafficking. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips For eight years, the state of New Jersey made pension payments to Diana's Heil's dead mother. And when Heil found out about it, state authorities allege, she kept $140,000 of it. Heil, 48, of Pleasantville has been indicted by a state grand jury on two felony theft charges, the state Attorney General's Office announced Friday. Diana Heil This is what happened, state investigators allege: When she died in 2005, Heil's mother was receiving survivor's benefits as the beneficiary of Heil's deceased father. He'd been a retiree of the state's Teachers' Pension and Annuity Fund. The fund was unaware of Heil's mother's death, and the state continued making payments into a checking account, of which Heil was a joint owner. The account piled up until 2013, when the bank alerted Heil about the deposits, and Heil told the state her mother had died. The state's Division of Pensions and Benefits, which makes pension payments, contacted Heil about returning the money. The state says Heil acknowledged that the money was not hers, and promised to return it, but made a series of large withdrawals and wire transfers - totaling $140,873 in state monies. The state did not say what the total payments they paid to the account before realizing Heil's mother was dead. The state Division of Criminal Justice's Corruption Bureau will prosecute the case in Gloucester County, the Attorney General's Office said. Heil has not been arrested, and will be ordered to appear in court at a later date for arraignment. Her lawyer, Leonard L. Grasso Jr., declined to comment when reached late Friday. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook. We see it time and again. A disgraced CEO or public official resigns and takes with them a six-figure check per a clause in a contract or accrued sick and vacation time. But, former Sheriff Michael Saudino left empty-handed, county officials say, because of an ordinance that was passed in 2001 by the Bergen County Freeholders making full-time elected officials ineligible for sick and vacation pay when they leave office -- no matter how they depart. Saudino, a Democrat, was captured on a recording released Sept. 20 by WNYC talking candidly about Gov. Phil Murphy's inauguration in January saying that under Murphy's policies, "the blacks" will "do whatever the f--k they want." He also said that Attorney General Gurbir Grewal only got appointed because he wears a turban and he asked if Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver is gay. Saudino has not disputed the recording and initially asked for forgiveness while Murphy, Grewal and others urged him to step down. He finally did last Friday afternoon. Saudino will still get his monthly pension of $10,832, or $129,987 a year, that he earned when he retired in 2011 as chief of the Emerson Police Department. But, Saudino did not earn a pension while serving as Sheriff, where he was paid an additional $130,312 per year. Saudino's undersheriffs -- who also resigned along with him -- are entitled to payouts for their unused vacation time, but not sick pay. Executive Undersheriff George Buono will be paid $5,954.79 for over 107 vacation hours. Undersheriff Robert Colaneri will get $917.56 for a little more than 16 unused vacation hours. Undersheriff Brian Smith will get $11,588.24 for about 205 hours. And, Undersheriff Joseph Hornyak will get paid $7,005.27 for almost 127 hours. None are eligible for sick pay because they resigned, as opposed to retiring, a county spokeswoman said. All of the undersheriffs were being paid salaries of $115,000 as administrators in the Sheriff's Department. They were appointed by Saudino and the "sheriffs use them as they see fit," William Schievella, a spokesman for the Sheriff's office said of the roles of the undersheriffs. Buono was the second-in-command and in charge of daily operations of the Sheriff's office. Smith oversaw the Bergen Justice Center and the Bureau of Criminal Investigations. Colaneri oversaw the Corrections Division. And Hornyak handled the budget. But, Schievell said, "It's not that rigid. They all did a little bit of everything." The undersheriffs were all also retired and collecting pensions. Smith who retired from Paramus in 2005 gets $8,405.56 a month; Buono, who retired from the Emerson Police Department in 2015 gets $9,019.65 per month; Hornyak who retired from Bergen County in 2014 gets $9,551 per month; and Colaneri, who retired in 2006 from Carlstadt gets $7,509.70. Despite the exodus of its five top administrators, "the Sheriff's Department is functioning normally and day-to-day business is moving forward under the command of the chief," Schievella said. Chief Kevin Pell. (BCSD) Chief Kevin Pell was appointed the officer-in-charge of the sheriff's department's operations Friday when the resignations were announced. Pell is "a long-time career member of the department who moved through the ranks," Shievella said. According to his biography on the sheriff's website, Pell has been in law enforcement since 1992. He was promoted chief in 2016 by Saudino. State officials determined late Wednesday that a new sheriff will be selected by voters Nov. 6 in a special election. Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Q. My mother-in-law passed away in 2010. Her will said her three children would share her estate equally after debts were settled. Her daughter, my sister-in-law, was the executor. She had her two brothers relinquish their rights to everything. I'm not sure how that happened. Then I was asked to sign away my three sons' rights to the estate, which were passed to them after their father and uncle relinquished their rights. I refused to sign those documents, and the will was probated without them. Now I've learned there was a testamentary trust created because I didn't sign away my sons' rights, and my sister-in-law is the trustee. We requested an accounting of the trust but my sister-in-law refused. We have since learned my mother-in-law's home, which was in the trust, went into foreclosure because my sister-in-law didn't pay the mortgage. The home was sold at auction, and we're told my sons are not entitled to anything. Do they have any legal rights? Should we fight? -- Unsure A. Something here seems very fishy. It sure sounds like your sister-in-law has done her best to keep your mother-in-law's estate and trust a secret. This is not appropriate or acceptable, said Richard Miller, an attorney and chair of the elder law department at Mandelbaum Salsburg in Roseland. Miller said executors and trustees serve in a fiduciary capacity. "The term fiduciary comes from the Latin word 'fiducia' meaning 'trust,'" Miller said. "A fiduciary has the legal obligation to act for another - a beneficiary - in a fair, honest and transparent manner." Although executors and trustees have the legal authority to manage the affairs of an estate or trust, Miller said, he or she is accountable to the beneficiaries for his or her actions and must disclose information to keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed. When an individual passes away, the executor is required to notify, in writing, all beneficiaries named in the will as well as all heirs at law, such as individuals entitled to inherit by intestacy, that a will has been probated, Miller said. This must be done within 60 days of the will being probated. Miller said the executor is also obligated to provide a copy of the will upon request. This process is in lieu of the "reading of the will" often portrayed in TV and movies. After receiving the notice of probate, individuals residing in New Jersey have four months to contest the will. Those living out-of-state have six months to contest the will. "Requesting a copy of the will enables individuals to review the contents, including any testamentary trusts that may be established, such as the one created for the benefit of your children," Miller said. "Once appointed, an executor is required to settle and distribute the estate as expeditiously and efficiently as possible." Executors and trustees have a duty to collect and preserve assets, deal impartially with beneficiaries and act at all times with the best interests of the estate and trust in mind to ensure the estate and trust is distributed according to the decedent's wishes, Miller said. In addition, a fiduciary has a duty to account to the beneficiaries. "If a beneficiary has questions or concerns about how an estate or trust is being handled, he or she may request an accounting and copies of supporting documents," Miller said. "New Jersey Court Rule 4:87-1(b) permits any interested party to compel a fiduciary to account formally in court. New Jersey Statute 3B:17-2 directs that a fiduciary may be requested to account one year after his or her appointment." Also, in 2016, New Jersey enacted the Uniform Trust Code (UTC). Under the UTC, Miller said, a trustee is required to keep beneficiaries reasonably informed about the administration of the trust and material facts necessary for the beneficiaries to protect their interests. The trustee shall promptly respond to the beneficiary's request for information related to the administration of a trust, he said. If a fiduciary willfully neglects or refuses to render an accounting or breaches his or her fiduciary duties, an application can be filed with the court to remove the executor or trustee. So, your sister-in-law's contention that she is not required to disclose information or provide an accounting is simply incorrect. To the contrary, Miller said, your sister-in-law, if requested by your children or their representatives, is likely obligated to provide an accounting dating back to 2010. "To the extent the accounting reveals improprieties, your sister-in-law could be personally liable for misconduct, including the legal fees associated with bringing the action," Miller said. "It should be noted, however, that under the UTC a beneficiary may not commence a proceeding against a trustee for breach of trust more than six months after the date the beneficiary or representative of the beneficiary was sent a report that adequately disclosed the existence of a potential claim for breach of trust and informed the beneficiary of the time allowed for commencing the proceeding." So the timing here is important. To fully evaluate the legal rights and claims of your children as beneficiaries of the testamentary trust, Miller recommends you consult an attorney experienced in New Jersey probate litigation. Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com. Karin Price Mueller writes the Bamboozled column for NJ Advance Media and is the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Follow NJMoneyHelp on Twitter @NJMoneyHelp. Find NJMoneyHelp on Facebook. Sign up for NJMoneyHelp.com's weekly e-newsletter. Joe Manghan's group of friends knows him as the one who brought them all together, from all over the continent, into one place. The place was on online, to play games like Arma 2, Mount & Blade: Warband and Europa Universalis IV, and they used voice chat running in the background to discuss their play. But soon that chat became more: a place to vent, to joke around, to just listen and enjoy each other's company. Until recently, they never met in person. Joe, a 23-year-old Pennsauken native, is in hospice care fighting a second battle with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that attacked his spine. And his battle brought his friends together to another place last weekend - his bedside. After beating the cancer a first time -- following a diagnosis on the day of his high school graduation in 2014 -- the illness recurred this year and is now terminal. Joe hasn't been home since April 24, when he went in for an MRI, his mother Susann Simpson said. But through much of his ordeal, in between all the doses of medicine, the MRIs, the constant attention from nurses at Samaritan Hospice in Voorhees, Joe's friends were always there in the chat. He had the voice chat up and running on a laptop in his bed with him when a reporter visited Wednesday. "They're about his only social outlet that wasn't medical personnel or family," Susann said. "His friends met him where he was, and that was online." The visit The group of five who came to see him on Saturday -- the people seen in the Reddit post -- had talked about seeing him for months, Joe said. Liam and David flew from eastern Canada down to Akron, Ohio, where Doug lives. Another friend, Josh, drove all the way from Oklahoma to meet those three in Ohio. The group of four drove to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to pick up Wyatt before arriving in Voorhees. They paid for all their travel and a room nearby, Simpson said. "Lots of money and planning went into this," David wrote in a comment below his Reddit post about the visit, which had 148,000 upvotes as of Thursday. Joe said he was overwhelmed with emotion when they arrived Saturday evening. "Even though I knew they were coming, it still was enough to send me into tears," he said. "They're my best friends. They were everything to me. In every possible way that they could be, they were. I knew them for years, every person in that picture." They played some games from the Jackbox Party Pack. They watched some TV, too, but Joe doesn't remember what was on. They were talking over it, anyway. "We didn't tape anyone to the ceiling ... it wasn't some epic party," Joe said. "It was literally just to see each other, that was it." "I was happy, and shook everybody's hand, and made sure to kind of hug them and embrace them like they were my brothers. And to a sense, they were. You talk to these people every day, you don't see them, but you talk to them, you play with them, you tell them how you are." Not actually the first visit Two other friends visited Joe earlier this month. On Sept. 1, Nick Werden, a 19-year-old Newtown, Connecticut resident, came down to see Joe too. It was a surprise on top of another: the staff had just wheeled Joe outside to get some fresh air. Nick let Joe get settled out there before coming up to his bedside in a moment that Susann captured on video. They talked about the weather, and Joe didn't recognize him at first, so Susann told him "close your eyes and listen to the voice." "That's when it clicked," Werden said in an interview. So..... The first big thing that happened today is rather obvious from the beginning. The second big thing is not so obvious. Nick and Joe became friends through online gaming 7 years ago. They've never met face to face as they live hours and states apart. I'll let you watch the rest as it unfolds. Will and Christina came up from the coast later and brought fabulous donuts and smiles, but Facebook won't let me share a movie and pics at the same time so I'll post those pics in the photo album. Sorry for the sloppy camera angles at certain parts. It's been a beautifully emotional day. Posted by Joe's Journey to Annihilate Ewings Sarcoma on Sunday, September 2, 2018 "Watching that realization come over his face, that's something that I'll never forget," Werden said. Earlier this year, "when he called me and told me ... that it was terminal, I told him, 'you have to tell me when you're somewhere that I can come see you,'" Werden said. He later reached out to Joe's mom to get the hospice address and made the drive from Connecticut with his dad. "He's done so much for all of us online that I knew it was something that I had to do, just to try to do something for him, whatever I could," Werden said. For his part, meeting Joe didn't get Werden as emotional as he thought it would. As great as it was to see each other in person, in some way it felt like picking up where they left off. "It didn't feel like the first time," he said. "I know him so well. Even though it's never been in person, I know Joe." Another friend, Ryan, visited September 5. Their response to the attention With thousands of upvotes and comments on the picture of the meeting, it's safe to say the Reddit post resonated with people. And it got Joe, Nick and Susann thinking about the nature of their group's friendship. "I feel like a lot of people have had similar connections but for whatever reason couldn't stick with them," Werden said. Several Reddit commenters were calling out to friends they had played games with in the past, hoping to find them again. Others were reaching out to Joe, reminding him of epic battles fought in the past or times they played for hours. "Maybe people will finally start understanding," Simpson said. "These friendships are far more than just a shallow game." And Joe said it shows that online friendships can go far beyond "that one person that you just play that game with." You can lean on online friends, too. "A lot of people resonated with the fact that you know, you can make friends with people online and remember what you did together for years," Joe said. "Never forget what you do with someone just because you're doing it with someone you don't know," he went on. "You'll never know if you're going to remember that moment forever or if you're going to remember that moment for 20 minutes." A GoFundMe for Joe's family is available here. Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Barbers shaving bowl, Netherlands, 1701-1750. Wellcome Collection, CC BY-SA 17th-century skincare A sequence of eight images showing men shaving. Coloured etching, 1796. Wellcome Collection, CC BY-SA click to enlarge The age of the beard Carefully and frequently washed, well-trimmed and well combed, and the hair and whiskers kept scrupulously clean, by the help of clean, stiff hair brushes, and soap and warm water. The Victorian gentleman 9th-century Pears soap ad. Wellcome Collection, CC BY-SA Although it has ballooned, the market for mens cosmetics isnt just a modern phenomenon. In fact, over the past three centuries or so, shaving soaps, paste and scents have often been linked to contemporary ideas about what men should look like. In the 17th century, for example, men valued their beards as tokens of their sexual potency and power. At this time, the use of cosmetics was largely limited to repairing damaged skin after shaving.By the 1700s, new ideas about polite manliness , and the need to create a public face saw neatness, elegance and cleanliness being championed. Rough, ragged beards were out, and smooth, soft faces were in. For the technologically-conscious Victorians, however, things like utility and function and hygiene became important.A glance through the advertising of these products can often tell us much about contemporary attitudes towards male appearance.In Tudor and Stuart periods there was little commercially available shaving product. Indeed, the use of cosmetics by men was strongly discouraged on religious, moral and even sexual grounds. Also, men didnt usually shave themselves. Instead, the barber was largely responsible for mens skincare, as well as other types of minor bodywork, including pulling teeth, scraping ears and lancing boils.According to the 17th-century author Randle Holme, the barber would first wash the customers face with warm water, soap and scented washballs (orange and rose were popular), before removing the beard and washing the face once more to remove the soap. Afterwards, soothing lotions such as Agyptiacum were applied, along with sweete waters. In case of a nasty shaving rash, many remedies for skin conditions were available to take the fier out of the burn including rubbing a raw egg on the afflicted area. Thus debarbed and sweetly-smelling, our Tudor gentleman could sally forth about his business.But by the end of the 18th century, men were beginning to shave themselves, and there was a surge in new products from innovative perfumers to help them. Between 1751 and 1850 there were at least 50 competing brands of shaving soap, 18 shaving powders and 20 pastes. Somewhat surprisingly, given popular Georgian fears about effeminacy, softness and luxury were common advertising themes. Many products claimed to make shaving easy and pleasant. One Georgian perfumer even styled his product the Mellifluous shaving soap.Scent was another important element. Some, like the Royal Chymical wash balls allegedly smelled more pleasant than any perfume. Along with scent, advertisers talked up the supposed medical properties of their products. One 1745 liquid soap claimed to cure smallpox, ringworm, pimples and scurf, as well as improving shaving. Yet others promised to make shaving tolerable for men with tender faces.Around 1850, though, beards returned spectacularly to British mens faces. The archetypal Victorian male is usually portrayed with a heavy patriarchal beard, matching his austere manliness. Surely no self-respecting Victorian patriarch would have slathered on the cream, or puffed on the scent? There is indeed some evidence that the beard movement did have an impact for a time, with an apparent drop in the numbers and types of products available in the 1850s and 60s.Instead, with beards swiftly becoming the essential mark of the Victorian male, many products emerged to help beardless boys and smock-faced men grow their own crop. Products like Russia Oil claimed to make hair grow thick and long, even in bald places, whiskers, eyebrows. Atkinsons Curling Fluid nourished the hair as it grows on the whiskers and mustachios, with the most beautiful luxuriance. Others played on the fears of men who couldnt grow beards. The makers of Crinutriar reassured the doubtful that since using their product, thousands who were once utterly destitute of Beard or Whiskers now have these attributes of manhood.Unsurprisingly too, beard combs and clippers became part of the toilette requisites of a gentleman. A number of manuals schooled men in how to properly attend to their beards, which should be:But not all Victorian men wore beards, and many popular facial hair styles still required at least some of the face to be shaved. Brands like Price and Gosnell of London, and Guerlain of Paris, continued to advertise their products throughout the period. As beards reached their peak though, advertisers temporarily dropped both the language of luxury, and the emphasis on scent, concentrating instead on utility and improving the process of shaving.This was short-lived. By the 1870s, younger men began to return to shaving. This time, amid popular fears about public health, advertisers turned to hygiene and cleanliness to promote their wares. Where once a pleasant fragrance had been the thing most desired, safety and protection were now the order of the day.Cuticuras Medicinal Shaving Soap and Dr Nichols Sanitary Shaving Soap were popular as was, rather troublingly, Mackenzies Arsenical Toilet Soap a highly toxic substance, originally used by taxidermists. From the 1870s, gentlemen also began to splash on one of the ever-growing number of male colognes and scents. Should you wish to smell like a Victorian, citrus, lavender and woody scents were very popular.Just as each age has brought its own fashion in facial hair styles, then, so products have emerged to accompany them. If anything, the pace of change has accelerated over the past 30 or so years, with the ever-expanding range of male cosmetics. Predicting what might come next is always difficult, but many fashions involve a reaction against the preceding one. As we gradually move out of the current sculpted beard trend, perhaps one day well see a return to a more natural, ungroomed style for men. The hunt has begun for the perfect tree to serve as the centerpiece for one of Cape May's grandest hotel's Christmas activities. Officials from Congress Hall on Beach Avenue are looking for a donor to give an evergreen which will be decorated and stand on the oceanfront hotel's Grand Lawn during the holiday season. Those interested in donating a tree need to fill out an online form by Oct. 17, Congress Hall representatives said in announcing the beginning of the search on Friday. And it can't just be any tree. The tree must be a minimum of 25 feet tall, mostly straight, and with a single main trunk to be considered. The Congress Hall team will visit viable contenders to see which one will be selected as this year's tree, officials said. And here's another must -- it's got to be a Jersey-grown tree. Since 2011, a tree has been donated for the holiday season. Last year's was a 30-foot Blue Spruce which was donated by a North Cape May family. This year's donated tree will be decorated and lit on Friday, Nov. 30, after the hotel's holiday concert outdoors on the lawn. The family who donates the Christmas tree is in line for some perks, too, Congress Hall reps say. They will be guests of honor with an overnight stay for four at Congress Hall, dinner at its Blue Pig Tavern, plus preferred seating at the holiday concert. They will also have the honor of flipping the switch to light. The huge tree will serve as the centerpiece of Congress Hall's Winter Wonderland, officials say. The indoor public areas of the hotel are also lavishly decorated. Congress Hall, which traces its history back more than 200 years, has been a constant throughout Cape May's history. The hotel was the destination of summer visits by at least four U.S. presidents. March king John Philip Sousa visited frequently and performed concerts on the hotel's lawn. The donation application form can be found at tree.congresshall.com 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 "The Grave Above the Grave" By Bernard Kerik (Humanix Books, 213 pp, $26.99) If anyone has the right to assume the mantle of a superhero, it's a police officer running into danger while everyone else flees. Never was this more apparent than on 9/11. Bernard Kerik, who was New York City's police commissioner then, understands such bravery. Kerik, who grew up in Paterson and lives in Franklin Lakes, draws on how that day of terror fundamentally changed the world. The book's protagonist, Rick Raymond, was a police captain during the attacks and arrived at the towers minutes after the first plane hit. Raymond's wife was on the plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Over the years, Raymond worked his way up to commissioner. A very fast read, this has the feel of the beginning of a series. And it's a fine idea for Kerik's fiction debut given his behind-the-scenes knowledge. As we're constantly reminded, the threats continue. On the first page, a radical Islamic terrorist opens fire on cops in Times Square and the book is off at a gallop. Raymond's awakened by his team, and moments before the shooting is confirmed for what it is, his first thought is: "An act of terror was the last thing he wanted this to be. In the 16 years after 9/11, the day the NYPD lost 23 good cops and he lost his wife, he had risen through the ranks of the NYPD and continually swore that this would never happen again on his watch, not to his officers and not to the citizens of New York City they were sworn to protect." That is the code by which Raymond lives. He gives all and expects much in return. He's smarter than those around him, especially when it comes to dealing with a beat reporter. A very fast read about terrorists striking again. Raymond's beloved nephew, who's more like a son, followed him into law enforcement and is killed by terrorists. Terrorists also target the brilliant, gorgeous and wealthy DA, who is the commissioner's girlfriend. He is the hero, and would anyone expect him to have a stupid, ugly and broke girlfriend? Everything happens quickly, a little too quickly. A book needs more than knowing how the police work with other law enforcement agencies; it needs character development. Raymond is fully realized, a man of noble intentions, who's short-tempered and would love to throttle each terrorist on his own. That only makes him more real. A traitorous cop, bloodthirsty terrorists, and guys working for Raymond round out the cast of characters, who, all too often, feel more like sketches. This goes for men in his immediate circle and the second woman with whom he becomes involved. An FBI agent assigned to the New York City Joint Terrorism Task Force, she's a sexy, take-no-prisoners sort. Crackerjack police work ferrets out that a major terrorist attack is planned on Wall Street and a Hebrew day school uptown. The intense counter-terrorism work, as different branches of law enforcement unite to thwart mass casualties, has the nauseating ring of truth. "With all the wiretaps approved by the Justice Department and a federal judge, Agent Jones operating out of her private office on the 28th floor, designated an entire section of the FBI's 26th floor Tech Room as the plant - the wire room - for this investigation. They were up now on eight different cell phones by the authority of the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) that gave them the legal authority to follow the voice. If the caller told the person he was speaking with to call him at another number, the Feds would be able to hit a switch and get up on that phone without having to go through a three-day warrant approval process." Kerik's most heartfelt scenes take place around the death of cops. When Raymond has to tell his sister that her son was killed, he orchestrates it perfectly. Kerik's not the first writer to make a mortal nearly indestructible. Without giving away the ending, let's just say that Raymond keeps his head and could continue in another adventure. As the dashing police commissioner, who keeps himself in great shape, is loyal and on the side of truth, justice and the American way, he is Superman. And the world needs heroes. Since Raymond could easily return with more, I hope it's with a deeper dive, more development and a finer edit. Fans of "Jersey Shore Family Vacation," MTV's revival of "Jersey Shore," are familiar with the relationship woes of Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and Jen Harley, the mother of his young daughter. The pitfalls of the volatile union -- which produced at least one arrest for domestic battery -- have been captured by cameras as the cast filmed this past season in Las Vegas. The second season of the show, which was also filmed in various New Jersey locations, including a brief visit to the cast's former home base in Seaside Heights, is still airing on MTV. But it turns out that another cast member, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, was weathering a crisis in her marriage all along. Farley, 32, has filed for divorce from Roger Mathews, her husband of three years, the Asbury Park Press reported on Thursday night. The divorce complaint, filed on Sept. 12 in Superior Court in Ocean County, cites irreconcilable differences between Mathews and Farley, who have two children. Mathews addressed the subject in a video on Instagram. "My wife filed for divorce," he said. "It's true. I'm just going to keep it simple. I don't blame her. There's no cheating or any dumb s--t or any juicy details," he continued. "She just grew tired of the repetitive pattern that we fell into. Again, I am not going to get into detail but it was a repetitive pattern and not a good one." "But here's what's also true," said Mathews, 43. "I'm not done fighting. I'm going to win my wife back. I'm going to win her affection back. I'm going to win her love back. I have no intention of being a single dad. We're in counseling, so there is hope. It ain't over till the fat lady sings." Farley's public relationship with Mathews has been characterized by playful insults documented for the cameras both this season and last season before the show headed to Miami. She was part of the original "Jersey Shore" cast when the reality show debuted in 2009. Farley also starred in the spinoff "Snooki & JWoww" with Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, which was MTV's most successful "Jersey Shore" offshoot. The series, which premiered before "Jersey Shore" ended in 2012, lasted four seasons until 2015 and was filmed in Jersey City and at the Jersey Shore. Even though one of the key maxims of the original reality series was always, "never fall in love at the Jersey Shore," Farley did just that. She paired up with Mathews as the show became a ratings juggernaut. In 2012, she told The Star-Ledger that she decided to veer from a planned career in graphic design and animation to pursue the world of reality TV. "It was intern with Pixar or go on the 'Jersey Shore,'" she said. After becoming an MTV celebrity, Farley, who hails from New York, settled down with Mathews, a truck driver from Maine, in Toms River. They got married in October 2015. The couple has a daughter, Meilani, 4, and a son, Greyson, 2. Even after "Snooki & JWoww" came to an end, Farley continued to connect with her fans through the Awestruck series "Jenni & Roger: Domesticated" on YouTube (see clip above). Filmed at their home, the series follows the family's daily life. According to the divorce complaint, Farley, who was recently seen on "Jersey Shore Family Vacation" urging Ortiz-Magro to go to court to seek custody of his baby daughter, is now herself seeking joint custody of her son and daughter, along with primary residential custody. She also wants child support and health insurance from Mathews for their children. Farley recently revealed on the MTV series that her son Greyson has not been able to meet developmental milestones. On her popular YouTube channel, where she chronicles her home life with Mathews and her children, Farley said Greyson is speech delayed and that she is pursuing early intervention therapies for him. "I think sharing stories and educating each other is one of the best ways to break a stigma," Farley said in a video posted two days before she filed for divorce, adding that she would dedicate her channel to spreading awareness about speech delays and the autism spectrum. "At the end of the day, just like you, just like myself and every other parent, we just want the best for our kids," she said. Thank you all for the outpouring of love & support I received after I shared my story with Greyson. I created this video to keep you guys updated on my efforts with bubby [?] check out the full video [?] https://t.co/nZOQ5IvlT3 pic.twitter.com/95SlczFdIy -- JWOWW (@JENNIWOWW) September 10, 2018 More than five years after those last days in their Seaside house, "Jersey Shore" cast members have proven they can still party all the time -- whether at the beach, at the club or on a casino floor in the wee hours of the morning -- but most are now focused on children, family and spouses. Polizzi lives in Florham Park with her husband, Jionni LaValle, and their two children. She was the first "Jersey Shore" cast member to get engaged and married after she became pregnant with her first child, son Lorenzo, in 2012. Her fellow cast member Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, 36, who lives in Long Beach and is scheduled to be sentenced for tax evasion on Oct. 5, got engaged on Valentine's Day in a moment that was filmed for the show. New Egypt's Deena Nicole Cortese, 31, another "Jersey Shore" alum, only appears in a small portion of the revival's second season because she's expecting her first child. Apart from Ortiz-Magro, who isn't married but has a daughter (and sometimes-relationship with her mother), Vinny Guadagnino, 30, and Pauly "DJ Pauly D" DelVecchio, 38, are the only cast members who are still single, though DelVecchio has a daughter from a previous relationship. Hazlet's Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola, 31, who opted not to return for the revival series, is in a relationship with a fellow New Jerseyan after ending her famously rocky relationship with Bronx native Ortiz-Magro, 32. Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook. JERSEY CITY Councilman Michael Yun has the gift of gab and some of his colleagues are tired of it. The issue arose during a discussion about the Boonton reservoir at Wednesday's council meeting. Yun gave a three-minute address at the start of the discussion, then, when it came time for his vote and he launched into another speech, Councilman Danny Rivera expressed annoyance. "You're going to speak again?" Rivera said. "You said something before. Again?" Rivera uttered a profanity, Yun continued to talk and then the two spoke over each other as Council President Rolando Lavarro, who is tasked with enforcing decorum, banged his gavel four times. "The council president should have shut you down the first time," Rivera told Yun. Yun spoke for seven minutes and 22 seconds before voting against the city's reservoir plan. When it was Rivera's turn to vote, Rivera delivered a tongue lashing to Lavarro. "You've got to a better job administering this council," Rivera said. "We don't have control of this council in the council meeting, we don't have control of this council in the caucus meeting and it's getting ridiculous. You've had two terms already and you still don't control it. You know, this is unacceptable." Relations between Lavarro and Rivera have been frayed since January, when the council voted 7-2 to re-appoint Lavarro as its president. Councilwoman Joyce Watterman, who was also seeking the presidency, and Rivera were the two no votes. Watterman and Rivera have blamed Yun for orchestrating the January vote in Lavarro's favor. All four are Democrats. Lavarro, Watterman and Rivera were running mates in November. Lavarro dismissed Rivera's Wednesday comments with one sentence: "I'm glad the other seven people voted for me instead." Wednesday wasn't the first time Yun's tendency to speak a lot during council meetings has aggravated the nerves of his council colleagues. During a discussion of the potential relocation of the Katyn statue at a May council caucus, Watterman snapped at Yun for not letting Councilman James Solomon speak. "You're dominating all this conversation here," she said. "That's what you're doing." "You think I'm dominating " Yun started. "Yes, you are," Watterman said. "Yes, you are. I want to hear from him," meaning Solomon. Yun told The Jersey Journal that he talks a lot because he asks questions of administration officials that his council colleagues don't. Six of the council members ran on Mayor Steve Fulop's ticket in November. Yun did not, and he sees himself as one of the council's few independent voices. On Thursday, he referred to Fulop's council allies as "f***ing rubber stamps," then asked that his description of them stay off the record. "If I have questions, they should have questions, too," he said. "We represent the people. I have to ask the questions for what the people want to know. Don't you think so? I think so." Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. JERSEY CITY -- Jury selection was completed this week for the murder trial of a Jersey City man who has been in jail eight years awaiting his day in court. Anthony Shuler was 19 years old when he was arrested following a motor vehicle stop in Clifton on charges that he fatally shot Darren Edwards on June 28, 2016 at the corner of Duncan and Olean avenues in Jersey City. But after eight years in jail and numerous court delays, opening statements for Shuler's muder trial are expected Wednesday before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Patrick Arre in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City, a court official said. In February 2016, Shuler's case became complicated when the state charged Robert Dawson, Eric Dawson and Golden Williamson with tampering and conspiracy to murder two witnesses who were expected to testify during Shuler's trial. Two months later, the state obtained a superseding indictment against the three men, in addition to Shuler, whose murder charge was included in the new indictment. That meant the four would be tried together. The delay in Shuler's trial was caused by numerous pretrial motions, hearings, an appeal of a judge's ruling, the witness tampering allegations, the pregnancy of a witness and other factors. His first trial date was set for September 2015. The witness tampering charges stemmed from recorded telephone conversations Shuler had while in jail. Because a reference was made to Shuler's attorney during the phone calls, the state moved to disqualify her from representing him. The trial judge agreed with the prosecution and the state appellate court upheld the trial judge's decision after it was appealed. That took more time. Over the years, the defense filed motions for a speedy trial a few times. Although it was expected that Shuler would be tried with his codefendants, that has changed. Robert Dawson pleaded guilty on Sept 17 to the second-degree crime of conspiracy and witness tampering to cause false testimony. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 9, according to state judiciary records. His twin, Eric Dawson, pleaded guilty to second-degree witness tampering to cause false testimony on the same day and is set to be sentenced on Oct. 26, the records say. The charges against Williamson were dismissed at the request of the prosecution on Sept. 19, the records indicate. Shuler, who is to be tried alone, faces 30 years to life in state prison if convicted of murder. The former head of the Hudson County Office of the Public Defender, Joseph Russo, previously said that no inmate at the Hudson County jail in Kearny had awaited trial as long as Shuler. Russo now heads of the Public Defender's Office Appellate Division. Hudson County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Ray Worrall said the office cannot comment on the length of time Shuler has been awaiting trial because his trial is pending. The nation's political divide and the #MeToo movement collided Thursday before millions of Americans who tuned in to the Capitol Hill hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, acknowledging she was "terrified" to be on stage, told the Senate Judiciary Committee of being sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh when they were in high school. Kavanaugh, getting choked up at times, angrily denied the accusation and denounced the process as "a national disgrace." The proceedings were shown all day on the nation's major TV networks, starting with Ford's unwavering account in the morning and Kavanaugh's equally emphatic response in the afternoon. Ford described the details of what she says was a sexual assault by Kavanaugh, on a summer evening in 1982 when she was 15. Asked for the most vivid memory from that night, she did not name a physical violation. Rather, it was a specific sound she heard from Kavanaugh and the other boy she says was in the room, Mark Judge. "Laughter the uproarious laughter between the two," Ford, her voice wavering, told the committee. "They were laughing with each other. ... I was underneath one of them while the two laughed." Kavanaugh, during his opening statements, lashed out over the allegations, singling out the Democrats for "unleashing" forces against him. "My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed," he said, angrily choking up. He said defiantly that he wouldn't quit. The judge repeatedly refused to answer senators' questions about the hard-party atmosphere that has been described from his peer group at Georgetown Prep and Yale, treating them dismissively. "Sometimes I had too many beers," he acknowledged. "I liked beer. I still like beer. But I never drank beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone. " Later, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham furiously attacked the Democrats on the panel, denounced the process as a "sham" and called Kavanaugh's treatment "the most despicable thing I have ever seen in politics." Other Republican senators followed Graham's lead in supporting Kavanaugh. After a day where Ford said she was "100 percent" sure that Kavanaugh had attacked her and Kavanaugh gave the exact same percentage of certainty that he hadn't done it, there was some question about whether any minds had been changed where it counted, in the Senate. So, whether you watched it on TV or read about it online, who do you believe after the emotional day of testimony? Vote in our informal and unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments section. The National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) was founded in 1915 to promote powered flight and aeronautical research, which culminated with the first aircraft to fly to the edge of space, the X-15. When the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, it became clear that the future lay beyond the atmosphere. It made sense to transform NACA into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This took place on Oct. 1, 1958. NASA: 60 Years in 60 Seconds From the first crewed landing on the moon to Earth-observing satellites and space telescopes that probe deep space, NASA has led the peaceful exploration of space for the past sixty years, making discoveries about our planet, our solar system, and our universe. You can explore more about the history of the space agency on NASA's anniversary website -- NASA: 60 Years and Counting Parker Solar Probe Artist's concept of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the sun. At closest approach, Parker Solar Probe will be hurtling around the sun at approximately 430,000 miles per hour. That's fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second. Closest approach will be 3.83 million miles. Early Wednesday morning, the Parker Solar Probe will fly past Venus. This event is not primarily a scientific one. The probe is not there to study Venus but use the planet's gravity to change the spacecraft's orbit. The mission includes seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its elliptical orbit around the Sun. After this flyby, the probe will be on track for its initial flyby of the sun in early November. It will be the first spacecraft to fly into the sun's corona. It will study its structure, magnetic field and energy flow, as well as take measurements of the solar wind. Kevin D. Conod is the planetarium manager and astronomer at the Newark Museum's Dreyfuss Planetarium. For updates on the night sky, call the Newark Skyline at (973) 596-6529. So, this actually happened. Ed Forchion, the longtime cannabis activist, paid a visit to the Trenton statehouse on Thursday afternoon and reportedly sold weed to 10 people, according to a report on NorthJersey.com, taunting New Jersey state troopers and all but daring them to arrest him. According to the report on NorthJersey.com, Forchion was intercepted by four troopers, who "refused to arrest him, with one saying they would not play along in a publicity stunt." Forchion was released from prison in May after being cleared in a witness tampering case that alleged New Jersey's foremost marijuana activist was using his now-closed Trenton restaurant to deal drugs. The report said he was protesting the lack of a "home-grow" provision in a bill that would legalize adult use of cannabis in New Jersey. Earlier this month, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal released guidelines for county and municipal prosecutors, informing them they could use discretion in deciding which possession cases they would prosecute. Cannabis could be legalized soon, with a bill permitting adult recreational use expected to reach Murphy's desk by the end of the year. A spokesman for the NJ State Police did not immediately return an email seeking comment on Thursday evening, nor did a spokesman for Murphy. Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct the first name of Ed Forchion. Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. An investigation into the possible abduction and assault of a female student at The College of New Jersey led to one arrest, campus police said. The suspect, though, was not charged with committing any crime, but for an unrelated matter. The incident began Monday afternoon when two men selling candy for what they said was to raise funds a music gig approached a female student sitting on a bench by Lake Sylva, police said in an alert. They asked her to ride around campus with them, and when she declined, one grabbed her wrist and tried to get her into a black or dark gray car. She was able to escape, police said. Campus police sent an alert to the campus community about the incident, and due to a good number of tips and calls, were quickly able to track tracked down the candy sellers. During the investigation, they arrested one of the men for an unrelated matter not related to the campus incident, police said. The investigation is ongoing. Police did not immediately identify the arrested man, citing the ongoing investigation. A college spokesman also declined to comment, pending the ongoing investigation. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook. An Edison woman will have to serve about six years in prison for drunkenly slamming her car into a bridge abutment earlier this year, killing her friend. Ashley Gergits was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday for the February 2018 death of Jenna Adamousky, 21, also of Edison, as well as the injuries suffered by two passengers, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office announced. She must serve 85 percent of the sentence before she's eligible for parole, or just under six years. Judge Michael A. Toto stripped her driving privileges for 15 years, which starts when she's released from prison. Gergits was a 20-year-old Rutgers University student when her Honda SUV crashed near the intersection of the Albany Street Bridge and River Road in Highland Park just before midnight on Feb. 16, 2018 The vehicle then bounced into a Subaru driven by a 31-year-old man from Central Valley, New York. Adamousky was in the front passenger seat, and she died at the scene. She worked at Ulta Beauty and studied cosmetology at Parisian Beauty Academy in Hackensack, according to her Facebook page. The two other passengers, 20- and 21-year-old men from Highland Park, were hospitalized but recovered a short time later. Gergits had pleaded guilty in April to one count of vehicular homicide, two counts of assault by auto, and driving while intoxicated. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Young students at one New Jersey school district will spend their time off social media -- if educators have their way. The Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District's plan to ask parents to stop their kids from using social media all started with an online threat last school year. When a group of Clark Mills Elementary School students were threatened on an app, causing the school to shut down for a day last March, Superintendent John Marciante decided something had to be done. A group of five students reported being threatened on "Houseparty," a group video-chatting application in March. The other users threatened to come and "shoot Manalapan," Marciante said. Like many other social media and chatting applications, Houseparty requires that users be at least 13-years-old, but children can misrepresent their ages when signing up. Marciante met with Cindy Cimino, the district's anti-bullying coordinator and supervisor of special education, to discuss what the district's next steps would be. Cimino brought up the nonprofit campaign, "Wait Until 8th," which is a pledge that parents can sign promising to wait until their child reaches eighth grade until giving them a smartphone. "We decided let's start with third grade because it's before the kids are going to start using social media," Marciante said. Tuesday night after a back to school presentation at Millford Brook School, parents were given the opportunity to sign a pledge stating they would ban their children from using social media until age 13. According to the superintendent, parents gave positive feedback about the idea. Media reports say about half the parents in attendance that night signed the pledge. The goal of the program is that if enough parents sign the ban, their children will not miss out on social interactions with their peers, Marciante said. "We had a line in the presentation that said if you're not ready to have the conversations with your kids about pornography, sexual predators, (and) sexting, then those kids aren't old enough to be on those apps," Marciante said. Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Authorities filed hate crime charges against a man accused of brutally attacking a gay couple - including a New Jersey resident - in an apparent random assault on a Brooklyn street over the weekend. Brandon McNamara, 25, was arrested by the NYPD Wednesday on charges that also include assault and harassment, according to police. McNamara allegedly hurled anti-gay slurs at the two men in the attack shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday in front of 540 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg. The Queens resident punched one of the men, a 34-year-old, in the face, causing him to lose consciousness. Brandon McNamara, 25, accused of attacking a gay couple in Williamsburg. Silent as he was walked out of NYPD 7th Precinct pic.twitter.com/rl1kR7fyL6 Henry Rosoff (@HenryRosoff) September 26, 2018 Police said McNamara then grabbed a 29-year-old man from New Jersey and threw him against a tree, also causing the man to become unconscious. Both men were sent to hospitals. The 34-year-old suffered a broken shoulder while the 29-year-old was treated for a broken finger, according to police. In partnership with the community, an arrest has been made in the 9-23-18 Hate Crime assault in Brooklyn in which a gay couple was brutally attacked. Grateful to those who contacted @NYPDTIPS & assisted the Hate Crimes T.F. quickly apprehend Brandon McNamara. #YourCityYourCall pic.twitter.com/o0PfZ1Zqqa Chief Dermot F. Shea (@NYPDDetectives) September 26, 2018 One of the men told the New York Post that McNamara "sucker-punched" him without warning. Authorities released a photo of the attacker, who police later identified as McNamara. According to the Post, McNamara was suspended from his job as a senior consultant with Ernst & Young. "The alleged conduct is abhorrent to all EY stands for including our culture of diversity and inclusion," a company representative told the newspaper. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook. By Jennifer Rubin Judge Brett Kavanaugh decided that to have any chance to reach the court, he would have to shed the pretense he was a fair-minded, calm, judicious thinker. He came out in the afternoon filled with venom, screaming at the committee. His life was being ruined, he claimed. This was a Clinton-like smear. His anger was both frightening and unexpected -- if you thought he was that intellectual whom conservatives have swooned over. He yelled, and he cried. If you thought he was sincere, one could also appreciate how partisan and emotional he had become. Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing Sept. 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee | Getty Images) The shouting didn't end with his opening statement. He barked at the ranking Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Then the Republicans got into the screaming act, pushing their outside lawyer Rachel Mitchell aside in favor of histrionics from Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas. If President Donald Trump loved the nasty, male grievance game, the rest of us had reason to wonder if anyone of this temperament - Cornyn, Graham or Kavanaugh - should be in a position of power. If they were women, they would be called "hysterical." Kavanaugh, as of this writing, made a couple major errors. First, he refused to call for an FBI investigation (even when Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois invited him to ask it of White House counsel Donald McGahn). When Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., questioned about his friend Mark Judge, Kavanaugh slipped and said "you'd have to ask [Judge]", who of course the Republicans refuse to summon as a witness. The refusal to get the facts is both a telling admission of concern about what they would find and a violation the judicial goal of truth-seeking. It's a political calculation, exactly what you don't want to see from a judge. The worst moment was his confrontation with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who questioned him about blackout drinking. She explained that she understood alcohol abuse because her father was an alcoholic. Have you ever blacked out? she asked. He sneered in response, "Have you?" It was a moment of singular cruelty and disrespect. One saw a flash in the exchange with Klobuchar the same sense of entitlement, cruelty and lack of simple decency that Christine Blasey Ford allegedly experienced way back when, the memory seared in her brain of two obnoxious teens laughing at her ordeal. After the break, no doubt advised by a White House minder, he apologized. But the damage was done. The spontaneous reaction was the real one. Kavanaugh says he was not the attacker. But even if you believe that - despite Ford's riveting testimony -- one can reasonably conclude he is not the right person to sit on the court. His anger toward liberals is palpable, his lack of humility bracing. He has the partisan mind-set that opponents are unworthy of respect and kindness. One has had the sense, since his testimony skated past the truth on his involvement with Charles Pickering and on his awareness that documents he received were purloined, that his heart is that of a conservative partisan, one who tried so very hard to make himself into Supreme Court material. The mentality of a political operative - willing to go on Fox News, ready to inflame passions, disrespectful toward opponents -- is still there. A nonpartisan would ask for, if not demand, an FBI investigation and Judge's appearance. Kavanaugh wants to avoid both at all costs. I believe Dr. Ford. But even if one does not, one can easily and firmly reach the conclusion Kavanaugh is far too partisan and angry to be on the Supreme Court. Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post, offering reported opinion from a center-right perspective. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. After this Kavanaugh ordeal is finally done, I'll be left with one lingering question, and it's not about who's telling the truth. Brett Kavanaugh's first public statement after receiving the nomination was anchored by the blatant lie that President Trump had consulted more legal experts than any president in history in order to arrive at Kavanaugh, a judge with borderline credentials for the nation's highest court. His record hasn't improved from there. He continually evaded and obfuscated --that's a polite word for lied -- during his initial hearing about topics ranging from nominations he worked on as a Bush administration lawyer to the receipt of stolen documents. I believe Dr. Ford. So, the question that will remain -- whether Bart O'Kavanaugh gets confirmed or not -- is: why him? Why go to all this trouble for a fairly undistinguished jurist and political hack. He can't possibly be worth the fallout the Republicans will receive when they just as easily could have pulled his nomination and thrown another anti-Roe arch conservative at the Judiciary Committee and likely gotten him or her confirmed in a jiffy. Why go to the mattresses for this putz? I know he said presidents are above the law, but the conservative bench is teeming with far right sycophants happy to let Trump apply spray tan with the Constitution. Pick one of them instead. Alas, in their never ending quest for a tangible victory the GOP has decided to go down with the Kavanaugh ship. It's possible that there are a few remaining Republican senators appalled enough at the behavior of their leadership and their nominee to vote against his confirmation. I won't get my hopes up. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. California has the right idea: Legalize marijuana, and ban the plastic bag. When you measure the harm to our planet, there's no contest here. In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy is right to demand the strongest possible commitment to banning unnecessary plastic. You use plastic straws in your iced coffee and thoughtlessly toss them into the trash. They end up in our ocean and storm drains, on our roadsides and beaches, and end up in the bellies of seabirds and fish. The same with plastic bags. Murphy recently vetoed a bill that would have created a five-cent sales tax on plastic bags because it wouldn't have done enough - even though he could have just as easily gobbled this up for his budget. Good for him. People get used to ponying up a nickel for a plastic bag, so the deterrent is only temporary. What we need is an outright ban. From Jersey City to shore towns like Stone Harbor, local councils have instituted one already, usually applying to larger stores. Now lawmakers have a new proposal to would extend this statewide, barring stores over a certain size from handing out shopping bags, plastic straws and those foam food containers you get your burger in. This will be onerous on dog owners, parents of babies and others who deal with icky stuff on the go. But they can buy plastic bags for these purposes, like we all do garbage bags. And the elderly and disabled who need plastic straws will still be able to get them in stores, based on an exception. This proposal would also create a 10-cent fee on paper bags, half or which would go into a fund to prevent plastic pollution, the other half to store owners. The idea is to stop cutting down so many trees when you can bring a reusable tote. Otherwise, you use a disposable bag once, it's almost never recycled, and it becomes one of more than 4 billion shopping bags our state tosses out annually. Unless you burn plastic - which gives off harmful chemicals - it has nowhere to go but in our ground or water. By 2050, the plastic floating around in the world's oceans will exceed the mass of fish. The worst part is that it breaks down into particles, gets swallowed by fish, and then by us, in our food. Yuck. New Jersey has banned junk food in school and smoking on beaches. But the greatest evil by far is the plastic bag. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. WASHINGTON -- Capping a full morning of heated and partisan debate, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker on Friday blasted the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and then walked out of the Senate Judiciary committee in protest. "This is a moral moment in our nation," the New Jersey Democrat said. "I cannot sit here," Booker added, as the committee chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa implored him to finish his speech. "I cannot participate in what I know history will look back on as a dark moment." "With that, sir, I will leave," he concluded. The committee hearing came one day after high drama before the committee. Research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford testified that Kavanaugh -- Republican President Donald Trump's nominee to the nation's highest court -- sexually assaulted her while both were in high school. Kavanaugh, who followed Ford to the witness stand, accused Democrats of a last-minute partisan attack to delay his confirmation. Booker spent much of speech Friday afternoon defending Ford and recounting her testimony. He said "this is not about partisanship" and that some criticisms of Ford are "stripping away" her "heroism." "She shared a raw and visceral, incredible and profoundly powerful testimony with not just this committee but the world," said Booker, a potential 2020 Democratic candidate for president. "And she was believable. I believe her." Booker noted that he was a student during the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings in the early 1990s and said a lot of people "felt that was dealt with wrong." "That involved multiple hearings," Booker said. That involved multiple witnesses. That involved an FBI investigation. ... Now we're here today and we have fallen even far short of what I believe was in inadequate process." He noted that Ford said she was "100 percent" certain Kavanaugh attacked her. "It was seared into her memory," Booker said. "She knows 100 percent. And that's credible because she knew him. She didn't need to pick him out of a lineup of teenagers of some random attack. She knew him." Kavanaugh vehemently denied sexually assaulting anyone. Chairman Chuck Grassley holds up his phone to show how long Sen. Cory Booker has been speaking. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images) pic.twitter.com/wq1el6bYIq Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) September 28, 2018 Booker said Kavanaugh's statements have "proven to be not true." Kavanaugh's testimony "stands in sharp contrast," he added, saying that "if I was being accused of things that were lies," he would ask for independent investigations. During Thursday's hearing, Booker called Ford "heroic" for coming to testify, and criticized Kavanaugh for appearing to insinuate that she was part of an "orchestrated political hit." Booker, a junior member of the committee, was one of the last speakers Friday. The senators speak in order of seniority. Democrats had spent the morning criticizing the way Judiciary Committee Republicans pushed through along party lines to confirm Kavanaugh, setting a time for the vote and refusing to call other women who also have made charges against Kavanaugh or witnesses who could collaborate them, or to request an FBI investigation into the allegations. In protest, Booker earlier withheld his vote from a motion to end debate and vote at 1:30 p.m., a motion that Democrats said violated committee procedures. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook WASHINGTON -- House Republicans on Friday voted to make that limit on how much you can deduct for state and local taxes permanent. The provision was included in legislation that made permanent the provisions in the Republican tax law now scheduled to expire in 2025. The bill, dubbed "Tax Reform 2.0" by proponents, permanently capped the federal deduction for state and local property, income and sales taxes at $10,000, less than the average claimed in 20 of the New Jersey's 21 counties by those who itemize, according to the Internal Revenue Service. The vote, largely along party lines, was 220-191. The bill will likely stall in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed and there are only 51 Republicans. Republicans refused to allow a vote on an amendment by Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-9th Dist., to restore the full deduction. "It is mind-boggling a member would want to hammer his or her constituents like that," said Pascrell, the only New Jersey member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. Of the 10 Republicans who voted no, four were from New Jersey and five from New York, the two states with the largest gap between the taxes they send to Washington and the amount they receive from the federal government. "Making last year's tax cuts permanent should only come after restoring the state and local tax deduction and working in a bipartisan fashion to make the package more fiscally responsible," said Rep. Leonard Lance, R-7th Dist. Also voting no were Reps. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., Chris Smith, R-4th Dist., and Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-11th Dist., and all seven New Jersey Democrats. As was the case last December when the House GOP first passed the tax bill, Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-3rd Dist., was the only New Jersey member to vote yes. "Making the federal tax cuts permanent is good for New Jersey families, small businesses, and the economy," MacArthur said. "Americans continue to benefit from a thriving economy -- small business optimism is at its highest level ever recorded, consumer confidence is rising, and Americans are seeing increased bonuses, higher wages, and more employee benefits." MacArthur's support for the legislation has hurt his re-election prospects; Inside Elections, a Washington-based publication that tracks congressional races, on Friday shifted its rating on the race to give a slight edge to his Democratic challenger, former national security aide Andy Kim. A New York Times/Siena College poll gave Kim a 49 percent to 39 percent lead over MacArthur. The survey of 499 adults had a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super political action committee aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., launched a new ad against Democrat Kim, accusing him of opposing "a middle-class tax cut." Independent analyses show that the tax bill was weighted heavily in favor of the rich and corporations. More than half the benefits, 52.2 percent, went to the top 10 percent of taxpayers this year, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research group. At the same time, middle-class homeowners were the ones most affected by the cap on deducting state and local taxes, according to an analysis of IRS data. In New Jersey, 860,000 households earning between $75,000 to $200,000 a year took a deduction in excess of $10,000, more than double the 326,260 taxpayers earning more than $200,000 who took the same tax break. "We need to cut taxes in North Jersey -- Tax Hike Bill 2.0 does just the opposite," said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist. House Republicans have insisted that voters would come around to supporting the tax cuts because of their impact on the economy. "Why would anybody want to change horses now when the economy is so good," said Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. "The economy is robust and growing because of the tax and regulatory changes we've made." The first eight months after Trump signed the tax cut bill saw 1.7 million new jobs created, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was just slightly above the 1.6 million jobs created during the same period in 2016 under President Barack Obama. New Jersey Chamber of Commerce President Tom Bracken said it was too early to determine the tax bill's impact on the economy. "The impact is going to be measured over a period of time," said Bracken, whose group opposed both the original tax bill and the latest measure. "It's too early." Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. New Jersey has significantly cut the number of juveniles locked up after being sentenced for crimes, according to the state attorney general. The state Juvenile Justice Commission has seen its share of young inmates committed to its facilities fall 85 percent since 2003, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said during a graduation ceremony at the New Jersey Training School in Monroe Township. And over the last year, state authorities say they are diverting more of those inmates to its "residential community homes" instead of more traditional prison-like facilities. The JJC, which is under the Attorney General's Office, mainly oversees inmates sentenced as juveniles into their mid-20s. Currently there are 481 such inmates in the state. A 2016 study from the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice identified "staggering racial disparities" among the state's juvenile inmates, finding that black kids were 24 times more likely to be committed to a juvenile facility than white ones. Grewal said youth of color account for about 85 percent of the reduction in inmates committed to the JJC over the last decade, though state data shows the commission's current population is still nearly 67 percent black. A 2017 law that allows more leniency for juveniles tried as adults also allowed 41 young people to go to the commission's educational and rehab facilities instead of state prisons. The attorney general announced the figures at a commencement ceremony where about 60 people sentenced to supervision by the JJC received high school diplomas. "These impressive high school graduates overcame incredible adversity to get here," Grewal said. "They faced times of challenge not with defeat or despair, but with hope and with hard work. We can all learn from their example." S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A Bernardsville resident surrendered to police after a more than three-hour standoff that led authorities to evacuate about 20 homes in the borough Thursday, officials said. Authorities went to a Mine Avenue house after a report from a family member of a "distraught individual with access to firearms" at the residence around 2:30 p.m., according to the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office. Police cleared numerous nearby homes and blocked surrounding streets during the ordeal. The distressed man, who was not identified, later surrendered peacefully, according to a statement from the prosecutor's office. He was taken to an area hospital for evaluation. Members of the Somerset County SWAT team, crisis negotiators and county tactical emergency medical service joined local authorities at the scene. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A Bernardsville man remained in a local hospital Friday following a standoff with police SWAT team members and hostage negotiators the night before that prompted evacuations of a neighborhood, authorities said. The name of the 28-year-old borough resident was not released because he has not been charged, said Detective Jeanne Trillhaase, spokeswoman for the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office. The standoff began when a relative of the man called police to report a distraught person with access to firearms holed up in a single-family home on Mine Avenue, according to Somerset County Prosecutor Michael H. Robertson. Police evacuated 20 nearby homes and closed surrounding streets during the standoff, which lasted more than three-and-a-half hours, authorities said. "The individual was taken to an area hospital for medical evaluation after peacefully surrendering to police," Robertson said in a statement. The prosecutor asked that anyone with information to call borough police at 908-766-0037 or via the STOPit app. Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. BOSTON -- Yankees manager Aaron Boone and head trainer Steve Donohue huddled together on the flight from Tampa Bay to here Thursday night. The subject: Didi Gregorius. The verdict: He was healthy enough to play. So, Boon put him in the lineup for Friday against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, the start of their final series of the year. What's stopping Yankees from paying Sabathia? Gregorius had been nursing torn right wrist cartilage he suffered sliding home in an extra-innings win over the Orioles on Saturday. A cortisone shot, rest, and some workouts later, the 28-year-old shortstop was ready to go, Boone said. "Because we felt from the start it was very much up in the air, the original diagnosis. Once he got the cortisone shot -- don't quote me on 50-50 -- but you knew it wasn't certain. To see how he responded right away, the first day, the second day ... I think obviously you guys felt all the optimism, certainly from Didi, from us, and how he was responding. I knew it was going well, but I just wanted to make sure that we weren't getting ahead of ourselves. "I knew Wednesday was an important day in seeing the doctor and letting it go swing-wise, he was able to do that, bounces back Thursday, looked great on the field, his groundballs, his throwing, the way the ball is coming off the bat and all that. Talking to Didi, how he was feeling, we knew it was time. Just still kind of holding our breath as we got to that point." With Gregorius back, the Yankees were able to field what looked very much like the lineup they will likely use for the American League Wild Card Game against the A's next Wednesday. Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook. The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans, featuring original artwork commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune with Where Y'Art gallery. Today: businessman and philanthropist Boysie Bollinger. The icon: Boysie Bollinger. The legacy: In 1946, Boysie Bollinger's father, Donald George Bollinger, founded the business that became Bollinger Shipyards, the largest vessel-repair firm in the Gulf of Mexico, with 30 dry docks and 10 shipyards stretching from New Orleans to Houston. Boysie Bollinger took over as chairman and CEO in 1985 and sold the family-owned business at the end of 2014. By then he had already served on the boards of myriad civic groups, but after the sale, he became a high-profile philanthropist, with a $20 million gift to the National World War II Museum and a $5 million donation to bring lions back to the Audubon Zoo. His motivation? Simple: To give back to the city that gave him so much -- and to encourage others to do the same. The artist: Michael McManus. The quote: "I think it's important to give back. We've been blessed with very fortunate resources and we're able to support a lot of worthy causes and we're happy to do so." -- Boysie Bollinger, in a 2016 news release from Audubon Nature Institute after he and his wife gave $5 million to bring lions back to the zoo. Explore more of McManus' work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal St. His real first name is Donald. By John Pope, contributing writer Source: The Times-Picayune archives; staff research More on 300 for 300: About half of the sprawling marshland in the lower Mississippi River Delta has weakened or died in recent months, according to an Army Corps of Engineers assessment of the roseau cane die-off plaguing south Louisiana. Using high-resolution satellite imagery, the corps assessed the changing health of plant life in the wetlands south of Venice, in what's known as the bird's foot delta. The area is dominated by roseau, a hardy reed that's been dying at an unprecedented rate since 2016. The most likely culprit is the roseau cane scale, a foreign insect that has swarmed across Louisiana's coastal marshes and sucked the life out of the flood- and erosion-resistant plant. "Concurrent with the insect invasion, many previously healthy stands have died or experienced stunted growth, resulting in conversion to (other) species and open water," the assessment, released this month, says. It matches what state scientists have been tracking in the field. "It's not surprising to see what they show in their images," said Vaughan McDonald, a state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist. "That's what we're seeing on the ground as well. This does put things in perspective (and) shows how big an issue this is." Roseau is considered the lower delta's best natural defense against storms, sea level rise and other factors contributing to Louisiana's land loss crisis. The corp's most recent satellite analysis shows about half of the delta's marshland suffered declines in vegetation health between March 2017 and April. The corps wasn't able to differentiate between plant types, but scientists estimate roseau constituted 80 to 90 percent of the bird's foot delta plant life before the die-off began two or three years ago. Weakening plant health was most pronounced on the delta's east side, along Main Pass, Pass a Loutre and South Pass - areas that are part of Wildlife and Fisheries' Pass a Loutre Wildlife Management Area and the neighboring Delta National Wildlife Refuge, which are a combined 165,000 acres. Scientists have estimated the scale has damaged about 80 percent of land in both wildlife areas. Along Southwest Pass, through which nearly all ocean-going ships enter and exit the Mississippi, the declines were patchy. Some areas showed increased health, but that's not necessarily good news. It could mean weaker plants are replacing roseau. "As roseau dies, some areas turn to water or we're getting elephant ear, hyacinth and other plants," said Andy Nyman, a Louisiana State University wetland ecologist. Elephant year, also known as wild taro, and water hyacinth are invasive plants that do little or nothing to protect the state's coastal marshes. Both are pushovers when confronted with strong waves and wind, and can't tolerate heavy doses of saltwater. Roseau can withstand changes in salinity and water levels, and is anchored by tangles of thumb-thick roots. Its dense stalks help build land by combing out silt and sand from the river. The corps, which manages the river's navigation channels, warns that declining roseau health could impact shipping. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up "There are five federal navigation channels and four ports in the impacted area," the assessment says. "Southwest Pass, for example is a primary shipping channel in the United States and could face increased wave action if the (roseau cane) marsh lining the channel should collapse." The corps also notes other "potential negative impacts" from the die-off, including flooding, erosion and storm-related damage. Wildlife and Fisheries recently determined that the die-off caused some passes to retreat by as much as 1,000 feet over a few months. The corps plans to work with state and university scientists to expand the use of satellite imagery and remote sensing data. "This is a good place to start, and a good way to prioritize where we need more information," said Molly Reif, a corps geographer who worked on the assessment. The corps' tools for assessing satellite imagery could be used on a wider area of south Louisiana. Surveys conducted by the LSU AgCenter indicate the scale has appeared on roseau in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and several coastal parishes. It also popped up in east Texas and the Bay St. Louis area of Mississippi. Satellite imagery could help assess the number of acres affected by the die-off, which remains limited to guess-work, and measure the conversion of roseau marsh to water. Local scientists hope to work with the corps to monitor how different roseau varieties react to the scale. The most plentiful roseau type, known as delta roseau, is most susceptible to the die-off. European roseau, an aggressive invader that pushes out other plant species, seems to be doing fine, and could be used to recolonize infested areas. The downside is that expensive control measures would be needed to keep European roseau in check. Nearly two years after first raising the alarm about the die-off, scientists still know of no way to stop it. Their initial response was to focus on the scale, which are native to cool-weather marshes in China and Japan. It's unclear how or when the scale arrived in Louisiana, where the grain of rice-sized insect has thrived thanks to long summers, mild winters and plentiful stands of roseau. Scientists unsuccessfully tested several chemical bug killers. They have little faith in the use of fire to burn infested roseau stands, as is done in China. Controlled burns in marshy areas would require chemical accelerants that might contaminate water and harm wildlife. Roseau areas in the lower delta are also loaded with oil pipelines and wells, which could catch fire or explode. Lately, as federal and state funding has trickled in to assist in combating the die-off, scientists have broadened their research to look at other possible underlying causes, including plant and soil diseases and fluctuations in water levels. They hope to find out whether other factors may have weakened the roseau, making it vulnerable to the scale. Rodrigo Diaz, an AgCenter entomologist, said the corps' assistance will jump-start several research initiatives. "These are really exciting tools they have," he said. "We've been looking at all this in boats with a very narrow view. But with the satellite (imagery), we get a massive perspective over thousands and thousands of acres." Tristan Baurick covers Louisiana's coastal environment for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: tbaurick@nola.com * Twitter: @tristanbaurick * Facebook: Tristan Baurick and Louisiana Coastal Watch. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards' decision to accept the federal expansion of Medicaid looks better and better. A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau found that Louisiana had the largest decrease nationwide in the number of uninsured residents in 2017. Our state was one of only three that reported a drop. Fourteen states said the number of people without health insurance went up. Louisiana also has the lowest uninsured rate among Gulf Coast states in the census report. That shouldn't be surprising since no other deep South state accepted the Medicaid expansion that was part of the Affordable Care Act. Since Gov. Edwards agreed to the expansion in 2016, 473,900 Louisianians signed up. That is almost 100,000 more people than the state originally expected. The census report said Louisiana's uninsured rate dropped to 8.4 percent in 2017 from 10.3 percent in 2016. That has to be due almost entirely to the Medicaid expansion. The latest Louisiana Health Insurance Survey by LSU researchers also found that the number of uninsured residents had fallen in the state. According to that survey, 11.4 percent of adults under age 65 in Louisiana lacked health insurance in 2017. That was down from 22.7 percent just two years earlier. The LSU researchers have been tracking health insurance-related data since 2003 through the survey, which helps track the impact of health care policy. Significantly reducing the rate of uninsured residents is crucial to the well-being of families across Louisiana. The people newly covered by Medicaid now have access to preventive care and to treatments that can keep them healthier. Medicaid patients in Louisiana have access to a primary care physician to manage their treatment. They can get routine checkups and have prescription coverage. With regular care, doctors can catch serious illnesses earlier and help patients control chronic conditions. The timing of the census report is interesting. Former Gov. Bobby Jindal, who refused to accept the Medicaid expansion, was in the news this week because he joined the board of a health care company that manages care for Medicaid and Medicare patients. WellCare's board chairman talked in a news release about Mr. Jindal's "broad knowledge and expertise in Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and other government-sponsored programs will support WellCare's focus on providing access to high-quality care and services to our members and cost-effective healthcare solutions to our government customers." When Mr. Jindal was governor, it was convenient for his failed presidential ambitions to oppose the Obama administration's Medicaid expansion. Now that he is in private life, it is convenient for him to trade off his expertise in Medicaid and other government health care programs. But Louisiana residents remember Mr. Jindal's resistance to the Medicaid expansion, which obviously would have benefited the residents of his state. Before the expansion, only Louisiana's poorest residents qualified for Medicaid. The expansion, which was a key component of the Affordable Care Act, raised eligibility to 138 percent of the federal poverty level and drew in many low-income workers. The federal government paid 100 percent of the cost of the expansion for the first three years. If Mr. Jindal had taken advantage of the offer then, those 470,000 Louisiana residents would have been able to get health care sooner. And the state would have had three years without a matching payment. As soon as he was sworn in, Gov. Edwards did what was right for Louisiana residents. He got them the health care they so badly needed. Louisiana lawmakers are trying a new approach to determine how much the state will spend on Medicaid services each year, as the program has ballooned to more than one-third of the state's budget and added hundreds of thousands of people during the David Sulak was recently named as the director of sales and marketing for the new Crowne Plaza Hotel in North Augusta. Following days of negotiations, and despite a bloating price tag, the nuclear expansion project at Plant Vogtle lives on. All four owners this week agreed to continue with some cost conditions attached construction of nuclear units 3 and 4, a multi-billion-dollar effort. We are all pleased to have reached an agreement and to be moving forward with the construction of Vogtle Units 3 and 4, which is critical to Georgias energy future, co-owners Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities collectively said in a prepared statement. While there have been and will be challenges throughout this process, we remain committed to a constructive relationship with each other and are focused on reducing project risk and fulfilling our commitment to our customers. Hundreds more jobs expected at Plant Vogtle, spokesperson says The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued construction and operating licenses for the tandem project in 2012. Under a new agreement, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, the co-owners are responsible for their respective share until costs exceed the latest completion estimate by $800 million. Georgia Power will be responsible for 55.7 percent of any construction costs that exceed the latest project completion estimate by $800 million to $1.6 billion. The remaining percentage will be handed down to the other co-owners. Georgia Power will be responsible for 65.7 percent of costs that exceed the latest completion estimate by $1.6 billion to $2.1 billion. If completion costs exceed the latest estimate by $2.1 billion, each lesser co-owner will be given a one-time chance to shed their stake, and Georgia Power will cover the resultant costs. "In this event, Georgia Power would have the option of canceling the project in lieu of purchasing a portion of the ownership interest of any other Vogtle owner," the filing also reads. If the Vogtle expansion finishes below budget and on schedule, Georgia Power is entitled to 60.7 percent of the cost savings. Unit 3 is expected to come online November 2021. Unit 4 is expected to come online November 2022. Two other nuclear facilities at Vogtle are, and have been, up and running. Approximately 900 people oversee the existing plant operations. Oglethorpe Power had previously called for a cost control on the project. So did a contingent of Georgia lawmakers. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Wednesday cheered the Vogtle settlement. "I commend Georgia Power, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, Dalton Utilities and Oglethorpe Power Corporation for reaching an agreement to ensure that this critical infrastructure and economic development project will continue," Deal said in a prepared statement. Deal shared the same sentiments on Twitter. The Vogtle plant is located southeast of Augusta. Construction of two nuclear units at the V.C. Summer plant in South Carolina was abandoned last summer, which has since proved to be both a controversial whirlwind and a fixation for the state legislature. On Sept. 20, during a breakfast forum in Aiken, Southern Nuclear communications coordinator Michael McCracken said hundreds more jobs are expected at Vogtle in the future. "In fact, the last thing I heard we were expecting to hire another 1,500 craft workers in the next year and a half," McCracken said at the time. "Another 1,500. Electricians and pipefitters, thats what theyre saying." Sep 28, 2018 NR The Public Meet events of the movie NOTA will be held on September 30th and October 1st respectively. A Plus Convention at Benz Circle in Vijayawada will host the first public meet of NOTA on September 30th and the second public meet will be held on October 1st at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy Stadium in Yousufguda, Hyderabad. NOTA is a political thriller featuring Vijay Deverakonda, Sathyaraj, and Nasser in prominent roles. Directed by Anand Shankar, this is for the first time, Vijay Deverakonda is doing a political genre and that too NOTA is coming after blockbusters like Arjun Reddy and Geetha Govindam. Music is composed by Sam CS for this film while Studio Green banner has bankrolled it. NOTA is releasing on October 5th. Click the Movie button below for more info: NOTA Mehreen Kaur Pirzada Pictures Viewed of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty. ... This confirmation process has become a national disgrace. Early in the evening, I went up a very narrow set of stairs leading from the living room to a second floor to use the restroom. When I got to the top of the stairs, I was pushed from behind into a bedroom across from the bathroom. I couldnt see who pushed me. Brett and Mark came into the bedroom and locked the door behind them. There was music playing in the bedroom. It was turned up louder by either Brett or Mark once we were in the room. I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me. He began running his hands over my body and grinding into me. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling. This is what terrified me the most and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me. Dr. Ford, with what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you? One hundred percent. What is the strongest memory you have? Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter the uproarious laughter between the two, and theyre having fun at my expense. Youve never forgotten that laughter, never forgotten them laughing at you? I was underneath one of them while the two laughed two friends having a really good time with one another. Are you aware that the three people at the party besides yourself and Brett Kavanaugh have given statements under penalty of felony to the committee? Yes. And are you aware of what those statements say? Yes. Are you aware that they say that they have no memory or knowledge of such a party? I dont expect that P.J. and Leland would remember this evening. It was a very unremarkable party. It was not one of their more notorious parties. Because nothing remarkable happened to them that evening they were downstairs. And Mr. Judge is a different story I would expect that he would remember that this happened. I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation against me by Dr. Ford. This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside, left-wing opposition groups. The other night, Ashley and my daughter Liza said their prayers. And little Liza, all of 10 years old, said to Ashley, we should pray for the woman. Was there ever a time when you drink so much that you couldnt remember what happened or part of what happened the night before? I no. I remember what happened. And, I think youve probably had beers, Senator, and so So youre saying theres never been a case where you drank so much that you didnt remember what happened the night before, or part of what happened? Thats youre asking about yeah, blackout. I dont know, have you? Could you answer the question, Judge? And just so you thats not happened? Is that your answer? Yeah, and Im curious if you have. I have no drinking problem, Judge. Yeah, nor do I. O.K., thank you. In your yearbook, you talked about drinking and sexual exploits, did you not? Senator, let me take a step back and explain high school. I was No. 1 in the class, freshman And I thought No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I thought only the Senate could filibuster. Im going to talk about my high school I thought only the Senate could filibuster. No, no, Im going to talk Let him answer. Im going to talk about my high school record if youre going to sit here and mock me. You said, I welcome any kind of investigation. I quote you. I welcome any kind of investigation. I welcome whatever the committee wants to do, because Im telling the truth. I want to know what you want to do. Im telling the truth. I want to know what you want to do, Judge. Im innocent. Im innocent of this charge. Then youre prepared for an F.B.I. investigation? They dont reach conclusions. You reach the conclusions, Senator. No, but they do investigate questions. If you wanted an F.B.I. investigation, you couldve come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guys life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020. You said that, not me. Youve got nothing to apologize for. When you see Sotomayor and Kagan, tell him that Lindsey said hello. Because I voted for them. I would never do to them what youve done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since Ive been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldnt have done what youve done to this guy. Are you a gang rapist? No. I cannot imagine what you and your family have gone through. Deloitte surveyed 600 female manufacturing workers last year; 71 percent said that performance standards differ by gender, with the vast majority saying that more is expected of women. Women make up fewer than 30 percent of manufacturing employees, and only 26.7 percent of workers making motor vehicles and related equipment. At Ms. Manzanos F-150 plant, just a quarter of employees are female. By the time many amass the experience needed for management roles, its almost time to retire. Mary T. Barra, who became chief executive of General Motors in 2014, remains the only woman heading one of the worlds 10 major automakers. Women in manufacturing are much more underrepresented in leadership than they are in other industries, and a lot of that stems from the fact that there are so few women in the industry able to work their way up, said Anna Beninger, senior research director at Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on women in the workplace. There is a tremendous amount of overt bias and discrimination, which creates a really toxic environment, so a lot of women leave and never come back. Most days, Ms. Manzano is out on the floor at 6 a.m., usually in dark, inexpensive clothes that can hide paint stains and wearing comfortable shoes fit for climbing a furnace, if necessary. She covers her engagement and wedding rings with an orange woven band featuring a stitched smiley face to avoid scratching the finished trucks she inspects. The plant, part of the longest continuously operating vehicle production site in the country, produces a new truck every 53 seconds. Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON The Trump administration has completed its plan to roll back major offshore-drilling safety regulations that were put in place after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in 2010 that killed 11 people and caused the worst oil spill in American history. The Interior Departments Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which was established after the spill in the Gulf of Mexico and regulates offshore oil and gas drilling, has finalized a proposal for loosening the regulations as part of President Trumps efforts to ease restrictions on fossil fuel companies and encourage domestic energy production. The rules created potentially unduly burdensome requirements for oil and natural gas production operators on the Outer Continental Shelf, without meaningfully increasing safety of the workers or protection of the environment, says the new 176-page rule, which is scheduled in the coming days to be published in the Federal Register, before becoming the administrations final policy. This rule supports the administrations objective of facilitating energy dominance by encouraging increased domestic oil and gas production and reducing unnecessary burdens on stakeholders, while ensuring safety and environmental protection, the new rule says. David Becker/Getty Images via ABCKelly Rowland and Kelly Price are joining the cast of a new BET scripted drama series inspired by Soul Train. American Soul will tell the story of the iconic Soul Train television show created and hosted by the late Don Cornelius. Rowland will portray Gladys Knight, who was one of the first performers on the show when it began airing in national syndication in October 1971, Billboard reports. The co-founding member of Destinys Child will also record a new version of Gladys Knight and the Pips 1973 classic, Midnight Train to Georgia. Price will star as Brianna Clarke, the mother of two rising music stars. She commented on Instagram, "Oh Happy Day!!!!!! So excited about joining the cast of @bet American Soul. Im overwhelmed and overjoyed and beyond grateful to be in the company of such incredible creatives!! God is SOOO GOOD TO ME!!!!!!" Sinqua Walls, who starred in The Breaks and Power, will portray Cornelius. Production on American Soul began September 17 in Atlanta. The series will debut in 2019. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Senator Lamar Alexander on Friday said the Senate has now approved $8.5 billion this year towards fighting the opioid crisis, after the Senate passed the 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations bill which provides $3.8 billion to fight the crisis. The FY2018 Omnibus Appropriations bill Congress passed in March of this year included $4.7 billion to fight the opioid crisis. According to Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), federal funding to help combat the opioid crisis has increased by nearly 1,300 percent over the past four years. The challenge of solving the opioid crisis has often been described as needing a moonshot, Senator Alexander said. Solving the opioid crisis might require the energy and resources of a moonshot, which Congress has taken important steps to deliver, but ultimately it is not something that can be solved by a single agency in Washington, D.C. What the federal government can do is create an environment so that everyonegovernors, judges, counselors, law enforcement, doctors, nurses and familiescan succeed in fighting the crisis. Thats why its so important that the Senate also passed the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 this weekwhich Majority Leader McConnell calls landmark legislationthat includes proposals from five Senate committees and over 70 senators, to help create an environment in which states and communities can use this funding to better address the opioid crisis. The FY2019 Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill also includes the fourth straight year of record funding in a regular appropriations bill for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health. Senator Alexander said, For the fourth straight year, the Senate has provided record funding for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health$2 billion additional dollars in the first year, $2 billion the second year, $3 billion the third year, and $2 billion this year, which is a 30 percent increase over the last four years. As a result of investing in our biomedical research, we will have access to more life-changing treatments and cures, and see more medical miracles. I continue to urge President Trump to make science and research part of his America First agenda. The president has already signed into law two consecutive bills that provide record funding for science, technology, energy and biomedical research, and this legislation will build on that. The Fiscal Year 2019 Labor, Health & Human Services, Education Appropriations bill includes: $3.8 billion for programs to combat opioid abuse, including $1.5 billion for the State Opioid Response grant $39.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health, including $711 million authorized by the 21 st Century Cures Act $15.9 billion for Title I Grants to local education agencies $1.2 billion for Title IV-A Student Supports and Academic Enrichment Grants $440 million for Charter Schools $30 million rural workforce training initiative for the Appalachian and Delta regions $160 million for apprenticeship grants The bill is consistent with the spending limits set by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 approved by Congress, and signed by President Trump in February. And here are 10 key provisions in the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018: 1. The STOP ACTto stop illegal drugs, including fentanyl, at the border 2. New non-addictive painkillers, research and fast-track 3. Blister packs for opioids, such as a 3 or 7-day supply 4. More medicationassisted treatment 5. Prevent doctor-shopping by improving state prescription drug monitoring programs 6. More behavioral and mental health providers 7. Support for comprehensive opioid recovery centers 8. Help for babies born in opioid withdrawal 9. Help for mothers with opioid use disorders 10. More early intervention with vulnerable children who have experienced trauma Tanzanian President John Magufuli. Will his government respect court ruling? Photo--Flickr. On September 25, the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) awarded a major victory to four Maasai villages fighting for their rights to their land in northern Tanzania. The case revolves around violent government-led evictions of Maasai villagers in Loliondo which included burning their homes, arbitrary arrest, forced eviction from their villages, and confiscating their livestock that took place in August 2017, as well as the ongoing harassment and arrest of villagers involved in the case by the Tanzanian police. The four villages named in the case are legally registered owners of their land. The Courts ruling grants an injunction that prohibits the Tanzanian government from evicting the Maasai communities from a vital 1,500 km2 parcel of land. Furthermore, it prohibits the destruction of Maasai homesteads and the confiscation of livestock on the land, and bans the office of the Inspector General of Police from harassing and intimidating the plaintiffs, pending the full determination of their case. The injunction remains in effect until a ruling on the full case concerning the August 2017 evictions can be heard. Here's the Court ruling: In the result, having held as we have in this Ruling above, we do hereby allow the subsisting Application with the following Orders: An interim order doth issue restraining the Respondent, and any persons or offices acting on his behalf, from evicting the Applicants residents from the disputed land, being the land comprised in the 1,500 sq km of land in the Wildlife Conservation Area bordering Serengeti National Park; destroying their homesteads or confiscating their livestock on that land, until the determination of Reference No. 10 of 2017. An interim order doth issue against the Respondent, restraining the office of the Inspector General of Police from harassing or intimidating the Applicants in relation to Reference No. 10 of 2017 pending the determination thereof. The costs hereof shall abide the outcome of the Reference. We direct that it be fixed for hearing forthwith. In their ruling, Justices Monica K. Mugenyi, Faustin Ntezilyayo, and Fakihi A. Jundu noted that the interim order and corresponding affidavit filed by the Maasai paint a picture of widespread social upheaval in Ololosokwan village and an attempt to stifle village representatives and/or the affected persons access to justice. They further ruled that the governments argument that the evictions were in service of the protection of the local ecosystem pales in the face of the social disruption and human suffering that would inevitably flow from the continued eviction of the Applicants residents. The Oakland Institutes research has exposed internationally the ongoing plight and human rights violations of the Maasai villagers as their land rights are denied in the name of conservation and to the benefit of safari companies, such as Boston-based Thomson Safaris and the UAE-based Ortello Business Corporation, which runs hunting excursions for the Emirati royal family. The Courts decision is a major win for the communities of Ololosokwan, Oloirien, Kirtalo, and Arash, particularly in light of the ongoing harassment and intimidation by the police and the recent wrongful arrests of local secondary school teacher Clinton Kairung and Belgian citizen Ingrid de Draeve, who was mistaken for a Swedish blogger who has written extensively on the issues facing the Maasai in the region, said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute. It is now vital for both the East African court and the international community to ensure that the Tanzanian government abides by this ruling and immediately halts the harassment, intimidation, and violence it has waged against the villages involved in this case as well as the broader Maasai community in Loliondo. It is time for the Tanzanian government to stop colluding with game parks and safari companies and finally recognize the land rights of its Maasai population as well as their longstanding role as environmental stewards of the land, she continued. For more information on this case and larger issues regarding the Maasais struggles for their land and livelihoods in the region, please see "Losing the Serengeti: The Maasai Land that Was to Run Forever," on www.oaklandinstitute.org 16A: This word makes perfect sense, yet somehow sounds made up, and hasnt been in a puzzle since 1994, so I figured Id best include it. Lunar is of the moon, right, so LUNULAR works all right as moon-shaped, no? Just dont call me a lunatic. 36A: Do old puzzle tricks ever come back to haunt you while solving a new one? Thank goodness for xwordinfo.com making this column without it would be like using a typewriter, honestly. Edda rang a bell as where the Norse gods, or NORSE DEITIES, hang out. And just like that I remembered that someone (actually two someones) made a puzzle with the Norse god of mischief hidden in hello kitty. 54A: Colorful but destructive, RED TIDE is caused by an algal bloom that discolors the water in the sea. The algae can actually be brown and green as well as red, and to a certain extent is naturally occurring, but fertilizer runoff and other forms of pollution feed the algal growth and destroy the quality of the water, harming its denizens. Its very, very bad in Florida this year and has been in the news quite a bit recently. 3D: This is another debut, although weve used the name of the site, which I just learned is in the top 10 most popular in the world. A user of Reddit is called a REDDITOR, mainly because its a very interactive site forums, conversations and a feature called Ask Me Anything (AMA) that all kinds of people participate in. For some reason, Im getting Reddit forums more and more often in my Google searches, so Ive used the site a bit lately, but this term was still new to me. 11D: This little clue made me put rescue cat at 20D I figured we wouldnt have two dogs in one grid. We dont! Boxers are dogs, but theyre also pugilists, which shortens to PUGS, which are also dogs. You can rescue one, and one can rescue you. You may have noticed a bold advertisement in The New York Times on Wednesday: a full page with the names of 1,600 men, in a tiny font, surrounding a box in the center stating: We believe Anita Hill. We also believe Christine Blasey Ford. Many observers have noted that Thursdays Senate Judiciary Committee hearings with Dr. Blasey and Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, whom she has accused of sexual assault when both were teenagers, echoed the 1991 hearings for Anita Hill, who alleged that Judge Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her while he was her supervisor in the Education Department and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This ad in The Times, too, may have called up memories of those 1991 events this time, on purpose. It was designed as homage to an ad that ran Nov. 17, 1991, a bit smaller but with the same layout: hundreds of tiny names, and the title African American Women in Defense of Ourselves. That ad was organized by three black feminist scholars, Barbara Ransby, Deborah King and Elsa Barkley Brown, who spent weeks amassing signatures and donations to pay for the statement in support for Ms. Hill. The Times has a long history of running advertisements whose main purpose isnt to sell an item or service, but rather to advocate a cause; the paper regularly runs them to this day. Back in 1915, the German Embassy issued a warning reminding passengers intending to travel aboard the Lusitania, the British ocean liner that was sunk by a German U-boat, that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies, which later made front-page news: German Advertisement Practically Foretold Lusitanias Fate on Day She Sailed, read a subheadline a week later. Did you watch any of the testimony by Christine Blasey Ford or Brett M. Kavanaugh during Thursdays Senate hearing? Did you see clips or read excerpts later? What are your reactions to what you saw and heard? In a news analysis headlined In Emotional Hearing, Kavanaugh and Blasey Present Senators With Stark Choice, Peter Baker writes, She was nervous as anyone would be describing the worst moment of her life, choking up at the memory of a violent encounter that happened 36 years ago. Her voice at times was high, her manner deferential, even solicitous. He was bristling with outrage and grievance, fighting back tears, his voice trembling, a man who saw his own life unraveling before him. He lashed out, interrupting senators and defiantly proclaiming his innocence. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh sat in the same chair before the Senate Judiciary Committee one after the other on Thursday, separated by about an hour and a reality gulf so wide that their conflicting accounts of what happened when they were teenagers cannot be reconciled. In effect, they asked senators to choose which one they believed. It was surely the most explosive and surreal confirmation hearing since Clarence Thomas and Anita F. Hill 27 years ago. A nominee for the Supreme Court was asked if he was a gang rapist and a blackout drunk, while defending himself by describing how long he preserved his virginity. His accuser described him grinding into me, covering her mouth when she tried to scream and fearing that he was accidentally going to kill me. With millions of Americans alternately riveted and horrified by the televised drama, Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh left no room for compromise, no possibility that they simply remembered something differently. She was unequivocal that he sexually assaulted her at a house party in Maryland when they were in high school and he was equally adamant that he did no such thing. Dr. Ford, with what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you? Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, asked Dr. Blasey, who also goes by her married name, Ford. One hundred percent, she said calmly. When Mr. Durbin a few hours later challenged Judge Kavanaugh to call for an F.B.I. investigation, the nominee erupted in indignation. Im telling the truth! he shouted. Im innocent! Im innocent of this charge! Students, read the entire article or, if youd like more background on the hearing, visit our Article of the Day feature then tell us: What were your observations and thoughts as you watched, if you saw any of the hearing live? What moments stood out for you? Did you find Dr. Blasey credible? Did you find Judge Kavanaugh credible? Do you agree that their testimony was separated by a reality gulf so wide that their conflicting accounts of what happened when they were teenagers cannot be reconciled? If you were a senator charged with voting on Brett Kavanaughs appointment to the Supreme Court, how would you vote? Why? There has been much reporting on high school social life at the time and in the place where Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh grew up. But according to this article, many teenagers The Times contacted saw parallels to their own experiences today: They recognized the scenario outlined in Dr. Blaseys allegation a drunk teenage boy taking advantage of a girl at a house party. And in the backlash against Dr. Blasey, a research psychologist in California, the teens saw the way girls are often criticized for calling out mistreatment. Do you agree? Do the details of high school life that have been reported, and that came out in the testimony, remind you of aspects of social life in your school or area? Why or why not? On Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the world, that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both teenagers. Her soft voice cracked as she spoke. She smiled a lot; her attempts to make everyone see how agreeable and reasonable she is were heart-rending. But she was also poised and precise, occasionally speaking as an expert shes a psychology professor as well as a victim. Watching her push through her evident terror was profoundly inspiring. The hearing, by contrast, was profoundly dispiriting. If I were allowed to curse in The New York Times, this column would be one word repeated over and over. There is no reason Republicans had to put Blasey through that cruel, wrenching process. It made sense for her to testify, but not like that, as if she were on trial, or imposing on the committees precious time. Its inexcusable that Kavanaughs friend Mark Judge, who Blasey identifies as a witness to the alleged assault, hasnt been questioned, and that there are no plans to do so. Perhaps if senators had heard sworn testimony from Judge who wrote books detailing his youthful binge drinking they might have decided to call the whole degrading spectacle off. Blasey asked the Republicans on the panel all of them men to engage with her directly, one human being to another. Instead, they had her interrogated about minutia by a female prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, brought in to give them cover. The prosecutors questions seemed like setups for gotcha moments that never came. Mitchell largely ignored the alleged crime itself, instead trying to catch Blasey on extraneous matters, like the fact that shes traveled on airplanes despite her stated fear of flying. Nevertheless, Blasey maintained her composure. She responded without guile, as if the whole ordeal really were a collaborative fact-finding endeavor. She was widely seen as credible, and not just by feminists inclined to sympathize with her. This is a disaster for the Republicans, said Fox Newss Chris Wallace. So began her testimony. She nodded a lot. She double- and triple-checked her documents to make sure she was on the same page, literally, as Rachel Mitchell, the prosecutor appointed by the Senate Republicans to cross-examine her. When Mitchell told her the committee had offered to interview her at her home, she seemed dismayed to have misunderstood. I just appreciate that you did offer to do that, Blasey said. I wasnt clear what the offer was. If you were going to come out to see me, I would have happily hosted you and had you! I am not sure the Senate Republicans were quite prepared for how guileless Blasey was. Nor, do I suspect, was Mitchell, whose trap-laying style seemed designed for a witness everyone assumed would be far more canny or polished. (I just realized I said something inaccurate, was one of the phrases Blasey repeated over and over again, trying to help.) She was so without guile that she seemed to regard Mitchell as an ally, a means to tell her story, not even registering the prosecutors insinuation that her fear of flying was less than real. (Correct, unfortunately, she said, confirming that many of her hobbies and family obligations required taking airplanes.) When Grassley asked her, after over an hour of proceedings, if it was true she wanted a break, Blasey looked uncertain. I I Im used to being collegial, so ... she answered. And thats just the point. This reflex to get along, to be the A student, to accommodate and ingratiate is one with which many, if not most women, can relate. There was an unbearable poignancy to Blaseys nervousness, an implicit apology in her performance, one that combined a deep wish to be taken seriously with a sincere desire to get things right. What seemed anathema to her was failing getting the facts wrong, wasting everyones time. Its tiresome at this point to note that women in public life are held to more exacting standards than men are. Had Blasey seemed angry, theres a chance shed have seemed too angry; had she cried for too long, theres a chance shed have seemed too emotional, hysterical, her womb zooming freely through her body. What she did instead instinctively is what women have done forever in situations like these: make herself as helpful and conscientious as possible. It was adaptive. And in this case, effective at least in that it established her as believable. Judge Kavanaughs biggest problem was not his demeanor but his credibility, which has been called in question on multiple issues for more than a decade, and has been an issue again throughout his Supreme Court confirmation process. On Thursday, he gave misleading answers to questions about seemingly small matters sharpening doubts about his honesty about far more significant ones. He gave coy answers when pressed about what was clearly a sexual innuendo in his high-school yearbook. He insisted over and over that others Dr. Blasey named as attending the gathering had said it didnt happen, when in fact at least two of them have said only that they dont recall it and one of them told a reporter that she believes Dr. Blasey. Judge Kavanaugh clumsily dodged a number of times when senators asked him about his drinking habits. When Senator Amy Klobuchar gently pressed him about whether hed ever blacked out from drinking, he at first wouldnt reply directly. I dont know, have you? he replied a condescending and dismissive response to the legitimate exercise of a senators duty of advise and consent. (Later, after a break in the hearing, he apologized.) Judge Kavanaugh gave categorical denials a number of times, including, at other points, that hed ever blacked out from too much drinking. Given numerous reports now of his heavy drinking in college, such a blanket denial is hard to believe. In contrast, Dr. Blasey bolstered her credibility not only by describing in harrowing detail what she did remember, but by being honest about what she didnt like the exact date of the gathering, or the address of the house where it occurred. As she pointed out, the precise details of a trauma get burned into the brain and stay there long after less relevant details fade away. She was also honest about her ambivalence in coming forward. I am terrified, she told the senators in her opening remarks. And then theres the fact that she gains nothing by coming forward. She is in hiding now with her family in the face of death threats. Perhaps the most maddening part of Thursdays hearing was the cowardice of the committees 11 Republicans, all of them men, and none of them, apparently, capable of asking Dr. Blasey a single question. They farmed that task out to a sex-crimes prosecutor named Rachel Mitchell, who tried unsuccessfully in five-minute increments to poke holes in Dr. Blaseys story. INTERNATIONAL Because of an editing error, an article on Thursday about President Trumps comments regarding the timeline for North Korea to give up its nuclear arms misquoted part of the presidents statement. He said, If it takes two years, three years or five months, not If it takes two years, five years or five months. ARTS An article on Monday about the Metropolitan Opera commissioning new works misstated the title of an opera by Jake Heggie. It is Dead Man Walking, not Dead Men Walking. OBITUARIES An obituary on Thursday about the anthropologist Constance Sutton misstated the surname of her parents. It was Woloshin, not Sutton. An obituary on Sept. 6 about Jan Ellen Lewis, a historian who wrote extensively about Thomas Jefferson, referred imprecisely to the results of DNA analysis of Jeffersons living descendants. While it showed that it was likely he had fathered at least one child with Sally Hemings, one of his slaves, it did not establish this with absolute certainty. Ms. Petersen, by the end, knew what she believed. I think that the man he is now is not the person he was in high school and college, she said. I believe hes not that guy now. I believe that he did it, he doesnt remember it. I feel terrible that his wife and his children are being subjected to this. Katelynn Ronan, 24, who has just become an attorney, came down on the other side. After Dr. Blasey testified, she said, There are parts of her story, her opening statement when she was crying, you want to believe shes telling the truth. But by the end, she backed Judge Kavanaugh: Listening to the judges opening statements gave me chills. I do believe something happened to her. I do believe Judge Kavanaugh has been through the wringer. I do look forward to his confirmation. For many, listening to the hearings meant wrestling with conscience, pitting personal convictions against what they heard and watched. Someone is not telling the truth, but we dont know which party it is, said Mary Regan Brakey, 65, a retired associate professor of nursing at the University of Maine who opposes abortion rights. Im trying to separate out my political beliefs. Its very difficult. They debated whether there should be an F.B.I. investigation. They questioned why more witnesses were not called. Some women were put off by his display of anger; others saw a man understandably emotional in his own defense. I was taken with the amount of emotion and unraveling, said Pamela Rogoski, a retired project manager who now splits her year between Maine and Arizona. I feel for him. The amount of venom when he talks about Democrats and the other side, to me is a disqualification right there. I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school. I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me. He began running his hands over my body and grinding into me. I yelled, hoping that someone downstairs might hear me. And I tried to get away from him, but his weight was heavy. Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time because he was very inebriated and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit underneath my clothing. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling. This is what terrified me the most and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me. Both Brett and Mark were drunkenly laughing during the attack. They seemed to be having a very good time. Mark seemed ambivalent, at times urging Brett on, and at times telling him to stop. A couple of times, I made eye contact with Mark and thought he might try to help me. But he did not. During this assault, Mark came over and jumped on the bed twice while Brett was on top of me. Then the last time that he did this, we toppled over and Brett was no longer on top of me. I was able to get up and run out of the room. Directly across from the bedroom was a small bathroom. I ran inside the bathroom and locked the door. I waited until I heard Brett and Mark leave the bedroom laughing and loudly walk down the narrow stairway, pinballing off the walls on the way down. I waited, and when I did not hear them come back up the stairs, I left the bathroom, went down the same stairwell through the living room and left the house. I remember being on the street and feeling this enormous sense of relief that I had escaped that house and that Brett and Mark were not coming outside after me. Bretts assault on me drastically altered my life. Much of her questioning of Dr. Blasey only served to illustrate the witnesss general ignorance of the machinations of politics. Dr. Blasey reported her claims to the receptionist at Representative Anna Eshoos office. A surfer, she sought advice from her beach friends about legal counsel. She conducted her polygraph in a Baltimore hotel because her grandmother had just died. I am no ones pawn, she said. My motivation in coming forward was to be helpful. Even Ms. Mitchell acknowledged, near the end of her questioning of Dr. Blasey, that the hearing was not the ideal way of finding the truth about that alleged 1982 encounter. Is there a study that says this setting, in five minute increments, is the best way to do that? the prosecutor asked. The answer was obvious. [Read full coverage of the hearing here.] ____________________ Talk to us Dr. Blaseys and Judge Kavanaughs testimonies stirred up a lot of strong emotions for many Americans. We want to hear from you. Did you cry? Yell? Throw things at the television? Did it force you to rethink some of your own memories? And does it change your thinking about how or whether you plan to vote in November? Please tell us how the hearing impacted you: onpolitics@nytimes.com. Include your name and where you live and we may feature your remarks in an upcoming edition of On Politics. ____________________ The scene on the street Jeremy Peters covers the conservative movement across the country for The Times. He sends us this dispatch from outside the Supreme Court: Judge Kavanaughs nomination has been a galvanizing event for liberals, especially women, who have been outraged by the way that many Republicans have dismissed the accusations of sexual misconduct against him. But for a less visible group, the hearing on Thursday was an opportunity to show that there are plenty of conservative women who think that the judge is being held to a standard they wouldnt want for their husbands or their sons. With those decisions, he said, this administration has reneged on all previous U.S. commitments, and has undermined the two-state solution, and has revealed its false claims of concern about the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people. Speaking about the new Israeli law that makes the right of national self-determination unique to the Jewish people, Mr. Abbas said it reminded him of laws in the apartheid state that existed in South Africa. Mr. Netanyahu angrily rejected the analogy when it was his turn to speak. He also denounced critics who assert Israel cannot be Jewish and democratic. This is false, Mr. Netanyahu said. Israel is both, Israel will always remain both. The Israeli prime minister also assailed Mr. Abbas for policies he said encourage attacks on Jews. President Abbas, you proudly pay Palestinian terrorists who murder Jews, Mr. Netanyahu said. In fact, the more they slay, the more you pay. And you condemn Israels morality, you call Israel racist? This is not the way to peace. Their speeches came a day after Mr. Trump, following a meeting with Mr. Netanyahu on the sidelines of the General Assembly, told reporters that he would release his peace plan within four months and that he preferred a two-state solution. Thats what I think works best, he said. Thats my feeling. The statement differed from what Mr. Trump had said previously that he would support a two-state solution if both sides agreed to it, but that he also did not rule out a different path. Mr. Netanyahu has for years avoided referring to a two-state solution in public, partly to avoid antagonizing political allies in Israel who reject that idea. GRAZ, Austria Tormented by your Nazi grandfathers hat in the attic? Unsure what to do about it? Too ashamed to sell, too emotional to burn? Yoshinori Niwa, a Japanese artist based in Berlin, has the solution. Simply place the offending National Socialist memorabilia in the container provided, and that questionable past will be thrown away. The ominous black clothes container with those instructions in a public square where, 80 years earlier, thousands cheered Adolf Hitler, must surely be the most provocative artwork in the 51st edition of the Steirischer Herbst festival in Graz, Austrias second city. Previously best known as a theater festival, Steirischer Herbst, which runs through Oct. 18, has appointed its first non-German-speaking director and is now redefining itself as an international art event. The Russian-born curator Ekaterina Degot, working with a collective of other exhibition makers, has used the historically loaded title Volksfronten (Peoples Fronts) for an exploration by more than 40 artists of what she describes in her catalog introduction as todays alarming deja vus of the 1930s. There was something not quite right about how the cardboard box was being thrown. Thats what the choreographer Beth Gill decided at a recent rehearsal of her new piece, Pitkin Grove. So she made an adjustment. And, perhaps surprisingly, the adjustment mattered, as did other fine-tunings of seemingly banal material: the precise timing and phrasing of picking up a trash can lid, or of filling a plastic bag with air. The work had its own logic, but Ms. Gill had to discover it in her intuitive reactions and refinements. A little change in how the cardboard box was thrown not only made a big difference. It also made sense. Ms. Gill, 37, has been creating dances in New York City since 2005. She has earned a reputation as a choreographer of unusual specificity with an uncommon eye for sculptural composition and an uncanny ability to affect a viewers sense of time. She has won awards and much acclaim. Her works show up regularly on best-of-the-year lists. Yet her art may still be unfamiliar to many. Pitkin Grove is having its debut Oct. 4-6 at the Joyce Theater, whose typical audience is accustomed to more mainstream fare. The performances are part of NY Quadrille, a series, through Oct. 13, intended to shake up convention at the theater by introducing seating on four sides of the stage and choreographers willing to take risks. During the most challenging parts of the 2016 Quadrille challenging because of extreme repetition many people walked out. Ms. Gills work can be similarly challenging, asking a lot of a spectators patience. Her dances take their time. And while she uses exceptional performers, much of what she has them do can appear mundane. If you fall under Ms. Gills spell, it becomes absorbing, even thrilling. If you dont, its someone throwing a cardboard box. That first go, he said with a laugh, is like youthful I know everything. The second is middle-aged confusion. That second recording, Inspired by Bach, was released in the late 1990s, accompanied by ingenious films that depicted the ever-inquisitive Mr. Ma in collaboration with artists from other disciplines: a landscape architect, the choreographer Mark Morris, the etchings of Piranesi, ice dancers. Hes right that theres an element of bewilderment or, at least, the modesty of maturity in this more ruminative, less rhythmically moored take. The Fifth Suite, in the 1983 album, has the haunted beauty of an empty Venetian palazzo, with prevailing gloom shot with sudden shafts of blinding sunlight. In 1998, the same suite feels milder and more summery, the overarching condition one of restorative shade rather than stark shadow. Between the two recordings, Mr. Ma gradually moved from instrumentalist to icon. (When Kramer gets hit in the head on a 1992 episode of Seinfeld, he starts randomly blurting out Yo-Yo Ma.) It happened over time, Ms. Buerkle said. It wasnt like there was a magic moment. Over a long period of time, incrementally, you become the go-to person. Its such a strange thing in this business. You become, at some point, the household name. Mr. Ma took that status seriously and has used it to richer effect than the rest of the tiny handful of classical musicians at his level of renown. In 1998, he started the Silk Road Project, dedicated to genially exploring cross-cultural artistic connections, out of which emerged the constantly touring Silk Road Ensemble. Now a grandfather, he has aged easily into the role of global-citizen humanist, lecturing on the role of artists and culture in a fraying society. (The question is whether his days of action will have the substance, beyond photo ops, to match his good intentions.) CEDRIC Id developed three other pilots for CBS. They passed on all of them. [Laughs.] Then they sent me this one. It was written from Jims point of view and none of the other characters were really developed. I said, If I can tell you my side of it, then we got a story. Jim and I met based on that partnership and I realized, Oh, this could actually be very interesting. We shot the pilot with [the actor] Josh Lawson. He is great. Then the network goes, This isnt our guy, we want this other guy. And Im like, Ive never met this other guy! GREENFIELD Making a pilot is never a seamless process. If it is, it usually tanks. [Laughs.] Cedric and I met, and what I wanted for the show, being the white guy, was for him to be in charge. He was like Yeah, man, yeah. The scenes between Calvin and Dave [require] a real partnership. Mostly I was happy to know he wasnt just taking the job because he was broke. [Laughs.] CEDRIC I have a lot of cars! So, what is funny about gentrification? GREENFIELD Its the looming fear in the show, but the show isnt necessarily about gentrification. Its about the fear that this might be the beginning of that process. CEDRIC And the two families interacting with that tension. But we arent [showing] stereotypes. Maxs character comes to my characters house. I tell him to get out. Why? Not because my character is mad. Thats the stereotype. Its just, I dont want you in my house. [Laughs.] GREENFIELD What I love is that there arent many jokes in the show. [The humor] comes from those moments, then allowing for emotional beats. You leave the audience confused. Why am I not laughing? Oh, theyre being real right now. It earns you equity for later episodes. You understand the characters and whats meaningful to them. For the past three decades, there has been one constant in Americas comedy landscape: The Simpsons. With that animated sitcom now approaching the start of its 30th season, on Sept. 30, its a good time to reflect on how The Simpsons has evolved during its unparalleled run, and how each era in that evolution has reflected or failed to reflect the state of comedy, and of the culture, as a whole. Neither The Simpsons nor history has stood still since the show debuted in 1989. The first family of Springfield has witnessed five American presidents, the dawn of the internet age, the end of the Cold War, at least two prolonged conflicts in the Middle East, terrorist attacks, natural disasters and more. And while Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie have stayed the same age, what the world finds funny has changed in no small part because of those characters influence. Almost thirty years after its premiere, The Simpsons still matters. Below, weve broken down the history of The Simpsons into six distinct eras, based on the ways its humor has changed over the years. Weve also recommended the episodes that best represent each era. (FXX has a website with every episode of The Simpsons but not the original shorts; a subscription to cable or FXNOW is required. Hulu also streams recent episodes.) Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If youre interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox. Loud Angry Tearful The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday heard testimony from both Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, whose accusations that the judge sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers have plunged his Supreme Court nomination into doubt. Trevor Noah said Blasey seemed confident and believable, despite the fact that the attack she was describing took place well over 30 years ago. Kavanaugh, on the other hand, was loud and combative. Subscribe: iTunes | Google Play Music | How to Listen Since the start of Karl Ove Knausgaards epic six-volume autobiographical novel, My Struggle, readers have been curious as to why the Norwegian author would have chosen the same title for his project as Adolf Hitler chose for his book Mein Kampf. Image The payoff is in volume 6, our reviewer Daniel Mendelsohn says on this weeks podcast. That payoff is an extended section about Hitler and Mein Kampf. And unlike some of my colleagues in the field of literary criticism, I actually really enjoyed this very bold and not totally successful structural device, which lands right in the middle of Book 6, Mr. Mendelsohn says. Theres no way you could say this is integrated in any normal way of understanding a structure of a book, but in itself I thought it was quite interesting. Also on this weeks episode, Jill Lepore talks about These Truths: A History of the United States; and Dwight Garner, Parul Sehgal and Jennifer Szalai talk about the books theyve recently reviewed. Pamela Paul is the host. But this approach cant do the job of race-based affirmative action for a very simple reason: Most poor people are white. Putting a thumb on the scale for low-income students will help far more white students than black or Hispanic students. Theres no doubt that greater economic diversity is an important goal. The most selective colleges enroll more students from the top one percent of the income distribution than from the entire bottom half. In order to increase economic mobility, it makes sense to increase the number of low-income students in selective colleges. But if you think about it for a moment, you will see that getting more poor students into elite colleges will do little to change their racial makeup. While black and Hispanic students are far more likely to be poor than are other students, a majority of poor students who apply to elite colleges are neither black nor Hispanic. Thats because black and Hispanic students are a minority of high school graduates, an even smaller minority of college applicants, and a yet smaller minority of applicants to highly selective colleges. Racial and ethnic gaps in educational attainment and achievement, which start in elementary school, widen as students move through high school and to college. An affirmative action program at selective colleges that targets students based on poverty will therefore admit far more white students than black or Hispanic students. The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Elon Musk, Teslas chief executive, of committing fraud when he said on Twitter: Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured. The S.E.C. says Mr. Musk had not had specific conversations about financing when he made that announcement, and so his tweet amounted to a false public statement with the potential to harm investors. It is seeking to prevent Mr. Musk from ever serving as an officer or director of a public company again, which is the most serious penalty the regulator can seek. (Criminal charges, if any, would be brought by the Department of Justice in a separate case.) They can seriously fine you, but the ultimate is to ban you from ever serving again, said Charles M. Elson, a professor and director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. Its not just retrospective, its prospective. Mr. Musk isnt the only executive to face this kind of punishment, but he certainly may be the highest profile. Here are some others who have been hit with this penalty, and why: 10 Years Elizabeth Holmes Fraud In March Ms. Holmes, the founder and chief executive of Theranos, and Ramesh Balwani, the former president of the company, were charged with raising more than $700 million from investors through an elaborate, yearslong fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the companys technology, business and financial performance. Ms. Holmes agreed to settle the fraud charges, paying a $500,000 penalty, returning her remaining shares and relinquishing voting control over Theranos. She was barred from serving as an officer or director at a public company for 10 years. Thats not the end of the legal issues. Mr. Balwani has decided to fight the charges, and they both face criminal charges. Harvard Universitys endowment, the worlds largest, grew 10 percent in the most recent fiscal year to $39.2 billion, officials said on Friday. That was slightly better than the previous year, when Harvard began to revamp the endowment under a new investment chief, but fell short of returns reported recently by several other large universities. The Harvard Management Company, which oversees the endowment, did not provide details about how specific investments performed, saying it expects to include the information in the universitys financial report next month. The results were for the universitys 2018 fiscal year, which ended June 30. N. P. Narvekar, the management companys chief executive, said in a news release that the endowment was still in the early stages of the overhaul he started upon joining Harvard in 2016, and that he was confident the organization was on the proper path. Harvards returns topped the 8.4 percent gain that a typical 60-40 portfolio of Standard & Poors 500-stock and aggregate bond index equities would have delivered over the same period, said Jeff Schwartz, president of Markov Processes International, a quantitative research and technology firm. The risk of Ebola escaping from the Democratic Republic of Congo is now very high, and the outbreak already is nearing Uganda, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. The W.H.O. raised its official alert level because of violence by local militias, which has slowed efforts to contain the outbreak, and population movements in eastern Congo, where the latest outbreak erupted in August. But the risk of Ebola spreading globally remains low, the agency said. Since 2000, Uganda has had three Ebola outbreaks, with a total of about 600 cases. Although it is a poor country, its health care system is relatively well organized, and its health ministry said it would start a vaccination campaign if it detected cases there. Inside Congo, the response to the outbreak has been hampered by fighting and by small numbers of victims leaving or refusing to go to treatment centers, spreading the virus to new areas. For more than 40 years, Morningside Ministries operated a nursing home in San Antonio, caring for as many as 113 elderly residents. The facility, called Chandler Estate, added a small independent living building in the 1980s and an even smaller assisted living center in the 90s, all on the same four-acre campus. The whole complex stands empty now. Like many skilled nursing facilities in recent years, Chandler Estate had seen its occupancy rate drop. Every year, it seemed a little worse, said Patrick Crump, chief executive of the nonprofit organization, supported by several Protestant groups. We were running at about 80 percent. Staff at the Chandler Estate took pride in its five-star rating on Medicares Nursing Home Compare website. But by the time the board of directors decided it had to close the property, only 80 of its beds were occupied , about 70 percent. In recent years, photographers from all over have flocked to countries affected by the refugee crisis, following the travails of migrants seeking refuge in Turkey, Greece and Lebanon. Others went to the source of the exodus, highlighting tragedies in Myanmar, Afghanistan and South Sudan. In Another Way Home, the 25th annual Moving Walls exhibition series by the Open Society Documentary Photography Project, migration takes center stage not only because of our times, but because it has been a constant theme throughout the series history. This one stands out for what it lacks: images of suffering. After receiving more than 400 applications, a panel selected eight multimedia projects by 13 photographers and artists. In addition to showing their work for several months, each participant has also received a fellowship to further develop their work on migration. Sept. 21 Zabul Province: six police killed A prisoner in a police detention facility in Shar-e-Safa District stole an AK-47 from one of the guards and began shooting at police. The prisoner killed at least one guard, three high-ranking officers, the district director of the police criminal investigation division, the commander of the base and the administrative head. Reinforcements sent from the provincial capital in response to the attack were ambushed by the Taliban. At least two officers were killed and two more were wounded. The next morning, the weapons depot where the prisoner was hiding was blown up, killing him and destroying a huge quantity of heavy and light weapons. Sept. 21 Ghazni Province: two police killed The Taliban attacked security outposts at the center of Ab-e-Band District. Afghan security forces eventually pushed back the attackers. Two police officers were killed and six others wounded. Eleven Taliban were reported killed. Sept. 19 Kunduz Province: two soldiers, one deputy police chief killed The Taliban attacked security outposts and bases in the Aq Tepa District but failed to capture the district. Two Afghan army soldiers and the deputy district police chief were killed. Five Taliban were also killed. Sept. 18 Balkh Province: nine local police killed in insider attack Taliban insurgents made a deal with 11 local police officers, who then killed nine of their own police colleagues, took their guns and joined the Taliban. Sept. 17 Farah Province: at least 29 police and soldiers killed The Taliban attacked an Afghan National Army base in Kensak village, Balaboluk District, overrunning it and killing seven soldiers; three other soldiers are missing. In Pusht-i- Roud District, a police outpost was overrun and 10 police officers were killed, while another outpost was attacked in the Sur area of Farah city, in which seven police officers were killed and three are missing. Three armored vehicles were blown up by roadside bombs, killing five police officers and wounding three more. Sept. 17 Ghazni Province: 14 soldiers killed An army base was attacked by insurgents in Moqur District, where 14 army soldiers were killed and an unknown number were taken prisoner. The army base fell to the Taliban. Two local police officers were also killed. In Nawa and Khogyani districts, American airstrikes killed 22 Taliban, officials said. Oh gosh, the wide openness of it, the history of it, the power of its landscapes, the mountains and the deserts, the rivers, the valleys. Its so huge. I grew up in the West, and I would drive from Los Angeles to [school at the University of Colorado in Boulder], and I would always take different routes. And every time I would do it, I would go, Oh. And that gave rise to your environmentalism? I was taken to Yosemite National Park when I was about 11, and when I stepped out onto Inspiration Point, it looked like God had sculpted this territory. And I remember thinking: I dont want to look at this. I want to be in it. So I then applied for a job at Yosemite for two summers so I could really absorb what it was about. And thats when I became aware of how important the environment was, particularly when I could see it being eroded all around me. What are your thoughts about #MeToo and the changes in Hollywood, and why have they taken so long? Well, thats the key question because it should have happened way before now. Im very interested in womens rights. Maybe its because of my mom, because she had a strong influence in my life, but Ive felt for a long time that women needed to have their voices heard more to make up the balance. And so thats why I got involved early on with Gloria Steinem when she started Ms. magazine. And not thinking about the #MeToo movement because thats a moment in time, and its getting a lot of capital letters put to it change has been happening for a while. Its been building up and building up, and its going to continue to build. And I think its a very healthy thing. Youve talked about the importance of story in your life and founded Sundance in part to support independent storytelling. For me, it has to begin with story: Whats the story, who are the characters that embody the story, and wheres the emotion? I remember one of the most wonderful phrases I heard when I was a child was once upon a time. So storytelling became hugely important to me because I felt that thats how you really create continuity over time. What story do you plan on telling next? I have a project that I would direct called 109 East Palace. Its about [the physicist J. Robert] Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb in 1940 and the cast of characters that he pulled together to develop the bomb and the clash of personalities with them in Los Alamos. Because Ms. Lee and Mr. Cuomo are not married, the governor is not required to list her on his financial disclosure forms. Mr. Cuomo, 60, divorced Kerry Kennedy in 2005; he is technically single, though he says he shares living and property tax expenses with Ms. Lee, his partner for more than a decade. Mr. Molinaros family is in a much lower tax bracket: He earns about $140,000 as county executive, and says that his wifes total income at Tinkelman, for doing public relations and social media work for the firm, was about $80,000 over three years. She had no role in the companys administration, and no role in advocating for government contracts, he said, adding that she left on good terms earlier this year to focus on her pregnancy and the couples other child, a toddler. In addition to the county contracts, the Cuomo campaign also points to a batch of small campaign donations that Mr. Molinaro received from executives with Tinkelman a little less than $7,000 over his political career as well as a series of sales, mortgage and property tax exemptions received by the company, via the Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency as part of plans for a multiuse development in Poughkeepsie, approved in June 2015. Thats roughly the time Ms. Adams was hired, though the firms managing member, Steven Tinkelman, says that the subsidies had been in the works long before that, calling them standard development incentives, an argument echoed by Mr. Molinaro. Mr. Tinkelman, who contributed $1,000 to Mr. Molinaros campaign in July, said that Ms. Adams was a good employee. Were very proud of the work she did, he said, noting her work on the company website and Facebook page. Obviously shes skilled. Mike Drucker, a stand-up comedian and television writer for TBSs Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, is a four-time Emmy nominee. He has also written for shows like NBCs The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Bill Nye Saves the World on Netflix. Mr. Drucker, 34, lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his PlayStation 4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and, he says, the growing realization that Im very alone in this world. WARM UP I always tell myself that Im going to sleep in on the weekend, but my body always wakes me up in horror at 6 a.m. Its as if my soul can tell that something terrible has happened. Then I open Twitter and find that yes, something terrible has happened. I spend about an hour trying to be the first person to make a joke about that terrible thing, only to find out that someone better beat me to it. Its my way of warming up for the day. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan told a judge on Friday that they intend to seek the death penalty if a jury convicts Sayfullo Saipov, the Uzbek man charged in the 2017 truck attack that killed eight people on a crowded Manhattan bike path. The Halloween Day attack was the deadliest in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001. The decision to seek capital punishment ultimately rested with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Mr. Saipovs lawyers had asked the judge to block the government from seeking the death penalty, citing tweets by President Trump that called for Mr. Saipovs execution. Shortly after the attack, Mr. Trump posted messages on Twitter declaring, SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY and Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY. Mr. Lances comments, which were met with swift condemnation from Democratic officials across the state, including Gov. Philip D. Murphy, threaten to upend one of the closets battles for a Republican-held seat in New Jersey. The district, which voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 but for Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, the Republican candidate for governor, in 2017, is viewed as a key pickup for Democrats as they seek to retake control of the House of Representatives. Mr. Malinowski, a former assistant secretary of state under President Barack Obama, has proved a daunting challenge for Mr. Lance, who has held the seat since 2008 and is considered a moderate who has opposed the Republican majority on issues like the Affordable Care Act and the federal tax plan. A recent poll from Monmouth University found Mr. Malinowski in the lead, though within the margin of error; another poll, conducted by The New York Times Upshot/Siena College, showed the two men were in a statistical dead heat. Mr. Malinowski, in an interview, dismissed Mr. Lances attempts to qualify his remarks. Hes saying hell only believe a victim if shes willing to relive the worst moment of her life in front of the whole world, Mr. Malinowski said. Its one thing to say you look forward to hearing from both sides, but to say in advance of any hearing that you dont believe the victim is exactly the sort of thing that causes so many victims of sexual assault not to come forward. Dr. Lois Jovanovic, who redeemed a childhood pledge when she pioneered a medical procedure that enabled more women with diabetes to deliver healthy babies, died on Sept. 18 at her home in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was 71 and had herself been treated for diabetes since giving birth decades ago. Her death was announced by the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in Santa Barbara, where she had been the chief executive and chief scientific officer for 17 years. Katie Haq, a spokeswoman, said that the cause had not yet been determined but that it was not believed to be related to Dr. Jovanovics Type 1 diabetes. There were several absolutes in the field when I started, Dr. Jovanovic (pronounced jo-VAN-oh-vitch) told the medical journal The Lancet in 2005. Type 1 women were told not to get pregnant, to get their tubes tied or to consider having a therapeutic abortion. But in her first research study, during a fellowship at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical College, she demonstrated as early as 1980 that women with Type 1 diabetes could produce healthy babies if their blood sugar levels were monitored during pregnancy and maintained at a normal level. Geta Bratescu, a Romanian artist who made experimental, often humorous works even during the most oppressive years of Communism and of Nicolae Ceausescus regime, but who remained largely unknown outside Romania until she was in her 80s, died on Sept. 19 at her home in Bucharest. She was 92. The Hauser & Wirth gallery, which represented her, confirmed the death. Mrs. Bratescu, who worked in collage, film, installation and assorted other forms, found herself sought after by curators late in life after a few high-profile exhibitions, including solo shows at the Tate Liverpool in England in 2015 and the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Germany in 2016. In 2017 she represented Romania at the Venice Biennale. Yet as prolific and adventuresome as she was, and as tumultuous as the times she lived through were, she was not given to lengthy discourses on theory or the relationship between art and politics. In 1953, Ernest Hemingways German publisher sent the young photojournalist Inge Schonthal to Cuba to discuss a new translation of the writers books. She had been looking for a way to meet Hemingway and had asked the publisher for help. She ended up staying with the author and his fourth wife, the former war reporter Mary Welsh, for two and a half weeks. Both were eager to experience a German postwar girl that wasnt part of the Nazi generation, she recalled 60 years later in an interview in the biannual contemporary culture magazine 032c. Hemingway, she said, became her Professor Higgins. He wanted to teach me things and to show me Cuba. The widely reported news is that Instagrams founders grew tired of their parent companys constant interventions in their product. Some of these interventions, like removing attributions to Instagram photos that appeared on Facebooks news feed, seemed intended to benefit Facebook at the expense of Instagram. But others, like Instagrams Stories feature (which was admittedly copied from Snapchat and initially resisted by Instagrams team), not only kneecapped the growth of Snapchat but also injected a new wave of growth to Instagram itself. Mr. Zuckerberg, for all his foibles, knows a viral product when he sees one. It isnt enough for Instagram to merely be big. Just like any other publicly listed tech company, growth is the main driver of valuation at Facebook. And it is both the growth potential of Instagram itself and what it can do for Facebooks top line that makes it far too important to be left alone any longer. Instagrams one billion monthly users is an eye-popping number, but its less than half of Facebooks, representing a big potential upside. Moreover, while Facebook users are getting older and becoming less attractive to many big advertising spenders, Instagram has the attention of a much younger generation. To top it all off, Facebook has been battered by scandal after scandal, especially following the 2016 elections, while Instagram has stayed above the fray and out of the spotlight. A chance to redeem itself in the eyes of its users could be too hard to resist for Facebook. Until now, Instagram focused on keeping its product simple. Instagram is the primary social network of its younger users, while Facebook acts as more of a directory and a conduit to Facebooks Messenger app. But Facebook still commands higher premiums for the ads it shows, paving the way for Facebook to build more offramps from Instagram into the main Facebook product. Such tricks might boost Facebooks ad revenue, but they also run the risk of upsetting users on Instagram, especially those who dont even know that Facebook owns their favorite app. What Mr. Zuckerberg is planning for Instagrams future is anyones guess, but there are hints here and there. One possibility is that Facebook itself will become more like Instagram. The Stories feature is a good example of how this might unfold for other features in the future: The introduction of the format has been so transformative for the Facebook ecosystem that the company expects time spent on it to surpass time spent on News Feed. WhatsApp stories themselves already have more users than Snapchat. As Ben Thompson of Stratechery shrewdly pointed out, this represents an opportunity for Facebook to delve into new advertising territory but also risks alienating current advertisers. GUANGZHOU, China Earlier this month, Jack Ma announced that he was stepping down as executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the worlds largest e-commerce company. His decision caught many by surprise. At an economic forum in Russia, President Vladimir V. Putin reportedly asked him, You are still so young. Why are you retiring? Maybe Mr. Ma, 54, knows something that Mr. Putin does not. Two of the three forces, globalization and marketization, that have propelled Alibaba to its current $500 billion valuation are dissipating. The third force, technology, is mired in the trade war between China and the United States, and its prospects in China are now uncertain. Alibaba didnt just transform e-commerce in China; it transformed the entire economy by helping build up the private sector. Mr. Mas departure from the company now though he claims to have been planning it for a while adds to a gathering sense that Chinas private sector, the engine of the economy, is losing steam and faith. Alibaba is Chinas globalization story par excellence. Founded in 1999, the company created a website that allowed people outside China to buy directly from Chinese exporters. At that time, China was opening up but foreign buyers were hampered by their lack of knowledge of Chinese suppliers. Alibaba set up a program called TrustPass, allowing third parties to verify the quality and trustworthiness of Chinese suppliers. This system enabled foreign buyers to bypass the slow and often bureaucratic state-owned intermediaries that typically performed verification, and it eased Chinese companies access to the global marketplace. Twice as a reporter, Ive interviewed women who have accused men of sexual assault and the men they accused. In both cases, the women looked me in the eye and told me about how theyd been raped, and then the men looked me in the eye and told me theyd never raped anyone. All four people spoke with force and emotion. In the moment, I wanted to believe each one. Its uncomfortable to imagine that someone who seems wholly sincere is not. Its confusing it seems unfeeling to turn away from someone who makes a vehement claim of truth. If you watched Thursdays hearing, in particular Christine Blasey Fords opening statement and Brett Kavanaughs, maybe you know what I mean. So then what? As a reporter, I looked for corroborating evidence as a means of assessing each persons veracity. What else could I find out, and how did their accounts stack up against that? This is how investigators do their work. They find out as much as they can about the surrounding circumstances. Then its up to judges to weigh the facts and decide which account is most credible. Judge Kavanaugh didnt sound as if he was thinking like a judge. His partisan attack on Democrats wasnt judicial, in any sense of the word. His approach to evidence wasnt either. The difficulty for holding Judge Kavanaugh accountable for what Dr. Blasey says was her assault is the lack of a certain kind of corroboration for her account. The other people she has named who were at the small gathering where she says the assault took place dont remember such a gathering. Two of them are Judge Kavanaughs high school friends. One of them is Dr. Blaseys friend. Maybe not but it would be very interesting to hear from them. It would also be interesting to pursue the likelihood that this small party, which took place somewhere within a relatively limited geographic area, was probably held at the house of one of the small group of people whom Blasey remembers attending. (That being, after all, how spur-of-the-moment teenage parties tend to work.) There was a wave of liberal mockery, linked to Ed Whelans Zillow-enabled attempt to float a Kavanaugh doppelganger last week, when the cross-examiner the Republicans had deputized my heroine for the day, the only person in the room who seemed interested in investigating hauled out a map showing different houses of the alleged partygoers and their relative proximity to the country club where Ford thought she spent the afternoon. But I wish she had pushed further with the map, since if you could come up with a list of plausible houses for the party, presumably you could come up with images of their exteriors and interiors and then presumably those could be shown to Blasey, whose memory of the night includes details of the rooms she moved through and the stairs she fled down and might extend to a shock of recognition if she could be shown the actual house again. Then there is the other Georgetown Prep boy who supposedly introduced Kavanaugh to Blasey a boy she dated and, she reluctantly revealed, also the boy recklessly named by Whelan. Isnt it possible, since she remembers him connecting them, that the party could have been at his house that he could be the extra person at the party whose identity she cant remember? Isnt it at the very least possible, since he was the link between them, that he could confirm or deny some useful detail about her link or lack thereof to Kavanaugh? All of these possible areas of inquiry her female friend and familys recollections, the probable locations for the party, the boy who connected her with her alleged attacker were unmentioned by Senate Democrats as they went about praising Blasey and cross-examining Kavanaugh, and their possible relevance is mostly being dismissed by the liberal side as of a piece with Whelans reckless public speculations. Instead the only person that liberals insist absolutely needs to be questioned more rigorously is Mark Judge, the alleged other participant in the assault. One year into the war with Sparta, in the prime of his citys democracy and power, Pericles, the great Athenian leader, also expressed a composite view of his states policies: In nobility of spirit, we stand in sharp contrast to most men; for it is not by receiving kindness, but by conferring it, that we acquire our friends, the historian Thucydides quoted him as saying at a funeral of war dead. But Pericles was no softhearted liberal in the modern sense. His pursuit was Athenian greatness and domestic and foreign policy contributed to this. Before succumbing to a plague that struck Athens during the war, he tried to encourage his fellow citizens. It will be remembered forever, how we of all Greeks held sway over the greatest number of Greeks, how in the greatest wars we held out against our foes whether united or single, and inhabited a city that was the richest in all things and the greatest, he declared. Both the grudging respect of a political opponent of democracy and the inspired rhetoric of its champion reveal that Athens had created a network of common interests among its citizens and with its allies, all of which it was able to manipulate to its own advantage. Allied tribute helped fund the glorious temples whose ruins still grace the Greek capital; allied money and ships contributed to Athenss naval might, which, in turn, helped the Athenians dominate their allies. In Thucydidess analysis, it was this rise in influence that provoked Sparta to reassert its authority as the Greeks greatest power. After Pericless death, arrogance toward other states and recklessness contributed to Athenss defeat. The Oligarch was given his catchy name a century ago by a prominent classicist, Gilbert Murray, at a time when the word was not synonymous with friends of Vladimir Putin or billionaires funding political campaigns. The name reflected the perennial tension in Athens and other city-states between the rule of the many and the rule of the few. Unlike those who today try to manipulate politics to their ends, the Old Oligarch could appreciate the effectiveness of what he did not like. He knew that the common people had to have economic benefits and a say in the running of the state, because the state depended on them. The people generally are right to have more than the highborn and the wealthy, because it is the people who man the ships and impart strength to the city, he wrote. Today, as President Trump tries to roll back health care for a large part of the population, as he invests in domestic division and further economic inequality, as he undermines alliances and the international order, he seems blind to the value of what he does not like, indifferent to the consequences of his actions. Endowed with the immense powers of his office, he lacks the cynical Old Oligarchs understanding of politics. Unlike Pericles, he does not see that power can be enhanced through the projection of kindness. Nikos Konstandaras is a columnist at the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion). Clem Berne New York The writer is a lawyer and an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law. To the Editor: Thank you, sexual abuse survivors who confronted Senator Jeff Flake in the elevator on Friday. Thank you, women sitting in the Capitol hallways blowing whistles so they could be heard by their representatives. Thank you, women who spent all night on a bus so they could present their fears to Senator Susan Collins. Thank you, Christine Blasey Ford, for speaking our truth. Thank you, Womens March, for starting a movement giving a voice not just to abuse survivors, but to all women, the world over. I could not be there, but you made my voice be heard. Thank you. Linda Honan Sheldon Hoodsport, Wash. To the Editor: Re High-Stakes Duel of Tears and Fury Unfolds in Senate (front page, Sept. 28): It is no longer necessary to decide who is telling the truth, Christine Blasey Ford or Judge Brett Kavanaugh. By his belligerence, wild claims of conspiracy and slippery partisanship, Judge Kavanaugh showed that he does not, on the basis of his demeanor or temperament, merit a lifetime appointment to the nations most important deliberative body. The Senate should vote no. Todd R. Clear Newark The writer is a professor at Rutgers Law School. To the Editor: Before the senators vote on whether or not to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh, I think they should ask themselves the following: In his sworn testimony on Thursday, did Judge Kavanaugh seem ... judicious to you? Did he seem to be a man who would be dispassionate, impartial and nonpartisan in his opinions? Did he seem to be a man who could rise above the petty politics of the day and render judgments fairly and objectively? The answer to each of the above was, to me, clearly no, no and no. And that is also how the senators should vote: no. To the Editor: Re 7 Key Questions as the City Transfers Teenagers Under 18 From Rikers Island Jails (news article, Sept. 28): On Oct. 1 , New York will recognize the obvious: Teenagers warrant different consideration in the criminal justice system from adults. Given the now well-known correlation between race, poverty and incarceration, the Raise the Age law is only one in a long line of desperately needed changes, including rethinking the length, location and conditions of criminal sentences. Fifty-thousand people remain in New Yorks prisons, and 40 percent of those released this year will be reincarcerated within three years . As a career prosecutor who teaches in prison, I call upon the criminal justice community to envision and carry out drastic change: expansion of alternatives to incarceration to address even violent crime; a reimagining of the conditions of confinement; and wraparound services for everyone re-entering our communities. This article has been updated to reflect news developments. Think of the Brett Kavanaugh nomination this way: A president who has faced at least a dozen allegations of sexual assault is attempting to appoint a second Supreme Court justice who has credibly been accused of sexual misconduct, and those two justices might well help form a new court majority to chip away at abortion rights in the United States. I dont pretend to know precisely what happened in the various incidents Kavanaugh is accused of. But this I know: When a man has a cloud over him, of multiple sexual assault allegations and of lies that come close to perjury, and when that mans defenders refuse to allow a thorough investigation, that person should not be elevated to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court. Yet without any serious investigation, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Friday to recommend Kavanaughs confirmation. Senate Republican leaders then agreed to a limited F.B.I. investigation taking no more than a week, which is encouraging, but may still be inadequate, or simply ignored. What is clear is that Kavanaugh has moved a step closer to the Supreme Court. Hold on! Kavanaughs defenders are right that the Supreme Court confirmation process has been politicized. Any doubts, just ask Justice Merrick Garland. A very bad week for America on the world stage. UB, Singapore Her trauma is real and so is his anger. And if the highly emotional testimonies leave us back to the starting point regarding this specific allegation, the rational side of me turns to the only objective question at hand does his behavior, temperament, tone and clear antipathy toward Democrats make him a suitable candidate for a lifetime appointment to a body that is supposed to be an impartial branch of government? American Abroad, Dubai There are nothing close to facts Clearly there must be a better way of dealing with accusations of this sort, be they true, have foundation or simply malicious. This is just as true in the wider world as it is in this particular arena. I dont disbelieve either party, but then there are nothing close to facts. Niall Firinne, London America truly is the laughingstock of the world. Regardless of whether Kavanaugh really did what he is accused of (and how is this going to be decided with no evidence?), this is ridiculous. What is to stop anyone from making such unsubstantiated claims about anyone else in the future? What it does show is just how far towards insanity and away from common sense American society has gone. Trial by believability on TV. Beat, Sydney With all the problems and issues in the world today, the United States is fussing about something a middle-aged man may or may not have done 36 years ago when he was in high school. Garth Stevenson, Grimsby, Ontario Your country has lost the plot I simply cannot imagine any country in Europe carrying out such a bizarre hearing, least of all one for all the world to see. It showed the U.S. in a very poor light. Some might say that it was at least transparent, but what it showed was a country massively at odds with itself and in no way fit to lead in the world. Garry Taylor, Lewes, U.K. Termites are often dismissed as nothing but home-destroying pests, less charismatic than bees, ants or even spiders. In fact, termites have been doing incredible things since the time of dinosaurs, maintaining complex societies with divisions of labor, farming fungus and building cathedrals that circulate air the way human lungs do. Now, add overthrowing the patriarchy to that list. In a study published this week in BMC Biology, scientists reported the first discovery of all-female termite societies. Among more than 4,200 termites collected from coastal sites in southern Japan, the researchers did not find a single male. Toshihisa Yashiro, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sydney and lead author of the paper, said in an email that he was utterly surprised by the discovery: I got a headache, because we believed that having both males and females is the rule in termite societies. With awards season approaching, stylists are at fashion weeks, scoping out looks for their clients, readying them to be at their best for months of parading down scads of red carpets. Harvey Weinstein may be banished, but the awards campaign machine he helped create grinds on. Now, a year into #MeToo, and after the emboldened feminist statements made by actresses at the last Golden Globes and in Cannes, has the marketing machinery of the red carpet changed at all? The early answer is no. With an asterisk. The red carpet, of course, has a not-so-secret double life as a klieg-lighted walking advertisement for lavish brands. Many actresses and actors on the carpet get paid to wear gowns, watches and jewels, and can pocket anywhere from an estimated $5,000 to more than $100,000 for their efforts. In the last year, though, the specter was raised, fleetingly, that substance may trump conspicuous consumption in red carpet form. At the Globes in January, A-list women, sheathed in black, seemed less like fashion police fodder than an indomitable army, marching as one under the banner of Times Up, the anti-harassment campaign they had just introduced. Train your body, and your brain Dr. Tracey J. Shors, a neuroscience and psychology professor at Rutgers University who has been studying the female brain and stress for 30 years, stumbled on meditation only about 10 years ago after a friend recommended it. I thought it was about relaxing, but I was wrong, she said. Its a way of learning how your own mind works. The experience propelled her to launch a study on what she already knew about aerobic exercise (thats anything that gets your heart rate up and increases brain function) combined with meditation to help women who have had sexually violent experiences. In her research, Dr. Shors found that mental and physical training, or MAP training, which includes practicing meditation for 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes of exercise twice a week, helped women recover from traumatic sexual experiences. Not only did participants have fewer trauma-related thoughts, but the training increased their feelings of self-worth. Most importantly, she said, participants had fewer repetitive thoughts about their past experiences. Every time you have a thought about the past, you theoretically make a new memory. And in some cases its good to bring up the memory because you want to learn not to respond to them. But if theyre coming up in a stressful way, maybe not so much, she said. The only way you can learn about your own mind is if you sit down and listen to it. Ground yourself It is not uncommon for assault survivors to feel disconnected from their bodies. Its described as an almost alien feeling that youre looking in at yourself from the outside. Grounding techniques can help people who are recovering from trauma reconnect with themselves, said Josie Torielli, the senior intervention consultant for the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. Grounding is really just being able to put yourself in the present moment in a way thats not threatening and thats calming, she said. One grounding method Ms. Torielli uses in practice is the 5, 4 , 3 , 2 , 1 method, which you can practice on your own or with a therapist. Its a full sensory exercise: She asks people to name five things they can see in a room, four things they can hear in the room, three things they can touch or feel, two things they can smell and one good quality about themselves. SAN FRANCISCO Facebook, already facing scrutiny over how it handles the private information of its users, said on Friday that an attack on its computer network had exposed the personal information of nearly 50 million users. The breach, which was discovered this week, was the largest in the companys 14-year history. The attackers exploited a feature in Facebooks code to gain access to user accounts and potentially take control of them. The news could not have come at a worse time for Facebook. It has been buffeted over the last year by scandal, from revelations that a British analytics firm got access to the private information of up to 87 million users to worries that disinformation on Facebook has affected elections and even led to deaths in several countries. Senior executives have testified several times this year in congressional hearings where some lawmakers suggested that the government will need to step in if the social network is unable to get tighter control of its service. On Friday, regulators and lawmakers quickly seized on the breach to renew calls for more oversight. WASHINGTON Sundar Pichai, Googles chief executive, toured the nations capital this week trying to assuage concerns from both parties about the companys size and influence, and whether its search results have political bias. Mr. Pichai, who had largely avoided meeting with lawmakers, will be coming back. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who organized a meeting with Mr. Pichai on Friday, said he expected him to attend a congressional hearing later this year. The hearing will address questions of political bias, as well as Googles potential plans to re-enter the Chinese market, said Mr. McCarthy, the House majority leader. Mr. Pichai confirmed in a statement that he would testify in due course. In addition, he has agreed to participate in a discussion with other tech industry leaders and President Trump, said Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council. Google had declined to send Mr. Pichai to testify this month at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about foreign manipulation of social media. The absence upset many lawmakers, leading to his visit this week. Each week, technology reporters and columnists from The New York Times review the weeks news, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two about the most important developments in the tech industry. Want this newsletter in your inbox? Sign up here. Yes, the robots are coming. But theyre not as a clever as you are. At least not yet. My name is Cade Metz, and here at The New York Times I cover emerging technologies, which is a fancy term for cool stuff that is probably not as cool as you think it is. My stock example: driverless cars. Driverless cars are very cool. Theyre a little less cool when theyre trying to make an unprotected left-hand turn against oncoming traffic and they just sit there because, unlike human drivers, they dont realize that there comes a time when you just have to go. Much the same applies to robots in general. Last time in this esteemed newsletter, my colleague Steve Lohr warned that automation would change the economy. But as he also explained, jobs are more likely to be transformed by digital technology than destroyed by it. This becomes clear as you look a little closer at the progress of robotics, including everything from the robotic arms that help build stuff in factories to the jaw-droppingly agile machines under development at a company called Boston Dynamics. As for Dr. Blaseys reluctance to come forward until the confirmation process was nearly over, Professor Hill said she totally understood. She came when she needed to come, she said. She came when the country needed her to come. Professor Hill focused her remarks on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and how young women can advance and prosper in companies where they still struggle for equality. But the subject of the Kavanaugh hearing came up again and again in questions, captivating an apparently adoring audience. Many of us are going to feel betrayed, Professor Hill said of her expectation that the Senate would ultimately confirm the nomination. She spoke as the Judiciary Committee met Friday to advance Judge Kavanaughs nomination to the Senate floor. There is much that is similar in the stories and experiences of Dr. Blasey and Professor Hill, although they came from very different social backgrounds. Both are university professors, neither wanted at first to reveal their names to the Senate, and both had vivid memories of their alleged encounters with the two judges. Both women faced angry rebuttals from the judicial nominees and were broadly accused of telling untruths. Professor Hill accused Justice Thomas of repeatedly making unwanted overtures years earlier in the workplace, when she worked for him first at the Education Department and later at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Three senators who heard her testimony before the Judiciary Committee remain on the panel, and two of them are strong supporters of Judge Kavanaugh, as they were of Justice Thomas. But Professor Hill pointed out differences between her time in the spotlight and now. A generation of women have taken gender studies since then, she said. There are more women in journalism now, many even serving on editorial boards where they can shape opinion. More women are coming forward with their stories of abuse, she said, and powerful men are being held to account. We are not alone, she is not alone, Professor Hill said. There is a community of us that has grown up in the last 10 to 15 years, especially as the #MeToo movement crests, she said. Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.) Sarah Jones wrote her 19-character, one-woman show about sexual exploitation of women before #MeToo was a hashtag. But current events have given a new topicality to Sell/Buy/Date, which Ms. Jones is performing at the Los Angeles L.G.B.T. Center through Nov. 18 after a successful run earlier this year at the Geffen Playhouse. The show is set in the future as a professor lectures her students about sex work today. Ms. Jones, a gifted role-player, performs as the academic as well as all of her case studies. (The Los Angeles Times called it a must-see one-woman marvel.) Ms. Jones, who won a special Tony Award in 2006 for Bridge & Tunnel, spoke with our theater reporter Michael Paulson about her show and her decision to produce it herself in Los Angeles. This interview has been condensed. Q. What is the show about? A. It is about women, sex and power, and all of our relationships, wherever we are on the gender continuum, to sex and commodification. Its about all of that. Its a mouthful. A white police officer in Nashville who fatally shot a black man who was running away from him was charged with criminal homicide on Thursday, officials said. In video of the July 26 shooting, which prosecutors released last month, Officer Andrew Delke of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department can be seen chasing the man, Daniel Hambrick, and firing several rounds at him from behind. Mr. Hambrick, 25, was holding a gun at the time of the shooting and was told to drop it, according to an affidavit that was signed Thursday. The affidavit, filed by an investigator with the district attorneys office, said Officer Delke, 25, had unsuccessfully tried to stop a white Chevrolet Impala earlier in the day, and later pulled into a parking lot near another white vehicle, which he mistook for the Impala. Several people were in the area, the affidavit said, and when the officer arrived, Mr. Hambrick ran, and Officer Delke chased him, even though he did not know if the man was connected to either vehicle. [Like this newsletter? Share with a friend. Did a friend forward you this? Sign up here.] Amid all the political rancor of the week, I couldnt help but think about a narrative thats been repeating since the rise of #MeToo nearly a year ago: that these accusations tear down the reputations of prominent, well-respected men that they ruin their legacy. My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed, Judge Kavanaugh said on Thursday. What seems an afterthought is that for millions of women, and men, who have endured this sort of violence, the toll is life-altering, even life-derailing, from the moment it happens. Its trauma that doesnt have a term limit. This dynamic was illustrated more than once this week, first with the sentencing of three to 10 years in prison of Bill Cosby, whose victim, Andrea Constand, released a harrowing impact statement. When the sexual assault happened, I was a young woman brimming with confidence and looking forward to a future bright with possibilities, she said. Now, almost 15 years later, Im a middle-aged woman whos been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward. Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it, she said. Then in an Op-Ed this week titled I Was Raped at 16 and I Kept Silent, the TV host and model Padma Lakshmi said she understood why women waited years to disclose sexual assault because she did just that, even though she had suffered immeasurably. Ms. Hinojos, who has worked at a Washington global consulting firm for two years, said she had noticed in company meetings that white men were often the first to speak up and offer suggestions something that leadership could redirect. What would the dynamic be that those who were least represented had to speak first? she said. And what does that mean for our conversations and how were represented? Its barriers that prevent access, she added, and thats whats disappointing to me. Ms. Hinojos, who is Mexican-American, said she was searching for a female mentor as she figured out the direction of her career in her first job in an American industry. The search, she said, is a responsibility both for a company seeking diversity and strong retention and for her as an employee looking to grow and develop within the organization. Now that I see women, she said of the company leadership. its a profile I potentially fit. The high-powered guns were scattered around the room on an upper floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. One of the firearms, a rifle outfitted with a scope, was near a window, its barrel pointed toward the popular Vegas Strip. But this was 2014, three years before Stephen Paddock used a suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay to stock an array of guns and carry out the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds of others at a country music festival. That first room with the rifle next to the window had been occupied by a felon, Kye Aaron Dunbar, who, like Mr. Paddock, had brought the guns upstairs in baggage. The Dunbar case, which attracted little public attention at the time, is now being raised by lawyers for victims of last years massacre who are suing MGM Resorts International, owner of the Mandalay Bay, for negligence. For Mr. Paddocks victims, the Dunbar case shows that the hotel did not do enough to prevent guests from bringing an arsenal of weapons to the hotel, and that the tragedy that unfolded one year ago was foreseeable. Heres what men dont get about the #MeToo movement: It is not about women, its about us, Wade Davis, a former N.F.L. player turned educator and activist, said at the summit. By us he meant men. Women are laying themselves bare to awaken us, so we can do better, he said to a crowd attending the panel How to Be a Male Ally. The two-day conference, held in Brooklyn, focused on gender and the workplace. More stories from The New Rules Summit Special Report. Michael Ian Black, a comedian who is outspoken on social justice issues and politics, joined Mr. Davis on stage. Mr. Black, who earlier this year wrote about the brokenness of the countrys boys in a New York Times Op-Ed called The Boys Are Not All Right, spoke in personal terms about advising his teenage son about boundaries, consent and ego. There will be girls in your life who you like, who dont like you back, Mr. Black said he had told his son. And thats O.K. Youre enough. Let it go. Protester: Dont look away from me look at me and tell me that it doesnt matter what happened to me. That you will let people like that go into the highest court of the land and tell everyone what they can do to their bodies. Reporter: Do you have an answer, Senator? Reporter: Do you want to respond, Senator? Protester: Senator Flake, do you think that Brett Kavanaugh is telling the truth? Aide: Thank you. Protester: Do you think that hes able to hold the pain of this country and repair it? That is the work of justice. The way that justice works is you recognize hurt, you take responsibility for it and then you begin to repair it. Youre allowing someone who is unwilling to take responsibility for his own actions, unwilling to hold the harm that he has done to one woman, actually three women, and repair it. You are allowing someone who is unwilling to take responsibility for his own actions to sit in the highest court of the country and to have the role of repairing the harm that has been done in this country to many people. Senator Flake: Thank you. Protester: No, no thank you. What do you think? Protester: You have power! Reporter: Senator, do you care to respond? Aide: Maam, do you want to talk to this staffer out here? Protester: No. I want to talk to him. Dont talk to me. What do you think? Senator Flake: I need to go to the hearing. Protester: I understand, but tell me. Im standing right here in front of you. What do you have do you think that hes telling the truth? Senator Flake: Thank you. Im going to go to Protester: No. Do you think that hes telling the truth to the country? Protester: You have power, when so many women are powerless. Reporter: You just released a press statement you dont have the courage to give them an answer? Aide: O.K. Thank you. Thank you. Reporter: Thank you is not an answer, Senator. Protester: Saying thank you is not an answer. This is about the future of our country, sir. Representative Duncan Hunter, the California Republican whose re-election campaign has been imperiled by a federal indictment, has released a startling attack against his Democratic challenger, suggesting that he is an Islamic terrorist sympathizer and national security risk. Ammar Campa-Najjar is working to infiltrate Congress, says the narrator of Mr. Hunters ad, released on YouTube, in reference to the Democrat running against him. Hes used three different names to hide his familys ties to terrorism. Mr. Campa-Najjar, who until Mr. Hunters troubles was considered a very long shot to win a predominantly Republican district in the San Diego suburbs, has a Mexican-American mother and a father who immigrated from the Middle East. His paternal grandfather, Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar, was involved with the plan to murder Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Germany in 1972; he was assassinated by Israeli military commandos in 1973. Good Friday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trumps Supreme Court nominee, and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexual assault, faced off Thursday in a day of testimony that riveted the nation. [Read about the hearing, how the nation responded and reactions from around the web] Among the takeaways: Dr. Blasey delivered raw, gripping testimony, while Judge Kavanaugh mounted a defiant and emotional defense. [Read the story] The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was part trial, part theater, part therapy. [Read the story] Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh left no room for compromise, and no possibility that they simply remembered something differently. [Read an analysis of their testimonies] WASHINGTON In the first round of his Supreme Court confirmation hearings early this month, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh kept his cool under hostile questioning, stressed his independence, and exhibited the calm judicial demeanor that characterized his dozen years on a prestigious appeals court bench. The Supreme Court, he said, must never be viewed as a partisan institution. His performance on Thursday, responding to accusations of sexual misconduct at a hearing of the same Senate committee, sent a different message. Judge Kavanaugh was angry and emotional, embracing the language of slashing partisanship. His demeanor raised questions about his neutrality and temperament and whether the already fragile reputation of the Supreme Court as an institution devoted to law rather than politics would be threatened if he is confirmed. This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, he said, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups. In a sharp break with decorum, Judge Kavanaugh responded to questions about his drinking from two Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island with questions of his own about theirs. He later apologized to Ms. Klobuchar. Carmakers also would be required to use more local steel, aluminum, glass and other parts. And 40 to 45 percent of vehicles would have to be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour. That increase is intended to increase jobs in the United States and Canada, where wages are higher. Those changes are generally acceptable to Canada, but it remains resistant to broadening access to the Canadian dairy market and to abandoning an independent tariff dispute settlement system. Mexico has agreed to put off discussions over removing tariffs that Mr. Trump has imposed on steel and aluminum imports, but Canadian negotiators have argued that these should be lifted as part of a new Nafta deal. Robert E. Lighthizer, the Trump administrations chief negotiator, told lawmakers this week that talks with Canada would continue even after the release of the agreement with Mexico. Administration officials are hopeful that Canada will be more willing to make concessions after provincial elections take place in October. Modest changes to the text can be made after it has been released and even after it has been signed. Going forward, Ways and Means and Finance Republicans and Democrats will be analyzing this carefully and looking for ways to advance a three-country agreement, Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said on Friday. He added: "Im hopeful Canada steps it up and steps to the table in a big way. Business groups have also been expressing their trepidation about moving forward with a free-trade agreement that does not include Canada. If Canada doesnt come into the deal, there is no deal, Thomas Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, warned last week. Those concerns were echoed on Friday by the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents the leaders of major American companies. Our northern ally is critical to allow trade to strengthen the U.S. economy, the group said. Relations between the governments of the United States and Canada have fallen to their lowest point in recent memory, leaving open the possibility that no deal will be reached anytime soon. Mr. Trump said this week that he was frustrated with how Canada had been behaving during negotiations and vowed that he would be just as happy to levy tariffs on imports of Canadian cars a move that would likely spur backlash from carmakers and consumers in the United States. There are so many emails that we wish we could run. But that would be a book not a newsletter. So we combed through and pulled a selection of notes that represented what youve been saying. A lot of you felt disappointment with the people you elected Ive been a Republican for over 40 years. I am ashamed of my party, of the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and especially of my home senator, Rob Portman. My party no longer resembles the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower. They have descended into Trumps swamp. Why could they not find a better candidate than Judge Kavanaugh? Tom Giapponi of Lancaster, Ohio The saddest part is todays circus did not seek the truth. Despite their proclamations of listening and keeping an open mind, every senator had already cast their ballot. The lens of partisan politics is so strong, every senator will vote based on their number-one value of self preservation. I cried today as I watched the hearings. I cry now as I write my opinion. I will vote. Vickie Ideta Allison of Newbury Park, Calif. And you vowed that they would pay a price in November. Hell yes, I cried. Yelled. Cursed. I even flicked off several of the Republican committee members in the privacy of my home to relieve my mounting anger and frustration over the pompous hypocrisy on display. And I am a registered Republican. Not for long if Senator Collins votes to confirm Justice Kavanaugh. Linda Mackaman of Maine The beginning of todays hearing made me excited. It made me proud to be an American citizen. But by the end, I was furious, not at just the Republicans, but the Democrats and political system as a whole. In a time when #MeToo and #MarchForOurLives have been so prevalent, I felt no difference from the senators chairs. The only thing I felt from today that makes me truly excited is that the midterms are 39 days away, and a reckoning is coming. Nathan Beam of Chicago Many of you wrote in to tell your personal stories. I cried and remembered an assault I suffered as a college freshman in 1969 that I got the courage to talk about for the first time in 49 years. Alison Hall of Little Rock, Ark. Dr. Ford inspired me last week to report a molestation Id never reported it before, and listening to her speak today, it felt like it was my voice I heard through her: just wanting to help, flashbulb details in terrorizing specificity, wrecked life, and spotty memory about the rest. She spoke for me and for all of my friends in similar circumstances who have had a harrowing week watching this all unfold. Kathryn Taylor of Palo Alto, Calif. Some doubted the veracity of Dr. Blaseys claims Dr. Ford gave an emotional testimony devoid of facts. I not only looked at it as a woman, but as the mother of three sons. How would I feel if that were one of my sons accused accordingly? No opportunity to dispute the time or the place Regardless, Judge Kavanaughs reputation is destroyed. Virginia Manley of Loganville, Ga. And others said Judge Kavanaughs testimony raised questions about his temperament. I am an early childhood teacher. If one of my students behaved the way Judge Kavanaugh did, I would make a note to help him with his social emotional development. He showed no empathy for Dr. Ford, and clearly felt entitled to a post on the Supreme Court. His self-pitying crying made me physically ill. Dr. Ford was clearly victimized twice. Lynn Moulton of Evanston, Ill. What I saw was a man, Kavanaugh, unfit for the office of which he was seeking. He lost his cool, a behavior not at all appropriate for a non-partial Supreme Court judge. Its also quite apparent that he is holding back and not being forthright. This behavior alone makes him unsuitable. Mark Worden of Stuart, Fla. And finally, you wondered what the day said about our political system as a whole. What particularly struck me was the inept, partisan nature of the comments/tirades by the Senate Committee members. This was not a good day for the American democratic process. Foreign viewers would be, I think, especially shocked by what was going on. I know I was, and Im pretty politically sophisticated. Sherry Smith of Berkeley, Calif. On a phone call tonight with one of my girlfriends from college I realized the difference between how I feel now and how I felt election night 2016. I have no hope or expectation people will do the right thing Ive already mentally prepared myself for the chance (likelihood?) that hes confirmed. Somehow yet again people dont believe this woman is enough, and I cant even let myself hope. I realized tonight the naive part of me that believed the good guys always win thats gone. Isabella Woodward of Chicago Responses have been edited for clarity. A special thanks to our news assistants, Isabella Grullon Paz and Margaret Kramer, for helping us sort through your all of your letters today. As always, you can reach us at onpolitics@nytimes.com. [For an international perspective on the hearings, The Timess Reader Center collected responses from around the globe. Read them here.] ____________________ The nomination moves forward We generally dont spend much time in this note recapping the days news. But so much happened today with Judge Kavanaughs confirmation, and theres so much interest in what will happen next, that we thought it was worth a quick rundown. What you want to do is destroy this guys life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020, Mr. Graham charged, referring to the next presidential election. You want this seat? I hope you never get it. Though Judge Kavanaughs nomination was approved Friday afternoon by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a straight party-line vote, Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, provided some drama by announcing that he and a few other senators would withhold their support on confirmation unless a new F.B.I. investigation was ordered to explore the accusations that Mr. Kavanaugh assaulted a woman at a teenage gathering. Republican leaders had resisted opening such an investigation for days but had no choice but to accede to Mr. Flakes demand because they lacked the necessary votes without him. Still, the leaders were keeping the machinery of the nomination moving to be ready to force a final vote as soon as the F.B.I. reports back within a week as directed. The 2016 fight over Mr. Obamas nominee is unanimously seen as benefiting Republicans in that years elections. By holding open the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, provided a strong election-year motivation for conservative voters who ended up supporting Mr. Trump so he could fill the seat instead of Hillary Clinton, a Democrat. Mr. Trump won and Republicans held the Senate majority despite their own concerns that they might lose it. But the political implications of moving ahead on Mr. Kavanaugh with such charged questions swirling around him could play out differently in the midterm elections in November. Republicans are already facing a significant gender gap in public polling, and a decision to confirm Judge Kavanaugh despite the compelling testimony of Christine Blasey Ford that he assaulted her when they were teenagers could exacerbate their struggles with female voters. Despite a Senate electoral map that works against them, Democrats could capitalize on the court fight to put control of the chamber within reach while also helping the party in its more likely push to gain control of the House. House Republicans plan to privately question the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, about discussions last year where he suggested secretly taping President Trump to expose a chaotic White House and removing him from office under the 25th Amendment. Mr. Rosenstein and Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, spoke Thursday night and agreed to schedule a meeting in the coming weeks, Mr. Goodlatte said in a statement. There are many questions we have for Mr. Rosenstein, including questions about allegations made against him in a recent news article, Mr. Goodlatte said, referring to the New York Times article last week that revealed Mr. Rosensteins discussions with other law enforcement officials. We need to get to the bottom of these very serious claims. House Democrats complained that they were left out of the planning and pledged to push to attend the meeting. Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said his Republican colleagues cannot be left alone in a room with Mr. Rosenstein. But while conducting aerial surveys for the government this year, Elephants Without Borders said it had come across dozens of elephant carcasses, many with their tusks missing. In a report in August, the charitys director, Mike Chase, wrote that he had never seen so many dead elephants at once, though they had apparently died over a period of about three months. Mr. Chase attributed the deaths to a poaching surge, and the charity said in an email at the time that it had reached out to the government but had been ignored. But the government immediately disputed both the groups numbers and the assumption that all the dead elephants had been hunted for their ivory, calling the reports false and misleading. Survival International, which advocates for the rights of indigenous peoples, agreed. In a visit to Chobe National Park last week, officials counted 19 dead elephants, only six of them killed by poachers, the government said. The rest had died of natural causes or in conflicts with villagers, the government said. Addressing reporters on the trip, Churchill Collyer, the deputy director of the wildlife department, said, We havent recorded any mass killing. In a statement last week, Elephants Without Borders insisted that it was completely apolitical in its work, but said that it had felt a moral and patriotic duty to report the high number of elephant carcasses observed during its survey, which began on July 3 and will finish in October. The statement did not mention the original claim of 87 carcasses or address the resulting criticism, noting that the group was unable to release any further information until completing its final survey report. WASHINGTON This weeks gathering of the annual United Nations General Assembly was dominated by President Trump. He emphasized his America First vision in his speech to the assembly and at a rambling news conference the next day. In smaller meetings, he touched on global issues that continue to vex the United States and other nations from North Koreas nuclear program to election interference by foreign powers. And he shrugged off laughter from other world leaders at his typically boastful words. I was struck by how he wanted to use this audience and this opportunity to reject some of the key tenets of global multilateralism, said Dafna Rand, a former State Department official who is now vice president for policy and research at Mercy Corps, a humanitarian aid organization. He was using this speech to reject the very premise of the U.N., she said. Between espousing those ideas, Mr. Trump and his senior administration officials detailed specific policy positions and gave a clearer view into how the United State is grappling with some big dilemmas. Here are five takeaways on their vision of United States foreign policy, as presented at the world bodys summit meeting. HONG KONG When Bill Jaynes realized water was rushing into the plane, he started to panic. Mr. Jaynes, a Micronesian journalist, was aboard a plane set to land on Weno, the tiny Pacific island that is part of the Federated States of Micronesia. I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in, he said in a Facebook video, describing the landing of a Boeing 737-800 flown by Air Niugini at Chuuk International Airport on Friday morning. And I thought, well, this is not, like, the way its supposed to happen. But then help suddenly arrived from a flotilla of local boats that rushed to the plane, which landed short of the runway in the Chuuk lagoon, and all 47 passengers aboard the aircraft were evacuated, according to early statement from the airline. Its just surreal, said Mr. Jaynes, managing editor of The Kaselehlie Press, a newspaper on Pohnpei, another Micronesian island. In this video, Mr. Xi, his hands folded behind his back, strikes up a conversation with a worker at an equipment manufacturer in Qiqihar, a northeastern city. Are these raw materials domestically made? he asks. Yes, all of them, the worker responds. Mr. Xi nods approvingly. Mr. Xi used his visit to reiterate calls for China to move more quickly to build its own technologies, so that it is less dependent on the United States. With trade tensions growing between the two countries and threatening supply chains, Mr. Xi has spoken frequently about the need for China to develop its own microchips, software and other technologies, part of its strategy to become a leading superpower of the 21st century. Throughout the tour, Mr. Xi called for zili gengsheng, or self-reliance. At one point, he picked up a rice bowl and said, Chinese rice, Chinese rice bowl, emphasizing his call for domestically made products. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation depends on our economic competitiveness, he said, using a favorite phrase to describe Chinas rise, as a crowd of workers applauded feverishly. Only then can China be forever invincible. Eleven years after Canada granted honorary citizenship to Myanmars civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the House of Commons voted unanimously to revoke it. The action on Thursday afternoon, which requires Senate approval to take effect, came a week after the House of Commons passed a motion declaring the treatment of Rohingya Muslims by Myanmars government to be genocide. Myanmars military is facing widespread allegations that it is carrying out ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya and the United Nations has recommended that its top commanders be tried for genocide. If youre an accomplice of genocide, you wont have honorary citizenship here, said Gabriel Ste-Marie, the opposition member of Parliament who put the motion forward, after the vote. Earlier in the House of Commons, Mr. Ste-Marie, a member of the separatist Bloc Quebecois party, charged that the killings had unfolded under the watchful eye of the de facto head of government: Aung San Suu Kyi. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was honored by Canada for her protracted effort to bring democracy to Myanmar, has avoided criticizing the militarys actions, which have caused an estimated 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh since August 2017. About 10,000 people have been killed in Myanmars Rakhine State according to the United Nations. Investigators said that they think the men wanted to use bombs and AK-47s to attack a mass event, while simultaneously detonating a car bomb elsewhere, and that the police were not certain of their exact targets. The suspects had made significant progress in their efforts to procure AK-47s and bomb belts really terribly dangerous stuff, the Dutch justice minister, Ferdinand Grapperhaus, said on national television. But they hadnt advanced so far that a threat to the population was imminent, or that it was almost too late, he added. While terrorist attacks have occurred across Europe since early 2015, their number and intensity have decreased. The Dutch authorities said on Friday that this trend was the result of increased police surveillance in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe, not because of a decline in terrorists determination. Information from the Dutch domestic intelligence service had led prosecutors to begin investigating one suspect, who lived in Arnhem, in April, the Public Prosecutors Office said in another statement. Tracking him led them to the six others in towns and cities across the Netherlands. The seven, they said, had formed a terrorist cell. Authorities were not looking for other suspects, the authorities said, that the Dutch cell had no suspected ties with other cells outside the country. BERLIN Olaf Scholz took over as Germanys finance minister in March. Since then, President Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on German cars, called Europe a foe and dispatched an ambassador to Berlin who takes selfies with far-right politicians eager to bring down the German government. But in an interview in his sparsely decorated fourth-floor office in the finance ministry, once the headquarters of the Nazi Luftwaffe, Mr. Scholz professed to be relaxed. There is nothing like a bit of venom from the White House to unite Europes progressive liberal center, says the man who is Chancellor Angela Merkels No. 2. Europe wont be pushed around, Mr. Scholz said, smiling serenely. The present U.S. administration, if you will, has become a catalyst for an ever-closer European integration process. LONDON On the way to a vacation in France with her father, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse picked up a sandwich at a Pret A Manger store in Heathrow Airport. She read the label carefully, because she had a severe sesame allergy. But the artichoke, olives and tapenade baguette she chose had sesame seeds baked into its dough, and carried no mention of the fact. Ms. Ednan-Laperouse, 15, collapsed from a cardiac arrest during the flight, and was dead within two hours. On Friday, an inquest at the West London Coroners Court found the labeling of the sandwich had been inadequate, because it did not warn of the hidden sesame seeds. There was no specific allergen information on the baguette packaging or on the food display cabinet, and Natasha was reassured by that, the coroner, Sean Cummings, said in his ruling. People who froze their credit files before September may notice some changes when the time comes to thaw the files. As of Sept. 21, a new law requires that the three major credit reporting bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion allow consumers to place or lift a security freeze on their credit files without charge. Freezing means lenders cant check your credit file unless you thaw the freeze, preventing criminals from opening credit cards or borrowing money in your name. Consumer advocates recommend a freeze at all three bureaus as a way to thwart identity thieves. People who had already established security freezes, and now want to thaw them to apply for a loan or credit card, will see a difference. With the new law taking effect, two bureaus Equifax and TransUnion this month abandoned the use of personal identification numbers, or PINs, to manage freezes online. (PINs are still needed, though, if you want to lift a freeze by calling on the phone.) Equifax, which suffered a major data breach last year, changed its approach on Sept. 19 in response to consumer feedback, said a spokeswoman, Nancy Bistritz-Balkan. (Consumers had complained after the breach that the PINs issued by Equifax were hard to keep track of and werent generated in a secure way.) Now, instead of issuing PINs, Equifax has consumers establish a password-protected online account. A creative female farmer in China recently broke the internet with a gorgeous wedding dress she made out of 40 cement bags leftover after repairing her country house. 28-year-old Lili Tan has never taken fashion design courses, and spends most of her time farming, not creating wedding gowns, but looking at the amazing dress she created on a rainy day, when she couldnt work in the fields, you could swear she makes dresses and accessories for a living. Using 40 discarded cement bags, the contents of which had gone toward renovating her village house near Longnan city, in Chinas Gangsu province, Tan was able to create an elaborate wedding dress like the ones she saw in magazines, an impressive train for it, as well as a fancy hat. She showed them off on social media in a video which instantly went viral with several millions of views. Photo: Weibo/Pear Video I did not expect the overwhelming response online, its such a nice surprise, the amateur fashion designer told Pear Video, jokingly adding that I could probably get more likes and views online if I were prettier. Even so, the 28-year-olds video got over 5 million views in China and is now doing the rounds on western social media as well. People just cant get enough of her cement bag dress and accessories, and the fact that she created them all in just three hours, out of boredom, because it was raining and she couldnt work the fields just adds to their charm. And just in case youre wondering, Lilil Tan will not be using her unusual wedding dress at her own wedding, as she has been happily married since 2012, and also has a son. Chinese ambassador to the United States on Thursday called on Washington to make right decision to put bilateral relations with China back on the right track. A reception is held in Washington to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Thursday, September 27, 2018. [Photo: China News Service/VCG] Speaking at a reception in Washington to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai noted that China and the United States, the world's two largest economies, must make a historic choice on where they want to steer the relationship, at a time when the world is undergoing unprecedented change. "At stake are the interests of our workers, farmers, entrepreneurs, men and women in military services and all other sectors, especially the future and fate of the young generation of the two countries," the ambassador said. Cui said China has already made its choice, vowing a commitment to the principle of no-conflict, no-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation with the United States. Beijing is also committed to settling differences in a constructive way, and to a sound, steady and growing China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the people of both countries and the whole world, the Chinese envoy said. "We call on and expect the U.S. side to make the same right choice," said Cui. Noting that 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of China-U.S. diplomatic relations, Cui said that the two countries have witnessed dramatic changes across the world and China-U.S. relations have also evolved profoundly over the past four decades. "History has proven that cooperation benefits both countries while confrontation hurts both, and that the only right choice for us is cooperation," the veteran diplomat added. Addressing the audience at the reception, Matthew Pottinger, White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs, acknowledged China's achievements and great potential in the future, adding that there is nothing to be afraid of when Washington and Beijing are found competing with each other. U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed to form a constructive and result-oriented U.S.-China relationship, which will bring unprecedented opportunity for the cooperation of the two countries, Pottinger added. About 600 people, including U.S. government officials, representatives from the intellectual and industrial sectors, as well as diplomats from foreign embassies, attended the reception on Thursday evening. A 37-year-old woman from Colombia recently shocked her entire country after managing to fake her pregnancy for nine months and then coming up with film-worthy story to explain the absence of a baby on her due date. And she did it all to keep her partner from leaving her. Antonela Santiago Padilla and her partner Victor had known each other since they were 14 year old teenagers growing up in northern Barranquilla. Life split them apart for a long time, but many years later, Victor called to commemorate the memory of her brother, who had passed away. She started writing to him in September of last year, and soon their relationship became stronger and closer. However, Antonela knew that he was involved in a romantic relationship with another woman and didnt want to break them up. Victor kept telling her that he and his partner werent getting along and that they were going to break up, so they started their own romantic relationship in December 2017. But Antonela wasnt convinced that Victor had forgotten about his former girlfriend and it was this insecurity that made her create this elaborate farce that left everyone flabbergasted. Photo: video screengrab It was all fake, yes, I invented everything and I did it out of love, for fear that I would lose the person I cared about, fear that he would stay with her, thats why I did it and I take full responsibility, Antonela today told Colombian newspaper El Heraldo. So what exactly did this woman do? Well, consumed by her fear that Victor was going to leave her and harrased by his former partner who claimed that it was Antonela who split them up, she started devising a plan to keep her partner by her side. The mother of two a boy, 13, and a 14-year-old daughter knew that Victor didnt have any children of his own, and thought that if she could at least offer him the illusion that she was going to give him a baby, it would make their relationship stronger. One day, in January, I told him I was pregnant and he innocently believed me, Antonela told reporters. The mans reaction to the news that he was finally going to be a father was such a joyous one that Antonela claims it started affecting her psychologically. The happiness in his eyes, his voice when he called her mommy, they all distorted reality to the point where, even though she knew she had made up the pregnancy, she started experiencing bizarre symptoms. Honestly, everything was like a psychological pregnancy and when that happens, your belly gets bigger, you start to feel things that you shouldnt, like when he called me mommy, I felt the baby move, Antonela claims. I felt nauseous, I wanted to vomit, I felt dizzy, I had cravings, sometimes I wanted to eat mojarra and I bought it, everything was psychological. Photo: El Heraldo This is where the story gets weird. According to some sources, Antonela deceived her partner and everyone else by wearing a cushion under her clothes and stuffing it with rags to make it seem like it was growing. She had a belly, it was small, but it never raised suspicions. My son lived with her, they slept together. But he never touched her belly or tried to bond with the baby, Victors mother said. We never suspected anything because although her belly was small, some pregnant women dont have big bellies so we didnt think anything was strange. However, Antonela recently said that she never used a cushion or anything else meant to enhance her belly. She claims that it would have been impossible to fool her partner for so long. After all, they slept in the same bed, and he often touched her belly. But she does admit to fooling both Victor and their two families by making false doctors appointments and even producing fake evidence of her pregnancy, like an ultrasound downloaded from the internet. When I had doctors appointments, they were in fact medical checkups like cytology or general medicine, not pregnancy checkups, the 37-year-old woman admitted. Victor often told me that he was going with me, but I always had some excuse to prevent him from going, I told him not to worry, that I was going with my sister and stuff like that. Somehow, this fake pregnancy farce worked for the whole nine months, and friends and family had already prepared a baby shower to celebrate the birth of Mariangel, as Victor called the unborn girl. But as her due date approached, Antonela started devising a plan to explain why there was no baby. On the morning of September 22, Antonela Santiago Padilla left her home to meet her sister and buy a cradle, diapers and other things for little Mariangel. Later that day, she was scheduled to give birth. Only she never made her appointment, and would later claim that she was kidnapped by masked men who shoved her in a car and cut out her baby for organ harvesting. After being released by her captors, she called Victor to come get her, and when he asked what had happened to the baby, she told him it had been taken by organ traffickers. Despite her refusal to got to the hospital to have this backstreet c-section checked out, Victor took her to the Nino Jesus de Soledad, and also notified the police about the crime. An operation to catch the alleged child traffickers was set in motion, and staff at the hospital scrambled to help the poor mother. Everyone started to doubt Antonelas story, after a hospital evaluation showed that she had suffered no cuts consistent with a forced caesarean. A blood test showed no traces of sedatives in her body, but also no evidence that she had ever been pregnant in the first place. The woman went around showing an ultrasound scan that she had taken form the internet, she simply modified it and deceived her sentimental partner. But at the hospital she took a test which showed she had never been pregnant, police commander Mariano Cotero Coy told Al Dia. Antonela kept insisting that she had been pregnant and that gang members had kidnapped her and cut her baby out of her belly, even though the evidence against her was overwhelming. However, in the interview published today by El Heraldo, she admits that she made up the part about the baby being removed from her womb, but insists that she really was kidnapped by gang members on September 22, and had all her money stolen. After talking to doctors and police, Victor begged Antonela to tell him the truth, and she couldnt keep lying anymore. He begged me to tell him the truth, to tell him if it was true, and I wasnt able to look him in the eyes, it hurt me to see him like that, the teary-eyed woman told El Heraldo. When I got home, I told him everything. I told him what I did, I talked about my insecurity, my fears, my love, we cried together. He said to me I feel mocked, like a clown, why did you play with my feelings ? If you were not pregnant, I was not going to leave you, because I love you.' Antonela admits that Victor feels hurt by what she did, and that he told her to give him some space to recover from the recent shock, but she claims that they are still together and talk daily. The woman is currently seeing a psychologist to deal with the aftermath of the farce she kept up for so long. Faking pregnancies appears to be very popular these days. Only last month we wrote about a young girl who also managed to fool her boyfriend that she was pregnant for nine months, only to then tell him that the bay had died at birth. Hashim Thaci Chartwell Strategy Group, which launched in February, is providing government relations and PR communications services to Kosovo's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The DC's firm's representation is via Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, which has a one-year contract with Kosovo worth about $50K per month. Muslim-dominated Kosovo this year is celebrating the 10thanniversary of its bloody split from largely Orthodox Christian Serbia, a break-up spurred by NATO air strikes and demands that Serbian forces leave Kosovo. President Hashim Thaci marked Kosovo's anniversary with an op-ed in the Sept. 27 Financial Times in which he expressed an eagerness to normalize relations with Serbia and join NATO and the EU. Chartwell's Matthew Epperly, Oswaldo Palomo and David Tamasi are working the Kosovo account. Epperly is a former VP at Harbour Group and advisor to Democratic politicos. Palomo founded Public Sphere government relations firm and was senior VP at A.D.S. Ventures. Tamasi, a veteran of nine years at Rasky Partners and four at Ogilvy VP, is a Republican fundraiser and recent Trump Victory finance chair. Benjamin Chang Benjamin Chang, a managing director in Burson-Marsteller's PA and crisis practice in Washington since 2016, has moved to Princeton University as chief spokesperson and media relations director. He has White House experience gained from working as director of press & communications at the National Security Council during the administrations of presidents Bush II and Obama. Most recently, Chang was VP/events editor at the Los Angeles Times and associate administrator for communications at the Small Business Administration. Brent Colburn, Princeton's VP-communications & PA, said Chang's "proven commitment to serving others, combined with his creativity, media savvy and professionalism, make him the ideal person to serve as Princetons spokesperson. Besides media duties, Chang will advise Colburn and Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber on PR messaging strategies. More than 50 pig farmers from all over the country have gathered outside the premises of Carroll's Cuisine in Tullamore to protest the company's importing of Belgian pork. The protest comes in light of an outbreak of African Swine Fever in Belgium with Carroll's coming under increasing pressure from the IFA to desist importing from the country. A social media storm erupted this week as pig farmers vented their frustrations at discovering Belgium as the country of origin on a number of Carroll's products. Hey @CarrollsHam - two things, why are using imported pigmeat for your ham when Irish pig farmers are going through their worst price crisis in 15 years? Secondly, are you aware how many countries have stopped Belgian pigmeat imports due to the African Swine Fever? pic.twitter.com/pdkjksjWCY Shane McAuliffe (@ShaneMcAuliffe1) September 26, 2018 The IFA protest, taking place on Friday, September 28, relates to the fact that a number of countries have already stopped trade with Belgium after they confirmed the presence of the virus in the last three weeks. "African Swine Fever is a deadly viral disease that affects pigs and if it got into our country it would wipe out all of our national herd because we would lose all our exports, " Chairman of the Pig Health Sub-Committee within the IFA, Shane McAuliffe told the Offaly Express outside Carroll's. Minister Creed has already stated that the spread of the virus in Eastern Europe and now Belgium is a "cause for concern." The IFA say it is "irresponsible" for companies to continue importing Belgian pig meat amid the outbreak. It has been reported that Belgium is to cull up to 4,000 pigs in an effort to stem the spread of the virus. The EU has set up rules regarding African Swine Fever to prevent its spread, including designating 'infection zones' and limiting the transport of pigs within them. Carroll's have indicated that they are acting within the law and their products are approved by the Food Safety Authority but the IFA say "they have not addressed the concerns surrounding African Swine Fever," and "that's why farmers are here [outside Carroll's] today," Shane McAuliffe told the Offaly Express. The virus is not a threat to humans but the IFA say it is a major threat to the Irish pig sector, which they say has been struggling for many years. The virus originated in Kenya but has been detected further west in recent years with Belgium its latest destination. "It's been the worst year in pig farming for 15 years, no one is making any money, we're going bust, and here's a company bringing in imported pig meat when we're well able to produce it ourselves for the home market," Shane McAuliffe said. It's understood that officials from the IFA are now meeting with Carroll's Cuisine in Tullamore as the protest continues outside. Pig farmers from all over the country still protesting outside the offices of @CarrollsHam in Tullamore. @IFAmedia national treasurer and national pig chairman among those who have gone in to speak management over their import of Belgian pigmeat pic.twitter.com/KZtRqwV0wg Shane McAuliffe (@ShaneMcAuliffe1) September 28, 2018 Carroll's Cuisine and the Department of Agriculture have been contacted by the Offaly Express for comment regarding this developing story. Justice Chandrachud does it again: Overrules fathers verdict for the second time Adultery verdict: Womens commissions have conflicting take on SC ruling India oi-Shubham Ghosh New Delhi, Sept 28: The Supreme Court on Thursday, September 27, gave its ruling that adultery is not a crime and it saw people getting polarised over their reaction. While some welcomed it saying it brought women on an equal pedestal with men by diluting an archaic law, others felt it would only see people indulging in more adultery, putting the institution of marriage in jeopardy. Adultery not a crime, but ground for divorce says Supreme Court A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Mishra was unanimous in its call to strike down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised adultery. It held the section violated women's right to equality. However, not all women and their bodies were unanimous over the apex court's ruling. SC strikes down law on adultery: Timeline DCW chairperson against decision Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal, for instance, was not happy with the verdict and said on Twitter that it only gave license to married couples to engage in adultery. "What's sanctity of marriage then? Instead of making 497 gender neutral, criminalising it both for women and men they have decriminalised it totally! Anti women decision." Totally disagree with SC on adultery. They've given license to married couples 4 adulterous relationships. What's sanctity of marriage then? Instead of making 497 gender neutral, criminalising it both for women and men they have decriminalised it totally! Anti women decision. Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) September 27, 2018 NCW chief for the decision Rekha Sharma, the chief of National Commission for Women (NCW), welcomed the ruling said it should have happened long ago. She said the law belonged to the British Era and although the British had done away with it long ago, India was still "stuck with it". I welcome the Supreme Courts verdict to strike down Sec 497 and abolish the outdated #adulterylaw as a criminal offence. Women are not the property of their husbands. This decision is not only for all the women but it is also a gender-neutral judgement. @ncwindia @MinistryWCD rekha sharma (@sharmarekha) September 27, 2018 Decriminalising of #Adultery is welcome and long overdue. Adultery is now grounds for divorce not crime. The law criminalising men for relations with some other man's wife was patriarchal, assumes wife is husband's property and has no autonomy. Good riddance #AdulteryVerdict Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) September 27, 2018 Adultery verdict applies to all religions, but laws of matrimony remain separate Kavita Krishnan, secretary of All India Progressive Women's Association and a CPI(ML) Polit Bureau member also welcomed the verdict saying it was long overdue. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 7:25 [IST] Sabarimala temple in Kerala to open for monthly rituals from July 16; Conditions apply for devotees How to Book Sabarimala Virtual Q Tickets Online 2021? Know Date, Price and Other Details All you need know about the Sabarimala temple India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Sep 28: Sabarimala temple, dedicated to Ayyappa, is in the midst of a controversy with the Supreme Court questioning the basis of a 1500-year-old rule that prohibits women in the menstrual age group from entering the temple premises. The apex court will give its final verdict on pleas challenging the ban on entry of women between 10 and 50 years of age into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. Sabarimala Temple entry case: Jayamala's bold claim that stoked controversy in 2006 A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had reserved its judgement on August 1 after hearing the matter for eight days. The Kerala government, which has been changing its stand on the contentious issue of women of the menstrual age group entering the Sabarimala temple, had on July 18 told the Supreme Court that it now favoured their entry. Why are menstruating women not allowed in Sabarimala Temple? Centuries old beliefs and customs Even as the controversy rages on, we list out facts about the temple that you absolutely must know: The Sabarimala Temple, considered the abode of Lord Ayyappa, is located in the Periyar Tiger Reserve in the Western Ghat mountain ranges of Pathanamthitta District, Kerala. It is believed that Lord Ayyappa was born out of the union between Lord Shiva and the mythical Mohini, who is also regarded as an avatar of Lord Vishnu. The Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple in Kerala sees millions of pilgrims swarm to its doorsteps on the eve of Makara Vilakku Day. It is the holy Hindu day when Lord Rama and his brother Lakshmana met Sabari, a tribal Goddess. Devotees believe that on that day Lord Dharmasastha stops his Tapasya to bless all the devotees visiting the temple. They have a specific colour code for the pilgrimage which they follow. They have to wear black or blue dress. They can also be seen smearing Sandal paste and Vibhuti on their forehead while undertaking the pilgrimage. Sabarimala's official website says it is "open to all, irrespective of caste, creed or religion". The temple prohibits the entry of women in their 'menstruating years' (between the ages of 10 to 50), on the grounds that it is a place of worship. Travancore Devaswom Board is said to have the legal authority to manage the Sabarimala temple's administration. The board has heavily relied on Article 26 of the Constitution, which guarantees a religious denomination of right to manage its own internal religious affairs. The Sabarimala temple board had even argued that women are restricted from entering the temple as they "can't do" the tough 41-day penance. A controversy began when Jayamala, a Kannada actor, claimed in 2006 that she had entered the sanctum sanctorum and touched the idol of the presiding deity in Sabarimala. Last year, a 31-year-old woman made a failed attempt to enter the temple. The woman, a resident of West Godavari district in Telangana, was picked up from 'sannidhanam', the temple complex. The temple has witnessed two major stampedes that have claimed over 200 lives. On January 14, 1999, a stampede on the foothills of Sabarimala killed 53 and another 104 pilgrims died on Makara Jyothi Day at Sabarimala in 2011. At least 20 Sabarimala pilgrims were injured in a "minor stampede" in December, 2016 due to a heavy rush of devotees. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 9:33 [IST] Araku MLA killing: Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu announces Rs 1 cr compensation India oi-Madhuri Adnal Hyderabad, Sep 28: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday announced Rs 1 crore financial assistance, a house site in Visakhapatnam and a Group-I job to the bereaved family of slain Araku legislator Kidari Sarveswara Rao. Speaking to media, Naidu said,''The killing of MLA K Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma is very painful. I condemn it. Govt will give financial aid of Rs 1 crore to K Sarveswara Rao's family, house plot in Visakhapatnam and one govt job to a family member.'' AP: TDP leaders Kidari Sarveswara Rao, Siveri Soma shot dead by Naxals in Visakhapatnam ''The govt will give financial aid of Rs 10 lakh each to six family members of Siveri Soma & house plot in Visakhapatnam. On behalf of TDP, Rs 5 lakhs will be given to each of the 7 family members of Siveri Soma and 4 members of K Sarveswara Rao's family,'' he said. Sarveswara Rao, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA from Araku (Reserved-Scheduled Tribe), and his party colleague, former MLA Siveri Soma, were gunned down allegedly by Naxals when they were visiting a village to attend a party programme. Arrest warrant issued against Chandrababu Naidu in connection with Babli project agitation The police on Monday had released the names and pictures of three Maoists including two women who took part in the attack near Lipittuputtu village, about 15 km from the Odisha border. Based on the information gathered from witnesses, the police said that the main accused in the killing was Aruna alias Venkataravi Chaitanya, a Special Zonal Committee Member (SZCM) of the Communist Party of India-Maoist. SC directs Tripura govt to ensure no political party is prevented from local body polls campaign Arrest of activists in Elgar Parishad case: A timeline of events India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Sep 28: The BJP seemed bouyed by the Supreme Court's decision to not interfere in the arrests of five alleged Naxal sympathisers in connection with the Elgar Parishad case. Soon after the top court's ruling on the matter, the BJP trained gun at the Congress which had earlier comeout in support of the arrested activists. BJP president Amit Shah took to Twitter to lash out at Rahul Gandhi and accused the Congress of supporting "Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements". Also Read | Arrest of activists: SC says accused cannot chose which agency will examine case The following is the chronology of events leading to the Supreme Court refusing to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists by the Maharashtra Police in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case, and declining to appoint a SIT to probe their arrest. It also extended their house arrest for 4 weeks. Poet-Social activist Varavara Rao Dec 31, 2017: Elgar Parishad - a conference held in Shaniwar Wada near Pune to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon-Bhima. Jan 1, 2018: One person killed in caste violence between two groups near Sanaswadi, adjacent to Koregaon-Bhima leading to the statewide Dalit agitation. Jun 6: Pune police arrests prominent Dalit activist Sudhir Dhawale, Nagpur University head of English department Shoma Sen, activist Mahesh Raut and Kerala native Rona Wilson, who is associated with committee for release of political prisoners, in the case. Social activist-lawyer Arun Ferreira Aug 28: Maharashtra Police arrests Telugu poet Varavara Rao from Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha from Delhi. Petition filed in Delhi HC on behalf of Navlakha challenging his arrest. -Delhi HC directs Navlakha, arrested for alleged Maoist links, not be taken away from the national capital till it hears the matter next day. Punjab and Haryana HC Court stays transit remand of Bharadwaj. Aug 29: Maha Police gives in Delhi HC translated documents including FIR to Navlakha's counsel. Historian Romila Thapar and four activists move SC against the arrest of five rights activists seeking their immediate release and SIT probe. SC directs all activists be kept under house arrest till September 6. Activist Vernon Gonsalves Aug 30: Delhi HC not to proceed with hearing of the plea against Navlakha's arrest till further orders from SC. Sep 5: Maha govt claims in SC that activists were not arrested for their dissenting views but due to the cogent evidence linking them with the banned CPI(Maoist). Sep 6: SC extends activists house arrest till Sep 12. Sep 12: SC extends their house arrest till Sep 17. Sep 17: SC further extends their house arrest till Sep 19 saying it will examine whether there is material supporting their arrest in the case. Also Read |Urban naxals: Shot in the arm for cops, clearly not a case of political dissent Human rights activist Gautam Navlakha Sep 19: SC again extends house arrest of activists for a day saying it will look into their arrest with a 'hawks eye'. Sep 20: SC reserves verdict on the pleas. Sep 28: SC, in a 2:1 verdict, refuses to interfere with the arrests and declined to appoint a SIT. OneIndia News with PTI inputs For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 17:10 [IST] Arrest of activists: SC says accused cannot choose which agency will examine case India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: The Supreme Court has said that the accused cannot choose which probe agency should examine the case. The observations were made while delivering the verdict on the legality of the raids and arrest of five persons allegedly sympathetic towards naxalites. The five persons, Vara Vara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Feriera, Vernon Gonsalves and Gautam Navlakha had been arrested by the Pune police following on the ground that they were instrumental in inciting violence in the Bhima Koregaon case. It was also alleged that they were plotting the assassination of the Prime Minister apart from trying to spread violence across the country. The SC had however placed them under house arrest. SC junks plea of activists sympathetic to naxals, says probe agency not their choice During the course of the hearing the Bench had once indicated that the accused persons could continue their efforts in the competent lower courts. The Bench even mooted transferring the pending cases to one court while continuing with their house arrests. However the counsel for the activists insisted that the Supreme Court should first hear them. PM Modi assassination plot: Urban naxal-NE terror groups under radar The Centre had brought to the notice of the court the problem of naxalism in the country. The problem affects the entire nation, the Centre had also said. This case is not about quelling dissent, but concerns a serious offence, the Centre further said. CBSE Exam 2019 dates: Check for Class 10, 12 India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: The CBSE exam 2019 dates are out. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will be conducting the 2019 10th and 12th in February this year. Earlier, the board said that examinations for all the core academic subjects such as languages, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, economics, business studies, accountancy and economics, among others, will continue to be held in March. Board exams for vocational subjects of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will be conducted in the second half of February. The CBSE, on Wednesday, announced that it has decided to hold exams for skill education (vocational) and related subjects in the second half of February for the ensuing board exams of Classes 10 and 12 to be held in 2019. CBSE releases advisory to alert people against fake websites The decision has been taken after Delhi University directed the board to ensure declaration of results including results of re-evaluation, taking into account cut-off dates for admission to colleges. After that order, the HRD ministry had directed CBSE to consult colleges for the same. There are 40 skill education subjects being offered in class 12 and 15 in class 10. There are also other subjects such as typography and computer applications (English), web applications, graphics, office communication, etc, where there are very few students, a notification by the Board said. CBSE to change paper pattern for Class X, XII from 2020 CBSE officials said, "This slight advancement of date sheet of the board will facilitate slightly earlier declaration of both - the main results and the re-evaluation results - as compared to earlier years. In class 12, the only compulsory subject is languages, while in class 10, the compulsory subjects are languages, mathematics, science and social sciences. The students are free to choose any combination of subjects in addition to the mandatory subjects as per scheme of studies." For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 6:28 [IST] Four states tell chemists to keep records of people buying cold and fever drugs Why COVID-19 vaccines will not be available at chemists and pharmacies Chemists strike: Medical shops to remain closed today India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Sep 28: Medical shops across India will remain shut today as the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists Association has called for a nationwide strike against online sale of drugs. Chemists said they would protest any move by the Centre to allow sale of medicines via internet or e-pharmacies to operate in India in any form. It was observed that online players were violating provisions of the Drug Act and no visible action was taken against them by the authorities concerned, chemists claimed. Why are chemists protesting online sale of medicines The Centre's draft notification on e-pharmacies says: "Any person who intends to conduct business of e-pharmacy shall apply for the grant of registration to the Central Licensing Authority in Form 18AA through the online portal of the Central government." However, sale of tranquillisers, psychotropic drugs, narcotics and habit forming drugs have been prohibited through these portals. There are more than nine lakh retail and wholesale chemists throughout the country. "The AIOCD has already observed two bharat bandhs earlier. If the appeal does not get a positive response from the government, we will not have any other option than to call for a nationwide indefinite agitation. Chemist shops across the country will remain closed on September 28," said Sandeep Nangia, the organising secretary of the AIOCD and the president of the Retail Distributors Chemists Association (RDCA). While the drug prices have been regulated by the government, online portals offer discounts up to 70 per cent against a 10 per cent discount available at wholesalers. The AIOCD members alleged e-pharmacies would encourage irrational usage of medicines and sale of spurious drugs. "The government should crack down any online sale of medicines as it raises the risk of drug abuse. At present, online pharmacy business is going illegally and the government is not taking any action against it, hence, we have no alternative than to go on a strike to protect health of general public," said General Secretary of the AIOCD Rajiv Singhal. In support of the nationwide strike called by the AIOCD to protest online sale of drugs, more than 12,000 chemists and wholesalers in the city will keep their shops closed on October 14 and participate in a protest at Jantar Mantar here. "Despite the complaints made by the AIOCD, online pharmacies are supplying the goods like MTP kits and anti-depression drugs among others without confirming the authenticity of the prescription and patient," said Vice President of the AIOCD Surender Duggal. OneIndia News (with PTI inputs) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 4:30 [IST] Five thousand Swish Cottage at Kumbh Mela in Allahabad for participants of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Sep 28: Ministry of external affairs has changed the date of Pravasi Bharaiya Divas from January 9 to January 21-23, 2019. The event was actually started by the first National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under the leadership Atal Bihari Vajpayee to commemorate the occasion of the return of Mahatma Gandhi to India from South Africa on January 9, 1915. The Uttar Pradesh government is the partner state for the convention to be organised in Varanasi - the Parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But this year the event has not only being organised in Varanasi but also being clubbed with Kumbh Mela in Allahabad and Republic Day parade in New Delhi. Besides these delegates will have the chaise to visit Ayodhya and Chitrakoot. Delegation of around 5000 Pravasi Bharatiya will be visiting the Kumbha Mela. One of the Pravasi Bharaiya vising India for the programme from the United States told One India, "We have been told that some tents have been arranged at the Kumbh Mela for us. We will be staying there only for the night before proceeding for Delhi to attend Republic Day Parade for which also special arrangements have been made for us." Kumbh Mela at Allahabad to be promoted globally to attract foreign tourists As per the information provided by the Uttar Pradesh government around 4000 sprawling tents will be erected in the mela area which is city in itself for 45 days. The external ministry says, the mela date was deferred in view of respecting sentiments of the larger diaspora community to participate in Kumbh Mela and Republic Day celebrations. So the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention will be organized from 21 to 23 January 2019. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas participants would reach Kumbh Mela on January 24, 2019. Arrangement is being made to make the mela a smart city with all facility with five thousand Swish Cottage. This super luxury swish cottage will be spread in 11 lakh sq foot. It will have villa, super delux tent, delux tent and 10 swish style luxury tent will be built. They will be provided with WiFi and 24-hour power supply. Also Read | UP government to organise Vichar Kumbh on seven themes in different cities Since Pravasi Bharatiya Divas being in Varanasi the Parliamentary constituency of the PM, his participation in the programme is necessary. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the programme on January 21, 2019 and Valedictory Address will be delivered and Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards will be conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 23, 2019. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius, will be the Chief Guest of the Convention. Himanshu Gulati, Member of Parliament of Norway, will be the Special Guest and Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, Member of Parliament of New Zealand will be the Guest of Honor at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on 21st January, 2019. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 11:37 [IST] Security beefed up outside Mukesh Ambani's Antilia after alert from taxi driver about suspicious passengers Fuel price hiked again: Diesel breaches Rs 79-mark in Mumbai India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Sep 28: Fuel prices continued to soar on Friday. In the national capital, petrol and diesel prices were Rs 83.22 per litre (an increase of 22 paise) and Rs 74.42 per litre (an increase of 18 paise), respectively. In Mumbai, petrol and diesel prices were Rs 90.57 per litre (an increase of 22 paise) and Rs 79.01 per litre (an increase of 19 paise), respectively. Even in other metro cities including Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai petrol is being retailed at Rs 85.03, Rs 86.52 respectively. Likewise a litre of diesel in these metro cities is being sold at Rs 76.27, Rs 74.80 and Rs 78.69 respectively. Delhi has the cheapest fuel rates among all metros and most state capitals because of lower taxes. Petrol, diesel rates vary from city to city and from pump to pump depending on local taxes and transportation cost. The Centre currently levies an excise duty of Rs 19.48/litre on petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre on diesel. Various states levy Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel. Mumbai has the highest VAT of 39.12 percent on petrol, while Telangana levies the highest VAT of 26 percent on diesel. Also Read | Fuel price rise: Dharmendra Pradhan blames 'isolated' US policies Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan on September 26 blamed global factors for the increase in prices of petroleum products. Pradhan said that reducing taxes on these items will not have any lasting impact due to the continuing volatility in crude prices. "The basic problem is that crude prices are volatile. The effect of any measures, including reduction in VAT by the states and the Excise duty by the Centre will not last long due to the volatility in crude prices," Pradhan said. Also Read | Others affected more, not me says union minister of fuel price hike Pradhan, however, said higher prices is a matter of concern and government is finding ways to offer some relief to the public. GST council meet: Government to constitute 7-member GoM to discuss Kerala cess proposal India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Sep 28: Several key decision were taken at the 30th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meet chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the national capital on Friday (September 28). Jaitley, after the meeting, said that a 7-member Group of Ministers would be formed to look into Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac's proposal that an additional cess be imposed for a limited period of time so that the additional funds raised can be used to rehabilitate flood-hit Kerala. "We are making a 7 member group of ministers which will discuss the Kerala Cess proposal. This 7 member committee will have members of North East, hill and coastal states. Committee members will be announced soon," Jaitley said. GST rate: Home appliances become more affordable now Issac had not called for a nationwide cess in order to save other states from the discomfort. There, however, is no provision for a state-specific cess in the GST Act. Jaitley said that GST council secretary will visit revenue deficit states to take stock of the revenue position. "Detailed presentation took place about revenue position. It had been decided earlier that GST council secretary will visit revenue deficit states and analyse it. It was found that there's no revenue shortfall in consuming North-east states," he said. "Bihar imposed additional VAT in 2015-16 when tax reduced due to the prohibition of alcohol. Taxation inflated by 27% as compared to the previous year. Bihar benefited from this aberration," the Finance Minister added. GST Council Meet: Here is what got cheaper and other major announcements On August 4, during the 29th GST Council meeting, it was announced that a committee has been set up to look after the grievances of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The council also announced that the GST incentives for digital payments via RuPay card and BHIM app will be rolled out on a pilot basis. In the name of Muslim welfare, a defence fund that controls Indias terror, hawala network India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: The ease with which the operatives of the Falah-e-Insaniyat was able to bring in money to India only goes on to show the strength of the hawala network in India. The National Investigation Agency busted a module of the FIF which is the financial wing of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The module members were bringing in money through hawala operatives based out of Dubai and Delhi. They were in touch with a Dubai based Pakistan national and the money was being used to further the activities of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in India. Kashmir bound: Most of the money was meant to be pumped into Kashmir, where the Lashkar-e-Tayiba operates on a large scale. Once the money landed in Delhi, it was moved by the operatives to Kashmir. FIF module busted: The hawala headache in Chandini Chowk In many cases we have seen the innovative manner in which the operatives of the FIF have moved money to Kashmir. In some cases, they were filled into empty gas cylinders and then transported to the Valley. In another case it was found that the money was stitched into a salwar kameez and then transported to the Valley. The money for terror related activities in most cases lands in Delhi either from Dubai or Saudi Arabia. All these transactions are made through hawala operatives who are found in large numbers in Chandini Chowk. Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that the network is controlled by the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Each one of these outfits have appointed four people each to coordinate with each other and ensure that the money flow is constant into the Valley. The Muslim Defence Fund: One would need to revisit the interrogation report of a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative, Ahmed Ashfaq. On being questioned, he had said that Riyadh had become a major hub for hawala transactions. 'We have proof of hawala network that helped in transfer of money from Karnataka to AICC': BJP He said that the main operating hub for hawala transactions in India is at Chandini Chowk in Delhi. He said that the money was generated in Pakistan and then sent to Riyadh. From there it is moved by the operatives into India. He also spoke about a key operative by the name Basheer, who ran an outfit called the Muslim Defence Fund. This was set up by in the late 1990s, with an intention of moving around dirty money generated through illegal arms and drug trade. This outfit at the outset appears to be an NGO and claims to collect charity for the welfare of Muslims. However the outfit has several key operatives, who ensure that the money generated is pumped into India to fund terror related activities. Money from the MDF has moved into India over the years and has been used to fund the activities of not just the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, but also groups such as the SIMI and Indian Mujahideen. Dawood rises :From a Karachi drug transhipment point to a transnational terror outfit Officials say that the name of this outfit may have changed several times to avoid detection. However organisations such as these run a major racket. The Lashkar-e-Tayiba had set up several such groups in Saudi Arabia under the pretext of raising money for Muslim welfare. However in reality, what they did was route money in from Pakistan and later pumped it into India. This money has not only filled the coffers of terror groups, but has also been used to fund separatist activities in Kashmir, officials say. Chidambaram on India giving 2.5 crore Covid jabs: 'Why did we have to wait until the PMs birthday?' Honours are even today, which way will wind blow in 2022: P Chidambaram on bypoll results INX Media case: Court extends interim protection to Chidambaram till October 25 India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Sep 28: Delhi High Court on Friday further extended interim protection to senior congress leader Chidambaram till October 25. The CBI had registered an FIR on May 15 last year against alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. It is alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, they said. The CBI alleged Karti also received money from INX media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail on charges of murdering Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora.The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering case. Also Read | INX Media Case: SC declines CBI's plea to cancel Karti Chidambaram's anticipatory bail The CBI and the ED had carried out a series of raids on the houses and offices owned by the Chidambarams. Karti Chidambaram was questioned several times by the ED. A lookout notice, which prevents a passenger from travelling abroad, was issued against him as the agencies suspected that he would try to close foreign accounts where he had parked the money from the kickbacks. Earlier, the Supreme Court on Monday granted relief to Karti Chidambaram in INX Media Case. The apex court has allowed him to travel abroad from July 23 to July 31 to United States, UK and France. A single judge bench of the high court had on March 23 granted bail to Karti, who was arrested on February 28 by the CBI, saying the relief should not be refused unless the crime was of the "highest magnitude" entailing "severe punishment". Also Read | Chidambaram is evasive, needs to be questioned in custody: CBI The high court had also observed that while there was "incriminating evidence" of a "nexus" between his then company Chess Management Services (P) Ltd (CMS) and Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Ltd (ASC), which had received a payment of Rs 10 lakh for allegedly facilitating the FIPB clearance to INX Media, it was not sufficient to deny bail to Karti as the payment was duly accounted for in the company records and was received by a cheque. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 15:18 [IST] Sabarimala temple in Kerala to open for monthly rituals from July 16; Conditions apply for devotees How to Book Sabarimala Virtual Q Tickets Online 2021? Know Date, Price and Other Details Jayamala welcomes Sabarimala verdict, says it's a victory for women India oi-Deepika S Bengaluru, Sep 28: Women and Child Development Minister Jayamala on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala entry and claimed that it's a victory for women. SC throws open doors of Sabarimala Temple to women "There is no happier moment in my life other than this. I thank the women community, Supreme Court judges and God today...I also thank Ambedkar who wrote our Constitution," Jayamala told reporters. She said she had expected such a judgement and credited the country's legal system and Constitution for it. "Women have got justice today. This is a historic moment," the minister added. Jayamala is a staunch devotee of Lord Ayyappa, the deity at Sabarimala. In 2006, a famed astrologer, P Unnikrishna Panicker, conducted a temple-centric assignment called 'Devaprasnam' and declared having found signs of a woman's entry into the temple sometime ago. Subsequently, Jayamala admitted that she had entered the temple way back in 1986. A complaint was filed in this regard and case was on in Kerala High Court. However, the high court quashed the charge sheet filed by the police on the basis of astrological findings in 2012. In a verdict which only strengthens the concept of 'gender equality', the Supreme Court today lifted the ban on the entry of women in Sabarimala temple. The court further stated that biological reasons should not be considered for the continuation of an age-old tradition. Reading out a majority 4:1 verdict on Friday CJI Dipak Misra said women were equally entitled to worship and that the rule which prevented the entry of women of the 10 to 50 age group went against the right to worship of Hindu women and the right to equality. The court said it could not allow patriarchy to overwhelm religion as it would be violative of the right of worship of women. The CJI, and Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud concurred with the view while Justice Indu Malhotra read out a dissenting verdict. Why the SC ordered media gag in the Justice Karnan case is wrong Here is why the Karnataka mining case worth Rs 35,000 crore is falling apart Is Sidda and Ramaiah the next divide on the cards in Karnataka? Justice Santosh Hegde welcomes SC verdict on Sabarimala India pti-PTI Hyderabad, Sep 28: Retired Supreme Court Judge N Santosh Hegde welcomed the apex court judgement Friday paving the way for entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala. "I fully agree with the judgement. All through...for decades...women were discriminated as another human being. God is the same for both man and woman," the former Solicitor General of India told PTI. Sabarimala Verdict: What the five judges of the Supreme Court said "Their biological differences cannot be a ground for the purpose of refusing entry into the temple. I think Supreme Court recently has been giving some very positive and good decisions. This is a also very good one. I fully agree with it," the former Karnataka Lokayukta added. Sabarimala verdict will impact other religious places of worship, says activist The five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. The CJI said the practice of exclusion of women of 10-50 age group cannot be regarded as essential religious practice and Kerala law denies rights to women on ground of physiological reasons. PTI Lone woman judge on SC Bench upholds ban on women entry into Sabarimala India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: In a 4:1 verdict the Supreme Court lifted a century old ban on the women in the age group of 10 and 50 into the Sabarimala Temple. While Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices A M Khanwilkar, R Nariman and D Chandrachud gave a concurrent finding, the lone woman judge on the Bench Justice Indu Malhotra had a dissenting view. In her verdict she said that issues raised have serious implications for all religions. She said that issues which have deep religious connotation should be tinkered with to maintain a secular atmosphere in the country. Also SC throws open doors of Sabarimala Temple to women Justice Indu Malhotra further said that the right to equality claimed by some conflicts with the right to follow a religious practise, is again a fundamental right. In her judgment she rejected the entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Temple. Justice Malhotra said that India has diverse religious practises and constitutional morality would allow anyone to profess and practise a religion she or he believes in and it is not for the court to interfere in such religious practises, even it may appear discriminatory. SC allows women of all ages to enter Kerala temple: A timeline of events The present judgment will not be limited to Sabarimala alone and it will have wide ramifications. Issues of deep religious sentiments should not interfered into she said. She further said that what is essential practise in a religion is for the religion to decide. It is a matter of personal faith and India is a land of diverse faiths. Constitutional morality in a pluralistic society gives freedom to practise even irrational customs. She also added that judges cannot intervene and decide on whether a practice is violative of fundamental rights or not. Personal views of judges do not matter. A religious denomination has freedom to believe and even practice even if their beliefs are illogical or irrational, Justice Malhotra also added. {document1} Sabarimala temple in Kerala to open for monthly rituals from July 16; Conditions apply for devotees How to Book Sabarimala Virtual Q Tickets Online 2021? Know Date, Price and Other Details Maneka Gandhi hails top court's Sabarimala verdict, calls it inclusive India oi-PTI New Delhi, Sep 28: Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court judgement allowing entry of women of all ages in the Sabarimala temple, saying it would make Hinduism even more inclusive. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said that banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. When the lone woman judge dissented with her 4 male colleagues in Sabarimala verdict Hailing the apex court judgement on Sabarimala, Gandhi said it is a "wonderful" judgement that paves way to make Hinduism even more inclusive. "It opens up the way forward for Hinduism to become even more inclusive and not a property of one caste or one sex," Gandhi said. The Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on a clutch of pleas challenging the ban on entry of women of menstrual age in Kerala's Sabarimala temple and said law and society are tasked with the task to act as levellers. SC throws open doors of Sabarimala Temple to women Justice Chandrachud said religion cannot be used as cover to deny rights of worship to women and it is also against human dignity. He said prohibition on women is due to non-religious reasons and it is a grim shadow of discrimination going on for centuries. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 15:55 [IST] NIA charges 8 in Manipur missing arms case in which Congress MLA is an accused India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: The National Investigation Agency has filed a chargesheet against 8 persons in connection with the missing arms case reported in Manipur. The NIA charged Laishram Anilkumar Singh , Thokchom James, Paonam Shantikumar Singh, Haobam Brojendro Singh, Ngamboi Haokip , Nellikattil Podiyan Damodaran, Mathurabashimayum Hiranjoy Sharma and Laishram Damudor Singh. What is the arms missing case involving this Congress MLA During investigation, the NIA had recovered/seized 20 numbers of 9mm Auto 1A Pistols and 05 numbers of Magazines. Seized firearms were missing from DG Pool Kote of Manipur, located at 2nd Manipur Rifles Battalion, Imphal. NIA officials said that the investigation against a Congress MLA, alleged to be involved in this case is ongoing. It may be recalled that the NIA had arrested Yamthong Haokip, an MLA from the Sail constituency. What is the missing arms case? During the course of the investigation nine persons have been arrested and three 9mm pistol out of 56 missing pistols have been recovered from the members of various militant groups of Manipur. The custodial interrogation of the accused revealed the involvement of Yamthong Haokip. The case dates back to 2014. The Manipur government had asked the NIA to probe the case in which 56 pistols disappeared from the police headquarters over a period of four years. The probe found that 56 auto 9 mm pistols along with 58 magazines were found missing from the state police headquarters - Arms Kote of 2nd Manipur Rifles, Imphal, - between 2014 and 2018. NIA arrests Manipur MLA in missing arms case Two employees of the 2nd MR were arrested in connection with the case. In 2016, four persons were arrested and one 9 mm auto pistol along with three magazines were seized. The Manipur government had suspended four high-ranking police officials, including an IPS officer, in connection with the case of missing weapons from 2nd Manipur Rifles armoury between 2014 and 2018, an official statement has said. Altogether, 56 auto 9 mm pistols along with 58 magazines were found missing when the commandant of 2nd Manipur Rifles recently conducted a routine examination of the arms corte (armoury). The missing arms belonged to a batch of 570 pistols that were received by the state police headquarters in 2014 for supply to 2nd Manipur Rifles. After the NIA took over the case, it conducted searches and even questioned several accused persons. During the interrogation of the accused, the name of the MLA cropped up, following which the raids were conducted. Stolen pistol, gold, cash, huge cache of arms and ammunition found at Congress MLA's house An NIA official informed OneIndia that the raids were conducted on the basis of the statements given by the other accused. Till date, nine people have been arrested in the case and three 9mm pistols, out of the 56 missing pistols, have been recovered "from members of various militant groups of Manipur. What the NIA found at Haokip's home: Cash Rs. 26.40 lakhs (Indian Currency). Gold ornaments worth Rs. 20 lakhs. One 9mm pistol bearing no. 18506735 with magazine. The Pistol is one of the missing pistols stolen from DG pool within the premises of 2nd Manipur Rifles. One Beretta Pistol bearing no. DAA 462616, 3032 TOMCAT-32 Auto Made in the USA with magazine. The licence no.4760/IW, expired on 30.06.2015. One unlicensed 9mm Pietro Beretta Gardone V.T Pistol bearing MOD.9QFS-CAL .9 PARA BELLUM-PATENTED & K57398Z, Made in Italy, with magazine. One DBBL gun bearing no. 65330/05 having Licence no. L/981(KPI) renewed upto 31st December, 2014. One SBBL gun without any mark of identification (with licence issued by ADC Kangpokpi, Senapati Distt. vide letter no.1786/May.97/ Military. The gun no. as mentioned was issued against the Licence is 27734. 22 rounds of live ammunition of 0.32 pistol, 15 rounds of live ammunition of 9mm pistol, 04 rounds of live ammunition of 7.62 Rifle and 04 rounds of live ammunition of 7.62X39 (AK series). Stolen pistol, gold, cash, huge cache of arms and ammunition found at Congress MLA's house. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 6:06 [IST] Not only Sabarimala: Women are not allowed in these temple India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Bengaluru, Sep 28: A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra will pronounce its judgment on the centuries-old prohibition on women entry to the Kerala temple on Friday. Women said to be of menstrual age are restricted from entering the temple as its presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa. There are temples in India that restrict entry of women into sanctum sanctorum. The Supreme Court judgment in Sabarimala temple is likely to have impact on these shrines. Ranakpur Temple, Rajasthan The Ranakpur Jain Temple is a world-famous temple complex located in Ranakpur, Rajasthan, India. This spectacular temple complex was built in the 15th century AD, and is one of the five major pilgrimage sites of Jainism. Within this complex are a number of temples, some of which are dedicated to individual tirthankaras, the 24 spiritual masters in Jainism who are believed to have attained perfect knowledge through asceticism. The 1444 beautifully-carved and stunningly-decorated white pillars, each one completely unique and unlike any other. Also Read | Sabarimala Temple entry case: Jayamala's bold claim that stoked controversy in 2006 However, there are instructions when and how a woman can visit on a large board outside the temple. Again, menstruating women are asked to not enter the temple. The temple requires women to cover their legs till below their knees and also it has rules about wearing western clothes and accessories. Lord Kartikeya Temple, Pushkar Kartikeya Temple in Pehowa township of the North Indian state of Haryana is an ancient structure dating back to the 5th century B.C. Kartikeya is a popular Hindu deity in India. The temple worships the brahmachari form of Lord Kartikeya. This famous temple is situated in the center of Pehowa in Kurukshetra district of Haryana. Pehowa is at a distance of 200 kilometers from Delhi and 60 kilometers from Karnal (Haryana). There is a myth that the Lord curses women who enter the temple instead of blessing them. As a result, women are banned from entering the temple. Patbausi Satra, Assam Patbaushi Satra is located at a distance of around 2 km north of the Barpeta town in Assam. The shrine was the abode of various Vaishnava gurus like Shri Manta Sankardeva, Shri Madhavdeva and Shri Damodardeva, who promoted Vaishnava faith from the region. Like others, this temple also cites menstruation as the reason behind barring entry to women. In 2010, Assam Governor JB Patnaik spoke with the authorities of the Patbausi satra and took a group of 20 women in. However, the satra eventually re-imposed the ban. Also Read | SC to deliver verdict on entry of women into Sabarimala temple: A timeline of events Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Thiruvananthapuram Considered the richest temple in the world, the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple houses treasure vaults. When it comes to worship, the temple has a weird rule. Women devotees can worship the deity but shouldn't go inside the temple chambers. Women inventory officials too aren't allowed into the treasure vaults and a few years back, the temple authorities even restricted entry to a woman expert from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 9:42 [IST] SC throws open doors of Sabarimala Temple to women India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: The Supreme Court has lifted the ban on the entry of women into the Sabarimala Temple in the age group of 10 and 50. The Supreme Court has said that devotion cannot be subjected to gender discrimination. The court also said that a patriachal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar said that religion is a way of life basically to link life with diversity. They also said that devotees of Ayappa do not constitute a separate denomination. Also Read | As SC lifts ban on entry of women into Sabarimala Temple, review plea to be filed It is a 4:1 verdict and Justice Indu Malhotra has penned a dissenting opinion. Justice R Nariman and D Chandrachud have concurred with the findings of the CJI and Justice Khanwilkar. The CJI said that women cannot be treated as lesser or weak. He said that in this country women as worshipped like Goddesses. Any physiological or biological factor cannot be given legitimacy if they don't pass the muster of credibility, the CJI further observed. Exclusion on the grounds of biological, physiological features like menstruation is unconstitutional and discriminatory, the Bench also said. The CHI further observed that exclusion of women of a certain age into the temple is not an essential part of religion. It is not integral either, the court said. 3(b) of the Kerala Temple Entry Act which excludes women between the age of 10 and 50 violates freedom of The Hindu religion to worship. The right to worship equally belongs to both men and women, the Bench said while adding that the ban is religious patriarchy. Justice Nariman in his judgment said that Ayyappa devotees do not form a denomination, but they are only a part of Hindu worship. In his separate but concurring judgment, he said that women of all ages are equal worshipers of Lord Ayyappa and hence gender cannot be a ground to prevent the entry of some into the temple on the ground that they were of a menstruating age. He further said that the Sabarimala Temple custom of barring women in the age of 10 and 50 years is not backed by Article 26 of the Indian Constitution. Moreover a woman has an equal right to worship, he also added. Also Read | Sabarimala Verdict: What the five judges of the Supreme Court said Justice Chandrachud in his judgment said that to treat women as the children of a lesser God is to blink at the Constitution. He also said that popular notions about morality can be offensive to dignity of others. He also added that any custom or religious practise if it violates dignity of women by denying them entry because of her physiology is unconstitutional. To treat women as children of a lesser God is unconstitutional, he further added. Justice Chandrachud added that exclusion of a woman because she menstruates is utterly unconstitutional. The court must not grant legitimacy to religious practices which derogate women, he also said. Under challenge: Under challenge was the practise at the temple that bars women of the age group of 10 to 50 years. The court had on October 13 last year referred the issue to a Constitution bench after framing five "significant" questions including whether the practice of banning entry of women in the temple amounted to discrimination and violated their fundamental rights under the Constitution. One of the questions referred to the larger bench was, "Whether the exclusionary practice which is based upon a biological factor exclusive to the female gender amounts to 'discrimination' and thereby violates the very core of Articles 14, 15 and 17 and not protected by 'morality' as used in Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution." Also Read | When the lone woman judge dissented with her 4 male colleagues in Sabarimala verdict The management of the Sabarimala temple, located on a hilltop in the Western Ghats of Pathanamthitta district, had earlier told the apex court that the ban on entry of women aged between 10 and 50 years was because they cannot maintain "purity" on account of menstruation. The second issue referred to the constitution bench is whether the practice of excluding such women constitutes an "essential religious practice" under Article 25 of the Constitution and whether a religious institution can assert a claim in that regard under the umbrella of right to manage its own affairs in the matters of religion. The constitution bench would also deal with whether the Ayyappa temple has a denominational character and "if so, is it permissible on the part of a 'religious denomination' managed by a statutory board and financed under Article 290-A of the Constitution out of Consolidated Fund of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to indulge in such practice violating constitutional principles/morality embedded in Articles 14, 15(3), 39(a) and 51-A(e)". The court had framed another question as to whether Rule 3 of Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules permits 'religious denomination' to ban entry of women between the age of 10 to 50 years. "And if so, would it not play foul of Articles 14 and 15 (3) of the Constitution by restricting entry of women on the ground of sex," it had said. Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965 says that "women at such time during which they are not by custom and usage allowed to enter a place of public worship shall be included in the class of persons who shall not be entitled to offer worship in any place of worship." Also Read | Sabarimala temple verdict affects very core of temple belief: Rahul Eswar It had also raised the question whether this rule is ultra vires the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Act, 1965 and, "if treated to be intra vires, whether it will be violative of the provisions of Part III of the Constitution." Petitioner Indian Young Lawyers Association and others have sought directions from the court to ensure entry of female devotees between the age group of 10 and 50 at the Lord Ayappa temple at Sabarimala. On November 7, 2016, the Kerala government had informed the court that it favoured the entry of women of all age groups in the historic Sabarimala temple. Sabarimala Temple entry case: Jayamala's bold claim that stoked controversy in 2006 India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Bengaluru, Sep 28: The 20 years struggle for the women's entry to Kerala's Sabarimala Aiyyappa temple is coming to an end on Friday. The Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will deliver the historic verdict. In 1991, Kerala High Court upheld an age-old restriction on women of a certain age-group entering Sabarimala temple. A two-judge bench decrees (on April 5) that the prohibition by the Travancore Devaswom Board that administers the hill shrine does not violate either the Constitution or a pertinent 1965 Kerala law. The issue was not discussed until Kannada film industry actress Jayamala publically claimed in 2006 that she had entered the precincts of Sabarimala in 1987 as a 27-year-old. Mosque and Islam: It is a question about acquisition and not religious practise Why did Jayamala claim that she entered the temple? In 2006, a famed astrologer, P Unnikrishna Panicker, conducted a temple-centric assignment called 'Devaprasnam' and declared having found signs of a woman's entry into the temple sometime ago. Subsequently, Jayamala admitted that she had entered the temple way back in 1986. A complaint was filed in this regard and case was on in Kerala High Court. However, the high court quashed the charge sheet filed by the police on the basis of astrological findings in 2012. The day her was case quashed, OneIndia spoke to Jayamala to get her action on the matter. Hearing in Ayodhya case on October 29 as SC refuses referral to larger Bench Jayamala said, "For God all of us are equal. We are his children. Then how can temple authority deny entry to woman at her menstruating age," Jayamala asks. We have seen practices like Sati system, Devadasi vanishing from the society as social reformers found brutality and atrocity carefully perpetuated against women. "The society has to evolve with moving time," she stressed. She said, "Illogical and unscientific arguments putforth by the Travancore Devaswom authorities to maintain the practice intact is unacceptable and in other means deprivation of rights of women prescribed in the constitution." Jayamala says female too pray to God and she too wants to engage in spiritual and platonic union with the God in a place designed for a spiritual visit. "I am not speaking against temple authority but I am speaking for religious rights for women." When asked about Devaprasnam in which P Unnikrishna Panicker claimed of unearthing the truth, she said, "I don't want to speak on ordeal days but we have won the case in the Kerala High Court." "Women should be allowed to seek blessings from the God who is resting on the hill," Jayamala reiterated. However, she maintained that women cannot enter temple when she is menstruating and it is self-rule imposed by herself." "To enter the temple, one's heart must be pure," she added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 5:00 [IST] Sabarimala verdict will impact other religious places of worship, says activist India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Bengaluru, Sep 28: The Supreme Court has lifted the ban on the entry of women into the Sabarimala Temple in the age group of 10 and 50. The Supreme Court has said that devotion cannot be subjected to gender discrimination. The court also said that a patriarchal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. Bengaluru based women activist Brinda Adige hailed the SC judgment as 'historic'. Brinda said, "This is landmark judgment and it is going to affect all other religious places of worship whether Muslims or Christians." SC throws open doors of Sabarimala Temple to women Speaking over the phone to OneIndia, Brinda said, "People should not decide that faith of a won is less than the faith a man. Both are equal. And should not think that women's faith will increase after the age of 50. Faith is a personal and spiritual issue, each of us needs to have with God. If my faith is strong how can I be tempted by anybody." Asked whether the matter related religious beliefs should be decided the court, she said, " It should not have been. But the progressive part is at least today women are willing to take the matter and raise the issue in public. Fifty years ago, we would have named as 'bad women' had we raised the issue. Lone woman judge on SC Bench upholds ban on women entry into Sabarimala "If the religious authorities (temple/church/mosque) do not agree to requests of devotees, the court is our final recourse, Brinda said. On Jayamala's claim regarding her visit to the Sabarimala temple in 2006, Brinda said that her visit might or might not have triggered the debate. But, Trupti Desai and her organisation Bhumata Brigade fight for women's entry into Shani Shinganapur temple gave the momentum to the issue. Sabarimala Verdict: What the five judges of the Supreme Court said India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: In a 4:1 majority verdict the Supreme Court set aside the centuries old practise that barred the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple. The ban on the entry of women in the age groups of 10 and 50 was lifted by the court today. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar pronounced one judgment while lifting the ban. Justice R Nariman and D Y Chandrachud penned separate judgments, but had a concurrent view on lifting the ban. Justice Indu Malhotra the lone woman judge on the Bench however had a dissenting view. SC throws open doors of Sabarimala Temple to women Here is what the judges on the Bench said: CJI Dipak Misra and Justice Khanwilkar: Devotion cannot be subjected to gender discrimination. The court also said that a patriachal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. Religion is a way of life basically to link life with diversity. They also said that devotees of Ayappa do not constitute a separate denomination. Women cannot be treated as lesser or weak. He said that in this country women as worshipped like Goddesses. Any physiological or biological factor cannot be given legitimacy if they don't pass the muster of credibility. Exclusion on the grounds of biological, physiological features like menstruation is unconstitutional and discriminatory. As SC lifts ban on entry of women into Sabarimala Temple, review plea to be filed Exclusion of women of a certain age into the temple is not an essential part of religion. It is not integral either, the court said. 3(b) of the Kerala Temple Entry Act which excludes women between the age of 10 and 50 violates freedom of The Hindu religion to worship. The right to worship equally belongs to both men and women. Ban is religious patriarchy. Justice R Nariman Ayyappa devotees do not form a denomination, but they are only a part of Hindu worship. Women of all ages are equal worshipers of Lord Ayyappa and hence gender cannot be a ground to prevent the entry of some into the temple on the ground that they were of a menstruating age. The Sabarimala Temple custom of barring women in the age of 10 and 50 years is not backed by Article 26 of the Indian Constitution. Moreover a woman has an equal right to worship. Lone woman judge on SC Bench upholds ban on women entry into Sabarimala Justice D Y Chandrachud: To treat women as the children of a lesser God is to blink at the Constitution. Popular notions about morality can be offensive to dignity of others. Any custom or religious practise if it violates dignity of women by denying them entry because of her physiology is unconstitutional. To treat women as children of a lesser God is unconstitutional. Exclusion of a woman because she menstruates is utterly unconstitutional. The court must not grant legitimacy to religious practices which derogate women. Justice Indu Malhotra: Issues raised have serious implications for all religions. Issues which have deep religious connotation should be tinkered with to maintain a secular atmosphere in the country. The right to equality claimed by some conflicts with the right to follow a religious practise, is again a fundamental right. India has diverse religious practises and constitutional morality would allow anyone to profess and practise a religion she or he believes in and it is not for the court to interfere in such religious practises, even it may appear discriminatory. Jayamala welcomes Sabarimala verdict, says it's a victory for women The present judgment will not be limited to Sabarimala alone and it will have wide ramifications. Issues of deep religious sentiments should not interfered into. What is essential practise in a religion is for the religion to decide. It is a matter of personal faith and India is a land of diverse faiths. Constitutional morality in a pluralistic society gives freedom to practise even irrational customs. Judges cannot intervene and decide on whether a practice is violative of fundamental rights or not. Personal views of judges do not matter. A religious denomination has freedom to believe and even practice even if their beliefs are illogical or irrational. Sabarimala verdict: A closer look at what the fight is about SC verdict on alleged Naxal sympathisers 'a win for India', it indicts Congress: BJP India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Sep 28: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to not interfere in the arrest of five activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case and lashed out at the Congress for coming out in support of the alleged Naxal sympathisers. The Supreme Court today refused to interfere with the arrest of the five activists, alleged to be sympathetic towards naxalites. The Supreme Court has said that the accused cannot choose which probe agency should examine the case. Also Read | SC junks plea of activists sympathetic to naxals, says probe agency not their choice "The ones who work against the national security do not have the luxury of choosing as to what kind of prosecution they will face. This verdict by the Supreme Court is a win for India...This verdict is also an indictment of the Congress. Rahul Gandhi was acting as an advocate for these arrested Maoists," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said. Patra said that the Congress has been politicising several key issues like surgical strike and arrest of the activists which is not good for the country. Also Read | Arrest of activists: SC says accused cannot chose which agency will examine case "Congress and Rahul Gandhi said that the motive behind these arrests was revenge but the Supreme Court has made it clear that this was not the case..Congress has been hurt by this verdict of SC," he added. Also Read | 'Welcome to Rahul Gandhi's Congress', says Amit Shah The top court also dismissed the plea for taking the probe away from the Maharashtra police, saying it is not for the accused to dictate the terms of a criminal investigation. The majority verdict extended the order of house arrest by four weeks to enable the activists approach the trial judge to secure bail and other reliefs. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 15:23 [IST] BEIJING (PTI): India and China on Thursday held a meeting of a key border mechanism to discuss ways to "effectively manage" border areas as well as confidence building measures (CBMs) to enhance mutual trust. The 12th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was held at the Chinese city of Chengdu in Sichuan, according to a statement released by the Indian Embassy. The WMCC was established in 2012 as an institutional mechanism for consultation and coordination for management of India-China border areas amid the tensions between the two nations due to allegations of incursions by Chinese troops. Thursday's meeting took place amid "rapid" increase in military exchanges between the two nations after the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, putting behind tensions arising after last year's 73-day standoff at Doklam. At the meeting "both sides reviewed the situation along the India-China border areas. They discussed ways to effectively manage border areas in accordance with the strategic guidance provided by the leaders of the two countries at the Wuhan Summit," the statement said. They also "explored various confidence building measures with a view to further enhance mutual trust and understanding," it said. The Indian side emphasised that the peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas is an important prerequisite for smooth development of their bilateral relations, it said. India and China share 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC). The two countries so far have held 20 rounds of Special Representatives talks to resolve the border dispute. The 21st round is due to be held this year. The WMCC mechanism headed by senior officials has also become a major platform between the two countries to exchange views on strengthening communication and cooperation, including between the border security personnel. Ahead of the meeting India's Ambassador to China, Gautam Bambawale said that India-China military exchanges grew rapidly after the Wuhan summit. "After Wuhan, our military exchanges have not merely resumed but grown rapidly. Our military commanders are now talking to each other more frankly and more candidly than ever before," he said at the 5th Dialogue between the Indian Council of World Affairs and the Chinese People's Institute for Foreign Affairs on September 25. Chinese Defence Minister Gen Wei Fenghe had visited India last month during which he met Modi and held talks with his Indian counterpart, Nirmala Sitharaman. Chinese Defence Ministry had said after Gen Wei's visit that both countries were discussing a new version of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on defence exchanges and cooperation to improve on the 2006 agreement besides establishing a direct confidential phone line between the two defence ministries and strengthening communications at all levels. Thursday's talks were led by Pranay Verma, Joint Secretary (East Asia), the Ministry of External Affairs and by Yi Xianliang, Director General, Department of Boundary and Oceanic Affairs, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. SC verdict on Sabarimala hailed: Must keep re-inventing society with values of equity India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi/ Bengaluru, Sep 28: The Supreme Court's landmark verdict to allow women of all age groups in Kerala's Sabarimala Temple was hailed by many. While some said that it is a step in the right direction to restore women's right to worship, others said that it was shame that the top court had to intervene in this matter in first place. The Supreme Court today lifted the ban on the entry of women into the Sabarimala Temple in the age group of 10 and 50. The Supreme Court has said that devotion cannot be subjected to gender discrimination. The court also said that a patriachal notion cannot be allowed to trump equality in devotion. SC throws open doors of Sabarimala Temple to women Chetak from Bengaluru told OneIndia that the unwavering commitment of the courts towards the Constitution and its tenets is something that must be lauded. He called for re-inventing the society with values of equity and fairness, or else, he warned, "Society will start degenerating." The ban on entry of women between the ages 10-50 has been in place at Sabarimala for centuries. Madhurima Mishra from New Delhi said that this is just a beginning and lot more needs to done to ensure true gender equality. "It was about time that people understand the SC's verdict . It is a matter of shame that the top court had to intervene in the first place. This shows we as a society are heavily crippled to make such decisions. Women are nowhere near equal. But thankful of the judiciary for this landmark verdict," she said. The reason as to why this had been in practice for so many years are certain beliefs in our society which have lingered on for centuries. One such belief is that Sabarimala temple deity - Swami Ayyappa - is a 'Naishtika Brahmachari' or a celibate. It is this celibate nature of the deity which the temple authorities cite as a reason for not allowing women. Another reason is that 10- 50 years is considered, as per ancient customs, the age group for women during which they menstruate and according to Hindu traditions a woman is considered impure at this time. Sabarimala Verdict: What the five judges of the Supreme Court said "I am sure apart from the lores and myths about the real reason, as always there might have been a logical reasoning to this ban but it would have been relevant in that age and time. As far as I know, it is said that the Sabrimala temple is on the hills and considerably far away from villages or towns. This was perhaps also one of the reasons why women were asked to avoid this temple visit. But as we progress towards a more liberal society, with wide access to hygiene, security and other measures to safeguard our interests, we can slowly start doing away with those practices that don't seem too relevant in this age," said Shruti Kamath from Bengaluru. She also said that the job caretakers of temples is to ensure smooth functioning of the shrine. "Let them not mistake themselves to be Messengers of God themselves," she added. The Chief Justice of India said that women cannot be treated as lesser or weak. He said that in this country women are worshipped like Goddesses. Any physiological or biological factor cannot be given legitimacy if they don't pass the muster of credibility, the CJI further observed. Exclusion on the grounds of biological, physiological features like menstruation is unconstitutional and discriminatory, the SC Bench said. When the lone woman judge dissented with her 4 male colleagues in Sabarimala verdict Here is what some other people had to say about this ruling: "I feel, it is one's own free will and choice to believe, practice rituals, to have faith, to worship, to show devotion. One can not impose, to do and not," said Shashidhar DV from Mysuru. "I am happy with the verdict. It is step in the right direction. Lord Ayyappa never said that women should not visit the Sabarimala shrine, it is the people running the temple who have made such rules. This is a welcome change. There was a time when Dalits were not allowed in temples, now it has changed. We must change with times. God made women, it is wrong to say that we are impure because of a natural process (Menstruation)," said Bengaluru's Sowmya S. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 13:19 [IST] SC verdict vindicates our stand on urban Maoists: Devendra Fadnavis India oi-PTI New Delhi, Sep 28: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's refusal to interfere with the probe by the state police against five Left-wing activists in connection with violence in Koregaon- Bhima in December last year. Fadnavis said the decision of the top court proved that there was no conspiracy behind action by the state police against Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha. Arrest of activists: SC says accused cannot chose which agency will examine case The five are under arrest at their respective homes since August 29. Fadnavis was reacting soon after the Supreme Court declined to appoint an SIT to probe the arrest of the five activists by the Pune police. The court said the arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist) organisation. SC junks plea of activists sympathetic to naxals, says probe agency not their choice The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. "The Supreme Court has vindicated the state of the government and the Pune police. The court has no doubt over the material evidence submitted," the chief minister told reporters here. "A conspiracy against the nation has been unearthed by the police," he said on the arrest of the five activists. According to the Supreme Court order, the government will go to the "appropriate forum" in the case, he said. Fadnavis also defended the state police for addressing a press conference after the arrest, which had been come in for criticism. "A lot of things were said against the police after the arrest and an atmosphere was created by pseudo, so-called neo-liberals in the media that the arrests have been made without evidence. The police had to say that the arrests were not motivated but backed by real and powerful evidence," he said. "We will look into the fine print of the order regarding the police press conference. The press conference is not important but the real issue of conspiracy against the nation is. If holding the press conference was wrong, we will improve it," he said. Fadnavis said political parties should not support the arrested persons for political reasons after the SC verdict, "otherwise the political parties will stand exposed." Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on August 28 from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi. The majority verdict by the Supreme Court said the protection of house arrest of the activists will remain in force for four more weeks to enable the accused to seek appropriate legal remedy at appropriate legal forum. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 14:47 [IST] SC junks plea of activists sympathetic to naxals, says probe agency not their choice India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: The Supreme Court has refused to interfere with the arrest of the five activists, alleged to be sympathetic towards naxalites. The court also said that the plea for an SIT probe stands rejected. The court also said that the evidence does not show that the arrests of these persons were made to quell dissent or because of a differing political ideology. The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra said that the house arrests would continue for four weeks and they could pursue relief in the lower courts. The CJI and Justice A M Khanwilkar said in the 2:1 majority verdict that it would not interfere with the probe. Justice D Y Chandrachud however gave a dissenting view while terming the petitions as genuine. Also Read | Arrest of activists: SC says accused cannot chose which agency will examine case The court said that the accused cannot choose which probe agency should examine the case. The observations were made while delivering the verdict on the legality of the raids and arrest of five persons allegedly sympathetic towards naxalites. Justice Chandrachud in his dissenting view however cautioned the Maharashtra police and said that police briefing in the media has become a manner of manipulation and leads to trial by media. Here it is about a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister, he said. Can the police be trusted to carry out an impartial probe, he questioned. He also said that the petition was a genuine one while lashing out at the cops for the presser and distribution of letters to the media. He also added that if this court does not stand by liberty, dignity and dissent, we may as well comprise a requiem for these rights. The five persons, Vara Vara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Feriera, Vernon Gonsalves and Gautam Navlakha had been arrested by the Pune police following on the ground that they were instrumental in inciting violence in the Bhima Koregaon case. It was also alleged that they were plotting the assassination of the Prime Minister apart from trying to spread violence across the country. The SC had however placed them under house arrest. Also Read | PM Modi assassination plot: Urban naxal-NE terror groups under radar During the course of the hearing the Bench had once indicated that the accused persons could continue their efforts in the competent lower courts. The Bench even mooted transferring the pending cases to one court while continuing with their house arrests. However the counsel for the activists insisted that the Supreme Court should first hear them. The Centre had brought to the notice of the court the problem of naxalism in the country. The problem affects the entire nation, the Centre had also said. This case is not about quelling dissent, but concerns a serious offence, the Centre further said. Death of 80 migratory birds leads to Ranikhet scare in Jodhpur: All you need to know Surgical Strike 2nd Anniversary: PM to attend commanders' meet open Army exhibition India oi-PTI New Delhi, Sep 28: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Combined Commanders' Conference here on Friday and open an Army exhibition, marking the second anniversary of the surgical strike across the LoC. The Prime Minister will reach Jodhpur Friday morning and inaugurate the exhibition, 'Parakarm Parv', at Jodhpur Military Station at 9 am, before participating in the conference at the Jodhpur Air Force Station. The conference will also be attended by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the three services chiefs, besides several key military and civil officials of the Ministry of Defence. Ahead of second anniversary, new video evidence of 2016 Surgical strike emerges It is for the third time that the Commanders' Conference is being held outside Delhi. After 2015 in Delhi, it was held in 2016 on the Indian Navy warship INS Vikramaditya and at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun in 2017. This time, a forward air base on western border has been chosen for the conference owing to the strategic importance and location of the Jodhpur Air Force station, which was the headquarter of the South West Air Command earlier. Before attending the conference, Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate the exhibition, 'Parakarm Parv'. To deal double blow to Pak, not one but many surgical strikes on the anvil "The Prime Minister will first participate in the wreath laying ceremony at Konark War Memorial at 9 am and then inaugurate the 'Parakram Parv' and open an exhibition, showcasing the might of the Indian Army and its contribution in nation building," said Defence spokesperson Col Sombit Ghosh. "The PM himself will walk through the exhibition after inaugurating it, for its review," Ghosh said. Considering the security arrangements, a team of the Special Protection Group (SPG), tasked with the prime minister's "proximate security" has already landed in Jodhpur to take stock of the security measures. The SPG officials also held meeting with the Army and Air Force officials and inspected the areas in the vicinity of the Military and Air Force stations. The prime minister will fly back to New Delhi after completion of the conference in the afternoon. No civil program has so far been laid out for him, the official said. Surgical strikes: The need for more as 300 terrorists have resurfaced across the border India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: It has been two years since the Indian Armed Forces carried out surgical strikes in dismantle Pakistan based terror groups. Post the strikes, an official statement said that the Army has caused significant damage to the terror infrastructure. How much damage did these strikes create on the terror infrastructure in Pakistan. Have the terror launch pads vanished along the Line of Control? Let us take a look. The terror factories did take a major beating following the surgical strikes. However over the past two years, the launch pads are back and an Intelligence Bureau report says that there are at least 300 terrorists who are waiting to infiltrate. J&K: Schools told celebrate Surgical Strike day and send video evidence Security officials say that in the surgical strike the Army had managed to destroy nearly 30 launch pads. However as of today, an estimate would suggest that there are around 20 to 25 launch pads, which are housing these 300 terrorists. Rising numbers: Terrorism got a major boost following the death of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen commander. His name was used as an excuse to recruit youth into terror groups. This led to rise of terrorists in the Valley, while on the other hand, Pakistan continued to set up terror sanctuaries across the border. A senior intelligence official tells OneIndia that the manner in which these terrorists are mushrooming, it is clear that the elected government has no control over the ISI and Pakistan army. Since the death of Wani, the number of launch pads have risen from 14 to 25. Further it has also been noticed that these are common launch pads for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and the Jaish-e-Mohammad. This steady rise in the number of terrorists and their launch pads have been a matter of concern for the security forces. This has led to talk about conducting not one, but a series of surgical strikes. An officer pointed out, such strikes have limited effects and there has been to be a sustained effort to hurt such terror sanctuaries. Ahead of second anniversary, new video evidence of 2016 Surgical strike emerges Pakistan is clear about what it wants to do. It has been fighting India on several fronts, which also includes a propaganda war. The recent killings of the SPOs and the warning to resign is part of the propaganda war. Further the Hizbul Mujahideen has been directed to recruit heavily in the Valley. With the number of terrorists going up within the Valley, one has witnessed an encounter every single day. Further a hit-list of the top commanders too has been prepared and eliminating them would be crucial to curb the menace, officials also say. More strikes at time and place of Army's choosing: Highly placed sources tell OneIndia that action against Pakistan is round the corner. The source also said that the action would deal a double blow for Pakistan both along the border as well as in Jammu and Kashmir. The source indicated a series of strikes across the border was an option. When asked if there could be a surgical strike across the border, the source said that this cannot be ruled out. However the difference this time would that the action would be a sustained one. Surgical Strike 2nd Anniversary: PM to attend commanders' meet open Army exhibition Following the earlier surgical strike, Pakistan had quietened down for a while and the terror factories across the Line of Control had moved backwards. However they returned a couple of months later and began spreading havoc both along the border and the Valley. Security officials say that there is a need for sustained action. The Army and the top brass in the government have already begun discussions on the counter to Pakistan. The source said that it may be more than one surgical strike to keep the pressure on Pakistan continuously. The Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat too had hinted that surgical strikes were being planned. He said that surgical strike is a weapon of surprise and let it remain a surprise. He said that it is not the first time that Pakistan has carried out a barbaric act and added that stern action is needed to avenge these actions. The action would be a time and place of choosing of the Indian Army. Sources say that such an action could be expected sometime after October. The immediate concern for now is the smooth conduct of the urban body and Panchayat elections in the Valley. A strategy in the Valley: It may be recalled that the Army had prepared a fresh hit-list in the Valley. It had the names of nearly 10 top commanders of terror groups, which also included Riyaz Naikoo who had called for the resignations of the Kashmir police personnel. The police and the Army have been given a free hand to go ahead and gun down the commanders. A fresh strategy is being evolved and security officials say that 'Operation Wipe Out," would take place soon. While there is no denying that the commanders would be taken down soon, the problem however is that the urban body and Panchayat polls are scheduled for October and November. Any major action would be carefully measured, before it is launched. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 9:39 [IST] Step by step instructions on how to lock and unlock your Aadhaar biometrics online Unfazed by the SC verdict, Banks still insisting on Aadhaar to open account India oi-Deepika S Bengaluru, Sep 28: Un fazed by Supreme Court verdict on Aadhaar, a few banks and private companies are still continuing to demand the Aadhaar number to provide services to individuals. The Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the constitutional validity of 'Aadhaar' but limited the scope of the controversial biometric identity project, ruling it is not mandatory for bank accounts, mobile connections or school admissions. "We are aware of the news about Aadhaar and the Supreme Court verdict but We have not got any written orders from our head office regarding Aadhaar. Until anything in writing is given, we will continue with the old procedure," said a bank employee. Want to de-link Aadhaar details from Banks, mobile numbers and digital wallet? Here's how to do it Also, some NBFC and MFIs believe the judgement doesn't change anything for them as the SC did not completely bar them from using customer's Aadhaar. They say the judgment has only said that Aadhaar is no more mandatory. According to them, even if it is now only an optional ID for KYC (Know-your-customer), it would hardly make a difference as customers rarely resist giving out their Aadhaar numbers. They say even a customer would prefer an Aadhaar-enabled e-KYC as it hastens the whole process of loan disbursal. Aadhaar constitutionally valid, but banks, mobile companies can't ask for it says SC However, Mobile telephony operators have, however, given their customers relief on the Aadhaar requirement for a new number and linking existing numbers. Govt mulls legal backing for private companies to use Aadhaar The government could look at introducing new sectoral regulations or amending existing ones to allow entities such as banks and mobile companies to continue using the Aadhaar number for faster authentication and customer acquisition. Hours after the judgement was pronounced by the Supreme Court, FM Arun Jaitley said it was his preliminary understanding that Aadhaar use by private entities "pursuant to a contract" wasn't permitted but that may not be the case if there is legislative support. Aadhaar mandatory for filing IT Returns and PAN: Supreme Court "My generic answer would be, on private entities, it needs to be backed by law. We have to see what is the rationale that they have given that's my understanding," he said. "I have not had a detailed reading of the judgement yet. Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the Section 57 of Aadhaar Act; as a result, private companies cannot ask for Aadhaar card. That means it would not be mandatory to link Aadhaar to bank accounts and telecom service providers cannot seek its linking of Aadhaar for mobile connections. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 16:16 [IST] Urban naxals: Shot in the arm for cops, clearly not a case of political dissent India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 28: One of the crucial observations that the Supreme Court made in the Bhima Koregaon case was that the case was not one of political dissent. The observation was made by the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar, who delivered the majority verdict 2:1. The dissenting view was by Justice D Y Chandrachud. The court said that the arrest of the activists was not because of dissent or airing difference of opinion. Also Read | Arrest of activists: SC says accused cannot chose which agency will examine case The court also said that the plea for an SIT probe stands rejected. The court also said that the evidence does not show that the arrests of these persons were made to quell dissent or because of a differing political ideology. The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra said that the house arrests would continue for four weeks and they could pursue relief in the lower courts. The CJI and Justice A M Khanwilkar said in the 2:1 majority verdict that it would not interfere with the probe. Justice D Y Chandrachud however gave a dissenting view while terming the petitions as genuine. The court said that the accused cannot choose which probe agency should examine the case. The observations were made while delivering the verdict on the legality of the raids and arrest of five persons allegedly sympathetic towards naxalites. Justice Chandrachud in his dissenting view however cautioned the Maharashtra police and said that police briefing in the media has become a manner of manipulation and leads to trial by media. Here it is about a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister, he said. Can the police be trusted to carry out an impartial probe, he questioned. Also Read | SC junks plea of activists sympathetic to naxals, says probe agency not their choice He also said that the petition was a genuine one while lashing out at the cops for the presser and distribution of letters to the media. He also added that if this court does not stand by liberty, dignity and dissent, we may as well comprise a requiem for these rights. This verdict is a clear shot in the arm for the Maharashtra Police as a result of which they can go ahead with the investigation. The police had booked the activists under IPC Section 153 (A), which relates to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place or birth, residence, language and committing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony. The five persons, Vara Vara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Feriera, Vernon Gonsalves and Gautam Navlakha had been arrested by the Pune police following on the ground that they were instrumental in inciting violence in the Bhima Koregaon case. It was also alleged that they were plotting the assassination of the Prime Minister apart from trying to spread violence across the country. The SC had however placed them under house arrest. Also Read | PM Modi assassination plot: Urban naxal-NE terror groups under radar During the course of the hearing the Bench had once indicated that the accused persons could continue their efforts in the competent lower courts. The Bench even mooted transferring the pending cases to one court while continuing with their house arrests. However the counsel for the activists insisted that the Supreme Court should first hear them. The Centre had brought to the notice of the court the problem of naxalism in the country. The problem affects the entire nation, the Centre had also said. This case is not about quelling dissent, but concerns a serious offence, the Centre further said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 16:05 [IST] Sardar Patel gave message to world that no one can destroy India's unity and integrity: Amit Shah PM Modi, Shah meet Advani at his residence to wish him on birthday Amit Shah to visit Varanasi twice this month: Poll strategy likely on anvil 'Welcome to Rahul Gandhis Congress', says Amit Shah India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P New Delhi, Sep 28: BJP chief Amit Shah Friday hit back at Congress President Rahul Gandhi for criticising RSS in the month of August in the wake of arrest of five activists. Rahul Gandhi's tweet said, "There is only place for one NGO in India and it's called the RSS. Shut down all other NGOs. Jail all activists and shoot those that complain. Welcome to the new India." In a similar tone, Amit Shah took a dig at Rahul gandhi anfd the Congress party. Shah tweeted, " There is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress. Support 'Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang', Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working. Welcome to Rahul Gandhi's Congress." Also Read | Arrest of activists: SC says accused cannot chose which agency will examine case There is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress. Support Bharat Ke Tukde Tukde Gang, Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements. Defame all those who are honest and working. Welcome to Rahul Gandhis Congress. #BhimaKoregaon https://t.co/eWoeT0qo1L Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 28, 2018 Shah tweeted after the Supreme Court said that the accused cannot choose which probe agency should examine the case. The observations were made while delivering the verdict on the legality of the raids and arrest of five persons allegedly sympathetic towards naxalites. Shah also said India is a vibrant democracy with a healthy culture of debate, discussion and dissent. However, plotting against the country with the intent to harm our citizens is not one of these. Those who politicised this issue need to apologise. Also Read | Surgical strikes: The need for more as 300 terrorists have resurfaced across the border "Those who stooped down to the level of polticising an issue of national security have been exposed by the Honourable Supreme Court's decision today. It is high time that the Congress now clears it's stand on this critical issue of Urban Naxalism,' Amit Shah said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 13:27 [IST] When will we stop treating women in India less human? India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Sep 28: Women are impure while mensuration so should not be allowed to enter the temple and the other argument that security was main concern as Ayappa temple at Sabrimala was to be reached after crossing a thick jungle but the Supreme Court has taken a rational view allowing women to enter Lord Ayappa temple of Sabrimala in Kerala. There have been other similar court decisions like allowing women to enter Shani temple at Signapur in Maharashra and Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai but still at many places women are subject to discrimination by not being allowed their constitutional and civic right. Not only the constitution but civil society as well don't allow any kind of subjugation to any section of society whether on the ground of cast, creed or sex. But women have always been looked down upon in the religious practice of every religion even Parsies where a women married outside her community was not allowed to perform last rites of her father. But this is not the case with men. Looking down upon any women goes against the basic tenets of that particular religion. No religion should go down to such narrow perspective about women. Also Read | Not only Sabarimala: Women are not allowed in these temple If we talk about Hindu tradition not only Lord Ayappa who is considered to be a celibate but Lord Hanuman too is considered to be celibate but there is no such restriction on the entry of Lord Hanuman temple that any women between 10 and 50 year will not be visiting his temple. There is no universal rule or guideline regarding this rather they are made by the people interpreting religious texts of the particular religion. There is self restrain and women avoid visiting temple on those 4-5 days but there is also a point to ponder about that these restrictions are centuries old when managing mensuration by a women was an arduous task. So to avoid embarrassment and hygiene, these measure could have been suggested which with the passing time became rules. But there is a need to understand that they have become redundant now. Going by the same purity and impurity logic, what will happen to Kamakhya temple of Guwahati where mensuration goddess is worshiped. There is no idol of goddess there in Kamakhya Temple and as legends have it 51 pieces of Goddess Sati's body scattered across the Indian subcontinent. These places are called Shakti Peethas and are dedicated to various goddesses. Kamarupa (form of desire) is the region in which the yoni (female sex organ) is said to have fallen to earth, and the Kamakhya temple is said to have been built on this spot. Going by the same logic, men should not be allowed in Kamakhya temple. Also Read | SC throws open doors of Sabarimala Temple to women There is another temple of Kartikeya at Pehowa in Kurukshetra district of Haryana where as per legends Yudhisthir Performed Shradh Karma after Mahabharata War was over. Women are strictly prohibited there. There are many such legends as there is a Maihar Devi temple in Madhya Pradesh where no one is allowed to stay at night. But that does not harm or affect anyone's sentiment. Religious shrines of every religion have such restrictions as Jama Masjid in Delhi does not allow entry of women after sunset prayers. At Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Kerala women cannot enter temple vaults though women devotees can worship the deity, but they are not allowed to venture inside the temple chambers. Temple was in controversy when a lady from Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) attempted to enter the restricted area to create an inventory of the treasures kept over there. It is said that women who dare to visit the Lord Kartikeya Temple of Pushkar will be cursed and not blessed. Similarly Patbausi Satra temple in Assam women are barred from entering in order to ensure that the temple does not become impure. Temple authorities believed that women who are menstruating are unclean. In 2010, J B Patnaik - the then Governor of Assam - entered the temple with some women in an attempt to break the said rule. At the Jain temples of Guna, in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh, women in western attire such as tops and jeans are barred from entering the temple by the community leaders. Can anyone explain the logic for having such a view when we live a country that has Khajuraho Temple, Konark Temple and Ajanta Caves. Also Read | Sabarimala Verdict: What the five judges of the Supreme Court said Still some people don't come to terms with the law as at Nizamuddin Dargah of New Delhi women are still barred from entering the sanctum. They are only permitted till the periphery. The authorities at this dargah have stated quite clearly that even though the Haji Ali Dargah of Mumbai may have now been forced to open the doors of its sanctum to women, it is no mood to comply. They say that the rule applies to all women including those close to authorities and officials. In one such example at the Bhavani Deeksha Mandapam in Vijayawada, Jayanthi Vimala was honored with the post of head priest after her father passed away. Since her father did not have any sons, she was appointed as the Vamsa Paramparya Archaka or hereditary priest by Andhra Pradesh Government in 1990. In spite of her position, she is not allowed to enter the inner sanctum of the temple as is the case with every other lady. Also Read | What a month for empowerment: Twitterati react to Sabarimala verdict So the logic given by authorities are more of ignorance and mindset of refusing to change with the passing time. It is more of a matter of convenience, greed and ignorance and sooner we overcome them he better. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 14:02 [IST] Why are menstruating women not allowed in Sabarimala Temple? Centuries old beliefs and customs India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Sep 28: The Supreme Court is set to pronounce its verdict on Friday on a centuries old tradition at Sabarimala Temple in Kerala which prohibits women between the age of 10 to 50 from entering its premises. The activists have been arguing that it is discriminatory practice that violates the Constitution. The petitioners challenging this practice contend that women should be allowed to pray at the place of their choice. Before getting into the details of the case in the apex court, it worth understanding why this practice is followed in the first place. There are certains beliefs in our society which have lingered on for centuries. Behind mensturating women not being allowed into Sabarimala shrine there are two beliefs, one is that Sabarimala temple deity - Swami Ayyappa - is a 'Naishtika Brahmachari' or a celibate. It is this celibate nature of the deity which the temple authorities cite as a reason for not allowing women of age. Even if the apex court rules that women of any age can enter, many may not go to Sabarimala because of this belief that they may incurr the wrath of Lord Ayyappa. Another reason is that 10- 50 years is considered, as per ancient customs, the age group for women during which they menstruate and according to Hindu traditions a woman is considered impure at this time. Hindu women generally do not enter temples when they have periods and Sabarimala temple priest had once said that they cannot check if a woman entering the temple is menstruating or not. Why is menstruation considered unholy? There are several belief behind this which have over the years become deep rooted in the society. According to the traditions, if a woman is in her periods then she is not supposed to enter the temple or pooja room in the house. She is supposed to keep a distance from others in the family, should not comb her hair, should not touch pickle, should not put on kajal or any type of makeup, should not enter the kitchen. In short, a woman should lead a simple life during menstruation. Well not all of these are followed in present times, some like not entering temples of touching the idols of gods in still practiced by many. [Can women in age group of 10 to 50 enter Sabarimala temple: SC decides tomorrow] We spoke to a few women on this issue and they said that the blanket ban on the entry of women between the ages 10-50 years in the Sabarimala must be lifted, but at the same time they felt that it is not right to enter places of worship during periods. "Women of all age groups should be allowed into Sabarimala temple. But, women should themselves decide that they must not enter the temple during periods. I would welcome the SC verdict if the ban imposed by the temple authorities is lifted," Priya (name changed), 33 year old woman from Bengaluru, told OneIndia. When asked about Sabarimala Temple's contention that Lord Ayyappa is a celibate, Priya said, "That way even Raghavendra Swami is a Bhahmachari, but we go to Mantralaya." Priya, however, said that she does not enter temples during her periods as it is not right. When asked who told her about it, she said, "My mother and other elder women in the family told me this when i was very young. I have been following it and see nothing wrong in it. It is not right to do pooja during periods." [SC to deliver verdict on entry of women into Sabarimala temple: A timeline of events] Even Meghana (name changed), from Bengaluru, expressed similar views. She said temple authorities and no one to dictate who should or should not enter. "Women should get to decide. If a woman has periods then she should not enter temples, I follow this practice and many of my friends also do." During the old times, women were actually kept secluded in a seperate room at the time of menstruation. A menstruating woman was supposed to wear only a piece of cloth throughout the days of the periods, keep her hair uncombed, avoid talking to anyone, eat simple food, sleep on the floor and avoid touching anything that is considered pure. A mythological tale in which many believe: According to puranas, Lord Indra had once killed a Brahman, considered as one of the most heinous crimes in Hinduism. To get rid of this sin and earn his kingdom back he requested the presiding deities of water, trees, earth and women to take a quarter of the sin. In turn he promised that he would grant boons to all of them. This was agreed upon. [SC questions rationale behind fixing age group for women's entry into Sabarimala] It is said in scriptures that women took a part of Indra's sin which resulted in menstruation. Women would be impure for the time while she menstruates. In return, Indra granted the boon that women would enjoy sexual pleasure more than men. Menstrual cycle denotes the sin of killing a Brahman. So women are forbidden to see God or indulge in divine acts during that period for its sign of impurity. By Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros at the Bronx Documentary Center. Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros powerful photographs played an important role in moving the world to action and ultimately bringing the Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003) to an end. Trapped with Liberian dictator Charles Taylors forces in besieged Monrovia in the summer of 2003, Chris braved artillery and rocket fire to send frontline pictures of women and children being killed by the hundreds. His photos ran on front pages around the world and provoked outrage at a brutal war whose victims were almost entirely non-combatants. Tim Hetherington, embedded with the LURD rebels in the same period, provided the documentation of the rebels shelling civilians. Even the ruthless Charles Taylor considered him a threat and sent assassination squads to kill the British photojournalist. Tim barely escaped, only to return and live in Liberia following the conflict. His haunting book, Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold, has become a standard text of the Liberian Wars. Together, these two photographers alerted the world to Liberias humanitarian disaster and helped to build the international momentum which resulted in the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping mission that brought the war to a close, helped set the stage for democratic elections and created a lasting success story for the West African nation and the subregion. The UN closed its Liberia mission last yearthe last of three successful operations in the Mano River basinleaving being a country still fragile but with a fighting chance for peace and development. The photos in this exhibition, some never before shown, are a tribute to these journalists, and to the Liberian civilians who protested so powerfully and demanded an end to the violence. In 2011, Tim and Chris, friends and colleagues committed to documenting the truth, were killed by artillery in Misurata, Libya. War and Peace in Liberia Exhbition Catalog This catalog, created in conjunction with the exhibition, was designed by Bonnie Briant and Bobbie Richardson and funded by the Chris Hondros Fund could be purchased online at the bottom of the resulting website here. In collaboration with: Magnum Photos Getty Images The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations The United Nations Foundation Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues War And Peace in Liberia is made possible by: The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, the New York State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council, the Donnelley Foundation, Con Edison, and Ghetto Film School. Curated by Michael Kamber and Cynthia Rivera. Exhibition information: Bronx Documentary Center St. Marys Annex 364 E. 151st Street Bronx, NY 10455 Gallery hours: Thursday Friday 03:00 p.m. 07:00 p.m. Saturday Sunday 01:00 p.m. 05:00 p.m. Free entrance. For more information, please visit here. Captions: Header photo: July 20, 2003: Joseph Duo, a Liberian militia commander loyal to the government, exults after firing a rocket-propelled grenade at rebel forces at a key strategic bridge in Monrovia. Chris Hondros / Getty Images. Middle photos L-R: Liberia. Monrovia. June 25th, 2003. A member of the AA (Anti-Aircraft) brigade exchanges a brief tender word with his girlfriend during a heavy fighting in the capital Monrovia.; Liberia. 2004. War graffiti. Tim Hetherington/Magnum Photos; Refugees fleeing the war, Liberia, 2003 Chris Hondros / Getty Images Address: Bronx Documentary Center 614 Courtlandt Avenue Bronx, NY 10451 Tel.: 718-993-3512 Email: info@bronxdoc.org [googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!4v1532549907502!6m8!1m7!1s3dRjOfxkVZ_xZHmCocJ-ZQ!2m2!1d40.81799880919689!2d-73.91890998426852!3f90.80437654037053!4f12.509996520614479!5f0.7820865974627469&w=610&h=610] Bangladesh PM Hasina gets two awards for her humanitarian aid to Rohingyas International oi-Shubham Ghosh New York, Sept 28: Just when the West has expressed its deep disappointment over Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi over her ineffective stance on the Rohingya issue, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faced an entirely opposite experience on the world stage. On Thursday, September 27, Hasina was conferred two coveted international awards - the IPS International Achievement Award and the 2018 Special Distinction Award for Leadership - for her humanitarian contribution towards hosting the Rohingya Muslims persecuted in the neighbouring Myanmar and her farsighted leadership over the issue which has left a deep impact in South Asia. Hasina was given the two awards by the Inter Press Service - one of the world's leading news agencies - and the Global Hope Coalition - a network of three not-for-profit foundations based in New York, Zurich and Hong Kong. She has handed over the awards at two separate events. Also Read | Rohingya crisis: US to give over $185 mn in additional aid It added another feather to the crown of the Bangladeshi prime minister who was conferred Global Women's Leadership Award for her leadership in women's education and entrepreneurship in Bangladesh by the US-based Global Summit of Women in Sydney in April. While Hasina received the IPS International Achievement Award from Director General of International Organization for Migration Ambassador William Lacy Swing at the UN headquarters, she received the 2018 Special Distinction Award for Leadership from Honorary President of Global Hope Coalition Irina Bokova at an event at Park Avenue in New York. Besides Hasina, three other world leaders also received the awards and they are President of Niger Mohamadou Issoufu; President of Tunisia Beji Caid Essebi and Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras. Also Read | Sheikh Hasina seeks India's help to repatriate Rohingyas The 71-year-old Hasina dedicated the award to the people of Bangladesh who received several Rohingyas to their country after they fled Myanmar. The Awami League leader said that it is the duty of all responsible nations across the world to show humanitarian concern to the distressed and displaced people around the world. "The causes of the crisis is rooted in Myanmar. Hence, the solution is also to be found in Myanmar.....the international community has a clear obligation to collectively address the source of the problem in Myanmar and engage effectively with its government to prevent further exodus," the Daily Star quoted Hasina as saying after receiving the IPS award. "The voluntary return of Rohingyas can only be ensured with collective actions by the international community to ensure prevention of repetition of atrocity crimes against ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar by establishing international, independent and impartial mechanism to put accountability into effect," she added. Also Read | Canada MPs vote to strip Myanmar's Suu Kyi of honorary citizenship over Rohingyas "I wish the world never had to witness the worst form of violence and atrocities that has been committed against the Rohingyas in Myanmar. It stunned me, as it did to the billions of other conscience minds throughout the world," she was quoted as saying after receiving the Special Distinction award. Bangladesh has highlighted the issues related to the Rohingya crisis at the UN General Assembly as the country has given shelter to more than seven lakh Myanmar nationals who fled ethnic cleansing in its Rakhine State since August 25 last year. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 16:18 [IST] Talks with China will not help says USA NSA on situation on Ladakh Brett Kavanaugh: Charges of sexual misconduct by 3 women put his SC candidacy in serious trouble International oi-Shubham Ghosh Washington, Sept 28: Senators of the Republican Party have said that the Senate judiciary committee has decided to vote on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, the US Supreme Court candidate backed by President Donald Trump, on Friday (Sept 28) morning. The confirmation process of 53-year-old Kavanaugh has found itself in jeopardy after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him as a teenager from a number of women. Christine Blasey Ford, the 51-year-old psychology professor at Palo Alto University was the first woman to come forward and accuse Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s as teenagers. In an interview to the Washington Post, Ford said it was during a party in Montgomery county in Maryland, USA, that the jurist had led her into a bedroom and attempted to remove her bating suit and put his hand over her mouth so that she couldn't shout. Ford had a lucky escape on that occasion. Also Read | Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring judge Kennedy Last Sunday, September 22, the New Yorker came up with an interview of 53-year-old Deborah Ramirez who also accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself at a drunken dormitory when he was a freshman at Yale. Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of thrusting his penis in her face and made her touch it without her consent. She has sought an FBI investigation into it. A third woman, Julie Swetnick, has also accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Swetnick, represented by Michael Avenatti who fought for porn actress Stormy Daniels, said in a statement which was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were present at a party where she was drugged and "gang raped". Also Read | Was raped at 16 while I was asleep, says Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi Kavanaugh, finding himself more cornered, decided to defend himself and insisted in an interview with Fox News that he was a virgin throughout in his high school days and beyond and that he had never sexually assaulted anybody. Appearing with his wife Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, the veteran jurist said he has fought for women's equality throughout his life and denied the charges brought against him by the women. While Ford said she came forward to give the senators an understanding of Kavanaugh's character as they examined him for a seat in the country's apex court. Ramirez said Ford's allegation encouraged her to come forward to give a clear picture about Kavanaugh's past. President Trump, who himself had several accusations of sexual misconduct against him, vigorously backed Kavanaugh and accused the Democrats of trying "to destroy a wonderful man". He said Kavanaugh has the potential of becoming one of America's "greatest" and cast doubt on Ford's allegations and said they were part of a plan to ruin Kavanaugh's candidacy. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 11:23 [IST] Days after pro-China Yameen lost power in Maldives, this is what China has to say International oi-Shubham Ghosh Beijing, Sept 28: Days after Maldives' presidential election produced result that saw Abdulla Yameen losing power and Opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih succeeding him, China's Global Times came up with an op-ed saying the election in the archipelago had nothing to do with any other country - be it India, China or any western nation. In the piece titled 'Maldives will prioritize own interest, not India's', it was said that Maldives' relationship with China was a considered as a major factor in the election and there were two camps - pro-China and anti-China. "But the presidential election in the Maldives is supposed to have nothing to do with other countries, be it China, India, or any Western nations," it said. Security India's main concern in Indian Ocean but for China success of OROB The piece also mentioned about how favourably the media in India and the West viewed the election result in Maldives. It said though the crisis in Maldives earlier this year was seen by many as "the culmination of a standoff" between Yameen and the country's supreme court, it accused India of being instrumental behind the scene. "Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Maldives in September 2014. The country then kicked off its participation in China's Belt and Road initiative (BRI). Joint projects include the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge and other major infrastructure programs. The Maldives failed to complete these projects on its own and sought China's help, with the latter responding positively, triggering concern from India. New Delhi accused Yameen of cooperating with China, badmouthed BRI, and said Beijing was expanding its power to the Indian Ocean," it said. As Yameen's grip loosens, Maldives court frees leaders arrested during emergency The op-ed also said that India has had a strong influence on its maritime neighbour and played a major role in its political crisis. "That's also the reason why Maldives' China policy became a major subject during the nation's presidential election, the result of which may somewhat affect the nation's ties with China," it added. However, the Chinese news website piece cautioned that there is less chance of the new president turning into entirely pro-India but only pro-self interest. President Solih will have to assess whether being pro-India will be serve his country's self interest. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 28, 2018, 10:29 [IST] Canada MPs vote to strip Myanmar's Suu Kyi of honorary citizenship over Rohingyas International oi-Shubham Ghosh Ottawa, Sept 28: Not long ago, she was an icon for the democratic world. But not anymore. The parliamentarians of Canada have voted in unison to revoke the honorary citizenship of Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi over her alleged failure to halt persecution the Rohingya Muslim minority in her country. Suu Kyi had once risen as a darling of world's democratic forces and also received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts for establishing democracy in the South-east Asian country which had long been under the rule of a military junta. She became the country's first state counsellor in April 2016 after her party - National League for Democracy - sweeping the 2015 elections, the first openly contested one in the country since 1990. Also Read | Espousing Rohingya cause, terrorists from Bangla and Bengal planned big attack in Bodhgaya The international world, however, was disappointed over the 73-year-old leader's approach towards the genocide against the Rohingyas. At least 7 lakh Rohingyas have fled Myanmar because of oppression. The Canadian lawmakers' move came a day after their prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said that the parliament was reconsidering whether the Myanmar leader still deserved the honour that his country gave her. Also Read | Speed of Rohingyas return is up to Bangladesh says Suu Kyi Canada extended the honorary citizenship to Suu Kyi, who is just one of six people to have been recognised. The honorary citizenship is conferred by a joint declaration of both the houses of parliament and officials told Reuters that it will revoked in the same manner. NORTHAMPTON TOWNSHIP >> After listening to more than four hours of public comment, the board of supervisors on Wednesday night voted to deny Provco its request for preliminary/final land development approval for a new Wawa convenience store and gas station in Holland. The vote brought immediate applause from Holland residents who have been fighting the project for months and who... The National Merchant Buying Society is pulling out all the stops for its 2018 Dinner Dance, with Pixie Lott headlining a star-studded night of entertainment. Pixie Lott first hit the UK singles charts in 2009 with her debut single Mama Do, which went straight to number one. She has gone on to enjoy a successful career in the music industry, and is the winner of two MTV Europe Music Awards. And she will be performing on stage for up to 1,200 guests from across the merchant industry at the 2018 NMBS Dinner Dance at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Saturday 27 October. Guests will also enjoy a display of Latin and ballroom dancing courtesy of dancers James and Ola Jordan, stars of BBC Ones Strictly Come Dancing. Supporting cabaret will be provided by Jersey Gals and house band Fully Funktional will be back for another year. Coptic Solidarity Hosts Third Annual Modern Coptic Martyrs Remembrance Day on October 3 Coptic Solidarity encourages everyone to join on October 3, at the US Capitol Visitor Center, Room 200, from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM for the 3rd Annual Modern Coptic Martyrs Remembrance Day. This event commemorates and seeks justice for the many modern Coptic martyrs who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their faith. Contact: Lindsay Griffin, Coptic Solidarity, 801-512-1713, coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Coptic Solidarity encourages everyone to join on October 3, at the US Capitol Visitor Center, Room 200, from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM for the 3rd Annual Modern Coptic Martyrs Remembrance Day. This event commemorates and seeks justice for the many modern Coptic martyrs who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their faith. Photo: On October 9, 2011, Egyptian soldiers used live ammunition without warning and drove armored personnel carriers in zig-zag patterns through peaceful Coptic protesters to kill as many as possible The event will be hosted near the 7th Anniversary of the Maspero Massacre in which the Egyptian army murdered 27 Copts and injured 327 who were peacefully protesting the government's closure of a church in Aswan. The government has yet to take responsibility for this brutal attack in which soldiers used live ammunition without warning and drove armored personnel carriers in zig-zag patterns through the protestors to kill as many as possible. The need for individuals and organizations worldwide to join together and demand protection and justice for Copts could not be more urgent. In recent weeks, there have been mounting reports of church closures forcing parishioners to hold funerals and services in the streets, attacks on Copts and their properties, imprisonment of Copts accused of "praying in an unauthorized building," and continued systematic discrimination against Copts in Egypt. Coptic Solidarity urges concerned individuals of all faiths and denominations to join near the seventh anniversary of the Maspero Massacre to host prayer vigils and other remembrance events. Coptic Solidarity has created an online resource center where churches and individuals can find all the necessary tools to host a prayer event or any other commemorative activity. The resource center includes a church bulletin insert, fact sheet, an educational presentation, an advocacy campaign, and photos and videos. This modern civil rights movement will not achieve success without the support of individuals, organizations and governments worldwide, demanding the Egyptian government acknowledge and provide justice for the victims of the Maspero Massacre, protection of Copts against violent attacks, an end to the systematic discrimination against them, and the institution of full and equal rights to Copts as citizens in their homeland. Confirmed speakers include: Dr. Jonathan Adly: Founder -- History of the Copts Podcast Gary Bauer: Commissioner -- The US Commission on International Religious Freedom Dr. Mark Eid: Executive Committee Member -- Coptic Solidarity Robert Nicholson: President -- The Philos Project Clifford Smith: Washington Project Director -- Middle East Forum This event is open to the public and media. Please RSVP to coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org Coptic Solidarity is an organization seeking to help minorities, particularly the Copts, of Egypt and we support those in Egypt working for democracy, freedom, and the protection of the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens. It advocates in cooperation with the affiliated organizations in Canada and in Europe (Solidarite Copte). For more information, contact Lindsay Griffin at 801-512-1713 or coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org. Highbridges new 6million Travelodge hotel is set to welcome its first guests at the start of December. The new hotel in Siger Drive, off Bennett Road, will formally open on November 5th, when the first bookings will be taken, it has been confirmed this week in a change to the plans for bookings to start in December. To be called the Highbridge Burnham-On-Sea Travelodge, it will have 75 rooms, a bar, a cafe. The hotel has been designed in the companys latest contemporary design and all family, double and accessible rooms will feature king-size beds and modern facilities such as USB charging points. As we reported here last week, the hotel is current recruiting 26 new staff across all positions. The Highbridge Burnham-On-Sea Travelodge is one of 11 hotels that the budget hotel chain is opening in the lead up to Christmas, collectively representing an investment of 79million and creating 260 new jobs in total. The new sites are at East Grinstead, Gainsborough, Camborne Redruth, Chester, Solihull, York Monks Cross, Highbridge Burnham-On-Sea, Lincoln, Walsall, Ashford and Bury St Edmonds. Craig Bonnar, Travelodge Chief Operating Officer said: We are very excited to be opening our first Travelodge hotel in Highbridge. Right now our focus is to build a strong team to manage the hotel. Therefore we are looking for colleagues who are dedicated and passionate about delivering great service. We can teach the skills that they need and we are totally committed in developing our people. We operate a successful in-house management development programme, which has helped thousands of colleagues; climb the career ladder into management via an entry level position. Travelodge describes the new hotel on its website: Our Highbridge Burnham-On-Sea hotel is the perfect seaside location getaway, with sandy Burnham beach less than 4 miles away and plenty of other beaches nearby. Bust out those sunglasses and have a wander along Burnham seafront, and dont miss the Burnham-On-Sea pier an Edwardian beauty and the shortest in Britain. Within 3 minutes drive of the rail station and 2 minutes from the M5, connectivity is king at this hotel. Youre within easy reach of Cheddar Gorge and the stunning Mendip Hills AONB or you can jump on a train to Bristol and be at Temple Meads in under an hour. Highbridge Travelodge opens this autumn Sri Lankas experience with Chinas Belt and Road Initiative is a cautionary tale for governments in Eurasia that wish to affiliate with this mammoth project. Chinese investments in the port of Hambantota already in 2004 identified as part of Chinas string of pearls strategy in the Indian Ocean. However, investments took the form of loans that the Sri Lankan government could not repay. After months of negotiation and heavy pressure, the Sri Lankan government turned the port, including all its structures and capacities, plus 15,000 acres around it to China in late 2017. BACKGROUND: These Chinese loans have effectively forced the Sri Lankan state to abandon its territorial integrity and sovereignty over one of the most critical pieces of its infrastructure; one that possesses considerable strategic potential in the Indian Ocean. Few observers accept at face value Beijings statements that its interest in the port and the adjacent lands is exclusively commercial. We have seen too many Chinese power plays in the South China Sea to take such assurances seriously. Moreover, this is neither the first Chinese action of this kind relevant to Central Asia, nor is such behavior confined to Sri Lanka. In late 2009, China requested that Kazakhstan allow Chinese farmers to use one million hectares of Kazakh land to farm soya and rape seed. In 2004, the Kazakh autonomous region of Ili in Xinjiang obtained permission to lease 7,000 hectares of agricultural land which had been abandoned since the 1990s for ten years from the governor of the Kazakhstan border district, Lake Alakol. The roughly 3,000 Chinese renters now grow soya beans and wheat on the land. This transaction provoked scathing attacks in Kazakh media against the government, apparently out of concern that the country was being carved up at Beijings behest. Similarly in Kyrgyzstan, in 1999, more than 90,000 hectares of the Uzengi-Kuush region were ceded to China. Tapping into nationalist sentiment, the opposition used the settlement to try to topple the government. In 2011, Tajikistan announced a new border rectification with China, which allegedly ensures Tajikistans territorial inviolability, definitively solves its border problems with China, and ensures its stability for decades to come. That statement implies that Tajikistans security vis-a-vis China would otherwise have been at risk. The details of this agreement indicate Chinas visible presence in Dushanbes decision-making. Indeed, Shukhrob Sharipov, Director of the Presidential Center for Strategic Studies, argued that, If we had not decided to transfer the land (at this time), we would not have been able to resist Chinas pressure. This agreement, allegedly based on a prior bilateral accord in 2002 that was ratified again in 2010, ceded about 1,100 square kilometers in the Pamir Mountains to Chinese farmers. This constitutes about 1 percent of Tajikistans territory, albeit in a sparsely settled area. Tajikistans government hailed this as a victory because China had actually claimed some 28,000 square kilometers and settled for only about 3.5 percent of its claims. By the same token, Russia has on numerous occasions taken equity in return for borrowers debts to create privileged enclaves or even military bases in Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. It could do the same in countries like Venezuela, which teeters on the edge of default. Thus, while Sri Lankas lesson may be the most recent, it is by no means the only one. IMPLICATIONS: the Sri Lankan experience casts doubts on the utility of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. Like much of Chinas Central Asian policy, it grows out of domestic imperatives; the necessity of pacifying Xinjiang by large-scale economic investment; finding markets to soak up over-capacity in key industries for the building of large-scale projects; the drive to find viable outlets for the enormous hoard of cash, ranging in the trillions, that China has built up over the years; the burgeoning opportunities for truly connecting Asia and Europe; and Chinas great power ambitions. Central Asian governments cannot resist the prospect of a major investor offering to build very desirable infrastructural projects in their countries or alleviating their own economic difficulties. On the other hand, all of them clearly have misgivings about Chinas role in their economies, polities, and its impact upon their societies. Thus they understand, as do external observers, that the Belt and Road Initiative could easily become a trap as it did for Sri Lanka, which is involved in Chinas parallel maritime Silk Road project. Yet the cautionary aspect of this story goes far beyond clarifying Chinas motives behind the policy or the ambivalence in the responses of Central Asian and other states. The most significant takeaway from this experience is the importance of adopting better means of governance if they want to survive. Tajikistans President Emomali Rahmon is now soliciting more Japanese aid and investment in order to realize the national strategy. However, in both cases, even though the natural endowment of these countries was not great to begin with, the key problem is illegitimate governance. In Uzbekistan, Mirziyoyev and his team clearly believed that urgent reforms were needed. Tajikistan is a shining example of what the U.S. sociologist and political scientist Edward Banfield called amoral familism and Western analysts have all but labeled it a narco-state for its pervasive corruption. The occurrence of illegitimate governance and malfeasance in administration corrode sovereignty. This is evident also in Ukraine, where the Yanukovych regime was so pervasively corrupt that much of its military and intelligence leadership were by 2014, in effect, Russian agents and acted accordingly. This problem continues to disfigure Ukrainian politics. Moreover, both in Ukraine and Armenia, the conspicuous corruption of the political elite ultimately led to the revolutionary outbreaks of the Orange Revolution, the Maidan, and Armenias revolution earlier this year. Thus, regimes exhibiting illegitimate governance run the risk of profound domestic instability, which further increases the risk of losing sovereignty and territory. The threat of great powers utilizing weaker states debility to act in classic imperial fashion remains acute. In Venezuela, the incredible malfeasance of that countrys regime has placed it at the mercy of both Russia and China. They could, once the inevitable crash comes, replicate the policies we have seen in Eurasia and translate debt into equities. Syria furnishes another example as the extended leases on Russian bases and the contracts it has signed with Moscow indicate. While the need for large-scale investments is acute, it is necessary for all states who wish to take advantage of Beijings largesse to advance their economies and solve their own problems, in order to balance the potentially negative outcomes of Chinas investment programs. This is as true for Latin America, Africa, South, and Southeast Asia, as it is for Central Asia and the Caucasus. CONCLUSIONS: Even a country as large and powerful as Russia could face a similar experience. It is undeniable that the Sino-Russian relationship has grown ever closer since 2014 due to the imposition of Western sanctions and the two countries ever deeper elective affinity in terms of ideology and their domestic arrangements. Beyond that, Moscows growing dependence on Beijing for investments and trade as well as political support has obliged Moscow to sell off or make available assets to Beijing that were formerly off limits. Examples include huge Chinese investments in Rosneft, Arctic and other energy projects, trans-continental railroad lines, etc. Since firms like Rosneft and Russian railroads are paragons of illegitimate governance and corruption, we may also assume that the large sums of money involved in these investments include, to label them accurately, bribes or kickbacks. Russias ensuing dependence on Chinese largesse and Chinas influence upon key domestic actors and constituencies have led to demonstrations against Chinese investment, but have also forced Russia to acquiesce to Chinese interests in ways that were heretofore inconceivable. Aside from equity in energy projects, these include major weapons platform sales of advanced systems and subordination of the Eurasian Economic Union to promises from China that it will be included in the Belt and Road Initiative. Thus, Sri Lankas lesson ultimately applies not only to the Caucasus and Central Asia, but also to Russia. AUTHORS BIO: Dr. Stephen Blank is a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. He is the author of numerous foreign policy-related articles, white papers and monographs, specifically focused on the geopolitics and geostrategy of the former Soviet Union, Russia and Eurasia. Image source: By: Deneth17 via Wikimedia Commons accessed on 9.27.2018 Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Harbinger Capital Partners Offshore Manager, the offshore arm of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners has come to a tax agreement with New York State tax authorities. According to New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, the offshore fund earned incentive fees from successful trading that it conducted from an office in New York City. This income was subject to New York State income tax and New York City unincorporated business tax - however that activity was shielded from local officials. According to the settlement agreement managers of the offshore firm admitted that taxes were owed. The investigation leading to the settlement announced today began with a whistleblower lawsuit filed in March 2015 under the New York False Claims Act. The Act, which expressly covers tax fraud, allows whistleblowers and the government to take legal action against companies or individuals that defraud the government. The settlement follows an earlier $40 million settlement in this investigation, concluded in April 2017, with Harbert Management Corporation, the Alabama-based investment management company that sponsored and organized the principal hedge fund managed by Offshore Manager. As a result, a total of $70 million will be recovered. Offshore Manager's investment activities were led by Philip Falcone. Most of the firm's activities were conducted from an office on Madison Avenue in New York. However, income was reported from...................... To view our full article Click here Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Assets held in UCITS funds could quadruple to reach EUR 42 trillion ($48.83tn) in 30 years, according to research by the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI). The study claims that the assets in UCITS funds have the potential to grow at a compound rate of 5% over the next three decades, with average annual net sales flows rising from EUR 201 billion in 2017 to EUR860 billion by 2048. However, this would only be possible if certain risk factors - such as measures to guard against a flash crash in relatively illiquid sectors - are addressed, the trade body warned in the report. The study, which was produced by Broadridge, also predicts that Europe's Capital Markets Union and local initiatives to enhance long-term savings to meet demographic challenges will encourage future growth in Europe. Outside Europe regulators are likely to wish to protect their own markets, but the strength of the UCITS brand means that the UCITS structure is most likely to be the adopted vehicle. A press release from ALFI quoted Denise Voss, Chairman as saying: "The global footprint of UCITS bodes well for the coming decade as populations in many of the newer markets are encouraged by their governments to take on the mantle of pension provision. Regulators in most non-European countries will wish to build a local fund franchise, but the regulatory structures they use are most likely to be based on UCITS. This can only be good new...................... To view our full article Click here Swiss Climate EcoCare signs agreement as being accredited provider of EU-MRV and IMO-DCS services for flag state Antigua & Barbuda Settled: Swiss Climate offers EU-MRV and IMO-DCS Services for flag state Antigua&Barbuda www.swissclimate.de Hamburg - September 27th 2018: Swiss Climate EcoCare GmbH is the first German authorized verifier to conclude a strategic agreement with the Department of Marine Services and Merchant Shipping (ADOMS) of Antigua & Barbuda on services for compliance with the global CO2 emission guidelines.While the IMO-DCS (Data Collection System) will enter into force worldwide on January 1st 2019, the EU-MRV regulations (Monitoring, Reporting, Verification) regulates the emission limits for merchant shipping in European ports already.The signing of the agreement is the logical continuation of the corporate goal of Swiss Climate EcoCare GmbH to optimally support ship owners and shipping companies worldwide in their daily working routines.Since 2017, the company has been an accredited EU-MRV and IMO-DCS verifier. After the first agreement with the Liberian Registry was concluded in September last year, more than 1.000 additional ships can now take advantage of the comprehensive range of services offered by Swiss Climate GmbH.Philipp Ahrenkiel, CEO Swiss Climate EcoCare, explains: "The signing of the agreement with A&B shows that, as an accredited EU-MRV and IMO-DCS verifier, we also enjoy excellent acceptance among the major flag states with our comprehensive range of monitoring concepts and emission reports. We are proud of this and look forward to announcing that contributions of contract with other flag states will be signed shortly.For further information, visitAbout Swiss Climate EcoCare GmbH:For more than 10 years, Swiss Climate has been advising companies and organisations worldwide on the development of holistic climate strategies and sustainability concepts. Since 2010, Swiss Climate developed carbon footprints for commercial shipping. Likewise, Swiss Climate has great expertise in maritime shipping. With the implementation of the EU MRV regulation it was the next logical step to become an accredited verifier for greenhouse gas emissions in the maritime sector.Press Agency:PR-echt Pressearbeit und TextHedda PrechtTel.: +49 40 40 17 18 16Mobile: +49 172 447 0237E-Mail:Company:Swiss Climate EcoCare GmbHPhilipp AhrenkielSteinhoft 1120459 HamburgTel: +49 40 6094 55220 Global Hookah Tobacco Market 2018-2025 Starbuzz, Fantasia, Al Fakher, Social Smoke Hookah Tobacco Market 2018 http://bit.ly/2R4VO1G https://www.9dimenresearchstore.com/report/global-hookah-tobacco-market-25163 http://9dimenresearchstore.com Market study on Global Hookah Tobacco Market 2018 Research Report presents a professional and complete analysis of Global Hookah Tobacco Market on the current market situation.Report provides a general overview of the Hookah Tobacco industry 2018 including definitions, classifications, Hookah Tobacco market analysis, a wide range of applications and Hookah Tobacco industry chain structure. The 2018's report on Hookah Tobacco industry offers the global Hookah Tobacco development history, development trends and competitive landscape analysis. The Global Hookah Tobacco Market 2018 report includes Hookah Tobacco market Revenue, market Share, Hookah Tobacco industry volume, market Trends, Growth aspects.After report covers manufacturing processes and price structures on Hookah Tobacco scenario. This report also includes Hookah Tobacco import/export, supply chain relationship, consumption ratio, Hookah Tobacco revenue and gross margin by regions/countries (United States, EU, China, and Japan).Request Sample Copy of Hookah Tobacco Report:Leading Manufacturers Analysis in Hookah Tobacco Industry 2018 are Starbuzz, Fantasia, Al Fakher, Social Smoke, Alchemist Tobacco, Al-Tawareg Tobacco, Haze Tobacco, FumariMarket Segmented Based on Application Offline Sales, Online SalesMarket Segmented Based on Type Fruit Flavor, Mixed Flavor, Herbal FlavorThen report states global Hookah Tobacco industry leaders along with information on company profiles, product images, product specification, production capacity, Hookah Tobacco market revenue and contact information. The Hookah Tobacco industry is analysed on basis of applications, geographic distribution and the factors responsible for increasing demand of Hookah Tobacco globally has been included in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Hookah Tobacco research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the Hookah Tobacco market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Hookah Tobacco market revenue worldwide.Finally, Hookah Tobacco market report gives you details about the Hookah Tobacco market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable Hookah Tobacco market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"9DimenResearchStore.com" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@9dimenresearchstore.com | BY Ricki Green | Sponsored by Passion Pictures and Alt, a group of the finest Aussie and Kiwis in the industry have gathered together in Singapore to mark the occasion of the 2018 Spikes Festival of Creativity. With many of them up for awards this Friday evening at the Gala ceremony, the crew took the time to celebrate each other, with the likes of MullenLowe, Deloitte, BMF, Fin, CHE Proximity and Finch forming part of the Thursday celebrations. Cumene Market 2018 by Global Leaders Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (Netherlands), Exxon Mobil Corporation (U.S.), BASF SE (Germany), Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd Cumene Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5745 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cumene-market-5745 Cumene, also known as isopropylbenzene, is a colorless liquid, volatile in nature, and gasoline-like odor. It is a flammable organic compound and boils at around 152C. The compound is a natural component of crude oil and coal tar. It is also used as a blending component in gasoline. Friedel-Crafts alkylation process is used to manufacture cumene commercially.About 90% of cumene is used as a chemical intermediate to produce phenol, and the rest is used for acetone production. However, the market outlook majorly depends on the performance of phenol derivatives. The global cumene market is majorly driven by the use of phenol and its derivatives in various applications such as electrical & electronics, automotive, paints & coatings, cosmetics, and others. Furthermore, it is used as a solvent for paints, lacquers, and enamels, which find their uses in automotive and furniture.Get updated sample Report now @Key PlayersSome of the prominent manufacturers in the global cumene market are Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (Netherlands), Exxon Mobil Corporation (U.S.), BASF SE (Germany), Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd (Japan), The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), Westlake Chemical Corporation (U.S.), Taiwan Cement Corp. (Taiwan), Braskem (Brazil), China Petrochemical Corporation (China), and SABIC (Saudi Arabia).Intended AudienceCumene ManufacturersTraders and distributors of cumeneResearch and development institutesPotential investorsRaw material suppliersNationalized laboratoryThe growing population and their demand for these products are likely to propel the market growth during the review period. Furthermore, increasing building & construction activities in developing countries along with rising use of cumene based products is expected to drive the growth of the market. The growing automotive production and sales in emerging economies such as China, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan coupled with a high adoption rate of cumene as a component of high octane fuels are estimated to propel the market demand. The increasing growth of the plastics & composites industries is another major driving factor of the global cumene market. However, the rising material cost and hazardous effect on human health of cumene may challenge the market growth. For instance, Directive 98/24/EC on the protection of the health and safety of workers from the risks related to chemical agents at work. Nevertheless, the increasing growth for chemical manufacturing and their demand in various end-use industries such as automotive, infrastructure, and others may offer substantial opportunities and further fuel the market growth in coming years.Regional AnalysisThe global cumene market is segmented into five regions Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.The Asia Pacific is anticipated to dominate the global cumene market due to the high demand for phenolic based products used for various applications such as electronics, paints & coatings, automotive, and others. Developing countries such as China, India, and Japan are driving the regional market due to the high consumption of electronics in this region. North America is another major region in the global cumene market owing to the high demand for technological electronic appliances such as smartphones, laptops, and gaming devices. The U.S. is the major contributor to the regional market due to the above-mentioned reason along with the high disposable income. The European market is majorly driven by the demand for cumene from plastics and composites in countries such as Germany, Italy, the U.K, France, and others.The Latin American market is primarily driven by the growing automotive sector in Mexico. The Middle East & Africa is likely to showcase a significant market growth on account of the increasing demand for consumer electronics in this region.Browse complete Report now @SegmentationThe global cumene market is segmented on the basis of the product, production technology, application, and region. On the basis of the product, the global cumene market is categorized into phenol and acetone. Based on the production technology, the global cumene market is further segmented into zeolite catalyst based, solid phosphoric acid, and aluminum chloride. The application segment of global cumene market is segregated into chemical intermediate and solvent. Geographically, the global cumene market is spanned across five regions namely Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Office No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India New Study On Precious Metal Thermocouple Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players Honeywell, TE Connectivity, Hotset, Heraeus, Gimat, Digi-Key, Durex New Study On Precious Metal Thermocouple Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/8194 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/8194 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/buy/precious-metal-thermocouple-market www.upmarketresearch.com Precious Metal Thermocouple 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 @UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Precious Metal Thermocouple Market Analysis and Forecast 2018- 2023 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 90 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Precious Metal Thermocouple 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 Precious Metal Thermocouple 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 Precious Metal Thermocouple market analysis & forecast 2018- 2023 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region- wise Analysis Global Precious Metal Thermocouple 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: Honeywell TE Connectivity Hotset Heraeus Gimat Digi-Key DurexFor More Information, Please VisitGlobal Precious Metal Thermocouple Market: Product Segment Analysis: R Type S Type B TypeGlobal Precious Metal Thermocouple Market: Application Segment Analysis: Metallurgy Mining OtherThe Report covers in- depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Overview of Precious Metal Thermocouple 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 Precious Metal Thermocouple Chapter 6 Precious Metal Thermocouple Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 7 Precious Metal Thermocouple Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of Precious Metal Thermocouple Chapter 9 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of Precious Metal Thermocouple Chapter 10 Marketing Status Analysis of Precious Metal Thermocouple Chapter 11 Report Conclusion Chapter 12 Research Methodology and ReferenceBuy Precious Metal Thermocouple Market analysis & forecast 2018- 2023 Report along with complete TOC @Precious Metal Thermocouple 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.Global Precious Metal Thermocouple Market: Key Stakeholders: Precious Metal Thermocouple Manufacturers Precious Metal Thermocouple Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers Precious Metal Thermocouple Subcomponent Manufacturers Industry Association Downstream VendorsIn this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Precious Metal Thermocouple are as follows: History Year: 2013-2017 Base Year: 2017 Estimated Year: 2018 Forecast Year 2018 to 2025Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Precious Metal Thermocouple 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 Precious Metal Thermocouple 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: Precious Metal Thermocouple - Global Market Status & Trend Report 2013- 2023 Top 20 Countries Data Precious Metal Thermocouple - North America Market Status and Trend Report 2013- 2023 Precious Metal Thermocouple - South America Market Status and Trend Report 2013- 2023 Precious Metal Thermocouple - Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2013- 2023 Precious Metal Thermocouple - EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2013- 2023 Precious Metal Thermocouple - Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2013- 2023 Precious Metal Thermocouple - China Market Status and Trend Report 2013- 2023 Precious Metal Thermocouple - India Market Status and Trend Report 2013- 2023 Precious Metal Thermocouple - 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 Artificial Vital Organs and Medical Bionics Market Key Players : Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, Abbott Diabetes Care, Inc., Baxter International, Inc., Ekso Bionics, Asahi Kasei Medical Co., Ltd., Jarvik Heart, Inc. Artificial Vital Organs and Medical Bionics Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/361 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/361 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Artificial organ is man-made machine or device that is used to replace the functions of missing or faulty organ and restores the functions of original organ. Medical bionics refers to the study of artificial body parts that are substituted for a natural biological capability. Healthcare technology is growing rapidly in which organ transplantation has evolved as common practice.There is a high demand from the patients for organ transplantation surgery, whereas availability of the donors to fulfill this demand is low. Due to this wider gap, artificial vital organs and medical bionics market is experiencing fair growth. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the different segments for artificial vital organs and medical bionics market and comprehensively determines the factors responsible for growth, major constraints and potential opportunities. Through analysis of leading company profiles and their strategies, professionals would gain the competitive edge in the market.Increasing organ failure and disability due to age-related disorders, new and modified technologies, increasing accidents and injuries leading to organ deletion, rise in number of people awaiting organ transplants and lack of donors are the major drivers responsible for the growth of this market. Some crucial factors restraining the growth of this market are high cost of devices and surgery, lack of surgical skills and uncertain reimbursement policies in some regions. Improvement in disposable incomes of end-users and increase in awareness could be the potential factors to fuel the growth of this market. Emerging economies have opened new avenues for the growth of this market, due to growing income levels, high healthcare expenditure and increase in awareness amongst the people about organ transplantation.Get Sample PDF Brochure :Artificial Vital Organs and Medical Bionics Market by Product TypeThe artificial vital organs and medical bionics market is segmented by product type into two broad categories such as Artificial vital organs market and Medical bionics market. Artificial vital organs market is further categorized into different segments, namely artificial liver, artificial heart, artificial pancreas, artificial kidney, artificial lungs and oxygenators. Medical bionics market also consists of sub-segments and includes bionic limbs, vision bionics, ear bionics, exoskeletons, brain bionics, heart valves and cardiac bionics. In artificial vital organs market, artificial kidneys lead the market due to high incidence of acute renal failure. In medical bionics market, bionic exoskeleton accounts for high CAGR due to strong research initiatives in this segment. Artificial pancreases and bio-lungs are the pipeline devices in medical bionics market.Artificial Vital Organs and Medical Bionics Market by ApplicationThe biochip products and services market is segmented by application type into different sub-categories such as gene sequencing and gene expression, clinical diagnosis and treatment (Cancer diagnosis), genomics and toxicogenomics, proteomics, drug discovery and other applications. Clinical diagnosis and treatment is the leading sub-segment in application types. Cancer diagnosis and treatment segment is primarily driven by personalized medicines approved by the FDA for the treatment of cancer. Other factor supportive to the growth of cancer diagnosis segment include government funding and technological advancements.Artificial Vital Organs and Medical Bionics Market by GeographyGeographically, artificial vital organs and medical bionics market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia and LAMEA. North America leads the artificial vital organs and medical bionics market followed by Europe. The reasons attributed for this growth include concentrated high income groups, aged population and high organ failure rates. Asia- Pacific is emerging as a fastest growing market for artificial vital organs and medical bionics, due to growing income levels, government initiatives, raising healthcare awareness and high healthcare expenditure.Competitive LandscapeThe leading companies in artificial vital organs and medical bionics market include Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, Abbott Diabetes Care, Inc., Baxter International, Inc., Ekso Bionics, Asahi Kasei Medical Co., Ltd., Jarvik Heart, Inc. and Ottobock Healthcare GmbH. Manufactures are now concentrating on the development of bionic implant products such as bio-lung, wearable artificial kidney, and artificial pancreas for diseases where alternative treatment methods are inefficient for cure.High Level AnalysisIn-depth analysis of market drivers, challenges and trends would be helpful to understand the market dynamics and serves as a guide for product positioning. Competitive landscape section entirely focuses on key players, new launches, and technological advancements within artificial vital organs and medical bionics market. Porters five forces analysis has been used to determine the attractiveness of artificial vital organs and medical bionics market. High demand for organ transplantation surgeries and lack of donors are the crucial factors that increase the bargaining power of suppliers. Low disposable incomes of consumers in developing economies reduce the bargaining power of buyers. Artificial vital organs and medical bionics products are highly differentiated due to their innovative features such as low battery warnings, gesture selection and auto grasp feature. Due to this product differentiation, threat of new entrant is low. High investment cost, which can be afforded by few big organizations, results in low intensity of rivalry.Do Purchase Enquiry :KEY BENEFITS This report offers the following benefits in particular: Comprehensive coverage of artificial vital organs and medical bionics market along with market trends, drivers and restraints would be helpful to understand the market dynamics Exhaustive analysis of different segments helps to recognize and exploit future opportunities within artificial vital organs and medical bionics market In-depth assessment of leading company profiles, pipeline research and new launches would be informative to professionals in corporate sector High level analysis section uses Porters five forces tool to analyze the market dynamics that would be beneficial for strategic decision makersAllied 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.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: Drug Abuse Testing Market Key Players : Biomedical Diagnostics, BioMerieux, Abbott Laboratories, Bio-Rad, Dako, DiaSorin, Eiken and Fujirebio, Beckman Coulter. Drug Abuse Testing Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-toc-and-sample/112 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/112 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Illegal drug is non-prescribed type of drug taken for non-medicinal reasons that affects physical and mental health of addicts. According to National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 19.9 million Americans use illegal drugs in a month. There were more than 208 million people consuming illegal drugs worldwide. Change in life style attracts younger people to consume illicit drugs, which is a major driver for this market. There are 253,000 death occurred due to consumption of illicit drugs out of which 1.3% are of the age between 15-35 years in US. Increase in variety of drug consumption ceases the flexibility of drug testing devices. Increase in drug variety creates complexities in identifying drug level in drug testing devices, this stands as a major restraints for the market.Governments are taking initiatives to help drug addicts. For example, US government has recently funded more than 60 inpatient and outpatient drug treatment centers across the country. The US government also opened a center in support with UNODCs to develop protocol for treating opiate addicted children. According to UN, there is a need for $250 billion every year to treat drug abuse victims. This shows the potential for drug abuse testing market. This report gives intelligence about the application of drug testing in various types of illicit drugs, competitive landscape of key companies involved in drug testing devices, and market estimation based on current and future growth.Get Sample PDF Brochure :Key players in drug abuse industry include Biomedical Diagnostics, BioMerieux, Abbott Laboratories, Bio-Rad, Dako, DiaSorin, Eiken and Fujirebio, Beckman Coulter.KEY BENEFITS The report provide strategic intelligence about key developmental plans adopted by top companies so that future market trends in drug abuse market is justified Market estimations derived in this report are based on primary and secondary data analysis that provides micro level intelligence of drug abuse market Key regulatory issues and reimbursement scenario is analyzed in this market to get intelligence about future market growth in drug abuse market Top investment pockets that generate more growth in terms of revenues are mentioned with info-graphic analysis Market analysis and intelligence of drug abuse market is performed according to end-users, equipments and geographic segmentsKEY MARKET SEGMENTSGLOBAL MARKET, BY END USERS Schools and educational institutes Hospitals and healthcare units Government and private departmentsGLOBAL MARKET, BY EQUIPMENTS Employment testing Random testing Reasonable testing Post accident testing Follow-up testingGLOBAL MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHY North America Europe Asia-pacific RoWKEY AUDIENCES Drug testing device manufacturing companies Tobacco and alcohol beverage manufacturing companies Government and private institutions Research based pharmaceutical companiesDo Purchase Enquiry at :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.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: New Study Report on Environmental Ceramic Tile Market, Estimated By Key Players like: SCG, Mohawk, Lamosa, RAK Ceramics, Rovese, Kajaria for the Forecast Period 2018-2025 Environmental Ceramic Tile https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/8416 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/8416 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/buy/environmental-ceramic-tile-market www.upmarketresearch.com UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Environmental Ceramic Tile Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 105 pages which highly exhibits on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Get a Free Sample of this Report@In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Environmental Ceramic Tile are: History Year: 2013 - 2017 Base Year: 2017 Estimated Year: 2018 Forecast Year: 2018 - 2025The report begins with the overview of the Environmental Ceramic Tile market and updates the users about the latest developments and future expectations. It presents a comparative detailed analysis of all the regional and major player segments, offering readers a better knowledge of areas in which they can place their existing resources and gauging the priority of a particular region in order to boost their standing in the global market.Environmental Ceramic Tile 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 Environmental Ceramic Tile global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2018 - 2025.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 Environmental Ceramic Tile market industry analysis & forecast 2018-2025 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.The major manufacturers covered in this report are: SCG Mohawk Lamosa RAK Ceramics Rovese Kajaria Concorde Interceramic Pamesa Casalgrande Padana Iris Ceramica Florim Portobello Cooperativa Ceramica d?Imola Panaria Keraben Guangdong Dongpeng Marco Polo Jinduo Nabel NewpearlFor any queries or more information, visit:Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, covering: United States Europe China Japan Other RegionsOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into: Porcelain Stoneware Tiles Fine Stoneware Tiles Stoneware Tiles Earthenware TilesBy Application, the market can be split into: Residential Buildings Commercial BuildingsThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Study Coverage Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Market Size by Manufacturers Chapter 4 Environmental Ceramic Tile Production by Regions Chapter 5 Environmental Ceramic Tile Consumption by Regions Chapter 6 Market Size by Type Chapter 7 Market Size by Application Chapter 8 Manufacturers Profiles Chapter 9 Production Forecasts Chapter 10 Consumption Forecast Chapter 11 Upstream, Industry Chain and Downstream Customers Analysis Chapter 12 Opportunities & Challenges, Threat and Affecting Factors Chapter 13 Key Findings Chapter 14 AppendixBuy this report @:Global Environmental Ceramic Tile Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 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 Environmental Ceramic Tile Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 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 Environmental Ceramic Tile market industry analysis and forecast 2018-2025.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.About UpMarketResearch: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 Global Helicopter Blades Market to Reach US$ 1,212.5 million in 2016 https://www.stratviewresearch.com/toc/108/helicopter-blades-market.html https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/108/helicopter-blades-market.html https://www.stratviewresearch.com/108/helicopter-blades-market.html Global Helicopter Blades Market by Helicopter Type (Civil, Military, and Civil/Military), by Engine Type (Turbine and Piston), by Blade Location Type (Main Rotor and Tail Rotor), by Design Type (Symmetrical and Under Cambered), by Material Type (Carbon Composites, Hybrid Composites, and Others), by Manufacturing Process (Sandwich Construction and Others), by End-User Type (OE and Aftermarket), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022This report, from Stratview Research, studies the global helicopter blades market over the period 2011 to 2022. The report provides detailed insights into the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market.Click here to read the detailed description and TOC:The Global Helicopter Blades Market: HighlightsThe global helicopter blades market was valued at US$ 1,212.5 million in 2016 and is projected to grow at a healthy CAGR of 4.5% over the next five years to reach US$ 1,568.4 million in 2022. Increasing deliveries of helicopters, advancement in the blade technology such as electric tail rotor systems, continuous shift from heavy metal blades to lightweight composite blades, and rising helicopter fleet size are some of the major growth drivers of the global helicopter blades market.Helicopter Blades Market Research ReportThe global helicopter blades market is segmented based on helicopter type as civil and parapublic, military, and civil/military. Military and civil/military segments currently dominate the helicopter blades market, driven by high deliveries of helicopters and large fleet size. H125, H135, and H145 of Airbus Helicopters, Black Hawk of Sikorsky, A-64 Apache of Boeing, and AW139 of Agusta Westland are amongst the key helicopter models which are driving the demand for blades in these segments. Civil and parapublic segment is projected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period, driven by increasing demand for light single-engine and intermediate & medium twin-engine civil helicopters.Based on the material type, composites is likely to remain the largest and fastest-growing material type during the forecast period. The materials' potential in structural applications has been recognized since long by the Helicopter manufacturers. Military helicopters use composites ranging from 50% to 80% of the total airframe weight. The usage of composites varies significantly in civil helicopters. Some civil helicopter manufacturers are using composites extensively, whereas some are using them mainly in the non-structural applications. Blades are also not untouched with such dynamics and major helicopter manufacturers are increasingly adopting composite blades in their upcoming models. At the same time, there is also an increasing demand for composite blades in the aftermarket.Based on blade location type, main rotor blade is projected to remain the largest type during the forecast period. Both main rotor and tail rotor blades are likely to witness similar growth over the next five years. There is an increasing penetration of composite materials in both the blade types.Request Sample here:Europe is projected to remain the largest and fastest-growing market for helicopter blades market during the forecast period. The region is the manufacturing capital of the helicopter industry with the presence of Airbus Helicopters, Agusta Westland, and Russian Helicopters. All the major helicopter manufacturers are producing blades in Europe only.The supply chain of this market comprises raw material manufacturers, helicopter rotor and tail blade manufacturers, helicopter OEMs, MRO, and end users, such as oil & gas companies and military division of countries. The raw material manufacturers are Rio Tinto Group, Toray Industries, AGY Holdings, Owens Corning, Hexcel Corporation, and Evonik Industries. The key helicopter OEMs are Airbus Helicopters (formerly Eurocopter Group), Bell Helicopter, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, Robinson Helicopter Company, Boeing, AgustaWestland S.p.A (now Leonardo)., and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.There are independent rotor and tail blade manufacturers as well as OEMs with in-house blade manufacturing capability. Most of the OEMs are currently having captive manufacturing of both rotor and tail blades. They do not sell rotor and tail blades to other OEMs. The key helicopter blade manufacturers are Bell Helicopter, Boeing Helicopter, Carson Helicopters, Airbus Helicopters, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Kaman Aerosystems, Robinson Helicopter Company, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, and Van Horn Aviation. New product development, collaboration with OEMs, and long-term contacts are the key strategies adopted by the key players to gain a competitive edge in the market.Report FeaturesThis report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights into the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report:Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysisMarket environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porters five forces analysis, SWOT analysisMarket trend and forecast analysisMarket segment trend and forecastCompetitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc.Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunitiesEmerging trendsStrategic growth opportunities for the existing and new playersKey success factorsThe global helicopter blades market is segmented into the following categories.Global Helicopter Blades Market by Helicopter Type: Civil Helicopter (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Military Helicopter (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Both (Civil / Military Helicopter) (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)Global Helicopter Blades Market by Engine Type: Turbine (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Piston (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)Global Helicopter Blades Market by Blade Location Type: Main Rotor Blade (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Tail Rotor Blade (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)Global Helicopter Blades Market by Design Type: Symmetrical Helicopter Blade (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Under Cambered Helicopter Blade (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)Global Helicopter Blades Market by Material Type Carbon Composites (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Hybrid Composites (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Other Materials (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)Global Helicopter Blades Market by Manufacturing Process Sandwich Construction Process (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Other Processes (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)Global Helicopter Blades Market by End-User Type OE (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW) Aftermarket (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)Global Helicopter Blades Market by Region North America (Country Analysis: the USA, Canada, and Mexico) Europe (Country Analysis: Germany, France, Italy, Russia, and Rest of Europe) Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China, India, and Rest of Asia-Pacific) Rest of the World (Country Analysis: Middle East, Latin America, and Others)About Stratview ResearchStratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies.Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making.Category : Aerospace & DefenseStratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.Stratview ResearchCrystal Tower, Raipur - 492001Phone No. +1-313-307-4176Email :- sales@stratviewresearch.com Endoscope Detergents And Disinfectants Market to Register Steady Expansion During 2017 - 2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4051 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4051 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Endoscope detergents and disinfectants are chemicals used for disinfection of various medical devices like endoscopes. Endoscopes are contaminated with high microbial load (bio burden) during each use. For instance, the bio burden usually present on gastrointestinal endoscopes after procedure has increased from 105 to 1010CFU/ml, with the highest microbial load present in the suction channels of the device. Detergents and disinfectants can kill almost all types of vegetative non-spore forming bacteria, fungi, viruses and mycobacteria (TB). Detergents and disinfectants take lesser time to make the endoscope contamination free but cannot kill all types of bacteria completely as compared to the sterilization procedure. Detergents and disinfectants are used before every procedure to make the device significantly contamination free but if a biofilm is developed inside the narrow areas of endoscope, disinfectants cannot remove it. A disinfectant-detergent solution is usually a concentrate and needs to be diluted in the range of 1:16 to 1:32 or as labelled. Some of the examples of these solutions are alkaline glutaraldehyde solutions, peracetic acid solutions and glutaraldehyde solutions with isopropanol. Ideally, an endoscope detergent and disinfectant should be effective against a wide range of microorganisms, compatible with the device and accessories, non-irritant and environment friendly.Request For Report Sample@Endoscope Detergents and Disinfectants Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe key contributor to the growth of global endoscope detergents and disinfectants market is increasing caseload of indications requiring surgical procedures, which further necessitates the use of endoscope. Increasing use of flexible endoscopes will also boost the market. Post-surgical adverse events and deaths associated to infected endoscopes have drastically impacted the market growth. For instance, endoscopes of Olympus Medical have been recalled on a large scale due to such events and the company had to pay for the legal settlements with patients. Adequate cleaning, disinfection and/or sterilization of endoscopes has been a challenge for hospital/clinical facilities despite the availability of recommended guidelines, which may impede the market growth. Moreover, the healthcare policies such as Medicaid and Medicare has kept the costs associated with Healthcare-associated Infections (HAIs), including SSIs out of coverage, thus patients have to pay out of pocket, a major factor restricting the growth of the market.Endoscope Detergents and Disinfectants Market: SegmentationGlobal Endoscope Detergents and Disinfectants Market has been segmented on the basis of chemical properties, application, end user and region.Based on chemical properties, the global endoscope detergents and disinfectants Market is segmented into:AcidicNeutralAlkalineEnzymaticBased on the potency, the global endoscope detergents and disinfectants Market is segmented into:Low-Level DisinfectantsMedium-Level DisinfectantsHigh-Level DisinfectantsBased on the end user, the global endoscope detergents and disinfectants Market is segmented into:HospitalsDiagnostic CentersClinicsEndoscope Detergents and Disinfectants Market: OverviewGlobal Endoscope Detergents and Disinfectants market is highly fragmented with the presence of multiple players. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 10,000,000 gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures are performed annually in the United States. Also, 274,098 Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) are reported annually in the USA, 2% cases require surgery to treat the patients costing around USD 60,000 per patient. Europe witnesses over 12,000,000 endoscopic gastrointestinal procedures annually. Endoscopic procedures have become necessity of the daily routine in hospitals, but their cleaning, disinfection and reprocessing remains a challenge.Endoscope Detergents and Disinfectants Market: Region-wise OutlookGeographically, Endoscope Detergents and Disinfectants Market is segmented into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America is currently dominating the market capturing the lions share followed by Europe. Demand of safe and effective surgical procedures have been rising in the USA over last few years with over 15 million endoscopy procedures performed annually. Asia will also witness the rapid growth in the market due to increasing use of endoscopes.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Endoscope Detergents and Disinfectants Market: Key PlayersThe key players in the global Endoscope Detergents and Disinfectants Market include MEDIVATORS Inc., STERIS plc., Borer Chemie AG, Cantel Medical, Getinge AB, Olympus Corporation, Vesimin Health, MDD Company GmbH, Georg Pauldrach, SIRMAXO CHEMICALS PVT.LTD and Serim Research Corporation.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customized and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.U.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: Nano Copper Oxide Market : Influential market vendors | American Elements, Inframat Corporation, Hongwu International Group Ltd, NaBond Technologies Co., Limited, Nanoshel LLC, https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1613 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1613 https://www.tmrresearch.com/nano-copper-oxide-market.html Nano copper oxide is brownish black or reddish colored nanoparticle that is available in variety of forms depending on its applications. It is usually sold in dispersed or powdered form in the global market. It has numerous unique chemical and physical properties such as photovoltaic properties, superconductivity, low cost, antimicrobial activity, and is relatively stable. The global nano copper oxide market finds its applications in paints and coatings, electronics and electricals, energy storage among others. These copper oxide nanomaterials are manufactured for certain end uses and are nearly 100 times finer compared to the copper oxide material with diverse physical features.Request Brochure of the Report @Rise in investments in research and development, growing penetration of copper oxide nanomaterials in multiple end-user sectors, and outstanding physio-chemical features of the nano copper oxides are the chief driving factors for the market growth. These nano copper oxide materials are generally added in modest quantities for the performance enhancement of the end product. However, some factors such as its high toxicity to aquatic life and human lungs may impede the overall market development. Presently, catalysts and electrical and electronics are the prominent end-user market segments for nano copper oxides. The overall demand for nano copper oxide materials is expected to witness a considerable growth in the coming years because of its unique properties and lucrative market opportunities created for all the key players in the global market.Global Nano Copper Oxide Market: OverviewNano copper oxide is referred to as a brownish-black or reddish nanoparticle, which is available in variety of forms according to the applications it serves. Nano copper oxide is basically a sold in powder or generally in discrete form in the market. It has various unique chemical and physical characteristics such as antimicrobial activity, low cost, relatively stable, photovoltaic properties, and superconductivity. They display very interesting electrical, mechanical, catalytic, and optical properties. They further possess photoconductive and photovoltaic properties as their crystal arrangements have a thin band gap. They are used in heat transfer fluids, microelectronics, solar energy converters, batteries, gas sensors, and semiconductor devices. Nano copper oxides are produced for specific end use and are almost 100 times finer in quality than copper oxide with absolutely different physical properties.The report examines the growth of the global nano copper oxide market that occurred in the last over the last few years and is likely to occur in the coming years. The research publication additionally explains the causes of the fluctuations in the global market. It does this by assessing of the facets and the different trends that have been prevalent from past few years and also the aspects that are anticipated to maintain a strong impact on the market over the coming years. The Porters five forces analysis has been considered by analysts to present a clear picture of the vendor landscape to readers. Agreements, mergers, acquisitions, and other dealings have been further mentioned in the study. It focuses on the strategies, products, and market share along with position of the companies operating in the market.Request TOC of the report @Global Nano Copper Oxide Market: Trends and ProspectsThe global market for nano copper oxide is expected to witness stable growth over the coming years owing to growing investments for research and development in the field of nano technology. Rising penetration of nano copper oxide in several end-sue industries and its high physio-chemical properties are further expected to trigger the growth of the global nano copper oxide market over the forecast period. These oxides are basically added in small amount in order to improve the end products performance. However, it has high toxic levels that has negative impacts on aquatic life and human health. As a result of this, the market for nano copper oxide might face hindrances in terms of growth. The mounting demand for the energy storage segment closely followed by paints and coatings, catalysts, and electronics and electrical is expected to drive the growth of the market over the coming years. Players operating in the market are likely to be presented with significant opportunities owing to investments which are being made for innovations in this field.Global Nano Copper Oxide Market: Regional OutlookRegion-wise, Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness strong growth in the near future owing to rising demand for nano copper oxide from end-use industries in the region. Several new players are trying to venture in the market, mainly in India, China, and ASEAN. Robust industrialization coupled with growing disposable income of consumers is expected to drive the growth of various end-user industries, thus benefitting the nano copper oxide market in the region in return.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Nano Copper Oxide Market: Vendor LandscapeCompanies such as American Elements, Inframat Corporation, Hongwu International Group Ltd, NaBond Technologies Co., Limited, Nanoshel LLC, and US Research Nanomaterials, Inc., among others are striving to gain an established position in the market.About Us:TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Contact Us:Rohit BhiseyHead Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Base Oil Market is segmented based on product, applications, & geography Base Oil Market https://www.progressivemarkets.com/industry-research/base-oil-market https://www.progressivemarkets.com/request-sample/base-oil-market The report " Base Oil Market Application Industry Growth, Trends, Analysis, Segmentation, Demand, Opportunities, Outlook, Price and Strategy, Base Oil Market Research Report.According to a latest report published by Progressive Markets in materials and chemicals sector, titled, Global Base Oil Market- Size, Trend, Share, Opportunity Analysis, and Forecast, 2014-2025, the base oil industry is anticipated to register a CAGR of 2.1% during the period, 2017-2025. The study offers various benefits to manufacturers, stakeholders, and new entrants to identify and seize opportunities abound in the market.Access Full Summary:The study introduces the global base oil market in respect to report description, research methodology, scope, and definition. The executive summary incorporated in it has various parameters, such as key findings, market attractiveness, trend analysis, competitive analysis, and recent developments in the industry. This study outlines the market landscape on drivers and restraints of the base oil market. Moreover, the report also analyses the impact of these scenarios on the market. Key market professionals evaluate the competitive hierarchy of the industry with the help of Porters Five Forces Analysis (PFFA). In this method, they appraise the bargaining power of the customers as well as buyers. Furthermore, they assess other factors, such as threat of substitutes, rivalry among key market players, and threat of new entrants for the base oil industry.The study examines industry share of the global base oil market during the period, 2014-2025. It classifies the market into products, applications, and geography. In addition, it assesses industry share of various regions, product types, and application for the aforementioned period. Based on product, the market is divided into Group I, Group II, and Group III. Based on applications, the market is segmented into automotive oils, process oils, industrial oils, metalworking fluids, hydraulic oils, and others. Based on geography, this study bifurcates the market into North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Latin America Middle East & Africa (LAMEA). These areas are further categorized into countries, such as U.S., Canada, and Mexico for the North American region. The LAMEA countries included are Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Rest of LAMEA. The countries discussed in Europe region are U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Rest of Europe. The Asia-Pacific countries explored in the report include China, Japan, India, Australia, South Korea, and Rest of Asia-Pacific. The research evaluates market size of all the addressed regions for the historic period and forecast period, 2014-2016 and 2017-2025, respectively.Download Exclusive Summary @The report examines industry size for all product types and applications of the global base oil industry during the historic, as well as forecast period. It includes key market players of the industry, such as Exxon Mobil Corporation, Total S.A., BP PLC, Motul Ltd., Chevron Corporation, Bahrain Lube Base Oil Company, Saudi Aramco, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., LukOil PJSC, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. Industry experts explore the factors which determine the significance of suppliers and manufacturers. These factors include recent developments by each firm, financial & business segments, and overview of each company. The report describes the attributes which facilitates the growth of the industry; such as, rise in the automotive industry leading to increase in demand for finished lubricants. Moreover, another factor which boosts the demand of base oils is the strict emission standards, which results in improved formulation methods for lubricants.The study also considers the factors which hinder the development of the global base oil market, such as slow changes by refiners to sour and heavy crude oil. Additionally, fluctuations in price of crude oil is expected to negatively impact the cost of the base oils. The report is beneficial for key market players, investors, and new entrepreneurs owing to several takeaways it offers, which includes comprehensive evaluation of factors that have the potential to restrict or drive the industry. Further, they assess the opportunities that are present in regional distributions. An in-depth assessment of developments in the market aids manufacturers and new entrepreneurs to understand the industry outlook. The study thoroughly follows the status of the product variants and also provides an extensive examination of top manufacturers in the market framework.The abovementioned features of the global base oil market are illustrated through tables and figures. For instance, some tables give brief description of vendors under the title of company snapshot. The market share of products, applications, and regions are shown through illustrative tables. Additionally, the market value for each geography, product type, and application of the industry is explained with the help of tables during the period, 2014-2025. The same parameters are similarly represented through figures for better representation. For instance, the revenue generated by every market landscape of the market is illustrated through figures for the historic as well as forecast period.The company makes use of primary corporate research and secondary inputs from trusted sources to build its own reference base. It maintains consistency in quality as it keeps itself updated with changes in market dynamics and gauging its net effect on global business trends.Reach UsMr. Shriram Dighe4th Floor, Unit 12, Marisoft III,West Wing, Marigold IT Park,Kalyani Nagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411014,India: +91 20 66346040Toll Free: + 1-888-906-9222help@progressivemarkets.com India Perimeter Intrusion Detection and Prevention Market 2018-2023 | Global Industry Key Leaders: FLIR Systems Inc., Tyco International Plc., Honeywell International Inc., Schneider Electric SE, Optex Co.Ltd https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5987 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/5987 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/india-perimeter-intrusion-detection-prevention-market-5987 India Perimeter Intrusion Detection & Prevention Market Research Report, by Component (Hardware, Software, Services), usage place (open area, buried, fence mounted), type (host-based, wired), deployment (on-cloud, on-premise), vertical (aerospace) - Forecast till 2023SynopsisPerimeter Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS) are basically used to safeguard the infrastructure and assets using advanced distributed sensing technology. It is used in an external environment to detect the presence of an intruder attempting to breach a perimeter. With the advent of digitalization in India, the perimeter intrusion detection and prevention systems market has witnessed significant changes. Increasing awareness regarding the residential safety and security offers various benefits like detection of intruders crossing the restricted arena. Increasing threat of cyber-attacks are some of the major driving factors for the India perimeter intrusion detection and prevention systems market.India perimeter intrusion detection & prevention systems market is expected to grow at 10.58% CAGR during the forecast period, 2018-2023. There has been a significant increase in the terrorist activities in various regions of the country which has led to the higher deployment of perimeter intrusion detection & prevention systems. Thus, the Open Area perimeter intrusion detection & prevention systems in the region have become lucrative for the various manufacturing firms that provide perimeter intrusion detection & prevention system services. The rise in stringent government regulations in the perimeter intrusion detection systems increase the efficiency of the products from perimeter security to video surveillance.Get Sample Report @Key playersThe key players in the area of India Perimeter Intrusion Detection & Prevention Market are Magal Security Systems Ltd. (Israel), FLIR Systems Inc. (U.S.), Tyco International Plc. (Ireland), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Schneider Electric SE (France), Optex Co.Ltd (Japan), Athena Security Solutions India Pvt Ltd. (India), RBtec Perimeter Security Systems (U.S.), Advanced Perimeter Systems Limited (U.K), Southwest Microwave (U.S.), Avon Building Solutions Pvt Ltd (India).Key FindingsThe India Perimeter Intrusion Detection & Prevention market is expected to reach USD 339.3 million by 2023 with CAGR of 10.6%.By component, the market was dominated by hardware in 2018. The software component is expected to show the highest growth rate.By usage place, the market was dominated by fence mounted systems in 2018 and is expected to show the highest CAGR.By type, the market was dominated by wired network based in 2018. The host-based network is expected to show the highest CAGR.By deployment, the market was dominated by on-premise in 2018. On-cloud based deployment is expected to show the highest CAGR.By vertical, the market was dominated by military & defense in 2018 and is expected to show the highest CAGRGeographically, North India was dominating the market in 2018 and is expected to show the highest growth rateSegmentationThe India Perimeter Intrusion Detection & Prevention market is classified into component, usage place, type, deployment, vertical, and region.On the basis of component, the market is further classified into hardware, software and services.On the basis of usage place, the market is further classified into open place, buried and fence mounted systems.On the basis of type the market is further classified into host-based, wired network and wireless network.On the basis of deployment, the market is further classified into on-cloud and on-premise.On the basis of vertical, the market is further segmented into aerospace, government, transportation, industrial, commercial, military & defense, and many others.The India Perimeter Intrusion Detection & Prevention market is studied for North, South, East and West India.Check Discount @Regional AnalysisThe India Perimeter Intrusion Detection & Prevention market is studied for North India, East India, West India and rest of the world. North India holds the major market share for the year 2018 and is expected to continue through the forecast period. The presence of major key players in the region, rise in technological advancements and heavy investments in research and development are driving the market in this region.The growing technological advancements in public and private infrastructure has propelled the demand for connected safety and solutions. Perimeter intrusion and detection systems offer various benefits like detecting the perimeter intrusions in time for assessment and action, enhance protection at night, and real-time monitoring of the property among others. This majorly helps in providing security and safety solutions to the consumers and in turns creates awareness regarding the same.Intended Audience Government Organizations Software Application Vendors Hardware Vendors Technology Investors System Integrators Security Systems Suppliers Consulting Companies End-use IndustriesLIST OF TABLESTABLE 1 MARKET SYNOPSIS 13TABLE 2 LIST OF ASSUMPTIONS 16TABLE 3 INDIA PERIMETER INTRUSION DETECTION & PREVENTION SYSTEMS MARKET, BY COMPONENT, 2016-2023 (USD MILLION) 35TABLE 4 INDIA PERIMETER INTRUSION DETECTION & PREVENTION SYSTEMS MARKET, BY HARDWARE, 2016-2023 (USD MILLION) 36TABLE 5 INDIA PERIMETER INTRUSION DETECTION & PREVENTION SYSTEMS MARKET, BY SENSORS, 2016-2023 (USD MILLION) 37ContinuedGet Report Details @LIST OF FIGURESFIGURE 1 INDIA PERIMETER INTRUSION DETECTION & PREVENTION SYSTEMS MARKET: MARKET STRUCTURE 16FIGURE 2 INDIA PERIMETER INTRUSION DETECTION & PREVENTION SYSTEMS MARKET SIZE & MARKET SHARE, BY REGION (2018 VS 2023) 18FIGURE 3 RESEARCH PROCESS OF MRFR 20FIGURE 4 TOP DOWN & BOTTOM UP APPROACH 23FIGURE 5 DROC ANALYSIS OF INDIA PERIMETER INTRUSION DETECTION & PREVENTION SYSTEMS MARKET 25Continued.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst membersContact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com | BY Ricki Green | By Udara Withana, Head of Strategy, Dentsu Singapore and Jatinder Sandhu, Creative Director, Dentsu Singapore. Dentsu Singapores creative director, Jatinder Sandhu, and head of strategy, Udara Withana took to the stage on day one at Spikes Asia 2018 to deliver four steps to creating purposeful content and why it matters. Most brands are guilty of feeding the content monster. As brands grow, there are different needs for content. Right from impressing investors to showcasing employees and creating content for various other occasions. Which is why we see a lot of wastage in this space. Purposeful Content framework is a move to optimize the use of content across the customer journey. It is about creating content across the consumer purchase journey to drive conversion using design thinking principles. Once youve done your content blueprint, there are four key elements to bringing this framework to life. Hard-sell vs building a brand tribe It is important to look beyond the facade of your audience and truly understand the key motivations and aspirations of them. Canon had a problem that people were using their phone cameras instead of purchasing new ones. Handheld cameras were becoming a little obsolete. The insight we worked with was that people follow their passions and not products. The big idea we developed was that we worked on smaller target groups and had personal communication. Isolation vs collaboration Brands can share certain brand properties by collaboration. We had to work on a campaign for Land Transport Authority of Singapore. If a train is late by a minute, people take to social media to complain. The big idea was a message by real people for the people of Singapore. Descriptive vs entertaining We always remember things that entertain us. That holds true for digital ads also. For Subway, We had to sell real Aussie beef in the land of chicken-rice. Sandhu explained how the agency went ahead with the communication. Singaporeans love for authentic flavours wasnt associated with Subway. We had to dramatise the effect of real Aussie Beef. Announcing vs telling a story The fourth point the duo put forward was about the importance of telling a story. Withana said, Clients often say that they want to announce a product to the world. But, we need to tell a story instead. Water-borne Epoxy Resins Market Global Leaders 2018-2023 Hexion , Allnex GmbH, Huntsman Corporation , Nan Ya Plastics Corporation , KUKDO CHEMICAL CO, LTD Bifold Doors industry research, Bifold Doors Market Size, Bifold Doors Market Share, Bifold Doors Market Regional Analysis, Bifold https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5334 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/water-borne-epoxy-resins-market-5334 Global Water-borne Epoxy Resins market research report: information by type (high molecular weight, low molecular weight), by application (coatings, adhesives, composites) by end-use (construction, textiles, automotive) Forecast till 2023Synopsis of Water-borne Epoxy Resins Market:Water-borne epoxy resins are substances composed of individual molecules that has the ability to dissolve in water. They are used in end-use industries for their non-reactive nature and ease of application. Moreover, its ease of separation, higher selectivity, durability, and superior performance are the important trends and factors influencing the market confidently. Therefore, they are used in various applications such as coatings, adhesives, composites, and others.Water-borne Epoxy Resins Regional Analysis:The water-borne epoxy resins market is segmented across five regions: Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Among these, Asia Pacific holds a major share of the market due to the growing demand for water-borne epoxy resins in coatings, adhesives, composites, and others. The coatings segment holds a major portion and is anticipated to continue its dominance in the market due to increasing consumption of products and this has led to a surge in demand for water-based coatings in end-use industries. Therefore, countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, and India are the major players in this market.Receive a Sample Copy @Water-borne Epoxy Resins Top Key Players:Some of the prominent players operating in the global water-borne epoxy resins market are Hexion (U.S.), Allnex GmbH (Germany), Huntsman Corporation (U.S.), Nan Ya Plastics Corporation (Taiwan), KUKDO CHEMICAL CO, LTD (South Korea), ADEKA CORPORATION (Japan), Evonik Industries AG (Germany), Aditya Birla Chemicals (Thailand), Ltd.(Thailand), Olin Corporation (Germany), and Reichhold LLC (U.S), among others.The North American region is growing significantly due to the growing demand for epoxy coatings in paints & coatings, automotive, construction, and other industries. It is predicted that growing investments in the end-use industries is likely to drive the market during the forecast period. The growing consumption of epoxy resins in end-use applications has propelled the growth in countries such as the U.S, Canada, and Mexico to achieve a stunning growth in the market because they provide unique separation, recycling ability, and high standard performance to the product.The European market has observed a steady growth in the last couple of years. It is projected that due to stringent rules and regulations implemented by the regional governments to follow water-based products in end-use industries, the market is set to grow at a higher rate during the forecast period. It is driven by the application of this rule in polymer, chemical, oil & gas industries, and others. Moreover, it is estimated that the growing innovation and technological advancement of product, and other products is predicted to propel the growth in the countries such as the U.K, Italy, Germany, and France during the forecast period.The Middle East & Africa region is estimated to witness a significant growth in the market due to the growing adoption of product in construction, paints & coatings, and others. Moreover, Latin America is anticipated to witness a higher growth in the market due to increasing demand for eco-friendly products in the end-use industries.Geographical Analysis:The report covers brief analysis of the major geographic regions namely Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.Intended Audience:Water-borne epoxy resins market manufacturersTraders and Distributors of Water-borne epoxy resins marketProduction Process IndustriesPotential InvestorsRaw Material SuppliersNationalized LaboratoryComplete Report Details @TABLE OF CONTENTS1 Executive Summary2 Scope Of The Report2.1 Market Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objectives2.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations2.3 Markets Structure3 Market Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Secondary Research3.3 Primary Research3.4 Forecast Model4 Market Landscape4.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis4.1.1 Threat Of New Entrants4.1.2 Bargaining Power Of Buyers4.1.3 Threat Of Substitutes4.1.4 Segment Rivalry4.2 Value Chain/Supply Chain Of Global Waterborne Epoxy Resins Market5 Industry Overview Of Global Waterborne Epoxy Resins MarketAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Market Booming in UK, US and Other Regions 2018 Research Analysis By Key Players Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Unilever, Mothercare Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Market https://www.upmarketresearch.com/buy/baby-shampoo-and-conditioner-market www.upmarketresearch.com UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 111 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Get FREE Sample Report Before Buying @ https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/8461Shampoo & Conditioner is designed to detangle knots and gently cleanse toddler hair in just one simple step. Its specially designed to keep your childs hair less tangled*, leaving it soft, easy to comb, looking beautifully shiny and feeling healthy.EMEA was the dominant region during 2014 with a market share of around 36% in the global baby shampoo and conditioner market. The report predicts this region to lose its market share to APAC by the end of 2019. European countries are experiencing market saturation due to the high penetration by the existing vendors in the market. The declining birth rates and an increase in the number of single-child households is also expected to deter the market growth in this region.Baby Shampoo and Conditioner 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 the Baby Shampoo and Conditioner 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 for Baby Shampoo and Conditioner market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region-wise Analysis Global Baby Shampoo and Conditioner 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 & Johnson L'Oreal Unilever Burt's Bees California Baby Chicco Earth Mama Baby Angel Himalaya Wellness Mothercare Pigeon PZ Cussons WeledaFor More Information, Please Visit https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/8461Global Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Market: Product Segment Analysis: Medicated Non-MedicatedGlobal Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Market: Application Segment Analysis: Online Retail Offline RetailThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Industry Overview of Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Chapter 2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Chapter 3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Chapter 4 Global Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Overall Market Overview Chapter 5 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Regional Market Analysis Chapter 6 Global 2013-2018E Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Segment Market Analysis (by Type) Chapter 7 Global 2013-2018E Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Chapter 8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Chapter 9 Development Trend of Analysis of Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Market Chapter 10 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Marketing Type Analysis Chapter 11 Consumers Analysis of Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Chapter 12 Conclusion of the Global Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Market Professional Survey Report2017Buy Baby Shampoo and Conditioner Market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 Report along with complete TOC @Baby Shampoo and Conditioner 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 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner 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 for Baby Shampoo and Conditioner 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: Baby Shampoo and Conditioner-Global Market Status & Trend Report 2013-2023 Top 20 Countries Data Baby Shampoo and Conditioner-North America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner-South America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner-Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner-EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner-Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner-China Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner-India Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Baby Shampoo and Conditioner-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. Global Magneto Resistive RAM (MRAM) Market: Key Insights and Booming Factor Supporting Growth till 2024 || Key Players - Everspin Technologies Inc., Avalanche Technologies, and Spin Transfer Technologies MRRSe https://www.mrrse.com/sample/2370 https://www.mrrse.com/magneto-resistive-ram-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/2370 https://www.mrrse.com/ Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has recently updated its massive report catalog by adding a fresh study titled Global Magneto Resistive RAM Market: Key Insights and Booming Factor Supporting Growth till 2024. This business intelligence study encapsulates vital details about the market current as well as future status during the mentioned forecast period of 2024. The report also targets important facets such as market drivers, challenges, latest trends, and opportunities associated with a growth of manufacturers in the global market for Magneto Resistive RAM. Along with these insights, the report provides the readers with crucial insights on the strategies implemented by leading companies to remain in the lead of this competitive market.MRAM or Magneto-resistive random-access memory technology has been under development since the 1990s. MRAM is a non-volatile random access memory technology that utilizes magnetic charges for storing data instead of electric charges as in the case of DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and SRAM (static random access memory) technologies. Unlike DRAM and SRAM technologies, that requires a constant flow of electricity to maintain data integrity, MRAM retains data even if power is turned off and requires very less amount of electricity in order to store data bits in it.To Get Sample Copy of Report, Click here @MRAM, by combining the inherent advantages of both DRAM in terms of density and SRAM in term of reading and write speed has the potential of becoming a universal memory in the coming years. The global MRAM market is predicted to have tremendous growth opportunity in the coming years as a nonvolatile solid-state memory in order to replace other electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and flash memory where high write endurance is required.The surge in the demand for flexible and wearable electronics market is the primary factor predicted to boost the demand for MRAM during the forecast period from 2018 to 2024. Currently, rapid technological advancements are taking place in the field to flexible and wearable consumer electronics. Flexible magnetic memories form an integral part of the flexible and wearable consumer electronic devices for storing and processing data.Moreover, the major challenge of fabricating high performing memory chips on soft flexible substrates without reducing the performance is also eliminated by technologically advanced MRAM technology. MRAM outperforms the traditional NAND memory used in wearable and flexible electronics in terms of data retention capacity after power cut off, low power consumption along with increased processing speed. In addition, MRAM has the capability of operating in extreme temperature condition and can resist very high radiation. Thus, MRAM is also predicted to witness huge demand from various aerospace and military applications in the coming years.For the purpose of providing a detailed study of the market, the global MRAM market has been segmented on the basis of product type, application and geography. MRAM is available in two different product types including toggle MRAM and second generation MRAM (STT-MRAM). In order to track the market accurately, the third generation MRAM that is predicted to get commercialized by the beginning of 2019, has also been considered within the scope of research. MRAM also finds its application across different product segments such as consumer electronics, robotics, automotive, enterprise storage, aerospace and defense and others. The others segment includes application of MRAM in sensing devices, medical devices and smart meters.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Geographically, the market has been segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Middle-East and Africa (MEA). In terms of revenue and growth, the Asia Pacific region is anticipated to drive the market of MRAM in the coming years due to rapid growth in computationally intensive applications and rising demand for highly scalable memory solutions. Global MRAM market report provides an in-depth study of the current market trend and future forecast during the period from 2018 to 2024 in terms of revenue (USD Million).This report also provides an exhaustive study of the global MRAM market including the key strategies adopted by leading players, market attractiveness analysis by product type, value chain analysis, industry evolution and comparative advantage of MRAM over other memory solutions.Moreover, the penetration rate of MRAM across various industry verticals during the period from 2014 to 2018 is also highlighted in this report. In addition, a detailed analysis of the drivers, restraints and opportunities that are predicted to affect the market in the coming years is provided in this report. Some of the major players operating in the global MRAM market includes Everspin Technologies Inc. (U.S), Avalanche Technologies (U.S) and Spin Transfer Technologies (U.S) among others.Global MRAM market is segmented into:-By Product TypeToggle MRAMSecond Generation MRAM (STT-MRAM)By ApplicationConsumer ElectronicsRoboticsAutomotiveEnterprise storageAerospace and DefenseOthersBy GeographyNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle-East and Africa (MEA)Latin AmericaEnquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite: Male Hypogonadism Market Assessment on Product Development 2025 | Merck & Co. Inc., SA, Finox Biotech https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1127 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1127 https://www.tmrresearch.com/male-hypogonadism-market Global Male Hypogonadism Market: SnapshotHypogonadism in males refers to a condition in the male body where the testes show a significantly reduced level of functioning than normal. The overall result of male hypogonadism is a reduction in the rate of biosynthesis of male sex hormones. This state is more commonly known as interrupted stage 1 puberty. Hypoandrogenism, or the low androgen or testosterone level in a male can vary in severity from person to person. It is often the cause of partial or complete infertility. There are multiple forms of male hypogonadism and even more ways to classify them. Most endocrinologists commonly classify male hypogonadism on the basis of the level of defectiveness of the male reproductive system.Request Sample Copy of the Report @In many cases, doctors also measure the level of gonadotropins to classify a patient between primary and secondary male hypogonadism. Primary male hypogonadism refers to the cause of the condition being due to defective gonads. There are different types of primary male hypogonadism, including Turner syndrome and Klinefelter syndrome. Secondary male hypogonadism is caused by defects in pituitary or hypothalamic glands. They include Kallmann syndrome and hypopituitarism.Global Male Hypogonadism Market: OverviewMale Hypogonadism refers to a clinical condition, wherein the testes fail to produce enough testosterone leading to delayed puberty or incomplete development. The condition is related to impaired development of muscle mass, development of breast tissues, impaired body hair growth, and lack of deepening of the voice.The male Hypogonadism market can be segmented by therapy, type, drug delivery, and geography.The report presents an in-depth analysis of the global male hypogonadism market with current trends and future estimates to explain the imminent investment pockets. The quantitative analysis of the market for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025 will enable stakeholders to capitalize on the prevailing growth opportunities.Request TOC of the Report @Global Male Hypogonadism Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe top driver of the male hypogonadism market includes rising prevalence of testosterone deficiency among men, increasing infertility rates, and increasing awareness among individuals about hypogonadism treatment due to awareness drives organized by several governments across the world. Moreover, high risk of hypogonadism among the geriatric population with obesity and diabetes, and increasing prevalence of chronic disorders among the geriatrics are further expected to boost the markets growth.However, factors such as high side effects of testosterone products are challenging the growth of testosterone replacement therapy market. Top players in the market are focused on research and development to introduce newer products with fewer or negligible side effects and improved results. For example, LPCN 1111, a product which is under development from Lipocine Inc., is a newer testosterone prodrug that utilizes Lipral technology for enhanced systemic absorption and for enhanced solubility of testosterone. Nevertheless, technological advancements are anticipated to extend new opportunities to the markets growth.Global Male Hypogonadism Market: Regional OverviewThe global male Hypogonadism market can be analyzed with respect to the regional segments of North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America held the majority share of the global market in the recent past and is expected to retain its dominant position in the near future. This is mainly due to the rise in the number of individuals suffering from primary and secondary conditions of hypogonadism, and rising awareness among individuals about treatment options for the condition. Moreover, the presence of ultra-modern healthcare infrastructure and increasing popularity of technologically advanced products are expected to offer new opportunities for top players in this market. The region is closely followed by Europe.Asia Pacific is expected to offer lucrative opportunities to this market due to the modernization of the healthcare infrastructure in the emerging economies of India and China and the increasing awareness about the treatment for the condition. In Asia Pacific, the increasing prevalence of hypogonadism and infertility rates along with the rising geriatric population base with diabetes and obesity are propelling the growth of this market. China, Taiwan, and Malaysia are some of the countries that display the highest rate of male hypogonadism.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Major Companies Mentioned in ReportSome of the key players in the male Hypogonadism market include AbbVie Inc., Astrazeneca plc, Eli Lilly and Company Ltd., Merck & Co. Inc., SA, Finox Biotech, Laboratories Genevrier, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Allergan plc, Bayer AG, Endo International plc, IBSA Institut Biochimque, and Ferring.Key players are focused on product approval for growth considerations and to cater to the changing demand of the industry. The introduction of innovative and technologically advanced products is also the focus of key players to increase their market share and for serving patients in a better manner.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends. Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Ramie Products Market Emerging Trends and Global Demands 2018 to 2025 Ramie Products https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/0927880203/global-ramie-products-market-insights-forecast-to-2025/inquiry?source=openpr&Mode=15 https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/0927880203/global-ramie-products-market-insights-forecast-to-2025?source=openpr&Mode=15 https://www.linkedin.com/company/13411016/ https://www.facebook.com/Marketinsightsreports/ https://twitter.com/MIRresearch/ Marketinsightsreports adds Global Ramie Products Market Insights, Forecast to 2025 new report to its research database that gives a top to bottom investigation of the market as far as income and developing business sector patterns. The abstract includes business overview, product offering, revenue share, strategies, and service offering of the dominant players.This report covers several key areas in the Ramie Products market. Global market trends are analyzed with currently available data on the number of Ramie Products companies and their sales revenues. The report discusses recent advancements in Ramie Products market, ethical issues in Ramie Products market, and the challenges and barriers that may restrict the market.The history and current state of Ramie Products market is reviewed and discussed. An analysis of industry structure, including sales, market share and the major market drivers, is presented.Request sample of the report atGlobal Ramie Products market by Top Manufacturers (2018-2025): Hunan Huasheng, Hunan Mingxing, Nanchang Liangliang, Beijing Green Landscape, Chongqing Xuelai, Zhucheng Deli, Hubei Jinghua.In the Ramie Products market research reports, following points are included along with in-depth study of each point: Production Analysis Production of the Ramie Products is analysed with respect to different regions, types and applications. Here, price analysis of various Ramie Products market key players is also covered. Sales and Revenue Analysis Both, sales and revenue are studied for the different regions of the Ramie Products market. Another major aspect, price, which plays important part in the revenue generation, is also assessed in this section for the various regions. Supply and Consumption In continuation with sales, this section studies supply and consumption for the Ramie Products market. This part also sheds light on the gap between supply and consumption. Import and export figures are also given in this part. Competitors In this section, various Ramie Products industry leading players are studied with respect to their company profile, product portfolio, capacity, price, cost and revenue. Other analyses Apart from the aforementioned information, trade and distribution analysis for the Ramie Products market, contact information of major manufacturers, suppliers and key consumers is also given.Ramie Products Market is segmented based on the Types such asFabricHome TextileApparelOtherFurther, the Ramie Products Market is segmented based on the applications such asFor BabyFor AdultBrowse full report at:This independent report guarantees you will remain better informed than your competition. With tables and figures examining the Ramie Products market, the report gives you a visual, one-stop breakdown of the leading products, submarkets and market leaders market revenue forecasts as well as analysis to 2025.Major Highlights of Ramie Products Market report: Ramie Products Market Overview Market Competition by Manufacturers Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders Market Effect Factors Analysis Global Ramie Products Market Forecast (2018-2025)The Ramie Products market reports includes New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis that will help to determine whether the project is technically feasible, is feasible within the estimated cost, and will be profitable or not.There are 15 chapters to deeply display the Global Ramie Products market: Chapter 1, to describe Ramie Products Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force. Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Ramie Products, with sales, revenue, and price of Ramie Products, in 2017 and 2018. Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2017 and 2018. Chapter 4, to show the Global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Ramie Products, for each region, from 2014 to 2018. Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions. Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2014 to 2018. Chapter 12, Ramie Products market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2025. Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Ramie Products sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.About Us:MarketInsightsReports provides syndicated market research reports to industries, organizations or even individuals with an aim of helping them in their decision making process. These reports include in-depth market research studies i.e. market share analysis, industry analysis, information on products, countries, market size, trends, business research details and much more. MarketInsightsReports provides global and regional market intelligence coverage, a 360-degree market view which includes statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact US:Irfan Tamboli (Head of Sales)Market Insights Reports4893, Pepper drive, Harrisburg ,NC 28075,United StatesPhone: + 1704 266 3234 | Mob: +91-750-707-8687sales@marketinsightsreports.com | irfan@marketinsightsreports.comConnect with us On: Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Market 2025 Technological Innovation by Leading Industry Players- Headwall, Corning Incorporated, ITRES, Norsk Elektro Optikk, Surface Optics Corp Hyperspectral Remote Sensing https://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00012257222/sample https://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00012257222/discount Hyperspectral remote sensing, also known as imaging spectroscopy, is a relatively new technology that is currently being investigated by researchers and scientists with regard to the detection and identification of minerals, terrestrial vegetation, and man-made materials and backgrounds. Hyperspectral remote sensing is an advanced tool that provides high spatial or spectral resolution data from a distance, with the aim of providing near-laboratory-quality radiance (and subsequent related information) for each picture element (pixel) from a distance.Although innovative approaches have been developed over the past few years, the power of hyperspectral remote sensing technology remains unknown to many potential end-users, such as decision makers, farmers, environmental watchers in both the private and governmental sectors, city planners, stock holders and others. 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This report also covers all the regions and countries of the world, which shows a regional development status, including market size.Besides, the report also covers segment data, including: type segment, industry segment etc. cover different segment market size. Also cover different industries clients' information, which is very important for the Major Players.Table of ContentsPart 1 Industry Overview1.1 Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Market1.1.1 Market Development1.1.2 Terminology Definition in the Report1.2 Products & Services Scope1.3 Industry Chain1.4 Industry Dynamics & Regulations1.5 Global Market OverviewPart 2 Upstream & Production2.1 Raw Materials / Components2.2 Procurement Methods & Channels2.3 Cost Structure & Manufacturing2.4 Industry Capacity2.5 Production Distribution by Geography2.5.1 Production in Major Regions / Countries2.5.2 Trade Flow OverviewPart 3 Product Segment3.1 Introduction by Type3.1.1 Single Eye3.1.2 Double Eye3.2 Market StatusPart 4 Application / End-User Segment4.1 Introduction by Application4.1.1 Government4.1.2 Transportation4.1.3 Healthcare4.1.184.2 Market StatusPart 5 Regional Market5.1 Market Overview5.2 by Region5.2.1 North America5.2.2 Europe5.2.3 Asia-Pacific5.2.4 South America5.2.5 Middle East5.2.6 AfricaPart 6 Market Subdivision6.1 Regional Production6.1.1 Production by Type6.1.2 Production by Application6.2 Regional Demand6.2.1 Demand by Type6.2.2 Demand by Application6.2.2.18 Demand by RegionPart 7 Market Forecast7.1 Global Forecast7.2 Forecast by Type7.3 Forecast by Application7.4 Forecast by RegionPart 9 Company Competition9.1 Market by Company9.2 Price & Gross Margin9.3 Competitive Environment for New Entrants9.3.2 SWOTPart 10 Research ConclusionPlace Direct Purchase order For Complete report:About us:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.Contact us:Phone : +1-646-491-9876E-Mail : sales@reportsweb.com 2023 Projections: Aerospace Plastics Market Report for DuPont, Hexcel, PPG Industries, Saint-Gobain, Solvay, Aerospace Plastic Components, Celanese https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/1227249/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/1227249/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-aerospace-plastics-market-2018-by-manufacturers-regions-type-and-application-forecast-to-2023 https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog Market Study Report Add New Global Aerospace Plastics Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023. It provides Industry analyses the important factors of this market based on present industry situations, market demands, business strategies utilized by Aerospace Plastics Market players and their growth synopsis. This report divides the Aerospace Plastics Market based on the key players, Type, Application and Regions are Mentioned Below.The report enumerates the regional spectrum of Aerospace Plastics Market is appreciable detail. Spanning the belts of North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa the report explains the contribution of every region toward the global Aerospace Plastics Market share. The geographies have been individually analyzed in terms of the parameters such as production, market share in terms of the manufacturers as well as with regards to Type and Applications.The report holds intricate details about the contribution by pivotal contenders and the opportunities that the industry can offer them over 2023. The competitive landscape of global Aerospace Plastics Market, inclusive of companies such as company DuPont, Hexcel, PPG Industries, Saint-Gobain, Solvay, Aerospace Plastic Components, Celanese has been extensively outlined in the report. Individually analyzed, the report presents details regarding the basic information of every industry magnate, their prominent rivals in the business, manufacturing base, and the business overview. Substantial information about the company revenue, production, price, as well as gross margins have been provided.Request a sample of this premium report at:Aerospace Plastics are engineering plastics which are a subdivision of plastics due to their outstanding benefits like light weight, greater impact strength, abrasion resistance, and high strain and temperature resistance.The aerospace market by exterior applications has the highest share in the engineering plastics market and it is estimated to grow during the forecast period. The use of plastics is prominent in the exterior parts of an aircraft. These find application in airframe, fuselage, empennage, wings, and rotor blades. The exterior application is stiff, tough and they offer dimensional stability and high fatigue resistance.Market Segment by Type, covers:ExteriorInteriorMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into:Commercial and Freighter AircraftGeneral AviationOthersRequest a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Table of Content:1 Market Overview2 Manufacturers Profiles3 Global Aerospace Plastics Market Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Competition by Manufacturer (2016-2017)4 Global Aerospace Plastics Market Analysis by Regions5 North America Aerospace Plastics Market by Countries6 Europe Aerospace Plastics Market by Countries7 Asia-Pacific Aerospace Plastics Market by Countries8 South America Aerospace Plastics Market by Countries9 Middle East and Africa Aerospace Plastics Market by Countries10 Global Aerospace Plastics Market Segment by Type1 Global Aerospace Plastics Market Segment by Application12 Aerospace Plastics Market Forecast (2018-2023)13 Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersMore Details on this Reports 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.comWebsite:Blog: Growing Opportunities in Lithotripsy Market Research Report 2018 with Major Eminent Vendors: Direx Group, Richard Wolf, Siemens AG, Boston Scientific Corp., Olympus corp., Dornier MedTech and Medispec Inc. Lithotripsy Market https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report-sample/HC081244 https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report/lithotripsy-market https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/send-an-enquiry/HC081244 Lithotripsy Market By Type (Intracorporeal Lithotripsy System (Ultrasonic Lithotripsy, Mechanical Lithotripsy, Laser Lithotripsy & Electrohydraulic Lithotripsy) and Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy System) and Application (Bile Duct & Pancreatic Stones, Kidney and Ureteral) - Global Industry Analysis And Forecast To 2025.Lithotripsy - Competitive Analysis:The leading players in the market are Direx Group, Richard Wolf, Siemens AG, Boston Scientific Corp., Olympus corp., Dornier MedTech and Medispec Inc. The major players in the market are profiled in detail in view of qualities, for example, company portfolio, business strategies, financial overview, recent developments, and market share of the overall industry.Sample Copy of This (Lithotripsy Market) Report:Lithotripsy - Industry Outlook:Lithotripsy is a medical procedure used for physical removal of hardened masses like gallstones, bezoars or kidney stones. Lithotripsy is derived from Greek language meaning, breaking stones. Shockwave therapy is used for braking the hardened masses in this technique. The Lithotripsy procedure is growing due to; technical advancements in the devices used in this procedure, rising aged population across the globe, rising number of cases related to urolithiasis, etc. Therefore, the Lithotripsy Market is anticipated to expand and has tremendous scope during the forecast period. The global Lithotripsy Market anticipated to flourish in the future by growing at a significantly higher CAGR.Lithotripsy Market, By Type:Intracorporeal Lithotripsy SystemUltrasonic LithotripsyMechanical LithotripsyLaser LithotripsyElectrohydraulic LithotripsyExtracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy SystemLithotripsy Market, By Application:Bile Duct & Pancreatic StonesKidneyUreteralLithotripsy - Market Segmentation:The global Lithotripsy Market is based on segment, by Type the market is segmented into Intracorporeal Lithotripsy System (Ultrasonic Lithotripsy, Mechanical Lithotripsy, Laser Lithotripsy & Electrohydraulic Lithotripsy) and Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy System, and by Application the market is segmented into Bile Duct & Pancreatic Stones, Kidney and Ureteral.Lithotripsy - TOPEST PLAYERS:Direx Group, Richard Wolf, Siemens AG, Boston Scientific Corp., Olympus corp., Dornier MedTech, Medispec Inc.In Order To Browse Complete (Lithotripsy Market) Report With ToC:Lithotripsy - By Region:North America - U.S, Canada, MexicoEurope - Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Rest of EuropeAsia-Pacific - Japan, China, Australia, India, South Korea, Rest of Asia PacificRest of the World - Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, OthersLithotripsy - Regional Insights:On a global front, the Lithotripsy Market covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico), Europe (Germany, UK, France, Russia, Italy, Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, India, Southeast Asia, Rest of Asia-Pacific), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Rest of South America) and Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Rest of MEA). European region is leading the Lithotripsy Market due to advancement in technology, rising awareness amongst the population, etc.Lithotripsy - ToC:CHAPTER 8.Company Profiles -8.1.Direx Group8.1.1.Business Overview8.1.2. Service Portfolio8.1.3.Strategic Developments8.1.4. Revenue and Market Share8.2.Richard Wolf8.2.1.Business Overview8.2.2. Service Portfolio8.2.3.Strategic Developments8.2.4. Revenue and Market Share8.3.Siemens AG8.3.1.Business Overview8.3.2. Service Portfolio8.3.3.Strategic Developments8.3.4. Revenue and Market Share8.4.Boston Scientific Corp.8.4.1.Business Overview8.4.2. Service Portfolio8.4.3.Strategic Developments8.4.4. Revenue and Market Share8.5.Olympus corp.8.5.1.Business Overview8.5.2. Service Portfolio8.5.3.Strategic Developments8.5.4. Revenue and Market Share8.6.Dornier MedTech...The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Lithotripsy market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Lithotripsy market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Rest of the World, which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all regions.Also, key Lithotripsy market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered.Discuss Our Expert Team: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 Lithotripsy market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies. Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets. Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it. Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.TO BE ContinuedAbout 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 customised 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 Smart Grid Technology Market Business Growth Statistics and Key Players Insights: IBM Corp, Cisco Systems, Comverge Inc., Cooper Power Systems LLC, Echelon Corp Smart Grid Technology Market https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/913073 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/check-discount/913073 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/checkout/913073 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com The Global Smart Grid Technology Market 2018 to 2025 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Smart Grid Technology Industry on a global level that primarily aims the core regions which comprises of continents like Europe, North America, and Asia and the key countries such as United States, Germany, China and Japan.The report on Global Smart Grid Technology Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Smart Grid Technology industry a propos classifications, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.This report focuses on the global top players, covered IBM Corp Cisco Systems Comverge Inc. Cooper Power Systems, LLC Echelon Corp Elster Group SE eMeter Corporation GE Energy Grid Net Inc. Infrax Systems Inc. Iskraemeco Itron Inc. Landis+GYR Ltd OSIsoft LLC Power Plus Communications AG S&C Electric Co. Schneider Electric SA Trilliant Inc. Ventyx Inc. Verizon Communications Inc.Get Sample Copy of This Report @Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Distribution Management Systems (DMS) Demand Response Management Systems (DRM) Meter Data Management Systems (MDMS) Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Outage Management Systems (OMS) Smart MeterMarket segment by Application, Smart Grid Technology can be split into Industrial Use Commercial UseThe potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. The present market condition and future prospects of the segment has also been examined. Moreover, key strategies in the market that includes product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, etc., are discussed. Besides, upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also conducted.Get The Best Offer of This Report @Report Includes:-The report cloaks the market analysis and projection of Smart Grid Technology Market on a regional as well as global level. The report constitutes qualitative and quantitative valuation by industry analysts, first-hand data, assistance from industry experts along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain.The research experts have additionally assessed the in general sales and revenue generation of this particular market. In addition, this report also delivers widespread analysis of root market trends, several governing elements and macro-economic indicators, coupled with market improvements as per every segment.The study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of Smart Grid Technology in global market.To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.To analyze the global 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.BUY NOW @About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Contact us:Email- sales@qyresearchgroups.comWeb- Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market | Global Industry, Growth Analysis 2022 with Leading Key players are ENDURA P.IVA, Sumitomo Chemical, Wujiang Shuguang Chemical, Tokyo Chemical Industry, Alfa Aesar Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market https://www.businessindustryreports.com/sample-request/109700 https://www.businessindustryreports.com/buy-now/109807/single https://www.businessindustryreports.com/check-discount/109807 This report provides in depth study of Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market report also provides an in-depth survey of key players in the market organization.Global Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market Overview:According to Market Analyst, Global Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market is projected to grow at a healthy growth rate from 2018 to 2022.Request Report Sample@With the slowdown in world economic growth, the Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 5.02% from 9.54 million $ in 2014 to 11.05 million $ in 2017, According to Market Analyst in the next few years, Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) market size will be further expanded by 2022, The market size of the Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) will reach 14.33 million $.The rapid increase in the global population has raised food security concerns and several underdeveloped and developing countries still lack proper infrastructure for the storage and distribution of food grains. A significant rise in yield is possible through the usage of crop protection chemicals such as insecticides. This has resulted in the high demand for piperonyl butoxide.Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market segmented into Product Type, Industry and Region.On the Basis of Industry, Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market spits into Pyrethrin, Pyrethroid, Carbamate, Rotenone. Carbamate constituted the leading share in the piperonyl butoxide market, followed by pyrethroid. Carbamate is the key revenue generator as well as the key consumer of piperonyl butoxide. Derived from carbamic acid, carbamate is used to control or kill insects and finds application in the agriculture sector as well as in homes.Regionally, Asia Pacific held the largest share of the market for Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO). The growing usage of insecticides for crop protection in the county, coupled with the rising demand for food, is likely to boost the demand for piperonyl butoxide in Asia Pacific.Purchase this premium research report with 125 Pages and No. of Table of contents, List of table atThe Market is segmented and projected on the basis of major key players:1 ENDURA P.IVA2 Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd3 Wujiang Shuguang Chemical Co., Ltd4 Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd5 Alfa Aesar6 Capot Chemical Co., Ltd7 Hem Corporation8 Shanghai Skyblue Chemical Co., Ltd9 Zhejiang Rayfull Chemicals Co., Ltd and MoreThe 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 Industry Segmentation1 Pyrethrin2 Pyrethroid3 Carbamate4 RotenoneKey Questions Answered in this Report:1 What will the market size be in 2022?2 What are the key factors driving the Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market?3 What are the challenges to market growth?4 Who are the key players in Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market?5 What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key players?TABLE OF CONTENTS1 Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Product Definition2 Global Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market Manufacturer Share and Market Overview3 Manufacturer Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Business Introduction4 Global Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market Segmentation (Region Level)5 Global Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market Segmentation (Product Type Level)6 Global Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market Segmentation (Industry Level)7 Global Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market Segmentation (Channel Level)8 Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Market Forecast 2018-20229 Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Segmentation Product Type10 Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Segmentation Industry11 Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Cost of Production Analysis12 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 Mammography Market Ultimate Analysis by Top Vendors - FUJIFILM MEDICAL SYSTEMS, GE HEALTHCARE, HOLOGIC, IMS GIOTTO S.P.A, KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS NV, METALTRONICA SPA, MINDRAY MEDICAL INTERNATIONAL till 2023 https://marketprognosis.com/sample-request/16969 https://marketprognosis.com/discount-request/16969 https://marketprognosis.com/enquiry/16969 The global mammography market is expected to register a CAGR of 8.0% during the forecast period, 2018 to 2023. North America dominates the market, due to growing awareness of breast cancer in the region.Detailed Sample Copy of Updated Analysis @Note: If this link doesnt work in Internet Explorer, kindly try copy pasting it in other browsers.Growing Prevalence of Breast CancerThe Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports breast cancer to be one of the most common cancer among women, irrespective of race or ethnicity. It is also the third most common cause of death from cancer among American Indian/Alaska Native women. World Health Organization (WHO) reports a death toll of over 508,000 women in 2011, due to breast cancer. National Cancer Institute estimated 246,660 new cases and 40,450 deaths due to breast cancer in 2016. As the global population is aging, a large number of women are expected to move into the 60+ age category. Women aged 60 years and above, account for almost 78% of all breast-cancer related deaths. Thus, the growing prevalence of breast cancer coupled with technological advancement in mammography devices, growing awareness regarding early diagnosis, and increasing investment from private players in the breast cancer screening campaigns are likely to drive market growth.Key Developments in the Market June 2017: Fujifilm Holdings, subsidiary Fujifilm Medical Systems is facing a patent infringement suit from Hologic Inc., which claims that the company infringed 5 of its mammogram technology patents. September 2017: GE Healthcare received approval from The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first 2D digital mammography system The Senographe Pristina with Self-Compression.Major Players:FUJIFILM MEDICAL SYSTEMS, GE HEALTHCARE, HOLOGIC INC., IMS GIOTTO S.P.A, KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS NV, METALTRONICA SPA, MINDRAY MEDICAL INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, PLANMED OY, SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS, AND TOSHIBA MEDICAL SYSTEMS, amongst others.Get Quality Discount @Note: If this link doesnt work in Internet Explorer, kindly try copy pasting it in other browsers.Risk of Adverse Effects from Radiation ExposureThe mammography procedure involves the subject or the patient to be exposed to multiple sets of radiation for therapeutic purposes, however, radiation therapy is not always good for the patients health. Extended exposure to radio waves can have adverse side-effects on the patients health, depending upon the levels of radiation the patient is exposed to. Internal exposure can sometimes cause deposition of certain elements in bones or organs. Thus, the risk associated with radiation exposure and decline in reimbursement rate is likely to restrain the market growth.North America to Dominate the MarketNorth America is expected to hold the largest share of mammography market during the forecast period, due to rise in prevalence of breast cancer and growing awareness regarding early diagnosis, in the region. The Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to register a high growth rate during the forecast period, owing to factors such as growing aging population, growing government initiatives to create awareness regarding breast cancer, and early diagnosis.Browse Report @Note: If this link doesnt work in Internet Explorer, kindly try copy pasting it in other browsers.About Market PrognosisWe 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:ProgMarkPvt Ltd,Thane - 421501India.Contact No: +1 973 241 5193Email: sales@marketprognosis.com Polyamideimide Fibers Market to Penetrate Untapped Regions During 2015-2021 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4521 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/4521 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Polyamideimide fibers are one of the most essential fibers in aramid family. Polyamideimide fibers are thermoplastic or thermosetting polymers which have excellent chemical, thermal and mechanical resistance properties. Polyamideimide fibers have properties of both polyamides and polyimides. Polyamideimide fibers are non flammable due to higher double bonds and aromatic structures. Polyamideimide fibers offer higher resistance to abrasion and fire. Polyamideimide fibers have lower thermal conductivity as compared to other aramid fibers. Due to excellent chemical resistance polyamideimide fibers finds applications in chemical plants where there is regular spillage of chemicals. Polyamideimide fibers offer excellent protection against flame and radiant heat. Polyamideimide fibers will not melt and will not form molten droplets. Polyamideimide fibers can be either manufactured through diisocyantes or acid chloride method.A sample of this report is available upon request @The market for polyamideimide fibers was mainly driven by coatings and molded applications. In coatings industry, polyamideimide fibers are in powder form and half imidized. Polyamideimide fibers are used in magnetic enamels. The wire enamel is manufactured by dissolving it in polyamideimide fibers with solvents. polyamideimide fibers enamel have thermal stability and offer resistance against heat and chemicals. Polyamideimide fibers are used in corrosion resistance and decorative coatings used in industrial applications. Polyamideimide fibers are used in non-stick utensils. In molding industry, polyamideimide fibers are used in manufacturing of gears, bushings, fasteners and seals among others. In gas separation industry, polyamideimide fibers are used in membrane separation technology for gas separation due to its ability to sustain higher temperature levels. In electronics industry, polyamideimide fibers are used in manufacturing of electric motor components and semiconductor fabrications. However, higher prices and environmental regulations is anticipated to hinder the growth of the market in next few years to come.In terms of demand, Asia Pacific was the leading region in polyamideimide fibers market in past few years. Asia Pacific is considered to be one of the fastest growing markets for polyamideimide fibers due to huge demand from molding and coatings industry. China had the highest demand and production for polyamideimide fibers in Asia Pacific region. Southeast Asian countries and Indian subcontinent is expected to have higher demand for polyamideimide fibers in next few years. Asia Pacific was followed by North America. Growing demand from aerospace, electronics and coatings industry has been major factor behind driving the demand for polyamideimide fibers in this region. U.S. had the largest demand and production for polyamideimide fibers in North America. The demand was huge owing to increased molding activities and manufacturing of industrial and water borne coatings. However, regulations regarding polyamideimide fibers are anticipated to hinder the growth in this region. In 2013, Europe had the third largest demand for polyamideimide fibers market. Western European countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK are one of the largest consumers of polyamideimide fibers in this region. Central Europe and Russia is expected to show positive outlook for the polyamideimide fibers market in near future. Rest of the World market is projected to show encouraging view for the polyamideimide fibers market in foreseeable future. Countries such as Brazil, South Africa, Argentina and the Middle East region is expected to exhibit higher demand for polyamideimide fibers in near future.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @The market for polyamideimide fibers is highly oligopolistic in nature and is dominated by two or three major players. Some of the key manufacturers in the polyamideimide fibers market are Swicofil and Solvay S.A. among others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Global Release Coatings Market to Grow at CAGR of 5.9% during 2017-2022 https://www.stratviewresearch.com/toc/207/release-coatings-market.html https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/207/release-coatings-market.html https://www.stratviewresearch.com/207/release-coatings-market.html Global Release Coatings Market by Coating Type (Silicone and Non-Silicone), by Formulation Type (Solvent-based, Water-based, Emulsions, and Others), by Application Type (Labels, Graphical, Film & Tapes, Hygiene, and Others), by End-Use Industry (Transportation, Aerospace & Defense, Medical, Food & Bakery, Packaging, Pulp & Paper, and Others), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017 2022This report, from Stratview Research, studies the global release coatings market over the period 2017 to 2022. The report provides detailed insights into the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities in the market.Click here to read the detailed description and TOC:The Global Release Coatings Market: HighlightsThe global release coatings market is projected to witness a healthy CAGR of 5.9% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022, driven by increasing penetration of silicone labels in the packaging industry, introduction of more stringent standards related to environment and safety, and an organic growth of the end-use industries, such as transportation, aerospace & defense, and food& bakery.The global release coatings market is segmented based on coating type as silicone and non-silicone. Silicone is projected to remain the largest segment in the release coatings market during the forecast period. It is also projected to grow at a faster rate during the forecast period. Silicone release coatings are relatively inexpensive and offer better resistance to chemical, abrasion, and moisture. It is gaining traction in many applications, such as barcode labels, diaper tabs, packaging tapes, and postage stamps.The global release coatings market is further segmented based on formulation type as solvent-based, water-based, emulsions, and others. Solvent is the most commonly used formulation type in release coatings; however, there would be a continuous shift from solvent based to water based, driven by safety, health, and environmental regulations. The usage of different release coating formations varies from region to region. For instance, water-based release coatings dominate North America and Europe, whereas solvent-based dominates Asia-Pacific.The global release coatings market is also segmented based on application type as labels, graphical, film & tapes, hygiene, and others. The label is projected to remain the most dominant application type in the global release coatings market during the forecast period, driven by increasing use of self-adhesive labels in the packaging applications. The label segment is also the fastest growing application type in the release coatings market, driven by an increasing preference in the fast-moving consumer goods and packaging industries.Request Sample here:The global release coatings market is segmented based on end-use industry type as transportation, aerospace & defense, medical, food & bakery, packaging, pulp & paper, and others. Packaging is expected to remain the largest end-use industry for release coatings during the forecast period, whereas medical is expected to witness the fastest growth in the same period. High use of release coatings in healthcare products and increasing use of release coatings in the surgical and analytical instruments will drive the demand for it in the Medical industry.Asia-Pacific is expected to remain the largest release coatings market during the forecast period. It alone occupied more than 50% of global release coatings market in 2015. The region is also expected to witness the highest growth over the next five years. China, Japan, Korea, India, and Taiwan are acting as the growth engines of the Asia-Pacific release coatings market. There would be a good shift from solvent-based to water-based release coatings in the Asia-Pacific region in the same period.Dow Corning Corporation, Momentive Performance Materials, Evonik Industries AG, Mayzo Inc, OMNOVA Solutions Inc., Shin-Etsu Chemicals Co. Ltd., and Wacker Chemie AG are major players in the global release coatings market. High investment in R&D activities to develop new products meeting unmet market needs, wide geographical network and collaboration with customers are some of the key strategies adopted by major companies to gain a competitive edge over others.Report FeaturesThis report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights into the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report:Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysisMarket environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porters five forces analysis, SWOT analysisMarket Trend and Forecast analysisMarket segment trend and forecastCompetitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, Product portfolio, Product launches, etc.Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunitiesEmerging trendsStrategic growth opportunities for the existing and new playersKey success factorsThe global release coatings market is segmented into the following categories:Global Release Coatings Market by Coating Type: Silicone (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Non-Silicone (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW)Global Release Coatings Market by Formulation Type: Solvent-based (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Water-based (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Emulsions (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Others (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW)Global Release Coatings Market by Application Type: Labels (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Graphical (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Film & Tapes (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Hygiene (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Others (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW)Global Release Coatings Market by End-Use Industry Type: Transportation (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Aerospace & Defense (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Medical (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Food & Bakery (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Pulp & Paper (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Packaging (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW) Others (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe, APAC, and RoW)Global Release Coatings Market by Region: North America (Country Analysis: The USA, Canada, and Mexico) Europe (Country Analysis: Germany, France, The UK, Russia, and Rest of the Europe) Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China, Japan, India, and Rest of Asia-Pacific) Rest of the world (Country Analysis: Brazil, Argentina, and Others)About Stratview ResearchStratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies.Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making.Category Advanced MaterialStratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.Stratview ResearchCrystal Tower, Raipur - 492001Phone No. +1-313-307-4176Email :- sales@stratviewresearch.com New Report on Ozone Disinfection Market, Estimated By Key Players like: Xylem, Ozonia, Mitsubishi Electric, Metawater for the Forecast Period 2018-2025 Ozone Disinfection Market https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/8429 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/8429 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/buy/ozone-disinfection-market www.upmarketresearch.com UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Ozone Disinfection Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 98 pages which highly exhibits on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Get a Free Sample of this Report@In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Ozone Disinfection are: History Year: 2013 - 2017 Base Year: 2017 Estimated Year: 2018 Forecast Year: 2018 - 2025The report begins with the overview of the Ozone Disinfection market and updates the users about the latest developments and future expectations. It presents a comparative detailed analysis of all the regional and major player segments, offering readers a better knowledge of areas in which they can place their existing resources and gauging the priority of a particular region in order to boost their standing in the global market.Ozone Disinfection 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 Ozone Disinfection global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2018 - 2025.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 Ozone Disinfection market industry analysis & forecast 2018-2025 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.The major manufacturers covered in this report are: Xylem Ozonia Mitsubishi Electric Metawater ProMinent Toshiba SUMITOMO PRECISION PRODUCTS Ozono Elettronica Internazionale Guolin Fujian Newland EnTech China LB Ozone Jinan Sankang KonerFor any queries or more information, visit:Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, covering: United States Europe China Japan Other RegionsOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into: High Pressure Discharge Corona Discharge PhotochemistryBy Application, the market can be split into: Food & Beverages Pharma & Healthcare Water and Waste Water Treatment OthersThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: 1 Study Coverage 2 Executive Summary 3 Market Size by Manufacturers 4 Ozone Disinfection Production by Regions 5 Ozone Disinfection Consumption by Regions 6 Market Size by Type 7 Market Size by Application 8 Manufacturers Profiles 9 Production Forecasts 10 Consumption Forecast 11 Value Chain and Sales Channels Analysis 12 Market Opportunities & Challenges, Risks and Influences Factors Analysis 13 Key Findings in the Global Ozone Disinfection Study 14 AppendixBuy this report @:Global Ozone Disinfection Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 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 Ozone Disinfection Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 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 Ozone Disinfection market industry analysis and forecast 2018-2025.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.About UpMarketResearch: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 Battery Materials Market 2018-2023 with Upcoming Trends and Market Opportunities for Key Players Like 3M Company, BASF SE, ENTEK International LLC, Ecopro Co.Ltd., Hitachi Chemical Company Ltd. Battery Materials, Battery Materials Market, Battery Materials Industry, Battery Materials business, Battery Materials Forecast https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1518 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1518 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/battery-material-market-1518 Battery Materials MarketBattery Materials Market Highlights:Battery material market has seen a remarkable growth over the past few years and it has been anticipated that the global market will maintain the growth status during the forecast period. The continuously growing application industries are resulting in the overall growth of global battery material market. The rising consumption of mobiles and laptop, government initiative to replace fuel vehicle over battery vehicles, technological innovations, emerging economies and growing disposable income are the major growth factors which are driving the global market.Battery materials are chemicals and metals most widely used to manufacture primary and secondary batteries. These materials exhibit crystallinity, crystal size and shape, porosity, doping, and surface modification. Following these properties, the battery performance is measured based on energy density, power density, stability or cyclability, price, and safety.Get Complete Sample Page Report@Study Objectives of Battery Material Market:To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of various segments and sub-segments of the global battery material marketTo provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo analyze the global battery material market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (Row)To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country level analysis of the market for segment by types and applications.To provide strategic profiling of the key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the marketTo track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global battery material marketGeographically, the segmentation is done into several key regions like North America, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America. The production, consumption, revenue, shares in million UDS, growth rate of battery material market during the forecast period of 2018 to 2023 is well explained.Globe and will prove to be an important driver for battery materials market during the review period. Increasing automobile production and sales along with rising consumption of batteries are estimated to fuel the growth of the market. Furthermore, rapid urbanization coupled with increasing disposable income in emerging economies is predicted to propel the growth of the market during the assessment period 2018 to 2023.Battery Materials Market Key Players:Battery Materials Market are 3M Company (U.S.), BASF SE (Germany), ENTEK International LLC (U.K), Ecopro Co., Ltd. (South Korea), Hitachi Chemical Company, Ltd. (Japan), E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Celgard, LLC (U.S.), The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Japanese), Solvay S.A. (Belgium) and Nippon Denko Co., Ltd. (Japan) among others.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Battery Materials Market Intended Audience:Battery materials manufacturersTraders and Distributors of battery materialsProduction Process IndustriesPotential InvestorsRaw Material SuppliersNationalized LaboratoryBattery Materials Market Regional Analysis:Battery materials market consists of five regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East & Africa. Among these, Asia Pacific is predicted to grow with the highest CAGR during the review period, 2017 to 2023 on account of expanding electronics industry. The demand for battery materials is predicted to surge in numerous countries of the Asia Pacific region such as China, India, Japan, and South Korea due to high adoption rate by the electronic gadgets manufacturers. Moreover, the presence of major battery manufacturers in this region is predicted to propel the growth of the battery materials market over the forecast period.Battery Materials Market Segmentation:Battery materials market is categorized on the basis of type, application, end use industry, and region. On the basis of the type, the market is bifurcated into cathode, anode, electrolyte, separator, binders, packaging material. On the basis of the application, the battery materials market is categorized into primary batteries, secondary batteries, and others. On the basis of the end use industry, the market is segmented into electronics, automobiles, power storages, and others. On the basis of the region, the market is categorized into Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East & Africa.Battery Materials Market Table of Content:1 Executive Summary2 Scope of the Report2.1 Market Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objectives2.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations2.3 Markets Structure3 Market Research Methodology3.1 Research Type3.2 Secondary Research3.3 Primary Research3.4 Forecast Model4 Market Landscape4.1 Five Forces Analysis4.1.1 Threat of New Entrants4.1.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers4.1.3 Threat of Substitutes4.1.4 Segment Rivalry4.2 Value Chain/Supply Chain of Global Battery Materials Market5 Industry Overview of Global Battery Materials Market5.1 Introduction5.2 Growth Drivers5.3 Impact Analysis5.4 Market ChallengesBattery Materials Market Table of Content to be Continue..,Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsa Global Fluoropolymer Coating Market Leading Growth Drivers and top manufacturers analysis till 2025 - Whitford Worldwide, DuPont, AkzoNobel, TIGER Coatings GmbH & Co. KG, Advanced Industrial Coatings, Inc., BASF and others Global Fluoropolymer Coating Market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-fluoropolymer-coating-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-fluoropolymer-coating-market The key players of the Fluoropolymer Coating market are making moves like product launches, joint ventures, developments, merges and accusations which is affecting the Fluoropolymer Coating market and Chemical and Materials Industry as a whole and also affecting the sales, import, export, revenue and CAGR values. This market Report cover strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. The readers will find this report very helpful in understanding the Fluoropolymer Coating market in depth. The data and the information regarding the Fluoropolymer Coating industry are taken from reliable sources such as websites, annual reports of the companies, journals, and others and were checked and validated by the market experts.The global fluoropolymer coating market is expected to reach USD 2186.77 million by 2025, from USD 1361.7 million in 2017, growing at a CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025.FREE SAMPLE REPORT IS AVAILABLE ATWell known players of global fluoropolymer coating market are Whitford Worldwide, DuPont, PPG Industries, AkzoNobel, TIGER Coatings GmbH & Co. KG, Advanced Industrial Coatings, Inc., BASF, Valspar, Beckers Group, Sun Coatings Inc, KECO Engineered Coatings, The Chemours Company, Central Coating Co, Inc., Metal Coatings, SURFACE ENGINEERING and others.Market SegmentationThe global fluoropolymer coating market is segmented based on type, end user, and geographical segments.Based on type, polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), and ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE)On the basis of end user food processing, electrical & electronics, chemical processing, building & construction and othersBased on geography North America & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and, Middle East & AfricaSome of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and, Brazil among others.FREE TOC is AVAILABLE ATCompetitive AnalysisThe global fluoropolymer coating market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of fluoropolymer coating market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.Major Market Drivers & Market Restraint Increasing demand for penetration in the processing industry. Growing number of demand with expanding end-user industries in China Increased use of fluoropolymer coating in non-stick industry Increasing environmental regulations Market development of substitute coatingsResearch objectives To study and analyze the global Fluoropolymer Coating consumption (value & volume) by key regions/countries, product type and application, history data from 2013 to 2017, and forecast to 2025. To understand the structure of Fluoropolymer Coating market by identifying its various subsegments. Focuses on the key global Fluoropolymer Coating players, to define, describe and analyze the sales volume, value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in next few years. To analyze the Fluoropolymer Coating with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market. To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks). To project the consumption of Fluoropolymer Coating submarkets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries). 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 strategiesFor Customize Report and Discounts, Mail us AT sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comAbout 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 OLED Market 2018-2024: Leading Key Players Samsung Electronics, OLEDworks, LG Display. Osram, Universal Display Corporation, Pixelligent Technologies, Panasonic Corp, Acuity Brands Lighting, Acuity Brands Lighting https://www.gminsights.com/request-toc/upcoming/2270 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2270 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/oled-market https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/by-2024-atm-market-to-reach-25-billion-2018-09-19 https://www.gminsights.com http://technologymagazine.org The OLED market segmented on the basis of technology type is bifurcated into rigid display and flexible display panels. The application of flexible screens in smart wearable devices such as watches and in signage displays is anticipated to contribute to the significant growth of this segment.Request for an in-depth table of contents for this report @OLED Market size is projected to experience a significant growth during the forecast timeframe owing to the high adoption of these systems in consumer electronic devices like smartphones and laptops. The technology provides high advantages over traditional LED screens through high-contrast displays and improved static image quality. Additionally, their increased responsivity to touch, smoothness of display, and refresh rate approximately 1000 times faster than standard LED-backlit LCD panel is contributing to the high adoption among consumers.Products available in the OLED market require substantially less power as they do not require back-lighting. These systems consume approximately 40% of an LCD displaying an image which is primarily black, providing massive savings on the spending of electricity and usability of battery powered portable products for longer durations of time.Governments of various countries are providing funding for the research and development of these technologies, aiding in the growth of the OLED market. For instance, in 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy provided approximately USD 10 million funding to companies such as Acuity Brands Lighting and Pixelligent Technologies, for development of high-quality technologies.Display applications include smartphones, laptops, television and monitors, and tablets. The high adoption of the display application sub-segment is due to the increasing penetration of smartphone devices which has experienced a high growth in the recent years due to aggressive marketing strategies by leading players, such as Apple and Samsung, and its rising applications in various fields such as payments and shopping. In 2016, Chinas population of approximately 1.35 billion was reported to own over 500 million smartphones with approximately 49% owning a smartphone.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @The segmentation of the OLED market by material comprises PMOLED and AMOLED. The AMOLED contains a storage capacitor that maintains the line pixel states, allowing large size and higher resolution displays. These systems, as a result, can be made much larger than PMOLED allowing for the high growth in the consumer electronics applications.Automotive applications are anticipated to have substantial growth due to their demand in lighting such as the July 2017 launch of Audis A8 luxury sedan series. These panels consume less trunk space and are more visible to oncoming vehicles and pedestrians, boosting safety.Government support for the development of low power-reliant technologies is a major driver to the OLED market growth in the Europe region. For instance, in January 2017, the EU launched project LO LOMID (Large cost-effective OLED micro-displays and their applications) that aims to develop next-generation micro-displays for VR and AR applications. The Asia Pacific OLED market is anticipated to exhibit the highest growth owing to the presence of key players such as Samsung and LG corporation. Additionally, rapid industrialization has aided in the increase in the economic conditions of countries in the region, allowing consumers to increase their spending on luxury products and high-end technologies.Browse Full Report @Players operating in the OLED market include Samsung Electronics, OLEDworks, LG Display. Osram, Universal Display Corporation, Pixelligent Technologies, Panasonic Corp, Acuity Brands Lighting, and Acuity Brands Lighting. The OLED market is currently in the nascent stage and industry vendors are required to invest in strategies such as mergers, partnerships, and product developments to sustain substantial growth over the forecast timespan. For instance, Panasonic Corp entered the industry in July 2017 with the launch of its 4K OLED TV in the Viera series.Market share calculation in this report is not done based on companies covered in it. The calculation of OLED Market share is done based on a regional approach and countries covered. On request, additional companies can be covered as well as regional data for particular country / countries can be provided.Browse Related Report:ATM Market Size By Solution (Deployment [Onsite, Offsite, Worksite, Mobile], Managed Services), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa), Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017 2024About 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:Blog: Jacob McGreevey at long last got justice for himself and as many as two-dozen other military veterans. The former Marine fought a long and unsuccessful court battle to prove that creditors illegally seized his Vancouver home. He had all but decided to throw in the towel after a federal appeals court panel ruled against him in August. But McGreevey learned Thursday that the U.S. Justice Department had determined that a now-defunct company in Bellevue, Washington, had illegally foreclosed on at least two-dozen veterans, McGreevey among them. As part of a settlement, McGreevey could receive as much as $125,000. "I feel happy," McGreevey said. "I feel more at peace with the whole situation because, of course, I did not agree with the appeals court. To see that the people who did me wrong are being held accountable is just great." The Oregonian/OregonLive first reported McGreevey's plight in May 2017. A veteran of four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he fell behind on his house payments in 2010. PHH Mortgage, his New Jersey-based mortgage servicer, and Northwest Trustee seized the home the following September, just months after he returned from his third deployment. After the military, McGreevey earned a business degree from Portland State University and got a job at a bank. He learned of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a 1918 law intended to protect military members and veterans from foreclosures, garnishments and other financial entanglements of civilian life. McGreevey became convinced his foreclosure violated the federal law. In 2016, he hired Sean Riddell, a Portland lawyer who'd been his commanding officer in Iraq, to fight back. They filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in Washington state. Neither PHH nor Northwest Trustee addressed the legality of foreclosure. Rather, they made a technical argument, insisting that McGreevey had waited too long to file the suit. The applicable statute of limitations is four years, they said. Riddell and McGreevey said the limit was six years. McGreevey and Riddell were shocked when the Jeff Sessions-run Justice Department filed an amicus brief in the case siding with PHH and Northwest Trustee on the four-year window. "The country that sent you to war is now choosing a corporation's interest over yours," Riddell told McGreevey at the time. Judges at both the U.S. District Court and Appeals Court levels decided against McGreevey on the statute of limitations grounds. But McGreevey had a powerful ally. Strangely enough, it was the same U.S. Justice Department that had filed an amicus brief against him. The civil rights section of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, part of the Justice Department, had opened an investigation of Northwest Trustee after becoming aware of McGreevey's case. The department sued Northwest Trustee in November 2017, claiming that it had conducted upward of 28 foreclosures against veterans and active-duty servicemembers in violation of federal law. A month later, Northwest Trustee, which had foreclosed on hundreds of thousands of homes during the Great Recession, ceased operations. Now in receivership, the carcass of the company has agreed to settle the case for $750,000. The company has little left in the way of assets, said Christina Fogg, assistant U.S. Attorney in Seattle. Hence, the relatively small settlement. The agreement caps individual payments at $125,000. Sources said the Justice Department is nearing a similar settlement with PHH, McGreevey's loan servicer, though that could not be confirmed. McGreevey and his wife are getting on with life. They bought a home in Clark County in January. "With enough determination you can overcome any adverse actions in your life," he said. "You don't have to be a victim." -- Jeff Manning Clackamas County has agreed to a $235,000 settlement with a Sheriff's Office sergeant who alleged agency supervisors created a hostile work environment after he complained about a veteran detective who ignored sexual assault and child abuse cases. County commissioners approved the payout Thursday. "I hope this entire sequence of events reinforces what I have believed -- that law enforcement's authority depends on the consent and support of the public. And that law enforcement is not above the law," Sgt. Matt Swanson said in a statement. Board Chairman Jim Bernard declined to comment on the settlement. Sheriff Craig Roberts did not respond to an email seeking comment. Swanson filed the whistleblower lawsuit against the county earlier this year, naming Roberts and Undersheriff Matt Ellington, who retired last month. Swanson alleged he was subjected to retaliation and harassment after trying in 2015 to initiate an internal affairs investigation into Detective Jeff Green. Green pleaded guilty last year to two misdemeanors for failing to investigate reports of child abuse. He retired in 2015 and collects a $52,879 annual pension, according to state records. Swanson's allegations prompted the county to hire consultants to review the Sheriff's Office. The result was a blistering critique of the agency that found multiple supervisors knew of Green's poor work and had documented it for years. The consultants also found that an internal audit of Green's cases identified dozens of allegations of rape, sodomy and child sex abuse that Green never investigated. The consultants, OIR Group of California, called out Ellington's conduct in particular, saying the undersheriff had tried to retrieve damaging Green-related information submitted to the district attorney. They also raised questions about how he reported Green's retirement to the state. Swanson alleged that three high-ranking Sheriff's Office supervisors asked him to revise his internal complaint against Green so it "would be less easily tracked." He claimed Capt. James Rhodes, who has since been promoted to chief deputy, and Capt. Jeff Smith, who was then a lieutenant and a former supervisor of Green, worried the complaint would "make them look bad." Swanson, a patrol sergeant, said in the lawsuit that he saw their request as "unethical and illegal" and refused to change the complaint. He alleged Smith was angry and called it a disloyal thing to do. He claimed Rhodes asked to meet him behind a public works shop while Swanson was on patrol and "attempted to bully and coerce" him into covering up problems with Green and Rhodes' involvement. Word of Swanson's internal affairs complaint was spread by agency brass "for the specific purpose of putting pressure" on him to withdraw it "and play ball with the command staff to cover up Det. Green's illegal activities," according to the suit. Since raising concerns about Green, Swanson said he's been passed over for promotion and received a poor evaluation based on "false information." He said he was the subject of a "sham" internal affairs investigation that "intentionally damaged" his reputation. Here's Swanson's full statement: I've long believed the loyalty of a professional law enforcement officer is first to the people he or she serves. I have also placed a high priority on the investigation of crimes involving vulnerable victims -- crimes such as child abuse, sexual abuse and sexual assault. Over three years ago I made multiple reports regarding serious misconduct on the part of a member of law enforcement. I fully expected once I "rang the bell," my agency would do the right thing. That didn't happen. I was ostracized, subjected to ridicule, became an outcast and was subjected to retaliation. This went on for years and I reluctantly filed a lawsuit in search of relief as I continued to pursue accountability and justice. I have reached a financial settlement to end my lawsuit. I hope this entire sequence of events reinforces what I have believed - that law enforcement's authority depends on the consent and support of the public. And that law enforcement is not above the law. I have hopes the findings of the OIR group are acted upon appropriately and meaningful change is pursued. I want to acknowledge those in the community, and those inside the organization who have encouraged and supported me. They know who they are and I thank them. -- Noelle Crombie 503-276-7184 @noellecrombie The controversy over sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh spilled into governor's races across the country as the woman at the center of the claims told her story to a riveted nation. The already highly charged contests became even more so after psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford gave her emotional but steady recounting of a sexual assault she says happened while she and Kavanaugh were teenagers. Later, an emotional and emphatic Kavanaugh denied it. Her testimony and whether Kavanaugh's nomination should move forward became flashpoints in governor's races from New Hampshire to Oregon. One Republican facing re-election this November, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, called Ford's allegations serious and said they should be fully investigated. Through a campaign spokesman, Sununu said the Senate "should think carefully about the next steps in this process." But his Democratic challenger Molly Kelly, said Sununu should go further and call for President Donald Trump to withdraw Kavanaugh's nomination. "Sununu's latest statement is not enough," Kelly said in a statement. "And he owes the women of New Hampshire an apology." It was similar in Oregon, where Republican challenger Rep. Knute Buehler called for an FBI investigation into Ford's charges while Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said Kavanaugh's nomination should be rejected. In a Twitter message, Brown called the federal judge "a threat to women's rights in our nation." Governors have no official role in how the U.S. Senate should handle Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, but their voices could add pressure to senators trying to decide how to vote. In Illinois, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said earlier this month that there should be an investigation and the allegations, if true, should disqualify Kavanaugh. He did not specify whether he thought the Senate inquiry was sufficient or whether the FBI should investigate, as Democrats have asked. Rauner's spokesman said the governor was traveling Thursday and did not watch Ford's testimony. His Democratic challenger, J.B. Pritzker, criticized Rauner's response. The governor, he said Thursday, "continues to support Trump and this troubling nominee. I've opposed Kavanaugh from day one because he poses a grave threat to Roe v. Wade, the Affordable Care Act, and critical consumer and environmental protections." The allegations resonate deeply in Maryland, where Kavanaugh and Ford attended separate private prep schools. Ford says the assault took place at a gathering in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. Through a spokeswoman, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Kavanaugh's nomination should not proceed without a full investigation of the allegations. A week earlier, Hogan had rejected a Democratic state senator's call for Maryland state police to investigate Ford's story. Hogan's opponent in the November election, Democrat Ben Jealous, said Kavanaugh should not be confirmed. "The women who have come forward should have the freedom to pursue legal remedy, and our leaders have the obligation to do everything they can to end this epidemic of sexual violence," he said in a statement. Some other Republican governors and candidates for the office stopped short of calling for a full investigation. Others, including Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Connecticut's Republican candidate, Bob Stefanowski, avoided the question by saying Kavanaugh's confirmation was not an issue for governors to decide. Stefanowski drew groans at a debate on Wednesday, the day before Ford's testimony, when he responded to a question on the confirmation by saying, "I'm going to pass on that. That's a federal issue." On Thursday, he issued a statement saying the Senate committee should "fully consider" Ford's and Kavanaugh's testimony before proceeding. His Democratic opponent, Ned Lamont, criticized those responses. "His silence is deafening," Lamont said. "The voters of Connecticut deserve to know where candidates for governor who are running to appoint Connecticut's cabinet officials and Supreme Court Justices stand on Brett Kavanaugh." Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Knute Buehler on Friday called for Gov. Kate Brown to fire her state schools chief Colt Gill, after recent news that Oregon's test scores remain mediocre. Buehler, a surgeon and lawmaker from Bend, said the test scores released last week showed "essentially no progress" over the last four years. His Democratic opponent has been in office 3 years. In an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive last week, Gill did not point to any bright spots in the latest national Smarter Balanced test results. Meanwhile, Washington state's reading and writing test scores went up in every grade this year. Oregon schools generate mediocre results, new test scores indicate "Gov. Brown responded not like a leader, saying she has no control over these issues even though she is truly the superintendent of public instruction in the state of Oregon," Buehler said at a news conference. Brown recently told The Oregonian/OregonLive that if re-elected, she would not attempt to tie K-12 funding to mandates or outcomes, a strategy Buehler has proposed. Gill has held his job for a year and previously served as Brown's "education innovation officer." Brown forced her previous state schools chief, Salam Noor, out of his job last year. Colt Gill is Oregon's state schools chief. Buehler did mix up Gill's title on Friday, referring to him as Brown's "chief education officer." That title actually belongs to Lindsey Capps, who advises Brown on education and coordinates state policies on all education from preschool through College. His previous jobs include lobbying for Oregon's teachers union. Christian Gaston, a spokesman for Brown's campaign, didn't respond to a question about whether Brown continues to support Gill. Instead, Gaston wrote in an email that Buehler was "just playing politics" and would "cut teacher pay and cap investments in our schools, leaving local districts to figure out how to pay for shortfalls." -- Hillary Borrud 503-294-4034; @hborrud The federal government gave Oregon $16 million to use on tactics to fight opioid abuse. The money comes from a $1 billion effort spread among all 50 states. Oregon's chunk will help make treatment more accessible and expand options, according to a federal release. More than $8 million will go to rural parts of the state to make sure more people can get substance abuse treatment. It will also go to academic institutions and community health centers for research and to expand services. Nearly the same amount will be used to increase medication-assisted treatment options, including methadone and two other medications approved by the government that have been shown to help people quit opioids. Methadone, buprenorphine and similar drugs satisfy the brain's craving for opioids but don't make the user high. According to federal numbers, 16 percent more people filled prescriptions for buprenorphine in the last year and a half. "With these new funds, states, tribes, and communities across America will be able to advance our strategy and continue making progress against this crisis," said Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health and senior adviser for opioid policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Newly released statistics say half as many people in the U.S. started to use heroin in 2017 than 2016. Many people who become addicted to prescription opioids transition to heroin use when they can no longer access pills. Doctors nationally prescribed about 20 percent fewer opioid drugs, like OxyContin or Percocet, since January 2017. The U.S. surgeon general made a rare proclamation this year that everyone who is able to carry naloxone, the drug that can save someone from an overdose, should do so. The number of prescriptions for naloxone jumped 264 percent since January 2017. -- Molly Harbarger mharbarger@oregonian.com 503-294-5923 @MollyHarbarger A four-alarm fire that erupted at a North Portland business early Friday was extinguished well before sunrise, an official said. Lt. Tommy Schroeder, a Portland Fire & Rescue spokesman, said firefighters were dispatched to the commercial fire at 8235 N. Kerby Ave. shortly before 1 a.m. Firefighters attacked the blaze, and it was diminished to a smoldering pile as of about 5:10 a.m. One firefighter was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion, Schroeder said, but didn't need to be hospitalized. No civilians were injured. A business named Attero Arms And Accessories operates at the address, according to its website. 8235 N Kerby: Video 2 pic.twitter.com/WQCTmBAA46 Portland Fire&Rescue (@PDXFire) September 28, 2018 The fire destroyed many of the wooden pallets stored outdoors on the property. The building itself sustained minor damage, Schroeder said. Fire officials hadn't determined the cause or source of the fire early Friday. Fewer than 10 fire response units remained on scene at 7 a.m., according to an online incident tracker. Jim Ryan Two Gresham men Thursday were sentenced to three years in prison for stealing $2.3 million from nearly 50 people who they solicited to invest in a start-up company purported to be producing energy safe technology such as specialized jumper cables and power outlets. Theodore B. Holbrook, 37, and George J. Arauz, Jr., 45, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. They each were ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution as they were sentenced together before U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones. "The defendants lied, cheated and stole over the course of several years,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Bradford told the court. Some victims lost their homes. Others lost their retirement savings. They targeted one vulnerable elderly woman, two months after her husband had died. The two used their Mormon faith to gain many of their victims' trust, according to Bradford. Wayne Connors, 75, and his wife, Pamela Connors, 70, retired teachers from Klamath Falls who moved to St. George, Utah, spoke by phone and described how they lost $135,000 they had invested in cash with the two men. They also loaned Arauz another $5,500. "We lost all of our retirement,'' Wayne Connors said. "I'm so sorry we ever put our trust in Ted and George,'' Pamela Connors added. "I'm sorry we ever met them. I hope they get their just sentence.'' According to the prosecutor, from 2008 through 2015, Holbrook and Arauz used their companies, Prisidio Capital, LLC, Altius Capital Management, LLC and Altius Capital Opportunities Fund, L.P., to solicit investments to develop energy technologies via a start-up company. In return, they gave investors Prisidio stock certificates and promised to convert them into the start-up company's shares when it went public. In addition to funding the start-up company, Holbrook and Arauz told investors that their money would be invested in other emerging technology companies or the stock market directly. "Holbrook and Arauz failed to disclose to investors that the energy safe technology start-up company had been dormant since 2010 and that there would be no initial public offering,'' Bradford wrote in a sentencing memo. Instead, the duo worked to conceal their fraud, sending investors promotional and investment materials that falsely represented the nature and status of the investments, Bradford said. Holbrook and Arauz used the investors' money for their own use, covering travel, medical bills, credit card payments and other expenses. Holbrook's addiction to opioids, resulting from drugs prescribed following injuries he sustained in a car accident, fueled his fraud, his lawyer Alison Clark said. Holbrook, dressed in a tan suit, thanked the pretrial supervision officers for connecting him to resources to address his addiction. He's now living in an Oxford House with other recovering addicts and maintaining a job. "I want to say sorry to all the victims. There's no excuse,'' a tearful Holbrook said. "It's horrible, and I'm genuinely sorry." Arauz, wearing a white dress shirt and black slacks, said he was embarrassed by his crimes and pledged he'll never repeat his mistakes. "There isn't a day that goes by that I haven't felt the impact of my deception, and how embarrassed and ashamed of what I've done,'' he said. The prosecutor had sought higher sentences, three years and 10 months for Holbrook and three years and five months for Arauz. The defense lawyers argued for two-year sentences. "Twenty-four months for a man who has never done time is similar to 41 months for another who has done time,'' Arauz's lawyer Todd Bofferding said. Arauz is not likely to reoffend, and at 430 pounds, suffers from health ailments, including liver disease and blood clots, according to his lawyer. The less time Arauz is in prison the more time he can work to try to pay back his victims, Bofferding said. The judge said it's important that men like Arauz and Holbrook , who "succumb to greed,'' face a meaningful penalty for their major, white-collar crimes. -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian Dozens of visits. Weekly phone calls. Hundreds of dollars. Timothy J. Mackley, suspected in the killing of an 89-year-old Portland woman whose body was found this week in the trunk of his car, developed a deep connection with another elderly woman years ago while incarcerated in eastern Oregon. Their bond grew to a point where the woman's family got involved, putting an end to their communication. Then he sought to have an intimate relationship with her upon his release. But they never saw each other after he was freed from the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in large part because of efforts by the woman's granddaughter, Judy Crow, and the fact that the woman moved into a nursing home. Crow recounted Mackley's persistent pursuit of a relationship with the much-older woman, Billie Crampton, in a phone interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive early Friday. She previously spoke to KGW-TV and Portland police. Crow said her grandmother, who died of natural causes at 95 in 2006, met Mackley at the Pendleton prison while she was volunteering there about 1990. Their relationship evolved over about a decade, Crow said, and she was eventually asked to stop her volunteerism because of her relationship with Mackley. Crow said she thinks Mackley, who was convicted in 1989 of sodomy and sex abuse and sentenced to 20 years in prison, was grooming her grandmother for a relationship and as a source of money. He was either attracted to or interested in elderly women like Crampton and her friends, Crow said. Mackley, now 58, pleaded not guilty to murder Wednesday in the killing of Marcine Herinck, a great-grandmother who was a churchgoer and avid volunteer. Herinck's body was found Monday in the trunk of his car. Crow, a 65-year-old West Linn woman, said the similarities between Herinck and her grandmother are uncanny. "When I heard his name, I was just filled with emotion ... and then to see the victim, a churchgoing, sweet woman, just too familiar with my grandma," she said. Crow said Mackley convinced her grandmother a minister and businesswoman who owned a women's clothing store in La Grande for 35 years that he had been wrongly convicted and had been abandoned by his family. Crow said she thinks her grandmother bought the tale. Crow estimated her grandmother visited Mackley dozens of times and talked to him on the phone weekly. Crow guessed that she gave him hundreds, if not thousands of dollars doled out in small increments to finance his supposed prison needs. Crow said that at the time, she didn't think Mackley was grooming her grandmother for abuse. But she said his correspondence with Crampton leading up to his release detailed in letters that she's since destroyed were graphic and referenced an intimate relationship. Crampton was in her early 90s by then. Crow said she was eventually successful in obtaining conservatorship and guardianship of her grandmother, granting her the ability to make decisions on Crampton's behalf and take control of her money. She also said she wrote to parole officials, detailing the situation, and believes they restrained Mackley from going to La Grande, where Crampton lived. Mackley, she said, struck her as a dangerous person. He's set to appear back in court Oct. 4. Jim Ryan jryan@oregonian.com 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 A 26-year-old man who worked as a baggage handler at Portland International Airport was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of stealing six guns checked in passengers' luggage. Deshawn A. Kelly is alleged to have stolen from five people who checked their bags at the Portland airport between Aug. 28 and Sept. 18, court records show. All of them reported their handguns missing after getting their luggage back at their final destinations. A Portland police detective placed replica guns in bags twice as bait to determine who was swiping the firearms and narrowed it down to Kelly, according to a probable cause affidavit. Investigators searched Kelly's home Tuesday and found five of the six guns reported missing, and Kelly admitted taking them, the affidavit said. Court documents show he was convicted in July of attempted possession of a rented or leased motor vehicle, a felony under Oregon law barring him from having or handling guns. Kelly remains held Thursday in the Multnomah County Detention Center on accusations of first-degree theft and felon in possession of a firearm. The Port of Portland said Thursday that Kelly was employed at the airport through a contract company, confirmed he was suspected of stealing guns from luggage and mentioned that the case has been referred to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office and U.S. Attorney's Office for review. Kelly told court staff at the jail that he was fired from his job the day of his arrest, documents show. He said he'd been working there for seven months. Kelly reported taking the guns to help provide for his son and the boy's mother, the court papers said. He said the electricity had been cut off in their home and they were close to being evicted. According to the affidavit, police checked a bag with a replica gun inside on Sept. 11 and determined Kelly as the worker likely swiping the firearms. Another bag with a replica gun was sent through security six days later and Kelly was seen taking the bait bag and a passenger's bag with a firearm and later putting them back. The police bag had damaged locks, the affidavit said, and looked as if someone tried to pry the locks off the gun case. Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com 503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey A brazen thief who used a forklift to steal an ATM in Northwest Portland's Industrial District was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison. Skyler Jack Oberholtzer stole the forklift from a nearby business and uprooted the Wells Fargo ATM from its concrete base at 3275 N.W. 29th Ave. about 5 a.m. on Jan. 15. He then hauled the money machine to a warehouse about two blocks away. Despite all of his efforts, he couldn't break it open and left with no cash. Police tracked him down, in part, because of a work cellphone hed left behind. Police also connected Oberholtzer to another plan to steal an ATM, hatched just one day before he targeted Wells Fargo. Investigators say he broke into a Walgreens at 9855 S.W. Capitol Highway and was trying to remove an ATM at the store when he was interrupted by an arriving employee. Deputy District Attorney Nicole Jergovic said Oberholtzers crimes are unusual. There arent that many people who try to steal ATMs because its such a hassle, Jergovic said. Last month, Oberholtzer pleaded no contest in Multnomah County Circuit Court to first-degree aggravated theft and two counts of second-degree burglary for the attempts on the ATMs and another burglary at a small business along Southwest Barbur Boulevard. He also pleaded no contest to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Oberholtzer is building a record of oddball crimes. In 2016, he was convicted of criminal mischief after investigators say he intentionally drove a car into the Southeast Portland house of someone he knew. Also in 2016, he was convicted of assaulting a public safety officer after he sprayed a fire extinguisher into the mouth and eyes of a police officer in the lobby of Oregon Health & Science University. -- Aimee Green A 25-year-old woman is headed to prison for pepper-spraying a Southeast Portland husband and wife after they confronted her about stealing items from their yard sale. Katelyn Elizabeth Cantrell was stuffing clothes into her bag in full view of the couple. When they asked her to stop, she doused them with pepper spray and chased the husband with a knife, prosecutors said. Investigators said Cantrell stopped only when the couples adult son retrieved a shotgun from the house and pointed it at her. The family called 911, and Cantrell was arrested a short distance from the home in the Lents neighborhood, near Southeast 96th Avenue and Harold Street, on May 12. Cantrell on Wednesday pleaded no contest to unlawful use of a weapon and fourth-degree assault. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Angel Lopez sentenced her to 19 months. Deputy District Attorney Shawn Overstreet said he hopes the case serves as a wake-up call to Cantrell, who has a history of lashing out at others. I hope that Ms. Cantrell hears that this could have been much worse, Overstreet said. She could have been shot, possibly justifiably. Overstreet said given Cantrells history, his office was unwilling to agree to probation as part of her plea deal. Right now, Ms. Cantrell is a danger to this community, Overstreet said. Overstreet referenced a few recent arrests, including one on allegations that Cantrell quarreled with a Subway sandwich employee, then punched the employee. Prosecutors didn't file charges in the cases. Cantrell has been convicted of resisting arrest, attempted assault on a public safety officer and interfering with a public safety officer in the past, court records show. Police said she kicked police and tried to bribe them after they arrested her for allegedly stealing from a shed belonging to her father. Her mother also acquired a no-contact order against her, according to court records. Cantrell was homeless at the time of her most recent arrests. She has told authorities shes a methamphetamine user and has asked for treatment at times. But court records state that she also has shunned the idea of treatment or holding down a job, telling authorities, I dont agree with societal rules and (expletive). Im ... born to be a camper. Wednesday, the judge told Cantrell that she needs to find a new direction for her life. You absolutely terrorized a family for no reason -- other than you were in some kind of drug delirium, Lopez said. Thats got to stop. -- Aimee Green agreen@oregonian.com Intel admitted Friday that its factories are having trouble keeping up with demand, saying unexpected growth in the PC market has created tight supply for its microprocessors. The chipmaker said it has enough capacity to meet its sales forecasts, though. Intel announced earlier this year that it is spending an extra $1 billion on factories in Oregon, Arizona, Ireland and Israel to meet increased demand. "We continue to believe we will have at least the supply to meet the full-year revenue outlook we announced in July, which was $4.5 billion higher than our January expectations," interim chief executive Bob Swan wrote in an open letter to Intel customers Friday. Investors welcomed the news that Intel will at least meet its sales forecasts, pushing the stock up more than 3 percent in early trading. Intel has been hamstrung by persistent defects in its forthcoming 10-nanometer chip technology, which is already years behind schedule. Investment analysts believe Intel shifted some of its current, 14nm production to the new, 10nm standard betting that the new chips would be ready for mass production this year. When Intel couldn't deliver 10nm, though, analysts believe Intel was caught short. That could leave an opening for longtime rival Advanced Micro Devices to take market share from Intel, especially in the highly lucrative data center market that Intel dominates. Friday's announcement is Intel's first public confirmation of its production squeeze. Investors took it as a good sign, though, because Intel said it will meet its sales forecasts for this year. Swan said the company is making "progress" on its 10nm development process, now underway in Hillsboro, and still expects mass production of the new chips sometime next year. Intel shares climbed $1.49 Friday morning to $47.37; AMD shares fell 5.5 percent to $30.78 as investors grew less hopeful about that company's ability to capitalize on Intel's production issues. Intel's stock has traded between $57.60 and $37.70 in the past year and is down 10.5 percent since late June, when former CEO Brian Krzanich quit. He left abruptly after Intel uncovered what it called "a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee" in violation of company policy. Intel continues searching for a long-term replacement for Krzanich. Swan has said he is not a candidate for the job. -- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 During his contentious testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh repeatedly pointed out that the American Bar Association had given him its highest rating. Later in the day, however, the ABA added an unexpected caveat to its rating. In light of the credible accusations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh, the lawyer's group called on the U.S. Senate to delay its confirmation vote so that the FBI could investigation the allegations. "We make this request because of the ABA's respect for the rule of law and due process under law," the association stated. "The basic principles that underscore the Senate's constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI." .@ABAPresident sent a letter to leaders of @senjudiciary on Thursday, urging them to conduct a confirmation vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh only after the FBI completes a background check into the allegations by Professor Christine Blasey Ford and others. American Bar Association (@ABAesq) September 28, 2018 The White House has refused to reopen Kavanaugh's FBI background investigation, and Kavanaugh, nominated in July by Republican President Donald Trump, repeatedly declined on Thursday to say he wanted the FBI to investigate the charges. Kavanaugh's accuser, psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, has asked for an FBI investigation -- as have the Judiciary Committee's Democratic senators. The ABA, writes the law association's journal, "evaluates nominees based on professional competence, integrity and judicial temperament." Many Kavanaugh critics, such as Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe, argue that the federal judge's angry, highly partisan testimony on Thursday calls into question whether in fact he has the appropriate judicial temperament to sit on the highest court. The rage Judge Kavanaugh displayed, apart from its bearing on his judicial temperament, exposed the dark side of a guy who seemed fully capable of getting sloshed, doing exactly what Dr. Ford described, laughing as he did it, and barely remembering the next day what he had done. Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) September 27, 2018 Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, announced this morning that the committee plans to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination early this afternoon. -- Douglas Perry A well-respected political commentator put out a scary tweet on Thursday after embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's angry, highly partisan U.S. Senate testimony: "Today felt very much like an update of the 1850s: Two very distinct parts of U.S. that no longer care to even fake that they respect or value the other," wrote Ron Brownstein. "Like [President] Trump, Kavanaugh built his strategy on rallying one side of that divide vs the other. Seams are unraveling -- not just on SCOTUS." Another American civil war would, without question, be a terrible thing. But should the idea of the U.S. amicably breaking apart scare us? Maybe it should be welcomed and vigorously debated. Michael Malice, the author of cultural commentary and various humor books, pointed out in a 2016 Observer article that the United States has "never been united culturally." Which made him question our determination to remain united politically. "The real conundrum," he wrote, "is why two cultures should attempt to move forward as one unit when they are increasingly diverging in their world views -- and never had the same worldview to begin with." (Malice posited this argument chiefly in terms of so-called urban elites looking down on "flyover country." "At some point American progressives need to stop viewing the South as their whipping boy, being perpetually flagellated for its sins," he wrote. "It's long past time to allow Kansans to live as they see fit, regardless of how wrongheaded they may sound -- instead of wondering 'What's the Matter with Kansas?' True, a house divided against itself cannot stand. But some houses don't need to remain standing at all." He could be right. Let's let Kansans be Kansans -- and so on. Most everyone might end up being happier in the end. Keep in mind: Thanks in part to the "Great Compromise of 1787," the Founding Fathers set up the U.S. political system in such a way as to potentially frustrate the desires of the majority of the people and reward a resolute and united minority. Consider this tweet from Cook Political Report editor Dave Wasserman during the Kavanaugh hearing: To Dems who cant believe what theyre watching, remember: a majority of the Senate now represents 18% of the population & answers to a subset of voters that is considerably whiter, redder and more rural than the nation as a whole. Thats the reality of our times. Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 27, 2018 Republicans are well aware of this perilous state of affairs. Offered Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in 2012: "The demographics race we're losing badly. We're not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term." Graham, whose state has been derided as "Trumpistan," has been the Judiciary committee's most-vigorous defender of Kavanaugh, who faces credible accusations of sexual assault. He said Thursday that the attacks on Kavanaugh marked "the beginning of a process that will tear this country apart." Note to Graham: The country was torn apart long before the American public had ever heard of Brett Kavanaugh. Thus the recent renewed interest in secession, from Tennessee to California. California is actually taking serious steps toward secession. "Calexit" backers have sought various ballot initiatives to split up the state or remove it from the union. Now they're taking a new, rather novel approach. "The plan," the Washington Times wrote earlier this month, "is to convince 25 of the 31 Republican-held [state] legislatures to pass 'consent to secede' resolutions, then place the question before California voters in the form of a ballot measure, instead of vice versa." Stated California secession campaigner Louis Marinelli: "We are going to rely on the deep hatred for California that exists in red America." (Strangely enough, Marinelli, an American citizen, lives in Russia, leading to suggestions he's a pawn of Russian President Vladimir Putin.) Let's face it, regardless of Marinelli's reason for making his home in Yekaterinburg, the unique effort to weaponize conservative states' hatred for California almost certainly won't work. Still, Calexit is an interesting movement. And this much we do know from history: As California goes, so goes the nation. If the Golden State broke away, Oregon and Washington might join them to create a progressive West Coast empire. (They might even invite purple states Arizona and Nevada to join them.) The American South, as the Confederacy's brief history and the region's longtime voting record show, makes sense as its own nation. The Northeast, perhaps pushing as far west as Illinois and Wisconsin, could happily live together. The big question mark would be the vast, mostly rural middle. Would they want to be their own, land-locked country or countries -- or would many of those states seek to attach themselves to more populous and economically more powerful coastal political unions that would put them in the ideological minority? The whole idea of secession, if taken seriously, would make for a fascinating national debate about who we are as Americans and what we truly want. It's a debate that, frankly, we need to have -- especially if we decide, ultimately, to remain one, big country. Of course, the whole question of whether the U.S. Constitution even allows secession is somewhat up in the air. (The U.S. Supreme Court in 1869's Texas V. White determined that the U.S. is "an indestructible union," except possibly through consent of the states.) If Calexit backers have their way, this question might be something Brett Kavanaugh, assuming the divisive nominee is elevated to the country's highest court, ends up helping to clarify for the rest of us. -- Douglas Perry WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gained the support of a key Republican senator Friday, virtually ensuring his nomination will advance to the full Senate a day after he adamantly denied the high-school-years sexual assault of a woman who testified she was "100 percent" sure he was guilty. The vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee was set for 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley announced as the panel gaveled to order. Emotions running high, several Democratic senators walked out for a time in protest. Moments before the panel convened, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a member of the committee, announced he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh. He said the judge was entitled to the "presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence." "While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senate's advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the Constitution's provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well," Flake said. "I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh." The maneuvering followed an emotional day of testimony from both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford that exposed divisions over justice, fairness and who should be believed. Coming weeks before the midterm elections, it ensured the debate would play into the fight for control of Congress. As lawmakers wrangled over process, protesters swarmed Capitol Hill. Two women cornered Flake in an elevator and, through tears, implored him to change his mind. Attention turned to a handful of undecided moderates in both parties, most notably Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, two Republicans who have been willing to buck party leaders before. Neither has said whether she would vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Democrats running in tough re-election races this fall also faced pressure over their decisions. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, who is faces a difficult contest in a swing state, announced he was voting against Kavanaugh, as did Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, who is seeking re-election in a state President Donald Trump won handily in 2016. "The allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh are disturbing and credible," Donnelly said in a statement. "In the interest of getting as much information as possible, I believe the allegations should be investigated by the FBI." Democrats are also pushing to subpoena Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh who Ford testified was a witness to the alleged assault. Judge has said he does not recall the incident, and a Democratic motion to subpoena him was blocked by Republicans in a vote. Several Democrats, including Kamala Harris of California and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, walked out of the hearing room. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said it was as if Judge had "effectively nailed a do not disturb sign, and apparently the Republicans on this committee are satisfied." Leahy said it's not that Democrats are trying to delay the nomination ahead of the congressional elections as Republicans contend. "This is about doing our job," he said. Meanwhile, there were signs that Thursday's remarkable testimony before the panel -- in which Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ford recounted the moment in which she says he attacked her -- had registered negatively with two organizations whose support Kavanaugh had earlier received. The American Bar Association, which previously gave Kavanaugh its highest rating of "well qualified," asked the Senate committee and the full Senate to delay their votes until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims -- something President Donald Trump has refused to order. Grassley, too, has refused. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that Friday, telling reporters that Kavanaugh has already "been through six separate background investigations by the FBI." Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and "should be withdrawn." "If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a woman's report of an assault," the "America" editors wrote. "Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country." Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Roman Catholic faith and his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgetown Prep school in Maryland. Meanwhile, former President George W. Bush has been advocating for Kavanaugh with wavering senators in recent days, according to a person familiar with Bush's outreach who wasn't authorized to speak publicly. The White House said it was also engaging with wavering GOP senators, but provided few details. Flake's decision has been among the most watched, and he had told reporters it was "a tough call" as he left the Capitol late Thursday. The Arizonan had been holed up with other key senators -- Collins, Murkowski, and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia -- after the daylong hearing in Collins' hide-away office on the third floor in the Capitol. At the private meeting of GOP senators late Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led a round of applause for Grassley as well as Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina senator's dramatic defense of Kavanaugh at the hearing. But Collins raised questions, including her interest in hearing testimony from Judge, according to a GOP aide familiar with the session but unauthorized to discuss it and granted anonymity. To satisfy her, the committee released a letter from Judge reiterating late Thursday that he did not recall the incident and explaining that as a "recovering alcoholic and a cancer survivor" he has "struggled with depression and anxiety" and avoids public speaking. It was unclear if that resolved Collins' interest in asking him to appear. Thursday's testimony appeared to have only sharpened the partisan divide over Trump's nominee. Republicans praised Ford's bravery in coming forward, but many of them said her account won't affect their support for Kavanaugh. At the daylong session, Ford and Kavanaugh both said the event and the public controversy that has erupted 36 years later had altered their lives forever and for the worse -- perhaps the only thing they agreed on. Telling her story in person for the first time, Ford, a California psychology professor, quietly told the nation and the Senate Judiciary Committee her long-held secret of the alleged assault in locked room at a gathering of friends when she was just 15. The memory -- and Kavanaugh's laughter during the act -- was "locked" in her brain, she said: "100 percent." Hours later, Kavanaugh angrily denied it, alternating a loud, defiant tone with near tears as he addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee. "You have replaced 'advice and consent' with 'search and destroy,'" he said, referring to the Constitution's charge to senators' duties in confirming high officials. Trump's tweet later used the same "search and destroy" language. Repeatedly Democrats asked Kavanaugh to call for an FBI investigation into the claims. He did not. "I welcome whatever the committee wants to do," he said. Republicans are reluctant for several reasons, including the likelihood that further investigations could push a vote past the November elections that may switch Senate control back to the Democrats and make consideration of any Trump nominee more difficult. --The Associated Press Though it was a dramatic display of deep divisions within the country, Thursday's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, featuring testimony by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both in high school, was watched or listened to by millions of people. The Hollywood Reporter today says that some 11 million viewers saw the coverage on the three cable news channels, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC. The hosts of late-night comedy shows, naturally, all addressed the hearings during their shows Thursday night (or early Friday). Here's a look at how they handled it: On "Late Night With Seth Meyers," the host devoted one of his signature "A Closer Look" segments to the Kavanaugh hearing, while taking time for a drive-by burn of President Donald Trump -- a favorite target of Meyers' -- and Donald Trump, Jr., who Meyers called a "melted-down Beavis." Referring to Kavanaugh's statement that the sexual assault allegations were a "political hit" job orchestrated for reasons including "revenge on behalf of the Clintons," Meyers said, "Republicans always act like they're in a slasher film, and the killer around the corner is Hillary Clinton." Here's the segment: Meyers had plenty of company. Stephen Colbert, who has made slams against Trump a key part of his nightly monologues, also weighed in during : And more: Jimmy Fallon, who's considered one of the less-political late-night hosts, also used the Kavanaugh hearing as material for his monologue. Fallon noted that Trump was reportedly clearing his schedule to watch, but then noticed "his schedule already said, 'Watch TV all day.'" Here are more examples of late-night hosts on the Kavanaugh hearings, beginning with Jimmy Kimmel on his ABC show: And here's an Englishman's perspective, courtesy of And finally, Trevor Noah had his say, too, on "The Daily Show": -- Kristi Turnquist kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist All sorts of movie and TV projects shoot in Oregon, but over the years, it's the work done by visitors to our state that tends to get the most attention, whether it's the NBC series "Grimm," or "The Goonies." But a new project called the Portland Circuit aims to provide some big-screen exposure for movies that are truly Oregon made. The Portland Circuit is a collaboration between the Northwest Film Center, the Hollywood Theatre, the Clinton Street Theater, Cinema 21 and the #OregonMade Creative Foundation, which was created by the Oregon Film office in partnership with the Charitable Partnership Fund. It's now a nonprofit foundation intended to provide opportunities and grant support for Oregon creators. As the press release from the Oregon Film office says, the Portland Circuit is starting with a pilot project in which feature-length films will screen for a paying audience in four of Portland's independent theater spaces. The films will have theatrical screenings at the participating theaters. Launching the Portland Circuit project is "Sex Weather," the sixth feature film from writer-director Jon Garcia. The film stars Al'Jaleel McGhee as Darrel, a filmmaker who, as the press release says, wakes up the morning after the premiere of his film to discover that he's in bed with Sydney (Amber Stonebraker), a crew member. From the release: "As they begin to discuss the previous evening and tepid reviews of the film, emotions give rise to a passionate and thoughtful relationship that once could have been if either had taken the chance." "Sex Weather" will begin its trip through the Portland Circuit on Monday, Oct. 1, with a screening at the Hollywood Theater; a Tuesday, Oct. 2 screening at the Northwest Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium; a Wednesday, Oct. 3 screening at Cinema 21; and a Thursday, Oct. 4 screening at the Clinton Street Theater. Garcia and crew members will be at all screenings for a question-and-answer session following the film. Tickets to the screenings will be $9, and all showings begin at 7 p.m. -- Kristi Turnquist kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist Fox News has their top line of journalists hosting todays panel around the Christine Ford hearings, but its still Fox News, so you know that theres a certain ideological line that theyre incentivized to fall on to today, but their star anchor, Chris Wallace, is eschewing that state-TV trope. Both he and Bret Baier remarked about how credible Dr. Ford has been, and Wallace didnt mince words in how hea journalist of 54 yearsinterpreted the hearings from his conservative perspective. On Fox News, Bret Baier says hearing from Blasey Ford "is a totally different thing" than reading her allegations. Chris Wallace: "This was extremely emotional, extremely raw, and extremely credible This is a disaster for the Republicans." pic.twitter.com/aSbznSJdHC David Mack (@davidmackau) September 27, 2018 He's right, the optics of this are a nightmare for Republicans, not to mention how incoherent these 5-minute bursts of questioning are (plus, Christine Ford named Mark Judge as a co-conspirator to all this, and the GOP has refused to talk to him, preferring to make this look like a he-said, she-said situation). This is what Christine Blasey Ford is looking at as she describes her sexual assault. pic.twitter.com/GGxmuHnNpZ Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) September 27, 2018 Republican Senator Orrin Hatch highlighted exactly why the septuagenarians in the GOP are having a woman cross-examine Dr. Ford (and not just because the GOP has never put a woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee). Happened in a gaggle of reporters, and another woman amd I shared an unmistakable did he really say that? look afterward. Kate Irby (@kateirby) September 27, 2018 The demographic split interpreting this hearing is impossible to ignore. Two male callers to CSPAN: one says Blasey Ford is lying, the other said he would take her out to the woodshed (if I heard correctly). One 76 year old woman caller says, weeping, she was molested in 2nd grade and that this testimony is bringing all the memories back. Clare Malone (@ClareMalone) September 27, 2018 And to the why don't women report sexual assault? crowd, Chris Wallace has an anecdote that's pretty instructive. It's partially because of you folks, who create a culture of intimidation that makes it incredibly difficult and painful to come forward with accusations. Dr. Ford's heroism has pushed back against that culture, following the #MeToo movement in creating room to publicly talk about one of the worst days of a person's life. Fox News' CHRIS WALLACE says in wake of Kavanaugh allegations "two of my daughters have told me stories that I have never heard before about things that happened in high school & hadn't told their parents I don't this we can disregard Ford and the seriousness of this." pic.twitter.com/5lKaTDo9Cy Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 27, 2018 This is a dark day in America, but there are glimmers of light shining through the clouds, as we have entered a new world where women are to be believed. Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling. As September comes to an end in Italy, fall is reaching its glory: temperatures have cooled and brought balmy days and crisp evenings, a few heavy storms have cleared the last of the summer haze from the air and brought picture-perfect skies, and the autumn leaves and sunsets are tinged with red and orange. (Photo by CiuTravel via Flickr) This golden moment of autumn, perfect for outdoor touring, is fleeting; in October and November, the weather will turn to nippy winds and sudden showers that usher in winter. Rather than spending long days in the open air, youll want to be inside where its warm and drythe perfect excuse for ducking into a museum or art gallery. If you need to come in out of the cold, here are a number of excellent art exhibitions scheduled through the end of the year across Italy: 1948: the Biennale of Peggy Guggenheim The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Venice From May 25th to November 25th, 2018 More information: see here Seventy years after Peggy Guggenheim first opened her collection, her eponymous foundation is celebrating one of the most important collections of modern art in Italy by commemorating the rooms that were set up by Peggy at the XXIV Biennale di Venezia together with Carlo Scarpa in 1948 at the Greek Pavilion. The show will include multimedia exhibits and photographs illustrating the pavilion, and a 3D model of the exhibition layout. This 1948 exhibition was an important moment in Peggy Guggenheims evolution as a collector and curator, and led to her deciding to open her collection to the public. (Photo by CiuTravel via Flickr) Though no new works are being displayed, this is the perfect occasion to see the masterpieces collected by Peggy Guggenheim over her lifetime and installed in her palace on the Grand Canal. Take in works by Picasso, Magritte, and Pollock and enjoy incredible views of the Grand Canal. Jacopo Tintoretto Palazzo Ducale, Venice From Sept 7th, 2018 to Jan 6th, 2019 More information: see here Marking the 500th anniversary of the birth of the 16th-century Venetian master Jacopo Tintoretto, this is a major exhibition that gathers 50 paintings and 20 drawings from museums across the globe, displaying them together with the artists in situ fresco cycles, painted for the Doges palace between 1564 and 1592. One of the major figures of the Venetian Renaissance school, Tintoretto was a bold visionary, who broke from the traditional style of Titian and whose innovative works represent an important turning point in the history of Venetian art. (Photo by Allie_Caulfield via Flickr) Marina Abramovic Palazzo Strozzi, Florence From Sept 21st, 2018 to Jan 20th, 2019 More information: see here One of the most controversial figures in contemporary art, the performance artist Marina Abramovic is the subject of a sweeping retrospective in Florences Palazzo Strozzi, including more than 100 works that illustrate the evolution of the Serbin artists career over the past 40 years. Abramovic is known for using her body to explore the relationship between performer and audience, and the exhibition will include videos and reinterpretations of her works. (Photo by Andrew Russeth via Flickr) Andy Warhol Complesso del Vittoriano Ala Brasini, Rome From Oct 3rd, 2018 to Feb 3rd, 2019 More information: see here One of the most iconic artists of the 20th century, Andy Warhol would have been 90 this year. To commemorate this visionary pop artist, 170 works will take viewers on an artistic journey beginning with his Pop Art origins in the 1960s, when he revolutionized contemporary art with his screen prints of Campbells Soup, followed by images of Elvis, Marilyn, Coca-Cola, and others. The exhibition follows the evolution of the Warhols work over the decades and demonstrates how he influenced not only the art world, but also music, cinema, and fashion. This retrospective in Rome is an amuse bouche for one of the most anticipated and unprecedented events in 2019: an exhibition dedicated to Warhols religious-themed works, scheduled to take place at the Braccio di Carlo Magno in St Peters Square, where Warhola devout Catholicmet Pope John Paul II in 1980, and will include paintings from his Last Supper series and memento mori-inspired works, like his skull silkscreen series. Jackson Pollock Complesso del Vittoriano Ala Brasini, Rome From Oct 10th, 2018 to Feb 24th, 2019 More information: see here This exhibition celebrates a number of the most important artists from the Abstract Expressionist group of the New York School, that included avant-garde painters, poets, dancers, and musicians in the 1950s and 1960s. The most famous member of the movement was Jackson Pollock, known for his experimental paint dripping technique often called action painting. The exhibition includes around 50 works, including Pollocks stunning Number 27, aside works by peers like Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline. This extraordinary event includes works loaned from the prestigious Whitney Museum in New York, and is one of the most anticipated of 2018. Leonardo da Vincis Codex Leicester Uffizi Gallery, Florence From October 29th, 2018 to January 20th, 2019 More information: see here Leonardos Leicester Codex, now in the private collection of Bill Gates, will be returning to Italy for the first time in two decades to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the luminarys death. The Uffizis Aula Magliabechiana will be host the Codex and visitors will be able to leaf through its 72 pages of notes and sketches dating from 1504 to 1508 via a multimedia tool. Picasso: Metamorfosi Uffizi Gallery, Florence From October 18th, 2018 to February 17th, 2019 More information: see here One of the most important exhibitions in Milan this year, this group of 200 pieces that juxtapose the Spanish authors art with that of the ancients, has been curated to illustrate Picassos relationship with myth and legend through his career. Fauns, centaurs, and minotaurs frequently figure in his work as a comment on anything from the violence of war to unbridled eroticism, and the Spanish artist often reinvented iconic myths in his depictions. Another chapter in the Worley & Obetz saga has been completed with the purchase of the former company's assets. Massachusetts company, Diesel Direct has purchased the physical assets of the former Worley & Obetz company, which were approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Sept. 18. And a Lancaster-based fuel and HVAC company immediately plans to purchase several divisions of the former Worley & Obetz company from Diesel Direct, an onsite mobile fueling company. Rhoads Energy plans to take over the propane division which serves residential, farm and small-business customers; the HVAC installation and maintenance division which serves residential and commercial customers; the Amerigreen residential and commercial natural gas division, and the Amerigreen wholesale propane division. Rhoads expects to begin operations as soon as the deal closes which the company says could be as early as Friday (today). Rhoads will operate those services from its Lancaster headquarters on Prince Street. Diesel Direct will make the former Worley & Obetz location at 85 White Oak Road in Penn Township, Lancaster County, its new headquarters for Pennsylvania and operate all services from that facility. The facility is expected to reopen on Monday. Diesel Direct will take over Worley & Obetz's heating oil and diesel division. Diesel Direct will provide fleet fueling services, commercial service for storage tanks and heating oil for former Worley & Obetz customers. Rhoads Energy's purchase includes equipment, trucks and other assets -- including propane tanks installed at the homes of thousands of former Worley & Obetz customers. Rhoads Energy will honor the remaining terms of Worley & Obetz service contracts for all customers who choose to renew their plans with Rhoads Energy, the company said in a press release. Diesel Direct and Rhoads plan to immediately reach out to former Worley & Obetz customers. All former Worley & Obetz employees are encouraged to contact Diesel Direct and Rhoads Energy about employment opportunities, the companies said in a joint press release. Background Back in May, the CEO of the former Worley & Obetz went missing and was later found safe. The company later confirmed to news outlets that there was an investigation into fraud. That investigation triggered a chain of events forcing Worley & Obetz, which provided bioheating oil, biodiesel, propane, gasoline, natural gas and electricity services, and related companies to close, file for bankruptcy and layoff hundreds of employees. The closing also affected its customers, and several banks including Fulton Bank also announced major losses. In June, a former Worley & Obetz executive, announced the launch of Seth Energy, a new division of Shipley Energy. Charges were filed in August against the former CEO and the former controller of Worley & Obetz. Police say they worked together to use funds that covered the former CEO's $1 million credit card debt. The investigation is ongoing. The hunt for accused child rapist David Hamilton has shifted based on a new sighting of the fugitive police are considering as armed and dangerous. According to 6ABC, the 47-year-old Hamilton wanted for the alleged sexual assault on two young sisters in Bucks County, Pa., was last seen between 10 and 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in New Castle County, Delaware. Police say Hamilton was inside a stolen white 2016 Toyota Avalon, bearing PA registration number PD3-759P. The vehicle was reported stolen from a residence in Solebury Township, Bucks County, 6ABC reports, adding: The search is now nearing a full week, led by the U.S. Marshals, which says, "He is a top priority right now." After a warrant was issued for his arrest on the sexual assault charges last week, Hamilton was spotted on a bicycle in Trenton, New Jersey, and later he was found in New Hope, Bucks County, 6ABC reports. Hamilton managed to escape from an officer in New Hope, and was later photographed by a hunter in a wooded area nearby. Police say Hamilton has a military background, with 20 years in the Army - and he may be camping in a white tent with a red top. Hamilton is five-feet, 11-inches tall and weighs around 180 pounds. He is considered armed and dangerous. There is a $1,000 reward being offered for information leading to his arrest. Anyone with information is urged to call the U.S. Marshals Tipline at 1-866-865-TIPS(8477). Gwendolyn Anderson fought for her life, fought to remain with her two children. The 29-year-old mother had been shot in the head by a patron she knew at the West Philadelphia bar where she worked, as 6ABC reports. Yet as police arrived the Studio 7 Lounge around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, she was still alive, suffering from that gunshot to the head that seemed to come out of the blue as she worked the bar. Police tell 6ABC Anderson was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, but there her fight ended. She was pronounced dead, leaving those two children of hers behind. Police say the man who took their mom away from them is a 52-year-old patron of the bar who knew Anderson. After he fired the shots at the bartender, the suspect dashed out of the bar and ran down Spruce Street toward nearby houses, police say. That's where he allegedly used the same gun to shoot himself in the head - but survived, police say. The suspect, still not named by police, was taken to a hospital and remains in critical condition. At the scene, police found a handgun under the man's body. But they're still trying to piece together the connection between the bartender and the patron accused of killing her: "We don't know the relationship between him and the bartender, but we know they know one another," Philadelphia Police Lt. Johnny Walker told 6ABC. The investigation continues. WASHINGTON (AP) -- After a flurry of last-minute negotiations, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Brett Kavanaugh's nomination for the Supreme Court after agreeing to a late call from Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona for a one week investigation into sexual assault allegations against the high court nominee. However, it's unclear if Republican leaders -- or President Donald Trump -- will support Flake's call for the investigation or might instead press forward with a full Senate vote on Kavanaugh's nomination. The dramatic scene unfolded a day after Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testified in an emotional, hours-long hearing. Kavanaugh angrily denied the allegations that he assaulted Ford while they were both in high school, while she said she was "100 percent" certain he was her attacker. Flake, a key moderate Republican, was at the center of the drama and uncertainty. On Friday morning, he announced that he would support Kavanaugh's nomination. Shortly after, he was confronted in an elevator by two women who, through tears, implored him to change his mind. After huddling privately with his colleagues, Flake announced that he would vote to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate the allegations against the judge. Democrats have been calling for such an investigation, though Republicans and the White House have insisted it's unnecessary. President Donald Trump says he'll leave it to the Senate to determine when it will vote on his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But Trump is expressing optimism, saying: "I'm sure it will all be very good." Trump told reporters Friday during a meeting with the President of Chile that undecided Republican senators "have to do what they think is right" and "be comfortable with themselves" on the Kavanaugh vote. But he said he hadn't thought at all about a replacement, "Not even a little bit." WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gained the support of a key Republican senator Friday, virtually ensuring his nomination will advance to the full Senate a day after he adamantly denied the high-school-years sexual assault of a woman who testified she was "100 percent" he was guilty. The vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee was set for 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley announced as the panel gaveled to order. More: Emotions running high, several Democratic senators walked out for a time in protest. Moments before the panel convened, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a member of the panel, announced he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh, who he said was entitled to the "presumption of innocence ... absent corroborating evidence." "While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senate's advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the Constitution's provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well," Flake said. "I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh." Tensions were high inside and outside the hearing room and protesters swarmed Capitol Hill. Two women cornered Flake in an elevator and, through tears, implored him to change his mind. "Frankly, we've reached a point where it's time end the circus," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in opening remarks. "It's time to show some dignity around here. It's time to vote." As soon as the committee opened, Democrats offered a motion to subpoena Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh who Christine Blasey Ford testified was a witness to the alleged assault. Judge has said he does not recall the incident, and the motion offered by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. was blocked by Republicans in a vote. Blumenthal and several other Democrats, including Kamala Harris of California and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, then walked out of the hearing room. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said it was like the potential witness had "effectively nailed a do not disturb sign, and apparently the Republicans on this committee are satisfied." Leahy said it's not that Democrats are trying to delay the nomination ahead of the midterm elections as Republicans contend. "This is about doing our job," he said. One Democrat not on the committee, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, added his name to the opposition. Nelson, who faces a tough re-election this fall in the swing state, announced Friday he was voting against Kavanaugh. Meanwhile, there were signs that Thursday's remarkable testimony before the panel -- in which Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ford calmly recounted the moment in which she says he attacked her -- had registered negatively with two organizations whose support Kavanaugh had earlier received. The American Bar Association, which previously gave Kavanaugh its highest rating of "well qualified," asked the Senate committee and the full Senate to delay their votes until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims -- something President Donald Trump has refused to order. Grassley, too, has refused. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that Friday, telling reporters that Kavanaugh has already "been through six separate background investigations by the FBI." Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and "should be withdrawn." "If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a woman's report of an assault," the "America" editors wrote. "Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country." Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Roman Catholic faith and his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgetown Prep school in Maryland. Trump is publicly standing by his nominee. "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," he tweeted late Thursday. "The Senate must vote!" Flake's decision has been among the most watched, and he had told reporters it was "a tough call" as he left the Capitol late Thursday. The Arizonan had been holed up with other key senators -- Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia -- after the daylong hearing. Thursday's testimony appeared to have only sharpened the partisan divide over Trump's nominee. Republicans praised Ford's bravery in coming forward, but many of them said her account won't affect their support for Kavanaugh. At the daylong session, Ford and Kavanaugh both said the event and the public controversy that has erupted 36 years later had altered their lives forever and for the worse -- perhaps the only thing they agreed on. Telling her story in person for the first time, Ford, a California psychology professor, quietly told the nation and the Senate Judiciary Committee her long-held secret of the alleged assault in locked room at a gathering of friends when she was just 15. The memory -- and Kavanaugh's laughter during the act -- was "locked" in her brain, she said: "100 percent." Hours later, Kavanaugh angrily denied it, alternating a loud, defiant tone with near tears as he addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee. "You have replaced 'advice and consent' with 'search and destroy,'" he said, referring to the Constitution's charge to senators' duties in confirming high officials. Trump's tweet later used the same "search and destroy" language. By LISA MASCARO, ALAN FRAM and CATHERINE LUCEY, Associated Press Nancy Eshelman When you boil it down, a huge part of a physician's job is eliminating pain. Dr. Richard Magill did plenty of that in his 50 years of treating patients. Now Magill, who celebrated his 87th birthday this week, continues battling pain in a new field. Magill is the medical director of PA Green Medical. If the name is unfamiliar, the topic shouldn't be. PA Green certifies that applicants meet the necessary requirements to purchase medical marijuana in Pennsylvania. Magill closed his Susquehanna Twp. practice in 2015. Over the years, he said, he delivered 2,000 babies, treated four generations of patients and worked 90 hours a week. He worked so hard that his wife Patricia jokes, "We've been married 42 years, and I've only seen him four or five." She said Magill was retired "about 15 minutes" before deciding he was bored. Luckily for him, PA Green pursued him for the medical director's job. "I was immediately hooked," Magill said. "It's probably the most rewarding thing I've ever done." One of the first patients he saw, Magill said, was a dentist with a hand tremor. "He was looking at forced retirement," Magill said. Medical marijuana enabled him to lose the tremor and continue working. He sees people with cancer and Parkinson's disease and those who have been dependent on opioids to get through their days. "One of the phrases I hear most is 'It's been a life changer,'" Magill said. The state has a list of conditions that may qualify a person to use medical marijuana. They range from autism to sickle cell anemia. Medical marijuana can alleviate suffering with "no buzz, no rush, no high," Magill said. Apparently, people are willing to try it. About 85,000 have signed up with the state's medical marijuana program. One of them is Patricia Magill, who uses a marijuana cream to alleviate arthritis pain. "It's amazing for pain," she said. Dr. Magill's story is a bit amazing in itself. The Harrisburg native grew up on Penn Street and was a member of the 1949 class at William Penn High School. In his junior year, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve because he "liked the uniform." Little did he expect to be called up to serve in the Korean War. After his service, he enrolled in Dickinson College as one of 113 pre-med students. Of those, only 13 went on to attend medical school. Magill said he wasn't smarter than those who didn't continue, just more determined. He not only had a wife and three children depending on him, but because he had been placed in commercial courses in high school, he had to squeeze in some college pre-requisites while he was a freshman in college. After medical school at Temple University, he returned to Harrisburg to practice. He called that work "a labor of love." Magill's patients knew they could call him day or night, and he would respond. It wasn't unusual, Pat said, for him to meet sick patients in his office at 1 a.m. or on weekends. His energy continues to be amazing, his wife said. At 87, he arises every day at 4 a.m., works through an exercise program and then runs two miles. He's off to work by 8:30 for nine or 10 hours. Since the couple has traveled extensively, Magill said his bucket list these days isn't very long. He laughed and said, "My bucket list is to go to work tomorrow." NANCY ESHELMAN: columnist1@verizon.net As the moments ticked down toward a Senate Judiciary Committee vote, about 20 protesters gathered in front of the federal courthouse in Harrisburg at noon Friday to oppose Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. The protest came a day after Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford testified about Ford's claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party when they were both in high school. Anti-Kavanaugh protesters rally at U.S. courthouse in Harrisburg Posted by PennLive.com on Friday, September 28, 2018 The nomination of Kavanaugh, who denied Ford's allegations, it to be voted on by the Judiciary Committee at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Tuesdays with Toomey, MomsRising, Indivisible Pennsylvania, and Why Courts Matter Pennsylvania organized the rally at the courthouse entrance on Walnut Street. Signs bashing Kavanaugh in particular and Republican lawmakers were visible. The largest banner read "Believe Survivors." Ever since they went public in September with the horrific narrative of their sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted family priest, five sisters from the Fortney family have become de facto advocates for victims everywhere. This week at the heels of the passage in the House of a bill that would reform the state's child sex crime laws, Saundra Fortney-Colello, Lara Fortney-McKeever, Patty Fortney-Julius and Jeanne Fortney-Webster took their message to the state Capitol. Their mission: to convince members of the Senate - who now have under final consideration Senate Bill 261 - to ratify the legislation, which among its broad measures would open up a temporary retroactive window allowing time-barred victims to file civil suits. Victims like the Fortney sisters say the retroactive measure would bring justice and healing to victims. "I know for me that window is the most important thing," said Lara Fortney-McKeever. "It's not a gray area. It's a black or white area. Politicians are hiding behind arguments that it denies justice and they are just arguments. They shouldn't be deciding constitutionality. ... That's the job for the Supreme Court. That window will expose the pedophile at the top of the organization or anyone working at any church." This week, the sisters, some of whom live in Dauphin County, others in Cumberland County, knocked on the doors of legislators to lobby for the bill and its retroactive provision. They even sent to lawmakers a video made by one of the sisters of her breakdown after walking away disheartened from the offices of lawmakers. The Fortney sisters came away with mixed messages. They say they were treated with respect by lawmakers and their staff, and that they had good conversations with lawmakers, in particular the majority's Republican leadership. And while some lawmakers expressed a willingness to consider the bill, many, the sisters said, echoed fateful messages long heard over the years since the battle to reform the law began. Republican senators, they said, in particular Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Centre) and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R- Jefferson), said the amended bill had "glaring problems" and was unconstitutional. "I'm sick of it. I'm sick of all the talk," said Lara Fortney-McKeever. "We are not stopping. If they don't support this bill next week, they are going to have to support it eventually. We are not stopping. They are hiding behind the constitutionality agreement. Leave that to the judges and the scholars." Saundra Fortney-Colello said Scarnati told her he didn't want victims to think the retroactive provision was a "magic pill." "He didn't use the words 'big pay day' ... but he said you are going to be tied up in court," she said. "I said wait a minute. Don't you realize that for most victims the main reason they want this window is that people who are still out there molesting are exposed? The motive is not financial, not that people don't need money for counseling." The five sisters come from an 11-member family raised in Dauphin County. They were sexually abused by Father Augustine Giella in the 1980s. After 26 years of living in silence, the sisters this fall broke their silence and began to share their story with media outlets. Their stories of abuse are detailed in the grand jury report - and at times detail horrific accounts of abuse at the hands of Giella. "He used his role as a priest as a weapon," said Patty Fortney-Julius. The youngest, Carolyn Fortney, now 37, testified before the grand jury empaneled by Pa. Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Carolyn Fortney testified she was just 18 months old when Giella was transferred to St. John the Evangelist Church in Swatara Township, after serving for decades in New Jersey. Fortney told the grand jury Giella began abusing her almost immediately. In time, Giella would come to sexually abuse five of the sisters. He died in 1993 at age 72 while awaiting trial. Police found in his home girls' underwear, vials of urine and photos of naked children, including Carolyn Fortney, the youngest of the siblings. The sisters say they still know priests who are predators and who remain in ministry. They say they are not daunted by the battle ahead in the fight for retroactivity. "This or a form of this bill has gone through three grand juries," said Jeanne Fortney-Webster. "Nothing has been done by the Legislature to rectify any of the statute of limitations. The two-year window has been recommended ... The reason was so that victims can get some justice and some restitution. Right now that restitution is in the hands of taxpayers funding social services. The Catholic Church has hijacked the payout and they now want to form a fund that hopefully will eliminate the two year window." Bishops are widely gotten behind a proposal to establish a victims fund, which will largely take the place of civil suits. The Fortney sisters said that lawmakers this week threw out a litany of reasons as to why SB261 was ill-fated, signaling a certain defeat, which resonates with what Scarnati has said - that only a change in the constitution can open a path to retroactivity. Among those roadblocks were arguments that the bill does not include all the recommendations handed by the grand jury. "Those are talking points," Jeanne Fortney-Webster said. "Senators know darn well they are not achievable but they are putting it out there for people who don't know what they are talking about. It's a big ruse." Overall, the sisters said that their conversations with lawmakers were filled with "common threads," including claims that their constituents did not seem to be bothered by the issue as few had reached out to them. "Scarnati, based on our conversation, his opinion and perception of what victims want is a bit skewed," said Saundra Fortney-Colello. "The impression we got is that he really does think it's about money and he really did say he felt that it would be disservice because they don't know what they are getting into..that they are going to be tied up in court for years for six to eight years." Patty Fortney-Julies says she and her sisters are determined to get the bill passed. Advocacy has come to them; they weren't seeking it. But for now, they feel it's the right thing to do. "We are learning," she said. "We are not political but we are learning. We are getting tired of these arguments that are nothing but smoke screen so you can keep the special interest out in front." The sisters are urging senators to "rise above their fear" and have courage. "They need to do the right thing and they need to vote their conscience," Fortney-Julies said. Harrisburg University may have lost its chance for a capital city superlative. But it is still charging full steam ahead on its plans to develop a second academic tower on the northwest corner of Third and Chestnut streets in the city's downtown. The university said Thursday it has hired Stantec, an Edmonton, Canada-based architectural firm, to lead design for the new project, estimated to have a total development cost in excess of $100 million. With a planned 2019 construction start, Harrisburg University President Eric Darr said he hopes the new building will be ready for full occupancy by the start of the 2021-22 academic year. Once envisioned as a 36-story tower that would be the tallest in the city, Darr said the evolving vision for the project has been scaled down through a decision to eliminate of several floors of proposed student housing. But the resulting project is still expected to rise between 18-to-25 stories, Darr said, making a clear imprint on the city's skyline and, he believes, its economic revitalization. "Who can be disappointed in adding a building worth more than $100 million?" Darr asked. "To have the tallest building in Harrisburg would be great. But for us, it's about acquiring the academic space that we need... and I know it will still be a signature building and something that the city can be proud of." The primary academic focus of the new space will be health science classrooms and simulation laboratories, which the university can use to offer nursing, pharmaceutical sciences and other allied health programs. Officials chose to expand in that area after an analysis of future needs projected a "massive" demand for non-MD healthcare professionals led both by growth in the industry and the aging of the existing workforce. Darr said Thursday there will also be new space for emerging programs in advanced manufacturing an interactive media, a niche that the university is fast becoming a regional leader in. Besides HU's new academic space, Darr said, plans for the building still include the incorporation of a privately-operated hotel, and street-level space for a restaurant. Darr said the trustees still want to grow its stock of university-owned housing as the school continues to grow, and that remains a priority. But after months of planning for the new building, "we decided that could be done better in existing buildings in Harrisburg" that the school could buy and repurpose, much as it did with the Residences on Market several years ago. At present, the university controls about 270 student beds, Darr said. It currently serves, at its main facilities in Harrisburg, about 540 undergraduates and 5,500 graduate-level students. "We will look around and see what could be rehabbed and what can be saved," Darr said. "Economically it's a better choice for us and probably, for the city, it's a better choice too." HU will also rely on existing parking facilities in the immediate neighborhood, rather than build a garage into the structure, the president noted. The project's financing has not been finalized yet, but Darr said that will come together by next spring through some combination of reserves, fundraising, and borrowing. Stantec's lead for the Harrisburg project will be Alex Wing, who was also part of the design team for the university's existing Market Street tower. Accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in June 2009, the university is part of the Harrisburg Renaissance envisioned by former Mayor Stephen Reed. With an undergraduate minority enrollment of 45 percent, its leaders take pride in being a leader in providing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education to historically under-represented groups. Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center owner John Traynor has identified a Dover, York County, man as the leading contender at this point for a sale of the troubled North Third Street restaurant/nightclub. Traynor said he and his partners are in talks with Christopher Werner for a sale of the building and liquor license. Werner's involvement was first reported earlier Thursday by TheBurgNews.com, after the sales talks were discussed at a meeting of HMAC's creditors in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. PennLive spoke to Traynor Thursday evening. While the deal is not final, it would be a major development for the nightspot that is struggling financially and legally this year, and was the focus of a damning social media furor after a close-by sexual assault this summer. That's in part because while Traynor is currently fighting against Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board lawyers for a renewal of his liquor license, upon any sale that license battle would effectively reset for Werner with a clean slate. That would seem to enhance the survival chances of HMAC, which continues to have its share of devoted fans in Midtown Harrisburg and beyond. The sale, according to Traynor and The Burg's report, has not been finalized, and the specifics of Werner's current offer were not disclosed. PennLive's attempts to reach Werner for an interview about his interest in and plans for the facility were not successful for this report. According to HMAC's original bankruptcy filing, however, he is listed as an unsecured creditor with a claim of $150,000 pending against the business. Traynor said Werner has loaned the business money in the past. Werner's Facebook page identifies him as a former teacher in the York City schools, who operates an autograph and memorabilia business called "Lifetime of Autographs." WILLIAMSPORT -- It took a Lycoming County jury just nine minutes to find that a Duncannon area man, previously convicted of the murder of his daughter, also guilty of illegally possessing firearms. Donald B. Meyer Jr., 60, was found guilty of third-degree murder in his daughter's death in late July, but the firearms charge was tried separately. Meyer is prevented from possessing firearms because of a 2011 involuntary commitment for mental health therapy. He admitted he possessed weapons but contended his mental health commitment was invalid and he never was told he could not have guns. Meyer, the only witness in the one-day trial, could not recall how long he spent in an in-patient facility in Harrisburg but testified he was sent there by a "crazy doctor" after they argued about religion. He also claimed medication he was directed to take nearly killed him. The doctor-signed commitment document, part of which was read to jurors, stated Meyer was severely disabled and should be committed for treatment for no more than 120 hours. In his short closing argument, defense attorney Jerry A. Philpott asked jurors to consider Meyer's claim that his involuntary commitment was invalid. Perry County District Attorney Andrew Bender responded by telling jurors the reason Meyer was committed was not relevant. The law states that those so committed cannot possess firearms, he said. Jurors were not made aware of the earlier trial or that one of the weapons was used in a Jan. 11, 2016 shooting that left Meyer's 12-year-old daughter, Ciara, dead. In that trial, jurors found Meyer that even though Meyer did not fire the fatal shot, he was responsible for the death of his daughter. She died after Meyer pointed a rifle at constable Clark Steele, who knocked on the door of the Meyer family's Penn Township apartment to evict the family. Steele fired his weapon in self-defense and the shot killed Ciara, who was standing behind her father. As he had done in the first trial, Steele testified he went to the Rebecca Lane apartment to evict Meyer. He knocked on the door, he said. It opened part way, and he spoke with Myer. When the door opened farther, Meyer raised an AR-15-type rifle he had held along his leg and in a "split second" it was pointed at his chest, he said. Jurors saw a cell phone video that was stopped before showing Steele firing the bullet that went through Meyer's left bicep and struck the girl in the chest. Besides Steele, the only other prosecution witnesses were two state police investigators who testified about other handguns and rifles discovered during the execution of a search warrant. Several were in a closed but unlocked gun safe, according to the testimony. Meyer, who has difficulty walking due to a stroke, was returned to jail where he is being held without bail. Besides third-degree murder, Meyer was found guilty in July of two counts each of recklessly endangering and aggravated and simple assault plus one count of terroristic threats and endangering the welfare of child. Although both trials were moved from Perry County due to pre-trial publicity, it is likely sentencing will occur in New Bloomfield. Meyer is scheduled to appear Oct. 15 Dauphin County court on charges of making false statements to obtain the firearms. A midstate plasma collection firm didn't violate federal anti-discrimination laws when it rejected a blood donor who has severe panic attacks prompted by PTSD, a U.S. judge has ruled. CSL Plasma Inc. of York had a legitimate reason for refusing to take blood from George Matheis Jr., Middle District Senior Judge Sylvia H. Rambo found. She agreed with CSL's argument that Mattheis' panic attacks can become so violent he poses a risk to himself if he has one while a needle is in his arm. Based on those conclusions, Rambo dismissed a lawsuit Matheis filed claiming CSL, which sells plasma to pharmaceutical companies, discriminated against him under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Matheis' PTSD stems from a police-involved shooting, the judge noted. His panic attacks can be triggered by crowded confined spaces, arguments or the sound of helicopters, she wrote. CSL's rejection came after Matheis made about 90 plasma donations to the private center in 2016, earning an average of $250 to $300 per month. He never had a panic attack while donating, Rambo noted, but came under scrutiny when he brought his service dog to the center. That caused CSL officials to determine his anxiety disorder "is too severe to safely undergo the donation process," Rambo noted. CSL officials told Matheis he would be allowed to donate if he provided a note from a psychologist stating it was safe for him to do so. Matheis never secured such a note or returned to the donation center before filing the ADA suit, the judge observed. "CSL articulated a reasonable belief that (Matheis') anxiety was so severe as to risk endangering (his) health," Rambo wrote. Matheis might have had an ADA claim if he had secured a note from a psychologist clearing him to give blood and still been rejected as a donor, she found. A Gettysburg man who was shot by an employee as he tried to rob a pharmacy has been sentenced to nearly 6 1/2 years in federal prison. That penalty was imposed on 26-year-old Zachary E. Kuhn by U.S. Middle District Senior Judge Sylvia H. Rambo. Kuhn pleaded guilty to trying to rob the Antietam Pharmacy in Waynesboro on June 26, 2016. The holdup came to an abrupt end when an employee drew a concealed pistol and shot Kuhn in the right hand and lower back. Investigators said Kuhn had a gun and was demanding oxycodone, an addictive pain-killer. Rambo ordered Kuhn to spend 3 years on probation after he finishes his 77-month prison term. She also imposed nearly $3,900 in fines and restitution. Assistant Federal Public Defender Monica Cliatt argued in a sentencing memorandum that Kuhn is no longer a danger to society because he is partly paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair because of his wounds. Drug addiction and mental health problems prompted Kuhn to commit the robbery, she said. WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) issued the following statement regarding today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: "It was appropriate for Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee as the final step in the committee's investigation of Dr. Ford's allegation. Both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh are to be commended for testifying under such unfortunate and avoidable circumstances. Neither they, nor their families, deserved to be victims of this shamefully politicized process. READ MORE: "I found Dr. Ford's testimony to be sincere and moving, but lacking important specifics. Judge Kavanaugh's repeated and unequivocal denial was also sincere and very persuasive. In addition, Judge Kavanaugh's testimony has been corroborated and Dr. Ford's testimony has not. All of the witnesses she claimed were present, including her lifelong friend, either failed to corroborate, or refuted, her testimony. "The other allegations against Judge Kavanaugh are either completely unsubstantiated or preposterous. "Taking into account today's testimony and everything else that has been presented about Judge Kavanaugh's exemplary character and record, I look forward to voting to confirm him to the Supreme Court." BROWNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Two friends who set up a GoFundMe page for a Pennsylvania man who'd been holding yard sales to pay for his own funeral expenses say they've received so many donations they're planning to help other veterans in similar situations. David Dunkleberger and his friend Ed Sheets pulled into a yard sale in Brownstown last month. The man running it, 66-year-old Willie Davis, was selling his belongings to pay for his funeral. Davis, who served in the Navy in the 1970s, has stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. From the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat: He wants to be laid to rest next to his parents in Culpeper, Virginia - some 200 miles away - and will need to be transported there once he passes. Davis spoke with The Tribune-Democrat on Wednesday, saying he'd made a few hundreds dollars selling his belongings over the past month. Dunkleberger initially set a $6,000 goal, then raised it to $40,000. By Friday morning, more than $50,000 had been donated. GoFundMe says it'll work with the campaign organizers to make sure excess funds are managed appropriately. By Megan McArdle Conservatives were probably hoping on Thursday that the Senate Judiciary Committee testimony of research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of trying to rape her when they were in high school, would make her look like a strident left-wing activist, or a flake. They were sorely disappointed. Ford was soft-spoken, warm and very likable. Megan McArdle (Washington Post photo) Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona sex-crimes prosecutor who questioned Ford, spent little time trying to poke holes in Ford's somewhat vague story. Instead, she quickly shifted the focus toward Senate Democrats. The latter half of Mitchell's questioning elicited the following facts: - That Ford was willing to talk to investigators from the Judiciary Committee, though the committee was somehow unable to arrange this with her lawyers. - That Ford was somehow unaware that the committee had, according to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, offered to fly investigators to California to interview her, though her lawyers should presumably have communicated that fact. - That Ford had found her lawyer through the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee's ranking Democrat, before the confirmation hearings began. - That only Feinstein and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., had the letter in which Ford outlined her allegations. The letter set off the current turmoil when its existence was leaked to the media, despite Feinstein's promise that it would be kept confidential - unless Ford decided to go public. - That Ford's fear of flying, which her attorneys claimed made it impossible to hold the hearing last week, apparently didn't keep her from flying for work, family visits, or for surfing vacations in places as far-flung as French Polynesia. The committee's Republicans, in effect, put their fellow Democrats in the dock, painting an unlovely picture of them concealing explosive charges from Republicans until they could only be aired in an 11th-hour public spectacle, and of politically connected lawyers helping the Democrats delay. Kavanaugh took a similar line during an emotional, and often angry, opening statement, emphasizing his lack of ill-will toward Ford while lashing out at the Democrats who had put him and his family in this hellish situation. Later, Republican senators took over. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., launched into a blanket denunciation of Democrats on the committee: "If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guy's life and hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020 . . . This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. If you really wanted to know the truth, you sure wouldn't have done what you done to this guy." "We could have handled this in private," said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in the gently shocked tone that passes for a searing rebuke in the Midwest. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, thundered, "This committee could have investigated Dr. Ford's claim in a confidential way that respected her privacy." So Democrats, unexpectedly, had to defend against the implication that they had strategically mishandled the process. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., started explaining that an FBI investigation - the prime Democratic talking point for weeks - would not be able to reach any conclusions. And Feinstein felt compelled to deny that she'd been the source of the leak. Democrats do look ridiculous explaining the extraordinarily convenient timing by citing Ford's request for confidentiality - while treating the leak that breached it as a sort of act of God, an immaculate defection. But how much does that matter? Though catnip to Beltway insiders, in the rest of the country, procedural arguments fall into my-eyes-glaze-over territory. A small yet important audience, however, cares very much: Republican moderates. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the most publicly vocal member of that select group, has signaled that she wants to get to the bottom of the allegations, but also that she's very displeased with the political machinations. There's something deeply awful about treating this as a political question rather than one of justice. But the vagueness of Ford's allegations - neither provable nor falsifiable - always meant that, unless new evidence surfaced, it would come down to a judgment call. And the way both sides have exercised that judgment, weighing their political priorities at least as carefully as the evidence, meant that when the judgment came, it was likely to be ugly. Kavanaugh's name is publicly sullied, his family put through a nightmare. Progressive groups are already calling for him to be impeached from his current judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Conservative rage at this state of affairs can only be assuaged by confirming him - and thereby igniting an equally livid revolt from the left at the thought of Ford's attacker sitting on the Supreme Court. While I still think the best course is still to leave the nomination open and launch an all-out investigation, I saw no remaining goodwill that might get us to that compromise. Leaving no way to resolve this that one side will not see as a declaration of total war on all that is decent in America. And no matter what is decided about Kavanaugh, that it has reached this point is an indictment of our entire political class. Megan McArdle is a Washington Post columnist and the author of "The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success." Her work appears occasionally on PennLive Opinion. 'Up North in Michigan' reminds readers to get out and explore Chris Hayes tore into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanagh for showing up at Thursdays hearing and doing his best Sean Hannity impression before the Senate Judiciary Committee. While most nominees for the nations highest court try to act impartial and openminded, as a potential Supreme Court justice should be, Hayes pointed out that Kavanaugh ditched that precedent and sounded like a complete political hack. Brett Kavanaugh comes out and sounds like hes Sean Hannity, the MSNBC host said. He sounded like a Sean Hannity monologue. Video: Chris Hayes said: When you come before a judicial confirmation, you pretend you have no views. Brett Kavanaugh comes out and sounds like hes Sean Hannity. He sounded like a Sean Hannity monologue. And youre reminded this is an individual who was on the Starr team of the independent counsel, who was involved with Elian Gonzalez, the Bush recount in Florida, then in the Bush administration, he has been a partisan warrior for most of his adult life and all the sudden it was just there on the table. Kavanaughs testimony disqualified him from being a Supreme Court justice Set aside the disturbing and credible allegations being levied against Brett Kavanaugh over the past two weeks. Whether or not they are true (and there is no reason to believe they arent), the judge proved on Thursday that he isnt fit to be on the Supreme Court in the first place. Kavanaugh was so focused on defending himself from his accusers that he disqualified himself in another way by demonstrating that he is a Fox News-style political extremist. He showed that the American people cannot trust him to be an impartial Supreme Court justice. If this is the mindset and judgment hell take to the bench, then he has no business being confirmed to the highest court in the land. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) A U.S. House of Representatives committee will vote on Friday on whether to release dozens of transcripts of interviews from its investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, including conversations with senior associates of President Donald Trump. The House Intelligence Committee is expected to agree to send transcripts of the 53 interviews to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for review before they are made public, congressional aides said on Thursday. That would pave the way for the public to see thousands of pages of conversations with people including the presidents eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Interviews with officials from former President Barack Obamas administration, including former National Security Adviser Susan Rice and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power are also among the transcripts. The transcripts are likely to provide the first public look at how some key witnesses described events such as a June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower in New York at which a group of Russians offered to provide damaging information about Trumps Democratic rival at the election, Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. and Kushner were among attendees at the meeting with Nataliya Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with Kremlin ties. Trumps fellow Republicans, who hold majorities in Congress and control the committee, announced in March that the panels investigation was over and they had found no evidence of collusion between Trumps campaign and Moscows efforts to influence U.S. politics. Trump has repeatedly denied collusion with Russia. Moscow denies meddling in the 2016 U.S. campaign, but U.S. intelligence agencies found that it did so in order to boost Trump. Committee Democrats disagreed with the Republicans conclusion and vowed to continue the probe. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alistair Bell) 1.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The Republican Party appears to be on the verge of reaching yet another new low in the disturbing Trump era of American politics by moving forward with Brett Kavanaughs nomination. According to a Thursday night statement from Republican Sen. Bob Corker, the outgoing Tennessee lawmaker one of the few GOP senators who has previously expressed doubt about Kavanaughs nomination plans to vote in favor of the accused sexual predator. There is no question that Judge Kavanaugh is qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, and in a different political environment, he would be confirmed overwhelmingly, the outgoing senator said. Of course, the different political environment to which the Republican senator refers is one in which men are allowed to glide through their careers, no matter how they treat women. The full Corker statement, most of which was likely written prior to Dr. Christine Blasey Fords powerful testimony on Thursday: I plan to vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh. My full statement: pic.twitter.com/LDj4epYyhc Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) September 28, 2018 Sen. Corkers decision could give an opening to the other undecided Republican senators Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Jeff Flake (AZ) to rally behind Trumps Supreme Court pick. As PoliticusUSAs Sarah Jones pointed out a short time after Corkers announcement, all signs seem to be pointing to Republicans ramming through this nomination despite the allegations and despite Kavanaughs deep unpopularity among the American public. With Corker a yes, it looks like Republicans are very likely going to confirm to move forward on Kavanaugh tomorrow. Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 28, 2018 No matter what happens in the coming days, the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation process has demonstrated that the modern Republican Party is just as morally bankrupt as Donald Trump. There is no responsible wing of the GOP left. And if the undecided Republicans follow Corkers lead and support this man, they will do to the integrity of the judicial branch what Donald Trump has done to the executive branch. That is damage that will take decades to repair. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. 3.6k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed by the Senate it doesnt mean hell definitely sit on the high court for life. Given the credible allegations against him, it is very possible that he would later be impeached from the Supreme Court. He might also be charged with sex crimes in the state of Maryland, and eventually go to jail if he is found guilty. Many people believe that, given the firm resolve of Dr. Christine Ford that was displayed during her testimony yesterday, she will not just give up if he is confirmed to the Supreme Court. She has persistently been making her claims against Kavanaugh for months. She has suffered great inconvenience and threats to her personal safety. Who really thinks that she will just walk away if the man she is accusing ends up on the highest court in the land? It is very possible that she will press criminal charges against Kavanaugh if necessary to get him removed from the court. She could do that in Montgomery County, Maryland, where the assaults against her occurred. Also keep in mind that Michael Avenattis client Julie Swetnick has completed sworn documents alleging further (and more serious) sexual assault crimes against Kavanaugh. These also took place in Montgomery County and it is very possible that if Kavanaughs confirmation is pushed through quickly over the next few days that Avenatti and Swetnick will take further legal action. And in addition to the sex crimes accusations, there have been several accusations of criminal perjury against Trumps Supreme Court nominee. As we wrote on September 9th: A judge is not exempt from criminal laws, including perjury. It is conceivable that at some point in the future Kavanaugh could be investigated, charged and prosecuted for crimes, and if that happened he could possibly go to jail. Last night the Washington Post ran an article discussing the chances of state criminal charges against Kavanaugh in Maryland. This article begins: The national spotlight trained on alleged crimes that Brett M. Kavanaugh may have committed decades ago in suburban Maryland has some people asking: Why havent the local police launched a criminal investigation? The first answer is that no accuser of Kavanaughs has come forward to speak with police in Montgomery County and request an investigation, officials said late Thursday. The Post article also discusses the very complex rules concerning the statute of limitations on sex crimes in Maryland. No conclusion can be reached on the statute of limitations at this time, just as no conclusion can be reached on Kavanaughs guilt without a full criminal trial. However it is very clear that when Fords accusations are added to Swetnicks sworn accusations there is an excellent chance that Kavanaugh could be found guilty of a crime. At the very least, they could press charges which would lead to a criminal investigation. According to Legal Match, In Maryland, the criminal statute of limitations varies depending on the severity of the offense. The criminal statutes of limitations include: Felony sexual offenses: no statute of limitations, and Misdemeanor offenses: one year from the event. So the first step would be to determine of the charges against Kavanaugh were felonies, and it is possible that conclusion would be reached. This means we could be faced with the specter of a sitting Supreme Court Justice being subjected to criminal charges and criminal trial proceedings. These could include charges for state felony sex crimes as well as federal perjury charges. Criminal charges against Kavanaugh would occur outside of a process in Congress, where impeachment proceedings could also be going on. When Democrats take control of the House and the Senate they very well may seek to impeach Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court. (They could also impeach him from his current position as a federal judge following different procedures.) If congressional proceedings prove he committed sex crimes or perjury, Kavanaugh could be impeached and forced to leave the Supreme Court. It appears that even though Judge Kavanaugh will probably be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice, he will not escape his potential legal jeopardy forever. Future impeachment proceedings and criminal trials may very well be in his future. 169 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, one of the key senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee, just issued a statement saying he will vote yes on Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination. The news was first reported by CNN. His statement said in part: After hearing more than 30 hours of testimony from Judge Kavanaugh earlier this month, I was prepared to support his nomination based on his view of the law and his record as a judge. In fact, I commented at the time that had he been nominated in another era, he would have likely received 90+ votes. Flake is considered a moderate, and since he is retiring, it was believed by some that there was a chance he might vote against Kavanaughs confirmation. However, he has never actually voted against the wishes of the GOP leadership in the Senate. Many also believe that Flake has bigger aspirations for his future in politics. He may seek public office as a Republican in the future, and in the highly partisan atmosphere of Washington, he cannot afford to alienate the passionate (some would say rabid) base of the party. Still, many women are disappointed with Flakes vote, which will clear the way for Mitch McConnell to bring Kavanaughs confirmation to the Senate floor as soon as possible. We actually have assumed for a long time that the ultimate approval or disapproval of Kavanaugh will be up to Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. We still believe this is true. Supposedly Collins and Murkowski are pro-choice, but they only vote against Republican leadership in rare instances. They are both facing strong opposition in their home states among their base of independent women voters. If they vote to confirm Kavanaugh they will face the music when they are next up for re-election. Jeff Flake has proven once more he is a coward. If there is to be a display of courage in the U.S. Senate it will have to come from the two key women senators, not from any of the spineless men in the Republican Party. Just before midnight eastern time last night, it was reported that the American Bar Association (ABA) sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein (Calif). In this letter the top lawyer group in the country argued that it was time for the FBI to step in to Judge Brett Kavanaughs confirmation process. According to the ABA the FBI is needed to help the Senate figure out if Kavanaugh and Ford are telling the truth. They are calling on the Judiciary Committee to delay consideration of President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee until an FBI investigation is completed. The sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh have created a national firestorm and a controversy that will not blow over soon. The conservative judges confirmation is now in doubt, and to many people there is a cloud over the process that can only be lifted with more investigation into the facts. In a strongly worded letter, the ABA told Grassley and Feinstein it is making the highly unusual request because of the ABAs respect for the rule of law and due process under law. The ABA is technically bipartisan but has a reputation for being conservative. In this case, however, it is siding with concerns of Senate Democrats since Christine Fords sexual assault allegations became public. The basic principles that underscore the Senates constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI, said Robert Carlson, president of the organization, in the letter sent to Grassley and Feinstein. Each appointment to our nations Highest Court (as with all others) is simply too important to rush to a vote, Carlson wrote. Deciding to proceed without conducting additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senates reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court. The letter is unlikely to sway Republicans who have already decided in favor of Kavanaugh. However, the opinion of the ABA and its 400,000 lawyer members does carry weight outside the Republican Party. It is one more indication that rushing forward with Kavanaughs confirmation is a bad idea politically, and a bad idea for the country. Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, a Trump supporter, also called for an FBI probe in a Fox News opinion piece, writing: Maybe we can get closer to the truth, although that is not certain. But right now there are too many unanswered question[s] to bring the confirmation of Kavanaugh to a vote of the Judiciary Committee as scheduled on Friday, much less to a vote of the full Senate. It is possible that one of them is deliberately lying. Right now, there is no way of knowing for certain, which is why the FBI needs to talk to the judges accusers and others. The Russian state-owned media outlet Sputnik News quoted French-Serbian political analyst Nikola Mirkovic claiming that Macedonians strongly oppose to the upcoming referendum on whether the country should accept an agreement with Greece to change its name to North Macedonia, opening a path to Macedonia joining NATO. Mirkovic also claimed that NATO doesnt have a good image in the Balkans. Sputniksnews.com is the English-language website of the Russian state-funded Sputinik international news outlet. Nikola Mirkovic is also a regular contributor to multiple Russian analytical outlets linked to the Kremlin, and to Russian ultranationalist circles, including Geopolitica.ru. Sputniknews quoted Mirkovic as saying: The way the referendum is formulated is scam in itself There is a strong opposition in Macedonia now; the President has said hes against the referendum, so it will change a lot. He also stated: What a lot of the Balkan countries are expecting is that by entering the European Union, they will get subsidies, they will get help, because most of the Balkan countries are quite poor today. They are hoping to get money to renew and renovate their hospitals, their universities and their roads. I think most of them couldnt care less about NATO, as it doesnt have a good image over there. Sputniknews presented Mirkovics comments without any evidence to support the points he made or critical analysis. Yet, while he claimed there is strong opposition to the referendum in Macedonia, a poll conducted at the beginning of September by the International Institute for the Middle East and Balkan Studies found 80 percent of respondents answered yes when asked "Do you support EU and NATO membership by accepting the agreement between Macedonia and Greece?" Only 20 percent answered no. In a survey conducted in Macedonia this past summer by the International Republican Institute (IRI) 57 percent of the respondents said that they favored the country entering the EU and NATO under the new name. The same proportion, 57 percent, said they believe the benefits of EU accession justify acceptance of the new name. The poll was conducted in June and July, and the results were published on August 29. Thus, the IRI survey showed that, contrary to Markovics claim, NATO is popular in Macedonia. It should be noted that an earlier IRI poll of Montenegrins, conducted in October 2017, had found that 51 percent opposed NATO membership, 54 percent had a negative view of NATO, and 55 percent thought that Russia should be considered a partner in European security. Montenegro joined NATO in June 2017. Albania and Croatia have been members of the alliance since 2009; Romania and Bulgaria, since 2004. If the referendum in Macedonia is successful and the countrys parliament ratifies the name-change agreement with Greece, the country will become the 30th NATO member next year. Thus, Mirkovics claim that most of the Balkan countries care nothing about NATO, and that the alliance has a bad image there, is misleading. In fact, 9 out of 11 Balkan countries (including Greece, Turkey and Slovenia), are NATO members. In addition, all 11 participate in various NATO partnership programs, and their militaries have interoperability with the Western alliance. Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, September 27, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov accused the West of leveling unsubstantiated allegations against Syrian authorities for using banned chemical weapons, further warning against new strikes on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic under another staged pretext." In August, Lavrov said that Russia had called for inspections by the Organization of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks, claiming its Western colleagues had moved to block those efforts. He similarly said "the chemical weapons provocation which is being prepared" is aimed at keeping Al-Nusra in Syria. But like allegations that it is the West which is standing in the way of Syrian inspections, Lavrovs charge of staged pretexts being used to justify Western airstrikes is false. After the Ghouta chemical weapons attack in August 2013, which saw up to 1,729 killed in a sarin gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus, Lavrov called intelligence findings that the Syrian state was responsible unconvincing. Nonetheless, Russia, in concert with the United States, hammered out a framework under which Syria would give up its chemical weapon stockpiles. In line with that framework, Damascus acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and became a member of the OPCW. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2118 gave Syria until the middle of 2014 to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal. On June 23, 2014, OPCW head Ahmet Uzumcu announced the last of Syrias chemical weapons had been shipped out of the country for destruction. But on September 10, 2014 the OPCW found "compelling confirmation" that chlorine gas had been used "systematically and repeatedly as a weapon in Syria. While chlorine in and of itself is not within the purview of the disarmament agreement, its use as a weapon of war does violate the CWC. A later report released in August 2016 by the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), which was tasked with determining who had carried out chemical weapons attacks in Syria, found that the Assad regime had been responsible for incidents on April 2014 in Talmenes and March 2015 in Sarmin. The following month, the JIM issued another report pointing the finger at Damascus for a third chlorine gas attack on March 16, 2015 in Idlib province. On April 4, 2017, a sarin gas attack killed dozens in northern Idlib province. But on April 12, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council Resolution condemning that attack. On October 24, two days before the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) found the Assad regime guilty of using sarin nerve agent in the April 4 Idlib attack, Russia vetoed a resolution to extend the mechanisms mandate, which expired on November 17. A further resolution to extend the JIMs mandate introduced by Japan that November was also vetoed by Russia. Then, following two smaller chemical weapons attacks in March 2018, a suspected chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma on April 7 killed at least 49 people and wounded up to 650. On April 10, Russia vetoed a US resolution to establish a UN Independent Mechanism of Investigation with a one-year mandate to investigate responsible parties in Syrian chemical weapons attacks. Russia then proposed an investigative body that would have given the UN Security Council the final say on accountability, granting Moscow veto power over any findings. Four days later, the United States, France and Britain conducted airstrikes on sites allegedly connected to Syrias chemical weapons program. On September 12, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which is investigating war crimes there, documented three further uses of banned chlorine weapons by Syrian government forces that constituted war crimes, according to Reuters. That brought the number of incidents documented by that commission since 2013 to 39. Of those 39 attacks, 33 were attributed to the Assad regime, while perpetrators in the other six had not been sufficiently identified. Earlier, on the first anniversary of the April4, 2017 Idlib incident, a Human Rights Watch report, which collated data from seven sources, found that the majority of 85 confirmed chemical weapon attacks in Syria by that time had been carried out by the Syrian government. Based on the preponderance of evidence pointing to the Syrian governments use of chemical weapons, Lavrovs claims of unsubstantiated allegations or the potential of another staged pretext to initiate military action there are false. There is a fearsome amount of fried chicken in South Carolina, especially if its your job t Get the SC business stories that matter. Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free. United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks to reporters Tuesday in New York as she begins her term this month as president of the Security Council. Hannah Alani is a reporter at The Post and Courier covering race, immigration and rural life across the Palmetto State. Before graduating from Indiana University and moving to Charleston in 2017, her byline appeared in The New York Times. Andrew Knapp is editor of the Quick Response Team, which covers crime, courts and breaking news. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor at Florida Today, Newsday and Bangor (Maine) Daily News. He enjoys golf, weather and fatherhood. The US temporarily suspended operations for its fleet of F-35 fighter jets to check for possible faulty fuel tubes in the plane engines. One of the jets crashed in Beaufort County last month. Gregory Yee covers the city of Charleston. He's a native Angeleno and previously covered crime and courts for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, CA. He studied journalism and Spanish literature at the University of California, Irvine. WASHINGTON - Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one of the key holdouts on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh's confirmation, announced Friday morning that he would support him after more than eight hours of testimony from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused the nominee of assaulting her. His statement comes ahead of a key Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Kavanaugh's nomination Friday. In a statement, Flake called Ford's testimony before the committee "compelling," and Kavanaugh's response "persuasive." "I wish that I could express the confidence that some of my colleagues have conveyed about what either did or did not happen in the early 1980s, but I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty," Flake said. "What I do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence. That is what binds us to the rule of law." With Flake's support, the Judiciary Committee - which includes 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats - is expected to vote along party lines Friday afternoon to advance Kavanaugh's nomination a day after hearing riveting testimony from the judge and Ford. The full chamber plans to hold a crucial procedural vote on Saturday, with Republican leaders vowing confirmation of Trump's nominee by early next week. Flake's support could signal other undecided senators are breaking in Kavanaugh's direction. As of mid-morning Friday, two Republicans and one Democrat with potential swing votes - Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va. - remained silent about their plans. Shortly after the Judiciary Committee convened, the panel voted down a motion on party lines by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., to subpoena Mark Judge, a high school classmate of Kavanaugh. Ford has alleged Judge witnessed the assault. The committee then voted, again along party lines, to decide on Kavanaugh's nomination at 1:30 p.m. The votes prompted outrage from Democrats. "This is just totally ridiculous. What a railroad job," said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii. Several Senate Democrats - including Blumenthal, Hirono, Sen. Kamala Harris, Calif., and Sheldon Whitehouse, R.I. - walked out in protest. Whitehouse later returned. In a letter to the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Judge wrote that he did not recall the events described by Ford in her testimony and never saw Kavanaugh act the way she described. Judge said that he does not want to testify and that he avoids public speaking because he struggles with depression and anxiety as a recovering alcoholic and cancer survivor. Underscoring the acrimony surrounding Friday's proceedings, a dozen House Democratic women who gathered to watch the Judiciary Committee stood up in the room in protest. Senators on both sides of the aisle took turns giving their reasons for supporting or opposing Kavanaugh, many in impassioned terms. "He's does not have the veracity or temperment for a lifetime appointment to our nation's highest court," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said of Kavanaugh, adding that the sexual assault allegations have also created a cloud over the nomination. "I've never heard a more compelling defense of one's honor and integrity," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., countered, referring to Kavanaugh's peformance at Thursday's hearing. Prior to the meeting, White House officials fanned out across morning television shows to tout Kavanaugh's fiery performance in Thursday's hearing and press the Senate to vote. "I think he was incredibly powerful and very clear," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of Kavanaugh during an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America." She suggested that Ford was mistaken about her attacker and said Kavanaugh has "been unequivocal since Day One that this did not take place by him." In the full chamber, where Republicans hold a 51-to-49 majority, Kavanaugh can only afford to lose the support of one GOP senator if all Democrats vote against him and Vice President Pence breaks a tie. During a television appearance Friday morning before the committee vote, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he is "optimistic we'll confirm the judge." Asked about Republican holdouts on "Fox & Friends," Cornyn said, "They have not publicly committed, but we've been engaging in personal texts, conversations, face-to-face visits. It's the norm for how thing happen here. . . . I respect their right to make their own announcement, which I'm sure they'll do in due course." The votes of a couple of red-state Democrats have also been in play. Late Thursday, one of them, Sen. Doug Jones, Ala., said in a tweet that he would vote no if the chamber presses ahead with consideration of Kavanaugh the day after hearing from Ford, whom Jones said he found "credible & courageous." With her voice shaking at times, Ford described in stark detail Thursday being pinned on a bed at a house party by a drunken Kavanaugh, who she said groped her, tried to take off her clothes and put his hand over her mouth to stifle her screams. She said she was "100 percent" certain that Kavanaugh was her attacker. In his tweet, Jones repeated a call for the Senate to postpone the vote and hear from Judge, who Ford said was in the room when Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her in 1982. "What message will we send to our daughters & sons, let alone sexual assault victims?" Jones said in his tweet. "The message I will send is this - I vote no. #RightSideofHistory" Other Democrats echoed Jones's argument. "Any senator who votes to confirm Judge Kavanaugh after Dr. Ford's testimony is telling our country exactly this: the experiences of women don't matter," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said in a Friday morning tweet. "Their trauma doesn't matter. Their stories and their voices don't matter." Late Thursday, the American Bar Association, which had previously rated Kavanaugh "well-qualified" for the Supreme Court, called on the Judiciary Committee to halt the confirmation vote, saying it should not move forward until an FBI investigation into the sexual assault allegations against him can be completed. During her appearance on ABC, Sanders suggested that was unnecessary, saying the FBI has conducted six previous background checks on Kavanaugh for federal positions. "These allegations took place long before any of those background checks would have taken place," she said, adding that senators had asked questions Thursday similar to what the FBI would ask if it reopened its process. During a meeting of all Republican senators on Thursday following the hearing, Rachel Mitchell, the outside counsel who is a registered Republican and led the questioning of Ford for the GOP, told the senators that she would not have prosecuted the matter because there was no corroborating evidence based on what she heard Thursday, according to two Republican officials familiar with her comments. Republicans have rebuffed repeated requests from Democrats to call other witnesses who might have corroborated Ford's account and also rejected Democratic calls for an FBI investigation. Several of the senators who have not declared a position on Kavanaugh held a brief meeting in a private office Thursday in the Capitol building after the hearing. Exiting the meeting with Collins, Flake and Murkowski, Manchin said he did not know what the others would do. "Nobody told me what decision they made," he said. "Nobody has." Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who supported previous Trump Supreme Court nominee Neil M. Gorsuch along with Manchin, have also not said how they would vote on Kavanaugh. During Thursday's hearing, Kavanaugh angrily assailed Democrats for pushing what he said were false charges to "blow me up and take me down." The 53-year-old federal judge was often tearful and paused for gulps of water as he spoke about the toll that the allegations by Ford and two other women have taken on his wife, his children, his parents and his friends. "This has destroyed my family and my good name," he said, adding: "This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election." Cornyn told the reporters Thursday night that the Judiciary Committee will vote on Kavanaugh's nomination as planned on Friday, with procedural votes on Saturday and Monday and a final confirmation vote on Tuesday. As he left the Capitol on Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, "The committee's going to vote in the morning, and we're going to move forward." As Senate Republicans pressed ahead with Kavanaugh's nomination, they had no apparent plans to hear from two other accusers. Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaugh's at Yale University, told the New Yorker magazine that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party when they were both first-year students. Julie Swetnick, a Washington resident, said in a declaration that Kavanaugh was physically abusive toward girls in high school and present at a house party in 1982 where she says she was the victim of a "gang" rape. She is being represented by Michael Avenatti, whose clients also include Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who was paid to remain silent about an alleged decade-old affair with Trump. "Because @realDonaldTrump and the Senate Republicans refuse to allow my client Julie Swetnick to testify, we will be taking her story directly to the American people this weekend," Avenatti said in a Friday morning tweet. "This is about a search for the truth. Details to follow." --- The Washington Post's Robert Barnes and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. 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. Constance Anastopoulo, left, the Democratic candidate running against Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, right, says she has always considered Charleston her permanent residence since moving there in 1993, despite owning properties elsewhere. File/Provided. File/John A. Carlos II/Special to The Post and Courier Columbia/Myrtle Beach Managing Editor Andy Shain runs The Post and Courier's newsrooms based in Columbia and Myrtle Beach. He was editor of Free Times and has been a reporter and editor for newspapers in Charlotte, Columbia and Myrtle Beach. 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. Forty-six people aboard Air Niugini Flight 73 miraculously survived after the flight crashed short of the runway on Weno International Airport in Chuuk this morning and landed in lagoon waters. "No serious injuries ... Everybody is alive!" Jimmy Emilio, the airport's manager, confirmed by phone to The Guam Daily Post. When the plane went down, a lot of local boaters and the local rescue team immediately rushed to the crash site, Emilio said. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. "Everybody is safely off the plane," he added. He said the passengers and crew were transported to the local hospital and as far as he knows, no one was badly injured. Dr. Siana Shapucy, the Chuuk State Hospital's acting medical director, said at 2 p.m. Guam time Friday that eight people were hospitalized. One was on a ventilator while some of the other patients had various fractures. A video reposted by Eriko Rekis on his Facebook page shows many boaters immediately responding as the aircraft hit the lagoon water, and helping passengers get off the half-submerged plane and transporting them to safer ground. The aircraft is a Boeing 737, Public Affairs Manager Ian Gregor for the FAA Pacific Division confirmed. The U.S. Coast Guard Cuttter Washington, which happens to be in nearby waters, is heading to the crash site to help. The plane was on a flight from Pohnpei to Chuuk, enroute to Port Moresby, New Guinea Air Niugini is Papua New Guinea's leading airline, with more than 20 destinations nationally and 10 internationally. A United Airlines flight from Guam that was scheduled to land at the same airport in Chuuk has been diverted to Pohnpei. A team from Auckland, New Zealand en route to Weno to try and salvage the plane. This is a developing story. The Guam attorney general's office is conducting a criminal investigation related to the long-running dispute over the duty-free retail concession contract at the A.B. Won Pat International Airport. In late August, subpoenas were sent to Chuck Ada, executive manager of the airport; Joe Camacho, former executive or the authorized representative of DFS Guam, in care of DFS attorney Patrick Civille; and Cesar Cabot, the attorney representing Lotte Duty Free Guam. All three parties were ordered to appear in the Superior Court of Guam on Sept. 14 and to testify before a grand jury in connection with what the subpoena states is an "ongoing investigation." Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. The subpoenas are signed by Joseph McDonald, deputy attorney general and chief prosecutor. All three parties were instructed to bring to the grand jury "any and all documents" they provided or received from the other "in connection with litigation over the award of the concession space ... at the Guam airport." The subpoenas are part of the public record in the case of DFS Guam v. A.B. Won Pat Guam International Airport Authority. The subpoenas are attached to a 72-page declaration filed Sept. 12 by airport attorney Genevieve Rapadas. When contacted for comment, Rapadas told The Guam Daily Post, "It is our understanding based on the subpoena that the attorney general is seeking all documents that were produced as part of the discovery process in the procurement action from DFS, the airport and Lotte." When asked if the subpoenas were in reference to an ongoing investigation of a criminal nature, Rapadas responded, "Yes." "The airport is unaware of whether there are, and who, if any, are the specific targets of this investigation," she said. "DFS has said that they were told by the Office of the Attorney General that there are specific targets," said Rapadas, "and that this is a specific investigation." However, Rapadas said that "is contrary to what GIAA was told by the Office of the Attorney General." "No comment," said Carlina Charfauros, the spokeswoman for the AG's office. Neither DFS attorney Civille nor Lotte attorney Cabot could be reached for comment. The subpoenas The existence of the subpoenas came to light Wednesday when Rapadas raised the issue during a hearing before Judge Arthur Barcinas of the Superior Court. Rapadas asked Barcinas for guidance on the release of certain documents currently under seal by order of the court. The nature of those sealed documents and who produced them was not discussed. The judge took the matter under advisement. Lotte won the airport's 10-year, $154-million retail concession contract, but DFS has sued the airport over its selection of Lotte. The contract has been declared void in the Superior Court, but that decision is now on appeal to the Supreme Court of Guam. At this writing, the Judiciary Committee has not yet voted, although, with Jeff Flake coming out in support this morning, it seems clear it will recommend Judge Kavanaughs confirmation. Meanwhile, here are a few Twitter follow-ups to yesterdays hearing. Appropriately, President Trump came out strongly in support of his nominee: Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2018 Earlier, Scott posted Senator Tom Cottons scathing comments on Richard Blumenthals honesty. Here are a few more hard-hitting tweets from the Arkansas senator: Democrats & their media wing at @politico @nytimes @washingtonpost @cnn etc spent two weeks slandering Judge Kavanaugh as a sex criminal & now they say he shouldnt be angry. Thats the fakest of fake news & why so much of media is dismissed by so many Americans. Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) September 27, 2018 This animal is very wicked. It defends itself when attacked. You & rest of media wing of Democratic Party shouldve considered that before you joined Senate Democrats in slandering Judge Kavanaugh for weeks. Truth hurts. https://t.co/QwytMV4qrt Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) September 27, 2018 Will Republicans face backlash? Will Republicans overreach? Republicans pounce Republicans seize If youve ever used those phrases, then indeed you belong to the media wing of the Democratic Party. https://t.co/qEIKAFD50h Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) September 28, 2018 The full Senate is expected to vote on Kavanaughs nomination tomorrow morning. UPDATE: This, by our friend Ed Morrissey, is too funny not to include: PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-28 22:22:32 Press Information Polaris Market Research Contact us- Mr. Neel Corporate Sales, USA Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Mr. Neel Manager 1-646-568-9980 email https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/ # 666 Words Contact us-Mr. NeelCorporate Sales, USAPolaris Market ResearchPhone: 1-646-568-9980Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.comWeb: www.polarismarketresearch.comManager1-646-568-9980 The worldwide Anti-Drone market is anticipated to reach over USD 3,064 million by 2026. In 2017, the defense and military segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period.The rising incidences of misuse of drones and growing terrorist activities primarily drive the growth of this market. Smugglers and traffickers are increasingly using drones for malicious and criminal activities, thereby increasing the demand of anti-drones. Other driving factors include technological advancement, and increasing investment in R&D.Request for a sample copy of this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/anti-drone-market/request-for-free-sample Major Key Player:-Saab ABThales GroupRaytheon Co.Lockheed Martin Corp.Dedrone Inc.Droneshield Ltd.Northrop Grumman Corp.Theiss UAV SolutionsLLCBlighter Surveillance Systems Ltd.Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.There has been an emerging threat from drones to critical infrastructure. A high number of cases of drone overflights at nuclear and power stations have been registered. In 2014, after several cases of overflights of reactors, French authorities invested $1.1 million for detection, identification, and neutralization of small aerial drones.There has been a significant increase in spoofing and cyber-attacks. Spoofing is taking control of a drone by hacking the radio signal and sending commands to the aircraft from another control station. Valuable data can be stolen or deleted through cyber-attacks. Complaints registered against misuse of drones also include snooping, burglary, smuggling contraband into prisons, and mid-air near misses among others. Terrorists have started using drones to gather valuable intelligence on their enemies. All these factors have increased the adoption of anti-drone systems.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/anti-drone-market/inquire-before-buying North America generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The driving factors for anti-drone market in North America include increasing number of security breach incidents by unidentified drones and increasing terrorist activities. Recent incidences of riots & civil unrest have increased the demand for anti-drones in this region. North America spends high budgets for military expenditure and for research & development programs, which augment market growth.Browse Complete Report Summary @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/anti-drone-market/ The various end-users of anti-drones include defense and military, government, commercial, and others. In 2017, the defense and military sector accounted for the largest share in the global market, and is expected to maintain its lead during the forecast period. The demand for anti-drones in the military sector has increased owing to growing cases of smuggling, trespassing, and spying. Increasing need for border security, and threats from neighboring countries support the adoption of anti-drones.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. NeelCorporate Sales, USAPolaris Market ResearchPhone: 1-646-568-9980Email: sales@ polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-28 08:01:02 NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, HONG KONG OR SOUTH AFRICA, OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN. Oslo, Norway, 28 September 2018. Reference is made to the previous announcements by PCI Biotech Holding ASA ("PCI Biotech" or the "Company") in respect of the fully underwritten rights issue of 12,000,000 new shares (Offer Shares) in the Company (the "Rights Issue"). The terms of the subscription rights are described in PCI Biotechs prospectus dated 17 September 2018. The period of trading in subscription rights in the Rights Issue expires at 16:30 CET Monday, 1 October 2018. The subscription rights are tradable on Oslo Brs (ticker "PCIB T"). Last day of trading in subscription rights 01 October 2018 at 16:30 CET. Last day of subscription period 03 October 2018 at 16:30 CET. Note that Subscription Rights that are not used to subscribe for Offer Shares before the end of the subscription period or not sold before 01 October 2018 at 16:30 CET will lapse without compensations and consequently be of no value. Subscription procedure Holders of subscription rights (whether granted or acquired) must, in order to subscribe for Offer Shares, submit a correctly completed subscription form for the Rights Issue (Subscription Form) to the Managers, ABG Sundal Collier ASA or Arctic Securities AS, as outlined below and included in the Prospectus. Subscribers who are Norwegian residents with a Norwegian personal identification number may also subscribe for Offer Shares through the VPS online subscription system or by following the link on the following websites: www.abgsc.com or www.arctic.com, which will direct the subscriber to the VPS online system. For further information about the Subscription procedure, see section 15.9 in the Prospectus. The Subscription Form can be found in Appendix B in the Prospectus and at the managers website www.abgsc.com and www.arctic.com. ABG Sundal Collier ASA P.O. Box 1444 Vika NO-0115 Oslo, Norway E-mail: subscription@abgsc.no website: www.abgsc.com or Arctic Securities AS P.O. Box 1833 Vika NO-0123 Oslo, Norway E-mail: subscription@arctic.com website: www.arctic.com Contact information: Ronny Skuggedal, CFO, rs@pcibiotech.no, Mobile: +47 9400 5757 For more information visit: www.pcibiotech.com Contact information: PCI Biotech Holding ASA, Ullernchausseen 64, Oslo, NO-0379 Norway Important Notice The contents of this announcement have been prepared by, and are the sole responsibility of, the Company. The Company's financial advisors are acting exclusively for the Company and no one else, and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to their respective clients, or for advice in relation to the Rights Issue, the contents of this announcement or any of the matters referred to herein. The information in this announcement is for information purposes only and does not purport to be accurate or complete. No reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information contained in this announcement or its accuracy or completeness. Matters discussed in this announcement may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "strategy", "intends", "estimate", "will", "may", "continue", "should" and similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. Although the Company believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond its control. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this announcement by such forward-looking statements. The information, opinions and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement speak only as at its date, and are subject to change without notice. Neither the publication and/or delivery of this announcement shall under any circumstances imply that there has been no change in the affairs of the Company or that the information contained herein is correct as of any date subsequent to the earlier of the date hereof and any earlier specified date with respect to such information. A prospectus approved by the competent authority in Norway has been published by the Company) and can be obtained on the Company's website, subject to regulatory restrictions. Investors should not subscribe for any securities referred to in this announcement except on the basis of information contained in the prospectus. Restrictions Neither this announcement nor any copy of it may be made or transmitted directly or indirectly into the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong or South Africa or any other jurisdiction where to do so would be unlawful. The Rights Issue (if made) and the distribution of this announcement and other information in connection with the Rights Issue may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions. Any failure to comply with such restrictions may constitute a violation of applicable securities laws. Persons into whose possession this announcement or other information should come are required to inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. The Company assumes no responsibility in the event there is a violation by any person of such restrictions. This announcement does not in itself constitute, and should not be construed as, an offer for sale or subscription of or solicitation or invitation of any offer to subscribe for or purchase any securities of the Company or its affiliates in any jurisdiction. The Rights Issue will not be made in any jurisdiction or in any circumstances in which such offer or solicitation would be unlawful. No steps have been taken or will be taken relating to the Rights Issue in any jurisdiction outside of Norway in which such steps would be required. The securities referred to in this announcement have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or any securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States and may not be offered or sold within the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and in compliance with applicable state law. There will be no public offer of the securities in the United States. This announcement is only being distributed to and is only directed at persons in the United Kingdom that are (i) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the "Order") or (ii) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom this announcement may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). This announcement must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not relevant persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this announcement relates is available only to relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons. Persons distributing this announcement must satisfy themselves that it is lawful to do so. Further information regarding restrictions applicable for the Rights Issue will be set out in the prospectus prepared for the Rights Issue. About PCI Biotech PCI Biotech is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on development and commercialisation of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer through its innovative photochemical internalisation (PCI) technology platform. PCI is applied to three distinct anticancer paradigms: fimaCHEM (enhancement of chemotherapeutics for localised treatment of cancer), fimaVACC (T-cell induction technology for therapeutic vaccination), and fimaNAc (nucleic acid therapeutics delivery). Photochemical internalisation induces triggered endosomal release that is used to unlock the true potential of a wide array of therapeutic modalities. The Company's lead fimaCHEM programme consists of a clinical Phase I/II clinical study in bile duct cancer, an orphan indication with a high unmet need and without approved products. fimaVACC applies a unique mode of action to enhance the essential cytotoxic effect of therapeutic cancer vaccines, which works in synergy with several other state-of-the-art vaccination technologies. fimaNAc utilises the endosomal release to provide intracellular delivery of nucleic acids, such as mRNA and RNAi therapeutics, thereby addressing one of the major bottlenecks facing this emerging and promising field. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. Forward-looking statements This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, which as such are not historical facts, but are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. These assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this announcement by such forward-looking statements. PCI Biotech disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-28 18:28:17 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 401 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Silver Spruce Resources Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Bridgewater, Nova Scotia (FSCWire) - Silver Spruce Resources Inc. (TSX Venture:SSE). has issued a press release with the following headline:Silver Spruce Signs Letter of Intent to Transfer Kay MineTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Silver Spruce Resources Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Silver Spruce Resources Inc.Source: Silver Spruce Resources Inc. (TSX Venture: SSE, OTC Pink: SSEBF, FWB: S6Q, WKN: A12DY3, ISIN: CA8282292033)Date: September 28, 2018Time: 12:27 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Silver Spruce Resources Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.) PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-28 16:33:01 News release from Vestas Asia Pacific Singapore, 28 September 2018 Vestas has secured an engineering, procurement and construction contract with global electricity generator, Global Power Generation, for the 181 MW Berrybank Wind Farm located west of Geelong in the state of Victoria in Australia. The order includes 43 V136-4.2 MW turbines with a 112-meter hub height tower design to maximise the performance in sites specific wind conditions. The project is one of six winning bids for Victoria's 928 MW renewable energy tender. Leveraging its strong existing presence in the region and showcasing its long-term commitment to Victorias renewable energy plans, Vestas will also set up the Vestas Renewable Energy Hub in Geelong. The initiative will help Victorian industry build capabilities within turbine assembly, subcomponent supply, wind park maintenance, logistics and advanced materials and manufacturing science. We are pleased to partner with Global Power Generation and leverage our world-class turbine solutions and strong auction capabilities for this project said Vestas Asia Pacific President Clive Turton, with our regional headquarters in Victoria and the new renewable energy hub in Geelong, Vestas is fully committed to creating local renewable energy jobs and working with customers and partners to achieve Victorias renewable energy ambitions. The order includes a multi-year Active Output Management 4000 (AOM 4000) service agreement, designed to maximise uptime and ensure optimised performance of the project. Commercial operations at Berrybank are scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2020. For more information, please contact: Rebecca Zhang Australia & New Zealand Mail: rezwe@vestas.com Tel: +61386987339 About Vestas Vestas is the energy industrys global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service wind turbines across the globe, and with 94 GW of wind turbines in 79 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled 79 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas more than 24,300 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future. https://www.vestas.com/en/media/images For updated Vestas photographs and videos, please visit our media images page on:We invite you to learn more about Vestas by visiting our website at www.vestas.com and following us on our social media channels: Attachment Chinas northeastern province of Jilin has reported a new outbreak of African swine fever, the agriculture ministry said on Friday. The case occurred on a farm of 44 pigs in the city of Songyuan, killing three pigs. The ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said eight pigs were also infected in the city. China has banned the transport of live hogs and pig products from regions bordering provinces where the fever has been reported. The outbreak of the disease is not the first in Jilin province. (Reuters/NAN) The component lead, Rule of Law and Anti Corruption (RoLAC) programme, Priscilla Ankut, has called for increased awareness on sexual assaults and rape in the country. Speaking at the 4th network meeting of Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) on Thursday in Abuja, Mrs Ankut said sexual assault has become a major problem in Nigeria. SARCs, which has been established in 11 states, is a response to gaps in social support and effective justice services for victims of sexual assault in Nigeria. With funding from the European Union and USAID, RoLAC and pathfinder international have been collaborating to enhance the quality of service provision by SARCs in Nigeria. Mrs Ankut said though the federal government is doing a lot under the National Agency for the Prohibition or Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), more still has to be done. She said SARCs is a platform that deals with gender-based violence, to make sure that victims of sexual violence have a place where they can receive help in confidence. She said Once a person is violated, all they need is a place where they can go and this SARCs is like a one stop shop for them to report. The police are there to make sure investigation is started, persecution is activated in cases where people want to go ahead. Medial kits are available to make sure that the person receives immediate medical treatment so that the potential harm that is done is mitigated She said. She also called for awareness on the existence of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition ACT (VAPP), a law criminalising sexual violence. Priscilla Ankut Component Lead, Rule of Law and Anti-corruption Programme and other participants at the 4th Network meeting on Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) in Abuja. She however said that though the law is currently applicable only in the Federal Capital Territory, other states are encouraged to adopt similar legislation. In his remark, the Country Director, Pathfinder International, Farouk Jega, called for more involvement of police in violence cases. He said their involvement will ensure victims of sexual assault get the necessary justice. Four years after the abduction of over 200 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, a former education minister, Oby Ezekwesili, has gone to court to demand governments action for their immediate release. Mrs Ezekwesili wants the court to compel the Nigerian government to provide monthly reports of its efforts towards ensuring the safe release of the abducted girls. Her decision to approach the court followed four years of campaigns for the release of all 276 girls abducted by the Boko Haram on April 14, 2014. Following their abduction, a group, #BringBackOurGirlsGroup, led by Mrs Ezekwesili and others, began a daily campaign for the release of the girls. Although many of the abducted girls have been released while others have died, about 112 of them remain missing till date In the application brought before the Federal High Court, by her lawyers led by human rights activist, Femi Falana, Mrs Ezekwesili is accusing the federal government of denying the abducted children their rights to education, personal liberty and freedom, among other things. Although the court papers seen by PREMIUM TIMES indicate that the 112 abducted girls are the actual persons approaching the court, the document was attested to in the court by Mrs Ezekwesili whose declarations form the basis of the request. Mrs Ezekwesilis application is based on sections 33, 35, 37 38, 40, 41 and section 18 (1) of the 1999 Constitution. The sections relate to the fundamental rights of Nigerians, which form the basis of the application. Mrs Ezekwesili also accused the federal government of violating sections of the African Charter of Human Rights, in its manner of handling the abduction of the Chibok girls. According to the request, Mrs Ezekwesili wants the court to direct the Nigerian government to immediately arrest and prosecute all those responsible for the abduction of the Chibok girls. Mrs Ezekwesili cited information provided by the media that the Nigerian government and its security operatives had prior knowledge of a possible attack, but failed to act before the April, 2014 abduction. Sorow, tears as BBOG members visit Red Cross office. Mrs Ezekwesili also alleges that despite various confirmations by the terror group that they abducted the Chibok girls, the Nigerian government has neglected its responsibility towards ensuring the release of the children. A date is yet to be fixed for hearing of the application. The Boko Haram terror group whose name signify a prohibition of western education have kidnapped many school children, most of them girls, since they began their attacks in Nigeria. In a similar incident in February, the group kidnapped over a 100 children at a school in Dapchi, another community in Yobe State. After an agreement with government, the terror group released the abducted children one month after but held on to 14 year old, Leah Sharibu ostensibly because she refused to denounce her Christian faith. Five of those abducted however died at the hands of the terror group. Although the federal government has promised to ensure the safe release of Miss Sharibu, the girl has marked her 15th birthday in the hands of her captors. Nigerias president, Muhammadu Buhari, has said if he wins the 2019 elections and spends another four years in office, he will leave some difference. I will leave some difference in that office, the president told Nigerians living in the United States of America on Thursday. Meeting with the Nigerian community on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York, the president regretted that the elite allowed Nigeria to be mismanaged for 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rule, without as much as raising a voice in consternation. They didnt say a word, Mr Buhari declared. A statement by his spokesperson, Femi Adesina, on Friday said Under the PTF (Petroleum Trust Fund, of which he was Chairman), we did roads from Lagos to Abuja, to Onitsha, to Port Harcourt. Since then, the roads were not done between 1999 and 2015- yet the elite did not say a word. I was called Baba Go Slow. Those who were going fast, where did they get to? In 1983, military officers gathered, and made me Head of State. I packed the politicians into jail, told them they were guilty until they could prove their innocence. We seized what they had looted, but after I myself was put in detention, the politicians were given back what they had looted. How many elite complained about that? Three times I contested elections; three times I went to court after the elections were rigged against me. No justice, but I said God dey. It was mainly the ordinary people that stood by me. That is why I am always conscious of them. They are my constituency. Even pregnant women on the queue would fall into labour, go to have their babies, and still come back to vote for me. I will keep doing my best for the country. The diaspora Nigerians, in their scores, are top flight professionals drawn from fields like medicine, engineering, sports, the arts, investment, academia, politics, agriculture, transport, education, publishing, and many others. Most expressed the wish to come back home to contribute to the development in Nigeria. Mr Buhari said they should invest in education in their constituencies. You are contributing to this great country (America). If you want to help back home, invest in education in your constituencies. If you educate people, they wont then accept nonsense from anybody. He said the administration he leads has kept faith with its three key campaign promises; to secure the country, revive the economy and fight corruption. Ive tried to do my best since I came, he stressed, adding that security-wise, we are better. Boko Haram still conducts cowardly attacks, but the insurgency is not the same as it used to be. They are terrorists, and have nothing to do with religion. We will continue to deal with them. Ask people in the North-east, especially in Borno State, they will tell you they can sleep with two eyes closed now. The parley was put together by Abike Dabiri-Erewa, senior special assistant to the president on diaspora matters, and the Nigerian professionals were drawn from different parts of the United States and Canada. Representatives of USA chapters of Nigerians in the Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) also presented awards to President Buhari in appreciation of his performance, urging him to do more, the statement said. The presidency on Thursday in Abuja said the federal government is yet to take a decisive position on the ongoing nationwide industrial action. The chief of staff to the president, Abba Kyari, during a meeting with union leaders, said the purpose of the meeting is to understand what led to the strike. According to Mr Kyari, What led to the strike was not the figure of the minimum wage but the process to arrive at the figure, which was stuck. It is the process of arriving at the figures that stalled the negotiations, he said. Mr Kyari said the government has not made a position yet. In his response, the national leader of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba, said the federal government made a promise to the unions. Mr Wabba however, did not disclose the nature of the promise made by Mr Kyari. The chief of staff tried to give us details of governments position which we will have to go and convey to our members and then we can revert back to him, Mr Wabba said. He said the federal government has given the unions its word while noting that the union would communicate with their members and revert back to the government. This is how far we have gone but clearly I think we have tried to share details of the information that pertain to the issue of the national minimum wage and how the ongoing negotiation was stalled and also the best way to get out of it, he said. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how Mr Wabba announced a total strike over the federal governments failure to reconvene the tripartite committee constituted in November last year to recommend a new national minimum wage for workers in the country. A last ditch effort by the federal government to avert the strike ended in a stalemate on Wednesday. The unions said the strike action would be total across the country. The workers are demanding a new minimum wage of about N50, 000 instead of the current national minimum wage of N18, 000. Most state governors as well as proponents of true federalism have, however, argued that states should be allowed to set their own minimum wage, especially as many states are barely able to pay the current N18, 000 minimum wage. Some states are yet to receive the third tranche of the Paris Club debt refund weeks after the release of the $2.69 billion (about N823.5 billion @ N306.25/$1) balance was approved because the president, Muhammadu Buhari, halted the disbursement, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report. On September 11, the federal ministry of finance announced conditions the states must fulfill before the refund could be paid to them. Apart from prioritising the payment of workers salaries and staff related benefits, the states were also asked to show commitment to commence the repayment of budget support loans granted by the federal government in 2016. Other conditions included commitments to clear all amounts due to the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI) as well as matching grants from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC). Days before she was forced to resign her appointment over the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate forgery scandal, the former finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, had approved the disbursement of the refund to the states. A reliable source close the finance ministry told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had actually acted on the former ministers instructions, with some states acknowledging the money indeed dropped in their accounts. The source, who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak on the issue, named Osun as the first state to have received the payment, apparently to help in settling three months salary arrears to workers in the run-up to the just-concluded governorship elections. Other states that equally received the payment included Bayelsa and Benue. While Bayelsa announced the receipt of the refund and its plans to pay the new minimum wage to its workers, Benue was said to have already drawn and spent about N3 billion of the payment from its account. However, a top official in the presidency said no sooner had some of the states began to draw the money than another directive was issued to the CBN to immediately reverse the payment. According to the official, who pleaded anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the matter, the directive to the CBN came from the president, as it appeared Mrs Adeosun did not receive presidential clearance before authorizing the final payment. The official said the president was concerned about the conduct of the state governors in handling the Paris Club refunds, describing them as irresponsible. In particular, the official said the president frowned seriously at the refusal of the governors to pay several months arrears of salaries, pension, gratuity and other allowances to their workers despite collecting two previous payments of the refund. Also, the president had wondered why almost all the states were owing huge backlogs of their counterpart funding to the Universal Basic Education (UBEC). The inability of the state governments to pay their counterpart funding to UBEC has rendered most of them ineligible to access available grants to fix the education system in their states, the source explained. Sections 9 (b) and 11(2) of the UBEC Act require the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja to provide 50 per cent counterpart funding to the intervention fund to qualify to access the fund matched by the federal governments contribution. No access to UBEC fund PREMIUM TIMES learnt that about 30 states are currently unable to access the over N40 billion UBEC fund as a result of non-compliance with the payment of their counterpart funding. To enable the states have access to the grants, the president was said to have directed the finance ministry and the CBN to deduct the backlog of the counterpart funding, put at about N100 billion, from each States share of the Paris Club third tranche refund. On payment of salaries and other benefits to workers, it was learnt the president directed each state government to submit a written status report and submit to the federal ministry of finance and the CBN. The status report must state exactly where they are on the payment, in terms of how many months each of them were owing on their payment of salaries, pension, gratuity, and other allowances. Besides, they must demonstrate a commitment to how they planned to utilize the current payment they are expecting to offset the outstanding arrears of the benefits to their workers. Aware the president was not ready to shift grounds on full compliance with the conditions for the release of the refund, a finance commissioner from one of the states told our reporter on Thursday they have been scrambling since Tuesday to submit all the documents. To show how serious he is taking the matter, the presidency official said the president has also ordered that the status report being submitted be cross-checked with the Nigerian Labour Congress to authenticate the payment claims by the states. Equally, the NLC, both at the national and state levels, have been asked to send in a report to corroborate the submission by the states on the payment of their workers benefits. To ensure the speedy disbursement of the funds, it was learnt that the various state governments pressurized the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, to effect the payment. But, before traveling to New York on Tuesday to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the CBN governor was said to have directed the state finance commissioners to liaise with the director in the CBN governors office department, Jerry Abuah, on the documentation. Pending the CBN governors return to secure further directive from the presidency to proceed with the payment, the finance commissioner said Mr Abuah had asked them to provide further attestation to the earlier documentation they submitted about salary payment. Until each of the state signs, payment would not be made. That is where they are now in the process. That is why some states have circulating press statements to claim they have not yet received the payment. But, this is half-truth, because the money was actually released, and later reversed, the source in the finance ministry said. The Nigerian Air Force has confirmed that one of the pilots involved in Fridays fighter jets crash has died. PREMIUM TIMES reported how two fighter jets on rehearsal for Nigerias Independence Day celebrations crashed in Katampe district of Abuja. The Air Force had while confirming the crash said no life was lost. However, spokesperson of the Air Force, Ibikunle Daramola, in an update said one of the pilots later died. It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully announce that one of the pilots who successfully ejected from one of the F-7Ni aircraft that crashed earlier today has passed on. May his soul RIP. Additional details on the incident will be communicated later. Thank you, Mr Daramola said in a short statement via his twitter handle. A government source earlier confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that one of the pilots died. The source also explained how the accident happened. He said one of the jets wing clipped the other, forcing both to go down. Only one of the pilots was able to eject, the other one couldnt (he is one of the best pilots in the Airforce) and he died on the spot, the source said. He added that the pilot that ejected did not land well and has sustained a serious head injury. He said the survivor requires urgent surgery. In his update, Mr Daramola did not provide any details on the surviving pilot.+++ Read our earlier story below Two Nigerian jets have crashed in Katampe area of Abuja, residents have said. The Nigerian Air Force has also confirmed the crashes. I wish to confirm an air incident involving 2 Nigerian Air Force aircraft taking part in the rehearsals for the 58th Independence Day Celebrations. Thankfully no lives were lost. Details will be communicated later, the air force spokesperson, Ibikunle Daramola, said in a short message sent to PREMIUM TIMES. Our reporter saw three Mi-35 Military helicopters hovering over the area. Witnesses also saw several first responders heading to the area. PICTURES Scene where Nigerian Military Jet crashed in ABuja, FCT. Scene where Nigerian Military Jet crashed in ABuja, FCT. Ambulance with affected pilot. Scene where Nigerian Military Jet crashed in ABuja, FCT. Scene where Nigerian Military Jet crashed in ABuja, FCT. A former vice president and a Peoples Democratic Party presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, has denied claims that he was uncomfortable with the choice of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as venue for the partys national convention. Mr Atiku spoke after the partys 83rd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Friday. It is not true because PH is my second home, Mr Abubakar, who was vice president between 1999 and 2007, said. I dont need accommodation in PH, I dont need security so it is not true. I am comfortable.. Some aspirants had complained about the choice of Port Harcourt as the venue of the partys national convention claiming it had the potential of being hijacked by Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, who is believed to wield tremendous influence in the former ruling party. But the party hierarchy had insisted the convention would go on at the venue, saying the choice was a unanimous decision. Delegates to the convention are expected to elect the partys presidential candidate for 2019 general election. Also speaking on the choice of Port Harcourt as the conventions venue, the senate president, Bukola Saraki, said it was acceptable to him. We all agreed to hold it at PH, said Mr Saraki, who is also a presidential aspirant. Some of the issues that we are having before which were reported in papers, we discussed that. Everybody decided that we should stay with the party. Where tempers flared, people apologised and everybody felt, yes there was a commitment to assure everybody that there will be free and fair primaries. The outgoing governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, gave an insight into what transpired at the NEC meeting. We had a successful meeting and all grey issues were resolved, said Mr Fayose. Most popular among these grey issues is the venue of our national convention and we have successfully resolved this. We have taken a position that the convention will hold at Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Beyond this, there were assurances of free, fair election and that the aspirants will accept the outcome of the result. Mr Fayose also said the NEC condemned the process of the Osun State governorship election as most fraudulent and completely unacceptable. Governor Nyesom Wike has apologised to leaders and presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party for his anti-party outburst on Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt. At a National Executive Committee meeting of the party Friday afternoon, the Rivers State governor showed remorse for his comments and assured party leaders he would be more guarded going forward, those who attended the meeting have informed PREMIUM TIMES. When we demanded apology from him, he apologised and the party has reconciled, Okwesilieze Nwodo, a former chairman of the PDP who attended the NEC meeting today told PREMIUM TIMES. Mr Nwodo, a former governor of Enugu State, said it was after Mr Wikes apology that the party went on to have a unanimous decision to move the partys convention for election of presidential candidate to Port Harcourt, at the heart of Nigerias oil-rich Niger-Delta. He apologised at the meeting and promised to refrain from such comments from now on, another source who was present at the meeting told PREMIUM TIMES under anonymity because he assumed speaking on record could damage his friendship with Mr Wike. Mr Wike sparked political tension amongst PDP leaders and presidential aspirants when he said on Wednesday that the presidential primaries must hold in Port-Harcourt, saying unequivocally that any contrary venue would be politically costly for the PDP at next years presidential election. Although some of the partys over a dozen presidential aspirants held reservations about the outburst, they were reluctant to openly confront him, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, preferring instead to keep their misgivings away from the media. It is unfortunate that this man is behaving like he owns the party, but he would soon learn that no man is an island and a man who is indispensable has not been born, a presidential aspirant told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Friday night. Okwesilieze Nwodo, a former governor of Enugu State. [PHOTO CREDIT: The Nigerian Voice] The aspirant, who was amongst those present at Fridays NEC meeting, said he accepted Mr Wikes apologies, but would rather not publicly confront him to avoid fueling a simmering rancour. A spokesperson for Mr Wike did not immediately return requests for comments Friday night. Several presidential aspirants feared holding the convention in Port-Harcourt could give Mr Wike an edge to install his preferred aspirant. While those against the choice have been largely quiet, preferring only to discuss it with close associates or use political action groups to write antagonistic opinions in the media, those who were comfortable with Port Harcourt have publicly stated their position. The Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido are amongst top contenders for the ticket who openly raised no objection about Port Harcourt. Even if the venue is Sri Lanka, we are okay with it so long as it is PDP presidential convention, Musa Elayo, a former minister and campaign director for Mr Lamido, told PREMIUM TIMES Friday. Senate President Bukola Saraki also said he was not opposed to Port Harcourt as convention venue. The top lawmaker told reporters shortly after Fridays NEC meeting that he was satisfied with the arrangement, adding that someone apologised after tempers flared at the meeting, although he did not say it was Mr Wike. Bukola Saraki, Senate President Mr Wike also stirred controversy on Wednesday when he said in addition to his threats that some aspirants had no intention of fulfilling their promise to restructure Nigeria. You come here to deceive us about restructuring. Just that Rivers State is a venue, you fight it, Mr Wike said while receiving Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo, who is also running for president as he wraps up his two-term tenure next May. Then, when you are there, what will happen? You think we are fools where you preach restructuring, then when you get the position, you abandon restructuring. His comments appeared a veiled attack on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is considered a front-runner in the race for the main oppositions ticket. At least two officials in Mr Atikus campaign and one aide to Mr Wike admitted to PREMIUM TIMES under anonymity that the Rivers governor was aiming at the former vice president. former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar The partys decision to settle for Port Harcourt as demanded by Mr Wike further underscores the governors soaring influence in the opposition circles, said political analyst Sola Olubanjo. He is the toughest man in the party now, he has shown it over and again, Mr Olubanjo said. The party has been through terrible phases since it lost power in 2015. We would see whether the governor would be able to single-handedly return its fortunes in a few months time. Mr Wikes judgement has been viewed with skepticism amongst party leaders since the controversial role he played in installing Ali Sheriff as chairman in early 2016 plunged the party into a protracted chaos that nearly rendered it defunct. But he was believed to have played a crucial role in the legal battle to regain the party from Mr Sheriffs control, which dragged for several months all the way to the Supreme Court. Mr Sheriff had since returned to the All Progressives Congress, from where he joined the PDP. Mr Wike also helped ensure the election of Uche Secondus as the partys chairman during its last convention in December 2017. Although Mr Secondus emergence generated widespread anger amongst the partys loyalists in the South-west, the internal wrangling was immediately quelled by the reconciliation committee the party raised soon after the convention. Nigerias President, Muhammadu Buhari, in his capacity as chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Thursday in New York, received briefing from the President of ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Brou. The president was brought up to speed with developments in Guinea Bissau, which should hold elections soon; Togo, where constitutional reforms are in place, and which would hold parliamentary elections on December 20; as well as Mali, where the situation is still fragile, despite concluding presidential polls recently. According to Mr Buharis spokesperson, Femi Adesina, in a statement Friday, the President commended the work being done by ECOWAS Commission, noting that it is always better to talk and resolve issues, rather than be confrontational. He added: If you represent a people, you wont like to see them suffering. Mr Buhari also pledged that Nigeria would always live up to its financial commitments to the sub-regional body, since we dont want to be big for nothing. We will always look for the money. The president approved that Nigerias Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, joined the president of ECOWAS Commission on a special mission to deepen the peace process in Mali. The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room has questioned the accuracy of the election results earlier announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The Situation Room, which comprises more than 60 civic groups, is a broad platform of civil society organisations that proposes change and reforms in response to key developments and gaps in the governance process in Nigeria. In its preliminary report of the 2018 governorship election in Osun State, the group expressed concern that the entirety of the election derogates from the recent achievements in the countrys election process. INEC earlier declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gboyega Oyetola, the winner of the 2018 Osun governorship election. Mr Oyetola was returned as governor-elect on Thursday at the end of a supplementary election which held in seven polling units across four local governments. The APC candidate won six of the seven units amidst allegations of harassment and other forms of malpractice. At the end of the tally of votes, the APC candidate scored 255,505 votes while the PDP candidate got 255,023 votes. In its report, the Situation Room stated that the election was heavily guarded with police and other security personnel, including the army, overwhelmingly deployed across the seven polling units of the election, in a manner that created heavy tension and apprehension among voters. It also observed that there were political thugs and hoodlums being used to intimidate voters, with the security forces standing by and failing to act. From Situation Rooms observations, it is clear that the circumstances that led to the cancellation of the elections in the seven polling units where the elections were re-run including violence, also repeated themselves in most of this election, raising questions on why results obtained under these conditions should now stand. Situation Room is further concerned that the entirety of the Osun State re-run election derogates from the recent gains made in our elections process and the confidence that was beginning to be built. The lapses in the Osun re-run elections has put a serious question mark on the electoral process and raises concerns about the forthcoming 2019 Nigeria general elections, it said. The group could not state how the voting process started in Orolu local government as it said media and election observers were denied access during the early part of the day. It further lamented incidences of violence and gunshots around some of the polling units and attacks against opposing political sides as well as reports of agents with large sums of money apprehended around the polling units and alleged fake observers. In a similar report, YIAGA, in collaboration with Watching the Vote (WTV), stated that the supplementary election was relatively peaceful, but nevertheless, there was violence, harassment, and intimidation in Ward 8, Kajola Village, PU 001 Orolu LGA. It said APC agents and party representatives identified PDP supporters to political thugs who attacked and beat the PDP supporters and blocked them from accessing the polling unit. Political thugs also prevented WTV observers from observing. The observers could only gain access when foreign observers arrived with a security contingent, but were still prevented from witnessing counting and the posting of results in this location. Political thugs also deprived media practitioners from accessing and using of phones at the PU. This was however resolved by noon. The group also decried the high rate of vote buying in several polling units where party agents were seen distributing cash and food to prospective voters. While calling on the voters to remain calm, YIAGA urged INEC to carry out timely investigations into the critical incidents at Ward 8, Kajola Village, PU 001 Orolu LGA that may have undermined the credibility of the polls in this location. It admonished security agents to remain alert, vigilant and neutral and to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators of electoral violence especially those who prevented voters, observers and media practitioners from accessing some of the polling units. The group urged the media to promote credible and objective reportage of the supplementary elections. The Situation Room and YIAGA are among the many observation teams to question the credibility of the electoral commissions result. Earlier, the U.S., EU and UK gave their initial observation on the conduct of the rerun governorship election in Osun State. A member of the observer team, who spoke on behalf of the team, said the U.S. EU and UK observers had heard reports of irregularities, harassment, and interference by inappropriate persons in the elections. We are very concerned by these reports and will be checking with stakeholders to check the facts. We call on all stakeholders to remain calm, he said. The Centre for Democracy and Development, one of the foremost observer groups in Nigeria, also faulted the rerun election process. In the light of these anti-democratic acts, which have undermined the sanctity of the ballot, we hold strongly the view that the re-run poll of Thursday, September 27, 2018, does not meet up with the minimum standards for free, fair and credible elections, the CDD said in a statement to PREMIUM TIMES Thursday afternoon. Adegboyega Oyetola has operated behind the scenes in Osun State politics for several years. Now, quite precipitously, he is the latest politician on Nigerias political centre stage. The 64-year-old All Progressives Congress governor-elect spent the better part of his political foray getting others elected, then helping them implement their policies by applying his vast experience as a long time accounting and brokerage executive in the private sector. But Mr Oyetola has never stood for election until earlier this year when the outgoing governor, Rauf Aregbesola, whom he served as chief-of-staff throughout his eight-year- two-term tenure, tapped him out of a long list of political proteges as his final anointed successor. Although widely disputed by local and international observers, Mr Aregbesolas bet on a man said to be Bola Tinubus cousin paid off on Thursday night in one of the roughest paths to a political victory. Standing for the APC, Mr Oyetola had 255,505 votes against 255,023 votes for Ademola Adeleke, his closest challenger who ran under the Peoples Democratic Party. The 482 votes made all the difference in a state of 3.5 million people whose election political observers saw as a precursor to the 2019 general election. Mr Oyetola was up against a matching, if not greater, political force than himself in the election. Mr Adeleke, a serving senator, came from a background rooted in politics. His father was an influential senator in Nigerias Second Republic between 1979-83. Mr Adeleke rejected the election as a charade and a coup against Osun residents, vowing to retrieve his mandate in court. Legal commentators believe he has a case, even as they acknowledge the Supreme Court has been reluctant to overturn governorship elections since 2010 when the Constitution was amended to allow gubernatorial election petitions terminate at the highest court like the presidential election petitions. Mr Aregbesola was the last Nigerian politician to be declared governor through the tribunal eight years ago, but he strongly holds that Mr Adeleke would not be as lucky. The police and INEC denied all allegations of electoral malpractice during the election. Although the choice of Mr Oyetola did not entirely surprise many considering his ties to Mr Tinubu the stunning turn of events between his nomination as a behind-the-scenes operative and yesterdays victory has now presented the awaiting governor a unique challenge. Patching a hemorrhage Away from his known credit for deftly executing the policies of others, Mr Oyetola must now cast his own vision and in a manner that would not leave the people of the state perpetually demoralised. It is a transition that Mr Oyetola said he is well-equipped to make. Mr Oyetola is taking over a state which has become a lightning rod for reckless public expenditure by the opposition. Osun State has been known more for its financial turmoil, which often plays out with fast-hemorrhaging jobs and regular industrial action by workers. He said during a debate on September 16 that he will emphasise the deployment of technology to boost school enrolment and tertiary education, as well as liberalise scholarships and train teachers. While this may suggest a man willing to chart a different course from his predecessor, the now-governor-elect blurred the lines when he proposed to sustain some of the socialist policies of his outgoing predecessor, especially the free meal for students and a uniform for all pupils. But timely and consequent income is perhaps the most crucial of areas a majority of workers in Osun would like to see Mr Oyetola take a new approach. Since 2015, Mr Aregbesola has been vilified for obvious lapses in reward for state workers, as many of them go without salaries for months. In a state populated by civil servants and a moribund private sector, the challenges around salaries and wages have taken a devastating toll on the states economy. Mr Aregbesola directed most of the blames to his predecessors, whom he accused of plunging the state into huge debts without a prudent repayment plan. The governor said he borrowed funds to improve the states infrastructure and attract potential investments, but those were not anywhere near as much as the debt his predecessors racked up. At some point in 2016, Osun State earned nothing in federal allocation after creditors pulled funds at source to offset due loans. As of May 2018, the state admitted a debt profile of over N170 billion but said chances that they will be liquidated by 2020 are bright. But the claims were disputed by the PDP, which has been in opposition in the state since 2010 when Mr Aregbesola retrieved his mandate from Olagunsoye Oyinlola in controversial Court of Appeal ruling. The party said Mr Aregbesola took loans in excess of N200 billion, which would take 20 years to liquidate. Not unexpected, Mr Oyetola downplayed the acuteness of the states finances, saying the crises are exaggerated by the opposition and indicated he would advance the approach the current administration. He dismissed claims that salaries and wages are not paid on time and very little when they eventually hit workers bank accounts, saying the state adopted a modulated structure, which was carefully designed to help the state through its turbulent times. Levels 1 to 7 have full salaries. We are not owing anybody on levels 1 to 7. Levels 8 to 10 now earn 75 percent. It is only 12 and above that earn 50 percent, Mr Oyetola said, adding that the arrangement was put in place by a joint committee government officials and state workers. Mr Oyetola says he has the expertise to improve the states finances by drastically addressing budget shortfalls from the day he is sworn into office on November 27. The state has huge debts and unfunded liabilities that cannot be resolved in four years, according to Labake Ajiboye, a public finance consultant based in the capital Osogbo. Nothing about this is unique to Mr Oyetola. Candidates are always quick to make promises, even the novice know that it is when the time comes for implementation that excuses would start mounting. Mrs Ajibola told PREMIUM TIMES the perpetual crisis over salaries is amongst the reasons the election was so close, if not actually won by Mr Adeleke. We still have the tribunal to decide whether Mr Adeleke did not win this election because of the things we witnessed, but salaries of workers really gave the current APC government a tough time during the election, she said. If Mr Oyetola is able to turn the situation around during his tenure, let us expect his acceptance amongst residents to rise. Oludare Odewunmi, a political analyst in Ede, said Mr Oyetolas tenure would be off to a good start considering his knowledge of the states current situation. He has a major advantage here as the chief-of-staff who understands the inner workings of government like no one else, Mr Odewunmi said. He would not need to waste several months learning on the job as most of his challengers would have needed. If his antecedents are anything to embrace for the time being, it is okay to be very optimistic about the incoming government he will lead. Born on April 25, 1956, in Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Area, Mr Oyetola attended Ifeoluwa Grammar School in Osogbo, finishing in 1972. In 1978, he graduated from the University of Lagos with a degree in insurance. He obtained a masters degree in business administration in 1990 from the same institution. His national youth service was in Potiskum between 1978 and 1979. He joined Leadway Assurance Company Limited as an area manager between 1980 and 1987. From 1987-1990, he was an underwriting executive at Crusader Insurance Company Limited, before moving to Alliance and General Insurance in 1991. Mr Oyetola also worked as an oil and gas executive in several firms until 2011 when he was tapped by Mr Aregbesola as his chief-of-staff, a position he is expected to retain until he forms his own government next month. Some hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) did not fully join the ongoing nationwide strike called by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). The warning strike commenced midnight Wednesday over the federal governments failure to reconvene the tripartite committee constituted in November last year to recommend a new national minimum wage for workers. On Wednesday, a last-ditch effort by the government to avert the strike ended in a stalemate. The Medical and Health Workers of Nigeria (MHWUN) had on Thursday directed all its members across the country to join the strike. Addressing journalists on Thursday, the President of MHWUN, Biobelemoye Josiah, accused the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, of frustrating any activity targeted at improving the welfare of workers. He said the union could no longer sit back and watch the federal government continue to take Nigerian workers for a ride. PREMIUM TIMES on Friday visited some hospitals in Abuja to observe their level of compliance to the strike. Our correspondent saw that a few out-patients were around, probably because many people anticipated that public hospitals would comply with the strike. At the Wuse District Hospital, only patients on admission before the commencement of the strike were receiving treatment. A staff of the hospital, who asked not to be named, said no new patients were attended to on Friday. He said though the strike has officially begun, doctors on casual duty were on ground to attend to the few in-patients and emergency cases. The Medical Director of the hospital, Saad Idris, who confirmed that other health workers were on strike, said the hospital was still open with doctors attending to in-patients and emergency cases. Once JOHESU, which is a big component of the hospital, are on strike, its really difficult for the hospital to cope, Dr Idris said. But fortunately for us, the doctors are not part of JOHESU so they are not on strike. This is a bigger strike and it was abrupt. We have some patients that were surgically operated so we cannot discharge them immediately. And there are some pediatric cases as well that cant be discharged. But we earlier discharged some cases that we think they can do well at home. Dr Idris said some doctors, including those on residency doing their training programmes, were going to run shifts to make sure medications are administered to patients. He also said doctors were stationed at the accident and emergency wards to attend to those coming in as emergencies, like labour, road traffic accidents, and acute pains. The case in Kubwa General hospital was, however, different as doctors, cleaners and ad-hoc staff were busy attending to patients. At the time of visit, all departments at the hospital, including the laboratories, pharmacy, outpatient ward, accident and emergency, maternity ward, medical records, and administration were open and fully operational. A patient identified as Precious, who was waiting to see a doctor, said she understood the importance of the strike but said health workers joining the strike would be disastrous. It will be unfair on Nigerians for health workers to join the ongoing strike, she said. Most people will lose their loved ones if the health system in the country is crippled. I pray health workers consider how important our health is, so they will change their intentions to join the strike, she said. One of the guards said doctors were finding it difficult attending to patients without the help of nurses, the guard, who preferred not to be named, said. They have been jumping up and down since morning trying to manage patients in the hospital. They can only try and attend to the ones they can, where they cant any longer, they will call it a day, he said. As at the time of the visit, the medical director was not available for comments. At the Abuja National Hospital, skeletal services were going on. It was observed that the impact of the industrial action on health care services across the FCT was yet to be felt as workers in most of the hospitals joined the strike on Friday. President Muhammadu Buhari has affirmed that checking the menace of corruption would create major sources of funding for developmental programmes and projects for African economies. Addressing a High-Level Roundtable on Corruption, Migration, Bridging Africas Infrastructural Gap for Sustainable Development organised by NEPAD/APRM Nigeria on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York, Friday, the president expressed regret that huge amounts of funds are still being squirreled out of the continent. It is still worrisome considering that billions of dollars, great talents and professionals are continually drained out of the continent through various corrupt activities thus causing poor investment inflows, undermining the rule of law, stifling trade, worsening macro-economic conditions and escalating level of poverty in our countries, he said. According to Mr Buhari, these detestable practices are being perpetrated by some international collaborators hiding in secret jurisdictions. The Nigerian President, however, expressed delight that efforts are being made by African leaders to ensure greater transparency and accountability in government business, fostering regional integration as well as creating enabling environment for our youth, stressing that these efforts will remain unabated, as African leaders will remain unrelenting. Looking ahead, he said: We must adopt laws, regulations and policies that encourage transparent financial transactions, youth and womens empowerment programmes as well as establishing good infrastructural links among member states towards sanitising the continent of these ills. Describing the New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD) as a strategic framework document designed for the socio-economic development of Africa and a policy framework to address our economic and social challenges, Mr Buhari implored his colleagues to: eradicate poverty; place African countries on a path of sustainable growth and development; halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process; enhance its full and beneficial integration into the global economy and; accelerate the empowerment of women and youth. Calling the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) a flagship programme of NEPAD and a specialised agency within the AU structure, the president noted that it is mainly a self-monitoring and assessment tool for peer learning and enthronement of good governance on the continent. Reminding his fellow leaders that Agenda 2063 is a strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the African continent over the next 50 years with a strong mandate on NEPAD and APRM, he urged them to build on and seek the acceleration of the implementation of past and present continental initiatives for our growth and sustainable development. Saying that he looked forward to the conclusions of the conference, the Nigerian leader assured the gathering that, African leaders are totally committed to delivering these developmental goals, namely, AU Agenda 2063 and 2030 SDGs in order to keep up with the international economic development. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) acquired 31 brand new aircraft and reactivated 13 others in the last three years, according to the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Sadique Abubakar. Mr Abubakar spoke at the inauguration of 30 room transit accommodations for airmen and women and remodeled single quarters for officers at the 115 Special Operations Group in Port Harcourt on Friday. He said the air force was also expecting delivery of additional six brand new attack helicopters procured from Italy. In the last three years, we have inducted 31 brand new aircraft and reactivated 13 others courtesy of support of President Muhammadu Buhari and members of the National Assembly. Also, aside the (12) Super Tucano aircraft from the United States, which we are still expecting; we are also expecting another six brand new helicopters from Italy. So, by the time you add up all that we are expecting; by the end of 2019, we should have quite a number of platforms, he said. Mr Abubakar said the acquisition of fighter jets and reactivation of other aircraft were part of ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to re-equip and professionalise the air force. He said that security agencies had made so much progress by recapturing 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) that were earlier occupied by insurgents in 2014. But today, there is not a single LGA that is under Boko Haram terrorists. Though, from time to time they attack some soft targets which are typical of insurgency. But to come out as an organised group to occupy territory; I think it is clear to everybody that we have gone past that stage. So, we are now consolidating what we have achieved in the few years, while so much is being done to make sure that the situation does not change for the worst, he said. The air chief said that the recently established Special Operations Command and the Ground Training Command was all part of moves to end arm insurrection in the country. Mr Abubakar explained that aside procurement of fighter jets, attack helicopters and other military hardware that training and re-training and welfare of troops are being addressed. According to him, the move is part of measures to boost combat readiness of troops when deployed for internal and external security operations. He said the air force currently has 57 pilots undergoing training in Nigeria and South Africa. According to him, 57 pilots are being trained in Kaduna; three in Kano, while seven recently graduated from Kano in August. Only last week in Lagos, we established a forensic lab for air provost. About 16 air provost are currently being trained there to handle some of the challenges that we face, he said. Another set of 140 air police personnel are currently undergoing special operations training to join our recently established quick response wings and groups, he said. Mr Abubakar commended the commander of 115 Special Operations Group, Air Commodore Elijah Ebiowe, and officers of the command for driving research and development in the air force. (NAN) President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, urged Nigerians to see their diversity as source of strength, progress, peace and national development. He made the call at Public Lecture and Special Jummaat Prayer to mark Nigerias 58th Independence Day Celebration at the National Mosque in Abuja. The lecture was organised by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) under the leadership of its President-General, the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III. Represented by the FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello, the president advised Nigerians to de-emphasise cultural and religious affiliations with view to enhancing peace and national cohesion, adding that Nigerians should enjoy and benefit from the secular nature of the country. The president further urged Nigerians to embrace genuine dialogue as panacea to the attainment of sustainable peace, progress and development, stressing that there was no alternative to peace. The Sultan of Sokoto said that the aim of the lecture was to bring together the Executive, Legislative, Judiciary, security agencies and Muslim stakeholders under one roof to chart a way forward for the country. The NSCIA President-General advised Muslim politicians to strive toward contributing to peace and development of the country at whatever position they found themselves. He said we are here as Muslims not members of APC, PDP, SDP or any political party. We are here to chart a way forward for this country to be better than what we are now because development is a continuous process. Mr Abubakar also urged the political class to emulate the virtues of First Republic politicians like Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the then Northern Region, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and others. He challenged politicians to do what Mr Awolowo did for the then Western Nigeria and stop making noise over who Awolowo was. We remember with nostalgia the good days of Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and others. These were leaders and statesmen who believed in Nigeria and who worked closely with one another to make Nigeria a better country. We must emulate them; we must follow their footsteps to move our nation forward. He enjoined public office holders to think of what they could do for the country so as to leave behind good legacy. The special prayer, led by the Murshid (General-Overseer) of Abuja National Mosque, Shehu Galadanci, was offered for continued peace, progress and development of the country. (NAN) A former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, on Thursday met separately with two other presidential aspirants in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the backdrop of a controversy over the venue of the national convention where the party will pick the candidate. The aspirants are Senate President Bukola Saraki and a former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso. Another aspirant, Attahiru Bafarawa, who is a former governor of Sokoto State, was also in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, but had not met with Mr Lamido at the time of filing this report. There are 13 aspirants seeking to fly the PDP flag in next years election. The National Working Committee of the PDP had indicated the national convention of the party will hold next month in Port Harcourt but the Board of Trustees stated that a decision has not been made on the venue, even as some interests in the party are asking for the event to be in Abuja. On Thursday, Mr Saraki, was the first to visit Mr Lamido after a meeting with party delegates at the PDP state secretariat in Dutse to solicit support for his ambition. Mr. Saraki, in a short address in Hausa language, told the party leaders of his ambition of becoming Nigerias next president. The senate president warmed up the occasion when he addressed the gathering in Hausa language, as many had thought he does not speak the language. After the short address, the director general of his campaign organisation, Mohammed Wakil, commended the orderly manner the party leaders welcomed Mr Saraki in the state. He said it is the tradition of their campaign that in every state they visit which has a PDP presidential aspirant, they do not do open campaign to the state delegates but rather greet them and meet the aspirant. Our presidential aspirant came to Jigawa to greet you. Now, we are heading to Bamaina, Sule Lamidos country home where we will discuss important issues with regard to the progress of our party, said Mr. Wakil. At the event, a senator, Dino Melaye, was compelled by the party leaders to make a comment. He grabbed the microphone and berated the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration by singing a traditional Hausa song demonising the administration. After meeting party leaders in Dutse, Mr Saraki left the state capital for a meeting with Mr Lamido in Bamaina. At the end of the meeting, Mr Saraki told journalists that his visit to the former Jigawa governor was beyond campaign but to exchange ideas and thoughts with Mr Lamido on how to move the country forward. He said the challenges ahead of them were not for one person but require all the aspirants to come together as a united force for the interest of Nigerians. Senate President, Bukola Saraki. Im here to dialogue, bridge communication gap, and share ideas because few days ahead of us were going to conduct primaries election and that day is only one event, said Mr Saraki. It is after the primaries that real work starts irrespective of whoever emerges winner. Thats what we talked about with my brother, Sule Lamido, and thats my purpose of coming to Jigawa State. Before primaries, there might be those that may consider one way or the other but I doubt if all the aspirants may decide to concede. What is ahead of us is beyond 13 presidential aspirants, there are over 180 millions Nigerians that depend on whatever we do, we have that responsibility on us, said Mr Saraki. Kwankwaso in Jigawa Later, Mr Kwankwaso also met Mr Lamido in Bamaina after the departure of Mr Saraki. Mr. Kwankwaso, like Mr Saraki, had also visited party leaders at the state party headquarters in Dutse before proceeding to Mr. Lamidos country home. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso Mr. Kwankwaso later told journalists that his crossing over to APC was a mistake which he later realised and corrected by returning to the PDP which he said is a better party. He said that he did not have an elaborate discussion with Mr. Lamido, but hopes to do so at a subsequent meeting, after which he would address a press conference. Mr Bafarawa later arrived the state and met party delegates at the party headquarters in Dutse. At the time of filling this report, Mr. Lamido was yet to meet with Mr Bafarawa and it was not clear if the two aspirants would meet. President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana on Thursday gave the assurance that the attacks against Nigerian traders in Ghana were being taken care of. He stated this at a meeting with Nigerias president, Muhammadu Buhari, in New York on the side-lines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly. Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, made this known in a statement in Abuja. The Ghanaian leader said there was no intention to deliberately target Nigerians, noting that it was all about complying with the rules that guide trading in the country. I have met with the different groups and have been reassured that there was no agenda to send anybody away. It is just that they needed to regularise their positions according to the trading laws of the country, Mr Akufo-Addo said. He added that Ghanas minister of trade and industry, Alan Kyerematen, had issued a press statement on the matter. The statement read: The Ministry of Trade and Industry wishes to inform the general public that the National Committee on Retail Trade will continue to ensure that all businesses operating in the retail trade sector of Ghana are given the opportunity and support to regularize their operations and comply with the laws and regulations in the country. In this regard, all owners of the affected businesses and shops are requested to contact the relevant State Institutions and Agencies to regularize their operations as required by the various bodies under reference. The ministry takes this opportunity to assure the general public, particularly the international community, that there is no orchestrated action by Government or any State Institution targeted at Nigerian nationals or any particular foreign nationals. Mr Buhari, who expressed delight over the actions taken so far to address the situation, stressed that Nigeria and Ghana had a relationship that dated back in time. He, therefore, urged citizens of both countries to comply with the relevant laws. (NAN) The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has resolved to hold the partys national convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The decision was taken at the 83rd NEC meeting of the party which held at the Wadata Plaza secretariat of the PDP in Abuja on Friday. Delegates to the convention are expected to elect the partys presidential candidate for the 2019 general election. Some aspirants had complained about the choice of Port Harcourt as the venue because it had the potential of being hijacked by Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, who is believed to wield tremendous influence in the former ruling party. Mr Wike is also a close ally of Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, who is one of the presidential aspirants. He is believed by many to be subtly supporting the former Speaker in his aspirations to clinch the partys ticket. Briefing reporters at the end of the meeting, spokesperson of the PDP, Kola Ologbodiyan said, the choice of Port Harcourt was a unanimous decision at the NEC. He also said the meeting assured all aspirants of a free and fair election during the convention. Mr Ologbondiyan also said the NEC resolved that all aspirants would sign an agreement with the party officials to accept the outcome of the convention. The outgoing Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, also gave an insight into what transpired at the meeting. We had a successful meeting and all grey issues were resolved. Most popular among these grey issues is the venue of our national convention and we have successfully resolved this. We have taken a position that the convention will hold at Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He said the party also condemned the outcome of the Osun State governorship rerun and will not accept the results. INEC earlier declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gboyega Oyetola, the winner of the Osun governorship election. Mr Oyetola was returned as governor-elect on Thursday at the end of a supplementary election which held in seven polling units across four local governments. The APC candidate won six of the seven units amidst allegations of harassment and other forms of malpractice. At the end of the tally of votes, the APC candidate scored 255,505 votes while the PDP candidate got 255,023 votes. Beyond this, there were assurances of free, fair election and that the aspirants will accept the outcome of the result. The NEC condemned the process of the Osun State governorship election as most fraudulent and completely unacceptable, Mr Fayose said. Presidential aspirant and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, also cleared the air on the rumours that he was not comfortable with the selection of Port Harcourt as the venue of the partys congress. It is not true, because Port Harcourt is my second home. I dont need accommodation in Port Harcourt. I dont need security so it is not true. I am comfortable. Equally, Senate President Bukola Saraki, who is also an aspirant said the choice was acceptable to him. We all agreed to hold it at PH. Some of the issues that we are having before which were reported in papers, we discussed that. Everybody decided that we should stay with the party. Where tempers flared, people apologised and everybody felt, yes there was a commitment to assure everybody that there will be free and fair primaries, Mr Saraki said. A Nigerian lawmaker has died, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt. Funke Adedoyin, a member of the House of Representatives from Kwara State, died on Friday afternoon in Abuja. Her profile on the Nigerian National Assembly website put her age at 56. This is a big loss to me, I am feeling a personal loss right now, Razak Atunwa, her Reps colleague from Kwara, told PREMIUM TIMES Friday evening. It was this afternoon that she passed on in Abuja. Mr Atunwa, chairman of House Judiciary Committee and governorship aspirant in Kwara, said Ms Adedoyin died of cancer. She had been battling cancer in the past few years, the lawmaker said. Ms Adedoyin was daughter of famed Nigerian industrialist Samuel Adedoyin. She was appointed minister of state for health by former President Olusegun Obasanjo during his second term between 2003 and 2007. Ms Adedoyin was amongst a host of All Progressives Congress lawmakers who joined the Peoples Democratic Party in a mass defection earlier this year. The Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, has visited the two pilots who survived an air crash involving two fighter jets in Katampe district of Abuja Friday. While one of the pilots died from injury sustained from the crash, two others survived and are currently on admission at a military hospital in Abuja. Mr Kyari who spoke briefly said Mr Buhari had been informed about the crash. I wish you quick recovery. The President said we should come and see you and wish you well, he is fully aware, he has been informed on what happened. We are proud of your service to your country, he said. The Chief of Air Staff, Sadiq Abubakar, who spoke with State House correspondents, described the incident as the tragic nature of our job. As combat pilots sometimes terrible things happen and this is one of those days. He said the officers had been rehearsing for the 58th anniversary of the country, and that everybody was full of enthusiasm, excited to be part of the celebration, unfortunately we had this incident this afternoon. The Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari commiserating at the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) Hospital, Abuja with an injured pilot of the Air Force fighter jet which crashed on Katampe hill on Friday (28/9/18). With him is the Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu. 05214/28/9/2018/Sumaila Ibrahim/BJO/NAN From left: Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadiq Abubakar; the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari; and Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, during their visit to the Defence Intelligent Agency (DIA) Hospital, Abuja to commiserating with an injured pilot of the Air Force fighter jet which crashed on Katampe hill on Friday (28/9/18). 05215/28/9/2018/Sumaila Ibrahim/BJO/NAN We have set up a board of inquiry to clearly understand what really happened. This was supposed to the last rehearsal before the actual flying on the 1st of October, he said. Mr Abubakar also said it was unfortunate that we lost one of them, but we are also consoled by the fact that we have two of the pilots here who are in stable condition, they have been visited by the Chief of Staff and I have also visited them. Meanwhile, the pilot who died may be buried at the military cemetery today. Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi has barred political office holders and senior civil servants from participating in the ongoing strike by the organised labour in the country. Mr Umahi, who gave the directive on Friday in a statement he personally signed, also directed that no public office should be closed during the strike. According to the statement, senior civil servants from grade level 12 and above should not for any reason, join the strike as they and all political appointees should be at their duty posts. The governor also condemned the compliance to the strike by the states workers in spite of what he called the magnanimity of his administration toward them. Mr Umahi said that he expected the states workers to be the last to join any strike because of the governors friendly posture and determination to empower them at all times. This as can be seen through the agricultural loans to improve their economic status as the government will not be the last to pay any acceptable national minimum wage to the workers. This is in spite of the fact that the state receives the least allocation from the federation account and it should make workers shun the evil machinations of haters of the state. Workers should instead, join hand with the government to ensure the rapid development of the state for the overall interest of all, he said. According to him, it is unlawful for workers to adhere to the strikes announcements not backed by organised labour. Proceeding on such strikes any time there is such announcement is unlawful and a total departure from the regular procedure. Workers should remember the magnanimity of the governor and the welfare packages given to them freely and religiously by the government such as the Christmas bonuses and the 13th month payment. Such gestures can hardly be seen in any other state in Nigeria and this should be appreciated by the workers, he said. Reacting, Leonard Nkah, the state Chairman, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), said that workers in the state appreciated all the governors gestures, adding, however, that the present situation is complex. The workers received the notice of the strike from the headquarters of their various labour unions and it could have been suicidal not to adhere to such notices, he said. (NAN) Calm returned to Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on Friday after a gruelling electoral activity that resulted in the announcement of the All Progressives (APC) Candidate, Gboyega Oyetola, as the winner of the governorship election. Besides civil servants who are observing the industrial action called by the organised labour across Nigeria, other categories of workers and business persons have returned to their places of work. There are no wild celebrations as witnessed in Ondo and Ekiti States after results were announced, and those who appear to be disappointed are neither exhibiting any show of frustration or anger over the outcome of the election. There are however feelers from Ede, the hometown of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke, of dejection and disappointment following the turn of events and electoral misfortunes. Notwithstanding the peaceful atmosphere, the military and police still maintained strategic presence in some parts of the state capital, to forestall any eventual breach of the peace. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the early hours of Friday, returned Mr Oyetola as governor-elect after a rerun election. The election, which began on Saturday, September 22, was only concluded on Thursday. Saturdays exercise was declared inconclusive after INEC declared a rerun in seven polling units where voting exercises were cancelled. The PDP candidate had led with a 353-votes margin but this was cancelled by the APC candidate who won six of the seven polling units with a wide margin. At the end of the tally of votes, the APC candidate recorded 255, 505 votes while the PDP candidate recorded 255, 023 votes. Some voters who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said the outcome of the election would not affect the peace of the state as the citizens only desired the development of the state and improvement in their welfare. They noted that if there are issues, it should be settled politically or in the courts, instead of making the people suffer more. Residents speak A security man in one of the hotels in Osogbo, who identified himself simply as Yinusa, said the people voted because they wanted development and not fight. According to him, Osun people are peaceful and would not resort to violence. The problem with the Aregbesola government is in the area of payment of salaries. If the incoming governor can settle that, I think the people will be happy, Mr Yinusa said. A female phone dealer at Olaiya junction, Osogbo, who gave her name as Kemi, said she does not care who emerged as the governor of the state, provided there are peace and development in the land. Ahmodu, a resident of the city, who is however, from Ondo State, said he doesnt see any difference between the two political parties and so no one should lose sleep over the outcome. They are birds of the same feathers. I dont see any difference between the two. They will still do what they want to do, he said. Kunle Adedeji is a phone repairer at Odi Olowo Street in Osogbo. He claimed to have voted for the APC and was happy that the party won the election. He, however, said he believed that despite the initial bitterness that followed the electoral contest, peace would reign and people would cooperate to see that the state moves forward. The PDP, as a party and its candidate as an individual, have rejected the election results, claiming it was a coup against the people, while the APC hailed the result, claiming it was the wish of the people expressed. A man who allegedly connives with his colleagues to rob people while wearing army uniforms, Adeoye Ayomide, has been arrested by the police in Ogun State. The police spokesperson in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told PREMIUM TIMES on Friday that the suspect was arrested on Tuesday along Ofada Road in Mowe, Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the state. He said the 23-year-old suspect was arrested around 8 p.m after his gang allegedly robbed one Adeyemo Adegboyega, a retired army officer, of N86,000 on September 13, with a broken bottle. Mr Oyeyemi said the incident was reported at the Mowe Divisional Headquarters, following which the divisional police officer, Francis Ebuhoma, detailed his operatives to trail the hoodlums. Their efforts paid off on Tuesday when the operatives received information that the gang had been sighted around Mowe area. Upon the information, the operatives swiftly moved into action, chased the gang and subsequently got one of them who dressed in fake army uniform arrested. The police spokesperson said a search warrant was duly executed in the suspects house where more fake army uniforms were recovered. He said the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, had ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad(FSARS) for discreet investigation and arrest of other members of the gang. (CNN) In a lengthy letter posted to his website on Wednesday, Asia Argento's attorney disputes allegations from actor Jimmy Bennett that his client sexually assaulted Bennett in 2013. "As revealed in the text messages published by TMZ, Asia stated, 'The horny kid jumped me ... I had sex with him it felt weird.' She went on to relate that she became 'frozen' when he was on top of her and told her that she had been his sexual fantasy since he was 12 years old," Argento's attorney, Mark Heller, wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Asia chose at the time not to prosecute Bennett for sexually attacking her." Argento's attorney claims that although Argento's former boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, paid Bennett $250,000 as part of the settlement, Argento would not be making further payments. "It was inaccurately revealed that a $380,000 settlement had been paid by Asia to Bennett in an attempt to preclude Bennett form making any allegations against Asia which would certainly create the impression that Asia was responsible for the alleged incident," the statement continued. "Bourdain chose to protect Asia's and his reputation and to pay Bennett and allowed Bennett to extract payments from him ... now that Mr. Bourdain has passed away and is not able to comment on his desire to avoid potential scandal which resulted in his facilitating payment to Bennett, Asia will not permit any portion of the balance of the $380,000 payment to be paid to Bennett who has already received $250,000 from Anthony Bourdain." Bourdain, whose series "Parts Unknown" airs on CNN, died by suicide in June. Following the initial report by The New York Times last month, Argento denied having a sexual relationship with Bennett stating, "I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is absolutely false. I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett." Shortly after, TMZ published a "selfie" of Argento and Bennett that appeared to show them in bed together. RELATED: Photo of Asia Argento with 17-year-old actor surfaces At the time, Bennett issued a statement to CNN through his attorney, Gordon K. Sattro. "I did not initially speak out about my story because I chose to handle it in private with the person who wronged me. My trauma resurfaced as she came out as a victim herself," Bennett's statement read in part. "I was underage when the event took place, and I tried to seek justice in a way that made sense to me at the time because I was not ready to deal with the ramifications of my story becoming public. At the time I believed there was still a stigma to being in the situation as a male in our society." CNN has contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for comment. Last week, a spokesperson for the department told CNN that investigators are interested in speaking with Bennett about his allegations against Argento but had been unable to reach him. Bennett's attorney was not immediately available for comment. CNN's Lisa France, Paul Vercammen and Sara Sidner contributed to this story. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Asia Argento's attorney says 17-year-old sexually 'attacked' her." The Prince William Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME. Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union. Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history. Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words. GAHANNA, Ohio, Sept. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AEP Ohio, an American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) company, today filed a proposal with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to support the development of 400 megawatts (MW) of new solar generation resources in Ohio by purchasing renewable power for AEP Ohio customers. The 300 MW and 100 MW facilities will be constructed in Ohio's Appalachian region in Highland County. "AEP Ohio customers have expressed their support for renewable generation resources built in Ohio," said Julie Sloat, AEP Ohio president and chief operating officer. "AEP Ohio is taking a bold step to secure Ohio's energy future by enabling the development of 400 MW of new solar generation, including the largest solar facility in the state. We have listened to our customers and are working each day to provide them with the energy products and services they want. The addition of these solar projects to Ohio's generation mix will help ensure our customers are receiving their energy from a reliable, secure and diverse mix of resources." The 300 MW Highland Solar and 100 MW Willowbrook Solar projects were chosen following a competitive request for proposal process. They are being developed and will be owned by Hecate Energy Highland LLC and Willowbrook Solar LLC, respectively. Both projects are expected to be operational by the end of 2021, pending regulatory approvals. Construction of these facilities is expected to support nearly 4,000 jobs in total and contribute $24 million in new state tax revenue and $6.7 million in local tax revenue. The developers have committed to securing building materials from Ohio manufacturers, and military veterans will be given hiring preference for construction-related jobs. AEP Ohio has secured two 20-year Renewable Energy Purchase Agreements (REPAs) for the power produced at these facilities. Over the life of these fixed-price agreements, it is anticipated that customers will see approximately $200 million in savings compared with the projected cost of power in the future. All AEP Ohio customers will share in the benefits of these new renewable generation resources. A residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity will see a 28-cent-per-month increase in their electric bill. A recent survey of AEP Ohio customers revealed overwhelming support for the use of more renewable energy in Ohio. Nearly three-quarters of residential customers said they were willing to support renewable energy through increased bills. Customers also indicated that they feel it is important for that energy to be produced in Ohio, with 89 percent of residential and 75 percent of small commercial customers surveyed indicating they feel it is at least "moderately important" that AEP Ohio makes great use of renewable energy produced in Ohio. AEP Ohio committed to pursuing 900 MW of renewable generation resources, built in Ohio, in a 2016 agreement approved by the PUCO and a diverse group of stakeholders. This commitment was supported with the PUCO's approval of AEP Ohio's Electric Security Plan earlier this year. The PUCO must evaluate the proposal and issue a decision before construction can begin. About AEP Ohio AEP Ohio delivers electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers of AEP's subsidiary Ohio Power Co. in Ohio. AEP Ohio is based in Gahanna, Ohio, and is a unit of American Electric Power. News and information about AEP Ohio can be found at AEPOhio.com. American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), based in Columbus, Ohio, is focused on building a smarter energy infrastructure and delivering new technologies and custom energy solutions to our customers. AEP's more than 17,000 employees operate and maintain the nation's largest electricity transmission system and more than 219,000 miles of distribution lines to efficiently deliver safe, reliable power to nearly 5.4 million regulated customers in 11 states. AEP also is one of the nation's largest electricity producers with approximately 32,000 megawatts of diverse generating capacity, including 4,300 megawatts of renewable energy. AEP's family of companies includes utilities AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP also owns AEP Energy, AEP Energy Partners, AEP OnSite Partners and AEP Renewables, which provide innovative competitive energy solutions nationwide. SOURCE AEP Ohio Related Links http://www.aep.com DUBLIN, Sept. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Green Cement Market Size, Market Share, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Growth Trends, Key Players, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2018 To 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global green cement market accounted for US$ 18.06 Bn in 2017, expanding at a CAGR of 10.2% from 2018 to 2026. The green cement market is mainly driven by growing need to cut down on emissions and using green fuel. Increase in greenhouse gas emission resulted in the increasing concern of various agencies that includes United Nations(UN) thereby recommending green cement across the globe. Trend shows that there has been increase in number of building and construction activities. This coupled with increasing awareness towards green building concept is propelling the growth of this market during the forecast period. The demand for green cement is also expected to rise owing to the growing demand of alternative fuel derived from various waste materials that includes fly ashes, foundry sand, solid recovered fuels, animal meals, filter cakes, used oil and sewage sludge among others. Green cement is mainly used in the construction activities owing to the fact that it uses less water and provides good thermal insulation. In addition, it also provides fire resistance to the buildings. Green cement also aims to safeguard buildings from sulphate attacks caused due to water or moisture thereby providing protection against corrosion. Hence, growing application in the construction industry is acting as a driving factor in the growth of global green cement market during the forecast period. Various government initiatives that aims at encouraging green architecture and sustainable building is also expected to bolster the market demand for green cement. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Market Dynamics Chapter 4 Global Green Cement Market, by Product Type Chapter 5 Global Green Cement Market, by End-user Industry Chapter 6 Global Green Cement Market, by Geography Chapter 7 Company Profiles CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V BASF SE CarbonCure Taiwan Cement Corporation Navrattan Blue Crete Industries Pvt. Ltd. Votorantim cimentos S.A. China National Building Material Zuari Group LafargeHolcim Calera Kiran Global Chems For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c2q25r/global_18_06?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 DUBLIN, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Middle East & Africa Quantum Cryptography Market By Component (Hardware & Service), By Application (Data Base Encryption, Network Layer Encryption & Others), By End-User, By Country, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Middle East & Africa quantum cryptography market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 23% during 2018-2023 Increasing need to secure data owing to growing IoT market including IIoT, smart grids, smart cities, smart consumer wearables, smart appliances and smartphones, coupled with growing cybersecurity market and booming fiber optics industry are among the major factors driving the region's quantum cryptography market. Further, rising data security concerns due to rapidly increasing number of cyberattacks is anticipated to positively influence the quantum cryptography market across the Middle East & Africa in the coming years. Middle East & Africa Quantum Cryptography Market Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013-2023 discusses: Quantum Cryptography Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Component (Hardware & Service), By Application (Data Base Encryption, Network Layer Encryption & Others), By End-User, By Country Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities Some of the major players operating in the Middle East & Africa quantum cryptography market are: ID Quantique SA MagiQ Technologies, Inc. Quintessence Labs Pty Ltd. Qubitekk, Inc. Toshiba Corporation qutools GmbH Crypta Labs NuCrypt LLC QuNu Labs SK Telecom Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. Middle East & Africa Quantum Cryptography Market Outlook 5. Market Dynamics 6. Market Trends & Developments 7. Competitive Landscape 8. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/92jkps/middle_east_and?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 MILPITAS, Calif., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- noHold is excited to announce their Artificial Intelligence (AI) Platform, SICURA, is now available via the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Since noHold's inception in 1999, its software has always been provided via the cloud. Back then it was called ASP, Application Service Provider. Since then, the Cloud has continued to grow in functionality and familiarity. Cisco predicts, "By 2021, 94 percent of workloads and compute instances will be processed by cloud data centers; 6 percent will be processed by traditional data centers." (Cisco) Having experience in providing SaaS through the cloud for almost two decades, noHold has recognized firsthand the importance of reliability and security for its clients. We are thrilled to be able to offer our technology on yet another platform that excels in those areas, Google Cloud Platform. noHold and its clients are now able to take advantage of the benefits Google Cloud provides which include: Top security and compliance from ISO, FR, HIPAA, and more. Extreme reliability 99.95% uptime guaranteed. Scalability adding Google Cloud to noHold's portfolio allows for the flexibility to easily handle increases in client needs. Improved performance faster load times with coverage around the world. Data analytics to capture, process, store, and analyze your metrics. Live migrations of virtual machines. Multiple types of storage that securely back up your data. "It has been beautiful to see the evolution of the cloud space. We are happy to see in Google a partner that helps us better serve our customers," said Diego Ventura, CEO and Founder of noHold. About noHold, Inc. noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Web based Self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interactions. noHold customers include Cisco, Dell, McAfee and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at http://www.nohold.com. Press Contact Veronica Cech Marketing Associate [email protected] 408.946.9200 ext. 356 All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE noHold, Inc. Related Links http://www.nohold.com RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shell Brasil Petroleo Ltda, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell"), and its bid consortium member Chevron Brasil Oleo & Gas Ltda ("Chevron"), today won a 35-year production sharing contract for the Saturno pre-salt block located off the coast of Brazil in the Santos Basin. Shell will pay its share of the total signing bonus for the block, equating to approximately USD $390 million [R$ 1,562 billion]. "We are pleased to add another material, operated exploration position to our leading portfolio in one of the world's most prolific deep-water areas," said Andy Brown, Upstream Director, Royal Dutch Shell. "We continue to grow an exciting and resilient Upstream business of long-term competitive positions in our heartlands while maintaining strong, capital discipline." With the addition of the Saturno block (Shell 50% operating, Chevron 50%) won today at the Fifth Pre-Salt Bid Round, Shell increases its total net acreage off the coast of Brazil to approximately 2.7 million acres. Shell will engage with Chevron to define specific plans for exploration drilling in the area won today. Shell is a major oil and gas producer in Brazil with a clear strategy to continue developing an industry leading portfolio of pre-salt acreage through exploration. The company plans to drill the Alto de Cabo Frio West and South Gato do Mato pre-salt fields in the Santos Basin next year and is proceeding with seismic studies to mature two exploration blocks awarded earlier this year. Since 2014, Shell has more than doubled its global, deep-water production and expects to exceed 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent by 2020, coming from previously discovered areas in Brazil, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Nigeria, and Malaysia. The company is also developing deep-water, exploration plans for its acreage off the coast of Mexico, Mauritania, and in the Western Black Sea. Cautionary Note Resources: Our use of the term "resources" in this publication includes quantities of oil and gas not yet classified as SEC proved oil and gas reserves. Resources are consistent with the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) 2P + 2C definitions. The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this release "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ''Subsidiaries'', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this release refer to companies over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to "joint ventures" and "joint operations" respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as "associates". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest. This release contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''anticipate'', ''believe'', ''could'', ''estimate'', ''expect'', ''goals'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''objectives'', ''outlook'', ''plan'', ''probably'', ''project'', ''risks'', "schedule", ''seek'', ''should'', ''target'', ''will'' and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. No assurance is provided that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell's 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov ). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward-looking statements contained in this release and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this release, September 28, 2018. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this [report]. We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this release that United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov. SOURCE Shell Related Links http://www.shell.com WICHITA, Kan., Sept. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Spirit AeroSystems [NYSE: SPR] celebrated the opening of a direct primary care health center today in Oklahoma. SolidaritUS Family Health Centers in Tulsa, Owasso and McAlester provide Spirit employees and their families in Oklahoma unparalleled access to personal physicians and broad-scope primary care services at no cost. "The addition of this benefit for Spirit employees in Oklahoma provides access to quality health care at lower costs," said Spirit Executive Vice President and Chief Administration Officer Sam Marnick. "This unique benefit gives Spirit employees and their families an edge for personalized health care that will provide a better overall experience when it comes to their medical and health needs." The number of patients under care of each SolidaritUS Health doctor is up to 75 percent fewer than the number typically seen by a primary care doctor in fee-for-service practice. The relatively small number of patients under each doctor's care offers patients and their personal doctors the unique opportunity to get to know one another and build a trusted relationship of mutual responsibility for each patient's health. "Spirit employees enjoy convenient access to high-quality care with no out-of-pocket costs," said SolidaritUS Health President Mark Blum. "Many patients have never before experienced individualized care from a personal physician who has the time to listen and provide care tailored to their personal health needs and preferences. "We know that better quality, broader scope primary care results in healthier patients and lower overall health costs for employees and employers," Mr. Blum said. "We are excited about our relationship with Spirit AeroSystems and the UAW to bring Spirit AeroSystems' employees and their families a world-class health care experience." Health insurance and doctor-patient relationships can be stressful. The additional benefit of direct primary care will help reduce those stresses. "UAW members and other Spirit employees have unprecedented access to their personal doctors at the Family Health Centers and remotely by mobile phone, video conference and email," said Kaye Brewer, UAW Tulsa Local 952 President. "We are hopeful this personalized care and access will result in better wellness management and outcomes for our members as it continues to evolve." Spirit employs approximately 1,600 in Oklahoma, including 1,300 UAW-represented workers. "All of us in Oklahoma are enrolled in this benefit both UAW-represented and management employees. This is a solution for all of us, together," said Bill Brown, Spirit Senior Vice President, Oklahoma Operations. "Having access to quality, personalized health care is a top priority for our team. With the addition of a direct primary care benefit, employees will be empowered to better manage their overall health care experience." On the web: www.spiritaero.com On Twitter: @SpiritAero About Spirit AeroSystems Inc. Spirit AeroSystems designs and builds aerostructures for both commercial and defense customers. With headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, Spirit operates sites in the U.S., U.K., France and Malaysia. The company's core products include fuselages, pylons, nacelles and wing components for the world's premier aircraft. Spirit AeroSystems focuses on affordable, innovative composite and aluminum manufacturing solutions to support customers around the globe. More information is available at www.spiritaero.com. SOURCE Spirit AeroSystems Inc. Related Links http://www.spiritaero.com SAN DIEGO, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Andrew McAllister, Commissioner of the California Energy Commission, has been added as the fifth keynote speaker for the 6th annual HOMER International Microgrid Conference (HIMC), presented by Distributed Energy, on October 710 at the Paradise Point Resort in San Diego, CA. He will lead off the presentations on Monday, October 8 and joins a highly anticipated keynote lineup of top minds from some of the most influential companies in the microgrid and distributed energy industries: Dr. Peter Lilienthal, CEO of HOMER Energy; Karl R. Rabago, Executive Director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center; Peter Asmus, Research Director of Navigant Research; and Jon Exel, Senior Energy Specialist of World Bank Group. McAllister was appointed to the California Energy Commission by Gov. Edmund G. Brown in May 2012 and reappointed in January 2017. He has been working on clean energy deployment and policy throughout his entire 25-year career, beginning in the early 1990s in project engineering and development, evolving into program design and implementation, and then moving into the policy arena. The commissioner has worked across the world to develop renewable energy generation, energy efficiency investments, and energy management systems, with counterparts ranging from tiny remote communities to the largest utilities. HIMC 2018 has planned 8 educational conference tracks: The Role of Regulation Island Microgrids Case Studies I (The California Experience) Arctic Systems Microgrid Business Models Energy Access Microgrids New Innovations in Controls Case Studies II (Distributed Energy) View the agenda for a comprehensive list of all speakers, schedules, topics, and more. HIMC is the leading forum for leaders and policymakers in the growing market of microgrid and distributed energy systems to come together and share successes, technologies, and financial models as well as develop goals and policy objectives to drive the industry forward. This special event commences with a pre-conference, private tour of the UCSD microgrid project on October 7; features two days of learning, exhibiting, and networking on October 8 and 9; and concludes with a full day of HOMER microgrid modeling software training on October 10. Secure a spot at this can't-miss event! REGISTER TODAY For more information about the event, exhibitor and sponsorship opportunities, or assistance registering, visit the official HIMC website microgridconference.com CONTACT: Brigette Burich, [email protected] SOURCE HOMER International Microgrid Conference Related Links https://microgridconference.com Construction, Power & Mining Myanmar 2018 is the 6th international trade exhibition for the Building & Construction, Electric & Power, and Mining & Minerals Recovery for Myanmar. Intermach Myanmar, MTA Myanmar and Subcon Myanmar 2018 in its 6th edition is the largest one-stop sourcing platform to the local manufacturing sector. MyanmarWater 2018 also in its 6th of edition is Myanmar's leading international water supply, sanitation, water resources, and industrial wastewater treatment and purification event. Renewable Energy Myanmar 2018 takes place for the 4th time and is moving up to explore endless opportunities in the booming renewable energy market of Myanmar. This unique combination of 4 special shows at 1 location featuring 350 participants from 23 countries with 16 international pavilions from China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, India, Israel, Korea and Japan. Showcasing technologies and equipment covering a variety of industries including Industrial Machinery, Subcontracting & Sourcing, Building & Construction, Mining, Water & Wastewater Management, Power and Renewable Energy. Occupying a strategic position at the crossroads of India, China and Thailand, and now in its seventh year of sweeping economic liberalization and political transition, Myanmar remains one of the fastest-growing economies in South-east Asia. The manufacturing sector absorbed foreign direct investments (FDIs) worth US$275.6 million through 19 projects in the past three months, according to statistics provided by the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC). The MIC targets FDIs worth $3 billion during the six-month interim period from April to September, prior to the next 2018-2019 fiscal year. The manufacturing and real estate development sectors are likely to maintain the top position in attracting FDIs during the six-month interim period. "The country long-term economic outlook is positive, with rising investment in manufacturing, transportation, power and infrastructure expected to drive GDP and industrial growth. We are delighted to organize this MEGA show to serve the industries. The time is right for companies to be investing in Myanmar, this show will be the dedicate platform meeting the needs of the entire industrial and infrastructure industries," said Mr. Fraser Hawkes, General Manager, UBM Myanmar. In addition the event features a Safety Training Programme organized by Global Enchanting Training and Management Centre, a Technical Seminar programme featuring new technology and services being presented by exhibitors from across all 4 shows during 11-13 October. Finally the leading MyanmarWater Conference with this year's theme "27 Investment Opportunities in Myanmar" on 12 October. The activities will provide opportunities to meet, learn, share and network among both government and private sector, and local and international speakers and delegates. This event is organised by UBM Asia, Gold sponsors by ProMinent and Supreme Group of Companies and supported by leading industry associations including The Union of Myanmar Federation of Chamber of Commerce (UMFCCI), Myanmar Industries Association (MIA), Myanmar Federation of Mining Association (MFMA), Myanmar Construction Entrepreneurs Association (MCEA), Myanmar Engineering Society (MES), Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM), Yangon Electricity Supply Corporation (YESC), Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Myanmar and strongly acknowledged by the Ministry of Commerce , Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Electric and Energy, and Ministry of Resources and Environmental Conservation. It is a "must-visit" event for industry professionals from Industrial Machinery, Subcontracting & Sourcing, Building & Construction, Mining, Water & Wastewater Management, Power and Renewable Energy industry. The exhibition is free-to-attend for trade professional visitors. About the Show Date: 11th to 13th October 2018 Opening Hours: 9am - 5pm Venue: Yangon Convention Centre (YCC), Yangon Website: www.cpmmyanmar.com, www.intermachmyanmar.com, www.myanwater.com, www.renewableenergymyanmar.com Notes to Editor: For more information, please contact Wantita Porntanawong (Bow) Tel: +662-036-0521 Email: [email protected] SOURCE UBM BES "Union Bank has a long and proud history of helping families, business owners and individuals manage the complexities of their wealth," said Liu "We are thrilled to welcome Jason to our talented team of experienced wealth management professionals. His extensive experience in wealth and tax planning along with his knowledge of the San Francisco market will help us serve our local clientele and expand our presence in the region." Prior to joining the bank, Whong served as a wealth planning strategist at U.S. Bank in San Francisco. While there he assisted clients and served as the subject matter expert and technical resource in tax matters for the bank's wealth management division. Prior to that, he served as a director at Montage Services, Inc., a tax and audit firm. He previously worked for law firms Seyfarth Shaw LLP; Gray Cary Ware and Freidenrich LLP; and Graham and James LLP. "Union Bank has built a solid reputation for delivering expert wealth solutions," said Whong. "I'm excited to work with Jason and join the bank's outstanding team of Wealth advisors in assisting our clients and growing our San Francisco business." Whong earned a master's of laws degree (LL.M.) in taxation from New York University School of Law; a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Santa Clara University School of Law; and a bachelor's degree in business administration from San Jose State University. He is a member of the State Bar of California and the California Board of Accountancy; and he holds a California Department of Insurance license. About The Private Bank The Private Bank is an exclusive part of Union Bank dedicated to the financial needs of high net worth individuals, non-profit organizations, business owners, corporate executives and professional service firms. The Private Bank is built around teams of wealth management professionals who deliver customized solutions centered on each client's unique goals and dreams. About MUFG Union Bank, N.A. As of June 30, 2018, MUFG Union Bank, N.A. operated 355 branches, comprised primarily of retail banking branches in the West Coast states, along with commercial branches in Texas, Illinois, New York and Georgia, as well as 22 PurePoint Financial Centers. We provide a wide spectrum of corporate, commercial and retail banking and wealth management solutions to meet the needs of customers. We also offer an extensive portfolio of value-added solutions for customers, including investment banking, personal and corporate trust, global custody, transaction banking, capital markets, and other services. With assets of $123.8 billion, as of June 30, 2018, MUFG Union Bank has strong capital reserves, credit ratings and capital ratios relative to peer banks. MUFG Union Bank is a proud member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE: MUFG), one of the world's largest financial organizations with total assets of approximately 299.1 trillion (JPY) or $2.7 trillion (USD), as of June 30, 2018. The corporate headquarters (principal executive office) for MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation, which is the financial holding company, and MUFG Union Bank, is in New York City. The main banking office of MUFG Union Bank is in San Francisco, California. 1 Exchange rate of 1 USD=110.5 (JPY) as of June 29, 2018 Wealth planning strategies have legal, tax, accounting and other implications. Prior to implementing any wealth planning strategy, clients should consult their legal, tax, accounting, and other advisers. 2018 MUFG Union Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. Union Bank is a registered trademark and brand name of MUFG Union Bank, N.A. SOURCE MUFG Union Bank, N.A. Related Links http://www.unionbank.com NEW YORK, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday (Sep 27th), the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the world's largest inter-governmental body after the United Nations, organised a high-level event at the UN General Assembly to address the Rohingya crisis and war crimes by Myanmar's armed forces against the Muslim Rohingya minority. The meeting was attended by representatives of the UN, EU, World Bank, UNHCR and Oxfam as well as global leaders and politicians including Prime Minister of Bangladesh and Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Ireland amongst others. The meeting comes in response to recent findings by UN investigators that Myanmar's armed forces took actions that "undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law". Remarks and statements at the event were delivered by the following: H.E Dr Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen , OIC Secretary General , OIC Secretary General H.E Sheikh Hasina Wazed , Prime Minister of Bangladesh , Prime Minister of H.E Adel bin Ahmad Al-Jubeir , Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia , Foreign Minister of H.E. Christine Schraner Burgener , UN Special Envoy on Myanmar , UN Special Envoy on H.E. Retno Marsudi, Foreign Minister of the Indonesia H.E. Simon Coveney , Foreign Minister of The Republic of Ireland , Foreign Minister of The Foreign Secretary of Pakistan , Tehmina Janjua , Senior Vice-President of the World Bank Ambassador Masud Husain , Special Envoy of Canada to the OIC , Special Envoy of to the OIC Representatives from Oxfam, Save the Children and UNHCR OIC Secretary General, H.E Dr Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen said: "The OIC strongly condemns all violations and abuses of human rights in Myanmar, as set out in the report of the UN Fact-Finding mission including widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations and abuses committed in Rakhine State." "This includes the presence of elements of extermination and deportation and systematic oppression and discrimination of the Rohingya." He added: "The OIC has for years worked to address the persecution of the Rohingya. This meeting reflects how seriously the OIC and other international actors are now taking the issue, but more must be done." A report by the UN Fact Finding Mission released in September 2018 provides credible evidence of mass killings, ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Rohingya people and called for Myanmar officials to face charges. The report states that Myanmar's armed forces had forced more than 730,000 Rohingya to flee starting in late August 2017. SOURCE Organisation of Islamic Cooperation WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the American Federation of Government Employees announced its endorsement of Lisa Brown for election this November to the U.S. House representing Washington's 5th Congressional District. The nation's largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees, has endorsed Lisa Brown for election this November to the U.S. House representing Washingtons 5th Congressional District. "Lisa Brown has been a leader and public servant in the state for decades, and we're excited to announce our support for her race this November," said AFGE District 11 National Vice President Gerry Swanke. "Lisa has a stellar background as a state legislator in Washington for more than 20 years, with eight of them as the Senate Majority Leader. We know she'll leverage those experiences to fight for working people in Congress." "At a time when federal workers and their agencies are under attack, it's vital we have someone like Lisa standing with us in Congress," said Swanke. "From her unwavering support for the working class through fair wages to her plan to have a fully-funded Social Security agency Lisa knows what matters to Washingtonians and will do what it takes to help them as their next Congresswoman." More than 75,000 federal workers and retirees live in Washington nearly 15,000 of whom live in the 5th district supporting the military, caring for veterans, ensuring the safety of the flying public, and getting Social Security recipients their benefits accurately and on time. AFGE is the largest federal employee union in the country, representing 700,000 federal and D.C. government workers in all functions of government. District 11 represents more than 56,000 federal employees in Alaska, Colorado, Guam, Idaho, Montana, Okinawa, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 700,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia. For the latest AFGE news and information, visit the AFGE Media Center. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees Related Links http://www.afge.org DUBLIN, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of breast cancer awareness month, Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN) announced today The Allergan Foundation's continuing commitment to breast health, awareness, restoration, and research through a $2,000,000 pledge to be paid over the next three years to select nonprofit organizations. Established in 1998, The Allergan Foundation is a U.S.-based, private charitable foundation committed to providing a lasting and positive impact in the communities in which Allergan employees live and work. The Allergan Foundation focuses its support on charitable efforts dedicated to promoting access to quality healthcare and improving patient diagnosis, treatment, care and quality of life. The Allergan Foundation has donated more than $84 million to charities, both domestic and abroad, since its inception. Individuals interested in learning more about The Allergan Foundation can visit AllerganFoundation.org. "According to recent statistics, one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime," said Brent Saunders, Chairman & CEO of Allergan and Chairman of The Allergan Foundation. "We all know or love someone touched by this dreaded disease, which impacts not only the patient, but all those who love her. At Allergan, we want patients to know they are not alone and that we stand with each and every woman fighting for her life." In addition, Allergan is supporting breast cancer patients through two new initiatives. From October 1st through December 31st 2018, Allergan's U.S. Medical Aesthetics business will donate a portion of U.S. sales for BOTOX Cosmetic (onabotulinumtoxinA) to four organizations that support breast cancer and breast reconstruction education, awareness and research, up to $500,000. "This effort allows Allergan to provide consumers with an opportunity to help others while doing something they regularly do for themselves," said Carrie Strom, Senior Vice Presdient, U.S. Medical Aesthetics. "Now when someone gets a BOTOX Cosmetic treatment, they can feel good that they are helping Allergan support organizations that help women on their breast cancer journey." Allergan is also supporting breast cancer patients directly through the Natrelle brand, which offers a full suite of products for breast reconstruction, including Natrelle breast implants and tissue expanders. During breast cancer awareness month Natrelle will provide complimentary care packages containing SkinMedica skincare products along with other information on breast cancer education and services. Current patients and survivors can receive a care package, while supplies last, by signing up through the new Natrelle registration portal at www.natrellecares.com. Patients and survivors are also invited to share their unique stories on social media using the hashtag #myreconreason. Approved Uses BOTOX Cosmetic is a prescription medicine that is injected into muscles and used to temporarily improve the look of moderate to severe forehead lines, crow's feet lines, and frown lines between the eyebrows in adults. IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION BOTOX Cosmetic may cause serious side effects that can be life threatening. Get medical help right away if you have any of these problems any time (hours to weeks) after injection of BOTOX Cosmetic: Problems swallowing, speaking, or breathing , due to weakening of associated muscles, can be severe and result in loss of life. You are at the highest risk if these problems are pre-existing before injection. Swallowing problems may last for several months. , due to weakening of associated muscles, can be severe and result in loss of life. You are at the highest risk if these problems are pre-existing before injection. Swallowing problems may last for several months. Spread of toxin effects. The effect of botulinum toxin may affect areas away from the injection site and cause serious symptoms including: loss of strength and all-over muscle weakness, double vision, blurred vision and drooping eyelids, hoarseness or change or loss of voice, trouble saying words clearly, loss of bladder control, trouble breathing, and trouble swallowing. BOTOX Cosmetic dosing units are not the same as, or comparable to, any other botulinum toxin product. There has not been a confirmed serious case of spread of toxin effect when BOTOX Cosmetic has been used at the recommended dose to treat frown lines, crow's feet lines, and/or forehead lines. BOTOX Cosmetic may cause loss of strength or general muscle weakness, vision problems, or dizziness within hours to weeks of taking BOTOX Cosmetic. If this happens, do not drive a car, operate machinery, or do other dangerous activities. Serious and/or immediate allergic reactions have been reported. They include: itching, rash, red itchy welts, wheezing, asthma symptoms, or dizziness or feeling faint. Get medical help right away if you are wheezing or have asthma symptoms, or if you become dizzy or faint. Do not receive BOTOX Cosmetic if you: are allergic to any of the ingredients in BOTOX Cosmetic (see Medication Guide for ingredients); had an allergic reaction to any other botulinum toxin product such as Myobloc (rimabotulinumtoxinB), Dysport (abobotulinumtoxinA), or Xeomin (incobotulinumtoxinA); have a skin infection at the planned injection site. Tell your doctor about all your muscle or nerve conditions, such as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, as you may be at increased risk of serious side effects including difficulty swallowing and difficulty breathing from typical doses of BOTOX Cosmetic. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, including: plans to have surgery; had surgery on your face; have trouble raising your eyebrows; drooping eyelids; any other abnormal facial change; are pregnant or plan to become pregnant (it is not known if BOTOX Cosmetic can harm your unborn baby); are breast-feeding or plan to (it is not known if BOTOX Cosmetic passes into breast milk). Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Using BOTOX Cosmetic with certain other medicines may cause serious side effects. Do not start any new medicines until you have told your doctor that you have received BOTOX Cosmetic in the past. Tell your doctor if you have received any other botulinum toxin product in the last 4 months; have received injections of botulinum toxin such as Myobloc, Dysport, or Xeomin in the past (tell your doctor exactly which product you received); have recently received an antibiotic by injection; take muscle relaxants; take an allergy or cold medicine; take a sleep medicine; take aspirin-like products or blood thinners. Other side effects of BOTOX Cosmetic include: dry mouth; discomfort or pain at the injection site; tiredness; headache; neck pain; and eye problems: double vision, blurred vision, decreased eyesight, drooping eyelids and eyebrows, swelling of your eyelids and dry eyes. For more information refer to the Medication Guide or talk with your doctor. To report a side effect, please call Allergan at 1-800-678-1605. Please see BOTOX Cosmetic full Product Information including Boxed Warning and Medication Guide . Natrelle Breast Implants Important Information Who may get breast implants? Natrelle Breast Implants are approved for women for the following: Breast augmentation for women at least 22 years old for silicone-filled implants. Breast augmentation for women at least 18 years old for saline-filled implants. Breast augmentation includes primary breast augmentation to increase breast size, as well as revision surgery to correct or improve the result of a primary breast augmentation surgery. Breast augmentation includes primary breast augmentation to increase breast size, as well as revision surgery to correct or improve the result of a primary breast augmentation surgery. Breast reconstruction. Breast reconstruction includes primary reconstruction to replace breast tissue that has been removed due to cancer or trauma or that has failed to develop properly due to a severe breast abnormality. Breast reconstruction also includes revision surgery to correct or improve the result of a primary breast reconstruction surgery. Who should NOT get breast implants? Women with active infection anywhere in their body. Women with existing cancer or precancer of their breast who have not received adequate treatment for those conditions. Women who are currently pregnant or nursing. What should I know before getting breast implants? Breast implants are not lifetime devices, and not necessarily a one-time surgery. Many of the changes to your breasts following implantation cannot be undone. If you later choose to have your implant(s) removed and not replaced, you may experience unacceptable dimpling, puckering, wrinkling, or other cosmetic changes of the breast, which may be permanent. Breast implants may affect your ability to breast-feed, either by reducing or eliminating milk production. Rupture of a silicone-filled breast implant is most often silent and may not be detected by you or your doctor. You should have an MRI 3 years after your surgery and then every 2 years after that for as long as you have your breast implants to determine if rupture is present. If implant rupture is noted on an MRI, you should have the implant removed, with or without replacement. With breast implants, a routine screening mammography and self-examinations for breast cancer will be more difficult. Ask your doctor to help you distinguish the implant from your breast tissue. Symptoms of a ruptured implant may be hard knots or lumps surrounding the implant or in the armpit, change or loss of size or shape of the breast or implant, pain, tingling, swelling, numbness, burning, or hardening. Tell your doctor of these symptoms and remove ruptured implants. Inform any other doctor who treats you of the presence of your implants to minimize the risk of damage to the implants. What should I tell my doctor? Tell your doctor if you have any of the following conditions, as the risks of breast implant surgery may be higher: Autoimmune diseases (for example, lupus and scleroderma). A weakened immune system (for example, currently taking drugs that weaken the body's natural resistance to disease). Planned chemotherapy following breast implant placement. Planned radiation therapy to the breast following breast implant placement. Conditions or medications that interfere with wound healing and blood clotting. Reduced blood supply to breast tissue. Clinical diagnosis of depression or other mental health disorders, including body dysmorphic disorder and eating disorders. Please discuss any history of mental health disorders with your surgeon prior to surgery. Patients with a diagnosis of depression or other mental health disorders should wait for resolution or stabilization of these conditions prior to undergoing breast implantation surgery. What are some complications with breast implants? Key complications are reoperation, implant removal with or without replacement, implant rupture with silicone-filled implants, implant deflation with saline-filled implants, and severe capsular contracture (severe scar tissue around the implant). Other complications include asymmetry, nipple/breast/skin sensation changes, scarring, or wrinkling/rippling. Talk to your doctor about other complications. Talk to your doctor. For more information see the patient brochures at www.allergan.com/labeling/usa.htm. To report a problem with Natrelle Breast Implants, please call Allergan at 1-800-433-8871. Natrelle Breast Implants are available by prescription only. About Allergan plc Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is a bold, global pharmaceutical leader. Allergan is focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing branded pharmaceutical, device, biologic, surgical and regenerative medicine products for patients around the world. Allergan markets a portfolio of leading brands and best-in-class products for the central nervous system, eye care, medical aesthetics and dermatology, gastroenterology, women's health, urology and anti-infective therapeutic categories. Allergan is an industry leader in Open Science, a model of research and development, which defines our approach to identifying and developing game-changing ideas and innovation for better patient care. With this approach, Allergan has built one of the broadest development pipelines in the pharmaceutical industry. Allergan's success is powered by our global colleagues' commitment to being Bold for Life. Together, we build bridges, power ideas, act fast and drive results for our customers and patients around the world by always doing what is right. With commercial operations in approximately 100 countries, Allergan is committed to working with physicians, healthcare providers and patients to deliver innovative and meaningful treatments that help people around the world live longer, healthier lives every day. For more information, visit Allergan's website at www.Allergan.com. Forward-Looking Statement Statements contained in this press release that refer to future events or other non-historical facts are forward-looking statements that reflect Allergan's current perspective on existing trends and information as of the date of this release. Actual results may differ materially from Allergan's current expectations depending upon a number of factors affecting Allergan's business. These factors include, among others, the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of FDA approvals or actions, if any; the impact of competitive products and pricing; market acceptance of and continued demand for Allergan's products; the impact of uncertainty around timing of generic entry related to key products, including RESTASIS, on our financial results; risks associated with divestitures, acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures; uncertainty associated with financial projections, projected cost reductions, projected debt reduction, projected synergies, restructurings, increased costs, and adverse tax consequences; difficulties or delays in manufacturing; and other risks and uncertainties detailed in Allergan's periodic public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to Allergan's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and Allergan's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2018. Except as expressly required by law, Allergan disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. CONTACTS: Allergan: Investors: Daphne Karydas (862) 261-8006 Karina Calzadilla (862) 261-7328 Media: Amy Rose (862) 289-3072 SOURCE Allergan plc Related Links www.allergan.com Also Announces Name Change and Reverse Split Ratio LINYI CITY, China, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- American Lorain Corporation (the "Company") (NYSE American: ALN) announced today the results of its annual meeting of stockholders held on September 26, 2018 in Junan County, Shandong, China. At the meeting, stockholders approved, among other things, a name change of the Company from "American Lorain Corporation" to "Planet Green Holdings Corp." and a reverse stock split of the Company's outstanding common stock of not less than 10-for-1 and not more than 25-for-1. The Company's Board of Directors subsequently approved a reverse split ratio of 25-for-1, effective October 1, 2018 ("Effective Time"). The Company's common stock will open for trading on NYSE American on October 1, 2018 on a post-split basis under its new name and under a new trading symbol "PLAG." Upon effectiveness of the reverse stock split, every 25 shares of the Company's common stock issued and outstanding as of the Effective Time will be consolidated into one issued and outstanding share. Should the reverse stock split result in any of the Company's stockholders owning a fractional share, such fractional share will be rounded up to the nearest whole share. The reverse stock split is intended to cure the price condition deficiency under NYSE American 1003f(v) and restore the Company to compliance under the continued listing criteria set forth in the rules of NYSE American. The Company has retained its transfer agent, Direct Transfer LLC, formerly Interwest Transfer Co., Inc., a division of Issuer Direct Corporation ("Issuer Direct"), to act as its exchange agent for the reverse stock split. Stockholders of record as of the Effective Time who wish to exchange their stock certificates may contact Issuer Direct by telephone at (801) 272-9294 or by email at [email protected]. Stockholders owning shares via a broker or other nominee will have their positions automatically adjusted to reflect the reverse stock split, subject to brokers' particular processes, and will not be required to take any action in connection with the reverse stock split. At the annual meeting, stockholders also approved and ratified (i) the election of Hongxiang Yu, Yimin Jin, Yuguo Zhang, Yilei Shao and Guangming Fang as directors of the Company, (ii) the sale of an aggregate of 58,823,530 shares of the Company's common stock to Yimin Jin, the Company's Chief Strategy Officer and Director, and Hongxiang Yu, the Chairman and Director, for $10 million, (iii) the sale of the Company's discontinued businesses and interests in its ongoing businesses to Si Chen, the then-Chairman of the Company, and (iv) the appointment of WWC, P.C. as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2018. Additional information regarding the annual meeting of the stockholders can be found in the Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information please contact: Chen Xing +86 539-731-7959 [email protected] SOURCE American Lorain Corporation Related Links http://www.americanlorain.com The Red Cross' launch of the Missing Types campaign generated greater awareness and appreciation for the vital role blood donors and donations play in the lives of patients from coast to coast. With the help of 37 lead and supporting corporate partners and 16 media partners, the letters A, B and O disappeared from iconic brand logos, social media pages and websites from June 9 through July 3. Additionally, approximately 2,000 other local and national organizations participated, causing the public to take notice and make life-saving blood donations. In fact, during the first three weeks of the campaign, the Red Cross saw online blood appointments grow by an impressive 34 percent over the same time period a year ago. More specifically, donation appointments from new donors grew by 70 percent during the same time period. "The Missing Types campaign allowed the Red Cross to take a non-traditional approach to sharing our message about the importance of blood donation, but more importantly motivated people to come in and donate," said Chris Hrouda, President of Biomedical Services at the American Red Cross. "Unfortunately, many people only think to donate during or after an emergency. But the need for blood is constant. In the United States, there is a blood emergency for some person, a family, or a patient, every two seconds." The Missing Types campaign harnessed the power of digital and social media influencers and paired it with tried-and-true traditional media tactics to highlight how different the world would be without the three critical letters A, B and O. Clearly the message was heard. Without critical blood donations, blood does go missing from hospital shelves, and patients who depend on lifesaving transfusions are unable to get the care they need. See the #MissingType movement in action. Continuing the momentum Despite an encouraging increase in new blood donors resulting from the campaign, the need for blood remains constant. The Red Cross encourages all eligible blood donors to commit to donating regularly to help patients like Tymia McCullough and others at approximately 2,600 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country. Continue the #MissingType movement todaymake an appointment to give blood by visiting RedCrossBlood.org , using the Red Cross Blood Donor App or calling 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767). All blood types are needed. The Red Cross appreciates the support of its lead partners who joined the #MissingType campaign, including: Adobe, Anheuser-Busch, AvalonBay Communities, Inc., Domino's, Dropbox, Google, IBM, Land O'Lakes, Inc., Mastercard, Nationwide, Neiman Marcus, The New York Yankees, Oreo, PayPal, Salesforce, State Farm, Sunoco and U.S. Bank. Blood donation information Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements. A blood donor card or driver's license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Blood and platelet donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, before arriving at the blood drive. To get started, follow the instructions at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass or use the Red Cross Blood Donor App. About the American Red Cross: The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit RedCross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org , or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross. SOURCE American Red Cross Related Links http://www.redcross.org ROHNERT PARK, Calif., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Student loans can become overwhelming very quickly for borrowers, and they don't often have ways of easily getting themselves out of a tough situation. They might look for outside help, but then comes the risk of running into shady businesses that are just out there to make quick and easy money. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation service company that aims to help student loan borrowers better handle their situation, has a few tips for concerned help seekers to assist them in avoiding scam companies. Dan Grytsku/Bigstock.com "Student loan repayment can be a frightening field to have to navigate and is something that has the potential to follow a borrower for the majority of their life if things go poorly. Borrowers don't need the added stress of learning the hard way that the company that they've been paying is only taking their money and not helping their loans at all," said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial. If a company says they'll quickly and easily take care of loans, that's a big red flag right there. The process for properly handling loans is a long one, even if there isn't necessarily as much for the borrower to do if they're going through a document preparation company to handle the application process into federal repayment programs. Up-front fees are another warning sign. An escrow account, where the company cannot access the funds until the borrower is properly placed into a program, or something similar, is what a company should be letting a potential client know about and utilizing. A proper document preparation service company will be willing to answer questions, instead of trying to brush them aside, as well. Quality customer service is a good sign of a healthy business in any industry. Keeping those tips in mind might help struggling student loan borrowers better help themselves when it comes to working with a student loan assistance company. Ameritech Financial prides itself on quality service and being a top-notch student loan advocate for its clients. Ameritech Financial assists its clients in applying for federal income-driven repayment programs that can potentially lower their monthly payments, get them on track for student loan forgiveness after 20-25 years in the program, and helps them through the yearly recertification process. "We believe student loan repayment shouldn't be a struggle. That's why our company was created, to assist those borrowers who likely need help the most, to get them back onto the path for financial wellness," said Knickerbocker. About Ameritech Financial Ameritech Financial is a private company located in Rohnert Park, California. Ameritech Financial has already helped thousands of consumers with financial analysis and student loan document preparation to apply for federal student loan repayment programs offered through the Department of Education. Each Ameritech Financial telephone representative has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA). Ameritech Financial prides itself on its exceptional Customer Service. Ameritech Financial Newsroom Contact To learn more about Ameritech Financial, please contact: Ameritech Financial 5789 State Farm Drive #265 Rohnert Park, CA 94928 1-800-792-8621 [email protected] Related Images image1.png overworked.jpg Overworked Dan Grytsku/Bigstock.com Related Links Ameritech Financial Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRza8MbLvuM SOURCE Ameritech Financial Related Links http://www.ameritechfinancial.com CHICAGO, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Avant, a leading digital consumer lending platform focused on lowering the barriers and costs of borrowing, today announced the addition of Dr. Janice Eberly and James Reynolds, Jr. to its Board of Directors effective January 1, 2019. Both bring to Avant decades of experience working at the intersection of finance, technology and regulation and will be valuable in guiding the company into the future. Dr. Janice Eberly Professor Eberly served as the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Treasury from 2011 to 2013 after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In that role, she was the Chief Economist at the Treasury, leading the Office of Economic Policy in the analysis of U.S. and global financial markets and the development of policy recommendations on micro and macroeconomic issues. Eberly returned to Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management in 2014, where she is currently a distinguished professor of finance and former chair of the finance department. Prior to joining the Kellogg faculty, she was a faculty member in finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "I am a big supporter of Avant's vision," said Eberly, whose research focuses on finance and macroeconomics. "Providing responsible and reliable credit products to middle class consumers is a critical need for this country, and Avant leads with both deep industry expertise and an innovative platform. I look forward to working on the Board of Directors and with the Avant team, lending my expertise to help provide consumers with transparent and convenient credit products." James Reynolds, Jr. Reynolds is founder, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Loop Capital, which provides global investment banking, brokerage and financial advisory services. A 30-year veteran of the financial services industry, Reynolds held several senior-level positions on Wall Street prior to founding Loop Capital in 1997. He is a passionate advocate of giving back to the community and sits on various not-for-profit Boards including the Chicago Urban League, Chicago United and buildOn. "Avant is changing the definition of customer service while significantly improving access to credit," said Reynolds. "Avant's platform inherently creates financial inclusion, helping to provide credit access to underserved communities, including those that are losing bank branches. Avant is the model for responsible innovation and I'm excited to work with Chairman and CEO Al Goldstein and the entire Avant team to drive this growth forward." After tremendous service to Avant, board members Sheila Bair and Adam Jiwan will transition off the board to allow time for other passions. Bair, who is the former Chairwoman of the FDIC and has served on the Avant Board since April 2016, is stepping down to allow more time for new opportunities to work in the nonprofit sector on student debt and other issues associated with the economic future of young people. "The Avant board and management team are well-positioned," said Bair. "I wish them every success in making responsibly priced credit available to underserved populations, including through bank partnerships with the recently announced Amount business, which gives banks access to Avant's industry-leading online platform. I am particularly pleased that they will also be launching a consumer savings product to help consumers better manage their personal finances. I see a future where banks and fintech companies come together to better meet the needs of American consumers and fully anticipate that Avant will continue to lead the way." Similarly, Jiwan will transition to focus full-time on his role as Chairman and CEO of Spring Labs, a blockchain-based identity and credit network. "Avant is a pioneer of delivering unique technology and credit analytics to underserved consumers. I wish Al and his team the best of luck in their next chapter of growth. The journey is just beginning for Avant and Amount, and the future is very bright," said Jiwan. About Avant Avant is a high growth financial technology company first and foremost dedicated to creating responsible financial products for all consumers. Avant has secured more than $4 billion in institutional funding and has issued over 750,000 personal loan, auto loan and credit card products through its technology platform. Avant has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, TechCrunch, Fortune, Bloomberg and Crain's Chicago Business. In 2015, Avant was named to Forbes' America's Most Promising Companies list, as well as Forbes' list of Next Billion Dollar Startups. Find out more at www.avant.com. About Amount Amount provides financial institutions with a range of products and services designed to deliver a seamless digital and mobile customer experience. Amount includes configurable end-to-end lending products, standalone engines, marketing, risk and data/analytics services, and CRM and portfolio management tools. The Amount platform leverages the technology, intellectual property and capabilities of Avant's industry-leading digital lending platform. With Amount, banks now have access to a fully customizable platform that includes tools for credit decisioning, fraud prevention, account verifications, risk assessment, marketing and customer acquisition and more. For more information, visit www.amount.com. Media Contact: Jenn Pratt Keeton PR 404.655.2273 [email protected] SOURCE Avant Related Links http://www.avant.com "Blackhawk Community Credit Union is committed to the families who live and work here and have for generations," said Sherri Stumpf, CEO of BHCCU, chair of Forward Janesville , finance chair for United Way and co-chair of ARISE Now , a public-private partnership that is committed to revitalizing downtown Janesville. "When General Motors closed its Janesville auto manufacturing plant in 2009, many thought the city would spiral downward," said Stumpf. "However, job skills training and education was provided through the state of Wisconsin and the Rock County Job Center to those not retiring or transferring with GM. BHCCU made loans to people in the community to start businesses and to bridge families through the recession. The people of Janesville are resilient. We believe the city is a model for how other American cities can revitalize. This is a turnaround story that started with the oldest running GM plant built in 1919 and our commitment beyond a centennial celebration as we place the same cornerstone on this project in 2019." "While the Great Recession had quite an impact, nearly every economic indicator for the Janesville-Beloit metropolitan statistical area is stronger today than it was a decade ago," said James Otterstein, Rock County Economic Development Agency . The average annual unemployment and industrial vacancy rates are hovering at 20-25 year lows, less than four percent and five percent, respectively. Local sales tax collections are 32 percent higher than a decade ago and property values have enjoyed annual average gains of five percent during each of the last five years. Overall the area's GDP is up nearly 30 percent from 2008 and four percent from 2016. These GDP gains grabbed the attention of the Milken Institute , which named Janesville-Beloit the 25th best performing small city in 2017. BHCCU has signed an intent to purchase 2.5 acres on the eastern bank of the Rock River in what will be called the SOCO (south of Court Street) district at 37 South Water Street. The 10,000 square-foot Legacy Center that will house historical artifacts from the credit union's founding members will be a part of the larger 130,000 square-foot, four-story headquarters that will be home to 200 employees. Preliminary forecasts estimate that the annual economic impact of the new Legacy Center could add up to $250,000 toward area tourism which recorded $244.7 million from visitors in 2017. The initiative will include a new branch of the credit union, restaurants, a health and fitness center, and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater MBA classes, the 10,000 square-foot Lea McGuire Conference Center, named after the first and second presidents of the credit union, Glenn Lea and Patrick McGuire. Additional space is anticipated to include: law offices; retail; daycare; and 12 condominiums. "For 53 years the credit union has made investing in our community its mission," said Glenn Lea, BHCCU's Director Emeritus. "I am proud that Blackhawk Community Credit Union's investment in this project will continue our original mission and make an impact on future generations." BHCCU, with its Legacy Center, is building exhibits of historic precedence with memorabilia that span the centennial of the plant, including the first model-year Chevrolet Superior off the Janesville assembly line in 1923. Gary Mawhinney, retired Wisconsin National Guard and former GM plant employee who rose to supervision before retiring in 1995, researched the car's location from Wisconsin to Ohio and Oklahoma. He bought, restored and donated the car to the Rock County Historical Society who will loan it to the Legacy Center. "I didn't want to miss the opportunity to own the first model-year car because my work at the plant was a significant part of my life," Mawhinney said. "The pace at GM was challenging. We worked 55 hours, six days a week. We produced 1,000 cars and 200 trucks a day and we were number one in quality for trucks." Opening in 1919, the GM facility covered 4.8 million square feet. In the 1970's, during the plant's prime, it employed approximately 7,000 people. Gary Nelson worked at the plant for 31 years and his father for 42 years. Nelson recalls it as the first time a company offered the ability to withdraw money from a paycheck to put toward savings. "It was the only way to save, buy a home to raise a family, own a car and put children through college. My son is now an engineer at J.M. Grimstad after graduating from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. My daughter graduated nursing school and works as an MRI technologist for Mercy Health in Janesville," said Nelson. "Other U.S. cities have been less fortunate than Janesville. Our families hold a deep connection to each other. It is remarkable. The good relationships between plant management and hourly workers caught people by surprise. Grandparents, fathers, mother, sons, daughters and siblings dedicated their lives to making great automobiles. The Legacy Center project honors that history," said Brad Dutcher, UAW international vice president. BHCCU's groundbreaking is anticipated for late fall 2019, with completion in 2021. Ken Kueng has worked 26 years for the national construction firm J.P. Cullen that built the original plant in 1919, hired several GM engineers when the plant closed, and is slated to build BHCCU's headquarters, Legacy Center and conference center. "When it was time to build a new headquarters for the credit union, I saw the possibility for Janesville to become a more vibrant community. This area is soon to be a model for other cities and a catalyst for continued development that will make our members proud. This is all part of BHCCU's strategic plan of growth over the next 20-30 years and until the space is needed, we will offset project costs by leasing space to the community to help pay for this investment over time," said Stumpf. About Blackhawk Community Credit Union (BHCCU) Blackhawk Community Credit Union has over $600 million in assets and over 50,000 members. Membership is open to those working or living in Rock, Dane, Jefferson, Walworth, Green, Kenosha, Racine, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties of Wisconsin and Winnebago, Boone, McHenry and Lake Counties of Illinois. Products and services include savings, checking, certificates and credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and home equity loans. Investment services are also available. Contact: Kellee Johnson, 312-751-3959, [email protected] for BHCCU SOURCE Blackhawk Community Credit Union Related Links http://www.bhccu.org WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the full Senate to reject Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of that nomination, despite serious allegations of sexual assault on the part of the nominee and after a contentious hearing yesterday during which a survivor of sexual assault, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, testified against Kavanaugh. In a statement, CAIR National Board Chair Roula Allouch said: "A lifelong appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court is a privilege and a duty, not a right. Based on Judge Kavanaugh's overtly partisan and belligerent performance at yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, and on the credible accusations of sexual misconduct, we urge the full Senate to reject his nomination. The Senate should instead confirm a new nominee who has the temperament and neutrality necessary to pass judgment on the weightiest issues facing our nation now and for decades to come." CAIR also joined the American Bar Association, the largest national organization of lawyers, in urging the Senate to call for a renewed FBI investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh. SEE: American Bar Association: Kavanaugh's Confirmation is "Simply Too Important to Rush" https://www.vox.com/2018/9/28/17913700/american-bar-association-kavanaugh-confirmation-delay ACTION REQUESTED: Those concerned about Kavanaugh's confirmation may contact the Senate using a previous CAIR action alert on his nomination at: https://www.oneclickpolitics.com/messages/edit?promo_id=4643 The Washington-based civil rights organization has reported an unprecedented spike in bigotry targeting American Muslims and members of other minority groups since the election of Donald Trump as president. CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims. La mision de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprension del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos. CONTACT: CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected] SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Related Links http://www.cair.com PETALUMA, Calif., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Older New Yorkers are like aging workers in the rest of the country. Rather than heading out to pasture, they are increasingly starting their own businesses. A recent New York Times article described that from 2000 to 2016, while the number of residents who are 50 or older rose by 28 percent, the number of entrepreneurs over 50 rose by 64 percent. This mirrors a national trend in which the fastest-growing segment of entrepreneurs is over 50 and that 50- to 59-year-old entrepreneurs were the most likely to get outside funding. Brandon Frere, CEO of Frere Enterprises and other ventures, understands that maturity gives entrepreneurs an edge in experience and resources that runs counter to expectations. "The myth is that every big entrepreneurial idea is thought up by college-age kids working out of their garages," said Frere. "And though there is some truth to the myth, it makes sense that age produces experience and knowledge that can't be gained by any other method." Some older individuals feel as though they have a fresh start and can finally pursue their dreams and passions. They no longer have to take orders from someone half their age and they can cook, craft or in some way capitalize on their education, experience and knowledge. Older entrepreneurs have more social and capital resources. They have a wider range of contacts and have acquired a deeper knowledge of human resources. They have accumulated more wealth than their younger peers and their stability and experience make them better bets for funders. There are also many entrepreneurs 50 and older who feel forced to look for new and creative ways to supplement their income and savings as they live longer. Squeezed by rising rents and health care costs, many older individuals face uncertain job prospects and age discrimination. These folks feel especially vulnerable in jobs where younger workers are not only less expensive but are more adept with their digital and social media skills. Though they may feel forced into entrepreneurship, it remains a better option than part-time meaningless jobs in order to muddle through as they age. "The myth of the younger entrepreneur isn't going away anytime soon," said Frere. "Still, it is important to remember that all great, creative ideas require experience and knowledge to successfully launch them into the world. Though not gray yet, I feel my acquired experience and knowledge continues to help me build stronger organizations." 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 older-entrepreneur.jpg Older Entrepreneur Credit: style-photographs/Bigstock image2.png Related Links Brandon Frere website SOURCE Brandon Frere Related Links http://www.BrandonFrere.com NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) will donate half of all sales from its 60 North Carolina restaurants on Sunday, September 30 to the United Way Hurricane Florence Recovery Fund. The fund will help local United Ways meet storm-related needs and support mid- to long-term recovery throughout the affected regions. "Our communities including our employees and our customers across North Carolina are dealing with the destruction of Florence, and we want to do what we can to help rebuild," said Brian Niccol, Chipotle CEO. "Since the storm hit, we've fed volunteers, worked with our local suppliers to donate food, and made sure our employees were compensated even when restaurants were closed. Being part of the community means taking care of each other, and we hope to do just that by raising funds for the United Way Hurricane Florence Recovery Fund." "United Way is grateful to work with organizations, like Chipotle, that share our commitment to helping those in crisis find a path to recovery," said Mary Sellers, U.S. president, United Way Worldwide. "The Florence-affected areas of North Carolina are, and will continue to face severe challenges. United Way is continually assessing storm damage and resulting needs. With Chipotle and its customers, we'll continue to fight for the health and safety of every North Carolinian affected by Florence." To contribute to the cause, residents can simply visit any Chipotle in North Carolina at any time from open to close (10:45 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.) on Sunday, September 30, and half the pre-tax proceeds of all food and beverage sales will be donated to United Way. Digital, catering and takeout orders placed for September 30, in addition to any orders placed in the restaurants, will also be included in this fundraising effort. In addition to the fundraiser scheduled in the 60 North Carolina restaurants, Chipotle has donated more than 1,500 burritos to feed first responders over the last two weeks. Chipotle also made a cash donation to the Red Cross for immediate emergency efforts. ABOUT UNITED WAY United Way fights for the health, education and financial stability of every person in every community. Supported by 2.9 million volunteers, 9 million donors worldwide, and more than $4.7 billion raised every year, United Way is the world's largest privately-funded nonprofit. We're engaged in nearly 1,800 communities across more than 40 countries and territories worldwide to create sustainable solutions to the challenges facing our communities. United Way partners include global, national and local businesses, nonprofits, government, civic and faith-based organizations, along with educators, labor leaders, health providers, senior citizens, students and more. For more information about United Way, please visit UnitedWay.org. Follow us on Twitter: @UnitedWay and #LiveUnited. ABOUT CHIPOTLE Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically-cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without added colors, flavors or other additives. Chipotle had more than 2,450 restaurants as of June 30, 2018 in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany and is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants. With more than 70,000 employees passionate about providing a great guest experience, Chipotle is a longtime leader and innovator in the food industry. Chipotle is committed to making its food more accessible to everyone while continuing to be a brand with a demonstrated purpose as it leads the way in digital, technology and sustainable business practices. Steve Ells, founder and executive chairman, first opened Chipotle starting with a single restaurant in Denver, Colorado in 1993. For more information or to place an order online, visit WWW.CHIPOTLE.COM. SOURCE Chipotle Mexican Grill Related Links http://www.chipotle.com SAN DIEGO, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarius Mobile Health is introducing the Clarius Cart at the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) 2018 Scientific Assembly. The Clarius Cart is an ultrasound accessory to complement the line up of wireless ultrasound scanners for use in more traditional settings. It is a mobile cart with a lockable cabinet to hold scanners, a working space for procedures, and a charging dock for scanner batteries and smart devices. It's designed for hospital and clinical environments to give clinicians the flexibility of personal ultrasound with the utility of traditional cart-based systems, without any cables. Cart ultrasound gets personal The Clarius Cart provides the utility of a cart-based system and the freedom of personal ultrasound. "We find that some ultrasound users in hospitals prefer to use ultrasound on a cart," said Dave Willis, Co-founder and Chief Strategic Officer of Clarius. "With the Clarius Cart, clinicians can scan however they are comfortable. They can use the display attached to the cart or grab a scanner and go with their own personal device." The Clarius Cart can store up to seven Clarius scanners in a locked cabinet, keeping them safe from theft in a busy hospital. Each scanner can be used simultaneously, on different smart devices as required. The Clarius Cart can be transported easily throughout the hospital to serve clinicians where they need it, including at the patient bedside, without having to worry about access to a power outlet. Clarius ultrasound scanners use 192 elements and four parallel beamformers, and support B-Mode, color doppler, pulsed-wave doppler, and more. "Clarius is delivering the first point of care, wireless ultrasound solution that can accommodate both a cart-use model and a personal ultrasound use model," said Dave Willis. Clarius will be demonstrating the Clarius Cart at ACEP18 in San Diego. Watch a video of it here and learn more at www.clarius.com/cart. About Clarius Mobile Health Clarius Mobile Health was founded with the mission of making ultrasound available to all clinicians. It has developed portable ultrasound scanners that connect wirelessly to iOS and Android devices. Clarius scanners offer high-resolution ultrasound images that are as good as the best traditional point-of-care systems. Clarius is committed to improving the quality of patient care everywhere. For more information, visit www.clarius.com. Media Contact Roderick Lee, Marketing Media and Content Manager Email: [email protected] Tel: 1-604-671-4563 SOURCE Clarius Mobile Health Related Links https://www.clarius.com Headquartered in Tonawanda, NY, Unifrax serves more than 4,000 customers through a global footprint of 31 plants across 12 countries. The Company's ceramic and microfine glass fiber products are sold worldwide, primarily to industrial, commercial and automotive customers. Unifrax's portfolio of fiber products, technologies, proprietary chemistries and processes have been developed from more than 70 years of deep application knowledge and innovation. Its products address mission critical energy efficiency, emission control, regulatory and fire safety requirements across the globe. "Unifrax continues to transform the way organizations save energy, reduce pollution and improve fire safety," said John Dandolph, President and CEO of Unifrax. "We appreciate our long-term partnership with American Securities and thank them for their support. We are excited to partner with Clearlake, which shares our strategic vision to drive growth by investing in our extensive product portfolio while accelerating our pace of technological innovation to make the world greener, cleaner and safer." "We are thrilled to add Unifrax to our portfolio of growing, market-leading industrial businesses," said Jose E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clearlake. "With its leading market position, high-quality products and commitment to innovation, Unifrax has built an impressive, blue-chip customer list. We look forward to partnering with John, his stellar management team and the broader Unifrax organization as we accelerate the Company's compelling growth plan focused on the highest quality and sustainable product offerings." "Unifrax has consistently maintained its position as the global industry leader in high temperature thermal management applications. We are thrilled to support the Unifrax team and this quality business as the Company pursues an exciting new phase of growth," said Colin Leonard, a Partner at Clearlake. "We look forward to leveraging our O.P.S. playbook to continue to drive Unifrax's best-in-class operations, as we focus on investing behind the Company's exciting product innovations and delivering the highest quality solutions to its global customer base." "We are extremely proud of our 15-year association with Unifrax over two investment cycles. During our partnership, John and the talented Unifrax management team have driven strong organic growth and executed key strategic and value-enhancing acquisitions, leading to this positive outcome. We wish the Unifrax team well in the future," said Marc Saiontz, a Managing Director of American Securities. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS Investment Bank, RBC Capital Markets and Stifel provided committed financing to support the transaction. Goldman Sachs and William Blair served as financial advisors to Unifrax. ABOUT AMERICAN SECURITIES Based in New York with an office in Shanghai, American Securities is a leading U.S. private equity firm that invests in market-leading North American companies with annual revenues generally ranging from $200 million to $2 billion and/or $50 million to $250 million of EBITDA. American Securities and its affiliates have approximately $23 billion under management. For more information, visit www.american-securities.com. ABOUT CLEARLAKE Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a leading private investment firm founded in 2006. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake's operational improvement approach, O.P.S. The firm's core target sectors are industrials and energy; software and technology-enabled services; and consumer. Clearlake has managed over $8 billion of institutional capital since inception and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 100 investments. More information is available at www.clearlake.com. ABOUT UNIFRAX Unifrax is a global leader in highperformance specialty fibers and inorganic materials used in hightemperature industrial, automotive, filtration, battery and fire protection applications where they save energy, reduce pollution, and improve fire safety. The Company has 31 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, Asia, South Africa and Latin America and employs approximately 2,300 people worldwide. Additional information about Unifrax can be found at www.unifrax.com. Media Contact: For American Securities: Amy Harsch 212-476-8071 [email protected] For Clearlake: OWEN BLICKSILVER PUBLIC RELATIONS, INC. Kristin Celauro 732-433-5200 [email protected] Jennifer Hurson 845-507-0571 [email protected] For Unifrax: Deborah Myers 716-768-6465 [email protected] SOURCE Clearlake Capital Group Related Links http://www.clearlake.com "Houston will be one of the first cities in the world to deploy 5G thanks to our commitment to removing barriers to wireless industry investment and business growth," said Mayor Sylvester Turner. "5G will be a game changer for the City of Houston, helping us move ahead of other cities in digital innovation and bringing progress and economic growth." "Mayor Turner understands how the right government policies bring investment and opportunity to the City of Houston," said Meredith Attwell Baker, President and CEO of CTIA. "Thanks to his leadership, Houston is positioned to benefit from the innovations and breakthroughs that next-generation 5G networks will bring." Small cells are about the size of a backpack and are installed on utility poles, streetlights, and the sides of buildings. Small cells can be installed in about an hour, but in areas with rules designed for 200-foot cell towers, can take more than a year to get approval. The wireless industry will need to deploy hundreds of thousands of modern wireless antennas small cells in the next few years to keep up with increasing consumer demand for wireless data and to build out new 5G networks. Under Mayor Turner's leadership, Houston has streamlined the permitting process by not requiring a license or attachment agreement for new poles or small cells, and completes review ahead of deadlines. Houston is among the fastest at reviewing and approving permits and leads all cities in Texas with 548 permit approvals since September 1st 2017. According to Accenture, the wireless industry will invest $275 billion to deploy 5G networks across the U.S., generating 3 million new jobs and $500 billion in economic growth. Reducing timelines to deploy 5G by 12 months will generate an additional $100 billion in economic growth. In Houston, Accenture estimates that the industry will invest $1.9 billion, generate more than twenty thousand jobs and $3.5 billion in economic growth. For more, read a Q&A with Mayor Turner here: https://www.ctia.org/news/qa-with-5g-wireless-champion-houston-mayor-sylvester-turner About 5G Next-generation 5G networks will be one hundred times faster than today's 4G networks, connect one hundred times more devices and be five times more responsive. They will bring a range of economic and social benefits and enable a variety of smart city innovations, the Internet of Things, driverless cars and more. About the 5G Wireless Champion Award The 5G Wireless Champion Awards honor the state and local officials that best exemplify the leadership and vision needed to bring next-generation 5G networks and innovation to their communities. They are given to officials that champion reforms, policies and practices that remove barriers to the deployment of next-generation wireless infrastructure. About CTIA CTIA (www.ctia.org) represents the U.S. wireless communications industry and the companies throughout the mobile ecosystem that enable Americans to lead a 21st century connected life. The association's members include wireless carriers, device manufacturers, suppliers as well as apps and content companies. CTIA vigorously advocates at all levels of government for policies that foster continued wireless innovation and investment. The association also coordinates the industry's voluntary best practices, hosts educational events that promote the wireless industry and co-produces the industry's leading wireless tradeshow. CTIA was founded in 1984 and is based in Washington, D.C. Contact: Jilane Rodgers-Petrie, [email protected] SOURCE CTIA Related Links http://www.ctia.org DUBLIN, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Cybersecurity Market by Solution, Service, Security Type, Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Industry Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global cybersecurity market size to grow from USD 152.71 billion in 2018 to USD 248.26 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.2% during the forecast period. Increase in the frequency and sophistication of cyber threats, stringent data protection regulations for information security, and rise in the number of supply chain-based attacks exploiting the software supply chain are expected to drive enterprises to adopt cybersecurity solutions and services for detecting and responding to advanced cyber threats and data breaches. Moreover, Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are adopting cybersecurity solutions at a large scale, as they are more vulnerable to cyber-attacks and data breaches. With the adoption of cybersecurity solutions, organizations can effectively maintain and secure their critical information from data breaches and respond to cyber incidents more efficiently. Cybersecurity solutions help organizations optimize employees' productivity, protect sensitive data and applications, and comply with stringent regulations. The cybersecurity market by solution is segmented into Identity and Access Management (IAM), risk and compliance management, encryption, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Unified Threat Management (UTM), firewall, antivirus/antimalware, Intrusion Detection System (IDS)/Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), security and vulnerability management, disaster recovery, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation, web filtering, and others (application whitelisting and patch management). The IAM solutions segment is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period and estimated to have the largest market size in 2018. Encryption solutions play a key role in changing the cybersecurity market space and enable enterprises to hide their critical data from unauthorized bad actors. As a result, the encryption solutions segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Among industry verticals, the healthcare industry vertical is expected to be the fastest growing, as it has to meet stringent legal and regulatory compliances associated with information security. SMEs continue to deploy cybersecurity solutions, as they are facing security concerns and cyber-attacks, such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, viruses, worms, Trojan horse infections, illegal inside activities, and cyber espionage. Cybersecurity Market Among regions, North America is estimated to hold the largest market size in 2018. North America is a region of innovative technology adopters and has a large presence of cybersecurity vendors who are contributing to the growth of the market. The increasing need among organizations to reduce the misuse of the internet, enhance employees' productivity, and address attacks on their IT infrastructures is expected to drive the growth of the cybersecurity market in North America. Furthermore, APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Rapid economic growth, and regulatory reforms and economic stability are expected to drive the growth of the cybersecurity market in APAC. In the APAC region, enterprises in industry verticals such as government; aerospace and defense; and Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) are expected to increase their investments in cybersecurity solutions and services. Security vendors offer various solutions, including IAM, risk and compliance management, encryption, DLP, UTM, firewall, antivirus/antimalware, IDS/IPS, security and vulnerability management, disaster recovery, DDoS mitigation, web filtering, and others (application whitelisting and patch management) in the cybersecurity market, to detect, prevent, and respond to cyber-threats. In addition to this, security vendors provide various professional and managed services to support their customers. As the frequency of security breaches has increased over the past 5 years, organizations have increased their IT security investment to ensure protection against advanced threats. However, for many enterprises, including SMEs, these investment costs are a matter of concern. To maintain strong and advanced security, the cost of innovation is still high. Hence, many organizations view budgetary constraints as a barrier to the adoption of advanced cybersecurity solutions and services. Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Premium Insights 4.1 Attractive Market Opportunities in the Cybersecurity Market 4.2 Market Share of Top 3 Security Types and Regions, 2018 4.3 Top 3 Solutions, 2018-2023 4.4 Cybersecurity Market, by Service, 2018-2023 4.5 Market by Professional Service, 2018 4.6 Market by Deployment Mode, 2018 4.7 Market by Organization Size, 2018 4.8 Top 3 Industry Verticals, 2018 4.9 Market Investment Scenario 5 Market Overview 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Market Dynamics 5.2.1 Drivers 5.2.1.1 Increase in the Frequency and Sophistication of Cyber Threats 5.2.1.2 Emergence of Disruptive Digital Technologies, Such as IoT, Across Industry Verticals 5.2.1.3 Stringent Data Protection Regulations for Information Security 5.2.1.4 Increase in the Number of Supply Chain-Based Attacks Exploiting the Software Supply Chain 5.2.2 Restraints 5.2.2.1 Limited Security Budget Among SMEs 5.2.2.2 Use of Pirated and Open Source Cybersecurity Solutions 5.2.3 Opportunities 5.2.3.1 Increase in the Ecommerce Penetration Across Industry Verticals 5.2.3.2 Leveraging Ai, Machine Learning and Blockchain Technologies for Cyber Defense 5.2.3.3 Growing Need of Cloud-Based Security Solutions Among SMEs 5.2.4 Challenges 5.2.4.1 Dearth of Cybersecurity Expertise for Proactive Strategic Planning 5.2.4.2 Lack of Interoperability With the Existing Information Systems 5.3 Regulatory Implications 5.3.1 General Data Protection Regulation 5.3.2 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard 5.3.3 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act 5.3.4 Federal Information Security Management Act 5.3.5 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act 5.3.6 Sarbanes-Oxley Act 5.3.7 The International Organization for Standardization 27001 5.4 Use Cases 5.4.1 Adoption of User Behavior Analytics for Detecting Insider Threats in Retail Organization 5.4.2 Dependence of A Leading IT and Telecom Company on DDOS Protection and Mitigation Solution 5.4.3 Dependence of Oil and Gas Organization on Ransomeware Protection Solution 5.4.4 Anomaly Detection Solution Adopted By Electric-Power and Gas Company 5.4.5 Large-Scale Adoption of Email Encryption in Financial Organization 5.5 Innovation Spotlight 5.5.1 Splunk 5.5.2 Cyberbit 5.5.3 Carbon Black 5.5.4 Balbix 6 Cybersecurity Market, By Component 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Solutions 6.3 Services 7 Market By Solution 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Identity and Access Management 7.3 Risk and Compliance Management 7.4 Encryption 7.5 Data Loss Prevention 7.6 Unified Threat Management 7.7 Firewall 7.8 Antivirus/Antimalware 7.9 Intrusion Detection System/Intrusion Prevention System 7.10 Security and Vulnerability Management 7.11 Disaster Recovery 7.12 Distributed Denial of Service Mitigation 7.13 Web Filtering 7.14 Others 8 Cybersecurity Market, By Service 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Professional Services 8.2.1 Design and Implementation 8.2.2 Risk and Threat Assessment 8.2.3 Consulting 8.2.4 Training and Education 8.2.5 Support and Maintenance 8.3 Managed Services 9 Market By Security Type 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Network Security 9.3 Endpoint Security 9.4 Application Security 9.5 Cloud Security 9.6 Others 10 Market By Deployment Mode 10.1 Introduction 10.2 On-Premises 10.3 Cloud 11 Market By Organization Size 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 11.3 Large Enterprises 12 Cybersecurity Market, By Industry Vertical 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Aerospace and Defense 12.3 Government 12.4 Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance 12.5 IT and Telecom 12.6 Healthcare 12.7 Retail 12.8 Manufacturing 12.9 Energy and Utilities 12.10 Others 13 Cybersecurity Market, By Region 13.1 Introduction 13.2 North America 13.2.1 United States 13.2.2 Canada 13.3 Europe 13.3.1 United Kingdom 13.3.2 Germany 13.3.3 France 13.3.4 Rest of Europe 13.4 Asia Pacific 13.4.1 China 13.4.2 Japan 13.4.3 India 13.4.4 Australia and New Zealand 13.4.5 Rest of Asia Pacific 13.5 Middle East and Africa 13.5.1 Middle East 13.5.2 Africa 13.6 Latin America 13.6.1 Brazil 13.6.2 Mexico 13.6.3 Rest of Latin America 14 Competitive Landscape 14.1 Overview 14.2 Competitive Scenario 14.2.1 New Product Launches and Product Enhancements 14.2.2 Partnerships, Agreements, and Collaborations 14.2.3 Mergers and Acquisitions 14.2.4 Business Expansions 15 Company Profiles 15.1 IBM 15.2 Symantec 15.3 FireEye 15.4 Check Point 15.5 Cisco 15.6 Trend Micro 15.7 Sophos 15.8 Rapid7 15.9 McAfee 15.10 Micro Focus 15.11 Microsoft 15.12 Imperva 15.13 Splunk 15.14 F5 Networks 15.15 Proofpoint 15.16 RSA Security 15.17 AWS 15.18 Juniper Networks 15.19 Oracle 15.20 Fortinet 15.21 Palo Alto Networks 15.22 CyberArk 15.23 Forcepoint 15.24 F-Secure 15.25 Qualys For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c3mf36/cybersecurity?w=5 Media Contact: Research and Markets 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 NASSAU, Bahamas, Sept. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Director General of Tourism, Joy Jibrilu, recently made a noteworthy trip to Japan to aggressively market The Islands Of The Bahamas. Jibrilu, who was among 11 CARICOM counterparts, was invited by the Japanese Government to speak with high level tourism officials. "The objective was to see how we could increase tourism between our two countries," she said. "It was recognized in Japan that the Caribbean is a desirable destination but they know very little about us and so this was such an incredible opportunity to showcase The Bahamas at its best." The Director General said The Islands Of The Bahamas were an easy sell. "We have diversity, connectivity because you can fly to New York and straight to Japan and we have routes that make it feasible." In several days Minister of Tourism and Aviation, Dionisio D'Aguilar, will also lead a team to China consisting of other tourism stakeholders such as Atlantis, Baha Mar, The Pointe and the Out Islands Promotion Board. Jibrilu says The Islands Of The Bahamas are looking to lure more tourists from Asia. "Travel from Asia is perhaps the highest from anywhere in the world," she said. "Air Canada has come on board with us as well. We will also have meetings with top tier media to display a Destination Bahamas." Air arrivals to The Islands Of The Bahamas are up by some 15 percent, according to tourism officials. However, Jibrilu said the destination is not resting on its laurels. "Numbers are high but it is now incumbent on us to do everything we can to keep these numbers where they are and to keep these numbers going in the right direction," she said. ABOUT THE BAHAMAS The Islands Of The Bahamas have a place in the sun for everyone. The destination offers an easily accessible tropical getaway and provides convenience for travelers with preclearance through U.S. customs and immigration, and the Bahamian dollar is on par with the U.S. dollar. For more information call 1-800-Bahamas or visit www.Bahamas.com. Look for The Bahamas on the web on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. MEDIA CONTACT Kendea Smith [email protected] 242-397-2786 SOURCE Bahamas Ministry of Tourism Related Links https://www.bahamas.com The album was the second for Brown, who wrote all nine songs. It was produced by Motown's Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell, who were then one-half of The Corporation production team that had created a string of hits for the Jackson 5; Brown's LP was one of their first projects separate from the group. Elaine Brown was arranged and conducted by Horace Tapscott, a pianist, composer and founder of the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. The album art was created by Emory Douglas, the Black Panther Party's Minister of Culture. "These are love songs expressing Elaine Brown's deep and abiding sense of oneness with all oppressed humankind," wrote Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton in the album's liner notes. Brown, who left the Panthers in 1977, became an advocate for prison reform. She is currently CEO of the non-profit organization Oakland & the World Enterprises, Inc., dedicated to launching and sustaining for-profit businesses for cooperative-ownership by formerly incarcerated people and others facing barriers to economic survival. Brown attended Temple University, UCLA, Mills College and Southwestern University School of Law. She has lectured at colleges and universities throughout the world, and her papers have been acquired by Emory University. Brown sought the Green Party nomination for U.S. President in the 2008 election. She is the author of A Taste of Power, a memoir, and the novel The Condemnation of Little B. Elaine Brown was the eighth and final album release on Black Forum, Motown's 1970s imprint focusing on African-American consciousness. Elaine Brown: Elaine Brown [vinyl LP] Side 1 No Time Jonathan Can't Go Back All The Young And Fine Men Until We're Free Side 2 I Know Who You Are Child In The World A Little Baby And We Shall Meet Again SOURCE Motown/UMe TSX: ELD NYSE: EGO VANCOUVER, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Eldorado Gold Corporation ("Eldorado" or "the Company") provides the following updates. Q3 2018 Financial and Operational Results Eldorado Gold will release its Q3 2018 Financial and Operational Results after the market closes on Thursday, October 25, 2018 and will host a conference call on Friday, October 26, 2018 at 11:30am ET (8:30am PT). The call will be webcast and can be accessed at Eldorado Gold's website: www.eldoradogold.com Conference Call Details Replay (available until November 30, 2018) Date: Friday October 26, 2018 Toronto: 416 849 0833 Time: 8:30 am PT (11:30 am ET) Toll Free: 1 855 859 2056 Dial in: 647 427 7450 Pass code: 4677 738 Toll free: 1 888 231 8191 Senior Management Update Further to the Company's announcement on July 11, 2018, Philip Yee joined Eldorado as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer on September 24, 2018. Charles Parker, Acting CFO, will resume his role as Corporate Controller. The Company wishes to thank Charlie for his hard work in managing Eldorado's Finance department in recent months. New York Stock Exchange Minimum Share Price Requirement New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") regulations stipulate that listed issuers must maintain a minimum average closing share price of US$1.00 per share calculated over a period of 30 consecutive trading days. Eldorado received notice from the NYSE that the Company was below criteria regarding this requirement on April 18, 2018 and again on September 11, 2018. The Company sought and received shareholder approval at its Annual and Special Meeting on June 21, 2018, to amend the Company's articles to allow for the implementation of a share consolidation with a ratio of 5-for-1, prior to December 31, 2018. The Board will review the merits of a share consolidation, taking into consideration the best interests of the Company, its trading price and the requirements of the New York Stock Exchange. About Eldorado Gold Eldorado is a gold and base metals producer with mining, development and exploration operations in Turkey, Greece, Romania, Serbia, Canada and Brazil. The Company has a highly skilled and dedicated workforce, safe and responsible operations, a portfolio of high-quality assets, and long-term partnerships with local communities. Eldorado's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: ELD) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: EGO). Cautionary Note about Forward-looking Statements and Information Certain of the statements made and information provided in this press release are forward-looking statements or information within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Often, these forward-looking statements and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "continue", "projected", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negatives thereof or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements or information contained in this release include, but are not limited to, statements or information with respect to the proposed share consolidation. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information by their nature are based on assumptions and 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 such forward-looking statements or information. We have made certain assumptions about the forward-looking statements and information in this this release. Even though our management believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statement or information will prove to be accurate. Many assumptions may be difficult to predict and are beyond our control. Furthermore, should one or more of the risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements or information. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others, the following: geopolitical and economic climate (global and local), risks related to mineral tenure and permits; gold and other commodity price volatility; recoveries of gold and other metals; results of test work; revised guidance; risks regarding potential and pending litigation and arbitration proceedings relating to the Company's, business, properties and operations; expected impact on reserves and the carrying value; the updating of the reserve and resource models and life of mine plans; mining operational and development risk; foreign country operational risks; risks of sovereign investment; regulatory risks and liabilities including, regulatory environment and restrictions, and environmental regulatory restrictions and liability; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical testing and recoveries; risks related to the impact of the sale of our Chinese assets and the acquisition and integration of Integra on the Company's operations; additional funding requirements; currency fluctuations; community and non-governmental organization actions; speculative nature of gold exploration; dilution; share price volatility; competition; loss of key employees; and defective title to mineral claims or properties, as well as those risk factors discussed in the sections titled "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk factors in our business" in the Company's most recent Annual Information Form & Form 40-F. The reader is directed to carefully review the detailed risk discussion in our most recent Annual Information Form filed on SEDAR under our Company name, which discussion is incorporated by reference in this release, for a fuller understanding of the risks and uncertainties that affect the Company's business and operations. Forward-looking statements and information is designed to help you understand management's current views of our near and longer term prospects, and it may not be appropriate for other purposes. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements or information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements or information contained herein. Except as required by law, we do not expect to update forward-looking statements and information continually as conditions change and you are referred to the full discussion of the Company's business contained in the Company's reports filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and the U.S. SOURCE Eldorado Gold Corporation WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement after the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote to approve the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh: "After what had to be three of the worst weeks of his life, Brett Kavanaugh and his family are finding out that the path to a Supreme Court appointment is exacting a price no American should have to pay. Judge Kavanaugh's 10-year-old daughter suggesting that they pray for Dr. Ford tells you a lot about how the family is handling all this. "It was also difficult not to be moved by the earlier testimony of Dr. Ford. She needed to be heard. I, like most observers, am not suggesting that she was never assaulted. However, there are just too many inconsistencies in the story -- and in the Democrats' handling of it -- to suggest that Kavanaugh was the one responsible. "What we do know without a shadow of a doubt is this: the Left must have the court in order to advance their agenda in America. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) admitted it. They couldn't get Congress or state legislatures to redefine marriage or impose abortion on demand. They had to go to the courts. They can't get open borders in this country. They have to go to the courts. That's what this entire smear campaign is about. This is not -- and never has been -- about Brett Kavanaugh. It's about the shift on the court that will begin to take place when a committed constitutionalist replaces Kennedy. "Senate Democrats may think they are hoodwinking the America people in calling for an FBI investigation. However, yesterday's hearing was very revealing about what a sham a delay would be. This delaying tactic is a hail mary pass late in the 4th quarter --- all with the goal of pushing this past the election with the hopes that Democrats take control of the Senate. "Family Research Council calls on the U.S. Senate to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme. What's at stake is not only the balance of the Court, but the future of our country," concluded Perkins. SOURCE Family Research Council SAN RAMON, Calif., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- September 29th is National Coffee Day, celebrating that drink that the majority of the workforce craves. Many people feel their day can't start until they've had their first cup of the stuff. Financial Education Benefits Center (FEBC), a membership benefits company, says that there's definitely time to celebrate this fun mini-holiday, but as with everything, to not go overboard with coffee consumption. Tiplyashin Anatoly/Bigstock.com Coffee has been debated for years about whether or not it's okay to drink. Like most things, the answer is coffee is fine, even good for personal health, in small quantities. It's when people start drinking several cups in short periods of time that it can become an issue. "Binging on anything has a high likelihood of having negative side effects, and that's why balance and moderation are so important," said Jennifer Martinez, manager at FEBC. Too much coffee can lead to raised stress levels, increased anxiety, stomachaches, headaches, and in extreme cases, hallucinations. But coffee has a lot of benefits when used in moderation unless it's mixed with too much extra stuff like sugar and creamer. There are whole lists of medical benefits for coffee drinkers, such as reduced rates of heart attack, lower risks of diabetes, prevention of retinal damage, and many more. So if someone is inclined to go out of their way to enjoy an extra special cup of coffee on this java-themed holiday, enjoy it responsibly. Maybe pair it with a special meal, or enjoy it while out and about on the way to a movie. FEBC offers select, everyday discounts to its members in an effort to make achieving financial and personal wellness more affordable, like on groceries, movie tickets, and other useful items. "Taking some time for yourself is important, even if it's just for a cup of coffee. If you're having a cup, sit back, relax, and enjoy the moment, even if just for a little bit," said Martinez. About Financial Education Benefits Center Financial Education Benefits Center is located in San Ramon, California. The membership company has already helped thousands save money and obtain the necessary education required to live a financially healthy life. Financial Education Benefits Center has partnered with several name brand third-party companies to expand the financial and educational products and services available to its members and to provide a variety of wellness services as well. Financial Education Benefits Center Newsroom Contact To learn more about Financial Education Benefits Center, please contact: Financial Education Benefits Center 2010 Crow Canyon Place Ste. 100 San Ramon, CA 94583 1-800-953-1388 [email protected] Related Images image1.jpg image2.jpg Related Links Financial Education Benefits Center SOURCE Financial Education Benefits Center Related Links http://www.febcp.com (In United States dollars, except where noted otherwise) TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - First Quantum Minerals Ltd. ("First Quantum" or the "Company", TSX Symbol "FM") today noted the following proposed changes to the Zambian mining tax regime that are pertinent to the Company. The proposed changes were included in the country's 2019 budget delivered on September 28, 2018 to the National Assembly and are expected to take effect from January 1, 2019. Mineral Royalty changes: Increase mineral royalty rates by 1.5% at all levels of the existing scale Introduce a fourth tier rate at 10% which applies when copper price above $7,500 per tonne per tonne Make mineral royalty tax non-deductible for income tax purposes Existing Mining Royalty rates 2019 Budget Announcement Less than $4,500 - 4% Less than $4,500 5.5% $4,500 - $6,000 - 5% $4,500 - $6,000 6.5% Greater than $6,000 6% $6,000 - $7,500 7.5% Greater than $7,500 10% Other key measures Introduce an import duty of 5% on copper and cobalt concentrates Introduce an export levy on precious metals including gold of 15% Abolish Value Added Tax and introduce a non-refundable Sales Tax (no detail on Sales Tax rate yet announced). Impact of the Mineral Royalty rate increase by 1.5% on 2017 All In Sustaining Cost (AISC): Kansanshi AISC per lb would increase from $1.54 /lb to $1.58 /lb /lb to /lb Sentinel AISC per lb would increase from $2.19 /lb to $2.23 /lb /lb to /lb Group AISC per lb would increase from $1.65 /lb to $1.68 /lb It is expected that there would also be an impact of the non-refundable Sales Tax on C1 and AISC however the rate is not yet known. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of First Quantum Minerals Ltd. G. Clive Newall President For further information visit our website at www.first-quantum.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Certain statements, information and analysis contained herein are based on the details of the 2019 Zambian budget as announced by the government of Zambia, and on assumptions in respect of the implementation of the same. The forward-looking statements include estimates, forecasts and statements as to the Company's expectations of production and sales volumes, and expected timing of completion of project development at Cobre Panama and Enterprise and are subject to the impact of ore grades on future production, the potential of production disruptions, capital expenditure and mine production costs, the outcome of mine permitting, other required permitting, the outcome of legal proceedings which involve the Company, information with respect to the future price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources, First Quantum's exploration and development program, estimated future expenses, exploration and development capital requirements, the Company's hedging policy, and goals and strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words 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 statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about continuing production at all operating facilities, the price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt, iron and sulphuric acid, anticipated costs and expenditures and the ability to achieve the Company's goals. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to, future production volumes and costs, the temporary or permanent closure of uneconomic operations, costs for inputs such as oil, power and sulphur, political stability in Zambia, Peru, Mauritania, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Panama, Argentina and Australia, adverse weather conditions in Zambia, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Mauritania and Panama, labour disruptions, potential social and environmental challenges, power supply, mechanical failures, water supply, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations, and the production of off-spec material. See the Company's Annual Information Form for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information. Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause actual results, performances, achievements or events not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of these factors are beyond First Quantum's control. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. All forward-looking statements and information made herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. SOURCE First Quantum Minerals Ltd. Related Links http://www.first-quantum.com RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) today commented on the release of the revised private mortgage insurer eligibility requirements (PMIERs 2.0) by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on September 27, 2018. This is the set of requirements that private mortgage insurers must meet to be eligible to provide mortgage insurance on loans delivered to or purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs)the financial aspects of which demand that a mortgage insurer's available assets equal or exceed its required assets. The effective date of PMIERs 2.0 is March 31, 2019. As of June 30, 2018, Genworth's U.S. mortgage insurance business had available assets of approximately 129% of the required assets under the current set of PMIERs requirements, or more than $700 million above the required levels. If PMIERs 2.0 had been effective as of June 30, 2018, Genworth estimates that its sufficiency ratio would have been approximately 120%, or more than $500 million of available assets above the PMIERs 2.0 requirements. This difference is primarily due to the elimination of any credit for future premiums in PMIERs 2.0 that had previously been allowed on insurance policies written in 2008 or earlier. Rohit Gupta, CEO of Genworth's U.S. mortgage insurance business said, "Genworth's continued capital sufficiency under PMIERs 2.0 reflects our ongoing balance sheet and counterparty strength in support of our customers and the GSEs. We are pleased to continue serving in an important role providing credit loss protection under these new, robust capital standards." About Genworth Financial Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) is a Fortune 500 insurance holding company committed to helping families achieve the dream of homeownership and address the financial challenges of aging through its leadership positions in mortgage insurance and long term care insurance. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Genworth traces its roots back to 1871 and became a public company in 2004. For more information, visit genworth.com. From time to time, Genworth releases important information via postings on its corporate website. Accordingly, investors and other interested parties are encouraged to enroll to receive automatic email alerts and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds regarding new postings. Enrollment information is found under the "Investors" section of genworth.com. From time to time, Genworth's publicly traded subsidiaries, Genworth MI Canada Inc. and Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Limited, separately release financial and other information about their operations. This information can be found at http://genworth.ca and http://www.genworth.com.au. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as "projects," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "will," "are confident" or words of similar meaning and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the outlook for our future business and financial performance and our ability to meet revised private mortgage insurer eligibility requirements established by the GSEs and FHFA. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially due to global political, economic, business, competitive, market, regulatory and other factors and risks, including the items identified under "Part IItem 1ARisk Factors" of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2018. The amount of capital required by our U.S. mortgage insurance business to meet the revised private mortgage insurers eligibility requirements is dependent upon, among other things: (i) the way PMIERs 2.0 are applied and interpreted by the GSEs and FHFA as and after they are implemented; (ii) the future performance of the U.S. housing market; (iii) the generation of earnings in our U.S. mortgage insurance business, available assets and risk-based required assets (including as they relate to the fluctuating value of the shares of our Canadian mortgage insurance subsidiary that are owned by our U.S. mortgage insurance business as a result of share price and foreign exchange movements or otherwise), reducing risk in-force and reducing delinquencies as anticipated, and writing anticipated amounts and types of new U.S. mortgage insurance business; and (iv) its overall financial performance, capital and liquidity levels. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. SOURCE Genworth Financial, Inc. Related Links http://www.genworth.com ST. LOUIS, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services, has announced several organizational changes that will be effective January 1, 2019. Andrew E. Ciccone has been named Vice President - Commercial, Institutional and Government (CIG) Sales. In this new position, he will lead Graybar's strategy to achieve growth and align resources to serve the CIG market. Andy has 26 years with Graybar and currently serves as District Vice President in the company's Tampa district, a position he has held since 2011. has been named Vice President - Commercial, Institutional and Government (CIG) Sales. In this new position, he will lead Graybar's strategy to achieve growth and align resources to serve the CIG market. Andy has 26 years with Graybar and currently serves as District Vice President in the company's district, a position he has held since 2011. David L. Schwichtenberg has been named District Vice President in Tampa . Dave is a 44-year Graybar veteran who currently serves as District Vice President in Graybar's Richmond district, a position he has held since 2013. In his new assignment, he will lead Graybar's business throughout the state of Florida , which includes 20 locations and approximately 560 employees. has been named District Vice President in . Dave is a 44-year Graybar veteran who currently serves as District Vice President in Graybar's district, a position he has held since 2013. In his new assignment, he will lead Graybar's business throughout the state of , which includes 20 locations and approximately 560 employees. Brian P. Delaney has been named District Vice President in Richmond . Brian has more than 20 years of industry experience. He currently serves as Director, Electrical and Industrial Sales in the company's New York district, a position he has held since 2014. In his new assignment, he will lead Graybar's business in North Carolina , Virginia , Maryland and portions of South Carolina and Tennessee . In total, the Richmond district includes 18 locations and approximately 570 employees. Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services. Through its network of nearly 290 North American distribution facilities, it stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, helping its customers power, network and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency. For more information, visit www.graybar.com or call 1-800-GRAYBAR. Media Contact: Tim Sommer (314) 578-7672 [email protected] SOURCE Graybar Related Links http://www.graybar.com BOSTON, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Hedged Equity & Income Fund (NYSE: HEQ) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund managed by John Hancock Advisers, LLC (the "Adviser") and subadvised by Wellington Management Company LLP (the "Subadviser"), announced today sources of its quarterly distribution of $0.3760 per share paid to all shareholders of record as of September 14, 2018, pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan. This press release is issued as required by an exemptive order granted to the Fund by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Notification of Sources of Distribution This notice provides shareholders of the John Hancock Hedged Equity & Income Fund (NYSE: HEQ) with important information concerning the distribution declared on August 22, 2018, and payable on September 28, 2018. No action is required on your part. Distribution Period: September 2018 Distribution Amount Per Common Share: $0.3760 The following table sets forth the estimated sources of the current distribution, payable September 28, 2018, and the cumulative distributions paid this fiscal year to date from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short term capital gains; net realized long term capital gains; and return of capital or other capital source. All amounts are expressed on a per common share basis and as a percentage of the distribution amount. Source Current Distribution ($) % Breakdown of the Current Distribution Total Cumulative Distributions for the Fiscal Year to Date ($)1 % Breakdown of the Total Cumulative Distributions for the Fiscal Year to Date1 Net Investment Income 0.1426 38% 0.6527 58% Net Realized Short- Term Capital Gains 0.0000 0% 0.0000 0% Net Realized Long- Term Capital Gains 0.0000 0% 0.3594 32% Return of Capital or Other Capital Source 0.2334 62% 0.1153 10% Total per common share 0.3760 100% 1.1274 100% Average annual total return (in relation to NAV) for the 5 years ended on August 31, 2018 6.76% Annualized current distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of August 31, 2018 9.14% Cumulative total return (in relation to NAV) for the fiscal year through August 31, 2018 -2.37% Cumulative fiscal year-to-date distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of August 31, 2018 6.85% _________________________ 1 The Fund's current fiscal year began on January 1, 2018, and will end on December 31, 2018. You should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of this distribution or from the terms of the Fund's managed distribution plan. The Fund estimates that it has distributed more than its income and net realized capital gains; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur, for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in the Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with "yield" or "income." The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this Notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of its fiscal year and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes. The Fund has declared the September 2018 distribution pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan (the "Plan"). Under the Plan, the Fund makes fixed quarterly distributions in the amount of $0.3760 per share, which will continue to be paid quarterly until further notice. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact your financial professional or call the John Hancock Investments Closed-End Fund Information Line at 1-800-843-0090, Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time. Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Fund's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. An investor should consider a Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. Wellington Management Company LLP is an independent and unaffiliated investment subadviser to John Hancock Hedged Equity & Income Fund. About John Hancock Investments John Hancock has helped individuals and institutions build and protect wealth since 1862. Today, we're one of the strongest and most-recognized financial brands. We serve investors globally through a unique multimanager approach: We search the world to find proven portfolio teams with specialized expertise for every strategy we offer, then we apply robust investment oversight to ensure they continue to meet our uncompromising standards and serve the best interests of our shareholders. Our approach to asset management has led to a diverse set of investments deeply rooted in investor needs, along with strong risk-adjusted returns across asset classes. About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial John Hancock is a division of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading international financial services group that helps people achieve their dreams and aspirations by putting customers' needs first and providing the right advice and solutions. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States and as Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance, and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups, and institutions. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were over CAD$1.1 trillion (US$849 billion) as of June 30, 2018. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as MFC on the TSX, NYSE, and PSE, and under 945 on the SEHK. Manulife can be found at manulife.com. One of the largest life insurers in the United States, John Hancock supports approximately 10 million Americans with a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, and education savings plans. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com. SOURCE John Hancock Investments BOSTON, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund (NYSE: HTD) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund managed by John Hancock Advisers, LLC and subadvised by both John Hancock Asset Management a division of Manulife Asset Management (US) LLC, and Analytic Investors, LLC, announced today sources of its monthly distribution of $0.1380 per share paid to all shareholders of record as of September 14, 2018, pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan. This press release is issued as required by an exemptive order granted to the Fund by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Notification of Sources of Distribution This notice provides shareholders of the John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund (NYSE: HTD) with important information concerning the distribution declared on August 22, 2018, and payable on September 28, 2018. No action is required on your part. Distribution Period: September 2018 Distribution Amount Per Common Share: $0.1380 The following table sets forth the estimated sources of the current distribution, payable September 28, 2018, and the cumulative distributions paid this fiscal year to date from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short term capital gains; net realized long term capital gains; and return of capital or other capital source. All amounts are expressed on a per common share basis and as a percentage of the distribution amount. Source Current Distribution ($) % Breakdown of the Current Distribution Total Cumulative Distributions for the Fiscal Year to Date ($)1 % Breakdown of the Total Cumulative Distributions for the Fiscal Year to Date1 Net Investment Income 0.0865 63% 1.4188 93% Net Realized Short- Term Capital Gains 0.0000 0% 0.0000 0% Net Realized Long- Term Capital Gains 0.0281 20% 0.0992 7% Return of Capital or Other Capital Source 0.0234 17% 0.0000 0% Total per common share 0.1380 100% 1.5180 100% Average annual total return (in relation to NAV) for the 5 years ended on August 31, 2018 12.67% Annualized current distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of August 31, 2018 6.60% Cumulative total return (in relation to NAV) for the fiscal year through August 31, 2018 2.88% Cumulative fiscal year-to-date distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of August 31, 2018 6.05% 1 The Fund's current fiscal year began on November 1, 2017, and will end on October 31, 2018. You should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of this distribution or from the terms of the Fund's managed distribution plan. The Fund estimates that it has distributed more than its income and net realized capital gains; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur, for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in the Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with "yield" or "income." The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this Notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of its fiscal year and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes. The Fund has declared the September 2018 distribution pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan (the "Plan"). Under the Plan, the Fund makes fixed monthly distributions in the amount of $0.1380 per share, which will continue to be paid monthly until further notice. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact your financial professional or call the John Hancock Investments Closed-End Fund Information Line at 1-800-843-0090, Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time. Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Fund's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. An investor should consider a Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. About John Hancock Investments John Hancock has helped individuals and institutions build and protect wealth since 1862. Today, we're one of the strongest and most-recognized financial brands. We serve investors globally through a unique multimanager approach: We search the world to find proven portfolio teams with specialized expertise for every strategy we offer, then we apply robust investment oversight to ensure they continue to meet our uncompromising standards and serve the best interests of our shareholders. Our approach to asset management has led to a diverse set of investments deeply rooted in investor needs, along with strong risk-adjusted returns across asset classes. About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial John Hancock is a division of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading international financial services group that helps people achieve their dreams and aspirations by putting customers' needs first and providing the right advice and solutions. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States and as Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance, and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups, and institutions. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were over CAD$1.1 trillion (US$849 billion) as of June 30, 2018. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as MFC on the TSX, NYSE, and PSE, and under 945 on the SEHK. Manulife can be found at manulife.com. One of the largest life insurers in the United States, John Hancock supports approximately 10 million Americans with a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, and education savings plans. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com. SOURCE John Hancock Investments ATLANTA, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Landis+Gyr (SWISS: LAND.SW) announced today its support for the recently filed infrastructure upgrade in New Jersey, known as the Clean Energy Future (CEF). This large-scale investment is designed to deliver advanced technology and consumer benefits throughout the PSE&G service territory and will elevate New Jersey's grid into the digital age. Landis+Gyr, a global leader in smart energy, has been involved in grid modernization efforts for leading utilities around the world; and providing products and solutions for early-adopting utilities in Dallas, Montreal, Rio de Janeiro, London, Rome and Tokyo. The company has seen first-hand the benefits that the latest technology can bring to customers including improving service delivery, efficiency, outage restoration and informed decision-making, as well as enhancing the offerings for electric vehicles, storage and renewable integration. "The CEF is exactly the prototypical, forward-looking plan that we see leading utilities implementing around the world," said Prasanna Venkatesan, Landis+Gyr's EVP for the Americas region. "The resulting consumer benefits will transform the way energy is delivered and managed in New Jersey. With the increasing complexity of the electric grid, including two-way energy flows, edge intelligence, and advanced communications capabilities, a holistic plan is requiredand PSE&G has just put one on the table. We fully support its approval." "Landis+Gyr is a leading global technology provider of products and services that improve grid efficiency. We appreciate their support as we move forward with this significant work," said Joseph Santamaria, PSEG's Chief Information Officer. About Landis+Gyr Landis+Gyr is the leading global provider of integrated energy management solutions for the utility sector. Offering one of the broadest portfolios of products and services to address complex industry challenges, the company delivers comprehensive solutions for the foundation of a smarter grid, including smart metering, distribution network sensing and automation tools, load control, analytics and energy storage. Landis+Gyr operates in over 30 countries across five continents. With sales of approximately USD 1.7 billion, the company employs c. 6,000 people with the sole mission of helping the world manage energy better. More information is available at www.landisgyr.com. SOURCE Landis+Gyr This year is the 21 st year of the CSCO conference. As an academic extravaganza of Chinese clinical oncology, the conference has drawn nearly 30,000 experts and scholars in the field of clinical oncology both domestically and internationally to gather in Xiamen, for the purposes of exchanging new research and catching up with peers - a truly fruitful event. The launch of the Special Chinese Big Data Platform for Cancer Genomics Informatics, as one of the most important pieces of news released at CSCO this year, marked that precision prognosis and treatment have entered the era of big data, representing CSCO and OrigiMed Co., Ltd's responsibility and commitment to the continuous promotion of the "Healthy China" national strategy. In response to the national health big data strategy, precision medicine, as a new model of medical care, has been established as the direction of future development of oncotherapy. However, information analysis and interpretation of genetic testing must be supported by powerful cancer genomic data for both oncology and clinical diagnosis and treatment. Clinical oncology's demand for a complete and standardized collection of Chinese population genetic samples is growing stronger. However, special Chinese oncology genomics related information databases are still at the exploration stage and regional databases are far from perfect, lacking key bioinformatics analysis to rely on, which has been a bottle neck of the industry. The initiative of the Special Chinese Big Data Platform for Cancer Genomics Informatics is targeting this bottle neck to make breakthroughs. The powerful OrigiMed bioinformatic algorithms and unique OrigiMed technologies of the future will safeguard the accuracy and reliability of bioinformatic analysis and provide database support for the rapid development of cancer precision medicine. The Special Chinese Big Data Platform for Cancer Genomics Informatics was jointly initiated by Beijing Xisike (CSCO) Clinical Oncology Research Foundation, East Clinical Center of Ontology and OrigiMed Co., Ltd and proposed by Prof. Qin Shukui and Prof. Li Jin. Clinical oncology experts from nearly 40 large domestic A-grade tier 3 hospitals jointly participated in the building of the genomics informatics platform. The aim of the platform is to search for the driver genes of high incidence cancers specific to the Chinese population and also genetic information related to clinical data such as metastasis, relapses, efficacy and treatment toxicity, in order to carry out comprehensive cancer assessments and provide informational and technological support, accurate diagnosis, and treatment references for domestic oncology clinical research and practice. Prof. Li Jin, Chairman of CSCO and Chief Physician of the oncology department at the Shanghai East Hospital, an affiliate of Tongji University, pointed out, "We are grateful to the support provided by OrigiMed Co., Ltd. In the past several years, China has placed great importance in several directions of development in the medical field including big data analysis, gene bioinformatics and artificial intelligence. We hope that the Special Chinese Big Data Platform for Cancer Genomics Informatics will help us collect genetic data of 5,000 patients for comprehensive analysis of cancers and to provide fast and accurate diagnosis and treatment references for clinical research. Finally, we sincerely hope that the cooperation between CSCO and OrigiMed Co., Ltd will be a successful one." Wang Kai, CEO of OrigiMed Co., Ltd, said, "We would like to express our gratitude for the trust shown by CSCO in OrigiMed Co., Ltd. We have stayed true to our original intention of dedicating our effort to helping Chinese cancer patients. After the Special Chinese Big Data Platform for Cancer Genomics Informatics is launched, nearly 40 hospitals will participate during the first stage and OrigiMed Co., Ltd will provide more than 2,000 cancer patients of different types of cancers with WES whole exome sequencing and some deep sequencing of 450+ cancer core genes using the company's Yuan Su 450+ series products, plus targeted clinical treatment plans. In the future, OrigiMed Co., Ltd will continue to contribute dedicated effort toward advancing R&D of China's cancer gene testing and clinical diagnosis in order to further the development of the clinical testing of cancer genes in China. This year' CSCO precision medicine international session was for the first time, organized by OrigiMed Co., Ltd with the theme of "All-Round Research by Experts for Further Study." The conference attracted nearly 600 cancer clinical experts from all corners of China. There were four major segments, including Sino-U.S. Dialogues, Multi-dimensional perspectives, Exploration and Discoveries and the ceremony to launch the clinical project. Many domestic and international top experts were invited to the conference and gave presentations, including Prof. Martin J. Murphy, Prof. Matthew Meyerson, Prof. Patrick Ott, Prof. Zhang Jianjun, Prof. Qin Shukui, Prof. Li Jin, Prof. Shi Yuankai, Prof. Zhou Caicun, Prof. Shen Lin, Prof. Xu Binhe, Prof. Liao Nin, Prof. Zhu Bo, Prof. He Yong, Prof. Fang Wenfeng, Prof. Li Li, Prof. Cai Xiuyu, Prof. Shi Weiwei and other domestic and international eminent guests. The guests shared their latest research and engaged in animated and in-depth discussions on cutting-edge topics from tumor heterogeneity to personalized new antibody vaccines and investigations of precision treatments of lung cancer, breast cancer and gastric cancer; from the single-target drug design era to the era of pathways and multi-dimensional biomarkers, and new discoveries from the Chinese population and the exploration of multi-dimensional biomarkers. About OrigiMed Co., Ltd OrigiMed (Shanghai) Co., Ltd focuses on R&D of international new technologies and their application in oncology and dedicates itself in pushing forward the clinical testing of hundreds of cancer genes and providing every patient with comprehensive and accurate molecule level information to assist doctors with their precision treatments and advance the reform of clinical treatment methods for Chinese patients. The company's headquarters are located in Shanghai Pujiang Hi-Tech Park and it has set up branches and medical testing facilities in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Jinan and Fuzhou, covering a total area of 12,000 square meters. OrigiMed Co., Ltd has developed gene testing products of tissue DNA, RNA and plasma ctDNA, targeting different clinical stages, using second generation high-throughput sequencing technology, featuring the testing of hundreds of cancer related genes and covering all types of solid tumors. The company has also developed the industry's first precision treatment data sharing and patients follow-up APP, namely, Dr. Ground Hog and its service network covers more than 200 core hospitals in all five major regions nationally. SOURCE OrigiMed YVERDON LES BAINS, Switzerland and DALLAS, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leclanche SA (SIX: LECN), one of the world's leading energy storage solution companies, today announced its interim results for the half year ending 30 June 2018. Leclanche's revenues have more than doubled year-on-year to CHF 22.3 million from CHF 10.6 million in the six months to 30 June 2018, in line with the Company's previously stated estimate of doubling revenues for the year 2018. Excluding exceptional items, EBITDA losses for the period have reduced on a like-for-like basis as a percentage of revenues. Key figures (in million CHF) H1 2018 H1 2017 Revenue 22,297 10,634 EBITDA -22,788 -9,532 Normalised EBITDA1 -17,074 -9,532 Normalised EBITDA Margin -77% -89% We expect the year-end EBITDA loss to reduce as a percentage of revenue. Most of the large projects under construction should be completed or close to be completed by end of the year and will contribute to the improvement of the Company's year-end profitability. In the same period, the related inventories increased from CHF 12.3 million to CHF 23.1 million reflecting the growth in demand for Leclanche's energy storage solutions and the scale of the projects under construction. Other operating expenses increased due to one-off costs. Personnel costs increased by 10% reflecting the recruitment of over 45 people to increase production and deliver the large scale projects that the Company is delivering. Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanche, said "In the first half of 2018, we launched the JV with Exide Industries, completed the EMS acquisition, have consolidated our debt, and secured a financing programme which will take us to being EBITDA positive in 2020. This places us in a strong position to capitalise on the tremendous opportunities in the fast-growing markets of eTransport and Stationary Energy Storage Solutions. 2018 is a year of transition for Leclanche as we deliver on our stated growth strategy. Thanks to the significant investments made in the past three years under the Growth Plan announced in 2015, the Leclanche team is now demonstrating its solid ability to deliver large-scale landmark projects. We are on track to hit the milestone of 100 MWh of stationary storage projects in operation by end 2018, and completing tests for Electric Bus Battery Packs in India with Sun Mobility, a leading Electric Vehicle Systems Integrator in India and in Europe with Skoda Electric. We have been awarded projects which total over 300 MWh for deliveries through to 2019, including Master Supply Agreements in the eTransport Business that envisage more than 150 MWh of recurring annual deliveries. We are particularly encouraged by the rapid electrification trend in the marine market and we are expecting multiple project wins in the near term in this market segment. We confirm our guidance to double our turnover for the year. We have recruited key individuals, in particular leaders from the automotive industry, who will ensure that we deliver our projects and mitigate the obvious execution risks during this important phase of growth for Leclanche. Our solid order book and qualified pipeline of projects, underpin our confidence for 2019 and beyond. We have never been in a better commercial and operational position than we are now." Funding Status In the first half of 2018, Leclanche secured a significant financing programme which fully funds the business plan through to 2020 when the Company expects to be EBITDA positive. FEFAM2, the Company's largest shareholder, has committed a total of CHF 75 million of corporate funding and an additional CHF 50 million M&A facility to finance acquisitions and joint ventures in e-Transport and Stationary grid-based storage markets. To date, CHF 7.6 million have been drawn down from the M&A facility to finance the JV with Exide Industries in India and the EMS acquisition. In June 2018, Leclanche also converted CHF 16.5 million of its debt into equity after FEFAM received approval from the Swiss Takeover Board to convert that amount into equity. Leclanche and FEFAM are also finalising arrangements to convert a further CHF 53.4 million by Q1 2019, subject to approval by the Swiss Takeover Board. This conversion will reduce the Company's current debt by 75% and go a very large way towards addressing any going concern risks raised in section 5 of the Interim Condensed Financial Statements 2018. In July 2018, Leclanche began simplifying its debt structure and consolidate its debt with FEFAM, which has recently committed to extend the maturity of its debt to 31 March 2020. This funding programme strengthened Leclanche's balance sheet and gives the Company enough financial firepower to deliver the large scale projects currently underway and take full advantage of the opportunities in the fast growing markets of eTransport and Stationary Energy Storage Solutions. Business Highlights Acquisition of EMS software suite from IDI Inc. On 27 August 2018 , Leclanche completed the acquisition of a full suite of advanced Energy Management Software (EMS) from IDI Inc., a company based in Indiana, USA . The full suite provides flexibility across multiple applications and captures key product margins for the Stationary Storage business. The EMS is expected to increase margin of stationary solutions by an average of 3.5 percentage points or an average of 20% for a typical project. On , Leclanche completed the acquisition of a full suite of advanced Energy Management Software (EMS) from IDI Inc., a company based in . The full suite provides flexibility across multiple applications and captures key product margins for the Stationary Storage business. The EMS is expected to increase margin of stationary solutions by an average of 3.5 percentage points or an average of 20% for a typical project. Joint Venture with Exide Industries Limited, India Formation and registration of the joint venture is in the final stages. The factory and headquarter site has been leased in Prantij, outside of the city of Gandhinagar, in the state of Gujarat in India . Key executives have been hired to start by end of October 2018 . Stationary Storage Business Unit Cremzow storage plant, Bradenburg, Germany The project's special purpose vehicle (SPV) is 90% owned by Enel Green Power Germany (EGP) and the German wind operator ENERTRAG AG owns 10% of the SPV. Leclanche is the turnkey contractor for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), leading the integration between batteries and power conversion systems and with the energy management software. The first unit of 2MW/ 3.2MWh has been commissioned by Leclanche in April 2018 . EGP has signed an agreement to acquire this unit from Leclanche for EUR 1.8 million . The second tranche of construction work has started. The project is expected to be completed by end of 2018. Once completed, the aggregate final operational size of the Cremzow storage plant will be of 22MW / 34.8MWh and will provide frequency regulation services to the German Primary Control Reserve (PCR) market to rapidly stabilize the grid. The project's special purpose vehicle (SPV) is 90% owned by (EGP) and the German wind operator ENERTRAG AG owns 10% of the SPV. Leclanche is the turnkey contractor for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), leading the integration between batteries and power conversion systems and with the energy management software. The first unit of 2MW/ 3.2MWh has been commissioned by Leclanche in . EGP has signed an agreement to acquire this unit from Leclanche for . The second tranche of construction work has started. The project is expected to be completed by end of 2018. Once completed, the aggregate final operational size of the Cremzow storage plant will be of 22MW / 34.8MWh and will provide frequency regulation services to the German Primary Control Reserve (PCR) market to rapidly stabilize the grid. SWB Bremen, Germany The SWB project has reached the Commissioning milestone and the Commercial Operation Date, with a 15MWh frequency regulation system. Additional customer testing is ongoing. The SWB project has reached the Commissioning milestone and the Commercial Operation Date, with a 15MWh frequency regulation system. Additional customer testing is ongoing. NRStor, Oakville, Ontario, Canada Leclanche has delivered a 4MWh system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this Commercial and Industrial (C&I) customer. This behind-the-meter project has obtained Commercial Operation Approval and is operating currently. Full approval is expected within October 2018 . Leclanche has delivered a 4MWh system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this Commercial and Industrial (C&I) customer. This behind-the-meter project has obtained Commercial Operation Approval and is operating currently. Full approval is expected within . Marengo, Illinois , USA The Marengo project from Leclanche is a 20MW/ 19.5MWh, in PJM market system located in Marengo, Ill. , USA. Mechanical Completion will be realized in September 2018 , with the Commercial Operation Date (COD) scheduled for October 2018 and Final Approval in November 2018 . The project from Leclanche is a 20MW/ 19.5MWh, in PJM market system located in , USA. Mechanical Completion will be realized in , with the Commercial Operation Date (COD) scheduled for and Final Approval in . IESO Basin 1 & Basin 2, Ontario, Canada Leclanche is delivering a 13.8 MWh battery storage system for grid ancillary services. The two adjacent 6.9 MWh projects in near downtown Toronto will provide various ancillary services to support grid stabilisation and resiliency. Basin 1 will reach the COD milestone in October 2018 and Basin 2 will reach the same milestone in November 2018 . Leclanche is delivering a 13.8 MWh battery storage system for grid ancillary services. The two adjacent 6.9 MWh projects in near downtown will provide various ancillary services to support grid stabilisation and resiliency. Basin 1 will reach the COD milestone in and Basin 2 will reach the same milestone in . Canadian Solar, Ottawa, Canada Leclanche scope of supply includes a 2.75MWh Battery Energy Storage System, Energy Management Software and its integration. Mechanical Completion is scheduled for September 2018 , with COD and Final Approval within the 2018 timeframe. Leclanche scope of supply includes a 2.75MWh Battery Energy Storage System, Energy Management Software and its integration. Mechanical Completion is scheduled for , with COD and Final Approval within the 2018 timeframe. NRStor, Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada Leclanche will deliver a 1.4MWh C&I system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this C&I customer. COD is scheduled for December 2018 with Final Approval to follow in January 2019 . Leclanche will deliver a 1.4MWh C&I system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this C&I customer. COD is scheduled for with Final Approval to follow in . NRStor, Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada Leclanche will deliver a 4MWh C&I system for Global Adjustment Charge reduction purposes for this C&I customer. The COD milestone will be obtained in February 2019 with Final Approval in March 2019 . eTransport Business Unit Sun Mobility, India In February 2018 , Leclanche signed a multi-year Master Supply Agreement with Sun Mobility, a leading Electric Vehicle Systems Integrator in India . The agreement includes joint development of swappable battery packs for electric bus, electric commercial vehicles and electric auto rickshaws. The agreement envisages delivery of battery modules and packs with recurring annual volume in the range of 90 to 150 MWh, subject to successful completion of the ongoing pilot tests. Leclanche has delivered battery modules for ten electric buses and battery cells for 3-wheeler auto rickshaws. Electric bus homologation process is underway, including road trails. The process is expected to be completed by the end of the year 2018. In , Leclanche signed a multi-year Master Supply Agreement with Sun Mobility, a leading Electric Vehicle Systems Integrator in . The agreement includes joint development of swappable battery packs for electric bus, electric commercial vehicles and electric auto rickshaws. The agreement envisages delivery of battery modules and packs with recurring annual volume in the range of 90 to 150 MWh, subject to successful completion of the ongoing pilot tests. Leclanche has delivered battery modules for ten electric buses and battery cells for 3-wheeler auto rickshaws. Electric bus homologation process is underway, including road trails. The process is expected to be completed by the end of the year 2018. Kongsberg Maritime, Norway In May 2018 Leclanche signed a long-term strategic partnership agreement with Kongsberg Maritime to deliver battery solutions that can be found in virtually any modern ship. Kongsberg Maritime integrates these battery packs with their advanced drive train solutions and extensive software suite to deliver a true one-stop shop value proposition to marine customers around the world. Kongsberg Maritime has selected Leclanche's Marine Battery Rack System for 12 vessels and off-shore rigs, with a combined total of more than 50MWh. The first project to be jointly executed will be Yara Birkeland , the world's first autonomous and electric container vessel ordered by YARA. Replacing 40,000 truck journeys a year, Yara Birkeland will reduce NOx and CO2 emissions and improve road safety, at the same time reducing noise and dust emissions. In Leclanche signed a long-term strategic partnership agreement with Kongsberg Maritime to deliver battery solutions that can be found in virtually any modern ship. Kongsberg Maritime integrates these battery packs with their advanced drive train solutions and extensive software suite to deliver a true one-stop shop value proposition to marine customers around the world. Kongsberg Maritime has selected Leclanche's Marine Battery Rack System for 12 vessels and off-shore rigs, with a combined total of more than 50MWh. The first project to be jointly executed will be , the world's first autonomous and electric container vessel ordered by YARA. Replacing 40,000 truck journeys a year, will reduce NOx and CO2 emissions and improve road safety, at the same time reducing noise and dust emissions. Skoda Electric, Czech Republic The Joint Development and Supply Agreement that was signed between Skoda Electric and Leclanche in May 2017 has led to the creation of a modular battery pack concept that can power any bus and commercial vehicle. The design has now been completed and battery packs are under construction to be placed in the first vehicle to go through homologation. In December 2018 , the first electric bus with a joint Skoda Leclanche solution is scheduled to go into regular commercial service. Upon successful run of the first bus, we expect the partnership to deliver 500 electric vehicles, or an average 100MWh, over four years, in line with the Agreement. Financial Results For further details, please refer to the 2018 interim report which is available in pdf format on the Company website: http://www.Leclanche.com/investor-relations/financial-reports-publications/interim-reports/ About Leclanche Headquartered in Switzerland, Leclanche SA (SIX: LECN) is a leading provider of high quality energy storage solutions designed to accelerate our progress towards a clean energy future. Leclanche's history and heritage is rooted in over 100 years of battery / energy storage innovation. The Company is a trusted provider of energy storage solutions globally, which coupled with the Company's tradition of Swiss precision and highest quality engineering, continues to make Leclanche the partner of choice for both disruptors, established companies and governments who are pioneering positive changes in how energy is produced, distributed and consumed around the world. The energy transition is being driven primarily by changes in our electricity networks and advancements in all types of EVs, and these two end markets form the backbone of our strategy and business model. Leclanche is at the heart of the convergence of the electrification of transport and the changes in the distribution network. Leclanche is the only listed pure play energy storage company in the world and is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange. SIX Swiss Exchange: ticker symbol LECN | ISIN CH 011 030 311 9 Disclaimer This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to Leclanche's business, which can be identified by terminology such as "strategic", "proposes", "to introduce", "will", "planned", "expected", "commitment", "expects", "set", "preparing", "plans", "estimates", "aims", "would", "potential", "awaiting", "estimated", "proposal", or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding the ramp up of Leclanche's production capacity, potential applications for existing products, or regarding potential future revenues from any such products, or potential future sales or earnings of Leclanche or any of its business units. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of Leclanche regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that Leclanche's products will achieve any particular revenue levels. Nor can there be any guarantee that Leclanche, or any of the business units, will achieve any particular financial results. 1 Excluding one-offs and non-recurring exceptional items 2 FEFAM means: AM INVESTMENT SCA, SICAV-SIF - Liquid Assets Sub-Fund, together with FINEXIS EQUITY FUND - Renewable Energy Sub-Fund, FINEXIS EQUITY FUND - Multi Asset Strategy Sub-Fund, FINEXIS EQUITY FUND - E Money Strategies Sub-Fund (also called Energy Storage Invest) and, all these funds being in aggregate the main shareholder of Leclanche, hereunder referred to as "FEFAM". SOURCE Leclanche Related Links http://www.Leclanche.com CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- After unveiling a unique tribute design on the No. 66 Toyota Camry driven by Timmy Hill for MBM Motorsports September 18th at Leith Toyota, LeithCars.com now has its sights set on the first-ever #ROVAL NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, September 29th. Not only is Charlotte's new road course + oval (ROVAL) a brand new track set-up, the NASCAR Xfinity Series Drive for the Cure 200 will also see the first ever sponsorship of a NASCAR stock car by LeithCars.com based in Raleigh, the Capital City. Follow the LeithCars.com team September 29th (@leithcars) for the first-ever #ROVAL NASCAR race. LeithCars.com is one of the most recognized websites for consumers searching for new or used cars, trucks, and SUV's in the Triangle area as well as across the state and east coast. Leith, Inc. is the parent company, operating over 25 automobile dealerships in Raleigh, Cary, Wendell, and Aberdeen featuring 22 distinct automotive brands. 2019 will mark Leith, Inc.'s 50th anniversary of serving the automotive needs and dreams of the local community, earning the reputation as "The Name You Can Trust." For Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Charlotte, LeithCars.com chose MBM Motorsports out of Statesville, N.C. and their No. 66 Toyota Camry driven by 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year, Timmy Hill. Hill was enthusiastic at the unveiling of his car during an interview for the YouTube automotive series "Zero To 60." "Great time with the Leith Cars people and everyone who came out this evening! For those who didn't get the chance to make it out, here is what our Leith Cars Toyota will look like for next week's race at the Charlotte Roval!" The Number 66 Toyota carries a special design scheme that pays tribute to a local NASCAR Grand National Cup driver who competed in a sky blue Dodge in the mid-sixties. Gene Hobby, out of Apex, North Carolina became a friend of the LeithCars.com marketing team last fall during a production shoot with Our State Magazine. Follow the LeithCars.com team on social media September 29th (@leithcars) for the first-ever #ROVAL NASCAR race. We'll have videos and more posted before, during and after the event. Contact: Mark Arsen (919) 395-0097 [email protected] SOURCE LeithCars.com Related Links http://www.leithcars.com TOANO, Va., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL) today announced that, effective September 28, 2018, Terri Funk Graham has been appointed to its Board of Directors for an initial term expiring at the 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Ms. Graham will also serve on the Compensation and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees of the Board of Directors. "We are delighted to welcome Terri to our Board of Directors," commented Dennis Knowles, President and Chief Executive Officer. "With over 28 years of branding and marketing experience in the retail and hospitality industries, as well as her public company board experience, Terri's leadership experience, knowledge and insight will help guide us as we continue to implement our business strategy." Ms. Graham, 53, currently serves as a branding strategy consultant. Ms. Graham previously served as Chief Marketing Officer of Red Envelope for Provide Commerce, Inc., an e-commerce gifting company from July 2013 to September 2014. Prior to that position, Ms. Graham, who joined Jack in the Box Inc., a restaurant company that operates and franchises Jack in the Box and Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurants, in 1990, most recently served as its Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer from September 2007 to December 2012. Ms. Graham currently serves on the board of directors of Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc., a healthy grocery store, as well as its Compensation Committee, and she is the chairperson of its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Ms. Graham previously served on the board of directors of 1-800 Contacts, the largest U.S. online retailer of contact lenses, from July 2015 to January 2016, and the board of directors of Hot Topic, Inc., a formerly publicly traded mall and web-based specialty retailer, from June 2012 to June 2013. Ms. Graham received a B.S. degree at San Diego State University and a Master's degree in Business Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix. About Lumber Liquidators Now with more than 400 locations, Lumber Liquidators is one of North America's leading specialty retailers of hard-surface flooring. The Company features more than 400 top quality flooring varieties, including solid and engineered hardwood, bamboo, cork, laminate, waterproof vinyl plank and porcelain tile. Additionally, Lumber Liquidators provides a wide selection of flooring enhancements and accessories to complement, install and maintain your new floor. Every location is staffed with flooring experts who can provide advice and installation options for all of Lumber Liquidators' products, much of which are in stock and ready for delivery. With premier brands including Bellawood and Morning Star Bamboo, Lumber Liquidators' flooring is often featured on popular television shows such as HGTV Dream Home. For more information, please visit www.LumberLiquidators.com or call 1.800.HARDWOOD. Lumber Liquidators aims to be the industry leader in sustainability. For more information, please visit www.LumberLiquidators.com/Sustainability. Learn more about our corporate giving program at LayItForward.LumberLiquidators.com. Follow Lumber Liquidators on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For further information contact: Lumber Liquidators Investor Relations Steve Calk or Jackie Marcus Tel: 757.566.7512 SOURCE Lumber Liquidators Related Links http://www.lumberliquidators.com SAN DIEGO, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc. (MappBio), announced today that it has been awarded a contract (HHSO100201800024C) of $14.8 million with options for an additional $32.0 million by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to advance MBP134 through a Phase 1 clinical trial. MBP134 is a combination of two human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) being developed with an initial indication of treatment of disease caused by Sudan virus (Sudan ebolavirus). The mAbs were identified from a survivor of the 2013-2016 Ebola Virus Disease outbreak via a collaboration between a team at Adimab LLC (Lebanon, NH) led by Dr. Laura Walker, a MappBio team led by Dr. Zachary Bornholdt, and a group of academic and government partners that included National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) supported Centers of Excellence for Translational Research at four institutions: Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein), Public Health Agency of Canada, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). These antibodies have demonstrated unprecedented therapeutic efficacy in non-human primate models of Sudan virus infection with only a single dose. MappBio has obtained an exclusive license to develop and commercialize these antibodies from Adimab and Einstein. Sudan virus is from the same family of viruses as Ebola virus, a strain of which was responsible for the 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa and the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Like Ebola virus, Sudan virus causes disease characterized by severe hemorrhagic fever and high mortality. "This contract will allow us to advance these molecules to clinical evaluation and to be better prepared for future outbreaks," said Dr. Ellen Monson, Principal Investigator on the contract. "We are pleased to continue and expand our productive relationship with BARDA, which represents a good example of a public-private partnership that advances much needed therapeutics for infected individuals and the Strategic National Stockpile," said Dr. Kevin J. Whaley, Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Larry Zeitlin, President, added, "This award is a credit to the productivity and success of the interdisciplinary interinstitutional team, and also highlights the great potential of monoclonal antibodies to address even the most challenging of infectious disease threats to public health." About Mapp Biopharmaceutical: MappBio (www.mappbio.com) was founded in 2003 to develop novel pharmaceuticals for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, focusing on unmet needs in global health and biodefense. MappBio is also separately developing ZMappTM, a cocktail of mouse-human chimeric monoclonal antibodies for Ebola virus, a different therapy than MBP134. This project has been funded in part with federal funds from the Department of Defense under Contract No. HDTRA1-13-C-0018; the Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health (U19AI109711, U19AI109762, HHSN2722011000221) and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract No. HHSO100201700023C. PRLog ID: www.prlog.org/12731456 SOURCE Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc. Related Links http://www.mappbio.com SUNRISE, Fla., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The month of November is all about honoring the men and women who have bravely fought for and defended our country and matchbox sawgrass mills is gearing up to celebrate them in a big way! All active military personnel and veterans are invited to indulge in their favorite matchbox creations and receive 15% off their entire bill throughout the entire month of November. "America's bravest heroes are at the cornerstone of the communities we serve and it's our privilege to show them a small token of appreciation for the sacrifices and commitments they have made," said Brittany Starek, general manager of matchbox sawgrass mills. One of matchbox sawgrass mills' very own employees, Brandy, is a proud veteran who served in the military from 2010 2013. She works as a hostess at the matchbox sawgrass location and exemplifies superior customer service skills in all areas of her job role. "I love working at matchbox because being here is being part of a family and there's nothing better than knowing you're a part of something," said Brandy, hostess at matchbox sawgrass mills. Located in the east end of the Colonnade Outlets section of Sawgrass Mills, matchbox provides a sophisticated urban, cozy and welcoming ambiance. The two-story location boasts a 58-seat indoor/outdoor bar, private event accommodations, and an eight-seat chef's table with a close-up view of the kitchen. Centered around fresh, premium ingredients, the diverse menu offers wood-fired pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and private label wine, as well as a full bar with handcrafted specialty cocktails. About matchbox vintage pizza bistro Bubbling thin-crust pizzas, local beer, and a cool vibe have made matchbox vintage pizza bistro the gathering place for a fun, friendly, casual dining experience any night of the week. The restaurant group's Florida location opened at Sawgrass Mills in April 2017. matchbox sawgrass mills is open Monday Thursday from 11:30 a.m. 10:30 p.m., Friday from 11:30 a.m. 11:30 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. 11:30 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. 10:30 p.m. Happy hour is offered Monday-Friday from 3 p.m. 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. close. Saturday brunch is served from 11 a.m. 3 p.m., and Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. 3 p.m. For more information, call (754) 701-3731 or visit www.matchboxrestaurants.com/sawgrass-mills. MEDIA RELEASE CONTACT Aimee Adler Cooke, (954) 732-0754 (or) [email protected] SOURCE matchbox sawgrass mills Related Links http://www.matchboxrestaurants.com PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mikros Systems Corporation (OTCQB: MKRS), an advanced technology company specializing in electronic systems technology for advanced maintenance in military, industrial and commercial applications, today announced that President Mark Malone and Chief Technology Officer Henry Silcock will attend the annual MicroCap Conference on Monday October 1 and Tuesday, October 2, 2018, at the Essex House Hotel in New York City. The MicroCap Conference is an exclusive event for investors who specialize in small and microcap stocks. It is an opportunity for the investor community to be introduced to and speak with management of the participating companies, attend various expert panels, and network with other microcap investors. Mikros will be presenting on Tuesday October 2nd and has signed up for over a dozen one-on-one meetings with investors. About Mikros Systems Corporation Mikros Systems Corporation is an advanced technology company specializing in the development and production of electronic systems technology for advanced maintenance in military, industrial and commercial applications. Classified by the U.S. Department of Defense as a small business, its capabilities include technology management, electronic systems engineering and integration, radar systems engineering, command, control, communications, computers and intelligence systems engineering, and communications engineering. Important Information about Forward-Looking Statements All statements in this news release other than statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements which contain our current expectations about our future results. Forward-looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties. We have attempted to identify any forward-looking statements by using words such as "anticipates," "believes," "could," "expects," "intends," "may," "should" and other similar expressions. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in all of our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results, events or financial positions to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, changes in business conditions, a decline or redirection of the U.S. Defense budget, significant delays or reductions in appropriations for our projects, the termination of any contracts with the U.S. Government, changes in our sales strategy and product development plans, changes in the marketplace, continued services of our executive management team, our limited marketing experience, competition between us and other companies seeking SBIR grants, competitive pricing pressures, market acceptance of our products under development, delays in the development of products, our ability to adequately integrate our new software offerings into our business model, our ability to market our solutions to commercial customers, numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business and competitive nature, statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing, and other factors disclosed in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and other filings with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements. SOURCE Mikros Systems Corporation Related Links http://www.mikrossystems.com Andy Grammer's partnership includes sponsorship of The Good Parts Tour Driven by AutoNation Drive Pink, in select markets. Five dollars of every ticket sold at an AutoNation sponsored concert will be donated directly to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Andy first showed support for AutoNation Drive Pink when he performed at the 2017 AutoNation Cure Bowl Tailgate Party and Concert at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. AutoNation's Drive Pink initiative has raised more than $15 million for cancer-related charities from coast to coast. AutoNation's commitment to community well-being and its fight against cancer, has garnered recognition from around the country, including being named one of America's top 100 Corporate Citizens by Forbes Magazine and Just Capital. The O-B House is located at 333 SW 2nd Street, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312. Revolution Live is located at 100 SW 3rd Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312. Give Love Drive Pink Tour Stops and Dates August 18 Bat Fest Austin, TX September 14 IndyCar Sonoma Grand Prix Sonoma, CA September 19 San Diego Padres Game San Diego, CA September 22 iHeart Radio Music Festival Las Vegas, NV September 30 O-B House Ft. Lauderdale, FL October 14 2018 Crucial Catch Atlanta, GA November 6 Nevada Children's Cancer Foundation Las Vegas, NV November 12 Wipe Out Kids' Cancer Event Dallas, TX December 15 AutoNation Cure Bowl Orlando, FL December 29 Orange Bowl Miami, FL About AutoNation, Inc. AutoNation, America's largest automotive retailer, is transforming the automotive industry through its bold leadership, innovation, and comprehensive brand extensions. As of June 30, 2018, AutoNation owned and operated over 325 locations from coast to coast. AutoNation has sold over 11 million vehicles, the first automotive retailer to reach this milestone. AutoNation's success is driven by a commitment to delivering a peerless experience through customer-focused sales and service processes. Through its DRV PNK initiative, AutoNation is committed to drive out cancer, create awareness and support critical research. AutoNation continues to be a proud supporter of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and other cancer-related charities. Please visit investors.autonation.com, www.autonation.com, www.autonationdrive.com, www.twitter.com/autonation, www.twitter.com/CEOMikeJackson, www.facebook.com/autonation, and www.facebook.com/CEOMikeJackson, where AutoNation discloses additional information about the Company, its business, and its results of operations. About Andy Grammer Andy Grammer is all about inspiring and empowering the world by communicating his truths through his music. Grammer has taken the music world by storm with a succession of anthemic pop hits, six of which are certified gold or better. His debut album featured the platinum singles "Keep Your Head Up" and "Fine By Me." Andy's second album, Magazines or Novels, featured the triple platinum worldwide hit "Honey, I'm Good," which was one of the best-selling songs of 2015, and the certified gold anthem "Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah)." Andy's third full-length album, The Good Parts, was released December 1, 2017. The record includes his global smash hit "Fresh Eyes," which has become a global streaming phenomenon with over 300 million total streams, as well as his current hit single "Smoke Clears." About the Breast Cancer Research Foundation The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) is dedicated to being the end of breast cancer by advancing the world's most promising research. Founded by Evelyn H. Lauder in 1993, BCRF-funded investigators have been deeply involved in every major breakthrough in breast cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. BCRF grants support the work of more than 275 scientists at leading medical and academic institutions across 15 countries, making BCRF the largest private funder of breast cancer research worldwide. BCRF is also the highest rated breast cancer organization in the U.S. Visit www.bcrf.org to learn more. Disclaimer : Andy Grammer, in partnership with AutoNation, will donate $5 from every ticket sold during to these performances to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). BCRF advances the world's most promising research to eradicate breast cancer. For more information, visit bcrf.org. AutoNation, Andy Grammer partnership includes sponsorship of The Good Parts Tour Driven by AutoNation, in select markets. For a full list of your dates, please visit www.andygrammer.com. SOURCE AutoNation, Inc. Related Links http://www.autonation.com BATH, Maine, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Bath Iron Works a contract valued at $3.9 billion for the construction of four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). "We are pleased with the opportunity for Bath Iron Works to continue our participation in the DDG 51 Program and to deliver much needed capability to our US. Navy customer," said Dirk Lesko, President of Bath Iron Works. Lesko said Maine's Congressional delegation was instrumental in supporting passage of legislation that enabled this contract award. "We would like to thank the entire Maine delegation for their support for both Navy shipbuilding and BIW, and specifically for recognizing the importance of the Arleigh Burke class destroyers for our nation's security," he said. There are currently four DDG 51 destroyers in production at Bath Iron Works: Daniel Inouye (DDG 118), Carl M. Levin (DDG 120), John Basilone (DDG 122) and Harvey C. Barnum (DDG 124) with two more in backlog, Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126) and Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127). BIW also is building the third Zumwalt-class destroyer, Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002). More information about General Dynamics Bath Iron Works can be found at www.gdbiw.com. SOURCE General Dynamics Bath Iron Works Related Links http://www.gdbiw.com The WPHF commitment event and reception " Accelerating the Women's Movement for Peace & Humanitarian Action: Innovating & Challenging the Status Quo " helped spotlight the concrete impact of current projects in Burundi and Colombia and launch its groundbreaking "40by20 for women" campaigncalling on business, government and philanthropy leaders to invest by year 2020 USD 40 million in women's untapped potential to be a force for lasting peace. "Where ever there is conflict and crisis, there are women with skills, knowledge and abilities to change their communities from the ground up," said WPHF Global Advocate and actress Kristen Bell in her keynote speech. "But they need financial resources, support, and advocates who will amplify their voices and champion their cause." WPHF is the only global financing mechanism dedicated exclusively to supporting women's participation in peacebuilding and humanitarian action. It shifts and channels urgent resources directly to women's organizations on the ground, enhancing local women's capacity to prevent conflict, respond to crises and seize key peacebuilding opportunities. Since its launch in 2016, the fund has financed more than 41 projects working with 55 women's organizations across Burundi, Colombia, Jordan, the Pacific region, and Iraq. Our unique model of rapid and strategic financing is strengthening women's agency to be key players in conflict and crisis response," said Ghita El Khyari, WPHF Head of Secretariat. "From supporting the economic empowerment of Syrian woman refugees to engaging Colombian women in peace implementation, we are proving that financial investment in local women produces global dividends for transformative change." Moderated by CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan, the evening highlighted generous commitments from the governments of Australia, Austria, Canada, Ireland, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom and garnered close to 6 million USD in new pledged contributions. The WPHF event culminated in a ceremonial lighting of the world-famous Empire State Building in the fund's signature colors as a special tribute to women working towards a more peaceful and gender-equal world, followed by a special performance by WPHF European Advocate and French recording artist Louane. "Tonight, we are thrilled to see the iconic Empire State Building illuminate the sky in honor of inspiring women working on the frontlines of conflict to change the world," said Louane. "Thank you for standing with WPHF as we call for concrete action to push this movement forward." For more information on the Women's Peace & Humanitarian Fund, please contact: Matthew Rullo (New York), Communications Analyst, Women's Peace & Humanitarian Fund Phone: +1-210-255-0175 Email: [email protected] Or visit www.WPHFund.org, www.facebook.com/WPHFund, www.twitter.com/WPHFund, or www.instagram.com/WPHFund SOURCE Women's Peace & Humanitarian Fund Related Links http://wphfund.org DUBLIN, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "North America Vital Signs Monitoring Market: Companies Profiles, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. North America vital signs monitoring market is expected to grow with a healthy CAGR in the forecast period 2018 to 2025. The new market report contains data for historic year 2016, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025. Prominent factors driving the growth of this market consist of growing geriatric population and chronic diseases, technological development, rising demand of non-contact thermometers, rising incidence of hypertension, rapidly changing lifestyle are fuel the growth of vital signs monitoring market. On the basis of product type the North America vital signs monitoring market is segmented into blood, pressure monitoring, pulse oximeter, temperature monitoring device. In 2018, blood pressure monitoring segment is expected to dominate the North America vital signs monitoring market with highest market share in the forecast period 2018 to 2025. On the basis of type the North America vital signs monitoring market is categorized into non- integrated system, integrated system vital signs monitoring. In 2018, non- integrated system segment is expected to dominate the North America vital signs monitoring market with highest market share in the forecast period 2018 to 2025. On the basis of portability North America vital signs monitoring market is segmented into standalone, portable. In 2018, standalone segment is expected to dominate the North America vital signs monitoring market with highest market share in the forecast period 2018 to 2025. On the basis of end user the North America vital signs monitoring market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory, home healthcare, clinics, others. In 2018, hospitals segment is expected to dominate the North America vital signs monitoring market with highest market share in the forecast period 2018 to 2025. Market Overview Drivers Growing Geriatric Population And Chronic Diseases Technological Development Rising Demand Of Non Contact Thermometers Rising Incidence Of Hypertension Rapidly Changing Lifestyle Restraints Strict Regulatory Process Pricing Pressure Of Devices Opportunities Emerging Market Growing Medical Tourism Challenges Lack Of Awareness Spread Of Contagious Diseases Increased Challenges In Designing And Fabricating Wireless Medical Devices Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Market Segmentation 3 Market Overview 4 Executive Summary 5 Premium Insights 6 North America Vital Signs Monitoring Market, By Product Type 7 North America Vital Signs Monitoring Market, By Type 8 North America Vital Signs Monitoring Market, By Portability 9 North America Vital Signs Monitoring Market, By End User 10 North America Vital Signs Monitoring Market, By Distribution Channel 11 North America Vital Signs Monitoring, By Geography 12 North America Vital Signs Monitoring Market, Company Landscape 13 Company Profiles Welch Allyn A&D Company Ltd. Medtronic General Electric Company CONTEC MEDICAL SYSTEMS CO., LTD. Masimo Mindray DS USA , Inc. , Inc. NIHON KOHDEN CORPORATION Omron Healthcare, Inc. Koninklijke Philips N.V. Smiths Medical Draegerwerk AG & Co KGaA CAS Medical Systems, Inc. OSI Systems, Inc Boston Scientific Corporation Nonin Medical Inc. Natus Medical Incorporated. Hicks Thermometers India Limited SunTech Medical, Inc. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bsqh5w/north_america?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 DUBLIN, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Oil and Gas Exploration & Production - Global Market Outlook (2017-2026)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Factors such as demand for energy worldwide have put an ever-increasing pressure on oil & gas production and exploration activities. However, due to imbalance in energy demand and supply is hampering the market growth. Based on application, deep water segment is estimated to be the fastest growing segment gradual shift in E&P activities toward ultra-deepwater and deepwater exploration. By geography, North America is expected to be the fastest growing market due to liberalization of Mexican oil & gas industry in this region. What the report offers: Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments Market share analysis of the top industry players Strategic recommendations for the new entrants Market forecasts for a minimum of 9 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations) Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements Key Topics Covered 1 Executive Summary 2 Preface 2.1 Abstract 2.2 Stake Holders 2.3 Research Scope 2.4 Research Methodology 2.5 Research Sources 3 Market Trend Analysis 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Drivers 3.3 Restraints 3.4 Opportunities 3.5 Threats 3.8 Product Analysis 3.7 Technology Analysis 3.8 Application Analysis 3.9 Emerging Markets 3.10 Futuristic Market Scenario 4 Porters Five Force Analysis 4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers 4.3 Threat of substitutes 4.4 Threat of new entrants 4.5 Competitive rivalry 5 Global Oil and Gas Exploration & Production Market, By Product 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Crude Oil 5.3 Natural Gas 6 Global Oil and Gas Exploration & Production Market, By Method and Technology 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Drilling Methods and Technologies 6.3 Exploration Methods and Technologies 6.4 Production Methods and Technologies 7 Global Oil and Gas Exploration & Production Market, By Application 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Offshore wells 7.3 On Shore Wells 8 Global Oil and Gas Exploration & Production Market, By Geography 8.1 Introduction 8.2 North America 8.3 Europe 8.4 Asia Pacific 8.5 South America 8.6 Middle East & Africa 9 Key Developments 9.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures 9.2 Acquisitions & Mergers 9.3 New Product Launch 9.4 Expansions 9.5 Other Key Strategies 10 Company Profiling 10.1 Transocean Ltd. 10.2 Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (QGPC) 10.3 Seadrill Limited 10.4 National Iranian Oil Company 10.5 Chevron Corporation 10.6 SOCAR - State Oil Company of Azerbaijan 10.7 Pars Oil & Gas Company (POGC) 10.8 Royal Dutch Shell 10.9 TechnipFMC 10.10 ADNOC - Abu Dhabi National Oil Company 10.11 Noble Corporation 10.12 ConocoPhillips Corporation 10.13 Gulf Interstate Engineering 10.14 The Bahrain National Oil Company (BANOCO) 10.15 Petrobras 10.16 BP Plc 10.17 Mott MacDonald 10.18 Saipem Oil and Gas 10.19 Ensco PLC 10.20 EGAS - Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/h4hkcj/oil_and_gas?w=5 Media Contact: Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Metsa Wood challenged the participants of the RE:EASA 2018 event to develop their own designs for the Open Source Wood Initiative. Every summer, EASA (European Architecture Students Assembly) organizes a two-week event of workshops, learning and networking for architectural students from all around Europe. This year, the event was titled "RE:EASA" and took place in July in Rijecka, Croatia. The competition designs uploaded to the Open Source Wood web library were evaluated by a team of experts and the best received awards. Launched last year by Metsa Wood, the Open Source Wood initiative aims to collect innovations in wood construction from all around the world. At opensourcewood.com, students and professionals alike can share their designs for wood elements and modules, as well as connect with each other. Tackling the challenges of urbanisation with modular off-site construction The challenge for RE:EASA participants was to design multi-storey housing using Kerto LVL (laminated veneer lumber) based elements and modules available on Open Source Wood. The design was to be suitable for off-site construction, i.e., modules or building components needed to be light and easily transferable to the construction site. The main question was "How can modular wood construction be implemented in the most efficient and environmentally friendly way in an urban environment using wood elements available in Open Source Wood?" Altogether nine entries from groups and individuals around Europe took up the challenge. "It was exciting to see how well-thought out designs using ready-made elements the competitors could deliver in such a short time," says Jussi Bjorman, Director, Technical Customer Service at Metsa Wood and a member of the jury. The winning designs are: 1st prize, 2,000 euros: Sponge by Kate Rybenchuk 2nd prize, 500 euros: Modular Multi-storey Student accommodation by Viktoria Hevesi 2nd prize, 500 euros: Yonca by Ahmet Can Karakadilar and Nida Bilgen The design that won the first prize, Sponge, is based on two modules designed with elements taken from the Open Source Wood library. The clever system allows endless possibilities for creating multi-story buildings. "Well described multi-story system based on only two modules. High potential for industrial off-site construction," Bjorman says. Kate Rybenchuk, the creator of the winning design, sees lots of possibilities in using elements and components based on Kerto LVL. "Building high structures with wood is starting to gain popularity, and hopefully in the future it will take a major role in high-rise construction." Metsa Wood continuously rewards the best designs shared on Open Source Wood. Join the initiative at opensourcewood.com Images: https://databank.metsagroup.com/l/PtVGBzTD92sv For more information, please contact: Viivi Kylama, Marketing Manager, Metsa Wood tel. +358-40-820-9850, [email protected] Kirk Nichols, VP Sales, Americas, Metsa Wood USAmobile: (404)861-1098, [email protected] For press information in UK, please contact: Matt Trace, Director, Defero Communications tel. 07828663988, [email protected] www.metsawood.com Metsa Wood provides competitive and environmentally friendly wood products for construction, industrial customers and distributor partners. We manufacture products from northern wood, a sustainable raw material of premium quality. Our sales in 2017 were EUR 0.5 billion, and we employ about 1,400 people. Metsa Wood is part of Metsa Group. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/metsa-wood/r/open-source-wood-awards-for-architecture-students-at-re-easa-2018,c2630581 The following files are available for download: http://news.cision.com/metsa-wood/i/open-source-wood-easa-challenge-winners-thumb,c2498537 Open Source Wood EASA challenge winners thumb http://news.cision.com/metsa-wood/i/open-source-wood-easa-challenge-winners-hero,c2498539 Open Source Wood EASA challenge winners hero http://news.cision.com/metsa-wood/i/open-source-wood-easa-challenge-winners-og,c2498538 Open Source Wood EASA challenge winners og http://news.cision.com/metsa-wood/i/open-source-wood-easa-challenge-winners-content-1,c2498536 Open Source Wood EASA challenge winners content-1 SOURCE Metsa Wood Related Links http://www.metsawood.com NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PureWow and Neutrogena have collaborated on a list of 100 women doing remarkable things within their industry; women you need to know, that you've likely never heard of before. The PureWow 100 list represents women across age, geography and field that will define the cultural zeitgeist in the next few years. "The PureWow 100 is about recognizing emerging talent, women about to become household names across a wide array of industries and backgrounds," said Gallery Media Group's Chief Content Officer (and PureWow Editor In Chief), Mary Kate McGrath. "This list honors women who, for the most part, have been working tirelessly behind-the-scenes to get their idea, product or voice heard. PureWow in partnership with Neutrogena and the PureWow 100 Committee are celebrating those efforts, and championing their current and future successes." Kerry Washington, Priyanka Chopra, Rebecca Minkoff, Christina Tosi and Susan Lyne, were part of the PureWow 100 Committee working alongside Neutrogena the PureWow editorial staff to select the final 100 honorees. The committee leveraged social listening and their personal and professional knowledge to identify these emerging notables. Honoree profiles including videos, photography and full bios will live on a robust and interactive destination on PureWow100.com, with in-depth social support on @PureWow100 on Instagram. The full list of 100 Honorees will be highlighted through PureWow's social channels. About PureWow: PureWow is the premier digital media brand specializing in women's lifestyle content, led by Gallery Media Group CEO, Ryan Harwood. Geared towards the Upper Millennial and Gen X female, and directed by editor-in-chief Mary Kate McGrath, PureWow publishes beautiful, original content on fashion and beauty, food and travel, home decor, tech, recipes, health, and more. While primarily a national brand, PureWow has editors stationed across the country to produce local stories on what to do, eat, see and shop in cities from Los Angeles to Chicago to NYC. About Neutrogena Neutrogena, #1 dermatologist recommended skincare brand, has brought groundbreaking skin care solutions to consumers for more than 60 years. Today the brand offers more than 650 products worldwide in the face, body, acne, sun protection, makeup, mens care, and anti-wrinkle categories. By creating, innovating and rethinking what is possible, Neutrogena products consistently deliver real results without compromises. www.neutrogena.com A full list of PureWow 100 honorees is available here: purewow100.com and through @PureWow100 on Instagram. For press inquiries please contact Emily McDonough at [email protected] SOURCE PureWow Related Links http:///www.purewow.com The Board of Artilium is pleased to announce that the Scheme was sanctioned by the Court earlier today. It is anticipated that the Effective Date of the Scheme will be 1 October 2018, which is when the Court Order is expected to be delivered to the Registrar of Companies. There has been no change to the updated expected timetable of principal events for the Acquisition set out on page 8 of the Scheme Document. The Scheme Record Time will be 6.00 p.m. (London time) today, 28 September 2018, and no transfers of Artilium Shares will be registered after this time. Dealings in Artilium Shares will be suspended from trading on AIM with effect from 7.30 a.m. on 1 October 2018. Subject to the Scheme becoming effective, it is expected that the admission of Artilium Shares to trading on AIM will be cancelled by no later than 8.00 a.m. on 2 October 2018. Capitalised terms in this announcement (the "Announcement"), unless otherwise defined, have the same meanings as set out in the Scheme Document. Enquiries: Pareteum Denis McCarthy, SVP Corporate Development Alexander Korff, Company Secretary Edward O'Donnell, Chief Financial Officer Tel: +1 (212) 984-1096 Jefferies International Limited (Financial adviser to Pareteum) (UK) Simon Brown (US) Timothy Roepke Jeffrey Snyder Tel: +44 (0)20 7029 8000 Tel: +1 (212) 284 2300 Artilium Jan-Paul Menke, Non-Executive Chairman Bart Weijermars, Chief Executive Officer Rupert Hutton, Chief Finance Officer Tel: +32 (0) 5023 0300 finnCap Ltd (Financial adviser under Rule 3 of the Code, Nominated Adviser and broker to Artilium) Jonny Franklin-Adams Henrik Persson Anthony Adams Tel: +44 (0)20 7220 0500 Important notices Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (the "FCA") in the United Kingdom, is acting exclusively for Pareteum as financial adviser and no one else in connection with the Acquisition and other matters set out in this Announcement and will not be responsible to anyone other than Pareteum for providing the protections afforded to clients of Jefferies, or for providing advice in connection with the Acquisition, the content of this Announcement or any matter referred to herein. Neither Jefferies nor any of its subsidiaries, affiliates or branches owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct, indirect, consequential, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of Jefferies in connection with this Announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise. finnCap, which is authorised by and regulated by the FCA in the United Kingdom, is acting exclusively as financial adviser under Rule 3 of the Code, nominated adviser and broker to Artilium and no one else in connection with the Acquisition and other matters referred to in this Announcement and will not be responsible to anyone other than Artilium for providing the protections afforded to clients of finnCap, or for providing advice in connection with the Acquisition, the content of this Announcement or any matter referred to herein. Neither finnCap nor any of its subsidiaries or affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct, indirect, consequential, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of finnCap in connection with this Announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise. Further information This Announcement is for information purposes only and is not intended to and does not constitute, or form any part of, an offer to sell or subscribe for or any invitation to purchase or subscribe for any securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to the Acquisition or otherwise. The Acquisition will be made solely through the Scheme Document and the accompanying Forms of Proxy, which contain the full terms and conditions of the Acquisition, including details of how to vote in respect of the Acquisition. Any approval, decision or other response to the Acquisition should be made only on the basis of the information in the Scheme Document. Artilium Shareholders are strongly advised to read the formal documentation in relation to the Acquisition. This Announcement has been prepared for the purpose of complying with the laws of England and Wales, the AIM Rules and the Code and the information disclosed may not be the same as that which would have been disclosed if this Announcement had been prepared in accordance with the laws of jurisdictions outside the United Kingdom. The statements contained in this Announcement are made as at the date of this Announcement, unless some other time is specified in relation to them, and service of this Announcement shall not give rise to any implication that there has been no change in the facts set forth in this Announcement since such date. This Announcement does not constitute a prospectus or prospectus equivalent document. Overseas shareholders Unless otherwise determined by Artilium and Pareteum or required by the Takeover Code, and permitted by applicable law and regulation, the Acquisition will not be made available, directly or indirectly, in, into or from a Restricted Jurisdiction where to do so would violate the laws in that jurisdiction and no person may vote in favour of the Scheme by any such use, means, instrumentality or from within a jurisdiction if to do so would constitute a violation of the laws of that jurisdiction. Accordingly, copies of the Scheme Document and all documents relating to the Acquisition are not being, and must not be, directly or indirectly, mailed or otherwise forwarded, distributed or sent in, into or from a jurisdiction where to do so would violate the laws in that jurisdiction, and persons receiving the Scheme Document and all other documents relating to the Acquisition (including custodians, nominees and trustees) must not mail or otherwise distribute or send them in, into or from jurisdictions where to do so would violate the laws in that jurisdiction. It is the responsibility of each Overseas Holder to satisfy himself as to the full observance of the laws and regulatory requirements of the relevant jurisdiction in connection with the Acquisition, including obtaining any governmental, exchange control or other consents which may be required, or the compliance with other necessary formalities which are required to be observed and the payment of any issue, transfer or other taxes due in such jurisdiction. The Scheme Document and its accompanying documents have been prepared in connection with a proposal in relation to a scheme of arrangement pursuant to, and for the purpose of complying with, English law and the Takeover Code and the information disclosed may not be the same as that which would have been disclosed if these documents had been prepared in accordance with the laws of jurisdictions outside England and Wales. The availability of New Pareteum Shares under the Acquisition to Artilium Shareholders who are not resident in the United Kingdom may be affected by the laws of the relevant jurisdictions in which they are resident. Further details are set out in paragraph 19 of Part 2 (Explanatory Statement) of the Scheme Document. Notice to US investors The New Pareteum Shares are expected to be issued in the United States in reliance upon the exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act provided by section 3(a)(10) thereof. For the purposes of qualifying for the exemptions from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act afforded by section 3(a)(10), Artilium will advise the Court through counsel that the Court's sanction of the Scheme will be relied upon by Pareteum as an approval of the Scheme following a hearing on the fairness of the terms and conditions of the Scheme to Artilium Shareholders at which hearing all such shareholders are entitled to appear in person or through counsel to support or oppose the sanctioning of the Scheme and with respect to which notification has been given to all Artilium Shareholders. Scheme Shareholders (whether or not US persons) who are or will be affiliates (within the meaning of the US Securities Act) of Artilium or Pareteum prior to, or of Pareteum after, the Effective Date will be subject to certain restrictions on transfers of the New Pareteum Shares received pursuant to the Scheme. Otherwise, the New Pareteum Shares generally should not be treated as "restricted securities" within the meaning of Rule 144(a)(3) under the US Securities Act and persons who receive securities under the Scheme (other than affiliates) may resell them without restriction under the US Securities Act. For a description of these and certain further restrictions on offers, sales and transfers of the New Pareteum Shares and the distribution of the Scheme Document, and additional information applicable to US shareholders, see paragraph 19 of Part 2 (Explanatory Statement) of the Scheme Document. The receipt of New Pareteum Shares pursuant to the Acquisition by a US Shareholder may be a taxable transaction for US federal income tax purposes and under applicable state and local, as well as foreign and other, tax laws. Each Artilium Shareholder is urged to consult his independent professional adviser immediately regarding the tax consequences of the Acquisition. It may be difficult for US Shareholders to enforce their rights and claims arising out of the US federal securities laws, Artilium is located in countries other than the United States, and some or all of its officers and directors may be residents of countries other than the United States. US Shareholders may not be able to sue a non-US company or its officers or directors in a non-US court for violations of the US securities laws. Further, it may be difficult to compel a non-US company and its affiliates to subject themselves to a US court's judgment. None of the securities referred to in the Scheme Document have been approved or disapproved by the SEC, any state securities commission in the United States or any other US regulatory authority, nor have such authorities passed upon or determined the adequacy or accuracy of the information contained in the Scheme Document. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offence in the United States. The financial information included in, or incorporated by reference into, the Scheme Document has been prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as adopted by the European Union and thus may not be comparable to financial information of US companies or companies whose financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. Disclosure requirements of the Code Under Rule 8.3(a) of the Code, any person who is interested in 1 per cent. or more of any class of relevant securities of an offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror (being any offeror other than an offeror in respect of which it has been announced that its offer is, or is likely to be, solely in cash) must make an Opening Position Disclosure following the commencement of the offer period and, if later, following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified. An Opening Position Disclosure must contain details of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of: (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror(s). An Opening Position Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(a) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 p.m. (London time) on the 10th Business Day following the commencement of the offer period and, if appropriate, by no later than 3.30 p.m. (London time) on the 10th Business Day following the announcement in which any securities exchange offeror is first identified. Relevant persons who deal in the relevant securities of the offeree company or of a securities exchange offeror prior to the deadline for making an Opening Position Disclosure must instead make a Dealing Disclosure. Under Rule 8.3(b) of the Code, any person who is, or becomes, interested in 1 per cent. or more of any class of relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror must make a Dealing Disclosure if the person deals in any relevant securities of the offeree company or of any securities exchange offeror. A Dealing Disclosure must contain details of the dealing concerned and of the person's interests and short positions in, and rights to subscribe for, any relevant securities of each of: (i) the offeree company and (ii) any securities exchange offeror, save to the extent that these details have previously been disclosed under Rule 8. A Dealing Disclosure by a person to whom Rule 8.3(b) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 p.m. (London time) on the Business Day following the date of the relevant dealing. If two or more persons act together pursuant to an agreement or understanding, whether formal or informal, to acquire or control an interest in relevant securities of an offeree company or a securities exchange offeror, they will be deemed to be a single person for the purpose of Rule 8.3. Opening Position Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company and by any offeror, and Dealing Disclosures must also be made by the offeree company, by any offeror and by any persons acting in concert with any of them (see Rules 8.1, 8.2 and 8.4). Details of the offeree and offeror companies in respect of whose relevant securities Opening Position Disclosures and Dealing Disclosures must be made can be found in the Disclosure Table on the Takeover Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk, including details of the number of relevant securities in issue, when the offer period commenced and when any offeror was first identified. You should contact the Takeover Panel's Market Surveillance Unit on +44 (0)20 7638 0129 if you are in any doubt as to whether you are required to make an Opening Position Disclosure or a Dealing Disclosure. Publication on website In accordance with Rule 26.1 of the Takeover Code, a copy of this announcement will be available (subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in Restricted Jurisdictions) on Artilium's website at www.artilium.com/investors and on Pareteum's website at www.pareteum.com/investors by no later than 12 noon on the business day following this announcement. The contents of the websites referred to in this announcement are not incorporated into and do not form part of this announcement. About Pareteum Corporation: Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM) is a rapidly growing Global Software Defined Cloud company with a mission to connect "every person and everything." Organizations use Pareteum to energize their growth and profitability through our Global Software Defined Cloud and complete turnkey solutions featuring relevant content, applications, and connectivity worldwide. Our Cloud platform services partners (technologies integrated into our cloud) include: HPE, IBM, Ribbon Communications (Sonus+GenBand), NetNumber, Oracle, Microsoft, and other world class technology providers. All of the relevant customer acquired value is derived from Pareteum's leading Global Software Defined Cloud, delivering award-winning mobile enablement, regardless of the user's location or network. By harnessing the value of communications, Pareteum serves retail, enterprise and IoT customers. Pareteum currently has offices in New York, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Barcelona, Bahrain, Singapore, and the Netherlands. For more information please visit: www.pareteum.com. Forward Looking Statements: Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to Pareteum's plans and objectives, projections, expectations and intentions. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Pareteum's industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Because such statements involve risks and uncertainties, the actual results and performance of Pareteum may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by law, Pareteum also disclaims any obligation to update its view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward-looking statements made here. Additional information concerning certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in Pareteum's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available from the SEC or may be obtained upon request from Pareteum Corporation. Pareteum Investor Relations Contacts: Ted O'Donnell Chief Financial Officer (212) 984-1096 [email protected] Stephen Hart Hayden IR (917) 658-7878 Carrie Howes Rayleigh Capital Dubai- London T UAE: +971 (0) 55 997 0427 | T UK: +44 (0) 870 490 5443 | T CAN: +1 416 900 3634 SOURCE Pareteum Corporation Related Links http://www.pareteum.com "With home price growth slowing to 4.7 percent in August, and a record-high share of sellers dropping their prices, the fact that fewer homes are selling above their asking price is another indication that competition is getting less intense than it has been in recent years," said Redfin senior economist Taylor Marr. "Inventory pressures are easing in the hottest markets, which is welcome news for homebuyers who are increasingly able to submit an offer without competition and get bids accepted without offering above list price." The change is most stark in the markets that have been the most competitive. In Seattle, Denver, Portland and the Bay Area, the share of homes that sold above list is declining rapidly. For example, in Seattle, 30.3 percent of homes sold above list in the four weeks ending on September 23, down from 50.6 percent during the same period last year. The share of homes selling above list hasn't been this low in Seattle since 2014. While many metro areas are following the national curve, it's worth noting that a few metros are bucking the trend. Competition is high in more affordable, inland metros like Buffalo, New York, Indianapolis and Las Vegas. Inventory has been declining steeply in these metros and as a result, the share of homes selling above list price continues to be higher than it was last year. To read the full report, complete with additional charts please visit: https://www.redfin.com/blog/2018/09/the-share-of-homes-selling-above-list-price-just-dropped-below-2016-levels.html About Redfin Redfin ( www.redfin.com ) is the next-generation real estate brokerage, combining its own full-service agents with modern technology to redefine real estate in the consumer's favor. Founded by software engineers, Redfin has the country's #1 brokerage website and offers a host of online tools to consumers, including the Redfin Estimate , the automated home-value estimate with the industry's lowest published error rate for listed homes. Homebuyers and sellers enjoy a full-service, technology-powered experience from Redfin real estate agents, while saving thousands in commissions. Redfin serves more than 80 major metro areas across the U.S. The company has closed more than $60 billion in home sales. For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com . To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center . To be added to Redfin's press release distribution list, subscribe here. To view Redfin's press center, click here . SOURCE Redfin Related Links http://www.redfin.com CERRITOS, Calif., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Advance Holdings, LLC (to be renamed Revolve Group, Inc., "REVOLVE") today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. REVOLVE intends to apply to list its common stock on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "RVLV." Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC will act as lead joint bookrunning managers for the offering. BofA Merrill Lynch will also act as joint bookrunning manager for the offering. Barclays Capital Inc. and Jefferies LLC will act as bookrunning managers for this offering and Cowen and Company, LLC, Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Raymond James & Associates, Inc. and William Blair & Company, L.L.C. will act as co-managers for this offering. The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to this offering, when available, may be obtained from Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014, or by telephone at 1-866-718-1649; or Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, One Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010, by telephone at 1-800-221-1037, or by email at [email protected]. A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Investor Relations Contact: Investor Relations 1-562-282-4990 [email protected] Media Contact: Kendall Sargeant [email protected] SOURCE REVOLVE BEIJING, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunlands Online Education Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), a leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education, today announced that it has initiated partnerships with five international universities, including Belhaven University in the U.S.A. and Torrens University Australia, to offer Chinese students a broader range of graduate and post-graduate programs via its one-to-many online platform. Mr. Tongbo Liu, Chief Executive Officer of Sunlands, said, "Offering Chinese students high quality content from international institutions has long been on our agenda and we are very excited to initiate partnerships with these globally-respected universities." Mr. Liu added,"There is strong demand among Chinese students who are keen to build on their academic credentials and study overseas, but many students don't have the resources needed to realize this dream. With our extensive experience helping students to obtain higher education degrees on our online platform, we are well placed to meet this demand by providing a cost-effective and unique solution. We will continue to expand our partnerships with global institutions to give our students access to an increasing range of international graduate and post-graduate offerings." In July 2018, Sunlands started offering students Bachelor and MBA programs on its online platform in partnership with Belhaven University, a nationally recognized academic institution in the U.S. with a strong heritage stemming back to 1883. Starting from the end of October 2018, Sunlands will also offer specially tailored English-language Master of Education and MBA programs in partnership with Torrens University Australia. Sunlands will provide additional Chinese tutorials in essay writing, case studies, and career development to help students achieve better learning outcomes. China is the largest source of international students globally. According to China's Ministry of Education, 608,400 Chinese students left the country to pursue advanced studies overseas in 2017 with more than 1.4 million students enrolled in overseas higher education institutions in total. Sunlands' new offering will enable Chinese students to access highly respected graduate and post-graduate programs from international education institutions from the convenience of their mobile phones and computers, without the need to travel abroad. About Sunlands Sunlands Online Education Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company") is the leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education in terms of gross billings in 2017, according to iResearch. With a one to many, live streaming platform, Sunlands offers various degree and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses as well as online professional courses and educational content, to help students prepare for professional certification exams and attain professional skills. Students can access its services either through PC or mobile applications. The Company's online platform cultivates a personalized, interactive learning environment by featuring a virtual learning community and a vast library of educational content offerings that adapt to the learning habits of its students. Sunlands offers a unique approach to education research and development that organizes subject content into Learning Outcome Trees, the Company's proprietary knowledge management system. Sunlands has a deep understanding of the educational needs of its prospective students and offers solutions that help them achieve their goals. For investor enquiries, please contact: Yingying Liu IR Director Tel: +86 182 5691 2232 Email: [email protected] For media enquiries, please contact: Brunswick Group Anqi Yang Tel: +86 10 5960 8639 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Sunlands Online Education Group NEW YORK, Sept. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The industrial gearbox market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.25% from 2018 to 2023 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05574217 The industrial gearbox market is projected to grow from USD 25.91 billion in 2018 to USD 31.90 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 4.25% from 2018 to 2023. Increasing requirement for industrial automation in manufacturing industries and the requirement for energy efficient transmission system are driving the growth of the industrial gearbox market. On the contrary, the slowdown of industrialization in Europe could hinder the growth of the market. The slowdown in European economies is mainly due to high labor prices, stringent environmental norms, and uncertainties over Brexit. These factors are creating challenges for the investors to develop the new manufacturing facilities in Europe, thus hampering the growth of the industrial gearbox market in that region. Wind Power segment is expected to be the fastest growing market of the industrial gearbox market, by industry, during the forecast period Wind power segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate in the industrial gearbox market during the forecast period.The growth in the wind power segment is driven by the projected wind power installations in the Asia-Pacific, North American, and European regions. The Global Wind Energy Council has projected 301.8 GW of wind power installation between 2018 and 2022. Wind turbines require large gearboxes for their operation. Thus, the wind power segment is expected to be the fastest growing market, by industry, for the industrial gearbox market. Helical gearbox segment is expected to be the largest market of the industrial gearbox market, by gearbox type, during the forecast period The helical gearbox is used in many industries such as food and beverage, baggage handling, metal & mining, material handling, and power industry.Various applications for these gearboxes include blowers & turbines, backstop, and drywell. Because of the wide range of applications of the helical gearbox, the helical gearbox market is forecast to hold the largest market share. Asia Pacific: Key market for industrial gearbox market Asia Pacific is the fastest growing industrial gearbox market during the forecast period due to increasing investment in construction, material handling, wind power, metal & mining, and agriculture sectors in the region.The countries such as Japan, China, and India are investing in developing automation in different industries such as construction, material handling, and metal & mining. In addition, these countries are increasing the share of renewable power generation in their total energy mix. Wind power holds a substantial share in this renewable power generation, driving the growth of the industrial gearbox market. Breakdown of Primaries: In-depth interviews have been conducted with various key industry participants, subject-matter experts, C-level executives of key market players, industry consultants, and other experts to obtain and verify critical qualitative and quantitative information, as well as to assess future market prospects. The distribution of primary interviews is as follows: By Company Type: Tier 113%, Tier 250%, Tier 337% By Designation: C-Level38%, D-Level25%, Others37% By Region: North America13%, Asia Pacific50%, Europe25%, RoW12% Note: The tier of the companies has been defined on the basis of their total revenue; as of 2017: Tier 1 = >USD 5 billion, Tier 2 = From USD 1 billion to USD 5 billion, and Tier 3 = Note: Others includes sales managers, marketing managers, product managers, and engineers. The leading players in the industrial gearbox market are Siemens AG (Germany), Bonfiglioli Italia S.P.A (Italy), Bondioli & Pavesi (Italy), Sew-Eurodrive (Germany), and Dana Brevini (Italy). Research Coverage: The report provides a picture of the industrial gearbox market across the different industries and regions.It aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of the market across different segments such as type, design, industry, and region. Furthermore, the report also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of key players in the market along with their company profiles, recent developments, and key market strategies. For the purpose of this report, the market has been segmented on the basis of gearbox type, design, industry, and region with a focus on industry analysis (industry trends), market ranking analysis of top players, and company profiles, which together comprise and evaluate the basic views on the competitive landscape, emerging and high-growth segments of the industrial gearbox market market, high-growth regions, and market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. The report provides insights on the following pointers: Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, research & development activities, and product launches in the industrial gearbox market Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative emerging markets; the report analyzes the markets for industrial gearbox market across regions Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped markets, recent developments, and investments in the global industrial gearbox market Why buy this report? 1. The report identifies and addresses key markets in different industries for the implementation of industrial gearbox, which would help manufacturers review the growth in demand. 2. The report helps solution providers understand the pulse of the market and provides insights into the drivers, restraints, and challenges of the market. 3. The report will help key players understand the strategies of their competitors better and, thus, will help in the decision-making process. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05574217 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 SKANES FAGERHULT, Sweden, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The members of the Nomination Committee for the Concentric Annual General Meeting 2019 have been appointed. The AGM 2012 has resolved that Concentric's Nomination Committee shall have four members and consist of one representative each of the four largest shareholders. The members of the Nomination Committee have been appointed based on the ownership structure as of 31 August 2018. The members are: Goran Espelund, Lannebo Fonder, Chairman of the Nomination Committee, e-mail: [email protected] Erik Durhan, Nordea Fonder, e-mail: [email protected] Marianne Nilsson, Swedbank Robur, e-mail: [email protected] Johan Strandberg, SEB Fonder, e-mail: [email protected] Concentric's Annual General Meeting 2019 is planned to be held on 3 April 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden. Shareholders, who wish to submit proposals to the Nomination Committee, can do so by contacting the members of the Nomination Committee by e-mail or telephone. For the committee to be able to consider the proposals received with sufficient care, proposals should be submitted as soon as possible and, in any event, no later than 7 January 2019. For further information, please contact Lennart Lindell, +46(0)766-104-004 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/concentric-ab/r/the-nomination-committee-for-concentric-s-annual-general-meeting-2019,c2630307 The following files are available for download: SOURCE Concentric AB DENVER, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DaVita Kidney Care, a division of DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA), a leading provider in kidney care services, today shared its "top five" list from the DaVita Medical Insights podcast and blog. Both are forums to discuss trending news and issues in kidney care and were created by physicians, for physicians. The top five stories include: The Self-Regulating Bioartificial Kidney Bryan Becker , M.D., discusses The Kidney Project, an initiative officially launched in 2015 by nephrologists William Fissell , M.D. and David Humes , M.D. "to create a small, surgically-implanted and free-standing bioartificial kidney," which would help settle organ supply barriers. , M.D., discusses The Kidney Project, an initiative officially launched in 2015 by nephrologists , M.D. and , M.D. "to create a small, surgically-implanted and free-standing bioartificial kidney," which would help settle organ supply barriers. Effectively Managing Kidney Patients' Transitions of Care Ananda Harrison interviews Dr. Becker on the importance of managing care when a patient moves within or between health care settings, across states of health and between clinicians, and the physician's role in this process. interviews Dr. Becker on the importance of managing care when a patient moves within or between health care settings, across states of health and between clinicians, and the physician's role in this process. Why Physicians Choose Nephrology Physician leaders for DaVita recount why they chose to become nephrologists in honor of National Doctors Day. Electronic Health Records: Past, Current and Future Landscape Electronic health records (EHRs) first started to appear in the 1970s, yet physicians have been slow to adopt the technology because of cost and workflow disruption. Listen to Adam Weinstein , M.D., cover the evolution of EHRs, what the future potentially holds for this technology and where its full functionality may ultimately settle. , M.D., cover the evolution of EHRs, what the future potentially holds for this technology and where its full functionality may ultimately settle. Study: The Impact of Missed Dialysis Treatments on Clinical Outcomes A study conducted by DaVita Clinical Research aimed to identify the prevalence of in-center hemodialysis absenteeism and its effects on clinical outcomes. Steve M. Brunelli , M.D., MSCE reviews the key takeaways, including how missed treatments impact hospitalization and mortality among dialysis patients. Subscribe to the podcast and blog to get access to new stories as they are published. If you'd like to be featured in a future episode or post, email [email protected]. About DaVita Kidney Care DaVita Kidney Care is a division of DaVita Inc., a Fortune 500 company, that through its operating divisions provides a variety of health care services to patient populations throughout the United States and abroad. A leading provider of dialysis services in the United States, DaVita Kidney Care treats patients with chronic kidney failure and end stage renal disease. DaVita Kidney Care strives to improve patients' quality of life by innovating clinical care, and by offering integrated treatment plans, personalized care teams and convenient health-management services. As of June 30, 2018, DaVita Kidney Care operated or provided administrative services at 2,580 outpatient dialysis centers located in the United States serving approximately 201,000 patients. The company also operated 253 outpatient dialysis centers located in 10 countries outside the United States. DaVita Kidney Care supports numerous programs dedicated to creating positive, sustainable change in communities around the world. The company's leadership development initiatives and social responsibility efforts have been recognized by Fortune, Modern Healthcare, Newsweek and WorldBlu. For more information, please visit DaVita.com . Contact Information Media: Halie Peddle [email protected] (720) 631-1226 SOURCE DaVita Kidney Care Related Links https://www.davita.com BOSTON, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Afghanistan is under a "Level 4: Do Not Travel" advisory for problems related to increased terrorism, crime, armed conflict, and general civil unrest. American travelers are at especially high risk of being taken hostage, kidnapped, or otherwise becoming involved in other life-threatening scenarios in this country. Libya is also under a "Level 4" advisory, with violent crime and threats of kidnapping near hotels, tourist locations, transportation hubs, and shopping areas becoming an especially prevalent problem. As tension between opposing terrorist groups continues to rise, all travelers are advised to stay away. Mali's "Level 4" advisory is in place to warn American citizens of threats of kidnapping, armed robbery, and terrorism. Violent crimes are especially problematic in the northern and central regions; however, travel should be avoided throughout the country. Travel to Iraq is still restricted due to a continued "Level 4" advisory pertaining to extensive terrorism and armed conflict. Risks of violence, kidnappings, and explosive attacks are common throughout the country. All travelers are being urged to avoid traveling anywhere within Iraq. A "Level 4" advisory for North Korea has been issued for reasons related to the "serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. Nationals." Any and all travelers planning to travel to, in, or throughout North Korea will need to receive "special validation from the Department of State." Syria's continued "Level 4" advisory warns American citizens of the country's constant threats of terrorism, armed conflict, and civil unrest. There is no part of Syria that is safe. Chemical warfare and non-stop aerial attacks pose significant dangers to all travelers throughout the entire country. All travel to, in, and throughout Syria should be avoided at all cost. All global travel alerts and warnings can be found online on the Department of State's website. It is advised that all travelers planning to leave the United States, for any length of time, be mindful of these advisories as well as enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive up-to-date security messages while you're away, and make it easier to find you in the case of an emergency. Tourico Vacations is the first online booking engine, designed to provide Tourico Vacations customers with exceptional insider prices on over 16,000 hotels, 2,000 cruise itineraries, flights, car rentals, vacation packages, and attractions worldwide. In addition to travel services, https://www.facebook.com/touricovacations/ recently introduced Condos, European and American homes, a unique service offering accommodations at over 4,500 luxury vacation condos worldwide by the week. Tourico Vacations proprietary technology provides an outstanding array of travel services conveniently online. Photo(s): https://www.prlog.org/12732085 Press release distributed by PRLog SOURCE Tourico Vacations Related Links https://www.touricovacations.com FREEHOLD, N.J., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- UMH Properties, Inc. (NYSE: UMH) announced that it will present to the Philadelphia Securities Association (PSA) on Wednesday, October 10, 2018. UMH Properties, Inc. has been presenting to the PSA for 20 consecutive years. The Forum will be held at the Union League of Philadelphia, located in Philadelphia, PA. Samuel A. Landy, President and Chief Executive Officer, will present an overview of the Company followed by a question and answer session. It is a luncheon meeting that will start at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The presentation will be available on the homepage of the Company's website at www.umh.reit . UMH Properties, Inc., which was organized in 1968, is a public equity REIT that owns and operates 115 manufactured home communities containing approximately 20,700 developed homesites. These communities are located in New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan and Maryland. In addition, the Company owns a portfolio of REIT securities. SOURCE UMH Properties, Inc. Related Links http://www.umh.reit TBILISI, Georgia, Sept. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 27, UnionPay International signed collaboration agreements with four major institutions from Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia respectively. The Chinese Ambassador to Georgia, Mr. Ji Yanchi and Vice President of the Central Bank of Georgia, Mr. Archil Mestvirishvili, were present to extend their congratulation. Mr. Cai Jianbo, CEO of UnionPay International, and heads of the institutions attended the signing ceremony. According to the agreements, Basisbank will issue UnionPay Diamond cards in Georgia and will introduce UnionPay QR code payment service for the first time in the country. ATF Bank will issue 200,000 UnionPay cards in the next 3 years in Kazakhstan, launch UnionPay QR code payment for the first time locally, and develop a local e-wallet product based on the UnionPay technical standards. Bank Ipak Yuli will issue 500,000 UnionPay-UZ co-brand cards in three years, expanding the use of UZ cards from Uzbekistan to UnionPay's global network. Rosselkhozbank will carry out joint marketing promotion with UnionPay International to attract more Russian customers to sign up for UnionPay cards. Cai Jianbo said, with UnionPay's acceptance in Eurasia constantly expanding, UnionPay's ability to serve the payment demands brought by personnel exchanges between China and the region continues to enhance. Based on its acceptance network, UnionPay is speeding up the local issuance of UnionPay cards and the rollout of UnionPay innovative products, enhancing the payment experience of local customers and supporting the upgrading of the payment industry in the region. UnionPay is willing to further leverage its advantages in payment technology, products, standards and network to provide better services to local partners as well as customers. To be more specific, UnionPay will: first, promote collaboration in network building and standards cooperation to enhance comprehensive payment service ability; second, promote cross-border cooperation in acceptance, issuance and mobile payment to facilitate the payment interconnection; third, promote cooperation in services of clearing, data analysis and risk management. So far, UnionPay's acceptance coverage in Central Asia has reached 70%, and it is expected to reach 90% within three years. UnionPay will also reach 100% acceptance in Russia this year. Based on UnionPay's increasing improving acceptance environment, 6 countries in Central Asia have issued UnionPay cards and over 10 banks in Russia have issued more than 1.5 million UnionPay cards. In some countries, over 90% of the transactions made with locally-issued UnionPay cards happen locally, proving that UnionPay card is becoming a new payment option of the local customers. Moreover, Russia has become a "demonstration market" for UnionPay's contactless payment, with over 1 million POS terminals accepting UnionPay mobile QuickPass. Local customers will also be able to enjoy UnionPay mobile QuickPass service soon. In Georgia, the acceptance coverage of UnionPay has exceeded 80%, and the scale of card issuance is expanding continuously. Ji Yanchi said that the economic and trade exchanges between China and Georgia are becoming increasingly close. UnionPay International's in-depth cooperation with local financial institutions is encouraged for it will help realize payment interconnection between the two countries. Archil Mestvirishvili said, Georgian enterprises, merchants, and residents need convenient payment services. UnionPay is welcome to bring more mobile payment products to Georgia and to boost more financial innovation in the country. In the five years since the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative, UnionPay International is carrying out deeper and wider collaboration with relative countries and regions. As of August this year, UnionPay is available in more than 60 Belt and Road countries and regions, covering more than 5.7 million merchants and more than 680,000 ATMs. More than 35 million UnionPay cards are issued in the region, 20 times more than the number before the proposal of the initiative. UnionPay International is also assisting 12 countries and regions along the Belt and Road to build local switch networks. SOURCE UnionPay International MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota Physicians and Fairview Health Services announced approval of an agreement to create a nationally-renowned academic health system. The agreement expands the organizations' current University of Minnesota Health (M Health) partnership to bring together the University of Minnesota Medical Center and Fairview's other 11 hospitals, 56 primary care clinics, and other services into a shared care delivery system led by a single leadership structure that includes academic physicians. The shared care delivery system will be united under a single brand, M Health Fairview, which will launch in 2019. "This reimagined partnership advances our shared mission to heal, discover new treatments and cures, and educate the next generation of healthcare professionals," said Jakub Tolar, MD, PhD, Dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School and Vice President for Clinical Affairs. "The significant increase in support to the Medical School will allow us to innovate and achieve excellence, while more effectively serving the current and future healthcare needs of our state." "By leveraging academic medicine throughout the care delivery system and embracing new models of care that are focused on our patients, we will begin a new chapter in defining how care delivery should work," said James Hereford, Fairview president and CEO. "We will remain rooted in our communities while offering Minnesotans more rapid access to medical discoveries, treatments, and cures." Highlights of the agreement include: A structure that promotes care designed around patient needs that is led by academic physicians. Care will be organized around health conditions, rather than geographic boundaries. Strong collaboration among the diverse health providers that are part of all three organizations, including independent physicians. Tighter operational alignment to simplify the care experience for patients. A focus on leading research, education and patient care aimed at discovering new approaches to improving health from primary care through complex and hospital care. Increased financial support for the University of Minnesota Medical School, which is the state's only public medical school. Annual support will be dedicated to recruiting faculty, fostering and expanding research in search of the next medical breakthroughs and developing the future healthcare workforce. Medical School, which is the state's only public medical school. Annual support will be dedicated to recruiting faculty, fostering and expanding research in search of the next medical breakthroughs and developing the future healthcare workforce. University of Minnesota Physicians will remain an independent organization that, in support of the University's land-grant mission, will work with other partners throughout the state to advance care. Fairview will also remain an independent organization and maintain business outside the aligned clinical enterprise. "For more than 20 years, our organizations have worked to build a strong partnership, and I'm pleased we have reached a point at which University physicians and researchers can bring their strengths to bear in new and meaningful ways," said University President Eric Kaler. "We owe a huge debt of gratitude to everyone who helped us reach this significant milestone. Minnesotans from our patients, to most of Minnesota's healthcare professionals, and the communities they serve will greatly benefit when this new approach is fully realized." The agreement takes effect on Jan. 1, 2019, and will continue through Dec. 31, 2026, with an option for a 10-year extension in 2023. Contact: Naomi McDonald Director of Communications & Marketing Office of Communications - Medical School, University of Minnesota Office: 612-301-9525 Email: [email protected] SOURCE University of Minnesota Medical School The bill includes funding or continuation of services for the Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019 and Continuing Appropriations Act which includes a Continuing Resolution that extends the regional center program authorization through December 7 th , 2018. The resolution extends the program without any changes. Both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have voted to approve this legislation. Today at noon, the President held a signing ceremony in the Oval Office and signed the legislation, extending the regional center program through December 7th. While extensions have been short in the past, industry experts are anticipating a long-term reauthorization plan after the mid-term elections on November 2, 2018. Bernard Wolfsdorf, managing partner of Wolfsdorf Rosenthal, a top-rated immigration law firm providing immigration and visa services predicts that, "while Congress has attempted to reform the EB-5 program for several years, my view is the stars are now in alignment and we can expect to see new legislation before the end of 2018. I am hopeful Congress will provide meaningful reform including a long-term extension, reasonable grandfathering of TEA rules and a moderate increase in the minimum investment amount so that the already diminished demand is not cut-off. Most important, I am hopeful Congress will correct the program to 10,000 investors not only allow 3,000 investors and their family annually." U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF) will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide any new information as it becomes available. USIF is America's leading EB-5 Regional Center operator with world-renowned investment opportunities from New York City to California and 6,000 clients from across the globe. With approved Regional Centers located in the world's most thriving cities, USIF provides worthwhile opportunities for foreign investors and their families to obtain permanent U.S. residency through the EB-5 Program. These initiatives enjoy full government support as they stimulate the economy, generate at least ten jobs per investment, and promote community development while providing access to green cards for foreign investors and their families. Contact: U.S Immigration Fund 115 Front Street suite 300, Jupiter, FL 33477 (561) 799-1883 [email protected] SOURCE U.S. Immigration Fund Related Links http://www.visaeb-5.com ZURICH, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vifor Pharma Group today announced that the company and partner Goodly Innovations were awarded the 2018 Pharma 4.0 Award for the innovation of the year in manufacturing execution systems in the pharma industry. Presented on 24 September in Berlin, the purpose of the Pharma 4.0 Award is to recognise outstanding implementation in manufacturing execution systems innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Vifor Pharma was the first company to pilot a dynamic team-based augmented reality system (Goodly Innovations' OptiworX) in a pilot project at its site in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in 2017. Augmented reality uses optical devices to create a "mixed reality" (i.e. real and virtual) 3D holographic information, like superimposed text and graphics over the real environment. Pharmaceutical manufacturing and packaging processes are complex. Floor operators must run through many detailed checklists of changeover or line clearance tasks while ensuring that no errors occur. These processes, often managed using printed manuals and checklists, are slow and prone to errors. Augmented reality turns any task list - no matter how complex - into a dynamic multi user workflow that adapts continuously to real-life operations as each task is completed, such as when the number of operators changes. The application also gives users only the instructions they need at each step in the process. Operators are thus able to do their jobs better and faster, and with much more flexibility and accuracy, even when processes become more complex. "Applying augmented reality in our operations allowed us to improve the changeover process and increase productivity by up to 50% at our packaging plant," said Dr. Benno Bischof, Head of Product Group, Technical Operations, in St. Gallen. "We have clearly demonstrated the potential of augmented reality by using it to create a dynamic teamwork system, unprecedented in our industry. -. This is the kind of innovative technology that we strive to use to improve our operations." "We set out to reduce the format change time by 30%, which at the time of our first prototype seemed like a bold objective. Now that we have real-life data from multiple installations, we are blown away by the results. Improving overall equipment effectiveness by 15 percentage points exceeded our expectations. It was also amazing to see error rates drop to virtually zero or on-boarding times become vastly accelerated," said Robert Hoffmeister, CEO of Goodly Innovations. "We are very grateful for the trust and constructive feedback we got from the supportive teams at Vifor Pharma during this important early phase. Now we are just as excited to see the interest in OptiworX grow so rapidly in the industry." The 2018 Pharma 4.0 Award took place as part of this year's Pharma TRACKTS! and Pharma MES Berlin conferences. Vifor Pharma Group is a global pharmaceuticals company. It aims to become the global leader in iron deficiency, nephrology and cardio-renal therapies. The company is the partner of choice for specialty pharmaceuticals and innovative patient-focused solutions. Vifor Pharma Group strives to help patients around the world with severe and chronic diseases lead better, healthier lives. The company develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products for precision patient care. Vifor Pharma Group holds a leading position in all its core business activities and consists of the following companies: Vifor Pharma; Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma, a joint company with Fresenius Medical Care; Relypsa; and OM Pharma. Vifor Pharma Group is headquartered in Switzerland, and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX Swiss Exchange, VIFN, ISIN: CH0364749348). For more information, please visit: http://www.viforpharma.com . Goodly Innovations is a leader in augmented reality solutions for regulated industries. For more information, please visit http://www.goodly-innovations.com . SOURCE Vifor Pharma Washington, Sep 28 : President Donald Trump on Thursday spoke by telephone with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and decided to postpone their meeting until next week, thus diluting the rumours that the Department of Justice No. 2 official might be summarily fired. "The president spoke with Rod Rosenstein a few minutes ago and they plan to meet next week," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday in a statement, Efe reported. "They do not want to do anything to interfere with the hearing" taking place on Thursday on Capitol regarding sexual assault allegations by Christine Blasey Ford against Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Rosenstein is the official in charge of supervising Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is independently investigating the scope of Russian interference in the 2016 elections and whether there was any kind of coordination between the Kremlin and members of Trump's campaign team. The president has repeatedly criticized this investigation, which he has called a "witch hunt," saying that is lacks any basis. According to The New York Times, Rosenstein in 2017 suggested the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment, whereby a president may be impeached and deposed if he is deemed to be incapable of carrying out the duties of his office. The deputy AG denies having suggested that Trump might be deposed, but since the news broke last Friday rumours have begun circulating that the president might fire him. Palikir (Micronesia), Sep 28 : A Boeing 737-800 aircraft has come down in a lagoon off Chuuk International Airport in Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean. Details are still unclear. The cause of the incident is not yet known but media reports said it had overshot the runway while attempting to land. Images shared on social media on Friday showed the plane Air Niugini plane, from Papua New Guinea (PNG), sitting in shallow water just off the coast. Passengers could be seen being picked up in small boats, the BBC reported. Air investigation authorities in Papua New Guinea told the BBC there were no reports of any serious injuries. The aircraft was reportedly flying from the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, stopping at Micronesia's Weno island on the way. An official from the PNG air aviation authorities said investigators were preparing to travel to Micronesia. Micronesia is made up of four island states: Pohnpei, Kosrae, Chuuk and Yap with palm-shaded beaches, wreck-filled dives and ancient ruins. Sunken basalt temples and burial vaults extend out into one of the lagoons. Washington, Sep 28 : The American military's F-35B joint strike fighter jet has conducted its first-ever airstrike, according to the US Marine Corps. The strike took place in Afghanistan on Thursday against a fixed Taliban target, CNN reported. The aircraft involved were the US Marine Corps' variant of the planes flying from the USS Essex amphibious assault ship. The Marines confirmed the strike in a statement: "During this mission the F-35B conducted an air strike in support of ground clearance operations, and the strike was deemed successful by the ground force commander." The F-35 stealth jet has been called the most expensive weapons system in history and its development was beset by multiple delays before it was deemed combat ready. It is touted as the future of military aviation: a lethal and versatile aircraft that combines stealth capabilities, supersonic speed, extreme agility and state-of-the-art sensor fusion technology, according to Lockheed Martin, the plane's primary contractor. The F-35B is one of three variants of the F-35 aircraft and the only one with the ability to land vertically like a helicopter. It can also take off in a much shorter space than other fighter jets. The F-35 has been a favourite of President Donald Trump, who has lauded the aircraft several times for being "invisible". The aircraft has reduced capability to be seen by adversary radars but is not invisible. New York, Sep 28 : US President Donald Trump "looks forward" to visiting India but the timing will depend on his other commitments, according to a senior State Department official. "I am certain that President Trump looks forward to being able to visit India at an appropriate time," Alice Wells, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, told IANS in an interview. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Trump to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations next year. Asked if Trump would come to the celebrations or would schedule his visit for another time, Wells said that the White House will decide taking into account "both the domestic commitments he has here in the US as well as overseas". Wells pointed to the steady stream of US officials who visit India as a symbol of the close ties between the two countries at the official level. "As somebody who helps manage India relationship, it's amazing the number of cabinet officials and high-level visitors that we have in India every month of the year," she said. "That too reflects the density of the ties between our countries that I think we have over 40 major dialogues that take place between our government agencies and departments." Modi first met Trump in Washington in 2017, and also at other multilateral meetings. A military parade is the centre of the Republic Day celebrations and Trump has been a fan of such parades and wants the US to have one, too. While these parades are held annually across the globe world as part of patriotic celebrations, the US does not have one. At Trump's suggestion a parade was scheduled for November on Veterans Day, which honours former servicemen, and this year it would coincide with the centenary of the conclusion of the First World War. However, having never having held such a parade, the Defence Department postponed it to possibly next year. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis) Srinagar, Sep 28 : A shutdown called by separatists affected life across the Kashmir Valley on Friday with heavy security deployed here and other vulnerable places. The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a separatist conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, called for the shutdown against the killing of a civilian in Srinagar on Thursday. Authorities have taken Muhammad Yasin Malik into preventive custody and lodged him in the Kothibagh police station in Srinagar. Shops, public transport, other businesses and educational institutions remained closed in most parts of Srinagar city and other district headquarters. Private transport and some three wheelers were, however, seen moving. Attendance in government offices, banks and post offices was also affected due to the non-availability of public transport. No untoward incident was reported from anywhere so far. Jodhupur, Sep 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday attended a Combined Commanders' conference here to commemorate the second anniversary of the cross-Line of Control (LoC) "surgical strikes" carried out against militant launch pads in Pakistan. The Prime Minister was accorded guard of honour upon his arrival at the Jodhpur airport. He also visited the Konark War Memorial where he laid a wreath and signed the visitors book. He is slated to inaugurate an army exhibition, "Parakarm Parv", at the city's military station, marking the second anniversary of the surgical strikes. The Indian Army conducted surgical strikes (on the intervening night of September 28-29, 2016) which had strategic ramifications and were aimed to "dissuade inimical adversary from adopting the path of violence and to ensure an environment of peace for the nation". The government has decided to observe the attacks as "Parakram Parv", commemorating the valour and sacrifice of the armed forces, on the anniversary. A three-day main event from Friday to Sunday will be organised at the India Gate lawns in New Delhi besides similar events at 53 locations in 51 cities across the country to "highlight the valour of the Indian Armed Forces in general and special forces in particular". New Delhi, Sep 28 : Reporting from the frontlines of the war against polio and drawing on detailed interviews with key players, Thomas Abraham has chronicled "the mind-boggling story" of the polio campaign in "Polio: The Odyssey of Eradication". He has asserted that the World Health Organisation (WHO) underestimated the spread of the poliovirus, and according to his findings, it is unlikely that the world can be polio-free before 2021. "The WHO clearly underestimated how difficult the task of eradication would be. When the campaign was launched in 1988, it was generally thought that the job could be completed by 2000, or at the latest by 2005. But a variety of factors, including problems with the vaccine, the difficulties that poorer countries face in carrying out repeated vaccination campaigns, as well as the problems posed by conflicts, have all contributed to the problem. It is now unlikely that the world can be declared polio-free before 2021 at the earliest," Bengaluru-based Abraham, who was formerly Associate Professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong, teaching health and science journalism, told IANS in an email interview. He acknowledged that the polio eradication campaign has achieved "significant gains", and pointed out that the number of polio cases across the world "have come down from around 350,000 cases in 1988 spread over 125 countries to around 100 last year," mainly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, Abraham said, polio is caused by "a mutated form of the virus that the polio vaccine is based on". Abraham, who has worked with WHO in Geneva, said that the delay in Pakistan is partly due to "the security situation in that country". "From about 2012, the Pakistan Taliban had begun to target and assassinate polio vaccinators, as part of its larger war against the Pakistan government and against Western countries in general (polio eradication was perceived as a Western-funded and run campaign); polio vaccinators were regularly assassinated in Karachi, as well as in the frontier areas of Pakistan. "The Taliban told people that polio vaccinators were spies for the United States and should not be allowed into their areas. The use by the CIA of a fake NGO to conduct vaccination campaigns (though not for polio) in Abbotabad, to try and identify where Bin Laden was living, also did not help the polio campaign, since the Taliban used this to justify their argument that all vaccinators were in fact spies," Abraham said. He said that in Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban did not pose the same set of risks to the polio campaigners, but access to children in these areas was often difficult, and many were missed during vaccination campaigns, allowing polio to survive. "The movement of people between Pakistan and Afghanistan allowed the polio virus to travel between these two countries and persist," he said. Another factor that has allowed polio to re-appear and even spread, according to Abraham, is, in certain situations, "the virus that the oral polio vaccine contains". "The oral polio vaccine contains a weakened form of the poliovirus, that in normal circumstances provides protection against the disease, without causing paralysis. But in places where polio immunisation campaigns are not carried out regularly, this vaccine virus can re-acquire disease-causing properties, and cause paralysis. This is what we are seeing in the Congo and elsewhere today," he explained. In the strictly Indian context, Abraham mentions in the book that the period between 2005 and 2011 was the polio eradication campaign's most difficult years. "Polio had been controlled in most parts of India by around 2005, except for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where poor implementation of the programme by state governments led to persistent outbreaks. In Uttar Pradesh, there was also an issue with the Muslim communities in many parts of western Uttar Pradesh refusing vaccination, often due to suspicion of the state government's motivation. "There were rumours that these drops would cause children to become sterile, and the fact that polio vaccinators were often the same health staff who provided family planning, helped to increase these fears. Once both these governments focussed on polio, the disease gradually disappeared," said Abraham, who was also a foreign correspondent for The Hindu for over a decade. He also said that funding will increasingly become a problem, as it costs roughly $1 billion a year to run the polio campaign. "Polio: The Odyssey of Eradication", published by Context, an imprint of Westland publications, released on September 17 in India and is priced at Rs 699. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in ) Islamabad, Sep 28 : The government of Saudi Arabia has signed three grant agreements with Pakistan to finance three road infrastructure and energy projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). "These agreements have been inked in line with the understanding reached during Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent visit to Saudi Arabia," Information MinisAter Fawad Chaudhry told a press conference here on Thursday. The agreements were signed by the Saudi envoy and the officials of Pakistan's Finance Ministry, reports Dawn news. "The first step has been taken as three grant agreements have been signed. This is a very positive step and bodes well for relations between the two countries," the Minister added. Giving a briefing about the federal cabinet's meeting held earlier in the day, he said that a high-level Saudi delegation will arrive in Pakistan on Sunday for mateArialising the deal between Islamabad and Riyadh. More agreements would be inked next week between a high-level Saudi delegation and Pakistani officials, Chaudhry said. The accords will be related to Reko Diq's gold and copper mines and the oil refinery at Gwadar Port, and the delegation would comprise the Saudi investment team, minister for petroleum and minister for energy. "During the Prime Minister's recent visit, Saudi Arabian leaders including Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman were eager to finalise the deal within days despite the fact that such agreements require months for materialising," the Minister said. New York, Sep 28 : Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked for early repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. In her speech at the UN General Assembly General Debate here on Thursday, Hasina regretted the fact that repatriation had not started in a permanent and sustainable manner, reports Xinhua news agency. "Myanmar is one of our neighbours. From the outset, we have been trying to find a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis through bilateral consultations," she said. "So far, three bilateral arrangements have been concluded between Bangladesh and Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation. Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingya, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back. "The Rohingya crisis has had its origin in Myanmar. As such, its solution has to be found in Myanmar... We want an early, peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis," the Prime Minister added. The Rohingya in Bangladesh are living in an uncertain situation, she said. Bangladesh has made arrangements for their food, clothing, health care, child care and security to the best of its ability. Many countries and organisations, including the UN and the Commonwealth, have shown solidarity with the Rohingya and extended support and assistance for them. Bangladesh has started working on a new housing facility for the refugees. "So long the Rohingya are not able to return home, they should, as a temporary arrangement, be able to live in a good and healthy condition," she said. Hasina called upon international organisations to work with her country in the relocation of the Rohingya to the new facility. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 720,000 Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority living in mostly Myanmar's Rakhine state, have fled to Bangladesh since violence broke out in August 2017. They joined another 200,000 Rohingya who earlier fled into adjacent Bangladesh, said the UNHCR. New Delhi, Sep 28 : The 12th edition of the Festival of Hope will celebrate 70 years of Swiss-India friendship, says founder Shalini Vig Wadhwa. The event, to be held on October 14 at the Siri Fort Auditorium here, will also celebrate the spirit and courage of cancer survivors, with 80 musicians performing live and a fashion show. It will leverage the platform of art, fashion and music to create and spread awareness to prevent and detect early stages of cancer. The Foundation is supported by achievers from all walks of life, bringing together 'Leaders of Hope' who actively contribute by volunteering their time, money, and skills to make a difference, said a statement. With a fundraiser for Kerala Flood relief and cancer affected children, this year the Foundation is supported by the world-famous Swiss Wind Orchestra Landwehr of Fribourg. "This year's theme will celebrate the 70 years of Swiss-India friendship. To commemorate the same, the Foundation has collaborated with the famous Swiss Wind Orchestra Landwehr of Fribourg. Around 80 musicians will perform on stage. "A grand fashion show by 'The Royals of India' is also a part of this show, bringing together the heritage of both the countries. Eminent people will be seen walking the ramp for the Royals," said Wadhwa. It will be attended by Maharani Radhika Raje Gaekwad of Baroda, Mukut Rajya Lakshmi of Jaisalmer, Raja Syed Muzaffar Ali, Rani Meera Ali, Rajkumari Syeda Sama Ali, Kanwarani Kamini Singh of Seohara, Rajkumari Chandini Singh of Seohara and Nawab Kazim Ali Khan of Rampur. "The funds raised through the endeavour supports the cost of treatment for the underprivileged, in addition to motivate them and their families to fight this battle with courage," added Wadhwa. Manila, Sep 28 : Amnesty International on Friday condemned an admission by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte that extrajudicial killings have occurred during his term in office. Duterte acknowledged for the first time on Thursday the killings during his administrationAs war on drugs campaign in which over 4,800 suspected drug users and dealers have been killed, calling them "my only sin", reports Efe news. Amnesty International said in a statement that "this apparent admission by the President himself highlights the urgent need for international investigations into the thousands of killings and other human rights violations committed in the name of the government's war on drugs". The President's spokesperson Harry Roque said on Friday that Duterte was being "playful" and his comments "should not be taken literally". The International Court of Justice is currently examining two criminal complaints against the Philippine president. The so-called "war on drugs" started on July 1, 2016, the day Duterte took office, and authorised the police to freely shoot any suspect resisting arrest. According to official data from the Anti-Drug Agency of the Philippines, a total of 4,854 suspects have been killed in police raids and 155,193 others arrested in a total of 108,058 anti-drug operations throughout the country. Human rights organisations have put the death toll from DuterteAs anti-narcotic crackdown at 15,000. Duterte was accused in the past of using death squads during his time as Mayor of the southern city of Davao in the Mindanao region where he served for seven non-consecutive terms totalling over 22 years. In his speech on Thursday night, the President said that the anti-drug trafficking operations will continue until his presidential term concludes in 2020. United Nations, Sep 28 : Foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) have vowed to uphold multilateralism, safeguard international law and rules, object to unilateralism and protectionism and push globalization towards a more balanced, just and inclusive development. The ministers, meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, unanimously agreed on Thursday to implement agreements made at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, strengthen strategic communication, deepen pragmatic cooperation, enhance people-to-people exchanges and implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed four ways to strengthen cooperation among BRICS at the meeting, Xinhua news agency reported. He said the countries should continue safeguarding multilateralism and the UN-centred contemporary international system and build a new type of International relations featuring mutual respect, fairness and justice, cooperation and mutual benefits. Wang emphasized the importance of holding dialogues to solve problems, calling on the BRICS nations to stand together on major issues and safeguarding the legitimate development interests of emerging markets including the BRICS nations. Panaji, Sep 28 : The Goa cabinet reshuffle has led to anger and frustration not just among MLAs but also their supporters, some of whom have threatened to block water supply to half of the state, while a taxi drivers' body plans to go against the BJP. Supporters of Independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar, who is with the ruling dispensation, have threatened to stop water supply from a dam that caters to half of Goa, if Gaonkar was not included in the cabinet. While 20,000 taxi operators plan to reject BJP if Michael Lobo is not given a ministry. Once considered unthinkable under the iron command of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, a number of Goa BJP leaders have publicly dissented against the cabinet reshuffle of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition. Two ailing ministers were dropped in favour of two other party MLAs earlier this week. Urban Development Minister Francis D'Souza, who is being treated for cancer in New York, and Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar, who suffered a brain stroke earlier in 2018 were replaced by BJP MLAs Milind Naik and Nilesh Cabral, respectively. Kin and associates of D'Souza and Madkaikar have criticised the BJP leadership for the sudden axe. BJP MLAs and other ruling legislators, who failed to make the cabinet cut have also publicly slammed the party leadership for ignoring their claims. BJP MLA from Bicholim Rajesh Patnekar said: "Bicholim (sub district) did not get a ministry, so the BJP workers here have expressed anger and concern. "I was hoping that Bicholim would get one ministry and I would get it. I am sure that the state party president Vinay Tendulkar will come here and quell the anger among the party workers." Aldona BJP MLA Glenn Ticlo said he deserved to be part of the cabinet on account of his "dynamism" and said that people from his constituency wanted him to be a minister in order "to get their work done". But with a cabinet berth remaining elusive, there was frustration among his workers. "People are absolutely unhappy. I am getting calls and messages. I told them it is a party decision and when the Chief Minister is back, he will take a call...," Ticlo said. The sudden reshuffle by Parrikar, who was being treated for advanced pancreatic cancer at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, came at a time, when the opposition, as well as the civil society, was taking potshots at the ruling combine. They alleged that there was lack of leadership in the Goa government with ailing lawmakers holding on to ministerial posts like Parrikar himself, besides D'Souza and Madkaikar. The decision, however, have riled the kin of sacked ministers. "It comes as a shock, that he (D'Souza) wasn't even informed prior to the decision being taken. It would have been good, if he had been taken into confidence," says D'Souza's son Joshua. D'Souza, the only popular Catholic BJP legislator, himself has warned that he would resign from the party once he returns from the US. Madkaikar's wife Janita said the BJP leaders should have at least shown the courtesy of informing them before sacking the minister, who was recuperating in a Mumbai hospital. Supporters of Independent MLA from Sanguem Prasad Gaonkar have threatened to start an agitation which would block the flow of water from the Selaulim dam, located in the Sanguem assembly constituency, which provides water to nearly half of Goa. "The dam is in our panchayat. All industries and people in South Goa get water from the dam. We will start an agitation to stop water from the dam for at least eight days, if Prasad is not given representation in the cabinet," Sanjay Shirodkar, the Uguem Panchayat sarpanch said. Even Goa's notorious taxi lobby has taken a leap into the controversy, backing the candidature of Calangute MLA Michael Lobo for a cabinet berth, failing which they said taxi operators would work against the BJP. "There are 20,000 taxi operators in Goa. In the coming elections, we will reject BJP if Michael Lobo is not given a ministry. "Today, if a taxi meets with an accident, we have to give fitness certificate from RTO to resume. Why does the Chief Minister not need a fitness certificate to operate when he is sick for several months now?" North Goa Taxi Driver's Association president Laxman Korgaonkar said. While BJP leaders were unwilling to formally comment on questions about the dissent, a party official said that there were only 12 cabinet berths and the Bharatiya Janata Party had to accommodate both, their own MLAs as well as allies. "We cannot accommodate everyone. The decision on whom to induct and whom to drop was taken by the Chief Minister, in consultation with the party high command. The cadre and MLAs will have to accept it," the party official said on condition of anonymity. Chennai, Sep 28 : Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and now a strong contender for the President's post in FIDE, the world chess body, did not seek the support of All India Chess Federation (AICF) even as a formality. The AICF is the Indian government recognised national body for chess. Similarly, the third contender for the FIDE President's post British chess Grand Master (GM) Nigel Short too did not seek AICF's support. The FIDE Presidential elections slated early next month is a three-horse race with Dvorkovich, Short and Georgios Makropoulos contesting with their teams. "I did not, as the representative of India is on the ticket of Mr. Makropoulos," Dvorkovich told IANS when queried about approaching AICF for support. Responding to the question Short told IANS: "No. I did not meet any official of AICF. I thought it will be a waste of time as D.V.Sundar is part of the Makropoulos team. But many Indian chess Grand Masters are hoping that I would win." Sundar, Vice President, AICF is in the fray for the post of FIDE General Secretary as a part of Makropoulos team. The present FIDE Deputy President Makropoulos is contesting for the FIDE President's post. "Sundar will be voting on behalf of AICF at the FIDE elections," an AICF official had told IANS preferring anonymity. Curiously, Dvorkovich and Short are promising the National Chess Federations that they would bring in transparency in FIDE operations, attract big corporate sponsors. They also said the FIDE under their regime would financially support the National Chess Federations and not the other way around as it is now. Meanwhile Israeli chess Grand Master Boris Gelfand recently has expressed his support for Dvorkovich and the later thanked him for the support. Gelfand is the first player with world fame to have extended his support to Dvorkovich's candidature. Gelfand in a detailed message posted on Dvorkovich's election campaign website wished the Russian and also the English GM Nigel Short another FIDE Presidential candidate success in their endeavour. "Let us hope that an experienced organizer Arkady Dvorkovich and a great chess player Nigel Short will win the elections and succeed in changing the world of chess for the better," Gelfand said. Gelfand said Dvorkovich has organised 10 super tournaments and managed to find energetic people to actively promote chess across Russia. According to Gelfand, the arrival of Dvorkovich has marked the rise of Russian chess. Gelfand said: "It seems to me that taking an opinion poll among chess players would now give an approximately 95:5 result in Dvorkovich's favor in terms of percentage correlation." "Nevertheless, elections are known to be decided by delegates casting their votes, and I do not know whether the opinion of professional chess players does or does not matter to them," Gelfand said and added that he would vote for Dvorkovich. Incidentally when queried by IANS whether under their regime chess players of certain standing would be given the right to vote in FIDE elections both Dvorkovich and Short avoided a direct answer. "Chess officials have to respect chess players and consult with them on all the important decisions to be made by FIDE," Dvorkovich said. Short said: "As for voting rights for players, there are much more important issues that need to be addressed first. But under our management, players will be there in more number of committees that deal with issues concerning them." Tokyo, Sep 28 : Japan's iconic Tsukiji fish market, considered the world's largest, will down shutters for the first time in 83 years on Saturday to allow 20,000 workers to prepare for the final closure on October 6. The vendors on Friday continued with their final preparations for the impending move to the nearby artificial island of Toyosu, where it will reopen five days later in an upgraded space with modern facilities, reports Efe news. The shift to Toyosu, located around 3.4 km from Tsukiji, is aimed at modernising the facilities and addressing safety concerns that had cropped up after a blaze had burned around 2,153 sq ft of Jogai, Tsukiji's outer market, a little over a year ago. The origin of the market dates back to 1657, when the Tokugawa Shogunate set up a fish market near Sumida River on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay and called it Tsukiji, which literally means "reclaimed land". The market was officially renamed Tsukiji fish market in 1884 but was destroyed, along with most of Tokyo, in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and shifted to its current location in 1935. The new Toyosu market will begin operating on October 11 and face the challenge of attracting visitors and traders to become, as Tsukiji was, a mecca of Japanese seafood. Srinagar, Sep 28 : Authorities on Friday disallowed congregational prayers at the historic Jamia Masjid here by imposing restrictions in the area. Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who delivers his weekly sermon at the mosque, was placed under house arrest. Following a separatist-called shutdown in the Kashmir Valley, the authorities took Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik into preventive custody. The protest was called against the killing of a civilian in Srinagar's Qamarwari area on Thursday in firing when the security forces were laying a cordon. All shops, public transport, other businesses and educational institutions remained closed in most parts of Srinagar city and other district headquarters of the Kashmir Valley. Lucknow, Sep 28 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on getting the United Nations environmental award. "Through this honour, the Prime Minister's relentless efforts to make earth safe for generations to come have not only been acknowledged on an international level but also also appreciated," he said. Modi was awarded the 'Champions of the Earth Award', UN's highest environmental honour, along with five other individuals and organisations, for his leadership of the International Solar Alliance and pledge to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022. Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron were chosen under the 'policy leadership' category. Adityanath said that protection and conservation of nature were an integral part of India's traditions and culture and that Modi was getting this award for his tireless efforts. "It was Modi's efforts that the United Nations unanimously decided to observe June 21 as International Yoga Day," the Chief Minister said. Naypyidaw, Sep 28 : The European Union (EU) on Friday announced a $5.82 million humanitarian aid package for the Rohingya and other ethnic minority communities in Myanmar. "The EU is committed to helping vulnerable communities living across Myanmar, who have suffered due to the long-running conflicts in the country," Christos Stylianides, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, said. "Our new assistance will reach the most vulnerable, who have been displaced by violence and those who cannot return to their homes and grant unrestricted humanitarian access to all parts of the country," he added. In May, the EU announced $46.5 million in humanitarian aid to provide relief in Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh after the Rohingya crisis, reports Efe news. The fresh aid is aimed at providing emergency shelter along with food, water and sanitation facilities to Rohingyas in Rakhine state and other minorities in Kachin and Shan as they could be affected by the torrential rain during the monsoon season. More than 100,000 people in Kachin and Shan states have been forcibly displaced since the 2011 conflict between the government and armed rebels. A group of UN experts in a report said that there is evidence of intentional genocide against the Rohingya by the Myanmar military. At least 10,000 people were killed and around 725,000 sought refuge in Bangladesh due to military operations in Rakhine, which began on August 25, 2017 in response to insurgent attacks on government security posts, according to a UN report. According to the EU, around 600,000 Rohingya live in Rakhine and are "confined in their villages, or internally displaced in camps", with limited access to food, sanitation, education and other services. Myanmar authorities do not recognize the Rohingya as citizens and consider them to be Bangladeshi immigrants, denying them basic rights. Lucknow, Sep 28 : Uttar Pradesh Labour Minister Swamy Prasad Maurya on Friday lashed out at Congress President Rahul Gandhi for attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and called him a "mad man who doesn't deserve to lead India's oldest political party". "Rahul Gandhi has been continuously calling the Prime Minister a thief. Look at the decency of Modi that he is not (even) responding," said Maurya, who switched sides from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2017 Assembly elections. "It is a matter of great shame that the Congress leader is mouthing such (abusive) language for the country's Prime Minister," the Minister told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mainpuri. He said that "this childish behaviour did not behove of the Congress chief", adding that the opposition party should be worried since this will invite public ire. Maurya said that the "immature behaviour" of Gandhi was for all to see as he had embraced Modi in the Lok Sabha and also gave statements that even a child would not. The Minister also said that the vicious Congress campaign on the Rafale deal will not cut into BJP victory prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. New Delhi, Sep 28 : Amid a nation-wide traders' strike on Friday called by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the organisation submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In response to the call for a "Bharat Trade Bandh" against the Walmart-Flipkart deal and foreign direct investment in retail, the commercial markets across the country were closed on Friday, a CAIT statement said. The traders body submitted the memorandum and a Traders Charter to Modi urging for his intervention to stop the deal as it violates FDI Policy Press Note Number 3 of 2016 of the government, CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said in a statement. It urged Modi to constitute a high level committee under the chairmanship of a senior Union Minister and comprising officials and trade representatives to look into the matter. On Friday around seven crore business establishments and more than 40,000 trade associations and federations across the nation participated in the one-day strike, the traders' organisation said. Traders across the country held "dharna", demonstrations and protest marches and later submitted similar memorandum as given to the Prime Minister to their respective District Collectors, CAIT said. The CAIT also regretted that retail trade has never been a priority although after agriculture, it is the largest employment provider and largest source of revenue for the government. "Such a stepmotherly treatment to the traders must come to an end," the statement said. On August 28, the Confederation had approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the Competition Commission of India (CCI)'s approval for the Walmart-Flipkart deal. Consequently, NCLAT issued a notice to Walmart, enquiring about its business model. In August, Walmart Inc acquired approximately 77 per cent stake in e-commerce major Flipkart. Walmart now holds approximately 77 per cent of Flipkart, while the remainder of the business is held by other shareholders, including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Tencent, Tiger Global and Microsoft Corp. The global retail giant's investment includes $2 billion of new equity funding to help accelerate the growth of Flipkart's business. Both companies will retain their unique brands and operating structures in India, the statement said. Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 28 : The Supreme Court ruling on Friday allowing women of all ages to enter the Lord Ayyappa temple in Kerala has left its priests and many others, including women, unhappy. Some of them plan to file a review petition against the verdict that came after 12 years of legal battle and nearly a month ahead of the annual pilgrimage starting in November. Expressing disappointment, Sabarimala 'tantri' (chief priest) K. Rajeevaru said: "While I will respect the court's directive, I wish tradition and culture are allowed to continue. The Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) will decide on an appeal challenging the decision." He said that as of now, there were no facilities in the temple complex to attend to the needs of a large number of women. Until now, the temple, located on a hilltop in Pathanamthitta district, about 130 km from the state capital, has remained closed to women in the age group of 10 to 50 years. Over the years, the Left government has always supported the opening of the Sabarimala temple for all women. TDB President A. Padmakumar said that they were now duty bound to see that the directive of the apex court was implemented. Former TDB president G. Raman Nair called Friday a black day for Sabarimala. "One can speak of equality and freedom but the verdict is breaking a tradition that was in existence much before the Constitution came into effect." The President of the Ayyappa Seva Sanghom and a veteran Congress leader, Thennala Balakrishna Pillai, said that while the rule of law has to be adhered to, the traditions, culture and ritualistic practices were equally important. "I am yet to see one woman who says she will be going to the temple while several have said they will not," he said. Said businessman C.B. Shaji: "I have been going to Sabarimala for the past 30 years and for certain I will never even dare to ask my wife if she will come with me. "There is definitely a tradition and a legend associated with the temple and any woman who knows that will not go." Bharatiya Janata Party leader P.S. Sreedharan Pillai said while his party believed in equal rights to all, every religious place has a culture and tradition and any breach can lead to tensions. A spokesperson for the Pandalam Royal Family, which has an integral role in the affairs of the Sabarimala temple, Sasikumar Varma, said the palace was disappointed with the verdict. "The long-standing traditions of Sabarimala have been changed and that is very sad. Every religious place has its own traditions and culture which have their own reasons," he said. The Pandalam Palace is the custodian of Sabarimala temple jewels. Meanwhile, Rahul Eashwaran, a family member of the Sabarimala tantri, said they were deeply saddened by the verdict and would file a review petition. "Various Hindu organisations will now get together and conduct special prayer sessions. We have time till October 16 to file a review petition. "This is not a balanced judgement and Article 25 of the Constitution has been overlooked," said Eashwaran. P. Geetha, a teacher by profession and a popular face in TV debates, said she welcomed the ruling. "The verdict is welcome and now all those women who wish to visit the temple can do so now," she said. But there were other women who disagreed. Mumbai, Sep 28 : Actor Ishaan Khatter, who is close to his brother and actor Shahid Kapoor, says he discusses his professional choices with him. "In the past I have shared with my brother and mother about the work that I am going to do. I think if you are close to somebody, you tend to share something that is so important to you and films are a very important part of my life," Ishaan said in a statement to IANS. "And because he is part of the same industry, it is much easier for him to understand. He doesn't demand that I share everything with him or my mother. But I like to share things with my mother and brother," he added. Ishaan made his film debut with Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's "Beyond The Clouds", but "Dhadak" marked Ishaan's entry in Bollywood. An adaptation of Marathi hit "Sairat", "Dhadak" marked the much-awaited Bollywood foray of Janhvi Kapoor. It will find its way on the Indian small screen on Sunday on Zee Cinema. On his love for dance, he said: "Actually my mother was the first dancer in our family and she is the most accomplished of us all as a dancer. I don't think I was even conscious that my brother was a dancer when I started dancing, I was very young." "I definitely share dance with him. We are very passionate about dance and he is the more experienced dancer. He has been a mentor and he has taught me dance a lot of different techniques. So he definitely is my teacher and mentor," he added. If not and actor, what would you be? "I would either be a dancer or do something else related to cinema in the creative department or I would just be an explorer," he said. Srinagar, Sep 28 : The Army said on Friday it has rescued 168 civilians, including foreign tourists, caught in highly inclement weather on the Leh-Manali highway. Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said: "168 civilians, including 31 Bhutanese, 38 Nepalese nationals and rest Indian tourists, have been evacuated from Bharatpur to Sarchu and provided medical aid, shelter, warm clothing and hot meals. "In addition, 22 others including two Australian nationals present near Sarchu were rescued and provided medical aid." A vehicle-cum-foot patrol launched from Patsio to Suraj Tal evacuated 95 civilians and brought them to Patsio. They have been provided immediate medical aid, shelter and warm clothing, he said. A large number of landslides and snowslides have trapped vehicles along the strategic Leh-Manali axis over the past one week. According to Kalia, the effect has been more pronounced near Baralacha La and along the road from Killing-Sarai to Bharatpur. "The Army detachments operating from Rumtse, Pang, Sarchu, Patsio and Tandi have offered spontaneous help to people stuck at different places providing high-altitude warm clothing, shelter, hot meals, medical aid, satellite communication and carrying out physical rescue missions. "A highly specialised and trained Avalanche Panther Rescue Team of Ladakh Scouts has been inducted into the affected area for rescue and relief operations," the Defence Ministry spokesman said. "The second Avalanche Rescue Team is also being inducted shortly. One Medical Officer and one Signals Officer have been inducted to Patsio for providing medical assistance and communication arrangements to the stranded civilians." Besides, medical stores, oxygen cylinders, supplies and rations have been airlifted by Army Aviation into the affected areas, he added. New Delhi, Sep 28 : In a bid to battle the issue of counterfeit drugs in India, NITI Aayog on Friday joined hands with Cloud major Oracle, Apollo Hospitals and global pharmaceutical manufacturer Strides Pharma Sciences to pilot a real drug supply chain, using Blockchain decentralised ledger and Internet of Things (IoT) software. The collaboration is aimed to bring transparency, accountability and efficiency in tracing and tracking drugs manufactured in the country. The agreement was signed by Anna Roy, Advisor (Industry), NITI Aayog and Shailender Kumar, Regional Managing Director, Oracle India, in the presence of Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog and Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals. "India is the third largest producer of generic drugs and vaccines globally and we've been exporting to almost 200 countries. But 20 per cent of the drugs being circulated in the Indian market are fake," Kumar told reporters here. "Based on the discussion with other stakeholders in the project, we're going to develop a solution on Blockchain and IoT," Kumar added. According to a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), India, as the largest producer of generic drugs in the world, is said to be the source of 35 per cent of all counterfeit drugs sold world-wide. Oracle's Blockchain software permanently registers a drug's record in the manufacturer's drug supply chain (serial number, labelling and scanning), thus leaving very little scope for record tampering. At every point of hand change, the software records the drug's movement -- from manufacturer to logistics, from stockist to hospital, or from pharmacy to consumer. In case of a fake drug, the software will detect the irregularity and notify the concerned nodal point. "The agreement with Oracle and our partnership with Apollo Hospitals and Strides Pharma will help ensure all Indian drug manufacturers and healthcare experts have access to a standards-based, modern technology platform -- Blockchain and IoT -- to eliminate fake drug distribution," Kant emphasised. Oracle IoT also provides functionality to track critical information such as chemical ingredients of the drug or maintenance of temperature control in case of life saving drugs or vaccines. "With Blockchain, every movement of the drug through its supply chain is recorded. That way, the drug supply chain is completely transparent, secure, decentralised and verifiable. We believe Blockchain and IoT can play a significant role in ceasing fake drug distribution," Kumar added. Chennai, Sep 28 : Setting up dealer networks in major fishing coastal towns, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M) is hoping to sell 500 marine/boat engines this fiscal, said a senior company official. He also said the company hopes to get good orders from the Tamil Nadu fishing community for its engines in Rameswaram under the Central government's deep-sea fishing programme. Launching a range of boat engines and marine gensets here under the brand Sea Hawk, Sachin Nijhawan, Business Head, Powerol Business said: "We now have engines ranging from 15 hp to 400 hp to straddle a wide segment of business needs." Presently the market is catered majorly by Chinese makers but this is expected to reverse as M&M has set up dealer and service networks, he said. Nijhawan said larger engines will be needed once riverine transport becomes big in the country. Powerol is the diesel gensets/engines division of M&M catering to varied sectors and marine sector is the new being added to its portfolio. For starters, the company is looking at government aided projects. According to M. Senthilkumaran, General Manger-Industrial Applications, about 16 boats are being built in Cochin Shipyard for the fishermen in Rameswaram. "As some boat owners have opted for our 180 hp engines. We expect there will be more demand as the market is largely driven by word-of-mouth," Senthilkumaran said. He said the market for bigger engines is from replacement as boat owners fit a new engine after three years. "About 500 new boats are made every year," he added. Last year M&M sold about 150 engines, both small and big, and the target for the current year is about 500 engines. Mumbai, Sep 28 : Actor Rajkummar Rao considers his girlfriend and actress Patralekha as his best friend, and says they don't discuss "marriage or babies". "Patralekha is my best friend -- we discuss cinema, we discuss acting or travelling. We're not discussing marriage or babies because we like the way we are," Rajkummar said in a statement. "When my mom first met Patralekha, she said that she's going to be the last girl I'm meeting," he added. Rajkummar spoke about his relationship with his "City Lights" co-star when he appeared on talk show "Feet Up with the Stars", presented by Voot Originals and hosted by celebrity stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania. "I'm a hardcore romantic. My first crush was in Class 3 that apparently went on till Class 8 until she left the school," he added. During an appearance on TLC's "Midnight Misadventures with Mallika Dua", Rajkummar said he is a fun-loving person. "Mostly audience have seen me portraying serious roles in most of my movies and that's why everyone thinks that I am like my characters too in real life. But in reality I am a fun loving person when I am around my bunch of people - friends and family," he said. Palikir (Micronesia), Sep 28 : Dozens of passengers were forced to swim for their lives on Friday after their plane missed a runway and landed in a sea lagoon on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 aircraft carrying 47 people -- 35 passengers and 12 crew members -- plunged into the water after it "landed short of the runway" at the international airport on Weno, the main island of Chuuk state in Micronesia on Friday, according to a statement by Air Niugini, the national carrier of Papua New Guinea. Emergency teams and fishing boats in the area rushed to rescue people aboard the partially submerged airplane, according to a video that has gone viral. No casualties were reported, CNN reported. The aircraft was flying from the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, stopping at Micronesia's Weno island on the way. The atoll nation of Micronesia, with 600 islands, is home to 1.5 lakh. The plane proceeded normally until final approach when the weather conditions suddenly deteriorated and it began raining hard, reports said. An investigation was launched into the incident. Passenger Bill Jaynes told reporters that the incident had been "surreal". "I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in. I thought, well, this is not like the way it's supposed to happen." Jaynes said people on the plane were in water up to their waists and used the emergency exit to escape. Photographs and video footage online showed small fishing boats surrounding the semi-submerged plane, ferrying passengers to safety. The airline said it had received reports that "the weather was very poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of incident". Los Angeles, Sep 28 : Veteran comedian Bill Cosby's Hollywood Walk of Fame star got vandalised following his imprisonment over drugging and sexually assaulting a woman. According to tmz.com, the star was ruined earlier this week when a US court sentenced him to jail and labelled him as a "sexually violent predator". The star now reads words like "serial rapist" and "MeToo" on it. Still, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has decided not to remove Cosby's star even after he was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison. Cosby was sentenced on Tuesday by a court in Norristown, Pennsylvania for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004. The 81-year-old's "sexually violent predator" label implies that he must undergo counselling for life and appear on the sex offenders' registry. Mumbai, Sep 28 : Jolted by the sudden exit from the party and the Lok Sabha of its founder member Tariq Anwar, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday called the decision "unfortunate" but said it did not signify that the party "is finished". "Our President Sharad Pawar indirectly gave a clean chit to PM (Narendra Modi) on the Rafale deal. The PM is completely involved in the deal. The opposition is demanding a JPC to probe it. I am upset with his statements," Anwar said after his resignation. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel said: "It is his decision but the issue on which he quit is wrong. Leaders come and go. It (resignation) is an irresponsible step, but it doesn't mean NCP is finished. "He should have first called up Pawar and clarified his views. Merely levelling allegations is not proper. He has taken the step without consulting any leader or the party," Patel said. However, he said the party would try to speak with Anwar but the resignation from the Lok Sabha was a different issue. "We are surprised but sad at the same time. We want to clarify that Anwar who was with the party since its birth and was a founder... you have left suddenly and in this fashion without any discussion with the leadership. It is not correct," Patel said. Without naming Anwar, NCP MP Supriya Sule termed it as "disappointing" that people had not heard what her father Pawar spoke in the interview to a Marathi TV news channel News18-Lokmat, aired on September 26. "Pawar raised three questions: 1. What is the justification for a 300 percent price increase from Rs 526 crore to Rs 1,670 crore which potentially could be a significant loss to the exchequer, 2. if such doubts have been raised and the government is so confident, then why are they shying from setting up a JPC, and 3. when the BJP raised both price and specification issues during Bofors allegations, then whey are they hiding behind artificial justification of secrecy of agreements vis-a-vis both commercial price and offset agreements," said Sule. Earlier in the day, Anwar, 67, quit from the party and his Lok Sabha seat, stunning political circles, He along with Pawar and the late P. A. Sangma had broken away from the Congress to launch the NCP in 1999 in Mumbai. One of the closest confidants of Pawar, Anwar, who hails from Bihar, has been a member of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha for nearly four decades. Mumbai, Sep 28 : India's external debt for the quarter ended June 2018 declined on a year-on-year basis by 2.8 per cent to $514.4 billion, official data showed on Friday. According to the Reserve Bank of India, external debt declined to $514.4 billion from over $529 billion reported for the corresponding period of 2017 on the back of a decrease in commercial borrowings, short-term debt and non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits. "At June-end, India's external debt witnessed a decline of 2.8 per cent over its level at March-end...," the RBI said in a statement on "India's External Debt as at the end of June 2018". "The decrease in external debt was primarily due to valuation gains resulting from an appreciation of the US dollar against the Indian rupee and major currencies. The external debt to GDP ratio stood at 20.4 per cent at June-end, a shade lower than its level of 20.5 per cent at March-end." As per the statement, valuation gains due to the appreciation of the US dollar vis-A -vis the Indian rupee and major currencies were placed at $13 billion. "Excluding the valuation effect, the decrease in external debt would have been $1.9 billion instead of $14.9 billion at June-end over March-end," the statement said. "Commercial borrowings continued to be the largest component of external debt with a share of 37.8 per cent, followed by NRI deposits at 24.2 per cent and short-term trade credit at 18.8 per cent." Gurugram, Sep 28 : The Haryana government is set to increase the collector rates of immovable properties here for the second time in the current financial year, officials said on Friday. The official website of Gurugram administration on Friday uploaded a notice regarding the increase in the residential and commercial properties in Gurugram tehsil (for the year 2018-2019). The circle rates of villages and sectors areas of sub-tehsil of Wazribad, Badshahpur, Kadipur and Harsaru will also be increased by October 10, the notice read. The rates of land up to two acres depth from National Highway 48 (Delhi-Jaipur-Mumbai), Northern Peripheral Road (NPR) and National Highway 248A (Gurugram-Sohna-Alwar) will be hiked by 25 per cent, including major district roads by 10 per cent. "Circle rates of all agriculture land in the concerned areas will be the same as it was during 2017-2018 except village Tikli," the notice read further. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Haryana government, headed by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, has started the trend of hiking the circle rates of properties twice in a financial year. Collector rates of immovable assets were also hiked in April this year. "Registration of properties will be costlier, if the new rates are imposed," said an official. The district administration has sought objections and suggestions in this regard by October 5. New Delhi, Sep 28 : The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the in-laws of an air hostess who fell to her death from the terrace of her home here. Justice Mukta Gupta rejected the bail plea R.S. Singhvi and his wife Sushma. The court order came after observing Delhi Police's statement that the Singhvi couple had extended support to their son in harassing Anissia. "From the documents placed on record, particularly the supplementary statement of the father of Anissia, the WhatsApp messages and email to counsel, the continuous course of harassment and torture to the deceased is evident," the court said. "Further, as noted from the supplementary statement of the father of the deceased, there was clear demand of Rs 10 lakh. Hence this court does not find it to be a fit case to grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioners." Anissia Batra's husband Mayank Singhvi was arrested on July 16. On July 23, Justice Gupta granted interim protection to Mayank Singhvi till August 2. Batra's family has alleged that it was a case of murder even as the police registered a suicide case on July 15. The victim fell off the terrace of her home in Panchsheel Park in south Delhi on July 13. The FIR said the woman was assaulted ever since her marriage in February 2016. New Delhi, Sep 28 : The Congress on Friday slammed the Central government for celebrating "Parakram parv" on the second anniversary of the 2016 surgical strike, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP of always using "soldiers as a tool to garner votes". The government had earlier decided to observe "Parakram Parv" from September 28-30, commemorating the valour and sacrifice of the armed forces, on the occasion of the anniversary of the cross-LoC (Line of Control) military strikes. The Congress said the 2016 attack was not the first time that India had inflicted surgical strike and listed a number of such attacks carried out in the past. "We are proud that our forces have successfully conducted multiple 'surgical strikes' over last two decades, particularly post the year 2000 -- January 21, 2000 (Nadala Enclave, across the Neelam River); September 18, 2003 (Baroh Sector, Poonch); June 19, 2008 (Bhattal Sector, Poonch); August 30-September 1, 2011 (Sharda Sector, across Neelam River Valley in Kel); January 6, 2013 (Sawan Patra checkpost); July 27-28, 2013 ( Nazapir Sector); August 6, 2013 (Neelam Valley); January 14, 2014 (Army Chief, General Bikram Singh's statement qua surgical strike on December 23, 2013); September 28-29, 2016 (DGMO's statement)," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said. He accused the Central government of "compromising national security", saying in 52 months of its ruling the country, Jammu and Kashmir alone has lost "414 security personnel and 259 civilians in Pakistan-sponsored terrorism". He challenged Modi to concede that he has "failed" in keeping the borders secure by allowing a "500 per cent increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan, since May 2014". "Where is the '56-inch chest' missing as Pakistan commits more than 3,000 ceasefire violations at the LoC and international border?," he said. He alleged that Modi "squandered national interests by arbitrarily reducing the number of (Rafale) fighter aircrafts required by the Indian Air Force (IAF) from 126 to 36", and buying the aircraft at 300 per cent higher price than its original cost at the time when the deal was struck by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Surjewala accused the government of meting out a "step motherly treatment" to the armed forces by slashing the defence budget to 1.58 per cent of the GDP, which was "lowest since 1962", and also of neglecting a report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, which exposed that "68 per cent" of the Army's equipment were "vintage" and that there was no money to buy emergency weapons. New Delhi, Sep 28 : Shaun Micallef came to India to shoot his show "Stairway To Heaven", and says he stumbled upon some important life lessons during his stay in the country. "I found out that it is about the journey rather than the destination... That is the important thing. I have been pre-occupied finding some sort of answer whereas the point is to live it," Micallef told IANS in a recorded response. Micallef, who hails from Australia, travelled to India, exploring Hinduism and asking religious questions for the show, which is aired on Sony BBC Earth. "One of the really interesting things that I left the country with was that the final picture will be apparent once it is done." Talking about coming to India, the writer-comedian-actor said: "There were no pre-conceptions. Everything was a revelation. One of the interesting places that we visited was where population was equally divided between the voice of the Muslims and the Hindus. "And everyone got on very well together. I was surprised. The communities seemed at ease with each other. This is a larger lesson in life." Mumbai, Sep 28 : "Godzilla: Final Wars" actor Jonathan Legg, who will be seen on Indian television screens with travel show "Road Less Travelled" for which he explored India, says "humanity" is a good word for the country. "Road Less Travelled", to be aired on EPIC channel October 1, features Legg as he travels through India in search of exotic and unique experiences. On his experience of shooting in India, Legg said in a statement: "Producer Sashi De threw me into the deep end on our very first episode of the show by choosing Rath Yatra in Orissa (Odisha) as our destination. What a pulsating, glorious stew of humanity this was! Humanity is a good word for India. "Glance down a side street in Calcutta (Kolkata) and you can see about every activity taking place: People brushing their teeth, showing, working, eating, conversing, sleeping... Go to Bollywood and you can find humans at their most flamboyant, go to Varanasi and you can find them at their most transcendent, go to the slums and you find humanity at its most resourceful. "In Delhi, you have humans who live by one code, in Leh something different, and in Shillong different again. But everywhere you go the people are peaceable and approachable, kind and gentle." Chennai, Sep 28 : Bank employees under the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) will go on a two-day strike early next year, said a top leader of the union on Friday. The bank employees under the banner of AIBEA will join the two-day strike on January 8-9, 2019 according to a decision taken at The National Convention of Workers held in Delhi on Friday, C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA said. The National Convention of Workers was called by 10 central trade unions and it decided to adopt various protest programmes against the central government's labour policies. One of the programmes is the two-day general strike in January. New Delhi, Sep 28 : The Indian Public Library Movement (IPLM) marked its fifth anniversary at an event here on Friday, reiterating its efforts in rejuvenating public libraries. The occasion witnessed the exchange of an MOU between United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and IPLM for a new partnership unfolding between public libraries and the domain of skill in Maharashtra. IPLM also released a booklet, "Stories of Change: Impacting Lives through Public Libraries". The 20 short stories talk about how public libraries and the librarians have influenced the lives of different people through various IPLM initiatives. "Library is storehouse of knowledge and today with our combined efforts they have become a place for knowledge sharing and community building. This would not have been possible without librarians. It is just the beginning and we look forward to continue the good work and move upward," said Shrikant Sinha, Chief Executive Officer of NASSCOM Foundation, under which IPLM is hosted. BJP parliamentarian Meenakshi Lekhi was the chief guest at the function held at India International Centre (IIC). IPLM claims to be spread across 226 public libraries in 23 states covering 120 districts. New Delhi, Sep 28 : Actor-environmentalist Dia Mirza says meeting Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin was a special moment. Dia hosted United Nations (UN)'s "Champions of the Earth" award with Baldwin. "I have had the honour to host for the second year in a row Champions of the Earth Awards, a truly motivating and inspiring platform that brings together some of the finest human beings on the planet," Dia said in a statement. "To be able to host this year's awards with Alec Baldwin made the experience all the more special," added the UN Environment's Goodwill Ambassador for India. The awards were presented on September 26 in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also got the award. He dedicated it to the countrymen and the country's tradition of coexisting with nature. Islamabad, Sep 28 : Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit China in October, the media reported on Friday. It will be Khan's first visit to China after assuming the office. The dates of his visit and meeting schedule with Chinese officials is being finalised, the News International reported. It said that Khan will be accompanied by a high-level delegation and will be discussing the China Pakistan Economic Corridor project with the Chinese leadership besides exchanging views on economic cooperation. The Pakistani delegation will also participate in a conference in China, the report said. Khan in his post-election address on July 25 had vowed to strengthen and improve Pakistan's relationship with neighbouring countries, including China. "We will strengthen and improve our relations with China. We want to work towards success of the CPEC. We also want to send teams to learn poverty alleviation from China," he had said. Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved. Climbers descended to a parking lot located halfway up Mt. Ontake rest after fleeing from the volcano eruption, in Kiso in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) Contributed Kuroda Terutoshi A volcano in central Japan erupted in spectacular fashion on Saturday, catching mountain climbers by surprise and stranding at least 40 injured people in areas that rescue workers have been unable to reach. Another seven people were missing. The injured, unable to descend 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake on their own, are staying in mountain lodges, said Sohei Hanamura, a crisis management official in Nagano prefecture. Thirty-two people had serious injuries, including at least seven who lost consciousness. Police, fire and military rescue workers were planning to try to reach the area on foot after daybreak Sunday, after deciding that the ash in the air made it too dangerous to use helicopters. Hanamura said seven people were reported missing on the mountain. Lodge managers are familiar with first aid procedures and were communicating with rescue officials in town, he said. With a sound likened to thunder, the volcano erupted shortly before noon on a clear autumn day, spewing large white plumes of gas and ash high into the sky and blanketing the surrounding area in ash. Smaller eruptions continued into the night. About 250 people were initially trapped on the slopes, but most had made their way down by Saturday night, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported. Some were in shelters set up in four nearby towns. One witness told NHK that the eruption started with large booms that sounded like thunder. In a video posted on YouTube, shocked climbers can be seen moving quickly away from the peak as an expanding plume of ash emerges above and then engulfs them. Many of those who made it down emerged with clothes and backpacks covered in ash. They reported being engulfed in total darkness for several minutes. Mikio Oguro, an NHK journalist who was on the slope on an unrelated assignment, told the station that he saw massive smoke coming out of the crater, blocking sunlight and reducing visibility to zero. "Massive ash suddenly fell and the entire area was totally covered with ash," he said by phone. He and his crew had to use headlamps to find a lodge. "My colleagues later told me that they thought they might die," Oguro said. Chennai, Sep 28 : The Indian subsidiary of Italian company Bonfiglioli Riduttori making gearboxes, gearmotors and drive systems, on Friday announced the commissioning of its new plant near Chennai. Bonfiglioli is a worldwide leader in manufacturing gearboxes, gearmotors and drive systems. In a statement here, the Indian company Bonfiglioli Transmissions said the new plant at Thirumudivakkam near here has a production capacity of 75,000 units per annum to serve customers in off-highway, construction, mining, agriculture and material handling applications. The total investment for the new plant is Rs 50 crore and with additional capacity the total capacity goes up to 125,000 units per annum, an official told IANS. "India is a key country for Bonfiglioli, and the good results up to now show we were right when we started the business here in Chennai. This expansion in India is part of the company's global investment strategy in production and assembly facilities," Sonia Bonfiglioli, Chairman of Bonfiglioli Group, was quoted as saying in the statement. She also said the company will be investing in the Internet of Things and machine learning. Last year, the company clocked a turnover of Rs 733.2 crore. New Delhi, Sep 28 : Finance Ministers of six states on Friday decided to organise a Chief Ministers' conclave in the national capital in October to evolve a consensus on financial issues concerning the country, the Delhi government announced. The decision was taken at a meeting of Finance Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala, Punjab and Karnataka and the Puducherry Chief Minister, an official statement from the Delhi government said. West Bengal has also agreed to the proposal, it said. "We discussed the discriminatory Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the 15th Finance Commission and other financial issues concerning federalism," Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia said. He also said that preliminary discussions on GST revenue collection and futuristic revenue collections were also discussed by the Finance Ministers. "All these issues will form the agenda for the Chief Ministers' conclave and all the CMs of India will be invited for this event," he said. The main focus will be on the discriminatory ToRs of the current Finance Commission, he said. Kolkata, Sep 28 : Private-lender Bandhan Bank on Friday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has withdrawn its general permission to open new branches and frozen the remuneration of the lender's MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh till further notice as it failed to comply with a licensing condition. "RBI has communicated to us that since the Bank was not able to bring down the shareholding of Non Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) to 40 per cent, as required under the licensing condition, general permission to open new branches stands withdrawn and the Bank can open branches with prior approval of RBI and the remuneration of the MD & CEO of the Bank stands frozen at the existing level, till further notice," it said in a regulatory filing. The Bank is taking necessary steps to comply with the licensing condition to bring down the shareholding of NOFHC in the Bank to 40 per cent and shall continue to engage with the RBI in this regard, it added. According to RBI's new banking licensing norms, any bank offering "universal" services will have to bring down the promoter holding to 40 per cent in three years from the date of commencement of business. Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank, which was the first instance in the country of a microfinance entity transforming in to a universal bank, completed three years of operations this August. Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd (BFHL), the promoting entity of Bandhan Bank, is owned by Bandhan Financial Services Ltd (BFSL). The promoter holding in the bank currently stands at around 82 per cent after a successful Initial Public Offer (IPO) launched in March this year. Before IPO, the promoter holding in the bank was nearly 89 per cent. Significantly, the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India's rules mandate one year's lock-in period for promoter holding after an IPO. Ghosh was unavailable to comment on the RBI restrictions. Sources in the bank, however, said the restrictions imposed on the new branch expansion "will not impact its present operation". According to information available in the bank's website, it has 937 branches and 2,764 doorstep service centres. Chandigarh, Sep 28 : Various commemoration events were organised on Friday in the areas falling under the Indian Army's Western Command on the second anniversary of the surgical strikes across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said here. "The second anniversary of the strikes are being held on September 28-30. Several events have been planned at the Hisar military station to commemorate the strikes and to showcase the gallant action of the Indian Army. This includes showcasing of weapons and equipment, live demonstration on the might of mechanised forces of the Army, motivational movie on the life of soldiers on the LOC and visit to war memorial by schoolchildren," the spokesman said. More events will be held on Saturday and Sunday. After 18 Indian soldiers were martyred in an attack by Pakistan-backed terrorists in Uri in 2016, the Indian Army had retaliated by carrying out punitive strikes in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and killed terrorists on September 28-29, 2016. Chandigarh, Sep 28 : Haryana will renovate 134 holy pilgrimages located in five districts of the state as described in holy relics Mahabharata, Ramayana and Vamana Purana, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced on Friday. These places are located in Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal, Panipat and Jind districts. Khattar, who visited all 13 holy pilgrimages in Karnal district on Friday, announced development works amounting to about Rs 18.39 crore in these pilgrimages through the Kurukshetra Development Board. "A society which preserves and promotes its cultural heritage passes on moral values to the young generation," he said. Haryana has a glorious history, especially of Kurukshetra where Lord Krishna delivered the celestial message of Bhagavad Gita, Khattar said. New Delhi, Sep 28 : A young man has been arrested on the charge of robbing and then strangling a nonagenarian relative found dead a day after she went missing here, police said on Friday. Accused Firoz had taken away the gold earrings and silver bangles of the 97-year-old who was his distant relative, Deputy Commissioner of Police Aslam Khan said. Nathia was found lying unattended 10 km from her residence on Tuesday, a day after she was reported missing. She was declared brought dead at the hospital. A post-mortem revealed that she was strangled. Her son Babu Ali had earlier filed a police complaint on Monday that his mother was last seen with their distant relative Firoz, 22. The earrings and bangles were seized from Firoz's possession, police claimed. New Delhi, Sep 28 : A 40-year-old man was held here on Friday after he killed his wife's lover, a few days after she abandoned him, police said. Deputy Commissioner of Police Aslam Khan said the matter was reported to the police from north Delhi's Swaroop Nagar. "We were informed that a scuffle between two men led to the murder of one," the police officer said. The accused's wife had a relationship with Mohan, a tailor. About five days ago, she left her husband's home, along with their kids, to live with Mohan. "Her husband, Amarnath went there and got into a scuffle with Mohan last (Thursday) night. "He hit his head against a slab," the officer said, adding he was taken to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead. Amarnath and his wife have been married for the last 16 years. They have five children. Kolkata, Sep 28 : A woman was killed while another sustained serious injury as a concrete slab fell off a foot overbridge inside the Baruipur railway station premises under the Eastern Railway here on Friday evening. The authority said two railway employees were suspended immediately after the incident and a high-level probe initiated. "Ashima Pramanik, a resident of Baruipur, was killed after a concrete slab from the overbridge in Baruipur railway station fell off on her on Friday evening. Another woman has sustained injury in the incident," Chief Public Relation Officer of the Eastern Railway Rabi Mahapatra said. Baruipur is a suburban railway junction under the Sealdah south division. "This was an accident. We have immediately suspended two persons. An inquiry committee has been formed that would look into the matter and submit report within seven days. Strict action would be taken against those found guilty," he said. According to locals and daily passengers, the foot overbridge was in a bad condition due to lack of maintenance. Cuttack, Sep 28 : The members of the Orissa High Court Bar Association on Friday decided to continue their cease-work protest over alleged police excesses till next Wednesday, even though the Supreme Court asked them to resume work. Orissa High Court Bar Association Secretary Satyabrat Mohanty said a decision regarding the ongoing strike will be taken on October 3. "The order to withdraw the strike was issued without hearing our views. We have respect for the Supreme Court order and we will discuss the matter with all members at the next governing body meeting," Mohanty told reporters. Earlier in the day, the agitating lawyers, intensifying their strike locked up the main gate of the Orissa High Court. They also barred the judges from entering its premises. The lawyers also burnt the effigy of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra for his directive to the lawyers to resume work. The lawyers are on cease-work strike since August 30 demanding action against the police personnel involved in the attack on an advocate in Cuttack on August 28. Two constables have been suspended in connection with the attack on the lawyer. The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the lawyers to end the strike and join their duty in order to help people get access to justice. The apex court also directed the Odisha Director General of Police to transfer the investigation to Crime Branch Inspector General of Police. Mumbai, Sep 28 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 5 crore on Karur Vysya Bank for non-compliance of its directives. According to a RBI statement on Friday, the penalty was imposed for non-compliance with its directions on "Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms, reporting of frauds, and on the need for discipline at the time of opening of current accounts". "This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers," the statement added. Photo: YouTube A massively successful Kelowna tech startup has reached an untimely end, and it reportedly will result in dozens of job losses. Club Penguin Island, which started as Club Penguin in 2005 and was sold by founder Lane Merrifield for more than US$350 million, will be shut down by Disney by the end of the year. Club Penguin was a massively multiplayer online game, or MMO, that featured a virtual world and plenty of activities within for users to explore. Club Penguin transitioned to Club Penguin Island to target mobile users last year, but now its employees are looking for work. There arent many opportunities in a city like Kelowna, so most of us will have to move our families if we want to pursue games, an anonymous former Club Penguin Island employee told video game website Kotaku. Its a huge blow to all of us. Merrifield, who sold the business to Disney in 2007, took to Facebook on Wednesday to address Club Penguin Island employees who lost their jobs. For more on this story, visit Okanagan Edge. New Delhi, Sep 28 : National passenger carrier Air India will deploy its Boeing 747 "Jumbo" aircraft to meet the rising passenger traffic from October 16 to 21. According to Air India, it will operate the 747 aircraft on Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi and Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi routes. The aircraft is equipped with 12 seats in First Class, 26 in Business Class and 385 in Economy Class. Los Angeles, Sep 29 : Music mogul Simon Cowell has agreed to donate over $326,000 to help close a dog meat farm in South Korea. The "America's Got Talent" judge, 58, has agreed to donate the amount to Humane Society International (HSI), a charity that addresses animal issues worldwide, reports people.com. HSI tweeted about Cowell's donation on Friday. They say his money will save over 200 dogs and puppies from a South Korean dog farm that breeds the animals for human consumption. The charity plans to go there next week to pick up the canines, after which they will send the dogs to various countries including the US, Canada, UK, and the Netherlands for recovery and adoption. "Simon's generous donation means the world to us, and provides a huge boost to our appeal to close this horrendous dog meat farm," HSI UK Executive Director Claire Bass said in a statement. Accel at Crystal Park Accel at Crystal Park's agreement with United Healthcare for Medicare Advantage and Commercial coverage means additional ability to offer excellent healthcare services to the senior community. Accel at Crystal Park, a StoneGate Senior Living facility, announces it has secured an agreement for Medicare Advantage and Commercial plans with United Healthcare, effective October 1, 2018. This agreement gives the community the opportunity to leverage their Commercial and Medicare Advantage benefits to access Accel at Crystal Parks premium skilled nursing and rehabilitative healthcare. Accel at Crystal Park is committed to providing exceptional skilled nursing and rehabilitative care while providing a luxury, hotel-like experience, says Julie Kuiper, administrator of Accel at Crystal Park. The agreement with United Healthcare for Medicare Advantage and Commercial coverage means additional ability to offer our excellent healthcare services to the community with another insurance payor at our premium facility. Accel at Crystal Park was honored with the Pinnacle Quality Insight 2018 Customer Experience Award earlier this year. The facility scored in the top 15 percent across the nation over a 12-month period, securing a Best in Class distinction based on an average ranking of patient experience. About Accel at Crystal Park Accel at Crystal Park opened in February 2017 and features 59 private transitional care suites designed for patients recovering from an acute care event. Accel delivers modern amenities and technology, with a rehabilitation gym that help patients complete post-acute rehabilitation as quickly as possible and return to their lifestyle. Learn more: http://accelcrystalpark.com/. About StoneGate Senior Living StoneGate Senior Living is an award-winning, full-spectrum senior care and housing company with 46 properties across Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado. Recently ranked as the nations 31st largest transitional and long-term care company by Provider magazine, StoneGate is a fully-integrated, post-acute health care company with service lines and business units that offer transitional care, long-term care, assisted living, memory care, rehabilitation, wellness, pharmacy, care navigation and post-acute analytical services. Learn more at http://www.stonegatesl.com/. Check out the fuel-efficient inventory at Allan Nott Every driver wants to save money while at the gas pump, as well as spend less time there. Thats why many manufacturers have engineered newer models to be more fuel efficient. There are also many hybrid, electric-powered and plug-in hybrid options on the market nowadays. Luckily, to meet the demands of customers, Allan Nott features many different fuel-efficient vehicles in its inventory. Allan Nott is a new and used dealership that specializes in Honda and Toyota models that is located in Lima, Ohio. Staff at the dealership say that the most popular models sold are the ones that feature a great fuel economy rating. This includes the Honda Accord Hybrid, Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid, Honda Insight, Toyota Prius, Toyota Avalon Hybrid and Toyota Camry. Most of the vehicles are either hybrids or plug-in hybrids, though there are some models that are engineered to be more efficient than others. Along with the cost savings on gasoline, fuel-efficient vehicles are also beneficial with low emission ratings, which means that it is better for the environment. Other benefits can also be using the saved gas money on a vacation or trip with family or friends. To view the available fuel-efficient inventory at Allan Nott, shoppers can visit the dealerships website at http://www.allannott.com. The website even features shopping tools to calculate fuel savings, apply for credit approval, calculate a trade-in and calculate payments. For those who would like to see the inventory in person, the dealership is located at 3500 Elida Road. "We cant afford to lose ground. President Trump has the country going in the right direction. The America Fighting Back PAC (AFBPAC), organized by 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and Arizona businessman and long-time Republican Floyd Brown, has embarked on an aggressive fundraising campaign in an effort to motivate traditional Republican major donors as well as individual donors that support President Trumps agenda. The effortled by Cainhas been met with some early success. The first three meetings with donors have already taken place in Phoenix, AZ; Dallas, TX; and Washington, D.C. During the invitation-only meetings, donors have been briefed on AFBPAC activity and shown a series of ads, several that are already up and running nationally. The donors have also been briefed on the traditional and social media targeting strategy, in addition to GOTV tactics. Upcoming donor meetings have been scheduled for Las Vegas, NV on October 19th and New York City later in the month. AFBPAC Chairman Herman Cain stated, This initiative will assist Republican congressional candidates that are supporting President Trump and our conservative Republican agenda. Our goal is to counter negative messaging from Democrats and the radical Left with the facts and positive messaging. We cant afford to lose ground. President Trump has the country going in the right direction. AFBPAC Co-Chairman Floyd Brown added, Our goal for the midterm election is $4 million. We have also structured the PAC so that major gifts can go 100 percent into GOTV and persuasion efforts on social media. I have committed to paying administrative costs until November with my gifts to the PAC. This makes our matching funds twice as powerful. And we need to focus all our resources on social media during this critical final phase. In January of 2018, President Donald Trump effectively started a trading war with the impending imposition with a series of tariffs on selective products and components produced outside the United States. These tariffs included: Section 232 Tariffs authorizing the President to impose tariffs on any goods which can impair the national security. Section 301 Tariffs which authorize the President to impose penalties on any country or commodity based on unjustified, unreasonable or discriminatory trade practices. These tariffs offer the potential for increasing employment in a select number of U.S. aluminum and steel mills. However, with these tarrifs having gone into effect on trade with Mexico, Canada and countries in the European Union, they bring a negative downside that will certainly radiate to many industries and have already alienated some of the U.S.s closest allies. The Chinese Tariff Trap In particular, components and products imported from China have been narrowly targeted for penalties under Section 301 tariffs. List 1 tariffs under Section 301 (covering 818 HTS codes) affect commodities such as boilers, generators, turbines, aircraft components and machinery at an estimated annual trading value of $34 billion. List 2 tariffs (284 HTS codes) cover chemicals, machinery and certain fuel and commodity-holding large shipping containers at an estimated annual trading value of $16 billion. The Trump administration is preparing (or threatening) to impose Section 301, List 3 tariffs, which would have an enormous negative impact on businesses relying on components imported from China. List 3 tariffs affect approximately $150 billion in products for the electronics, telecom, lighting, automotive, and construction industries, among others. Companies serving these industries are understandably skittish about continuing to source their components from China. These tariffs have the real potential for crippling margins and causing slowdowns in growth and employment in various industries. For these companies, there is an alternative to China sourcing that can protect their margins and continue to position them for business growth. An Economic Alternative: India Sourcing Many MES customers are entrenched in the lighting, telecom, electronics, automotive and agricultural industries. Fortunately, they are not locked into China as their only outsourcing strategy. In fact, most are directing us to source from India, Vietnam or other countries where trading is outside the scope of the Trump Administrations tariff policies. In most cases, the best alternative to China sourcing is to shift production to India. And there are two reasons why. First, with the Trump administrations tariff policies as currently imposed or projected, sourcing from India can avoid all the Section 301 tariffs. And the second reason is the Made in India initiative being driven by Indias Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. This initiative has provided for fundamental economic policy changes that have dramatically improved the business climate in India. These include infrastructure improvements, better rates for electricity and Indian investments in domestic digital technologies. This initiative is encouraging Indian companies to invest aggressively, expanding both production capacity and manufacturing capabilities. Automotive, housing and agricultural markets in India are also growing at a torrid pace, encouraging an investment boost that has enhanced Indias business growth prospects. Now is the time to leverage manufacturing opportunities in India. And with the imposition of the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, those opportunities become even more attractive. India Supply Chain: No Compromise in Quality or Delivery By nurturing a diverse spectrum of offshore manufacturing sources, MES is strategically positioned to provide manufacturing and supply chain options to help its global customers mitigate disruptive tariff policies. We are in the process of building dozens of tools in India to relocate manufacturing and sourcing from China. MES started sourcing in India as far back as 2012. We now have developed unique capabilities with engineers in three out of five key manufacturing clusters, including the south region (Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore), the western region (Gujarat and Jamnagar, the brass capital of the world) and the highly industrialized Northern Sector (Delhi, Faridabad, Gurgaon). MES has audited nearly 160 Indian suppliers for commodities that include aluminum die castings, steel forgings, steel investment castings, stainless steel castings, and rubber-engineered automotive products. MES currently does business with 18 Indian suppliers and is ready to expand its supplier roster to meet growing demands and to protect our clients supply chains. Supplier diversity is the key to prevailing despite an escalating tariff policy. AssuredPartners is truly dedicated to partnering with the best of the Aviation industry throughout the country. said AssuredPartners President and COO Tom Riley. AssuredPartners, Inc. is pleased to announce the acquisitions of Regal Aviation Insurance located in Hillsboro, OR and Lundy & Clark Insurance Group of Fort Lauderdale, FL. Both agencies specialize in the general aviation community and provide insurance to personal aircraft owners, maintenance shops, airports, and commercial operators of all kind. The combined acquisitions represent a reported $2.2 million in revenue. Todays skies have a variety of exposures and we have built Regal Aviation to handle those in the best regard for our clients, said Regal Aviations Jason Wissmiller. With our specialized marketplace we wanted to ensure we had a partner who truly understands our industry and has built the proper infrastructure for the aviation sector stated Rusty Wissmiller of Regal Aviation Insurance. Lundy & Clarks Daniel Lundy stated, By joining AssuredPartners we will be able to collaborate with partner companies nationwide with the dedicated team AssuredPartners has invested in. We are proud to join the AP Aerospace team. AssuredPartners is truly dedicated to partnering with the best of the Aviation industry throughout the country, said AssuredPartners President and COO Tom Riley. Adding Regal Aviation and Lundy & Clark is a welcomed addition to our existing AP Aerospace platform. We are pleased to welcome the talented staff and respected clients to AssuredPartners. For more information on Regal Aviation Insurance, please click here: http://www.regalaviation.com. For more information on Lundy & Clark Insurance Group, please click here: http://www.lundyclarkinsurance.com. ABOUT ASSUREDPARTNERS, INC Headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida and led by Jim Henderson and Tom Riley, AssuredPartners, Inc. acquires and invests in insurance brokerage businesses (property and casualty, employee benefits, surety and MGUs) across the United States and in London. From its founding in March of 2011, AssuredPartners has grown to over $1 billion in annualized revenue and continues to be one of the fastest growing insurance brokerage firms in the United States with over 170 offices in 30 states and London. For more information, please contact Dean Curtis, CFO, at 407.708.0031 or dean.curtis@assuredpartners.com, or visit http://www.assuredpartners.com. Big Sister, Little Sister: a heartwarming celebration of sisterly love for young children. Big Sister, Little Sister is the creation of published author Cheryl A. Newsome, a mother, grandmother, nature photographer, and pastor of Christ-Centered Community Church near Willow, Alaska. Big Sister, Little Sister illustrates the relationship between a big sister and a little sister from its inception until little sister begins to demand her independence from the tutelage of big sister. Through insight gained from observing the dynamics between two of her granddaughters and from personal experience having been a little sister, Cheryl Newsome illuminates the conflicting emotions of jealously and love big sisters have for little sisters. In addition is how that conflict was resolved to some degree by big sister mothering little sister, which enabled big sister to continue to be the center of attention as the firstborn. Newsome shares, Big Sister, Little Sister is a book younger children can relate to. It is also a heartwarming book that stirs up memories of childhood if you are a big sister, little sister, big brother, or little brother. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Cheryl A. Newsomes new book is a wonderful story to share with any child welcoming a new brother or sister into their life. View a synopsis of Big Sister, Little Sister on YouTube. Readers can purchase Big Sister, Little Sister at traditional brick and mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Big Sister, Little Sister, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Aimed at providing information and opening the eyes of the public on the enduring suffering of abused wives, Retribution: A Story of Domestic Abuse (published by Xlibris in April 2013) by author Gerald Bullock closely trails dark undercurrents of an epidemic of women abused by husbands. What would parents do if they would learn that their only daughter was a victim of abuse, was repeatedly beaten, abused and even raped by her alcoholic husband? This is the situation Dr. Ellie Conlin discovered when her daughter Felicia called her for help about a particularly deep laceration that would not stop bleeding. What could she do, as do she must? From all appearances, Felicia seems to be a typical suburban housewife. But behind the closed doors of her home, she kept a dark and shameful secret. Gradually, she had become victimized, had been repeatedly beaten, verbally abused and even raped by her husband, Craig, a police reporter for the local newspaper. Unknown vigilantes somehow discover the truth and decide to take the law into their own hands. As the local police and the FBI desperately try to uncover the vigilantes identities, startling secrets are slowly brought to light and the notions of justice, crime, punishment, the development of an abusive relationship, the nature and consequences of abuse and the dark undercurrents of private bedroom society are explored. Retribution: A Story of Domestic Abuse uncovers the shocking secrets behind the facade of respectability and seeming peacefulness of some American homes. The topic of spousal abuse is rampant in todays society and a large percentage of women are either victims, or have been, and others know a close friend or relative who has been a victim. Bullock has written a narrative that unleashes retribution for years of abuse and teaches the abuser a lesson not soon to be forgotten. For more details about the book, visit https://www.amazon.com/Retribution-Story-Domestic-Gerald-Bullock/dp/1483626121. Retribution: A Story of Domestic Abuse By Gerald Bullock Softcover | 6 x 9in | 266 pages | ISBN 9781483626123 E-Book | 266 pages | ISBN 9781483626130 Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble About the Author Gerald Bullock is a gynecologist who has wanted to write this book for at least a decade. He is an advocate not only for womens rights, but for peoples rights as well. A former Air Force lieutenant colonel at SAC headquarters, he helped write the regulations for pregnant women serving on active duty in the Air Force. He practices north of Houston with his daughter, also a gynecologist. His children include a nurse, a schoolteacher and a doctor. His wife and high school sweetheart is a retired nurse who taught him about women and made him whatever he is today. Xlibris Publishing, an Author Solutions, LLC imprint, is a self-publishing services provider created in 1997 by authors, for authors. By focusing on the needs of creative writers and artists and adopting the latest print-on-demand publishing technology and strategies, we provide expert publishing services with direct and personal access to quality publication in hardcover, trade paperback, custom leather-bound and full-color formats. To date, Xlibris has helped to publish more than 60,000 titles. For more information, visit xlibris.com or call 1-888-795-4274 to receive a free publishing guide. Follow us @XlibrisPub on Twitter for the latest news. Serra Toyota is currently offering $500 more for vehicle trade-ins to qualifying customers who purchase a new Toyota model like the 2019 Toyota Avalon. Vehicle owners looking to trade in their current model can find excellent customer service and fair pricing at Serra Toyota. The dealership offers multiple options for owners looking to value their trade including in person at the dealership and online using a trade-in calculator. When customers use the online trade-in calculator, they can receive an estimate in under five minutes that is honored for one week or 1,000-miles (whichever occurs first). Many vehicle owners prefer trading their model in at a local dealership like Serra Toyota because it offers a hassle-free experience and no guesswork. The dealership is currently holding a special promotion for vehicle owners who trade in their current model and purchase a new model at Serra Toyota. Qualifying customers will receive $500 more for their vehicle trade to be used toward the down payment of a new Toyota model purchased at the dealership. To receive the discount, qualifying customers should present the offer, found on the Serra Toyota website, to a dealership representative at the time of trade-in. Some exclusions may apply. For more information on the $500-more trade-in offer available now at Serra Toyota, potential customers should visit the dealerships website at http://www.serratoyota.com or contact a member of the Serra Toyota team directly in person at the dealership or by phone at 855-957-3772. Photo: Contributed Police from Salmon Arm, Sicamous and the North Okanagan teamed up to catch a suspected car thief. Salmon Arm RCMP Staff Sgt. Scott West said on Thursday, Sept. 27, regional traffic services, police dog services, as well as RCMP air assets, were deployed to the South Canoe and Ranchero areas after police spotted what was believed to be a stolen vehicle. West said a man was spotted by a plainclothes officer in the area of 10th Ave and Kilhani Park looking at bicycles. The unidentified man was operating a vehicle which was suspected to be stolen on Sept. 5 from West Kelowna. The man fled in the car before police could speak to him, however, officers used numerous resources to contain the area. The vehicle was again sighted by an officer and it fled into the Ranchero area. Officers contained the area at various locations as other officers arrived, said West. The suspect was then identified by a patrolling officer on Highway 97B. The suspect ran along the highway on foot before trying to elude police in the woods. With officers on his tail, the man dove into Gardnier Lake in a failed bid to escape. Officers and a police dog surrounded the lake before the man surrendered and was brought to shore where he was checked by BC Ambulance Services. The 33-year-old man was found to have arrest warrants in British Columbia and is known to police. He is currently in police custody in Salmon Arm awaiting a bail hearing on charges of possession of stolen property, as well as break enter and theft stemming from an investigation in Sicamous where a local pharmacy was broken into in September. Toyota owners near Birmingham can find tire savings with a tire promotion and Toyota tire price match guarantee at Serra Toyota. The dealership is currently running a buy three get the fourth for $1 tire promotion. Additional incentives including free tire rotations for life, free alignment inspections, free nitrogen, and free road hazard protection for two years are also available for qualifying purchases. Exclusions apply. Purchasing tires from a certified Toyota dealership ensures that vehicle owners are receiving a quality product specifically formulated to fit the needs of their vehicle. Serra Toyota sells all major tire brands and offers a Toyota tire price match guarantee for all customers. For more information on the selection of tires and current tire promotions at Serra Toyota, interested parties can visit the dealerships website at http://www.serratoyota.com or connect with a dealership representative directly by phone at 855-957-3772. Serra Toyota is committed to providing a positive shopping experience for all customers. Though the dealership is most known for new and used vehicle sales, a range of other services including maintenance and repair and Toyota parts and installation are also available. The dealership offers a rotating selection of service center specials and coupons for vehicle owners looking to save on maintenance costs. For attendees that choose to adopt one of the available animals, Bob Tyler Toyota will pay 75 percent of the adoption fee! Pensacola citizens considering adding a furry addition to their family will have the opportunity to meet a variety of friendly cats and dogs in search of their forever homes at Bob Tyler Toyota. In partnership with the Pensacola Humane Society, the dealership is hosting the Bob Tyler Toyota Adopt-A-Thon on Friday, September 28 from 12 pm to 4 pm. The event will be held on the Bob Tyler Toyota lot, which is located on Pensacola, Blvd. During the pet adoption event at Bob Tyler Toyota, the Pensacola Humane Express trailer will be parked on the dealership lot with a variety of cats and dogs in search of their forever homes that potential adopters can meet. For attendees that choose to adopt one of the available animals, Bob Tyler Toyota will pay 75 percent of the adoption fee! Whats more, Bob Tyler Toyota will also be giving out free pet bowls to the events first 200 visitors. Those interested in learning more about the Bob Tyler Toyota Adopt-a-Thon can learn more on the dealerships website at http://www.bobtylertoyota.com, as well as the Bob Tyler Toyota Facebook page. Questions and inquiries can be directed towards dealership staff through the dealerships website, Facebook page, calling directly at 850-308-1887 or by simply visiting the dealership at 7201 Pensacola Blvd and speaking with a representative. Its such an honour to be given this award in front of so many industry professionals. I couldnt have done it without the help of my friends and colleagues at Star, so Id just like to thank the whole team for making it such a great place to work. Star Refrigeration Operations Group apprentice, Tom Woolston, has won the silver prize in the Student of the Year category at this years RAC Cooling Awards. The ceremony took place last night at the London Hilton on Park Lane, where Tom and nine of his fellow apprentices from across the UK had their dedication, hard work and engineering expertise recognised in front of 600 industry professionals. After receiving the award, Tom said, Its such an honour to be given this award in front of so many industry professionals. I feel incredibly privileged to have even been nominated in the first place, so to reach the final ten and then to win the silver award tonight is a dream come true. I couldnt have done it without the help of my friends and colleagues at Star, so Id just like to thank the whole team for making it such a great place to work. In recognition of their achievements, Tom and the other nine finalists will all receive a years membership to the Institute of Refrigerations Service Engineers Section. For finishing second, Tom also walked off with a cash prize. James Ward, Operations Director at Star Refrigeration said, Im delighted for Tom, who deserves this award for all the hard work hes put into his studies and his apprenticeship over the last three years. Hes a credit to Star and Im certain he has a great future ahead of him in the refrigeration industry. Indeed, all of the ten finalists deserve a massive pat on the back for doing themselves proud tonight. Its a huge testament to the talent coming through and the next generation of engineers that the competition was so strong this evening. I wish them all the best for the future. Its not the first time that a Star apprentice has had their efforts recognised in award form. In 2014, Oxford-based apprentice Lyell Perks claimed the top prize at the same awards evening in the Student of the Year category. More recently, Sam Gills from Stars Washington branch near Newcastle won the 2017 ACR Trainee of the Year award and has since made it to the final six in the WorldSkills engineering competition, set to take place this November. Stars history of apprentices winning awards is a reflection of the companys desire to nurturing the next generation of talented engineers. Developing Young People is one of Stars core values and the company not only sponsored the Student of the Year award at last nights ceremony, but also sponsored the Effort and Progress award at the IPS Engineering Apprentice awards last year. Star will continue its ethos of promoting the training and education of promising young engineers to ensure a bright future for the refrigeration industry across all of its sectors. Burke Volkswagen is reopening with a new showroom and an Oktoberfest themed celebration. Cape May Court House dealership, Burke Volkswagen, is inviting the community to visit for a grand reopening celebration. The Oktoberfest themed party is taking place on Oct. 4, 2018 from 3 p.m. - 7 p.m. at the dealerships location at 519 Stone Harbor Blvd. In addition to the new showroom and the latest VW models, attendees will have plenty to enjoy, including vintage Volkswagen models on display. There will also be complimentary German food and beverages, an ice cream truck, live music, painting on display and giveaways for all ages. Its a family friendly celebration that everyone can enjoy. Burke Volkswagen is part of Burke Motor Group, a dealer group serving South Jersey with multiple vehicle brands with a story that dates back to 1912, when Raymond M. Burke Sr. opened the first gas station in Wildwood. After World War I, he obtained a Chevrolet franchise and from there, the rest is history, with the family-run operation evolving into the Burke Motor Group known today. More information can be found on the Burke Motor Group Facebook page or its website, at http://www.BurkeMotorGroup.com. Questions about the grand reopening or VW models can be directed toward staff by calling 609-465-6000. Chicago-area drivers looking to upgrade their current vehicle to a newer crossover that offers all of the modern bells and whistles can find what theyre looking new 2019 Honda HR-V, which is now available at Continental Motors. Located in Countryside, Illinois, and catering to the greater Chicago area, Continental Honda recently welcomed the practical and versatile 2019 HR-V to its inventory, celebrating the occasion by publishing an online model review to its website. In its review of the new 2019 Honda HR-V, Continental Honda goes over several of the standout features, amenities and technologies available with the new model. The dealership highlights things like connectivity options, safety technology and interior space to give drivers an idea of whether or not the HR-V is the right choice for them. The Continental Honda review makes it easy to inquire about the new 2019 Honda HR-V models on its lot, offering a dealership contact form directly on the review page. Using the form, customers can ask the dealership questions about the 2019 Honda HR-V as well as set up an appointment for a test drive in one of the dealers available vehicles. Shoppers can find this review and others like it on the Continental Honda website at Continental Honda [http://www.continentalhonda.com __title__ http://www.continentalhonda.com/?utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=press_release&utm_campaign=2018sep27 . Those with questions or inquiries can use the dealerships website to reach out to staff or call directly at 888-865-0378. Victorica Falls: a fantasy page-turner about a young mage mastering her powers. Victoria Falls is the creation of published author Deborah Carr, a training consultant from northern Illinois with an English masters degree; she is a married mother of two grown children. Carr writes, Shed just reentered the school from one of the side doors when she heard the distant peal of a bell. She paused to listen. It came from the watch tower at the top of the hill overlooking Victoricas western border. Linden darted to the front of the school and ran outside. Other bells picked up the signal. Soon every bell in town, from the provincial headquarters where her parents worked to the fire brigade, rang out the emergency code for a border raid. Linden looked around at the students and teachers gathering on the front lawn, their mouths open in disbelief. Raiders attacked at night, trampling crops, damaging property, and stealing horses. But these raiders were crossing the border on a sunny spring day. And Lindens school sat at the edge of town, the closest building to the western perimeterand directly in the path of whoever or whatever was heading their way. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Deborah Carrs new book is a tantalizing debut novel that offers convincing conflicts and gutsy characters to root for. Far from being perfect, the main character is relatable in her weaknesses and in her friendships and motivations; a book masterfully told that will satisfy fantasy readers of all ages. View a synopsis of Victorica Falls on YouTube. Consumers can purchase Victorica Falls at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Victorica Falls, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Our exclusive license agreement with the CeMM for ChIPmentation reinforces our commitment to furthering epigenetics research as we are now able to dedicate more resources to further this technology and its adoption." Diagenode, a leading global provider for complete solutions for sample preparation and epigenetics research, has now gained exclusive rights to the ChIPmentation technology which it launched late last year from the Research Center of Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (CEMM). The ChIPmentation system encompasses a unique methodology that integrates chromatin immunoprecipitation with a ligation-free library preparation for high-throughput sequencing , ChIPmentation. Diagenodes ChIPmentation, based on the well-studied tagmentation technology, is designed to make ChIP-seq easier and much faster, making it more accessible to new researchers who may not be well-versed with the method. ChIPmentation combines both chromatin immunoprecipitation and library preparation using transposase and sequencing-compatible adaptors within the same protocol. Because the method results in reduced material loss, smaller starting amounts can be used, enabling the use of ChIP-seq in a wider range of projects such as those using rare cell types. Our exclusive license agreement with the CeMM for ChIPmentation reinforces our commitment to furthering epigenetics research as we are now able to dedicate more resources to further this technology and its adoption, said Didier Allaer, CEO of Diagenode. Diagenode has released a new manual solution for histone ChIPmentation, and will soon release a similar solution for transcription factors. We look forward to launching more customized solutions and services using ChIPmentation as a result of our new agreement. Our ChIPmentation system represents true innovation in ChIP-seq, said Jerome Kroonen, Ph.D., Global Marketing Manager at Diagenode. The protocol eliminates the tedious steps, purifications, and inefficiencies that can result from standard ChIP-seq protocols. Additionally, researchers will have more options available for ChIPmentation including specifically optimized solutions for histones and transcription factors for tricky samples as we launch more kits. Kroonen also elaborated, Initially the company launched an automated ChIPmentation system which incorporated the ChIPmentation protocol on its signature automation instrument, the IP-Star Compact Automated System. As a result of dedicating more resources to developing solutions that our customers seek, we now provide the first solution for manual ChIPmentation, providing more flexibility for researchers. View data that has been generated with ChIPmentation and learn more about Diagenodes newest ChIPmentation of histones solution at https://www.diagenode.com/en/categories/chromatin-ip-chipmentation About Diagenode: Diagenode is a leading provider of complete solutions for epigenetics research and sample preparation. The company has developed both shearing solutions for a number of applications as well as a comprehensive approach to gain new insights into epigenetics studies. The company offers innovative DNA and chromatin shearing and automation instruments, reagent kits, and high quality antibodies to streamline DNA methylation, ChIP, and ChIP-seq workflows. The companys latest innovations include the industrys most validated ChIP antibodies, CATS-based RNA sequencing, and epigenetics assay services. For more information about Diagenode, please visit the companys website at http://www.diagenode.com. L-R Dr. Richard Knowles, Professor Jose Antonio Lammoglia, Ms Bernadette Ellis and Dr Loreto Almonte We are very pleased to have been honored with this approval from the Health Professions Council, and look forward to collaborating with our neighbors in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Florida National University (FNU) has been granted provisional approval for registration as viable training programs with the Health Professions Council (HPC) of the Bahamas for the following: Respiratory Therapy Associate (AS) and Bachelor of Science (BS), and Diagnostic Medical Sonographer Technology Associate (DMS/AS). Members of the FNU~Bahamas team, Dr. Almonte, Professor Lammoglia, and Ms. Borges, met with Ms. Ellis and Dr. Knowles on Monday, September 17, 2018. The FNU~Bahamas team members were delighted to receive the HPC official letter, on behalf of Dr. Maria C. Regueiro, FNU President/CEO. We are very pleased to have been honored with this approval from the Health Professions Council, and look forward to collaborating with our neighbors in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, stated Dr. Regueiro. Dr. Almonte, FNU Allied Health Division Head said We are very grateful for the opportunity that has been given to FNU, as we are committed to educating and training knowledgeable professionals to meet the needs of the Bahamian community. I have a very strong belief that, short of giving people with Diabetes a cure, the most critical thing is for us to supply customer solutions that enable real time simplified management of Diabetes. Glutalor Medical today announced that its Board of Directors had named Brian Heald as Chief Executive Officer. Heald joins the company with 30 years in the Diabetes Care industry, having most recently held senior leadership roles including Head of Global Research & Development, SVP, Head of North America Operations, and Board Director at Roche Diagnostics Diabetes Care. Glutalor Medical is a biotechnology company with a focus on Value Based Health Care. Its first products simplify Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) and create value to the health system via improved diabetes management support and control. The companys flagship product is the iWEL CGM system, which brings together simple reliable sensing, automated easy monitoring and advice via smart phone, and central health analytics of relevant parameters via a cloud-based solution. I have a very strong belief that, short of giving people with Diabetes a cure, the most critical thing is for us to supply customer solutions that enable real time simplified management of Diabetes, said Heald. I am convinced Glutalor Medicals vision and iWEL CGM system will significantly improve the lives of people living with Diabetes. About Glutalor Medical Glutalor Medical provides life-changing chronic disease management solutions to those who need them, improving the understanding and management of disease. They bring solutions to continuously sense health status and support real time health management. Initial focus of the company is Diabetes Management with its Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) solution and cloud-based analytics. The company is headquartered in Exton, PA. For more information visit http://www.Glutalormed.com New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at Roswell Park on September 26, 2018, announcing the formation of the first biotech venture between U.S. and Cuban partners. This historic venture with Cuba will provide Roswell Park access to innovative cancer-fighting drugs that could revolutionize treatments and put us one step closer to eliminating the threat of cancer once and for all. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced Buffalo-based Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has formed the Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance S.A., the first-ever biotech venture between the U.S. and Cuba. Roswell Park and CIM jointly form Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance Gives Roswell Park access to cancer drugs not previously accessible to U.S. Moves forward collaboration established during 2015 trade mission to Cuba Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced Buffalo-based Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has formed the Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance S.A., the first-ever biotech venture between the U.S. and Cuba. The announcement marks a significant milestone of progress following Governor Cuomos landmark trade mission to Cuba in April 2015, where he facilitated this historic partnership between Roswell Park and the Center for Molecular Immunology. This historic step will advance the research and development of new cancer medicines that may prolong and enhance survival for thousands of U.S. patients. This historic venture with Cuba will provide Roswell Park access to innovative cancer-fighting drugs that could revolutionize treatments and put us one step closer to eliminating the threat of cancer once and for all, Governor Cuomo said. By bringing the best and brightest together from across the world, New York is forging a path as a leader in modern medical research and advancement. This new joint venture gives Roswell Park access to CIMAvax-EGF and three additional cancer drugs unique approaches to treating some of the most deadly and burdensome cancer types both in the U.S. and globally for U.S. patients and researchers. The milestone marks another step toward researching, developing and eventually commercializing promising cancer drugs for the benefit of patients in the U.S. Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is an integral part of Buffalo and a world-class institution that has been leading the fight against cancer for generations, said Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul. The researchers and staff at Roswell Park work every day to save lives and deliver compassion to those who need it the most. This strategic research collaboration between Roswell Park and the leading medical minds of Cuba will deliver new opportunities for life-saving treatments, providing hope to millions of Americans. Following the 2015 trade mission, Roswell Park became the first medical institution to initiate FDA-authorized testing of CIMAvax-EGF in the United States. Governor Cuomo announced the launch of the groundbreaking clinical trial of CIMAvax a Cuban-developed lung cancer treatment in October 2016. This innovative clinical study is currently underway at Roswell Park, with announcement of preliminary phase I results presented at a scientific conference yesterday; initiation of the phase II portion of the initial study is anticipated for late 2018. In Cuba, many patients treated with CIMAvax have lived longer with improved quality of life and minimal side effects, compared to lung cancer patients who did not receive the drug in combination with standard chemotherapy. Roswell Park researchers believe that CIMAvax-EGF may also prove effective as a treatment for other cancers, such as head and neck, colon, breast, prostate and pancreas cancers, as well as for the prevention of primary lung cancers. The joint biotech venture has access to CIMAvax and three additional Cuban-developed cancer immunotherapy treatments not previously accessible to U.S. patients or researchers: IL-2 mutein, VSSP and another investigational immunotherapy that targets tumor-associated gangliosides. These four immunotherapies are innovative treatment approaches designed to enhance the bodys innate cancer-fighting self-defense system, alone or in combination with other immunotherapies. While these agents are still investigational therapies in the United States, evidence to date strongly suggests that all four are worthy of further study in several cancer types. Roswell Park and its partners are committed to working together to determine their true potential for controlling cancer and improving patient outcomes. Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner Howard Zemsky said, New York States leadership in cutting-edge medical research is emblemized by Buffalos Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, now a partner in the first-ever U.S.-Cuba biotech venture and in the advancement of new medicines to prolong and save lives. Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said, Each year nearly 110,000 New Yorkers learn they have cancer, and tragically around 35,000 die from this debilitating disease. Under the leadership of Governor Cuomo, were harnessing the tremendous resources here at Roswell Park and reaching around the world to stay at the forefront in the fight against cancer. Roswell Park President and CEO Candace S. Johnson, PhD, said, This is a momentous step forward on one of our most significant undertakings. With the establishment of this company, we are entering a critical new phase of Roswell Parks collaboration with these innovative Cuban scientists. Our goal is to develop these promising cancer therapies as quickly and effectively as possible so that they can benefit the greatest number of U.S. patients. Chief of Strategy, Business Development and Outreach at Roswell Park Thomas Schwaab, MD, PhD, said, Its incredibly rewarding to see our collaboration reach this crucial juncture. Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance S.A. will provide the support, expertise and infrastructure that will make it possible for Roswell Park to study these drugs and get them to U.S. patients. We believe these unique immunotherapies have the potential to change the landscape of cancer treatment, and we are proud to partner with our CIM colleagues to advance development of these therapies as quickly and effectively as possible. Congressman Brian Higgins said, This joint venture brings together leaders in breakthrough research to expedite delivery of promising treatment to those facing cancer. For 120 years, this countrys first national comprehensive cancer center, Roswell Park, has led the way in innovative cancer treatment and care benefiting patients around the world. This is yet another milestone in Roswell Parks tradition of delivering hope to those afflicted with cancer and those who love them. Congressman Tom Reed said, We care about ensuring patients have fair access to the drugs they need to fight their disease. This joint venture is just what the doctor ordered and will allow some of the best drugs, regardless of where they are developed, to be used to help people. Senator Tim Kennedy said, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center continues to lead the nation not only in providing thorough, outstanding care, but in developing cutting edge, innovative research and therapies, and this new partnership will only elevate that trailblazing spirit. I look forward to witnessing the advancements that are born out of this collaboration, and thank Governor Cuomo and Roswell Park President Candace Johnson for prioritizing health and hope for all New Yorkers. Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes said, I am excited and proud of the collaborative efforts and findings that Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has accomplished alongside Cuban research. Im hopeful that these numerous cancer therapies have the potential to have a revolutionary industry-wide and local economic impact, but most importantly that Roswell is successfully able to extend time that patients get to spend with their loved ones. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said, Roswell Park is internationally-known for cutting-edge research and this new partnership will take that research to the next level, breaking barriers and exploring new fronts in the fight against cancer. Cancer knows no boundaries, and this promising partnership demonstrates Roswell Parks determination to not only beat this scourge but to be at the forefront of the world effort in doing so. Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown said, Buffalo is proud of its growing health sciences sector. Under Governor Cuomos leadership, the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is fulfilling its potential as a source of groundbreaking research and economic growth. Dr. Candace Johnsons team at Roswell Park has accomplished something special and I am confident that people here, and around the world, will benefit from this first in the nation partnership. This joint venture biotech company, Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance S.A., will be based in Cuba and will be operated jointly by CIMs commercial affiliate, CIMAB S.A., and by a Roswell Park subsidiary, GBCT II LLC. The company will: Focus on conducting additional U.S. research studies on CIMAvax and the other products over the first five years; Seek U.S. FDA approval upon demonstration of successful outcomes in advanced-phase clinical testing for the products; Seek patent protection for discoveries arising from development of the four cancer drugs, seek sub-licensing opportunities for the entitys intellectual property rights, collaborate on research and share improvements on the intellectual property on a reciprocal basis with CIM and CIMAB; and In the long term, facilitate the import and distribution of products into the U.S., either directly or through sublicensing arrangements, upon regulatory approval to benefit U.S. patients. This initiative will move forward in accordance with permissions issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of Treasury, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. FDA. Clinical studies are the first step toward FDA approval of new therapies. With the access to additional treatments under this joint venture, Roswell Park expects to initiate additional clinical trials, enrolling more than 100 patients in the U.S. within the next three years with plans for additional clinical studies to follow. Aside from CIMAvax, these cancer drugs have never been studied before in U.S. patients. The Cuban phase II and phase III clinical trials of CIMAvax have shown increased overall survival and improvement in quality of life for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Held LLP, a law firm with expertise in international business and U.S.-Cuba trade matters, provided legal guidance that helped support establishment of the joint venture. Nearly $4 million in donations is funding Roswell Parks initial CIMAvax clinical trials. For more information, please see roswellpark.org/cimavax. Editors note: Sources available for onsite media interviews and LIVE point-to-point global transmission via LTN network. Media outlets looking to set up an interview should email brittni.smallwood(at)roswellpark.org or annie.deck-miller(at)roswellpark.org. Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a community united by the drive to eliminate cancers grip on humanity by unlocking its secrets through personalized approaches and unleashing the healing power of hope. Founded by Dr. Roswell Park in 1898, it is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York. Learn more at http://www.roswellpark.org, or contact us at 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or ASKRoswell(at)roswellpark.org. Photo: Surveillance images Natsumi Kogawa and William Schneider at a Vancouver mall. The brother of a former Vernon man charged with killing a Japanese exchange student says his sibling tried to end his own life after confessing he'd done "something bad," court heard Thursday. William Victor Schneider is charged with the murder of Natsumi Kogawa last year, in Vancouver. Warren Schneider Jr., the accused's brother, told the 12-person jury he drove to Vernon to meet his brother in September 2017. William revealed the location of Kogawa's body, then said he planned to overdose on heroin, Warren told the court. The accused asked him to tell police after he was dead. The brothers sat in Polson Park, drinking, before Schneider injected the drugs, but said he felt "ripped off" when the drugs didn't kill him. Warren then went to police and told them where to look for the body. Police found Kogawa's naked body inside a suitcase on the grounds of the Gabriola House mansion on Sept. 28. Schneider was arrested in Vernon the same day. According to his brother, Schneider said he went on three dates with Kogawa. There was no evidence of major injuries to her body, but Kogawa had two prescription sedatives in her system, toxicology reports revealed. Authorities were unable to determine a cause of death due to decomposition. with files from CTV Vancouver Shoppers near Jonesboro, Ark. in the market for a powerful and capable truck are encouraged to test drive a new 2019 Ford F-250 model! Ford Super Duty models are built for drivers in search for more power and capability than even an F-150 model can offer. Local Newport, Ark. dealership, Harris Ford, is welcoming a number of new 2019 Ford Super Duty models to their inventory of new Ford vehicles. Ford Super Duty models are built for drivers in search for more power and capability than even an F-150 model can offer. New 2019 Ford Super Duty F-250 and F-350 models are built for the tough jobs, like towing heavy equipment or hauling large payloads. When properly equipped, 2019 Ford Super Duty models can offer more than a 20,000-pound maximum towing capacity and more than a 4,000-pound maximum payload. Harris Ford currently offers seven 2019 Ford Super Duty F-250 models; shoppers have a choice between the 385-horsepower, 6.2-liter V8 engine or the 450-horsepower, 6.7-liter turbodiesel engine when shopping. Additionally, the inventory of Harris Ford currently includes one 2019 Ford Super Duty F-350 model. The 2019 Ford Super Duty F-350 model currently in stock is equipped with the 450-horsepower, 6.7-liter turbodiesel engine, unlike the Super Duty F-250, this model features a dual rear-wheel configuration. Shoppers searching for versatility without the need for as much power or capability are encouraged to look at the new 2019 Ford Transit Van now available at Harris Ford. Harris Ford is located at 3710 South Van Dyke Road in Newport, Arkansas and hosts an inventory of new, used and certified pre-owned Ford models, as well as a six-time Ford President's Award-winning full-service center staffed by a team of certified and master technicians. Interested shoppers seeking information on new Ford models, service offerings and dealership specials are encouraged to call (888) 461-2599 or visit the dealership's website at http://www.harris-ford.com. "Awareness of events like Hurricane Florence come in many forms. K-LOVE and Michael McDowell have come together to offer a unique opportunity that will bring needed awareness and funding to serve those impacted in the Carolinas" said Jeff Nene, Convoy of Hopes national spokesperson. K-LOVE Radio and Michael McDowell are supporting Convoy of Hopes continued response to Hurricane Florence this weekend during the NASCAR Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The No. 34 K-LOVE Radio Ford will display a Convoy of Hope decal, and McDowell and his teams primary partner will encourage fans to text GIVEHOPE to 50555 to donate $25. A lot of people might think the worst of this storm is over, but there is still severe flooding in some parts of the Carolinas, McDowell said. Convoy of Hope has mobilized more than 1,600 volunteers to the impacted areas and helped more than 55,000 people. But their work isnt over, and K-LOVE and Front Row Motorsports want to make sure the NASCAR audience knows that and hope they can help. Convoy of Hope quickly responded to Hurricane Florence and immediately began serving residents after the storm made landfall. Thanks to the generosity of others and the hard work of volunteers, Convoy has distributed more than 1 million pounds of relief supplies in 27 communities across the Carolinas. Convoy has begun a clean-up campaign to help remove trees and storm debris from properties. "Awareness of tragic events like Hurricane Florence come in many forms. K-LOVE and Michael McDowell have come together in a united effort of kindness to offer a unique opportunity that will bring needed awareness and much needed funding to serve those impacted in the Carolinas said Jeff Nene, Convoy of Hopes national spokesperson. Convoy of Hope has set up a special donation page to be used throughout the Charlotte ROVAL race weekend: convoy.org/ROVAL. Fans can donate any amount online, or they can text GIVEHOPE to 50555 to donate $25. About Convoy of Hope Convoy of Hope is a faith-based organization with a driving passion to feed the world. With a long history as an early responder in times of natural disasters, Convoy of Hope has been a Four Star Charity as recognized by Charity Navigator for 15 consecutive years. Convoy of Hope has served more than 100 million people since it was founded in 1994. For more information, please visit convoyofhope.org. About K-LOVE K-LOVE creates compelling media designed to inspire and encourage people to develop a meaningful relationship with Christ. K-LOVE is listener supported Radio Network delivering a Positive & Encouraging message to millions of Listeners every week through its 446 signals across 47 states. For more information visit: http://www.klove.com. About Front Row Motorsports Front Row Motorsports is a winning organization in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the premier division of NASCAR competition. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by Tennessean Bob Jenkins. FRM fields two full-time entries, the No. 34 of Michael McDowell and the No. 38 of David Ragan, from its Statesville, N.C., headquarters just outside of Charlotte. The team's partnership base includes organizations such as Ford Motor Company, Love's Travel Stops, K-LOVE Radio, 1000Bulbs.com and Shriners Hospitals for Children. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on Twitter at @Team_FRM and on Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports. LabRoots, the leading provider of educational and interactive virtual events for tech innovators, engineers, and scientists from around the world, is excited to announce Daniel Andrade, a 22-year-old undergraduate student from Peru studying at the National University of San Marcos, as the winner of the LabRoots Summer 2018 Textbook Scholarship, awarding him $1,000 to support him in his academic pursuits. Currently in his fourth academic year, Andrade has proven a great passion for learning about preventive medicine, microbiology and immunology. One of his great aspirations is to help rural areas from Peru in control and prevention of endemic diseases. In its second year, weve seen thousands of applicants for our scholarships and Daniel was a clear choice, mentioned Greg Cruikshank, founder and president of LabRoots. He is member of Reproduction and Animal Health Investigation Group and has collaborated with research projects focused in infectious diseases. This is the kind of work we want to encourage and wish to support with this scholarship program. With the announcement of the winner for the summer scholarship, LabRoots is also pleased to announce they will continue its mission as a primary source for scientific news and education online events, as well aid emerging scientists with their academic pursuits with the opening of the Fall STEM Scholarship for $2,000. The application period will open from October 1 to November 30, 2018. Once the application period has closed, the LabRoots scholarship committee will review all applicants, notifying the winner no later than December 15 via email. There are no fees associated with this scholarship. To apply, students need only submit their resume, CV, or transcript, including overall GPA and accompanied by an essay of 250 words or more. Interested students, or assisting parents, teachers, or counselors, who would like to learn more about this scholarship and how to apply, please visit the LabRoots site here. ABOUT LABROOTS LabRoots is the leading scientific social networking website, which provides daily scientific trending news and science-themed apparel, as well as produces educational virtual events and webinars, on the latest discoveries and advancements in science. Contributing to the advancement of science through content sharing capabilities, LabRoots is a powerful advocate in amplifying global networks and communities. Founded in 2008, LabRoots emphasizes digital innovation in scientific collaboration and learning, and is a primary source for current scientific news, webinars, virtual conferences, and more. LabRoots has grown into the worlds largest series of virtual events within the Life Sciences and Clinical Diagnostics community. Year Up provides Chicago students with essential support, and access to opportunities that helps them succeed in the 21st century economy, said Mayor Emanuel. The formalized partnership will equip graduates with the skills necessary to reach their full potential. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado today joined Year Up to open the organizations new, dedicated site at Harold Washington College. Year Up and Harold Washington College will partner to serve more than 70 students this fall. Year Up provides Chicago students with essential support, and access to opportunities that helps them succeed in the 21st century economy, said Mayor Emanuel. The formalized partnership will equip graduates with the skills necessary to reach their full potential. Year Up Chicago and City Colleges are formalizing the longstanding partnership by providing Harold Washington College students with work-based learning opportunities and wrap around supports. Students, ages 18 to 24, are currently pursuing a Basic Certificate in Banking. As part of the program, students will also participate in six months of in-demand technical and professional skills training through Year Up, followed by a six-month internship with a supporting company. Year Up Chicagos new partnership with Harold Washington College will allow us to scale more rapidly to connect even more young adults in need of an opportunity with companies in need of their talent, said Year Up Chicago Executive Director, Jack Crowe. By working with Harold Washington College and the broader City Colleges of Chicago network, we expect to grow our program to serve 1,000 students directly and influence 100,000 students. Partnerships like this with Year Up are key to creating work-based learning opportunities that pay dividends for our students, Chicago employers and the citys economy, said Chancellor Salgado. Work-based learning provides students with upwardly mobile career pathways, offers Chicago companies a dedicated and diverse talent pipeline, and creates a more inclusive Chicago economy, at the same time, said Chancellor Salgado. United Airlines is providing a $1 million grant to support the partnerships expansion. Initial funding will support the new location, and internships at United. In May, Chancellor Juan Salgado announced a commitment to ensure more than half of the graduates participate in work-based learning opportunities. With the support of Chicagos business and civic community, City Colleges students enrolled in degree, certificate and boot camp programs will gain tangible experience before entering the workforce. This initiative is expected to reach more than 4,000 students annually. Since 2010, Year Up Chicago has provided more than 1,200 young adults with in-demand skills, creating a pipeline of diverse, motivated talent for more than 35 of Chicagos leading businesses in areas such as IT, Client Services, Financial Operations and Project Management Support. A recent federally-sponsored evaluation of Year Up showed a 53% increase in initial earnings for young adults randomly assigned to Year Up compared with similar young adults in a control groupthe largest impacts on earnings reported to date for a workforce program tested in a randomized controlled trial. Year Up Chicago now serves more than 280 young adults each year, with 90 percent of graduates employed or attending college full-time within four months of completing the program, earning average starting salaries of $36,000/year. About Year Up Year Up is an award-winning, national 501(c)3 organization that provides talented and motivated young adults ages 18-24 with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education. Through a one-year, intensive training program, Year Up utilizes a high-support, high-expectations model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, coursework eligible for college credit, and corporate internships at more than 250 top companies. Its holistic approach focuses on students' professional and personal development to enable young adults with a viable path to economic self-sufficiency and meaningful careers. Year Up has served more than 19,500 young adults since its founding in 2000, and will serve more than 4,000 young adults in 2018 across 21 U.S. cities in Arizona, Baltimore, Bay Area, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Greater Atlanta, Greater Boston, Greater Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, National Capital Region, New York City, Providence, Puget Sound, South Florida, and Wilmington. Year Up has been voted one of the Best Non-Profits to Work For by The NonProfit Times for eight consecutive years, and rated a 4-star charity by Charity Navigator for twelve consecutive years, placing them in the top 1% of tracked organizations. To learn more, visit http://www.yearup.org, and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter: @YearUp. About City Colleges of Chicago City Colleges of Chicago prepares more than 80,000 students annually with a quality, affordable education leading to transfer, careers, and a path to upward mobility. City Colleges encompasses seven colleges: Richard J. Daley College, Kennedy-King College, Malcolm X College, Olive-Harvey College, Harry S Truman College, Wilbur Wright College and Harold Washington College, five satellite sites: Dawson Technical Institute, South Chicago Learning Center, Arturo Velasquez Institute, Wright-Humboldt Park, and the Westside Learning Center, along with the Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute. For more information about City Colleges of Chicago, or for registration information, call (773) COLLEGE, visit http://www.ccc.edu, or find us on Facebook (City Colleges of Chicago), Twitter (@ChiCityColleges), or Instagram (citycollegeschicago). Newly displaced civilians fleeing the conflict between the Iraqi army and the Islamic State on November 3, 2016. (Mercy Corps) With more than 68 million people around the world displaced primarily by violence and conflict, we cannot afford to wait another day. Statement from Neal Keny-Guyer, Mercy Corps Chief Executive Officer: "Mercy Corps commends the vote yesterday by the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in support of the Global Fragility and Violence Reduction Act of 2018 (H.R. 5273). This bipartisan legislation was introduced and sponsored by Representatives Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Paul Cook (R-Calif.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Ted Poe (R-Texas), and Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on March 15. "As House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Representative Ed Royce stated today, the Global Fragility and Violence Reduction Act 'will allow the United States to better coordinate efforts to reduce conflict overseas, which has caused unprecedented levels of human displacement.' Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel highlighted the urgency of the challenges the Act would address: 'Global levels of violence have hit a 25-year peak, and when a region faces violence, the effects are felt far and wide. Economic development backslides, global stability wavers, terrorists thrive and people flee their homes, creating large scale refugee and migrant crises. It is critical that we work to prevent this violence from happening in the first place.' "Mercy Corps applauds the leadership of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and calls on the U.S. House of Representatives to schedule a vote by the full body as soon as possible. With more than 68 million people around the world displaced primarily by violence and conflict, we cannot afford to wait another day to pass the Global Fragility and Violence Reduction Act." To encourage your representative in Congress to support this important legislation, please sign Mercy Corps online petition. For more information, visit http://www.mercycorps.org. NJA and its Cape May Bird Observatory are also taking over Cape May Convention Hall, where everyone is invited to visit a variety of vendors with a natural twist, and for the first time ever, Nature Nicks Animal Adventures, the most diverse collection of travelling exotic animals in the world. Hell be bringing birds of prey, an armadillo, an alligator, snakes, and maybe even a flamingo. Youll just have to come and see for yourself, because its free! For weekend festival registrants, fees of $69 per day or $185 for three days unlock a wide variety of events open to registrants only. You will have to choose from 31 birding walks to famous Cape May locations led by local experts; 11 small group exclusive opportunities, either aboard a trolley, or in a small group walk, all led by some of the most famous names in US birding; 19 indoor programs by experts in the field from bird identification, eco-travel, research and monitoring, and more; 9 boat trips into the marshes; and our fun and informative Hawk ID and Seabird ID Master Classes for a more intensive learning experience. Additional fees apply for some small group experiences. About half of Cape May Fall Festival registrants consider themselves beginning and novice birdwatchers, and our surveys say they have a great time. The weekend is a great way to give birding a try or take your skills to the next level. After a day of birding, participants are invited to socialize and enjoy an evening program at The Grand Hotel of Cape May. Friday will feature Dr. J. Drew Lanham, a Clemson University Distinguished Professor and National Audubon Society board member, who will present Ornitherapy--Confessions of a Lapsed Lister and a Life Saved by Birds. He will share his experiences as an ornithologist, birder-conservationist and poet-author. This program is only open to festival registrants. On Saturday evening, Dr. Merlin Tuttle, scientist and father of modern bat conservation and founder of Merlin Tuttles Bat Conservation, will serve as keynote speaker, discussing the Incredible World of Bats. The author of The Secret Lives of Bats, Dr. Tuttle has studied and photographed bats for more than 50 years, including hundreds of species, from beautiful to bizarre. His extraordinary photographs have been published and exhibited worldwide, including in five National Geographic articles, and they are littered throughout his presentation. He has been an invited speaker at Americas most prestigious institutions, from Harvard and Princeton Universities to the National Geographic Society and Smithsonian. Dont miss this rare opportunity to learn about these fascinating creatures from an international expert. This program is open to the public for a fee of $50 and includes a plentiful and delicious buffet dinner; advance registration is required. The Sunday afternoon Trip to the Rips aboard the American Star at Utschs Marina is a favorite of many festival goers. It is timed for the changing of the tides just off shore, which stirs up the fish and attracts the birds. Its an action-packed few hours with expert leaders on board to help spot and identify birds and other marine life. The trip is open to the public for a fee of $60; advanced registration is required. This trip always sells out, so sign up early. Visit NJ Audubon.org/Get Outside/Events for detailed information and to register, select your schedule of walks, boat trips and other special events. Call or email Deb Shaw at the Cape May Bird Observatory for help with questions and registration. Deb.shaw@njaudubon.org or 609-400-3836. Get ready for So. Many. Birds. About New Jersey Audubon: New Jersey Audubon is a privately supported, not-for profit, statewide membership organization. Founded in 1897, and one of the oldest independent Audubons, New Jersey Audubon is working to make New Jersey a better place for people and wildlife. New Jersey Audubon fosters environmental awareness and a conservation ethic among New Jersey's citizens; protects New Jersey's birds, mammals, other animals, and plants, especially endangered and threatened species; and promotes preservation of New Jersey's valuable natural habitats. For more information, visit http://www.njaudubon.org NFI is honored to be recognized by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of the fastest-growing companies in the area." - Sid Brown, CEO, NFI NFI, a leading supply chain solutions provider, recently ranked 45th in Philadelphia Business Journals Soaring 76 Fastest-Growing Companies in Greater Philadelphia. Qualified companies were ranked by revenue growth over a three-year period from 2015-2017. The awards ceremony took place on Thursday, September 27 at SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, where specific rankings were revealed. NFI is a full-service supply chain solutions provider, founded in 1932 in Vineland, N.J. The company is currently led by brothers Sid, Jeff, and Ike Brown. Today, NFI employs more than 10,000 individuals in North America, manages a fleet of over 4,000 tractors and 9,000 trailers, and owns and operates more than 47.2 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space. The company continues to invest in the greater Philadelphia area and is currently building its new headquarters on the Camden Waterfront. NFI is honored to be recognized by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of the fastest-growing companies in the area, said Sid Brown, CEO of NFI. NFI has continued to expand each year, growing exponentially both organically and through several acquisitions. We are grateful for all of our employees who have contributed to this growth by exemplifying our values of innovation, customer service, and entrepreneurship every day. As one of the oldest and largest privately-held 3PLs in North America, NFI offers extensive experience providing supply chain solutions across a variety of sectors spanning food and beverage, retail, consumer packaged goods, and manufacturing. The companys integrated suite of services includes dedicated transportation, distribution, transportation management, brokerage, port drayage, intermodal, global logistics, and real estate. The full list can be found here. # # # About NFI NFI is a fully integrated North American supply chain solutions provider headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. Privately held by the Brown family since its inception in 1932, NFI generates nearly $2 billion in annual revenue and employs more than 10,000 associates. NFI owns facilities globally and operates 47.2 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space. Its dedicated and drayage fleet consists of over 4,000 tractors and 9,000 trailers. Its business lines include dedicated transportation, distribution, transportation management, port drayage, intermodal, brokerage, global logistics, and commercial real estate. For more information about NFI, visit http://www.nfiindustries.com or call 1-877-NFI-3777. We are honored to recognize these outstanding nursing homes and the work they are doing to improve health care quality and patient care for residents in our region. HealthInsight is recognizing thirty-nine nursing homes across three states for demonstrating excellence in providing high-quality care for their residents. The HealthInsight Quality Award Program recognizes high-performing health care provider organizations in the states for which HealthInsight serves as the Medicare programs Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) contractor. To meet criteria for the Nursing Home Quality Award, a facility must rank at or above 75 percent of all facilities in the state, based on 15 long-stay quality measures reported on Medicares Nursing Home Compare website. The facility also must have at least a 3-star rating on Nursing Home Compare. A nursing home that has received a deficiency citation rated at scope and severity G or more severe is not eligible. We are honored to recognize these outstanding nursing homes and the work they are doing to improve health care quality and patient care for residents in our region, said Marc Bennett, President and CEO of HealthInsight. Their commitment to quality of care reflects their dedication to serve many of our regions most vulnerable individuals. The HealthInsight Quality Award Program was launched in September 2004 to promote transparency in health care. As defined by the Institute of Medicine, a transparent health care system is accountable to the public, works openly, makes results known, and builds trust through disclosure. By using publicly available quality data to identify high-performing providers and publicizing the results, HealthInsight aims to help providers improve health care and help patients become more active and informed participants in their own care. The 2018 award recipients for Nevada, Oregon and Utah are: NEVADA Highland Manor of Mesquite (Mesquite) Carson Nursing and Rehabilitation Center (Carson City) Torrey Pines Rehabilitation Hospital (Las Vegas) Nevada State Veterans Home (Boulder City) Premier Health & Rehabilitation Center (Las Vegas) CareMeridian 4 Kids (Las Vegas) OREGON Avamere Rehabilitation of Clackamas (Gladstone) Bend Transitional Care (Bend) Cascade Terrace (Portland) Holladay Park Plaza (Portland) Marquis Autumn Hills (Portland) Marquis Mill Park (Portland) Marquis Newberg (Newberg) Mirabella at South Waterfront (Portland) Oregon City Health Care Center (Oregon City) Pilot Butte Rehabilitation Center (Bend) Pioneer Place Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation (Vale) Porthaven Healthcare Center (Portland) Portland Health & Rehabilitation Center (Portland) Prestige Care and Rehabilitation of Reedwood (Portland) Regency Florence (Florence) The Dalles Health and Rehabilitation Center (The Dalles) Timberview Care Center (Albany) UTAH Alpine Meadow Rehabilitation and Nursing (West Valley City) Cascades at Orchard Park (Orem) Central Utah Veterans Home (Payson) City Creek Post Acute (Salt Lake City) Country Life Care Center (Riverton) Fairview Care Center East Inc. (Salt Lake City) Heritage Hills Rehabilitation and Care Center (Nephi) Legacy Village Rehabilitation (Taylorsville) Mt. Ogden Health and Rehabilitation Center (Ogden) Richfield Rehabilitation and Care Center (Richfield) Rocky Mountain Care Riverton (Riverton) Rocky Mountain Care Willow Springs (Tooele) Stonehenge of American Fork (American Fork) Southern Utah Veterans Home Ivins (Ivins) Willow Glen Health and Rehab (Brigham City) William E. Christoffersen Salt Lake Veterans Home (Salt Lake City) Nursing home quality information is available by visiting medicare.gov and selecting Compare Nursing Homes in Your Area, or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). About HealthInsight HealthInsight is a regional health improvement collaborative that oversees affiliated 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporations in Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah, and End Stage Renal Disease Networks across the western United States. HealthInsight holds contracts and grants in key areas of health care improvement, including leading quality improvement activities for the Medicare program as the QIN-QIO for the four-state region. HealthInsights programs focus on transparency and public reporting; effective use of health information technology; engaging patients and communities to improve their health; and redesigning how care is paid for and delivered. In April 2018, HealthInsight and Qualis Health announced a formal merger, combining the two organizations and their operations across the U.S. Both Qualis Health and HealthInsight have been engaged in health care quality consulting and providing quality improvement services for more than 40 years. Oral Surgery San Francisco A dental emergency can happen out of the blue. Oral Surgery San Francisco, a leading practice under oral surgeon, Alex Rabinovich, is proud to announce a blog post for choosing an emergency oral surgeon in the event of a crisis or other oral event. If a car accident, injury or health issue has suddenly created a dental crisis, it can be important to locate a top emergency oral surgeon in San Francisco. City residents may also seek out an oral surgeon for a second opinion or cost issue. A dental emergency can happen out of the blue. A person could experience a car accident or health problem that causes sudden pain and requires an intervention, commented Dr. Rabinovich. In that moment, immediate care from a skilled oral surgeon is vital. Our new post discusses how to find an emergency oral surgeon in San Francisco, including one for a second opinion. Locals in and around the San Francisco environs can review the new blog post at: https://www.oralsurgery-sf.com/2018/06/we-are-often-asked-who-is-the-best-oral-surgeon-in-san-francisco. Those who want to learn more about San Francisco oral surgeon Alex Rabinovich can visit https://www.oralsurgery-sf.com/meet-dr-rabinovich/ and reach out to him for a consultation. A SAN FRANCISCO EMERGENCY ORAL SURGEON CAN BE ALL EARS IN A DENTAL CRISIS Here is the background for this release. The reality is that a San Francisco Bay Area resident may not consider the importance of finding an emergency oral surgeon until an accident occurs. Broken teeth or a cracked jaw could greatly affect the health of an individual; impacted wisdom teeth can suddenly get infected and become painful. In addition, if cost or a second opinion become important, it can be valuable to identify a skilled professional ready to assist in a dental crisis before an accident occurs. For these reasons, Oral Surgery San Francisco has announced a new blog post on how to find an emergency oral surgeon. An oral surgeon who is available on an emergency or short term basis may be needed to help fix a broken jaw immediately; infected wisdom teeth, in contrast, may be able to be postponed for a few days. No two situations are exactly alike and anyone who might be in need of an emergency oral surgeon in San Francisco is urged to not only read the post but also reach out to Dr. Rabinovich for a consultation. ABOUT ORAL SURGERY SAN FRANCISCO Oral Surgery San Francisco (http://www.oralsurgery-sf.com/) is located in the Financial District of the City. Under the direction of Dr. Alex Rabinovich, a Board Certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon specializing in the field of oral surgery. This additional training, along with his years of experience, sets Alex Rabinovich MD DDS apart from the growing number of general dentists offering oral surgery and other dental procedures. Procedures include wisdom teeth extraction, Orthognatic or jaw surgery, sleep apnea mouth appliances and dental implants. Dr. Rabinovich can be available as an emergency oral surgeon in San Francisco also. Oral Surgery San Francisco serves all neighborhoods in the city of San Francisco including Pacific Heights, Russian Hill and Noe Valley. Contact: Media Relations Tel. (415) 817-9991 OrigiNation explodes onto The Calderwood Pavilion stage with their signature style of power and passion! Twist & Shout! An Evening of Dance, Music and Spoken Word is OrigiNations annual benefit which supports its youth programs. This year, OrigiNation will honor Janine Busby, Boston Police Department; David Howse, Vice President of the Office of the Arts and Executive Director for ArtsEmerson; Jose Mateo, Founder & Artistic Director of Jose Mateo Ballet Theater; and Liz Miranda, Community Activist. The evening will also feature youth from the Professional Dance Division performing new and returning works by choreographers Shaumba-Yandje Dibinga (Founding Artistic Director), Muadi B. Dibinga and Britney Wilkerson as well as a special performance by Demetrius Burns (former dancer: Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, NIA Dance Troupe). The performance will feature three premieres in addition to audience favorites as the company continues to lead the way with its unparalleled approach to modern contemporary and African dance. Filled with a roster of some of the most exciting youth in Boston, OrigiNation explodes onto The Calderwood Pavilion stage with their signature style of power and passion. Proceeds from this benefit performance will continue to help build OrigiNations educational initiatives through scholarships and increase the number of youth served. About OrigiNation Artistic Director Shaumba-Yandje Dibinga founded the OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center (OrigiNation) in 1994. OrigiNation is a 501(c) (3) non-profit performance arts program that utilizes dance as a vehicle to develop leadership, confidence and self-sufficiency among young people ages 2-18. OrigiNations mission is to utilize innovative dance and theater programs to promote self-esteem, civic responsibility, leadership development, and physical fitness among Boston youth between the ages of 2 and 18. While our programs are open to all youth who meet our age requirements, we primarily serve are African American and Latino youth from low- income families in the underserved neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan. While our programs are open to all youth, many of our students live in the Boston neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan, where access to quality dance and theater programs is limited. We serve over 300 boys and girls annually through our on-site programs and an additional 4,500 youth through our Community Outreach & Education Program. We also conduct international and domestic Youth Empowerment through the Arts Tours. As part of this exciting program, members of our Professional Dance Division perform for and teach dance classes to elementary and high school students over the course of 5-10 days. To date, we have traveled to the South African cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Soweto (2007); Dakar, Senegal (2009); London, England (2010); New Orleans, LA (2011) Accra, Ghana (2012) and Trinidad (2016 & 2017). Graduates of our programs are currently living and working throughout the U.S. and abroad with notable dance and production companies including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Ronald K. Brown/ EVIDENCE, A Dance Company and some have toured with award winning artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Chris Brown, Queen Latifah, Paula Abdul and Alicia Keys. Many who have chosen not to pursue dance are utilizing skills learned through our program to excel in business, fashion design, and other industries. Photo: Google Street View It's no sin to use a mobile device during Sunday service at the Campbell River Baptist Church. Pastor Jeff Germo calls it a blessing when he sees parishioners in the pews staring down at their mobile device screens rather than up at him at the pulpit. It means the congregation is engaged with the topic he's discussing, such as a recent sermon on failure. Have you failed? Have you dealt with failure and moved on or is it holding you back? Germo is among the first pastors in the world to use a Swedish developed communications technology, Mentimeter, to make online, real-time spiritual connections with his flock while preaching. Mentimeter, used widely in corporate board rooms and academic lecture settings, is an interactive survey tool that posts instant answers and results to the mobile devices of those connected to the event. At the church auditorium in Campbell River, Germo started his sermon by asking parishioners to take out their smartphones and tablets, click on a Mentimeter link and punch in a code. Moments later an email arrived asking parishioners if they had ever failed terribly. Just two per cent replied: "No, I'm a winner." Germo expressed amazement that any member of the congregation said they had never experienced failure. "If you are more than a year old, you probably would have failed at something," said Germo as a man at the back of the auditorium of about 250 people raised his hand to acknowledge he chose the no failure answer. "That's beautiful. That's delusional," joked Germo. But as the sermon continued, large display screens showed the majority of the survey participants replied they have experienced failure and are trying to get over it. "When you look at the right side of the graph, most people are experiencing some difficult things and have a hard time getting over failure," Germo said. "So, you are not alone." "The biggest thing it does is it helps people to engage and we're always looking to different ways for engagement," he said after the recent Sunday service. "We don't just want to have a bunch of people sitting with their bums in the pew." "I think it does help get the heart engaged," he said. "It's actually something visceral instead of just sitting there listening to a talking head. They're involved in the process." Customers are increasingly attracted to the companys mission and how they can make an impact, with one customer review recently stating, If you are looking for a caring, compassionate small business to purchase from, this is the one. Silent Mind, maker and distributor of some of the top-selling singing bowls available today, has clearly stated that authenticity and quality are paramount to their mission. At the same time, ethical consumption and concerns over fair trade have understandably taken a larger role in what modern shoppers purchase. Silent Minds meditation and mindfulness tools are created in Nepal by local artisans, using locally-sourced materials. This has been of great benefit to those still struggling years after a deadly earthquake struck the area, bringing with it an economic impact of approximately $7 billion. Yet fair practices in production are not all the young company seeks to give back. In 2018, Silent Mind began visiting areas experiencing various kinds of hardship to distribute aid. In April, the team visited survivors who were driven from their homes following the Battle of Marawi in the Philippines. While there, they distributed food, blankets, and personal care items to hundreds of families who were left homeless following the months-long conflict. Immediately following the success of this event, Silent Mind set out to plan their next stop. This time, they would visit a school in Nepal, where their singing bowls are made. At the end of August 2018, the Silent Mind team arrived at the Shree Birendra Primary School in Dolakha, Nepal. The small school is located upon a mountaintop in a remote village, and has been tenuously subsisting on local donations to remain open. As poor as the school is, many of its students are even poorer. There are a number of orphaned children who rely on Shree Birendra for their education, and the majority of students overall do not have the resources to eat lunch. Therefore, Silent Minds first order of business was donating the few hundred dollars necessary to fund student lunches for an entire school year. The company plans to make this donation a tradition, and will continue to contribute to the lunch fund annually. In addition, educational supplies were donated to the schools 40 children and their dedicated team of instructors. Silent Mind distributed enough medical kits, computers, library books, and charts to make the next school year their best yet. Other items, such as chalk, erasers, pencil sharpeners, clocks, a school bell, and a globe were added to upgrade common areas of the classroom. Finally, each student attending Shree Birendra this year received their own kit of essentials for school. This charity event was made possible through the generous purchase of Silent Mind singing bowls on their website and on Amazon. Customers are increasingly attracted to the companys mission and how they can make an impact, with one customer review recently stating, If you are looking for a caring, compassionate small business to purchase from, this is the one. The Silent Mind team looks forward to hosting similar events in the future. For more information on their mission and products, please visit them at http://www.silentmindsingingbowls.com. Our staff, board, and clients are grateful for the continued generosity and support of Investors Foundation and are thrilled to build on this relationship. Push to Walk recently received a $500 grant from Investors Foundation. The grant will help further the organizations mission of providing individualized workouts and resources to optimize current quality of life to people with spinal cord injuries and other forms of paralysis through its Client Scholarship Fund. Push to Walk strongly believes that its services should be accessible to all who are motivated to join and offers scholarship opportunities to those with financial need. Push to Walk is unable to cover all of its operating costs through client fees but relies on grants and fundraising events to help make up the difference. Our staff, board, and clients are grateful for the continued generosity and support of Investors Foundation and are thrilled to build on this relationship. Our clients come to us because they see an improvement and foundations such as Investors allows us to keep those fees affordable so cost doesnt stand in the way of them achieving their goals, says Executive Director, Vivian Kiggins. For more information, please contact Stephanie Lajam at (201) 644-7567 or slajam@pushtowalknj.org. Donation opportunities are available on the Push to Walk website: http://www.pushtowalknj.org About Push to Walk Founded in 2007, Push to Walk is an organization that provides individualized workouts and resources to people with spinal cord injuries and other forms of paralysis to optimize current quality of life and to prepare for future medical advancements. It is the only program of its kind in the New York- New Jersey area. Push to Walks rigorous one-on-one workout approach challenges clients to reach their personal goals and achieve maximum independence, leading to greater success and fulfillment in their personal and professional lives. Push to Walk is only able to cover about 65% of its operating costs through client fees, and relies on grants and fundraising events to help make up the difference. A 501(C)3 non-profit, Push to Walk is located in Oakland, New Jersey. Visit http://www.pushtowalknj.org to learn more About Investors Bank Investors Bank, headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey, is a full-service community bank that has been serving customers since 1926. With over $25 billion in assets and a network of more than 150 retail branches, Investors Bank delivers personalized services and products tailored to the needs of its customers. Investors Banks services include complete deposit, loan and cash management products for consumers and businesses. Investors Bank. Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender. San Diego serviced apartments The Avalon chain provides incredible apartments for visitors to San Diego. Key Housing, Southern California's leader in locating serviced apartments, is proud to announce that the Avalon chain has run a two-month streak, garnering the prestigious featured complex listing for October, 2018. Each month, Key Housing rigorously selects the best-in-class complex by category, with Avalon Fashion Valley following Avalon La Jolla as the winner for October in the serviced apartment designation. The Avalon chain provides incredible apartments for visitors to San Diego, explained Robert Lee, President of Key Housing. So it's no surprise that Avalon has scored a two-month streak winning this month's serviced apartment category after garnering the prestigious designation last month with their La Jolla complex." AVALON DOMINATES SAN DIEGO WITH INCREDIBLE SERVICED APARTMENT OPPORTUNITIES Here is background on this release. Each month, Key Housing scours its listings to identify best-in-class properties for busy corporate types who may be in the market for short term rentals. This includes busy Europeans who may be visiting Southern California and looking for what they call "serviced apartments" vs. what Americans call "furnished apartments." The reality is that busy corporate types want a home away from home that comes ready to live in. This beats having a short term stay in a hotel that is both expensive and sterile. The Avalon chain in San Diego and Southern California does a fantastic job at providing for this need. For October, their Avalon Fashion Valley (http://www.keyhousing.com/rightside.asp?action=form3&ID=853) garnered the prestigious designation, while in September, their Avalon La Jolla won out (See: https://jm-seo.net/keyho1c4a4). As for a description of this month's winner, here it is: One of the most sought-after addresses in San Diego's Mission Valley neighborhood, Avalon offers luxury San Diego serviced apartments that boast new one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans designed to be a perfect fit for anyone's lifestyle. Spacious and open floor plans feature plenty of room to entertain or relax, and a plethora of features from a gourmet kitchen with granite counters and pecan finish cabinetry to extra-large walk-in closets to accommodate your latest shopping spree. Also included are electrical heating and central air conditioning, crown molding and a full-size washer and dryer in each home. Some of the signature community amenities include a spectacular sparkling outdoor pool and lounge with fireplace, barbecue area, lush courtyards, a state of the art fitness center and resident lounge with a full game room. This community has the laid back California atmosphere business travelers crave, but is also near the best of everything one needs to call home! With amenities like that, and a location at 7804 Friars Road in San Diego, it's no surprise that Avalon Fashion Valley won out in the intense competition. What is a surprise is that is that this month's prestigious win follows last month's win by a sister Avalon property. The short term apartment rental community is envious of this two month streak in the hotly contested San Diego rental marketplace. Those seeking to read informative blog posts on San Diego should check out the company's lively blog at http://blog.keyhousing.com/tag/san-diego/. ABOUT KEY HOUSING Key Housing Connections Inc. (http://www.keyhousing.com/) specializes in serviced apartments, corporate housing and corporate rentals in large Southern California cities like Los Angeles and Orange County as well as Beverly Hills, Burbank and Anaheim. Whether the need is for a Los Angeles serviced apartment or short term rental in Hollywood, interested parties should browse listings on the website to find the rental that fits ones short term corporate housing needs. The service is competitive with extended stay hotels in cities such as Huntington Beach, La Jolla and Lake Foresta. Many Europeans on holiday and people seeking pet friendly short-term rentals or vacation rental apartment services depend on Key Housing for their serviced apartment or other temporary housing needs. Whether a person is after a Los Angeles serviced apartment, short term rentals in Hollywood, or a serviced apartment near Encino, Key Housing can aid the search for the right apartment in the Golden State. Key Housing Tel. (800) 989-0410 San Francisco small business accountant Customers often somewhat mistakenly believe that they need an accountant who specializes in this or that. Safe Harbor LLP, a top San Francisco Accounting Firm with a focus on tax services for businesses, international tax, and high net worth individuals, is proud to announce a new blog post on the topic of an "Accountant in San Francisco for," focusing on how customers often search for an "Accountant for Small Business" or an "Accountant for Startups." The article explains how the "best" accountant is less one with a specialty per se and more one who listens to clients and really researches the opportunities between their incomes and the US and California tax laws. Customers often somewhat mistakenly believe that they need an accountant who specializes in this or that, explained Chun Wong, Managing Partner at Safe Harbor LLP. While specialization is important, we argue that our focus on being the best accounting firm in San Francisco by focusing on customer needs, means we can be the best accounting firm for small business while at the same time the best accounting firm for high net worth individuals. Why? Because we listen." To view the provocative blog post, visit http://www.safeharborcpa.com/an-accountant-in-san-francisco-for/. The article argues that the customer-first philosophy of Safe Harbor LLPs means that they work hard to a) understand the unique needs and situation of their clients, b) to look for opportunities for tax minimization by comparing those needs and situation against the tax laws, and c) be the best tax accounting firm in San Francisco by continually listening to their clients. Indeed, the firm has a reputation as one of the best San Francisco accounting firms for start ups, and start ups are "all over the map" when it comes to specific industries and needs. To learn more about their start up accounting services, visit http://www.safeharborcpa.com/startup-cpa/. A DIVERSITY OF INDUSTRIES BUT A SINGULARITY OF GOAL Here is background on this release. Many San Franciscans are concerned about their high taxes. California is one of the most expensive, most overtaxed states in the United States, and so - not surprisingly - affluent residents and those with businesses seek to minimize their taxes. Those in the technology sector, for example, might seek out an accounting firm for technology businesses, while those in the restaurant sector, might seek out an accounting firm for restaurants. The reality, however, is that many businesses and individuals face similar challenges. What is needed is not an accountant for this or that industry, but rather an accountant who will do the deeply detailed research necessary with a client and then take that information to brainstorm tax minimization strategies. The reality is that an accountant for this or that business is less important than an accountant who listens, does research, and then helps to implement best-in-class tax minimization strategies. As no two business or individuals are the same, interested persons are urged to reach out to Safe Harbor LLP for a consultation. Journalists and bloggers looking for experts in California and federal tax law are urged to reach out for interview opportunities as well. ABOUT SAFE HARBOR LLP - A PROFESSIONAL CPA FIRM IN SAN FRANCISCO Safe Harbor LLP is a CPA firm that specializes in accounting and tax services for individuals and businesses throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and greater California. Safe Harbor CPAs helps both individuals and businesses with tax preparation, IRS audit defense, and audited financial statements. The firm prides itself on friendly yet professional service and utilizes state-of-the-art Internet technology to provide quality customer service. Safe Harbor CPA http://www.safeharborcpa.com Tel. 415.742.4249 The Hauck Heine House Located at 506 Oak Street, Cincinnati From the moment we walked into the foyer, we knew we were home, said Christine Neitzke, Co-Founder of Dragonfly. The Dragonfly Foundation, dedicated to providing support to the families of pediatric cancer patients, is pleased to announce their purchase of the historic Hauck Heine House in Cincinnatis Clifton area, a few short blocks from Hospital Row. Built in 1906, the 0.68-acre property located at 506 Oak Street, Cincinnati, OH, includes a main house (11,720 sq. ft.), a carriage house (3,082 sq. ft.), and a beautifully-wooded front yard. Dragonfly will use the property help pediatric cancer patients and their families find strength, courage, and joy. In the short-term, Dragonfly will continue to maintain its current operations at their 6,000 sq. ft. Sycamore Township, OH facility. The Oak Street property more than doubles Dragonflys square footage, and has the capacity to support the organizations continued growth. From the moment we walked into the foyer, we knew we were home, said Christine Neitzke, Co-Founder of Dragonfly. The Hauck Heine House is the perfect location, said Greg Vehr, Dragonfly Board President. The convenience to the local Childrens Hospital, along with the propertys condition and assets, made it a very easy decision. The Board believes the house will be integral to helping Dragonfly achieve its vision of being a leader in providing the best support systems for the families of pediatric cancer patients. Owned by the Mayfield Clinic since 1953, the house has served patients and families for many years and has been meticulously maintained. Dragonfly plans to continue Mayfield Clinics commitment to serving the needs of patients and families, and will preserve for posterity the homes original artisan finishes. While overnight stays will not be offered, we will be welcoming patients and families to the location. The house has been waiting for Dragonfly, said Mark D. Farrington, CEO of Mayfield Brain & Spine, Cincinnati. Over the past three years, we have entertained several offers to purchase the property. Dragonfly is doing something different, both as a non-profit and as a buyer. The house is an important part of our history, and we are truly gratified to know that it will be in good hands. We are proud to support Dragonfly and partner in their vision. Founded in 2010, The Dragonfly Foundation has experienced significant growth driven by the number of patients and families suffering from pediatric cancer. To date, Dragonfly has supported more than 4,800 Dragonflies, and five locations of four partner hospitals. To donate, to sponsor, or to learn more about The Dragonfly Foundation, please visit Dragonfly.org. Top Chicago Website Development Firms 10 Best Design has implemented a new monthly award for the top Chicago website development firms, making it easier for companies located in the Chicago metropolitan area find the top web design firms. Comrade made the top ranking for the agencys winners for September 2018. Companies seeking the best web design firm know that their choice makes a significant impact on their traffic, SERP, customer satisfaction and many other business measurements. The September 2018 list reflects companies that have achieved an excellent response time, customized content for clients and secure platforms that yield high levels of consumer confidence. Leading the list of the ten best firms for web design is Comrade. As the best web design firm, Comrade is staffed by people who are adept at responsive designs. They know that it is important to make sure videos and images load well on mobile devices. The layouts they use are pleasing to the eye and make it easy for the consumer to find what they are looking for in the content. Comrade is also capable of using SEO in the content, links and tags of the site. Their work yields excellent results when consumers conduct organic searches. Earning the second-place on the list of the ten top Chicago website development firms is Blue Fountain Media. This firm has a large staff of web developers, marketing experts and tech professionals. The wide range of expertise allows Blue Fountain Media to integrate SEO and SEM into the design of the site as they build it. The result of their work is a site that gets a first-page SERP as soon as it is released. Blue Fountain Media provides additional digital services when clients need them. The firm has a 98-percent customer satisfaction rating. Ranked at number three as a top web design firm is Color Jar. The firm is known for its staff's ability to code across platforms. Every project goes through an extensive testing phase, which helps to ensure that the live product will perform to the highest of standards. Color Jar also provides its clients with responsive site designs. The firm has a staff of 10 to 50 people and charges an hourly rate that is slightly above the industry average. This high-performing agency has attained a 95-percent customer satisfaction rating. For more information about this months award winners, visit http://www.10bestdesign.com. The participating universities are: Bowling Green University Bowling Green, OH Bryant University Smithfield, RI California State University Northridge, CA Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI Clarion University Clarion, PA Creighton University Omaha, NB University of Illinois Urbana, IL University of Missouri Colombia, MO University of North Florida Jacksonville, FL University of North Texas Denton, TX University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI Utah Valley University Oren, UT Western Carolina University Cullowhee, NC The Plan Competition centers around a case narrative of a fictional family. Students are asked to compose a financial plan and submit it to the IARFC for judging. The competition process is conducted in the following phases: Phase 1 - Initial plan submissions are judged by experienced financial professionals with six teams chosen to compete in Phase 2 SEMI FINALS Phase 2 - Six semi-final teams are judged via recorded sessions by the IARFC Board of Directors resulting in three teams advancing to Phase 3 FINALS Phase 3 - Three student teams and their professor travel, all expenses paid, to compete in person at the IARFC Annual Conference in front of conference attendees. We are pleased with the participation this year, remarked Susan M. Cappa, IARFC Public Relations. The challenges students face from the competition process are highly regarded as a positive learning experiences giving these young professionals a chance to craft a real world financial plan that is the core of the financial consultants scope of service. Its work, its instructive and its fun! The IARFC is seeking corporate entities and individuals to sponsors these college students and this event. Contact Susan Cappa for opportunities to fund this highly successful program. As for judging, continues Ms. Cappa, I invite everyone to attend the IARFC Annual Conference and be part of the audience who evaluates the teams. You could BE THE CHANGE in someones life! For more information on the IARFC National Financial Plan Competition and the Annual Conference, visit http://www.iarfc.org or contact plancomp@iarfc.org. The recognition is a testament to our employees, who go above and beyond to provide our customers nationwide with exceptional service and support," commented Barbie Vandenheuvel, Chief Operations Officer at Protect My Car. Nationwide vehicle extended warranty leader Protect My Car proudly announced that it has been ranked 43rd on the Tampa Bay Business Journals 2018 Florida Fast 100 list, which recognizes the fastest-growing businesses throughout Florida. In order to qualify for the Florida Fast 100 list, nominated businesses must have launched prior to January 1, 2014, and be headquartered in Florida, privately-held and for-profit. In addition, they must have generated revenues of at least $1 million in 2015 or at least $5 million in 2017, and demonstrated substantially above-market consecutive annual revenue growth from 2015 to 2017. Businesses were also required to submit documentation to verify revenue figures. In August, Protect My Car was ranked 19th on the Tampa Bay Business Journals Fast 50 list, which uses the same methodology as the Florida Fast 100, but pertains to businesses that are headquartered in the Tampa Bay Area. In 2017, Protect My Car was named by the Tampa Bay Business Journal as the 2nd best place to work in Tampa Bay, and the company ranked 663rd on the Inc. 5000. It was also the first time ever that claims paid out to Protect My Car customers nationwide surpassed the $10 million level. We are honored and excited to be named to the Florida Fast 100, commented Barbie Vandenheuvel, Chief Operations Officer at Protect My Car. The recognition is a testament to our employees, who go above and beyond to provide our customers nationwide with exceptional service and support. In addition, it is inspiring to see that almost half of the fastest-growing businesses in Florida are located in the Tampa Bay area. This is one of the most dynamic and energized areas of the country, and the future looks even brighter! More information on Protect My Car is available at https://protectmycar.com. About Protect My Car Protect My Car is one of the nations leading providers of vehicle extended vehicle service contracts. The companys extended coverage plans are ideal for consumers with cars less than 10 years old and with fewer than 150,000 miles, and whose manufacturers warranty has expired or will expire soon. Consumers with vehicles older than 10 years or more than 150,000 miles can take advantage of Protect My Cars Ambassador line of policies, which include 24/7 roadside assistance, rental car reimbursement and repair bill savings of at least 50 percent. All Protect My Cars policies are offered with a Free Look trial period. If a new customer is not completely satisfied, they can contact Protect My Cars Customer Service Department within 30 days and receive a full refund of their down payment. In addition, Protect My Car has recently introduced an auto and home insurance agency that provides its customers or any consumer in several states with free, fast and no-obligation quotes from some of the nations largest carriers. Brown Books Publishing Group author and Vietnam War helicopter pilot, Bob Ford, recently released the audiobook of his award-winning memoir Black Cat 2-1: The True Story of a Vietnam Helicopter Pilot and His Crew. Narrated by Ford, this version of his incredible story is available now on Audible/Amazon and iTunes. In addition to the launch of his audiobook, Ford is the focus of the latest episode of Page Turners, the author spotlight show created by The Agency at Brown Books. Recently a featured speaker at the Honoring Our Nations Heroes event at the Frontiers of Flight museum in Dallas, Texas, Ford will be inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame on November 3, 2018. In the Vietnam War, 2,197 helicopter pilots and 2,717 crew members were killed. Black Cat 2-1 is the story of one pilot who made it home and the valiant men he served with who risked their lives for the troops on the ground. Bob Ford invites readers into the Huey helicopters he flew on more than 1,000 missions when he and his men dared to protect and rescue. For those whose voices were silenced in that faraway place or who have never told their stories, he creates a tribute that reads like a thriller, captures the humor of men at war, and resounds with respect for those who served with honor. Black Cat 2-1 is a #1 non-fiction bestseller and Oklahoma Book Award finalist. With Veterans day approaching, this new audio version of Black Cat 2-1 will be of interest to history- loving listeners and readers everywhere. For more information, visit http://www.blackcat2-1.com. About The Agency at Brown Books (ABB) As a sister company of Brown Books Publishing Group, The Agency at Brown Books is backed by more than 20 years of publishing excellence, leveraged in the first full-service public relations, marketing, branding and distribution provider within a publishing house. The Agency provides high-level public relations, marketing and distribution services for not only Brown Books authors, but also non-affiliated authors, all within the same house. For more information, please visit http://www.TheAgencyatBB.com. About Brown Books Publishing Group (BBPG) Founded in 1994 as an Entrepreneurial Publisher for Entrepreneurial Authors, Brown Books Publishing Group was established to fill a need in the publishing world by allowing authors to have a voice in the publishing process while retaining the rights to their intellectual property. Applying this innovative Relationship Publishing model, Brown Books has cultivated a prestigious stable of authors, from New York Times bestsellers to Pulitzer Prize winners and more. Boasting hundreds of high-quality books across genres, Brown Books is a fiercely independent publisher that encourages author empowerment. In 1994, Brown Books ushered in A New Era in Publishing, and more than two decades later, continues to be a successful innovative leader in the publishing industry. For more information, please visit http://www.BrownBooks.com. Paul McEntire Paul has a proven record as one of the top operations executives in the Y, with extensive experience maximizing talent and resources to meet the most pressing social needs facing communities, Kevin Washington, President and CEO, YMCA of the USA. YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) has appointed Paul McEntire as its new Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer. McEntire is responsible for overseeing the delivery of resources and services to 2,700 YMCAs nationwide and the work of several departments at the national office. A 22-year YMCA professional, McEntire comes to Y-USA from the YMCA of Greater Houston, where he served as President and CEO for the past four years. He joined the Houston Y in 2011 as Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure, the Houston Y opened a new resident camp and a new facility, significantly expanded the work of the International Services branch and launched Go for Green, an initiative that provides swim lessons to more than 2,500 day campers at no cost to their families. At the national level, he served on the Y-USA Board of Directors for the past two years and was a member of numerous committees and task forces. Paul has a proven record as one of the top operations executives in the Y, with extensive experience maximizing talent and resources to meet the most pressing social needs facing communities, said Kevin Washington, President and CEO, YMCA of the USA. I am excited to work with him to innovate new approaches to engaging communities and extend the Ys impact. Before going to Houston, Paul served in several leadership roles with the YMCA of Floridas First Coast in Jacksonville, including President and CEO from 2007 to 2011. He helped expand that YMCAs reach and impact by opening four new facilities and a charter school. He previously was Executive Director of the Venice YMCA, a branch of the South County YMCA (now the Sky Family YMCA) in Florida. I have spent my career in the Y focused on meeting the needs of individual communities, which has been incredibly rewarding, said McEntire. In this new role, I look forward to working with Y leaders across the country to ensure every community we serve is a place where all people feel welcome and safe and have equal access to opportunity. Y-USA is a homecoming for McEntire, who is a Chicago-area native. Before starting his Y career, he was a pastor and Y volunteer. He earned a bachelors degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Divinity degree from Southern Seminary. About the Y The Y is one of the nations leading nonprofits strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. Across the U.S., 2,700 Ys engage 22 million men, women and children regardless of age, income or background to nurture the potential of children and teens, improve the nations health and well-being, and provide opportunities to give back and support neighbors. Anchored in more than 10,000 communities, the Y has the long-standing relationships and physical presence not just to promise, but to deliver, lasting personal and social change. ymca.net Photo: The Canadian Press Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces a crucial vote Friday as a Senate panel decides whether to move his nomination on to the full Senate a day after he adamantly denied sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford, who insisted she's "100 per cent" certain he did. Meanwhile, there were signs the remarkable testimony before the panel in which Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ford calmly recounting the moment in which she says he attacked her had registered negatively with two organizations whose support Kavanaugh had earlier received. The American Bar Association, which previously gave Kavanaugh its highest rating of "well qualified," asked the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate to delay the vote until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims something President Donald Trump has refused to order. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that Friday, telling reporters that Kavanaugh has already "been through six separate background investigations by the FBI." Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and "should be withdrawn." "If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a woman's report of an assault," the America magazine editors wrote. "Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country." The magazine's reversal is significant given Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Roman Catholic faith and his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgetown Prep school in Maryland. Former President George W. Bush has been advocating for Kavanaugh with wavering senators in recent days, according to a person familiar with Bush's outreach who wasn't authorized to speak publicly. The White House said it was also engaging with wavering GOP senators, but provided few details. Trump is publicly standing by his nominee. "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," he tweeted late Thursday. "The Senate must vote!" Set against the backdrop of the SCOTUS hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, this years New England Independent Booksellers Association fall conference, which took place at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, R.I. from September 2527, was energetic. As Carole Horne of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., noted, In terms of business, everybodys feeling pretty good. Ive heard a lot of people saying its a good fall for books. Politics served as both text and subtext to the conference, which opened with a keynote by Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett (Finding My Voice) in conversation with Valerie Holmes Ward, director of public affairs and community services and host of CityLine at WCVB Boston. Ruth Liebmann, v-p of account marketing at PRH, attributed politics to the shows upbeat tone. The mood is good, she said. I wonder if the turmoil makes people want community. Being a panelist on Bookstores and Political Activism in the Current Climate, inspired Nancy Braus of Everyones Books in Brattleboro, Vt., to get political at the show. She collected bookseller signatures on a petition to be hand-delivered to Hachette to persuade it to move to recyclable and/or reusable packaging for its shipments. Everyone else uses bubble wrap or paper, she said. Other educational sessions covered nuts and bolts topics like How to Be Smarter About Inventory Management and Creative Event Marketing as well as carrying diverse books. The associations childrens alliance (NECBA) announced its annual list of titles for its Windows & Mirrors project, which encourages booksellers to promote newly released diverse kids books at the holidays, and throughout the year. American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher and senior program officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger led a session, which is being held at each regional, on Maximizing Pre-Order Campaigns. Three to 30% of units are presold, said Teicher. Amazon has owned this business. It is a piece of the business we could actually get. Although one publisher complained off the record about the fact that NEIBA and the other regionals have long since stopped being about the orders, rep group Chesapeake & Hudson was pleased to sign four new accounts. Conor Broughan of Columbia University Press, who found the show floor especially busy in the morning, commented, Its nice to meet buyers. Even before NEIBA opened, Europa Editions had decided to up its support not just for NEIBA but for other regional shows. Editor-in-chief Michael Reynolds said that he finds it worthwhile to be at the shows and has begun slowly growing the number that the press attends. Europa will be at five this fall, up from three last year. First timer Eliza Prescott of Phoenix Books in Burlington, Vt., may not have placed any orders, but she told PW that she was looking for princess books and middle grade nature and science titles with strong characters to bring in to the store. And Print: A Bookstore in Portland, Maine, closed on Wednesday so that its booksellers could attend. Several new store owners were also present. Among them were Meghan Hayden, who will open 900 sq. ft. River Bend Bookshop in South Glastonbury, Ct., in November, and Jo and Huck Truesdell who are planning a 2019 opening for TidePool BookShop in Worcester, Mass. It will be the first general bookstore in New Englands second largest city since the closing of Tatnuck at the beginning of 2006. Both the childrens and adult author breakfasts were great, said Ellen Richmond of Childrens Book Cellar in Waterville, Maine. At the closing breakfast, Adriana Trigiani (Tonys Wife) urged booksellers to take care of yourselves and go see the world. She also suggested that NEIBA should pull itself together and go someplace fancy like Greece. Expressing concern for booksellers financial stability and ability to buy their buildings, Walter Mosley (John Woman) announced at the beginning of his talk, I would be happy to belong to the Booksellers Credit Union. Next year NEIBA will be back in Providence from October 24 with one change. Long time administrative coordinator Nan Sorensen will retire in July. In a project teaming two rising stars of indie comics, Fantagraphics has acquired BTTM FDRS by Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore. The new graphic novel combines satire and horror in a quirky exploration of urban gentrification and race. The book will be published in summer 2019. In BTTM FDRS, Darla, a young, hip black fashion designer, looking for cheap rent moves into a hulking building in the now-gentrifying former Chicago working class neighborhood where she grew up. Accompanied by her white, style-crazy childhood buddy Cynthia, the two discover a deadly new kind of creeping (and creepy) urban blight. The book is written by Claytan Daniels, creator of Upgrade Soul (Lion Forge), a probing work of graphic science-fiction that was awarded the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity. BTTM FDRS is drawn by Passmore, hailed for Your Black Friend (Silver Sprocket), a sly broadside on bohemian racial cluelessness, as well as other socially focused comics. Passmore said the book, combines my love for David Cronenberg style monsters and anti-gentrification. Claytan Daniels said, Writing BTTM FDRS was a very therapeutic way to work through my feelings about issues like cultural appropriation, gentrification, and representation. Fantagraphics associate publisher Eric Reynolds said he has been a fan of both Ezras and Bens work for a while and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work with them. Its a great book by two great creators who I feel are just entering their storytelling prime. Another Banned Books Week is in the books, and once again there were numerous media items highlighting the importance of the freedom to read. As it does every year, the American Library Association, released its list of most challenged books during National Library Week, in April. But this week, Mental Floss compiled the 35 most challenged books over the last five years. My vote for the most compelling Banned Books Week article of the year belongs book critic Ron Charles at The Washington Post. In his article, "Do we really still need Banned Books Week?" Charles starts from an assumption that has gained traction in some circles in recent yearsthat Banned Books Week is an unnecessary, exaggerated celebration. Are we winning any converts with this annual orgy of self-righteousness? Charles asks at the outset. The rhetoric of Banned Books Week is pitched at such a fervent level that crucial distinctions are burned away by the fire of our moral certainty, which is an ill that wide reading should cure not exacerbate. But he then talks to James LaRue, director of ALAs Office for Intellectual Freedomwho explains why Banned Books Week may be more relevant now than ever. Its not just about these quaint old books, LaRue tells the Post, adding that the urge to censor is on the rise. Its not just that we say we want to remove books; we dont want people to voice in public opinions that someone else in the community might dislike. But still, were not exactly talking about books being banned are we, Charles presses? I mean, even if a title is removed from a community library display, you can still find it on Amazon, after all, right? LaRues response is spot on, as he urges Charles to consider the experience of a vulnerable, lonely reader: There are so many places like in rural communities where you say, Well, the book isnt banned. Its still been published. Its still available on Amazon. Its still in a bookstore. But lets say youre a young gay kid, and you go to your library, and David Levithans Two Boys Kissing has been removed, and so you dont know that its there. You dont have a credit card to get it from Amazon. You cant hop in a car if youre 14 years old and drive to a bookstore. So the ban is not a trivial thing. Its a deliberate suppression of a viewpoint that has real consequences for people. LaRue makes a strong point. And as he often does, Charles hits the target in his trademark witty, entertaining style. American Libraries also offers look at this week's Banned Books Week "by the numbers." Among the stats reported, 416 books were "banned or challenged" in 2017, according to the ALA. But that's likely just the tip of the iceberg: ALA also estimates that 82%97% of book challenges go unreported. Reserve Reading This should be good. BuzzFeed Books is planning a week dedicated to libraries, and they want to hear from you: what is it really like to be a librarian? An interesting column in The New York Times looks at a Gallup survey on how consumers' own biases play into how they see bias in the media. Another reason some people may demonstrate high levels of bias in reading the news is that they habitually consume highly biased news, distorting their frame of reference. The survey found that those who turn to Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart and Fox News generated the most biased ratings of news content. The two news sources associated with the least biased consumers: The Wall Street Journal was second, and first by a healthy margin is PBS. Also from The New York Times, a cogent editorial on what Congress should be focusing on when looking at the practices of tech companies. Asking companies whose business models revolve around exploiting data-based consumer-influence techniques to explain their privacy policies seems about as useful as asking sharks to hold forth on veganism, the editorial states. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a prominent digital rights nonprofit, adds that Congress should not be examining privacy policies so much as looking at business practices. And right on time, Facebook today revealed another massive security breach. The Washington Post reports that as many as 90 million Facebook users were affected--but that number could rise. As reported in American Libraries, the House this week passed the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act. "The legislation, passed by the Senate in June, provides a copyright exception for authorized entitiesincluding librariesto make materials available across borders to people with print disabilities whose countries have already ratified the treaty." ALA President Loida Garcia-Febo said implementation of the treaty "will exponentially increase the availability of accessible reading materials to Americans and people around the world with print disabilities." The bill now awaits the president's signature. Nieman Lab uses a study of the British newspaper The Independent to explore a thorny question: "What will happen when newspapers kill print and go online-only?" The answer is: nothing good. "Shutting down print doesnt drive those readers to print-like consumption habits on digital devices. Instead, they become a lot like other digital readerseasily distracted, flitting from link to link, and a little allergic to depth." Gary Price at InfoDocket has a report on a new data analysis from Pew that suggests the share of Americans who go online, use social media, or own key devices has plateaued in the past two years. From Quartz: "Six eerily accurate and hilariously wrong media predictions from the past." Citing a lack of funding, the Free Library of Philadelphia will staff less than half its libraries on Saturdays, reports Philly.com, a major cutback. For years, all branches of the Free Library of Philadelphia opened on Saturdays during the school year, providing patrons access to computers with internet to prepare resumes, apply for jobs and complete homework; heat in the winter; and safe spaces after school, the report notes. But a funding shortfall means only 23 of the system's 54 libraries will open on Saturday this fall. Curbed reports that the Brooklyn Public Library will debut a new branch in Dumbo in 2020, the 60th branch of BPL and the first new Brooklyn Public Library branch built since 1983. From eSchool News , a brief but interesting look at how administrators should be working with school librarians. A modern-day school library is looking more like an airport lounge than what many of us may have been accustomed to. Students are sitting in comfortable spaces, talking and sharing. Schools have the opportunity to work with the librarian to create these collaborative spaces to promote better interaction between students, teachers, and other staff throughout the building. Finally two items related to net neutrality: Wired reports on the FCC's puzzling, adverse reaction to localities trying to set up their own broadband networks: "The FCC is on a march to smother local authority by blocking states from regulating any aspect of broadband service, supporting states that have raised barriers to municipal networks, deregulating pricing for lines running between cities, and removing local control over rights-of-way that could be used to bring cheaper access into town." And from Broadcasting & Cable, a report on California's net neutrality bill going down to the wire. Governor Jerry Brown has until Sunday to sign the bill into law. Proponents say they remain confident he will do so, but they grow a little more concerned by the hour. In Better Times, Sara Batkie's stellar debut collection, a girl in a home for troubled women imagines the first dog in space; a phantom breast haunts a woman after her mastectomy; a woman gives birth to eggs; a piece of Alaska splits off into the ocean, and nine townspeople forced to live on an ice floe grapple with their uncertain future. Batkie picks some of her favorite collections by women. Its long been my belief that if doorstopper novels are the presumed domain of male writers then its time to claim the short story as womens. I fell in love with them in college, when I read Grace Paley and Flannery OConnor for the first time, and started writing my own in grad school. I was attracted to the meticulousness and mercilessness it took to craft them, and the discipline and patience they require provided a comprehensive education in the tools it takes to make all great fiction. And while there are certainly male practioners of the form that I admire, its hard to deny that many of the giants that loom over it now are women: Jhumpa Lahiri, Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, Z.Z. Packer. And recent years have brought lauded debuts from the likes of Jenny Zhang, Mia Alvar, and Lesley Nneka Arimah. Here are some of my favorite under-the-radar collections by women that deserve your attention too. 1. Sweet Talk by Stephanie Vaughn Stephanie Vaughn falls into that fabulously amorphous category of a writers writer. Beloved by such greats as Tobias Wolff and Tea Obreht, who both selected stories of hers to read for the New Yorker Fiction podcast, she remains an elusive, almost mythic figure, perhaps because, 30-ish years on, this is still her only book. The stories that center on the character Gemma form the spine of the collection and Vaughns intimate sketches of her and her military base-bound family impart the same bittersweet nostalgia as lingering over an old photo album. Complex yet concise with sentences polished to gleam, each story beats palpably with a vivid and untamed heart. Youll come away feeling like youve gotten to know living, breathing people. 2. Between My Father and the King by Janet Frame I first became familiar with New Zealand author Janet Frame through Jane Campions exquisitely sad biopic An Angel at My Table, but she is much more than the tragic history of forced institutionalization and medical mistreatment shes infamous for. Many of the stories gathered here were written by Frame in the '50s but went unpublished during her lifetime (she died in 2004). Its easy to see why her mind might have once been deemed dangerous; her work is dark and unsparing, often written from a perspective that feels stunted, not entirely childlike but not quite adult either. Frames stories exist in liminal spaces, which doesnt always make for comforting reading. But as this collection proves, that only makes her unique voice more indispensable. 3. Break Any Woman Down by Dana Johnson One thing all short story writers struggle with is variance in voice. This collection from Dana Johnson provides a master class in making narrative leaps among genders, races, ages, and socioeconomic backgrounds while maintaining authenticity. Both vibrant and steely, the characters here all inhabit the greater Los Angeles area but their experiences have no borders. Theres the black lap dancer who gives up her job for her Greek boyfriend who, unbeknownst to her, has been working as a porn actor. And the middle-aged Iranian sisters questioning if theres still children in their futures. Best of all is Avery, the South Central schoolgirl newly transplanted to the suburbs, a character who later featured in Johnsons novel Elsewhere, California. But whether they take place in punk clubs or classrooms, her stories privilege the sort of lives that dont often get the spotlight in literary fiction, and make the case for why they should more often. 4. The Lone Pilgrim by Laurie Colwin Laurie Colwin died tragically young and has since slipped somewhat into obscurity; foodies may be familiar with her Home Cooking memoirs but her warmly perceptive fiction is ripe for rediscovery, particularly her short stories. Its my personal opinion that this collection should be handed out to all college graduates before they enter the real world. Its as affectionate and clever a guide for it as you could ask for. Languidly paced but amiably chatty, these tales of young women giving themselves over to love are somewhat narrow in scope and experience, but then so were Updike and Cheever, and Colwins characters are often better company. Happy endings are tough to pull off without succumbing to cheap sentimentality; that Colwin manages to do it time and again is her most enviable magic trick. 5. The Melancholy of Anatomy by Shelley Jackson Fair warning: this one is not for the squeamish. Shelley Jacksons interest in the body is well-documented, literally for the 2,095 volunteers who were tattooed as part of her Ineradicable Stain: Skin Project, and this collection delves deep into the human vessels capacity for all things delightful and disgusting. The stories are split into four sections: Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic, and Sanguine, and its a bit like reading a medical manual shot through with the bawdiness of Chaucer and the insanity of Terry Gilliam. In Jacksons world, London has a menstrual flow and floating fetuses become pastors. Eggs, sperm, and dildos also feature prominently. Transgressive but also tender, repellent but also magnetic, no fluid or organ here is too profane to be revered. 6. Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang Eileen Chang is probably best known in the U.S. for Lust, Caution, a novella that inspired a steamy movie adaptation from Ang Lee. But her short work is well worth seeking out too. These stark and refined missives from 1940s Shanghai and Hong Kong are suffused with longing and steeped in an old-world glamour that still feels slightly treacherous, not least because of the societal shifts churning just below their delicate surfaces. Chang has a keen understanding of how the tension between tradition and modernity plays out in interpersonal relationships, and how this push and pull can be particularly complicated for women. Through their richly developed characters and fine-tuned language, Changs stories reverberate across years and cultures, stripping away any sense of foreignness to show us something universal. 7. What I Didn't See by Karen Joy Fowler Jim Shepard is often held up, rightfully, as a paragon of the deep-dive writer, whose subjects span the whole globe and bounds of human history. Id like to posit Karen Joy Fowler as his female counterpart, sharing his omnivorous curiosity about the world but, dare I say, a little less fussy about the research. Fowler is best known as the author of bestselling novels like We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and The Jane Austen Book Club, but this collection, which includes two Nebula winners, provides ample surprises in its pages, from a compassionate portrait of Edwin Booth, haunted by the actions of his brother John Wilkes, to the eerily seductive voice of an immortality cults true believer. Through it all Fowler pings between darkness and light with admirable ease. 8. Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories by Melinda Moustakis There were a lot of op-eds in fancy newspapers after the election about so-called Trump-land, but, perhaps paradoxically, Ive often found that the best way to understand people who are different than you is to read their fiction. I wouldnt presume to guess how the characters in Melinda Moustakiss stories would vote, but they certainly live in a manner thats entirely foreign to me, despite being part of the same country. These are hunters, homesteaders, fishermen and women, surviving in one of the most unforgiving landscapes in the world, but Moustakis isnt interested in further mythologizing her heritage, or in lazy miserabilist cliches. With sentences that cut as fine as a fillet knife, she illuminates Alaskas dark corners, revealing its full and varied shape in the process. 9. How to Escape from a Leper Colony by Tiphanie Yanique Now for something in a warmer climate. Tiphanie Yaniques stories have a sultriness to them, and not just because theyre largely set in the U.S Virgin Islands. Her prose shimmers, like looking at something far out at sea, but thats not to suggest her work is distant or hard to grasp. Indeed, its often dealing in very immediate human emotions: despair, regret, longing for whats been lost and what can never be. But her stories also have the touch of the fantastical, the intoxicating, destabilizing sense that anything could happen: men might fly, islanders might walk into the sea. Narratives weave together, and even change depending on whos telling the tale at any given time. But Yaniques hand is firm and her heart open. Though her characters endings arent always happy, theres no lack of love in these pages. Photo: The Canadian Press After a flurry of last-minute negotiations, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Brett Kavanaugh's nomination for the Supreme Court Friday after agreeing to a late call from Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona for a one week investigation into sexual assault allegations against the high court nominee. However, it was unclear whether Republican leaders, who have pushed for fast confirmation of Kavanaugh, would back Flake's call for an investigation or instead would press forward with a full Senate vote on the nomination. President Donald Trump, who has accused the Democrats of obstruction and delay and has opposed the FBI probing the allegations against his nominee, said merely that he would "let the Senate handle that." The dramatic scene unfolded a day after Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testified in an emotional, hours-long hearing. Kavanaugh angrily denied the allegations that he assaulted Ford while they were both in high school, while she said she was "100 per cent" certain he was her attacker. Flake, a key moderate Republican, was at the centre of the drama and uncertainty. On Friday morning, he announced that he would support Kavanaugh's nomination. Shortly after, he was confronted in an elevator by two women who, through tears, implored him to change his mind. After huddling privately with his colleagues, Flake announced that he would vote to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate the allegations against the judge. Democrats have been calling for such an investigation, though Republicans and the White House have insisted it's unnecessary. Flake said that after discussing the matter with fellow senators, he felt it "would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week." That increases the pressure on a handful of colleagues who haven't yet said whether they back Kavanaugh: Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. With a 51-49 majority, Senate Republicans have little margin for error, especially given the fact that several Democrats facing tough re-election prospects this fall announced their opposition to Kavanaugh on Friday. Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Jon Tester of Montana all said they would vote no. Yabaleftonline.ng report says the man identified as Emmanuel Moses had met a man who proposed to manage him, but few weeks after accepting the offer, the man began to make advances towards the gospel musician. In a letter apparently addressed to Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) which found itself online, Emmanuel said: Good evening FDD, this is A very critical issue, we have to tackle as A nation and as individuals, so as to make the society safe for our unborn male kids. My name is Emmanuel Moses, Im An Actor, and Gospel music artist, and was recently invited to perform in A show, where I met some set of guys, popular Abuja stylists, makeup artists, and big modelling agency owners. One of them approached me, said hes an artist manager (name withheld for now) that he can manage me, make me bigger and better, blah blah blah, of course I bought the idea almost immediately (its A rare opportunity). Few weeks now into the whole thing, he made it known to me through his actions that hes gay and so are his friends, I made it clear to him, that Id not indulge in such evil, and that all I wanted was him to manage me, brand me and bring me out. Fast forward to our Saturday night, when he called me to meet up somewhere in town that he wanted me to accompany him to a show. Well I left to meet him, fast forward again to where he and some others, drugged me, and molested me, and at the verge of being bursted, Jesus fought for me. She said her troubles began when she was once raped during an errand for her aunt at night. Blonde added that worsening her plight was the fact that she had to drop out of the University of Ibadan in her 200level, ostensibly due to lack of support. According to her social media post published on yabaleftonline.ng, she finally decided to act porn to fend for herself after all attempts to get employment proved futile. She said: Am not writing this to get pity or love from anyone, Let me start from this. I grew up with my uncle and aunty. I went to primary school, secondary school and then to the university. I left university when I was in 200l going to 300. I really never wanted to leave but I had to leave when I was raped (I went home for holidays like any normal child would go home I was raped which was caused by aunty cause I was sent out in the middle of the night because of meat because I forgot 1000naira meat ). The day I was raped I never told anyone at home cause even if I did everyone will think I was a lair I will never forget the spot I was raped. I was in the hospital for a week, cried for pain needed help I left home left school behind. I looked for job everywhere no one was ready to help until I get laid with which I really needed the money to go to school since my admission was not expired yet. I didnt have anywhere to go because I left home I was called a bastard many times my uncle always said I should go and die like my mother did. Benjamin Nnabugo who happens to be an employee of Arab Construction Company allegedly assaulted the victim inside her mothers shop at Ilaje bus top, Owode, Ikorodu, according to yabaleftonline.ng. In his confession to the police, Nnabugo is quoted as saying: I went to buy Indian hemp from a womans shop, popularly known as Iya Orobo, during my break time from the company where I worked. So when I got the weed, I took it to one of her empty shops to smoke. After smoking the weed, I laid down on the floor to rest but then the little girl (Iya Orobos daughter) now came into the shop and closed the door. She then came straight to where I was, pulled down my trousers, brought out my joystick and inserted it into her vagina and started having sex with me while I still lay on the floor. It was while I was having sex with her that her mother peeped through an opening in the shop and saw us in the act. ece-auto-gen READ ALSO: Gospel musician survives gang rape by his gay manager and friends The suspect added that: The girl immediately jumped off my body and ran away. I then called the woman to come so I could explain and apologise for what I did but she refused to hear me out. It was the first time I had sex with Orobo (the victim) and I know its not good but I didnt release my sperm on her body. It was only a little part of my joystick that entered her vagina. The whole of my joystick couldnt enter because it was bigger than her vagina. Meanwhile, prosecution witness, Yetunde Adewale reportedly told the court that: I was so shocked when I saw the little girl inside the shop with sperm all over her body, while Nnabugo was still trying to wear his trousers. I quickly called her mother, who is also my neighbour, to come and see what this man had done to her child. A press conference held by members of the NDC in the Upper West Region revealed that some relief items that were shared to victims of the Bagre Dam flooding have expired. The items which were distributed by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) boss alongside Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in Wa contained expired products. READ ALSO: Mahama names campaign team This led to the fierce criticism of the government as many portrayed it to be insensitive to the plight of the victims. ece-auto-gen New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart and founding member of Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko called for the axing of the Upper West Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO). National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Asutifi South, Collins Dauda's home was stormed by armed policemen on Tuesday. Narrating the incident to the media, NDC's General Secretary John Asiedu Nketia said the police are members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) vigilante group, Delta Forces were ordered to arrest the NDC lawmaker. ece-auto-gen "Even hardened armed robbers cannot be treated in such a manner. This is an honourable lawmaker and you dispatch party vigilante members disguised as policemen to go and arrest him in such a Rambo Style. That is the style you adopt to arrest people who do not stay home and others," he said. President Akufo-Addo addressed the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations in New York on Wednesday. He spoke on his agenda of building Ghana Beyond Aid and also the need to change the negative narrative about Africa. Nana Addo also talked about topics surrounding Ghana health and education sectors, as well human rights protection. Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu spoke about his frustrations due to the lack of activities of his office since he was appointed. He said I am saying this for the public to understand that we have set up an office. We have to organize that office, have the requisite personnel. It does not take one day. The law says 90 days after the assumption of office of the Special Prosecutor, pursuant legislation must be enacted, but as I speak today, I have no legislation so I use my common sense." ece-auto-gen He also complained how some of the appointees of President Akufo-Addo are sabotaging his work. He added, ""You ask for information you cant get it, you ask for docket, the docket cannot be produced. You ask a minister for a record, the record cannot be produced. How do you fight corruption when those appointed by the president who has a vision are not coordinating with the office of the special prosecutor to achieve his mandate?" Former President John Mahama commenced his campaign for the flagbearer slot of the NDC for the 2020 general elections. He started the campaign in the Central Region where he met executives of some selected constituencies in the region. In one of his campaign stops, he said President Akufo-Addo and the NPP have failed to honour their campaign promises and therefore do not deserve a second chance. He was guilty of stealing a waste bin that belonged to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA). Prosecuting, Inspector Stephen Amugbel, told the court presided by Mr. Michael Johnson Abbey, that on September 22, this year, Rufai was spotted by a KMA worker, Madam Eva Amoateng, at about 6.30pm, at Kejetia carrying a wastebin with KMA embossed on it. READ ALSO: Man in jail for allegedly robbing soldier Reports from court indicated that Rufai showed remorse and he pleaded: "Please, have mercy on me, I am not a thief, and I can say that to the glory of God. I found the bin on a refuse dump at the race course, and I thought it was discarded. I am the breadwinner of my family of four, please have mercy on me. ece-auto-gen Speaking at the graduation of first batch of students of the Kufuor Scholars programme, Kufour said we dont just get up and say no to aid. READ ALSO: Attorney-General describes Amidus outbursts as surprisingAttorney-General describes Amidus outbursts as surprising He explained that Ghana is yet to reach the stage where the country can survive without support from international donors. ece-auto-gen The former president added that we need to build our negotiating skills up so we get a fair share around the negotiating table because whether from the East or West, none of them come because they love us. They come for what they can get and we must also learn what we want from them and learn to negotiate and take it. However, Kufour has now clarified his comments, insisting it was never an attack on the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda, as reported by certain media houses. His [former President Kufuor] statement was in reaction to a media person's doubts about the feasibility of Ghana Beyond Aid. President Kufuor reacted that it was feasible and that the president can only be interpreted as having made a visionary call to pursue such pragmatic policies as would enable Ghana [to] overcome aid-dependency as quickly as possible. Such policies would include loans, aid, or foreign investments to undertake the requisite investments including industrialization and export development to accelerate our wealth creation at all levels. What is needed to be done, he said, is to negotiate well in win-win frameworks with a grasp of the geopolitics around us, sections of the statement said. Read the full statement below: Re: President Kufuors Alleged Comments on Ghana Beyond Aid The Office of Former President John Kufuor has come across several publications in the Ghanaian media alluding to the former president allegedly having cast aspersions on the current Ghanaian governments Ghana Beyond Aid agenda the driving vision of its development agenda. This office wants to make it clear that but for the ill-intention that appears to characterize these publications, they would not misconstrue his statement on Ghana Beyond Aid as a visionary agenda made with a conviction that, with the right policies and programmes, Ghana would see itself beyond aid in the foreseeable future. His statement was in reaction to a media-persons doubts about the feasibility of Ghana Beyond Aid. President Kufuor reacted that it was feasible and that the president can only be interpreted as having made a visionary call to pursue such pragmatic policies as would enable Ghana overcome aid-dependency as quickly as possible. Such policies would include loans, aid, or foreign investments to undertake the requisite investments including industrialization and export development to accelerate our wealth creation at all levels. What is needed to be done, he said, is to negotiate well in win-win frameworks with a grasp of the geopolitics around us. Indeed, we must be fair to ourselves as Ghanaians that Ghana Beyond Aid is the grand and achievable vision which we should seek to realize for the country. It doesnt preclude us from using aid (loans included) to get there. Given the spread of the socio-economic and foreign policies which the government is currently pursuing, the call can be said to be already work in progress. The former president wants all well-meaning and discerning people to cast their minds back to what the Marshal Plan of the United States did for West Germany after World War II. Germans utilized this aid from the US government under President Harry Truman to build their nation from the ashes of the war to create an economy which is the third largest in the world today. Of course, the German economy has, since the success of the Marshal Plan, graduated beyond aid a long time ago. Such is what former President John Kufuor understands President Akufo-Addo wants the Ghana Beyond Aid vision to achieve for our nation. And he has the full confidence that Ghana, under the able leadership of the current president, will ultimately get there. Signed Dr. Kwabena Osei-Adubofour Senior Aide and Spokesman for President John Kufuor Photo: The Canadian Press Canada's transport regulator has certified Bombardier Inc.'s longest-range aircraft, paving the way for the plane-and-train maker to start delivering its largest business jet to clients. The Global 7500 will enter into service later this year, Transport Canada said in a release Friday. The thumbs-up marks a key milestone in the transportation giant's turnaround plan after it sold a majority share of its C Series commercial jet program to Airbus in July, said AltaCorp Capital analyst Chris Murray. The new business jet now the largest and longest-range business jet on the market, according to Transport Canada is sold out through 2021, Murray noted, though Bombardier has not revealed the number of orders. Murray forecast a small number of deliveries in 2018 before production ramps up through 2020. The Global 7500, along with the new Global 5500 and 6500, comes partly as a response to products from rival business jet manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace as demand for the jetliners gains elevation, said Cormark Securities analyst David Tyerman. "The market environment has been improving, but its coming off of a lower base. It hasn't been that strong for many, many years," Tyerman said in an interview. "It potentially can be quite profitable for Bombardier. The high-end models tend to have higher margins." The Montreal-based company is aiming for US$8.5 billion in annual revenues by 2020 driven largely by Global 7500 sales, a major bump from last year's US$5 billion, said RBC Dominion Securities analyst Walter Spracklin. The certification came the same day Bombardier announced that HK Bellawings Jet Ltd. has firmed up an order for two Global 7500 and four Global 6500 business jets. The deal with the Hong Kong aircraft management company is valued at about US$370 million, Bombardier said. The new aircraft originally dubbed the Global 7000 has a capacity of 19 passengers and a range of more than 14,000 kilometres, long enough to link destinations such as Toronto and Hong Kong. Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Bombardier business aircraft president David Coleal attended a certification ceremony on the island of Montreal Friday afternoon. "The certification of the Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft is a significant accomplishment that will create good quality jobs for Canadians and support the continued growth of the local and regional economies where these aircraft are built," Garneau said. Transport Canada said it supervised and carried out more than 360 hours of ground and flight testing during the certification process Homosexuality as a nation, an empire even, is carrying out triumphant campaigns for the conquest of the world, not with guns and bombs - it had not the armed firepower to subdue the world. It wages a war for the conquest of the mind and had subdued the developed nations of the world and only the poorer nations of the earth appear to be holding their "moral" grounds. But I doubt if such stand will last very long. Strategically, homosexuality is already triumphing over Nigeria and if Nigerians hope for true democracy then, it is unavoidable that the anti-homosexual law in the country as it is now will be reversed in the nearest future. These tell-tales informed my claim, I may be delusional or unnecessarily "Pesimistic" - that's if Homosexuality is an omen - which I will share shortly. While most Nigerians are consciously against homosexuality, little they know that subconsciously they are gradually conditioned to be tolerant of it. Even if they disapprove of this "unnatural sexuality" they increasingly developing a liberal stand about it, and it is most evident among the "Elites" of today. Homosexual as UnAfrican Nigeria pride itself as a religious nation - the most religious nation on earth, some claim; and it is known that neither Christianity nor Islam is tolerant of homosexuality. To legalize homosexuality is to be irreligious. It is claimed too that traditions in Nigeria disapprove of homosexual practices and had never tolerated it throughout its history; to be tolerant of homosexuality therefore is to be un-Nigerian, un-African. Yet, Homosexuality exists in Nigeria. Lesbians and gays dominates this queer community, Bisexual happens to be fewer and the Transgender almost non-existent. Many have often mistaken androgyny as homosexuality, any effeminate male or tomboy is tagged gay, even the androgynous are not spared. House of Rainbow Homosexuals became bolder following the return of democratic rule since 1999. In the year 2006, Rev. Jide Macaulay opened the House of Rainbow Church, a church for homosexuals. The choice of the word RAINBOW to the Nigerian public then had no other meaning besides the biblical symbolism of God's covenant with Man to end destruction and to guarantee life and prosperity. The church's Slogan boldly announced to the spiritually burdened: God Accept You, God Adores You, God Affirms You! To the uninitiated, the Rainbow symbolism and slogan aroused no suspicion, but INITIATES knew better. It is God calling to those with Sexuality crises, who the Slogan in acronym beckons: GAY, GAY, GAY. It calls onto those whose coloration made up the Rainbow Movements, the LGBT - Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders! To come and obtained spiritual support for their queerness. Beauty and the Beast The attempt at harmonizing HOMOSEXUALITY and RELIGION was the height of folly left unchecked. Over the years the society and government had ignored the practices and cases of homosexuality by students in secondary schools. Alleged gay men and lesbians are treated with contempt, while those apprehended are subjected to ridicule or prescribed milder punishments. Establishing a church to support and provide succor to THIS UNNATURAL PERVERTEDNESS is considered intolerable. The society responded savagely, the RAINBOW was disintegrated into dancing flames of persecution. Rev. Jide Macaulay fled to Gay's haven and so did the most Popular Nigeria gay man, Bisi Alimi. Others who are poor and could not flee abroad, gave up and live their lives as secret BISEXUALS. The Counter-Attack The Government set the bush afire in 2014 (by formally illegalizing all homosexual activities with penalty for offenders carrying a maximum 14 years sentence) and more rodents CORRUPTING the farmland fled. But what is not known is that, some had burrowed a flourishing civilization underground far the reach legalistic conflagration! Sodom, is the name of this civilization; it survived the divine torch of its biblical past and had emerged to be a conquering empire, threatening the CORE of what many considered NATURAL SEXUALITY with social, political and economic consequence for those who dare to oppose it. Read Also:A case of abuse Like every Power of note, any nation that recognized and aligned with this Empire of Sodom succeeds: Almost all the first world nations of the world have legalized or recognized homosexuality, USA, UK, Germany, etc. In Africa, one of the most economic vibrant nation, South Africa have legalized HOMOSEXUALITY. Fate or coincidence, this nation is known as the Rainbow Nation! The defiance of the Nigerian Government against this conquering empire is a commendable one, considering that it had for the first time backed popular opinion, but I have observed that this POPULAR OPINION is the ghost of conservativeness, and the world is changing faster in Nigeria, a more CIVILIZED generation is emerging who covets the conquering empire, and shall in the nearest future expressed another popular opinion in favour of an alliance with Sodom. The Persevering Vice Sodom is not winning as a ruthless conqueror, but a diligent farmer, sowing his seed knowing it would certainly germinate, under the right atmosphere, globalization and all its technological, social, cultural, economic and political appendages; these are the ingredient for development, and the atmosphere is the perfect conditioner. The seed of TOLERENCE for SODOM is sown in the minds of many Nigerians, well watered and increasingly made fertile for Homosexuality to germinate, blossom and yield. There is a moral storm, dark and sinister hanging over Nigeria and it appears like the CIVILIZED and those who knew better are praying for the appearance of the rainbow to calm the ambiance: a flood destroys, but a shower grows. Gay is Cool Homosexuality has lost its creepiness, IT is no longer a beast. Homosexuals are Humans, are ordinary and nice folks, Gay people are COOL! As a Nigerian You KNOW they are, but DON'T SAY it! You are advised not to say it. Tradition says it is inhuman and unnatural. Most Nigerians under forty care less about AFRICAN TRADITION. Everything traditional in Africa and Nigeria is been shaded off except the black pigmentation and bleaching is threatening this tradition of being truly black! Tradition is considered archaic, deprave and invalid; traditional claims and opinions means nothing in the modern age of sophistical logic and advanced knowledge. We are LIVING a globalized civilization and our lives, minds, and Future depends on it! Homosexuality as Globalisation Civilization is Globalisation! Traditional, physical, political, religious, cultural and moral borders are being eliminated to ACCOMODATE all. MODERN EDUCATION has taught that anti-homosexual prejudices are rooted in primitive production whereby development is tied to PROCREATION. In that dispensation economic progress and growth of the nation is determined by numbers; every adult MUST marry and reproduce, this was enshrined in religion and tradition. But modern industrial production has redefined progress and development thus, heterosexuality has no justification transcending being a popular and familiar sexual preference! How comes only the downtrodden nations are those who frown of homosexuality, almost all developed nations recognized or legalized homosexuality: USA, UK, France, Germany, Spain etc.. In Africa, only South Africa - the most industrial of African nations had legalized Homosexuality. It's human right Nigeria has emerged from dictatorship to democracy and the agitation for the adherence to Rule of Law is most popular now; maybe they choose to ignore this fact, but it cannot be denied that deep within Homosexuality is a RIGHT within the jurisdiction of Rule of Law! Should it come to apply to a greater degree in democratic Nigeria, abrogation of anti-homosexual law is an imminent possibility! Read Also: Nigeria; Race and Nationalism Pop Culture is the most portent in mind conditioning today: Movies, Songs, Literature, Arts, Fashion and even human interactions on the social media influences this generation a lot more than any influencing medium in the past. Nigeria is not immune from it. Pop Culture is tolerant of Homosexuality. M.I. Abaga, a Nigerian accomplished Hip Hop artiste and rapper had this to say on homosexuality: I WOULD NEVER WANT TO BE PUNISHED FOR WHO I AM, BECAUSE OF THIS I WOUND'NT PUNISH SOMEONE ELSE FOR WHO THEY ARE." Celebrating The Queer Pop Culture make Homosexuals appear MORE HUMAN, even sophisticated and nothing to fear from them. Being Homosexual had not crippled or makes Elton John a beast, or Ellen Deneres a less good Talk Show host. It had not stop fashion enthusiast in Nigeria to adore the genius of Domenico Dolce and Stefanno Gabana of D&G, Gianni Versace, Calvin Klein or Giorgio Armani who is bisexual. Nigeria consumes lots of Hollywood movies and had developed soft spots for some of their favourite actors that are gays: Patrick Harris, Luke Evans, Ian Mckellen (oh sweet Gandalf of Lord of the Rings), Wentworth Miller (Michael Scoffield of Prison Break). In fact, Hollywood has produced gay themed movies that had Oscar recognitions: MOONLIGHT won Best Picture in 2016, and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME nominated for the same award in 2017. In Africa, the book THE HAIRDRESSER OF HARARE by Tendai Huchu advocates tolerance of homosexuality. One of Africa's respected modern writer and essayist (who is one Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie best friends) the Kenyan Binyavanga Weinana is GAY! In fact, at the 2016 MTV Awards in South Africa, the South African Lesbian Athlete Caster Semenya was awarded the AFRICAN PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR! Nigeria artiste are now going international, to mingle and interact with homosexuals and the LGBT community thereby cultivating tolerant attitudes to the lifestyle. Many Nigerians, who can afford it, travelled to gay-tolerant nations to study, to do business, to work or for tourism and shall return with a tolerant attitude to the lifestyle. Is Homosexuality a Sexual Preference Homosexuality is rationalized by lots of Nigerians who will not say it loud: It is a peculiar sexual preference, like any other sexual acts i.e. Anal sex between heterosexual partners or couples, Oral Sex, fetishism.... Homosexuality is considered as a sexual taste, much like preference to sizes of penis, or breasts or butts, or size and shape of the body, hair styles and colors etcetera. Secularism and Homosexuality Religion appears to be the only serious obstacle to Homosexuality in Nigeria, it is quoted that Nigerians are the MOST RELIGIOUS people on earth. But secularism is gaining firm footings; it had infiltrated the religion as evident in the liberal stand most Nigerian Christians and Muslims, even more, many atheist who retain the religious tag for ulterior interests and motives. Most Nigerians are irreverent of religion, they questioned religious dogmas, beliefs and practices and do not hesitate to castigate and critique what upheld as sacrosanct. Curiously it was a Christian minister Rev. Jide Macaulay that established the first gay church in the country. Secularity is now the popular option in Nigeria considering the perennial animosity and outright violence against one another and within same fold by the religious communities in the nation. Religious belief is fast giving way to liberal character and secular ideals while homosexuality appears as an imminent norm. And Imminent Conqueror The Rainbow Movement is a Global Reality, it has gained recognition in several countries of the world - countries who dictates the character of globalisation. The LEGAL STATUS of Homosexuality in Nigeria remains "ILLEGITIMATE", a decision reached by Parliaments whose position is determine by popular opinion. In the nearest future this can be reverse, the younger Nigeria population is increasingly influenced by the global advocacy and pressures - directly and indirectly, to be tolerant of homosexuality. The Empire of Sodom is winning her campaigns in Nigeria, its rainbow flags being hoisted by many Nigerians CIVILIZE Nigerians and those propagating the doctrine of HUMAN RIGHT. Now, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) is focused on helping the society get rid of unemployment. In order to do this, a new section called Church Social Responsibility (CSR) has been created. This was announced by the Pastor-in-Charge (PIC) of New Life Province, Federal Capital Territory (FCT2), Kubwa in Abuja, Pastor David Adewuyi, according to This Day. In his words, "The Lord laid in the heart of our General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, to have a section which will be referred to as Church Social Responsibility (CSR)." How Pastor Adeboye's church is going beyond winning souls for Jesus Christ The provincial pastor shared the good news at the graduation ceremony for the 1051 graduates from a recently concluded one-month skills acquisition and hands-on training workshop held by the church. ece-auto-gen These graduates of this second set of the skills acquisition programme were made up of housewives, unemployed youths and some employed graduates. Courses included baking, events planning, and entrepreneurship, tailoring, and phone/computer repairs. Mrs. Dorothy Adewuyi, the PIC's wife explained the importance of the wealth creation initiative, encouraging everyone including married women to take advantage of the programme. "As you aware, these days, the man's salary and means of livelihood might not be sufficient enough to carry on with the responsibilities of the family, so this is a good thing," she said. Meanwhile, this is not the first time, Pastor Adeboye's church has done something nice for its members. Earlier this year, the G.O reportedly gave a directive for all RCCG churches across the nation to feed at least 2 million Nigerians every Sunday. This was confirmed online by Twitter users. ece-auto-gen According to Punch, the union said it has commenced mobilisation of its members in all the zones for a strike which it said would begin soon. While addressing journalists in Jos, Prof. Lawan Abubakar, the coordinator of ASUU, Bauchi Zone rejected the N20bn the Federal Government released to ASUU to improve public universities across the country on Monday, September 24, 2018. Abubakar said what will N20bn do for the 64 public universities in this country? What we want now is the N1.1tn. That is the amount that the government should release; not the N20bn. This is coming following the ASUU president's announcement that the union is still waiting for approval from its executives and trustees to join the nationwide strike. ece-auto-gen ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi on Wednesday, September 26, 2018, said that he could not ask lecturers to join the nationwide industrial action without an approval from the ASUU executives and trustees UNIOSUN lecturers go on strike Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) UNIOSUN chapter has joined the joined strike called by the National Labour Congress. University's ASUU chairman, Dr. M. O. Abanikannda announced the institution's readiness to join the NLC strike on Thursday, September 27, 2018. Wondering where Bukky has been all this while, the beautiful actress has been in Canada before she finally decided to relocate back to Nigeria. Prior to her return to the country, she had featured in a number of movies in Canada including; "Bridges," "Awkward Things About Losing Weight," "The Carperdian." In an exclusive interview with PULSE, Bukky Abaniwonda popularly called "Bukky Wonder" talked about her journey through acting, coming back to Nigeria and the story so far. ece-auto-gen When asked who inspired her to acting, she talked about her she got the inspiration from secondary and decided to pursue that path. "It was quite an interesting one; I was always told that I talk a lot and that I should go and study law [laughs]. I also had some people say I should act, but I had a eureka moment in SS1 while in Abuja, where I spent practically all my childhood, a lady who was also in same class already released her first single and I was quite shocked as to how she is doing what she loves at a very young age. Hence, that really pushed me to chase my passion, although I have always had a flair for acting and tried to be in most plays at school but that singular experience with the lady at school really spurred my desire. "My childhood experiences played a huge part, and one thing about me which I realized is that I get bored doing the same thing all the time so I never saw myself doing a white-collar Job. I always longed for something that involved me doing things that had different facets to it, not having to be in front of a desk all my life, so it was not necessarily an attraction to acting that got me here but I always had a flair for arts so acting came along the way and needed a life which was spontaneous in nature. Though acting is not all I do because Im a creative person and love things that are challenging and not static which permits room to be fully creative; so acting is one of the various avenues I use to do that," she said. ece-auto-gen We also got to talk about the roles she prepare to star in and her acting style, she uniquely said include Sci-Fi movie roles and the traditional romantic and drama related roles. For her acting style, Bukky said her style include an infusion of method and classical acting styles. "The roles I prefer at the moment, Nollywood does not have them [laughs] but the roles I would love to be in are more in line of Sci-Fi, heroic kind of roles but the roles which can be ideal for me in the world of Nollywood are more in line with romance, drama, roles that are deeply challenging and need a whole lot of emotions involved. So basically those are the type of roles I do prefer. "My style is an infusion of method and classical, which aids me to deliver a a stellar portrayal of any role given; when it has to do with a deeply plagued emotional character which is quite challenging," she said. ece-auto-gen As usual actors usually go to set sometimes in bad shape or mood but have to prefer professionally and so we asked her to give us an instance when she had to act despite being a horrible mood and also the toughest challenge she has faced while on set. "Thats quite an interesting question [sighs] it was the moment I lost my dad while on set during my first major movie, it was very challenging for me because I was riding a wave of emotions which made me lash out on set. Not everyone knew about it, only a few; my Director [Deola] being one of them. My Director really motivated me, kept feeding me with words that I needed and reminded me that my dad did give his blessings. Also, my fellow actor who was my love interest in the movie helped me a lot, although he didnt know what was going on, He was a light in my dark hour. "The toughest challenge while performing a role was when I lost my dad. I was shooting a movie that was related to weight struggle and the movie was meant to be humorous but I got carried away with emotions due to the fact that I could relate so much with the character. My Director helped me through it all and I am forever grateful," she said. ece-auto-gen Bukky also revealed how she has been able to handle stardom and her latest project which she said is a Canadian film. "One just has to be level-headed and always be focused on why you got into the business in the first place. Everything which has a beginning has an end, so always stay humble and grounded. "I am working on producing my first Canadian film which is a heroic movie; a black Canadian film. Its going to be a mix of African and Canadian. The main character will be a woman who will be from Africa obviously [laughs]. So Im sourcing necessary funds to bring it to fruition," she said. Bukky apparently has a thing for American actors because when we asked her to reveal her favourite actors, the names were quite interesting and foreign. "Viola Davis, definitely! She is an amazing actor who delivers excellently when it comes to intense roles. Theres a way she just switches from being happy, to very emotional and I constantly study her to hone my skills. I also love Kimberly Elis," she said. ece-auto-gen Bukky Abaniwonda has a number of charity works and skills acquisition she has been involved while she was in Canada and share them with us. "Before I got to Nigeria I was involved in some charity work which was connected to my church, we served meals to an old peoples home. We spent some time with them and did loads of other interactive activities with them as well. Also, I try to assist in making peoples dreams come through in my own little way. For example, I have sponsored some individuals through some training such as makeup school. A lady who I assisted through makeup school is currently my make-up artist who aids in making me slay always, but if there is a look she cant really pull of, I seek alternatively, but she stays to observe and learn which I really commend her for," she said. For Bukky Abaniwonda, the right time to go into acting for any promising actor is at the very young age even though it doesn't mean starting at an older age is bad though. "The right age to begin ideally is when you are young. Like the saying goes, train up your child the way he should grow. One of the things which frightened me while coming into this industry was seeing people who have been acting since when they were young, although to start old does not mean its too late for ones acting dream to come through. Some actors like Taraji is a perfect example that theres no age barrier when it comes to acting. Hence, theres really no age fix as to when to pursue a career, just be determined when you begin the journey," she said. We couldn't end the interview without asking the gorgeous actress to a word of advice to people who are looking at become actors. "The most important tip I would give an inspiring actor is patience patience patience because it takes a while to hone one skill in acting. Like they say, it takes a while to get good in a particular skill in life. When pursuing your dreams, patience is always required. When I look back at the earlier movies and short films I featured in, all I see is progress. Learn to accept criticism and not take it personally so as to learn and grow. Never take it personal and take it all in your stride; always stay laser forced and always go for it," she concluded. 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! Offre, a Cross River state indigene and is a Grade Level 3 staff of the State House with a monthly salary of N25,000. He was said to have joined the service of the State House in 2009. According to Daily Trust, he was found in a bush in Kubwa, a satellite town in Nigerias capital city, dangling on a tree. A worker said the driver was rescued when his wife found the suicide note on the table when she returned home. It was the wife that saved the whole thing. When she saw the suicide note on the table, she raised alarm that attracted their neighbours, the worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity said. They saw him dangling on the tree in a bush in their neighborhood. When he was found, they thought he has passed on. It was while they were conveying him to the mortuary that he moved his hand, he added. It was gathered that the driver lamented poor remuneration in the suicide note. The driver was revived at the State House Clinic, as he was said to be unconscious for days. He has been discharged. Blame it on the devil In a phone interview, Offre blamed devil for the suicide attempt. It is what I cant explain honestly, Offre began. They said I attempted suicide. I cant explain how it happened but they said I tried to hang myself at the bush in Kubwa. I live in Kubwa They said I wrote it but I cannot remember. I cant even remember the content of the suicide note. It is what I cant just explain. The car issue has been addressed before this thing happened. But it is because of difficulties. I only depend on my salary which is about N25,000. Permanent Secretary visited me in the hospital and advised me not to try such a thing again, he stated. Contacted, the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Arabi, who confirmed the report said he visited the driver at the hospital. South Africa slipped into recession in the second quarter of the year and the government has found solutions to boost investor confidence and the country's economy. Hence, the country will ease some immigration rules, including agreeing visa waiver agreements with more countries. Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba announced on Tuesday that from next month, a whole bunch of regulations allowing frequent visitors and foreign business travellers to have long-term multiple-entry visas of up to 10 years will take full effect. ece-auto-gen Visitors from China and India can get visas that can last 10 years processed in five days, along with many other relaxed requirements. A total of 19 countries are in line to be granted visa-free travel to South Africa, but Nigeria is not one of them. Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Sao Tome and Principe, Tunisia, Ghana, The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Saharans), Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Palestine, Iran, Lebannon, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait, Belarus, Georgia and Cuba. Could this be due to the tensions between Nigerians and South Africans in South Africa, or do we just not contribute to their tourism in anyway? These strict visa rules for Africans by Africans could be the reason why Africans are disinterested in exploring Africa. President Buharis condolence message is contained in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Friday. The President paid tributes to the gallantry of Squadron Leader Bello Baba-Ari, the officer, who died in the accident while also wishing the two other wounded officers quick recovery. In a condolence message delivered on his behalf by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Abubakar Sidique at the burial of the officer on Friday in Abuja, Buhari extolled the virtues of the dead pilot. The president said the deceased had laid down his life in the service of his fatherland at a time that patriotic citizens were needed to join hands to move the nation forward. He promised that having paid the supreme sacrifice, the nation would not forget him. He prayed that God would grant the soul of the departed eternal rest and assured family members of the deceased that the country would not abandon them. The representatives of the President had earlier visited the two other officers, who sustained injuries, Squadron Leader Abatuba and Flight Lt. Ambi in the hospital. Kyari, who led the delegation, conveyed the Presidents good wishes to them. The President wished them quick recovery, assuring them the hearts of Nigerians are with them and are praying for them as they make a quick return to good health. According to him, the country will do whatever it takes to ensure that they are back on their feet in excellent state. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 27) The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday filed a criminal case against blogger Drew Olivar for his false social media post about a bomb at a rally marking the anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the country. The police brought the case before the Department of Justice (DOJ), citing a violation of the Presidential Decree 1727 or the "Anti-Bomb Joke Law" prohibiting jokes or the spread of false information about bombs. The DOJ had earlier rejected the PNP's complaint for lack of necessary documents. If found guilty, Olivar could be sentenced to jail for up to five years and/or pay a fine of up to P40,000. The controversial blogger and staunch supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte Olivar on September 21 warned in a post on his Facebook page that a bomb could go off on EDSA where protesters were holding an anti-government rally. He said the explosion could be similar to that of the deadly Plaza Miranda bombing in Quiapo, Manila in 1971, an incident that helped trigger the declaration of martial law the following year. In his post, the blogger said: "Ay, nakakatakot naman mag-rally sa EDSA kasi may kumakalat na baka maulit daw 'yung pagbomba kagaya ng Plaza Miranda! Kung ako sa inyo, hindi na ako pupunta." The post came following a series of other controversial messages from the blogger and his media parter, Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson. The tandem had received backlash for their "Pepederalismo" videos and another video mocking the deaf community. Photo: The Canadian Press Senate Republican floor leader Joe Fain A woman has accused a Washington state lawmaker of raping her 11 years ago, saying she was inspired to speak out as she watched the televised allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. In a tweet Thursday afternoon, Candace Faber said Republican state Sen. Joe Fain sexually assaulted her in 2007 the night she graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "I'm done being silent," she wrote. Fain said he "absolutely" denies the claim and welcomed an investigation. "Any allegation of this serious nature deserves to be heard and investigated for all parties involved," Fain wrote in a text message to The Associated Press. "I invite and will co-operate with any inquiry." Fain, a Republican from the Seattle suburb of Auburn, is the minority floor leader of the Washington state Senate. Faber explained later in a statement that she was inspired by Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor who told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were teenagers. Kavanaugh fiercely denied Ford's claims. "Like Dr. Ford, I can no longer remain silent knowing that the man who raped me is in a position to influence the laws that govern my state and impact every woman who lives here," Faber wrote. Faber, 35, in June published an online essay accusing an unnamed Washington state lawmaker of assaulting her. She wrote that they met "at the Capitol," spent the night dancing and kissing, and that both "drank too much." She wrote in the essay she walked the man back to his hotel, went to his room and that he pinned her to a bed and pulled down her dress. She wrote that she told him to stop and put her foot on his head to push him away. After the man raped her, she wrote, she asked him for a kiss goodbye before leaving the room. In her essay, she rejected that the kiss request was "not how girls act when they've been raped." She wrote that she later called a friend, wondering if she should go to a hospital. Faber said in her statement said she did not make the man's name public earlier because she thought she "could change the culture of sexual assault without needing to say his name" but no longer believes that to be the case. He stated this at a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in New York on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly. Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, made this known in a statement in Abuja. The Ghanaian leader said there was no intention to deliberately target Nigerians, noting that it was all about complying with the rules that guide trading in the country. I have met with the different groups and have been reassured that there was no agenda to send anybody away. It is just that they needed to regularize their positions according to the trading laws of the country, Akufo-Addo said. He added that Ghanas Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, had issued a press statement on the matter. The statement read: The Ministry of Trade and Industry wishes to inform the general public that the National Committee on Retail Trade will continue to ensure that all businesses operating in the retail trade sector of Ghana are given the opportunity and support to regularize their operations and comply with the laws and regulations in the country. In this regard, all owners of the affected businesses and shops are requested to contact the relevant State Institutions and Agencies to regularize their operations as required by the various bodies under reference. The Ministry takes this opportunity to assure the general public, particularly the international community, that there is no orchestrated action by Government or any State Institution targeted at Nigerian nationals or any particular foreign nationals. Buhari, who expressed delight over the actions taken so far to address the situation, stressed that Nigeria and Ghana had a relationship that dated back in time. The 75-year-old made this promise while addressing Nigerians based in the United States and Canada, as part of his trip to New York for the 73rd United Nations General Assembly. While commending his administration for fulfilling campaign promises to boost the economy, fight insecurity and champion a campaign against corruption, the president also noted that there's more to be done. "If I win the next election and I survive the next four years, I will do better," he said. The president made this remark while talking about why Nigerians perceive him to be too slow in dealing with issues. According to him, he's committed to shedding his military skin to allow for democratic processes to take due course. Buhari preaches world peace and security When he addressed world leaders on Tuesday, September 25, 2018, President Buhari preached for world peace, highlighting major pressure points around the world where peace should be negotiated. He called on the international community to strengthen its resolve to combat ethnic and religious cleansing everywhere in the world. President Buhari also condemned the illicit flow of funds across national boundaries, noting that it has huge negative impact on the stability, peace, and economic prospects of millions in developing countries. "Corruption significantly deprives national Governments of resources to provide meaningful livelihoods to their populations who are predominantly youths, thus giving rise to more irregular migration," he said. Spokersperson of the state's Police Command, Tyopev Terna, disclosed in a press statement that the gunmen killed an unspecified number of people during an attack on Thursday, September 27, 2018. He said the gunmen were forced to run after a gun battle with security operatives. Many other people who sustained injuries were rushed to Bingham University Teaching Hospital in Jos where they're receiving treatment. He said, "On the 27/09/2018 being Thursday at about 2205hrs, the Plateau State Police Command Control Room in Jos received a distress call to the effect that there were sporadic gunshots at Rukuba Road opposite Kowa Hotel, Jos. The Command after receiving the report mobilised patrol teams immediately to the scene of crime. "The unknown gunmen who took advantage of the ongoing rain in the area to attack residents were forced to run from the scene by the combined superior gun fire of the Police and the Operation Safe Haven (STF). "Some people who reside close to the hills were rescued while some persons lost their lives as a result of the attack and some others sustained gunshot injuries and were rushed to Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos and are currently receiving treatment." Ternaurged members of the public to remain calm and law-abiding as security operatives patrol the area in hopes of apprehending the perpetrators of the attack. "Patrol of the area is being intensified and investigation in the crime has commenced," he said. According to Premium Times, the killings have led to increased tension in the area as protesters blocked major roads on Friday, September 28, with many youths seen burning tyres. This has affected business activities with many roads reported to be deserted. Government imposes dusk-to-dawn curfew in 2 LGAs In response to the attack and subsequent unrest, the Plateau State Government has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on two local government areas in Plateau. Secretary to the State Government, Richard Tokma, disclosed that state governor, Simon Lalong, has ordered a 6:00pm to 6:00am curfew in Jos North and Jos South LGAs with immediate effect. "Sequel to security breach in some parts of the Jos North, Gov. Simon Lalong, has approved the imposition of a disk-to-down curfew from 6: P.M to 6: A.M in Jos North and Jos South LGAs with immediate effect," a statement read. Mr Philip Ayuba, Corps Commandant in the state, disclosed this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Friday. He said that the special squad, which comprises of trained personnel from the armed squad unit, counter terrorism unit (CTU) and special weapon handling and techniques unit (SWAT) will mange security in and out side the metropolis. He explained that the formation of the special squad became very imperative because of the raising trends of insecurity across the country. He solicited the support of residents, especially those attending public functions to be security consciousness at all times. The president explained that Boko Haram had been decimated, adding that it was most important for the country to be secured but regretted that the terrorist group was still targeting soft spots using girls for suicide bombings. Buhari declared that Boko Haram is not about religion but a pure terrorist group, adding that is why we are dealing with them. On corruption, he regretted that Nigeria made so much money from 1999 to 2014 when the price of crude oil per barrel was above 100 dollars while Nigeria produced around 1.2 million barrels per day. Calculate 2.2 million barrels times 100 dollars times 16 years; but everything went down the drain, emphasising that if Nigeria does not tame corruption, corruption will tame Nigeria. The president also said that he was not slow as some people had assumed, saying he was trying to follow the law, especially as democracy is different from military rule. He recalled that he put people in Kirikiri Maximum Prison in Lagos when he was a military head of state and then ensured they remained in custody until they were able to prove themselves innocent. Buhari, however, said his administration was making progress but had to go by the law assuring that if I win the next election and I survive the next four years, I will do better. He also recounted his bitter experience in politics saying that he suffered electoral corruption from 2013 when he started contesting for the presidency and had at each point, pursued the case up to the Supreme Court but lost. Im always conscious of the ordinary people because they are the ones that always vote for me. A lot of big men have no time to go and queue on the line for hours. There were even pregnant women who were on the line for hours and they delivered. They are my constituencies; they always vote for me, Buhari said. The president explained that he had warned the Independent National Electoral Commission and the security agencies to ensure that every vote counts by allowing Nigerians to vote whoever they want without harassment. Buhari said he recognised that Nigerians in the diaspora were talented people and called on them to come to the support of the country, particularly, in education. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the diasporas appealed to the president to get them more involved in issues about the country considering that they are major stakeholders. Earlier, the Consul-General of Nigeria in New York, Mr Benaoyagha Okoyen, commended the willingness of the diasporas to support the efforts of the governments economic growth and diversification plans. The purpose of this gathering is to allow Nigerians in diaspora interact with Mr President by offering useful suggestions for government to continually strengthen the existing bond of affection, identity and sense of responsibility for the Diaspora community, to actively participate in development efforts of Nigeria at home. I feel delighted to state the obvious that among Nigerians in the United States, we have some of the most celebrated and outstanding in various fields of human endeavours. I wish to report to Mr President of the desire and passion of these Nigerians to contribute and maintain an effective working partnership with government to integrate their valuable contributions into the domestic growth mechanisms. Olawepos decision comes barely few hours to ANNs presidential primary election scheduled for Saturday, September 29, 2018. In a letter addressed to the party chairman, Emmanuel Dania, Olawepo expressed displeasure over the failure of the party to correct the abnormalities he had mentioned to the chairman at their Wednesday meeting. This, he alleged, amounts to a disrespect for the constitution of the party. The aspirant who has toured a substantial part of the country campaigning for delegates support, noted said: The list of delegates has not been provided to me as a Presidential Aspirant on the platform of the ANN. This is contrary to the constitution of the ANN and the Electoral Act. This is such a fundamental flaw as to render any exercise purporting to be presidential primaries to be nugatory. It is unfortunate that even on the eve of the so-called primaries, guidelines for the primaries, which ought to have been approved by the National Executive Committee (NEC) and issued at least 7 days before the elections, are not available. The absence of guidelines to guide the conduct of the primaries constitute a grave violation of our partys Constitution and the Electoral Act. The arrangements for the Presidential Primaries have not been published so that everyone will know. I dont know those to conduct the Primaries, including Accreditation of delegates, Screening of Aspirants etc. "As a presidential aspirant, I am yet to know the arrangements put in place for the conduct of the primaries. I regret to inform you that I will not participate in tomorrows primaries until the constitution of the party is respected and all the defects are rectified, Olawepo quipped. Enang made the call during the monitoring of primaries in Ward 2, Ididep clan in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom on Friday. He reminded them that President Buhari had done enough in terms of infrastructure development and appointments of indigenes of the state into political offices. The presidential aide also said that the National Working Committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC) changed the date for its gubernatorial primary to avoid litigations and make room for appeals. He said the party had put in place an Appeals Committee so that aspirants dissatisfied with the outcome of the gubernatorial primary would have room to appeal. He noted that the decision was also taken to enable full preparation for the governorship primary after the presidential, and for cleared candidates to be aware that they qualified for the elections. Enang said the decision was designed to discourage other parties from poaching on aspirants that lost out in the elections. It is so that we can can have full preparation immediately after the presidential primary because of the number of candidates contesting the election and because some candidates who have been screened and cleared are not aware that they have been screened and cleared. Some candidates who have been disqualified have one day for the appeal to be conducted so that they can have opportunity of meeting the appeal panel to make their appeal. We do not want to conduct the election in such a manner that we exclude those who are disqualified; so the party has provision for appeals committee. If we dont allow them the chance to appeal, it may lead to litigation. So we gave them a full day to lodge their appeals. We want to also be at pace with other political parties who were seeking to poach on those who may be dissatisfied from our own primary to take advantage because some other political parties that dont have candidates are waiting for fall-out from our own primary. So that they can get some candidates just to fill the vacuum. We dont want to allow that, he said. 63-year-old Oyetola battled Senator Ademola Nurudeen Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party in a re-run to emerge the state's governor-elect. The final results as announced by Professor Afuwape are: APC - 255, 505 votes; PDP - 255, 023; SDP - 128,053 and ADP - 49,742. The Osun State governorship rerun election took place on Thursday, September 27, 2018, just days after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the original September 22 election to have been inconclusive. According to Afuwape, total accredited voters - 775, 677; rejected votes - 47, 874; total vote cast - 769, 495; total counted votes - 721, 641. This was because the victory margin of 353 votes of first-placed candidate, Adeleke, over second-placed Gboyega was less than the 3498 votes cancelled in seven polling units. See election results by local governments, here The election had instances of vote buying and was marred by violence in certain areas. Despite his impressive performance in Saturday's election, Adeleke beat Oyetola at just one polling unit, winning 64 votes over the APC candidate's 41 in Orolu Ward 09 PU 003. Oyetola won the rerun election with a difference of 835 votes as he acquired a total of 1160 votes to Adeleke's 325. When Adeleke's previous lead of 353 is added to his tally in the rerun, he's still 482 votes behind Oyetola, meaning that the APC candidate is set to be announced winner of the election. 5 quick facts about Osun state governor-elect, Oyetola Here are five quick facts about Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola, the ex-chief of staff to Gov Aregbesola and Osun governor-elect. 1. Chief of Staff to Aregbesola for 8 years Oyetola served in Governor Rauf Aregbesola's eight-year-administration as the Chief of Staff and one of the pillars behind the administration. In a report by TheCable, Oyetola earned favour in the sight of Ogbeni Aregbesola for working behind the scene as one of the pillars behind the governor's administration. Though Oyetola has on several occasions denied being endorsed by Aregbesola, sources say he interfaces with the workers and has shown commitment to the continued growth of Osun state. ALSO READ: Aregbesola's aide emerges APC governorship candidate in Osun 2. 20 years of active politics Unknown to many political observers outside Osun state, Oyetola has been achieving political feats without attracting attention to himself since 1997. Oyetola is said to be among the prominent Nigerians who founded the Alliance for Democracy, AD, in 1998. ece-auto-gen The politician had remained a notable figure in the political party in Osun so much that when the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, berthed, he was one of the party's notable chieftains. Oyetola remained in the party without contesting or seeking any position till the ACN metamorphosed to APC. He is also said to be close to Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the APC. The APC flagbearer is said to have amassed supporters and a strong followership in all the 332 wards in the local governments in Osun state. 3. First time at the polls Interestingly, Oyetola is seeking political office for the first time despite his incursion into politics in the early '90s. Despite being in active politics for over 20 years, Oyetola has never sought for a political office; though he served in a major position in the Governor Aregbesola led administration for eight years. Though he is contesting a political office for the first time, Oyetola is indeed prepared for the task ahead. "I have toured every nook and cranny of this state consulting the stakeholders. I dont discuss campaign issues with the governor," he said. 4. Oyetola turns 64 seven days after governorship election Oyetola was born on September 29, 1954, in Iragbiji, Boripe local government area and will turn 64 exactly seven days after the Osun state governorship election scheduled for September 22, 2018. ece-auto-gen Though Oyetola has no reason for the coincidence, he is cocksure of his victory at the polls; saying he will continue to campaign across all the local governments of the state to ensure continued good governance for the people of Osun state. 5. Certified Insurance broker After his primary school, Oyetola attended Ifeoluwa Grammar School in Osogbo before proceeding to the University of Lagos, UNILAG. On the campus of UNILAG, Oyetola obtained a Bachelor of science degree in insurance in 1978 and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in 1990 from the same institution. He is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, London and Nigeria and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management. ALSO READ: Aregbesola's aide leads as results of Osun APC Primary come in After he completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Potiskum, Yobe state, in 1980, Oyetola started his career as an insurance broker with Leadway Assurance Company as an Assistant Manager. The Osun State governorship rerun election took place on Thursday, September 27, 2018, just days after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the original September 22 election to have been inconclusive. This was because the victory margin of 353 votes of first-placed candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke(254,698 votes) of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), over second-placed Oyetola (254,345 votes) was less than the 3498 votes cancelled in seven polling units. In the rerun election that took place in those affected polling units on Thursday, Oyetola won the rerun election with a difference of 835 votes as he acquired a total of 1160 votes to Adeleke's 325. The poll closed with Oyetola winning a total 255,505 votes, 482 more votes than Adeleke's 255,023. INEC's Chief Returning Officer for the elections, ProfessorJoseph Afuwape,declared Oyetola the winner in Osogbo, the state capital, on Thursday evening. In a statement signed by the president's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Friday, September 28, 2018, he congratulated Oyetola and the APC for winning the keenly contested governorship election. The president said the conduct of the successful election further strengthens the democratic culture in the country, and praised INEC for making Nigeria proud. The president also thanked the people of the state for electing Oyetola and commended outgoing governor, Rauf Aregbesola, for his service. "Thank you Osun State for supporting our good governance agenda by re-electing the APC. I assure you that we will continue to work for the progress and prosperity of the state and the nation," he said. The president urged Oyetola to always remember that the electorate expects unreserved commitment to delivering results that directly impact their lives and families. He also urged contestants that disagree with the outcome of the election to seek redress in court. Oyetola thanks Buhari for support In his acceptance speech after INEC announced him the winner of the election, Oyetola commended Buhari for his support and for creating a democratic environment that creates room for free and fair elections "The democratic environment created by the APC under which this election was held is a clear indication of the great political development that has occurred in the past three years of our party's administration, under President Muhammadu Buhari," he said. Adeleke kicks against election result The PDP's candidate, Adeleke, has already called on INEC to cancel the rerun election and declare him the true winner. He said the election was not free and fair and alleged that PDP members were harassed and prevented from voting at polling units across the state. He said, "This is not a free and fair election. Osun state is under siege; we are at war in Osun. They didn't allow my party to even vote. It's only APC people they allowed to vote. The security agents and INEC have compromised so there's no election in Osun today. "I urge INEC, with immediate effect to cancel today's election and declare me the winner because I've already won the election. This is a kangaroo election with all the security agents intimidating my party faithfuls. All the people that wante to vote, they drove them; so this is not an election. Nigeria is in trouble. We're at war in Osun." Adeleke also disclosed that he has enough evidence to prove that he already won before the rerun and will take the matter to an election tribunal if he has to. "Like I said before, we're not a violent people. The option is there for us to go to court, tribunal. We have a lot of evidences that we've won the election already," he said. The Osun State governorship rerun election took place on Thursday, September 27, 2018, just days after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the original September 22 election to have been inconclusive. This was because the victory margin of 353 votes of first-placed candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke(254,698 votes) of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), over second-placed Oyetola (254,345 votes) was less than the 3498 votes cancelled in seven polling units. In the rerun election that took place in those affected polling units on Thursday, Oyetola won the rerun election with a difference of 835 votes as he acquired a total of 1160 votes to Adeleke's 325. The poll closed with Oyetola winning a total 255,505 votes, 482 more votes than Adeleke's 255,023. INEC's Chief Returning Officer for the elections, ProfessorJoseph Afuwape,declared Oyetola the winner in Osogbo, the state capital, on Thursday evening. In his acceptance speech, Oyetola said the election was free and fair and thanked the people of Osun State for trusting him with their votes. He also thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and incumbent governor, Rauf Aregbesola, for creating the atmosphere for a democratic process. Read his full statement below: ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY THE GOVERNOR ELECT OF OSUN, GBOYEGA OYETOLA, AFTER BEING DECLARED WINNER OF THE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION HELD ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2018 Election into the Office of the Governor of the State of Osun was held on Saturday September 22, 2018, in which I flew the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a contest with 47 other candidates, representing their different political parties. From the field report and the tally of the ballots, there was enthusiastic turnout at the polls. The huge number of candidates who vied for the office was unprecedented. Though there were few glitches and challenges here and there, the exercise was satisfactory. We can say there has been substantial compliance with the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act. However, the election was declared inconclusive after the first ballot and a rerun was slated for Thursday September 27, 2018 in seven polling units in Ife North, Ife South, Orolu and Osogbo Local Governments Areas of the State. This was disappointing. We had enough evidence and field reports, including signed result sheets, from our agents that confirmed that we won outrightly. However, as democrats, we accepted the verdict in good faith and prepared for the rerun. In the end, I was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after securing the highest number of votes cast in the election. This election has been keenly contested, and a clear winner could not emerge until the tail end. Indeed, there was a dramatic twist in the end that kept us all on the edge and made Osun the focus of national and international attention. This is an indication of how democratic, free, fair and transparent the election was. However, I cannot but observe that the election took place under a much more relaxed and freer atmosphere, compared with the previous elections, particularly the 2014 governorship election, during which the state was put under siege by the then Federal Government. The democratic environment created by the APC under which this election was held is a clear indication of the great political development that has occurred in the past three years of our party's administration, under President Muhammadu Buhari. This election is primarily a victory for democracy, rule of law and due process. It is a victory for the right of every citizen to participate in their own governance which democracy represents. The victory is an affirmation by the people of Osun in the APC government that has been on the saddle in the past eight years; and the acceptance of our ideology. It is a positive affirmation of our people-friendly policies and the way we have steered the ship of state, even under the most challenging circumstances. This is ultimately a victory for the people of Osun that have been given a voice and a hope of democratic and responsible leadership. I will like to commend and congratulate INEC for successfully conducting a free, fair and credible governorship election. I congratulate also our party, the APC, in Nigeria and South West, for its well-deserved victory at the polls, wrapping up the South West states and giving it the opportunity to use the progressive platform it offers for accelerated development of the region. I also congratulate Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, under whom I cut my political teeth and whose tenure was on trial during the election. I regard the mandate given to me by the good people of Osun as sacred and I am taking it seriously. Of course, I have been part of the new beginning that started eight years ago. Nevertheless, in continuing the glorious path on which I am now very familiar, it is a new beginning for me. I am committing myself the more to the good governance of Osun and the welfare of the people. I will run an inclusive and participatory government. I will consult with the party, workers, communities, traditional rulers, the civil society and the people of the state in their heterogeneity. I will engage the youth, tap into their ideas and enable them to unleash their creative energy in a positive way. I pledge to serve God and humanity and the people of Osun with my whole being, without prejudice to religion, ethnicity, race and ideology. I will like to thank the Almighty God for His grace and divine enablement upon my life; and for fulfilling His promise to bless the land and people of Osun through me. I will like to thank our great party, APC, for the overwhelming support given to me all through the campaign and for believing in me. The leadership and members of our party nationally and locally laboured hard for my victory. Our National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, backed me to the hilt. I thank him. The national campaign committee headed by Governor Umar Ganduje and all the APC governors have my commendations and infinite gratitude. I will like to express my profound gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for his invaluable support and for leading a delegation of party and government officials to my campaign. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo did a yeoman's job. He made several trips to Osun and supported the campaign with all available resources. My immense gratitude goes to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the leader of leaders, for his selflessness and absolute commitment to my election campaign and for giving his all. I cannot thank enough Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who gave me an opportunity to serve and who carried me on his shoulders when the going was tough. I must thank also the coalition that emerged for the rerun, including Senator Iyiola Omisore of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Osun Alliance of Collaborating Political Parties (ACPP) that wholeheartedly endorsed and supported my candidature. I thank my lovely wife, Kafayat, and the children for believing in me and supporting me unreservedly. My wife, in particular, gave me the peace of mind and refreshing comfort at home. I cannot end without thanking every member of my campaign team for their sacrifice, dedication and commitment. It is their victory as well. I thank all the people of Osun, especially those who believe in our cause and voted for me. It is your victory. I thank our royal fathers, workers, transporters, market women and men. The security agencies deserve commendation for keeping the peace and for their prompt response to every security challenge before, during and after the election. I salute members of the media too for their coverage. Once again, I congratulate and thank all member of APC in Osun for our hard-won victory. I thank you all for your attention. Ileri Oluwa ti se. Osun a dara! Adeleke kicks against election result The PDP's candidate, Adeleke, has already called on INEC to cancel the rerun election and declare him the true winner. He said the election was not free and fair and alleged that PDP members were harassed and prevented from voting at polling units across the state. He said, "This is not a free and fair election. Osun state is under siege; we are at war in Osun. They didn't allow my party to even vote. It's only APC people they allowed to vote. The security agents and INEC have compromised so there's no election in Osun today. "I urge INEC, with immediate effect to cancel today's election and declare me the winner because I've already won the election. This is a kangaroo election with all the security agents intimidating my party faithfuls. All the people that wante to vote, they drove them; so this is not an election. Nigeria is in trouble. We're at war in Osun." Adeleke also disclosed that he has enough evidence to prove that he already won before the rerun and will take the matter to an election tribunal if he has to. "Like I said before, we're not a violent people. The option is there for us to go to court, tribunal. We have a lot of evidences that we've won the election already," he said. Photo: Contributed On October 20, 2018, Greater Vernon voters will be asked to decide whether they support borrowing up to $25 million for the purpose of constructing a new multi-purpose cultural centre in downtown Vernon. The referendum will be held with the upcoming general local election and will determine whether the community wishes to move forward with grant applications and fundraising to generate the additional $15 million required to complete this $40 million project. In preparation for the upcoming referendum, the Regional District of North Okanagan (Regional District) is helping to prepare eligible voters by sharing the question that will be on the ballot at the upcoming general local election on October 20, 2018. The question on the referendum ballot will ask whether the voter is in favour of the Regional District adopting two bylaws: one to authorize the loan that will allow the Regional District to borrow up to $25 million for the purposes of constructing a multi-purpose cultural facility, and the second to authorize the establishment of a cultural service to operate that facility. Both bylaws were given three readings by the Regional District Board of Directors and will now go before the voters to seek elector assent (voter approval) prior to adoption. The Board of Directors have decided to seek elector assent through an assenting vote (referendum), which is scheduled to be held in conjunction with the local general elections in October 2018. The actual question that eligible voters in the Vernon, Coldstream, and Electoral Areas B and C (BX/Swan Lake) will be asked is: Are you in favour of the Regional District adopting the following bylaws: Greater Vernon Cultural Service Establishment Bylaw No. 2785, 2018; and, Greater Vernon Multi-Purpose Cultural Facility Loan Authorization Bylaw No. 2786, 2018 which authorizes the Regional District of North Okanagan to establish a cultural service and borrow an amount not to exceed twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) for the purpose of financing a portion of the monies required for the acquisition of lands and construction of a new Multi-Purpose Cultural Facility for the Greater Vernon Service: yes or no. This is an area-wide vote, which means that when the polls close on October 20, 2018, the votes will be tallied for Greater Vernon as a whole. If more than half (50%) of the votes cast are "YES" to the ballot question, the project will proceed to the next step of securing the additional funding required through grants and fundraising within the five-year time frame permitted to borrow the money. The money would be borrowed and the project would proceed once the additional money was secured. If more than the targeted $15 million is raised through grants and fundraising, it would reduce the amount required from borrowing and less than $25 million would be borrowed. If more than half of the Greater Vernon electors vote NO, or the additional money required to complete the project is not secured, the money would not be borrowed and the project would not proceed. Residents are encouraged to check the project website for additional information opportunities. For further information, please contact us at 250.550.3700 or [email protected] Quick Facts Greater Vernon Voters are made up of the City of Vernon, the District of Coldstream, Electoral Area B (Swan Lake/Commonage), and Electoral Area C (B.X./Swan Lake) The proposed Greater Vernon Cultural Facility was identified as a community need through the Greater Vernon Cultural Plan. The Greater Vernon Cultural Plan was adopted in 2016 and is the first Cultural Plan for Greater Vernon (www.rdno.ca/culturalplan). Through the public engagement process for the creation of the Greater Vernon Cultural Plan, approximately 15,080 people attended to share their thoughts on culture in Greater Vernon. Read the Public Outreach Results Public information opportunities are available leading up to the voting dates, which can be found on the project webpage. contributed by the RDNO Speaking in Abuja on Friday, September 28, 2019, Frank described the declaration of Gboyega Oyetolaof the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the Osun State Governorship election as a sham which cannot stand. His words: We saw it in Ekiti State. We have seen it in Osun State. Democracy in Nigeria has been hijacked by demagogues. The open electoral robbery in Osun is a clarion call to all Nigerians to rise up and defend democracy in the country beginning with the demand for the urgent restoration of the mandate of the Osun people freely given to the PDP on September 22. We must rise up to ensure that the ebbing embers of democratic governance in Nigeria, occasioned by APCs continuous electoral banditry is not completely snuffed out. It remains to be seen if the great people of Osun will sit by and watch as the governorship mandate they freely gave to of the on September 22 is stolen and allowed to go for good. This is the time for Osun people to rise up and demand for their right. This is the time for the great descendants of Oduduwa to rise up and demand for the restoration of their mandate. ALSO READ: Saraki says APC committed electoral fraud in rerun This is the time for all PDP Governors and national leaders to band together and fight for the sustenance of democracy in the country. Let them realize that the Osun APCs banditry is a foretaste of the indecent and criminal path the ruling party is prepared to toe to hang onto power in 2019. This is the time for all Nigerians to rise up to stop the APC from taking the country back into the dungeon of tyranny and dictatorship where the freedom and will of the people will no more count, he said. He expressed sadness that despite the presence of representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, media and other international and local observers in the affected polling units, the APC still manifested their desperation and crudity by brazenly usurping the will of the people. ALSO READ: INEC formally announces Oyetola of the APC governor-elect Despite being in active politics for over 20 years, Oyetola has never sought for a political office; though he served in a major position in the Governor Aregbesola led administration for eight years. Oyetola served in Governor Rauf Aregbesola's eight-year-administration as the Chief of Staff and one of the pillars behind the administration. ece-auto-gen The Osun state governor-elect earned favour in the sight of Ogbeni Aregbesola for working behind the scene as one of the pillars behind the governor's administration. Past governors of Osun state Oyetola will be sworn-in as the fifth democratically elected governor of Osun state. Late Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke was the first elected governor of the state. He was elected under SDP, took office in January 1992 and left office in November 1993. Adebisi Akande is the second elected governor of the state. He was elected under AD, took office in May 29, 1999 and left office in May 29, 2003. Olagunsoye Oyinlola is the third governor of the state. He was elected under PDP, took office in May 29, 2003 and left office in November 26, 2010. Raud Aregbesola is the fourth elected governor of the state. He was elected under ACN, took office in May 29, 2010 and spent two terms in office. Little details about Oyetola After his primary school, Oyetola attended Ifeoluwa Grammar School in Osogbo before proceeding to the University of Lagos, UNILAG. ALSO READ: Aregbesola's aide leads as results of Osun APC Primary come in On the campus of UNILAG, Oyetola obtained a Bachelor of science degree in insurance in 1978 and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in 1990 from the same institution. ece-auto-gen He is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, London and Nigeria and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management. After he completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Potiskum, Yobe state, in 1980, Oyetola started his career as an insurance broker with Leadway Assurance Company as an Assistant Manager. Ambodes camp is desperately trying to mislead Lagosians with these stories, the source said. Ambode is keen on a second term ticket on the APC platform, even though the odds are currently stacked against him. Tinubu has reportedly fallen out with Ambode, with the Mandate Movement, a political structure loyal to Tinubu, endorsing Babajide Olushola Sanwoolu ahead of the primaries. 57 council chairmen and vice chairmen have also thrown their weight behind Sanwoolu, with Ambode told by grassroots mobilisers that he stands no chance of nicking a second term ticket on the APC platform. Misinforming Lagosians The source added that; The Ambode camp just rose from a meeting and agreed to publish a news story that Asiwaju is set to endorse and anoint Ambode in the early hours of Saturday morning before the primaries. There has been no meeting between Asiwaju and Ambode. This story is concocted and a lie from the pit of hell. The aim of this is to misinform the electorate in Lagos and to cause confusion. A number of similar false publications are already in the works". Another aide of Tinubu's who was contacted for this story said the claim of an endorsement is a total fallacy. Its not going to happen. The governor has challenged the people of Lagos to a fight. Let him face it. " "We will also not accept sole American mediation in the peace process," Abbas said in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, saying the US president had shown that he was "biased" towards Israel since coming to power. "This administration has reneged on all previous US commitments, and has undermined the two-state solution, and has revealed its false claims of concern about the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people," the Palestinian Authority president said. Abbas in particular criticized Trump's decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, his order to close the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington and to cut off aid funding, including to a UN agency that supports millions of Palestinian refugees. "All such decisions threaten the Palestinian national cause and constitute an assault on international law and relevant United Nations resolutions," said Abbas. Trampers can now enjoy easier access to New Zealands Hunter Valley Station with an agreement with American lessee Matt Lauer. Mr Lauer, who was famously fired from the Today Show in 2017, bought the Hunter Valley lease for $13 million last year. But trampers had voiced their frustration that the lease prevented travel across the station to the Hawea Conservation Park. Access through this part of the country has been incredibly difficult. Mr Lauers company Orange Lakes has agreed to permit up to six vehicles per day during high seasons (December to April) for a $35 fee. Instead of ringing up for permission, trampers now can fill out a form online through the Department of Conservation and Hunter Valley Station websites. The $35 fees will be used to help maintain the access road. Federation of Mountain Clubs president Peter Wilson has applauded the move. For the last 40 years, access through this part of the country has been incredibly difficult, he said. The land is still accessible by foot and on mountain bikes year-round, apart from during lambing season from October to December. Mr Wilson told RadioLIVE that the new rules are still in a trial phase, with potential to increase the vehicle quota in the future. I think [Mr Lauer] relented because hes starting to understand the obligations and duties that come with being a New Zealand land owner that you provide reasonable access for the public. Listen to the full interview with Peter Wilson above. Drive with Ryan Bridge and Lisa Owen, 3pm - 6pm Weekdays and streaming live on'rova' channel 9 - available on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. A public health expert wants to clarify why blood donations are rejected based on sexual orientation. New Zealand Blood Service recently banned a gay man from donating because of HIV risk, despite the mans desirable O-Negative blood type. Dr Peter Saxton, a research fellow at the University of Auckland, told RadioLIVE that he understands why people are passionate about the issue. The key thing though and I think a lot of people misunderstand this is that testing on its own isnt foolproof, he said. Warren Dempsey-Coy, whos been in a monogamous marriage for 34 years, told Stuff that the ban was discrimination against sexual orientation. "My husband and I have fought for civil unions, the right to marry, we've had to fight our whole lives to be entitled to things everyone should have, we're coming up 60 and the fact I still cannot give blood is ridiculous," Mr Dempsey-Coy said. The Blood Service's rules state that men who have had sex with another man in the past 12 months are not eligible to give blood, whether or not a condom is used. Dr Saxton clarified that while all blood is tested before distribution, its unable to detect recent, undiagnosed infections. According to his research, gay and bisexual men are statistically more likely to be carrying an undiagnosed infection. Although its a really low risk, its still relatively higher compared to other groups in New Zealand. Listen to the full interview with Peter Saxton above. The Long Lunch with Wendyl Nissen, 12pm - 3pm on RadioLIVE and streaming live to the rova app on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. Bombardier Transportation has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Malaysian Industry Government Group for High Technology outlining a collaboration to develop domestic rail industry expertise over the next year. The collaboration with MIGHT will support small and medium enterprises from the manufacturing and maintenance, repair and operations sector by ... Photo: The Canadian Press Canada's military justice system is in danger of being blown up following a bombshell court ruling that found the current process of trying service members for serious crimes including sexual assault and murder violates their charter rights. The ruling was quietly rendered last week by the military's appeals court, and prosecutors are now scrambling to save the current system by asking the Supreme Court of Canada to stay the decision until it can make its own determination. But even as some inside the Canadian Forces warn about the damage the ruling would cause if it's allowed to stand, others say it's long overdue and should spark a much-needed overhaul of the system. The case in question dates back to December 2014 when military police charged an Edmonton-based soldier, Master Cpl. Raphael Beaudry, with one count of sexual assault causing bodily harm. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms says anyone accused of a crime with a maximum sentence of five or more years can request a trial by jury except in cases involving military law tried before a military tribunal. But a special provision in the National Defence Act, which regulates the Forces, says civil cases such as sexual assault and murder can be considered military law even if the alleged offence was not related to an accused's military service. As a result, when Beaudry asked that his case be heard by a jury, it was denied and he was found guilty via court martial. But in a majority ruling last week, the Court Martial Appeals Court found that "civil offences are not offences under military law" meaning Beaudry and others charged with serious criminal code offences should be allowed to stand trial by jury. The ruling, endorsed by two out of three members of the military appeals court, does not affect military-specific offences such as desertion and disgraceful conduct, nor does it apply to crimes committed by service members while deployed outside Canada. But it does leave dozens of cases in limbo in the military justice system, relating to sexual assault and similar offences as well as the future of addressing such cases with the court-martial system. While Beaudry is far from the first to challenge the constitutionality of the military justice system, and the Supreme Court had previously agreed in March to consider the question, those previous cases had all been rejected by lower courts. The military's top prosecutor, Col. Bruce MacGregor, has asked the Supreme Court to suspend the Beaudry decision until the top court can hear an appeal. A failure to do so, he added in a motion filed to the top court, could have widespread implications. "Forty cases currently in the military justice system are affected by this decision, representing over half of our average annual caseload," MacGregor wrote in his motion requesting a stay. Allowing the decision to stand before the top court hears the case would force other cases currently in the system into civilian courts, he added, "creating undesirable delays and jeopardizing the ability to try these cases on their merit." Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. National Drink Beer Day is Sept. 28 and luckily for Athens locals, there are many local breweries to choose from. Some may be thinking this is Police busted a group of 17 people they say were responsible for a series of brazen Apple store robberies in 19 California counties in which suspects stormed past shoppers and employees to rip merchandise off counters. The robberies, which happened in some Bay Area stores, caused more than $1 million in losses to Apple. The suspects wore hoodies and would enter stores in large groups to snatch products on display in a matter of seconds, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. We will continue our work with local law enforcement authorities to extinguish this mob mentality and prosecute these criminals to hold them accountable, he said. The blitz hits often captured on surveillance footage followed a familiar pattern: A group of suspects would storm into stores as unsuspecting customers browsed items, rip merchandise from tabled chargers and sprint out to a getaway car. Officials on Thursday didnt specify the number of robberies, but at the beginning of the month KGO-TV counted at least 21 grab-and-run thefts since mid-May across the state. Becerra said seven adults were arrested Tuesday and booked in Alameda County jail, and another suspect is in custody in Sonoma County. Charges for conspiracy to commit grand theft were filed against suspects in Fresno, Santa Clara and Alameda counties. Arrest warrants were issued for nine other suspects, Becerra said. The suspects charged in Fresno County were identified as Leo David Smith III, Leo David Smith IV, Yoshua Neshon Barker, Armon Darzell James and Kennith Martin Jr., according to court documents. Prosecutors are charging the five with conspiracy to commit grand theft and grand theft of personal property after officials said they stole more than $25,000 worth of property from the Apple store at Fashion Fair Mall in Fresno on July 7. There were 10 suspects named in Alameda County charging documents, including two who apparently also were charged in Fresno. They were identified as Leo David Smith, Joshua Jamal Cole, Nahom Ephrem Yemane, Cody Stewart, Antoine Derell Johnson, Branson Golden, Yoshua Neshun Barker, Taye Duran Davis, Jeral Wimberly and Jeremi Hanks. Theyre all charged with commercial burglary and second-degree commercial burglary for an alleged Sept. 25 crime in Alameda County. Officials say more than $60,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from an Apple store at that time. The complaint does not list the exact location, but the East Bay Times reported a snatch and grab involving six to eight suspects at an Emeryville Apple store on this date. Apple spokesman Nick Leahy declined to comment on the arrests and referred questions to the state Department of Justice. He wouldnt confirm or deny the companys rumored kill switch, which can supposedly disable stolen devices, or any other antitheft measures. We dont comment on matters of security, Leahy said. Apple thieves hit the Bay Area hard in August, striking stores in Santa Rosa, Walnut Creek, Emeryville and Corte Madera. Just after 8 p.m. on Aug. 29, police said, three men in hoodies ran off with $35,000 worth of electronics from the store in the Santa Rosa Plaza, an indoor mall near the citys downtown. Four days earlier, thieves rushed into Walnut Creeks Apple Store at Broadway Plaza and made off with $30,000 worth of iPhones and laptops from displays in the store, police said. They fled in a black Mercedes-Benz waiting out front. Authorities have not confirmed which stores the suspects are being charged with robbing. The San Luis Obispo Police Department and Oakland Police Department led the investigation, along with the assistance of several law enforcement agencies across the state, officials said. Retail thefts cost California businesses millions and leave them prone to copycat criminals, the attorney general noted. Ultimately, consumers pay the cost of this merchandise hijacking, Becerra said. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy NEW CANAAN Another Connecticut connection has come out of the contentious confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Renate Schroeder Dolphin, 53, knew Kavanaugh in high school and publicly defended his character in a letter signed by Dolphin and 64 other women. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said during Thursdays hearings that Dolphin is a Connecticut resident. Dolphin sits on New Canaan Health and Human Services Commission as its secretary, according to the website devoted to the commission. A Lexis search listed a New Canaan address for her, saying she has lived in the town since 2008. Before that, three different Westport addresses were listed for her. On Thursday, a call to a phone number listed for her on the site was answered by a recording saying the number was disconnected. The New York Times identified her as the subject of what was described as a vulgar inside joke between Kavanaugh and his friends who listed themselves as Renate Alumnius in their yearbook, referring to her as a conquest, news reports indicated. In an interview with the New York Times, Dolphin said the joke was hurtful, but did not reaffirm or redact her support of Kavanaughs character. Another Connecticut connection in the Kavanaugh drama is Deborah Ramirez, who grew up in Shelton and attended Yale University. She accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her while they were at Yale. Ramirezs allegation joined one already levied by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who testified Thursday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about her accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school. James Roche, who graduated from Wilton High School in 1983 and was roommates with Kavanaugh during their freshman year at Yale University, vouched for Ramirezs character in a statement last week. I became close friends with Debbie Ramirez shortly after we both arrived at Yale, he said. She stood out as being exceptionally honest, with a trusting manner ... Based on my time with Debbie, I believe her to be unusually honest and straightforward and I cannot imagine her making this up. In his statement, Roche said he did not see the action in question. I did not observe the specific incident in question, but I do remember Brett frequently drinking excessively and becoming incoherently drunk ... Based on my time with Brett, I believe that he and his social circle were capable of the actions that Debbie described, Roche said. Photo: Colton Davies Two people have been rushed to hospital after the truck they were driving in collided with a power pole on Lakeside Road in Penticton. The crash occurred at about 2 p.m. Friday near the corner of Smythe Drive, involving a grey pickup with an N on the back. Emergency responders confirm both occupants of the vehicle were taken to hospital in an ambulance. The truck was headed north towards Penticton. Two witnesses on bicycles report seeing a white vehicle speeding and in the wrong lane heading south. The grey truck veered off the road to avoid the white car and hit the pole. The road remains closed while crews wait for City of Penticton electrical to arrive to inspect the pole, which suffered quite a blow and will likely need to be replaced. No word on when the road will reopen. with files from Colton Davies A poignant wide-frame photo from the Brett Kavanaugh Senate hearing Thursday shows the Supreme Court nominee speaking angrily before a row of crying, scowling women. The image quickly went viral on social media, where critics of Kavanaugh called it a testament to the general sentiments of American woman toward the Supreme Court nominee (anger, sadness, and so on). Multiple women have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, and critics have questioned his record on legal issues pertaining to women. "You know things aren't going well when the women in the front row have this expression on their faces," one Twitter user mused. ALSO READ: Kavanaugh's angry, sob-filled testimony draws skeptical reaction from social media "The faces on the women says so much. Kavanaugh is garbage," wrote another. Some called the expressions "priceless" and said they conveyed "everything." But things are not as they seem to appear, as is often the case with viral media. The majority of the angry-looking women sitting behind Kavanaugh are his friends and members of his family. Kavanaugh's wife, Ashley Kavanaugh, is third from left, while his mother, Martha Kavanaugh, sits on the far left. Between them is Laura Cox Kaplan, a close friend of the Kavanaugh family. About 20 seats were reserved for supporters of Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of sexual assault. While Kavanaugh testified, his supporters sat in the first two rows. Lindsay Graham to rape survivor: 'Go to the cops' Kavanaugh choked up during his nearly hour-long Senate testimony when discussing the impacts the sexual misconduct allegations have had on his family and his reputation, as did many of his supporters who were in attendance. Some called the judge's emotional display evidence of his "victimhood." Others considered it a carefully orchestrated act designed to garner pity. Click here for updating coverage of the Kavanaugh hearing. WASHINGTON - The most consequential Supreme Court opening in a generation gave rise to the most bitter Senate hearing in memory Thursday, as California professor Christine Blasey Ford accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when both were teenagers and Kavanaugh angrily assailed Democrats for pushing what he said were false charges to "blow me up and take me down." The day began with an emotional punch as a self-described "terrified" Ford, her voice shaking at times, described in stark detail being pinned on a bed by a drunken Kavanaugh at a high school gathering. Hours later, the drama escalated as a seething Kavanaugh faced the Senate Judiciary Committee from the same chair and adamantly denied her charges. "You may defeat me in the final vote, but you'll never get me to quit. Never," the red-faced and defiant nominee told Democrats. The 53-year-old federal judge was often tearful and paused for gulps of water as he spoke about the toll that the allegations by Ford and two other women have taken on his wife, his children, his parents and his friends. "This has destroyed my family and my good name," he said, adding: "This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election." Kavanaugh was openly contemptuous of Democratic senators, often demanding that they answer the questions they asked of him. And Republicans, who had silently listened to Ford's testimony, rose to his defense with angry charges against the other party. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called his Democratic colleagues power-hungry and warned fellow GOP senators: "If you vote no, you're legitimizing the most despicable thing I've seen in my time in politics." The heated recriminations and countercharges that dominated Kavanaugh's appearance were a stark contrast to the morning, where committee members were rapt as Ford quietly unspooled her memories of being assaulted by Kavanaugh at a summer gathering in 1982. Asked whether she was positive the person who assaulted her was Kavanaugh, she responded: "One hundred percent." Later, Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., asked Kavanaugh whether he had any doubts that the accusations were untrue. "Zero," he answered. "Hundred percent certain, Senator." The warring accounts from Kavanaugh and his accuser - the only witnesses permitted to testify before the committee - gripped the country and intensified what will be one of the most fraught confirmation votes in history. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Kavanaugh's nomination as planned on Friday, with procedural votes on Saturday and Monday and a final confirmation vote on Tuesday. "I'm optimistic we'll get to confirmation," Cornyn said. As he left the Capitol on Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, "The committee's going to vote in the morning, and we're going to move forward." However, three potential swing GOP senators - Arizona's Jeff Flake, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Maine's Susan Collins - remained silent about their plans. When asked by reporters after the hearing whether he believes Ford, Flake responded: "I'm not answering those kinds of questions." Murkowski said Thursday night that "I'm going to go home, have some dinner, and have a chance to think about all that's gone on today." Trump, who was downcast after Ford's gripping testimony, was buoyed by Kavanaugh's combative response, aides said. "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him," the president tweeted moments after the hearing concluded. "His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!" The only comparison that came close to capturing the dynamic in the committee room was the 1991 confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas, whose nomination was almost derailed when Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment. Kavanaugh seemed to borrow heavily from Thomas' angry rebuke, in which he called the charges against him "a circus," "a national disgrace" and a "high-tech lynching." Kavanaugh also called the proceedings a "circus" and added: "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace. The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process, but you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy." Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who has served in the Senate since 1977, said that "this is worse than Robert Bork, and I didn't think it could get any worse than that," referring to the Senate's bipartisan defeat of the judge nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. "This is worse than Clarence Thomas, and I didn't think it could get any worse than that," he added. Kavanaugh would replace pivotal Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the key vote on abortion, affirmative action and the death penalty. Kavanaugh said the stakes of his nomination caused Democrats to try to stop him by any means. Democrats rejected that, saying the GOP was trying to shift the focus from a woman with a credible allegation. "What I find most inexcusable is this rush to judgment, the unwillingness to take these kinds of allegations at face value and look at them for what they are: a real question of character for someone who is asking for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Calif., the ranking Democrat on the committee. The details of Ford's account are by now familiar, but her nationally televised testimony - four hours that included a vehement denial that she could be confused about Kavanaugh's identity - rocked the hearing that will determine Kavanaugh's fate. "I am here today not because I want to be," Ford, a psychology professor who grew up in the same Maryland suburbs as Kavanaugh, said at the beginning of her testimony. "I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school." Her voice shook at times as she spoke, and her face was drawn. Occasionally, she took deep breaths, swallowed and blinked back tears, but she remained composed throughout the morning. She was accommodating of the committee's questioning - "Does that work for you?" she asked committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, at one point - but resolute in describing the events she said happened that summer in a house in the Bethesda area. Ford said her "best estimate" was that before the gathering, she had been at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md., where she frequently swam. She said she had not been drinking or taken medication. Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, she said, "were extremely inebriated. They had clearly been drinking prior [to the gathering], and the other people at the party had not." She described climbing a flight of stairs to use the bathroom when a drunken Kavanaugh and Judge pushed her into a bedroom and locked the door. She said Judge watched while Kavanaugh got on top of her and tried to remove her clothes. "I believed he was going to rape me," she said. "I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling. This is what terrified me the most." At that point, she said, she thought Kavanaugh was so out of control, "I thought that Brett was going to accidentally kill me." Ford said she eventually escaped the bedroom and left the house. Barbara Van Gelder, an attorney for Judge, said in a statement Thursday that he "does not recall the events described by Dr. Ford in her testimony." Democrats have repeatedly pressed for Judge to be called to testify, but Republicans have declined to call him as a witness. On Thursday, Van Gelder said Judge does not want to comment publicly but is willing to answer written question and "participate in a confidential, fact-finding investigation." In her testimony, Ford was calm and at times clinical in describing how memory works, drawing on her training as a psychologist. But her recollections were raw. When asked what she remembered the most about her encounter with Kavanaugh, Ford replied: "Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two. And they're having fun at my expense." Ford said her initial motivation for telling her member of Congress about her encounter with Kavanaugh was to try to prevent him from getting the nomination. She knew there was a list of qualified candidates being considered, she said, and she hoped that if Trump and members of Congress knew her story, another candidate would be selected. She also called a tip line at The Washington Post. She said she went public in an article in The Post only because word of her allegations had gotten out and other reporters had shown up at her home and in her classroom. During her testimony, the 21 members of the Judiciary Committee appeared riveted. Senators leaned forward in their seats, elbows on the table, intently focused. Flake looked especially gripped by her story, his hands folded in front of his face. Senate Democrats argued that Ford's testimony was compelling and convincing, and pressed a hostile Kavanaugh for answers about his actions. "This is a job interview for one of the most important positions of trust in this country," Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, adding: "There's certainly no entitlement for you to be confirmed to the Supreme Court." In an unusual move, the Republican senators on the committee, all male, turned over their time for questions for Ford to Rachel Mitchell, a veteran sex-crimes prosecutor from Arizona. The format - five minutes of questioning for the prosecutor, five minutes for a Democratic senator - often frustrated Mitchell's efforts to highlight Ford's inability to remember key details of the day, including where exactly the event took place and how she got home. Later, when Kavanaugh testified, the GOP senators seized back the floor, using their time to accuse Democrats of leaking Ford's allegations late in the process to torpedo Kavanaugh, a charge they denied. Kavanaugh, who did not watch Ford's testimony, said her assertion that he assaulted her was untrue. "I'm not questioning that Dr. Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time," Kavanaugh said. "But I have never done this. To her or to anyone. That's not who I am. It is not who I was. I am innocent." Kavanaugh became emotional as he recalled his life in public service, including 12 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. "Throughout that entire time, throughout my 53 years and seven months on this Earth, until last week, no one ever accused me of any kind of sexual misconduct," he said. "No one, ever . . . A lifetime of high-profile public service at the highest levels of American government and never a hint of anything of this kind, and that's because nothing of this kind ever happened." Three floors above the hearing, 130 members of the public watched Ford's testimony inside a packed overflow room. Outside, a line of people stretched down and around the hallway. Women, many of them high school and college students, bent over their cellphones to watch livestreams of the event. Some cried during Ford's opening remarks, saying her words resonated with their own experiences of sexual abuse. Anita Abraham, 62, a mental-health advocate and Democratic activist from Milwaukee, said: "I'd give the world to thank her . . . She is so brave, so strong. I'm so proud of her." She said Ford had inspired her to tell her husband about being molested as a 12-year-old. "We cried together, and he told me how much he loved me. He told me he loved me even more," she said, crying. "I'd never told anyone before." - - - The Washington Post's Emma Brown, Alice Crites, Josh Dawsey, Mike DeBonis, Robert Costa, Tom Hamburger, Carol D. Leonnig, Paul Kane, Ann E. Marimow, Gabriel Pogrund, Sean Sullivan, John Wagner and Erica Werner contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh testified separately before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27.(Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post) Embed code: Like many Liberal supporters in Kelowna-Lake Country, I was happy to read the news that our member of Parliament, Stephen Fuhr, has been acclaimed to stand as the Liberal candidate for the riding in the 2019 federal election. He has worked tirelessly on behalf of his constituents since being elected in 2015, bringing in over $100 million in new infrastructure and investments. Additionally, the Veterans Affairs office in Kelowna was reopened, bringing service to nearly 30,000 people in our region that have served our great country. This acclamation is just the first step as Fuhr prepares for his re-election campaign. There is still a lot of hard work to be done to continue earning and maintaining the trust of Kelowna-Lake Country's citizens. There are many big-picture issues facing Canadians, and Fuhr is a respected voice at the table in Ottawa. Whether it is in his capacity as chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence, providing feedback from the local small business community after proposed tax changes would have affected our region, or as one of 18 Liberal MP's in B.C. who are providing feedback to the federal government balancing our environmental responsibilities with our commitment to a strong economy on issues such as the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, Fuhr is on top of the issues and provides excellent representation. I look forward to the ongoing lively discussions with Canadians on these issues and more. The people of our riding are well informed and engaged in our democratic process. Regardless of your political stripes, anybody who has had the opportunity to connect with Fuhr about the issues can walk away knowing that their voice is heard and respected. I believe that his accomplishments thus far have earned him the opportunity to seek another mandate from the people Kelowna-Lake Country, and hopefully he will be part of a returned LIberal majority government in 2019. Richard McAdam, Kelowna California Sen. Dianne Feinstein tore into Brett Kavanaugh's "aggressive and belligerent" behavior during Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearings and called the whole thing a "nefarious attempt at political theater." "Candidly, in the 25 years on this committee, I have never seen a nominee for any position behave in that manner," Feinstein said during a Friday morning committee hearing. The senator accused Kavanaugh of engaging in political rhetoric, and cited the moment Kavanaugh referred to the Democrats' handling of the situation as an "embarrassment." MORE: Committee votes to send Kavanaugh nomination to full Senate "Judge Kavanaugh used as much political rhetoric as my Republican colleagues and what's more, he went on the attack," she said. "He yelled at Democrats for having the temerity to express our frustration for not having access to over 90 percent of his record, and said that some Democratic members were 'an embarrassment.'" Feinstein said Kavanaugh's behavior may disqualify him from sitting on the Supreme Court. "This was not someone who reflected an impartial temperament or the fairness and even-handedness one would see in a judge, this was someone who was aggressive and belligerent," she said. "I have never seen someone who wants to be elevated to the highest court in our country behave in that manner." MORE: 'Look at me:' Women confront Flake on Kavanaugh support A visibly angry Kavanaugh fired back at allegations of sexual misconduct during a testy hearing on Thursday afternoon. He got into heated exchanges with a handful of Democratic senators, including Kamala Harris of California and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesotra. On Friday, the Judiciary Committee reconvened ahead of a planned vote to advance Kavanaugh's nomination. That candidacy got a boost Friday when Arizona Senator Jeff Flake announced plans to vote in favor of Kavanaugh's confirmation. Eric Ting is an SFGATE staff writer. Email him at eting@sfchronicle.com and follow him on Twitter Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. Four years after he helped to launch a mass civil disobedience movement for fully democratic elections, activist Joshua Wong is still facing a travel ban. Wong, who had begun serving a six-month jail term for his part in the storming of police barriers outside government headquarters on Sept. 26, 2014, at the start of the Occupy Central democracy movement, was acquitted alongside fellow defendants Nathan Law and Alex Chow by Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal in February. But he was also handed a three-month sentence for "contempt of court," for trying to block the police clearance of an Occupy protest site in Mong Kok at the tail-end of the Umbrella Movement, which gained its nickname from the use of umbrellas by peaceful protesters to ward off pepper spray and tear-gas attacks by riot police. He was released on bail in January, but his passport was confiscated. Now, the city's High Court has denied his request to ease his bail conditions pending a hearing in the "contempt of court" case scheduled for April next year. "Ive been unable to retrieve my passport, since the contempt of court case is scheduled to be heard on April 3, 2019," Wong said on Friday via his Facebook page. "This means Ill be unable to travel for another eight months." "Im deeply disappointed by the courts decision not to review my bail conditions, which means Ill continue not to have access to my passport," he wrote. "This not only limits my official work but is also an infringement of my freedom of movement." The ban will mean Wong is unable to accept invitations to speak at the Cambridge Union debating club and the Conservative Party conference in the U.K. from Sept. 29 to Oct. 8. Wong will also be unable to travel to Geneva, where United Nations human rights experts will be evaluating China's, and also Hong Kong's, human rights record in October. He will also be forced to turned down a visit to Washington in December to receive the Lantos Human Rights Prize, and speaking engagements on the democratic island of Taiwan, and in Berlin, Wong said. The Lantos Human Rights Prize is an annual award aimed at raising global awareness of human rights violations around the world, and to support individuals committed to fighting against them. Previous recipients have included Hillary Clinton, Chen Guangcheng, Prof. Elie Wiesel, and the Dalai Lama. Wong will also be unable to attend a ceremony at Dublin University, where the Philosophical Society has awarded him a Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage for his work in politics and activism. 'Last outpost' On Friday, hundreds of people marked the anniversary of the Umbrella Movement in Admiralty district, home of the wall of posters, stickers and impromptu artwork that became known as the Lennon Wall. The use of tear-gas, pepper spray and batons against the student-led protesters who occupied a main road in the district brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets at the height of the movement. But political freedoms in the city, which was promised a "high degree of autonomy" by China after the 1997 handover, have been shrinking rapidly. Across the internal border in mainland China, rights activists said they fear being detained by the authorities if they call for greater democracy or more freedom. But Xie Changzhen, a resident of Changsha city in the central province of Hunan, said it was important to mainland Chinese activists that Hong Kong people were still able to speak out. "Internet controls are pretty tight right now, and my social media accounts have been shut down a number of times," Xie told RFA on Friday. "They are also tightening controls in Hong Kong, aren't they, so things are regressing everywhere." "Hong Kong is the last outpost of the fight for freedom and democracy," said Xie, who was held for 10 days' administrative detention after he held up a placard in an online selfie supporting the Occupy Central movement. "Even if we have lost all hope, we still have to carry on." "To the people of Hong Kong, I have only two words to say: Go them!" Party ban But the anniversary falls just days after the Hong Kong government announced a ban on a pro-independence political party, in a move strongly criticized by rights groups and pro-democracy politicians for curbing freedom of speech in the city. Using colonial-era legislation once used to target "triad" criminal gangs in the city, Hong Kong's secretary for security John Lee announced the ban on the Hong Kong National Party (HKNP), after Hong Kong police said the group and its leader Chan Ho-tin, also known as Andy Chan, posed an "imminent threat" to Chinas territorial integrity and national security because Chan had refused to rule out the use of force or civil disobedience. Rights groups have called on the Hong Kong government to overturn the ban, so as to meet Hong Kong's commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. North Korean authorities have recently allowed a state-run store in a northern province to carry U.S.-made laptop computers in a reversal of long-standing orders forbidding their sale, according to North Korean sources. The laptops are now drawing public attention in the department store in South Pyongan provinces Pyongsong city, a source in South Pyongan province told RFAs Korean Service this week. The state-run department store suddenly began promoting U.S. products because the Central Committee has now officially allowed the sale of U.S. products, RFA s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The change in policy may result from government hopes for better relations with the United States, RFAs source said. It is probably because the Central Committee is hoping for improvements in the North Korea-U.S. relationship, but it is surprising that they are not still controlling the sale of U.S. products, he said, adding that the sale or use of such products had been punished in the past. Laptop brands on sale in Pyongsong include HP, Dell, and T400, and are smuggled into the country from China, the source said. Previously, the Pyongsong department store sold U.S. laptops that were assembled in China, he said. However, they disguised them as Chinese laptops because they were afraid of being caught violating the governments anti-U.S. line. U.S. brands more reliable Also speaking to RFA, a source in North Pyongan, bordering China, said, There are many colleges and provincial administrative offices in Pyongsong, so laptops are in demand by officials and students in the schools. So the Pyongsong department store manager is having merchants from [the border city of] Sinuiju bring in used HP and Dell laptops and is selling them for $300.00, he said. North Korean laptop computers are also available, but they have smaller storage space and frequently break down, so college students do not prefer them, he said. People use South Korean MP3 players, USB drives and SD cards, but they use them with U.S. laptops because South Korean laptops are still restricted, the source said. Meanwhile, wealthy North Koreans and high-ranking officials will often show off their wealth by using U.S.-made Apple brand Macbooks, he said. North Korean residents using laptops must still register their computers at a local State Security office, he said, adding, Laptops that dont show a State Security Department inspection stamp on the back can be seized from them at any time. Reported by Hyemin Son for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Richard Finney. Authorities in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have given a two-year suspended death sentence to a prominent Uyghur intellectual for exhibiting separatist tendencies, according to an official source. Halmurat Ghopur, president of the Xinjiang Food and Drug Administrations Department of Inspection and Supervision in the regional capital Urumqi, was taken into custody in November 2017 and is being held in an unknown location for acts against the state, sources in exile told RFAs Uyghur Service earlier this year. RFA recently received information that Ghopur was featured, along with four other high-ranking Uyghur intellectuals who were sentenced to punishments of either death or life in prison, in an officially produced political study film, which was made required viewing for all government cadres in the XUAR. Ghopur, who is also the former president of Xinjiang Medical University Hospital in Urumqi, is said in the film to have been given a suspended death sentence for plotting to create a Muslim Caliphate in the region by 2030, sources said. Some of the intellectuals allegedly profiled in the film were affiliated with the Xinjiang Association of Literature and Art, and RFA contacted the director of the groups political department who confirmed Ghopurs punishment. [He was sentenced for] attempting to split the country and using his position as a lecturer to carry out anti-government propaganda, the director said, speaking on condition of anonymity. We received [an official] document [which said] Halmurat Ghopur grew up in a religious family and has received religious education since a very young age, he added. He planned to create an independent country according to his own wishes and become its leader During the past 33 years he had this hidden intention. While investigating the arrests of several professors from Kashgar University, in the seat of Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture, RFA contacted the police station in the citys Bulaqsu township. An officer there said that his department had recently viewed the film and while none of the professors were among those profiled, it had stated that Ghopur was given a two-year suspended death penalty. Well-known intellectual In January, credible sources told RFA that when state security police came to arrest Ghopur last year, he demanded to know why he was being taken away. An officer told him at the time that he had exhibited nationalistic tendencies, before reading some of the conversations on the messaging app WeChat that they had monitored, confiscating his computer, and leading him away, the sources said. Despite a successful career in medicine that included official acknowledgement for developing a treatment for respiratory illnesses which combined Western and traditional Uyghur medicine, observers suggested that differences Ghopur had with Xinjiang Medical University secretary Li Bing may have led authorities to target him. According to an article entitled We Must Be Vigilant Against Hidden Two-Faced Officials, published by China University of Political Science and Law professor Wu Danhong last year, Li had actively fought the three evils of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism in the XUAR, but Ghopur was critical of his approach. In one case, the article noted, Liwho is ethnic Han Chinesehad suggested that students be prohibited from wearing Islamic clothing on the university campus, but Ghopur argued that the clothing is part of Uyghur traditional religious and cultural dress. Li was found guilty of accepting a 3 million yuan (U.S. $465,000) bribe and sentenced by Xinjiangs Intermediate Court in March last year to more than 10 years in jail for corruption, and Wu alleged in his article that Ghopur had framed him. According to the article, Ghopur was a two-faced official who had failed to follow Communist Party guidelines by recruiting students who were not fit to fill their positions at the university hospital, in a bid to fulfil his murky intentions. Two-faced is a term applied by the government to Uyghur cadres who pay lip service to Communist Party rule in the XUAR, but secretly chafe against state policies repressing members of their ethnic group. Camp network Western governments have increasingly drawn attention to re-education camps in the XUAR in recent months as media reports detail the stories of Uyghurs who have been detained in the facilities. U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert recently said the U.S. government was "deeply troubled" by the crackdown on Uyghurs in Xinjiang, adding that credible reports indicate that individuals sent by Chinese authorities to detention centers since April 2017 number at least in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions. The official warned that indiscriminate and disproportionate controls on ethnic minorities expressions of their cultural and religious identities have the potential to incite radicalization and recruitment to violence. A group of U.S. lawmakers, in a recent letter, asked President Donald Trumps administration to swiftly act to sanction Chinese government officials and entities complicit in or directing the ongoing human rights crisis in Xinjiang. The position of China's central government authorities has evolved from denying that large numbers of Uyghurs have been incarcerated in camps to disputing that the facilities are political re-education camps. Beijing now describes the camps as educational centers. Adrian Zenz, a lecturer in social research methods at the Germany-based European School of Culture and Theology, has said some 1.1 million people are or have been detained in the re-education camps, which equates to 10 to11 percent of the adult Muslim population of the region. Uyghur educators Uyghur educators are kept under strict monitoring in the XUAR and can face stiff punishment for not adhering to Beijings narrative about how Chinas central governments policies are benefitting the region and its ethnic minorities. RFA recently learned that at least 56 Uyghur lecturers and researchers from Xinjiang University in Urumqi are currently held in re-education camps, while at least four professors were sacked from Kashgar University for being two-faced. In September 2014, a court sentenced outspoken economics professor Ilham Tohti, who regularly highlighted the religious and cultural persecution of the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority in the XUAR, to a life term behind bars on charges of promoting separatism. The court decision cited Tohtis criticism of Beijings ethnic policies, his interviews with overseas media outlets, and his work founding and running the Chinese-language website Uighurbiz.net, which was shut down by Chinese authorities in 2014. But rights groups say that instead of urging the separation of the XUARthe Uyghur peoples historic homelandfrom China, Tohti had called only for China to implement its own regional autonomy laws and had consistently promoted peace and dialogue between the Han Chinese and Uyghur communities, and have demanded his release. Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he told his Iranian counterpart on September 27 that Britain will not allow the case of imprisoned British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to rest. "Iran is detaining innocent people as an instrument of diplomatic leverage and we can't accept that," Hunt told Sky News in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly. "I had a very, very frank discussion with the Iranian foreign minister...and I made it very clear that our policy to Iran is not settled and there will be consequences if they continue to think that this is a tool of diplomacy," he said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity, was arrested in April 2016 at Tehran airport as she headed back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit. She was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran's clerical establishment, a charge she and her family have denied. "Iran needs to understand that we will not let it rest," Hunt told Sky News. Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband Richard Ratcliffe told Sky News he was "pleased" by Hunt's comments. "It's a really important recognition," he said. Earlier this week, British Prime Minister Theresa May also lobbied for the release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe during a meeting in New York with Iranian President Hassan Rohani, May's office said. "From a humanitarian perspective, we should all try to help people in jail." Rohani was quoted as saying afterwards by the Fars news agency: "The Iranian government is doing what it can, trying to facilitate visits and access to information. But the trial and verdict are in the hands of the judiciary. Its the same in all countries." Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP Campaigning for Afghanistan's parliamentary elections kicked off on September 28 despite a wave of deadly violence across the country and allegations of fraud. More than 2,500 people, including 418 women, are competing for the 249 seats in Afghanistan's lower house of parliament, the Wolesi Jirga. Banners and posters of the candidates could be seen across the capital Kabul and other cities across the country. The campaign period is set to finish on October 18, according to a spokesman for the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan, Mirza Mohammad Haqparast. The election is scheduled for October 20. The rival political parties of President Ashraf Ghani and his Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah are expected to be among the front-runners in the vote. Most parliamentary deputies are seeking reelection. But hundreds of political first-timers -- including the offspring of former warlords and journalists -- are also contesting the vote. The election comes amid increased violence by the Taliban and the extremist group Islamic State, which have been staging frequent attacks across the country. Some 54,000 members of Afghanistan's security forces will be responsible for protecting polling centers on election day. More than 2,000 polling centers will be closed for security reasons. Opposition groups and political parties have demanded biometric machines to be used for transparency and to prevent people from voting more than once. A deputy to Afghanistans Independent Election Commission told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that so far more than 4,000 biometric machines out of 22,000 sets have been delivered to Afghanistan. Maozollah Dolati said more equipment will be delivered in the coming week. He said the election body will work to deploy the machines in all voting centers. "Afghanistans Election Commission will work for the elections to be held transparently and without any fraud, even if for some reason the machines won't be transferred to some of the voting centers," Dolati added. With reporting by RFE/RLs Radio Free Afghanistan, AFP, DPA and AP Photo: Facebook A popular winter vacation spot for Okanagan travellers is having a problem with naked men. Several times this week, alleged thieves have been abducted and tied naked to lampposts in Puerto Vallarta, with their buttocks, thighs, and legs badly beaten. The local prosecutors' office is investigating, but would not say how many people were involved. Local media reported Friday that 10 men were tied naked to posts and had the letter R shaved on their scalps. That apparently refers to the Spanish word for "rat," which is slang for thief. Puerto Vallarta is the home of the Jalisco drug cartel. Daily flights from Kelowna take thousands of vacationers to the sunspot every winter. Mexico saw almost 16,000 people murdered in the first six months of 2018, the highest number since records began in 1997 and an increase of 17 per cent from 2017. According to the National Public Security System, Jalisco has seen a 42 per cent spike in homicides during the first nine months of 2018. The government has tallied 1,637 robberies through the first eight months of 2018. Cartels sometimes round up common criminals to bolster their own image as protectors of the community. Authorities in Iran have detained three people accused of using a photo of Israeli soldiers on a billboard, Irans semiofficial ISNA news agency reported on September 28. The banner in southern Iran to commemorate the Iran-Iraq war pictured the backs of three male Israeli soldiers standing on top of a hillside. A female soldier in the original photo was edited out. The image went viral on Iranian social media with some noting that the soldiers were Israeli because they are carrying M-16 rifles, which the Iranian military does not use. ISNA quoted Ali Salehi, the judiciary chief of Shiraz, as saying prosecutors are in the preliminary stage of the investigation. The banner was pulled down in Shiraz on September 26 and the mayor issued an apology the next day. "This mistake of putting up such a despicable banner during the sacred defense week is unforgivable," the semiofficial Tasnim quoted Mayor Heydar Eskandarpour as saying. Iran does not recognize Israel and supports militant groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizballah in Lebanon. Based on reporting by AP and AFP In a conversation caught on camera, a woman in Ahvaz, the capital of Iran's southwestern Khuzestan Province, didn't hold back as Labor Minister Ali Rabiei stood listening. "Khuzestan's [people] have nothing. We only had security, which is gone now. Be sure that those young men who committed [the attack] did it because they were unemployed. Go to [neighborhoods] in Ahvaz and see for yourself the misery people are living in," the woman said in a video which went viral on social media. The woman was referring to September 22, when gunmen attacked a military parade, killing at least 25, including a dozen members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), civilian spectators, and a four-year-old boy. That bloody attack has once again highlighted the region's economic woes and the potential threat of separatism. Resource Rich Khuzestan Province is home to around 80 percent of Iran's oil fields and 60 percent of the country's gas reserves. The southwestern province, which borders Iraq and is home to the majority of Iran's ethnic Arabs, is also known for its historical sites, including the ancient city of Shushtar, stunning vistas, and date palms. Yet many of the province's residents are poor and unemployed -- Khuzestan has the third-highest rate of unemployment in Iran -- and locals say that they don't benefit from the province's wealth. In Khuzestan, ethnic Arabs, which in total make up about 3 percent of Iran's population, have long complained of social, political, and economic discrimination. In 2011, hundreds took to the streets of Ahvaz, Abadan, Khoramshahr, and other cities in the region to protest what organizers described as discrimination and injustice against ethnic Arabs. The protests were suppressed by security forces, who arrested dozens. According to news reports, several of them were later hanged. Rasmus Christian Elling, an associate professor at Copenhagen University and author of a book on minorities in Iran, says that some Arabs in Khuzestan "clearly see their socioeconomic situation as a result of what they perceive to be institutionalized discrimination from local and national governance dominated by the majority." "There is a lot of anecdotal evidence of everyday discrimination. But apart from reports about large-scale evictions of mainly Arabic-speakers from particular areas for industrial or infrastructural development, there is little evidence of ethnic discrimination being systematic or official policy," Elling adds. To compound people's economic woes, in recent years Khuzestan has been hit hard by drought, pollution, and a water crisis that has caused a shortage of potable water. In February 2017 and July of this year, demonstrators took to the streets of several cities, including Khoramshahr and Ahvaz, to protest pollution, water shortages, and power cuts. A national lawmaker, Ali Golmoradi, recently warned that the province could be void of its population within two decades if the authorities do not take immediate measures to resolve the issues of pollution, water shortages, and unemployment. 'City Of Blood' To many Iranians, Khuzestan is associated with the death and destruction caused by the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, when the province became a frontline after coming under attack by the forces of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The city of Khoramshahr was captured by Iraqi forces in 1980 and then taken back by Iran in 1982. Tens of thousands of Iranians were killed in Khuzestan and many of the region's cities were left in ruins. Khoramshahr came to be known as "Khouninshahr," or the "city of blood." Khuzestan has experienced terrorist attacks before, including a string of bombings in 2005 that killed six people and injured many more. The Iranian government blamed the attacks on separatists and foreign governments. Iranian officials, who often blame foreign enemies for unrest in the country, have claimed in the past that Persian Gulf countries are provoking ethnic strife in Khuzestan by attempting to exploit the legitimate demands and grievances of the people. After the September 22 attack, Iranian officials blamed Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), and the United States, accusations that all those countries denied. Within Iran, there were claims of responsibility from the extremist group Islamic State (IS), which released a video of the alleged attackers, and the Ahvaz National Resistance, an Iranian ethnic Arab opposition umbrella group which seeks a separate state in Khuzestan. The latter group includes the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Al-Ahvaz, which has recently launched a television station in Europe. Analysts say that Tehran also appears troubled by the tough line of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and comments by Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who said last year that the kingdom would take the fight "inside Iran." "The fact that senior U.S. officials, like John Bolton before he became national-security advisor, had openly advocated supporting Iran's ethnic and sectarian minorities as a means of destabilizing Iran deepens Tehran's suspicions," says Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group. Professor Elling says it's possible that separatist groups active in Khuzestan might receive support from Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. "Although several of the so-called Al-Ahwazi groups do not wish to appear to be funded by foreign governments, there are certain indications that groups such as ASMLA [the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Al-Ahvaz] are receiving support, either from private individuals or state institutions in Gulf countries. It would be interesting, for example, to know how they can afford to launch TV stations with brand new equipment in places such as the Netherlands and Denmark," Elling says. Vaez at the International Crisis Group says that Tehran appears to have "plenty of intelligence of the Arab separatist groups' renewed activism and their ties to some Gulf countries." Little Support For Separatists Despite widespread discontent in the province, analysts, including Elling, say that separatist groups don't have much support among Khuzestani Arabs who see themselves as Iranians. "Separatist fringes have existed ever since the 1910s, but they have never succeeded in mobilizing broad movements," Elling says. "Many Arabs I've spoken to say that, although they wish [for] considerably more autonomy and rights, they are not in favor of the idea of splitting with Iran. In fact, many of them are ardent Iranian nationalists, even if they are critical of the current political system in Iran," he says. "Thus you often hear Arab dignitaries in Khuzestan reminding the Iranian public of the huge price they paid for defending Iran against Iraq in the 1980-88 war between those countries. Despite what Saddam Hussein may have hoped for, there was no significant pro-Iraqi sentiment among Iran's Arabs," Elling says. Following the attack in Ahvaz, many Iranians, including those based in Khuzestan, rallied around a hashtag on Twitter (#LoveOfIranBringsUsTogether in Arabic) condemning the violence, pledging unity, and opposing groups that sow discord. Iranian President Hassan Rohani has claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump failed to achieve the isolation of Iran that he sought at the United Nations, with the international community mostly ignoring his demands. "Nobody backed the United States, putting America into a unique historical and political isolation," he told reporters at Tehran's airport late on September 27 after returning from New York, where he and Trump both addressed the UN General Assembly two days earlier. Trump used his speech to denounce Iran as a "corrupt dictatorship" whose leaders "sow chaos, death, and destruction" throughout the Middle East, and he urged all nations to join the United States in imposing sanctions on Iran's government. But according to Rohani, Trump achieved the opposite of what he'd hoped for in the assembly as well as at a UN Security Council meeting on September 26, where he said 14 other countries either openly backed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump abandoned this year or indicated their support for it. Iran has maintained that Trump violated the agreement between Iran and six world powers when he pulled the United States out of it in May and moved to reimpose economic sanctions that were lifted under the deal in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear activities. Trump has claimed that the deal would not stop Iran from eventually developing nuclear weapons, and he predicted at the UN that Iran would eventually agree to renegotiate the deal in talks with his administration. But Rohani told reporters that Trump's withdrawal from the deal was "a mistake" and that he believes the United States "sooner or later" will go back to supporting the deal, which was negotiated by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama. Rohani mocked Trump for having elicited laughter during his address at the UN, in a widely reported incident that occurred after Trump boasted about what he called the "unprecedented achievements" of his administration. After Trump's boast, the assembly -- which included many leaders from other countries who were listening to a translation through headphones -- began to chuckle. Some broke into outright laughter. "When Mr. Trump was speaking and at the beginning of his speech bragged a lot about the accomplishments of his-two year old administration, everyone laughed," Rohani said. "What's important is that today, other than one or two countries, no one is supporting America," he said. "It's a historic political isolation that is rare for America." The White House did not have an immediate response to Rohani's criticisms. Trump claimed after giving his UN speech that the other leaders were laughing "with him" rather than "at him." With reporting by AP and Reuters Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of having a secret atomic warehouse near Tehran in a UN speech that was dismissed as false by Iranian officials. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, Netanyahu displayed an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital with a red arrow pointing to what he said was an undisclosed warehouse holding nuclear-related material. He contended that the discovery shows Iran is still seeking to develop nuclear weapons, despite its 2015 agreement with world powers to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of global economic sanctions. Netanyahu claimed the site near a rug-cleaning plant in the Turquzabad district contained as much as 300 kilograms of radioactive material, some of which has been moved recently. He called on the UN atomic agency to inspect the location immediately with Geiger counters -- a demand echoed later on September 27 by the U.S. State Department. Iranian officials dismissed the allegations. "The world will only laugh loudly at this type of false, meaningless, and unnecessary speech and false shows," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi was quoted as saying by Iran's Fars news agency. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that there should be more scrutiny of Israel's nuclear program. "No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is the only regime in our region with a 'secret' and 'undeclared' nuclear weapons program -- including an 'actual atomic arsenal.' Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors," Zarif said on Twitter. 'Farcical Claims' Ghasemi later said Netanyahu's accusation was "not worth talking about." "These farcical claims and the show by the prime minister of the occupying regime [Israel)] were not unexpected," he said on September 28. Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, mocked Netanyahu, saying the Israeli leader must have been badly advised by some people. Netanyahu did not identify the material he claimed was in the warehouse nor did he specifically say that Iran had violated the nuclear deal. The Israeli leader regards Iran as the biggest enemy of the Jewish state and has previously made allegations about Tehran's nuclear activities that are difficult to verify. In 2012 in a speech to the UN assembly, Netanyahu held up a cartoon drawing of a bomb to dramatize his claim that Tehran was producing a nuclear bomb at the time. In April, Netanyahu touted what he said was evidence of a large secret archive of documents related to Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program at a different site in Tehran. He said Israeli agents removed vast amounts of documents from that site. At the time, Iran said the documents were fake. In his latest UN speech, Netanyahu claimed Iran had begun moving items out of the alleged secret warehouse and spreading them around Tehran to hide the evidence. He said the warehouse still contains some 15 shipping containers full of nuclear-related equipment and materials, however. Under the nuclear deal, the UN's atomic watchdog agency has the authority to inspect any site that allegedly houses nuclear materials. But the International Atomic Agency has repeatedly said its inspections have found Iran was abiding by the restrictions in the deal. It did not immediately comment on Netanyahu's latest allegations. While the United States withdrew from the deal in May, France, Britain, Germany, China, and Russia have continued to honor the agreement and have been seeking to provide legal procedures and protections so their businesses can continue to operate in Iran despite U.S. sanctions. That drew harsh criticism from Netanyahu, who accused Europe of "appeasing Iran." "Instead of coddling Iran's dictators," other countries should support the sanctions, he said to applause. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the United States is aware of the facility Netanyahu mentioned and described it as a "warehouse" used to store "records and archives" from Irans nuclear program. Under the terms of the deal, Iran is allowed to keep documents and other research, but the deal puts strict limits on nuclear equipment and materials such as enriched uranium which can be used to make bombs. The Israeli leader also lambasted Iran's ballistic missile activity, identifying three locations near Beirut airport where he claimed Iran's ally, the Lebanese Hizballah militia, is developing precision missiles that could be used to hit Israel. With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters WASHINGTON Russias foreign minister lashed out at the United States and the West more broadly, denouncing accusations that Moscow was interfering in other countries' affairs. In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly on September 28, Sergei Lavrov also accused the West of using "political blackmail, economic pressure and raw force" to prevent other nations becoming global rivals. Lavrov's 15-minute speech echoed many of the themes that Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin have voiced in past years, including a focus on the United States. The Russian diplomat railed against "unilateralism" and voiced support for "multipolarity," and the United Nations and other multilateral organizations. He called accusations that Russia was meddling in other countries' affairs "baseless," and instead asserted that unnamed countries were "endeavor[ing] to undermine democratically elected governments." That appeared to be a reference to U.S. and European support for countries like Ukraine and Moldova. Lavrov also denounced the decision by U.S. President Donald Trumps administration to pull out of the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement that curtailed Iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. Trump has rejected the deal, negotiated by his predecessor, and ordered the reimposition of some sanctions in the coming months. "We will do everything possible to preserve the deal that was approved by the UN Security Council," Lavrov said. He also asserted that the United States had undermined a series of international treaties and agreements. "Attacks have been launched against the basic principles of the Middle East peace process, the [Iran nuclear deal], commitments of the Word Trade Organization, climate agreements and many more," Lavrov said. A third suspected Russian military intelligence officer who carried out a reconnaissance mission before the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter has been identified by British counterterrorism police and the security services, The Telegraph newspaper reported on September 27. The alleged Russian agent is believed to have visited Salisbury to help plan the attack before two of his colleagues brought Novichok, a military-grade chemical weapon that was developed in the Soviet Union, into Britain, The Telegraph said. "It is understood that the man has now been identified by those investigating the planned hit in March," the newspaper said without naming the man. The attack in March left Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 34, in critical condition, but both recovered after weeks in the hospital. In June, a British citizen, Dawn Sturgess, died and her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, fell ill when they stumbled across remnants of the poison in a town near Salisbury. On September 5, Britain announced charges against the two Russian men as police issued photographs of the suspects. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attempted murder of the Skripals. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said the two men shown in British surveillance footage near Skripal's home in the English city of Salisbury were civilians on a tourist trip. The investigative website Bellingcat reported on September 26 that the real identity of one of the two Russians blamed by Britain for the Salisbury nerve agent attack on Skripal is Anatoly Chepiga, adding that he was a decorated Russian colonel. Chepiga served in Chechnya and was awarded the highest state medal -- Hero of the Russian Federation -- usually bestowed personally by President Vladimir Putin, Bellingcat said, adding that after its own identification of Chepiga, "multiple sources familiar with the person and/or the investigation have confirmed the suspects identity." Asked if the Kremlin could confirm that Chepiga received the Hero of Russia medal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 28 that he had checked and found no information about such a person receiving the award. He said in a conference call with reporters that the Kremlin gave little credibility to investigative reports and media articles on the case, adding that "we don't know how reliable and well-founded they are." Peskov said the allegations made by Bellingcat and others can't serve as a basis for an inquiry, adding that Russia expects Britain to produce official information. The poisoning led Britain, the United States, the European Union, and others to carry out a series of diplomatic expulsions and financial sanctions against Moscow. It has further damaged already severely strained relations between Russia and the West. With reporting by The Telegraph and Reuters The Russian Orthodox Church is threatening to sever ties with the leader of the worldwide Orthodox community if he grants autonomy to Ukraines Orthodox Church. The move comes amid a deepening row in Orthodox Christianity over the Ukrainian Church's bid to formally break away from Russia's orbit. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I -- who is considered the "first among equals" of Eastern Orthodox clerics -- has sent two special bishops to Ukraine in what is widely viewed as a step toward declaring ecclesiastical independence for the main Ukrainian Orthodox church that is loyal to Kyiv. The Russian church, the world's largest Orthodox communion, fiercely opposes the decision. Vladimir Legoida, a Russian Orthodox Church spokesman, said on September 28 that it will "break the Eucharistic communion" with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate if it makes the Ukrainian church autocephalous. Earlier this month, Bartholomew sent two special bishops, or exarchs, to Ukraine to establish contacts with the heads of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that is loyal to Kyiv. The Russian Orthodoxs Churchs Holy Synod ruling body met on September 14 to consider a response to that move, announcing afterward that it will no longer take part in structures chaired by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Legoida said on September 14 that the Holy Synod had decided to suspend its participation in all structures chaired or co-chaired by representatives of the Patriachate of Constantinople. "Essentially this is a breakdown of relations. To take an example from secular life, the decision is roughly equivalent to cutting diplomatic ties," the Russian Churchs Metropolitan Ilarion was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying on September 14. The Kyiv Patriarchate broke away from Moscow in 1992 after the fall of the Soviet Union. Its bid for recognition as a self-governing or autocephalous institution intensified after Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Ecumenical Patriarch, currently Bartholomew I, also holds the title of archbishop of Constantinople, the old Greek name for Istanbul, Turkey's largest city. The city fell to the Muslim Turks in 1453 but has remained the historic seat of Orthodoxy. Russia, however, has long been home to the world's largest Orthodox Christian Church. The Moscow Patriarchate still has a large following in Ukraine. With reporting by AP and TASS Russia lashed out at U.S. policies in Iran and Ukraine while backing Serbia in its EU-mediated talks with Kosovo. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov used Russia's speech at the annual UN General Assembly in New York on September 28 to defend multilateral organizations like the United Nations and warn against unilateral moves by the U.S. or other countries. Lavrov said Moscow would do "everything possible" to preserve the 2015 international accord on curbing Iran's nuclear program despite the U.S. withdrawal and would support a resolution of Serbias dispute with Kosovo which would suit Belgrade. He also called on the West to reason with its disciples in Kyiv so it sticks to the Minsk agreement which he said was the only way to resolve what Moscow refers to as the intra-Ukrainian conflict. The United States has clashed with China and Russia at the United Nations over their call for an easing of sanctions against North Korea. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a UN Security Council meeting on September 27 that recent "positive developments" in relations between North and South Korea -- combined with warmer U.S.-North Korean ties -- should lead to relief from some of the strict sanctions passed by the council last year to push Pyongyang into talks over its nuclear weapons program. Russia backed China's call to review the sanctions, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying they should not become a kind of "collective punishment" and arguing that it is time to send a positive signal to Pyongyang to encourage concessions. "Steps by the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] toward gradual disarmament should be followed by an easing of sanctions," Lavrov said. But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, backed by Western allies on the council, opposed the calls for easing, saying the sanctions should continue to be strictly enforced until North Korea actually takes concrete steps to abandon its nuclear weapons. Pompeo -- who will pay his third visit to Pyongyang next month -- voiced hope for the "dawn of a new day" on the Korean Peninsula. But he said it was the stiff UN sanctions which brought North Korea to the negotiating table in the first place, and there should be no let-up in pressure. "Enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize final, fully verified denuclearization," he said. "The members of this Council must set the example on that effort, and we must all hold each other accountable." While China and Russia claimed North Korea has been complying with the sanctions, Pompeo maintained they have been repeatedly violated and Pyongyang already has exceeded its annual cap on oil imports this year through secretive transfers of oil at sea. The United States has presented the council with what it says is evidence of transfers of refined petroleum products between ships at sea, and has also accused North Korea of illegally exporting coal to fund its weapons program. Washington has accused Russia of being involved in the illegal fuel transfers, but Russia and China teamed up this summer to block its move to bar further sales of oil to Pyongyang this year, saying they needed to study the U.S. allegations. Russia has also balked as U.S. attempts to further tighten sanctions, raising objections along with China last month when the United States proposed to add a Russian bank and North Korean bankers based in Moscow to a UN blacklist. 'Extreme...Suffering' Lavrov said it was "inappropriate and untimely" for the United States and its partners to "impose a course of tightening sanctions" when North Korea has "taken important steps" toward denuclearization. "It seems it would be logical to strengthen this momentum," said Lavrov, adding that any further tightening of sanctions could "bring extreme socioeconomic and humanitarian suffering." China is embroiled in a major trade dispute with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, but it has welcomed his outreach to North Korea. Both Russia and China have long pushed for Washington and Pyongyang to resolve their differences through diplomacy. "China firmly believes that pressure is not the end," Wang said. "Both implementing sanctions and promoting political settlement are equally important." North Korean representatives attended the security council session, but they did not ask to address the meeting. Pompeo met with his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, on September 26 and called the talks "very positive." Trump has heaped praise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, one of the world's most repressive autocrats, and this week claimed that the negotiations he launched with North Korea in June prevented a war. Trump met Kim in June in the first-ever summit between the two countries, which never signed a peace treaty ending the Korean war in the 1950s. But with no visible evidence since that meeting that North Korea has dismantled its nuclear weapons or facilities, many analysts doubt that North Korea has shifted more than rhetorically since agreeing to the talks. It already had refined its arsenal through six nuclear tests since 2006 and repeated ballistic missile launches before it agreed to stop testing during the negotiations. The United States is also hearing calls for step-by-step sanctions relief from ally South Korea, whose left-leaning President Moon Jae-in helped arrange Trump's diplomatic drive. That view is not shared by Japan, which is calling for the complete and verified disarming of North Korea as a condition for lifting any sanctions. Trump is seeking a second summit in the near future, which Pompeo will seek to arrange while in Pyongyang. Pompeo said that North Korea would enjoy a "much brighter future" if Kim fulfills promises to the United States to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile program. "But the path to peace and a brighter future is only through diplomacy and denuclearization," Pompeo said. With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters Photo: Colton Davies Ten students from Outma Sqilx'w Cultural School before Penticton Indian Band members Friday outside the Penticton Regional Hospital. Orange Shirt Day was recognized at the Penticton Regional Hospital Friday, where hospital staff and members of the Penticton Indian Band gathered to commemorate residential school survivors. Most of the several dozen people on hand wore orange shirts reading "every child matters," a message that has been recognized since Orange Shirt Day began in B.C. in 2013. Ten young students from Outma Sqilx'w Cultural School sang a traditional song, and several PIB members shared their stories of surviving residential schools. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, there were more than 130 residential schools in Canada between the 1870s and 1996, when the final one closed. Hereditary chief Adam Eneas said Indigenous people typically didn't go to hospitals, "because it was a place you came to die." Elder Jack Kruger said there was a general fear of needles among Indigenous students who attended residential schools, saying medicinal substances would be tested on residential school students. "They experimented on us. I remember the first time they put a needle in me I never felt nothing. Then the second time they put a needle in me I hit the ground fast as lead. And other times I quivered like a pig," Kruger recalled. He went on to say that some doctors never believed the trauma stories, but said staff at the hospital in Penticton have "never done me wrong." "I thank you for Penticton hospital for listening to me... You've treated us with such compassion and good feelings," Kruger said. PRH administrator Carl Meadows acknowledged the trauma faced at residential schools, and pointed out some survivors are still very young, with the last schools closing only 22 years ago. Meadows said the commemorative event for Orange Shirt Day will become an annual occurrence at PRH. The attitude of only one country is hampering the spirit of the SAARC, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday as he accused India of being an obstacle in regional cooperation. Qureshi's comments after he participated in the the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation council of foreign ministers meet here on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also attended the meeting but left early. Qureshi said he did not talk to his Indian counterpart. "She left the meeting mid way. May be she was not feeling well," he told reporters after the meeting. "She (Swaraj) talked about regional cooperation. My question is that how is regional cooperation possible if the nations in the region are ready to sit and you are the obstacle in those talks," he said. Qureshi said of the nations want to achieve something from the SAARC forum they need to move forward. "I am not hesitating in saying that for the progress and success of the SAARC and for the connectivity and prosperity of the region, there is only one obstacle. The attitude of only one country is hampering and not letting the spirit of the SAARC and of the founding fathers fulfilled," he said. The remarks came days after cancellation of proposed talks between Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan by New Delhi. -PTI The Maldivian opposition appealed to the international community Thursday to help ensure a peaceful transition of power amid fears that strongman Abdulla Yameen may cling onto power despite his shock election defeat. The joint opposition, which includes four political parties that successfully put forward the little-known Ibrahim Mohamed Solih at Sunday's vote, called for external help to re-establish democracy in the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago. "In this regard, we look towards our friends and partners in the international community to assist us, as we move forward in trying to create a Maldives in which all citizens can enjoy peace, prosperity and justice," the opposition said in a statement. It did not say what form of assistance was requested, but opposition sources said they were looking for strong foreign warnings to Yameen to go quietly. The statement came hours after the country's military chief and the head of police issued veiled warnings on television against Yameen trying to cling onto power. Yameen decisively lost Sunday's election, despite all his main rivals being in prison or in exile, sparse media coverage of the opposition, and monitors and the opposition predicting vote-rigging. Formal results will be announced by the election commission on Sunday and Yameen -- who on Monday conceded defeat -- must hand over power to successor Solih on November 17 at the end of his five-year term. But rumours have abounded on social media and elsewhere that Yameen could file an election petition seeking the delay of the announcement. This prompted military chief Major General Ahmed Shiyam to appear on a private TV channel on Wednesday night promising the results would be honoured. "The people have spoken," Shiyam said. "I want to assure the Maldivian people that the military will protect the will of the people." Election commission chief Ahmed Shareef confirmed that Yameen's party has lodged several complaints of suspected voting irregularities. "We will look into these concerns," Shareef said. But he added that there were no grounds for him to delay the announcement of the formal results. On Wednesday, the opposition accused Yameen of delaying the release of high-profile political prisoners despite calls by Solih for their release. Shortly after his shock defeat, Yameen freed five prisoners. But scores of others -- including Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, his estranged half-brother and former president -- remain incarcerated. There was no immediate comment from the government. Yameen jailed or exiled most of his rivals during his turbulent five-year term. Suspecting a plot to impeach him, in February Yameen declared a state of emergency and arrested top judges as well as political opponents. Yameen's rule dented its image as a honeymoon paradise and attracted alarm abroad -- both the US and the EU had threatened financial sanctions unless the democratic situation improved. -PTI New interim attorney general for state as Pech Cen resigns Chetumel, Q.R. A new Attorney General for the state of Quintana Roo has been announced after the resignation of Miguel Angel Pech Cen. In a press conference, Governor Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez made the announcement of a new interim attorney general, Gustavo Salas Salgado, to replace the current, Miguel Angel Pech Cen. Gustavo Salas Salgado is a law graduate from UNAM with more than 50 years of experience in the legal field and is a member of the Bar Association of Quintana Roo. He has also been attorney general in various other states including Mexico City. Joaquin Gonzalez explained that it was necessary to appoint an interim prosecutor until the appointment of the next prosecutor. The news came after the announcement of the resignation of Miguel Angel Pech Cen who has held the position for Quintana Roo for one year and eight months. Miguel Angel Pech Cen made the announcement Thursday, stating Sunday will be his last day as acting attorney general. My resignation begins to take effect at the first minute of Mondays dawn, he explained. Pech Cen did not attend the press conference announcing the new interim. His resignation comes after months of protests as criminal figures continue to increase with few being resolved. Personnel begin arriving to populate new military city outside Cancun Cancun, Q.R. Military personnel will arrive Friday in Cancun to begin populating the new military garrison. Cornelio Casio Hernandez, commander of the military garrison in Cancun, announced the arrival of 150 military personnel to the barracks on Friday, with the official inauguration of the new military grounds scheduled for October 9. Our functions will be to contribute to the functions or activities of the public security bodies. Public security is not our function, but we gladly cooperate, that is, we cannot be first responders, but we are there to help in this important mission of security, he explained. He said that the strategy is to complement the surveillance, investigation and patrol work which is currently carried out by the federal, state and municipal police adding that the military base Will have four battalions, three military police and one special operations. This last battalion will have anti-riot vehicles, detection of explosives and personnel for the deactivation of bombs. After the official inauguration, the military base will become home to 3,200 military staff. The new military city was constructed on 360 hectares of land that includes a housing unit. The land was donated to the Secretariat of National Defense by the government of the state of Quintana Roo. The entire project was an investment of one billion peso. MP John Healey AN ANGRY MP has urged hospital bosses to abandon plans to privatise parts of the service, accusing them of a tax dodge. Wentworth and Dearne MP John Healey publicly opposed the move this week, after raising his concerns privately with top directors. If approved, the proposals would see a wholly-owned subsidiary company created, to which porters and cleaners contracts would be transferred. Union reps worry about worsening work conditions for those affected, and thus a decline in standards. The board was due to vote on the proposals on Tuesday, but an order last week from NHS Improvement - the national body helping trusts to manage challenges - blocked any decision-making. The memo asked directors around the UK to pause any current plans to create new subsidiaries or change existing subsidiaries. It added: Well be consulting on a new regulatory approach to this in October and, following the consultation, we will be issuing new guidance. Mr Healey said: The Rotherham Hospital board must now set aside any plans it has for setting up an NHS subsidiary company. Since the idea was first floated, Ive voiced my concerns directly with the chairman and chief executive. It would create a two-tier workforce and smacks of a dodge to avoid paying VAT. So I welcome the NHS nationally calling a halt on these local hospital companies. He added: Labour has repeatedly warned that thousands of NHS staff would in effect see their jobs privatised, with their national pay and conditions put at risk. Its a sign of just how stretched NHS finances have become that hospitals are reaching for ever more complicated schemes to try to save money. At Tuesdays meeting, hospital trust chief executive Louise Barnett briefly mentioned the memo, before chairman Martin Havenhand moved on to the next item. Mr Healey said the enforced halt should encourage directors to consider other options. Labour colleagues have written to the Government, demanding a block on wholly-owned subsidiaries and a review of hospital tax requirements. Barnsley Hospital NHS Trust established Barnsley Facilities Ltd last year, transferring its health and safety, fire, security, procurement, estates and facilities staff to the private firm. SC strikes down law on adultery The Supreme Court Thursday declared that adultery is not a crime and struck down the anti-adultery law, saying it was unconstitutional as it dented the individuality of women and treated them as "chattel of husbands". The apex court's five-judge Constitution bench was unanimous in striking down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code dealing with the offence of adultery and holding it as manifestly arbitrary, archaic law which is violative of the rights to equality and equal opportunity to women. Section 497 of the 158-year-old IPC says: "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery." Adultery was punishable by a maximum five years in jail or fine or both. A five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra said that unequal treatment of women invites the wrath of the Constitution. Advertisement Adultery is not a crime and struck down the anti-adultery law The top court, which held adultery as a relic of the past, said the autonomy is intrinsic in dignified human existence and Section 497 denudes women from making choices. The apex court pronounced four sets of concurring judgements to declare penal provision on Adultery and section 198 of CrPC dealing with prosecution of offences against marriage as unconstitutional. "We declare Section 497 IPC and Section 198 of CrPC dealing with prosecution of offences against marriage as unconstitutional," said the Chief Justice, who wrote the judgement for himself and Justice Khanwilkar, adding that any provision treating women with inequality is not constitutional and it's time to say that "husband is not the master of woman". Justice Malhotra, the lone woman judge on the bench, said Section 497 is clear violation of fundamental rights granted in the Constitution and there is no justification for continuation of the provision. Justice Nariman termed Section 497 as archaic law and concurred with the CJI and Justice Khanwilkar, saying that the penal provision is violative of the rights to equality and equal opportunity to women. Justice Chandrachud said Section 497 destroys and deprives women of dignity and is destructive of women's dignity, self-respect as it treats women as "chattel of husbands". Advertisement Section 497 is clear violation of fundamental rights granted in the Constitution: Malhotra The CJI said adultery dents the individuality of women and it is not a crime in countries like China, Japan and Australia. Adultery might not be cause of unhappy marriage, it could be result of an unhappy marriage, Justice Misra said. The CJI began reading the judgement by saying the beauty of the Constitution is that it includes "the I, me and you". He said equality is the governing parameter of the Constitution and section 497 of the IPC is manifestly arbitrary the way it deals with women. The bench held that adultery can be treated as civil wrong for dissolution of marriage. There can't be any social licence which destroys a home, the CJI said, but added that adultery should not be a criminal offence. The court said adultery can be a ground for civil wrong, a ground for divorce but not a criminal offence. Justice Chandrachud said autonomy is intrinsic in dignified human existence and Section 497 denudes women from making choices and held adultery as a relic of past. Advertisement Chief Justice Dipak Misra Legislature has imposed a condition on sexuality of women by making adultery as offence, he said, adding that section 497 is denial of substance of equality. The CJI and Justice Khanwilkar said mere adultery cannot be a crime, but if any aggrieved spouse commits suicide because of life partner's adulterous relation, then if evidence is produced, it could be treated as an abetment to suicide. CM directed all the Deputy Commissioners to immediately release any pending compensations to farmers Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday directed all the Deputy Commissioners to immediately release any pending compensations to farmers who had suffered losses during the 2017 floods. Expressing concern at the delay in the disbursement of 2017 compensation by the DCs, despite having received the money from the Revenue Department, the Chief Minister directed the Financial Commissioner Revenue to seek an explanation from them. The chief minister, who was chairing a meeting to finalise the modalities for the early release of compensation to the people affected by the recent rains, ordered that an ex-gratia payment of Rs 4 lac each should be immediately released to the five families whose members had lost their lives in the recent incessant rains. The chief minister was informed that five deaths had occurred in the state - two in Tarn Taran and one each in Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Moga. Advertisement The Chief Minister also asked his Chief Principal Secretary to get detailed instructions regarding the criteria and norms for assessment and release of compensation re-circulated to all the field officers in order to ensure timely payments. According to an official spokesperson, the Chief Minister was informed that a detailed memorandum for seeking financial assistance from the Centre will be prepared after compilation of the data of the damage caused to crops, property and livestock. The Chief Minister said that compensation for the complete loss of crop, which was earlier fixed at Rs 8000 per acre, should be paid at the enhanced rates of Rs 12,000 per acre. The spokesperson said that as per rules, compensation of Rs 12,000 per acre will be paid for crop loses ranging between 76% to 100%; Rs. 5400 per acre for losses between 33% to 75%; and Rs. 2000 per acre for 26% to 32%. A compensation of Rs. 95,100 will be paid for full/severely damaged houses, and Rs. 5200 for partially damaged ones. Advertisement In case of loss of livestock (Buffalo/cow) the compensation will range between Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 90,000, and for goat, sheep and pig it is fixed at Rs. 3000. Prominent among others who attended the meeting included Revenue Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Media Advisor to CM Raveen Thukral, Chief Principal Secretary to CM Suresh Kumar, Financial Commissioner Revenue M P Singh, Principal Secretary to CM Tejveer Singh and Special Principal Secretary to CM Gurkirat Kirpal Singh. Punjab CM Urges Adb Country Director For Clearance Of Loan Proposals Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday urged Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Kenichi Yokoyama to expeditiously clear the states loan proposals to ensure early implementation of development projects worth Rs. 3127 crore. The projects include 24X7 surface water supply system for Jalandhar and Patiala, besides conservation of historical monuments and buildings across the state. At a meeting here, the Chief Minister apprised Yokoyama that Punjab was facing acute scarcity of potable water, especially in the four major cities of Patiala, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana. His government had prepared a comprehensive plan to shift these cities from tubewell water to canal water to provide the people with quality drinking water. Advertisement Making a detailed presentation, CEO Punjab Water Supply & Sewerage Board Ajoy Sharma said the total cost of the proposed surface water supply system was Rs.700 crore in Patiala and Rs.1227 crore in Jalandhar. He said the Local Government department would soon get a feasibility report prepared, through a technical consultant of international repute, in consultation with the representatives of ADB. The department would then work out the modalities for bidding for the project. CM apprised Yokoyama that Punjab was facing acute scarcity of potable water Underlining the importance of preserving the states rich legacy and promote tourism, the Chief Minister impressed upon the Country Head ADB the need to fund the project for restoration and conservation of historical monuments and buildings across the state. He said the Tourism & Cultural department had already finalized an action plan to implement these projects within a time frame. Advertisement Captain Amarinder proposed the development of world-class Punjab State Archives & Library between Patiala and Mohali to keep the entire record at one place, along with a Punjab State Museum at Amritsar. He said both these institutions would help researchers, academicians, archeologists and archivists preserve the rich socio-cultural history of the state. The Tourism & Cultural affairs department apprised the ADB team that Rs.183 crore would be spent on the restoration and conservation project for the heritage city of Patiala, Rs.125 crore for the princely city of Kapurthala, Rs.70 crore for Malerkotla, Rs.32 crore for Faridkot, Rs.100 crore for Nabha, Rs.40 crore for Bathinda, Rs.10 crore for restoration of Mughal Sarai at Doraha, Rs.150 crore for the promotion of eco-tourism at Harike Pattan and Rs. 65 crore for the completion of ongoing memorials projects of Sri Guru Ravidass ji and Bhai Jaita ji. Captain Amarinder proposed the development of world-class Punjab State Archives & Library between Patiala and Mohali Advertisement Apart from these, Rs.10 crore would be spent on the Anglo-Sikh War memorials at Mudki, Ferozeshah and Sabraon, Rs.10 crore for erecting monuments in the memory of great martyrs Shaheed Udham Singh, Madan Lal Dhingra and Kartar Singh Sarabha, and Rs. 10 crore for restoration work of the native houses of eminent literary personalities viz. Bhai Vir Singh, Shiv Kumar Batalvi and Sahir Ludhianvi. The meeting was also attended by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Local Government, Tourism & Cultural Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, Chief Principal Secretary to CM Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary Finance Anirudh Tiwari, Principal Secretary Local Government A. Venu Parsad, Principal Secretary to CM Tejveer Singh, Secretary Tourism & Cultural Affairs Vikas Partap, Director Tourism & Cultural Affairs MS Jaggi, Project Officer ADB Vivek Vishal. Punjab, H.P Sign MoU Tourism in the region is all set to get a big boost with the governments of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up a Ropeway between Sri Anandpur Sahib and Naina Devi ji. The MoU signing, which coincided with the 111th birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, took place in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder and Himachal Pradesh counterpart Jai Ram Thakur, by Vikas Pratap, Secretary, Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Punjab, and Ram Subhag Singh, ACS, Tourism Himachal Pradesh. Advertisement Captain Amarinder welcomed the agreement as a historic move to facilitate pilgrims visiting Sri Anandpur Sahib in Punjab and Naina Devi ji in Himachal Pradesh. The project would prove to be mutually beneficial for the two states, he said, underlining the need to promote tourism to boost the states socio-economic development. The Chief Minister also stressed on the huge tourism potential in the region and said it was in the interest of all the states in the region to work collectively to facilitate tourism. Jai Ram Thakur said that this project should have been completed long ago because of its importance to the two states. He said though Himachal had cancelled this project in 2014, he initiated its revival after taking over and Captain Amarinder Singh supported it all through. He said this project is a sign of Sikh-Hindu brotherhood, as it links the two historically important shrines of Anandpur Sahib and Mata Naina Devi. He said 25 lakh tourists visit Naina Devi every year and 80% of them are from Punjab. To be set up in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, the ropeway would facilitate lakhs of devotees visiting these two historic and religious sites in a smooth and hassle-free manner. Advertisement The two chief ministers agreed that the project would ease the travel of devotees visiting the two shrines, which were located quite far from each other, with hilly terrain compounding their problems. The ceremony was witnessed by Punjab Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, along with Vineet Chawdhry, Chief Secretary, Himachal Pradesh, and Karan Avtar Singh, Chief Secretary, Punjab. Others present on the occasion included Raveen Thukral Media Advisor to Punjab CM ,Suresh Kumar Chief Principal Secretary, Tejveer Singh Principal Secretary, M S Jaggi Director Tourism andSri Kant Bedi Principal Secretary to HP CM. Advertisement The Punjab Tourism department has acquired 108 kanal and 13 Marla of land for setting up a Lower Terminal Point and right of way within the Punjab territory for this purpose. The project will be executed on PPP mode by setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle. The project is estimated to cost Rs 250 crore and would cover a distance of 3.5 km. Three terminal points will be Lower Terminal Point (LTP) will be at Anandpur Sahib, Intermediate Terminal Point (ITP) at Toba and Upper Terminal Point (UTP) at Sri Naina Devi Ji. The total paid up equity for the SPV will be Rs. 1 crore, with Rs. 50 lakh each as share of the two states. As per the MoU, both states will have equal share in the revenue, with Concession period of 40 years. Captain Amarinder said the company to carry forward the work will be formed soon and it will have 10 directors, five each from the two stages. In the initial seven years, no concession fee would be paid by the Concessionaire and a time period of three years would be given to set up this project. This has been done to ensure that the tariffs remain affordable for the tourists and pilgrims. Advertisement Notably, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Governments of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to set up the Ropeway between Sri Anandpur Sahib and Naina Devi ji on July, 26, 2012. The Punjab Tourism Department had acquired 108 Kanal 13 Marla land for setting up a lower terminal and right of way within the Punjab territory for this purpose. However, the MoU was cancelled by the Himachal Pradesh Government on June 3, 2014. In February, 2018, a letter from Chief Minister Himachal Pradesh was received to revive the project, following which Captain Amarinder conveyed his consent to Himachal Pradesh. Subsequently, the Punjab Tourism Department received the approved MoU from the Government of Himachal Pradesh on September 5, 2018. This was followed by the Punjab Cabinet giving its approval to the project on September 20, 2018. Dr. Henk Bekedam speaking on the strategic plan The Punjab Government in collaboration with the World health Organization (W.H.O.) today launched the Micro Strategic Plan to eliminate malaria from State by 2020. The WHO would provide the technical support to State to achieve the set target. Presiding over the meeting, Health & Family Welfare Minister, Punjab Mr. Brahm Mohindra said that Punjab becomes the first state in India where WHO will collaborate for Elimination of Malaria. He said that India has third highest burden of malaria in the world however, Punjab reported only 0.1 percent cases of malaria of the country. He said that the case load of malaria has declined in the State since last year but one third of the cases of malaria are reported from the migratory population. He said that State of Punjab is committed for micro level surveillance under which each and every reported case of malaria would be investigated and remedial measures will b undertaken to prevent further spread of Malaria. Advertisement Punjab & W.H.O. Launch strategic plan to eliminate malaria by 2020 Mr. Brahm Mohindra said that under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh, the Punjab Government has launched the Mission Tandarust Punjab and established the best infrastructure for the De-Addiction Programme. He assured the WHO team that the Punjab Government would strictly comply with all the guidelines issued in this regard and Punjab would emerge as a model State for other States of country. He also thanked Dr. Henk Bekdam, WHO (representative to India) for selection of Punjab as first State for this collaboration. Dr. Henk Bekdam said that Punjab is one of the 15 low transmission States of India where only 0.1 percent cases of malaria had been reported as compared to the rest of the country. He said that there is a need of participation of communities and general public as well for prevention and control of Malaria and he expressed that he was hopeful that Punjab can be the first State in country to achive the target to eliminate malaria by 2020. Advertisement Punjab would emerge as a model State for other States of country: Mohindra Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Mr. Satish Chandra said that special training would be imparted to the district level monitoring teams under this strategic plan. He said that under the chairmanship of Health Minister, State Task Force would monitor the every reported case regarding the malaria to control the outbreak. He said that quick diagnose and quick treatment would be provided to the effected patient. Mission Director NHM Mr. Amit Kumar, Additional Director NVBDCP Govt of India Dr Neeraj Dhingra, Dr Nicole Seguy, Team Leader Communicable Diseases (WHO), Dr. Roop Kumari NPO (WHO), Dr. Jaspal Kaur Director Health Services Punjab, Dr. Gagandeep Singh Grover, State Programme Officer NVBDCP and other senior officers were also present on the occasion. UofSC opens Digital Transformation Lab At an event on Sept. 27, the university announced the opening of the lab and the creation of new research partnerships The University of South Carolina announced Thursday (Sept. 27) several expansions of partnerships with corporate giants IBM, Samsung, Siemens and Yaskawa, including a partnership agreement with IBM for a new Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Research Lab. The announcements were part of ceremony opening USCs new 15,000 square-foot Digital Transformation Lab, a research showplace where projects with an array of real-world industrial and consumer applications are on displayfrom robotics, visual inspection, autonomous drones to smart home appliances. The Internet of Things refers to the interconnectivity of individual systems and devices, including automobiles, appliances and healthcare devices. These research partnerships and the new lab are the culmination of years of innovative work by our faculty researchers and the USC Office of Economic Engagement, said USC President Harris Pastides. Through corporate partnerships, our researchers can bring added value to industrial applications while students work alongside faculty to gain critical exposure to leading edge technologies that make them more employable. New and expanded partnership announced Thursday include: USC is opening the IIoT Lab in partnership with IBM. Located in the McNair Aerospace Research Center on Catawba street, the lab will use cloud-based data to develop a wide range of student learning, teaching, and research projects. IBM solutions featured at the lab leverage the IIoT, advanced analytics and AI to reduce operational costs and increase uptime, bring better products to market faster, and find new business value across three main asset classes industrial equipment, buildings and facilities, and vehicles. USC is currently IBMs only Industrial IoT university research partner in the United States. Artificial Intelligence is critical to making sense of the eighty percent of unstructured data that will enable people and things to work smarter and better, said Skip Snyder, vice president and partner of IBMs IoT and Asset Management Optimization practice. Together with USC we are demonstrating to clients how IoT, advanced analytics and AI reduces operational costs and increases uptime, while introducing students and faculty to state-of-the-art design and engineering platforms that are used by leading enterprises globally. Samsung is currently working with USC as part of the Palmetto Consortium for Home Appliance Innovation, exploring new ways to connect smart home appliances and expand their capabilities, such as refrigerators that can alert consumers when food is about to spoil or if a homebound relative is eating properly. The Digital Transformation Lab will serve as a host site for the best new advanced appliances under development. Last year, Samsung opened its new state-of-the-art home appliance manufacturing plant in Newberry, South Carolina. Siemens technology will be used throughout the Digital Transformation Lab, including in industrial robotic simulations and predictive maintenance projects. One project now underway uses Siemens software to help maximize the reliability of the U.S. Armys Apache helicopter. Last year, Siemens made an in-kind software technology grant to USCs College of Engineering and Computing allowing students to gain experience with software used by more than 140,000 companies in the global manufacturing industry, including South Carolinas growing aerospace sector. Yaskawa, the worldwide robotics company, will work with USC researcher to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to dramatically improve advanced manufacturing processes, reducing errors and cutting inspection time and costs. They also will explore the use of robots in novel areas, such as the development of new pharmaceutical products. Part of the announcement event on Sept. 27 included students demostrating some of the technology housed in the new facilities. Thursdays announcement was attended by executives from the partner companies, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and state economic development officials. The Digital Transformation Lab, conveniently located near downtown Columbia and USCs campus, is part of USCs expanding Innovista research district. Projects displayed in the lab will highlight for potential customers the benefits or matching university research expertise with the very latest in private-sector technologies. South Carolinas manufacturing industry is one of the strongest in the world, with one of the highest rates of manufacturing growth in the country, McMaster said. Staying on top requires staying smart by investing in partnerships like this one, which demonstrate the strength of collaboration between the private sector and our institutions of higher learning. I congratulate USC and its partners on this cutting-edge new Digital Transformation Lab and look forward to seeing all that will be achieved there. Through the Office of Economic Engagement, USC has aggressively sought to forge corporate research partnerships, commercialize technology developed at USC and support startups formed by university researchers. The activities help contribute to the $5.5 billion impact USC has on South Carolina economy each year. By creating new research partnerships and building on existing ones, we can infuse even more corporate investment into the Midlands and the state. The students who work on these research projectswhether they are computer scientists, engineers or designersare well-positioned to find the kind of rewarding, high paying jobs that contribute so much to the state, said Office of Economic Engagement Director Bill Kirkland. Share this Story! Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about The lack of new antibiotics is among the most critical challenges facing medicine. Researchers have been on the hunt for new drugs to combat "superbugs" that cannot be penetrated by current antibiotics. Rather than looking for drugs that forcibly penetrate bacteria, researchers tried a new approach: tricking bacteria into taking up a molecule that looks like food, but wreaks havoc once inside. A study of this approach shows initial success in mice and humans. The work is described in the Sept. 26, 2018, issue of Science Translational Medicine. The two primary investigators, Pradeep Singh and Christopher Goss, are faculty members at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine. Their study focused on one superbug, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which causes infection in the lungs, urinary tract, wounds and elsewhere. It is a particular problem in patients whose ability to fight infection is impaired because of illnesses such as cystic fibrosis, cancer and AIDS. The researchers studied gallium because it is a metal similar to iron, a critical nutrient for bacteria during infection. "The body goes to great lengths to keep iron away from bacteria, and infecting organisms crank up special systems to import iron and steal it from the host," said Singh, the senior author and a UW professor of microbiology and medicine. advertisement Goss, a UW professor of medicine and pediatrics and the paper's first author, described gallium as a Trojan horse. "Gallium not only fails to nourish bacteria as iron would, it actually harms them." The researchers also discovered how gallium works. "Gallium disrupts machinery that bacteria use to make new DNA, and without this the bacteria can't multiply," said co-author Bradley Britigan, professor of internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. "This and other essential processes require iron, and gallium is a monkey wrench that shuts the system down." In lab studies, bacteria developed resistance to gallium at low rates, and gallium's potency was increased when used in combination with some existing antibiotics. These factors led the researchers to test gallium in mice and then in humans. In mice, researchers found that a single dose cured lethal lung infections. They then studied gallium in 20 people with cystic fibrosis (CF) and difficult-to-treat lung infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas bacteria. "Our preliminary study in a small group of people with CF suggests that gallium is safe and improves patients' lung function," Goss said. "These are exciting results, but we need to do more studies to determine if gallium can be developed into a routine, safe treatment." The idea of disrupting bacterial nutrition as an antimicrobial strategy was raised in the 1800s by Louis Pasteur, but such treatments have been difficult to develop. Could gallium-based therapies be the exception to that experience? "That's our hope, and we're encouraged by these results, but we've have to be cautious and do more work before we'll know," said Singh. Researchers at the UW School of Pharmacy, Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago, University of Iowa, and Osaka City University in Japan also contributed to this study. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (UM1HL119073, R01HL085868, P30DK089507, and K24HL102246), Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Arcadia Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the University of Washington's Institute for Translational Health Sciences. Scientists have known for decades that certain bacteria produce small spherical versions of themselves. Although they lack basic materials to reproduce or function like normal cells, recent interest in such "minicells" has spiked due to their proficiency as nano-sized delivery tools for drugs and vaccines to targeted cells and tissues. Yet the natural role of minicells, which protrude like budding balloons off the ends of bacteria, has remained a mystery. Now, researchers at the University of California San Diego have demonstrated for the first time that minicells play a key function in the self-preservation of bacteria. Publishing their results in the journal mSphere, the researchers discovered that E. coli bacteria discharge damaged proteins bundled inside minicells -- a process not unlike a pod being launched from a spaceship -- as a survival mechanism. "It's amazing that even bacteria take out their garbage," said Camilla Rang, a research specialist in Division of Biological Sciences Professor Lin Chao's laboratory and first author of the paper. "We have shown that minicells can be beneficial for the bacteria and help them escape death by kicking out the damaged proteins." To examine the link between minicells and the health of bacterial cells, the researchers tagged and tracked proteins with fluorescent markers. While under attack from antibiotics such as streptomycin, the researchers used microscopy techniques to follow damaged proteins in E. coli bacteria to the pole (end point) areas, then packaged inside the minicell and finally dispatched out of the bacteria. "The advantage that minicells provide in the presence of streptomycin suggests that they could also play a role in helping bacterial cells resist, survive or persist when challenged with antibiotics," the researchers note in the paper. The new findings help provide mechanistic insights for researchers who have recently used minicells as molecular drug delivery systems for diseases such as cancer. In such treatments, minicells are loaded through diffusion with therapeutic drugs, tagged with antibodies for a target cancer and injected into the blood system. The new results help describe how natural routes within minicells could instead be used for packing drug payloads. The paper is dedicated to the memory of Distinguished Professor Emeritus William Loomis, a 50-year UC San Diego faculty member, who provided critical input to the direction of the research project. He passed away in 2016. Coauthors of the paper include UC San Diego's Audrey Proenca, Christen Buetz, Chao Shi and Lin Chao. A defective gene causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). There, it traps bacteria, causing patients to develop frequent lung infections that progressively damage these vital organs and impair patients' ability to breathe. Most patients with this progressive genetic disorder die by the fourth decade of life. A key to helping patients live even that long -- a vast improvement from an average lifespan of 10 years just decades ago -- is judicious use of antibiotics, explains Andrea Hahn, M.D., a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Children's National Health System. But antibiotics are a double-edged sword, Dr. Hahn adds: Although they're necessary to eradicate lung infections, repeated use of these drugs can lead to antibiotic resistance, making it tougher to treat future infections. Also, antibiotic use can kill the nonpathogenic bacteria living in the lungs as well. That decreases the diversity of the microbial community that resides in the lungs, a factor associated with disease progression. But how antibiotic resistance impacts the relationship between lung bacterial diversity and CF patients' pulmonary function has been unknown. Dr. Hahn and colleagues investigated this question in a small study that was published online Sept. 17, 2018, in Heliyon. Their findings suggest that the presence of multidrug resistant bacteria in the airways of patients with CF is associated with decreased microbial diversity and decreased pulmonary function. In the study, the researchers recruited six patients with CF from Children's National during well-child visits. During those appointments, the research team collected respiratory secretions from these volunteers. They collected more samples at subsequent visits, including: When patients were admitted to the hospital for pulmonary exacerbations (periods when infections inflamed their airways, making it difficult to breathe); Just after intravenous antibiotic courses to treat these infections; and Thirty days after patients completed antibiotic therapy, when their lungs' bacterial flora had some time to bounce back. Over the 18-month study period, these patients made multiple visits for exacerbations and antibiotic treatments, leading to samples from 19 patient encounters overall. advertisement The scientists then analyzed each sample in two different ways. They used some to grow cultures in petri dishes, the classic method that labs use to figure out which bacterial species are present and to determine which antibiotics are effective in tamping them down. They used another part of the sample to run genetic analyses that searched for antibiotic resistance genes. Both methods were necessary to gather a complete inventory of which antibiotic-resistant bacteria were present, Dr. Hahn explains. "Laboratory cultures are designed to grow certain types of bacteria that we know are problematic, but they don't show everything," she says. "By genetically sequencing these samples, we can see everything that's there." Their results revealed a host of bacterial species present in these patients' airways, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a notoriously hard-to-treat microbe. Patients who carried this or other antibiotic-resistant bacteria had significantly lower microbial diversity in their samples and more aggressive disease. Their samples also were more likely to contain bacteria of the genus Alcaligenes, whose role in CF is not yet known. Although heavy antibiotic use probably contributed to both the antibiotic resistance and lowered microbial diversity, Dr. Hahn says, the answer isn't to reduce use of these drugs: They're necessary to help patients with CF recover after each bout with pulmonary exacerbations. Rather, she says, using methods beyond a simple lab culture can help doctors target infectious bacteria more selectively, perhaps avoiding collateral damage. "We can't stop using antibiotics," she says, "but we can learn to use them better." In addition to Dr. Hahn, Children's co-authors include Aszia Burrell; Hani Fanous; Hollis Chaney, M.D.; Iman Sami Zakhari, M.D.; Geovanny F. Perez, M.D.; Anastassios C. Koumbourlis, M.D., MPH; and Robert J. Freishtat, M.D., MPH; and Senior Author, Keith A. Crandall, of The George Washington University. Financial support for the research described in this post was provided by the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences under award number UL1TR000075 and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute under award number K12HL119994. A novel therapy technique invented by researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas has been shown in a pilot study to double the rate of upper limb recovery in stroke patients, a leap forward in treating the nearly 800,000 Americans who suffer strokes each year. The results of the study, funded by UT Dallas spinoff company MicroTransponder of Austin, Texas, were published Sept. 27 in the journal Stroke. The findings indicate that targeted plasticity therapy -- which involves stimulation of the vagus nerve -- paired with traditional motor-skill rehabilitation is not only safe, but also twice as effective as rehab alone. Dr. Jane Wigginton, the chief medical officer at UT Dallas' Texas Biomedical Device Center (TxBDC) and an associate professor of emergency medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, led the Dallas site of the clinical trial, which involved 17 people across the country who had suffered a stroke. "Stroke is too common and too debilitating for us to tolerate the status quo," Wigginton said. "Patients need a real solution so they can get back to fully living their lives." Dr. Michael Kilgard, associate director and chief science officer of the TxBDC, invented targeted plasticity therapy (TPT). Kilgard, who is also the Margaret Fonde Jonsson Professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), said the study results further validate the theories that he and his colleagues based their TPT work on beginning in 2009. advertisement "We set out to design an approach that could transform long-term care and restore quality of life to patients for whom that has thus far been impossible," said Kilgard, who was not involved in the clinical trial. "These results show our method has immense potential. We're excited about what this could mean for millions of stroke patients worldwide." Researchers affiliated with the TxBDC and BBS developed the therapy technique, which pairs physical movements with precisely timed vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) -- electrical stimulus of the nerve via a device implanted on the nerve in the neck. The vagus nerve controls the parasympathetic nervous system, overseeing many unconscious functions such as circulation and digestion. Stimulating the nerve initiates neural plasticity -- reorganization of the brain's circuitry. The idea behind TPT is that synchronizing VNS with movement accelerates plasticity in a damaged brain, and with it, recovery. A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is interrupted because of a blockage or a ruptured blood vessel. Limb mobility can be affected when nerve cells are damaged. Such forms of brain trauma are often treated with rehabilitation that includes repeated movement of the affected limb in an effort to regain motor skills. The approach is thought to work by helping the brain reorganize. Several studies of Kilgard's technique in animal models have previously demonstrated that it is effective in recovering limb function after stroke. A small clinical trial in Europe also provided encouraging data for its potential use in humans. In 2009, UT Dallas licensed its VNS technique as a stroke and tinnitus treatment to MicroTransponder, which sponsored the new double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Neither the researchers nor the study subjects knew who was getting VNS stimulation and who was not. Each study subject was a stroke patient whose stroke occurred between four months and five years prior to selection. After they had a VNS device implanted, the subjects received six weeks of in-clinic rehab followed by a home exercise program. About half were treated with active VNS while the rest received control VNS. All were assessed one, 30 and 90 days after therapy with a widely used, stroke-specific measure of performance impairment. In addition to showing that the technique is safe, the researchers found that subjects receiving active VNS scored more than twice as high as control subjects at the 30- and 90-day intervals, opening the way for larger, more extensive clinical trials, Kilgard said. One such trial is in the recruitment phase and includes a study site in Dallas. Cyberattacks grow in prominence each and every day; in fact, 2017 was the worst year to-date for data breaches, with the number of cyber incidents targeting businesses nearly doubling from 2016 to 2017. Now, new research from the UBC Sauder School of Business has quantified the security levels of more than 1,200 Pan-Asian companies in order to determine whether increased awareness of one's security levels leads to improved defense levels against cybercrime. The study found that when cyberattacks were less likely to directly harm a company, organizations were unlikely to prioritize security improvements. Firms were more likely to fix issues related to spam emails originating from their compromised computers, but failed to act when they were found to host phishing websites on their servers. Most of the firms with phishing websites are actually hosting service providers. The researchers conducted a randomized field experiment on organizations in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Macau, Malaysia and Taiwan -- which were chosen for their significant economic development as well as rapid adoption of technologies. The experiment evaluated each organization's preparedness against two distinct security issues: spam emissions and phishing website hosting. Spam usually consists of unsolicited bulk messages sent out by compromised "zombie" computers controlled by cyber attackers, while phishing refers to fraudulently obtaining sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details for malicious reasons. "For companies hosting phishing websites, there were fewer incentives to crack down on the sites since they were operated by paying customers and the sites failed to negatively impact the company itself," explains Gene Moo Lee, study co-author and assistant professor of Accounting and Information Systems at the UBC Sauder School of Business. The researchers developed and assigned an information security score, similar to the idea of Moody's and Standard and Poor's credit ratings, to each organization. The score can be used as an indicator of each organization's security vulnerabilities. The security results from each company were then published online. According to Lee, publicizing firms' security levels not only leads to greater transparency, but it could also be used to strengthen their security over time. In addition, organizations with poor performance could face greater pressure from their customers and a loss of reputation. "The ever-increasing number of cyberattacks motivated my co-authors and I to explore a more effective way to enhance the security awareness of organizations and the general public," explains Lee. "By establishing a ranking scheme of firms against online scams, we hope this will heighten firms' awareness to address suboptimal security issues." For Lee, cybersecurity is an international concern that needs to be managed more effectively. "Many organizations don't understand the threats posed by emerging, sophisticated cyberattacks and usually adopt a wait-and-see approach in security investments until a huge security incident affects them significantly," he said. "Our hope with this research is that companies improve their security levels to prevent the potential of cyberattacks from happening in the first place. And, ultimately, the goal of our research is to provide insights for cybersecurity policy makers." "Information Disclosure and Security Policy Design: A Large-Scale Randomization Experiment in Pan-Asia" was recently presented at the Workshop on Economics of Information Security. It was co-authored by Yun-Sik Choi and Andrew B. Whinston from the University at Texas in Austin, Shu He from the University of Connecticut, and Yunhui Zhuang and Alvin Chung Man Leung from the City University of Hong Kong. With temperatures rising and heat-waves disrupting lives around the world, cooling solutions are becoming ever more essential. This is a critical issue especially in developing countries, where summer heat can be extreme and is projected to intensify. But common cooling methods such as air conditioners are expensive, consume significant amounts of energy, require ready access to electricity, and often require coolants that deplete ozone or have a strong greenhouse effect. An alternative to these energy-intensive cooling methods is passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC), a phenomenon where a surface spontaneously cools by reflecting sunlight and radiating heat to the colder atmosphere. PDRC is most effective if a surface has a high solar reflectance (R) that minimizes solar heat gain, and a high, thermal emittance () that maximizes radiative heat loss to the sky. If R and are sufficiently high, a net heat loss can occur, even under sunlight. Developing practical PDRC designs has been challenging: many recent design proposals are complex or costly, and cannot be widely implemented or applied on rooftops and buildings, which have different shapes and textures. Up to now, white paints, which are inexpensive and easy to apply, have been the benchmark for PDRC. White paints, however, usually have pigments that absorb UV light, and do not reflect longer solar wavelengths very well, so their performance is only modest at best. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have invented a high-performance exterior PDRC polymer coating with nano-to-microscale air voids that acts as a spontaneous air cooler and can be fabricated, dyed, and applied like paint on rooftops, buildings, water tanks, vehicles, even spacecraft -- anything that can be painted. They used a solution-based phase-inversion technique that gives the polymer a porous foam-like structure. The air voids in the porous polymer scatter and reflect sunlight, due to the difference in the refractive index between the air voids and the surrounding polymer. The polymer turns white and thus avoids solar heating, while its intrinsic emittance causes it to efficiently lose heat to the sky. The study is published online today in Science. The team -- Yuan Yang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering; Nanfang Yu, associate professor of applied physics; and Jyotirmoy Mandal, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in Yang's group (all department of applied physics and applied mathematics) -- built upon earlier work that demonstrated that simple plastics and polymers, including acrylic, silicone, and PET, are excellent heat radiators and could be used for PDRC. The challenges were how to get these normally transparent polymers to reflect sunlight without using silver mirrors as reflectors and how to make them easily deployable. They decided to use phase-inversion because it is a simple, solution-based method for making light-scattering air-voids in polymers. Polymers and solvents are already used in paints, and the Columbia Engineering method essentially replaces the pigments in white paint with air voids that reflect all wavelengths of sunlight, from UV to infrared. advertisement "This simple but fundamental modification yields exceptional reflectance and emittance that equal or surpass those of state-of-the-art PDRC designs, but with a convenience that is almost paint-like," says Mandal. The researchers found their polymer coating's high solar reflectance (R > 96%) and high thermal emittance ( ~ 97%) kept it significantly cooler than its environment under widely different skies, e.g. by 6C in the warm, arid desert in Arizona and 3C in the foggy, tropical environment of Bangladesh. "The fact that cooling is achieved in both desert and tropical climates, without any thermal protection or shielding, demonstrates the utility of our design wherever cooling is required," Yang notes. The team also created colored polymer coatings with cooling capabilities by adding dyes. "Achieving a superior balance between color and cooling performance over current paints is one of the most important aspects of our work," Yu notes. "For exterior coatings, the choice of color is often subjective, and paint manufacturers have been trying to make colored coatings, like those for roofs, for decades." The group took environmental and operational issues, such as recyclability, bio-compatibility, and high-temperature operability, into consideration, and showed that their technique can be generalized to a range of polymers to achieve these functionalities. "Polymers are an amazingly diverse class of materials, and because this technique is generic, additional desirable properties can be conveniently integrated into our PDRC coatings, if suitable polymers are available," Mandal adds. "Nature offers many ways for heating and cooling, some of which are extremely well known and widely studied and others that are poorly known. Radiative cooling -- by using the sky as a heat sink -- belongs to the latter group, and its potential has been strangely overlooked by materials scientists until a few years ago," says Uppsala University Physics Professor Claes-Goran Granqvist, a pioneer in the field of radiative cooling, who was not involved with the study. "The publication by Mandal et al. highlights the importance of radiative cooling and represents an important breakthrough by demonstrating that hierarchically porous polymer coatings, which can be prepared cheaply and conveniently, give excellent cooling even in full sunlight." Yang, Yu, and Mandal are refining their design in terms of applicability, while exploring possibilities such as the use of completely biocompatible polymers and solvents. They are in talks with industry about next steps. "Now is a critical time to develop promising solutions for sustainable humanity," Yang notes. "This year, we witnessed heat waves and record-breaking temperatures in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It is essential that we find solutions to this climate challenge, and we are very excited to be working on this new technology that addresses it." Yu adds that he used to think that white was the most unattainable color: "When I studied watercolor painting years ago, white paints were the most expensive. Cremnitz white or lead white was the choice of great masters, including Rembrandt and Lucian Freud. We have now demonstrated that white is in fact the most achievable color. It can be made using nothing more than properly sized air voids embedded in a transparent medium. Air voids are what make snow white and Saharan silver ants silvery." A vaccine against deadly foal pneumonia might finally be within reach, thanks to Morris Animal Foundation-funded research conducted at two major universities. The breakthrough could potentially save the lives of thousands of foals every year. "After many decades of efforts, our research, funded by Morris Animal Foundation, has led to the first effective vaccine protecting foals against infection with R. equi., considered the most common and important form of pneumonia in foals older than a few weeks of age," said Dr. Noah Cohen, one of the senior authors of the PLOS Pathogens paper describing the vaccine trail, and the Patsy Link Chair in Equine Research at Texas A&M University. Researchers at Harvard Medical School also were part of the research team. In addition to causing severe, insidiously progressive pneumonia, infection with Rhodococcus equi can affect other organs in the body, such as bones (including the spine), abdominal lymph nodes, eyes, joints and brain. Fatality rates range from 20 percent to 40 percent of infected foals. There currently are no licensed vaccines to protect against foal pneumonia, creating a critical need for development of an effective vaccine. For the vaccine trial, Dr. Cohen's team first investigated if vaccinating pregnant mares at three weeks and six weeks prior to birth of their foals protected their newborns against foal pneumonia. The team found antibodies that ward off pneumonia were transferred to the foals via the mares' colostrum, which was critical to establish as horses lack the ability to transfer antibodies through the placenta. Most importantly, those antibodies were able to protect almost all the foals born to vaccinated mares from contracting pneumonia. Next, the team conducted a small, randomized, controlled study of nine foals with R. equi. Five foals were given serum with high levels of antibodies against R. equi and four were not. All five foals receiving the hyperimmune serum were protected against R. equi pneumonia whereas the foals that received standard plasma all developed pneumonia. Further safety testing is ongoing, but these early results appear to support the safe and effective use of this novel foal vaccine strategy against pneumonia. Moreover, it suggests that immunizing donor horses with this vaccine could be used to produce plasma with which foals could be transfused to prevent R. equi pneumonia. Pneumonia caused by R. equi, which often clusters by farms, is found on all continents except Antarctica. Some farms experience problems recurrently and other farms sporadically or not at all. Despite effective antibiotic therapies, the incidence of this disease remains high, and many affected foals die. At farms that have problems with this disease, an average of 15 percent to 20 percent of foals develop pneumonia in a given year. In addition to protecting foals against pneumonia caused by R. equi, Dr. Cohen said the new vaccine has the potential to protect against other diseases, including sepsis, the leading cause of death for foals in the first few weeks of life. Other potential disease targets for the vaccine include bacterial infections such as Streptococcus equi subspecies equi, the cause of the ancient and prevalent disease known as strangles. "Developing a vaccine to protect foals against pneumonia has long been a priority at Morris Animal Foundation and of the equine researchers we support," said Dr. Kelly Diehl, Interim Vice President of Scientific Programs at Morris Animal Foundation. "We have invested more than $2 million to help fight this disease. Dr. Cohen's team's findings are groundbreaking and have the potential to change how we manage this disease going forward, saving the lives of young horses around the world." Where do pesticides and their degradation products go once they enter the soil? And how long does it take them to get to groundwater or drainage systems? That depends on a number of factors, but researchers at Aarhus University have come a step closer to finding quick answers. For the first time ever, they have used visible/near-infrared spectroscopy to predict the transport of dissolved chemicals through intact soil. The ability of soils to transport dissolved chemicals depends on the soil's texture and structure. Tracking the travel time of these solutes is usually carried out in the laboratory by measuring breakthrough curves, where the application of a solute at the soil surface and its appearance over time at the bottom are recorded. Obtaining breakthrough curves from laboratory studies is extremely expensive as well as time consuming and labour intensive, so the team of scientists from Aarhus University and Aalborg University decided to think out of the box and use visible/near-infrared (vis-NIR) spectroscopy to predict breakthrough curves - for the first time ever. Applying technology in new way Vis-NIR spectroscopy is well recognised for its measurement speed and its low data acquisition cost. It can be used for quantitative estimation of basic soil properties such as clay and organic matter. The team of scientists used vis-NIR spectroscopy to predict the breakthrough curves of the solutes on a large variety of intact soil columns from six representative fields in Denmark. Averaged across the individual field, the new technology estimated the breakthrough curves with a high degree of accuracy. "We found that we could measure the mass transport of dissolved chemicals quite accurately with vis-NIR spectroscopy. Our findings can pave the way for next-generation measurements and monitoring of dissolved chemical transport by spectroscopy," says Professor Lis Wollesen de Jonge, one of the scientists on the team and co-author of their article in Nature's Scientific Reports. advertisement Understanding chemical leaching through the soil is important The intensification of agricultural production to meet the growing demand for agricultural commodities is increasing the use of chemicals. The extensive use of agrochemicals causes pollution of water resources. This, in turn, poses serious threats to aquatic ecosystems, human health, and the environment. The occurrence of agrochemicals and their degradation products above the permissible limits in drinking water wells has forced numerous wells to be shut down and the implementation of strict regulations on the use of agrochemicals in the EU. Understanding the leaching of solutes to groundwater and being able to measure and model their transport times are therefore important for our health and the environment. Soil plays an important role in this regard because of its many functions. Soil is fundamental for agricultural production, for its ability to filter nutrients and pollutants, and for storing and recycling organic material. Soil is also the most important transport pathway for agrochemicals to groundwater. The soil's ability to filter dissolved agrochemicals is dependent on the soil's properties and the interaction between the dissolved solutes and the soil properties, and is influenced by how soils are used and managed. Soil structure is a very dynamic property since it is influenced by basic soil properties such as texture, organic matter, carbonates and metal oxides, climate, and land use and management practices. Depending on the soil structure, at close to saturation, water and dissolved chemicals can either be transported evenly through the soil, or rapidly through specific pathways in the soil with various degrees of mass exchange between the soil matrix and the transporting pathways. advertisement Future avenues for exploration Various solute transport models have been developed to account for different transport processes and facilitate the prediction of the transport of dissolved chemicals through soils. "Major challenges when it comes to risk assessment are obtaining an accurate estimation of a range of parameters which are used as input in solute transport models and to accounting for the spatial differences in those transport properties," Lis Wollesen de Jonge explains. Even though there is a slight underestimation of the within-field variances with vis-NIR spectroscopy, the efficiency of this technology in terms of cost and speed of measurement may outweigh expensive and precise measurements using conventional methods of soil properties that usually have large spatial variability. In order to hone the technology, approaches for reducing the estimation error resulting from differences in soil structure that cannot be captured by vis-NIR spectroscopy should be investigated. Another avenue of exploration in order to improve the prediction accuracies could be integration of vis-NIR spectroscopy with other readily available information, such as soil structure information based on soil surveys or quick field tests. Alaska has a near-pristine marine ecosystem -- it has fewer invasive species in its waters than almost any other state in the U.S. But that could be changing. With help from local volunteers, biologists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and Temple University have reported a new invasive species in the Ketchikan region, the invertebrate filter-feeder Bugula neritina, and documented the continuing spread of three other non-native species. Ketchikan, a town of about 8,000 people on the southern tip of Alaska, is a gateway to more remote Alaskan waters in the north. It sits fewer than 100 nautical miles from British Columbia, so invasive species travelling from southern ports are likely to appear in Ketchikan first. But detecting marine invasive species is a constant challenge, even in a single harbor. By collaborating with citizen scientists from Ketchikan, Smithsonian researchers were able to document these new invasive species hopefully as soon as they arrived. "It's really important to know when new non-native species show up. They may be tiny invertebrates, but they can create big problems," said lead author Laura Jurgens, who was a SERC postdoc at the time of the study. "Early detection means you have a better chance of controlling them before the populations get established. In other places, like California, Oregon and Washington, these organisms have displaced local marine animals or had economic impacts by fouling boats, fishing or aquaculture gear." The research focused on invasive "fouling organisms," animals that live their lives glued to hard surfaces, filtering food from the water. To find the species, the scientists hung hard plastic squares from local docks and waited to see what grew on them. Between visits from the researchers, citizen scientists tended the squares, corresponding with SERC scientists to identify the animals growing there. The new invader, B. neritina, is what is called a branching bryozoan. Like coral, bryozoans are colonies of tiny animals that together resemble undersea lichen, and are sometimes referred to as moss animals or sea lace. B. neritina had been observed all across California, but never as far north as Alaska. "It's a really obvious bryozoan species," said Jurgens. "It's the only purple thing in a forest of brown. So when you see it, you kind of gasp." The other species found in the study are tunicates, leathery invertebrates that are prolific in southern waters. Two of these tunicate species, the golden star and chain tunicates, seem to be spreading in Ketchikan. advertisement The discoveries, published Sept. 27 in BioInvasions Records, are the culmination of years of observation by scientists from the Smithsonian, Temple University and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, as well as local citizen scientists. The project was hosted locally by the University of Southeast Alaska. In 2003, a group of scientists from SERC conducted an initial survey of Ketchikan, and noticed the chain tunicate, native to the western Pacific. In 2007, SERC established a citizen-science monitoring program called Plate Watch. Local citizen scientists -- including a teacher and students from a nearby high school -- have documented the chain tunicate's spread ever since. One of these citizen scientists was the first to notice the arrival of the golden star tunicate in Ketchikan waters in 2010. When scientists returned to Alaska in 2016, they found that the golden star and chain tunicates had become much more abundant than a decade earlier. They also noted the arrival of Bugula neritina, and the appearance of another tunicate, the solitary sea squirt Ciona savignyi, not seen in Alaska since 1903. "One of the great things about this was that citizen scientists originally found the star tunicate," said Jurgens. "We were then able to complement their work with intensive surveys for rare species." If these species become established in Ketchikan, scientists worry they could rapidly spread to other Alaskan waters. Since they spread largely by boat traffic, Ketchikan harbor, a hub for ships travelling north, could be a launching site for more invasions. Ketchikan is the first stop in Alaska for many cruise lines. Invasive species in its harbors will likely hitch rides further north, disturbing remote ecosystems. "There are four or five cruise ships here every day in the summer," said Gary Freitag, a coauthor of the study from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "It doubles the town's population." The scientists do not think there is a particular reason the species are arriving now. It is an inevitability in a region with heavy boat traffic. "There's always been a lot of potential for invasive species to show up," Freitag said. Climate change might also speed up the process: Warming means new arrivals are more likely to survive in once-cold waters. And as Arctic ice melts, more ship traffic will head north to take advantage of an open Arctic Passage. advertisement That makes it even more important to keep an eye on Ketchikan, said Jurgens. Observing invasive species in real time helps scientists understand how invaders spread and establish themselves. "If we know when they arrive, it also helps us study what factors, like climate warming and human activities, might exacerbate their spread, so we can better predict when and where they might show up next," she said. The next step, according to SERC scientist Linda McCann, is to extend the reach of the citizen science network. "Education and prevention go together," said McCann, who also acts as regional coordinator for Plate Watch. "We can't be everywhere, and it's incredibly valuable to have local eyes on the ground. It's much more likely that management works if we detect invasive species early." The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Thomas Carter Ronk with fraud in connection with multiple alleged schemes to peddle securities to investors and manipulate the market. The SEC charged Ronk with disseminating false and misleading information in connection with unregistered offerings of securities in two microcap companies: Casablanca Mining Ltd. and Gepco Ltd. According to the SEC's complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Ronk touted the issuers' illusory business prospects and made revenue projections without any basis in fact. As Ronk solicited investors to privately invest in Casablanca and Gepco, he also secretly schemed to create the appearance of market interest and a rising share price in their stocks. Further, Ronk allegedly recruited the owner of a boiler room to induce buyers to purchase shares at higher prices. According to the complaint, this manipulative trading temporarily drove up Casablanca and Gepco's stock prices and enhanced the credibility of the issuers while Ronk's capital raising efforts were ongoing. The complaint further alleges that Ronk engaged in a fraudulent offering of securities in a private company, Wealthmakers, Ltd. Among other things, Ronk, an owner and co-founder of Wealthmakers, misled investors about trading returns that Wealthmakers purportedly generated, along with the amount of seed capital invested by Ronk and other officers of the company. The Commission charged Ronk with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, as well as the anti-touting provisions of Section 17(b) of the Securities Act. The Commission is seeking a permanent injunction, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains along with prejudgment interest, civil money penalties, a penny stock bar, and an officer-and-director bar against Ronk. The SEC's investigation was conducted by Brenda Wai Ming Chang, Howard Fischer, and Sheldon Pollock, with assistance by Timothy C. Nealon, under the supervision of Lara Shalov Mehraban. The litigation will be led by Mr. Fischer and Barry O'Connell. The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a final judgment by consent against stock promoter Antonio Katz, who was charged with a pump-and-dump scheme in 2015. The final judgment, entered on September 14, 2018 by the Honorable Allison D. Burroughs of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, permanently prohibits Katz from participating in penny stock offerings; enjoins him from violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder, and Sections 5(a) and (c) and 17(a)(1) and (3) of the Securities Act of 1933, which are antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws; and orders him liable for disgorgement of $9,900, the payment of which is deemed satisfied by the order of restitution in the parallel criminal case against him. Katz was charged in a parallel criminal case and pleaded guilty on June 1, 2017 to one count of conspiracy and one count of securities fraud. On August 1, 2018, he was sentenced to 36 months of probation and ordered to pay restitution, representing the total loss to victims from the scheme, of over $1 million. The SEC's litigation against Katz's co-defendant Jehu Hand, who was convicted after a jury trial in May 2018 of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy, continues. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a New Jersey-based broker with misusing his access to customers' brokerage accounts to enrich himself and family members at the expense of his customers, many of whom entrusted him with their retirement accounts. The SEC uncovered the alleged fraud with data analysis used to detect suspicious trading patterns. The SEC filed fraud charges in federal district court against Michael A. Bressman of Montville, New Jersey, alleging that he misused his access to an omnibus or "allocation" account to obtain at least $700,000 in illicit trading profits over a six-year period ending in February. The SEC's complaint alleges that Bressman placed trades using the allocation account and cherry-picked profitable trades, which he then transferred to his own account and the account of two family members, while placing unprofitable trades in other customers' accounts. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts today announced criminal charges against Bressman. The SEC's complaint, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, charges Bressman with violating antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and a related SEC antifraud rule. The SEC is seeking return of allegedly ill-gotten gains, plus interest, penalties and a permanent injunction. The SEC's investigation was conducted by Vanessa De Simone and Charles Riely of the Market Abuse Unit in the New York Regional Office with assistance from Jonathan Hershaff and Mark Kaplan in the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis and Hugh Beck in the Market Abuse Unit. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts and the Boston field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. AMERICAS Colombia Expected Council Action In October, the Council will receive a briefing from Special Representative Jean Arnault on the Secretary-Generals 90-day report on the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. Consultations are expected to follow the briefing. The mandate of the verification mission expires on 25 September 2019. Key Recent Developments On 13 September, the Security Council adopted resolution 2435 renewing the mandate of the verification mission until 25 September 2019. The mission will continue to verify the implementation of sections 3.2 and 3.4 of the November 2016 Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace, as called for in its section 6.3.3. Sections 3.2 and 3.4 focus on political, economic and social reincorporation of the members of the guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejercito del Pueblo (FARC-EP); personal and collective security guarantees; and comprehensive programmes on security and protection measures for communities and organisations in conflict-affected areas. By a letter dated 30 August, Colombian President Ivan Duque conveyed a joint request for mandate extension by the government of Colombia and the Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Comun (FARC), the political party successor to the FARC-EP. Duque, who took office on 7 August, has repeatedly expressed his commitment not to terminate the peace agreement but to propose corrections. The new administration aims to modify provisions related to the transitional justice mechanisms and how to deal with the cultivation of coca. One of the divisive issues in the implementation of the agreement is the work of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP), the justice component of the transitional justice system. Centro Democratico, the political party of President Duque, had proposed amendments in the final stages of the legislative consideration of the SJP statute in June, including limiting the role of the SJP in evaluating extradition requests and barring human rights attorneys from serving as SJP magistrates, but the Constitutional Court rejected these changes on 16 August. The Court also reaffirmed that those former guerrilla members found responsible for crimes by the SJP and who have cooperated fully with the tribunal can participate in politics, including holding office. An erosion of confidence about the future among the rank and file, the mid-level commanders and the leadership of the FARC is having a negative impact on the implementation of the agreement. In a statement on 6 September, the UN mission announced that six leaders of the FARC had abandoned the territories in the countrys southeast where they had relocated with approximately 1,500 former guerrilla members. Although the motivation for this decision remains unclear, the mission stressed that the decisions by the six leaders were a breach of their obligations under the agreement to actively contribute to ensuring the success of the reincorporation process. Meanwhile, FARC-EP dissident groups pose a growing security challenge and have a destabilising impact on rural communities. Human rights defenders and social leaders continue to be targeted, with 121 killed in 2017, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. During a visit to New York on 23 August, Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo expressed support for the UNs increased engagement in addressing the regional impact of the humanitarian situation in Venezuela. An estimated 1.6 million people have fled Venezuela since 2015, and an additional 1.8 million are expected to leave this year, according to UNHCR. Colombia, which has also traditionally been a destination country for Venezuelan immigrants, now hosts almost one million Venezuelan citizens. On 19 September, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration announced the appointment of Eduardo Stein as a Joint Special Representative for Venezuelan refugees and migrants in the region. Key Issues and Options An important issue is ensuring that the peace agreement is implemented in its entirety under the new administration. Council members could organise a visiting mission to Colombia to convey its unanimous support for the agreement. The governments ability to develop and finance a strategy for reintegrating former FARC-EP members into society and to provide safety and security in areas previously occupied by the FARC-EP remain critical issues in the successful implementation of the agreement. Council members could encourage dialogue between representatives of the government and the FARC, including through the reactivation of the commission for follow-up, impulse and verification of the implementation of the agreement (CSIVI) to address the trust deficit and discuss how the commitments made in the agreement are to be carried out in this new phase. The current political context may mean a significant change in the role the two successive UN missions have played since the government of Colombia requested the Councils involvement in January 2016. The present mission, with the Councils close attention and support, could be in a position to use its leverage to sustain key provisions of the agreement at a moment of uncertainty in order to reassure Colombians about the irreversibility of the process. Council Dynamics Council members are unified in their support for the peace process in Colombia. This was reflected in the negotiations on the renewal of the missions mandate, when no Council member proposed changes to the language in the resolution. Several members have viewed engagement in Colombia as a rare bright spot for the Council as it struggles to play an effective role in several other conflict situations. However, some members have expressed concerns about the future of the agreement under the new administration. The UK is the penholder on Colombia. UN DOCUMENTS ON COLOMBIA THE SECURITY COUNCIL Counter-Terrorism Expected Council Action In October, the Council is scheduled to receive its annual briefing from the chairs of its counter-terrorism-related committees, Ambassador Sacha Sergio Llorenty Soliz (Bolivia), chair of the 1540 Committee, which focuses on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; Ambassador Kairat Umarov (Kazakhstan), chair of the 1267/1989/2253 Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) (Daesh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee; and Ambassador Gustavo Meza-Cuadra Velasquez (Peru), chair of the 1373 Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC). Soliz will also address the joint activities of all three committees. Key Recent Developments The joint briefing was initially scheduled to take place in May, a year after the previous joint briefing of 11 May 2017, but was postponed at the request of Bolivia, as Soliz also briefed the Council separately on 12 April on the work of his committee. 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee The Council has adopted two important resolutions concerning ISIL and Al-Qaida over the last year. The Council unanimously adopted resolution 2368 on 20 July 2017, renewing and updating the 1267/1989/2253 sanctions regime. The updates are intended to reflect the current and evolving threat presented by Al-Qaida and ISIL. The resolution also provides updates concerning the Office of the Ombudsperson to the ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, including communications among the Ombudsperson, the sanctions committee and petitioners. In accordance with the resolution, the committee adopted revised guidelines on 5 September to facilitate the conduct of its own work and provide useful guidance to member states in their efforts to implement the relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolution 2368. The Council adopted resolution 2396 on foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) and returnees on 21 December 2017. The resolution acknowledged that returning and relocating FTFs who participated in attacks in their countries of origin or third countries, including assaults on public spaces and civilian targets, present an immediate threat to member states. In aiming to address this threat, it called on states to assess and investigate suspected individuals whom they have reasonable grounds to believe are terrorists, including suspected FTFs and their accompanying spouses, children and other family members. After the position of the Ombudsperson had been vacant since 7 August 2017, Daniel Kipfer Fasciati (Switzerland) was appointed on 24 May. The 1267/1989/2253 sanctions list, which was last updated on 29 August, currently contains the names of 263 individuals and 82 entities. 1373 Counter-Terrorism Committee On 21 December 2017, the Council adopted resolution 2395, renewing the mandate of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) as a special political mission until 31 December 2021. The resolution addressed CTEDs functions within the wider UN system, including the relationship between CTED and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT). It provided a comprehensive text regarding CTEDs full mandate, which now encompasses cross-cutting issues such as FTFs and countering violent extremism. It stressed that assessing the implementation of resolution 1373 and other relevant counter-terrorism resolutions is the core function of CTED. On 9 April, Council members held an Arria-formula meeting on Perus initiative, titled Enhancing synergies between the United Nations and regional and subregional organisations to address the nexus between terrorism and transnational organised crime. Among the briefers were CTED Executive Director Michele Coninsx; the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Under-Secretary-General Yury Fedotov; and Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov, the head of UNOCT. On 23 August, Voronkov briefed the Council on the seventh report of the Secretary-General on the threat posed by ISIL. Also briefing were Coninsx and Joana Cook, senior research fellow with the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at Kings College London. 1540 Committee On 12 April, Soliz briefed the Council on the committees activities and its priorities for the upcoming period as laid out in the programme of work covering the period from 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2019. The programme included plans by the committee to hold deliberations on enforcing applicable laws on prohibiting non-state actors from acquiring chemical and biological weapons, in accordance with paragraph 2 of resolution 1540. Soliz emphasised that achieving universal reporting on the implementation of resolution 1540 remains one of the committees main priorities. He said that 180 out of 193 member states have submitted their national reports. During the April meeting, several Council members expressed concern over the increasing use of chemical weapons in the recent period. Key Issues A key issue for the committees is to ensure that they are able to address the widening scope of the threats and various facets of the Councils counter-terrorism agenda within their respective mandates. A particular issue for the 1267/1989/2253 Committee is to continue to strengthen member states compliance with the sanctions regime. A key issue for the 1540 Committee is the follow-up on national implementation and reporting to the committee. Council Dynamics In the past, most counter-terrorism-related discussions were held in the Councils subsidiary organs, but over the last two years the Council has discussed and adopted decisions on various aspects of counter-terrorism and related issues, including updating the Al-Qaida and ISIL sanctions regime and the mandate of CTED and addressing FTFs, returnees and others. The importance of counter-terrorism efforts enjoys overall unanimity among Council members, notwithstanding divergences over the politicisation of the issue in the Middle East. However, frictions on some issues remain, such as divergences between Russia and other member states that led to delays in the appointment of the ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee Ombudsperson. That some differences remain among Council members in their approach towards counter-terrorism was also evident during the negotiations over resolutions 2395 and 2396. For example, several states, mainly the western ones, took the view with respect to FTFs and returnees that states need to distinguish between FTFs and their families in their screening process rather than automatically assume that the families are complicit. Furthermore, they wanted the resolution to call on states to develop comprehensive prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies to determine the most appropriate solution for FTFs and their families. However, Russia took the view that FTFs should be held criminally liable and that family members travelling with FTFs are complicit and should, therefore, be held accountable. UN DOCUMENTS ON COUNTER-TERRORISM EUROPE Cyprus Expected Council Action In October, the Council expects to receive a report on the Secretary-Generals good offices in Cyprus and the outcome of UN consultant Jane Holl Lutes consultations on the negotiation process. Key Recent Developments In July, the Council adopted resolution 2430, which extended the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for another six months. Notwithstanding the lack of progress in unification talks for over a year, the Council did not initiate any changes in the missions mandate or size. The resolution welcomed the appointment of Lute as UN consultant and called on all sides to use this opportunity to engage in constructive consultations. The Secretary-General appointed Lute earlier in July as a UN consultant charged with consulting the parties and seeking their reflections on the negotiation process. So far, Lute has held meetings with the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders separately and with the representatives of the guarantor powersGreece, Turkey and the UK. At press time there was no substantial information on the outcome of her talks with the parties. Neither Lute nor the Secretary-General addressed the media on the ongoing process of consultations. As requested by resolution 2430, the Secretary-General will submit a report to the Council on the outcome of Lutes consultations by 15 October. This report will form the basis for the Councils deliberation on the Cyprus issue in October. Speaking to the media on 16 September, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would increase rather than decrease the number of troops stationed in northern Cyprus. Addressing the issue of Cypruss unification, he said that the matter would have been solved if the Greek Cypriots had supported the plan of then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In separate referendums on the Annan plan in April 2004, Turkish Cypriots voted for it while Greek Cypriots rejected it. During the high-level week of the UN General Assembly, the Secretary-General met separately with Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci. Secretary-General used this opportunity to discuss with both leaders the prospects for resumption of unification talks. Key Issues and Options At the moment, the Councils main concern about Cyprus is the lack of progress in the unification talks and what role, if any, the Council should play to stimulate the process. In the absence of a political solution or tangible progress in talks, an issue for the Council is whether to consider significant changes to the missions mandate and examine downsizing options. Council members are interested in receiving more information on the prospects for a political settlement of the Cyprus issue. The outcome of Lutes consultations will play an important role in guiding discussion during the next mandate renewal. So far, the Council has been wary of initiating discussions about the specifics of mandate changes or prospects for downsizing the mission, fearing a negative impact on the situation on the ground and on the political process. Council members could, however, be more open to these discussions during the next mandate renewal in January 2019, especially if the current stalemate in unification talks persists. Council Dynamics As is the case with other issues of low intensity on the Councils agenda, only a few members with particular interest in the conflict follow the situation in Cyprus closely. Among these are France, Russia, and the UK. The UK is also one of the guarantor powers under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee on the independence, territorial integrity and security of Cyprus. Over the past several years, the US has become more engaged in efforts to find a political solution as the island started to gain importance because of its offshore hydrocarbon resources and its strategic location in relation to the fight against terrorism in the Middle East. The current US administration has been particularly focused on increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of peacekeeping operations while emphasising that such missions need to support political solutions. The Council has been unified in its support for the political process, which could lead towards final settlement of the Cyprus question. There are some differences, however, over the acceptable timeline for the reunification talks. Some members seem to be frustrated by the duration of the political process and share the view that it cannot be open-ended, and that the Council could stimulate the negotiations by putting pressure on both sides. However, Russia has strongly opposed any attempt to exert pressure on both sides and seek to affect negotiations, as it maintains that the process must be Cypriot-led and Cypriot-owned for the outcome to be effective. During the negotiations of the last mandate renewal resolution, the US seemed to have proposed adding to the draft specific references to timed benchmarks for an exit strategy tied to the political process as well as a request for a comprehensive strategic review of the mission that would have evaluated every aspect of UNFICYP. These suggestions, however, were not included in the final text of the resolution. In the absence of progress on the political front, it is likely that the US position will gain more support from other members who have so far been cautious on this issue. Russia is likely to continue to oppose any drastic changes to the missions mandate and troop numbers. The UK is the penholder on Cyprus. UN Documents on Cyprus AFRICA Democratic Republic of the Congo Expected Council Action In October, the Council is planning a visiting mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Bolivia, France and Equatorial Guinea will co-lead the mission. Also in October, the Council expects to be briefed, most likely by the Special Representative and head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), Leila Zerrougui, on the Secretary-Generals latest report on MONUSCO. MONUSCOs mandate expires on 31 March 2019. Key Recent Developments The electoral process in the DRC continues to be a major concern for the Council, despite recent positive developments. President Joseph Kabila, whose second and final term (under the countrys constitution) ended in December 2016, remains in office. According to an agreement reached between Kabila and the opposition on 31 December 2016, elections were to be held by the end of 2017, and Kabila was not to run for a third term or initiate amendments to the constitution. Citing logistical difficulties, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) eventually published a new electoral calendar for combined presidential, legislative and provincial elections to take place on 23 December 2018. The political tensions were exacerbated by Kabilas failure to reveal his own intentions for a long time. On 8 August, the last day to submit presidential candidates, Kabilas party nominated former Vice Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary as its presidential candidate. Kabilas decision not to run was broadly welcomed internationally, including by Canada, Switzerland, the US, the AU, the EU and MONUSCO, according to the latest Secretary-Generals progress report on the electoral process of 28 August. Shadary is said to be a Kabila loyalist and is on the EU sanctions list for being responsible for the recent arrests of activists and opposition members, as well as the disproportionate use of force since his appointment, such as the violent crackdown on members of the Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) movement in Kongo Central, the repression in Kinshasa over January-February 2017 and the disproportionate use of force and violent repression in Kasai provinces, according to the EU listing information. Former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, whose conviction by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity was overturned on appeal on 8 June, also registered as a presidential candidate. The CENI declared him ineligible, however, on the grounds that the ICC had found him guilty of witness tampering. The Constitutional Court confirmed CENIs decision on 19 September. Opposition parties rejected this decision and the disqualification of five other candidates (out of 25), arguing that it was politically motivated, an accusation the government has denied. On 13 August, Council members issued a press statement welcoming the registration of the candidates for the presidential and legislative elections and Kabilas respect for his commitment to abide by the Congolese Constitution and the provisions of the 31 December 2016 political agreement. Council members also reiterated the importance of creating the necessary electoral conditions of transparency, credibility and inclusivity. The President of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo, Monseigneur Marcel Utembi, briefed the Council on 27 August. The spokesperson for Rien Sans Les Femmes (a local organisation promoting womens participation in the electoral process), Solange Lwashiga Furaha, and Zerrougui were the other two briefers. In his report on the electoral process, the Secretary-General noted with concern continued incidents of repression and intimidation of political activists and human rights defenders and other restrictions on the political space. The report called upon the authorities to lift the general ban on public demonstrations and uphold the rights of Congolese citizens to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. (The Council had called on the DRC to lift the ban in resolution 2409.) The report further noted that recent public statements by government officials and CENI have indicated that the CENI intends to hold the elections without MONUSCOs support. The eastern DRC continues to be plagued by the activities of rebel groups, with a disastrous effect on the population. According to UNHCR, there were 782,363 Congolese refugees in neighbouring countries on 31 July, mostly originating from the North and South Kivu regions, where there are many active rebel groups and militias, such as the Islamist Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Human rights groups say that the ADF and other militias have been responsible for killing more than 800 civilians in Beni territory, North Kivu, since October 2014. On 22 September, 18 people, including 14 civilians and four Congolese soldiers, were killed in an attack attributed to the ADF in Beni, North Kivu. The ADF is also believed to be responsible for the deadly attack on Tanzanian peacekeepers on 7 December 2017, in which 15 peacekeepers were killed, 53 were wounded, and one remains missing. In a briefing on corruption and conflict on 10 September, Director of the Enough Project and Co-Founder of The Sentry John Prendergast said that the DRC exemplifies the nexus between corruption and mass atrocities. He noted that security forces and rebel groups use extreme violence against civilians and forced labour for the exploitation of natural resources in order to fund their activities. Conflict in North Kivu has complicated efforts to eradicate Ebola in the DRC. After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the DRC over on 24 July, a new outbreak erupted in North Kivu in August. According to the WHO, by 23 September there had been 119 confirmed and 31 probable cases of Ebola, resulting in 100 deaths. Sanctions-Related Developments The DRC Sanctions Committee held a formal open meeting for member states on 27 July on the final report of the Group of Experts assisting the committee. The coordinator of the group presented the report, followed by comments by the representatives of the DRC, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. On 31 August, the Group of Experts presented its programme of work for the next year. Human Rights-Related Developments During its 39th session, the Human Rights Council (HRC) held an enhanced interactive dialogue on 25 September on the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation and the activities of the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC, covering June 2017 to May (A/HRC/39/42). The report noted a deterioration of the human rights situation across the country with an overall increase of almost 20 percent in the number of human rights violations and abuses documented by the Joint Human Rights Office, compared to the previous reporting period. More than 63 percent of the violations were committed by state officials, primarily members of the DRC armed forces (FARDC) and officers of the Congolese national police, according to the report. A proliferation of militias and armed groups also contributed to the increase in abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law, notably in North Kivu. A significant increase was also reported in violations of the civil and political rights of political opponents, journalists and civil society activists, including human rights defenders throughout the country related to elections scheduled for December 2018. At press time, the HRC was expected to vote on 28 September on a resolution on technical assistance and capacity-building in the field of human rights in the DRC. Key Issues and Options The primary political issue for the Council in the upcoming period is that the elections take place as scheduled and that they are free and fair. The visiting mission will be an opportunity to meet with key stakeholders and reiterate the Councils previous messages, calling on the DRC to take action to guarantee that the electoral calendar is observed and that elections are inclusive and held in a safe environment conducive to participation in the political process by all. Council members may also press the DRC government to take all necessary measures to ensure a peaceful transition of power. The Council may reiterate its call on all stakeholders to refrain from violence and to remain committed to the electoral process as the only way forward. The visit will also give Council members the opportunity to assess the status of logistical preparations and offer MONUSCOs assistance to CENI. The Council may choose to issue a presidential or press statement to reinforce the positions taken during the visit. Additionally, the Council can utilise the sanctions regime by amending the listing criteria to include acts that hinder a free and fair electoral process and sanction actors who undermine the electoral process. Council and Wider Dynamics All Council members remain concerned about the ongoing political crisis and the dire security situation. There is consensus about the imperative of holding elections on 23 December without further delays. The Council has visited the DRC 13 times, first in 2000 and most recently in November 2016. Since early 2018, there seems to have been agreement among members to visit the DRC during the electoral process. The visit was to have taken place in August, but disagreement over precise dates led members to agree to postpone it. It seems that in order to focus on political developments, the Council will only visit Kinshasa. During the visit, Council members are keen to maintain a united front by focusing on matters of consensus, such as the importance of timely elections and confidence-building measures between the government and the opposition. Council members generally take a positive view of Kabilas decision not to run for a third term. Given their varying perspectives on the nature of the political situation in the DRC, his decision also removes what could have been a bone of contention between Council members during their visit. Questions remain for some Council members, however, as to the influence Kabila may exert on key stakeholders in the run-up to and following the elections. France is the penholder on the DRC, and Kuwait chairs the DRC Sanctions Committee. UN DOCUMENTS ON THE DRC In Hindsight: Emergence of the E10 In October, the five incoming members of the Security CouncilBelgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia and South Africawill begin attending meetings of the Council, both formal and informal, as well as meetings of the subsidiary bodies. Starting on 1 January 2019, these five members will make up the E10 together with Cote dIvoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, Peru and Poland. For many years, the diverse nature of the E10 members has made coordination and joint action difficult. However, driven by dissatisfaction with being sidelined on key Council decisions and a shared desire to improve the effectiveness of the Council, especially in the face of P5 paralysis caused by sharp differences, elected members have begun acting as a more cohesive group. The E10 now meet monthly at both permanent representative and political coordinator level. These meetings have allowed the E10 to discuss the working methods of the Council, particularly around the issues of penholders and chairs of subsidiary bodies. The elected members chair all the subsidiary bodies, with the P5 deciding on the distribution of responsibilities. This year the E10 have pushed for a greater role and more equitable distribution in the allocation of chairs of subsidiary bodies. These regular E10 meetings also provide a forum for discussion of issues of substance, and an opportunity to garner support from fellow E10 members for potential new initiatives. The E10 have had several meetings with the Secretary-General, most recently in mid-September together with the incoming five elected members. The incoming members enter the Council at a moment when the opportunity for elected members to make their mark on the work of the Council appears greater than it has been for many years. In the early 1990s, after the end of the Cold War and lasting for about a decade, elected members frequently took initiatives on important issues and contributed policy options on a full range of matters. However, starting in the mid-2000s, the space shrank for such contributions from elected members, particularly with the emergence of a more rigid penholder system. Today, the P3France, the UK, and the USare penholders on the majority of situations on the Councils agenda. The P3, with their institutional memory and well-resourced missions, are arguably in a strong position to hold the pen on substantive issues in the Council. Being a penholder goes beyond drafting and negotiating texts, however. It also means calling meetings and organising visiting missions, and can work against inclusive Council processes. The penholder practice has often led the permanent members first to discuss and seek agreement among themselves on a draft text before sharing it with the rest of the Council, making it difficult for elected members to provide substantive inputs at an early stage in the negotiations. In recent years, frustration over being sidelined and concerns at a lack of effectiveness on major Council decisions have spurred elected members to find creative ways of playing a role on key agenda issues. In 2013-14, Australia and Luxembourg (joined by Jordan in 2014) paved the way by drafting decisions on the humanitarian aspects of the Syria conflict. Ever since, elected members have been the recognised co-penholders on Syrian humanitarian issues and have found ways of navigating the divisions of the permanent members on the Syria issue to achieve outcomes on cross-line and cross-border humanitarian access The increasingly divisive P5 dynamics, particularly over Syria, have been a particular catalyst for E10 action. In April 2017, following the chemical weapons attack on Khan Shaykhun, the P3 and Russia both produced separate draft resolutions, which were then negotiated among the P5. Frustrated at not being consulted in the negotiation process, the E10 in an unusual move produced a draft text that represented a compromise among the positions of the permanent members. The existence of this alternative E10 draft that might have been acceptable to the majority of members apparently made it more difficult for the P3 and Russia to proceed with a vote on draft resolutions that would almost certainly not have been adopted, either because of likely vetoes or not having the requisite nine votes. However, US air strikes that evening on the Shayrat airbase outside Homs derailed the attempt by the E10 to bridge the divide among permanent members. The P3 then circulated a draft resolution, largely based on their previous text, although incorporating one element from the E10 draft. That draft was vetoed by Russia. In November 2017, elected members played an active role in trying to keep alive the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN, which had been set up to determine responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Renewing the JIM mandate was always going to be difficult, as the P5 held divergent views on how well it had performed its job. Competing draft resolutions from the US and Russia failed to be adoptedthe US draft due to a veto, the Russian draft lacking enough voteson 16 November, one day ahead of the end of the JIMs mandate. Several elected members then offered options to keep the JIM functioning. Japan circulated a draft text that would have extended the JIMs mandate for one month while requesting the UN Secretary-General, in coordination with the OPCW, to submit proposals to the Council for a new structure and methodology for the JIM. Following the Russian veto of the Japanese draft, Italy in its role as Council president circulated a draft letter to the Secretary-General requesting that the JIMs organisational and administrative arrangements be maintained until 31 December 2017, pending a final decision on the renewal of its mandate. Soon thereafter, Sweden and Uruguay circulated a draft resolution to extend the JIMs mandate for a year with the aim of reaching a compromise among the competing perspectives in the Council. Russia opposed both initiatives, which led to the demise of the JIM, but the energy and dynamism shown by these Council members in the last stretch of the negotiations on a file traditionally monopolised by permanent members was notable. Even when there is agreement on a Syria-related issue, implementation of these Council decisions is often difficult. In February, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2401, which demanded a cessation of hostilities in Syria. Sweden and Kuwait, the current co-leads on humanitarian issues, engaged in intense bilateral negotiations with Russia and were able to incorporate enough of its concerns for there to be rare Council unity on a Syria-related outcome. However, the Syrian government did not abide by the resolution, and there was no de-escalation of the violence. The humanitarian crisis in Yemen, for which the UK is the penholder, is another situation where the elected members have pushed for greater Council attention and more balanced outcomes. Coordination by some elected members on this issue emerged late last year as a result of what were perceived as unbalanced Council draft products on Yemen. This year, a group of Council membersBolivia, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland and Swedenhave coordinated regularly and taken joint positions on the humanitarian dimensions of the conflict. In particular, members of this group were united on what they regarded as a more comprehensive text during the negotiations on a presidential statement on the humanitarian situation in Yemen adopted in March this year. There are other examples of elected members with very different foreign policy priorities coming together on issues of shared interest. In May 2016, five elected members (Egypt, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and Uruguay) initiated a resolution on the protection of health care in armed conflict, an issue which is now regularly discussed in the Council. In December 2016, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela worked together for the adoption of a resolution on Israeli settlements after the original sponsor, Egypt, had withdrawn the draft under heavy political pressure. The actions of elected members in the last few years have shown that, although the P5 have the advantages of permanence as well as the power of the veto, elected members, through strategic alliances and greater cooperation as the E10, are able to influence the work of the Council. The incoming elected members are in a strong position to continue this move from the sidelines to working more closely with the P5 in core areas related to the maintenance of international peace and security. Israel/Palestine Expected Council Action In October, the Security Council will hold its quarterly open debate under the agenda item the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, which will focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov is expected to brief, most likely via video teleconference from Jerusalem. No outcome is anticipated. Key Recent Developments On 4 September, Israels High Court of Justice rejected a petition to prevent the demolition of Khan al-Amar, a Bedouin village of 180 people in the West Bank. In a tweet the following day, Mladenov noted that the UN has called on Israel to cease demolition of Palestinian property and efforts to relocate Bedouin communities in the West Bank. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) filed a claim with the ICC on 11 September calling for an investigation of Israels activities with regard to Khan al-Amar. Saeb Erekat, a senior PLO official, said that the petition focused on war crimes in Khan al-Amar, including forcible displacement, ethnic cleansing and the destruction of civilian property. Violent encounters have continued along the Gaza border fence with Israel. On 14 September, approximately 13,000 Palestinians demonstrated in multiple spots near the fence. Israeli forces said protesters threw explosives and rocks at them. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, three Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces during the protests. On 18 September, it was reported that two more Palestinians had been shot and killed by the Israeli military during protests near the Erez crossing in Gaza. Since 30 March, over 180 Palestinians have died in violent encounters with Israeli forces along the fence separating Gaza from Israel, according to OCHA and the Gaza Ministry of Health. One Israeli has also been killed in these clashes. Israel has accused Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, of directing the protests along the fence. On 16 September, an Israeli settler was stabbed and killed by a Palestinian youth near the Kfar Etzion settlement on the West Bank. The youth was shot and wounded by the victim. On 10 September, US State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert issued a press statement announcing that the US was closing the PLO office in Washington, D.C., given that the PLO had not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel and had condemned a US peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise. The press statement further noted that the decision was also consistent with Administration and Congressional concerns with Palestinian attempts to prompt an investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court. This move takes place in the midst of significant US aid cuts to services for Palestinians. On 31 August, the US announced that it would cut all funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). As its largest donor, the US had directed approximately $350 million per year to the agency. Also in late August, the US slashed approximately $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinian Authority. On 7 September, the US declared that it was redirecting $20 million allocated for hospitals in East Jerusalem to other prerogatives. Also in early September, the US Administration halted $10 million in funds expected to support Palestinian-Israeli cultural exchanges as part of the US Agency for International Developments Conflict Management and Mitigation Program. On 20 September, Mladenov briefed the Council during the monthly meeting on the Middle East (Israel/Palestine). This constituted the quarterly report on the implementation of resolution 2334, which demands an end to settlement activity and calls for the prevention of violence against civilians, including acts of terror. Mladenov said that in the preceding quarter no steps had been taken by Israel to cease settlement activity, which he described as a violation of international law and a hindrance to peace. He expressed concern about the continuing deterioration of the political, humanitarian, and security situation in Gaza. He also described the continuing violence along the fence separating Gaza and Israel. While criticising Hamas and other groups for firing rockets into Israel, he expressed concern at the continued use of live fire by Israel. Key Issues and Options The key underlying issue is what role the Council can play in mitigating the heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, reflected by the violence along the Gaza border fence, the exchange of fire between Gaza and Israel, the continued settlement activity, the planned demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, and the unhelpful rhetoric from the parties. The two failed draft resolutions on Israel/Palestine tabled on 1 Junethe vetoed Kuwaiti draft and the US draft which received only one affirmative vote (from the US itself)reflect this long-standing gridlock. Since these documents, as well as several failed press statements on this issue in recent months, were proposed by either Kuwait or the USwhich hold strongly contrasting views on Israel/Palestineone possible option is for other members to take the lead in drafting outcomes, perhaps contributing to a perception that initial versions of drafts may serve as a more balanced, objective basis for negotiation. Another key issue is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the impact it could have in exacerbating the political and security situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. Given recent US cuts in aid to a variety of institutions serving the Palestinian population, Council members could use the public briefing as an opportunity to commend those who have enhanced their support for humanitarian and development projects supporting Palestinians and to advocate for enhanced financial support for such programs. A further key issue is the importance of promoting intra-Palestinian reconciliation. In this regard, the Council could consider pursuing a presidential statement that provides political support for international efforts to foster this reconciliation. Council Dynamics There is a stark and growing contrast between the views of the US and other members on this issue. Although the US has traditionally demonstrated strong support for Israel, its policies have become increasingly partial toward the interests of the current government in Jerusalem. In this regard, the US has placed the blame for the violence along the Gaza fence in recent months entirely on Hamas, moved its embassy to Jerusalem in May, and, as noted above, has withdrawn its funding for UNRWA. In contrast, several other members have questioned whether Israel has used disproportionate force in Gaza, view Jerusalems final status as a matter to be negotiated by the parties, and emphasised that UNRWAs work is critical to efforts to maintaining stability in Gaza and elsewhere. At the 20 September briefing, several membersBolivia, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, and Swedenreiterated their desire to receive written reports in advance of the quarterly briefing on the implementation of resolution 2334. With the exception of the written report produced in Junewhich was a focus of a public briefingthese reports have only been conveyed orally. UN Documents on Israel/Palestine MIDDLE EAST Lebanon Expected Council Action In October, Council members will receive the semi-annual briefing on the latest report on the implementation of resolution 1559. Adopted in 2004, resolution 1559 called for the disarmament of all militias and the extension of government control over all Lebanese territory. This briefing, usually conducted by the Special Coordinator for Lebanon or an official from the Department of Political Affairs, has always been held in consultations. The mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expires on 31 August 2019. Key Recent Developments Five months after parliamentary elections, Lebanon has yet to form a government. In late May, Lebanese President Michel Aoun designated Saad Hariri as the prime minister in charge of forming the government. Hariris task has been complicated by a lack of agreement among the major political blocks on their share of cabinet posts in the new government. According to media reports from early September, Lebanons Speaker of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, warned that the economic situation in Lebanon is serious, while President Aoun said that such concerns are exaggerated. Aoun acknowledged that there are difficulties facing the Lebanese economy but said that the country is working to address them. Lebanon is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to make fiscal adjustments to address its public debt. Initiating any reforms in this regard would require a functioning government. In a televised address to his supporters on 20 September, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced that the group has acquired precision-guided missiles despite Israels efforts to prevent this. According to some estimates, Hezbollah currently has more than 100,000 missiles that could target Israel. Nasrallah reiterated that Hezbollah fighters would remain in Syria as long as they are needed by the Syrian government. On 30 August, the Council adopted resolution 2433, which extended UNIFILs mandate for a further year. While negotiations on the resolution were not as contentious as last year, diverging views among Council members on the missions role were evident. In the past, the US has publicly criticised UNIFIL for overlooking the alleged upsurge in Hezbollahs activity and increased flow of weapons into southern Lebanon and demanded that UNIFIL assume a more visible presence in the area. The resolution stressed the need to improve management of UNIFIL civilian resources with the goal of improving the effectiveness of the mission, and requested the Secretary-General to provide his recommendations on the issue by the end of the year. While the mandate of the mission remained unchanged, the resolution called on the government of Lebanon to develop a plan to increase its naval capabilities with the aim of reducing UNIFILs Maritime Taskforce and transitioning its responsibilities to the Lebanese Navy. Newly appointed head of UNIFIL and force commander Major General Stefano Del Col chaired his first tripartite meeting on 6 September. Del Col met with senior officials from the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Israel Defense Forces to discuss the situation along the Blue Line, the border demarcation between Israel and Lebanon. He commended both parties for their efforts to ease tensions and preserve stability. On 21 September, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon completed closing arguments in the case involving four individuals charged with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, which resulted in the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005. The accused remain at large, and the trial in The Hague is being held in absentia. Saad Hariri was present on the first day of the closing arguments and later told the media that he is confident that those who killed his father would be held to account. Key Issues and Options There are several interrelated issues for the Council, notably the weaponry that Hezbollah and other non-state actors possess and the flow of arms through Syria to Hezbollah, which directly hinder the ability of the Lebanese government to exercise full authority over its territory. The ongoing crisis in Syria, with Hezbollahs involvement on the side of the Syrian government, has contributed to this flow of arms. These circumstances pose a threat to Lebanons sovereignty and stability and contravene its obligations under resolutions 1559 and 1701, the latter of which called for a cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. The situation also generates concerns about tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border, with the continuing threat of a resumption of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. On the political front, the Council will continue to follow closely the developments related to the formation of the new government in Lebanon. Council members are aware that a protracted period of political instability in Lebanon could have implications for the security situation in the country and the wider region. Lebanons burden in hosting close to one million refugees from Syria is also of deep concern, and in that regard, the Council could request a briefing by UNHCR on how member states can enhance services to refugees. Council Dynamics The Council continues to demonstrate unity in its support of Lebanons sovereignty, territorial integrity and security and its efforts to insulate itself from the damaging effect of the Syrian conflict. The Council has also recognised the decisive role of the LAF in responding to security challenges. The members are divided, however, in their view of the security dynamics in the region and the role of the mission. This was particularly evident during the mandate renewal negotiations both last year and this year. The US has continued to emphasise the threat posed by Iran, Hezbollah, and the proliferation of weapons in southern Lebanon, and has promoted a more active role for UNIFIL in confronting these threats. On the missions configuration, the US has strongly advocated for the reduction of UNIFILs Maritime Task force, leading towards eventual termination. Most other members, however, share the view that the missions mandate and tasks should remain unchanged. These members are cautious of drastic changes in the missions mandate and their impact on the fragile calm that has been maintained in southern Lebanon for the past ten years. UN Documents on Lebanon AFRICA Libya Expected Council Action In October, the Council is expected to renew the authorisation for member states to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya that they have reasonable grounds to suspect are being used for migrant smuggling or human trafficking. The mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) expires on 15 September 2019, and the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee expires on 15 November. Key Recent Developments On 13 September, the Council adopted resolution 2434, renewing the mandate of UNSMIL until 15 September 2019 without altering the core of its mandate. According to UNHCR, the number of arrivals by sea to Italy via the Central Mediterranean route between January and July 2018 was 18,500, representing a sharp decline in comparison to 95,200 in the same timeframe in 2017. The proportion of deaths increased, however: 1,095 persons died on this journey between January and July, representing approximately one in 18 people trying to reach Italy, in contrast to 2,276 between January and July in 2017, representing roughly one in 42 people. The latest report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of resolution 2380 on the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons via the Mediterranean Sea notes that the humanitarian and human rights situation of refugees and migrants remains dire, with the prospect of worsening. The number of people held in detention is increasing due to a higher number of interceptions at sea and the growing closure of the Mediterranean Sea. At a 5 September briefing on the latest developments in Libya, Special Representative and head of UNSMIL Ghassan Salame said that abuse and exploitation abound within prisons and detention centres, adding that UNSMIL continues to have great difficulty accessing those locations. Human rights abuses in Libya, countries of destination, and at sea include trafficking, arbitrary detention, torture, forced labour and sexual abuse. In the report, the Secretary-General welcomes support to Libya to combat the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons but stresses that such support and all actors involved, including the Libyan coast guard and navy, need to comply with human rights obligations. The report also calls upon states to refrain from handing over individuals to state or non-state actors if there is a known risk that they will face human rights violations by those actors. Furthermore, it also calls upon states not to return to Libya third-country nationals intercepted at sea. According to estimates by the EU military operation in the Southern Central Mediterranean (EUNAVFOR MED operation SOPHIA) about 29,785 persons were rescued by various vessels in the central Mediterranean Sea between October 2017 and 31 July 2018, which constitutes a substantial reduction from the corresponding previous reporting period from 2016 to 2017. The security situation in Libya remains highly volatile, aggravating the precarious situation of migrants and refugees. During recent heavy clashes between armed groups in Tripoli, UNHCR had to relocate people from detention centres that came under fire. With the support of UNSMIL, a ceasefire agreement was reached on 4 September. A Ceasefire Consolidation Agreement was signed on 9 September. On 10 September, the headquarters of the National Oil Cooperation was attacked, and on 11 September, Matiga airport in Tripoli was attacked. At press time, the ceasefire agreement continued to be violated. At press time, the UNs 2018 humanitarian response plan for Libya of $312.7 million was funded at 23.5 percent, with $239.2 million outstanding. Sanctions-Related Developments On 11 September, the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee designated Ibrahim Jadhran, who led attacks in the oil crescent in June, for sanctions in the form of a travel ban and asset freeze. Human Rights-Related Developments In a statement on 4 September, a spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over the outbreak of violence in Tripoli that began on 26 August, in which at least 21 civilians were killed, including two women and two children, with a further 16 injured. According to the statement, the parties to the conflict have been firing indiscriminately and using weapons with wide-area effectsincluding rockets, tank shells and artilleryin densely populated residential areas. The spokesperson called on all parties to put an end to indiscriminate attacks and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects. During its 39th session, the Human Rights Council received an oral update from the High Commissioner for Human Rights on 26 September and held an interactive dialogue on Libya. Key Issues and Options The key issue for the Council in October is to adopt a resolution renewing the authorisation for member states to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya when there are reasonable grounds to suspect that these are being used for migrant smuggling or human trafficking. Regarding the violence in Tripoli, the Council could issue a press statement urging the parties to adhere to the ceasefire agreements. Key actors involved in the fighting could be considered for designation by the sanctions committee for targeted sanctions. Council Dynamics Members are aware that international cooperation to combat the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons needs to be strengthened. The last two years have seen few changes to the authorisation, which made the negotiations less contentious. In case the penholder will opt for that approach again, this may also be the case this year. The UK is the penholder on Libya, and Sweden chairs the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee. UN Documents on Libya AFRICA Mali Expected Council Action In October, the Council expects to receive a briefing from the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, on the situation in Mali, followed by consultations. The mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) ends on 30 June 2019. The sanctions regime ends on 31 August 2019, and the mandate of the Panel of Experts expires on 30 September 2019. Key Recent Developments Mali held a presidential election on 29 July, with a runoff on 12 August between the incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and opposition leader Soumaila Cisse. Keita was re-elected with 67 percent of the vote. The elections took place amidst considerable security challenges and with Cisse asserting that they were tainted by fraud. However, the EU and AU observation missions accepted the results, which were upheld by the Constitutional Court on 20 August. On 24 August, Council members issued a press statement welcoming the publication of the final results of the presidential elections and calling upon all Malians to unite and work together to promote sustainable peace and to tackle the security and development challenges facing the country. Keita was sworn in on 22 September. Council members are growing increasingly frustrated with the limited implementation of the 2015 Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali. More than three years since its signing, important provisions related to institutional measures, security arrangements and development for the northern regions remain unaddressed. Although the parties have reiterated their commitment to its implementation by agreeing to a timetable in January and a more detailed roadmap in March, some members have questioned whether there is sufficient political will to advance this process. The Council renewed MINUSMAs mandate for one year on 28 June. Resolution 2423, which was adopted unanimously, did not significantly modify the missions mandate, but it did exert pressure on the parties to implement the 2015 agreement. The resolution requested the Secretary-General to take appropriate steps to swiftly conclude a Pact for Peace between the government of Mali and the UN. This pact is to be based on agreed benchmarks related to governance, the rule of law, and implementation of the key provisions of the agreement. Participants at a high-level meeting on the margins of the general debate of the General Assembly invited the government of Mali and the UN to finalise the pact for peace at the next session of the Comite de Suivi de lAccord, the main follow-up mechanism to the agreement, in October. As a way of continuing to put pressure on the parties to deliver on their commitments on the agreement, the Council renewed the sanctions regime on Mali and the mandate of the Panel of Experts through the unanimous adoption of resolution 2432 on 30 August. The final report of the panel included a confidential annex proposing the designation of three individuals belonging to non-state armed groups, but no action has been taken on this recommendation. The security situation in the north and centre of Mali continues to be critical. On 9 August, the 1267/1989/2253 Al-Qaida/Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) Sanctions Committee added to its list Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahraoui, leader of Al-Mourabitoun, a Council-designated group active in Mali that pledged allegiance to ISIL. At press time, at least 104 peacekeepers have been killed as a result of malicious acts since the establishment of MINUSMA five years ago. Inter-communal violence among ethnic groups persists, and terrorist groups often take advantage of these tensions to increase recruitment and legitimacy in their communities. The G5 Sahel Joint Force has had limited impact so far in addressing instability in Mali and its border areas. On 29 June, its headquarters in Sevare suffered a complex terrorist attack in which at least six people died. In early July, the military leadership of the mission was replaced as a result of the attack. Human Rights-Related Developments The independent expert on human rights in Mali, Alioune Tine, undertook his first mission to the country from 24 to 29 June. In a 4 July statement, Tine expressed alarm over the continuing deterioration of the security, human rights and humanitarian situation in the centre of the country, as well as in the region of Menaka. He called on authorities in Mali to carry out prompt, detailed and independent investigations into an alarming increase in human rights violations following accounts of several attacks by community militias, often with the participation of armed groups, resulting in deaths, injuries, the destruction or burning of property, and people being forced to leave their homes. Tine will submit a report to the Human Rights Council at its 40th session in March 2019. In a 17 July statement, a spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about a surge in intercommunal violence in the Mopti region of central Mali, leading to widespread displacement of the civilian population that is already vulnerable because of a lack of protection and basic social services. Key Issues and Options Council members have raised the tone of their frustration with the lack of implementation of the agreement, calling on the parties to take unprecedented steps. Resolution 2423 expressed the Councils intention, in the absence of significant progress in implementing the agreement, to request the Secretary-General to provide options for significant changes to MINUSMA after June 2019. Council members, who have not held consultations on Mali since April, could discuss how they can support the political process bilaterally and multilaterally. They could hold a frank and unscripted discussion to garner support around a common political strategy and reach out to the parties to encourage progress. To do so, the Secretariat, the mission leadership and Algeria, which chairs the Comite de Suivi de lAccord, could be invited to participate in an informal interactive dialogue. Despite the widespread concerns about the slow pace of implementing the peace agreement, no individuals or entities have been sanctioned under the 2374 Mali sanctions regime. Council members could consider a set of listings that target, in a balanced way, all the parties to the agreement that are hindering its implementation, while preserving the parties engagement in the process. Council and Wider Dynamics Regarding sanctions, France, the Netherlands, the UK and the US have expressed support for identifying those obstructing, delaying or threatening the implementation of the peace agreement, with a view to imposing targeted sanctions. Russia stated in April that the direct use of sanctions should be a measure of last resort and that rushing to impose restrictions will hinder the entire settlement process. It is unclear whether there would be consensus to sanction any individual or entity. As part of the Secretariats initiative to review systematically long-standing missions, a strategic review of MINUSMA was concluded in April. The reviewled by Ellen Margrethe Lj, a former Special Representative in Liberia and South Sudanwas not shared directly with the Council, although some of its recommendations were conveyed in a Secretary-Generals report. In the review process, it became apparent that the Secretariat continues to experience pressure from member states regarding the outcome of these reviews. On 21 September, the Council adopted resolution 2436, requesting the Secretary-General to ensure that pertinent findings of future reviews be shared with the Council and with relevant member states, as appropriate, alongside the Secretary-Generals integrated analysis, strategic assessment and frank advice. France is the penholder on Mali. The chair of the 2374 Mali Sanctions Committee is Sweden. UN DOCUMENTS ON MALI Status Update since our September Forecast Programme of Work On 4 September, the Council discussed the unofficial calendar of events for September in the open chamber after members were unable to reach agreement on the provisional programme of work for the month, given disagreement over whether to include Nicaragua on the programme (S/PV.8339). Following the meeting on Nicaragua on 5 September, the Council adopted the provisional programme of work. Nicaragua On 5 September, the Council held a briefing on the situation in Nicaragua (S/PV.8340). Gonzalo Koncke, the Chief of Staff of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, and Felix Maradiaga, a civil society representative, briefed the Council. Haiti On 6 September, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bintou Keita briefed the Council (S/PV.8342) on the most recent Secretary-Generals report on MINUJUSTH (S/2018/795). Keita described the progress towards 11 benchmarks for the transition to a non-peacekeeping UN presence in the country. Council members also noted that the violent July protests in Haiti demonstrated the volatility of the socio-economic situation. Nerve Gas Attack On 6 September, the Council held an emergency session on the investigation of the Salisbury nerve agent attack (S/PV.8343). UK Ambassador Karen Pierce presented the latest information on the investigation. She also said that the UK had brought charges against two Russian nationals for the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter and for the possession of the nerve agent Novichok. Russia denied the allegations that it was involved in the incident in Salisbury and blamed the UK for refusing any cooperation with Russia in the investigation. Corruption and Conflict On 10 September, the Council held a briefing on corruption and conflict under the agenda item Maintenance of International Peace and Security (S/PV.8346). UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and John Prendergast, Founding Director of the Enough Project and Co-Founder of The Sentry, briefed. Venezuela On 10 September, Council members held an open Arria-formula meeting proposed by the US and entitled Venezuela as a Case Study of Corruption, Peace, and Security. Mercedes de Freitas, the Executive Director of the Venezuela chapter of Transparency International, and Marshall Billingslea, the Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing in the US Department of the Treasury, briefed Council members. Afghanistan On 11 September, Council members issued a press statement condemning the 5 September terrorist attack in Kabul claimed by ISIL and the 11 September attack in Nangarhar (SC/13498). On 17 September, the Council held the quarterly debate on UNAMA (S/PV.8354). Briefings were provided by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNAMA, Tadamichi Yamamoto, and Ramiz Bakhtiar, the newly-elected Youth Representative of Afghanistan to the UN for 2018. Somalia On 11 September, the Somali national security advisor briefed the 751/1907 Somalia and Eritrea Sanctions Committee on weapons management in Somalia. On 13 September, Special Representative and head of UNSOM Michael Keating briefed (S/PV.8352) the Council on the latest UNSOM report (S/2018/800). Head of AMISOM Francisco Madeira and Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka also briefed. On 20 September, Council members issued a press statement welcoming the Agreement on Peace, Friendship and Comprehensive Cooperation signed by Eritrea and Ethiopia on 16 September (SC/13516). They also welcomed the meeting between the presidents of Djibouti and Eritrea on 17 September in Jeddah. Peacekeeping On 12 September, the Council held a debate on peacekeeping reform (S/PV.8349). The Council was briefed by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and Sarah Blakemore, Chief Executive of the NGO Keeping Children Safe. On 21 September, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2436 on peacekeeping performance (S/PV.8360). DPRK (North Korea) On 17 September, the Council held an open briefing on the implementation of sanctions on the DPRK (S/PV.8353). The US requested the meeting to address issues related to the midterm report of the Panel of Experts. UnderSecretaryGeneral for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo briefed on recent efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. During the meeting, the US accused Russia of pressuring the panel to modify its report, which described sanctions violations by some Russian actors, and called on the panel to publish its original report. Russia dismissed the allegations and said that the US interfered in the panels work by preventing the circulation of the latest version of the report to the wider UN membership. On 27 September, the Council held a ministerial-level meeting on efforts to denuclearise the DPRK. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefed on the ongoing diplomatic engagement and stressed the importance of maintaining pressure on the DPRK until it takes concrete steps towards denuclearisation. South Sudan On 18 September, the Council was briefed (S/PV.8356) by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix on the Secretary-Generals 90-day report (S/2018/831). Lacroix reported that the international community must send a strong message to the parties in conflict that with the new peace agreement signed, there is no longer any justification for continued clashes. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Nicholas Haysom and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Special Envoy for South Sudan Ismail Wais also briefed. A civil society representative based in South Sudan briefed via video teleconference. Protection of Civilians On 21 September, the Council adopted a presidential statement on the protection of civilians (S/PRST/2018/18) in which it recognises the contribution of the updated Aide Memoire, which is attached as an annex to the statement (S/PV.8339). The presidential statement further requests that the next report of the Secretary-General on the protection of civilians be submitted by 15 May 2019, and that this report summarise achievements and challenges to the UNs protection of civilians work during the past 20 years, as 2019 will mark the 20th anniversary of protection of civilians becoming a Council agenda item. Iran On 24 September, Council members issued a press statement condemning the terrorist attack that took place in southwest Iran on 22 September during a military parade, which resulted in the death of 24 people, including children, and the injury of 60 others (SC/13523). Non-Proliferation On 26 September, the Council held a summit-level meeting on countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, chaired by US President Donald Trump (S/PV.8362). Council members discussed a wide range of non-proliferation issues during the meeting. The Iran nuclear agreement and efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula dominated the discussions. AFRICA Sudan (Darfur) Expected Council Action In October, the Security Council will be briefed on the Secretary-Generals 90-day report on the AU/UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), as requested in resolution 2429. Also in October, Ambassador Joanna Wronecka (Poland), chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, is expected to provide the quarterly briefing to Council members on the committees work. The mandate of UNAMID expires on 30 June 2019. Key Recent Developments On 13 July, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2429, extending UNAMIDs mandate until 30 June 2019. The resolution welcomed the improved security conditions in Darfur but expressed concern over ongoing clashes and restricted humanitarian access in the Jebel Marra area, noting that inter-communal conflicts remain one of the main sources of violence in Darfur. It also welcomed significant reductions in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) but noted that approximately two million people remain displaced in Darfur, with the majority in need of humanitarian assistance. Given the improved security situation in Darfur overall, resolution 2429 decided to reduce the troop ceiling from 8,735 to 4,050 military personnel over the course of the mandate renewal period. The authorised police personnel ceiling was maintained at 2,500. The resolution incorporated several aspects of the 1 June joint special report of the UN Secretary-General and the AU Commission Chairperson on the strategic review of UNAMID. It requested UNAMID to focus on both peacekeeping and long-term solutions to conflict drivers in Darfur with a view towards the exit of the mission on 30 June 2020, provided there is no significant change in the security situation in Darfur and that key indicators are fulfilled. (These indicators pertain to security sector reform, the rule of law, durable solutions for displaced host communities, human rights and the immediate delivery of services for IDPs.) In the context of the missions drawdown, the resolution underscored the need to keep the situation in all areas of Darfur under review and to maintain the flexibility within UNAMID to respond to developments throughout Darfur as the situation requires. It supported the joint special reports call for consolidation of a whole-of-system approach in Darfur, and the establishment of joint UNAMID-UN Country Team offices in the capitals of the states of Darfur except for where Mission sites would remain. It also requests strengthened integration among UNAMID, the UN Country Team, and other UN entities operating in Darfur. Resolution 2429 requested the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the African Commission to conduct a strategic review of UNAMID by 1 May 2019. It extended the Secretary-Generals regular cycle of reporting to the Council from 60 to 90 days and requested that the Secretary Generals initial 90-day report include a detailed, clearly benchmarked exit strategy for UNAMID as well as how progress on these benchmarks should be monitored. Council members expect to receive this report in October ahead of the briefing. As in previous years, UNAMIDs mandate continues to prioritise the protection of civilians, the facilitation of humanitarian access, mediation between the government and armed groups, and intercommunal mediation. Nevertheless, resolution 2429 slightly revised the priorities. With regard to the protection of civilians, for example, new language has been added calling for monitoring and reporting on human rights, sexual and gender-based violence and grave violations against children. The priority related to intercommunal mediation has been expanded to include a focus on mediation with regard to other local conflict that could undermine the security situation. The last Council briefing on the issue was by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix on 11 June. On 20 June, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda provided the semi-annual briefing on the ICCs work with regard to Darfura situation the Council referred to the ICC more than 13 years agoagain urging the Council to play a more active role in supporting the arrest and transfer of those suspected of multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. Sanctions-Related Developments On 13 June, Ambassador Wronecka briefed the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, in her capacity as chair, on her April visit to Sudan. The following day she provided the chairs quarterly briefing to the Council. On 17 August, the committee was briefed on the interim report of the Panel of Experts (the interim report, unlike the final report, is not made public). Human Rights-Related Developments During its 39th session, the Human Rights Council (HRC) held an interactive dialogue on 26 September with the independent expert on human rights in Sudan, Aristide Nononsi, and considered his report covering September 2017 to June (A/HRC/39/71). The report expressed concern that the Sudanese government had still not implemented a significant number of recommendations contained in previous reports of the independent expert. Those displaced within Darfur face many challenges in IDP camps, including lack of adequate food, safe drinking water and adequate health care, causing them to remain heavily dependent on the services and support of UNAMID and humanitarian agencies, the report said. In Darfur particularly, land occupation and violence targeting IDPs, including sexual violence against displaced girls and women, continue to hinder their return to their areas of origin. At press time, the HRC was expected to adopt a resolution on 28 September on technical assistance and capacity-building to improve human rights in Sudan, renewing the mandate of the independent expert for another year. Key Issues and Options A key issue that Council members will want to follow closely is the effect of further troop reductions on the security situation as well as the effect of the missions revised priorities, including on human rights reporting and intercommunal mediation efforts. An option would be to rely on the benchmarks set out in the Secretary-Generals upcoming report, which is also expected to include how progress on these benchmarks should be monitored. A longstanding issue is how the Council can seek to address the root causes of the conflict and to promote intercommunal reconciliation. An option would be to request Jeremiah Mamabolo, the Joint Special Representative and head of UNAMID, to present the Council with options in this regard. Another longstanding issue is how to support efforts to break the ongoing impasse in the negotiations between the government and Darfuri rebel movements over implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, adopted in 2011. One option is to invite Thabo Mbeki, chair of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel, to address the Council on his efforts. Mbeki last briefed the Council in an informal interactive dialogue on 12 January 2017. Another option is for the Council to consider imposing, or threatening to impose, additional targeted sanctions on those parties who continue to refuse to participate in the negotiations. Council Dynamics Council members continue to differ in their assessment of the situation in Darfur. Some members seem to view more guarded recognition of progress as appropriate while others are generally more positive in their assessment, as reflected during the July negotiations on resolution 2429 renewing UNAMIDs mandate. China, Ethiopia, Russia and others were comfortable with the pace and scope of the reduction recommended in the joint special report, but some members maintained that it was too severe. As a compromise, the recommended troop reduction was accepted, but the police ceiling was maintained at 2,500 instead of being reduced to 1,870 personnel. A related source of disagreement was how to characterise the timeframe for the missions withdrawal. While some members emphasised that the mission should withdraw by June 2020, as recommended in the joint special report, France, the US, the UK and others indicated that such a timeline should not be absolute but should be conditioned on success in addressing the drivers of conflict in Darfur. As a result, language was added on the fulfilment of certain indicators and that the Secretary-Generals upcoming report should include related benchmarks. Another issue of some controversy was that earlier drafts of the resolution welcomed the joint special reports recommendation that OHCHR open an office in Sudan. Following opposition from some members, the resolution instead took note of this recommendation, rather than welcoming it. It did, however, request the Sudanese government to engage in discussions with the OHCHR as regards the establishment and activities of such an office. The UK is the penholder on Darfur; Poland chairs the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee. UN Documents on Darfur AFRICA Sudan/South Sudan Expected Council Action In October, the Council expects to receive a briefing in consultations on the Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of the mandate of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA). Resolution 2416 requested that this report be submitted by 15 October. The Council is also expected to decide by 15 October whether to adopt a resolution extending the missions support for the Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JBVMM), established in 2011 to conduct monitoring and verification activities along the Sudan-South Sudan border. The mandate of UNISFA expires on 15 November. The missions support for the JBVMM expires on 15 October. Key Recent Developments The security situation in Abyei, the disputed territory along the Sudan/South Sudan border, remains relatively stable but unpredictable, in the absence of significant progress on establishing temporary arrangements for its administration and security, pending resolution of its final status. Humanitarian needs remain substantial and are exacerbated by intercommunal tensions and a lack of basic public services. In this context, UNISFA continues to carry out its mandate, including ongoing facilitation of peaceful migration throughout Abyei, conflict prevention and deterrence, and mediation. On 23 April, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2412, extending UNISFAs support for the JBVMM until 15 October. The resolution stated that this would be the final such extension, unless the Council decided to continue the missions support for the JBVMM based on the parties demonstrating measurable progress on border demarcation in line with six specific measures set out in the resolution. Among other things, these measures included: maintaining clearance for all UNISFA air and ground patrols; finalising agreement on four JBVMM team sites; convening at least two meetings of the Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM); withdrawing from the Safe Demilitarized Border Zone (SDBZ); making progress in establishing specific border crossing corridors (and opening two new ones) between Sudan and South Sudan; and resuming border demarcation discussions. On 15 May, the Council adopted resolution 2416, which renewed the mandate of UNISFA until 15 November and requested the Secretary-General to provide detailed recommendations for the reconfiguration of UNISFA. The Secretary-Generals recommendations were submitted to the Council in a 20 August letter. The letter recommended changes to the missions military component, including transferring troops to the JBVMM to make it fully operational based on the reduced need for a large UNISFA military presence within the Abyei Area and the assessment that the JBVMM remains vital in contributing to preventing conflict between the two countries. The full deployment of the JBVMM is of paramount importance, according to the Secretary-Generals letter. On 14 September, Council members received a confidential note from the Secretary-General, requested in resolution 2412, on progress by the parties on the six specific measures set out in that resolution. The note reportedly said that standing clearance for UNISFA air and ground patrols in the Safe Demilitarized Border Zone, one of the six specified measures, has been continued by Sudan and South Sudan, but that little progress has made with regard to other measures, and that the parties had postponed JPSM meetings in recent months. The Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of UNISFAs mandate, which the Council requested be submitted by 15 October in resolution 2416, is expected to include reporting on: the movement of weapons into Abyei and the presence, destruction and confiscation of weapons within Abyei; steps that have been taken by the Secretary-General to develop an integrated performance-policy framework and to apply it to UNISFA; results of human rights monitoring as requested, including information, analysis, and data on violations and abuses of human rights; and steps the parties have taken towards implementing the June 2011 Agreement on Temporary Arrangements for the Administration and Security of Abyei Area (e.g., the establishment of the Abyei Area Administration and an Abyei police service) and towards achieving a political resolution to the status of Abyei. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Nicholas Haysom briefed the Council on UNISFA on 20 September. The briefing was held in the open chamber, departing from the usual practice of receiving these briefings in consultations. In keeping with the Secretary-Generals 20 August letter, Lacroix called for changes to UNISFAs mission concept within the current ceiling of uniformed personnel. He maintained that the JBVMM remains a vital part of the framework that regulates the relationship between the two countries. Lacroix also reiterated the Secretary-Generals recommendation to establish two further sector headquarters and team sites within the Safe Demilitarised Border Zone, with troops to be transferred from Abyei, in order to provide more substantive attention to the border region as a part of the JBVMM. He further noted the recommendation of the Secretary-General that UNISFA concentrate those military personnel remaining within the Abyei Area along the areas borders to help prevent incursions by armed groups (namely, rebel groups from Sudan and South Sudan). Haysom said that the resolution of the final status of Abyei above all elsewould allow for the timely exit by UNISFA from Abyei. He noted that internal problems in both Sudan and South Sudan had hindered negotiations on this issue in recent years. However, Haysom said that there is hope that both countries will now engage substantively in talks on the status of Abyei, noting that the reduced tensions between Sudan and South Sudan as a result of Khartoums mediation efforts in the South Sudan conflict had created a more conducive environment for negotiations. Key Issues and Options A key issue for the Council is whether to maintain UNISFAs support for the JBVMM through its monitoring and verification tasks along the border. An option is to continue the missions support in recognition of recent efforts made by the parties towards making it fully operational, namely the standing clearance for UNISFA ground and air patrols. Continued support could also include some or all of the 20 August recommendations of the Secretary-General related to the JBVMM; for example, this would entail an expansion of the missions current activities with regard to the JBVMM to include protection for AU Border Programme staff engaged in demarcating the border. Another option is to retain the missions support for a shorter period as a means of putting pressure on the parties to intensify efforts to fully implement the JBVMM and also to reach a political solution. A further option is for the Council to take no action to extend the missions support for the JBVMM, which would result in a decrease in UNISFAs troop levels on 15 October from 4,500 to 3,959 as set out in resolution 2416. An additional key issue for the Council to consider is the appropriateness of UNISFAs current mandate in relation to its strategic priorities and the situation on the ground ahead of the mandate renewal in November. This assessment could be informed by the 20 August recommendations of the Secretary-General and the Secretary-Generals October report. Council Dynamics Over the past several years, the US has repeatedly expressed its concern that UNISFA was persisting longer than had been intended for an interim force, and that Sudan and South Sudan were taking advantage of the relative stability that UNISFA provides to delay attempts to resolve the status of Abyei and related border-security issues. At the 20 September Council meeting, US Deputy Permanent Representative Jonathan Cohen questioned whether all of UNISFAs tasks remain appropriate and necessary. Regarding the JBVMM, he said that the US would not support indefinitely a mechanism that remains underutilized and is not making progress in resolving the political issues that are at the root of UNISFAs JBVMM support mandate. In contrast, Ethiopia and several other Council members are of the view that suspending support for the JBVMM would undermine its effectiveness, and that the parties have taken sufficient steps towards establishing the JBVMM to merit retaining support. This difference in perspective is likely to feature in discussions ahead of deciding whether to extend support for the JBVMM in October. The US is the penholder on Abyei. UN Documents on Sudan/South Sudan MIDDLE EAST Syria Expected Council Action In October, the Council expects to receive the monthly Syria briefings on the humanitarian situation, political developments, and the use of chemical weapons. Key Recent Developments September was marked by the looming offensive in the governorate of Idlib by Syria and its allies and its potentially disastrous humanitarian consequences. The UN has repeatedly warned of the possibility of a humanitarian emergency on a scale not yet seen in the Syrian conflict in case of an escalation of military activity in and around Idlib. The area hosts 1.4 million civilians displaced by the conflict and a total of 2.9 million people, including one million children. Despite constituting a de-escalation zone agreed to in 2017, Idlib has been targeted by Russian and Syrian airstrikes. The presence in Idlib of around 10,000 fighters of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (a Council-designated terrorist group) continues to be used to justify military operations, as has been the case in other parts of Syria. On 7 September, OCHAs Director of Operations and Advocacy John Ging and Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura briefed the Council on the situation in Idlib. That afternoon, the five EU members of the Council (France, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the UK) co-hosted an Arria-formula meeting on Syrian Voices on Preventing a Deathtrap in Idlib. At the meeting, which was webcast, several participants emphasised the role that civil society can play in fighting terrorism and promoting the separation of forces in Idlib. Ahead of the meeting, several configurations of Council members issued joint statements in an attempt to avert the negative humanitarian impact of a major military operation in Idlib. The E10 (the ten elected members of the Council) met on 4 September to discuss developments in Idlib. Poland, in its capacity as the monthly coordinator of the E10, read a statement at the Security Council media stakeout expressing their deep concern about a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a full-scale military operation in Idlib province. The statement reiterated the urgent appeal of the Secretary-General to the government of Syria and all parties to exercise restraint and to prioritise the protection of civilians. On 6 September, eight current, past and future Council members that belong to the EU expressed support for the urgent diplomatic efforts undertaken by Turkey and the UN and called on the Astana guarantorsin particular Russia and Iranto uphold the ceasefire and de-escalation arrangements they had previously agreed, including protecting civilians as a matter of priority. On 10 September, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock told reporters that there need to be ways of dealing with this problem that dont turn the next few months in Idlib into the worst humanitarian catastrophe with the biggest loss of life in the 21st century. According to OCHA, between 1 and 12 September, a sharp increase in hostilities and fears of further escalation led to the displacement of over 38,300 people in northwest Syria. Russia requested a Council meeting on 12 September to brief on a 7 September high-level meeting convened by the guarantors of the Astana processwhich include Turkey as well as Iran and Russiain Tehran. Speakers highlighted efforts to cooperate and find a solution for Idlib. During the meeting, in which Iran and Turkey also briefed the Council for the first time on this issue under rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure, differences among the Astana guarantors regarding how to deal with Idlib became apparent. On 17 September, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the establishment of a demilitarised zone 15 to 20 kilometres wide in Idlib along the contact line between the armed opposition and government troops. Council-designated terrorist groups are to be withdrawn from the area and by 10 October, heavy military equipment is to be removed from the area. Turkish mobile patrol groups and Russian military police units are expected to monitor the zone. The agreement also provides for the restoration of transit along the Aleppo-Latakia and Aleppo-Hama routes before the end of 2018. On 18 September, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the agreement and called on all parties in Syria to cooperate in its implementation and ensure safe and unimpeded humanitarian access in all areas through the most direct routes. At a Council meeting that same day, Lowcock, who also welcomed the agreement, wondered: Is this merely a stay of execution? Or is it the beginning of a reprieve, the first tiny glint of light at the end of the very darkest tunnel? Reacting to the agreement, most Council members considered it a positive step, but many had questions regarding the conditions for the separation of forces, the mechanisms to enforce the agreement, and the situation of civilians beyond the zone and in the near future. The Special Envoys efforts to facilitate the establishment of the constitutional committee continue to face challenges. The committee is expected to be formed by 150 people (one-third each from the government, the opposition, and civil society). At the 18 September briefing, de Mistura told the Council that the names of 50 civil society members that he had proposed have been significantly challenged by Astana guarantors. Furthermore, and while issues such as chairing and voting have been canvassed with the Astana guarantors, much remains unresolved regarding rules of procedure for the committee. At the meeting, several Council members encouraged de Mistura to proceed to convene a first session of the committee as soon as possible and report back to the Council by 31 October. When discussing Idlib, Lowcock has repeatedly emphasised the vital role that Council-authorised cross-border deliveries of humanitarian aid continue to play in alleviating the suffering of civilians. Humanitarian access continues to be restricted for the UN and its partners despite the fact that swaths of territory are increasingly under the control of the government and that it should be possible to deliver aid through regular Damascus-based humanitarian programmes. The High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, briefed the Council on 6 September. Although the two remaining chemical weapons production facilities have been destroyed, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) continues to regard the initial declaration submitted by the Syrian government to the OPCW in 2013 as incomplete. In October, the OPCW Director-General is expected to submit a progress report to the organisations Executive Council on arrangements to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in Syria in line with the decision taken on 27 June by the Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Regional tensions between Israel and Syria continue. On 17 September Syrias air defences downed a Russian surveillance plane killing 15 people on board. According to Syrias state-owned media, air defences were activated in response to Israeli airstrikes in the Syrian province of Latakia. Human Rights-Related Developments During its 39th session, the Human Rights Council (HRC) held an interactive dialogue on 17 September with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria and considered the commissions report, which was based on investigations conducted from 16 January to 10 July (A/HRC/39/65). The reporting period was marked by continued proliferation of warring parties, increased militarization and unprecedented levels of internal displacement of more than one million civilians. The report deals with the battles that led to mass displacement and their impact on civilians, and sets out applicable internationally accepted principles that have not been observed in relation to forced displacement and internally displaced persons. The HRC also considered the report of the special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Idriss Jazairy, on his mission to Syria in May (A/HRC/39/54/Add.2). The report concludes that the application of accumulating unilateral coercive measures is making it unnecessarily difficult for Syrians to enjoy basic human rights and to receive humanitarian aid. At press time, the HRC was expected to vote on 28 September on a resolution on the human rights situation in Syria. Key Issues and Options Given the crucial role of actors such as Russia, Turkey and Iran on both the political and humanitarian fronts, Council members could seek an informal interactive dialogue with them in order to have a more action-oriented discussion and to ascertain whether the Council can support the establishment of the demilitarised zone in Idlib. Some Council members question whether any efforts on the political process are likely to yield results, given the Syrian governments emphasis on regaining and consolidating control of territory. However, within the window of opportunity created by the temporary reprieve in Idlib, Council members could hold informal, unscripted and forward-looking discussions at the ambassadorial level to seek ways to increase pressure on the parties to the conflict and strive for a political settlement that is both realistic and acceptable to all. Since it was established in August 2011, the Human Rights Councils Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria has briefed Council members in an Arria-formula meeting seven times, most recently on 21 April 2017. Council members could hold a meeting to be briefed by the commission. Council and Wider Dynamics In September alone, the Council held five meetings on Syria, the most since April and mainly focusing on the situation in Idlib. Over the last six months as the government has consolidated the territory under its control (taking over Daraa and Quneitra in the southwest and lifting the sieges of Foah and Kafraya), the Council has mostly discussed Syria through its scheduled monthly briefings. The increased attention in September might not have generated concrete Council outcomes, but it has contributed to raising the visibility of the stakes in Idlib. Although consultations could have provided for more action-oriented discussions on sensitive matters, no Council member formally requested consultations on Syria in September. A new element has been the participation in Council meetings of Iran and Turkey, Astana guarantors that do not have a seat on the Council. In early 2017, several Council members tried to organise an informal interactive dialogue with the Astana guarantors, but this was resisted given the strong divisions among the guarantors. Previous efforts by Council members to receive their briefings, whether formally or informally, had not been successful since the Astana process started gaining traction. Kuwait and Sweden are the penholders on humanitarian issues in Syria. UN DOCUMENTS ON SYRIA MIDDLE EAST UNDOF (Golan Heights) Expected Council Action In October, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) will brief Council members in consultations on the most recent report of the Secretary-General on the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). No formal outcome is expected. The mandate of UNDOF expires on 31 December. Key Recent Developments On 29 June, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2426, renewing UNDOFs mandate without changes for another six months, in line with usual practice. Language was added in the preambular section, recalling a request to the Secretary-General to ensure that data related to the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations, including peacekeeping performance data, is used to improve analytics and the evaluation of mission operations, based on clear and well-identified benchmarks. Language related to the Women, Peace and Security agenda was also included, recalling resolution 2242 and its aspiration to increase the number of women in military and police contingents of UN peacekeeping operations. Lieutenant General Paolo Serra is leading a team conducting an independent review of UNDOF. The results of the review are expected later this year. On 24 July, UNDOF received information from the Syrian authorities that Israel had shot down a Syrian aircraft flying in Syrian airspace. At the same time, UNDOF received a report from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that they had intercepted a Syrian fighter jet with a missile, stating that the jet had entered two kilometres into Israeli airspace. Following an offensive in mid-July by the Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAAF) and their allies in the south-western part of the country to regain areas held by rebels, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the area of separation increased sharply. UNDOF was not able to determine the number of IDPs but estimated that there were 2,590 tents for IDPs on 13 July. Following the recapture of that part of Syria by the SAAF, the IDPs started to leave. At press time, no tents were left. The Quneitra crossing point remains closed, as it has been since 2014, making it impossible for UNDOF to provide for humanitarian crossings. The Secretary-Generals 11 June report, covering the period from 23 February to 23 May, said that the ceasefire between Israel and Syria was being maintained, notwithstanding the volatile environment due to the conflict in Syria. However, violations of the Disengagement of Forces Agreement of 1974 occurred. Those included the Syrian armed forces and non-state armed opposition groups exchanging heavy weapons fire in the areas of separation and limitation on the Bravo (Syrian) side. Armed groupsincluding terrorist groups listed by the Council such as Jabhat Fath al-Sham (formerly the Nusrah Front) and the Khalid Ibn al-Walid Army, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)continued to exchange fire in the UNDOF area of operations. UNDOF reported incidents in which IDF soldiers fired into the area of separation (where no military forces other than those of UNDOF are allowed) and across the ceasefire line. Every day, UNDOF personnel observed crossings by unidentified individuals from the Bravo to the Alpha (Israeli) side. On that side, 200 incidents of deployment of unauthorised military equipment in the area of separation were reported. UNDOF has protested the violations and called upon both sides to exercise restraint, in line with its mandate to observe violations, report them, and interact with both sides. UNDOF continues to make progress towards a limited return to operations on Mount Hermon and at Camp Faouar on the Bravo side in accordance with a phased UNDOF plan. Phase one was completed on 14 November 2016 with the re-establishment of the UNDOF presence at Camp Faouar. Phase two involved the resumption of limited patrolling of the northern and central parts of the area of separation in February 2018 over a period foreseen to last six to eight months, although the timeline is subject to conditions on the ground. The Nepalese mechanised infantry company of UNDOF has conducted more than 30 protected patrols during the reporting period. Other developments include the relocation of the office of the force commander and the Irish force reserve company of UNDOF to Camp Faouar. Phase three will include the reoccupation of a number of observation posts. DPKO has continued to engage with both the Syrian and Israeli governments seeking the deployment of appropriate technologies for UNDOF, which it considers a priority. Regarding a sense and warn system, the IDF has informally indicated it would not object to its deployment. Syrian authorities oppose it, however. Key Issues and Options The Syrian government is increasingly taking control of areas of the country formerly held by different armed actors. A changing environment may have implications for the ability of UNDOF to implement its mandate. Ongoing issues for the Council are the numerous violations of the ceasefire and UNDOFs ability to implement its mandate, including the full return of UNDOF to the Bravo side and the deployment of appropriate technologies. Press elements were issued in March as an outcome of the consultations referring to those aspects; this may again be a possibility. The Council is generally rather restricted in its optionshow UNDOF operates is subject solely to the Disengagement of Forces Agreement of 1974 that ended the Yom Kippur war. Council and Wider Dynamics There is general agreement within the Council that UNDOFs mandate, including its liaison functions, contributes to stability in the region, given the absence of a peace agreement between Israel and Syria. The missions observation role has been limited since its September 2014 relocation to the Alpha side because of the extremely unstable operating environment. Israel and Syria value UNDOFs presence and want to see the mission return to the Bravo side. Council members continue to support the eventual complete return, mindful of the fact that this would require a favourable security environment, which is also crucial for maintaining the confidence of troop-contributing countries. Russia and the US are the co-penholders on UNDOF. UN DOCUMENTS ON THE GOLAN HEIGHTS AFRICA Western Sahara Expected Council Action The Council will receive a briefing in consultations on Western Sahara in October. The Special Representative and head of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), Colin Stewart, is expected to brief. Also during October, the Council is expected to renew the mandate of MINURSO, which expires on 31 October. Key Recent Developments When the Council renewed the mandate of MINURSO in April, it opted for a six-month renewal instead of the regular one-year extension. The US, which is the penholder on Western Sahara, pushed for the shorter extension to pressure Morocco and the Polisario Front to resume negotiations that are meant to obtain a mutually acceptable political solution that would provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara. The last round of formal negotiations occurred ten years ago. During its explanation of vote at the resolutions adoption, the US warned that the further extension of the peacekeeping operation in October would depend on progress in the political process, saying that it expected to see the resumption of real and substantive talks. The then US political coordinator Amy Tachco added, Should that fail, we will then need to take a hard look at our work and our responsibilities when the Mission again comes up for renewal in six months. From 23 June to 1 July, the Secretary-Generals Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Horst Kohler, who is responsible for facilitating negotiations, visited the region to push for the resumption of negotiations. Kohler visited Algiers, Nouakchott, Rabouni and Rabat before spending three days in Western Sahara, where he held meetings in Laayoune, Smara and Dakhla with local authorities, civil society organisations, and the business community. On 8 August, Kohler briefed Council members in consultations on his visit and on his plans to advance the political process. Kohler said that he intended to invite the parties and neighbouring countries Algeria and Mauritania to direct talks that he would seek to organise in late November or early December. These talks, Kohler apparently explained, would allow the parties to discuss a general framework as a basis for subsequent negotiations, rather than going into substantive issues. Since MINURSOs renewal in April, an independent review of the mission was conducted. The findings of the review, which have not been made public but are to be integrated into the Secretary-Generals report on MINURSO, apparently determined that MINURSO plays a conflict-prevention role, providing a strong guarantee against a renewal in fighting in this part of the Sahel. If the mission were removed and fighting resumed, responding to the resulting situation could be much costlier than MINURSOs annual $53 million budget. The review reportedly also noted that the mission has been operating in the same way for the past 27 years and proposed modernising it with new technologies, which would be more efficient for monitoring the cessation of hostilities and would provide financial savings. In other developments, the AU Assembly agreed at its 31st summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania in July, to support a solution to Western Sahara through the UN process, as opposed to its previous position calling for joint AU-UN efforts. It appealed to the parties to urgently resume negotiations without pre-conditions and in good faith under the auspices of the Secretary-General of the UN, whose Security Council is seized of the matter. It also decided that a troika comprising the outgoing, current and incoming AU chairpersons, together with the AU Commissioner, should be its main mechanism for supporting UN-led efforts and considering the issue. Key Issues and Options A key issue is progress in the political process towards resuming negotiations, without which the US has suggested that it may not support MINURSOs renewal. The process has stalled over the last decade because the parties respective proposals for the basis of a political solution as outlined in 2007 are mutually exclusive. An important step will be the parties responses to the invitation to participate in the upcoming talks, which, according to Kohlers envisioned timeline that he outlined when he briefed Council members, should be provided during October before MINURSOs expiration. A 1 June letter to the Council from the Polisario said that it stood ready to resume direct negotiations immediately, without preconditions and in good faith under the auspices of the Personal Envoy. Another issue will be members consideration of the recommendations that the Secretary-General is likely to propose to make MINURSO more efficient, based on the independent review. Other issues may include an update to the Councils request in resolution 2414 to interview the parties to better understand the tensions that have occurred in recent years ahead of the mandate renewal pertaining to Guerguerat and, also this year, to Bir Lahlou. Also likely to be discussed is Stewarts inability since his appointment in December 2017 as Special Representative to meet with the Polisario leadership, which has requested that the meeting take place in Western Sahara as opposed to the practice of meeting in Tindouf. The Council may renew the mandate of MINURSO for an additional six months, expressing support for the Personal Envoys plans to resume political negotiations, and reiterating its calls upon the parties to engage in negotiations without preconditions and in good faith. Council Dynamics Council members want to see progress towards the resumption of negotiations, and during the last consultations most members expressed support for the Personal Envoys efforts. This included the US, which has driven the recent pressure being exerted by the Council on the parties to return to negotiations. US National Security Advisor John Bolton, who served as an assistant in the 1990s to former Personal Envoy James Baker, is said to have played an important role in the decision to have a six-month renewal in April. Personal Envoy Kohler met with Bolton in Washington, D.C. the day before Council consultations in August. Permanent member France staunchly supports Moroccan positions. Ethiopia is the only current African member that recognises an independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, as proclaimed by the Polisario in 1976. Last Aprils mandate renewal vote saw China, Ethiopia and Russia abstain on resolution 2414, maintaining that the penholder was not adequately consultative during the negotiation process. Members are likely to have differences over the efficiency proposals that the Secretary-Generals report is expected to recommend for MINURSO. The US is the penholder on Western Sahara, and resolutions are initially discussed among the Group of Friends, comprising France, Russia, the UK, and the US, joined by Spain, the former colonial power. UN DOCUMENTS ON WESTERN SAHARA THEMATIC ISSUES Women, Peace and Security Expected Council Action In October, the Security Council will hold its annual open debate on women, peace and security and the Secretary-Generals annual report on the issue. Bolivia, as president of the Council in October, is expected to circulate a concept note ahead of the debate. The debate, which may be held at high level, is expected to focus on the empowerment of women in peace processes. The Secretary-General is expected to brief. No formal outcome is expected at this point. Key Recent Developments Since the adoption of resolution 1325 on 31 October 2000, the Council has focused regularly on the issue of women, peace and security. Resolution 1325 recognised that conflict has a differential impact on women and that addressing the needs, views and participation of half of society would provide a positive peace dividend. It emphasised the protection of women, their meaningful participation in peace and security processes, and the need for an increased role of women in preventing and resolving conflict. The seven resolutions adopted since then established a broad spectrum of norms on women, peace and security. The most recent Council resolution on this thematic issue, resolution 2242, adopted on 13 October 2015, included practical actions for the improved implementation of the agenda, including by convening an Informal Expert Group (IEG). Thus far in 2018, the IEG has held meetings on Mali and the Sahel, Iraq, DRC, the Lake Chad Basin, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic and Yemen. The Council held a briefing on 10 July on Women, Peace and Security in the Sahel Region, chaired by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom. UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security Bineta Diop briefed. Wallstrom had joined the Chad and Niger legs of a joint UN-AU trip, led by Mohammed and Diop, that focused on peace, security and development issues, with womens participation at their centre. During the meeting, Mohammed and Diop shared information and impressions with regard to womens leadership in the prevention of conflicts and their inclusion in processes addressing environmental, humanitarian and development challenges. This was the second briefing of its kind, following-up on a briefing after a joint UN-AU trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria in August 2017. After a briefing on the Lake Chad Basin region in March, the Department of Political Affairs issued a confidential note to Council members addressing the gender dimension of the threat posed by the terror group Boko Haram. This was the first time a communication of this type focused on the gender dimension of any conflict, and is consistent with the provisions of resolution 2242, which called for the inclusion of the women, peace and security agenda in efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism. The note provides information on how Boko Haram uses gender-based inequalities and gender stereotypes for their operations: for example, by deploying a greater proportion of female suicide bombers than other insurgent groups, as women tend to face weaker security checks. Relevant developments this year regarding mandates of peace operations include the 21 September adoption of resolution 2436 on peacekeeping performance. The resolution, which reiterated a request from resolution 2242 to the Secretary-General to present a revised strategy to double the number of women in military and police contingents of UN peacekeeping operations by 2020, set a deadline of March 2019 for this strategy to be submitted to the Council. Recent resolutions renewing peacekeeping mandates also reflect increasing awareness of the importance of mainstreaming women, peace and security issues. Resolution 2433 adopted on 30 August, renewing the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), recalls the request in resolution 2242 for a strategy to double female personnel in peacekeeping. It requests the Secretary-General and troop-contributing countries to seek to increase the number of women in UNIFIL, and to ensure the meaningful participation of women in all aspects of its operations. It also requests UNIFIL to take gender considerations fully into account as a cross-cutting issue throughout its mandate as well as to assist the Lebanese authorities in ensuring the full and effective participation, involvement and representation of women at all levels of decision-making and to enhance its reporting to the Council on this issue. Resolution 2414 of 27 April, renewing the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), similarly asked the Secretary-General to increase the number of women in MINURSO, as did resolution 2430 renewing the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) on 26 July. There were also more references than in previous years to womens participation and empowerment in this years resolution 2405 of 8 March renewing the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Key Issues and Options An important issue is to continue integrating women, peace and security issues in relevant country-specific and regional issues on the Councils agenda, as recent mandate renewals have done and which members may wish to highlight. Other examples of progress include the mainstreaming of language in Council products and reporting by the Secretary-General, an increasing number of female civil society briefers and female leaders in Council meetings, and sexual and gender-based violence as a designation criterion in sanctions regimes. Members may also stress that there is scope for further progress, of the integration of women, peace and security issues in efforts to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism; in non-proliferation, disarmament and arms control; and womens political participation in all levels of governance. They may wish to present good practices regarding their national action plans on women, peace and security and their bilateral foreign assistance support to organisations working towards womens participation in peacebuilding in countries affected by conflict. The upcoming annual report of the Secretary-General is expected to provide an update on gender parity within the organisation; members will be able to assess progress and use the information from the Secretary-Generals report and the open debate to feed into their thinking about country-specific situations in the context of mission mandate renewals and sanctions, as well as other thematic areas. Council Dynamics The co-chairs of the IEG, Peru and Sweden, have been working to integrate womens issues as peace and security issues as an integral part of the Councils country-specific work, rather than primarily as a free-standing thematic issue. During past negotiations of Council decisions on women, peace and security, China and Russia have routinely criticised new language as an expansion of the women, peace and security agenda or perceived it as infringing on state sovereignty or encroaching upon competencies of other parts of the UN system. The UK is the penholder on women, peace and security issues; Peru and Sweden are the co-chairs of the IEG. UN DOCUMENTS ON WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY
Security Council Resolutions
13 October 2015 S/RES/2242 The was a resolution that addressed womens roles in countering violent extremism and terrorism, improving the Councils own working methods in relation to women, peace and security and taking up gender recommendations made by the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations and the Global Study.
Secretary-Generals Reports
23 March 2018 S/2018/250 This was the Secretary-Generals annual report on conflict-related sexual violence.
16 October 2017 S/2017/861 This was the annual report on women and peace and security.
Security Council Letters
18 April 2018 S/2018/362 This was the summary of the 28 February meeting on the Democratic Republic of the Congo held by the IEG.
18 May 2018 S/2018/475 This was the summary of the 29 March meeting on Iraq held by the IEG.
18 April 2018 S/2018/362 This was the summary of the 28 February meeting on the Democratic Republic of the Congo held by the IEG.
23 February 2018 S/2018/188 This was a summary of the 2242 Informal Expert Group on Women and Peace and Security meeting on the situation in the Lake Chad Basin held 30 January 2018.
Security Council Meeting Records
10 July 2018 S/PV.8306 This was a briefing on Women, Peace and Security in the Sahel Region, chaired by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom.
16 April 2018 S/PV.8234 This was an open debate on the Secretary-Generals annual report on conflict-related sexual violence, which focused on preventing sexual violence in conflict through empowerment, gender equality and access to justice.
27 October 2017 S/PV.8079 This was the annual open debate on Women, Peace and Security with briefings by Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed; Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka; Secretary-General of the International Organisation of Francophonie Michaelle Jean; and Charo Mina Rojas, a civil society representative from Colombia.
MIDDLE EAST Yemen Expected Council Action In October, the Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, is expected to brief the Council. A representative of OCHA is also likely to brief. Key Recent Developments The Saudi Arabia-led coalition, fighting in support of the Yemeni government against the Houthi rebel group, came under increased scrutiny for its conduct of the war during August, while in September, UN efforts to bring the government and Houthis together for the first time in two years faltered. On 9 August, a coalition airstrike hit a school bus in Saada, killing at least 40 children. The next day, Council members discussed the attack in consultations. Through press elements, members called for a credible and transparent investigation. Initially, the coalition defended the strike, but on 1 September, the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT), an investigative body set up by the coalition, said the strike was conducted based on intelligence that Houthi leaders were in the bus but that delays had led to striking the bus with children on board. A coalition statement on 5 September said that the JIAT would also assess a 23 August air strike on a vehicle in which 27 civilians fleeing fighting in Hodeidah governorate, including 22 children, were killed. On 28 August, the Group of Independent Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, established in September 2017 by the Human Rights Council (HRC), published its findings. The experts affirm that individuals from both sides, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), might have committed war crimes. The report says that coalition airstrikeswhich have repeatedly hit residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings, detention facilities, civilian boats and medical facilities, and have caused the majority of documented civilian casualtiesmay have been conducted in violation of the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. The report also says that there are reasonable grounds to believe that coalition restrictions on commercial shipping violate the proportionality rule of international humanitarian law, having caused extreme suffering for millions of civilians and being unjustified by any possible military advantage. The experts note that no searches of shipments to Houthi-controlled ports had uncovered any weapons. According to the report, the ban on commercial flights to Sanaa constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law protections for the sick and wounded. Violations by the Houthis and their allies for indiscriminate attacks and access restrictions in Taiz are also covered, though experts, who could not visit the city, say further investigations into these issues are required. The report further covers widespread arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment, torture and the use of child soldiers. It describes restrictions on the right to freedom of expression, including the coalitions ban on international media traveling on UN humanitarian flights to Sanaa, Houthi arrests of journalists and of the Bahai minority, and intimidation by both sides of their perceived critics. The report details sexual violence and rape by Yemeni government and Security Belt forces (a southern paramilitary force supported by the UAE) and Emirati personnel against migrants and internally displaced and vulnerable persons. The experts findings echo those of a Human Rights Watch report, also issued in August, about the JIAT, raising serious concerns over its independence and the quality of its findings. The Group of Experts submitted a confidential list of individuals who may be responsible for international crimes to the OHCHR. On the political front, Griffiths organised consultations between the government and Houthis that were planned to start on 6 September in Geneva. The Houthis did not attend, however, after demanding last minute changes to the travel arrangements for their delegation, that following several days of discussion could not be resolved. Griffiths held talks with the Yemeni government delegation that focused on confidence-building measures, including the release of prisoners, the re-opening of Sanaa airport, economic issues and a wide range of humanitarian issues, such as opening up humanitarian access routes. At an 8 September press conference, Griffiths said that he would travel to Muscat and Sanaa to consult with the Houthi leadership about what had been discussed with the government delegation. On 11 September, Griffiths briefed the Council in a public meeting followed by consultations after which members issued press elements expressing regret that the Houthis had not attended the Geneva meeting and urging all sides to get behind the process that the Special Envoy is leading. Griffiths visited Muscat from 12 to 13 September and Sanaa from 16 to 17 September. According to his office, he held constructive discussions about resuming consultations and confidence-building measures. Following the unsuccessful Geneva meeting, the coalition intensified military operations around Hodeidah, the port city through which 70 percent of Yemens imported food, fuel and medicine requirements enter the country. The coalition publicly signalled its plans to re-launch an offensivepaused since Juneagainst the city. A 14 September letter from the UAE to the Council reiterated that the liberation of Hodeida[h] is critical to re-engaging the Houthis in peace talks. Most of the fighting so far has been over the main road linking Hodeidah with Sanaa and other population centres in the central highlands, effectively closing the eastern route out of the city. The economic situation worsened as the Yemeni rial fell sharply in value, prompting widespread protests in southern Yemen in September. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock briefed the Council on the escalation around Hodeidah and the worsening economic situation on 21 September. He warned that Yemen may be approaching a tipping point, beyond which it will be impossible to prevent massive loss of life as a result of widespread famine across the country, and described already existing pocket-like conditions of famine. Human Rights-Related Developments During its 39th session, the HRC held an interactive dialogue on 25 and 26 September on the report on Yemen by the High Commissioner for Human Rights containing the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the Group of Independent Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen. On 28 September, the HRC adopted a resolution on human rights, technical assistance and capacity-building in Yemen. It renewed the mandate of the group of eminent experts, with 21 countries voting in favour, 8 against (including Saudi Arabia and the UAE), and 18 abstaining. Key Issues and Options The Special Envoys efforts to resume a political process and ways that the Council could support this remains a key issue. During the 11 September briefing, most members expressed regret over the Houthi absence at Geneva but avoided speaking critically of the Houthis. They reiterated their strong support for Griffiths and encouraged the sides to engage constructively with the Special Envoy. Griffiths has also been seeking to engage other Yemeni actors, including groups in the south where there is a secessionist movement, while he pursues consultations with the two principal parties. Aspects of Yemens humanitarian crisis, in which 8.4 million people are at risk of famine, include access for critical supplies and aid, the parties compliance with international humanitarian law, the protection of civilians and the deteriorating economy. An immediate concern is the situation around Hodeidah, which could see heavy civilian casualties in a battle for the city and a significant worsening of the humanitarian situation if its port can no longer function as Yemens main entry point for food and other humanitarian assistance. In the 11 September press elements, Council members asked that Griffiths keep them updated on his efforts. Council members may continue to affirm their support for the Special Envoy, and encourage the parties and those with influence on them to engage constructively with him. On Hodeidah, the Council is likely to monitor developments, which include the prospect of an offensive on the city and also concerns about the possible imposition of a siege. It could adopt a presidential statement calling for a de-escalation or cessation of hostilities and for the parties to ensure that all roads and ports, including Hodeidah and nearby Saleef, remain open and functional for humanitarian and commercial imports and their distribution. The Council may further endorse a UN plan from June to place Hodeidah port under UN supervision, and could recall that sanctions can be applied against individuals or entities, according to resolutions 2140 and 2216, for violating international humanitarian law and human rights law, or obstructing the delivery of humanitarian assistance. The Council may also consider holding a briefing with the group of eminent experts on the human rights situation in Yemen. Council and Wider Dynamics Council members support the efforts of the Special Envoy, and share strong concerns about the consequences of an attack on Hodeidah and the larger humanitarian crisis, which are reasons that the Council is often described as united on Yemen. At the same time, Saudi Arabia and the UAE exert a great deal of influence on the Councils consideration of Yemen through the alliances and strategic relations they maintain with Council members. This has led to differences among members over how to respond to different aspects of the war, and caused some members to be cautious in the positions they take. Kuwait is part of the coalition and champions coalition positions. A group of five elected membersBolivia, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland and Swedenoften takes a joint position highlighting humanitarian dimensions. For example, following the 9 August airstrike on the school bus, Peru requested the Council session on this incident, on behalf of this group, and the group also proposed the 21 September meeting with Lowcock. Russia, and members of this group, have called for ending offensive operations around Hodeidah. The P3 have focused on the need to protect infrastructure and access for humanitarian and commercial goods. Due to Saudi objections to any new resolution on Yemen since the adoption of resolution 2216 in April 2015, the Council approach has been to take decisions through presidential statements, most recently in March. The UK is the penholder on Yemen. Peru chairs the 2140 Yemen Sanctions Committee. UN DOCUMENTS ON YEMEN . , . If San Francisco voters pass Proposition C a measure to raise taxes on the citys largest businesses to fund a variety of homelessness services in November, the economic impact would be small in the context of the citys job market and economy. Thats the conclusion of an study by the citys Office of Economic Analysis, which also determined that Prop. C would probably succeed in reducing the citys homeless population. The report sought to assess the taxs impact on the citys business climate and whether it might drive companies out of town. The findings are also expected to influence Mayor London Breeds decision on whether to endorse Prop. C. Also referred as the Our City, Our Home initiative, Prop. C would impose an average of about 0.5 percent in gross receipts tax on corporate revenue above $50 million. It would bring in $250 million to $300 million a year to pay for new shelters, mental health treatment and services to prevent people from falling into homelessness in the first place. The measure mandates that half of the money go to housing for the formerly homeless. The report, released by San Franciscos chief economist, Ted Egan, said that if Prop. C passes, it will likely reduce homelessness in San Francisco, improving health outcomes and reducing the use of acute and emergency services in the city. But the tax hike could cause businesses to move jobs out of San Francisco, the report said. Over the next two decades, Prop. C could cost the city from 725 to 875 jobs. From 300 to 400 of the largest businesses in San Francisco would be impacted by the tax, according to the report. If the tax doesnt increase, the job loss doesnt compound, Egan said. After 20 years, the city would have 725 to 875 fewer jobs, not 14,500 to 17,500 fewer jobs Supporters and opponents of the measure alike said the findings underscore their own arguments about its potential impact. At a brief rally on the City Hall steps Wednesday, Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness and a leading proponent of Prop. C, said the report basically vindicated all of our positions. The measure has a negligible effect on jobs. Tell that to the 875 people who stand to lose their jobs on this the retail clerk at Safeway or the brewer at Anchor Steam, said Jess Montejano, a spokesman for those opposed to Prop. C and a longtime aide to former Mayor Mark Farrell. Last month, a report from the citys Office of Economic and Workforce Development raised concerns that the measure could have a disproportionate impact on mid-level jobs. Online: SF Homeless Project In 2016, The Chronicle and more than 80 news organizations formed the SF Homeless Project to focus on the homelessness crisis. Two years later, progress has been made, but problems remain. See More Collapse Some businesses have taken a clear stance against the measure. This month, Gensler, a design and architecture firm, donated $10,000 to the Chamber of Commerces No on Prop. C campaign. Stripe, which makes payment processing software, donated $19,999. Jon Zieger, the companys general counsel, wrote an opinion piece in The Chronicle urging a no vote on the measure. While acknowledging the importance of addressing the citys homelessness crisis, Prop. Cs opposition, led by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, contends the tax would place too great a burden on businesses and that the city should spend the hundreds of millions of dollars it already allocates to homelessness more prudently. 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. Its clear that just spending more money is not the sole answer to the crisis that San Franciscans deserve, Montejano said. The money raised by the new tax would nearly double the amount the city spent on homelessness in the 2017-18 fiscal year around $380 million. The businesses subject to the tax make up 15 to 20 percent of the citys job base and pay around 40 percent of its business taxes. Hearst Corp., the parent company of The Chronicle, would be subject to the tax. According to the report, Egan estimates the tax proceeds could provide housing for around 5,000 people, generate from $60 million to $75 million for mental health outreach and treatment, and enough money for 1,000 new temporary shelter beds. The measure has divided the Board of Supervisors. Progressive lawmakers Hillary Ronen and Sandy Lee Fewer rallied alongside Prop. C supporters Wednesday on the City Hall steps. A day earlier at the same spot, Supervisor Katy Tang, a moderate, and the Chamber of Commerces senior vice president for public policy, Jim Lazarus, came out against the measure. Tang stressed the need to evaluate whether the citys existing efforts around homelessness are actually leading to changes and improvement here in San Francisco. We have a big fight ahead of us, Friedenbach said. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa A new report from BART shows pronounced racial disparity in the people who are cited for fare evasion, nearly half of whom are African American. Although the numbers alarmed several members of BARTs Board of Directors, the board still voted Thursday night to expand the fare enforcement program, adding 10 non-sworn officers to its existing force of 47. Of the 3,813 citations issued from March to the end of August, 47 percent went to black riders, 18 percent to whites, 15 percent to Latinos, 4 percent to Asians and 0.1 percent to American Indians. Twelve percent of people ticketed identified as other races, and BART lacked racial data for the rest. The data led several BART board members to question whether the fare enforcement program should continue. This is clearly not the direction thats going to work for the diverse ridership that we have, said Board Director Bevan Dufty, who represents San Francisco. He urged the transit system to shift focus to station hardening raising gates or putting barriers around elevators but then voted to support the expansion anyway. The fare citation numbers sharply contrast with the racial makeup of ridership in general. A 2015 survey of weekday customers found that 12 percent were black, 44 percent were white, 23 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander and 18 percent were Latino; the rest were not identified. BART defended its practices. The transit agencys police auditor maintains that there is no evidence of bias in the inspections, which happen randomly in stations. After reviewing hundreds of hours of camera footage, the auditor gave written confirmation to the board that fare inspectors are not singling out individual riders, said agency spokeswoman Alicia Trost. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle She pointed to another section of the report which showed that the demographics of people being stopped at Powell Street station closely match the racial breakdown of riders. This isnt the first time BART has come under scrutiny for possible racial profiling. In July, The Chronicle reported that two-thirds of the people banished from the transit agencys property under what are known as prohibition orders are black. Board directors discussed the report during a special meeting Thursday night at Pittsburg City Hall, set up to accommodate suburban riders who dont normally show up to the boards Thursday morning meetings in Oakland. The debate showed a deeply polarized body, with most suburban board directors urging BART to beef up enforcement. Two of their colleagues from the urban core board directors Lateefah Simon, whose district stretches from Richmond to the Embarcadero, and Rebecca Saltzman, whose district is scattered throughout the East Bay asked the agency to redirect resources toward other deterrents, such as new fare gates. Simon and Saltzman were the only dissenting votes. Fare evasion, which siphons up to $25 million a year, has created a quandary for BART. Officials at the transit system have tried swatting at the problem in various ways, even laying out plans this year to replace the 600 orange pie-wedge fare gates at a cost of up to $200 million. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle The transit agency has collected about $29,000 in fines from its proof-of-payment program, which costs $800,000 a year to operate. Two of the additional officers were included in this years budget, and the other eight will cost just under $1 million a year. Roughly 10 percent of people cited 390, according the report paid their penalties. Those who do not pay may see the fine deducted from future tax returns, said BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas. BARTs response didnt satisfy Simon. I dont understand how these numbers are so egregious, Simon said, noting that BART had supplied raw statistics without a substantive analysis to prove a lack of racial bias. Without better answers, I cannot support the expansion of a program that seems to have a devastating racial impact, Simon 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. Board Director Debora Allen, whose district encompasses parts of Contra Costa County, argued that the program should continue. I dont think we can make the automatic assumption that because a high percentage of one ethnicity received tickets, that that ethnicity is being targeted, she said. She and others noted that BARTs enforcement team is not allowed to use any discretion when stopping riders and asking for proof of payment. That means any rider who hasnt paid gets fined, whether that person appears to be homeless, or is wearing a bespoke suit. Rojas emphasized the idea of customer equity at the meeting Thursday night, saying the fare sting operations are designed to protect against bias, because inspectors check everybody who enters the system. This is a very micro-managed process, he said. Russell Bloom, the transit systems independent police auditor, said that after reviewing more than 100 body camera recordings, he is confident that fare inspectors are systematically approaching every single person in order. He said his office has received complaints about inspectors tone, about people being delayed on their way to work during a sting, and about the existence of BART itself. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan Stairway to Heaven is on a pathway back to court. A federal appeals court on Friday revived a copyright suit by the estate of the leader of the 1960s rock band Spirit accusing Led Zeppelin of plagiarizing the opening section of its instrumental song Taurus for the rising guitar line that introduces Stairway, a rock classic released in 1972. A federal court jury found in 2016 that the songs were not similar enough for a copyright violation. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the trial judge had wrongly instructed the jury to disregard any similarities between standard musical elements like a rising scale or a chord progression that cannot be copyrighted because they are so commonplace. Considered together, standard musical elements can be protected from unauthorized duplication where there was a modification or selection and arrangement that may have rendered them original, Judge Richard Paez said in a 3-0 ruling ordering a new trial. The court has opened the door to giving credit where credit is due, said Francis Malofiy, a lawyer for the estate of Spirit band member and songwriter Randy Wolfe, also known as Randy California. Led Zeppelins a great band, one of my favorite bands of all time, but I think their legacys stained by the fact they plagiarized, Malofiy said. He said any damages awarded by a new jury would go to a trust fund to buy musical instruments for schoolchildren. Lawyers for Led Zeppelin were not immediately available for comment. Spirit was a popular band in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Led Zeppelin sometimes appeared as its opening act. Taurus, released in 1968, opens with a rising and falling guitar melody somewhat similar to the Stairway to Heaven opening. Wolfe died in 1997. His estates lawsuit, filed in 2014, alleged that Stairway songwriters Jimmy Page and Plant had heard Taurus at concerts or on recordings and lifted part of it for the Led Zeppelin song. 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 jury in the 2016 trial heard conflicting testimony from musicology experts about whether the passages were substantially similar, the test for a copyright violation. Jurors also heard a guitarist play excerpts from the scores of both songs, but did not hear the actual recorded versions because U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner barred them as evidence. The appeals court said Klausner should have allowed a recording of Taurus to be played while Page was on the witness stand, to let the jury see his reactions and better assess his previous exposure to the song. Jurors heard only a bare-bones skeleton version of the song, said Malofiy. He said he expects recordings of both songs to be played at the retrial. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has agreed to monitor and possibly clean up any harmful pollution found in the San Francisco Bay near the Marina and Fishermans Wharf neighborhoods to settle a lawsuit over discharges from power plants a century ago. The settlement was announced Friday by the San Francisco Herring Association, which claimed in a 2014 lawsuit that carbon gases and coal tars from the long-shuttered plants were seeping into the bay and killing herring. The deal, approved by a federal judge, also includes $4.9 million in payments from PG&E, some of it to the herring association and the rest for habitat restoration and cleanup. PG&E knew about this contamination for years and did nothing about it, all the while it was harming the herring stock on which fishermen and wildlife depend, Matt Ryan, president of the association, said in a statement. PG&E said it agreed to the settlement as part of our strong commitment to safety and the environment. The utility said it does not believe current evidence confirms any impact to herring or other aquatic species, and it was pleased that the agreement provides for continued protection of bay waters through additional sampling, monitoring and remedial activities. In the early 1900s, PG&E generated gas for San Francisco customers from coal and oil plants in the Marina and Fishermans Wharf that deposited their waste into the ground and in waters that flowed into San Francisco Bay. The last of the plants closed 87 years ago. But in 2010, two large black rocks in a Marina residents yard were tested by PG&E and found to contain toxic levels of hydrocarbons of the type once generated by the power plants. Around the same time, members of the commercial herring fleet were drawing a connection between pollutants from the plants and the decline in the local herring population. PG&E denied polluting the waters and said it acted promptly to clean up residential pollution, testing Marina District homes starting in 2010 and gaining city approval for a remediation program in 2012. But U.S. District Judge William Orrick refused to dismiss the lawsuit in 2015. He said PG&Es refusal to test for contaminants in groundwater that flows into the bay meant that the former power plant sites will continue to present an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health and the environment. He said the plaintiffs had presented evidence of a 1997 inspection at the site of the Radisson Hotel at Fishermans Wharf, the site of a former PG&E plant, showing high levels of contamination in soil and groundwater, and ongoing contamination in tidal and submerged lands in an inlet near Gashouse Cove. 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. Orrick also said San Francisco may have unintentionally spread contamination with a sewer and stormwater collection system the city built in the 1970s to carry waste to treatment plants. The lawsuit contended the system, which runs along Marina Green, has picked up gas-plant contamination from groundwater and failed to remove it before discharging the residue into the bay. The settlement, effective for 10 years, requires PG&E to sample and monitor water near the two neighborhoods. If contamination reaches certain levels, the utility must propose remedial action to the regional Water Quality Control Board, which would decide whether to order a cleanup, said Stuart Gross, lawyer for the herring association. PG&E, Gross said, has resisted cleanup for 40 years. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko An assistant to Muni transit director John Haley has accused him of sexually harassing and racially discriminating against her. In a lawsuit filed last week, Sabrina Suzuki, a senior management assistant at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, accused Haley of inappropriate touching, making sexual comments about womens looks and making belittling remarks about Suzukis skills between 2015 and 2017. The allegations were made in a lawsuit filed last Friday in San Francisco County Superior Court. Haley, who was hired as director of transit of Muni in 2010 and runs the agencys bus, light rail, street-car and cable-car systems, referred requests for comment to the San Francisco city attorneys office. We have not been served with the lawsuit, so were not going to discuss its contents, said John Cote, a spokesman for the city attorneys office. Once we are served with it, well review it and respond in court. Paul Rose, spokesman for the transit agency, said in an email, We take these matters very seriously and follow the citys ... procedures to address personnel matters like these. While these allegations are serious, it would not be appropriate to comment any further on legal matters involving personnel. In November 2017, Suzuki filed a discrimination complaint with the citys department of human resources. According to the lawsuit, human resources dismissed her claims, concluding that there was not sufficient evidence. Suzuki began working with the transit agency in 2013 as a public information officer and in 2015 began directly reporting to Haley. Her responsibilities included administrative work for the transit division. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. In one incident in May 2016, Suzuki claims, Haley made comments about her pants and grabbed her thigh to prevent her from turning around so he could view her backside. Several times when Haley needed help with his computer, Suzuki says she stood over him as he remained seated and leaned in closer to her. On many occasions, the lawsuit alleges, Haley made comments to Suzuki about womens looks, such as that a woman at a Christmas party was spilling out of her dress or that a woman wearing leggings looked good. In addition to sexual harassment claims, the lawsuit details situations in which Suzuki says Haley prevented her from receiving additional training for her position and denied several promotions that she applied for. When Suzuki asked about being promoted to a transit regulatory manager position, she claims that Haley said she was too nice to manage a section and gave the position to a man. The lawsuit claims that Haley has a history of promoting only white employees. Suzuki is Asian and one of Haleys two nonwhite employees. Suzukis attorney, Ayse Kuzucuoglu, did not respond to a request for comment. Ashley McBride is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ashley.mcbride@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ashleynmcb PARIS Zooming past the soaring arches of the Eiffel Tower, Sarah Westley and Cara Alexander balanced on Lime electric scooters, which the British tourists had rented through an app. Its fantastic; you can see so much, Westley said. After using e-scooters on a trip to San Diego, I said we need to go find the scooters in Paris, she said. Theyre a very good value. Thousands of e-scooters from California startups Lime and Bird, as well as Estonian ride-hailing company Taxify, have descended upon Paris over the past three months. Riders whiz along the promenades lining the Seine, through the Place de la Concorde, toward the Louvre and outside train stations and Metro stops. Unlike in San Francisco, where e-scooters ignited controversy that led to a temporary ban and a forthcoming, carefully controlled pilot program, stand-up e-scooters in Paris seem to be embraced by tourists, residents and city officials. That may be because Paris has a long history with two-wheel transport of all kinds innumerable bikes, mopeds and motorcycles weave through the traffic as well as with shared rentals. Its city-sponsored Velib bike program, now 11 years old, helped pioneer self-service hourly rentals that are considered an adjunct to public transit, with more than 20,000 bikes. Paris plans to double its more than 400 miles of bike lanes by 2020. Whats more, the City of Light is on a crusade to eliminate pollution-causing fossil fuels, with plans to ban diesel cars by 2024 and gasoline ones by 2030. Paris has always been a city of innovation, and particularly innovation in mobility, Caroline Daude, transportation adviser to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, said in an email. We welcome new mobility solutions if they represent an alternative to polluting cars. The city has a good relationship with all three scooter companies and is collaborating with them to draft a code of conduct, according to Daude. At the national level, France is working on a new law about all forms of transportation, and is considering banning e-scooters from sidewalks something San Francisco has already done. Parisians are just taking scooters in stride; no ones upset; no ones knocking them over, said Jim McPherson, a Benicia attorney and mobility consultant who recently visited Paris. Although the companies apps urge users to ride in bike lanes and to wear helmets (neither of which is a legal requirement in Paris), of the dozens of rental scooters spotted in action during a recent visit to Paris, about two-thirds were on sidewalks and no riders wore helmets. The app says to wear a helmet, but you cant if they dont provide them, said Alexander, the British tourist. Likewise, although the app says to ride in the road, that seems a bit dangerous, said her friend Westley. Daude said some pedestrians have expressed concerns, and officials will be vigilant. We dont want these new e-scooters to disturb pedestrians or to invade the public space, she said. Indeed, several pedestrians, asked about e-scooters, merely offered a Gallic shrug. Frances capital is a showcase for the scooter companies, which hope it will be a model for other locales such as San Francisco. We saw Paris as an opportunity to create an example in a progressive city, said Caen Contee, head of international expansion at San Franciscos Lime. It is also operating in Zurich, Madrid and Valencia, Spain, and plans to grow rapidly throughout Europe. Lime kicked off e-scooter app rentals in Paris in June with a few hundred two-wheelers. Within three months, it expanded to over 2,000 and has had more than 75,000 riders. I do hope that cities in the U.S., cities like San Francisco, will come to Paris and be inspired by a different way of doing things, said Kenneth Schlenker, general manager for Bird in France. The Santa Monica startup began operations in Paris, its first international city, Aug. 1 with a handful and is now up to several hundred as it rushes to meet demand, he said. Last week, it added Brussels and Vienna. We believe that the licensing route taken by a few U.S. cities is probably not the best for scale of the revolution were engaged in. Estonias Taxify, a ride-hailing company with close to $200 million in backing from the likes of Daimler and Didi Chuxing, made its first foray into two-wheeled transport with the introduction of e-scooters to Paris this month. It started with a few hundred and plans to expand smartly to several thousand, according to Henri Capoul, general manager of France for Taxify. It has not announced plans to enter the U.S. Paris is one of the best cities to launch scooters, Capoul said. One out of 5 (Taxify) rides in the city is less than 3 kilometers. Theres a real complement between ride-hailing and scooters. Prices for Paris e-scooters are comparable to those in San Francisco: just over $1 to unlock plus 15 cents a minute. As elsewhere, companies collect scooters nightly for recharging and maintenance, although rather than gig workers as in San Francisco, they use a combination of their own employees and outside vendors and return them to the streets by early morning. The scooter companies relatively warm reception in Paris could reflect their own maturation. Unlike in San Francisco and other U.S. cities where they took the ask forgiveness rather than permission approach, they contacted Parisian officials before starting, according to Daude from the mayors office. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes One extra boost for scooters: Paris Velib bike program recently changed the company the city hired to run the program and is now struggling with software and mechanical glitches, which has caused use of the bikes to plunge. All three scooter companies say they want to play nice with Paris, including sharing data and encouraging riders to behave. Outside data shows the scooters are popular. Apptopia, a company that tracks Android and iOS downloads, said the Lime app had 143,000 downloads in France from July 1 through Sept. 24. During the same period, Birds app (which was not in France in July) had 67,000 downloads. The Taxify app had 120,000 French downloads in that period. While most of those were likely by ride-hailing users, average daily downloads rose by almost 50 percent once it introduced e-scooters in Paris. Not surprisingly, the companies are gung ho about Paris lack of limits on the scooter population. Martin Mignot, a partner in British venture capital firm Index Ventures, which has a stake in Bird, said scooter caps are analogous to taxi medallions a method of controlling supply that made taxis less useful because they were hard to find. Paris is taking a much more modern approach, saying here are the rules, we wont limit the numbers of companies or scooters, but you have to give us data, he said. Obviously Im biased, because Im an investor and want as many scooters as possible, but I think 10 years from now, the fact that these things were banned and limited at the beginning will seem ridiculous. Scooter riders, admittedly another biased sample group, also said they felt that there should be more two-wheelers for hire. Its easy to use, said Johanna Vieli, a Swiss tourist who was finishing up a ride on a Lime scooter outside Notre Dame, and had previously ridden them in Zurich. The hardest part is finding enough. We are a group of five people; it would be fun to do it all together. It took 10 or 15 minutes to find a second one, said Sofiane Jabeur, a Parisian riding alongside the Canal St.-Martin with his friend Remy Saintenoy, during a weekday lunchtime. There arent enough, but its great as an addition to bikes and the Metro. Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid A womans Fitbit clocked a rapid rise in her heart rate before a sudden drop-off to nothing, helping San Jose police piece together clues and charge her 90-year-old stepfather with her murder, according to court records. Tony Aiello was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murdering his 67-year-old stepdaughter, Karen Navarra, on Sept. 8. Aiello is married to Navarras 92-year-old mother. Navarra, a pharmacy technician described by family as a recluse, was discovered deceased by a co-worker Sept. 13 after she failed to show up to her job. Police said Navarra was found slumped over in a chair, clutching a large kitchen knife with a gaping slit to her neck. To investigators, the scene appeared to be staged to look like a suicide. Now Playing: Franklin Zimring, a criminologist and law professor at UC Berkeley, explains why some types of murders go unsolved while others get solved more easily. Video: Drew Costley/San Francisco Chronicle But a later autopsy revealed multiple deep and intrusive wounds to her head and facial area, most likely inflicted by a small hatchet or ax. The doctor told investigators Navarra couldnt have inflicted the wounds herself and classified the case as a homicide. At his initial interview, Aiello told San Jose police that he dropped by Navarras home on Saturday, Sept. 8, to bring her pizza, according to court records. He also said he was outside his own home a few hours later, and witnessed his step-daughter drive by and honk with someone else in the passenger seat. But police say Aiellos account didnt match up with what they saw on surveillance footage. Nearby cameras captured his car at Navarras home for at least 21 minutes that day, between 3:12 p.m. and 3:33 p.m, but they didnt show her car ever leaving in the direction Aiello described, police said. Investigators noted Navarra was wearing a Fitbit, a wristband device that can collect data like number of steps walked and heart rate, when she was found, and they later consulted with the company to see if the device could offer any clues. A company employee told police Navarras heart rate spiked at 3:20 p.m. Sept. 8 and then rapidly slowed. The device stopped registering a heartbeat at 3:28 p.m. Aiello repeated his initial story after his arrest and denied that he killed his stepdaughter, according to court records. When confronted with the Fitbit evidence Aiello suggested someone else could have been in the home. He told police she couldnt have died when he was there, because she walked him to the door. Police also found clothes in his hamper covered in blood splatter. Aiello told police he cuts himself frequently, according to court records. Homicide investigators across the country have turned to fitness trackers to help piece together timelines, movements and other key information for their cases. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. A Connecticut man was arrested after his wifes Fitbit data showed her last movements were more than an hour after her husband said she had been killed by intruders. More online: How Vallejo police botched a kidnap-for-ransom case before falsely declaring it a hoax. http://bit.ly/VallejoKidnap See More Collapse In Wisconsin, another mans Fitbit acted as an alibi. The device corroborated his story during a crucial window of time when police said his live-in girlfriends body was being dumped in a field. Aiello is being held without bail and is due in court Oct. 4. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy A man accused of decapitating his grandmother inside their apartment in San Franciscos South of Market neighborhood believed she was possessed by a demon and Jesus told him to get rid of it, officials said Friday. Andrew Luke, 30, called 911 shortly after the gruesome killing early Wednesday and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital for a mental health medical evaluation, prosecutors said. Luke was later arrested and charged on Thursday with murder and elder abuse. His grandmother was identified by the city medical examiner as Chii-Chyu Horng, 82. Lukes family said he has a history of mental illness and lived with Horng inside the apartment in a senior living complex at 801 Howard St. The trouble began on Monday when Luke reported that God was speaking to him and that he was possessed by a demon, Assistant District Attorney Michael Swart wrote in court papers. Now Playing: UC Berkeley law professor and criminologist Frank Zimring describes how violent crime rates have changed over the last 30 years in the Bay Area. Video: Drew Costley/San Francisco Chronicle Luke banged his head against a wall that day, trying to get the demon out, and was taken to San Francisco General, prosecutors said. Doctors at the hospital stapled a wound on the back of his head, officials said. But Lukes delusions continued on Tuesday after he was home with his grandmother, prosecutors said. He stated that Jesus was testing him and that he was possessed by a demon and needed to get it out, Swart wrote. Thats when Luke went into the homes bathroom and began banging his head repeatedly against the floor, officials said. When his grandmother heard the banging and came into the bathroom, Luke believed that she was possessed with a demon and Jesus told him to get rid of it, Swart wrote. He grabbed her, dragged her to the kitchen and slashed and stabbed her with two knives. Luke then beat Horng with a rolling pin and used a knife to sever her head from her body, prosecutors 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. Luke then called 911 shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning to report what he had done, officials said. Officers sped to the scene and broke down the apartment door. Inside they found Luke covered in blood with bruises on his face, prosecutors said. Police then went to the kitchen where they found Horngs head severed from her body, officials said. While being interviewed by police, Luke said Jesus was testing him, and when he was asked if he knew what he did was wrong, he said he knew it was, but that Jesus can overrule laws and that if Jesus told him to harm others in this fashion he would do it, Swart wrote. Luke is being held without bail. He does not have an immediate court date. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky Christine Blasey Ford, a Palo Alto professor reluctantly drawn into a Washington maelstrom, was shaken but sure before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, recounting the indelible sound of her assailants laughter, deploying her expertise in psychology to explain the nuances of memory, and quantifying her certainty that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her as 100 percent. Brett Kavanaugh, a Beltway veteran serving on the nations second-highest court, was less composed, delivering much of his testimony in a raised voice, frequently verging on tears, and all but blaming a left-wing conspiracy for the charges. If its possible to deny something more than 100 percent, he did, saying, I swear today under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge. Beyond the remarkable contrast in tone and temperament, the hearing came down to the he-said-she-said contrived by the Senate majority. It was thanks to Kavanaughs Republican backers that the hearing followed no FBI investigation, featured none of the numerous witnesses who might corroborate or refute Fords or other accusers charges, and unfolded on the eve of a scheduled vote to confirm the nominee. In fact, if the majority harbored any zeal to investigate the matter, it was directed at discrediting the accusation. In an effort to avoid a reprise of the committees all-male interrogation of Anita Hill in 1991, committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, outsourced the Republicans time to an Arizona sex crimes prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell. This created the bizarre spectacle of an alleged victim of a crime facing prosecutorial examination as her would-be inquisitors sat in awkward silence behind her. That prompted Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., to inform Ford, You are not on trial. Mitchell raised questions about Fords recollection of such peripheral details as the number of boys and girls at the gathering where she was assaulted. Ford seemed unfazed, explaining at one point that the level of norepinephrine and the epinephrine in the brain encodes memories into the hippocampus. The prosecutor went further, floating conspiracies about the compensation of her lawyers and even the dread doppelganger theory that Ford was assaulted by someone who looked a lot like Kavanaugh. The resurfacing of that crackpot contention led to Fords powerful 100 percent statement. Kavanaugh was emotional and cagey by comparison. He tearfully invoked his parents, daughters and friends and angrily defended his right to drink beer. But he repeatedly refused opportunities to welcome additional investigation or testimony and, when asked about the identity of a drunken Bart OKavanaugh in his friend Mark Judges memoir, replied, Youd have to ask him. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., replied that he would if the committee had compelled testimony from Judge, Kavanaughs alleged accomplice in the assault. Like the rush that prevented a thorough review of Kavanaughs paper trail, Thursdays hearing was designed to minimize the nominees troubles rather than pursue the truth. Yet the judge responded in a manner that raised new questions about his fitness and temperament to serve in a position that requires even-handedness and equanimity. Kavanaughs performance under pressure was disturbing. The Senate Republicans zeal to proceed toward confirmation is outrageous. This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters. H ow do you determine the quality of a rug? I asked Pakistans national security adviser, as he presented me with a rolled-up gift in his Islamabad office. Its the knots per square inch, he replied. The more knots woven together, the higher the quality. I couldnt help but thinking how that sounds like a community. Just like a rug, its diversity people of all backgrounds, tightly woven together that makes a community strong and great. I was thinking about that Monday, as we hit the one-year anniversary of President Trumps Muslim Ban 3.0, and earlier this month, when I had the honor of addressing the Islamic Society of North Americas 55th annual convention in Houston. The convention, with the theme In God We Trust, began less than a week after the death of U.S. Sen. John McCain, so his parting words to America still echoed in my head as I stepped to the stage. We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe, McCain wrote. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been. I saw in that convention hall the best of the American community: People taking joy in their family, charity, faith, and patriotism. Our friends, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters. I thought about how demagogues including President Trump want the nation to believe that this hall was filled with screaming jihadis bent on usurping our values and democracy through violence. Its the vicious lie that underlies this administrations anti-refugee, anti-Muslim policies, which have made our country less safe and less American. These policies make us less safe because closing our borders in a way that targets religious faith weakens our bonds with our allies, telling them America wont share the burden of fighting terrorism and aiding the worlds most vulnerable. They make us less safe because they play right into the recruiting rhetoric of those few who truly would do us harm. They make us less American because punishing people for their faith simply cannot be who we are, a sin prohibited by the First Amendment. We are, in a sense, a nation of refugees following a common dream of freedom and prosperity. We are nation of many faiths, united in our faith in each other. Muslims have been part of the American tapestry since our nations birth, and always will be; we must be tireless in stamping out discrimination against Muslims just as we would for Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists. Thats why Ive cosponsored bills to prohibit spending any money to enforce the various iterations of President Trumps Muslim ban, and signed legal briefs challenging the bans in court. Im frustrated that this president is a force for intentional destabilization, fomenting chaos at home and abroad for his own political ends. But Im optimistic because I see Americans resisting this every day. Im optimistic because when this president enacted his first Muslim ban, I sent an immigration lawyer from my office to San Francisco International Airport to help as we could, and I saw hundreds of protesters whod flocked there to loudly proclaim that this ban is not who we are as a nation. Helping hands are all around us. Im optimistic because I know people like my constituent, Moina Shaiq of Fremont, whose Meet a Muslim program helps dispel the myths and lies too many Americans believe about Islam. She shares a message of love, compassion and peace. She builds bridges, not walls, and reflects our diverse congressional district with one of the largest Muslim American populations of any district in America. No faith can be our enemy. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it well: The United States of America is a nation built upon the promise of religious liberty. As long as Americas communities can weave our rich diversity together, recognizing that diversity per square mile is our strength, not a weakness Americas promise will always be fulfilled. In God, we trust. From many, one. And salaam aleikum. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, co-chair of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, is also a member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees. Twitter: @EricSwalwell. SACRAMENTO The latest effort to ban gun shows at the Cow Palace met a familiar fate, with Gov. Jerry Brown vetoing the measure Friday. SB221 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would have barred gun and ammunition sales at the state-owned exhibition hall in Daly City beginning in 2020. The Cow Palace hosts five gun shows a year. It was the fourth attempt by lawmakers to end gun shows at the Cow Palace. The most recent was in 2013, when Brown vetoed a bill by then-Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. His bill would have required supervisors in San Francisco and San Mateo counties who were opposed to the shows to authorize them. Opponents argued that banning gun shows would result in more than $730,000 in lost revenue to the Cow Palace in lease, parking and related fees, as well as an annual loss of more than $600,000 in sales tax revenue. This bill has been vetoed twice over the last 10 years, once by myself, and once by Gov. (Arnold) Schwarzenegger, Brown wrote in his veto message. The decision on what kind of shows occur at the Cow Palace rests with the local board of directors which, incidentally, represents a broad cross section of the community. They are in the best position to make these decisions. Wiener said the Cow Palace board has stubbornly ignored requests from the community that the gun shows halt. Im deeply disappointed (as is the community I represent) by Gov. Browns veto of Senate Bill 221, to end gun shows at the Cow Palace and to stop this state agency from profiting from gun sales, Wiener said. While I have tremendous respect for the governor, I respectfully disagree with his decision. This issue isnt going away, and I look forward to reintroducing the bill in our next legislative cycle. Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez John Cox barely waited for his campaign bus to stop outside the Department of Motor Vehicles in Fremont on Friday before he was out the door and striding briskly to the line of people outside the government office. Dressed casually in a checked, long-sleeve work shirt and faded blue jeans, the Republican businessman stopped to shake hands and commiserate with the 30 or so people standing waiting just to get inside the DMV office, where more waiting awaited. Im John Cox and Im running for governor, he said to one man. How long have you been waiting? When the man said hed been there for two hours, Cox just shook his head. Wow, he said. This is just ridiculous, he told another man in the line, handing him a bottle of water from a stash that an aide was toting. Im not going to put up with this anymore and I hope you dont either, Cox said to a third. On Nov. 6, we can make a change. In recent days, Cox has been buoyed by improving poll numbers and endorsements from some Southern California newspapers. Hes in the midst of a statewide bus tour that took him to Bakersfield, Fresno and San Luis Obispo on Thursday and Salinas, Palo Alto, Fremont, Sacramento and Chico on Friday. People are starting to learn who I am and what I will do for the state, he told reporters standing outside his green-and-white bus, which was emblazoned with his Help Is On The Way campaign slogan. Cox, a San Diego-area resident who made numerous unsuccessful runs for office in his native Illinois, remains a big underdog to Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. While a poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that Cox has cut Newsoms lead in half since July, he is still running well behind the former San Francisco mayor, 51 percent to 39 percent. Newsom is better financed and better known across California, where no Republican has been elected to statewide office since 2006. But California has become a failing state, Cox argues, with bad schools and worse government. Housing has become unaffordable, he says, the price of gas is approaching $4 a gallon and the state is spending money in all the wrong places. The states problems have only gotten worse during Newsoms eight years as lieutenant governor, Cox said, calling him part of the political class that has failed the state. Im running for governor because Im not going to take this anymore, he said. The people of California are crazy for change. Newsom spokesman Nathan Click countered in an email, Californians dont want a Trump protege like Cox as chief executive of this state, and no amount of desperate and dishonest attacks will change that fact. For Cox, the DMV is a very visible symbol of Californias problems. Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered an audit of the agency in the face of growing complaints about hours-long waits for service at offices and the weeks it can take to even get an appointment. This is the seventh DMV office Ive visited, Cox said. Its just one sign of how unlivable and unaffordable California is. People have to take time off work to get their licenses. The DMV offices are a focus for the frustration California residents have with state government. Inside the Fremont office Friday, every chair was filled and a line of people snaked around the room and out the door. A sign on the door suggested just how angry the people there can get: Notice Threatening a state employee is unlawful and may result in a fine or imprisonment. The DMV is a symptom of the states problems, Cox said. As governor, he said, he would spend the money needed to update the agencys aging computers and let it do its job properly. The promises struck a chord with at least some of those waiting in line. Were voting for you, a woman told Cox. But Cox has never run a statewide campaign in California, and at times it shows. Talking to a man waiting in line, Cox told him that California was spending billions of dollars on the high-speed rail project, which is being built in the middle of nowhere, by the way. The problem, though, is that the first phase of the train system is under construction in the Central Valley, one of the states more Republican areas and a center of Coxs support. Residents of Fresno, which as the nations 32nd-largest city is larger than not only Miami, Cleveland and New Orleans, but also Sacramento and Oakland, have bristled in the past about similar cracks from candidates from the coast. Cox hastily walked back his remarks during his news conference. Both Fresno and Bakersfield are important cities at the heart of the states agriculture industry, he said. But there arent thousands of people traveling between them every day, like Los Angeles and San Francisco, he said. John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth Californias two Democratic senators expressed their opposition to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in very different ways during an extraordinary Judiciary Committee hearing Friday that ended in a recommendation for full Senate approval with one big asterisk. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a veteran of 25 years in the Senate, railed about Republicans disrespecting the Senate process about vetting nominees and witnesses in particular, Christine Blasey Ford, the Palo Alto University psychology professor who told the panel Thursday that Kavanaugh tried to rape her at a party in the early 1980s when they were both teenagers. Then, Feinstein remained in the hearing room as other senators declared their support or opposition to Kavanaugh. Sen. Kamala Harris, a senator for less than two years, walked out of the hearing room with three other Democratic senators to protest how the Republican majority was railroading Kavanaughs nomination. A short time later, the GOPs train left the tracks when a key swing vote, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he wanted an FBI investigation into Fords charges potentially delaying a full Senate decision on Kavanaughs nomination. When the vote came, Harris returned to the room and joined Feinstein and other Democrats in voting no on Kavanaugh. Flake, having stated his caveat, sided with fellow Republicans in the 11-10 vote to recommend the nominee. This is about raw power. Youre seeing that displayed in this hearing this morning, youve been seeing it from the process in the beginning, Harris said outside the committees hearing room after fellow Democratic Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island joined her in the walkout. Blumenthal later re-entered the chamber to give a speech. Moments ago I walked out of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Kavanaugh, Harris tweeted. This hearing is a sham and Dr. Ford and the American people deserve better. Their different roads to the same goal illustrated the senators philosophical and tactical differences. By the end of Friday, the short-term goal they were both advocating for materialized: President Trump asked for an FBI investigation into the latest allegations against Kavanaugh. Its the combination of both that is really doing the trick, said Melissa Michelson, a professor of political science at Menlo College in Menlo Park. The political theater helps keep the pressure on the public officials. But its in the quiet, behind-the-scenes meetings where deals get done. If it was just people yelling, there would be no deals done. If it was just behind-the-scenes talking without any public pressure, then nothing would happen. Feinstein, a Senate institutionalist, believes that collegiality is the best way to get things done in the worlds self-proclaimed greatest deliberative body. According to the opponent in her Senate re-election race, state Sen. Kevin de Leon, too often that means Feinstein defers to the Senates country club politics and doesnt fight hard enough. Harris, who often touts that she was at civil rights protests in a baby stroller with her parents, has less patience with the Senates glacial pace and arcane rules. Her aggressive questions of Kavanaugh and other Trump nominees have become viral video sensations, loved by the Democrats progressive base. Theres been speculation that Harris is preparing for a 2020 presidential run, and such moments would help her in the primaries. For Harris, walking out is more visible something that can be shared online and something she can use for a fundraising pitch, Michelson said. Its not just about her being opposed to Kavanaugh, but thinking, What else can I do with this that will help with my political career? Feinstein, meanwhile, is at a different place in her career. Even though de Leon has cut her lead in half since July, Feinstein still holds a 40 percent to 29 percent lead, according to a Public Policy Institute of California survey released Wednesday. She is secure (in her race), so she is speaking to her voters back home who already support her, Michelson said. Harris audience is national, so shes trying to increase her profile nationally. Harris protest started inside the committee room when the panels Republican chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, called for a vote to set the time for the committees vote on recommending Kavanaugh. Harris and another Democrat, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, said nothing when their names were called. Grassley admonished them for their silence, saying, It breaks our rules and customs. Theyre refusing to vote because this is so unfair, Mr. Chairman, said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. The protest was totally unplanned, Hirono said as she embraced Harris at a news conference. We were just so fed up. I cant stand it anymore. Kamala and I looked at each other, and we just knew in our hearts what we had to do, Hirono said. The Republicans on the committee, she said, have forgotten all the rules, all the norms, to push this person fast-forward to the Supreme Court. He (Kavanaugh) actually came out and said there was a left-wing conspiracy. Wow. Were going to put a conspiracy theorist on the Supreme Court? In her statement to the committee Friday, Feinstein said the nominee had launched an unusually partisan attack on Democrats the day before. He yelled at Democrats for having the temerity to express our frustration for not having access to over 90 percent of his record and said that some Democratic members were an embarrassment, Feinstein said. This was not someone who reflected an impartial temperament or the fairness and even-handedness one would see in a judge. This was someone who was aggressive and belligerent. Feinstein said she had hoped the Judiciary Committee had changed since 1991, when senators aggressively questioned Anita Hill, a law professor who alleged that then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her when they worked together at a federal agency. I started out by saying I hoped we would do better and show women that our country, our committee, has in fact changed, Feinstein said. While the Republican strategy is no longer attack the victim, it is ignore the victim. Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli Several Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have walked out of a hearing on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Kamala Harris of California, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island left after the GOP chairman set a vote on the nomination for 1:30 p.m. Friday. That was approved by a committee vote. Democrats say Republicans are rushing the confirmation. During that vote, Hirono yelled: "''I strongly object! What a railroad job! No, no, NO." Now Playing: Several Senate Democrats walked out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday after it became clear that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will likely pass the key committee vote later in the afternoon. Video: Time Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh riveted Washington and the nation with hours of fiery, emotional testimony. (Sept. 27) The Senate Judiciary Committee's vote to subpoena Mark Judge has been defeated in a party-line vote, with all 11 Republicans on the panel voting against the motion and all 10 Democrats voting for it. Democrats say Judge has never been interviewed by the FBI or questioned by a member of the committee, and that committee has a responsibility to subpoena Judge before it votes on whether to recommend Kavanaugh to the full Senate. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. The committee chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, has read a statement from Judge that says he doesn't recall the events described by Kavanaugh's accuser and "never saw Brett act" in the way that he's accused of. San Francisco got permission from the state Thursday to implement an expanded conservatorship system that supporters say will give the city more tools to treat the mentally ill and addicted people adrift on the citys streets. Mayor London Breed said she wants to move quickly to implement a plan. With Gov. Jerry Browns signature on SB1045, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles counties can create five-year pilot programs allowing them to expand the conditions under which a mentally ill or drug-addled person may be involuntarily held. The law is meant to provide greater flexibility to treat homeless people suffering from mental illness or addiction who might refuse treatment. The status quo is unacceptable it is not humane to allow San Franciscans struggling with severe mental illness and addiction to continue to suffer on our streets, Breed said in a statement. I have been a longtime supporter of strengthening our conservatorship laws and I look forward to moving quickly to implement this legislation at the local level so we can start providing care to those in need. The bill was authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. In June, Breed and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman traveled to Sacramento to urge state lawmakers to approve the bill. Previously, state law restricted the length of time people could be held or conserved against their will to 72 hours if they posed a danger to themselves or others, though counties could petition a judge for extensions. Under the new law, the city can petition a judge to hold a person for up to a year if theyve cycled through multiple so-called 5150 code for temporary commitments holds and are ineligible for outpatient treatment. During that year, the conserved person can petition for a hearing for release every month. I think every San Franciscan has the experience of walking out their door and onto their street and seeing people who are clearly sick and clearly unable to take care of themselves, Mandelman said. There are people who cannot take care of themselves, and its the job of government to step in and care for these people thats what underlies this legislation. Mandelman applauded the passage of SB1045, but cautioned that the bill is no panacea. Apart from procedural hurdles, city lawmakers will have to consider the fact that there is already a shortage of residential care beds and other resources for the mentally ill, he said. Theyll also likely face opposition from critics who claim the law will criminalize homelessness. There is already some apparent conflict within the Board of Supervisors about the bill. In April, a resolution supporting SB1045 sponsored by then-Supervisor Breed failed after the boards progressive wing opposed it, with several members saying they needed more time to review the law. The resolution had the backing of the boards moderate bloc. Mandelmans vocal support from the progressive wing could prove to be important in bridging the political divide. The city needed state authority to make any sweeping changes to local laws around conservatorship, but lawmakers have taken smaller steps in recent months. In May, the board voted to shift the authority over conservatorship cases from the district attorneys office to the city attorney so that they would be handled as civil rather than criminal cases. This summer, the board authorized additional staff for the city attorneys office so they could handle the additional workload. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa Steven Falk has worked for the small East Bay city of Lafayette since 1990. For 22 of those years, he was the city manager. Falk, 56, announced his resignation from the post at a city council meeting this week, citing the city's overarching NIMBY attitude. NIMBY stands for "Not In My Backyard" and is used to describe those who frequently oppose new developments. "Lafayette's animating mission since incorporation (in 1968) has been to use its municipal powers to stave off the Bay Area's inexorable urbanization," he wrote in his resignation statement, which he shared on Twitter. "During the same fifty year period, however, scientists have learned more about the earth's atmosphere and concluded that human activity and carbon emissions are responsible for climate change," he said. Falk, like many prominent city planners and academics, argues that rural suburbs are at odds with environmentalism. He believes that more dense and transit-oriented housing in places like Lafayette could be a step towards reducing suburban residents' carbon footprint. The median home price in Lafayette, a city with an estimated population of 26,440, is $1.5 million, per Zillow. Falk continued: "All cities even small ones have a responsibility to address the most significant challenges of our time: climate change, income inequality, and housing affordability." He goes on to describe Lafayette officials' attempts to thwart AB 2923, a bill currently sitting on Governor Jerry Brown's desk that would give BART zoning authority over its parking lots, making it harder for cities to get in the way. Earlier this month, Lafayette Mayor Don Tatzin, Vice Mayor Cameron Burks and three City Council members sent a letter to Brown urging him to veto AB 2923. "This bill takes away a constitutionally bestowed authority from our city, saddles our city with the cost of an unfunded mandate, stifles community engagement, and sets a dangerous statewide precedent all with no legitimate justification," the letter argues. Falk takes a different stance on AB 2923. He writes: "I believe that adding multifamily housing at the BART station is the best way for Lafayette to do its part, and it has therefore become increasingly difficult for me to support, advocate for, or implement policies that would thwart transit density." "My conscience won't allow it." Mayor Tatzin issued a statement on AB 2923 hours on Friday afternoon restating the city's opposition to the bill. Tatzin said the city would "welcome an approach from BART to work collaboratively on housing development in Lafayette." "Our opposition to AB 2923 is not based on a wish to limit housing development, but rather on the Bill's proposal to strip away local control over housing development and zoning, which we believe is enshrined in California's Constitution," the statement said. In his statement, Falk goes on to cite a handful of other measures Lafayette residents voted down by wide margins, including Measure C a sales tax that would have preserved natural space from development, increased downtown parking and acquired land for parks and Measure L, which would have allowed development along Deer Hill Road and the construction of new recreation facilities. "Elections have consequences," Falk writes, "and one is that Lafayette residents deserve a city manager who is better aligned with their priorities." Falk will step down at the end of the year. He did not respond to requests for comment. In his near-three decades working for the city, Falk instituted extensive repairs and improvements to municipal infrastructure, parks and recreation facilities. Notably he helmed the construction of the Veterans Memorial Building and the expansive Lafayette Library and Learning Center. Tatzin commended Falk for his years of service in a press release, citing the above accomplishments as well as his creation of the popular city slogan "Love Lafayette." Falk borrowed the phrase in his resignation letter, thanking the city for "the opportunity to serve this extraordinary community for so many years. I will always Love Lafayette!" The City Council has yet to determine a process for selecting Falk's successor. Read Falk's full statement here. Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com. Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. Nearly six months have passed since the Bay Area saw rain. That may change this weekend with a new weather pattern sweeping through the region to bring cooler temperatures and some light rainfall to the North Bay and East Bay, forecasters said. This is definitely the time of year we are starting to transition from our dry season, said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. October, November is when we start to transition into that weather pattern, he added. The most notable changes this weekend are expected to be felt at the higher elevations and the inland areas. Starting Friday, temperatures in inland areas, including Livermore, Concord and parts of the Napa and Sonoma valleys, will drop by about 10 degrees. Most of those areas will barely reach 70 degrees compared to the 80- and 90-degree temperatures from earlier this week. The North Bay could receive some light rainfall starting Saturday and the inland areas are expected to receive a dousing of precipitation by Monday, Gass said. Right now, there is a lot of uncertainty because things change that far out, especially this time of year, he said. Nonetheless, it does look like sometime Monday into Tuesday, we may have that next system come into the California coast and result in more widespread rainfall. Meanwhile, the changing weather pattern wont have much impact on San Francisco or Oakland. Temperatures in the two cities will likely remain in the lower 60s throughout the weekend. Because of the proximity to the bay, (San Francisco and Oakland) are not going to see that drastic change, Gass said. Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani Marc Benioff has suffused Salesforce with the Aloha spirit, which guides everything from corporate values to office decor. But now, in the age of heightened workplace sensitivity, some employees are starting to debate whether the obsession is honoring a culture or cultural appropriation. New employees are adorned with a lei and welcomed into the ohana the Hawaiian word for family. Maybe theyll have a meeting in conference rooms Maka Launa or Hala Kahiki. And at the end of the week they can join many of the other nearly 30,000 employees in wearing Hawaiian shirts, because every Friday is Aloha Shirt Day. After reaching milestones for years of service, they could be rewarded with a glass trophy in the shape of a surfboard. The Hawaiian theme has been an integral part of the corporate culture since the beginning. Benioff, the high-profile co-CEO, took a sabbatical after nearly a decade at Oracle, rented a beach hut on the Big Island of Hawaii, swam with dolphins and embraced the spirit of Aloha, according to the company blog. When he helped start Salesforce, the motif stuck. According to the blog, the Aloha spirit is one of inclusiveness, compassion, caring and enjoying a healthy dose of fun. Benioff sees it as a passion for giving that is a key tenet of company culture. But some employees have begun to feel that its gone too far. We do things that may feel Hawaiian, but that are not Hawaiian, wrote Andrew Afram, an experience architect at the San Francisco company, in a post late last year on an internal forum. All references to Hawaiian culture at Salesforce that Ive seen firsthand have been appropriation, misappropriation, or misrepresentation. Sarah Mei, whose LinkedIn profile lists her as an architect at Salesforce, prompted the discussion after writing on the forum that the company is justifiably open to charges of cultural appropriation. This is something we need to fix, from both an equality perspective and from a public perception perspective, wrote Mei, who had recently joined Salesforce at the time. Meis post, viewed more than 9,000 times internally, sparked a conversation with passionate views on both sides. Mei didnt respond to requests for comment. Afram declined to comment further. The thread saw regular contributions into June of this year, totaling about 130 posts, including from Chief Equality Officer Tony Prophet and Chief People Officer Cindy Robbins. This is an important topic that were actively discussing with our employees to address in a thoughtful way that honors our companys founding vision while respecting fully Hawaiian culture and history, Prophet wrote in response to a later post continuing the discussion on the forum. Yes some of the specific examples cited in the post and comments are problematic. We absolutely recognize there is more work to be done. Prophet highlighted the companys Hawaiian Culture Council, in which some of our employees have helped advise our business functions on the language and imagery used in our content and events. He also pointed to the companys Equality Inclusive Marketing Program, which he said identifies and eliminates cultural bias in new and existing programs. Salesforce has always had a deep respect for Hawaiian culture, the company said. It has been a part of the company since its founding, based on the idea that family including our employees, customers, partners and communities are bound together and responsible for one another. Were proud of our employees for being passionate and vocal. The debate is a sign of the changing norms in the technology industry in particular, and broader corporate culture generally, where executives are being held to higher standards of diversity and inclusion. People dont identify with these labels like they once did, said Tim Kuppler, director of culture and organization development at Human Synergistics, a corporate culture consulting firm. That may be due more to whats happening in society with #MeToo. Theres much more of a sense with Millennials to speak up and show your identity. If Salesforce wants to preserve the positive aspects of their culture, they need to make sure theyre on the leading edge of where society has been going, he said. Usually, Benioff is on the vanguard of techs progressive movement. Hes spent millions to close the gender pay gap at Salesforce and aggressively lobbied for LGBT rights. But the controversy shows that there are times when Benioffs efforts to be an enlightened leader may not strike the right tone with everyone. Only 57 people out of Salesforces 18,264 U.S. workers are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, according to the companys annual diversity report for 2017. Blaine Kahoonei is one of them, and a Salesforce veteran of more than 14 years, currently the director of alliances for Heroku a Salesforce cloud program in the Americas. In a response to Meis original post, he said he had been approached by many other staff with similar concerns about the Hawaiian culture. Kahoonei, who did not respond to a request for comment, said in the post that he had talked with senior officials about the use of Hawaiian culture and was working on ways to apply a more native Hawaiian context to company resources. Other employees defended the Hawaiian theme. We are not dressing up as Hawaiian Islanders and pretending to be them for Halloween, Shannon McKinney wrote on the thread. We are not using racial slurs against Hawaiians in our companys terminology. It seems to me that Marc Benioff and company culture embraces the Hawaiian culture as something we want to emulate in spirit. McKinney, who has since left Salesforce, declined to comment further. With offices adorned in bright colors and Hawaiian accents, Salesforces island theme has contributed to its perennial presence on Best Places to Work lists; the company has been in the top 50 of Glassdoors best large American places to work for seven of the past eight years and tops Fortunes list this year. For Benioff, the cult of Hawaii is real. He owns an opulent 5-acre estate on the coast of the Big Island, and he had a dog he named Koa (the dog was given the title of Chief Love Officer at Salesforce). According to Kahooneis post, Benioffs personal kahu, a sort of spiritual and cultural adviser, is Danny Akaka Jr., the son of the late senator, who has blessed the companys Dreamforce conference multiple times, and also the site of the Salesforce tower. In November, Benioff and wife Lynne purchased a rare piece of Hawaiian art, a 200-year-old carving of the war god Ku, for $7 million and donated the piece to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. He also supported relief efforts after a volcanic eruption in the state this year. When asked about Salesforces use of native Hawaiian theme, Kamanaopono Crabbe, CEO of the states office of Hawaiian affairs, invited company officials to meet with the office and Native Hawaiian community leaders to discuss how to best incorporate Hawaiian culture and values into their corporate structure and to establish a relationship with the Native Hawaiian community and Hawaii. Native Hawaiian values are reciprocal by design and, when used in a pono (appropriate) manner, honor native Hawaiians and this incredible place from which these values originate, Crabbe said in a statement. Austin Weinstein is a Bloomberg writer. Email: aweinstein18@ bloomberg.net What do you hate shopping for? Toothpaste? Sunscreen? The guys who founded Harrys shaving club want to know. Armed with $112 million in new financing, the online startup that took on razor giants Gillette and Schick with its direct-to-consumer subscription model is investigating what other sleepy products might be ripe for disruption. It might be better products, a better experience getting the products or a brand that appeals to who they want to be as people, said Jeff Raider, who recently took on the role of CEO of Harrys Labs, overseeing the development of new brands. Theres a reason Harrys investors are betting that reinventing the razor was no flash-in-the-pan idea. Insurgent brands are shaking up the way people buy everything from mattresses to prescription acne remedies, eating into the market share of big consumer product companies and leaving them scrambling to respond. Eager venture capitalists, digital technology and social media make it easier for anyone with a good idea to enter the consumer goods market, according to a report on insurgent brands by Bain & Co., a management consulting firm. Contract manufacturing, which allows companies to outsource production and sometimes defray costs, also has made it simpler. The reality is that no category is immune to disruption, the Bain & Co. report said. Digital newcomers still represent only a fraction of the overall market share, according to the report. But such companies are capturing a disproportionate share of growth in recent years. Harrys has captured about 2 percent of the $2.8 billion mens shaving industry since it started in 2013, according to Euromonitor market research firm. Its main rival, Dollar Shave Club, has about 8 percent. Its been a gut punch to the industry leaders. Gillette controlled about 70 percent of the U.S. market a decade ago. Last year, its market share dropped to below 50 percent, according to Euromonitor. No. 2 razor maker Schick has also been squeezed, losing 3.6 percent in net North America razor sales in the most recent quarter. Both major brands now offer subscription services on their own direct-to-consumer websites, which they are using to promote their lower-end razors while also showcasing their edge in technological innovation. Our blades are known for their long-lasting quality, which means you need less cartridges per year as compared to the other shave clubs in the market, said Stephanie Lynn, vice president of Global eCommerce for Edgewell. Pankaj Bhalla, brand director of Gillette North America, said increasing its online sales is a key part of our strategy. He offers a reality check for the shave clubs: While Gillette might be new to the direct-to-consumer game, the brand has 70 percent of the sales on online retailers like Amazon and Jet. But critics say both big companies were slow to respond to the new competition. Initially, the biggest players underestimated the potential of these brands, and when they reacted either by dropping prices or by launching their own subscription models, the damage was done, said Fatima Linares, beauty and fashion research manager at Euromonitor International. Its still unknown what these companies will do to revert the situation, or if that is possible at all. Harrys says it now has 5 million customers in the U.S. and Canada. It says business has grown 70 percent annually, though it does not release sales figures. For Harrys and Dollar Shave Club, simplicity is the point. Harrys sells just one five-blade razor with a choice of two types of handles, priced at about $2 per cartridge under their subscription plan. Dollar Shave Club offers a four-blade and a six-blade razor, with the cheaper one priced at $1.50 per cartridge. It is a deliberate contrast to the dizzying array of razors offered by Gillette and Schick, the legacy of their century-old tradition of trying to outdo each other. Their lower-end products are priced comparatively with the shaving clubs, while their premium razors are much more expensive. How the newcomers compare in quality is a matter of furious social media debate. Harrys gets its share of negative reviews from customers who say its razors feel cheap, but others are fiercely loyal. Greg Lesko, a 56-year-old Harrys customer from the Pittsburgh area, said he became fed up with Gillettes high prices. I wouldnt go back if you paid me, he said. Like other insurgent companies, Harrys and Dollar Shave Club took off because they tapped into shoppers grievances. Raider said he hopes to mine the 2 million interactions Harrys has had with customers to find more gripes. On Facebook, Harrys told one curious customer that shampoo and conditioner are in the works. Another possibility? Sunscreen. Raider says its expensive and should be marketed for everyday use, not beach trips. Theyre also not ruling out products to help men take care of beards. It will take time for us to understand those guys, the clean-shaven Raider said. Maybe Andy and I will have to grow big beards. Alexandra Olson is an Associated Press writer. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 28) The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) spurned a pending bill before the Senate which aims to to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility to above 12 years old. "This is a giant leap backward. Based on its explanatory note, the Bill argues that lowering the age of criminal responsibility will curb criminality and stop adults from using children. This is a flawed argument. Already disadvantaged children, exploited by adults should not be further penalised," the UNICEF statement on Wednesday read. UNICEF was referring to Senate Bill 2026, filed by Senate President Tito Sotto on Monday. The bill, if passed, will lower the criminal age of liability to 13. Children from nine years old up to 12 years of age who committed crimes would be exempt from criminal liability, and will be put under appropriate intervention programs. READ: Rights group cited in Sotto bill rejects move to lower minimum age of criminal responsibility "By lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility, syndicate groups who exploit children into committing crimes for them, will instead use and abuse even younger children to commit their wrongdoings," it said. It argued a 12-year-old child is not a teenager, and a nine-year-old has not yet reached the average puberty age. "These ages are too young and exposing them to the harshness of the criminal justice system, where even adults are rightly intimidated, is a grave wrongdoing," it said. The agency added the country only needs to strongly implement Republic Act 9344, or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006. "What the current law needs is not another arbitrary amendment but a stronger implementation. Efforts from the judiciary and the executive agencies like the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council, Departments of Education and Social Welfare and Development are ongoing, noteworthy and deserving of full support of Congress," UNICEF said. It called on government to uphold children's rights, in line with its international obligations to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. President Rodrigo Duterte, who is in support of the measure, criticized Senator Francis Pangilinan anew. Pangilinan, an opposition senator, was the author of RA 9344. "Pa-pretty boy pretty boy, to keep abreast with the changing times. And he does not bother to research now that America from where he copes these things have reverted back to treating youthful offenders, tried as adult offenders, for grave and less grave offenses," Duterte said in a speech Thursday. Duterte then said he expects the senator to lose if he decides to run for a second term. "Siya pa 'yung presidente ng Liberal (Party), tingnan mo pati siya hindi manalo 'yan," he said. [Translation: He's the President of the Liberal Party. You'll see, he wouldn't win.] But Pangilinan said Duterte must focus on larger issues. "Instead of attacking those who disagree with his policies he should just focus on solving the nationwide rice crisis, bringing down the high prices of basic commodities, and creating jobs and better pay for our people who are now struggling desperately to make ends meet," Pangilinan said in a statement Friday. Ongoing FEMA has closed some of its Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC), established last month to assist residents and businesses whose property was damaged by Tropical Storm Ida. However, face-to-face assistance is still available. Residents can find their nearest DRC online at fema.gov/drc,... The flight deal gurus at Thrifty Traveler have teamed up with SFGate to provide a weekly roundup of the best domestic and international flight deals from the San Francisco Bay Area. (This is the first edition of a new weekly feature called Friday Fare Deals. If you are a Bay Area bargain hunter, but sure to tune in each Friday morning) HAWAII: Competition to Hawaii continues to heat up as an announcement about Southwest Airlines' intentions for the islands approaches. In the last couple weeks, weve seen fares dipping as low as $264 from all three Bay Area airports. Most of the Hawaiian islands are now available for under $350 nonstop through February. Typical pricing for these routes is around $450. Currently the best deals are to Kona on the Big Island where demand has taken a hit due to the images of hot lava that were seared on our brains last summer. The cheapest deals are sub-$300 but require a stop in LA. As usual these low fares are good for midweek flights - weekend flights are significantly higher. $292 - Oakland (OAK) to Kona (KOA) $292 - San Jose (SJC) to Kona (KOA) $336 - San Francisco (SFO) to Maui (OGG) - NONSTOP NASHVILLE: Alaska is going head to head with United for cheap fares to popular Nashville, Tennessee through February. Typical pricing is $335, but weve found fares running below $200 roundtrip which is remarkable. Alaska fares include advanced seat assignment and free carry-on. United fares are Basic Economy which does not include advanced seat assignment or free carry-on. $196 - San Francisco (SFO) to Nashville (BNA) AUSTIN: Alaska is offering cheap fares on the famous nerd bird flights between the tech capitals of San Jose and Austin, Texas through February. Alaska fares include advanced seat assignment and free carry-on. Typical pricing is $305- we found them well below $200. Jump! $176 - San Jose (SJC) to Austin (AUS) EUROPE: This week we are seeing some of the best airline flash sales of the year with pricing dipping as low as $295 for fares to Europe flying American, Delta, and United. No budget airlines here! Best availability through next spring. These fares wont last long! Typical pricing is in excess of $650 but weve found fares below $300 round trip. Thats crazy! For more international flight deal notifications, check out Thrifty Traveler Premium. $295 - San Francisco (SFO) - Barcelona (BCN) - Finnair via Helsinki $377 - San Francisco (SFO) - Paris (CDG) - United nonstop $379 - San Francisco (SFO) - Munich (MUC) - American $463 - San Francisco (SFO) - Amsterdam (AMS) - Delta/KLM nonstop All flights are best found via the Google Flights links listed above. New to Google Flights? Check out Thrifty Travelers guide. All fares are round-trip and valid at the time of posting, but as always subject to change. Learn more about Thrifty Traveler here. And come back here next week for another heaping helping of low fare deals. Did you find a deal? Wanna go somewhere else? Have a burning fare question? Let us know in the comments! Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis. This article, WikiLeaks replaces Julian Assange as its editor-in-chief, originally appeared on CNET.com. Julian Assange, who has served as WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief since he founded the document-leaking site in 2006, has been replaced as the site's top editor. WikiLeaks, in a tweet announcing the appointment of a new editor, cited the organization's inability to communicate with Assange for the past six months as the reason behind the move. Kristinn Hrafnsson, a journalist from Iceland, will become the site's new top editor, but Assange will remain its publisher, WikiLeaks said Wednesday. Assange has been holed up in a small room in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for more than six years, initially entering it to avoid extradition for a rape charge in Sweden. The country dropped that charge but he's still facing a UK charge of skipping bail. The UK maintains that Assange's exile is self-imposed, and in February a judge upheld a warrant for his arrest. But Ecuadorian officials have apparently grown weary of Assange's presence in the embassy, saying in January that his situation is "not sustainable." Assange -- a frequent Twitter user -- lost his internet privileges in March when the Ecuadorian government said he violated an agreement with the country not to interfere in its relations with other countries. Assange is concerned that if he leaves the embassy the US may also seek to extradite him on espionage charges. Last year, the US Justice Department was reportedly considering filing criminal charges against WikiLeaks and Assange in connection with the 2010 leak of diplomatic cables and military documents. Over the past 12 years, WikiLeaks says it's released more than 10 million secret government documents through its website. The leaks range from a video showing an American Apache helicopter in the Iraq War shooting and killing two journalists, to emails from the Democratic National Committee exposing alleged misconduct during the 2016 presidential campaign. The Justice Department under former President Barack Obama declined to press charges for revealing the sensitive secrets, concluding that WikiLeaks was working in a capacity akin to journalism. But the case was never formally closed, and the Justice Department under President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness to take another look at the case. In June, an international group of lawyers appealed to the UN's Human Rights Council regarding concerns that Assange's protracted confinement is having a severe impact on his physical and mental health. Security: Stay up-to-date on the latest in breaches, hacks, fixes and all those cybersecurity issues that keep you up at night. Blockchain Decoded: CNET looks at the tech powering bitcoin -- and soon, too, a myriad services that will change your life. An aviation bill Congress is rushing to approve contains a little-noticed section that would give authorities the power to track, intercept and destroy drones they consider a security threat, without needing a judges approval. Supporters say law enforcement needs the authority to protect Americans from terrorists who are learning how to use drones as deadly weapons. They point to the Islamic State terrorist groups use of bomb-carrying drones on battlefields in Iraq, and warn that terrorists could go after civilian targets in the United States. Critics say the provision would give the government unchecked power to decide when drones are a threat. They say the government could use its newfound power to restrict drone-camera news coverage of protests or controversial government facilities, such as the new detention centers for young migrants. The provision is tucked in a huge bill that provides $1.7 billion in disaster relief and authorizes programs of the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates drones. The House approved the measure Wednesday by a 398-23 vote, and the Senate is expected pass it on to President Trumps desk in the coming days. The White House signaled support of the drone provision in July. Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, introduced the Preventing Emerging Threats Act this year. It would give the Homeland Security Department and the Justice Department power to develop and deploy a system to spot, track and shoot down drones, as unmanned aircraft are called. Officers would have the authority to hack a drone operators signal and take control of the device. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the measure would finally give federal law enforcement the authority we need to counter the use of drones by drug traffickers, terrorists and criminals. Opponents including the American Civil Liberties Union argue that the proposal gives the government unchecked power to track and seize drones without regard for the privacy and free speech rights of legitimate drone operators. It exempts the government agencies from certain laws, including limits on wiretapping. The bill provides no oversight or means to question a government decision about what is a credible threat and what is an asset or facility in need of protection from drones. David Koenig is an Associated Press writer. NEW ORLEANS Its not the detailed craftsmanship or the age of the small, brass, black-enameled binoculars that might fetch a French Quarter antique gallerys asking price of $795,000. Its the history: Abraham Lincoln is believed to have used them to get a better view of the stage at Fords Theatre on the night he was assassinated. M.S. Rau Antiques recently acquired the binoculars, known as opera glasses, from a seller who has remained anonymous. Previous owners have included the Forbes family of publishing fame the magazine reportedly paid $24,000 for them in 1979. Others include generations of descendants of Capt. James McCamly, a military officer believed to have picked the opera glasses up from the street after they fell from Lincolns near-lifeless body (its unclear if they were in the presidents hands or entangled in his clothing) as he was carried out of the theater on the night of April 14, 1865. We deal in history and we deal in great pieces, and this is one of the most exciting pieces weve ever owned, said Bill Rau, the third-generation owner of the century-old family business. Rau said he had been contacted roughly two weeks earlier by the previous owner, who said he had paid $424,000 for the opera glasses at Christies auction house in 2002. He was interested in selling. Hes now in his 80s and hes suffered some health issues, and thats why he called us, Rau said. The story behind the artifact: After Lincoln was shot, McCamly was among those helping move the mortally wounded president from the theater to a building across the street. Something fell from Lincolns body and McCamly picked it up. He found the binoculars in his pocket the next day. Its unclear whether he tried to return them amid the turmoil following the presidents death. They were handed down within the family from generation to generation. Documents attesting to their authenticity include a 1968 letter from a National Park Service chief curator to McCamlys great-great-grandson, who was seeking to verify family lore. It said the opera glasses precisely fit a case picked up in Lincolns box the night he was shot. There have been skeptics. Another park service curator told the Washington Post in 2011 that she doubted the opera glasses would still have been on Lincolns person as he was carried across the street and that the case in which they fit may have been Mary Todd Lincolns. But past buyers have been convinced of the artifacts authenticity, as is Rau, who pointed to a tiny dent in one eyepiece as evidence lending credibility to the McCamly family story. (The Christies website description of the glasses notes a small crack in one lens as if dropped.) Certainly, our belief, and the markets belief, from what theyve sold for in the past, is that they are the real thing, Rau said. Rau says the binoculars will be sold to whoever comes up with the sale price, but he adds that his hope is that they go to a collector or museum who will put them on public view. They are, he says, a pivotal piece of American history. Kevin McGill is an Associated Press writer. House Republicans plan to privately question the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, about discussions last year where he suggested secretly taping President Trump to expose a chaotic White House and removing him from office under the 25th Amendment. Rosenstein and Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, spoke Thursday night and agreed to schedule a meeting in the coming weeks, Goodlatte said in a statement. There are many questions we have for Mr. Rosenstein, including questions about allegations made against him in a recent news article, Goodlatte said, referring to the New York Times article last week that revealed Rosensteins discussions with other law enforcement officials. We need to get to the bottom of these very serious claims. House Democrats complained that they were left out of the planning and pledged to push to attend the meeting. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said his Republican colleagues cannot be left alone in a room with Rosenstein. They will not stop until their attempt to undermine Muellers investigation is complete, he wrote on Twitter. The meeting was the latest episode in a protracted feud between Rosenstein and a group of House Republicans loyal to Trump, who have long assailed the deputy attorney general as uncooperative with their efforts to conduct oversight of the Justice Department. Democrats have accused the Republicans of targeting Rosenstein because he oversees the special counsel investigation and forcing him to accede to onerous congressional demands. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a close ally of Trumps, said if Rosenstein does not comply with their latest request, he will be subpoenaed to appear before lawmakers. Rosenstein, who has denied the Times account, was said to be prepared to resign after his comments were reported and met with West Wing advisers Monday morning but left the White House with his job still intact. Trump said days later that he did not want to remove Rosenstein and postponed a meeting with him to next week. In July, Meadows and 10 other House Republicans introduced articles of impeachment to force out Rosenstein, a long-shot bid that would require the support of a majority of the House to succeed, followed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict him. Eileen Sullivan is a New York Times writer. Most people thought the problem of polychlorinated biphenyls known as PCBs had been solved. Some countries began banning the toxic chemicals in the 1970s and 1980s, and worldwide production was ended with the 2001 Stockholm Convention. But a new study based on modeling shows that they are lingering in the blubber of killer whales and they could end up wiping out half the worlds population of killer whales in coming decades. It certainly is alarming, said Jean-Pierre Desforges, a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark and the lead author on the new study published Thursday in the journal Science. Whales sit at the top of their food chain. Chemicals like PCBs are taken up by plankton at the base of the food chain, then eaten by herring and other small fish, which are themselves eaten by larger fish, and so on. At each step in this chain, PCBs get more and more concentrated. The most at-risk killer whales are those that eat seals and other animals that are themselves fairly high on the food chain and quite contaminated, Desforges said. Killer whale populations in Alaska, Norway, Antarctica and the Arctic among other places, where chemical levels are lower, will probably continue to grow and thrive, the study found. But animals living in more industrialized areas, off the coasts of the United Kingdom, Brazil, Hawaii and Japan, and in the Strait of Gibraltar, are at high risk of population collapse from just the PCBs alone not counting other threats. Dave Duffus, who directs the whale research lab at the University of Victoria in Canada and was not involved in the new research, said its conclusions are shocking, but I dont doubt them. Whales near him in the Pacific Northwest are surrounded by contaminants, face changes in their food supply and are continually bombarded with noise. You can see the downtrend in their population, Duffus said. Also known as orcas, killer whales are intelligent, social animals that pass survival information from grandmother to mother to daughter, Desforges said. Different populations have distinct dialects. The researchers used blubber samples to estimate the amount of PCB contamination in killer whales around the world. They also developed a model to forecast the amount of PCBs passed on to calves through the placenta and breast milk as well as from eating prey. Researchers then compared these concentrations to the known damage that can come from different amounts of PCBs. According to their calculations, about half the killer whale populations in the world will stop expanding and then will shrink in coming decades. Desforges said he could not be certain how long it would take for these populations to collapse, but his team estimated the impact of contamination over a century and the clock started ticking about 40 years ago when PCB exposure levels were at their highest, he said. PCB exposures declined with the bans, but levels have stopped falling in long-lived marine predators such as killer whales, he said. The whales only very slowly metabolize the PCBs during a life span of 50 to 80 years in the wild, Desforges said. PCBs remain the highest chemical contaminant in the whales blubber, and are known to disrupt the whales reproductive, endocrine, thyroid and immune systems, harm their brains and trigger cancer. Other chemicals are also present, but in lower concentrations and with far less known about their potential hazards, he said. Were looking at one contaminant among many, and this is one risk factor among many, Desforges said. Despite the depressing results, Desforges said he remained hopeful about the future of killer whales. Its not a dead-end story. Theres still lots we can do about this, Desforges said. Many countries are not living up to their commitments to dispose of old, PCB-contaminated equipment appropriately by 2028, he said, so more could be done to keep new PCBs from entering the oceans. He said he hoped that policymakers would do more to help protect them, with the study helping to persuade them as well as the substantial appeal orcas have with the public. If killer whales cant do it in the water, like pandas on terrestrial sites, I dont know who will, he said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. With sunny weather in the foreseeable forecast, "beach days" are here again. And in the Bay Area, the choices of sandy getaways along the coast and within SF Bay abound. The burning question is: What are you looking for? Do you crave a long stretch of sand at the foot of Mt. Tam? Seclusion in San Mateo County? Mellow surfing? Getting pummeled by huge waves? Warm shallow waters for the kids? A place to get naked? Elephant seals? No matter what, we've got you covered. WASHINGTON The Senate Judiciary Committee was set to convene Friday morning to decide Judge Brett Kavanaughs future: a procedural vote that would pave the way for a seat on the Supreme Court or halt the contentious nomination process a day after compelling testimony from the judge and a woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her. As the 21 senators on the committee gathered, it remained unclear how one key Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona would vote after hearing tearful and compelling accounts from Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. Flake has given few hints in recent days about his vote. He pushed hard behind the scenes for Thursdays hearing to happen, telling party leaders he could not vote yes without hearing from Blasey and Kavanaugh. But his public remarks in recent days, focused primarily on the dignity that had been stripped from the nomination process, have left fellow senators scratching their heads. He declined to question Kavanaugh on Thursday, using his brief remarks in the hearing room to chastise colleagues for their maximalist positions. There is doubt, he said. Well never move beyond that. But Republican leaders felt confident enough that they had Flakes support late Thursday to go forward with Fridays vote. It could take several hours Friday to actually get to a vote. Democrats on the committee are all but sure to attempt to delay the proceedings as they have in the past with demands for an FBI investigation of the accusations and a delay in the vote. If the committee votes in favor of Kavanaughs nomination for the lifetime appointment, the question of whether he should be the next Supreme Court justice would go to the full Senate. Only a handful of senators have said they were undecided Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat. White House spokesman Raj Shah said Friday morning that he cannot say for certain that the four senators would vote in favor of Kavanaugh. In an interview with CNN, Shah said Kavanaughs testimony Thursday helped move the senators in the right direction. Kavanaugh and Blasey provided hours of moving testimony Thursday, streaming live on cable news networks, as the committee and the nation heard Blaseys trembling account of a sexual assault and Kavanaughs enraged denial and defense of his reputation. Senators on the committee will decide whether Blaseys story was too credible to risk putting a judge accused of sexual assault on the Supreme Court or whether Kavanaughs denials were convincing enough to go through with the nomination, despite Blaseys accusation. Blasey said she was 100 percent sure that Kavanaugh is the teenager who tried to rape her at a small party during the summer of 1982 in a Washington suburb. Kavanaugh was just as certain that the event never happened: Zero, Im 100 percent certain. The committee ignored a request Thursday evening from the American Bar Association to postpone the vote until Blaseys sexual assault allegation, and those from other women, were investigated by the FBI. It was a significant request from the organization, which had previously endorsed Kavanaughs nomination. During testimony Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., singled out the weight the association carries in the legal community, calling it the gold standard. The testimonies of Blasey and Kavanaugh were peppered with tears, explicit details of sexual assault, scientific explanations of how the brain processes trauma and memories, and descriptions of sophomoric behavior among some students at an elite all-boys preparatory school outside of Washington. The Senates votes on Kavanaughs nomination were already expected to be decided by a slim majority, marking the polarized political divide in the country. But Blaseys accusation and those raised by two other women pitched the contentious nomination process into the ongoing tensions between the Trump presidency and womens rights and the #MeToo movement. Kavanaugh on Thursday dismissed the accusations from two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, who said that they either experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct by a drunken young Kavanaugh in high school or college. Kavanaugh called Swetnicks accusation he had participated in the drugging of women and gang rape while he was in high school a joke and a farce. Republicans accused the Democrats of intentionally delaying the release of Blaseys allegations to maximize the political impact just weeks before the midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their hold on both the House and the Senate. Democrats called for a pause in the nomination process to make time for the FBI to investigate the womens claims. Even as Kavanaugh on Thursday spoke of the allegations ruining his life, he stopped short of saying there should be an FBI inquiry to clear his name. This article originally appeared in The New York Times WASHINGTON The Trump administration has completed its plan to roll back major offshore-drilling safety regulations that were put in place after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in 2010 that killed 11 people and caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The Interior Departments Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which was established after the spill in the Gulf of Mexico and regulates offshore oil and gas drilling, has finalized a proposal for loosening the regulations as part of President Donald Trumps efforts to ease restrictions on fossil fuel companies and encourage domestic energy production. The rules created potentially unduly burdensome requirements for oil and natural gas production operators on the outer continental shelf, without meaningfully increasing safety of the workers or protection of the environment, says the new 176-page rule, which is scheduled in the coming days to be published in the Federal Register, before becoming the administrations final policy. This rule supports the administrations objective of facilitating energy dominance by encouraging increased domestic oil and gas production and reducing unnecessary burdens on stakeholders, while ensuring safety and environmental protection, the new rule says. A spokeswoman for the Interior Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Among the changes, the new rule removes a requirement for independent verification of safety measures and equipment used on offshore platforms. It also removes a requirement that oil companies design their equipment to function in most extreme scenarios involving weather, high heat, strong winds or high pressure from within the undersea oil wells, which was a key factor in the deadly 2010 blowout. And it removes a requirement that professional engineers certify the safety of the design of some pieces of offshore drilling equipment for new wells. The new rule appears to reflect many of the requests made by the oil industry, including the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies on behalf of oil companies. In its public comments on the proposal, the group praised the plan, saying it would further the goal of seeing that exploration and development is promoted and not unnecessarily delayed or inhibited. A spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, Ben Marter, declined to comment on the rule, which has not yet been made public, until the organization has had time to review it. Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, praised the rule changes. The revisions develop a rule that reduces unnecessary burdens placed on industry, while still maintaining world-class safety and environmental protections, he said in a statement. We have a rule that is not a safety rollback, but instead incorporates modern technological advances. The earlier rules, written in 2016 during the administration of President Barack Obama, tightened controls on blowout preventers, devices that are intended to stop explosions in undersea oil and gas wells, and called for rig operators to have third parties certify that the safety devices worked under extreme conditions. In the Deepwater Horizon spill, a supposedly fail-safe blowout preventer ended up failing after a section of drill pipe buckled. Nearly 1 million coastal and offshore seabirds are estimated to have died in the spill, which released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the sea. The incident led to the largest environmental settlement in the nations history, with the oil giant BP agreeing to pay $18.7 billion in civil penalties and damages to the federal government and affected states. Environmentalists decried the final rule change. These rollbacks allow offshore oil companies to self-police and prioritize industry profits over safety, said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for offshore drilling at Oceana, an advocacy group. This is a slap in the face to coastal communities and marine life that are most at risk from devastating oil spills. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A local anti-fascism activist group is organizing a non-violent rally today to protest the impending confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Activists from RefuseFascism.org will gather at 5:30 p.m. at the intersection of Powell and Market streets in San Francisco. They plan to denounce the Trump administration as it stands "poised to impose an extreme and long-lasting transformation of the highest court in this country and a major leap in the consolidation of fascism," the group announced in a statement today. RefuseFascism says it engages in non-violent political protest. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A state appeals court has rejected a challenge by the San Francisco Police Officers Association to two provisions of a revised use of force policy adopted by the city's Police Commission in 2016. The two items are bans on shooting at a moving vehicle in most circumstances and a prohibition on using carotid restraint, a type of chokehold. A three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeal on Wednesday unanimously upheld San Francisco Superior Court Judge Newton Lam's conclusion that provisions were managerial decisions by the commission and were not subject to union negotiations. The commission adopted the revised policy on Dec. 21, 2016, after reaching a consensus with the police union and other groups on provisions of the policy other than the two items contested by the POA. In its lawsuit, the POA sought to compel arbitration on its claim that the city should have continued negotiations on the two disputed items. But the appeals court said the issue was not subject to arbitration because the city had not agreed with the union to submit its determinations about the revised policy to arbitration. 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. PALO ALTO (BCN) Donations for a Palo Alto professor who has brought sexual assault allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh have spiked since she gave her testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. One GoFundMe page for Christine Blasey Ford, which originally had a goal of $175,000, has now collected over $440,000 in donations. The page only had $175,000 in donations as of this morning, according to GoFundMe spokeswoman Katherine Cichy. The fundraiser aims to cover all costs Ford may incur while proving her allegations. "To be very clear, we have designated the Ford Family as the beneficiary of these funds. We cannot take the money out or otherwise direct the funds," Cichy said in an email. Another page created by a Georgetown law professor for Ford's security expenses has stopped accepting donations after it surpassed its goal by about $25,000, Cichy said. During Ford's lengthy testimony in front of Senate leaders today, she mentioned the donation pages as a source of financial support. Her attorneys said last week that Ford and her family had been subjected to death threats and varying levels of harassment after her allegations were leaked and she was forced to identify herself in the Washington Post on Sept. 16. She alleged that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes at a party in Maryland in the early 1980s when he was 17 and she was 15. She also alleged in the Post that Kavanaugh covered her mouth when she tried to scream. Kavanaugh, who is currently a judge of the United States Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia Circuit, vehemently denied the allegations during his testimony today. "My life is totally and permanently altered," he said in his opening statement, claiming the allegations have brought immeasurable pain to his family. 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. Crews working at San Francisco's now-closed Salesforce Transit Center found no additional cracks after two were found in steel beams earlier this week, officials with the Transbay Joint Powers Authority said. Authority officials made the announcement Thursday. Crews assessed and tested the steel beams in preparation for shoring-up the area, which could happen as early as this weekend. Also in preparation for the shoring, crews removed ceiling panels, moved light fixtures and utilities and are relocating some overhead systems for San Francisco Municipal Railway electric buses, according to TJPA officials. The first crack was discovered in a steel beam on the third-level bus deck above Fremont Street on Tuesday by workers installing ceiling panels. The discovery caused TJPA officials to abruptly close the $2.2 billion facility and as well as the portion of Fremont Street located directly below the bus deck, between Howard and Mission streets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk for allegedly sending false and misleading tweets about a potential plan to take the Palo Alto-based electric car company private. The SEC sued Musk Thursday. The civil lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York City. It asks for an injunction prohibiting violations of securities laws, forfeiture of any "ill-gotten gains," civil penalties and a court order barring Musk from serving as a director or officer of any publicly traded company. Tesla is a publicly traded company. Musk, 47, of Los Angeles, co-founded it in 2003, has been its board chair since then and became the CEO in 2008. The allegedly false and misleading statements began with a now-famous tweet Musk sent to his 22 million followers on Aug. 7, saying, "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." In fact, the lawsuit alleges, Musk had not discussed specific deal terms with any potential financing partners and knew the possible transaction was uncertain. The San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office has confirmed that a torso found inside a fish tank at a San Francisco home last month is that of 65-year-old Brian Egg. Egg was reported missing by his family on Aug. 7 and on Aug. 17 investigators looking into his disappearance found what they believed to be his torso inside a fish tank in a concealed part of his home, located in the 200 block of Clara Street. Days before the discovery, on Aug. 14, officers had responded to the South of Market neighborhood home after neighbors reported a suspicious person going into Egg's home. When officers entered the home, they became suspicious because of the smell and the cleaning products in use by the suspicious person, who officers detained. Officers obtained a warrant to search the home and with help from cadaver dogs, Egg's home was searched over a four-day period, culminating in the discovery of his body on Aug. 17. Two small fires started when a helicopter contracted by PG&E hit a power line near Calistoga causing a power outage early affecting 8,300 PG&E customers in Calistoga and Lake County, a PG&E spokeswoman said. The fires started Thursday afternoon. The fires occurred in the 3000 block of Palisades Road in unincorporated Napa County just north of Calistoga, Cal Fire spokesman Will Powers said. The fires burned a half-acre and one acre, Powers said. Only 17 customers were without power in Calistoga early Thursday evening, PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said PG&E this week said it is patrolling Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties with a Bell 407 helicopter and a Bell 206L3 Ranger helicopter to look for vegetation near electric lines in high fire threat areas. A helicopter with three contractors aboard was patrolling the Calistoga area Thursday when it touched a power line, Contreras confirmed. Volunteers have begun setting up the sanctioned Hope Village homeless encampment in its new home in San Jose for at least the next six months. The volunteers began their work Thursday morning. The encampment, which began as an unsanctioned collection of fenced-off tents and privately funded resources, began rallying local support after it received an eviction notice from the California Highway Patrol earlier this month. Santa Clara County leaders eventually agreed to a short-term lease from the city of San Jose for $1 a month. Hope Village will now be regarded as a pilot program for other sanctioned encampments in the area. About 12 people had already been living in tents at the location for up to seven years. County officials said they were given motel vouchers and allowed to return when the renovations were complete. A woman convicted for a drunk driving crash in Concord that injured a California Highway Patrol officer in January was sentenced THursday to six years in prison, Contra Costa County prosecutors said. Tammy Walker was convicted earlier this year of two felonies for the crash around 6:15 p.m. on Jan. 15 on eastbound state Highway 4 at Port Chicago Highway that injured CHP officer Martin Lendway. Walker had a prison term suspended by Judge Barry Baskin when he granted her probation, but she was "uncooperative" when entering a treatment program that was a condition of her probation, so was rejected from the program, prosecutors said. The district attorney's office asked for the six-year sentence in the wake of the probation violation. 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) Crews working through the night at San Francisco's now-closed Salesforce Transit Center found no additional cracks after two were found in steel beams earlier this week, officials with the Transbay Joint Powers Authority said today. Overnight, crews assessed and tested the steel beams in preparation for shoring-up the area, which could happen as early as this weekend. Also in preparation for the shoring, crews removed ceiling panels, moved light fixtures and utilities and are relocating some overhead systems for San Francisco Municipal Railway electric buses, according to TJPA officials. The first crack was discovered in a steel beam on the third-level bus deck above Fremont Street on Tuesday by workers installing ceiling panels. The discovery caused TJPA officials to abruptly close the $2.2 billion facility and as well as the portion of Fremont Street located directly below the bus deck, between Howard and Mission streets. As engineers were inspecting the first crack, about 2 feet 6 inches long, they found a second, smaller one on a parallel steel beam, which also runs across Fremont Street. The beams support the third-level roof and bus deck as well as the fourth-story park above. On Wednesday, TJPA Executive Director Mark Zabaneh said engineers were still attempting to figure out what may have caused the crack. They're looking into whether the cracks are related to the beams' fabrication, their installation or the center's design. The beams were installed during construction in 2016 and have not been inspected since, which Zabaneh said, is standard protocol. According to Dennis Turchon, the TJPA's senior construction manager, the steel beams used to construct the center were supplied by at least seven different manufacturers, all located in the U.S. Contractors and engineers have inspected other areas of the transit center where the beams are configured similarly and haven't found any other problems, Zabaneh said. With the center's closure, all transit operators, including the San Francisco Municipal Railway and the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, will provide service from the formerly closed Temporary Transbay Terminal at Howard and Main streets. Both drivers and transit riders should expect delays in the city's downtown area. The four-story Salesforce Transit Center opened in August, eight years after construction first began. Stretching four city blocks, the center boasts a 5.4-acre rooftop public park and space for pop-up retail shops, art displays and restaurants. TJPA officials have said that the cracks are not related to the problems at the nearby sinking Millennium Tower, the 58-story luxury high-rise at 301 Mission St., which has sunk 16 inches. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. BERKELEY (BCN) One high school student was hospitalized with stab wounds and another student was arrested after they got into a fight at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley shortly before 10 a.m. today, Berkeley school officials said in a statement. In a somewhat conflicting statement, Berkeley police said a 17-year-old was stabbed and two 16-year-olds were arrested but didn't identify them as students. The school district said administrators and safety staff from Berkeley High School, which is across the street from the park, responded to the fight, which it said involved one student from the Berkeley Independent Study program and one from the Berkeley Technology Academy. Berkeley police spokesman Officer Byron White said the Police Department's school resource officer called for emergency cover at about 9:53 a.m. to assist him when he learned of a large fight at Civic Center Park. White said, "Officers found an agitated crowd of people in the area of an apparent fight and learned a female teenage juvenile, age 17, had been stabbed in the torso" so officers immediately called for medical assistance. White said officers found a second female juvenile, age 16, "who had been sprayed by an unknown assailant with a chemical irritant-possibly pepper spray." White said investigators later determined that the 16-ear-old juvenile who had been sprayed was responsible for stabbing the 17-year-old and she was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. White said there was "a chaotic environment with multiple confrontations" and an officer who was kneeling down and attending to the juvenile who had been pepper-sprayed was approached by a third female juvenile, age 16, who yelled at him. White said the officer directed the third juvenile to stay back but ultimately a second officer had to come to the aid of the first officer "and ended up taking the interfering, non-compliant juvenile into custody." He said that juvenile was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a police officer and later was released to her parents. White said the 17-year-old girl who was stabbed was transported to a hospital with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening. School district officials said they will share additional details about the fight later on if they deem them to be relevant or appropriate following a complete investigation of the incident. The officials said, "As always, campus safety and student safety will remain our priority." 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 RAFAEL (BCN) San Rafael police this week arrested a Sonoma man on suspicion of indecent exposure that occurred on the campus of a university, a police sergeant said. Two Dominican University of California students told police a man in a red SUV was watching them on Sept. 9 as they walked on campus, which is located at 50 Acacia Ave. in San Rafael, Sgt. Lisa Holton said. The women said the man drove slowly alongside them on a street and appeared to be masturbating, Holton said. The man allegedly fled when he was asked for identification, and campus security reported the incident and the vehicle's license plate number to San Rafael police. Police determined the registered owner of the vehicle had prior instances of indecent exposure in Sonoma County, and located two prior indecent exposure incidents in 2017 that named the same suspect and vehicle, Holton said. Sonoma County sheriff's deputies saw the suspect on Tuesday in a vehicle in Sonoma. Holton said he was identified as Jose Antonio Garcilazo, 27, of Sonoma. San Rafael police arrested him on suspicion of indecent exposure and he was booked into the Marin County jail. Detectives are investigating whether Garcilazo is connected to similar cases. Anyone with information is asked to call (415) 485-3000. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. OAKLAND (BCN) Oakland police released more details Thursday on last week's cluster of six orchestrated sideshows in East Oakland that escalated into near-riot conditions. The events, which had been advertised on social media and drew hundreds of cars and people from Oakland and other cities, took place in the early morning hours of Sept. 23. At some locations, gunshots were fired by spectators - some from fully automatic weapons, police said. Many people in the crowds threw rocks and glass bottles at officers. One officer received minor injuries when hit in the face with a rock near 42nd Avenue and Oakport Street, police said. At 42nd and Coliseum Way, police gave multiple orders for the crowds to disperse, then moved in with riot gear and tear gas. More than 85 vehicles participating in sideshows were towed from all six locations. Only five vehicles were registered to Oakland motorists, while more than 60 came from cities such as Stockton, Modesto, Richmond and even as far away as Los Angeles. Two arrests were made during the night. In the area of 106th Avenue and Foothill Boulevard, Angel Garibay-Vargas, 24, of Oakland was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, felony evasion from police and hit-and-run when he drove his pickup truck toward officers, intentionally hitting a patrol vehicle with an officer inside, police said. He then screeched off in the truck, nearly hitting pedestrians then crashing into parked cars and attempted to flee on foot. Garibay-Vargas was also arrested on probation violations. The second suspect arrested was Angel Vazquez, 21, of Antioch, also taken into custody for assault with a deadly weapon and reckless driving for ramming other vehicles with his Mustang while trying to flee from officers. He was also booked on charges of evading a police officer and driving without a license, police said. The dramatic sideshow activity ended at about 5 a.m., police said. Oakland police were assisted by officers from the California Highway Patrol and deputies from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. 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) San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon announced today his office has settled a lawsuit against three Bay Area concrete supply companies accused of dumping hazardous waste onto city streets. Central Concrete Supply Co. Inc., Bode Gravel Co. and Bode Concrete LLC were charged with dumping commercial waste and hazardous waste on public streets, where the waste had the potential of going into storm drains and ending up in the Bay, Gascon's office said. The three companies have agreed to pay $150,000 in civil penalties and $50,000 in case-related costs to resolve the litigation. "Protecting our city from pollutants and waste is more than just a local issue, it's our responsibility to the environment," Gascon said in a statement. "Companies that engage in unsafe and irresponsible business practices can have lasting detrimental impacts on the environment. The stakes are too high for their conduct to go unchecked." The drivers working for the companies allegedly would routinely wash their trucks on city streets, allowing watery concrete waste to be left behind. The waste would often be sprayed into the city's sewer system, where it would end up being discharged into the Bay and possibly harm aquatic life, Gascon's office said. In accordance with the settlement, the companies will be required to retrain all employees who drive concrete trucks to wash their trucks lawfully, meaning that they can't wash concrete residue onto the street or into the sewer. The companies will also be required to maintain stickers on their trucks with a toll-free number for the public to report any illegal washing. Furthermore, the companies must monitor complaints regarding violations. According to Gascon's office, during the litigation, the companies showed positive changes to their practices, ultimately leading to the settlement. In 2012, Central Concrete purchased Bode Gravel and Bode Concrete, making Central Concrete the parent company and the largest supplier of concrete in the Bay Area. 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. Monterey County prosecutors announced today that a transient man was sentenced to 15 years to life for the murder of a Santa Cruz woman who was reported missing in early 2015. Dale Pierce, 43, pleaded no contest on Aug. 7, to second-degree murder for the killing of Remie Casillas who was reported missing in February 2015. On Aug. 26, 2016, a heavy equipment operator found Casillas's body buried on a dirt lot on Rio Road in Carmel. Casillas had been last seen in Sand City with Pierce. Prosecutors said deputies found a wallet with an identification card of Pierce's near Casillas's body. For 16 months deputies investigated Casillas's death, which included a search for Pierce, who was eventually located Taos, New Mexico. Detectives traveled to Taos on Dec. 4, 2017, located Pierce with the help of local law enforcement and interviewed him. Pierce confessed to the killing, prosecutors said. Pierce was immediately arrested and extradited to Monterey County. 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. Left -- an experimental image of MoS2 with defects resulting from environmental exposure (obtained by scanning tunneling microscope STM), middle -- the results of the simulation of the STM image, right -- the model of the layer's atomic structure. For the first time ever, an international team of scientists from NUST MISIS, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the University of Namur (Belgium), and Korea Research Institute for Standards & Science has managed to trace in details the structural changes of two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide under long-term environmental impact. The new data narrows the scope of its potential application in microelectronics and at the same time opens up new prospects for the use of two-dimensional materials as catalysts. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) is considered a promising basis for a variety of ultra-small electronic devices such as high-frequency detectors, rectifiers, and transistors, so research teams around the world are actively studying its two-dimensional format, nanofilm. However, the new research conducted by NUST MISIS scientists has demonstrated that when this two-dimensional material is significantly oxidized in air, it turns into another connection. Any electronic device using MoS 2 , without proper protection would simply stop working relatively quickly. To potentially use MoS 2 in microelectronics, the devices would have to be encapsulated. For the first time ever, we have managed to experimentally prove that a single-layer molybdenum disulfide strongly degrades under environmental conditions, oxidizing and turning into a solid solution MoS 2-x O x ,. The functions of a two-dimensional semiconductor without defects and losses can be implemented with molybdenum diselenides, another material with a similar structure, said Pavel Sorokin, head of the research team and leading researcher at the NUST MISIS Laboratory of Inorganic Nanomaterials. In the experiments, two-dimensional layers of molybdenum disulfide obtained as a result of the stratification of molybdenum disulfide crystals by ultrasound, were maintained in environmental conditions at normal room temperature and lighting for long periods (more than a year and a half), during which scientists observed the changes in the structure of its surface. Thanks to the use of tunneling microscopy, we were able to track the structural changes of crystals of two-dimensional sulfur disulfide at the atomic level during long-term exposure to environmental conditions. We have discovered that the material previously considered stable is actually subject to spontaneous oxidation, but at the same time, the original crystal structure of MoS 2 monolayers retains formations of MoS 2-x O x solid solutions. Our simulations have allowed us to propose a mechanism of forming such solid solutions, and the results of the theoretical calculations are in complete agreement with our experimental measurements - said Zakhar Popov, one of the co-authors of the study and a senior researcher at the NUST MISIS Laboratory of Inorganic Nanomaterials. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 28) The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) is again opening its search for the next top judge ahead of the impending retirement of Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro. Justice Secretary and JBC member Menardo Guevarra on Friday confirmed the application period will run from October 1 to October 15. "The notice about the opening of the CJ position will be published tomorrow," Guevarra told reporters in a text message. Individuals may apply or be nominated. Nominees must manifest their acceptance to be considered an applicant, according to the rules of the JBC, which screens applicants to the judiciary. De Castro, 69, is retiring on October 8 after a 40-day stint as chief magistrate. President Rodrigo Duterte appointed her on August 25 to replace Maria Lourdes Sereno, the country's first woman chief justice. De Castro was among the eight justices who voted to unseat Sereno on May 11 and permanently remove her from office on June 19, for alleged failure to file complete statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth. Critics believe the post was a reward for De Castro's role in Sereno's ouster, a claim both Duterte and De Castro denied. Duterte said he appointed De Castro since she was the most senior among the applicants, even if she could only serve as Chief Justice for less than two months. READ: 'Move on,' De Castro tells critics on busy 1st day as Chief Justice Researchers built a self-contained smartphone microscope that can operate in both fluorescence and dark-field imaging modes and paired it with an inexpensive Lumina 640 smartphone with an 8-megapixel camera. The discovery of lead in Flint, Michigan's drinking water drew renewed attention to the health risks posed by the metal. Now researchers at the University of Houston have created an inexpensive system using a smartphone and a lens made with an inkjet printer that can detect lead in tap water at levels commonly accepted as dangerous. The system builds upon earlier work by Wei-Chuan Shih, associate professor of electrical & computer engineering, and members of his lab, including the discovery of an inexpensive elastomer lens that can convert a basic smartphone into a microscope. The latest discovery combines nano-colorimetry with dark-field microscopy, integrated into the smartphone microscope platform to detect levels of lead below the safety threshold set by the Environmental Protection Agency. "Smartphone nano-colorimetry is rapid, low-cost, and has the potential to enable individual citizens to examine (lead) content in drinking water on-demand in virtually any environmental setting," the researchers wrote. Even small amounts of lead can cause serious health problems, with young children especially vulnerable to neurological damage. EPA standards require lead levels in drinking water to be below 15 parts per billion, and Shih said currently available consumer test kits aren't sensitive enough to accurately detect lead at that level. By using an inexpensive smartphone equipped with an inkjet-printed lens and using the dark-field imaging mode, researchers were able to produce a system that was both portable and easy to operate, as well as able to detect lead concentrations at 5 parts per billion in tap water. The sensitivity reached 1.37 parts per billion in deionized water. Shih and his students last year published an open-source dataset, explaining how to convert a smartphone equipped with the elastomer lens into a microscope capable of fluorescence microscopy. That paper has been the journal's most frequently downloaded paper since its publication. The latest application incorporates color analysis to detect nanoscale lead particles. In addition to Shih, researchers on the project include first author Hoang Nguyen and Yulung Sung, Kelly O'Shaughnessy and Xiaonan Shan, all with the UH Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. (O'Shaughnessy was a summer intern from the University of Cincinnati under the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.) Applying the dataset published in 2017, the researchers built a self-contained smartphone microscope that can operate in both fluorescence and dark-field imaging modes and paired it with an inexpensive Lumina 640 smartphone with an 8-megapixel camera. They spiked tap water with varying amounts of lead, ranging from 1.37 parts per billion to 175 parts per billion. They then added chromate ions, which react with the lead to form lead chromate nanoparticles; the nanoparticles can be detected by combining colorimetric analysis and microscopy. The analysis measured both the intensity detected from the nanoparticles, correlating that to the lead concentration, and verified that the reaction was spurred by the presence of lead. The mixture was transferred to a polydimethylsiloxane slab attached to a glass slide; after it dried, deionized water was used to rinse off the chromate compound and the remaining sediment was imaged for analysis. The microscopy imaging capability proved essential, Shih said, because the quantity of sediment was too small to be imaged with an unassisted smartphone camera, making it impossible to detect relatively low levels of lead. Building upon the smartphone microscope platform to create a useful consumer product was key, Shih said. "We wanted to be sure we could do something that would be useful from the standpoint of detecting lead at the EPA standard," he said. Many graying job seekers feel they are overlooked for positions because of their age, even as people stay in the workforce longer to shore up their savings or because better health allows for it. The share of people 55 and older who are working has doubled over the past 25 years, and the trend shows signs of accelerating. The population of working adults who are 65 or older is expected to rise by 75 percent between now and 2050, compared with just 2 percent growth for workers ages 25 to 54. In the years since, the retailers presence has been shrinking at those properties as space is leased to new, higher-paying tenants. Nearly a quarter of the former Sears stores still in Seritages portfolio are no longer in use by the retailer. Sears and its sister brand Kmart share space with at least one other tenant in about half the remaining occupied stores, according to the companys most recent financial report. Sears and Kmart now account for less than half the rent Seritage collects each year. Walgreens projected that the merged companies would earn $9 billion to $9.5 billion in combined adjusted operating income in the 2016 fiscal year, according to the SECs order. But after completing the first step of the merger, Walgreens internal forecasts showed that the risk of missing that projection had grown, according to the SEC. Still, Walgreens and the two executives publicly reaffirmed the original projection, the SEC alleged. Kroc, an Oak Park native, built his first restaurant in 1955 in Des Plaines after franchising the brand from the original owners, Richard and Maurice McDonald. It was razed in 1984, the same year Kroc died, but McDonalds in 1986 built a replica restaurant as a museum. Part of the memorabilia, in addition to the original Golden Arches with the Speedee mascot and sign that read one million served, were those four vehicles staged outside the museum. Virginia Ramos whom several generations of San Franciscans know better as the Tamale Lady has died. She was 65. The Office of the Medical Examiner confirmed her death. Ramos was a street-food legend in San Francisco, and her death comes just as her long-awaited restaurant in the Mission District was undergoing final repairs before opening. According to interviews Ramos had given to The Chronicle over the years, she was born in Jalisco, Mexico, and emigrated to San Francisco in 1980, where she settled with her seven children. For decades, Ramos cooked hundreds of tamales in her kitchen and showed up at SoMa and Mission bars several nights a week, pulling a rolling insulated cooler from which she would dispense tamales to drunk and sober customers alike. Over time, her patrons would come to know her for not only tamales, but also her unsolicited life advice and philosophical banter I dont know you, but I love you, was a frequent musing of hers. Some nights her route would bring her to more than a dozen bars, but Zeitgeist was most closely associated with her appearances. It regularly held birthday parties for Ramos and posted a semipermanent Tamale Lady sign. Mike Kepka / The Chronicle On the occasion of her 50th anniversary, local bands composed 30-second songs in her honor, and Cecil B. Feeder compiled them in a documentary about Ramos, Our Lady of Tamale. She told The Chronicle in 2011 that she was able to put five of her seven children through college by cleaning houses and making tamales. I like to feed people and talk to the youngsters I see in bars who are broken by drugs, she said then. I am like a mother to them, telling them over and over to take better care of themselves. She greeted them with Hey, honey and said goodbye with a hug. In 2013, the San Francisco Environmental Health Department informed bars where she made the most frequent appearances that it would hold them liable for allowing an illegal food vendor to sell food in their businesses. She stopped selling tamales at that time. Instead, she raised $20,000 through an IndieGogo campaign and partnered with the Mission Housing Development Corporation to build out a space on 16th Street and Capp Street. The project was almost complete, confirmed kitchen architect David Orozco, but the building required soft-story structural retrofitting, which delayed it even further. Everything has taken a long time, Ramos told The Chronicle in January 2018. But Im happy. Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jonkauffman The Yosemite Museum in Yosemite National Park is the proud new recipient of a priceless gift: 45 print photographs, captured by Ansel Adams. In 1979, Adams began curating a collection of photos he called "The Museum Set," a selection of 75 images plucked from 2,500 captures taken between 1923 and 1968. Collectors who wanted to buy a Museum Set would receive 10 "core" photographs, including prints of famous pieces like "Clearing Winter Storm" above, and then a pick of the remaining 65, to equal 25, 45 or 75 total prints. But unlike many other art purchases, buyers who acquired one of Adams' sets had to yield to a special condition: They had to agree to donate their sets to a museum or educational institution at some point. This particular 45-print set was owned by Don and Susan Fuhrer, who live within Foresta, California (and in Montecito). The Fuhrers purchased it in 2003. "I've always felt a Museum Set belonged in Yosemite given Adams' love for the park," said Don Fuhrer in a press release. "There's an entire generation that is unaware of Adams, a true American icon, that will be able to see his work as he wanted it presented." The collection depicts images of Yosemite, as well as views of other national parks, including Yellowstone, Death Valley, Mt. Rainier and Big Bend. There are other Museum Sets on view in California and in the Bay Area. The de Young Museum in San Francisco has one in their collection, as does Stanford University. Several notable museums in Los Angeles, like the J. Paul Getty Museum, also own Museum Sets. Additionally, the Ansel Adams Gallery, also in Yosemite, has a Museum Set as well. But the gift is an extremely meaningful one for the Yosemite Museum - which focuses largely on the culture of the Ahwahnechee people who once inherited the valley - partially because of Adams' reverence for the park. "Few artists had the foresight to prepare for how their legacy was portrayed and to create a way to ensure that future generations are able to learn and appreciate it," said Yosemite Conservancy President Frank Dean. The collection is on view now, and will remain on display until November 25, 2018. Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira. Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. It's almost surprising a show like "Devs" hasn't already been developed. The new FX series, which is filming around San Francisco's Dolores Park this week, centers around a young computer engineer who believes the tech company she works for is responsible for her boyfriend's disappearance. Perhaps his tech bus took a wrong turn? Alex Garland, the Oscar-nominated writer-director of 2014's "Ex Machina," serves as the writer and executive producer of the series. It stars Sonoya Mizuno, Jin Ha, Zach Greiner, Alison Pill and "Parks and Recreation" alum Nick Offerman as the CEO of the sinister tech company. Locals caught the TV crew filming in and around Dolores Park on Thursday and Friday. Production took over most of 20th Street between Dolores and Church streets, and edged onto the grass of the popular Mission District park. David Jude Thomas stumbled across production during an afternoon stroll. He spied a crew member covering the Dolores Street sign with the word "Maple." It's not clear if Offerman was on the set this week. He and his wife Megan Mullally will be in town, however, on Oct. 6 for a stop on their book tour. The couple co-authored "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told," which hits shelves next month, about their decades-long romance. FX has reportedly ordered eight episodes of "Devs." It is set to premiere in 2019. Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com. Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. While the sound system is getting set up, Bryl will only have a few DJs and talent, but he hopes to have more people scheduled in three weeks. He wants Dorians to become a place where a community of local talent can grow. With a partnership with International Anthem already in the works, Bryl said he wants to invest in talent from Chicago as well as educate the general public on music that may be overlooked. UNITED NATIONS Days after President Trump denounced globalism at the United Nations, China positioned itself Friday as a champion of multilateralism that is keeping international promises when Washington is backing away from them. Although Foreign Minister Wang Yi denied his country was trying to eclipse the U.S. as a world leader, his speech at the U.N. General Assembly was a stark contrast to Trumps America First message. It came amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China, which Trump accused this week of interfering in the upcoming U.S. midterm election. China denies the claim. China often portrays itself as an advocate for win-win international cooperation, and Wang was hardly the only leader to defend the concept of multilateralism at this weeks U.N. gathering of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other leaders. But coming in the wake of Trumps proclamation that Americans reject the ideology of globalism, Wangs speech sounded a note of rebuttal from a competing power. Should we seek to uphold the architecture of the world order or allow it to be eroded upon and collapse? Wang asked. Chinas answer is clear-cut. ... China will keep to its commitment and remain a champion of multilateralism. In a week when Washington raised tariffs on Chinese products and Beijing responded in kind, Wang insisted that China will not be blackmailed or yield to pressure and warned that protectionism will only hurt oneself, and unilateral moves will bring damage to all. China has been asserting itself on the world stage under President Xi Jinping, though it continually stands by a foreign policy of noninterference in the affairs of other countries. It has long used that policy to rebuke other countries that criticize its record on human rights. Also Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov trashed accusations of Russian meddling abroad as baseless and used the podium at the U.N.s biggest event to tear into U.S. policies in Iran, Syria and Venezuela. Lavrov pounded away at self-serving, unilateral moves by Trump, and assailed crippling Western sanctions against Russia as political blackmail. Lavrov deflected accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a nerve agent attack in Britain and other meddling abroad despite mounting evidence of a broad, coordinated influence campaign. Jennifer Peltz and Frank Jordans are Associated Press writers. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israeli troops killed seven Palestinians, two of them children, and wounded dozens more in the deadliest day in recent weeks as Gazas Hamas rulers stepped up protests along the border fence on Friday. Thousands of Palestinians gathered at five locations along Gaza Strips frontier with Israel in response to calls by Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza since seizing the region from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Two of the dead were children, aged 12 and 14, the Gaza Health Ministry said, adding that all seven sustained gunshot wounds to their upper torso. At least 90 other protesters were wounded by live fire. Hamas has led weekly protests since March, but accelerated them in recent weeks to near daily events, pressing for an end to a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamass violent takeover of Gaza in 2007. Hamas then ousted forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an armed coup. At the fence, protesters burned dozens of tires, using the thick black smoke as a screen to throw rocks and explosives toward Israeli troops stationed on the opposite side of the fence. The soldiers responded with tear gas and gunfire. The Israeli military said in a statement that in response to grenades and explosive devices hurled at troops during the protests, Israeli aircraft carried out two air strikes on Hamas militant positions in the Gaza Strip. There were no Israeli casualties reported in Fridays clashes. Hamas has led and organized the protests, but turnout also has been driven by growing despair over blockade-linked hardship, including lengthy power cuts and soaring unemployment. Israeli troops have killed at least 143 Palestinians since protests began in late March, and a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier in August. Israel argues its defending its border and accuses Hamas of using the protests as a screen for attempts to breach the border fence to attack civilians and soldiers. Human rights groups have accused Israeli troops of excessive and unlawful use of force against unarmed protesters. Hamas and Israel came to the brink of serious conflict this summer as violence escalated along the border. The two sides attempted to reach an agreement through indirect talks mediated by the United Nations and Egypt to ease tensions in exchange for lifting some restrictions on the economically crippled enclave. But those negotiations have stalled in recent weeks. Earlier this week, a Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the movement would escalate its border protests after the talks failed. He accused Abbas, who governs parts of the West Bank, of disrupting the negotiations. Fares Akram is an Associated Press writer. VATICAN CITY Pope Francis has defrocked the Chilean priest at the heart of the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, invoking his supreme authority to stiffen a sentence originally handed down by a Vatican court in 2011. In a statement Friday, the Vatican said Francis had laicized the 88-year-old Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was originally sanctioned to live a lifetime of penance and prayer for having sexually abused minors in the Santiago parish he ran. The penance and prayer sanction has been the Vaticans punishment of choice for elderly priests convicted of raping and molesting children. It has long been criticized by victims as too soft and essentially an all-expenses-paid retirement. The Vatican didnt say what new evidence, if any, prompted Francis to re-evaluate Karadimas sanction and impose what clergy consider to be the equivalent of a death sentence. It said Francis made the exceptional decision for the good of the church, and cited the church canon that lays out the popes supreme, full, immediate and universal power to serve the church. The statement said the decree, signed Thursday, takes effect immediately. The decision appeared aimed at showing a get-tough approach to sex abuse after a series of missteps by Francis and accusations by a former Vatican ambassador that Francis had rehabilitated a now-disgraced former American cardinal early on in his papacy. Francis sparked a crisis in his papacy earlier this year when he strongly defended one of Karadimas proteges, Bishop Juan Barros, against accusations that he had witnessed Karadimas abuse and ignored it. Francis had claimed that the accusations against Barros were calumny and politically motivated, and he defended his 2015 decision to appoint Barros bishop of a small Chilean diocese over the objections of the faithful and many in the Chilean hierarchy. Francis later ordered a Vatican investigation that uncovered decades of abuse and cover-ups by the Chilean church leadership. Francis apologized to the victims and set about making amends, including getting every active bishop in Chile to offer to resign. To date, he has accepted seven of the more than 30 resignations offered, including that of Barros. Pollsters have cited the Karadima scandal, which first erupted in 2009, as the tipping point in the Chilean churchs progressive loss of credibility among ordinary Chileans. Nicole Winfield is an Associated Press writer. Page Content An employer that participated in a former employee's wrongful termination lawsuit in court for almost two years before seeking arbitration of the claims waived its right to compel arbitration, a California appellate court ruled. Although the employee had signed an arbitration agreement and the state has a public policy favoring arbitration, the employer's delay in requesting arbitration was unreasonable and so the employer waived its right to have an arbitrator decide the claims, the court said. Altamed Health Services Corp. hired the plaintiff as a full-time medical assistant in 2006. In 2013, the plaintiff signed a document that provided all workplace disputes would be decided by binding arbitration. Altamed fired the plaintiff in 2014. In 2015, the plaintiff filed a wrongful termination lawsuit alleging, among other things, that Altamed fired her because of her disabilities. Altamed answered the complaint in 2015 but did not point to the parties' arbitration agreement as a defense against the lawsuit, despite asserting 42 other defenses. Between September 2015 and February 2017, both parties conducted pretrial work, which included talking to witnesses and answering questions in writing. In addition, Altamed subpoenaed the plaintiff 's medical records from four different medical facilities and demanded an independent medical examination. The parties participated in a voluntary mediation and a mandatory settlement conference, and the trial was postponed twice at the request of Altamed's counsel. Less than two months before the trial was to begin, however, Altamed changed attorneys and the new attorney filed a petition to compel arbitration. Altamed argued that it had not waived its right to seek arbitration because it could have conducted the same work and obtained the same information in arbitration. The company also argued that its delay in seeking to arbitrate did not harm the plaintiff nor cause lost evidence. The plaintiff 's attorney, however, argued that she was harmed because if Altamed had tried to compel arbitration earlier, the matter would have been resolved in less than a year. Instead, the plaintiff spent two years litigating in court. The trial court denied Altamed's motion to compel arbitration, and Altamed appealed. Unreasonable Delay The appellate court first noted that a demand for arbitration must not be unreasonably delayed and that a party that does not demand arbitration within a reasonable time is deemed to have waived the right to arbitration. "A party's unreasonable delay in demanding or seeking arbitration, in and of itself, may constitute a waiver of a right to arbitrate," the court said. [SHRM members-only HR Q&A: What are the California rules regarding mandatory arbitration agreements] The court then determined that Altamed's delay was unreasonable. There was no dispute, the court said, that Altamed actively litigated in the trial court for almost two years without mentioning, much less formally raising, the arbitration agreement as a defense. Altamed offered no excuse for the delay. Furthermore, the lengthy delay "undermined the important public policy in favor of arbitration and impaired plaintiff's ability to take advantage of the benefits and efficiencies of arbitration," the court noted. Thus, the appellate court affirmed the trial court's order denying Altamed's motion to compel arbitration. Jimenez v. Altamed Health Services, Calif. Ct. App., No. B285096 (Sept. 24, 2018). Professional Pointer: If an employer chooses arbitration to settle workplace disputes and requires employees to sign arbitration agreements, then when a lawsuit is filed, the employer should quickly try to have the claims arbitrated instead of litigated. As this case shows, failing to do so could mean the employer's rights under the agreement will be waived. Joanne Deschenaux, J.D., is a freelance writer in Annapolis, Md. The Indian two wheelers industry has evolved in many folds in terms of technology and total number of two wheelers being manufactured and produced. Two wheelers in India can be seen as an alternative to walking, riding bicycle and public transit systems. Presently, India is the largest producer and manufacturer of two wheelers in the world followed by China. Rising fuel prices is one of the primary growth drivers for two-wheelers due to their higher fuel efficiency. In India, commuters across all age groups use motorized vehicles, especially two wheelers owing to the escalating population and rapid increase in traffic congestion, thereby making two wheelers as the most appropriate and convenient mode of transportation in urban areas. In terms of value, India used two wheelers market generated gross revenue of INR ~ billion by selling off ~ million units in FY2013. In the pre-owned two wheeler segment, both motorcycles and scooters were observed to become second vehicles in the households, thus showcasing high growth year on year. Demand exists for two wheelers below 150 cc generally, from young male students, especially in metro regions. The demand for used two wheelers has seen a constant rise over the past few years, especially from models like Honda Activa, Aviator, TVS Jupiter, Bajaj Pulsar and Discover. Even in terms of exports, two-wheelers produced in India are the proud products of the Make-in-India initiative where nearly 7 in 10 automobiles delivered out of India are two-wheelers. India Used Two Wheelers Market Segmentation By Market Structure In FY2018 the sales volume through the unorganized sector individual sellers, local mechanics and small dealerships collectively contributed to nearly ~% of the market. Indian consumers who may want to use a vehicle for a short period of time or who may not be able to afford a new vehicle find it convenient to visit a nearby dealer and purchase it as per their budget. On the other hand organized sector was observed to capture the remaining ~% volume share in the FY2018. By Distribution Channel of 2 Wheelers Due to low awareness regarding the existence of organized online and offline players, the majority of transactions conducted in the market are through C2C or offline B2C channel. The C2C channel controlled a share of ~% to the total sales volume in the used two-wheeler market during the FY2018. On the other hand, the B2C channel controlled the remaining significant share of ~% in the used two wheeler sales space. By Stock Piece and Customized Two Wheelers During FY2018, stock piece contributed to a majority of the used two-wheelers sold in India and consisted of standard vehicles manufactured by companies, thus evaluated at a volume share of ~% in India used two wheelers market. The total number of individuals who are bike enthusiasts and are able to afford expensive bikes constitute a very small proportion of buyers in the market for new customized bikes, thereby capturing the remaining ~% volume share in the FY2018. By Type of Two Wheelers The share of scooters in the used two-wheeler space was recorded at ~% in the overall sales volume during FY2018 in comparison to ~% in FY2013. However, the market has continued to be dominated by motorcycles with a massive volume share of ~% during the FY2018. This is because male riders travelling a longer distance still prefer motorbikes instead of a scooter due to larger engine and greater mileage offered by motorcycles. Competitive Landscape in India Used Two Wheelers Market In the FY2017, ~% of the used two wheelers market in terms of sales volume was observed to be unorganized which comprises of individual sellers, local mechanics and small dealerships. Whereas the remaining ~% of the market constitutes of the organized players like Droom, CredR, BikeDekho.com, BikeWale.com, Mahindra First Choice Wheels Limited (MFCWL), Bikers Highway and others. Certification and authentication, brand, price, mileage and performance, engine quality/power and total number of dealers are some of the critical parameters on the basis of which Companies compete in the organized segment. Snapshot on India Online Used Two Wheelers Market The online used two wheeler market has been emerging with the rise in the popularity of E-commerce platforms in the country. Online platforms such as Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal have enabled India users to trust online platforms and make high value transactions online using their debit/credit cards and net banking. The growth of online advertising, which has fuelled the rise of online classified platforms such as OLX, Quikr, Gaadi.com and others have revolutionized the way in which pre-owned vehicles have been sold in the country. The online used two-wheeler market grew from INR ~ million in FY2016 to INR ~ million in FY2018. With the growth in the number of vehicles sold online, these players not only witnessed a sharp growth in marketplace revenue but also from other sources including advertisements, subscriptions and other value added services. India Used Two Wheelers Market Future Outlook and Projections It is anticipated that the used two wheelers market in the country will continue to grow in the coming years as used vehicles are much cheaper to purchase than a new one. Projections for the future suggest that the overall market for used two wheelers in India is likely to showcase a vibrant growth from ~ million units of sales volume in FY2019E to ~ million units of sales volume in FY2023E. The CAGR during this period is expected to be around ~% during the forecast period FY2019E-FY2023E. Individuals mostly in smaller cities and towns who wish to own a vehicle begin with buying a second hand two-wheeler to get hold of it. Similar is the case of women drivers who prefer purchasing a pre-owned vehicle to learn driving before they actually purchase a new vehicle. Also, local dealers who have been facing tough competition from the online classifieds will be seen associating with the online players to reach out to greater audiences. Read more news: Qualcomm launches chip for next-gen Android smartwatches Google announces new AI technology to fight online child sexual abuse UPDATE, 1:25 p.m.: Malaya Johnson, the missing 12-year-old, has been located and is safe with law enforcement, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office's Facebook page. The Amber Alert has been canceled. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 19-year-old Staten Island man is in custody in connection with a missing 12-year-old girl who is the subject of an Amber Alert, according to police. The girl, Malaya M. Johnson, still has not been located and "may still be in the New York City area," according to information posted on the Washington County Sheriff's Office's Facebook page. George Torres The sheriff's office has one person in custody, according to the agency's Facebook page. "George A. Torres, 19, of Navy Pier Ct in Staten Island, NY was arrested and is currently facing a charge of endangering the welfare of a child," according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. The suspect was arrested at an undisclosed location in New York City, the sheriff's office said. The Amber Alert remains active, according to the sheriff's office. Malaya reportedly was seen at the St. George Ferry Terminal, according to the NYPD. An updated Amber Alert said she was spotted between 4 and 6 p.m. during the evening rush hour Thursday. Emergency radio communications indicated that a "level-one" mobilization search of the terminal and surrounding St. George area was underway for the girl in the early morning hours Friday; NYPD helicopters assisted in the search. A red Ford Mustang with Pennsylvania plates that the girl allegedly was traveling in was recovered in an undisclosed location in New York City, according to the sheriff's office. Malaya was not with Torres when he was taken into custody, the sheriff's office said. The girl allegedly was abducted in Hudson Falls at about 3 p.m. Wednesday. The Amber Alert says she stands about 5 feet tall and weighs about 115 pounds. She is described as having long brown hair and brown eyes. She was seen wearing light red jeans and a white tank top, and had a light-colored backpack with a design. (This is the latest edition of Island Government, a news round-up about Staten Island politics.) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Island Democratic congressional candidate Max Rose's campaign launched a website recently attacking his Republican opponent Rep. Dan Donovan for disbanding the narcotics unit when he was Staten Island's D.A., missing a vote to combat fentanyl in June, and accepting donations from pharmaceutical executives. "This site will arm voters with the truth: that Dan Donovan betrayed Staten Islanders and South Brooklynites with his failure to do anything about the epidemic and his willingness to take money from the very people responsible for the crisis in the first place," said Rose. "His failure to combat the opioid epidemic is staggering and his lies are a slap in the face to every person who has had to administer Narcan to save a life, buried their child after it was too late, and especially to all of those who are still struggling with their addiction." A spokesperson for Donovan's campaign, Jessica Proud, told the Advance that the charges made on the website were misleading. "Like everything with Max Rose's fraudulent campaign, he's trying to mislead voters with cheap shot attacks because he has no record to run on," said Proud. "The truth is that Dan gave away the money as soon as he learned of the connection, and as someone whose own family has been touched by addiction, he has done more to combat alcohol and drug abuse than any elected leader in New York City. No one will be fooled by Max Rose's nasty, disingenuous attacks." The missed vote Rose's site hits Donovan for was on June 14, the same day as the NY1 Republican primary debate, which was the only televised debate of the primary campaign. And while the narcotics bureau was disbanded, Donovan's campaign said that Donovan's felony conviction rate as D.A. shows that he was tough on drugs. Donovan's campaign also released a chart entitled "Comparing records on fighting the opioid epidemic," featuring various actions Donovan took on opioids as district attorney and in Congress, next to an empty list by Rose's name. ROSE PETITIONS 'TO END OUR COMMUTING NIGHTMARE' Rose also launched his "End Our Commuting Nightmare" petition. The petition can be signed online and will be circulated by volunteers for Rose's campaign. "Staten Island and South Brooklyn deserve their fair share. We need bold leadership that has the courage to fight for real solutions to end our commuting nightmare on both sides of the bridge," said Rose. The St. George Democrat said, "If you are sick and tired of the subway making you late to work, or if you're still waiting for additional lanes on the Expressway and a South Shore ferry, sign this petition and let Washington, D.C. know enough is enough." STATE TROOPERS BACK TITONE FOR SURROGATE The State Troopers Police Benevolent Association endorse Assemblyman Matt Titone's bid for the Staten Island Surrogate's Court judgeship on Thursday. "Matthew Titone has invaluable experience that has prepared him to serve as a Surrogate Court Judge.The challenges facing members of the law enforcement community are greater than ever before, and we need individuals like Matthew Titone in the judicial system," the State Troopers announced in a press release. Titone said, "I am honored to receive the endorsement of the State Troopers today. These are incredibly brave men and women who put their lives on the line every single day, and I am humbled to have their support in my election to become Surrogate Judge. I will continue working tirelessly to prove that I am by far the most qualified person for this incredibly important judgeship". Titone has additionally been endorsed by the New York State Court Officers, the Supreme Court Officers and the following elected officials: Gov. Anthony Cuomo, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Assemblywomen Debi Rose, Assemblyman Michael Cusick, and state Sen. Diane Savino. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- More than 60 Staten Islanders braved rush hour traffic Thursday evening and headed to New Springville to let the city's Property Tax Commissioners know that they're fed up with city's property tax system. Many Island residents expressed frustration with the status quo, upset that they pay as much as multi-million dollar homes in places like Brooklyn for their properties worth half the value and get less city services than the rest of New York City residents. Island homeowners demanded they get their "fair share" from the city, some, warning that if the city does not act soon, they plan to leave New York City altogether to escape paying rising property taxes that they can no longer afford as working class residents. CHANGE WILL TAKE TIME But the commission made one thing very clear to Island homeowners during the meeting at P.S. 58: Change is likely to going to take a whole lot of time. "There's only so much you can get out of a town ... people are fleeing left and right, I'm looking to leave right now," said Carl Pustizzi, a retired veteran and Department of Corrections employee from Princess Bay whose property tax bill was more than $12,000 this year on his home worth about $1.1 million. "I could go to Florida and pay no taxes, but my wife is here, three kids and I'm in a bind," he said. Thursday's public hearing came on the heels of a report from the Citizen's Budget Commission report which found that high priced homes in Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn have the lowest effective property tax rates in the city, while lower valued homes on Staten Island and the Bronx have the highest. The CBC said the property tax commission's priority should be to address inequalities in Class 1 properties by "restructuring or eliminating caps on assessment growth" -- which many Island residents and politicians point to as the root cause of the problem. Under the city's current property tax system, how much homeowners pay is based on the assessed value of one-, two-, and three-family homes -- known as Class 1 properties. That rate can't go up more than 6 percent every year or 20 percent over five years. As a result, in neighborhoods where home values slowly increase, like on Staten Island, homeowners will generally have higher property taxes than those with homes in more desirable areas. Joe Siciliano, a homeowner on the South Shore of an $849,000 home who paid more than $10,000 in property taxes this year, wondered why he pays more in property taxes than Mayor Bill de Blasio and gets virtually no city services - except for garbage collection. "What I can't understand is I get no services and from the City of New York," he said. "I live in a cul de sac ... [the city does not] pick up my garbage ... the city does not give me one inch of service." WHAT THE MAYOR PAYS In 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray paid $7,272 in property taxes on their two Brooklyn homes valued at more than $3.2 million combined. That year, they saw a 2.5 percent increase in what they owed in property taxes compared to the previous year when they paid $7,098 in taxes on their two properties. The couple also received another $104,000 in rental income from their two homes in 2017 and reported more than $12,000 in loses on the homes. Island homeowners grew more upset when they learned that the commissioners would take at least a year to have a full set of recommendations ready for lawmakers to consider. "So When are the folks in Staten Island going to see possible relief in the property taxes we're paying ... 2020?" Bill Wein of West Brighton asked commissioners. Co-chair Vicki Been explained that the commission would present preliminary recommendations to city officials in the late winter, hold another round of public hearings after that around the city, and then present a final set of recommendations to state and city lawmakers by summer 2019. "I can't promise you that when we issue recommendations the State Assembly, Senate and governor will rush to put those to affect, but we will do everything we can both to issue recommendations that drive towards a fairer more transparent and simpler system, and to work both with the mayor and the City Council and the State Senate, the State Assembly and the governor to have reform as soon as possible," Been said. "But yes, it will take a while, there's no denying that." FEW OFFICIALS ATTEND Though a pressing issue for Island homeowners, just two Island elected officials showed up to the public hearing -- Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (Staten Island/Brooklyn) and Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore). "Property taxes are easily one of the top issues affecting our community and other pockets of New York City and a leading reason why our city has become so unaffordable. As the system currently exists, low- and middle-income New Yorkers are subsidizing the property taxes of those living in the highest valued properties in our city's most affluent neighborhoods," stated Malliotakis. "It sends the wrong message when the mayor of our city lives in a home valued at $1.7 million and only pays $3,600 in property tax while others are paying twice that for homes valued half as much. To use myself as an example. I own a home valued roughly one third of Mayor de Blasio's home, yet I am paying approximately $2,000 more in property taxes. This is a real 'Tale of Two Cities' and one that must be rectified so it is fair, equitable and affordable for all." Rose said, "When it comes to property taxes, we have a system that is anything but fair. Hard-working homeowners with longstanding roots in their communities should not be paying a greater share of their property's value - or a larger dollar amount - than a real estate company flipping multimillion-dollar units in Brooklyn and Manhattan. This system has been documented to be regressive, with low- and middle-income property owners with modest homes here on Staten Island paying several times what a wealthy homeowner pays." State Sen. Andrew Lanza, through a prepared statement read from an aide, called the commission's study a "sham." "We do not need an advisory commission to tell us the problem, we already know what it is, and it is that our property taxes are too high, so Senator Lanza's message to new York City is to lower our property taxes now," Lanza's deputy chief of staff Anthony Reinhart said. The commission plans to hold 10 public hearings around the city. Rep. Daniel Donovan (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn) did not attend Thursday's public hearing because he was in session in Washington, D.C., but through a staff member said: "Enough with the lip service. We need to deliver tangible results that alleviate this burden through remedies such as enhanced tax exemptions for our seniors, veterans, and hardworking families. Level the playing field for Staten Island by reining in the City's wealthiest neighborhoods so that they pay a fairer rate." FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Residents living in South Beach and New Springville may want to check their tap water. The two Staten Island neighborhoods were recently listed among the 12 New York City neighborhoods with high levels of lead in their water, according to a report by the city's Independent Budget Office (IBO). Over 6 percent of samples tested in these neighborhoods over the 2006 to 2016 period were found to be above the Environmental Protection Agency's safety threshold for lead. Overall, tap water samples with high levels of lead have dropped dramatically across New York City since 1993. Smaller, older buildings, built before many modern construction laws and standards were put in place, are more likely to contain high amounts of lead. While the city meets federal and state requirements in regards to lead, these requirements are based off an annual compliance testing group, not on the basis of individual buildings. "There is no water lead standard for individual private residential buildings. In a city the size of New York, this means a substantial number of homes and families may be exposed to lead from their faucets," the report states. This means residents must proactively monitor their lead levels, with the city having no real control over individual private residential buildings. "The city has no means to compel landlords or homeowners to remove lead leaching service lines or fixtures and landlords are not required to notify tenants or prospective tenants if a building has been found to have elevated levels of lead in the water or if renovation work may cause lead levels to temporarily rise," the report continues. Residents concerned about their water's lead levels can request a free lead test kit from the city by clicking here. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Stapleton teen who authorities allege acted as a lookout while an accomplice mugged a senior citizen has pleaded guilty to attempted robbery. Ahmed Hailey, 19, of Wright Street, and a co-defendant, Luis Muniz, then 16, of Brooklyn, accosted the victim at about 10:30 p.m. on June 22 outside 697 Forest Ave. in West Brighton, said a criminal complaint. Muniz forcibly snatched the woman's purse while she struggled with him to hold onto it, the complaint said. Hailey kept an eye out as Muniz tussled with the victim, said the complaint. The defendants were busted shortly afterward. "We approached her, and I took her purse," the complaint quotes Muniz as telling police. The defendants were indicted on felony charges of robbery, assault, grand larceny and stolen-property possession. The victim is at least 65 years old, according to the assault charge. Hailey pleaded guilty Thursday in state Supreme Court, St. George, to attempted second-degree robbery. In exchange, he'll be sentenced Oct. 23 to six months in jail and three years' probation. Hailey could be sentenced as a youthful offender, which means the conviction wouldn't go on his record, and his court file would be sealed. He remains held in lieu of $7,500 bond or $5,000 cash bail. Muniz's case is pending. He is now 17. Philip Ohene, Hailey's lawyer, could not immediately be reached for comment. Assistant District Attorney Gaetano Parrinello is prosecuting the case. A few years ago, Kris Swanberg, having been laid-off from her job as a Chicago Public School teacher, remembered she received an ice cream maker as a wedding gift. TheChicago mom fished it out of her kitchen cabinet and eventually started a new career. Today Swanbergs Advertisement on offer at local Whole Foods and farmers markets is considered a star of Chicagos rich and beloved artisanal ice cream scene, one that could be shut down entirely by state rules, she recently learned. She says that a couple of weeks ago a representative from the Illinois Department of Public Health came to Logan Square Kitchen and informed her shed have to shut down if she did not get something called "a dairy license." Advertisement Swanberg and others in her field had operated for years now without ever hearing of such a thing and, indeed, they say, the Citys Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, to whom they applied for business licenses, never informed them they would need one to operate. To get this license Swanberg wrote, in an email, she would have to: "Work out of our own space. Currently we work out of the Logan Square Kitchen." "Have our product tested once a month for bacterial levels." "Change all of our packaging and labels to meet state standards." "Purchase a pasteurizer, which from what the state tells me will be about $40,000 or use a pre-made ice cream mix." Swanberg says that the IDPH officer who visited told her that her ice cream probably wouldnt pass the bacteria tests if she continued to use fresh strawberries. Instead the officer suggested she use "strawberry syrup," Swanberg said. IDPH spokesperson Melanie Arnold said that it isnt illegal to use real strawberries but that IDPH does not encourage it simply because when you try and clean a strawberry to make sure it doesnt have any bacteria, it kind of deteriorates. The departments Dairy Equipment Specialist, Don Wilding, said that other ice cream producers use irradiated strawberries. He says look good but he cant vouch for the taste. Swanberg could continue to work without a license, Wilding said, if she used a premade ice cream mix that is usually formulated with stabilizers and other additives the kind of thing typically used at Dairy Queens, Wilding noted. Still, Swanberg feels that using strawberry syrup and a premade soft serve mix might not attract the same customers who buy her product made from fresh organic cream blended with local and often organic produce like basil and strawberries she picks herself. The department could not confirm the $40,000 price tag on a pasteurizing machine. But it did confirm that, even if she uses pasteurized milk and boils all of her ingredients together, she would then need to pasteurize it in this special machine again. Advertisement Although the state is focusing on Swanberg first, other artisanal ice cream makers in Chicago are concerned they might be next. "I have to be worried. I am in too deep to cut my losses now," said a fellow ice cream maker who asked that her name not be used. "This is my life and passion, so I dont want to be shut down. "Our biggest thing is wondering whether or not there is a way, considering the organic and local food movement, to change the regulations so that small local producers are not being regulated in the same ways as massive creameries I mean, this is what they enforce for Haagen Dazs." Indeed, IDPH confirmed that these small operations are governed by the very same rules that apply to billion dollar ice cream companies. And although Illinois recently passed the The Illinois Local Food Entrepreneur and Cottage Food Operation Act, (currently awaiting Gov. Pat Quinn's signature) which suggests that the different sets of rules should govern tiny food operations and giant corporations, the bill does not apply to ice cream. Until she gets her license, Swanberg says she must stop putting product on the shelf. She hopes to meet with her fellow ice cream makers to figure out a plan that can allow them to deliver the same quality while abiding by state rules. 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! Among financial circles a noteworthy feature of the Royal Commission was that one of Australias largest, smartest but most aggressive financial institutions, Macquarie Group, sailed through the hearings with barely a mention. But what has not been made fully evident until now is that thousands of miles away in Germany, is Macquaries part in a tax scheme that made use of legal loopholes - and one which is now at the centre of a blockbuster investigation by German authorities. Will be interviewed by German authorities While Australias big four trading banks are sifting through the wreckage that their actions and the consequences of potentially criminal behaviour, Macquarie has essentially sat from the stalls watching as its share price rose. This is despite having had its share of public scrapes especially in its planning division. But now it seems the Cologne Prosecutors Office will be looking to interview Macquaries chief executive Nicholas Moore and its CEO in waiting, Shemara Wikramanayake - both of whom were on the groups executive committee at the time. The office has named both as persons of interest in its investigation Earnings from Harvey Norman's Austrlian network fell 7 per cent last financial year, and comparable sales fell 1.1 per cent in July and August. The company's share price has, meanwhile, been trading around three-year lows. "I don't think you can build a brand and let it stand still," Harvey tells Fairfax Media during a tour of the Auburn store. "I don't want them to look at it and say oh, Ive been to Harvey Norman they havent changed for years. I think they say that about a very big percentage of retailers across the country, and in some cases they could say it about us. If you want to stop them saying that you have to give them a reason. Page says the now-global flagship strategy was developed by working with its major suppliers - from tech giants like Apple to high-end stove and oven brands - to discover how they wanted shoppers to experience their products. Singapore was chosen as the first flagship store. The sales uptick at the first flagship store at Singapore's Millenia Walk shopping centre beat its business case by 50 per cent, prompting the company to roll out the concept across its global network. It went amazingly well in a market that is strong on digital, online, physical, which is everything that we are," says Page. The rise of online retailers like Amazon is one reason for market scepticism about Harvey Norman, but Page says Singapore was a success despite there being more online competitors there. "Were up against Alibabas Lazada, youve got Amazon Prime, youve got JD.com, youve got Shopee, all of those strong in place in Singapore and were thriving," she says. "Its quite obvious that the customer, when it comes to our sort of product, wants to shop in store." The company expects a 20 to 30 per cent jump in annual sales at the Auburn store, where it has handed over large chunks of real estate to categories it thinks can grow, such as flooring, outdoor cooking, and computer games - a mainstay of its competitor JB Hi-Fi. It will also be somewhere it can try out new products or categories, which if successful, can then be rolled out to its other 195 Australian stores. The flagship strategy has fortified their long held, sometimes at the point of ridicule, view that online shopping will not come to dominate retail in the way some suggest, or that the likes of Amazon and other online retailers present a significant threat to its business. Harvey Norman has built its online offering, which accounts for about 3 per cent of total sales. But Harvey says that sales channel shouldn't be given undue focus when most of its customers continued to come into stores. Retailers who were trumpeting their online sales growth were peddling fake news, he says. Loading Its big growth on nothing, but unless you have that narrative, you look like a dinosaur. And if someone like me comes out and says this is bullshit, [then] Im a dinosaur," he says. "Im not a dinosaur. But the average CEO of a retail shop is not going to come out and say what I say, because if he doesn't his board is going to jump on him, because the 'narrative' is out there. But its bullshit - the reality is something else completely different. Running an online business is actually more expensive than bricks and mortar, says Harvey, and the likes of Amazon would eventually open physical shops once it became serious about making profits - which is exactly what Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is doing. Page says retailers around the world had invested heavily in their online capabilities while letting their stores deteriorate, exacerbating any organic shift from in-store to online shopping. "Theres been mass exodus particularly by female shoppers because the retailers have not been respectful of how they want to shop," she says. If you trash a place why do you expect the sales to still come? Harvey says the flagship strategy will give it an edge against what it sees as its main competitors - JB Hi-Fi, which in 2016 also bought the home appliances chain The Good Guys. Page says Australia was the last country where Harvey Norman opened a flagship store because it wanted to learn from the other locations and ensure it had the model right when it tried it here. With products and technology trends moving fast, the company will now return to its Singapore flagship and redesign that store with ideas that will eventually trickle back to Australia. Kavanaughs rage was understandable and unsurprising: after all, his potential fate was professional death, at a minimum, and he surely had intuited the most likely result of the day, which would be no conclusive disposition of what had happened. All historical events are, by their very definition, absent and subject to interpretation. But what was so extraordinary about this event was its very existence was contested by Kavanaugh. He found himself in a fight not so much about what happened on the night in question, but whether it happened at all. Australia will have to look overseas for 75 per cent of its future information and communications technology workforce over the next five years unless education and training outcomes improve, a new report has warned. The Australian Computer Society and Deloitte Australias Digital Pulse 2018 report was released in June but launched in Perth this week by Skills and Vocational Education Minister Michaelia Cash this week and it painted a bleak picture of the ICT sector. About 75 per cent of new ICT jobs will have to be filled by imported labour. Credit:Bloomberg It said the sector was struggling to get diverse talent and stagnating compared to other developed countries. There would be 100,000 new ICT roles by 2023 to 758,700, but with just 5000 domestic graduates annually that demand would have to be met by importing labour. Striking ABC staff at a meeting at the Regent Theatre in November 1978. Credit:Alan Gilbert About 1800 association members walked off the job when the ABC management stood down an operator in the Sydney switchroom for refusing, as directed by the staff association, to connect the parliamentary broadcast from Canberra to the national network. A strike by members of the ABC Staff Association blacked out all ABC radio and television in NSW from early yesterday afternoon. First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on November 16-17, 1978 ABC journalists in NSW members of the Australian Journalists' Association, joined the stoppage when they learnt of the stand-down and subsequent walk-off. The Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tony Staley is ushered through demonstrators at the ABC. Credit:Grant Peterson Striking staff association members will meet at the Regent Theatre at 11am today to review the situation. Association members in other states have been directed by their federal office to hold stopwork meetings today. Yesterday was the second successive day on which ABC staff refused to put Parliament on air, in protest against the withdrawal of a staff-elected ABC commissioner and cuts in ABC budget and staffing. But nurdles are also an environmental scourge, making up part of the 8 million tonnes of plastic that flush into our oceans every year. Nurdles are particularly dangerous because marine animals - fish, turtles and birds - often mistake them for fish eggs. When ingested, they can obstruct an animals digestive system, leading to it becoming malnourished or starved. They also soak up chemical pollutants, releasing toxins into the animals that eat them. This was first measured in 2001 by Japanese researchers who found that the plastic production pellets collected from coastal Japanese waters had accumulated toxins at concentrations up to a million times that found in the surrounding seawater, says Dave West, the national policy director of the Boomerang Alliance. Hughson, a video producer, wrote recently that she never made a conscious decision to all of a sudden become some kind of eco-warrior or nurdlebitch. She grew up in a beach-loving family in Warrnambool, a former port city that marks the western end of the Great Ocean Road and is famous for its whale-watching. Her plastic odyssey began last August, when she was preparing for brain surgery for a benign - but life-threatening - tumour. Plastic rubbish washed up onto Warrnambool's Second Beach. Credit:Rob Gunstone I had developed deafness and severe tinnitus and could no longer cope with social engagements. My way of coping was to spend more time taking walks at the beach and in particular, isolated beaches. Shelly Beach is one such reasonably remote, rugged stretch of coast, and Hughson was surprised to find it littered with small white plastic sticks. A bit of research revealed that they were cotton buds, the sixth most common plastic waste item found on British beaches in 2016. Hughson started a group called Pick up Sticks to clean up Shelly Beach. If we hadn't been monitoring Shelly Beach, the nurdle spill may never have been discovered, she says. On November 18 last year, Hughson received a call from locals Stephanie and Andy Walters. They said thousands and thousands of lentil-sized pieces of plastic were carpeting the tidelines: You need to come down and have a look. The nurdle spill was traced to a sewage treatment plant operated by Wannon Water, which releases treated water into the ocean. Nurdles have contaminated beaches in Britain and Hong Kong, where a devastating spill in 2012 released around 15 billion of the plastic pellets. The hooded plover. Credit:Justin McManus However this was believed to be the first record of a nurdle spill from a sewage treatment plant in Australia. The stretch of coast between Warrnambool and Port Fairy is a feeding ground for the hooded plover, which is critically endangered in NSW, oystercatchers and migrating shore birds. There is also a small penguin colony in Warrnambool and a colony of the short-tailed shearwater - which has been described as the poster child of marine plastic pollution - in Port Fairy. I had read that 100 per cent of birds had nurdles in their stomachs in a shearwater colony on an island north-east of Tasmania, Hughson says. She knew she had to act quickly. A week before the spill, Hughson had watched the film Good Will Hunting. Riffing off this, she set up the Good Will Nurdle Hunting Facebook page to raise awareness: I didn't realise at the time it would be such a fitting name. Our community has shown so much good will in cleaning up the nurdles. Warrnambool local Peter Furphy, who is critical of Wannon Water's slowness to act, says the community response was a fantastic example of the power of Colleen and her authenticity. She is a well-loved individual in Warrnambool who has got incredible savviness with social media. We had schoolchildren from around the district on the beach before Wannon Water. Colleen Hughson (centre) demonstrates how to collect nurdles to grade 6 students from Terang College. Credit:Rob Gunstone Almost two weeks later, a class two state emergency was declared. People said if it was an oil spill or a whale stranding they would know what to do, Hughson says. But people had never even heard of nurdles. A year before Warrnambools environmental crisis, a Senate inquiry released a report called Toxic Tide: the threat of marine plastic pollution in Australia. Presciently, it recommended more effective enforcement of environmental laws in relation to preventing nurdles entering the waste management system. The government is yet to respond to the recommendations in the report. Environment Department incident controller Tim Gazzard (second from right) talks to his team during last year's nurdle emergency in Warrnambool. Credit:Rob Gunstone It is however poised to release six national targets to tackle Australias waste crisis over the next 12 years as part of the 2018 national waste policy. A working draft, obtained by Fairfax Media, says one of these targets is to phase out problematic and unnecessary plastics by 2030. The Boomerang Alliance says the unintentional release of nurdles into the environment is already an offence in every Australian state. To date, we have found no instance where our environmental regulators have issued a fine or penalty, Dave West says on its website. Terang College students Gemma, Abbey and Charlotte collect nurdles on Second Beach, Warrnambool. Credit:Rob Gunstone In Warrnambool the beach clean-ups are continuing. Nurdling is a painstaking task, which involves passing sand through a sieve, much like gold panning. Everytime we get a big swell, the nurdles wash back onto the beach, Hughson says. A couple of weeks ago I picked up 4000 in an hour. There are still more questions than answers. Wannon Water managing director Andrew Jeffers says the original source of the illegally dumped nurdles in its sewage treatment plant continues to remain a mystery. He says Wannon Water has installed additional screens to ensure no more nurdles enter the ocean and is continuing to clean up local beaches. The cost of the response from Wannon Water alone is more than $330,000. Jeffers says Wannon Water will continue its investigation in an effort to help avoid future events and bring a greater sense of closure for all who have been involved. We are also considering the possibility that the original source may never be known, he says. Local investigative journalist Carol Altmann is outraged that no one has been held responsible for a major environmental crime equivalent to someone stealing half a million bucks. Wannon Water still hopes for a breakthrough but that wont happen unless someone who knows what happened speaks up, she writes on her website. And somebody knows. The person who poured the zillions of nurdles into the system knows. Meanwhile, Altmann writes, people like Hughson continue to pick up the pieces. Hughson says the nurdle spill has changed the trajectory of her life. I have got a passion and a drive and a purpose, she says. Plastic waste Colleen Hughson collected from Warrnambool's beaches. Credit:Colleen Hughson When I was younger I used to care a lot more about the environment, but for some reason life got busy. It sounds awful - I got too busy to care. I guess now I have gone back to caring a lot more about what I do to the planet. I have a stronger connection to whats important in life. Hughson is currently making a series of short photo animations for an art exhibition next month organised by fellow nurdle hunter Megan Nicolson. This is my way of showing the plastic waste that I've been collecting off Shelly Beach in a fun and interesting way, she says. A seahorse made from waste plastic collected from the Warrnambool coast. Credit:Colleen Hughson I do hope some people will recognise plastics in the pictures that they use and start to question whether a) they've disposed of them properly b) whether they could do without those plastics in their lives. Shiraya Sushi & Deli used to churn through huge amounts of plastic, including takeaway containers and little fish-shaped soy sauce bottles. When Hughson told Stromvall-OBrien about nurdling - and asked if she could reward nurdle hunters with free sushi - the restaurant owner began to think about how she could reduce her plastic use. Now Stromvall-OBrien wraps sushi rolls in paper and puts bottles of soy sauce on the table. The response has been encouraging: Not many people demand plastic containers and most people are applauding. The one who is the hero of it all is Colleen, Stromvall-OBrien says. She started making everyone think. There is nothing like an environmental crisis to focus the mind of a community. Furphy says the nurdle spill coincided with the release of Blue Planet, a British nature series narrated by David Attenborough which depicted albatrosses feeding their chicks plastic and dolphins potentially exposing newborn calves to pollutants through their contaminated milk. Examination of a dead shearwater on Lord Howe Island reveals its stomach to be loaded with plastic fragments. Credit:Ian Hutton Furphy would like to see Australia lead the world in best-practice waste treatment plants that screen out nurdles before sewage is discharged into the ocean. It was shocking for us to see one of the most beautiful beaches in Warrnambool - hundreds of miles away from industry in Melbourne - with all these plastic pieces, Furphy says. Mark Wahlberg, who looks like every guy you've ever forgotten the name of but is somehow one of Hollywood's most highly paid actors, recently revealed his daily routine. The 47-year-old begins his day at 2.30am with a half-hour of prayer. Illustration: Simon Letch. Credit:Fairfax Media This is followed by a 3.15am breakfast, two workouts, and some "cryo chamber recovery" time, in which liquid nitrogen is used to plunge the air temperature to minus 100C to aid in muscle recovery, all before a no doubt much-anticipated 10.30am "snack". (Those of us who, Hobbit-like, enjoy a second breakfast may be crying into our Weet-Bix bowl about now.) Thereafter the day meanders through some more workouts, a shower which lasts for an hour and a half, and another snack "10 turkey meatballs", say, or "five pieces of sweet potato" before Wahlberg goes to bed at 7.30pm, immediately after dinner. I hope he occasionally treats himself to a mini Magnum. There's something grotesquely appealing about learning the hour-by-hour regimens of the rich and famous. We've grown tired, it seems, of the celebrities to whom fame comes easy, the ones who claim to have fallen into worldwide acclaim and multimillion-dollar fortunes as though they happened on a manhole without a cover. Think of George Clooney, who last year made $334 million, not even through his day job of acting, but by selling his tequila company. Give me Mark Wahlberg's turkey-and-egg-white asceticism any day; at least he worked for his $94 million. When you bite into a piece of award-winning charcuterie from Balzanelli Smallgoods, its likely youre tasting a recipe developed more than 50 years ago in the north of Italy. Its this link to tradition, and family, that has seen the small local business go from strength to strength since it first began trading in 1979, and in recent years its been what has saved it. Marco, Sandra and Dolores Balzanelli in the drying room of their Fyshwick factory. Credit:Karleen Minney The past few years have been a struggle, says Sandra Balzanelli, the third generation of her family to work in the business, and the current marketing manager. There wasn't much emphasis on supporting Australian products, everything was price driven and the big companies were absorbing a lot of manufacturers. A Canberra man agreed to mind a cache of weapons and ammunition for the Comanchero Outlaw Motorcycle Club in a bid to recover a vehicle he lost to pay a drug debt. However, police raided Nikolas Mikac and charged him with the possession of eight firearms and ammunition. A Canberra judge this week sentenced him to serve a jail sentence in the community. The ACT Supreme Court heard that Mikac, who had used up to four grams of cocaine a week, could not pay a $25,000 drug debt he owed to a dealer. Mikac took out a $50,000 personal loan and bought a car in the name of the dealer to neutralise the debt. Rome: City and Empire. National Museum of Australia, Lawson Crescent, Acton Peninsula. Daily 9am-5pm until February 3, 2019. Before coming to Canberra, Rome: City and Empire was exhibited at The Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Downtown Nashville, Tennessee. That viewing did not go according to plan; the crowds did not arrive and vibrations from an adjoining building site presented an unacceptable risk to the fragile exhibits so the show closed more than a month early. Rome: City and Empire at the National Museum of Australia. Palmyra, Syria, 200-273 CE, Limestone. Credit:Jamila Toderas The British Museum in London has one of the most extensive collections of art and artefacts from the Classical world with more than 100,000 objects, about 200 of which have been selected for this exhibition. It is a credible exhibition, rather than an incredible exhibition, with none of the famous British Museum masterpieces of Roman art, such as the Portland Vase, the Warren Cup, the Jennings Dog, the Discobolus or the bronze Head of Hypnos, included. What is included is about 35 marble statues, some quite large, such as that of a Roman magistrate (241cm high) and the monumental head of Empress Faustina I (170cm high). Fragments of wall murals and floor mosaics, objects from daily life and funerary art, numismatics and contents of various hordes are also on display. Ion Ficior, who was imprisoned for the deaths of 103 political inmates while in charge of a Communist-era labor camp in Romania, died on Wednesday. He was 90. Bianca Filote, a spokeswoman for the governments Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes, confirmed the death, at Jilava prison hospital outside Bucharest, the capital. Ion Ficior, former commander of the Periprava communist labor camp. Credit:AP The institute began to pursue Ficior and other former prison guards in 2013, handing over evidence to prosecutors. Since March 2017 Ficior had been serving a 20-year sentence for crimes against humanity. He denied wrongdoing and said he had simply been following orders. The man accused of plotting an "IS-affiliated" terror attack in Sydney has proclaimed his innocence after being released on bail. Kamer Nizamdeen, 26, was arrested in his office high above the university campus last month and charged with making a document to prepare for terrorism that allegedly included high-profile targets such as Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Police were called to the the University of NSW on August 30 after a colleague of Mr Nizamdeen allegedly stumbled across a notebook filled with locations and individuals that would be the subject of an alleged terrorist plot. Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen has been granted bail on one charge of preparing a terror document. Credit:NSW Government At a successful application for bail on Friday, the public prosecutor said there was no "conclusive" proof that the writing in the notebook was Mr Nizamdeen's. There is text: original poetry performed by Robin Sanders in the Boogz and Lil Buck piece called There Was Nothing and, in Portners piece, Sylvia Plaths Mushrooms (in an interesting irony, it is noted that the sponsor of the piece is Conagra Brands Foundation). But at least as it reached my ear, the text is indistinct and it was hard to know whether it was intended to interplay with the movement on an equal level or function more as stylized wallpaper. Thats a choice needing to be made. A teenager and a pregnant woman are dead and two men are in critical conditions following an horrific multi-vehicle crash in Sydney's west on Friday night. A 17-year-old girl was driving a Mazda 3 along with a man and his heavily pregnant wife, who was expecting twins, on the Northern Road near Glenmore Parkway around 7.40pm, when it collided with a Nissan Tiida travelling north. The 17-year-old driver and the pregnant 23-year-old woman died at the scene, as did the woman's unborn twins. Two women, one of whom was heavily pregnant, died in the Orchard Hills crash. Credit:Facebook The 25-year-old man was taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition after being trapped in the car for a short time, and is now in an induced coma with head injuries. Digging through them is not for the faint of heart, nor asthmatic of lung. Nor for the short of time, for that matter. But you've got to commit to it, or what's the point? From Iran to Rozelle Frank is only interested in customers with commitment. "For me, if I see a good rug, I want to give it to a person who will appreciate it the most. That's it." Or as his Dad said: "Be careful, the rug might put a spell on you." It's why he chose Rozelle for his Sydney store, he explains. Frank's a Melbourne man via Iran, where he was born and raised, then London and Japan, where he met Rebecca, the girl from Wagga Wagga who became his wife. When they finally settled in Australia in the mid-'90s, it was in Melbourne's inner north. Around Fitzroy, Frank says, people had the confidence and the eye to choose a rug that speaks to them. "When I came to Sydney, I was looking for the same type of place. A place where people buy for themselves, not interior decorators. I went to Mosman and thought, 'Oh, no. People [here] are not that confident.' " Frank Nasre inside his soon-to-be-closed rug shop in Rozelle. Credit:Peter Rae But Rozelle was more like Brunswick and Fitzroy. "People here also like to come, they talk to you, they take the rug home. Very different to Mosman or Palm Beach or something. They take the risk to put [in] the rug that they want. "When you talk to people like that, their spell becomes your spell. You know you are making a nest for them." Frank talks fast, but softly with an accent. Tall and solid, with strong, black brows, it's clear the 55-year-old has a life story as colourful, dense and intricate as the rugs of Isfahan that his master-weaver parents made. His father (who made the "best" rug that Frank ever sold - for a cool $103,000 soon after he arrived in Australia) died suddenly in Iran in 1995. Frank won't say much about his father's death, except that it prompted the rest of his immediate family to migrate to Australia. His mother Aghdas, in her 70s, is upstairs at the shop when I visit, treating a large mustard-toned Jaipur rug with tea. She started working in the Fitzroy shop doing repairs and restorations, Frank says. Owner Frank Nasre surrounded by family and staff with rugs that were designed by his family down the generations. Credit:Peter Rae "For a single woman in Iran, it's not a good thing," he says, so his mother came to Australia and was soon followed by his six sisters. One sister studied aerospace engineering, another became a lawyer, one is a doctor in Geelong and another is training as a doctor, he says. "They have shown to the family and relatives in Iran that this is what women can do. They can travel by themselves, they're independent." Behind the closing-down sales More relatives would follow Frank's mother and sisters to Australia and the rug shop helped them migrate through employment. Of course, he says, the shop wasn't closing down continuously for a decade. Just frequently. Though it remained stocked with his rugs the whole time, the shop changed management three times before Frank took over the lease again at the end of last year. Each time it changed hands, Frank explains, there was a new sale. Loading In 2008, the first closing down sale happened after Frank developed health problems, and handed the shop over to an importing contact. Later, his cousin took it over, along with a number of other rug shops. After WestConnex acquired the building for demolition, the closing down sale ads went out again. Frank, who survived awake brain surgery in May, said his wife Rebecca was the one who observed how the market suddenly changed when the closing-down ads first went out. Everyone wants a bargain. That jarring reference to gentlemen was not - or at least not only - a note of defiant provocation, but a nod to the Ramsay Centres intellectual scaffolding, a reference to the essay "What is Liberal Education" by Leo Strauss, a mid-century German-American academic and philosopher. In it Strauss argues that all civilisations are not equal and that a proper liberal education consists of the close and literal study of the great ideas and books of Western civilisation, with its starting point in Athens and Jerusalem. Such an education should not an engine of egalitarianism, but the privilege of that handful of gentlemen who might most benefit from it and appreciate its attendant responsibilities. Over the following years Straussian thinking was to become a safe space for conservative intellectuals and academics who were disturbed and dislocated by the rise of postmodernism and relativism on campuses around the world. Loading It reassuringly held that there was a natural hierarchy of men and ideas; that that there was a wrong and right, a better and worse, and that with the right education by the right teachers referring to the right books, truth and beauty could be identified and understood by the right people. Western civilisation proved that. To their campus critics, Straussians came to be viewed not as students of Western civilisation but as Western supremacists. Straussian thinking spread from academia into think tanks and then into conservative media and politics. It reached the apex of the American power with its acceptance among members the neo-conservative movement that championed the invasion of Iraq at the turn the of the century. Straussianism resonates with particular strength during times of culture warfare when its language and concerns are often echoed - consciously or otherwise - by politicians and commentators. It is no accident that when Pauline Hanson sought to move a motion against what she calls anti-white racism she declared in the same breath that Western civilisation was under threat. Nor is it a surprise that when one of the Ramsays Centres key champions, board member Tony Abbott, wrote a piece for Quadrant in defence of the Ramsay centre his writing echoed that of Leo Strauss. Former prime minister Tony Abbott is on the board of the Ramsay Centre. Credit:Daniel Munoz By the time Tony Abbott came to publish his argument for the Ramsay Centre course in May this year, the project was already being greeted with scepticism by left-leaning academics at the Australian National University. In his piece Abbott, who had been exposed to Strauss during his years at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, described his friend Paul Ramsay as an ordinary school student who had gone on to make his billions with Ramsay Health Care. In 2011, well before Ramsays death in 2014, the two began to discuss how Ramsay might use his legacy to promote an understanding and appreciation of the high culture of the West. Abbott wrote that Ramsay, who like him had been educated by Jesuits at Riverview, shared his concern that the study of history was no longer narrative, starting with the cradle of civilisation and moving through Greece and Rome to the story of England and the birth of the modern world, its triumphs and its travails. At Australian universities, every element of the curriculum was supposed to be pervaded by Asian, Indigenous and sustainability perspectives. Abbott explained that the key to understanding the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation is that its not merely about Western civilisation but in favour of it". And he included an observation by a former Quadrant editor John OSullivan, who warned that, every organisation thats not explicitly right-wing, over time becomes left-wing. This would not be the Ramsays fate. Via his gift to Australia, like Cecil Rhodes before him, Ramsay would use his fortune to create men for the worlds fight with the moral force of character and instincts to lead. With Abbotts interpretation of the goals of the Ramsay Centre so clearly laid out, negotiations with the ANU collapsed. Protesting academic staff said they feared that the Ramsay Centres influence over staffing and curriculum of the undergraduate course would interfere with academic freedom. The vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney, Michael Spence. This was when the University of Sydney began its delicate negotiations with the Ramsay Centre. Academic supporters of cooperation with the Ramsay Centre at the University of Sydney declined to comment for this story, fearing that it might inflame the debate. Similarly Abbott declined to comment. But in September the professor of philosophy Peter Ansty laid out his argument in the Herald. He argued that the sheer size of the bucket of money being offered would be genuinely transformative for the chronically underfunded humanities, and that the impact of the gift would resonate long after the heat of the current culture wars dissipated. And perhaps most critically he argued that a course in Western civilisation at Sydney would, provide the conceptual tools for students to evaluate critically the very notion of Western civilisation ... That is, it would equip them with the terms of reference for analysing the very debate in which we are now embroiled. Opponents remain unconvinced. Lucia Sorbera, a senior lecturer in Arabic, Islamic and Middle East Studies at Sydney University, rejected the suggestion that opponents of the Ramsay project were engaged in ideological dispute. "It's not a culture war, this is an intellectual debate about who we are and what we want to be," Dr Sorbera says. "We are trying to fight the institutionalised racism that is concealed behind this project. Our institution doesn't have this history and we're trying to protect that. David Brophy, a senior lecturer in modern Chinese history at the University of Sydney, said the Ramsay Centre signalled a push back against progressive changes that are emerging on university campuses and in broader society. "This would be a significant step backwards," he says. "It sends the message that studying Western culture and civilisation is the pinnacle of student achievement, and we would then have to go out and promote it as the most prestigious stream in the arts program." Loading Opponents have rallied colleagues from around the world to their cause, with dozens of academics signing a letter of opposition that reads in part: "Paul Ramsay could simply have donated funds to support existing humanities teaching in Australia, here or elsewhere. The fact he chose not to do so shows that his intention was more than simply fostering university study of Western intellectual and cultural traditions, within the standing norms of academic independence. "Ramsays aim, according to his centres website, was to create 'a cadre of leaders whose awareness and appreciation of their countrys Western heritage and values would help guide their decision making in the future'. The centre was established to promote the study of Western civilisation 'in this spirit'. "We are a university, not a training institute for a future political cadre. Enquiry in the humanities must be free and conducted independent of the influence of third parties," the letter states. To address his staffs concerns, Spence this week released a draft memorandum of understanding detailing the relationship that the university would have should it enter into a relationship with Ramsay, and invited staff to comment over the coming weeks. Under the MOU the university said it would want full control over curriculum, teaching, marking and staffing, as well as eight years' worth of guaranteed funding even if the centre pulls out after four. The Ramsay Centres influence over the degree would also be limited to one voice on the scholarship and academic selection committees. This week Spence told the Herald that he had made it clear to the Ramsay Centre's board that any course provided by the University of Sydney would not somehow "score" civilisations, and that any attempt to do so would be "intellectually bogus". The board, he said accepted that. Asked how he responded to Abbott's blunt assertion that Western civilisation was superior, and that the Ramsay Centre should maintain a right-wing stance, Spence said that politicians "spoke in Kandinsky" while academics traded in the nuance of Constable. Abbott, he says, was using bold colourful assertions to attract attention. Like many prep students, Harriet Asome was sent home with books that were dull, repetitive and predictable. She would study the pictures, and guess what the words might be. Mum and teacher Sarah Asome reading with her children Pippa, Harriet and Ned. Credit:Jason South They had sentences like 'the cat is big, the dog is big, the man is big', her mother Sarah recalled. She could pretty much read them without reading the words. Sixty-year-old West Australian building brand Collier Homes, rescued from the brink of collapse two years ago, has bounced back, if its new partnership with a US company is any indication. Collier announced on Friday it would become the Australian face of Lindal Cedar Homes, a major US builder of prefabricated and sustainable homes. Loading Collier Homes is named after the Ardross Street Raymond McCarthy lived on when he founded the company in 1959. From 1969 it changed hands twice before being acquired by Homes Australia, owned by former South Australian senator Bob Day. It hit headlines in 2016 when liquidators moved in on Homes Australia, leaving subcontractors out of pocket, tradies out of work, people out of jobs in the Osborne Park office and 29 homeowners in limbo not to mention ending Mr Days political career. Choice is meant to be the great thing about our thrusting consumer society, but are we being offered too much of it? A Kings Cross cafe is in the news for offering customers eight types of milk. The cafe even offers a milk menu in which the various types of milk soy, macadamia, almond, oat, coconut and cow are described in terms of their dietary and environmental implications. In a world of Tinder, people are spending more time choosing a beverage than on picking a sexual partner. If the dating sites offered the same level of detail as the milk menu at least you'd be aware of each person's total emissions. A Kings Cross cafe even offers a milk menu in which the various types of milk are described in terms of their dietary and environmental implications. Credit:Alamy Stock Photo It's not only Kings Cross. When I was a teenager growing up in Canberra you couldn't get a cup of coffee after 9pm. As a result, groups of friends would drive the 90 minutes to Yass, where we'd enjoy a beverage at the Hume Highway Truck Stop. It was "single origin" coffee, in the sense that the origin was always the same: a large, dented can of International Roast from which staff would dole out a heaped tea-spoon of instant, followed by some hot water from the urn. They are among the most poignant images of World War I, showing the people and places that shaped Australia's role in the final days of the bloody conflict. Now, Australia Post is evoking those 100-year-old memories in the final part of a five-year series to mark the Anzac centenary. The final five commemorative stamps in Australia Post's Centenary of WWI series will go on sale this week, with each stamp highlighting a different aspect of Australia's involvement as the war ended in 1918. Dr Aaron Pegram, a senior historian at the AWM, with the final five stamps in Australia Post's Anzac centenary series. Credit:Jamila Toderas One stamp features an image of Australian soldiers preparing for the battle of Amiens, a crucial conflict on the Western Front which helped swing the war in the Allies's favour. There are more pressing issues for Aboriginal people than changing the date of Australia Day, Indigenous leader Warren Mundine says. Mr Mundine, who has previously voiced his support for changing the date from January 26 but also called for a stop to the annual debate, said the biggest problem with shifting Australia Day was what date to choose. Warren Mundine spoke in Brisbane on Friday. Credit:File photo: Pat Scala "I thought, well, like Independence Day in the United States, what was our Independence Day for Australia? And of course we all know that's the 1st of January in 1901," he said. "Now being a good dinky-di Aussie, I wasn't going to give up a public holiday." The ACT government has been approached by the federal government about the prospect of delivering services such as health and education to Norfolk Island, but it's unclear where the early talks could lead. Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull contacted Chief Minister Andrew Barr about the issue in late July, before he was removed from the top job. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull discussed the ACt delivering services to Norfolk Island Credit:Alex Ellinghausen A spokeswoman for the Chief Minister said the conversation was about the possibility of the ACT government providing some services to Norfolk Island. In 2015 the federal government revoked the self-government arrangements that had been in place on the small island, which is around 1400 kilometres east of the Australian mainland in the Pacific Ocean. Since then most state services to the island have been delivered by the NSW government, but funded by the federal government. The Faulkner idea, which did not much progress after he was moved from integrity matters to the defence ministry, was also based on the (so far, in Australia at least) unproven theory that if one side of politics set some sort of example of decent and honest public administration, the other might, in due course, reciprocate. Faulkner established a long list of statutory boards and agencies where vacancies would be filled by merit on the basis of recommendations by more-or-less independent panels. The Faulkner reforms were similar to decisions in Britain in Gordon Brown's then new government. But Brown had the sense to try to entrench his system. He appointed a commissioner for public appointments. He set up a parliamentary system for reviewing the process of making significant appointments. Brown's reforms in Britain have by now been much watered down by the Tory government, but the forms are followed up to a point. Ministers now have much more discretion to override recommendations by independent panels, or findings by parliamentary committees that people are not suited for particular posts. In some cases, ministers can and do simply bypass the system altogether. Yet there is a sort of check and balance, if a weaker one, from the likely comment and backlash if an essentially bipartisan parliamentary committee declares an appointee unqualified or unsuitable. The Faulkner reforms were mirrored by changes in broadcasting laws designed to depoliticise the ABC and SBS boards. An independent panel, selected not by the government but by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's secretary, would make independent recommendations about new board members. Implicitly, party hacks and obvious camp followers, of either side, need not apply. Loading Abbott, once prime minister, followed the forms. The then PM&C secretary decided, mysteriously, that the two best people for vacancies on the appointment panel would be strident conservative Australian columnist Janet Albrechtsen and a former deputy leader of the Liberal Party, Neal Brown, who was a trenchant critic of the ABC. Turnbull, then communications minister, distanced himself from the decision. When Turnbull became prime minister, the panel was changed and, if a little dominated by former mandarins, was manifestly non-partisan. This panel, chaired by former Treasury secretary Ted Evans, did not recommend appointing Justin Milne as ABC chairman. It recommended instead Sydney lawyer Danny Gilbert. But Turnbull overrode that decision to appoint Milne. Turnbull always knows better than the professionals. Moreover, Turnbull always seemed to have an agenda for the ABC, whether by way of punishing it for its (according to him) bias or journalistic errors, or because, as some insist, the government's agenda has been to weaken the ABC against other media rivals, such as Foxtel, News Corp and Seven West. The ABC has had its budget cut, in fairly obvious retaliation for failing to loyally parrot the government line, and has been subjected to an array of reviews, some conducted by people whose backgrounds have been scarcely disinterested. The last few decades in Australia have seen a general collapse in public faith in most Australians institutions, public or private. In the robber-baron era of the 1980s and 1990s, business, banks and many of the financial institutions, and the professions, even the judiciary, lost caste among the public. Many of the churches and other private pillars of the family and society discredited themselves, not least in the epidemic of child abuse. Lawyers and doctors came to be seen as more greedy and less noble and disinterested in their aspirations. The public service seemed to become more anxious to please, more heartless in carrying out policy and less concerned about the public interest. Old established media have lost their base and often become more strident, and, thus, less trusted. In all of this, the ABC has maintained an extraordinary public trust and affection. But it has become an institution much abused by politicians on both sides, and a particular object of hatred by Liberal politicians, even Turnbull. And, in Morrison, Australia might have its first prime minister in 80 years who does not look instinctively to the ABC for news of what is happening. Other politicians have supped with the shock jocks, and succumbed to News Corp crusades, but one has usually sensed that this has been more posture than real. Loading One is not to assume that Milne was installed in the ABC as some sort of spy or disruptive force. One can expect that Turnbull did not lean on him, even as he made clear, at both personal and business interactions, what he thought of the ABC or of its journalism. Turnbull has always thought himself a media expert, and once imagined he could rule Fairfax via his effective control of its junk bond debts. Like many a politician before him, Labor or Liberal, he has worked for and with media moguls, and handed many of them millions of dollars in public money. It has not, usually, won him permanent friends. A tendency to bite back through representations and threats to owners and senior managers has not endeared him to journalists. Nor has it much impressed the moguls, whose affections are generally rented rather than bought freehold. Milne, put simply, was unsuited, either by background or temperament, for the job of ABC chairman. He seemed to have shown little feeling for the ABC's mission and far too much anxiety to be a middleman between the government and the organisation. In fact, his chief qualification seemed to be that he was a mate and former business partner of the prime minister, and that he shared Turnbull's enthusiasm for big technical projects, of little direct relevance to what the ABC is doing now or in the medium term. And the Turnbull style and personality was just as evident in the fate of the ABC's hapless managing director, Michelle Guthrie. She was out of her depth in managing the ABC's people or functions, even as she was cutting its costs, doing managerial fandangos, and seriously dumbing down and constraining its talk, its news and its current affairs. She will be little mourned, even if she will be a little pitied. It is now clear that she was caught in the middle. There was an activist chairman, equally deficient in understanding of public broadcasting, who wanted to do her job and appease conservative politicians all at once. And a news and current affairs staff continually under the hammer from government, not least Turnbull himself. Luckily for the public record, Guthrie was documenting some of the efforts, through the chairman, to make the ABC less annoying to Turnbull and the Coalition. Loading Turnbull is famously well connected to the big end of town, not least because of successful speculation (with Milne) in an internet company, and his partnership in a merchant bank, along with Neville Wran and Nicholas Whitlam. He had never actually managed much, other than money and investments, when he went into politics. It was soon clear there, if it had not already been in a business career laced with violent fallings-out with erstwhile colleagues and friends, that he had little skill at managing people, and little judgment in who was really any good, and who, like him, promised more than they could deliver. A fair proportion of these have come from the banking industry, apparently for Turnbull the gold standard of judgment, the long view, common sense and concern for the public interest. Qualities and mindsets strongly in display at the moment as the royal commission into the misdeeds of bankers, financial advisers and bank-associated insurance and superannuation-industry rent seekers. It must have seemed natural to Turnbull that the outlooks and the learning of such chaps were just what Australia needed in resetting the values, focus and managerial style of the public service over the next 30 years. Epic RecordsTravis Scott plans to turn Saturday Night Live into Astroworld when he makes his first appearance on the show on October 6. The Houston rapper will perform songs from his platinum Astroworld album on the show, which will be hosted by actress Awkwafina from Crazy Rich Asians and Oceans 8. Scott, who's featured on Juicy Js new single, Neighbor, will hit the road on his Astroworld: Wish You Were Here tour which will kick off November 8 in Baltimore. This Saturday, Kanye West will appear on SNL for the seventh time as he performs on the premiere of the shows 44th season. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 28) After more than three weeks of holing up in the Senate, embattled Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Friday said he was ready to go home. The Senator made the decision after Branch 148 of the Makati Regional Trial Court failed to issue an alias arrest warrant and a hold departure order on him as requested by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Instead, Judge Andres Soriano set a hearing next week to hear evidence on the DOJ's petition in connection with the voiding of the amnesty granted to Trillanes in 2011 with regard to charges of coup d'etat. Branch 150 also of the Makati Court had earlier ordered Trillanes' arrest but allowed him to post a P200,000 bail on a separate case of rebellion. Soriano set the hearing for October 5 "without necessarily reopening the case and/or giving due course to the prosecution's urgent ex-parte omnibus motion." He said the hearing would be a venue for both sides to present evidence to back their claims. The prosecution said President Rodrigo Duterte voided Trillanes' amnesty because the Senator did not file an application for it and made no admission of guilt. Trillanes denied these allegations. In a press briefing, Trillanes said he would come home Saturday morning and celebrate his "temporary victory" with his family and friends. "Magchichill tayo ng konti," he said. "May kaunting ano siguro diyan, mga pulutan." [Translation: "We'll chill for a bit. There may be food and stuff."] Had Soriano ordered his arrest, the senator would be back in jail because the charge of coup d' etat is non-bailable. This is in connection with the July 2003 Oakwood mutiny led by Trillanes, then a former naval officer, against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Trillanes and his fellow Magdalo soldiers were jailed but were later granted amnesty by former President Benigno Aquino III. 'Democracy still alive' Trillanes felt relieved by Soriano's order, saying it meant there was still hope for the country. "Tumitibok pa ang ating demokrasya (Democracy is still alive)," he said. He explained that Soriano's order meant the court was not acknowledging the validity of Duterte's Proclamation No. 572 that voided his amnesty. But Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra saw nothing wrong with the deferment, saying it just showed Soriano's "desire to study the issues further." "We are already very happy that he took cognizance of our motion, heard the parties, admitted the evidence, and issued the appropriate orders, instead of refusing to act at all," he said in a text message to reporters. Trillanes has been staying in the Senate to avoid arrest since September 4, when the proclamation voiding his amnesty came out in a newspaper. The lawmaker could not be sure that he would be safe from arrest when he steps out of the Senate, but said he was counting on the public closely watching his case. Back to work After spending the coming weekend at home, Trillanes said he would return to work on Monday. On top of his agenda is an investigation on alleged anomalies by Solicitor General Jose Calida and Special Assistant to the President Bong Go. "It's time to put them on the defensive," Trillanes said. The Senator wants the Blue Ribbon Committee to look into the government contracts of the Calida family's security firm worth millions of pesos. Another committee headed by Trillanes was conducting a probe on the contracts when news about his amnesty broke. Duterte confirmed Trillanes' claim that it was Calida who initiated the review of his amnesty. Trillanes had also called for a legislative inquiry into the Go family's multibillion-peso construction projects with the government in the Davao region. Atkinson's many fans know better than to expect a straightforward chronological narrative from her; instead, she prefers to jump around, intensifying the poignancy of her characters' lives by giving her readers godlike glimpses of how they will eventually turn out. The very first page of "Transcription" opens on Juliet's death in 1981 - a death we witness with different emotions when we return to the scene briefly at the very end of the novel. Scattered in between are long sections of the story set in 1950, when Juliet is employed by BBC radio as a producer of educational programs with titles like the "Explorers' Club" and "English for the Under-Nines." But all is not well in Juliet's placid and somewhat dull postwar world. She senses she is being followed: a man with a pockmarked face and a woman wearing a headscarf garishly decorated with parrots keep popping up. Adding to the weirdness are those anonymous notes that someone has begun dropping off at the BBC. Addressed to Juliet, the notes warn that "you will pay for what you did." His worst fears were realised in May this year when the NSW government announced it would invest $20 million of taxpayers funds and public servants' super in AOC. It would transform the sleepy co-op, that had never made a profit, into an industry goliath. Loading The flood of money meant the original farmer investors lost control of the business. Instead, investment manager Roc Partners which started life as Macquarie Groups private equity business controlled 75 per cent of shares as the manager of these fresh funds. The $20 million came from three sources, all recommended by Roc. They included $7.5 million from Qantas Employees Superannuation Fund, $7.5 million by First State Super, which manages NSW government employees super, and $7.5 million via the Go NSW Equity Fund. Instead of pursuing export markets, AOC shifted gears. Its new goal: sell 1 million dozen oysters by 2018/2019 and become one of the country's largest oyster companies, penetrating domestic and eventually export markets. The investment triggered fear and suspicion and waves of speculation among the 268 oyster permit holders in NSW. Most are family farms growing Sydney rock oysters or Pacific oysters, and few have the financial backers that AOC now does to expand rapidly. The investment was like unleashing a "tsunami in a small pond", said a long-term AOC shareholder. He was incredulous that taxpayer and super funds were given "to a single entity in such a small industry". Rival farmers say AOCs sales and job growth is happening by acquisition, and not by increasing the overall number of oysters produced. By August, the company was close to having spent the $20 million, including buying four farms. Before Roc's investment, AOC also bought director David Maidment's Wagonga Inlet oyster farm. Growers inside and outside the company claimed AOC paid too much, but Trebeck said it was "just false to assert it was acquired at twice its value" and he stressed it was conducted at arm's length. In 2016/17, 5.8 million dozen Sydney rock and Pacific oysters were sold in NSW, generating $45 million in sales, says a government report on aquaculture released in February. Demand is strong and prices have risen, particularly for premium oysters sold to top restaurants. NSW farmers are investing in new bags that create more uniform oysters with deeper cups and more meat that attract a higher price. Loading With investors now in the drivers seat at AOC, would it focus on maximising profits and screw the oyster farmers, asked one shareholder. If they keep buying more leases, what guarantee do I have that they will still purchase my oysters? Other farmers fear what will happen if AOC crashes. Except for Wilcox, shareholders weren't prepared to talk on the record, partly because of fear that theyll be left high and dry with a perishable product. But the Herald has sighted emails and complaints from more than a dozen current shareholders, and spoken to some who regret their vote for the investment. No new jobs will be created; jobs will be lost in one part of the industry and go into AOC, wrote one. Several alleged AOC was competing against its own grower shareholders to supply restaurants with product from company-owned farms. Responding to these complaints via email from London, Trebeck who undertook a strategic assessment of NSW's oyster industry in 1996 defended the change in direction. There may be a few disgruntled growers but there was also strong support, he said. AOC had lifted the reputation of oysters, contributed to improved prices, and brought "a much needed and long overdue professionalism to the industry", he wrote. Oyster farmers, from left, Shane Buckley, Kel and Caroline Henry, and Kevin McAsh, are worried about the NSW government's investment in one of their competitors in the industry. Credit:Janie Barrett NSW Farmers' Caroline Henry, the chair of the oyster committee, said it was clear the investment gave AOC an unfair advantage to the detriment of small growers, particularly when it came time to compete for new leases. A better use of the funds would have been to ensure larger, fast-growing and disease-resistant genetics were available to NSW growers, she said. "The government needs to compensate for the market disruption this investment is likely to cause by funding investments that benefit the entire industry," said Henry, who runs Wonboyn Oysters in NSWs most southern estuary. There were also questions for the NSW government from the Opposition, aired in the media and in parliament: Why did the government invest so much in a company that had yet to make a profit? Why didn't other profitable oyster farmers get a chance to apply? How did AOC attract the funds when it met few of the government's own guidelines? The Go NSW Equity Fund's guiding criteria said successful companies would have an enterprise value of at least $20 million, and an established, proven and successful business model. Neither criteria applied to AOC. One thing the original investors cant complain about is how the Roc-led investors took over. About 84 per cent of AOC shareholders voted in favour of the investment. Announcing the result of the ballot, Trebeck said the investment would position the company for growth by selling products from its existing shareholder farms and those from newly purchased farms. Shareholder growers claim they're being overlooked, but Trebeck stresses that AOC continues to "depend heavily on support from grower shareholders". AOC only contemplated buying farms because it struggled to obtain sufficient oysters from our shareholders' farms", he said. In letters to shareholders, Trebeck admitted the company's direction was "not the same as anticipated at the start, especially the initial focus on exports". He also stressed the investment was done by Roc, which Trebeck said had a mandate to find suitable investments for these funds. While the farmer investors are wary of AOCs new shareholder, and its new money, Roc insists it doesn't want to devour the competition and become a big fish in a small pond. It wants to help an industry that needs money, patience, and experience to crack the export market, Roc says. And given AOCs experience to date, Roc has a point. This is a long-term game to get export markets open, says Rocs managing partner Michael Lukin of its controversial investment. Roc is an experienced player in Asia. It is part of the consortium buying Capilano Honey with plans to tap Chinas booming middle class, which will triple in size over the next five years. The AOC investment is part of its plan to cater to that demographic. Thats going to open up the market for everyone, said Lukin. He offered Blackmores as an example; the company opened up the Chinese market for other supplement manufacturers in Australia. But someone has to do the heavy lifting, he said. The small operators dont have the capital to do that. AOC plans to invest in much-needed infrastructure such as oyster grading, cold storage, marketing and retail distribution. Lukin said AOC has also committed to buying a grader, which will speed up the grading process. At the end of the day, if we dont have farmer support, we dont have a business, he said. Lukin made it clear that AOC will need external farmers, with quality product, to thrive. Contrary to industry rumours, he said AOC will not bid to operate the new hatchery (which will supply much needed, fresh spat baby oysters to the NSW region) at Moruya airport. He believes it should be run independently of business. Critics say the $20-million investment could swamp an industry with revenue of $45 million a year, but Lukin says this overstates its impact. We will be less than 10 per cent of the market. What people mistake is the revenue of the industry versus the value of the industry." Roc also wants to educate consumers' palates so they'll ask for oysters by region. The reality is were trying to grow the category, said Lukin. It's been a significant change for an industry that is based on patience and time. It takes at least three years to grow an oyster. It is a temperamental business. A flood can close an estuary for months. Down on the Clyde River a few weeks ago, a local farmer pulled up a bag of oysters. It's always a surprise to find what lies beneath the waters. Some oysters were victims of "unexplained mortality", he said, as he surveyed dead mollusc. On the river, farmer Shane Buckley who owns Wapengo Rocks oyster farm further south said he had scoured the internet and Jobs for NSW's site looking for grants to grow his profitable oyster farm. Nobody mentioned Roc or the $150-million fund. Bill Cosby spent his first day in a Pennsylvania state prison much as he will spend many days to come: mostly alone. He slept alone on Tuesday night on a cot bolted to the floor of a cell he shares with no one. When his door was unlocked on Wednesday morning, Cosby stepped into a TV room that was empty except for his guards. Several cells identical to his own lined the walls in this section of State Correctional Institution Phoenix, and every one of them was vacant. Cosby ate breakfast, lunch and dinner by himself. He walked the yard without company. Four times that day - at precisely 6.10am, 12.30, 4.30 and 9pm before lights out - a guard walked the unit to count the prisoners, and the count was always one. This quasi-isolation won't last forever - maybe only a week or two. It's mostly a coincidence that Cosby was assigned to a brand-new prison that is still just barely half full. Administrators decided out of caution to isolate him from the other prisoners until they can figure out what to do with one of the most famous sex offenders in the country for the duration of his three-to-10 year sentence. New York: More than anything, she remembers the laughter. The laughter as one teenage boy held her down on the bed, groping her, as his friend watched. Laughter at her expense in a moment of terror. Christine Blasey Ford speaks during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. Credit:AP I was underneath one of them, while the two laughed," Christine Blasey Ford testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday local time. "Two friends having a really good time with one another. The US today is a profoundly divided country. But Americans from both sides of politics agreed that Thursday's hearings represented a cultural flashpoint that would reveal something fundamental about their country. In particular, how far it has come in responding to allegations of sexual assault against powerful men. The #MeToo movement, sparked almost a year ago by revelations about movie producer Harvey Weinstein, has toppled media executives and comedians and celebrity chefs. But could it take down Brett Kavanaugh, a nominee to the country's most powerful court? Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Credit:AP Republicans who back Kavanaugh said there was no corroborating evidence for Ford's allegation. Democrats pointed to the lack of an impartial investigation and the committee's refusal to call witnesses who might be able to back up her claim, or to seek testimony from the two other women who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Separately, former Kavanaugh classmate Mark Judge - who Ford says witnessed and encouraged the attack - told the committee in a letter he will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that investigates "confidentially". He also "categorically" denied sexual misconduct claims against him and Kavanaugh made by another accuser, Julie Swetnick. Judge had previously notified the Judiciary Committee that he didn't want to testify in public. Loading The Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 on party lines Friday to send Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor. After the Judiciary panel meeting concluded, Grassley told top Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California the plan was "a gentlemen's and women's agreement". Flake of Arizona, who had been undecided until Friday morning, announced his demand for an FBI investigation not long after announcing his support for Kavanaugh. Flake said he would "only be comfortable moving on the floor until the FBI has done more investigation than they have already." He added: "It may not take them a week. We owe them due diligence." Later, Flake told reporters, "I want to support Judge Kavanaugh. I'm a conservative and he's a conservative." Flake's proposal was endorsed by GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, a strong Kavanaugh backer who said, "What Jeff is saying makes sense to me". Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, another top GOP backer of Kavanaugh, told reporters he thought an FBI investigation was "overkill" but that he was ok with the idea. Democrat Chris Coons told reporters that Flake only struck the deal with Democrats "after having reassurances from some other senators in his party". Coons of Delaware said that after Flake announced his support for Kavanaugh earlier on Friday, they had a private conversation and Coons said he told Flake, "I respect you as my friend, but I'm having difficulty with your vote. It became a much broader conversation." A US official with knowledge of the matter said the FBI could complete an investigation within a week, but the timeline ultimately depends on what is involved, such as the number of interviews that need to be done and whether newly uncovered information needs to be followed up on. Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the Judiciary panel, said an FBI investigation "has to be more than a sham, and a charade". "What's really needed now is a penetrating, complete, fair and impartial investigation by the FBI," Blumenthal said, including an interview of Judge. On Thursday the judiciary committee heard Ford, a California psychology professor, testify that she's "one hundred percent" certain Kavanaugh attacked her in 1982 when they were teenagers, describing in detail being held down on a bed at a drunken high school gathering. She described 'uproarious laughter' by Kavanaugh and Judge, who has said he doesn't recall such an incident. Kavanaugh angrily, tearfully and 'unequivocally' denied any wrongdoing involving Ford and other women who have made claims of sexual misconduct in recent days. He denounced his treatment as a political hit orchestrated by Democrats. A second woman, Deborah Ramirez of Colorado, claims Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a drunken party when they were freshmen at Yale. And in the most lurid allegation yet, Swetnick of Washington said in a sworn statement released on Wednesday that Kavanaugh took part in efforts during high school to get girls intoxicated so that a group of boys could have sex with them. Two Australians were among dozens of passengers on board a flight that crash landed into a Pacific lagoon on Friday. A spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed two Australians were aboard the flight when officials say it landed short of the runway and hit in the water in the Micronesia archipelago. The Air Niugini flight landed in the ocean. Credit:Dr James Yaingeluo The Australian pair have been confirmed safe and did not need consular assistance. SSE Enterprise Telecoms, Three UK and Telefonica UK (O2) have agreed to support further fibre rollout in London LONDON, UK 28th September 2018 SSE Enterprise Telecoms one of the UK\-\-s leading connectivity suppliers, and part of SSE plc has today announced details of a fibre agreement with Three UK and O2 that will form the basis of enhanced fibre access in the country\-\-s capital. The partnership centres around the use of SSE Enterprise Telecoms\-\- fibre ring where a proportion of the network is located in the Thames Water waste water network to significantly enhance Three UK and O2\-\-s connectivity backhaul capabilities and pave the way for further 4G and 5G deployment by connecting cell sites and masts. A need for new fibre The speed, consistency and ubiquity of 5G is expected to revolutionise consumer services, allowing for near-instant downloads of HD films, while underpinning next-generation technology enhancements such as connected cars, smart medical devices and smart cities. To make 5G a reality, deep, robust aggregation of fronthaul and backhaul access is necessary in order to provide greater resiliency, increase capacity and reduce latency. The key requirement ahead of the launch of commercial 5G services is high capacity fibre connectivity, which must provide fast, reliable and secure backhaul to core networks, in order to be able to cope with the expected massive increase in data usage: according to Ofcom, UK data usage is set to grow thirteen-fold between 2017 and 2025. Next generation mobile services are expected to begin in the UK in the second half of 2019 when the first 5G capable devices are released by manufacturers. Why sewers could be the key to 5G Following a deal struck in 2017, SSE Enterprise Telecoms is licensed to lay fibre optic cables throughout Thames Water\-\-s waste water network. Following the need for more pervasive networks, SSE Enterprise Telecoms has sought new, innovative routes to create new fibre networks in key locations at a lower cost and with faster deployment times than traditional digs. The agreement with Three UK and O2 will see approximately 100 points of connectivity exit from this central London sewer network via two BT Exchanges. By partnering with SSE Enterprise Telecoms, Three UK and O2 can operate their own Central London Area (CLA) network, while also accessing spare fibre ducts for future initiatives in London. \Networks will fundamentally underpin the UK\-\-s digital economy and will be essential to 5G services,\ said Colin Sempill, Managing Director of SSE Enterprise Telecoms. \With this high capacity core in the London sewers, Three UK and O2 are tapping into our unique, diverse connectivity and putting their networks in a strong position to trial 5G offerings, while enhancing existing services for their customers.\ Dave Dyson, Chief Executive Officer of Three UK added, \New and innovative models are essential to improving the customer experience of mobile networks by increasing the availability of dark fibre for mobile backhaul and driving competition in the market. Our partnership with SSE Enterprise Telecoms and O2 is one of the first examples of using existing infrastructure to improve connectivity in an urban area.\ Brendan O\-\-Reilly, Chief Technology Officer of O2 shared: \This kind of agreement is essential to allow for continued investment and improvement of services for our customers. This partnership is a great example of SSE Enterprise Telecoms, Three UK and O2 coming together in a collaborative and innovative way to address the growing challenge and pressure of obtaining access to fibre for mobile backhaul in the UK.\ The S.C. Department of Transportation and the National Guard have installed a flood barrier on Highway 17 between the Waccamaw and Great Pee Dee rivers, but officials said they still expect flooding to force the bridges to close at some point. Park published a clear-eyed yet heartbreaking essay about his impending death called I Had a 9 Percent Chance. Plus Hope in The New York Times in January 2017, and his publisher has included the piece at the end of this novel. In it, Park writes that Cancer is a promissory note, and the spaces for when and even if, for those in earlier stages are left blank. In a sense, the novel reminds us, cancer or no cancer, everyones blanks get filled in sooner or later, and all anyone can do is try to come to terms with that fact. This house in a neighborhood of Martin Luther King Road in Pawleys Island, has flooding in the yard. The Clemson Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Foest Science is asking people to mark the highest flood mark on their property to use in future flood maps. Japan will test the HTV Small Re-entry Capsule, shown here, to test payload return technology during its Kounotori7 cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. A brand-new Japanese re-entry capsule, designed to bring back experiments from space, is gearing up for its first test flight after hitching a ride to the International Space Station aboard a robotic cargo ship. The space capsule arrived at the space station Thursday (Sept. 27) along with 5 tons of supplies on Kounotori7, the seventh uncrewed H-II Transfer Vehicle resupply ship (also known as HTV-7) launched to the orbiting lab by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Kounotori is Japanese for "White Stork." The HTV Small Re-Entry Capsule (HSRC) took its first trip toward the International Space Station on Sept. 22, when Kounotori7 launched into orbit from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. The HSRC is designed to transport experiment samples back to Earth protected 3 ways: with passive, non-electric cooling, a "vacuum double layer insulation container (thermos bottle) and a heat storage unit (refrigerant),'' according to JAXA's mission page. This NASA image shows the location and size of the HTV Small Re-Entry Capsule on the Kounotori7 cargo ship. The small capsule will test re-entry methods to return experiments to Earth from the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA TV) To prep this capsule to send back to Earth, astronauts living and working on the space station will first load experiment samples into a payload container. Another prep-step is to add a separation mechanism, which absorbs heat that would otherwise affect the parachute, onto a cylindrical structure. Configuration of HSRC and payload container. (Image credit: JAXA) This cylindrical support (made exclusively for the HSRC) goes onto the hatch at the entry of HTV-7 spacecraft's Pressurized Logistic Carrier (PLC) and makes sure the enclosure stays airtight when the hatch of the vehicle is left open, according to the space agency. When HTV-7 undocks from the space station, the spacecraft will perform a deorbit burn to head toward Earth. Next, officials on Earth will command the release of HSRC from the vehicle, and the capsule will start re-entering our planet's atmosphere. HSRC will splash down with a parachute. Conceptual diagram of HSRC operations. (Image credit: JAXA) The Kounotori7's payload also included a delivery of astronaut basics, like food. The launch also sent up several spacelab units, or experiment racks, including two US experiment racks called Express Rack 9B and 10B; the second large-scale glove box for scientific experiments on the space station, called the US Life Sciences Glovebox; and the European Space Agency's Life Support Rack, which will attempt to recycle carbon dioxide and water on the space station. Officials also sent up a special radiator equipped with a loop heat pipe, for an in-orbit demonstration at the Japanese Kibo Laboratory on the space station. See more JAXA had previously scheduled the launch of the Kounotori7 for 5:59 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15 (in Japan Standard Time), but they canceled the launch because an ''additional investigation became necessary of the H-IIB F7 propulsion system,'' JAXA officials said in a statement released that day. (H-IIB Vehicle No. 7 is the rocket that launched Kounotori7 up into space.) Typhoon-related and unfavorable weather conditions had also prompted JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to postpone the rocket's earlier scheduled flights for Sept. 11 and Sept. 14 . Super Typhoon Trami looks "as if somebody pulled the planet's gigantic plug," according to European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, who posted this image to Twitter Sept. 25. As Super Typhoon Trami migrates northwest across the Pacific Ocean toward Japan and Taiwan, astronauts on the International Space Station got quite the view of the intense storm. European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst shared several pictures of the typhoon earlier yesterday (Sept. 27), which to him looked like water flushing down a drain. "As if somebody pulled the planet's gigantic plug. Staring down the eye of yet another fierce storm," Gerst wrote on Twitter, along with the pictures. "Category 5 Super Typhoon Trami is unstoppable and heading for Japan and Taiwan. Be safe down there! #TyphoonTrami" See more Gerst and the other five Expedition 56 astronauts are part of a network of observers keeping an eye on the intense storm. Another part of the network consists of Earth-orbiting satellites. Also today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tweeted a short animation showing the typhoon in infrared light, courtesy of the Japanese Himawari-8 weather satellite. See more "Less than ten days after Super Typhoon Mangkhut battered the Philippines and southern China, another powerful tropical cyclone is churning through the western Pacific Ocean," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials wrote in an accompanying statement. The agency warned that Japan's Ryukyu Islands and parts of Taiwan could be under threat from the storm later on this week. A view of Super Typhoon Trami captured at 12:23 a.m. EDT (0423 GMT) Sept. 24 from the NOAA-20 polar orbiting satellite. (Image credit: NOAA) On Monday (Sept. 24), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite took a picture of Typhoon Trami in visible light. The images showed that Trami's eye of the storm back then was an astounding 37 nautical miles in diameter (nearly 43 miles, or 68 kilometers), NASA officials said in a statement. That's about three times the length of Manhattan Island. Trami was first classified as a tropical storm on Sept. 21, then grew stronger as the storm traveled across warmer waters in the Philippine Sea, according to NOAA. Trami's winds have been measured as high as 150 mph (241 km/h). It was expected to reach minimum speeds of 157 mph, or 253 km/hr in the next day. As of 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) yesterday, the maximum winds were about 104 mph or 167 km/hr, measured by the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite, NASA officials said. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk discusses the company's successful Falcon Heavy rocket test launch on Feb. 6, 2018. On Sept. 27, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud charges against Musk, based on statements he made about perhaps taking his electric-car company, Tesla, private. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing Elon Musk for fraud. The charges stem from statements Musk made on Aug. 7 indicating that he was considering taking his publicly traded electric-car company, Tesla, private, according to the lawsuit, which was filed today (Sept. 27) in New York. "Musk's statements, disseminated via Twitter, falsely indicated that, should he so choose, it was virtually certain that he could take Tesla private at a purchase price that reflected a substantial premium over Tesla stock's then-current share price, that funding for this multibillion-dollar transaction had been secured and that the only contingency was a shareholder vote," SEC officials stated in the lawsuit, which you can read here. "In truth and in fact, Musk had not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source," SEC officials added. "Musk's false and misleading public statements and omissions caused significant confusion and disruption in the market for Tesla's stock and resulting harm to investors." The lawsuit does not involve SpaceX, the spaceflight company that Musk founded in 2002 (and for which he serves today as CEO and chief rocket designer). "This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed," Musk said in a statement to CNBC. "I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors. Integrity is the most important value in my life, and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way." CNBC has many more details about the SEC lawsuit; check them out here. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. I feel like everyone is feeling it right now, but no one is just walking down the street screaming, Hull said. And I feel like some days everyone could, especially women. We could just be walking around screaming all day 24/7. So to have the opportunity to do it in a group of women, who are here to express themselves to be heard and giving permission to it is everything. ROCKY HILL A day after unaffiliated candidate Oz Griebel injected himself into the conversation about the governors race, his running mate Monte Frank did the same. Frank, who is Griebels choice for lieutenant governor, took the stage between former Democratic secretary of state Susan Bysiewicz and Republican Joe Markley, a state Senator, during the first lieutenant governors debate at the WFSB Studios Thursday. Bysiewicz and Markley echoed their running mates attacking each other at every opportunity and disagreeing on everything from parental notification for abortions to immigration and the economy. Frank, meanwhile, highlighted his experience as a lawyer and president of the Connecticut Bar Association as well as the work hes done to help with legislation. A major difference between our ticket and our opponents ... my opponents here today have experience in the legislature but is that what people want? Are they part of the problem or part of the solution? Frank said. Bysiewicz repeatedly pointed to Markleys conservative votes in the legislature, particularly his stance on parental notification. She continually referenced the landmark Roe v. Wade case that protects a womans right to choose. We also want the voters of Connecticut to know that we stand strongly and firmly in support of a womans right to reproductive health care, Bysiewicz said in response to a question that was not about Roe vs. Wade or health care. We will stand up for our Roe vs. Wade law in Connecticut and Mr. Markley has tried to decimate it every opportunity that he has had. Markley, like his running mate Bob Stefanowski, argued the upcoming election is not about social issues, but the economy. I think Susan Bysiewicz is trying to bring up a decisive issue that really doesnt have anything to do with what the core of this campaign is about, which is about taxes, spending and the destruction Dan Malloy has caused, Markley said. On those issues Bob Stefanowski and I are in lockstep. But, Markley said, if elected he would not feel pressured to side with Stefanowski on every issue. The states lieutenant governor is tasked with casting a tie-breaking vote in the Senate, if necessary. I believe I have to cast a vote just as I do as a senator, based on what I believe is in the best interest of the state of Connecticut and that would always be my priority, Markley said. Bysiewicz said she and Ned Lamont agree on virtually everything. Frank said he too agrees with Griebel on all points in their campaign. Oz and I have been running together as a true partnership, Frank said. We came together by choice. Frank took at jab at the Republican tickets core platform issue: eliminating the state income tax. The notion that youre going to eliminate the income tax is ludicrous, Frank said. Oz and I have put forward a detailed plan and were the only ticket that has put out a plan that can deal with these significant issues. Markley strayed from Stefanowski when asked if Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed in light of three allegations of sexual assault against him. Stefanowski took a pass on the question at a debate hosted by WFSB Wednesday, while Markley said he thinks the allegations should be investigated. But as a jurist I like him, Markley said. The lieutenant governor candidates, though on separate tickets in the primary, are not elected separate from the governor in the general election. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt Because Donald Trump told Billy Bush, and then all of us who listened to the audio recording, You know, Im automatically attracted to beautiful I just start kissing them. Its like a magnet. Just kiss. I dont even wait. And when youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab em by the pussy. You can do anything. T heresa Mays government has spent the past 18 months chasing unicorns. It has squandered time, frittered away our negotiating leverage and forfeited the goodwill of the British public, pursuing the fantasy of a tailor-made Brexit deal that would give the UK access to the bits of the single market we like without membership of EU institutions or acceptance of all of its rules. After the Salzburg summit , it should now be clear to even the slowest learner that this approach is not going to fly. I share the widespread indignation about the way EU leaders treated our Prime Minister in Austria. But their brutal rebuff was utterly predictable. It may be unreasonable, it may be unfair but the other members of the EU have consistently made it clear that they are not going to budge from their opening position in this negotiation. They are offering us a simple choice. Either we move to a position such as Norways as members of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) inside the single market but outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Or we move to a position more like Canadas, with a comprehensive free trade agreement and zero tariffs but outside all EU institutions. I voted Remain and believe the single market brings significant benefits to the UK. But I do not believe that it is sustainable for a country as large as ours to stay in the EEA and EFTA indefinitely, with limited say over new single market rules and little control over freedom of movement. So I have concluded that we should aim for an enhanced version of the EUs free trade agreement with Canada as the basis for our long-term economic relationship. Nick Boles / EPA But even the most starry-eyed advocates of a Canada-style free trade agreement admit that it will take two or three years to negotiate the detail of this deal. So when we leave the EU on March 29 next year we will need to move to a halfway house. The Prime Minister proposes an implementation period in which we remain subject to all of the EUs rules and have to pay all the fees but lose our say over any of it. This is a truly terrible idea: we would be in a legal limbo nominally outside the EU but with even less control than we have now. Worse still, in her middle-of-the-night desperation to secure this transition arrangement last December, the Prime Minister made a crucial concession that now threatens to derail the whole negotiation and force us to leave without a deal: the Irish backstop. "We need a different halfway house, one that gives us more control, and a different withdrawal agreement" This would give the EU a permanent right to keep Northern Ireland inside the single market and the customs union if the rest of the UK decided to leave them. Parliament will never accept that the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland should be held at the mercy of a Damoclean sword wielded by the EU. We need a different halfway house, one that will give us more control, and we need a different withdrawal agreement, one that will allow us to avoid the humiliation of the Irish backstop. This is what interim membership of the EEA and EFTA would provide. We should assert our rights under the EEA Treaty to remain a member after Brexit and apply to join EFTA as an associate member for an interim period. This would take us out of the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies on March 29 of next year, allow us to swap the European Court of Justice for the EFTA Court and give us a bit more leeway to limit the free movement of workers. Since we would no longer need the Prime Ministers transition arrangement, we should tell the EU that we will stand by the 39 billion divorce settlement only if they consent to our continued membership of the EEA as an EFTA state, and agree a temporary customs union like the one they have with Jersey. With the UK inside the single market and a customs union for an interim period of roughly three years until a free trade agreement has been negotiated, there would be no need for the Irish backstop. Everyone would understand that a long-term solution for the Irish border issues would need to be agreed as part of the free trade agreement and that no long-term deal could be reached without arrangements that are acceptable to both sides. Next week in Birmingham, at the Conservative Party conference, the Prime Minister will pretend that the Chequers agreement is still negotiable and members of the Cabinet will pretend to believe her. It will all be bunk. The Emperor has no clothes. After a brief delusional interlude, Parliament will return and MPs will need to grapple with the realities of the Brexit negotiation. It will soon become clear to all of them, Leavers and Remainers alike, that leaving via the EEA and EFTA and negotiating a Canada-style free trade agreement from this position of strength, is the only way to go. T he announcement today that Shaun Bailey is to be the Conservative candidate in Londons next mayoral election is welcome news and sets up the prospect of a compelling contest for the right to run City Hall that will be fought out over many months before voting takes place in May 2020. Mr Baileys selection, ahead of lesser-known rivals Andrew Boff and Joy Morrissey, is clearly the right choice by the party on the basis of both his track record of grassroots activism in tackling some of Londons most difficult social problems and his impressive personal life story. It has seen him rise from a working-class Windrush family background on a North Kensington estate, where he was raised by his single-parent mother, to become a London Assembly member and, previously, a Downing Street adviser, where he helped former Prime Minister David Cameron set up the National Citizen Service and developed policies to tackle knife crime. All this is impressive in its own right and means the Conservatives now have a candidate whose history is every bit as appealing as that of the current Mayor, Sadiq Khan, whose son of a bus driver campaign message proved understandably attractive to many Londoners in the last City Hall contest. The fact that, assuming Mr Khan stands again, both major parties will have an ethnic-minority candidate should also not be overlooked and makes it virtually certain that Londons next Mayor will once again provide visible proof of the wonderful diversity and opportunity which exists within this city. Most importantly of all, however, is Mr Bailey is offering positive, forward-looking policies aimed at addressing many of the capitals most pressing challenges, ranging from knife crime, where he promises to find money for around 1,000 more police officers, to housing and transport. Not all of his ideas have been fully developed yet and the Evening Standard will be scrutinising each of them closely when they are. But with Mr Khans record of achievement only patchy at best so far, it is pleasing that the Conservatives will be offering voters a man who should be able to offer a viable alternative. Mr Baileys constructive tone is also commendable and marks a welcome departure from the disappointing negativity that marred the partys approach during the 2106 mayoral contest. Recent electoral results in the capital suggest, of course, that Mr Bailey will have an uphill task this time. Nor will he be helped if the disarray within Conservative ranks at Westminster continues. But London can, at least, now look to an enthralling battle for power and a real choice at the ballot box. A vindictive Tube strike The infuriating strike on the Piccadilly line , which has already caused serious disruption over the past two days, is due to resume this evening with a new five-hour walkout aimed at halting the lines Night Tube service. The RMT union claims that the action is over working conditions and a breakdown in industrial relations, but its justification remains baffling, not just to Transport for London and the Evening Standard but also to many Londoners who are simply fed up with such damaging militancy. Targeting the Night Tube a sign of Londons progress and vitality only highlights the unions petty vindictiveness. It should abandon the strike and stop inflicting unnecessary pain on Londoners. Models fit for fashion Proper fashion models, including Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid, got a run for their money during Paris Fashion Week, when British athletes Dina Asher-Smith, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and several Olympians took to the catwalk for the Off-White show of Virgil Ablohs sporty fashion line. Its an excellent idea: these womens bodies are honed to perfection but they are healthy and certainly not waif-like. On the face of it, there is nothing especially radical about Collusions images. In one, 18-year-old Chandra Scott sits on a doorstep in Streatham, a paperback in one hand, the lace of her white bra edging out from under her black vest and denim shirt. In another, 18-year-old Rakaya Cohen poses in the arcade at Rowans in Finsbury Park, the site that launched a thousand Instagram Stories, hoop earrings catching the neon lights. They both look like quintessential teenagers: a bit gauche, a bit bored. In fact, this ordinariness is why the pictures are radical. Collusion is a new fashion brand, launching on Monday and backed by ASOS, that, in its own words, is for the coming age, shaped by, and for, an audience who demand something different. This audience is Gen Z, those born between 1995 and 2015, and the campaign, directed by Dan Emmerson and shot by photographer Tom Sloan, features 100 normal models from across the UK, none older than 18, all recruited by posters summoning babies born in the year 2000, of any shape, size, gender, identity, ethnicity, able-bodied, or not, all walks of life, all living humans. The project is a year in the making, orchestrated by a collective of Gen Z collaborators who will change each season and be consulted on every element of the brand. This round includes YouTuber Spencer Elmer, a school dropout with a colossal online following, visual artist Rene Matic and writer Chidera Eggerue, known as The Slumflower, who has 177,000 followers on Instagram. Pieces from Collusions collection start at 5 and prices are capped at 70; sizing runs up to a size 6XL. All pieces are animal-free and the cotton is sustainably sourced. "This is a game-changing moment Collusion is the first mainstream label to embrace new gender rules" Undeniably, youll have heard elements of this story before. In the past 18 months, as notions of inclusivity, diversity, sustainability, authenticity and body positivity have edged onto the high street, many brands have made overtures. Zara has presented unisex campaigns and John Lewis has ditched the gender distinction for its childrenswear. One of the 100 real models who feature in the campaign (ES local feed ) / ES local feed During Pride Month, Topshop asked LGBT+ artists to create a selection of T-shirts, and millennial mecca Monki has long since used normal girls to model its kaleidoscopic collections. Earlier this year, ASOS stopped airbrushing the models on its website and zeitgeist tights brand Heist offers inclusive sizing. In Paris this week, Lacoste unveiled its spring/summer 2019 collection: a unisex take focusing on style rather than gender. And this Septembers crop of fashion magazines were declared the most diverse yet: Slick Woods on the cover of ELLE UK, Rihanna on British Vogue, Beyonce fronting American Vogue, and Lupita Nyongo on the cover of Porter. The symbolism resonated. Some call the embrace of diversity happily inevitable, cynics call it capitalisms reaction to the wests new social conscience. The answer might lie somewhere between the two, though either way, the net gain is unambiguously positive. The campaign doesn't feature any models older than 18, all recruited by posters summoning babies born in the year 2000 (ES local feed ) / ES local feed But Collusion is a game-changer because it is the first brand backed by a mainstream label last year ASOS made a pre-tax profit of 80 million that has been created for (and by) Gen Z, a group one pithy marketeer described as millennials on steroids. Reading between the ad-speak, the point is that this is a generation of digital natives for whom notions of inclusion are hard-wired. For that reason, Collusion is prophetic to make these values part of its DNA, to engage with an engaged generation coming into its own spending power and influence. Hence Collusions bottom-up approach: its collective of Gen Z collaborators, who were responsible for weaving their values into the brands fabric. Young people want to see unity, body positivity and inclusivity, offers one Collusion member, Clarissa Henry, a 22-year-old film-maker, designer and blogger. Older generations can learn a lot from this age group about acceptance and welcoming change. "Were using the internet to have discussions that our parents couldnt and influencing change" The collaborators are wise to allegations of tokenism. It was a conflicting decision to work with a brand in this way, admits 21-year-old visual artist Rene Matic. I am aware of the cultural capital that brands gain from having a queer, femme of colour to wheel out for the diversity conversation and I often question their integrity. However, I admired Collusions commitment to giving young people their platform. Recruiters called for models of any shape, size, gender, identity, ethnicity, able-bodied, or not (ES local feed ) / ES local feed Others are declaring their intentions too. Its important to foster close, authentic relationships with Gen Z, affirms Riley Uggla, founder of RiLEY Studio, which is (tick them off) a gender-neutral, sustainable boutique brand that has previously partnered with Human Rights Watch. Indeed, even high fashion is stirred. When designer John Galliano presented his collection for Maison Margiela in Paris this week, starring a cast of co-ed models, he issued a state-of-the nation address about Gen Z . What Im feeling from the new generation is that theyre questioning traditional values. Its inspiring me. Were the most open-minded generation yet, Grace Mandeville, 23, another Collusion member. The internet lets us see the truth. Indeed, this is a theme: while Gen Y wrings its hands over the disconnection of social media, digital natives consider it a weapon of engagement. Were utilising the internet to have discussions our parents generation couldnt, explains 23-year-old Chidera Eggerue, whose book What a Time to Be Alone was the zeitgeist tome of the summer. E very hero needs a villain, and musical theatre has some of the best. Theyre the most fun to play, have the best songs and are often the driving force behind the plot, keeping us on the edge of our seats until the end. From the comical to the downright terrifying, here are some of musical theatres most dastardly villains. Orin Scrivello, Little Shop of Horrors Johan Persson Nobody in Little Shop of Horrors really gets off scot-free apart from Audrey theres a fair amount of bad behaviour. Still, sadistic dentist Orin was bad news even before the carnivorous alien plant arrived. As a child he abused animals, and his mother who needs to take some blame in this as well, to be honest didnt nip these issues in the bud, instead telling him to put his love of inflicting pain to good use. Not good advice, Mama. Orin takes immense pleasure in causing pain to his patients and to Audrey, and deserves everything coming to him. Miss Trunchbull, Matilda the Musical (Manuel Harlan) We can all remember one terrible teacher someone who humiliated you in front of your friends or had their favourites and hated everyone else. Its unlikely though that any teacher has come close to Miss Trunchbull. Headmistress of Matildas school, Trunchbull hates children more than anything in the world and is only too keen to chuck 'em in the chokey if the little maggots breathe too loudly. Her song The Smell of Rebellion is the ultimate comic villain anthem. Musical theatre's most enduring heroes 1 /10 Musical theatre's most enduring heroes Lola, Kinky Boots Darren Bell Donna Sheridan, Mamma Mia! Maria Rainer/Von Trapp, Sound of Music The Artful Dodger, Oliver! Getty Images Eliza Schuyler, Hamilton Matthew Murphy Jean Valjean, Les Miserables Getty Images Seymour Krelborn, LIttle Shop of Horrors Johan Persson Bobby/Bobbie, Company John Nguyen/PA Wire/PA Images Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz 1939 Warner Home Video Eliza Doolittle, My Fair Lady Getty Images Bill Sikes, Oliver! Getty Images Sikes is the stuff of nightmares. Theres nothing comic about this villain, nothing to laugh at, just plain evil. It seems there is no-one he wouldnt be willing to kill and just his name is enough to strike fear into the heart of any Londoner unfortunate enough to cross his path after all, this malicious man is ready to murder someone just for whispering "Bill Sikes". Hes not the magical evil mastermind from fairy tales he exists in the real world, making him even more terrifying. Judge Turpin, Sweeney Todd IMDB How do you create an antagonist in a musical where the protagonist kills people and makes them into pies? Theyve got to be truly vicious. Judge Turpin gets Sweeney Todd arrested so he can have his wife Lucy for himself. Lucy, understandably, is not on board with this development and does everything she can to get away from him, leading to her begging on the streets. Turpin later turns his attentions to Lucy and Sweeney Todds daughter, Johanna, imprisoning her in his house and regularly spying on her through a peephole in the wall. He's disgusting and the pie he ends up in is probably rotten. Javert, Les Miserables Johan Persson Javert's determined, well give him that. And he has a moral code, even if it is skewed. But when you get down to it, he relentlessly chases an ex-prisoner who has very successfully rehabilitated into society, all because he believes he needs to be punished. You could argue that hes a casualty of the system, dedicated to upholding the paradigm of good and bad but with no real idea about what either really means. His obsession with Jean Valjean and his inability to change his world view ultimately leads to his own destruction. The best musical cast recordings of all time 1 /9 The best musical cast recordings of all time Best musical cast recordings of all time Hamilton Best musical cast recordings of all time Girl from the North Country Best musical cast recordings of all time The Sound of Music Best musical cast recordings of all time West Side Story Best musical cast recordings of all time Fiddler on the Roof Best musical cast recordings of all time Les Miserables Best musical cast recordings of all time Matilda The Musical Best musical cast recordings of all time Anything Goes Best musical cast recordings of all time Phantom of the Opera Miss Hannigan, Annie IMDB Shes a nasty piece of work, that Miss Hannigan, and another person who should never have been put in charge of children. She hates Annie, though sort of seems to like her as well, and spends the money she should be using to care for the kids in her orphanage on alcohol. When Annie finally finds happiness with Daddy Warbucks, shes in the queue of despicable people who turn up to claim reward money in return for delivering Annies birth parents. Its not a good look. King George III, Hamilton Matthew Murphy Some people need to learn how to let go. King George III is one of them. When Hamilton and company start fighting back against British rule, George sends a fully armed battalion to remind them of his love. He only sings one song and never interacts directly with any of the other characters, but his presence is always felt. Lin-Manuel Mirandas genius lyrics in Youll Be Back are enough to set him as one of the most dangerous and sickly sweet villains around. Almost everyone in Chicago (Tristram Kenton) / ATristram Kenton Chicago is a story about murder and manipulation, so there are plenty of villains here. Convicts Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly battle it out get the most publicity possible for their crimes and Billy Flynn cashes in on it. Cell Block Tango gives a marvellous rundown of all the crimes committed by the Cook County Jails murderesses, showing that not one of them feels remorse for killing their husbands. But it's convincing enough that, even though you know nearly all of them are guilty, you hear their stories and think, eh, maybe those men did have it coming. Scar, Lion King (Johan Persson) There arent many fictional lions that can traumatise an entire generation, but this one can. Scar possesses all the traits the classic villain can jealousy, greed and pride and will go to any lengths necessary to usurp his brother Mufasas crown. When he does manage it, he convinces Simba it was his own fault, sending him on an eternal guilt spiral thats not healthy for any child. He does a really terrible job at ruling, leaving his kingdom to starve and letting the very irritating hyenas take over. Jafar, Aladdin T he organisers of StageCon, the UKs first ever convention for theatre enthusiasts, has announced that the event will be postponed until next year after feedback from fans. The convention, planned to run November 3-4 at Shoreditch Town Hall, was announced in August, but came up against immediate backlash due to the price of tickets - 85 per day and 160 for two days. While some were excited, many took to Twitter to share their dismay that the pricing would make the event inaccessible to many theatre fans, particularly those younger. In response, organisers say they will be postponing until 2019 and working to lower the price. James Yeoburn, UK general manager for StageCon, said: We have listened to the feedback received in the weeks since launching and recognise that ticket prices and lead time have prohibited many of the most loyal fans from being able to attend. It is important that we acknowledge that feedback, and work with our industry partners to make the requisite changes to allow for greater accessibility. We are sorry to not have the chance to share the exciting programme of events and performances developed for November, but look forward to presenting this with ample notice for next year. The organisers have passed control over to United Theatrical for the 2019 event. Carrie Hope Fletcher, Sharon D Clarke, Samantha Bond and Christina Bennington were among the theatre stars set to appear, but the organisers said some of the contributors had to pull out due to offers of professional work. The announcement comes after ticket holders reported contacting StageCon for information but receiving no response. Yeoburn added: It is imperative that StageCon reaches its full potential for the UKs theatre community, and we must prioritise that over all else." T his is the Kensington and Chelsea finance chief who stole 62,000 from the victims of the Grenfell fire pictured brazenly spending money on meals out, luxury holidays and shopping trips to Selfridges. Jenny McDonagh, 39, was jailed for five and a half years today after being convicted of stealing 62,000 of disaster money - spending much of it on holidays and gambling. Pictures taken on her mobile phone show her enjoying a meal out at Burger and Lobster restaurant using the stolen money, as well as posing on a Thames clipper and and in a new dress. All of which were paid for by an illegitimate credit card intended for a survivor of the devastating fire which killed 72 people. McDonagh had been appointed as finance manager by the local authority in October 2017, four months after fire had ripped through Grenfell Tower. Grenfell: What really happened She was employed to help distribute money to survivors of the disaster, including paying for their accommodation and other essentials. McDonagh smiles in a Burger and Lobster restaurant where she fraudulently paid for a meal / CPS However, she abused the position to spend vast sums of money on herself, using the identity of one of the survivors to hide the scam. At Isleworth crown court yesterday, McDonagh also admitted defrauding Medway NHS Foundation Trust, her previous employers, out of 35,000. The fraudster took a series of photos on her phone of her enjoying the stolen money, inducing this one on a Thames Clipper / CPS This morning, Judge Robin Johnson sentenced a sobbing McDonagh to five and a half years in prison, telling her the frauds were "utterly repugnant". "While 25 per cent of the proceeds of the fraud were lost to gambling, much of the spending was on you indulging yourself with luxury goods and holidays", he said. CCTV from Charing Cross station shows her withdrawing money from an illegitimate credit card / CPS "After you had been confronted with your offending you continued to siphon money." Some of the fraudulent purchases 534 on various visits to a hair and beauty salon in Sidcup 199.69 on a booking for two at the Delauney restaurant in central London 185 on an expensive pair of Ralph Lauren glasses from Vision Express 113.63 at the Hippodrome casino in Leicester Square 109.91 at a Burger and Lobster restaurant 100 at The Bottle House Inn in Kent 99 on a green dress from Hobbs 74.99 on food from Selfridges 55 on shoes from ECCO 48 at an Anne Summers shop 26.20 on a taxi 19.20 on the Thames Clipper 8.90 at Cineworld Flights to Paris, Reykjavk, Los Angeles and Dubai one occasion she listed a holiday as a two week respite break for a genuine victim. 333.60 was loaded onto an Oyster card but not used. The judge added: "The effect on those who died, their families and friends, cannot be imagined by those who were not directly affected. "Members of the public, indeed the nation, were shocked by this dreadful event. The fact that you, a person who had been given the task of assisting in the aftermath, sought to enrich yourself, is the more shocking in the light of the outpouring of grief and sympathy that followed the disaster." McDonagh wiped away tears as she was led away to the cells, mouthing to her partner in the public gallery: "I love you, I'm sorry." The court heard McDonagh used an account in the name of Edward Daffarn, the vice chairman of survivor campaign group Grenfell United, to siphon off more than 50,000. Mr Daffarn described McDonagh as "truly beyond contempt", adding: "It is like pouring salt on the wounds of bereaved residents. Smoke billows from Grenfell tower the morning after the fire in which 72 people died / Rick Findler/PA "These feelings go right down to our very core. The action of a few criminals pains our community." McDonagh used a pre-paid credit card loaded with money meant to be used by Mr Daffarn, topping it up 17 times over the course of ten months. Prosecutor Benjamin Holt said McDonagh had been responsible for "frivolous" spending, including 120 on beauty treatments, 350 at Marks and Spencer, 48 at Ann Summers, and 200 at the West End restaurant Delaunay. She had taken eight-day trips to both Los Angeles and Dubai, and also went on excursions to Iceland and Paris. After her arrest for the Grenfell fraud, it emerged McDonagh had also been stealing from the NHS she had worked for, setting up a fake company to pay money into. "Your dishonesty necessarily placed additional strains on the Medway NHS Trust budget", said the Grenfell Tower shortly after the fire / Getty/Leon Neal Defence barrister Neil Ross said the case had wrecked McDonagh's marriage and she is now on anti-depressants and seeking counselling. "She has destroyed her own future and of course has brought that on herself", he said. "She is a pathetic woman in the original meaning of that word." Grenfell Tower adorned in a message to victims after the fire / PA/Rick Findler McDonagh, from Abbey Wood, south-east London, pleaded guilty to three offences of fraud, one count of theft and one charge of concealing criminal property. She was jailed for four years for the Grenfell frauds, and an added 18 months for the NHS fraud. T he mother of a father-of-two knifed to death in the street in north London today issued a heartfelt plea for information as Scotland Yard revealed a 20,000 reward to catch his killer. Jonathan McPhillips, 28, known as JJ, died after going to protect a friend from knife-wielding attackers on Upper Street in Islington in February last year. He was caught up in a melee involving at least two knife-wielding attackers outside the town hall and collapsed 200 yards away outside the cocktail bar Be At One. Today his mother Michelle McPhillips, 53, a pub landlady, said: The police have done everything they can so far to help us get justice for Jonathan. They have not been helped by the people who know who did it, who have protected Jonathans murderers by refusing to speak. I believe the police know who did it, they just need to fill in the jigsaw. I will never give up hope that someone who does have a key piece of information will do the right thing. If you are that person and you are reading this now, then I want you to know that I dont want revenge, all I want is justice for my only son. A third suspect has been identified in the Novichok poisonings of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, according to reports. Investigators believe another Russian military intelligence officer visited the city on a reconnaissance mission prior to the attack in March, the Telegraph reported. The spotter would have travelled alone to assess the location before Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov brought toxic nerve agent Novichok into the UK in a perfume bottle. They are suspected of poisoning Russian defector Skripal and his daughter Yulia by smearing Novichok on his front door before heading back to Moscow. Suspect Ruslan Boshirov has been unmasked as Russian military officer Anatoliy Chepiga / PA/Bellingcat The Skripals both survived, but local woman Dawn Sturgess died after her partner Charlie Rowley found the perfume bottle used to dispense the poison. It is believed that security chiefs have identified the new suspect who came to Salisbury to scope out the intended target. Philip Ingram, a former intelligence and security officer, told The Telegraph: There was almost certainly intelligence on the ground before the attack was carried out, it is what is called a pattern of life study. "They wouldnt have turned up at the house and put it on the door handle on a whim. It follows reports that security services are investigating four other suspects believed to be linked to the attack - and analysis from a former Russian spy who said kill teams would tend to operate in teams of six. Ex-spy Boris Karpichkov, 59, told the Mirror that eavesdroppers from Russian spy agency the FSB would have monitored Yulia Skripals mobile, email, internet and Skype before she travelled to the UK to meet her father. The two suspects were interviewed on Russia Today, claiming they were just tourists and were interested in seeing Salisbury Cathedral. / REUTERS The team would have formed a "Special Operations Group", or SOG, and cloned the passports of prisoners in other EU states to travel without visas - and some members may still be laying low following the attack. Suspect Ruslan Boshirov has recently been identified by the investigative journalism bureau Bellingcat as a decorated GRU Colonel, Anatoliy Chepiga - despite repeated claims from Kremlin that his picture "means nothing to us". Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia both survived the nerve agent poisoning Chepiga, 39, served in wars in Chechnya and Ukraine. He was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by decree of President Vladimir Putin in 2014. Prime Minister Theresa May damned Russia for the attack at an address to the UN Security Council on Tuesday. She said: "We have taken appropriate action, with our allies, and we will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure our collective security. "Russia has only sought to obfuscate through desperate fabrication." Moscow continues to deny claims of involvement, as officials called out Mrs May for refusing to present her evidence to them. The country's Ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko, tweeted yesterday, quoting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: "London arrogantly demands that we take responsibility for the crime just because they have some evidence no one has ever seen and they would not present it to the public. Frankly speaking, this is just childish. "London violates at least three or four treaties and refuses to answer any questions. As for me, it is a clear sign of guilty conscience." The Russian embassy said in a statement: "The UK is refusing to provide the Russian investigation with any information or evidence gathered by British Police when working on the Salisbury incident. "British authorities (earlier) announced that they did not intend to pursue extradition of the suspects and made it clear that they were not interested in submitting their own requests for legal assistance, which could be provided by means of interrogation of certain persons, provision of access to documents, etc." A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We set out our position clearly this month. The Police and CPS have identified two men as the prime suspects in the attack in Salisbury. We have repeatedly asked Russia to account for what happened in Salisbury in March, and they have replied with obfuscation and lies. A n inspirational Syrian child refugee who helped launch the Standards Learn to Live campaign today spoke at the United Nations. Haya, 16, fled a rebel-held region in the Syrian province of Daraa as the civil war intensified in 2012. Then aged 11, she had to walk through the desert to the Jordanian border with her family, holding just the bags they could carry and leaving a whole life behind. Haya was chosen by London-based charity War Child to speak at a child-led Day of General Discussion on childrens human rights at the UN in Geneva. She shared the experience live with her new London friends. It was the first time the teenager, who has spent six years living in a caravan home in Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian desert, miles from the Syrian border, had ever flown on a plane or caught more than a glimpse of a big cosmopolitan city. New horizons: Haya takes a selfie in Geneva, where she was taking part in a child-led UN Day of General Discussion on childrens rights Haya is one of the first children affected by conflict from those in Jordan to Iraq and the Central African Republic who linked up with four London schools through the Learn to Live campaign. The project aims to increase understanding between pupils of all backgrounds. In Zaatari, Haya attends an education programme run by War Child. She and her group have carried out their own projects, reporting and documenting the child labour catastrophe and lack of educational opportunities they see around them daily. After a stroll around Geneva, Haya addressed a panel of top UN officials, where she set out what more needs to be done to help refugee children like her group fight for their own rights. She spoke alongside a young Colombian refugee, and met child activists from all over the world. She told the Standard that appearing at the UN in person to give her own account was vital: I want them to know about people in the camp and about how they are living, and also about what we can do. If someone comes from Europe to Zaatari for a few days and comes back and tells what they see it is not the same. It is a step forward. Haya met Michael Copeland, Global Co-ordinator at the UN childrens fund, who said he was positive about the work being done through War Child and the campaign. Haya has been sharing her experience with friends and family in the camp, sending WhatsApp photos of every new sight, recording noises in the streets and taking selfies. The messages have already been shared around the whole community. I still cant believe I am here. Its totally different the buildings and the people, she said. My mum and dad were very supportive, my mum said, Take care of yourself and enjoy. I was confident. I said, Dont worry about me. They had never left Syria before going to Jordan. My brother has taken screenshots of the pictures Ive sent and is sending them to everyone. I will go back to the camp and tell them about this different world. This experience has opened up my world. I am so happy to meet all these different people, and now I want to talk with everyone about their culture and their backgrounds and find out about them. Haya and her classmates have already started this process, sharing messages and creating an art project with Hornsey School for Girls. Over a Skype session, she shared her UN experiences with her London peers, explaining the struggles of life in Zaatari, before laughing together about their life ambitions and where they hang out with friends. Haya said: It was good to tell them about my life. I enjoyed it and would like to talk more. It will be good to learn more about their whole lives. Schoolgirls praise Haya for 'achieving so much' By Lizzie Edmonds Six London schoolgirls who had a video call with 16-year-old Syrian refugee Haya, who was addressing the United Nations in Geneva today, said they found her inspirational. Liberty Bairstow, Noha Moulana, Harriet Webster, Lola Langham, Honey Hargreaves and Naila Amegashitsi, who are all 13, gathered around a computer screen at Hornsey School for Girls on Wednesday to spend 20 minutes of their lunchbreak talking to Haya. After asking questions such as: What is it like where you live?, What do you do after school? and What are your ambitions?, the Skype call ended with the girls promising to exchange letters and photographs detailing their everyday lives. Afterwards, the girls in London talked excitedly about getting to know Haya, who lives in the al Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Harriet, who wants to work in politics, said: I really enjoyed talking with her. But I was surprised to find out how similar she was to everyone I know. I think we are very much the same, but we havent had the same life. Liberty, who wants to study psychology, said: From what she said, it doesnt sound like she is going to be leaving where she is very soon. When asked what she thought about Haya speaking at the UN, Naila who would like to be a pathologist said: I admire her for what she had done at this age. I feel like we get so many opportunities and none of us has done as much as she has. I realise we have a lot to be grateful for. Lola, who wants to study law, said: To do that at our age, it is really inspirational that she can achieve so much. It makes me feel like I need to do more. She added that the Standards Learn to Live campaign had just opened all our eyes up so much to what it is like over there. ST. PAUL When 3-year-old Dennis Craig Jurgens died on April 11, 1965, there were so many bruises on his body that the coroner said he stopped counting them. Last week, Judge David Marsden sentenced the boy`s adoptive mother, Lois Jurgens, to up to 25 years in prison following her conviction May 30 of third degree murder. A jury had rejected Jurgens` plea of insanity. Advertisement The case finally was closed because of the efforts of Dennis` natural mother, Jerry Puckett Sherwood, to break through the secrecy surrounding adoptions and look up her son, whom the 17-year-old unwed mother had given up five days after he was born. In 1965, the official cause of Dennis` death was given as peritonitis, an infection of the membrane lining the abdomen. Advertisement But a family friend recalled that at his funeral, not even a mortician`s touch and the crown of roses that lay over his small face could hide his bruises and scabs. Beneath his burial clothes, Dennis was covered with more bruises; new bruises, old bruises--the coroner stopped his tally when he reached 30. There was a gash on Dennis` forehead, skin tears behind his ears and on his penis and third-degree burn scars around his groin. He died, according to a 1986 medical examiner`s report, as a result of a perforated bowel that had been caused by ''blunt trauma'' to the stomach. Though Ramsey County`s then-elected coroner was convinced Dennis` death was caused by abuse, he said he deferred making a ruling because he was awaiting further evidence from the tiny police department in suburban White Bear Lake, Minn., where the Jurgens family then lived. The police and the prosecutor, on the other hand, believed they needed a homicide ruling by the coroner before they could act, according to present Ramsey County officials. ''The whole system failed Dennis Jurgens,'' said Thomas Foley, district attorney for Ramsey County. ''No one came forward . . . Everybody said it wasn`t their responsibility.'' Then Sherwood began her search for her son. What she learned during the course of that search caused the Ramsey County medical examiner to reopen the case last fall and rule Dennis` death a homicide. Advertisement ''When they took him from me, they said he would have a home, a family, all the things I couldn`t give him,'' Sherwood said during the four-week trial. After giving Dennis up for adoption, Sherwood had four more children by Dennis` father, to whom she was married for nine years. Then there was a divorce, another marriage, another divorce, and plenty of hard, lean times in between. Throughout those times, she kept her four children with her. But each December, on Dennis` birthday, she was overcome by depression, she said. For 17 years she lived with the belief the son she had surrendered lived somewhere happy and healthy. Her children, three girls and a boy now all adults, encouraged her to find him. In early 1981, she was told by Ramsey County child welfare officials that her son had died of peritonitis. Later, while visiting the mortuary that buried him, she was stunned to read he had ''numerous bruises and injuries.'' ''I said, `My God! They beat my baby to death,` '' Sherwood said. She contacted Ramsey County child welfare officials, but was told she had surrendered all legal rights and was not entitled to further information. It was in a newspaper article she read later that year that she learned Jurgens was Dennis` adopted mother. Sherwood said she spoke by telephone with Jurgens and the woman told her that Dennis had slipped on a wet basement floor and injured himself, causing the peritonitis. Advertisement Because she hoped to get a photograph of Dennis, Sherwood said, she did not ask about the bruises. She said Jurgens promised to send her Dennis` baptism sweater and a picture. But she never heard from her again. When Sherwood tried to call her, the telephone number was no longer listed. Sherwood said she made other attempts to learn more about her son from Ramsey County officials, but repeatedly met with failure, and so she gave up. Last year, a friend encouraged her to try again. In September, she went to the White Bear Lake police and asked them to pull the files on Dennis` death. Upon rereading those documents, the police arranged for Sherwood to meet with Ramsey County prosecutors and the county medical examiner. After reviewing the case, Ramsey County Medical Examiner Michael McGee declared Dennis` death a homicide. A county grand jury subsequently indicted Jurgens. Advertisement At the trial, Sherwood learned with pride that Dennis, at age 3, could recite the entire rosary. Then she learned with shock that Dennis` rosary lessons came as he knelt on a broomstick until he got it right. According to testimony from Jurgens` relatives and neighbors, those were among the easier moments of Dennis` short life. Robert Jurgens, the first child adopted by Jurgens and now a policeman in Crookston, Minn., testified that on the day before Dennis` death, he looked up and saw him literally flying down the basement steps, landing on his chest on the floor. He said that Lois Jurgens ran down the stairs and shook and screamed at Dennis. A typically happy, bouncy baby at the time of his adoption, according to a prosecutor, Dennis at the time of his death had become a wizened little old man-boy who seldom smiled. Dr. James Stephans, a psychiatrist called in by the defense, said Lois Jurgens and her husband Harold, who would leave the house when punishment ocurred, had told him Dennis was incapable of feeling pain. Stephans said the Jurgens told him Dennis said ''thank you'' when spanked and did not cry when injured, not even when a car door accidentally slammed on his finger. Stephans called this belief a folie a deux, French for a delusion shared by two. Advertisement Stephans testified that Lois Jurgens had been a psychiatric patient at least a half-dozen times between 1951 and 1976, had been hospitalized four times for depression, and had received electroshock therapy twice. Though her old medical records do not so label her, Stephans diagnosed her as a paranoid schizophrenic. The social workers who approved Dennis` adoption in 1962 knew about Jurgens` mental health background. But because she seemed improved and appeared to have adjusted so well to Robert, Dennis` adoption was approved after an intensive study, according to the social worker on the case. ''We didn`t think she would be a great mother, but nobody thought she would be a child abuser,'' said Gerane Park, then a 28-year-old social worker with the Ramsey County Welfare Department. The decision was one that was much worried over, she said. But subsequent visits to the Jurgens house that first year after Dennis` placement seemed to show he had made a comfortable adjustment to the family. Advertisement Park moved to California before Dennis died. The county held a hearing in 1965 shortly after Dennis` death and several of the Jurgens` relatives testified that the youngster had been abused. A county judge ordered Robert removed from the Jurgens` home. But four years later, in keeping with the policy that the original adoptive home was the best place for an adopted child, Robert was returned to the couple. In 1972, the Jurgens were allowed to adopt four more children, all from the same family in Kentucky. Both social agencies involved had access to Lois Jurgens` file, which held information about her mental problems, questions about how Dennis had died and accusations of abuse that arose during the 1965 hearing. ''When I read the file, I was horrified,'' said Carol Felix, the social worker who subsequently was assigned to investigate allegations that the Jurgenses also had abused the Kentucky youngsters. Felix said she called Ramsey County child welfare officials, whom she said reviewed the charges, but allowed final approval of the adoption of the four children. Advertisement There was no response from the Ramsey County officials, she said. ''The system is guilty. They are the accessories,'' said Felix, now retired and living in Arizona. Minnesota child protection and adoption agency worker, and law enforcement officials now all say that Dennis Jurgens was a casualty of his time, when child abuse and the battered child syndrome were phrases yet to be coined, when the supply of homeless babies vastly outstripped demand, and when parents had an unspoken sacred right in how they chose to discipline their children. Screening requirements, training, and regulations have been vastly improved since 1963, say workers in the adoption field. Nonetheless, All the signals indicated Dennis was a 3-year old prisoner of terror and abuse, said county attorney Thomas Foley. ''If just one person had acted on their instincts, it may have solved the problem, and he would be alive today,'' Foley said. G erman Chancellor Angela Merkel is leading moves in the European Union to stop Britain being seen to succeed from Brexit, David Davis claimed today. In an exclusive interview with the Evening Standard, the former Brexit Secretary said only French president Emmanuel Macron is taking a harder line against the UK. Other than Macron, Merkel is the most emphatic in Europe about us not being seen to succeed, he said. Theresa May should not see Mrs Merkel as a champion ready to salvage a good future trade deal for the UK at the eleventh hour in the face of French opposition, Mr Davis continued. He added that the Brexit turmoil was likely to get even tougher for the Prime Minister. He spoke out as Mrs May prepared to head to the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, where she will have to convince members to back her Chequers Brexit blueprint after it was savaged by Brussels, Right-wingers and even some centrist MPs. Former Brexit secretary David Davis / Adrian Lourie Mr Davis lambasted French Brexit policy as being driven by daft and hysterically wrong views on Britain. He also hit back at Mr Macron after the French president effectively branded him a liar at the Salzburg summit earlier this month, when EU leaders tore into the Chequers plan. Mr Macron said: Brexit has shown us one thing ... it has demonstrated that those who said you can easily do without Europe, that it will all go very well ... are liars. Mr Davis retorted: Its not the mark of a great man to throw insults around. Brexit: What are the options? While Mr Macron has publicly taken a hard line on Brexit, Mrs Merkels position has been less clear, and there have been occasional signs from Berlin of a possibly more flexible approach. But Mr Davis, who just months ago had a key role in the negotiations before he quit over the Chequers plan, said: I dont think Merkel was ever really going to be our champion, ever, ever neither Macron, nor Merkel. His views highlighted the difficulties facing Britain to get a good Brexit deal, due to be struck at a special summit in November, because the Franco-German axis is so critical to decision-making in the EU. The former Cabinet minister believes Mrs Merkel and Mr Macron will come under growing pressure from regional leaders and business at home to strike a deal but Brussels sources downplay the likely impact of this factor. Emmanuel Macron says 'we will never accept a deal that will damage the European Union' In the interview, Mr Davis: Accused France of trying to use Brexit to raid the UK economy. Said he believes the Prime Minister has to show the Tory conference, starting on Sunday, that she is tough enough to stand up to Brussels. Stressed the UK needs some specifics on a future trade deal by March rather than a woolly offer. Prime Minister Theresa May shakes hands with former Brexit secretary David Davis / AFP/Getty Images Branded the Salzburg summit a collective cock-up ... on both sides. Warned of more Brexit turmoil ahead, stressing it is tough now but it will get tougher. Revealed he does not know if his father is alive, having met him only once after being born to a single mother. Mr Davis pointed the finger firmly at Paris for making Brexit difficult, saying that France was playing hardball, with three strong elements driving its policy. Number one, they are the most committed to the, you cannot be seen to succeed argument because it will encourage other people, he said. Its a daft argument, frankly. There is nobody like us, in truth, nobody has the upside we have, the upside of the rest of the world. The second reason is a very, very narrow French one of trying, as it were, to raid our economy to get businesses to go to France. Best demonstrator of that is the special tax deals they have given to some hedge fund people and other big earners in the City ... at least one person whose salary last year was hundreds of millions and who paid no tax on it because hes based in Paris now. The third one is there is a long-term French view of what they think of us as deregulatory Wild West Anglo-Saxon approach to economics and somehow we are going to out-compete them by cutting everything, cutting taxes, cutting regulations and so on ... its hysterically wrong. Mr Davis added: At Salzburg, which was a sort of collective cock-up, really, on both sides, the people who would have been supportive of us, if they had been, wouldnt have been France and Germany. The European Commission will be as tough as nails until there comes a point when the 27 other EU member states start to think our interest is now at risk, he predicted. Mr Davis expects the Brexit talks to go the distance, with any trade deal being clinched only at the last minute. A former minister today said Theresa May had wasted the Brexit negotiations chasing unicorns. Writing in the Evening Standard, Nick Boles said ministers were in a delusional state of pretending that her Chequers proposals might be turned into a deal. In reality, he said, the Irish backstop would never be acceptable to the Commons. [The Government] has frittered away our negotiating leverage and forfeited the goodwill of the British public, pursuing a fantasy tailor-made Brexit deal, he writes. He warned: The Emperor has no clothes. After Salzburg it should be clear to even the slowest learner that this approach is not going to fly. The former skills minister and Remain voter wants the UK to aim for a Canada-style free trade agreement and to seek temporary membership of the European Economic Area and the European Free Trade Association as a half-way house while negotiating. He said the Irish backstop was a terrible idea borne of Mrs Mays middle-of-the-night desperation. D avid Davis has a resting heart rate of 42. He has a large James Bond watch on his wrist monitoring it on a graph. An SAS chum told him, I knew you were calm, David, but thats bloody lateral. Athletes have lower, he explains. Then, aghast: It went up to 71 during the interview. Thats a surprise. Not to us. In two-and-a-half hours, the former Brexit Secretary, who turns 70 in December, has led us through his life like a training manoeuvre in the Brunei jungle. Weve arced from his conception after a freezing winter of rationing to the moment last July when he wounded Theresa May by resigning over Chequers. The Prime Minister once described him as her favourite Cabinet minister. Was she hurt? Hard to tell. Shes very hard to read. She said she was disappointed I think she presumed I would stick it out. Since then hes shadowed her efforts to promote Chequers, waving his alternative Canada-plus style deal in the wings. While May was in Salzburg, he was in Munich. Probably the closest I could go without getting arrested, he chuckles. Prime Minister Theresa May shakes hands with former Brexit secretary David Davis / AFP/Getty Images From the sidelines he makes predictions of tough times and bumpy rides. Chequers is a toothache, he says. Not a crisis toothache. Weve had [a toothache with Europe] for 30 years, well have it for another 20. Davis resigned two days after Chequers. The last time he resigned from the House in 2008 over civil liberties he listened to Mozart for two days solid. This time he went to Silverstone to watch Formula One more Francis Drake going to play bowls before going to sink ships, he says. Boris Johnson followed suit the next day, having given Davis no indication of his plan. If Davis is Drake, Johnson is Blitzkrieg. Today the former Foreign Secretary has published his 5,000-word manifesto on Brexit. Does Davis want to be Prime Minister too? I dont. No. Who would he vote for in a leadership contest, Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg? Neither. Thats not to say they arent friends. He gave a speech at Rees-Moggs Somerset house last year in the minstrel gallery, only Jacob would have a minstrel gallery and one lady fainted. Swooned, as Jacob put it. This evening Rees-Mogg is speaking at Daviss Patrons Club. When I suggested him 18 months ago, they said Whos he? Now weve oversold the bloody thing three times. Davis throws his ebullience cross-issue, cross-party. My politics are not tribal. Remainer friends include Andrew Adonis, Will Hutton, Nick Clegg. I had a two-hour-plus lunch with Ken Clark in the Garrick. We didnt talk about Europe, we swapped jokes. Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel / AFP/Getty Images He also likes Leftists Alastair Campbell and Tom Watson, even Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn A nice man. Hed be a dangerous PM but thats different. They share a passion for civil liberty and went together to Washington to secure the release of a Guantanamo inmate. I think we flew economy, he says. But somehow, when we got to the hotel, Jeremy got the bridal suite. He knew Tony Benn too. People call me Right-wing but Im neither Right nor Left, Im all over the shop. Confused would be a better description. He scoffs at the suggestion that hes too hard over Brexit. When we didnt win the election properly, he says of 2017, I thought: all we can do is be utterly reasonable. When I get criticised, its for being too soft. On no deal: I am probably as expert as anyone in the world. At one extreme Davis is a monumental show-off, at the other, he confirms, ready to go to prison for his political beliefs. He describes a smidgen of jealousy over Damian Greens arrest for obtaining leaked documents in 2008, but says no one would dare arrest him. They did consider it but it turned out to be much too dangerous. Hahaha! His grandfather, who was an avowed Communist even after we knew about the gulag and Stalin, helped raise Davis and imbued his political beliefs. As a result, Daviss first thought when considering an issue is Who loses? Its an underdog thing. Hes still about one per cent Communist. I used to say to my colleagues in Dexeu, We are going to run this like a Stalinist cell, I will tell you everything but if you leak any of it youre executed. He uses eruptions of laughter as punctuation. His grandfather read him the Rubiayat of Omar Khayyam which he recites and the rude version of the Red Flag: The working class can kiss my arse, Ive got the foremans job at last. Its a long way from the privileged Tory stereotype. Born to a single mother in Yorkshire, they lived in an asbestos pre-fab on a street that had been strafed and bulldozed. He didnt feel poor; he didnt feel cold. But he has the scars of battle re-enactments he played with dustbin lids and broom sticks. School was awful. The nuns who taught, terrifying: I remember someone being beaten in front of the school for not going to church Catholics! And being hit over the knuckles with a ruler. When he was asked to copy a stick person from the board, Davis sat immobile with his pencil. She said: David, you havent drawn anything. I said: Cant. She said: You can, David. So I said: Wont. Crack! Back then he was David Brown. When his mother Betty married Ronald Davis, a half-sister was born and Davis was adopted. The family was rock-solid Labour: Ronald a union man, father of the chapel, shop steward. Later they moved to London. Malt loaf and margarine was a treat but there were rough fights in the bombsites. Every night before bed he listened to the Archers. What about his real dad? He has said hes only met him once but steadfastly refused to reveal details. Has he forgiven him for leaving his mother pregnant? Think of the background, he says. End of the Second World War; rationing; York full of RAF airmen. I was conceived the spring after that bitter winter of 1947. Food was short. To be cruel, pleasure was hard to come by. It is not for us to judge, he reasons. We cant imagine it. And what did I expect him to do once I was conceived? He was married, at least two children. It wasnt in my interests but he did the right thing, Im afraid. For his mum, it was a forbidden subject. The stigma was huge. Im quite lucky I got born, and wasnt put out to adoption. Did he invent a hero father to fill the space? No. When youre four, five, six what is, is. But years later, without his mothers knowledge, he tracked his father down to south Wales and discovered that he was a senior civil servant in Pontypridd. It was pre-Google so the closest comparison he can think of is typical Davis Day of The Jackal, hunting through the birth certificates at Somerset House, and the Salvation Army and the DSS. He responded instantly to my telegram: Ill see you at Victoria on Saturday. This was Thursday. When they met, at lunchtime in the pub, I shook his hand. There was no hug, this was very different generation. Father and son spent most of the afternoon together and, I sort of liked him. He was charming. He was a good conversationalist. He was very intelligent. I think he was nervous. If I think about it now I am unsurprised he was nervous. At the time he was still married with three children. So I kept it [secret]. Did he cry? No. It was a sort of puzzle. Did he feel hed recovered a missing piece? Theres a little bit of that but it didnt really fill in the missing piece. So is that bit still missing? Yeah. Really. He doesnt know if his father is still alive. Would he be likely to hear? No. He may be dead already. His mother hadnt known about the meeting. And she was slightly cross. Embarrassed and cross. Truthfully I dont know if she knew how to cope with it. Its a big thing. Davis married Doreen, who he met at Warwick university, in 1973, and has three grown-up children. He says theres a Chinese wall between them and his political life, although he concedes Doreen encouraged him to resign because shed seen how hard he worked, only for May to favour the advice of Olly Robbins and her Number 10 team. Later he says top civil servants are all Remainers and the SAS (he joined the Territorial Armys regiment in 1968) are all Leavers. Are his children engaged in politics? They have views. Conservative? Broadly. He pauses. My son is very much a Remainer. I havent asked the others how they voted. His son volunteered this? Davis hums, then pulls a face that says, Oh, yes. Were in his office in Westminster up 39 winding steps and behind the mosaic for St David for Wales in Central Lobby. Its sparse: three shelves of books. His old office was covered with pictures of Gladstone. He loves an anecdote, sometimes an anecdote within an anecdote. Often sentences begin, Rumour is He calls European colleagues you continental chaps and matrons middle-aged nurses. He bet 200 on Leave winning the referendum and won 1,000. What did he spend it on? Drink. It paid for the cocktail party in our department. Hes funny. He says he wasnt a bit surprised when news broke in 2002 that John Major had had an affair. But when he heard it was Edwina Currie, I nearly drove off the road. Back-pedalling, he adds: John is a nice, almost tactile, man. Hes very friendly. Some people you think, nah, others you think He stalls. Its not a condemnation. Hes a sensual man. Given that hobbies include rock-climbing, paragliding and re-enacting his SAS training in the Brecon Beacons, its unsurprising his nicknames include Basher. Jean-Claude Juncker calls him Gangster. William Hague described him as a Spitfire pilot you cant shake off. You can learn courage, he argues. More important than the SAS was walking out of home after a colossal row with his stepfather, sleeping rough that night then going to university with no money. I was damned if I wasnt going to go to university. H alf of Conservative supporters want Theresa May to quit before the next election, an exclusive poll reveals today. Only four in 10 Tories say the Prime Minister should be granted her wish to stay on and fight the next general election, due in 2022. The findings of an Ipsos MORI survey for the Evening Standard are a new blow to the embattled Conservative leader on the eve of what some believe is a make-or-break party conference. Mrs Mays troubles piled up today as in-fighting intensified in the run-up to the annual gathering in Birmingham. Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson issued a scathing essay in the Telegraph that branded Mrs Mays Chequers gambit a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country. He was backed by Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair of the influential European Research Group, who told Question Time the negotiations were badly conducted and compared Chequers with Count Dracula, saying it doesnt have much life in the sunlight. Business leader Sir Richard Branson dismissed Mr Johnsons claims of a free trade alternative as a potential disaster for the UK. Former Conservative leader Lord Howard was quoted in the Sun as telling a gathering that Mrs May could stay as leader for the next few months. That tallied with the view of Conservatives in todays poll. Some 16 per cent of Conservatives wish Mrs May would resign as soon as possible. This rises to 29 per cent of the general public. Just over a third of Conservatives say she should quit after Brexit, which is due on March 29 next year, but before the general election. Three in 10 members of the public think the same way. Altogether, 52 per cent of Tories and 59 per cent of the public say she should step down before the next election. Some 39 per cent of Tories want her to remain in office until after the next election, falling to 32 per cent among the general public. Loading.... There was some comfort for Mrs May in that among the general public Mrs May beats both Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson hands down when it comes to who would be a capable Prime Minister. Former Brexit Secretary David Davis, who is likely to be a big influence in any contest, revealed in todays exclusive interview he would probably not vote for either Mr Johnson or Mr Rees-Mogg. Mr said Mays most likely successor will be a clever youngster who has not yet got to the front of the pack. I can think of four, he continued, declining to name them. Ipsos MORI found that the proportion of Tories who say they like Mrs May has fallen to 64 per cent, down from 76 per cent last September and from 88 per cent in September 2016. Over the same period, the proportion who dislike her has risen from just eight to 31 per cent. Loading.... Among the public the divide is 39 per cent like and 57 per cent dislike. Asked who seemed the most capable PM out of Mrs May and Mr Corbyn, the public preferred the Tory leader by 46 per cent to 37. When up against Mr Johnson, the public preferred her by an overwhelming 57 per cent to 28 per cent. Among Conservative supporters the gap was almost as wide, with 58 per cent choosing Mrs May and 33 per cent picking her rival. Just a third of the public think Mrs May has what it takes to be a good PM, while half disagree. Mr Corbyns figures are worse with 27 per cent thinking he has what it takes and 60 per cent disagreeing. Of Mrs Mays potential rivals for the Tory leadership none have better ratings for being prime ministerial material. Environment Secretary Michael Gove came off worst with a mere 11 per cent seeing him as a potential good PM, and 56 per cent disagreeing. Loading.... Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt fared almost as badly with a divide of 14-53. Home Secretary Sajid Javid did better with 17 per cent thinking he has what it takes and 38 per cent disagreeing. Mr Johnson had the most mixed score: Some 25 per cent saw him as a good potential PM - but he also had the worst score for lacking what it takes, at 64 per cent. The divide suggest the controversial Brexiteer stirs the strongest passions, both for and against. Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI, said Mrs Mays low personal ratings were matched by her partys standing. Public opinion so far does not seem to favour any of her potential successors, and the Conservative party itself remains stubbornly disliked by around six in ten, which is much worse than Labours likeability score, he said. S haun Bailey today pledged Londons best days are ahead of us as he was named as the Conservative candidate to take on Sadiq Khan in 2020s mayoral election. The former adviser to David Cameron was announced this morning as the winner in a ballot of Tory party members in the capital. London Assembly member Mr Bailey, 47, is pledging a zero tolerance approach to crime, vowing to put 1,000 extra police officers on Londons streets if he wins the mayoralty. He said: Im now preparing myself for 18 months of hard work. London has been really generous to me, I was born here, my family is here. Ive always wanted to give back to London what it has given me. I want to give back to my community. For London our best days are ahead of us. The Mayor has just been talking London down. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan pictured on his first day at City Hall in 2016( Stefan Rousseau/PA) / Stefan Rousseau/PA Mr Bailey beat Joy Morrissey, a former actress and councillor in Ealing, and Andrew Boff, a fellow London Assembly member, to be selected. Crime is expected to dominate his campaigning and he has been highly critical of the Mayor for failing to tackle violence. Artificial intelligence methods used in New York could be replicated in London, he suggested, and he has also vowed to slash City Hall bureaucracy to free up more money for policing. Shaun Bailey beat Andrew Boff to take the mayoral candidate slot for the Tories / Lucy Young He said: I came from one of the poorest areas of London where Ive seen the blight of crime on peoples lives. When we talk about social mobility of young people its impossible for them to move forward if they live in a crime-riddled environment. If you want to help people in London theyve got to suffer as little crime as possible. Joy Morrissey was also in the running to become the Tories mayoral candidate Housing will also be a significant issue and he has pledged to release more land for homes. He backed Brexit at the EU referendum, adding: Im not a Brexiteer in that crazy sense of lets just leave... I will be talking to Londoners about how we get the best deal. His first major political speech will be at the Conservative conference in Birmingham early next week. Mr Baileys family moved to London from Jamaica and he was raised by his mother in North Kensington after his parents split when he was a child. He was a youth worker in Ladbroke Grove and entered politics through charity work as co-founder of My Generation, an organisation to help disadvantaged families. A paper he wrote for the Centre for Policy Studies in 2007 was picked up by the Conservative party and he was introduced to David Cameron by aide Steve Hilton. After a spell as a special adviser to the Prime Minister on youth and crime, he moved to the Cabinet Office to work on the national Citizen Service scheme. He won a seat on the London Assembly in 2015 and ran for the Tories in Lewisham West at the 2017 General Election, losing to Labours Ellie Reeves. He lives in Romford with wife Ellie, a history teacher, and their two children. The vote had to go to a second round after none of the candidates received more than 50 per cent from first preferences. After the the first round Mr Bailey received 3,164 votes (43.2 per cent), Mr Boff took 2,591 (35.4 per cent) and Joy Morrissey took 1,566 (21.4 per cent). A wealthy entrepreneur who threw his estranged wifes phone against a wall during a row has been banned from going to the 3.8 million family home in west London. Gregory Mihalcheon, 52, was in the midst of a divorce from wife Andreia when he hurled the handset towards a fireplace on July 26. She reported the incident to the police, complaining that her 15 phone case had been damaged. At Hendon magistrates court yesterday, prosecutor Kate Seal dropped the case against Mihalcheon but applied for a restraining order banning him from the South Kensington home. The Crown would say that behaviour is harassment, she said. This complainant would feel far more assured. In her statement, Mrs Mihalcheon said: He yanked the phone out of my hand and it was so violent I was shocked. He threw it across the room into the wall by the fireplace and the phone fell into the fireplace. But Mihalcheon, a director of a software publishing and financial service companies, said he was acting in self defence. He told the court he was sleeping in the basement of the house when a row broke out at around 7.20am, but that he had not been reckless or intended to damage the phone cover. Mihalcheon was cleared of criminal damage after the prosecution offered no evidence against him. B oris Johnson has lashed out at Theresa Mays Chequers plan labelling it a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country. Writing in the Telegraph, the former foreign secretary said that if the Brexit strategy was implemented, it would cheat the electorate. The 4,500 word column said there had been a collapse of will by the British establishment to deliver on the mandate of the people. His words come just days before the Conservative Party conference. Brexit is expected to be a main discussion point. Mr Johnson set out an alternative vision for Brexit which he claims would make Britain rich, strong and free. As a priority, the former London mayor urged the Government to ditch Chequers and negotiate a Canada-style free deal which would "fulfil the instruction of the people". Mr Johnson again criticised Theresa May's Chequers plans / Leon Neal/Reuters He said: "Overall, the Chequers proposals represent the intellectual error of believing that we can be half-in, half-out: that it is somehow safer and easier for large parts of our national life to remain governed by the EU even though we are no longer in the EU. "They are in that sense a democratic disaster. There is nothing safe or 'pragmatic' in being bound by rules over which we have no say, interpreted by a federalist court. "The Chequers proposals are the worst of both worlds. They are a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country. It is almost incredible that after two years this should be the opening bid of the British government." Mr Johnson also argues for a new withdrawal agreement which states that the Irish border question will be settled as part of the deal on the future economic arrangements. He further argues that the implementation period should be used to negotiate and bring into force a "SuperCanada" type free trade agreement and says MPs should not vote to hand over 40 billion to the EU without any such agreement. He adds: "This is the time to get it right. This is the approach that allows this country really to exploit the opportunities of Brexit, to diverge and legislate effectively for the new technologies and businesses in which the UK has such a lead. Mr Johnson's comments come after Jeremy Hunt called for calm over the current Brexit impasse / Getty Images "This is an opportunity for the UK to become more dynamic and more successful, and we should not be shy of saying that - and we should recognise that it is exactly this potential our EU partners seek to constrain." Mr Johnson concludes by issuing a rallying cry to the Tory base, saying "this is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit", and warning "that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail" His comments come after the current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called for calm over the current Brexit impasse - claiming there was always going to come a point in negotiations "where everyone was looking into the abyss". Mr Hunt also backed the Prime Minister's resolve and warned the EU and doubters in the UK that "underestimating Theresa May is one of the biggest mistakes that you could make right now". Mrs May's Chequers plan was publicly rejected by EU leaders in Salzburg last week and both Labour and Tory Eurosceptics said they would vote against any such proposal. A lmost two out of three businesses in the UK are not yet prepared for leaving the EU, the British Chambers of Commerce has said. New research shows two-thirds of companies are not preparing for Brexit, with some suffering from "Brexit fatigue" having switched off because they dont believe they will be affected. A survey of more than 2,500 British businesses showed that one in five will cut back on investment if theres no deal and a similar amount will move all or part of their business to the EU. The BCC said others will resort to cutting back on staff recruitment, with larger firms and those trading overseas most likely to feel the impact of no deal. Adam Marshall, director general of the BCC, said: "Businesses are clear that reaching a deal with the EU, which addresses the future terms of trade and provides certainty, must be the Government's number one priority. "Our evidence is clear - failure to reach a political agreement would have real-world consequences, with significant decreases in both investment and recruitment. "Larger firms and those active in international trade would suffer the most from a disorderly and sudden exit from the EU, but there will be impacts across the board. "Most concerning of all, a materially significant number of businesses are considering moving part or all of their operations to the EU in the event of no deal. "Government must act urgently and decisively to get a comprehensive deal done. They also need to use the levers they have, such as the upcoming Budget, to ensure they provide the right conditions for growth at home." Almost two out of three businesses in the UK are not yet prepared for leaving the EU / PA Wire/PA Images Edward Winterton, chief executive of Bibby Financial Services, which helped with the survey, added: "After more than two years of uncertainty, small and medium-sized enterprises need answers over the future of the UK's relationship with the EU. "Specifically, they want clarity around the customs union, access to the single market and further detail on the practicalities of implementing this historic change." A spokesman for the Department for Exiting the European Union said their top priority is to agree an ambitious future economic relationship with the EU. The department is confident that this is the most likely outcome of negotiations, the spokesman said. He added: But as a responsible Government we will continue planning for all outcomes, including the unlikely event of no deal, in case our ambition isn't matched." T he family of a 15-year-old girl who died after suffering a fatal allergic reaction to a Pret A Manger sandwich today said her death should serve as a watershed moment to make meaningful change to save lives, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse fatally collapsed on a British Airways flight from London to Nice after eating a sandwich with hidden sesame seeds in July 2016. Her family called for a change in food labelling laws which had played Russian roulette with her life - and also released a haunting final image of the teenager on board the flight, taken moments before she suffered an allergic reaction. The allergen was not listed as an ingredient on the sandwichs labelling. After a coroner delivered a narrative verdict, her father Nadim, mother Tanya and brother Alex stood outside the court holding a picture of Natasha. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse shortly before collapse Mr Ednan-Laperouse said: Our beloved daughter died in a tragedy that should never have happened. We believe that this inquest has shown that she died because of inadequate food labelling laws. Natasha pictured on the flight shortly before she collapsed after eating the baguette / PA We are also shocked to learn there have been a number of other previous serious allergic incidents involving sesame seeds at Pret a Manger before our daughter died. It feels to us that if Pret a Manger were following the law then the law was playing Russian roulette with our daughters life. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, from Fulham, west London, with her father Nadim, / PA Its clear that the food labelling laws as they stand today are not fit for purpose. It is now time to change the law. Natashas inquest should serve as a watershed moment to make meaningful change and to save lives. The coroner said he will alert ministers, saying the labelling was inadequate. Natasha's family at west London coroner's court today / PA Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, from Fulham, fatally collapsed on a British Airways flight from London to Nice after eating a Pret A Manger sandwich with hidden sesame seeds. Coroner Dr Sean Cummings gave a narrative verdict at West London Coroners Court this morning. Delivering his conclusion, he said: Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died of anaphylaxis in Nice on July 17 2016 after eating a baguette, purchased from Pret A Manger at London Heathrows Terminal 5. The baguette was manufactured to Pret specifications and contained sesame to which she was allergic. Natasha, 15, fatally collapsed on a flight from London to Nice / PA There was no specific allergen information on the baguette packaging or on the (food display cabinet) and Natasha was reassured by that. He said he would write to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about a regulation which allows businesses that produce food on site to provide reduced allergen labelling compared with factory-made products. The coroner declared Pret A Mangers labelling was inadequate. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15 with her brother Alex and parents Nadim and Tanya / PA She had been on her way to a four-day break in France with her father and best friend when she bought an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette as they passed through Heathrow Airports Terminal 5. The teenager suffered from numerous allergies and reacted badly to sesame seeds hidden in the bread. Two epipens were jabbed into her legs, but the symptoms did not abate and she was declared dead the same day at a hospital in Nice. The coroner yesterday said he was struggling to see why the full range of medical kit on a British Airways plane was not offered when Natasha suffered the allergic reaction. Clive Schlee, chief executive of Pret A Manger said: We are deeply sorry for Natashas death. "We cannot begin to comprehend the pain her family have felt and the grief they will continue to feel. "We have listened to everything the coroner and Natashas family have said this week and we will learn from it. S ome 35,000 Ryanair passengers face travel chaos today after the airline was forced to cancel 250 flights due to staff taking strike action. Tens of thousands of customers will be hit by disruption after pilots and cabin crew decided to take industrial action. It is almost double the number of flights affected by earlier strikes from crews. Pilots and cabin crews in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain are on strike today in a row over contracts and conditions. Union leaders are calling for the staff to be given contracts in the countries where they live, instead of in Ireland, where Ryanair is based. Ryanair said all customers were entitled to a full refund, free move on to the next available flight or a free transfer to an alternative flight. Michael O'Leary holds a media briefing after the company AGM at the City North Hotel in Co Meath, September 10. / PA Wire/PA Images Ryanair's chief operations officer Peter Bellew said the action was "deeply regrettable". "It is deeply disappointing that some of our customers and our people in Germany tomorrow will have their flights disrupted by an unnecessary strike called at short notice," he said. The strikes are the latest in a series of walkouts by staff at Europe's largest low-cost airline. Ryanair Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary. / PA Wire/PA Images On September 12, dozens of flights were cancelled in Germany after pilots and flight attendants refused to work for 24 hours. In August, several days of strikes involving staff in Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands saw hundreds of flights cancelled. Earlier this month, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said strikes by pilots were necessary to keep air fares down. He insisted industrial disputes with the airline's staff have caused "minimal disruption" as he pledged not to "roll over". The Dutch pilots union said it had only verbally offered its members local contracts and had refused to put the offer in writing. Today' strike follows numerous action already. Pilots demonstrated outside Ryanair's headquarters at Swords, Dublin, on August 3. / PA Wire/PA Images Joost Van Doesburg, of the Dutch Airline Pilots Association (VNV), said his members also wanted pensions in line with Dutch standards, and firmer guarantees on sick pay. VNV said in a statement: "After the first Ryanair strike in the Netherlands on 10 August 2018, our goal did not come any closer. Ryanair management has since refused to negotiate constructively with us. "We have made every effort to come to a fair collective agreement, but because Ryanair does not want to table with us, this work stoppage is unavoidable." One in six flights run by the operator have been cancelled, in what Mr O'Leary called a "mess of our making" as he did not have enough pilots to honour the company's flight schedule. The European Commission said Ryanair employees should have contracts in the countries where they live rather than in Ireland, where its planes are registered. The BBC reported that EU social affairs commissioner Marianne Thyssen told Mr O'Leary at a Brussels meeting that EU rules on employment of air crews were based on where workers left in the morning and returned in the evening - and not where aircraft were registered. She said: "Respecting EU law is not something over which workers should have to negotiate, nor is it something which can be done differently from country to country." Ryanair said the vast majority of its 2,400 flights today would be unaffected. Some 35,000 passengers out of 450,000 will experience disruption, with passengers whose flight is cancelled contacted by text or email. A Ryanair spokesman said: "Customers whose flights are affected by this regrettable strike action today are entitled to a full refund, free move on to the next available flight or free transfer to an alternative flight. "Despite the regrettable and unjustified strike action taking place in 6 of our 37 markets today, all 400 first wave aircraft departed on schedule this morning. "Today, over 2,150 Ryanair flights - 90% of our schedule - will operate as normal carrying 400,000 customers across Europe. Ryanair took every step to minimise the disruption and we notified our customers as early as possible advising them of their free move, refund or reroute options." Ryanairs Chief Operations Officer Peter Bellew said in a statement: It is deeply disappointing that some of our customers and our people in Germany tomorrow will have their flights disrupted by an unnecessary strike. How could that be, Morris wondered, when they had been forwarding every late night call, every cryptic text message and new name they heard to investigators. They include early rumors that the boys had been seen going into the wooded area with two other teens who were later spotted leaving without Raysuan or Darnelle. A plane overshot a runway and crash landed in a lagoon in Micronesia but all passengers and crew on board miraculously survived. The Air Niugini plane hit the water while trying to land at Chuuk Island on Friday. Astonishing pictures show the plane just after it had landed on the water, as locals rushed out on small boats to rescue passengers. Officials said all 36 passengers and 11 crew members on board escaped with minor injuries. The cause of the crash is currently unclear but investigations will begin soon. An Air Niugini plane floats in a lagoon after it overshot the runway in Micronesia / AP Chuuk Airport manager Jimmy Emilio said that the plane missed the runway by about 160 yards. He told the BBC: "Right now we don't really know what happened. Investigations will start earliest tomorrow, but [for now], operations are starting again as usual in the airport." Images from the scene show locals rushing to help those onboard / REUTERS The airline said it was working to ensure the ongoing safety of the passengers. Bill Jaynes, an American passenger on the flight, said in a Facebook post that the plane came in "very low." He said: "I thought we landed hard, until I looked over to the side of the plane and saw a hole, the water was coming in." People being evacuated from an Air Niugini plane after the crash / REUTERS Mr Jaynes praised locals for their quick response to the incident. Other incredible images show locals using their boats to approach the aircraft and rescue those on board as the plane sinks lower into the water. The runway at the Chuuk Airport in Weno, Micronesia / AP The Boeing 737-800 had been travelling from Pohnpei in Micronesia to Port Moresby in Papa New Guinea, stopping at Chuuk on the way. T he fate of President Donald Trumps controversial choice for the US Supreme Court was hanging in the balance today. The American Bar Association demanded an FBI investigation into sexual assault claims against nominee Brett Kavanaugh. After a riveting day of hearings on Capitol Hill in which Mr Kavanaugh, 53, again declared his innocence, members of the key Senate judiciary committee were expected to vote this afternoon on whether to back his confirmation. But in a surprise move the Bar Association which bestowed its highest well-qualified ranking on Mr Kavanaugh before the allegations surfaced publicly urged the committee to suspend its vote and call in the FBI to probe claims made by Christine Blasey Ford and several other women about Mr Kavanaughs allegedly abusive past behaviour. Donald Trump tweets support for accused Brett Kavanaugh During the emotional testimony that gripped America yesterday, he said the ABAs support vouched for his judicial temperament. But ABA president Robert Carlson said the debate was simply too important to rush to a vote and required nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI. Christine Blasey Ford speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee / REUTERS He added: Deciding to proceed without conducting additional investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the Senates reputation, but it will also negatively affect the great trust necessary for the American people to have in the Supreme Court. Whether Mr Kavanaugh wins a lifetime appointment to Americas highest court or is rejected over alleged misdeeds at parties when he was a teenager in the 1980s is likely to come down to the support of a handful of Republican senators. Ignoring pleas for further delays, Republicans clinging to a narrow majority on the judiciary committee were set to go ahead with the vote this afternoon. If it goes in his favour, Mr Kavanaughs nomination would still have to be approved by the full US Senate, where the Republicans again hold a slim 51-49 majority, at a meeting as early as tomorrow. In yesterdays hearing, Professor Ford, 51, claimed she was trapped in a bedroom with Mr Kavanaugh when they were both teenagers and accused him of trying to forcibly remove her clothes before fled. Mr Kavanaugh made an impassioned defence as he forcefully denied the allegation, saying he was the victim of a calculated and orchestrated political hit. Mr Trump said the hearing was brutal and hard to watch. He made no mention of Professor Ford, but praised Mr Kavanaugh as a great guy. Hundreds of protesters marched to the Supreme Court, chanting: No means no, Kavanaugh has got to go. Democrats said Professor Ford was a credible witness but Republicans accused them of a smear campaign. D onald Trump says that Judge Kavanaughs testimony was powerful, honest and riveting. It comes after a day of testimonies from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford drew to a close on Thursday. Dr Ford has accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexual assault 36 years ago. She said the event had "drastically changed her life" during her testimony. While Mr Kavanaugh denies the allegations and said he would not quit the Supreme Court nomination process. Kavanaugh denies accusation as Ford describes alleged assault in emotional hearing Mr Trump said: Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting. Democrats search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote! Supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate / AP Dr Ford alleges that a drunken Mr Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing at a gathering of teenagers in Maryland. She claims it occurred in 1982 when he was 17-years-old and she was 15. The academic fought back tears as she told the US Senate committee that she was sexually assaulted by the Supreme Court. Blasey Ford - 'I believed he was going to rape me' Dr Ford told the committee: I believed he was going to rape me. Mr Kavanaugh denied the accusations and claimed that his reputation had been totally and permanently destroyed as he defended himself. Christine Blasey Ford testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee / REUTERS As well as denying this, he labelled other accusations of sexual misconduct also from the 1980s made by two additional women vicious and false. C ristiano Ronaldos lawyers have fiercely denied claims he raped an American woman in 2009. The alleged victim Kathryn Mayorga told German magazine Der Spiegel she was attacked by the Portuguese star in a Las Vegas hotel room. Ronaldo allegedly paid her 287,000 in an out-of-court agreement and she pledged never to speak of the incident again, Mayorgas lawyer Leslie Mark Stovall said. Ronaldos lawyers, Schertz Bergmann Rechtsanwalte, issued a statement on Friday categorically denying the claims and calling the report "blatantly illegal". His lawyer Christian Schertz said he would seek compensation from Der Spiegel for "moral damages in an amount corresponding to the gravity of the infringement, which is probably one of the most serious violations of personal rights in recent years". Ronaldo signed for Juventus from Real Madrid this summer for 99.2m D emocrats stormed out of the hearing on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court after it was announced a vote would take place later. Senators Kamala Harris of California, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island were among those to walk out out in anger on Friday morning. The Republican party chairman had said a vote on the nomination would go ahead at 1.30pm (6.30pm BST). It came after Mr Kavanaugh, 53, gained the support of key Republican senator Jeff Flake of Arizona. Senators Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono, both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were among those to walk out / AFP/Getty Images Mr Flake, who is on the committee overseeing the hearing, announced he would vote to confirm Mr Kavanaugh, who he said was entitled to the "presumption of innocence... absent corroborating evidence." The vote was approved by a committee vote. The Democrats who objected complained that Republicans were rushing the confirmation. Kavanaugh denies accusation as Ford describes alleged assault in emotional hearing During the vote, Ms Hirono shouted: "I strongly object. What a railroad job. No, no, no." I raqi model and social media star Tara Fares has died after being shot in Baghdad. The 22-year-old model, who had millions of followers on Instagram, was killed on Thursday afternoon when several unknown gunmen opened fire on her in the Kam Sara neighbourhood. She suffered three bullet wounds at around 5.45pm local time and her body was taken to Sheikh Zaid hospital shortly after, a spokesman for Baghdads Rusafa Health Centre said. The death of the model, who was voted as Baghdads beauty queen four years ago, is now being investigated by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, Kurdistan 24 reports. Since her death, tributes poured in for the 22-year-old, who fans hailed as a fabulous human being and a beautiful Iraqi. Really shocked at the tragic murder of Iraqi model Tara Fares, Fara Shakarkendi, who knew the Instagram star through a friend, wrote. Tara began her journey when she competed in Miss Baghdad contest in 2014. She was living in Erbil for a while and became a lifestyle Instagram sensation with 2.6 million followers. Daryna Sarhan said: Taras death screams discrimination, lack of freedom and rights. Her death should be set as an example those responsible accounted for. Sympathy is not enough." Nervana Mahmoud added: RIP Tara Fares, a beautiful Iraqi, who was gunned earlier today. You killers are sick, cowards and destroying Iraq. Her death comes weeks after Rafeef al-Yaseri, the owner of Barbie beauty centre, and Rasha al-Hassan, a beauty expert, both died in mysterious circumstances, Kurdistan 24 reports. A police officer has been charged with criminal homicide in the US after he was filmed shooting a man in the back as he ran away. Andrew Delke, 25, turned himself in after a judge issued an arrest warrant following the shooting of Daniel Hambrick in Nashville in July. He was released on a $25,000 bond pending a hearing next month and suspended from duty. Security video from a school recorded Delke chasing Mr Hambrick, who was black, on foot. In the video, the officer is seen taking a shooting stance and Mr Hambrick, 25, falls to the ground. Nashville police officer Andrew Delke was charged over the death of Daniel Hambrick / AP Four shots were fired, striking him in the centre of his back, his torso, and the back of his head. A fourth bullet struck a nearby building. Mr Hambrick had been pulled over on a street corner. Officer Andrew Delke was charged with criminal homicide Delke had reportedly been following a suspicious vehicle, but lost track of it and reportedly mistook a vehicle at the corner as the one he was searching for. Daniel Hambrick was being chased on foot when he was shot The incident sparked outrage among the community. Under Tennessee law, criminal homicide is a general felony that can encompass varying degrees of homicide from vehicular homicide to first-degree murder. S cientists have revealed that a seal slapped a kayaker in the face with an octopus because it was trying to bring the mollusc to the surface to "smash it to pieces". Now scientists have said there is "a perfectly reasonable explanation for the seal's behaviour". National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said New Zealand said seals usually attack their prey by bringing it to the surface and slamming it against a hard surface. "We admit, it does seem as bizarre as it comes, and we are sure the kayaker certainly did not see it coming," the research institute said. "However, according to our experts there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for the seal's behaviour. "Seals will often try and get their prey out of the water and above the surface to gain the upper hand in a tussle. Once out of the water they will try fling them about to stun them. At that point it is normal for a seal to try fling the octopus against a hard object, although normally the sea's surface, to tear the octopus apart. "So to the seal, the kayaker seemed like a reasonable enough object. Taiyo Masuda posted the video to his to Instagram on Wednesday, showing his kayaking partner "getting an octopus smashed into his face by a seal." He said: "Ive never had such an amazing kayak ever!" adding that he was "super stoked" to capture the shot on his GoPro. The moment was captured by a group of kayakers / GoPro Kyle Mulinder, a brand ambassador for GoPro, said it was a case of "wrong place, right time" for the kayaker. "Yes I got slapped in the face with an octopus by the seal! I know crazy right," he wrote on Instagram. "After a fun paddle around the peninsula catching waves we spotted a giant male seal fighting an octopus. Before we knew it the fight came to us. "Im not sure who got more of a surprise - the seal, the octopus or me. "The octopus held onto the bottom of kayak for some time before our guide was able to get it off with his paddle then it swam away to fight another day." Others have claimed that the kayakers would have attracted the seal's attention as they paddled in waters off Kaikoura, near Christchurch on the south Island of New Zealand. T wo huge earthquakes have rocked the Indonesian island of Sulawesi destroying houses and leaving at least one person dead. A 7.5-magnitude quake, centred about 35 miles northeast of the town of Donggala, jolted the island shortly after a slightly less powerful 6.1-magnitude quake struck. They briefly triggered a tsunami warning as the region suffered widespread damage. An official with the local disaster agency, Akris, said of the second quake: "It happened while we still have difficulties in collecting data from nine villages affected by the first quake. People ran out in panic." Television footage showed people running into the streets. Medics attend to a women injured in the earthquake / AFP/Getty Images National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said they were struggling to communicate with people in the region. "Our early estimation, based on experience, is that it caused widespread damage, beginning from (the provincial capital) Palu northward to Donggala," he told MetroTV. Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. T he US Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to back Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh despite allegations of sexual assault. The panel voted 11 to 10 to send Mr Kavanaugh's nomination to be voted on by the full Senate. Senators voted along party lines, with all Democrats opposed. At the last minute, Republican senator Jeff Flake of Arizona sparked turmoil by saying he could not promise to vote for Mr Kavanaugh on the Senate floor. He called for an FBI probe into the allegations before a final vote is held. Senator Jeff Flake, a key moderate Republican, was at the centre of the drama and uncertainty / REUTERS Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley noted the timing on the senate vote was up to senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. It is unclear if leading Republicans will join Mr Flake in calling for an investigation or might instead press forward with the full Senate vote. Kavanaugh denies accusation as Ford describes alleged assault in emotional hearing Donald Trump said on Friday he has not thought "even a little bit" about alternative Supreme Court nominees if Mr Kavanaugh is not approved. He described the hearing as an incredible moment in the history of the United States. However he added he would leave it to the Senate to determine when it will vote on his Supreme Court nominee. Earlier in the day, Mr Flake announced that he would support Mr Kavanaugh's nomination. Shortly after, he was confronted in a lift by two women who, through tears, implored him to change his mind. After huddling privately with his colleagues, Mr Flake announced that he would vote to advance Mr Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate the allegations against the judge. Democrats have been calling for such an investigation, though Republicans and the White House have insisted it is unnecessary. On Thursday, the committee heard evidence from Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers. Earlier, police said a 37-year-old man was wounded in a drive-by shooting late Thursday afternoon, but later said two men were wounded after two gunmen jumped out of a vehicle about 5 p.m. in an alley in the 6100 block of South Justine Street. A tropical storm has unleashed heavy rain and flooding on the Caribbean while a hurricane gathers strength off the coast of Mexico. The weather fronts, named Storm Kirk and Hurricane Rosa, are the latest threatening chaos in America after Hurricane Florence struck the Carolinas. A tropical storm warning is in place for Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Martinique and Guadeloupe as Kirk barrels through the eastern Caribbean. Officials in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe closed schools on Thursday and Friday in anticipation of the storm. The US National Hurricane Center said that up to 25 centimetres of rain could fall in parts of Dominica and Martinique. Forecasters warned of strong winds and said mudslides and flash flooding are possible. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and was located about 60 miles south-southeast of Martinique on Friday morning. Hurricane Florence - In pictures 1 /70 Hurricane Florence - In pictures Lt. Keith Ramsey with the Pender County Sheriff's Office walks out to a boat while taking part in rescue operations in Burgaw, North Carolina AP U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media prior to a Marine One departure at the South Lawn of the White House September 19, 2018 in Washington Getty Images Local residents walk along the edge of a collapsed road that ran atop Patricia Lake's dam after it collapsed in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, in Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina Reuters Teresa Nance is licked by her dog as she returns to dry land after checking on her home flooded by Hurricane Florence Getty Images US President Donald Trump greets residents with prepared meals in New Bern, North Carolina AFP/Getty Images Flood waters from Hurricane Florence surrounds two hog houses and it's lagoon near Kinston, N.C AP Jovani Quintano and Carlos Gomez (L-R) walk through a flooded neighborhoom after heavy rains brought on by Hurricane Florence on September 19, 2018 in Lumberton, North Carolina. Getty Images US President Donald Trump walks with officials in Conway, South Carolina AFP/Getty Images Old tree stumps that used to be at the bottom of Patricia Lake are revealed after it emptied when its dam collapsed in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, in Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina, U.S Reuters Water from the flooded Waccamaw River surrounds a house in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence now downgraded to a tropical depression in Conway, South Carolina, U.S. Reuters Dustin Mock navigates a flooded street as flood waters rise in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence now downgraded to a tropical depression in Conway, South Carolina, U.S. Reuters Jose Perez-Santiago, left, and Rosemary Acevedo-Gonzalez, walk with their daughter Jordalis, 2, after retrieving her clothing upon returning to their home for the first time since it was flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in Spring Lake, North Carolina AP Flood waters from hurricane Florence inundate the town of Engelhard, N.C. AP A downed tree rests on a house during the passing of Hurricane Florence in the town of Wilson, North Carolina REUTERS A member of the US Army walks in water while rescuing people during the passing of Hurricane Florence in the town of New Bern REUTERS A downed tree is pictured as Hurricane Florence comes ashore on Wilmington, North Carolina REUTERS Volunteers from the Civilian Crisis Response Team help rescue three children from their flooded home in James City, Getty Images A downed tree blocks a local street during the passing of Hurricane Florence the town of New Bern, North Carolina REUTERS Waves slam the Oceana Pier & Pier House Restaurant in Atlantic Beach AP Shianne Coleman (L) gets a hand from friend Austin Gremmel as they walk in flooded streets as the Neuse River begins to flood its banks during Hurricane Florence Getty Images High winds and storm surge from Hurricane Florence hits Swansboro North Carolina. AP Russ Lewis looks for shells along the beach as Hurricane Florence approaches Myrtle Beach, South Carolina AP Michael Nelson floats in a boat made from a metal tub and fishing floats after the Neuse River went over its banks and flooded his street during Hurricane Florence in New Bern, North Carolina Getty Images Volunteers from the Civilian Crisis Response Team help rescue three children from their flooded home in James City, Getty Images Jamie Thompson walks through flooded sections of East Front Street near Union Point Park in New Bern, North Carolina AP Portions of a boat dock and boardwalk are destroyed by powerful wind and waves as Hurricane Florence Getty Images People walk on a local street as water from Neuse River starts flooding houses upon Hurricane Florence coming ashore in New Bern, North Carolina Reuters Newlyweds Kathryn and Anthony Palmisano stand on the steps of the Charleston City Market in a deserted downtown in Charleston, South Carolina. Getty Images Doug Lewis and Chris Williams use plywood with the words 'Looters will be shot' to cover the windows of Knuckleheads bar as they try to protect the business ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Florence Getty Images Body surfer Andrew Vanotteren crashes into waves from Hurricane Florence AP Members of law enforcement work with the National Guard to direct traffic onto U.S. Highway 501 as Hurricane Florence approaches the East Coast AP A message is posted on a boarded up building before the arrival of Hurricane Florence on Oak Island, North Carolina Reuters People and pets evacuate ahead of the forecasted landfall of Hurricane Florence and seek shelter at Burgaw Middle School in Burgaw, North Carolina EPA Lisa Evers of Oak Island carries clothing to her car while evacuating her house ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Florence in Oak Island, North Carolina Reuters Brady Osborne ties freshly filled sandbags, in Virginia Beach, Va., as Hurricane Florence moves towards the eastern shore. AP Sand bags surround homes on North Topsail Beach, North Carolina. as Hurricane Florence threatens the coast AP This US Navy photo shows a Sailor as he heaves line during a heavy weather mooring evolution in preparation for Hurricane Florence AFP/Getty Images Sam Bedford, left, and Miller Richey move trash bins from the Isle of Palms Marina on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina. AP People wait before departure on an evacuation bus ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Florence in Wilmington, North Carolina Reuters The bread shelves are bare in a grocery store as people stock up on food ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Florence Getty Images Mark Lewis, left, conservator, and Alisa Reynolds, associate registrar, secure the painting "The Shoppers" by William James Glackens at the Chrysler Museum of Art AP A boat is docked partially in the road as workers pull boats from the water in Wanchese Harbor in Wanchese, N.C. as Hurricane Florence approaches the coast of the Carolina AP Marge Brown, 65, says goodbye to her father, George Brown, 90, before he is evacuated from a healthcare home in Morehead City, N.C., as Hurricane Florence approaches the east coast. "I'd like to stay and see what happens. I'm 90 plus," said Brown, a WWII veteran who says he's survived a plane crash and severe burns from a laboratory fire where he once worked. AP U.S. Marine recruits at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island prepare to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Florence at Parris Island, South Carolina Reuters People evacuate ahead of the forecasted landfall of Hurricane Florence as they seek shelter at Emma B. Trask Middle School in Wilmington, North Carolina EPA People queue for shelters during the night ahead of the forecasted landfall of Hurricane Florence EPA People line up to enter a hurricane shelter at Trask Middle School in Wilmington, North Carolina AFP/Getty Images People evacuate ahead of the forecasted landfall of Hurricane Florence as they seek shelter at Emma B. Trask Middle School in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA EPA Up to a million people have been ordered to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Florence AFP/Getty Images People look on as water floods King Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, September 11, 2018, where sandbags are being distributed to businesses and residents in preparation before more rain arrives from Hurricane Florence AFP/Getty Images Chuck Ledford (L), watches Looney-Tunes with his daughter Misty as they evacuate ahead of the forecasted landfall of Hurricane Florence as they seek shelter at Emma B. Trask Middle School in Wilmington, North Carolina EPA People line up to enter a hurricane shelter at Trask Middle School in North Carolina on September 11, 2018 AFP/Getty Images A woman holds her dog as she waits to enter a hurricane shelter at Trask Middle School in Wilmington, North Carolina AFP/Getty Images Two women sit with their dogs as they wait to enter a hurricane shelter at Trask Middle School in wilmington, North Carolina AFP/Getty Images South Carolina state troopers work with D.O.T. employees at an access ramp to I-26 Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018, in Columbia AP Families seek shelter during the night ahead of the forecasted landfall of Hurricane Florence EPA A woman closes her eyes in reaction to the line at the shelter EPA Kevin Orth loads sandbags into cars on Milford Street as he helps residents prepare for Hurricane Florence AP Hurricane Florence is seen from the International Space Station as it churns in the Atlantic Ocean towards the east coast of the US Reuters A beachfront home is boarded up ahead of Hurricane Florence, at Holden Beach, North Carolina Reuters An NOAA chart shows the predicted path of Tropical Storm Florence as she develops into a Major Hurricane over the coming seven days. NOAA Jim Craig, David Burke and Chris Rayner load generators as people buy supplies at The Home Depot on Monday. AP Customers line up to buy propane at Socastee Hardware store, ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Florence in Myrtle. Reuters Larry Pierson, from the Isle of Palms, S.C., purchases bottled water from the Harris Teeter grocery store on the Isle of Palms. AP Residents of the Isle of Palms, S.C., fill sand bags at the Isle of Palms municipal lot where the city was giving away free sand in preparation for Hurricane Florence. AP People shop at the Harris Teeter, filling up on water and supplies. AP Brian Franklin prepares more generators for sale as people buy supplies at The Home Depo. AP U.S. Airmen from the South Carolina Air National Guard and 169th Fighter Wing prepare to deploy to support rescue efforts. Reuters Chris Rayner helps customers load their cars as they buy supplies at The Home Depot. AP Walker Townsend, at left, from the Isle of Palms, S.C., fills a sand bag while Dalton Trout. AP Meanwhile, Hurricane Rosa grew into a Category 3 storm off Mexico's Pacific Coast, although it's not expected to threaten land before next week. Rosa had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph and was located about 570 miles southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula. P resident Donald Trump said he has not thought "even a little bit" about alternative Supreme Court nominees if the senate does not approve Brett Kavanaugh. On Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Mr Kavanaugh's nomination to sit on the court. Mr Trump, who nominated Mr Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, said the hearing was an incredible moment in the history of the United States. However, he suggested he was not involving himself in the Senate's negotiations. Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee after being accused of sexual assault / Getty Images In regards to whether an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Mr Kavanaugh should be made before a final floor vote, Mr Trump said: "I'm going to let the Senate handle that. They'll make their decisions. And they've been doing a good job. Very professional. "I just want it to work out well for the country. If that happens, I'm happy." The panel voted 11 to 10 to send Mr Kavanaugh's nomination to be voted on by the full Senate, as all Democrats opposed the decision. Jeff Flake said it would be "proper" to delay a Senate floor vote for a week and called for an FBI probe into the allegations before a final vote is held. This caused turmoil in the committee room. B radley Cooper has ruled himself out of directing Guardians of the Galaxy 3, saying that he could never direct something he didnt write. Cooper, who voices Rocket Raccoon in the film franchise, has won plaudits for his directorial debut A Star Is Born, in which he stars alongside Lady Gaga. Rumours have been swirling that Cooper could be the man to take over at the helm of the Guardians franchise after James Gunn was sacked by Disney earlier this year. But Cooper was keen to put those to bed swiftly, denying any speculation over the future boss of the film. Boss: Bradley Cooper has said that he wouldn't direct a film he hasn't written / PA The actor told JOE: I could never direct anything that I didn't write. No, I could never direct anything that I didn't write, he reiterated for certainty. Earlier this year, Gunn was removed from his post as director after controversial tweets from between 2008 and 2012 resurfaced online. Cooper was one of several main stars of the film to sign an open letter calling for Gunn to be reinstated, although stressed they are not defending the jokes of many years ago. Sacked: James Gunn was dismissed as director after his controversial tweets resurfaced / Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney The letter, posted on Chris Pratts Instagram, read: We fully support James Gunn. We were all shocked by his abrupt firing last week and have intentionally waited these ten days to respond in order to think, pray, listen, and discuss. In that time, weve been encouraged by the outpouring of support from fans and members of the media who wish to see James reinstated as director of Volume 3 as well as discouraged by those so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories surrounding him. There is little due process in the court of public opinion. James is likely not the last good person to be put on trial. Given the growing political divide in this country, it's safe to say instances like this will continue, although we hope Americans from across the political spectrum can ease up on the character assassination and stop weaponising mob mentality. The cast of the popular movie including Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista - added that they are looking forward to working with their friend James again in the future. X Factor boss Simon Cowell has donated 25,000 to an animal charity to help close down a dog meat farm in South Korea. The music mogul, who has previously spoken out against the country's dog meat trade, has given the money to the Human Society International (HSI) to help them to rescue more than 200 caged dogs and puppies who were bred for human consumption. The charity claims that, while eating dog meat in South Korea is declining quickly, there are still thousands of dog factory farms breeding around 2.5 million dogs per year. Dogs are locked in small, metal cages, and animal welfare campaigners have long criticised the methods used to kill them, which are which are said to include electrocution and hanging. Judge: Simon Cowell / Ian West/PA Wire/PA Images During the 1988 Seoul Olympics, South Korea banned dog meat by invoking a law which prohibited the sale of "foods deemed unsightly" although this was not strictly enforced after the event. Last year, Cowell - who has three Yorkshire terriers of his own - aired his support for HSI and their #EndDogMeat campaign. Speaking to Good Morning Britain at the time, Cowell said: "It's like eating your friend. It's the fact you're eating such a kind, helpless, sweet animal." In January, he congratulated the programme's efforts with HSI in saving 170 dogs from a South Korean meat farm and bringing 13 of them to the UK to start a new life, which has, to date, permanently shut down 12 dog meat farms and has saved nearly 1,400 dogs. Claire Bass, HSI UK's executive director, said: "Simon's generous donation means the world to us, and provides a huge boost to our appeal to close this horrendous dog meat farm. Simon Cowell receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame 1 /12 Simon Cowell receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Simon Cowell with his partner Lauren Silverman, their son Eric and Lauren's son Adam at the star-studded event AFP/Getty Images Simon Cowell with Kelly Clarkson at his star on the walk of fame Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at a ceremony Getty Images Simon Cowell poses with Heidi Klume, Howie Mandel and Mel B on his Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at a ceremony AFP/Getty Images Kelly Clarkson speaks as Simon Cowell, left, is honoured with a star on the walk of fame Rex Features Leona Lewis with Kelly Clarkson at his star on the walk of fame Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at a ceremony Getty Images Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Simon Cowell and Mel B at the glitzy event in Los Angeles Rex Features Simon Cowell poses with his Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at a ceremony AFP/Getty Images Simon Cowell poses with his with sons, Adam and Eric on his Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at a ceremony AFP/Getty Images Simon Cowell with his partner Lauren Silverman, their son Eric and Lauren's son Adam at the star-studded event Getty Images Simon Cowell with his partner Lauren Silverman, their son Eric and Lauren's son Adam at the star-studded event Getty Images Simon Cowell and Eric Cowell attend a ceremony honoring Cowell with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Getty Images Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Simon Cowell and Mel B attend a ceremony honoring Cowell with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Getty Images "More than 200 dogs are languishing in the most appalling conditions, but we have a real chance to save them. With every dog farm we close and every farmer we help switch to a more profitable, humane business, we're showing the South Korean government that it's possible to end this cruel trade. "These poor dogs have had the worst lives so far, so we're desperate to get them out of those dreadful cages and show them love, soft beds and loving arms for the first time in their lives." The organisation works with dog meat farmers who wish to leave the industry and helps them switch to alternative livelihoods, including growing and selling different vegetables. J ohn Cleese has spoken of his decision to quit the UK, saying he will only consider returning on one condition. The comedy legend, 78, has just over a month left before he jets off to the Caribbean island of Nevis where he will stay until we get proportional representation. Im going to buzz off in November because Im fed up with the corruption in this country, and in particular with just how awful the newspapers are, he told Good Morning Britain. Im going to go to Nevis because I cant get through the British winter anymore. Once you get to about 50 you dont have the energy to drag yourself through another English winter. He's off: Comedian John Cleese is relocating / ITV Im going basically to the sun, Im also going to be closer to America where most of my work is at the moment. Despite being closer to the US, the Monty Python star said he has no plans to visit as it is stark staring mad under Donald Trump. Asked if anything could tempt him back to the UK he said: When we get proportional representation and when we get Leveson to implement it, then I shall be delighted to come back. Then we can actually do something, because this country is in a terrible mess at the moment. John Cleese reveals he is making plans to leave Britain Cleese revealed plans to move in July, saying he is so disappointed with the awful standard of debate during and since the EU referendum. He told BBC Twos Newsnight: Im leaving in November. I actually am leaving. Im making arrangements now. Cleese is relocating with his wife Jennifer who is a fan of the Caribbean island. Animal Care and Control is the citys only shelter that must accept all animals. In 2017, the Southwest Side facility saw nearly 15,000 animals pass through its doors. Some have been confiscated after biting someone or they are otherwise deemed dangerous, while others have been abused. Pet owners in Chicago surrender, for a variety of reasons, their cats and dogs at the shelter, according to the agency. The city pound also fields requests for taking in wildlife, particularly animals that pose a threat to the public. And the agency takes plenty of calls from those hoping their lost pet ended up there. It also handles adoptions and can provide dog registration for owners. In a potential blow to the defense teams wild rampage theory, witness Yvette Patterson told the jury about an encounter she had with McDonald about 19 hours before the fatal shooting. Patterson, who lives next door to McDonalds aunt, said the teen asked to use her car after she returned home from a party at 3 a.m. It was late, and she did not know him, so she called 911 as a precaution before going inside her home. Though the defense had told the jury in opening statements that Patterson was petrified during the incident, she testified that she and McDonald were laughing and talking and that he seemed like a nice young guy. As a result of the threats, the Chicago Police Department is providing all-day patrol around the parish property, Maselli said. Out of an abundance of caution, the leadership of (the school) has also put added security measures at the school into place around morning arrival at the school, recess and afternoon dismissal at the school. 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A day after Duterte said his "only sin against the country is the extrajudicial killings," Trillanes said his team has started to produce copies of the President's speech to send to the ICC tribunal based in the Netherlands. "That admission will be taken seriously by the ICC. Simula kagabi pinakuha na namin, pina-transcribe na namin, pina-download na namin ang video. Isa-submit namin ito (sa ICC) as soon as ma-prepare namin ang documents," the senator said on Friday. He hopes the additional documents will be the "clincher," adding they have been sending information to support the case since the preliminary examination into the alleged extrajudicial killings in the country started in February. "Those remarks uttered in unguarded moments, iyan ang mga bits of truth na lumalabas kay Duterte... Hindi po huminto ang pag-submit namin ng documents at information sa ICC. Ito po ang latest na idadagdag namin. Hopefully this will be the clincher kasi pinadali niya ang lahat," he said. He urged ICC to fast track the probe. "I'd like to call on the ICC to expedite the investigation of the crimes against humanity committed by Mr Duterte against the Filipino," he said. Trillanes: ICC may order Duterte's arrest Trillanes said, once the case goes past the preliminary examination, ICC will go on a full-blown investigation into the government's bloody war on drugs. Local and international human rights groups said the drug war resulted in more than 13,000 EJKs. Government data show more than 4,000 were killed in anti-drug operations. Duterte's staunch critic said the ICC may order the President's arrest, following his several threats against ICC investigators. He said, based on what he was briefed about the ICC, the tribunal can order the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to arrest Duterte. "Once the investigation process has been opened and there is a threat by the state against the ICC investigators, then there is a need or necessity for the issuance of a warrant of arrest... Maliwanag naman na tinakot sila ni Mr. Duterte, na ipapakain sa buwaya, papatayin daw sila," Trillanes said. Duterte in February threatened ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that she will be arrested if she sets foot in the country. He also let out an expletive as he maintained that the Philippines was never a member of the ICC, saying the international tribunal has no jurisdiction over the country. Malacanang has refused to cooperate with the ICC's preliminary examination, issuing a formal letter of its withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the treaty that governs the ICC. Surrogate witnesses like Walsh can be effective, Ekl said, but ultimately Van Dyke will need to speak for himself. Hes the only one who can speak to the explanations his attorney provided in opening statements, including the fear he felt when he pulled the trigger and his belief that McDonald intended to attack him. Even the details of Van Dykes routine morning on the day of the shooting kissing his wife goodbye, taking his daughters to school would have to come from Van Dyke. China is committed to actively deepening its bilateral relationship with Romania, on Thursday said the ad interim charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Bucharest, Tu Jiang. "China and Romania are indeed close friends and good partners. (...) China commits itself to actively deepening its bilateral relationship. We are happy to see that Romania is placing China on an important position in its foreign policy," Tu Jiang said at the Embassy of China in Bucharest, at the reception dedicated to the 69th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Tu Jiang also added that in the first half of 2018, the China-Romania trade volume parked at USD 3.26 billion, up 27pct against 2017.The Chinese dignitary reminded that Romania celebrates this year "the 100th anniversary of its national unification, marking a new development stage"."Next year, the two countries will celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relationship and 15 years of a new broad partnership of friendship and collaboration. Romania will hold for the first time the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This will bring rare historic opportunities for the development of the Sino-Romanian relations' development. (...) I believe that through our joint efforts, the future of the Sino-Romanian relations will be even brighter," Tu Jiang asserted. Deputy Prime Minister Ana Birchall, currently on a visit to the United States, talked with Wess Mitchell, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, about promoting Romania's candidacy to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). According to a press release published on the Romanian Deputy Prime Minister's site, Ana Birchall had a series of meetings with high-ranking officials of the US administration on Thursday, on the sidelines of the working visit she paid to the US, among which the one with Wess Mitchell. During the meeting were tackled topics such as the deepening of the relation between Romania and the United States in the context of the annual meeting of the Strategic Dialogue (that took place in June, in Bucharest), substantiating the economic involvement of the United States in the central and east-European region and in the extended region of the Black Sea in the context of the recent Three Seas Initiative Summit held in Bucharest and promoting Romania's candidacy to OECD."Wess Mitchell is a friend of Romania's and a very good connoisseur of the geopolitical realities in our region, given that he is the cofounder and former president and CEO of CEPA from 2009 to 2017. I have underlined that the annual meeting of the Strategic Dialogue in Bucharest has generated a clear vision on the main directions and Romania-American cooperation actions, bilaterally and regionally, for the upcoming period, in view of consolidating the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US," the Deputy Prime Minister summarised that talks held at the meeting with Wess Mitchell.At the same time, Ana Birchall specified she reiterated in context Romania's Government appreciation for the United States' support and involvement in the Three Seas Initiative."We are interested in pursuing the close collaboration with the US so as to fully exploit the Initiative's potential and stimulate the United States' economic presence in the region, alongside the security dimension and to further back the transatlantic agenda. Last but not least, I thanked Mr Wess Mitchell for the US' support of Romania's candidacy to the OECD," Ana Birchall specified. Deputy Prime Minister for Implementation of Romania's Strategic Partnerships, Ana Birchall, currently on a visit to the United States of America, had a meeting with Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce, on Thursday, in which they addressed important topics in the context of developing and deepening the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the USA. "We have had a very good meeting today with Wilbur Ross, US Secretary of Commerce, and we have approached important topics in the context of developing and deepening the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US, especially on the economic dimension: the prospects of strengthening economic relations with the US, the need for a consistent follow-up to the Bucharest Summit of the Three Seas Initiative and promoting Romania's candidacy to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)," Birchall wrote on Facebook. Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu hosted in New York, on the sidelines of the general debates of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, a meeting with his counterparts from the Francophone African states, on which occasion they approached aspects of the way climate change affects the living conditions of the populations in the Saharan and sub-Saharan areas and creates risks in internal and regional security, informs a press release sent by the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE). On the occasion of Thursday's event, Minister Melescanu held a presentation of the Romanian delegation's priorities at the current session of the UN General Assembly, underscoring that the topic under debate is among these priorities. The excellent traditional relationship between Romania and the African Francophone states invited was also reconfirmed.On the same day, the head of the Romanian diplomacy had a series of meetings with his counterparts in the Republic of Cabo Verde, Qatar, Colombia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.The meeting between the Romanian minister and his counterpart of the Republic of Cabo Verde focused on the main topics on the bilateral agenda, as well as the cooperation between the two states within international organisations.At the same time, the talks between Teodor Melescanu and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasised the evaluation of the stage of the bilateral relations, as well as of the political-diplomatic agenda.At the meeting with Colombian Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo, the two ministers reconfirmed the mutual interest in developing the political dialogue and bilateral sectoral cooperation, in the context of the inauguration, in Bogota, on 7 August 2018, of a new Administration, led by President Ivan Duque Marquez.The meeting with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Foreign affairs Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, provided the opportunity to review the perspectives of the Romanian-Iranian bilateral relations and the analysis of the short-term objectives of the common agenda, both at political-diplomatic level, and from the perspective of economic cooperation.Last but not least, the head of the Romanian diplomacy met with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, and they tackled topics regarding the cooperation between Romania and the Council of Europe, the Secretary General's priorities and the reform concerning the Organisation' future so as to answer the new challenges the Council of Europe is facing. Romania grants special attention to the United Nations Organisation, as one of the largest multilateral framework for the debate of the main global issues, reads Prime Minister Viorica Dancila's message presented by Deputy Prime Minister Ana Birchall at the conference "Supporting peace and development in a changing world," an event organised by Nizami Ganjavi International Center, that took place in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. According to a press release of the Gov't, the conference benefited from a high-level participation, among the guests being heads of state and government, ministers, former political leaders, representatives of some international institutions, NGO and prestigious think-tank representatives. "Romania attaches particular importance to the United Nations Organisation, an organisation with an universal vocation, the UN being one of the largest multilateral framework for the debate of the main global issues, including the long-term development objectives and durable peace. (...) Romania would be proud to bring its contribution to the works of the UN Security Council. Our candidacy for a non-permanent place in the Security Council for the 2020-2021 mandate represents my country's commitment in backing the UN efforts to ensure peace and security," the message conveyed at the opening of the event reads.Deputy PM Ana Birchall participated, within the same conference, in the workshop on "The future of Euro-Atlantic and the Western Balkans relations", welcoming the involvement of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center in organising substantial debates on topics with a global impact.As regards the address held during the workshop, Ana Birchall appreciated that "governments need to commit themselves to the path of real reforms, that will provide viable perspectives in consolidating the stability of the Western Balkans, South-East Europe and Europe in its entirety.""Romania will continue to plead for pursuing the enlargement processes of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration. However, it is necessary to successfully overcome the divergences that have dominated for a long time this part of Europe and we do not give up on our Euro-Atlantic aspirations, the only ones that can guarantee the security, stability and prosperity of the Western Balkans and of Europe," Ana Birchall said during her address, as quoted by the release. President Klaus Iohannis had a bilateral meeting in New York on Thursday on the high-level segment of the 73rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Pavel Filip, in which they discussed the ways of deepening and expanding bilateral cooperation within the framework of the Strategic Partnership for European Integration of the Republic of Moldova, according to a Presidential Administration's release. "President Klaus Iohannis has reconfirmed Romania's commitment to supporting the European option, modernization and democratic transformation of the Republic of Moldova, in order to generate direct benefits to improve the lives of its citizens. In this respect, the President of Romania pointed out that the pro-European commitment of the Republic of Moldova and the irreversible character of the reforms made for this purpose are essential," says the Presidential Administration. At the same time, the Romanian president stressed the importance of good strategic communication both in the relationship with the European Union and with the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, in order to explain the reform efforts and the benefits of getting closer to the EU and the concrete results obtained in this process.In his turn, Prime Minister Pavel Filip especially thanked President Iohannis for the constant and substantial support given by our country to the European path of the Republic of Moldova and assured him of the decision of the authorities in Chisinau to continue the process of coming closer to the European Union and to continue the reform efforts in a European spirit, based on the Association Agreement, including during the period up to the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova.The Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova expressed his special interest in the continuation of the bilateral interconnection projects, especially in the energy and transport sectors. Transgaz will receive a 46-million-euro grant from the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme for the development of the National Gas Transmission System's capabilities in the North-East area of Romania, Alexandru Macoveiciuc, spokesman for the Ministry of Economy, told a Friday's press conference. "Transgaz will sign in the next period a contract to receive a 46 million euro grant from the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme for the development of the National Gas Transmission System's capabilities in the North-East of Romania. The development in the North-East area is a project with a total value of almost 175 million euro, which is useful and relevant both in terms of Romania's overall energy security and the development of the interconnection with the Republic of Moldova," said Alexandru Macoveiciuc. He also mentioned that Eurotransgaz will publish on Friday the announcement of the participation in the construction of the Ungheni - Chisinau gas pipeline."It is a project worth 76 million euro, 35pct - own funds and 65pct - drawn funds. The expectation is the completion by the end of the year of the contracting and signing stage for the works at the seven lots the gas pipeline entails. The completion deadline for the gas pipeline is 2019, and for the administrative complex in Ghidighici is January 2020," said Alexandru Macoveiciuc. Just after the demonstration, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination to the full Senate, with the caveat from U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake that he wants an investigation by the FBI into allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh. Also calling for an FBI probe was Harvard Law School scholar Alan Dershowitz, often lauded by President Donald Trump's for his criticisms of the the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. "Maybe we can get closer to the truth, although that is not certain," Dershowitz wrote in a Fox News opinion piece. "But right now there are too many unanswered question[s] to bring the confirmation of Kavanaugh" to "a vote of the Judiciary Committee as scheduled on Friday, much less to a vote of the full Senate." It is "possible that one of them is deliberately lying. Right now, there is no way of knowing for certain, which is why the FBI needs to talk to the judge's accusers and others." The mainstream Russian view of a hypocritically, arrogant and ignorant Western establishment attitude towards Russia continues to be underrepresented in Western mass media and body politic. A recent case in point is former US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley's Johnson's Russia List promoted three step approach at improving US-Russian relations, which initially appeared on the CBS Radio affiliated Intelligence Matters podcast of September 18. Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell, hosted Hadley for that segment. Morrell's primitively stated stance towards Russia, Syria and Iran is a matter of record. Hadley's three highlighted points to improve US-Russian relations concern the US election process, the FBI led John Mueller investigation on Russia's alleged activity in that matter and Ukraine. As has been true elsewhere (like a recently flawed and lengthy New York Times piece), Hadley and Morrell fail to provide conclusive evidence of a concerted Russian government effort to effect the outcome of the 2016 US presidential vote as has been claimed. The FBI hasn't taken up Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to have FBI officials interview the indicted (by Mueller) 12 Russians in Russia individuals who were supposedly involved in adversely effecting the election at issue once again noting as claimed and without irrefutably stated proof. On Ukraine, Hadley offers no substantive alternative. As is Hadley's preference, the US can choose to not recognize the obvious about Crimea's reunification with Russia, as Washington recognizes Kosovo's separation of Serbia, in contradiction to the desire of Belgrade and UN Security Council Resolution 1244. Rather surprisingly, an article in the not so Russia friendly website of the Atlantic Council, acknowledges that Kiev regime controlled Ukraine has violence among nationalist anti-Russian elements. Ignoring this matter omits a fundamental problem. Rather interestingly, Hadley had nothing to say about Syria. An unnamed Trump administration official is on record for wanting the US to support quagmires for Russia in Syria. The neocon/neolib leaning foreign policy preferences of Hadley and Morrell include a clearly stated notion that the US is the best power block to lead the international stage. When faced with a relatively objective discussion, this view flops when referencing the US government regime change actions in Iraq and Libya. It's that very track record which serves as a basis for Russia to militarily engage in Syria, in accordance with international law. Foreign policy recommendations are influenced by a given mindset something quite evident when listening to Hadley and Morrell. On Russia related matters, their views unfortunately dominate the US political establishment as evident by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent comments on NBC'sMeet the Press. A noticeably different alternative is possible, which better serves the interests of the US, Russia and the rest of the world at large. Get off the high horse of moral superiority and recognize that "US leadership" isn't necessarily the best option. Ideally, the otherwise noble cause of human rights shouldn't be propagandistically used in a hypocritical manner. Play more of a role reversal. A related point concerns the American elites' belief that they're part of a free press. Sorry, but Morrell-Hadley exchanges are limited, in terms of what can be reasonably said. That point leads to the advocacy for a greater diversity at the leading US venues (academic and media) dealing with US-Russian relations. It's somewhat bemusing to see Columbia University Assistant Professor of Journalism Keith Gessen lauded, for suggesting in The New York Times, that a more understanding perspective of Russia is lacking within US establishment circles. Coming from him in the so-called paper of record, one senses a kabuki element. Overall much of Gessen's published views on Russia are in sync with the negatively inaccurate perceptions of that country dominating US mass media. Hence, putting him on a pedestal for improving the coverage of Russia has the aura of a managed (censored) alternative. It's no small wonder why The New York Times carries his commentary. After Gessen's overrated article on the US assessments of Russia, he wrote another New York Times piece, which starts off with several negative tabloid inaccuracies concerning that nation the kind of innuendo which has been refuted in detail at the Strategic Culture Foundation and some other venues something that Gessen chose not to do in his aforementioned article. Comparing Gessen to (as an example) Amy Knight is (put mildly) quite relative and not indicative of the range of valid views regarding Russia. Gary YOUNGE There are two kinds of European nations, said Kristian Jensen, the Danish finance minister, last year. There are small nations, and there are countries that have not yet realized they are small nations. With Brexit, its become painfully obvious that the United Kingdom is among the latter. In their melancholic yearning for a time long past, those who ran the campaign to leave the European Union had a vision of us marching out, suited and booted, bowler hat on head, umbrella in hand, striding proudly backward into a past of glorious independence. As time goes on, a far more likely scenario is that Britain will be unceremoniously ejected from the EU with its pants down and land flat on its behind. The concern had once been that Britain would get a bad deal; now theres a growing possibility that it could leave with no deal at alla state of affairs that would come about more by poor judgment than bad luck. This became apparent after Septembers EU meeting in Salzburg, Austria, where Prime Minister Theresa May presented Britains negotiating terms for departure, which were comprehensively and unequivocally rebuffed. The fact that they would be rejected should have come as no surprise. In July, May got her cabinet to agree to proposals whereby the UK would selectively heed some aspects of the European single market (like the tariff-free trade in services) and not others (like the free movement of labor). Not only was the EU never going to accept this, but a significant part of Mays own party was against it. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who consented to the plan before resigning in opposition to it, described it as polishing a turd. He had a point. But as one of the leading Brexiters, it was his turd, and the least he could do was clean up after himself. What turned out to be really shocking, though, was the vehemence with which the EUs negotiators and heads of statea group more likely to parse adjectives and convolute in tortuous communiquesresponded. French President Emmanuel Macron said in September, Those who explain that we can easily live without Europe, that everything is going to be all right, and that its going to bring a lot of money home, are liars. Later, the European Councils president, Donald Tusk, taunted May with an Instagram post showing him offering her some pastries. A piece of cake, perhaps? he wrote. Sorry, no cherriesreferring to the EUs insistence that it will not allow the UK to cherry-pick those elements it likes from the single market. May returned from Salzburg bruised and humiliated. Throughout this process, she said, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. Meanwhile, the pound fell, and the levels of national indignation went through the roof. Rupert Murdochs Sun ran a front-page image of Macron and Tusk as gangsters under the headline EU Dirty Rats. With echoes of the wartime Winston Churchill, the Express hailed Mays response as her finest hour. The Daily Telegraph starched its upper lip to proclaim: The UK does not respond to insult. As if we need lessons on democracy from the likes of the Czech Republicor Malta. May had every right to feel piqued. And strategically, this may not have been a great move for the EU, eitherit would be in everyones best interests to arrive at some kind of deal, and rudeness wont help. But the truth is that disrespect had been earned over the previous 18 months, which saw the Tory government negotiating with itself while at the same time weakening Mays ability to maneuver by calling an election that deprived her of a majority in Parliament. The Conservatives have worn out the rest of the continents patience by alternately suggesting nothing, putting forward plans that had already been rejected, and refusing to concede anything until, ultimately, they capitulated on almost everything. There were many reasons why Britain narrowly voted to leave the EU just over two years ago, but central to the argument of Brexits principal architects was a fundamental miscalculation by a nation that has been marinating in postcolonial nostalgia since the 1956 Suez Crisis. Its current leaders kept talking about putting the great back in Great Britain a version of Make America Great Again, only for a much smaller country with less power that has to go back a lot further in the past. They made no plans for leaving the EU because, like a petulant, entitled teenager, they assumed plans would be made around them. The prospect of us crashing out of the EU without any kind of deal is prompting some to call for another referendum in the hope that Brexit can be reversed. At present, that seems unlikely, although it is a bit more likely than it was before. Quite what that would mean is unclear. But in the absence of any deal, the health-insurance cards that allow British tourists free health care in the EU would be invalid; a hard border between the north and south of Ireland would need to be erected, throwing a key element of the peace process into question; and contracts with EU companies could be subject to renegotiation, as the UK would become a third country overnight. With the possibility of gridlocked ports (goods that were once imported freely would now be more thoroughly checked) and airports (World Trade Organization rules do not cover aviation, and no aircraft is permitted to fly between EU and UK airports without a bilateral agreement), there is talk of stockpiling food and medicine. For those driven by nostalgia, all this could wind up resurrecting the spirit of the Blitz. May says it is common sense for Britain to prepare for a hard Brexit. But common sense, it seems, would have made such preparations unnecessary. thenation.com For years, US presidents have regaled the UN General Assembly with rosy and ridiculous rhetoric about America allegedly doing great things for world peace. Notwithstanding such criminal barbarities as the US genocidal wars in Vietnam, Iraq and elsewhere, the UN has tended to be a silent forum while American leaders indulged in fantasies about their nations virtuous greatness. That silence was either from fear or bamboozlement by American phony rhetoric. This year, however, the assembly burst out in laughter at President Trumps vain claims of greatness. Its about time too. American claims have always been wildly overblown. This years disbelieving reaction among delegates was not only appropriate. It also shows that the world openly views US claims as ridiculously disconnected from reality. The rampant contradictions articulated by President Trump in his address to the 73rd United Nations General Assembly are too many to condense here. He called for the world to choose peace and freedom over domination that from a leader of a nation that has waged scores of wars in flagrant violation of international law during the seven decades since the UN was established following the Second World War. Trump claimed the US has defeated terrorists in Syria and Iraq, when in reality American illegal wars, covert and overt, have unleashed these same terrorist as proxies for its regime-change machinations. There were so many other absurd contradictions in American self-righteousness as enunciated by Trump. But perhaps the most glaring was this: Trump was calling on the nations of the world to join in Americas campaign of aggression against Iran over the latters alleged sponsorship of terrorism when it is the US that is the biggest sponsor of terrorism. Trumps unilateral abrogation of the international nuclear accord with Iran earlier this year is a brazen violation of international law. Yet, this American president demands that all nations indulge his governments transgression against an international treaty to satisfy Washingtons obsession for regime change in Tehran. American conduct of illegal wars and regime change in the Middle East and beyond has undermined international law and gravely incited tensions. The spectacle of President Trump bullying the world to comply with US rogue-state behavior with regard to Iran is a contradiction too far and no wonder the world is confounded by Washingtons absurd arrogance. How can anyone have the slightest respect for American self-proclaimed leadership when it is in fact a rogue state that has no respect for international law and rules? That has always been the case, despite florid, vainglorious rhetoric about American probity. But under Trump the contradiction between rhetoric and reality of American munificence and misconduct has become too stark to ignore. The only appropriate response is to laugh. Trump extols the principle of sovereignty of nations. Yet, in his threats delivered at the UN this week, Trump has no respect for sovereignty of nations that do not kowtow to Washingtons diktat. This American president has open contempt for multilateral accords, the Iran deal in particular. It is the US which has shown bad faith and criminal disregard towards the 2015 nuclear accord ratified by the UN. This violation of the accord is leading to tensions and instability in the Middle East, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed out to the UN Security Council this week. Still, Trump tries to make a virtue of this American vice, and whats more, to lay down ultimatums to the rest of the world to acquiesce to American bullying, or else face retribution with punitive sanctions. The American leader is a leader in the most nefarious sense. Leading the world into lawlessness and certain conflict that accompanies such lawlessness. Trumps platitudes about sovereignty are nothing other than a license for American rogue-state conduct unfettered by international law and global accountability. In reality, American power is degenerating into an embrace of the kind of fascistic licentiousness that prevailed in the 1930s which led to world war. It surely is a sign of the times when an American president stands up in front of the world and gratuitously exults in his nations contempt for global law, order and peace. All delivered with smug self-righteousness. No wonder the world is laughing. The disconnect from reality is too much to bear. But it is no laughing matter. America is accusing everyone of malfeasance Russia and China in particular when the barefaced reality is that Washington is the scourge of world peace. Americas trashing of international order is only matched by its trashing of reason and any possible dialogue to uphold international order. America claims to have led the establishment of the United Nations out of ashes of the Second World War in 1945. That war and its fascist protagonists were the outgrowth of a failing capitalist system. The system is failing again and producing the same conditions for nation-state-led rivalry and war. History seems to be coming back to that same point. Trumps ridiculous and reckless ultimatums delivered to the world this week at the UN shows how the causes of war have never been solved. American rhetoric is breaking down from its preposterous pretense of being a law-abiding leader of the free world to reveal, ominously, the same fascistic tendency for war. We may indeed chuckle at Trumps clownish claims. But the deadly serious issue is how to prevent this rogue state from inciting another world war. As the great German playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote: War is a bastard, but the bitch that bore him is on heat again. Americas complete disregard for international order and compliance, as expressed by President Trump this week at the UN, is the evidence of war on the horizon once again due to capitalist chaos in the world order. US failure as the worlds foremost capitalist power is manifest in Trumps bullying and boorish exultation of lawlessness. On one hand, the breakdown is hilarious, absurd, risible. On the other hand, it is gravely alarming. At one point, this police spokesman also spread some mistruths. When a new homeowner stood and spoke about his efforts to install cameras around his property, the officer told us that even if we had surveillance footage, it was useless unless a person was actually behind the camera and willing to appear in court. As a reporter, I know this is not true, but sat quietly listening because I was there as a resident. Bay of Plenty We are looking for a storeman with an OSH forklift license. You will need to be physically for as the job is about 70% forklift... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz When John Storie closed his Four Square store on Taurangas Devonport Road after 20 years and moved out to the then rustic surrounds of Oropi to open his new business, many thought he was crazy. But after somewhat poignantly closing the doors of Johns Produce Centre for the final time on Monday after 32 years of fruitful trading, John believes hes had the last laugh. When we built it was well out in the country and there was only one house across the road; maybe a couple up behind where there was a couple of kiwifruit farms. A lot of people didnt think wed made the right decision because of the remoteness of it. After more than three decades serving the needs of the Oropi community and passing traffic along the increasingly busy State Highway 29A nearby however, he feels he made the right call. Yes, its been a successful business. We left Devonport Road because we had lots of customers who would like to have shopped with us but could never find car parking. And so we decided to move out here where we had any amount of parking. As he approaches his 70th birthday in January, John feels it is the right moment to hang up his grocers apron for the final time and retire. A contractors business will shortly take over the building and land. Since the sign went up announcing the end of an era for John and the Oropi community, customers have been sad, but incredibly supportive, says John. Its been massive, absolutely amazing really. For some of them its going to be inconvenient but theyve all been very good about it. Theres been a lot sad to see it go but so many have called in specifically to wish us all the best and Im overwhelmed with the amount of support from the community. For John, retirement means catching up with family and enjoying life in a community that still retains some of the rural character they moved into 32 years ago. Were still going to live in Oropi, and no doubt our loyal customers will see us around the square somewhere. Although John feels it is time to draw the line after 52 years in the retail trade there is a touch of sadness for him. Well miss all the people weve met over the years. Some of our customers weve seen as babies and theyre now our customers carrying their own babies. So its gone the whole cycle. He also spares a thought for the staff whove stood by him and been a key part of the success of the business over the years, but will now be looking for new employment. We have a couple of very loyal full-time staff, Wayne Hill and Michael Grant. One has been with us for the whole 32 years, and another for 12 years. We wish them the best knowing that theyre good, loyal staff. The alarm clock ringing at 5am, however, he will not miss. But an early start in the morning is key to getting on in business, he says. We have to go to market to pick up the goods at around six oclock, and so by the time weve done that, set up shop, and done wholesale orders, its essential. Otherwise if you dont do the hours you dont succeed. New Customs legislation to support border compliance and the countrys economy will come into force on 1 October. The Customs and Excise Act 2018 replaces the current outdated and much-amended 1996 Act and uses modern language that is easier to understand and interpret. Customs spokesperson Terry Brown says the new Act was a collaborative effort. We have worked closely with the import/export sector, as well as the broader business community, in the past five years to shape the legislation and make it easier for traders to meet border requirements. There are new services and initiatives arising from the Act, including the ability to apply to store business records outside New Zealand or in the cloud, a new valuation rulings service, and the ability to seek reviews of Customs assessments directly from Customs. Many of the new changes will result in time and cost savings. The travelling public is unlikely to notice much difference at the border, with existing provisions reconfirmed or clarified. Some of the excise changes in particular with the fuel industry and alcohol are of particular interest for the Bay of Plenty, says Terry. Theres a lot of licensed alcohol manufacturers in the region, and the legislation changes mean, all custom-controlled area licensees must file an excise entry or return for an agreeable period even if its nil return. In terms of fuel theres a new collection point at the tank farm entry to cover additional volume created from blending. This is a more-or-less direct consequence of the now-historic Terminals New Zealand Gull Legislation which was protracted over a length of time, where it was determined blending a butane with fuel added additional excisable volume and so in the interests of tax equity weve applied that thinking across all potential blending options. Weve also initiated a fit-in proper person requirement within the customs-controlled area process to ensure people do declare past criminal offences. This is to ensure we are satisfied they do meet the right requirements for this environment. In addition theres ongoing competency requirements through the acess to a joint border-management system or a trade-single window. This has been fully effective from July 1 where users accessing it, make input entry to ensure that they maintain their competency to retain registration and there is the ability to suspend or revoke these. Weve upped the ante on this because we operate in a post-entry audit environment, we actually detain very few goods at border that are imported, its more or less about making sure they understand the data they provide us is accurate. One other thing relevant to Tauranga as a strong-export driven port, is the changes to admin penalties, he says. These now apply to export entries, previously it only applied to import entries, weve extended it to input entry and excise; this means where theres material errors in an entry. There are some exceptions, we know theres often changes within the export vessel. So some material particulars we wont penalise but thats a matter of reasserting this requirement to ensure the correct data is provided on both our input and export entries. Customs processes more than 13 million passengers a year, 14.4 million trade transactions and collects $13 billion in revenue for the Crown. More information on the Customs and Excise Act 2018 is available on the Customs website or by contacting our call centre 0800 428 786. Full list of changes: Valuation rulings Customs can now make rulings on the appropriate method to determine the value of an importers goods. This means more certainty for importers where they are unsure of how to value their goods. Importers, or their agents/brokers, need to apply for a ruling before goods are imported into New Zealand. Costs for this service apply. Customs has up to 150 days to make a valuation ruling. A ruling is valid for up to three years. Provisional values Importers who meet the criteria can declare provisional values for their goods at the time of importation, when final values are not known. This ensures a transparent, clear, and flexible process to estimate values, which takes the realities of trade into account. A final value can be confirmed within 12 months after the end of the importers financial year. Compensatory interest and late payment penalties This is a new process for charging compensatory (use of money) interest and late payment penalties when duty hasnt been paid in full on time. It is fairer and more transparent than the previous additional duties regime, as the new process is clearer about when remission can be granted, and charges are consistent with Inland Revenues. Storing business records Anybody required to keep Customs-related records can now apply to store their business records outside New Zealand, including in the cloud. This change provides flexibility in how to store business records, is more cost effective in many cases and reflects modern business practice (in line with Inland Revenue's requirements). Comptroller's discretion The Comptroller of Customs (Chief Executive) now has legal guidance on how much discretion they have to make and correct assessments, and collect the duty identified. The guidance is only applied in legal matters on revenue, collections and assessment. It ensures a fairer and more equitable system for duty payers. Administrative review Importers, exporters, excise manufacturers, brokers or agents can now request an administrative review of a Customs decision they are not happy with. Customs staff not involved in the original decision will complete the review. The new process, which industry asked for, is designed to reduce barriers and delays, and help keep costs down. Its quicker and less costly than appealing to the Customs Appeal Authority. Those seeking a review must make an application, or seek an extension to make an application, within 20 working days of a decision being made. Joint Border Management System Changes (accessed through Trade Single Window) Joint Border Management System (JBMS) users play a vital role in helping gain accurate information about goods coming in and out of New Zealand. Users now have to meet ongoing competency requirements, such as always acting in a professional manner and being a fit and proper person. Those users who repeatedly fail to demonstrate competency can have their registration suspended or revoked. Administrative penalties Administrative penalties now apply to all exporters, importers, licensees and agents who make errors or omissions on import, export or excise entries. Excisable goods There are changes in how Customs treats excisable goods (alcohol and fuel) to increase clarity and transparency for calculations and licence applications. All Customs-controlled area licensees must be a fit and proper person- this includes managers and directors. Alcohol-related Customs-controlled area (CCA) licensees need to file an entry for every period, even if it is a nil return. The definition of tobacco manufacture has been tightened and now includes curing, and the personal use allowance has reduced to 5kgs. Infringement notice scheme From 1 April 2019, Customs officers can issue on-the-spot infringement notices to anyone not complying with our requirements. International arriving and departing passengers (air and sea), importers, exporters, excise manufacturers, Customs-controlled areas (CCAs) and brokers are subject to fines of $400 (for an individual) or $800 (for a body corporate) depending on the offence. This new infringement notice scheme replaces the previous petty offences regime. A Bay of Plenty man who died in 1957 and buried in Korea is one of two defence force personnel being repatriated back to New Zealand. A blessing ceremony was held on Wednesday at the United Nations Military Cemetery in Tanggok, Busan, ahead of the exhumation of Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) Telegraphist Peter James Mollison and New Zealand Army Driver Herbert Lester Humm. Telegraphist Mollison, 19, from Whakatane, had been posted to HMNZS Royalist. He died in 1957 of an illness at the US Armys 121st Evacuation Hospital in Incheon. Driver Humm, 24, from Christchurch, was posted to 10 Transport Company, Royal New Zealand Army Service Corps. He died from injuries sustained when a vehicle in which he was a passenger crashed. Kaumatua and an NZDF chaplain led the ceremony at the grave sites, which included waiata and prayers. Between 1955 and 1971 NZDF personnel who died while serving abroad were buried in overseas cemeteries unless their families paid repatriation costs. A disinterment team has been deployed, comprising bioarchaeologists, forensic anthropologists and NZDF odontologists assisting with the identification of the remains. The team is being led by an NZDF doctor. Once the personnel have been identified, RNZN and New Zealand Army personnel will conduct a continuous vigil around the caskets until the remains are handed over to their families in New Zealand. The remains of Telegraphist Mollison and Driver Humm will be returned to their families at an arrival ceremony at RNZAF Base Auckland on 7 October. The fallen personnel will be received with a traditional Maori welcome and the caskets will be carried past a guard of honour as they are formally handed over to their families. An NZDF chaplain will lead a private family service, before an NZDF haka is performed as the hearses depart the base. This follows the repatriation of three NZDF personnel from Fiji and American Samoa in May, 27 personnel and one dependant from Malaysia and Singapore in August, and two personnel from the United Kingdom this month. One of New Zealands pre-eminent gang experts and the Leader of the Opposition are at odds over dealing with the festering gang menace in Tauranga. Simon Bridges told The Weekend Sun this week hes concerned at gangs gaining a stronger foothold in Tauranga. He says hes genuinely disgusted and very angry. They must be stopped. We cant afford for gangs to become normalised in our city. What do we need to do to get rid of them? However, sociologist Dr Jarrod Gilbert, who immersed himself in gang culture for his PhD thesis and authored the authoritative Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand, says firebrand comments about gangs from the hustings have a long tradition in New Zealand. Norm Kirk threatened to take bikes off bikies before the 72 election. He didnt, but it got him elected. Politicians have learned that sort of rhetoric delivers their drug of choice, which is votes. The rhetoric from the opposition benches, he says, is altogether more difficult when they get into power. Simon insists his assault on gangs isnt scaremongering or cheap political point-scoring. The crown prosecutor turned politician says he knows from his courtroom experience that gangs arent cuzzy motorcycle clubs. Theyre peddlers of misery. Simons strike back against the gangs has been prompted by what he believes is the proliferation of patches around town. Not a week goes by that he doesnt see the Filthy Few, Head Hunters or Greasy Dogs parading around the city on their bikes. And he doesnt like what he sees. They wear patches because they want to stand out; they want to make a statement which says you should fear us. Intimidation is the sole purpose of the gang patch. If we see a Harley Davidson being ridden by a gang member down Cameron Road on Sunday afternoon we ask ourselves how was it paid for? And we know the answer. It didnt come out of his pay cheque; it didnt come out of his benefit; it wasnt a legitimate business transaction. It was drugs. A Weekend Sun invitation to the Filthy Few Motorcycle Club to respond to Simon was delivered to the club fortification in industrial Judea this week. The club, which doesnt have a reputation for engaging with the media, hadnt responded by the time of going to print. Jarrod says people have threatened the gangs; vowed to smash the gangs, crush the gangs and get rid of the gangs, and no one has succeeded. The reasons are quite complex. But not least of which that the politicians who speak like that dont tend to understand the issue. He believes people are right to be concerned about the growth of gangs and around certain gang activities such as drugs and violence. But the fact of the matter is while we have economic and social conditions that drive gang membership thats not just a finding of my research, but research all around the world then while we have those conditions, we will have gangs. That is a logical conclusion politicians would do well to hear. Simon wasnt necessarily addressing Jarrod or his comments, but says there are some trendies out there who think the gangs are a bunch of misunderstood good guys who do sausage sizzles at the weekend. But they are absolutely not. They are inextricably linked to the methamphetamine trade, synthetic cannabis and the like. Those drugs, he suspects, are coming through the Port of Tauranga. Our port, our harbour, and its quite possible Tauranga is the main gateway for those drugs entering New Zealand. Jarrod says politicians have made promises about a magic bullet time and time again. And while Simon confesses to not having a magic bullet, he says we should certainly be having the conversation. What do we need to stop the gang advance? What do we need to do to get rid of them? I am sure people will agree with me. The Leader of the Opposition was a key player in the establishment of an organised crime squad in Tauranga. But thats probably not enough anymore. He says its about getting tough on crime. And it all comes back to the basic problems gangs. The MP says hes genuinely concerned. When I moved to Tauranga in 2001 there was just a handful of gangs. Now we are seeing the Auckland style of gangs like the Head Hunters. And much worse, Aussie ones like the Comancheros. Perfectly legitimate concerns to hold, says Jarrod. But to say you want to crush them or get rid of them or stop them, well its not as easy as that. These gangs have been around for generations and have defied political rhetoric for all of that time and I think the public will recognise that. Simon doesnt believe there can be any debate about the rise of the gangs in the city. They are now so palpably visible. Again, there will be trendies out there with theories on why gang patches are fine and gang members are just harmless fellows. Well, its rubbish. The gangs genuinely anger me. Added to this bad incentive is that some people would rather relocate but cant, because it usually takes far longer to get funds to move than to rebuild in the same spot. We spent all this money to rebuild these homes, and we spend very little money helping people get out of these homes even when thats what they want, Natural Resources Defense Council analyst Rob Moore told Bloomberg. Reallocating funds would save money and avert heartache. Staff writer Sarah Moses Buckshot contributed to this report. SMITHFIELD, N.Y. -- One person was killed and another critically injured Thursday night when a car crashed into a ravine in Madison County. Three people were in a 2009 Toyota Yaris when the car crashed on Buyea Road less than half a mile north of Peterboro Road in Smithfield, according to the New York State Police. Trevor S. Rice, a passenger who was riding in the back seat, was pronounced dead at the scene, troopers said. The Oneida man was 23 years old. It appears Rice was not wearing a seat belt, said Trooper Jack Keller, a state police spokesman. The deadly accident was reported at 10:03 p.m. Miller M. Wade, 18, of Wampsville, was driving the Yaris north on Buyea Road when he veered off the east side of the road and hit an embankment, troopers said. The car then went airborne before crashing into a tree and landing in a ravine, troopers said. Wade was airlifted to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. He suffered severe head trauma and is listed in critical condition, troopers said. Brett A. Moyer, 23, of Oneida, was riding in the front seat of the car. He was extricated from the car, troopers said, and transported to Upstate with non life-threatening injuries. Moyer and Wade were wearing seat belts, Keller said. The accident remains under investigation. This breaking news story will be updated. In March 2017, Maura Kusak-Mcguire had a dream she was in a room with white walls and hardwood floors. She immediately knew this was no ordinary dream, so she woke up, ran to her kitchen for a piece of paper and furiously scribbled down this vision. The following year, Kusak-Mcguire's dream became her business. The white walls and wooden floors turned into the studio space for Bloom Gather Grow, where people can unplug from technology and reconnect with one another through creative workshops, classes and events. The space opened in Liverpool over the summer. "For a lot of adults, we don't always have a place to get away from our kids and be a kid," she said. "Bloom [Gather Grow] is basically an adult arts and crafts class that can turn into a networking event." Beauty can always be found in the process. Look for it along your journey. Posted by Bloom Gather Grow on Thursday, July 26, 2018 Kusak-Mcguire chose the name because she wants to "encourage people to flourish." Her workshops are mini getaways and she makes sure all of her attendees have a common interest, whether that's working similar jobs or having children. At past events, she's seen people walk out with friendships they didn't have when they entered the cozy, low-lit room. While Bloom has put on successful events within the last few months, the process of opening the studio hasn't been easy. Close friends and family didn't understand the purpose of the space and had a difficult time seeing it as a success. Kusak-Mcguire also had the added pressure of funding the entire business personally with no bank loans. "When you hear of entrepreneurs and their new startups, you only see the good parts at first," she said. "No one is telling you about any of the roadblocks. It's not always pretty." But Kusak-Mcguire tends to find herself in what she calls "risky and difficult situations." Her father passed away from brain cancer when she was 14, and in the aftermath, she mustered the courage to move to Mexico after graduating high school in 2004. In Mexico, then-18-year-old Kusak-Mcguire learned Spanish and also snagged a role in a telenovela. Her television debut didn't happen, but she's managed to incorporate her international experiences into Bloom (all of the workshops are also available in Spanish). Kusak-Mcguire returned to Syracuse to complete a semester at Le Moyne College. But again, she found herself in another risky situation: she was pregnant. Maura Kusak-Mcguire, founder of Bloom Gather Grow, opened the space to encourage people to disconnect from technology and interact with others at each workshop. Gabriela Julia | Contributing writer Like most 19-year-old mothers, she was scared, but she had always said "yes" to an opportunity without having all of the answers. "The biggest gift of life was having my daughter because she's grounded me and made me realize life isn't always about us," she said. "We all have a different personal journey." That's the inspiration behind Bloom Gather Grow. People of all ages, genders, races, religions, sexual orientations and socioeconomic statuses are welcomed into this judgement-free room to vent and share their darkest memories. As the workshop goes on and people interact during the activity, a positive spirit arises. Kusak-Mcguire stresses the importance of face-to-face interaction, which is why she tells everyone to place their phones on a rack before each session. "We see a rise in depression, suicide attempts and other mental health issues so I really want people to talk and connect and build meaningful relationships," she said. Past workshops have gotten people together to celebrate a sick loved one. Others have been a gathering where people share their biggest failures and try to turn them into positive moments. Kusak-Mcguire also hopes to collaborate with local artists and other businesses. Bloom's latest workshop featured a plain white box called a "bloom box." After drawing on the white space, all of the attendees filled the box with a journal, chocolate and other items to help them get through the next few months. "We're heading into that time of the year when it gets dark early, people are sad and often feel buried," she said. "That's where Bloom comes in, it'll help people build that creativity and excitement again." Bloom Gather Grow is located at 305 Vine St., Liverpool. A grand reopening is planned for 10 a.m. on Oct. 13. You can view future events and workshop prices here. When Adam Sudmann and his family moved to Syracuse in May 2013, he began organizing parties called My Lucky Tummy, a pop-up food court to share the cuisine of the city's refugee and immigrant communities. So when Sudmann planned this fall's dinner - an all-vegetarian tour through Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Iraq, South Sudan and Burma - he wanted to make sure the event was affordable for the refugees and immigrants who inspired him. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. today for the Oct. 13 dinner, which will be held at The Venue on Catawba Street in Syracuse. Support from the Gifford Foundation allowed Sudmann to lower the ticket cost to $10 per person. Having the dinner on the north side of the city and lowering the ticket cost "means we can start opening up the party to everyone," Sudmann said. "The $25 ticket was making it impossible for a lot of people from the neighborhood to actually attend the party," he explained. The pop-up dinners usually sell out, but the larger venue should allow 500 people to attend. Sudmann said the event will be family friendly and will include a kid's art table and a cotton candy machine. There will be cooking demonstrations featuring Japanese, Palestinian and Croatian dishes and live music. Kler and Saw Soe are making LOTS of these for the popup on 10/13. Mont lone yay paw are topped with fresh coconut and... Posted by My Lucky Tummy on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 One of the featured chefs is a My Lucky Tummy success story. Habiba Boru began sharing her traditional Ethiopian dishes - like spicy wats and injera bread - at the pop-up dinners in October 2017. Next month, she plans to open Habibas Ethopian Kitchen on the city's North Side. Sudmann and his pop-up dinners also encouraged the creation of With Love restaurant, a teaching kitchen/restaurant on North Salina Street run by Onondaga Community College. Its cuisine, and name, change twice a year as new students cycle through the program. At the upcoming My Lucky Tummy, Sudmann said he is most excited about the Burmese dessert, mont lone yay paw, a tiny cake topped with coconut and stuffed with palm sugar. "It's a very celebratory dessert that people traditionally serve in Burma during the rainy season when the rains first come on," he said. "It's not a dessert you have all the time. It's got a really sort of celebratory vibe to it and these desserts are individual bite size and they're stuffed with sugar." The sweet treats are more than just celebratory. One will be stuffed with a red Thai bird chili pepper. "Usually it's good luck if you bite into one with a super spicy chili," Sudmann explained. "That is guaranteed good luck," he continued. "If they don't have good luck for the rest of the year we will refund their ticket a year later." Tickets can be purchased at myluckytummy.com. Here is the planned menu for the event: CAPE VERDE Cachupa Pobre: Butternut, yuca, hominy, fava bean, cabbage and pili pili sauce* ETHIOPIA Injera: Sourdough flatbread Timatim: Tomato, red onion, jalapeno, berbere Shiro: Spiced chickpea IRAQ Marga: Baby spinach, black eyed pea, tamarind, cilantro, dill and vermicelli pilaf SOUTH SUDAN Pigek: Cassava, semolina, red onion, ghee, coconut BURMA Mont Lone Yay Paw: Dessert with sticky rice flour, palm sugar, fresh coconut Liverpool, N.Y. -- The moment that changed Peg Bandy's life was 80 years ago. But she remembers it like it was yesterday. She was watching an uncle pack up to go on a military training expedition during World War II. I want to do that, she said. "He said, 'Well Margaret, they'll never let women in the military. So you can forget about that,'" Bandy recalled. He was the first person she went to see after she completed boot camp with the U.S. Marine Corps Women's Reserve during World War II. "I said, 'You're wrong,'" she said. He said, I guess I am. "And he was very proud of me," Bandy recalled, sitting in the recliner of her Liverpool home. Now 97, Bandy, who was a sergeant during World War II, will be boarding an Honor Flight Saturday to Washington, D.C., with other female veterans. Bandy, then Margaret Bittel, was one of 22,000 women who were allowed into the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. Women were first allowed to enlist in the Marines during World War I. That was an experiment that ended with that war. During World War II, women were again allowed to enlist, mostly to take over office jobs stateside. After the war, Bandy left the Marines, where she was a sergeant. But she was convinced to join the reserves when she returned home. She became the first woman to be sworn into the reserves in Syracuse. Bandy grew up in the village of Liverpool. Both of her brothers and many of her cousins went to war. At 97, Bandy apologizes for going on a tangent as she tells the story her military career. But she's barely swerved. She is still quick and funny. She wanted to be a Marine because they were a small, "sharp" group. "Everything about the Marines was what I wanted," Bandy said. So she went to the old post office in Clinton Square to enlist. We don't take Marines here. You have to go to New York City for that, she was told. So she went a few days later. She passed the tests with flying colors, she said, and came home to wait. First, she was sent to Camp Lejeune to train. Then, women weren't in combat. The majority of the women were assigned jobs stateside, managing the important tasks that kept the military running, like paying bills. That's what Bandy did. She had been a bookkeeper for a washing machine company before she enlisted. And then, at 23, she found herself paying the bills for some a much larger operation: the gasoline that kept the troops moving. "Billions and billions of gallons," she said. After that, Bandy was moved to the the department that managed the movement of freight for the war effort. In that position, she was a young woman working with all older men. They were professionals who had been hired by the Marines. But she said she never, at any point, recalled anyone treating her poorly or unfairly because she was a woman. She was mistaken for a member of the Canadian military, though. People were unfamiliar with the uniform of female Marines then -- which included a hat with a red braid along it -- that they asked Bandy if she was Canadian. "No, I'm in the U.S. Marines," she recalled telling the woman, smiling broadly at the memory. After the Marines, Bandy went to work in what was then called the "Women's Department" at the Syracuse Herald-Journal and Syracuse Herald-American. That's where she met her husband, Richard Bandy. He was a former Marine, too, and a long-time photographer for the Syracuse newspapers. They raised two children. "I just loved it," Bandy said. "I just loved every minute of it." 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 To the Editor: In regard to the issue of Columbus Day, this is an historical fraud. I visited Barcelona in the Spanish province of Catalonia. I learned there that this person called Columbus was actually named Cristobal Colon. He spoke Catalonian as his first language, he wrote in Catalonian, he had Catalonian relatives, he believed himself to be Catalonian. At no point in his life did he assert that he was from Genoa. Not until the 17th century did the Anglicized name "Columbus" become common. Further, for those of Italian heritage, it must be noted that in the 15th century Italy as a nation did not exist. There was Venicia, the Papal States and various other entities including Genoa, but the nation we call Italy did not come into being until the 19th century. We did have irrefutable evidence that Colon engaged in the slave trade and that the men under his command committed gross atrocities against the indigenous people of the Caribbean. We do know that one time he was arrested, confined and deported back to Spain in chains for his failures as a colonial administrator. We do know that hundreds of thousands of Native people died during his tenure as an explorer. We also know he promoted the forced conversion of Native people from their ancestral customs to Catholicism using force and coercion. We do know he discovered nothing since the indigenous population of the Western Hemisphere was far in excess of that of the Europe in 1492. How we perceive Colon and his effects on human history is subject to many perspectives but this singular event is true beyond dispute: Colon did sail the ocean blue in 1492 and, as a direct result of his contact with Native peoples, the greatest holocaust in human history would ensue. Doug George-Kanentiio Akwesasne Mohawk Oneida Castle Megan McArdle is a Washington Post columnist and the author of "The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success." By Megan McArdle | The Washington Post Conservatives were probably hoping on Thursday that the Senate Judiciary Committee testimony of research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of trying to rape her when they were in high school, would make her look like a strident left-wing activist, or a flake. They were sorely disappointed. Ford was soft-spoken, warm and very likable. Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona sex-crimes prosecutor who questioned Ford, spent little time trying to poke holes in Ford's somewhat vague story. Instead, she quickly shifted the focus toward Senate Democrats. The latter half of Mitchell's questioning elicited the following facts: - That Ford was willing to talk to investigators from the Judiciary Committee, though the committee was somehow unable to arrange this with her lawyers. - That Ford was somehow unaware that the committee had, according to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, offered to fly investigators to California to interview her, though her lawyers should presumably have communicated that fact. - That Ford had found her lawyer through the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee's ranking Democrat, before the confirmation hearings began. - That only Feinstein and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., had the letter in which Ford outlined her allegations. The letter set off the current turmoil when its existence was leaked to the media, despite Feinstein's promise that it would be kept confidential - unless Ford decided to go public. - That Ford's fear of flying, which her attorneys claimed made it impossible to hold the hearing last week, apparently didn't keep her from flying for work, family visits, or for surfing vacations in places as far-flung as French Polynesia. The committee's Republicans, in effect, put their fellow Democrats in the dock, painting an unlovely picture of them concealing explosive charges from Republicans until they could only be aired in an 11th-hour public spectacle, and of politically connected lawyers helping the Democrats delay. Kavanaugh took a similar line during an emotional, and often angry, opening statement, emphasizing his lack of ill-will toward Ford while lashing out at the Democrats who had put him and his family in this hellish situation. Later, Republican senators took over. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., launched into a blanket denunciation of Democrats on the committee: "If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guy's life and hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020 . . . This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. If you really wanted to know the truth, you sure wouldn't have done what you done to this guy." "We could have handled this in private," said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in the gently shocked tone that passes for a searing rebuke in the Midwest. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, thundered, "This committee could have investigated Dr. Ford's claim in a confidential way that respected her privacy." So Democrats, unexpectedly, had to defend against the implication that they had strategically mishandled the process. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., started explaining that an FBI investigation -- the prime Democratic talking point for weeks -- would not be able to reach any conclusions. And Feinstein felt compelled to deny that she'd been the source of the leak. Democrats do look ridiculous explaining the extraordinarily convenient timing by citing Ford's request for confidentiality -- while treating the leak that breached it as a sort of act of God, an immaculate defection. But how much does that matter? Though catnip to Beltway insiders, in the rest of the country, procedural arguments fall into my-eyes-glaze-over territory. A small yet important audience, however, cares very much: Republican moderates. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the most publicly vocal member of that select group, has signaled that she wants to get to the bottom of the allegations, but also that she's very displeased with the political machinations. There's something deeply awful about treating this as a political question rather than one of justice. But the vagueness of Ford's allegations -- neither provable nor falsifiable -- always meant that, unless new evidence surfaced, it would come down to a judgment call. And the way both sides have exercised that judgment, weighing their political priorities at least as carefully as the evidence, meant that when the judgment came, it was likely to be ugly. Kavanaugh's name is publicly sullied, his family put through a nightmare. Progressive groups are already calling for him to be impeached from his current judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Conservative rage at this state of affairs can only be assuaged by confirming him - and thereby igniting an equally livid revolt from the left at the thought of Ford's attacker sitting on the Supreme Court. While I still think the best course is still to leave the nomination open and launch an all-out investigation, I saw no remaining goodwill that might get us to that compromise. Leaving no way to resolve this that one side will not see as a declaration of total war on all that is decent in America. And no matter what is decided about Kavanaugh, that it has reached this point is an indictment of our entire political class. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Democratic Party in Central New York will pick new leadership this weekend, following rocky election cycles in recent years. Pamela Hunter, a State Assemblywoman, is poised to become the next chair of the Onondaga County Democratic Committee. She will replace Mark English, who is stepping down after six years as chair. Hunter, 48, is the lone candidate on the ballot for the committee's top spot and has broad support from members. Throughout the summer, several others expressed interest, but Hunter emerged as a clear favorite. She said Thursday she aims to be a bridge between varying factions in the party, including the new progressives and the longtime party loyalists and hard-liners. She also plans to improve fundraising in order to better support the party's candidates in big and small races. "What we need to get back to is what being a Democrat really means to people and being able to rally around different ideologies we agree on and moving that forward," she said. Hunter said she was initially reluctant to volunteer for the position, which is unpaid. People spent months approaching her about it. After Saturday, she'll turn to those people for help. She doesn't want anyone to think she can walk in and fix everything that isn't working within the party. She compared the party to a large ship that's headed to port and difficult to turn. "This is not Pam being the savior of the Democratic Party," she said. "I have been very clear about that. This is Pam saying yes I will volunteer. I will step up and help facilitate us going forward, but I don't do this alone. It takes all hands." Hunter will assume the reins at a critical time for the Democratic Party. Democratic enrollment in Onondaga County has seen a huge uptick since the election of President Donald Trump in 2016. There's been a surge in political engagement and new committee members as young people and Baby Boomers especially seek to get more involved. But despite intense focus on federal races, Democrats have struggled to pick winners in some local races the last few years. Most notably, the committee designated Joe Nicoletti to run for Syracuse mayor last year. Nicoletti -- who has run for mayor five times since 1985 -- was soundly defeated by Juanita Perez Williams in a primary. Perez Williams lost the general election to Ben Walsh in a city where Democrats have a huge enrollment advantage. Many prominent Democrats abandoned the party to support Walsh in that race, drawing a rebuke from Chairman English and exacerbating a dispute over party loyalty versus ideology. This year, Dave Valesky, a 14-year state Senator with the party's designation, was ousted in a primary. Party members have split on other races, including this summer's Congressional primary and a recent race for city court judge. "I think there's a reason why people are feeling the way they're feeling and if we don't get to addressing those issues, these types of occurrences are going to keep happening," she said. "And that is going to be my focus is making sure we have expansive conversations, giving people opportunity to speak and participate and engage outside just the normal petition process and designation meetings." Next year will prove a true test for Hunter as the party seeks a strong candidate to run for county executive. Joanie Mahoney's surprise resignation has suddenly made the seat competitive next year and Hunter will steward the party through its search for a contender. Additionally, Hunter said she wants to strengthen the committee's outreach in the towns, where Republicans have traditionally held most of the power. *** Hunter was born in Lake Luzerne, a small town in the Adirondacks near Lake George. She's bounced around the country growing up, spending time in Arizona and Utah. She lived near Washington, D.C. and spent a year living in Germany while serving the in the military. She cites her adoptive parents as major influences in her role as a public servant. They were active fighters for Civil Rights, she said. "To me that was the foundation of Democratic service," she said. "That's just how we lived: being pro-choice, being kind to others, making sure you're caring for those who are downtrodden and can't have a voice for themselves. Making sure we're caring for people who are abused, people who are minorities. It's been instilled in my life since I was 9 months old." Hunter has lived in Syracuse the last 20 years or so. She lives on the East Side near Le Moyne College. Since moving here, she's worked for Price Waterhouse Cooper and the Community Health Center. Prior to running for State Assembly, Hunter was on the Syracuse Common Council. Hunter will be the first person of color to chair the Onondaga County Democratic Committee. She said she wants to improve the committee's outreach to minorities and make it more reflective of the community as a whole. That includes recruiting refugees and New Americans, who make up a significant portion of the city's North Side. "There absolutely should be more [diversity], but we have to make sure the people who are coming aboard are going to be a part of something that they believe in," she said. The committee meets Saturday to elect its new leadership. Other committee members on the ballot include Jimmy Monto, who is nominated for secretary; Mike LaPoint, who is nominated for treasurer and Dustin Czarny, who is nominated to remain election commissioner. Ford, put in the excruciating position of having to retell publicly her account of a traumatic assault, was questioned respectfully and remained poised under pressure. She went to Washington to tell her story about Kavanaugh that she believed Americans need to hear. Ford was credible and cooperative, yet 36 years after the incident she couldnt provide specific details to confirm her account. No one she identified as being at the gathering could place Kavanaugh at the event. Whose house was it? How did she get home that night? Unknown at this time. What she remembered with clarity, she told senators, were snapshots of the scene: the living room of the unidentified home, the bedroom, the bed. And she recounted searing memories, such as the laughter of the perpetrators. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Dave Valesky will step aside in the race for New York State Senate. Valesky, a Democrat, will not seek re-election on a third-party line, according to a statement he released Friday. He said he will instead pursue new opportunities. "It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve the people of Central New York these past 14 years," Valesky said. "The time has come to move on." Valesky lost a Democratic primary to Rachel May earlier this month. It was his first primary challenge in 14 years representing the state Senate's 53rd district. His name will still appear on the ballot on the Women's Equality and Independence Party lines in November, but he will not continue to campaign. Per state election law, there is no easy way to remove a candidate from a ballot line once they've been nominated. Valesky could have chosen to continue campaigning on those two third-party lines. He has more than $340,000 in his campaign account and the name recognition and reputation that comes with 14 years in office. Following the primary, Valesky said many supporters reached out to convince him to stay in the race as an independent. "For the past two weeks, I have spent countless hours discussing the state of the Senate race with individuals from all corners of the district who have urged me to run an active independent campaign for re-election," he said Friday. "I have had numerous conversations with family and friends. In the interest of providing clarity of choice for voters, it is time for that process to end." May has said one of her reasons for joining the race was Valesky's participation in the Independent Democratic Conference in Albany. That group of Democrats broke party ranks to ally with Republicans in the Senate. They disbanded earlier this year. In a statement Friday, May thanked Valesky for his years of service. "Throughout the campaign, he was unfailingly kind to me and I appreciate the positive, issue-based race he ran," she said. "Now that every vote has been tallied and the people have spoken, I am glad to move forward in the spirit of unity. Up and down the ballot, it is important to elect Democrats. Every day between now and Election Day, I will work to earn the votes of Central New Yorkers." If Valesky stayed in, he could have mounted a strong challenge against May in November. The district leans Democratic but has more than 42,000 unaffiliated voters. Valesky's term ends Dec. 31 this year. May will face Republican Janet Burman in November. Valesky's statement made no mention of May. Former Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner says she is not surprised that Gov. Andrew Cuomo won a convincing victory over actress Cynthia Nixon in this month's Democratic primary election. Miner said Cuomo benefited from low voter turnout, his ability to outspend Nixon 10-to-1 by investing more than $26 million in his campaign, and a message "that just said 'I'm not Donald Trump.'" Miner, who is making an independent bid against Cuomo in the November election, said Nixon's celebrity status - and lack of administrative experience -- likely cost her votes. "We find ourselves in a very interesting time because there are people who viscerally reacted negatively to the fact that she was a celebrity," Miner said of Nixon during an appearance Thursday at an editorial board meeting of Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Cuomo won the Sept. 13 primary election with 65 percent of the vote. Miner said Nixon should be commended for challenging Cuomo, but the former Democratic mayor also railed against an electoral system that gives celebrities a built-in advantage. "Unless we change the system we have, you're going to get more of that," Miner said. "Because a celebrity comes into a race and automatically has $2 million or $3 million of name recognition that I would have to buy. So, they have this disproportionate advantage." Miner said polling suggests only about 5 percent of New York voters recognize her name. But she's counting on her experience as the two-term mayor of Syracuse to attract voters. Miner is running as the nominee of the independent Serve America Movement. "What I do have is a track record of experience as an executive of the fifth-largest city in New York state, with a requisite number of accomplishments and a seriousness of purpose," Miner said. "I've gone around the state and talked about public policy issues." Miner said she will tout her record in dealing with infrastructure problems and for increasing access to an affordable college education through Syracuse's partnership with Say Yes to Education. If elected, Miner said she would: -- Abolish New York's economic development programs, including those developed under Cuomo. In turn, Miner would take $2 billion to $4 billion set aside for those programs and use the money to develop the state's infrastructure, including an expansion of broadband internet service. She said the investments would help New York attract new businesses and jobs. -- Ease the local tax burden on counties outside of New York City by requiring the state to pay the local share of Medicaid costs. In turn, the counties would be required to use the savings to lower taxes. The changes would include new caps on the spending growth of the state's Medicaid program, saving at least $2.5 billion over five to 10 years. -- Disband the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics and create an ethics organization that is independent of state government. Miner will appear on the November ballot with Cuomo, Republican Marc Molinaro, Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins, Libertarian Larry Sharpe and Nixon on the Working Families Party line. Election Day is Nov. 6. Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 COLONIE -- A Schenectady County jail officer told police that he burglarized the home of a 94-year-old neighbor -- and that he also stole $175 from his own grandfather to pay for a weekend in Lake Placid with his girlfriend, court papers show. Robert Sala, 30, apologized for his alleged conduct in a statement to Colonie police, according to police documents filed in town justice court. He resigned from his post at the jail on Sept. 20. "I cannot express how sorry I am for breaking your trust and committing these acts," Sala told police in a Sept. 18 statement. "There is nothing I can say or do to take back what I have done but I hope in time you can forgive me. Love, Bobby." Sala, who turned himself over to police on Monday, is charged with second-degree burglary and petit larceny for allegedly breaking into the home of the 94-year-old neighbor on Cohoes Road in the predawn hours of July 16. In his statement to police, Sala said on the morning of the incident he propped a lawn chair against the outside of the neighbor's house. He said he climbed through a side window into the man's home. Court papers said it was a bathroom window. Sala told police he went through the man's desk looking for money, could not find any and left. As he was leaving the house, Sala told police, he heard the man's sister coming out of a bedroom but did not look at her. "I quickly left the house and went home," he said. Sala told police that at some point in recent months, he went into his grandfather's home on Wilkens Avenue and took money. Court papers indicate the date was in late July. "I went there to take some money from my grandfather so I could impress a new girlfriend," Sala said in the statement. "I parked my car in front of his neighbor's house and climbed through a rear window of his house. I took $175 from my grandfather's wallet, which was on his kitchen table. After I took the money, I left his house through the rear door. I then went to my house. I eventually wound up taking my girlfriend to Lake Placid with the money I had taken." New details of Schenectady jail guards arrest released https://t.co/MyXf45t3Qn pic.twitter.com/58Mc73KgFj Daily Gazette (@dgazette) September 27, 2018 On Wednesday, the Times Union requested court papers from the clerk's office at Colonie town justice court in connection with Sala's arrest. The office did not produce the documents until more than 24 hours had passed - and only after a supervisory clerk asked for a second request, saying a request for "all public information" in connection with the case was not specific enough. Sala, a Schenectady County jail officer on the job since March 2016, had been earning $44,820 a year. Sheriff Dominic Dagostino said Wednesday the resignation of Sala brought the number of Schenectady County jail employees to be fired or forced out after allegedly running afoul of the law since 2010 to nearly 50. -- Robert Gavin, Times Union, Albany, N.Y. UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Thursday of keeping a "secret atomic warehouse" just outside its capital, despite the 2015 deal with world powers that was meant to keep it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Holding up a poster-board map of an area near Tehran as he spoke at the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu told world leaders that Iranian officials have been keeping up to 300 tons of nuclear equipment and material in a walled, unremarkable-looking property near a rug-cleaning operation. Iranian state media called the announcement "ridiculous" and an "illusion." Netanyahu's disclosure -- which he presented as a big reveal on the international community's biggest stage -- came four months after Israel announced the existence of what it said was a "half-ton" of Iranian nuclear documents obtained by Israeli intelligence in the Shourabad neighborhood near Tehran. Israel said the cache proved that Iranian leaders covered up their nuclear weapons program before signing the nuclear agreement. Iran hasn't acknowledged the alleged seizure. "You have to ask yourself a question: Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse?" Netanyahu asked. "What Iran hides, Israel will find." Netanyahu didn't specify what the material and equipment was, and it was not immediately clear whether it proved to be a violation of the nuclear deal. Netanyahu also said Iranian officials had been clearing some radioactive material out of the site, which sits a short distance from Shourabad, and "spread it around Tehran." He then even suggested that residents of the capital might want to buy Geiger counters. In referring to Netanyahu's statements as "ridiculous," the Iranian state TV report said the country is committed to nonproliferation and Iran's nuclear program is under surveillance of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The website of state TV briefly reported the Netanyahu accusation and called it an "illusion." Iran's state-run, English-language Press TV channel carried Netanyahu's remarks live but cut away after he made the allegation about the nuclear warehouse. The 2015 Iran nuclear deal came after years of Western sanctions over Iran's contested atomic program. The West long has feared it could be used to build nuclear bombs. Iran long has denied seeking atomic weapons. Under terms of the deal, Iran is allowed to keep documents and other research. The deal strictly limits how many centrifuges -- important equipment for making enriched uranium that can be used in nuclear power plants or in weapons -- Iran can use and how large of a low-enriched uranium stockpile the country can keep. Netanyahu said the warehouse stored "massive amounts of equipment and materiel," and he said Israel shared the information with the IAEA. The Vienna-based agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He noted that Israel had long opposed the multinational agreement with Iran. Israel considers Iran its biggest threat, citing Tehran's calls for Israel's destruction, its support for hostile militant organizations like the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group and Iran's development of long-range missiles. U.S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear deal in May, and his administration has been re-imposing sanctions on Iran. Israel applauded the move, but many other nations lamented it as jeopardizing what they saw as the best chance to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed power. "Instead of coddling Iran's dictators," other countries should support the sanctions, Netanyahu said to applause. He accused Europe of "appeasement" of Iran, a word that harkens back to criticism of Europe's approach to Nazi Germany before World War II. Netanyahu is known for his showmanship at the U.N. In 2012, he famously held up a drawing of a cartoon bomb while discussing Iran's nuclear program, saying "a red line should be drawn right here" and drawing it with a marker. His accusation Thursday about Iran came shortly after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas criticized Israel and the U.S. in his own speech, declaring that his people's rights "are not up for bargaining" and that the U.S. was undermining the long-discussed two-state solution. But Netanyahu devoted less attention to the long-running conflict with the Palestinians. Abbas halted ties with Trump's administration in December after the U.S. recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and Palestinians have said a pending U.S. peace plan will be dead on arrival because of that and other recent U.S. moves that Palestinians see as favoring Israel. "Jerusalem is not for sale," Abbas said to applause as he began his speech. "The Palestinian people's rights are not up for bargaining." He said Palestinians would never reject negotiation, but that "it's really ironic that the American administration still talks about what they call the 'deal of the century.'" "What is left for this administration to give to the Palestinian people?" he asked. "What is left as a political solution?" Netanyahu, in return, said the Palestinians' accusations against his country were hypocritical and unwarranted. "You condemn Israel's morality?" he asked. "This is not the way to achieve the peace we all want and need and to which Israel remains committed." The Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza has led protests for months along the border with Israel, aiming partly to draw attention to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007. At least 137 Palestinians, mostly unarmed, have been killed by Israeli fire since the border protests began on March 30. During that time, a Gaza sniper killed an Israeli soldier. Hamas and Israel came close to serious conflict this summer as Gaza militants bombarded southern Israel with mortars and rockets, and Israel struck Hamas targets in Gaza. Israel says it is defending its border against attempts by Hamas, a militant group sworn to its destruction, to infiltrate and carry out attacks. But Israel has faced heavy international criticism over the large number of unarmed protesters who have been killed or wounded. While meeting with Netanyahu on Wednesday, Trump told reporters he believes that two states -- Israel and one for the Palestinians -- "works best." Hours before Netanyahu's scheduled speech, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman expressed indifference to Trump's remarks, saying Israel wants "a safe Jewish state." Netanyahu had reluctantly accepted the concept of Palestinian statehood but has since backtracked. Palestinians have been split since Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, ousting forces of Abbas, who now governs just parts of the West Bank. Repeated reconciliation attempts have failed, and Abbas warned that further measures could be taken against Hamas if deadlock persists. The Israeli and Palestinian speeches fell on the same day that members of a U.N. group of 135 developing countries formalized a decision to give the Palestinians the chairmanship in 2019. That stands to boost their aspirations for official statehood but angers Israel. Palestinians were infuriated, and many Israelis were thrilled, by a series of decisions Trump has made, starting with his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The Palestinians also claim the holy city as the capital of an eventual state. Earlier this year, Trump followed up on the recognition by moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. His administration has also slashed aid to the Palestinians by hundreds of millions of dollars and ended U.S. support for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees. Trump and his national security team have defended their position, saying decades of attempts to forge peace have failed. Other leaders who spoke Thursday included Haiti's President Jovenel Moise, who told leaders he had "spared no effort to ensure that institutions are stable and to make sure we are creating a safe and stable environment conducive to investment and to relaunching growth" in his impoverished Caribbean island country since the U.N. peacekeeping mission there wrapped up in October 2017. Lebanon, Maine -- Authorities are searching in Maine for the body of a skydiving instructor who became detached from his partner during a tandem jump on Thursday. The instructor and his partner were about a mile above the ground when they became separated, according to the Press Herald in Portland, Maine. The flight took off from Skydive New England in Lebanon, about an hour from Portland. "The fall was not survivable," said Steve McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, according to the Press Herald. Authorities identified the instructor as 41-year-old Brett Bickford of Rochester, New Hampshire, according to News Center Maine in Portland. Tandem skydiving involves two jumpers attached to each other who use the same parachute. It is often used in training new skydivers. The other skydiver involved in the jump landed safely and contacted authorities. The instructor did not have a backup parachute, according to CBS News. Maine State Police searched for Bickford until about 9 p.m. Thursday and planned to resume looking Friday morning. Bickford was an experienced skydiver, Skydive New England said, according to News Center Maine. Skydive New England does about 20,000 jumps a season, News Center Maine said. The company has seen several incidents involving injuries over the years, including a death in 2002, the station said. Police were looking for Bickford's body with the help of Maine Warden Service airplanes and the Maine Forest Service's helicopter. K-9 units and a drone with heat-sensing capabilities were also involved. Police are unsure how Bickford and his jump partner became separated, according to the Press Herald. Skydive New England's tandem jumps typically take place at an altitude of 14,000 feet, the paper said. Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-282-8598 Why it matters: Prices on graphics cards might be going up a little bit until manufacturing operations can be relocated to countries that are not subject to additional tariffs in the United States. A new round of tariffs were implemented adding a 10 percent fee on imports of more than $200 billion from China. In the sweeping tariff increases, graphics cards are one of the many tech items affected. Both AMD and Nvidia are affected by the tariffs, although the true extent is still being determined. Buyers of prebuilt systems need not worry about any additional tariffs since they do not apply to complete computers at this time. Only graphics cards sold individually and manufactured in China are affected. For now, the "vast majority" of graphics cards are still made in China. Bank of America's investment arm Merrill Lynch sent notice to clients that Nvidia's RTX line may see price hikes of 5 to 10 percent over the next few months. It is estimated that gaming segment graphics cards accounted for as much as 60 percent of Nvidia's sales in the third quarter. AMD's graphics division likely only made up around one-fourth of its revenue. To counter the new tariffs, board partners are already looking at relocating to Taiwan and Mexico in order to avoid the added import fees in the US. Given that Nvidia and AMD are both fabless companies, choosing manufacturing partners outside of China for GPU dies will not be too burdening if either still even have substantial manufacturing going on there. Nvidia and AMD are both working with their partners to try and lessen the impact of tariffs, but neither provided specific details on how they are doing so. In the official listing of product categories subject to new tariffs, "printed circuit assemblies" and "electronic calculating machines" could be where graphics cards fall into place. The trade office has yet to verify which category consumer graphics cards will be placed in. Republicans on the committee have done their best to cloud this issue, but its quite simple: If the FBI reopens its background check into Kavanaugh to review the sexual assault allegations hes facing the one from Ford and now others as well then agents who are arguably among the best-trained law enforcement investigators in the country will interview people, gather evidence and deliver that evidence to the White House, which would then relay the evidence back to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In brief: Elon Musk and the SEC have not reached a settlement over Musk's tweet about taking Tesla private at $420 per share. A lawsuit is proceeding, although it is still possible that a settlement is reached long before going to trial. Elon Musk's use of Twitter has gotten him into hot water with the SEC. Following tweets about taking Tesla private at $420 per share, an investigation was launched to determine whether any stock price manipulation was intentional. The SEC has now filed suit against Musk for fraud and is seeking to remove him from the position of CEO at Tesla and bar him from holding an officer position at any public company. Initially, it seems that even high ranking employees at Tesla were unsure what to make of Musk's tweet. The head of investor relations sent text messages to Musk's chief of staff just 12 minutes after the tweet went out asking if it was actually a real possibility. In a statement, Musk condemns the SEC saying he is "deeply saddened and disappointed" by their investigations. In filings looking at emails and text messages, Musk is quoted as writing his girlfriend "would find it funny, which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price." Unfortunately for Musk, the SEC could do significant damage by affecting investor confidence in a company that has yet to post any significant profits. He has been called "reckless" and been accused of misleading investors for repeatedly missing lofty production goals and hard-to-meet timelines. It is unclear whether or not Tesla ever did have funding secured when Musk tweeted about taking Tesla private. Tesla's head of investor relations even says, "I actually don't know, but I would assume that given we went full-on public with this, the offer is as firm as it gets." In a blog post made on August 13, Musk explains that the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has wanted to take Tesla private since early 2017. Tesla executives met with the Saudi fund stakeholders on July 31 after the fund bought up five percent of Tesla's shares through public markets. Musk indicates that the Saudi fund made it clear that additional investment was intended. Why it matters: Chang Chi-yuan was preparing to publicly attempt to take down Zuckerberg's Facebook account but as the story gained global attention, it seems as though the white-hat hacker wisely reconsidered. Pulling off such a feat would probably have resulted in some serious legal repercussions. A Taiwanese white-hat hacker named Chang Chi-yuan will make an attempt to delete the Facebook account of founder Mark Zuckerberg this weekend and promises to livestream the whole thing. Bug bounty hunters like Chi-yuan typically do their work behind the scenes, disclosing vulnerabilities to companies privately and securely in exchange for a cash reward. Rarely do they attract attention like this, much less livestream their antics and alert potential targets beforehand. Chi-yuan is described by Bloomberg as a minor celebrity among locals. Previous efforts have earned him spots on talk shows to discuss his findings and generated various news reports. He was featured in Lines 2016 hall of fame list as a special contributor. According to Chi-yuans Facebook post, the live attempt to take down Zuckerbergs account will start at 6:00 p.m. local time which works out to 6:00 a.m. Eastern time this Sunday, September 30. Update: As this story was unfolding and making headlines around the globe, Chi-yuan posted a follow-up message on Facebook. The translation is rough but it sounds as if he is calling off the whole thing. Weve republished the translated statement below: I think long Even if I find more loopholes, get more bonus. Still a lot of people question my ability I shouldn't really take zcuk's account number this time to experiment and prove strength Result I haven't done it now There's news in the country first. Now there's news in the country too. That live trailer was originally wanted to make people in Taiwan I didn't think I'd let the abroad notice it first. Now I have two results One is really done Was said I was fake Or too high-profile thinking red The other one is I didn't do it Still being said I'm fake Or too high-profile thinking red Anyway the result is no one will believe Then to avoid unnecessary trouble I don't live or delete account number Otherwise, there's no bonus to take it. Because after I finished the live wen The official responded to my loophole. Sorry to have you guys too much I cut your umbilical cord But this is something you guys watch I'm a bad guy. Zuck innocent victim thing You guys just believe in other than Zucc'd One has $ 7'D presence is ok I should be glad I'm not really crazy. No really delete Just as this whole thing is my mouth If just someone fb was boarded Then just get boarded No worries Lead image via SIPA USA/PA Images Bottom line: Law enforcement officials in California are still investigating the matter but already have eight people in custody and have issued arrest warrants for nine others. Given the number of people involved and the frequency of the robberies, it was only a matter of time before the scheme started to unravel. The string of smash-and-grab style robberies that have targeted Apple retail stores across the state of California this summer has likely come to an end. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Thursday announced that seven adults were arrested and booked in the Alameda County jail on September 25. Another suspect is in custody in Sonoma County and arrest warrants have been issued for nine additional suspects, were told. Suspects werent named in the release; charges are for conspiracy to commit grand theft. The investigation into the robbery scheme remains ongoing. The alleged crimes took place across 19 counties dating back to May with several of the incidents having been captured on surveillance video and by bystanders with their phones. Some stores were hit multiple times. During one of the most recent thefts, a suspect was apprehended by mall security and shoppers. The robberies have resulted in the loss of over $1 million in goods. Becerra said organized retail thefts cost California business owners millions and expose them to copycat criminals. Ultimately, he said consumers are the ones that pay the cost of merchandise hijacking. A new study says that parents should limit the recreational screentime of children to two hours a day to improve their cognition. When paired with ample sleep and physical activity, kids aged 8 to 10 were able to perform better in tests that measured language abilities, episodic and working memory, executive function, attention span, and processing speed. The study was conducted by researchers from the CHEO Research Institute's Healthy Active Living and Obesity using data from the U.S. National Institute of Health. Their findings were published by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. Childhood Cognition The study involved 4,524 children from about 20 study sites across the United States. Parents were also surveyed to find out the habits of their children, including the amount of sleep they get every night, how often they are physically active, and how much of their time was spent glued to the television, a smartphone, or a computer. The children were then tested across six kinds of cognitive skills, adjusting the results based on household income or other factors that might affect their performances. Unsurprisingly, the researchers found that children who met the recommended amounts of sleep, physical activity, and screentime performed better during the tests. "The shift in the lifestyle behaviors of children towards low physical activity, a reduction in sleep and ubiquitous screen time use may pose a threat to cognitive development," stated Mark Tremblay of CHEO Research Institute, "We need to be doing more to encourage behaviors that promote healthy activity throughout the whole day. There is a positive relationship among childhood global cognition, future academic success and lower all-cause mortality." Recommended Screentime The 24-Hour Movement, developed by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, said that children are encouraged to have at least 60 minutes of moderate to rigorous physical activity every day. They should also get nine to 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night in order to perform their best at school. For screen time, parents should consider limiting smartphone, TV, or computer use to no more than two hours per day. A separate report released by Common Sense Media last year revealed that children from age 0 to 8 spend an average of two hours and 19 minutes in front of a screen every day. The American Academy of Pediatrics also links extended screentime to obesity, sleep problems, and a decline in academic performance. Unsupervised use of the internet could also expose children to cyberbullying, risky behaviors, and online predators. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A massive, new dinosaur that was discovered in South Africa was given a name that means "giant thunderclap at dawn," which is very much appropriate for an animal that may have been the largest during its time. The recently unearthed fossil is a relative of the brontosaurus, and its size brings to mind recent dinosaur discoveries such as the largest dinosaur foot fossil ever excavated and the "amazing dragon" fossils found in China. Ledumahadi Mafube: The Massive Dinosaur Discovered In South Africa A new dinosaur species that was recently discovered in South Africa is believed to have weighed 26,000 pounds, double the size of a large African elephant and possibly the largest dinosaur when it lived 200 million years ago. Researchers have given the dinosaur the name Ledumahadi mafube, which means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" in the indigenous South African language of Sesotho. The language is spoken where the fossil was discovered. Ledumahadi mafube was an herbivore that stood at 4 meters high at the hips, and is among the closest relatives of sauropods, which are characterized by their long necks and tails. However, the new dinosaur evolved to its giant stature independently from sauropods, and while it stood on four legs, its forelimbs were more crouched. This is why scientists view Ledumahadi mafube as an "evolutionary experiment." The fossil of the Ledumahadi mafube revealed several other interesting tidbits, such as the "incredible robustness of the limb bones," according to Blair McPhee, the lead author of the study on the dinosaur that was published in the Current Biology journal. While the giant sauropods usually had slender arms and legs, those of the Ledumahadi mafube were very thick. The researchers also found that the Ledumahadi mafube resembled other large dinosaurs in Argentina that lived in the same time period, reinforcing the belief that supercontinent Pangaea was still present during the Early Jurassic. The Meaning Behind Ledumahadi Mafube's Name Jonah Choiniere, University of the Witwatersrand paleontology professor and coauthor of the study, explained that the name has a double meaning. "A giant thunderclap at dawn" reflects the dinosaur's massive size and its booming entry into any landscape upon its arrival. However, it also relates to the fact that it appeared just as sauropods were emerging. The discovery of Ledumahadi mafube, meanwhile, was seen by Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, South Africa's Minister of Science and Technology, as proof of the importance of paleontology in South Africa. "Not only does our country hold the Cradle of Humankind, but we also have fossils that help us understand the rise of the gigantic dinosaurs," Kubayi-Ngubane said. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Christine Blasey Ford who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault was pretty much correct when she cited the science of memory. The professor of psychology stood in front of the Senate committee on Thursday, Sept. 27, to give her testimony regarding the alleged attack that happened in the 80s when she and the Supreme Court nominee were teenagers. Christine Blasey Ford's Testimony-Turned-Psychology Lesson "How are you so sure that it was he?" Senator Dianne Feinstein questioned Ford. To answer, the psychologist who teaches at Stanford University and Palo Alto University launched into an explanation about how the human brain works. She cited the neurotransmitter epinephrine, the chemical messengers in the brain that code memories into the hippocampus where "the trauma-related experience is locked" when other details became fuzzy. Ford had come forward with an allegation of sexual assault days before the Senate Judiciary Committee was set to vote on the Supreme Court confirmation of Kavanaugh. She revealed that several years ago during a school party in Maryland, Kavanaugh pushed her into bed, tried to take off her clothes, and covered her mouth with the intent to rape her. While she could not recall some details from the encounter, such as the exact date it happened and how she got home after, she also named Mark Judge as another person present when the alleged attack happened. She said that Judge was also in the room and might have helped push her into the bed. Later, she said that the sound of Kavanaugh laughing about the assault with another person was "indelible in the hippocampus." Throughout the testimony, Ford also discussed other psychological principles, including her experience of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. She also explained how the assault might have contributed to her experience of the aforementioned conditions. The Science Of Memory Experts in the field sided with Ford and said that the university professor pretty much nailed the science of memory during her testimony. Elizabeth Phelps, a psychologist from Harvard University, explained that the chemicals in the brain cited during the testimony go up when a person is alarmed and help encode memories more vividly in the hippocampus. Lila Davachi of Columbia University said that the mechanisms help the brain recall "central parts of an emotional experience." Meanwhile, Kavanaugh, who continues to deny that the sexual assault happened, may not be lying. He could have a firm belief that he did not attack Ford that night because his memory might have been altered either because of alcohol or because he considered it "just playing around." "Confidence is not a good guide to whether or not someone is telling the truth," explained Nora Newcombe, Temple University psychology professor. "If they think they're telling the truth, they could plausibly both be confident about it." Three other women have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct since Ford's story came out. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. WASHINGTON Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said Friday he will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying he believes the judge's denials of sexual assault allegations laid out in a committee hearing a day earlier. Kavanaugh's nomination advanced to the Senate floor after an 11-10 vote, but Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake made a last-minute call for a one-week delay so the FBI could conduct an investigation. Republicans struck an agreement to delay a confirmation vote for up to a week so the FBI can dig further into Kavanaugh's background. Kennedy said he was "reluctant" to agree to the delay but had his hand forced after other senators joined Flake in calling for an investigation, leaving Kavanaugh short of the votes necessary for confirmation. Kennedy, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he wasn't convinced by testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, a California university professor who said Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her and muzzled her screams during a high school party in suburban Washington in the 1980s. "I don't know what happened to Dr. Ford. I don't know if we'll ever know what happened to Dr. Ford," Kennedy said in announcing his support during the hearing. "I do believe that something very, very, very bad happened to Dr. Ford and I am very sorry. But I do not believe that Judge Brett Kavanaugh was involved and that's why I will support his nomination." "She didn't convince me nor does the record that Brett Kavanaugh was involved," Kennedy said later Friday. Kennedy told reporters he'd asked Kavanaugh "to look me in the eye" and deny Ford's accusations during Thursday's hearing. "He did and I believe him," Kennedy said. The senator reiterated his support for Kavanaugh after striking the agreement for an FBI investigation telling reporters "I will vote yes" before later adding that his backing is also "subject to any additional information the FBI produces." Kennedy went on to denounce the handling of Ford's allegations, which she first detailed in a confidential letter to her congresswoman and then to Sen. Diane Feinstein, a Californian and the top Democrat on the committee. The existence of Ford's letter leaked to the press and Ford, in tearful testimony on Thursday, said she came forward to the Washington Post in part because reporters from other outlets had begun knocking on her door and contacting colleagues. Top stories in Acadiana in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up "To the person who leaked Dr. Fords letter, to the person who breached Dr. Fords anonymity and to the person who did not tell her she could have avoided this by testifying privately in her home in California: You know who you are," Kennedy said. "You should bow your head in shame in my opinion and you should hide your head in a bag every day for the rest of your natural life." Kennedy said he's resisted an FBI investigation because he was concerned Democrats might use the delay to surface other allegations against Kavanaugh. "If everybody proceeds in good faith, this will be fair, but I'm not convinced that everybody is in good faith. I think some people in this process are, but there are a lot of people in this process who are ruthless," Kennedy said. For Democrats, Kennedy charged, "It's about power. It's about sinking Donald Trump and it's about politicizing the United States Supreme Court." Fellow Louisiana GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy announced his continued support for Kavanaugh's confirmation immediately after the end of Thursday's hearing, declaring on Twitter that it was "time to #ConfirmJudgeKavanaugh and bring Washington Democrats shameful smear campaign to an end." Enough with the delays. Its time to #ConfirmJudgeKavanaugh and bring Washington Democrats shameful smear campaign to an end. #ConfirmKavanaugh https://t.co/uypNQzFZ1g U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) September 27, 2018 Both Cassidy and Kennedy had previously announced their support for Kavanaugh before allegations of sexual assault against the judge stemming from his high school and college days in the 1980s threw his nomination into question. GOP leaders said they planned to move forward with procedural votes over the coming week to set up a potential final confirmation vote for Kavanaugh next Friday. It remained unclear on Friday whether Kavanaugh had enough support from senators to be ultimately confirmed to the Supreme Court or if the FBI would uncover any evidence to further corroborate or refute Ford's allegations. Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate chamber, meaning opposition from two GOP senators could doom his nomination. PHOTOS 20 everyday items in your home that could be worth money People around the world are captivated by happy stories of people finding hidden treasure, especially hiding right under their noses. Shows like Antiques Roadshow spotlight the shockingly valuable items everyday people find in their basements or childhood bedrooms. But it can be extremely difficult for the average person to know what to look for, let alone determine whether items are valuable or phony. Even if you dont want to sell it, knowing the value of household items can be used for insurance purposes or when settling an estate. There are professional, accredited appraisers for many antiques and collectibles, including those who specialize in these popular categories. (Kaitlin Miller, The Active Times) Former Baton Rouge Bishop Robert Muench announced Friday that hes been diagnosed with bladder cancer, but said he is thankful doctors caught it early and that it should be treatable. Will names of Louisiana clergy accused of sex abuse be released? Bishops considering it When Louisianas five Catholic bishops met last week in Lafayette for their regular quarterly meeting, there was no need to consult an agenda. Muench became Baton Rouges bishop emeritus just last month when Michael Duca was installed as the new bishop of Baton Rouge. Muench was required to submit his resignation late last year to the Vatican when he turned 75. Muench said Friday that he had outpatient surgery two weeks ago to remove a growth in his bladder, and said he was diagnosed with localized, superficial, noninvasive, treatable cancer of the bladder. The former bishop said the cancer has not spread and it can be treated locally. He will begin outpatient treatments next month, but no radiation or systemic chemotherapy will be used, he said. Before his surgery, Duca anointed Muench with oil for the anointing of the sick Catholic sacrament. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Please know I am at peace, in good spirits and without any chronic pain, Muench said in a news release that repeated his message to clergy members. I am especially grateful to God for the early discovery of this condition after my retirement from office had already begun. I plan to honor the liturgical and other commitments I have made since my retirement from office. The Lord be with and bless each of you. Muench pledged to keep his brother ordained in special prayer for their friendship. He asked for people to pray for him and his youngest sister, Marsha Morse, who has received treatments for more than eight years for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. Duca released a statement late Friday concerning Muench's illness: I know the faithful of the Diocese of Baton Rouge and Bishop Muenchs many friends join me in praying for his speedy and complete recovery. We also extend our thoughts and prayers to his dear sister during her illness. The strong feelings over the Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh spilled over at a public radio luncheon Friday as a heckler confronted keynote speaker Mary Matalin for defending him. A woman in the crowd of roughly 550 people present for the luncheon shouted back that she believed the woman who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Matalin, a political consultant who served in multiple Republican presidential administrations, said she has known Kavanaugh and his wife for decades and described being in the bunker with them during the George W. Bush presidency. Matalin was the speaker at the annual WRKF Founders Luncheon, and local broadcasting veteran Cyril Vetter interviewed her before the crowd at the Crowne Plaza ballroom. Matalin spoke of her frustration watching this weeks hearings in which Christine Blasey Ford responded to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about her accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. Kavanaugh defended himself later in that hearing, strongly denying that he ever sexually assaulted Ford or any other woman and telling members of Congress that the accusations did not make sense. Matalin said she worries that the country has lost its way and forgotten about the importance of the presumption of innocence. She questioned why anyone would want to face the congressional circus to be appointed to important roles as public servants from now on. She insisted that Kavanaughs track record should speak for itself. But after Matalin made that proclamation, a woman near the back of the ballroom stood up. I believe her! the woman roared, referring to Ford. I stand for victims, the woman added, drawing applause and comments of me too from some others attending the luncheon. Matalin stood, raised her voice, pointed at the crowd and replied, Does anyone here sit for victims?...You think youre standing with victims by hash tagging? Get over it. Matalin added that she believed something happened to Ford but said she does not understand this type of feminism. She added that she is concerned about the demonization of men. If we think were just going to go to a sperm bank for procreationwhat are we going to have a cage of men with bowls? Matalin said, drawing some laughter from the crowd. No. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up She said that believing womens stories of sexual assault does not require the destruction of others. Matalin also talked about the intense scrutiny of Kavanaughs drinking habits in high school, as members of Congress questioned whether Kavanaugh potentially drank too much as a teenager and could not remember his actions. Kavanaugh told committee members he enjoys beer and drank it in high school, but insisted he never became blackout drunk. Matalin asked, What kind of kid didnt drink beer in high school? and said she would not trust someone who did not drink in high school. Matalin lives in New Orleans with her husband, James Carville, who is a well-known Democratic political operative. Carville recently began teaching political communication at LSU, and once infamously defended former President Bill Clinton from sexual assault allegations by saying, "if you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find." John Kennedy says he'll vote for Kavanaugh; vote on Senate floor delayed WASHINGTON Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said Friday he will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying he believes the jud Matalin was a longtime Republican before switching her party affiliation to Libertarian. She told the crowd Friday that current U. S. President Donald Trump was not her first choice, but that she likes much of what hes done so far as president. Earlier on Friday, she made similar argument during a segment on WRKF with Jim Engster after she told him she was certain of Kavanaughs innocence. Engster told Matalin that could not know for sure whether Kavanaugh was innocent. Jim, I know this man the way I know Cyril Vetter, the way I know my husband, Matalin said. Ive worked with him for decades. And I watched wall-to-wall yesterday and I saw a man whom Ive known for decades and his wife and his children absolutely maligned. Matalin told the crowd at the lunch that she believed most Americans felt the same way as they watched coverage of the hearing, and said she expected Republicans to keep control of both congressional chambers during midterm elections. Matalin apologized at the end the luncheon for not leaving enough time to take questions. She called out the woman who interrupted her and said, I like that you stood up and did that, even though you probably feel disparaged at this point. The Louisiana Board of Ethics has voted to dismiss long-standing charges of ethics violations against former city-parish official Walter Monsour and his son, Jordan Monsour, after the board charged the two in 2015 based on the younger Monsours law firm representing clients who brokered deals with the Redevelopment Authority his father headed. Law firm of RDA chiefs son benefits from agency contracts, records show Baton Rouge attorney Jordan Monsours law firm has received three contracts, earning about $190,000 in total, representing clients who brokere The Board of Ethics raised questions about multiple projects that the RDA worked on in connection with Butler Snow, the law firm where Jordan Monsour worked. Board of Ethics records show that the board voted Sept. 21 to dismiss all pending charges against the Monsours. The records do not elaborate on the decision to dismiss the charges against the two, and say the Ethics Adjudicatory Board has not scheduled a public hearing in this matter. Over the course of the three years during which these charges have been pending, and after going all the way to the Louisiana Supreme Court, the Board of Ethics never produced a shred of evidence that Walter Monsour violated the Ethics Code, said Walter Monsours attorney, Scott Frazier, in a statement Thursday. After losing at every stage of these proceedings, the Ethics Board finally acknowledged that they had no case. Jordan Monsours attorney did not return requests for comment late Thursday afternoon. Louisiana Board charges former RDA official Walter Monsour, son with ethics violations The former head of the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority faces ethics charges related to his lawyer-sons business dealings with the agency. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up When Walter Monsour was running the RDA, his sons law firm participated in projects that included the construction of the downtown Hampton Inn and Suites, upgrades to the Honeywell International facility, the Model Block redevelopment project and a Circa 1957 project that ultimately did not receive funding. The contracts were worth more than $190,000, according to The Advocates reporting on them in 2014. In 2013, RDA officials asked for an opinion from the Ethics Board on the father/son relationship. However, the RDA withdrew the request before the Ethics Board issued a public opinion. In the charges the board filed in 2015, they wrote that Walter Monsour never submitted a disqualification plan related to his sons work on projects and that the board deemed that he participated in those projects as well. The board cited a state law that forbids public servants from participating in transactions with other governmental entities in which their families have substantial economic interests. Former RDA executive Walter Monsour joins CSRS Inc. Walter Monsour, who stepped down recently under fire over funding and his salary as head of the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority and p Additionally, the Ethics Board said in 2015 that Jordan Monsour had failed to file proper financial disclosures. Since the initial outcry over the setup between the Monsours, Walter Monsour resigned from the RDA and now works as the director of government advisory practice for CSRS, Inc. I will just say that I am very happy that Walters reputation for honesty and integrity, which he earned over decades of public service to this community, has finally been vindicated, and that justice has prevailed, Frazier said. LIVINGSTON A pair of ordinances meant to encourage better access in and out of new subdivisions were adopted by the Livingston Parish Counci Gov. John Bel Edwards is heading to California next week to pitch Louisiana's motion picture perks to executives from major Hollywood studios, including Walt Disney, Netflix and HBO. Revenue Secretary Kimberly Robinson and officials from Louisiana Economic Development will join as Edwards touts the state's tax breaks and film incentives. Louisiana has been a major production destination since we were one of the first states to adopt an incentive program in 2002, Edwards said in a news release. The enhancements that we made to the program have created stability for Louisianas budget, and also created certainty for the industry we are seeking to attract. More importantly, this program provides more opportunities for companies to invest in Louisiana and hire our residents for well-paying, full-time jobs." How much do film, arts industries contribute to Louisianas economy? Louisianas motion picture industry made up about 1 percent of the states economic activity in 2015 in the heyday of the states film tax cre According to the news release, meetings are scheduled with Netflix, Warner Brothers, NBC Universal, and Walt Disney Studios on Monday, and the governor will meet with executives from HBO, Hulu, CBS and Sony on Tuesday. Edwards, a Democrat, has been a vocal supporter of growing Louisiana's film industry. He was the keynote speaker at the state's first Entertainment Summit, which was primarily an event to promote the the subsidies that taxpayers provide to movies and TV shows that are made in Louisiana. The Edwards administration has cited changes that the Legislature made to tax credit program in 2017 for a resurgence in filming in Louisiana and has particularly sought out scripted TV shows that tend to have a bigger economic boost as they spend more time in the state. The film industry has spent about $1.3 billion in Louisiana since mid-2016, including $634 million on Louisiana resident payroll, according to the governor's office. Still, there are several critics of the state's film incentive program. Economic studies have estimated that the program generates 20 to 25 cents in state revenue for every $1 given in credits. The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Rep. Jay Morris, R-Monroe, has in the past proposed legislation that would eliminate the credits entirely. "I don't have an issue with promoting the program we currently have, but according to our own economist the return on investment is not great, relative to a lot of other things," he said. "In a time of economic hardship where we are looking for every dollar in state revenue, it's much harder to justify these direct subsidies to out-of-state companies." The 2017 overhaul, which was pitched as an opportunity to provide more stability to the program, established additional credits for productions outside of New Orleans and capped the amount of credits available each year to eliminate what had become a massive backlog after a 2015 rewrite of the film tax credit law. "My issue with the program hasn't changed," Morris said. "They're an industry on wheels and whichever state pays them the most is going to get the movies." But Morris said he doesn't expect to file another bill in the upcoming session to cut the film tax credit program because he doesn't believe that there is enough support for the idea. "I still can't say it's the wisest use of our precious resources, but what's in place seems to be working to the extent it was designed to work," he said. The Legislature in 2015 had capped the amount of money that the state could pay out each year at $180 million, but it did not limit the number of credit certificates that the state could award. Supporters of the film industry said that led to uncertainty that hurt Louisiana's prospects at being picked for filming locations. The 2017 legislation, which was supported by the industry, also added new incentives for additional Louisiana jobs, productions that originate in Louisiana and independent films. "We have seen tremendous recent success, including more recurring TV series, such as NCIS: New Orleans, Cloak & Dagger, Claws and Queen Sugar," Edwards said. "We have also seen a 200 percent increase in independent film activity since July 1, 2017, over the previous 18 months. The economic impact of this industry is clear, and we are excited to bring back more of this business home. Jonathan Ryan, Executive Director of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, talks with the media outside of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, Tuesday, June 19, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) ORG XMIT: TXEG116 The reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment in the New Years Day hit-and-run death of tourist Joshua Woodruff has been rai Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gives his opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Michael Reynolds/Pool Image via AP) As the longtime spouse of Democratic political consultant James Carville, conservative Mary Matalin, who's also a veteran of the campaign trail, is accustomed to odd-couple pairings. That kind of culture clash was evident Friday when Matalin spoke to a Baton Rouge gathering of public radio supporters, a constituency that trends left. What happened next says much about the partisan divide now sweeping the country and suggested a bit of hope for common ground. Appearing before the annual Founders Luncheon for public radio station WRKF, Matalin lamented the way Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has been treated by his critics during the confirmation process. Matalin expressed sympathy for Christine Blasey Ford, whos accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, but outlined her doubts that Kavanaugh, whom she counts as a friend, was the culprit. +2 Well-known political strategist Mary Matalin defends Kavanaugh amid public outburst The strong feelings over the Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh spilled over at a public radio luncheon Friday as a hec There is no way for society to have a peaceful existence without a presumption of innocence, Matalin told listeners. Matalin characterized the treatment of Kavanaugh as evil and predicted the backlash against this weeks phase of the confirmation process would help Republicans in the coming midterm elections. Matalins comments prompted one audience member to rise from her seat for a rebuttal. I believe her, she shouted, referring to Fords testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. I did not attack her, Matalin responded, arguing that Americans can have sympathy for Ford while still believing Kavanaughs assertion of innocence. Matalin finished her remarks by thanking her heckler for expressing her views. That helped defuse a difficult situation and pointed to the principle that people can disagree agreeably a notion not very much in fashion these days. Fans of public radio, which is supposed to be an open forum for civil discourse, should be the biggest champions of the idea that an invited speaker at a community event be allowed to voice her opinion without being shouted down. The culture of democracy requires virtue, Matalin said. Surely the biggest virtue of a free people has to be tolerance of views that arent our own. Someone dared to show up wearing a Bills jersey Just the word "pandemic" Drunk cousin Lisa nodding off into the mashed potatoes ... again The Jeff Landry sign in your uncle's yard Vote View Results Efforts to enforce the citys living wage ordinance and ensure formerly incarcerated people have a fair shot of employment are priming New Orleans and Louisiana for comprehensive fair-hiring practices and better wages. The New Orleans City Councils Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed two ordinances Sept. 27: one aims to enforce the citys living wage ordinance for employees of city contractors, and another bans the box on criminal history for job applications for city hires as well as employees working for companies with city contracts. The measures head to the full City Council, where they're expected to pass. Advocates say theyre a start, and that city officials should use the momentum to begin peeling back other layers preventing employment and other opportunities for formerly incarcerated people, from moving toward banning the box statewide and in private sector jobs and in public housing. This is only the beginning of a long fight, said Kiana Calloway with Voice of the Experience (VOTE). The ban the box change aims to ensure applicants are considered for employment opportunities based on the merits of their skills and experience, and not weighed against their criminal history. It extends those rules to employers receiving grants or under city contracts or cooperative endeavor agreements. 'The ends aren't meeting': New Orleans workers, officials call to 'ban the box' and for better wages Barry Smith wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and clocks in at 6 with the New Orleans Department of Sanitation. For the last year and three months, hes w We have systems in place that prevent former offenders from having a chance in the first place, said Palmer, pointing to nearly 400 mandatory hiring restrictions for people with felony records, which she said is the equivalent of surgery with an ax rather than a scalpel. Moving this type of screening further into process allows candidates to provide the best version of themselves on the onset, Palmer said. Palmer also said that the rules should also apply to city boards and commissions, as well as the people who contract with boards and commissions, ending a cycle of disinvestment and crime that will hold our city back, she said. LaTanja Silvester, president of Service Employees International Union in New Orleans, said the box presents a barrier to people who already paid their debt to the community." That cycle disproportionately impacts black men, and a "box" often represents legal discrimination perpetuating systemic racism in and outside the criminal justice system. This is unfair, this is unorthodox, and I think its time we dig deep inside our hearts and policies so we can affect change, Silvester said. Step Up Louisiana has pushed city officials to introduce the measure, as well as equal pay enforcement and a $15 minimum wage. Co-director Ben Zucker says banning the box is the first step in trying to make public policy that makes it easier for people coming out of prison," but he also challenged city officials to consider, How can we leverage public dollars and the public sector to support folks coming back to find jobs in the most creative ways we can think of? Council Vice President Helena Moreno said there also should be efforts at the city level to organize a re-entry center, a sort of one-stop shop for people returning from prison to access jobs and other services that typically are disconnected, especially with recent state-level criminal justice reform to reduce sentences for certain offenders. Re-entry seems to be the big buzzword Everyone seems to be for it, but so often those barriers arent coming down, Moreno said. Cat Rieder with community re-entry program Roots of Renewal says initiatives to reduce prison sentences and recidivism are worthless without resources to connect people to jobs. But several formerly incarcerated people argued that even with the ability to land a job following a conviction, theyve been stifled by a lack of enforcement of the citys living wage ordinance. VOTE statewide organizer Dolfinette Martin said her first job after serving seven years, four months and 28 days was working on a moving truck. They didnt have a box, she said. We have to get rid of the box, but go a step further: Oversight, she said. If theyre not giving us the jobs, then dont give them the contracts. With several victories behind them and the likely passage of both ordinances by the full City Council in coming weeks, Step Up organizers and advocates are taking the next steps to ensure better wages Zucker told Gambit that the City Council also could use its bully pulpit to influence the private sector, and several councilmembers said theyre also willing to work with members of the Louisiana Legislature for state-level changes. Were standing on the hands of you all saying, 'make some change,' Sabrina Carter said. Convicted, female and black on my application what are my chances? Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission An awful lot of people watched the searing Friday video of two sexual assault survivors confronting U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake on an elevator moment A national fitness chain has reopened an investigation into allegations by a former employee that two supervisors in its Slidell location made racist comments about customers and other employees. Jill Greuling, a spokeswoman for LA Fitness in Irvine, California, said in an email late Wednesday that media coverage of complaints by Aireial Mack was "shocking" to the company. "In response, this morning we removed the two employees ... from their positions and we have reopened the investigation," Greuling said. "I assure you (that) if these accusations are confirmed, they will be terminated." Mark Mayeux, the gym's general manager, confirmed Thursday that he and Blake Mata, the fitness manager, have been removed for the time being. Mack has accused both men, who are white, of using racial slurs during the nearly five months she worked at the gym. She filed a complaint with the Louisiana Commission on Human Rights that cited a text message she said she received from Mata in January. The text message said Mack, who is African-American, had been taken off the schedule because of her hair. "We want a classy appearance. We don't want to leak off a n***er style don't take it wrong, just change it," the text message said. Mayeux and Mata, reached on their cell phones Thursday, both declined to comment. They did not respond to multiple calls for comment before The Advocate's initial story was published. "At this moment I do not have any comments until I speak to my attorney," Mata said. "Hopefully, this will all be resolved soon and comments will be made soon." Mack filed her discrimination complaint on March 6 with the LCHR, which investigates harassment and discrimination complaints in Louisiana and is the state version of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The state commission sent a letter to Mack in July that said the company had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which protects people from discrimination in the workplace, because she'd been taken off the schedule for "due to her natural hair." 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 LCHR attempted to negotiate an agreement with the company, but that effort failed, according to Leah Raby, the commission's director. The commission said the official reasons that LA Fitness gave for firing Mack poor attendance and job performance are justifiable grounds for terminating an employee. But its letter also said that Mack had presented additional evidence of Mata using the same slur used in the text message, indicating "that this was a constant practice of his." The EEOC concurred with the state commission's findings, Raby said, and will issue a "right to sue" letter to Mack, which means the federal agency is not taking action against the company. Greuling said company officials were never provided any evidence of discrimination and that, to her knowledge, Mack was let go for poor performance. "She referenced the one inappropriate text allegedly sent by Meta (sic) to her referencing her hair he denied it and she never produced it," Greuling said. "She also said he made comments about her body, which he denied." In the eight months since Mack was terminated, and through the discrimination claim process, Mack "never told us or the EEOC (as far as we know) about the additional texts or the video used in your piece, which seemed to contain horrible derogatory language. Even during our investigation and working with the EEOC through the mediation process, these other issues were never raised," Greuling said. She said Mack refused LA Fitness' requests to view text messages. Mack's attorney, Victor Faruggia, said he and his client "stand by the evidence that we presented as being authentic. If they want to see any of the evidence, we're happy to discuss that with their attorney." Mack has said she will sue the company. "The sincerity of my client came across on her interview," Faruggia said. "She suffered greatly from the harassment and discrimination at the club." Disney Cruise Line is headed to and from New Orleans. The Disney Wonder, a 2,700-passenger cruise ship, will set sail from the Port of New Orleans for six cruises in early 2020, Disney and port officials announced Thursday. It is the first time a Disney cruise will leave from a Louisiana port. Disney's decision to sail from New Orleans represents a victory for tourism officials who have worked for years to lure Disney in an effort to bolster the city's reputation as a family-friendly tourist destination. From a tourism perspective, this demonstrates that people recognize the diversity of our brand and the fact it is a growing destination for families, said Brandy Christian, president and chief executive officer of the Port of New Orleans. She hopes this can lead to more family-friendly attractions coming to New Orleans. While Disney is starting off with a handful of cruises, Christian said that should lead to more visits in the future. Its very typical to start with a limited number of cruises in a test market, to see if it fits, she said. New Orleans cruises sell very well and the ships usually sail full of passengers, she said, so she is very confident that more cruises will depart from the city in the future. Cruise ships are a prize for tourism officials because they draw in out-of-state tourists that often spend some time in New Orleans before or after their trips. According to the port, 90 percent of the passengers on ships that sail from New Orleans are coming from out-of-state and 73 percent of passengers spend one or two nights in the region either before or after their cruise. A recent report from Business Research & Economic Advisors found that the average passenger who boarded a cruise in New Orleans spent $208 in the city. Can't see video below? Click here. Bringing in Disney is the latest accomplishment for New Orleans, which is the sixth-largest cruise port in the United States. For four years in a row, the port has surpassed the million passenger mark. Officials have said the port will set a new cruise passenger record this year, topping the 1.15 million total it reached in 2017. The port is set to see a switch-out of other ships in the upcoming months. In November, Norwegian Cruise Line will replace its Norwegian Pearl by deploying the 4,000-passenger Norwegian Breakaway, the largest-occupancy cruise ship to sail from New Orleans. The Breakaway will then be replaced in November 2019 with the similarly sized Norwegian Getaway. In May, Carnival plans to deploy its 2,974-passenger Carnival Valor to New Orleans, replacing the 2,754-passenger Triumph. And in March, the 2,980-passenger Carnival Glory will replace the 3,646-passenger Carnival Dream. Christian said bringing in Disney Cruise Line was an accomplishment for a number of organizations, including New Orleans & Co., the citys destination marketing group, and the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp. The Disney Wonder will also have a bit of Crescent City flavor. One of the eateries on board the ship is Tianas Place, a reference to "The Princess and the Frog," a 2009 animated film set in New Orleans about a young woman who wanted to open a restaurant. The Disney ships will head to a variety of Caribbean and Bahamian destinations. Booking for the trips will be available as early as Oct. 4. The six cruises will be around the time of Mardi Gras, from Feb. 7 to March 6, 2020. The trips will include four-, six- and seven-night Western Caribbean sailings; a seven-night Bahamian cruise; and a 14-night Panama Canal voyage. Lance Benjamin II was 20 years old and working at McDonalds when Covington Police Chief Tim Lentz asked him to interview for an open position with the police department. That might seem odd, but Benjamin already had proven he had the chops to be a first responder. Benjamin enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in 2011 when he was senior at Covington High School, and two months after he got his diploma, he traded his cap and gown for Army fatigues. He reported to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, then Fort Lee in Virginia, and finally to Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse. But despite his time in the Reserve, Benjamin hadnt yet put his training to use full-time. Then, a friend who works with the City of Covington encouraged him to apply for an officers job with the CPD. Benjamin did, and the chief came calling a few days later. Lentz, who only recently had been named chief, saw something in Benjamin that told him the kid from West 29th Street had the makings of a good law enforcement officer. Hes a guy that when he smiles, he lights up a room, Lentz said of Benjamin, whos now 25. Lance has a great attitude. I changed my hiring philosophy years ago, and I started looking for people like him with people skills. I can train him and give him the (police) skills he needs to do this job. Benjamin was hired by the CPD only days after he turned 21, and he worked the Covington beat for three years before another opportunity called. This time, an instructor at Fort Lee encouraged him to apply for the Army Special Forces. Again, Benjamin made a life-altering decision, and he soon learned he was heading to Afghanistan for 400 days. His alerted his supervisors at the police department, but he also had to let his wife, Melana, know hed been selected for more than a year of overseas duty. Leaving behind their two young boys was the hardest part of the change, Benjamin said. I was able to communicate with my family (via Face Time) every three of four days, he said. That helped keep me grounded, but it definitely was hard with them only knowing me through the phone. St. Tammany top stories in your inbox A weekly guide to the biggest news in St. Tammany. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Benjamin was the main logistician for moving supplies throughout Afghanistan, and he was attached to three different Special Forces units there. He was stationed at Bagram Air Base, which is a safe place by wartime standards, but it wasnt uncommon for Taliban insurgents to fire mortars into the base from time to time, sending the soldiers scrambling. Benjamin said that besides enemy fire, just being away from loved ones and usual surroundings for 13 months takes its own toll. (Going overseas) was easier for me than some of the others, he said. I was gone for a month or so when I was training in the Reserves. But some other guys had a difficult transition. Being part of the police department, you learn a lot of soft skills on the job talking, presenting yourself well to others. Those things helped me out a lot over there. Benjamin finished his deployment in August, and he returned to Covington in mid-September. He said he didnt believe his return was for real until his plane left Frankfurt, Germany, headed for Fort Bliss in Texas. Benjamin spent the past few weeks catching up with his family, and marveling at how big his boys have grown since hes been gone. Lance III is 4 now, and Langston is 1. When I left, he was only 4 months old, Benjamin said of his youngest son. Now hes walking around, talking a little. It sure is different than seeing him on Face Time. Benjamin officially returned to work at the CPD on Oct. 1. While overseas, he was promoted to sergeant during a teleconference held at City Hall this summer. He said he was surprised by the promotion, but hes eager to learn any new duties that come with the position. Im not afraid of challenges, he said. I get that from my mom (Tyra Bradford.) Shes strong and has been a stabilizing figure for me. Lentz said Benjamins track record indicates hell not only rise to the challenge but emerge looking for another. Lance has a really bright future, Lentz said. Hes a good cop with a good heart. Hes community involved and he cares. Thats the type of policeman you want. Sgt. Lance Benjamin II of the Covington Police Department will ride in the St. Tammany Parish Fair as a special guest of honor. Look for him when the parade rolls through Covington on Oct. 5. Three former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office employees who sued Sheriff Randy Smith after he fired them have dismissed their claims against him, according to a federal court filing. David Hanson Sr., Tammy Hanson and David Hanson Jr. who recently lost a bid to have their civil suit placed on hold while a parallel criminal probe plays out decided instead to drop their lawsuit altogether. Seven plaintiffs remain in the suit. The three are closely related to one of the operators of an inmate work-release program near Slidell that is one of the subjects of a federal investigation into longtime Sheriff Jack Strain, whom Smith defeated in a 2015 election. Strain privatized the work-release program, which had been run in-house, after spending nearly $500,000 renovating the building that housed inmates in the program. He awarded a no-bid contract to run the program to a team that included Brandy Hanson and Jarret Cole Keen, relatives of people in his inner circle. Brandy Hanson is related to the three Hansons who are dropping their claims. Jarret Cole Keen is the son of Skip Keen, who is also a plaintiff in the suit. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier had recently rejected a request by the Hansons filed under seal asking for a stay of their lawsuit against Smith. 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 Though the motion remains under seal, Barbier's ruling made clear that the three were seeking the stay because of fear that one or more of them will be indicted in connection with the probe. Details about the inmate work program were among items sought in a subpoena served on the Sheriff's Office in March. In his denial, Barbier noted that the plaintiffs seeking the delay have other remedies, including dropping their claim. The lawsuit against Smith was brought by 10 former deputies who said Smith fired them shortly after he was elected because of their loyalty to Strain. The Advocate and WWL-TV moved to intervene in the lawsuit in hopes of revealing parts of the lawsuit that the plaintiffs want to keep secret, arguing that there is a strong public interest in understanding the case partly because the plaintiffs have made serious allegations against Smith. "The fact that these claims are no longer pending does not affect our desire to inform the public what these former plaintiffs wanted to tell the court under seal,'' Scott Sternberg, attorney for The Advocate, said. "Our motion to vacate the order sealing the Hansons' motions to stay is currently pending, and we look forward to hearing what the judge has to say on this issue of great interest to the citizens of St. Tammany Parish and the entire community," Sternberg said. For a man delivering such disturbing news to the Australian people, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg looked quite relaxed on Friday afternoon. Maybe it was all the footy in the air. The main take-outs from his press conference was that ASIC had been too willing to negotiate and not keen enough to litigate against banks behaving badly, the regulator can probably have more money, but it will have to ask first. Oh, and in news that will surprise nobody, if Royal Commissioner Kenneth Hayne wants to extend his inquiry, he too only has to say the word. The Treasurer said Commissioner Haynes interim report laid bare a culture among the nations financial institutions that put profit before people. Greed has been the motive and short term profits have been pursued at the expense of basic standards of honesty, Mr Frydenberg said. Banks and other institutions were operating with relative impunity, looks like. This interim report also makes clear that while behaviour was poor, misconduct when revealed either went unpunished or the consequences did not meet the seriousness of what has been done, The Treasurer declared. ASIC, the Commissioner points out, rarely went to court to seek public denunciation of and punishment for misconduct. Significantly, the Commissioner observes that infringement notices imposed penalties that were immaterial for the large banks. In Commissioner Haynes words: Too often, entities have been treated in ways that would allow them to think that they, not ASIC, not the Parliament, not the courts will decide when and how the law will be obeyed or the consequences of the breach remedied. Josh said that bit twice, in case anybody wasnt paying attention. On the all-important question of the timing of the release of the Royal Commission's interim report on a public holiday in Melbourne and on the eve of the AFL AND NRL grannies? You taking out the trash or what, Josh? "If we had sat on this report, because it was handed to the Governor-General today, you would have said 'what are you hiding?" the Treasurer assures us. ...and yes, there was a question on why the Turnbull government fought tooth-and-nail against this Royal Commission. Some bloke, can't remember who, even called the idea a "populist stunt". "We are the ones who got the Royal Commission up and running, we're the ones who added superannuation and insurance to the terms-of-reference and we're the ones who are implementing important reforms," Mr Frydenberg said. Guess that's sorted, then. The tug-o-war between iron ore billionaires Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart over junior WA miner Atlas ended on Friday after Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group announced it had sold its remaining shares. Fortescue sold its remaining 11 per cent to Rinehart's Redstone Corporation, giving Redstone its goal of 87 per cent control of the company. Atlas Iron was the subject of a takeover war between some of the country's biggest iron ore miners. Credit:Bloomberg On Wednesday Redstone, a subsidiary of Hancock Prospecting, said it controlled 77.06 per cent of Atlas. In August Fortescue lowered its stake from 19.9 per cent to 11.37 per cent. The most recent move gives Redstone at least 88 per cent of voting power in Atlas. (CNN) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Thursday that Iran has a "secret" nuclear facility and warehouse in Tehran, but offered no proof of the claim or details. Netanyahu, speaking to the United Nations General Assembly said that he had shared this information with the International Atomic Energy Agency and intelligence agencies. "What I'm about to say has not been shared before. Today, I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran," Netanyahu said. "A secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and ammunition and material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program." The Israeli leader showed the General Assembly what looks like satellite imagery of the alleged warehouse and archive sites, and then presented the UN with another visual which showed Google Map coordinates for what he said is the secret warehouse. Netanyahu's announcement comes a few months after Israel announced that it had stolen a trove of nuclear-related files and documents from a dilapidated Iranian warehouse. Making the announcement May 1, Netanyahu claimed that it showed Tehran had been lying about its nuclear ambitions when it engaged in negotiations over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. On Thursday Netanyahu said he was revealing the existence of a second and previously unknown warehouse. "In May, we exposed the site of Iran's secret atomic archive -- it's right here," he said pointing to poster, "in the Shorabad district of Tehran. Today, I'm revealing the sites of a second facility -- Iran's secret atomic warehouse ... a in the Tuquzabad district of Tehran, just three miles away." In the lead up to the annual diplomatic gathering, Israeli and US officials said they would be laser focused on Iran and its regional activities. An Israeli official told CNN just before UN week that "priority number one, two and three are Iran. The focus is going to be how we can work together, focus on the change of policy and how we can work together against Iran." Trump administration officials in New York used various venues to condemn Iran and rally other countries to join in an effort to pressure the country into changing its behavior. President Donald Trump called out Iran in his remarks to the General Assembly on Tuesday and on Wednesday warned that countries that did not comply with new sanctions against Tehran would face consequences. National security adviser John Bolton issued a stark warning to Iran Tuesday, demanding changes in Tehran's behavior and threatening "hell to pay" if they don't happen. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a report that the State Department said detailed Iran's malign behavior. Other U.S. officials briefed reporters on Iran and its activities. The message was clear and unified: Iran must change or deal with the U.S., and the world should join Washington in this endeavor. Netanyahu's government vigorously opposed nuclear the deal, which Trump pulled out of in May, even as other signatories -- the UK, France, Germany, the EU, Russia, Iran and China -- have stuck with the pact. CNN has requested additional information about Netanyahu's claims from the Israeli embassy in Washington, as well as from diplomatic missions of all the nations who remain signatories to the Iran nuclear deal. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Israeli PM claims Iran has a "secret" nuclear facility and warehouse." The future of The AFL Footy Show remains uncertain despite its grand final special narrowly beating Seven's The Front Bar on Thursday night. Host Eddie McGuire decided to farewell 2018 with a special broadcast live from Rod Laver Arena, and the show was packed with nostalgia given it was the program's 25th anniversary. The strategy appeared to pay dividends, with the Footy Show watched by more than 340,000 people across Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. In comparison, The Front Bar which remained triumphant in the ratings for much of this year snapped up around 335,000 viewers. It's standard for the Footy Show to win its timeslot immediately before the grand final, as it did on Thursday - but this year the Front Bar managed to closed the viewer gap down from 18,000 to just a couple thousand viewers. ACT Treasurer Andrew Barr has been ordered to reconsider a plea for an ex-gratia payment to help a boy who suffered lifelong injuries in a vicious dog attack. Jack Hartigan's family have urged Mr Barr to think hard about the decision, saying it could give them closure and help them to move on from the distressing incident. Dog attack victim Jack Hartigan shows the injuries to his scalp. Credit:Melissa Adams Jack was aged six when he had the skin ripped from his head, his face torn open, teeth knocked out, and an eye damaged during a savage attack by two American Pit Bull Terriers at a Griffith government housing property in 2010. He endured numerous surgical procedures to repair the damage since. Maurice Webb, who has died aged 93, flew as a navigator on a Mosquito squadron attacking shipping in the Bay of Biscay and off the Norwegian coast. Forced to bail out over France after an attack, he managed to return to England and was awarded an immediate DFM. Maurice Webb (right) who was a navigator shot down over France in World War 2. Webb and his pilot, Harold Hal Corbin, took off from an airfield in Cornwall on August 14 1944 to take part in a shipping strike on the Gironde River near the port of Bordeaux. Flying a Mosquito of 248 Squadron, they attacked a destroyer with rockets and cannons. They encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire from other ships and land batteries and the port engine of their aircraft was severely damaged; all the fuel was lost from one tank and the navigation equipment was wrecked. Flying on one engine at 50 ft, hoping to find a beach to crash-land on, they headed for Brittany, where US forces had recently liberated the airfield at Vannes. The remaining engine continued to function and Webb navigated the aircraft to the coast, but it was too dark to locate the airfield. A University of NSW employee accused of creating a terrorism-related notebook containing "symbolic" Australian locations has been granted bail after a handwriting expert could not confirm the notes were his. Court documents show Sri Lankan national Mohamed Kamer Nilar Nizamdeen, 25, was granted bail in Sydney Central Local Court on Friday after spending four weeks behind bars accused of creating a document in connection with preparations of a terrorism act. Sri Lankan national Mohamed Kamer Nilar Nizamdeen. Speaking with reporters outside court, Mr Nizamdeen's lawyer Moustafa Kheir said the case against him was "extremely weak, almost non-existent. "We will be continuing the fight until all charges are dropped and he is completed exonerated," he said. Some students already have low self esteem to start with and this is going to make it a hell of a lot worse. Short shorts are not a good look for the school and while some are too short, the majority wear the right length. Ms Edwards sent 20 girls home with a letter asking them to wear more appropriate shorts. She emailed their parents on Wednesday saying it was not my intention to reflect on the character of students addressed earlier, and I apologise if my choice of words caused offence. She sent another email on Thursday, saying my message may have led to some misrepresentation. A Department of Education spokesperson said the principal reiterated the importance of students wearing the correct uniform according to the policy endorsed by the school community. Loading The consistent wearing of the approved uniform develops students sense of belonging and pride in the school and projects a positive image in the community. The uniform also supports student wellbeing, for practical reasons and in identifying students. It is understood some male teachers have told students they did not feel uncomfortable about the girls shorts and rejected the suggestion they asked the principal to intervene. Mother Narelle Giles said her son Cain and his friends were mortified. They feel just as bad, thinking do these girls think were going to do something to them? Ms Giles said. The students said they wanted the principal to apologise to all students and staff. Ms Robsons daughter Ashley received one of the notes and said she felt targeted and worthless. She didnt go to school on Wednesday or Thursday. Its unfair Id never really thought about my shorts before, but this makes me feel self conscious, she said. We just want to feel comfortable in the clothes we wear. Sufiya Walk said she felt awful that someone could be saying something like that without knowing our personalities or what were like and didn't like hearing derogative terms. Nicola Walk said girls should not be judged by what we wear. When someone of your own gender does that thats what makes us feel more horrible, she said. We feel anger, frustration girls are worried what our male teachers and students are thinking. We should be feeling safe in school, not threatened. Weve been treated like objects, not people. Chris Walker with her daughters Ashlie Duffield and Melissa Duffield. Credit:Marina Neil Ashlie Duffield said she felt ashamed, and that we should be able to express ourselves, while her younger sister Melissa Duffield said she felt terrible. Everything weve been trying to instil in our girls about self esteem has been taken away in one day, Ms Giles said. The whole lot of them are miserable. We need a change of leadership, because this cant be fixed. Mother Sue Connors said the principal would have to earn back the respect of our girls. Mother Vicky Foster said theyre supposed to be taught to have respect for themselves and each other. I dont ever want to see my daughter come out of school again feeling worthless and dirty. The letter said the wearing of very short shorts was causing concern. Queensland police will lobby nationally for officers to be able to remotely shut down the engines of cars they are pursuing after a constable was seriously injured while trying to stop a vehicle. Police Commissioner Ian Stewart and Police Minister Mark Ryan on Friday backed a call for vehicle immobilisers to be introduced as Constable Peter McAulay, 24, remained in an induced coma in Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital. Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart salutes members of the force marching in a National Police Remembrance Day parade in Brisbane. Credit:AAP/Dan Peled. He had just placed tyre spikes on a road to stop the car in Ipswich on Thursday when he was struck, receiving serious head and internal injuries and broken bones. A 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl have been charged with attempted murder and unlawful use of a motor vehicle over the incident. A boilermaker, a tour boat captain and an aged pensioner got together to plan one of Queensland's biggest cocaine importations. They will now spend years in jail after it all went wrong. A 90-kilogram cocaine haul arrived in Australia via the yacht Solay in 2015. Credit:Australian Federal Police. Martin Mayers, Jordan Antic and Arthur Rivkin were handed jail sentences in Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday after being convicted over the Miami Vice-style bid to import 94 kilograms of cocaine to the Gold Coast. About half of the drugs, smuggled on a luxury yacht in August 2015, were destined for the streets of Sydney. Police will allege four men in their 20s from Perth's northern suburbs burnt, shot and stabbed a pair of kangaroos earlier this year. Overnight, Joondalup Detectives charged four young men over the alleged torture and death of the two kangaroos in May and June of this year. Earlier this week police issued a public appeal for information on the identity of those responsible for the deaths of the animals. Four men from Perth's northern suburbs have been charged after allegedly torturing and killing kangaroos. Police will be allege the men were involved in one incident where a kangaroo was burnt, shot with a firearm, spat on and kicked, then while being held by a man, the kangaroo was punched numerous times by another man wearing knuckle dusters. Democrats, who have opposed Kavanaugh's nomination from the outset, had called for an FBI probe, but Republicans and Trump had opposed the move. "The Senate Judiciary Committee will request that the administration instruct the FBI to conduct a supplemental FBI background investigation with respect to the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court," the committee said in a statement. "The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today," it added. Loading If confirmed, Kavanaugh would consolidate conservative control of the nation's highest court and advance Trump's broad effort to shift the American judiciary to the right. "This country's being ripped apart here," Flake, with a pained look on his face, told his fellow senators about the nomination fight. "I think we can have a short pause." "We ought to do what we can to make sure that we do all due diligence with a nomination this important," said Flake, who earlier in the day announced he would vote for Kavanaugh in the committee. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican who has not said how she will vote on Kavanaugh, quickly endorsed Flake's request before Republican leaders agreed to accept it. "I'm going to let the Senate handle that. They'll make their decisions. And they've been doing a good job. Very professional," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when told about Flake's request. The Republican President, however, indicated he was sticking with Kavanaugh's nomination, saying he has not thought "even a little bit" about a replacement for his nominee. Christine Blasey Ford holds back tears as she testifies to the US Senate about an alleged assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Credit:AP The committee moved to advance the nomination 11-10 on party lines, with Trump's fellow Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no. "All I've said to Senator Flake is I would advocate for the position he took, but I don't control that," said Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the committee. Even before Flake's announcement, it was unclear if Republicans had the votes to confirm Kavanaugh on the Senate floor. Republicans hold a slim Senate 51-49 majority, making the votes of two other so-far undecided Republican moderates crucial: Murkowski and Susan Collins. Trump said Murkowski and Collins must do what they think is right. Murkowski said she supposed Flake's move, as did moderate Democrat Joe Manchin, who has not yet announced how he will vote on Kavanaugh. Brett Kavanaugh made an impassioned defence of his character. Credit:AP On the Senate floor, Trump can afford to lose the vote of only one senator in his own party if all the Democrats vote against Kavanaugh and Vice President Pence casts a tie-breaking vote. Trump said he found Ford's testimony "very compelling" and Kavanaugh's angry and defiant response "incredible". "I just want it to work out well for the country. If that happens, I'm happy," Trump added. Just before the scheduled vote in the committee, Flake left the room to talk to some Democrats, adding turmoil to the proceedings. During the delay, senators and aides could be seen in the committee room having hushed conversations, with some going back and forth to an anteroom of the committee chamber. "It is my hope that we could work together on a bipartisan basis to diligently pursue an FBI investigation within the next week, not for the purpose of delay but for the purpose of investigating further - either allegations made by Dr Ford or others," said Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who played an important role in the negotiations. Earlier in the day Flake, who had previously raised concerns about the allegations against Kavanaugh, said Ford gave "compelling testimony" but Kavanaugh provided "a persuasive response". Soon after Flake made his announcement that he would vote for Kavanaugh, the senator was confronted in an elevator while on his way to the committee meeting by two protesters who said they were sexual assault survivors. Loading "That's what you're telling all women in America - that they don't matter, they should just keep it to themselves," one of the protesters shouted at Flake in an exchange aired by CNN. "I need to go to my hearing. I've issued my statement," Flake said. The timing of the panel's session gave committee members little time to review Thursday's extraordinary testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford. Kavanaugh accused Democrats of a "calculated and orchestrated political hit". Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said that Republican leadership would have to listen to Flake and potentially other senators who want an FBI probe. Before Flake's move, committee Republicans voted down a Democratic motion seeking to subpoena Mark Judge, a Kavanaugh friend who Ford said witnessed the assault. Judge had told the committee in a written statement he does not recall any such incident. He is likely to be central to any FBI probe. "If the FBI or any law enforcement agency requests Mr. Judge's cooperation, he will answer any and all questions posed to him," said his lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder. 'Intergalactic freak show' As the committee, with 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, set its vote, some Democrats left the room in protest. "What a railroad job," Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono said. One Republican, Senator John Kennedy, called Kavanaugh's confirmation process "an intergalactic freak show". Senator Ted Cruz (left) and Senator Lindsey Graham (right) have a hushed conversation in dramatic scenes minutes before the scheduled vote. Credit:Bloomberg Grassley said he found Thursday's testimony from both Ford and Kavanaugh "credible," but added, "There's simply no reason to deny Judge Kavanaugh a seat on the Supreme Court on the basis of evidence presented to us." Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committee's senior Democrat, called Kavanaugh's remarks unseemly for a judicial nominee. "This was someone who was aggressive and belligerent. I have never seen someone who wants to be elevated to the highest court in the country behave in that manner. In stark contrast, the person who testified yesterday and demonstrated a balanced temperament was Dr Ford," Feinstein said. Klobuchar noted that Grassley had thanked Ford for her bravery but nevertheless failed to back any further investigation. Loading "Where is the bravery in this room?" Klobuchar asked. The controversy has unfolded just weeks ahead of the November 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to seize control of Congress from the Republicans, against a backdrop of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault. Democrats said Kavanaugh's confirmation could taint the Supreme Court, which prides itself on staying above the political fray. "Voting to advance and ultimately confirm Judge Kavanaugh while he is under this dark cloud of suspicion will forever change the Senate and our nation's high court. It will politicise the US Supreme Court," Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said. The American Bar Association, which earlier endorsed Kavanaugh, and the dean of Yale Law School, which Kavanaugh attended, also called for an FBI probe on Friday, the first indication of the legal profession turning on the nominee. Kavanaugh could be the deciding vote on contentious legal issues if he is confirmed to the nine-member court, with disputes involving abortion, immigration, gay rights, voting rights and transgender troops possibly heading to the court soon. The court begins its next term on Monday, down one justice after the retirement of conservative Anthony Kennedy effective in July. Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace Kennedy. Moments before a much-anticipated hearing about sexual assault allegations against US Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Fox News host Chris Wallace said his daughters revealed details about incidents they had faced during their own adolescence. Chris Wallace of Fox News said his own daughters had revealed details about incidents they had faced during their own adolescence. Credit:AP While waiting for Kavanaugh and one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, to arrive at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Wallace said on live TV that, over the past week, his relatives, "like a lot of American families", have been discussing and debating the controversy surrounding the allegations against the nominee. During those conversations, he said, "Two of my daughters told me stories that I had never heard before about things that happened to them in high school." Wallace acknowledged that the allegations were not as serious as those against Kavanaugh, but, he said, "The point is that there are teenage girls who don't tell stories to a lot of people and then it comes up." Mazda Production and Sales Results for August 2018 TOKYO, Sep, 27 2018; Mazda Motor Corporation's production and sales results for August 2018 are summarized below. 1. Domestic Production Mazda's total domestic production volume in August 2018 decreased 7.1% year on year due to decreased production of passenger and commercial vehicles. [Domestic production of key models in August 2018] CX-5: 26,503 units (down 0.2% year on year) CX-3: 9,903 units (down 11.9%) Mazda3 (Axela): 9,210 units (down 13.1%) 2. Overseas Production Mazda's overseas production volume in August 2018 decreased 6.3% year on year due to decreased production of passenger and commercial vehicles. [Overseas production of key models in August 2018] Mazda3: 15,014 units (down 21.7% year on year) Mazda2: 9,694 units (up 5.3%) CX-4: 5,313 units (down 14.2%) II. Domestic sales Mazda's total domestic sales volume in August 2018 increased 11.6% year on year due to increased sales of passenger vehicles. Mazda's registered vehicle market share was 5.1% (up 0.5 points year on year), with a 2.7% share of the micro-mini segment (up 0.1 points) and a 4.2% total market share (up 0.3 points). [Domestic sales of key models in August 2018] Mazda2 (Demio): 4,010 units (up 7.2% year on year) CX-5: 2,105 units (down 16.6%) CX-8: 1,393 units III. Exports Mazda's export volume in August 2018 decreased 9.3% year on year, reflecting decreased shipments to North America, Oceania and other regions. [Exports of key models in August 2018] CX-5: 24,486 units (down 7.1% year on year) CX-3: 10,072 units (up 3.9%) Mazda3: 9,590 units (down 3.3%) About Mazda UAW helps Ford Move the 100 Year Old Rouge Plant Into Tomorrowland By Maureeen McDonald Senior Editor Michigan Bureau The Auto Channel Blue coveralls and union jackets were everywhere at the 100th anniversary of the Rouge, Ford Motor Companys premier factory. If organized labor has suffered setbacks in Washington, D.C. and Lansing, MI, the work force has serious traction in Dearborn, MI. The Rouge complex is where UAW members for generations have built quality products and earned the dignity and respect of the automotive community, said Rory Gamble, UAW-Ford Vice President. In many ways, the Rouge complex is the heartbeat of all that the American labor movement represents. Labor leaders, Ford executives and rank and file joined together for a celebration on a crisp September morning as Bill Ford, executive chairman detailed some of the losses and major wins over the years and announced the innovative, aluminum-bodied F150 would soon be joined by a hybrid electrified F-150 made at the plant. The legacy is known worldwide for its massive size and sheer longevity. The Rouge helped build Americas middle class with the $5-a-day wage, providing jobs for disabled workers and profit sharing. Ford introduced social workers to visit homes and assure families were living up to company standards to keep their jobs. The plant had its own ambulance service, police force and hospital. At its peak in the 1930s, 100,000 people worked at the plant. If the Rouge were a city, it would have been the fourth largest in Michigan. On the sprawling site was a power plant, steel mill, glass factory and hundreds of miles of rail and assembly lines. In 1937, the Rouge became the flash point of company and union relations with the Battle of the Overpass on Miller Road near the pedestrian entrance to the factory. Walter Reuther, leader of the UAW and others came to the plant to demand an $8-dollar, six-hour day, according to Wikipedia. When the stopped to pose for a photograph, Fords director of security, Harry Bennett and the Pinkerton security force surrounded them and began beating heads. Several people were hospitalized, some never completely recovered. Battle Of the Overpass The Rouge Dearborn Within three years the company ratified a contract with the UAW and has continued collective bargaining, even though the work force has dwindled. The Rouge survived 18 recessions over the 20th century. Six employees died in a power plant explosion in 1999 with more than a dozen others injured. Bill Ford went to the hospital to visit survivors and vowed to help make the plant safer for all. Ford, great grandson of the founder, said people suggested in the early 2000s that the Rouge should be shuttered. Instead it became a world class model for sustainability. The staff installed sedum, a rugged plant often used as ground cover, on the roof of a new 1.1 million-square-foot assembly plant in 2002. That would represent 10 acres, 454,000 square feet to be rolled out, watered and nurtured on the worlds largest living roof. It was part of a $2 billion redevelopment project Ford undertook to modernize the plant. A sedum roof, which the company has sustained for better than 15 years, reduces the amount of energy needed to heat or cool the building and cleanses rainwater flowing off the building. Automation, globalization and the economy have taken a toll on the worker count. Today the employee count hovers around 7,000 with 500 giant robots. Yet the assembly line keeps moving along. Models from some of the 28 vehicle lines were dotted around the parking lot where the ceremony was held, from the Model A, to a Ford tractor, to pictures of the Eagle, a cargo ship the plant built during World War I. Today, Ford and UAW are investing $35 million to expand a nearby facility to further train its workforce: Ford has opened a new $45 million Advanced Manufacturing Center, a 135,000 square foot building nearby to train a 21st century workforce. One of the newest trends is the power suit, or exoskeleton, that resembles Iron Mans armor from the Marvel Comics films. This would be a metal framework fitted with motorized muscles that can multiply the strength of a worker welding or tightening a vehicle on the line. It has a rigid lumbar support and a neck pillow to help reduce repetitive motion injuries, the bane of existence for skilled labor. Another work station conducts 3-D printing to make tools that help improve the job and the ergonomics for workers. Many of the parts are prototypes that go to a supplier to make in volume, but it represents the kind of innovation workers and management are producing together. Ten million people have toured the Rouge to watch one of the few assembly lines open to the public. The guest list includes countless celebrities and political officials, including President Bill Clinton in 2004 and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. To us, its more than a factory, Bill Ford said. Its a source of pride for generations of workers who have built the best cars and trucks in the world. Its an all-American symbol of Strength, opportunity, and hope; a place where weve always been creating tomorrow together. To take a Rouge plant tour To take a Rouge plant tour Senator Mazie Hirono walking out during Kavanaugh hearing. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Four Democratic senators Kamala Harris, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, and Sheldon Whitehouse walked out in protest during Fridays Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Brett Kavanaughs confirmation to the Supreme Court. After a contentious Thursday hearing on Christine Blasey Fords sexual-assault allegation against Kavanaugh, Democrats asked during the Friday committee meeting that the nominees alleged accomplice, conservative writer Mark Judge, be subpoenaed. Their request was rejected after an 11-10 vote. But once the Republicans on the committee voted to schedule the vote on Kavanaugh for 1:30 p.m. that day, the four senators got up and left the hearing room. I strongly object, Hirono said as she walked out. This is just totally ridiculous. What a railroad job. In a press conference held simultaneously as Grassley continued to speak in the meeting the senators decried the vote. From the beginning on this, it should not be about raw power influencing the outcome of a decision that is about not only a statement of what we hold as being precious and important in our system of justice, but who will sit for a lifetime on the Supreme Court, Senator Kamala Harris said. And this has been about raw power. Youre seeing that on display in the hearing this morning; youre seeing that in the process from the beginning. This is a failure of this body to do what it has always said it is about, which is be deliberative. .@KamalaHarris: "This is about raw power... It has been pushing and pushing and ramming this thing through because they have the power, as opposed to the integrity to say, let the American people know." pic.twitter.com/X6lJEDuNoX Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 28, 2018 When asked whether the walk-out was coordinated and why the Democrats had put so much focus on calling for an FBI investigation during the hearing, Hirono replied, You dont think a FBI investigation is at the core of all of this? What have we been saying if not all of that? She added, And by the way we did not coordinate walking out. We feel this in here, pointing to her heart. Morris. Photo: Facebook/Kiah Morris Kiah Morris, the only black woman in the Vermont House of Representatives, has spent the last two years enduring racist tweets, the spread of neo-Nazi propaganda, and even an invasion of her familys home. It started during Morriss 2016 reelection campaign, when she began seeing neo-Nazi fliers being spread around Bennington, and at the door of the Democratic Party headquarters. Shortly after winning the primary in August, she saw a racist cartoon on Twitter, accompanied by offensive language. (She then shared it on her Facebook page.) The man who posted the caricature said he was demonstrating the absurdity of a black woman being a Vermont state representative. After winning, Morriss home was vandalized, with swastikas carved into the trees outside, and this year, her family received a death threat. Rather than finishing out her term, Morris announced on September 25 that she would be stepping down. The sacrifices were becoming too great, she told the Washington Post Thursday morning. She will remain 100 percent focused on her family, which includes a 7-year-old son. When I looked at all of this in the aggregate and realized the severity of what we could be facing, I knew I needed to focus on my family and our safety, she told the Post. As a black mother, its my role to emulate the strength and courage thats necessary to deal with a world thats not rehearsed at dealing with issues of race, that in many ways is stacked against people of color, and those lessons about the threats to our lives that happen just because of our mere existence should not have to come in this format. It should not have to come into my sons heart that way. Morris had gone to the Bennington police to investigate the threats, but said she did not feel they had made progress. On August 27, the Vermont Attorney Generals Office announced in a brief statement that it was looking into the online threats made against Morris. After Morris steps down, Democrat Kevin Christine will be the only remaining black representative in the Vermont House, one of just four people of color in the legislature of Vermont a state thats 94 percent white. Kiah has worked hard for her constituents, and I will miss working with her It will be hard to find someone to match her enthusiasm and commitment, Vermont state senator Dick Sears told the Bennington Banner. I wish her and her family nothing but the best. This is the second solar farm proposal in Yorkville to come before the City Council this year. Cenergy Power, which had requested special use permit approval to install and operate 7,000 solar modules on 10 acres of leased farmland near Routes 126 and 71, withdrew its application in June after hearing the objections of five of the eight City Council members. Simon has been a long supporter of animal protection charities, and owns three Yorkshire Terriers himself - Squiddly, Diddly and Freddy. Very different to the persona he portrays on TV. HSI have permanently shut down 12 dog farms to date, saving nearly 1,400 dogs, but they say there are still thousands of factory farms breeding millions of dogs a year. An animal rescue team will be flying out to rescue the dogs next week, where they'll be sent to the US, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands to be rehomed. HSI UK's executive director, Claire Bass, says "These poor dogs have had the worst lives so far, so we're desperate to get them out of those dreadful cages and show them love, soft beds and loving arms for the first time in their lives." Nawwww, we're so happy these little doggys are getting a second chance <3 British artist Heather Alstead is offering up personalised pooch wrapping paper, featuring the face of your chosen doggy and their name. You can choose from over 40 different breeds, select it's fur colour, then enter their name and ouila! you've got the cutest damn wrapping paper ever. Have a look at all the options here. Heather Alstead Designs also creates personalised doggo mugs, cards, keychains and more - so maybe warn your fam that all they're going to be getting this year is a range of items with your dogs face on them! You're welcome. 15 Moderate Aftershocks Hit After 7.5-Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Indonesia At least 15 moderate-strength aftershocks hit around the area where a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Many of the aftershocks after the initial, 7.5-magnitude quake were 5.0-magnitude or greater on the Richter scale, according to the agency. At least four moderate earthquakes struck before the 7.5-magnitude quake hit. All of the aftershocks and foreshocks listed on the USGSs website were at least 4.6-magnitude or greater. The Associated Press reported that at least one person was confirmed dead in the quake and ensuing tsunami. The tremor hit the island of Sulawesi and reportedly destroyed buildings. An official with the countrys disaster agency said that many houses have collapsed, AP reported. It happened while we still have difficulties in collecting data from nine villages affected by the first quake, he told AP. People ran out in panic. Video footage that is believed to have been shot in Palu shows a massive moving wall of water hitting buildings and inundating streets. This footage shows the catastrophic moment when #tsunami hit the city of Palu after 7.7 magnitude #earthquake shook the city this evening. #prayforpalu #prayforindonesia pic.twitter.com/I8JBi4dZjz Ramadhani Eko P (@ramadhaniep) September 28, 2018 Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told AP that people need to be vigilant due to the aftershocks. People are encouraged to remain vigilant, Sutopo said. It is better not to be in a house or building because the potential for aftershocks can be dangerous. People are encouraged to gather in safe areas. Avoid the slopes of hills. Dwikorita Karnawati, the chief of Indonesias meteorology and geophysics agency, told Reuters that the tsunami receded, but it caused severe damage. The news agency reported that the number of casualties is currently unknown. He said the tsunami was about 6 feet high. The situation is chaotic. People are running on the streets and buildings have collapsed, Karnawati told Reuters. There is a ship washed ashore. In 2004, an earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra, triggering a massive tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries. More than 120,000 died in Indonesia. The quake and aftershocks came about a month after an earthquake killed as many as 500 on the island of Lombok in Indonesia, according to The Weather Channel. The national search and rescue agency will deploy a large ship and helicopters to aid the operation, said agency chief Muhammad Syaugi, adding he had not been able to contact his team in Palu. The armed forces and police will also provide troops and equipment to support the emergency response, officials said. Oil company Pertamina said its fuel depot in Donggala had been damaged in the incident though there was no oil spill. Fuel tanks had shifted in the quake and ship loading facilities were disabled among other damage. The Palu airport was closed as a result of the tremor, Reuters reported. Indonesia lies on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly struck by earthquakes. Reuters contributed to this report. Apparently it works, and what does it say about an establishment that claims they have to have gambling in order to be profitable? Perhaps it says something about the food, the service or the pricing. An Open Letter to California Governor Jerry Brown 'The public discussion around climate change all too frequently involves motives, not science.' Commentary Dear Gov. Brown: You have recently been widely quoted criticizing President Donald Trumps policies with regard to climate change. You have been quoted as saying the president is deny[ing] science and engaging in what are lies, distortions, and quite frankly, bizarre behavior. Since I possess actual scientific credentialsI have a degree in chemistry, have more than 30 years experience involving air-quality issues, and have twice testified before congressional committees regarding air-quality regulationI am curious to know why you believe you are personally qualified to assert that the president is denying science. Note the word personally. I believe you are a smart guy. As a smart guy, I would expect that you, and so many others who think that climate change is a clear and present danger to civilization and that the United States has a unique ability to combat that danger, would choose to dive as deep as you possibly can into a personal understanding of the scientific issues involved. But, I dont see that you, or many of those who echo your alarmist message, make any personal attempt to understand the details of the science involved. I can only conclude that you 1) dont believe you are intellectually capable of diving into the details of an issue outside of your comfort zone, and/or; 2) are incredibly confident that those scientists who agree with you are pure of heart and infallible in their conclusions, while those scientists who disagree with you are of evil intent and willing to knowingly utter false statements, and/or; 3) are somehow certaindespite your personal lack of understanding of the science involvedthat you can, as a public servant, universally place your faith regarding an issue you dont personally pretend to understand in the hands of selected academics, environmental NGOs, and the public relations professionals associated with both. The public discussion around climate change all too frequently involves motives, not science. This is true on both sides. The right all too often tries to paint climate-change alarmists as would-be socialists who use the issue to further their ultimate goal of centralized, government-mandated control of society. The left typically urges the public to dismiss anyone who questions climate-change heterodoxy becausein their version of realityanyone who would so shame themselves thus is clearly being controlled by evil corporate energy giants such as ExxonMobil. We can discuss motivation until we are blue in the face. Indeed, media-relations professionals on both sides really, really want us to do just that. Arguing about motives is sexy. Arguing about actual science is boring. As a scientist, I do not care one-tenth of one-hundredth of 1 percent about motivation when considering a scientific issue. I care about the scienceperiod. If you want to tell me Im wrong, thats fine. If you want to tell me to shut up because you dont like my worldview, then Ill refer you to Pope Urban VIII for further consideration of the problem. Personally, I find Trumps characterization of climate change as a hoax unfortunate. The word hoax implies knowing, purposed misrepresentation. I dont think thats whats going on here. I rather think that the errors I believe most climate-change crusaders make are about hubris, not knowing ill-will. Many scientists have been, are, and, I suspect, always will be, blinded by hubris. Even Einstein, arguably the greatest scientist of all time, was guilty of it. After Fr. George Lemaitre published a paper, based on Einsteins theories of relativity, proposing the Big Bang as the origin of all creation, Einstein pooh-poohed the Belgian priests way of thinking, saying, Your calculations are correct, but your grasp of physics is abominable. The Big Bang theory was extreme. It ran contrary to accepted scientific orthodoxy at the time, one that posited a universe without temporal beginning or end. Einstein was clearly appalled that an obscure Belgian academic and theologian took his work and turned classic cosmology upside down. Yet, only six years later, Einstein applauded Lemaitre, publicly declaring the priests work on the origin of the universe as the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened. It is difficult to imagine hard-core climate-change alarmists like Michael Mann or Gavin Schmidt having, much less admitting to, such honest moments of self-reflection. They are entrenched. And while I cannot definitively say why they are so entrenched, and while it doesnt matter why they choose to be so entrenched, I believeknowing the academic mindthat their obstinacy is about professional hubris, not about any political agenda. Governor, should you choose to attempt to move beyond the entrenched opinions of academics like Mann and Schmidt, I challenge you to answer the following fact-based questions, the answers to which can be easily found by anyone interested in the truth, rather than an agenda: How much of a reduction or increase in net U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions have occurred between 2008 and now, based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data? How much have U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions contributed to total, global greenhouse-gas emissions between 2008 and now, based on U.S. EPA data? What is the difference between initial IPCC predictions of global climate temperature increases based on modeling in the early 2000s and actual IPCC reports of global climate temperature increases in their latest publications? How does global atmospheric temperature data, as collected by NASA satellites and radiosondes, differ from the surface temperature record, and how do you explain any differences in the magnitude of trends of these data sets? Consider worst-case IPCC models involving maximum IPCC projections for global, non-U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions and maximum possible U.S. greenhouse-gas reductions. What is the overall relative global effect on predicted global temperatures versus the same scenario in which the United States doesnt make maximum possible greenhouse-gas reductions? Should this missive cross your desk, Im not expecting a frank, honest, reflective answer to these questions from you, Gov. Brown. I would welcome such answers, as I would welcome a frank, honest discussion of the issues I have raised with anyone. But, I am a scientist and you are a politician. It is your PR professionals who will frame your response to this note should you offer one, just as would be the case if I sent a similar missive to your political opponents. And I think thats a shame. We deserve better. Respectfully, Richard J. Trzupek Richard J. Trzupek is a chemist and environmental consultant, as well as an analyst at the Heartland Institute. He is also the author of Regulators Gone Wild: How the EPA Is Ruining American Industry. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A man stole credit cards and IDs from eight cars before he fell asleep in one of them and got arrested. (Joe Amon/Getty Images) Authorities: Man Steals From Cars, Falls Asleep, Is Arrested Authorities in suburban Atlanta say a man stole credit cards and IDs from eight cars before he fell asleep in one of them and got arrested. The Cherokee County Sheriffs Office tells news outlets in a statement that 23-year-old Timothy Zacharie was arrested Sept. 25 after a deputy found him sleeping inside the parked car of a resident in an Acworth neighborhood. The sheriffs office says it had been contacted about someone stealing from vehicles and the deputy discovered Zacharie while searching the area. Investigators say he was found with cash and gift cards that also belong to residents. Zacharie was charged with several offenses including burglary. It is unclear if he has a lawyer who could comment. The neighborhood is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta. A Chinese paramilitary officer stands guard before a row of Russian Su-27 fighter jets ahead a rehearsal of aerobatics show at Zhangjiajie Lotus Airport in China's central province of Hunan, 17 March 2006. (LIU JIN/AFP/Getty Images) Beijing Chafes At US Sanctions Over Its Purchase of Russian Arms The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the Chinese military on Sep. 20 for buying fighter jets and missile systems from Russia, in breach of a sweeping U.S. sanctions law punishing Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. The U.S. State Department said it would immediately impose sanctions on Chinas Equipment Development Department (EDD), the military branch responsible for weapons and equipment, and its director, Li Shangfu, for engaging in significant transactions with Rosoboronexport, Russias main arms exporter. The sanctions are related to Chinas purchase of 10 SU-35 combat aircraft in 2017 and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment in 2018, the State Department said. They block the Chinese agency, and Li, from applying for export licenses and participating in the U.S. financial system. All Lis assets in the U.S. have been frozen, as well as his U.S. visa. It also adds them to the Treasury Departments list of specially designated individuals with whom Americans are barred from doing business. The U.S. also blacklisted another 33 people and entities associated with the Russian military and intelligence, adding them to a list under the 2017 law, known as the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA. Doing significant business with anyone on the U.S. blacklist can trigger sanctions like those imposed on China. President Donald Trump on Sep. 25 issued an executive order intended to facilitate implementation of the sanctions. Members of Congress, including many of Trumps fellow Republicans, who passed the sanctions bill nearly unanimously, have repeatedly called on the administration to take a harder line against Moscow. Administration officials said they hoped the action against EDD would send a message to others considering buying the S-400. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime reacted strongly to the sanction, expressing anger and demanding they be withdrawn. Xie Tian, a professor at the Aiken School of Business at the University of South Carolina, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on Sep. 25 that the EED is responsible for purchasing weapons and military equipment. The Chinese regime imports equipment from Russia and exports armaments to third world countries. These capital flows require international financial institutions to function. According to Xie, if the EED is banned from trading with any U.S.-related financial institution, it would be difficult to do business with any other country in the world apart from Russia. If European financial institutions trade with the CCP, he said, the United States will also impose sanctions on them. In effect, financial systems around the entire world will stop making weapons deals with the Party, which would be a critical blow. Heng He, an expert in China issues, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on Sept. 26 that in his view, the sanctions are mainly a result of the CCP regimes failure to abide by standard international practices. This is a counterattack by the United States for the Partys deceiving and taking advantage of the international community over the past few decades, Heng He said. Both the trade war and military sanctions are just part of the counterattack for the Chinese communist regimes challenging and disrupting the international order. On Sept. 23, Tang Jingyuan, a U.S.-based commentator on Chinese current affairs, told the New York-based NTD Television that the shock that comes with the military sanction is much greater than that of the increasing U.S. tariffs on Chinese exports. Tang believes that however devastating the tariffs may be, the Chinese regime can always transmit the costs of the trade war to the Chinese populace. However, much of the wealth owned by top Party officials is stored in the United States and other Western countries. These officials, Tang said, are most afraid of having their assets frozen and not being able to get visas to travel abroad. Many of them are naked officials whose children and spouses have emigrated, meaning that sanctions directed against them personally would cut them off from their wealth and their families. Reuters, Epoch Times staff members Lin Yan and Luo Ya, and NTD Television contributed to this report. Crash Death Driver: 18 Seconds on a Phone, 5 Years in Jail A man has been jailed for five years after video footage showed him looking at his phone for 18 seconds before his truck plowed into a car, killing the occupant. The incident happened last February in Dumfries Scotland. David Shields, 34, admitted to dangerous driving and was sentenced to five years imprisonment on Sept. 28. He is banned from driving for seven and a half years. Shields said he was ashamed of his actions and apologized to the family of Yvonne Blackman, who was killed in the crash. Shields was driving a breakdown recovery truck at speed on the A75 in Dumfries, using his phone, mounted on the dashboard. Video footage shows Shields focusing on his phone, glancing up after 18 seconds, and trying to brake just before his truck runs into a line of traffic. Blackman, 66, of Lockerbie, was in the first car in the line. She never recovered from her injuries and died weeks later in the hospital. Sgt. Paul Dodds of Dumfries Police said a statement, This tragic and entirely avoidable crash clearly demonstrates the fatal consequences, which can occur when a driver allows themselves to be distracted by another device whether handheld or otherwise. Acknowledging that Shields had pleaded guilty, the judge said she was sure that he bitterly regretted his mistake. Passing sentencing the judge, Lady Stacey said, I have seen a video of the crash and know you were paying heed to your mobile phone for 18 seconds. It was a very dangerous thing to do. I know you did not intend the catastrophic result, but you should have known the terrible risk you were taking, she added. Shields defense counsel John Scullion QC said, He has asked me to apologized to Mrs. Blackmans family and is ashamed of his actions that day. Blackman s husband described the sentence as a reasonable deterrent. F-35 Stealth Fighter Jet Crashes in South Carolina A Marine F-35 stealth fighter crashed in South Carolina on Sept. 28, and the pilot ejected, according to officials. The F-35B joint strike fighter crashed near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, South Carolina. It is the first-ever crash of the high-cost stealth plane. The Beaufort County Sheriffs Office said the crash took place at 11:45 a.m. local time near Clarendon Road and Joe Allen Drive in Grays Hill. The military has confirmed that it was a military plane. It is unknown if there are any injuries associated with the crash. We will keep you updated as information becomes available. Please avoid the area, the office said. The sheriffs office said the pilot ejected safely, CBS News reported. Military plane crash in Beaufort near Joe Allen Drive area. Appears to have crashed on a bluff/island owned by Clarendon Plantations. Not usually many people over there. Praying for the safety of all involved! pic.twitter.com/dM5a8v2lg1 Sam Richardson (@SamRichardsonAM) September 28, 2018 Capt. Bob Bromidge, with the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office, told ABC News that the U.S. Marine Corps confirmed the plane was an F-35. The Marine Corps confirmed that it was one of theirs, Bromidge said. Its a total loss, an unnamed Marines official told the AFP news agency. It comes one day after a Marine Corps F-35B conducted its first-ever airstrike in Afghanistan. Few details were revealed about the airstrike. The Marines confirmed the strike to CNN: During this mission the F-35B conducted an air strike in support of ground clearance operations, and the strike was deemed successful by the ground force commander. The F-35B is a variant of the F-35 and is the only one with the ability to land vertically similar to a helicopter. Some have called the F-35 the most expensive weapons program ever. Reuters reported on Sept. 28, that Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon have an $11.5 billion contract to produce F-35 planes, lowering the price by more than 5 percent. Driving down cost is critical to the success of this program, said Vice Admiral Mat Winter, head of the Pentagons F-35 office. Florence Woes Continue With Winds, Rainand Giant Mosquitoes North Carolina got thoroughly pounded by Hurricane Florence. The wind wasnt as bad as had been predicted, but the torrential rain has certainly taken its toll. Now, the rain has created another hazard. Stretches of standing water are now the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, and one that has been particularly successful after the rains is three times as large as normal. For some North Carolina residents still cleaning up after Hurricane Florence, it seems like a nightmare following a bad dream. Robert Phillips stepped in the yard of his home in the Eastover neighborhood of Fayetteville and was immediately swarmed by the gigantic insects. A bad horror movie, was how he described it. They were inundating me, and one landed on me. It was like a small blackbird he exclaimed. I told my wife, Gosh, look at the size of this thing. I told her that I guess Im going to have to use a shotgun on these things if they get any bigger. Professor Michael Reiskind, an entomologist at North Carolina State University, told the Fayetteville Observer that North Carolina is home to 61 strains of mosquitoes which depend upon floodwater to hatchso when there is a lot of flooding, there are a lot of mosquitoes. And some of them really are pretty big, and their bites really painful. The blackbird-sized beast that Robert Phillips encountered was most likely a Psorophora ciliate. The flying bloodsuckers are three times the size of a normal mosquito and very aggressive. These flood-dependent breeds of mosquitoes are always out there, but usually in very small numbers. The females lay vast numbers of eggs and the vast majority dry up before they hatch. The female has a strategy of laying lots and lots of eggs. The eggs are good at surviving, kind of riding it out and waiting for a big flood, Professor Reiskind explained. When the flood comes, we get many many billions of them. But when a storm dumps two feet of water on the land, the way Florence didsuddenly it is heaven for these massive mosquitoes and purgatory for the people who would prefer not to be involuntary blood donors. Still, the picture isnt as bleak as it could be. As Professor Reiskind pointed out, The good news is that a lot of mosquitoes we are seeing in high numbers after an event like Florence are not transmitting a lot of diseases. A Case of West Nile Virus But there is a big difference between not a lot and none if you happen to be the exception to the rule. For one resident from the town of Florence in South Carolina, that difference amounts to being infected with West Nile Virus due to a mosquito bite, according to SCNow News. The city administration is taking the issue calmlyas given the number of mosquitoes as the area normally has, one case of a mosquito-borne illness is not out of the ordinary. The City of Florence has had in place and will continue to run our normal mosquito operation of a fogger truck which follows a regular weekly route and also responds to work orders submitted by residents, the city said in a press release. City crews will also continue larval control which entails treating standing water areas with larvacide to eliminate mosquitos larval habitat. According to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, most people who contract the disease dont even have symptoms. About 20 percent of the people who get infected will show symptoms which include fever, headache, joint pain, muscle pain, and occasionally nausea and vomiting. About one in one hundred might get encephalitis, a dangerous swelling of the brain. From NTD.tv Watch Next: How a Traditional Spiritual Practice Changed the Lives of These People The practice has attracted tens of millions across the world and at its core are just three simple principles: truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Leftist Protesters Were Tipped Off About Ted Cruzs Arrival at Restaurant The organizers of the protest that occurred in a Washington D.C. restaurant involving Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and his wife have identified themselves as members of various left-wing organizations, according to The Washington Post. These members hailed from a left-wing groups including a local Antifa group called Smash Racist DC, which is a branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. One of the members said she wanted to talk to Cruz about Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. She said that she is a survivor of sexual assault and that she believe[s] all survivors. The protesters told The Post that they were tipped off that evening and waited at the Fiola bar for an hour before Cruz and his wife arrived. First Came the Chanting The owner of the D.C. restaurant, where the group protested Cruz, said that his employees have since received death threats over to the incident. Fabio Trabocchi, owner of Fiola, released a statement on Twitter that praised his staff for their handling of the anti-Kavanaugh protesters on Sept. 24. He said that they had behaved with the highest level of professionalism and passion. A video captured the incident inside Fiola where protesters yelled We believe survivors to shame Cruz for his support for Kavanaugh on Sept. 24. Kavanaugh, who is President Donald Trumps nominee for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, has recently been defending himself against several sexual assault claims. The claims have effectively derailed the constitutional process of confirming a judicial nominee in its tracks, Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 26. While the protesters were yelling, Cruz and his wife Heidi got out of their seats and made their way through the crowd. On their way out of the restaurant, a protester yelled Beto is hotter than you. Beto ORourke (D-Texas) is running against Ted Cruz in the upcoming 2018 Senate elections. An employee wearing a white suit jacket can be seen in the video escorting the couple out the side entrance of the restaurant. He then asked the protesters to leave the premises. I am grateful for a team that treated everyone with respect and kept their heads, Trabocchi said on his Twitter statement. The authorities were called to help restore order to our establishment. Trabocchi was proud that his team looked out for his customers best interests. I am proud of how quick our team adjusted, Trabocchi stated, discreetly bringing Senator and Mrs. Cruz back through the kitchen, and proceeded to serve them a wonderful dinner, alongside the other Fiola patrons. Then Came the Death Threats But the harassment didnt end there. Trabocchi said that he, his staff, and their families have received life-threatening messages ever since the incident occurred. Trabocchi said in his tweet on Sept. 27 that despite the anger that has been directed at them and the ones they love, his staff continue to be brave in the face of hate. They have shown remarkable grit and calm, Trabocchi said. Despite working in the hospitality, Trabocchi said that now, his business has had to engage in public safety, with privacy consultants and investigators having implemented additional safety and security measures across all his restaurants within 24 hours of the protests to ensure the privacy, safety, and security of our staff and guests. Trabocchi said that he believes that all voices of the people are welcome and necessary to make a republic work, and that this requires respect, listening, and sometimes a little etiquette, like keeping your elbows and politics off the dinner table. Watch Next: Communisms Destruction of Civilized Debate An in-depth look at Communist policies that have destroyed civilized debate US House Approves Measure Against Non-Citizen Voting 65 percent of House says only citizens should be allowed to vote in US elections After San Francisco voted to allow non-citizens to vote in school-board elections, as of November, many began to wonder what citizenship means in the United States. That question was to put to 428 House members on Sept. 26 in the form of House Resolution 1071, with 65 percent essentially saying they agreed that allowing illegal immigrants the right to vote devalues the franchise and diminishes the voting power of U.S. citizens. The measure was approved with 279 ayes and 72 nos, mostly along party lines; 49 Democrats voted in favor of the resolution. Another 69, all Democrats, voted present while another eightfour Democrats and four Republicanswere nonvoters. Put another way, 37 percent of all Democrats voted against it, while less than half of a percentjust one individualof Republicans did. In this country, the right to vote is reserved exclusively for United States citizens, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) tweeted after the vote. Allowing those who are here illegally the right to vote in American elections would be nothing short of an affront to the very principles upon which our nation was built. Of those who replied to The Epoch Times request for comment about why they voted against it, most said they saw it as a political ploy to make Democrats looks bad before the midterms. This bill does not come to the floor in a vacuum. The midterms are coming and Republicans will try to pass whatever they can before they lose and pass the gavel to a new Speaker, said Rep. Luis Guitierrez (D-Ill.) However, at least one of the naysayers defended his vote by saying that people who arent citizens but pay taxes should have the right to vote. If you pay taxes just like every other American, and you send your child to public school, you should have a say over the services you are directly funding and utilizing, such as your communitys public education system, the press secretary for Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.) said in an email. Similar to San Francisco; Mount Ranier, Washington state; and College Park and Takoma Park in Maryland allow non-residents to vote in municipal elections, as do cities in nine other states. Still, others complained that the resolution didnt take into account other threats to the democratic process, such as foreign entities meddling in U.S. elections. The resolution fails to shed light on foreign threats and Russian interference in our elections, said Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas). The resolution states that it is of paramount importance that the United States maintains the legitimacy of its elections and protects them from interference, including interference from foreign threats, said Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on the floor. I agree with this statement as far as it goes, but I question why the resolution makes no mention whatsoever of the greatest foreign threat of electoral interferencenamely, interference by Russia in an attempt to disrupt our democracy and sow chaos in our political and governmental system. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the sponsor of the resolution, said he introduced the measure because, in addition to diluting U.S. democracy, its unfair to immigrants who have gone through the legal immigration process to become citizens. We know so many naturalized citizens who have come here, played by the rules, and earned their citizenship, he said. Unfortunately, a handful of cities in our country are short-circuiting the legal path to citizenship. In the process, they are devaluing the very concept of citizenship itself. Non-citizens voting actually dilutes the votes and voice of law-abiding Americans, including naturalized citizens. The Texas-based auto shop plans to build a new facility at 908 S. Northwest Highway, near the Ace Hardware store in Barrington, and operate nine service bays for vehicle repairs. The business has been expanding and operates 189 stores in 28 states, primarily in the south. Passenger Plane Misses Runway, Crash-Lands in Ocean An Air Niugini passenger plane was sinking in the ocean on Sept. 28 after the plane landed before reaching the air strip at Chuuk Airport in Micronesia. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administrations office in Guam confirmed that an Air Niugini plane carrying 36 passengers and 11 crew members crashed into the waters off Weno Island in the Federated States Of Micronesia. According to Jimmy Emilio, the Chuuk airport manager, the plane had landed around 160 yards short of the runway at around 9:30 a.m., reported Pacific Daily News. Air Niugini is Papua New Guineas leading airline and flies to over 30 destinations both nationally and internationally. According to local news reports, the Boeing 737-800 was running according to schedule, stopping in Chuuk while on its way from Pohnpei, Micronesia to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The flight is part of the airlines bi-weekly service between the Federated States Of Micronesia and Port Moresby. Witnesses have since said that some passengers on the plane sustained serious injuries. UPDATE Kinisou Pwe Sa Jok Rong Seni Aramasaj Non Chuuk Pwe Meinisin Passenger Ir Mi Tikeuu Me Non Ei Sepenin , Ir Mi Manau ! Kinisou God , Kinisou Ngeni Meinisn kei Aramasen Non Chuuk Ar Aninis Fengen Meinisin Ne Anisauu Kewe Passenger ! [ REPOST from Jumeta Esenaf PLANE CRASH IN CHUUK ! ] Posted by Eriko Rekis on Thursday, September 27, 2018 Emilio has since confirmed that all of the 36 passengers and 11 crew members on board the plane are accounted for and alive, reported PDN. They were all taken to a local hospital for a medical check. Air Niugini management staff held a crisis meeting after the incident. It remains unclear what caused the plane to crash. Somebody has to look into that and let us now, Emilio told PDN. So far, we dont know why they went down. Watch Next: How a Traditional Spiritual Practice Changed the Lives of These People The practice has attracted tens of millions across the world and at its core are just three simple principles: truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Trump Continues His Big Winning Streak Commentary I wrote an article in late December 2017 about President Donald Trumps consequential and positive first year in office. The list of his successes was, and still is, impressive. Our leftist media describes the Trump presidency as tumultuousa construct they have manufactured, one that doesnt exist. Investigative journalist Bob Woodwards new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, is a perfect example. In his recent interviews, Woodward has described the Trump White House as fractious, out of control, and flailing. It is the preferred narrative of the left, the Democratic Party, and its vanguard, the mainstream media. These narratives about Trump center around a fictional person in the White House, a fiction concocted by the left: He colluded with Russia to win. Hes an incompetent boob who tweets too much while the country is going to hell. He had nothing to do with the recent economic success. His tweets are too mean. And of course, hes racist, hates women, and is Hitler. None of the latter has any truth to it. These narratives, especially those from Woodward, are seriously laughable. John Solomon of The Hill, an actual reporter who went to the White House earlier this month and interviewed Trump (unlike Woodward), said the following: The president couldnt be calmer, the White House organization is fully functional, and the president was extraordinarily measured and detailed about anything he was asked. Solomon simply cuts the heart out of Woodwards screed. There is no White House in chaos. Global Success Truthfully, the success of the Trump presidency is rolling on. In spite of our media-reported deceit, the economic miracle continues unabated. Every indicator shows economic strength seen only a few times in our history. Consumer confidence, business confidence, and overall contentment about the economy is sky-high. The stock markets have been on a tear, as have wage growth, manufacturing, and job growth for everyone who cares to workall the result of Trumps policies. Similarly, Trumps foreign policy has been masterful. North Korea came to the negotiating table; no more missile tests. Kim appears to have become a serious player in a historical time. The latest information about North Korea is overwhelmingly positive. We havent seen the likes of this since the Berlin Wall was torn down. Trump pulled the United States out of the disastrous Iranian deal, and its likely the mullahs there will lose much, if not all of their power over time. He has literally destroyed the ISIS terrorist group. The Middle East has become quiet. We are respected once again. Russia is backpedaling as we become top dog in the world again. China is trying to figure out how to not be taken to the cleaners by him. Its future goal of world dominion is in peril. There is no more leading from behind, which was the unmitigated disaster of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry. Trump has shown a surprising side, the one of foreign-policy genius. Trade deals are one by one being renegotiated to the betterment of the United States. NATO members are beginning to pay their fair share. The mockery of the U.N. dictators and the organizations snubbing of us is beginning to end. Trump just keeps winning, as does America. Home Success Another quiet success: A record of outstanding lower court appointments continues. Trump is remaking the judiciary. The irony is, he may succeed in actually making our judiciary great again. His positive stamp is assured, and hes not even two years in. When we get through the Kavanaugh nonsense, Trump will have appointed two great justices to shape the Supreme Court for a generation. Its likely that he will get at least one more appointment before 2020. Who knows, he may have more positive Supreme Court appointments than any president in the past century before he is done. The left hates him for all this winning. He is literally undoing their power base. Likewise, the #NeverTrumpersBill Kristol, George Will, Jonah Goldberg, and the resthave become irrelevant. What contemptuous fools they have shown themselves to be. His latest success: The current takedown of the so-called deep state. I know, I know, what takedown you ask? There have been no indictments, no frog marches, no one is in jail. Yet. However, one by one, the nightmarish attempts of Obamas appointees to destroy Trump have failed. One by one, these holdovers have been outed. One by one, they are falling into deep jeopardylegally and financially. Knowing Trumps position on revenge, I wouldnt want to be former CIA Director John Brennan; former FBI Director Jim Comey; former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe; former FBI agent Peter Strzok; former FBI attorney Lisa Page; Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr; his wife, Nellie Ohr; or any of the other lesser figures. Or Hillary Clinton, for that matter Robert Mueller has failed. He has nothing. Even Woodward admitted that. One thing is clear, this cabal will lose the thing they cherish the most: their credibility. On that front, it is clear: Trump is winning; he has won this battle. Watching recent interviews with former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page, its hard to not see these conspirators being destroyed financially. As Fox News host Tucker Carlson has said, he is looking forward to Page being a very rich man. Page will break them all. His lawsuits are going to be epic. All of their ill-gotten gains: Poof! Gone in a heartbeat. It will be schadenfreude on steroids. Winning Let me finish with Trumps recent interview with John Solomon of The Hill. The president says his crowning achievement could be exposing this corrupt FBI probe. Thats a serious mouthful. His presidency is filled with achievements, and here he is saying the deep state takedown may be his finest accomplishment. Most on the center-right have learned to listen when he announces something like this. His track record of significant announcements is epicfrom the economic miracle, to Korea, to his announcement about wiretapping. When Trump says something this stunning, it is an announcement that is big. He knows he has won; he knows this all just has to be played out. How serious was this conspiracy? Very serious. It is perhaps the worst and most egregious plot by our own government officials ever. An attempt to illegally take out a presidential candidate by the deep state appointees of a former president? Unprecedented. Even worse, the continued attempt to remove him from the presidency on specious grounds is more than unprecedented; it was, and is, truly evil. As writer Brian Cates has said, Trump has known about all of this for an extremely long time. He has known the players, their roles, and just how illegal and seditious their actions were. That he is declaring this as perhaps the most important work of his presidency is something we need to stand up and take note of. When Trump talks, smart people listen. The swamp is draining. Nope, no indictments yet. But the perps who ran this have been dashed on the shoals. They may not know it, they may fight it, but they are going to be destroyed, reputation-wise and financially. And lets hope legally, because they all deserve prison for what they did. One last thing: He really has won. This pressure to declassify the FISA documents is likely only the beginning. I hope it ends in prosecutions, but one thing is for sure: they all will be ruined, one by one. So forget the media narratives. Trump isnt an ineffectual boob caught in a maelstrom of his own making. As conservatives, like all Americans, we havent had it this good since Reagan. Heck, we may never have had it this good. In spite of the media spin, the left is in full retreat, and will be for at least the remainder of his presidency. America, take heart, you are becoming great again. Lets keep it going. #Winning David Prentice is a writer and novelist from the Midwest. His articles have appeared in the American Thinker. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Trumps Canadian Envoy Craft Says US Respects Freeland OTTAWADonald Trumps Canadian envoy is coming to the defence of Canadas smart and articulate foreign affairs ministerone day after the U.S. president suggested he didnt like Chrystia Freelands NAFTA negotiating style. Trump told a freewheeling press conference on Sept. 26 that the Americans dont like Canadas trade representative very much, a comment that appeared directed at Freeland, the political leader of the Canadian team renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. The presidents personalized attack uncorked debate on Sept. 28 about whether Freeland brought Trumps wrath upon herself during 13 months of delicate NAFTA talkswith her Washington speech in June and other recent appearances in which she criticized the administrations America First foreign policy. Freeland has met regularly over the last month with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer at his Washington headquarters for closeddoor talks. Senior political advisers have joined them at the bargaining table, including top staffers in the Prime Ministers Office, Trumps soninlaw and adviser Jared Kushner, and the countries ambassadors, Canadas David MacNaughton and his U.S. counterpart, Kelly Craft. On Sept. 27, Craft offered her view of the tone inside that room. Ambassador Lighthizer and Minister Freeland have tremendous respect for one another. I have seen their relationship first hand over the past 10 months. And more so as they work through differences while keeping focused on the end result, Craft told The Canadian Press. I also have tremendous respect for Minister Freeland. Shes smart, articulate, and has been a good friend since my arrival in Ottawa. Craft is coming up on the end of her first year as the Canadian representative of one of the most unpopular U.S. presidents, at a time when the fate of the continents economy hangs in the balance. The U.S. and Mexico are poised to present the text of their bilateral trade deal on Friday, as pressure mounts on Canada to join that pact. The U.S. Congress is pushing Canada to join the U.S.Mexico pact by a selfimposed deadline of Sept. 30 to allow Mexicos current government to sign the deal before it leaves office on Dec. 1. Cecilia Malmstrom, the European Union trade minister, also praised Freelands negotiating style on Sept. 27 at an event in Montreal, where she marked the first anniversary of the CanadaEU trade deal, known as CETA. Minister Freelandand also her chief negotiator, her ambassadorwas key in getting CETA done, said Malmstrom. We got to know them as very tough but fair, wellinformed, engaged, very professional negotiators. And I am convinced that they have the same approach to those [NAFTA] negotiations. MacNaughton for his part said that he was feeling less optimistic about reaching a deal on NAFTA than he was before Trumps comments. I think yesterday I would have said the glass was halffull and today Id say the glass is halfempty, MacNaughton said during a speech at the Global Business Forum in Banff, Alta. That kind of rhetoric doesnt make it easier for us to compromise. But, you know, as I said yesterday, [Trump] doesnt call me for advice very often. MacNaughton added that Trumps Sept. 30 deadline for Canada to join the U.S.Mexico deal does not mean Canada should sign up for things we dont agree with. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave credit on Sept. 27 to his NAFTA negotiating team, and suggested the American side shouldnt be surprised by the tone of the talks. The Americans are finding that the negotiations are tough because Canadians are tough negotiators, as we should be, he told reporters in Ottawa. Trudeau also contradicted Trumps account, from the same Sept. 26 press conference, that he rejected a request from the prime minister for a meeting to discuss NAFTA while they were in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly. No, we didnt ask for a meeting this time around, Trudeau said. There was disagreement over whether Canada was making it harder on itself because of Trumps personal disdain for Trudeau and Freeland. Trump was publicly angered by comments Trudeau made at his closing G7 press conference in June, and has likely been offended by Freelands recent speechifying that has defended the international institutions the U.S. president is regularly accused of undermining, said Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, an international trade lawyer. She has made negative comments towards the U.S. administration, which [Trump] takes to be him. I think hes got a hate on for Canada right now, said Cherniak, who is on Canadas roster for settling disputes under NAFTAs Chapter 19one of the unresolved sections of the current CanadaU.S. talks. But any assessment Trump is closely following Freelands utterances is overblown, said Bessma Momani, an international affairs professor at the University of Waterloo and Balsillie School of International Affairs. If Fox News didnt cover it, he didnt hear it. Thats the end of it. I dont think hes got the bandwidth to listen to what Canadas foreign minister has been saying about him in different places. Kristinn Hrafnsson, spokesman for the WikiLeaks organization, listens during a press conference, at the Press Club, in Geneva, Switzerland on Jan. 26, 2015. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, file) WikiLeaks Names One-Time Spokesman as Editor-in-Chief LONDONWikiLeaks on Sept. 26 named one-time spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson as its new editor-in-chief. The ramifications of the move are unclear. The organization was founded and has been led for more than a decade by Julian Assange, the 47-year-old ex-hacker. But the silver-haired Australian has been isolated for years at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. WikiLeaks tweeted that Assange will stay on as the groups publisher. Assange had his communications cut in March by Ecuadors new president, and the Sept. 26 statement said he remained incommunicado. WikiLeaks job titles have proven fluid over the years. Assange has variously described himself as the groups spokesman, publisher, and editor. Hrafnsson told The Associated Press that it remains to be seen whether the change in responsibility would be permanent or temporary. He hung up when asked further questions Sept. 26, saying he was busy cooking dinner. Watch Next: Sex Trafficking and Organ Trade: Abuse of the Adoption System #Kidnappers and human traffickers are taking advantage of loopholes in international #adoption laws. In this episode we reveal how this corrupt system works. Witnesses Still Needed After Body Found in Maddox Ritch Case: Police Police in Gastonia, North Carolina, said they are looking for more potential witnesses after a body was found in the search of 6-year-old Maddox Ritch, who went missing over the weekend. We are heartbroken over the news of Maddox. The investigation continues, Gastonia Police said via Twitter on Sept. 28. That being said we cannot discuss the details of the investigation. However, we continue to ask those who may have been at the park on that day to please contact the Gastonia Police Department. Searchers found what they believe is the body of Maddox partially submerged in a creek in Gastonia, the Charlotte Observer reported. Maddoxs father, who said he was with Maddox when he disappeared at Rankin Lake Park, said the boy ran after a jogger and he couldnt keep up. Reports said the boy was autistic and couldnt speak. Hundreds of people were involved in the search and rescue effort for the boy, which drew national headlines. We are heartbroken over the news of Maddox. The investigation continues. That being said we cannot discuss the details of the investigation. However we continue to ask those who may have been at the park on that day to please contact the Gastonia Police Department#FindMaddox Gastonia Police (@GPDNC) September 28, 2018 An official told the Observer that authorities are waiting for a death report from the medical examiners office to determine the identity of the body that was discovered. In a press conference on Sept. 27, FBI official Jason Kaplan said that the investigation isnt over. We still want to hear from the people in the park that day, Kaplan said, adding that the agency will now try to determine whether the death was an accident or if a crime was carried out. The FBI Charlotte office said on Sept. 27 that the body was discovered off Marietta Street and Old Dallas Highway, adding that Maddoxs parents have been notified of the discovery. In a later press conference, the officials said that the body was found partially submerged in a creek. According to CBS17, officials are trying to locate a man in a white truck who might have been the last person to have seen Maddox. Maddoxs parents made emotional pleas to find the boy after he went missing. I want my baby back in my arms, mother Carrie Ritch said. Its torture. I just want my little boy back home, father Ian Ritch added, according to CBS17. On the night of Sept. 27, after news that the body was found, Ian Ritch expressed grief while thanking investigators. First i want to say thank u from the bottom of my heart to everyone who took part in searching for my sweet lil buddy. I Posted by Ian Scott Ritch on Thursday, September 27, 2018 Today I found out Im not a dad anymore, he wrote in a Facebook post. I would give anything to go back and save him. He also wrote: While a lot of people dont believe anything I have said in the past, believe this. From this moment on for the rest of my life, I will live with the guilt of not being there to save my son. Ritch continued: So when everyone else gets to go back to their normal lives remember that I will never be the same man again. I will now and forever be a broken man until I take my last breath. The owner of Furano Landscape was sentenced to a year in prison starting in early November, after pleading guilty earlier this year to underreporting more than $2.5 million in gross receipts on his federal tax returns, dodging some $500,000 in taxes owed. Greenwich resident Pasquale F. Furano, 48, provided landscaping and snowplowing services to more than 150 customers in Fairfield County and Westchester County, N.Y., according to court documents filed by the office of John Durham, U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut. He has been free on $50,000 bond since taking a plea deal last March. Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist By Eli Saslow Doubleday. 288 pp. $26.95 --- Derek Black was reared in the cradle of white supremacy. His godfather and mentor was David Duke, and his father, Don, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and founder of a popular hate website, plotted to overthrow the Caribbean island nation of Dominica to create a white utopia. As a child, Black's bedroom was adorned with Confederate flags, and his head was filled with doubts about the Holocaust and about the intelligence of racial minorities advanced in online chat rooms. By age 10, Black had built a children's website featuring racist and anti-Semitic songs and games that attracted more than 1 million visitors. Later he launched a 24-hour online radio network, and five days a week he hosted a show in which he peddled racial pseudoscience and advocated for a whites-only country. But just as the rise of the movement culminated in the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, Black had a change of heart. In "Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist," journalist Eli Saslow charts Black's conversion from a right-wing extremist to a high-profile critic of the movement. Saslow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Washington Post, opens with a gathering of the nation's "pre-eminent white nationalists" in Memphis in the fall of 2008. The meeting, organized by Duke and attended by 150 Klansmen and neo-Nazis, was animated by the election four days earlier of Barack Obama, the nation's first African-American president. "We can take the country back," Black, then 19, declared. "The great intellectual move to save white people started today." Black, who once consoled fellow extremists by performing the 1972 song "The Monkey That Became President," was considered a prodigy and the future of the movement. A few months earlier he ran for committeeman in Palm Beach County, Fla., on a platform of white victimhood, and he defeated a Cuban American incumbent. Beneath America's credo of racial equality he found ample evidence of its white-nationalist heart. He was encouraged by Abraham Lincoln's assertion, during his 1858 debate with Stephen Douglas, that "I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." He felt his ideology was validated by James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson and other lions of American history, who held similar views. "It felt to Derek as if he were being let in on a secret," Saslow writes. "White nationalism wasn't just a fringe racist movement but something much more forceful and dangerous: a foundational concept embedded in the American DNA." But when he took up studies at New College, Florida's four-year liberal arts honors college, his thinking slowly began to change. In speeches and on the radio he continued to preach white separatism and anti-Semitism, but at school he befriended classmates of Peruvian and Jewish backgrounds, and attended Shabbat dinners. His double life was exposed when a senior working on his thesis discovered him in a file of white extremists. The student posted links to Black's articles and radio show on the school forum, sparking a campus-wide controversy that unfolded as Black was in the Alps meeting with Duke. Although Black was widely ostracized on campus, he was befriended by Mike Long, a "popular student body president" who, Saslow says, "had never been afraid to talk to anybody, including a white supremacist." Long invited Black to a boat outing, where Allison Gornick, a student who had previously shunned him, began to see him in a different light. "She thought he seemed quirky, gentle, and interesting - nothing like the extremist she had expected - and before long the sun had set and they were arriving at the marina," Saslow writes. Gornick figures prominently in the narrative as she repeatedly challenged Black's bigoted views and nudged him to reconsider them. However, his evolution - characterized by evasion and contradiction - was halting and at times barely perceptible. "Derek didn't use any slurs, and he told Allison that he respected all people," Saslow writes. "He was simply a white nationalist, which meant he thought whites needed to be protected within their own border, like an endangered species." Later Black said he no longer supported the forced deportation of immigrants "but maybe gradual self-deportation ... in which nonwhites would leave on their own." Throughout his metamorphosis Black struggled to cut the ties to his hateful past. "Derek told Allison that ... he wasn't a (BEGIN ITAL)white supremacist(END ITAL)," Saslow writes. "He told her he had friends who were (BEGIN ITAL)neo-Nazis(END ITAL), but he felt comfortable publicly rejecting Hitler-era (BEGIN ITAL)Nazism(END ITAL)." Eventually he supported affirmative action, Black Lives Matter and same-sex marriage, but Black's constant dissembling and contradictions often render his thought processes opaque. For me, it was at times unclear what specific circumstances and conversations prompted his dramatic about-face. Saslow often turns to Gornick to decipher Black's beliefs. "Only she knew how much [classmates'] exclusion had made him reconsider the ways his ideology oppressed others, and how their inclusion at Shabbat had helped him better empathize with minorities and Jews," he writes. But Saslow does recount one illuminating encounter - a turning point - when Black found himself revolted by his father's views after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the self-described neighborhood watchman who stalked and killed an unarmed Trayvon Martin. Black "thought again about everything his father had said publicly about Trayvon Martin. It was all typical stuff - the same ugly talking points [Black] had been hearing and often repeating for his entire life - so why did it make him so angry?" Saslow writes. "It wasn't just his father's views that suddenly horrified him. ... It was the memory of his previous self. He had made versions of those same flawed arguments. He had expressed similar callousness, ignorance, and cruelty. It seemed obvious to him now that he needed to publicly condemn not only white nationalism but also his past life." Black then typed a letter and emailed it to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that has battled racism for decades. He admitted that his actions had been "harmful to people of color, people of Jewish descent" and others. "I will not contribute to any cause that perpetuates this harm in the future." He then criticized the tenets of white nationalism. "It has become clear to me that white nationalism is not a movement of positive identity or of asserting cultural values, but of constant antagonism at the betterment of other groups. ... I can't support a movement that tells me I can't be a friend to whomever I wish or that other people's races require me to think about them in a certain way or be suspicious at their advancements. Minorities must have the ability to rise to positions of power, and many supposed 'race' issues are in fact issues of structural oppression, poor educational prospects, and limited opportunity." Black's father, Don, at first thought the letter was fake, an attempt to disgrace the family. When he learned the truth he was shocked and sickened. But he and his son agreed on one key point: After they both spent years promoting its tenets, white nationalism had finally seeped into the American mainstream. "Rising Out of Hatred" is a disturbing look at the spread of that extremism - and how it is planted and cultivated in the fertile soil of American bigotry. And yet, Saslow's vivid storytelling also conveys that during this period of deepening racial division, there is the possibility of redemption. --- Newkirk is a professor of journalism at New York University and the author of "Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga." NORWALK A Republican running for the state Senate believes politics are behind the recent release of a police report and court document detailing his drunken-driving arrest nearly five years ago. Marc DAmelio, who is running for the 25th District seat, said police improperly released their report of the incident after he had successfully completed an accelerated rehabilitation program. He suspects Democrats are behind the release of the report and also of a court transcript regarding his request to participate in the program. Political bashing is alive and well in Norwalk, and no one is asking me about my opinion on the issues and what I plan to do, DAmelio said. Theyre more interested in bashing me, my family and my reputation. Ive already taken responsibility five years ago. We pay our debt. DAmelio is hoping to unseat Bob Duff, a Norwalk Democrat and state Senate majority leader, in the Nov. 6 election. Asked Friday about the release of the report and court record, Duff said, I had nothing to do with that. Thats between him and the city. Mayor Harry Rilling, a Democrat and the citys former police chief, said Friday that he had no idea when the records were released or who requested them. This is the first Im hearing about this, Rilling said. If they were released inappropriately, then we are going to have to find out why and who made the mistake. DAmelio was arrested Jan. 11, 2014, on South Main Street for driving drunk with his then 9-year-old daughter in the car in the front seat and three strangers whom he had picked up at a bodega in the back seat. He allegedly told officers he was driving around South Norwalk, handing out his winnings from Mohegan Sun casino, to teach his daughter a lesson on helping the less fortunate. He applied for and was granted accelerated rehabilitation, which entailed maintaining a clean record for nine months. Afterwards, the charges were dismissed in Norwalk Superior Court. At issue now, according to DAmelio and his attorney, Mark Sherman, is the release of the police report and the court record to the news website Nancy on Norwalk. Sherman related his concerns to Norwalk Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik, who responded in a Sept. 10 email that stated the information was released in error. Our records systems checked through everything and found that the computer system had one charge still pending, Kulhawik wrote. After reviewing your paperwork and reviewing the court info, they confirmed that after two years that charge was also dismissed, so the report was released in error. Our apologies for that. Kulhawik said his department was examining its system to see what can be done to make sure that this does not occur moving forward. The police chief said he asked Chapman to return the report as it was released in error and in essence should not exist. She refused the request, Kulhawik wrote in response to an inquiry by Hearst Connecticut Media. As of 6 p.m. Friday, Nancy on Norwalk had not published a story on the issue. Sherman has asked that an internal affairs investigation be conducted to determine whether and why an unredacted police report of the incident was released. Kulhawik said Friday that the report had been redacted, but one charge we had listed as guilty was also dismissed but mislabeled in our computer. As a result a redacted version was released, when in fact the report in its entirety should have been withheld, the police chief said. It was human error in coding the dismissal when it was received from the court some time later. Sherman, in a Sept. 7 email to Chapman, said the reports released to her were dismissed, erased and expunged on March 24, 2016. He attached a copy of Connecticut state statutes, which he said allows DAmelio to swear under oath that hes never been arrested, meaning that any new publication of an erased arrest is libelous. Under state law, any person who shall have been the subject of such an erasure shall be deemed to have never been arrested within the meaning of the general statutes with respect to the proceedings so erased and may swear under oath. On Sept. 25, Chapman emailed DAmelio, attaching a transcript of DAmelios court appearance as part of his accelerated rehabilitation request, and asked him to comment. DAmelio said he believes Democratic Councilman Douglas Stern, an attorney running for judge of probate in Norwalk Wilton Probate Court, requested and obtained the transcript. Stern, asked Friday about the transcript, answered: I dont have that transcript, Stern said. I really dont have a comment. Its public record. I was aware of the incident just hanging around the court house, but thats really all I have to say about it. The Norwalk Superior Court reporters office on Friday confirmed that a transcript involving the case was ordered. The office said it was not allowed to disclose who ordered it or when it was ordered. DAmelio, meanwhile, described the release of the records as a witch hunt against me. Ive made a mistake. Its in my past, and the only reason this is coming up now is because Im the only candidate thats ever given Bob Duff a run, DAmelio said. Hes never been challenged the way Ive challenged him and hes up in arms. Have you ever shared bad news with coworkers, employees or partners? As much as we don't want to shoot the messenger, sometimes we associate negative feelings with the person who tells us bad news. Related: 4 Mistakes to Avoid When You Have to Deliver Bad News Work is hard enough as is. You don't need a negative halo effect associated with you, especially if a situation was out of your control. For example, maybe you and a partner organization submitted a proposal and were waiting to hear back from a Fortune 1000 client. The client tells you that another company out-bid you with a lower quote. Now, you have to tell your partner that they have to re-submit a bid. You feel terrible because they put a lot of work into the bid. Maybe you could have communicated more clearly upfront and set better expectations ... So you're feeling a little guilty, too. This happened to one of my clients, and he made the mistake of sounding overly negative in the email to his colleague. We fixed it, but it's a valuable lesson for anyone who's had to share negative news at work (which is all of us at some point). If you have to deliver bad news that wasn't your fault, here are tips to keep in mind: 1. Avoid negative words, especially "however." Small changes in word choice can impact your audience's perception -- for the better or for the worse. According to George Lakoff, a professor in cognitive science and linguistics at University of California, Berkeley, you should use language that evokes imagery and strengthens your point. You should especially be careful about using negative words that could lead your audience to catastrophize. Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman, the co-authors of Words Can Change Your Brain, said, "Angry words send alarm messages through the brain, and they partially shut down the logic-and-reasoning centers located in the frontal lobes." "However" was great for high school essays, but there's rarely a need for it in your toolkit now. It makes everything sound heavier and more dramatic than it needs to be. The goal here is to minimize drama. If you really need to, use "but." Related: Here's the Research-Backed Best Way to Deliver Bad News 2. Avoid giving too many details -- save some information if they ask. When you feel guilty, you want to explain everything. You secretly hope that by explaining, the person will understand and absolve you of guilt. Don't give in to the temptation to explain everything in excruciating detail. First, it's selfish: you're only doing it to make yourself feel better. Second, it complicates the actual message. Recipients won't know when the facts end and your own narrative begins. Third, you owe it to them to be direct. Respect your recipients enough to give them the key information they need to make a smart decision. If they have additional questions, they'll ask. This opens up dialogue instead of overwhelming them with information. 3. Don't accidentally accept blame. I'm all for accepting blame -- if you're responsible for what happened. There's a difference between empathizing ("I acknowledge this is frustrating") and accepting blame ("I should have done X and Y, but I didn't at the time."). As the messenger, there's no point in inviting your audience's wrath for no reason. When you scan your email, ask yourself, "Might they think I'm accidentally accepting blame because of my phrasing and word choice?" Related: 6 Ways to Break Bad News to Your Team An upset colleague or boss might project anger onto you as a way to cope with negative feelings. The danger of accidentally accepting blame is it legitimizes your audience's negative perceptions, even if they were inaccurate and misplaced to begin with. You're essentially inviting them to project onto you. This erodes trust in your working relationships and tarnishes your credibility. If it happens too many times, it could stall your career because you're associated with failed projects. 4. Get to your point quickly. "We only give a couple of instructions to people when they go to work for us: One is to think like an owner. And the second is to tell us bad news immediately -- because good news takes care of itself. We can take bad news, but we don't like it late," Warren Buffett once told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Contrary to what you might think, adding too much preface makes things sound worse. The tension builds and the person is imaging the worst thing that could possibly happen. Cognitive psychologist Dr. Albert Ellis describes why we mentally escalate scenarios to the most extreme and negative conclusion. When your audience finally hears the bad news, they might think, "Oh, that wasn't so bad." But, even though that's a pleasant surprise, relatively speaking, your colleagues just spent several minutes letting their imaginations wander. That's cruel of you to do. Preface as little as you can, so you can share the meat of what they need to know. Related: A Manager's Guide to Delivering Bad News (Infographic) 5. Remind the person of their own agency. In a famous speech at USC Business School in 1994, Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger said, "If people tell you what you really don't want to hear -- what's unpleasant -- there's an almost automatic reaction of antipathy." When people get bad news, they'll want to blame someone for their frustration -- don't let that someone be you. Our natural reaction is to shoot the messenger, but you can combat this by reminding your audience that they were involved in the situation, too. Chances are, they had a role to play in what happened. Reminding people of their agency can be useful here. Behavioral scientist and bestselling author Nir Eyal wrote about how the freedom to choose encourages people to behave more generously. Applied here, you want to remind your colleague that you were both aware of the risks -- and jointly decided to proceed anyway. This will put your colleague in a more collaborative and understanding mood. For example: You both knew the result might not work. You're on the same team and working toward the same goal. You're going out of your way to help them because you'd rather work with them than someone else. Of course, put a soft wrapper around your message. Don't just say, "We both knew this might not work. Don't act so surprised now." A sarcastic remark sounds like you're blaming them, which isn't what you want to do. Instead, try saying the following: "Last month, we talked about how we had a one in 10 chance of winning this bid. We decided to pursue it given the high payoff. At this point, if we choose to continue in the process, we could submit another proposal. I know it takes a lot of effort on your part, so it might or might not be worth the time. I can discuss with my team, too. Thanks for working on this together. Let's circle back mid next week -- let me know what you prefer to do." Accepting responsibility is important. If there's any doubt that you are responsible, you should proactively address that. These tips are for times when you're simply a messenger -- and just as surprised by the news as your recipient is. In situations like these, use the tips above to protect yourself and help your recipient understand the situation with minimal drama. Related: How to Deliver Bad News When It's Not Your Fault When Silence Isn't Golden: Responding to Crises in Financial Communication Stop Interrupting and Listen to the Question Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The movie, she said, is about adolescents and their families and features a bit about Michael Phelps. It goes over anxiety, what it is, what it looks like, what the symptoms are, how it feels at home and school and it covers coping skills that go along with it. A rare moment of silence befell Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Elected officials holed themselves up in their offices to watch a hearing that captivated a nation. President Donald Trump watched riveted and canceled his much-anticipated meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Like much of the city, he was unwilling to miss the Senate hearing that featured testimony from Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused him of sexual assault while the two were in high school. Crowds gathered in basement coffee shops around the Capitol, not for source meetings or gossip sessions, but to hold their collective breath and watch as Ford, her voice wavering and cracking with emotion, alleged that Kavanaugh had pinned her down on a bed in the early 1980s and covered her mouth when she tried to shout for help. Even the most talkative of a talkative bunch didn't have much to say. Sen. John Neely Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ambled down a quiet hallway and the media was ready for him. They stood behind velvet rope, penned off - shoulder-to-shoulder and armpit-to-face - in an otherwise desolate hallway in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The hearing was in a room nearby. But for the moment, the cameras and microphones were trained on Kennedy, a folksy Louisiana Republican. He's the kind of guy who will wonder aloud how his fellow senators managed to have found their way "through the birth canal" and walk reporters through the "gradation of pigs" he uses to categorize sexual harassers ("There are major league pigs, there are minor league pigs. There are amateur pigs. There are first-time pigs. There are experienced pigs. But they're all pigs.") If he's known at all, it's not for his influence, but for giving a good quote. Not today. "Right now," he said before heading into the hearing room, "I have an open mind and a closed mouth." The two witnesses were the voices on display. Ford in the morning. Kavanaugh in the afternoon. "I am here today not because I want to be," said Ford, now a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University who said she had never been questioned by a prosecutor before. "I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school." Even the anti-Kavanaugh protesters, who lined the stairwells and leaned off the balconies in the Hart Senate Office Building were speechless, participating in a harrowing silent stand-in, their mouths duct-taped closed and "Believe Women" scrawled across their hands. "The moment of silence comes before the rage," said Linda Sarsour, there organizing on behalf of the Women's March. "We want them to be haunted by what they see." Everyone was saying they wanted to listen to women. But would they believe what they heard? That, not everyone would say. Republican after Republican refused to comment for much of the day. In response to questions: Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., pursed his lips like a concerned duck and sped past reporters, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., turned on his heels and slipped into a secure office, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, swatted his arm as if he were being pestered by a bug. "Um," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. "I'm looking forward to listening." And they had plenty of time for listening. In an unprecedented move for a collection of men who seem to love nothing more than using every second of their five-minute speaking time, Republicans decided to let someone else do their talking. "Ms. Mitchell, you have my five minutes to ask questions," Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said to Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona sex crimes prosecutor brought in to question Ford. "Ms. Mitchell, will you proceed for Senator Lee." "Ms. Mitchell for Senator Graham." "Ms. Mitchell for Senator Cruz." "Ms. Mitchell for Senator Sasse." Republicans had brought in Mitchell as a way, perhaps, not to draw attention to the fact that they would be a group of men questioning a vulnerable woman. The result may be that they drew attention to being a group of men unwilling to ask any questions of a vulnerable woman. "I think they look muted," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. It was as if "they wanted" to respond, she continued, but "decided not to do their constitutional duty and participate." "It was stunning," said Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del. "They have as many experienced prosecutors and attorneys over there as we do on our side. For them to be silent and have a hired outsourced prosecutor ask questions for them is surreal." Not everyone got the memo to keep mum. When not handing time over to Mitchell, Grassley spent much of day grousing defensively, as if it were he and his hearing that were on trial. Hatch decided to comment during a break in Ford's testimony and, after remarking on the witnesses physical appearance, perhaps wishes he hadn't. "I don't think she's un-credible," Hatch said about Ford during a break. "I think she's an attractive, good witness." Kavanaugh turned up the decibel level himself, bellowing, "I am innocent of this charge" in an emotional testimony that included tears, discussions of his virginity and drinking games ("You ever played quarters?"). Graham was even louder than Kavanaugh, and he seemed even angrier. "I would never do to them what you've done to this guy," he said, nearly leaping out of his chair from behind the dais. "This is one of the most unethical shams I've ever seen in politics." He continued: "It's been my understanding if you drug women and rape women in high school, you probably don't stop." There's more: "This is going to destroy the ability of good people to come forward because of this crap." "This is not a job interview," he said. "This is hell." And like that, the moment of silence came to an end. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh gained the support of a key Republican senator Friday, virtually ensuring his nomination will advance to the full Senate a day after Kavanaugh adamantly denied sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford, who insists shes 100 percent certain he did. Moments before the panel convened, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a member of the committee, announced he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Flake said Kavanaugh was entitled to the presumption of innocence absent corroborating evidence. While some may argue that a different standard should apply regarding the Senates advice and consent responsibilities, I believe that the Constitutions provisions of fairness and due process apply here as well, Flake said. I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. Meanwhile, there were signs the remarkable testimony before the panel in which Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ford calmly recounting the moment in which she says he attacked her had registered negatively with two organizations whose support Kavanaugh had earlier received. The American Bar Association, which previously gave Kavanaugh its highest rating of well qualified, asked the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate to delay the vote until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims something President Donald Trump has refused to order. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that Friday, telling reporters that Kavanaugh has already been through six separate background investigations by the FBI. Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and should be withdrawn. If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a womans report of an assault, the America magazine editors wrote. Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country. The magazines reversal is significant given Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Roman Catholic faith and his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgetown Prep school in Maryland. Former President George W. Bush has been advocating for Kavanaugh with wavering senators in recent days, according to a person familiar with Bushs outreach who wasnt authorized to speak publicly. The White House said it was also engaging with wavering GOP senators, but provided few details. Trump is publicly standing by his nominee. His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting, he tweeted late Thursday. The Senate must vote! The Triangle includes the Ninety7Fifty on the Park apartments, University of Chicago Medicine Center for Advanced Care, which has a CVS Pharmacy on the first floor, and a multilevel parking garage between the apartments and U. of C. The village's intent with the Triangle has been to create a traditional, walkable downtown within the Triangle. Its shocking to experience the exact same discriminatory treatment all over again. Yet again, Ive been forced to choose between a job I love and carrying my pregnancy safely to term. They accommodate other officers who need temporary modified duties, but because I am pregnant, I have been forced off the job. Its very sad that my department doesnt respect pregnant officers enough to treat me like any other police officer, Panattoni said in a statement. We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from so many of you, Maple Tree Inn said on Facebook. From our neighbors, customers, friends and family, your support is the strength we have needed to get through the immediate days following the fire. It will continue to be our strength throughout the rebuilding process. Joe Schwarz has been a regular feature on the campaign cycle for, oh, the last decade or so. He was an original supporter of John McCain back in 2000 when he was big on the state political scene, and ran as the most moderate of the bunch in 2002. A few years later, he made a splash largely divorcing himself from the Republican Party. It was for reasons that probably seem pretty prescient now. The party was falling into the hands of the anti-government vandals and religious extremists who people pretend didnt exist until Donald Trump. The split was mutual. Schwarz is a social moderate. He is OK with uncloseted gay people, supported embryonic stem cell research and didnt think it was appropriate for government to force poor women into getting back-alley abortions. The GOP at the time was not okay with any of those. Every campaign since Schwarz has appeared on behalf of Democrats. Its worth a nod from the political press, a reminder that people bolted the asylum a long time ago. He showed up last week as a group of Republicans and independents endorsing Gretchen Whitmer, and true-to-form it drove coverage for a couple of days until Bill Schuette reminded everyone that he prosecuted Larry Nasser (Nassers victims asked him to stop politicizing the case, which of course was Schuettes intention all along). Because the party dislikes dissenting views, all the Republicans and independents were largely party outsiders who lack clout. A far more interesting development took place earlier this week when the sitting lieutenant governor, Brian Calley, retweeted that although Schuette announced charges against one of Flints former emergency managers that the case hadnt gone anywhere. If the Schwarz news felt like a noisy dud, this went off like a silent artillery barrage. For months, the administrations relative silence on the race was noticeable. It was only probably less newsworthy given that Rick Snyders past unwillingness to get involved gives credibility to his response that he doesnt politick. Schuettes path to the governors mansion this year was always very narrow. His party holds the presidency and the man in the Oval Office is disliked by basically everyone. A member of his party has been governor for eight years, and voters traditionally like to hand off power to the out-of-power party. Democratic constituencies, which have shown a great tendency to stay home in off-year elections, are mobilized this year. Despite Trumps unlikely win two years ago, Michigan is a blue state in major statewide elections. Whitmers campaign trotting out Schwarz doesnt move that needle, because really no one cares. It was a campaign already running up the score trolling their opponent. The unspoken truth, however, is that this speaks to Schuettes weakness within his own party. Schuette has spent the last eight years using his office to campaign for governor, often stepping all over fellow Republicans and virtually every constituency that isnt white evangelicals to secure the nomination. That included trying to wrap up the Flint Water Scandal and drop it on Rick Snyders office door like a rotting fish. Republican activists, including the Detroit News editorial page editor, have excoriated the governor for remaining silent. The idea is that defeating Democrats is so important that Snyder and Calley ought to forget what Schuette actually tried to do and do whats best for the partys prospects. If Schuette werent down by double digits, it might be a different story. But he is, and everything plus history says hes going to lose in November. So, theres no real motivation for Snyder to be different. Now, however, he gets to watch Schuette twist in the wind from the sidelines while Joe Schwarz reminds us that the Republican Party isnt today what it used to be. Eric Baerren is a Morning Sun columnist. He can be reached at ebaerren@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ebaerren. I see the New Lenox Fire Protection District is having referendum after referendum to get more money out of taxpayers because it keeps getting voted down. Hey, heres a novel idea: Why doesnt the New Lenox police department share their money with the fire department? The police department seems to have tons of money. They were able to build an elaborate police station so they seem to be rolling in the money. Theyre all New Lenox government so why cant they share money with each other instead of just going back to the taxpayers and getting more money and raising the property taxes to pay for it all? Australian man shoots self in head at Phuket shooting range PHUKET: A 24-year-old Australian man shot himself in the head at a shooting range in northern Phuket today (Sept 28). By Eakkapop Thongtub Friday 28 September 2018, 04:28PM The man shot himself in the head at the Asian Shooting Range in Sakoo at about 2pm today. Photo: Asian Shooting Range - Phuket The man was rushed to Thalang Hospital, but his details of his condition have yet to be revealed. Emergency responders were called to the Asian Shooting Range in Sakoo, just south of Phuket International Airport, at 2pm this afternoon, reported Lt Col Bandasak Srilert from the Sakoo Police. At the scene was a man who had shot himself in the right temple. Emergency responders provided immediate first aid and rushed the man to hospital, he said. The incident was recorded on CCTV. Col Bandasak reported that the man was using a Colt .45 handgun. He shot himself while he was beside the trainer. The bullet entered his head on the right side, he said, Col Bandasak declined to confirm or deny whether the man was still alive. He was taken Thalang Hospital, was all he would say. However, Col Bandasak added that his officers were continuing to investigate the shooting. Big Joke tipped to be immigration chief BANGKOK: Deputy Tourist Police chief Surachate Big Joke Hakparn is tipped to become the new Immigration Bureau commissioner in the upcoming annual police reshuffle. By Bangkok Post Friday 28 September 2018, 10:27AM Maj Gen Surachate Big Joke Hakparn, pictured in Phuket after the Phoenix tour boat disaster, was approved yesterday to become the next chief of the Immigration Bureau, with an automatic promotion to the three-star rank of lieutenant general. Photo: Tourist Police The Police Service Commission held a meeting yesterday (Sept 27) to deliberate the reshuffle list involving officers in positions ranging from commanders to deputy commissioners general. The two-hour meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, linked by the public to Gen Surachate and his rapid career rises. A source at the meeting said Gen Surachate would be promoted to Immigration Bureau chief, a position which holds the rank of police lieutenant general. He would replace Lt Gen Sutthiphong Wongpin, who is tipped to be made the Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner. National police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda, speaking after the meeting, said those attending had decided on promoting Gen Surachate due to his achievements. Gen Chakthip, however, refused to disclose the new position of Gen Surachate as it was pending royal endorsement. He said this years reshuffle involves 255 positions. At present, the most senior officers in the Royal Thai Police are members of Classes 35 and 36 of the Royal Police Cadet Academy (RPCA), he noted. Those who are to be promoted to become bureau commissioners do not need to have worked for that bureau before, the police chief said. Police lieutenant generals deal with management work and they can use their knowledge and expertise to work in any bureau, Gen Chakthip noted. Gen Surachate has recently been involved in controversies surrounding rape claims on Koh Tao in his current post as Tourist Police deputy chief. He was earlier tipped to be made commissioner of Bangkoks Metropolitan Police Bureau or the Tourist Police Bureau. The 48-year-old officer from Songkhla is a member of the RPCA's Class 47. He rose through the ranks to become acting commander of the Office of the Commissioner-General, in charge of policy coordination with the prime minister. He was later made Deputy Commander of the Patrol and Special Operation Division and then Chief of the Office of the Commissioner-General. He was subsequently made commander of the Tourist Police Division and the Patrol and Special Operations Division. Last month, Gen Surachate was named assistant spokesman for Gen Prawit. A source familiar with the matter revealed Gen Surachate retains strong ties with the deputy premier. In the reshuffle list presented at the meeting, the source said Pol Lt Gen Chaiwat Ketworachai, an assistant national police chief, would be made a Deputy Commissioner-General. He is from the same RPCA Class 36 as Gen Chakthip. The five new assistants to the police chief are: Pol Lt Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 3; Pol Lt Gen Suwat Chaengyodsuk, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 1; Pol Lt Gen Roy Ingpairoj, commissioner of the Police Education Bureau; Pol Lt Gen Piya Uthayo, chief of the RPCA; as well as Pol Lt Gen Thawitchart Palasak, chief of Provincial Police Region 6. Meanwhile, Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) Deputy Commissioner Pol Maj Gen Sutin Suppuang is tipped to become the new CIB chief. Crime Suppression Division Deputy Commander Pol Col Jiraphob Phooridej is in line to be made division chief. Read original story here. According to court documents, Daza and another man accused in the case, Oscar Ocampo, were believed to have left the area shortly after the death, and a warrant was issued for their arrests. Northlake police said earlier this year, they received a tip about Dazas whereabouts, and in early September he was arrested in Pontiac, Mich., by the FBI and the Oakland County Gang and Violent Crime Task Force, according to an FBI spokesman. Former actress Amy ordained as nun in wake of drug trial BANGKOK: Former actress and Miss Teen Thailand Amelia Amy Jacobs, from Phuket, was ordained as a nun in Prachin Buri province yesterday (Sept 27) after being released from prison last month following sentencing in a court case for drug abuse. drugscrimepolice By Bangkok Post Friday 28 September 2018, 09:01AM Amelia Amy Jacobs (left) is ordained as nun in Prachin Buri province on Thursday morning. Photo: Police News Lawyer Sittra Bia-bangkerd was quoted in news reports saying his client was ordained at a Buddhist temple yesterday morning. He did not name the temple. Her ordination was intended to show her regret for having caused sorrow and trouble for her family. Amy wanted to share the merits of her ordination with people who had both good and ill intentions towards her, Mr Sittra said. She had not decided how long she would stay in the order. The 29-year-old Thai-Dutch woman and her 41-year-old boyfriend Punyawat Hirantecha were arrested at a house in Sai Mai District, Bangkok, in September last year with 70 grams of crystal meth (ya ice), 16 ecstasy pills, scales and drug use paraphernalia. (See story here.) The court found her guilty only of drug abuse, but sentenced her boyfriend to 25 years in jail for possession and sale of illicit drugs. Amelia was acquitted of possession with intent to sell. On Wednesday, lawyer Atchariya Ruangrattanapong filed a complaint with Bangkok police alleging 13 people had helped her escape the charge of possession for sale. Deputy Police Spokesman Col Krisana Patanacharoen said yesterday afternoon that the Metropolitan Police Bureau was investigating Mr Atchariyas complaint. He also said that about 170 policemen were dismissed for manipulating drug cases to help suspects over the past three years. Read original story here. https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1547666/former-actress-amy-ordained-as-nun-in-wake-of-drug-trial Police bust Phuket toy car drug gang PHUKET: Police have arrested three suspects, including a Thai-British man, who were found with 39,820 methamphetamine (ya bah) pills hidden in toy remote-controlled cars that were delivered to Phuket from Bangkok by a private parcel delivery service. drugscrimepolice By Eakkapop Thongtub Friday 28 September 2018, 06:25PM The drugs were smuggles into Phuket by being hidden in remote-controlled cars delivered by a parcel delivery service. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Phuket Provincial Police investigators announced the news at a press conference at the Phuket Provincial Police headquarters in Phuket Town this afternoon (Sept 28). In making the arrests, police seized 39,820 ya bah pills, 18.8 grams of crystal meth (ya ice), 180mg of heroin, a BMW car, a Nissan March, a Mitsubishi sedan, two bankbooks and two gold necklaces altogether valued at B1.23 million, police said. The suspects arrested were named as Thai nationals Thipparat Koi Prompramoon, 29, and Udom Ae Rattanamanee, 44, and John Mark Vickers, 29, a Thai national of Thai-British parentage who goes by the nickname Jonny. Police today explained that following their investigation, officers from the Phuket Provincial Police arrested Pongsak Bear Kaewsuksai, 33, from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, on Monday (Sept 24) after he was found in possession of 119 ya bah pills. That arrest led to the arrest of Sonthaya Bu Nudam, 41, from Phatthalung, on Tuesday (Sept 25), after he was found in possession of 67 ya bah pills and 2.52g ya ice. Mr Sonthaya told police that he brought the meth pills from Jonny, who lived in a house in Koh Kaew, north of Phuket Town. Police placed Vickers under surveillance, and then on Wednesday (Sept 26) raided the house in Koh Kaew, where Vicker lived with Thipparat. After his arrest, Vickers told police that he met Udom in Phuket Provincial Prison while he was serving a sentence for drug possession in 2016. The two re-connected after their release, with Vickers telling police that it was Udom who persuaded him to start running drugs together in June this year, police explained today. Vickers said that his part in the operation was to count the pills and to deliver them to customers across Phuket, police said. The drugs were delivered to Phuket after Udom ordered them from a Mr Arm in Bangkok. The drugs were hidden in the toy cars, which were packed into a box and delivered to Phuket. Some of the drugs were packed into small plastic packets that were inserted in the small rubber tyres on the toy cars. Vickers told police that he was paid between B5,000 and B10,000 for picking up each delivery, which he said he had done four times, police said today. Police today also explained that Vickers told them that Udom had called him on Monday (Sept 24) and told him to pick up the new delivery of drugs from in front of Phanasorn Village near the entrance to Kathu Waterfall at 2pm that day. Vickers picked up the box and brought it back to his house in Koh Kaew, where Udom arrived at about 2pm on Wednesday (Sept 26) to check the delivery. Thats when police moved in and arrested both of them. Phuket Provincial Police Deputy Commander Col Sermpan Sirikong told The Phuket News that all three suspects were still being held at Provincial Police Station while police continue their investigation. All three Vickers, Udom and Thipparat have been charged with possession of Category 1 drug with intent to sell, Col Sermpan confirmed. Officers from the Phuket Provincial Police Investigation Division are continuing their work to learn more information right now, he said. Haug: Several resources available for teens, adults who want to quit smoking So were all clear then on the proposed merger between Barrick Gold and Randgold Resources. Should the no-premium deal be approved as planned in the first quarter of next year, we will see a Barrick-branded entity run by Randgolds Mark Bristow as CEO and his number two, Graham Shuttleworth, in the CFOs chair. Two-thirds of the board will be initially appointed by Barrick and one-third initially by Randgold. Randgolds listing on the London Stock Exchange (the company is included in the FTSE 100 index) will be dumped in favour of Barricks share trading jurisdictions of New York and Toronto. And Barrick shareholders, who have come through slaughter these past years, will be left to wonder: who are these new guys so suddenly in charge? The standard bio on Bristow is that hes a motorcycle-loving former South African army officer who, as he told the Guardian in an interview in 2011, saw active service against guerrillas in Swaziland and Angola. It was a big thing being conscripted in 1977 and being sent straight to the border, he said at the time. You have to fight a war and you know sweet nothing about it. Im amazed more of us didnt get killed. Trained as a geologist (he has a PhD from what was the University of Natal) he co-founded Randgold in 1995, driven to create a pan-African pure gold play, which is what Randgold is today with mines operating in Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal and Cote dIvoire. Along the way he has been credited as a financially prudent straight talker, critical of other mining companies in the sector, both for value destruction (we see you, Barrick) and the faux image they portray of doing good works while they extract riches from far off lands. They do these presentations showing pictures of snotty-nosed African children, giving them clinics and schools, he said in that same Guardian interview. Its a few hundred thousand dollars a year, maybe a million. But weve paid the Mali government $800m in taxes in seven years you can buy a lot of schools and roads for that money. Randgold too has a reputation for eschewing the operational style common to foreign mining companies. We dont drag in foreign service providers with us, he told the Telegraph two years ago. The mining industry is terrible about ex-patriots, its racist. So far, so admirable. Less remarked upon are the trip wires for mining companies, especially in the DRC. I recall prepping for a trip to the Congo half a dozen years ago with a past mining executive with a deep love for, and deep experience in, the DRC. He offered a precis of the dysfunctional mining system in the DRC and those close to President Joseph Kabila. This coterie, this club, has enriched itself beyond the wildest dreams of people. Beyond the wildest dreams, he said as we sipped coffee at a downtown Toronto hotel. I would put it to you that the level of corruption, or lets call it personal enrichment, is done in such a way that makes Mobutu look like some sort of cowboy gangster. It is an immensely corrupt country. The DRC is a treasure chest diamonds, coltan, copper, gold, cobalt and a tragedy. Given Bristows CV, its perhaps not surprising that he could imagine not just winning where so many other mining companies had failed, but in doing right by Africa. The Kilo-Moto gold belt, in the northeastern reaches of the vast land mass that is the DRC, has been mined for more than a century and it was there that Randgold developed the Kibali gold mine in which it holds a 45-per-cent interest. Gold production from Kibali last year surpassed 596,000 ounces at a cash cost of $773 (U.S.) an ounce, with production for this year targetted at 730,000 ounces. Heres where it gets interesting. Adjacent to the Kibali mine lies the Moku-Beverendi property, controlled by the Fleurette Group. Dan Gertler, an Israeli who first began investing in the DRC in diamonds in 1997, has, through the Fleurette Group, spread his interests across the DRC into agriculture, iron ore, copper and beyond. At least as far back as 2014, Randgolds Bristow has expressed interest in doing a deal on the Moku-Beverendi project. In April 2016, Fleurette announced a joint venture with Randgold, which would take over the exploration and feasibility of the project and assume a majority stake. This came three years after Kofi Annans Africa Progress Panel released a report on the opaque world of mining concessions in the DRC, concluding that between 2010 and 2012 the country had lost at least $1.36 billion in revenues as a result of underpriced mining assets being sold to offshore companies. In the case of the Kansuki mine, two independent valuations concluded that the sale of the states share of the mine to a British Virgin Islands-registered subsidiary of the Fleurette Group, at $17 million, was undervalued by 682 per cent. In subsequent reports, Global Witness probed what it called secretive and questionable deals, alleging that Gertlers companies sometimes paid under five per cent of market valuation. The Fleurette Group has consistently insisted that it has met its disclosure obligations and has criticized what it deems Global Witnesss amateur, immature financial calculations. The bottom line for Randgold is that it was well aware of Gertlers controversial reputation at the time it entered into partnership with him. That reputation came under fierce fire last December when the Trump administration imposed sanctions through the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control on Gertler-affiliated entities, describing Gertler as an international businessman and billionaire who has amassed his fortune through hundreds of millions of dollars worth of opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By June the number of sanctioned individuals and entities associated with Gertler had ballooned to 34. Treasury is sanctioning companies that have enabled Dan Gertler to access the international financial system and profit from corruption and misconduct, said Sigal Mandelker, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. We are using our tools to change the behaviour of those engaged in the looting of natural resources and the humanitarian consequences that follow. A spokesperson for Fleurette says via email that the company has not commented on the sanctions directly, and referred me to comments made by Gertlers lawyers to the Guardian last November when it probed Gertlers dealings as part of the Paradise Papers investigation. Mr. Dan Gertler transacts business fairly and honestly, and strictly according to the law, said the statement. In February, Mark Bristow told Bloomberg that Randgold had issued a default notice to Fleurette Group on the Moku-Beverendi project. We cannot entertain transacting in any form, Bristow told Bloomberg. We are a global company and were just not going to compromise that. Global? Well, in combining with Barrick it certainly would be that. Now Bristow has to convince shareholders that hes the right executive to help secure Barricks place in the top tier, not just of miners, but the people of Africa. Read more about: Ottawa-based e-commerce giant Shopify Inc. is to lease more than 254,000 square feet of downtown office space as it expands in Torontos fast-growing tech ecosystem. Weve sort of kept a low profile here until now, Shopifys chief product officer Craig Miller said in an interview before the company unveiled the deal Friday. The deal, with property managers Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust and landlord RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, will see Shopify become an anchor tenant in The Well project, a 7.8-acre (3.2 hectare) mixed-use development on Front St. near Spadina Ave. Miller said Shopify has been drawing on the citys abundance of IT talent, quietly adding staff: 700 in operations that include product development and marketing, up from 400 a few months ago. The company is outgrowing its current offices in downtown heritage buildings and has also announced plans to move into a new 178,000 square foot space on King St., with the new office set to open in early 2019. The Well investment will more than double Shopifys footprint in the city. Shopifys total workforce has grown rapidly to more than 3,000 and Miller said the company is investing up to $500 million in its Toronto operations. He said Shopify expects to continue its hiring growth after 2022 when it will move into offices at The Well. Were establishing a bigger footprint (in Canadas largest city), but not just physically, said Miller, referring to the companys annual developer conference in Toronto, CEO Tobi Lutkes featured speech at the citywide Elevate technology festival here this week and the companys announcement of a partnership with York University to provide a unique computer science program. Shopifys lease announcement follows a flurry of new investments in Toronto by tech companies who are adding services and upping research spending. Among them is ride-sharing platform Uber, whose chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi lauded Canadas progressive immigration policies and Torontos wealth of diverse tech talent when he announced a more than $200 million investment in a new engineering hub and the expansion of its self-driving vehicle test centre in the city. The rapid growth of Shopify, whose platform helps merchants do business online and through retail point-of-sales technology, has been accompanied by a 500 per cent rise in share value since the company went public in 2015. Thats despite net losses and a slowing of revenue growth in recent quarters amid investments in staff and new platform features including systems that support mobile wallet payments. Against this backdrop Shopifys lofty market valuation has spurred criticism from an activist short-seller who last year questioned how many of the 600,000 businesses for which Shopify provides online stores are legitimate, claims Lutke calls preposterous. The company also faces new competition especially from Amazon.com Inc., which is creating products now that help small businesses market their products better, which is frankly the space we are in, Lutke told BNN Bloomberg at the sidelines of the Elevate conference. While Amazon is the most powerful and agile and probably ambitious company in the world, Lutke said, hes confident in Shopifys ability to adapt. Miller emphasized Shopifys partnership with Amazon, the leading shopping platform and said the company has created efficiencies and standards for e-commerce that have benefited all players. Still, he said while Amazon offers a highly efficient online shopping system, its not necessarily fun, suggesting that Shopify is working on ways to make online shopping a more enjoyable experience. CALGARYThe head of the union representing Calgary police officers called for the citys police commission chair to resign Thursday, escalating tensions between the two organizations. Les Kaminski blasted commission chair Brian Thiessen, saying Thiessen has been a police cheerleader and has failed to hold the service accountable. Kaminski also said the recent, sudden departure of the two top human resources officials at the Calgary Police Service has fed speculation and rumour among officers. Its clear that the chair of the police commission is out of touch with whats really going in within the Calgary Police Service, said Kaminski, president of the Calgary Police Association. (The HR departures are) another fiasco which proves there are systemic problems with the oversight mechanism for our police service. The commission is a civilian body with members appointed by city council. It oversees parts of the Calgary Police Service, like budgets and the hiring of the police chief. The latter process is currently underway, as Chief Roger Chaffin announced his retirement in July and will leave the service in January. In response to Kaminski, the police commission released a statement saying that Thiessen, who has been chair since November 2016, has the organizations full support. We are disappointed that the Calgary Police Association continues to decline opportunities to collaborate with the commission to move initiatives forward, read the statement. Read more: Calgary police HR departures raise questions about reforms, advocate says We will not let this personal attack on chair Thiessen be a distraction as we focus our efforts on hiring a new chief constable for Calgary. Kaminski also said the quality of policing in Calgary has gone down on Thiessens watch, citing rising rates of certain violent crimes, a drop in citizen satisfaction with the service an annual survey by the city found average satisfaction went down by three points in 2017, to 91 per cent and plummeting officer morale. This is not personal, its about policing, said Kaminski. Its about transparency and accountability. Its about doing the job youre assigned to do. And its about the safety of Calgarians. In recent weeks, a war of words has simmered between Kaminski and Thiessen as each blamed the others organizations for continuing workplace issues inside the service. In August, three current Calgary police officers came forward to StarMetro about a persistent culture of bullying and harassment within the service one Thiessen and the police chief have been working to correct since 2017, when more than a dozen current and former officers filed formal complaints about the issue. At the time, Thiessen said the commission was working to address the issues, but that the union needed to step up its commitment to cultural change. Feedback that weve heard is that female officers do not necessarily feel comfortable going to their association and having them advocate on their behalf, he told StarMetro. Kaminski responded in the most recent issue of the Calgary Police Association magazine, 10-4, where he penned a three-page editorial referencing Thiessens comments in the StarMetro story, and calling the commission chair a big part of the problem. Then, this month, chief human resources officer Sheila Ball resigned suddenly, along with another top human resources official. Ball had been at the service roughly six months and was hired to address issues with workplace culture. Its unclear why either official chose to leave StarMetro was unable to reach Ball, and Kaminski said he tried to speak with her, but hadnt heard back. Thiessen has said the commission wouldnt conduct an exit interview, but can ask the police service if its doing appropriate consultation when employees leave. We find it hard to believe her departure came with no explanation whatsoever, Kaminski said. The chief and the chair preach transparency until the spotlight is on them. Kaminski said hes speaking out now because the situation has reached a tipping point for the citys police officers, and that Thiessen and the commission have repeatedly ignored him when hes come forward with concerns about key units being understaffed or disbanded. Hes ignored the pleas of our members and meddles in union business, said Kaminski of Thiessen. Though some friction between police commissions and officer unions is common, Kaminskis statements are extraordinary, said Doug King, a justice studies professor with Mount Royal University. Ive been around a while, Ive never heard of the Calgary Police Association calling for the resignation or the removal of the chairman of the police commission, he said. Speaking Thursday, Kaminski said police officers have lost faith in the commissions ability to hire a new chief, and that the commission has blindly supported policies that are bad for officers and the public. Kaminski also said a previous public statement where Thiessen called Chaffin a friend was problematic, undermining officers faith that the commission will fairly handle complaints about the chief. Thiessen substantiates the belief of a toxic workplace where there exists an old boys network, looking out for one another, deflecting any negative fallout, he said. In its statement, the commission said it has worked hard to address employee and citizen concerns. King said the conflict between Thiessen and Kaminski, though messy, is unlikely to impact public opinion or the actions of city council. My sense is that it will confirm some peoples already-formed opinion that policing in Calgary is going to hell in a handbasket. But I would hope and expect from many people who are kind of disinterested in this, itll be something you might read in the media and then theyll move on, King said. My sense is that city council in picking the current chair ... were expecting a rough road ahead at times, and they were going to back the chair of the police commission 100 per cent. Emma McIntosh is an environment, justice and investigative reporter with StarMetro Calgary. Follow her on Twitter at @EmmaMci Read more about: CALGARY Calgarys very own Sophie St. Cyr, an 11-year-old student in Grade 6, designed the winning T-shirt for Albertas Orange Shirt Day, an event commemorating Canadas residential schools. For the past three years, the Society for Safe and Caring Schools & Communities, an organization that promotes diversity and inclusion, has spearheaded the Orange Shirt Day event across the province. In preparation for the big day, the society facilitates a T-shirt design contest for students who want to see their art on the events signature orange tops. We have criteria when it comes to the messaging and the meaning behind Orange Shirt Day, said Leslie Ronaldson, the societys executive director. We have a panel of elders, educators, provincial government people, teachers and students come in to do the first cut to bring it down to five finalists, she said. Then, it goes out to the public and everybody votes. Read more: Canadas first National Indigenous Cultural Expo opening in Edmonton this weekend Alberta private school sees merit in asking about positive effects of residential schools Alberta Distance Learning Centre apologizes after test asks students to identify positive effect of residential schools Over 600 students in Alberta submitted artwork, with St. Cyrs delicate design featuring eagle feathers and the quote, For those who survived and for those who didnt ultimately ending up on the 2018 shirt. St. Cyr said she was speechless and surprised when she learned her design won the competition. The student drew inspiration from her Grade 4 teacher when composing her image. I remember my teacher talking about how some kids didnt even survive and we need to acknowledge that, which is true, St. Cyr said. I knew that (the design) needed to be something more than just feathers, so I decided on the quote. Although Edmonton has hosted an Orange Shirt Day event every year for three years, 2018 marks Calgarys first one. The event will take place on Monday, Oct. 1 from noon to 1 p.m. Over 600 students from Calgary schools will arrive at 11:30 a.m. to walk around Olympic Plaza in support of residential school students. Ronaldson said she brought Orange Shirt Day to Alberta after learning about residential schools during a trip to Yellowknife. It was the first time I had ever heard of them and I thought, Why didnt I know this? she said. The colour orange was chosen in honour of Phyllis Webstad, a residential school survivor. When Webstad was a little girl, her grandmother bought her an orange shirt for her first day of classes at a residential school. As soon as she arrived, the schools staff took the shirt away and never gave it back. Kids lost a lot of things, including language and culture, Ronaldson said. I think the orange shirt is a fabulous symbol for what they went through. Hal Eagletail, a member of Tsuutina Nation who works closely with the Calgary Catholic School District, said hes proud of St. Cyr and described her design as beautiful and perfect. It stands out as a very powerful and symbolic reflection of the eagle spirit, Eagletail said. We carry (the eagle feather) on the highest part of our regalia to honour that connection, because out of all living entities the eagle gets the closest to the creator. Thats why we hold the eagle feather to such high esteem in our culture. Growing up, Eagletail noticed the school system didnt discuss residential schools. He said hes pleased to see the provinces education system incorporating teachings about residential schools and historical traumas experienced by Indigenous peoples. We need to act on the call from reconciliation, Eagletail said. I like to say reconcili-action because without the action, its just talk, and we need to push forward with concrete results. Read more about: EDMONTONIndigenous clothing, food, dance and games will be in the spotlight this weekend as thousands are expected to gather in Edmonton for the first National Indigenous Cultural Expo. Starting Friday, the three-day event at the Edmonton Expo Centre will focus on the sights, the sounds, the smells and the tastes of Indigenous culture and traditions with members of First Nations, Metis and Inuit coming from all across Canada to gather under one roof. The event came out of the National Gathering of Elders that also took place in Edmonton last year, which brought together leaders to talk about issues affecting Indigenous communities, from reconciliation to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, to climate change. But as valuable as that meeting was, organizers say, they wanted a chance to celebrate culture. Because the gathering was more of about themes and topics, there was a little bit of culture, but not a lot, so we said, OK, why dont we do a cultural expo? said event co-ordinator Judy Kim-Meneen. The expo will feature Indigenous drum music, dancing, cultural food such as muktuk (whale skin and blubber), dried fish, dried caribou, and more than 120 vendors, including artisans, Indigenous organizations, and crafters. Three different halls will celebrate the cultures of First Nation, Inuit and Metis people of Canada. All three days will also include an Indigenous children and family symposium, a fashion show featuring Indigenous designers, games, and competitions. Deborah Gordon-Ruben, team lead for Inuvialuit traditional drummers and dancers, says she cannot contain her excitement for getting to be part of something so big. Thats the best feeling, because this is the first time our people, as well as the First Nations and Metis, are ever going to feel this great feeling, she said. When we do the grand entry, oh my god! The feeling that everybody is going to feel and its going to envelop the people who are watching is powerful. Gordon-Ruben, who also works with residential school survivors in Inuvik, says an event like this is important for healing. Through our language, our traditions, our culture, our song and dance, the games that we play, thats how we will heal our people. So thats why its important for us to be here along with the other First Nations and Metis because they are going through the same thing ... and we will see only good things from there, she said. Kim-Meneen said its not coincidence that the event begins on Orange T-shirt Day on Friday, which is a campaign that reminds Canadians about the wrongdoings of residential schools. Culture and language were literally stripped from every child, so having a grassroots-organized cultural event that shows the world how Indigenous cultures and languages are alive and thriving is vital, she said. The event is public and Gordon-Ruben says everyone who is willing to learn is welcome to come. We are there to show you and there to let you take part in what we do and share a little bit of our food, and share a little bit of our games, and our drumming and dancing and singing and want you come and try, she said. Read more about: EDMONTONCity officials say the Edmonton Transit Service will be requesting more funding from city council to enhance security in light of two stabbing incidents that took place on a bus and at an LRT station in the span of a week. Gord Cebryk, deputy city manager of city operations, told reporters Friday morning that, if approved, the funding will go toward enhancements to security on the transit system, such as installing shields on buses to protect transit operators, and an increase in the number of transit peace officers on duty at bus and LRT stations. The transit update from the city comes after an Edmonton transit operator was stabbed 13 times early Wednesday at Mill Woods Transit Centre. The 65-year-old operator was going out of service at 3:40 a.m. when the incident occurred. Cebryk said the driver is still recovering from his injuries in hospital, and a criminal investigation is ongoing by Edmonton police. Last week, a 19-year-old was also stabbed at the South Campus LRT station near the University of Alberta. Despite those two incidents, Cebryk assured the public that Edmontons transit system is safe. He said of the 65 million Edmonton Transit Service trips that have taken place so far this year, only 2,072 have resulted in calls to police, amounting to a very small, small percentage of those transit trips resulting in an incident. As of now, Cebryk said there are ongoing efforts to install cameras on all buses by the end of the year. He added there are talks around enhancing transit operator training to better equip them to protect themselves during dangerous incidents. A number of shields to protect transit operators on duty have already been ordered, Cebryk said. Further plans include acquiring shields on new bus purchases, and retrofitting a number of shields on the existing fleet. Cebryk did not provide a timeline on when the shield installations will be complete, or specifics on enhanced training for transit operators. He added, however, Edmonton transit will be very aggressive in terms of moving the projects forward. Insp. Derek McIntyre with the Edmonton police said deployment of peace officers at transit stations is re-evaluated after every major incident, including the stabbing on Wednesday. Right now, there are 66 peace officers tasked with overseeing 26 major transit stations in the city, he said. But McIntyre also assured the public that despite the two recent stabbing incidents, the safety of Edmontonians using public transit is not at risk. These are two very serious, critical incidents that happened very close together, for me, that does not indicate that there is a crime spree in relation to transit, he said. The numbers, however, suggest an increase in assault incidents on public transit, according to Mark Tetterington, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 569, which represents transit operators. There were 55 assaults on public transit operators in Edmonton in 2016, Tetterington said. The number of assaults then jumped to 70 in 2017. As of August this year, there have been 50 assaults so far, he said, and added a spike of incidents is typically seen in the winter months, particularly November and December. Tetterington said he met with city and transit representatives, including Cebryk, on Friday morning to discuss enhancements to public transit safety, calling the meeting positive and constructive. We have basically a promise that were going to get safety shields for our operators on the late-night service, and beefed-up security throughout the city, he said. The priority is to provide shields for late-night operators who work between 6 p.m. to early in the morning, Tetterington said, adding they are essential to the operators safety. He said he remains hopeful the city will approve a new funding model to enhance security on public transit in the near future, and that he hopes more peace officers will be deployed as a result. I dont think you can put a price tag on any (transit) members safety, he said. Read more about: EDMONTONA police officer was arrested Thursday morning. The Edmonton Police Service sent out a brief statement Friday saying one of its members was arrested as part of an ongoing investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), which investigates incidents in which police used force. Police say the officer has been taken off duty without pay, pending confirmation from the Edmonton Police Commission. The officer is getting support and assistance from the EPS Employee and Family Assistance Section. EPS did not offer further details. Read more about: HALIFAXWidower Gerard Dunns daily mail is multiplying as well wishers begin responding to his daughters viral tweet asking people to mail greetings for his upcoming 92nd birthday. On Monday morning, Sydney, Cape Breton poet and writer Miriam (Dunn) Macdonald tweeted the following request: ATTENTION FRIENDS: Since Mom died this past Spring, my 92 YO dad waits for mail every day. Listens for the squeak of the mail slot opening. His BDAY is Oct. Please mail a note, card, picture, map or story to Gerard Dunn Thank you. Her tweet included an address to reach Dunn. By Friday afternoon, her request had been retweeted almost 22,000 times and was liked more than 45,000 times. More than 1,900 people had directly responded to the tweet. Hundreds have promised to send greetings, and many have shared photos of their letters or special items being popped in the post ahead of Dunns big day on Oct. 16. The senders come from all over Canada, the US, Australia, Bali, and beyond. Read more: Nova Scotia woman lights up Twitter after asking people to mail birthday greetings to widowed father Macdonald said her father received his first letter on Wednesday, followed by 12 letters on Thursday, and 43 on Friday. Hes also received a book about the history of jazz, a calendar, flowers, a fruit basket, chocolates, an original watercolour painting, and greetings from Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil. (Friday) morning we met the mailman and he was all smiles and is so happy about what is going on. He said its making other people happy, and he predicted by Monday dad will probably have 100 letters, Macdonald said. All of the mail so far has come from areas of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland because it would of course reach us the fastest. But Macdonald said theyre bracing for the floodgates to open as promised letters from around the world begin pouring in. Several teachers have shared photos of their students creating cards to send in time for Dunns birthday. One teacher said she used Dunns story as an opportunity to teach a lesson about compassion, while another used it to teach letter writing. Yet another, an Ontario elementary school teacher, was so moved by Dunns story that she approached her colleagues. Theyve reached out to local nursing homes to find lonely residents whod enjoy receiving letters from schoolchildren. So it has also had a ripple effect, a springboard effect that people are not just writing to dad nowAnd the pictures of the kids in the classroom are absolutely heartwarming, Macdonald said. Were a family of teachers. Im a teacher, my two sisters are teachers, mom was a teacher, and so this really resonates with us. When asked, Dunn said he didnt want to chat on Friday. Hes all choked up. These are pretty emotional days of highs and lows, Macdonald said. Although thrilled by all the incoming mail, Macdonald said the influx is emotional for her father because his wife is not around to share it. Ellen Mary (McGee) Dunn died in March. That is the double-edged sword, although hes grateful, moved, excited, very touched and interested, she said. Her parents, Macdonald told StarMetro earlier this week, had a courtship that lasted as long as their 62-year marriage. Dunn adored his wife and bragged about her constantly. She said their connection was obvious to anyone who met them. A flight attendant on the flight where my mom got ill (a few days before she died) reached out to me (Friday) and said that the crew was so touched by the love between my mom and dad that they continued to wonder what ever happened, what was the conclusion, Macdonald said. He said now that he saw this in the media, and realizes the conclusion is moms passing, he is sad but happy because its nice to see how well (dads) doing. He said we see many things happen in our lives, but some things stick with us and we wonder what the outcome is. Their connection was one of them. Although Dunn has been touched by the gifts people have been sending, he has requested that in lieu of gifts people should instead make a donation to their favourite charity in his name. That doesnt mean he wants the cards to stop coming. We all live to have some impact on the world and it doesnt have to be huge. I think that this is, in his final years, the impact, Macdonald said. Hes always had an impact because hes extraordinarily well-liked, a wonderful entertainer and musician and he is so well-loved. But I would not hesitate to say that he, and this, have had an impact for sure. Correction Sept. 28, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Gerard Dunn is turning 93. In fact, Dunn will be celebrating his 92nd birthday on Oct. 16. Read more about: OTTAWAWhos better at building pipelines? That question has become a major point of contention for federal Liberals and Conservatives, as the expansion of the government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline is stalled and the political parties enter prolonged campaign mode ahead of next years general election. Team Trudeau points to the record of pipeline construction when Stephen Harper was prime minister. They say the Conservatives failed to pave the way for new pipelines to all-important markets overseas, where higher prices are available for Canadian oil. The Tories fire back that the Liberals are botching the approval of new resource projects and contend the climate for construction was better when they were in charge. Witness this statement from the office of Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi this week: The previous government cut corners at every turn. They disregarded environmental concerns and they ignored Indigenous peoples. The result not a single kilometre of pipeline built to overseas markets. Now listen to Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, who spoke to reporters that very same day: The facts speak for themselves, he said. Our previous government completed four major pipeline projects during our nine years in office, including two that included access to tidewater. OK, then. What should we make of that? Martin King is an analyst in Calgary with the firm GMP FirstEnergy. He brushed both claims off as arguably correct, though ultimately misguided. Both right, both wrong and theyre arguing about the wrong thing, King said. First off, its true that four pipelines were built when Harper was prime minister. The two with access to tidewater are the Trans Canada Keystone line and Anchor Loop expansion. King said its technically true that oil flowing through the Keystone line may ultimately end up at an ocean. That pipeline, which began pumping oil in 2010, runs from Hardisty, Alta. to Steele City in Nebraska. From there, oil can be shipped through a connecting line to Oklahoma, and then into a third pipeline to the Gulf Coast. In the truest sense, there is access to tidewater, King said, although it is by no means a direct connection. A similar case can be made for the Anchor Loop. That line was built in 2008 as a way to pump more Alberta oil through the Trans Mountain pipeline, the decades-old transmitter that runs from outside Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C. The Anchor Loop is a second pipeline installed next to the old one, which runs 158 kilometres from Hinton, Alta. to just west of Mount Robson in the Rockies. So, while the Anchor Loop itself doesnt go to the coast, it allows the broader Trans Mountain system to carry more oil to tidewater, bumping its capacity from 260,000 barrels of oil per day to the current 300,000. But King said the Liberal case that no pipelines were built to overseas markets is buttressed by the fact that no major direct link from the oilsands to the ocean was constructed when Harper was in office. A direct Canadian link of large capacity to tidewater? No that is not the case, he said. That said, King and others dismiss this discussion as little more than a partisan squabble. They say the real issue is that Canada doesnt have enough pipeline capacity for the amount of oil it produces. That forces companies that dredge oil in Alberta to sell it to receivers on the other end of pipelines at a discount. They essentially have to bid on limited transit space by lowering their prices, King said. Todd Crawford, associate director of industrial economic trends at the Conference Board of Canada, said Canadian crude is currently sold at roughly $40 per barrel cheaper than in U.S. jurisdictions that dont have the same capacity problems. He said the new pipelines that Scheer boasts about had a positive impact on this problem, but the progress was marginal considering that major Canadian pipeline proposals in recent years Energy East, Northern Gateway and the Trans Mountain expansion project have been abandoned or stalled. Theres no other honest way to characterize it: both major parties wear this, he said. Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Perrin Beatty said companies in Canada increasingly feel the system used to assess proposed projects like pipelines is badly broken. Projects languish under a cloud of uncertainty, and successive governments have been found by courts to have failed in their environmental assessments and consultations with Indigenous peoples, he said most recently on Aug. 30, when a federal court quashed the Trans Mountain expansion approval. The big question for Beatty is how can the government give businesses clarity on which projects are acceptable and which are not, especially in light of opposition to industries that contribute to climate change. It may be time to openly debate whether Canada wants new oil pipelines at all, he said. Lots of blame to go around, he said, referring to stalled pipelines under Conservative and Liberal watch. We seem incapable of getting it done. So whos better at building pipelines? It seems neither partys record is very good at least on the major pipeline projects. But they sure want you to think their opponent is worse. Read more about: FREDERICTONNew Brunswicks right-leaning Peoples Alliance has agreed to prop up a Tory minority government, but the Liberal premier is urging skeptical Progressive Conservative legislators to rebel against the deal and keep his party in power. Peoples Alliance Leader Kris Austin said Friday he met with Lt.-Gov. Jocelyne Roy Vienneau and told her he has agreed to back Blaine Higgs Tories for 18 months. However, Premier Brian Gallant held his own news conference shortly afterwards, saying hell continue talks to form a minority government with the Green Party, and will bring the legislature back by Oct. 23 for a throne speech. Read more: Opinion | Public Editor: Fair election coverage does not mean equal coverage New Brunswick Greens say deal with Tories would be easier than with Liberals Doug Ford kills Drive Clean emissions testing He challenged members of the Tory caucus who may not be sympathetic to Peoples Alliance policies to either cross the floor or publicly voice their discontent to prevent the creation of a Tory government supported by the Alliance. Mondays New Brunswick election produced a deadlocked result, with the Tories winning 22 seats to the Liberals 21. Neither was able to reach the 25 seats needed for a majority. The Green Party went from one to three seats and Peoples Alliance earned three seats, with both party leaders winning in their respective ridings. Gallant repeated in his news conference on Friday that the Liberals will not form a coalition with the Peoples Alliance, saying there are fundamental values the Liberals dont share with the smaller party. The Peoples Alliance has pledged to eliminate linguistic duality in government services including school buses and health care and do away with the office of the official languages commissioner. In its news release, the Peoples Alliance was vague about whether conditions were attached to their support, and Austin declined requests for interviews on how informal the agreement with the Tories is. Kris Austin met with the lieutenant-governor this morning to discuss working with other parties in the upcoming legislative assembly to make government work, said an emailed news release from the party. Mr. Austin informed her honour that he has met with Blaine Higgs and has agreed to provide stability for a Progressive Conservative minority government for up to 18 months. Peoples Alliance members of the legislature will continue to hold the government to account with the expectation that all parties must work together in the best interest of New Brunswickers. Higgs had met with the provinces lieutenant-governor on Thursday, and emerged to say Gallant should resign or immediately recall the legislature. Higgs also said at the time he had no plans to form a formal coalition government with either of the third parties. However, he also indicated on Thursday that he was open to a more informal arrangement. The deal is not something that has to be a signed document that says, Here, Ill give you this thing, if you give me that, he told reporters. Gallant said at the news conference that he hoped to come to an agreement with the Greens in talks next week, and was pleasantly surprised at how many policies the two parties hold in common. Read more about: A Toronto man recently acquitted of murder is recovering in hospital from a gunshot wound and facing attempted murder and firearms charges following a shooting inside a west-end apartment. Havard McKenzie walked out of Superior Court a free man in May after a jury found him not guilty of the second-degree murder of Tariq Mohammed, 31, in a crowded downtown Chinese restaurant. The unarmed Mohammed, who was out celebrating a birthday with friends, was shot several times by two gunmen. Moments earlier, the gunmen robbed Mohammeds friend of his necklace at the back of the now closed Garden Restaurant on Dundas St. W. Tuesday morning this week, McKenzie, 27, was in a womans apartment in a building on Tandridge Cres. in Etobicoke when her ex-boyfriend the father of her son pounded on the door, said a police officer familiar with the incident who wasnt authorized to speak publicly about it. At some point, shots were fired and one man sustained three bullet wounds, the source said. He was found outside the building and was taken to hospital. First-responders found McKenzie in the apartment with a single gunshot wound, the officer said. The bullet entered his chest and exited his back without striking any vital organs. He is recovering in hospital and was remanded in custody until a bail hearing next week. A woman also cut her hand in the incident, a police spokesperson said. The police source said two guns were seized, one outside the building, the other stashed in a kitchen cupboard. McKenzie and Devon Johnson-Garcia, 25, are both charged with attempted murder and various firearms offences, police said. I know very little about this case from the police or prosecuting authorities. However, Im confident that as the evidence emerges it will show that my client is guilty of nothing, said Gary Grill, McKenzies defence lawyer who also represented him at the murder trial. McKenzies acquittal by a jury proves that just because somebody is charged doesnt mean that theyre going to be convicted, or theyre even guilty, Grill said. During the trial, McKenzie admitted leaving a fingerprint on the door of the Garden Restaurant, but said it wasnt on the night of the Nov. 16, 2014 murder. The Crown alleged the fingerprint evidence and surveillance footage showed that McKenzie fatally shot Mohammed as he lay in a fetal position. It was sheer frustration that drove Dr. Raj Rampersaud to develop a better way to care for people with lower back pain. A decade ago, the Toronto spine surgeon hailed as one of the best in the world found himself apologizing to up to 90 per cent of patients referred to him by family doctors for consultations. There is really nothing I as a surgeon can do for you, Rampersaud, 50, recalls telling patient after patient. It was discouraging news for patients who had waited up to 18 months for their appointments. And that was typically after they had already waited up to six months for MRIs. Many were unable to work, many were on painkillers, some were even addicted. Because the patients were not candidates for surgery, the best Rampersaud could offer was referrals to other physicians for example, pain specialists and physiatrists who also had long waiting lists. Had these patients received appropriate treatment earlier, their problems may not have become chronic. You can see how the system is failing the individual at every level, every step of the way. That was the impetus for us to say this is not good for me, its not good for the patient and its not good for the family doctor I get frustrated talking about it because it is such a horrible experience, says Rampersaud, who works out of the Toronto Western Hospital campus of the University Health Network. The Guyanese-born doctor knew there had to be a better way, so he set about creating one himself. He has since succeeded in overhauling the way Ontarios health system deals with lower back pain. A six-year pilot project he led wrapped up in March. Ontarios health ministry, through Health Quality Ontario, is now in the process of opening rapid assessment clinics across the province, based on Rampersauds vision for providing better and faster care for patients with back pain. The clinics are staffed by specially trained physiotherapists and chiropractors who teach patients how to manage their pain. The results have been good and other provinces have taken notice. Small pilots are now underway in British Columbia and New Brunswick. (These pilots are also built upon research from Saskatchewan, another province that has made great strides in improving care for patients with back pain.) Ontario is lucky to have physicians of his calibre, says Dr. Bob Bell, former deputy health minister for the province and former president of the University Health Network. Ontarians are fortunate that he has devoted so much energy and time to improving care for a common problem, back pain, in the province, Bell says. A former orthopedic surgeon, Bell trained Rampersaud when the younger doctor was a resident from Western University. Bell says he knew from the start Rampersaud was someone to watch: You could tell as a student that he was highly skilled and was going to be a leader. Over the last 10 years, during typical 80-hour work weeks, Rampersaud devised a new clinical pathway for patients, one that allows them to get more appropriate care earlier on, when the chances of success are best. It meant getting different kinds of health-care providers involved, including physiotherapists and chiropractors with advanced training. With funding and support from the Ontario health ministry, Rampersaud and his team launched ISAEC, the Inter-professional Spine Assessment and Education Clinics, in 2012. The pilot was set up in three centres: Toronto, Thunder Bay and Hamilton. Some 478 family doctors and nurse practitioners were recruited. Traditionally, these practitioners have had few tools to help patients with persistent back pain. If anti-inflammatories and some standard exercises didnt work, they would send patients for MRIs and then refer them to surgeons such as Rampersaud. But with ISAEC, they have another tool in their toolkit. They can quickly refer patients to community clinics where they are assessed by physiotherapists or chiropractors. These health professionals are trained to help weed out the very small percentage of patients who might benefit from anti-inflammatory steroid injections or surgery. The remaining patients receive education about the nature of back pain and are given self-management and exercise programs, personalized to address their specific conditions. More than 7,000 patients have so far been treated. The average wait to get into a clinic has been 12 days. Barbara Pereira received treatment for her back pain at Inter-professional Spine Assessment and Education Clinics. The ISAEC pilot project launched by Dr. Raj Rampersaud has drastically cut wait times for treatment. Rampersaud is part of the Star's Changemaker series, one of 12 Canadians making our lives better. See more at thestar.com/changemakers Surveys of patients have shown that 99 per cent are satisfied with their ISAEC consultations, 97 per cent are satisfied with their wait times and 94 per cent have a better understanding of their conditions. Ultimately, they have reported a reduced prevalence of unmanageable chronic lower back pain. The ISAEC pilot also saw: A 30 per cent plunge in MRI use. Fewer unnecessary and costly referrals to spine surgeons and other specialists. And a decrease in waits to see such specialists from as long as 18 months to as little as two weeks. Bell says ISAECs success has solidified Rampersauds reputation as a top-notch surgeon. Raj is one of the premier back surgeons in the world based on both his innovation in non-surgical care for patients with back pain and the terrific results achieved with developing minimally invasive microsurgery to deal with nerve compression. He is certainly recognized worldwide as a surgical innovator and leader. Asked where his drive comes from, Rampersaud credits his parents and tells a familiar story of immigrants sacrificing much for the next generation. The youngest of 11 children, Rampersaud was born in a small village in the former British Guiana around the time the colony gained independence from the United Kingdom. Because of political unrest, the family moved abroad with not much more than the clothes on their backs. Most of the family immigrated to Canada. The young Rampersaud was 7 when they settled in a working class neighbourhood of Hamilton. Racism was rife and Rampersaud recalls being regularly called a paki and even getting into fisticuffs because of the colour of his skin. His father, a dentist back in Guyana, found employment as a janitor. Rampersauds mother, who did not work outside the home back in Guyana, found a job as a seamstress. Rampersaud excelled in school and the idea of becoming a doctor was first planted by his parents who wanted a better life for their bright son. Today, he lives a comfortable life in the west end of Toronto with his wife and four children, three girls and a boy, ages 5 to 12. His success with ISAEC is especially significant because back pain is one of the most common reasons patients see doctors and is responsible for more than half of all opioid prescriptions. Up to 80 per cent of adults experience lower back pain at some point in their lives, Rampersaud notes. Back pain is also one of the most common reasons people miss work, he says, adding worldwide it is responsible for the most days spent with a disability. Persistent back pain can prevent people from working and even socializing. It can also result in mood dysfunction. Prevention of chronic back pain is one of the principal goals of ISAEC, Rampersaud says. Toronto patient Adam Jagelewski was referred to ISAEC last year, after suffering with severe back pain for more three years. Sharp pain radiated down the back of his left leg, making it uncomfortable to sit for more than 15 minutes. The 34-year-old director at the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing had sought help from chiropractors, physiotherapists, massage therapists, osteopaths, and a number of different doctors at a sports medicine clinic all to no avail. Through ISAEC, he received a personalized exercise program, but that proved not to be enough to ameliorate his pain. He was then referred to Marcia Correale, an advanced practice physiotherapist and practice lead with ISAEC. Correale, who works out of Toronto Western Hospital with Rampersaud, advised that Jagelewski get a steroid injection. During a recent interview, he said he was feeling much improvement and could sit for four hours. I saw doctor after doctor after doctor and it felt like there was really no end game in all of this It was only until (coming to) this clinic ... that I got help, he said. I wouldnt say that I have no pain. But its mitigated, its manageable pain right now. Correale says back pain tends to recur. It can be managed but not cured. Sometimes when people go to different practitioners, they are looking for someone who will fix them. Sometimes no one is really going to fix them, but people can give you tools to help you manage your symptoms, she says. Rampersaud calls this ping-pong health care and says patients deserve better. What I mean is patients are being bounced back and forth from provider to provider, often getting contradictory opinions and treatments. With lack of co-ordinated care for conditions that require multiple providers to manage, our provider-centric system produces what it is designed to give fragmented, episodic care that is of poor quality and value to patients, providers and the payers. The Inter-professional Spine Assessment and Education Clinics allow patients suffering from back pain to get better, faster and more appropriate care. Rampersaud explains that Ontarios health system, like many around the world, is siloed and is provider centred rather than patient centred. Different types of health-care providers have not worked well together. Turf wars, payment schemes and a lack of political will are among the reasons the system has not evolved in a way that is best for patients and taxpayers. The first thing we did was break down the silos and plop the patient in the middle, Rampersaud remarks. Primary-care practitioners are a key part of this new shared-care model as are patients who are expected to play a central role in the self management of their pain, he notes. Story Behind the Story delivers insights into how the Star investigates, reports, and produces stories. Dr. Sarah Newbery, former president of the Ontario College of Family Physicians, participated in the pilot project. She says ISAEC has been a boon to primary-care providers such as herself. ISAEC has been designed by clinicians for clinicians, says Newbery, who works in a rural practice in Marathon, Ont., along the northern shore of Lake Superior. It has made management of lower back pain easier for my patients and it has made this challenging area of medicine easier for me. Rampersaud says his career is much more satisfying today than it was a decade ago. His waiting list is shorter and most of the patients he sees for surgical consultations are actually candidates for surgery. Other patients who might have been referred to him in the past are getting faster and more appropriate care from physiotherapists and chiropractors at rapid assessment clinics. I cant see myself ever wanting to practise the way we used to practise, he says. After a morning of uncertainties about staffing levels of the Toronto police gun and gang unit, Mayor John Tory and police brass surfaced after lunch Friday to assure a city that has seen a rise in gun violence that there will be no reductions. Following media reports of realignment and reductions and a very good discussion with Chief Mark Saunders Tory told reporters he didnt order anybody to do anything but came away assured that staffing would remain the same. Deputy Chief Barbara McLean, ahead of an afternoon Toronto Police Services Board meeting, also assured there would be no change in the numbers, but would not discuss any organizational changes. We are staffing our guns and gangs capability, our unit, the same today, that we will next week, next month, said McLean. The unit is a priority, she said. What is changing is the size of the Neighbourhood Officer Program, which stations dedicated officers in neighbourhoods for four-year terms. It is set to grow from neighbourhood officers in 33 neighbourhoods to 41, and, eventually 60 of the citys 144 neighbourhoods and perhaps beyond. The eight new neighbourhoods, to which a total of 40 neighbourhood officers and four neighbourhood sergeants will be assigned, beginning in October, are Lambton Baby Point, Weston-Pelham Park, Islington City Centre West, Etobicoke West Mall, Oakridge, Kennedy Park, LAmoreaux and Malvern. The final phase of the expansion is expected in October 2019. The program began in 2013, amid increasing controversy over carding, with a mandate to reduce crime, build relationships with residents, increase residents trust of police and learn more about the needs of the neighbourhoods. The early results are promising, Humber College criminal justice professor Doug Thomson told the police services board. It is in many ways a throwback to a community policing model that saw officers walking a beat, and truly getting to know the people in the neighbourhoods they work in. Board member Marie Molinor called it an exciting day for the program and the service. Mayor Tory put forward a motion, which was passed unanimously, to seek help from the province and Ottawa to fund the neighbourhood officer expansion for the next five years, which will cost around $17 million a year, he said. Amid a municipal election campaign, the gun violence and what to do about it have become focal points, and intensified after this weeks death of 15-year-old Mackai Jackson in Regent Park. Police continue to investigate the shooting and a police spokesperson said Thursday investigators are looking for more information and could not confirm or rule out if the shooting was intentional. Shootings in Toronto are up over the past several years. As of Monday, there had been 310 reported shootings so far in 2018, with 137 people injured and 40 killed. At this time in 2017, 29 people had been killed in shootings and 126 injured. In July, following the mass shooting on the Danforth, city council approved a five-year, $44 million plan to combat gun violence. In 2018, $7.4 million is earmarked for stepped-up enforcement and new CCTV cameras, while just over $1 million is to go to community initiatives. Police also added 200 officers to the streets during the summer, achieved through overtime, and there are plans to hire more. On Thursday, the service welcomed 27 new recruits. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has promised Toronto $25 million over four years to fight thugs $18 million of which is for the Toronto Police Service to use as it sees fit, and $7.5 million toward legal SWAT teams to ensure people facing violent gun charges dont get bail. The services current integrated gun and gang task force includes a guns and gangs unit, firearms enforcement unit, major project section and a biker enforcement unit. Detectives assigned to the task force support shooting-related investigations, conduct organized gang busts and investigate the smuggling, trafficking and possession of crime guns, according to the task force web page. Media reports late this week suggested plans were afoot to reconfigure and shrink the number of teams in the unit. If that was the case, it no longer was by Friday. A key observation in the burgeoning Bruce McArthur investigation appears in court documents in an otherwise boilerplate form submitted by police in January 2013 five years before the alleged serial killers arrest. Toronto police had been investigating the disappearance of Skanda Navaratnam, 40, who had gone missing from the citys Gay Village in September 2010. After few leads and no new evidence, an examination of other disappearances made police pick up on a pattern. During an investigation in to other outstanding missing persons in the gay community, this occurrence, as well as two other missing males of similar ethnic background have come to light, wrote a Toronto police detective. This is a serious concern for the Toronto Police Service and further investigation is required to rule out or confirm criminal activity. Court documents unsealed by an Ontario judge Friday provide a limited glimpse into the police task force known as Project Houston the ultimately unsuccessful probe that examined the disappearances of three men now believed to be among alleged serial killer Bruce McArthurs eight victims. They also show that years before McArthur became a murder suspect, police were homing in on areas McArthur was known to frequent including SilverDaddies, a gay dating app used by McArthur, and bars within the Gay Village though there is no mention of McArthur as a suspect in the newly released documents. Following an application by the Toronto Star and other media, Justice Cathy Mocha on Friday approved the partial release of information to obtain (ITO) documents, which are affidavits filed when police are asking for the courts permission for certain investigative actions, such as obtaining search warrants, seeking access to bank records and more. The documents typically contain fresh details about an investigation, including summaries of evidence. Read more: What happened to Project Houston, the Toronto police search for three missing men? Police found remains essentially every day that we were digging in ravine behind home linked to Bruce McArthur Bruce McArthur was previously questioned, released by police in separate incident The vast majority of the information in the ITOs released Friday has been redacted by the court, but the documents do provide a peek inside the initial probe into the disappearances of Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, 42, and Majeed Kayhan, 58. The three men, who disappeared from in or around the Gay Village between 2010 and 2012, became the subjects of Project Houston, which launched in November 2012. At one point in September 2013, the documents state police believe Navaratnam and Faizi were murdered. The ITO documents provide a partial view of the wide net investigators cast in their efforts to determine who the men communicated with, and what they did, in the days and weeks before their disappearances. Among the companies police targeted: Yahoo!, Telus Communications, Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, Scotiabank, CIBC and Cogeco Cable Canada LP. They also sought search warrants for addresses and tracking warrants for vehicles. Project Houston ended after 18 months, when police could find no evidence to suggest criminal activity. A small crew of officers at the local downtown division continued to probe the disappearances as missing persons cases. Following an application by the Toronto Star and other media, Justice Cathy Mocha on Friday approved the partial release of information to obtain (ITO) documents, which are filed when police are asking for the courts permission for certain investigative actions, such as obtaining search warrants, seeking access to bank records and more. The early investigation into the mens disappearances and the decision to end Project Houston has been the subject of heated criticism after the arrest of McArthur, the 66-year-old landscaper accused of eight counts of first-degree murder including all three Project Houston men. After the project ended in April 2014, it is alleged that McArthur went on to kill five more men Andrew Kinsman, 49, Selim Esen, 44, Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam, 37, Dean Lisowick, 47, and Soroush Mahmudi, 50. Police sources have previously told the Star that McArthur was questioned around the time of Project Houston. McArthur did not become a murder suspect until November 2017 in the death of Kinsmen. As previously reported by the Star and other media, Project Houston homed in for months on the wrong suspect Peterborough man James Alex Brunton. Police had received a tip that potentially linked him to Navaratnam, and for a period between late 2012 and June 2013, the project became a homicide probe, pursuing evidence that hed become the victim of a cannibalism ring. Documents unsealed by the courts in June showed investigators obtained warrants to search Bruntons Peterborough home, track a vehicle registered to his address, intercept communications within the home, and that a confidential informant and an undercover officer were involved in the investigation. When that evidence was discounted Brunton was later cleared as a murder suspect, but arrested on child porn charges the case was no longer a homicide investigation. Questions and criticisms over the forces handling of its investigation into the disappearances of Navaratnam, Kayhan and Faizi, as well as those of five other men, most with ties to the Gay Village and of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent, prompted the Toronto Police Services Board to commission an independent review of how missing persons cases are investigated. The high-profile review, presided over by former Ontario Superior Court Justice Gloria Epstein, is looking at the policies and practices employed during missing persons investigations and whether discrimination or bias may have affected how police conducted themselves. That review is in addition to another, internal review police are conducting on their own of how they conduct missing persons investigations. The ITO documents show Toronto police made inquiries concerning three accounts on silverdaddies.com, sometime around January 2013. The website is a meeting place for mature men and other men (both daddies and younger) who are interested in keeping their daddy happy and/or sexually satisfied, according to the documents. What, if anything, investigators gleaned from this is blacked-out in the documents. McArthur had a SilverDaddies account, and as previously reported by the Star, used it to connect to at least one man a closeted, Middle Eastern man living in Toronto, who anonymously spoke to the Star. He said the men had sex in a bathhouse, but the relationship didnt progress due to how rough McArthurs sexual preferences were. The documents also provide a snapshot of the turmoil faced by their families and friends as they grew more worried. One October 2010 request for a production order for Telus Communications contains a summary of investigative work done by police looking into Navaratnams disappearance. The summary shows that on Sept. 26, 2010 10 days after Navaratnam was reported missing by a friend a police sergeant, accompanied by 16 of Navaratnams friends and concerned community members, did a walk-through of trails adjacent to both the east and west side of Riverdale Park and checked a densely wooded area south of Bloor St. E. This area is apparently used as a meeting/pickup place by members of the gay community. Nothing of any evidentiary value located; no further information obtained, reads the document, which stresses the exercise was a walk through and not a search. Five days later, on Oct. 1, 2010, police conducted a cadaver search of the area with a dog but found nothing. At one point, a toothbrush and a disposable razor, believed to belong to Navaratnam, were submitted to the Centre of Forensic Sciences. Its not clear what occurred next, as the following paragraphs are redacted. In an ITO seeking a production order for a Burlington credit bureau in January 2013, police detail how a cousin of Faizi reported the man missing to Peel Regional Police on Dec. 30, 2010. On Jan. 2, 2011, Faizis niece reported to police that the family had accessed the mans email account. Family members are extremely concerned for Faizis wellbeing, as he spends most of his time working or with family, the ITO reads. The last time Faizi was seen alive was when he was leaving his job as an assistant machine operator at a Mississauga printing company. His 2002 Nissan Sentra was later found abandoned on Moore Ave., near St. Clair Ave. and Mount Pleasant Rd. In one application in Feb. 2013, police were seeking a production order for a Yahoo! email account that investigators had identified as being used by the individual last known to have contact via the internet with Faizi before his disappearance. At that time, Faizis disappearance was being treated as suspicious, as he had not been heard from in two years. It is my belief that Faizi has ultimately become the victim of wrongdoing, writes the officer signing the warrant. The application was granted, but its not clear what happened next. The documents show that initially police believed Navaratnam and Kayhan may have been the victims of a kidnapping. In one application in Jan. 2013 for a production order for Bell Canada, police report that when Kayhans son, Hamid, last spoke to his father, Kayhan appeared in good health and good spirits. The document then describes what could only have been a sons anguished attempts to locate his father. After several unreturned calls, Hamid spoke to other family members who said they too hadnt heard from his father for two weeks. In late Oct. 2012, Hamid visited his fathers apartment at 31 Alexander St. in the heart of the Gay Village but couldnt gain entry as the locks had recently been changed. Police were called but could find no signs of a struggle or foul play when they entered Kayhans apartment. Officers then tried calling downtown Toronto hospitals in the hope of finding Kayhan, but were unsuccessful. Ontario launched its education public consultations on Friday, seeking parents input on everything from the sex-ed curriculum to improving student performance in science and math. We invite everyone parents, students, educators and interested individuals or organizations to provide feedback on the education system in Ontario, says the consultation website. Our goal is to prepare Ontario students for success, improve their academic achievement and equip them with the tools needed to enter the working world. Education Minister Lisa Thompson had said the consultations would include telephone town halls, as well as online form or submissions by email. The website began accepting online submissions Friday, with sections on the telephone town halls and an online survey marked as coming soon. It said the closing date for consultations is Dec. 15. The government is asking for feedback on science/technology/engineering and math (STEM), the skilled trades, EQAO/standardized testing and whether or not cellphones should be used in classrooms, as well as building a new age-appropriate health and physical education curriculum that includes subjects like mental health, sexual health education and the legalization of cannabis. Premier Doug Ford promised during the election campaign to shelve the updated sex-ed curriculum, introduced in 2015, in a nod to social conservatives who objected to some material and felt it age-inappropriate. He said hed heard from parents who felt theyd not been properly consulted. Thompson later announced that elementary teachers would revert to using the 1998 curriculum, which was created before sexting and legal same-sex marriage, and in use until 2014. The government faces two legal challenges from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario and additional two human rights tribunal cases from LGBT students and families over the move. During this consultation period, fundamental lessons have been restored to classrooms, the website says. We have issued curriculum guidance to assist educators and ensure a common curriculum standard across Ontario. All provincial education professionals, including teachers, are expected to follow this curriculum guidance. Thompson told reporters last week that there are many avenues which people can employ to participate in this consultation we are using avenues so that every person in Ontario has an opportunity to participate. She also said in-person town halls were also under consideration. The 2015 curriculum was created after several years of consultations with health experts, teachers, student groups as well as some parent councils in schools across the province, and received a stamp of approval from more than 50 hospitals across the province, including physicians at Torontos world-renowned Hospital for Sick Children. Jane-Finch community activist Suzanne Narain is no longer running for city council but that doesnt mean shes given up her goal of unseating long-time incumbents. Following news last week that a 25-ward election is to go ahead after unprecedented uncertainty, Narain decided her time will be better spent engaging Humber RiverBlack Creek residents in the upcoming election, rather than splitting the progressive vote. Theres a common misconception people in this neighbourhood are not attuned to politics or interested in voting, but people do want to get involved, said Narain. But things like this (25-ward system) make it so impossible to go forward. Narain, a daughter of Guyanese immigrants, is one of about 75 candidates who campaigned for one of 47 wards in the elections original incarnation, but will not be running in the 25-ward election after the province slashed the number of wards. Many of these former candidates identify as visible minorities, or because of their gender or sexual orientation didnt feel adequately represented by council, a situation thats unlikely to improve in this election, according to critics of the provinces move. By slashing city council in half, were likely to end up with even worse representation, said David Meslin, a community activist focused on civic engagement. This tragic consequence can already be seen, simply by looking at the list of candidates who have dropped out of the election as a result of (Premier) Doug Fords brutal attack on local democracy. Narain faced a huge challenge in the 25-ward system. The elementary school supply teacher wouldve been running a grassroots campaign with limited resources, which she determined would be far less effective stretched across roughly double the geographic area and number of households than what shed originally signed up for. Read more: What you need to know about Torontos 25 new wards Opinion | Consider the future of Torontos green spaces as you consider your vote Crowded buses, long commutes why transit is top of mind for Toronto voters And she wouldve faced not one, but two incumbents with considerable financial backing Giorgio Mammoliti and Anthony Perruzza. It feels like the incumbents and people with resources are fighting one race, and the people with less resources are in another, said Narain, who grew up and continues to live in the North York neighbourhood. This problem is exacerbated by the 25-ward system, she said. In 2014, Mammoliti and Perruzza both received more than $40,000 in campaign contributions, even more than they were allowed to spend. (Surpluses are turned over to the city clerk, according to the province.) How much candidates are allowed to spend is linked to how many eligible voters are in their wards, so this year in expansive wards like Humber RiverBlack Creek, theyll be allowed to raise more. Narain, who ran in the same ward as Perruzza and came third, raised less than $1,300. Aiming to represent marginalized residents, Narain didnt believe extra donations would be flowing into her campaign under the 25-ward system, putting her at even more of a disadvantage. A lot of people are being pushed out of the system. Its not that we dont want to run. Its that we cant afford to anymore, she said. Under the original 47-ward election there were at least 10 races without an incumbent, which would have added fresh faces to a city council thats traditionally been white, heterosexual and male. Fords unexpected cut to the citys wards in the middle of the election means there are now only two wards where no incumbent or former councillor is running. Incumbents, running off name recognition, have a far greater chance of winning than new candidates. At a time when cynicism towards politics and politicians is at a record high, this drastic erosion of local representation is a monumental leap backwards and will serve only to further feed peoples frustrations and anger, Meslin said. The Humber RiverBlack Creek community deserves more than career politicians who ignore or dismiss the most pressing needs of her community, Narain said. It will be up to residents to vote strategically if they want change and someone new, and shell be there to help them figure out who they think that person should be, she said. Former parking enforcement officer and well-known road safety advocate Kyle Ashley was planning to take on incumbent Jaye Robinson. After the provinces cut to council, he said, donations came to a standstill as everyone waited to find out which ward system would win. Then, faced with running in Don Valley West, a ward with about the same population as all of Milton, Ashley figured his campaign would be ineffective so he refocused on supporting other candidates across the city. When 13 is the new majority on council, which is very, very frightening, and it becomes ever so more important to get progressive councillors voted to council, Ashley said. Also working behind the scenes in Torontos downtown is Suzanna Kavanagh another aspiring council candidate whose campaign ended with the 47 wards. Shes doing walkabouts with at least two incumbents to share some of her knowledge about issues including large upcoming developments, the St. Lawrence Market reconstruction and park refurbishments. The reason she chose not to run for one of the super wards is because she didnt want to represent an area that large, a job she envisions is like that of an MP or MPP, and she didnt want to run against incumbents Joe Cressy for SpadinaFort York, or Kristyn Wong-Tam for Toronto Centre. Her decision was despite having well over 100 volunteers and raising and spending $25,000 on the campaign, Kavanagh said. Donors who supported a 47-ward candidate who is no longer running can still apply to the citys rebate program. It was fun while it lasted. I just wish I had the opportunity to run in the 47-ward system because I had a lot of support, said Kavanagh, admitting she shed a few tears when the change became certain. Now, shes figuring out what to do next. There is no point in complaining, Kavanagh said of Fords ward cuts. The best thing we need to do is get ourselves organized and figure out how to work with the resources we have. Shes president of the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association, a role she said will be more important than ever when councillors have roughly double the number of residents to serve and not as much time to advocate on their behalf. In the meantime, shes going to take a spontaneous trip to Newfoundland in October with her 84-year-old mother. Other candidates out of the race About 75 candidates under the 47-ward system either didnt register or withdrew from the 25 ward race. Heres a sampling of those not running: Jennifer Hollett: The former MuchMusic VJ and Twitter Canada executive, and Harvard graduate, was set to run in a newly created east downtown ward with a platform focused on housing, connecting green space and creating more transit options. Chris Moise: A gay, Black school board trustee, hed hoped to be part of a city council shakeup by running in a new and open ward in downtown. If elected, he wouldve focused on repairing tensions between the police and the Black and LGBTQ communities. He will seek re-election as a trustee. Rocco Achampong: A practising lawyer and son of immigrant parents from Ghana, he signed up to run in the area where he grew up and would face no incumbent. He was the first to apply to fight Fords Bill 5 in court. Ausma Malik: When she was elected as school board trustee in 2014, Malik was believed to be the first hijab-wearing Muslim woman to be elected to public office in Canada. She had planned to break down more barriers as city councillor of a new downtown ward with a promise to include residents in more decision-making. Han Dong: The former Trinity-Spadina Liberal MPP who lost to the NDP in this years provincial election wanted to continue to represent the community as city councillor of the same area. He previously told the Star he wanted use his MPP experience to push the PC government to deliver on funding promises made by the Liberals that mattered to Toronto. Read more about: COLUMBIA, S.C.South Carolina deputies after being waved through by National Guards drove a transport van around a barricade blocking a flooded road shortly before two mental patients drowned inside, authorities said Thursday. Horry County Sheriffs Office spokesperson Brooke Holden told The Associated Press said that guards allowed deputies to drive around a barrier the night of Sept. 18 because they were in a law enforcement vehicle. It was waved through by the National Guardsmen, Holden said. Because the van was a Horry County Sheriffs Office law enforcement vehicle that is the main reason why it fell under that order. State police opened a probe after the womens deaths on a flooded Marion County road. Deputies were transporting the patients as part of a court order as floodwaters rose in the area from heavy rains unleashed by Florence. The powerful tropical system smashed into the Southeast seacoast as a hurricane Sept. 14, triggering severe flooding as it weakened yet nearly stalled over the Carolinas for days. The two deputies worked to free Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43, but were unable to save them from the back of the van, Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson has said. Rescue crews needed about 45 minutes to find the van, which was underwater at that point, and plucked the Horry County deputies from the roof, the sheriff said. Officials said the van was in Marion County near the Little Pee Dee River, one of the bodies of water state officials had watched closely after Florence. Read more: Hurricane Florence flooding persists in South Carolina One week on, Carolinians are worn out by Florences devastation The deputies have been placed on leave, and Thompson is also conducting an internal investigation. Lt. Col. Cindi King, spokeswoman for the South Carolina National Guard, said she could not comment on the incident during the ongoing state police investigation. MOSCOWThe Kremlin said Friday it expects Britain to say what it knows about the identities of the two suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy so Russian officials can launch an investigation. President Vladimir Putins spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said allegations from British-based investigative group Bellingcat and others cant be the basis for a Russian inquiry, adding that Moscow expects British officials to produce the governments information. Britain has charged Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with trying to kill ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, with the Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok. The Skripals survived the March 4 attack in Salisbury, but a resident of a nearby England town later died after apparently having contact with the poison. British officials allege the attack on the Skripals received approval at a senior level of the Russian state, an accusation Moscow has fiercely denied. After the two suspects were charged this month, Putin said they were civilians who did nothing criminal and urged them to speak to news outlets. The pair then appeared on Russias state-funded RT channel, saying they visited Salisbury as tourists and had nothing to do with the poisoning. Bellingcat has reported that the man identified as Boshirov is in fact Col. Anatoly Chepiga of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, who was awarded Russias highest medal in 2014. But beyond a photo from Chepigas 2003 passport file resembling Boshirov, the report didnt contain further proof that Boshirov and Chepiga were the same person. Read more: Russian ex-spy poisoning suspect is GRU colonel, investigative group says U.K. investigation says Novichok poisoning suspects detained and released by Dutch this year British PM says Russian intelligence officers carried out attack on ex-spy On Thursday, Russian business daily Kommersant reported that some residents in Beryozovka, a small village in Russias Far East where Chepigas family once lived, confirmed that they recognized Chepiga as the man identified as Boshirov. The newspaper said the villagers spoke on condition of anonymity fearing official reprisals. Chepigas former commanding officer at a military academy in far-eastern Russia told independent Dozhd TV he didnt recognize Boshirov when he saw him on TV, but added that he didnt clearly remember what Chepigas face looked like. Alexander Borzhko confirmed that Chepiga fought in Chechnya and received the Hero of Russia medal, information that also appears on the military academys website. Asked if the Kremlin could confirm that Chepiga received the Hero of Russia medal, Peskov responded that he checked and found no information about such a person receiving the award. Peskov scoffed at the claim that in a passport file Bellingcat said it reviewed, Chepiga closely resembles Boshirov. He cited the look-alikes of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin who prowl Red Square for tourists willing to pay for photos. We have 10 Stalins and 15 Lenins on Red Square, and all of them closely resemble the real ones, Peskov snapped. He said in a conference call with reporters that the Kremlin gave little credibility to investigative reports and media articles on the case, adding that we dont know how reliable and well-founded they are. We cant have media as our vis-a-vis in such a sensitive case, Peskov said. Such materials should only come from competent sources. From the very start, Russia has offered to conduct a joint investigation, but faced British refusals. Read more about: VANCOUVERWilliam Schneiders brother hugged Natsumi Kogawas mother in a tearful embrace outside a B.C. courtroom Thursday. Moments before, Warren Schneider Jr. had been on the witness stand, telling the court about his brothers behaviour in the days leading up to police finding the body of Kogawa, a Japanese student, in Vancouvers West End. It has been nearly two years since police found Kogawas body in a suitcase on the lawn of the Gabriola mansion. The 30-year old had been missing for two weeks. William Schneider listened silently as his brother relayed his story to the court. Warren explained that in July 2016 three months before Kogawa was killed William had gone to Japan to visit his longtime estranged wife and son. He had hoped to convince her to move back to Vancouver with him. He did not succeed. He seemed sad and lost after that trip, Warren told the court. Read more: Alarm bells went off when Japanese student didnt show up for meeting, friend says at murder trial Earlier this week, William Schneider, 51, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and committing indignity to a human body. Crown counsel Geordie Proulx told StarMetro the prosecution believes Kogawa died from asphyxiation. None of the charges against Schneider have been proven in court. On Sept. 13, 2016, Kogawas friends reported her missing. At that point, she had not been heard from for five days. Around Sept. 20, William visited Warrens home in Rutland, B.C., a suburb of Kelowna. During that trip, William said he did something bad, according to Warren. Then on Sept. 27, one day before police found Kogawas body, Warren received a call from his daughter. She had seen a news article about Kogawas disappearance. The article included a photo of William and Kogawa walking beside each other in a Vancouver mall. What did you conclude? Proulx asked Warren, who was sitting in the witness box. The worst, he replied. Warren told the court that he drove to Vernon that same night to see William, who was living there with their father at the time. That night, Warren said his brother told him he had gone on three dates with Kogawa. William brought up the news story about Kogawas disappearance and the accompanying photo. Warren said that William told him that its true. The third date was the last date, said Warren. The next morning, the court heard, William purchased about $50 worth of heroin. He planned to kill himself, said Warren. Warren said his brother told him that Kogawas body was in a suitcase at the intersection of Nicola and Davie streets in Vancouver and to tell the police after he died. Warren said he stood nearby as his younger brother injected the heroin into himself. But the dose wasnt strong enough, and William did not die. Thats when Warren, along with his sister, went to the nearby police station and told an officer he knew where Kogawas body was. That same day, Vancouver police found Kogawas body stuffed into a suitcase on the grounds of the Gabriola mansion, located at the intersection of Nicola and Davie streets. Warren Schneider Jr. is expected to continue testifying Friday. Read more about: VANCOUVERA city policy requiring developers to fill 10 per cent of their entry-level jobs with Vancouver residents is drawing sharp criticism from industry leaders. Following StarMetros reporting in July on priority hiring, Vancouver announced last Tuesday that it has become the first city in Canada to require local hiring and purchasing on major development projects. The measure is intended to help ensure that Vancouver residents, particularly those who may face barriers to employment, and local businesses benefit from large-scale developments, said Mayor Gregor Robertson in a statement. Jason Turcotte, vice-president of development at Cressey Development Group in Vancouver, said the policy is arriving at a bad time for the industry. He anticipates the direct impact of the policy will be small, mainly because it applies to rezoning applications for sites exceeding 485,000 square feet roughly the equivalent of two standard 30-storey condominiums. Only a few of those are built each year, he explained. But his main concern is the possibility that the requirement becomes standard for all rezoning. Turcotte said it would add pressure in an environment where building in Vancouver is already exceptionally expensive and costs are escalating in an unsustainable way. We are already facing macroeconomic challenges such as the labour shortages, trade wars, tariffs, you name it, the import costs of goods is being affected, so what were seeing aside from government involvement on the municipal level is a major challenge in trying to build housing right now, Turcotte said. Besides, he said, some developers like Cressey dont have control over entry-level hiring. Cressey staff fill management positions on projects, but most of the hiring is done by subcontractors. The requirement could mean perceived risk to the subcontractors if theyre unable to fulfil the hiring goal and thus drive up costs. According to the city, three to four large development sites could create more than 4,000 entry-level positions and generate approximately $14 million in income. This effect would directly support a diverse range of local businesses. Enforcement is also a concern for Turcotte. How do I, as a developer, know whether my subtrade is actually doing that? They might tell me that they are, he said. But I dont know if they have or havent. Then the question becomes ... what are the repercussions? ... Is there a penalty? Do they face delays, potentially? Stop working? Where there isnt an obvious answer, you assume the worst. Mary Clare Zak, managing director of social policy at the city, said they dont have evidence that any rise in construction costs will occur. We know from experience that thats not the case, Zak said. If we go through this and we see that its an issue around costs, we can take a look at it, because its not been the experience. She also emphasized that the hiring requirement would not preclude non-Vancouver residents, though they want to hire as close to home as possible. Within the 10 per cent hiring goal, developers need to prioritize those in groups treated differently because of their gender, faith, immigration status, level of education, economic status or sexual orientation. All of this will be enforced through an independent third-party monitor hired by the city, but Zak did not specify who that would be. The goals are way too little, said Lisa Langevin, president of the BC Tradeswomen Society, who advocated for priority hiring at the municipal level. She said the requirement leaves out tradeswomen who are already at journey-level. It doesnt help the retention of women at all Increasing the number of women coming in doesnt help if they cant get jobs after they become journey level. Langevin pointed to Boston as a city with more effective policies. For ongoing projects, its goals are 10 per cent of the workforce made up of women, 25 per cent people of colour and 50 per cent residents. In addressing Langevins concerns around retaining women in the trades, Zak said the citys labour shortage will motivate employers to retain workers. In terms of that kind of ongoing opportunity, thats something we could look at starting to measure. Read more about: Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World By Anand Giridharadas Knopf. 288 pp. $26.95 --- More than a century ago, Oscar Wilde outlined the danger posed by those trying hard to improve society. "Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realized by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it," Wilde wrote, "so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good." In his impassioned new book, "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World," journalist Anand Giridharadas argues that the equivalent of today's slaveholders are the elite citizens of the world, who are philanthropic more often than not - but in ways that ultimately serve only to protect and further their interests and cement the status quo. "For when elites assume leadership of social change, they are able to reshape what social change is - above all, to present it as something that should never threaten winners," he writes. Giridharadas knows this firsthand. In the summer of 2015, he was named a Henry Crown fellow of the Aspen Institute. That's a coveted title, and the anointed are supposed to serve as a "new breed of leaders" who can help solve the "world's most intractable problems." But when Giridharadas, who has a gift for phrases that resonate, saw peers with day jobs at firms like Facebook and Goldman Sachs, he began to question the system that allows people to make money in predatory ways and compensate for that through philanthropy. "Instead of asking them to make their firms less monopolistic, greedy or harmful to children, it urged them to create side hustles to 'change the world,'" he writes. "I began to feel like a casual participant in - and timid accomplice to, as well as a cowardly beneficiary of - a giant, sweet lipped lie." In his telling, the roots of the problem go all the way back to Andrew Carnegie, the famed American industrialist, who advocated that people be as aggressive as possible in their pursuit of wealth and then give it back through private philanthropy. It was "an extreme idea of the right to make money in any which way, and an extreme idea of the obligation to give back," writes Giridharadas, who accuses Carnegie of "dripping with paternalism" for never considering that "the poor might not need so much help had they been better paid." Carnegie-ism has grown into what Giridharadas calls "MarketWorld." In essence, this is the cultlike belief that intractable social problems can be solved in market-friendly ways that result in "win-wins" for everyone involved, and that those who have succeeded under the status quo are also those best equipped to fix the world's problems. It is "defined by the concurrent drives to do well and do good, to change the world while also profiting from the status quo," he writes. This notion extends its tentacles in all sorts of ways, such as the idea that big, powerful firms like McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, because of their business success, can also teach some "elusive way of thinking that was vital to helping people." It's an idea so powerful that even President Barack Obama decided to seek help from McKinsey as he sought to figure out where to employ his skills post-presidency. Among the denizens of MarketWorld are so-called "thought leaders," the speakers who populate the conference circuit, like TED, PopTech and, of course, the Clinton Global Initiative. (When you pause to think about it, "thought leader" is appallingly Orwellian.) Giridharadas argues that the rise of thought leaders, whose views are sanctioned and sanitized by their patrons - the big corporations that support conferences - has come at the expense of public intellectuals, who are willing to voice controversial arguments that shake up the system and don't have easy solutions. Thought leaders, on the other hand, always offer a small but actionable "tweak," one that makes conference-goers feel like they've learned something but that doesn't actually threaten anything. "Winners Take All" is so readable because it is told through characters, among them Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist at Harvard Business School who, Giridharadas writes, "had spent more than a decade publishing papers on the workings of prejudice, discrimination, and systems of power." Her work is substantive and deeply challenging - but when she was given the opportunity to speak at PopTech, a stop on the MarketWorld circuit, and then at TED, she spoke not about the embedded systems that marginalize women but rather how women can strike "power poses" to feel more confident. "Without necessarily intending to, she was giving MarketWorld what it craved in a thinker: a way of framing a problem that made it about giving bits of power to those who lack it without taking power away from those who hold it," Giridharadas writes. In his view, there is not much moral difference between the Sacklers, the enormously wealthy, extremely philanthropic family who made their money getting people addicted to OxyContin; Bill Clinton, who adopted MarketWorld's beliefs during his presidency and in his work afterward; and others who have done nothing so obviously harmful or huge, but who aren't willing to go radical, either. Another compelling character is Andrew Kassoy, who after a long career in finance decided he could help improve the world by creating a legal safe harbor for companies to be dedicated to something more than the bottom line. So was born the B Corporation, a new corporate form in which companies can commit themselves to using "business as a force for good." That doesn't make Kassoy a hero, in Giridharadas' view, but rather a villain - because although Kassoy wrestles with other options, he ultimately chooses a relatively safe, small "solution." "Had Kassoy pursued his thought of making it harder for companies to do bad things, involving himself with politics and the law and the system itself, success might have meant the loss of opportunity for the Kassoys of the future, and could even have come at a cost to his own earnings from his old life," Giridharadas writes. In a nod to Wilde, he argues that the person who "seeks to 'change the world' by doing what can be done within a bad system, but who is relatively silent about that system" is "putting himself in the difficult moral position of the kindhearted slave master." That Giridharadas questions an idea that has become part of the air we breathe is alone worth the price of the book, and his delicious skewering of the many who exalt their own goodness while making money from dubious business practices makes for entertaining reading. ("Sharing is caring," one particularly hypocritical venture capitalist actually says in a speech aboard Summit at Sea, a premier MarketWorld event for those who view themselves as leaders of the world.) But Giridharadas isn't just raising questions. He's come to big conclusions: that MarketWorld, along with its philosophical antecedents, like Carnegie-ism and neoliberalism (which he defines as the idea that "human well being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong property rights, free markets and free trade"), has been an abject failure. To prove his point, he doesn't engage in any specific analysis. In fact, he doesn't even mention, let alone examine, what is arguably MarketWorld's most powerful and influential actor: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As big-picture proof of the failure of the status quo, Giridharadas cites his indebtedness to Thomas Piketty's "masterpiece" on the growth of inequality, "Capital in the Twenty First Century." He argues that any thesis that the world, to the contrary, has actually improved over the course of human history is simply a form of brainwashing, a "socially acceptable way to tell people seething over the inequities of the age to drop their complaining." So whether you accept his complete condemnation depends on whether you think there's even a debate left to be had. Giridharadas is able to indict the Kassoys of the world so wholeheartedly because he believes it is obvious that there is a better way, that those who purport to want to do good could actually do good if they could only put their self-interest aside. His key idea is to reinvigorate governments, which he believes could fix the world's problems if they just had enough power and money. For readers who are cynical about the private sector but also versed enough in history to be cynical about governments, the book would have been more powerful if Giridharadas had stayed within his definition of an old-school public intellectual: someone who is willing to throw bombs at the current state of affairs, but lacks the arrogance and self-righteousness that comes with believing you have the solution. --- McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of "Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It's Changing the World." JERSEYVILLE A Fidelity man was charged with felony domestic battery on Sept. 26, the second round of similar charges in a 10-day period. Kenneth J. Lehr, 31, of the 200 block of Cherry Street, Fidelity, was charged Sept. 26 with aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony; and aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony, after allegedly threatening a household member with a knife and attempting to strangle her on Sept. 14. On Sept. 17 Lehr had been charged with aggravated domestic battery and theft of a motor vehicle, both Class 2 felonies, after allegedly attempting to strangle another household member, and stealing her car on Sept. 16. Jersey County States Attorney Benjamin L. Goetten said the Sept. 14 case had been under investigation by police when he was arrested and charged in the Sept. 17 incident. On Sept. 14, according to court documents Lehr attempted to strangle a household member, then stole her vehicle. On Sept. 16 he allegedly used a Winchester folding knife to threaten another family member, then allegedly attempted to strangle her. According to Goetten, Lehr was in custody as of Sept. 27, with bail totaling $150,000. In addition, on Sept. 20 a warrant was issued for Lehr for contempt of court/failure to appear on charges of domestic battery from December 2017 and unlawful possession of controlled substance from July 2017. In a separate incident, Laura Mae Bell, 48, of Perry, Mo., was charged Sept. 25 with aggravated battery after allegedly attacking a Calhoun County sheriffs deputy Sept. 23 at Jerseyville Community Hospital. Bail was set at $15,000. Bell was also charged with aggravated driving of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol by the Calhoun County States Attorneys Office. She was also charged with driving while revoked and speeding. Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447. EDWARDSVILLE Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), and its charitable arm, the Green Infrastructure Foundation (GIF) have named Southern Illinois University Edwardsville as a Living Architecture Regional Center of Excellence (LARCE). SIUE is one of four higher education institutions in the nation to receive the honorable designation. We are pleased with this designation and how it positions SIUE as a national leader in this exciting research area, said SIUEs Bill Retzlaff, PhD. Sustainable environmental practice underscores SIUEs value of citizenship. True to the Universitys mission, we are professionals, scholars and leaders who will indeed shape a changing world. Our research efforts in green roof and green wall technologies strongly support that worthy endeavor. Three SIUE faculty members who were instrumental in receiving the LARCE designation, attended the award presentation held during the CitiesAlive 16th Annual Green Infrastructure Conference on Wednesday, Sept. 26 in Brooklyn. They include: Bill Retzlaff, PhD, distinguished research professor of biological sciences and associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, who specializes in evaluation of green roof and green wall technologies, sustainable green infrastructure, and sustainable use of residual waste products Susan Morgan, PhD, professor of civil engineering and associate dean in the SIUE Graduate School, who is an expert in environmental engineering and has specific interest in the use of green infrastructure for storm water management and improved sustainability of communities Serdar Celik, PhD, 2018 Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar and associate professor in the School of Engineerings Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, whose research focuses on quantifying thermal benefits of green roof and green wall systems both experimentally and theoretically SIUE has a diverse faculty cohort and numerous industry partners conducting cutting-edge green infrastructure research, Celik said. SIUE is committed to sustainability, has invested in many sustainable practices, and is the proud home of six LEED for New Construction Certified/Certifiable buildings, including two completed LEED for Existing Building projects. A signed agreement between the GRHC, GIF and SIUE will strengthen living architecture and green infrastructure knowledge and engagement through collaborative professional education, research and policy advocacy. The Universitys proximity to the St. Louis Metropolitan area, and Lebanon, Kan., the geographic center of the U.S., as well as its impactful 600-mile radius reach to many major population centers make it a prime location for this national designation. We are pleased with the high level of cooperation between industry and academia, and look forward to working with our partners to advance the green roof and wall industry and contribute to the resiliency of our buildings and communities, said Steven W. Peck, GRP, founder and chair of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. LARCE will advance the work of G.R.E.E.N. (Green Roof Environmental Evaluation Network), the St. Louis metropolitan area research collaboration between SIUE and regional and local industries. G.R.E.E.N. is co-directed by Retzlaff and Morgan. Our goal is to evaluate the performance of green roofs and walls, and to make the results available to users for the further development and establishment of green systems in the urban/suburban environment, Morgan explained. The Center designation will aid us and our colleagues in these efforts and in providing additional opportunities for students through coursework, as well as sponsored projects. SIUE teacher-scholars have produced a significant body of work evaluating living architecture systems in areas such as volume and quality of storm water runoff, plant performance, maintenance issues, biodiversity, thermal characteristics, weight loads, wind uplift and new green roof technologies. Newly established areas of emphasis include evaluating rooftop vegetable production and food access in urban deserts, native plant performance in green roof systems for storm water runoff, thermal performance of green roof systems, and the use of robotics for maintenance of living architecture systems. The Regional Center at SIUe has initial plans to develop a center website and is working with the other regional centers to plan for training events and regional research conferences in 2019. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) is a member supported industry association with a mission to develop the green roof and wall industry throughout North America. GRHC provides online and in-person training programs, manages the Green Roof Professional accreditation, publishes the Living Architecture Monitor, organizes events to support market development and advocates for supportive policy. The Green Infrastructure Foundation is a charity that partners with communities to shape healthy, resilient, and sustainable places using living green infrastructure. ALTON Two people were injured last weekend in a double stabbing at an Alton bar, a case police still are investigating. The unidentified victims, who police said were stabbed at 1:30 a.m. Saturday at Goldfingers, 290 E. Elm St., were transferred from an Alton hospital to a St. Louis facility for further treatment. Police could not provide information on their condition Thursday, other than the victims were not deceased. Police could not say if the people had been released from the hospital. Police were called for a problem at Goldfingers, said Pfc. Emily Hejna, public information officer at the Alton Police Department. As police responded to the call, a hospital staff member called authorities to report two people were at their emergency room with stab wounds. The bar had been closed for a time in the past, but now has a valid liquor license, according to the mayors office. There were several shootings at the property years ago, including two brothers in May 2010 that killed one of the men, JaMarco Anthony, on his birthday; and a man was shot in the foot on Sept. 12, 2010. Police routinely turn over incident reports to the mayor, who serves as the citys liquor control commissioner, after crimes occur at places holding liquor licenses. The mayor, then, decides if he is going to hold a hearing and if he will suspend or revoke the license or fine the business. Reach Linda N. Weller at 618-208-6450 or on Twitter @Linda_Weller Tetra Tech, Inc. isa US Company that is headquartered in California that provides consulting,engineering, program management, and construction management services thataddress fundamental needs for water, environment, infrastructure, resourcemanagement, and energy. Tetra Techs services for consulting and engineeringprojects include applied science, information technology, engineering, design,construction management, and operations and maintenance. The UNDAF is themain coordinating mechanism for gender mainstreaming within the UN system inUganda. UN Women is co-lead of the Human Rights and Gender Equality ResultGroup under the UNDAF. The Program Specialist will lead and provide support tothe UN Area Coordination mechanism in Gulu to enhance system wide coherence andprovide strategic advice on gender equality, womens rights and empowermentissues in Acholi region to the UN Women Representative as the Co-Chair of theUNDAF Gender and Human Rights Group. In addition to the management and deliveryof UN Women programs and support to the UNAC on gender, the Program Specialistwill have overall responsibility for the smooth running and management of theUN Women Field Office in Gulu. While pondering the Sabarimala verdict, I was struck by a conundrum. Who were the women who genuinely wanted the ban to be lifted? Were they even women? The president of the Indian Young Lawyers Association that filed the PIL, advocating entry of women of menstruating age in the Sabarimala temple, is neither a woman nor a Hindu. If you were a religious Hindu woman, you probably bought into the traditional belief that Lord Ayyappan does not welcome menstruating women to his abode. The fact that so many people protesting the verdict are women, including the lone Supreme Court judge who went against the majority decision, affirms this fact. Does this mean that the fight for entry to the temple was purely a women's rights issue? Simply another hurdle, albeit a weighty one, removed as Indian women fight for equality? Surely not. Surely there are women for whom the issue is close to their hearts. There are some who are religious and yet believe that their god is not one who discriminates against them because of a natural phenomena that He himself created. Are these women traditionalists with a modern outlook? Or are they modern with traditional beliefs? Or are they neither here nor there? I admire them because they have overcome years of indoctrination, not just from the males in their families but also from their mothers and grandmothers, that they are impure because they bleed. I dare to suggest that these are the women we need to stand behind. They reason, and they see the inherent contradictions in a society steeped in religious beliefs. The arithmetic just does not add up. Menstruation equals impurity. Women equal menstruation. Therefore, women must equal impurity, right? But that can't be in a society that reveres its women as devis, and considers them paragons of purity. Does that mean we are pure only in the parts of our bodies which do not bleed? Perhaps, in a bizarre way, that makes sense. Menstruation is, in a roundabout manner that I suspect even men don't fully understand, associated with sexuality. That's why lawyer Indira Jaising argued that banning women from the temple on the grounds of the deity being celibate is equivalent to stereotyping them as 'seductresses'. So, society aims to strip women of their sexuality on the ground that god does not approve of it. Thus, a spiritual leader suggests that a Delhi gang-rape victim should have called her rapists 'brothers' and begged them to stop. Thus, the prime minister's wife is hailed for forgiving her husband who deserted her, and saying that he is 'Ram' for her; at the same time, a prominent actress is criticised for sitting in front of him in a dress with her legs exposed. Thus, a movie named a 'sexy' goddess is banned in theatres. The women who are passionately fighting for entry to the temple are not just fighting to end an anachronistic custom. They are fighting to redefine the very perception of their God which, currently, might be a very man-made one. It is a brave fight they have taken on, to appropriate a deity entrenched in the firm grasp of patriarchy. This victory must be sweet indeed! The proposed merger of Bank of Baroda (BoB) with two mid-sized PSU lenders shows the willingness of the Narendra Modi government to go ahead with difficult reforms in the banking sector, Fitch Ratings said on Friday. The Modi government had last week announced its plan to merge Bank of Baroda with Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank to create the third-largest bank in the country. The boards of each bank will meet to give a go-ahead to the proposed merger. Consolidation is likely to be part of the Modi government's strategy to deal with small, weak banks, and should ultimately put the banking system in a better position to support a fast-growing economy, Fitch noted. The Modi government's announcement of a proposed merger of Bank of Baroda and two mid-sized state-owned banks underlines its apparent willingness to follow through on difficult reforms in the state-owned banking sector, Fitch Ratings said. It said Bank of Baroda is likely to be the resulting entity post-merger and will become the third-largest Indian bank, overtaking both Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank, in terms of assets, but would remain behind State Bank of India and HDFC Bank. The proposed merger will be an important test case for future consolidation... This merger, therefore, involves more potential complications than the recent amalgamation of State Bank of India with its five associate banks, Fitch said. It said confrontational trade unions pose the most significant immediate challenge for the proposed merger, while integrating cultures will be important over the long term. The merger is likely to have a negative short-term financial impact on Bank of Baroda, due to the weak financial profile of Dena Bank, it said. The rating agency has already placed Bank of Baroda's viability rating of 'bb' on rating watch 'negative' and will review the rating once details of the merger are available. Fitch said the merger could also be a sign of the Modi government's growing impatience with the weak state-owned banks. Out of 21 state-owned banks, 11 lenders, including Dena, are currently under RBI's prompt corrective action framework, having fallen below benchmarks for capital, non-performing loans or profitability. Most of these state-owned banks could be candidates for future mergers. Further consolidation could provide state banks with stronger pricing power and more clout with borrowers, supporting the long-term health of the sector, Fitch added. Fitch said Bank of Baroda will remain highly likely to receive extraordinary government support, if needed, as its systemic importance will increase after the merger. Bank of Baroda also remains one of the few state-owned banks with capacity to raise equity from capital markets, while the Modi government has also committed to provide it with additional capital to support the merger, Fitch added. The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite... The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere in the arrest of five rights activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint an SIT for probe into their arrests. The bench extended the house arrest to another four weeks to enable the accused to seek legal remedy. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and comprising Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists. The majority verdict dismissed the plea of historian Romila Thapar and others seeking SIT probe in the case. The bench also noted that the accused cannot choose which investigating agency would probe the case. Justice Khanwilkar wrote the judgement for himself and CJI Dipak Misra. Refraining from commenting on the case saying it may prejudice case of accused and prosecution, Khanwilkar said this was not a case of arrest merely because of difference in political views. "Arrests were not because of dissent of activists, there is prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoists)," said CJI Dipak Misra. Justice Chandrachud, the lone dissenting voice, however, said the arrest of the five accused was an attempt by the state to muzzle dissent. "The liberty cherished by the Constitution would have no meaning if persecution of the five activists is allowed without proper investigation," said Chandrachud. Chandrachud lashed out at the Maharashtra police for press meets and distribution of letters to media. The five activistsVaravara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakhaare under arrest at their respective homes since August 29. The pleaby Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwalahas sought an independent probe into the arrests and the immediate release of the activists. Because authorities pursued a direct indictment in the case, waiting to charge her until she was indicted by a Lake County Grand Jury, she has not yet been processed and no booking photo was available when her arrest and arraignment were announced in a release Friday morning. Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday inaugurated Parakram Parv exhibition at the military station here to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army across the LoC. Soon after his arrival at the Battle Axe Ground at the military station, the prime minister first signed a message paying homage to martyrs and took a round of the exhibition, showcasing combat capabilities of the Indian Army. The prime minister also paid floral tributes to martyrs at the Konark War Memorial in Jodhpur. Modi was accompanied by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. On September 29, 2016, the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on seven terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) as a response to an attack on its base in Uri earlier that month. The Army had said its special forces inflicted "significant casualties" on terrorists waiting there to cross into Indian territory. The defence minister had announced last week that various events will be held from September 28 to 30 to commemorate the valour of soldiers. After taking a round of the exhibition, Modi and Sitharaman proceeded to attend the Combined Commanders' Conference scheduled at the Jodhpur Airforce Station. "The conference will have deliberations among the prime minister, defence minister, chiefs of all the 3 defence services and some senior officials on some general and contemporary issues on national concern, said Defence Spokesperson Col. Sombit Ghosh. Many of these conversations will be kept between us, but it can be reported that if you needed, for example, Citizens United v. FEC to be broken down to brass tacks, Judge Jim could do that in about two sentences. You would have no confusion about where he stood when he was done speaking. The US military announced on Thursday that its F-35B stealth fighter jet had carried out its first combat operation, with a strike mission against Taliban targets in Afghanistan. The fighters were launched by the US Marines from an amphibious assault ship at sea. The F-35B is one of three variants of the F-35 fighter programme, which is the largest and most expensive weapons programme in US history. Last year, the US government revised the F-35 programme's total cost estimate to nearly $406 billion, after it briefly declined to less than $380 billion. The programme has seen significant criticism over its rising costs and repeated development delays over the past decade. The F-35B variant is capable of vertical take-off and landing and is primarily meant for the US Marines Corps. The other variants are the F-35A for the US Air Force and the F-35C for the US Navy. All three variants have significant design differences to suit their mission profile. The F-35B is heavier than the other two variants and has a lower range given its need for a complex 'lift-fan' engine layout for vertical take-off and landing, while the F-35C has a larger wing area to suit carrier take-offs. The F-35B, which is also on order for the British military and Italy, has come in for significant criticism given its weight issues and excessive engine heat issueswhich necessitated the use of special deck coatings on amphibious ships carrying the fighter. However, the F-35B has been considered 'sacrosanct' for the US Marines and British military given the need to replace the venerable Harrier vertical take-off fighter. The F-35B's stealthy design and capability to carry its weapons in internal bays, supersonic performance and cutting-edge sensors make it unquestionably superior to the 50-year-old Harrier design. RAW FOOTAGE: @thef35 bravo conducted its first combat strikes in Afghanistan today in @CENTCOM's area of responsibility in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel. The strike fighter is attached to the @Official13thMEU with the @USNavy's Essex Amphibious Ready Group. pic.twitter.com/jaN9JjweyP U.S. Marines (@USMC) September 27, 2018 The F-35B is not the first F-35 variant to see combatthe Israeli military announced in May that its F-35A fighters had been used in combat over Syria. Other countries that have hinted at interest in the F-35B are Australia, Japan, South Korea and Israel; the first three nations operate amphibious assault vessels that can carry aircraft capable of short take-off and vertical landing like the F-35B. Interestingly, in 2005, then Indian Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash had said the Indian Navy would be interested in the F-35 given it could take off from an ship equipped with a ski-jump, like how India's own Harrier fighters did and how the British Royal Navy's F-35B fighters will. Though India has not officially expressed interest in the F-35 family since then, repeated delays in purchase of fighters for the Indian Air Force and Navy means the possibility of an F-35B in Indian colours can't be ruled out! New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) An entrepreneur by profession, Jay Patel never thought that he would be acting one day. Patel says he became an actor by "accident" and he never contemplated it as he was happy in his work space. "It was very accidental. I was hanging out with my friends Tigmanshu Dhulia and Rahul Mittra in Gujarat seven or eight years ago when he was shooting for 'Sahib Biwi aur Gangster' and during that time I just told him that I want to be part of a film. "It was like every Indian kid who has watched a lot of movies and wishes to be a part of them. I just said in a casual way and was not serious," Patel told PTI in an interview. The budding actor will be seen in Tigmanshu Dhulia's next "Milan Talkies" and alongside Sanjay Dutt in thriller "Torbaaz". He is also part of remake of 2010 Telugu hit "Prasthanam" where he is playing a hardcore politician. He says that out of nowhere Dhulia called him up, saying he has a role for him in one of his films. "I was in New York and one day he called me and said 'Jay you got to come down to Mumbai and I have a role for you'. I told him no because I was just kidding. I told him that I'm a business guy and that I enjoy my entrepreneurship. But he convinced me," Patel adds. He plays an NRI producer in "Milan Talkies", which also features Ali Fazal, Sanjay Mishra and Ashutosh Rana. The actor soon found his second project, "Torbaaz" alongside Dutt, and he says it was a learning experience for him. "It was an awesome experience because it was the first time for me and he (Dutt) really taught me so many things. He treated me like a younger brother. He has got a a lot of experience and knows so much about the film industry. He was amazing and it was a really nice experience to share screen space with him." Patel said Dutt gave him a pep talk when he was starting the project. "He (Dutt) has made a lot of mistakes in his life and got through really rough times. He told me whatever mistakes he made, no one should repeat them. The other thing he said was 'Whatever challenges may come, one should always fight them'." Patel, however, insists that he will not be getting into full-time acting as his ultimate goal is to produce films. "I don't think I'm going do more movies because my motive is not to act. I just want to understand how the industry works because at the end of the day I'm a businessman and so I will produce films." PTI RB SHD SHD Mumbai, Sep 28 (PTI) Actor Tanushree Dutta has finally found support in her Bollywood colleagues with many of them admiring her for her courage, two days after she alleged that Nana Patekar harassed her on the sets of a film in 2008. In a recent TV interview, Dutta had said Patekar misbehaved with her on the sets of "Horn Ok Pleasss" 10 years ago. The actor also alleged that Patekar had the tacit support of the film's makers. In a lengthy Twitter post, journalist Janice Sequeira narrated her account of the incident, provoking many from the Hindi film industry to react to Tanushree's allegations. "This thread is very telling. @janiceseq85 was there at the time of the incident being debated today," Farhan Akhtar wrote late Thursday along side Sequeira's account of the incident. "Even when #TanushreeDutta had career concerns to keep quiet 10 years ago she did not and her story hasn't changed now. Her courage should be admired, not her intention questioned," he added. "Agreed... The world needs to #BelieveSurviviors," Priyanka Chopra commented on Farhan's post Friday. Parineeti Chopra said, "I agree too. Survivors are survivors because they have dealt with something horrible and come out on the other side. So believe them, respect them." Sonam K Ahuja said it was important for the industry to come together to support the victims and encourage them. "Many of my co-workers,female and male have been harassed and bullied, but its their story to tell. If we don't encourage their voices and instead vilify and question them, how will victims ever become survivors? Let them speak up! Stand up with them," she tweeted. Konkona Sen Sharma tweeted, "We all know the reality of the power imbalance that exists in the workplace. Let us encourage these voices instead of shaming them so that others may have the strength to come forward." Sharing Sequeira's post director Anurag Kashyap said people should stop questioning the victim. "This should stop the questioning of intention of Tanushree Datta because there is a witness account of what happened and @janiceseq85 is as credible as the come... This should stop the speculation about the intention of the survivor," he wrote. Richa Chadha praised Dutta for being courageous enough to open up about the harassment she faced during her time in the films. "It hurts to be #TanushreeDutta. To be alone, questioned. No woman wants publicity that opens the floodgates of trolling and insensitivity.What happened to her on set was intimidation. Her only fault was she didn't back down-takes a special courage to be #TanushreeDutta" she wrote. Twinkle Khanna said a healthy working environment is a fundamental right. "Please read this thread before judging or shaming #TanushreeDutta a working environment without harassment and intimidation is a fundamental right and by speaking up this brave woman helps pave the way towards that very goal for all of us," she wrote. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta said he was proud of Tanushree but was "cynical" about the results. "Will this also die a natural death with no formal complaint, no proper investigation and no punitive action against the predator if he is found guilty? Honestly, I am cynical about the outcome. These offenders go scot free because our outrage is short-lived. #TanushreeDutta "We must stop asking 'what did you about it then' and start asking 'what can we do about it now'. It's now or never," he wrote. Actor Kunal Kapoor said, "Whether it's a man or a woman, just because someone is good at their work or charitable, doesn't mean they aren't capable of harassment." Stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, however, evaded a direct answer when asked about Dutta's claim. "My name is not Tanushree and my name is not Nana Patekar," Bachchan said when asked to react to Dutta's recent TV interview. Aamir said it would be unfair on his part to comment on the controversy without knowing the "veracity" or the "details" of the matter. "I don't think I can comment on it... But whenever something like this does happens it is really a sad thing. Now whether such thing has happened it is for people to investigate it," he said. Salman dodged the question saying he was not aware about the incident. "I am not aware of this dear let me know, let me understand what is happening. We will see. What is going on as I am not aware of what you are talking," he said. Taking a sly dig at Bachchan, writer Varun Grover tweeted, "Neither I am #TanushreeDutta nor #NanaPatekar but even a cursory knowledge of gender-based power-dynamics and ugliness of male behaviour in this world should inform us that she's telling the truth. Telling your stories is the way things will change." PTI SHD SHD Mumbai, Sep 28 (PTI) Bollywood stars Farhan Akhtar, Priyanka Chopra, Twinkle Khanna, Swara Bhasker and Richa Chadha have come out in support of actor Tanushree Dutta's allegations that Nana Patekar harassed her on the sets of a film in 2008. In a recent TV interview, Dutta said Patekar misbehaved with her on the sets of "Horn Ok Pleasss" 10 years ago. The actor, a former Miss India-Universe who is now based in the US, also alleged that Patekar had the tacit support of the film's makers. In a lengthy Twitter post, journalist Janice Sequeira narrated her account of the incident, provoking many from the Hindi film industry to react to Tanushree's allegations. "This thread is very telling. @janiceseq85 was there at the time of the incident being debated today," Farhan wrote late Thursday along side Sequeira's account of the incident. "Even when #TanushreeDutta had career concerns to keep quiet 10 years ago she did not and her story hasn't changed now. Her courage should be admired, not her intention questioned," he added. "Agreed... The world needs to #BelieveSurviviors," Priyanka commented on Farhan's post Friday. Richa praised Dutta for being courageous enough to open up about the harassment she faced during her time in the films. "It hurts to be #TanushreeDutta. To be alone, questioned. No woman wants publicity that opens the floodgates of trolling and insensitivity.What happened to her on set was intimidation. Her only fault was she didn't back down-takes a special courage to be #TanushreeDutta" she wrote. Twinkle said a healthy working environment is a fundamental right. "Please read this thread before judging or shaming #TanushreeDutta a working environment without harassment and intimidation is a fundamental right and by speaking up this brave woman helps pave the way towards that very goal for all of us," she wrote re-tweeting the same post shared by Farhan. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta said he was proud of Tanushree but was "cynical" about the results. "Will this also die a natural death with no formal complaint, no proper investigation and no punitive action against the predator if he is found guilty? Honestly, I am cynical about the outcome. These offenders go scot free because our outrage is short-lived. #TanushreeDutta "We must stop asking 'what did you about it then' and start asking 'what can we do about it now'. It's now or never," he wrote. Sharing a video interview of Tanushree, Swara said "#IBelieveYouTanushreeDutta" Writer Apurva Asrani said he was sad that not many people from the industry have come out in support of the actor. "Sad. My people don't think twice about raising their voice for the Wests #MeToo movement, but sit silent-promoting each other's films, whilst #TanushreeDutta fights a lone battle against #NanaPatekar. Too many skeletons in too many closets. A #HouseOfCards waiting to collapse..." he tweeted. Actor-anchor Shruti Seth wrote, "Hope this is the beginning of the end of sexual harassment in Bollywood. I hope more women find courage to call out their perpetrators. Bravo #TanushreeDutta" Stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, however, evaded a direct answer when asked about Tanushree's claim. "My name is not Tanushree and my name is not Nana Patekar," Bachchan said when asked to react to Dutta's recent TV interview. Aamir said it would be unfair on his part to comment on the controversy without knowing the "veracity" or the "details" of the matter. "I don't think I can comment on it... But whenever something like this does happens it is really a sad thing. Now whether such thing has happened it is for people to investigate it," he said. Salman dodged the question saying he was not aware about the incident. "I am not aware of this dear let me know, let me understand what is happening. We will see. What is going on as I am not aware of what you are talking," he said. Patekar, who had denied the claims at a press conference when Dutta raised the issue in 2008, remains unreachable despite several attempts to contact him for his version of what had happened. PTI SHD KKP SHD SHD New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) Following are the top foreign stories at 1700 hours: FGN20 NEPAL-INDIA-PIPELINE India's petroleum minister in Nepal to discuss pipeline projects Kathmandu: India's Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is in Nepal to hold talks on the modality of construction of a petroleum pipeline from Amlekhgunj to Chitwan and the import of petrol and gas to the land-locked Himalayan nation. FGN14 US-TRUMP-3RDLD KAVANAUGH Trump stands by beleaguered judge Kavanaugh after fiery Senate hearings Washington:President Donald Trump Friday reaffirmed support to his embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and asked the senators to confirm him, after a gripping Senate hearing in which the judge dismissed the allegations of sexual assault made by a clinical psychology professor as a "calculated and orchestrated political hit".By Lalit K Jha. FGN7 UN-MODI PM Modi among 48 world leaders to endorse UN chief's campaign to combat sexual abuse United Nations: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is among 48 world leaders who have endorsed a collective statement issued by UN chief Antonio Guterres reaffirming their continued personal commitment to support efforts to combat sexual exploitation across the UN system and to make zero tolerance of such cases a reality. By Yoshita Singh FGN12BRICS-SWARAJ-UNSC BRICS shouldn't be divided on UNSC reform: India United Nations: The members of the BRICS grouping should speak with a stronger voice and not be divided among themselves on the critical issue of achieving the long-pending UN Security Council reform, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said. By Yoshita Singh. FGN11 BRICS-SWARAJ-PROLIFERATION Solution to Korean Peninsula must address India's concerns: Swaraj to BRICS United Nations:Any solution to the Korean Peninsula issue must address India's concerns about the nuclear proliferation linkages in its neighbourhood, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said, in a veiled reference to Pakistan. By Yoshita Singh. FGN6 SWARAJ-QURESHI Sushma Swaraj leaves SAARC foreign ministers meeting mid-way New York: In a huge snub to Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj left a meeting of the SAARC foreign ministers early, which was attended by her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi amidst fresh chill in bilateral ties. By Yoshita Singh. FGN4 SAARC-LD INDOPAK Terrorism single largest threat to peace in S Asia: India to SAARC New York: In a veiled attack on Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has told a meeting of the SAARC foreign ministers that the scourge of terrorism remains the single largest threat to peace and stability in the South Asian region and it is necessary to eliminate the ecosystem of its support. By Yoshita Singh FGN10 CANADA-MYANMAR-LD SUUKYI Canada strips Aung San Suu Kyi of honorary citizenship Ottawa:Canada's parliament has voted unanimously to effectively strip Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship over the Rohingya crisis.(AFP) FGN19 INDONESIA-3RDLD-EARTHQUAKE Indonesia rocked by powerful quake, tsunami warning called off Jakarta: Indonesia was struck by a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake Friday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.(AFP) RUP RUP Vatican City, Sep 28 (AP) Pope Francis has defrocked the Chilean priest at the center of the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, invoking his "supreme" authority to stiffen a sentence originally handed down by the Vatican in 2011. In a statement Friday, the Vatican said Francis had laicized the 88-year-old Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was originally sanctioned to a lifetime of "penance and prayer" for having sexually abused minors. The "penance and prayer" sanction has been the Vatican's punishment of choice for elderly priests convicted of raping and molesting children. It has long been criticized by victims as too soft and essentially an all-expenses-paid retirement. The Vatican didn't say what new evidence, if any, prompted Francis to re-evaluate Karadima's original sanction and impose what clergy consider the equivalent of a death sentence. AP NSA NSA Panaji, Sep 28 (PTI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu Friday called for revamping higher education to bring it in tune with the contemporary needs and said the "undesirable trend" of lakhs of engineering students graduating in India without basic employable skills must stop. He said education is not only for employment, but also meant to empower students and help them become global citizens. The vice president said the country faces numerous challenges and they have to be combated in a concerted manner to build a "New and Resurgent India". Naidu was addressing the fourth convocation ceremony of the National Institute of Technology Goa (NIT Goa). Goa Governor Mridula Sinha was also present on the occasion. "You are on the threshold of a new life. As you step out into the bigger world, take an oath to work for the good of the society and the country. "Education is not only for employment. It is meant to empower, enlighten, widen the perspective of the students and develop them into global citizens," the vice president said. "Here, I would like to emphasise upon the urgent need to revamp our higher education in tune with contemporary requirements. "We simply cannot continue to have lakhs of engineering students graduating without basic employable skills every year. This undesirable trend has to be stopped," he added. Naidu said educational courses must be designed to meet the needs of industries. "Our universities need to overhaul the syllabi and the teaching methodologies to make the courses relevant to the needs of the industries. "I also feel that engineering students should be made to work as interns for some weeks every year to enable them gain firsthand experience," Naidu added. He said the country can be proud of accomplishments made in the past seven decades in various fields, including agriculture, industry, information technology and atomic energy, but a lot still remains to be done. "Although our achievements have been quite impressive during the past seven decades in various fields, including agriculture, industry, health, atomic energy, defence research and information technology, among others, we have miles to go. "We need to improve the quality of life of the millions of Indians, and the role of scientists and engineers is very important in overcoming various challenges," he said. The vice president said that climate change and global warming are two of the biggest challenges the world is facing today and all nations have to step up their efforts to protect the environment and reduce carbon footprint. "I have always maintained that man should not tamper with nature, but co-exist in harmony with nature for a greener, life-enhancing future," Naidu said. "Please remember that from times immemorial, Indians believed in worshipping nature and its bounty. Therefore, always uphold our culture and protect nature for a better future," he said while addressing the students. Naidu listed the challenges being faced by the country. "Poverty, illiteracy, diseases, farmers' distress and social evils like atrocities on women and weaker sections, child labour, terrorism, communalism and corruption have to be eradicated to build a New and Resurgent India. "I expect the youth of the country to be in the forefront of this noble mission," he said. He asked the students to come up with innovative and cost-effective solutions, especially in areas such as healthcare and education. "As engineers, it is important for you to take a closer look at the collective needs of the populace and come up with innovative, cost-effective solutions, especially in areas such as healthcare and education. "I would also like the engineering professionals to assume greater responsibility in creating safe, secure, healthy, productive and sustainable life for the countrymen," Naidu added. The vice president said "for India to become the third largest and a 10 trillion dollar economy by 2030, we have to surmount many barriers and achieve faster growth". Naidu said India is the fastest-growing economy and its Gross Domestic Product is expected to grow at 7.3 per cent next year. "With improvement in the ease of doing business rankings, India has become an attractive destination for FDIs, while the World Bank had stated that private investments are expected to grow by 8.8 per cent in FY 2018-19," he said. Naidu praised the infotech industry and also the government's 'Skill India' programme. "The IT sector continues to be a leading employer even as India remained the third largest hub for technology startups," he said. "With India poised to become a high middle-income country by 2030, there will be lot of opportunities for the youth in different sectors. "The need of the hour is to impart skills to the youngsters to enable them find gainful employment or become self-employed. The government's 'Skill India' programme is a step in that direction," the vice president noted. He said knowledge of technology combined with ethics and values can ensure transparency and prevent social evils like corruption and gender discrimination. PTI RPS RSY KJ Some dont want to go to the government. But if they need support, then we will help them, Hodgins said. Everyone in our organization has been in the service or had family members that served. We want you to know everyone has walked in your shoes. New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) The 2016 surgical strikes manifest the "the face of new India" as the country is willing to cross all limits to protect itself, Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said Friday on the eve of the military action's second anniversary. The Information and Broadcasting Minister, while speaking on the sidelines of an event here, said there was a need for creating a situation in which many young people and citizens are aligned with what the military is doing. "India is a country which has never attacked any other country. This is our strength, not our weakness. The Indian military, be it on snow-clad mountains, in seas, or in air, they keep us safe and they sacrifice, even laying down their lives. "We remember all the soldiers and officials of the Indian military, and we salute them," Rathore said. Noting that the second anniversary of the surgical strikes is being marked as 'Parakarm Parv', Rathore recalled that two years ago, India's brave soldiers had taken revenge for terrorism inflicted on the country by going to enemy hideouts and destroying them. "This is the face of 'new India' as the country is willing to cross all limits to protect itself," he said. Asked why the anniversary was being celebrated on a large scale, he said, "Doesn't (it) come as a surprise that none of the military valour has ever been celebrated... We need to create such a situation that many more young people and citizens of the country are aligned with what the military is doing because they sacrifice their lives for us," he said. On September 29, 2016, the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on seven terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as a response to an attack on its base in Uri earlier that month. The Army had said its special forces inflicted "significant casualties" on terrorists waiting there to cross into Indian territory. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced last week that various events will be held from September 28 to 30 to commemorate the valour of soldiers. PTI ASK ZMN New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) The Congress Friday hoped that the Maharashtra Police will conduct investigations in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case as per the law and not according to the "whims and fancies" of the BJP. The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of the five rights activists in connection with the case and declined to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe their arrest. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea filed by noted historian Romila Thapar and others, seeking the immediate release of the activists. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the apex court has decided that police will conduct the investigations in the case and no one can be held guilty before conviction in a court. "We hope that any person who is found in any clandestine activity against the Indian state would be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law rather than according to the whims and fancies of (BJP chief) Amit Shah who has already seen the writing on the wall in the five election-bound states," he told reporters. Polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are scheduled this year. Therefore, "frustrated and scared", Shah, fearing defeat in these poll-bound states, is prone to making intemperate remarks, and the Congress rejects them," he told reporters. Shah, attacking the Congress for its alleged support to Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements, has said "there is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress". The BJP chief's response came after the Supreme Court judgment. The Congress leader said, "I do not think the law or the Constitution permits anyone to be held guilty without the verdict of a court". Shah has been a "Tarhipaar" (externed) and has been in jail. "He should know what that is - it is only on conviction that anybody is found guilty," he said. On the BJP demanding an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his support to "urban naxals", Surjewala said, "Let (prime minister) Narendra Modi and Shah first apologise to the nation for inviting dreaded Pakistani ISI to our Pathankot Air Base." "Let Shah apologise for reposing confidence in the ISI which is the benefactor, protector and harbinger and exporter of terrorism from Pakistan to India. Why was he having confidence in them? "Let Shah and Modi apologise to people of India for thanking Pakistan and separatists after they formed a PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir," he said. The Congress leader also asked Shah and the prime minister to apologise for members of the BJP's IT Cell in Madhya Pradesh, who were allegedly found spying on the Indian Army. "Will you apologise Shri Amit Shah? Will you apologise Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji? We challenge you," he said. PTI SKC SKC ANB ANB ANB By Manohar Lal, Sanjeev Kumar, Pawan K Singh & Abhishek Anshu (Eds: Updating with more quotes) New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) In a landmark verdict that gave a boost to gender equality, the Supreme Court Friday threw open the doors of Sabarimala temple in Kerala to girls and women of all age groups by lifting the ban on the entry of those between the age of 10 and 50, holding this centuries-old Hindu religious practice is illegal and unconstitutional. Women activists hailed the judgement though some women in Kerala, who did not want to be identified, said they would not like to offer prayers violating the tradition and Hindu custom. The temple barred women of a "menstruating age"-- defined as between the ages of 10 and 50--from entering. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra in its 4-1 verdict held "the devotees of Lord Ayyappa are just Hindus and do not constitute a separate religious denomination" and the rule that stipulates exclusion of entry of women of the age group of 10 to 50 years, is a clear violation of the right of such women to practise their religious belief. The top court in its 411-page verdict said the practice of exclusion of women of a particular age group being followed at the shrine cannot be regarded as an essential religious practice as claimed by the Travancore Devaswom Board(TDB), which administers the temple. "Any rule based on discrimination or segregation of women pertaining to biological characteristics is not only unfounded, indefensible and implausible but can also never pass the muster of constitutionality," a verdict pronounced by Justice Misra for himself and Justice A M Khanwilkar said. The views of Justice Misra, who penned his last verdict of a five-judge constitution bench before he demits office on October 2, were shared by Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud. The verdict is expected to add force to the clamour for equality for women of other religions. The path-breaking three concurring verdicts, giving religious rights to female devotees of Lord Ayyappa, was not accepted by the lone woman judge, Justice Indu Malhotra, who dissented and said "right to equality conflicts with right to worship of devotees of Lord Ayyappa". Justice Malhotra said the judicial review of religious practices ought not to be undertaken as courts cannot impose its morality or rationality on the form of worship of a deity. The court in the majority verdict said the repression of women under the garb of "physiological factors" cannot be legitimised and patriarchy in religion cannot "trump over" devotion. Sabarimala is a prominent Hindu temple which attracts tens of millions of pilgrims every year. The hill-top shrine remains open only for a little over four months in a year and the approach is through a forested area that involves an arduous 5-km trek from the Pampa river base camp. Describing the verdict as "unfortunate", Rahul Easwar, the president of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena and grandson of a former Sabarimala priest the late Kandararu Maheswararu, said the organisation would file a review petition against the judgement. "Until October 16, the Sabarimala temple is closed. So, we have time." The shrine's head priest Tantri Kandararu Rajeevaru said though the verdict was "disappointing", the management accepted it. The TDB said it was bound to implement the judgement. Mariam Dhawale, general secretary of the The All India Democratic Women's Association, called the verdict another step that would help in bringing equality. The CJI, in the lead verdict, said the dualism that persists in religion by glorifying and venerating women as goddesses on one hand and by imposing rigorous sanctions on the other hand in matters of devotion has to be abandoned. "The notions of public order, morality and health cannot be used as colourable device to restrict the freedom to freely practise religion and discriminate against women of the age group of 10 to 50 years by denying them their legal right to enter and offer their prayers at the Sabarimala temple for the simple reason that public morality must yield to constitutional morality," the CJI said. The verdict further said that in no scenario, it can be said that exclusion of women of any age group could be regarded as an essential practice of Hindu religion. "Patriarchy in religion cannot be permitted to trump over the element of pure devotion borne out of faith and the freedom to practise and profess one's religion. The subversion and repression of women under the garb of biological or physiological factors cannot be given the seal of legitimacy," the CJI said. The CJI said that Article 25(1) would become a "dead letter" if women are excluded from practising their right to worship and set aside the Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965. "The fundamental right claimed by the Thanthris (priests) and worshippers of the institution, based on custom and usage under the selfsame Article 25(1), must necessarily yield to the fundamental right of such women, as they are equally entitled to the right to practice religion, which would be meaningless unless they were allowed to enter the temple at Sabarimala to worship the idol of Lord Ayyappa," justice Nariman said. Justice Chandrachud, said that to exclude women from worshipping by allowing the right to worship to men is to place women in a position of subordination, adding that to treat women as children of a "lesser god" is to blink at the Constitution itself.PTI SJK ABA PKS MNL SKV HMP URD LLP RRT RKS LGK UD SKV SA GSN MNL SJK ABA PKS RKS GSN GSN New Delhi, Sep 28 These are the top stories from the northern region at 8.40 pm JODHPUR DEL10 PM-PARAKRAM EXHIBITION Jodhpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday inaugurated Parakram Parv exhibition at the military station here to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army across the LoC. JAMMU DES2 JK-POLLS-NOMINATIONS Jammu: As many as 772 candidates filed their nominations in Kathua, Udhampur, Doda and Ramban districts of Jammu and Kashmir for the second phase of urban local body (ULB) elections on the last day of filing nominations, election officials said Friday. DELHI DEL9 MHA-JK-LD RAJNATH New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Friday said elections to panchayat and urban local bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, boycotted by the two major parties in the state, will be of historic significance in many ways and help re-establish grassroots democracy. AMRITSAR DES23 PB-AIG-RAPE Amritsar: Punjab AIG (crime) Randhir Singh Uppal has been booked for allegedly raping a law student, a senior police official said Friday. Nainital LGD89 HC-TRANSGENDERS Nainital: The Uttarakhand High Court on Friday directed the state government to provide reservation to transgenders in educational institutions and public appointments. NAINITAL LGD69 UKD-HC-PORN WEBSITES Nainital: The Uttarakhand High Court asked the Centre to strictly implement the ban on pornographic websites, taking cognisance of reports that a girl was gangraped in a Dehradun school by her fellow students after they watched porn clips. ALIGARH DES6 UP-ENCOUNTER-ACTIVISTS Aligarh: The controversy over the alleged fake encounter of two suspected criminals here took a new twist on Friday with the police booking 10 activists, including AMU and JNU student leaders, saying they had abducted family members of one of the deceased. CHANDIGARH DES7 PB-NAINA DEVI-ROPEWAY Chandigarh: The governments of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here on Friday to set up a ropeway between the prominent religious sites of Sri Anandpur Sahib and Mata Naina Devi. SHIMLA DES9 HP-RAINS-CENTRE Shimla: The Centre has released Rs 122 crore to rain-hit Himachal Pradesh as an initial assistance to undertake rehabilitation measures, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said Friday. SRINAGAR DEL39 JK-PDP-DEFAULTER Srinagar: In an apparent name and shame exercise, the Punjab National Bank issued an advertisement Friday, declaring former minister in the Mehbooba Mufti government Imran Reza Ansari and his family members as "wilful defaulter" of loans to the tune of Rs 32 crore. PTI ASH ASH New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Friday said elections to panchayat and urban local bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, boycotted by the two major parties in the state, will be of historic significance in many ways and help re-establish grassroots democracy. The home minister said in a statement that the central government will provide all support, including central forces, to help in the smooth conduct of the elections. "These local body elections will have a historic significance in many aspects. The local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir will re-establish the long overdue grassroots level democracy in the state," he said. The polls to elect 4,130 'sarpanches' (village headmen), 29,719 'panches' (panchayat members) and 1,145 ward commissioners will be held next month. The National Conference and the People's Democratic Party have decided to boycott the elections, saying the central government is yet to clear its stand on Article 35A of the Constitution, which was challenged in the Supreme Court. Urban local body elections were last held in 2005 and panchayat elections in 2011. The home minister said the Jammu and Kashmir government has taken a number of decisions following a review meeting during his visit to the state on July 4-5. The most significant of them is the conduct of local body elections. "The central government is providing all possible support to the state government for smooth conduct of these elections including deployment of central forces in sufficient numbers," he said. Singh said the elections will also pave the way for making available nearly Rs 4,335 crore of 14th Finance Commission central grants to the duly constituted local bodies. "But for these elections, people of Jammu and Kashmir would have been deprived of these funds meant for their welfare," he said. According to Singh, local bodies are also being vested with significantly enhanced devolution of powers in line with best practices in the country and the polls will enable them to address most of the local issues in their jurisdictions. The minister said the functions and functionaries of all 29 subjects transferred to panchayats under the 73rd amendment of the Constitution will also be transferred to the panchayats of Jammu and Kashmir. These include institutions like primary health centres, primary schools and anganwadi centres. The home minister said financial powers of panchayats are being enhanced 10 times from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh. Similarly, from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh for block councils, every panchayat will now get around Rs 50-80 lakh per year at its disposal for implementation of development schemes, the minister said. To further strengthen the panchayats, additional posts are being sanctioned for accountant, data entry operator, block panchayat inspector and the like, he said. The home minister said the Leh and Kargil Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDC and KAHDC) have been strengthened and empowered to become the most autonomous councils in the country to address various issues being faced by people living in the remote areas of Ladakh region. Article 35A was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order and accords special rights and privileges to Jammu and Kashmir citizens. The Article, which also denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state, has been challenged in the Supreme Court and the matter is still under its consideration. PTI ACB MIN MIN New Delhi, Sept 28 (PTI) The UNICEF has appointed Ravi Venkatesan has its special representative of young people. In a statement, the UN body said Venkatesan in his new role will provide provide strategic guidance and support UNICEF globally with high-level outreach, partnerships and scaling innovations. "Ravi Venkatesan has been appointed as UNICEF's Special Representative for Young People," the statement said. Venkatesan will also help shape the overall strategy and approach of Generation Unlimited with a particular focus on engaging the private sector and identifying regional champions. "He will also advise UNICEF on its innovation agenda and assist UNICEF craft shared value partnerships with global corporations," the statement added. Venkatesan was the former chairman of the Bank of Baroda between 2015-18 and prior to that as the chairman of Microsoft India, he helped build India into Microsoft's second-largest presence in the world. He has also served as the chairman of Cummins India and co-Chairman of Infosys Ltd, the statement added. PTI TDS AAR Aligarh (UP), Sep 28 (PTI) The controversy over the alleged fake encounter of two suspected criminals here took a new twist on Friday with the police booking 10 activists, including AMU and JNU student leaders, for abducting family members of one of the deceased. The case was registered at Atrauli police station on Thursday on the basis of a complaint filed by the wife of Mustaqeem (22), one of the suspected criminals shot dead in the encounter, Hina, SHO Pervaish Rana said. The activists have been charged with abducting Mustaqeem's mother and grandmother. The group of activists included Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid, but he has not been named in the complaint. Those named in the complaint include activists of "United Against Hate" forum, including former presidents of Aligarh Muslim University's student union Masqoor Usmani and Faizul Hasan, Rana said. According to Hasan, the activists visited Mustaqeem's residence on Thursday and assured his family members of all possible legal aid in their quest for justice. The group then visited Atrauli police station and raised the issue of alleged harassment of Mustaqeem's family members by police. Hasan told reporters that while the group was talking to the SHO, some local saffron group leaders came there and tried to browbeat them into leaving the place. An argument ensued and the police had to intervene. Mustaqeem's mother, Shabana, and grandmother, Rafiquan, then accompanied the activists to Delhi. On September 20, Mustaqeem and another alleged criminal Naushad, who carried a bounty of Rs 25,000 each on their heads, were killed in an encounter with police in Harduaganj here. The police had claimed that the two, who were riding a motorcycle, opened fire at policemen when they tried to stop them at a checkpost. A chase and exchange of fire ensued in which Mustaqeem and Naushad were grievously injured. They succumbed to injuries, they had said. Before they died on way to a hospital, they confessed to their involvement in the killing of two sadhus earlier this month, Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Sahani had said. However, Naushad's mother, Shaheen, had refuted the charges and claimed that the two did not have any criminal record. Former Aligarh MLA Haji Zameer Ullah, now a BSP leader, and Congress district unit president Brijendra Singh had alleged the encounter was fake and demanded a high-level probe into the incident. PTI CORR SAB DIV DIV New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) Following is the chronology of events in which the Supreme Court Friday paved the way for entry of women of all ages into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala: 1990: S Mahendran files plea in Kerala High Court seeking ban on women's entry to temple. Apr 5, 1991: Kerala HC upholds age-old restriction on women of a certain age-group entering the temple. Aug 4, 2006: Indian Young Lawyers Association files plea in SC seeking to ensure entry of female devotees between the age group of 10 to 50 at the Lord Ayappa Temple at Sabarimala. Nov 2007: LDF government of Kerala files affidavit supporting PIL questioning ban on women's entry. Jan 11, 2016: Two-judge bench of SC questions practice banning entry of women at the temple. Feb 6: Congress led UDF government takes U-turn, tells SC it is duty bound to "protect the right to practice the religion of these devotees". Apr 11: SC says gender justice endangered by ban on women. Apr 13: SC says tradition can't justify ban on women's entry. Apr 21: Hind Navotthana Pratishtan and Narayanashrama Tapovanam files plea in SC supporting entry of women. Nov 7: LDF government files fresh affidavit in SC saying it favoured the entry of women of all age groups. Oct 13, 2017: SC refers the case to constitution bench. Oct 27: Plea filed in SC for gender-equal bench to hear the case. Jul 17, 2018: Five-judge constitution bench starts hearing the matter. Jul 19: SC says women have fundamental right to enter the temple and questioned the rationale behind the age group. Jul 24: SC made it clear that the ban on entry of women would be tested on "constitutional ethos". Jul 25: Nair Service Society tells SC the celibate nature of Sabarimala temple's presiding deity Lord Ayyappa is protected by the Constitution. Jul 26: SC observes it can't remain oblivious to ban on entry of women as they were barred on "physiological ground" of menstruation. Jul 31: SC says constitutional scheme prohibiting exclusion has "some value" in a "vibrant democracy". Aug 1: SC reserves verdict. Sep 28: SC, in 4:1 verdict, allows entry of women in Sabrimala temple, says banning females' entry into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women. PTI URD SKV RRT RCJ RCJ Hyderabad, Sep 28 (PTI) The Supreme Court's refusal to interfere in the arrest of five rights activists is "unfortunate and unexpected", a family member of P Varavara Rao, who is under house arrest here for his alleged links with Maoists, said Friday. Varavara Rao, a Left leaning writer, was arrested from the city last month, while activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Farreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested in New Delhi. The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere in the arrest of five rights activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case and declined to appoint a SIT for probe into their arrest. The court also refused the plea seeking immediate release of the activists. "This is unfortunate and unexpected because the way the whole proceedings went on and the way the judges reacted, we were hoping that the case will be quashed... "Because the falseness of the concocted evidence has come out openly in the court. Despite our hopes and expectations today's 2:1 judgment refused to intervene," N Venugopal Rao, a nephew of Varavara Rao told PTI. Though the court refused to intervene, it was a relief that it extended the house arrest by four weeks, he said. Speaking to reporters, Varavara Rao's wife Hemalatha said, "We did not expect this judgment. We, me and Varavara Rao sincerely thank the lawyers for taking up our case. Following the arguments in the court, we assumed that the case will be quashed." Varavara Rao was arrested on August 28 by the Pune Police. He is under house arrest since August 30 as per the Supreme Court's order. Venugopal Rao said they will move either the Bombay High Court or the Hyderabad High Court seeking quashing the case against Rao and others. PTI GDK SS ANB ANB Chandigarh, Sep 28 (PTI) The BJP's Punjab unit Friday announced a state-wide agitation from October 2 against the Amarinder Singh government and accused it of failing on all fronts. There has been no development in Punjab and the law and order situation has deteriorated under the Congress government, state BJP president Shwait Malik alleged. "We will start an agitation with the slogan Congress Gaddi Chodo from October 2 against the Congress regime which has failed on all fronts. The agitation will start from Jalandhar," he told reporters here. Malik claimed that development works have witnessed a setback since the Congress came to power in Punjab. "The funds which were released during the previous SAD-BJP regime have been returned unspent. "This government is by the people, but it is certainly not for the people. It is only serving Congress workers and leaders," the Punjab BJP chief said. He alleged that the Congress government in Punjab has just been making excuses of inheriting an empty exchequer ever since it came to power in March 2017. The government had no intention to work for the welfare of the people, the BJP leader alleged, adding that there is no governance in the state. "The administration is run by the bureaucracy and the chief minister is completely missing. He (Amarinder Singh) neither goes to office nor meets people," he said. Malik, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, accused the Punjab government of failing to honour its poll promises. "Whatever promises the Congress had made before the (assembly) elections continue to remain unfulfilled. Farmers who were expecting a complete debt waiver are feeling cheated. "Youths are not getting jobs. Where is the Rs 50,000 Shagun scheme which was promised? Industry was promised power at Rs 5 per unit. But now the state's industry was being forced to pay Rs 10 per unit," he said. Malik also charged the state government with trying to vitiate the atmosphere under the garb of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents in order to divert attention from its "failures". "We demand that the real culprits involved in the sacrilege incidents, whichever party they belong to, must be arrested," he said. Taking on the state government on the issue of law and order, Malik alleged that the situation has deteriorated under the present dispensation. "At least four robbery incidents have been reported alone in Amritsar district in the past few days and police have failed to nab any of the accused," he said. The BJP leader demanded from the state government to take action against anti-social elements that are trying to disturb peace, harmony and brotherhood in the state. Malik also said his party's state unit had held its executive committee meeting here. In view of Lok Sabha elections next year, a campaign committee has been formed, he said. PTI CHS SUN ANB ANB Naperville Police Officer Dylan Krueger, center, was recognized as Edward Hospitals Law Enforcement Officer of the Year in a ceremony attended by Bill Kottman, left, president and CEO of Edward Hospital in Naperville, and Capt. Dave Hoffman, manager of public safety at Edward. (Edward Hospital) Ghaziabad, Sep 28 (PTI) Four members of 'Banzara gang' were arrested for allegedly being involved in a number of loot cases, police said Friday. The accused persons identified as Yusuf, Akbar, Shamshu and Goonga were arrested Thursday at around 11.30 pm at Rawli road, Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna. The police have seized three country-made pistols, six live cartridges and cash worth Rs 14,000 from their possession, the SSP said. On September 5, a labour contractor was robbed of Rs 1 lakh at gunpoint by the gang members and a woman of his family was raped by two of the five robbers in Kakda village, the police said. Recently, the gang members had also looted a priest at gunpoint in Kakda village, the police added. PTI CORR SNE SNE Thousands of ordinary shareholders are being denied full voting rights in Unilever's battle to abandon the UK. Investors face a crunch vote on whether it should ditch its British legal headquarters and base itself in the Netherlands alone. In what is expected to be a knife-edge decision, Unilever which produces dozens of households name brands, such as Marmite and PG Tips needs the owners of 75 per cent of shares listed in London to back the move. Thousands of ordinary shareholders are being denied full voting rights in Unilever's battle to abandon the UK But it also needs a majority of voting shareholders to approve. This means, in theory, the opinion of an investor with just one share counts for as much as that of an institution such as a pension fund with billions of pounds of stock. But many savers with cash in Unilever hold their shares in so-called nominee accounts through brokers, rather than owning them outright. Unilever has said that giant brokers such as Hargreaves Lansdown will only count as a single shareholder when the votes are counted, even though they look after the stakes of huge numbers of people through nominee accounts. Hargreaves alone has 20,000 Unilever investors on its books enough to swing the vote but this will be ignored when the tally is counted. Unilever produces dozens of households name brands, such as Marmite and PG Tips Gavin Oldham, chairman of fellow broker The Share Centre, has written to Business Secretary Greg Clark to complain about Unilever's treatment of ordinary investors. Cost of having your say Investors who want to be counted as an individual shareholder in the Unilever vote must have a share certificate. Getting one is an expensive and lengthy process. The fees are far higher than buying and selling over the internet a minimum of 40 for every trade, according to Hargreaves Lansdown. This is nearly four times as much as it would cost to buy shares with Hargreaves online, where the charge is 11.95 per deal. Oldham said: 'It is unacceptable. Time is of the essence, as a large number of nominee shareowners are already casting their vote. 'We will continue to work with other interested parties to ensure that Unilever recognise the very large numbers of personal investors taking an active interest in the future of their company.' The only way for a nominee shareholder to be counted as an individual voter is to apply for a paper share certificate, a long process which involves paperwork and is expensive. Unilever says on its website: 'PLC shareholders who hold all their shares through a broker or other nominee arrangement will not be directly counted towards the majority in the number test.' Oldham has urged Clark to intervene. He warns that laws introduced in 2006 require listed firms to recognise individual shareholders who own stock through a nominee account. Oldham says the situation at Unilever would 'deny members who hold their shares through nominees their entitlement to exercise a shareholder right'. Gavin Oldham, chairman of fellow broker The Share Centre, has written to Business Secretary Greg Clark to complain about Unilever's treatment of ordinary investors He writes: 'Time is of the essence if we are to avoid the interest of nominee shareholders of Unilever being frustrated.' However, a Business Department spokesman said that the issue is deemed to be a commercial matter and so it would not be commenting. Unilever must also win support from investors who collectively own 75 per cent of its London-listed stock. The votes of investors who hold shares through a nominee account will still count towards this total, meaning there is still a reason for them to vote. Some of the City's biggest names are opposed to Unilever moving. Columbia Threadneedle, Lindsell Train, Aviva Investors and M&G Investments have expressed concerns. Unilever said: 'Under English company law the person entitled to vote is the member on the register, which may be a single nominee holding on behalf of multiple investors. We would encourage all of our shareholders to vote on our proposals for simplification, which we believe bring clear benefits for all shareholders. 'Those holding through nominee or broker arrangements should contact their nominee or broker directly for further advice.' The bailed-out owner of Natwest is hoping to shift a million customers on to a new mobile phone-only bank called Bo. Royal Bank of Scotland, which has closed 1,423 branches since it was rescued by taxpayers a decade ago, will run Bo over the internet. Bosses say no one will be forced to move on to it. The bailed-out owner of Natwest is hoping to shift a million customers on to a new mobile phone-only bank called Bo Around 100 staff working on the project were told the name yesterday, according to Sky News. RBS is the latest big bank to try to push customers on to the web, enabling them to shrink their branch networks and cut costs. The biggest players face a threat from new online-only rivals such as Monzo and Revolut. It is thought that Bo, which is overseen by Mark Bailie, former chief operating officer of RBS, will use artificial intelligence to help customers manage their financial affairs better. Chapel Down is planning to open a 5,000 sq ft gin bar and restaurant in central London England's biggest wine producer, Chapel Down, is planning to open a 5,000 sq ft gin bar and restaurant in central London. Chapel Down, which supplies sparkling wine to 10 Downing Street, has expanded its field of products in the past two years with a beer and cider brand Curious, as well as launching a range of spirits, including the popular Bacchus Gin last year. Chapel's chief executive Frazer Thompson said the gin works in King's Cross would build on the success of the company's Bacchus brand and 'celebrate the very best English food and drink'. Mining veteran Peter Hambro Mining veteran Peter Hambro has rejoined Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk after being ousted by shareholders last year. He co-founded the firm in the 1990s but was ditched last year amid a row over a strategy backed by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg's Renova Group. He will be president and a senior adviser. His co-founder Pavel Maslovskiy and ex-UK ambassador to Russia Roderic Lyne returned to Petropavlovsk's board earlier this year following a second shareholder revolt. Opinion pollsters face a crackdown over fears that hedge funds commissioned secret surveys that helped them make hundreds of millions of pounds by betting on the Brexit vote. MPs have called for an overhaul of the rules governing polling. It follows an outcry over mega-rich investors who paid for research on the mood of voters as the EU referendum approached. This information on how the referendum was expected to unfold gave some hedge funds a crucial edge, sparking fears that private polls could undermine the integrity of financial markets. Two tales: Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has been accused of misleading the markets after conceding Remain would win the vote on the night of the referendum, despite having seen a secret poll which suggested that Leave was heading for victory Polling data bought from Yougov, one of the biggest firms, helped billionaire Mayfair fund boss Crispin Odey make 229 million. Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has been accused of misleading the markets after conceding Remain would win the vote on the night of the referendum, despite having seen a secret poll which suggested that Leave was heading for victory. Professor Sir John Curtice, the designer of the exit polls that are aired on television on election nights, gave paid advice to hedge fund Rokos Capital Management as it sought to predict the result. Nicky Morgan, the Tory MP who chairs the Treasury Select Committee, is now demanding action to protect the markets from hedge funds armed with private voting forecasts. She has written to Curtice in his role as president of the British Polling Council asking for more transparency in future on how polls are used by investors. Morgan said: 'Polling companies present themselves as neutral observers of public opinion. Yet behind the scenes they are selling private polling data to hedge funds to make profitable trades. Poll help: Billionaire Mayfair fund boss Crispin Odey, left, and professor SirJohn Curtice, the designer of the exit polls that are aired on television on election nights 'The failure to manage this conflict of interest raises doubts over the integrity of the polling industry's business model, and risks damaging the reputation of UK financial markets.' There were wild swings in the pound in the run-up to the referendum. On results night, it plunged from $1.50 to below $1.32 in one of the biggest moves ever by a major currency as it became clear that Leave had won. Before the vote, opinion polls themselves moved sterling as they suggested that either Leave or Remain had an edge. It meant a hedge fund with advance knowledge of a survey could make a fortune by guessing how the currency markets would respond. One fund commissioned an exit poll by Yougov for 750,000, in a scheme nicknamed 'Operation Pomegranate'. The results were given to the fund before a later, public exit poll by Yougov which moved the markets when it was broadcast on Sky. The investor who paid Yougov is said to have made a large profit as a result. The scandal over polling data also touched Nigel Farage, who admitted knowing the results of a survey suggesting Leave had won on the night of the referendum before saying in public he thought Remain would be victorious. This announcement sent the pound higher because many traders believed Farage. A higher pound meant bigger profits for hedge funds betting that it would fall when Leave won. Farage has insisted he did not deliberately mislead the markets to boost profits for friends in the City. Morgan said she would like pollsters to tell people they canvass that their opinion could be used to make money for private clients. And she called for polling firms to reveal if published polls have been done for free or produced at a discount. It is hoped this would put them off producing cheap public surveys which are vastly different to expensive ones that stay private. Sainsbury's and Asda could be forced to sell almost 500 supermarkets after the competition regulator flagged concerns over its 14 billion merger. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is investigating the deal, identified 463 areas where the businesses overlap, raising fears that lack of competition could mean higher prices and poor service for customers. In its probe, which is now in its second phase, the CMA pledged to examine the potential impact on prices, customer service, choice and suppliers. Sainsbury's and Asda could be forced to sell almost 500 supermarkets after the competition regulator flagged concerns over its 14 billion merger Sainsbury's and Asda want to merge in response to the threat posed by German rivals Lidl and Aldi, which account for 13 per cent of the market. However, analysts said the CMA's initial findings failed to take into account competition outside the 'Big Four' supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons. Union battle over staff Unite is preparing to launch a legal battle against Sainsbury's after it angered staff with changes to their pay and conditions. The union, which has 11,000 members at Sainsbury's, is threatening the supermarket after employees were told to sign new contracts or face the sack. Sainsbury's changed its contracts this month so that longer-serving employees and newer staff were on the same terms. But it is thought as many as 13,000 staff could be out of pocket over the changes. A Sainsbury's spokesman said: 'We do not believe there is any merit to these claims and will rigorously defend our position.' Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at trading platform Markets, said: 'Why are discounters such as Aldi and Lidl not included in the competition assessments? 'It seems rather odd that the sole basis of the merger the march of the German discounters is not seen as a factor by the CMA in its competition assessments.' Sainsbury's and Asda are banking on the CMA's clearance of Tesco's 3.7 billion takeover of wholesaler Booker earlier this year to get the merger over the line. In its initial findings for the Tesco-Booker merger, the CMA warned of an overlap in 350 areas but cleared the deal, saying it did not raise any competition concerns. A spokesman for Sainsbury's and Asda said: 'Customers will be the big winners from this combination. 'By bringing the two businesses together, we will be able to invest further in more convenient ways of shopping while lowering prices and reducing the cost of living for millions of UK households.' Tesla shares took a drastic fall of 14 percent Thursday evening, after CEO Elon Musk was accused of securities fraud for tweets about taking Tesla private and sued by the FBI. In after-hours trading earlier Thursday, the energy storage company shares had plunged 11.08 percent at $272.45. Tesla and its board of directors are indicating their support for Musk, who federal regulators are seeking to oust over the allegations. In a brief joint statement, the electric car maker and its board say they are 'fully confident' in Musk, his integrity and his leadership of the company. It says their focus remains on ramping up production of Tesla's Model 3 and 'delivering for our customers, shareholders and employees.' Earlier Thursday, U.S. securities regulators accused Musk of fraud and sought to ban him as an officer of a public company, saying he made a series of 'false and misleading' tweets about potentially taking the electric car company private last month. In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the SEC said Musk 'knew or was reckless in not knowing' that he was misleading investors on August 7 by telling his more than 22 million Twitter followers that he might take Tesla private at $420 per share, and that there was 'funding secured.' The complaint also faults subsequent tweets in which Musk said 'investor support is confirmed,' and that a 'special purpose fund' might be created for investors who stick with the Palo Alto, California-based company. The SEC sued Elon Musk on Thursday, accusing him of securities fraud for making a series of 'false and misleading' tweets about potentially taking the electric car company private 'Neither celebrity status nor reputation as a technological innovator provides an exemption from federal securities laws,' Stephanie Avakian, co-director of enforcement at the SEC, told a news conference while announcing its charges against Musk. Musk responded to news of the lawsuit with a statement saying he was 'deeply saddened.' 'This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed, ' Musk said. 'I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way.' Thursday's lawsuit makes Musk one of the highest-profile executives to be accused by the SEC of securities fraud. It also seeks to bar him from running public companies, which would include Tesla, as well as a civil fine. These are the August 7 tweets that could cost Elon his ability to run a public company The SEC does not have criminal enforcement power. The new criminal probe is tandem to a previously reported civil inquiry by securities regulators. Tesla confirmed to Bloomberg, who broke the story, that they were aware of the situation 'Last month, following Elon's announcement that he was considering taking the company private, Tesla received a voluntary request for documents from the DOJ and has been cooperative in responding to it. 'We have not received a subpoena, a request for testimony, or any other formal process. We respect the DOJ's desire to get information about this and believe that the matter should be quickly resolved as they review the information they have received.' Musk has long used Twitter to criticize short-sellers betting against his company, and several investor lawsuits have been filed against him and Tesla over the tweets. On Augus 24, after news of the SEC probe had become known, Musk blogged that Tesla would remain public, citing investor resistance. The first gunman is described as a black man, between 18 and 20 years old, 5-foot-10 with a slim build, a mini afro and wearing a white hooded sweatshirt with a Nike logo on the chest and black pants. The second gunman is described as a black man, between 18 and 20 years old, with a slim build, shoulder-length dreadlocks and wearing a gray jogging suit. There is not enough analysis data for BlackRock Enhanced International Dividend Trust. 4.5 Community Rank Outperform Votes BlackRock Enhanced International Dividend Trust has received 112 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes BlackRock Enhanced International Dividend Trust has received 52 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment BlackRock Enhanced International Dividend Trust has received 68.29% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about BlackRock Enhanced International Dividend Trust and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe BGY will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe BGY will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Gildan Activewear Inc. manufactures and sells various apparel products in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It provides various activewear products, including T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, and sport shirts under the Gildan, Gildan Performance, Gildan Hammer, Comfort Colors, American Apparel, Anvil by Gildan, Alstyle, Prim + Preux, and GoldToe brands. The company also offers hosiery products comprising athletic; dress; and casual, liner, therapeutic, and workwear socks, as well as sheer panty hoses, tights, and leggings under the brands of Gildan, Under Armour, GoldToe, PowerSox, GT a GoldToe Brand, Silver Toe, Signature Gold by Goldtoe, Peds, MediPeds, Kushyfoot, Therapy Plus, All Pro, Secret, Silks, Secret Silky, and American Apparel. In addition, it provides men's and boys' underwear products, and ladies panties under the Gildan and Gildan Platinum brand names; and ladies' shapewear, intimates, and accessories under the Secret and Secret Silky brands. The company sells its products to wholesale distributors, screen printers, or embellishers, as well as to retailers and consumer brand companies. The company was formerly known as Textiles Gildan Inc. and changed its name to Gildan Activewear Inc. in March 1995. Gildan Activewear Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Rite Aid: 1515 West State Street Boise Idaho LLC, 1740 Associates LLC, 4042 Warrensville Center RoadWarrensville Ohio Inc., 5277 Associates Inc., 5600 Superior Properties Inc., Advance Benefits LLC, Apex Drug Stores Inc., Ascend Health Technology LLC, Bartell Drugs, Broadview and WallingsBroadview Heights Ohio Inc., Design Rx Holdings LLC, Design Rx LLC, Design Rxclusives LLC, Drug Palace Inc., EDC Drug Stores Inc., Eckerd Corporation, Edgehill Drugs, Elixir Insurance Company, Elixir Pharmacy LLC, Elixir Rx Options LLC, Elixir Rx Solutions LLC, Elixir Rx Solutions LLC, Elixir Rx Solutions of Nevada LLC, Elixir Savings LLC, Envision Pharmaceutical, Envision Pharmaceutical Holdings LLC, EnvisionRx Puerto Rico Inc., First Florida Insurers of Tampa LLC, GDF Inc., Genovese Drug Stores Inc., Gettysburg and Hoover-Dayton Ohio LLC, Grand River & Fenkell LLC, Harco, Harco Inc., Health Dialog, Health Dialog Services Corporation, Hunter Lane LLC, ILG 90 B Avenue Lake Oswego LLC, JCG (PJC) USA LLC, JCG Holdings (USA) Inc., K&B Alabama Corporation, K&B Incorporated, K&B Industries, K&B Louisiana Corporation, K&B Mississippi Corporation, K&B Services Incorporated, K&B Tennessee Corporation, K&B Texas Corporation, LMW 90B Avenue Lake Oswego Inc., Lakehurst and Broadway Corporation, Laker Software LLC, Maxi Drug Inc., Maxi Drug North Inc., Maxi Drug South L.P., Maxi Green Inc., Munson & Andrews LLC, Name Rite LLC, P.J.C. Distribution Inc., P.J.C. Realty Co. Inc., PCS Health Systems, PDS-1 Michigan Inc., PJC Lease Holdings Inc., PJC Manchester Realty LLC, PJC Peterborough Realty LLC, PJC Realty MA Inc., PJC Revere Realty LLC, PJC Special Realty Holdings Inc., PJC of Massachusetts Inc., PJC of Rhode Island Inc., PJC of Vermont Inc., Perry Distributors Inc., Perry Drug Stores Inc., RCMH LLC, RDS Detroit Inc., READs Inc., RediClinic, RediClinic Associates Inc., RediClinic LLC, RediClinic US LLC, RediClinic of DC LLC, RediClinic of DE LLC, RediClinic of Dallas Forth-Worth LLC, RediClinic of MD LLC, RediClinic of PA LLC, RediClinic of VA LLC, Richfield Road Flint Michigan LLC, Rite Aid Drug Palace Inc., Rite Aid Hdqtrs. Corp., Rite Aid Hdqtrs. Funding Inc., Rite Aid Lease Management Company, Rite Aid Online Store Inc., Rite Aid Payroll Management Inc., Rite Aid Realty Corp., Rite Aid Rome Distribution Center Inc., Rite Aid Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Rite Aid Transport Inc., Rite Aid of Connecticut Inc., Rite Aid of Delaware Inc., Rite Aid of Georgia Inc., Rite Aid of Indiana Inc., Rite Aid of Kentucky Inc., Rite Aid of Maine Inc., Rite Aid of Maryland Inc., Rite Aid of Michigan Inc., Rite Aid of New Hampshire Inc., Rite Aid of New Jersey Inc., Rite Aid of New York Inc., Rite Aid of North Carolina Inc., Rite Aid of Ohio Inc., Rite Aid of Pennsylvania LLC, Rite Aid of South Carolina Inc., Rite Aid of Tennessee Inc., Rite Aid of Vermont Inc., Rite Aid of Virginia Inc., Rite Aid of Washington D.C. Inc., Rite Aid of West Virginia Inc., Rite Investments Corp., Rite Investments Corp. LLC, Rx Choice Inc., Rx Initiatives LLC, Rx USA Inc., The Bartell Drug Company, The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) USA Inc., The Lane Drug Company, Thrift Drug Inc., Thrifty Corporation, and Thrifty PayLess Inc.. NORRISTOWN A Bridgeport man accused of physically and sexually abusing five children faces new allegations he reached out to some of the victims from behind jailhouse walls to try to convince them to recant their accusations. Between June and September, Todd Anthony Wilson allegedly used other inmates accounts at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility to make hundreds of phone calls to the mother of several of the child victims and during some of those calls again asked to speak with, and did in fact speak with the minor victims in this case, county prosecutors alleged in court papers seeking to revoke Wilsons bail in the sex assault case. During this conversation, the defendant attempted to convince the 12-year-old victim to recant her allegations, county prosecutors Brianna L. Ringwood and Bridget C. Gallagher wrote in court documents. Prosecutors alleged Wilson, 33, of the 200 block of East Fourth Street, made the phone calls despite the fact a protection from abuse order was in effect since June 12 prohibiting him from having any contact with the victims. Prosecutors have asked a judge to revoke Wilsons $1 million bail, arguing no combination of conditions will assure the safety of the victims or the community in the event he is released from jail where he has been held since his May 1 arrest. Ringwood has also asked a judge to prohibit Wilson from having any unsupervised phone conversations while he is being held in the jail. In cases of domestic and sexual violence, stalking and harassing behavior exhibited by an alleged offender against his victim indicates a potential for future violence, Ringwood and Gallagher wrote. A judge has not yet issued an order regarding the requests. Court records indicate that on Sept. 13, new charges of obstructing the administration of law also were filed against Wilson in connection with the alleged phone calls he made to the victims. He is awaiting an Oct. 3 preliminary hearing on the new charges before District Court Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar of Lower Providence. In May, Wilson was charged with rape of a child, sexual assault of a child, statutory sexual assault of a child, unlawful restraint of a minor, indecent assault of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with alleged incidents that occurred between January 2017 and May 2018. The five child victims were between the ages of 4 and 12 and in the company of Wilson at various times, detectives alleged. Additionally, Wilson faces charges of simple and aggravated assault, strangulation and recklessly endangering another person in connection with assaulting a Bridgeport woman, an ex-girlfriend who is also the mother of some of the child victims. The original investigation began April 30, when a Norristown woman, who had been dating Wilson, took her 4-year-old daughter to Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia after she discovered the child had fresh injuries and was bleeding, according to a criminal complaint. Doctors determined the girl had sustained significant vaginal trauma, according to the arrest affidavit. A joint investigation by Norristown and Bridgeport police and county detectives revealed that Wilson sexually assaulted the 4-year-old girl while she was in his care. During the investigation, detectives learned that Wilson also had been sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl and forcing the girl and three boys ages 6, 8 and 9 to have indecent or sexual contact with each other while they were in his care at various times in Bridgeport, according to court papers. During interviews by child social workers and detectives, some of the children also described multiple beatings by Wilson with a belt. One boys ear was disfigured after Wilson struck him with a belt, according to court documents. When detectives interviewed Wilson he claimed he walked in on the children having sex and instructed them to show him what they had been doing and that after they showed him what they were doing he would beat them, according to the criminal complaint. At the time of Wilsons arrest, county District Attorney Kevin R. Steele characterized the allegations as a horrible case involving the sexual abuse of young and vulnerable children. NORRISTOWN Goosebumps will be in no short supply during the bewitching season at Selma Mansion. It all starts on Saturday, Sept. 29, when the Norristown Preservation Society hosts National Ghost Hunting Day, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a variety of paranormal specialists and enthusiasts descending on the house at 1301 W. Airy St., Norristown. Tickets are $10 at the door, which includes admission to the mansion, to meet and talk with the stars of the paranormal world and be part of an international event while shopping local vendors, according to organizers. Hosted by paranormal investigator and Norristown Preservation Society member Bill Freeman, Norristowns contribution to National Ghost Hunting Day will feature Ron and Marinette Ledig of New Jersey Ghost Investigations; radio host Howie Odell; spiritualist Melissa Leeper; actress Jessica Felice and Shawn Anthony, creator of Haunted Destinations, Scott Gerhart; Shelli Sprouse and John and Deborah Covey, with help from Selma devotees Dee Kirkpatrick, Michaelene Walski and Billy Dude. This is the third year for National Ghost Hunting Day. The reasoning of it is to preserve history through the paranormal, explained Freeman. This year there are 154 sites worldwide. We are honored to be part of it. We have two events going on Saturday. First is a celebration during the day then a ghost hunt that night. Featured guests are Bob Christopher (The Ghost Detectives) with Gina Bengtson, Rich and Angel Rezell and Frank Cinelli with Bella Clayton, The Mountain Gypsies Cat Young and Tess Hughes, The Southern Gypsy Carolyn Horn LeCrone and The Cajun Demonologist Jereme Leonard. And all the money stays with Selma. Sponsored by Haunted Destination and The Rift Network on Blog Talk radio, the event will include a variety of vendors with their unique wares to sell, along with food and music, with live streaming throughout the day and night. This event will have a party atmosphere where people can interact without being formal, added Norristown Preservation Society vice president Maryann Buser. On Oct. 6, 6 to 10 p.m., an old fashioned session of hair-raising ghost stories will take center stage with An Evening of Ghost Stories at Selma Mansion, featuring special guest Michelle the Spirit Whisperer. I can personally vouch for Michelle, she is amazing, noted Buser, who said that over the years, the ghosts have become like family to the Selma supporters, providing plenty of stories to be told. Weve experienced a lot in the house. Ill be there talking about my own experiences on the second and first floor, she said. Admission to An Evening of Ghost Stories at Selma Mansion is $5; $3, veterans and children 5 to 12. There are people who want to be scared and people who dont want to be scared. If anybody doesnt like scary things jumping out at them, the ghost stories is the one to go to rather than our haunted house, Buser said, referring to the following, more elaborately produced event on Oct. 13, 7 to 11 p.m., Selmas Haunted House of Horrors. Now in its fourth year, the annual terror-striking spookfest that draws hundreds of visitors of all ages features the handiwork of Selma volunteers, who build all the props and play the bone-chilling, costumed roles of ghosts and other-worldly demons. We used to do a Halloween event, then we started the Haunted House and people were asking for the night of ghost stories, Buser recalled. So we started doing the ghost stories, and people who dont want to be scared will come to that, and some people like to go to both events. Tickets (sold at the door) are $5; $3, kids ages 5 to 12, seniors and veterans; free to kids under 5, active military, Norristown police and fire departments (with ID.) Its like the (commercial) haunted houses but smaller, and in an actual haunted house, Buser said. Its less expensive than things like Pennhurst, which are expensive if you want to take the whole family, and all the money goes to Selma repairs. Things take a bewitchingly elegant turn on Sunday, Oct. 21, noon to 4 p.m. with a Witches Tea. Admission to the house and vendors is free; tickets for the Tea, which includes a full meal and a keepsake, are $25 and can be purchased through PayPal at PASelmaMansion@AOL.com or by mailing payments to the Norristown Preservation Society, P.O. Box 2097, Norristown, PA 19401. Keep up to date with all events by following Norristown Preservation Society/Selma Mansion on Facebook. St. Timothy Community Church: 1600 W. 25th Ave. October is Christian Education Emphasis Month at St. Timothys. The theme is Weve Come This Far by Faith: Moving into a Season of Renewal. The annual Revival will be Oct. 16 to Oct. 18. Guest speakers will be Rev. Dr. John Jackson at 7 p.m. Oct. 16; Rev. Lawrence Robertson at 6 p.m. Oct. 17, and Rev. R. E. Robinson at 7 p.m. Oct. 18. Family and Friends Day will be at 11 a.m. Oct. 28 and Hallelujah Night at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 31. Both events are open to the public. The church will welcome Rev. Dr. Rameen Jackson, the new pastor. Information: 219-077-0079. In polite but firm terms, Mitchell attempted to pin Ford down on inconsistencies in her various statements to her representatives in Washington Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee's senior Democrat as well as the Washington Post, and in a polygraph examination she underwent. More for you Albany fixated on testimony of Ford, Kavanaugh Mitchell distributed maps of the suburban area where Ford, Kavanaugh, Mark Judge whom Ford said also was involved in the alleged attack and others lived, in an apparent effort to cast doubt on her account. Mitchell questioned Ford on her alleged fear of flying, getting her to acknowledge flights to far-away destinations while claiming her anxiety over air travel made it difficult for her to go to Washington for questioning. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. That trajectory went out the window when charges of sexual abuse by Ford surfaced, followed by two other women who said they too witnessed abusive acts by the man who is now a Washington, D.C., federal appeals court judge. If confirmed, Kavanaugh would fill the seat vacated by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's frequent swing vote. Democrats believe a sufficient delay or possible defection of Republican moderates could stall Kavanaugh's confirmation until after Election Day. If Democrats succeed in taking back the Senate still considered a long shot the Kavanaugh nomination could be scuttled. Republicans, on the other hand, are eager to push the confirmation through. The committee was scheduled to hold a vote on the confirmation on Friday, which could pass the nomination to the Senate floor. If so, a full Senate confirmation could occur next week. Ford's accusation is one of three from women claiming that Kavanaugh was sexually abusive in his high school and college years. Among his accusers is Deborah Ramirez, who said Kavanaugh exposed himself when the two were classmates at Yale a few years after the alleged episode described by Ford. Kavanaugh's roommate, James Roche, said that based on his observation of Kavanaugh's drinking and the social circle he moved in, "I cannot imagine (Ramirez) making this up." "The courage she's shown is extraordinary," said Gillibrand, a Rensselaer Count resident who has been an outspoken advocate in the Senate on deterring sexual abuse in the military and on campus. "She told her story in a forthright, honest way, with the heart. Clearly, she is frightened." Gillibrand said she was mystified by Republican senators hiring Mitchell to ask questions in their place. Ocean State Job Lot is coming to the Hudson Valley Plaza in Troy, filling the space left vacant when TJ Maxx moved to Van Rensselaer Square in North Greenbush this summer. If you've never been to an Ocean State Job Lot, the retailer is a discount department store of sorts selling everything from patio furniture to games to cleaning products and more. Appearing on the same stage where months earlier Dustin Hoffman faced repeated questions about alleged sexual harassment, Bill Murray praised the actor as a "really decent person." Murray spoke Wednesday night at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y. He was interviewing his former agent, Michael Ovitz, whose memoir has just been published. Murray and Hoffman were both Ovitz clients when they worked together in the 1982 film "Tootsie." Murray called Hoffman "crazy" and a "Borscht Belt flirt," but a "sweet man." During an event last December at the Y, Hoffman was chastised by interviewer John Oliver over allegations he had groped an intern while making a TV movie of "Death of a Salesman" in the 1980s. Hoffman denied any wrongdoing and said Oliver was making "an incredible assumption" about him. Associated Press Denzel takes lead in house renovation Actor Denzel Washington has helped mark the start of renovations at playwright August Wilson's childhood home in Pittsburgh. The Tribune-Review reports Washington headlined a ceremony at the house Wednesday. The actor led a $5 million fundraising effort to restore it. Renovations are to be completed in 2020, when the August Wilson House is to become a center for art and culture. Washington directed a 2016 movie production of "Fences," filmed the movie in Pittsburgh and plans to film other Wilson plays. He won a Tony in 2010 for his portrayal of protagonist Troy Maxson in the Broadway revival of "Fences." Paul Ellis, Wilson's nephew, spearheaded the effort to restore the building to its 1950s-era look, matching how it appeared when Wilson lived there with his mother and five siblings. Wilson died in 2005. Associated Press Knight, Ledisi to honor Aretha at AMAs The American Music Awards will honor the Queen of Soul next month. Dick Clark productions tells The Associated Press that Gladys Knight, Ledisi, Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin, CeCe Winans and musical director Rickey Minor will pay tribute to Aretha Franklin's gospel roots and her iconic album, "Amazing Grace," at the Oct. 9 event. It will air live on ABC from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Franklin died last month. She won six AMAs throughout her career and even hosted the show in 1976 and 1983. Sabrina Owens, Franklin's niece and the executor of her estate, says in a statement: "When I heard some of the initial ideas for the tribute, I knew without a doubt that this tribute will go down as one of the best in American music." Associated Press Streisand to Trump: Don't lie to me! Barbra Streisand has released a new political song aimed at President Donald Trump called "Don't Lie to Me." Streisand tells The Associated Press that when she started writing lyrics for the song, she played with the idea of making the track also focus on a relationship and be "very subtle about Trump." But she adds, "Then I sort of couldn't help myself. I just went ballistic." "Don't Lie to Me," released Thursday, finds a passionate Streisand questioning the nation's leader and pleading for change. Lyrics include, "How do you sleep when the world keeps turning? All that we built has come undone/How do you sleep when the world is burning?/Everyone answers to someone." The song appears on "Walls," Streisand's first album of mainly original tracks since 2005, to be released Nov. 2. Associated Press Rapper arrested on drug charges A rapper and producer who collaborated with some of the most famed acts in West Coast rap history has been arrested on drug charges just outside Atlanta. News outlets report Daz Dillinger, born Delmar Drew Arnaud, was charged with 13 felonies related to marijuana on Tuesday. Cobb County police spokeswoman Sarah O'Hara says she doesn't know why officers obtained a search warrant for the 45-year-old's home. According to the warrant, police found marijuana, THC vaporizer pods and "a grape drink laced with cannabis." Arnaud posted $15,000 bail Wednesday. He hasn't commented on the arrest. He's half Tha Dogg Pound, which was signed to Suge Knight's Death Row Records in the 1990s. He's also produced records for his cousin, Snoop Dogg, and the late Tupac Shakur. Associated Press New York A small but elegant exhibit tucked amid the American period rooms on the second floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the little-known story behind Chippendale furniture, and how one young man's bold idea to create a detailed manifesto about chairs and tables for the British elite transformed his name into an enduring style. "Chippendale's Director: The Designs and Legacy of a Furniture Maker" reveals how Thomas Chippendale, an 18th-century artisan of humble origins, came up with a new way of designing, marketing and producing furniture. The exhibit, featuring furniture, drawings and other objects, remains on view at the Met through Jan. 27. Chippendale's pieces were created at the height of the Rococo period and were a British appropriation of a style imported from France, then known simply as "style moderne," says Alyce Englund, assistant curator in the Met's American Wing. She organized the exhibit with Femke Speelberg, associate curator of drawings and prints. Other Chippendale pieces featured an Asian-inspired "chinoiserie" style, often in the form of tea stands and other tea-related furnishings popular in Britain at the time. Still other Chippendale works were in a Gothic revival or neoclassical style. The overall look was meant to be both sophisticated and elitist, boasting adherence to Greek and Roman principals of design while featuring decorative elements so complex and upholstery so expensive that the pieces would be inaccessible to more humble classes. Common features included chair backs pierced in an interlaced design, often using abstract leaf motifs or swirling ribbons, with the uppermost corners of the chair backs tending to project upward in a variety of fashions. Designs often included intricate fretwork for shelves and chair legs, and decorative feet, sometimes featuring a hairy lion's-paw design. A skilled draftsman, Chippendale owed much of his fame to his publication of an enormous and detailed book of engravings called "The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director." A typical copy of the Director was 18.5-by-12 inches and weighed over 8 pounds. Its first edition featured 160 of Chippendale's lovingly rendered drawings of furniture designs, from which clients around England and its colonies were invited to order. Later editions featured still more of his detailed drawings. The front pages of the ambitious work announced that it would edify (including "a short explanation of the five orders of architecture") and instruct, (including "proper directions for executing the most difficult pieces, the mouldings being exhibited at large and the dimensions of each design specified.") Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Chippendale invited independent furniture makers to use his designs for their own creations, advising only that complex decorative elements be simplified if they surpassed the skills of the furniture maker. "Hundreds of copies of the book were printed and sent all over Britain and the colonies. It went viral," Englund says. In America, many in the aspiring mercantile class sought to fill their homes with furnishings in the latest fashion. And in many cases, the elaborately designed Chippendale furniture was not produced by his company in Britain but in the United States, by a wave of immigrant furniture-makers who had just arrived from Britain themselves, some bringing Chippendale's designs with them. The furniture business founded by Thomas Chippendale went out of business in 1804. The elite clients to whom he catered frequently failed to pay up, Englund explains, and the debts he'd incurred in part to produce and distribute his influential Director came due. But furniture makers continued to adeptly produce his designs locally, and his name continued to spread, thanks to his detailed and inspiring drawings. ALBANY A coalition of environmental activists, including residents of Hoosick Falls, were at the New York State Capitol on Thursday to call on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to immediately establish more stringent state guidelines for certain toxic chemicals in drinking water. With a Tuesday deadline looming, the state's Drinking Water Quality Council has yet to make any recommendations for maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for toxic chemicals like PFOA, PFOS and 1.4-dioxane in drinking water. Cuomo and the Legislature created the council in September 2017, tasking its 12 members to propose new regulations for the chemicals, which have wreaked havoc on eastern Rensselaer County water supplies. The council held three meetings in the past year, though the most recent was in February; the last scheduled council meeting has been postponed since March 19. Statute requires the council to produce a report on recommended maximum contaminant levels within a year, and update that list as needed on an annual basis. Activists say that the only way to ensure the public's safety to to make sure that maximum levels are established, every water supply is tested, and response protocols are put in place. "The state can't keep passing the buck on clean water. More than 1,000 days have passed since the residents of Hoosick Falls learned their drinking water was contaminated with PFO," said Liz Moran, water and natural resources director for Environmental Advocates of New York. "The only way to prevent future Hoosick Falls scenarios is to address the very chemicals polluting people's water." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The Environmental Protection Agency has guidance levels for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water at 70 parts per trillion (ppt). A federal report has since found that the EPA's guidance level is far higher than what is safe for public health. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry suggests levels should be at least 10 times lower. Residents and organizations are calling for the state government to create a combined MCL between 4-10 ppt for PFOA and PFOS and a limit of 0.3 parts per billion for 1.4-dioxane. Cathy Dawson, a Hoosick Falls resident and NYWaterProject activist, invoked her experience as a nurse, where she said she is trained to leap into action in a crisis. "While it's true that Gov. Cuomo isn't a nurse, he is an elected official and is expected to do everything in his power to keep our water safe to drink," Dawson said. "Unfortunately, by putting off setting low MCLs for the toxic chemicals that my family drank for years, he's not meeting that basic expectation." Washington The Pentagon's top enlisted service member has been suspended and temporarily reassigned from his duties pending the outcome of an investigation into an undisclosed allegation of misconduct, officials said Thursday. Army Command Sgt. Maj. John W. Troxell has been the senior enlisted adviser to Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, since December 2015. A spokesman for Dunford said Troxell will work as a special assistant to the vice director of Dunford's staff while the Army's inspector general investigates. The spokesman, Col. Patrick Ryder, said it would be "inappropriate" to reveal the nature of the alleged misconduct. Troxell is a 36-year Army veteran. He enlisted in September 1982 and has had five combat tours, including in Panama, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. As the senior enlisted adviser to Dunford he has provided advice on the use and health of the enlisted force and the development of enlisted personnel. Associated Press United Nations Clandestine nuclear dumping. Concealing atomic material near a rug-cleaning plant. Lying to international partners. Accusing Iran of all of the above, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu fired a new salvo Thursday in his campaign to prove that Tehran can't be trusted and poses a massive threat to international security. Iran shrugged. Netanyahu's presentation at the U.N. General Assembly brandishing props and exhibiting his trademark showmanship marked the latest in a run of revelations or accusations about Iran's nuclear program, as he ratchets up his campaign against the 2015 global accord that's meant to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. He challenged U.N. nuclear inspectors to examine a new "secret atomic warehouse" near Tehran but it's unclear whether the announcement sheds new light on what inspectors already knew, or proves that Iran is violating the 2015 deal. The warehouse announcement showcased Netanyahu's unyielding views on Iran and anger at Europeans he accuses of appeasing Israel's enemies. Showing a map and photo of the site on oversize boards, he said Iran concealed "massive amounts of equipment and material" in a facility near a rug-cleaning plant in the Turquzabad district. He said Iranian officials cleared out some radioactive material in recent weeks and secretly released it around Tehran. "You have to ask yourself a question: Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse?" he asked. "What Iran hides, Israel will find." He said Israel shared the information with the United Nations' atomic watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, and urged the IAEA to inspect the site. He suggested the agency wasn't doing enough to press Iran on Israeli revelations, appearing to cast doubts on the agency's credibility. The IAEA had no immediate comment. Iranian state television called the announcement "ridiculous," and Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported Netanyahu's remarks with barely disguised disdain, saying he "annually launches a ridiculous show at the U.N. General Assembly." Iranian President Hassan Rouhani defended the 2015 deal at the United Nations earlier this week, and upon return home Thursday, he said most other countries either directly or indirectly backed the accord, reached by Iran, the United States and five other major powers. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Netanyahu made a similarly splashy accusation in May, saying Israeli agents spirited away a "half ton" of documents regarding Iran's nuclear program from a facility in Tehran's Shourabad neighborhood. Iran hasn't acknowledged the alleged seizure. President Donald Trump cited that announcement when he withdrew the United States from the nuclear accord soon afterward. Netanyahu did not say what the material was, and it was unclear whether his presentation provided any evidence that Iran had violated the 2015 nuclear deal. That agreement came after years of Western sanctions over the country's contested atomic program. The deal saw Iran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of crushing economic sanctions. Iran long has denied seeking atomic weapons. In the 1990s, Iran expanded its nuclear program and "may have received design information" for a bomb and researched explosive detonators, according to the IAEA. By 2002, Western intelligence services and an Iranian opposition group revealed a covert nuclear site at the central city of Natanz. The IAEA has said there was "no credible" evidence of Iran seeking a nuclear explosive device after 2009. Israel has sought repeatedly to undercut the 2015 nuclear deal despite the United Nations repeatedly confirming Iran abides by its terms. HUDSON FALLS Malaya Johnson, the 12-year-old missing since Wednesday, was found safe earlier Friday, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. An Amber Alert for the missing girl was canceled at about 1 p.m. and deputies later confirmed she was safe and with police. She was last seen near the Staten Island Ferry in New York, and a Staten Island teen was charged with kidnapping Malaya. The state Amber Alert system sent out updates at about 1 p.m. saying the alert had ended. Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy said authorities were notified of Malayas disappearance at about 10 p.m. Wednesday and as they learned more about her whereabouts, issued an Amber Alert. The Amber Alert requires certain criteria, and when we found the witness who spoke about the vehicle and we got the vehicle information with the occupants thats when we were able to use the Amber Alert system, Murphy said. Authorities say Malaya willingly got into a red Mustang near the corner of Oak and Mechanic streets in Hudson Falls. Staten Island resident George Torres, 19, drove to the Washington County village and picked Malaya up, taking her to Staten Island, officials said. The two met online, but its unclear what the extent of their relationship was, Murphy said. Authorities say Malaya arranged for Torres to pick her up after school Wednesday and drive her to New York City. They say he left her at the Staten Island Ferry on Thursday. Torres as well as a passenger, whom officials didnt name, were later located by New York Police. Torres was charged late Friday morning with felony kidnapping and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly having picked up Malaya without her familys consent, Murphy said. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Torres was sent to county jail without bail, and temporary order of protection was issued to keep the 19-year-old away from Malaya. Its a 12-year-old girl who was taken from her family without the familys permission, Murphy said. It was our opinion, after looking at all the facts in the case, that it warrants a charge of kidnapping. At about noon, following the sheriffs news conference, New York police confirmed Malaya had been in contact with her family, telling relatives she's OK. An hour later, the Amber Alert was discontinued, and authorities announced Malaya was safe with police. An Associated Press report was used in this article. Cortina does not wish to inconvenience the court, the government or defendant Snyder, so Milner is requesting that either his case be severed from defendant Snyders and continued for trial or that both defendants remained joined with the trial, again, being continued, according to the motion. WHITEHALL - A motorist was driving on Route 4 the night of August 7 when he thought he saw a large stump on the side of the road. "But once his car headlights shined on it, he saw something different," Paul Bartholomew, a Whitehall native who spoke with the motorist, said. "He could see legs, the outline of a body, wide shoulders and a head. It was about six feet tall." The motorist said the creature was stepping over a guardrail, and then it disappeared into the night. The next day Bartholomew was at the scene - after all he usually gets called to Bigfoot sightings. Whitehall has for years been a hub of Bigfoot sightings, which is part of the reason that the creature was recently named the town's official animal and a Sasquatch festival is held there at the end of September. The town may be a home to Bigfoot, but it is also home to Bartholomew the local Bigfoot expert, who has researched, collected evidence and gone to Sasquatch sightings for most of his life. "I believe there is something out there," Bartholomew said. The legend of Bigfoot peaked Bartholomew's interest at a young age. As a kid, he and his older brother, Robert, would receive newsletters about Bigfoot sightings across the country. It wasn't until August 1976 that they learned the creature, they were infatuated with, may have been in their own backyard. Bartholomew, a 12-year-old at the time, looked at the newspaper that August morning. "Officers track creature," read the front page of the Post-Star. Bigfoot had been spotted. The story goes that in a field off of Abair Road, three teenagers had seen a creature. After reporting it to authorities, sheriff's deputies and state troopers came to investigate. Over the next week at least 10 witnesses claimed to see a creature about eight-feet-tall, with red eyes, making a high-pitched sound, walking upright like a man but looking like a gorilla, Bartholomew said. From there other people, many respectable members of the community and some town officials, stepped forward to share their own sightings of the creature. Bartholomew's interest skyrocketed. He attended Castleton State College in Vermont, specifically to study under Professor Warren Cook, an anthropology and history professor who collected research about Bigfoot. "At the time he was one of the few academics who was fully embroiled in Bigfoot," Bartholomew said. "Back then it was a taboo subject." On Bartholomew's first day of class he recalled that Cook brought in a casting of Bigfoot's print taken from the scene of a recent sighting. "It was amazing," Bartholomew said. That would not be the last casting Bartholomew saw. He now has several of his own. By Cook's side, Bartholomew would go to the scenes to interview witnesses and look for any evidence of the creature. He even took it a step further and on some nights would camp out, hoping to catch a glimpse of the creature. Cook has since died but he left Bartholomew his evidence, research and a piece of advice that has not only stuck with his student all these years but kept him going when others began to doubt the creature. "He taught me to just keep pushing forward and pushing the boundaries," said Bartholomew, who is now 54 and a frozen foods manager at Price Chopper. He has been to over 50 scenes of sightings, where he interviews witnesses and looks for physical evidence including hair and footprints. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. On Thursday afternoon, as he drove through town, he pointed out a few spots where sightings have occurred. It's hard not to hope to catch a glimpse of Bigfoot. But Bartholomew himself has never spotted the creature. "It's like hitting the lottery, where you are just driving along and it walks out right in front of you," he said. "Or you can be searching for it for over 50 years and never see it. You never know." Just because he hasn't seen it doesn't mean it's not around, he maintains. "I'm convinced that there is something out there that has not been discovered in a scientific manner," Bartholomew said. "What it is I don't know? But there is no question in my mind that those people saw something. I would like that confirmation. I do hope to see Bigfoot someday." For now, Bartholomew continues to share his research with others. One of his favorite times to do that is at the Sasquatch Calling Festival. "One of these things that this festival will bring out is a venue where people can talk about it openly," Bartholomew said. The third annual event is set to kick off Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Skenesborough Park. Admission is free. There will be researchers, musicians, vendors, films, food and eye witnesses sharing their story. Bartholomew will also have a table with castings, photos and evidence. This is not the only way that Whitehall celebrates Bigfoot. There are several statues of the beast, an official declaration naming Bigfoot as the town's official animal and even a resolution that makes it illegal to hunt the elusive creature. "Back in 1976, Bigfoot was a negative. A negative for everyone involved. People didn't want their names to be used. They didn't want to talk about. They were ridiculed," Bartholomew said. "Now we seem to have come full circle. We are embracing this phenomena that at one time was shunned." ALBANY - Born and raised in the South End, developer Corey Jones envisions rebuilding the citys southern border one project at a time. I live here. I work here. I see the aging infrastructure and the incredible opportunity that the South End has, Corey Jones told the people attending a public meeting on an apartment complex proposal for Second Avenue. My sole mission in life is to bring the South End up. Residents heard from Jones, of South End Development LLC, on his plans to build a luxury, gated community near the corner of Second Avenue and Krank Street. Jones held a community meeting to get feedback Thursday at the Elijah Missionary Church at 74 Second Ave. The project would be the first private, new construction development in years, and would feature all-inclusive studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments with a rooftop pool, lounge and dining area along with a small dog park for tenants. Anne Pope, the North East Regional Director of the New York State NAACP, said shes lived in the South End for 44 years and applauded the project. This is the very first time that I have seen anything positive happening in this area, she said. Neighbors who came to the meeting had mixed reactions from praise and support to fear of the development being too massive for the area and walls dividing the community. Im concerned that these buildings are going to overwhelm these single-family buildings, said former Common Council member Dominick Calsolaro. Its great, however, that theres private money coming in here. Other residents expressed fear of the development's possible impact on traffic congestion, narrow side streets and the integrity of nearby buildings as well as what the development could do to the already overburdened combined sewer and wastewater system. Developers addressed previous concerns about armed security and said security would instead be round-the-clock video surveillance. They said plans for a 10-foot-wall are needed to hold back the ground because the buildings would be below street level. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The project would be completed in three phases, with three, four-story buildings providing 16 units each. South End Development LLC owns 76, 78, 80 and 82 Second Ave. as well as 13 Krank St., which is all vacant land, according to city records. Jones said hes working to acquire additional properties along Scott Street to make the three-building complex a reality. Two properties are currently occupied, he said. Jones said Thursday 25 percent of the 48 units providing a variety of options from studios to two-bedroom, two-bathrooms would be affordable housing, and he aims to rent to all types of people, from families to seniors and veterans. The complex would be flanked by single-family and two-family homes as well as Elijah Missionary Church and St. Peter's Addiction Recovery Center and would need a change in zoning to allow for higher density. The area currently is zoned mixed-use, neighborhood edge, which limits buildings to three stories and has restrictions on hours of operation for buildings with nonresidential uses. The complex would also serve as a site for live events, dinner parties, private shows and live music. Rensselaer With Rensselaer city planners ruling that a $35 million trash treatment plant near the Hudson River will have no environmental downsides, the project now moves before state environmental officials for critical permits. So far, the developers of the 72,000 square-foot Rensselaer Engineered Fuels facility, proposed at 36 Riverside Ave., have not filed permit applications with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The plant could handle up to 150,000 tons of municipal solid waste annually rivaling the amount of trash now going to municipal landfills in Albany and Colonie. There will be up to 15 semi-trailer trucks coming to the facility each day, according to documents filed with the city Planning Commission. Waste brought there would be processed into a shredded fuel of plastics, tires, treated railroad ties, and other biomass that could be burned elsewhere as fuel in such facilities as cement kilns and steel mills. The facility likely will require several types of permits from DEC, including a solid waste permit, a state Air Facility permit and a stormwater discharge permit for its construction, according to a notice from the city Planning Commission. Last month, the commission approved the project and determined it would have no adverse environmental impact under the state Environmental Quality Review Act. The facility, which will use a biological process to prepare trash into combustible fuel, will have "process emissions from bio-filters" and a so-called baghouse air pollution control device, according to an Environmental Assessment Form submitted by Dennis Soriano, an official with Rensselaer Resource Recovery LLC. That report also listed several types of potential air pollutants, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride and hazardous air pollutants, but indicated that projections were either not available or not applicable. Soriano is also the director of business development & strategic relationships for BioHiTech Global Inc., a Rockland County-based company that in November 2017 got a $6.1 million license for the garbage processing technology from Entsorga, an Italian-based company that has deployed such systems in Europe. The processing plant could generate its owners up to $12 million a year in revenue, according to a press release last month by BioHiTech, which holds exclusive U.S. rights on the process in 11 northeastern states and the District of Columbia. In 2016, an Entsorga affiliate opened the first such U.S. facility of its type in Kearneysville,. W. Va., which converts about 50,000 tons of waste annually into fuel for a nearby cement plant. Located on the site of the former BASF Corp., the proposed 23-acre Rensselaer project is also within a state-designated "environmental justice area,'' which establishes requirements that project developers take extra efforts to keep residents informed of potential projects. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. State law defines an environmental justice area as a a minority or low-income community that may bear a disproportionate share of negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations. In such areas, state law requires that project developers submit a written public participation plan that identifies community stakeholders, including nearby residents, local elected officials, and community-based organizations . There are further requirements for public information meetings and filing of project documents at a central repository open to public inspection, such as a library or local government office. A local official of the Hudson Mohawk chapter of the Sierra Club, which is helping neighborhood opponents of a Partition Street construction and demolition debris landfill study potential legal challenges, said the group was "wary and cautious" of the waste fuel project, but has not yet taken a position on it. As part of the city approval, city planner set conditions on the project including: I have deep reservations about Judge Kavanaughs nomination to this lifetime position and, as I stated, we have been unable to get all the information necessary regarding this nomination, despite my best efforts, he said. Only 113 people have ever served on the Supreme Court, and I believe that we must do our level best to protect its sanctity. A District Court Judge has refused to approve bail to a 55 year-old man charged with sexually assaulting his adult daughter in Co. Tipperary two years ago. Judge John King rejected the bail application at Cashel District Court last Thursday after hearing several grounds for objection submitted by the gardai. The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is charged with sexually assaulting his daughter at a location in Co. Tipperary on August 14 and August 16, 2016. A detective garda involved in the investigation told the court the Gardai were objecting to bail on the grounds that they are concerned the accused will re-offend and also interfere with the complainant if he is released on bail. hearing evidence After hearing evidence from both the prosecution and the accused's defence solicitor, Judge King refused bail because he hadn't any confidence that the accused would stay away from the complainant and he feared he would interfere with her. The Judge remanded the accused man in custody to appear before Cashel District Court on September 27 for the DPP to give its directions on the case. Cllr Tom Wood called on Cashel Tipperary Municipal District to support his request that the HSE fully utilise Our Ladys Hospital. Cllr Wood referred to the obvious capacity which still exists at Our Ladys Hospital. 12 months ago I was told they were unable to put in beds. At least try to maximise the potential for people here and in adjacent counties, that they would not have to go to an acute hospital. Of 168 hours in the week, Our Ladys is open 35 hours a week. With hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, awaiting appointments and various treatments, many for a lengthy period of time, this Municipal Authority calls on the Minister for Health and the HSE to maximise the potential of Our Ladys Hospital, Cashel, renovated at a cost of 13m and only operational Monday/Friday, 9am to 5pm. Thousands of people from this county and adjoining counties could be treated here. Management responded, that subject to the agreement of the members, the Council will write to the Minister for Health and the HSE regarding this matter. Coincidentally, said Cllr Wood, the matter came up at a meeting of the Regional Health Forum. Ms Anna Marie Lanigan, Interim Chief Officer, SE Community Healthcare, stated that Our Lady's no longer has acute hospital services but a range of diverse primary care and community orientated services to people in Cashel and surrounding areas. The current campus (is).. operating on a 24-hour, seven days a week basis to thos that use the facility as a base to provide care homes. The teams provide services across a range of care groups.. and in addition, other agencies including TUSLA, Cuain Saoir, and the Irish Wheelchair Association provide services on a sessional/weekly basis. There is no point in looking for a bypass for Tipperary town in the short term, and Tipperary will not recover its old family run retailing shops, heard this months Tipperary Cashel Municipal District meeting. That was the stark message from Pat Slattery, Director of Community and Economic Development at Tipperary Co. Council, to Councillors. Mr Slattery, a native of Tipp town, also warned Councillors that a planned protest march would not stem the decline of retailing, which could only be done through collective action from local groups, business people, and public representatives. RTE Primetime recently broadcast from Tipp town, during a section highlighting the decline of the high street in rural Ireland. RTEs David McCullough interviewed Padraig Culbert of #march4tipp, Des Brasil of Brasil's Restaurant and Shane Kelly of Tipperary Town Chamber of Commerce. The march on October 20 is a critical opportunity to get political action to revive our town, read a statement from organisers. We need everyone on the street that day. That will be the first march, only the first action. There will probably need to be more. There will be challenges along the way, but we will prevail as a community together. Mr Slattery outlined what the Council and local agencies are doing for Tipperary. The town has changed significantly in the last 40 years, from market town to service centre, he said. Tipps population in 1961 was 4,600 and in 1981 it was just under 5,000 people,and its current population remains the same. It is not a dormitory town as 1,300 workers commute each day and over 2,000 jobs are located in Tipp town. Of the residents living there, a total of 39% work locally, 23% elsewhere, 16% commute and over 20% are considered mobile. Can we attract more mobile residents, asked Mr Slattery. 44% of Tipp town workers have third level education. Over 4,400 of local people work in Limerick, 1,200 work in Waterford. In relation to the N24 bypass, long-term its critical that the MD re-examine the town inner relief road to take traffic off Main Street, and they should identify sites for executive style housing. Theres a need to provide executive housing for commuters, added Mr Slattery, and protect amenities for those who will invest their future in the town. Full unedited story in this week's Tipperary Star, page 39 [September 27, 2018] Worldwide Spending on Cloud IT Infrastructure Continued Its Double-Digit Growth Rate in the Second Quarter of 2018, Accounting for Nearly Half of Overall IT Infrastructure Spending, According to IDC According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, vendor revenue from sales of infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switch) for cloud IT, including public and private cloud, grew 48.4% year over year in the second quarter of 2018 (2Q18), reaching $15.4 billion. IDC (News - Alert) also raised its forecast for total spending (vendor recognized revenue plus channel revenue) on cloud IT infrastructure in 2018 to $62.2 billion with year-over-year growth of 31.1%. Quarterly spending on public cloud IT infrastructure has more than doubled in the past three years to $10.9 billion in 2Q18, growing 58.9% year over year. By end of the year, public cloud will account for the majority, 68.2%, of the expected annual cloud IT infrastructure spending, growing at an annual rate of 36.9%. In 2Q18, spending on private cloud infrastructure reached $4.6 billion, an annual increase of 28.2%. IDC estimates that for the full year 2018, private cloud will represent 14.8% of total IT infrastructure spending, growing 20.3% year over year. The combined public and private cloud revenues accounted for 48.5% of the total worldwide IT infrastructure spending in 2Q18, up from 43.5% a year ago and will account for 46.6% of the total worldwide IT infrastructure spending for the full year. Spending in all technology segments in cloud IT environments is forecast to grow by double digits in 2018. Compute platforms will be the fastest growing at 46.6%, while spending on Ethernet switches and storage platforms will grow 18.0% and 19.2% year over year in 2018, respectively. Investments in all three technologies will increase across all cloud deployment models - public cloud, private cloud off-premises, and private cloud on-premises. The traditional (non-cloud) IT infrastructure segment grew 21.1% from a year ago, a rate of growth comparable to 1Q18 and exceptional for this market segment, which is expected to decline in the coming years. At $16.4 billion in 2Q18 it still accounted for the majority, 51.5%, of total worldwide IT infrastructure spending. For the full year, worldwide spending on traditional non-cloud IT infrastructure is expected to grow by 10.3% as the market goes through a technology refresh cycle, which will wind down by 2019. By 2022, we expect that traditional non-cloud IT infrastructure will only represent 44.0% of total worldwide IT infrastructure spending (down from 51.5% in 2018). This share loss and the growing share of cloud environments in overall spending on IT infrastructure is common across all regions. "As share of cloud environments in the overall spending on IT infrastructure continues to climb and approaches 50%, it is evident that cloud, which once used to be an emerging sector of the IT infrastructure industry, is now the norm. One of the tasks for enterprises now is not only to decide on what cloud resources to use but, actually, how to manage multiple cloud resources," said Natalya Yezhkova, research director, IT Infrastructure and Platforms. "End users' ability to utilize multi-cloud resources is an important driver of further proliferation for both public and private cloud environments." All regions grew their cloud IT Infrastructure revenue by double digits in 2Q18. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ) grew revenue the fastest, by 78.5% year over year. Within APeJ, China's cloud IT revenue almost doubled year over year, growing at 96.4%, while the rest of Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan and China) grew 50.4%. Other regions among the fastest growing in 2Q18 included Latin America (47.4%), USA (44.9%), and Japan (35.8%). Top Companies, Worldwide Cloud IT Infrastructure Vendor Revenue, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q2 2018 (Revenues are in Millions) Company 2Q18 Revenue (US$M) 2Q18 Market Share 2Q17 Revenue (US$M) 2Q17 Market Share 2Q18/2Q17 Revenue Growth 1. Dell (News - Alert) Inc $2,386 15.5% $1,433 13.8% 66.4% 2. HPE/New H3C Group** $1,665 10.8% $1,389 13.3% 19.8% 3. Cisco (News - Alert) $1,016 6.6% $947 9.1% 7.2% 4. Lenovo (News - Alert)* $822 5.3% $254 2.4% 223.5% 4. Inspur* $691 4.5% $299 2.9% 131.0% ODM Direct $5,337 34.6% $3,508 33.7% 52.2% Others $3,525 22.8% $2,577 24.8% 36.8% Total $15,442 100.0% $10,407 100.0% 48.4% IDC's Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, Q2 2018 Notes: * IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide cloud IT infrastructure market when there is a difference of one percent or less in the vendor revenue shares among two or more vendors. ** Due to the existing joint venture between HPE and the New H3C Group, IDC will be reporting external market share on a global level for HPE as "HPE/New H3C Group" starting from Q2 2016 and going forward. In addition to the table above, a graphic illustrating worldwide market share for the top 5 cloud IT infrastructure companies in 2Q17 and 2Q18 is available by viewing this press release on IDC.com. Long-term, IDC expects spending on cloud IT infrastructure to grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2%, reaching $82.9 billion in 2022, and accounting for 56.0% of total IT infrastructure spend. Public cloud datacenters will account for 66.0% of this amount, growing at an 11.3% CAGR. Spending on private cloud infrastructure will grow at a CAGR of 12.0%. A graphic illustrating IDC's worldwide cloud IT infrastructure forecast by deployment type (traditional datacenter, public cloud, and private cloud) is available by viewing this press release on IDC.com. IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker is designed to provide clients with a better understanding of what portion of the server, disk storage systems, and networking hardware markets are being deployed in cloud environments. This tracker breaks out each vendors' revenue by the hardware technology market into public and private cloud environments for historical data and provides a five-year forecast by the technology market. Taxonomy Notes IDC defines cloud services more formally through a checklist of key attributes that an offering must manifest to end users of the service. Public cloud services are shared among unrelated enterprises and consumers; open to a largely unrestricted universe of potential users; and designed for a market, not a single enterprise. The public cloud market includes variety of services designed to extend or, in some cases, replace IT infrastructure deployed in corporate datacenters. It also includes content services delivered by a group of suppliers IDC calls Value Added Content Providers (VACP). Private cloud services are shared within a single enterprise or an extended enterprise with restrictions on access and level of resource dedication and defined/controlled by the enterprise (and beyond the control available in public cloud offerings); can be onsite or offsite; and can be managed by a third-party or in-house staff. In private cloud that is managed by in-house staff, "vendors (cloud service providers)" are equivalent to the IT departments/shared service departments within enterprises/groups. In this utilization model, where standardized services are jointly used within the enterprise/group, business departments, offices, and employees are the "service users." IDC defines Compute Platforms as compute intensive servers. Storage Platforms includes storage intensive servers as well as external storage and storage expansion (JBOD) systems. Storage intensive servers are defined based on high storage media density. Servers with low storage density are defined as compute intensive systems. Storage Platforms does not include internal storage media from compute intensive servers. There is no overlap in revenue between Compute Platforms and Storage Platforms, in contrast with IDC's Server Tracker and Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, which include overlaps in portions of revenue associated with server-based storage. For more information about IDC's Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, please contact Lidice Fernandez at 305-351-3057 or lfernandez@idc.com. About IDC Trackers IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools. About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, data and marketing services company that activates and engages the most influential technology buyers. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter (News - Alert) at @IDC and LinkedIn. All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180927005986/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 27, 2018] Students take the lead in shaping the future of learning at EduTECH Asia Expo SINGAPORE, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- From 9-10 October 2018, EduTECH Asia will once again bring together educators from across the entire education spectrum. One of the highlights of this year's expo is 'student voice' where students will take the centre stage to share their innovations and insights about the future learning. Over 60 students (aged 10-15) across the region will gather at EduTECH Asia 2018 Expo, to compete in the inaugural EduBUILD Masters Hackathon, creating education learning spaces for kids by kids. The key focus for the hackathon is to address a real-world problem that the students face in their existing learning spaces. The ten teams are from both government and international schools, homeschoolers, as well as social welfare organisations. The goal of the hackathon is to provide a platform where children are encouraged to actively explore problems within existing classroom structures, and design solutions for future classrooms with a focus on inclusiveness, learning effectiveness, and creative stimulus. Following a 6-week preparation process, the teams will showcase their final hacks that incorporate architectural design concepts and emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence / machine learning, robotics, and 3D to senior educators and education professionals attending EduTECH Asia 2018. Curriculum development and program curation was led by the team from It Takes An Island and supported by Design Singapore and JTC. "With student voice being the focus of many schools today, we at EduTECH Asia, are excited to give students a platform to inspire and interact with educators, giving new ideas and perspectives. The Hackathon also gives them a fantastic opportunity to polish their leadership, creative thinking and collaborative skills, which are deemed as top skillsets required for the future workforce," says Ms Sharon Roesse, Managing Director, Asia, Terrapinn Pte Ltd, organiser of EduTECH Asia. Furthermore, Singapore's Info-communications Media Development Authority will be having a Digital Maker showcase of some of the most innovative projects within the IMDA Zone at EduTECH Asia. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact with teachers and students the Digital Maker Schools and learn more about how digital making has been infused in their lessons and schools' programmes. The expo will also feature 6 other activity areas including a Robotics Zone, an Entrepreneurship Village and an exhibition of the latest edtech technologies by 80+ leading industry players including Lenovo, Wacom, Crestron, Ricoh, D2L, Moodle, Me3D and more. Attendees will benefit in hearing from exhibitors and industry experts on the latest cutting-edge technologies. Over 100 educators from different institutions and subject areas will be sharing best practices, practical innovations and personal insights into teaching with technology at #teachtechtalks for educators by educators. Running alongside the expo, is also a premium conference featuring more than 200 notable speakers in the industry share their insights and knowledge on the future of education in the region. Speakers include Ken Montgomery, Executive Director of Design Tech High and Pramod Tripathi, Associate Director of Schools, Global Indian International School, Singapore and more. The event will take place at Singapore's Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre from 9-10 October. Admission into the expo is free for all. PR Newswire is the Official News Distribution Partner at EduTECH Asia 2018. EduTECH Asia Date: 9-10 October 2018 Conference opening hours: 08:30 - 18:00 Exhibition opening hours: 10:00 - 18:00 Halls 401-403, Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore www.edutech.asia Registration for the free expo pass can be done: http://bit.ly/2QckjJ7 About Terrapinn Terrapinn events inspire and transform business. We've been sparking ideas, innovations and relationships that transform business for over 30 years. Using our global footprint, we bring innovators, disrupters and change agents together. Discussing and demonstrating the technology, strategies and personalities that are changing the way the world does business. Whether you're looking to make new connections, introduce product or inspire change in your industry, we invite you to join us as agitators of change. Terrapinn - spark something. www.terrapinn.com Note: Press registration for the conference is compulsory and advance scheduling for speaker/sponsor interviews is recommended. Final issuance of press passes is subjected to Terrapinn's discretion. For your press pass, please contact the following: Jessica Foong Tel: +65 6322 2715 Jessica.foong@terrapinn.com SOURCE Terrapinn Pte Ltd [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 27, 2018] SoftBank Launches World's First Experimental Services in Commercial Environment Using NIDD Technology for NB-IoT SoftBank Corp. ("SoftBank") today announced that it has succeeded in completing the world's first (*1) connection test in a commercial environment for NIDD (Non-IP Data Delivery), which has been newly defined in the 3GPP (*2) for NB-IoT, the LTE (News - Alert) communication standard for IoT devices. Accordingly, SoftBank will solicit service providers and launch experimental services in a commercial environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180927006005/en/ Image of Data Communication Using NIDD Technology (Graphic: Business Wire) NIDD is a new technology that enables users to transmit data to IoT devices without allocating an IP address. By not using an Internet protocol in transmission, the risk of being subjected to a malicious attack targeting an IoT device is low, making it possible to build a highly secure network. Through the elimination of the data such as header information additionally required in conventional data communications, the electric power needed for communication is reduced and, in addition to extending battery life, a broader area can be covered. Furthermore, by enabling connection on a closed network with IoT platforms provided by service providers and with external application servers, it is possible to build a highly secure network from end to end. With the introduction of NIDD technology, in addition to the conventional NB-IoT and Category M1 (Cat. M1) services it currently provides, for which an IP address is allocated, SoftBank aims to introduce and commercialize devices tailored to various businesses and fields such as crime prevention, social infrastructure and agriculture, making full use of its distinctive features of high security, low power consumption, and high area coverage. *1. 3rd Generation Partnersip Project: A project for standardizing mobile communication system specifications The following business partners have endorsed the aim of this introduction of NIDD technology and will cooperate with SoftBank toward further development of the IoT market. (in no particular order) Akira Sakakibara, CTO at Microsoft (News - Alert) Japan Co., Ltd. and President of Microsoft Development Co., Ltd. "We expect that NIDD technology to reduce communication load for IoT devices and enables to accelerate utilization in IoT field especially for those who had difficulty in conventional condition. As NIDD technology corresponds to open standards, it can easily connects to Microsoft Azure IoT platform and enable to implement data management, view and AI features. SoftBank and Microsoft Japan will continuously contribute to accelerate IoT technology utilization in every industry." Tadashi Okazaki, Head of Solution Architect, Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) Japan K.K. "Along with the popularization and growth of IoT technology, absolute security for IoT devices itself is strongly in demand. With the implementation of NIDD technology which securely connect AWS IoT platform and peripheral device, we expect to accelerate the popularization of IoT technology. Low power consumption is one of the characteristic of NIDD technology. Therefore, we hope to solve long discussed controversy of IoT devices high power consumptions." Vieri Vanghi, vice president, product management, QUALCOMM Europe, Inc. "We are pleased to work closely with SoftBank in taking advantage of the latest LTE technologies to help enable the creation of innovative IoT products and services, using Qualcomm (News - Alert) Technologies' modem leadership combined with SoftBank's IoT network." Kenichi Nemoto, Executive Manager, Information Innovations Dept. of Swing Corporation, and Taro Matsumoto, Vice President of DK Corporation "Through the high security, low power consumption and high area coverage achieved by NIDD, we have high expectations of it as a technology that can support the promotion of business operations utilizing water smart meters and various sensors." Hassan Ahmed, Chairman & CEO, Affirmed Networks "SoftBank has been one of the world's most innovative operators in the area of IoT as they recognize the tremendous business value that these new types of services can deliver to their enterprise customers. Their latest innovations in the area of NIDD technologies are further evidence of this commitment and are providing a more secure and efficient solution for serving the wide range of IoT services that will be deployed over 4G and 5G networks." Satoshi Uchiyama, CEO, SB Cloud Corp. "SoftBank's introduction of this new technology makes it possible to connect to the Alibaba Cloud IoT Platform to transmit data with the high security level that can be obtained by NB-IoT devices. I expect this to promote further advances in the use of IoT data in various industries." About SoftBank Corp. SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp. (TOKYO:9984), provides mobile communication, fixed-line communication and Internet connection services to consumers and corporate customers in Japan. Leveraging the innovative technologies of other SoftBank Group companies, SoftBank Corp. is also expanding into AI, IoT, smart robotics, FinTech, cloud security and other sectors. SoftBank, the SoftBank name and logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of SoftBank Group Corp. in Japan and other countries Other company names, product/service names included in this press releases are registered/non-registered trademarks of the respective companies. Price, specification, contact and other information of products and service may be subjected to change. The information contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180927006005/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 27, 2018] Lazada and Realme Sign MoU as Both Strengthen Partnership to Win Young Indonesian Market JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Lazada, the leading e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia, signed an official MoU with Realme, the best balanced smartphone manufacturer, which integrates strong performance and stylish design, as well as affordable 'technology and beauty', as both strengthen their strategic partnership in Southeast Asia, where their phone is available to purchase exclusively through Lazada. Alessandro Piscini, CEO, Lazada Indonesia, said, "Lazada is honored to be the e-commerce platform that carries this ultra-intelligent phone Realme. Both share the same commitment to providing customers with the best and most fitting products available currently in the market, with sheer accessibility and affordable pricing. This partnership also solidifies Lazada's commitment to partner with simply the best regional and global brands, bringing an assortment ofuseful products for the betterment of customer life quality." The Realme brand focuses on providing mobile phones that integrate strong performance and stylish design, bringing young people an intelligently joyful life featuring affordable technology and beauty. Realme provides products that can be defined as 'power meets style', which effectively means a harmonious integration of strong performance and trendy design that answers young generation's desires for a wholesome great gadget. Josef Wang, Marketing Director, Realme Southeast Asia, said, "Conducting strong partnership with partners both globally and locally, is one of our key business strategies that we are committed to. Lazada is the premier e-commerce platform in Indonesia, with one of the largest networks of customers and most comprehensive distribution channels in the archipelago. Together, we conduct an in-depth, strategic level, exclusive partnership with Lazada Indonesia, to provide the best products for the young generations, not only in terms of pricing architecture, but also in the best go-to-market strategy and approach. Realme's signature product, the Realme 2 Series, will be launched simultaneously online in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam on October 9, 2018, on LazMall. This shows LazMall's commitment to providing 100% original products with 1-day delivery service with 15-days return policy. Currently, Lazada and Realme are conducting a pre-launch marketing campaign for all customers to partake in. "Southeast Asia is one of the most important overseas market for Realme, and Indonesia is simply the biggest market in Southeast Asia. We bring up a strategic concept, which means the practice of conducting business in compliance with laws and regulations, with insights from our gobal R&D and design resources," added Josef. "I firmly believe that Lazada is the perfect partner for Realme, particularly in entering the exciting market such as Indonesia. Lazada is committed to continually assisting Realme to win the nation's smartphone market share through our capability, credibility, capacity, and our wide network of distributions," said Alessandro. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180927/2250320-1 SOURCE Realme [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 27, 2018] Danish Architecture Center: The Daylight Award ceremony rewards Japanese architect Hiroshi Sambuichi and American researcher Greg Ward for their dedication to daylight The Daylight Award 2018 was celebrated at the iconic Rolex Learning Centre in Switzerland on 27 September. In the beautifully sculptured building designed by former Daylight Award laureates, SANAA, an enthusiastic international community of architects, researchers, and representatives from the building sector were gathered to celebrate the laureates. Architect Hiroshi Sambuichi and researcher Greg Ward both received The Daylight Award 2018 and 100,000 for their groundbreaking work and dedication to daylight. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180927005923/en/ The Daylight Award ceremony rewards Japanese architect Hiroshi Sambuichi and American researcher Greg Ward for their dedication to daylight. (Photo: Alain Herzog) The three philanthropic foundations, VILLUM FONDEN, VELUX FONDEN and VELUX STIFTUNG, presented the award for thefirst time in 1980 to recognise prominent practitioners in the fields of daylight in architecture and daylight research for the benefit of human health, well-being and the environment. The 2018 laureates follow in the footsteps of Jrn Utzon (DK), Lacaton & Vassal (FR), James Carpenter (US), Marilyne Andersen (CH), and Steven Holl (US). Architecture powered by nature Hiroshi Sambuichi has been awarded for his ability to balance the relationship between nature and architecture. The movement of earth, wind, air, water, and sun are integral parts in his buildings, which include the Shizuki Castle House and Naoshima Hall in Japan. Hiroshi Sambuichi comments: "A close examination of changing wind directions and intensities in daylight influences the site and enables me to understand what kind of architecture is really needed on each location. I am honoured and thankful for this recognition of the nature of daylight." Creator of Revolutionary Software Greg Ward is the creator of the revolutionary software simulation program, Radiance (News - Alert) . Radiance has been applied variously to architecture, product design, thermal simulation, and health effects. It has also been utilised in unique situations such as assisting astronauts in training to work under the harsh lighting conditions in space. Greg Ward says: "My emphasis has always been on working, practical systems, as opposed to purely academic pursuits. To me this award is an important recognition of much more than my work. It recognises an entire communitys contribution to daylight prediction and inclusion in the built environment". About The Daylight Award The Daylight Award is presented by the philanthropic foundations, VILLUM FONDEN, VELUX FONDEN and VELUX STIFTUNG. The award puts specific emphasis on the interrelation between theory and practice and was originally established by Villum Kann Rasmussen, the inventor of the VELUX roof window. Read more: www.thedaylightaward.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180927005923/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] TRA Managing Partner Rastogi Rebrands Tech Law and Policy Practice to 'Ikigai' NEW DELHI, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Managing Partner at TRA Law, Anirudh Rastogi, has launched Ikigai Law to sharpen the practice focus on technology and innovation-led businesses. Ikigai, a Japanese philosophy, is the intersection of what one is good at (skills), what one loves doing (passion) and what the world needs - the 'reason for being'. Rastogi says, "We believe that our work stands at this intersection, in representing impactful businesses and technologies that bring value to the world around us." Rastogi's role in the finalisation of recently issued guidelines for the 'operation of drones', called 'pioneering' by the Economic Times, which is clearly an example of this. Change agents helping Companies do cutting-edge work Rastogi and his team of 14 lawyers at Ikigai were instrumental in setting up Koinex, India's first multi-crypto exchange and advising on Team Indus' spacecraft launch contract with ISRO. Amongst other technology companies, his team has worked with Unicorn startups such as food-delivery platform Swiggy and online -education platform Udacity, and cutting-edge technology ventures such as the Hyperloop India-student team. They have a heavy client base in the e-commerce, fin-tech and health-tech sectors, with practices ranging from investments, corporate law, litigation, IP and public policy. The firm currently represents four crypto-exchanges i the Supreme Court in a petition challenging the RBI's ban on banking for the crypto industry. Harvard Alumni - Bridging the gap between Law and Policy Rastogi will lead the investments and general corporate team at the firm and recently advised on Flyrobe's Series B fundraise from Sequoia and IDG Ventures. Nehaa Chaudhari who led Public Policy at TRA Law will continue to lead the same team at Ikigai Law. The team has been heavily involved in the regulatory developments around data privacy, blockchain, and drones in India. Harvard alums Rastogi and Chaudhari's public policy practice has been playing an important role in consolidating industry opinion on the recently issued draft data protection bill for submission to the government. Rastogi believes that public policy is 'one part law and two part communication' and effective representation requires expertise in both. Ishita Shome, an attorney with multi-jurisdictional experience of working in Dubai and the US, has recently joined the Ikigai team to focus on clients based in the UAE and broader MENA region. Rastogi was named Achiever of the Year 2017 by Business World and is the author of a book on cyber laws. About Ikigai Law Ikigai Law is a law firm that specializes in representing technology businesses and investors, and startups to more mature companies focussed on new business models. Ikigai works with its clients on Private Equity and Venture Capital investment transactions, Mergers and Acquisitions and other commercial transactions, intellectual property, regulatory and policy issues, and disputes. The firm's work is at the intersection of law, policy, regulation, technology and business, engaging with crucial issues such as data protection, privacy, net neutrality, a regulatory framework for crypto-currencies and unmanned aviation (drones), among others. The team at Ikigai was named 'knowledgeable', 'influential' and 'effective' by The Legal 500, a directory of leading law firms globally and has been awarded for its social impact, innovation and work for start-ups year after year by Idex Legal. For more information please visit: http://www.ikigailaw.com . Media Contact: Anirudh Rastogi Founder +91-9899144333 anirudh@ikigailaw.com Surbhi Goel Head of Operations +91-8527388884 Ikigai Law surbhi@ikigailaw.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] According to court records, Hummel told police he was showing his sons his 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and told them not to ever play with it because it can kill someone. When his daughter walked in the room, Hummel pointed it at her and pulled the trigger, thinking it was empty, according to court records. [September 28, 2018] Blueair and CRY Team up to Improve the Respiratory Health of Delhi Anganwadi Children NEW DELHI, September 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Will organize health check-up camps to identify the respiratory health of more than 3,500 children in Delhi Will install air purifiers to create clean air zones at the anganwadis and vocational centers of CRY Swedish air purification expert Blueair and CRY (Child Rights & You), today launched an ambitious initiative to improve the respiratory health of children across Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/751495/Blueair_CRY.jpg ) UNICEF estimates that 600,000 children under the age of five die prematurely from air pollution every year. Children are more susceptible than adults to both indoor and outdoor air pollution as their lungs, brains and immune systems are still developing and their respiratory tracts are more permeable. Together, outdoor and indoor air pollution are directly linked to pneumonia and other respiratory diseases that account for almost one in 10 under-five deaths, making air pollution one of the biggest threats to children's health. To minimize the negative health effects of air pollution on the children living in Delhi, a city which often reports air quality levels well above WHO limits, Blueair will install air purifiers in 18 anganwadis and vocational training centres. In addition, Blueair with the support of CRY will arrange health check-ups for children and pregnant women living in Rohini and the industrial area of Badlipur, one of the most polluted neighbourhoods in Delhi. Basic medication for respiratory illnesses will also be provided as well as treatment for any critical illness. Dr. Ajay Gambhir, MBBS MD, Delhi Medical Council, Ex Finance Sec, IMA (HQ) New Delhi, said, air that a child inhales during his initial years is very critical for adaptation and simulation of the immune system. Studies shows that children who are exposed to polluted air develop various respiratory diseases like allergies and Asthma. It also effects the IQ and brain development of a child. Hence, breathing clean air is very critical for child's health. Awareness about the same plays critical role amongst the parents and children to insure they take necessary steps to keep their surroundings clean and healthy. Poor spacing in schools and hospitals is an important factor causing air pollution in Indian conditions, which needs to be taken care. Adding to it, Ms. Soha Moitra, Regional Director, North (CRY), said, "We are proud to partner with Blueair, a company with a firm commitment to improve the health and well-being of children everywhere. At CRY, we believe that every child has the right to a safe and happy childhood. Protecting children from air pollution is therefore not only in their best interest, it is also in the best interest of society." Mr. Jitendra, from Pahal (a partner NGO that works with CRY), said, "Clean air is a basic human right. In an industrial area like Badli, with air pollution levels sometimes hitting 10 times the safe limit, the respiratory health of children is at risk. We are therefore grateful to Blueair and CRY for supporting our children breathe clean air." Mr. Arvind Chabra, Country Head Blueair, said, "We are confident that the initiative that we are launching today will be a first step to improve the respiratory health of the children in Delhi. What few know is that indoor air can be up to five times more polluted than outdoor air. By ensuring clean indoor air for young children and pregnant women in anganwadi centers, we are also helping to reduce the health inequalities among the children in Delhi." 'Clean air for children' is an initiative launched by Blueair in 2016. Since then, Blueair has donated air purifiers and face mask to schools, kindergartens, nurseries and children hospital in China, India, Korea, the UK and the US giving clean air to over 20,000 children. About Blueair Blueair is a world leading producer of air purification solutions for home and professional use. Founded in Sweden, Blueair delivers innovative, best-in-class, energy efficient products and services sold in over 60 countries around the world. Blueair is part of the Unilever family of brands. http://www.blueair.com About CRY CRY - Child Rights and You is an Indian NGO that believes in every child's right to a childhood - to live, learn, grow and play. For four decades, CRY and its 850 initiatives have worked with parents and communities to ensure lasting change in the lives of more than 2,000,000 underprivileged children, across 23 states in India. For more information please visit us at http://www.cry.org. For media queries please contact: Manaswi Manna +91-9953885091 Manaswi.manna@bm.com Shrinidhi Rao shrinidhi.rao@bm.com +91-9871909335 Associate Genesis BM [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Giant US Companies Seeking Digital Transformation Partners from Vietnam Top leaders from 20 billion-dollar enterprises from various industries including AES Corporation, Walmart, GE Global, AT&T, IBM (News - Alert) , PepsiCo, AIG, FedEx, etc. joined a Business Breakfast with Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in the framework of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. The Business Breakfast, co-hosted by FPT - a global leading IT service provider headquartered in Vietnam - and Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), was the only business event with the Prime Minister throughout his trip, aiming to promote bilateral relationship on economics, investment and technology. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005133/en/ Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc joined a Business Breakfast with US enterprises (Photo: Business Wire) Joining the Prime Minister are Vietnamese ministerial officials including Minister, Chief of Government Office; Minister of Industry and Trade; Minister of Health; Acting Minister of Information and Communications; Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment; Lieutenant General, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Army of Vietnam; Vietnamese Ambassador to the US; and Ambassador of the Vietnamese delegation to the United Nations. Moderated by FPT Chairman Truong Gia Binh, the discussion on various policy frameworks and issues related to IT and investment in Vietnam has established opportunities for both sides to network, exchange views on business partnership and discuss about cooperation opportunities in the 4.0 Industrial Revolution (News - Alert) . Emerging matters related to digital government, especially in e-Government ad Smart City in Vietnam, caught special attention from US corporations. US enterprises' concerns and problems encountered in the investment procedure in Vietnam were well demonstrated and resolved, thus opening up opportunities and accelerating successful businesses cooperation and investment in Vietnam. "Vietnam commits to creating favorable conditions, in terms of policies and other factors, for foreign science and technology organizations to cooperate in advanced technologies research and transfer to Vietnamese enterprises." The Prime Minister affirmed. "With the young and mathematical-oriented workforce, Vietnam is prepared for the digital era". Said FPT Chairman Truong Gia Binh. "FPT, as Vietnam's leading technology corporation, is ready to become one of the world's Digital Transformation pioneers". Prior to this event, Binh had bilateral meetings with leaders from top five global corporations such as Coca Cola, COX Enterprises, UPS, RNDC, etc. to promote cooperation opportunities in Digital Transformation. FPT's proven capabilities and global business initiatives to support enterprises implementing Digital Transformation in a fast and cost-effective manner were shared and highly recognized. Through the meetings, US corporations and FPT jointly aimed at the cooperation in which FPT will deliver comprehensive technology solutions from strategic consultancy, system design, development, implementing to maintenance. FPT Corporation established its first representative office in the US in 2000, followed by the US subsidiary (FPT USA) on October 13, 2008 and currently 2018, has offices in major US cities including Texas, Denver, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Renton, providing IT services in various sectors such as aerospace & aviation, healthcare, banking & finance, telecommunication, automotive, etc. Since March 2013, the US R&D Center of FPT has served many customers in new technologies such as IoT, Cloud, Big Data and Mobility. Earlier this year, by joining force with Intellinet, an US-based management consulting and technology services firm, the company is expected to deliver comprehensive Digital Transformation services for global top companies. About FPT FPT Corporation is the global leading technology and IT services group headquartered in Vietnam with nearly US$2 billion in revenue and 33,000 employees. FPT is a pioneer in digital transformation and delivers world-class services in Smart factory, Digital platforms, RPA, AI, IoT, Enterprise Mobility, Cloud, AR/VR, Embedded Systems, Managed services, Testing, Platform modernization, Business Applications, Application Services, BPO, and more. Through its management consulting and technology services subsidiary, Intellinet, FPT provides Business and IT Strategy, Organizational Change and Human Capital Leadership, Program Execution, Customer Experience & Human-Centric Design, as well as other leading digital and technology solutions. FPT has served over 500 customers worldwide, 100 of which are Fortune 500 companies in the industries of Aerospace & Aviation, Automotive, Banking and Finance, Communications, Media and Services, Logistics & Transportation, Utilities, Consumer Packaged Goods, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Public sector, Technology and more. For more information, please visit www.fpt-software.com or www.intellinet.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005133/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Gym Source to Streamline Business Processes with VAI's Integrated ERP Solution VAI, a leading ERP software developer, announced that Gym Source, a distributor of residential and commercial fitness equipment, will streamline its operations and enhance customer service with the selection of VAI's (News - Alert) S2K 6.0 ERP software solution. Fueled by company and revenue growth, Gym Source needed to upgrade its ERP system and selected VAI's end-to-end solution to automate workflow, enhance productivity, and address business imperatives in real-time. With 35 stores and seven distribution centers located throughout the East Coast of the U.S., Gym Source (News - Alert) outgrew its legacy system that required manual data-entry and processing. VAI S2K will help Gym Source streamline distribution operations by automating processing and enabling employees to switch focus from the mundane tasks of gathering and organizing data to value-added responsibilities like evaluating data analytics to optimize business operations. While the old system would frequently run report glitches and errors which required manual adjustments, VAI's S2K software will automate Gym Source's daily reporting needs and distribute at the specified times and intervals throughout the course of their business cycles. "As our business continues to grow, I speak for every employee when I say we made the right decision in upgrading to VAI's end-to-end solution," said Joseph Vazzano, CFO of Gym Source. "VAI has provided excellent customer service from the start, having spent time interviewing our employees to learn the ins and outs of our workflow and analyze how we cn optimize the solution to meet our needs. VAI's genuine investment in our success really stood out during the selection process and we're grateful for their hands-on approach as we lead up to implementation." A key driver for Gym Source in selecting VAI's solution was S2K 6.0's integrated applications, including Financial Management, Distribution Management, Warehouse Management, Customer Relationship Management, and more that provide end-to-end capabilities rather than having to buy and implement bolt-on applications separately. Additionally, VAI's unique unlimited user license offering will allow any employee to access the system at any time, without being limited to specific users one at a time. "Accurate data processing and reporting is critical for supply chain operations, but it's only possible to do so efficiently with a fully integrated solution," said Joe Scioscia, VP of Sales at VAI. "We've been working closely with Gym Source to identify their pain points with the old system, and we're confident that with VAI, they will achieve greater efficiency, streamline business processes, and ultimately enhance customer service." About Gym Source Gym Source has built more gyms for more people than any other company in the world. For 75 years we have developed a reputation as the leader in the fitness field. As America's largest commercial distributor of fitness equipment, we serve a wide range of clients- from the Fortune 500 to the FBI, Equinox to the Oval Office, Dartmouth to Columbia. From Baltimore to Boston, New York to Naples, our proven commitment to our customers is unparalleled in the history of the fitness industry. With over 300,000 clients in all 50 States and over 50 countries, Gym Source is the recognized reliable authority. About VAI VAI is a leading independent mid-market ERP software developer renowned for its flexible solutions and ability to automate critical business functions for the distribution, manufacturing, retail, and service sectors. VAI's software solutions are backed by a wealth of experience and a reputation for excellence that countless companies rely on. With specific ERP solutions for Hard Goods, Food, and Pharmaceutical companies, VAI has helped some of the most recognized companies address key industry requirements and deliver bottom-line results. VAI continues to innovate with new solutions that leverage analytics, business intelligence, mobility, and cloud technology to help customers make more informed business decisions and empower their mobile workforce. VAI is headquartered in Ronkonkoma, NY, with branch offices located in Florida, Illinois, and California. For more information, visit www.vai.net, follow @VAISoftware on Twitter (News - Alert) , vai_software on Instagram, and "like us" on facebook.com/VAISoftware. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005042/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Global Grid for Learning (GG4L) Merges With EduTone To Launch The First Ever Membership-Based, Data-Driven, Social Impact Platform In K-12 Education SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Grid for Learning (GG4L), a Public Benefit Corporation, today announces the completion of its merger with EduTone Corporation. Effective immediately, EduTone will be renamed Global Grid for Learning, PBC, and Robert Iskander is named Chairman and CEO of the combined legal entity. As a membership-based, data-driven collaborative, GG4L seeks to democratize access to proven effective EdTech solutions for students everywhere according to individual school needs and district priorities. GG4L Connect, a relaunch of EduTone's market proven education data interoperability technology, is now available as a free platform for schools to manage data exchange with EdTech solution vendors. Through EduTone's existing distribution network, GG4L will now serve a large footprint of schools including three of the top ten largest U.S. school districts. GG4L Connect is compliant with student data privacy regulations, open standards and industry best practices to ensure school communities can safely and securely deploy innovative EdTech solutions. To sustain its free data exchange platform, GG4L offers sponsorship opportunities to the private sector, e.g. corporations and foundations, who wish to extend their impact reach in K-12 education under this new model. Sponsors effectively enable improved equality of access for all schools at scale. Further, GG4L Sponsors are given access to a myriad of managed impact initiatives that align with their social impact goals, e.g. Community Engagement, STEM Acceleration, School Safety, College Readiness, Career Preparedness, and several others. As Robert Iskander, GG4L's CEO and Founder shared, "After 25+ years of observing the challnges and opportunities in K-12 education, I am convinced that now is the time to lead with a platform that enables school communities to deploy, validate, and sustain the implementation of innovative EdTech solutions through a combination of corporate and philanthropic funding. GG4L is starting with a foundational initiative to subsidize the data exchange overhead costs traditionally absorbed by the EdTech vendor community and subsequently passed on the districts in the purchase price of their solutions. This should be welcome news for both vendors and schools, who in turn benefit from this subsidy." Whether you are a school district, an EdTech vendor or a potential sponsor, joining GG4L's collaborative is easy. For further details about GG4L, how to join GG4L or how to participate in an upcoming Impact Initiative, simply visit: https://www.GG4L.com or contact us at info@gg4l.com . About Global Grid for Learning (GG4L) Embracing the belief that our nation's education system impacts our future, GG4L is building innovative public and private partnerships mindfully structured to harness the power of data to solve big school challenges such as school safety, literacy, college and career readiness, and student wellness. With privacy and security top of mind, GG4L, a 3-way partnership between schools (government), industry, and philanthropy, actively champions continuous cycles of improvement informed by data. By facilitating affordable access to proven solutions and efficacy data, GG4L fuels rapid innovation in education. As a Public Benefit Corporation, we are committed to voluntarily meeting higher standards of corporate purpose, accountability and transparency. We are explicitly mandated to pursue positive social impact along with financial prosperity. About EduTone Corporation EduTone provides schools with a more efficient and secure way to manage access to digital resources so they can refocus their energies on what's most important. The EduTone Xchange Passport is a single sign-on platform that works on any device to provide users with a single username, password and point of access while the DataZone is an SIS/LMS integration service that makes provisioning subscription services easier. EduTone serves schools and districts around the world directly, through resellers and through white label partners. EduTone is a privately held corporation headquartered in Alameda, California, with affiliated offices in the UK and Australia. To learn more, visit http://www.edutone.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-grid-for-learning-gg4l-merges-with-edutone-to-launch-the-first-ever-membership-based-data-driven-social-impact-platform-in-k-12-education-300720786.html SOURCE Global Grid for Learning (GG4L) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Cybint establishes the Italian Cybersecurity Center with local partners to deliver cyber education solutions to organizations and professionals in Italy NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global cyber education leader Cybint, a BARBRI company, is expanding its presence and offerings in Italy through its new Cyber Center in Rome. Created in partnership with local organization, Done & Done, the new Cyber Center will provide cybersecurity and cyber intelligence education and training solutions for businesses, higher-education institutions and government agencies throughout Italy. The center will deliver cyber literacy solutions, Cyber Security Analyst (CSA) hands-on labs, simulations and specialized cyber training in advanced topics such as security, ethical hacking, SCADA, forensics, malware analysis and more. "Italy is facing a severe shortage of cybersecurity and intelligence expertise," said Cybint CEO, Roy Zur. "Through this collaboration with our local partners, we're pleased to positively impact that situation and offer the solutions to build cyber knowledge and skills throughout the country." This first-of-its-kind center in Italy will serve as a hub of Cybersecurity knowledge, skills and tools for local inustry, academia and government. From non-technological individuals to specialized cyber professionals, the Cyber Center will provide solutions for all levels. "We're exceptionally pleased to partner with Cybint as we collectively work to close the gap between cyber needs and skills, and provide relevant solutions to the Italian market," said Done & Done CEO Delilah Dagmi. "We are eager to collaborate with other entities throughout Italy from industry, government, and academia to help the country to close the gaps and fight against cybercrimes," added Dr. Lorenzo Martinelli, Cybint's director of cyber education in Italy. Learn more at cybintsolutions.com. ABOUT CYBINT Cybint is an international cyber education company, providing training, certifications and learning solutions across the cyber security and intelligence spectrum. At Cybint we believe that protecting our assets, companies, and national security, starts with cyber education. That's why we are dedicated to building the most knowledgeable cyber teams for governments, educating the best cyber experts at universities and colleges, and training employees around the world to be aware of cyber threats. Cybint is a collaboration between military-trained cybersecurity and intelligence experts and the education experts at BARBRI. Together, we've created programs that address cybersecurity and intelligence at the individual level creating a deep and powerful network of cyber expertise that goes far beyond the typical technical expertise. Contact: Cindy Parks 913-526-6912 cindy@parkscommunications.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cybint-establishes-the-italian-cybersecurity-center-with-local-partners-to-deliver-cyber-education-solutions-to-organizations-and-professionals-in-italy-300720900.html SOURCE Cybint [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] AQUAOSO Officially Launches Water Risk Intelligence Tools for Identifying, Understanding and Monitoring Water Risk FOLSOM, Calif., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AQUAOSO Technologies PBC, a software company that helps customers identify, understand and monitor water supply risks has officially unveiled their Water Risk Intelligence Tools for the agricultural economy. The platform uses data science and machine learning to provide meaningful insight into water data that has previously been inaccessible. Designed specifically to meet the needs of growers, banks, investors and other agricultural professionals, the AQUAOSO Water Risk Intelligence Tools allow users to identify, quantify, report, and monitor water supply risks across the California agricultural economy. The platform will ultimately provide a comprehensive set of tools to evaluate and monitor water risk around the globe. The Water Risk Intelligence Tools are currently in use by more than a dozen customers across California, monitoring data sources and identifying potential water risk on more than $30 Billion of agricultural assets. "This platform is a significant step forward to helping our customers make more informed decisions around water risk by delivering detailed, transparent and secure information needed to understand water risks associated with specific parcels of land," said AQUAOSO's CEO, Founder, and 20-year leader in the water sector, Christopher Peacock. "We have the only complete platform that assembles data to quickly and accurately identify the current state of water risk for agricultural land in California." AQUAOSO provides on-demand research and mapping tools for agricultural operations, lenders, appraisers, real-estate brokers, lawyers, insurance companies, water district managers, groundwater sustainability agencies, governmental bodies and researchers. Multiple stakeholders can finally access the data necessary to understand waterrelated risks for operating loans, real estate transactions, source water planning, and farm water budgets. Gary Sawyers, a Principal at New Current Water and Land, LLC, an expert land and water consultancy said, "Agriculture and water have become very complex and volatile. AQUAOSO's platform will provide a comprehensive set of data, analysis and reporting for growers, investors and lenders in California as part of their management and due diligence efforts." "The AQUAOSO Water Risk Intelligence Tools provide users with numerous options for reporting and mapping." Mr. Peacock continued, "When we combine the dozens of data sets we have acquired with our own proprietary research and analysis, customers can quickly access the data that allows them to assess their water risks, saving them a significant amount of time and money." "AQUAOSO does a very good job of pulling together information from many disparate sources into a format that allows for efficient review of data necessary for assessing water risk," comments John Barcelos, Senior Vice President - Chief Risk Officer at Farm Credit West. AQUAOSO Water Risk Intelligence Tools also save agricultural appraisers hundreds of hours of research time each year. "We are excited about the opportunity to partner with AQUAOSO as they continue to develop research tools that help our appraisers and farm managers navigate the ever increasing complexity of water in California," said Dan Whisenhunt, the current President of the California Chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. AQUAOSO recently published their whitepaper, Lending A Hand To California Agriculture. Impacts of SGMA on agricultural land and lending which has become required reading for a number of lending institutions. "There are significant shifts in the ways water is being allocated," said Peacock, "and we are proud to be a trusted partner to customers who understand that water risk must be managed today, not in the future." About AQUAOSO AQUAOSO Technologies, PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation with a mission to build a water resilient future through Intelligent Trust. AQUAOSO uses data science and machine learning to provide meaningful insight into water data and provide advanced water risk management and mitigation tools for the agricultural economy. Farmers, brokers, appraisers, lenders, and water managers use the AQUAOSO tools daily to identify, understand, monitor and mitigate water-related risks. www.AQUAOSO.com Media Contact Chris Peacock, Founder and CEO Phone: 916.949.5678 202431@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aquaoso-officially-launches-water-risk-intelligence-tools-for-identifying-understanding-and-monitoring-water-risk-300720839.html SOURCE AQUAOSO Technologies, PBC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Two-time World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Winner Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud to Keynote Batteries Event 2018 in France Cadenza Innovation recently signed deal with Shenzhen BAK Power Battery to mass-produce Li-ion cells and modules based on startups supercell platform WILTON, Conn., Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cadenza Innovation , the award-winning provider of safe, low cost, high-performance lithium-ion-based (Li-ion) energy storage technology platforms for license to battery manufacturers, today announced that Founder and CEO Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud will keynote the Batteries Event 2018. Focusing on the industrys most important technology and industry trends, the conference will take place October 2-5 in Nice Acropolis, France. A must-attend gathering for the global battery industry, the event follows last months World Economic Forums New Champions Meeting in Tianjin, where Cadenza Innovation was honored as a 2018 Technology Pioneer . The evolution of the portable electronics market, the rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and the electrification of the power utility grid are strong forces driving the global commitment to energy storage and renewable energy. To help fuel advancements in products, policy and business models, the Batteries Event 2018 will bring together leading industry experts in battery tecnologies, applications, manufacturing and the extended value chain. Delivering a keynote titled The Role of Energy Storage in The New Energy Paradigm on Wednesday, October 3, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud will discuss how the next 10 years are poised to transform the battery industry as well as existing applications and potential new markets alike. She will also examine how collaborative global policies and technological advancements propelled by substantial growth rates are prompting an unprecedented change in the global energy equation. Additionally, she will explore how markets are validating novel solutions by demonstrating the integration of new technologies and products within the existing energy infrastructure. I am thrilled once again to be included among the speakers at this conference, said Dr. Lampe-Onnerud. The last year has been an especially exciting one for energy storage and for Cadenza Innovation. I welcome the chance to share what weve learned and what we see ahead and look forward to benefiting from the wisdom of our industry peers. In September, Cadenza Innovation and Shenzhen BAK Power Battery Co., Ltd. (BAK), announced that they will cooperate on the manufacture of Li-ion cells and modules based on Cadenza Innovations supercell architecture. Mass production will begin in 2019 and will initially target the electric vehicle market. About Cadenza Innovation, Inc. Founded in 2012 by lithium-ion battery experts with more than 125 patents, Cadenza Innovation is capitalizing on its intellectual property, field-proven operational and mass production expertise and partner network to establish itself as a leader in low cost, safe and energy dense storage solutions. Licensing its patented supercell battery architecture for immediate access, company executives have held key roles at battery cell, pack and system provider Boston-Power, investment firm Bridgewater Associates, consulting firm Arthur D. Little and other globally respected organizations. Cadenza Innovation is backed by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, the states of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, Golden Seeds and private investors. Headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut, the company has advanced technology development labs at 1 Duracell Drive in Bethel, CT. For more information, visit www.cadenzainnovation.com . All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. Contact: Courtney Kruzement CHEN PR for Cadenza Innovation ckruzement@chenpr.com 781.672.3132 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Verizon Turns on World's First Commercial 5G Network First commercial 5G customer will be in Houston Installations also begin in Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Who: Verizon executives Local First on 5G customers What: Verizon will turn on the worlds first commercial 5G network on Monday, October 1, 2018. The worlds first 5G customer installation will start in Houston, TX at 10am ET. Additional installations of 5G Home start in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Indianapolis. Verizon executives will be available for phone interviews to discuss this important technology milestone. Additionally, local First on 5G customers in each city will be available at their homes to discuss their 5G Home installations and being one of the first in the world to have 5G broadband internet service. When: Monday, Octoer 1 Where: Media contacts below can provide dial-in information for phone interviews and locations of the local 5G Home installations. Contacts: Kevin King Steve Van Dinter Verizon Corporate PR Verizon Corporate PR 410-353-3234 224-374-3864 kevin.king@verizon.com steven.vandinter@verizonwireless.com Jeannine Brew Heidi Flato Andy Choi (Houston) (Sacramento and LA) (Indianapolis) 214-662-4430 925-324-8692 312-502-2002 jeannine.brew@verizon.com heidi.flato@verizon.com andy.choi@verizon.com Verizon 5G Home installation b-roll, images and other assets are available here. Visit FirstOn5G.com for more information about 5G Home [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] BlueCrest to Debut at Print 18 with RED HOT Print, Mail and Customer Engagement Solutions BlueCrest, a global technology provider of innovative, secure and agile solutions that effectively and efficiently deliver high value client communications and parcels, today announced that it will showcase a full range of digital and physical print, mail and software solutions at Print 18. These industry-leading solutions help businesses of all sizes optimize their print to mail operations, improve integrity and compliance, and drive growth. "We are excited to introduce BlueCrest, which was founded on more than 40 years of innovation and industry leadership in mail and document management, and to demonstrate our end-to-end workflow solutions at Print 18," said Grant Miller, President and CEO of BlueCrest. "BlueCrest is committed to helping clients optimize their print and mail workflows, create new value for their customers and drive growth. We will continue to outpace the competition with world-class printing and mailing systems, driven by the latest software, and supported by the best services in the industry." BlueCrest will display exciting new solutions, including its Red Hot Technology award winners, Output Manager and Clarity (News - Alert), at booth #1229, September 30 - October 2, at McCormick Place in Chicago. Red Hot Technology Winners Featured at the booth will be BlueCrest's two Red Hot Technology award winners, including: BlueCrest Output Manager software, which delivers flexible printstream transformation, centralized resource management and output device independence necessary to optimize print and mail operational performance. With latest print Workflow enhancements, BlueCrest Output Manager now offers: Robust Workflow Engine and Designer to help align business requirements with the applications, data, and infrastructure for the delivery of digital and physical communications. New Centralize Configuration and Change Management helps better manage policies and service levels through automated workflows, provisioning, and change management. The Job Manager, Auditing and Reporting features centralized, real-time job status data and logging to reduce the time and effort to remedy issues with a complete audit trail from every integration point. software, which delivers flexible printstream transformation, centralized resource management and output device independence necessary to optimize print and mail operational performance. With latest print enhancements, BlueCrest offers: Clarity solutions help print and mail operations drive greater operational performance, higher profit margins and stronger business results through powerful real-time insights and predictive analytics. With an intelligent view into the interaction between machines, jobs and operators, operations can now quickly access actionable insights to increase asset availability, drive productivity and optimize yield and quality. Clarity is comprised of three applications: Through real-time insights and predictive analytics, Clarity Advisor ensures our global service experts can make informed decisions and proactively resolve performance issues before they occur to keep your operation running smoothly. Clarity Optimizer enables print and mail operations real time and predicative course correction that allows them to reduce costs and gain total control. With Clarity Optimizer for Print operations can now monitor critical production print metrics in order to optimize printing system utilization, improve operator performance, job level insight, manage paper and ink, reduce costs and gain tota control. Clarity Scheduler links a range of variables in near real-time, including available operators and equipment, jobs in production and planned downtime, into one dynamic schedule, which can constantly help adapt to accommodate top-priority jobs. Delivering unparalleled capabilities, Clarity Scheduler self-optimizes over time, ultimately creating the ideal combination of operator and equipment for every job. help print and mail operations drive greater operational performance, higher profit margins and stronger business results through powerful real-time insights and predictive analytics. With an intelligent view into the interaction between machines, jobs and operators, operations can now quickly access actionable insights to increase asset availability, drive productivity and optimize yield and quality. Clarity is comprised of three applications: The Epic Inserting System - an award-winning high-speed, multi-format inserting solution recognized for cost effective, high yield transactional mail processing will showcase the new Plus speed enhancement delivering the ability to process mail up to 14% faster with the Plus speed enhancement. With this enhancement, the Epic now processes letter mail at speeds up to 24,000 pieces per hour and flats up to 16,000 pieces per hour to help print and mail providers improve operational efficiencies and pursue more profitable service level agreements. speed enhancement. With this enhancement, the Epic now processes letter mail at speeds up to 24,000 pieces per hour and flats up to 16,000 pieces per hour to help print and mail providers improve operational efficiencies and pursue more profitable service level agreements. AcceleJet Printing and Finishing System - an innovative roll to cut-sheet printing solution that provides a simple, cost-effective path to high-quality color inkjet at a cost comparable to monochrome to help mid-sized print and mail service providers get all benefits of color printing. It features integrated finishing including dynamic perforation and an optional offset stacker to process more types of applications including transactional, direct mail and booklets on a single platform. We will also have samples from our flagship IntelliJet HD Printing System on display featuring industry leading High Definition Nozzle Architecture (HDNA). Printing and Finishing System - an innovative roll to cut-sheet printing solution that provides a simple, cost-effective path to high-quality color inkjet at a cost comparable to monochrome to help mid-sized print and mail service providers get all benefits of color printing. It features integrated finishing including dynamic perforation and an optional offset stacker to process more types of applications including transactional, direct mail and booklets on a single platform. We will also have samples from our flagship IntelliJet HD Printing System on display featuring industry leading High Definition Nozzle Architecture (HDNA). Pulse Inserting System - an industry-leading high integrity solution designed to deliver increased operational efficiency, greater flexibility and reduced cost for processing small run or manual jobs. With a best-in-class application range and automated setup features, the Pulse (News - Alert) saves valuable time, money and effort for a quick pay back and ROI. Rival Inserting System - showcasing new automated setup features to simplify and reduce downtime associated with job changeovers, the Rival delivers high performance capabilities in a small footprint design to help cost effectively process more types of higher value customer communications. DirectView - this on premise solution enables operations to have the real-time critical insights needed to monitor workcell productivity maintain optimal performance. Idle time, service time, machine and application type and reconciliation initiatives are tracked enabling production managers to proactively implement adjustments to ensure attainment of operational goals. DFWorks - a comprehensive suite of software that delivers: real-time job tracking and workflow for SLA attainment; historical mailpiece production information for proof-of-process reporting; individual client job tracking for proof of processing; automatic inserter job setup and insert plan management for improved efficiency; postage chargeback accounting and funds management; and tray level postal manifest creation in mixed weight manifest environments. Enterprise Manager - provides output management across multi-site, multi-tenant environments. Includes workload balance, disaster recovery support and encryption. - provides output management across multi-site, multi-tenant environments. Includes workload balance, disaster recovery support and encryption. Output Enhancement - printstream re-engineering software allows users to modify print-ready documents such as adding barcodes for audit compliance or enhancing with color. - printstream re-engineering software allows users to modify print-ready documents such as adding barcodes for audit compliance or enhancing with color. OfficeMail - move desktop-produced communications to the production environment for greater speed, accuracy, tracking and cost savings. "We are seeing more and more demand from mid-volume mailers for our cost-effective solutions," Miller added. "BlueCrest has new modular software offerings that focus on addressing compliance and integrity challenges for mid-volume operations with scalable per mail-piece pricing. Now with Clarity for Print, operations of all sizes can leverage real-time data, insights and predictive analytics to deliver greater productivity and reliability across print and mail; making the value proposition even stronger." BlueCrest - Where Message Meets Momentum (News - Alert) BlueCrest, formerly the Document Messaging Technologies division of Pitney Bowes, is an independent technology company with a long tradition of global leadership in enterprise print, mail, and customer communications. With the industry's most comprehensive line of printers, inserters, sorters and parcel solutions - and a renewed commitment to providing innovative software, BlueCrest serves clients around the world. For more information visit www.bluecrestinc.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005281/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Schwarzman Scholars Hosts International Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Schwarzman Scholars yesterday hosted a high level international dialogue on artificial intelligence (AI), aimed at encouraging greater discourse and cooperation on complicated topics associated with the development of AI. The event was held in conjunction with the release of the English language version of Tsinghua University's Chinese Institute for Science and Technology Policy's Artificial Intelligence Development Report. The report outlines China's AI development from four different perspectives: technological development, market applications, policy environment and social impact. It offers a multi-dimensional comparison between China and developed countries regarding AI development, and analyzes China's strengths, weaknesses and its position in the international AI competitive landscape. "Schwarzman Scholars is pleased to have served as the convening organization for this important international dialogue. I commend Dean Xue Lan on the release of his important report and thank the participants for their insightful comments and engagement," said Stephen A. Schwarzman, Founding Trustee of Schwarzman Scholars and Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone. Mr. Schwarzman continued: "The implications and opportunities surrounding AI and technological change are far-reaching; I have seen firsthand their deep impact on a broad range of industries during my career in finance. We have a critical responsibility to make sure we equip the next generation of leaders with a better understanding of AI so they can best manage these issues in a way that ensures global prosperity." Today's event, hosted at Schwarzman College, brought together leading experts from around the world to discuss and debate issues surrounding AI, including, Professor Xue Lan, Dean of Schwarzman Scholars and member of the National Strategic Consulting Committee for AI development; Dr. Zhou Ming, Vice President, Microsoft (News - Alert) Research Asia and President, Association of Computational Linguistics (ACL); Dr. Chen Yangqiu, President & CEO, Hitachi (China) Research & Development Corporation; Dr. Tian Pengwei, Head of Research Group at Siemens (News - Alert) Corporate Technoloy China; Cao Shenshen, Director of Industry Policy Department, Tencent; and George Huang, CHRO and Head of Global Business Development, SenseTime. The report, which was initially published in Chinese in July of this year, aimed to address the definition of AI, its development, and its penetration into all aspects of society. Highlights from the report include: The top 3 countries for AI patenting activities are China, the US and Japan; The US and China lead the world in terms of size of AI talent force; Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have the largest global number of international AI specialists; 53 percent of China's highly cited papers on AI were published through international collaboration; Beijing hosts the largest number of AI companies in the world; Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou are also in the top 20 globally; AI courses are especially embraced by young people; an increasing amount are offered in universities and on online platforms. Professor Xue Lan, Dean of Schwarzman Scholars, said, "We are pleased to have various experts at Schwarzman College to share their insights into the development of AI and its impact on our future. We need to think early on about how to respond to the social, governance and ethical issues and challenges that lie ahead. In the area of AI and many other emerging technologies, there are many new opportunities for global collaboration. We need to find ways to build more platforms for global dialogue." Today's event also reflects Mr. Schwarzman's broader efforts to spark dialogue and discussion on issues surrounding AI, most notably on the application of these technologies in an ethical way that benefits the public interest. Earlier this month, Harvard Business School (HBS) announced a $5 million gift from Mr. Schwarzman to support the development of case studies and other programming that explore the implications of AI on industries, business, and markets. This Schwarzman Research Fund will spur and extend the efforts of HBS faculty members across a range of disciplines who are researching and writing case studies on the use of AI. About Schwarzman Scholars: Schwarzman Scholars was inspired by the Rhodes Scholarship and is designed to prepare future global leaders to meet the geopolitical challenges of the 21st century. The vision of Schwarzman Scholars is to bring together the world's best young minds to explore and understand the economic, political and cultural factors that have contributed to China's increasing importance as a global power, and to make them more effective as links between China and the rest of the world. Blackstone Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, Stephen A. Schwarzman, has personally contributed over $100 million to the program and is leading a fundraising campaign to raise an additional $500 million from others to endow the program in perpetuity. Schwarzman Scholars has already raised $578 million towards this $600 million goal. The endowment will support up to 200 Scholars annually from the U.S., China and around the world for a one-year Master's Degree program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Scholars chosen for this highly selective program have demonstrated exemplary leadership qualities and their potential to bridge and understand cultural and political differences. They will live in Beijing for a year of study and cultural immersion, attending lectures, traveling, and developing a better understanding of China. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005371/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The woman had several lumps on her head, a rug burn on her wrist and a swollen lip from striking the floor. Two other teachers moved to pull Bonner off her. Bonner kicked and stomped the injured woman on her left hip before being pulled away, charging documents said. She was also treated at Methodist Southlake. [September 28, 2018] A.M. Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Louisiana Dealer Services Insurance Inc and Subsidiaries A.M. Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of "a-" of Louisiana Dealer Services Insurance Inc (Baton Rouge, LA) and its five subsidiaries, collectively referred to as The LDS Group. The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. See below for a detailed listing of subsidiaries. The ratings reflect The LDS Group's balance sheet strength, which A.M. Best categorizes as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. The rating affirmations of The LDS Group recognize its historical profitability, strong capitalization, and established market position as a vehicle service contract provider, mechanical breakdown insurer and credit life and credit disability insurer in Louisiana and Mississippi. The ratings also recognize each companies' role within the group, and the purposes they serve in their respective states, as well as the same inherent benefits afforded by common management, marketing and shared services. The group has consistently produced favorable underwriting results, which have been complemented by a stable level of investment income. A profitable overall earnings trend and relatively modest dividend requirements have contributed to surplus growth and a sustained solid level of risk-adjusted capitalization. While recognizing the group's solid capital position and consistent profitability, A.M. Best notes that growth within the enterprise depends upon the health and strength of the economy, specifically domestic auto sales. A.M. Best also notes that while auto sales have improved over the past few years, a potential decrease in consumer activity can adversely impact the associated opportunities to marketthese companies' core credit products. The stable outlooks reflect A.M. Best's expectation that the company's rating fundamentals will remain unchanged over the medium term. Negative rating actions could occur if there is a material reduction in The LDS Group's risk-adjusted capitalization. Negative rating action also could occur should operating performance deteriorate over a period of time. This may occur should underwriting standards decline, pricing becomes inadequate, or if claims frequency and severity trend upward. The FSR of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of "a-", each with a stable outlook have been affirmed for the subsidiaries of Louisiana Dealer Services Insurance Inc: First Assurance Life of America Loss Deficiency Surety Insurance Company, Inc. Performance Life of America Versant Casualty Insurance Company Versant Life Insurance Company This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on A.M. Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Understanding Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper media use of Best's Credit Ratings and A.M. Best press releases, please view Guide for Media - Proper Use of Best's Credit Ratings and A.M. Best Rating Action Press Releases. A.M. Best is a global rating agency and information provider with a unique focus on the insurance industry. Visit www.ambest.com for more information. Copyright 2018 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005379/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Weber State Selects YuJa Enterprise Video Platform for 3-Year Agreement SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- YuJa Inc. formally announces a new partnership with Weber State University, a public university in Ogden, UT, to support faculty and students in creating, streaming and collaborating with video within the Canvas Learning Management System. Following a competitive RFP process, Weber State University selected YuJa to provide tools for "creating and sharing video-based assignments and interviews with video time-stamped commenting and full Canvas integration." Additionally, YuJa is used for capturing, storing, and streaming media both within Weber State's local Intranet and publicly. The YuJa Enterprise Video Platform is a leading higher-education video solution that integrates with the university's existing Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) and identity provider infrastructure to support the university's novel educational workflows including real-time video commenting and asynchronous soial learning. "Our partnership with Weber State is an affirmation of both the breadth and depth of our video platform's asynchronous and synchronous video collaboration capabilities," said Dr. Ajit Singh, President of YuJa Inc. About YuJa YuJa is a leader in enterprise video solutions. Our products harness the power of video to educate, engage, inspire and collaborate. We serve organizations of all sizes within all sectors, including higher-ed, K-12, government and corporate, delivering video experiences including lecture capture, live streaming, media management, video conferencing, and immersive social & mobile engagement tools. We have legal headquarters in Delaware with primary U.S. offices in Silicon Valley, California and Canadian offices in both Waterloo and Toronto. About Weber State University Weber State University is a public university in Ogden, Utah that prides itself in its quality teaching, its commitment to meeting the needs of students at every stage of life and its ongoing service to the community. WSU serves over 26,000 students and offers more than 200 certificate and degree programsthe largest and most comprehensive undergraduate offering in the state. The university also offers 13 graduate degrees. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/weber-state-selects-yuja-enterprise-video-platform-for-3-year-agreement-300721009.html SOURCE YuJa [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Gremlin Raises $18 Million Series B and Announces Application Level Fault Injection (ALFI), Enabling Companies to Build Resilient Serverless Environments in Production Gremlin, the world's first Failure-as-a-Service platform created by engineers formerly at Amazon and Netflix, today announced an $18 Million Series B led by Redpoint Ventures. Along with the new funding round, Gremlin has publicly launched Application Level Fault Injection (ALFI), enabling DevOps teams to safely inject failure at the application level for developing full-stack resiliency, including within serverless environments. "Gremlin is the leader in helping businesses avoid disaster by proactively testing their systems," said Tomasz Tunguz, Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures. "In a world where nearly every business is an online business, Gremlin makes companies more resilient and saves millions of dollars in unnecessary disasters and outages. We're thrilled to join them on this journey." "The concept of purposefully injecting harm into systems is still new for many companies, but chaos engineering has been practiced at places like Amazon and Netflix for over a decade," said Kolton Andrus, CEO and Co-Founder of Gremlin. "We like to use the analogy of a flu shot, injecting small amounts of harm to build an immunity, in order to proactively avoid disasters. Now with ALFI, users will be able to bring this practice to serverless environments, and have much greater control within their applications." According to Cloudability's State of the Cloud 2018 report, serverless adoption has been growing steadily and will only continue to increase. With the general availability of ALFI, companies can be more targeted about testing their products and services, including the ability to run chaos experiments on serverless environments that do not have a specified host or container. Being able to verify that serverless environments can handle failures will increase confidence and willingness of companies to run real production workloads. "These practices seek to proactively find failures before they can unexpectedly occur and cause large-scale cascade failures in today's complex IT systems," said Mark Thomas Jaggers, Research Director of Infrastructure Strategies for IT Leadership at Gatner.* "With ALFI one of the first problems we wanted to address was improving the reliability and understanding of serverless providers like AWS Lambda and Azure Functions," said Matthew Fornaciari, CTO and Co-Founder of Gremlin. "It's a tough problem to solve because the host is abstracted and it's a very new technology -- but now we can run attacks at the application level, and with a level of precision that isn't possible at the infrastructure level. We are giving them a scalpel to very specifically target particular communications between different systems and services." * Gartner (News - Alert) , Cool Vendors in DevOps, First Wave, 18 April 2018 About Gremlin Gremlin is a "Failure-as-a-Service" platform built to make the internet more reliable. It turns failure into resilience by offering engineers a fully hosted solution to safely experiment on complex systems, in order to identify weaknesses before they impact customers and cause revenue loss. Founded by CEO Kolton Andrus and CTO Matthew Fornaciari in 2016, the company has raised $23.75 Million in funding from Redpoint Ventures, Index Ventures, and Amplify Partners. Existing customers include Expedia, Qualtrics, Twilio (News - Alert) , Under Armour, and Walmart. About Redpoint Ventures Redpoint Ventures has partnered with visionary founders to create new markets and redefine existing ones since 1999. The firm invests in startups across the seed, early and growth phases. Redpoint has backed over 465 companies with 140 IPOs and M+As, including 2U, HomeAway, Heroku, Netflix, PureStorage, Twilio and Zendesk, and incubated market disruptors like Android (News - Alert) . In total, the firm manages $4 billion across multiple funds. Redpoint is based in Menlo Park and has offices in San Francisco, Beijing and Shanghai. Supporting Quotes "Today we live in an online world, where we expect products and services to always be available. Failing to live up to that expectation can not only result in lost revenue, it can also damage customer trust and have negative long-term effects on a company's brand. Chaos engineering is a breakthrough way to anticipate failure and take a proactive approach to preparing for, and ideally completely avoiding, disastrous outages." -- Mike Volpi, General Partner at Index Ventures. "Practicing chaos engineering is a great way to build up the resiliency of your applications. By shifting more of the operations burden upfront, you proactively identify weaknesses instead of reactively solve problems that have already impacted customers." -- Jay Gordon, Senior Cloud Ops Advocate at Microsoft (News - Alert) "AWS Lambda protects you against some infrastructure failures, but you still need to defend against weakness in your own code. Application-level fault injection is a great way to uncover these weaknesses." -- Yan Cui, Principal Engineer at DAZN More Information Gremlin unveiled ALFI at Chaos Conf, a full-day conference in San Francisco around Chaos Engineering open to the general public. For more detailed information about ALFI, read the blog post here. For resources to help you get started with Chaos Engineering, visit the Gremlin Community and sign up for a demo. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005007/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Statement Pursuant to Section 19(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940: DDF On September 28, 2018, Delaware Investments Dividend and Income Fund, Inc. (NYSE: DDF) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund, paid a monthly distribution on its common stock of $0.0968 per share to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 14, 2018. The following table sets forth the estimated amount of the sources of distribution for purposes of Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and the related rules adopted thereunder. The Fund estimates the following percentages, of the total distribution amount per share, attributable to (i) net investment income, (ii) net realized short-term capital gain, (iii) net realized long-term capital gain and (iv) return of capital or other capital source. These percentages are disclosed for the current distribution as well as the fiscal year-to-date cumulative distribution amount per share for the Fund. Current Distribution from: Per Share ($) % Net Investment Income 0.0263 27.2% Net Realized Short-Term Capital Gain 0.0000 0.0% Net Realized Long-Term Capital Gain 0.0705 72.8% Return of Capital or other Capital Source (News - Alert) 0.0000 0.0% Total (per common share) 0.0968 100.00% Fiscal Year-to-Date Cumulative Distributions from: Per Share ($) % Net Investment Income 0.2541 23.2% Net Realized Short-Term Capital Gain 0.0254 2.3% Net Realized Long-Term Capital Gain 0.7789 71.1% Return of Capital or other Capital Source 0.0368 3.4% Total (per common share) 1.0952 100.00% Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of this distribution or from the terms of the Fund's managed distribution policy. The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this 19(a) Notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of its fiscal year and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes. Subject to the foregoing, the Fund estimates (as of the date hereof) that it has distributed more than its income and net realized capital gains for the fiscal year ending November 30, 2018; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in the Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with 'yield' or 'income.' Presented below are return figures, based on the change in the Fund's Net Asset Value per share ("NAV"), compared to the annualized distribution rate for this current distribution as a percentage of the NAV on the last business day of the month prior to distribution record date. Fund Performance & Distribution Information Fiscal Year to Date (12/01/2017 through 8/31/2018) Annualized Distribution Rate as a Percentage of NAV^ 9.79% Cumulative Distribution Rate on NAV^ 9.23% Cumulative Total Return on NAV* 7.14% Average Annual Total Return on NAV for the 5 Year Period Ending 8/31/18** 11.61% ^ Based on the Fund's NAV as of August 31, 2018. *Cumulative fiscal year-to-date return is based on the change in NAV including distributions paid and assuming reinvestment of these distributions for the period December 1, 2017 through August 31, 2018. **The 5 year average annual total return is based on change in NAV including distributions paid and assuming reinvestment of these distributions and is through the last business day of the month prior to the month of the current distribution record date. While the NAV performance may be indicative of the Fund's investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund is determined by the Fund's market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Fund's shares in the open market. About DDF The Fund's primary investment objective is to seek high current income; capital appreciation is a secondary objective. The Fund seeks to achieve its objectives by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 65% of its total assets in income-generating equity securities, including dividend-paying common stocks, convertible securities, preferred stocks, and other equity-related securities, which may include up to 25% in real estate investment trusts (REITs) and real estate industry operating companies. Up to 35% of the Fund's total assets may be invested in nonconvertible debt securities consisting primarily of high-yield, high-risk corporate bonds. In addition, the Fund utilizes leveraging techniques in an attempt to obtain a higher return for the Fund. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objectives. The Fund has implemented a managed distribution policy. Under the policy, the Fund is managed with a goal of generating as much of the distribution as possible from net investment income and short-term capital gains. The balance of the distribution will then come from long-term capital gains to the extent permitted, and if necessary, a return of capital. Even though the Fund may realize current year capital gains, such gains may be offset, in whole or in part, by the Fund's capital loss carryovers from prior years. Currently under the Fund's managed distribution policy, the Fund makes monthly distributions to common shareholders at a targeted annual distribution rate of 10% of the Fund's average net asset value ("NAV") per share. The Fund will calculate the average NAV per share from the previous three full months immediately prior to the distribution based on the number of business days in those three months on which the NAV is calculated. The distribution will be calculated as 10% of the prior three month's average NAV per share, divided by 12. The Fund will generally distribute amounts necessary to satisfy the Fund's managed distribution policy and the requirements prescribed by excise tax rules and Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code. This distribution methodology is intended to provide shareholders with a consistent, but not guaranteed, income stream and a targeted annual distribution rate and is intended to narrow the discount between the market price and the NAV of the Fund's common shares, but there is no assurance that the policy will be successful in doing so. The methodology for determining monthly distributions under the Fund's managed distribution policy will be reviewed at least annually by the Fund's Board of Directors, and the Fund will continue to evaluate its distribution in light of ongoing market conditions. The payment of dividend distributions in accordance with the managed distribution policy may result in a decrease in the Fund's net assets. A decrease in the Fund's net assets may cause an increase in the Fund's annual operating expenses and a decrease in the Fund's market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Fund's net asset value per share. The managed distribution policy may also negatively affect the Fund's investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the dividend distribution. The managed distribution policy may, under certain circumstances, cause the amounts of taxable distributions to exceed the amount minimally required to be distributed under the tax rules, such excess will be taxable as ordinary income to the extent loss carry forwards reduce the required amount of capital gains distributions in that year. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state, and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances. About Macquarie Investment Management Macquarie Investment Management, a member of Macquarie Group, includes the former Delaware Investments and is a global asset manager with offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. As active managers, we prioritize autonomy and accountability at the team level in pursuit of opportunities that matter for clients. Macquarie Investment Management is supported by the resources of Macquarie Group (ASX: MQG; ADR: MQBKY), a global provider of asset management, investment, banking, financial and advisory services. Advisory services are provided by Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust, a registered investment advisor. Macquarie Group refers to Macquarie Group Limited and its subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For more information about Delaware FundsSM by Macquarie, visit delawarefunds.com or call 800 523-1918. Other than Macquarie Bank Limited (MBL), none of the entities referred to in this document are authorized deposit-taking institutions for the purposes of the Banking Act 1959 (Commonwealth of Australia). The obligations of these entities do not represent deposits or other liabilities of MBL, a subsidiary of Macquarie Group Limited and an affiliate of Macquarie Investment Management. MBL does not guarantee or otherwise provide assurance in respect of the obligations of these entities, unless noted otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005484/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Morganti & Co., P.C.: Hycroft Mining Corporation Securities Class Action Notice of Certification Morganti & Co., P.C.: Read this notice carefully as it may affect your legal rights THE CLASS: This Notice is directed to: All persons, other than Excluded Persons1, who purchased common shares of Hycroft Mining Corporation ("Hycroft") between May 9, 2013 and May 17, 2013 pursuant to its May 17, 2013 secondary public offering ("SPO") under the Canadian Prospectus, and who continued to hold some or all of those common shares on July 22, 2013 (the "Class" and "Class Member(s)"). 1Excluded Person means Hycroft, Cormark Securities Inc. and Dundee Securities Ltd.'s subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, senior employees, legal representatives, heirs, predecessors, successors and assigns, and any member of the immediate families of Scott A. Caldwell and Robert M. Buchan (collectively, the "Individual Defendants") and any entity in which any of the foregoing has or had an interest during the distribution period for the Prospectus, or at any time that a document incorporated by reference in the Prospectus was released, and, with respect to the Class definition found at paragraph 1(g) of the Second Fresh as Amended Statement of Claim, means United States citizens or residents who acquired Hycroft's securities in the SPO in a trade under the U.S. prospectus; SUMMARY OF THE LAWSUIT: In 2014, a proposed securities class action was commenced against Hycroft and its former Presidents and Chief Executive Officers, Scott A. Caldwell and Robert M. Buchan, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (the "Court"). The lawsuit alleges that Hycroft and the Individual Defendants released documents and made other statements in the period leading up to the SPO and released the Prospectus for the SPO containing misrepresentations about the Company's business and operations concerning: (1) its ability to process and leach ore placed on Hycroft's Lewis Leach Pad and resulting unreasonable gold-production and cash-cost guidance projections; and (2) the retention of a third-party engineering firm to investigate material problems with the Lewis Leach Pad weeks prior to releasing the Prospectus for the SPO. The lawsuit further alleges that when the Company issued statements correcting these misrepresentations on July 22, August 6, and August 7, 2013, the price of Hycroft's stock declined to reflect the true state of events, thereby harming Class Members. The lawsuit asks the Court to award monetary damages to Class Members for the alleged misrepresentations in Hycroft's public disclosures. If the Plaintiff is successful in its lawsuit, you may be eligible to receive compensation from Hycroft or the Individual Defendants for damage or loss which you may have incurred as a result of the alleged misrepresentations. A copy of the latest version of the Statement of Claim, as well as other legal documents associated with this action, can be found at www.morgantico.com. THE CERTIFICATION ORDER: On October 24, 2017, the Honourable Justice Perell of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified the action: LBP Holdings Ltd. v Hycroft Mining Corporation, et al., Court File N.: CV-14-50851300-CP (the "Class Action") as a class proceeding against Hycroft and the Individual Defendants on consent, and appointed LBP Holdings Ltd. as the representative plaintiff. The Class Action has been certified on behalf of the Class (described above) composed of "Class Members" other than Excluded Persons. WHAT DOES CERTIFICATION MEAN: The Certification Order means that the lawsuit may proceed to pre-trial discovery and may eventually advance to trial as a class action on behalf of all Class Members for damages arising out of alleged misrepresentations in certain Hycroft disclosure documents. Certification is a procedural step that defines the form of the litigation, allowing it to be pursued on behalf of the Class. The substance of the litigation (i.e. the allegation that the Defendants made misrepresentations in their public disclosure documents) has not been adjudicated by the Court. The Defendants deny the allegations. WHO IS INCLUDED IN THE LAWSUIT: YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO ANYTHING TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CLASS ACTION Class Members are automatically included in a class action once certified, and you do not need to do anything at this time if you wish to participate in this Class Action. This includes Class Members who reside anywhere in Canada, not just in Ontario. As a Class Member, you will not be required to pay any costs in the event that this Class Action is unsuccessful. YOU MUST OPT-OUT IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE BOUND BY THE OUTCOME OF THE CLASS ACTION Class Members who wish to pursue their own action or who do not want to be bound by the outcome of the Class Action MUST OPT-OUT of the Class Action. If you want to opt-out of the Class Action, you must send an OPT-OUT FORM stating that you elect to opt-out of the Class in the Hycroft Mining Corporation Class Action. The Opt-Out Form is available at www.morgantico.com, or by calling Morganti & Co., P.C. at (647) 344-1900. Any Class Member who wishes to opt-out of the Class Action shall deliver a completed Opt-Out Form by email to hdavarinia@morgantilegal.com or by regular mail or courier to: Morganti & Co., P.C. One Yonge Street, Suite 1506 Toronto Ontario, M5E 1E5 The Opt-Out Form must be postmarked if sent by mail, or received if sent by e-mail or courier, on or before November 30, 2018 at 5:00pm E.S.T. Each Class Member who does not opt-out of the Class Action will be bound by the terms of any judgement or settlement, whether favourable or not, and will not be allowed to pursue an independent action. If the Class Action is successful, you may be entitled to share in the amount of any award or settlement recovered. In order to determine if you are entitled to share in the award or settlement and the amount, if any, of your share, it may be necessary to conduct an individual determination. There may be costs payable by you if you submit a claim and it is determined that you are not entitled to share in the award or settlement. You will have the opportunity to decide if you wish to proceed with your individual entitlement determination before it begins. No person may opt-out a minor or mentally incapable Member of the Class without permission of the courts after notice to the Children's Lawyer and/or the Public Guardian and Trustee, as appropriate. If you wish to pursue other claims against the Defendants relating to the matters at issue in the Class Action, you should immediately seek independent legal advice. If you do not exclude yourself from participating in this Class Action, all of your claims relating to the subject matter of this litigation will be determined by the result obtained in the Class Action, whether by settlement or judgement. Please see the "Additional Information" section for directions to obtain further detail on the scope of the certified Class Action and the claims that will be advanced against the Defendants. CLASS COUNSEL AND LEGAL FEES: The Plaintiff and the Class in this Class Action are represented by Morganti & Co., P.C. ("Class Counsel"). Morganti & Co., P.C. is acting on a contingency basis, such that legal fees, disbursements and applicable taxes will only be payable in the event of success in the Class Action. Morganti & Co., P.C. is also paying all disbursements incurred in the Class Action, subject to reimbursement in the event of success. In the event of success in the Class Action, Class Counsel will make a motion to the Court to have their fees and disbursements approved. As stated above, as a Class Member, you will not be required to pay any costs in the event that the Class Action is unsuccessful. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This Notice was approved by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The Court office cannot answer any questions about the matters in this Notice. The order of the Court and other information are available at www.morgantico.com. Questions relating to the Class Action should be directed by email or telephone to Class Counsel: Morganti & Co., P.C. Attn: Hadi Davarinia One Yonge Street, Suite 1506 Toronto Ontario, M5E 1E5 Tel: 647-344-1900 ext. 5 Email: hdavarinia@morgantilegal.com PERSONAL LEGAL ADVICE: Class Members who seek the advice or guidance of their personal lawyers may do so at their own expense. The publication of this notice was authorized by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Questions about this Notice should NOT be directed to the Court. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005515/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Genex Services Extends Care Continuum Through PCS Acquisition Genex Services, a leader in medical cost containment and disability management services, has announced it is acquiring Priority Care Solutions, a leading specialty managed care services and network provider for the workers' compensation industry, from Century Equity Partners, Boston. Financial terms were not disclosed. Since 2011, the Tampa, FL-based Priority Care Solutions has developed strong national specialty managed care services and provider networks designed to drive cost savings while maintaining superior patient care through its commitment to using high-quality providers. These services provide a natural extension to Genex's leading medical management program, said Peter Madeja, Genex CEO. "This acquisition offers an exciting opportunity for both companies," said Madeja. "Priority Care Solutions shares our commitment in containing ever-increasing medical costs in the workers' compensation industry through excellent care solutions designed to help injured workers return to their jobs. Priority Care Solutions offers a broad range of services that complement our medical cost containment model, allowing Genex tofurther expand across the continuum of managed care." The nationwide specialty network services Priority Care Solutions has established will build on Genex's industry-leading case management and clinical services programs, which are the largest in the workers' compensation industry. "At PCS, we are committed to evolving and rising to meet marketplace needs," said Bob Smith, CEO. "We're excited to be part of an organization that holds true to these same goals and is a leader in medical management. We see our services as an extension of Genex's renown programs, which will deliver efficient and cost-effective claim resolutions and ensure injured workers receive the critical care needed throughout the lifecycle of a claim." About Genex Services, LLC Genex Services (www.genexservices.com) is the trusted provider of managed care services enabling clients to transform their bottom lines while enhancing the lives of injured and disabled workers. Genex is a managed care leader with more than 2,900 employees and 41 service locations throughout North America. The company serves the top underwriters of workers' compensation, automobile, disability insurance, third-party administrators and a significant number of Fortune 500 employers. In addition, Genex is the only company that delivers high-quality clinical services enhanced by intelligent systems and 360-degree data analysis. The company consistently drives superior results related to medical, wage loss, and productivity costs associated with claims in the workers' compensation, disability, automobile, and health care systems. About Priority Care Solutions Priority Care Solutions (PCS) (www.prioritycaresolutions.com) is the only national specialty managed care services and network provider that offers full transparency and a budget guarantee through two offerings: Priority Financial Guarantee and Therapy Transparent. Drawing on the cumulative experience of an executive leadership team with an average of 20 years in all areas of workers' compensation, PCS has created unique, pro-active solutions to mitigate risk, create operational efficiencies and reduce costs while providing compassionate, exceptional, and timely care to the injured worker. About Century Equity Partners Century Equity Partners (www.cepfunds.com) is a Boston-based private equity firm that focuses on investing in companies operating across the insurance, asset and wealth management, specialty finance and banking services sectors. Century invests in companies that are seeking capital to support growth or fund partial buyout or recapitalization strategies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005421/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Burke & Herbert Bank Launches Video Contest for Teens Burke & Herbert Bank is accepting submissions to the Lights, Camera, Save! video contest. The contest, organized by the American Bankers Association Foundation, is a national competition that encourages teens to use video to inspire their peers to become lifelong savers. To participate, students (ages 13-18) must create a video, 90-seconds or less, on saving and using money wisely and submit a link to the video along with a completed entry form to the bank by December 3. Burke & Herbert Bank will complete the first round of judging and select a winner to compete on the national level for a prize up to $5,000, plus a scholarship for a teacher at their school to attend the annual Jump$tart National Educator Conference. Burke & Herbert Bank is rewarding the top three local winners with $350, $100, and $50, respectively as well as awarding a $50 gift card to each of their sponsoring teachers. "We are excited about promoting the Lights, Camera, Save! contest again this year ad about motivating more students to get engaged with financial literacy," said Terry Cole, Executive Vice President at Burke & Herbert Bank. "It is so important for teens to learn the value of saving and using money wisely and this video contest provides a fun and unique way to do that -- with messaging created by students for students." Videos will be judged on their quality, message, content and the criteria set forth by the contest's official rules. Entry forms and more information can be found at burkeandherbertbank.com/contest. To learn more visit lightscamerasave.com. This marks the fifth year Burke & Herbert Bank has promoted the Lights, Camera, Save! video contest and offered regional rewards. In addition, the Bank also offers educational presentations to area students on the important topics of saving and money management. Burke & Herbert Bank, established in 1852, is the oldest bank in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the oldest continuously operating bank in the Washington, D.C. area. The Bank offers a full range of personal and business banking products and services designed to meet customers' banking, borrowing, and investing needs. Burke & Herbert Bank is headquartered in Alexandria and operates 25 branches in Northern Virginia. Member FDIC View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005557/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Secretary Ryan Zinke at Consumer Energy Alliance Summit: Energy Production Key to American Energy Dominance and Security Domestic energy production and development in the Marcellus and Utica formations continues to be a driving force of American energy dominance, benefitting the wallets of all Americans, businesses and the environment, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said today at an energy and manufacturing summit in Pittsburgh, hosted by Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005572/en/ Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke at Consumer Energy Alliance's Energy and Manufacturing Summit at the Energy Innovation Center, in Pittsburgh. (Photo: Business Wire) At the Energy Innovation Center, Zinke, with other policymakers and business and labor leaders, discussed how the Marcellus and Utica shale formations have driven growth in natural gas production; lowered manufacturing, industrial and commercial costs; dramatically increased job growth, tax revenue and economic opportunities; and, with pipeline expansion, helped better protect the environment - not just in Pennsylvania and the Northeast, but nationwide. The event brought together the following speakers to share their perspectives on energy policy in the context of jobs, the economy, the environment and U.S. competitiveness: Alan Armstrong, President and CEO, Williams Dave Spigelmyer, President, Marcellus Shale Coalition ( MSC (News - Alert) ) Darrin Kelly, President, Allegheny-Fayette County Central Labor Council Bruce McKay, Senior Policy Advisor, Federal Affairs, Dominion Kevin Sunday, Director of Government Affairs, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry James Kunz, Business Manager, IUOE Local 66 Ryan Sandmann, Legislative Representative, Laborers' International Union of North America (LiUNA) Rich DiClaudio, President of the Energy Innovation Center Institute Mike Butler, Executive Director, CEA-Mid Atlantic With election season underway, and recent polling showing that an overwhelming majority of the nation supports a safe, bipartisan policy that promotes American energy security, lowers costs and multiplies economic prospects, speakers at the summit stressed the need to move forward with an all-of-the-above strategy that urges the growth of all resources and the expansion of all energy infrastructure - starting in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays. "President Trump has been clear: America has to be energy dominant," Secretary Zinke said. "We have re-lit the pilot light of American energy under this President. We are incorporating industry innovation, best science and best practices to improve reliability, safety and environmental stewardship. Our energy strategy is 'all-of-the-above,' leveraging every source of energy to take our nation forward. I am bullish about America's energy future." Butler said voters must remember the importance of reasonable energy solutions when they head to the polls, adding how a recent CEA analysis found Pennsylvanians saved more than $30.5 billion from 2006 to 2016 in natural gas costs, thanks largely to increased production and new technologies. "Developing the Marcellus and Utica shale plays and improving their energy infrastructure are must-haves for ensuring our energy security and diversity and increasing access to more affordable, reliable energy," he said. "Both will help lower energy costs for cash-strapped families and businesses and create more economic opportunities by providing greater incentive for manufacturers and businesses to set up shop and create jobs." Case in point: Williams now has more than $14 billion of assets serving the Marcellus and Utica resource base after investing heavily in the area over the past 10 years, Armstrong said. "We continue to expand our premier gathering and processing network, and recently completed the $2.7 billion Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, a vital takeaway pipeline that will connect Northeast Pennsylvania's robust natural gas supply with important markets," Armstrong added. "From a petrochemical and manufacturing standpoint, we believe there's tremendous growth opportunity in this region, and Williams remains committed to supporting that growth by safely and reliably connecting our customers with theirs." Sunday said that because of the state's sustained leadership in energy, Pennsylvania has a "generational opportunity" to "fortify" its position in the 21st century "by leveraging our energy assets to innovate in transportation, manufacturing, technology and education." "Federal tax and regulatory reform have reinvigorated the national economy and following up those historic reforms with pro-growth policy at the state level will cement our state's competitive advantage for years to come," Sunday said. McKay illustrated this by explaining how Dominion's local work is having a positive domino effect regionally on households and businesses. "The billions of dollars in midstream investments being made by Dominion Energy to help get natural gas to hungry markets at home and abroad ripple through the region's economy providing jobs, local tax revenues and opportunities for many small and midsized businesses," McKay said. "A prime example is the $400 million worth of pipe made by Pennsylvania workers at Durabond Industries for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline." Another example, Spigelmyer said, the industrial and environmental gains local production has provided. "We have generational economic and environmental opportunities ahead of us thanks to our abundant supplies of clean-burning American natural gas," Spigelmyer said. "Manufacturers now have a competitive advantage, hard-working Pennsylvania families are enjoying significant energy savings, and our environment, especially air quality, continues to sharply improve. With competitive policies that place a priority on local job creation and making Pennsylvania a global energy and manufacturing leader, there's no doubt that the opportunities ahead are indeed generational." Kunz, meanwhile, recalled still-too-fresh memories of how the region looked before the Marcellus boom unfolded, and how it's transformed since. "After the shuttering of the steel industry and the subsequent decline of the manufacturing sector, we saw firsthand how families struggled to make ends meet, confronted with decisions like whether to pay their rent or mortgage or their utility bill. Thousands left the state," Kunz said. "But the development of our state's own resources in recent years has fueled a resurgence, putting thousands back to work and reducing energy costs. To keep this going, policymakers must embrace every opportunity we have to show our support for energy." Kelly agreed, saying that local workers who saw decades of industrial decline are thankful for the dramatic swing local energy production has provided. "The working men and women who depend on regionally-made, lower-cost energy to affordably and efficiently produce the materials and steel that keep them employed are thankful for what the Marcellus Shale has provided them - a chance to stand together and work toward achieving the American dream," Kelly said. About Consumer Energy Alliance Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) brings together families, farmers, small businesses, distributors, producers and manufacturers to support America's energy future. With more than 450,000 members nationwide, our mission is to help ensure stable prices and energy security for households across the country. We believe energy development is something that touches everyone in our nation, and thus it is necessary for all of us to actively engage in the conversation about how we develop our diverse energy resources and energy's importance to the economy. Learn more at ConsumerEnergyAlliance.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005572/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 28, 2018] Tech in the Age of Trump Join Brex - the first corporate card for startups - as they host an event with CEO Henrique Dubugras, political consultant and entrepreneur Anthony Scaramucci - moderated by Axios Business Editor, Dan Primack - to discuss tech, media and policy in the in the age of Trump this Sunday, September 30. These three forces from varying backgrounds will band together to discuss how today's political climate is affecting their respective industries, how they see the future of these industries panning out, and what they're doing to stay relevant in the space. Who: Anthony Scaramucci, Entrepreneur and Political Consultant Henrique Dubugras, Brex Co-Founder & CEO Dan Primack, Axios, Business Editor What: A conversation on Tech In The Age Of Trump Even Where: Omni Parker House | 60 School St., Boston, MA When: Sunday, September 30, 2018 @ 5:00pm ET Registration: Eventbrite Invitation (free to attend) About Brex For startups, Brex delivers corporate cards quickly, easily, and with far higher limits than anyone else. Unlike traditional corporate cards, only Brex offers startups cards instantly and with no personal guarantee. Founded in 2017 by the founders of Brazilian payments processor Pagar.me, Brex is backed by Y Combinator Continuity, Ribbit (News - Alert) Capital, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Yuri Milner and Carl Pascarella. Brex participated in the Y Combinator Winter '17 batch. The company's headquarters are in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.brex.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180928005646/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] I want you to know were going to catch these guys. And once we catch them Im going to ruin them. Im going to ruin them civilly, were going to charge them with everything we can. And then Im going to go after the businesses thats buying it. I want you to know that. Finding the best unlimited data plan is especially appealing this time of year, when new phone releases like the iPhone 13 or Pixel 6 might prompt you to look for a new wireless provider. But even if you're sticking with your current phone, it pays to see what other options are out there. Who knows? You could wind up getting more monthly data for less than what you're paying now. 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However, you only get that price for three months after that, you'll have to sign up for another 12 months to hold onto the $30 rate. Pros: Cheapest overall unlimited plan, 5G speeds Cons: Speed restrictions, price increases after 3 months The best unlimited data plan overall Verizon | Play More Unlimited | $80/month - Best unlimited plan overall Verizon | Play More Unlimited | $80/month - Best unlimited plan overall On the complete opposite end of the spectrum to Mint Mobile, Verizon's Play More plan will cost you $80 each month. But it is also just about the most feature-packed option out there. It includes 5G and subscriptions to Hulu, ESPN Plus and Disney Plus, plus 15GB of LTE hotspot data. In addition to those perks, you also get trial subscriptions for Discovery Plus, Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass for streaming gaming, and Apple Music. Then there's the benefit of Verizon's impressive coverage and speeds as well helping to make this the best overall unlimited data plan. Pros: Excellent coverage, free streaming subscriptions, 5G access Cons: Not the cheapest The best value unlimited data plan Visible | Unlimited data | $40/month - The best unlimited data prepaid on a budget Visible | Unlimited data | $40/month - The best unlimited data prepaid on a budget While Mint Mobile offers the cheapest price for unlimited data , Visible's unlimited option is also a great value. You get unlimited 5G data that makes use of Verizon's coverage and speeds, unlimited hotspot data and no caps on LTE speeds. (5G speeds are currently capped at 200 Mbps.) The other major benefit of Visible's unlimited plan is the 'Party Pay' setup. This allows you to cut down the cost if friends or families join a plan with you. All of the contracts will be separate and you each pay your own bill. This can get your bills down to just $25 per month. Pros: Very affordable, 5G unlimited data, group paying scheme Cons: Not many added benefits The best value unlimited from a main carrier T-Mobile Magenta | Unlimited data | $70/month - Best value unlimited plan from a main carrier T-Mobile Magenta | Unlimited data | $70/month - Best value unlimited plan from a main carrier T-Mobile's Magenta plan has a lot going for it. You get 100GB of priority data and 5GB of LTE hotspot data with unlimited hotspotting data at 3G speeds. While Magenta doesn't have quite as many features as the Verizon option above, it is cheaper and actually sees its best value when combined with other lines. At the moment, T-Mobile throws in the third line for free meaning you're only paying $35 per line for four lines. Plus, you get plenty of perks like a free year of Apple TV Plus with T-Mobile's unlimited data plan. Pros: Attractive perks, affordable price, benefits for additional lines Cons: HD video streaming costs extra The best unlimited plan for Comcast customers Xfinity Mobile | Unlimited plan | $45/month - Best unlimited plan for Comcast customers Xfinity Mobile | Unlimited plan | $45/month - Best unlimited plan for Comcast customers If you're already getting internet service from Comcast and there's a good chance you are, since it's the nation's largest ISP consider bundling in phone service through Xfinity Mobile. The price is certainly right, at $45 a month for unlimited data on a single line. And for months where you know you won't use that much data, you can switch to by the gig pricing. Pros: Low cost, uses Verizon's network Cons: Only available to Xfinity internet customers Feature-filled unlimited data AT&T | Unlimited Elite plan | $85/month - AT&T's feature-packed unlimited plan AT&T | Unlimited Elite plan | $85/month - AT&T's feature-packed unlimited plan This is definitely not a cell phone plan for those on a budget, with AT&T charging $85 per month for a single line of its Unlimited Elite plan. However, this plan includes free access to the HBO Max streaming service, and you can stream in both HD and 4K (at least in instances where the latter is supported). AT&T removed all data caps from this plan, so your speeds won't be slowed no matter how much data you use. The plan now features 40GB of hotspot data as well. If the $85 price tag is still too high, though, AT&T does offer two other unlimited plans at $75 and $65 (neither of which have HBO Max included). Pros: Unlimited 5G data, free HBO Max, 40GB of hotspot data Cons: Expensive Best unlimited data plan for travelers Google Fi | Unlimited plan | $70/month - Best unlimited plan for traveling Google Fi | Unlimited plan | $70/month - Best unlimited plan for traveling Google Fi's unlimited plan is not one of the most affordable plans, costing as much T-Mobile's Magenta. But if you travel a lot it will be the perfect option for you. Google doesn't charge you extra for texting or using data in more than 200 countries. There are other benefits to Google Fi's plan too, but they're limited to Google phones like the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 5a as well as select devices from Samsung and Motorola. Use one of these phones, and you'll be able to switch seamlessly between cellular networks and Google's Wi-Fi hotspots. However, any handset can use Google Fi and any 5G-enabled phone can connect to the faster network where available. If $70 a month is too much, Google features a $60 plan, though you give up the international coverage and high-speed tethering. Pros: Great international coverage, supports lots of phones now Cons: Some features limited to select phones Best unlimited plan for switchers Metro by T-Mobile | Unlimited plan | $25/month - Best unlimited plan for switchers Metro by T-Mobile | Unlimited plan | $25/month - Best unlimited plan for switchers Metro by T-Mobile's unlimited plans typically start at $50 a month, but anyone mulling a switch from Cricket or Boost can save big on data right now. Metro is cutting the price on its unlimited plan to $25 a month; even better that lower price sticks around for 24 months. You can also pick up a free Galaxy A32 5G with trade-in as part of this in-store deal. Pros: Uses T-Mobile's network, low price for unlimited data Cons: Price changes after 24 months, limited-time offer How to pick the best unlimited data plan for you Besides making sure to choose a carrier that offers good service in your area check out our guide to the fastest wireless networks in addition to asking friends and family about coverage consider both price and perks. With the best unlimited data plans from major carriers ranging in price from $60 to $90 per month, pick the plan that fits in your budget or turn to a discount carrier like Mint or Visible. Also consider what benefits each wireless carrier includes with their different tiers of unlimited data. Wondering if you need unlimited data? Unless youre streaming video and music fairly regularly, you probably can get away with a tiered data plan, like the ones offered by AT&T and Verizon. Are there any limits to the best unlimited data plans? Yes and no. While you do technically get unlimited data on all of these plans, many of them will impose a restriction somewhere in the plan to limit you slightly. AT&T reserves the right to start throttling data at 50GB for Unlimited Extra; Unlimited Starter customers can be throttled at any time. Unlimited Elite customers no longer have to worry about caps, though, as AT&T has removed that limitation from its most expensive plan. Verizon is able to slow data after 50GB are used by Do More, Play More and Get More customers. T-Mobile also lets you use 100GB of data before throttling can begin, though if you opt for the more expensive Magenta Max plan, there's no cap on data usage at all. There could also be limits on the quality of video you can stream some plans restrict video streaming to 480p, requiring you to pay more for HD video streaming. Many plans also impose limits on hotspot data, only allotting a limited amount of high-speed hotspot data. This isn't really as big of an issue as it sounds. For the average person, hotspotting is simply an added benefit and you won't really lose out too much by being limited on it. Google is forcing people to use 2FA what that means for you Some Google users are being told they have to start using two-factor authentication by Nov. 9, and millions of others will follow by the end of the year. Here's what that means for you. Update: We've added Intel's statements in regards to the increased capital expenditures dedicated to 14nm manufacturing. Intel's CFO and interim CEO Bob Swan penned an open letter to its customers and partners today outlining the steps it is taking to address a persistent and worsening shortage of 14nm processors. The shortage has exploded into the public eye as several of Intel's partners have publicly outlined the impacts on their own businesses. Some processors are becoming scarce, while prices are simultaneously rising, particularly in regions outside of the U.S., like EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and APAC (Asia-Pacific). The shortage impacts nearly every aspect of Intel's business, from desktops to laptops, servers and even chipsets, so Intel is making the sound business decision to prioritize high-margin products. The firm has also expanded its testing capacity by diverting some work to a facility in Vietnam. Intel has already communicated many of the statements found in the letter either via its earnings calls or in responses to queries from Tom's Hardware. There have also been several reports over the preceding week that Intel's rival, AMD, could gain market share due to the 14nm shortage. Swan's update today is likely an attempt to soothe both customers' and investors' fears. Intel's statement also assures us that processors built on its 10nm fabrication will arrive in volume in 2019. Intel had previously stated that 10nm processors would be available in 2019, but hadn't made the distinction that they would arrive in volume. That's a positive sign, as the oft-delayed 10nm production is surely a contributing factor to the shortage. Intel also cites the booming desktop PC market, which has outstripped the company's original estimates earlier this year, as a catalyst. In either case, Intel concedes that "supply is undoubtedly tight, particularly in the entry-level of the PC market" but doesn't provide a firm timeline for when the processors will become fully available. Intel's letter also touts its $1 billion investment in 14nm fabs this year, but half of that capital expenditure was scheduled prior to its first public acknowledgement of the shortage. Given Intel's foresight into the production challenges, the prior $500 million investment was likely in response to the increases in demand and looming production shortfall. Intel provided us with further detail: Capex outlook: Our initial 2018 Gross Capex outlook was $14B (source: Jan earnings presentation). In April, 2018 Gross Capex outlook increased to $14.5B (source: April earnings presentation), in July 2018 Gross Capex outlook increased to $15B (source: July earnings presentation). So, $1B total capex increase between Jan July (going towards increasing our 14 nm capacity as Bobs letter explains). Intel's statement comes on the heels of speculation from several industry behemoths that the shortage could last well into next year. You can read the full release below: An Open Letter from Bob Swan, Intel CFO and Interim CEOTo our customers and partners,The first half of this year showed remarkable growth for our industry. I want to take a moment to recap where weve been, offer our sincere thanks and acknowledge the work underway to support you with performance-leading Intel products to help you innovate.First, the situation The continued explosion of data and the need to process, store, analyze and share it is driving industry innovation and incredible demand for compute performance in the cloud, the network and the enterprise. In fact, our data-centric businesses grew 25 percent through June, and cloud revenue grew a whopping 43 percent in the first six months. The performance of our PC-centric business has been even more surprising. Together as an industry, our products are convincing buyers its time to upgrade to a new PC. For example, second-quarter PC shipments grew globally for the first time in six years, according to Gartner. We now expect modest growth in the PC total addressable market (TAM) this year for the first time since 2011, driven by strong demand for gaming as well as commercial systems a segment where you and your customers trust and count on Intel.We are thrilled that in an increasingly competitive market, you keep choosing Intel. Thank you.Now for the challenge The surprising return to PC TAM growth has put pressure on our factory network. Were prioritizing the production of Intel Xeon and Intel Core processors so that collectively we can serve the high-performance segments of the market. That said, supply is undoubtedly tight, particularly at the entry-level of the PC market. We continue to believe we will have at least the supply to meet the full-year revenue outlook we announced in July, which was $4.5 billion higher than our January expectations.To address this challenge, were taking the following actions:We are investing a record $15 billion in capital expenditures in 2018, up approximately $1 billion from the beginning of the year. Were putting that $1 billion into our 14nm manufacturing sites in Oregon, Arizona, Ireland and Israel. This capital along with other efficiencies is increasing our supply to respond to your increased demand.Were making progress with 10nm. Yields are improving and we continue to expect volume production in 2019.We are taking a customer-first approach. Were working with your teams to align demand with available supply. You can expect us to stay close, listen, partner and keep you informed.The actions we are taking have put us on a path of continuous improvement. At the end of the day, we want to help you make great products and deliver strong business results. Many of you have been longtime Intel customers and partners, and you have seen us at our best when we are solving problems.Sincerely,Bob SwanIntel Corporation CFO and Interim CEO There are many good reasons to sign up for a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service. VPNs give you a private connection that your Internet provider or hackers on the cafes network you just joined can't monitor you. They also let you connect to nodes in other countries so you can access streaming services that are only available locally. When choosing a VPN, you need to consider the price, quality of customer support and the relative speed of data transfer. These are our top recommendations. Best Overall Our favorite VPN service overall, Private Internet Access offers fantastic speeds at a great price. For just $39.95 per year, you get access to more than 3,000 servers located in 30 countries around the world. Perhaps because of its wide footprint, Private Internet Access had the fastest speeds when our colleagues at Tom's Guide conducted performance tests in New York City, Germany, The Netherlands and Azerbaijan. The service took an average of 3.3 seconds to establish its initial connection, which is nearly twice as fast as its nearest competitor. Best Privacy If you want to live, or at least surf, off the grid, you can't find a more private VPN service than Mullvad. The Swedish-based service doesn't even require you to enter an email address in order to sign up, and, if paying with a credit card, Paypal or Bitcoin aren't secret enough, you can send cash in an envelope, along with your account number. Mullvad TODAY'S BEST DEALS Mullvad VPN $6 /mth Visit Siteat Mullvad Reasons to buy + Super private, no email address needed + Easy setup + Can pay in cash Reasons to avoid - No mobile software - Relatively slow speeds Best Free VPN Service It's hard to argue with free. If you don't want to pay anything for a VPN, you get the first 10GB of data per month free from Windscribe. For unlimited, protected traffic you can pay a reasonable $49 per year or $69 for a lifetime subscription. Best VPN Features With connection points in 60 countries and more than 2,800 servers, CyberGhost has one of the most robust offerings of any VPN service. It also has unique and powerful features such as malicious site blocking and the ability to automatically open a connection when you launch certain programs (ex: Netflix). MORE: VPN Services in the Forums The fight over how or even whether to change the Jackson County Charter won't end after the November election. Instead, the debate will stretch into next year. County Executive Frank White confirms that he will appoint a charter change commission that will most likely start work in January. JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE NATION: THE LONG-AGO ALLEGED ANTICS OF YALE RAPE PARTIES PREOCCUPIES KANSAS CITY!!! IS "KANSAS CITY NICE" KEEPING LOCAL MSM FROM HAVING A REAL DEBATE ABOUT THE SORDID KAVANAUGH SEX ASSAULT CONTROVERSY?!?! Kansas City Activist Outrage Local advocate reacts to Dr. Ford's testimony KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- The testimony on Capitol Hill has fascinated the nation but it's also spurring discussion among local advocates. "The first thing that I see is an incredible amount of courage," said Victoria Pickering with MOCSA. Victoria Pickering is an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse and assault. Ivory Tower Talk Politics professor discusses takeaways after Ford, Kavanaugh testimonies Thursday's testimonies by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh turned into a political battle. Now, many are wondering what to take away from it all. Ford took the oath Thursday morning, and began the process she said she never wanted to go through. "I am here today not because I want to be. Local Lady Testimony LISTEN: While Christine Blasey Ford Spoke, Kansas Citians Shared #WhyIDidntReport After Christine Blasey Ford said Judge Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her in high school, President Trump tweeted that had it really happened, her parents would have reported it. This has sparked a social media movement of people sharing their stories with the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport. Show-Me Biggest Dispute McCaskill says Ford testified 'courageously,' Hawley says process a 'circus' JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill says Christine Blasey Ford testified "courageously" and says her allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are "concerning." Ford on Thursday testified and answered questions about her allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. He denies the allegation. Key Kansas Support Moran tweets that he'll vote for Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court KANSAS CITY, KS. (KCTV) -- U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) says he will vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Moran tweeted his decision late Thursday night. "His intellect and extensive experience in the legal field will serve the Supreme Court well," Moran said. Bi-State Reactions Missouri, Kansas senators weigh in after Kavanaugh hearing ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) - Senators from Missouri and Kansas weighed in after an intense day of testimony from Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of sexual assault. Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill said Ford testified "courageously" and that her allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are "concerning." Legal Eagle Word . . . American Bar Association: Delay Kavanaugh until FBI investigates assault allegations The American Bar Association is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to halt the consideration of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until an FBI investigation is completed into the sexual assault allegations that have roiled his nomination. Over the past week there have been three KCMO murders with the homicide rate approaching quickly the century mark in the last quarter of 2018.TKC broke the story thatThere's a move to overturn a longstanding policy and encourage felons to start pouring drinks for locals. It's making progress.Also, it turns outNevertheless, there's no denying the what really concerns locals:And so we do our best to make it local and offer this compilation of recent KCMO op/ed that mostly seems to skew against the GOP.Our blog community checks more new sources than any other outlet in KCMO and what we've seen is that MSM almost completely sides against the GOP in this instance and only strays when they report quotes from other Republicans.Here are the best links to the topic as the nation moves toward an anti-climax on this #MeToo debacle:You decide . . . KCPD holds outreach fair for homeless ahead of major camp cleanup KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Right now there's more of an effort to clean up homeless camps and trash in the city. Advocacy groups and homeless folks are aware of it, too. "There's a couple different changes going on in the community. Here's a bit of pr dutifully reported by local media as a precursor toconfronting the desperately impoverished, drug addicted and mentally unstable.Take a look at the nice side of the upcoming crackdown directed at the bottom 1%: Kansas City police still short of manpower goal set after 1968 race riots KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Fifty years ago, the Kansas City Police Department had a goal to reach 1,500 officers. That goal was never met, and today the department still remains far short of that number. The goal was set in 1968 after protesters and police clashed following the death of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Credit to KSHB for going with the sexist terminology rather than talking about personnel levels or staffing . . .This tragic fact was reported earlier this year and now newsies offer more deets and perspective.Checkit: Hawley to speak at university chapel, despite IRS guideline ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Missouri's Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley opposes a federal provision that bars religious organizations from political endorsements, and his upcoming appearance at a Baptist university may provide a test case for the future of the measure. This bold move might earn him some points among the faithful but cost him with moderates . . . Here's a faith community power play that kind of hints at a bit of desperation given that the lastRead more: Season Of Vigils Cont'd AdHoc: vigils helping communities break cycle of crime KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With balloons in their hands and tears in their eyes, grieving friends and family gathered to remember one of Kansas City's latest homicide victims. A father of two, Antonio Shanklin, was shot and killed early Monday morning near 38th and Wabash. Ex-Wives Helped Lock Up This Obamacare Crook Man sentenced for robbing bank inside Truman Medical Center KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - A man was sentenced in federal court on Thursday for robbing the U.S. Bank inside Truman Medical Center. Jimmy Lee Bozeman II, a 57-year-old from Drexel, was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in federal prison without parole. Crime Across The Bridge, Too Thieves repeatedly targeting Salvation Army in Northland KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Stealing is bad enough, but from a nonprofit whose sole purpose is to help those in need? Thieves have been targeting the Salvation Army's Northland location. "I have my personal camper parked in our church parking lot because I was about to put it into storage after a season. Meth Town Consequences Independence man sentenced for part in kidnapping conspiracy KANSAS CITY, Mo (KCTV) - An Independence man was sentenced in federal court on Thursday for his role in a kidnapping conspiracy. Justin D. Watson, 23, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison without parole. On Nov. Helping KCPD Doggies Click here to support Protect KCPD's Police Dogs organized by KCMO Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association The opioid epidemic is currently the largest public health crisis in the United States, and now there are new victims: police dogs. They are being exposed to dangerous opioids while conducting drug searches, some have even overdosed due to the exposure. This risk is even greater now that fentan... Allegedly, that'sand this is a collection of important Kansas City crime links . . .Developing . . . The passenger car collided head-on with an eastbound semitractor-trailer, which pinned the driver in the passenger car. The drivers wife and children, ages 2 and 6 months, were in the back seat, police said, adding the children were not injured. Toyota is lending a helping hand to a team of paleontologists from the Childrens Museum of Indianapolis who are surveying an undisclosed site in northern Wyoming. The team of scientists, led by world-renowned paleontologists Dr. Phil Manning and Dr. Victoria Egerton, are in the area looking for fossilized dinosaur bones. Toyota is supporting the expedition by lending a pair of Tundra pickups and a Land Cruiser to help carry the scientists, their gear, and whatever fossils they dig up. The Full Story Its not often that you hear about the world of paleontology on this site. Todays an exception, though, because Toyota has found itself in the middle of a pretty exciting expedition. The Japanese automaker is supporting a team of scientists and paleontologists led by the Childrens Museum of Indianapolis Scientists-in-Residence, Dr. Phil Manning and Dr. Victoria Egerton. Together, the team went to an undisclosed location in northern Wyoming where evidence of dinosaur bones and fossils were found. Considering the terrain they had to go through to get to their location and the fragility of the discoveries they unearthed, the team needed vehicles that could navigate miles upon miles of some of the most unforgiving terrain in the U.S. More importantly, the team needed rides that could safely haul their scientific gear, camping equipment, and their discoveries. Thats where Toyota came into the picture. The car brand lent a pair of Tundra pickups and a Land Cruiser to the expedition, and the scientists, at least according to Dr. Manning, couldnt have picked better rides for their scientific trip. Its an off-road adventure through a rough and tumble world that existed millions of years ago, at a time when there was a saltwater sea covering the area were presently exploring, Dr. Manning said. What the sea left behind was rugged terrain and steep slopes that are extremely hard and sometimes dangerous to traverse. It wasnt just about the rugged, anything-goes terrain, it was also about carrying the fragile cargo they were discovering safely back to the museum. Some of the bones we are discovering weigh hundreds of pounds and are brittle and very fragile. So, its imperative we excavate and transport them safely in vehicles that can smoothly handle the rough landscape. So far, the expedition has yielded benefits for all parties concerned. The scientists have already uncovered bones of a number of ancient animals, some dating back millions of years. Theyre also on the trail for multiple dinosaur bones, which the plan to bring back as new exhibits in a section of the museum called the Dinosphere, one of the most immersive dinosaur exhibits in the U.S. As for Toyota, the companys involvement in the excavation extends past lending the two Tundras and the Land Cruiser to the team of scientists. The museum itself purchased a 2018 Highlander Hybrid for its personal use. Further Reading Read our full review on the 2019 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Read our full review on the 2018 Toyota Land Cruiser. Read our full review on the 2018 Toyota Highlander. Conservation photography may be a discipline you've never heard of. While the foundations have been around since the beginning of photography itself -- using images to make people aware of, and respond to, environmental issues -- the genre has only been given a name in the last few years. And yet, it is one area in which some of the best photographers in the world are spending their energies, using the power of photos to conserve natural spaces. Meet seven of the best in the business, and see their stunning shots. 1. Paul Nicklen Paul Nicklen is an inspiration to anyone with an interest in Arctic wildlife -- and anyone who grew up close to nature and wants to save what is left of it. Nicklen grew up on Baffin Island in Canada's Arctic in an Inuit community. Immersed in the habitat from an early age, Nicklen went on to complete a degree in marine biology and began a career as a wildlife biologist. However, it was his skill with a camera that finally took over and changed the direction of his professional life. With a focus on connecting the public to climate change and the impact on Arctic and Antarctic wildlife, Nicklen has been published ten times in National Geographic. His willingness to get up close and personal to wildlife, from swimming with leopard seals to doing a solo expedition in the Arctic among wolves and bears, is at the heart of his photography's success. . 2. Neil Ever Osborne Neil Ever Osborne is one of conservation photography's most vocal advocates. With a degree in biology from Trent University, Osborne blends his scientific background with his artistic skills as a photographer to bring attention to issues around marine animals, particularly with sea turtles and manatees. He is an Associate Member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). Recently, Osborne participated in an iLCP-backed trip to the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, working to photograph the beauty and diversity of one of the last in-tact temperate rainforests left in the world which is under threat from an oil pipeline project. The passion Osborne has for the potential of conservation photography to change the way humans interact with the world is apparent the moment he begins talking about the subject, and even more so when one views his portfolio. A rising star in conservation photography, there's little doubt that Osborne will be a major contributor for years to come. 3. Cristina Goettsch Mittermeier If there is one person to thank for giving Conservation Photography a name and status within photography as an art and tool, it is Cristina Mittermeier. She is the founder of the International League of Conservation Photographers and has been president since 2005, stepping down recently to focus on her photography projects. Mittermeier was a biochemical engineer, focusing specifically on marine sciences, but moved into photography as a way to have a more immediate impact on conservation. The skill with which she wields a camera and her dedication to conservation photography is apparent to many -- in 2010, she was named one of the 40 most influential Nature Photographers by Outdoor Photographer Magazine and was named Conservation Photographer of the Year by Nature's Best Photography. One of the projects she is most dedicated to is documenting the ecosystems and communities that will be impacted by the construction of the Belo Monte dam in Brazil. The dam will disrupt the lives of 40,000 people as it floods over 500 kilometers of land. Despite protests by environmentalists and indigenous people, Brazil has decided to move forward with the dam, which some say undermines Brazil's efforts to be a leader in environmentalism. Mittermeier has written a heart-wrenching farewell to the wild river, as part of her 20-year project with the Kayapo Indigenous nation in the Brazilian Amazon. The photo above captures four of the girls from the community, and more of Mittermeier's amazing images and the story can be found here. 4. Chris Linder "Satellite images show a network of freshwater lakes forming--and rapidly disappearing--high on the Greenland ice sheet during the brief summer season. One afternoon, we came across this spectacular moulin (hole in the ice), where there had been a lake the day before. " Chris Linder Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution When it comes to his photography, Chris Linder has three goals (besides getting phenomenal shots) -- "to educate the public about science; to inspire the next generation of researchers, and to communicate the need to protect wild spaces." When it comes to being conservation photography, having these goals at the top of your priority list is a must if you want your work to have an impact. Linder has a background in oceanography and focuses on the Arctic Ocean -- and if you follow environmental news at all, you'll know that if there's a single place on earth that tells us the impact our actions have on the planet, it's the ocean and the waters and ice at the poles in particular. Linder has documented everything from Antarctic lava to penguins on Ross Island to reindeer herders in Siberia. But the Arctic isn't the only area Linder has photographed -- he has traveled all over the world and captured wildlife and habitats of all sorts. Linder has a book called Science on Ice that documents four polar expeditions, covering how scientists do their work at the poles, from studying Adelie penguins to life under the pack ice in the Arctic. 5. Alison Jones Every conservation photographer has a niche, and for Alison Jones, it's water. Jones has spent 25 years photographing natural spaces and has even received an Honorary Masters Degree in Photography from the prestigious Brooks Institute. Jones founded non-profit No Water No Life in 2007 as part of a long-term documentary project. It came after years spent photographing ecosystems, protected areas, and wildlife throughout Kenya. The project uses photography and science to boost awareness about the global freshwater crisis. While many westerners think the water crisis is something happening only in overpopulated, mismanaged arid areas like Africa and India, there is in fact a freshwater crisis across the globe as too many people waste too much water and abuse watershed areas. Nothing tells this story more effectively than images, and Jones is a top-notch contributor of powerful photographs. Jones lectures about photography as a tool for conservation and her work both as an educator and photographer are significant parts of the struggle for managing our freshwater supplies, ensuring fresh water for all, and using images to hammer home the importance. You can also check out a video on the effect of deforestation on water availability in the Mara River Basin that spans Kenya and Tanzania. The 10-minute video filmed during a 2009 expedition is truly enlightening. 6. Amy Gulick In the Tongass National Forest of Alaska, more than fifty species have been documented feeding on salmon, including bald eagles, bears, wolves, mink, marten, sea lions, orcas, harbor seals, ravens, gulls, and people. The abundance of salmon helps explain why the Tongass region supports the world's highest nesting density of bald eagles, and why there are eighty bears for every one bear found inland far from salmon streams. Amy Gulick is a big inspiration to conservation photographers, especially those focused on North American habitats and wildlife. Gulick covers a range of important issues, including endangered species, the illegal wildlife trade, whaling, plastic pollution in the oceans, how the aquarium trade impacts the health of coral reefs, and more. But the heart of her work at the moment is in the Tongass National Forest, located in Alaska. Focusing on the importance of old-growth forests, and the cycles of life that revolve around the salmon runs, Gulick has won awards and recognition for her efforts in showing the world this unique and beautiful area. Her book Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska's Tongass Rain Forest details the rich wildlife and scenery of a place worth protecting. 7. Brian Skerry Brian Skerry is arguably one of the most admired underwater photographers at work today. He has an incredible talent for capturing both the fact and the emotion and beauty of a scene. When it comes to ocean conservation, this talent is exactly what is needed to connect the masses to what is too often (and wrongly) considered both an endless basket of seafood and an inhospitable desert for living things. The oceans are over-fished, over-polluted, over-estimated, and over-burdened. Everything we know about it is telling us that it has reached a breaking point. Skerry's images reveal this breaking point, both by showing what we're about to lose and how we are going about losing it. Skerry is a Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers, and a photojournalist with National Geographic, covering stories from the struggle of harp seals to the decline in the world's fisheries. Skerry works tirelessly to tell -- in a beautiful, compelling, and emotionally connective way -- the story of our ocean, and his images are able to connect viewers with their sense of responsibility to protect and conserve what we have left and restore what we have lost. Skerry's book Ocean Soul will be released this fall, with 160 photos paired up with essays about trying to take portraits of the ocean. A lemon shark pup only a few months old (about 12 inches in length), swims in the shallow water (about 12 inches deep) of a mangrove on the Bahamian island of Bimini. Mangroves serve as natural nurseries for sharks and many other species of marine wildlife, offering protection until they are large enough to live in the open ocean. After this photograph was made, much of the mangrove habitat in Bimini was destroyed by developers building a resort and golf course. editorial@tribune.com Sanjay Bumbroo Tribune News Service Panchkula, September 28 A 32-year-old auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) delivered a stillborn baby and lost her life due to the alleged negligence of doctors at the Civil Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula. Alleging negligence on the part of the hospital, family members and residents of Rajiv Colony held a protest in the hospital, demanding action against the doctors concerned. They demanded that the postmortem should be conducted by a team of four doctors, including a private practitioner. The police had a tough time controlling the protesters and assuring them that action would be taken as per law. Rakesh Savarkar, a resident of Rajiv Colony and husband of the deceased, Sheela, said his wife was working as an ANM in Panchkula. He said after the start of labour pain, he got his wife admitted to the Civil Hospital around 9 am yesterday. He said all reports, including those of blood pressure and haemoglobin, were fine. He said his wife experienced severe pain this morning at 4 am. The doctor on duty checked her and referred her to the PGI, Chandigarh. He said when they arranged an ambulance, another doctor came to them stating that there was no need to take Sheela to the PGI and she would be operated upon in the hospital. However, when her condition deteriorated further, she was referred to the PGI again. Savarkar said they reached the PGI around 6 am where his wife delivered a stillborn baby. He said doctors gave them a list of medicines to be bought for conducting the operation. When they returned to the ward, the doctors told them that Sheela had died due to excessive bleeding. He said the doctors at the PGI told him that had they brought the patient earlier, she could have been saved. He alleged that Sheela and her baby died due to the negligence of doctors, who wasted time in referring his wife. Sumanlata, another ANM and colleague of Sheela, said she was hard working and sincere. She said despite being in an advanced stage of pregnancy, Sheela was performing her duty sincerely. The Principal Medical Officer, Dr Mankirat Murara, said during preliminary investigation, it had come to light that all reports of Sheela were fine till late last night. She said the problem started with the rupture of the placenta of the patient, which caused excessive bleeding. She said they had already ordered an interim inquiry by a three-member team. The Duneland Chamber of Commerce will host a speed networking event from 4-6 p.m. Thursday at AJs Pizza, 3050 Matson St., Chesterton. Chamber members and their guests will have the opportunity to introduce themselves and their businesses to other event attendees in timed, one-on-one conversations. In each pairing, members will discover ways in which they can grow their own (and others) organizations through previously untapped avenues. There is no cost to attend the event. More information is at 219-926-5513 or at info@dunelandchamber.org. gspannu7@gmail.com New Delhi, September 28 The Delhi High Court on Friday denied anticipatory bail to the in-laws of a flight attendant, who had allegedly committed suicide in the national capital in July. Justice Mukta Gupta dismissed the anticipatory bail pleas of the womans parents-in-law, noting that from the documents on record, including the supplementary statement of the victims father, WhatsApp messages and email, the continuous course of harassment and torture to her was evident. The courts order came on the pleas by Sushma Singhvi and RS Singhvi, parents of Mayank Singhvi, who was in judicial custody in the death case of his wife Anissia Batra (39). The high court said the victims email to her lawyer narrated the participation and support extended by her in-laws to their son in the harassment. Further as noted from the supplementary statement of the father of the deceased there was clear demand of Rs 10 lakh. Hence this court does not find it to be fit case to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioners (in-laws), the judge said. A trial court had on July 20 refused to grant protection from arrest to Mayanks parents after the lawyer for the womans parents submitted that the allegations against them were serious. Anissia, who was working with a German airline, had allegedly jumped from the terrace of her house in Panchsheel Park in south Delhi on July 13 and Mayank had taken her to a nearby hospital, where she was declared brought dead by doctors. Her family has alleged that her husband used to physically abuse her and often demand money. The family has claimed before the trial court that it was not a suicide, but murder. On the other hand, Mayanks parents sought anticipatory bail claiming they had no role in the matter and any dispute between their son and daughter-in-law was their internal matter. Mayank, who was married to Anissia for over two years, was arrested on July 16. Before jumping off the terrace, she had sent a message to her husband that she would kill herself, police had said earlier. The husband, a software engineer in Gurgaon, had told the police that they had regular fights due to compatibility issues. They had an argument on the day of the incident as well, following which she jumped from the terrace, police had said. The victims family had also given a complaint to police on June 27 saying that if anything happens to their daughter, Mayank would be responsible, police had said. PTI editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, September 28 Celebrating Surgical Strike Day, Panjab University (PU) did not process permission for lecture by Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President N Sai Balaji, slated for Saturday, over not providing a detailed programme. Now, Balaji will speak on Fascist attack on institutions: JNU model of resistance at the Kisan Bhawan, Sector 35. The All-India Students Association (AISA) had been seeking permission for his lecture. They sought evening auditorium free of cost, which is allowed if application is forwarded through PUCSC president, Kanupriya. She forwarded the application. The application was later sent to the chairperson of the evening studies, who wrote that the auditorium was available on September 29. The letter was then sent to the VC office. The VC was not available so it was sent to the Dean of University Instructions, Prof Shankarji Jha. He asked for minutes of the programme, but we have been mentioning that only a lecture will be delivered by JNUSU chief, said Vijay Kumar, AISA leader. Earlier also the ABVP had objected when I had called former president of JNUSU Geeta Kumari. Today, the letter kept on circulating from the VC office to the DUI office, said Kumar. Finally, the AISA booked the Kisan Bhawan for the lecture. When contacted Harman Deep, SFS leader, said: The permission was being delayed as JNU was mentioned on the letter. However, DUI Prof Shankarji Jha said: We did not refuse permission. We had only called for clarification of the programme. Renuka Salwan, Director Public Relations, said: It is wrong to say that we are not allowing lecture by JNUSU president. There is a procedure when auditorium is allowed free of cost. We need details of the programme which has not been provided. Surgical Strike Day editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, September 28 Almost a week after Chandigarh Tribune highlighted the plight of the Sector 17 Plaza, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation and the UT Administration have started the work to replace old tiles. An officer of the UT Administration said the broken flooring would be replaced and tenders for the new projects would be floated soon. The Municipal Corporation will also start the work to construct the connecting passages of various corridors in Sector 17 that were dismantled two years ago. The broken fountain opposite the library building will also be replaced. The Administration will also float tenders for giving a new look to the old and dilapidated buildings and construction of a metallic map of the city in front of Neelam Cinema at the Plaza. Other works to be done Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd) Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd) Chancellor, Central University Kashmir Both of us (writers of this article) were targets of messages laced with scorn on Twitter recently when we steadfastly opposed the circulation of an image of a civilian clicking a picture with the corpse of a terrorist in the backdrop, and also of what seemed like the dragging of bodies of the same terrorist just after an operation. To put the record straight, the first picture was utterly detestable and the second was perhaps articulated out of context after the culmination of a military operation, subsequent to which the body of the terrorist had been tied by a rope and flipped to ensure the disposal of explosive which could put troops to risk. On opposition to the circulation of the pictures, we were, inter alia, informed by self-declared experts that the dragging of the body was a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in counterinsurgency operations and also that terrorists deserved no mercy. Of course, the commentators forgot in the bargain, that firstly, the picture was not that of the actual SOP being carried out, since the same is carried out by a rope at least 30 ft long, and secondly, a body ceases to be that of an enemy or a terrorist and is never mistreated, unless we are competing in barbarism with our neighbour. Needless to state, in this case too, the body may not have been mistreated, but the presence of civilians with cameras in such a zone is worrisome. Why should such pictures not be circulated? If we dig deep into the issue, such actions can have deleterious repercussions. To begin with, they are bound to be used by inimical elements to spread misinformation about our forces, thereby depicting them in less than favourable light. Let us not forget that these are times of psychological operations, where messing with the minds of people and injecting hatred is a more potent tool than the gun. We just cannot afford to be an enabling device for the enemy in this dastardly environment. Such pictures, especially the one with a civilian with a corpse, can also lead to a vicious tit-for-tat cycle of violence with brutal photographs and videos being circulated, which has been seen elsewhere in the world, and is best avoided. On the dignity of bodies of terrorists, many have responded with the oft-repeated refrain that terrorists have no human rights. This is a dangerous proposition. Human rights is not a dirty word. It regulates our existence and acts as a shield towards the misuse of power by any person in authority. What we have always clamoured for, however, is a balance and equal respect for the rights of the men and women in uniform. Had there been an absence of rule of law, the logic professed for terrorists could well be extended to any criminal or perceived criminal, thereby justifying mob mentality. In fact, the Indian Army was one of the first armies to have incorporated rights training and monitoring and it would also be in the fitness of things if the military, institutionally rising above any popular sentiment, corrects the perception on social media when it threatens our basic ethos. The Army has always guarded against desecration of bodies. An apt example is of Kargil, wherein, in the middle of the battle, the bodies of the enemy were not only handed over to Pakistan, but also saluted by our troops. True, those were bodies of enemy combatants and a direct parallel with terrorists may not be apposite, however, let us not forget that this happened despite the most unsoldierly conduct on the body of the late Captain Saurabh Kalia. Some provided examples to us how other nations dealt with such situations. But it may come as a surprise to many that most democracies are very sensitive to this subject. Osama bin Ladens body was buried at sea by the Americans and mistreatment of bodies is akin to a war crime for them. Contrary to popular perception, Israel absolutely forbids disrespect to bodies and professes very strict rules of engagement, including prohibition of the use of human shields and maltreatment of bodies, which were banned by its apex court and dutifully followed by the Israel defence forces. In Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa, maltreatment of bodies is a war crime. Many other African states, which have faced gruesome ethnic violence, now provide for the protection of bodies. The battle zone is not mathematical. There would be a variety of situations that would require split-second decisions. Therefore, imposing a zero-error environment might result in inhibiting the initiative of troops. However, there are aspects where there is no compromise. The true mettle of a soldier only comes to the fore under stressful situations, where he or she must not stray from military values. While the Indian Army would be ruthless in its operations thwarting terrorism, it would also be the most correct in following the rule of law, the laid-down procedures, including respect to the dead. The scrupulous adherence to these ingrained principles is why the Indian Army has retained its reputation. Unnecessary chest-thumping on social media by seemingly bloodthirsty warriors, who have not gone beyond video games in real life, militates against the ethos of our military, and would continue to be treated with the contempt it deserves. Despite extreme provocations, we cannot be like the other side and that is the reason why our Army retains its moral edge, and continues to prevail. Co-authored by Major Navdeep Singh (Retd.) Founding President, Armed Forces Tribunal Bar Association editorial@tribune.com Sumedha Sharma Tribune News Service Gurugram, September 27 Army man Pankaj and his friend Manish main suspects in the Rewari gangrape case went home to sleep after allegedly gangraping a 19-year-old girl in Rewaris Naya Gaon village on September 12. Pankaj attended the last rites of a soldier in a nearby village. Two days after the incident, when the matter started getting blown up, they fled on a motorcycle to Rajasthan. The duo has reportedly told this to the Rewari police, claiming that they managed to evade the cops for 12 days by disguising themselves as beggars in fairs of Rajasthan. Its a season of religious fairs in Rajasthan. We came to know from TV that we were being trailed. As we were running out of money, we decided to beg. It not only helped us to conceal our identity, but also facilitated us in making arrangements for food and shelter. We dug our mobile phones in the ground to ensure we could not be tracked, the duo reportedly told the police. They made a short trip back to Rewari from Satnali in Rajasthan in train. And after analysing the situation, they return without anybody getting a whiff of it. Pankaj and his friend Manish were produced in court on Thursday and sentenced to judicial custody till October 5. Meanwhile, tension gripped the gangrape victims village in Rewari district as she returned from hospital on Thursday. Fearing a clash, the police fortified the entire village. amansharma@tribunemail.com Parveen Arora Tribune News Service Karnal, September 28 Angry devotees held a protest at Dachar village in the district on Friday after Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's visit to a gurdwara was cancelled, reportedly over a picture of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale put up there. The protesters also allegedly raised slogans of 'Khalistan Zindabad' and smashed glasses of a fire brigade vehicle. As per the schedule, the CM today was on a visit to 13 sites associated with the Mahabharata age in Karnal district under 48 kos circle of holy city Kurukshetra. In Dachar village, the CM had to pay obeisance in 'Daksheshvar Tirth' and in a gurdwara. As per sources, after visiting 'Tirth' the CM's visit to gurdwara was cancelled reportedly as a picture Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was displayed in the gurdwara. Sources added that the security personnel requested the gurdwara committee to remove the picture, but they refused to do so. The gurdwara committee alleged that the programme was cancelled at the last moment, while the CM claimed he had cancelled his visit to gurdwara earlier. "I have cancelled my visit to gurdwara much before," Khattar said. Gurmeet Singh, chief sewadar of the gurdwara, confirmed the cancellation of the programme at the last moment and claimed it to be an insult. He said the hanging of Bhindranwale picture inside the gurdwara was a reason behind the cancellation of the programme, but added that they cannot remove the pictures of 'saints'. He said after the cancellation of the programme, the devotees, who were preparing for the CM's visit for the last 15 days, got infuriated and held a protest. Sources in the village said the devotees even criticised Assandh MLA Bakhshish Singh Virk for failing to convince the CM to go ahead with his programme. SP Surinder Singh Bhoria said one vehicle of fire brigade was damaged, while tyres of two vehicles deflated by some people after the CM cavalcade left the village. "We have identified the person who damaged the vehicle and action would be taken accordingly," he added. The SP refused to comment on the reason behind the cancellation of programme, but said all this happened after the CM left the village. Meanwhle, residents of Dachar village and Sikh community members from surrounding villages have announced to hold a meeting on Saturday at Dera Kar Sewa to decide future course of action. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Shimla, September 28 All chemist shops and stores remained closed here on Friday as part of a nationwide strike called by the All-India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists, causing inconvenience to patients and the general public. However, government-run medicine shops remained opened in the city and at government hospitals across the state. The state government termed the strike as pressure tactics and said the online system of drug sale would facilitate easy availability of medicines. However, president of the Himachal Pradesh Society for Chemists and Drugs Alliance Sanjeev Pandit said they were against the move as medicines sold online could pose a hazard to public health. It would also hit the poor who had no access to the online system. The move would only benefit firms, he alleged. He said the state government had invited objections to the proposed online sale of drugs in the state on August 28. We had also lodged a protest against it, he added. A section of chemists said several drugs fell under Schedule-H category and these could not be sold without a doctors prescription. However, the online sale of drugs contradicted the governments directive that no chemists could sell these drugs without prescription. They questioned the government move saying there was no legal permission for the online sale of drugs. The common man and poor will suffer as many of them do not have access to online purchase of drugs, they claimed. They added that certain online sellers of drugs were offering up to 60 per cent discount, whereas under the rules no retailers could offer more than five to 10 per cent discount on drugs. Solan: Chemist shops in Solan district remained closed on Friday in protest against the online sale of medicines. People, who visited hospitals from various rural areas, were the worst sufferers as they failed to get the prescribed medicines and had to return back empty handed. Mandi: All chemist shops remained shut here as well. A huge rush was seen at government-run medical stores to purchase medicines. Yogesh Verma, president of the Chemists' Association, said the e-pharmacy business would pose a threat to human life, besides leading to drug abuse. rchopra@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Shimla, September 28 Six bikers along with 20 tourists who were stranded in Himachal Pradesh were rescued by a Mi-17 V5 helicopter of the IAF. The stranded bikers and tourists were picked up from locations near Chhattru and Chhota Dara on the way from Rohtang Pass to Chandrataal near Bara Shigri glacier, who had got stuck there due to heavy snow in the region. The rescued bikers included three women hailing from Delhi, Thiruvananthpuram and Rajkot. More people are reported to be holed up at a snowbound location near Chhattru. They will be rescued in subsequent sorties by IAF helicopters later in the day. The BRO has opened the Manali-Sarchu road till Km 182. It means Patsio and Zing Zing Bar are connected. The BRO is providing transport to evacuate around 95 people from Patsio to Keylong. The work to clear Rohtang Pass and Baralachala Pass from either side are in full swing. Work is also in progress to connect Gramphoo to Chattru. On Thursday, 424 people were evacuated from Lahaul-Spiti and taken to Kullu, while 350 were evacuated via the Rohtang tunnel and 74 people airlifted. As many as 74 people, including three German nationals, were airlifted from the Baralacha Pass, Sarchu, Satingri, Chhota Dara and Kunzum Pass. Seven were rescued from the Rohtang Pass by BRO personnel. They were admitted to the Manali hospital. Ten women and three children, spotted in a remote shelter near Chhota Dara, were airlifted. A few men were provided food packets, relief material and medicines. The rescued women and children were brought to Kullu. shalender@tribune.com Tribune News Service Srinagar/Anantnag, September 27 Six persons two civilians, a soldier and three militants were killed in election-bound Kashmir on Thursday even as a gunfight inside a mosque in central Kashmirs Budgam triggered protests and clashes in several parts of the Valley. Two local militants, one of them a former Special Police Officer (SPO), were killed in a seven-hour-long encounter at Panzan Chadoora, 25 km from Srinagar. They reportedly opened fire at the security personnel laying a cordon around the village in the wee hours and later took refuge in a local mosque. The local Auqaf Committee was engaged to convince the terrorists to lay down arms, but they refused, said an officer. Subsequently, the Armys special forces launched an operation to force them out of the two-storeyed mosque. After room-to-room clearing operations, the troops were able to zero in on the militants inside a minaret. In the ensuing gunfight, the two militants were killed and two soldiers injured, the officer said. The slain militants, who owed allegiance to the Hizbul Mujahideen, were identified as Sheeraz Bhat of Chadoora and Irfan Dar of Kakapora, Pulwama. The latter had deserted the police some months ago. Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said the troops showed maximum restraint and risked their life to ensure no damage was caused to the structure. Nonetheless, violent protests erupted immediately after the gunfight with the locals claiming the mosque had been damaged. In another encounter, soldier Happy Singh (25) of 19 Rashtriya Rifles, a resident of Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda district, and Lashkar militant Asif Malik were killed in south Kashmirs Anantnag district. Malik belonged to Verinag in Anantnag. The gunfight broke out in Qazigund Dooru at about 6 am during a search operation. Malik, with a BTech degree, was involved in several attacks on security personnel. In the third incident, a civilian, identified as Mohammad Saleem Malik (21), was killed in Srinagars Noorbagh locality during a search operation. But the youths family and local residents claimed he was feeding his sheep when he was shot. Another man was killed in alleged Army firing in Kupwara district. Sources said the troops, while laying an ambush in Rangward area of Kralpora, saw a man and asked him to halt. But he ran away and was shot. monicakchauhan@gmail.com New Delhi, September 28 Home Minister Rajnath Singh Friday said local body polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be of historic significance in many ways and help re-establish the long overdue grassroots democracy. In a statement, the home minister said the central government will provide all support, including central forces, for smooth conduct of panchayat and urban local body polls. These local body elections will have a historic significance in many aspects. The local bodies' elections in Jammu and Kashmir will re-establish the long overdue grassroots level democracy in the state," he said. Elections to local bodies in Jammu and Kashmir are due next month. PTI Whom do we believe? Obviously, innocent people get accused. False accusations have led to horrific consequences, as they did, for example, in the cases of countless lynchings in past generations after the mere suggestion that a black male had behaved dishonorably toward a white female. We all have inclinations, perhaps biases, toward believing some folks more than others. Given my background, I tend to trust law school professors and psychology scholars because I have never known one who would fabricate a bogus sexual assault allegation just to derail someones career. I tend to believe judges, too, although the older I get, the more I recognize how much harmful conduct privileged people like me, a white male, have gotten away with in the course of western history. ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Dinesh Manhotra Tribune News Service JAMMU, September 28 Panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir have been granted more powers in a clear rebuff to the parties that have announced a boycott of the much-awaited electoral process at the grassroot level. In a series of tweets on Friday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced the transfer of 29 subjects under the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution of India to panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir, making them equal in powers with these institutions in the rest of the country. This was a long pending demand of the panchayats in the state, but the political groups were shy of extending it under the pressure of MLAs, who did not want to share their powers with the panchayats. On September 16, the state Election Commission had announced nine-phase panchayat elections beginning November 17. Elections will end on December 11. There are 4,490 sarpanch and 35,096 panch constituencies. "These elections will also pave the way for making available nearly Rs 4,335 crore of 14th Finance Commission Central grants to the duly constituted local bodies. But for these elections, people of J&K would have been deprived of these funds meant for their welfare, Rajnath Singh tweeted. Urban Local Body elections are being held after 2005 and panchayat elections after 2011. The provision of direct elections for sarpanches has also been restored to ensure accountability, he said. On an average, every panchayat will now get around Rs 50-80 lakh per year at its disposal for implementation of schemes. Panchayats will also be involved in the implementations of key national schemes such as National Health Mission. Central and state government funds will further supplement own funds of the panchayats under various schemes such as MNREGA, PMAY, ICDS, mid-day meal. Powers for own fund generation have also been granted to panchayats, while their financial powers have been enhanced 10 times from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh. editorial@tribune.com Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Srinagar, September 28 A special police officer (SPO), who was guarding a sitting lawmaker, decamped with at least eight weapons from Srinagars posh Jawhar Nagar locality on Friday evening, officials said. The SPO identified as Adil Bashir was deployed in the security deployment of Peoples Democratic Party Wachi MLA Aijaz Mir at government quarters at Jawahar Nagar here. Mir is in Jammu. A senior police officer said the SPO hailing from Zainpora, Shopian, stole seven AK rifles and a pistol of his colleagues from the government quarters. The incident came to the fore this evening when a police guard found the weapons missing. The officer said the SPO was engaged in March last year. A police spokesman confirmed the SPO ran away with weapons. Adil Bashir ran away with weapons from the residence of the Wachi MLA from Jawhar Nagar, the spokesman said. He, however, did not disclose the number of weapons that were stolen. A high alert was sounded in Srinagar city and a massive hunt has been launched to nab the deserter. Only this week the honorarium for SPOs the low-paid part-time employees of the police who have more than 15 years of experience was enhanced from Rs 6,000 to Rs 15,000 per month. The incident took place a day after an SPO-turned-militant was killed in a gunfight in Budgam district along with another militant. The police have announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh for providing clues leading to the arrest of the SPO with weapons. 2 Hizb OGWs arrested in Pulwama Two overground workers (OGWs) of the Hizbul Mujahideen were arrested from Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district on Friday, a police spokesman said. The arrested persons were identified as Danish Ahmad Lone and Raja Ilyas Makroo, he said. Acting on a credible input, the police arrested two OGWs of the proscribed terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, the spokesman said. PTI Rs 2-lakh reward announced gspannu7@gmail.com Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Srinagar, September 28 A special police officer (SPO), who was guarding a sitting lawmaker, decamped with at least eight weapons from Srinagars posh Jawhar Nagar locality on Friday evening, officials said. The SPO identified as Adil Bashir was deployed in the security deployment of Peoples Democratic Party Wachi MLA Aijaz Mir at government quarters at Jawahar Nagar here. Mir is in Jammu. A senior police officer said the SPO hailing from Zainpora, Shopian, stole seven AK rifles and a pistol of his colleagues from the government quarters. The incident came to the fore this evening when a police guard found the weapons missing. The officer said the SPO was engaged in March last year. A police spokesman confirmed the SPO ran away with weapons. Police announced an award of Rs 2 lakh for capturing him with weapons. Adil Bashir ran away with weapons from the residence of the Wachi MLA from Jawhar Nagar, the spokesman said. He, however, did not disclose the number of weapons that were stolen. A high alert was sounded in Srinagar city and a massive hunt has been launched to nab the deserter. Only this week the honorarium for SPOs the low-paid part-time employees of the police who have more than 15 years of experience was enhanced from Rs 6,000 to Rs 15,000 per month. The incident took place a day after an SPO-turned-militant was killed in a gunfight in Budgam district along with another militant. rajivbhatia82@gmail.com Johnson Thomas A routine regurgitated vigilante justice thriller the only distinction being that it has a woman, Riley North (Jennifer Garner) leading the vengeance spree after the murder of her husband Chris (Jeff Hephner) and 10-year-old daughter Carly (Cailey Fleming) in a drive-by shooting by drug overlords led by Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba). As is wont for such blinkered exigencies, the murderers are let off and Riley goes underground in Asia to transform herself into an urban guerrilla. She just as easily manages to hoodwink the police and the FBI no less and only comes into their focus when she earns her stripes. Pierre Morel uses the Taken framework to generate his seen-before thrills. The vigilante justice genre which went out of mainstream focus after Charles Bronsons Death Wish series got a shot in the arm when Pierre Morels Taken franchise scored big bucks at the box-office. Peppermint is nothing but a gender equality exercise, lending Garner an apt platform to showcase her agile androgynous advantage over vicious, burly male counterpoints. Garners physicality is not in question here the implausible, convenient contrivances and tokenisms irk in a serving that never rises beyond the commonplace. The analogy linking her to an angel of mercy just does not ring true and the blood fest design for the climactic moments leave you pretty much dumbfounded. Even though you are rooting for her ascendency over her tormentors you just cant overlook the ease with which she gets through all of them right to the end. Despite the workmanlike production and technique, this film never manages to enthuse or invigorate. This film appears to have been made to suit the new-age media platform (OTT) audience. I dont think the multiplex audience will take kindly to having to shell out big bucks for this unremarkable extravagance! ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, September 28 In a jolt to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), one of its founding leaders Tariq Anwar on Friday quit the party and the Lok Sabha and partys general secretary Munaf Hakim from Maharashtra announced his resignation from the primary membership of the party. The resignations came following party chief Sharad Pawars TV interview purportedly praising PM Narendra Modi. Amid talks that several non-Maratha leaders in the NCP could be on the way out, Pawar and his associates are on a damage-control mode to keep the party together. Hakim said it was difficult to defend the party image after Pawars support for Modi on the Rafale issue. On Wednesday, Pawar told a channel that people did not have doubts over Modis intentions in the deal. He further hit out at the Opposition for demanding technical details of the aircraft. Pawars remarks which came just weeks after his call for a united Opposition to take on the BJP in 2019 left the Congress stunned. Amid indications that Congress leaders are in touch with their counterparts in the NCP who have major issues with Pawars nephew Ajit, the NCP has now gone on a damage-control drive. Pawars daughter Supriya Sule has taken to social media. Pawar has clearly raised three questions: 1) What is the justification for a 300 per cent price increase from Rs 526 crore to Rs 1,670 crore which potentially could be a significant loss to the exchequer? 2) If such doubts have been raised and the government is so confident, then why are they shying from setting up a JPC? 3) When BJP raised both price and specification issues during the Bofors allegations, then why are they hiding behind artificial justification of secrecy of agreements vis-a-vis both commercial price and offset agreements? Sule asked on Twitter. rchopra@tribunemail.com United Nations, September 28 The members of the BRICS grouping should speak with a stronger voice and not be divided among themselves on the critical issue of achieving the long-pending UN Security Council reform, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said. Addressing the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting here on Thursday, held on the margins of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, Swaraj said the five-member grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was started a decade ago to change the status quo in international organisations and correct distortions in multilateralism. A decade later, the call for multilateralism could not and should not be for reinforcing this status quo but rather to change it, she said. At a broader level, we need to develop greater understanding and convergence on issues of mutual concern in the coming years, if BRICS has to emerge stronger, Swaraj said. Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modis call for reformed multilateralism, Swaraj said the most significant unfinished agenda was the reform of the UN Security Council. The discussions on the UNSC reform cannot be an exercise in perpetuity, while the legitimacy and credibility of the Security Council continues to get eroded. We in BRICS should speak with a stronger voice rather than be divided amongst ourselves on this critical area of international governance, she said. With BRICS leaders giving a robust mandate on counter-terrorism, Swaraj said there was a call for a BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy for joint action with a focus on money-laundering, terrorist-finance, cyberspace and de-radicalisation. PTI uttara@tribuneindia.com Smita Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 28 Frosty relations between India and Pakistan spilled over into the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on Friday as the two countries met ahead of the 73rd session of United Nations General Assembly. Sources said that the tensions between the two countries was palpable at the SAARC meeting that foreign ministers of member countries attended on the sidelines of the UNGA. Sources said that Indias External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistans Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi didnt even exchange cordial looks, let alone greet each other, at the meeting. Swaraj is believed to have walked out with Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Rabbani soon after their address, leaving Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale to attend the rest of the meeting. The New York SAARC meeting was initially scheduled for two hours on Thursday night, but began late. In her address, Swaraj highlighted Indias role in initiatives taken by the group, including the South Asian University, SAARC satellite and the Disaster Management Centre in Gandhinagar. With specifying whom she was talking about, she said it was necessary to destroy terrorist havensremarks that were apparently meant for Pakistan. The number of threats and incidents that endanger South Asia are on the rise. Terrorism remains the single largest threat to peace and stability in our region, and indeed in the world, said Swaraj. It is necessary that we eliminate the scourge of terrorism in all its forms, without any discrimination, and end the ecosystem of its support, she said. In turn, Qureshi directed his scathing remarks at India, saying that one country was holding the 1.7 billion people of South Asia hostage through its whimsical allegations. He was referring to Indias decision to boycott the SAARC summit. The attempt to scuttle the SAARC process, is actually the major impediment in ensuring the prosperity, eliminating poverty and instituting development for the peoples of the region, Qureshi said, insisting that there was no alternate to dialogue. Ties between the two countries, which have always been uneasy at best, have become frostier in the recent past, taking another plunge earlier this month after the Indian government cancelled the scheduled talks. In blistering statements, India blamed its decision on Pakistans intractability when it comes to dealing with terrorism. India cited two recent instances as triggerone was the brutal murders of some Indian security forces personnel that it blames on Pakistani elements and that other was Pakistans issue of postage stamps to commemorate Burhan Wani, a Kashmiri militant killed by Indian security forces in 2016. Pakistan, whose new government under Prime Minister Imran Khan had suggested the meeting first, has called Indias decision arrogant. India boycotted the SAARC summit in 2016 after some gunmen attacked a military installation in Jammu and Kashmirs Uria decision that led to stalling of the process that has yet to resume despite calls by SAARC chair Nepal and countries like Sri Lanka. Pakistan, which was to host the summit in Islamabad that year, has been criticising India for its decision. Souring ties between the two countries are expected to show themselves on Saturday when Swaraj will address the UNGA session, where shes likely to focus on cross-border terrorism and Pakistans truce violations at the border. In turn, Pakistan is expected to flag the Kashmir issue and focus on a recent UN body report on Indias alleged rights violations in the disputed land. amansharma@tribunemail.com Ravi S.Singh Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 28 Governors of Haryana and Uttarakhand Satyadev Narayan Arya and Baby Rani Maurya on Friday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his vision for inclusive growth of all sections of society. They urged members Scheduled Castes community not to fall prey to canards by vested interests that the BJP-led NDA was against the reservations. Maurya asserted that the BJP has harmony and equality among all section of the society as its core ethos. She also heaped praise on Deen Dayal Upadhya, RSS thinker and co-founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh (which was a forerunner to Bharatiya Janata Party). They were speaking at function organised by 'Guru Ravidas Vishva Mahapeeth', a social organisation, to felicitate Aryan and Maurya on becoming Governors, and to thank the Union government for choosing them from Scheduled Castes section for the assignments. "The Prime Minister is sincerely advancing the vision of medieval era saint and mystic poet Sant Guru Ravidas, and BR Ambedkar -- both had low caste origin but showed path of humanity to the world," Arya said. Union Social Justice Minister Vijay Sampla urged people to be cautious about the canards spread by Opposition parties that this government was against reservations. "The Supreme Court had diluted the law preventing atrocities against the SCs against which the government had planned to go in appeal after the subsequent holidays. But the Opposition provoked bloody agitation by misleading the public," Sampla said. "After the court's verdict we strengthened the law through legislation," Sampla added while questioning the Congress on its contributions towards welfare of dalits. International president of the Mahapeeth and BJP's national vice president Dushyant Kumar Gautam said the fact that the incumbent President of the country, Governors of two states, two Vice-Chancellors (in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh), about 40 elected MPs of BJP are from SCs was a testimony to the commitment of the present government and BJP to their cause. Himachal Pradesh University vice-chancellor Sikander Kumar rubbished allegations against the RSS and BJP. "As a class III student, I was beaten up by a member of an upper caste community and a leader of a political party for drinking water from a 'baoli' (water body) just because I was from lower caste. But RSS member interceded in my favour." "It was about more than 40 years ago. From that day, I swore never to associate with that party, and became a follower of the RSS," Kumar added. rchopra@tribunemail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 28 The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere in the arrests of five activists in the Koregaon-Bhima case, saying its not a case of arrest for dissent. There were two verdicts--one by CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar and the second by Justice DY Chandrachud. The majority verdict written by Justice AM Khanwilkar said the accused couldnt choose which agency would investigate them. Its not a case of arrest for dissent, the majority said. Its not the stage to deal with evidence against the accused, the CJI and Justice Khanwilkar said. The majority refused to deal with facts of the case and also took into account the fact that the accused had approached various courts. They said the house arrest would continue for four weeks and the accused could seek appropriate remedies at proper judicial forums. The investigating agency is free to proceed against the accused, the majority verdict by CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar said. The majority verdict was authored by Justice Khanwilkar for himself and the CJI. Justice DY Chandrachud delivered a dissenting verdict. Justice Chandrachud drew a distinction between criminal law and Constitutional law. He took exception to Pune police officers press conference. He said releasing documents to the media was not appropriate. Justice Chandrachud expressed serious concern over the police conducting a trial by media. He expressed doubt over the ability of Maharashtra Police to conduct a fair investigation and questioned the authenticity of the letter released by the police to allege that there was a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister. He said liberty couldnt be sacrificed at the altar of conjectures. Justice DY Chandrachud mentioned the case of former ISRO scientist S Nambi Narayanan to emphasise that the police could go wrong. Justice Chandrachud in his minority verdict ordered setting up of a SIT. The Supreme Court delivered its verdict on a petition filed by five eminent intellectuals, including historian Romila Thapar, challenging the arrest of the five activists for their alleged Maoist links. The three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had reserved its verdict on the petition on September 20. In a pan-India crackdown on August 28, poet Varavara Rao was arrested in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha in Delhi for suspected Maoist links. The raids were part of a probe into a conclaveElgar Parishadheld in Koregaon-Bhima near Pune on December 31, 2017 which had allegedly triggered violence the next day. Maharashtra Police alleged that the arrested activists were planning to carry out violence in the country and ambush security forces and the raids were part of a probe into a conclaveElgar Parishadheld in Bhima-Koregaon, near Pune, on December 31, 2017, which had allegedly triggered violence the next day. The activists have been under house arrest for the last one month as ordered by the top court. uttara@tribuneindia.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 28 Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui on Friday credited the informal Wuhan summit held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in April this year as having opened up a new chapter in bilateral ties between the two countries. Zhaohui, who was speaking at an event held to mark Chinas 69th National Day at the countrys embassy, said 40th year of Chinas reforms saw the countrys relationship with India make significant progress. Now both sides have been working hard to translate Wuhan consensus into action and reality. Let the Phoenix and the Peacock fly together, dance together, and make the world better, the envoy. The phoenix, a mythological bird, is an important part of the Chinese culture, and is often paired with the Chinese dragon. Peacock is India's national bird. Luo mentioned his recent visit to Dr. Kotnis Memorial Acupuncture Hospital in Ludhianas Salem Tabri. I was deeply impressed that in such a remote area, a hospital is named after Dr. Kotnis, a great Indian hero who sacrificed his life in China during the Second World War. This hospital has also been promoting acupuncture, a traditional Chinese medical treatment method in India for decades, he said. Stutler pleaded guilty to the Class A misdemeanor and his license was again suspended for 30 days and he received a probationary license for six months, with restricted driving privileges that allowed him to drive for work, according to court documents. He was sentenced to a year in jail with all but 45 days suspended, and with that time to be served as community service through Porter County PACT. He also received one year of unsupervised probation and was fined $500, which was suspended, records show. ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 28 In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday lifted the age-old restriction on entry of women aged between 10 and 50 years into the famous Sabarimala Temple of Lord Ayyappa in Kerala, holding that it violated womens right to equality. Edit: She can, declares SC A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra declared the restriction on women unconstitutional, saying the gender discriminatory practice was not an essential religious practice and violated rights of Hindu women. In all, there were four verdicts. The first one was by CJI Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar, while the second and third ones by Justice Rohinton F Nariman and Justice DY Chandrachud concurred with the CJIs verdict. The last one was the dissenting verdict by Justice Indu Malhotra the lone woman on the Constitution Bench. The majority declared that the Sabarimala Temple and the devotees of Lord Ayyappa were not a religious denomination and hence not entitled to protection under Article 26 of the Constitution, which gives a fundamental right to a religious denomination to manage and follow its religious rites, rituals and practices. The majority also said the practice in question was a patriarchal religious practice. In her well-argued strong dissenting verdict, Justice Malhotra disagreed with most of the findings of the majority and declared that the temple and Lord Ayyappas devotees constituted a religious denomination and were entitled to protection under Article 26. She said it was not for courts to determine which religious practices were to be struck down, except when there was an issue of social evil like Sati. Sabarimala Ayyappa temple is one of the holiest Hindu shrines situated on a hilltop in Kerala where women between 10 and 50 years do not go. The tradition is rooted in the belief that the deity is an eternal celibate (Naisthika Brahmachari). The petitioners had challenged Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Rules, 1965, which restricted the entry of women. The SC said the repression of women under the garb of physiological factors cannot be legitimised and patriarchy in religion cannot trump over devotion. Writing the verdict for himself and Justice Khanwilkar, the CJI said on the ground of public order, morality and health, women cannot be barred from practising and professing the faith. Justice Chandrachud went to the extent of ruling that the exclusion of women amounted to untouchability. ITs unconstitutional rchopra@tribunemail.com Nainital, September 28 The Uttarakhand High Court has asked the Centre to strictly implement the ban on pornographic websites, taking cognisance of reports that a girl was gang-raped in a Dehradun school by her fellow students after they watched porn clips. Issuing a slew of directives to implement the ban on Thursday, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Manoj Tiwari said, Unlimited access to these pornographic sites is required to be blocked/curbed to avoid an adverse influence on the impressionable minds of children. According to news reports, the four students had told the police during investigation that they had watched porn on the Internet before allegedly raping the girl, who is a student of Class 10. The court directed Internet service providers to strictly obey a notification issued by the Centre three years ago for a ban on porn sites. It also asked them to block publication or transmission of obscene material in any electronic form, transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act or conduct and also publishing or transmitting material depicting children in sexually explicit act or conduct forthwith. Internet service licence holders violating this direction will lose their licence as per Section 25 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the high court said. The Ministry of Communication and IT, Department of Telecommunications, has issued a notification on July 31, 2015, which was circulated to all Internet Service Licence Holders, as per the list contained therein. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology has requested the Department of Telecommunications to notify intermediary for disablement of the URLs under the provision of the Information Technology Act, 2000, as the contents posted on these websites infringe morality, decency, the high court said in its order. Keeping in mind the gravity of the offence and to curb such incidents, the court directed all Internet Service Licence Holders to strictly obey the notification. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, September 28 Women activists on Friday hailed the Supreme Court judgement allowing women into the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala, but expressed concern over its acceptance at the ground level by people. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in its 4:1 verdict, said banning the entry of women into the shrine is gender discrimination and the practice violated rights of Hindu women. Chhavi Methi, a women rights activist, welcomed the judgment, but said its acceptance remained to be seen. I am doubtful the temple authorities would take it in the right spirit. Women would accept it but its implementation might pose a problem, she said. Another women rights activist Vani Subramaniam said the decision is an extension of various pro-equality judgments taken by the Supreme Court, but she also expressed concern over the communitys reaction to it. Question remains to be seen how it is accepted in the community and by the people at the ground level, she said. Mariam Dhawale, general secretary of the the All India Democratic Womens Association, called it another step that would help in bringing equality. We welcome the judgment. Women have a constitutional right to be able to visit the temple and whoever wishes must be allowed to visit it, she said. PTI editorial@tribune.com Jupinderjit Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, September 27 A Punjabi-origin entrepreneur and educationist has won a major legal case in Australia that allows him to run his institution, Unique International College, besides making him eligible to receive a payment of 26 million Australian dollars (Rs 136.32 crore) which was withheld pending the court case. He is also eligible to get legal costs of another AUD 4 million (Rs 20.97 crore) from the commonwealth of Australia. The entrepreneur, Amarjit Khela, had won the case last week after a long battle in which he braved racism, defamation and several accusations, including that of unfair practices to attract students to his college. Khela has remained in news because of his phenomenal rise to become an educationist and an entrepreneur. He had gone to Australia as a student when he was 19. He belongs to Sajawalpur village in Nawanshahr district. Ninder Ghugianvi, media and cultural coordinator, Punjab Kala Bhawan here, in a statement, hailed the court order as the victory of Punjabiyat. Khela fought for the rights of Punjabis to grow in the foreign land. His book titled I dont lie described his struggle in Australia, he said. He worked in restaurants and did menial jobs and later became the first Punjabi to own a college in Sydney. His college ran into controversy when the Australian Consumer Commission and a watchdog agency accused him of malpractices, including giving free laptops and other gifts to students. My victory is the victory of truth and against racism and certain individuals who were against the rise of Punjabis or Indians in Australia, he told The Tribune over the phone. As per the copy of the court orders, the Full Federal Court found that Unique International College did not engage in a system of unconscionable conduct in enrolling vulnerable students in diploma courses. Khela had lost the case in a lower court last year. The case had hogged limelight as the Australian consumer watchdog claimed to recover $140 million paid to the college under the Commonwealth funding scheme. editorial@tribune.com Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, September 28 The mid-semester examinations are set to start in colleges affiliated to Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, on Saturday. But rather than concentrating on their studies, about 25 Dalit girl students from HMV College here have spent the past three days sitting on a dharna outside the college. Having taken admission under the SC Post-matric Scholarship scheme, the students have been saying they cannot afford to pay nearly Rs4,000 annual fee. With the college authorities refusing to budge, most of the students paid the fee on Friday. College principal Ajay Sareen said, About Rs6.5-crore is due to the state government. Not a rupee has been paid to the college since the 2014-15 session. We have been told that the fee will be reimbursed partly. In such a scenario, the college authorities are helpless. We asked students to pay the fee since it was the last day of depositing the fee without penalty. There has been a similar situation at Doaba College here. And the state government and the Centre continue to pass the buck over implementation of the scheme. Minister for Welfare of SCs and BCs Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, who was in Khatkar Kalan village on Friday, said: The government will pay up Rs395.29 crore (Rs327.29 crore from the Centre and Rs68 crore from Punjab) by September 30. This will clear the entire claim for 2015-16. The college authorities, however, are not convinced. Only Rs40 crore was disbursed in the last one week. How can the remaining amount be distributed on the weekend? said Tarvinder S Raju of DIPS Institutions. Dharamsot claimed that by December, the government would clear all payments for 2016-17. But Union Minister Vijay Sampla, when contacted, said: The Centre, too, wants to clear all dues by March 2019, but the state government has to first give us an audit report, return us Rs400-crore excess payment taken by institutions and then seek the next grant. Dharamsot said the audit had been completed. Some colleges have already returned us the money. All this will take two months more. Minister Blames centre for fall in numbers "The count (of SC students) may have fallen. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to blamed for this because he announced that fee reimbursement would be credited to students account. Still, the state government told colleges that they should not insist on taking fee from students." Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Minister for welfare of SCs and BCs.. monicakchauhan@gmail.com PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 28 Following a probe conducted by IG (Crime and Women) Vibhu Raj, the local police on Friday booked AIG Randhir Singh Uppal on charges of rape, sexual harassment and other relevant sections of the Indian penal code. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Lakhbir Singh confirmed the development. A case has been registered at Cantonment police station in this connection and further investigations are underway, he told. It is learnt that during a high-level meeting of senior police officials from all over Punjab in Chandigarh on Thursday, the DGP had asked the police commissioner to register a case in this regard. A student of a local law college had alleged that the AIG (Crime), Randhir Singh Uppal, posted in Chandigarh, had been harassing her and making sexual advances for the past four months. She alleged that her repeated pleas had fallen on deaf ears as he was not ready to relent. She also accused him of criminal intimidation. The AIG had refuted the allegations while pointing out that the girls mother was known to him and her family urged him to keep a watch on her as she had fallen in a bad company. He said he used to call her up and ask her to mend her ways. The victim, on the other hand, had handed over to the media as well as the police his recorded phone calls with her. The case was registered after police commissioner SS Srivastava urged to shift the probe to a senior woman police officer as the victim hailed from Hoshiarpur and the accused was posted in Chandigarh. The probe was later marked to IG (Crime) Vibhu Raj. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 28 Following a probe conducted by IG (Crime and Women) Vibhu Raj, the local police today booked AIG RS Uppal on the charges of rape, sexual harassment and criminal intimidation. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Lakhbir Singh said, The case has been registered at Cantonment police station. Further investigation is underway. The AIG has been booked under Sections 376 (rape), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 498 (enticing or taking away or detaining with criminal intent a married woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. It is learnt that during a meeting of senior police officers in Chandigarh yesterday, the DGP asked the Police Commissioner to register a case. A student at the local Law College had alleged that Uppal, posted in Chandigarh, had been harassing her and making sexual advances for the past four months. She had claimed that the police officer was known to her mother. She alleged that she was molested in July in Chandigarh and Amritsar after he told her to meet him. The Hoshiarpur-based woman had also circulated a message on social media, saying that Uppal would be responsible if anything untoward happened to her or her family. Yesterday, she and Lok Insaaf Party MLA Simarjit Singh Bains had held a press conference in Jalandhar. Bains had declared that he would stage a dharna outside the CMs residence if the police failed to take action against an AIG. The AIG could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. editorial@tribune.com Parvesh Sharma Tribune News Service Sangrur, September 28 The state government on Friday opposed a request by Delhi AAP MLA Naresh Yadav to make the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission report part of the trial in the Malerkotla Quran desecration case. Yadav, who is an accused in the case, said the Commission stated in its report that the main accused in the Quran case had received Rs 90 lakh from unidentified sources. The court has fixed October 4 as the next date of hearing. The police have completed their investigation and submitted the chargesheet. The case has reached the stage of framing of charges. The accused has neither any right to produce any document in court nor he can get any document produced from the government. The accused also does not have any right to seek further investigation, says the reply by the state government submitted in a local court. Yadavs counsel Narpal Singh Dhaliwal, who appeared with him in the court, said the states reply had exposed the double standards of the government. The government produced the Commissions report in the Assembly and discussed it in detail. How can it deny the permission to produce the same report, which is a public document, in court? The accused has the right to get produced all public documents in court for his defence and can seek further investigation before any decision is taken, Dhaliwal said. On September 13, Yadav had moved an application in the local court and sought an inquiry by an SP-level officer into the transfer of Rs 90 lakh in the bank account of main accused Vijay Kumar, as mentioned in the report, and his links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Yadav also sought permission to make the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission (retd) report part of the court proceedings. During the intervening night of June 24 and 25, 2016, Malerkotla residents had found torn pages of Quran. A case was registered at the Malerkotla police station. Later, the police had booked Vijay Kumar, Gurav Kumar and Nand Kishore. The name of Yadav was added later. "The refusal of the government to produce the report in court has raised questions over its authenticity. Since it is first case of sacrilege which is under trial, the decision of the case will have an impact on all such cases in future. By denying the permission for further probe, the government has proved that it wants to protect the accused involved in sacrilege incidents." Harpal Singh Cheema, Leader of opposition amansharma@tribunemail.com Chandigarh, September 28 The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday issued notice to Punjab DGP, SSP Amritsar (Rural) and other officers on a petition, seeking an SIT probe into an incident in which a woman was allegedly paraded by police atop a jeep. The single-judge bench of Justice Daya Chaudhary has fixed November 2 as the next date of hearing in the case. "The court issued notice of motion to Director General of Police, SSP Amritsar (Rural), DSP rank officer who was leading the team, SHO of Kathunangal police station," said Harchand Singh Batth, the counsel for petitioner Balwant Singh. Jaswinder Kaur (35) had claimed Wednesday that the police forced her to sit atop a jeep and paraded her through her village in Amritsar district when they failed to arrest her father-in-law Balwant Singh. A village CCTV footage purportedly showed the woman lying on top of the vehicle and then falling off when it took a sharp turn. Kaur had alleged that a team of the police's Bureau of Investigation (BOI) raided her house in Shehzada village in Majitha constituency-around 20 km from Amritsar-to arrest her father-in-law in connection with some case. The police had, however, denied the woman's charge, saying she had attacked a police team. Batth said the petitioner has demanded setting up of a special investigation team, headed by an IPS officer, to probe the entire incident. Balwant Singh sought protection for the family, the counsel said. The petitioner also requested the court that an attempt to murder case be filed against the police team which raided his house, he said. Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh had rejected the charges and said the matter would be investigated to find out the truth. AIG (Crime) Tejinder Singh Maur had said the woman was never wanted by the police. "The police team raided the house to arrest Balwant, but he was not found at home. The situation took an ugly turn when some family members of the accused attacked the police team and smashed the windshield of the vehicle," he had said. PTI editorial@tribune.com Bindu Gopal Rao Till a few years, Amit Misras favourite shopping activity on his trips abroad was buying cheese. With scores of choices and racks full of so many variants, it was impossible not to get lured by these, says Misra, who is a writer. Since we would hardly get good cheese in India, I got my fill from the supermarkets abroad, he says. Times are changing now. People like Amit no longer have to depend on cheese from foreign shores. A spurt of artisanal cheese is making its way into the shelves of supermarkets and boutique stores in India. Choices galore The concept of artisan or artisanal cheese is simple. It is typically made in small quantities by small-scale manufacturers who prefer to keep control of the product themselves. A number of people who make artisan cheese work from home farms as well. While India was never known to be a cheese-loving country, considering the dairy love for butter and ghee, cheese is slowly but surely making inroads into the Indian food industry. From just being a part of sandwiches or accompaniments with cocktails, cheese has now become an integral part of pizzas, pastas, quesadillas and the like. The most common forms of cheese available in India are cheddar, processed cheese and mozzarella but this is changing now with artisanal cheese making its way into the market. Take for instance the case of Acres Wild in Coonoor. Started by filmmaker Mansoor Khan and his wife Tina, they make very small quantities of cheese about 4 to 5 kg per day at this farmstay because they only make it from 10 cows. We make six types of hard cheese: gouda, cheddar, colby, Monterey Jack, parmesan and gruyere. For cheeses like gouda and Monterey Jack, we add flavours also like pepper, mustered, chilly, zeera, etc. Besides this, we make softer lactic cheese flavoured with herbs and garlic, chilli and garlic, pepper and caraway seeds. We also make feta and halloumi. Occasionally, Tina makes camembert because this cheese is very delicate and difficult to make, says Mansoor. Likewise Bala, who lives in Kodaikanal and runs Cinnabar, a farm and homestay, makes both soft and hard cheese. Soft cheese can be used for savory dips as well as creamy cheesecake. Hard cheese based on Italian style is great as a table cheese. The soft, creamy bleu finds itself on the plate of the discerning connoisseur. It was the visible gap in the market that Prateeksh Mehra, cofounder and fromager, The Spotted Cow Fromagerie, Mumbai, noticed. He thus ensured that what was a small exhibition of his cheese some day becomes big business. We are artisanal cheese makers and source our milk locally. We started by making two popular French cheese brie and camembay and simultaneously started making Italian cheese rombay, explains Mehra. The challenges The demand for artisan cheese is increasing. The key challenge as far as making good cheese in India is concerned is the quality of milk and also the right temperature. When we talk about artisan cheese, we usually mean European cheese, which requires several months of ageing and a cool climate. Therefore, it is a challenge to make this kind of cheese in India, which is a warm country. It can be kept in a fridge but it would be difficult to scale it up without making a cellar below the ground to maintain a temperature below 18C. The other challenge is to get reliable good milk which has not been tampered with on a daily basis as fresher the milk, better the cheese, adds Khan. Deepak Jain, CEO, DLecta Foods, which makes feta cheese, adds, A major challenge encompasses communicating to the masses the quality and authenticity of feta. Most cheese available under the brand name of feta is actually white combi a feta type made from skimmed milk and vegetable fat against the original Greek method of producing good quality feta. Another challenge we face is low awareness of the usage of feta, which also impacts the awareness associated with storage, and that proves to be a deterrent for people wanting to try it. Cheese is a fermented product and its taste will vary on the quality of milk and the weather. However, it is exactly this imperfection that makes it the perfect companion on your dining table. Baked bombrie, cherries & walnut Many judges are hostile to pro ses, seeing them as a kind of trash not even worth the courts time, Posner said. We are just touching the surface, for there are reliably believed to be at least a million pro ses in the United States. Many of those pro ses, however, dont realize they can obtain legal assistance. gspannu7@gmail.com Beijing, September 28 China on Friday celebrated the 2,569th birthday of Confucius, the ancient educator and philosopher regarded as an icon of traditional Chinese culture. For thousands of years, Confucius teachings and philosophy have greatly impacted people around the world and are still present in todays society. After decades of neglect, the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), which initially condemned him as feudal, began projecting him as an icon of ancient Chinese culture. Annual commemorations of Confucius birth started in 478 BC, the year after his death. There are currently about 1,300 Confucius temples worldwide, many of which hold ceremonies on the anniversary of his birth. A ceremony was held in eastern Chinas Shandong Province on Friday to mark the 2,569th birthday of Confucius. The ceremony, held in the city of Qufu, Confucius hometown, welcomed government officials, UNESCO officials, scholars, students and descendants of Confucius. More than 1,400 students and residents recited classic quotes from Lunyu, or the Analects, a collection of ideas and sayings from the Chinese philosopher, while ceremonial dances were performed at the Confucius Temple. Confucius (551-479 BC) founded Confucianism, a school of thought that deeply influenced later generations. He was also the first Chinese person to set up private schools and enrol students from all walks of life. He is believed to have been born on September 28. PTI gspannu7@gmail.com Beijing, September 28 China, which tightly controls the Internet, will hold the fifth World Internet Conference (WIC) in November which is expected to be attended by delegates from several countries and international organisations. The conference, scheduled to run from November 7-9, will be held in the river town of Wuzhen, eastern Chinas Zhejiang Province, Deputy Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, Liu Liehong said on Friday. This years WIC is themed creating a digital world for mutual trust and collective governancetoward a community with a shared future in cyberspace, he told the media here. China tightly controls the internet with firewalls banning any content it deems politically and administratively challenging to the one-party state ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC). Global internet and social media outfits like Twitter, Facebook and Google are all banned in China. The conference has invited guests from governments, international organisations, companies, technology communities and non-governmental organisations, Liu said. It will further enhance the establishment of an Internet development outlook characterised by mutual trust and collective governance among countries worldwide, Liu said. The conference will advocate exchanges, mutual learning, cooperation and sharing in the digital fields and push for peace and development of the global cyberspace, he added. A total of 19 sub-forums are scheduled, revolving around five themes of innovation-driven development, universal security, openness and inclusiveness, in pursuit of a better life and common prosperity. The sub-forums will cover topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and the digital Silk Road, according to Liu. Guests will contribute their views on how to create a peaceful, secure, open and cooperative cyberspace, as well as how to set up a multilateral, democratic and transparent global Internet governance system, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. World Internet Development Report 2018 and China Internet Development Report 2018 will be released to showcase the latest academic research results in the Internet sector at home and abroad. The event is co-hosted by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Peoples Government of Zhejiang Province. PTI shalender@tribune.com Washington, September 28 A Republican-led committee approved President Donald Trumps nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court on Friday but moderate Republican Senator Jeff Flake called for an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the judge before a final Senate vote. Flakes dramatic intervention means a final Senate vote on the nomination could be delayed for up to a week so that the possible FBI investigation can be completed, if Republican Senate leaders agree to his demand. Democrats have called for an FBI probe, but Republicans had opposed the move. The committee, with tempers flaring on both sides, met the day after a jarring and emotional hearing into sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh that gripped the country, with a university professor named Christine Blasey Ford accusing him of sexual misconduct. Kavanaugh denied the accusation. This countrys being ripped apart here, Flake, with a pained look on his face, told his fellow senators. ... I think we can have a short pause, Flake added. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office had no immediate comment. The committee moved to advance the nomination 11-10 on party lines, with Trumps fellow Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no. All Ive said to Senator Flake is I would advocate for the position he took but I don't control that, said Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the committee. The full Senate must confirm SC appointments. It remained unclear if Republicans have the votes to confirm Kavanaugh on the Senate floor. Republicans hold a slim Senate 51-49 majority, making the votes of two other so-far undecided Republican moderates crucial: Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. Reuters In 2016 Akilah Kafi Sharpe enrolled in the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (Hotel School) to follow her dream of pursuing an Associate degree in Culinary Management. Unfortunately, while, in her last semester, she was unable to complete her degree due to the restriction of GATE funding. The Ministry of Health is negotiating with the manufacturers/suppliers of the new Covid-19 potentially life-saving Covid treatment antiviral drugs with a view to procuring them in the fight against the pandemic, if and when they are approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO). This was disclosed by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday who indicated Government was in talks with both manufacturersMerck and Pfizer International (who make molnupiravir and paxlovid, respectively). When I would ask my father how to spell something, he would say, Look it up in the dictionary! Gordon wrote. How do you look up something in the dictionary if you don't know how to spell it I would ponder? His response, Figure it out, you will need to figure lots of things out in life soon. We hardly ever went to the seaside as children. Family outings were rare, and I loved them in a conflicted way. The idea of going to the beach meant it was a special day, and I always ruined it. Inevitably, I would be car sick en route. I dont recall being given any motion sickness medications beforehand; maybe they were an unknown entity then, but a plastic bag and a lime would be standard gear. "not sure if we can get it out when arrived?" You can always get your goods when they arrive in Jamaica. " i can t find a CLEAR cut answer if we will be subject to duty or not ." If they come to Jamaica then they will probably come by sea or air. When they get to Jamaica it will be at an airport or a seaport. See the following reference and in particular the sections titled "Clearing Personal Goods as an Arriving Passenger " and "Unaccompanied Personal Goods Imported Via Air or Sea Port" (they are at the bottom of the document). If this document is not clear then contact: The Jamaica Customs Agency Public Relations Unit (General Customer Service) 2-4 King Street, Kingston Telephone ( 876) 948-7849 Schwartz luggage at 357 W 37th St, near 9th Avenue. It's $10 per bag per 24 hours. And the A and C trains are right there (at 8th Avenue) for going into Brooklyn. I've used it and it's very well run. Also, you could look into BagBnb.com if you want to leave it at some small business even closer, for about $6 per bag. It's a network of stores who put your stuff in the back room. I have had good experiences with that, too. Also, there is Luggage Keeper at (is it a coincidence?) 357 W. 36th St, near 9th Avenue. I am traveling to vietna in jan 2019. I'll be visiting HCMC and DaNang. What extra should I add in the way. 1) Should I include Mui Ne : then my travel will be like HCMC to Mui NE and then from Mui Ne to Danang. 2) or Nha Trang : then my travel will be like HCMC to Nha trang and then from Nha Trang to Danang. 3) or Dalat : then my travel will be like HCMC to Dalat and then from Dalat to Danang. I can opt for any one of the cities as I don't want to rush things to cover more cities. Please tell me which of these places is more beautiful and more worth. There is no place that is close to all places that you listed. I recommend you to stay at a relatively inexpensive hotel close to Tokyo Disney Resort(TDR), such as Oriental Hotel Tokyo Bay or Urayasu Brighton Hotel Tokyo Bay, close to TDR, the night before you visit TDR. If you stay at central Tokyo, I recommend to stay at a hotel which has a Shuttle Bus service to TDR, but they are all expensive. We cannot answer whether to stay 1 night at Haneda Airport or not, unless you you tell us at what time your flight arrives (and also where is your hotel), because there are many Limos from the Airport at late night. I cannot understand what do you man by toilets without gadgetry, and cannot tell you the hotels without gadgetry in toilets. It is generally accepted that most hotels in Japan have better toilets than hotels in other countries, and if I select a hotel with old toilets in Japan, I can only imagine a bad old hotel. The border closes at 18.00,but the Vietnamese generally won't let you leave after about 17.30,unless you already have Cambodian visas,in case there is a problem getting them issued.The best time to cross the border depends where you are coming from,i.e. Phu Quoc,Can Tho.or Saigon,and hence your arrival time in Ha Tien.The best time to cross the border is around 10am,in order to avoid the often lengthy queuesIf that is not an option,then after 14.30,again to avoid the queues of tourist using the tourist minibus services.We arrange taxi's to Kampot all the time,and if you can time it to miss the queues,the journey should take no longer than 1.5 hours plus waiting time at the border How I hope the voting public, especially women, remember these cowardly GOP Senate members in November. They will put an accused sexual abuser on SCOTUS. But then this country put a person in the White House who was accused by 19 women of some form of sexual misconduct. This is not the country to be proud of right now. Please vote to turn Congress blue in November. It is important for the very principals this country stands for. - Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa urged young professionals from leaving the country to seek for employment abroad - Wamalwa said young people had integral role to play in revitalising Kenya's economy - He also asked youths to stop being overdependent in flooded urban labour markets and invest in counties - The CS said his ministry was determined to improve investment and innovation environment for youths Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa has urged youths to stop leaving Kenya after completing studies, saying brain drain will negatively impact the national economy. Wamalwa argued that young Kenyans were energetic and departing the country to use their expertise in foreign States was depriving Kenya of economic vibrancy and innovation. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye jamaa ambaye huenda akawa gavana wa Migori Obado aking'olewa Devolution and Planning CS Eugene Wamalwa challenged the youths to stop leaving Kenya after studying and juse their skills to invest and empower counties economically. Photo: Eugene Wamalwa/Twitter. Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Jubilee facing collapse if wrangles not stopped - Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa Speaking during a leadership forum in Nairobi on Thursday, September 27, Wamalwa said the State was doing its best to create a friendly business environment to help young entrepreneurs invest but said majority of youths needed to help grow economy by utilising their skills locally. The CS who was among panelists of the youth-centred session also challenged young professionals to stop being overdependent on urban areas, saying counties had massive unexploited opportunities which they ought to take advantage of. The CS said the Devolution Ministry was determined to create a friendly environment for the youth to invest and empower themselves and communities. Photo: Eugene Wamalwa/Twitter. Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Toothless Nairobi grandma who wowed Kenyans by fixing car stereos gets set of teeth "We do not want to see our young professionals prioritising to leave the country for developed States yet they could do much locally and help us grow together. We want to see the youth leave Nairobi instead and go and do businesses in the counties," he said. He also advised that economic vibrancy across the country would be achieved if young professionals would opt to decongest flooded urban labour markets and invest in the grassroots which offered numerous untapped opportunities. Wamalwa added that his ministry was determined to enhance civic education on the importance and opportunities offered by the devolution to spark entrepreneurship. 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. Migori Residents Demand The Release of Okoth Obado - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko - The Muranga'a CEC for water was charged with violent robbery of KSh 13, 450 from the director of Muwasco - Paul Ng'anga Macharia, however, denied the charge and paid a KSh 200, 000 cash bail for his freedom - The minister was re-arrested immediately after paying his cash bail - His case will be mentioned on November 17, 2018, when the case will be consolidated with another one he is facing - According to the CEC, the other charges preferred against him included that of rape The Muranga County Executive Member for water, Paul Ng'anga Macharia, was on Thursday, September 27, arraigned before a Murang;a court where he faced robbery with violence charges. Macharia was charged that on August 27, 2018, at Kiawambeu Water Treatment Plant in Kiharu, he violently robbed KSh 13,450 from Eston Gathima Kaiyego , a director of Muranga Water and Sanitation Company (Muwasco). Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye jamaa ambaye huenda akawa gavana wa Migori Obado aking'olewa Macharia was charged that he violently robbed KSh 13,450 from Eston Gathima Kaiyego , a director of Muranga Water and Sanitation Company (Muwasco). Photo: Mark Wachira Source: Original READ ALSO: Parents warned against fake KCSE exam papers circulating on social media The CEC who was represented by lawyer Alex Mbue Ndegwa denied the charge and was released on a bond of KSh 500,000 plus a surety of a similar amount or an alternative cash bail of KSh 200,000. The court directed the matter be mentioned on November 17, 2018 when the case would be consolidated with another one he is facing; assaulting the complainant when he committed the offence. The CEC was forced to spend the night in custody at Murang'a police station after he was re-arrested immediately on Thursday, September 28, after paying the KSh 200,000 cash bail. READ ALSO: Kenyans must be taxed more so government can finance Raila Odinga - Jubilee MP The CEC the charges as trumped up with an aim of silencing and cowing the county government to backtrack on its quest to take control of the management of water affairs. Photo: Mark Wachira Source: Original In the first offence, Macharia was charged alongside two male suspects, Alex Mbote and Mwangi Chege who both work for Murang'a County Government. The counsel for the complainant, Theophillus Kamwaro, opposed his release on lenient bond terms saying he was facing a capital offence and that by virtue of his position, was likely to interfere and intimidate witnesses. However, Macharia's lawyer objected saying it was the accused constitutional right to be granted reasonable bond terms as he was not a flight risk, being a permanent employee of the county government. READ ALSO: 7 National examination cheating hotspots as named by KNEC The CEC the charges as trumped up with an aim of silencing and cowing the county government to backtrack on its quest to take control of the management of water affairs. Photo: Mark Wachira. Source: Original Even the witnesses that are claimed to be interfered with we don't know them as a I am yet to be supplied with committal bundles and again the issue of issuing bond is the discretion of the court," the lawyer argued. While addressing the media after his release, the CEC termed the charges as trumped up with an aim of silencing and cowing the county government to backtrack on its quest to take control of the management of water affairs as stipulated in the constitution. READ ALSO: Obado should get better treatment in remand - MP Sam Atandi It goes hand in hand with our resolve to take control of water companies where it is only Muranga Water and Sanitation Company (Muwasco) that is resisting the move and no wonder the matter before court is between me and a person associated with the company," the CEC claimed. Macharia, who was flanked by his lawyer during the media briefing, said he was now living in fear claiming that the detectives were waiting for him at the gate to arrest him again. I have reliable information that the detectives are not done with me and are waiting for me at the gate to arrest and prefer more charges against me among them rape. Through the charges, I am ready to pay the ultimate price but if it will leave Muranga residents connected with water so be it. Let them bring the charges," he lamented. Story by Mark Wachira, TUKO Correspondent Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Meet 78-Year-old Sound System Master At Faces of Kenya | Tuko TV. Source: Kenya Breaking News Today - Since President Uhuru enacted the Finance Act 2018, Kenyans' anger is yet to cool down - Citizens online have been reminding Uhuru of the high prices of kerosene which equals that of diesel - They have lamented too after banks implement the 20% charge on transactions - Graft and mismanagement of public resources are among key issues Kenyans have complained about Kenyans' anger against President Uhuru Kenyatta is yet to subside if the comments on his social media posts are anything to go by. The president found himself on the receiving end after enacting the Finance Act 2018 which has since sparked outrage among Kenyans as the law came with punitive taxes on the citizens. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye jamaa ambaye huenda akawa gavana wa Migori Obado aking'olewa President Uhuru Kenyatta during the enactment of the Finance Act 2018 at State House Nairobi. Photo: UGC Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Kenyans must be taxed more so government can finance Raila Odinga - Jubilee MP The angry citizens have kept sending their messages to the president through his social media posts with most of them informing him they were not ready to be associated with his governance. The themes of corruption and high taxation especially on the 8% fuel levy are among the key issues that have angered Kenyans. As opposed to the past where there were divergent views on any post he made on social media, any recent update by Uhuru on his pages has been meet by anger, displeasure and even insults. READ ALSO: Banks start charging 20% excise duty on all transaction fees The tired citizenship has been throwing jabs at the Head of State and hopefully, the president will read the pubic mood and rectify things. READ ALSO: Activist Omtatah moves to court after Kenyans fund his petition against new taxes READ ALSO: Reprieve as government lowers price of unga to KSh 75 per 2kg packet Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news Kenya News Today: Ken Okoth Is Fighting For Marijuana Legalization | Tuko TV Source: Tuko - Moses Mungai Ngugi surrendered to Kilimani Law Court - He was arraigned and released on bail but failed to turn up in court on Thursday, September 20 - He was arrested for impersonating a National Intelligence Service officer - He fraudulently obtained KSh 300,000 at Nyayo House from unsuspecting people - 800 rounds of ammunition, fake ID's and two pistols were also recovered from him A notorious conman who was wanted by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has finally surrendered himself to the police. Moses Muigai Ngugi was wanted by police after he failed to show up in court over charges of impersonation on Thursday, September 20. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: DCI detectives offer handsome reward to Kenyans who can find this suspected conman Moses Mungai Ngugi surrended to the police at Milimani Law Court number 1. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: DCI kick off investigations on untouchable tout following public outcry In their Twitter post seen by TUKO.co.ke on Friday, September 28, DCI reported Ngugi presented himself at the Milimani Law Court on Tuesday, September 25. "The warrant of arrest was lifted by the same court. We cant thank you enough tweeps!" said DCi. Ngugi was accused of impersonating a National Intelligence Service (NIS) officer at Nyayo house and obtained KSh 300,000 in false pretense. READ ALSO: Kenyans make known their anger towards Uhurus leadership on his social media posts The police recovered several identity cards including eight national IDs with different serial numbers, two IDs from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), five belonging the NIS and one from Kenya Bureau of Standards. They also recovered two pistols, eight rounds of ammunition and a civilian fire arm certificate. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news Kenya News Today: Ken Okoth Is Fighting For Marijuana Legalization | Tuko TV Source: Tuko News - Tuju read the news on angry reactions by Kenyans over the Jubilee government - The Jubilee secretary general was intelligently tricked by the show host to read the news - He had been invited to the AM Live Show on NTV to talk on media and development in Kenya - In the recent past, citizens have been expressing their anger to Uhuru through his social media Jubilee party Secretary General, Raphael Tuju, found himself in an awkward position after he was forced to read news on television criticising his boss. Tuju was asked to read news about the angry reactions by Kenyans over President Uhuru Kenyatta during NTV's AM Live Show on Friday, September 28. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: The real killers of Sharon Otieno were to be killed too - Police Jubilee party Secretary General Raphael Tuju during a past press conference. Photo:UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: The time is ripe for referendum to cut wastage of public funds - Moses Kuria Unknown of the content he was about to read, the former news anchor readily accepted the challenge from the show host, Debarl Inea. "The current high cost of living has seen a lot of Kenyans directing their anger to whatever President Uhuru Kenyatta says whether offline or online. Kenyatta's social media accounts are full of angry reactions from the citizens who have turned President Uhuru into their punching bag on which to release their bile and anger," read Tuju. Speaking after the news that he was intelligently tricked into reading, the veteran journalist said he managed to read the text despite the negative message against his boss saying it was a simple sign of media freedom in play. READ ALSO: Kenyans make known their anger towards Uhurus leadership on his social media posts The Cabinet Secretary without portfolio, was invited to the show alongside other guests to discuss on centrality of media in the development of Kenya. In the recent past days, angry citizens have kept sending their messages to the president through his social media posts with most of them informing him they were not ready to be associated with his governance. The themes of corruption and high taxation especially on the 8% fuel levy are among the key issues that have angered Kenyans. 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 Shosh Cecilia Story Continues: Shosh Cecilia Gets New Teeth | Tuko TV Source: Tuko Breaking News - Ruto said his countrywide tours were part of his job description - He dismissed claims that he had began campaigns for 2022 General Election - The DP said it was time for all leaders to focus on development not politics saying 2022 was far away - He challenged his competitors to wait for the right time to commence next eletcion's politicking - Ruto also said Jubilee administration would work with all leaders irrespective of parties to serve Kenyans who voted for them and those that did not Deputy President William Ruto has told his 2022 presidential competitors to calm down and stop worrying about his countrywide tours, saying he has not commenced campaigns yet. The DP argued that his nationwide tours were part of his job description to ensure implementation of Jubilee government's projects and not part of his campaign trail. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: 'Kirimino' Nairobi MCA denies harassing embattled speaker Elachi, says she is born again Deputy President William Ruto said he had not began campaigns for 2022 General Election and his nationwide tours were hinged on implementing government's agenda. Photo: William Ruto/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Kenyans must be taxed more so government can finance Raila Odinga - Jubilee MP Speaking in Kilifi on Friday, September 28, Ruto said his tours should not be confused with political campaigns saying time for politicking was over and the government had an obligation to serve the people. Some leaders who have expressed interest in the presidency should stop being worried about my movement around the country. We are in Kilifi today for development. Time for politics will come and we'll meet there but now let us all focus our energies on development, he said. The DP said it was too early for any politician elected through Jubilee or the Opposition parties to begin talking about 2022, challenging them to focus on their duties like he was handling responsibilities of a deputy president. READ ALSO: DCI awaita marafiki 3 wa Jacque Maribe kuhusiana na mauaji ya Monica Kimani In an apparent reference to Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leadership, Ruto said it was unfair to punish their members for expressing their interest to work with him and Jubilee party. Deputy President William Ruto said his nationwide tours were part of his job description. William Ruto/Twitter. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Raphael Tuju reads news on TV ridiculing President Uhuru's regime He said under the leadership of President Uhuru Kenyatta, Jubilee would work with all elected leaders irrespective of their party affiliations for the benefit of all Kenyans. Our government will serve those who voted for us and those who did not vote for us. We were elected on different political parties but we have decided we will not be separated by boundaries of regions, political parties or religious faith. We will not discriminate anyone, said Ruto. The DP who was on his second day tour of the Coast said Kenyans were in dire need of representation by their leaders and development not politics. We should now focus our energies on the construction of roads, provision of health, education, connection of electricity among other development projects, said Ruto. Orange party MPs Suleiman Dori (Msamweni) and Aisha Jumwa (Malindi) who were summoned by ODM for stating they would support Ruto's 2022 presidential bid said they would not be cowed by their party's leadership. Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang'ula, Baringo's Gideon Moi and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka have all said they will vie for presidency in 2022. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: LSK sues President Uhuru over the Finance Act 2018 Let us stop these intimidation and find ways of uniting the people of Coast and work with the government. We do not want to be left behind again. We will not be silenced for wanting to unite our people and we'll work with every like minded people, said Dori Jumwa said she supported Ruto on the basis of Opposition leader Raila Odinga's decision to work with Uhuru. Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka, FORD Kenya's Moses Wetang'ula and KANU's Gideon Moi have all expressed interest to contest for presidency in 2022. 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 Shosh Cecilia Story Continues: Shosh Cecilia Gets New Teeth | Tuko TV Source: Kenya Breaking News Today On the librarys website, Egan is highlighted as an author perhaps most well-known for her Pulitzer Prize winning book A Visit From the Goon Squad, and is also author of The Keep and The Emerald City, and short stories which have appeared in The New Yorker, Harpers and Granta. In less than three weeks the State of Emergency will be over and citizens will be able to enjoy unrestricted movement across the country. While the SoE may have helped the Port of Spain Division of the Police Service in reporting a year-to-date dip in crime, those at the helm are prepared for the curfew's expiration. The changes in Turkey, which have occurred over the past 20 years, contribute to strengthening cooperation with Ukraine, particularly in trade and economic area. President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Gennadiy Chyzhykov said this in a commentary to Ukrinform upon his visit to Turkey as part of the Ukrainian delegation led by First Vice Prime Minister - Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv. "Turkey has changed greatly over the past 20 years, which also contributes to strengthening cooperation. It is a country that follows the path of industrialization with the latest technologies and innovations. We feel that the Turkish side is very interested in cooperation with Ukrainian business," Chyzhykov said. He also praised the active development of cooperation at various levels. "We have very good institutional contacts with Turkey. We have two chambers of commerce and industry, representative office of Turkish business in Ukraine, the intergovernmental commission which work very well. 600 Turkish companies operate in Ukraine, and 500 Ukrainian companies work in Turkey. The visit of the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine [to Turkey] is also an important sign," the President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry stressed. According to him, Turkey remains in the focus of Ukraines economic priorities. ol The Health Ministry of Ukraine plans to sign a memorandum of cooperation with the Dutch organization Task Force Health Care. "Thanks to the Task Force Health Care, the Dutch medical business will get an opportunity to invest in Ukrainian medicine. Within the framework of The World of Health Care international congress, Deputy Health Minister Roman Ilyk and Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport of the Netherlands Erik Gerritsen discussed the progress of Ukrainian medical reform, the issue of transplantation in the country and Ukraines accession to the Dutch healthcare platform which cooperates with over 30 world countries," the press service of the Health Ministry of Ukraine reports. As noted, the Netherlands is studying the Ukrainian model of health care transformation, in particular the experience of introducing a capitation rate in the primary and secondary health care. Task Force Health Care (TFHC) has been representing the Dutch life sciences and health sector since 1996. Various TFHC Platforms consist of partners from industry, knowledge institutes, NGOs, healthcare providers and the government which provide innovative and sustainable solutions to healthcare challenges all over the world. ol Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin considers the beginning of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly to be successful in terms of world support for the Ukrainian position, as well as evidence of deeper international isolation of Russia. He said this on Thursday after the Ukrainian delegation's visit to New York, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "I remember many United Nations General Assembly sessions, and since we started [the current session] with including the question of occupied territories in the agenda of the General Assembly, I ask everyone to look at the result, at who voted," the minister noted, meaning minimal support at the UN for the Russian position. He said that "this vote really shows in which isolation Russia is and that we are moving forward." Klimkin also commended the efforts that have given "very cool impetus" to a resolution on Crimea. "We began to prepare a special resolution on the militarization of the occupied Crimea. This question is very important and sensitive to all," he said. In this regard, the minister said that he had spoken with representatives of countries, including Latin America, Asia and other regions. "They all say that we do not have to allow these precedents. Everyone is very interested in this," he said. Klimkin also stressed the importance of raising peacekeeping subjects at the UN, in particular a peacekeeping force in Donbas, the release of hostages and political prisoners, and the reform of the United Nations. "You may consider me incorrect, but today the UN is in decadence, because the UN is blocked in the context of making extremely important decisions. Therefore, the reform of the Security Council and the United Nations as a whole is not just urgent. We should have done it a few years ago," he said. In this regard, he called the discussions in the first days of the new session of the General Assembly "a very good beginning." op The Kremlin's intentions to hold illegal "elections" in some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are a violation of Russia's commitments under the Minsk agreements and significantly undermine their implementation. Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna Ihor Prokopchuk said this at a regular meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on Thursday, September 27, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "Today's discussion takes place after the announcement by Moscow and Russian occupation administrations in Donetsk and Luhansk of their plans to hold illegal so-called elections in the occupied areas of the Donbas. This will be a violation of Russia's commitments under the Minsk agreements and seriously undermine their further implementation," the diplomat said. Prokopchuk recalled that the Minsk agreements, a party to which is Russia, clearly define the holding of local elections in the Donbas in accordance with Ukrainian legislation and OSCE/ODIHR standards, as well as under the supervision of the OSCE. "If these so-called elections take place, Russia will thus show disdain for its commitments made in Minsk. This 'show' itself will be null and void, without any recognition from Ukraine or the international community," he said. As was reported earlier, on September 7, militants in the occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions scheduled "elections" for November 11 in which they want to elect "LPR" and "DPR" leaders and "deputies." op The United Nations urges Russia to uphold human rights in Crimea as an "occupying state under international humanitarian law." This is said in the joint statement on behalf of 40 countries made during the 39th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UNO Branch and other International Organizations in Geneva published the statement on its website. "The Russian Federation must uphold human rights in Crimea, respect its obligations as an Occupying Power under international humanitarian law, and grant full and unimpeded access to Crimea for international and regional monitoring mechanisms. We call on the Russian Federation to comply with its obligations under international law reaffirmed in UNGA resolutions 71/205 and 72/190, as well as with the Order of the International Court of Justice of 19 April 2017," the statement reads. It is noted that the United Nations Human Rights Council is "concerned by the ongoing violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law" committed by Russia. In particular, the violations detailed in the OHCHR report include deportations and forcible transfers of protected persons outside the occupied territory; transferring of parts of Russias own civilian population to Crimea; torture and ill-treatment; enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detention; violations of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, religion and movement; forced conscription of Crimean residents into the Russian armed forces; and arbitrary searches of private property, which disproportionately affect Crimean Tatars. The signatories to the statement emphasize that situation needs to be improved urgently. The joint statement on the human rights situation in temporarily occupied Crimea and unrestricted access for human rights monitoring mechanisms was signed by Australia, Austria, Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Northern Ireland. ol Euro-Atlantic integration is a priority of Ukraine's development and a necessary element of increasing its defense capability. Ukrainian Deputy Information Policy Minister Dmytro Zolotukhin said this at the 15th Assembly of the NATO-Ukraine Civic League. "Despite different decision-making centers in the member states of the North Atlantic Alliance, Ukraine has to move towards Euro-Atlantic integration and future membership in NATO," Zolotukhin said. According to him, now it is necessary to combine the efforts of the authorities and public organizations to carry out awareness campaign among Ukrainian citizens. As part of the Assembly, Ukrainian and foreign high-level officials, diplomats, experts and representatives of civil society organizations discussed Ukraine-NATO cooperation, security in the Euro-Atlantic area and counteraction to Russian aggression. The event was held with the support of the Lithuanian Embassy in Ukraine and the NATO Information and Documentation Center. op The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has called on Russia to stop spreading destabilizing propaganda. "On the International Day for Universal Access to Information, we call on Russia to stop spreading destabilizing propaganda," the embassy wrote on its Twitter account on Friday. The U.S. embassy said it commends "independent journalists and NGOs who work to ensure the Ukrainian public has access to accurate information." op The activity of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is extremely important for the future of Ukraine. "The National Anti-Corruption Bureau is at the forefront of the fight against corruption in Ukraine. The challenges you face make your work even more important since it is about building a new Ukraine - stable, efficient and democratic," U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch said during a meeting with the agencys staff, the NABU press service reports. Yovanovitch recalled that her country had supported the new law enforcement agencies from the very beginning. This support will be continued, the ambassador assured. "The NABU is going through a stage of formation and development. It is very difficult, but I know that you will cope with it. The Ukrainian people gave you a mandate to prosecute corrupt officials. There have been many victories for these several years as 155 criminal proceedings have been completed and submitted to court. You investigate the cases against powerful and some of the most corrupt individuals in this country. We are aware of the pressure you are under, and sometimes it's not just pressure, but a real danger," the ambassador said. Responding to questions from NABU staff regarding the assessment of the process of creation of the High Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch expressed her conviction that the new body will be formed according to the principles of openness and transparency. In this context, she called the involvement of international experts in the creation of the High Anti-Corruption Court a positive step. ol Sanctions on Russia will remain in place until Russia returns full control of the peninsula to Ukraine. Harry Kamian, the Charge dAffaires, a.i. of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE, made the relevant statement at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna. "United States again calls upon Russia to end its campaign of repression in occupied Crimea and return control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine. The United States is resolute in its support for Ukraines sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. We do not, nor will we ever, recognize Russias purported annexation of Crimea, and Crimea-related sanctions on Russia will remain in place until Russia returns full control of the peninsula to Ukraine. We join our European and other partners in restating that our sanctions against Russia for its aggression in eastern Ukraine will remain until Russia fully implements its commitments under the Minsk agreements," Kamian said. In addition, the United States called on the Russian Federation to cease its harassment of international commerce and shipping in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. We condemn the announcement by the Russian proxies of their intention to conduct November 11 elections in the sovereign territory of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics, Kamian added. U.S. Charge dAffaires also stressed that Russia must release Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko illegally detained in Moscow two years ago and sentenced to 12 years in prison on trumped-up charges of espionage. ol The Ecumenical Patriarchate has never transferred the Kyiv metropolis, on the basis of which the Ukrainian church emerged, to the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate. This is stated in a 29-page document, which provides data from archives, the Echo of Moscow radio station reported. A historical study conducted with the support of the educational fund of the National Bank of Greece notes that the right of ordination was given to Moscow "for financial reasons," "from necessity" and "was temporary." Thus, the Ecumenical Patriarch "has the right and duty to exercise maternal care about the Ukrainian church in every case that it considers necessary," the document says. On April 19, Ukrainian MPs supported President Petro Poroshenko's address to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the provision of a tomos (ordinance) of autocephaly. This idea has long been supported by the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). The Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople has already begun the procedure needed to grant autocephaly to the new Ukrainian church. The meeting of the Synod, which will address this issue, is scheduled for October. Recently, as part of preparations for the provision of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate appointed Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon from the United States and Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton from Canada as its exarchs in Kyiv. op Ukraine's highest monument to Prince Volodymyr the Great has been erected in Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, Channel 5 has reported. "The height of the new architectural monument is 22 meters. Earlier, on this place there was a monument to Soviet figure Artem. It was dismantled after the Revolution of Dignity in 2014," the statement reads. The opening of the bronze monument brought together about 1,000 locals, representatives of the clergy, city and district authorities. The cross of the prince will be illuminated at night. 09/28/2018 By Edwin L. Aguirre The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a three-year, $1 million grant to a team of researchers from UMass Lowell, the University of Maine and Florida-based Mainstream Engineering Corp. to develop renewable fuel additives made from woody biomass particularly sawdust from sawmills. The additives, which are derived from sustainable raw materials, will help offset the use of traditional fossil fuels in internal combustion engines in cars and trucks as well as in steam turbines for power generation, says Hunter Mack, a UML assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the projects principal investigator (PI). Our labs goal is to increase energy efficiency, reduce emissions and identify other potential sustainable fuels and chemicals of the future. In this project, the term additive doesnt necessarily mean in small quantities, nor is it meant to work as an engine-performance booster. Just like the unleaded gasoline you fill your car with, which can contain up to 10 percent ethanol by volume, the additive is intended to be mixed with traditional petroleum-based fuel like diesel to displace some volume of diesel with something renewable and help cut down the vehicles carbon footprint, says Mack. This biofuel-blend formulation will offer the same engine performance but hopefully it is easier and more environmentally friendly to produce. Joining him in conducting research at UML is chemical engineering Asst. Prof. Hsi-Wu Wong, who is a project co-PI, along with graduate students Martia Shahsavan and Mohammad Morovatiyan. We focus on transportation because the transportation sector is so heavily dependent on petroleum-based fuels, says Wong. Photo by Edwin L. Aguirre Photo by Edwin L. Aguirre Mechanical engineering Asst. Prof. Hunter Mack, left, and chemical engineering Asst. Prof. Hsi-Wu Wong with the combustion chamber setup at the Energy & Combustion Research Lab at UMass Lowell. The project is part of the DOEs Co-Optima initiative to develop fuel and engine innovations that work together to maximize vehicle performance and fuel economy. The DOE wants to co-optimize engines and fuels together to provide a cleaner, more efficient and sustainable transportation sector, says Mack. The UMass Lowell-led project is one of 42 that the DOE has recently selected nationwide as part of its $80 million investment to support early-stage research of advanced vehicle technologies that can enable more affordable mobility, strengthen domestic energy security, reduce the countrys dependence on foreign sources of critical materials and enhance U.S. economic growth. A New Role for Forest Byproducts Woody biomass refers to forest trees and woody plants, as well as their byproducts from wood manufacturing and processing that are not suitable for purchase or sale and dont have an existing local market. We targeted woody biomass as raw material because of our collaboration with the University of Maine and its Forest Bioproducts Research Institute, explains Mack. The state of Maine has a large forest industry with a long history of making paper. The sawmills have a lot of leftover biomass that needs to be disposed of, so were offering a way to convert it into something useful and even profitable. The additive is intended to be mixed with traditional petroleum-based fuel like diesel to displace a portion of the fuels volume with something that is renewable and help cut down a vehicles greenhouse gas emission. He says scrap wood from the construction industry can be useful but, at the moment, they cant use it. Were applying precise chemical reaction engineering to the process for producing the additives, so the composition of the raw materials is important, notes Mack. Construction wood might have other chemicals mixed in it, such as those used in pressure-treated lumber, and that would change how the reaction goes. So at least in the short term, were focusing solely on sawdust, which is a well-defined biomass stream. Wong says there is enough woody biomass waste available to make the process economically viable. He adds that the papermaking industry in general is in decline, and one of the economic benefits of this project is that it could provide the paper industry with a new source of revenue for its sawdust in this case, for making biofuels, biopolymers and other bio-derived products. This is the direction that the wood industry in New England is exploring, and this is the direction that the DOE is heading, which is why we are getting the funding, Wong says. The total cost of the project, including cost share from UML and its subcontractors, is $1.45 million, according to Mack. Other winners of the DOE grants include Penn State University, the University of California, San Diego and UC Irvine, the University of Texas at Austin, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Purdue University and SUNY University at Stony Brook, as well as R&D and automotive companies and national labs. The projects range from developing the next generation of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles to improving the energy efficiency of off-road vehicles used in construction, agriculture and mining operations. The solemn ceremony took place on the territory of the U.S. Coast Guard "Baltimore" and was attended by Ukrainian President President Poroshenko and his wife Maryna Poroshenko. The United States has handed over two Island-class patrol boats to the Naval Forces of Ukraine. The solemn ceremony took place on the territory of the U.S. Coast Guard "Baltimore" and was attended by Ukrainian President President Poroshenko and his wife Maryna Poroshenko, the president's press service reports. The certificates on transfer of equipment in the presence of the president have been signed by Vice Admiral of the Coast Guard of the USA Michael Mcallister and Commander of the Naval Forces of Ukraine Ihor Voronchenko. "It is a great privilege for me to be here, in Baltimore. In a place of a century-long traditions. In a place, where the naval might of the United States is maintained. It is my honor to salute the men and women, who serve in the United States Coast Guard. You are carrying out the greatest mission protect the borders of the Homeland," Poroshenko said. Read alsoPoroshenko calls for tougher sanctions against Russia over blocking of shipping in Sea of Azov "This day marks another milestone in developing a strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States," the president stressed. He once again emphasized that the U.S. leadership, the president of the United States had once again proven to stand firmly on the guard of international law, to support a freedom-loving people in their quest for peace, democracy and independence. "The first two 'Island' boats will become another brick to strengthen a naval alliance between the Ukrainian and American peoples," the president said, adding that the given assistance would be supplemented by the U.S. assistance for construction of Ukraine's Navy Command Center in Ochakiv. "Today's event clearly shows that the Strategic Partnership between Ukraine and the United States is vibrant and productive," he stressed. According to the head of state, this alliance is already deeply rooted in the annual Sea Breeze exercise co-hosted by Ukraine and the U.S. in the Black Sea. This July it was held for the 18th time with the participation of 17 nations. Vice Admiral of the Coast Guard of the USA Michael Mcallister noted that over the past 20 years, the Coast Guard had provided 520 assets to 75 partners under the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program. "The program provides mutually beneficial cooperation with all partners. Our international partners can swiftly improve maritime safety and defense capability. These transfers help secure a long-term international partnership that provides global maritime security," he said. The Vice Admiral of the Coast Guard of the USA also emphasized: "I am convinced that these boats will also serve well in the hands of the Ukrainian Navy. In the hands of skilled sailors, such as U.S. Coast Guard and Ukrainian Navy, the Island-class motor boats have proven themselves to be versatile and efficient assets. Their teams have distinguished themselves in preventing illicit trafficking, emergency response, defense operations and rescue of people in the seas." Mcallister also told that he had served as a commanding officer at one of those ships: "Coast Guard sailors love these ships." "It is bittersweet to watch these cutters leave our service, we are proud to see them continue their service lives and remain relevant instruments of global maritime safety and security. We look forward to beginning the transfer process and working with our Ukrainian partners to deliver these outstanding cutters that have served the United States so well," the Vice Admiral of the Coast Guard of the USA noted. A lot has been written about Russian propaganda. Its main secret is a monopoly on information and a constant repetition of the same messages, year after year. They must be imprinted in people's minds at the level of unconditioned reflexes. Under no circumstances must citizens address their own mind they must just stick to the "right" cliches like "enemies are everywhere" and "if not Putin, then who?" However, recently things began to change in Russia where Putin's name is now far from topping the popular list in terms of the number of references. It is the president of the neighboring country, Petro Poroshenko, who brazenly pushed down the Russian leader. Russians have been dissecting under a microscope the latest moves of the head of the Ukrainian state. In particular, the work of the Ukrainian delegation at the UN General Assembly became the top topic on Russian TV. Recording Petro Poroshenko walking along the UN HQ corridors was a great success, they said. It was especially emphasized that it was a cameraman from Russia's presidential pool who succeeded. Most of the times, he is only tasked with pushing the "record" button only at the sight of Vladimir Vladimirovich. Poroshenko taking a Russian journalist by the wrist prompted a thorough scrutiny, Poroshenko responding in Russian - caused brainstorming sessions, and Poroshenko calling Russian media out as fake news sparked deep reflections As he allegedly entered the room where the Russian delegation was working Russian media immediately "explained" that the Ukrainian president had been heading to a meeting dedicated to peacekeeping issues. The Russian viewer was even deprived of the opportunity to learn about the efforts at the UNGA of the delegation led by Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov. And neither did the Russian audience hear any explanation why their foreign minister assumed that the president of Ukraine had confused Lavrov's negotiations room with WC. Meanwhile, Lavrov did not lose time and agreed with Guatemala on not being the first to deploy weapons in space... Putin's name is now far from topping the popular list in terms of the number of references. It is the president of the neighboring country, Petro Poroshenko, who brazenly pushed down the Russian leader Here, in Russia, many are literally sitting there counting how many times any of the foreign leaders pronounced the word "Ukraine" during the United Nations GA session. They seem to be really jealous and frustrated about the fact. Of course, Russian propaganda journalists might not like what they see so they focus all their "talent" on criticizing the president of another country. In Russia, it is safe, and for some reason honorable, to do. Only few can afford to scrutinize the work of the Russian leader, so most news stories in Russia have by and large turned into an endless "international panorama." This panorama show portrays Ukraine as an enemy that must be destroyed, at the same time for some reason calling it a "brother." The lower-level target is to maintain control over the occupied Crimea and Donbas. Incidentally, the leaders of the state claiming it's "getting up from their knees" don't care too much about turning these territories into the environmental disasters zones. Regardless of the name, such approach to the work of the Ukrainian president and other Ukrainian officials will prevail. The Kremlin will only be satisfied with "Gauleiters" helping Moscow resolve the "Ukrainian issue." For example, it was no accident when Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev publicly speculated what he would do if he became head of Ukraine. His suggestion is: surrender to the Kremlin... Such attention to the incumbent president of Ukraine is not surprising. This personalized information campaign stems from the fact that since Poroshenko took office, the Kremlin has not fulfilled a single task on Ukraine. All their success stories are exclusively a result of military force, such as the capture by the Russian army of the Ukrainian city of Debaltseve in Feb 2015, immediately after Putin signed the Minsk agreements. There has been no recognition of the Crimea annexation, or the "civil war" in Donbas. And neither has there been the rise of the status of the Russian language or the desired federalization of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine's course towards NATO and the EU is viewed as non-alternative. Such attention to the incumbent president of Ukraine is not surprising. This personalized information campaign stems from the fact that since Poroshenko took office, the Kremlin has not fulfilled a single task on Ukraine Moreover, despite all those "Rotterdam+" formulas, impotence in terms of setting up the work of anti-corruption agencies, and dragging reforms, the state of Ukraine has become stronger. Further military successes of the Russian Federation in Ukraine are possible, but not obvious. This would cost tens of thousands of lives of those who are "not there." Actually, this is why, from time to time, Russian talking heads publicly speculate on the topic of "dropping a nuke on Kyiv." This is a sign of real impotence. Russian TV can mock as much as they want the latest U.S. gift to Ukraine in the form of two patrol boats that are far from being new, but the fact remains: more and more U.S. weapons are being supplied to Ukraine every year. And the Russians don't find it funny to be confronted with those weapons somewhere in Syria. And neither do they find it funny in Ukraine. The Kremlin laid its ultimate hope on the Ukraine elections. But who said that the new president of Ukraine would fulfill the Russian wishlist?! Not every Ukrainian politician is ready to flee from the capital of European Ukraine to Russia's distant Rostov. Roman Tsymbaliuk Bartholomew has denied Moscow's accusations against Constantinople of alleged "interference" in the church affairs of Ukraine. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has substantiated the canonical and legal jurisdiction of his church in Ukraine based on historical facts, referring to centuries-old documents on the relationship between the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Read alsoBartholomew 'hopes' for independent Ukrainian Church media The Ecumenical Patriarchate responded to the demand of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to withdraw the exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate from Ukraine, since according to the UOC-MP their appointment had been a gross interference in the internal affairs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the violation of its canonical territory, according to Orthodoxia.info. In particular, the Ecumenical Patriarchate published archives of church history and specifically the history of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the time of the baptism of Kievan Rus. The publication is the result of research by Greek and Russian scholars who had access to the original texts of the archives of the Patriarch of Constantinople and his correspondence within many centuries. All arguments of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are based on this study, which refutes all Moscow's accusations against Constantinople of "invading" its canonical dioceses. The Ecumenical Patriarchate considers it appropriate to recall all the historical and canonical truth about the relationship of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as evidenced by the official documents, which, unfortunately, are either ignored or deliberately concealed for understandable reasons, the study's preface said. The document provides an opportunity to trace the whole history of the development of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In this regard, it is said that with the help of the study, especially thanks to the original correspondence, which is published for the first time, the Ecumenical Patriarchate confirms its canonical and legal jurisdiction in Ukraine. Moreover, it proves that the Moscow Patriarchate has violated the rules of the Patriarchal and Synodal Act of 1686 of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which the latter had to endure and remain silent, but never forgot and did not forgive. The First Lady, Maryna Poroshenko, accompanied the president. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has honored U.S. Senator John McCain's memory during his recent working visit to the United States. "Poroshenko visited the burial site of the Senator and put a wreath on his grave," the presidential press service said. The First Lady, Maryna Poroshenko, accompanied the president. Senator McCain was buried at a cemetery on the territory of the Naval Academy of the United States. "During the commemoration, taps was performed under the American military tradition. Commander of the Ukrainian Navy Admiral Ihor Voronchenko left a commemorative medal of the Ukrainian Navy on the grave of the senator as a sign of great respect of Ukrainian soldiers and marines for a prominent American politician and a great friend of Ukraine," the press service said. Read alsoPoroshenko to ask Kyiv City Council to name street after U.S. Senator McCain As UNIAN reported earlier, Poroshenko suggested 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 early in September. What is more, a petition has been launched in Ukraine to grant Senator McCain the Hero of Ukraine title. It is available on the website of the President of Ukraine. Kuchma sees Ruslan Demchenko, an adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, as his successor. Ukraine's representative to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) at the Minsk talks on Donbas Leonid Kuchma, who turned 80 this summer, has announced he is going to quit. "Leonid Kuchma will [last] attend the TCG meeting in Minsk on October 2. As for other meetings all further decisions on representation are with the president of Ukraine," Kuchma's press secretary Darka Olifer told The Babel news outlet. According to Olifer, Kuchma is not supposed to submit a letter of resignation as he was working pro bono. Kuchma sees Ruslan Demchenko, an adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, as his successor. Read alsoEx-President Kuchma names major mistakes over years of Ukraine's independence Kuchma, independent Ukraine's second president, has been working as Ukraine's envoy to the Minsk talks for four years. According to him, the peace talks are exhausting. "When I get home [after a new round of talks], it takes me two days to recover. Before every meeting there, I always take a tranquilizer pill. Talks are too exhausting," Kuchma shared his opinion, according to the TSN TV news service. At the same time, Kuchma says there is no alternative to the Minsk talks now when countering Russian aggression in the east of Ukraine. Mass poisoning by toxic tap water occurred in Russian-occupied town of Makiyivka a few days ago. The number of residents, who were poisoned by tap water in Russian-occupied territory of Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, has sharply increased to over a hundred people, including children. Read alsoNew disaster in Russian occupation zone: 43 poisoned by tap water in Makiyivka According to representative of the Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner in Luhansk and Donetsk regions Pavlo Lysiansky, the cause of poisoning is manganese, which has been used to disinfect water in pipe network instead of chlorine. As UNIAN reported earlier, mass poisoning by toxic tap water occurred in Russian-occupied town of Makiyivka, Donetsk region. On September 25, local residents began to address the hospital with complaints of abdominal pain, vomiting, chills, fever, intoxication, and dehydration. Initially it was reported about 87 hospitalized. Two polls have come out in the last week that show radically different results and the differences between them are outside their statistical margins of error. The polls measuring support for the candidates standing in Ukraine's March 2019 presidential election vary very widely. Kyiv-based investment bank Concorde Capital has suggested that President Petro Poroshenko is funding some polls that downplay the lead opposition leader, former prime minister and head of Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party Yulia Tymoshenko has over him, according to bne IntelliNews. Two polls have come out in the last week that show radically different results and the differences between them are outside their statistical margins of error. Tymoshenko continues to command a big 10 point lead over Poroshenko in the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) poll. According to the Ukrainians who have already made their choice, Tymoshenko increased her lead by two points on earlier polls to 19.3%, with another 11.9% prepared to vote for Poroshenko, who has also improved his position by three points now his campaign has started in earnest. Read alsoPoroshenko not among TOP 3 presidential candidates in Ukraine poll That result contrasts strongly with a second election poll released the same week which reported that Tymoshenko's lead in the presidential race as is slipping from the earlier 17% to about 13.2%. The same poll, published on September 25 by the Rating Sociological Group, a private firm that has been conducting polls for more than a decade, showed Poroshenko with about 8%. A third poll released on September 14, said that Tymoshenko has only 12.9% support, compared to 8.4% for Poroshenko. The poll conducted between August 30 and September 9 among 10,005 respondents was a joint project between the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the Razumkov centre, and the SOCIS centre for Sociological and Marketing Research. Early this month, polls were reporting Tymoshenko's lead had widened as much nine percentage points over her nearest rival, which was often former defence minister Anatoliy Grytsenko. Tymoshenko's support was as high as 17.8%, according to the poll conducted by the Kucheriv Fund/Razumkov centre, reports Concorde Capital. There is still a lot of uncertainty over the accuracy of the polls. Part of the problem, as KIIS deputy director Anton Hrushevsky pointed out, is that political party and candidate registration has not taken place, so any list of possible candidates can be used that skew the results and make direct comparisons harder. He said very often political forces test the electoral possibilities of candidates, even if they have not announced plans to run for office. However, some game playing might be at work here too. Zenon Zawada, an analyst with Concorde Capital, argued that it is crucial for Poroshenko to chip away at Tymoshenko's lead as the most likely rival in what will be the almost inevitable second round to the presidential election. "That way, if Tymoshenko alleges vote fraud, Poroshenko will be able to claim that her small lead in the polls-ahead of the elections doesn't back up her claims. And that would reduce the public's willingness to engage in mass protests," Zawada said in a note. Poroshenko has already been preparing the ground in case the contest comes down to a street fight. In August he rammed through a change in the law that added two new members to the Central Election Commission (CEC) and also gave the right of appointment to the president. The Orange Revolution in 2006 was eventually resolved by the CEC that came down on Viktor Yushchenko's side and lead to the ousting of Leonid Kuchma in a key decision. Zawada argues that Poroshenko has stacked the CEC with his own people to ensure a majority should there be mass demonstrations over a controversial victory by the incumbent. In the meantime, Zawada accused Poroshenko of twisting public opinion by introducing polls that show Tymoshenko's lead over him as smaller than it really is. Poroshenko does not enjoy wide public support and other polls earlier this year say that some 85% of Ukrainians think the country has been headed in the "wrong direction" under his administration. "We believe it's possible that the Poroshenko campaign is paying for polls to skew the questions and results against Tymoshenko. The polls conducted by the Kucheriv Fund/Razumkov centre, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and the International Republican Institute are considered to be most reliable," Zawada said in a note, adding that it is also possible that Tymoshenko, who has been campaigning for months already, is now loosing momentum after the other candidates have ramped up their own campaigns. Sentsov has been taken to Labytnangi municipal hospital. Illegally convicted Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, who has been on hunger strike in a Russian penal colony since May 14, 2018, has been transferred to the hospital for a "scheduled" health checkup. "In connection with a scheduled health checkup, convicted Oleh Sentsov on September 28 was taken to Labytnangi municipal hospital, where he underwent additional examination and received medical advice," the press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service's department in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug told UNIAN. Read alsoSentsov's recent message from Russian jail: "Nothing lasts forever" The Russian authorities continue insisting that Sentsov's health is stable. As UNIAN reported earlier, Sentsov was arrested in Russian-occupied Crimea in spring 2014 and in August 2015 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison following an unfair trial where he faced "terrorism" charges stemming from his opposition to Russia's occupation of Crimea. He has been serving his term in a penal colony in the town of Labytnangi, Russia's Yamal. He went on hunger strike on May 14, demanding that Russia free all Ukrainian political prisoners. Sentsov's cousin, Moscow-based journalist Natalya Kaplan says his condition is critical and things are "catastrophically bad." Filaret said Ukraine could be weeks away from achieving its goal despite fierce opposition from Moscow, and that a synod in Istanbul would approve autocephaly latest by the end of this year. But more than a quarter of a century after he led a split of the Ukrainian church from its Russian parent following the Soviet Union's collapse, Ukrainian Patriarch Filaret, now 89, is close to achieving his dream of an independent national church. And he is ready to lead it, Reuters reported. Divisions between rival Orthodox factions have sharpened in Ukraine since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the outbreak of Russian aggression in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Read alsoEcumenical Patriarch substantiates canonical, legal jurisdiction of his church in Ukraine media For President Petro Poroshenko, establishing an independent church is a way of blunting Moscow's influence in Ukraine. If he pulls it off, it would also likely boost his chances in a tight re-election race next March. For that to happen, Ukraine needs the formal backing of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Turkey, the global spiritual head of Orthodox Christians. Filaret said Ukraine could be weeks away from achieving its goal despite fierce opposition from Moscow, and that a synod in Istanbul would approve autocephaly latest by the end of this year. The Russian Orthodox Church has already protested by breaking off ties with Istanbul in September. "I do not see any obstacles to getting the Tomos," Filaret told Reuters, referring to the formal announcement that would grant the Ukrainian church "autocephaly," or independence. "It would mark the end of a strange journey for Filaret, who was once a frontrunner to head the Russian Orthodox Church but switched tack to campaign for an independent Ukrainian church as the country won independence from Moscow," Reuters said. His branch initially struggled for recognition but has grown in strength and enjoyed the support of successive presidents. He denies allegations of impropriety or working as a secret agent for the KGB [accusations brought by his opponents], though he said under the Soviet system the clergy was forced to have contacts with the secret police. Not shy of wading into politics, he threw his support behind "Orange Revolution" protesters in 2004 against Russia's choice of president, Viktor Yanukovych. During the Maidan street protests that eventually toppled Yanukovych in 2014, his church offered shelter to injured demonstrators. He says Ukraine's place was in Europe, not under President Vladimir Putin's Russia, and has urged the West to keep sanctions on Russia. "Putin wants to return to the past, to the period when empires existed," Filaret said in an interview. "But the period of the empires is over. We have already entered a period of globalisation while Putin wants to remain in the period of empires." Ukraine's Joint Forces have reported no casualties in the past 24 hours. Russian-led forces mounted 22 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas in the past 24 hours. "No casualties among the Ukrainian troops have been reported over the past day. According to intelligence reports, four occupiers were killed and another eight were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on September 28, 2018. Read alsoOSCE: 79th Russian convoy crossed into Ukraine, returned through Donetsk Border Crossing Point Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers of various systems, heavy machine guns and small arms to attack the defenders of the town of Zolote, and the villages of Krymske, Novotoshkivske, Troyitske, Novotroyitske, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Vodiane, Lebedynske, and Shyrokyne. In addition, the enemy resorted to weapons of infantry fighting vehicles to shell the Ukrainian positions near Novotroyitske and Shyrokyne, as well as a ZU-23-2 towed 23mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon near Novotoshkivske. "Since Friday midnight, Russian-led forces have mounted two attacks on the Ukrainian positions. The Ukrainian fortified positions near Hnutove came under fire from grenade launchers and small arms. No heavy weapons were used. There have been no casualties among Ukrainian troops from the start of the day," reads the report. The death of the terrorist has been confirmed in the so-called "DPR." Anna Chabanova aka Sirena, a 28-year-old well-known terrorist in the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR"), who actively posted photos with weapons on the "advanced positions" of the Russian-led forces, has been killed in Donbas. "Chabanova Anna Alexandrovna 'Sirena' (Donetsk, 24/06/90) was killed on 27/09/18 near the village of Kominternove," Ukrainian blogger aka Necro Mancer wrote on Twitter and published her photo. The death of the terrorist has been confirmed in the so-called "DPR." At about 100m south-east of the shooting range, the SMM UAV also spotted a man, assessed as a member of the armed formations. The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine says Russian-led forces have used an airfield in the south-eastern outskirts of Luhansk city as a newly built shooting range. Read alsoOSCE: 79th Russian convoy crossed into Ukraine, returned through Donetsk Border Crossing Point "At an airfield in the south-eastern outskirts of Luhansk city, an UAV spotted a recently flattened field surrounded by berms, assessed as a newly built shooting range and part of a training area (inside the security zone)," the mission said in an update on September 27, based on information received as of 19:30 on September 26, 2018. "At about 100m south-east of the shooting range, the SMM UAV also spotted a man, assessed as a member of the armed formations," the report says. The arsenal is stored on the military base, which is arranged on the site of the former knitting factory in Luhansk. Spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Dmytro Hutsuliak says a large batch of small arms and ammunition has been delivered to the occupied city of Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, from the Russian Federation. Read alsoActivists release new evidence of Russian military presence in Donbas "On September 23 and 26, a large batch of small arms and ammunition was delivered from the village of Kuybyshevo in [Russia's] Rostov region. The arsenal is intended for arming the so-called 'territorial defense units' during the mobilization events," he told a briefing on September 28, referring to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate. Hutsuliak said Russia continues to use the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions to create new military bases. In particular, one of the new secret bases for storage of weapons and ammunition has been arranged on the site of the former Luhansk knitting factory. According to the official, the Russian weapons and ammunition were supplied to transfer them to the so-called "Cossack" units and regular formations (criminal gangs) in case of escalation of hostilities. As UNIAN reported earlier, Anna Chabanova aka Sirena, a 28-year-old well-known terrorist in the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR"), who actively posted photos with weapons on the "advanced positions" of the Russian-led forces, was killed in Donbas. Commitments already made have to be translated into concrete action on the ground, Apakan said. Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine Ertugrul Apakan says a genuine willingness is required if a full sustainable ceasefire is to be achieved in eastern Ukraine. Read alsoOSCE: Russian-led forces use Luhansk airfield as shooting range In his address to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday, the Chief Monitor pointed out that there had been three attempts to cease fire through seasonal recommitments since the beginning of the year, the latest happening on August 29. Although initially resulting in a decrease in the level of recorded violence, each attempt invariably failed as weapons remained in place and little progress was made on the disengagement of forces and hardware, the OSCE said in a press release. "Commitments already made have to be translated into concrete action on the ground," the Ambassador said. Meanwhile, Apakan said, civilians continue to be killed and injured, and infrastructure providing gas, electricity and water upon which civilians on both sides of the contact line depend remains vulnerable. With the support of the SMM, long-stalled repairs were finally made possible on a number of key infrastructure facilities, benefitting hundreds of thousands of people. "Local solutions only work in the short term," Apakan said. "Political will is needed to find more long-lasting solutions." The GRU officer is expected to have reported back on details such as the layout of the cul de sac and which door Mr. Skripal used to enter the property. A third Russian military intelligence officer who carried out a reconnaissance mission before the poisoning of Sergei Skripal has been identified by counter terrorism police and the security services, the Telegraph understands. The GRU agent is believed to have visited Salisbury to help plan the attack before two of his colleagues brought weapons grade nerve agent into the UK, according to the Telegraph. It is understood that the man has now been identified by those investigating the planned hit in March, which inadvertently led to the death of local woman Dawn Sturgess. Read alsoBellingcat: Skripal suspect Boshirov identified as GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga It came as Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, said he believed the Russians had made the attempt to kill the former spy because they felt they "got away" with the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2005. "That's why Theresa May's reaction this time has been very different," Mr. Hunt told Sky News. He said the Kremlin would not have expected 28 countries around the world to expel more than 150 Russian diplomats. His comments come after Ruslan Boshirov, one of the would-be assassins, was unmasked as highly decorated GRU colonel Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga. The true identity of Alexander Petrov remains unclear, though the Telegraph has established that he was using his real first name and an alias as a surname. Now a third agent has been tracked in Salisbury and it is thought that he fed information back to Col Chepiga and Petrov. It comes after it was revealed by investigative journalist group Bellingcat that the numbers on the passports issued to Col Chepiga his accomplice in fake names were part of a series that have been linked to other GRU officers. It is believed that the apparent blunder could have led to their international movements being traced and identities exposed. A reconnaissance mission would have been essential as an attack which saw nerve agent smeared on a door handle would not have been decided on a whim, security experts say. The GRU officer is expected to have reported back on details such as the layout of the cul de sac and which door Mr. Skripal used to enter the property. Sergei Migdal, a security expert and former police and intelligence officer, said: "Someone would have had to carry out a reconnaissance mission beforehand. "I understand that it was timed for Yulia's arrival as they wanted to be sure that their target would be in Salisbury. It would have been too much trouble to watch him all the time and that may have aroused suspicion. "We now know that there is a link between GRU officers and a series of passport numbers, and I would imagine that law enforcement has already looked at the border control records to establish where operatives have been." Read alsoBoshirov, Petrov, other GRU officers' passport numbers almost coincide The Insider Philip Ingram, a former intelligence and security officer, added: "There was almost certainly intelligence on the ground before the attack was carried out, it is what is called a pattern of life study. They wouldn't have turned up at the house and put it on the door handle on a whim." Mr. Skripal and his daughter both survived the attack and are currently in hiding. The furore over the poisoning was reignited on Wednesday when Boshirov was unmasked as Col Chepiga, 39, who was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by decree of the president. Mr. Ingram said: "This is a highly decorated officer who has clearly been fast tracked through his career and therefore it is right and proper that he would have been chosen to carry out such a mission, an international operation which is likely to have been personally authorised by Vladimir Putin. "His boss, the head of the GRU Colonel General Igor Korobov, only got the Hero of the Russian Federation Award three years later in 2017, so it shows how highly decorated Col Chepiga was. "Given his age he would have been fast tracked up the ranks, he was obviously seen as a rising star. "These two men were burned, their bosses knew that after this these individuals would never be able to operate overseas again. "This colonel was obviously on the forefront for quite a number of years, Chechnya and Eastern Ukraine were really bloody, maybe he was a little bit burnt out and this was an excuse to give him one final mission before he goes off on a desk job." The Metropolitan Police, which is leading the investigation, refused to comment. (@rukhshanmir) A delegation of Chief Executive Officers of Islamic Banking Institutions called on Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, Asad Umar here at the Ministry of Finance. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Sep, 2018 ) :A delegation of Chief Executive Officers of Islamic Banking Institutions called on Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, Asad Umar here at the Ministry of Finance. Secretary Ministry of Finance Arif Ahmed Khan was also present on the occasion, a statement issued here Thursday said. During the meeting, President Meezan Bank Irfan Siddique gave a detailed presentation on Islamic Banking sector in Pakistan. He said that there was a great demand for Islamic banking as a large segment of population wanted to avail Islamic Banking services. He said that the industry, which was set up in Pakistan in 2005, had witnessed a robust growth of 35 percent. The presentation also highlighted the obstacles faced by Islamic Banking institution in its future growth. Finance Minister said the government was committed to promote Islamic Banking sector in the country and would help in resolving the issues faced by the industry. He said level playing field would be given to the Islamic Banking along with the conventional banking. He asked the Islamic Banking to come up with innovative products through which they could participate in sectors which were facing liquidity problems. (@FahadShabbir) The damage to the state sector of the Syrian industry from the activity of militants during the years of crisis exceeded $2 billion, country's Industry Minister Mohammed Mazen Yousef told Sputnik in an interview. DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The damage to the state sector of the Syrian industry from the activity of militants during the years of crisis exceeded $2 billion, country's Industry Minister Mohammed Mazen Yousef told Sputnik in an interview. "Out of 96 enterprises, 46 completely stopped operating during the crisis as a result of destruction and looting by terrorists. A total 18 enterprises partially operate and only 32 enterprises operate in full capacity," Mazen Yousef said. According the minister, the authorities supported by "friendly nations" are undertaking measures to restore the enterprises affected by the crisis. Mazen Yousef mentioned several enterprises that have already been restored, including a pharmaceutical plant in Hama and a sugar factory in Homs. The civil war in Syria has been raging for over seven years, with the government forces fighting against numerous terrorist groups and opposition factions. The country has recently begun restoring its cities, economy and infrastructure that were destroyed during the war. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The European Union (EU) will launch a new trade mechanism by November aimed at facilitating trade with Iran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday. TEHRAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Sep, 2018 ) :The European Union (EU) will launch a new trade mechanism by November aimed at facilitating trade with Iran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday. Speaking to reporters at Tehran's international airport, Rouhani said that EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini had informed him that a new "special mechanism" for conducting commercial transactions with Iran would come online sometime in November. Commenting on his recent trip to New York where he took part in the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, Rouhani said he had met top officials from several countries and the heads of a number of multilateral institutions. According to the Iranian president, several states including France, Germany, Russia and the UK had agreed to establish a "special mechanism" for easing trade in different sectors, including energy, using various means of payment. Rouhani described the results of these meetings including one with Mogherini 'very positive.' Fu Zhenming (second from right) at an exhibition in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. [Photo provided to China Daily] In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up, an exhibition recently opened in Jingshan Park, showcasing the paintings and calligraphy works of Chinese master artists. Over 30 artists from top Chinese art institutes, including the Chinese Calligraphers Association, the China Artists Association, and the China Central Institute for Culture and History, were invited by the park to create artworks onf Beijing's Central Axis. National first-class artist, Fu Zhenming, said, "With brushes and ink, we commend the sublime Central Axis. With this exhibition, Jingshan Park supports the Central Axis' application for the World Heritage List." The final works displayed the achievements made during the 40 years of reform and opening-up through the different aspects of the Central Axis, ranging from its history and scenery, to culture and development. (@ChaudhryMAli88) With a significant growth of some 195 percent, mobile phone banking transactions crossed Rs 410 billion mark during the last fiscal year (FY18). ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :With a significant growth of some 195 percent, mobile phone banking transactions crossed Rs 410 billion mark during the last fiscal year (FY18). According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Mobile Phone/App based banking is being offered by 21 Banks/MFBs to 3.4 million registered users at the end of June, 2018. Intra-bank and Inter-bank fund transfer were the main contributors in total Mobile Phone Banking transactions. Intra-bank fund transfers contributed 5.8(26.6%) million transactions by volume and Rs. 186.2(45.4%) billion by value. Inter-bank fund transfers contributed 5.0 (22.9%) million transactions by volume and Rs. 196.4 (47.9%) million by value. Utility Bills Payments has the share of 10.1 (46.3%)million by volume and Rs.10.5billion (2.6%)by value within overall Mobile Banking volume and value transactions respectively and insignificant residual share is contributed by miscellaneous payment using mobile phone app. Call Center/ IVR Banking Transactions During the year FY18, Call enters/IVR Banking Channel processed 0. 3 million transactions amounting to Rs. 8.7 million. This channel facilitates Intra and Inter-Bank Funds transfers, Utilities Bill Payments. As on end June2018,there were 26.5 million Call Centers/IVR Banking Channel registered users with Banks. It also facilitates16 million non-financial transactions during the year. The e-Banking channels, i.e, real time online branches (RTOB), ATMs, e-Commerce, internet, Mobile Phone and Call Centers/IVR Banking collectively processed 756.4 million transactions of value Rs 47.4 trillion during the last fiscal year. These transactions showed significant growth of 21 percent and 28 percent in both volume and value of transactions compared to previous year FY17. During the year under review, Real Time Online Branches (RTOB) processed 165.7 million transactions of Rs 39.9 trillion. These transactions depicted YoY growth of 15 percent and 28 percent in volume and value of transactions respectively compared to previous year. Shell Pakistan held a first of its kind Shell Technology Leadership Conference (STLC) in Islamabad, showcasing energy solutions in lubricants, fuel, and technological advancements in the energy industry Islamabad, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Sep, 2018 ) Shell Pakistan held a first of its kind Shell Technology Leadership Conference (STLC) in Islamabad, showcasing energy solutions in lubricants, fuel, and technological advancements in the energy industry. The conference welcomed 200 of Shell Pakistans Lubricants Business-to-Business (B2B) customers with the purpose of bringing them together at one platform to learn from global experts about new technology breakthroughs in the Shell World. The conference was led by Haroon Rashid, Chief Executive and Managing Director of Shell Pakistan, with Mian Asad Hayaud Din, Federal Secretary for Petroleum Division as Chief Guest; and Joerg Wienke, Vice President Retail Marketing of Royal Dutch Shell. We are proud to lead discussions around lubricant and fuel technology in Pakistan, said Haroon Rashid, Chief Executive and Managing Director of Shell Pakistan. In a world that is ever changing, it is important to shareinnovationsand advancements with our partners in Pakistan to ensure the best possible product forour consumers. Shell strongly believes that together we can make a difference. The Technology Leadership Conference explored the latest trends and technology surrounding lubricants, energy reliability and best practices in manufacturing and energy production using Shell products. Topics covered included original equipment manufacturers relationships, technology leadership, increasing work efficiency, innovation breakthroughs, competitive energy solutions in lubricants and fuels, Shell consultancy and Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) technology. The global Shell team facilitated individuals from businesses, sharing knowledge around technological innovations addressing organizational needs and operational challenges that willhelp them grow their business. Shell also unveiled their B2B Lubricants Masterbrand, Shell Lubricants at the conference, building on Shells belief that Together Anything is Possible. This is a differentiated lubricants offering combining Shells people and technical expertise, industry knowledge and the strength to build sustainable relationships with customers. (@FahadShabbir) The yield on Italian bonds shot higher Friday morning following the announcement that the populist government plans to expand its deficit to 2.4 percent in the 2019 budget. Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :The yield on Italian bonds shot higher Friday morning following the announcement that the populist government plans to expand its deficit to 2.4 percent in the 2019 budget. The rate of return to investors on 10-year Italian government bonds shot to 3.084 percent from 2.888 percent at the end of trading Thursday on the secondary market, while the spread with benchmark German government bonds widened to 2.6 percentage points. (@ChaudhryMAli88) H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has participated in the Yemen Quartet ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. NEW YORK, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 28th Sep, 2018) H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has participated in the Yemen Quartet ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. The meeting was also attended by Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeremy Hunt, British Foreign Secretary and David Hale, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs. The foreign ministers emphasised their support for the UN efforts led by the Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths. They also discussed Iran's destabilising influence in Yemen and the region as a whole, and also tackled ways to develop confidence-building measures after the breakdown of peace talks in Geneva. Regarding the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Yemen, members discussed how the Quartet can provide more assistance to the Yemeni people by facilitating access of humanitarian and commercial goods into the country. In his remarks, Hunt urged members of the Quartet to exert all efforts to push forward the UN-led peace process and seize the opportunity to achieve political progress in Yemen. Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Ambassador and Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, UAE's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, attended the meeting. The Emirates Red Crescent (ERC) on Thursday sent a humanitarian relief convoy to LAHEJ, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 28th Sep, 2018) The Emirates Red Crescent (ERC) on Thursday sent a humanitarian relief convoy to a number of villages in Al Mallah District in Lahej Governorate. Anis Mohammed Nasser, Director General of Al Mallah District welcomed the visiting ERC team and extended thanks for their efforts to provide assistance to the population in remote areas. Beneficiaries extended thanks and appreciation to the UAE and its humanitarian arm for providing help in the framework of the Emirati giving approach. They also said that ERC is the first humanitarian organisation that has reached to these areas. H.H. Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras al-Khaimah, has honoured a record-breaking number of RAK Medical & Health Sciences University, RAKMHSU, students by bestowing on them their graduation certificates. RAS AL KHAIMAH, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 28th Sep, 2018) H.H. Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras al-Khaimah, has honoured a record-breaking number of RAK Medical & Health Sciences University, RAKMHSU, students by bestowing on them their graduation certificates. Sheikh Saud said, "These Ras Al Khaimah Medical & Health Sciences University graduates highlight the talent our emirate is proudly producing as we continue to improve and introduce more educational institutions in Ras al-Khaimah. ''education is fundamental to the prosperity of our nation and I am confident these graduates will inspire our younger generations. I congratulate their efforts and wish them a successful future." A total of 304 students in the fields of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Nursing are being recognised at the state-of-the-art university across two convocation ceremonies, on Thursday, 27th September, and Thursday, 4th October, respectively. The total number of graduates in the last academic year represents a 28 percent increase as against the 2016 graduate numbers and a 145 percent increase as against 2013. RAKMHSU opened in 2006 with just 22 students and now there are more than 1,300 from 50 countries, being taught by a skilled faculty numbering 300. At the first convocation ceremony, President of University, Dr. S Gurumadhva Rao, delivered a speech to congratulate the students and highlight the progress RAKMHSU has made in the past 12 years, in terms of campus expansion, increased student enrolment and variety of courses offered. This years alumni embark on their careers when the healthcare industry requires qualified staff. An Alpen Capital report states that, by 2025, Dubai will require 8,300 physicians and 8,800 nurses, while McKinsey and Co. predict demand for healthcare in the GCC will increase by 240 percent in the next 20 years. Dr. Rao said, "This group of graduates is our largest yet, as Ras Al Khaimah Medical & Health Sciences University continues to lead the way and fulfil the growing need for highly-skilled healthcare professionals. They enter the medical field at a time when physicians and particularly nurses are in high demand across the UAE, so they will help address the chronic shortages the sector faces." Of the 304 graduates, 86 are from Medical, 65 from Dental, 41 from Pharmacy, and 112 from Nursing. The convocation ceremony was attended by a number of other senior university and RAK government officials. Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Ambassador to Kazakhstan, attended the opening of the office of the Islamic Organisation for Food Security, IOFS, in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. ASTANA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 28th Sep, 2018) Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Ambassador to Kazakhstan, attended the opening of the office of the Islamic Organisation for Food Security, IOFS, in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. In his inaugural address, Yerzhan Jalmukhanov, the Director-General of IOFS, spoke about the plans and activities of the Astana-based organisation. He also thanked the UAE for its support and contribution to the activities and programmes of the IOFS. Dr. Al Jaber commended the efforts by the IOFS to achieve food security in the Islamic world. President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, first broached the initiative to establish the IOFS in an address to the 38th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC in 2011. Two years later, at an intergovernmental expert meeting in Astana, experts from 30 member states from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OIC, agreed on a draft statutory document. The Astana-based organisation aims to solve the problems of providing the population of Islamic countries with more affordable food based on their natural and climatic conditions and geographic location, creating the most profitable transport and logistics routes that will minimise the cost of sending food supplies to OIC member countries and stabilise food prices through the formation and management of joint food funds. The Republic of Yemen, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Arab Republic of Egypt have issued the following statement GENEVA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 29th Sep, 2018) The Republic of Yemen, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Arab Republic of Egypt have issued the following statement: "We are disappointed that the Human Rights Council failed to achieve consensus for a draft resolution on the situation in Yemen. In particular, we are disappointed that certain Member States failed to consider the real and legitimate concerns of those States who are most affected by the situation in Yemen. We are disappointed that the observations of international and regional expert groups, including those which highlighted irregularities, errors and omissions contained within the report, were not included in todays resolution. We are left with a resolution which is biased, and which clearly contradicts the clear mandate laid out by the United Nations Security Council. The clear division that emerged today when the Human Rights Council adopted the resolution submitted by the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Luxembourg, amongst others, which was passed by less than half of the members of the Council, lacked the consent of the concerned State itself and disregarded Yemens sovereign right to give its consent to cooperate with international resolutions that deal directly with the human rights situation in its own territory. This clear division emerged despite the willingness and cooperation shown by the delegation of Yemen and the delegations of the concerned States to reach a consensus, which was in line with UNSC Resolutions and the wishes of the legitimate government of Yemen. In light of the non-cooperation and determination of the abovementioned States, the Arab Group stated its commitment to submit under agenda item 10 of the Human Rights Council its draft resolution, in which its calls the Office of the High Commissioner to continue providing technical assistance and capacity-building for the Yemeni legitimate government and the Yemeni National Commission of Inquiry. The resolution was adopted by consensus among HRC Member States, and obtained the consent of the State concerned and its willingness to cooperate towards its implementation." (@ChaudhryMAli88) Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met his Bahraini counterpart Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday. UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met his Bahraini counterpart Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday. The two Foreign Ministers agreed to work closely to reinvigorate bilateral trade, commercial and investment relations, according to an official statement. They also agreed to interact more closely to revive the institutional mechanisms that exist between the two countries. The Foreign Minister also raised issues related to the well-being of Pakistani community in Bahrain, the statement said. He was given the assurance of full cooperation and support of the government of Bahrain, it said. (@rukhshanmir) An Accountability Court of Islamabad Thursday adjourned hearing of the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference against former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif till Friday. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Sep, 2018 ) :An Accountability Court of Islamabad Thursday adjourned hearing of the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference against former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif till Friday. National Accountability Bureau (NAB)'s investigation officer Mehboob Alam would continue recording his statement before the court on next date of hearing. Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik conducted hearing over the corruption reference against former prime minister filed by (NAB). Nawaz Sharif appeared before the court first time after his sentence was suspended by Islamabad High Court (IHC). As the hearing began, the junior defense counsel requested the court to record their objections over IO's earlier statement dated August 15, which was allowed by the judge. Ayesha Hamid Advocate said NAB couldn't use the JIT report as its evidence against disposed prime minister. During proceeding, NAB IO said the accused persons and other people concerned had received a huge amount from Hill Metal Establishment Company. The amount was also shifted to the accounts of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz, he added. Mehboob Alam said the NAB had also investigated the transaction and sought record from the bank concerned. Irfan Mehmood and Azhar Ikaram, the officers of Habib Bank, were also included in investigation process and they provided the relevant material. The operation manager of a local bank Saneel Ejaz Khokher provided the transaction record regarding sending money to Abdul Razzaq, he said. He informed the court that the NAB had wrote to Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage to get record of Nawaz Sharif's tv interview and his speech before the Parliament. Khawaja Haris objected on this statement and said this part of witness's statement was not relevant to him and it was an unacceptable evidence. The NAB IO said Executive Director PEMRA Hassan Mustafa had provided a copy of Hussein Nawaz's interview in a DVD. This interview was a public history and could be presented as evidence against accused persons. Opposing the statement, the defense lawyer argued that it was not a public history and couldn't be used as evidence in this case. He said the person who had recorded this interview was not included in investigation process. Haris said the CD and transcript of the interview were not prepared infront of the investigation officer. The court later adjourned hearing of the case till Friday, whereas the Mehmboob Alam would continue recoding his statement before the court. Walking around a suburb of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, one can find walls painted green with advertisements reading "ZONG 4G A NEW DREAM." Wang Hua, chief executive officer of CMPak. [Photo by Wang Wei/China.org.cn] Zong is a brand operating under China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak), a 100-percent owned subsidiary of the world's largest telecom company China Mobile Communications Corporation. CMPak formerly Paktel, a wireless carrier in Pakistan was founded in 2007 as China Mobile's first venture outside China, and has seen exponential growth in the past 11 years, according to Wang Hua, the fifth chief executive officer of CMPak. "We actually have suffered great difficulties since the acquisition of Paktel in 2007," Wang said. "Faced with a fully competitive and open market in Pakistan, we cannot enjoy any special policy or treatment. Hence, the operating costs here are quite far beyond those at home." Moreover, Pakistan is a country with high taxes, which makes the company's operations more difficult, Wang added. "CMPak didn't make any profit until 2016, and continued in 2017." Currently, CMPak has more than 31 million customers in Pakistan, accounting for about 21 percent of the market. The number of its 4G subscribers has reached 8 million, ranking first in the industry. It is estimated that the company's revenue will increase by more than 20 percent this year, according to Wang. Supporting Belt and Road projects "Strictly speaking, CMPak is not a Belt and Road project; however, one of our important missions is to provide support for such projects and serve interested Chinese enterprises and their employees," Wang explained. So far, CMPak has been providing information technology solutions for 194 Chinese firms in Pakistan, including 160,000 individual clients. Wang once visited the Gwadar Port in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan a key part of the Belt and Road Initiative which offers the shortest and most convenient trade route to Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Learning that Chinese workers were experiencing difficulty in keeping in touch with their families back in China, CMPak set up five basic stations and succeeded in solving the problem through satellite communications in the first half of this year. "Now they can use our 4G signals to call home every day. Most of the workers have little kids at home; a call will give them great support and comfort," Wang said, adding that 10 more basic stations will be built in the following years. CMPak also carried out cooperation with China Three Gorges Corporation, China Huaneng Group, China State Construction Engineering Corporation and other Chinese enterprises to provide high-speed Wi-Fi internet services for their bases and projects in Pakistan. "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor aims to facilitate connectivity through infrastructure construction," said Wang. "What we are doing is to build a China-Pakistan information highway to bring more economic cooperation between the two countries." (@rukhshanmir) Pakistan Muslim League leader and former minister Ahsan Iqbal Thursday said that government should incorporate a workable road map in amended Finance Bill for creating jobs, reviving economy and ensuring prosperity in the country. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Sep, 2018 ) :Pakistan Muslim League leader and former minister Ahsan Iqbal Thursday said that government should incorporate a workable road map in amended Finance Bill for creating jobs, reviving economy and ensuring prosperity in the country. He said this, while participating in debate on The Finance Supplementary (Amendment) Bill, 2018. Ahsan Iqbal said that the budget documents lack any vision, giving no policy to steer the country's economy out of crisis and making it competitive. He said continuity of policies and economic stability is needed for country's prosperity. He lamented that the government denies last five years' success and policy reversal would severely damages country's reputation. Ahsan Iqbal said the government has not given any plan to plug Rs2200 billion deficit, but government gives only Rs183 billion plan to plug the deficit. There is no plan to take back Rs19 per kg tax being levied on sugar and 45 percent tax imposed on powdered milk. He said the budget also missed providing a road map to provide 2 million jobs this year. He demanded of the government to restore slashed Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). Meanwhile participating in budget debate, Ms Aliya Hamza criticised the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government on borrowing huge loans. (@ChaudhryMAli88) President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday emphasized that provision of basic facilities to the masses was top most responsibility of the government. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Sep, 2018 ) :President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday emphasized that provision of basic facilities to the masses was top most responsibility of the government. He said this during a meeting with Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudary Fawad Hussain and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Iftikhar Durrani who called on him here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, a press release issued by President's Media Wing aid. He reiterated to play a proactive role in this regard and fulfilling his responsibilities in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution. The president appreciated the environmental initiatives of the prime minister and assured his full support in such noble causes. He urged to minimize unnecessary protocol and resolved for its self demonstration. The terrorists were involved in killing of 69 persons, including 49 civilians, 20 Armed Forces/Police Officials and injuring 148 others. Rawalpindi (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News 28th September, 2018) Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed death sentences for 11 hardcore terrorists. According to a press release issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the terrorists were involved in heinous offences related to terrorism, including attacking Armed Forces/Law Enforcement Agencies of Pakistan, destruction of an educational institution and killing of innocent civilians. On the whole, they were involved in killing of 69 persons, including 49 civilians, 20 Armed Forces/Police Officials and injuring 148 others. Arms and explosives were also recovered from their possession. These convicts were tried by special military courts. Besides, four convicts have also been awarded imprisonment. The COAS had on September 9 confirmed death sentence to 13 terrorists involved in attacking armed forces, educational institutions and killing of innocent civilians. They were involved in killing of 202 persons including 151 civilians, 51 Armed Forces/Frontier Constabulary/ Police Officials and injuring 249 others. A delegation of six French companies from various sectors led by the French Business Council the largest French Chamber of Commerce in the Middle East, based in Dubai visited Karachi from September, 24 to 27 2018 ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :A delegation of six French companies from various sectors led by the French Business Council the largest French Chamber of Commerce in the middle East, based in Dubai visited Karachi from September, 24 to 27 2018. Their visit was jointly organized by the embassy of France in Pakistan and the Pakistan France Business Alliance (PFBA), said a statement issued here on Friday. The delegates had meeting with representatives from the French embassy and the French Consulate General to better assess opportunities offered by the Pakistani market. They visited a textile factory belonging to Gul Ahmed Group, one of the major players in the manufacturing industry and Sanofi's plant. Sanofi, a major French company in the pharmaceutical sector has been present in Pakistan for over half a century, manufacturing locally. The Pakistan France Business Alliance shared its insight into the Pakistani business environment to the French Business delegation and organized a fruitful networking diner with the Pakistani Business community. Business to Business meetings were also organized during the visit and that will certainly contribute to the development of economic relations between France and Pakistan. The Broadening of Tax Base (BTB) Zone Islamabad on Friday organized an awareness seminar at the Islamabad High Court Bar Association in order to create awareness and understanding about the filing of tax returns and fulfilling tax obligation as a national duty. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :The Broadening of Tax Base (BTB) Zone Islamabad on Friday organized an awareness seminar at the Islamabad High Court Bar Association in order to create awareness and understanding about the filing of tax returns and fulfilling tax obligation as a national duty. A team led by Dr Khalid Mahmood Lodhi, Commissioner (Inland Revenue) and other officers of the BTB conducted the workshop and apprised the legal fraternity about the significance of tax payment in the national building process. Dr Khalid Mahmood Lodhi dilated upon the rationale of tax payment, significance of tax-to GDP ratio in national development, issues of tax base and role of FBR in revenue realization as well as emphasized the benefits of filing the tax returns. Later, a BTB team consisting of e-filing experts explained the concept of e-enrolment with FBR, step-wise process of e-filing of returns and procedure for payment of taxes. A large number of lawyers attended the session and took keen interest in the process of enrollment, e-filing, deduction of taxes under various sections of Income Tax Ordinance 2001 and ICTO. Earlier, Islamabad High Court Bar Association President Syed Javed Akbar welcomed the FBR team and appreciated its gesture in educating and facilitating the taxpayers. The seminar ended on a vote of gratitude and satisfaction. APP Feature by Fakhar Alam No sector is perhaps most important for investment than construction of dams and water reservoirs in Pakistan to avert the looming crisis of water and energy in wake of grave challenges posed by climate change and global warming to the region. PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :APP Feature by Fakhar Alam No sector is perhaps most important for investment than construction of dams and water reservoirs in Pakistan to avert the looming crisis of water and energy in wake of grave challenges posed by climate change and global warming to the region. The looming water and energy's crisis has necessitated building of new small, medium and big dams like Diamir Bhasha and Mohmand dams besides hydropower projects, which required massive investment to cater an ever growing energy, food and water demands of increasing population, electricity-starved industries and agriculture sectors in the country. Taking cognizance of depleting water and energy situation, the KP Government is all set to take a lead role by capitalizing on an excellent work made by previous PTI Government to complete ongoing dams and hydropower projects on different rivers and tributaries on war footing basis to provide affordable energy and clean drinking water under Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision to all. KP Government accelerated work on five ongoing small medium and big hydropower projects (HPP) with overall 215.8 megawatt (MW) capacity costing Rs64980.1million, which would be completed by May 2019, officials in KP Energy Department told APP. These projects include 10.8MW Jabori Manshera HPP costing Rs3798.26million with completion of 70pc work whereas on Karora HPP in Shangla with 11.2MW capacity costing Rs4620.06 million, 65pc work was completed. At least 30pc work on Koto HPP Dir Lower with 40.8MW costing Rs14252.84 million, 25pc work on 84mw Matiltan HPP Swat worth Rs20722.94 million and 30pc work on 69mw Lawi HPP costing Rs21586m were completed by previous PTI Government. "We have offered seven sites of 668MW to private sector for investment and response of investors are high encouraging," the official said, adding Sharmai HPP with 150MW capacity, has been awarded to a company while six others projects namely Nardam Dam in Manshera 188MW, Shigokach HPP in Lower Dir 102MW, Arkari Gol HPP CHitral 99MW, Batakundi HPP in Manshera 96MW and Nandihar HPP Batagram would be awarded soon. These gigantic projects would be completed with USD 1435 million, which would provide inexpensive electricity and uninterrupted water supply to people and agriculture besides giving enormous boost to business, industrial and infant industries. Three mega hydropower power projects of 506MW capacity including Shushgai-Zhendoli 144MW, Shogo-Sin 132MW and Laspur Marigram 230MA in Chitral have been awarded to FWO to ensure its speedy construction. The Government has signed MOU with Chinese companies for construction of seven gigantic hydropower projects of 1978 MW proposed under CPEC in Chitral. The seven projects proposed for CPEC include Mujigram-Shghor 64MW, Istaru Booni 72MA, Turen More Kari 350MW, Jamshill Turen More 260MW, Ghrait-Swir Lasht 277MW, Torcamp-Guddubar 409MW, Kari-Mushkur 446MW and power evacuation from Chitral to Chakdar through a transmission line, which after completion would help arrest energy and water's problems. The official said negotiations were underway with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for construction of Balakot Manshera project of 300MW capacity. CWDP has approved concept papers of Barikot Patrak HPP in Lower Dir with 47MW capacity, Patrak Shangrail HPP Lower Dir with 22 MW and Gabral Kalam Swat 110 MW for which negotiations was held with World Bank for its construction. Under development of mini-macro hydropower sites initiative , the Energy Department has identified 160 hydropower sites on canals costing Rs3301mln and 512 hydropower sites on rivers and tributaries costing Rs8495. 41mln to fully tap KP's hydel generation and water potential. The official said consultants were hired for these mega projects after it was approved by PDWP on November 11, 2017. To save energy, KP Govt has started focus on solarization of schools and basic health units and decided to solarize 8000 schools including 30pc girls schools and 187BHUs with an estimated cost of Rs4347m for which services of consultant was hired. The KP government has also decided to solarize 100 villages in southern and central districts of the province and under this mega project, 2900 solar system has been provided to people of these districts. "We have started implementation on this key project costing Rs300mln under which each household will get 30watts solar panel, three LED lights, one each ceiling and pedestal fan, one mobile phone charging slot and two batteries," the official elaborated. The KP Govt has completed survey and hiring of consultant to solarize 4440 mosques in the province besides solarization of remaining blocks of Civil Secretariat and Chief Minister Secretariat, Peshawar. Till August 2018, the official said KP Government with help of NGOs has completed 255 out of 356 mini macro hydropower projects (MMHPPs) in 12 northern districts of the province whereas work on 67 others are in full swing. As per contract of 356 MMHPPs, the feasibility studies of 333 have been approved by the competent forum out of which 255MMHPPs with 13445kilowatts power generation capacity has been completed. Out of 255 MMHPPs, 15 were completed in ABbottabad, 51 Batagram, 44 Chitral, 40 Swat, 28 Kohistan, 21 Shangla, 37 Upper Dir, four Lower Dir, 13 Buner and one each in Torghar and Manshera districts. As many as seven MMHPPs are being constructed in Batagram, 11 in Chitral, five in Swat, seven in Kohistan, three Shangla, 12 Upper Dir, five Buner, two Lower Dir and nine in Manshera with help of NGOs. The official said litigants and shifting of heavy machineries to mountainous areas besides others factors contributed to delay in construction of remaining MMHPPs. "The electricity transmission from most of these MMHPPs had already been started to communities living near it with a significant positive socio-economic changes are being witnessed in their lifestyle," the official said. PTI MNA Nasir Khan Musazai told APP that completion scores of water, energy and hydropower projects during tenure of previous PTI Govt was a clear manifestation of fulfillment of the promises made by PTI leadership with people. "Our political opponents and critics had started baseless criticism on PTI when Imran Khan announced construction of 356 min-micro power stations in KP while addressing a public meeting in Swat in 2014," he said, adding successful construction of 255MMHPPs has proved all criticism and slogans of political opponents as wrong today. "Prime Minister Imran Khan is the last hope for people of Pakistan and under his dynamic leadership, all the inherited problems including shortage of energy and water would be resolved," he maintained. Musazai urged people of all walk of life especially land owners, traders, and industrialists and expatriates Pakistanis to donate generously in the joint fund of PM-CJP for construction of Diamir Bhasha and Mohmand dams and play constructive role in progress and development of the country. (@mahnoorsheikh03) Local helmets to now be sold for Rs 500, imported for Rs 1,150 Lahore (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News 28th September, 2018) The City Traffic Police has launched a crackdown against the motorcyclists for violating helmet rule being enforced on the orders of the Lahore High Court (LHC). Just as the LHC made it compulsory for the motorcyclists to wear a helmet, there has been a hike in helmet prices and hence, motorcyclists are decrying the heavy fines being imposed and skyrocketing prices as well as poor quality of the helmets. Paying a heed to the concern of the motorcyclists, the Lahores district administration spokesperson has said that the hike in helmet prices has come to the notice of the administration. In a meeting with the traders of the city, the district administration has fixed the prices of local helmet as Rs 500 and imported helmet for Rs 1,150. Camps will also be established in various points of the city. The spokesperson said that the magistrates will visit the shops at Mcleod Road tomorrow. He said that complaints against those charging extra for helmets can be registered at 99210630, adding that a crackdown will be launched against them. The LHC had on Sep 11 made it compulsory for the motorcyclists to wear a helmet while those not wearing a helmet are fined Rs 1000. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi investigation team has arrested four accused members of the Financial Bid Opening Committee of the Workers Welfare Fund (WWF) allegedly involved in corruption and other false practices. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Sep, 2018 ) :National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi investigation team has arrested four accused members of the Financial Bid Opening Committee of the Workers Welfare Fund (WWF) allegedly involved in corruption and other false practices. According to a press release issued here on Thursday, the arrested were Zahid Rasheed s/o Abdul Rasheed, Ex-Director General, WWF, Afzal Hameed s/o Abdul Hameed, Director, WWF, Amanullah Khan s/o Abdul Aziz Khan, workers representative at Federal WWF, Asim Raza s/o Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmed, Employers' Representative at Federal WWF, under the investigation against officers of Workers Welfare Fund and others. According to details, the accused persons were the members of the Financial Bid Opening Committee of the Fund constituted to examine the financial proposal of the bid received in pursuance to the Tender Notice for procurement of land for establishing medical college and teaching hospital in the federal capital. The accused person willfully and knowingly recommended purchase of 150 Kanals land at the cost of Rs. 3.7 Million per Kanal at exorbitant price on a single bid without carrying out any due diligence. The accused in connivance with other accused persons, caused a loss of approximately more than Rs 530 million to the national exchequer by committing the offence of corruption and corrupt practices. The NAB officials produced the accused in the Accountability Court Islamabad. The Judge of the Accountability Court accepting the request of the NAB Rawalpindi, had granted 4 days physical remand to NAB Rawalpindi. Chairman NAB Justice Javed Iqbal has said that eradication of corruption and recovery of looted money from corrupt elements is top most priority of NAB. NAB is committed to root out corrupt with iron hands, he expressed. He appreciated the performance of NAB Rawalpindi under the supervision of DG NAB Rawalpindi and directed to make all out efforts to arrest proclaimed offenders and absconders and bring them to justice. (@ChaudhryMAli88) ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :The two-day Pakistan-Kuwait Joint Ministerial Commission meeting on Friday concluded with a resolve to facilitate frequent and unhindered movement of business community and labour force for economic development of both the countries. Finance Minister Asad Umar and Minister of Commerce and Industry of the State of Kuwait, Khaled Nasser Abdullah Al-Roudan co-chaired the meeting. There was also a general consensus to further strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries especially in the field of science, technology, business and finance and other potential sector of economy. Pakistan emphasized the need for utilizing the highly capable human resource of the country that can contribute towards the growth and development of Kuwait. Pakistan also expressed its desire to benefit from the extensive experience of Kuwait in the field of oil and gas exploration. Both sides agreed that the fifth meeting of Pakistan-Kuwait Joint Ministerial Commission will be held in Kuwait in 2020. Earlier, at the plenary session both co-chairs, highlighted significance of Pak-Kuwait cordial political and economic relations. Finance Minister Asad Umar expressed Pakistan's desire to enhance economic and commercial cooperation with Kuwait for mutual benefit of both the countries and invited Kuwaiti businessmen to invest in agriculture farmland, milk and food processing plants. They asked the Kuwaiti businessmen for exploring the opportunities in export of agricultural commodities of desired quality to Kuwait and other countries. He said that Kuwaiti investors may avail investment opportunities in Special Economic Zones of Pakistan in areas like automotive, food processing and textile as well as in oil and gas exploration. Addressing the meeting Kuwaiti Commerce Minsiter said that economic relations between the two countries would be further strengthened for the mutual benefits of both countries and their people. The Kuwaiti delegation also separately called on Finance Minister Asad Umar and had discussion on the avenues that could be explored for strengthening bilateral economic ties between the two brotherly countries. Pakistan and Uzbekistan here on Friday agreed for promoting religious tourism between both the countries as more than seven sacred shrines including shrine of Imam Bukhari were present in Bukhara, Samarqand and other cities of Uzbekistan. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :Pakistan and Uzbekistan here on Friday agreed for promoting religious tourism between both the countries as more than seven sacred shrines including shrine of Imam Bukhari were present in Bukhara, Samarqand and other cities of Uzbekistan. The consensus to this affect was developed during a meeting between Ambassador of Uzbikistan Firqat Sidiqov and Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Pir Noor Ul Haq Qadri, a press release said. The ambassador called on the minister and also discussed bilateral relations, whereas the minister highlighted the enduring brotherly relations between the two countries based on mutual trust. Pir Noor Ul Haq said that Pakistan attached great importance to its special relations with Uzbekistan and desired to further expand its cooperation to all fields.In this regard a memorandum of understanding would be signed in November this year. There was also an ongoing cooperation, both cultural and educational between the two countries , in addition to exchange of Ulema delegation and offering of scholarship in Islamic studies for the students of both countries towards its enhancement, he added. The minister and Uzbek ambassador agreed to keep working on strengthening the relationship between both countries in all fields to the inters of two states. China's elephant ivory trade ban has had significant positive effects, with more purchasers choosing not to buy ivory products, according to a report released on Thursday. The report, jointly released by the World Wildlife Fund and TRAFFIC, a nongovernmental organization working on sustainable development and conservation of biodiversity, is based on research conducted in collaboration with GlobeScan, an independent consultancy. It shows that public support for the ivory ban is high, with nine out of 10 respondents expressing support. All pre-ban legal ivory shops visited by TRAFFIC have stopped selling ivory.Moreover, TRAFFIC visited 157 markets in 23 cities and found 2,812 ivory products in 345 stores, a decline of 30 percent from last year. It also found that the average number of new ivory advertisements on websites and social media platforms dropped by 26.6 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively. In early 2015, China announced a one-year ban on imports of ivory carvings, which has since been extended. A year later, it declared a halt to the domestic ivory trade within a year. The ban on ivory trading took effect at the end of 2017. Poaching is estimated to claim about 30,000 elephants annually, and China's ban has been widely hailed by the international community as a policy that could help stop the practice and reverse the decline of the African wild elephant population. Although the ban has received positive feedback, experts believe that further action is needed to influence more people and raise public awareness of wild elephant protection by ceasing purchases of ivory and related products. Apart from China's border areas with Vietnam, such as Dongxing and Pingxiang in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, the report said more cities have become ivory trafficking hot spots, including Chengdu, Sichuan province; Hangzhou, Zhejiang province; and Chongqing municipality. "Rapid economic growth in those inland cities boosted people's consumption power, but more public education on wild species protection is needed," said Xu Ling, head of the wildlife trade program of the WWF's China office. "The report may help the Chinese government strengthen market supervision, law enforcement and public education for effective implementation to ensure the long-term success of the ivory trade ban," she said. With ivory auctions now being the only legitimate commercial trade markets for ivory products, the research also found that antique ivory sold at auction might provide loopholes for laundering illegal ivory. By visiting 17 pre-auction exhibitions in several cities, researchers found some exhibitors didn't obtain administrative approval, resulting in 219 lots of elephant ivory products being seized by law enforcement officers. "Persistent demand and a lack of awareness by consumers in some parts of the country and weak spots in regulation and enforcement mean that we need to redouble our efforts in strengthening these areas," said Margaret Kinnaird, WWF Wildlife Practice Leader. (@ChaudhryMAli88) President and Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Petroleum, Sherida Al-Kaabi on Friday paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Imran Khan here and briefed him on the Qatar Petroleum's global portfolio and activities. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :President and Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Petroleum, Sherida Al-Kaabi on Friday paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Imran Khan here and briefed him on the Qatar Petroleum's global portfolio and activities. The president and chief executive of Qatar Petroleum also showed keen desire to enhance the company's investment in Pakistan. The prime minister welcomed investment by Qatar Petroleum in Pakistan's energy and petroleum sectors and assured the CEO of the government's full support and cooperation in that regard. (@FahadShabbir) Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi in his message on World Maritime Day, has said that the prosperity of several countries is closely related to the seaborne trade. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Sep, 2018 ) :Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi in his message on World Maritime Day, has said that the prosperity of several countries is closely related to the seaborne trade. World Maritime Day is celebrated each year to signify the contributions of International Maritime Industry in world's economy and to focus attention on the importance of shipping safety, maritime security and marine environment. The current year theme of World Maritime Day is "Our Heritage Better Shipping for a Better Future" a press release issued here by Directorate of Public Relations of Pakistan Navy said. In today's globalized world, maritime trade plays a pivotal role as it supports, transforms and connects societies worldwide. Scope and scale of maritime trade, which accounts for around 80% of global trade by volume and 70% by value, is testimony to the same, the Naval Chief said. The dependence on the free passage of goods through oceans holds the key for trade oriented economic structure. For Pakistan, maritime trade is the back bone of our economy as over 95 % of our international trade is transported through seas. With the renewed impetus on maritime sector through China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Gwadar Port, the maritime trade of Pakistan will increase manifold as the corridor is destined to provide regional connectivity. While we realize the significance of maritime trade for our country, our reliance on international shipping and huge spending of foreign exchange on freight charges is indicative of dire need to reinvigorate our shipping industry, he added. The Naval Chief reiterated that Pakistan Navy pledged its full support towards development of maritime sector in general and shipping sector in particular. We believe it will be a step towards attaining self sufficiency, sustainable economic growth and will facilitate international trade. There is a need of profound and cumulative efforts by all stakeholders to achieve sustainable development through Blue Economy, he said. To celebrate the World Maritime Day, Pakistan Navy planned wide range of activities to acquaint the masses of its significance, raise maritime awareness and highlight Pakistan Navy's contributions towards sustainable development of Pakistan's maritime sector. In this regard, Pakistan Navy has arranged numerous activities including seminar at Institute of Maritime Affairs, essay writing competition, talk shows, lectures, various events in PN administered Schools and Colleges and maritime gala at Pakistan Maritime Museum, where various organizations set up their stalls. A Pakistan Navy ship was also opened for students of various schools where they were briefed about importance of country's maritime sector and Pakistan Navy's role in defence of maritime frontiers of Pakistan. Harbour and beach cleaning activities were also held at Karachi and Coastal Areas of Balochastan. Events such as World Maritime Day play a key role in drawing attention towards the maritime industry's contribution towards global economy and in raising maritime awareness amongst the general populace. Pakistan Navy is cognizant of its obligations of providing safe and secure maritime environment. It also supports the sustainable development of Pakistan's maritime economy through effective implementation of all national and international commitments. Pakistan Navy remains committed to protecting our national maritime interests and resolved to continue itsefforts towards development of the maritime sector to help realize Pakistan'strue maritime potential. State Minister for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi on Friday informed the National Assembly that new special unit in NADRA will be constituted to address the issue of blocked Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC) on emergency basis. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :State Minister for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi on Friday informed the National Assembly that new special unit in NADRA will be constituted to address the issue of blocked Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC) on emergency basis. The minister said this while responding to blocked computerized National Identity cards issue of residents of erstwhile FATA. He said that the issue of blocked CNIC had also been discussed in the Federal cabinet and government had devised comprehensive policy to address the issue. The minister said that the government will not compromise on the issue of country's security. "We have only one agenda there will be no compromise on the issue of country's security, we will not bow down, we will make the country secure, we have to take some dough decisions." All the intelligence agencies and other relevant institutions are working in close coordination to ensure security of the people, he added. He said that the tribal people will also be taken on board to address their genuine complaints and protect their rights. He said, "Total numb of CNIC in FATA is 28,39,819 and out of which 6,824 are blocked. About 6,546 cards are from Pakhtoon community while 278 of such cards belonged to the members of other community." He said that in 2017 total numbers of blocked CNICs in FATA were 12,056 while the number in 2018 had declined to 6824. Shehryar Afridi said that total Computerized National Identity Cards are over 140 million out of which 1,81270 are blocked due various reasons. Giving province wise data of blocked cards of Pakhtoon community , he said, 16,678 cards are blocked in Sindh, 13,951 in Punjab, 44,231 in KPK, 2,526 in Islamabad, 10 in GB, 6,824in FATA, 18287 in Balochistan and 486, AJK and 266 overseas Pakistani. (@mahnoorsheikh03) In the video, it can be seen that the warden is refusing to take the bribe despite being offered. Peshawar (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News 28th September, 2018) A traffic police warden in Peshawar refused to take a bribe. According to details, the City Police has also announced a cash prize for the traffic warden. The video of traffic warden Asif Raza is going viral on social media. In the video, it can be seen that the warden is refusing to take the bribe despite being offered. Asif Raza had intercepted the vehicle of a man from Abbottabad and took off the police flashlight that was installed on it. The driver tried to offer a bribe of Rs 300 to the traffic warden but he refused and also did not return the confiscated flashlight. Even if you give me Rs3 million [in bribe] I will not accept it, the traffic warden says to the citizen. According to police, the person offering bribe was from Abbottabad hence was considered a guest in Peshawar hence allowed to go after being given a warning. However, Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Qazi Jameel has acknowledged the honesty of the traffic warden and announced to award him a cash prize of Rs 5,000 and certificate of appreciation. African countries should propose specific measures for tackling the European migration crisis at the UN General Assembly, as African countries know best the factors which cause Africans to leave their home countries, the ambassador of the Republic of Burundi to Russia, Edward Bizimana, told Sputnik. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) African countries should propose specific measures for tackling the European migration crisis at the UN General Assembly, as African countries know best the factors which cause Africans to leave their home countries, the ambassador of the Republic of Burundi to Russia, Edward Bizimana, told Sputnik. During the 73rd UN General Assembly in New York, countries will review the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration that is set to be formally adopted in November. The Compact seeks to address comprehensively all aspects of international migration, whether humanitarian, developmental or human rights-related. "I think [migration] should be a very important issue to raise during this international meeting and to try and find a solution. The initiatives should come from Africa because they know the specificity of each and every country, what are the economic opportunities, what kind of projects that can be beneficial to the population," Bizimana said. The ambassador added that the speech of African Union President Paul Kagame made on Tuesday at the UN General Assembly lacked any mention of problems such as migration. "I was very much disappointed by the president of the African Union, because the subjects, problems that are specific to Africa, have not been mentioned. When you take into account the problem of immigration in Europe, we saw Europe is very much focusing on the issues, but Africa seems very much not to care about it while we have a lot of Africans coming to Europe, dying in the sea trying to cross to Europe," Bizimana said. He noted that Burundi was damaged by emigration, losing out on the skills of young people who left for Europe. "[Burundi] is losing a lot of potentialities when young people, young graduate students go to Europe and don't come back to the country," Bizimana said. Many of the young people in Burundi, who make up around 46 percent of the total population, are unemployed, the diplomat added, stressing that development projects that focus on training young people and developing the agricultural sector in the country could serve to stem migration flows out of the country. European countries have been experiencing a severe migration crisis since 2015 due to the influx of thousands of migrants and refugees fleeing crises and poverty in the middle East and Africa. (@FahadShabbir) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) Three international human rights organizations in a letter called on Australia's defense and foreign affairs ministers to stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia until Riyadh halts unlawful airstrikes in Yemen, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a press release. "The Australian government should cease supplying military assets to Saudi Arabia until it halts unlawful airstrikes and other unlawful attacks and credibly investigates alleged war crimes," a press release accompanying the letter said on Thursday. The letter, signed by HRW, Save the Children, and Amnesty International, said that Australia admittedly wants to become one of the world's largest military exporters but must ensure these weapons are not used in violation of international human rights and humanitarian laws. On Thursday, the Yemeni cabinet ended the mandate for a UN human rights agency after a report accusing the government's Gulf allies of being behind most civilian casualties in the war. The UN report said the Saudi-led coalition made little effort to minimize civilian deaths, launching airstrikes at residential areas, weddings, and clinics. Last week, the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states announced the launch of another large-scale military offensive to liberate the embattled city of Al Hudaydah from Houthi militants. Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels for several years. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015. (@rukhshanmir) Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that he had sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin for one-on-one talks on NATO during a summit of ex-Soviet republics in Tajikistan earlier in the day. MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that he had sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin for one-on-one talks on NATO during a summit of ex-Soviet republics in Tajikistan earlier in the day. Leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States met for a one-day summit in Dushanbe. Most of the talks focused on security, Lukashenko was quoted as saying in a statement by his press office. "Even peaceful Belarus is always mindful of this, considering risks and challenges associated with actions of Western countries and NATO near our and [Russian] borders," he said. The presidents also discussed the Ukraine conflict and rows over breakaway regions of Transnistria in Moldova and Nagorno-Karabakh in South Caucasus, Lukashenko said, adding that the nations needed to work together to end these crises once and for all. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Slovak and Russian diplomats will meet on October 2 in Bratislava for talks on the central European nation's upcoming chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the spokesman of the Slovak Foreign Ministry told Sputnik on Friday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2018) Slovak and Russian diplomats will meet on October 2 in Bratislava for talks on the central European nation's upcoming chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the spokesman of the Slovak Foreign Ministry told Sputnik on Friday. "The consultations will take place on October 2, 2018 at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic," Boris Gandel said. The spokesman said Russia had requested that Slovakia's year-long leadership of the 57-nation organization would be the focus of these consultations. They will also deal with aspects of European security, he added. "The consultations will be held under the umbrella of the MFEA [Foreign Ministry]'s OSCE Chairmanship Department. Directors of other MFEA Departments responsible for specific topics will also be present," Gandel said. Russia will be represented at the consultations by Andrei Kelin, the director of Department of European Cooperation (DEC) of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (@rukhshanmir) Ambassador of the Republic of Burundi to Russia Edward Bizimana told Sputnik he believed that the purchase of Pantsir-S1 medium-range surface-to-air missile systems by Burundi would be best conducted as soon as possible to enhance the African country's security MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) Ambassador of the Republic of Burundi to Russia Edward Bizimana told Sputnik he believed that the purchase of Pantsir-S1 medium-range surface-to-air missile systems by Burundi would be best conducted as soon as possible to enhance the African country's security. Burundi's Defense Minister Emmanuel Ntahomvukiye declared the country's intentions of purchasing Pantsir-S1 missile systems on the sidelines of the Army-2018 international defense forum earlier this year. "You know, it's a process, and we think that given that the challenge of terrorism and other security issues confronted with Burundi, I think that the sooner that will be, the better. I don't know how much [units] they would take but I think that it's a need for Burundi and for Burundi security," Bizimana said answering the question when Burundi could purchase Pantsir-S1 missile systems. Burundi and Russia also signed an agreement on defense cooperation in late August, within the framework of which both countries agreed to conduct knowledge sharing and continue to engage in and develop cooperation on peacekeeping efforts and on the fight against terrorism. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Burundi wishes to expand military ties with Russia beyond training, to intelligence-sharing and other strategic cooperation, the ambassador of the Republic of Burundi to Russia, Edward Bizimana, told Sputnik. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) Burundi wishes to expand military ties with Russia beyond training, to intelligence-sharing and other strategic cooperation, the ambassador of the Republic of Burundi to Russia, Edward Bizimana, told Sputnik. Russia and Burundi signed a defense agreement within the framework of the Army 2018 forum in late August, which will expand both countries' cooperation on peacekeeping operations, and in the fight against terrorism. Burundi's Minister of Defense Emmanuel Ntahomvukiye also expressed the country's interest in purchasing Russian-made Pantsir-S1 medium-range surface-to-air missile systems on the sidelines of the forum. "Russia and Burundi agreed on different issues, including military cooperation. We do have a lot of things between Russia and Burundi, in terms of training our military personnel, in terms of academic upgrading of our officials and our military people. So we have many students who are here in military academies and I think we are looking forward to enlarging the cooperation to other fields like intelligence and on some other strategic issues," Bizimana said. The ambassador noted that bilateral intelligence cooperation was vital for tackling terrorism. "Burundi and Russia are all involved in the fight against terrorism and I think it's very important to share intelligence in terms of this global problem of terrorism because no one can handle it alone, so we need cooperation on this area," Bizimana said. He stated that Russia could also aid Burundi in expanding the country's knowledge on military equipment and military science. "We think it would be very beneficial to Burundians to have more experience to learn a lot from Russia because, you know, Burundi is not very developed in terms of military equipment, military science. So I think Burundi can learn a lot from Russia in experience in those fields, experience and research," Bizimana said. The ambassador added that there was a potential for Russia and Burundi to hold joint military exercises in the future. During the signing of the defense agreement between Russia and Burundi at the Army 2018 forum, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said that the enhancement of military ties between Burundi and Russia would serve as the basis for further cooperation between the two countries. A rocket engine research institute has justified its effort to retain a key researcher who quit for higher pay. "It costs a lot to cultivate talent, thus it is reasonable for us to try to retain a talent," Liu Zhirang, director of the Sixth Research Institute of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, told Beijing Youth Daily. His remarks came after a widely circulated article on WeChat claiming a researcher, named Zhang Xiaoping, quit the institute to work for a private carrier rocket company, where he would be paid much more. According to a document with the stamp of the institute posted in the article, Zhang is a core member of the research team on a key rocket engine project related to the country's manned lunar landing mission in the future, and his quitting had a tremendous impact on the development of the project. The document shows the institute tried to ask Zhang back after the project met with technical problems. Zhang allegedly earned only 120,000 yuan ($17,450) a year. At the new company, he could make 1 million yuan, according to the article. Liu acknowledged some talent in the institute had moved to private companies in recent years, but said Zhang's leaving does not have an impact on the rocket engine project, as there are many other technical experts at the institute. Liu also said the institute would ponder how to retain talent in the future. The ten-day China-Nepal joint counter-terrorism exercise "Sagarmatha Friendship-2018" concluded in China on Friday. BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :The ten-day China-Nepal joint counter-terrorism exercise "Sagarmatha Friendship-2018" concluded in China on Friday. The exercise began under an agreement between both the countries in Chengdu from September 17, according to the Chinese Ministry of Defence here on Friday. This exercise was conducted within the two militaries' planned exchanges. The main purpose for the exercise was to jointly fight against the international terrorism and the main subject was urban counter-terrorism operations. The two sides did exercises in building joint command posts, carrying out blocking and searching and executing joint counter-terrorism operations. (@ChaudhryMAli88) China Reading Corner opened here on Friday in the Fiji National Library to help strengthen the cultural exchanges between China and Fiji. SUVA, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :China Reading Corner opened here on Friday in the Fiji National library to help strengthen the cultural exchanges between China and Fiji. The China Reading Corner consists of over 6,000 books, 20,000 e-books and other hardware such as computers, reading desks, chairs, and book shelves donated by China's Zhengzhou Library. Speaking at a grand opening ceremony in the Fiji National Library in the Fijian capital city of Suva, Kong Hongmei, chief of the cultural delegation from Zhengzhou, capital of China's Henan Province, said that the opening of this corner demonstrates the deep friendship and close relationship between China and Fiji. Describing the China Reading Corner as "a milestone of the cultural exchanges between China and Fiji," she said that this China-aided project sets a good example and provides a sustainable stage for the cultural exchanges between the two countries in the future. Chinese Ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo said with this reading corner, Fijian people know where to find the information they are interested in and the reading corner will serve as a window for Fijian people to look out to the outside world. "With more cultural exchange in this way, the Chinese and Fijian people will further deepen their friendship and have better understanding of each other," he said. Allision Burchell, permanent secretary for Fiji's Ministry of education, Heritage and Arts, Merewalisi Vueti, director of Fiji's Department of Library Services, welcomed the opening of the China reading corner, saying that Fiji has a lot to learn from China and this corner will help Fijians know better of China's great culture. Meanwhile, Deng Xianfu, director of China Cultural Center in Fiji, said that this is a very good start and in the future, they will try to get more libraries in China to donate more books to Fiji National Library to enrich the collections. (@FahadShabbir) Units belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) joint air defense system successfully completed drills involving nearly 100 aircraft, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th September, 2018) Units belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) joint air defense system successfully completed drills involving nearly 100 aircraft, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday. "Combat readiness exercises, which took place on Thursday, September 27, involving command structures and on duty units of the Joint CIS Air Defense System, have been successfully completed. All training tasks have been accomplished," the ministry's press service said at a news briefing. Crews of Su-27, MiG-29, MiG-31, Yak-130, Su-24, Su-34, Su-25 fighter jets and Tu-25, Tu-160, Tu-95 long-range aircraft from the Russian, Armenian, Belarusian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek air forces held maneuvers across the CIS air space. In total, over 9,000 servicemen, more than 130 command posts of various levels, as well as dozens of radar and air defense units took part in the training, according to the ministry. The training was supervised by the first deputy commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Maj. Gen. Viktor Afzalov. "The results of the drills confirmed the reliability and effectiveness of the joint air defense system to protect the air borders of the CIS member states," Afzalov said as quoted by the Defense Ministry. Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to create a unified CIS air defense network in 1995. Separate Russian-Belarusian and Russian-Kazakh joint air defense networks are already in place. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiadesis set to have a meeting on Friday with Secretary General Antonio Guterres, during which he is expected to convey his determination for the resumption of talks for the reunification of Cyprus. NICOSIA, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiadesis set to have a meeting on Friday with Secretary General Antonio Guterres, during which he is expected to convey his determination for the resumption of talks for the reunification of Cyprus. The meeting is scheduled to take place at 1030 New York time (1430 GMT). Replying to a question yesterday about the meeting, President Anstasiades said that "we will convey our determination for the resumption of the dialogue and for the need to have such climate which will be far from any violations of the Republic of Cyprus` sovereign rights, in order to avoid unwanted situations which would not lead to dialogue but to possible deadlock. " President Anastasiades is expected to brief the press after his meeting with Guterres. Later on, at lunch time he will address the 2nd Capital Link Forum. He departs from New York on Saturday. Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Numerous UN-backed negotiations, aiming at reuniting the island under a Federal roof, have failed to yield results. The latest talks under UN aegis took place in the summer of 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana. Russia's planned delivery of S-300 air defense systems to Syria is a matter for Damascus and Moscow to decide, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told Sputnik on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday. UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2018) Russia's planned delivery of S-300 air defense systems to Syria is a matter for Damascus and Moscow to decide, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told Sputnik on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday. Earlier in September, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russia would take a number of measures to boost safety of its troops in Syria including the deliveries of the S-300 system in the wake of the Il-20 crash. "That is the matter for Russia and Syria to decide," Shoukry, who held a bilateral meeting earlier on Friday at UN Headquarters, said. When asked if these missile systems will be helpful, Shoukry said, "We view all deescalation of military activity as a necessary prerequisite to return Syria to a stable and prosperous environment" What is of concern to Egypt, Shoukry added, is that conditions in Syria become stable and the UN-led political process gets underway. Egypt would like the process to move forward between all of the legitimate Syrian participants to bring security and protect the territorial integrity of Syria, he added. On September 17, the Il-20 plane was downed by a missile launched by Syria's S-200 air defense system. The Syrian system was targeting Israeli F-16 jets that were attacking the facilities in the Syrian province of Latakia. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Israel notified Russia of its operation only a minute before the attack. Russia has blamed the incident, which claimed the lives of 15 troops, on Israel and said that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) used the Russian Il-20 as a shield. The Russia-Turkey agreement to create a demilitarized zone in Syria's Idlib will positively affect the work of humanitarian organizations on the ground, Ahmad Aldbis, the safety and security manager at the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), a French-founded coalition of medical NGOs, told Sputnik on Friday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The Russia-Turkey agreement to create a demilitarized zone in Syria's Idlib will positively affect the work of humanitarian organizations on the ground, Ahmad Aldbis, the safety and security manager at the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), a French-founded coalition of medical NGOs, told Sputnik on Friday. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed an agreement on setting up a 9-12 mile demilitarized zone in Idlib along the contact line of the armed opposition and the government forces by October 15. The agreement was aimed at preventing bloodshed, as the Syrian government was preparing an offensive in response to what it said were provocations from the militant-held enclave. "This agreement between the Turkish and the Russian governments positively reflects on [humanitarian] activities, because before this agreement the humanitarian workers and the humanitarian facilities were targeted and many of our services were impossible to provide because the security situation was difficult," Aldbis said. The UOSSM, according to Aldbis, supports a number of medical facilities in Idlib, more than eight health centers and two hospitals, with humanitarian aid such as medicines and medical equipment. Aldbis stated that by coordinating with the Turkish authorities and the relevant UN agencies, the organization was able to transfer their shipments across the border from Turkey to Idlib. "We can get any humanitarian support from Turkish side to the border - Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salameh and we can distribute it in North Syrian Idlib to our hospitals and medical centers," Aldbis said. Idlib is the last holdout for extremist and rebel forces fighting to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russia and Turkey, along with Iran, are the guarantors of the ceasefire in Syria, constantly engaged in dialogue on crisis settlement. UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The recent crash of a Russian Il-20 military airplane off the coast of Syria is an example of an escalation scenario that urgently needs to be stopped, US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey told reporters. "The situation as it evolved over the last month: On top of a raging internal conflict... you now have five states' military forces - US, Russian, Turkish and Israeli, [and Syrian] at least in the air over and around Syria - bumping into each other," Jeffrey said on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. "We just saw a dramatic example of what we are trying to avoid on a larger scale." Jeffrey explained that Israeli jets were allegedly going after Iranian military targets, which resulted in Syrian air defenses trying to shoot down the Israeli jets and shoot down a Russian airplane instead. "This is the kind of escalation scenario we urgently need to stop," Jeffrey said. On September 17, a Russian military Il-20 was downed over the Mediterranean Sea by a missile launched by Syria's S-200 air defense system that was targeting Israeli aircraft. The Russian Defense Ministry said Israeli F-16 jets flying in the vicinity used the Russian aircraft as a shield against Syrian air defenses. The incident claimed the lives of 15 Russian servicemen. Israel has denied the accusations that its jets used the Russian airplane as a shield and has maintained that Russia was informed about the air raid in a timely manner. Comprehensive training of air defense units together with the Armenian-Russian task force started on Thursday in Armenia, the country's Defense Ministry said in a statement obtained by Sputnik. YEREVAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th September, 2018) Comprehensive training of air defense units together with the Armenian-Russian task force started on Thursday in Armenia, the country's Defense Ministry said in a statement obtained by Sputnik. "Multistage comprehensive exercises of air defense forces of the armed forces of Armenia and the Armenian-Russian joint task force started on September 27," the statement of the press service reads. The ministry added that such maneuvers were held to test and improve the skills of the Armenian military's air defense units. Russia and Armenia share a strategic military partnership, which covers the fight against terrorism, military procurement and joint military drills, among other issues. (@rukhshanmir) UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The meeting of the so-called Small Group on Syria on the sidelines of the 73d UN General Assembly was productive and can push forward the Syrian political process, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi told Sputnik on Thursday after the meeting. "We had a very productive meeting that hopefully can move the political process forward," Shoukry said. "The meeting was good. We are always looking for ways to move forward the political solution," Safadi added. The Small Group on Syria comprises Germany, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, Jordan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The meeting was held at the level of foreign ministers. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The supply of electricity and water to Syria's Marj al-Sultan, a suburb of Damascus, to which people have been gradually returning since hostilities in the area ended, has been restored. DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The supply of electricity and water to Syria's Marj al-Sultan, a suburb of Damascus, to which people have been gradually returning since hostilities in the area ended, has been restored. The village of Marj al-Sultan is located not far from Damascus, near the city of Duma. A few years ago, fighting to retake a military airbase that militants turned into their stronghold was underway in the village. Then the government forces managed to regain control over the base. "We repaired power lines, so now 90 percent of the houses have electricity. The pipeline was completely restored, and there is water in all apartments now. The streets were cleared from debris, concrete fragments and scrap metal," head of local administration Nihad Adib Aslan Acri told Sputnik. A large Circassian community lived in Marj al-Sultan before the war erupted in 2011. They had to leave Syria because of the fighting but now were gradually returning home. Some 30 families five Arab and 25 Circassian have recently returned to the area. "Before the war, we farmed; we grew tomatoes and cucumbers, just like all my fellow countrymen. We lived well and had enough money. But when militants came to our Circassian village, my family and I ran away. We have relatives in Nalchik [southern Russian city], so we went there, but when we learned about the liberation of Marj al-Sultan, we returned to rebuild our house," local resident Hussein Anwar said. Another local resident, Aida, worked as a teacher before the war. After the militants arrived, she and her family fled to Damascus. Her children stayed in the capital to live and work, but she and her husband returned to Marj al-Sultan to rebuild their house. "When terrorists seized our area, they were killing people and we had to get out of here and go to Damascus. And we lived in Damascus for almost seven years. We have now decided to come back. We decided to come back because our house is here. There was nothing when we came in here, everything was looted no furniture, no belongings left, just bare walls. We made repairs so that we could live here," she said. Syria has been torn by civil war since 2011, with the government fighting numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations. The end of the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) was announced in late 2017, but military operations continue in some regions. The political reconciliation and rebuilding of the country have come to the forefront. Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressed the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on ending tuberculosis (TB) via a video on Wednesday, calling for global efforts to put an end to the epidemic. Peng, who became World Health Organization's Goodwill Ambassador for TB and HIV/AIDS in 2011, shared her feelings and experiences with the attendees of the meeting, which took place in the UN headquarters in New York. She also shared the touching stories of the unsung heroes in China who have been selflessly dedicated to the cause of combating TB. Peng, who is also China's National Ambassador for TB Control and Prevention, said that the control and prevention of the epidemic disease in China have made rapid progress and its victims are being diagnosed and treated more timely and effectively. She also pointed out such progress has been made because of the great importance that the Chinese government and the entire society have attached to the cause as well as the enthusiastic participation of about 700,000 volunteers. In some parts of China, TB prevention has become one of the key tasks in the government's poverty alleviation program, said Peng. Now, China has seen continuous increases of case detection and cure rates for TB and decreases in morbidity and mortality, as many TB victims in the country have their lives renewed, said Peng, adding that the awareness rate of TB control and prevention knowledge has reached over 75 percent in China. Thanks to joint efforts of governments, international organizations, NGOs, specialists and volunteers, the control and prevention of the tuberculosis epidemic on the global level have scored significant achievements, but mankind still faces severe challenges in the aspect, Peng said. The World Health Organization has adopted the End TB Strategy, she said, urging all countries in the world to join hands and do their best to change the life of the millions of people who are affected by TB and end the global epidemic. The high-level meeting was chaired by Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, president of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. A political declaration on the control and prevention of TB was endorsed by the meeting. Estonian Internal Security Service (KaPo) refuted on Friday reports that former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal had helped Tallin to expose several suspected Russian spies in 2016. TALLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The Estonian Internal Security Service (KaPo) refuted on Friday reports that former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal had helped Tallin to expose several suspected Russian spies in 2016. Earlier in the day, Germany's Focus magazine reported, citing a source in NATO's Allied Command Counter-Intelligence Unit (ACCI), that Skripal had worked for intelligence services of the alliance's four countries until 2017. According to the news outlet, in summer 2016, Skripal provided the Estonian intelligence with information which led to exposing three alleged Russian spies, including an officer of the Estonian army of Russian origin and his father. "Skripal has no relation to any espionage cases in Estonia," the KaPo press service said. In September, a Tallin court sanctioned the arrest of 38-year-old Denis Metsavas, who had served in the Estonian Defence Forces for 10 years and his 65-year-old father Pjotr Volin, who were suspected of working for the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (formerly known as the GRU). Former GRU officer Skripal, who was convicted of treason in Russia, and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in the UK city of Salisbury in early March. The United Kingdom accuses Moscow of having orchestrated the attack with what the UK experts claim was the A234 nerve agent, which Moscow firmly refutes. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Skripal affair was falling apart due to the lack of evidence proving Russian involvement. The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent some 60 diplomatic notes to the UK Foreign Office demanding that Russia be given access to the investigation and the Skripals, who have Russian citizenship, as well as requesting legal assistance and proposing cooperation, including on the joint inquiry. The UK authorities have not responded to any of these notes. On September 5, UK prosecutors brought charges against two Russian citizens, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, under four articles of the criminal law, including the attempted murder via poisoning of the Skripals and UK police officer Nick Bailey in Salisbury. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said she believes that the suspects work for the GRU, but failed to provide any evidence. In March, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson claimed that London had concrete evidence of Moscow's involvement in the attack. The accusations then turned out to be false after UK experts failed to identify the source of origin of the substance used in the attack. The UK Foreign Office then confirmed that the conclusion on the alleged Moscow's trace in the attack was made based on evaluation of information rather than factual evidence. Kazinform Governor of East Kazakhstan region Danial Akhmetov has met with ambassadors of France, South Korea and Hungary, the regional information centre reports UST KAMENOGORSK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :Kazinform Governor of East Kazakhstan region Danial Akhmetov has met with ambassadors of France, South Korea and Hungary, the regional information centre reports. The parties debated development of medicine in the region, particularly, hematocytology and ethiology. Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of France to Kazakhstan Philippe Martinet assured that France is ready to support development of Kazakhstan's medicine. The same day the governor had talks with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Kazakhstan Kim Dae-sik, and the Consul of the Republic of Korea in Kazakhstan. The Korean diplomats highly appreciated the quality of velvet antlers products made in the region, noted the growing potential of cooperation in processing of medicinal herbs and digitalization. Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Hungary to Kazakhstan Andrash Barani said that Hungary is the industrial country with highly-developed agriculture, horticulture and wine growing. He said Hungary is interested in developing cooperation in agriculture, tourism and healthcare. Hungary will retaliate with the same measures if Ukraine expels a Hungarian consul from the country, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in an interview for a Russian broadcaster on Friday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) Hungary will retaliate with the same measures if Ukraine expels a Hungarian consul from the country, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in an interview for a Russian broadcaster on Friday. Szijjarto told the Rossiya 24 tv channel that in the event Ukraine expelled a Hungarian consul, he would certainly decide to expel one of the Ukrainian consuls as he felt obliged to give a tit-for-tat response. The foreign minister further emphasized that he considered the Hungarian consul's possible expulsion as absolutely groundless, given that no legal provision had been breached. On September 19, the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reported that the Hungarian consulate located in the border region of Zakarpattia's Berehove granted citizenship to the Ukrainian nationals residing there, allegedly instructing them not to notify the Ukrainian authorities of this, since dual citizenship is banned under Ukrainian law. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin responded by announcing that Kiev would expel a Hungarian consul from the country, while Szijjarto warned that Budapest might retaliate with similar measures. The Zakarpattia region has been a source of tensions in bilateral relations since August, when Hungarian President Viktor Orban created a new position in the government Hungarian ministerial commissioner for the Zakarpattia region. According to Kiev, this individual would be in charge of a part of Ukrainian sovereign territory. (@FahadShabbir) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that the United States did not achieve any results during the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, noting that all other countries supported the continued implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th September, 2018) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that the United States did not achieve any results during the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, noting that all other countries supported the continued implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. "I think that Americans did not take anything home out of this year's General Assembly, and even when [US President Donald] Trump was delivering his speech, the entire hall burst into laughter," Rouhani said upon his return to Iran, as quoted by his official website. He also said that Washington failed to put Iran as the main topic on the agenda of the Security Council meeting, according to the website. Rouhani added that the United States was experiencing "historic isolation" on the international stage. "Eventually the session was held on disarmament and WMDs [weapons of mass destruction], and secondly, the session turned into one in which the overwhelming majority backed the JCPOA and Trump was left alone," the president said. The Iranian president added that the signatories of the Iran nuclear deal and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini expressed their support for conforming with the accord and maintaining relations with Tehran. In May, Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal and announced the reinstatement of sanctions against Iran. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The next Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit will be held in Turkmenistan's Ashgabat on October 11, 2019, CIS Executive Committee Chairman Sergei Lebedev said on Friday. DUSHANBE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The next Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit will be held in Turkmenistan's Ashgabat on October 11, 2019, CIS Executive Committee Chairman Sergei Lebedev said on Friday. "At the suggestion of the Turkmen side, it has been decided to hold the next meeting of the [CIS] Council of Heads of State in the city of Ashgabat on October 11, 2019," Lebedev said. (@FahadShabbir) Niamey, Sept 27 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :Forty-two people have died in flooding in Niger since the start of the rainy season in June, most of them in northern desert areas, according to a UN report released Thursday. Nearly 205,000 people have been affected by the floods, which have destroyed 16,992 houses, said the report by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Some 31,130 head of cattle and 7,579 hectares of crops have been lost in the floods as of September 16, the report said. The UN's last assessment on August 28 reported 36 dead. The rainy season, which lasts up to three months, is almost over. The West African's country's capital Niamey was almost completely spared from the floods this year, which some residents put down to the construction of dams that spared thousands of residents from the worst of the River Niger bursting its banks. Last year, around 20 people died in the capital during the rainy season. (@FahadShabbir) North and South Korea have agreed to hold joint celebrations next week to mark the anniversary of their 2007 summit, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said Friday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) North and South Korea have agreed to hold joint celebrations next week to mark the anniversary of their 2007 summit, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said Friday. "The South and the North reached a consensus that they will hold celebratory events to mark the 11th anniversary of the adoption of the October 4 Declaration from Oct. 4-6 in Pyongyang," it said, as quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. The agreement was reportedly reached at a weekly meeting of the joint liaison office, co-chaired by deputy ministers for unification of North and South Korea, in the town of Kaesong north of the border. The summit in Pyongyang more than a decade ago saw South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il pledge to cooperate on rebuilding trust and easing tensions between their countries. (@ChaudhryMAli88) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) A total of 404 people left Syria's Idlib de-escalation zone through the humanitarian corridor over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Refugee Reception, Distribution and Settlement said Thursday in a statement. "In total, 404 refugees (166 women and 152 children), 17 vehicles and 100 heads of cattle have passed via the Abu al-Duhur CP to Aleppo province from the Idlib de-escalation zone," the statement reads. It is noted that medical care was provided to 227 Syrians, including 95 children. Earlier in September, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed an agreement aimed at setting up a 9-12 mile demilitarized zone in Idlib province along the contact line of the armed opposition and the government forces by October 15. (@rukhshanmir) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Arab foreign ministers participating in the GCC+2 ministerial discussed setting up a Middle East Strategic Alliance, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a press release on Friday. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Arab foreign ministers participating in the GCC+2 ministerial discussed setting up a middle East Strategic Alliance, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a press release on Friday. "Secretary Michael R. Pompeo hosted the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates at the GCC+2 Ministerial today on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York," the release said. "The Secretary and the foreign ministers had productive discussions on establishing a Middle East Strategic Alliance, anchored by a united GCC, to advance prosperity, security, and stability in the region. " Pompeo also discussed the importance of defeating the Islamic State (IS outlawed in Russia) terrorist group, stabilizing Syria and Yemen, stopping Iran's malign activity and ensuring an inclusive Iraq, Nauert said. The entire group agreed on the need to confront Iran's threats against the Middle East and the United States, the release added. Russia calls for a dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo and will back any solution that Serbia finds acceptable, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday at the UN General Assembly. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) Russia calls for a dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo and will back any solution that Serbia finds acceptable, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday at the UN General Assembly. "Kosovo armed forces are being formed. Agreements reached by Belgrade and Pristina with EU mediation are violated. Russia calls on the sides to engage in a dialogue in line with UNSC Resolution 1244 and will support a solution that Serbia will accept," he said. He also accused the United States of "transforming the UN-approved military presence in Kosovo into an American base." "We are concerned about another rift that is opening in Europe - this time in the Balkans where countries are being dragged into NATO. European and US leaders have been personally campaigning for Balkan nations' membership of the North Atlantic Alliance, while condemning interference in their own home affairs," the minister added. Ma Xu, 86 years old and China's first female paratrooper, donated her entire life savings of 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) to her hometown in Mulan county, Harbin city, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, the Beijing News reported via WeChat on Wednesday. Ma was born to a doctor's family in Mulan county in 1932. Her grandfather treated royal family members during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). She joined the People's Liberation Army as a military doctor in 1947, and applied to become a paratrooper in 1961 while working as a medical staffer in an airborne troop. It was not an easy thing; at that time, there were no female paratroopers in a division of over 10,000. She was so determined to take part she even volunteered for sterilization. But her application still failed at first. "I was only 1.53 meters high and weighed less than 37.5 kg, not up to the physical standards for a paratrooper. And I was just married, so my commander did not approve my request," Ma said. "But I did not give up. I learned parachuting secretly, as others were training. When they finished, I went to the ground to practice what I had learned in the moonlight. After some time, she made the request again with a letter written in her own blood, which said "How can I be called a paratrooper in an airborne troop if I cannot do parachute jumps? I hope my request can be approved. I promise to be a qualified paratrooper." After proving she could jump as well as others did, she was accepted. Besides being the first, She was the woman paratrooper who made over 140 parachuting jumps across 20-odd years, the most for any female paratrooper. She also set a national record as the oldest enlisted woman to do a parachute jump. The donation was the biggest Mulan county has ever received and will be used to support local education and public welfare. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2018) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed with his Angolan counterpart Manuel Domingos Augusto bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries in international organizations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday in a statement. "The foreign ministers discussed current issues related to the political, trade, economic, scientific, technical and humanitarian partnership between Russia and Angola. When discussing international matters, the attention was primarily on cooperation on key global and regional issues at the UN and other multilateral organisations," the statement reads. The meeting was held earlier in the day on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The 73rd session of the UN General Assembly started on September 18 in the General Assembly Hall in New York under the presidency of Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Espinosa Garces. The forum unites all 193 UN member states to discuss and work together on a wide array of international issues covered by the UN Charter, such as development, international law, peace and security, and pressing issues on the international agenda. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha had bilateral talks with her Cuban counterpart in New York this week, effectively maintaining the momentum of high-level dialogue between the two sides despite their lack of formal diplomatic ties, her ministry said Friday. SEOUL, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha had bilateral talks with her Cuban counterpart in New York this week, effectively maintaining the momentum of high-level dialogue between the two sides despite their lack of formal diplomatic ties, her ministry said Friday. Kang's meeting with Bruno Rodriguez took place on Thursday (local time) while they were attending the annual U.N. General Assembly session. It was their second meeting, following one held in Cuba in May. It enabled South Korea to "maintain the dialogue momentum" with the government of Cuba, the only Latin American nation with which South Korea has no diplomatic relations, the ministry said. The ministers discussed ways for the development of relations between the two nations and security conditions on the Korean Peninsula, it added. They agreed to push for cooperation in various sectors, including the economy, culture and people-to-people exchange. Kang also had separate talks with the top diplomats of Argentina and Colombia -- Jorge Faurie and Carlos Trujillo -- in New York this week. War in South Sudan continued during the lean season in summer, driving nearly 60 percent of the population into extreme hunger, according to a multi-agency food security report published on Friday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) War in South Sudan continued during the lean season in summer, driving nearly 60 percent of the population into extreme hunger, according to a multi-agency food security report published on Friday. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report by global agencies, including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme, looked at the food crisis from July to September. "It is expected that 6.1 million people (59% of the total population) faced Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse acute food insecurity at the peak of the lean season (July - August)," the study concluded. Food security slightly improved with the start of harvest in September and is expected to rise in the next two months, it said, but the number of people in IPC Phase 3 or worse will likely stay at 4.4 million. Of those facing hunger in the impoverished country, 21 percent are estimated to be children under five, and 7 percent are elderly people, the report said. South Sudan broke away from Sudan after a referendum in 2011. In 2013, a civil war erupted in the country, as South Sudan's President Salva Kiir of the Dinka tribe accused rebel leader Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, of planning a coup. Twelve people including three commanders of Portugal's civil protection agency will stand trial over the country's worst ever wildfires which claimed 64 lives in June 2017, prosecutors said Thursday. Lisbon, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Sep, 2018 ) :Twelve people including three commanders of Portugal's civil protection agency will stand trial over the country's worst ever wildfires which claimed 64 lives in June 2017, prosecutors said Thursday. The accused, who face charges of negligent homicide, also include three local officials and three employees of a company in charge of the maintenance of a road where some 50 people died the blaze in the central Leiria region, the local prosecutor's office said. (@ChaudhryMAli88) DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Public Prosecution has detained a foreigner suspected of spying on the UAE, and the case has already been submitted to the criminal court, the UAE Public Prosecution said in a statement on Thursday. "UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi has ordered to submit to the criminal court the case of the foreign citizen charged with spying for a foreign side and aiming to obtain secret information about the United Arab Emirates," the statement read. An UAE citizen has informed the police on the suspicious behavior of the detained individual. The suspect confessed to investigators to having carried out spying activities and said which side he was working for, according to the statement. The Public Prosecution has not revealed the nationality of the suspect. The southeastern English county of Kent is in for up to two weeks of road chaos in event of a no-deal exit from the European Union, the state operator of national highways told media. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The southeastern English county of Kent is in for up to two weeks of road chaos in event of a no-deal exit from the European Union, the state operator of national highways told media. The Guardian newspaper estimated 16,000 trucks use the eastbound M20 every day on their way to the Eurotunnel, risking a gridlock once barriers are put in place to separate them from other vehicles in a contraflow system under the United Kingdom's contingency Brexit plan. "We currently estimate it will take up to 14 days to initially bring the M20 junction 8 to 9 temporary solution into action," Highways England told the paper. The installation of temporary steel barriers and traffic signs on the junction, it said, would be a one-off measure. The authority promised to refine the plan by using alternative barrier types. But Paul Carter, the head of the Kent county council, told the news outlet that the region faced "phenomenal" disruption. (@rukhshanmir) A top UN envoy called Thursday for transparency on arms flowing into the Central African Republic from Russia, China or the United States, urging diplomatic "coherence" as Moscow seeks a larger role in the war-torn sub-Saharan country United Nations, United States, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2018 ) :A top UN envoy called Thursday for transparency on arms flowing into the Central African Republic from Russia, China or the United States, urging diplomatic "coherence" as Moscow seeks a larger role in the war-torn sub-Saharan country. In an interview with AFP, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the UN special representative for the Central African Republic, whose term expires at the end of the year, said he felt "a measured, but definite hope" for the country, even as armed groups who covet its natural wealth still clash on the ground. President Faustin-Archange Touadera controls only a fraction of CAR, most of it overrun by militants who claim to protect either the Christian or Muslim communities. Touadera, addressing the annual UN General Assembly, urged a complete lifting of the arms embargo on the country. Onanga-Anyanga said that the need for weapons was "undeniable" as the government builds its own armed forces to the tune of 1,300 new troops a year through 2023. Russia has already received an exemption. "China, but also the United States, have proposed new quantities of weapons," Onanga-Anyanga said. "It's for a good reason." European trainers of Central African troops have themselves backed the increased flow of weapons, he said. "It's dangerous to have trained men loafing around all day. If they aren't under supervision and put to use, they risk being drawn back to the demons of the past and returning to predation," Onanga-Anyanga said. He also acknowledged the "need for the clearest transparency." The United Nations has just verified, with the defense ministry and Russia, weapons deliveries by Russia. He said that the head of the UN sanctions committee would travel on October 2 to Bangui to "examine the needs and make sure that these transactions are in line with the positions of the Security Council." - Risking diplomatic 'cacophony' - Thousands of people have died, 700,000 have been internally displaced and another 570,000 have fled abroad in fighting since 2013, when majority-Muslim militias toppled longtime leader Francois Bozize, a Christian. Russia, in addition to sending weapons, has proposed mediating with car rebel groups in a sign of Moscow's growing post-Cold War ambitions in Africa. Former colonial ruler France has rejected the Russian initiative, saying that there was "no alternative" to the process led by the African Union. "There must absolutely be coordination among partners," the envoy said of the political mediation. "For it to be constructive, everyone needs to have the same vision and approach," he said. "Solitary, non-coordinated moves could create a real cacophony." He supported Russia's decision to join as an observer in the African Union mediation mission along with France and the United States. The UN stabilization force in Central Africa has 12,000 troops and 2,000 police officers. Nearly a year ago, the UN Security Council authorized boosting the number by 900 military personnel, although Onanga-Anyanga admitted that the level had not yet been reached. He said that troops from Rwanda and Nepal had arrived but did not yet have equipment in place. Since its establishment in 2014, the UN peacekeeping force known by its French acronym MINUSCA has witnessed the deaths of 70 soldiers. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has received $118 million in emergency funds from various nations to maintain basic services for millions of Palestinian refugees to the end of 2018, Jordan Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told a press conference on Thursday. The 28-nation European Union, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Turkey were major contributors among those providing the $118 million to help make good the removal of $300 million earlier this month by the US government, Safadi told reporters at United Nations headquarters in New York. The extra funding was raised at a meeting on the sidelines of the current UN General Assembly and to maintain vital services for millions of refugees, UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl told the press conference. The funding pledges came a day after reports that UNRWA had been forced to cut its salaries to more than 12,000 staff by 40 percent for the second month in a row. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the situation in Libya, Syria and Yemen with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday. "On September 27, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a conversation with French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York City. The heads of the foreign ministries discussed the situation in Syria, around Libya and Yemen. The parties have considered the process of implementation of the JCPOA [Iran nuclear deal]. Individual issues of the bilateral agenda were also touched upon," the ministry said in a statement on the results of the talks. The issues of Libya and Syria were also discussed by Lavrov and his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita during their Thursday meeting, according to another statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry. The two diplomats also covered the Western Sahara settlement during their talks. On the same day, Lavrov held a meeting with Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, the president of the 73rd session of the UNGA. The talks were dedicated to the issues of increasing the effectiveness of the UNGA work. Moreover, the Russian foreign minister met for talks with his Jamaican counterpart Kamina Johnson Smith. The two diplomats inked a bilateral intergovernmental agreement on abandoning visa requirements for the citizens of the two countries. During his negotiations with Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo, Lavrov said that Russia was ready to support Bogota in the settlement of the Colombian conflict, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The parties also discussed various issues of the bilateral agenda and expressed their interest in the further development of the bilateral dialogue and boosting trade and economic cooperation. The Russian top diplomat also held a meeting with St. Vincent and the Grenadines' Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves on Thursday. During their talks, the two politicians signed a bilateral visa liberalization agreement. Additionally, Lavrov held talks with Bolivian Foreign Minister Diego Pary Rodriguez, who came into office in early September. During the talks, the Russian foreign minister once again congratulated his Bolivian counterpart on the appointment. The two foreign ministers discussed various issues of bilateral and multilateral agenda, including their coordination within the UN Security Council. The 73rd UN General Assembly session began on September 18 and will last through October 5. During his visit to New York City for the event, Lavrov held multiple bilateral and multilateral meetings. Later on Friday, the Russian top diplomat will give a speech at the session. (@ChaudhryMAli88) WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2018) The US Department of State has signed off on the proposed sale of more than 800 tactical missiles to Bahrain in a deal valued at up to $300 million, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release on Friday. "The Kingdom of Bahrain has requested to buy one hundred twenty (120) Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) M31 Unitary Rocket Pods (six (6) rockets per pod for a total of seven hundred twenty (720); and one hundred ten (110) Army Tactical Missiles System (ATACMS) M57 T2K Unitary missiles," the release said. "The overall total estimated value is $300 million." Yang Chongyong, a former senior legislator in Hebei province, was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life and forfeiture of all personal property on Thursday by Tianjin's Second Intermediate People's Court for accepting bribes valued at more than 206 million yuan ($32.2 million). According to the court, Yang, 63, took advantage of his posts as a member of the Standing Committee of the Hebei Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice-governor of Hebei province to provide illegal favors from 2008 to 2016 in construction projects, land use approvals and the establishment of companies. The bribes were paid in cash and gifts. Yang confessed and expressed remorse, and returned most of the bribes. He also actively provided clues that led to the exposure of other major corruption, which mitigated his sentence, the court said. Yang had been deputy head of the Hebei People's Congress Standing Committee since 2016. Before that, he had served as vice-governor of the province for eight years. (@rukhshanmir) UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The current situation in Syria's province of Idlib is frozen as a result of the deal reached by Turkey and Russia in Sochi, US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey told reporters. "I hope the situation in Idlib is, at least for the moment, frozen by the Sochi agreement between Turkey and Russia - a mere miracle itself," Jeffrey said at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday. Jeffrey said that now there exists an opportunity at the United Nations to build up momentum based on the statement of the Small Group on Syria earlier. The Small Group, comprising of Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States, issued a joint statement urging the convening a Constitutional Committee to draft a new constitution for Syria and prepare for UN-supervised elections. "Almost no country is siding with the Iranians, the Russians and the Syrian regime on trying to delay movement toward a political settlement and if we can move to a political settlement that will reinforce dependency of this conflict to shift to the political rather than where it is now," Jeffrey said. Earlier in September, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed an agreement to set up by October 15 a demilitarized zone in Idlib province along the contact line of the armed opposition and the Syrian government forces. Idlib is the last holdout for extremist and rebel forces fighting to topple te government of Syrian president Bashar Assad. September 27, 2018 18-190 Jessica Pope Communications and Media Relations Coordinator Kimberly Cannon, Graduate Assistant VSU Alumna Accepted into Japan Exchange and Teaching Program Sarah R. Taylor, who graduated from Valdosta State University in May, is teaching in Japan through the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. VALDOSTA A Valdosta State University alumna who majored in international business is getting to spend a year living and working in Japan. Sarah R. Taylor, a Valdosta, Georgia, native, graduated from VSU in May with a Bachelor of Business Administration in international business. In late July, she set off for Japan to be an assistant language teacher for a year with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. I have met people from all over the world, so the community I have built here is great so far, Taylor said of her ongoing JET experience. I am placed in Echizen City, Fukui [Prefecture] I have five schools this year. The JET Program is an employment opportunity run by the Japanese government. The program hires outgoing young professionals to serve in Japan as either an assistant language teacher or a coordinator for international relations. JET teachers are contracted on a yearly basis and can work in the JET program for up to five years. Of the approximately 4,000 to 5,000 United States citizens who apply to the program each year, only 1,000 to 1,100 are selected to participate in the JET Program, according to jetprogramusa.org. The JET Program is a very competitive and prestigious fully-funded program, which has a multi-step selection process, said Irina McClellan, assistant director and study abroad and exchange student coordinator for VSUs Center for International Programs. It is an honor and hard work to be selected for the JET Program. Only the top candidates are selected, and preference is given to very independent, well-traveled students who are able to prove that they can step out of their comfort zone and adapt to the new environment and culture. While pursuing her education at VSU, Taylor studied abroad for a year in Japan, after taking Japanese language courses. She said it was following her experience abroad that she knew she wanted to work in Japan. Taylor said she believed taking part in the Japanese language program at VSU and her resulting Japanese language ability helped get her placed in Echizen City, where she said, at times, it can be crucial to know Japanese. Taylor is the daughter of Rena and Kevin Taylor of Valdosta. Potential JET Program participants must have a deep interest in Japanese culture and hold at least a bachelors degree. Assistant language teachers in the program do not have to speak Japanese but should be committed to learning the language prior to and during their time in the country. Assistant language teachers are preferred to have qualifications as language teachers or be strongly motivated to learn to teach English as a foreign language. Coordinators for international relations work in Japanese government offices for internationalization efforts and are required to have a strong, functional command of the Japanese language. McClellan advised students who are interested in applying to the JET Program in the future to take every opportunity to meet and form friendships with international students on campus. Do as many things during your college career that can help you become a successful intercultural communicator and a problem solver. Please contact Irina McClellan with the Center for International Programs at (229) 333-7410 or ibmcclel@valdosta.edu to learn more about study abroad and international activities. Visit www.jetprogramusa.org to learn more about the JET program. ON THE WEB: https://www.valdosta.edu/academics/international-programs/ www.jetprogramusa.org Pope Francis on Friday thanked members of the "Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums" for their preservation and conservation efforts. By Robin Gomes In todays troubled world, unfortunately so often torn and damaged by selfishness and the thirst for power, art represents, perhaps even more than in the past, a universal need because it is a source of harmony and peace, and expresses the dimension of gratitude. Pope Francis made the observation on Friday to some 45 member of the association, Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of their foundation. Listen to our report Founded in 1983, following a major Vatican exhibition tour in the United States, the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums support the preservation and conservation efforts of the Museums. Art witnesses to God In his address to the group, the Pope observed that art has been second only to life in bearing witness to the Lord and allows us more than by words and ideas to approach the faith, because it follows the same path of faith, that of beauty. The beauty of art, he said, enriches life and creates communion, because it unites God, man and creation in a single symphony. It connects the past, the present and the future, and it attracts in the same place and with the same gaze different and far-off peoples. Pope Francis thanked the patrons for their generosity in the restoration of numerous art treasures of the Vatican Museums, saying it is their contribution to a centuries-long tradition, imitating the achievements of those who contributed to the Churchs history through art. Vapers have managed to create an active community that is very dedicated when it comes to its hobby. Las Vegas will be hosting Vapexpo Las Vegas Nov. 9-10. This is one of biggest events in the e-cigarette industry with over 200 exhibitors and more than 7000 participants. The expo will have all kinds of vaping products from mouthpieces to e-juices. Since FDA regulations are about to classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products, many new products will be launched before the safety requirements and the costs change dramatically. If you want to learn more about the most interesting vaping items from the expo or the best flavors available in Las Vegas, take a look bellow. below Honeydew Melon Peach Juice If you enjoy fruits and natural tastes, then you should be excited about this one. It is a vape juice that combines only natural ingredients, allowing vapers to taste three fruits at once. Another benefit of this e-liquid is the fact that it does not contain any nicotine, which means that it is a lot healthier. Its a different type of smoking experience. Youre getting the purest form of flavor youre not inhaling all of the unhealthy substances from tobacco, explained Arsen Stepanyan, CEO of the company. The product is available for $30. 3D vaping cases If you were ever worried about the safety of your vaping device, youll enjoy this product. A company decided to create customized 3D printable cases that can hold your device. There are even models which allow you to clip it on its belt. The product uses 3D polyamide. There are multiple designs to choose from, and they are available in 10 different sizes. You can customize your case on spot, and the prices range from $28 to $36. Bakers Man E-liquids These e-juices bring the sweet taste of cake in your vaping device. If you are looking for something tasty you will love them. The best part about these e-juices is that you can customize them. There are two flavors, Strawberry Icing and Patty Cake, and you can decide how to mix them. E-cigs tips Customizing your electronic cigarette with a tip can be the best way of personalizing it. JusThaTip is a company dedicated to the tips, and they have all the models you could possibly imagine. The materials used are TruStone and Coriane, and they make the tips feel smooth and cool. The company is owned by a family, and all mouthpieces are handmade. Their website, justhatip.com also allows you to customize your mouthpieces. The prices range from $24 to $35. The 8th Beijing Xiangshan Forum will be held from Oct. 24 to 28, said a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense on Thursday. As of September 20, representatives from 30 countries and international organizations, including at least 15 defense ministers, have confirmed their attendance, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang told reporters at a routine press briefing. Themed "Building a New Type of Security Partnership of Equality, Mutual Trust and Win-Win Cooperation," the event includes four plenary sessions focusing on topics including "International Security Governance: New Ideas and Approaches," "Global Terrorism: Threats and Countermeasures," "Maritime Security Cooperation: Reality and Vision," and "UN Peacekeeping: Challenges and Cooperation." Special sessions will also be held concurrently, namely, "The New Dynamics in Northeast Asia Security," "Ways and Means of Addressing the Security Issues in the Middle East," "Reflection on Military and Security Confidence Building Measures in the Asia-Pacific" and "Artificial Intelligence and the Conduct of Warfare," according to previous briefings on the event. Ren said the forum, which follows the principles of openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning and cooperation, has become a platform to promote equal dialogue, exchanges, cooperation as well as global security. The Martha Stewart Wine & Food Experience presented by Ford and brought to you by USA Today & MGM Resorts International, has announced a new ticket package for a day of culinary extravagance. WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, 10:30 a.m. 4:00 p.m. WHERE: Begin at STRIPSTEAK at Mandalay Bay and continue in the afternoon to the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, 311 W. Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89101 UPDATES: New : Culinary Extravagance Combo Ticket ($130) Sat., Oct. 13. https://wineandfood.usatoday. com/lasvegas/ticket-packages/ 10:30am : A Family Affair: Bloody Mary Brunch at Michael Minas STRIPSTEAK at Mandalay Bay with Chef Minas elevated cuisine and Diane Minas Bloody Mary recipe to start a day filled with gourmet experiences. 1pm : Enjoy the afternoon at the Martha Stewart Wine & Food Experience at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. This savory Wine & Food Experience is a quintessential gourmet Grand Tasting to sample an eclectic collection of Las Vegas finest food, wine and craft beer. ($130) Sat., Oct. 13. New: Special Guest Chefs scheduled to appear at the Martha Stewart Grand Tasting:Michael Mina, Shawn McClain, Akira Back, Roy Ellamar, Josh Smith, Alan Mardonovich and Bruno Riou. PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS Las Vegas Strip Bellagio Resort & Casino : Michael Mina Bellagio, Fix, Harvest by Roy Ellamar, Yellowtail, Le Cirque : Michael Mina Bellagio, Fix, Harvest by Roy Ellamar, Yellowtail, Le Cirque ARIA Resort & Casino: FIVE50 Pizza Bar, BARDOT Brasserie FIVE50 Pizza Bar, BARDOT Brasserie MGM Grand Hotel & Casino : FiAMMA Italian Kitchen, Hecho en Vegas : FiAMMA Italian Kitchen, Hecho en Vegas Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino : Libertine Social : Libertine Social Delano Las Vegas : Rivea, Franklin Lounge, Dellas Kitchen : Rivea, Franklin Lounge, Dellas Kitchen Park MGM: Primrose Primrose The Mirage Hotel & Casino : Tom Colicchios Heritage Steak, OTORO Robata Grill & Sushi : Tom Colicchios Heritage Steak, OTORO Robata Grill & Sushi New York-New York Hotel & Casino : Toms Urban : Toms Urban Circus Circus Las Vegas : The Steak House at Circus Circus : The Steak House at Circus Circus Cosmopolitan: Holsteins at The Cosmopolitan Off Strip Lionfish Modern Coastal Cuisine, Ragin Cajun Cookin, Urban Seed, Ferraros Italian Kitchen, Masso Osteria, Oscars Steakhouse, Other Mama, Shiraz, The Black Sheep, Andres Bistro & Bar, Honey Salt, Sambalatte, Fat Choy, DW Bistro, Brauds Funnel Cake Cafe TICKETS Purchase tickets at wineandfood.usatoday.com/ lasvegas/ or Ticketmaster. All guests must be 21 years of age or older to attend. Ticket options include: The Grand Tasting ($85) : 1:00 p.m. entry, unlimited samplings of chef creations from the best local restaurants, fine wines and craft beer tastings, access to chef demonstrations on The Culinary Stage, access to The Martha Stewart Experience and access to The Grateful House. VIP Grand Tasting ($120): Early admission into the Festival Grounds at noon, access to a VIP lounge which includes tastings of premium wines and hors-doeuvres, VIP Restrooms and all benefits included in the Grand Tasting. Culinary Extravagance ($130 ): Begin with a 10:30am Bloody Mary Brunch at Michael Minas STRIPSTEAK at Mandalay Bay, followed by a 1pm Martha Stewart Wine & Food Experience Grand Tasting Meet Martha: Martha Stewart Master Class ($250): Access to the global lifestyle leader during a meet-and-greet and special presentation where Martha shares her favorite techniques for entertaining. Guests also will enjoy a gift bag including two bottles of award-winning wines selected by Martha herself, a beautiful wine stopper from the Martha Stewart Collection exclusively at Macys, a gifting kit including tags, labels, ribbons, and confetti from the Martha Stewart Celebrations line at Michaels, a one-year subscription to Martha Stewart Living and a copy of Marthas book Cakes. This ticket also includes all benefits from the VIP Grand Tasting and the Grand Tasting. Limited availability. ROOM PACKAGE Special room rates are available and may be booked by calling 877-632-7800 or by visiting MGM Resorts online. ADDITIONAL EVENT DETAILS Martha Stewart takes the Culinary Stage at 1:15 p.m., and prepares a dish featured in her 90th book Martha Stewarts Pressure Cooker, 100+ Fabulous New Recipes for the Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, and Instant Pot The Martha Stewart Experience , featuring a Celebrating with Martha theme, welcomes guests to interactively explore the American lifestyle leaders brands including Macys tabletop, Michaels Celebrations line, books, kitchen gear, and more. , featuring a Celebrating with Martha theme, welcomes guests to interactively explore the American lifestyle leaders brands including Macys tabletop, Michaels Celebrations line, books, kitchen gear, and more. THE GRATEFUL HOUSE: The Grateful House is a hands-on experience where guests can make their own salsa, learn to decorate desserts, and more. This special opportunity will be led by a collection of influencers from across the country. PARKING Uber, Lyft and public transportation strongly suggested. For parking information, visit USA TODAY Wine & Food FAQ . SOCIAL Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at the United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korea. (Don EMMERT/AFP) Led by the United States, the Security Council adopted three sanctions resolutions last year aimed at depriving North Korea of revenue for its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a council meeting that the "positive developments" in relations between North and South Korea - combined with warmer US-North Korean ties - should lead to sanctions relief. Wang said the council should consider "in due course" a provision to "modify the sanctions measures in light of the DPRK's compliance." Russia backed China's call to consider a sanctions review. Declaring that sanctions should not become a form of "collective punishment," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov argued that it was time to send a positive signal to Pyongyang to encourage concessions. "Steps by the DPRK toward gradual disarmament should be followed by an easing of sanctions," said Lavrov. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo opened the meeting, held during the annual UN General Assembly session, by demanding strict enforcement of sanctions. Pompeo - who will pay his fourth visit to Pyongyang next month - voiced hope for the "dawn of a new day" with Pyongyang, but credited sanctions with bringing North Korea to the table and said there should be no let-up in pressure. "Enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realise final, fully verified denuclearisation," Pompeo said. "The members of this Council must set the example on that effort, and we must all hold each other accountable." Pompeo said sanctions have been repeatedly violated - including, this year already, its annual cap of importing 500,000 barrels of oil. The United States has detected inter-ship transfers of refined petroleum, which are also banned, and has accused North Korea of illegally exporting coal to fund its weapons programme. China is Pyongyang's top trading partner, while Russia has welcomed tens of thousands of North Korean laborers that human rights groups consider a vital source of hard currency, with the labourers often working in slave-like conditions. SANCTIONS, TALKS 'EQUALLY IMPORTANT' China, which has fast-deteriorating relations with US President Donald Trump yet has largely welcomed his outreach to North Korea, stressed the need for diplomacy. "China firmly believes that pressure is not the end," Wang said. "Both implementing sanctions and promoting political settlement are equally important." Lavrov said it was "inappropriate and untimely" for the United States and its partners to "impose a course of tightening sanctions" when North Korea has "taken important steps" toward denuclearisation. "It seems it would be logical to strengthen this momentum," said Lavrov. North Korean representatives attended the Security Council session, but they did not ask to address the meeting. SECOND TRUMP-KIM SUMMIT? On Wednesday, Pompeo met his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, and called the talks "very positive." Trump has heaped praise on North Korea's Kim Jong Un, one of the world's most repressive leaders, and boasted that his diplomacy has prevented war. But many analysts doubt that North Korea has shifted more than rhetorically after already refining its arsenal through six nuclear tests since 2006 and repeated rocket launches. The United States is also hearing calls for step-by-step sanctions relief from ally South Korea, whose left-leaning president, Moon Jae-in, helped arrange Trump's diplomatic drive. That view is not shared by Japan, which is calling for the complete and verified disarming of North Korea as a condition for lifting any sanctions. Trump met Kim in June the first-ever summit between the two countries that never signed a peace treaty. Trump is seeking a second summit in the near future, which Pompeo will seek to arrange while in Pyongyang. Pompeo said that North Korea would enjoy a "much brighter future" if Kim fulfills promises to the United States to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programme. "But the path to peace and a brighter future is only through diplomacy and denuclearisation," Pompeo said. Vietnams high growth potential and huge consumption are attracting Bulgarian investors, Photo: Le Toan For the first time, executives of 23 leading Bulgarian companies arrived to Vietnam last week to explore investment and business opportunities, in preparation for the expected ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). These Bulgarian businesses operate in many sectors that will see tariff reductions, including animal feed, engine lubricants, lighting equipment, drinks, audio and visual equipment, and waste treatment technologies. The Vietnamese economy is becoming increasingly important in the world, as it has many FTAs. These firms want to take advantage of the EVFTAs tariff cuts (see box) and Vietnams growing demand for consumption, especially for Bulgarian products, said Bulgarian Minister of Economy Emil Karanikolov at the Vietnam-Bulgaria Business Forum held last week in Hanoi. Irena Vladova, head of exports of Prestige-96 AD, said that her company is one of Bulgarias leading foodstuff producers, with famous cake and biscuit brands like Trayana, Mirage, Roden Krai, Hyper, Troy, Spoko, Naya, Muesli, Nasladki, Wellness, and Frunu, which account for 23 per cent of the total market value of the Bulgarian cake and biscuit market. The Vietnamese market is extremely attractive and we would be delighted to co-operate with Vietnamese partners to distribute our products here, Vladova said. Similarly, Kalina Halatcheva, CEO of Corte Diletto Ltd., said that the company wishes to co-operate with Vietnamese partners in producing high-quality ice cream and confectionery in Vietnam. Ice cream consumption in Vietnam is very high and we want to establish a firm foothold here, Halatcheva said. In addition, Bonmix Ltd. is also looking for Vietnamese partners to trade and produce animal feed in the country. A number of Bulgarian investors also want to establish a commercial presence and open joint-venture companies in Vietnam. Kyulev Consulting House is one of them and is seeking Vietnamese partners to establish a joint-venture company or a partnership to export its food additives and organic cosmetics to Vietnam. In another case, Prista Oil Holding EAD is exploring opportunities to establish a joint venture to recycle discharged oil in Vietnam. This company also wants to export lubricants to the country. Minister Karanikolov said that Bulgaria fully supports the ratification of the EVFTA, and is pushing up the agreement to be signed. It is expected that the deal will be signed early next year and come into force by mid-2019. It is very important to us, to Bulgarian businesses, because it will give us enormous opportunities and make it easier to do business in Vietnam, Daniel Dobrev, counsellor and head of the Commercial Section under the Bulgarian Embassy to Vietnam, told VIR. The EVFTA is not only about tariff reductions, but also about the easing of trade barriers and deals with many topics, including investment. Bulgarian businesses are quite optimistic about the Vietnamese market, which has tremendous consumption power, he said. Businesses in Bulgaria expect tariff reductions from the EVFTA and other incentives under the deal to do business in Vietnam. The EVFTA will eliminate over 99 per cent of tariff lines. The EU will eliminate duties on thousands of items sourced from Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnam will liberalise 65 per cent of import duties on EU exports at the entry into force of the EVFTA, with the remainder of duties being gradually eliminated over a 10-year period. As of August 20, Bulgaria had nine investment projects in Vietnam registered at $31 million. Delivery companies are competing in the market, with GNN even resorting to crime, Photo: Le Toan Over the past few weeks, the Vietnamese delivery market saw locally-owned GNN Express suspend operations after more than one year of co-operating with e-commerce giant Lazada.vn. In early September, GNN Express announced a halt to operations due to financial difficulties. On the companys website, general director Hoang Ngoc admitted that he had abused trust to appropriate around VND5.5 billion ($243,400) of customers cash-on-delivery (COD) payments. To resolve the imbalance between the companys revenue and expenditure, Ngoc used the COD income of about 100 vendors to finance other activities of the company. Additionally, GNN Express also owes banks loans that were taken up to buy six cars, and VND1.7 billion ($75,200) of unsecured loans, and owes VND3.5 billion ($154,900) to other people, VND1 billion ($44,250) to partners, VND700 million ($31,000) in unpaid salaries for employees, and VND200 million ($8,850) in social insurance. Since the crisis at GNN came to light, vendors have lost track of their goods shipped through the company. GNN has VND800 million ($35,400) in its hands, but VND200 million ($8,850) of this will be used to pay employees salaries, and the remainder will compensate vendors. GNN Express reaffirms that we are stopping operations, but not declaring bankruptcy. News of the companys financial deficit are true. The stop will not cause losses to shops, Ngoc confirmed. Explaining the reason behind GNN Express halting of operations, Ngoc noted, In early 2017, the Board of Management of GNN Express decided to work with Lazada.vn. Although I pointed out the risks of this co-operation, I alone could not prevent the deal. Our company made a mistake. Lazada.vn is so big that we had to borrow money from banks to buy cars and hire employees. After nine months of serving Lazada.vn, they cancelled the partnership, saying the quality of our services was not high. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trades Vietnam Competition Agency, Lazada.vn is the most complained-about e-commerce platform in the country. In 2017, there was a multitude of complaints about the quality of products and services, as well as delays in delivery, goods being different from the advertisements, delivering used items or the wrong articles, repudiating liability, cancelling orders, fake promotions, and wrong prices, prompting the agency to consider an investigation at Recess Co., Ltd. which is the owner of Lazada.vn. However, it is likely that the breakup may have been a result of Lazada.vns plan to grow its own logistics and delivery arm, transferring all such tasks to its in-house delivery arm. Specifically, Lazada E-Logistics Express (LEL Express), the logistics and e-commerce delivery arm of Lazada Group, launched its auto-sorting centre in Ho Chi Minh City last November and the second one in Hanoi in June. Through these centres, LEL Express will take care of Lazada.vns delivery needs, making other delivery partners redundant. This implies that Lazada.vn breaking up with GNN Express over low-quality services might have only been an excuse to tie up loose ends. COD risks Several lessons can be learned from the breakup between GNN and Lazada.vn, particularly the risks inherent in using small delivery companies and COD payments in the market. In fact, most online buyers prefer paying after receiving goods. According to the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), nearly 90 per cent of e-commerce transactions are conducted with COD. This method is favoured by most customers shopping online, but also contains huge risks for vendors, said Tran Trong Tuyen, general secretary of VECOM, referring to GNN. He added that cash flows through very complex channels after customers pay COD for delivery companies. The bigger the companies are, the wider the cash flows, and it is rather hard and time-consuming for vendors to get their money. If the delivery company slips into the red, hundreds of vendors might lose large amounts of money. COD is not vital to e-commerce, it would be far safer if payments did not use cash, Tuyen said. As e-commerce and delivery have been developing rapidly, the application of e-payment in e-commerce transactions is essential to reduce costs, optimise procedures, and improve service quality. We should encourage shoppers to use non-cash payments to reduce risks. I believe that e-wallets and QR (quick response) payments will be very popular in the near future, Tuyen noted. Talking to VIR about these concerns, Vu Quoc Tuan, a representative of Lazada Vietnam, said, The government has issued a number of regulations on non-cash payments, and we always promote this channel because it is the safest and most secure option for e-commerce transactions. Lazada.vns move to build out its own delivery arm instead of sub-contracting to small-scale delivery companies, while certainly hurting those being replaced, should be a welcome development for vendors, as the risk of losing COD revenue due to misdeeds in a small delivery company would be largely mitigated if the money went through a larger corporation, which has more stable finances and stronger corporate governance. Fierce competition Over the past few years, being a key segment in retail, delivery services have been emerging and developing as e-commerce platforms boom. From only a handful of companies in 2013, the figure rose to nearly 60 units with bigger scales at present. According to a market research by SCommerce Group, Viettel Post and VNPost make up 60 per cent of the total market, while 30 per cent belongs to giaohangtietkiem.vn (developed by GHTK JSC) and GHN Express (operated by SCommerce Group). The remainder belongs to smaller ones like ShipChung, AhaMove, Giaohangso1, Tochanh, Zozoship, and others, which are developed by big technological companies or startups, with some of them having started receiving attention from foreign investors. The 2018 E-Commerce Index showed that annual revenue growth at delivery companies was at 62-200 per cent. According to National Payment Corporation of Vietnam, the number of e-transactions using domestic cards increased by 50 per cent in 2017, while its value grew by 75 per cent on-year. Delivery services are very active now, especially in last mile delivery, from distribution hub to customers. However, though most delivery units have reduced prices to raise competitiveness, the quality of their services remains limited. This combination of pictures shows Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party 36 years ago, during testimony during Kavanaugh's US Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Sep 27, 2018. (Photos: AFP) America watched transfixed as the gripping day-long hearing opened with Christine Blasey Ford, 51, recounting to a packed room the harrowing details of what she said was an attempted rape by Kavanaugh 36 years ago. In a passionate defence, the 53-year-old conservative judge insisted before the Senate Judiciary Committee that it never happened, accused Democrats of destroying his reputation and condemned his confirmation battle as a "national disgrace" and a "circus." "Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him," the president tweeted just minutes after the close of the hearing. "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," Trump said. "Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct and resist. The Senate must vote!" The allegations against Kavanaugh by Blasey Ford, a psychology professor in California, have threatened to derail Trump's bid to tilt the nation's highest court to the right for years to come. They come against a backdrop of the #MeToo movement and the hearing included sharp exchanges between Republicans and Democrats mirroring the atmosphere of bitter political partisanship in Washington. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination on Friday. If approved, it would go to the full Senate, where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 edge. "I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation by Dr. Ford," Kavanaugh said in an opening statement during which his voice shook with anger, repeatedly fighting back tears. "I've never sexually assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever," he said. "I am innocent of this charge." Earlier, during four hours of testimony, Blasey Ford said she was "100 per cent" certain that Kavanaugh was her assailant and it was "absolutely not" a case of mistaken identity. READ Kavanaugh accuser says 100% certain Supreme Court pick was assailant "I am here today not because I want to be," Blasey Ford said as she recounted the sexual assault which she alleged occurred at a high school party at a suburban Maryland home in 1982. "I am terrified," she said, her voice often quavering. "I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me." 'CHARACTER ASSASSINATION' The married mother of two, wearing glasses and a sober dark blue suit, appeared nervous but poised as she sat at the witness table, consulting occasionally with her lawyer. She said Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, were drunk at the 1982 party when they pushed her into a bedroom. "Brett and Mark came into the bedroom and locked the door behind them," she said. "I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me. "I believed he was going to rape me," she said. "I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from yelling. "It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me," she said. Blasey Ford said she managed to escape after Judge jumped on the bed, toppling the three on to the floor. Kavanaugh said he did not watch Blasey Ford's testimony but he categorically denied her allegations. "This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election," he said. "This is a circus." "My family and my name have been permanently destroyed by vicious and false accusations," Kavanaugh continued. "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace." But he said he would not be "intimidated" into withdrawing his candidacy for a spot on the nine-member Supreme Court. "You may defeat me in the final vote but you'll never get me to quit. Never," he said. 'I BELIEVE YOU' Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had been a swing vote on a court now divided between four conservative and four liberal justices. Democrats on the committee praised Blasey Ford for coming forward and repeatedly questioned Kavanaugh about his drinking habits in high school, asking if he had ever "blacked out" while drunk. "I believe you," Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, told Blasey Ford. Blumenthal also hit out at Trump for failing to authorise an FBI investigation into Blasey Ford's allegations. "It's up to the president of the United States and his failure to ask for an FBI investigation amounts to a cover-up," he said. Several Republican senators accused Democrats of trying to delay Kavanaugh's nomination until November in the hopes of capturing control of the Senate. "This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics," said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. "I hope the American people can see through this sham. "I intend to vote for you and I hope everybody who is fair-minded will," he told Kavanaugh. Blasey Ford said she had no political motivations. "I am a fiercely independent person and I am no one's pawn," she said. Businesses and employers decry the tendency of young Vietnamese workers to change jobs frequently, Photo: Le Toan A new trend A recent survey conducted by recruitment firm Navigos Group on more than 3,000 Vietnamese people born between 1980 and 1986 found that 69 per cent of respondents said they were considering moving to another job, while 70 per cent of respondents said that they work in a company for an average of four years or less. It is easy to see that young Vietnamese peoples level of commitment to an organisation is not high. The reports show that the rate of job changes among young employees is on the rise. They are always willing to change their jobs for many reasons such as low pay, unsuitable working environment, an unhappy relationship with their bosses and colleagues, and many more. The job-hopping trend among millennials goes against the traditional work culture in Vietnam, where state-owned enterprises hire graduates and employ them until they retire. The job-for-life system is meeting its end with a private sector boom, which has made the labour market more competitive. Job on, job off After having graduated from the Banking Academy, 23-year-old Nguyen Thanh became an employee in the sales department of a bank in Hanois Thanh Xuan district. However, due to the high-pressure work combined with a low entry-level salary, so he decided to quit after only three months. Having no intention of finding an office job in line with his education, Thanh decided to become a bike driver for ride-hailing service Grab and work as a shipper for a seafood store. Although he has to be on the move a lot, these jobs are not too stressful and bring in an average income of VND15-20 million ($663-885) per month, which satisfies him. Thanh said some of his friends also have college degrees and some even worked at state agencies, but still left their jobs to switch to driving for Grab due to the freelance nature and higher average incomes in this line of work. Thanh and his friends are by no means in the minority, as many young people today, especially new graduates, prioritise their immediate financial concerns and personal demands instead of choosing a job that offers opportunities for promotion and gaining experience. The rapid development of technology in the era of Industry 4.0 has given them more attractive job opportunities without the requirement of working for long periods of time to accumulate expertise. Therefore, they are willing to quit jobs for a variety of reasons but mostly low wages, and bad relationships with bosses and colleagues and switch to new jobs they see better. Sharing her reasons for job-hopping, 26-year-old Nguyen Lam said that even though she had not completed the probationary period at her former company, she still decided to quit that job and move to a new one. In my new job, Im treated more fairly and the salary for the probationary period is VND7 million ($310) per month. In addition, I will be paid extra bonuses and incentives according to sales number when I enter an official labour contract. Lam said. Le Hong Anh, 25 years old and an accountant at a company in Hanois Dong Da district, said she has changed jobs three times since her graduation. I used to be a customer care officer at a South Korean-invested shopping company, but because of the high pressure and unsatisfying environment, I quit after six months. Then, I worked as an office administrator. This job had no pressure, but it was not challenging enough, so I quit again and moved to my current job. The job is quite interesting, but the salary is not high, so I am still considering, Anh told VIR. A down for employers Switching jobs to gain experience, knowledge, and to find a suitable working environment is vital for career development. However, many young employees simultaneously changing jobs within a short time span can cause serious damage to employers and create consequences for the Vietnamese labour market. While employers increasingly require higher levels of professional competence, responsibility, and dedication, the majority of new employees put the salary factor on top, along with expectations for benefits. When these needs arent met, many young people think of quitting to find a better environment. This occurs frequently, causing many employers to become on edge. Many business owners complain that they often face a shortage of personnel, while finding new employees who are capable of meeting job requirements is increasingly difficult. However, there are also contradictory views on this situation. Pham Thanh Hung, vice chairman of Cen Group, said he has worked at dozens of companies. Hung also advised young people that if they find their jobs inconvenient or inappropriate, they should quit immediately, even if they have not found a new job. Hungs statements were met with fierce opposition from many business owners and employers. Nguyen Duc Quynh, deputy general director of the Furama Resort Danang, said, New employees leaving will cause a great loss to employers due to the costs of training them over a period of up to six months. In my opinion, young people should think carefully about whether they are suitable for a job before applying and if they decide to enter into a contract with an employer, they should do their best. Bui Thi Bich Lien, CEO of Thuy Thien Nhu JSC, said that she has been continuously suffering from personnel fluctuations in the company for over a year. Some young employees who passed the recruitment and training courses would suddenly quit without a word, some of them even after only one day of working officially. I had a staff member quit his job because he did not want to ship food for clients at noon. Instead, he then joined Grab to drive around the city all day and night. Its ridiculous, Lien said. Most employers say they do not value candidates who change jobs too frequently in a short time, because they lack confidence in them and are wary about their career investment. Vu Quang Thanh, deputy director of the Hanoi Centre for Employment Service, said that job-hopping is an inevitable trend of the market economy. There are many young people who are skilled, professional, and always looking for new job opportunities. It creates a great deal of disturbance in the labour market, contributing to the creation of a certain unemployment rate, Thanh said. Employers need to adapt In order to cope with this situation as well as retain skilled workers, businesses are now paying more attention to communication with employees in order to make them feel heard and understood. Many companies also publicise the specific promotion path for each position and give employees opportunities to learn and improve their skills in daily work. Lien Ha, head of Human Resources Department at ORFARM, said, Businesses need to offer attractive levels of income to retain qualified employees, but must also be willing to remove weak, unco-operative ones. When businesses show the right attitude in their investment in training and developing human resources, they will not be left behind in the labour market. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has sentenced four former human rights workers to five-year suspended sentences for bribing a witness in a case against the former leader of Cambodias main opposition party, Kem Sokha. Another defendant, a former elected official who also previously worked for the same local human rights organization, Adhoc, was also sentenced in connection with the bribery offense. The five defendants Nay Vanda, Ny Sokha, Lim Mony, Yi Soksan and Ny Chakrya were accused of bribing Khom Chandaraty, a witness in a separate case against Sokha, the jailed former leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party. On September 18, the court held a nearly 10-hour hearing before the judge arrived at the decision to free the men after handing them suspended sentences. Judge Duch Sarin claimed the rights workers in a meeting with Chandaraty had told her to lie to the authorities and offered her money as a bribe for her to flee the country. The case largely rested on a secret recording of Chakrya speaking to a UN official about the supposed plan. Making secret recordings is illegal in Cambodia, but the judge ruled that as an Anti-Corruption Unit official made the recording, it was admissible as evidence. Mony said the courts decision was unfair as the rights workers had not told Chandaraty to lie under oath as the prosecution claimed. What the five of us have said to the court is that it was exaggerated. I havent done anything as they have said. Sokha also continued to deny the charges. Am Sam Ath, head of investigations at Licadho, another local rights group, said the ruling may affect the human rights situation in the country. It affects the feeling of those who are working to protect human rights and those who are the victim of human rights abuses, he said. Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: These baseless convictions show that Prime Minister Hun Sen intends to persecute human rights defenders even after cementing his power through Julys sham election. Its clear Hun Sens pardon of political prisoners after the election was just a public relations effort to regain international legitimacy. The chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), Charles Santiago, said that the guilty sentences handed down to the activists were outrageous. This also clearly shows that, despite the small concessions offered by Hun Sen in recent weeks, it is very much business as usual when it comes to human rights in Cambodia. The international community must continue to push for fundamental change, including the dropping of all charges against peaceful activists and government opponents. Russia and China called Thursday for international sanctions to be eased on North Korea as an incentive for it to denuclearize. The call is seen by the West as jeopardizing the international consensus on pressuring Pyongyang. "China firmly believes that pressure is not the end," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a high-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council on North Korea. "Both implementing sanctions and promoting political settlement are equally important under Security Council resolutions." Wang urged the 15-member council to consider using a provision in its resolutions that allows for modifying sanctions. "Given the positive developments in inter-Korean and the DPRK-U.S. relations and the DPRK's important pledges and actions on denuclearization, China believes that the Security Council needs to consider invoking, in due course, this provision to encourage the DPRK and other relevant parties to move denuclearization further ahead," Wang said. DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea's formal name. Russia's foreign minister seconded the Chinese proposal. "Steps by the DPRK toward gradual disarmament should be followed by easing of sanctions," Sergey Lavrov told council members. He said Western calls for maintaining pressure on North Korea seemed "inappropriate and untimely" given that Pyongyang had taken "important steps toward denuclearization." Lavrov said the Security Council should send a "positive signal" to the North and asked why some council members "stubbornly" refused to do so. He said Russia is ready to draft a council resolution supporting the positive momentum around the Korean Peninsula. US response Their position is opposite of the United States and most Western countries, which seek to maintain a policy of maximum pressure on Pyongyang until it fully denuclearizes. "We must not forget what brought us this far: the historic international pressure campaign that this council has made possible through the sanctions that it imposed," said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who chaired the council meeting. The United States holds the council's rotating presidency this month. "Until the final denuclearization of the DPRK is achieved and fully verified, it is our solemn collective responsibility to fully implement all U.N. Security Council resolutions pertaining to North Korea," Pompeo said. Since North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, the U.N. Security Council has imposed several rounds of increasingly tough targeted sanctions to choke off funding to Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Until now, the council has been united in its approach, but the call to ease sanctions by Beijing and Moscow could signal an end to the council's unity and ability to pressure North Korea going forward. Pompeo said he met Wednesday with his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho to discuss how to move forward on commitments made at the June Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un. He said they also discussed a second summit between the two leaders. Pompeo said he plans to go to Pyongyang next month for more discussions. Illegal transfers The United States has accused Russia of "consistent and wide-ranging" violations of the sanctions imposed on North Korea. Specifically, Washington says it has evidence of illicit ship-to-ship transfers of banned items, mainly oil, but increasingly coal and other goods. Washington said last week it has tracked at least 148 instances this year of oil tankers conducting such illegal transfers of refined petroleum products, netting North Korea more than 800,000 barrels of refined petroleum products. Pyongyang is allowed 500,000 barrels a year under the sanctions. Also present at the session were the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan, who both urged international pressure to continue. North Korea did not speak at the meeting, but had diplomats in the room. Thursday's meeting was held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of world leaders, who are gathered this week at the General Assembly. Yao Gang, former vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for taking bribes and insider trading, and fined 11 million yuan (around 1.6 million U.S. dollars) on Friday. His illegal gains will be confiscated by the state, according to the verdict announced by the Intermediate People's Court of Handan, northern China's Hebei Province. The court found that Yao took advantage of his positions in order to seek benefits for certain organizations and in return accepted money and property worthy of over 69.61 million yuan through his family members between 2006 and 2015. He was also found guilty of using insider information acquired during his work from January to April 2007 to carry out insider trading and of illegally gaining more than 2.1 million yuan. The court also said that Yao was given a lenient punishment as he confessed to his crimes, showed repentance and voluntarily surrendered his illicit gains, all of which have been recovered. Cambodian-Americans from across the country rallied at a New York hotel this week where Prime Minister Hun Sen is staying ahead of a speech at the United Nations. The securities at the UN granted the Hun Sen supporters permission to rally at the hotel when Hun Sen arrived in New York this week. Pich Sarun, one of the supporters from Tacoma, Washington State, said Hun Sens attendance at the United Nations was the pride of Khmer people. It is clear that countries across the world have recognized that the Royal Government of Cambodia is an independent and sovereign nation, he said. Other attendees at the rally agreed. Duong Dara, who is also a government official, said Cambodians enjoyed equal freedoms, status, and roles as equivalent countries like the United States. Cambodia has come under fire in recent months for holding an election after banning the countrys main opposition party, jailing its leaders, and a widespread crackdown on civil society and independent media outlets. The ruling Cambodian Peoples Party won all 125 seats in parliament in a general election in July. Sunny Sam, a rally-goer from New Jersey, said: "If there was no [Hun Sen] to help build our country, I think our country would not be as advanced as today." Prom Ben Phall, from Vancouver, Canada, said he hoped to raise some issues in need of reform while meeting the prime minister. I want Cambodia to be stable, he said. "We voted for the new government, and there will be changes in order, to get rid of corruption, and the proper courts and a proper rule of law." The United States imposed visa restrictions and is considering other limited sanctions against Hun Sens government in response to the alleged rights abuses and anti-democratic measures taken by the government. Hun Sen last appeared at the United Nations in 2015 after receiving an invitation from President Barack Obama. The chief justice of Indias Supreme Court has presided over a string of recent rulings that grant more rights to women, gay couples and religious minorities, challenging deeply conservative Indian society before he retires next month. In the latest decision Thursday, Chief Justice Dipak Misra and the rest of the five-member court struck down a 158-year-old law that treated adultery in certain cases as a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. The court called the law, which did not allow wives to prosecute adulterous husbands, unconstitutional and noted that a husband is not the master of woman. Adultery can still be grounds for divorce in India, the verdict said, but a criminal penalty violated womens protection to equal rights under the law. Accolades for ruling The verdict was hailed by activists and left-of-center members of Indias Parliament. Excellent decision, tweeted Sushmita Dev, a lawmaker and president of the opposition Congress partys womens wing. She said a law that does not give women the right to sue her adulterer husband ... is unequal treatment and militates against her status as an individual. Amnesty International India said the decision was a progressive judgment and the old law was a remnant of a time when a woman was considered to be the property of her husband. The scrapped law allowed men to file charges against other men who had affairs with their wives. Women having affairs could not be prosecuted, but they also couldnt file a complaint against cheating husbands. Gay couples, religious minorities Earlier this month, the Misra-led court also struck down a colonial-era law that made gay sex punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The 1861 law, a relic of Victorian England that hung on long after the end of British colonialism, was a breach of the rights of privacy and dignity, the court ruled. It added that history owes an apology to the members of this community and their families, for the delay in providing redressal for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered through the centuries. On Thursday, the court also decided not to reconsider a 1994 decision that would have delayed proceedings in a case over the ownership of the site of a mosque that Hindu hard-liners demolished in 1992. Fast pace for India The courts recent pace of decisions speaks to another feature of Misras tenure: expediting cases in a country where they routinely take decades to resolve. There are 33 million court cases pending in India, government figures show. Misra is stepping down as chief justice next week when he turns 65, the mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court judges. He joined Indias highest court in 2011. His 13-month tenure as chief justice has won him accolades from advocates of disadvantaged groups but drawn unprecedented criticism from other members of the bench. In January, the four most senior justices held a news conference against Misra, who as chief justice controls the courts roster and decides who will take which cases, listing a litany of problems that they said afflicted the court and risked undermining Indias democracy. Misra met with the dissenting judges, who continued on the bench. President Donald Trumps nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court went before a Senate committee Thursday, with dramatic testimony over almost nine hours from Kavanaugh and from a woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were high school students in Maryland in 1982. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which heard from Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, was expected to vote Friday on his nomination. If approved by the committee, the nomination would then go before the full Senate, where confirmation could hinge on a handful of key senators. Republicans Jeff Flake. A frequent Trump critic who will retire from the Senate in January, Flake was complimentary toward Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing earlier this month. On Thursday, Flake, who is a Judiciary Committee member and sat through the hearing, said he was still processing his position on the nominee. Susan Collins. A moderate who sometimes breaks from party ranks, Collins earlier said she wanted both Ford and Kavanaugh to testify under oath to the committee and told reporters that if Kavanaugh had lied about allegations of sexual misconduct, that would be disqualifying. Lisa Murkowski. An occasional party renegade, she has not said how she will vote. Murkowski met privately late Thursday with Collins, Flake and Democrat Joe Manchin. Earlier in the day she told Reuters: I find Dr. Fords testimony to be credible. Democrats Heidi Heitkamp. Facing a re-election campaign in North Dakota, a heavily pro-Trump state, she had called for further investigation of Fords allegations. She said late Thursday she needs to fully digest the committee hearing. Joe Manchin. Also up for re-election, in the pro-Trump state of West Virginia, he met with Republicans late Thursday. Joe Donnelly. Donnelly is up for re-election in the red-leaning state of Indiana. He has said the allegations against Kavanaugh merit further review. Doug Jones. The first Democratic senator elected from Alabama in more than 20 years, he must show he can be independent-minded to stay in office. The Kavanaugh vote could be a test. President Donald Trump's dual policy of exerting pressure while engaging in dialogues to denuclearize North Korea faces challenges, as momentum builds toward a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. At the U.N. General Assembly, Trump praised Kim while saying sanctions imposed on North Korea would remain in place. "I would like to thank Chairman Kim for his courage and for the steps he has taken, though much work remains to be done," Trump said. "The sanctions will stay in place until denuclearization occurs." After last week's third inter-Korean summit, Kim said he would dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear facility if the U.S. took "corresponding measures." On Monday, at the first meeting of the U.N. gathering, Trump said a second summit with Kim would take place "quite soon." To prepare, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to visit Pyongyang next month at Kim's invitation, which was delivered Wednesday by North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho. Washington's accelerated effort to resume talks with Pyongyang came after Trump in August canceled a Pompeo trip to North Korea. At the time, Trump cited a lack of progress in denuclearization talks. More pressure The renewed effort also came after Washington took steps to pressure Pyongyang, such as issuing new U.S. sanctions on North Korean front companies in China and Russia, and calling an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting earlier this month. According to Dennis Wilder, a former National Security Council senior director for East Asian affairs during the George W. Bush administration, Trump's binary efforts to strengthen sanctions and resume dialogues are complementary strategies for denuclearizing North Korea because the pressure will induce Pyongyang to negotiate on denuclearization. "If you don't keep pressure on North Korea, if you don't make it clear that there are consequences for backsliding, they will," said Wilder. "When I was negotiating with them in 2006, we saw a similar problem. We took the pressure off sanctions, [and] they were less willing, not more willing, to negotiate." However, developments in inter-Korean ties may weaken Trump's effort to pressure North Korea. A week before arriving in New York for the General Assembly, South Korean President Moon Jae-in held his third summit with Kim, and through the newly issued Pyongyang Declaration, they renewed their commitment to achieving peace in the Korean Peninsula by formally ending the Korean War. The war ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty in 1953. The United States, China, North and South Korea signed the armistice. Moon also announced Seoul would resume economic cooperation projects with Pyongyang to foster prosperity and reconciliation of the two Koreas. North-South progress Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a global affairs think tank in Washington, said that Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign had compelled Pyongyang to discuss denuclearization with Washington but that inter-Korean progress had stymied his effort. "Maximum pressure on North Korea squeezed its economy and enabled moves to dialogue," Manning said. "Continued progress on North-South reconciliation and cooperation will make it exceedingly difficult to reimpose maximum pressure if diplomacy does not achieve ample results." Evans Revere, a former State Department official who negotiated with North Korea extensively, also believes Trump's policy of "maximum pressure" is a powerful strategy to denuclearize North Korea. But, said Revere, Trump's own comments on North Korea have severely debilitated Washington's effort. "If President Trump and his administration were actually to pursue a robust, highly coordinated, massive pressure campaign against [North Korea], it would compel Pyongyang to make a critical choice: Agree to denuclearize or suffer severe economic, political and diplomatic damage," Revere said. "Unfortunately, the 'maximum pressure' campaign is rapidly losing steam. It has been undercut by the president's comments that the threat is over it is not; that North Korea is denuclearizing it is not; and that the United States is in no hurry when it comes to seeing [North Korea] denuclearize," Revere said. 'Zero-sum game' Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at the Center for Naval Analyses, a research-and-development group serving U.S. defense agencies, thinks "Trump's instincts are right" in engaging with Pyongyang. However, he said continuing the pressure campaign while demanding that North Korea denuclearize upfront would tie Washington's hands because it creates "a zero-sum game" with an "absolute winner" and an "absolute loser" that will not appeal to Pyongyang. "If there is any hope of completely getting rid of the nuclear program, they will have to see major sanctions relief at the end of the 'maximum pressure' strategy well before they give up everything that they have in terms of a nuclear program," Gause said. Moon has been hinting that declaring peace on the peninsula, a move that will eventually lead to a peace treaty, is one of central "corresponding measures" that North Korea wants to move forward on. "It's going to take, probably, finally signing a peace treaty [and] other security guarantees which directly guarantee the security of the Kim family, in addition to a lot of economic assistance and aid," Gause said. After Pompeo met with Ri Yong Ho on Wednesday, Trump said he did not have a time frame for achieving the denuclearization of North Korea, stating, "We're not playing the time game." The Rohingya refugee children laughed, as a group of clowns one named Banana tumbled, somersaulted, sang and played the tambourine. The performance in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar was a part of Project Kushi Kushi ("Happy Happy" in English) by Britain-based Clowns Without Borders UK, a nonprofit organization working with traumatized refugees around the world. Clowns Without Borders UK founder Samantha Holdsworth told VOA her team hopes its performances provide psychosocial relief not only for the kids but also for their parents. "I am just a clown, but I have seen firsthand the difference laughter can make to children struggling to make sense of the world around them," Holdsworth told VOA. "Whilst I know this won't stop disasters or the numerous wars and armed conflicts happening across the world today, I can contribute by bringing laughter to places where there is none and showing children we care about them and about what happens to them." Kutupalong, where the performance took place, and surrounding settlements are thought to be the world's largest and most congested refugee camp, according to the World Food Program. It's estimated that nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees live in an area of only about 13 square kilometers (five square miles). Crackdown The Muslim minority was settled in the camp on the southeast coast of Bangladesh after fleeing Rakhine state in neighboring Myanmar because of a crackdown by Myanmar's army and Buddhist militias. According to officials in Bangladesh, about 55 percent of the Rohingyas hosted in Kutupalong are children, and many of them are in dire need of support to recover from trauma. They say the scale of the crisis is beyond their capacity to solve and requires a global effort and response. Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Monday at U.N. headquarters that her country has partnered with the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) to establish 1,106 learning centers for the refugee children. She said global support was needed because the centers were able to provide informal education, psychosocial support and basic life skills training to only 136,000 Rohingya children. "We have to understand that these children fleeing conflict, ethnic cleansing and genocide are carrying heavy psychological trauma. They can't be expected to accustom themselves to a normal school setting, as the forcibly displaced Rohingya children are now living in a different cultural setting," she said. UNICEF said it has helped the Bangladesh government immunize 900,000 children and adults against cholera and has screened nearly 263,000 children for malnutrition. Children under threat Despite the care, an estimated 720,000 Rohingya children remain threatened by the approaching seasonal cyclones in Bangladesh or by ongoing violence and denial of their basic rights in Myanmar, according to UNICEF. To the members of Clowns Without Borders UK, laughter is sorely needed for many of the Rohingya refugees, who continue to suffer from the deaths of family members and the loss of their homeland. Project Kushi Kushi, which began this week and lasted for five days, brought together over 2,000 Rohingya children and adults. "There is glorious defiance in the work Clowns Without Borders does, a defiance that does not accept that crisis, conflict or the threat of violence is more powerful than children having the chance to laugh and to experience, even if it's just for a moment, what it is to be a child free from concern," Holdsworth told VOA. The clowns create the scenes, but the true actors are the children, as all performances are highly visual and nonverbal so they can be easily understood in any language. "We create lots of moments for audience interaction that put the children in control. They become the heroes of the scene," Holdsworth said. "All refugee children have experienced opportunities to be in charge. This is incredibly important to us." Colombian President Ivan Duque's pledge not to restart stalled peace talks with ELN rebels until the group has freed all hostages and his rejection of Venezuela as a guarantor country are part of a plan to "shatter" the process, the guerrillas said on Friday. Right-wing Duque has said the 2,000-strong National Liberation Army (ELN) must free all 19 hostages it had been holding and stop criminal activities as conditions for resuming dialogue. The group has so far released nine of the hostages, all members of the security forces or military contractors. The remaining 10 are civilians. Duque, who took power in August pledging to take a harder line against guerrillas, said on Thursday that he would no longer accept Venezuela as a guarantor at the talks because of its alleged support for rebel activities. "President Duque keeps adding unilateral conditions in order not to give continuity to the peace process," the ELN said in a statement. "In his statements he demands that to continue we must cease our insurgent activity unilaterally and ahead of time." His demands are not part of what was agreed by the two sides before the start of the Havana-based talks, the rebels added. "We are facing rulers who plan to shatter the peace process," the statement said, accusing the United States of using Colombia's government to "launch a bellicose, absurd and fratricidal conflict against Venezuela." Colombia's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ELN, considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, has been at war with the Colombian government since 1964. The larger FARC, a former rebel group, are now a political party after signing a peace deal with the government last year. Ethiopia's attorney general on Friday filed terrorism charges against five people accused of trying to "kill the prime minister" at a huge rally in the capital in June, barely two months after the reformist leader took office. The charges say the five acted on the premise that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is not popular among Oromos, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, and wanted to pave the way for the once-banned Oromo Liberation Front. That group's leaders recently returned after Abiy's government in July removed it from a terror list and invited all exiled groups to participate in politics. Abiy, Ethiopia's first prime minister from the Oromo ethnic group, has announced sweeping and largely popular reforms since taking office in April, but ethnic tensions in Africa's second most populous country pose his biggest challenge. A bomb thrown at the stage while Abiy waved to the crowd of tens of thousands in Addis Ababa's Meskel Square on June 23 killed two people and wounded more than 150. Some of the attack's collaborators remain at large, including a woman who lives in neighboring Kenya and allegedly masterminded it, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported Friday. It said the suspects wore T-shirts bearing the prime minister's image to disguise themselves as supporters. At the time of the bombing, Abiy called it a "well-orchestrated attack" but one that failed. Ethiopia's ruling coalition, which came to power in 1991, holds its congress next week and is expected to take the next steps in implementing the political and economic reforms that include opening up state-run enterprises to investment and preparing for elections in 2020. Ethiopian officials have revoked land leases in Addis Ababa that were held by dozens of investors, including Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi. A total of 412.6 hectares of land have been returned to the Addis Ababa Land Bank and Transfer Office, office head Tesfaye Tilahun told the VOA Horn of Africa service this week. The investors had not acted on their promise to create jobs for youth and help grow the city of more than 4 million, he said. All they did was make a fence around thousands square feet of land and left it for years. That is all they did," he said. Ninety-five individuals and businesses lost their licenses, Tesfaye said. The reclaimed land includes 55 hectares that were associated with MIDROC Ethiopia, a private company that belongs to al-Amoudi. MIDROC Ethiopia leased about 33,000 square feet of land in the heart of the capital in 2005, agreeing to build a city center there. "The company just put a fence around that massive [tract], evicting out locals. Instead of building the city, they gave the city a bad image, making it a place of waste collections," Tesfaye said. VOA's efforts to reach MIDROC Ethiopia representatives for a response to the government's actions were unsuccessful. MIDROC often has had a coarse relationship with Addis Ababa residents, who have accused the company of polluting the environment and refusing job opportunities to locals. The public frustration grew a few years ago, especially in the Oromia region, where locals protested against the company. Land issues also drove the Oromia protests. Many residents opposed an expansion of the Addis Ababa city limits, citing fears the government would push farmers off their land. Addis Ababa needs to grow first from inside before illegally evicting neighboring farmers from their belongings," Tesfaye said. In Ethiopia, the federal government has the ultimate say over who owns land and how it is used. Nineteen Ethiopian government agencies and 18 companies related to African diplomats or governments also had licenses revoked this week. Tesfaye said the entities had promised to build industry, hotels, a media center and other complexes in various parts of the citys busiest area. Addis Ababa city officials are planning to audit other land holdings in the city. "This is the beginning, he said. Irans practice of detaining foreigners and Iranians with Western ties for alleged security offenses has prompted their families to join forces for the first time to lobby international diplomats for their release. In the first gathering of its kind, family members of the detainees collectively met with officials of the United States and other nations Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, urging them to press Iran to free their loved ones. Levinson family One of those who joined the campaign is Daniel Levinson, a son of American Bob Levinson, who went missing in Iran 11 years ago. Family members believe Tehran is holding the elder Levinson, but Iranian officials have denied knowledge of his whereabouts. By working with these other families, the goal is to make sure that the world is not forgetting that Iran has taken a number of American hostages, Daniel Levinson told VOA Persian Thursday via Skype from New York. We have to band together, make sure our message gets out and continue to work with whoever in the U.S. government and international governments can help us. Levinson said he met with several U.S. officials this week in New York. It seems like they are pressing our case to get (my) dad home, he said. We also have several (other) governments who hopefully will be talking to the Iranian government during their (UNGA) meetings. In remarks this week to a New York forum of U.S. advocacy group United Against a Nuclear Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton both repeated U.S. calls for Iran to locate Bob Levinson and enable him to return home. We are encouraged that the Trump administration is taking the right steps to keep the pressure on Iran and make sure that they are not going to get away with my dad being taken (captive) for this long, the younger Levinson said. British-Iranian charity worker Another family member of a detained Westerner who joined this weeks lobbying efforts in New York was Richard Ratcliffe, husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe a British-Iranian charity worker for the Thomson Reuters Foundation held in Iran for 2 years. We dont normally say Nazanin is a hostage, (although) I do talk about her being a bargaining chip, Ratcliffe said in an article posted by the Foundation on Thursday. She hasnt done anything (wrong). And actually (she is a) state-held hostage. The U.K. needs to do something. The U.N. needs to do something. Family members of Western-linked foreigners and Iranians detained by Tehran long have accused it of using their loved ones as bargaining chips in Iranian disputes with Western powers. Iran has said little about the detainees beyond the alleged security offenses that they have been charged with. Relatives and other supporters of the detainees say those detainees are innocent. In a report published Wednesday, the U.S.-based rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch said it has documented the cases of 14 Iranian dual or foreign nationals whom Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has arrested since 2014. HRW said Irans security apparatus has escalated its targeting of such dual citizens and foreign nationals whom Tehran perceives to have undesirable links with Western academic, economic, and cultural institutions. Those detainees include Iranian-Americans Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer Namazi, Chinese-American Xiyue Wang, and Lebanese U.S. permanent resident Nizar Zakka. This article originated in VOAs Persian Service. Four large Finnish unions called on Friday for tens of thousands of their members to go on strike on Oct. 3 to protest against what they called attacks on workers' rights. The unions said the strike was over government plans to make it easier for small companies to dismiss workers. "The obstinacy of the right-wing government ... has not left us with any choice," the Industrial Union's chair Riku Aalto said in a statement. Service sector union PAM, professionals' union Pro and the Finnish Electrical Workers' Union also called the 24-hour strike. Finnish food industry workers had already announced plans to strike on Oct 3. against the government plans. The government led by the Center Party has said the changes will end up creating more jobs as they will make small companies more willing to hire. The fact that Pope Francis has not responded to accusations of having covered up for former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is evidence the pope is guilty, according to a letter written by former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. Vigano renewed his charge that Francis knew five years ago that McCarrick had sexually harassed young men and did nothing. The letter, written in English and dated Sept. 29, was published Thursday night on American Conservative as soon as it was received by U.S. blogger Rod Dreher. The content of the letter echoes Vigano's first letter, published a month ago, in which he accused three popes and other leading members of the Vatican hierarchy of covering up the serious sexual sins of McCarrick. Vigano called on Pope Francis to set the right example and resign. In the new letter, Vigano explains why he revealed facts that were covered by the pontifical secret. "Well aware of the enormous consequences that my testimony could have, because what I was about to reveal involved the successor of Peter himself, I nonetheless chose to speak in order to protect the Church, and I declare with a clear conscience before God that my testimony is true," he wrote. The archbishop added that the "decision to reveal those grave facts" was for him "the most painful and serious decision" that he'd ever made in his life. He said he took the decision "after long reflection and prayer, during months of profound suffering and anguish." Vigano continued in his letter saying, "Neither the pope nor any of the cardinals in Rome have denied the facts I asserted in my testimony." He added that Pope Francis' response so far has been to say, "I will not say a word about this." The former Vatican diplomat said Francis' failure to respond to the accusations is a clear indication he is guilty. "The pope's unwillingness to respond to my charges and his deafness to the appeals by the faithful for accountability are hardly consistent with his calls for transparency and bridge building," he wrote. The Vatican reportedly is expected to provide some clarification, but the pope has refused to answer the accusations directly. Francis has referred to the matter only indirectly in his morning homilies inside Vatican walls and when no one is able to question him. Vigano said Francis compared his own silence to that of Jesus before Pilate, with the pope comparing Vigano to "the great accuser, Satan, who sows scandal and division in the Church," though without naming Vigano. What the pope chose to do, according to Vigano, was to "put in place a subtle slander" against him. Gaza's militant Hamas rulers are calling on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to lift what they describe as his "sanctions" on the coastal territory. Friday's call followed Abbas' threats to "give up responsibility" for Gaza if Hamas doesn't respond positively to Egyptian efforts to broker a reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions. Abbas slashed funding to Gaza and cut salaries of Palestinian Authority employees there to pressure Hamas into handing over the territory, making it increasingly difficult for Hamas to govern. Hamas fears Abbas may reduce funding to health care and other services for Gazans. Hundreds of Hamas supporters marched in anti-Abbas protests late Thursday, burning his posters after his speech at the United Nations. Hamas seized Gaza after ousting pro-Abbas forces in 2007; the violent takeover led to an Israeli-Egyptian blockade. President Donald Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court will hinge on the votes of a handful of senators, minus Jeff Flake, a Republican who said on Friday he will support the nominee, ending speculation that he might not. The nomination was headed for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee after dramatic testimony over almost nine hours on Thursday from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school. The nomination, if approved, would cement conservative control of the nation's highest court and advance Trump's effort to push it and America's judiciary to the right. Most Democrats opposed Kavanaugh and are trying to block him. After the committee acts, the nomination will go before the full Senate, controlled 51-49 by Republicans. Here are the swing votes that likely will decide if Kavanaugh is confirmed. Republicans - Susan Collins. A moderate who sometimes breaks from party ranks, Collins has said that if Kavanaugh lied about allegations of sexual misconduct, "that would be disqualifying. - Lisa Murkowski. An occasional party renegade, she has not said how she will vote. Murkowski met privately late on Thursday with Collins, Flake and Democrat Joe Manchin. Earlier in the day she told Reuters: "I find Dr. Ford's testimony to be credible." Democrats - Heidi Heitkamp. Facing a re-election campaign in North Dakota, a heavily pro-Trump state, she had called for further investigation of Ford's allegations. - Joe Manchin. Also up for re-election in the pro-Trump state of West Virginia, he met with Republicans late Thursday. - Joe Donnelly. Donnelly is up for re-election in the red-leaning state of Indiana. He has said the allegations against Kavanaugh "merit further review. - Doug Jones. The first Democratic senator elected from Alabama in more than 20 years, he must show he can be independent-minded to stay in office. The Kavanaugh vote could be a test. The House intelligence committee voted Friday to release transcripts of more than 50 interviews it conducted as part of its now-closed investigation into Russian election interference during the 2016 presidential campaign. Among those to be released are interviews with President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, his longtime spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, and his former bodyguard Keith Schiller. The committee also will release dozens of other transcripts of interviews with former Obama administration officials and numerous Trump associates, including Roger Stone, currently the subject of a grand jury investigation. The move to release the materials by the committee chairman, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California, a close Trump ally, will provide the public with 53 transcripts spanning thousands of pages of raw testimony as special counsel Robert Mueller continues his Russia investigation. But not all interviews conducted by the committee are being released, and there wasn't a firm timetable Friday for when they will ultimately be made public. The interviews form the basis for the GOP-authored report released this year that concluded there was no coordination between Trump's presidential campaign and Russian efforts to sway the election. Committee Democrats, who voted against approving the report, have disputed its findings. They say the investigation was shut down too quickly and that the committee didn't interview enough witnesses or gather enough evidence. Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who led the investigation in place of Nunes, said he "wanted to declassify or release as much of the underlying data as we could so that not only would they have my conclusion, but they could look at what I was looking at to make up their own mind.'' But Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the committee's top Democrat, said some of the most important transcripts six in total are still being withheld. The withheld transcripts include separate interviews with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who has attracted attention for his pro-Russian statements, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who headed the Democratic National Committee when court papers say its computer systems were hacked by Russia. Conaway said those transcripts were being withheld as a professional courtesy extended to members of Congress who participated in the interviews with the understanding they would be confidential. Democrats say Wasserman Schultz has agreed to the release of her transcript. And on Friday, Rohrabacher told The Associated Press that he hasn't objected to the release of his. Asked if he would agree to its release now, Rohrabacher said, I'll think about it. Also being withheld are transcripts of closed hearings with former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey and former National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers as well as the transcript for the committee's business meeting when GOP members approved their final report. None of the transcripts, including those set for public release, has been provided to Mueller as part of his investigation, a move Democrats unsuccessfully pushed for on Friday. We have suspicions that people testified before our committee falsely and committed perjury, and the special counsel is in the best position to determine, on the basis of the additional information he has, who might have perjured themselves, Schiff said. But Conaway said Mueller hasnt asked for access to the transcripts, and Republicans dont want to be accused of trying to skew the investigation or obstruct justice by sending him materials he didn't request. Hell ask for it if he wants to. Hes a big boy, Conaway said, noting the special counsel will be able to review them once they're public. The 53 transcripts approved for release will now go to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for a declassification review. Conaway and Schiff said they didnt know how long the review would take or when the transcripts would be released to the public. Schiff said Republicans made clear that none of the transcripts, which largely don't contain classified information, will be released until the declassification review is completed for all of them. Editor's note: We want you to know what's happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. Slow justice, slow return for Rohingya refugees Bangladesh says Myanmar is slowing down the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled military-led violence against them. But Yangon says it is "doing everything on schedule." Meanwhile, a U.S. report this week fell short of labeling "extreme," "large-scale" and "coordinated" military attacks on the Muslim minority group genocide, or a war crime. What's next? How many refugees will be repatriated to Myanmar remains unclear. The consequences the perpetrators of the violence may face remains unclear. The precise death toll from those attacks remains unclear. Down to the wire on US refugee deadline The Trump administration wants fewer refugees to come to the U.S. in 2019, according to a proposed cap announced by the secretary of state last week. The new fiscal year begins Monday in the U.S. Before then, the president has to issue a "determination" after administration officials consult with Congress members. Now what? With the president required to make a decision by Oct. 1, will Congress mired in contentious hearings this week be able to shift the needle on the refugee ceiling in time? As of 1 p.m. Friday, the State Department hadn't responded to our request for an update on the issue. Fear and learning in Cameroon Millions of refugee children around the world are not in school, so when a group makes it back to the classroom, it's noteworthy. Young Nigerian students living in Cameroon after fleeing Boko Haram violence picked up the chalk and headed back to their lessons recently. But others remain too scared. Moki Edwin Kindzeka reports from Minawao. The only doc in town Evan Atar Adaha runs the only hospital serving nearly 150,000 refugees in northeastern South Sudan. He lives in a tent, far from his wife and children, and sews the hospital linens himself. The U.N. is acknowledging his efforts with an award and along with it comes a much-needed $150,000 in prize money to be used to further his work. Given that the only X-ray machine in the hospital is broken, he could definitely use the help to care for a vulnerable, traumatized community. Italys stock market fell sharply Friday after the new populist, euroskeptic government announced a sharp public spending increase that will push the budget deficit to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product next year, risking a collision with the European Union. The benchmark FTSE MIB dropped 2.2 percent early Friday, hours after the government announced its first financial targets since taking office three months ago. Italys government partners, the 5-Star movement and the League, pressed for money to fulfill campaign pledges, namely a basic citizens income for job seekers and a flat tax. Finance Minister Giovanni Tria, who is politically unaligned, had wanted to keep the budget deficit capped at no more than 2 percent. The leader of the 5-Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio, called the document approved early Friday by the Cabinet a maneuver of the people. The historic measures are a victory, Di Maio said. It is not the government that wins, but citizens. It is a maneuver that allows us to relaunch investments and growth. The 2019 deficit target is a significant jump from the 2018 target of 1.6 percent, set by the former center-left government, but still remains within the 3-percent ceiling set by the EU. The European Union has been pressing Italy to address its deficit in a bid to reduce the countrys debt, the second largest in the EU after Greece. The spending targets contained in the document calls for spending of 27 billion euros, including blocking an increase in value-added tax, launching the 5-Star Movements basic income scheme, undoing pension reforms and introducing a flat tax. To pay for the new spending, the government has pledged a tax amnesty, a spending review and possible changes to tax breaks. The government must submit a draft budget to the EU by Oct. 15. Journalists are being jailed in unprecedented numbers across the globe, with 262 detained for their work at the end of 2017, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. "The jailing of journalists is a brutal form of censorship that is having a profound impact on the flow of information around the world," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon told a press freedom event Friday at the United Nations. At the end of 2017, the worst offenders were Turkey, with 73 journalists jailed; China with 41; and Egypt with 20. CPJ says that slightly more than half of all imprisoned journalists were jailed for reporting on human rights violations. WATCH: A Pakistani American Startup Fighting Media Censorship Simon said the United Nations has not been a strong enough voice on the issue because it has a culture of rarely naming and shaming its member states. The event, organized on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly annual meeting, highlighted the cases of five reporters CPJ says have been unjustly detained. They are nationals of Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt and Myanmar. The two most high-profile cases are of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in Myanmar. The two men were detained in December 2017 while they were investigating the mass killing of Rohingya Muslim men and boys by Buddhist villagers in the Rakhine state village of Inn Din. Myanmar's military launched a crackdown on the minority Rohingya in August 2017 after Rohingya militants attacked several police checkpoints and killed a dozen Myanmar police officers. In a matter of a few months, 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh. Survivors gave accounts of horrific abuses, including widespread rapes, torture, and the looting and burning of their homes. The United Nations has deemed the atrocities a "textbook case" of ethnic cleansing. British barrister Amal Clooney is representing the two Reuters reporters. She says the Myanmar authorities did not want their story about the massacre at Inn Din to come out. "So police planted government documents on the journalists while other officers lay in wait outside to arrest them," Clooney said of how the two men were set up. "The journalists were arrested and were then prosecuted and subjected to a show trial in which their conviction was guaranteed." Earlier this month, the two were sentenced to seven years in prison for violating a law on state secrets. Clooney said they are seeking a presidential pardon in Myanmar for them, as it is the only avenue currently available to win their freedom. "The attack on them is a chilling warning to other journalists worldwide," said Reuters President Stephen Adler. "Myanmar is not the only country where attempts are made to deter investigative news gathering, scare sources and whistle-blowers, dim the spotlight of reporting, and thereby allow officials to act in darkness with impunity." Other arrests Azimjon Askarov, a Kyrgyz journalist, has been serving a life sentence since July 2010. CPJ's Simon says he was covering deadly ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2010. During the trial, he and his lawyer were both assaulted. "CPJ conducted its own investigation into the case in 2012 and found that charges against Askarov were in retaliation for his reporting on corrupt and abusive practices by regional police and prosecutors," Simon said. Bangladeshi photojournalist and commentator Shahidul Alam was arrested last month while covering student protests in Bangladesh. A Dhaka court ordered that he be held for seven days to determine if he violated an information law by spreading propaganda and false information. "When Shahidul was brought into court, he screamed that had been tortured. He was unable to walk without assistance," Simon told the panel. He remains in detention. Since 2013, CPJ says, Egypt has been among the world's worst jailers of journalists, often detaining reporters on politically motivated anti-state charges. Alaa Abdelfattah, a well-known Egyptian blogger and activist who has written about politics and human rights, is one of them. He is serving a five-year sentence on charges that he organized a protest and assaulted a police officer. "We believe the charges are trumped up and in retaliation for Alaa's coverage of alleged human rights abuses by the police and security forces," Simon said. "We are witnessing a growing hatred of journalists worldwide, which unfortunately is not limited to authoritarian regimes," said Margaux Ewen, North America director of Reporters Without Borders. "We are seeing democratically elected regimes also attack the press more and more frequently, which is why we need to continue to address wrongs as they occur." U.S. President Donald Trump refers to negative news coverage of him and his administration as "fake news," and reporters at his rallies and during his campaign reported encountering hostility from his supporters. Reporters in the United States are facing a more dangerous work environment. CPJ says at least three journalists have been arrested this year and 34 last year. In June, five people were killed in the newsroom of an Annapolis, Maryland, newspaper. Journalists covering white nationalism and the far-right political movement have reported receiving threats, and at least 24 journalists have been assaulted, shoved or had their equipment damaged while working. "A free press is not an adversary, but an essential component of democracy," Ewen said. He let his anger flare repeatedly, interrupted his questioners and sobbed several times during his opening statement. She strived to remain calm and polite, despite her nervousness, and mostly held back her tears. Throughout their riveting, nationally televised testimony on Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh served as Exhibits A and B for a tutorial on gender roles and stereotypes. Amid the deluge of reaction on social media, one prominent observation: Ford, as a woman, would have been judged as a far weaker witness had she behaved as Kavanaugh did. Imagine a woman openly weeping like this on a national stage and still getting elected to the Supreme Court. Or any office, tweeted Joanna Robinson, a senior writer with Vanity Fair. Kavanaugh vented fury and tears Kavanaugh, nominated to fill a vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, mixed tears with fury in his statement forcefully denying Fords allegation that he sexually assaulted her in 1982 when they were both in high school. He choked up at several points when referring to how his family has been affected by the tempest surrounding allegations by Ford and other women. Opponents of Kavanaughs nomination said his behavior demonstrated a lack of judicial temperament. Some supporters said they were moved to tears when he broke down. Later, during questioning by some of the Senate Judiciary Committees Democratic members, Kavanaugh aggressively interrupted his interrogators and even asked sharp questions of his own. Have you ever drank so much you didnt remember what happened? asked Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat. Have you? countered Kavanaugh. Ford cooperative, respectful Ford, in contrast, sought to present herself as cooperative and respectful, expressing her wish that we could collaborate in a way that could get at more information. Im used to being collegial, she said at one point. At another, she told the prosecutor, asking about her emotional state: I think thats a great question. Zoe Chance, a marketing professor at Yale School of Management, said that in terms of winning over public opinion, Ford and Kavanaugh are both doing the right thing. She cited research indicating that men could seem more influential and competent through shows of anger, and women less so. When women express strong emotions, we judge them to be emotional or, in the extreme, hysterical, Chance said in an email. When men express strong emotions, we infer that they must be facing extreme situations. What was persuasive? However, Chance was unsure that Kavanaughs anger was effective in this case. In this particular situation, the emotional display casts doubt on his ability to be dispassionate and objective as a judge, Chance suggested. If we value the ability to separate emotion from facts, then Ford has behaved more judgelike than Kavanaugh has. Michael Cunningham, a psychology professor at the University of Louisville, said he found Fords body language and tone of voice to be persuasive. Her generally calm and soft-spoken, yet firm, voice seemed consistent with the feminine sex-role, he said. At the end, I believe she retained her credibility. As for Kavanaugh, Cunningham said the nominee was successful in conveying the emotions of a man who has convinced himself that he has done nothing wrong. But the professor had doubts about the impact of Kavanaughs show of emotions. Judge Kavanaugh tearing up when mentioning his daughter conveyed a man who was feeling sorry for himself, Cunningham said. Society wants men to be sympathetic, and even tearful at times, but not for themselves. Glenn Sacks, a commentator who writes often about mens issues, expressed dismay at social-media derision being directed at Kavanaugh because of his emotional displays. The mocking of his demeanor is indicative of the restraints still upon men no weakness allowed, suck it up or get laughed at, Sacks said in an email. Men are taught this at an early age when women cry, we sympathize. When a man cries, its so unseemly we can barely stand to look at it. Contrast of emotions Jo Langford, a Seattle-based therapist who works with men and boys who have committed sexual offenses, said he was struck by the contrast between Kavanaughs anger and Fords stable and straightforward cadence. He concluded that Ford may have fared better in the court of public opinion. Among those closely following the hearing was Danielle Campoamor, a New York-based writer and editor who says she was sexually assaulted by a co-worker five years ago. Ford was calm in a way every sexual assault victim is asked to be, lest they be written off as unhinged and emotional and, as a result, no longer credible, Campoamor said. Kavanaugh, by contrast, was unapologetically angry. ... He embodied the anger so many sexual assault victims fear; the anger that keeps so many of us from coming forward. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet was welcome to visit any time after she urged Caracas to allow an international investigation of the humanitarian situation in the country. Of course, whenever she wants, Maduro told reporters when asked at the United Nations if he would accept a mission to report on the human rights situation in Venezuela. President Bachelet, the high commissioner, should coordinate with the foreign ministry when she wants to go to Venezuela. Shes always welcome, he added. Bachelet, a former president of Chile, took over at the head of the U.N. Human Rights Council Sept. 1. Earlier Thursday, the council said it had approved a resolution expressing serious concern about alleged human rights violations in Venezuela, and urged the country to let Bachelet compile a report on the conditions on the ground. In a video published by the United Nations, Bachelet said for the Human Rights Council to be able to produce an impartial report on the situation, it was vital to be allowed in. It would also provide an opportunity for the council to get the official version from Venezuelas government, she added. Venezuela, which is struggling to cope with an economic and political crisis, has come under the spotlight for its human rights record at the U.N. General Assembly this week. Five Latin American countries and Canada on Wednesday said they had asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Maduros government over allegations of crimes against humanity in using force to repress political opponents. Venezuela has rejected criticism of the Maduro government as hostile propaganda and attempts to set the stage for an intervention by foreign powers in the country. Myanmar is "doing everything on schedule" to repatriate more than 700,000 Rohingya, said a top official less than a day after the prime minister of neighboring Bangladesh, which is sheltering the refugees, accused the Buddhist nation of delaying the Muslims' return. "We are proceeding repatriation process step by step as scheduled," Win Myat Aye, Myanmar's minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, told VOA's Burmese Service. He is overseeing the repatriation of the Rohingya. The Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after what the U.S. State Department found were targeted attacks on their villages by Myanmar's military. Myanmar has said the attacks were a legitimate response to August 2017 strikes against security outposts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an armed Rohingya group in Rakhine state. Rohingya see themselves as natives of Myanmar's Rakhine state, but Myanmar has denied them citizenship and the rights that carries for decades. Saying that the refugees overburdened her nation, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday accused Myanmar of delaying the Rohingya's repatriation. "We set up a committee, a joint committee, everything is set," she said. "Every time, they try to find out some new excuse." In an exclusive interview Saturday with VOA's Bangla service, Hasina expressed her hope the Rohingya crisis eventually would be solved. She urged the international community to create pressure on the Myanmar government to create a safe and congenial atmosphere, and to take back the Rohingya refugees as soon as possible. Win Myat Aye countered by saying his government was "implementing comprehensively in every detail in accordance with the agreement. We left nothing from the agreement's list. We want to do it as soon as possible. It is very hard to maintain the reception camps, which we built for returnees, because there is no one living over there." He accused Bangladesh of failing to distribute necessary forms to the Rohingya, and once that is completed, repatriation "can be managed systematically." Myanmar is "ready and eager to receive refugees. It is entirely up to Bangladeshi side to start the process," he said. The back-and-forth accusations came as the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday backed a resolution to establish an "independent mechanism" for bringing about criminal prosecutions of the Myanmar generals that a U.N. fact-finding group said led the campaign against the Rohingya. Human rights groups and Rohingya activists have estimated thousands died in last year's security crackdown. Myanmar denies its forces were involved in atrocities. On Monday, during sideline discussions on the crises of the displaced Rohingya at the annual U.N. General Assembly, the United States said it would contribute an additional $185 million in humanitarian aid to Myanmar and Bangladesh. Khin Soe Win contributed to this report, which originated on VOA's Burmese service, as did Sarkar Kabiruddin of VOA's Bangla service. A rise in violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is displacing more people and hampering humanitarian efforts, including operations to stop the spread of Ebola, the United Nations refugee agency warns. More than 20 people have been killed in recent attacks in the Beni area of Congo's North Kivu province and farther north in Ituri province, both near the border with Uganda. The UNHCR estimates more than a million people are displaced in North Kivu. And, it notes, more people are fleeing their homes in the face of increasing attacks. The main rebel groups the Allied Democratic Forces and National Army for the Liberation of Uganda have been active in the Beni area for some time. However, UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch tells VOA fighting has reached the city itself for the first time, making it risky for staff to move around. "Many humanitarians have had to stop their activities. But, UNHCR, we are trying to send colleagues into Beni town as soon as we can to provide humanitarian assistance to those who have been affected by the recent rounds of violence," Baloch said. Beni is the epicenter of an Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC, and is the base for anti-Ebola operations by the World Health Organization. These operations were shut down temporarily following recent rebel attacks. WHO reports 154 confirmed and probable cases of Ebola in the area, including 101 deaths. The agency resumed its activities in Beni on Wednesday, despite security concerns. WHO officials say they cannot afford to halt operations and allow the deadly Ebola virus to spread. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has agreed to speak privately with lawmakers following reports he'd discussed secretly recording President Donald Trump. A person familiar with the situation says Rosenstein agreed to the meeting during a call Thursday evening with the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia) Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, tweeted Friday that Republican leaders agreed to ask Rosenstein for a private meeting and said lawmakers would subpoena Rosenstein if he refused to answer questions. But the person familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, says Rosenstein had agreed to the meeting before that tweet. Trump is to meet next week with Rosenstein, who's overseeing the special counsel investigation into Russian election-meddling. Russia and China have called on the U.N. Security Council to ease international sanctions on North Korea as an incentive for it to denuclearize, threatening an international consensus on sanctions. This position clashes directly with the U.S. stance laid out by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: a policy of "maximum pressure" that has led to diplomatic breakthroughs and summits between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. VOA Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington. More than 6 million people in South Sudan or nearly 60 percent of the population face desperate food shortages, with many on the brink of famine, warns a joint report by three leading United Nations agencies. Particular emphasis was placed on seven counties in South Sudan, where food shortages have reached catastrophic levels. Under the U.N. classification system, these counties have reached a Level 5, which is an early warning of famine. The report by the World Food Program, U.N. Children's Fund, and Food and Agriculture Organization blames the hardship on widespread conflict and lack of humanitarian access in the former states of Unity, Lakes, Jonglei, Upper Nile, Western Bahr el Ghazal, Leer and Mayendit. "Although famine was averted by June 2017, lack of access areas prevent humanitarian organizations from having a clear understanding of needs today," said Herve Verhoosel, a World Food Program spokesman. "Action and political leadership are needed." The WFP has reached more than 3 million people with 30,000 tons of food this year, Verhoosel says. The agency is preparing to respond to growing needs in 2019. The Food and Agriculture Organization reports it has provided 1.4 million farmers with agricultural seeds and tools during the main planting season, so they can increase cereal production. The U.N. Children's Fund and partners reportedly have provided therapeutic treatment for more than 147,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition since January. Ultimately, the three agencies agree that only a sustainable peace across South Sudan will allow people in this beleaguered country to live safe, fulfilling lives. South Sudan has been plagued by civil war since 2013 as a result of a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar. Kiir and Machar recently signed a renewed peace accord. British investigators now say a third Russian military intelligence officer was involved in the poisoning in March this year of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern English cathedral town of Salisbury. Officials say the officer, who they suspect of carrying out reconnaissance for the nerve agent attack, has been identified by the British security services. At this stage, they say, they are not releasing his name - neither the alias he might have used nor his real identity. The disclosure comes as Kremlin officials downplayed the unmasking earlier this week of one of the suspects in the attack as a decorated colonel in the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service. Col. Anatoliy Chepiga, a GRU veteran who is believed to have served in an elite special forces unit in Afghanistan as well as in Chechnya and Ukraine, received Russias top military honor, Hero of the Russian Federation, in 2014. It may have been bestowed on him personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin, say security analysts. Chepiga was seen laughing on CCTV footage released earlier this year by the British authorities as he and a colleague, who used the alias Alexander Petrov, sauntered along a Salisbury street March 4 soon after the poisoning of Skripal, a former Russian agent who defected to Britain. The two men have claimed they are sport nutritionists and in an interview, ridiculed by the British media and government, with the Kremlin-directed RT network, insisted they had gone to Salisbury, twice, to see the cathedrals spire and ancient clock. Their first day trip was a failure because of slush and snow, they said, although according to weather data there was no snow in the cathedral town on March 3. The investigative journalism consortium Bellingcat, along with the news-site The Insider, say they have identified the decorated veteran, who used the alias Ruslan Boshirov, by trawling through open-source records of the graduates of Russian military academies and then matching his photograph. Leaked data of Chepigas real passport provided final proof. Fake news The Russian Foreign Ministry says the Bellingcat identification is fake news. And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday: Like you, we are just learning of this investigation in the media released that talks about certain people resembling certain other people. Other Kremlin officials say many people resemble each other. Chepigas apparent identification as one of the likely culprits of the assassination attempt using the rare toxin Novichok leaves in tatters the Kremlin claim that it had no involvement in the attack, say British officials. His seniority in the GRU, they argue, suggests the attack was sanctioned from the top of the Kremlin. Bellingcat says aside from its own open-source probe, multiple sources familiar with the person and/or the investigation have confirmed the suspects identity. British officials say they have no dispute with the identification. But they are not officially confirming it and have not said in detail why, arguing they are unable to for security reasons. Locals in Chepigas home village, Berezovka, 640 kilometers east of Moscow in the Amur region, interviewed by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, confirm the identification and say they knew it was him even before the Bellingcat investigation. They say they recognized him from the CCTV footage British authorities released. Kommersant says the locals spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution. Yeah, thats Tolya, one woman told the newspaper, using Chepigas nickname. She says he was a disciplined youth. He didnt drink, didnt smoke, and never got involved with any bad crowd, she said. Security analysts say it is possible that Chepiga and Skripal, a former GRU officer, knew each other. If so, it would add a personal element to the nerve agent attack. Skripal also served in Afghanistan, although not in a special forces unit but with Soviet Airborne Troops and many years earlier. Skripal and his daughter survived the March nerve-agent attack, but a local woman not connected to the original attack died in July after being exposed to the same toxin, which was contained in a discarded perfume bottle dumped in a trash bin. Skripal was a double agent for British intelligence in the 1990s. In December 2004, he was arrested by Russian authorities, tried, convicted of high treason and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was included in a 2010 spy swap and settled in Salisbury. Britain, the United States and most European Union countries responded to the Salisbury attack with expulsions of Russian diplomats and financial sanctions on Russia. The Kremlin denies any involvement in the attack and has maintained variously that the poisoning never happened, that it was carried out by Britain in order to blame Russia or that unknown third parties were responsible. President Donald Trump met Friday with President Sebastian Pinera of Chile at the White House for talks that focused on trade, security and the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Trump welcomed Pinera to the Oval Office days after he imposed financial sanctions on members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's inner circle and suggested Maduro could be ousted in a military coup as a way to restore the country's democracy. Tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants are in Chile. WATCH: Venezuela's Neighbors Urge Prosecution for Human Rights Abuses Venezuela is a mess and its got to be cleaned up and people have to be taken care of, Trump said in response to a question from a reporter. It was Pineras first visit to the White House since he returned to Chiles presidency last spring. Chile has been watching Trump's trade fight with China, which is Chile's largest trading partner. Chile is the world's largest exporter of copper and its central bank has raised concerns about the U.S.-China trade and a decline in copper prices. In front of the cameras, however, it was all pleasantries for two billionaires who were entrepreneurs before entering politics in their respective countries. Trump praised Chile as one of the most beautiful countries in the world and raved about the South American country's coastline. Pinera said the two nations were likeminded countries. In a show of solidarity with his American counterpart, Pinera displayed for Trump a printout of a red-white-and-blue American flag that contained the outline of a small Chilean flag. This is the American flag, and there is the Chilean flag, right at the very heart of the U.S. flag, Pinera said holding the print-out, bringing a smile to Trumps face. A U.S. government probe into Myanmars campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority was not aimed at determining whether genocide or crimes against humanity had been committed, but those responsible could still be held accountable for those crimes, a top State Department official said Thursday. The U.S. State Department report released Monday said Myanmars military waged a well-planned and coordinated campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the Rohingya. But it stopped short of describing the crackdown as genocide or crimes against humanity, an issue that other U.S. officials said was the subject of fierce internal debate that delayed the reports rollout for nearly a month. There werent legal judgments expressed in it because that wasnt the point of the report, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told a news conference in New York when asked why the report had not used the words genocide or crimes against humanity. He added: We are working toward holding those accountable, including judgments like the one you have offered characterizing it as a crime against humanity or genocide. Pompeo meeting Sullivan spoke on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, shortly before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kyaw Tint Swe, Myanmars minister for the Office of the State Counselor and its representative to the U.N. session. Pompeo did not respond to a reporters question about whether there had been genocide in Myanmar. U.S. officials told Reuters earlier this week that the State Department report could be used to justify further U.S. sanctions or other punitive measures against Myanmar authorities. The report, which was first reported by Reuters, resulted from more than 1,000 interviews of Rohingya men and women in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, where almost 700,000 Rohingya have fled after a military campaign last year in Myanmars Rakhine State. Survivors detail ordeal Survivors described in harrowing detail what they had witnessed, including soldiers killing infants and small children, the shooting of unarmed men, and victims buried alive or thrown into pits of mass graves. They told of widespread sexual assault by Myanmars military of Rohingya women, often carried out in public. The Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay declined to comment when reached Tuesday and said he was unable to answer questions by telephone. Calls to military spokesman Major General Tun Tun Nyi were unanswered. Human rights groups and Rohingya activists have put the death toll in the thousands from the crackdown, which followed attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in August 2017. The results of the U.S. investigation were released in low-key fashion, posted on the State Departments website, nearly a month after U.N. investigators issued their own report accusing Myanmars military of acting with genocidal intent and calling for the countrys commander-in-chief and five generals to be prosecuted under international law. Myanmar issues denials The military in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, where Buddhism is the main religion, has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing and says its actions were part of a fight against terrorism. Senior State Department officials said the aim of the report was to guide U.S. policy aimed at holding the perpetrators accountable. The report proposed no new steps. One official said it would be up to Pompeo whether to make such a legal designation in the future and did not rule out the possibility. The United States will pursue "a strategy of isolation," including sanctions, with its allies if President Bashar al-Assad holds up a political process aimed at ending Syria's seven-year war, a top U.S. diplomat for Syria told Reuters on Friday. Jim Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative for Syria, said Washington would work with countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to impose tough international sanctions if Assad's government failed to cooperate on rewriting the Syrian constitution as a prelude to elections. "If the regime does that, we believe that then we can go after it the way we went after Iran before 2015 with really tough international sanctions," Jeffrey said, referring to secondary sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear program. He added: "Even if the U.N. Security Council won't pass them we will just do it through the European Union, we will do it through our Asian allies, and then we will make it our business to make life as miserable as possible for that flopping cadaver of a regime and let the Russians and Iranians, who made this mess, get out of it." Assad's allies Russia and Iran, as well as China, have made some investments in the country, but they cannot afford the cost of rebuilding and want other countries to share the burden. Western countries have said they will not approve reconstruction funding for Syria, or drop sanctions, without a political settlement. U.S. sanctions are already making it hard for foreign companies to work there. Jeffrey has been charged by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to oversee Washington's role in a political process as a U.S.-led coalition cleans up the last remaining Islamic State militants. Opening for talks A recent agreement between Turkey and Russia that averted a Syrian army offensive in Idlib, the last major area under rebel control, and the accidental downing of a Russian war plane by Syrian forces was an opportunity to push for the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 2254 that covers ending conflict in Syria, Jeffrey said. The U.N. Security Council, which includes Russia and the United States, mandated U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura to get a deal on a new constitution, new elections and a reform of Syria's governance. Formation of a constitutional committee was agreed at a Syrian peace conference in the Russian ski resort of Sochi in January. It is up to de Mistura to decide whom to pick and he has said he will select about 50 people, including supporters of the government, the opposition and independents to participate. The Syrian government at first agreed to the plan, but later rejected it. Its submission of a list of names to the United Nations follows a meeting this month between Assad and his main backer, Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Russia has held the balance of power in Syria, both on the battlefield and in the U.N.-led peace talks, for the past two years. It has helped Assad recover huge amounts of lost territory in Syria without persuading him to agree to any political reforms. But nine rounds of talks, most of them in Geneva, have failed to bring the warring sides together to end the conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes. Constitutional talks Meeting on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, foreign ministers from the United States, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Britain and Saudi Arabia called on de Mistura to convene the constitutional committee and report back on progress by the end of October. Jeffrey said Moscow was still in discussions with Russia to use its influence to persuade Damascus to negotiate and allow officials to travel to Geneva for the talks. "Our feeling is that if he can't we cannot let the Russians hold this thing hostage forever," he said. While an offensive on Idlib was averted, Washington still worries that the Syrian government could use chemical weapons. President Donald Trump has twice authorized U.S. airstrikes against Syrian government targets as punishment for alleged chemical weapons use. "It is not off the table because the regime is stuck with only half the territory and population of Syria under its control, and the lowest hanging fruit is Idlib because the other areas you deal with the U.S. directly and Turkey directly," said Jeffrey. As Cameroonian authorities investigate horrific crimes that appear to be have been committed by government soldiers in the Far North Region, the U.S. military is calling for accountability while it continues to provide training to its Cameroonian counterparts. "The Cameroonian government has taken recent steps to increase transparency and address allegations of gross violations of human rights seriously, but the government has not yet released information specific to its investigations," Pentagon spokeswoman Air Force Maj. Sheryll Klinkel said Thursday in an email to VOA. The Pentagon is continuing to work with the State Department to "ensure the government of Cameroon holds accountable any individuals found to be responsible," Klinkel added. Cameroonian authorities arrested seven Cameroonian soldiers after two videos circulated on social media. One video showed what were alleged to be Cameroonian forces shooting two women and two small children, while another showed what appeared to be Cameroonian security forces shooting at least a dozen unarmed civilians during a counterterror operation in the Far North Region. An investigation by the BBC used satellite imagery, Channel 4 News footage and clues from the video to assert the killings of two women and two children were committed in the Far North by Cameroonian soldiers between March 20 and April 5, 2015. U.S. personnel sent Former President Barack Obama deployed U.S. military personnel to the country about six months after that incident, in October 2015, to help in the fight against Boko Haram. The Department of Defense still has about 300 military personnel in Cameroon as part of an international effort to stop the spread of violent extremism in West Africa. In addition to what the Pentagon calls "building partner capacity" through basic military training and equipping, the Defense Department trains foreign troops on the law of armed conflict and human rights. The Cameroonian Ministry of Defense also takes part in a U.S. government-funded program to train and establish 40 military legal advisers to advance human rights principles and promote security force accountability in the field commands across Cameroon. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, head of U.S. Africa Command, cautioned before the Cameroonian government arrests that partnership with the U.S. comes with responsibility. "We want to have a strong military relationship with Cameroon, but their actions will go a long way toward how that will play out in the future, with regards to the transparency on some of these latest allegations," Waldhauser said on July 31. Deadly violence has resurfaced in parts of the long-restive southern Philippines despite an autonomy-sharing deal with local Muslim groups, and authorities are eyeing terrorism by political factions excluded from the deal. In late August and early September, two explosions hit the southern Philippine province of Sultan Kudarat. One killed two people and injured 30, domestic media reports say. The other killed three. In mid-September, an improvised explosive device injured seven people when it went off in General Santos City. Troops discovered other rebels mobilizing Sept. 21 for what they feared was an eventual attack. Southern cities have gone on high alert The attacks follow decades of violence on the island of Mindanao, where about 120,000 have died because of fighting by Muslim rebels who want more resource control in the majority Christian country. In August, the government approved a landmark law that gives Muslims in one tract of Mindanao more control. But not all 20 rebel groups were included. Rebels who feel slighted have picked up the fight again, analysts say. They say some are inspired by Islamic State, a Middle Eastern terrorist group that has tried for the past few years to expand in Southeast Asia. ISIS-motivated and other Islamic groups are changing their tactics to hitting soft targets in the big cities and there seems to be a pattern to this, and I think this will be a copycat of whats happened in the Middle East, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapores public policy school. The relatively cheap explosives resemble those of Islamic State, he added. Autonomy law not for everyone Military officials believe the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a rebel group that splintered off from the one involved in signing the autonomy law, probably plotted the attacks. The group, better known by its acronym BIFF, broke off from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in part because it disputed the fronts earlier peace deals with Philippine officials. The heavily armed front will take the lead in managing a roughly 13,000-square-kilometer autonomous region created by the July law. It will share some resources with the Philippine government and receive state post-conflict relief funding every year for a decade. Experts say autonomy will work best if the front governs together with other rebel groups on the island of 21 million people. Remnants from a separate group of rebels who lost a battle last year for control of the Mindanao city Marawi may have carried out the recent attacks, too, said Herman Kraft, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman in Metro Manila. Troops fought for more than five months against the Islamic State-inspired Maute Group for control of central Marawi. About 1,100 people died in the fighting. Explosions may show the remnants are coming back together and need recruits, Kraft said. Rebels have retrenched after defeats throughout recent Mindanaos history. Some of these activities are ways of showing theyre still alive, that the prospect of establishing a province is in the works, so its more of a signal to locals that they ought to join, theyre not joining a dying revolution, so to speak, he said. Communist insurgency An armed communist insurgency known as the New Peoples Army (NPA) could also be plotting attacks, some experts say. The 3,200-person group attacks targets in other parts of the Philippines and has special appeal in Mindanao because of widespread rural poverty. Lots of armchair war strategists over here are a little bit leaning more toward that some of (the violence) may be NPA driven, said Rhona Canoy, president of an international school and part of a political family in the Mindanao city Cagayan de Oro. The communist group is plotting to oust Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, a military unit in Mindanao was quoted saying Thursday. Duterte wants the communists to hold localized peace talks, but the NPA sister group, the Communist Party of the Philippines, rejects the idea as a divide-and-rule strategy. A landmine that hurt two soldiers in Davao in July may have been planted by the New Peoples Army, domestic media say. Troops and national police have doubled down on security checkpoints in some spots since the latest attacks, Canoy said. The government placed Mindanao under martial law in mid-2017 through the end of this year with the possibility of extending it into 2019. As global leaders digest the fallout from a stormy United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, China has strongly denied accusations from President Donald Trump that it is trying to interfere in the U.S. midterm elections next month. Meanwhile the diplomatic tussle has intensified between the United States and other signatories over the future of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as the U.S. prepares to hit Tehran with fresh sanctions. Trumps accusations against China took many at the U.N. by surprise. In a news conference Wednesday evening, the president was asked by reporters what evidence he had to support his claim. It will come out. I cant tell you now. But it came, it didnt come out of nowhere, he said. WATCH: World Digests Stormy UN General Assembly, Trump's Tough Talk on Iran, China China, not Russia? Beijing strongly denies trying to influence U.S. politics, and many in China question why President Trump did not mention the investigation into Russian meddling, says analyst and professor Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the University of Londons School of Oriental and African Studies. It would appear that the allegation that Donald Trump made against China, when he deliberately not mentioned about Russia, really was to distract attention domestically in the United States. So the Chinese are rather upset about it. And I would expect that Putin in Russia is rather pleased about it, Tsang told VOA. Trumps accusation, taken alongside the ramping up of trade tariffs, marks a significant escalation of tensions between Washington and Beijing. The real issue for China is the status and the standing of President Xi and therefore the Communist Party in the country as a whole. President Xi cannot afford and therefore will not agree to appearing to be weak in front of an American onslaught like that, Tsang said. Iran sanctions Meanwhile the diplomatic tussle intensified at the United Nations between the United States and other signatories over the future of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as the U.S. prepares to hit Tehran with fresh sanctions. Chairing a U.N. Security Council meeting Wednesday, President Trump set his sights firmly on Iran, accusing it of spreading chaos, death and destruction. Middle East analyst Aziz Alghashian of the University of Essex says Trumps words are aimed at others in the region. I think he is trying to appease the allies that he has in the region, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), Saudi Arabia and Israel. And I think that is very important for him because he tried to repatch the bad relations, or the tense relations that the allies had with Obama. The United States pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May. The five remaining signatories, the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia, want to create an alternative payment system to bypass U.S. sanctions. At a press conference Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reacted with anger to those plans. By sustaining revenues to the regime you are solidifying Irans ranking as the No. 1 state sponsor of terror, he said. At the U.N. Wednesday, Irans President Hassan Rouhani praised efforts to keep the nuclear deal alive. Until such time when we keep reaping the benefits promised within that agreement for our nation and our people, we will remain in the agreement. Should the situation change, we have other paths and other solutions, President Rouhani told reporters in New York. Analyst Aziz Alghashian believes Europe has little room for maneuver. Theres a lot of European companies that rely on the American economy, so they must take that into account as well when the sanctions hit, Alghashian said. Those new sanctions are set to hit in November. President Trump has pledged that they will be tougher than ever before. The code has been copied to your clipboard. width px height px Founder of the lifestyle website TheChicSite.com and CEO of her own media company, Chic Media, Rachel Hollis has created an online fan base of hundreds of thousands of fans by sharing tips for living a better life while fearlessly revealing the messiness of her own. Her best-selling book "Girl Wash Your Face" has swept the country. 4-7 Oct. The 95th edition of the popular Sagra dell'Uva wine festival takes place in the mediaeval town of Marino in the Castelli Romani, about 20km south-east of Rome, from 4-7 October. This lively festival dedicated to grapes and wine began in 1925 and each year draws large crowds eager to see the "miracle" of wine gushing freely from the town's central Fountain of the Four Moors. The annual festival includes markets, fairs, exhibitions and live music, with the town festooned with grapes for the duration of the three-day event. The festival also traditionally includes a religious procession and historical re-enactment of the victorious return to Marino of Prince Marcantonio Colonna after the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. For programme details see website. Mortgage rates in the United States rose for a fifth straight week, reaching levels not seen in more than seven years. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.72 percent, up from 4.65 percent last week and the highest since April 2011, Freddie Mac said Thursday. The average 15-year rate climbed to 4.16 percent from 4.11 percent, the mortgage finance company said. Rising rates are adding to the cost of homeownership after years of soaring prices that have outpaced income gains. At stake is what is expected to be the strongest holiday season in years, as retailers look to cash in on a surge in consumer confidence. The unemployment rate is at historic lows, the stock market is at record highs and wages are inching higher, helping to boost sales at a number of big-name chains, including Walmart, Nordstrom and Home Depot. Holiday sales are expected to rise as much as 5.6 percent to a record $1.1 trillion, according to estimates from Deloitte. Flash China on Thursday urged the United States to stop uttering words and deeds that are harmful to Sino-U.S. relations and the fundamental interests of the two countries' people. The request was made by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang at a daily news briefing, when responding to a question regarding allegations that China is "attempting to interfere in" the 2018 mid-term U.S. elections. "Non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries is a tradition of China's foreign policy, which has won widespread praise from the international community," said Geng. "The international community is clear about which country interferes the most in other countries' internal affairs." He urged the U.S. to put an end to unwarranted accusations and defamation regarding this concern. In response to the claim that China intends on influencing American farmers by getting China Daily to place propaganda ads in papers such as the Des Moines Register to "make it look like news," Geng said it is utterly "groundless and farfetched" to interpret normal business cooperation as "attempts to meddle in U.S. elections." According to U.S. laws and regulations, foreign media outlets are allowed to have various forms of partnerships with their American counterparts. "As far as I can see, buying space in the Des Moines Register falls into this category," Geng said, adding that the practice is common for many foreign news organizations. Trump, though, has said he is expecting Republicans to secure this funding after the election, and GOP leaders have not signaled how they plan to do this. Most Democrats and some Republicans have expressed opposition to the creation of a wall along the Mexican border. Some White House officials have sought as much as $5 billion for the construction this year, though the final price tag would likely be much higher. Normally, Im skeptical about any large chains private label, having cut my wine teeth on jugs of Krogers Cost-Cutter brand back in the 1980s, before a visit to California wine country ignited my palate. And Im not the only one. There once was a popular Internet meme about Walmart wine that played on the companys Arkansas roots, blue-collar demographic and its selection of firearms to ridicule the idea that the stores would carry anything so classy as vino. For several years, I could count on someone forwarding me this joke every few months. But then last year I wrote about La Moneda, a delicious $7 malbec from Chile that was a Walmart exclusive and won high marks from Decanter magazine. No one has sent me that meme since. That exhibit, which runs through Nov. 4, was compact but enlightening. It explores in works from England (including paintings by John Constable and J.M.W. Turner) and then the Hudson River School the two ideas named in its title. The picturesque can be seen in pictures that show (usually benign) human influence on the landscape: photogenic ruins, orderly farmland, tiny men and women out enjoying themselves. The sublime, by contrast, depicts nature as transfixing and sometimes scary in its power and majesty. Part of the genius of the Hudson River School was to take inspiration from the river and the Catskill Mountains, just to the west, and combine the two modes in a new way of looking, the American Sublime. So, while View on Catskill Creek is mostly picturesque the creek is so calm that the boater can turn and peer at the reflected clouds in the creek and a deer at the back, gently sipping the splendid sunset and cloud-piercing mountain hint at the sublime. Flash Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said that Iran has hidden "massive amounts of equipment and materiel," indicating that the country is eyeing nuclear weapon program. Speaking at the General Debate of the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu said that nearly 15 kilograms of radioactive material had been stored in the warehouse in the Turquzabad district of Tehran. "Today I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran's secret nuclear program," Netanyahu said. This site contained as much as 300 tonnes of nuclear-related equipment and materiel, he said, noting Iran hasn't abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons. While not detailing what the material was, Netanyahu urged the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN atomic watchdog, to inspect the location immediately. Netanyahu also criticized Europe for setting up a legal entity to bypass U.S. re-imposed sanctions, saying such action amounts to an appeasement with Iran. On Monday, European Union foreign and security policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the EU will set up a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran in light of the U.S. withdrawal from the international agreement on Tehran's nuclear program and the re-imposition of sanctions. On Wednesday, leaders of France and Britain, while speaking at the UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on non-proliferation, vowed to defend the Iran nuke deal. All these showed that Washington, by exiting the deal and sanctioning Iran, has put itself in isolation, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said. Netanyahu on April 30 revealed what he called a "great intelligence achievement" about Iran's nuclear program, saying that he had proof that Iran had been seeking nuclear power even after it signed an agreement curbing its nuclear program in 2015. However, Iranian Foreign Ministry later denounced his nuclear allegations against Iran as a "worthless show" and "ridiculous propagandist presentations" that were "merely aimed at spreading lies and deception." Tensions between Iran and Israel, as well as the United States, have been running high this year. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States will impose "tougher than ever" sanctions on Iran after the punitive actions against the country slated in November this year. In May, Trump announced Washington's withdrawal from the landmark Iranian nuclear deal. Since then, the Trump administration has slapped a number of sanctions on Iran while vowing to apply more in November. The long-awaited new version of the legislation also would limit rentals of a primary residence when the owner is away to 90 days in a calendar year. There would be no limit on renting out space in ones home, such as an extra bedroom or basement, when the host is present. Reeder, who owns the restaurant Cheers at the Big Chair in Southeast Washington, says the law is burdensome on small businesses and is a waste of tax dollars because many of the beneficiaries will be suburban residents who work in the city. She said the money would be better spent on housing for D.C. residents but offered no suggestions for changing the paid leave law. Neither myself nor any other council member is gleeful about this proposition of repealing an initiative, particularly when it was just voted on, said Mendelson. But we do have a responsibility to ensure that our laws are just and fair and good. It is a challenge faced by many of Pinedas peers who come from low-income families and lack access to cars in his Seven Corners neighborhood, the student said. That makes a recently launched county program that provides free bus passes to Justice students indispensable for the 16-year-old and his classmates. The free tuition idea, he said, involves spending hundreds of billions of dollars and flooding public colleges and universities with new students. Increased spending on tuition to make sure everyone gets a free ride would mean less money to hire more professors and less money to expand room in the most important classes so that students can get what they need to graduate, he said. At the Frederick fair, Hogan toured exhibits of baked goods and cranked a machine that stripped kernels from ears of corn. For eight years there was what a lot of people refer to as a war on agriculture and a war on rural Maryland, he said, referring to the tenure of his predecessor, Democrat Martin OMalley. And the day I was sworn in, I said, That war is over. I promised that the areas of the state that were ignored and neglected and forgotten would no longer be forgotten. The sheriff does not have to admit liability in the death of Natasha McKenna, 37, under the terms of the settlement, which was reached in February but not made public by the sheriffs office or the familys attorney. The proceeds will go to McKennas 10-year-old daughter. While his friend watched, Ford alleged, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, on her back, and groped her through her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily trying to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said in Washington on Thursday, he put his hand over her mouth. Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Flash Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday, vowing to cement bilateral cooperation. Being Turkey's friend, China firmly supports Turkey's efforts to safeguard national stability and development, and is willing to maintain communication at all levels with Turkey to strengthen mutual understanding, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, and fully consider each other's core interests and major concerns, Wang said. Under the current circumstances, Wang said, the two sides should enhance coordination and cooperation in international affairs, make joint efforts to safeguard multilateralism, international system and international rules, and work together to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of emerging economies and developing countries. For his part, Cavusoglu said Turkey attaches great importance to the ties with China, and hopes to expand practical cooperation with China in various fields including economy and trade, energy and counter-terrorism. Turkey spoke highly of China's just and balanced position in dealing with international affairs, and expects closer cooperation under multilateral frameworks, said the Turkish foreign minister. That was a sharp contrast from the two town hall meetings the congressman held last year, early in Trumps tenure. The first was in February 2017, amid pressure from women he described as being in my grill over his lack of town hall meetings. That crowd shouted him down. He tried again in May 2017 with a gathering that drew about 700 people at a suburban Richmond church. Critics booed and heckled him even before he was introduced. Flash Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that the hostile policy actions of the Trump administration against the Palestinians have undermined the two-state solution, urging Washington to reverse these decisions. Speaking at the General Debate of the UN General Assembly, Abbas cited U.S. decisions to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, move U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv, cut off funding for the Palestinians and close the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington. "With all of these decisions, this administration has reneged on all previous U.S. commitments, and has undermined the two-state solution, and has revealed its false claims of concern about the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people," Abbas said. "It's really ironic that the American administration still talks about what they call the 'deal of the century.'" "But what is left for this administration to give to the Palestinian people? Only humanitarian solutions?" He asked. "What is left as a political solution?" The Palestinian leader lashed out at the U.S. actions behind the peace plan. "We awaited his peace initiative with utmost patience, but were shocked by decisions and actions he undertook that completely contradict the role and commitment of the United States towards the peace process," he said. "The U.S. acts as a mediator, however, now we view the U.S. with new eyes. The U.S. cannot be a mediator single-handedly," he added. "We will also not accept sole American mediation in the peace process because the U.S. administration has lost its eligibility due to its recent decisions." "From this august platform, I renew my call to President Trump to rescind his decisions and decrees ... in order to salvage the prospects for peace and to achieve stability and security for future generations in our region," Abbas said. "I must reiterate that we are not against negotiations and have never rejected negotiations," the Palestinian leader added. "We will continue to extend our hands for peace." Abbas noted that there could be no peace without an independent Palestinian State, with east Jerusalem as its capital, and not some place in East Jerusalem as its capital, and with all of its holy sites. "There is no peace otherwise. There is no peace with a state of temporary borders," he said. "Jerusalem is not for sale," Abbas said. "The Palestinian people's rights are not up for bargaining." U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would present the principles of plan in the next "two to three to four months" to promote peace between Israel and Palestine, adding he wanted a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "I really believe something will happen. It is a dream of mine to be able to get that done prior to the end of my first term," Trump said, referring to the peace agreement on the conflict. "I like a two-state solution. That's what I think works best." The Trump administration has always argued that it would support a two-state solution if both sides agreed to it. But this is the first time Trump has explicitly backed it. However, Husam Zomlot, head of the PLO's office in Washington, told AFP that the White House's "words go against their actions and their action is absolutely clear (and) is destroying the possibility of the two-state solution," He added that Trump's comments alone were not enough to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. The Trump administration earlier this month announced its decision to close the PLO's office in Washington, a new move to step up pressure on the Palestinians. Earlier this year, the Trump administration launched a string of U.S. funding cuts against the Palestinians to push them back to the negotiating table. In December last year, the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, an unconventional step announced by Trump himself that sparked global outcry and an absence of the furious Palestinians in talks mediated by Washington. The moral conscience needs to be made uneasy to create a movement of justice for those who have been sexually assaulted or harassed. For the #MeToo movement to carry profound power and create a wave of change, it will take allies to speak up and bring empowerment to those individuals who have been oppressed in our society. For there to be a social change across each socioeconomic level, more individuals must be liberated by the outpouring of bravery erupting from the #MeToo Movement. Cosby, 81, should have figured out what he was up against when, the day before his case went to the jury in April, he was caught chuckling and smirking at the defense table. Assistant District Attorney Kristen Gibbons Feden, a 35-year-old African American graduate of Temple Law School, and an expert in sex crimes, was having none of it. Thursdays hearing did not add an iota of corroboration to Christine Blasey Fords allegations against Brett M. Kavanaugh. It remains true that none of the people Ford named, man or woman, has confirmed that the gathering in question took place at all, much less that any assault occurred. Ford says her friend Leland Keyser was at the party; Keyser may have told The Post that she believes Ford, but that means nothing: As Kavanaugh pointed out, Keyser said under penalty of felony she does not know me, does not ever recall being at a party with me ever. Ford was too young to drive but cannot recall how she got there or how she left a big deal for those of us who remember the days before cellphones or Uber. She cannot recall whose house it was; she cannot recall the date. Ford sounded, at times, not just like an accuser but also like an expert witness. At one point, the Republicans hired-gun interrogator, Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, was asking questions that seemed designed to suggest that perhaps other events in her life were responsible for symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder that Ford reported suffering. Ford began her response by noting research that suggests the etiology of anxiety and PTSD is multi-factorial. Mitchell, who is not a PhD psychologist, wisely decided not to pursue the point further. Armed with this knowledge, Start School Later Maryland set out to share this information with Rand in the hope that Marylands estimated benefits could be calculated. Alas, Rand researchers need for such a request to come from someone within Marylands state government. Start School Later Maryland, therefore, testified before the State Board of Education, the Kirwan Commission and a county legislative delegation. Start School Later Maryland has written letters to staff members of Gov. Larry Hogan (R), to Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), to Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and to several other state delegates and senators to ask whether at least one of them, on behalf of the state, would ask Rand to extend its start-time analysis to include Maryland based on the school start times gathered by Start School Later Maryland. None responded. Beginning with the ratings for 2018-2019 released last week, schools will be scored on multiple quality indicators as performing at one of the following three levels: Level One (at or above standard), Level Two (near standard or improving) or Level Three (below standard). Schools with all school quality indicators at Level One or Level Two will be rated as Accredited. Schools with one or more school quality indicators at Level Three will be rated as Accredited with Conditions. Only schools that fail to implement state-required improvement plans will be rated as Accreditation Denied under the new system. Corrective action plans and state interventions in place for low-performing schools will remain in effect. The testimony of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh before the Senate Judiciary Committee destroyed his credibility. He claimed never to be aggressive or belligerent when he was drunk. But his testimony to the committee was itself aggressive and belligerent. He attacked Democrats on the committee and elsewhere as engaging in a conspiracy to take out a political hit on him. These are aggressive and belligerent words like what a political operative would say. He was attacking the fact-finding responsibility of the Senate in vetting a nominee to the Supreme Court. For a nominee to the Supreme Court to attack senators for doing their job is not just aggressive and belligerent, but it also is by all measure of the objectivity expected of a Supreme Court justice plainly disqualifying. In his Sept. 24 op-ed, A dissent from scholars on Xinjiang, Fred Hiatt brought more attention to the reeducation gulag in the Xinjiang region of China. It is true that the unprecedented scale and nature of the recent Chinese government repression of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities have galvanized Western scholars of Xinjiang in unprecedented ways, of which the Xinjiang Initiative is one. However, the trope that an epidemic of self-censorship warps the field is an exaggeration in two ways. First, scholars still publish penetrating research. For example, though Xinjiang is the most sensitive and difficult topic to work on in Chinese studies, at least 10 scholarly books on the region have been published in the past five years, more than in the previous two decades combined. And second, Chinese retaliation is less common than usually thought. Today, people who have immigrated here, like my parents, are facing another targeted, xenophobic attack. The Trump administration, which has already implemented a travel ban against five majority-Muslim countries including Iran and locked immigrant children in cages, proposed a new rule this month that would punish legal immigrants for accessing basic needs programs. The Department of Homeland Security seeks to deny permanent residency for legal immigrants who have used social service programs, including health insurance, cash and nutrition benefits. These immigrants will not be able to build their lives as my parents did. They will be forced to choose between the programs that help them create a healthy life in a new country and their chance at becoming citizens. Adopting a portfolio strategy can yield benefits in any year, especially when combined with capping investment in overvalued races, but it can be especially fruitful in election years marked by a strong partisan wave. Democrats were able to gain 31 seats in Congress in 2006 partly because of the willingness of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to pump funds into deep-red districts, some of which hadnt been competitive in 20 years. Republicans would not probably have been able to pick up nearly 700 state legislative seats and flip 19 chambers in 2010 without the coordinated investment in red, purple and blue states alike by the Koch brothers and their spending vehicle Americans for Prosperity. This is an almost universal belief among corporate executives and directors that it is their principal mission and legal obligation to deliver the highest possible return to their shareholders. The economist Milton Friedman first declared in the 1970s that the one social responsibility of business [is] . . . to increase its profits, but the corporate raiders of the 1980s were the ones who forced that view on executives and directors, threatening to take their companies or fire them if they didnt go along. Since then, maximizing shareholder value has been routinely used to justify layoffs and plant closings, rationalize an orgy of stock buybacks, and defend elaborate corporate schemes to avoid paying taxes. It is now widely taught by business schools, ruthlessly demanded by Wall Streets analysts and activist investors, and lavishly reinforced by executive pay packages tied to profits and share prices. Brett Kavanaugh is not telling the whole truth. When President George W. Bush nominated him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2006, he told senators that hed had nothing to do with the war on terrors detention policies; that was not true. Kavanaugh also claimed under oath, that year and again this month, that he didnt know that Democratic Party memos a GOP staffer showed him in 2003 were illegally obtained; his emails from that period reveal that these statements were probably false. And it cannot be possible that the Supreme Court nominee was both a well-behaved virgin who never lost control as a young man, as he told Fox News and the Senate Judiciary Committee this past week, and an often-drunk member of the Keg City Club and a Renate Alumnius , as he seems to have bragged to many people and written into his high school yearbook. Then there are the sexual misconduct allegations against him, which he denies. Not all these students are from wealthy families, but the majority are, and this enables rampant social substance abuse. There are always some students at these schools who have the means to buy alcohol and drugs along with fake IDs of the best quality and make them freely available to their peers. Nationally representative data have, in fact, shown that teens who attend schools with high proportions of affluent students are much more likely than those at poorer schools to report intoxication and the use of illicit drugs. Inebriation, in turn, often presages casual sex, or hooking up. By all reports, such parties were common at Georgetown Prep and Holton-Arms, the school attended by Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accuses Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her. Drinking was part of the fabric of the school from the first day of freshman year to graduation, a Georgetown Prep alum whose years there overlapped with both Kavanaughs and those of Justice Neil Gorsuch has said. Even Gorsuch made a reference to alcohol on his senior yearbook page: I am not an alkie, he wrote. Ford has many believers, though she cannot prove to the satisfaction of everyone that Kavanaugh had done what she said. There are gaps in her memory and denials from others she had placed at the scene of the party in summer 1982. But in acknowledging what she could not remember, her statement that she was 100 percent certain that it was Kavanaugh and not someone else who had pinned her to a bed, covered her mouth and tried to remove her clothes echoed powerfully through the hearing room. In a remarkable turnabout from the confirmation hearings earlier this month in which he presented himself as the model of neutrality, Kavanaugh fumed that the sexual assault allegations brought against him in recent days had been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election. He called it revenge on behalf of the Clintons and pointed to millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups. I have no message to senators about the potential delay, Trump said in response to reporters questions. They have to do what they think is right. There is no message whatsoever. They have to do what they think is right. They have to be comfortable with themselves, and Im sure thats what they want. The House Judiciary and Oversight committees plan to meet with former FBI general counsel James Baker next week as part of their ongoing probe. Lawmakers expect to meet in late October with Nellie Ohr, a former contractor for Fusion GPS, the private research firm that produced a dossier detailing Trumps alleged personal and business ties to Russia, according to two members. Ohr is married to Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department official who met on several occasions with Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who compiled the information contained in the dossier. Trump has ignored calls from Democrats and even the American Bar Association to delay Kavanaughs confirmation vote until there can be an FBI investigation into Fords allegations that during a gathering in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh pinned her down on a bed and covered her mouth when she tried to scream, while he and his friend Mark Judge, who was also in the room, laughed. Kavanaugh angrily denied Fords allegations during a Thursday hearing, accusing Democratic senators of a calculated and orchestrated political hit. McConnell, as well as White House counsel Donald McGahn, has urged Trump to hold his fire and let the confirmation battle play out, advisers to both men said. Both Trump and McGahn had told others that they did not want an FBI investigation, two senior officials said but that it was inevitable once it became clear that Kavanaugh could not be confirmed without one. This semitropical island is home to about 19,000 U.S. Marines as well as the largest U.S. Air Force base in the Asia-Pacific. The sprawling installations, the Pentagon says, are vital not only for the defense of Japan but also for keeping the peace and projecting American power throughout the region. Anybody who knows her clearly knows that all of this is rotten, said Shalini Gera, a lawyer who works in Chhattisgarh, the state where Bharadwaj was based for three decades. Inspired by Bharadwaj, Gera gave up a career in biotechnology in the United States to return to India and train as a lawyer. It is really her legal work that is being challenged, Gera said. Alexey, a 37-year-old resident of Berezovka who works in the construction industry, told The Post that the man who called himself Boshirov resembled his former schoolmate Chepiga. Chepiga, Alexey said, went on to study at the Far-Eastern Military Command Academy in the nearby city of Blagoveshchensk and was known by villagers to have received the Hero of the Russian Federation award. That is the announced target for Italys 2019 budget deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product and it suggests the new Italian coalition will spend far more aggressively than its center-left predecessor. It also indicates the governments leaders are willing to unnerve markets and even defy European Union fiscal rules for the sake of attempting to do what they said on the campaign trail: upend the norms in a nation whose economy has flatlined for two decades. The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Christine Blasey Ford, Former first lady Michelle Obama meets with people at a rally to encourage voter registration and more images from around the world. Sept. 23, 2018 People walk through the rain between fountains in Berlin. Matt McClain/The Washington Post On Friday, just minutes after allowing women into the ancient temple, the court also extended the house arrest of five political dissidents. On Thursday, in a complicated and long-running case about whether a Hindu temple can be built on the site of a mosque razed by Hindu hard-liners in 1992, the courts judgment favored the Hindu majority. Earlier this year, the court also brushed aside the need for an independent probe into the suspicious death of a high court judge, in a case that was linked to the powerful president of the BJP, Amit Shah. A U.S. military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation remained underway, said the Marine Corps initially classified the crash as a Class A mishap, which is defined as an incident resulting in the complete destruction of the plane, more than $2 million in damage or the fatality or permanent total disability of the crew. Warrant-proof encryption is a serious problem, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said in a speech in October. Technology companies almost certainly will not develop responsible encryption if left to their own devices, he said. They are in the business of selling products and making money. . . . We are in the business of preventing crime and saving lives. Only Ford, who claims that Kavanaugh assaulted her more than three decades ago at a party in suburban Maryland, has testified before Congress. Another woman, Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaughs at Yale University, told New Yorker magazine that Kavanaugh exposed his penis to her when both were in their first year at the school. Another, Julie Swetnick, said in a declaration that Kavanaugh was physically abusive toward girls in high school and present at a house party in 1982 where she says she was the victim of a gang rape. In Iraq, top envoys for the United States and Iran have been competing to place allies in the key positions of parliament speaker, president and prime minister. But since the national elections in May, neither country has been able to whip up enough support to fill the posts. Mohamed al-Halbousi, who was selected to serve as speaker of parliament, has shown a willingness to work with both parties, but his ascension came at the expense of the U.S. favorite. US securities regulators on Thursday accused Tesla chief executive Elon Musk of fraud and sought to remove him from his role in charge of the electric car company, saying he made a series of "false and misleading" tweets about potentially taking Tesla private last month. The SEC says Elon Musk's tweet was 'false and misleading'. Credit:Bloomberg Musk, 47, is one of the highest-profile tech executives to be accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Losing its public face and guiding force would be a big blow for money-losing Tesla, which has a market value of more than $US50 billion ($69.4 billion), chiefly because of investors' belief in Musk's leadership. Tesla shares tumbled 12 per cent in after-hours trading. "Elon is Tesla and Tesla is Elon and that's great when Elon is scoring touchdowns and grand slams but not so great when there are negative things tied to him," said Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Kelley Blue Book. Alcoa workers south of Perth will return to work on Friday after striking for 52 days over fears their employer could outsource their jobs, or replace full-timers with short-term or casual employees. They voted to return after Alcoa agreed to change its enterprise agreement to provide greater job security. Alcoa's AWU workers at a mass meeting in Pinjarra on Friday morning. Credit:Gareth McKnight/Mandurah Mail The revised agreement included a commitment from Alcoa that it would not make employees forcibly redundant by outsourcing their work or replacing them with limited-term or casual employees. Alcoa and its staff had been at loggerheads for 18 months over the negotiations but things reached crisis point on August 8 when more than 1500 workers downed tools. Praise is rolling in for New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern after her appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. During the show, Ardern talked about being stopped for a chat while shopping for maternity bras, and the moment partner Clarke Gayford tripped over at a meeting with US President Donald Trump. Ardern was an invited guest on the show, which has a viewership of four million. She was introduced by Colbert - a Hobbit fan - as the biggest thing to hit New Zealand since "Frodo dropped the ring into Mt Doom". A former staffer to a Federal Circuit Court judge has broken down in tears after he avoided jail time for perverting the course of justice by lying to his former boss to secure a character reference for a charge of cocaine possession. James Cowled, a one-time law student who worked as an associate to Judge Michael Lloyd-Jones, told his former boss he had been charged with low-range drink driving after drinking two glasses of red wine over a weekend lunch in Sydney in March 2016. James Cowled (right) with Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Lloyd-Jones. Credit:James Cowled/Instagram The former judge, who retired from the bench in 2015, agreed to provide a character reference in those circumstances but media reports subsequently revealed Cowled had in fact been charged with cocaine possession. Cowled, who has not completed his legal studies and does not intend to practise as a lawyer, was charged in early 2017 with perverting the course of justice after Mr Lloyd-Jones lodged a complaint at Waverley police station. It can now be revealed the ibis colloquially known in Australia as the bin chicken - was part of the some of the first debates about evolution in modern science. The debates between rival French biologists came 50 years before Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species was published in 1859. The Australian white ibis at its foraging best. Credit:Peter Rae The French debates included the worlds first tests of evolution but were only uncovered this year by Griffith University researchers led by Professor David Lambert. The Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution evolutionary biologist's work, published in peer-reviewed, open-access journal PLOS Biology on Friday, revealed more than eight catacomb sites in Egypt were the final resting places for millions of sacrificed ibises. Five people are on the run after a Western Australian man was stabbed three times after he was attacked by a group in the Gold Coast. Police said initial investigations suggested the 36-year-old met with four men and one woman around 7pm on Thursday at Surfers Paradise. The tourist was helped by members of the public after he was stabbed in Surfers Paradise. Credit:Robert Shakespeare An argument between the tourist and the group on Leonard Avenue prompted the attack where the man was stabbed in his chest and abdomen, police said. He was helped by members of the public on Watson Esplanade and emergency services were called. The man charged over the Claremont serial killings has pleaded not guilty to all charges in the WA Supreme Court. Bradley Robert Edwards, 49, stands charged with the murders of Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon in the 1990s. Bradley Robert Edwards appeared in the WA Supreme Court on Friday. Credit:Facebook Hes also been charged over an alleged break-in at a house in 1988 and the alleged sexual assault of a woman in 1995. Mr Edwards made his second appearance in the WA Supreme Court via video link from Hakea Prison on Friday. An acutely psychotic man who broke into an apartment in Western Australia, murdered a resident and attacked his partner after a five-day methamphetamine bender has been jailed for life. Scott Martin and Erelle Mason. Credit:Facebook Damian Eric Maxfield, 40, stabbed 40-year-old Scott Martin as he slept then seriously assaulted Erelle Mason, 32, in their Halls Head home in January last year. In the hours leading up to the attack, the long-term meth user had taken drugs, drank alcohol and gambled at the casino. He then bumped into a friend on a train and went to her house where he continued his bender and became aggressive, threatening her and another woman with a knife. Getting historical facts mixed up is not an unusual human trait, and it would be entirely forgivable if it were not that some of those doing it are opportunistically making political capital out of a vexed subject. Truth is, people of my generation got by perfectly well, barely registering the existence of an Australia Day until 1988 (the Bicentennial). There wasnt even a national holiday to celebrate it until 1994, though it makes a perfect end to the summer break. So perhaps its time we thought a bit about this much contested day, which Morrison of Cronulla seems intent on elevating to the status of a new cultural war. The ships Morrisons referring to, those of the First Fleet, crammed with convicts, turned up on January 18, 19 and 20, 1788, depending on which of the 11 tubs you were unfortunate enough to find yourself cast away upon. Morrison probably knows that. His electorate of Cook embraces a large part of the shore of Botany Bay, where Captain Arthur Phillip led his fleet to anchor in the week before January 26, and where he and his men first came ashore in Australia, busily handing around beads, mirrors and ribbon to the indigenous inhabitants. Why, one of Phillip's gorgeously attired marines - red coat, white trousers, black gaiters and a bicorn hat - was prevailed upon to unbutton his flies to prove to the locals that he was a man, at which the Indigenous gathering let out a great shout of admiration, according to Lieutenant Philip Gidley King. Perhaps this is a date that deserves to be declared Australia Day. It was not until January 26 that Captain Phillip got around to sailing his fleet north, through the heads and into the glory of Sydney Harbour, where he was rowed ashore, hoisted the Union flag and declared he was taking possession in the name of King George III, despite Cook having already claimed the entire coast. It wasnt a particularly splendid transfer of the fleet from Botany Bay to Sydney Harbour. The French explorer Jean-Francoise de La Perouses two ships, La Boussole and LAstrolabe, had arrived off Botany Bay a day after the First Fleet, meaning youd be reading this in French if theyd got there 24 hours earlier. In their haste to beat La Perouse to the new prize of the harbour, the commanders of the British convict ships made a fine mess of things. The brig Friendship rammed the Prince of Wales, losing a boom. The Charlotte, trying to avoid running on to rocks, crashed into the Friendship, and the Lady Penrhyn narrowly avoided ramming her. A statue of Cook is defaced in Sydney's Hyde Park last year. Credit:Cole Bennetts When living quarters and tents had finally been erected and the landing crew had got the female convicts to shore on Sydney Cove, convict men set about raping the women, according to Robert Hughes in his magisterial The Fatal Shore. Soon after, soldiers were given a ration of rum and joined the carnal pursuit. It is beyond my abilities to give a just description of the scene of debauchery and riot that ensued during the night, wrote Arthur Bowes Smyth, ships surgeon from the Lady Penrhyn. Well, Australia Day. Why wouldnt a prime minister defend it? It was, however, when Morrison responded directly to the continuing rejection of the day among Indigenous people, who consider Australia Day the commemoration of an invasion and the beginning of their colonial oppression, that the Prime Ministers grasp on history really bottomed out. You don't pretend your birthday was on a different day, he said. What you do is you look at your whole life's experience. Your achievements and a few scars from some mistakes and things that you could have done better. Noel Pearson signs a canvas on which the Uluru Statement from the Heart was later painted in May 2017. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Arizona sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell was a long way from the familiarity of a Phoenix courtroom when she questioned Christine Blasey Ford in a televised hearing that could determine the fate of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Mitchell typically tries to put people accused of sex crimes in prison, but on Thursday she was in the unusual and difficult position of trying to chip away at the credibility of a woman who claims she was a victim of sexual assault by Kavanaugh when they were teenagers. And she was doing it on behalf of the 11 Republican men on the Senate Judiciary Committee who preferred not to question Ford themselves, and in the glare of television lights and with a strict five-minute time limit that seemed to get in her way repeatedly. Republican senators watch on as veteran sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell questions Dr Ford. Credit:AP As her time for questioning Ford was coming to an end, Mitchell herself seemed to give voice to her exasperation with her task when she rhetorically asked Ford about the best way to question victims of sex crimes. WSU Program Elevates Teaching Assistants to Help with Teacher Shortage September 27, 2018 OGDEN, Utah Weber State University offers a unique program that provides paraeducators, also known as teacher assistants, financial support and mentoring to become fully licensed teachers. WSUs Teacher Assistant Pathway to Teaching (TAPT) is funded by the Utah State Board of Education and numerous private donors and businesses. One long-standing TAPT donor, Key Bank, will award $10,000 for scholarships to three TAPT students Oct. 5 at 2 p.m. in WSUs Hurst Center Dumke Legacy Hall. The Jerry & Vickie Moyes College of Education developed TAPT to give paraeducators opportunities to return to school to earn their teaching licenses. Applicants must be working in the districts as paid teacher assistants and have the desire and commitment to become fully licensed teachers. TAPT participants receive $4,000 a year for tuition. Before being accepted to TAPT, Katrina Pearce worked at a junior high as a behavior unit paraprofessional. She was slowly earning her general education credits one class at a time. Now Pearce is a full-time student studying special education. The program has provided me with the funds to study full time, Pearce said. TAPT has kept me from quitting. Without the program, I would still be going through school one class at a time, if at all. Chad Carpenter learned about TAPT while working as a reading tutor at Gramercy Elementary in Ogden. He decided to apply to the program and graduated from Weber State in 2003 in elementary education. Since graduating, Carpenter has worked as an elementary school teacher and then as an administrator in both the Ogden and Granite school districts. He currently serves as the Ogden School District assistant superintendent. The TAPT program means a great deal to me, Carpenter said. It afforded me a tremendous start to an educational career focused on students and teachers from diverse backgrounds. I was able to connect with key professors, local school administrators, teachers and fellow education students who have remained longtime friends and professional colleagues. The TAPT program was created in the 1995-96 academic year at the request of superintendents from six school districts surrounding Weber State. Since its inception, 167 TAPT students have graduated and certified as teachers; 96 percent are still teaching. Currently, 45 students are enrolled in TAPT, and half of them are special education majors. In addition to money for tuition, TAPT offers students academic and emotional support. TAPT is much more than just a scholarship, said Shirley Dawson, TAPT program director. Participants meet together monthly where they receive academic support. New participants receive mentoring from experienced participants. TAPT students value the emotional and personal support they receive from others in the program. To apply to the program, applicants must fill out a TAPT application and submit two letters of recommendation. New applicants are added to the program each year as funding is available. Visit weber.edu/coe/tapt for more information about Weber States Teacher Assistant Pathway to Teaching. Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University. WESTPORT In many ways, to hear Kristin Schneemans personal history is to take a tour of some of the greatest events, political developments and ideational innovations of the last three decades. But before Schneeman, a 52-year-old Westport resident, won an Emmy Award for a documentary on the Iran-Contra affair, worked as a chief-of-staff in the Clinton White House, or served as a director for an organization seeking to speed up medical research, she grew up in the tiny, rural Pennsylvania town of Bellefonte outside of State College, where her father worked as an English professor at Pennsylvania State University. It was a good place to grow up, but it was also the kind of place you might want to get away from, Schneeman said of Bellefonte. After high school, Schneeman majored in history at Bryn Mawr College, a womens college in the suburbs of Philadelphia, which she said she loved. Schneeman had no idea what she wanted to do out of college, however. One day she was sitting in the deans office discussing what she might want to do when a Bryn Mawr alumnus called asking if a student wanted to intern with her at ABC News over spring break. Eager to spend a week in New York and perhaps meet journalist Peter Jennings, Schneeman leapt at the opportunity, but didnt think television would become a passion of hers. Yet after college, Schneeman connected with a woman in Washington, D.C., who worked as an independent producer of films for the PBS Frontline series. I had three jobs and was working 18-hour days, and finally the Frontline thing turned into a full-time, poorly paid job and that was amazing, said Schneeman, who worked on Frontline films about the HIV/AIDS crisis and inner-city poverty. In 1991, Schneeman and a team of filmmakers won an Emmy for research on the Frontline documentary High Crimes and Misdemeanors, about the Iran-Contra affair. The independent producer Schneeman worked for was married to Greg Simon, who was named Al Gores domestic policy adviser in the White House, needed an assistant, and asked Schneeman if she would consider the position. It was totally out of the blue, but this opportunity is probably not going to fall into my lap again, so I should probably say yes, and if I hate it I can quit after a year, Schneeman said. As Simons front-line manager and chief-of-staff, Schneeman helped lay the policy groundwork for the expansion of the nascent internet and worked to increase access to the internet and new computer technologies in schools. It was an exciting place to be in the early 90s when the internet was a new thing for most people, and not yet the platform it is today, but when its potential was just becoming clear, Schneeman said. Schneeman stayed for the administrations first term before moving with her now-husband to Boston. Once in Boston, Schneeman worked briefly for the short-lived gubernatorial campaign of Joseph P. Kennedy II. She then took a position as a director at the Harvard Kennedy Schools project on future challenges facing governments, where she convened the first-known conference on the use of internet in political organizing. Schneeman then met Steven Grossman, a politically connected Massachusetts small businessman who previously served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee and was running for Massachsetts governor. Schneeman became the first employee on Grossmans campaign, where she served as issues director and spent the better part of three years driving around the state with Grossman connecting with voters. Going to so many different places, meeting so many different kinds of people, talking to them about what they cared about, and having ice cream in 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts was great, Schneeman said. Grossman dropped out of the race in advance of the Democratic primary, which Schneeman said was sad but allowed her to spend time with her mother in Chicago. Following her mothers death, Schneeman became pregnant and didnt consider it a great time to get a new job, although she did some work for a Harvard Business School professor. In 2005, Schneeman and her family moved back to D.C. and she called her old boss from the White House to see if he knew of any job openings. He found a position for her at a nonprofit he had recently started called Fastercures, a center of the economic think-tank the Milken Institute. Science is hard, and its unpredictable so theres sometimes good reasons why things can take a long time. But it turns out, theres also lots of not so good reasons that just have to do with lack of communication, the right incentives and collaboration and all sorts of things that are more about human behavior than they are about science or technology, Schneeman said of her work at Fastercures. Schneemans husband was recruited to Bridgewater in 2010, so they moved their two daughters, now 12 and 15, to Westport. However, she has continued her work with Fastercures remotely to cut the roadblocks that slow medical progress. Last November, Schneeman took her decades of work in politics and policy to Westport and was elected for the first time to the Representative Town Meeting from district 9. Two years ago when Schneeman realized the states financial situation could impact education funding in town, she became interested in gettting involved at the local government, an interest which solidified after the 2016 presidential elections. Somebody asked me if I would consider running and I thought, thats ridiculous, why would I ever think about doing that? In high school, I was the stage manager, never on stage. On the campaign trail I was the issues director. Im not the candidate. Its not something that would naturally occur to me, but then I thought OK, that was a serious question and I should think about it seriously and I just thought, why not? Schneeman said. On the 36-member RTM, Schneeman figured there would be safety in numbers, but she has found a voice of her own. She can frequently be found at town government meetings providing comments on some of the biggest issues facing Westport now, such as the potential addition of police officers in the schools. I thought it would feel gratifying to focus on solving local challenges with my neighbors in a civil fashion. That was my vision or my hope, and Im glad I did it. Im very glad I did it, Schneeman said. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 WESTPORT CBS News Justice and Homeland Security correspondent and Staples High School graduate Jeff Pegues will speak at Saugatuck Congregational Church on Monday from 7 to 8 p.m. Pegues will discuss his book, Kompromat: How Russia Undermined American Democracy, which reveals how far the Kremlin poked into voter databases and why it happened. He also investigates the steps taken to shore up election systems in states across the country ahead of the 2018 midterm and the 2020 presidential election. The event is sponsored by the Westport Library. Hwang endorsed WESTPORT The Connecticut League of Conservation Voters has endorsed Tony Hwang for re-election to the 28th District state Senate seat. The league is a bipartisan, statewide, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting Connecticut's environment. Connecticut deserves lawmakers who will fight for renewable energy, clean air and water, and open space, said Lori Brown, league executive director. All of the candidates we endorsed ... have either established themselves as true leaders in the Legislature or made real commitments to be champions for the environment if elected, she said. Blessing of the Animals FAIRFIELD Pet owners from Fairfield, Bridgeport, Westport, Southport and the surrounding area can bring their furry, feathery, and scaly friends to a special blessing on the lawn of Trinity Episcopal Church in Fairfield on Oct. 7 at 5 p.m. The event, which is open to all members of the community regardless of their religious affiliation, is a celebration of the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals. To the editor: When I read the petty, irrelevant comments that people made about Sen. Tony Hwang, I was thoroughly disgusted. Tony Hwang doesnt need a slogan or catch phrase to precede his name. What he says he will do, he does to the best of his ability. Not only does the job get done, it gets done without any political mudslinging and he is always willing to reach across the aisle. He walks the walk and talks the talk without any negativity; he wholeheartedly cares about the people he represents. The week before Christmas 2016, we received the horrendous, life-altering news that my husbands cancer had returned. One night we were sitting at home; our doorbell rang. I was shocked to see Tony Hwang standing on our porch, offering not just condolences, but his help. He sincerely asked what we needed and if there was anything that he could do to help to please let him know. A year later, I was diagnosed with cancer, and Tony Hwang was one of the first to call and ask what he could do for us. Tony puts his money where his mouth is when he preaches about kindness and his passionate support of the constituents of his district. Connecticut is in serious fiscal trouble. The problems the residents of this state are facing are very real, and many are faced with the harsh reality of having to uproot and leave their home. In recent years, more and more people struggle to pay their bills. These are real issues that people have to deal with; they dont need to listen to petty name-calling, finger-pointing and lies. His track record speaks for itself, and he will indubitably continue to fight for the people of Connecticut in a positive, uplifting manner when he is re-elected. I commend Tony Hwang for the job hes done and we will never forget the kindness he bestowed upon us in our time of need. Theres no doubt he will continue to do absolutely all he can for the people he represents. Patricia Lucas Fairfield Haskell best choice to address top issues To the editor: There are two subjects that are of utmost importance for voters to consider in the upcoming election for state senator in District 26. They are gun violence and safety and transportation. Other issues are important as well, but these strike a chord in us of things that must be changed. Gun legislation has to be supported, especially in Connecticut, where tragedy has struck us at the most visceral level: the killing of children and educators at Sandy Hook. Will Haskell supports stronger gun violence prevention. He would limit magazine clip capacity, limit the number of guns that can be purchased in one transaction, and increase the age for purchasing long guns from 18 to 21. We dont have time to waste and risk the occurrence of any more horrific events where innocent people are murdered. His opponent, Toni Boucher, has proposed loosening regulations on sales of ammunition, and thinks Connecticut has already gone too far in regulating guns after Sandy Hook. Will Haskell will work to change and tighten gun laws for our safety and that of our children. Also, the transportation issue: Will Haskell is in favor of increased investment in infrastructure supported by tolls on our roads, especially those that are used by interstate commerce. Funds should be secured so they cant be appropriated for purposes other than roads and rail improvement. His opponent, Toni Boucher, has voted against the funds lockbox and in her tenure as co-chair of the transportation committee, trains have gotten slower as traffic has increased. Its time for a change. Frank and Diane Safran To the Editor: Please join me in supporting Will Haskell as our next State Senator. Will represents the best of a new generation of dynamic, intelligent young candidates this year who are willing to challenge the status quo and move us forward. Take for instance the issue of transportation. As a former Westport Transit Director, I believe Will understands the complex transportation problems facing the South Western Connecticut region. For years now, there has been an emphasis at the state level on projects oriented along a north-south direction (for example, the Greater Hartford High-Speed Rail & Bus Rapid Transit) while comparable projects along the much more heavily traveled east-west coastal corridor where we live and work have been virtually ignored and underfunded. Will understands that the towns in South West Connecticut must work together to maximize funding, reduce duplicative waste and enhance public transparency around spending priorities. Wills opponent, who currently serves as the co-Chair of the Transportation Committee, continues to perpetuate our regions disarray choosing to blame others instead of advancing solutions, like transportation planning reform. She should be held accountable for her long record of inaction and inertia in Hartford. Friends, its time to elect leaders, not longtime politicians, who are willing to confront complex problems with logical solutions that put our region on a path to a better future. Voting for Will is a step in that direction. Jennifer Johnson Westport Lavielle is a rare breed To the Editor: Gail Lavielle has done a commendable job representing our community in the state legislature, and deserves to be reelected. I attend many public events, and more times than not, Gail is also in attendance, chatting with residents and sharing her thoughts and insights. This high level of accessibility is unusual. Ive lived in other communities where elected representatives essentially ignore the community until election time of course! Gail is a rare breed, and we shouldnt take for granted her deep commitment to our town, and to providing the highest levels of constituent services. She deserves another term in office. Lisa Chubinsky Wilton Ill be voting for Gail Lavielle To the Editor: Something that has always impressed me about State Representative Gail Lavielle is her strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, and her understanding of the consequences of unchecked spending. This past year, she put those qualities to work when she and her like-minded colleagues delivered a balanced budget that included no new taxes. Of course that budget was ultimately rejected by Governor Malloy, but Rep. Lavielle and her colleagues offered hope that fiscal responsibility in Hartford is possible, with the right people in place. With her strong background, which includes corporate experience, municipal service as a member of the Wilton Board of Finance, and her years of service in the state legislature, Gail stands ready to help lead us forward. The current state leadership has failed time and again to address our worsening economic situation, and instead has relied on patchwork solutions that reach deeper and deeper into our pockets. Clearly its time for a new approach, and I believe Gail Lavielle will be an important asset in fueling our states long-awaited recovery. For the benefit of our town and state, Ill be voting for Gail Lavielle in November. Lianne Griswold Acosta-Rua Wilton Vote to protect parks To the Editor: Your State parks and beaches are public lands. They should not be sold, swapped, or given away by the Legislature without your input. On November 6 you can vote yes to protect them. Then the CT Legislature would have to hold a public hearing and get a 2/3 majority vote before any valuable public land could be given away. Vote Yes on November 6 to protect our public lands. Jo Ann Davidson Westport Stefanowski can rebuild state To the Editor: I am voting proudly for Bob Stefanowski for governor. He is the best person for the job. Bob has a plan a positive management plan that will help rescue Connecticut from the financial disaster Gov. Dannel Malloy has been so successful in making worse. I am particularly encouraged that Bobs plan will benefit every person from every region and from every walk of life. But a plan alone is not enough. We need a proven leader who has experience turning around mismanaged organizations. That leader is Bob Stefanowski. We are in the midst of a serious financial crisis, brought about by chronic overspending and robbing Peter to pay Paul. The last eight years under Gov. Dan Malloy have resulted in crippling taxes and debt. As the result, businesses and residents continue to flee Connecticut. If you have ridden in our slow, dirty commuter trains, driven on our broken highways or visited our crumbling cities, you know the results of these policies. As our governor, Bob will end out-of-control spending. He will bring jobs back to Connecticut. He will help Connecticuts economy shine. This is Bobs plan to rebuild Connecticut: Phase out corporate income tax and business entity tax over 2 years Phase out state income tax over 8 years Eliminate the gift and estate taxes Embrace zero-based budgeting to reduce spending Enact a taxpayer bill of rights to ensure government accountability Bob Stefanowski has the leadership skills, business acumen and do-able plan to rebuild Connecticut. He has the were-in-this-together temperament to work with all constituencies to provide pride and prosperity for everyone. Please vote for Bob Stefanowski. William Gardner New Canaan Push poll dishonest To the Editor: Im a veteran of political campaigns, having worked on two presidential campaigns and run campaigns myself. Ive worked to elect women candidates from the Republican, Democrat, and Independent parties and Im very well aware of what a push poll is. Ive never witnessed a push poll against a candidate that has contained this volume of questions, and so many that are patently false. At one point in the poll, I was asked if Id changed my mind yet, and whether Id be voting for the candidates running against Senator Boucher. When I responded that I hadnt changed my mind, I was read multiple negative questions painting Senator Boucher in a very negative light and repeatedly lying about her record on issues from education funding, and tax reform, to healthcare, and LGBTQ rights. Each time I was asked whether these statements had made me more concerned about voting for Senator Boucher. And each time I stated that since these statements were outright lies I was more concerned about whomever had written them than I was about voting to re-elect the Senator. This incident, which Im sure is being repeated to hundreds if not thousands of voters in our County, is dishonest and shameful. I would never trust a political candidate or group who tried to gain voters this way. I remain more confident than ever that voting to re-elect Senator Boucher is the right choice for Fairfield County. Michele Tivey Weston Support Gail To the Editor: Connecticut faces many challenges in the coming years due in large part to the failed leadership of Governor Malloy. In order to face these challenges we need the experienced leadership of Representative Gail Lavielle. Over the last 8 years Gail has worked tirelessly for Wilton, Westport and Norwalk. Gail serves as a ranking member of the Education Committee where she initiated legislation to provide comprehensive mandate relief. She also successfully stopped Governor Malloys plan to expand the States eminent domain powers. In short, Gail has a proven track of leadership. Please join me in supporting Gail for reelection. Joe Burke Wilton To all citizens of Connecticut To the editor: When thinking whom to vote for in our Connecticut election on Nov. 6, 2018, ask yourselves these questions: Who voted to raise our taxes? Who has spending out of control? Who cant balance the budget? Who gave pay raises when the state is in debt? There are to many career politicians. Its time for smaller government. There are politicians who talk and do nothing Its time for a change. Its time for term limits. Its time to eliminate benefits for politicians. Its time to eliminate life time health insurance for politicians. Its time to eliminate pension for politicians. Its time to eliminate unions in government. If you want to help the state of Connecticut, then volunteer your time. When youre done, go back to your day job. The politicians think we the people of Connecticut work for them. The politicians have forgotten that they work for the American citizens of Connecticut. Get out and vote. Gerald F. Romano Jr. Westport No ordinary times To the Editor: These are not ordinary times we are living in. The President of the United States has been credibly accused by nearly 20 women of sexual misconduct and was caught on audiotape bragging about getting away with sexualy assulting women because he was famous. A nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States has been credibly accused of attempted rape by a former classmate and was said to have picked interns at Yale Law School based on their appearance. More political candidates than ever have embraced right wing extremism and misogyny, like Russell Walker of North Carolina who has stated that Jews are descents of Satan, or the Essex Connecticut Republican party sharing a post on their facebook page that mocked victims of rape. We are also seeing more women running for office than we have in a generation, but its not enough elect women to public office. We must elect ones who will advocate for ALL women. That means ones who support a womans right to choose when or if she starts a family of her own, can take time off work for family leave without losing a paycheck, and being paid a living wage. According to the most recent U.S. Census women make up 51 percent of Connecticuts population, and yet according to the National Conference of State Legislatures only 27 percent of Connecticuts General Assembly is female. Maybe if we had more women in the General Assembly wed have paid family leave and a livable minimum wage. Leanne Harpin Fairfield AARP reminder to vote To the Editor: As a proud member of AARP, I write to encourage all readers to vote this November 6. Elections have consequences, and this one will not be any different. In the U.S. House of Representative, 14 percent of its membership will be new. There will be at least three new U.S. Senators. Since 2008 there have been 473 new Congressmen: 76 in the Senate and 397 in the House. It is important to recognize that Americans, 50+, are now the most powerful voting bloc. Given that, there are a number of issues that our national leaders must address. Medicare is a historical deal that cannot be broken. Affordable quality health care needs to continue with a look at the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs. Social Security must be kept strong for current and future generations. In the realm of caregiving, some 40 million Americans care for those in need. They are the backbone of Americas care system and face physical, emotional and financial challenges. The caregiving families deserve significant support. On the state level, the legislature in 2016 enacted the Connecticut Retirement Security Program to be phased in beginning in 2019. It will provide over 600,000 residents without a retirement savings option through the workplace a means to save for their retirement via payroll deduction. It is important for state candidates to continue implementation. Of particular concern is the assurance from our legislators that as the utility market in Connecticut continues to change, consumer interests will be protected. Finally, apropos of the national need for caregiving support is the need in our state for a family leave law that allows employees paid leave to attend to their caregiving purposes. Plus, there is a need to expand services and supports for seniors to live independent lives in their homes and communities. As can be gleaned there is so much on the national, state and even local plate for consideration in this election. Elections do in fact matter! Your vote matters! Be the difference. Vote. Lloyd W. Stableford Trumbull All of us lead busy lives. But Heather Frimmers is busier than most. Shes the mother of two tweens. The graduate of Weill Cornell Medical College recently left a position with Norwalk Radiology Associates, and now commutes to a practice in Queens, N.Y., where she is a breast imager. Next month her debut novel will be published. They say you should write about what you know. Bedside Manners is about a woman named Marnie who completes med school, and is looking ahead to a surgical internship, her wedding and a future filled with promise. Suddenly, her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. Meanwhile, Marnie faces her own mortality when a young heroin addict in her care dies. Marnie must strike a balance between her identity as a doctor, and her role as a supportive daughter. Frimmers book is a medical story, a mother-daughter tale, and a coming-of-age narrative all in one, said Westporter Alisyn Camerota, co-host of CNNs New Day morning show, and a novelist herself. Another Westport author, Nina Sankovitch, calls it a genuine depiction of love, fear and hope. (It) both educates and satisfies in presenting how we endure illness and bad choices by forging essential human connections, and trusting the most important organ of all: our heart. Judith Marks-White a third Westport writer said, Frimmers experience as a physician serves her well, and adds real gravitas to her story. Her sophisticated, descriptive and insightful writing shines, and will grip readers from page one all the way to its breathtaking conclusion. It is a delicious page-turner that will seduce you into wanting to read more of this writers work. Another perspective comes from Norwalk Hospital breast oncologist Dr. Richard Zelkowitz. He said, This book captures the anxiety and fear I see in all of my patients with breast cancer. The alternating story line highlights the struggles of medical training and learning to be a good doctor. I didnt want this book to end. Frimmers career in medicine began with thoughts of primary care or pediatrics. But when she realized that radiology offers the challenge of problem-solving, plus the chance to work with a wide range of patients and doctors, she was hooked. When she finished her residency, her husband Ben Frimmer, a Westport native and longtime theater director at Coleytown Middle School urged her to look for fellowships in Connecticut. She found one in breast and abdominal imaging at Yale New Haven Medical Center. More Information Heather Frimmer will discuss her new novel at the Westport Barnes & Noble at 2 p.m. on October 21. On November 8, she'll talk about the book - and breast cancer in general - with Dr. Richard Zelkowitz and Dr. Jeanne Capasse. She'll also appear at the Westport Library's Saugatuck StoryFest in October, and will sign books at Athleta on Main Street on November 14. Her website is www.HeatherFrimmer.com. See More Collapse She became a partner at Norwalk Radiology, working with superb local professionals like Jeanne Capasse, Mandy Greenberg, Richard Zelkowitz and Mary Heery, before moving to her position in Queens. Moving next door to her husbands home town has been wonderful, she said. The Westport/Weston community is so warm and welcoming. The arts are flourishing. The local author community has welcomed me with open arms, and done everything they can to make sure my writing career is a success. That writing career took flight with an introductory fiction class at the Westport Writers Workshop. The radiologist had written short stories, but instructor Sally Allen encouraged her to try a novel. It was a daunting prospect for anyone, let alone a busy Fairfield County doctor and mother. But her husband said, Write that book. Heres the first word: colostomy. Frimmer rose to the challenge. I dont watch TV. I dont sit still. And I dont waste time, she said, explaining how she managed to add author to her already impressive resume. Bedside Manners took three years to finish. (And the first word is not colostomy, though it does appear in the first chapter.) Then came the tough part: getting it published. But Frimmer solved that puzzle too. The official publication date is Oct. 16. Shes already got her talking points down pat. Experienced authors know they should answer the whos the intended audience? question with three groups. Frimmer replied, Anyone who likes medical stories, or shows like Grays Anatomy or ER. (She may not watch TV, but she sure knows whats on.) Her book should also appeal to women who have had breast cancer, and anyone whos seen a doctor. Theres a lot going on in Frimmers life right now. In addition to motherhood and her new book, shes got that new commute to Queens. To pass the time, she listens to audiobooks. Will Bedside Manners have an audio version? That might be my next project! she said with a laugh. Dan Woog is a Westport writer, and his Woog's World appears each Friday. He can be reached at dwoog@optonline.net. His personal blog is danwoog06880.com. Lillian Rose (Janysek) Bujnoch Audio Article It is with profound sadness that the family of Lillian Rose (Janysek) Bujnoch announce her passing. Lillian passed peacefully, surrounded... James John Kruse Audio Article James John Kruse of Black Hill, Texas, passed away on Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, at the age of 81. James... Margaret Vega Cresap Audio Article Margaret Vega Cresap passed away in San Antonio, Texas, on Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, at the age of 76. She... TORONTO This was the second consecutive year Lady Gaga exposed herself at the Toronto International Film Festival. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/9/2018 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO This was the second consecutive year Lady Gaga exposed herself at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2017, Gaga real name Stefani Germanotta came to Hogtown to premiere the Netflix documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two, a revealing look at the joys and sorrows of the pop stars life behind the curtain. JORDAN STRAUSS / /INVISION / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Lady Gaga arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "A Star Is Born." In 2018, Gaga enjoys the arms-length comfort of playing a Gaga-esque character in A Star Is Born, a new iteration of a musical melodrama that has been filmed three times before with stars Janet Gaynor (1937), Judy Garland (1954) and Barbra Streisand (1976). Gagas character is Ally, a talented young woman who chooses to passively channel her musical gifts in late-night performances at drag clubs before a blossoming relationship with rock star Jackson Maine (played by Bradley Cooper, who also directs) compels her to finally take the spotlight, even as Jacksons career spirals downwards. At a press conference held in Torontos Masonic Temple on Yonge Street, Gaga allows that, unlike her character, she was never a shrinking violet when it came to flaunting her musical gifts. "Ally has completely given up," Gaga says during a round-table interview with Canadian reporters. "She doesnt believe in herself. She doesnt believe shes beautiful. She doesnt think she has what it takes. "When I was 19 years old, I told my parents I was dropping out of school and I was dragging my piano around New York City banging on every door I could trying to get a gig," she says. "I was even lying, pretending to be my own manager, trying to get the 10 p.m. slot where there would be the most people at the club as possible. "This was not Ally. Ally is focused on taking care of her father, and being a catering girl and doing her job." NEAL PRESTON/WARNER BROS. VIA AP Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in a scene from the latest reboot of the film, "A Star is Born." Still, Gaga did relate to her character in ways that some of the past actors who played the role Streisand and Garland in particular could empathize with. Ally is, like Gaga, an unconventional beauty selling herself in an industry that thrives on convention. "I had a record executive suggest I get a nose job when my first single came out, before we shot the video. I said no," she says. "They wanted to give my songs to other girls or girl groups. NATHAN DENETTE/ THE CANADIAN PRESS Lady Gaga poses for photographs on the red carpet for the film "A Star is Born" during the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. "They didnt want it to be me. And I just held on to my music for dear life," she says. "I got lucky, I guess, after many years of hard work." Her luck continues with a starring role in a film that impressed the early audiences in Toronto with a combination of applause and gallons of tears shed at screenings. Its particularly gratifying for Gaga. "When I was a young girl in New York, I had a dream of being an actress one day, and (when) I didnt make it as an actress, I decided to go for it as a musician." The movie-star fantasy hit hard on the first day she shot scenes opposite Cooper. "(That) was the most surreal day for me," she says, recounting how Clint Eastwood, who was originally attached to direct the remake, visited the set. "That was an extreme honour for me to be introduced to him. "And also, during my first scene together with Bradley, this was a moment when he really taught me something," she recalls. 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. KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'A Star Is Born' at the 75th edition of the Venice Film Festival. "I had memorized my lines and we sat down at the table in the Mexican restaurant to talk to each other and he said something off-script to me and I just said the line I had memorized. "And he said something else to me and I kept repeating the same line over and over again because I didnt know what to do. He said to me: Are you OK? Do you need to cry? And then I cried for a second... and then I just threw the lines out the window. "I still had them with me but I was able to be in a more present conversation with him," she says. "And it really taught me something about being an actor, that you have to know the story that youre going to tell. And you have to know the lines. "But at the end of the day, you have to be as honest as possible in the moment." randall.king@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @FreepKing Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO Adam Anhangs widow admitted Thursday she produced a string of bogus documents in a bid to be accepted by the Jewish community in Italy, after she was indicted for the murder-for-hire of her Canadian husband. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/9/2018 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO Adam Anhangs widow admitted Thursday she produced a string of bogus documents in a bid to be accepted by the Jewish community in Italy, after she was indicted for the murder-for-hire of her Canadian husband. "I was persecuted, threatened, afraid," Aurea Vazquez-Rijos told a San Juan court. "I had to find some way to keep my daughters stable." Adam Anhang was slain in San Juan in 2005. She did not explain why she felt threatened, except for reports in Italian newspapers that she was wanted by police in Puerto Rico. Along with her sister and a boyfriend, Vazquez-Rijos is accused of conspiring to kill Anhang, a 32-year-old Winnipeg-born businessman, in 2005. Anhang was stabbed and beaten to death in Old San Juan by a known drug trafficker who told police the three accused promised him US$3 million for the act. He said Vazquez-Rijos was worried about an impending divorce. Vazquez-Rijos, the last witness for the defence, left Puerto Rico for Italy eight months after the killing. After she was indicted in 2008, she did not return until she was extradited. During her time away, she gave birth to three children by two different fathers. Evidence has shown she was considering moving to Israel, and was curious about its extradition laws. She asked a lawyer in Jerusalem: "How can I be protected? Is Israel American soil?" (Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States.) Before any such move, Vazquez-Rijos felt she and her daughters had to be accepted as members of the Jewish faith. She visited a prominent rabbi in Florence, Italy, who told her she needed supporting documents. So, she went looking for birth and marriage certificates that she could falsify to prove she had a solid Jewish heritage. That admission produced an exchange with prosecutor Jose Ruiz. "Where did you get the documents from?" Ruiz asked. Vazquez-Rijos answered "Photoshop" after a long pause. To be successful, she needed authentic certificates of family births, deaths and marriages from the registry in Puerto Rico documents which her mother collected for her. "I was sent a photo (of the certificates), and I scanned them and made the adjustments," she said. There were, however, some hurdles to overcome. For example, the Texas death certificate of Vazquez-Rijoss great-grandmother. They changed the womans name on the document so it sounded Jewish. The problem: the great-grandmother had been buried. "If she was buried, I have to show the tombstone," Vazquez-Rijos wrote in an email to her brother, who was in on the scheme, the court heard. The certificate was doctored to say: "cremated." Vazquez-Rijos also enlisted the help of a Florentine banker, Paolo Galardi, who became a lover. She said Galardi helped with the scheme by letting her use his offices high-quality printer, the court heard. The plan worked, and Vazquez-Rijos and her daughters were accepted as members of the Jewish faith. However, she was arrested before they could move to Israel. In 2013, she fell for an FBI sting operation that involved a rabbi who convinced her to fly to Spain to meet a tour group. Spanish police arrested her at the Madrid airport. While in prison, she gave birth to her youngest child. In attempting to show motive Thursday, Ruiz outlined the terms of the prenuptial agreement between Vazquez-Rijos and Anhang. She stood to collect US$126,000 in alimony payments over three years in the event of a divorce. However, if Anhang died, she would collect US$8 million one-third of the estate. "What would you rather have," the prosecutor asked. "Eight-million dollars, or $126,000?" To which Vazquez-Rijos answered: "Neither." She testified her life with Anhang was not luxurious but "normal." They lived "month to month," she said. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. They carried a lot of debt and living costs were very high, she said. If that was the case, Ruiz asked, how was it that three months after their marriage, Anhang bought her a US$54,000 Porsche Cayenne? Anhang also put up the money to buy her a restaurant/lounge, called the Pink Skirt, that she managed. Testimony has shown the marriage was under great stress. Two witnesses testified Vazquez-Rijos had inquired about how she could find a contract killer. She has denied the accusations. Two or three days before his death, she said Thursday, Anhang left a handwritten note on her pillow that began: "Dear Aurea, I feel so blessed to be with you... Only once in a million years does a man have an opportunity to be with a woman like you. I love you very much." The note, shown to the jury, ended with his assurance she would "prevail" in a difficult upcoming week. Vazquez-Rijos testified the note referred to a court appearance scheduled for Sept. 23, 2005, concerning an accident in which she struck a woman while driving her car. She never appeared in court. That was the day Anhang was killed. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/9/2018 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. She raised her hand in front of her government and country, and swore to tell the truth, nothing but, so help her God. That truth, as Christine Blasey Ford told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, was simple: when she was 15 years old, Brett Kavanaugh, now the Republicans' Supreme Court nominee, sexually assaulted her. "I am here today, not because I want to be," she said, in the beginning. "I am terrified." Then she started talking, reading from the statement she'd prepared about the events that led her to that moment. She recounted the details of the assault 36 years ago the house party, the hands shoving her into a bedroom, Kavanaugh's weight on top of her. She spoke about how, even before Kavanaugh became the nominee, she'd told her congresswoman and, in an anonymous tip, the Washington Post about the assault. She'd named Kavanaugh and his good friend, Mark Judge. (TOM WILLIAMS/POOL/CQ ROLL CALL/ABACA PRESS/TNS) Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in by chairman Chuck Grassley on Thursday. And she told the committee too, what she does not remember: the date of the assault, for instance. Or where the house was located. She doesn't remember if she gave her therapy notes to a Post reporter. One by one, she faced the Republican-appointed prosecutor's parade of questions designed to discredit her. None of them change this fact: her account of the assault has never wavered. Now, in the wake of Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby and Larry Nassar, in the wake of Me Too and a new story seemingly weekly of powerful men who hurt and abuse, it is easy to hope this is part of an ongoing cultural shift. (MICHAEL REYNOLDS/POOL IMAGE VIA AP) Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Even President Donald Trump, in a press conference the day before, said as much, calling the events to come "a very big cultural moment." But maybe it's not so much a moment as it is a morass. Because even before Ford started speaking Thursday morning, the lines around her testimony had already been drawn; who would discredit her, shame her, attack her all set in stone. Her testimony may or may not derail Kavanaugh's nomination. The fight to change the culture will not be ended. To see how that plays out, maybe you have to start with the tale of three callers. On C-SPAN the non-profit American public-policy broadcast channel after Ford's morning session, host Steve Scully invites calls from viewers. The first one is a man, James from Indiana. He's "not a big Trump supporter at all," he says, calling on the line for political independents. "Good morning, how you doin'?" James says, and then, a moment later: "Shes lyin' like a dog." On the screen, host Scully's face retains its famous placid composure. "Why do you say shes lying?" (SAUL LOEB/POOL IMAGE VIA AP) South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. "Shes just so much inconsistent in her statements, that you could drive a Mack truck through," James replies. Scully asks the caller to name one of those inconsistencies. For a moment, James hems and haws. "She cant remember, cant remember, cant remember," he says. The second caller is another man, this one a Republican named Tracy, from Wyoming. "Shes really putting on an act," he says. "All her inconsistencies, and whatnot, you can just tell shes lying." But the third caller is different. She is a Democrat, and her name is Brenda from Missouri. She is 76 years old and says she was sexually molested in the second grade. As she speaks, the words catch in her throat. She is hurting. (AP PHOTO/ANDREW HARNIK, POOL) Christine Blasey Ford becomes emotional as she listens to Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., as she testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday. "This brings back so much pain," she says, her voice straining with emotion. "Thought I was over it, but its not. You never forget it. You get confused, and you dont understand it, but you will never forget what happened to you." The tears break through the surface of Brenda's voice, spilling out through the phone. "It's breaking my heart." Somewhere in Missouri, a woman sees her own trauma in Ford's testimony. She feels in herself the same fears, the same anxiety that Ford was describing. Sometimes the heart can feel truth, where minds don't want to see it. When I looked at Christine Blasey Ford Thursday morning, I could never see a liar. I saw a brilliant 51-year-old woman, trembling a little in the spotlight, but sitting tall and calmly answering questions. But a liar I could never. To defend that calculation, I am forced to reach for the protective badges of success in a credentialist culture. Ford is a resespected professor, an expert in statistical data analysis. She's been married 16 years. She has two sons. If she were none of these things, she could still, obviously, be a victim of assault. But if the retort as the two C-SPAN callers put forth is that she's lying, fabricating for political ends, then there must be a followup question. (TOM WILLIAMS/POOL PHOTO VIA AP) Christine Blasey Ford in front of a Senate Judiciary Committee. Why would a middle-aged woman with an accomplished career, a stable and successful family life why would she throw that away? Why raise her hand to be harassed, threatened and shamed before the eyes of the whole nation? False sexual assault allegations do happen, albeit rarely. They also, as journalists and researchers who have studied the issue have concluded, usually follow predictable patterns around what is alleged, how the allegations are made and who is doing the alleging. They tend not to be successful adults, willing to throw away their tranquility and personal safety on some sudden malicious whim. Ford had much to lose by testifying about an assault nearly four decades ago, and very little to gain. Meanwhile, there is no particular evidence to suggest she is lying. Her testimony is backed up, in part, by who she told, and when. The first two callers hung their accusations on gaps in her memory; but those are not suspicious. Human memory is a deeply imperfect recording. The data stored in our brains is routinely discarded, with the parts that left the most emotional impression most likely to remain. It would be unusual if she remembered every thing. And in this situation, under oath, an inability to remember can also be taken as an indication that someone is being truthful. A person concocting a lie intended to harm, after all, would have endless choice of details to manufacture. But none of that actually matters. Because putting Christine Blasey Ford on the stand was not about discerning truth, or about finding justice. It is about power: who owns it, who wields it, who can force their will upon others. The two skeptical callers were just the tip of the iceberg, the mountain, the unimaginable and uncontainable cesspools of fury and reactive contempt to the idea that Ford might, as she swore to do, be telling the truth. A Fox News contributor tweeted that Ford should "stop opening (her) legs and OPEN A BOOK!" and that "lying skanks is what these 3 women are," referring to two other women who have made allegations about Kavanaugh. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. That's enough to illustrate that point. We all know these words, and we know they go on. Because this is the cruelest part of this story of all, and it is playing out as expected: in stepping forward, in raising her hand, Ford became a Rorschach test for what you want to believe about power, about trauma, about women. "I am no one's pawn," Ford said, responding to accusations that she is part of some Democratic conspiracy. That, she is not. But by raising her hand, by swearing to tell the whole truth before government and country and God, she stepped into the breach of a culture divided, a gulf too deep for any truth to fill when it confronts power. And the truth is, that's how it always has been. But maybe, with great effort, not how it always needs to be. melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca Eight candidates vying to run the billion-dollar business that is Winnipeg marketed themselves at a mayoral forum hosted by the Winnipeg Jewish Business Council Thursday evening. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/9/2018 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Eight candidates vying to run the billion-dollar business that is Winnipeg marketed themselves at a mayoral forum hosted by the Winnipeg Jewish Business Council Thursday evening. Incumbent Brian Bowman, Jenny Motkaluk, Umar Hayat, Tim Diack, Doug Wilson, Venkat Machiraju, Don Woodstock and Ed Ackerman were asked about topics such as their vision for Winnipeg, its manufacturing sector and business tax reform. Filmmaker Ackerman, who admitted he doesnt know a lot about business, said he wants to be there to provide "comedy and danger." At one point, he handed a packaged hemp item that he had bought in Winnipeg to Woodstock, noting that it was $9 and imported from Germany, but made in Canada and maybe even grown in Manitoba. Most of the candidates talked about their business experience good and bad, including community police officer Tim Diack. He mentioned his involvement in the St. James BIZ and the controversy over the installation of metal trees on Portage Avenue in St. James. PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Audience members at the mayoral forum at the University of Winnipeg, Thursday. Hayat said hes been an entrepreneur since he was a preschooler selling newspapers. He now has an investment company and a passion for marketing. "We have an amazing city. All we need is leadership," said Hayat, who wants to encourage foreign investment from the Middle East and Asia in Winnipeg. "We need foreign investment and they have tons of money." Motkaluk said that as a business consultant, its her job to help businesses come up with step-by-step plans to grow, and shes seeing more and more large and small businesses reluctant to risk investing in Winnipeg. "They dont feel city hall is in their corner," said Motkaluk. Regulations and red tape are holding back investment and development, she said. "We need to get out of their way and let them do what they do best." Bowman said he ran for office in 2014 because of what he was seeing at city hall: "yelling, audits and police investigations." "Winnipegs interests werent being looked after to the extent they should," he said. Now, the city is preparing for a population of one million people and "incredibly big changes," with the modernization of transit and infrastructure thats attracting investment, he said after the opening of the $550-million True North Plaza downtown that the city supported. "Pride in our city has been growing in the last number of years." Woodstock said Winnipeg is missing out on green technology and being more progressive. PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Mayoral candidate Don Woodstock wearing his Order of Canada Medal at mayoral forum Thursday. "This city should be developing plastic from potato starch," said Woodstock. "The city shouldve banned plastic bags and straws," he said. "When I have my state of the city address, its going to have a vision beyond giving money to corporations that dont need it." When asked about their plans for business tax reform, Venkat Machiraju, who is a Hindu priest, said taxes are too high to make Winnipeg competitive and hed lower them by five per cent a year. Hayat said Winnipeg has one of the lowest business taxes in the country at 5.14 per cent and the city should be doing more to promote itself to foreign investors. Former Morden mayor Doug Wilson said tax reform needs to make sense, and in his southern Manitoba city, they didnt have a business tax but a higher tax rate for commercial businesses which require more city services. Bowman said he was on the phone Thursday with a CEO from a major company who is looking at setting up shop in Winnipeg. "I would have liked to tell that CEO we have no business tax," he said. The city is working on getting rid of it, said Bowman. It has taken steps to eliminate it by exempting almost half of small businesses from it. PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk speaks while incumbent mayor, Brian Bowman looks on, Thursday. Motkaluk, who has done work for the city to attract investment, said lowering the business tax and exempting a lot of small businesses from having to pay it is good but not enough. "Its tough to predict other random expenses, like increases in sewer and water rates and increases in parking rates," said Motkaluk. "We need to stop nickel-and-diming small businesses and get out of their way." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Diack wants to see locals get more of a break whether theyre local manufacturers using local labour and material or retailers who sell locally made goods. Woodstock, who owns a business, said he and his wife talk to business owners who are worried about survival, never mind growth. "They dont see this rosy picture painted here," he said. "People are closing and moving out of downtown." Woodstock said parking rates and the crime rate are resulting in the "overall lack of people wanting to do business and running away from downtown and taking their business out of Winnipeg." Thursdays forum, which was attended by 70 people, was not the last. The Winnipeg Free Press, along with WinnipegREALTORS, is sponsoring a mayoral forum for all candidates at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain on Oct. 4. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Last month the Free Press published an article that painted a very negative picture of Lord Selkirk Park, a large Manitoba Housing complex in Winnipegs North End. The story claimed that safety complaints had doubled in 2017, and that despite investments in the community, residents are not seeing improvements. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/9/2018 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Last month the Free Press published an article that painted a very negative picture of Lord Selkirk Park, a large Manitoba Housing complex in Winnipegs North End. The story claimed that safety complaints had doubled in 2017, and that despite investments in the community, residents "are not seeing improvements." I found this disturbing, since there have been many positive changes in Lord Selkirk Park since 2005. These have been documented in various publications and in the film A Good Place to Live. In the 1990s and early 2000s, many described Lord Selkirk Park as a "war zone." It was a place to avoid. Starting in 2005, community development work and public investment produced dramatic changes. Lord Selkirk Park became a good place to live, with a range of educational initiatives and a strong sense of community. So, what has happened? Have all the gains since 2005 been lost? Over a recent three-day period I spoke with 18 residents, asking them to tell me whats happening. I also spoke with two longtime community workers, three educators and three Manitoba Housing staff, all but one of whom work daily with residents of Lord Selkirk Park a total of 26 people. What became apparent is that all the previous gains are still in place. Staff at Kaakiyow, the adult learning centre, said, "Were thriving now." The Resource Centre is a vibrant hub of community activity. Residents say the Resource Centre staff are "fabulous," as are local Manitoba Housing staff. There continues to be a strong sense of community. You can feel it walking around, and the people I spoke with confirmed that feeling. One resident said, "I think its awesome. People look out for each other." Another said, "I love the people who live here." A community worker told me, "Its far better than it was when we started in 2005. Theres far more good than bad here." A resident told me that securing housing at Lord Selkirk Park was "like a godsend" to him and his family, and added that the sense of community here is "unlike anything Ive ever experienced in my life." Another, when asked what its like living here, said, "Its beautiful." But there is a problem. Those I spoke with are virtually unanimous that the problem is meth. "Its a different animal," I was told by one person. "Its a beast," said another. An educator told me, "What were seeing is a shift in the reason for crime," which is now being "driven by meth." Incidents of erratic, meth-fuelled violence were described. Its "making people crazy," one resident told me. Police and social workers and community workers are all "overwhelmed," and "everyones inundated." Nobody has a real solution, and the resources to deal with the meth problem are just not there. It "came out of left field and just blew up," one worker told me. The problem is city-wide, although it hits people who are low-income and dealing with trauma particularly hard. The Free Press article made only passing reference to meth, even though its clear that meth is the real issue. Everything about the story was negative. Not a positive word was included. There is, of course, a long history of reporting only the negative about the North End. The old newspaper maxim "if it bleeds, it leads" has long applied here. All the usual stereotypes were present in the Free Press story. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. People I spoke with say the story did not accurately portray their community. The article implied that Lord Selkirk Park is a failed community. This is simply not the case. The claim that residents are not seeing any improvements is false. The housing complex is full, has a wait list of people who want to live there, and has some 60 newcomer families who are doing well. The sense of community is strong, and most people I spoke with are grateful and happy to be living there. The problem is meth. Residents and community workers are pretty much unanimous in saying so. And they told me over and over that they need treatment facilities and supports in the community. What were talking about is a healthy low-income community being hit by a problem not of their making. Last months Free Press story missed all of this. It missed the good news story about how real gains continue to be made in this low-income community. And it missed the bad news story that recent problems are caused by meth, for which insufficient resources are being made available. We should drop the old stereotypes, and listen to what those who are closest to the issue are telling us meth is the real problem; community-based resources are needed. Jim Silver is a professor at the University of Winnipeg Professor and a research associate for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba. I offer fair warning to any school trustee candidates who knock at my door seeking support for the Oct. 24 election. I will ask them this question: should snow days be abolished in Manitoba? Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/9/2018 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion I offer fair warning to any school trustee candidates who knock at my door seeking support for the Oct. 24 election. I will ask them this question: should snow days be abolished in Manitoba? Its a loaded question because my feelings about this issue are so strong that, if the candidate disagrees, I will refuse to vote for them and, ever so politely, request they leave my porch immediately. Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press Files Instead of snow days, some schools in the United States are trying e-learning solutions to ensure students continue their studies uninterrupted. Snow days occur when Manitoba school divisions cancel school because this provinces notorious winter weather makes roads too treacherous to travel. This decision is typically greeted with jubilation by students who are thrilled to get an unexpected day of freedom. But some school divisions in the U.S. have decided its in the best interests of the childrens education to abolish snow days. They have made long-distance schooling mandatory for students and their teachers on days of bad weather. Teachers upload digital lessons and hold classroom discussions online, virtual attendance required. E-learning replacements for snow days are being tried by school divisions in New Jersey, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Illinois. While there is not yet an organized lobby to abolish snow days in Manitoba, its inevitable that this ill-considered initiative will, like the emerald ash borer tree beetle, arrive here eventually. Proponents say it improves the education of students by continuing their studies regardless of weather. This opinion would likely resonate with some local people who think every school day is needed in Manitoba, where children regularly rank near the bottom in standardized testing of math, science and reading. In Manitoba, the closure of schools due to bad weather occurs largely in rural areas, where school buses navigate winter highways that get perilously slippery and grid roads get drifted in by snow. The number of snow days varies with the severity of the winter, but its common for rural schools divisions to have three to five snow days each winter, and some winters require as many as seven. Attempts at replacing snow days with learn-at-home days would face two obstacles in this province. First, some rural areas dont have the reliable, high-speed internet service needed to connect a class and teacher through video chat technology such as Skype. Digital access is coming quickly to many of these areas, however, thanks to a joint $83.9-million infrastructure pledge this year from the Manitoba and federal governments to improve high-speed internet access in 112 rural towns and remote Manitoba First Nations. Second, the homes of all students need a computer capable of video calls. The U.S. school divisions that have forced students and their teachers to connect digitally in bad weather say its critical that no students be left out of the loop because their homes dont have working computers. Some schools help disadvantaged students by lending them school-owned laptops, or the schools ask the community to donate used computers that are refurbished and given to students who need them. The people who support the elimination of snow days also cite another justification. They argue teaching children to work remotely will help them develop the strong will to avoid potential distractions their home offers, which is a good skill to master before they enter a world where an increasing number of jobs let people work remotely. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Mind you, none of these eminently logical reasons for improving the academic performance of students would sway Peter Pan, author J.M. Barries fictional boy who never grows up. Let kids have fun while they can, he would say, in his sassy way, to stodgy adults plotting ways to get children to do more school work. Many adults remember snow days fondly from their own childhoods. They recall awakening to extreme winter weather and hopefully listening to the radio for news from their school division. Hurrah! The day was then delightfully open for them to spend as they wish, free from scheduling by adults. The day could be wonderfully wasted in activities as rambunctious as joining friends to sled or build snow forts, or as lazy as staying in pyjamas and dancing when no one else is around. If we rob todays children of the exciting surprise of a few days they can call their own, we sentence them to a bleaker winter. The fun of childhood is fleeting and shouldnt be easily snuffed out. Theres a Polish proverb: "You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once." Carl DeGurse is a member of the Free Press editorial board. The identity of a police officer who was digitally recorded before an assault on a child is apparently a mystery. But a larger mystery, and one which the provincial justice department would do well to solve, is why the officers identity was not established in court. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/9/2018 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The identity of a police officer who was digitally recorded before an assault on a child is apparently a mystery. But a larger mystery, and one which the provincial justice department would do well to solve, is why the officers identity was not established in court. Christian Paul Guyot, 44, was acquitted Wednesday of assaulting a 12-year-old boy. The case centred on a short cellphone video the boys sister recorded when two officers were called to an Inkster Boulevard home. The police officer court couldn't identify. On the video, which is available for viewing on news websites, including winnipegfreepress.com, a uniformed officer raises his arm to hit the boy. The video doesnt show the actual assault, but records the sound of a skin-on-skin blow. Judge Ryan Rolston didnt doubt the officer on the video assaulted the child: "In what appears to be a shocking degree of lack of self-control, the male officer evidently strikes a young boy who has been mouthing off at him." But who was the officer on the video? The judge said he wasnt given enough evidence to say for sure. It was the responsibility of the Crown prosecutor to try to convince the judge that the videoed officer was the accused officer, and this is where the case fell apart, according to the judge. Prosecutors are trained in the fundamentals of establishing evidence, and this case would seem as easy as one-two-three. 1) Establish whether Guyot, the accused, is a police officer. 2) Introduce as evidence the police duty log to establish whether he was working Aug. 7, 2017, and responded to this call. 3) Call as a witness the female police officer who was present during the assault and ask her whether Guyot was her partner on the call, and whether she saw him assault the child. Crown attorney Kaley Tschetter attempted none of this. She showed the video and asked the judge to decide for himself. Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. And because of a prosecution effort that appeared to observers as tepid, the judge said he lacked the evidence to conclude Guyot was the officer on the video: "What I cannot do is say that that definitely is the man without something more by way of confirmatory evidence." After the trial, as Guyot celebrated with his two defence attorneys, a news reporter asked the prosecutor why she didnt call more evidence. She declined to comment and directed the reporter to the provincial justice department, which is her employer. Late Wednesday, an anonymous spokesperson for the justice department responded to the question with a written statement that was frustratingly vapid, beginning with the sentence "It would be inappropriate to go into detail about the evidence of particular witnesses on a specific case." Dodging the question is not good enough. The question is not about the evidence of particular witnesses. The question is why the representative of the justice department didnt follow routine prosecution practice and call evidence that could link Guyot to the officer in the video. The question is particularly pertinent because the accused is a police officer. The public needs to see prosecutors are neither more lenient nor more harsh when the accused wears a law-enforcement badge. In court cases, the Crown represents "the people." In this case, the people want to know why justice was not seen to be done. Elmwood community pastor Jon Courtney wants everyone to take a gander at Riverwood Church Communitys next event. Taking place on Sat., Oct. 6, Riverwoods Turkey Trot is a fun run with the goal of raising $50,000 towards to installation of a new commercial kitchen. Registration begins at 9 a.m. and the run starts at 10 a.m. Runners will make a loop beginning at Elmwoods Ernie ODowda Park before enjoying shared festivities and celebrations. The kitchen is located in The Garage at 274 Talbot Ave. One of the five buildings in the Riverwood campus, it is a hive of activity, as it houses the communitys food bank and drop-in centre, Courtney said. We serve hundreds every week through our food bank as we help those in our community make ends meet. Multiple community meals are shared in our drop-in providing everyone with a place to belong. We work towards empowering through cooking courses, opportunities to contribute, catering services, and workshops. We are operating out of a building donated to us 15 years ago and working out of a residential scale, deteriorating kitchen that needs to be upgraded and expanded into a full commercial kitchen in order to keep up with our programming and the need. The first step to realizing that goal is the Turkey Trot, where people can walk or run two, seven, or four kilometres (in recognition of the 274 Talbot address). Participants are asked to collect pledges over the next few weeks. Visit myturkeytrot.com to make a donation, create a team, and to get tools that can help you share your campaign with the world on Facebook or Instagram. The Garage hosts community support programs and cooking classes, but the place really comes alive on Wednesdays from 6:30-8 p.m. and Thursdays from noon to 2 p.m., Courtney said. That is when people from the community can come for a hot meal and receive food support to help through the week. In between, most stay to socialize with neighbours they may not otherwise meet, providing those most at risk of being left behind with the opportunity for contact with others. On a weekend when many of us will be gathering with our loved ones and giving thanks for the various harvests in our lives, Courtney urges you to make a difference for those in need with just a few clicks. A place to belong, that is the phrase imprinted on our aprons and walls, Courtney said. A new kitchen will go a long way in helping us to meet the needs of our neighbourhood and in providing even more people with a place to call their own. Tony Zerucha is a community correspondent for East Kildonan. Email him at tzerucha@gmail.com Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/9/2018 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Elmwood community pastor Jon Courtney wants everyone to take a gander at Riverwood Church Communitys next event. Taking place on Sat., Oct. 6, Riverwoods Turkey Trot is a fun run with the goal of raising $50,000 towards to installation of a new commercial kitchen. Registration begins at 9 a.m. and the run starts at 10 a.m. Runners will make a loop beginning at Elmwoods Ernie ODowda Park before enjoying shared festivities and celebrations. The kitchen is located in The Garage at 274 Talbot Ave. One of the five buildings in the Riverwood campus, it is a hive of activity, as it houses the communitys food bank and drop-in centre, Courtney said. "We serve hundreds every week through our food bank as we help those in our community make ends meet. Multiple community meals are shared in our drop-in providing everyone with a place to belong. We work towards empowering through cooking courses, opportunities to contribute, catering services, and workshops. "We are operating out of a building donated to us 15 years ago and working out of a residential scale, deteriorating kitchen that needs to be upgraded and expanded into a full commercial kitchen in order to keep up with our programming and the need." The first step to realizing that goal is the Turkey Trot, where people can walk or run two, seven, or four kilometres (in recognition of the 274 Talbot address). Participants are asked to collect pledges over the next few weeks. Visit myturkeytrot.com to make a donation, create a team, and to get tools that can help you share your campaign with the world on Facebook or Instagram. The Garage hosts community support programs and cooking classes, but the place really comes alive on Wednesdays from 6:30-8 p.m. and Thursdays from noon to 2 p.m., Courtney said. That is when people from the community can come for a hot meal and receive food support to help through the week. In between, most stay to socialize with neighbours they may not otherwise meet, providing those most at risk of being left behind with the opportunity for contact with others. On a weekend when many of us will be gathering with our loved ones and giving thanks for the various harvests in our lives, Courtney urges you to make a difference for those in need with just a few clicks. "A place to belong, that is the phrase imprinted on our aprons and walls," Courtney said. "A new kitchen will go a long way in helping us to meet the needs of our neighbourhood and in providing even more people with a place to call their own." Tony Zerucha is a community correspondent for East Kildonan. Email him at tzerucha@gmail.com Elmwood community pastor Jon Courtney wants everyone to take a gander at Riverwood Church Communitys next event. Taking place on Sat., Oct. 6, Riverwoods Turkey Trot is a fun run with the goal of raising $50,000 towards to installation of a new commercial kitchen. Registration begins at 9 a.m. and the run starts at 10 a.m. Runners will make a loop beginning at Elmwoods Ernie ODowda Park before enjoying shared festivities and celebrations. The kitchen is located in The Garage at 274 Talbot Ave. One of the five buildings in the Riverwood campus, it is a hive of activity, as it houses the communitys food bank and drop-in centre, Courtney said. "We serve hundreds every week through our food bank as we help those in our community make ends meet. Multiple community meals are shared in our drop-in providing everyone with a place to belong. We work towards empowering through cooking courses, opportunities to contribute, catering services, and workshops. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "We are operating out of a building donated to us 15 years ago and working out of a residential scale, deteriorating kitchen that needs to be upgraded and expanded into a full commercial kitchen in order to keep up with our programming and the need." The first step to realizing that goal is the Turkey Trot, where people can walk or run two, seven, or four kilometres (in recognition of the 274 Talbot address). Participants are asked to collect pledges over the next few weeks. Visit myturkeytrot.com to make a donation, create a team, and to get tools that can help you share your campaign with the world on Facebook or Instagram. The Garage hosts community support programs and cooking classes, but the place really comes alive on Wednesdays from 6:30-8 p.m. and Thursdays from noon to 2 p.m., Courtney said. That is when people from the community can come for a hot meal and receive food support to help through the week. In between, most stay to socialize with neighbours they may not otherwise meet, providing those most at risk of being left behind with the opportunity for contact with others. On a weekend when many of us will be gathering with our loved ones and giving thanks for the various harvests in our lives, Courtney urges you to make a difference for those in need with just a few clicks. "A place to belong, that is the phrase imprinted on our aprons and walls," Courtney said. "A new kitchen will go a long way in helping us to meet the needs of our neighbourhood and in providing even more people with a place to call their own." Tony Zerucha is a community correspondent for East Kildonan. Email him at tzerucha@gmail.com Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. 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The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, governments, and central banks. Royal Bank of Canada has a strategic partnership with Royal College Of Physicians & Surgeons Of Canada to support the needs of Canada's medical specialists. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More iShares Edge MSCI Multifactor Intl ETF's stock was trading at $21.72 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, INTF stock has increased by 39.1% and is now trading at $30.22. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.